Hi all, I know it's been awhile, but I'm back! Anyways, here's the latest installment. As usual, Joule belongs to me. Nothing else. Feel free to scream, shout, whisper, holler, comment, mutter, or just say something! The freedom of speech is highly enforced here.
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It wasn't until midnight that we'd all regrouped in the Gryffindor common room. After Sirius and I had made up, we'd gone back to Hogsmeade and made our usual route around the town. A quick recon around Zonko's for any new pranking equipment, a walk around Honeydukes' to get our favorite respective sweets (chocolate frogs for me, sugar quills for Sirius), a passing hello to Ollivander, and a butterbeer binge at The Three Broomsticks (typically, we competed on who could drink the most bottles in under 15 minutes – Sirius typically won 7 times out of 10).
"So…" Sirius drawled from his lounge on the couch, eyeing James and Lily on the opposite loveseat. "How'd the infamous Potter-Evans date fare? I take it you both didn't kill each other."
We were all curious. Since we'd all gathered, James and Lily had both voluntarily sat on the same loveseat without any bickering from Lily's part or loud protests of love from James' part. They were silent and content and sitting within approximately four inches of each other. Plus, James' arm was draped over the back of Lily's side of the couch, and she had not made a single comment.
It was bizarre. It was an alternate universe.
It was a shift.
Was Lily smiling?
I knew she had secretly liked James, but Merlin, I hadn't expected their date to go that well. Maybe some tolerance to start with, at least.
I stretched my legs from my side of the couch, draping them over Sirius' lap. Without breaking his stare from the new Potter-Evans duo, he lightly picked up my left foot and started rubbing it. I hummed in approval, ignoring the tiny flutters that resulted from his touch again. This was completely normal; we'd given each other massages before.
"It was great," James said completely calmly and maturely, turning to look at Lily with his puppy eyes. "We got some ice cream and walked around. It was a blast."
"Yeah, it was fun," Lily said softly, very un-Lily-like. Almost unconsciously, she leaned and bumped shoulders with James.
Remus choked on the tea that he was drinking. Peter reached over from his red armchair to pat him woodenly on the back, his own eyes frozen in disbelief.
Sirius's hands froze on my foot and squeezed. Deep rumbles of repressed laughter shook through his frame. I refrained my reaction to just a wide-eyed stare and curled my toes.
"That sounds…lovely." I said cautiously, restraining my grin as Sirius tickled my toes. "And when can we be expecting the wedding?"
Cue the beet red faces of the Potter-Evans duo, and the resounding laughter from the rest of the room.
Lily shrieked and threw a pillow at me. "Joule, you wench, how dare you! It was just a date!"
"But apparently, a very good one." Remus remarked quietly, a small smirk on his face. I blocked the airborne missile, giggling as Lily turned her glare onto the teenage werewolf.
"Remus Lupin, don't you even –"
"Oh, don't bite his head off now, Lily flower," Sirius smirked. "Let him say his piece."
Remus help up his hands in mock-helplessness. "Piece said."
"Piece of cake," Peter piped in.
"They're just jealous, Lils." James smiled softly (very uncharacteristically), and laid his hand over Lily's. Her head whipped around to stare at him, and then (very uncharacteristically) her look softened as she glanced down at their joined hands. I swear we all stared at their hands together.
"Piece of cake," Peter squeaked again, his voice quivering.
Remus chose the moment to start hacking violently, covering his mouth in his elbow.
"You alright there, mate?" Sirius asked, eyeing him carefully. James, Peter, and I followed suit, and I mentally counted the days until the full moon. A few nights to go, but Remus would start to be showing symptoms.
"Just a cough." Remus wheezed slightly, and then gave a weak smile. "Nothing serious."
"You do get sick quite often." Lily remarked, her thinking cap on. "It seems cyclical almost, about every few weeks. I wonder if it's the pollen in the air or something that's causing it…"
We all stared at her with wide eyes, waiting in anticipation and fear that she would figure out the big hairy secret in the room. After all, Remus hadn't even trusted us with his secret initially. Sirius and James had accidentally discovered it while playing in the Potions cupboard that Remus had a severe allergy to Wolfsbane when they dropped a large jar of the substance that exploded on his head.
To this day, they can't fully describe how horrendous his resulting rash was, but the poor young werewolf was stuck in the Hospital Wing for three whole days.
Sirius calls it the Rash-pocalypse. Remus refuses to talk about it, merely noting that he'd itched in places he'd never known could itch before.
And well, from there, after a little digging on our end, Remus's secret was out in the open with the Marauders. I'd likewise noticed before like Lily that he was sick often, but mainly chalked it up to a poor immune system.
More like a hairy immune system, but that's besides the point.
"I'll do a little research." Lily continued, staring hard at Remus who was oh so trying to look well and dandy. "Maybe see if there's a particular spore in the air that might cause such a timely reaction. I could even probably make you a potion to combat it. I'm sure Slughorn would love me doing some extra credit on the side; I am the chosen one in his eyes, after all."
"Okaaay, Chosen One." I said loudly. "Let's not overexaggerate here. It's just a little cough. We all cough, don't we?"
James sneezed dramatically, wiping his nose with gusto. "And sneeze too, don't forget!"
Sirius chimed in, by coughing loudly as well. "Now, now Lily Flower, the fact is that that we're all terribly infected with a such a disease called…" He trailed off, searching for words.
"Testosterone!" I shouted loudly, echoing off the common room walls, and the group went silent to stare at me.
"I mean…" I started, unsure of where I was going with the thought. "Boys have cooties. Right?"
Sirius' fingers danced over the bottom of my foot in amusement, and I struggled to keep a straight face and not burst into laughter.
It was truly torturous.
"Joule…" Lily squinted at me, as if I were a crazy person just broken out of Azkaban. "Are you alright?"
"Honestly, Lily, I'm fine." Remus sniffed subtly and smiled. "Allergies run in my family pretty badly. My mother has them even worse than I do – it's bad genes. It was a good thought though."
James, Sirius, Peter, and I all let out quiet breaths of relief at Lily's accepting of the news. She looked like she believed it.
"Alright then, if you insist." She said, rising from the loveseat, which caused James to look at her like an abandoned puppy. "You don't have to all get so worked up about it though. I think I'll be heading off to bed on that note. Joule?"
"Maybe later." I said, still lounged on the couch. "It's still pretty early for me."
Lily's arch glance towards the clock that said one o' clock said otherwise, but she nodded her head without comment.
"See you tomorrow?" She asked James softly, and I swear his entire face lit up in adoration.
"Of course. See you at breakfast." He said with a dopey smile. Gifting him with a shy smile of her own, Lily waved bye to the rest of us lot, and practically skipped up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
"What spell did you cast on her, mate?" Sirius remarked, continuing back up the massage of my opposite foot quite satisfyingly. My eyes almost rolled into the back of my head when he rubbed circles into the arch of my foot, and I stifled a moan. "It's like she actually likes you."
"It's a dream come true. What more can I say?" James simply smiled, on his own personal cloud nine. He rose as well, and headed to the boys' dormitory with a shrug. "Later, allergy boy." He smirked at Remus as he passed him.
Remus growled in the back of his throat, and got up as well, almost glaring at us. "That was too close. She can't find out."
"It's only Lily." I said beseechingly.
"It's not your secret to tell." He reminded me, and I reluctantly nodded in silent agreement. He shook his head as if to rattle the thoughts out, and followed James up to the dormitory as well.
Which left Sirius, me, and Peter.
Peter sat on an armchair across from our couch, and observed us for a moment.
"Can you rub my feet too?" He asked.
"Bugger off, Pete." Sirius gave him a blank stare, and it seemed like he was attempting to convey something telepathically to the mousy boy. Based on the unchanged expression on Peter's face, it didn't seem to work.
"Are you sure?" Peter said. "By the look on Joule's face, it looks like you give great foot massages."
I instantly turned red, and tried schooling my face into one of pure and utter indifference. I'm not sure it worked. Sirius's hands continued to caress my foot slowly, and he delicately stroked each of my toes with a magical touch. My lower stomach fluttered again, and I couldn't stop the feeling from expanding this time to the rest of my body. I felt abnormally warm and buzzed.
"Peter, why don't you go to bed?" I said weakly, wanting him out of the room for some urgent reason. "You look tired."
"I do?" He pondered doubtfully.
"You look bloody exhausted, mate." Sirius practically hollered at him. His massaging felt stronger, and I could vaguely feel his hands shaking slightly underneath the rhythmic movement.
"Hm, I guess so." Peter lazily stretched and got up, taking his time. "See you guys in the morning." He said, plodding his way up the staircase. The door shut behind him with a single click that echoed throughout the very, very empty common room.
Except for me and Sirius.
Or Sirius and I.
"So you like my foot massages, huh?" Sirius turned to grin at me, his hands still doing their diligent work. "Told you that you hadn't seen all of my moves, love."
"Those were Peter's words, not mine." I retorted. "And I think your foot massages are perfectly…adequate."
"Oh really?" Sirius's voice deepened. "I'll take that as a challenge." His fingers suddenly rubbed deeper into the sensitive arch of my foot, and a small moan slipped out of my mouth at the euphoric feeling. I slapped a hand over my mouth in shock.
"You did not just hear that." I muttered, mortified, averting my eyes from him.
"I did actually just hear that." Hearing the smile in his voice, I rolled my eyes. His hand tweaked my chin, so I faced him again, and he gently took the hand off my mouth and into his own large palm. "And it might surprise you to hear this, but I do like making you feel good, Jou Jou."
My heart felt like it was beating overtime, as Sirius's gray eyes stared into mine. We were crossing into that unfamiliar territory again, and it made the flutters in my stomach perform cartwheels and somersaults, and do a mad set of hula hoops.
It felt…overwhelming and strange.
I scrambled off the couch, disconnecting from him.
"Going to bed?" He drawled knowingly, spreading his arms across the back of the sofa. "Odd, I thought you just said you weren't tired."
It was irritating that he could read me so well. He knew exactly what he was doing, and yet he kept doing…whatever he was doing. I had had enough of it.
"What are you doing?" I asked him blunting, refusing to let my voice shake.
"Well, I was giving a lovely massage to my bestest friend, however now apparently I'm under interrogation." He smirked at me, completely at ease. "Why don't you tell me?"
"I'm serious." I growled, frustrated. "I just-"
"No, love, I'm Sirius." He tutted at me disappointedly. "I thought we covered this first year."
"If you're going to be an ass, I'm going to leave." I stated, crossing my arms. "I don't want to fight with you anymore; we just made up earlier today."
Sirius squeezed his eyes closed for a moment and let out a large sigh. "Bloody hell, I'm messing everything up, aren't I?"
I continued to stare at him, mentally agreeing like a bobblehead on the inside.
He stood smoothly and parked himself right in front of me, close enough that I could hear his quiet breaths. "Forgive me, Joules. Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing. I just…"
Taking a deep breath, he looked at a spot somewhere over my shoulder, his jaw clenching. "I just want to be your friend, you know? I can't imagine a world without you. And sometimes I express myself a bit too strongly. I'm sorry that I made you feel uncomfortable; it won't happen again."
He started to turn away, but I grabbed his hand. Startled, he looked at me, and I dove in for a hug, enveloping him in my tight hold. He felt warm and safe and like home. A second later, I felt his own arms wrap around me, and his face rest atop my head.
"You could never make me feel truly uncomfortable." I muttered into his shoulder. "But thank you for the apology anyways." Sirius hummed in acknowledgment, and I felt the vibration through my whole body.
"Now." I pulled back from the hold slightly, so I could look him in the eyes. "Onto business for tonight."
"And what's on the docket, madam?" His canines showed in his grin of amusement at my mood swing. I could tell by the relief in his posture that he was relieved at the outcome of this spat.
"I want to work on my Animagus training tonight." I said. "Just last week, I managed to keep the mandrake leaf in my mouth for the past month, so I've completed that part, along with adding the other ingredients and getting it stored properly."
Sirius's brows raised, impressed. "Not bad; you always had trouble keeping that leaf in your mouth, Jou Jou. How'd you manage to do it this time?"
"Let's just say it was a mixture of endurance plus a simple charm." I winked back. "But I'm ready to make it final. I'm waiting for the next electrical storm, so I can drink it all. I just remembered that there was some needed meditation though beforehand, and was wondering if you could help out with that bit?"
I gave him my biggest, most endearing smile. He merely rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.
"As if you even need to ask me." He muttered, then grabbed my hand. "High ho - off to the Room of Requirement, we go, then!"
Sirius pulled me through the Fat Lady's portrait and down the various halls towards the secret room we'd discovered a few years before that would transform to your any wish. Thinking ahead, I accio-ed James's invisibility cloak and covered us for safety. You never knew when Filch would be patrolling the halls.
So let me explain. All the other Marauders had been Animagi since fifth year, after years of researching the process, experimenting with technique, and intense mediation, study, and practice. I'd been along with them for the ride and watched them succeed of course, but I'd always had one little problem.
I broke out in hives the second I touched mandrake. It really made Herbology a pain, and becoming an Animagus practically impossible. Step one to becoming your spirit animal involved holding a mandrake leaf in your month for an entire month.
A month! Can you imagine?!
For the past few years, I'd researched multiple spells and had finally come up with the perfect combination to solve the conundrum. I'd modified my tongue and gums to become completely immune to the effects of mandrake and used a complex temporary sticking spell so the leaf stayed firmly stuck to the bottom of my mouth underneath my tongue at all times for the month-long debacle.
Slightly annoying, but indeed doable. At least after a few years of endless research with a focus on biological transfiguration.
Simple charm, my ass.
We held hands, swinging our arms in tandem under the Invisibility Cloak as we pranced to the secret room we'd discovered accidentally years before. That's typically how most of our antics happened – by accident or by some completely idiotic mistake.
"What was that girl's name?" I mused as we walked down the corridor. "The one you were pacing around, searching for the perfect broom cupboard to snog her in, and you found the Room of Requirement instead."
He snorted at me. "Betsy Vane. I was only in Third Year, and she was in Fifth. Had a slight ego complex, that one, but Merlin did she know how to snog."
"Hey, it's not too late." I nudged him in the side. "You can always go find her after we graduate, take her up on those snogging skills again. I'm sure she'd love to have her iddle widdle Siri puppy back."
"This iddle widdle Siri hasn't been a puppy for a while now." He grinned, as the door to the Room of Requirement melted into existence before us, and he swung out for me with a bow. "He's a full blown dog."
"Could've fooled me." I sang, as I pranced into the room. "When was the last time you even went out on a da—Oh. Wow." I stopped abruptly inside the room, taking it all in. Usually when we all came in to train our Animagus skills together, the room morphed into a mixture of a common room and classroom – books for research, but lots of comfy chairs, tables, etc.
The room was now dimly lit with floating candles, and soft tranquil music floated in through an unknown source. In the middle of the room, there was a massive pile of pillows of all sorts of shapes and sizes, looking ripe for a good jumping in.
"Is that a pillow pit?" I said wonderingly. It was really begging me to jump in, I swear.
"You like?" Sirius came up to stand beside me. "I figured we'd need something soothing for the meditation part, but of course, fun too. One time, James and I filled this place up with a giant bubble bath, which was great, but this seemed a bit more manageable."
"I love it." I said, then grabbed his hand, and we sprinted and jumped into the plush pile together. Giggling, I scrambled to the surface (the pillows were surprising deep) and beamed at Sirius who was sending me a bemused look. "Now let's start the meditation. What do I do?"
"Well, first, let's get comfortable." We shifted each into lounging positions next to each other. I found a particular squishy long blue pillow that I hugged to my chest, and nodded my head to Sirius that I was ready. Turning on his side towards me, Sirius rested the majority of his body on a giant yellow beanbag he'd discovered.
"Second," he lowered his voice to a murmur. "Close your eyes. Think of all the qualities that make you. What are the most important things in your life that you value?"
"Mmm… you guys, obviously. My family. You. I want to say—"
Sirius covered my mouth with his hand. "You don't need to say it aloud, love. Just think long and hard about what matters to you most. Doesn't have to be people or things necessarily; it could be feelings or traits. Anything."
"Well, you didn't say that." I mumbled, then licked his hand, so he'd release my mouth. Rolling his eyes, he wiped his spit-covered hand on my forehead, then tucked some of my hair behind my ear.
"What do you treasure?" He whispered in my ear.
My mind flickered through my past memories, searching for what I sensed that I'd be devastated if I'd ever lost.
The epic snowball fight Sirius, James, Peter, Remus, and I had in Fourth Year, in which we'd enchanted snowmen to life and snowballs to bombard down from the air. And the mild frostbite and hot chocolate we'd had after the fact.
Lily and I bonding over our Muggleborn status, laughing away at how our families were so utterly confused at why we need cauldrons and an owl for school.
Sirius and I gorging ourselves silly after we'd discovered the secret entrance to the Hogwarts kitchens in Second Year. He'd smeared strawberry frosting on my nose, and we'd descended into an all-out food fight, which we'd then spent hours cleaning up after since I'd refused to let the house elves lift a finger.
Remus crying quietly on my shoulder in Fifth Year, after he'd nearly transformed into front of his crush before a full moon.
James and I giving Peter a pep talk Third Year to perform a jinx on Snape, since he's spilled a potion on purpose that covered Peter in boils the day before. He'd mustered up the courage and did it, while the four other of us Marauders had shot our own jinxes at the same time, so Snape had ended up dancing erratically with boils, pink hair, and butterflies dive-bombing his head all at the same time.
Sirius diving after me, after Trevor Nott had pushed me into the lake from our little boat on the way to our Sorting First Year. We'd both been Sorted soaking wet, but both ended up very happy Gryffindors and oddly enough, friends with the Giant Squid that had helped us get ashore.
"Now what?" I whispered, not wanting to break the moment.
"Now," Sirius murmured. "you're supposed to take all those thoughts and feelings and memories, and imagine what animal form you're going to take, but I've found an easier way recently. Now you're going to focus on your strongest, happiest memory and perform the Patronus charm."
I snorted at him, cracking my eyes open. "That's the easy part?"
He smiled, his gray eyes twinkling, and nudged me so that they we were laid on our backs, side by side and shoulders touching. "Easy enough if you have an amazingly happy memory to latch onto. That and 'Expecto Patronum' is all it takes."
I paused, searching through my memories again for my most brilliantly, happiest one. It had to be perfect; this was quite the different charm.
What to use, what to think of….hmmm….
"Mine that I use," Sirius said softly from beside me, "was from Fifth Year. It was when my mother sent that ridiculous howler, wishing I'd never been born after I'd boycotted that blasted pureblood gala she put on. You woke me up later in the middle of the night after, and took me out flying over the lake. And, somehow, though I'm still wondering to this day how exactly…" He shot a suspicious glance at me. "You'd figured out how to communicate with the Giant Squid, and we managed to land on him, and just lay back and look at the stars for the rest of the night."
I stared back at him, motionless and shocked that I'd played a key role in his happiest, favorite memory. The fluttering in my stomach started up again.
"And that," he said pointedly, "is the moment when I have never felt happier. No matter what's going on in my life, I don't have to pretend with you, Joule. And honestly, I don't know what where I'd be if I hadn't met you on the train all those years ago."
A beat passed, and my mouth continued to gape open. I was…
Utterly speechless.
Filled with flutters and wonderful squiggly feelings and fluffy nonsense.
"You should say something, you know." Sirius said, bumping my shoulder with his. "Break the silence, maybe a 'thank you' or 'oh, that's nice, Sirius.' Something along those lines. It doesn't have to be speech worthy; I know my monologues are hard to follow up. I blame it on my wealthly upbringing, my speech is unusually eloquent for my age, or at least, that's what Minnie tells me when she's in a good mood…"
If I didn't know better, the man was nervously babbling. It was…
"Expecto Patronum." I whispered, pointing my wand straight in the air above us.
Sirius and I craned our heads up, watching wordlessly as an endless amount of silver spilled forth from my wand into the air. After what seemed like forever, it melded together and formed a majestic, bushy-tailed wolf that pranced about, howling as it ran playfully.
Loyalty, family, friends, those were the things that I treasured. My pack of Marauders.
Sirius turned to me with wide eyes. "Oh please, let me be the one to tell Moony that we have another werewolf in our midst."
"Woof." I said, grinning.