A/N: 'Allo. How are you all? XD
A/N: I have absolutely NOTHING of interest to say. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING… nothing… nothing… … … *fades off into the distance*
A/N: Just wait a tick, there! I can't ruddy well do that when you're all eagerly anticipating the chapter! At least, I hope you are XD
A/N: Oh, and the whole 'Lily said that at breakfast?! Wut?!' – my explanation is that, well, where else are you going to find the Marauders in the morning? *don't worry, all bumps will be smoothed over once this story has finished*
A/N: OH AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS~ TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK~! Or I will hunt you down and make you tell me what you think.
A/N: Pwease?
A/N: ERMAHGAWD, I'VE JUST REALISED THIS CHAPTER SITS ON PAGE 444 ON MY WORD DOCUMENT AND I THOUGHT THAT WAS AMAZING, SO DISMISS THE NOTHING THING BEFORE, THAT WAS ALL JUST A RUSE TO GET YOU TO READ XD SO READ DAMMIT! :P
A/N: Warning; the F-bomb is dropped once (oh dear) and there's a slight bit of blasphemy if you're extremely Christian. As in, "Don't say the Lord's name in vain." Because Sirius has. Not me, Sirius. I SOLEMNLY SWEAR SIRIUS IS AT FAULT HERE! NOT MEEE! NOOOOOOOOOO~
A/N: I should stop writing at 2 am. Please. Someone hit me.
Chapter Thirty-Six
This is so awkward, thought James, this is really, really, really awkward.
James gritted his teeth as he had foolishly sat in the middle of a desk. Remus took one side, and surprisingly, Bridget took the other.
Cheesus Chrisp. This is really awkward. I can feel it already and it's only been two minutes. When's McGona-Oh, wait, there she is.
A week had passed since the most awkward and messy break up in Marauder history (which was saying something since Sirius had dated, then broken the hearts of two twins and their best friends in three weeks. That had not been pretty). There was a rift in the group, and though KayCee and Sirius were still going strong, it was still awkward when they sat at the Gryffindor table, because when KayCee and Sirius acted all cuddly and loved up, Bridget and Remus did too.
A piece of parchment landed on James' desk innocently, and James looked at it suspiciously for a moment or two, wondering who in the blazes would have sent it. He took a chance and braced himself in case a hurling ball of fire flew at him like the last time he opened an 'innocent' piece of parchment.
Jesus, Prongs, I'm not even sitting with you guys and I can feel the awkwardness.
James grinned at Sirius' note, and when James turned to look at him, he saw Sirius innocently whistling away.
"Class~!" sang Professor McGonagall, floating into the room, as pleasant as a butterfly, "Today we shall learn some more… animation~!"
Oh, how James dearly wished Professor McGonagall had started the lesson like that, no matter how weirded out he'd be. Oh, no. No, she didn't. Her way of starting the lesson included snapping several rulers and setting off a canon-like bang to bring the classes' attention to her and yelling shrilly,
"IF YOU WILL NOT LISTEN, I REFUSE TO TEACH YOU ANOTHER OUNCE OF ANIMATION AND I WILL EXPECT YOU TO MASTER IT FOR YOUR NEWTS!"
James and Sirius exchanged a look that asked, "What's got her knickers in a twist?" and said "Was not my fault!" at the same time.
Everyone fell silent, and Bridget's and Remus' hand that was nearest to James twitched, as if they wanted to grab hold of his hand and skip away into the sunset.
Well, not really. And James certainly hoped that neither Bridget or Remus wanted to hold his hand, because not only would that make this awkward situation go from awkward as hell to awkward as (pardon the profanity) fuck.
Lily, who was sitting on KayCee's left, sat up straighter and looked at James as though she knew exactly what he was thinking.
Which would have been really interesting, but James would have also been really creeped out.
Professor McGonagall seemed satisfied that the class was behaving appropriately, as she swished around the room and began berating the class about Animation and Transfiguration, and why Animation came under Transfiguration in the first place instead of Charms.
"Because Transfiguration is the magic of changing something into something else, Animation changes the properties of the object itself, even if it does nothing to the object. For example, a Charm can force an object to levitate itself, but it has not changed at all. For an object to move itself, something has to change inside of the object itself to make the object move by itself, with or without instruction. Any questions?"
She glared around the room, as if she would personally behead someone who raised their hand. Missing the hint from the obviously hacked off Professor, Peter raised his hand.
She looked at him for a moment before saying harshly,
"Kindly consult with Mr Potter or Mr Lupin or Mr Black."
Peter lowered his hand, already used to the Professor's short fuse when it came to Peter. He had no aptitude at all for Transfiguration, and the only reason he was even in a NEWT level class was that his OWLs were suspiciously good (Remus, James and Sirius had all pounced on him and berated him until the theory of Transfiguration was burned into his mind and his spells went without a hitch. Well, almost…).
She handed the three pairs of students to a desk a set of muggle chess pieces before returning to the front.
"I have agreed with Professor Dumbledore to allow an experimental lesson with these chess pieces," said Professor McGonagall, her expression showing that she'd rather not have her Seventh years experimenting in her class, and James supposed that was the reason Professor McGonagall was so hacked off earlier.
"The incantation is on the board. I shall be in my office if anyone needs me."
She opened a side door and disappeared, and all of the students looked at each other incredulously.
"Oh my word!" cried Bridget, her eyes bright as she looked wildly at Remus. Then her expression fell and she straightened up in her chair and refused to look over at James even for the rest of the lesson.
Talk about awkward.
"I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to say this," Lily said half an hour later exasperatedly. James' ears perked up. He had already figured it out, his talents residing heavily in Transfiguration and he wandered over to her table, leaving Bridget and Remus alone at his.
"Need any help?" he asked brightly. She looked at him, surprised, then laughed.
"Why not?"
James soon informed her that her pronunciation was correct, except for a slight inflection she had added without realising it, but her wand movements were all wrong.
"Here, allow me."
He gently grasped her wrist and went through the movements once. Felicity, upon looking up and spotting them, glared and both Lily and James looked up at her.
"She's having trouble," James called apologetically.
"She can figure it out herself," said Felicity. She turned around swiftly in her chair and continued practising on her own chess set.
"Must be that time of the month," said Sirius, KayCee promptly thumping him on the arm.
"Ow!"
"They're a perfect match," laughed Lily as Sirius pouted at KayCee. James laughed along with her, and suddenly, he remembered his laughing fit.
Lily seemed to remember it too because she smirked and asked if he was needing to be contained in a cell, to which he responded by poking out his tongue at her.
She laughed again, then turned her attention to the chess set. She waved her wand, and spoke the words properly, but nothing happened. She looked disappointed.
"Here," said James, pulling his own wand out of his pocket. "Watch closely."
He waved his wand and spoke the incantation strongly, and suddenly, the chess pieces jumped to life.
"Pawn to… C3," said James, and it moved accordingly.
"No fair," pouted Lily. "You're fantastic at Transfiguration."
"And you're amazing in Charms," said James firmly. "In my books, we're even."
As if to prove his point, Lily lifted the spell on the chess set and practised again. Feebly, the pawn in front stirred. Nothing else happened.
"You're getting there!" said James enthusiastically. Lily stuck her tongue out, not to tease or kid around, but for concentration. James decided it was best to let her at it and returned to his desk – to find Remus steeling himself to talk to Bridget. By the way Remus looked like he was thinking and staring at her, James thought it best to hang back and watch – not to be a stalker, but to support Remus… somehow.
Suddenly, Remus threw his wand back onto the desk and gently pulled Bridget into James' seat. Nonetheless, she struggled and demanded to be let go.
"Bridget-Bridget, look at me! I can't stand it anymore!" Remus half shouted. She stopped trying to get back into her seat, and instead looked up, wide-eyed, at Remus.
"I-I didn't tell you about my condition before because… well because I was afraid. I was afraid I'd hurt you, or that I'd kill you if you tried to come looking for me. I was afraid you'd ditch me after I told you, and I was in too deep for that sort of a break-up. I really, really miss you, Bridget, and I really hope you can forgive me. It's not my fault that I became a… well, what I am."
Remus frustratingly ran a hand through his hair, and then looked away from her.
"Remus," she said softly, placing a hand to his face and turning it to her, "I think you're forgetting something. I'm almost a complete Veela, for goodness sake!"
Remus slapped a hand to his forehead and grinned down at her, "Of course. I forgot all about that. Forgive me?"
"Of course, Remus, how can I not?"
James decided to turn away at that point, and when he did, he noticed the rest of his friends acting strangely – as though they had overheard too and were trying to 'act normal'.
He raised an eyebrow at Sirius, who shrugged, as if to say, "Can you blame us?"
James laughed, and returned to Lily's side. She was improving, but there was a slight problem.
"You need confidence in yourself."
She jumped, evidently not expecting him to have returned, and said, "You think? I'm hopeless at Transfiguration! Oh, I'll never get this right…"
"Perhaps you should think, 'I will get this right, I will!' instead of 'I'll never get this right, never'." suggested James. Lily looked at him doubtfully, but soon she Animated her chess pieces effectively.
"What did I tell you?" asked James smugly. She playfully hit his arm and they laughed.
"Hey, guys, there's a Hogsmeade weekend this weekend," said Sirius excitedly, stumbling over himself to the couch.
"No need to injure yourself to tell us," laughed KayCee.
"There's a Hogsmeade weekend?" asked James, perking up immediately.
Bridget and Remus looked at each other for a moment.
"Well, we're going," said Bridget.
"I'm going," said James with a shrug, and Felicity nodded beside him.
"Why not?" asked KayCee. Lily and Peter shrugged and announced they were going too.
"How about everyone wanders around a bit then we get back together at about… eleven thirty?" proposed James. Everyone agreed, and so it was settled.
Three days later, and James was suiting himself up like an Eskimo.
"It's not that cold," said Sirius disapprovingly.
"Don't go complaining to me when your arse falls off," James huffed. "It's going to snow today."
"No it's not," laughed Sirius. James gave him a meaningful look.
"Just trust me on this one."
Sirius rolled his eyes, but put on another jacket all the same. Remus and Peter had already left and were probably breakfasting in the Great Hall. James tugged on some gloves and patted his pockets for his money. He nodded, satisfied, and he and Sirius headed down to the Great Hall to eat.
"You finished?" asked Lily, raising an eyebrow, half an hour later. James held up one finger, to symbolise one minute and he practically vacuumed his breakfast up.
"Yes."
The group headed off, Felicity spending an hour with her best friends for some catch-up time.
It didn't take long for Lily and James to settle into a walk of the same pace, and they began their ritual wandering around Hogsmeade.
"Have you ever been into Madam Puddifoot's?" asked Lily as they passed it.
"No, and I hope to God that I won't. Have you?"
"Yes. It was terrible," Lily laughed. "My date practically dragged me into it, under the impression I was one of 'those' girls. The amount of hearts and pink and everything in there was ridiculous. I guess she toned it down a bit – that was her opening year, you know – but she still brings out the cherubs when it's Valentine's Day. I've seen the couples in there, getting showered with hearts."
James laughed along with Lily.
"Who'd you go with?"
"Paul Slater, the Hufflepuff prefect in our year."
"Oh, wow," said James with another laugh.
"Speaking of Hufflepuff's," said Lily, pointing to Nathan and Christine, the Hufflepuff prefects. James couldn't help himself. He started laughing again, and Lily joined in.
"Oh dear," said Lily, "that incident's going to be stuck to them for a while."
James tried to stifle another laugh, but it didn't work out. He burst into laughter again, and Lily just shook her head and pulled him further along the street, away from the Hufflepuffs.
"Ooh!" she exclaimed. "Look at these little figurines."
James looked, and he fell in love with the moving set of dragons Lily was pointing at.
"They're so realistic," he marvelled, picking one up, "look at its texture!"
Suddenly, it blew fire into his face and James hastened to put it down while Lily laughed herself silly.
"Oh, shut up. If w-you ever have a kid, it's going to be barfing all over your face."
Was I about to say we?
Lily sobered up immediately, looking at him suspiciously.
"How would you know that?"
"The stories my mum and dad tell me are horrendous."
Lily started laughing again, and James had to pull her away from the shop front, where the owner stared at them incredulously.
They wandered around Hogsmeade for a good half hour until, flushed with excitement, Felicity caught up with them and interrupted a question James was about to ask Lily about her family.
"James!"
James turned and pulled Felicity into a hug.
"Morning," he said, pecking her on the cheek. He glanced at Lily, and she looked a bit withdrawn and… jealous?
Lily? Jealous? As if!
"What?" asked James teasingly, "You want a hug too?"
Before Lily could say anything, James bear hugged her.
She smells really good… James thought to himself before releasing her with dignity. I should hug her more often.
Felicity playfully hit his shoulder.
"What?" asked James. "You always hug Amos and everyone else."
Felicity laughed. "That's true."
James, Felicity and Lily wandered off, pointing out sweets and things. Felicity insisted that Lily shouldn't be alone, and they all headed into Honeydukes. Felicity gave James a meaningful look as she pulled him towards the samples. She picked one up and she fed it to him. Catching on to what Felicity was doing, he picked another up and fed it to her.
She started to giggle and James grinned at her. Felicity's brow creased suddenly, and she tapped the bowl four times. James straightened up and looked around.
Lily was gone.
In her place, however, was Amos.
"Amos!" exclaimed Felicity, hurrying over to him. He pulled her into a hug that James thought was rather… possessive.
Felicity pulled away from Amos, and he and James exchanged greetings of, "Morning." and a handshake.
Amos looked at James coldly, and Felicity and Amos started talking. James sensed that he was not needed in that conversation, and started to look around the store.
He met back up with Felicity and Amos, his money bag a few galleons lighter, and Felicity and Amos said goodbye with another hug. Amos nodded stiffly to James, and out of the shop the couple went.
James checked his watch.
"It's eleven. What do you want to do?"
"I dunno. There's really nothing much else to do, is there?" said Felicity. She shuddered for a moment as a cold breeze started up around them.
"Let's go into the Three Broomsticks. We could snag a good table."
Felicity nodded gratefully, and when they entered, it was packed with students escaping the cold. They pushed through the crowd, and found a booth at the back.
"You want anything?" James asked as Felicity sat down.
"A Butterbeer'd be good, thanks. Here." She dug out the correct money and James hurried off the front of the bar and ordered two Butterbeers.
He returned with two steaming mugs and Felicity gratefully accepted hers.
"Thanks."
They sipped on their drinks before Felicity announced that their desired responses were coming out.
James looked at her strangely and she gave him a meaningful look.
"What?"
"Lily is jealous, James. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out."
"No, if she was jealous she'd… I dunno."
Felicity reached over and patted his hand in a sympathetic way.
"Trust me."
"So, what, you're saying a fortnight? Three weeks? Until we split?" asked James.
"Yeah."
"Interesting. Mutual or…?"
"I'd say it'd be a mutual thing."
"Interesting."
The door tinkled, announcing the arrival of a large group of people… which happened to be Marauders and co.
"Quick," said James. "What happens now?"
Sirius seemed to have spotted them, and quickly Felicity wrapped her arm around James' neck and pulled him in.
"Ahem," said Sirius with a grin as they kissed for a minute or so.
"Oh, sorry," said James, pulling apart from her. Felicity blushed, and everyone managed to squeeze into the booth.
Soon, the group chatted in a lively manner, and at one point, James slammed down his mug and started to dance in his seat.
"Give me the five godamn galleons," he said as everyone broke into peals of laughter. Sirius grinned at James, handing over the money. Other than that, the group remained seated.
The whole of the Three Broomsticks gasped as snow drifted past the shop.
"It's a bit late in the month," said Remus over his mug with a frown.
"Ey, don't argue with the weather," said James with a grin.
"Who wants a snowball fight?!" yelled Sirius excitedly.
Everyone nodded enthusiastically, as the closeness had started to become stifling. They headed out and started back to Hogwarts, finding a particularly snow-covered area by the lake to start their fight.
"There's four guys," announced Sirius, "and four girls. Perfect."
"For what?" asked Felicity.
"Girls versus guys, of course."
"Oh yeah! Bring it on!" shouted KayCee enthusiastically. Immediately, she pulled the other three girls into a huddle.
The four guys looked at each other, their gazes flickering from one person to the next.
"No strategy?"
"Take 'em down is the only strategy."
"Great."
"Let's do this!"
The last exclamation wasn't from one of the guys – it was a whole group of girls shouting it at the same time.
"How about," called Remus, "we have ten minutes to build forts and such?"
Everyone glanced at each other, then immediately scrambled to the biggest pile of snow they could find.
James' gloves were useless, so he pulled them off, regretting it later, but then not because it was so worth it.
"TEN MINUTES IS UP!" yelled Remus. He was immediately pelted with snowballs.
"Ten minutes is not up!" he amended loudly.
"Ready!" yelled all the girls.
"Ready," shouted James.
"Not ready," said Peter sadly, having only built the shabbiest fort in the world.
"What are the rules?" shouted Bridget.
"Ten snowball hits and you're out for five minutes! The team who is all out first loses, or in the next hour and a half, the team with the most outs has lost!" yelled back James.
"THE SECOND OPTION!" yelled back Lily, KayCee and Felicity.
"OK!"
"ONE!"
"TWO!"
"THREE!"
"BEGIN!"
Now this is fun, thought James, throwing snowball after snowball at the girls. Someone shrieked, and hid behind her fort without standing up (which turned out to be Felicity) again. James grinned and started directing his snowballs at Lily. She glared at him, then smiled a smile that unsettled James slightly.
Bring it on, her eyes seemed to say. Then, James started rapidly throwing snowball after snowball at her, Lily returning fire.
Then, all of a sudden, James felt a snowball hit his back. He stood suddenly, and Lily threw several at his stomach. James barely felt them as he looked for the random attacker.
"Who was that?" James asked amidst the flinging snowballs and grunts.
"Who was what?" asked Sirius, who was next to him.
"Someone hit me in the back."
"Are you sure it wasn't the lovely Lily who has been pelting snowballs at you for the past-OI!"
Sirius dropped his snowballs as one hit the back of his neck. Suddenly, the snowball fight stopped and Lionel Case came out from behind a tree, walking up to the group. James saw both KayCee and Sirius tense up.
Lionel held his hands up in a surrender sort of way and gave a deep sigh.
"Look, guys, I'm really sorry about how I've been acting these past few months."
Everyone stared at him, bewildered. What kind of crappy apology was this?
"I've been a total arse this year, especially to you two," said Lionel dejectedly, "I mean, why is it only now that I realise that you can't have anything you want? Why is it only now that I realise I've been an idiot?"
He took another deep breath.
"My parents – they're in hiding because Death Eater's attacked their home last week. I guess it could have been worse, but life is too short to leave loose ends. I want to make it up to you, any way that I can, if I can."
Everyone looked at each other, then at either KayCee or Sirius. James, at least, felt that they had the right to decide.
KayCee glanced at Sirius for a moment before stepping out from behind her fort and walking up to Lionel. Sirius clenched his fists, and KayCee slapped Lionel right across the face.
"What kind of apology is that?" she growled. "You make me out to be the worst best friend in the world, start hating me and my boyfriend for unfathomable reasons, gate crash the Halloween ball, making a scene and ruining the night! Then you come crawling back, months later, making a crappy apology! Months! Do you know how much pain you caused me! You were my best friend, then you decided to exile me for I have no idea how long, and for unknown reasons! Why on Earth do you think I would forgive with a snap of your fingers?"
Sirius took this moment to stumble out behind his fort and hold KayCee, who was glaring at Lionel like her life depended on it.
"Alright. Alright," said Lionel, running a hand through his hair. "Do you want the truth?"
KayCee didn't say anything, but her glare lessened for a moment.
"I'll give you the truth. I was convinced I was in love with you and deserved you far more than Sirius Black. I hated that he had everything, I hated that he managed to steal your heart for being an ass, I just hated the situation I was in. You managed to rip my heart out and stomp on it in a matter of a few seconds. It killed me, and I just… lost it. I thought that Sirius should be hated, and in turn you, because I felt like you betrayed me for going for the guy you hated with passion. And I gate-crashed the party because I thought that was the only way I could get you to talk to me, but my questions became accusations and I started spitting out hurtful words. It's only now that I come to my senses because my parents almost died last week. I realised that I didn't want to lose my friends for forever because of my stupid jealousy, and I just… I thought you might forgive me, because I half thought you missed me too. After six years of being best friends, it's hard not to miss each other. At least, that's what I told myself. I saw you guys through the window at the library and ran all the way here and got the attention of James and Sirius because they were the closest without being seen. I want to end this pain right here, right now, and start over – as if it's the start of the year again, but everyone's managed to get into relationships during the summer and it's fast-forwarded to winter."
Even James felt moved to accept his apology, even though Lionel didn't even do anything to James (except hate his best friend, but other than that…). Sirius looked convinced, to say the least, but KayCee didn't seem so.
"So, you push away the girl you think you're in love with?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"I was immature, and I had no idea what else to do. I mean, Lily and Bridget both tried. I was too embarrassed to go to my dorm mates, because I didn't think they'd understand. Their only best friends were guys, and they'd just assume that I should grow a pair and ask you out. But you're not that simple. You're complicated and wonderful, and I'd rather you be my friend than my enemy."
KayCee looked around at Lily and Bridget, who smiled encouragingly at her. She sighed.
"You've got one chance, Lionel."
His face broke into the biggest grin James had seen, and he was under the impression that his face would crack open or something.
"How about that snowball fight, then?" asked Lionel. "I bet I can get you out in five minutes."
KayCee, in spite of herself, grinned widely at him.
"I beg to differ."
And with those simple words, the snowball fight was back on, Peter volunteering to referee because he was 'hopeless'.
James privately agreed, but he didn't want to tell him that.
"I'm going over there," yelled James, who was back to back with Sirius, him facing the only way out of the line of danger.
"How do you suppose that?" Sirius yelled back, tossing a snowball at KayCee.
"I'm James Bloody Potter, a Marauder and a guy who always has a plan when Moony doesn't."
"And what?" snorted Sirius. "I'm the guy who just bumbles along?"
"No, you have the craziest plans and craziest back up stories."
"Oh, OK. Go, leave me then."
James fell behind his fort, acting as though he was out. He heard a cheer of victory from the girls, and James grinned. He crawled along behind the forts and dashed out into hiding. He jumped behind tree to tree, and dashed behind Lily.
Well, that was easy.
James then proceeded to throw snowballs at the girls' sides. Lily squealed in surprise and shock, as did Bridget and Felicity. KayCee was at the furthermost end and had not been affected.
"ALERT! INVASION!"
The girls raised their snowballs threateningly, but they were soon pelted by snowballs from the other side. James shrugged innocently, then attacked them again.
"KAYCEE!" yelled Bridget, trying to fight off James, Remus, Lionel and Sirius' snowballs at the same time.
"WHAT?!"
"JAMES INVADED!"
"WHAT! LILY, YOU TAKE CARE OF IT!" yelled KayCee, glancing over and seeing that Lily was the closest to James.
"It?" asked James. "I would have thought I'd get more courtesy than that."
He was immediately pelted with snowballs, and not just from Lily.
James laughed, and began to throw snowballs at Lily, when one came flying at her from the guys' side. Lily's balance failed her, and she toppled onto James.
He landed onto the snow, and she fell onto him. She looked into his eyes, startled as he was. Her eyes were so bright, almost like crystals. His eyes lowered to her lips, and suddenly, he felt a pull, an instinct to swoop upwards and capture her soft lips in hi-
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" yelled an angry voice, remarkably like Felicity.
Lily jumped and she pushed herself off of James, blushing bright red.
"HONESTLY, WOMAN! GO FIND ANOTHER GUY, HE'S TAKEN! BLOODY HELL!" Felicity yelled, abandoning her fort and running off huffily. James heaved himself off of his back, gave Lily yet another apologetic look about Felicity's behaviour, and ran off after her.
After all, what kind of boyfriend would just watch his girlfriend run off, upset?
James soon caught up with her, and when they reached the inside of the castle, they stopped running and took a leisurely pace up to the common room.
"No point in going back, is there?" asked James.
"No, not really. I mean, unless you really want to?"
"Nah. Not now that I'm inside and it's so warm."
He said this sarcastically as a ghost flew straight into him, paying no attention to its surroundings.
"Oh, come on then. Let's get to the common room before we freeze to death."
They soon entered the common room, and changed out of their clothes in their separate dorms and met back downstairs. James sank onto the couch, suddenly tired from the day's events.
Felicity sat next to him.
"You know, I really thought you two were about to start snogging," said Felicity with a laugh.
"Really? Snogging was very – uhm – far from my mind."
Felicity looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, alright, fine, I felt like I should have, you know, her being so close and all – but she'd punch me in the gut and never speak to me again."
"Don't be so sure," winked Felicity.
The portrait door opened, and Felicity hurriedly rested her head against James' shoulder. The rest of the group trudged inside, many taking off their gloves and jackets before sitting around the fire.
"So, I gather it's all good now," observed Remus.
"Yeah, just a misunderstanding," said Felicity, nuzzling James neck. James found himself oddly repulsed all of a sudden, which was unusual since he didn't mind Felicity – they had rather good chemistry.
The group was silent, the only sound being the crackling fire, then suddenly, as one, they all stretched and stood up.
"Well, I'm going to bed."
"Same here."
"Same everywhere, apparently."
Everyone laughed at this, then sighed.
"CURSE YOU HISTORY OF MAGIC ESSAY! WHY MUST YOU BE DUE ON MONDAY!" everyone cried simultaneously. Well, Sirius and James took the liberty of being dramatic and saying 'curse you!' while the others just said something along the lines of, "Damn History of Magic essay, why does it have to be due on Monday?" simultaneously.
Same thing, really.