Chapter 5

Where everyone has their own obsessions

One week had passed after they had had their first lesson with Valerian. Charms turned out to be the only subject they had with her, but it was enough to surface a lot of different emotions amongst the Marauders. Remus continued to work as her partner in practical exercises, witch was irritating the flees out of him. Full moon was getting nearer again, and he was growing to be so irritable that even James was getting his pants in a twist despite of his usually so good-humored attitude.

Sirius found himself being even more intrigued when the days passed. It amazed him how Valerian managed to slip into the daily life of Hogwards without anybody really paying her any mind. Sure, there were few rumors he had heard, mostly amongst Ravenclaws, but very few of them had nothing to do with her being a sidhe. Most of them just stated that she was new, a bit creepy and liked mostly to keep to herself. Of course there were a few different theories of why she had enrolled here in the first place. Apparently someone was able to befriend her enough to fish out some real information. It seemed that her dad had something to do with the politics and had run into to trouble with the Death Eaters and send her here to be out of the way. It wasn't too unusual off an occurrence recently and happened often enough that people rarely questioned it anymore.

"I have a theory" Sirius suddenly blurted. They were sitting in the back of the charms classroom as usual. James was playing with that bloody' snitch again, glancing at Lily every so often hoping that she would notice him. Witch she obviously didn't, but it didn't stop him from hoping that this day would be different for some reason.

"You have been torturing your brains for days and now you have a theory?" Remus mocked sarcasm mixed in with his tired voice. The dark circles under his eyes made the scowl look that much darker, when he tried to concentrate to the lesson they were in. Hand shaking a bit while taking notes at his small and usually so even script.

"Well I didn't hear you having one before me either Moony." Sirius countered annoyed, his friend's moody attitude was irritating even him when it had continued to go on for days now.

"Anyway, as I was saying; I bet her parents are some fancy-ass fay diplomats who send her here to make connections, so that she can take over their title and become some fancy-ass fay diplomat and earn a bunch of fay-money to their already devastatingly rich family line. If she is an upper-class sidhe it would explain why she keeps beating Remus so easily at charms. They have a lot stronger magical abilities than the common fay-folk would posses. "He continued with a smug expression plastered on his face.

The three of them turned all to steal glances at the fay, who was sitting in her seat so still, that she could have been a statue. The table before her remained as empty as her blank stare, lips pulled into a tight line. It was a familiar sight by now. Val never really spoke to them if they didn't address her specifically or asked questions, and even then her answers were usually short. If something could be said with only one word, the better it seemed to be for her.

"I don't know Padfoot. To me she doesn't seem like she is cut out to be something like that. For Merlin's sake, look at her; she looks like even a small breeze could brake her in two." James eventually said, messing up his hair while clearly thinking too hard.

"Or maybe she just doesn't think we are worth the trouble." muttered Remus quietly, bend over his notes again. His two friends just stared at him without blinking for a moment, at loss of what to say.

"Well I suppose that could be it" James didn't sound too sure about that, but decided that it was better not to argue with Remus right now.

"What ever it is, I think we should shake her up a bit. She has been torturing poor Moony all week, so it would only be fair." It sounded like this was not the first time this thought had crossed Sirius' mind and he couldn't wait to get it out. They all fell silent for a while, pondering the possibilities.

"Oh what the hell, we do that all the time anyway." James wasn't all too comfortable with agreeing, but he was loyal to his friends and if this was what they wanted, then so be it.

"So what do you think we should do? Some brilliant hex or a prank?" Sirius asked, already getting exited. He wasn't sure why that stoic expression of Val's annoyed him so much, and the thought of getting some reaction out of her made him almost giddy with anticipation.

"I think we should go with the hex. Its simple enough that we should be able to pull it off with a breeze." and that way he wouldn't have to think too much of it, James added silently to himself.

"Sounds good, we should be able to whip something up in no time. What do you think Moony?" Sirius was almost bouncing on his seat by now.

"Yeah, sure what ever works for you I guess..." Remus was barely following their conversation at all, instead he was trying to concentrate to what ever it was that Flitwick was currently lecturing for them.

The following afternoon both James and Sirius spend few moments at the library looking for inspiration. Their unexpected presence caused a lot of attention amongst the meticulously studying Ravenclaw girls. A lot of blushing, giggling and curious glances followed, but eventually the boys were able to find something they deemed useful and left, never noticing how much ruckus they had managed to cause in the usually so quiet learning environment.

"I still think we should go with the ostrich. I mean, James, what were you thinking? Even I can see that scales would be a bit too disturbing." They argued on their way to the common room. Both of them were in high spirits after so much planning of mischief. Something like that was always able to turn their frowns upside down, and the dark mindset their friend had had for the past days was left forgotten for now.

" I just want to try it out... Maybe on some slimy Slytherin then? Oh hey! What about an ostrich covered in scales? I don't think I have ever seen anything as weird as that would probably turn out to be..." James speculated, his eyes were gleaming brightly with the thought while they rounded the last corner.

"Hey Cynthia." a sly grin appeared immediately on Sirius' face at the sight of the platinum blond girl with endless legs blocking their path to the portrait hole.

"Hello boys. What the two of you are plotting this time?" she purred, smiling with those full lips of hers that were painted with a fresh pink color, like flower petals and morning dew. She was one of the hottest girls in Gryffindor, and she and Sirius had obnoxiously flirted their way through the school years, newer really reaching the point of actually dating.

"Same old, same old. We were talking about that ridiculously hard essay about how to tame house-elves that we have to do for DADA." he said winking at her at the same time. '

"Damn! I totally forgot about that assignment." Cynthia's honey brown eyes were wide with mock surprise. "Its so good that I run in to you guys then. I better head off to look for Lily so that I can ask few tips from her. Play nice okay? Don't blow off the roof or anything that would mess up my hair. I use a lot of time to make it this pretty." she said with a wink and a giggle. After making sure that the boys thought her joke was a funny one, she strutted down the corridor and disappeared behind the next corner, leaving the two of them to look after her in wonder.

"Sometimes I don't understand you Padfoot. Why on earth you haven't asked her out already? Those pretty puppy-dog eyes of hers were completely begging you to."James threw his arm around Sirius' shoulder while they stepped through the portrait hole.

"She is all milk and honey right now, but trust me, I don't want to let the tiger out of its cage, especially one as hungry as she is." he answered with a shudder. James just laughed and patted him on the shoulder before blobbing down on the sofa next to Remus.

"How about you, has Lily finally agreed to date you?" Sirius asked even as he knew the answer already.

"No, but its only a matter of the time before she realizes how awesome I am." he said with his usual bravado. "Hi Pete, haven't seen you in a while. Listen, we have a plan..." and so they proceeded to explain the situation to their quiet, mouse-like friend who listened to them his watery eyes shining with admiration.

-XXX-

"Shh. She is coming this way. On three; one, two, three!" They cast their hexes at the same time, already grinning like madmen in anticipation of what they would soon see. There was a flash of purple and green light, and then - then nothing. Valerian corrected the strap of her bag while walking past them, shooting them an icy glare in the process of doing so, but didn't even say a word to them. If it weren't for that meaningful look that wished them all dead, they would have thought that nothing had actually happened at all.

"Well that was very anticlimactic." the letdown was thick in Sirius' voice while he shot daggers at the fays back with his eyes.

"Lets just forget that it ever happened and try something different instead?" James suggested, yet again trying to be the optimist of the group. Remus looked thoughtful, furrowing his brow while scratching absentmindedly those tiny scars he had along his jaw bone. He muttered something about going to the library before he disappeared yet again, leaving the other two to their own vises.

"You know, Moony has been awfully weird lately." Sirius noted, after the confused silence that had fallen after Remus had left.

"I've noticed that too. The full moon isn't in another week or so..." James frowned, "Do you think we should try something else to cheer him up a bit?" He couldn't help but feel a bit hopeful at the prospect of leaving the girl alone. It just didn't feel right to him, like they weren't really thinking this thing through properly and should have taken something to consideration that they had overlooked.

"No, I want to try one more time. After that we can go look for Moony and figure this thing out alright?" The thought of leaving the fay alone filled Sirius with the feeling of disappointment witch source he wasn't really able to place. He just knew that something about that girl bugged him and he wanted to do something to relieve that persistent itch. And when was the last time a good prank hadn't done that for him?

To be completely honest, they ended up trying a bit more than just once.

So here it is. Some Marauder action. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter and ended up cutting it in two. The language was a pain, sense my own is so different that sometimes I had no idea how to say the things I wanted in english. If its weird just tell me how to correct it okay?

Just tell me what you think allright? It would make me so happy to hear from you!