Iris

By: Crying in the Rain

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Chapter 1

Train Ride

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"Red, hold still."

"I don't want any of that crap on my face!"

Remus smiled at the scene before him. His mum was trying to get his cousin, Red, to wear some make-up. 'Everyone – I repeat – Everyone knows Red hates to wear girlish things. She's a complete tomboy,' Remus thought to himself.

"She always puts up a good fight." Remus' father smiled.

"Witch one, Mrs. Lupin or Red?" the voice of one of Red's only female friends asked.

"Lily!" Red exclaimed, running to hide behind Lily Evans. "Lily, let her put some of that stuff on you. See, Auntie Jane, Lily'll even volunteer."

"Riiiiiight..." Lily said as the three females started to talk.

"It's a bad idea to let women talk in a group like that," a guy's voice said just behind Mr. Lupin.

"Ah, quite right, Prongs, quite right," replied yet another voice.

"Sirius! James!" Remus turned to smile at his grinning friends.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Moony and his father," Sirius said formally.

"And Miss Evans, mind you," James added.

Remus chuckled at his friends, and nodded to his mother and father as they departed. "So, has any one seen Volhalk?" Remus asked the other three.

Lily giggled. James' grin widen. And Red and Sirius smiled slyly. "Don't you mean... Lorina?" Sirius teased.

Remus had liked Lorina Volhalk since year four. And everyone knew, that is, everyone except Lorina herself.

Red flung one hand into the air and put the other one against her chest. "Oh, Lorina," she dramatically called out to the crowd. "Lorina, where for art thou Lorina? Deny thy family's good-byes, and refuse thy farewells. If thou canst not, then I shall be waiting."

"Umm... I... love you, too, Red."

Red whipped around only to find Lorina staring at her with a look that clearly said, 'please tell me I am not the object of another one of your twisted jokes.'

"Lorina, some one here is madly in love with you," Red told the brown haired girl.

Remus closed his eyes. His mind ran wild while screaming, 'DON'T TELL HER, RED!'

"Who?" Lorina asked with fake curiosity.

Red drop down onto one bent knee, grabbed Lorina's hand, and said, "I am."

"You're both girls, Red," reminded Lily.

Red stood and put an arm around Lorina's shoulders. "We'll ride off into the sunset together."

Sirius took this opportune moment to put his arm around Red's waist. "The three of us," he stated firmly.

"The four of us," Lily said as she put her arm around Lorina's waist.

"The five of us," James said, cheerfully putting his arm around Lily.

"The six of us," Sirius put his arm around Remus' shoulders.

"How bout we just get on the train," Remus said.

And they walked off, to go find Peter and get two compartments, with Lorina squashed in the middle.

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James stood in the door jam of the girls' compartment. Remus was talking to Lily and Lorina. Sirius and Red were putting Red's trunk up. Well, Sirius was trying to help put it up.

"Red, be a woman for once and let a man do this!"

"You're starting to sound like my Aunt!"

"I can do this! You can just sit back and relax!"

"But I can deal with my own damn trunk!"

By now the trio had stopped talking and a crowd had gathered around the compartment. All eyes were glued on Red and Sirius.

"You stubborn BITCH!"

"You womanizing BASTERD!"

"Creative language skills," Lorina said sarcastically.

With one great angry push, the trunk was finally in place. For a minute the two glared at each other. If looks could kill, both of them would be dead already. Freaks.

"Crack head," and thus Sirius started another childish war.

"Fag," Red countered.

"Wimp."

"Sissy-boy."

James smirked. Sirius had been head over hills for Red since... well, since forever. He fell for her as soon as he saw her. But Red seemed to be the one girl that Sirius couldn't work his charm on, ask out, or get stuck in a broom closet on the third floor with. See, Sirius just toyed with girls for the fun of it. In fact, he never really liked any girl except for Red. And James had decided, Sirius was afraid of rejection. Red Lupin was, as every guy at Hogwarts called her, the Forbidden Fruit.

Lily also smiled. Red had the h-o-t-s for Sirius, she just didn't know it yet. She was madly in love with him, realization just hadn't dunged on her yet. Red was to caught up in dating 'good boys' to realize she was in love. But this year Lily would make Red realize that while she's been dating good boys she been slowly falling for the school bad boy.

And the name-calling went on until...

"Hormones-driven wanna-be-alpha male!"

"Bloody PMS-ing mental-hospital-needing woh-man!

SLAP!

"Get... out... now," Red said in a deadly calm silent type of way.

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In the guy's compartment Peter was trying his hardest not to laugh at the red handprint on the left side of Sirius' face. It was just so funny.

"Sirius." Remus broke the silence. "If you're going to be obsessed with my cousin, then don't get on her bad side."

"Man, you know she's sensitive about being insane," James said as he twirled his wand around.

"Mental illness," Remus and Sirius both corrected.

"Whatever."

"It still stings."

"Aww, is whittle Siri show-wing weakness?" James asked

Peter couldn't hold it in any longer. He cracked.

"What're you laughing at, Wormtail?" Sirius roared. "It's not my fault she's a human bomb waiting to explode! I can't help it if I think she's cute when she's yelling at me! I blame the hormones! She's walking PMS!"

"But you wove her," James said in a girly voice.

Sirius smirked. "No denying that."

"Can we please not talk about my cousin?" asked Remus.

"Yeah," Peter agreed.

"Fine," Sirius agreed, too, surprising the others. "Let's talk about the scandalous love affairs of Lorina."

Remus dropped his book.

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"So, where's Koto-kun?" asked Lily.

Koto-kun was Red pet toy-tea-cup Chawaru. Chawaru is a type of wizard dog that could do different magical things depending on the Chawaru. Auntie Jane and Uncle Shane had to owl the school in Red's first year to ask if it was alright for Red to have a dog (the seize of a rat, mind you) at school. "He'll be arriving Monday. Ceres-Artemis is bringing him with the post. Ceres-Artemis will be staying in the owl towl from then on," Red informed. Ceres-Artemis, named so by Red, was Remus' owl. The 'owl towl' was short for 'the Tower of Owl-ness,' again named so by Red.

"Any goals for this year?" Lorina asked

"Yes."

"What goal could Miss Lily Evans have this year?" Red asked. "To attend the most study groups?"

"To give James Potter two hundred detentions?" suggested Lorina

"To kill Jamesie?"

"To kiss Jamesie?

Red stood up in the middle of the compartment and took a dramatic pose. "To kill or to kiss – that is the question."

"To pass N.E.W.Ts with flying colors. Speaking of kissing," Lily said in a perfectly calm voice. "What about the boys this year?"

Red groaned. "Must we talk of boys? I hate this."

"Oh, Red, you know you've been waiting all summer to tell us about how Sirius' hair blows so wonderfully in the wind," Lorina said as Lily started to giggle.

"Oh, yeah, well, what about my dear cousin, Remus?" Red asked.

Lorina blushed causing Lily to giggle even harder.

Once Lily stopped giggling the snack trolley stopped by and soon chocolate frogs were bouncing around the compartment. Someone knocked on the door.

"Enter."

Remus entered first, followed by the other Marauders. What they saw made them laugh.

Lorina was flipping though chocolate frog cards sitting on the left seats acting perfectly natural. Lily was reading a book (and eating which ever frog dared to jump on her book) while lying across the right side seats pretending noting was happening. But Red was down on hands and knees, pouncing on chocolate frogs like a cat.

Lily was the first to look up. "May I help you?"

"We just want to see what cards you guys got," James answered.

Red stood, eating a frog. When she swallowed, she asked, "Is that mark still on your face, Sirius? I'm sorry; I really am."

"Yeah... sure... Now about those cards," Sirius replied.

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I took this off a long time ago, but now I've decided to re-post it. I am currently working on the fifth chapter. I hope you all like it. I guess I'll try to have Ch. 5 up in about a week, k? Leave a review, please! Ta-ta!