Just Friends, Right? -- 2
Author: Cattie
Rating: PG
Genre: Romance, possibly comedy later
A/N: second chapter!
And biiiig thanks you's to all who reviewed the first chapter, and a hug to any who gave me a title suggestion!
The list of reviewers so far stands at: ~*Daisy*~, Penny, Kitten kisses, StarChildHlermione86, Lily's Friend*Jess, Ariana, Potter Girl, lily girl, The Potter, amy~*, foxfire06, naavi0, Lady Moon, Tanvi, Houlie, and eb. Thank you all!
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The next morning I awoke to find myself alone in my bed.
"Good" I groaned, "Imagine what McGonagall would say…"
"To what?!" came a loud voice through my curtains.
"You didn't have James Potter in there again, did you Lil?"
"Whooo, Lily and James, sittin' in a tree!!"
"Yeow, Lillith, don't you remember what she said when she caught you last year?!"
My room-mates squawked, severely annoying me, and sadly, hitting the mark with almost every comment.
"Shove off" I muttered, heading to the bathroom, eyes downcast, not wanting to meet any of their eyes, as I knew I'd be found out.
When I exited the bathroom later, after a refreshing, James Potter free, shower, I noticed all of my room-mates were gone, presumably to breakfast, and I was safe to walk around in my towel before getting dressed.
Now, I know walking round a dormitory in a towel seems to be a strange thing to do, but I really hate getting changed in the bathroom, the steam makes you all wet and you can't get dressed properly.
So, because I'm engrossed in getting my robes and hair ready for today, I forget to do my usual 'Invisibility Cloak' check before changing.
Of course, as soon as I've finished getting ready I turn round, and promptly walk into someone under an invisibility cloak.
"You prat! Get out from under there, Potter!" I screamed, pulling the invisibility cloak off his head and proceeding to try and choke him.
"Lil – I – only – just – came – in – sorry" he managed to choke out, cause my hands were around his throat, throttling him for all it's worth.
"I believe you. How stupid must I be" I said sheepishly, removing my hands from around his throat and settling for messing with his hair instead.
"God, Lil, you sure know how to choke a guy. But I think I like you better like this" was his reply, which was followed quickly by him grabbing my hand and dragging me down to breakfast.
We soon all got back into the 'swing' of things, with breakfast, classes, lunch, classes, homework time, supper, rest time, with the occasional quidditch games, practices and pranks.
James, Sirius and Kitz, one of my room-mates, all tried out for the Gryffindor Team, and all of them made it. James was a chaser, as always, Sirius was an extremely enthusiastic beater, and Kitz was our seeker, owing to the fact that she's small, light and very fast on her broom.
Term went as per usual, and it was almost Christmas before anything out of the ordinary happened. Oh yes, and I don't consider our pranks anything out of the ordinary, after all, when aren't the boys pulling pranks?
It was two days before we were scheduled to leave the castle, all of us except Kitz and Bella were going home, even Catalina was going back to Switzerland for the holidays.
We'd been spending a lot of time with Catalina, for as Dumbledore had known, and McGonagall had seen, she was very intelligent, and took several of her classes with us fifth years, provoking a lot of snobbery from certain members of her year, so she often ate and hung around with us.
As I was saying, it was two days before we were meant to leave for Christmas, and I was in my dorm packing, when I heard a gigantic crash from downstairs, and a familiar, female, voice screaming in horror.
I drew my wand and raced downstairs, expecting to see some evil creature, from the sincere panic and fear in the voice, but when I got down there all I found was Sirius quickly moving people out of the common room, James holding a letter, and Remus holding a colourless, unconscious Catalina.
"Wha-What happened?" I asked, in a shaky whisper.
James walked over to me and handed me the letter.
"Catalina's parents, her whole family. Gone." He said to me, as I took the letter and scanned the contents.
My heart lurched as I read the name of the killer, Voldemort.
"Why did she scream?" I asked, because however bad this letter was, I couldn't really see how she could have screamed at it. Cried, yes, muttered 'no's and things like that, yes, I could see that too, but screaming?
"She saw –something…" Remus said, from his position on the floor.
I walked over and crouched next to him, James behind me every step of the way.
"I thought she wasn't a Seer" was my reply
"She isn't" he assured me, "Someone was messing with her mind, and she saw how her parents died."
"How awful…" was all I could mutter, as James pulled me onto his lap, and I clung to him desperately.
"She'll have to stay here over Christmas" Peter said, from the doorway he had just entered. "Dumbledore said she'll be safest here."
"Then I'm staying too" I said, suddenly, "My parents will understand"
"And I am" James said, tightening his hold around my waist.
"Me three" said Sirius, always the joker, but his voice was deadly serious this time.
"I can't stay" Peter muttered, ashamed, "I'm not allowed to, I have to look after my brothers and sisters"
"Peter, don't worry" I murmured "We all know you're the oldest, and since your parents left, well, we understand completely"
I drew my eyes back to Remus, who hadn't spoken since he explained why she had screamed, and I felt my heart tug.
He was sitting there, with her head in his lap, fidgeting with a piece of her bobbed copper hair, the expression on his face unreadable, and her, looking so lifeless, so dead. It hurt.
I buried my face in James' robes, tears starting to well in my eyes, and then Madame Pomfrey burst in.
"Oh, my dears! Peter told me the girl had fainted, oh dear!" were her words, as she conjured a stretcher, and lay Catalina carefully on it.
As Madame took her out, I looked up, then buried my face once more in James' robes.
Sirius was standing behind Remus, his hand on Remus' shoulder, his face angry and sad at the same time, while Remus himself was still unreadable, although his bluey-grey eyes seemed misted over.
We all went to see Catalina in the medical wing later that day, when she'd woken up, and after Madame had allowed us, we brought her back to the common room.
We'd expected her to start crying, shouting, anything really, but she was as she weren't alive, she showed no emotion all night, or the next day, or the next.
Eventually it was the last lunch before most students left on the train, and we were eating in relative silence.
Sirius was telling one of his jokes to Peter, James and me, but with every glance at the depressed Remus, or the still un-emotional Catalina, his tone would become more sombre, and the joke seem less funny.
As he finished the joke, and we all managed a few little laughs, Snape walked over to our table.
That itself wouldn't have been an unusual act, he usually came to bother us after we'd played a trick on him, but this time we hadn't done anything to him in days.
"Oh, look who's here, it's Potters little fanclub" he sneered, gesturing at us with one disgusting hand. "Oh, and it's the little brat" he muttered, glaring at Catalina, who had now gone as white as Sir Nicholas, and almost seemed to be shaking.
Remus quickly put his arm around her, while Sirius and James moved to be able to stand up quickly, and Peter and I withdrew our wands.
"Don't worry, brat, they don't really like you, they just feel sorry for you" Snape muttered at Catalina, and the rest of the table fell silent, expecting Catalina, who had always had a rather low Snape-tolerance meter, to lash out. But she just sat there.
He bent down to her height, where he could see the tears starting to collect in her eyes, and sneered. "What's the matter, upset cause you can't see your parents this Christmas?"
That seemed to be the last straw for her, she jumped up and flung her fist at Snape's face, Remus dived after her, and Sirius pushed Snape over into the nearby Ravenclaw table, which suddenly went silent, Malfoy raced over to us, and I watched in horror as he grabbed Catalina just before Remus got to her.
"Let go of her." Sirius' voice was deadly serious, with an underlying anger I had only seen him use a few times, like when Snape had tried to push me into this potion we were making, or Malfoy had threatened to use the Unforgivable curses on James and Peter, and when Snape had threatened to tell Remus' secret.
Malfoy didn't bother arguing, just flung Catalina to the ground, after whispering a few words in her ear, and stalked off, Snape and a few other Slytherin goons following.
She lay there, on the floor, the only sign she was alive being her shaking shoulders and the occasional sob that would escape from her throat, until Remus moved to comfort her.
He cradled her in his arms he walked out, towards the lake, while Sirius and Peter went to explain to McGonagall and Dumbledore, who had in fact seen the whole thing, and I turned to James, and just looked at him, until he opened his arms and I leant on him, unable to stop myself from crying again, and he just held me.
