FRIENDS AGAIN?

The next morning Remus ignored the two again, leaving the common room before the marauders could get up, and sitting as far away from them as possible during the Potions class. At lunch he again sat with his friend Autumn.

marauders view…

"Hey James." Sirius said as James took a seat next to him.

" Hey. "James answered gloomily.

"Hey, what wrong?...still stuck on that problem with Remus?"

"Yea."

"Maybe I should go talk to him for you." Sirius offered.

"I don't know…" James wasn't sure what to do.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." It was Summer.

"uh…" James had to stop himself from arguing as he turned around to face her.

"Hi Summer." He said unenthusiastically.

"Hey."

"So what do you suggest we do to fix our problem with Remus?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to get Sirius to talk to him…I think we have to talk to him…together."

"Uhh…yea, ok."

As James stood up and walked next to Summer towards Remus, Sirius stared at them unbelievingly.

"Uhh…hey Remus." Summer said once they were standing near him.

"Oh, hi" Remus answered.

"Listen, we wanted to apologize" Summer started, slightly nudging James to hint for him to go on.

"Uh, yea, we're real sorry for what we did." James answered, nudging Summer a little harder. She gave him a disapproving look before turning back to Remus.

"Are we ok now?" She asked. Remus tried to hide a big smile as he answered

"Yea, of course."

"See ya later Autumn", he shouted as he went back to sit with his marauding group, and Summer.

From then on Summer was a part of the group almost, she went with them everywhere, and was all but considered a marauder. Remus continued his monthly "classes" at night, and his friends no longer questioned him about it. It was now October, and the Halloween ball was nearing, and most recently that was the main topic of discussion.

" So who are you going with?" Remus asked Summer.

"No one yet, but I have someone in mind."

"Really, who?"

Summer smiled widely as she answered, "Someone, but it doesn't matter anyways, its guys ask girls."

"Yea, but…"

"Why are you so curios Remus?" James spoke up. Remus blushed and changed the topic slightly.

"So then who are you going with, James?" James grin grew incredibly wide.

" I'm planning on asking Lily at lunch today."

"Uh, James?...are you sure that's such a good idea?" This time it was Sirius talking.

"Yea, you know, she wasn't too quick to side with you when we had that fight, was she?" Summer added.

"That was different. I mean, who could turn me down?"

All at once the others burst out, laughing uncontrollably.

"What!"

James response didn't help them stop laughing. Summer thought her lungs were going to burst from laughter.

"You are so," Gasp "funny!" Summer said between heavy breathing and loud laughter. James stood clueless watching them.

"What! Is it so funny that I'm planning on asking Lily?" Suddenly everyone stopped laughing, trying hard not to smile.

"What?"

"Ask me what?" It was Lily. Laughter once again came uncontrollably from the group.

"Uh, nothing." James said blushing. She rolled her eyes and walked around the group and away.

"Nothing?" Sirius asked. "What? Did you loose your confidence? What happened to… 'who could turn me down!'"

"Shut up." James answered as the group laughed once more.

"Don't worry James, we still love you!" Summer answered.

The group looked at her suspiciously, and then started cracking up again, this time with James included.

"So who are you going with Sirius?" James asked when everyone had stopped laughing.

"Um…You'll see."

"But didn't you have a girlfriend?" Remus asked.

"Oh, she dumped me two days ago." Sirius answered casually.

"So then who are you going with, Peter?" Remus asked.

"Oh, I'm going with Jenny."

"Who's that?" Remus asked.

"You know, that one kind of chubby slutty girl he sits next to in Potions." James answered.

"Oh her, I should have known." Remus answered.

"So that's everyone in the group besides you Remus. Who are you going with?" James asked.

"Uh…um, not sure yet I guess." Remus said with a pink patch slowly creeping onto his cheek.

"You guess?" Sirius asked knowingly.

"Uh, yea…I'm not sure yet. So…can we head to lunch now?" He asked, desperately trying to change the subject.

"Yea, ok" James said, leading the group into the Great Hall. They all sat down in there usual group, when Sirius stood up.

"I'll be right back." He said, staring out at someone at the Gryffindor table.

"Well…must be something important." James said, more to himself than anyone else, trying to see what Sirius was doing. A few seconds later they all watched a very happy Sirius with a broad grin walk up to the table and take a seat across from James.

"I have a date to the ball." He boasted.

"Oh really?...who?" Summer asked him.

"Autumn."

"Really?" Remus asked, "I didn't know you liked her."

"Well…yea." Sirius answered, still smiling. "So aren't you supposed to be asking someone something too, James?"

"Uh…yea…"

"Well when are you planning on doing that?" Sirius teased.

"Now." James got up and slowly walked toward Lily, stopping to ruffle his hair before he caught her attention.

"Eh-hem." He cleared his throat, hopping for Lily to notice. He was positioned where he was leaning on one arm on the table behind her, with his legs crossed, and his hair all ruffled and messy.

"What do you want?" Lily asked annoyed.

"Just a favor."

"…What kind of favor?" She asked suspiciously.

"I need you to come with me."

"What is this, are you going to arrest me?" She said sarcastically.

"No, I want you to come with me to the Halloween ball." A huge grin crept onto Lily's face, but not to say she was happy he asked, but more like she thought it was hilarious that he thought he had a chance.

"I'm going to save you a lot of embarrassment, and just turn around pretending that you never asked." She turned back to her table, no longer smiling. As James walked off she turned to her friends,

"Now I feel kind of bad for him, I mean…I don't know."

As James came and sat gloomily at the table, the other marauders knew what had happened.

"I'm sorry James." Summer sympathized, "Better luck next time, right?"

"I hope so." He answered sadly.

"It's ok, you still have a week to come up with an alternative date." Sirius said happily.

"Yea, I guess so, but who am I supposed to ask?"

"What about that one girl you flirt with in History of Magic?" Remus suggested.

"Which one?" James asked, thinking hard. The group started laughing as Remus told him "Never mind."

"Maybe you should just go with someone as friends." Sirius suggested.

"Yea, but who?" James asked. Not thinking of anyone, Sirius decided to change the tone to a lighter mood.

"So much for 'who could turn me down?"

"Shut up." James answered gloomily. Seeing that the humor wasn't helping, Sirius decided the problem was bigger than he thought.

"You really expected her to say yes, didn't you?" he asked seriously.

"Well…yea, I did." James said.

"So you relay like her…:" Sirius said thoughtfully. "Maybe if you just…I don't know. I don't think she likes you very much…"

"No, I couldn't tell." James interrupted sarcastically.

"I'm sorry mate." Sirius patted him on the shoulder.