Author's Note:
Hahaha, get ready for a brief appearance by Neko!Sirius…!!!
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Part Three: Prince Charming, Pussycats, and Potion Disasters
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sunday afternoon
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To Lily's surprise, James was actually a gentleman.
She'd always thought he and his self-proclaimed team of mischief-makers were too loud, too boisterous, and too fond of causing trouble for her, in the capacity of the omnipotent Prefect, to deal with.
But no, she discovered – when alone and not inclined towards setting off fireworks in the Divination tower or turning Slytherins' hair into snakes, he was pleasant, kind, and chivalrous.
Not to mention rather attractive.
Lily pretended to study a tapestry
they'd just passed to hide the blush that immediately followed the recent
incidental contact between their hands and the realization that she was
developing a crush.
The two were walking to lunch
after a long conversation they'd had beside the large rock next to Greenhouse
Number Three. Lily couldn't help
noticing, when they were deep in conversation, how black his hair was and how
adorably it spiked up; how his glasses focused attention on his eyes and made
them appear larger; how slender he was; how his mouth quirked into a half-smile
as he anticipated the outcome of an amusing anecdote; how his eyes were a deep,
comforting brown that she'd never noticed until that moment…
Lily inwardly giggled, then was appalled at her own silliness.
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In the hospital wing, Sirius and Remus had been separated from the rest of the Slytherins by a curtain stretched across the room and a very severe, painful-sounding death threat from Madame Pomfrey.
Sirius, who had managed to escape unscathed besides acquiring a pair of cat ears and a tail to match, was sitting on Remus' hospital bed. Remus had not been as lucky; his skin was blue, his eyebrows were singed, he had unidentifiable vegetables sprouting from his ears (Sirius thought he heard Madame Pomfrey mutter something about endives), and he was recovering from a full-body bind.
The Slytherins had come off worse, definitely.
"I never thought I'd say this, but: Sirius Black, you look quite fetching with a tail."
"Why thank you. And you look absolutely ravishing with green stalky things coming out of your ears."
"Oh, my dear Sirius, do not mock my grave misfortune!" Remus said theatrically, one hand over his heart.
There was a contented pause, then: "I think I'll be able to die in peace, having seen Severus Snape with the head of a chicken," Sirius said wistfully.
"That was the highlight of my year, dearest Padfoot."
"Oh, oh, mine as well, beloved Moony." The two grinned deviously at each other, and Sirius' long black tail twitched in excitement.
"You have no idea how hot that tail makes me," said Remus.
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James was left alone when Lily suddenly became horribly aware of the time and rushed off to complete the Transfiguration essay she had been (oh so shamefully!) putting off.
Although he was a bit lonely, now, he realized that his thoughts hadn't turned to Sirius at all that afternoon.
Ha. Served the bastard right.
"Hiya, Wormtail." James had returned to the dormitory, where Peter was sitting alone on his bed reading a Muggle comic book.
"H-Hi, Prongs." Peter felt his face go into a slow burn as James lithely stretched out on the bed beside him.
"How's tricks?"
"Okay, I guess." Peter glanced quickly at James, the corners of his lips quirking upwards.
James grinned, definitely in good spirits – which, Peter noticed, was a tremendous improvement from that morning where the bespectacled boy had stormed away from breakfast. He noted, without the slightest bit of detachment, how James clasped his nimble hands over his stomach as he lay on his back, finger tapping out an unclassifiable rhythm on the back of his other hand. His hair was delightfully messy, encroaching in over his eyebrows but stopping short of the status of an visual obstruction. His neck was slender and perfect, and with his head slightly tilted James seemed to be offering up that perfect expanse of throat to the eager kisses that Peter would give almost anything to be the one to bestow.
His eyes…well, his eyes were fathomless and velvety and comforting, as well as being enough to send delightful shivers down Peter's spine.
James Potter was the next closest thing to addiction.
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Sirius and Remus returned to their dorms some time later, minus the extraneous appendages but plus a fabulous tale to share with their dorm-mates.
After Sirius had finished the telling of it, in elevated language and in the same grand style as the greatest epics, Remus leaned over and whispered something very secret to him. All James could make out were the words "tail" and "soap", but the two excused themselves, Sirius claiming they were both "in desperate need of a shower".
James just didn't even give it a second thought that he only heard one shower come on that night, not to mention that Sirius and Remus seemed to need an extreme amount of time to wash up. His thoughts, instead, turned inexplicably to Lily Evans.
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monday evening
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"I can't believe we both have detention. Who would have thought that both our potions would have exploded in almost the same instant? I thought Professor Alamay would burst a blood vess…It was you, wasn't it?" Remus said as they walked towards the dungeons, shaking his head at Sirius' devious grin. "What was it this time? A firework? Or too much armadillo bile?"
Sirius didn't answer, simply tracing the fingers of his right hand gently and caressingly over the young werewolf's spine.
Remus could feel a slow, delicious burn beginning in his lower stomach. "You are insatiable, Sirius Black."
Their eyes met, full of heat. And the door to the Potions lab opened.
"Hello, gentlemen," Professor Alamay said, looking very tired and very much like he wanted to let someone else deal with the self-proclaimed Marauders. "You," he said, massaging his temples, "will be cleaning up the catastrophic mess you made in my classroom. I am going to lock you in here until 12:30, and if the job is not done in that amount of time you will expect another detention and another ten points from Gryffindor."
Sirius' eyes gleamed. Remus coughed to stifle a chuckle.
"Oh, and may I add…? No magic." The Professor pointed to two ungainly mops sitting dejectedly in two crusty buckets. He slammed the door, and they could hear him perform the locking charm and strike off down the hallway, muttering to himself.
"We'd better get started, oughtn't we?" Sirius' grin was absolutely predatory. Remus glanced at the clock over the Professor's desk – they had five hours.
Five brilliantly blissful hours.
Remus smacked Sirius' hand away from where it was straying downwards to brush longingly over his backside. "How many times must I remind you, dearest Padfoot: work before play." The young werewolf reached for a mop.
"Oh but Moony, my love, you lead my heart astray."
Oh dear. Not the rhyming game again, Remus thought cheerfully. "Your love? Indeed, darling, whatever you say."
"But you mean so much, so much more than a lay!"
Remus snorted. "Come what may, come what may."
Sirius waggled his eyebrows. "There are many hours in a day."
"If we don't clean this up, there'll
be hell to pay."
"Oh love, don't deny me a roll in the hay!"
"Help me mop up, and I may say okay."
"Please, please! How could you be so cruel as to say nay?"
Remus dramatically put the back of one hand to his forehead. "Oh no! I am charmed by your cunning naiveté."
Sirius sauntered up to the werewolf, loosening the front of his robes and shaking his hair out of its loose ponytail. "We do have five hours in which we can stay."
Remus' eyes were half closed, lips parted slightly. "Sirius, you're putting on quite a display."
"Oh, but I thought you wanted it this way!"
Remus grinned. "Sirius, darling, I'm going to stop rhyming now."
"Why don't you tell me what you want and then show me how?" Sirius purred.
"Okay. Really. I'm stopping."
Sirius looked upwards, with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Tell me, what is that mysterious popping?"
"If you don't stop, you're not getting any."
"What makes you so sure of that, oh my darling Remmie?"
"That doesn't even really rhyme, you git."
"O Moony, my dove, you've got my heart alit!"
"You did not just call me your 'dove'."
"O Remus, I really believe I'm in love!" Sirius pretended to swoon. Remus rolled his eyes and caught him.
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At precisely 1:15, James came strolling in Gryffindor Tower with a slight swagger in his step.
And where had he been, pray tell?
With the charming Lily Evans, of course!
It turned out that Lily was one of those girls who preferred sitting up in the North Tower and looking at the stars rather than roaming the corridors looking for trouble, but for some reason this didn't bother James in the least.
Maybe there was something to all that mooning about stars.
James wouldn't know, however, since he dropped Astronomy the instant they didn't have to take it anymore.
She had been impressed with the Invisibility Cloak, though.
"Oh, James, it's so beautiful and silky!"
And she had told him she'd been impressed with his flying in the last Quidditch match.
"It was amazing! You made that goal even with the other team pelting Bludgers at you left and right! I don't see how anyone can fly that well!"
And she had…well, fussed at him for not becoming a Prefect.
"James, why aren't you a Prefect? You and Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are three of the best students in the school…"
Well, never mind that. Lily blushed whenever they touched, anyway. That had to mean something good.
James' perfect night was irrevocably ruined, however, when he walked in on Sirius and Remus. Again.
He turned immediately and slammed the door behind him, the image of Sirius, complete with a cat tail poking out of the back of his robes, pressing Remus to their dorm wall imprinted on his brain.
Wait…
A cat tail?
Kill me now…James thought, pounding his head against the door.
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(swish and flick)
Finitum Part Three!
To be continued…
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