Disclaimer: Characters and settings are property of J.K. Rowling. What you don't recognize is mine. And I wish I owned the Marauders (specifically Sirius and Remus) but most unfortunately, I do not.
X-X-X-X-X
Marlene chewed her lower lip helplessly for a few moments, and then looked up at a bemused Lily, who was watching her over the top of her book. "I'm stuck," she declared mournfully. She looked down at the playing cards, arranged into a game of solitaire. "And they haven't even blown up yet," she added.
Just then, the train jerked, sending Marlene, who was plopped on the floor, flying into the bench. The cards went with her, also flying into the side of the bench, where they exploded, leaving scorch marks on the wood and singeing the tips of Marlene's hair.
"Ahem. I stand corrected."
The compartment door slid open, and Alyssa, Jen, and Janine trooped in, each carrying an armful of candy. Lily frowned. "You shouldn't eat all that. It's not even lunch."
"Oh?" Janine asked airily. "Well then, in that case, we'll eat it all and not share it with you. Since you don't want to eat it before lunch, that is. Want a chocolate frog, Marly?"
"Yes ma'am." Marlene happily took one and crammed it in her mouth, examining the tips of her hair. "Y'know," she said, through a mouthful of chocolate, "maybe burning my hair isn't so bad. At least I can get it cut, now."
"But your hair doesn't need cutting," pointed out Jen.
"Yes it does. It looks awful."
"Only because you singed it."
"I'll cut it for you," offered Alyssa. "And I won't even charge. Aren't I nice?"
Her friends ignored her. Lily quickly buried her nose in her book again, but Janine snatched it away, looking at the title. "The Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology," she read aloud, and stared at her friend. "Right, well that clinches it. You've officially gone off the deep end." She tossed the book back to Lily, who caught it.
"It's an interesting book!" she said defensively.
"Right. And I'm in love with Severus Snape."
"When's the wedding, then?" Janine scowled and flopped in a chair. Since that evening at the Leaky Cauldron, everyone had walked on tenterhooks around Janine, carefully not mentioning that night at all. Only Lily felt safe enough to joke around Janine. So long as she didn't bring up her friend's father, that is.
Since that very memorable night at the Leaky Cauldron, Janine had steadfastly refused to speak to her father, or even acknowledge him, save to leave the room whenever he entered. She had taken to eating her meals in her bedroom, and after the first awkward dinner with the other Garnets, her friends had joined her there.
Personally, Lily thought that this dispute had gone on long enough, but when she'd broached the subject with her friend, Janine had bitten her head off, and so Lily left her alone. Janine and her father would probably make up on their own without her help.
But it didn't seem that way, as things stood. When the Garnets had come to see their sons and daughter (and her friends) off at the train, Janine had coolly said goodbye to her mother and brothers, and then marched onto the train without a word to her father. Lily, who had been watching, saw the sad look in his eyes, but carefully did not mention it.
The door slid open once more, jolting Lily from her thoughts, and James Potter poked his head in, and then was abruptly shoved in. He went sprawling on the floor as Sirius ambled in behind him. He cheerfully plopped down next to Janine, gave her a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, and then propped his feet up on James's back. James grunted and shoved his feet off. He sat up, crossing his legs, and rearranged his glasses. "What happened to you?" he asked Marlene.
"Cards blew up while I was playing solitaire."
"Oh. That sucks. Did you win before it happened?"
"No."
"You really ought to get those self-solving cards. All you have to do is set up, and the cards go about playing themselves."
"That's stupid," Lily said, looking up from her book and frowning. "What would be the point of playing cards?"
"The point of playing cards doesn't change," James said in what he thought was a reasonable voice. After all, the answer to her question was obvious. "You win either way, and possibly win some money if you've bet some. And that's the point, isn't it?"
"And I suppose," Lily continued in a venomous voice, "that's also the reason for cheating? It doesn't matter who does the work so long as it gets done and you get an O, is that it?"
"Well, that's more or less the reason behind cheating, yeah. Not to say that I do it… after all, I don't need to cheat off people. I'm just naturally brilliant."
"You're incorrigible," Lily snapped, and returned to her book, not even looking up when Sirius remarked, "Well, he may be brilliant, but I'm not. What does incorrigible mean?" Lily restrained herself from tossing her book at him.
"Inveterate," said Remus from the doorway. Sirius gave him a puzzled look. "That's what incorrigible means. Or, rather, it's a synonym."
"But I don't know what that means either!"
"How you got any O's on your O.W.L.'s is a mystery to me," Remus said with a long-suffering sigh. "Hopeless, Padfoot."
"Nicknames again," muttered Janine and Jen in unison. The three boys (now joined by Peter, who entered with his arms full of candy) ignored them.
"What's hopeless?" Sirius asked curiously.
"Incorrigible."
"Stop that, you're confusing me!"
Remus scowled. "That's what it means, idiot! Incorrigible and inveterate mean hopeless! Irredeemable! Incurable! A lost case, my friend!"
"Oh." There was a pause. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"
Remus smacked himself in the forehead. "Why is it that my efforts to educate you go useless?"
"Because he's Sirius and no matter how much you hammer these things into his tiny skull, he still doesn't get them," said Janine in an affectionate tone. Sirius pretended to be insulted.
"I'll have you know I'm highly intelligent!"
Lily sighed and stood. Everyone glanced at her. "Where are you going?" asked Alyssa curiously.
"To find an empty compartment. Maybe the prefects' compartment. Anywhere where I can read in peace!"
"I don't know why you'd want to. You're reading a book on Hippogriff psychology," pointed out Jen reasonably. Lily shot her a poisonous look and stalked out.
The others exchanged glances. "She'll come back," Janine finally said confidently. "She'll get bored without our company and get desperate for some amusement. And then she'll come back. Until then… anybody up for a game of Strip Poker?"
X-X-X-X-X
Lily settled into her new seat with a contented sigh. The prefects' compartment was indeed empty, as she'd expected it would be. Of the few prefects who'd gone home for the holidays, few of them would want to take time away from their friends to spend it in the prefects' compartment, particularly when there were no orders to be given out.
Opening her book, she went back to the page she had been at.
Hippogriffs often experience behavioral changes when there is a difference in a normal diet. For example, the wizard Fallon Kendrick, a noted hippogriff breeder of the 1200s, fed a baby hippogriff lettuce throughout its infancy, and as the hippogriff grew, he noticed a certain distaste towards violence of any sort, not to mention the hippogriff refused to go within five feet of blood or meat…
"…Telling you, this is the perfect place to meet, there'll be nobody in h-… oh, look. It's the Mudblood."
Lily gave a very heavy sigh and looked up into the heavy-lidded eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix was smirking at her. Lily reached for her wand, ready to tell Bellatrix to shove off, when she noticed that the Slytherin girl was flanked by some of her cronies – Narcissa, Regulus, Antonin Dolohov, Evan Rosier, and Margaret Blair (another Slytherin seventh year). She expelled a breath as her blood ran cold. No way could she take on six Slytherins, four of whom were older than she was.
Narcissa rolled her eyes, looking bored. "Bella, kick the bitch out and let's finish this."
"Now, now, Narcissa, is that nice? You shouldn't call prefects names," Bellatrix chided mockingly. She laughed, and her little "court" followed suit. With an effort, Lily didn't roll her eyes. Bellatrix turned to her. "Why don't you run along on your way, Mudblood? We won't even give you trouble today." She sneered elegantly. "There. See how polite we're being to you."
"You can't be in here," Lily retorted. "It's a prefects' compartment, and I am a prefect. I have clearance to be here; you lot don't. I suggest you leave."
"Maybe I don't want to leave."
"Well, I don't either."
Bellatrix's eyes flashed. "Don't take that insolent tone with me, Evans. I'm worth more than your whole family is."
Lily's blood began to boil, and she opened her mouth to reply, as Margaret examined her nails, saying, "Oh, for heaven's sake, Bella. Just have the boys get rid of her. I don't know why you insist on playing your silly little games."
Lily set her lip stubbornly. "I'm not leaving."
"Fine, then we will," Regulus snapped. He tugged on his older cousin's sleeve. "Let's go, Bella."
"No, no. Let's stay and chat with the Mudblood, shall we?"
"Bella." Regulus actually was beginning to look worried. "Let's go. We're going to get in trouble ag-"
"I didn't know you were such a coward, Reg," Evan sneered. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you're more like your brother than you pretend to be."
Regulus scowled. "I'm nothing like him!"
"In any case, it's not us Gryffindors that are the cowards who turn tail and run," Lily said rudely. "That's you lot."
"We're not cowards, none of us here," Antonin snarled. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll run while we're letting you, Evans."
"I'm not kidding!" Regulus snapped. "You pay attention to me – I'm nothing like Sirius, you hear me?"
"Don't be an idiot," Bella snapped in response. "Just shut up so we can get rid of her."
"Bella, you know me – I'm nothing like-"
"Shut up!" Rosier snarled. "For God's sake, we're supposed to be kicking Evans out of here!"
Lily's hand tightened around her wand. No, she couldn't duel with six others – but if they threw the first spell, then she was prepared to fight back.
X-X-X-X-X
Alexandra Walsh – Alexia to her friends – nervously backed away from the six Slytherins in front of her. All of them had their backs to her, but Alexia could hear Lily Evans's voice from within the compartment. It sounded as though she were alone.
Alexia quickly turned tail and fled. Yes, she was a Gryffindor. But no, she wasn't going to try and take on six Slytherins with only Lily Evans to help her. Lily Evans might be able to hold her own, but she certainly couldn't.
She felt about to cry. Why did the Hat put me in Gryffindor, anyway? Almost five years of being here – and I'm still no braver than the smallest first year.
She ran down the hall. James Potter and his friends had to be somewhere. But where? Everybody knew of James's infatuation with Lily – he'd be sure to take care of her.
Not for the first time, Alexia wished fervently that she had her friend Joanne Gainsborough's courage.
Joanne! Jo would know what to do. She always did. Alexia made an abrupt about-turn and ran back to their compartment. She was there in two minutes. Jo looked up from where she was playing Exploding Snap with their other friends and smiled. "That was quick. Decided you didn't need to go to the loo after all?"
"Lily Evans - Bellatrix Lestrange – Slytherins-" Alexia panted. The smile vanished from Jo's face at once.
"Where?"
"Prefect's Comp-"
"Right, right. Go get the Gryffindor sixth years while I go help Lily!"
"But – I don't know where-"
"Don't be stupid!" Jo snapped, all congeniality gone. "You practically have a radar for Remus Lupin; you find him!" And she ran out, leaving their friends bewildered.
"Help me," Alexia moaned to her other friends. Within moments, all were on their feet and they spread out across the train, searching for the other sixth-years.
X-X-X-X-X
"Royal flush!" James proclaimed triumphantly. Everybody glared at him. As it stood, he was the only one with all his clothes on. He made a slow grin at his friends, and his eyes alighted on Janine. He knew that he could have – and should have – picked Jen, who was scowling, wearing only her blouse with her bra and knickers underneath. Fortunately for her, she'd chosen to wear a long shirt. James didn't want to be cruel, and he wanted to torment Sirius a little – payback for the incident with Lily at the Garnets'. "Garnet. Shirt."
Glowering, she unbuttoned her blouse and tossed it aside. James really couldn't have cared less for the fact that he was seeing a girl he'd known his entire life in her bra and a skirt, with only one sock on, but it was obvious that Sirius minded a great deal. He glared at Remus and Peter whenever they surreptitiously glanced at her chest.
"I quit," Marlene said irritably. "There's no point playing when James always wins. He's calling all the shots now."
"Spoilsport," James said with a smirking grin. "If you want to buy out, it's five galleons, remember-"
The door slammed open, and a petite brunette poked her head in, panting heavily. Her eyes widened as they took in the half-dressed sixteen-year-olds, finally gluing themselves to Remus's bare chest. Both he and the girl flushed a bright purple. "I… er… sorry…"
"Did you want something?" Janine asked impatiently. "As you can see, we're rather – er – busy."
"I… er…" She finally tore her eyes away from a still-coloring Remus and stared at James. "Lily Evans is in trouble!" she blurted.
James recognized her suddenly – she was one of the Gryffindor fifth-years, Alexis or something. He leapt to his feet, closely followed by the others. "Where?" he demanded hoarsely.
"Prefects' compartment – oh, it's Bellatrix Lestrange and her cron-" Alexia yelped as what felt like a mad stampede of wildebeest raced past her. "Wait for me!" she wailed, and took off after them, only to find that they'd left the car and moved to the next one. She sighed and broke into a fast-paced walk, trying to remember where the prefects' compartment was and simultaneously rid her mind of what Remus Lupin looked like without his shirt on…
X-X-X-X-X
Lily crossed her arms over her chest, halfway torn between disbelief and amusement. Not only had Rosier's comment to Regulus about being like his brother riled the youngest Slytherin up, it had startled a fully-fledged argument between Regulus and everybody else.
In fact, they had quite forgotten she was there.
Part of Lily contemplated just going quietly back to her book, but then she'd be blatantly ignoring the Slytherins, in which case, if they decided to attack her suddenly, she wouldn't be ready. She could, of course, try and slip past them, but they were blocking the doorway, which effectively ruled out that plan of escape.
Her only other option was to sit here and wait for them to notice her again. Oh, joy.
Fortunately for her, somebody abruptly shoved Antonin Dolohov, causing him to crash into Rosier and Margaret Blair. He grabbed hold of both of them, and they all went tumbling to the ground, yelping.
Lily glanced up at the curly-haired blonde who had interrupted the Slytherin meeting. Lily instantly recognized her as Joanne Gainsborough, one of the fifth-year Gryffindor prefects. In a moment, Lily remembered all she'd ever known about the girl. She was young for her age, having only just turned fifteen; she was also very petite, like Lily herself; she was a bit rash and very bold, and not one to back down from a challenge. Lily had often noticed her defending younger students, and had commended her for it. She liked the girl.
"Leave her alone!" Jo said angrily.
"Keep out of this; it's none of your business," Narcissa snapped. Rosier leapt to his feet and pointed his wand at the Gryffindor girl.
"Get out of here," he snarled, just as Dolohov added, "You'll be sorry for that, you little whore."
It became immediately obvious that Jo had never really borne the brunt of much enmity from the Slytherin end, or at least not as much as Lily had. It showed in her eyes; warm brown eyes filled with hurt, astonishment, and anger. Lily sighed. She may have liked Jo, but the girl didn't know how to stand up to the lowliest Slytherins.
To stand up to them, you couldn't let them see when they got to you.
"Oh, look," Margaret taunted. "We hurt the little girl's feelings."
"Enough of that!" snapped Bellatrix. "Take care of her while I get Evans!"
She'd just lunged for Lily, who had pulled out her wand, when a loud shout of, "Expelliarmus!" Bellatrix's wand flew from her hands and she went flying, sprawling at Lily's feet.
Lily looked up to thank her savior, a half-smile on her face, but it quickly fell away when she saw James Potter, smirking as he held Bellatrix's wand. Had she bothered to look into his eyes, she would have discovered that the smirk was only a ruse – he was livid. Lily opened her mouth to snap that she didn't need him to be her knight in shining armor when she caught sight of all of her friends clustered behind him, all with their wands out, all half-dressed.
Her mouth fell open.
"I suggest you lot leave now," Janine began in her most dangerous voice. Both Rosier and Dolohov were staring at her, taking in her half-dressed state. Lily barely registered that all of them were missing articles of clothing – with the obvious exception of James and Jo, who still had her wand trained threateningly on Dolohov and Narcissa.
"And you're going to make us leave, now are you, love?" Bellatrix asked snidely from her heap at Lily's feet.
"If we have to."
Bellatrix stood up and smirked. "My, my. Are you so desperate for a boyfriend that you'll wander around half-naked?"
"I don't need to. Boys flock to my feet anyway. I realize that you sometimes get confused with how the guys look at me with adoration and you with revulsion, but… well, I'll make leeway for you since I consider you blind, deaf, and, of course, extremely stupid."
The two glared at one another, making their mutual loathing well known. Not that it wasn't already renowned about the school. The two were infamous for constantly engaging in fist fights and duels which, usually, had to be broken up by Lily or a professor.
In the end (to Lily's amazement), Bellatrix beckoned to her cronies and they left, shoving the sixth-year Gryffindors (and one fifth-year) out of the way. Regulus paused and gave Janine a considering look while surreptitiously giving Sirius a scathing look as well. Then he stormed off.
Sirius sighed. "I think my brother fancies you," he told Janine.
"Bollocks. He's adorable, though." The boys glowered at her. "In that evil, very berk-ish sort of way, of course," she added quickly. "He's too young for me."
"One year," pointed out Jen.
"Year and a half," Janine corrected.
"Whatever."
Janine turned to Jo, who was standing shyly off to the side. Lily opened her mouth to thank her for her help, but Janine cut Lily off smoothly. "Thanks," she said coolly. "You can go, now." She sounded as though she were dismissing a servant; Jo glowered. Janine turned her back on her, facing Lily. "You all right?"
"Yes, fine. In fact, until you lot had shown up, they'd quite forgotten I was there." Janine raised her eyebrows; Lily decided not to elaborate. "Why are you dressed like that?" She paused. "Or, more accurately, why aren't you dressed?"
"I'm wearing a skirt."
"But no blouse."
She smirked. "Potter made me take it off." Lily turned to glare at a rapidly-turning-red James, until Janine added, "We were playing strip poker. James kept winning," she added unnecessarily, glowering in James's direction. "In any case, that little fifth-year… you know… brown hair…"
"Alexia," Jo offered coldly.
"Still here, are you? Yes, well, her – she ran in, and interrupted us. So, naturally, we had to come to your aid."
"My hero," Lily said sarcastically.
"Heroine," Janine corrected. "Honestly, you ought to be politically correct, Lil." Lily rolled her eyes, and turned to Jo.
"Thanks for your help," she said sincerely. "And please thank Alexandra for me."
Jo gave her a smile, even if it wasn't very warm. "She goes by Alexia. I'm Jo."
"Yes, I know. Fifth-year prefect, right?" Jo nodded. "I really do appreciate-"
"Lily, hurry up," interrupted Jen loudly. "We're waiting on you."
Lily sighed. "Maybe I'll just stay here and read-"
"No." Janine's voice was vehement. "You will not." Lily gave her a startled look. "Now come on," she continued authoritatively. She strode out the compartment door, quickly followed by the others. Jo glowered after her.
"Pushy, isn't she?"
"She's got a heart of gold, though," insisted Lily quickly. Jo rolled her eyes. "Thanks again," Lily added, scooting off her seat and following her friends. She waved to Jo, who gave her a half-hearted wave back.
Lily caught up with Janine and gave her a scowl. "You were awfully rude to Jo," she pointed out irritably. "There was no cause for it."
"Oh, what do you care? She's just a fifth year."
"She's a person, too, you know!"
"Lily, relax," Sirius interjected, slinging an arm around Janine. "She probably won't even remember it by tomorrow." Lily thought of Jo's glare after Janine and wasn't so sure. "Anyway, we don't mix with the fifth-years, so I doubt she'll care even if she does remember." He leaned around Janine and peered at Lily. "Those Slytherins didn't hurt you or anything, did they? Because if they did, I'll take care of them."
Lily was about to snap that she didn't need him to be her knight in shining armor any more than she needed James, but she noticed that his gray eyes had darkened so much that they were nearly black. And she remembered that three of her tormentors had been his family members. No wonder he was furious. She felt a twinge of regret. "No, I'm fine, Sirius, but thanks for offering."
Meanwhile, James was quietly watching the exchange. Not fair. I actually do something to help her, and she glowers at me. Sirius offers to help her, and she thanks him. "Not fair!"
He hadn't realized he'd said this last part aloud until Marlene turned around and gave him a quizzical look. "What's not fair?"
"I… oh… nothing. Forget it."
She gazed at him for a few minutes, and then rolled her eyes. "You're losing your marbles."
Great. And to top it all off, McKinnon think I'm insane. And so do the Garnet brothers, he added, remembering his meeting with them in the Magical Menagerie. Just great. Next thing you know, the entire school will catch wind of it and they'll ship me off to St. Mungo's. Perfect.
Alyssa was frowning at him. "You've got this painful look on your face. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" James snapped it out. She gave him an affronted look.
"Well, if you want to be belligerent… Hello, Damien."
Damien, who had been passing them on the way back to his own compartment, nodded to her and continued walking on. After he got two feet away from them, he froze and spun around, dropping all the pumpkin pasties in his arms. "What the hell?" he spluttered.
They turned, and Janine shot him a quizzical look before turning a bright red and shying away from Sirius, wrapping her arms around her torso. "We were playing poker," she offered weakly.
Damien stormed through their group, his hand closed on her arm, and he yanked her away from Sirius. He glowered at the younger boy, who gave him an astonished look. "Leave me sister alone, Black, or I'll break your face." His voice was even, now. He whirled on his sister. "I have no idea what the hell you're playing at, but-"
"First of all, we were playing poker, and you'd do well to notice that I'm not the only one half-dressed. Second of all, Sirius and I are dating, and have been for a month." She glowered at him. "So I'll thank you not to snap at him."
Damien was breathing very hard through his nose. "He'll hurt you."
"Oh, I doubt it." Sirius looked outraged, but Janine imperceptibly shook her head at him. "We're not getting married, for heaven's sake. We're not even going steady. We're just-"
"Shagging?" Damien suggested with a venomous tone of voice.
"No! And even if we were, it's none of your business, and-"
"It is so my business! You're my sister!"
"I'm not a child!"
"You're sixteen!"
"Since when does being sixteen make me a child?"
James very much wanted to cover his ears with his hands. Lily wanted to bury her head under her pillow. Marlene and Alyssa were trying very hard to pretend that they didn't know either of the Garnets who were making a ruckus. Remus was staring out the window, trying to pretend that he couldn't hear a word of what was going on. Peter was absorbed in reading and rereading a Chocolate Frog card. Jen was heartily amused. Sirius wasn't.
"It's not like we've done anything major…"
It turned out that Sirius saying that was the worst thing possible, because Damien swung around and slammed his fist into Sirius's jaw. He went flying into the wall, and swore vehemently as he got up. "You didn't have to do that!" he snapped, holding his face when he'd finished cursing.
"Ooooh…" Janine looked very upset, pushing her brother out of the way and running to Sirius. It was clear that Sirius expected to be coddled by sympathy. He expected wrong.
"You stupid idiot! What did you go running your mouth off like that for? I had the situation under control!"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" James finally lost his temper. "We're all standing in the corridor half-dressed – well, you lot are, I'm not, and neither is Damien or Lily – shouting at one another because Janine has a new boyfriend when she's had millions before! Why is this important?"
"Potter-"
"Stop whinging, Garnet. If your sister could handle Evan Rosier for years – yes, everybody knows about you snogging him since you were fourteen – I think she can handle Sirius!"
There was a long silence. Lily paused – she felt grateful to James, in an absurd way, for making them all shut up once and for all. She cleared her throat – everyone looked at her. "I think we should all go back to our compartments and… er… get dressed." Damien opened his mouth – possibly to argue again – and she added, "Before anybody else comes along, that is."
Damien glowered at Lily, and then nodded tightly. "This conversation is not over," he warned his sister, stalking off.
"I'll be waiting!" she shouted at his retreating back. When he disappeared into a compartment, she turned to Lily and James. "Thanks."
"Anything to shut the pair of you up," James answered. "Now can we please go before something more embarrassing happens?"
As they headed back to the compartment, Remus tapped Janine's shoulder. She glanced at him. "You know what this means, don't you?" She gave him a puzzled look. "You and Sirius. Now that Damien knows… everybody's going to know, soon. You guys are going public."
"You make them sound like some scandalous story for the… what's that nonsense magazine called? The Quibbler," Marlene said with a giggle.
"Have you looked at the pair of them?" pointed out Jen with a grin, taking in the pair's half-dressed states. "They're practically a scandalous story waiting to happen!"
Janine rolled her eyes. "You guys are being ridiculous. So people know that we're dating. What's the big deal?"
"I'll tell you what the big deal is." Alyssa deigned to elaborate. "Girls are going to be mobbing you in the halls, now that our resident heartthrob is officially off the market."
"That's stupid. Of course they won't be-"
"Oh, God, it is true!" They all stopped – a Ravenclaw seventh-year girl stood in front of them, her hands on her hips and she surveyed them. "Sirius Black really is dating Janine Garnet! And I thought those seventh-year Gryffindors were just making things up…"
"I'm still available," Sirius offered, his eyes sliding over her. Janine smacked him, hard.
"No, you're not!"
"I thought we agreed no commitments!"
"Well, we changed our minds!"
"Ahem, you changed your mind!"
"Right, and I'm changing your mind for you!"
They glared at one another, and finally Sirius sighed helplessly, and shrugged at the girl. "Sorry. You could check back in a few weeks, though… I might be open then."
"Don't bet on it," Janine grumbled, and grabbed hold of Sirius's arm. "No chance, sweetheart. If we're going to be dating, then you're mine." And she promptly pushed the Ravenclaw seventh-year out of the way, dragging Sirius down the hall and into their compartment. The group could hear them bickering through the compartment door.
"Honestly, it's not like you own me…"
"Sirius Black, when you date a girl, you do not agree to go off with another one right in front of her!"
"Are you saying I should have done it behind your back? I thought you appreciate honesty!"
"Argh…"
The Ravenclaw glanced at James. "You're his best friend. How long d'you think their relationship will last?"
James looked thoughtful. "Honestly? Seeing as it's Sirius, it might not even last until we get back to Hogwarts. But you never know…"
She nodded. "Right. Well, then you tell him that Meredith Watson is single if he's interested, okay? Ravenclaw seventh-year."
"I'll do that."
"Thanks." She disappeared.
Alyssa sighed. "I told her so. She never listens to me…"
"Come on. The way they're arguing, they might have killed each other already, and we'll get some real peace and quiet for once." Jen set off jogging down the hall.
X-X-X-X-X
Lily paused in the doorway to her dormitory, feeling its warmth seep into her veins. She had missed Hogwarts, just as she always did whenever she left.
Jen pushed her in. "Hey, let's move it, sweetheart!"
Lily stuck her tongue out, and fell onto her bed, not bothering to put any of her clothes and personals away in her wardrobe.
Predictably, that was the first thing Marlene did – walk in, open her trunk, and begin putting things away. She gave the other girls a reproving look. "When classes start up tomorrow, you'll wish you'd put your things away when you can't even find a wrinkled uniform."
"I left my uniforms and robes here," Janine said around a loud yawn.
"Not all of us have enough clothes at home that we can leave our whole wardrobe here at Hogwarts," Lily replied, getting off her bed and beginning to put things away. "What happened between you and Sirius?"
"We kissed and made up. Literally."
"When?"
"Before you got back to the compartment."
"I'd wondered why it had gone all quiet…" Alyssa mused, just as Jen asked scornfully, "What, you did all that in the space of, like, one minute? And that Ravenclaw's not going to leave him alone. It's only going to get worse for you over the next month or so."
"Yeah, sure." Janine rolled her eyes. "Hogwarts' gossip chain will find something else to fixate on by tomorrow morning."
X-X-X-X-X
Apparently, Hogwarts' gossip chain didn't find anything else to fixate on. Along the way to breakfast, Janine was accosted by no less than six girls, two of whom claimed that Janine had stolen her man.
Janine, never much of a morning person, was in an even worse mood than normal, and her friends knew enough to leave her be until she perked up. Sirius, of course, did not know this, and so when he angled to kiss her cheek in the morning, she swatted him away with a grouchy snap of, "Leave me alone!"
Sirius stared at her, bewildered, and then at her four friends, who were calmly eating their breakfast and ignoring the fifth member of their group. Evidently, Sirius decided that Jen would be most forthcoming with details, and so he pushed Lily over (leaving her very disgruntled, particularly when he seized her fork from her hand and began to eat off her plate) and demanded to know what was going on.
"Oh, you know – Janine's always in a crappy mood in the morning."
"Then a kiss from me ought to cheer her up!"
"Oh, and people have been bothering her since it got out you were dating."
Sirius groaned audibly. "Does that mean she's going to ignore me all morning?" Jen opened her mouth; Sirius turned to Janine without waiting for an answer. "Are you going to ignore me all morning? Because I was thinking we could skip Transfiguration right before lunch, and-"
"It would not be wise to skip my class first day of term, Mr. Black." Sirius blanched and twisted in his seat to send Professor McGonagall a winning smile.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Minnie." Her nostrils flared at the nickname, and she stalked off. Janine was giving him a dirty look. "Oh, what now?"
"She's going to be in a crappy mood now that you called her that. Don't you ever know when to stop?"
He gave her a puzzled look. "Geez, you are in a bad mood, aren't you?"
A girl from Hufflepuff tapped Janine on the shoulder, and the brunette whirled, snapping, "Yes! Yes, I'm dating Sirius Black, and no, we are not going to be breaking up anytime soon, so would you please leave me alone!"
The girl looked terrified. "Er… I only wanted to ask if I could have that book back that you borrowed from me before the hols…"
Janine flushed brightly and muttered, "Oh, right. Yeah, I'll get it for you after classes." The girl looked relieved and sped away. Lily glowered at Janine, who snapped, "That's right, blame me after I've been accosted by girls all morning!"
"Oh, look!" They all glanced at Alyssa, who was grinning down at the note in her hands.
"What, what is it?" Lily demanded.
"It's from my Auntie! She said we're going to be in the February edition of Witch Weekly! Isn't that exciting?"
"Thrilling," Sirius agreed dully. He was watching Janine tiredly. "Does this mean you're too mad to snog during Transfiguration?"
A girl leaned over and said, "Well, if she is, I'm not, so…"
Janine slammed her goblet down, sloshing pumpkin juice everywhere, and stormed out. She did not speak to Sirius for the rest of the morning. She did not speak to Jen, either, particularly when Jen pointed out that it had not been Sirius's fault and they had warned her, so what was she so grumpy about?
X-X-X-X-X
James observed the five girls as they walked to lunch, ahead of him. He dully glanced at his watch, and then looked up and glared at Sirius. Stupid prat.
"Don't glare at me. It isn't my fault you weren't paying attention in class. All I wanted you to do was ask Janine if she was still mad at me even though I didn't do anything. If you hadn't been staring at Evans's hair, we might not have gotten caught…"
"We wouldn't have gotten detention if you hadn't ran your mouth off to McGonagall! Honestly… 'Well, you see, Professor, Jamie here and I have been racing around on enchanted roller skates, and we kept banging into walls, so we're really not quite right in the head yet and are so incapacitated that we are finding it really quite impossible to pay attention to your otherwise fascinating lectures.' My God, Sirius, you knew she was in a bad mood… In fact, it was you that put her in it…"
"Oh, so we have detention… so what?"
"Sirius, it's the first day of term, and- oh, shut up."
"I'm not talking, you were-"
"Shut up!" James hissed, and jogged ahead so he could hear the girls more carefully.
"…Get that pendant from? It's beautiful, Lily… and I haven't seen you take it off…" James grinned slightly, silently thanking Marlene for asking that question. He wanted to hear her response.
"Oh… it was a gift."
"From?"
"From James," Janine butted in. "And she hasn't taken it off, you're right." Then she puffed her lower lip out. "You should have seen the crappy present he got me."
"Oh, he got you a too-small Quidditch jumper too, did he?" Jen asked dully. Clearly, they were on speaking terms again. "He must think we're five years old, or something."
"Or that we're all insignificant when compared to his beautiful Lily," added Marlene, but she was grinning. "James got me Chocolate Frogs."
"Lucky you. Wish he'd gotten me Chocolate Frogs… what am I supposed to do with a jumper six sizes too small for me?"
Lily was quietly studying the pendant. "I just think it's nice, that's all," she interrupted suddenly. "It doesn't mean I… like Potter, or anything, I just-"
"Ah! Snivellus!" Lily and her friends whirled, and so did James.
Sirius had cornered Snape and was threateningly waving his wand about, looking as though he'd like nothing better than to shove it up Snape's beaky nose. James snapped his head around and stared at Lily, who was glaring in his direction. I'm not even doing anything! James thought furiously.
Lily stormed up to him, and… past him. She gave Sirius a hard shove, and he went flying. "This has got to stop, Sirius, and I'm not kidding anymore!"
"Lily, I was just-"
"About to hex Snape, were you? I'm warning you, Sirius, I'm going to dump you in detention for the rest of the year if you don't cut it out-"
"What's going on here?" They all looked at McGonagall.
"Sirius was about to hex Snape," Lily said promptly. "And I was stopping him."
McGonagall's eyes flashed. "I am only going to say this once, and since you lot – you Gryffindor sixth years, yes you girls too – are the most offending, I want you all to listen very carefully. I will not tolerate any more fights in these halls. Yes, Miss Garnet, I do know about your fight with Bellatrix Black before the end of term. And I will suspend you from the Quidditch Team – yes, from my own team – if it does not stop. Am I clear?" They all nodded mutely. "Good. Run along, then – not you, Mr. Black. We have to organize your detention. The rest of you go to lunch." She nodded to Remus, Peter, and James, who were lingering around. "You lot too. Shoo!"
They scuttled away, and when they were out of earshot, James remembered something. "Be right back!" he said, turning down a hallway suddenly. Remus and Peter stared after him.
"Where're you going?" Peter demanded. "It's lunch – I'm hungry-"
"I'm not asking you to come!" James shouted back, and ran into the bathroom. It appeared empty, and so he dropped his bag on the floor and yanked out the red journal and a self-inking quill. Chewing on the quill for a moment, he slid down until his back was against the wall and began to write.
"January 4, 1976, 12:09 PM –
Subject appears to have a fondness for getting others in trouble with teachers. Also does not like when people hex Snape. Keeps defending him when in trouble."
He paused.
"May have possible crush on Snape. Must investigate."
Pause.
"Will kill Snape if have to."
"Potter, who the hell are you talking to?" James glanced up – Fabian Prewett was giving him a bizarre look that seemed to suggest James was mad. "What was that about killing Snape?"
"Oh – er… nothing." James cursed inwardly and mentally promised himself to check and make sure nobody was in the bathroom next time he wanted to write.
Unfortunately, problems came calling when Rosier stepped out of another stall and stared at him. When he spoke, his voice was oddly strangled – as though it were choked with laughter. "Potter – are you writing in a diary?"
"It's not a diary!" James said crossly, quickly.
Too quickly, in Rosier's opinion. "You have a diary! My God, Potter – what are you, some sort of girl?"
"Rosier, leave him alone," Fabian said finally. "Just leave him be-"
"What, Prewett, got a crush on Potter? Feel the need to defend him? Figures – girly boys like that-" James opened his mouth furiously, but Fabian spoke first.
"That's enough, Rosier," he said authoritatively. "Get on with you to lunch."
Rosier scowled. "Sod off, Prewett, I wasn't even talking to you before. Why don't you get on to lunch?"
"Ten points from Slytherin!" Fabian tapped his Head Boy's badge. "And you'd best remember who you're speaking to, Rosier."
"Hmph." Rosier scoffed and stalked out. Fabian turned to James.
"So… Potter… why do you have a diary?"
X-X-X-X-X
A/n: OMG, I am SOOOO sorry about waiting so long to update! I was gone for a really long time – out of the country, couldn't get to a computer, etc. – and then I came back and had major writer's block. I'm still not happy with this chapter, but I'm so sick of waiting to post, and I feel SO awful for leaving you guys hanging for, like, almost two months! To compensate, I made an extra long chapter, and I STILL didn't fit everything I wanted to. I wanted to put something about Voldemort in this chapter, but it didn't fit, so I'll see what I can do for the upcoming chapters…
I know I haven't updated 'What It Takes' either, but I'm SERIOUSLY stumped on ideas for that one. I'll update when I actually come up with something that MAKES SENSE.
Anyway, about this chapter – I don't really like it, it just sort of seems a waste of space. If it's awful, please tell me – I'll rewrite it. Thanks to my beta Nikki for reading it over for me – Lizzabeth Turner… I did email it to you, but I dunno if you got it, so I'll try again with the next chapter… Anyway, this is kind of a filler chapter – serves no purpose except that I was so sick of them being on vacation that I just HAD to get them back to school. I know it's kinda rushed, but I got lazy. I'll try and do better next chapter.
To all you guys who wanted Remus to get a new girlfriend – well, they're not dating YET, but it's getting there, right? And I want to be clear – Jo is going to become important later, so please-please-please don't forget her, okay?
I hope you guys liked James's observations – they'll get funnier as we go along. Now, I just have to decide whether or not I want to torture James by making Lily find this book at some point…
Next Chapter: (If I can fit in what I WANT to fit in) – the Quidditch match vs. Hufflepuff, and James begins to plan a Valentine's Day Treat for Lily… and Sirius decides to help! You can probably imagine how THAT one's going to turn out… Also, the reaction to the Witch Weekly modeling thingamajig, and Sirius gets a howler… More observations, more Quidditch, more James-being-an-idiot, and more SNOGGING! Yay! Stay tuned, guys!
Last thing – school starts in two weeks for me (sniff!) which means I'm going to have VERY LIMITED TIME to update and write. Please be patient with me; I'm doing the best I can but, as usual, I've done zip-zero-zilch of my homework, and I have pre-season starting next week… and I have a cold. So I'm really sorry, but you guys are gonna have to be patient with me – I love you guys that are sticking with me; you rock! HP Plushies (Any ones you want, I'll even let you dip into my stash of Ron Weasley ones) to everyone! Take as many as you want!
Thanks for sticking with me, and thank-you so-so-so-so-so-so much to all my reviewers – I'll mention those of you that review after this one goes up in the next chapter, provided I'm not the lazy ass I've been lately!
XOXO Peaches