Sirius's Top Ten

Look at how nice and long this chapter is! And there's a reason why: the story is off hiatus, but because I have exams for the next week and half, it'll be at least that long before a new chapter is up. Sorry, but if I don't do well, my parents will take away my internet connection, and then where would we be? So wish me luck! Thanks to all my reviewers, it made me feel really special when I saw I had new ones.

J.K. Rowling owns every character, aside from Abby, Cass, Charlie, Oliver, Catherine, & anyone else not from the books.

Thoughts are in italics.

Chapter 14: Adventures on the Tube

"I am SO going!" Sirius gushed, prancing about the Gryffindor common room like a ditz, before shrieking loudly. "Ohmigod! What am I going to wear?"

"Black?" Cass suggested, looking up from one of Lily's muggle magazines, trying to find some examples of formal muggle wear.

Pretending she was addressing him, Sirius smiled daintily. "Yes, muffin?"

Cass opened her mouth to argue but Abby quickly intervened. "Stop it, Sirius. She's not in the mood."

"PMS again, eh?" Sirius asked with a smile and a wink.

"Do you even know what that means, Padfoot?" James asked with a bored tone, looking up from his quidditch magazine.

"Period Madness Sickness?" Sirius asked wildly, galloping in circles about the group.

Abby quirked a brow, almost certain that he was insane. Quite a few eyes were on the group, which was now thought to be very exclusive, and consist only of 'cool' people. Abby had laughed when she first heard a group of second-years talking about the requirements to get into the 'Marauder Posse.' Apparently it involved several tests, including jumping on broken glass, buying them all expensive presents, and winning a quidditch game against James and Sirius, which was pretty impossible.

"Abs, you going?" Cass asked, still reading her magazine and ignoring whoops from Sirius as he continued to gallop.

"Yeah. I'll have to make sure that someone gets my notes…" Abby began, before Cass giggled, and pointed to a picture in a magazine. The picture was of a skinny girl, with platinum blonde hair and dark roots, and at least an inch of eyeliner around her eyes. The girl's dress began very low on her chest, and only went down to her thighs… high up on her thighs.

"I hope Tig doesn't want us to wear stuff like that!" Cass laughed, causing Sirius to glance over their shoulders.

"I wouldn't mind." He offered with a hopeful grin, receiving disapproving looks from the two girls.

"Shut up, Padfoot." James said quietly, glancing up from his magazine again.

"Who put you in a bad mood?" Sirius whined, looking upset.

"He just misses his girlfriend." Peter squeaked from the corner, causing the entire group to look at him in shock and amazement.

"Wow, Peter… That has to be the most you've said to me since Christmas!" Sirius gasped.

The rest of the room had blank faces too. Peter had slowly drifted from the Marauders, hardly speaking to them unless to ask for help from Remus, and always off on errands or hanging out 'alone.' James, Sirius, and Remus had stopped calling him 'Wormtail' and hardly woke him up for their full moon adventures. [A/N: Serves him right! Stupid poo!]

"Well, I was just…" Peter began to ramble, his cheeks flushed, before gripping his arm in pain. Immediately James stood and came to Peter's side.

"You alright?" He asked with mild concern. He's your friend… you should be worried… really worried.

"Fine…" Peter muttered, looking up to see that the group was looking for an explanation. "I err… fell yesterday and cut my arm, it's infected."

"Can I see, Peter? I might be able to help, I want to be a healer at St. Mungo's when I graduate." Abby offered, standing and approaching him.

"No! No! I'm fine. I have to go." Peter said hurriedly, before darting out of the common room.

"That was weird. Oh well, do we know if he can come to Lily's?" Sirius asked, ending the awkward silence that had plagued the group after Peter's departure.

"He can't." Remus said weakly, joining the group. He looked very pale, and was clutching his stomach. Of course, only James and Sirius knew why. Abby immediately joined his side, kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Oh, Remy, you look awful." She said sympathetically as she wrapped her arms around Remus's shoulders. "Are you going to be able to come?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Remus said with a weak smile.

James and Sirius glanced worriedly at one another. The full moon was going to be the day they were to return to Hogwarts… If something happens, and we get held up…James thought to himself quietly, beginning to worry. There are tons of muggles where Lily lives…It could be serious trouble.

Cass, however, was oblivious to the fact that Remus was a werewolf, and turned into one every month during the full moon. She yawned softly, watching Abby and Remus quietly. "Do you know why Peter can't come?"

"He says McGonagall won't let him because his marks are too low. He can't afford to miss class." Remus explained, still feeling sick but enjoying the attention he was getting from Abby nonetheless.

"Alright, so it's me, Sirius, you – Remus, Cass, and Abby who are going. Right?"

"Yup." Cass agreed, offering James some parchment. "Obviously you'll want to write your girlfriend. Telling her that there are five of us coming, and how much you loooove her." She teased.

James blushed, and the group laughed.

Dear Lils,

We've talked it over and there are five of us coming, me, Remus, Sirius, Abby and Cass. Peter can't make it because McGonagall says he can't miss any class. Dumbledore has arranged for us to floo from his office to the Leaky Cauldron, where he hopes you can pick us up, or at least give us instructions to get there some other way. He won't open up your house to the floo network because he's worried about Voldemort and his anti-muggle stupidity.

That's about all, we're flooing tomorrow morning, around nine o'clock. Hope you can make it.

Love, James.

"I didn't bug you about YOUR 'family affair'!" Cass's angry voice echoed through the hallways of Hogwarts, causing most of the school to pause, and curiously wait for the other half of the conversation.

"MY family affair was DIFFERENT!" Amos Diggory replied, at the same volume.

"How so?!?" Cass retorted.

"MY family affair WASN'T some stupid funeral for a muggle!" he replied, instantly regretting wording it in that particular way. He had meant to say something along the lines of 'a muggle that you don't know!'

"Got a problem with muggles, have we?" Cass spat, her eyes filled with fury. "Well then I think I've got a problem with YOU, Diggory."

Without thinking, Cass flung her book bag at Diggory, narrowly missing his head, and turned on her heel and swept from the hallway and toward her next Charms class, Abby chasing after her awkwardly after collecting Cass's bag from the floor, and struggling under the combined weight of her own bag and Cass's.

Sirius snickered, having watched the whole scene from afar, quite pleased that Cass was finally done with Diggory… ONLY because she's my friend, and I care for her. He added mentally, although James did not miss his pleased look.

"You fancy her, don't you Padfoot?"

"Fancy who? Flemmings?"

"Yeah."

"No, I care for her well-being as a friend." Sirius muttered quickly. "We have to get to Charms, don't we?" he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Since when do you care if we get to class on time?" James asked slyly.

"Since you agreed to get your school-freak of a girlfriend notes from each class." Sirius replied smartly, causing James to pale, and throw himself recklessly up the stairs, towards Charms.

Dear James,

There's a schedule protest in near the Leaky Cauldron, so my parents and I won't make it through to pick you up at the Leaky Cauldron. You'll have to walk to the tube station (Abby can explain what the tube is, her dad's a muggle), and take the trains to Swiss Cottage station, where mum and me will pick you up there at nine o'clock. Abby should be able to figure out how to get there.

Love, Lily.

The next morning, five Gryffindor sixth years trudged out of the common room and down the stairs slowly, puffy-eyed and yawning. Apparently it would take them at least a half hour on 'the tube', and since Lily was meeting them there at nine, they would have to go earlier than expected. Cass's Muggle Studies teacher had been thrilled when she discovered that Cass, a pureblood, would be taking 'the tube', and had asked her to write a three-foot essay on what the experience was like.

As they reached the Entrance Hall, Sirius missed the last stair, and not fully awake, fell forward and knocked Cass to the floor with him.

"Geroff me!" Cass yelled from beneath Sirius, her voice muffled by Sirius's bag.

Hesitantly, only to annoy her of course, Sirius slowly pulled himself off her, before Cass threatened to 'knee him where it hurts', and she was definitely a good position to do so.

"I suggest you heed her warning, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said softly behind them, causing the group to turn and straighten up out of embarrassment. Cass flushed a nice shade of red, amazed she hadn't noticed the headmaster's presence, and embarrassed she had said such a thing around him. Dumbledore, however, just smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Are you ready to join Miss Evans?"

"Yes, Professor." Abby smiled timidly.

Dumbledore led the group up to his office, lighting a fire in his fireplace magically before retrieving some floo powder from a jar on the mantle.

"I am sure you all know how to use floo powder, so who's first?" he asked cheerily, offering out the jar.

"I'll go." James offered with a tired smile, finding it too early to be cheery. Taking a pinch of the mysterious powder, he tossed it into the fire, causing the flames to turn green and roar brightly. Not hesitating, James stepped into the fire, and clearly stated his destination. Closing his eyes as the world around him began to spin, James hummed softly to himself until he found himself landing on the floor of the Leaky Cauldron. A few wizards looked up for a moment, before returning to their business.

Seconds later, Sirius popped out from the fire, knocking James over, who hadn't moved. Cass soon joined the tangled pile of bodies on the floor, murmuring something about it being 'the second bloody time I've been beneath Sirius.' Things only complicated as Abby joined the pile and Cass tangled the group up further, trying to get near Sirius's face to slap him for saying something about it hopefully not being the last time she was beneath him. Remus emerged from the fire only seconds later, and was tripped into the pile by Cass as she swiped at Sirius. The end result did gather attention from wizards in the pub. Legs and arms were intertwined and sticking out at odd angles, and it took poor Tom, the new owner, about five minutes to sort them out.

"Thanks again." Abby said politely, her cheeks tinted pink, as she carried her bag out the door.

James, with Abby's help, had transfigured their trunks to look more like muggle suitcases, so they received no weird looks as they hefted large suitcases down the street, to a sign that was labelled 'Underground.'

"What the hell is that?" Sirius asked as he gasped for breath, having lugged both his suitcase, and Cass's (to make up for his previous comment) the past seven blocks – through the slushy snow.

"The tube." Abby replied simply, as if it were easy to understand her answer.

"Sadly, Abs, you're with a bunch of purebloods, you'll have to expand." Cass reminded.

"Don't you pay attention in Muggle Studies?" Remus asked incredulously. "It was on the exam last year. The 'tube' is the slang term muggles use for a system of underground trains that transport people around London."

"Knew I got that question wrong." Cass said with a grin.

Abby led the group down the stairs, and immediately made her way to a map, which the others could not understand. It was covered with dots and many different coloured lines, each of the dots being labelled.

"Alright, so we'll have to take the Piccadilly…" Abby muttered quietly to herself, causing Remus to smile proudly. He loved it when she did that – mutter to herself as she figured something out – plus she was the only one who knew what they were doing.

"Right, so we have to buy our passes…" Abby left the group for a moment and walked up to a rectangular box, and began punching a few buttons as James and Sirius watched curiously.

"Muggle contraption?" Sirius whispered, gasping slightly as bits of paper began emitting from it.

"S'ppose."

Once Abby had helped the entire group past the ticket booth, she led them down another flight of steps and on to the platform.

"Whoa, it's exactly like a train… but underground!" Sirius commented, surprised that muggles had come up with such a good idea.

"I'm glad you actually listened to my explanation, Padfoot." Remus muttered sarcastically.

"You know me, Moony, I like to figure things out on my own." Sirius replied gleefully as the train swept into the station.

"If only it didn't take so long for you to do so." Cass said with a sly grin, causing Sirius to drop his things and begin tickling her.

"GET ON THE TRAIN!" Abby roared, standing in the doorway as a beeping sound began, signalling that the door would be closing. Kicking their stuff onto the train, Sirius grabbed Cass by the wrist and yanked her in, just as the doors closed. The train car was silent, everyone gaping silently at the odd group.

Cass and Sirius were surprisingly obedient for the rest of the train ride, getting off promptly as they switched lines. Everyone was quite shocked at Abby's outburst; surprised the kind girl even had that sort of fire in her.

"Are we there yet?" Sirius whined as they stepped off their fourth train. Abby glared at him, before adding proudly, "Yes."

"Wahoo!" Sirius cheered triumphantly, causing many people to turn and look at Sirius with a confused expression, and Abby to glare at him again.

With newfound determination, the group quickly made their way up the stairs and out of the station. James checked his watch. It was nine thirty, so they were late.

A pair of hand covered his eyes, and he pushed them off with an annoyed manner. "Stop it, Padfoot, we're late and it's your fault, if you hadn't stopped for sweets twice… What are Lily's parents going to think? We're so late – "

"They're going to love you!" Lily said with a laugh, hugging James as he spun around. Abby shrieked and yanked Lily out of James's arms, pulling her into a big hug with Cass.

"You didn't tell me Evans wore stuff like that at home!" Sirius scolded, eying Lily with a mischievous grin.

James frowned, before realizing that she was dressed rather… oddly for January. She had a short, pleated white skirt on that ended mid-thigh, with a white top and a black jacket pulled over top. Lily's hair was straight, and pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head. She looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Why don't you wear stuff like that at school, Evans?" Sirius asked playfully as he hugged Lily.

"So I don't have to deal with boys like you." She replied, returning the hug. "I was playing tennis."

Aside from Abby, the group looked blank.

"Muggle sport. I played indoors, with an old friend." Lily added with a smile as James's mouth opened for a question.

"Shall we go then? I'm freezing!" Sirius muttered. Lily laughed, and led them to her father's car, where she introduced Remus and reintroduced the rest of the group. Mr. Evans was once more very serious and cool towards the boys, but lightened up enough to give Abby and Cass hugs.

An hour later, the group arrived at the Evans house, which, much to their surprise was filled with happy people. Charlie was thrilled to see Sirius and James again, and immediately asked them to show him some more quidditch moves before dinner. Neither had brought their broom, and James, wanting to spend some time with Lily, declined while Sirius agreed to anyways.

Cass and Abby led Remus on a tour of the fair-sized house, allowing Remus to have his fun and point out all the muggle contraptions he had read about in books.

James trailed Lily about the house, sneaking his arms around her slyly, before quickly retracting them when Mr. Evans entered the room.

The day passed by uneventfully, the group spending the day outside building a snow fort and making snow angels. James was surprised at how happy the Evans household was, but it made since, considering that they didn't really know this Laurel person anyways, and the only person who seemed to care was Lily's sister, Petunia, who arrived later that evening.

Her eyes were red and blotchy, she had been over at Vernon's attempting to console Mrs. Dursley, as well as impress her. Introductions had been awkward, and became even more so when Petunia began to flirt with Remus, who she found quite attractive, despite his 'freakish-ness'. Abby, of course, had not taken well to this concept, and had stormed off; angry with Remus for not telling Petunia he had a girlfriend. Remus had dropped very obvious hints, but Petunia paid them no mind, and disgusted Lily by doing so – Petunia did have a boyfriend.

"Well, night Remus. I'm sure Abby won't be mad in the morning." Lily said with a reassuring smile, after helping him wash Abby's dessert from his hair in the bathroom. He smiled weakly and nodded, before disappearing into the room Mr. Evans had set up for the boys, complete with a lock on the outside, so he could lock them up at night.

The next day was the funeral, and the mood in the household changed dramatically. Lily woke the boys up at eight, dressed in a simple black dress that brushed her knees, her hair curly again and falling over her shoulders.

Already there were people downstairs, large people, which James thought looked like balloons. Lily had forbid both him and Sirius from mentioning that analogy to anyone, aside from their group, and Mr. Evans, who found it quite funny and lightened up a bit toward the boys.

Lily and Abby helped the boys into their muggle suits, tying their ties and adjusting their jackets, as they constantly reminded the boys what not to do.

"And remember, don't mention Hogwarts or wizards at all. No quidditch, Voldemort… ANYTHING!" Lily repeated as she tied James's tie for the second time.

"I know, Lils, I know." James replied, shifting uncomfortably in his suit. Lily smiled at him, pushing herself up to kiss him softly on the lips.

"I know, but I don't want to ruin this for Pet. She really wants to impress Mrs. Dursley."

"Which one's that?" James asked, glancing about as the two walked downstairs together.

"That one, with the mauve suit on." Lily muttered through clenched teeth, gesturing toward a particularly large person in the corner of the room, who Petunia was talking to, desperately.

"That one? I thought that was a man!" James frowned, and Lily hit him playfully on the shoulder.

"James! Don't say that!"

By the time all the Dursleys had arrived, the house was becoming quite squashed, and so the six hid out in the kitchen, helping Mrs. Evans make more and more snacks. Eventually, Petunia managed to push her way through to the kitchen, where she looked at Lily with a half-crazed smile.

"Mrs. Dursley wants to meet you. Bring your least freakish friend." She ordered, before pushing her way back through the crowd.

Lily looked at her friends, who were all waiting expectantly. Easily, Abby, whose dad was a muggle, was the least 'freakish', but Lily was tempted to bring James or Sirius, just to make things interesting.

"James? Do you want to come meet Mrs. Dursley?" she asked, giving Abby an apologetic smile. "It might make things a bit more interesting before these people leave for the actual funeral."

"Now Lily, your sister volunteered to have it here because with all the stress the family must be going through, it would be a hassle for them to plan it."

"Whatever you say, Mum."

"This is my dahling sister, Lily Marie." Petunia said with a glazed, I'm-just-peachy smile. Lily cringed, at both her sister's attitude and the mention of her middle name.

"It's nice to meet you." Lily said, offering a hand to Mrs. Dursley and using the same tone as Petunia. "This is my dahling friend, James."

James's face contorted as he smothered a laugh, and shook Mrs. Dursley's pudgy hand politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you." He added, in the same tone as Lily.

Petunia glared at the two, who were both now sporting contorted looks on their face, trying not laugh.

"Lily attends a boarding school in Scotland." Petunia offered, Mrs. Dursley quirking a brow.

"And what are you studying, Lily Marie?" Mrs. Dursley asked elegantly.

"Err… at the moment, the works of Shakespeare… Calculus!" she added brightly.

"And Quantum Physics!" James added with a hearty smile.

"Quantum Physics? I'm impressed." Mrs. Dursley said with a small smile. "Did you study Quantum Physics in your high school, Petunia?" she added with a disapproving look.

"Sadly, my high school didn't offer that as a course." Petunia said with a forced pleasant look.

"Tragic. Oh well, I doubt you would have comprehended it anyways." Mrs. Dursley said with another pleasant smile, as if she wasn't insulting Petunia to her face. "Is James your boyfriend, Lily?" she asked pleasantly.

"Yes. We began dating at Christmas." Lily said with a smile, quite liking Mrs. Dursley despite her appearance.

"Oh, how lovely! I'm sure you know, Verny and Petunia met last summer." Mrs. Dursley said with her constant pleasant look, though the way she mentioned Vernon's and Petunia's meeting as though it was it was the worst day of her life.

Lily smiled brightly, realizing that James was probably bored out of him mind. "Well, it was absolutely lovely to meet you, Mrs. Dursley, but – "

Several shrieks interrupted her, and Lily was sure she would have been trampled to death by Dursleys moving out of the house shrieking if James hadn't pulled her against him. She smiled at him gratefully and he grinned, before she made her way to the kitchen, where Sirius was trying to scoop a dungbomb out the window.

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Lily screeched, as Sirius tossed the dungbomb into a plastic contained and sealed the lid, smiling innocently the entire time.

"Yes, Lily dearest?" he asked in the same innocent tone.

"What the hell were you thinking?!?" she yelled angrily, ready to kill Sirius on the spot.

"I didn't do it, I swear. I had one in my bag, and one of the those fat tubs of lard looked through it and found it!" Sirius explained, his voice raised only so Lily would listen.

"ARG!" Was Lily's only reply, before she turned and went outside, where Petunia was desperately trying to get the Dursleys to calm down.

"What was that wretched smell?" Mrs. Dursley demanded angrily. Petunia looked helpless and at a loss for words.

"I apologize, my friend Sirius brought a rotten piece of food with him for some reason, and the plastic container it was in opened. That's what the smell was. Sirius isn't the best at remembering to throw things out." Lily finished, adding a weak smile.

"Oh, it's alright, Lily dahling!" Mrs. Dursley gushed, patting Lily softly on the back. "No harm done, and we should get to the church anyways, to honour - " she paused for moment "Laurel's life. Petunia, I'm sure you will pay to have our clothing cleaned since you were in charge…"

The funeral was boring for Sirius, and he spent the whole time trying to distract Cass from looking at the open casket, which was making her nauseous. Everyone knew Cass had a very weak stomach, and she looked pretty green.

"You okay there, Flemmings?"

"Back to last name terms, are we, Black?" Cass replied shortly, and quietly as Mrs. Dursley sobbed loudly.

"I s'ppose we are! You noticed!" Sirius replied brightly, keeping his voice abnormally low.

"You think I ignore you, Black?"

"Well, aside from Lily and Abby, you're the only girl in our year that I haven't dated, or snogged. I was under the impression that you didn't know of my eligibility."

"Eligibility? For what?" Cass snorted, causing several Dursleys and Lily to give her disapproving looks.

"For being snogged."

Cass coughed loudly to hide her laughter. "I'm afraid I'm still oblivious, Sirius m'dear. Besides that, you aren't eligible."

"How so?"

"Patricia?"

"Oh right. Her."

Abby yawned softly, trying not to think about how badly she had to go to the bathroom. Unlike Remus, she had decided it was too rude to leave right during the homily, so she sat awkwardly, worrying about other things… Like Remus. He's been getting sick a lot lately…At least once a month…But nothing was wrong, he'd be sick for a few days, and then be fine for the rest of the month. But it's like clockwork. He's sick the same time each month.

"Lillers?" she muttered softly to Lily, who sat next to her.

"Hmm?" Lily murmured boredly.

"Do you think there's something wrong with Remus?"

"What do you mean?" Lily asked nervously. She knew the truth about Remus, he had told her last year to explain how he was always sick certain days when they were supposed to do prefect rounds. She didn't mind, he was such a great guy the other days of the months, and in fact, she felt badly he had to carry that burden. But Remus accepted it, and she admired him for his strength.

"I mean, he's constantly sick, the same time, every month. He'd mention it if it were something serious, wouldn't he?"

"I'm sure he would. You're probably just paranoid 'cause you're bored out of your mind."

"Yeah… I s'ppose."

Remus returned from the bathroom shortly after that, looking pale but a lot less awkward than Abby. He smiled slightly at her thoughtful face.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he whispered playfully.

Abby smiled weakly, but answered honestly. "You." Before Remus could show any happiness or pride at this comment, she continued. "Remy, if something were wrong, like if you were seriously sick or something, you'd tell me, wouldn't you?"

The smile on Remus's face faded, which caused Abby's suspicion to increase.

"Is there something wrong, Remy?"

Next up, after the exam break...

- Will Remus tell Abby about being a werewolf?

- How will Abby take it when she does?

- What happens when James meets an old flame of Lily's?