Fuel to the Fire

Chapter21: Brilliant, but scary

"Peyton, what have you done?" Remus asked when he saw me sitting alone at the Gryffindor table the next morning. I'll admit, it was early. Too early. Probably why he looked suspicious.

"Nothing. Why?" I asked, looking up at him innocently.

"You can wipe the innocent look off your face right now, Peyton Fox" He snorted. "I know you well enough to know you've done something. You're up before 8:30" He pointed to his watch. He dropped into the seat beside me and poured a cup of tea. I pushed cup in his direction and he filled mine up as well.

"Ok if you must know, I'm getting my brothers back" I sighed, holding the warm cup between my hands.

"What did they do?" He asked.

"They were just being butt-heads" I shrugged. That's all he needed to know. He fell silent, knowing he wouldn't get anything more out of me. I just folded my arms and waited.

The Great Hall started to fill up quickly and soon both my Gryffindor brothers (because Dill hadn't done anything) were down and seated with friends. Both were unsuspecting. Excellent.

"Post is here" Lily informed us, glancing at the roof. Her words were followed by a shriek from an owl as it swooped in, followed closely by others. Two painstakingly wrapped parcels landed in front of Booger and Pickle.

"Woah neat!" Booger exclaimed. Being the usual, naive, 14 year old that he was, he ripped into the paper without reading what was written on the card. "Honey Dukes sweets!" He read the front of the box instead.

Pickle however looked straight at me. "What did you do?" He asked, gingerly pushing the parcel away. He knew me too well.

"Who? Me?" I raised my eyebrows. "Nothing Pickle. Why? Who's that from?"

"You" He pointed to the card. I just smiled.

A loud bang sounded from further down the table and the hall went quiet.

"PEYTON!" Booger yelled, now covered in bright yellow goo. "WHAT THE HELL!"

I just smiled as my friends all turned to me. "Brothers right?" I shrugged and reached for a croissant. I glanced at Pickle. "Yours actually are sweets" I pointed out.

"Yeah right, Pey. Not falling for that one" He shook his head. I just smiled as a lonely owl shrieking flew over his head and dropped an envelope in front of him. A bright red envelope that started to smoke and smoulder as soon as it hit the table. "You bitch" He growled at me as he picked up the Howler.

"You fault for being a butt head"

"You fault for liking – " thankfully a popping sound came from the red envelope cut him off.

"You better open it" I smiled. He did and another loud bang echoed around the hall. "Pink's a good look on you Parker" I nodded to the bright pink goo that covered my brothers' head. I happily broke off another piece of pastry and popped it in my mouth as goo splashed onto the table.

"You're scary sometimes Peyton..." James said from beside me.

"Yeah... brilliant... but scary" Sirius agreed. I just smiled and continued with my breakfast. Told you they wouldn't get away with being family.

The term continued quickly, October soon changing to November with nothing outstanding happening. There wasn't even a Halloween Dance because of the Founders Ball in December.

"It feels weird not to have a Halloween dance this year" Lily sighed and rested her head against her arms, her homework crumpling under her.

"I know, doesn't it?" I agreed. I stifled a yawn. "I don't even remember being this tired by November though" I stretched and threw down my quill.

"That's because we have double the amount of work than we did last year" Marlene ran a frustrated hand through her hair and twisted it on top of her head. "I'm totally and completely stuck on this Ancient Runes essay" She moaned and rubbed her eyes. "Peyton, help me" She pouted, pushing her parchment over toward me.

"I'm working on Charms" I wrinkled my nose. I instantly felt bad when she pulled a pouty face. I knew she sucked at Runes and it was probably my best subject. "Alright, I'll take a look" I gave in. Marlene grinned and clapped her hands. I took the parchment she had shoved at me, grumbling inside my head about what a spoiled brat she was. Don't get me wrong, I love Marley to death (Yes even after I heard her bitching about me in our room) but she always seems to get her own way... with everything. It drove me mad.

"Oh my GOSH!" Someone exclaimed from the other side of the library. Marlene, Lily, Alice and I turned to look.

"Woah" Marlene breathed. Making its way over to our table was a giant bunch of red roses. They were huge and there was so many of them.

"Who is that for?" Lily raised an eyebrow. I glanced from her to Alice. We were all thinking the same thing.

Marlene.

"I have a special delivery for Alice Prewett" The voice behind the roses asked.

"Me?" Alice squeaked.

I frowned. "Dill?" I raised an eyebrow. I'd recognise my brothers' voice anywhere.

"Hey Pey" He grunted, setting the flowers down in front of Alice. A sulky look crossed Marlene's face and I rolled my eyes.

"What are you doing delivering flowers to Alice?" I stared up at my brother, kind of perplexed. I didn't realise he was interested in her like that.

"I'm delivering them for someone else" he shrugged. "I got paid 10 Galleons to do it"

"Woah... who are they from, Alice?" I turned to look at my friend.

"They're from... Frank!" She exclaimed, plucking the card from the mass of deep red. They smelled divine as well. I inhaled deeply as she read aloud.

"Dear Alice.

I think you are amazing,
this feeling you give, I don't know what to call
Please accept these flowers as invitation,
and be my date to the Founders Ball.

- Frank"

She read aloud and then started squealing. I started squealing. Lily and Marlene started squealing. We were one big table of squeal. We got 10 points apiece taken from Gryffindor but we didn't care. Frank asked Alice to the ball!

"So I take that as a yes?" Dill said with his fingers stuffed in his ears.

"YES! Of course!" Alice exclaimed. "Where is he? I want to see him!" She stood up, her face just one big grin.

"He's outside the library... so I guess you can tell him yourself" Dill shrugged. Alice scooped up her flowers and hurried from the library to meet her Prince Charming.

"Oh that was so romantic" Lily sighed, picking up a stray petal and twirling it between her fingers.

"So so so romantic" Marlene agreed. "Hell I wouldn't even care who it was if they asked me to the ball with poetry and flowers"

"I think I'd even say yes to James –"

"WHAT!" Marlene and I bother exclaimed. Lily's eyes widened as she realised what she'd said.

"I... uhm... didn't..."

"Oh sweet Godric. You like him!" I laughed.

"I do not, Peyton" She hissed at me, looking around to make sure no one could hear us. "Shut up!"

"Who does Lily like?" Sirius asked loudly as he rounded the corner.

"And was that Alice we just saw walking from the library with her arms full of flowers?" James asked from behind him.

"Lily likes – OW!" I exclaimed as Lily stomped down hard on my foot.

"No one. Peyton's being a pain" She narrowed her eyes at me as a warning. Oh, like I was going to tell him! James is standing right there and Sirius can't keep a secret from James to save his life. "And you did just see Alice walk from the library with flowers. Frank asked her to the Ball" She answered James without using the words 'douche', 'bag', 'douchebag' or 'idiot'. James actually looked a little stunned. Hell, we all did.

"Ah crap really? He asked her with flowers?" Remus groaned, throwing himself into the seat next to me.

"What's wrong with that, Wolfy?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well now every girl is going to expect something that awesome" He sighed.

"There was a poem too" Marlene interjected. Remus' eyes widened.

"What?"

I laughed and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Chill Moony. Not every girl is going to expect it, and I'm sure whoever you ask will be glad to go with you" I smiled kindly. He threw me a grateful look but I could still tell he was stressed. He shouldn't be stressed. Remus Lupin was cute... and nice... and funny... why did I like Sirius again?

Remus grinned. "Alright then Pey... did you want to go –"

"Why are we sitting in here when we could be at Hogsmeade?" Sirius said loudly, cutting Remus off. "Come on, Pey!" He said before Remus could start talking again and pulled on my hands.

"Sirius, we have homework to do and essays to write. That's why we're not at Hogsmead" I said, a little exasperated. "Remus, what were you saying?" I turned back to the quieter of the Marauders.

Remus glanced at Sirius and then back at me. "Nothing" He smiled. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the fou –"

"Come on, you can finish them later" Sirius interrupted again. "I need Honeydukes" He rolled up my essay before I could do anything about it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Remus and James exchanged an amused glance. "Come on, Pey"

"Alright, alright" I gave in and stood. "Lil? Marls? Coming?" I glanced at my friends. Marlene nodded but looked less than impressed. Probably because she didn't receive a personal invite from Sirius.

Lily and her gathered their stuff and we made our way to Hogsmeade. "Gosh it's so cold" Marlene shivered and wrapped her arms around her. I put my hand in my bag and pulled out a spare scarf.

"Here Marley" I handed it to her.

"Oh... no it's ok" She shook her head.

"Hey isn't that mine?" Sirius raised his eyebrow and glanced at me. Marlene took it from my hands and wrapped it around her neck. I suppressed a laugh and glanced at Lily, who was also grimacing out of amusement.

"Hey! Hey Marlene!" Someone called out from behind us. We turned as a group (As you do when your friends name is yelled out). Daniel Hawcroft trotted over to us and dropped his raised hand to his side.

"Hi Daniel" Marlene glanced at me. I shrugged. Daniel was the Captain of the Hufflepuff team and, in James and Sirius' opinion, a thick skulled pretty boy. I kind of agreed with them. "What's up?" She asked him when he didn't say anything.

"Well... erm... I was wondering if... you... would..." He glanced at James and Sirius as they started sniggering and Marlene smacked them both in the stomach.

"Sorry, you were saying?" She smiled brightly. It's a wonder the boy could even form a coherent sentence after that.

He coughed before beginning again. "Well... would you like to go to the ball with me?" He said in one breath.

Marlene glanced at me again and I smiled. Maybe now that she was being asked by him she wouldn't want to go with Sirius anymore.

"Oh Daniel, that's so nice... Can I get back to you though? I've had a few offers and, well, I want to keep my options open" I think even a blind person could have seen the look she threw to Sirius.

"Right. Yeah of course you do" Daniel the Hufflepuff nodded numbly. "I'll, erm, talk to you later yeah?" He smiled and then walked away quickly.

"A few offers?" Lily laughed. "Why didn't you just say a straight out no?"

"Because I have had a few offers" Marlene shrugged and tossed her hair over her shoulders.

"Who?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Geoffrey Jordan... Nick Spinnet... Even Greg Goyle asked me" She laughed. "I'll think about who I'm going to go with closer to the ball" She threw another look Sirius' way. I wanted to shove her into the light pole.

Too violent? Maybe. But I hadn't even been asked once. I'm pretty sure Remus tried to ask me before, but the ever impatient Sirius Black interrupted him twice. The ass.

"I haven't been asked by anyone" Lily grumbled, folding her arms. She looked really annoyed and it made me wonder who she really wanted to go with.

"That's because McGonagall decided we had to go together" James grumbled as well, looking as equally annoyed.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I haven't been asked either and I don't have anyone to go with" I shrugged. I wasn't too fussed. I mean, sure I wanted to go with Sirius but I'd deal if I didn't. I'd have to because I'm pretty sure he was going with Marlene.

An arm dropped around my shoulders. "Awh Pey, I'm sure someone will ask you" I glanced up at him and he gave an exaggerated wink.

"Who? Peter?" I looked around at the boy dawdling far behind us. "Tell him yes" I smiled. Sirius stumbled slightly but covered it by kicking a rock down the street.

"No. Not Peter... I think he's going with a Slytherin girl" Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Oh... well then who?" I shrugged, playing dumb. No, playing safe.

"You'll see" He smiled cryptically. My stomach lurched. As much as I didn't want to believe him, it was so nice to think he might be hinting me.

"Oh will I?" I raised an eyebrow. "Come on, let's go into Honeydukes" I nodded to the sweet smelling shop we were stopped in front of. He shot me one of his knee-weakening smiles and dropped his arm from around me.

It was a few minutes before my brain worked again. Damn that Sirius Black. Why do I have to like him so much?

Plea's Note:

Here it is. Number 21. I can't believe it to be honest... still so much more to go though so don't worry!

Xo Plea