Note: Thanks to everyone who might be reading! So, I'm still trying to get to 6th and 7th years, when most of the action will be happening, but I also don't want to be too lazy and just completely skip over their younger-middle years. After the last chapter, it's safe to say that there's a budding romance between Remus and Dorcas though. And possibly a bit of Sirius and Hestia? We'll just have to wait and see!
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Remus was lost in his thoughts, mulling the day's events over in his mind. He had been rather sore about James and Dorcas being caught under the mistletoe the other day, but then again, that couldn't have been helped, could it? And today…well, today had just been better than he could have hoped for. He'd been able to spend the whole day with Dorcas. He thought she was quite beautiful, yes, but before today, they hadn't spent any time alone. But, as it turned out, they had a lot in common, and he could talk to her easily. Slipping a dry shirt over his head, he smiled to himself, but was snapped from his reverie by the squeaking of bed springs.
"Oh, Merlin, Peter, you nearly gave me a heart attack," he said, grinning at his friend.
Peter looked sheepish. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Remus frowned a bit. "Is something wrong?" he inquired.
"Do you fan-fancy D-Dorcas?" Peter asked, blushing furiously and tripping over his words.
Remus was taken aback at his friend's bluntness. But, he answered him, truthfully. "I suppose I do…why?"
Peter picked at the scarlet bedding. "Nevermind," he said and stood.
"Do you fancy her too?" Remus suddenly asked, effectively stopping Peter in his tracks.
"Er…well, I…a bit y-yeah. She's the only girl who's ever been nice to me," Peter said, quietly.
Remus thought for a moment. He truly did like Dorcas…a lot. But, where would it ever go? He was a werewolf, and he knew that he would eventually have to tell her, if she didn't figure it out first. He was cursed, and most likely destined to be alone. As nice as most people seemed, he knew that the majority of them would go running as soon as they found out what he truly was. It was with a heavy heart that he turned to Peter and gave him what he hoped was an encouraging smile.
"Well…then you go after her, mate," Remus said. Peter looked positively giddy.
"You mean that?" he asked, blue eyes alight.
"Er, yeah," Remus said, shrugging.
"Thanks, Remus, you're a gr-great friend," Peter said, before turning and heading back down to the common room.
Remus turned and sighed. A great friend. That's all he would ever be. Though, Peter did deserve a chance, at least. He was a good kid, even if he did seem to be a bit nervous. Remus finished changing and put a warm sweater on over his shirt, grabbed a book and headed into the Common Room. When he got there, Dorcas was already there, and she was talking to Peter. He could feel his heart sinking, but he gave Peter a thumbs up anyway and sat in a chair near the fire, opening the book so he could read.
The rest of their break passed in much the same way, with the Gryffindors spending much of their time hanging out and enjoying having the castle to themselves. Remus continued to spend time with Dorcas, though he gave Peter his fair chance as well. Afterall, hadn't he said he'd back off? School resumed eventually though, and everyone saw a bit less of each other. Winter faded into spring, the pristine, white snow giving way to green grass and flowers. And then of course, before they knew it, their final exams were upon them.
The exams were difficult, and most of them managed to pass with flying colors. Hestia, though, had trouble in Potions and Peter was barely able to scrape by. Academics had never been his strong point. And then came the summer.
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Fourth year was another story altogether. Though there had been distant rumblings of unrest, their fourth year was the year that the attacks began. They were few and far between, but it didn't stop the looks of worry that crossed everyone's faces when the news came. The Slytherins, though, looked oddly triumphant. At least, the majority of them did. It was hard to ignore their excited whispers, and this was the cause of a lot more tension and a lot more fights between them and the Gryffindors. Even Lily grew worried, and Dorcas saw her speaking with Severus in a pleading way on more than one occasion. Things were getting worse.
The dark wizard that called himself Voldemort was steadily gaining power. That much was clear. It had Dorcas worried. She wrote to her mother with greater frequency, asking her to be safe and to keep her grandparents safe. Afterall, they were Muggles and though Dorcas hoped it would never come down to it, she knew they would never be able to hold their own against powerful dark wizards.
In fact, Dorcas wanted to be an Auror, that way she could help others and be able to protect her own family when it came to things like that. She had always wanted to be close to her father, seeing as she'd never met him, and he had been a soldier, so Dorcas figured that an Auror would be a sort of wizarding equivalent. She began running. Of course, it probably wasn't the best idea for a fourteen year old girl to go running around the lake every morning, but Dorcas used to exercise to help her train. By the time she came in for breakfast, she would be sweaty and tired, but at the same time, she was growing healthier and stronger, things that she would need to be if she were to be an Auror.
Though the students weren't asked what they were thinking of for careers until their fifth year, Dorcas knew that this was it. The tiny girl wanted to be able to help others and fight for what she believed in. And she knew that the physical training would be brutal and exhausting, so why not start now? In addition to her jogging, she did other exercises too. Dorcas had never been chunky by any stretch of the imagination, but now her arms and legs were lean and she had small muscles. When Christmas approached again, she decided that she would give it a rest, vowing to pick it up again once the snow was gone.
"So, we're still going to your house for New Year's Eve, right Dorc?" Hestia asked, over breakfast on the last day of classes.
"Hm? Oh, right!" Dorcas said, snapping out of it. She gave Hestia a smile.
"I can't wait to have a wicked snowball fight," Sirius chimed in, smirking.
"Yeah, I recall that we have a score to settle," James said, looking pointedly at the two girls.
They exchanged glances and laughed, remembering their snowball fight last year which eventually dissolved into the girls whitewashing the boys.
"Remus, are you able to come? I know you said you had to check it over with your parents," Dorcas said, trailing off.
"Oh, yeah, everything's good," he said, flashing her a smile. The full moon would be December 29th, so he would still be a bit tired on the 31st, but it would be well worth it. Dorcas beamed at him, looking sincerely excited, and he felt his heart flutter. Across the table, Peter caught the exchange and frowned. Remus met his eyes for a moment and then shrugged and made himself busy with his eggs.
Breakfast soon ended and the Gryffindors made their way to the first class of the day, Double Potions. No one was happy about that, but they figured that they could at least talk to one another. And Slughorn really wasn't a bad guy, but the fact that they had that class with the Slytherins was enough to dampen their moods. They filed into the room, taking their usual seats. Slughorn came in a few minutes later, wearing robes of deep green with a santa hat on his head.
"Well, class, today as a special holiday treat, you will be working with different partners!" he said, jovially.
The answer was a chorus of groans and Sirius actually swore loudly.
"Now, now, get into the holiday spirit!" he said and took out his roster, pairing them off.
"Jones and….Privel," he said, pairing Hestia with a rather large Slytherin girl.
"Pettigrew and Mulciber."
"Snape and Meadowes."
Dorcas shot a glance at Severus Snape and saw him staring back at her disdainfully. She narrowed her eyes and grudgingly picked her things up, switching seats with Lily. She set her books down on the workbench and stared then watched as the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins were paired up: Remus with Wilkes, James with Rosier, Sirius with a girl by the name of Holbrook, who wasn't too terrible, Lily with Rookwood and Mary with Laura Yaxley. Slughorn smiled in satisfaction and tapped his wand on the blackboard where the recipe for a relatively easy potion appeared.
"Begin. You have the entire class period."
Dorcas sighed and pulled a small bowl of dried beetle's wings toward her, carefully measuring some out and then grinding them into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. She had barely begun when the boy next to her spoke.
"You would be wise not to venture out to the far side of the lake so often," Snape said, working on chopping some roots into small, even cubes.
Dorcas nearly dropped the pestle and looked over at him in shock, her mouth hanging open. But he wasn't looking up. "What are you, bloody stalking me?" she asked, indignantly.
Snape snorted. "Hardly."
"Well, clearly you've been making a habit of tracking me," Dorcas muttered, grinding the wings with more force than was necessary.
"It's not like you try to hide it. Besides, things more dangerous than magical creatures lurk in the Forbidden Forest," Snape said, quietly.
"I hope you realize that you sound like a batty Seer," Dorcas said lightly.
Snape glared acidly at her, but she continued grinding the wings until they were very fine. She emptied the mortar into their cauldron and stirred 6 times, counterclockwise. Snape added the roots and their potion turned a satisfying purple. Slughorn noticed and headed over, looking pleased.
"Very nice, Miss. Meadowes, Mr. Snape. 5 points each," he said, smiling.
Dorcas smiled at the professor and then grabbed some lionfish spines, carefully breaking them in half to add to the potion. As soon as she put them in, the potion turned a fluorescent red. They were doing a good job and they worked silently together until Dorcas spoke.
"Why'd you warn me, anyway?" she asked, raising a brow. "I thought you were anti-Gryffindor."
"You're Lily's friend," he said, as if that explained it. Dorcas gave him an odd look, but made no further comment. They finished their potion the fastest and bottled a sample for Slughorn to grade. He gave them top marks, though Dorcas was glad when the class ended, as Snape made her feel on-edge.
The rest of the day passed in a blur and before they knew it, the Gryffindors were all preparing to head home. Dorcas and Hestia packed their trunks together, trading random articles of clothing every so often, giving back what they'd borrowed from each other. Once they were finished, they all met in the common room and walked down to the Entrance Hall together. Lily and Mary didn't join them, seeing as they still considered themselves to be on the fringes of the group, neither of them really liking the Marauders. Setting their trunks with the large pile by the door, they then began to head outside.
Peter worked up all the courage he had and asked Dorcas to hang back with him. She looked a bit confused, but agreed, shrugging, telling the others that they'd catch up. Remus frowned, sure that Peter was going to try something, but headed down the path with his friends.
"So, did you want to talk, Peter?" Dorcas asked, looking up at him. Peter wasn't tall, like the other boys, but Dorcas was very short, so she still had to look up to speak to him.
"Uh, Dorcas. I-I..Erm…" he trailed off, blushing before hurriedly leaning down and pressing his lips to hers.
Dorcas's eyes widened and she placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back. She took a step back from him, her brows furrowed.
"What was THAT?" she asked, rather shocked.
"I…er…I fa-fancy you," Peter stuttered, red as a tomato.
"Peter…" Dorcas said, frowning. "I'm sorry, but I really don't think of you like that."
She had only ever thought of Peter as a friend. Besides, when had he ever given her the slightest indication that he fancied her? He never flirted or anything of that nature. Granted, looking back she did notice that he would always try to sit next to her, but that wasn't exactly something that would cause her to think he liked her in any way that was more than platonic.
"It's uh, it's okay," he said, managing a weak smile.
"You'll always be my friend, Peter, and I know you'll find another girl you fancy," Dorcas said kindly, giving him a brief hug.
She then headed outside, leaving Peter to follow. Dorcas quickly caught up with the rest of the group and pulled Hestia aside so that they could speak in hushed tones. Hestia gasped and exclaimed rather loudly when Dorcas told her what happened, making the boys look over in curiosity. They eventually boarded the train, with Dorcas sitting at the window, Hestia sitting next to her and James sitting across from her. Peter was the last in the compartment and took the seat furthest away. Remus suspected that something had happened, and judging by the miserable look Peter wore, he'd been rejected. Though Remus felt bad for his friend, some small part of him rejoiced.
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Note: And there you have it! Sorry for not updating for a past few days. College started up again this week and I've been very busy, but I have Fridays off as well as the weekends! ^^