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Chapter 21
Lisa's Idea of Romantic
Lisa woke up by an increasingly annoying clinking sound. Slowly opening her eyes with a disgruntled sigh, she looked around the dorm for the source. Lily, Alice and Marlene were all sleeping soundly in their beds, and a familiar owl was knocking on the window with its beak, surrounded by floating pink paper airplanes. Right, Lisa thought, today was Valentine's Day. She got up and opened the window for Frank's snowy owl, Aspen, which fluttered over to Alice and pecked her cheek gently. Most of the airplanes circled around Marlene, waiting for her to stir, and a rather large, tacky-looking red envelope that suspiciously resembled a Howler landed in top of Lily's face.
"What the hell?" the redhead said sleepily, removing it from her eyes.
"I'd open that if I were you," Lisa said, barely containing her laughter. "It looks like it's going to explode."
Lily threw her a can-you-believe-this kind of look, her fingers broke the wax seal, and James' voice boomed from the letter.
MEET ME ON THE QUIDDITCH PITCH TONIGHT
AND I WILL SHOW YOU AN INCREDIBLE SIGHT
PLEASE DON'T TAKE ME FOR A CREEP
I WON'T FLY OFF WITH YOU ON A CHEAP CLEANSWEEP
I DON'T NEED THE TRYOUTS TO BE ANY STEEPER
BECAUSE YOU LILY EVANS ARE A KEEPER
Marlene shot up in her bed abruptly, unwittingly getting hit in the eye by a paper plane. Alice was stroking Aspen soothingly, and Lisa was practically rolling on the floor.
"Horrible poetry, check! Lots of Quidditch analogies, check!" she said in between giggles. "That was James Potter's Valentine all right."
"Sounds like he's got something big planned." Marlene smiled at Lily. "What do you suppose it is?"
"Knowing James, he'll probably be waiting for her naked in the locker rooms with a big red bow on his chest." Lisa guffawed, doubling over as her sides almost split with laughter.
"He wouldn't..." Lily said hesitantly, and Lisa threw her a skeptical look, sending all of the girls into a fit of giggles.
"Jacob, Mike, Edward, Tyler," Marlene was listing, going through her planes. "No one decent sent me a Valentine this year!"
"What did Frank send you, Alice?" Lily asked while Lisa was still rolling on the bed with laughter.
"Oh, it's just a Valentine card. Nothing as fancy as a poem." The brunette blushed and untied the small posy of snowdrops from Aspen's leg.
"Aw," Marlene sighed. "He's so sweet. I'd prefer that to a bombastic declaration of love. Which is what, the two hundred and eightieth?"
"He wouldn't be James if he wasn't as showy as possible," Lily said, but her mouth was twitching into a smile. "What did you get, Lisa?"
"Me?" The blonde composed herself. "I didn't get anything. Remus really isn't one for sweeping romantic gestures." She giggled again.
"Not even a card?" Alice asked gently.
"Oh, I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot." Lisa waved dismissively. Her three dorm mates exchanged glances. "It's not a big deal, really," she reassured them. "With Remus it kind of... feels like Valentine's every day," she admitted quietly and blushed at the collective 'awwww'.
oOo
"Hi," Lisa greeted, sitting down in a chair next to Remus in the Library and planting a kiss on his cheek.
"Hey," he replied absentmindedly, not even looking up from the book he was translating.
"They assigned this weeks ago!" she exclaimed, peering at the title. "And you're still not done? It's due on Thursday!"
"I know," he replied tightly. "It's just that with everything happening with the Order and the werewolves and you... I kind of forgot about it."
She stared at him in surprise. Remus Lupin forgot about a huge assignment? What was the world coming to? Suddenly, Sirius stormed over to them, crashed down into the nearest chair and pulled the book form under Remus' hands, hiding behind its thick cover. Remus tried to protest, but his friend only shushed him as three of them heard a loud giggle.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," a singsong voice sounded somewhere close by. Sirius sunk even lower into the chair.
Lisa picked herself up slightly and spotted a girl, sneaking around about two bookshelves away, giggling all the way.
"Obscuro!" she whispered, lifting her wand to the girl's back.
A black blindfold appeared over her eyes and she started panicking and knocking into the shelves. It wasn't long before Madam Pince swooped down on her from the right and promptly kicked her out of the Library.
"You're a lifesaver," Sirius said gratefully as Remus snatched his book back from him. "She was following me for three floors."
"You're welcome," Lisa said. "What was she chasing you for?"
"You know, the usual." He smirked, reclining his chair back so it stood on its hind legs. "Wanted to whine a date out of me. Bloody birds have been chasing me around all day."
"So you came where no one would ever look for you?" Remus quipped, dipping his quill in the inkwell anew.
"Precisely!" Sirius agreed, happy his friend caught on to his brilliant plan so quickly. "With Prongs fussing over the Lily thing, I have no one to watch my back and warn me if they're coming."
"I heard his poem. Very dramatic." Lisa laughed at the memory. "Dare I ask what he's gonna do?"
"He swore us to secrecy." Sirius shrugged. "Can't risk it getting out and 'spoiling the surprise'."
"Just tell me it doesn't involve his naked body and ribbons?" she said, making him chuckle.
At that point, a pink paper swan flew into the Library and landed on Lisa's head.
"Is that another one for you?" she turned to Sirius, but he just shrugged disinterestedly. She unfolded it, only to find a single daisy in the folds and smoothed the parchment to read it. "Dear Lisa, I thought about sending you sweets, but after what happened with Dorcas Meadowes last year, I figured you'd just chuck them in the rubbish. Happy Valentine's Day, Adrian. Oh, so it's from Fleet. How sweet," she said, picking up the daisy.
Remus shot up from the book and stared at the flower as if it just told him his house caught on fire. "That's today?" he asked hoarsely.
"It's okay, I figured you'd forgotten." Lisa laughed lightly.
"Mate," Sirius threw in, half in disbelief and half in amusement, "the only Valentine your girlfriend got is from Fleet?"
Remus groaned and buried his face in his hands. "It completely slipped my mind. Lisa, I'm so sorry..."
"It's fine, really," she reassured him, mussing his hair playfully. "I don't need poems and flowers and grand romantic gestures. And here, you can copy my translation. I had it done weeks ago," she added, pulling a rolled parchment from her bag.
"Fawley... marry me," Sirius said sincerely, and she rolled her eyes. "You can have Moony as a secret lover, and you'll chase out any birds that overstay their welcome in the morning, then make me pancakes. It's the perfect plan!"
"Only one hitch in your brilliant plan, Padfoot." Lisa laughed. "I can't cook."
"Fine, whatever, we'll order take away. So you're in?"
"I'm not living on take away my entire life, you cheapskate! Hire a maid!" She threw Adrian's valentine at his head. Sirius barked a laugh and thumbed backwards to the floor, along with his chair.
"I will make this up to you," Remus said firmly, ignoring his friend's antics. "And take your translation. I'll get it done myself by tomorrow."
"You can't translate 157 pages in one day!" Lisa exclaimed.
"Tomorrow," he repeated adamantly. "And then I'll make it up to you somehow."
"You really don't have to," she said, but his eyes turned determinately towards the book and he seemed to block out anything more.
oOo
Thankfully, James' plans for Lily didn't involve nudity. He gave her a ride on his broom—not a Cleensweep, but a shiny new Nimbus 1000—all the way to the Astronomy Tower, where he had set up a romantic dinner. Lisa had to give him more credit in the future — the bloke actually knew something of romance.
She of course had been perfectly honest when she claimed she didn't need such things from Remus. She truly couldn't imagine how Valentine's Day would be different from any other day with him. After all, he was attentive and sweet all year round. Plus, if she ever needed chocolate, he always had some on him and was willing to share. So how was that one day a year supposed to be special?
Nevertheless, she couldn't help but giggle a little as he was leading her blindfolded down the seventh floor corridor on Wednesday.
"If I trip and break my nose, I will kill you." She laughed, feeling like a child.
"You think I would let you fall?" he asked in mock-offense. "Alright, we're here. It's behind this door; I guarantee you'll love it."
"Well? Aren't you going to take off the blindfold?"
"Inside," he whispered in her ear, suddenly behind her.
His hands rested at her waist and he gently pushed her forward. Lisa stumbled with outstretched hands, feeling her way down the wooden surface to the doorknob. She laughed again, having no idea what to expect. The two of them entered, and she could hear a fire crackling in the room and feel something soft beneath her feet. A carpet? Where were they?
"Odd," he muttered under his breath.
"What's odd? Did you take me to the wrong place?"
He was quiet for a second. "No, this is it..."
"Will you take this blasted thing off my face already?" she demanded, and he complied hesitantly. She heard him close the door behind them as her eyelids fluttered open and she turned to stare at him in surprise. They were standing in the den of the Lupins' cottage. "Did you... is this... a teleporter?" she asked in confusion. But that was impossible; nothing could just take them out of Hogwarts, there were a million spells at work!
"Not really..." he drawled, looking around curiously. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this looks like my house."
"Isn't it?"
"I suppose it is..."
"Remus, where the hell are we?"
"It's called the Room of Requirement. It changes to suit the needs of the person that wants to enter it. I thought if I blindfolded you, it would become whatever you wanted it to be..." His eyes darted to his bookshelf along the south wall and the record player in the corner. "I'm not sure it worked though... is this where you want to be?"
She blushed like mad. "I-I guess... I mean I might have been thinking about it... and, um..." The words caught in her throat. She must seem so pathetic right now, admitting the most romantic place she could think of was his den.
He smiled warmly at her and stretched out his hand. "Shall we sit, then?"
She nodded and took it, and he led her to the fireplace where they sat on the soft rug. "The Room can't create food, so I had to bring our own," he explained pulling a shrunken package of sweets from his pocket and returning them to their original size, then offering her a box of Sugared Butterfly Wings. "They're not poisoned, I checked."
Lisa laughed and relaxed a little. "How did you even find this place?" she asked, looking around.
"When you're friends with James and Sirius, you tend to spend the better part of your stay in Hogwarts roaming the corridors at night." He smiled fondly.
"You know, before we started dating, I never would have guessed you were the mastermind behind so many Marauder pranks. I always got the impression you didn't really approve of those."
Remus laughed. "James and Sirius have a way of... infecting you with their excitement. I suppose they just rubbed off on me." He put an arm around her, and she snuggled comfortably against him. "You sure you don't want me to try to write you a poem?" he asked, staring into the fire.
"Well, if you did, let's at least hope you're be better at it than James." She giggled.
"A Kneazle would be better at it than James."
"True, true. But it was still cute in a way, if you tilt your head and sort of squint at it." Remus chuckled, and the sound reverberated pleasantly against Lisa's back. "I wasn't just saying it, you know. About not caring for this sort of thing. You didn't have to go through all this trouble."
"It wasn't any trouble at all. I already knew the Room existed, all I had to do was procure the food."
"So minimal effort after all, eh? I guess you and Sirius really aren't all that different," she teased. "If he ever managed to keep a girl long enough to be his Valentine, he'd probably be just as lazy about it."
"... You really should stop doing that," Remus muttered quietly with a slight frown.
"Doing what?"
"... Forget it. It's nothing."
"No, it isn't! What am I doing? Tell me."
"You... keep comparing me to Sirius. And to James."
She gaped at him. "What? I do not!"
"Yes, you do. A lot, actually."
She was just looking at him in shock. What was he talking about? She didn't compare them that much! Right? There was only that time she told him Sirius didn't have his problem with privacy. Or that one time Remus dropped his books and she said James could teach him a thing or two about reflexes. Or when he scolded her for pranking Eddie Cornhill and she said Sirius would be laughing his arse off...
"Okay, maybe I do mention them a little, but you're around them all the time, I can't help but notice..."
"You seem to notice them more than you notice me."
"What? No! They're just... different."
"And by different, you mean not as boring."
"No, I..." Why was this going so wrong? Was it because of the moon? "What day of the cycle is it?" she asked, and he pulled his arm away.
"I'm not affected by the moon every time I'm angry!" he snapped.
She stared at him like a deer in headlights. "That's not what I... I mean, I know that, but I can't help noticing Sirius and James, they are my friends too, and I'm not blind..."
That came out wrong.
The color instantly drained from Remus' face.
"What I'm saying is, that I can't not notice them and well, yes, they are a bit less uptight than you are, but come on, James is in love with Lily and Sirius can't keep a steady girlfriend..." she said anxiously, trying to make it better, but she was only digging herself in deeper.
"So I was the last option left?" he said quietly.
Lisa was taken aback so much she couldn't think of a response for several seconds. "H-huh? Of course not!" she managed to mumble, but he was already out the door.
Lisa face-palmed painfully. What the hell just happened?
oOo
Remus was irritable and moody the next day. The Marauders knew something must've gone wrong at the date he had planned with Lisa, but when they asked, he only said sharply that everything was fine, so they exchanged glances and dropped it.
"Oh Remus, I'm so glad I found you!" Piper Spudgen cried, running towards the four friends as they were heading to the Gryffindor Tower after Arithmancy. "I need help, I was brewing this potion and it started to overflow and I don't know how to stop it!"
"Alright, calm down," Remus said. "We'll find a teacher and—"
"No, you can't tell anyone! If Slughorn finds out I was in the classroom without permission, he'll kill me!" she shrieked and pulled on his sleeve urgently.
"Well, sounds like you better go and help, Moony." Sirius clapped his shoulder with a mischievous grin. "Only your incredible cleaning skills can save her now."
James and Peter snickered, and Remus threw both of them a glare, but allowed himself to be dragged down into the dungeons after Piper. When they arrived, however, the room was spotless and there was no cauldron in sight, overflowing or otherwise. Remus turned around to give the brunette a questioning look.
"I'm sorry, I lied a little," she admitted timidly. "I have a present for you and I sort of wanted... to give it to you privately."
She held out a white cardboard box. Remus didn't like this one bit, but he took it tentatively.
"Thank you," he said, trying to be polite, and lifted the lid. Inside was a yellow silk scarf with a pink L on one end. He wouldn't be caught dead wearing such a gaudy thing.
"Here, let me see how it looks," she said and placed the scarf around his neck, her hands lingering on it for a few moments.
She looked up at him with those big dark-brown eyes and he felt something stir in the pit of his stomach. Blood rushed in his head and his heartbeat echoed painfully in his ears.
THUMP
Her lips were red.
THUMP
Her body was just a breath away.
THUMP
The skin under her shirt was warm beneath his fingers.
THUMP
She tasted like cinnamon.