Sorry this one's taken a while. I'd gotten about half-way through it then hit one of those "I really don't feel like writing" times. But I'm back and I think this chapter's turned out quite nicely. And quite long.
::6::
Lana woke up on the couch for the eighth day in a row. This was really getting to be too much. Why couldn't she and Lily just stop fighting?
That was a good question, what was there to stop fighting over? Rubbing her eyes, Lana decided not to worry about it. She'd talk to Lily that day and hopefully straighten things out. Not that there was much straightening to do, Lana still didn't see what she had done. She had talked to James Potter, big deal, it wasn't like she'd single handily delivered the world into a nuclear holocaust.
Lana stood up and headed for the stairs. She'd have to get her clothes out of her trunk seeing as how Lily had forgotten to throw her trunk out the door as well.
-Why do I have to be the one to say something?- Lana thought as she opened the door. -After all, I didn't bust an ovary because she talked to some boy.-
The room was dark and Lily was still in bed. Lana quietly opened her trunk and pulled out her white shirt, skirt, tie, and black robes, the customary Hogwarts uniform. Lily was still asleep when Lana climbed onto her bed and closed the hangings and changed. But when Lana emerged, dressed, less than a minute later, Lily was awake.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice quite clear for having just woken up.
"Just grabbing my books then I'm gone." Lana said with apparent distaste in her voice.
Making as much noise as possible, Lana pulled her Potions, Charms, and Divination books out her trunk, put them in her bag. Roughly pulling her bag onto her shoulder, Lana slammed her trunk shut and walked towards the door.
"Next time, don't make so much noise," Lily murmured with the same icy tone.
As the door shut, Lana replied with obvious sarcasm, "I'll try."
"Good morning!" Sirius greeted as Lana walked out into the common room.
"What's so good about it?"
"I made breakfast!" Sirius said as he shoved a plate of eggs with bacon that formed a smiley face in her face. "And it's happy to see you!" (a/n: anyone thinking Disney's Mulan when Mushu makes her porridge?)
Lana just stared at plate.
Sirius brought his arm and the plate closer to him and looked down as if examining it. "Well, actually, I didn't make it. The house-elves made it. But I did arrange the bacon in a happy face-type shape. And I did have them put it on this sort of pretty-looking plate."
"Is this supposed to be a turn-on, Sirius?" Lana asked, trying not to smile at how cute he was being.
"Can I at least get a smile. . ?"
"Sorry, love, smiling breakfasts just aren't my thing," Lana said, as a smile played around her lips.
"Oh, well, in that case, Oy Peter!!" Sirius called across the room. "Here, some girl wanted me to give this to you. It's an egg, and it's obviously happy to see you," Sirius said with much less enthusiasm as he handed the plate to Peter.
"A girl? Sent me some breakfast?" Peter asked looking rather amazed.
"Yeah, a girl. You know Wormtail, a member of the other major gender that isn't male. I know it's a first, but don't wet yourself over it."
Turning to Lana, Sirius asked with puppy-dog eyes, "Would a normal breakfast, one that doesn't smile, work?"
Lana couldn't hold her smile back any longer, "Sure," she said through a laugh.
In Sirius's eyes, breakfast went a lot better than his time with Lana yesterday. No one said anything about Sirius's dating past or any other girls for that matter. Come to think of it, no one said much of anything after Remus had told them some somewhat depressing news.
"Oh yeah," he began, "I'm supposed to tell everyone that they've switched Divination and Charms."
"What?!" Sirius said, hoping he'd heard Remus wrong.
"Yeah, now we've got Double Potions followed by Double Divination. But we will miss a Charms class."
James moaned, "Well there's no hope for staying awake today."
"You don't ever stay awake during any classes, mate." Sirius laughed.
"Oh. . .you're right. I guess I don't have a problem then do I?"
Standing up, Sirius picked up his books, "I'm going down early to get us a few tables in the back. Care to join me, Wright?" he said as he offered her his hand.
"Would you let me refuse?" Lana replied as she took his hand and stood up.
"Not at all. Anyone else coming?" Sirius said, wishing that no one else would come.
"I'm waiting for Evans, but save me a seat, Padfoot," James said, obviously picking up on the fact that Sirius wanted some one-on-one time with Lana.
"Still eating," said Remus, who didn't even look up from his plate.
"I'll come!" Peter exclaimed as he jumped up.
Remus grabbed the back of Peter's robes and pulled him back down to his seat. "No Wormtail, you're still eating, too."
Thankful Remus had stopped Peter, Sirius and Lana walked down to the dungeons. The halls were crowded but the people began to thin out as the two descended lower into the school. Turning into the hall that last hall before the Potions room, Sirius noticed that the corridor was empty, it was just him and Lana now.
"You're unusually quiet this morning, Sirius." Lana said as she slowed her walk and turned to face him.
"It's. . .nothing," he said, feeling himself inching slowly towards her.
"Oh come on, you can tell me. What's on your mind?" Lana whispered while she unknowingly backed away from Sirius. But corridors don't go on forever and she bumped into the wall.
"Really. . . it's. . ." Sirius stopped talking. He held Lana with his eyes as he slowly moved closer. She couldn't move away anymore, all she could do was gaze into his endless gray eyes.
-Damn. . .- Sirius thought, -that smile. . . -
Sirius was close enough now that he could feel Lana's body rise and fall as she breathed. Her perfume was intoxicating as he felt the sexual tension heightening. A shiver ran up his spine as he leaned in to kiss her lips. Lips that reflected the torch-light in a clear lipgloss. Everything about this girl was so inviting. . .
"You take blood-traitor to a new level, Black," said a voice from behind that made Sirius jump. But it was a voice that he would know anywhere.
"What do you want, Snape?" Sirius asked, slowly turning to face Snape.
Black and Snape stood even and could have been mistaken for brothers, not just for the physical similarities, but also for the deep loathing between the two. Snape's short, gently spiked hair contrasted the sleek, shoulder length hair that fell in front of Sirius's eyes but both wore his uniform with a dangerous, sexy edge. If Snape hadn't been such a self- proclaimed loner he could have had as good a standing with the ladies as Sirius or James.
"Oh nothing, Black, you've had a history with Mudbloods, but this time she's not even all human."
Lana's eyes that were formerly filled with hatred were now wide and full of shock. "How did you-. . ."
"Hhn," Snape snorted, "Screwing the cat-girl is a disgrace to your family, Black."
Sirius was now facing Snape, trying harder than ever not to punch him, "One, I don't give a damn about what my family thinks. And two, don't ever talk about Lana like that."
"Or you'll what? Send your precious posse after me? Or maybe you'll wise up and stop fucking the Mudbloods and half humans." Snape sneered. A cocky grin spread across his face as he folded his hands casually behind his head.
Without warning, Sirius grabbed Snape's collar and threw him up against the wall. Snape moved as quickly as Sirius had and firmly gripped the wrists that were holding him an inch or two off the ground. "I told you Snivellus, don't talk about Lana like that, or you'll have to answer to me."
Sirius let go of Snape and started to walk of with Lana who was now eyeing Snape with a deep hatred.
"Half-human whore," Snape muttered.
Lana's ears pricked up as she turned around and punched Snape's left cheek. Lana stood over Snape as he lay sprawled on the floor and wiping a trickle of blood off his mouth. ". . .bastard. . ." she growled as she walked off.
"You'll pay for this, Wright," Snape muttered when he thought Sirius and Lana were out of hearing range. But he had forgotten about Lana's ears.
Sirius walked into the Potion's dungeon and took his customary seat next to James in the back of the room. The entire class was buzzing about Lana's punch. Several Gryffindors congratulated her while the Slytherins just gave her stares that would have been her untimely end if looks could kill. Even Lily said a few words to Lana, despite the fact they obviously still weren't talking. Their reasoning for not talking continued to baffle Sirius, he wasn't even sure he knew the whole story, so he tried not to spend too much time pondering the odd ways of girls.
Class started as Lana and Remus sat down at the table next to Sirius and James. After Professor Warreck had given out the class assignment (create an advanced Vanishing Potion), Lana and Remus were back to discussing the previous events as James and Sirius were concerning themselves with some unsavory looks coming from the opposite side of the classroom.
"You see that, mate?" Sirius said to James while keeping his eyes focused on the Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy. "I'd say those two aren't too happy."
James looked up from his work, "That's odd, Snape looks normal, if you ask me."
"What d'you mean?" Sirius inquired, his eyes finally leaving the two Slytherins.
"Well, Snape looks like he does everyday. Except for that welt on his face, of course. But he doesn't seem to give a shit that Lana just beat his ass in front of everyone."
Sirius glanced back to the left side of the room, "God, that's weird. You'd think he'd be pissed."
"Malfoy looks more offended than Snape does, and he wasn't even there." James said as he turned back to his work.
"What d'you say we put this potion to the test, aye James-ey boy?" Sirius said as that oh-so-familiar grin spread across his face.
"Sounds good to me," James laughed as he handed Sirius a small vial filled with blue liquid.
"Done already?" Sirius asked as he gave the vial a shake, "Brilliant. I'd say that's record time for you."
James gave a cocky shrug, "What can I say? I'm good."
"Oh James," Sirius cooed.
"Yes?" James replied as he leaned back in his chair, hands folded behind his head as if he were at the beach laying in the sun.
"Your ego's showing, mate."
James sat forward, "Hah. Very funny." James pulled out his wand, "Now for putting that on the cauldron. Just be ready to get over there."
Leaning over his desk, James aimed his wand at the front left corner of the room, muttered a few words, then went back to his relaxed position. "Get ready."
A few seconds later an ear-splitting scream startled everyone. Katherine Levine, a good looking Slytherin, jumped out of her seat and ran over to the wall. Her partner, Amie Faucet , quickly followed suit and joined Levine at the wall. Everyone jumped up to see what was the matter with the two girls to discover a large swarm of roaches crawling around the floor. Every Slytherin male raced to the girls' aid and, forgetting they had wands, began madly stomping roaches. A few Gryffindors, hoping to gain favor in the Levine and Faucet's eyes, ran over to stomp the roaches and Sirius saw his chance. He casual walked over to the Slytherin side of the room and, while stomping stray roaches, poured the contents of the vial onto the side of Malfoy and Snape's cauldron. Luckily, Malfoy was busy flirting with Levine, who he had probably already nailed, and Snape, who showed no interest in stomping bugs, was too engrossed in his book to notice the slip of Sirius's hand.
Sirius turned and walked back to his seat and gave a confused Lana, Remus, and Peter (who was sitting at the table in front of Lana and Remus) a wink. Tossing the empty bottle at James, Sirius took his seat and assumed James relaxed position.
"All done. So how long before it works," he said as he glanced over to Snape's cauldron.
"Give it a few minutes," James said. "Most cauldrons have a protective charm on the inside, but normally the outside doesn't have one."
Sirius eyed his friend, "Don't ever sound that smart again."
James laughed, "At least I know what I'm doing. If it weren't for me, I'd say you'd still be figuring out how to get the potion on the cauldron."
"Are you insulting me?" Sirius grinned as he picked up the bottle, "I think we need to give this potion a little test run," he laughed as he turned the empty vial over, pretending to pour Vanishing Potion on James's crotch.
James quickly grabbed the bottle out of Sirius's hand. "Oh no you don't, no vanishing the family jewels, I need those."
"No you don't," Sirius laughed, "from what I hear, Evans still hates you."
"Shove it, Padfoot."
But their argument was interrupted by Malfoy's icy voice. "Damn it, Snape, where the hell is our cauldron?!"
Snape looked up from his book with a glare as cold as Malfoy's voice, "Hell if I know. Maybe if you weren't busy mixing business with pleasure you'd have seen where it went to."
Professor Warreck, who had just finished cleaning up the smushed roach mess, walked over to table with the missing cauldron. "What's the matter Mr. Malfoy?"
"Our cauldron," he said, trying to control his apparent anger, "is gone, sir."
"That's impossible. These cauldrons have a protective charm, the potion wouldn't have vanished the cauldron." Professor Warreck said and upon hearing this James elbowed Sirius's side.
"Mr. Snape, did you see your cauldron vanish?" Warreck asked.
"No, I didn't. And if I did, it wouldn't matter. It'd still be gone."
Warreck turned his attention to the rest of the class. "Did anyone see Mr. Snape and Mr. Malfoy's cauldron and it's contents vanish?"
"I saw Sirius Black walk over to it," Amie Faucet said.
Sirius sat forward, "What?" he said while acting like he'd been falsely accused, "I just wanted to help you get rid of those roaches. Since you seemed so distressed and all."
Amie glared at him, "Well I didn't need your help," she mumbled a little to loudly.
Sirius smirked, "It appears that you did, though. From the way you and Levine clung to that wall I'd say you needed all the help you could have gotten."
"That's enough," Warreck said. "Does anyone have proof that Mr. Black poured Vanishing Potion on the cauldron?"
Of course everyone knew it had been Sirius and James, but without any proof no one could touch them.
"Well, since no one has proof, I'm afraid I can't do anything," Warreck sighed. "Everyone turn in a sample of their potion then clean up. Mr. Snape and Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid I can't do anything but give you a zero for today's assignment since you have nothing to turn in."
At that Malfoy shot Sirius and James one of the most evil glares they had ever received from the long haired blonde, it was definitely among the top 10 on the "Evil Looks Given From Lucius Malfoy" chart. Snape on the other hand, glance over at the laughing duo then turned his attention back to his book. He apparently didn't seem do care that his potion had just disappeared and gotten him a zero for the day.
-Fuck. Why doesn't he care?- Sirius thought, trying not to show how much Snape's indifference bothered him.
While Sirius and James (trailed closely by Peter) reveled in the glory of their prank, Lana and Remus walked towards the Astronomy Tower for a wonderful dose of Double Divination.
"I should have dropped this class when I had the chance," Lana sighed.
"Oh come on, I always find it refreshing to learn that I could die in seven different ways this week," Remus laughed.
"True, predicting my own death due to the odd alignment of Venus and London is always a blast."
Remus changed the subject back to Snape, "So no one else, besides me and now Snape, knows that your only half-human?"
"I think I liked the subject of my death better," Lana said with a chuckle. "But yea, I didn't tell anyone, except you of course. Everyone just thinks I look like a cat, but not that I've actually got feline DNA. That's why it shocked me when he called me 'half-human.'"
Remus nodded and looked like he was lost in his own thought.
-He acts like he genuinely cares- Lana thought. -I guess he understands my problems though, we're both in the same boat. He's a werewolf and I'm half-cat.-
Maybe that's why their friendship had deepened in the past weeks. Lana felt, even though she had really known Remus for a few weeks, that she could tell him anything and he would somehow understand.
-Well, almost anything.- Lana laughed inwardly as she imagined talking to Remus about things that she would normally talk to Lily about. Boys, how much her period made her want to die, more boys, and girl stuff in general. She really couldn't imagine Remus sitting up at all hours of the night giggling about nothing.
God, she really missed Lily.
After dinner Lana decided to head to the library to start research on her Divination essay. Three pieces of parchment on the history of star- gazing would be no problem. If you found the right book it was just copying paragraphs while changing around some words, of course.
While walking down the corridor Lana caught up with Lily.
"What do you want?" Lily grumbled.
"I'm just going to the library, if that's alright with her majesty."
The two walked in silence the rest of the way. It was awkward but Lana couldn't think of something to say. She wasn't going to apologize. After all, the way she saw it, she had nothing to apologize for. So as a result of stubbornness neither said a word.
As they neared the intersection of the corridor they were traveling by and the one that went to the library Lana heard four familiar voices.
"So what'd she say the second time you talked to her?" a voice Lana recognized as Sirius said.
"She said she'd go with me but I don't think she was too happy," James said.
"When? The first time or second time you talked to her?"
Lana looked over at Lily and for a brief moment the two put aside their differences, walked up towards the corner of the wall (out of the Marauders' range of vision) and stood quietly listening to the conversation that was unfolding.
"Eh, the first time was weird. We had a decent conversation, then I asked her and she freaked. Something how I didn't care and just wanted to ask her to the dance. The second time, she said she was sorry for snapping, something about not feeling like talking at the time, and that she'd go with me." James said.
"I still don't think what you two did was right," Remus said, speaking for the first time since Lana and Lily had started eavesdropping.
"What'd they do?" Peter asked.
"Honestly Wormtail, sometimes I wonder whether you pay attention to anything," Sirius said.
"James had Sirius ask Lana to the dance thinking that if Lana went with Sirius Lily would go with James," Remus said, "And like I said, you should never have done it."
Lana felt like she had just been hit by a truck. He had only asked her so Lily would go with James. She'd trusted him.
Lana could feel Lily's stare and she turned to meet a pained face.
"Lana. . . I'm so sorry," Lily said and pulled her friend into a hug.
Everything that had happened, the fighting and the not talking was gone as tears rolled down Lana's face. She pulled away from Lily and dried her cheek. The shock had worn off and now she just wanted to beat Sirius into oblivion. She hated James as well. She hated both of them for thinking they could use her.
Lana dropped her messenger bag and rounded the corner. Walking at a fast pace she had one intention and one intended target. She had forgotten she was wearing her pajamas, baggy black cotton pants and a black tank top, not ideal clothes for getting into a fight in, and walked fearlessly up to James and Sirius. They wore expressions of pure shock that had covered their faces since they saw her come around the corner. Remus, who could see how angry she was, had backed away and was followed by Peter, leaving Sirius and James standing side-by-side in the middle of the corridor.
"Don't you ever think you can fucking use me again," Lana growled as she punched Sirius and without giving James time to react turned and caught his jaw before he could speak.
Both boys stumbled back, Sirius clutching his cheek and James massaging his jaw.
"Damn girl. . ." James managed to say while rubbing his jaw.
Lana turned to Sirius, "You're lucky I don't rip you to pieces right here and now."
Sirius smiled, "Aw, you wouldn't do that, Art."
-Wrong move-
Lana took a step towards Sirius and this time punched the other side of his face. He stumbled back and Lana grabbed his throat just under his chin and held him against the wall.
"You don't know what I'd do, Black."
Despite Lana's tight grip on his throat Sirius managed to speak, "I love a girl that could kick my ass."
Lana gave a disgusted sigh, let go of his throat, and walked towards the corridor she just came from.
James looked up to see Lily standing by Lana and looking just as pissed off. Lana threw her bag over her shoulder and with one last glare both turned and walked towards the Gryffindor tower.
"I'd have to say you're screwed, mates," Remus said quietly.
--
So how was that? 9 pages (on Word, times new roman, pt 10) of fanfiction. . . .it took me long enough, anyway. I must apologize again for not having updated in a while. Finals really threw me off, then I hurt my hand so I couldn't type for a while, but I'm back and I've got Chapter 7 written already. I'm not going to post it until I get a few more reviews. It'll be up soon though.
Oh yea, I took the liberty of going with a not-so-common version of Snape. He's got Donnie Darko-Jake Gyllenhaal looks with the ever attractive loner personality (well, not so great in this chapter, but we'll be seeing more of him at a later date.)
And in response to one of my friend's constant question: I finally figured out how to describe how I envision Sirius. (All you Cowboy Bebop fans will know who I'm talking about) I've always pictured Sirius as a younger Vicious, only with black hair, of course. Well that's all for now, please do comment, it makes me feel good.
Elveren