CHAPTER SEVEN: ASK NO QUESTIONS, BE TOLD NO LIES

"Harry, have you seen Gaius?" Hermione asked, wondering where there new friend was. "Last I saw him, he was walking towards a group of Slytherins and Ravenclaws before dinner. Why?" Hermione said "I was just wondering, seeing as how he hasn't show up for dinner yet, and it's almost over." "Well," Ron said, finishing off the last food on his plate, "let me finish my chicken and we'll go look for him."

As the Trio left the Great Hall, the glance Ron shot at the Ravenclaw table was not lost on Harry and Hermione. "Has it bad, doesn't he?" Harry asked Hermione in a whisper. Hermione simply giggled and nodded.

Right after they left, Gaius sat down to eat at the Gryffindor table, as did Blaise at the Slythein table. The expressions on both faces were identical: unreadable.

The Trio, having searched the likely places where they thought Gaius would be, returned to the Gryffindor Common Room. Just as in the Great Hall, a few minutes after they entered and sat down, Gaius came in.

"Where's you been?" Harry asked. Gaius still wore an aloof expression upon it. "Oh, here and there." he said, sitting down. "Actually, I just came from dinner. Where were you?" "We went looking for you. So where were you before dinner?" Ron answered and asked.

"Well, if you must know..." Gaius said, eyes sparkling with mischief, "I was with a certain Slytherin of your acquaintance."

"Malfoy? Did you kill Malfoy?" Ron asked, very hopeful that Gaius had. "No, no. Malfoy was at dinner, I believe. No, i was with a Slytherin girl." "Pansy Parkinson? Millicent Bulstrode?" Ron guessed.

Gaius wrinkled his nose, disgusted. "Parkinson? Tsk. Way too slutty for my tastes... not to mention unattractive. Same with Bulstrode, sans the slut part." "Well, then who..?" Ron said as the connection was made in Hermione's brain. "Zabini. You were with Blaise Zabini?"

Gaius gave a half-smirk at this. "Guilty as charged." Ron was less hostile than Harry and Hermione expected. "Well, I can't fault your taste, except for the fact that she's Slytherin."

"What difference does that make?" Gaius asked. Ron sputtered for an answer; he had none. "I don't think it makes any." Harry said. "Nor do I." said Hermione. "Honestly, Ron, you should be more tolerant- your own sister is with a Slytherin, remember?"

Wrong thing to say. "You mean she's still with Malfoy!?! That's it, he's dead!" Ron shouted. "I'd wait until he tries something with your sister, Ron. Otherwise, you lack justification." Gaius said. Much as he hated to admit it, Ron knew Gaius was right.

Voldemort's army continued to grow. The undead riders, now known to the Aurors as Dread Champions, were roaming the countryside along with bands of Orcish raiders. The Champions' mounts were just as skeletal as they were, just as undead; how the Orcs put up with such abominations as their commanders was beyond the Aurors.

Dread Champions were created from the carcasses of dead Orc Warlocks of the highest order, the Shade Confederation. Only the most elite and most corrupt of Warlocks were allowed in to the Confederation. However, the Orc's leader had grown mistrustful of these devious little Orcs, and massacred the lot of them, leaving only the leader alive "as a show of his mercy".

Thus was that leader killed, and the Warlock allowed to live took control of the Orcs by installing a puppet Chieftain. The Dread Champions were created from the energies of the dead Warlocks and Necromancers. These members of the Shade Confederation pretended to serve the Clans and Voldemort, they only served one master: I'thok.

"Hello, Sirius." Harry said, stepping into the DADA classroom. "Hello, Harry. What do you need?" Harry said "How-" but cut himself off, nervous at asking this question. "How what?" Sirius asked.

Harry tried again. "How did my parents get together?" Sirius's face remained neutral for a few seconds. "Well, we first got them to admit it by locking them into a storage closet, much as was done to yourself and Hermione. As to what eventually happened... you'd have to ask Remus."

Harry moved to the fireplace, and called the man in question. "Hello? Harry! Uh, why are you calling?" Remus asked, sounding a little nervous. Sirius's curiosity was immidiately piqued, but he kept silent; time to torture his friend about whatever it was later.

Before Harry could respond, a female voice was heard. "Remus? Who's calling?" Harry's eyes widened. What's Tonks doing there?

Sirius roared with laughter, and made a wolf call. This prompted a death glare from Remus. "Shut up, Sirius." Remus turned from the fireplace, and "I'll be back in a minute, Nymph" was heard through the fireplace, causing Sirius to chuckle a slight bit.

Remus flooed to the DADA classroom, still glaring at Sirius. "What's wrong, Harry?" The anger vanished, replaced by concern. "How did my parents get together?" Remus blushed slightly. "Well, I wasn't supposed to see it, but... Sirius, do you have a Pensieve?"

Grinning, Sirius pulled one out of his desk drawer. "Weren't you supposed to be patrolling the castle that night?" "Shut up, Sirius." Remus placed the particular memory in the Pensieve, and handed it to Harry.

Harry found himself within Remus's memory of that night. He saw James and Lily walking together, Head Boy and Head Girl badges glimmering on their cloaks. A younger-looking Remus walked stealthily behind them, a smirk on his face.

The two Heads stopped at the Astronomy Tower, chasing out all the couples inside. Remus stood a few feet away, re-directing them to sites the Marauders themselves often used. Remus was shocked when- after chasing away the people snogging in the Tower- they started snogging themselves! "Love you, Lil," was heard from James, with a responding moan coming from Lily- she couldn't talk with James's mouth covering her own.

Remus was hard pressed not to start laughing at the sight they made: two people whose sole occupation during the day seemed to be hateing each other were really in love with each other. Remus left them alone, off to tell Sirius the news... and to, alas, make good on his bet. 10 Galleons to who was right about the year the two 'Lovebirds', as Sirius had dubbed them, got together.

At least Remus thought now I know why James actually looked angry at those kids instead of his usual amused-looking self.

Harry withdrew from the Pensieve, slightly ill at having watched his parents snogging. "So... that's what happened?" Sirius said "Not quite. I later found out from James that they had been together for about a month when Remus saw them. How they got together, he refused to say. Between the rest of the Marauders, we think it happened in a similar fashion to what Remus saw."

"Ok... I'm kind of sorry I asked... uh... see you later." Harry said, walking out of the DADA classroom. He heard Sirius asking Remus, "'Nymph'? My, my, my, Remus, whatever were you two kids up to?" "I said shut up, Sirius." Remus responded. Harry could practically hear his blush in the words.

After dinner, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Gaius walked up to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron was snatched off by a blonde girl (everyone knew it could only be Luna), and Gaius whispered in Harry's ear, "Tell her, Harry. There will never be a better time." before he walked off in search of Blaise.

Thus were the two Gryffindors everyone but those who knew them suspected were a couple caught walking in an akward silence. Hermione was still a bit saddened from Harry's reaction in the closet; she took his desperation to get out as a desperation to get away from beind so close to her alone.

Harry was very nervous. He then remembered what Gaius had told him earlier that day. "You have nothing to fear from Hermione. I have been watching you two since we got in school... and I think you two need to stop pretending to feel purely platonic towards each other and get togther." Harry stopped, and Hermione stopped as well.

"Is something wrong, Harry?" she asked, putting her own problems aside. "No, Hermione." Her stomach backflipped at his next sentence. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you..."

R&R, s'il vous plait. Sorry for the delay in the update; I faced quite a few writer's blocks on certain scenes.