Chapter 6 of Love and House Colors
Disclaimer- Harry Potter and characters from the Harry Potter books belong to their respective copyright holders
Sirius and James were setting up a bed for Remus in James's room. They originally planned to put Remus up in the guest room with Sirius, but changed their plans and put Remus in James's room because it was the larger of the two rooms. As Sirius and James were setting up the bed Mrs. Potter walked in with fresh blankets. "What time did Remus say he was planning on arriving?" said Mrs. Potter as she set the blankets down on the bed. "He said he would be here not long after four." Sirius replied, "Well you had better hurry and finish getting his bed set up," said Mrs. Potter, "It is three thirty now," said Mrs. Potter before leaving the room and heading back down stairs. The boys finished making the bed and went downstairs to await Remus's arrival in the living room. While they were waiting for Remus, James and Sirius took up a game of wizard chess, Mrs. Potter was off doing something in the kitchen, and Mr. Potter was reading the Daily Prophet. "Check mate," Sirius said; winning the chess game between James and him. "No fair, rematch!" said James, "Sorry mate, but your rematch will have to wait." said Sirius, "Remus will be here soon." The two boys were just finishing putting their game away when Mrs. Potter called from the kitchen, "Remus is here," she said. And, sure enough, looking out the front window Sirius and James saw Remus walking up the path to the front door with his mother. James jumped up to open the door for Remus and his mom while Sirius put the chess box back. Mrs. Potter entered the room carrying a tray pitcher of lemonade and cups for everyone. "Mrs. Lupin, it's nice to see you again." Mrs. Potter said as she set down the tray of drinks. "It's nice to see you as well," Mrs. Lupin replied, "This is for you," said Remus, cutting into the conversation. Remus handed Mr. Potter an important looking envelope. "Has something to do with the ministry, I think. Dad wanted to give it to you himself, but he had to work." Both Remus's and James's dad worked in the ministry of magic, only in different departments; or what used to be different departments. With the new 'Death Eaters', a wizard gang, causing some many problems almost all departments at the ministry were working towards stopping them. "With all that is going on at the ministry, they have him working over time," said Mrs. Lupin, "I know the feeling," grumbled Mr. Potter under his breath, "Today is the first day I have had off in weeks, and I was lucky to get it off at all. What with all these Death Eater attacks," said Mr. Potter. "Why don't you two take Remus upstairs and show him where he will be sleeping?" said Mrs. Potter. Sirius knew that Mrs. Potter just didn't want the three of them around while they were talking about the Death Eaters. Sirius knew that she was afraid of scaring them by all the Death Eater talk; although she couldn't keep them away from all the news. Kids at school talked about the Death Eater attacks, they read about it in the paper, and word spread. Sirius wished she would stop worrying about them, they knew that the Death Eaters killed lots of people but hiding them from the facts wasn't going to make them any more or less scared. Sirius wasn't even scared to start with; he knew that the people who his parents use to invite over for parties were the same people who were Death Eaters and he wasn't scared of them. Rather than argue with Mrs. Potter about going up stairs the three boys just walked upstairs and left their parents to talk about the Death Eater attacks. "WE set you up a bed in my room," said James, "Sirius gets the guest room to himself because he snores," James teased Sirius, "I do not!" said Sirius, but wondered if he really didn't snore; his brother had, maybe it was genetic. "Only bed here ten minutes and you two already start fighting," said Remus, "typical Sirius and James." "We weren't fighting, we just had a disagreement," said Sirius, "Anyway, you remembered to bring your broom, right?" asked Sirius, "No, this is for sweeping floors," said Remus as he pulled a broom out of his bag; "I just wondered because I didn't see it with you," said Sirius, "I put and enlargement charm on the inside of my bag so I wouldn't have to bring a second bag," said Remus. "Maybe if you didn't bring your entire library with you when you traveled you wouldn't need such a large bag," said James. "I didn't bring my whole library, thank you." Remus stated, "If you must know I needed more room for my new Quidditch balls." "No way!" said Sirius and James together, "You got a new set of Quidditch balls?" asked Sirius. "Brand new," said Remus, "A guy my dad works with bought them for his son only to find out his son wasn't interested in Quidditch." Remus said, "He gave me the entire set for free." "Lucky you," said James. Sirius once had a Quidditch set but his mom burned once when she was mad at him, and James had an old one his cousin had given him but it was missing a snitch. Quidditch ball sets weren't extremely expensive, just hard to come by; Quaffles and Bludgers could be bought at any Quidditch supply story, but the snitch was what was hard to find and because you had to have all three in order for your set to be considered a complete Quidditch set according to Quidditch rules and schools and teams got to by the sets before anyone else it was hard to find a complete set for the home. "He's right," agreed Sirius, "Boy did you get lucky," "Yeah, I did." Remus replied.
Chantelle was out flying around the house, as she liked to do on nice summer days. Chantelle had never really gotten to explore the whole of the land her house was on because every summer since she moved here she had gone with her dad over the summer and she had spent the school year at Hogwarts; so she was making up for lost time by spend a few afternoons here and there flying on her broom and looking at the land surrounding her house. So far she had found the border of where her property ended and where the Potters started; it was easy to see, there was a river between their properties. The river was a full wide river at some points, and merely a stream at other parts; but the whole thing lead to a water fall which, when followed upward, lead to a lake. Other than the border Chantelle found what looked like remains of old building which made Chantelle believe that at one point or another her property had been divided into multiple properties with more houses. As Chantelle was flying along the border line, she noticed a large barn less than a mile from the border line on the Potters property; Chantelle wondered if the Potters ever used it, or if they even knew it was there. Seeing as the barn was so close to the border line Chantelle wondered if they every traveled that deep into their property that they would have found it.
After flying around for awhile, Chantelle flew back to her house. Landing gently on the ground, Chantelle got off her broom and put it in the shed where she kept her Quidditch supplies. Chantelle would have like to keep her broom inside, so if the neighbors ever decided to make a return visit to her house they wouldn't be able to do anything to her broom; but Chantelle's mom had said she had to keep all Quidditch supplies outside. Chantelle knew that her mom want the broom outside so that if guest were to come over they wouldn't see it; Chantelle's mom didn't like that Chantelle played Quidditch because in her mind it was a men's game and didn't like people to know her daughter took part in such violent games; as her mom referred to Quidditch. As Chantelle walked up to the house she could see that her mom was sitting in the kitchen talking to someone; 'I hope she doesn't want me to stay and talk to her friend with her' thought Chantelle. Chantelle didn't really feel like sitting around and talking to her mom and her mom's friend, she just wanted to go take a shower and get to bed. Chantelle entered the kitchen and saw that her mom was talking to Mrs. Malfoy, Lucious's mom. "Chantelle, why don't you come say hello to our guest?" called Chantelle's just as Chantelle was about to leave the kitchen. 'I almost made it out of here without having to talk' thought Chantelle as she turned back into the kitchen, "You've grown," commented Mrs. Malfoy as Chantelle greeted her. "Lucious said he missed you at the dance," said Mrs. Malfoy, "I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but I think he has a crush on you," said Mrs. Malfoy. For as long as she could remember her mom and Mrs. Malfoy had been trying to set Lucious and Chantelle up together. Because of the lack of pure blood wizards in the area, Chantelle had few options for future marriage that her mother would approve; it use to be between Sirius and Lucious as the top two possibilities, but now that Sirius was a Gryffindor, Chantelle's mom had really been pushing Chantelle to date Lucious. 'Had to be a Gryffindor' thought Chantelle 'Why couldn't he wait until he was older to rebel? At least that way he would have been a Gryffindor' "Chantelle?" her mom cut into her thoughts, "Mrs. Malfoy was trying to ask you a question," Chantelle's mom told her, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," said Chantelle, "What did you need?" "I was just wondering what kept you from the dance, your mom said you bought a dress for it and everything," said Mrs. Malfoy, "I was at the party, I just didn't stay long. I wasn't feeling well and had to finish packing," said Chantelle, "Sorry to hear that," said Mrs. Malfoy, "From what I hear that party was lovely, apart from a couple of Gryffindors gate crashing." Mrs. Malfoy turned back to Chantelle's mom and went back to talking to her about some social event Chantelle was sure her mom would tell her about later. "Well if you don't mind, I am going to go get ready for bed," said Chantelle as she got up and walked out of the kitchen.
(Next Day...)
The three boys were flying in a large meadow they had set up as a Quidditch field and were testing out Remus's new Quidditch set. "Score!" said Remus; "My team wins!" said Remus. Sirius and Remus were on one team playing against James. They had decided that Remus would be on the team of one because he didn't play Quidditch and it would be unfair to have two Quidditch team players play against someone who didn't play Quidditch. "No fair! Rematch!" said James, "You were the one who said he could play by himself and still win" said Sirius, "Anyway it is almost six" Sirius said as he looked at his watch, "In other words its almost dinner time!" said James as if he had never eaten in his life, "That and we have to get the sleeping bags so we can get set up in the barn before the sun goes down." Sirius said. The three boys were planning on sleeping in the old barn that night and still had to set up sleeping bags and take some games out to the barn so they would have something to do. The three boys cleaned up their Quidditch game and raced back to the house on their brooms for dinner. "I think this is the first time you three haven't been early to dinner all summer," joked Mr. Potter as the three boys walked into to see Mrs. Potter had just finished setting the table. "I was just getting ready to call you three," said Mrs. Potter, "Now go get cleaned up, dinner can wait," Mrs. Potter said. Sirius and his friends grumbled at have to wash off before dinner, but knew it was pointless to complain. Sirius looked down and saw the mud covering him and his friends from their Quidditch game and knew that Mrs. Potter would never let them eat dinner in that state, so up the stairs they went to get cleaned off.
After dinner the boys cleaned off the table and rinsed off the dishes before grabbing their sleeping bags and heading outside to go sleep in the old barn. "You have everything you need?" said Mrs. Potter, "Yes Mom, we're fine," said James as his mom walked them out the door and said goodnight to them, "Now I know the barn is close to the property line, but you better not cause the neighbors any problems. I don't care what house they belong to." Mrs. Potter warned the boys. "We'll be good," said Sirius, "We've slept out in the barn before and have yet to cause any problems," said Sirius, "That doesn't mean you won't tonight," said Mrs. Potter, "Anyway, have fun; just don't do anything to stupid," said Mrs. Potter.
The three boys had made their way to the barn and were setting up their sleeping bags when James turned to Remus, "You remembered the marshmallows, right?" James asked. The three boys had planned roasting marshmallows over a fire; they had built a fire pit out of rocks right outside the barn the first time they stayed here. "No; you were suppose to grab them," said Remus, "I told you to get them!" said James, "No you said you were going to get them," said Remus. Sirius could tell that his friend would spend the rest of the night arguing over who was suppose to get them unless something was done soon, "I will run back to the house and grab them," volunteered Sirius, "Sure you don't mind?" asked Remus, "It's cool, I don't mind," said Sirius. Sirius grabbed his broom and walked out of the barn.
Chantelle had finished her dinner and was in her room packing a change of clothes into her bag. Chantelle was planning on going swimming up at the pond; it was almost eight but Chantelle knew that the sun wouldn't set until sometime around ten and she figured that gave her about two hours to swim. Tonight wasn't the only night Chantelle went swimming after dinner, in fact it had become a habit of hers to go swimming after dinner; she loved to swim at this time of night because the sun set looked beautiful on the lake. Chantelle quickly changed into her swim suit so she wouldn't have to change once she got to the lake, threw on a pair of shorts and a tank top over her swim suit, before heading out the door and taking off for the lake. Chantelle arrived at the lake to find just what she expected to find; a big empty lake free of people with a beautiful view.
Sirius was in the Potter's kitchen looking for the marshmallows when Mr. Potter entered the room. "Looking for these?" said Mr. Potter as he opened a cupboard and pulled out the marshmallows. "Thanks," said Sirius, as he took the marshmallows from Mr. Potter, "I saw them out on the counter shortly after the three of you left and figured someone would be coming back to get them before too long." Mr. Potter said, "Well I better be on my way," said Sirius; he knew if he didn't leave soon Mr. Potter would never stop talking. Grabbing his broom from where he left it by the back door, Sirius took off flying in the now dark evening sky towards the old barn.
Chantelle had finished swimming and was drying off with a towel she had packed. Near the old lake Chantelle had made a makeshift fire pit out of large rocks she found and lit a fire to help keep her warm. One thing Chantelle loved just as much as watching the sunset over the lake was staying out late after swimming to see the stars; that and to avoid her mom, who would most likely spend the evening telling Chantelle about a bunch of stuff Chantelle didn't care about if Chantelle came back before her mom went to bed. Chantelle started a fire with some muggle matches she brought and some nearby kindle, and stayed to watch the stars come out.
As the night grew dark, Sirius figured he could still find his way towards the barn without getting lost. Just as he was taking off towards what he thought was the direction of the barn, Sirius noticed smoke rising into the night sky about a mile to the left of where he was heading and slightly more north. 'I must have the direction of the barn wrong' thought Sirius. Assuming his friends had started the fire without him, Sirius took off in the direction of the rising smoke to join his friends; without noticing he had crossed the property line.
Chantelle sat in the stand warming her hands by the fire and watching the stars come out. By now Chantelle had dried off and changed from her swim suit into jeans and a hoodie. Only a few stars had come out so far as the suns hadn't set that long ago. Chantelle was feeding the fire and snacking on some food she brought with her when she heard an owl and turned to see a large barn owl fly off in the night. Chantelle wondered if it was Bree's owl and whether she would have a letter waiting for her when she got home. Chantelle turned back to look at the lake again when she heard something behind her.
Sirius was flying above the trees towards what he thought was his friends fire. As Sirius got closer to the fire he heard a waterfall and noticed he was flying towards the lake. Now he knew he had the direction wrong. The barn was almost a mile from the lake. Still Sirius flew onward; now that he knew it wasn't his friends who had started the fire he wondered who could have. Thinking that he was still on the Potter's property he wondered who could be there.
As Sirius got closer to the fire he landed by some trees; in the case that the fire was started by unfriendly people he didn't want them to see him until he knew it was safe. Walking through the trees using them to make sure he wouldn't be noticed Sirius got closer to the fire. Looking around a large oak Sirius saw one girl sitting by herself near the fire, looking around to make sure she really was by herself Sirius walked out of the trees to get a better look at the girl. As he walked closer to the fire Sirius broke a twig in two with his foot causing the girl to turn and look. Now that Sirius could see the girl's face he recognized her immediately as Chantelle.
Chantelle couldn't believe who was standing there. What are the chances that he could be here, in the middle of nowhere on her property. Unless, of course, he went looking for her, "What are you doing here?" asked Chantelle standing up to face him, Sirius quickly explain he was staying with the Potters and that him and his friends were staying out at the barn, "I saw the smoke from your fire and thought it was my friends," Sirius finished. "Listen," said Sirius walking closer to Chantelle, "I can't stay long or my friends will come looking for me, but I need to talk to you," Sirius said. "About the party," said Chantelle, "I know," Chantelle said, "Sirius I want to be friends or maybe even more, but we aren't little kids anymore. I already have a hard time keeping my spot on the Quidditch team because half my house hates me, adding you to the picture would make them kick me off for sure." Chantelle said, "I know, but it's the summer, we can worry about Quidditch and house colors later," said Sirius, "It isn't like you are going to write them letters and fill them in, are you? Until school comes there isn't much we have to worry about other than my friends." Sirius said, "Do you really want to do this for the summer and then have to try and go back to normal? I don't know that I could do that," said Chantelle. The last few weeks had already been hard trying to forget Sirius after the party, if she got to spend the summer with him it would make it harder. Chantelle remembered what it had been like to lose Sirius as a friend when school started and he became a Gryffindor. It had been hard but nothing like how hard this would be; during first year it was easier with all the school work to distract and she had new friends in the Sytherin house; back in first year she hadn't loved Sirius. "I don't know," said Sirius grabbing her hand and leaning forward so his head was resting on hers, "all I know is that I can't ignore you anymore." The two of them just stood there for as long as they could; which wasn't long, "I have to go," said Sirius, pulling his head away from Chantelle's, "My friends will be looking for me," said Sirius, "Do you think you could meet me here tomorrow night, same time?" he asked, "I come here every night," said Chantelle. She had been sure to mention every night so he knew he come see her whenever. Sirius and Chantelle said their goodbyes before Sirius took off in the evening sky towards the true direction of the barn.
After Sirius left Chantelle stuck around for a while watching the stars and contemplated the idea that Sirius and her could be together and the idea that Sirius felt the same way about her that she did about him.
Sirius went speeding through the night as fast as he could to get back to his friends. He knew he had been gone almost an hour and didn't want to worry them or have them go back to the house and worry Mr. and Mrs. Potter. Sirius came up to the barn and saw his friends were just barely starting their fire. As he landed on the ground, James called out to him "What took you so long?" "Sorry, I got lost," Sirius explained. He feared, at first, that his friends would question him further, but Remus just said, "Yeah, that what I figured," Sirius was glad his friends went with his lie but was surprised that Remus thought he had gotten lost. Didn't Remus think he had a better sense of direction than that?
After arriving late the rest of the night went smoothly. Later that night as the other boys were sleeping, Sirius laid in his sleeping bag thinking about Chantelle.