CHAPTER 6
"So are you and Remus like that too? And James?" Charisma asked, breaking the silence that followed after Angela explained Sirius and Isabella's relationship. Angela had picked up her quill immediately afterwards and was scrawling away once again.
"Like what?" she asked, not looking up.
"Like Sirius and Isabella."
"Oh." She laughed lightly, a sound that annoyed the already tense Charisma deeply, "Don't worry about James, he's not like that. The most harm that would come out of your relationship is if some crazed, lovesick Hufflepuff hexes you…but that's only happened twice. And Remus and I aren't together." She added, hastily picking up her quill.
"Oh, I'm sorry. That was really inconsiderate, did you break up recently?" she prompted after quickly weighing whether it was wise to seem nosey or not.
"No, I meant that we've never been together either…" she said, staring at Charisma intently for a reaction.
"Really? It always seemed like it though. You guys are around each other a lot… and last night in the common room when you two fought… I've seen his arm around you sometimes… and it just seemed like…" She rambled on apologetically, succeeding in sounding like an embarrassed simpleton.
"Well, I don't know… sometimes it seems like he's got a thing for me but then out of nowhere he sort of freezes up and acts just like everyone else. I don't know how to talk to him about it because he might not have even noticed that he was acting like that. Besides, it might mess up our friendship and…I like him." She finished sadly, suddenly deeply interested in the cuff of her sleeve. There was a moment of silence and then Charisma drew up her chair and hugged her awkwardly. After flinching at the unexpected touch, Angela warmed up to it.
"I think he likes you too, Angie, and I bet he'll tell you soon. I mean, he asked you to the ball, didn't he? Maybe he thinks you don't like him back…" she said, as she pulled away, hoping this was reassurance.
"I hope you're right." She replied, smiling. She stared off into space for a few minutes while Charisma fidgeted in her chair, watching her. She had nothing to do and would have liked very much to leave.
"Why don't we go for a walk?" she suggested, bringing Angela back from her daydream with a start. She looked around frantically, wide-eyed and bewildered. Charisma frowned, slightly alarmed.
"Angela…?" she asked, sincere for once. She started again when she heard her name and her eyes settled on Charisma. Then, after registering who the person sitting in front of her was, she took a deep breath. She stood up hastily and grabbed the book she had been reading, folded the parchment in between the pages, and pocketed her quill.
"Yes, lets go for a walk. But first we'll go to the common room, I need to put this away." Charisma rose silently, still eyeing her strangely.
"Are you okay?"
"Of course…" she answered looking at her from the corner of her eye, as though nothing had happened and as though Charisma were a bit dim for asking such a thing out of nowhere. They walked towards the exit, Angela relaxed, Charisma confused. They passed by a table that had obviously been moved so that it was well hidden by a bookshelf from Madam Jont's desk. On the edge of it sat Isabella, deeply immersed in a passionate kiss, one hand running through Craig Pierce's dark brown hair, the other on his buff chest. He had both of his arms around her and Charisma watched, astonished as he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss, if that was possible.
"C'mon." Angela grabbed Charisma's hand and pulled her away from the scene she was gaping at, "Really that was actually faster than usual for Izzy. And she stayed in the library for once, I'm surprised." She added, sounding amused.
"We're going for a walk, Izzy, meet us there if you like!" she called over her shoulder when they had walked about ten paces away from them. They heard an irritated "Shhh!!" from Madam Jont followed by a muffled "okay" of consent as they walked out of the library.
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"There you are, Lily. What took you so long? We called you at least five minutes ago." Remus said pleasantly as soon as Lily walked in. She crossed to the empty chair facing him and sat down slowly.
"Well, Vanessa pushed the portrait into me when she walked out and I needed a moment to recover from the shock of being thrown on the ground by a wooden frame twice my size." She answered sardonically, hoping Remus hadn't witnessed what really happened in the short time that Vanessa had kept the portrait open and when she and Amir kissed.
"What a pity." He answered, his eyebrows raised.
"I know, you really shouldn't walk out of the portrait hole backwards…"
"Yeah, you might knock someone right into the arms of the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain and set them up to snog passionately…" he said, watching her blush faintly.
"You could see us?" she asked stupidly. He rolled his eyes.
"No, I've become like Angela and I foresaw it. I thought I'd come down here to greet you afterwards."
"We were not snogging, it was just a kiss. Anyway, did the whole common room see us?" she asked, ignoring his bit of sarcasm and wondering if Peter was in here.
"No, I was the only one sitting close enough to have the pleasure. You're lucky Sirius or James weren't here to make great fun out of it." He added, "I assume you're not depressed about the ball anymore?"
"Did James tell the whole world?" she said, leaning back in her chair, annoyed.
"No, just me and Sirius…"
"Same thing, I'm sure you've all done your duties in spreading the news." She said dryly.
"Who cares if everyone finds out. They'll all be disappointed tomorrow when they see you with Amir."
"But I'm not going with Amir, I'm still going with Peter." She replied, frustrated.
"That's absurd." He crinkled a brow, it was his turn to be annoyed.
"Give me a break Remus."
"But how can you go to the ball with Peter when it seems like you're going out with Amir."
"What am I supposed to do? Do you want me to go up to him and say 'I'm sorry Peter, but now that I've found someone better to go with to the ball, I guess you're on your own. See ya!' You were there when he asked me, Remus, and I'm sure you remember how idiotic he looked and how embarrassing it would have been if I had refused. Now think how much worse he'll feel if I take it back!" She cried, letting out all of her bottled rage from the day's events in one breath. Remus had an unreadable expression on his face and remained silent, not taking his eyes off of hers.
"He's told everyone about it, hasn't he? Has Peter told everyone that I'm his date?" she asked despairingly after a minute. He nodded. She sighed.
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I don't know how to deal with it without hurting Peter. I guess I'll go with him, dance with him a couple of times and then go dance with Amir. If he finds us then I'll switch again… Amir already knows I'm going with Peter and he's going with Leila, you know, that Ravenclaw that's always trying to get Sirius' attention in Transfiguration."
"Oh her…" he grimaced, then put on a shrill voice, highly unlike his own, " 'Hey, Sirius, did you know that both my cousin and I were born under your constellation?' and 'Oh my god, Sirius, look how much my porcupine looks like yours! We're both so good at this!' " Lily laughed and his voice back to normal now, "How she thinks that would interest him is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, your plan sounds good. Don't worry, maybe we can distract Peter. Or else you can invite Amir to our table when we eat. I don't think it'll be much of a problem." She nodded slowly trying to imagine dinner. They would all be at the same table, Remus and Angela, her and Peter, Amir and Leila, Sirius and Isabella, and James and Charisma…
"Remus, what do you think of Charisma?" She asked, after some speculation on whether she should recount their conversation from earlier to him. It would depend on what he thought of her.
"I don't know. She seems nice enough, we haven't known her for more than a few days so we can't judge can we? Why?"
She had every right to judge, she thought.
"You know, just wondering if she's a good match for our dear James." She smiled. He grinned but then looked at something over her shoulder.
"Where have you guys been? Are you ready?" he called suddenly to someone behind her. Lily craned her head to see Sirius and James walking towards them, three broomsticks between them. Sirius handed the one in his right hand to Remus, who stood up.
"We were just adding the stuff we told you about before." He explained casually.
"Lily, we're going to play some Quidditch. Want to join us?" Remus asked as the others turned to her.
"Four people? Two to a team?" she asked uncertainly.
"Good work, Lily. You divided right this time!" James exclaimed, smiling proudly. She slapped his arm.
"Nah, Vanessa and Giselle are playing too and we need another player. Come with us, unless you want us to use Peter and ruin the odds for the team he's on." Sirius added as an afterthought. Remus scowled at him and he grinned.
"Yeah, I'll play. Accio Jade!" she said, relieved that they hadn't invited Charisma.
"Jade? You named your broomstick?" James asked, disbelief etched on his face as a slender Silver Arrow 3 stopped in front of Lily.
"Yeah, I've always wanted to name my daughter that, if I ever have one." She said as they walked out of the common room and descended the same staircase Vanessa had earlier.
"Where did you get that name?" Sirius asked curiously.
"Oh… this book called Las Pasiones de-"
"Occidentales; una historia de amor." Sirius finished for her. He grinned at the surprised look on her face. "Izzy made me read it sometime after Christmas." He explained.
"But you don't know Spanish." Lily stated, "Did she give you a translator spell?"
"Yeah, it took her an hour to perform it on the whole book. It kept translating into German."
"Yeah, that kept happening when she did it for me too, except it was in some unreadable language. Looked like hieroglyphics… So did you like it?"
"I enjoyed the countless sex scenes."
She laughed, "And what about the story itself?"
"It was very unlikely." He answered thoughtfully,
"Ahem." Remus cleared his throat, "We would like to be a part of this conversation."
"Yes, now what are we talking about?" James asked as they turned towards the Quidditch field. They could see Giselle and Vanessa waiting for them there.
"This book Isabella made me read. It was about this Spanish guy who becomes a foreign exchange student to Morocco and he meets a Moroccan girl while he studied there and they fall in love but he keeps denying it and runs away because he thinks he doesn't deserve her because of his evil past. Thirty years later he bumps into her and finds out that she married a rich, evil bastard. They have an affair and he plots to kill rich, evil bastard. Rich, evil bastard dies and they get back together. They live happily ever after and have kids inexplicably in their fifties. The end. Unrealistic, bad plot, the only credit I would give the author was that she had a great descriptive style." Sirius explained while Lily glared at him playfully when he criticized the plot. They had reached the stands where Vanessa and Giselle were waiting impatiently with Peter.
"What took so long?" Giselle asked, standing up immediately and rushing down to where they were, broomstick in tow.
"Nothing. We found another player." James replied, waving a hand in Lily's direction. Giselle glanced at her briefly before turning back to James.
"We looked everywhere for Charisma…"
"Hmm… she wasn't in the common room and we didn't see her on the way here." James replied thoughtfully.
"So what about the teams? Boys against girls?" Sirius grinned as Vanessa and Peter joined them.
"That wouldn't be fair at all, you'd beat us for sure!" Vanessa replied, laughing at the ridiculous idea.
"What are you talking about? We could beat them in a second!" Lily stepped up, indignant that Vanessa would put them down like that.
"Yeah, you would," Giselle continued matter-of-factly, as if she hadn't heard Lily, "Remus, James, and I'll make one team, I have to be beater though, I suck at anything else, and Vanessa, Sirius, and Lily can make the other." The boys exchanged glances while Lily glared at her for her rudeness.
"And you, Peter? Aren't you going to play?" Lily asked, unable to ignore his gawking at her any longer.
"No, I think I'll just watch and keep score." He said, surprisingly calm, walking back to the stands. He climbed back to the seat he was in before, high up and almost parallel to the goal posts, and pulled a large briefcase to the seat next to his.
"Okay, Giselle, I guess you're beater, I'll be chaser and Remus can be keeper." James ordered naturally, they nodded and mounted their brooms. Lily turned to her team.
"I'm no good at anything but chaser." She declared.
"I'm fine with anything." Sirius said, gentlemanlike, turning to Vanessa.
"I think I'll be keeper." She decided cheerfully.
"Well, I'm beater on the team so I can do that best here too. Lets mount." Sirius said. They mounted their broomsticks and the two teams faced each other. Remus grinned.
"How did you get two girls to yourself, Sirius? James and I have to share." He complained jocularly. Sirius grinned complacently and they took off on the count of three. Peter opened the briefcase and threw one bludger up into the air that Sirius flew up to and smacked immediately. After throwing up the quaffle, he threw himself on the case and struggled to close it before the other balls escaped and the game began.
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