Her gaze followed his gaze and of course they both ended up on her. Dorcas wondered sometimes if he suspected she used to watch him. But why would he? A lot of people watched him, mainly girls, and some of them were constantly throwing their selves at him and trying desperately to catch his attention. Dorcas barely talked to him, except for exchanging pleasantries and sometimes as partners in class. He would never know that he was the only one she ever thought about, the only one she dreamed about and the only boy Dorcas ever watched. She was nice and pretty and there was probably countless of perfectly nice boys who would date her and in fact she got asked out pretty. She went on perfectly nice dates with the perfectly nice boys, but whenever things started getting serious, Dorcas turned them down. Because, in comparison to Sirius Black, they all paled. He was not one of the perfectly nice boys, Dorcas even suspected that he wasn't that nice at all. Sirius was sort of… wild. He didn't seem to care about getting into trouble or getting hurt and she would never forget how he duelled three Slytherins at once, in front of Filch nonetheless. The kind of person you suspected would live hard and die young, break many girls' hearts and keep none.
No wonder he would watch her. Sheena had her feet popped up on the chair next to hers and waved her wand lazily, making her mascara brush paint her eyelashes while she sipped on a cup of hot cocoa. She was apparently not a morning person because she wore a grumpy expression that seemed to warn anyone except for those brave ones she knew well, from approaching her. Her hair was a mess and her skirt showed a little too much of her golden thigh. Dorcas couldn't help but let her gaze linger. She always wore her skirts decently long, but to Sheena O´Siephen, decency just wasn't an issue.
Dorcas wasn't jealous, even though her obsession was currently watching another girl with hunger in his eyes. She loved Sheena, like she did all her friends. Sometimes she wondered if Sheena even knew how many girls there were at Hogwarts who would give up their wand to have him look at them like that.
Since Dorcas watched Sirius, she had also closely followed his and Sheena's marathon flirting, from fourth to seventh year. They didn't flirt anything like normal people did, Dorcas thought. Potter, for example, would keep trying to impress Lily, and Remus although generally nice was being nice towards Sophia, who nobody bothered to be nice to anymore. Sheena and Sirius on the other hand, were never nice to each other. Their flirting seemed to be more of a dare, where the first to back down, to admit that the sexual tension was too much, would be the chicken. And none of them would ever back down from a dare. Sheena would climb Sirius' lap and start whispering in his ear and as soon as he admit that it got to him, she had won. Unless he started whispering back and succeeded at making her blush. But if they flirted it generally meant they didn't hate each other for the moment. Much. Dorcas had seen, shocked and amused, everything from a duel to a fistfight. Dorcas had never even been in a fistfight.
Sheena was in a bad mood. They were barely one week into the term and the early mornings were already getting to her. She had woken up half an hour later than planned, and had to race down to the Great Hall to eat breakfast. Without breakfast her day was doomed. She did her makeup at the table, waving her wand and making her Monsieur Melanour's Multilasting Mascara (spellproof and potionresistant) paint her eyelashes while her lipgloss hang hovering in the air, waiting for her to quit chewing. A fourth year girl across the table looked about to comment on something, but one single I'm-going-to-eat-you-alive-glare from Sheena made her decide otherwise. However, some were seemingly immune to such glares.
"Why are you all bad moody?" Lily asked. Ever the morning person, she had risen two hours previously to do her morning toilet and catch up on some Head Girl business. She was in a great mood and when Potter had complimented her on looking nice, she had actually thought it was sweet and said thanks, instead of hexing him or telling him to bugger off.
"Potter, the great wanker, is threatening to throw me off the team" Sheena played seeker for the Gryffindor team and James Potter was the captain.
"But you guys won last year, and you caught the snitch in all but one game?"
"I know! It is so totally unfair. He says that my lack of enthusiasm is affecting the moral of the team and that I don't show up for practice. Have you ever heard of such shite? I like Quidditch well enough, I'm just not obsessed on the edge of beeing psychotic about it like some people, and I don't really care about the Cuddling Canons or the Holier Harps or whatever they're called these days. I mean, just because…"
Lily decided to interrupt the rant, knowing from experience that it could go on for quite some time.
"He had a point with the whole not-showing-up-for-practice-argument though"
"I do… sometimes. Its just he keeps scheduling practise insanely early in the morning or on all the rainy days in November. It's unhealthy, really"
"So go talk to him, explain how you feel" Lily silently wondered why she kept giving perfectly reasonable advice to people she knew weren't going to follow it, or be reasonable for that matter.
"I did. I told him I felt like kicking his ass from here to Yorkshire. I bloody hope he kicks me off the team, I will enjoy his fruitless attempts at finding a better seeker immensely" Sheena wore the expression of a five year old not getting cookie.
"You really are a spoiled brat, you know" Sophia added to the conversation without looking up from the Daily Prophet she was reading.
"Am not!"
"Actually, you are a little bit. Everything is so easy for you" Sophia still talked to her newspaper.
"I can't believe we're having this ridiculous discussion again" Lily rolled her eyes. They had been over how Sheena managed to get good grade with seemingly minimum effort a couple of times every year. Eventually they had pinpointed it down to a mix between sweet talking the teachers and having a good memory.
"Don't you have to go for a smoke or offer a child to the devil or whatever it is you do?" Sheena asked Sophia after looking at her watch. They had a tradition since last year of spending ten minutes before first period right outside one of the minor entrances. Sheena and sometimes Lily would watch as Sophia smoked and reflect on the coming day, their love lives, their ridiculous amount of homework or any other topic of discussion.
"I suppose" Sophia said and finished her coffee.
"I'll come with"
"I'll come to. My charms essay will have to do without another reread" Sheena and Sophia rolled their eyes simultaneously at Lily, knowing for sure that her essay had been reread and corrected to perfection already.
The three girls exited the Great Hall followed by the eyes of another little Gryffindor group. Sighs were heard from the boys who had been having their breakfast a couple of chairs away from the girls.
"I love how her hair glows when the sun hits it. It looks like fire" James Potter, Gryffindor chaser, captain and shockingly also Head Boy looked slightly dazed.
"I love how short she wears her skirts. She must really have been working out this summer. I mean, you don't get an ass like that from nothing" Sirius Black, first and foremost Gryffindor bad boy but also beater followed the bum belonging to a certain blonde with his gaze.
"James you big ponce, I swear you get cheesier every time you see Lily. And Sirius, ewww"
"Moony you big hypocrite, I saw you looking too" Sirius enjoyed how his usually calm and collected friend blushed slightly.
"Like copper, or tiger lilies…."
"Snap out of it James!" Remus Lupin, werewolf, prefect and bad boy in disguise tried to divert attention.
"Really Moony, who were you looking at? Because I can see how anyone would admire such a fine piece of ass but its eyes only on Sheena. And you know James would hex you if you as much as complimented Evans on her sweater" Sirius was determined to investigate this further. Since Remus' break up with the Ravenclaw Amanda Brown last fall, he had yet to date anyone seriously.
The break up had been a messy affair. Amanda and Remus had been going out for a couple of months and were getting along great when Amanda, being a bright Ravenclaw, started wondering why Remus got sick every month around full moon. Remus was a werewolf and had until then only trusted his closest friends with his secret. But when Amanda pressured him to come clean, he did and put faith in their relationship being strong enough. Amanda however had not reacted the way he had hoped. Shocked and clearly disgusted she ended it quickly and told him never to approach her again. Only two days later James found her snogging the sixth year Slytherin Solomon Nott.
Remus had been devastated over her reaction and feared that Amanda might spread his secret. The Marauders had to resort to drastic methods in preventing her from doing that. Researching advanced and highly illegal magic they had found a way to prevent Amanda from sharing any personal information about Remus through a specifically targeted tongue tier curse.
But even with his secret safe and protected, the experience was hard on Remus. Except for the other Marauders, only Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey knew about his condition and they had always treated him fairly. He knew hypothetically how werewolves were treated in English wizarding society but to have a first hand experience of the hate, fear and disgust was another story.
"I can admire a fine view just as much as the next bloke, right? Doesn't mean I'm interested or anything"
"Amen to that" A voice behind Sirius added.
"Pete! Where the hell have you been? We're supposed to be planning you-know-what!" James glared at the new arrival, Peter Pettigrew.
Peter Pettigrew smiled and winked at a pretty Hufflepuff sixth year with whom he had been having breakfast. Peter had once been a quite chubby kid but had grown like boys do and had filled out rather nicely. He still was a little on the short side but burly and broad shouldered. He might not be as handsome as his friends, but he had a nice slightly round face with a really contagious smile. People sometimes wondered why Peter was included in the group of loud daring Gryffindors known as the Marauders. He didn't have very good grades and struggled in several subjects, commonly aided by his friends. He wasn't an athlete like James, bad boyishly sexy as Sirius or as intelligent as Remus.
But Peter was the glue, he made sure the three sometimes very different boys got along. He was be the one to make Remus apologize to James after asking Lily out in fifth year. He could make Sirius calm down when Sirius' eyes would go from grey to black and they all knew he thought of his family and childhood and would in a second come up with some daring plan that was just too dangerous and flawed. Peter had an uncanny knack for knowing if a plan would work out or if the consequences would be too dire. He beat them all in chess and told them to think more strategically. And lately, Peter had been dating more girls than even Sirius.
"What happened to bros before hoes?" Sirius winked at Peter, not really mad. He found it entertaining that his friend were getting a reputation as a womanizer.
"Full moon is in three days, we have stuff to do. We got to make sure no one gets detention on Friday or Saturday and you have to come up with an excuse for me to get out of my Head Boy duties. It had to be good too, it's for Lily." James had decided to begin his new life as an organized person with some serious organizing.
"Every time you say Head Boy my mind goes blank and all I see is James slowly morphing into Dextrius Smith. It is horrifying really" Sirius shuddered.
Dextrius had been last year's Head Boy, a rather pompous Hufflepuff. He had shared the Head Dormitories with Head Girl Sandra Greengrass, a beautiful Slytherin.
"Remember when he tried to give us detention? We were to clean the Head Dormitories!" Peter laughed at the memory. It had been one of the most enjoyable detentions they had ever experienced.
"Oh yes, what an idiot Smith were…"
"That concealment charm you used to hide the stack of Dungbombs was a very impressive piece of magic Moony"
"Why thank you, Padfoot. Your Timius Regardus was not too bad either"
They had had a good forty minutes to cause mayhem and they surely had. While Peter dyed all Smith's clothes Gryffindor scarlet, Remus had cast a strong concealment charm over a stack of Dungbombs located under Smith's bed. Sirius had then used a clever little charm taught by Flitwick only a week previously to make one Dungbomb go off every night at midnight. James had been busy redoing all the decorations and hangings from Hufflepuff yellow too Gryffindor red, with little golden details. They all finished off the work by writing "The Marauders were here" on the wall with ever-lasting ink.
"Smith always smelled a little like Dungbombs after that."
"I think the golden details were a nice touch. Didn't know you had it in you Prongs" Sirius smirked.
"Guess what, guys? Dumbledore let our little message remain. It's still on the wall" James smiled at the memory. Those had been good times.
"Fitting, since a Marauder now resides there. I think the Head Dormitories are an overlooked resource. You know how we always have trouble finding deserted classrooms or something for experimenting and such? And we can't do any planning in our dorm because of Will and Carl usually pop in. We can do anything without being disturbed or interrupted in the Head Dorms." Remus said.
"It's true! A place like that would have been great in fourth year. Remember all the protection spells we had to use to avoid anyone walking in on us studying?"
The four
boys mused on the usefulness of the Head Dorms, or Head Quarters as
they decided to call it. It was during their third year at Hogwarts
they had found out about Remus' "little furry problem" as James
usually put it. It was a combination of living extremely close and a
period of studying werewolves in class which had led growing
suspicion among James, Peter and Sirius. When they confronted Remus
about it he told the truth and to his surprise, they didn't oppose
him like he had feared they would. Quite the opposite, they began
pondering how they could make his transformations easier for him. A
sunny day in May, Sirius had looked up from their Transfiguration
textbook with glittering eyes and a slightly mad smile.
"I know
how we're going to do it. We're going to become animagi"
Their entire fourth year went to researching and experimenting with magic far above their level. The Marauders had never previously spent so much time in the library and the school was a far more calm and peaceful place than usually. They buries themselves in ancient books, they practised the incantations at each other and brewed illegal potions in empty toilet stalls. They fell behind with their homework and some of the professors commented on how their magic seemed to have matured over their age. The process of becoming an animagus was a long, tiring and painful business, but at the end of forth year, about a year after Sirius' mad smile they had done it. Three illegal unregistered animagi ran the school grounds, a stag, a dog and a rat. To each other, they were now Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail. The Marauders were born.
To Sirius they were more family than his biological would ever be. He had always been the misbehaving one, a wild kid with no manners. But it wasn't until he had been sorted into Gryffindor "for extraordinary bravery" as the Hat put it, his parents had declared open hostility towards their oldest son. He would return home to be met with cold resentment and "disciplinary actions" as his mother lovingly put it. It basically meant that they would lock him in his room, give him minimum food and torture him a bit whenever Mrs Black had had one glass too many.
If this treatment was designed to make Sirius see the error of his ways it failed miserable. He became more disobedient every time he returned to school after summer and his pranks and mischief got wilder and more dangerous. His hatred towards the "pure-blood maniacs", the children he played with as a little kid, Slytherins, grew. He'd get into fight with entire groups of Slytherins and his friends would back him up, causing unmanageable duals with dozens of participators at a time. His reputation as a bad boy grew and he lost more points from Gryffindor than anyone during his third year.
When the summer came after his third year Sirius had had enough. He returned home and when his mother slapped him and tried to throw him into his room he decided that the Trace be damned. He stunned his mother, grabbed a couple of necessities and flew on his broom to the Potters. Mr and Mrs Potter had never bothered with any of that "pure-blood crap" and had heard about his current situation from their son. They welcomed him to stay with them for the breaks. He always enjoyed his summers ever since but to say that they were like the parents he never had would be to push it. The damage had already been done, the trust was broken and the innocence was gone. At the age of 14 Sirius Black was no longer a child.
James and Peter left the breakfast table. James to talk to Lily about some Head business before class and Peter to get his Potions book he left in their dormitory. First period was double Potions with the Hufflepuff and he wanted to get to class early and have a seat next to the pretty Hufflepuff he had been having breakfast with, Camilla Gregory.
Sirius and Remus lingered. Remus was a little bit pale and had dark circles under his eyes and had only had a cup of coffee. Full moon was approaching. Sirius was moody and snapped at a fifth year who reached for the bread basket. His gaze lingered almost longingly at the place a couple of seats down where the girls had been having breakfast earlier.
"Stupid bitch…." He muttered under his breath.
