Chapter 2: Friends and crushes

Peter woke up from a nightmare drenched with sweat. He had dreamed that James, Sirius, and Remus were at the mercy of a hyper teenage Muggle. In Canada of all places! How was he to reach them in Canada? Worst of all, the girl seemed to know his secret. How he had sold himself to the enemy, to Voldermort. Peter got out of bed and listened to the silence. The quiet was soothing and his heart soon slowed to a normal, healthy pace. Then he realized, Sirius' snoring was missing. Panicking he swung the curtains of his friend's four poster bed open. His heart skipped a beat. The bed was empty. After repeating this action with the other two beds in the room he realized that he was alone. He took a shuddering breath. So it was true.

Remus sat on Jade's couch reading Chamber of Secrets. He would cast funny glances at James every now and then muttering things about "damn crazy Potters, they're all alike" and such. James was talking to the cat. Don't ask, he's not as sane as he sounds. Sirius was playing with the light clapper. On. Off. On. Off. "Heh heh, so cool," he laughed. Jade shook her head as she waded through the sea of chocolate bar wrappers. (You should clean that up.)

"Meh. Too lazy," Jade shrugged as she made her way to the phone. (Fine I will) The chocolate bars disappeared. Jade's eyes got really big. "Err – thanks." (You're most welcome) Jayde picked up the phone and speedily dialed her best friend's number. "Hey Tracy! What am I doing up at three in the morning? What are YOU doing up at three in the morning? .::Pause::. Listen. You'll never guess who landed in my living room, Paddy! Yes you can come over! This funny little voice (I'm not little!) Right. Medium sized voice drugged my parents so they won't wake up." Tracy would be at the house in five minutes she just had to find her parents car-keys first. Jade grinned then speed-dialed Heather. "Yo Luin! Come over to my house now! I don't care if you have to steal your parents car. What the hell do you mean you can't drive? For f*** sakes Heather! Just a second. Mr. Voice?" (yes?) "Can you um zap my friend here or something?" (Why certainly)

Suddenly there was another thud and Heather was in my living room. Heather got up and dusted herself off, not looking very surprised. Jade gave her a funny look and she shrugged. (I talk to Heather all the time. She was expecting this.) "You could really work on the landing though buddy," Heather said staring at the ceiling. (True. But it's really funny to see you land the way you do.) Heather shook her fist at the ceiling. (Heather look whose here.) Heather looked around and saw James, who was still talking to the cat, although Max had fallen asleep a long time ago. "Jamsie!" James had the sense to jump under the coffee table as Heather lunged at him. Heather face planted the floor. Remus cringed.

"Jade I'm finished this one. Can I have the next one please?" He asked sweetly. Jade blushed and mumble something. She shook her head. "Why ever not?" (You're not ready for that one. None of you are.) Remus looked so disappointed. Jade gave him a hug and he felt better. Heather smirked, Jade had a crush on Moony, she was just a little subtler about showing it. She was a little odd but she was a nice girl.

Just then a silver Neon pulled into the driveway and Jade unlocked the door. Tracy came in and sat down in the beanbag chair in the corner. "So Jade, how did these exceptionally good looking lads end up at your house? Why not mine?" (She was bored. You were asleep.) "Oh, right." The 'clapper' decided to short circuit at that moment and the room was plunged into darkness. Max meowed and everyone started giggling.

"So what do we do know?" Heather asked. From the sounds of it she was still on the floor. Sirius kept on clapping hoping to turn it on. Jade went to get another bulb and flip the switch on the breaker box but hit a wall and gave up. Tracy was quite comfortable in the beanbag chair and saw no reason to get up and get the flashlight from her car. James was still cowering under the coffee table, no doubt hiding in case Heather tried to sneak up on him in the dark. Remus, perhaps the only other rational thinker than Jade, pulled out his wand. Lumos A light appeared at the end of his wand and he lifted it above his head to get as much of the room lit as possible.

He looked about the room, everyone was where they had been before the light went out. Except Jade was standing next to the wall staring at him like a deer caught in headlights. "Remus can you came with me? I need that light to fix my living room light," She asked. Remus shrugged and followed her. (Oooooo all alone in the dark! Soooo cute!) "Shut up," Remus and Jade said. The white light of Remus' wand made the pair seem exceptionally pale, which was good because neither could see how red the other one was. They stared at each other for a couple minutes. (Ahem. The light?) "Oh, right." Jade muttered and continued on towards the breaker box that was in her room for some reason.

They stopped at the door and Remus stared open-mouthed. "THIS is your room? It's worse than James'!" Remus exclaimed. Jade hadn't heard his comment though as she dove for the hand-drawn poster of Remus on her wall while he was staring at the floor. It was apparently very lifelike and he would have realized who it was instantly if he saw. "Has this room EVER been clean?" Remus asked incredulously as he looked around.

"Yeah, when we first moved in, before I unpacked everything. I think that there is carpet down there but I can't remember what colour." Remus simply shook his head. ~ I never thought it was possible for one of the female species to have a room this messy. Most of them are at least Peter tidy. But this is worse than James and Sirius combined! ~ (Times two) Remus' eye twitched. ~ Ew! ~ (Yeah no kidding. I think I ought to do something about it eh?) Remus nodded numbly. Suddenly the room was clean. Remus sighed in relief. Jade hadn't noticed the change yet, as she was busy fiddling with the breaker box.

"Um Jade?" Remus asked nervously. Jade muttered something to show that she was listening. "What would you do if your room was suddenly spotless?" Jade stopped what she was doing and looked around in shock. Her mouth moved soundlessly as she stared at the carpet.

"It's blue!" she whispered before she keeled over.

*** MEANWHILE IN THE LIVINGROOM ***

Heather got up and tried to look around. "Jade? Huh, I wonder where she is."

Tracy poked at the beanbag chair that Remus had been sitting in. "Hey, Remus is gone too." James and Sirius each tried to look where the other was but it is hard to exchange a look when you can't see the other person. (They went to fiddle with the breaker box not each other so get your minds out of the gutter boys) "Is it just me or does the fact that a voice we can't see can read our minds and manipulate our surroundings totally freak you out?" Tracy asked. The others nodded then realized that no one could see and verbally agreed.

"I wonder what's taking them so long," James wondered. Heather and Tracy snickered. "What?" James asked. (Do you have any idea how long it is going to take them to wade through all of that junk in her room?) "Just how bad is it?" (Worse than yours and Padfoot's combined and doubled.) James' eyes got really big. "Is that even possible?" James asked in awe. (*snort* apparently) James glared at the ceiling.

The minutes ticked by without people saying much. There was the occasional attempt to start a conversation but Jade was the person who kept the girls' conversation going and Remus' mere presence gave the boys the ability to speak intelligently enough to be able to speak to girls. "You guys, they have been gone way too long, I'm starting to get worried. The lights still aren't on so they haven't even fixed the breaker yet. I hope nothings happened to them." Heather said.

"Remus has his wand with him. What could possibly happen?" Sirius asked.

"The LSM, maybe," Tracy whispered in horror. Heather gasped in recognition.

"The what?" James and Sirius asked, confused. (The Left Sock Monster. A horribly evil beast composed entirely of left socks that lives under Jade's bed.) "But how can you tell left socks from right ones? It could be the Right Sock Monster or the Both Feet Monster for all we know," said Sirius.

"Sirius be serious this is no time for joking around!" Tracy exclaimed. (*groan* Please, this is no time for the most overused pun in Hogwarts history. Besides, the LSM didn't get them. And they aren't going to be fixing the breaker any time soon so I'll just do a lil magic here) Suddenly the lights were back on. Everyone blinked like an entire herd of deer caught in a set of headlights for a few minutes. Tracy got up and sauntered over to the couch where Sirius was sitting and sat down next to him. He didn't notice, he was looking into the hallway where Remus appeared carrying Jade in his arms. (Aw, how cute!)

"Shut up!" Remus grumbled. (But you two look so good together!) Everyone else laughed and Remus blushed. Suddenly Jade's eyes opened and she looked first at a very red Remus, then to everyone one else, who were laughing for some reason. Then she realized where she was and jumped out of Remus' arms like she had been burned.

"Um what happened?" She asked Remus. (When you discovered that I had cleaned your room you fainted. After a few minutes when it looked at though you were going to be in Never Never Land for a while I fixed the breaker for you. Then Remus carried you out here.) Jade nodded. "Is Remus doing an impression of a tomato or something?" She asked to cover an awkward moment. Everyone else laughed.

"So what do we do now?" James asked. (Well for starters you can get out from underneath the table.) "Oh. Right." James scrambled out from underneath the coffee table, but as he got up he tripped on the cat and fell on top of Heather. They both blushed and scrambled away from each other.

Sirius grinned at Tracy and she grinned back. "Do you realize that we are the only ones which haven't suddenly fallen head over heals for each other? You aren't looking like a tomato to me," he said.

"Neither do you. You know, I'm starting to feel left out. What say we do something about it?" Tracy laughed. Sirius winked and nodded. He shuffled down to the end of the couch and Tracy snuggled up next to him. Everyone stared. "What?" They both asked. (*snicker* Nothing)