Don't Let your Guard Down
chapter 36
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all of those living in the United States! Thanks to everyone for being so patient in between updates...I've been really busy lately and in two weeks, I have my semester ending and tons of finals to go through (oh goody).
Disclaimer: yada yada...as much as I wish I was, I'm not JK Rowling...yada yada
"You know Sirius," Lily said, coming up at lunch a few days later, "most people sit on the bench provided for them."
Sirius looked at the bench where his feet were currently on as he sat on the top of the table and shrugged. "I can see better from here."
"You can see what exactly?" Kacie asked.
"If I was sitting on the bench, I wouldn't be able to notice that that first year Hufflepuff has the good chicken," Sirius said, hopping down from the table. "I'll be right back."
"Don't torment him!" Lily cried out and then sighed. "It's hopeless. That boy is gonna be traumatized for life."
"Oh, that's not necessarily true," Remus noted.
"Hey little boy!" Sirius yelled out. "Give me the chicken or you die!"
"Then again, it's definitely a possibility," Remus corrected, giving Lily a cheesy grin.
James glanced over at the Hufflepuff table. "Is it okay that Sirius is now chasing that boy out of the Great Hall?"
"What?" Lily cried out, whipping around to see what Sirius was doing.
James grinned. "Just kidding."
Lily glanced at the water cup she was holding and turned to James with an evil grin on her face. James looked up to see the evil in her eyes. "Don't you dare. If you pour that water on me, we are definitely-"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence because he was too busy jumping off the bench as the water hit him in the chest and spilled all over his pants.
"I hate you," James exclaimed.
"That's not what you said last night," Lily said with a wink.
"You are ruining my innocent reputation," James hissed.
All his friends burst out laughing and took awhile for them to calm down. Remus even started choking on his shepherd's pie because he was laughing so hard.
"What?" James asked, obviously confused.
"If you think for one second that anyone in this school thought you were ever innocent, you're a bloody idiot," Kacie said between laughs.
James looked at them all and then turned to Lily. "This is all your fault."
"I think it was Sirius who ruined your innocence," Lily pointed out.
"What about me?" Sirius asked, a whole plate of chicken in his hands.
"If it wasn't for you, James would still be innocent," Remus explained.
"No way," Sirius said. "It's Lily who stripped away his innocence."
Lily raised her eyebrows. "Did I bring him to his first strip club? Did I introduce him to alcohol? Did I teach him that dating three girls at once was cool?"
"Did I have sex with him?" Sirius asked.
Lily paused. "So…wanna share some of that chicken?"
Sirius glanced at his plate of chicken and ran off with it.
"You can't eat all that chicken by yourself!" Lily cried out. "Don't come crying to me when you're throwing it all up!"
The whole group turned to see Sirius moving to the other side of the table and gobble down his chicken. They all returned to a conversation between them as Sirius sat a few seats down engrossed in his chicken.
"Okay, so are-" Kacie started but noticed Gigi entering the Great Hall. "Oh hey, there's Gi. Gigi! We're over-" but before she could finish her sentence, Gigi glanced up and then practically ran out of the Great Hall.
Lily turned to Kacie. "Is she mad at you?"
"I don't think so…" Kacie said slowly and then gasped. "Oh crap! I think this is her shirt. She's probably mad that I took it without asking."
"I severely doubt that's why she would be mad at you," Lily said.
"Why?"
"Because that's my shirt," Lily said. Kacie looked down at the shirt and then gave Lily a sheepish grin.
"Eh…black isn't really your color," Kacie said with a shrug.
"What? That's her best color!" James exclaimed. Everyone stared at him. "I swear I'm not gay."
Kacie turned to Lily. "Maybe she's pissed off at you."
"That's impossible," Lily said. "I'm an angel."
James snorted.
Lily turned to him. "I'm gonna ignore that."
James laughed and then shrugged it off. "Just relax guys," James said. "She probably just doesn't wanna be around Sirius since it's so soon after the break up."
Lily stopped chewing and Kacie spit out the water she just took a sip of, spraying Remus a little bit. "What?"
James glanced at Remus and then back at the girls. "You didn't know?"
"Do we look like people who have any idea what you're talking about?" Lily cried out. She got up from the bench and stomped towards Sirius and hit him over the head. "What did you do?"
"Lily!" James cried out, struggling to get off the bench and head her way. "Don't mind her."
Sirius nervously handed the plate of chicken to her. "I didn't realize you wanted the chicken that much."
"Not that!" Lily cried out. "I'm talking about Gigi!"
"Why do you assume it's my fault?" Sirius asked, getting up from the bench and facing Lily.
"Did you cheat on her? Did you bring a bunch of other girls to your room? Did you-"
"I have done everything possible to change my reputation! No one in this damn school believes that I have changed! Not the professors, not my girlfriend, not even my friends! No, I didn't cheat on her! But I didn't have to, because she will always assume that I have or that I will!" Sirius cried out, slamming down the plate of chicken and storming out of the Great Hall.
Lily sighed and turned to James with a blank stare. James shrugged, "At least you can have the chicken now."
Lily gave him an irritated look, turned on her heels, and slowly walked out of the Great Hall, glad that Kacie ran to catch up with her.
Gigi ran up the stairs, skipping every other step, and shoved the door open, scampering into her room and over to her desk and trunk. She grabbed a box from under her bed and stuffed her extra pillow in it, trying hard not to smell it. She was afraid that she would start crying if she smelled the faint scent of Sirius on her pillow.
She glanced at her desk and grabbed the picture of her and Sirius, throwing it into the box, not caring that the glass shattered into a thousand pieces. She couldn't take the goofy grin on Sirius's face as she was laughing and sitting with him up in their favorite tree. Lily took the picture a month or so again, and it used to be one of Gigi's favorite pictures…but now it's just a shattered memory.
She grabbed her purple shirt, her favorite jeans, a few tank tops, and anything that Sirius said she looked good in. She also snatched anything that Sirius remotely touched or made a comment about. She was about to seize her stuffed bear when a voice rang from the doorway.
"Put the bear down and nobody gets hurt," the voice said.
Gigi turned slowly and saw Lily and Kacie standing there. She sighed and put the box and bear down and then plopped down on her bed.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Lily questioned.
Gigi shrugged but didn't say anything.
"We're your best friends," Kacie urged. "Without us, who would get you tubs of ice cream, enough chocolate to make you the fattest person alive, and lots and lots of alcohol?"
"We're here for you Gi," Lily said. "Just like you—oooh, can I have this?" Lily asked, picking up the purple shirt from the box.
Gigi gave her a look.
"It's ugly anyway," Lily said, throwing it back in the box.
"That was one of my favorite shirts," Gigi pointed out.
"Well I mean ugly in the 'it's gorgeous' sense," Lily concluded. Gigi just gave a slight smile.
"Nice save," Kacie muttered and then turned to Gigi. "So…if it's one of your favorite shirts, do you mind telling me why you're throwing it out?"
"Because Sirius likes it," Gigi said. "Anything he likes, touched, or talked about is going far far away."
"Well he likes you…are you gonna throw yourself out?" Kacie asked.
"If he likes me then why'd he break up with me?" Gigi asked helplessly.
"Because boys are idiots," Lily noted.
"Bloody idiots," Gigi mumbled.
"So what do you say we get really drunk and forget about boys altogether?" Lily asked.
"It's a Tuesday afternoon," Gigi said.
"That's never stopped you before," Lily said.
Gigi smiled and put her arms around her friends. "Thanks guys," she whispered into Lily's shoulder as she laid her head upon it, happy to have such good friends.
"I love summer," Sirius said with a grin, leaning up against a tree.
"It's still spring," Remus noted.
"Well, I like when it gets hot out," Sirius said.
"Why?"
"I love the flowers. And watching the trees bloom," Sirius said.
Peter, Remus, and James all gave him a look.
"And the warmer the weather, the shorter the skirts," Sirius said with a smirk.
"That's just wrong," Remus reprimanded. "Girls are—oh awesome, that skirt hardly covers that girl's ass!"
Sirius laughed and lay down on his back. "This is the life."
"Sitting under a tree talking about girls' asses?" James asked.
"Hanging out with you guys and not having to worry about work," Sirius said.
"Have you written that Transfiguration essay yet?" Remus asked.
"Or read the chapter in Potions?" Peter wondered.
"…hanging out with you guys not caring about work," Sirius corrected himself and then turned to Remus. "What essay?"
"The essay that was due yesterday," Remus said.
"I've got it covered," Sirius said and then paused. "What's it on?"
"We're graduating in three weeks and you haven't done essays that were due two years ago," James said. "How the hell are you graduating?"
Sirius paused. "I'm not sure if I am…"
"I bet you still have at least three more years," Remus said.
"Three years?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. "Try all seven years over again."
"I did homework in my first year," Sirius contested.
"No you didn't," James argued.
"But then how come I remember spending a lot of time with McGonagall?"
"It's called detention," James said.
The group exchanged glances and burst out laughing. James grabbed some grass and threw it in Sirius's general direction and then Sirius proceeded to throw a bunch of sticks at James.
Remus gave a low whistle. "Look at the Klebox triplets."
James and Sirius stopped throwing things at each other and looked at Remus in awe.
Remus looked back at them and shrugged. "See what spending all this time with you guys has done to me."
Sirius sat up and glanced at the triplets sit down on a patch of grass not too far from them. "Do you think those girls would ever be up for a foursome?"
"No way," James said with a laugh. "They are way too innocent."
"Karla has a boyfriend of two years, how innocent can she be?" Sirius asked.
"I heard they just got to the holding hands stage a few months ago," Remus said with a laugh.
"Even Peter has gotten farther than that!" Sirius exclaimed, laughing out loud.
"Hey!" Peter cried out, throwing some grass at him. "I'm sitting right here!"
"Haven't you guys learned that throwing grass in my general direction isn't—OW!" Sirius cried out, as Peter took his Potions book and chucked it at Sirius. "Let's go back to throwing grass."
"What about Kirsty and Kellie? Do they have boyfriends?" James asked.
"Why? You looking to date one of them?" Peter teased.
"He's looking to date them both," Sirius corrected with a laugh.
"I used to be such good friends with those girls and so I was just wondering what was going on with them lately," James said with a shrug.
"You were only close to them because you wanted to have sex with each and every one of them," Sirius said.
"So did you!" James cried out.
"Yeah but the difference between you and me is that I eventually gave up and moved on to the Juniper twins," Sirius said.
"And got no where with them either," James noted.
"Didn't I snog Jess Juniper?" Sirius asked.
"No, she was the one who called you a no good, rotten, bloody asshole," James said. "And then screamed at you to go to hell."
Sirius paused to think about it and then broke out into a grin. "Oh yeah…she was cute."
"Cute?" James asked, raising his eyebrows. "That's not what you thought when she was putting crushed up spiders into your mashed potatoes."
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "I hate that girl."
Peter, Remus, and James burst into laughter as Sirius clenched his fists. "I am so getting even with her."
"She graduated last year," Remus noted.
Sirius paused. "Damnit!"
"Did you ever get anywhere with Jennie?" Peter asked.
"I think she was the one who-" Sirius started but then stopped mid sentence and stared out across the lawn.
Remus, Peter, and James all followed Sirius's gaze to Gigi, Kacie, and Lily walking out of Hogwarts and sitting down on a bench across the way.
Sirius swallowed the lump in his throat and tried hard not to notice how great Gigi looked. She was wearing a short jean skirt with blue high heels that matched her shirt and he couldn't help but notice how great her legs looked, especially when she sat down and crossed them. Sirius sighed as he turned away from Gigi and climbed up into the tree, resting on a branch that was about six or seven feet off the ground.
"So…the Turner triplets are hot, huh?" Peter said slowly after the awkward minute of silence, glancing up in the tree at Siriu.
"Boy, Gigi looks really ugly today, doesn't she," James noted.
"What's with the skirt?" Remus asked. "Jean skirts are so last year."
Sirius gave him a look.
"I'm not gay," Remus protested, glancing up at Sirius amongst the leaves of the tree. "And that shirt is really ugly too."
"It's perfect," Sirius muttered.
"Perfectly ugly," James corrected and then paused. "Wait…I think that's Lily's shirt!"
"You just called your girlfriend ugly," Peter said as he and Remus laughed.
"No, I called the shirt ugly," James argued.
Sirius rolled his eyes and glanced over again at Gigi as she was throwing her head back and laughing at something Kacie was saying. Sirius sighed and climbed higher up the tree, hoping that climbing the tree would distract him from how hurt he was over the break up with Gigi. In fact, he hoped that if he kept climbing, he'd end up in a land where Gigi wouldn't even exist and he wouldn't have to think about her at all.
James looked up as Sirius climbed the tree. "Hey Sirius? I threw a shoe up there a few months ago. Tell me if you find it."
Remus gave him a look. "Do I even want to know why you threw a shoe up there?"
"Because he thought that's what birds ate?" Peter suggested.
James laughed and threw a crumbled piece of parchment at him. "It's up there because I w-" but James never got to finish his sentence because all three boys turned their heads when they heard a thud.
"Sirius??" Remus cried out as all three boys scrambled to get up and move to the other side of the tree.
"Ohmigod!" James exclaimed. "I don't think he's conscious."
"Is he breathing?" Peter asked, rushing to his side.
Across the way, Lily was laughing as Kacie did her Professor McGonagall impersonation. "Just think," Lily said. "In three and a half weeks, we'll be out of here and we'll miss professors like her."
"Soon you'll be saying we're gonna miss homework and tests," Gigi said with a snort.
"Well you never know," Lily said with a shrug. "Maybe-"
Gigi put her hand up to stop Lily from continuing on. "Do not finish that sentence. I don't need another reason to mock you."
"Well, you may wan-" Lily started but quickly turned her head to a tree across the schoolyard. "What was that?"
Kacie squinted. "I think something just fell out of that tree."
"Like a bird?" Gigi questioned, as a huge crowd surrounded the tree.
Kacie stood up on the bench. "Holy shit!" she cried out. "It's Sirius!"
Gigi jumped out of her seat. "What are you talking about?"
"I think it was Sirius who fell out of-" but Gigi never heard the end of her sentence because she was too busy sprinting across the lawn. Gigi scrambled through the crowd and made it to the tree. She stopped right in front of Sirius and turned to look at the three boys. "What the hell did you do?"
"He was climbing the tree and just fell," Remus said helplessly.
"The nurse is on her way," a voice from the crowd called out.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Gigi asked, Lily and Kacie finally arriving at her side.
The three boys just exchanged glances but weren't sure of what to say.
"Well?" Gigi shouted.
"This is the boy who swam in the Great Lake naked during the month of January and didn't get pneumonia, the boy who fell from a broom high up in the air and didn't even get a scratch, and the guy who falls down the stairs at least once a week and still somehow has all his brain cells," Remus said.
"Well that's debatable," James mumbled.
Remus smiled up at Gigi. "He'll be fine."
"Oh really?" Gigi exclaimed, getting off her knees. "You call lying there, hardly breathing, with no movement at all 'fine?'"
Remus paused and then looked up at her. "Yes?"
"What is wrong with you guys?" Gigi cried out, her fists starting to clench at her sides.
"Gigi," Lily said calmly, reaching for her arm to soothe her.
"No!" Gigi burst out, snatching her arm away. "These guys are imbeciles! Always getting in trouble and risking their lives! It's not funny, it's just plain stupid!"
"Gigi, we had nothing to do with it," Peter said slowly.
"Did you not see your supposed best friend climb like fifty feet into the air?" Gigi exclaimed. "You think playing stupid pranks and getting in trouble is fun. You think that the more your life is at risk, the more fun life is! You think-"
"Gigi," Lily urged, pulling her arm.
James looked calmly at Gigi and said, "We didn't think th-"
"No, you didn't think," Gigi cried out, seizing her arm out of Lily's grip and stomping off back towards Hogwarts.
Lily gave the boys a guilty look. "She'll be fine."
James gulped and looked down at a motionless Sirius. "So will he," he whispered hopefully.
Gigi stood outside the hospital wing pacing back and forth. She heard the laughter of Remus and Peter ring out from one of the hospital beds. She heard Lily and James asking the nurse questions about being unconscious and she heard Kacie translating the big medical words to the boys. She finally stopped pacing and leaned against the wall near the doorway. She took a big breath and turned to enter the hospital wing when she heard voices from the end of the hallway.
"Lucie?" Gigi whispered to herself as Lucie and a few of her friends neared the doorway.
"Is he okay?" a girl with a pile of make up on asked.
Gigi was surprised when she realized the girl was talking to her. "How the hell should I know?"
"Because you're standing outside of a hospital wing that only has one person in it," another girl said. "My guess is you're not here to visit the nurse."
"She happens to be a very good friend of mine," Gigi snapped.
"C'mon Julee, Hailey," Lucie said monotonously, glaring at Gigi. "Let's go."
Gigi watched them enter the room until she blurted out, "he's not awake."
The three girls twirled around and looked at Gigi. "We know. We were outside when he fell."
"What are you doing here?" Gigi asked Lucie, ignoring what Hailey was saying.
"What are you doing here?" Lucie repeated. "I thought you hated Sirius."
"Isn't he like your public enemy number one?" Julee asked.
Gigi didn't say anything and instead listened to Dumbledore's voice booming from the hospital wing.
"You probably pushed him out of that tree," Hailey snickered.
Gigi faced Hailey and pinned her against the wall. "I may hate Sirius Black and I may think he needs to grow up and get a life. And I may think that he's a no good cheating lying player-"
"No really, tell us how you truly feel," Lucie mumbled, rolling her eyes.
Gigi wiped away the tear that fell from her eyes and turned away from the girls, letting go of Hailey. "I may hate the guy but that doesn't mean I wanted him to fall from a tree, Lucie," she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I hafta go," she whispered, practically running down the stairs and out of the hospital wing.
Lily glanced over at Gigi who was blankly staring in front of her. Lily gazed over at Kacie who was vigorously taking notes on parchment. Lily turned to look at Peter, James, and Remus who were (for the most part) also moving their hands a mile a minute, trying to keep up with what the professor was saying. She laughed as she watched Remus and James play a side game of tic-tac-toe.
"Psst," Lily hissed at Gigi.
Gigi shook her head out of her trance and glanced at Lily. "Huh?"
"You haven't taken any notes on what potions we're supposed to be making today," Lily mumbled under her breath.
Gigi glanced down at her blank parchment and shrugged. "Good thing I have you."
"I'm not your potions partner today," Lily whispered.
Gigi groaned and placed her head down on the table, banging it a little bit.
Lily took Gigi's head and brought it back up. "Losing brain cells isn't gonna help."
"Shh," Kacie hissed, still attempting to write everything down. Kacie groaned as the professor stopped giving instructions and told them to start their potions. "Okay, was the last thing she said an eye of newt or a toe of a toad?"
"Neither," Remus said, leaning back. "She said finger of hippopotamus."
"Did not," James corrected. "She said tooth of shark."
"We don't have any of those ingredients," Lily argued.
"Okay…what body parts of animals do we have?" James asked.
"Claw of cat," Lily said.
"Okay, we'll use that," Kacie decided.
"We are so gonna fail," Remus whined, banging his head against the table once.
"So did you guys visit Si in the hospital this morning?" Lily wondered. Gigi's ears perked up but she started flipping through her potions book to make it look like she wasn't paying attention.
"Yeah," James said. "He still hasn't woken up."
"Any news on how he's doing?" Kacie wondered.
"He's stable," Remus said with a shrug. "But he hit his head pretty hard and landed on his spine."
"How far up in the tree was he?" Lily asked.
"He must have been at least thirty feet up," Remus noted. "But he'll be fine. Madame Jeckel is doing everything she can to get him to regain consciousness."
Lily and Kacie nodded in appreciation of the information and the boys turned back around. A few seconds later James turned back around. "What are we supposed to be doing?"
Gigi looked up from her book. "Something to do with the claw of a cat."
The group all exchanged looks and burst out laughing. Even Gigi cracked a smile, trying to ignore how aggravated she was with the boys.
"So then McGonagall told me to go to hell!" James exclaimed, a few days later.
Remus, Gigi, Kacie, and Lily all gave him a blank look.
"Okay, maybe she told me that there are no legitimate excuses for forgetting my homework," James said. "But it's practically the same thing."
"You told her that your hamster ate your homework?" Remus clarified.
"Yeah, what's so wrong with that?" James asked.
"You don't own a hamster," Lily argued.
"And a hamster could hardly swallow a corn flake, let alone an entire piece of parchment," Kacie added.
"No wonder she told me to go to hell," James claimed.
"She didn't!" Remus cried out.
"Oh yeah," James said slowly.
"Well at least you're serving detention with someone you know," Lily said with a shrug. "Gigi has detention on Saturday also."
"What?" Gigi said, snapping out of her trance.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked. "You haven't said a word for about an hour now."
"I'm fine," Gigi muttered.
"Look Gigi, we-" Remus started.
"I'm not talking to you," Gigi snapped.
"For the last time, it wasn't our fault!" James cried out.
"I don't get you guys!" Gigi cried out, jumping up from the couch. "You're sitting here joking and talking about classes while your best friend is unconscious in the damn hospital wing!"
"What about you?" James asked. "When's the last time you visited Sirius?"
"I don't give a damn about Sirius," Gigi argued.
"Then why the hell are you getting so mean and defensive about him?" James asked. "If, as you supposedly say, don't give a damn about him, then why the hell don't you get off our backs and leave us the fuck alone about Si?"
"James!" Lily hissed.
"No, it's fine," Gigi said icily and then turned to James. "You are just like Sirius. Neither one of you care about anyone but yourself and-"
"Gi, just becau-" Remus started.
"Just forget it," Gigi exclaimed through gritted teeth. She started to stomp off when she heard a familiar voice running through the portrait hole.
"Hey guys!" Peter exclaimed, rushing into the room. "Sirius is awake!"
Everyone gazed over at Gigi who glanced around at them. With one more glance, she turned around and walked up the stairs to her room.
So, is Gigi going to visit Sirius in the hospital wing now that he's awake? Is Sirius gonna realize what happened? Is he going to find out that Gigi hasn't visited him once? Is Gigi going to forgive the guys for being careless?
Review to find out the answers to these questions!!