:Chapter Thirteen:
"There
are two rooms over there," James explained when they had entered
the enchanted tent. "Only three people will fit in those rooms, so
I suggest to just sleep here in the middle. We can move the beds."
And so they did.
After
bringing the bags into the tent and unpacking what needed to be
unpacked, they went for a walk over the campsite. They met and
greeted some people they knew from school. Remus went to talk to a
girl from their year. While Peter was trying to stop a wasp from
bothering him, James and Sirius tried to understand a little girl who
was babbling in a weird language at them.
"Hoe
heten jullie? Waar komen jullie vandaan? Ik ben al vier. En
jullie?"
Sirius and James blinked and looked at the large,
brown eyes of the foreign girl.
"Er-" Sirius started, "I'm
afraid we don't speak your language. Can't you speak English?"
The girl just blinked and kept staring at them with those huge
eyes.
"Of course she doesn't." James said, placing an elbow
in Sirius' ribs. "You don't understand a word we're saying,
do you?"
The little girl didn't say anything for a few
seconds. Then she pointed at the tent on the other side of the path.
"Mijn mama gaat straks broodjes kopen. Gaan
jullie ook broodjes kopen?"
"If… we could cope with
broad oaks that have gone in July?" Sirius said slowly, raising an
eyebrow.
James snorted. Then he burst out laughing.
"Wha'!"
Sirius blurted out.
"Sorry, hoor. Ze praat tegen iedereen." A
woman who was undoubtedly the girl's mother, said to Sirius and
James, taking hold of her daughter's hand.
"Sorry?" Sirius
said. Almost choking on laughter he shoved James aside.
"Oh,
you're English. I'm sorry about little Jessy here. I hope she
didn't bother you?" The woman said kindly in English, with a
funny accent.
"Oh no," Sirius replied, "We had a very
lovely conversation about - er - trees."
Remus
and Peter had joined them now.
"Oh, heb je met die jonge
Engelsman gepraat, Jessy?"
The girl nodded, a wet
finger, which just came out of her mouth, pointed at Sirius.
"Hij
wilt ook een broodje."
The woman laughed and turned to the boys
again.
"She insisted me to give you a French roll too."
"Well…" Sirius started, but Remus interrupted, gently
leading Sirius away from the woman and the girl.
"Don't feed
him. He'll plunder your stock once he gets started."
The
woman laughed. "Kom Jessy, we gaan. Zeg maar doei tegen de
jongens."
"Dag!" The girl said, waving frantically.
The woman said good bye and went off.
"Bye." The four
boys said and they walked further on.
Sirius looked around at the
little girl for one last time. Then he asked:
"Was that
German?"
The
four friends had made their beds. It had suddenly started to rain and
so they had gone back to the tent.
James and Remus were playing
chess at the moment; every move closely watched my Peter and Sirius.
"Give it up, Moony." James said teasingly as his Knight threw
Remus' last Rook off the board.
"No," Remus replied, "I've
still got a chance to win. I beg you. Don't ruin that happy
thought." He smiled and made his last Knight make a move. "Check."
James grinned. "If you want to make any chance of
winning, I advise you not to listen to Sirius' advice."
"Hey!" Sirius complained while the others sniggered. "It's
not that I'm that bad. You're just better. 'S all."
(James made another move that made, which made his King crush
Remus' Knight to the ground.)
"Sirius, mate." James said,
laying a friendly hand on Sirius' shoulder. "You should really
try to learn that you shouldn't take me so seriously all the time.
Well- I know your name's Si-"
"Don't make that
joke! I hate it when people do that!" Sirius broke him off,
a warning expression on his face.
"Oh, Sirius," Remus said
kindly. "You would be so much more relaxed, if you just didn't
'bite in everything'. But… we know you can't."
Remus
made another move.
"Oh no!" he said after making it. "Can I
please undo that one?" He looked at James with begging eyes.
But James grinned broadly, then he shook his head.
"Sorry.
Rules are rules."
Remus moaned complaining, when James made his
move and mouthed; "Check mate."
"I was so close!"
Remus said, removing his fringe out if his vision.
"Well,"
James said cheerfully, "At least it was a good match. When I play
with Sirius…" he said, eyeing Sirius amusingly.
"Oh, shut
up!"
Mr
Pettigrew entered their tent.
"Guys," he said, slapping his
hands together. "It's almost dinner time, but we have no food.
Some one - or two – will have to go to the little camping store to
get food."
"Dad!" Peter said, not believing his ears. "It's
raining! Very hard!"
"Well, your mother wanted to ask
you when it was still dry, but you were already gone. Here's some
Muggle money. Get yourselves something too." Then he left.
Peter
let out a moan.
"Well…" he said. "Who volunteers?" and
as expected, no one made the slightest gesture to go outside.
Then
Peter threw the money pouch at James, who automatically caught it.
"Why don't you go?" Peter asked. "You're very…
spontaneous."
James shook his head.
"No, I'm allergic
to rain." he made up, throwing the bag back at Peter. "And
besides, they're your parents."
Peter caught the pouch
again.
"Wait," he said. "Sirius, you go. You know how to
pay with Muggle money." Peter said, throwing the pouch towards
Sirius now.
Sirius, however, didn't catch it but let it drop
down next to him on the bed.
"That's only a matter of
counting, you know." He said rather bored.
"You know what?"
Remus said.
"What? You're going?" James answered hopefully.
"No, let's draw straws."
And so
they did. They decided that two people would go.
"Okay, ready?"
Remus said, holding out four straws. "Pull."
James, Peter and
Sirius pulled each one straw out of Remus' hand.
"Okay…
look."
They all showed their straws. James' and Peter's
straws appeared to be the shortest, so they both let out a moan.
"Have fun playing outside." Sirius said teasingly, a broad
grin spreading across his face.
"Thanks, Mr Casanova". James
said sarcastically, an expression on his face far from cheerful.
He
and Peter wrapped cloaks around themselves and left the tent.
"I
hope it doesn't rain like this during the match. We won't see a
thing!" James said, rain streaming down his face.
"I bet
it'll clear up later." Peter replied.
"Yeah, and I bet,
that in the time that happens, we'll already be back in the tent."
Peter didn't know whether to laugh or not so he said:
"Welcome
to England."
James smiled briskly. "Hey, would your dad mind
if we would buy some snacks for tonight?"
Peter shook his head.
"Say,
Moony."
"Hm?"
Sirius sat down next to Remus, who was
making the puzzle in the Daily Prophet.
"What is it with
James?"
Remus looked up from the paper. "What about him?"
"Well- He keeps calling me 'Mr Casanova' and 'Womanizer'
and stuff. Yeah, I know he used to do that for quite a long time,"
Sirius said, seeing the 'doesn't-he-always-?' expression on his
friend's face.
"But he does it an awfully lot these days."
he added. "Do you by chance know why he does that?"
Remus
frowned, folding the newspaper and laying it down next to him.
"Well…" he started. "I'm not quite sure if it's wise
to tell you."
"What do you mean?" Sirius said a little
offended. "Are you saying you guys have got a 'secret' you
don't want to share with me?"
"No more than you've got
for us…" Remus said quietly, regretting he said it as soon as he
had.
Sirius frowned.
"Wadda you mean by that?"
Remus
sighed.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes, I
really want to know!" Sirius said impatiently.
"Well…"
Remus started, thinking up a way of saying it as subtle as possible.
"James wanted Peter to follow you… He saw you."
Sirius kept
his frown. "What do you mean 'he saw me'? Where?"
Remus
didn't say anything for a while.
"In Diagon Alley… with the
girl…" he said carefully.
Sirius opened his mouth to speak
but closed it again. Remus detected a curtain tension on Sirius'
face. Then he smiled.
"It's okay." he said. "It can
happen to anyone."
"What are you talking about?" Sirius
said again, a lot more defensive than before.
Remus smiled again.
"You're in love." he said lightly.
"I'm what! No
way! No. I'm- It's-" as Sirius struggled to safe himself out of
this, he felt for the first time in his life his cheeks began to glow
a little.
Remus laughed heartily.
"Oh, Padfoot. Don't
worry." he rested a hand on Sirius' shoulder, who still seemed to
be looking for words to defend himself.
"I mean," Remus
continued, "It can happen to anyone of us. See here! Even the most
handsome, most popular, toughest, I-don't-fall-in-love,
I-don't-believe-in-girlfriends guy, has fallen in love."
"I'm
not in love and she's definitely not my girlfriend!
You know I don't do such things." Sirius muttered.
"I know.
And I know why, but falling in love is a very natural thing.
You don't have to be ashamed of it, Sirius. I know who she
is and man… is she beautiful! Don't you see? She
suits you. You're exactly the same. Outside and
inside. Good looks, bit haughty…" Remus said, giving Sirius an
encouraging tap on the shoulder.
"So," Remus continued. He
didn't feel like letting Sirius know he knew already quite a lot
about the girl. "What's her name?"
"That'll be Nanya."
Sirius muttered.
"Nanya?" Remus replied.
"Nanya
business." Sirius muttered, even darkly this time.
Remus
sighed. "Nah, you're right. Sorry about that." he said softly.
Sirius sighed heavily. Then it was quiet for quite a while.
Sirius sighed again. Then said softly:
"Her name's
Cecile."
Remus looked up. He was surprised and happy at the
same time. 'He'll melt.' Remus thought. Then he said:
"That's
a nice name."
"Actually," Sirius continued, still not
looking at Remus. "It's Cecelia, but Cecile is easier."
"Well,
that's nice too. She's in the seventh year?" Remus asked
carefully.
"She will be, yeah."
"What did you do with
her?" Remus dared to ask.
"We went for a drink." Sirius
said very clearly.
Remus narrowed his eyes, knowing that Sirius
did more amusing things with pretty girls apart from having a drink
with them... "Really?"
"Yes, Moony. Just a drink."
And
again there was a short pause.
Sirius finally looked up at Remus'
friendly smiling face.
"You won't tell James or Peter, will
you?"
"Do I ever?" The warm expression on Remus' face
relaxed Sirius a bit.
"And besides," Remus added. "What's
there to tell if you're not in love…?"
Sirius just smiled
wearily.
"I gotta go to the loo." He said as he stood up.
Remus hesitated but really felt the urge to know.
"But you
did kiss her… Why?"
Sirius stopped.
"I didn't-"
"Sirius. You're doing it again." Remus said, wearing a way
more concerned look on his face.
Sirius sighed.
"Okay, I
did kiss her. But once has to be the first time." then he continued
his way to the washroom. He walked in and closed the door. Then he
opened it again.
"And I'm not in love!" he said and
closed the door again.
Remus laughed and said:
"Of course
you're not."
But he knew his friend too well to just believe
his words.
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Dearest reader,
For you probably have noticed, the little girl named Jessy speaks in my own language; Dutch. I'll translate what she and her mother say, so you know anyway.
You see, for my Dutch readers, it's no problem whatswhoever.
… James
and Sirius tried to understand a little girl who was babbling in a
weird language at them.
"Who are you? Where do you come from?
I'm already four. And you?"
Sirius and James blinked and
looked at the large, brown eyes of the foreign girl.
"Er-"
Sirius started, "I'm afraid we don't speak your language. Can't
you speak English?"
The girl just blinked and kept staring at
them with those huge eyes.
"Of course she doesn't." James
said, placing an elbow in Sirius' ribs. "You don't understand a
word we're saying, do you?"
The little girl didn't say
anything for a few seconds. Then she pointed at the tent on the other
side of the path.
"My mummy is going to buy frenchrolls. Are
you going to buy Frenchrolls too?"
"If… we could cope with
broad oaks that have gone in July?" Sirius said slowly, raising an
eyebrow.
James snorted. Then he burst out laughing.
"Wha'!"
Sirius blurted out.
"I'm really sorry. She talks to
everybody." A woman who was undoubtedly the girl's mother,
said to Sirius and James, taking hold of her daughter's hand.
"Sorry?" Sirius said. Almost choking on laughter he shoved
James aside.
"Oh, you're English. I'm sorry about little
Jessy here. I hope she didn't bother you?" The woman said kindly
in English, with a funny accent.
"Oh no," Sirius replied, "We
had a very lovely conversation about - er - trees."
Remus
and Peter had joined them now.
"Oh, did you have a nice
chat with this young Englishman, Jessy?"
The girl nodded, a wet
finger, which just came out of her mouth, pointed at Sirius.
"He
wants a Frenchroll too."
The woman laughed and turned to the
boys again.
"She insisted me to give you a French roll too."
"Well…" Sirius started, but Remus interrupted, gently
leading Sirius away from the woman and the girl.
"Don't feed
him. He'll plunder your stock once he gets started."
The
woman laughed. "Come, Jessy, we're going. Say buy to these boys."
"Bye!" The girl said, waving frantically.
The
woman said good bye and went off.
"Bye." The four boys said
and they walked further on.
Sirius looked around at the little
girl for one last time. Then he asked:
"Was that German?"
