AN: This chapter is dedicated to Tropical Fishy and all of her stories. Without them, I doubt I could possibly have written any of this chapter. You gave me some great inspiration! :)
Prelude to a Love Story
Chapter Seven: Making Love
The cauldron boiled and bubbled, frothing a mixture of a bright red. The fire beneath created eerie shadows on the old stone walls, only making the gloom seem closer in that dank and dreary darkness. From the pot emanated a bright red glow, casting its red lights on the faces of the two boys who slowly stepped around it. Looking slightly demonic in the blood red light, with jagged, flickering shadows behind them; the boys muttered soft incantations under their breath, pausing from their incessant mumble at the sound of a wolf welcoming the moon.
Looking towards the sound, the small boy shuddered. All he could see was the red glow and dark shadows, though his ears worked fine enough. Despite close association with Remus Lupin, the fact that he was a were-wolf still scared him a little. Looking to his partner-in-crime, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew smiled at the look of concentration upon his face. Peter gave another little shudder and rubbed his arms, he didn't mind being able to hear and see, yet he would have been happy enough to lose his sense of general coldness. Although the potion was most definitely boiling, and it cast quite a lot of light, it still didn't emit much heat. Or, at least, not enough for Peter. Looking down his goose-bumped arms to his hands, Peter recalled that he was holding a small viol of clear liquid and glanced back over to Sirius.
"Hey, Siri?" Peter asked, unworried about caution.
"Mmm?" answered Sirius, his concentration still fixed on the mixture before him. He really didn't like that particular colour - it reminded him a little too much of blood. After all, a love potion should be pink or something. He hoped.
"I wondered when you wanted the 'Tears of Torment'?" Peter had liked Sirius' rather dramatic name for the drops, but they were, in truth, tears shed through torment. The fact that they were squeezed out of James during a tickling war was beside the point.
"You might as well toss them in now," answered Sirius looking at the viol in his friend's hands. "Maybe they'll dilute this colour a little. Or something like that, anyway." Once considered 'devilishly handsome' by almost the entire female population of Hogwarts, in the past two months since James Potter had slowly sunk into a state of depression James had begun to rather lose his laugh. Although he didn't show it often, he was quite desperate to find a way to cheer his best friend. This potion simply had to work.
Peter and Sirius had spent the past month going out on night forages to the dungeons in search for different ingredients to add to their love potion. Not the type to do it all by the book, Sirius had created his own recipe, only occasionally glancing at proper love potions to check that he had the right idea. Already in their brew were some ground up leaves off the Womping Willow, for the tree had played a significant part in their dilemma. A single red rose was considered quite necessary, for it is the flower of love. There were some lily petals included, too - Peter thought it fitting; Sirius neatly avoided the fact that the lily is the death flower. A strand of hair from both Lily and James', head to bind them, was in there. Some memory modifier charms were obviously needed to override Lily's first impulsion: that is, to kill James Potter. A cockroach ended up in there too - Sirius saw it crawling around on the floor and thought to include it. Despite the effort it involved, Peter was quite adamant that some ground up unicorn horn was in there, also. Unicorn horn's magical properties included the ability to null any poison - for some reason Peter thought that their potion might be slightly poisonous. A tomato was chucked in, for Sirius said it would boost oestrogen, though Peter just looked at him oddly - either way, it ended up in the potion. Some other things the boys found on their Potion Master's shelf ended up in there, either through their interesting colours, shapes, sizes or just because they knew it would irritate their professor. And within the potion sat, rather near the bottom, a single shaving from Severus Snape's wand.
The idea had been Remus', oddly enough, for although he did care about what happened to James, he had been rather occupied with a particular girl, not to mention exams. Sirius and Peter hadn't been too fussed towards how their results turned out, though the fact that for the first time in all their five years at Hogwarts James hadn't come out top in transfiguration did shock them rather. In fact, Sirius had been the one to go best - despite the general lack of study. Severus' wand had been a pure stroke of genius, and the fact that fate dropped it into their hands did help them to decide just in what manner they would use it. Severus had been the main cause of Lily Evans' problems in the first place, so it seemed only natural that some part of Severus would end up in the potion. Peter had suggested the use of a hair strand, though flatly declined to touch the greasy gunk upon his head. As no one else had been willing to risk the sheer oiliness of it, they decided that the wand would be better.
How the marauders came across the wand was indeed fate. They looked on the floor and there it was. A wand. They doubted that Severus would even notice the slight scratch in his already dirty and (greasy, Sirius considered it) finger-marked wand. In preference to handling his wand, Remus did the deed, taking a small sliver from the wand with his knife. As the wand essentially chooses the wizard, it is considered quite obvious that the wand would in some way have a very special connection with its own particular wizard - or, at least, that's how Remus surmised it. More likely was the fact that they enjoyed defacing Severus Snape's property.
"Umm... Sirius?" asked Peter, a slight tremble to his voice. Sirius snapped out of his reverie and returned his gaze to the still boiling cauldron. Doing a double take, he looked over again in shock. What had previously been a blood red potion had now changed its colour considerably. Not to mention its volume.
"Strange," said Sirius, sounding completely unfazed. "It appears that the tear drops have had an unexpected effect." This was rather an understatement, and Peter was near pulling his hair out with worry because of it.
"Well don't you think we should do something?" asked Peter, more frustrated at the quickly disappearing liquid than he would have liked to admit.
"Okay," said Sirius, simply. "You lift up the pot, I'll pour it into the spare viol."
Easier said than done, Peter had to first scrounge around searching for his dragon skin gloves before he could possibly contemplate picking up that boiling hot pot.
Irritated at his friend's slow pace, Sirius tossed him a pair of gloves and said: "Here, slip these on - they may be a little big, but I'm certain that they'll do the job."
Pulling the much too big gloves on, Peter only had a short moment to survey the scene before him - chaotic shadows included - before Sirius pushed him towards the cauldron, urging him to move faster.
Carefully, Peter lifted the extremely hot and heavy cauldron. Too carefully for Sirius, who pushed and shoved at him until he finally got the pot in position. Scooping out the rapidly decreasing potion, Sirius used his ladle to pour the liquid into the small viol they had spared. Once filled, he stoppered the bottle and placed it on a small bed of rose petals, wrapping the flowers around it and then that bundle into a small heart shaped, pink blanket.
Sirius was quite disgusted. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm taking a part in this. Honestly - heart shaped blankets... Rose petals... All for some girl who couldn't care less about us! Please, Peter, remind me as to just why I am doing this?"
Peter gently placed the cauldron back to its place on the fire, watching in fascination as the final two drops were evaporated into a slight scent that he couldn't really place. Somewhere cross between a rose and cockroach, he guessed.
"Peter!" called Sirius, raising his voice to get the other boy's attention, which came to instantly. Before he could answer, though, a large bang in the distance disturbed them.
"That sounded like a door shutting," whispered Peter, fearful.
"Mmm," responded Sirius, his voice thoughtful.
"Well?" asked Peter, after waiting for an entire minute, expecting a somewhat more informative response from his friend.
"Well, what?" asked Sirius, right back at him. "Oh," he said, mocking sudden realisation, "You think we should do something about it?"
Loud footsteps, echoing down the stony stairway, were all the answer he needed. Both boys looked towards the door closest to them, expecting it to open any second.
"Quick!" shout whispered Sirius, suddenly all action as he pulled the steaming cauldron off the fire. "Douse it with some water."
"What water?" cried Peter, frantic.
"This water!" said Sirius, quickly transfiguring a bucket of water for them.
"No! No, no, no, no , NO!!" cried Peter, even more worried than previously. "Change it back, QUICK!"
Looking to the bucket, Sirius changed it back without really thinking. Only when he saw what it had actually been did he realise just what the consequences could have been, for, now returned to its rightful place, Sirius felt a tad sick as he saw the heart-wrapped bundle innocently sitting there.
"Oops," muttered Sirius.
The sound of footsteps, undoubtedly getting closer distracted him from his momentary reminiscence, reminding him to quickly transfigure the small fire at his feet into a little black spot.
"Compliments on the spot," muttered Peter, smiling.
Sirius smiled himself, looking at where the fire had been. Only, without the fire he could not see at all, and quickly remedied that by whispering "lumos" and watching as his wand-tip grew light.
Thrusting the cauldron at Peter, who hadn't yet taken off the too big dragon-hide gloves, he didn't bother watching as Peter wobbled for a bit before finding his balance, feeling it much more important to begin counting cracks in the stones at his feet. It was quite interesting really, just how the cracks varied... Some were large, and some were small.
Meanwhile, the footsteps grew ever louder, and closer.
***//\\//\\***
Sirius had to smother his mouth to stop it from bursting in a loud laugh of triumph. They weren't always able to outwit the caretaker, Filch, so easily. Above him he see only the faint light of the lantern shining through the cracks in the floor over his head. Some large cracks let quite a bit of light through, while the smaller ones let barely any in at all. A small square comprised of four fine cracks was rather obvious from this angle, though when looking at it without the light shining through the trapdoor was hardly noticeable at all.
Soon they sat in darkness once more, as the light and soft footsteps receded. Practicing a caution that he didn't usually bother with, Sirius made himself and Peter sit in the darkness for a full ten minutes before they risked raising the trap-door once more. Ignoring Peter's nervous tugs on his robes, he sat in the darkness, focussing - almost - all his concentration on listening for any signs that would imply Filch was still waiting for them. Soon, however, Peter's tugs became more and more insistent, not to mention irritating. Sirius turned around with the intention of whispering at him to stop, when his eyes caught the glint of something else'.
Rather than waiting around to see what the something else was, Sirius quickly pushed up the trap door, forcing himself inelegantly out of it. With know hands grasping out of the darkness to grab at him, apart from Peter's, Sirius presumed it safe and lit his wand. It was a moment before he thought to look down and see just what was beneath the stone floor.
Holding his wand before him, with Peter cowering behind, Sirius lowered his arm down into the hole. Down into the hole, with the wand lighting the way. Sirius was just in time to catch the brighter glow of an eye this time, before the rhythmic shine of scales showed that the snake was slithering away.
"Now wasn't that odd," he muttered, more to himself than the boy at his back.
Peter, however, wondered just where that snake had come from. And just where the snake was going.
***//\\//\\***
"What were you doing all night?" asked James, with all the irascible behaviour of an angry mother. Or a stampeding rhinoceros.
Sirius looked at his friend, noticing the rings around his eyes and edge to his voice. Obviously James hadn't gotten enough sleep. Again.
"We were in the dungeons, making love," replied Sirius, trying to sound nonchalant, accenting and extending the word "love". By "we" he meant himself and Peter, who looked worried at first, before catching his drift.
"What?!" spluttered James, spitting pumpkin juice all over the table juice, no seeming to notice all the Gryffindors who got sprayed in the process.
"Just as I said," replied Sirius, smiling slightly, "Peter and I were busy, making love in the dungeons."
"With Peter?" asked James, disbelief clouding his voice as he searched for clarification.
Sirius looked at over at James before answering, as if he, Sirius, were a wise old uncle explaining the meanings of the universe to his young nephew.
"Of course, with Peter," he answered, "Whom else would you expect?"
"A girl," muttered James, his face confused as he shook it from side to side.
"Oh, James. Poor, poor, James," Sirius had a condescending look upon his face, as he shook his head in mock sympathy - imitating James without even realising it. "You should know that there aren't any girls that I'm even nearly as close to as Peter here..."
Peter looked ready to explode, though with laughter or outrage - few could tell.
"Could've fooled me," replied James, rising his eyes from the table, "from what I'd heard, you were getting pretty cosy with that Sandra girl." The table fell silent at this, except for James, who spoke on without appearing to notice his audience - or the red colour that Sirius' face had abruptly changed to. "Hmm..." he continued, "and what were you saying the other night?" he asked, not really expecting an answer, "Something about the colour of her eyes and the shape of her-,"
James Potter was abruptly cut-off from finishing the rest of his sentence, most likely because Sirius had wrapped his arms and hands around James' neck and over his mouth. Mumbling something in regards to the colour of Sirius' face - which was now a glowing red - James was soon escorted from the room, Peter in tow and unable to stifle his laughter.
Despite a bubble of irritation, Sirius couldn't help but be pleased. Perhaps they wouldn't even need the love potion after all, for James hadn't been this happy in weeks.
As for Cassandra Reade, she didn't know what to say. But her cheeks had answered James' comments with a slight flush of their own. Yet inwardly she beamed. She'd never even considered that Sirius the Sirius Black might have liked her.
Although, as she thought about it... Sandra sank down in her seat, oblivious to the envious looks that were being thrown at her, as she began to fantasise. "Cassandra Black," she thought to herself: not bad, not bad at all. She didn't know that she was smiling, but the big broad grin on her face could not easily have been mistaken for much else.
***//\\//\\***
"Do you really think he likes you?" asked Loretta Myer, one of the numerous girls who had been pestering her all day since James had mentioned her at breakfast. Most of the other people had been either ignored or snapped at, but Cassandra Reade really couldn't do that to one of her closest friends.
Brushing her peroxided hair off a neatly robed shoulder, Sandra, as she was better known, turned her brown eyes to Loretta.
"I don't know, Lora," she replied, managing to sound excited and worried all at once. "I hope so, I really do, but he's never even looked at me before." That was rather an under-statement, as Sandra had been talking to him quite happily in their most recent Care of Magical Creatures class. "Him" of course was Sirius Black, the best looking boy in the school, though some girls thought his best-friend, James Potter, more to their taste.
"I bet he does," replied Lora, just as excited for her friend, as she would have been for herself. "And, you're lying about him never having looked at you - what about all those potions lessons earlier this year? Didn't I tell you that he'd been looking at you the entire time? Didn't I?" Lora seemed quite desperate for an answer, so she nodded her head absently, not that Sandra could even remember being told anything of the sort.
Seeing the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room ahead, Sandra asked Loretta to go ahead. She had previously been bombarded with questions as it seemed the entire female population of Hufflepuff house had felt it their personal job to sort out just what her position was as Sirius' 'apparent' girlfriend. Well, that was most of them; others had gotten it into their head that it had been James who was interested in her, or even Remus! It seemed that all the girls had their eye on these boys, and it only made Sandra feel all the more lucky.
Or not.
Turning around at the sound of giggling voices and quick footsteps, Sandra saw a group of even more girls running up to her. Pushing her hair behind her shoulders, she prepared herself for answering a few thousand more questions about her supposed love life.
***//\\//\\***
Sky Winkkin bounded into the Gryffindor common room quite openly, despite rules stating that she wasn't even supposed to know where it was. The Marauders had decided it was too hard to keep organising other places for them to meet, and felt that just giving her the password to get by the fat lady would be much simpler. Sky was happy with this arrangement, because it meant that she could easily creep up on the boys unawares.
Whether she'd bounded or tiptoed, she doubted that Sirius and Peter would have noticed her in either case. Seated far from the fire, they were muttering things quietly to one another, almost hidden in a back corner. James was nowhere to be seen, yet that wasn't too unusual. In the past month and a bit that she had known the Marauders, she hadn't even spoken a full three sentences with James.
Stepping up behind him, she didn't wait for Sirius to acknowledge her presence before she jumped right on top of him. The shy, unconfident Sky that had once been was hardly even recognisable in this zealous, happy girl. She ignored his grunts and groans, knowing that she didn't weigh enough to really earn his grumbling about having a mammoth fall on top of him from nowhere.
"I bet you I could do that, if you like. Mammoths can't be near as hard as people make out," Sky answered his grumble, a small wrinkle on her nose as she frowned in thought. Not only had she as a person become much more confident, her school grades had improved considerably. When she had been learning from Lily it had been more that teacher/ student relationship. Now, however, she enjoyed competing with the boys. Not that she was anywhere near up to the standard of Sirius, Remus or James.
"What would you use to make a mammoth?" asked Sirius, disbelieving.
Sky looked around the room a little, seriously considering the question, before she answered. "I expect that the chandelier could do, though now I'm not so certain...
"Too complex," replied Sirius, "what you'd really need is a big single something. I expect a fat, juicy Slytherin would do the job," Peter gave a snigger, "Though unfortunately we're currently in the Gryffindor common room. Which brings me to my next question!" he continued, changing the subject abruptly. "Whatever are you doing here, Miss Winkkin of Ravenclaw?"
"Gosh, thanks for the all pomp and circumstance," she answered, "But why do you think I'm here?"
"To speak with Remus?" Sky gave a small grown, "Who isn't actually in residence, currently," he finished, quickly. Sky gave a small frown at this.
"Why? Where is he?"
"Didn't he say?" asked Sirius, a slight gleam in his eye that Sky couldn't interpret.
"No..."
Sirius sighed, and wondered just how long he was going to have to cover up for Remus.
"Remus' great-aunt's husband's cousin died." Sky looked a bit confused at all this elaborate information, so Sirius answered her simpler. "He's at a funeral."
"Oh!" she responded, a shocked look to her eyes. "I hope he's alright, It was horrible when my grandmother died. I felt torn, for days and days. How was he when he left? Worried? Upset? Crying? Oh, I hope he wasn't crying! Oh, I feel so sorry for him..."
Sirius almost wished he'd said nothing at all. Giving a slight sigh, he realised that this would be another thing he'd need to explain to Remus when he... returned. The teachers had currently runout of different 'amazing new creations' that would cure his were-wolfishness. This time round he'd spent the three nights of the full moon safe and sound in the Shrieking Shack.
It was the silence that brought him back to the present, for Sky had quietened down now, though she still appeared to be thinking of all the horrible things that could be going on in Remus' head - the cute little frown gave her away.
A sudden shriek from across the room broke the silence. A group of girls that had been standing near the fire gossiping about something or another had progressed their conversation into an all-out catfight. One girl was sobbing while another wrenched at someone else's hair. Other girls stood around staring, while some started placing blame. None attempted to halt the two (now rolling around on the floor) fighting, or calm the girl who's sobs were beginning to sound hysterical.
"It's probably about you, you know?" said Sky. Sirius decided that she must have broken out of her own thoughts soon after him, for her eyes were on the gaggle of crazy girls.
Her remark didn't really register in Sirius' mind until a short instant later, and he looked back and forth from the girls to Sky, appalled.
"My fault?" he asked, aghast at the suggestion. "However could this be my fault? What did I do?"
Sky looked at him, surprised. "Don't you hear rumours or something? Honestly, it's going around the school like wildfire!"
Sirius just shook his head, unknowing. "What, exactly, is 'going around the school like wildfire'?
Sky still couldn't believe it. "Why, the news about you and Cassandra Reade, of course!"
Sirius fell back in the cushions, a look of complete and utter mazement on his face.
"We didn't confirm anything, though! Nothing at all," Sirius opened his eyes and straightened up, yet only so that he might be able to bow his head and shake it, disbelieving. "I'm in complete shock."
"Well you're not the only one!" replied Sky, "From what the rumours say, you and Sandra are an item! It looks like you've got a girlfriend, Siri... whether or not you like it."
Sirius gave a slight smile at the last comment. "Don't worry too much, Sky," he answered, hitting Peter at the same to cease his silent laughter. "I did... sorta... like her in... the first place," he mumbled, hating himself as he said it.
"Oh, this is just fabulous!" squeaked Sky, ecstatic, "Just wait until I tell Sandy!"
Peter's laughter couldn't be stopped this time, and it gurgled out - uncontrollable.
Sirius wished he knew where James was, either way he was going to pay. Whether or not he needed it, Sirius was going to give his friend a little helping hand onto the bumpy road of love. As they say, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
A/N
Okay, am I allowed to call that a pointless chapter? I am? Good... Because, you know what? I think that last chapter was completely and utterly pointless. I really have to cut the whole pointless thing, don't I? I might as well tell you what they eat for every meal and the exact times that they go to the toilet during the day. All of it's pointless.
Oh well...
Stupid Sirius. I wasn't intending to make little romances flower everywhere, but James just couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Grr! And I was actually considering a different plot line, but now Sirius is going to get his revenge, so that just wrecks what I was going to do. Ugh! Why didn't anyone tell me that these characters had a mind of their own?! And while I'm at it, isn't James supposed to be unhappy? And Sky meant to be shy? I suppose they just hated what I'd done with them. Sky's acting more and more like me each day, while James is actually cheering up.
I need to get grumpy again. It's impossible to have grumpy characters when you've got a happy author. In truth, I'm just happy to be writing again, for I've left this for quite a while now. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmph!
Ahhh well, I'm certain that the story will sort itself out. I've got to stop having characters whose names begin with "s" though, because not only do I get Sirius and Severus confused, but now I'm mucking up Siri, Sky and Sandra, too. Ooo the horrors of writing.
I'd better stop soon, otherwise my author's note'll end up longer than the story! Now wouldn't that be odd... I hope my writing style is improving! Unfortunately I've got exams coming up this week, and the week after - bleugh! - so I don't think I'll be able to write all that much, which is really irritating, because this story only has one more chapter and an epilogue to go! Then on to Lily Love, which should be much MUCH more interesting.
I'd best be gone now - I've still got a delightful amount of study and homework to do...
-wildcat-
Prelude to a Love Story
Chapter Seven: Making Love
The cauldron boiled and bubbled, frothing a mixture of a bright red. The fire beneath created eerie shadows on the old stone walls, only making the gloom seem closer in that dank and dreary darkness. From the pot emanated a bright red glow, casting its red lights on the faces of the two boys who slowly stepped around it. Looking slightly demonic in the blood red light, with jagged, flickering shadows behind them; the boys muttered soft incantations under their breath, pausing from their incessant mumble at the sound of a wolf welcoming the moon.
Looking towards the sound, the small boy shuddered. All he could see was the red glow and dark shadows, though his ears worked fine enough. Despite close association with Remus Lupin, the fact that he was a were-wolf still scared him a little. Looking to his partner-in-crime, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew smiled at the look of concentration upon his face. Peter gave another little shudder and rubbed his arms, he didn't mind being able to hear and see, yet he would have been happy enough to lose his sense of general coldness. Although the potion was most definitely boiling, and it cast quite a lot of light, it still didn't emit much heat. Or, at least, not enough for Peter. Looking down his goose-bumped arms to his hands, Peter recalled that he was holding a small viol of clear liquid and glanced back over to Sirius.
"Hey, Siri?" Peter asked, unworried about caution.
"Mmm?" answered Sirius, his concentration still fixed on the mixture before him. He really didn't like that particular colour - it reminded him a little too much of blood. After all, a love potion should be pink or something. He hoped.
"I wondered when you wanted the 'Tears of Torment'?" Peter had liked Sirius' rather dramatic name for the drops, but they were, in truth, tears shed through torment. The fact that they were squeezed out of James during a tickling war was beside the point.
"You might as well toss them in now," answered Sirius looking at the viol in his friend's hands. "Maybe they'll dilute this colour a little. Or something like that, anyway." Once considered 'devilishly handsome' by almost the entire female population of Hogwarts, in the past two months since James Potter had slowly sunk into a state of depression James had begun to rather lose his laugh. Although he didn't show it often, he was quite desperate to find a way to cheer his best friend. This potion simply had to work.
Peter and Sirius had spent the past month going out on night forages to the dungeons in search for different ingredients to add to their love potion. Not the type to do it all by the book, Sirius had created his own recipe, only occasionally glancing at proper love potions to check that he had the right idea. Already in their brew were some ground up leaves off the Womping Willow, for the tree had played a significant part in their dilemma. A single red rose was considered quite necessary, for it is the flower of love. There were some lily petals included, too - Peter thought it fitting; Sirius neatly avoided the fact that the lily is the death flower. A strand of hair from both Lily and James', head to bind them, was in there. Some memory modifier charms were obviously needed to override Lily's first impulsion: that is, to kill James Potter. A cockroach ended up in there too - Sirius saw it crawling around on the floor and thought to include it. Despite the effort it involved, Peter was quite adamant that some ground up unicorn horn was in there, also. Unicorn horn's magical properties included the ability to null any poison - for some reason Peter thought that their potion might be slightly poisonous. A tomato was chucked in, for Sirius said it would boost oestrogen, though Peter just looked at him oddly - either way, it ended up in the potion. Some other things the boys found on their Potion Master's shelf ended up in there, either through their interesting colours, shapes, sizes or just because they knew it would irritate their professor. And within the potion sat, rather near the bottom, a single shaving from Severus Snape's wand.
The idea had been Remus', oddly enough, for although he did care about what happened to James, he had been rather occupied with a particular girl, not to mention exams. Sirius and Peter hadn't been too fussed towards how their results turned out, though the fact that for the first time in all their five years at Hogwarts James hadn't come out top in transfiguration did shock them rather. In fact, Sirius had been the one to go best - despite the general lack of study. Severus' wand had been a pure stroke of genius, and the fact that fate dropped it into their hands did help them to decide just in what manner they would use it. Severus had been the main cause of Lily Evans' problems in the first place, so it seemed only natural that some part of Severus would end up in the potion. Peter had suggested the use of a hair strand, though flatly declined to touch the greasy gunk upon his head. As no one else had been willing to risk the sheer oiliness of it, they decided that the wand would be better.
How the marauders came across the wand was indeed fate. They looked on the floor and there it was. A wand. They doubted that Severus would even notice the slight scratch in his already dirty and (greasy, Sirius considered it) finger-marked wand. In preference to handling his wand, Remus did the deed, taking a small sliver from the wand with his knife. As the wand essentially chooses the wizard, it is considered quite obvious that the wand would in some way have a very special connection with its own particular wizard - or, at least, that's how Remus surmised it. More likely was the fact that they enjoyed defacing Severus Snape's property.
"Umm... Sirius?" asked Peter, a slight tremble to his voice. Sirius snapped out of his reverie and returned his gaze to the still boiling cauldron. Doing a double take, he looked over again in shock. What had previously been a blood red potion had now changed its colour considerably. Not to mention its volume.
"Strange," said Sirius, sounding completely unfazed. "It appears that the tear drops have had an unexpected effect." This was rather an understatement, and Peter was near pulling his hair out with worry because of it.
"Well don't you think we should do something?" asked Peter, more frustrated at the quickly disappearing liquid than he would have liked to admit.
"Okay," said Sirius, simply. "You lift up the pot, I'll pour it into the spare viol."
Easier said than done, Peter had to first scrounge around searching for his dragon skin gloves before he could possibly contemplate picking up that boiling hot pot.
Irritated at his friend's slow pace, Sirius tossed him a pair of gloves and said: "Here, slip these on - they may be a little big, but I'm certain that they'll do the job."
Pulling the much too big gloves on, Peter only had a short moment to survey the scene before him - chaotic shadows included - before Sirius pushed him towards the cauldron, urging him to move faster.
Carefully, Peter lifted the extremely hot and heavy cauldron. Too carefully for Sirius, who pushed and shoved at him until he finally got the pot in position. Scooping out the rapidly decreasing potion, Sirius used his ladle to pour the liquid into the small viol they had spared. Once filled, he stoppered the bottle and placed it on a small bed of rose petals, wrapping the flowers around it and then that bundle into a small heart shaped, pink blanket.
Sirius was quite disgusted. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm taking a part in this. Honestly - heart shaped blankets... Rose petals... All for some girl who couldn't care less about us! Please, Peter, remind me as to just why I am doing this?"
Peter gently placed the cauldron back to its place on the fire, watching in fascination as the final two drops were evaporated into a slight scent that he couldn't really place. Somewhere cross between a rose and cockroach, he guessed.
"Peter!" called Sirius, raising his voice to get the other boy's attention, which came to instantly. Before he could answer, though, a large bang in the distance disturbed them.
"That sounded like a door shutting," whispered Peter, fearful.
"Mmm," responded Sirius, his voice thoughtful.
"Well?" asked Peter, after waiting for an entire minute, expecting a somewhat more informative response from his friend.
"Well, what?" asked Sirius, right back at him. "Oh," he said, mocking sudden realisation, "You think we should do something about it?"
Loud footsteps, echoing down the stony stairway, were all the answer he needed. Both boys looked towards the door closest to them, expecting it to open any second.
"Quick!" shout whispered Sirius, suddenly all action as he pulled the steaming cauldron off the fire. "Douse it with some water."
"What water?" cried Peter, frantic.
"This water!" said Sirius, quickly transfiguring a bucket of water for them.
"No! No, no, no, no , NO!!" cried Peter, even more worried than previously. "Change it back, QUICK!"
Looking to the bucket, Sirius changed it back without really thinking. Only when he saw what it had actually been did he realise just what the consequences could have been, for, now returned to its rightful place, Sirius felt a tad sick as he saw the heart-wrapped bundle innocently sitting there.
"Oops," muttered Sirius.
The sound of footsteps, undoubtedly getting closer distracted him from his momentary reminiscence, reminding him to quickly transfigure the small fire at his feet into a little black spot.
"Compliments on the spot," muttered Peter, smiling.
Sirius smiled himself, looking at where the fire had been. Only, without the fire he could not see at all, and quickly remedied that by whispering "lumos" and watching as his wand-tip grew light.
Thrusting the cauldron at Peter, who hadn't yet taken off the too big dragon-hide gloves, he didn't bother watching as Peter wobbled for a bit before finding his balance, feeling it much more important to begin counting cracks in the stones at his feet. It was quite interesting really, just how the cracks varied... Some were large, and some were small.
Meanwhile, the footsteps grew ever louder, and closer.
***//\\//\\***
Sirius had to smother his mouth to stop it from bursting in a loud laugh of triumph. They weren't always able to outwit the caretaker, Filch, so easily. Above him he see only the faint light of the lantern shining through the cracks in the floor over his head. Some large cracks let quite a bit of light through, while the smaller ones let barely any in at all. A small square comprised of four fine cracks was rather obvious from this angle, though when looking at it without the light shining through the trapdoor was hardly noticeable at all.
Soon they sat in darkness once more, as the light and soft footsteps receded. Practicing a caution that he didn't usually bother with, Sirius made himself and Peter sit in the darkness for a full ten minutes before they risked raising the trap-door once more. Ignoring Peter's nervous tugs on his robes, he sat in the darkness, focussing - almost - all his concentration on listening for any signs that would imply Filch was still waiting for them. Soon, however, Peter's tugs became more and more insistent, not to mention irritating. Sirius turned around with the intention of whispering at him to stop, when his eyes caught the glint of something else'.
Rather than waiting around to see what the something else was, Sirius quickly pushed up the trap door, forcing himself inelegantly out of it. With know hands grasping out of the darkness to grab at him, apart from Peter's, Sirius presumed it safe and lit his wand. It was a moment before he thought to look down and see just what was beneath the stone floor.
Holding his wand before him, with Peter cowering behind, Sirius lowered his arm down into the hole. Down into the hole, with the wand lighting the way. Sirius was just in time to catch the brighter glow of an eye this time, before the rhythmic shine of scales showed that the snake was slithering away.
"Now wasn't that odd," he muttered, more to himself than the boy at his back.
Peter, however, wondered just where that snake had come from. And just where the snake was going.
***//\\//\\***
"What were you doing all night?" asked James, with all the irascible behaviour of an angry mother. Or a stampeding rhinoceros.
Sirius looked at his friend, noticing the rings around his eyes and edge to his voice. Obviously James hadn't gotten enough sleep. Again.
"We were in the dungeons, making love," replied Sirius, trying to sound nonchalant, accenting and extending the word "love". By "we" he meant himself and Peter, who looked worried at first, before catching his drift.
"What?!" spluttered James, spitting pumpkin juice all over the table juice, no seeming to notice all the Gryffindors who got sprayed in the process.
"Just as I said," replied Sirius, smiling slightly, "Peter and I were busy, making love in the dungeons."
"With Peter?" asked James, disbelief clouding his voice as he searched for clarification.
Sirius looked at over at James before answering, as if he, Sirius, were a wise old uncle explaining the meanings of the universe to his young nephew.
"Of course, with Peter," he answered, "Whom else would you expect?"
"A girl," muttered James, his face confused as he shook it from side to side.
"Oh, James. Poor, poor, James," Sirius had a condescending look upon his face, as he shook his head in mock sympathy - imitating James without even realising it. "You should know that there aren't any girls that I'm even nearly as close to as Peter here..."
Peter looked ready to explode, though with laughter or outrage - few could tell.
"Could've fooled me," replied James, rising his eyes from the table, "from what I'd heard, you were getting pretty cosy with that Sandra girl." The table fell silent at this, except for James, who spoke on without appearing to notice his audience - or the red colour that Sirius' face had abruptly changed to. "Hmm..." he continued, "and what were you saying the other night?" he asked, not really expecting an answer, "Something about the colour of her eyes and the shape of her-,"
James Potter was abruptly cut-off from finishing the rest of his sentence, most likely because Sirius had wrapped his arms and hands around James' neck and over his mouth. Mumbling something in regards to the colour of Sirius' face - which was now a glowing red - James was soon escorted from the room, Peter in tow and unable to stifle his laughter.
Despite a bubble of irritation, Sirius couldn't help but be pleased. Perhaps they wouldn't even need the love potion after all, for James hadn't been this happy in weeks.
As for Cassandra Reade, she didn't know what to say. But her cheeks had answered James' comments with a slight flush of their own. Yet inwardly she beamed. She'd never even considered that Sirius the Sirius Black might have liked her.
Although, as she thought about it... Sandra sank down in her seat, oblivious to the envious looks that were being thrown at her, as she began to fantasise. "Cassandra Black," she thought to herself: not bad, not bad at all. She didn't know that she was smiling, but the big broad grin on her face could not easily have been mistaken for much else.
***//\\//\\***
"Do you really think he likes you?" asked Loretta Myer, one of the numerous girls who had been pestering her all day since James had mentioned her at breakfast. Most of the other people had been either ignored or snapped at, but Cassandra Reade really couldn't do that to one of her closest friends.
Brushing her peroxided hair off a neatly robed shoulder, Sandra, as she was better known, turned her brown eyes to Loretta.
"I don't know, Lora," she replied, managing to sound excited and worried all at once. "I hope so, I really do, but he's never even looked at me before." That was rather an under-statement, as Sandra had been talking to him quite happily in their most recent Care of Magical Creatures class. "Him" of course was Sirius Black, the best looking boy in the school, though some girls thought his best-friend, James Potter, more to their taste.
"I bet he does," replied Lora, just as excited for her friend, as she would have been for herself. "And, you're lying about him never having looked at you - what about all those potions lessons earlier this year? Didn't I tell you that he'd been looking at you the entire time? Didn't I?" Lora seemed quite desperate for an answer, so she nodded her head absently, not that Sandra could even remember being told anything of the sort.
Seeing the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room ahead, Sandra asked Loretta to go ahead. She had previously been bombarded with questions as it seemed the entire female population of Hufflepuff house had felt it their personal job to sort out just what her position was as Sirius' 'apparent' girlfriend. Well, that was most of them; others had gotten it into their head that it had been James who was interested in her, or even Remus! It seemed that all the girls had their eye on these boys, and it only made Sandra feel all the more lucky.
Or not.
Turning around at the sound of giggling voices and quick footsteps, Sandra saw a group of even more girls running up to her. Pushing her hair behind her shoulders, she prepared herself for answering a few thousand more questions about her supposed love life.
***//\\//\\***
Sky Winkkin bounded into the Gryffindor common room quite openly, despite rules stating that she wasn't even supposed to know where it was. The Marauders had decided it was too hard to keep organising other places for them to meet, and felt that just giving her the password to get by the fat lady would be much simpler. Sky was happy with this arrangement, because it meant that she could easily creep up on the boys unawares.
Whether she'd bounded or tiptoed, she doubted that Sirius and Peter would have noticed her in either case. Seated far from the fire, they were muttering things quietly to one another, almost hidden in a back corner. James was nowhere to be seen, yet that wasn't too unusual. In the past month and a bit that she had known the Marauders, she hadn't even spoken a full three sentences with James.
Stepping up behind him, she didn't wait for Sirius to acknowledge her presence before she jumped right on top of him. The shy, unconfident Sky that had once been was hardly even recognisable in this zealous, happy girl. She ignored his grunts and groans, knowing that she didn't weigh enough to really earn his grumbling about having a mammoth fall on top of him from nowhere.
"I bet you I could do that, if you like. Mammoths can't be near as hard as people make out," Sky answered his grumble, a small wrinkle on her nose as she frowned in thought. Not only had she as a person become much more confident, her school grades had improved considerably. When she had been learning from Lily it had been more that teacher/ student relationship. Now, however, she enjoyed competing with the boys. Not that she was anywhere near up to the standard of Sirius, Remus or James.
"What would you use to make a mammoth?" asked Sirius, disbelieving.
Sky looked around the room a little, seriously considering the question, before she answered. "I expect that the chandelier could do, though now I'm not so certain...
"Too complex," replied Sirius, "what you'd really need is a big single something. I expect a fat, juicy Slytherin would do the job," Peter gave a snigger, "Though unfortunately we're currently in the Gryffindor common room. Which brings me to my next question!" he continued, changing the subject abruptly. "Whatever are you doing here, Miss Winkkin of Ravenclaw?"
"Gosh, thanks for the all pomp and circumstance," she answered, "But why do you think I'm here?"
"To speak with Remus?" Sky gave a small grown, "Who isn't actually in residence, currently," he finished, quickly. Sky gave a small frown at this.
"Why? Where is he?"
"Didn't he say?" asked Sirius, a slight gleam in his eye that Sky couldn't interpret.
"No..."
Sirius sighed, and wondered just how long he was going to have to cover up for Remus.
"Remus' great-aunt's husband's cousin died." Sky looked a bit confused at all this elaborate information, so Sirius answered her simpler. "He's at a funeral."
"Oh!" she responded, a shocked look to her eyes. "I hope he's alright, It was horrible when my grandmother died. I felt torn, for days and days. How was he when he left? Worried? Upset? Crying? Oh, I hope he wasn't crying! Oh, I feel so sorry for him..."
Sirius almost wished he'd said nothing at all. Giving a slight sigh, he realised that this would be another thing he'd need to explain to Remus when he... returned. The teachers had currently runout of different 'amazing new creations' that would cure his were-wolfishness. This time round he'd spent the three nights of the full moon safe and sound in the Shrieking Shack.
It was the silence that brought him back to the present, for Sky had quietened down now, though she still appeared to be thinking of all the horrible things that could be going on in Remus' head - the cute little frown gave her away.
A sudden shriek from across the room broke the silence. A group of girls that had been standing near the fire gossiping about something or another had progressed their conversation into an all-out catfight. One girl was sobbing while another wrenched at someone else's hair. Other girls stood around staring, while some started placing blame. None attempted to halt the two (now rolling around on the floor) fighting, or calm the girl who's sobs were beginning to sound hysterical.
"It's probably about you, you know?" said Sky. Sirius decided that she must have broken out of her own thoughts soon after him, for her eyes were on the gaggle of crazy girls.
Her remark didn't really register in Sirius' mind until a short instant later, and he looked back and forth from the girls to Sky, appalled.
"My fault?" he asked, aghast at the suggestion. "However could this be my fault? What did I do?"
Sky looked at him, surprised. "Don't you hear rumours or something? Honestly, it's going around the school like wildfire!"
Sirius just shook his head, unknowing. "What, exactly, is 'going around the school like wildfire'?
Sky still couldn't believe it. "Why, the news about you and Cassandra Reade, of course!"
Sirius fell back in the cushions, a look of complete and utter mazement on his face.
"We didn't confirm anything, though! Nothing at all," Sirius opened his eyes and straightened up, yet only so that he might be able to bow his head and shake it, disbelieving. "I'm in complete shock."
"Well you're not the only one!" replied Sky, "From what the rumours say, you and Sandra are an item! It looks like you've got a girlfriend, Siri... whether or not you like it."
Sirius gave a slight smile at the last comment. "Don't worry too much, Sky," he answered, hitting Peter at the same to cease his silent laughter. "I did... sorta... like her in... the first place," he mumbled, hating himself as he said it.
"Oh, this is just fabulous!" squeaked Sky, ecstatic, "Just wait until I tell Sandy!"
Peter's laughter couldn't be stopped this time, and it gurgled out - uncontrollable.
Sirius wished he knew where James was, either way he was going to pay. Whether or not he needed it, Sirius was going to give his friend a little helping hand onto the bumpy road of love. As they say, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
A/N
Okay, am I allowed to call that a pointless chapter? I am? Good... Because, you know what? I think that last chapter was completely and utterly pointless. I really have to cut the whole pointless thing, don't I? I might as well tell you what they eat for every meal and the exact times that they go to the toilet during the day. All of it's pointless.
Oh well...
Stupid Sirius. I wasn't intending to make little romances flower everywhere, but James just couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Grr! And I was actually considering a different plot line, but now Sirius is going to get his revenge, so that just wrecks what I was going to do. Ugh! Why didn't anyone tell me that these characters had a mind of their own?! And while I'm at it, isn't James supposed to be unhappy? And Sky meant to be shy? I suppose they just hated what I'd done with them. Sky's acting more and more like me each day, while James is actually cheering up.
I need to get grumpy again. It's impossible to have grumpy characters when you've got a happy author. In truth, I'm just happy to be writing again, for I've left this for quite a while now. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmph!
Ahhh well, I'm certain that the story will sort itself out. I've got to stop having characters whose names begin with "s" though, because not only do I get Sirius and Severus confused, but now I'm mucking up Siri, Sky and Sandra, too. Ooo the horrors of writing.
I'd better stop soon, otherwise my author's note'll end up longer than the story! Now wouldn't that be odd... I hope my writing style is improving! Unfortunately I've got exams coming up this week, and the week after - bleugh! - so I don't think I'll be able to write all that much, which is really irritating, because this story only has one more chapter and an epilogue to go! Then on to Lily Love, which should be much MUCH more interesting.
I'd best be gone now - I've still got a delightful amount of study and homework to do...
-wildcat-
