CHAPTER FOUR: THE PLANNING COMMITTEE
SIRIUS BLACK
That night was the first meeting of the planning committee. I'd signed up, mainly because James, Remus and Hermione had, and I had nothing better to do. I'd made sure to sign up after Hermione, though, so she wouldn't see my name on the list.
I still didn't know why I'd bothered.
I showed up at the Head's Quarters at eight o'clock, looking around as I entered the room. Groups of people were all standing around talking; whatever teacher was heading the meeting wasn't there yet. I wandered around in the huge room until I heard a familiar voice behind me.
"Sirius! What are you doing here?"
I turned to see Hermione, standing with Remus, James, and---
Evans? I couldn't believe it. I looked at Remus, who shrugged, baffled; then at James, who did nothing but grin like an idiot as he stood next to Evans; and finally at Hermione, who wore on her face a mischevious smile that I found quite sexy.
Stop that, I told myself, and went to join them.
I said hello to everyone and waved to Evans, who waved back but didn't say anything, before Dumbledore himself walked in. Everyone quickly sat down and paid attention, but Dumbledore just smiled and waved his wand. A small sheet of paper and a self-inking quill appeared in front of each of us. Everyone looked at him, bewildered.
"I'll tell you now," Dumbledore said, "I am not going to be running this planning committee."
"Who is?" Evans asked.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "One of you," he replied. "Each of you, write down the name of a person in this room whom you believe would make a good president of the planning committee. I trust you all know each other?"
Everyone looked around, and nodded. The kids in the room were mainly Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, with about twenty Ravenclaws and a dozen or so Slytherins. Everyone knew, if not everyone in the room, most of the people there.
I wrote down Hermione, convincing myself all the while that it was only because she'd be good at it, and not because---not for any other reason.
When everyone wrote a name down, Dumbledore collected the papers, with a wave of his wand, into a neat pile. He took off his hat and poured all of the papers inside, then tapped the side of the hat with his wand. A name, in large, shimmering silver cursive, rose out of the hat: Hermione Granger. I smiled as Dumbledore vanished the remaining papers with a pop and placed his hat back on his head.
"Miss Hermione Granger, who had the most votes, will be the president of the planning committee. Now, this meeting of the planning committee is adjourned; the next meeting will be Wednesday, same time, same place. Miss Granger, if you could stay behind for a moment; everyone else, thank you for joining, and from now on Miss Granger will make the major decisions."
"I hope to see you Wednesday," Hermione added, looking completely startled that she'd made president.
James, Remus and I---Evans left with the others, to James' disappointment---waited for Hermione outside the door. She came out a few minutes later, blushing but looking proud.
"Congratulations, Hermione," Remus said, giving her a hug.
"Thanks," she answered after James and I echoed the praise. "I can't believe I got picked!"
"I can," I replied.
"I voted for Lily," she confessed.
"I voted for you," James, Remus and I all said at once.
She looked at us, surprised, then laughed. "Wow. Thanks."
"You deserve it," James decided. "You're good at that kind of stuff."
"Stop flattering me, all of you," she said.
"We're not," Remus contradicted. "We're being honest. You're one of our best friends, Hermione. We're allowed to be honest. Unless, of course, you'd rather we lied to you..."
James smiled at Hermione. "I think we're only honest with you, actually. We're not honest around girls."
"Hey hey hey," she shot back, hands on her hips as she looked at James. "I am a girl."
"Just being honest," he teased, and she smacked his arm. "Oh, no," James said to that, putting on a high-pitched voice. "Look, I broke a nail."
Hermione slapped him in the back of the head for that. "Sexist."
"Ow," he said, rubbing his head where she'd hit him but still grinning. "That actually hurt."
She smiled. "Good," she told him. "You deserved it."
I looked between them, not really liking how close to flirting they were getting.
"Come on, you lovebirds," Remus teased, making it even worse. "Let's get upstairs before one of you gets pushed down them by the other."
And that, of course, began a full-on chase. Remus ran down the corridor with James chasing after him---but James couldn't keep up with Remus, because he was laughing. So Hermione ran past James, caught up with Remus, and actually lept onto Remus' back. Remus miraculously managed to stay upright, and gave Hermione a piggyback to the portrait hole.
Which, of course, did wonders for my personal happiness.
HERMIONE GRANGER
The next day, Wednesday, was the first meeting that I had to run on my own. All the Mauraders showed up to see me standing in the center of the room, giving instructions.
"Okay, guys, listen up," I said, rapping on a desk with my knuckles to get everyone's attention. "Let's start a list of things we need to decide on. When I call on you, tell me your name and house whether I know you or not. We've all got to learn one another's names. All right, go on," I encouraged, looking around at the students gathered around me as I walked towards the chalkboard. I picked up my wand and transfigured a scrap of parchment into a piece of chalk.
"Remus Lupin, Gryffindor," Remus said when I called on him. "Decorations," he offered, and I wrote it in flowing script on the chalkboard.
"Anna Plicky, Hufflepuff," a girl answered next. "Theme." I added it beneath "decorations."
People called out a few things, and then ran out of ideas.
"Okay, I think that's good enough," I said after awhile, putting the chalk down. "Now, here's the deal: we only have four things here: decorations; theme; advertising; and when it'll be---but each of these things represents both plenty of work and a lot of time and effort. So here's what we're going to do: I'm picking people to be leaders of groups. Remus, come up here," I said, beckoning. He stood and came to the front. "Lily," I added, and she joined Remus at my side. "You---what's your name?" I asked a girl.
"Jessica," she replied.
"All right, Jessica," I called, beckoning her to the front, and she came up.
This process continued until I had eight people standing in front of me; a male and female from each house.
"Now, if each of you could introduce yourselves," I instructed them, and Remus started.
"I'm Remus Lupin, or Moony, and I'm a Gryffindor."
"I'm Lily Evans," Lily said, "I'm also a Gryffindor."
"I'm Jessica Valence," the girl with long black hair next to Lily, said. "You can call me Jess, Jessie, basically any form of my name. Oh, and I'm a Ravenclaw."
"Anthony Beckett, or Tony," said the dark-haired guy next to her. "And I'm a Ravenclaw."
"Jen Simpson, Hufflepuff," said the tall blond girl to his left.
"Charlie Presson, Hufflepuff," said the stout redheaded guy.
"Nick Rixxen, Slytherin," said the guy next to Charlie.
"Laura Quinoxin, Slytherin," said the last girl.
"Okay, great," I said. "Now, leaders, pair up." Of course, the pairs ended up being the houses. "All right," I said, pointing to people. "You guys, with the Hufflepuffs, Jen and Charlie. This group, with the Slytherins, Nick and Laura. That group back there, stop talking, you're up with the Ravenclaws, Tony and Jessica. The rest of you, come on up, you're with the Gryffindors, Lily and Remus. Now, all of you, stay near your groups and have a seat with them. You there, stop talking," I added to a guy who was laughing at something a buddy of his had said. "Come on, guys, have a seat."
I finally got everyone to sit down, then said, "Okay. Which group wants what?"
Silence.
"We'll take decorations," Lily said when no one spoke.
"Good," I said. "Anyone else have preferences?"
"We'll take advertising," the Slytherin guy, Nick, decided.
"Okay," I replied, looking at the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. "Who gets which one?" I asked.
"Theme," Jessica, the Ravenclaw girl, called.
"All right. Then that leaves you," I told the Hufflepuffs, "With when we're going to have it."
"Wait a minute," said an attractive guy in the back, raising his hand.
"And you are?" I asked, then realized I sounded like Professor Umbridge and said, "What's your name?"
"Kevin Minxe, Ravenclaw," he said hurriedly. "But we haven't said anything about music yet."
"A good point," I said, thinking. Then I had an idea. "Kevin, I'll tell you what. If you're willing, I'll make another group for advertising and you and I will be the leaders of that group."
"All right," he replied.
"Good," I said. "Okay, anyone who would rather work on music than whatever they're in, move to the back."
A few people from each group moved to the back, including Sirius. I smiled. "Perfect."
"Okay," I said, "for today, just start brainstorming ideas and ways to get what you want; we don't have time for much else. I know the Gryffindors have Quidditch practice and Ravenclaws are having a House party at nine thirty, so I'll try and get everyone out of here by nine, okay? All right, everyone, go for it."
I headed to the back of the room, and my group. Kevin Minxe, the guy who'd spoken up about the music, stood when I got closer. He held out his hand for me to shake.
"Just thought I'd re-introduce myself. Kevin Minxe," he said as I took his hand.
"Hermione Granger," I said, giving him my trademark firm handshake and releasing his hand. "Thank you for bringing up the music; I think everyone just forgot about it."
"No problem," he replied.
"I'm sure it wasn't," Sirius, sitting nearby, muttered bitterly.
"What?" I asked, bewildered.
"Nothing," Sirius sighed, sitting heavily back in his chair. "Forget it."
JAMES POTTER
"Hey Moony?" I asked a week later by the fire, just after yet another planning committee meeting. I was working on my Transfiguration homework; Remus had just finished his and had moved on to other things.
"Yes?" he replied, looking up from the crossword puzzle he was doing.
"Am I the only one who's worried about Sirius?"
Remus put his crossword puzzle down in his lap and rested his pencil across it, watching me with mild curiousity. "Worried about him for what reason?"
"He's obsessed, Remus."
"With what?" Remus asked. "Hermione? Trust me, I've seen him obsessed---not wth a girl, but with other things. This is not him obsessed. This is Sirius in love."
My mouth fell open. "You think he's in love with her? Padfoot? Mr.-Different-Girl-Every-Week?"
"Yes. Haven't you ever noticed? He switches girlfriends so fast because he's trying to find a girl he actually likes. All the others---well, let's just say that most girls at Hogwarts want whatever piece of Sirius they can get. And for a lot of them, if that means dating him and then getting dumped without any hard feelings, they're willing."
"Wow," I said, feeling dumb. "And here I've been worried he's taking infatuation too seriously."
Remus looked up sharply. "Eat your words," he said sternly, but kindly. "If you're going to worry that he'd do something like that, worry about yourself as well."
I drew myself up, sitting straighter in the chair. "I," I proclaimed, "Am in love. And don't you forget it."
"Well, Sirius is in love, too. And don't you forget it," Remus mocked, then turned serious. "I mean it, Prongs. I think he's in love; I also think
you're in love. I also think you each need to stop worrying about the well-being of the other."
"Why, is Padfoot worried about me?"
Remus smiled wearily. "I had this exact conversation with Sirius the other night. He thought you were taking infatuation too seriously."
"What'd you say?"
"The same thing I said to you," Remus said indifferently, picking up his pencil; he returned to his crossword, smiling gently as he filled in the next word. "To quit being such an old woman and stop worrying."