(A/N- for the first time, I think I'll be doing reviewer response! Okay,
so I don't remember your names, but I'm responding anyways. First matter of
business:
I've been getting a lot of reviews along the lines of "Great story, but your raving about them being hetero is pissing me off". For this I apologize, because in retrospect, I find MYSELF thinking that I've been pretty rude with that, and/or repetative. But you gotta understand, when I typed those, I was REALLY pissed at some of those charmers who came in for the sole purpose of flaming me - and when I'm pissed, I have a tendency to get a wee bit carried away. What I'm trying to say is, please do not judge my character on my several anger-induced lapses of sanity. I'm actually rather ashamed of myself for them, so please don't make me feel more guilty, otay? ^_^;
And another of you stated that Sirius seemed a little conceited. You are not imagining things, that's how I pictured him for some reason. And hey, a hot guy is entitled to be conceited, non? Or...could this be a big facade, to try and cover up for the fact that he feels unwanted by his family? (I wasn't even thinking about my Siri's attention-loving ways as having stemmed from such a thing until I read the fifth book, and it all made an odd sort of sense in a psychological way... Maybe I'm not as much of a lunatic as I thought I was! Or maybe it's a huge coincidence, I'm a lucky fool, and I should just get on with the damned story!)
(A/N- one more quick note: for those who didn't know already, Narcissus was a Greek god who was madly in love with himself. Hence, the term narcissist, which is applied to a very self-loving sort of person. ...Yeah, this note'll make sense later on.)
*Narrated by the charming, handsome, darling, absolutely-wonderful-in-every- way, and sometimes-furry Mr. Lupin*
"Earth to Moony," Sirius called, waving a hand in front of my face, and breaking my concentration on the nearly full moon outside the common room window.
"Um, sorry," I mumbled. James nodded sympathetically.
"We know, that time of the month." His face broke out into a huge goofy grin. "But, guess what?" I looked around at my fellow Marauders, all of whom were wearing similar silly expressions. I was suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Do I want to know?" I asked cautiously. More often than not, such an assortment of facial expressions meant that A) we were in huge trouble, B) we were about to do something that would get us INTO huge trouble, or C) James and Sirius had smuggled quite a bit of rum out of the kitchens.
"Hell yes," Sirius said, looking like he was about to explode into one of his fits of random hyperactivity. He leaned forward, looked me dead in the eye, and whispered, "We DID it!"
"...You've lost me, Padfoot," I informed. My immature buddy made a big show of rolling his eyes and sighing loudly, and declared,
"YOU tell him, James!" before leaning back and pulling out his brand new mirror to admire himself. James gave Sirius a complementary smack upside the head, and proceeded to continue where Sirius had left off.
"What our Earthly incarnation of Narcissus is trying to say, is that we finished the transformation. We're Animagi!" James finished, looking as though he, too, could have burst into hyperactivity. I stared at each of them.
"No way."
"Yes way," Sirius replied, smiling like a madman and bouncing up and down happily in his seat. My own face broke out into a huge smile, and the four of us had a temporary lapse of manliness. That's right: group hug, complete with hopping around in a circle and - yes - giggling.
To our credit, as soon as we realized what we were doing, we jerked away from each other, coughing in embarrassment. But, not soon enough, obviously.
"Awww, another warm, fuzzy, Marauders moment." We all whirled around to face the intruder. Pardon me, INTRUDERS: Lily, Kitty, and Maggie. Cue involuntary blush from Mr. Moony.
"What do you mean, ANOTHER one, Lily!?" Sirius demanded.
"Yeah, we're not usually sappy!" James cried. "You just caught us at a-"
"A particularly feminine juncture?" Kitty supplied, smirking.
"Exactly!" Sirius agreed, pumping a fist in the air. "Thank you, Kitty, darling, you put it so brilliantly!"
"Oh, shut up, Black," she snapped. Okay, so THAT relationship was still in hot water and surrounded by a pack of hungry sharks... But then, when HADN'T it been? Hell, ever since those two had started "dating" in first year, they'd had a love-hate relationship. Of course, I had to admit that this was mainly Sirius's fault, for his Don Juan antics, but Kitty kind of exacerbated the situation when she tried to get back at him by making him jealous - especially since Sirius had a jealous streak two miles wide anyway, and tended to get rather...violent...when he thought someone else might have a chance at anything he considered to be his.
"Ah, still have that PMS, I see," Sirius said, grinning. "Although I'm not complaining, it's all the more enjoyable when you're in a violent mood." Okay, this would be a perverted and possibly explosive discussion. I moved away slowly, and sat next to the window.
***
*And now, Maggie narration. Don't you love it when I switch narrators in the middle of a chapter?*
Sirius and Kitty had started a conversation that could lead to either homicide or sex. Personally, I thought Remus had the right idea, and went to join him at the far side of the room. He didn't even look up as I stood next to him; he seemed to be staring at the moon. That was...odd.
"Remus?" No reply. I tapped his shoulder, and he jumped.
"What? Oh, sorry, I didn't notice you there," he apologized.
"You've been acting strange all this week," I said.
"Strange, how?"
"Well, you've been kind of spacey," I replied. "And you look really pale. You're not getting sick, are you?"
"What, me? Of course not," he assured, giving me an obviously forced smile. I touched his cheek, and felt his face warm considerably under my fingers.
"Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded, now blushing furiously. I had a feeling I was doing the same, actually.'Oh, right, Maggie,' I scolded myself, 'any excuse to touch him!' Oh, but he was sooo cute... Ugh, I was acting like a lovesick schoolgirl! Of course, by definition I WAS a lovesick schoolgirl, but that was entirely beside the point. You'd think that surrounded by all this magic, someone would have come up with an Anti- Blushing Charm, wouldn't you? Yet, no such luck.
I regretfully took my hand away from his face, and cleared my throat.
"Well, um, anyway," I began, holding up the book in my other hand, "I have to study. We're having a quiz in Defense Against the Dark Arts tomorrow." He nodded again.
"If you need any help, I'll be right here," he offered. I thanked him, and curled up in a chair next to the fireplace. And I attempted to read as strange little thoughts entered my head.
'He was looking ill about this time last month, wasn't he?' I asked myself, glancing over to where he sat, looking out the window again. 'Yes. Then he disappeared for a day, and came back exhausted. I don't think the boys said anything about him being sick, though...'
I shook my head. It was ridiculous to worry about something like that. I looked back to my book. One section seemed to jump out at me,
'There are a few ways one could attempt to identify the werewolf while he/she is in human form. It is very common, in the week proceeding the full moon, for someone cursed with lycanthropy to appear very pale and sickly, and spend his/her time staring at the moon...'
I read through the rest of that paragraph. Looked at Remus. Read the paragraph again. '...the week proceeding the full moon...' I pulled out my Astronomy chart, and felt a definite chill.
The next full moon was tomorrow night. I flipped back to the day Remus was gone the month before. Full moon. 'This has to be a coincidence,' I assured myself. 'There's no way my Remus is a werewolf. And yet...' I looked over at him again. I felt an odd sort of smile come over my face. 'I suppose hands-off for one night each month isn't too bad...'
It became glaringly obvious just then that I was spending far too much time with Sirius Black and James Potter.
I've been getting a lot of reviews along the lines of "Great story, but your raving about them being hetero is pissing me off". For this I apologize, because in retrospect, I find MYSELF thinking that I've been pretty rude with that, and/or repetative. But you gotta understand, when I typed those, I was REALLY pissed at some of those charmers who came in for the sole purpose of flaming me - and when I'm pissed, I have a tendency to get a wee bit carried away. What I'm trying to say is, please do not judge my character on my several anger-induced lapses of sanity. I'm actually rather ashamed of myself for them, so please don't make me feel more guilty, otay? ^_^;
And another of you stated that Sirius seemed a little conceited. You are not imagining things, that's how I pictured him for some reason. And hey, a hot guy is entitled to be conceited, non? Or...could this be a big facade, to try and cover up for the fact that he feels unwanted by his family? (I wasn't even thinking about my Siri's attention-loving ways as having stemmed from such a thing until I read the fifth book, and it all made an odd sort of sense in a psychological way... Maybe I'm not as much of a lunatic as I thought I was! Or maybe it's a huge coincidence, I'm a lucky fool, and I should just get on with the damned story!)
(A/N- one more quick note: for those who didn't know already, Narcissus was a Greek god who was madly in love with himself. Hence, the term narcissist, which is applied to a very self-loving sort of person. ...Yeah, this note'll make sense later on.)
*Narrated by the charming, handsome, darling, absolutely-wonderful-in-every- way, and sometimes-furry Mr. Lupin*
"Earth to Moony," Sirius called, waving a hand in front of my face, and breaking my concentration on the nearly full moon outside the common room window.
"Um, sorry," I mumbled. James nodded sympathetically.
"We know, that time of the month." His face broke out into a huge goofy grin. "But, guess what?" I looked around at my fellow Marauders, all of whom were wearing similar silly expressions. I was suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Do I want to know?" I asked cautiously. More often than not, such an assortment of facial expressions meant that A) we were in huge trouble, B) we were about to do something that would get us INTO huge trouble, or C) James and Sirius had smuggled quite a bit of rum out of the kitchens.
"Hell yes," Sirius said, looking like he was about to explode into one of his fits of random hyperactivity. He leaned forward, looked me dead in the eye, and whispered, "We DID it!"
"...You've lost me, Padfoot," I informed. My immature buddy made a big show of rolling his eyes and sighing loudly, and declared,
"YOU tell him, James!" before leaning back and pulling out his brand new mirror to admire himself. James gave Sirius a complementary smack upside the head, and proceeded to continue where Sirius had left off.
"What our Earthly incarnation of Narcissus is trying to say, is that we finished the transformation. We're Animagi!" James finished, looking as though he, too, could have burst into hyperactivity. I stared at each of them.
"No way."
"Yes way," Sirius replied, smiling like a madman and bouncing up and down happily in his seat. My own face broke out into a huge smile, and the four of us had a temporary lapse of manliness. That's right: group hug, complete with hopping around in a circle and - yes - giggling.
To our credit, as soon as we realized what we were doing, we jerked away from each other, coughing in embarrassment. But, not soon enough, obviously.
"Awww, another warm, fuzzy, Marauders moment." We all whirled around to face the intruder. Pardon me, INTRUDERS: Lily, Kitty, and Maggie. Cue involuntary blush from Mr. Moony.
"What do you mean, ANOTHER one, Lily!?" Sirius demanded.
"Yeah, we're not usually sappy!" James cried. "You just caught us at a-"
"A particularly feminine juncture?" Kitty supplied, smirking.
"Exactly!" Sirius agreed, pumping a fist in the air. "Thank you, Kitty, darling, you put it so brilliantly!"
"Oh, shut up, Black," she snapped. Okay, so THAT relationship was still in hot water and surrounded by a pack of hungry sharks... But then, when HADN'T it been? Hell, ever since those two had started "dating" in first year, they'd had a love-hate relationship. Of course, I had to admit that this was mainly Sirius's fault, for his Don Juan antics, but Kitty kind of exacerbated the situation when she tried to get back at him by making him jealous - especially since Sirius had a jealous streak two miles wide anyway, and tended to get rather...violent...when he thought someone else might have a chance at anything he considered to be his.
"Ah, still have that PMS, I see," Sirius said, grinning. "Although I'm not complaining, it's all the more enjoyable when you're in a violent mood." Okay, this would be a perverted and possibly explosive discussion. I moved away slowly, and sat next to the window.
***
*And now, Maggie narration. Don't you love it when I switch narrators in the middle of a chapter?*
Sirius and Kitty had started a conversation that could lead to either homicide or sex. Personally, I thought Remus had the right idea, and went to join him at the far side of the room. He didn't even look up as I stood next to him; he seemed to be staring at the moon. That was...odd.
"Remus?" No reply. I tapped his shoulder, and he jumped.
"What? Oh, sorry, I didn't notice you there," he apologized.
"You've been acting strange all this week," I said.
"Strange, how?"
"Well, you've been kind of spacey," I replied. "And you look really pale. You're not getting sick, are you?"
"What, me? Of course not," he assured, giving me an obviously forced smile. I touched his cheek, and felt his face warm considerably under my fingers.
"Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded, now blushing furiously. I had a feeling I was doing the same, actually.'Oh, right, Maggie,' I scolded myself, 'any excuse to touch him!' Oh, but he was sooo cute... Ugh, I was acting like a lovesick schoolgirl! Of course, by definition I WAS a lovesick schoolgirl, but that was entirely beside the point. You'd think that surrounded by all this magic, someone would have come up with an Anti- Blushing Charm, wouldn't you? Yet, no such luck.
I regretfully took my hand away from his face, and cleared my throat.
"Well, um, anyway," I began, holding up the book in my other hand, "I have to study. We're having a quiz in Defense Against the Dark Arts tomorrow." He nodded again.
"If you need any help, I'll be right here," he offered. I thanked him, and curled up in a chair next to the fireplace. And I attempted to read as strange little thoughts entered my head.
'He was looking ill about this time last month, wasn't he?' I asked myself, glancing over to where he sat, looking out the window again. 'Yes. Then he disappeared for a day, and came back exhausted. I don't think the boys said anything about him being sick, though...'
I shook my head. It was ridiculous to worry about something like that. I looked back to my book. One section seemed to jump out at me,
'There are a few ways one could attempt to identify the werewolf while he/she is in human form. It is very common, in the week proceeding the full moon, for someone cursed with lycanthropy to appear very pale and sickly, and spend his/her time staring at the moon...'
I read through the rest of that paragraph. Looked at Remus. Read the paragraph again. '...the week proceeding the full moon...' I pulled out my Astronomy chart, and felt a definite chill.
The next full moon was tomorrow night. I flipped back to the day Remus was gone the month before. Full moon. 'This has to be a coincidence,' I assured myself. 'There's no way my Remus is a werewolf. And yet...' I looked over at him again. I felt an odd sort of smile come over my face. 'I suppose hands-off for one night each month isn't too bad...'
It became glaringly obvious just then that I was spending far too much time with Sirius Black and James Potter.