A/N: Sorry that took a while. But hopefully this next installment will meet and exceed your expectations, and you will review accordingly. If you do not I shall cry, and the sight of me crying is not exactly pretty. So bearing all this in mind...
Chapter 14: The Mauraders
The Marauders? Emily had a sinking suspicion that this had something to do with those nick names they used for each other. She couldn't count the number of times she'd asked about them and had never gotten a straight answer. It was always: "It's a long story".
Honestly could a girl find out anything with out having to eavesdrop?
(Not that she minded to tell the truth. Her uncle wouldn't be pleased about it, which was always a good thing).
"First topic of discussion," James said with mock seriousness
"And the entire reason we can't meet in the dormitory." Sirius said with an odd look at Remus, who obviously felt the need to defend himself.
"It's not her fault!" he said "And we could have met up there if we'd told her the truth from the beginning."
"Oh, please moony, just because you've fallen head over heels for her doesn't give her the right to know everything." Sirius said quite sullenly.
"That isn't the point." James whispered frantically, clearly hoping to avoid the issue of telling Emily the truth whatever it was. Apparently Remus was not the only one that felt a certain moral ambiguity about hiding things from her.
"The point is how are we supposed to get her out of there?" James, Peter, and Remus all looked at each other hoping for some sort of answer.
Well! Emily thought indignantly. It was certainly nice to know that they were all so eager to be rid of her.
Though to tell the truth, she was not all that eager to leave. In fact she might just down right refuse and stay in the dormitory her entire life. What was stopping her?
(Aside from the obvious obstacles of clothing, food, and the fact that the school would be empty in a month due to summer holiday. But she could work around all that...)
Sirius leaned back on his chair not looking in the least bit worried.
"Well, it's obvious isn't it? There's a hogsmead visit this weekend." The others looked at him intently.
She could tell that two of them knew what he was suggesting and were quite hesitant about it. Peter though, apparently hadn't caught on, "And...?" He asked bewildered.
"And..." Sirius answered with impatient ebb to his voice "We throw the invisibility cloak over her and send her back to the woods where we found her."
Whatever strange and oddly endearing feelings Emily had harbored for Sirius Black vanished at that moment and were replaced by nothing but the up most contempt.
Not for the first time since she'd been there she was forced to listen to them talk about her as if she were some stray animal they had picked up off the side of the road.
"Just like that?" Remus asked alarmed.
"Have you got a better solution?" Sirus asked sharply.
"We can't just drop her out into the forest on her own! She's not an animal!"
Once again Remus Lupin had the courtesy to voice exactly what Emily was thinking.
"Besides it's far too soon." He added as an after note.
"Well we'd bettered make a decision quick!" Peter quipped. "We need to get onto the important stuff. Personally, I agree with Sirius. I mean She can't stay here much longer can she?"
"Well...no." Remus conceded quietly, but then he opened his mouth again for one last stab at a defense. "But we should...wait. I mean her legs not completely healed yet..." He added quite lamely.
She could tell that he was searching desperately for any reason that would allow her to stay. How romantic!
"Oh come on moony! Both you and I know there's nothing wrong with her leg." Sirius said quite bitterly, now fighting to keep his voice down.
"Even I don't know what you're talking about padfoot. Her leg was broken when we brought her here." James said bewildered.
"Oh, you didn't see her up there just now, prongs. She looked perfectly fine to me." He said the last bit sharply to Remus.
"Yes...but...but she only took a few steps up there." Remus said once again unconvincingly.
"Look, moony." James began. "I know you like her and all, but Sirius's right. She can't stay here her whole life. I mean what happens when summer comes? Are you going to find away of staying alone with her, here for three months?" James said this with a cynical laugh.
Remus's expression was now one of almost blissful thought. Emily could tell that that idea of spending three months alone with her was not exactly unappealing to him. Not that she would be complaining either...
"Don't answer that." Sirius said suddenly correctly interpreting his friend's expression.
"Besides sooner or later someone's bound to find out about her." James continued.
"Yeah. We can't make up a story big enough to cover this up." Peter reasoned.
It finally seemed to become clear to Remus that he was fighting a losing battle.
"So that's it? We just leave her there on her own?" He asked the others quietly. Sirius was the only one who didn't look at least slightly sympathetic.
"Well, she's far from defenseless." Sirius said with a slight laugh that sounded more like a bark.
He apparently still didn't grasp the meaning of chivalry. It didn't matter if she could take care of herself, it was basic principle: a lady is never meant to be stranded with out an escort.
"How do you know that?" Remus asked sharply once again.
"Well she's got two of us under her thumb hasn't she? It's gotten to the point where wormtail and I are the only sane one's left." Sirius said with a now strangely sullen look at James.
Peter seemed to sell with pride.
"What do you mean?" James said suddenly defensively.
"Don't pretend like we haven't noticed prongs. Your whole attitude's changed since she's been here." Sirius answered.
Emily knew that by we Sirius was referring only to himself, because the other two looked slightly bewildered as their eyes wandered back and forth from Sirius to James.
"What are you talking about?" James was failing miserably at being non- chalant about this particular topic.
"I'm talking about how you've suddenly taken to going straight up to the dorm room every night. Not to mention the Evans thing..." Sirius trailed off.
"What Evans thing?" James demanded, his ears turning slightly pink.
"The following Evans around like some love sick puppy dog thing." Sirius answered.
"We know you've always fancied her, but now it's getting ridiculous! You're positively drooling all over her! And I know that Gardner's got something to do with it."
"Oh don't be absurd! James Potter does not drool over any one." James said, his face now entirely scarlet.
"God I wish you could see yourself!" Sirius said with the slightest hint of a laugh.
"Look it doesn't matter!" Remus said quickly.
"It matters more than you think it does." Sirius said in a now significant whisper.
"I read the rest of the letter moony. You were two steps away from admitting to the girl that you're a werewolf!"
What? What was he talking about?
Surely it was a metaphor of some kind, and not a very good one at that. Emily had never in her life met any one less wolfish than Remus Lupin. The idea was absolutely laughable!
"Would you keep your voice down?" Remus implored with a quick check behind him.
Wait... if it was a metaphor then why was he acting so jumpy about it? It...it couldn't be true. Could it?
"Besides, it's not as if she was ever going to read it."
Werewolves were not real. Were they?
"Oh, no. It's much better to have Snape find it for her..." Sirius said sarcastically.
Then again, this world was very different from the world she knew. But still, Remus?
"He's been particularly interested in where you go to once a month, I hope you've noticed." Sirius continued.
Once a month. The full moon came once a month. But that meant...
"And since you seem to be so keen on telling the truth, to every one who wants to know..." Sirius trailed off almost threateningly.
"You wouldn't dare!" Remus whispered frantically, his eyes wide.
It was true!
"Oh wouldn't I?" Sirius whispered with a triumphant smirk.
She had fallen in love with a werewolf!
Emily gasped aloud, but quickly covered her hand with her mouth. The four boys turned around. After a rather tense moment all of them seemed to agree that the muffled sound had been nothing.
"Listen." James said finally. "We can't argue about this all night. The full moon's tomorrow and we haven't even got the map out yet. If we don't start looking at it we won't have a clue as to what we're..."
"Oh no!" Remus exclaimed.
"Don't tell me. You forgot the map." Sirius said with a weary eye roll.
"I must've left it in my bag upstairs." Remus said beginning to get up from the table.
Emily began to walk towards the stair well in order to get back before Remus, when she heard Sirius Black say,
"No. I'll get it. If you go we won't be able to expect you down until morning."
Perfect, Emily thought frantically as she nearly ran up the stairs. She was once again about to find herself alone in the dorm room with Sirius Black.
As she threw open the door and closed it once again quietly behind her, and idea struck her.
She took off the invisibility cloak, laid it on her bed and then climbed under the covers.
After all, that rather awkward situation with Sirius had taken place while she was a wake. Surely she couldn't do anything to subconsciously embarrass herself while she was "asleep".
So as she heard his footsteps come closer to the door, She turned on her side facing the door so that he would be sure to see her. (Another thing about acting her mother had taught her: play to your audience.) and quickly closed her eyes a second before Sirius came in.
She heard his footsteps stop for a moment before walking briskly to the side of her bed where Remus had left his bag.
"Oh, yes. You look so innocent lying there don't you?" Sirius muttered, clearly under the impression that she couldn't hear him.
Bastard.
She could hear him rummaging through the bag looking for the map...whatever that was.
"But don't think I don't know what you're trying to do, 'cause I'm watching you every second I can." He muttered again once she'd heard that he had retrieved something from the bag.
Emily stifled a snigger. Considering that he hadn't even caught on to the fact that she had been following the four of them in James's invisibility cloak, he was obviously not as observant as he liked to believe.
"In fact, I'll bet you're not even asleep."
Damn. Why did he have to do that? Well, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was right. Her eyes stayed resolutely tight and she lay almost as still as if she were dead.
"Well, maybe not." He concluded.
Ha! Once again she'd proved herself a better actress than most of those idiots back home thought her to be.
"But that doesn't mean that there's nothing calculating going on in that sweet little head of yours." He said maliciously.
"You're probably dreaming of turning us all into, perfect, gentlemanly, robots. Well I've got news for you. It's not going to work."
She turned "in her sleep" to keep Sirius from seeing the smile that appeared on her lips. He was afraid of her! Underneath all that cool, charming, arrogant, exterior, lay the heart of someone who was just as insecure as anyone else. It was sort of...sweet, to tell the truth.
(Okay maybe not quite. He was still arrogant after all...)
She heard him take a couple hesitant steps backward, when she turned. But when she lay still again, she could hear his shoe's coming closer to the bed.
"Still," He said after a second. "I can see what Remus meant. You are quite attractive..."
She tried very hard to remind herself to breath as she felt him lean over her and touch her cheek.
Just as he removed his hand from her cheek, she heard the door open.
"Padfoot..." Remus's voice began, but stopped very suddenly.
"What are you doing?" He asked in a very fierce whisper.
She heard Sirius move very quickly away from her bed.
"I...er...got the map." Sirius said sounding uncharacteristically flustered.
"You'll wake her up." Remus said coolly. His voice was nearing the spot that Sirius had just left. His hands reached her covers, straightening them unnecessarily.
Then, apparently losing all the nervous energy that he displayed around her when she was awake, he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
It was almost as if he were marking her as his. He was proving to Sirius that she was off limits. Emily wondered vaguely if this was a werewolf thing...
" Come on then." Sirius said, sounding slightly ashamed as his footsteps sounded towards the door.
"Good night Emily." Remus whispered, before following Sirius and closing the door behind him.
Emily briefly considered following them.
She still didn't know everything.
But as she lay in bed, she had decided that she had learned quite enough for one night.
Even an actress could only take so much confusion. And everything she had just witnessed, certainly made for plenty of it.
Once again your reviews are very, very,very much appreciated! (I once again beg you to consider weather or not your eyes are strong enough to stand the sight of me crying...)