Come Out, Come out, Wherever you are…
In the morning, Remus was, once again, sleeping in their dormitory, with a great scratch across his nose and tired, blood shot eyes. He lay there all day, and the excuses provided to the teachers and other students were much more complementary than the ones that they had provided the night before.
"How are you feeling Moony?" asked James, before leaving the dormitory that morning. Carl and the other boy in their dormitory, Jason, never asked too many questions. They thought that he had gotten into a tough fight at the ball, and they were a lot more concerned about the clouds and wind that filled the autumn air, worried that it would effect their flying, when they mucked around on the Quidditch pitch that day.
Everyone rose late that Saturday morning, tired students emerging from their dormitories well into the morning. Many people could be seen around midday, wandering around the lake or the grounds, munching on toast or sipping coffee. No one could be bothered to do very much.
The girls sat around the beech tree on the grounds, when Sirius and James joined them. Sirius and Dani spoke nothing about the previous night. In fact, they didn't speak at all. Ella sat between them, trying to force conversation, without avail, and she soon gave up, Dani mad about Sirius's stunt, and Sirius mad that she had kissed Matt.
Lily and James, however, though they didn't talk of what had almost happened at the ball, were as close as ever, and sat side-by-side, laughing and joking, and watching the others argue. It was a favourite pastime of theirs, and it seemed like the whole ball was finally going to be put behind them.
Lupin joined them around midday, and sat down casually next to Ella. The whole group fell silent.
"How's your mum?" asked James, as a sort of prompt. Lupin looked confused.
"My mum? She's fine. At least, I think she's fine, I haven't spoken to her since last week, I really should owl her…" he said vaguely. James hit his head against the tree in anguish, and Lupin looked stunned.
"It's a girl, isn't it?" said Ella in a very business like tone. Lupin looked at her, confused. James made a funny noise, like humour mixed with disbelief.
"What's a girl?" Remus asked with a growing sense that all reason had left the conversation. "My Mother? Yes of course she's a girl, I…"
" No Remus, where you were last night! You were with a girl. I don't know why you can tell Lily and you can't tell me, I mean, it's not like I-Never mind." She stoped herself.
Lupin bowed his head. He was relieved. He thought he had done something wrong. But now for the new problem. How could he lye his way out of this one?
"Remus, I think you shoul-"
"I know what you think I should do Lily!" He argued.
"Then why don't you-"
"No!" he replied angrily. Lupin got up and left the tree, walking back up to the castle, frustrated with himself.
Lily felt something hard in the pockets of her robes. She dug her hands into the pocket and drew out the ting green book that she had taken from the library all those weeks ago. With the frenzy of the ball, and Lupin, she had forgotten all about her and James' little excursion to the library, but now that she had found the book again, her curiosity was sparked.
Opening the book, Lily drew herself form the conversation the others were having about the upcoming Quidditch game and settled herself with her back against the tree.
Lily looked at the strange writing on the cover, puzzled. She hoped that the rest of the book would be legible to her, and opened the small covers.
Gemstones have been used throughout the history of the wizarding world for many reasons, magical, healing, in potions, and for divination purposes.
"Lily!" said James voice sharply, cutting into her thoughts. She snapped the book shut, briskly. "Look at Sirius's face." He whispered urgently. Coming back from the clouds, Lily noticed that the atmosphere under the tree had changed dramatically, with the arrival of Matt. He had sat himself down next to Dani, setting his hand on top of hers, which she didn't object to. Matt wore a smug smile on his handsome face, but Sirius looked simply contorted. He looked as though he had just swallowed something vile, and it didn't agree with him at all. James and Lily cast around for an idea that would break the tension that hung on the air like a blanket, and James threw the first wild suggestion out of his foolish mouth.
"Lets go for a walk!" he yelled, jumping to his feet. Mat helped Dani to hers, not letting go of her hand, and Sirius stood himself, his gaze never leaving Dani and Matt's faces, and, if it did, it was only to glance at their entwined hands, jealously.
Lily jumped up too. She knew where this would lead, and, when Ella finally stood, leisurely and musingly, to her feet, she blurted out what James considered to be an even stupider idea.
"No, lets play hide and seek!" she screamed. They looked at her blankly, and Matt even snorted. Sirius growled at him. "No, I'm serious! Ella, you're in, come on!" she grabbed James by the hand and ran off into the edge of the forest. James was laughing as he followed her. When they finally took refuge under a low lying, shady tree, not far from Hagrid's house, James slumped to the ground, chuckling.
"What was that Evans? Hide and Seek?" he laughed, as Lily sat down, and leant on the tree next to him.
"Well I had to amend your stupid mistake! Seriously, 'lets go for a walk?' you know what that would have turned into, don't you? I now Mat was thinking 'lets go for a romantic walk around the lake' and Ella was surely all 'lets go for a walk so that nobody will notice when I brood over Remus'!" she argued. James' eyes grew wide.
"Whoa, that was one bad suggestion!" James said. Lily messed up his hair playfully, and laughed.
"You saved the day." He said, widening his eyes and looking at him sweetly.
"Don't give me that look!" she laughed, and turned away. James caught hold of her arm, and turned her around to face him. He was inches away from her face now. James was leaning closer, and Lily was grinning contently.
"What's that?" whispered Lily, pulling away, and looking towards the next tree. James sat up straight, frustrated with himself, and listened. A soft sobbing noise was coming from a few trees away, and Lily quietly stood up, taking care not to step on any loose branches or dead leaves. She walked lightly to behind a the tree. The sobbing was louder and clearer now, and Lily walked around and sat herself down beside Ella, whose head was in her hands.
Ella looked up when she felt Lily beside her.
"Why can he tell you, and he can't tell me?" she sobbed, into Lily's shoulder. "Why can you know, and I like him so much…" Lily put her arm around her friend, and cursed Remus's stubbornness.
"Believe me Ella, the only reason that he wont tell you is that he cares about you too much…" she whispered. Ella looked up.
"Why would that matter? What could possibly change the way that I think of him?" she sighed. Lily wished that she could tell her, but her loyalty and conscience weighed her down, and she found herself leading Ella back to James silently, Ella wiping her eyes as they went.
"Ella! You alright?" James asked. Ella nodded glumly, and they broke up again to hide. Lily lay in the undergrowth of the forest, and she could see James doing the same a couple of metres away. He looked back at her, and flashed a charming grin, winking. Lily shook with silent giggles.
Lily froze. Someone was walking down the pathway of the forest, and they weren't making any effort to stay silent. She could hear leaves and rocks being kicked out of the way, and a profound mumbling could be heard floating through the trees, grumpily. Lily and James exchanged startled looks.
"'I'm in'…yeah right…more like that bastards 'in and I'm on my way out…wow. That was good. I should use that when other people are around…" Sirius muttered. A laugh came from James bush, and Sirius stopped short, plunging his hand into the bush and pulling James out by the hair.
"Oi! Other people were around you idiot!" James screeched, laughing all the same. Sirius smirked mockingly.
"Haha, I'm so glad you find joy from my pain Prongs." He said, and then, abruptly, dropped to his knees.
"Come out, come out wherever you are…" he said in a sing song voice, looking down underneath bushes. James raised his eyebrows at Sirius.
"Uh, Padfoot, what are you doing?" he asked, thinning that his friend had finally cracked, and looking down at the grovelling man sceptically.
"Seriously Padfoot, I'm not that thick! If you're here then Lily's under there somewhere!" James laughed at Sirius, whose fingertips were inches away from where Lily had rolled, to the other side of the bush.
"Not his time." James said. Sirius stared, and got to his feet again.
"Why? What happened?" he asked. James snorted.
"What do you mean what happened?" he asked. James crossed his fingers behind his back, hoping that Sirius's blatant interrogating wouldn't break the act.
"Why aren't you two together? I mean, that's not normal, something must have happened." He said, leaning up against a tree.
"Padfoot, I think we'd better get out of here, go and find the others…"
"I don't want to find the others! Lets keep talking!" he argued, so forcibly that James actually settled in himself, sitting on a nearby rock.
"It's true, nothings happened." James said.
"But you still like her, don't you mate?" he asked casually. James cursed inside his head.
"Um, yeah, yeah I do." He said quietly.
"What? Speak up! I can't hear you!" said Sirius. James groaned.
"Yes I do!" he said loudly. I the shrub nearby, Lily froze, with a massive smile on her face.
"Oh, good. Because when you didn't get in there with the ball, I was a little worried, but…"
"You can't talk to me about asking people to the ball!" James laughed. "Hypocrite!"
Sirius scowled. "Yeah, but Lily would have wanted to go with you. That is a totally different situation."
"That's what you think. Sometimes I thought that she would…but she seemed to have an ok time with Carl…" James argued, temporarily forgetting who was lying in the bushes.
"An ok time with Carl? I think she had a better time when she was dancing with you, to tell you the truth…Why didn't you ask her out or…I don't know, kiss her?" Sirius asked.
"Oh! You noticed us dancing did you?" James yelled, annoyed. Sirius looked blank.
"James, you're James Potter and Lily Evans, I think the entire school noticed that you were dancing." Sirius said. James stood independent to the tree.
"Oh really? Well then you would know that I was going to kiss her if it wasn't for you and your stupid little crisis!" James said, getting carried away. Sirius smiled despite his friend's anger.
"You were! That's great!" he laughed at the furious look on James' face.
"What's funny? I am really mad at you!" James argued.
"That's what's funny Prongs old pal, you don't know how to be mad at me, it's quite comical." And he laughed, sliding down the tree.
"Oh shut up and come find the others. I think we need to start the game over, it doesn't seem to be working.
"It wouldn't. I'm the one finding them, and so far all I've got is a love-sick stag!" and their laughs dissolved down the pathway.
When they got back into the open, they found Matt, Dani and Ella sprawled out on the grass.
"Anyone seen Evans?" asked Sirius when they got there, ignoring the couple who had chose that moment to start snogging.
"Um…" James begun, but he didn't need to create an excuse, because at that moment, a panting Lily came bursting out of the forest, her robes smeared with dirt, twigs and leaves, but her face holding a huge grin none the less.
"I'm here!" she said, plonking herself down ion the grass next to Ella.
"Why are you looking so happy?" Ella asked. James turned around quickly, and Lily wiped the smile off her face just as fast, blankening her face.
"I'm not." She said, making sure not to meet James' eye.
"So, who's in?" Dani asked, and they all looked at her. "What?" she got to her feet begrudgingly. "Oh fine. It's actually been pretty fun so far! Who would have thought!" and she pecked Matt the cheek before turning to face a tree, and covering her eyes. Dani began to count loudly, and her friends hurried off.
Lily took a position behind Hagrid's over grown hedges, and James ran for the reeds near the lake. Ella ducked into the forest, Matt ran somewhere back near the castle, and Sirius hid behind Hagrid's house, pressing himself against the wall.
Dani finished counting, and looked around. She seemed to be able to feel eyes peering in on her from all sides, and she didn't think that she liked the sensation. Dani grew close to where Lily was hidden, and Lily gasped as she felt herself begin to shrink. Her skin seemed to tighten first, and them her limbs became shorter, protruding into her body, until she was only ten centimetres tall, looking up at Dani, who was staring up into the foliage of the hedges. Lily shrieked, but all that could be heard was nothing more than the squeal of a mouse, and she ran over to the foot of scrub, so that Dani didn't step on her. When Dani seemed sure that none of her sneaky friends where hiding there, she stalked off, muttering to herself, her eyes darting about this way and that.
What seemed like a giant, invisible hand picked Lily up and she felt herself floating in mid air on the invisible platform, screaming, and not knowing what was going to happen to her. She was screaming so loudly that she barely heard the soft laugh that came from above her. Lily felt as though she had walked through a veil, and she looked up. James huge face was peering down at her, smiling. He ran behind a tree, and pointed his wand at her, Lily breathed a sigh of relief, and she felt herself stretch.
"What the hell did you do that for?" she asked, smiling all the same. James arms were around her waist, and they were very near, huddled under the invisibility cloak. James swept the stray strand of hair that caressed Lily's forehead out of her eyes, and looked deep into them, smiling serenely.
"I couldn't let you get caught before I did this." He leaned forward, and, for the first, glorious time, their lips finally met. Lily didn't want to pull away, ever, and James held her close, until the night began to fall, the dappled light that fell through the branches of the forest became dim, and they left to find the others.
Not far away from James and Lily, Dani was still looking for her friends. It was sunset, and she had been looking for a half an hour. Ella, she was sure, had gone back up to the castle, and Lily and James were no doubt together somewhere, but she knew that Matt and Sirius were still out there somewhere, and neither would forgive her for finding the other one first.
The again, maybe no one was still on the grounds. Maybe this had been their plan from the beginning…
Dani jumped as she heard something move a little to her left. She was striding around Hagrid's hut, with little conviction, and she had such little faith in finding her friends, that she was readying herself to pat Fang the boarhound when he rounded the corner, but the big dog didn't come, and Dani stepped around the edge of the house gingerly. The lights were off inside. Hagrid wasn't home. There was no smoke coming from the chimney. "Gotcha!" she yelled, when she turned the corner, but she was disappointed. No one stood there, but she was sure that she caught a glimpse of black robes and hair turning the corner, and she kept going, quieter this time, until she reached the corner.
"Gotcha!" she screamed leaping around the corner and tackling Sirius to the ground, landing on top of the boy, who had been pushed into the vegetable patch.
Sirius was stunned, and smiled up at Dani, whose eyes were wide, and shocked at herself.
"Yes you did Doyle." He said slyly, and grinned. Sirius saw Dani begin to grin back, but he knew that it couldn't last long.
"Dani!" came a deep voice. Dani rolled off Sirius and stood above him, as Matt rounded the other corner.
"Dani! What are you- Black. Hello." He turned back to his girlfriend, who looked guilty.
"I've been looking for you. I'm going inside. It's dark, and I just saw Lily and James head in, so…" he looked from one of them to the other. "You coming?" he asked Dani. Dani took a quick look at Sirius, and smirked, so as not to loose face. She was still mad at him for last night.
"Sure, come on." She said, and linked her arm through Matts, giggling happily, without another glance back at Sirius, who was still lying on his back in Hagrid's vegetable patch. He watched them climb the slope to the castle, until they were swallowed up in darkness.
"What the ruddy hell do you think you're doin'!" Hagrid bellowed, walking through his hut and out the other side, until he was standing above Sirius, "Black. Well, I don't thank you for ruinin' my vegetables, but I shoulda' known eh? Come inside an' we'll clean yeh up." Hagrid said, and lifted Sirius up from the ground by his robes, and carried him inside.
While the others played outside on the grounds, Remus Lupin had sat, glumly, in his dormitory all day, staring out the window at his friends having childish fun. It wasn't until late that afternoon, just before sunset, that he had any company.
When the sky had become a golden colour, and he was relishing the sight of it over the forest, Lupin heard a soft knock on the dormitory door. It couldn't have been any of the marauders; they wouldn't knock to come into their own dormitory. It was probably, he decided, Lily, coming to tell him off about his situation with Ella, and he ignored the first few light taps.
"Remus I know you're in there, let me in!" came a determine, yet timid voice from behind the wooden door.
"Come in." he replied, and Ella stepped into the room, walked across, and took a seat next to Lupin, by the window.
"Listen, I don't know what this thing is, but nothing could make me like you any less, I promise. And I have decided that, even if you don't want to tell me your secret, I like you anyway, and you should know that, because, well, because…I don't know why, but you had to know, because I think I'd burst if I didn't tell yo-"
"Ella, I'm a werewolf." Remus blurted out. Ella stoped short, and turned to stare at him.
"What?" she asked quietly. Remus sighed.
"I'm a werewolf. I would have asked you out, I really do like you, but you deserve better than me. I cant…you cant…" he sighed again, and ignored the expression on Ella's face, "I can't let you do that. I hate that you like me. It only makes not being with you even harder." He finished, and it was a while before either of them spoke. It was a while before either of them moved. Ella quietly slid her hand into Remus's, and he twitched, surprised. She gave him a small smile.
"That's what you couldn't tell me?" she whispered. "It's not your fault Remus. I don't care. I like you too-"
"No! I cant Ella! Don't you understand! Don't you get what happens to me every month! What if I hurt you! I already hurt Lily! I don't want to do that to you!" he argued hopelessly.
"I don't care! Don't you understand? I don't care! It's my choice. The only question is, do you like me? Because the rest of it, it doesn't matter." she said softly. Remus leant forward, and he kissed her softly at first, but Ella drew closer, and Remus Lupin was truly happy, for the first time in ages.