A/N: I'm finally done! This chapter took me a while, and I did get a flame or two because of it, but I'm proud to say this came out well. I don't like how Lily gets rid of Danny, but the living Danny I based this off of deserves it, so I figured this one does too. Anyway, I have the whole plot planned out, and there'll be a lot more action soon. This story has been incredibly romance-ie, and I don't have a problem with that, it just gets old sometimes. I have an interesting occurrence in this chapter, and I had fun writing it. I hope you like it!
Dedication: This is dedicated to someone you are not likely to know. This is dedicated to my brother, in the hopes that he'll get some ideas from the ending….
Girls
by Wolf Speaker
Chapter 9:
Summer Holidays Part 3
"Lily!"
Lily fell onto the hard concrete, ignoring the pains of the scrapes. Her stomach gave an unpleasant jolt, and her heart gave a mad twist.
Sirius Black was standing in the driveway, and next to him was James Potter, holding a bouquet of roses and an "I'm Sorry" card.
James turned around, dropping the roses and the card, and started to walk away.
"James, James wait!" called Lily, getting up. She was bleeding slightly, but she didn't care.
"James, please!" she said. She grabbed his arm and turned him around to look at her. His eyes were cold with anger and pain.
"Lily, I-" started James, but Lily put a finger to his lips.
"I love you with all my heart, James," she said. "But what you said about Charlotte hurt both her and me. What made you think she was so evil?"
"Well," said James quietly. "I had been talking to Lucius Malfoy-"
"Okay, so that was dumb in itself, but you LISTENED to him?" said Lily, appalled. "James, that kid has no life. He is scum like his father, and his son will be scum. You can't believe a Malfoy ever. What did he tell you?"
"He mentioned something about Charlotte being a Death Eater," said James, looking down at his sneakers. "And since his father is one, I figured he would know."
"James," said Lily, "that was dumb. Charlotte hasn't told anyone about Remus, or you, Sirius, and Peter. How COULD she be a Death Eater? Why would she be?"
"Lily, I'm really sorry," said James, still avoiding those green eyes. "I just jumped to conclusions. But who was that guy?"
"Oh," said Lily, reddening a bit. "That's Charlotte's brother Danny."
"Ah," said James, looking hurt again. "I guess I'll just be heading home, then. Don't want to give your new boyfriend any bad ideas."
"James," whispered Lily. "I love you. I'd pick you over Danny any day."
James looked into her eyes for a moment, then pulled Lily into a kiss. Lily lost herself in joy.
"I've really missed you, you know," she said once they had parted.
"Yeah, I know," said James, smiling. "I missed you, too."
They heard sniggering behind the tree nearest them, and James rolled his eyes.
"Sirius, you prat, get out of that tree or I'll hex you!" he said, smiling all the same.
Sirius emerged from behind the tree, laughing hysterically, with Charlotte close by. Danny stayed back for a moment, then came out as well.
"Danny, I'm really sorry," said Lily. "Can we still be friends?"
Danny was silent for a moment, but then broke into a smile.
"Of course!" he said, laughing. "Hey, as long as he doesn't beat me up for you."
Everyone laughed. James, though relatively tall and muscular, looked like a twig next to Danny. They all walked back to Charlotte's house, laughing and talking. James and Lily were walking hand-in-hand, and Sirius had his arm around Charlotte's shoulders. Danny was still watching them suspiciously. Lily caught his attention and rolled her eyes. Danny smiled and kept walking.
*
When everyone got back inside, Linda bombarded them.
"Oh hello there!" she said jovially. "You must be Sirius!"
She extended her right hand, making Sirius take his arm from around Charlotte's shoulders to shake Linda's hand. Everyone laughed as Charlotte groaned.
"I'm very pleased to meet you Mrs. Went," said Sirius politely through a grin.
"Oh the pleasure is all mine," said Linda, grinning evilly. "Call me Linda, by the way, everyone else does. And who is this?"
She turned to smile at James, who smiled and ran behind Lily, saying, "Hide me!"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"This is James," she said. "He's a freak and a loser, you don't want to know him."
Everyone laughed again as James yelled "Hey!"
The group was in a good mood as they sat down in the living room, laughing and telling stories.
"Remember the time Snape tried to turn Sirius into a dog?" said Charlotte, smiling as she snuggled up to Sirius.
"How could we forget?" smiled James. Clearly, he'd gotten over his grudge. "The entire thing back-fired and Snape had to go up to the hospital wing as a dog!"
Everyone grinned at the memory of the tiny black poodle that was Snape.
"Good times, good times," grinned Sirius.
"Oh don't forget the time Malfoy turned himself into a ferret!" said Lily.
"What happened then?" asked Charlotte. "That didn't happen this year."
"Well, he had gotten angry at some Ravenclaw third year and pulled out his wand, but he was holding it by the wrong end, so when he tried to curse the kid, he cursed himself," said James. "The Slytherins and Gryffindors were on their way to Potions, so we all saw it."
Charlotte grinned as everyone laughed again.
"Man I wish I could have seen that," she said wistfully. She smiled as everyone laughed again.
"What about when we took Snape's stuff and turned it all pink?" said Lily.
"Yeah then we made it look like Lucius Malfoy had done it!" smiled Charlotte.
"My friends and I did that to someone when we were in school," said Linda thoughtfully. "Except we didn't turn it pink. I, um, accidentally turned it purple instead, because this was before I went to a wizarding school. I had a crush on this guy, though. That was just how I handled it; I acted like I hated his guts. I'm sure you don't have a crush on this guy Snape, judging by your letters."
"I sure hope not!" said Sirius, grinning at Charlotte. She rolled her eyes.
"Come on," she said as everyone laughed. "That's like saying you hope I don't have a crush on a can of oil."
"I thought that's what Snape was," said Lily seriously.
*
"What time are Remus and Peter coming?" asked Sirius.
It was over a month later; meaning summer was nearly over. Remus and Peter were going to come for the remaining few weeks and then board the Hogwarts Express with them. Their letters from school had arrived a few days earlier, so they were going to go to Teliastor Alley to get their supplies for school as soon as Remus and Peter were settled into their rooms.
"They should be here any minute," said Charlotte, grinning and coming over to Sirius, giving him a soft kiss.
"It's so sad that it's our last year at Hogwarts," she said as she laid her head on Sirius's chest, her arms around his waist and his around her neck.
"Hey, that just means that we will get to see each other all the time," Sirius whispered. "After all, your seventeenth birthday is next week."
Charlotte smiled.
"I've never even told you when my birthday is, how would you know that?"
"Oh, I have my sources," said Sirius slyly.
"You mean you asked my mom," Charlotte said bluntly.
"Yeah, pretty much," said Sirius. Suddenly, he looked at the clock.
"That reminds me, I have to do something before Remus and Peter get here," he said, giving Charlotte a peck on the cheek as he dashed out of the room.
"What is he up to?" Charlotte wondered to herself as she heard Sirius running down the stairs.
*
"-What do you think? In the magical community, the legal age is younger, as you should know, but I still wanted your permission first."
Sirius and Linda were talking in Linda's office. Linda was smiling at Sirius. She looked rather proud, and very pleased.
"That was very polite of you to ask me first. You're a regular gentleman. Of course you may," said Linda gladly.
Sirius let out a great sigh of relief.
"Thank you so much," he said. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Sirius, you're like the second son I never had," said Linda. "I'm surprised you thought I'd say no."
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
"That'd be Remus and Peter, I suppose," said Linda. "Good luck." She winked.
Sirius said thank you and walked out to meet his friends, grinning broadly about something.
*
"Remus! Peter!" said Charlotte happily as she opened the door. "Good to see you!"
She hugged each of them, then moved out of the way as she heard James and Lily thundering down the steps. Lily ran for Remus and hugged him, as James bombarded Peter, laughing and tussling a bit. Lily and Charlotte looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Remus laughed. Sirius walked in a bit late and said hello to everyone. He was grinning but wouldn't keep eye contact with Charlotte long enough for her to figure it out.
Linda came in and smiled at the scene. James had Peter in a headlock, saying "Say uncle!" Sirius was still grinning stupidly, looking at Charlotte, Charlotte and Lily were talking, and Remus was trying to get James off of Peter.
"Well, Charlotte, you sure do have… um, interesting friends," she said loudly, so everyone stopped. James and Peter were still laughing, but quietly. When Peter saw Linda, he stopped laughing and became shy and quiet as he always did near teachers.
"Oh!" said Charlotte after a meaningful look from her mom. "Mom, this is Remus Lupin, and this is Peter Pettigrew. Guys, this is my mom, Linda."
"Hello Mrs. Went," said Remus politely.
"Call her Linda," chorused everyone except for Peter and Remus, as Linda grinned.
"You all are learning well," she laughed. "Okay, who's going to show Remus and Peter their room?" The house was rather large, and James and Sirius shared a room, and so would Peter and Remus. They still had an extra bedroom left after that.
"We will," said Sirius, pointing to himself and James.
"Uh, sure," said James, smiling.
Charlotte saw Sirius lean over towards James as everyone was laughing, and through the laughter heard him whisper "I have something to tell you."
Charlotte was becoming even more suspicious, and hoped he'd tell her soon.
*
When they got back from Teliastor Alley later that night, they were all extremely happy, but slightly tired. They had spent the whole day there, but they had done much more than school shopping. The girls had gotten plenty of new robes, both casual and dress. The guys mainly bought jokes, but they did buy a few things they knew they'd need after school was finally over. Also, they all had gotten the papers they would have to fill out to take the Apparation test next summer, so they could take them right away.
Sirius grinned at Charlotte again when they got back. He seemed to be doing a lot of that today.
Sirius fingered a small box in the pocket of his cloak. He couldn't wait to ask Charlotte the one thing on his mind all day. He knew exactly what he'd do, too. He'd been planning it for a couple of weeks now. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when he asked her to-
"Hello? Sirius, is anybody there?" said Charlotte, waving her hand in front of his face. "James just asked you if we wanted to go on a walk with him and Lily. Remus and Peter have already gone up to bed."
"Oh," he said, and James looked at him knowingly. He had told him already. "Oh sure. That sounds good."
Charlotte rolled her eyes (A/N: Which is something I just realized she does way too much) and went to get her cloak again.
When Charlotte came back, they went out the front door and walked down the street. It was a relatively fancy area, so the yards were big to accommodate for the houses. They walked slowly, hand in hand, happy to be together. It was nice and quiet, making everything rather surreal. The stars twinkled happily down on the tow couples, and the waning moon shone light on the street. They didn't talk much, just walked, in bliss. When they got back, they were all happy and ready to rest after a fun day. Sirius kissed Charlotte gently on the lips and went upstairs. James and Lily did the same and James went after Sirius. Lily and Charlotte grinned at each other.
"They really can be sweet sometimes," said Lily happily. "I love it when they're like that."
"Yeah," said Charlotte, preoccupied. "Lily, do you know what Sirius is up to? Why is he being so secretive? He's almost always out of it."
"Yeah, I noticed too," Lily said thoughtfully. "I don't really know what it's about, though. I'll bet James does, but I can't really get it out of him. Not if it's about Sirius anyway."
"Hm," said Charlotte. She would ponder this, as she lay awake in bed hours later, trying to figure out exactly what Sirius was hiding.
*
Charlotte's birthday dawned warm and bright. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was just right for swimming in the pool in the backyard. Charlotte grinned when she woke up. She smelled pancakes and sausage cooking downstairs, and heard her mother laughing. She looked at the clock. 9:47. A little later than she was used too, but not too late. She put on her lilac robes and went downstairs.
The kitchen looked amazing. There were streamers and balloons everywhere. She smiled at the designs. The balloons all had smiley faces on them, and the streamers were pink and yellow. She had had the same sort of decorations when she turned 13. Still, it looked good. This time, she notices, after a minute or so, the decorations changed to black and red streamers, and the designs on the balloons were still smiley faces, and they were still yellow, the they had fangs and blood was dripping off of one of them. Charlotte grinned.
"Thanks you guys!" she said happily. Sirius came over and kissed her good-morning and she grinned even more.
"Hey, where's my good-morning kiss?" asked Lily. James laughed and kissed Lily.
"Good-morning," he said, smiling. Everyone laughed.
Charlotte looked around and realized everyone was down here already. Even Peter. Normally, you couldn't get him up before noon.
"Well, I suppose you'll want to eat breakfast before you open your presents…" said Linda, smiling.
Linda said that every year, and Charlotte always chose opening her presents first. Charlotte grinned.
"Yeah, let's eat breakfast first," she said. Linda smiled at her daughter.
"NOT! Come on, let me at the presents!" said Charlotte. Everyone laughed, and they went into the living room. There was a small pile of presents from everyone there. Charlotte smiled.
From Lily she got earrings that changed color to match what you are wearing. James gave Charlotte a book on Quidditch (Lily rolled her eyes when she saw it. "Like you need it!" she whispered to her later on. "Your brother plays!"). Peter gave her a box of Chocolate Frogs, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Remus got her a beautiful silver necklace with a crescent moon pendant and a small star on the edge of the crescent. Sirius, however, gave her the best present of all. When she opened the small box, she gasped. There was a beautiful diamond engagement ring.
"Will you marry me?" asked Sirius quietly.
A/N: Don't you just love romantic cliffhangers like that? I live for those. Anyway, I really like this chapter, but I had better get some reviews for this because I have to do some stuff and I don't know if I can make time to write the next chapter with out some encouragement. I hope I get at least 5…. *Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more* I want to say something about the dedication; my brother has a 4 year old daughter, and a girlfriend (yes, she is the mother). I'm kind of hoping that he officially asks her to marry him soon. I know you people want me to get on with it so I type up the next chapter A.S.A.P., but remember, I need 5 reviews…. Hope to see your name there!
~ Wolf Speaker
