The Gang
Chapter 2, by MoonyMeggers
Classes were never boring if you had them with Gryffindor. Everyone loved the exitement that was brought by James, Sirius, and Remus. Today was no exception. It was a dreary Monday, the first day of term, and Gryffindors had Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.
"James, put me down! Ahh! This is not funny! Put me down!" James had Lily in a peculiar position. She was upside down over his shoulder, her head two inches from a Pluto Mosquito Trap, much like the Venus Fly Trap plant but a much more vicious variety. Lily gave up struggling. "You wouldn't actually do this, James. You wouldn't."
"What do you mean, I wouldn't? Can't you see that I am?" James goaded her.
Prof. Sprout hurried over. She hissed, "What are you two doing?! You are acting way out of behaviour! James, if you do this," the Prof. was pulling on his arm, trying to get Lily down, but the Prof. was much too short. "I will have to give you detention."
James laughed a little at this. "Prof., can you hold up a mirror for me? I can't see her face." The Prof. looked aghast. "A detention is nothing next to this... You see, Lily has something to tell me..."
Lily balked. *No. There is no way, James Potter, that I am telling you anything, especially here, no!*
Sari looked around. She had felt that buzz, who was *talking*?
James smiled. "Oh, Padfoot, I think you have something to read for us all?"
Sirius stepped in. "Oh yes, Sir Prongs, I do!" He waved a little leather-bound black book. "A list of all Lily's boy toys!" All of the greenhouse laughed.
"What!" Lily screeched. "No, no, you don't get it, Sirius, don't read that!"
"And why not, my fair maiden?" Sirius did a mock curtsey.
"Because, Sirius, you are in it! You and the Gang... certain tunnels and passageways..." All of the greenhouse roared. Lily and Sirius, they couldn't believe it! In tunnels, together! This was too good!
James stiffened. He turned his head, and whispered into Lily's ear. "You don't mean..."
"Yes, I do!" Lily aswered, without trying to understand what James was actually asking. She was fanatic as Sirius began to open the book.
Remus looked around. Something wasn't right... where had he seen that book... and why did it seem that there was something between Padfoot and Lily? It clicked. "Sirius, no!" He tossed himself the two yards over three rows of plants to slap the book down.
A couple of Hufflepuffs oohed and ahhed. Lupin was very fine... and so brave!
Sirius looked at Lupin as though he had grown an extra nose. "What-"
"The book, Sirius, the History book...?" Remus weighed down the word History with extra meaning.
Sirius' eyes opened wide. He bent down, to much giggling, and scooped up the book. He looked closer. "Oh no."
That night, at 10 pm, they were cleaning the greenhouse roof. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and of course Sari because of McGonagall's rule, were whining and complaining under the watchful eye of Filch. Sari was not pleased with Sirius, and made this well known. They spent more time splatting each other with vemonous words and the Muggle scrubbing sponges than the roof full of moss. By 2 am, when they were allowed to go, they were in such bad tempers that they snapped at everyone. Sari ran back up to the Castle, and Sirius stared after her awhile before heading into the Forbidden Forest. He quickly changed into a huge black dog just as the shadows overtook him, and when Lily asked about the safety of this, James and Remus exchanged looks. They knew where he was going... They convinced Lily that he would be just fine. Remus walked back to the Castle, leaving behind James and Lily.
Lily laid back, sighing. She loved the sky at night. So much wonder. Sure, the Magical World knew a lot and could do a lot, but she wanted to be out there, in the stars. "James?" She asked to his darkened silhouette. "Have you ever wondered if Sirius is a bit-"
"Odd? Cocky? Silly? Yes, I know." he replied.
"No, I mean more like... hidden."
James gave Lily a weird look. "No one is less hidden than Sirius. He is the King of Hogwarts... the most popular guy around. Everyone knows him, and he is so lucky... he's got it all." He mumbled something else, which Lily couldn't hear.
"What's that?"
"Like you don't know. Why don't you just go run after him, you want to!" With this, James left. Lily sighed. What had she done now?
Sirius woke the next morning laying in a clearing. The sunlight was glistening on the trees, and he realized that he must be very late to class. He put away his Pensieve, and hurried to Potions. Prof. Snape was going to tan his hide. He smiled. He would get another detention, with Sari.
"Lily, James, sit down." Prof. Dumbledore smiled. "I saw your little fiasco at the Feast. Very entertaining."
Lily and James stayed quiet. Was Dumbledore happy with them?
"However. It was not right, we are not to have food-fights. Do you understand? You are the Head Students, you cannot set a good example by breaking the rules." Dumbledore looked sternly over his half-moon spectacles. Lily and James nodded, sorry. "And you two have Quidditch trials to orchastrate for the Gryffindor team."
They looked up, surprised. That was it?
He chuckled. "No, I am not going to punish you. Unlike other Profs., I think that a perfect student is one who has something hidden. No, for you two not to get into trouble would be to take away your personalities. Other than that, I wanted to inform you of the Quidditch changes. James, you are captain once again, Sirius is your second, and you have Lily and Willow. But that is only 4 out of 7, and you need a reserve team. I am simply warning you, if you don't have the positions filled by Monday, I will have to cut Gryffindor out. And no one wants to see that happen."
James sat thinking. Who was there that was any good?
"What about Remus? He's pretty decent with a broom. And he can peg Prof. Snape with paper planes-" Lily stopped abruptly to an elbow from James.
Dumbledore's eyes just twinkled. "You may go. And good luck."
Lily and James left, heading back up to the dorms. Neither of them said anything, both thinking that the other was deep in thought about Quidditch. Really, they were both thinking about something a little... closer... someone a little closer...
Sirius sighed. He had just finished overseeing Quidditch trials, and now he had about half an hour before he had to report to Snape for detention. Prof. Snape's son, Severus, usually made up the detentions for his daddy. He laid on his bed, staring out the window. The sky was beautiful... the reds and oranges as the sun dissapeared over the horizon... He missed his Atlantic Coast home. When the sun sets over the ocean, on a clear day with no clouds, there is the Green Flash. It is wierd how something so simple, so natural, can drive a person's senses crazy. He closed his eyes, imagining the ivory sand between his toes and a cold wind pinkening his nose and cheeks. He always used to sit with his arms around his knees watching the sunsets... and as the last sliver of the sun dissapeared under the perfectly straight horizon of the tumultuous blue grey waters, the sky explodes - if you can keep your eyes open. Most people blink without realizing it, but Sirius never did. He always sat alone, waiting for the Green Flash... *It's one of those things that you have to wait for patiently, because no matter how much you scream at the heavens it won't happen any quicker... You wait, and can never blink... Blinking is like giving up faith. You tell yourself it isn't going to happen right then, so you close your eyes to it, and you miss it... But if you watch, it happens, and by the time you realize it happens it is over... It's like life... all the good things, the most wonderful things, are seen best in hindsight... but you have to have the memories in the first place to ever be able to look back...*
Sari was enraged. Sirius had gotten another detention! She had to go report to Snape for his detention! "No, sorry Willow, I have detention because of Sirius again. I can't play chess, we wouldn't be able to finish."
"I think you just don't want your butt kicked. I'd win, you know."
"Yeah right! What about Quidditch today, huh? I got on the team!"
"Yeah, but I was already on the team. You just got on because Sirius was helping James make the cuts..."
Sari narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" Her voice dripped with a dangerous tone.
"Nothing, really. Just that James is the harder one to get judged by. Why?"
Sari regarded her friend. She doesn't really seem to mean anything else... She looked at her watch. "Ahh! I am going to be late! Where's Sirius?"
"Right here, my fair maiden, ready to catch you if you fall." He said with a flourish from behind her.
*Two hours or more of this!* Grr... she thought. "Let's go."
Sirius winked at Willow and followed Sari out the portrait hole.
Remus was trying to do his Muggle Studies homework, but he couldn't concentrate. Not that he wanted to, for two reasons: werewolves and Willow. His assignment was a book report on Muggle liturature, and the assigned book was A Werewolf in Paris. It frustrated him to no end to read that book and know that Muggles were just as prejudiced towards werewolves as wizards and witches, and they were both based on fear. He laughed a little. He knew what Sirius would've said about this: "What you don't know doesn't hurt you, but you sure hurt it." This took Remus' mind completely away from his homework and onto his friends. Sirius, of course, and James in regards to Lily *why don't they just get together?* he thought as he watched them across the common room. And about Willow... his mind got stuck there for quite a bit. And her friend Sari. Poor Sari, he chuckled. She was probably cursing obsinities at Padfoot right now... Padfoot. And Prongs, and their expeditions every month.
He was jolted out of his reverie by a pair of slender ivory arms sliding around his neck and a soft breath on his neck. Remus turned his face to stare into the gray eyes of Willow. "Hey." He murmured quietly.
"Hey yourself." She said as she moved around and curled up on his lap. "What's going on?"
Remus sat thinking. He was holding the most important thing to him right now, his arms filled with the beauty that he loved, and the sincerity that her eyes offered. He loved her eyes. He brought his hand up to let his fingers follow the curves of her well defined cheekbone and down along her jaw line. He loved her so much, she was everything to him... and yet. He hadn't told her. *Would she run away, would she hate me?* It would be too much for Remus to bear.
A bemused expression played across her suculent lips while her eyes continued to quest into his soul. She loved him, wanted to be with him forever... but... *I can't do this to him, it's wrong and selfish. I can't keep leading him on...* "Well?" she pressed.
"Oh, you know, homework... and studying for N.E.W.T.'s-"
"You're already studying?"
"You would be too if you were in 7th year. But you're not, lucky bum!"
"Yeah, I know-"
"No you don't! You have no idea... every 7th year is so worried about the tests-"
"No, I meant my bum. It's very lucky, don't you think?" She smiled at the confusion crossing his face. She laughed, and tickled him. They got lost for a few minutes...
The questions will be answered... eventually. You will have to keep reading, and keep responding. Hope you enjoy. Oh! In case you didn't know, Lily is in 7th but she is a year younger than she should be cuz she skipped 1st year (one of the mysteries to be answered), and so is Sirius, James, Remus, and Severus... and Wormtail, you'll see him in a bit. But Sari and Willow are in 6th year, and are Lily's best (girl) friends. Any other questions? Shoot! Please???