What Did Happen That Night?
Around midnight, James and Sirius dragged themselves up to bed, the whole plan thought out in every way possible. They had a back up plan in case something went wrong, they had a double back up plan, just to be sure if the first back up screwed up. All in all, Sirius and James made sure there was no way Remus could find an excuse to get out of it.
Remus and Melissa had moved onto the couch. She was nestled quite comfortably between his legs, her cheek resting on his chest.
"Aww, Remus." Melissa sat up, looking at him. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to…"
Remus sighed. "There's no way I'm getting out of it. You know them."
She smiled slightly. "Yes, I do."
Remus gently knocked his forehead against hers. "Were you serious that you wanted to see me as a girl?"
Melissa smiled. "Kind of…I think it would be interesting. I want to see what you would look like." She laughed quietly. "I'm weird."
"Just a little." Remus grinned.
She laughed, kissing his nose. "I'll let that slip."
Remus smiled. She laid back down, yawning into his shirt.
"Go to bed if you're tired," Remus said, gently playing with her hair again.
"I don't want to," Melissa said, looking back up at him.
Remus smiled slightly, twirling her hair between his fingers. "I like your hair…It's very easy to just sit here and fiddle with."
Melissa made a noise of disgust deep in her throat. "I hate my hair. I wish it were straight."
"Well, why?" asked Remus, tilting his head ever so slightly.
"Every girl wants what they don't have," Melissa explained. "Since I got stuck with curly hair, I want straight. Get it?"
"I like curly hair," Remus said with a small smile.
Melissa smiled at him. "You would. It's not like you have curly hair." She ran a hand through his hair, making it messy. "You're hair is straight and neat."
"Neat?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Melissa said, beginning to fool around with his hair. "It's always neatly parted. Not all over like James, and not shaggy like Sirius'. It's…handsome. I like it."
Remus gave her a sleepy smile. He glanced at the slowly burning down fire, the only source of light in the common room.
"Can I ask you a question?" Melissa asked, turning and looking at the burning flames.
"What?" Remus asked, anticipating it to be a serious question.
"Why doesn't Hogwarts have electricity?"
Remus gave a kind of lopsided grin. "Well, why do you ask?"
She shrugged. "Just wondering. Do you have electricity?"
Remus nodded. "Yeah, I have electricity. My mum wouldn't have it any other way. She grew up with all the muggle stuff. My dad and I aren't very good at figuring out all that stuff though." He blushed. "It took us a week to figure out how the T.V worked…"
Melissa laughed. "My house had electricity. My family is Pureblood's, though. I guess you can see our views are like James' family. I had a lot of the Muggle stuff in my room, since I was a thought-to-be Muggle." She smiled slightly. "Even though my parents are back-stabbing traitors, they did make sure as I was growing up I didn't feel too out of place."
He nodded his head in understanding, staring back at the fireplace. "Can I ask you a question?"
Melissa smiled, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"Would you ever give your parents another chance? To explain themselves?"
She pondered that thought for a moment. Would she? After all she had grown up with these people, and never once did they express anything out of the ordinary. Apparently no one in her family knew, for they all treated her extra special. She could recall sometimes when something would happen, where she couldn't control her anger or feelings and a light bulb would shatter or something, though she just thought it mere coincidence.
Melissa, as a child, had often asked her parents if they were sure she was a Squib. She was sure she just was a little late by showing a kind of magical power. They always had put her down easy, saying that she just wasn't meant to be a witch.
"I don't know," Melissa said truthfully, eyes still out of focus. "It's like they made my whole life up for me and I couldn't decide anything." She locked eyes with Remus. "I don't know if I can forgive that."
Remus tucked a piece of hair behind her hair, looking at her.
She really does not trust her parents anymore, does she?
"Well, hey," Remus said, trying to make light of the conversation, "if you had become a witch, you would've never come back in time and met me." He smiled cheekily at her.
Melissa laughed, kissing him. "Right you are."
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Melissa woke up the next morning, not in the common room, but in the boys' dorm. The bed hangings were pulled around the four-poster, while an arm was slung over her waist, and legs wrapped around her own.
Must've fell asleep and he brought me up here, Melissa thought, smiling groggily. He's so sweet.
Melissa reckoned it was early, for Sirius' loud, horn-like snoring was still heard.
Oh, yeah. It's Saturday…
She yawned, snuggling under the covers.
"You up?" James mumbled monotonously to no one in particular.
"I am," Melissa said, breathing out.
"Lissy?" James said, obvious surprise in his voice. "What are you doing here?"
"I was sleeping," Melissa mumbled, rolling her eyes. "What else would I be doing?"
"Snogging Remus?"
"He's asleep."
"Oh. When did you guys go to sleep last night?"
"Dunno, actually. I just woke up in here…"
"I see," James said.
It was rather odd. Neither one of them pulled their bed curtains over, they just laid in bed, talking to each other.
"What time is it?" Melissa asked.
"Don't know. Not going to look."
Melissa laughed quietly. "We're both too lazy for our own goods."
A small laugh came from James' bed as well. "Yeah. Oh well. People love us anyway."
"Why do you two speak so loud?" Sirius mumbled from his bed.
"Good morning, Padfoot!" James said.
"Shhh, please. You're going to give me a migraine," Sirius grumbled, pulling his pillow over his face.
Remus shifted from behind Melissa. He buried his face in her back, making odd sleeping noises.
Melissa suppressed a laugh. "Guys, be quiet. We don't want to wake up Remus."
James and Sirius gasped. "Remus is sleeping? Later than us!?"
"Shush! He won't if you are so loud," Melissa whispered harshly.
"Were you guys trying to wake me up?" Remus said, his voice muffled from snuggling into Melissa's back.
"No…" James said.
Remus leaned up, resting on his right elbow. His eyes were squinted and his hair was sticking up everywhere from sleep.
"What time is it?" he asked, yawning.
"Dunno," Sirius, James, and Melissa all answered at the same time.
Remus, grumbling, got out of bed and glanced at the clock. "It's 9 o'clock." He rubbed his eyes, yawning yet again. He fell back into bed, wrapping himself in the covers, and closing his eyes. "If you all don't mind I would like to get one more hour of sleep. So kindly shut your mouths, or get out…"
The only one to get out of bed was James. Sirius had fallen back asleep right when Remus uttered the time.
"Aww, man. I'm the only one?" James said, frowning.
"Go away, James," Remus said, pulling Melissa towards him again. He nuzzled into her.
Melissa, too, despite waking up first and feeling wide-awake, closed her eyes. She was quite comfortable and did not feel like leaving the bed anyway. She flipped over, leaning her forehead against Remus' torso.
In a matter of minutes, the three had fallen back asleep. James, though, had nothing to do. He begrudgingly walked over to Peter's bed.
"Wormtail," he whispered, ripping the curtains back. James glanced back at Remus' bed, which was still shut, and Remus' aggravated voice was not heard, therefore he was still asleep. James turned back to Peter's bed. "Wormtail, are you up?"
Squeaks were James' only reply.
"You're as hopeless as the rest of them," James muttered, roughly pulling the curtains back, causing them to fall on Peter. "Oh…oops." He shrugged, and walked out of the room.
An hour later, James popped back into the room. He grinned evilly. Placing his wand to the side of his neck, he muttered, "Sonorus." He wiggled his eyebrows, more than ready to wake everyone up…
"WAKE UP, EVERYBODY! TIME TO COME INTO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING! UP, UP, UP! GET UP, YOU LAZY BUMS! UP, I SAY!"
The bed curtains ruffled in and out wildly as everyone jumped awake, scrambling around.
"You, moron!" Sirius chucked a pillow at James' head. "Do you want to give me a heart attack!?"
"No," James smiled, "but you're up, aren't you?"
"I'm not a happy up person," Sirius said, narrowing his tired eyes on James.
"Holy crap!" Remus said, abruptly pulling his curtains back. He and Melissa both looked disordered.
"Moony!" James gasped. "You said crap!"
"Yes, damnit!" Remus snapped. "I'm tired, Prongs! Come on. Be fair."
James was too busy laughing that Remus had said two improper words within a minute to take in that he was dead serious.
"Geez, Remus. I didn't know you had it in you." Melissa turned and looked at him.
"When I'm tired I get cranky," he mumbled. "Look, I'm sorry, Prongs. Just kindly shut up for another hour. Please?"
James' arms fell to his sides in defeat. "Fine…"
Remus fell back into bed. Sirius looked around, he looked for the most part awake, though as expected, he pulled the curtains around his bed and fell back asleep also. Melissa shrugged, climbing out of bed.
"Where are you going?" Remus asked, cracking an eye open.
"I'm going to go hang out with James. I've gotten enough sleep. I'll see you later, okay?"
Remus frowned, clearly not satisfied with that plan. "All right," he grumbled gloomily.
Melissa leaned down and kissed his forehead. "Go back to sleep, Mr. Cranky."
Remus smiled slightly.
Melissa and James soon found themselves catching a late breakfast. Melissa was busy buttering an English muffin, while James scanned through the Daily Prophet.
"Anything?" Melissa asked.
James looked at her over the paper rim. He sighed, folding it up. "Just the usual Deatheater stuff. I hate it, Liss. I really do." He looked at her. "Why can't they just stop?"
Melissa sighed, putting her hand over James'. "Because they don't feel anything, James. They don't care if they hurt people. It doesn't matter to them."
James shook his head. "I want to make a different one day, you know? I want to become an Auror like my parents were." He smiled softly. "Or maybe, make up an association that's against Voldemort. I mean, honestly, the Ministry isn't doing all that much."
Melissa smiled at James, a tinge of sympathy in her eyes. "I know you can do it, James." She nodded her head. "You can."
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"Moony, you up?" Sirius muttered, his voice thick and hoarse.
"Yeah," Remus grumbled, his own voice equally as gruff. "What time is it?"
"Late."
"Thank you for stating the obvious, Padfoot." Remus rolled over, pushing the hangings aside to glimpse at the clock. "It's 11…later than we thought."
Sirius stretched, his hands pushing against the headboard of his bed. He sat up and cracked his neck, back, and fingers.
"Sirius, that's a terrible habit," said Remus, scowling at the noise.
"I feel weird if I don't," Sirius said, rolling his now loose neck around.
Remus slowly pulled himself up. He ran a hand through his bed head, just making it worse. He yawned loudly.
Sirius peeked out of his hangings. "Hello?"
"What?" Remus asked, pushing his own covering aside.
"Just seeing if we're the only one's in here," Sirius said, looking around.
Remus looked at his friend strangely. The only part of Sirius' body sticking out of his bed was his head.
Sirius, loosing his balance, tumbled face forward out of bed. "Ow," he said, his nose shoved down against the floor.
Remus shook his head. He sighed and got out of bed. Walking on wobbly feet he made his way over to the bathroom. Sirius soon joined him, wrinkling his nose in discomfort.
Remus and Sirius stood at themselves in the mirror. Their shoulders were slightly hunched and they still looked half asleep.
"I need to shave," Sirius suddenly said, running his hand around his chin.
Remus turned to Sirius. "Um…okay?
"Do you have any facial hair?" Sirius asked, looking at Remus. "Eh. You have light hair, though. So even if you did have it, no one would see it."
Remus rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "I'm taking a shower…"
"Alright," Sirius said, going back to examine his face.
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James and Melissa had met up with Lily and Ariel in the hallway, and had decided to go outside. The four then sat by the lake, dipping their feet in the cold water. The air was humid and sticky that day, so it didn't matter to any of them. There was no breeze, and neither were there any clouds to at least hide the sun for a few minutes.
Melissa watched as she dragged her foot back and forth in the water. She reached next to her side and plucked a dandelion. She examined it close to her face, just to preoccupy herself.
James simply watched the water moving, a calm look across his face.
Lily had a book nestled in her lap, every so often pulling a piece of hair back into her clip that had fallen into her face.
Ariel had her hands laced behind her head, while she laid back and stared up at the sky, her feet still floating in the water.
No one was really in a talking mood; or rather no one really knew what to say. They had talked the whole way through the hallway, and to the lake, and when they finally got there, all four became silent.
Melissa looked up, away from her dandelion. She stared out beyond the lake, to the mountains surrounding the school grounds. A distant look was in her eyes, clouding them over. She absently twirled the flower between her forefinger and thumb.
Different thoughts were swirling through her head. Thoughts of what she was doing after the school year. Probably going back, she presumed, for she didn't have a full education. She also thought of the movies she hadn't seen in a while, along with some songs she missed listening to. Another thought that crossed her mind for a brief moment was her old friends. Melissa loved her friends from the past to death, though she did spend most of her life with her other friends.
I wonder what they're doing now, Melissa thought. I wonder what my sisters are doing. Does anyone even know I'm gone…?
Melissa would love to go back for just a moment to see what had changed, if anything at all. Maybe in reality she was also gone almost a full year, and her family was searching for her. She snorted in mild annoyance.
A rather large splash and some swearing broke her out of her reverie. She jumped, blinking a few times.
James had been face down in the water, though sat up, spitting water out of his mouth. Clumps of the lakes sandy floor were all over his black hair.
"I hate you," James grumbled, narrowing his eyes. He pulled himself back on land, shaking his head to the side, and whacking the other. His hair was dripping water and down the front of his shirt was sopping wet.
Sirius was smirking. "That's for earlier, mate."
Remus and Sirius had, apparently, snuck down without anyone noticing. They sat themselves down with the group, flinging off their shoes and plunging their feet into the water.
"We should go swimming," Sirius said to no one in particular, making a circle with his left foot.
"Today?" Ariel asked.
"Nah. 'Cause then we'd all have to go back inside and change," Sirius said, his eyes straining in the sun.
Melissa rested her head on Remus' shoulder, playing around with his feet with her own. He leaned his head on top of hers.
"I am so excited for the Quidditch game next weekend," James said, pulling off his shirt. He wrung it out, making a face. "Ew. It smells like lake water."
"Well, so do you. But we don't say 'ew'," Sirius said, fighting a laugh.
Melissa glanced over at Sirius, smiling.
James glared at Sirius, squeezing his shirt tightly for effect. Water drizzled out from the damp clothing, hitting the grass by James' feet. He flung his head down, ruffling his hair, causing sand and water droplets to fly onto the group.
"James!" Lily said, covering her face.
He brought his head back up, running a hand through his hair. He smiled. "Yes, Lily?" James asked, taking his glasses off and examining them as well. "You're lucky they didn't break, Padfoot. I would've murdered you…"
"You can just magic them back," Sirius said, kicking water up. "It wouldn't have been a big deal…now if I pushed you in harder and you cracked your head open on a random rock, then you could've murdered me…"
Everyone laughed. Even James had to crack a smile as he threw his shirt back on.
Melissa looked out of the corner of her eye, a feeling someone was watching her.
Snape was leaning against the school, staring at her. She leaned her head back, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Um…hold on," Melissa told the group. She jumped up, strolling over.
Now what could Snape want?
"Hey, Snape," said Melissa, flashing him a kind smile. "Did you need anything?"
"I just wanted to let you know that we can't have lessons tonight," Snape answered, looking past her head at the Marauders, whom were all watching, naturally.
"Oh…" Melissa said. Truthfully, she was expecting him to say something along the lines of that.
"Yeah." Snape looked back at her. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Melissa waved him off. "It's fine, Snape. Really. Tomorrow, then?"
He nodded. "Yeah. That should be okay."
She smiled. "Well, now that that's settled, I guess I'll see you around…"
"I guess," Snape said. "I do believe that you're friends want you back now…"
Melissa turned. Remus, James, and Sirius immediately turned their attention elsewhere, terrible at trying to look inconspicuous. She shook her head with a small chuckle.
"I guess I do. So, tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Bye."
"Bye, Ross." Snape curtly nodded his head and turned.
"What was that about?" Sirius asked the instance she sat down.
"Tutoring," Melissa said, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear as the wind blew. "Nothing big."
James laughed, nudging Remus' shoulder. "Moony almost went over there!"
"I did not," Remus grumbled, frowning.
"Aww, it's okay, Moonster," Sirius said, grinning.
"I have a question for the three of you," Melissa said, looking at them.
"And what is that?" the three answered in unison, looking at each other oddly after the fact.
Melissa smiled for a moment, though went back to seriousness. "Why do you guys hate Snape so much? And why does he hate you back?"
James sighed. "I've been asked this question so many times. My answer is always the same. Because he simply exists."
"He just poses as a good guinea pig and some fun for me and Jamesie," said Sirius, smirking.
"I really have nothing against the guy," Remus said in all honesty. "The only thing that bothers me is that he tutors you…alone…with no supervision…"
Melissa watched the three boys. "What did happen that night?"
Sirius visibly stiffened. He hung his head, not saying a word.
James sighed again, running a hand through his hair. "Sirius got a little carried away in an argument with Snape, and thought it would be fun to tempt him to come by the Womping Willow when Moony was in werewolf form. In result Snape could have died or became a werewolf himself. I caught on to what was going on and got Snape out at the last minute, though he still saw Remus transform." James took a deep breath. "Snape still believes to this day that all three of us were in on the 'joke', and continues to resent and brush aside the fact that I saved his bloody life, then again he's always hated me."
Melissa's mouth fell open, as did Lily's and Ariel's. She had expected nothing close to the story James had just told.
"I wasn't thinking," Sirius said, his palms on his forehead as he hung his head between his knees. "I wasn't thinking at all. As much as I hate Snape, I don't want him dead. And he found out about Moony…meanwhile I had sworn I wouldn't tell a soul. I did something worse than tell…"
Melissa closed her mouth, staring at Sirius with sad eyes. Sure, she was angry with him for doing something so stupid, but it was apparent he wished he hadn't done it.
"Naturally we had to tell Dumbledore," Remus carried on, looking as pained as Sirius. "Snape knew. We couldn't just leave it as if nothing had happened."
"We were all, to put it mildly, furious with Sirius," James said, his eyes miserable. "Though we all traveled up to the Headmaster's office while Moony was in the hospital wing. Sirius, Peter, and I were all going to explain, though Dumbledore only wanted to speak with Sirius. Snape had, which none of us knew, been in there already. Dumbledore looked livid, and you know how that man is, never gets mad at anything.
Anyway, after about 20 minutes, Snape came out. He gave Peter and me dirty looks, but didn't say anything to us. Sirius still hadn't come out…"
"He was so disappointed in me," Sirius spoke quietly. He raised his head, and to Melissa's surprise, tears were building up in his eyes. "He didn't yell. Didn't need to. All he did was speak to me normally, but just the way he said it and the way he looked at me…" He breathed out. "Dumbledore gave me detention for two months, and explained to me the consequences of what would happen if I ever did anything like that again."
"He called me in next," James carried on, glancing at Sirius. "Started to tell me how brave it was to save Snape, and he was proud I had done it. Dumbledore must've cooled down a bit by the time I got in there, because he told me not to be too hard on Sirius…though, frankly, at that moment that was quite hard to do."
"I was heading to the infirmary to check on Moony," Sirius nodded his head towards Remus, "because I felt so bad. I knew he was mad at me too, but I at least had to try and apologize. Though before I got there, James grabbed me by my shoulders. I have never seen James so angry in all my life. He looked me straight in the eye and told me—"
James angrily grabbed Sirius' shoulders from behind, whirling him around and pinning him to the wall.
"I swear, if you ever do something so STUPID I will punch your lights out. No worse. I just am so angry I can't even think of what I'd do to you. Do you know what you could've risked!? Moony, Snape, and your life as a student at Hogwarts! Sirius, come on! If you thought it would be funny it's not!"
Sirius stared at James, a hurt expression on his face. "I know, James—"
"No!" James interrupted. "No, Sirius. You don't know."
James, swearing, slammed his hand on the wall beside Sirius' head. He angrily walked past him and into the infirmary.
Sirius blinked away the memory, not hearing that James had just recited the whole conversation.
"They didn't speak to me for a week," Sirius said, his voice a soft whisper. "The worst week of my life. Worse than living in my mad house. I really thought that they would never speak to me again."
"So did we," Remus said. "Though, we realized that you had suffered enough. And as bad and huge of a mistake it was, people do make mistakes. We saw how miserable you were, and realized the Marauders just weren't the same without Padfoot." He grinned.
"Yup," James said, smiling as well. "So, that day we just walked up to Sirius and asked him why he wasn't sitting with us." He laughed. "I will never forget his face. It was priceless."
Sirius even smiled a little, loosely wrapping his arms around his knees. "Yeah. I was so shocked they were even looking at me normally. They had been sending me death glares for about a week, so I thought I was dreaming when they were smiling at me." He laughed. "I asked them if they were sure they were speaking to the right person."
James leaned over and ruffled Sirius' hair. "Of course we laughed in his face. All in good fun, though. We said we were pretty sure we had the right guy."
"In fact, we said. 'Well, your name is Sirius, right?'" Remus said, smiling.
"I said it was," Sirius said, still laughing. "Then we kinda just forgot about it…we only brought it up a few times after that. Snape hasn't told a soul, of course, because Dumbledore told him if he said anything he would be expelled from Hogwarts."
"Oh, Sirius." Melissa leaned forward and hugged him. She laughed through tears. "I feel so bad."
"Don't feel bad, Lissy," Sirius said, patting her back. "If anyone you should feel bad for Remus…"
Melissa switched, hugging Remus too. "I feel bad for you too!" She leaned back, sitting on her legs. She wiped away tears. "But, Sirius…I can't imagine how you must've felt…"
Ariel, mouth still slightly open, leaned forward and embraced Sirius. "Oh…my…god."
Sirius slowly returned the hug, closing his eyes and leaning his head on her shoulder.
"As Dumbledore said…people make mistakes," James said. "We forgave Sirius. He apologized more times than we can count." He laughed. "But that just made the grudge between us and Snape grow."
"If anyone is to blame it's me," Sirius said. "Not that I think Jamesie wants to be best buds with Snivellus."
Remus shook his head, playing around with his fingers. "We've never gotten along with him, ever since the first day of Hogwarts. I don't think, personally, we will ever get along with him."
A/N- I would've updated sooner had it not been for me seeing the Order of the Phoenix. Oh my Merlin it was AWESOME! If you haven't seen it yet, you should see it soon. I saw it twice already : ). Anyway, I thought that it was about time they explained what had happened the night Snape found out about Remus. Hope you all liked it! Review, please!