a/n: well, I'm mad...lost a big chunk of my stuff when the site went down!!! ( (on hpff...) never mind that I had to repost the last few chapters of this fic and my other one, that wasn't that big a deal...im just mad about losing all the reviews!!! sobs hysterically ...sniff...newhos...here's the next chapter... oh wait one more thing. lol sorry...just for the sake of convenience, no one's ever in the Gryffindor common room when the marauders n friends are there...(unless otherwise mentioned...) b/c when theyre there, its always during mealtimes when everyones in the great hall, or its late nite and everyone else is asleep...or the weather's beautiful n everyones out...I dunno, take ur pick...lol im a terrible author...making excuses for my deficiencies....ah well....
Chapter 28: Entrapment
James stared at Sirius, who was smiling slightly. "Sirius...you can't be...serious..."
"Course I'm serious!" he said with a grin, "it's my first name!"
James rolled his eyes. "No, seriously, Sirius! I'm being—seri—URGH"—
Sirius laughed. "I've always loved the pun in my name..."
"Sirius!" Lily said sharply. "Can we please be....not funny...for a second?? Are you really gonna do it??" she asked, eyeing Sirius's hand again.
Sirius nodded. "Yea...I've been thinking about it...ever since Dominique....well, ever since we thought she was pregnant"—
"Sirius," James began in a slow voice, as if he were talking to a four year old, "be reasonable...you are seventeen-bloody-years-old....YOU'RE TOO YOUNG!!"
"I'll be eighteen in a month! And I am not too young!!" Sirius protested.
"What if she says no??" Lily asked. "Maybe you're too thick to realize that you're too young, but surely she'll have enough sense"—
"Excuse me," said the young witch who was standing behind the counter, "will you be taking the round diamond or not, Mr. Black? Or did you want another look at the princess cut"—
"He needs some time to think, ma'am." James replied, not looking away from Sirius.
"Yea, I'll take it." Sirius replied, placing the ring that he had tried to hide earlier onto the counter. "Only I want the ring to be platinum not gold."
"Very well," the witch replied, taking the ring back, "I think we have one in our vault. What size is your girlfriend's finger?"
"Er..." Sirius glanced at Lily and James, who were watching him with shock.
"Ok, compare them to my fingers," the witch said, holding out her hand to Sirius, who took her hand and examined it.
"Mmm....her fingers are skinnier...er, no offense"—
"None taken..." the witch said curtly. "So she's less than a size 7..."
Sirius looked back at James and Lily again, and grinned. "Come here, Lily..." he said, pulling Lily to the counter and placing her hand on the counter. "Hmm...what does that look like?" he asked the witch, pointing at Lily's fingers.
"Well, I'd say you're a size 6, Miss."
"Then Dominique's probably a size 5. She's got skinnier fingers than me..." Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Sirius, are you sure you want to do this?? If she says no, you'll just ruin your relationship with her. Have you thought about that?"
"Yes, I have thought of that," Sirius said irritably as he watched the witch disappear into the storeroom, "but I also know that she won't say no..."
"What makes you think that?" Lily asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"She just won't..."
"But Sirius, marriage...it's a huge commitment...how do you know you're both ready for this?" James asked.
"Prongs, Dominique and I thought we were going to have a baby together...we certainly weren't expecting it...but we were ready to handle it together...and I just thought...of how surprisingly disappointing it was...when we realized it wasn't going to happen after all...I just think that if we're feeling like that...we're ready for marriage."
James sighed. "There's no talking you out of it, is there?"
Sirius shook his head.
"Well...get to it then...just...uh...tell us when and where you plan on asking...I want front row seats." James said with a small smile.
-------------------
"This is too weird..." James muttered, as he and Lily left the jewelry shop together.
"I know..." Lily agreed.
"I mean...Sirius and I have been best friends since our first year...and I know we've grown up...and we're adults now...but...I guess it's never really registered in me...he's a grown up too..." James sighed. "It's so hard to let go sometimes..."
Lily giggled. "You sound like a concerned father, James..."
James grinned. "I do, don't I?" Soon his grin faded when he saw who was approaching them. "Shit, Dominique's coming with Kierra...do we say anything??" James asked nervously as he waved to Dominique.
"Of course not!" Lily hissed. "Hey D!! Hey Kierra!!"
"Hey guys! What's—oh, great..." Kierra muttered, looking past Lily and James.
"What?" Lily asked, turning around, only to see Peter and Remus walking towards them. "Oh..."
"Come on Dominique, let's go..." Kierra said as Peter and Remus waved to the group.
"What? No! Honestly Kierra, grow up"—
"Fine..." Kierra grumbled as she stalked off alone.
"Maybe I'll go hang out with her..." Lily said, glancing at James, who nodded to her. "See you guys later..." she muttered as she jogged after Kierra.
"Hey where's Lily going?" Remus asked as he approached the group. "Oh..." he added dully when he saw Kierra stopping to wait for Lily.
There was a short, awkward pause, which was thankfully broken by an all too familiar voice.
"Oy! Prongs! I got it!!" Sirius shouted as he joined the group, patting the front pocket of his jacket.
"Got what?"
"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed; he had not noticed that Dominique was amongst the party. "I er...I got it! I got my jacket fixed up!" he said, patting his pocket again. "Got a little tear in it, and I finally remembered the spell that fixes it...so...yea...I'm happy..." he said quickly and a bit too cheerily. Dominique glanced at him suspiciously for a moment before shrugging it off.
"Hey I'm kinda tired out. I'm gonna head back to the castle...anyone else wanna come?" Remus asked.
"I'm cold..." Dominique said, hugging herself. "Sirius, could I wear your"—
"I'm tired too, Moony, I'll come with you" Sirius said quickly, pretending not to hear Dominique. "Let's go..."
Remus exchanged a look with Dominique before pulling his own jacket off and handing it to her as he left with Sirius.
"What's the matter with him?" Dominique asked as she watched Sirius and Remus leave.
"Well, I dunno where you've been D...but he sort of broke up with Kierra!" James exclaimed.
"Not him, Sirius!!"
"Oh...I dunno..." he lied. "Look, we've got more pressing things to deal with..."
"Such as?"
"Kierra and Remus!" James exclaimed, "they're driving me insane! They can't even be in the same room as each other! It's ridiculous! We need to get them back together!"
Dominique smiled slightly. Her small smile then turned into a large grin.
"Do I sense an idea brewing?" James asked with a tone of hopefulness.
Dominique nodded.
"Well, what's the plan? How do we get them back together?" Peter asked.
"The same way we got them together in the first place" Dominique said with a grin.
"Er...I was unconscious during that whole thing, remember?" Peter reminded them. "What happened?"
"Dominique locked them in a closet together..." James said.
"So you wanna lock them up again?" Peter asked.
"But that was sort of an accident, on the spot thing, D...you were drunk! And how are we supposed to get them to stand next to each other, in front of a closet door? Anyway, they'd probably hex each other"—
"No, no, no...I didn't mean we should lock them up!" Dominique said. "I was talking about the general idea...of just...trapping them..."
"Trap them?" James repeated.
"Yep"
"And uh....er, could you elaborate??" James asked.
"We need to trick them into seeing each other, so they can talk..." Dominique said.
"Ok...and how would we do that?" Peter asked.
"Either of you have a problem with lying?" Dominique asked.
Peter and James looked at each other.
"You want us to lie to Moony about something?" Peter asked.
"I dunno...he's Moony...he's one of our best friends..." James said.
Dominique sighed. "He's one of my best friends too, but I don't mind lying to him to get him back with Kierra...fine, can you at least lie to Kierra without feeling bad?"
James and Peter grinned.
"Lie to Kierra? Sure, I do it all the time!" James said. "Er...nothing big, just little white lies...you know, when I lose something of hers or whatever..." he added quickly as Dominique raised an eyebrow at him.
"Alright, so what do you want us to lie about?" Peter asked.
---------------------------------
"Lovely day, wasn't it?" Dominique said cheerily to Kierra as she joined her for dinner.
"Huh?" she said, looking up at Dominique, "Oh yea...wonderful day...I—hey..." she said, pointing at Dominique's clothes, "is that Remus's jacket you're wearing?"
"Er...yea..."
"Why are you wearing his jacket?" Kierra asked at once.
"Er...when we were in Hogsmead I got cold, so he gave me his jacket. What's the big deal?" Dominique asked as she pulled her borrowed jacket off.
"Nothing" Kierra said quickly, glaring at Dominique as she went back to her dinner.
"Just because you think Remus is a selfish prick, doesn't mean the rest of us think that." Dominique said coolly, as she caught Kierra's glare.
"I never said that!" Kierra snapped, slamming her fork on the table as she stood up.
"Kierra"—
"Oh, shut up..." Kierra muttered, as she stalked away.
"What's gotten into her?" Lily asked, looking away from Alice and Frank as she saw Kierra get up from the table.
"Oh...nothing..." Dominique replied, "just a little high strung..."
Dominique glanced down the table and stared at James and Peter, who were chatting with Sirius and Remus. 'Oh, would one of you just look at me!' Dominique thought impatiently.
Finally, Peter turned around and caught Dominique staring at him. His eyes widened slightly in surprise.
Sighing with relief, Dominique nudged her head in the direction of the great hall door. Peter, in return, only looked at her puzzlingly.
Dominique sighed again. "Kierra..." she mouthed to Peter, still nudging her head towards the door.
Peter suddenly nodded in understanding, as he noticed that Kierra was now missing from the table. He quietly nudged James, who was busy talking to Remus and Sirius about the latest Nimbus model.
"Ow, Peter!" James exclaimed, rubbing his side where Peter had jabbed him.
"Er...sorry, mate..." Peter replied. "Uh...I'm gonna head back to the common room. You wanna come?"
"Huh? Nah, that's alright"— James started, but as he looked up at Peter, he saw him mouthing the word 'now' to him. "Er, actually, yea, I'm not that hungry...um...I'll see you guys later. Bye Moony, Padfoot!" James said quickly as he got up and followed Peter out of the great hall.
James and Peter stepped into the empty Gryffindor common room, only to find Kierra curled up near the fireplace, staring out the window. She suddenly pulled her gaze away from it as the boys entered the room.
"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, glancing from James to Peter. They both looked rather anxious. "Everything ok?"
"Yea..." James started slowly, "...no...no, everything's not ok..."
"What's the matter?" Kierra asked.
Peter and James walked across the room and joined Kierra. "Well??" She asked, after several moments of silence.
"Well..." Peter began, "we're just...well...never mind...you won't want to hear about it"—
"Of course I want to hear about it! What's bothering you guys?" Kierra persisted.
"No, Peter's right...you don't want to know. It's about...well...Remus...but...hey, you hate him so we won't burden on Peter, let's just go..." James said, as he started to get up; but Kierra pulled him back down.
"I don't hate him, per say...I just...well, what happened? It's not anything serious, is it?" Kierra asked.
"Well, yea...it is kinda serious..." Peter stated. "We're really worried about him..."
-------------------------------------
"Hey Dominique," Sirius began as he got up from the Gryffindor table, "I'm gonna go look for Peter and Ja"—
"No!" Dominique said at once. Remus, Sirius, Alice, Lily and Frank all looked at her curiously. "I mean...uh...see, they're with Kierra right now..."
"How'd you know? What are they all doing?" Sirius said, "oh wait, Moony, maybe you should go sit in a corner while we talk about her..." he added, rolling his eyes.
Remus only glared at Sirius in return.
"No, this is serious...they went to go see her...because...well...we're worried about her..." Dominique said dramatically.
"What?? Why??" Lily asked immediately, "What happened??"
"Oh...well—oops!!" Dominique exclaimed, as she accidentally-on-purpose flung her hand so her ring would fly off and roll under the table. "Oh, can you get that for me, Remus? Thanks..." she said, as Remus reached under the table to pick up her ring. As he did so, Dominique turned back to her friends and winked at them, nudged her head in Remus's direction and mouthed "play along!!!" to them.
"Er, what??" Remus asked as he got up, looking at his friends strangely, as they were all gaping at Dominique.
"Oh!" Sirius said immediately, snapping out of his gaze and turning to Remus, "just worried..."
"Oh..." Remus replied, handing Dominique's ring back to her.
"Well...what happened??" Alice asked.
-----------------------------------------------------
"Remus is really sick, Kierra..." James said solemnly. "He's not Remus anymore..."
"Er...what?" Kierra asked, uncertainly.
"He's lovesick!" Peter exclaimed.
"What??"
"Over you!" James chimed in. "He's so hung up over losing you, he misses you so much!"
"Well, if he missed me so much, maybe he'd talk to me"—
"He's afraid to..." Peter interjected.
"Why?"
"He thinks that...and might I add, he thought right, that you hate him and won't give him a chance, even if he tried asking..."
"He really thinks that?" Kierra asked, her expression softening slightly.
"Yes," Peter said immediately, "He's just so sulky and depressed. He even murmurs your name in his sleep sometimes..."
"Really?"
"Yea...and when he wakes up in the morning he sometimes has tears in his eyes..." Peter added, only to get a sharp warning look from James, indicating that he might be going a bit too far.
"Wow..." Kierra murmured.
"Yea," James said, realizing that Kierra was buying everything and it was safe to continue, "I've never seen Remus act like this over a girl...and you know, he's dated a lot of girls in the past...no one's ever made him feel so depressed...and he feels horrible about it...he's always blaming himself for everything..."
"I had no idea...."
"Yea..." Peter said, "It's pretty bad...and don't you miss him in the slightest?"
"Well...."
"Forget it, Peter..." James said quietly, "Remus was right, his chances with Kierra are gone. Let's just go"—
"What? No!!" Kierra exclaimed, "I miss him, I really do!"
"Not as much as he misses you, probably." Peter said.
"Excuse me? What makes you think that??" Kierra snapped.
"Well...I dunno...I just thought"—
"I doubt you thought anything..." Kierra interjected. "And for your information, I do miss him too, I love him."
"Then what are you waiting for?" James asked, "Tell him that! Relieve him of his suffering already!!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Remus...you better sit down..." Dominique said, as she and the others sat down at the now nearly empty Gryffindor table.
"er, alright..." Remus said as he sat down. "What's up?"
"Well...Kierra's in a right state, Remus"—
"Oh yea, she made that clear when she glared at me from across the table today"—
"No, Remus!" Dominique interjected, "she's just putting on an act!"
"She is??" Lily asked. "Er, I mean, yea, I think she is! That makes sense..."
"She's trying to pretend like she doesn't care that you've broken up...but inside, she's heart broken." Dominique replied, pausing momentarily, but continued on when Remus didn't say anything. "She's so depressed without you...she misses you so much."
"Really?"
"Yea...I mean...she cries all the time, wishing she could take back every bad thing she's ever said..."
"She cries?"
"Yea...even in her sleep, I hear her murmuring your name..."
"Really??" Alice asked.
"Hey how come Lily and Alice are so surprised? How come they don't know?"
"Yea, good question...how come we don't know?" Lily asked, turning to Dominique.
"Well...um..." Dominique began slowly, "she...woke me up one night with her crying...and she confided in me...asked me not to tell anyone..." she said, eyeing Alice and Lily warily, as if to warn them to be careful. They seemed to take a hint.
"Well, that makes sense!" Alice said at once, "why she wakes up teary eyed all the time!"
"Exactly..." Dominique muttered.
"I had no idea..." Remus murmured.
"Yea..." Dominique said, "she misses you so much...but she doesn't want to say anything to you because she's afraid you'll turn her away..."
"She really thinks that??"
Dominique nodded.
"Wow..." Remus sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't know she was so hung up over this..."
"Well...are you gonna do anything about it?" Dominique asked.
Remus glanced at Dominique for a moment before getting up. "Yea...I'll see her...where is she?"
"Probably in the common room...just a hunch..." Dominique replied.
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"Alright, I'll talk to him..." Kierra said as she got up quickly. "Gosh, I had no idea he was so—Remus!" Kierra had headed towards the portrait hole, only to find Remus, followed by Dominique, Sirius, Lily and Alice, rushing in.
"Kierra!" he breathed, "Hey..."
"Hey..." she replied quietly, as she stopped in front of him.
"I...um..." he started, not knowing what to say exactly. However, the necessity for words was soon removed when Kierra leaned forward and kissed him.
It was tender and sweet...and soft. Remus deepened the kiss as he pulled her closer to him. Just as Kierra wrapped her arms around him, drowning out his surroundings...
"Awww...."
They pulled their lips away from each other slowly, glancing back at their friends, whom were all watching with interest. Remus and Kierra turned back to face each other.
"I missed you too" they said at once.
"Wait...too??"
"But"—
Kierra and Remus turned back around too look at their friends. Everyone's fingers immediately pointed at Dominique, who gasped indignantly. "You two were in on it as well!!" she exclaimed, pointing at Peter and James.
"Wait, hold on..." Remus said, looking at Dominique, "that stuff you told me..."
"What? She told you stuff?? What'd she say??" Kierra asked.
"Nothing!" Dominique began, "I"—
"She said you were sorry...." Remus interjected.
"What"—
"...and that you're depressed"—
"I am not"—
"...and that you cry all the time, even in your sleep"—
"What?! James and Peter said the same thing about you!"
"What??" Remus turned away from Kierra and looked at Peter and James. "You told her that?? But I don't"—
"Wait a minute...you guys LIED to us?? You made up all that stuff about us just to get us back together??" Kierra asked.
"Er...maybe..." Peter said timidly.
"I can't believe this"—
"Urgh! You can't believe this??? I can't believe this!!" James exclaimed. "You two are so stupid, breaking up over one little difference!"
"It wasn't just that!" Kierra retorted.
"Oh, yes Kierra, getting turned down once in a while is a perfectly good reason to break up with a person..." James said sarcastically. "Sometimes people just don't feel like doing it...get over it!"
Kierra gaped at James, unable to produce a witty comeback.
"Anyway," James continued, "you guys still love each other...you just admitted it in front of all of us!"
"We said we missed each other..." Remus said, "and we didn't mean it"—
"First of all, you should speak for yourself...maybe Kierra did mean it," Sirius said.
"No, I didn't!" Kierra said quickly.
"Right, whatever..." Sirius replied. "Secondly, you miss the people you love...so if you missed each other, you loved each other"—
"No"—
"And thirdly," Sirius cut in loudly, "you know it's true because you're still holding each other!"
Kierra and Remus looked at each other; and indeed, Remus still had his arms wrapped around Kierra's waist, while the latter's hands hung loosely around the back of Remus's neck. They immediately backed away from each other, glaring at Sirius.
"And," Sirius added, with a smug smile, "if you two were really through, you'd be glaring at each other, not at me."
Kierra made to open her mouth, but Lily spoke up first.
"Listen guys, I think the point that they're trying to emphasize here is...you two love each other, and you shouldn't let some...variation...get between yourselves...Is it really something that's worth breaking up over?" Lily asked, looking from Remus to Kierra.
Remus sighed and turned to Kierra.
"Lily's right. And I'm sorry"— He was cut off as Kierra had thrown her arms around him again.
"No...you have nothing to be sorry about," she said, "it's me, I'm sorry"—
"Ah, now that's the obliging Kierra and Remus I'm talking about!" James said with a grin. "Way to go, Lily...you know, I think we should go to you when we want to set people up. Dominique's losing her touch."
"Hey my plan worked!" Dominique exclaimed.
"It did not, it just got them fighting again! And thankfully Lily spoke some sense into them"—
"hey, I only guaranteed that they'd be talking to each other, not back together as a couple..." Dominique muttered.
James rolled his eyes. "And you did a spanking good job, Dominique...." He said sarcastically as plopped onto the couch next to Sirius. "Geez...good luck with her, Padfoot...and you wanna marry her..." James stopped abruptly as everyone's gaze fell on him and Sirius. "I mean...er...that is to say...marry...her...to...uh...Lily?" he asked, looking at his girlfriend for help.
Lily's mouth hung slightly open as she stared at James. She slowly shifted her gaze to Sirius, who instead of looking at James, was looking at Dominique.
Dominique stared at Sirius questioningly, moving her mouth slightly, but no words coming out.
"Um...Dominique," Sirius said, getting up and walking over to her, "ok...I didn't want to do it like this, but well...James was so kind enough to take matters out of my hands..." he said, throwing a glare at James, who smiled meekly in return. Sirius stepped up closer to Dominique and took hold of her hands. "D, I love you...and I know you love me back....and....we have this great relationship...it's really strong...so strong in fact, that we were ready to have a baby. That whole incident made me realize that there is no one else I'd rather share that responsibility with...And I know...this might seem a realize, we're leaving this place in a couple of months...and we're going into the real world...we're all going to be starting new lives...I want to start mine with you."
Sirius reached into his pocket and pulled out a velvety box and opened it as he knelt on the ground. He glanced up at Dominique, whose eyes were more lustrous than the diamond on the ring. "Marry me, Dominique."
Dominique glanced at the glimmering jewel in Sirius's hand for only a moment before returning her gaze to the man that knelt before him. He watched her with acuteness, his gaze locked in hers. He was waiting for an answer. But how to answer...yes, she loved him...she loved everything about him...and what flaws he had, she learned to accept them and love them as well. And yet...Dominique clung to the tiny part of her thoughts that said she shouldn't accept. It was too soon...they were too young... Times were not good... The wizarding world was slowly crossing the threshold of war...No doubt she, and all her friends would be affected by it. It was quite possible that their chances for happiness would diminish as the war progressed....
Dominique sighed. She could feel everyone's eyes fixed on her. He needed an answer. A tiny smile finally graced Dominique's features. "Dumbledore's gonna have kittens when he finds out..." she said.
thought I'd be nice and put that in...I was gonna end it w/ Dominique not answering...but two cliff hangers in a row... :/ I felt bad....lol