Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or movies. That's all J.K Rowling's and Warner Brothers'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once in a While
Chapter Twenty One– Eagle feather quills
Watching James vanish, Sirius smiled broadly to himself and gave a little skip. It was a strange feeling, not getting a detention. One that Sirius felt he could get used to.
He turned and walked straight into a furiously glowering face. A face which caused Sirius to give a yelp and jump a foot in the air. Lily smiled smugly.
"Evans!" Sirius narrowed his eyes at her, "You're not in class."
"No."
"How come?" he asked, and enjoyed for a few seconds the sight of Lily flushing slightly pink and stammering for an excuse, "Are people just making a run for it now?"
"Well… you did blow up the classroom." She glared at him, arms crossed, "Again."
"Technically, James blew it up the last time. I just stirred."
There was a moment when Lily simply stared at him, before giving up and shaking her head. "Have you seen James?"
"Yes. You're looking for a tall bloke, quite skinny with glasses."
"Oh thank you," smiled Lily, proving that sarcasm could be a very effective weapon, "You know I don't know why he hangs around with you. You're obviously stupider than half a flobberworm. But more self-obsessed."
"Hey!"
"Well it's true! It wouldn't kill you to be a bit less selfish once in a while!"
"Selfish!" Sirius glared, "How about taking the blame for an explosion your prat of a boyfriend caused? Is that selfish enough for you?" He suddenly wished he could grab the words back, but they simply hung heavily in the air, echoing in the empty corridor.
"What?" Lily looked confused, "James did it?"
"Yeah, he did it." Sirius crossed his arms as Lily stared at him.
"But… but you said you did!"
"Well I didn't! I was sitting down the whole time!"
A look of horrified realisation dawned across Lily's stunned face, "Oh Merlin... you're right. You were sitting down." She directed her bright green eyes down at the floor for a moment, before her head jerked up and she looked suspiciously at Sirius, "So why did you take the blame?"
Sirius waved his arm, brushing the question away as unimportant, "Because I didn't want you to lay into James."
Lily's eyes widened, and her mouth opened slightly. "Oh… "
They stood there in the deserted corridor awkwardly, neither looking at the other. More than once someone opened their mouth to say something, but words never came out. Finally they were rescued by the sound of angry thumping as someone came stamping down the nearby staircase. Sirius recognised the noise before Lily, and winced as James came storming round the corner.
"James!" Lily turned and glared at him, "Did you blow up the classroom?"
James shot Sirius a look that said quite clearly, 'I will be forced to kill you as soon as possible.'
"Well, is it true?" Lily was still peering curiously at him.
James' eyes flicked from Sirius' guilty expression to Lily's probing stare. "Erm… Is that McGonagall?" He began to walk quickly in the opposite direction until Lily barked his name and he froze in his tracks, turning round slowly. He looked defiantly at her for a moment, before his shoulders slumped.
"Okay, I did it!" he whined, sounding a lot younger than his eighteen years, "But I owned up in the end. Merlin, I'm spending a week peeling things of the ceiling for Filch!"
Sirius winced, "Ugh. Tough luck mate."
"I know! He's probably going to stick stuff up there for me to take down again."
"Like what?"
"I dunno. Stuff from the toilets probably."
"Erm... hello!" Lily glared at them both, "If you two can manage to stick to a single topic for more than twenty seconds?" The two boys both looked guiltily at her and she gave a sigh of frustration, pulling a hand through her scarlet hair. "James! You… you blew it up? Again?"
"No, Sirius did it last time!"
"No," Lily said slowly, as is explaining something to someone very stupid, "He just stirred!"
Now Sirius was looking thoroughly confused, "Are you sticking up for me Evans?"
"No!"
"I think you were."
"Well, I wasn't!"
Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but Lily, having had enough surreal arguments for one day, simply gave a yell of fury and stormed off round a corner, muttering about responsibility and hexes under her breath. The two boys stood watching her retreating back until she was out of earshot, before James turned and gave Sirius a shove, "You told her?"
"So it would seem."
"But… but… what about your plan?"
"It's been changed. What was formally a 'keep-Evans-happy-with-Prongs' plan is now a 'make-Evans-be-happy-with-me-against-her-will' plan."
James looked at him for a moment, "You really need to work on shorter plan names."
Sirius' answer was a sharp slap round the head.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lily remained angry with both James and Sirius for a couple of days, and James found himself knee-deep in compliments, manners and anything else which he felt would get him back in her good books. He even brought her a present. Though by 'brought' I mean that he rummaged around in the deepest, most disgusting corners of the marauders dorm to find something suitable.
So by the weekend Lily was sitting back with the four boys in the library, surrounded by the towering bookcases and frantically studying students. She was twirling her new eagle feather quill between her fingers and copying notes from a dusty book while James sat opposite, practicing his blank stare with Peter and Sirius either side of him. Remus sat next to Lily, and was watching the spiralling quill absent-mindedly.
"I swear I recognise that quill from somewhere."
"Maybe you saw it in the shop," replied Lily, still deep in work.
"Yes. You probably saw it in the shop Moony," agreed James, nodding sincerely. Next to him, Sirius snapped back to reality with a jerk and elbowed James hard in the ribs, "Ouch! You know Padfoot; you're getting a bit too violent for my taste. I think you should reconsider your diet."
"Why do you four have such weird nicknames?" Lily had looked up, and was glancing between the four curiously. James realised what Sirius' violent outburst had actually been about, and glanced apologetically at him before turning back to Lily.
"Erm, Sirius has a… pad on his… foot?"
"What?"
"Yeah! It's like a… a growth." Out of the corner of his eye James saw Sirius stare at him with horror. Lily grimaced, and glanced warily at Sirius, who smiled charmingly. James prayed that she wouldn't ask about Remus' name. Because the only thing he could think of involved a certain type of moon that he knew Remus wouldn't appreciate. However, Remus was still staring glumly at the quill, now resting on the table, and didn't seem to be paying attention.
"You have a growth on your foot?" whispered Lily to Sirius, who blinked. The two had been getting along recently. Well, almost. James guessed that the two would always have their differences, but after the Slughorn fiasco, Lily seemed more willing to put up with Sirius, and visa versa. They could at least hold a civil conversation without throwing food all over each other.
"Well, I wouldn't say a growth. More of a... skin abnormality…" Sirius muttered to his text book.
Unfortunately for the boys, Lily actually seemed quite interested in Sirius' mutated foot. Interested in much the same way people tend to be with violent crimes and rare diseases. She was looking at him through narrowed eyes, and was just opening her mouth when Remus gave a yelp, snatching the quill off the desk and eyeing it closely.
"My dad gave me this for Christmas!"
James' head snapped round. "No he didn't."
"He did!"
"No Remus," James gave him a very meaningful look, which gave the impression that he had something stuck somewhere painful. "He didn't."
When Remus didn't pursue the matter and just threw him a dirty look, James made his excuses and stood to take a book back. He was just squatting down to place it back on the bottom shelf a few rows away when a voice spoke above him.
"Great. Now everyone in the library thinks I have a strange foot disease."
James glanced upwards and sighed, pushing the book back into the empty slot. He stood and brushed the dust off his knees, "You know, one day I may have to tell her."
Sirius guffawed with laughter, "Yeah, okay Prongs. I'll tell you what. You can tell her as soon as you two are engaged, okay?" And with that he clapped his best friend on the shoulder and made his way back towards the table, leaving a scowling James in his wake.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Chapter 21 everyone!I'm in a good mood today because I passed all my exams! Yay! Anyway, hope you all like this – thanks again for all your fab reviews! I love you all!