Don't Let Your Guard Down
chapter 29
two weeks EXACTLY...i'm doing better with this whole updating thing. hahaha thanks for being so patient!
Disclaimer: i'm am not J.K. Rowling...but how amazing would it be if i was? lol
Dedication: you will be missed by many, erica 3 "you'll be with me like a handprint on my heart"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
"Ugh, my head is full," Sirius said, throwing his quill down.
"It's called thinking. Go with it," Remus whispered.
"I don't want to take this test anymore," Sirius whined.
"Shh," Remus hissed.
"I'm bored," Sirius complained.
"Shhh," James whispered forcefully.
"But I don't wanna-"
"SHHH," Remus, Peter, and James hissed together.
"Hmpf," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair. He sighed and went back to answering the questions.
After a few minutes, Sirius glanced over at James's parchment. James looked at him and hissed, "What are you doing?"
Sirius gave a sheepish grin. "Just making sure you spelled your name right…yup, James Potter. Looks good to me."
"Can you guys shut up?" Remus whispered back.
"Yeah," Sirius said and then turned to look at Remus's parchment. "Let me just make sure you spelled your name right."
Remus jerked his paper back and went back to writing.
"Hey Peter," Sirius murmured.
"No," Peter said almost immediately.
Sirius pouted. "What's the use of taking this class together if you guys-"
"Mr. Black?" the professor boomed.
Sirius looked up. "Yes professor?"
"Do you find something more interesting than my test?"
"Yes…everything is more interesting," Sirius muttered to himself, getting a slight smile out of James. Sirius raised his voice, "No…I just do better when I say the answers to myself."
"Well, don't," the professor said, and looked back down at his book.
"Good advice," Sirius mumbled.
After a few minutes, the professor stood up. "Put your quills down and leave your parchment at the end of each desk. I will collect them after you leave." The students all stared at him blankly. "You may leave." There was a rush to gather bags and books. "Don't forget the homework!"
The Marauders gathered their things as quickly as possible and zipped out of there. "Wait, what is the homework?" James asked, walking out of the classroom.
"Read chapter thirteen and fourteen and write a synopsis of each chapter," Sirius said.
Remus, Peter, and James stared at him. "You listened to the professor?"
Sirius gasped. "Oh my god. I listened to a professor!" Sirius rushed out of the room.
"Where are you going?" James called out.
"To go get everything I just learned out of my head," Sirius cried out over his shoulder.
"What's that mean?" Peter asked.
"I think it means Sirius is going to pack his brain with useless facts," James said.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Hey guys, did you know that a goldfish's attention span is only three seconds," Sirius said.
"Yup, sounds like a useless fact to me," Peter confirmed.
"And animals that lay eggs don't have belly buttons," Sirius continued.
The other three rolled their eyes and sat down on the couch next to Sirius.
Sirius looked up from what he was reading and bit his lip nervously. "Hey guys, can I ask you a question?"
James stopped tossing the pillow up in the air and turned to look at Sirius while Remus and Peter stopped playing rock, paper, scissors, and glanced up at Sirius.
"Let's say there's this girl," Sirius said.
"So far, it's the story of your life," Remus snickered.
Sirius ignored him. "And you're talking about her recent break up and in the end she tells you that she and her ex boyfriend broke up because the truth was, he wasn't the one she really wanted. What the hell does that mean?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure it means, and go with me on this one, that he wasn't the one she really wanted," Peter joked.
Sirius threw his book at Peter, who ducked, and it ended up hitting Remus in the chest. "Oof," Remus said. "You couldn't have thrown a pillow?"
"Who's the girl?" James asked with a questioning smile.
"Nothing, that's irrelevant," Sirius said quickly.
"Well, I don't know much about girls-" James started.
"Ha!" Remus cried out with a laugh. James turned his head to glare at Remus. Remus cowered, "So…you were saying?"
James chuckled and looked back at Sirius. "When a girl is talking to a guy about her break up and she says she likes someone else, she usually likes the guy she's talking to," James said with a shrug.
Remus and Peter jerked their heads to look at Sirius. "Who's the girl?"
"No one!" Sirius insisted. She turned to James. "That's what I thought you were gonna say."
"And does it make sense?"
Sirius thought back to Gigi. The girl who hates him. The girl who will resent him for the rest of his life. The girl who has tried everything in her power to make sure she stays as far away from him as possible. Sirius sighed and looked up at James, "No, that doesn't make any sense."
It was silent for a few seconds. "So who's the girl?" Remus questioned with a smile.
"Kacie's cat," Sirius said, rolling his eyes.
"Who cares if the cat likes you, you have a talking cat!" James cried out jokingly.
"Forget I even mentioned anything guys," Sirius said.
"It doesn't matter about the girl-or cat in this instance-because you have Lucie," Remus said.
Sirius smiled. "I know…I was merely wondering."
"And you have Lacey," Peter noted.
Remus shrugged. "Not for much longer."
"Why?" the boys all asked.
"She doesn't think I tell her enough about my life. She feels like I'm trying to exclude her from everything," Remus said with a shrug.
"That's crazy…has she seen us? If she knew what we were like, she'd want to be excluded," Sirius joked.
Remus shrugged. "She doesn't think I'm intimate enough."
"Intimacy Schmintimacy," Sirius said. "Intimacy is an eight letter word for, here's my heart and soul please grind them into hamburger, stuff in your mouth as fast as possible, and enjoy."
Remus shook his head in disbelief. "I'm sorry I asked."
"Well, to be fair, you didn't ask," James noted. "Sirius just likes to add his input."
"You guys can't break up over a tiny little thing like intimacy," Sirius said.
"Tiny little thing? Intimacy is a big part of a relationship," Remus noted.
"Not in Sirius's relationship," James snickered, ducking as Sirius's hand came at him.
Sirius turned his attention back to Remus. "Okay, but you can't break up just because you don't clue her into what we Marauders do," Sirius said.
"She's also getting very suspicious about my leaving every month," Remus noted.
"Break up with her," Sirius said immediately.
Remus rolled his eyes. "It's amazing to me how you ever got a girlfriend."
Sirius flashed his teeth. "Because I'm so damn gorgeous."
"No…that's not it," Remus said.
"Because of my wit and charm," Sirius suggested.
"Definitely not because of that," Remus said.
"Because she was brainwashed?" James piped up.
Remus pointed to James. "Yup, that's it."
Sirius pouted. "I need new friends."
"Good luck finding ones that will put up with you," Peter teased.
Sirius paused to give thought to that. "Don't ever leave me."
Peter and Remus rolled their eyes and went back to playing rock, paper, scissors.
Sirius turned to James. "So, I have a question."
"Keep it to yourself," James said.
"You don't even know what I'm gonna ask," Sirius said.
"You're gonna ask something around the lines of why aren't I talking to Lily, why aren't I back together with her, or why am I letting her avoid me," James pointed out.
"Actually, I was going to ask that if you cut down all but one tree in a rainforest is that tree called a raintree," Sirius said. "But I like you questions a lot better!"
"No, no. I wanna answer your question," James insisted.
"Okay…so what's the answer?" Sirius asked.
James paused and then groaned, knowing he couldn't answer Sirius's question. "Damnit."
"Ha! So, let's answer something you do know," Sirius said. "Like, what the hell is up with you and Lily?"
"Nothing's up," James said.
"I know," Sirius said. "That's the problem!"
"Look, I was nice to her the other day, wasn't it?" James responded. "I let her signal the start of the hamburger eating contest."
"Oh wow, maybe tomorrow you'll let her open a door for you!" Sirius cried out sarcastically. James rolled his eyes. "At this rate, you guys will be married by the time you're ninety."
"I didn't yell at her. I didn't give her a dirty look. I didn't get up and leave," James said. "I think we're making progress."
"Progress would be you two making out!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Okay, I've been trying to stay out of this conversation," Remus said. "Mainly because I was beating Peter at rock, paper, scissors and didn't want to lose my concentration. But I agree with Sirius."
"What?" James asked.
"What?" Peter exclaimed.
"I've never heard that before," Sirius said. "I like the sound of it. I'm right. Someone agrees with me. I am the smartest person alive."
"I don't agree with that," Remus said.
James looked down at his watch. "And Sirius being right lasted a whole ten seconds."
"Oh be fair James," Peter said. "It lasted at least twelve seconds."
"James, you love Lily. She loves you. Yes, she accused you of cheating-" Remus started.
"How many times do we have to have this damn conversation?" James cried out. "I'll talk to Lily when I'm ready! I'll become friendly with her when I know I won't end up biting her head off! So until then, leave it alone, okay?"
All three boys sighed but nodded. After a few seconds of silence, Sirius piped up, "So when exactly will you be ready to be friendly to Lily?"
"Sirius!" James cried out.
"Okay, okay," Sirius said. Sirius sighed because of boredom but then he turned to James. "So just a few more hours?"
Remus handed James the book and he gladly threw it at Sirius.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"You got the best grade out of all of us Si!" Lily cried out a few days later. "That's great!"
"That's not great! That actually means that I'm doing something right," Sirius said and then he gasped. "Is this what happens when you listen to the professor?"
"This is also what happens when you open a book," Remus said.
"I've opened a book before! In fact, just the other day I used my Transfiguration book," Sirius said boastfully.
"Yeah, to kill a fly with it," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "And you missed."
"But I put the fear of god in him," Sirius said with a grin.
Lily laughed and pointed to Sirius's exam. "This is good Sirius," Lily said.
Sirius turned to her. "So...you're not upset that you got worse than me?"
"Of course not," Lily said.
"Yes you are," Remus said.
"How do I get a worse grade than the boy who thinks about sex and girls all the time and never studies?" Lily cried out.
"I don't think of sex and girls all the-" Sirius trailed off. "Whoa, look at the hot babe to the right."
"My point exactly," Lily said, throwing her hands up in defeat.
Lily shook her head at Sirius and looked down at his great marks. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lily asked Sirius.
"Yeah, but it's gonna take a lot of cookies to cover James's entire bed in cookie crumbs," Sirius said.
"I was thinking that if you apply yourself more, you could really succeed at Hogwarts and get into a good wizarding university," Lily said.
"We totally were not thinking the same thing," Sirius said.
"So how exactly did you get such a good grade?" Lily questioned.
"I studied for nearly three hours," Sirius said.
"Oh please," Lily said, rolling her eyes.
"Don't please me!" Sirius cried out. "Wait, that came out wrong." Sirius paused. "Actually that came out just about rig-"
"Don't finish that sentence," Lily insisted.
"You know what you should totally exploit?" Remus said with an evil grin.
"Girls?" Sirius asked.
Remus rolled his eyes. "I was thinking more like making fun of James."
"Huh?"
"Because of his bad grade in Transfiguration," Remus said. "Because even though he's not in this class with us, you got better than me, Peter, and Lily which is saying something."
"So you want me to throw James's bad marks in his face and prove to him that I can be smarter than him?" Sirius asked.
"Exactly."
"Remus! That's awful. That's just plain mean," Sirius said.
"So you're gonna do it?" Remus said.
"Oh yeah," Sirius said. "Right after I find a bunch of cookies to mash into his sheets."
"James got a bad grade in Transfiguration?" Lily spoke up.
"AGH!" Sirius cried out.
Lily looked him.
"You scared me," Sirius said.
"Yeah, I got that from your shrieking," Lily said.
"I just forgot you were there," Sirius said with a shrug.
"Oh how I love to hear that," Lily said sarcastically. "But can we get back to the subject."
"Sure," Sirius said. "My suggestion is we get the house elves to bake the cookies for us."
"That was not the subject," Lily said.
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that was mentioned."
"Why did he get a bad grade?" Lily asked. "That test wasn't too hard."
"Why do you care?" Remus asked.
"I need to know just how much I should throw my good grade in his face," Lily joked.
"Hey! You can't do that! That's my job!" Sirius cried out.
"Sirius, I was kidding," Lily said.
"I wasn't!"
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'll see you guys later."
"Where are you going?" Remus asked, reaching the portrait hole.
"She's going off to sulk about how much smarter than her I am," Sirius said with a grin. He then stopped and pointed to a painting. "Has that always been there?"
"That's the Fat Lady," Remus said. "She's the one you give the password to every time you want to enter."
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked.
Lily laughed a little. "I don't think I'll ever have to worry about you bring smarter than me Si."
Sirius held up his parchment. "I got a better grade! I am smarter!"
"Bye Sirius!" Lily called out over her shoulder.
Sirius turned his attention back to the Fat Lady. "Seriously, how long has that portrait been there?"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Okay, so we'll stand outside of Potions when the Slytherins have it," James said, pointing to his piece of parchment.
Sirius looked down at the parchment. "But then there will be lots of witnesses."
"Not if we have the invisibility cloak," Peter noted.
"So who are we turning purple and for how long?" Sirius asked with a grin.
Remus trudged into the room and plunked down onto his bed, with his head facing the ceiling.
The three boys looked over at him curiously as he heaved a huge sigh.
"Anything wrong Moony?" Sirius dared to ask.
"No," Remus mumbled.
"You sure?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded.
Sirius shrugged and the three boys went back to studying the parchment. "I say we make the spell permanent for at least a day," Peter suggested.
"You guys know that pranks are against the Hogwarts rules, right?" Remus said, staring up at the ceiling and not bothering to look at his three best friends.
"Yeah, I've been trying to get the Hogwarts contract changed to allow pranks ever since I've been Head Boy," James said.
"Any luck?" Sirius asked
"We're still using the invisibility cloak…what do you think?" James asked.
Sirius paused. "I think we need a better Head Boy."
James threw his quill at Sirius.
"You're not getting this back," Sirius said with a grin.
"Oh, so are you going to write down our prank plans?" James asked.
Sirius thought about it and turned to the parchment. "Is Slytherin spelled with three i's or two y's?"
"Neither," James said, snatching his quill back.
"I think it's about time you guys get caught," Remus said.
"Uh, Remus?" James noted. "We always get caught."
Remus shook his head back and forth. "It's amazing how you three are still here at Hogwarts."
"We're good at coming up with the pranks," Sirius said. "It's the not getting caught part that we have trouble with."
"So Moony," James said, shifting so he was lying on his stomach on the floor. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong!" Remus snapped. He shifted in his bed. "Except that these blankets are itchy. This pillow is lumpy. And the ceiling is all dark and depressing!"
Sirius turned to James and Peter. "Somehow I have a feeling that isn't all that's wrong."
"You're right," Remus said. "This bed is also too damn small!"
"You're the shortest out of all of us. The bed's fine," Sirius said.
"I'm not the shortest. Peter's shorter."
Sirius glanced at Peter and then looked back up at Remus. "Are you sure?"
Remus growled a little under his breath.
"Come over here and stand back to back with Peter. I'm still not positive Peter's shorter than you," Sirius said.
Remus finally took his eyes off the ceiling and glared at Sirius.
"Or we can do it later…" Sirius cowered.
"My girlfriend broke up with me," Remus finally admitted.
"I knew there was something more wrong than the bed blanket!" Sirius cried out.
Remus glared at him once again.
"But that's not the point."
"You okay Remus?" James asked and then shook his head. "Ugh, what a stupid question. My girlfriend completely ripped my heart out and stomped on it a hundred times and then gave me a bullshit reason as to why she doesn't want to be with me anymore, but yeah I'm great!"
Remus just gave him a blank stare.
"But I'm sure you had a good break up," James said with a sheepish smile.
"Oh yeah, me staring up at the ceiling complaining about my pillow means a good break up," Remus said sarcastically, rolling his eyes at his friends.
"What are the chances that's true?" James asked.
Sirius stood up. "Well, there's clearly only one way to help you get over this."
"We are not going to a strip club," Remus urged.
Sirius slouched down and pouted. "You take the fun out of everything."
"Yes, how dare I take the fun out of Lacey breaking up with me," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"I'm glad you see it my way," Sirius said.
"Do you want us to get you anything?" Peter asked.
Remus sat up in his bed and looked at Sirius and James. "Why can't you two be nice and supportive like Peter?"
Peter shrugged. "I just want an excuse to leave the room so I don't have to be around mopey dopey you."
Remus threw his pillow at him. Peter grinned, "You want me to take the lumps out of the pillow?"
That response got another pillow thrown at him.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Hey Lily, what is that you're doing?" Sirius asked.
Lily glanced down at her parchment. "Homework."
Sirius looked at it. "Oh…so that's what that looks like."
Lily rolled her eyes and leaned back on the couch. "Why are you hiding out in here?"
"What makes you think I'm hiding?"
"Because you're by yourself and asking me about homework," Lily said.
Sirius sat down next to Lily. "Remus is driving me crazy."
Lily choked on air and coughed a little. "Remus is driving you crazy? I thought it was usually you and James driving him crazy."
"Funny how things turn out huh?" Sirius said in a voice that didn't make it sound funny at all. Sirius shrugged and took a cookie from the table.
"Those have been sitting there for a week now," Lily noted.
Sirius glanced down at his cookie and shrugged. "It's still a cookie." Sirius bit into it and immediately spit it out. "No it's not!"
Lily laughed at Sirius trying to get the taste of the bad cookie out of his mouth. "So what's wrong with Remus?" she wondered.
"He and his girlfriend broke up," Sirius said. "And I know I can't relate, because I've never had a girl break my heart before-"
"You were too busy breaking their hearts," Lily muttered.
"But he's just all depressed," Sirius said with a shrug. "He's annoyed when I sleep, saying that I breathe too loud. He's annoyed when I'm doing homework, saying that I write too loud. He's even annoyed when I sit there and do nothing, saying it's too quiet!"
Lily shrugged. "That's your problem."
"So I think I'm just gonna sleep on this couch tonight," Sirius said.
Lily jerked her head up. "That's my problem." Lily got up from the couch. "Let's go find Remus and cheer him up!" Lily urged.
"Nah," Sirius said. "He'll just yell at me for breathing too loud."
"So stop breathing at all!" Lily insisted.
"But then I'd die."
Lily looked at him. "So?"
"HEY!"
Lily shrugged. "That's your problem."
"I'll die here and stink up your room. And then I'll come back and haunt you," Sirius said with a grin.
"That's my problem," Lily said, and then grabbed Sirius's arm. "Let's go find Remus!"
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Hey Giliba!" Sirius called out as she saw Gigi turn the corner.
Gigi stopped, debating whethere to walk faster or turn around to see what Sirius wanted. After a few seconds, she turned around and nervously stood there for a few seconds. After thinking it over, she slowly walked over to Sirius. "Hi."
"Do you have any idea what Dibbles was trying to say in Muggle Studies today?" Sirius questioned.
Gigi stared at him. "I'm not taking Muggle Studies."
"Then I guess the answer is no," Sirius said.
Gigi just rolled her eyes with a hint of a smile. "So I hear Remus is getting pretty hard to be around lately."
Sirius shrugged. "Yeah, but it's understandable. It's been awhile since he's had a serious girlfriend and she dumped him."
"Because of the whole werewolf thing?" Gigi asked.
Sirius froze. "Werewolf thing?" Sirius asked nervously. "You mean how Remus loves werewolves and collects little stuffed animals and pictures of them and even-"
"Please stop."
"Will do," Sirius said. "So…how do you know?"
Gigi shrugged. "It's not that hard to figure out. I just came to my own conclusions when we went over werewolf patterns in class last year. But it's pretty cool how you guys became animagi to help him out."
"Oh," Sirius said. "Came to your own conclusions on that too?"
"No," Gigi said. "I overheard you and James discussing it a few months ago."
Sirius laughed. "Well, she doesn't know he's a werewolf. But because of the werewolf thing, Remus has to watch everything he says. And Lacey just felt he wasn't being open enough."
"How dare Remus not talk about the many stupid pranks you guys pull and how you four get good grades even though you hardly ever open a book and how you three are illegal animagi and he turns into a hairy creature who howls at the moon every month."
"Hey!" Sirius cried out. "I don't get good grades!"
Gigi laughed and rolled her eyes at the comment. She couldn't help thinking how weird it was that she was laughing at something the guy she supposedly hated just said.
Sirius laughed along with her and then bit his lip anxiously. "Can I ask you a question?"
Gigi shrugged. "Sure."
"What did you mean by your comment the other day?" Sirius asked.
"My comment on what?" Gigi asked. "Because I seriously don't think you're asking me what I meant when I said chicken was better than turkey at lunch today."
"Turkey is way better!" Sirius cried out. "But that's not the point. What did you mean when you said Jesse wasn't the one you wanted?"
Gigi tensed up. She had hoped that he forgot about that. "Just what it sounds like. There's nothing else to say about it."
"But do you-"
"Black, we had that conversation like a week ago," Gigi said. "It's over and done with. I meant absolutely nothing by it, okay?"
"Okay, but don't you-"
"What don't you get by it's over and done with?" Gigi cried out.
"How come you always do this?" Sirius asked calmly.
"Do what?" Gigi snapped.
"How come whenever we start to have a real conversation, you pull back?" Sirius questioned. "You get all angry and start a fight."
"I do not," Gigi protested.
"You just snapped my head off saying I don't know the meaning of over and done with," Sirius said.
"It's not my fault you don't listen!" Gigi exclaimed.
"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" Sirius burst out. "You just start yelling for no reason! Why? Why do you always do this?"
Gigi didn't say anything at first and then looked up into Sirius's eyes and shrugged. "Because I never know what to say to you."
Sirius was taken aback by that response. "Why?"
Gigi leaned up against the wall and crossed her arms. "Why Lucie?"
Sirius was now really taken aback. "Um…what?"
"Why did you choose Lucie?"
Sirius just kept staring incredulously at Gigi. "What?"
"Why did you pick her?" Gigi rephrased.
"I-I don't know what you mean," Sirius stumbled.
"What was different about her?" Gigi asked and then sighed. "How did she get you to change?"
Sirius looked into Gigi's eyes. It took a few seconds, but finally Gigi looked up and met his gaze. "Lucie didn't make me change." Gigi stared at him, waiting for more. Sirius looked sincerely at Gigi. "You did."
Now it was Gigi's turn to be taken aback by a response. "What?"
Sirius stepped away and started pacing. "I was such an asshole."
"No argument so far," Gigi said.
Sirius sighed. "I was scared." Gigi looked at him persistently. "Everything was happening so fast and I just couldn't wrap my head around it all." Sirius sighed again. "But then I saw that you could go from one night stands to a relationship with Jesse. I figured if you could, I could figure out this commitment thing also."
"So, what you're saying is that…" Gigi trailed off.
"That Lucie had nothing to do with me wanting to change," Sirius ended.
"So, then why'd you choose her?" Gigi asked.
Sirius stood there for the longest time and then finally looked up at Gigi. "Because you were already taken."
"Wha-" Gigi didn't get to finish her sentence because Sirius placed his lips on hers at that moment. Right away, Gigi could feel fireworks and she wrapped her arms around Sirius's neck and deepened the kiss. She opened her mouth a little and let Sirius explore her mouth with his tongue. Sirius placed his hand in the small of her neck and intensified the kiss. She let her tongue enter his mouth and tightened her grip around his neck.
They broke apart and then just stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to come up with someone to say. "Well…I'll cross that off my to-do list," Sirius finally said.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
THERE: i FINALLY got them together. are you all happy:o)
REVIEW!