I have now re-edited the previous chapter, and anyone who read it before should notice a big difference in it.

Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed so far!

Chapter Seven

By the time Jennifer finally made it back to the common room, it was nearly midnight, and most of Gryffindor was already asleep. However, Lily, Grace, and Michelle seemed to have waited up for her in their room. As soon as she entered the dormitory, she could tell that something had happened.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?" she asked, curiously. Lily explained what had happened between Remus and Malfoy at dinner, while Michelle paced nervously around the room. She was worried about what was going to happen to Remus. "Wow," was all Jennifer could say in response. "I can't believe Remus would actually attack someone."

"I know," Grace said, still looking quite shocked. "It's normally James or Sirius who get into fights, never Remus."

"To be honest," Michelle interrupted as she continued to pace, "I'm not really surprised."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"Well, Remus and my brother used to get into fights all the time, and they normally had something to do with me," Michelle said. "I just hope he doesn't get into too much trouble; McGonagall looked furious."

"Yes, she did," Lily agreed. "But I'd be more worried about Malfoy; he's bound to try and get revenge against Remus for humiliating him in front of everyone."

This suddenly reminded Jennifer of what she'd heard on her way back from detention. "Actually, Malfoy's already got a plan for revenge against Remus," she said, while changing her clothes for bed.

"How do you know?" Michelle asked, stopping her pacing to turn and look at Jennifer.

"I heard him discussing it with Danielle. I was walking back from my detention when I heard their voices in the library, so I decided to see what they were up to," Jennifer said, looking quite pleased with herself. She told the others what she'd overheard Malfoy and Danielle talking about.

"They actually think that's going to work?" Michelle asked. "Even if Remus did believe that I would actually kiss Malfoy, why on earth would I go running to Lucius for comfort? That is just plain stupid."

"Well, Danielle was the one who thought it up, so naturally, it was bound to be stupid," Jennifer said disdainfully.

The next day was Saturday, meaning that everyone could sleep in. Unless, of course, you were unfortunate enough to sleep in the Gryffindor sixth year boys' dormitory. James, Remus, and Peter were all woken up much earlier than they would have preferred by the rather unpleasant sound of Sirius singing at the top of his voice. It was an odd song that Remus didn't know, and he was fairly certain that Sirius had made it up.

"Ugh, I wish that just once he'd let us sleep in," Peter muttered to Remus, who nodded sleepily as they both began to get dressed. They had learnt a long time ago that it was no use trying to stay asleep when Sirius was like this – it would only result in him pulling some stupid prank on you when you were still in bed.

"Sirius! Shut up and let us go back to sleep!" James yelled from under his covers.

"No can do, Prongs! We've got to get started on SMP: GMG!" Sirius yelled back, before taking a running start from the bathroom and jumping straight onto James' bed.

"Ack! Get off, Padfoot! And what the hell is SMP: GMG?" James asked while he attempted to shove Sirius off of his bed.

"Duh!" Sirius said as he hung on to James' four-poster for dear life, "It's Special Marauder Project: Get Moony's Girl!"

Remus just groaned before heading into the bathroom for a shower. It was going to be a very long day.

"Guys, this really isn't necessary, is it?" Remus asked for what had to be the millionth time as he and Peter followed Sirius and James (who had gotten over being woken up so early, and had now through himself fully into the idea of teaching Remus how to properly win a girl's affections) into an abandoned classroom that they sometimes used to store things for pranks.

"Of course it is, my dear Mr. Moony," Sirius stated, sounding as if Remus was a recalcitrant two year old. "You see, as we promised, James, Peter, and I are going to teach you how to get the girl of your dreams, or more specifically, Michelle. Now, if you will take a seat, I will begin the lesson. Prongs, Wormtail, you guys can just jump in at any time." Sirius pointed to each of them with a long old-fashioned pointing stick (I don't know what they're really called) he'd apparently conjured up.

Still standing, Remus said skeptically, "Sirius, I'm not trying to pick up some random girl for a one-night stand, so I really don't see how you can help me. I mean, no offence, but your longest relationship lasted all of two weeks, and that was back in second year. And Prongs here has been after Lily for nearly three years, and she has yet to 'succumb to his charms'."

"Tsk, tsk," Sirius said, poking Remus in the head with the stick, "I won't have such insults from my pupils, and besides you did ask for our help, remember? Now, take a seat."

Remus sighed and sat down.

"Excellent," James said, smiling proudly. "I knew you'd see it our way."

"Yes," Sirius said. "Now, listen closely. The first and most important thing you've got to remember when talking to a girl is that you have to be confident. You can't afford to go all nervous and stuttery or she'll either loose interest in you, or she'll think something's wrong, and we don't want either of those to happen, do we. You got that?"

"Right," Remus said, nodding. "Be confident."

"Precisely," James added in a ridiculously self-important voice, "You must EXUDE confidence, but you can't be too confident, because then she'll just think you're arrogant. Then, once you've got her attention with your confident air, you've got to keep it by showing off your sense of humor, and I'm not talking about sarcasm here. Girls love guys who can make them laugh."

"Right," Remus said again. "Do you mean the way that Lily always laughs at you whenever you ask her out?"

Sirius poked Remus in the head again, saying "Sarcasm is not appreciated. Now, another thing to remember is that girls like Michelle appreciate little gestures, you know, mushy girly things, to let them know you like them. They like for guys to walk them to class, carry their books for them, write them poetry, that sort of pointless crap."

Remus nodded once again, saying, "So basically, I've got to be confident, funny, and pointlessly mushy in order to get Michelle to be my girlfriend. Is that all you guys can come up with, because if so, we really didn't need to wake up so early, did we?" Remus asked, stifling a yawn.

"NO! That is not all there is too it!" Sirius said, trying to poke Remus in the head again, but he missed and hit Peter instead, as Remus ducked just in time. "Attracting the ladies is a fine art that must be practiced at every opportunity! You've still got to learn how to flirt properly, or Michelle will never guess that you're madly, head over balls in love with her!"

The afternoon turned out to be, as Remus had known it would, a complete waste. He'd learned nothing he felt was really useful from his friends, although he had promised to brush up on his 'flirting skills' at every opportunity, just to get James and Sirius off his back. That's why, as his detentions wouldn't start until Monday, he could be found later that night, sitting in the common room with some younger Gryffindor girls whose names he didn't even know, trying to sound funny and confident. Remus was fairly certain he was simply coming off as desperate, and that the girls were just being polite by continuing to talk to him.

Finally, Peter came to his rescue by asking for help with a Potions essay. "So," Peter said as they began to look up information he needed, "how's the flirting practice coming?"

"Horribly," Remus grumbled. "I'm pretty sure I'm sounding weird or desperate instead of confident or funny."

"Well, maybe you're just not the flirting type of guy. Or maybe you just can't flirt well with girls you don't know." Peter said reasonably.

"You're probably right," Remus said as he marked something for Peter to copy. "Maybe I should just try the mushy things Sirius suggested and give up on trying to flirt with a bunch of girls I don't even know."

"Why don't you try writing Michelle a love poem, or something? That seems more your style, anyway." Peter said as he looked up the effects of some of the ingredients of his potion.

"That doesn't sound too bad, but how could I give it to her? I'm not about to just walk up to her and say, 'Here, Michelle, I wrote you a love poem, hope you like it.' That would make me look stupid." Remus said.

"You could send it to her by owl, or something," Peter said. "Make it anonymous, so she'll think she's got a secret admirer."

"That's a great idea, Pete!" Remus said enthusiastically. "I could send her different things every so often, and give her hints about who her admirer is! That's much better than what James and Sirius want me to do."

"Yes, well, they just don't understand that not everyone is as good at flirting as they think they are," Peter said, chuckling as he continued to work on his essay.

Remus, having told James and Sirius in no uncertain terms that he had given up on trying to get Michelle's attention by flirting with every girl he saw, spent nearly every bit of his free time over the next week in the library. When he wasn't doing homework, he was looking up love poems he could send to Michelle, until he found several that he thought would work wonderfully.

"This is perfect," Remus muttered happily as he read over one of his favorites a final time.