A/N: A big thank you and a hug to all
those of you who reviewed! And thank
you, James and Sirius for beta reading!
Sorry that it's taken me so long to upload, I went on vacation to
California. Yes, I did have fun as a
matter of fact, thanx for asking!
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, I'm sorry to say… again and again and again. At this rate, I'll soon have no self-esteem left! Anywho, as we all already know, everything
great and wonderful belongs to J.K. Rowling!
REVIEWERS! Thank ya, thank ya, and thank
ya! Thanks to- everyone!
Dang, I'm running out of time. It's late and my mom is making me get off. I'm only 13 for heck's sake!
Anyway, I was going to thank everyone who reviewed, but sorry, I have to
go. I will next time. Promise.
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Chapter
Four – Remus Lupin
As
the train began to move, James and Sirius could be found huddled in the corner
of the compartment nearest the window, whispering to one another.
They thought that Lily couldn't hear what they were
saying, but they didn't know that they were whispering
talking really much to loud to be called whispering. Lily heard every word. Yet
she was rather disappointed. They weren't talking about anything
exciting.
All they had decided on
doing so far at the feast was to dye their hair bright colors. James was going
to do neon green, and Sirius was heading for either flaming red or sky blue. He
just couldn't make up his mind. Dying their hair was nothing special.
James and Sirius were beginning to really get excited, but they
each thought, without telling the other, that it would be so much easier to
come up with the ultimate plan of destruction, (although not destruction
literally) if only Lily would help them. They assumed that she must be smart,
if she were a teacher's pet, and if she would
only help them, they figured that it would be simple to pull anything off. Maybe she could help them get a start on a
good idea, because they couldn't think of anything good
yet.
If she would only come up with an idea, then they could finish the
idea and pull it off. She wouldn't really have to do
anything, except think for one second, since they weren't
very good at that.
Lily, pretending to be reading her book, heard as they discussed
what the other thought of her. Sirius of course kept going on and on about how
hot she was, but James didn't really ever comment on
her appearance, which daunted her a little.
She wanted James to at
least agree with Sirius that she was pretty, even if he didn't
keep going on about her looks.
She didn't know why she felt this
way, but just supposed that she had a little crush on him. Nothing serious. She
had crushes on lots of boys. Just one more boy to add to the long list (she in
fact really did keep a list in her diary) was nothing to worry about.
James, instead of agreeing with Sirius as she had hoped, just said
that she was annoying when she wanted to be, and nice at other times. This made
her feel a little better about herself. She liked to think that she could have
any guy that she wanted.
James seemed to keep trying to go back to the original subject of
pranks, but then Sirius would mutter "So hot!" and
James would sigh and crack up laughing.
James finally managed to banish Lily from Sirius'
mind, and the conversation went back to the feast. This Lily was glad of. For
some reason whenever Sirius said she was hot (somewhere in the vicinity of
thirty times, but at twenty, Lily stopped counting) and James would say nothing
and do nothing but sigh, which made her feel giddy and uncomfortable.
Lost in her own thoughts, Lily suddenly noticed a change in the
compartment. For a while she couldn't put her finger on what it
was. Then she realized that she could no longer hear James and Sirius talking.
They had lowered their voices in what could now honestly be called a whisper.
Aggravated, Lily strained her ears to hear their conversation, but
was unsuccessful. They obviously had become conscious of how loudly they had
been speaking and dropped their voices to a mere trickle of sound.
Lily continued to be unable to hear a word of what they were
saying. Well, that was not entirely true. She did manage to hear one word. But
that was only because it was practically yelled. The word told her nothing of
what they were talking about since it was, 'what'.
Lily smiled when Sirius stood up and nearly yelled "What?"
fairly loud. Her smile broadened when James looked at Lily quickly and then
grabbed the front of Sirius' robes (which he and James had
changed into on their excursion to find McGonagall) and pulled him back into
the seat next to him.
Lily tried to read The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1), but
the words kept becoming hazy and unreadable. She must have read the same
sentence almost twenty times, but she never really understood what was
happening. She finally realized that the book was boring, and that she was
becoming insane with the silence in the compartment. These were two
eleven-year-old boys; they weren't supposed to be able to be
this quiet!
Lily in time gave up on her book and slammed it shut creating a
loud bang, causing Cheesy-Wink to cringe.
But James and Sirius didn't even notice, didn't
even look up. Now Lily was far past her normal line of sanity. In fact, she had
tripped over that line nearly ten minutes ago. She had slammed her spell book
because she was irritated, yes, but she had also done it to get their
attention. Lily was just about to scream at them to look at her, when the
sliding doors began to open.
All four occupants of the compartment looked up at the door. This
caused Lily to get even more fuming (which hadn't seemed possible, but was)
since James and Sirius had noticed the faint noise of the door sliding open,
but not her slamming her book closed.
Lily's anger was for the moment pushed to the middle of her mind when
she saw the boy standing in the doorway. He had been observant enough to
realize that there was a trunk settled in the way of him entering the room. He
looked at the trunk a little strangely, and then shrugged, and stepped over it,
carrying his trunk, which was rather small if it was supposed to be filled with
supplies for all year.
Lily blushed scarlet when he looked back at the trunk and shrugged
again. "It's not what it looks like," she said softly.
"You mean, that isn't a
trunk?" asked the new boy smiling wearily.
"Well… Yes… It
is a trunk…Of course… You see…
That's
not…
Urg!"
Lily's
frustration was now resurfacing to the front of her mind.
"Of course it's
not Urg, silly! Urg lives miles from here." The boy said, still
smiling. Seeing the dangerous look in her eyes he quickly added, "But
no, really. I do know an Urg. He lived down the street from me. He was twenty
and just got married. It's funny when you go over to
his house, it's Urg this and Urg that. If you didn't know that was his name,
you'd
think they were a very angry and frustrated family with a small vocabulary when
they are under stress."
Lily smiled. "That's
not what I meant. It's just that I was already
aggravated, and you were… are making me angry!"
"How so?"
"Well, by understanding what
I mean, and pretending not too. Like pretending to be stupid, when you're
not!"
"You're
saying I'm not stupid and you just met me, when my brother, who has known
me for eleven years, says every day that I am?"
"See, that was proof that
you are smart. If you had been stupid, like those two over there,"
Lily pointed over at Sirius and James who smiled readily at her, "you
would just have agreed and then acted stuck-up about it. I think you're
different."
"Oh, he's
nothing special," sniffed Sirius, who wanted the attention Lily was giving this new
kid for himself.
James then went into a coughing fit and muttered something that
sounded an awful lot along the lines of, "Stupid, jealous git."
Sirius glared at James and then slugged him on the shoulder. James
held his shoulder, and patted it, and pretended to cry. At least Lily hoped
that he was pretending. He looked like he was pretending. James was rapidly
healed of his pain, and punched Sirius lightly back.
Sirius and James were soon, fighting and laughing and didn't
even notice that Lily and the new kid were deep in conversation. If they had noticed, Sirius would probably
have flipped out, and James wouldn't have cared, or acted like
he hadn't even noticed her. At least not acted like he cared.
Perhaps he had noticed after all.
When James and Sirius had settled down, they began talking again.
First they talked about girls back at home, but Sirius did most of the talking
in that category. Seems that he had a lot of girlfriends back in his hometown,
and he figured that he'd be getting letters from
them often, but James doubted it. The subject then switched to their parents,
and then to school, to Hogwarts.
"So, d'ya
think that new kid is into pranks and stuff?" Sirius whispered to James.
"Dunno. Why don't
you ask him?" James asked, not bothering to whisper.
"I can't do
that! I don't even know his name. Plus he likes Lily!"
"I'm
sure a lot of people will and do like Lily. It's nothing to be judgmental
about. Just ask his name, and then if he's into that sort of thing."
James saw his friend's worry, but was
unfeelingly unconcerned.
"James! Help me out here!"
"Why? He's
not scary. It's not like he's a werewolf or something.
Just ask him what his name is. Strike up a conversation with him, then change
the subject to pranks, and ask if he's into that sort of thing.
It's
not that hard."
"If it's
not that hard, then you do it!"
"No! I'm
not the one who cares"
"Chicken,"
Sirius mocked, hoping to push his friend into it.
"Me, chicken? I don't
care what you say about it. Say what you want. I'm not the one who's
afraid to ask him!" James said smirking at his friend's attempt to trick him into
it.
"Ask me what? You were
talking about me, right?" asked the light brown
haired boy who was now standing up and walking towards the two other boys.
For the first time, James noticed how old his robes looked. They
had patches on them and were a little big. They must be ancient.
"Yeah, we were
talking about you… but it's not really important,"
Sirius said, looking at his feet.
"You're
afraid of me, aren't you?"
"Well no, it's
just that I don't know you," Sirius muttered.
James shook his head in disbelief at his friend. Holding out his
hand and smiling he said, "Hello. I'm
James Potter. Pleasure to meet you. Pardon my friend. He's a
bit nutty, if you know what I mean."
"I understand. I'm
Remus Lupin. Nice to meet you as well," said Remus laughing
faintly.
Sirius continued to look at his shoes for a moment, and then
looked up into Remus' golden eyes.
"I'm
Sirius Black," Sirius said extending his quivering hand to Remus. Remus grasped
his hand and shook it whole heartily.
"Nice to meet you Sirius.
Now what is it that you wanted to ask me?"
"I feel kind of stupid…"
"That's
only natural," Lily said loudly.
"…Asking you this when I don't
really know you that well, but, are you much of a prankster?"
"That's
what you had to ask him? I thought it was going to be something juicy, not some
lame old thing like that!" Lily sighed.
Sirius glared daggers at Lily. She simply smiled sweetly, and
fluttered her eyelashes at Sirius, causing his knees to go weak and his stomach
to twist.
"I'm
not really that much into pranks, but only because my mum banned dungbombs from
the house. I used to be really into that sort of stuff a few years ago, but
lately… Let's just say that I've had other things to take
up my time with."
"Like what?"
snorted James. James whole heartily believed that torturing your parents and
other adults was something to live for. "Read?" He
glanced at Lily and snorted again.
"Yes read, among other
things," said Remus rather stiffly.
"Okay, whatever. But now
that you are going to Hogwarts, don't you think that you ought
to mess around a little. You know, cause a little trouble. Give Dumbledore a
few more gray hairs?" Sirius asked.
"Why would I want to do
that? Dumbledore has always been nice to me. Besides, all of Dumbledore's
hairs are gray. Well, white really."
"Jeez Remus. Do you always
have to be so serous and sensible?" asked James.
"Oh my gosh! Sirius! Your
name and sensible were used in the same sentence. Relish the moment. It'll
never happen again!" Gasped Lily.
"You're
telling me," mumbled Sirius.
"Don't be
glum Sirius. It'll happen again. All the teachers will be sure to say over and
over again, 'That Sirius, he's just not sensible,' "
James said patting his friend on the back.
"Oh, how comforting!"
Sirius said smiling.
"But really Remus. You want
to help us plan for the ultimate disaster. Well, we might not be able to manage
the ultimate disaster in our first year. We'll save that title for next
year."
"I'd be
glad to help."
"You would?" the
three other (human) residents of the room said surprised.
"Course I would!"
Remus exclaimed.
"You just don't
seem like that kind of person to me," explained Sirius.
"Then why did you ask in the
first place?" asked the confused Remus.
"Heck if I know."
Sirius smiled.
"Well now that we have three
people…" James began.
"Four,"
interrupted Lily.
"Okay, four including
Cheesy-Wink…"
"I was talking about me,
stupid!" Lily exasperated.
"I thought that you might
be, but I figured that you were only kidding."
"You never asked me whether
I wanted to help or not," Lily said, infuriated.
"And there's a
perfectly good reason for that muffin," Sirius said patting her
head.
"Stop calling me stupid nick
names! What is the perfectly good reason that you didn't
ask me?"
"Well,"
James began, looking at Sirius, "we didn't
really think that you'd want to. I mean you were
practically about to bite our heads off, or worse, for joking about setting the
prefects on fire."
"James, I can't
believe you. That was the perfect chance to say something rude, and you just
passed it by!"
"Sorry, Sirius. Go ahead and
say something. Pretend that she just asked the question again."
"James, are you feeling
alright. You want me to pretend that she just asked me to marry her? Again?
When did she ask me before? And why, for heaven's sake, did I refuse?"
Sirius asked innocently.
"Not that question you git!"
James and Lily both yelled.
"Oh! You meant the other
question! Silly me." By this time, everyone but
Lily was laughing.
Once everyone had settled down (except Lily, who was still glaring
daggers at Sirius) Sirius picked up on the old conversation as if nothing had
happened.
"We didn't
ask you, tootsie, because we love you… yeah right, just kidding…. I
have a better one! We didn't because you are mentally
unstable and you might ruin the whole thing for us. Oh, better you really are
going to die tomorrow, you have cancer, and we don't
want you to get in any trouble before you die."
"Sirius, I'm
ashamed. Those were all terrible," said James looking truly
astonished.
"Well wise one, I didn't
hear you come up with anything better," smirked Sirius. Lily
realized that a smirk did nothing for Sirius' features.
"That is because I didn't
try. And I didn't try because I knew that if I did, it would have turned out lame,
and then you would be making fun of me right now, instead of me making fun of
you,"
James replied.
"So, will you two stop
arguing and help us come up with a plan. And just let Lily help. She's
smart, and four… Five heads are better than four."
"So Remus, do you have an
idea?"
"As a matter of fact, I do…
not, but I'll help you think of something."
"Oh, great."