10. Deadly Prankage

Rochelle and Cassie walked down the deserted hall. Rochelle tucked her hair behind her ear as someone turned into the corridor.

"Oh no," she whispered so only Cassie could hear.

As Lukas and Ryan walked past, Cassie pretended to look confused and clueless. Rochelle sort of. . . looked down. Lukas did not seem to notice the two of them at all, except his cheeks turned slightly red.

After he was fully gone, Rochelle said "There! Don't you see how much tension there is? You saw his cheeks."

"He wants you back almost as much as you want him back," stated Cassie.

"Except he's too much of a stubborn prat to admit he's wrong!" said Rochie. "Maybe I need to talk to him with it just being the two of us."

". . .Maybe. . ." replied Cassie, letting out a small sigh.

Rochelle waited in the dark corridor. She heard footsteps. Quickly, she hid in the closest classroom.

She peeked through the door. Lukas and Merlin Abermore walked down the corridor.

"Can't he ever be alone?" Rochelle whispered to herself.

The next night was the same. Rochelle waited in the classroom.

Lukas was in view. Rochelle felt annoyance flow through her as she heard Ryan's voice.

He has to be alone sometime, thought Rochelle.

It was another night of Rochelle waiting in the extra classroom.

"Be alone, Lukas, be alone," she said. It was starting to drive her mad.

But no, Lukas was with some girl who Rochelle didn't know.

"A girl?" Rochelle gasped to herself. Her hand slipped and tumbling out of the door she fell.

"Lukas," she said.

"Stalker," he replied grinning. His eyes twinkled. "Stalker. . . shiny." Her bracelettes were glimmering. "Shiny stalker."

She smiled, he smiled, and then he kept walking, with the girl.

Every inch of her hoped that the girl was nothing more than a friend. She'd be crushed if the girl was his. . . She couldn't stand it. She ran back up to Lukas.

Sirius elbowed James.

"Prongs. . . I've just had a genius idea!"

"Wha?"

"We're going to give Snivellus the scare of his life!"

"How?"

"Just wait 'til full moon, Prongsey."

"And then he says 'That's not a troll, that's my son!'" Lily D, Cassie, and Emily laughed at Lily E's joke.

"Right, well, I'd better be off now," said Emily.

"Why?" asked Cassie.

"I wanna find Ryan."

"Oh, you mean Orgasm Friend?- I'm sorry, I mean Makeout Buddy," said Cassie, dodging a punch from Emily. The two Lilys laughed.

"Lukas," said Rochelle.

"Rochelle," said Lukas.

"Erm. . ." said the girl. "I should go."

"Uh, okay," replied Lukas.

"Bye Luke," said the girl, strutting away. Lukas turned and started walking. Rochelle followed.

Hey eyes met with Lukas's.

"Lukas," se said.

He touched her cheek, the cheek he had kissed to save her. It felt like it was burning, but it was only burning in her mind. Everything flashed through her all over again.

"Lukas, no, I'm not ready." Flash.

"What was that?"

" You tell me." Love. Flash.

Standing beside Emily's body. "Lukas, don't go." Flash.

Her head slamming against the wall as Lukas dropped her in the Library. Flash.

Standing with Lukas on the rooftop, their lips meeing. Flash.

"HAAAAH!"

"Are you okay? You seem somewhat, er, mentally disturbed." Flash. And it was white.

Rochelle lay on the floor, sobbing. She couldn't take it all anymore.

Lukas kneeled beside her. He took her hand. They stared into one another's eyes, fiver minutes went past, ten, fifteen.

Rochelle led her head closer to his. She'd been wanting it for so long.

Her lips pressed against his.

A third person entered the corridor. They didn't notice.

Cassie gasped at the sight.

They still didn't notice.

Cassie gawked, freezing for a minute, then left.

Cassie ran up a few flights of stairs. She saw Emily first, so she yelled "Emily!"

Then she saw the rest. She stopped mid-run, causing herself to topple over. Emily and Ryan leapt apart.

"Nice," said Emily.

"Nice," replied Cassie, smirking at Emily and Ryan. "Continue on then." And Cassie left, feeling slightly annoyed.

She panted. The vision of Rochelle and Lukas still shocked her. "I need to lie down for a moment." And suddenly, a door appeared next to her. She entered the Room of Requirement.

A few minutes later, two people entered.

Cassie saw them, Lily D and Sirius, making out with much passion.

"Gee," said Cassie, annoyed, rushing out. She made her way to the Gryffindor Tower. Remus was at a study group, meaning Lily E was probably there too.

Only Peter was in the common room, and he was staring at a metal spork with concentration Cassie did not believe he could handle. She went into the boys dormitory.

On James's bed was him and Lily.

"DID SOMEONE DECLARE IT NATIONAL MAKE-OUT DAY AND NOT GIVE REMUS AND I THE MEMO?" She stormed downstairs.

"So Peter, how are you?"

It went without saying, Rochelle and Lukas were together again. Everyone could see how much happier Rochie was. Cassie felt a lot of relief seeing her so happy.

Rochele could focus more, she wasn't feeling so stressed. It was all back again. She wasn't going to let go. She loved Lukas, if he really wanted to bang her, she'd let him this time. She had Lukas back and she wasn't going to give him up. But she knew he wasn't going to do that again. He had been acting very odd that night, everythin had been so different.

It was a few weeks later. Lukas held hands with Rochelle.

"Rochelle. . . do you love me?" he asked. Rochelle froze. He continued, "I think you do, which I'm fine with."

"But you don't love me," said Rochelle. She wasn't asking, she was stating.

"I don't know," he said.

"Oh, okay," said Rochie. Their hands slowly slipped away as they parted. Their eyes locked, as usual. Rochelle turned and started to walk.

Lukas caught up with her, gave her a hug, and left.

Rochelle closed her eyes tightly

"Won't he ever love me back as much as I love him?" Her eyes remained shut. If someone else were to be running down the corridor, she would have bumped into them. Coincidently, someone else was in the corridor, but she hadn't bumped into them.

"He does love you," said Cassie. Rochelle blinked, startled. Cassie continued, "He loves you as much as you love him, he just hasn't seen it yet."

"I don't know if he really does," said Rochelle.

"He does," said Cassie.

"But I'm still not sure if he really does."

"He really does, trust me."

"Unless you actually heard it from him I'm still not sure."

"Hmm well do you really think Lukas would trust any random person who happens to be best friends with you and tell them he loves you? But he does, thought, he really does. Take my word on it."

Ryan pulled Rochelle aside.

"Hey Ryan," she said. "How's it going with you and Emily?"

"Great. She's gotten loads better at making out since she met me." He grinned.

"That's hot," said Rochelle. She'd been having a weird obsession with responding "that's hot" to about everything

Example: "I feel like I'm gonna hurl."

"That's hot."

"Look, Lukas hasn't told me about it, but I pretty much figured something happened last full moon. Well, there's a thing with him and full moons, I'm not sure, he tends to act very strangely in the moonlight of the giant orb in the sky," said Ryan.

Appearing next to them was Cassie.

"Loony Lunar Lunatic Activities?" she asked.

"You, go, go away!" said Ryan, alarmed someone was butting into the conversation.

"Oh, that's just Cassandra," said Rochelle. "It's okay. But Cas, go away anyways."

"Fine, I'm so unloved!"

"Yeah whatever," replied Rochelle. Cassie left.

"He was acting very oddly," said Rochelle, dazed.

"The moon is such a pretty thing. There has to be some way to help him."

"Perhaps, but it'd have to be me who helps him."

"Alright."

"Full moon's this Friday?"

"Yup."

"Count on me being with him then."

The days soon passed, and it was Friday.

The Marauder's waited as the sun set over the Hogwarts grounds. They watched as Madam Pomfrey led Remus into the Whomping Willow.

Sirius twitched. "Snivelly's coming, I can sense it," he said briskly.

"Excellent," said James.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeep!" said Peter, hoping from one side to the other in anticipation.

"This is the absolute best prank you've ever come up with, Padfoot," said James.

"Oh, I know," Sirius said, bowing.

"Snivelly won't know what's coming!" chimed in Peter.

"How'd you get him to follow you?" asked James.

"Easily," replied Sirius. "I walked up to him in the library. He said, 'Black, what are you doing in here? You piece of filth. Leave me be.'

"And I said 'Ha, poor Snivellus. Come here.' He stepped towards me. 'Come closer,' I said. 'Closer, that's the ticket.' And I blew into his ear and he freaked out. So I said, 'Just thought I'd give you a nice blow in the ear before I'm off. I have some very dangerous and important business to attend to. Ta.' And he had this eager, hungry look on his face. I'm surprised he isn't here now. Speaking of which, Madam P's gone, shall we?"

"We shall," replied James with a laugh. And the three skipped across the darkening grounds.

"Guys, pull a maneuver 18B," whispered Sirius, and Peter and James rushed ahead as Sirius stayed put.

"Hey Lukas," said Rochelle.

"Hey Rochelle," said Lukas. He shut his eyes for a moment, then opened them.

"How are you?" he asked, wearing a fake smile.

"Great," she lied, for she was really filled with great fear of what might happen. "And you?"

"I dunno. I have a headache."

"Oh." There was a pause.

"If you want to go, I understand," said Rochelle as gently as possible, kind of hoping he might go. All of her insides felt like they were going to drop out.

"Jesus Christ, why does everyone act like I'm the bad guy? Just because I have a fucking headache it doesn't mean I'm going to LEAVE you! God, why does everyone jump to the fucking bad conclusions? Oh maybe 'cause I'm me. THAT MAKES SENSE!"

"Lukas. . . I didn't mean it like that! I-I just, I just. . ."

"ARRRG!" He let out an aggravated scream. "I'M SO FUCKING PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW!" He slammed his head, hard, against the brick chimney. He started to punch the chimney furiously, his knuckles bleeding. He clung onto the chimney, panting heavily.

Rochelle was alarmed and scared half out of her mind. All she wanted to do was run away. Something. Why did she agree with Ryan to do this?

"Lukas, stop, please, stop," she said, everything flashing before her of what happened last full moon, all of it, and the way she begged him to stop, so painfully familiar, and all the emotions in her eyes, staring at him, begging him with every bit of strength in her for him to stop.

He froze, then let out a yell. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" He ran towards the edge of the rooftop. Rochelle knew what he was doing. He was jumping off. Suicide. She froze as her greatest fear, was right there, right in front of her own eyes.

Snape stood next to Sirius, watching as James and Peter got into the Whomping Willow.

"How'd they do that?" He gasped in utter bewilderment.

"Simple, you just press the knot in the roots and it freezes the tree so you can get in the tunnel, wait-" But Snape darted forward.

"Now I'll know what they do every month. I'll know their secret. I'll know," muttered Snape in excitement as he dove down at the knot.

Rochelle darted, faster than she's ever sprinted before, leaping on Lukas, screaming her brains out, tears flying everywhere, faster then tears have ever fallen before.

Her and Lukas tumbled down to a bad landing, hardly more than an inch away from the edge of the rooftop.

His sunglasses had fallen off, and his eyes stared. . . They were red.

"Lukas!" she cried hysterically, still on top of him. "LUKAS!" Her tears fell onto his face.

He shut his eyes.

"Let. Me. Go," he said, his voice quavering with rage, so much rage that Rochelle wondered in tons of fear that he'd kill her if she didn't get off.

Her hands slid into Lukas's.

"Lukas," she breathed.

"I said-"

"Lukas," she cried.

He blinked, his red eyes turning slightly orange, his breathing becoming more normal. "I. . . I. . ." but he seemed to have not had words.

Sirius entered the Whomping Willow behind Snape. Snape started to run towards the end of the tunnel. James stood in front of him.

"Wouldn't go that way if I were you mate," said James.

"OUT OF MY WAY POTTER!" he shouted, shoving past James and running insanely towards the end of the tunnel.

Snape froze as an ear-shattering howl split the air, less then ten feet from him. He gasped with horror.

"GOOD JOB SNIV! MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU'LL LEARN TO LISTEN TO US!" laughed Sirius. "OH WAIT THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME!"

Snape whimpered, curled in a ball on the ground, as the werewolf made its way at him.

"Lukas," whispered Rochelle. She shut her eyes as her hands remained linked with his. She tried to clear her mind. Everything seemed to be spinning. ". . . I love you. . ."

His eyes drooped a little, they turned back to their original color, and his eyes fell shut. He sat up, his eyes met with Rochelle's.

Their lips desired each other, and they both leaned in, only for just a small kiss, but it felt like that kiss had made everything fall back into place.

"The moon actually is sort of pretty," he said softly.

"But you were under its curse," said Rochelle.

"Were is the key word. And, I'm not sure if we can call it 'curse.'"

"Then what can we call it?"

"I'm not sure, just believe in the fact that anything can happen on this planet."

"You believe so many things that are beyond most people's wildest dreams," said Rochelle, dazzled by how their love reflected in the moonlight.

"Yeah," he said.

"It's hard enough to believe all the present, and future," said Rochelle. "Tomorrow we'll all be on the train home, for good, graduated, gone from Hogwarts forever, after such a rough year, and it's going to be all over."

"Hogwarts is our home," said Lukas.

James broke away from Sirius.

"Prongs what are you doing!" he shouted in alarm. James dashed at Snape.

"RUN YOU MORON!" he yelled at Snape. Snape leapt up and fled out of there, his eyes with pure terror, not looking back.

And it was werewolf vs. stag. The two were blooded a good bit, but eventually Moony cooled off, seeing as Snape was gone.

"We're dead," said Sirius.