Chapter 19
Can you say awkward? I can. AWKWARD! See? Now I ask you this question in the hopes that you may know how I felt as I was walking, quite drunkenly, back to the Gryffindor Tower with Mr. And Ms. Can't-keep-our-hands-off-one-another-for-five-minutes. You may know them as one Sirius won't-tell-me-his-middle-name Black and one Anabell Elizabeth Rebecca Burns. Talk about your mouthfuls.
At random intervals on the way back they would stop walking, snog, realize that I was falling over or walking the wrong direction, and catch back up to keep me from doing something stupid. An example of stupid would be my idea to go swimming in the completely frozen over fountain in the courtyard, something that, thankfully, the two dissuaded me from pursuing.
"Here we are." Becca said as she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Nightingale." the portrait hole swung open and the three of us climbed through. Well, they climbed through, I sort of began climbing, but fell halfway and nearly landed on top of Becca.
"Oopsies." I said. Oh yeah, am I grown up or what?
"Why don't you go on to bed Siri, I'll take Rebs here up to bed and probably go to sleep as well."
"Babbling bumbling band of baboons. You know -hic- Professor Mc-G said that after -hic- class the other day?" What? I babble like a loon when I'm drunk.
"Um... Maybe I should make you take her up there, she's starting to scare me."
"Hey, she's your friend."
"Hey, she's your friend too."
"True... However she's your best friend, and a girl. Plus I already tried sneaking up those stairs on several occasions implementing several spells and I still can't get past that damn slide..." Sirius looked all frustrated. He's hot when he looks frustrated. Actually, he's hot all the time.
"You're hot." I said. Yeah... It's true that he's hot, of course, but I hadn't actually wanted the fact that I'd noticed known to the entirety of the Gryffindor commons. Wait... It's only two in the morning, no one's in the commons right now... Oh well. It's not like I fancy him anyways, I mean, I have a boyfriend and all, and I defiantly like him a lot. He's so sweet and kind and sexy in that spicy Latino kind of way.
And then there's always...
NO! Bad Rebby! Bad! No scamming on another girls man. Not going to happen. Besides, he has no clue that I like him and I'm pretty sure I'd like to keep it that way, seeing as it's extremely unlikely that he likes me as well. Especially considering how deeply and utterly entranced he is by her.
"I think I'll take her up now... Before she says something else she doesn't mean."
"Hey! What are you saying? I'm not hot?"
Becca got an evasive mischievous look on her face. "Maybe." she shrugged and hefted one of my arms around her shoulder. "Come on little miss missy drunk person."
"You realize that made no sense?"
"You realize I don't care?" Becca countered. "Night hot-stuff."
"HAH! So you admit it! You admit that I'm hot!"
"I'm sorry? What? What did you say? I couldn't hear you, what?" Becca pretended to be deaf and started walking me up the stairs.
"Good night." Sirius said as we reached the balcony at the top of the first flight of stairs. Becca turned back to say 'Good night' as well, but Sirius apparently wasn't finished talking. "I love you." he added.
Dear lord, the world is ending. Sirius Black just said the words 'I love you' to someone and, I believe, actually meant it. Now, either the world really is ending, or Sirius is being possessed by a ghost. Or he hit his head really hard on something earlier and has since lost his commitment phobia.
Sirius looked surprised, like he had no idea why the words had come out of his mouth to begin with, but sincere as well. He seemed to be undergoing some sort of internal struggle then the look on his face became a decidedly happy one. Becca was pale as a ghost, trembling slightly, her palms were all sweaty, and she seemed to be mimicking a deer in headlights. Or maybe she was a deer in headlights, no way to be sure.
"Um... Er... You too." Becca said weakly "Night." She ran up the rest of the stairs, dragging poor drunken me along with her.
"Uh... Yeah, gotta go." Sirius took off in the other direction as we passed out of sight in the stairs.
Huh. Interesting. Apparently there's an issue there.
When we reached the dorm I immediately went to the restroom to throw up. Yum. Note the sarcasm when I say that. Then, after brushing my teeth rigorously, I changed my clothes, putting on my pajamas and wandered back into the dorm room. Becca was laying back in her bed, clothes changed, talking to herself about something.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid... Why? I mean really? Why? I don't get it. Bet it's a joke, bet he's playing me and tomorrow he's going to break up with me. I mean never has he done anything like that, really. Why would he? And me. So stupid! 'you too.' I'm such a dolt. A stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid dolt."
"True, but I don't think mental masochism is the answer." I said climbing onto her bed with her and giving her a hug. She definitely needed a hug. Twenty or thirty hugs. My mind was a lot clearer now, some of the alcohol had worked it's way out of my system and the puking had cleared my stomach, meaning that I was hungry, a fact proved by a loud rumble that sounded from it at that instant. Becca laughed slightly.
"Trust you to be hungry at a time like this." she said.
"Actually, you're the one who's always hungry at odd times. I just threw up, my stomach is empty, I have good reason to be hungry. Now shut up and summon me some turkey woman."
"Yes, because I am your slave girl." Becca rolled her eyes and waved her wand. In third year we discovered that Hogwarts had house elves, something that should have been obvious to begin with. We had made friends with one house elf in particular named Zoë and he had said that if we ever needed anything to just ring. Then she had showed us how to 'just ring'.
"Misses Burns and Miller! Zoë is so glad to be seeing you again misses!"
"It's good to see you as well Zo, how many times have we told you to call us Rebby and Becca?"
"Many, many times miss Burns."
"And how many times more must I request that you call us Rebby and Becca?"
"Only once miss Becca."
We had this conversation with her every time we saw her. She just kept insisting on being all formal and stuff.
"Would you mind getting us a couple of turkey sandwiches?"
"It would be my pleasure young misses."
"Wheat bread, lettuce, tomato, Colby cheese, mayo and pickles."
"I'll have the same, but light on the mayo and no pickles please."
Zoë snapped her fingers and the sandwiches appeared before us and landed safely on a couple of plates. "Something to drink misses?"
"Some hot chocolate would be lovely Zoë." I said politely. Something about house elves makes me want to be all nice and proper and have manners. Ewww, manners...
Zoë snapped her fingers and a pitcher of hot chocolate and two mugs appeared. "Here you are misses."
"Thanks Zo. Did you have a nice summer?"
"Yes miss Becca, it was very fun, we cleaned out the entire first second third and fourth floors."
"Um, sounds like fun to me." I said. Well, not really, but house elves seem to actually enjoy cleaning things. "Remember, anytime you need anything, come to us, as long as it doesn't involve a mop. I don't get along with mops."
"Or vacuum cleaners."
"It tried to eat my pants!" I replied. Becca rolled her eyes at me.
"Thanks again Zo, we don't want to keep you from you're duties, we know you're a busy girl. Good night."
"Good night Zoë and thanks for the food!" I said.
"Good night Miss Becca and Miss Rebby!" Zoë disappeared from our room with a snap of her fingers.
"Wish I could do that. Just snap my fingers and disappear. That would be so cool." Becca said. Hmmm...
"No getting off topic. Now, what's the deal?" we settled on her bed, leaning back against the back board and pillows and getting settled.
"I haven't an inkling what you mean."
"I'm talking about the verbal beating you just gave yourself. I'm also talking about the way you just brushed off a confession of love, from Sirius Black of all people, like it was a slight annoyance." I took a bite of the sandwich. Man did Zoë know how to make a sandwich. De-lic-ous.
"I haven't the fuzziest."
"Stop avoiding me Becs."
"I'm not avoiding you, I honestly do not know. Well, the self beating was about the weird behavior, so really, I do know that bit, but the other bit is the bit that that bit is reliant upon, and that bit is completely unknown to the one person it should be known to, being me the one who doesn't know at all."
"You're being confusing and you're ranting. You're worried aren't you?"
"Well, yes, I suppose. I mean. What if he didn't really mean it? What if he was just joking? Pulling my leg, so to speak? What then? I mean, I have this horrid feeling that it would all lead to him breaking up with me and I just couldn't handle that right now."
"Hmm... And if he did mean it?"
Becca sighed and put her now empty plate on her bedside table where it sat for a moment, then disappeared. "I don't know. I mean, I like him, I really do. I like him a lot. I don't want to break up with him and I don't want to hurt him, but I just don't know if I love him or not. I can't help but think that if I admit that I do, I'll either be fooling myself or inviting pain to house itself in my heart."
"Very poetic. By this you mean?"
"He always breaks up with them, all of them, always. He breaks their hearts, breaks his promises, breaks their confidence and breaks off their relationship. But he hasn't yet. That scares me. I'm afraid that I'm going to admit that I love him, to myself or to him, and that he's going to do what he does to all the others to me, only five times worse. The other option is that he really does love me, and I say I love him, but don't and end up breaking his heart. I couldn't stand thinking that I had done anything to him like he has done to half the student population."
"A quarter really, remember you have to discount men and most if not all Slytherines. And first years. That would just be weird and wrong on so many levels."
"I just don't know what to do. He just sort of said 'it' and I don't know if I should actually say 'it' back to him or if he even really meant 'it'."
"I think he did, mean it that is. Something a bout the way he said it. He was just as surprised as you were that the words came out of his mouth, and he did start laughing or anything, he smiled, quite contently may I add, and waited for you to respond. When you brushed him off her seemed really hurt and uncertain, something completely unheard of for Sirius Black."
"Not unheard of, just not the most commonly acknowledged side of him." she sighed sadly. "I don't want to add to the hurt in his life, but I... I'm not ready for this kind of relationship. I can't handle the 'L' word, not yet."
"You sound like you have commitment issues."
"Maybe I do. I'm just not ready for this kind of thing yet."
"What are you going to do about it?" please don't say it. Please oh please don't say what I think you're going to.
"I think... I think I need to break up with him..." Becca said speculatively.
I didn't say what I was thinking. I didn't tell her I thought she was insane for breaking up with him, but I thought it. As her best friend and sister in everything but blood, it's not my place to judge her decisions, just help her work through them. "Are you sure that's what you really want?" I asked.
"I don't know what I really want, but I don't want that kind of relationship yet. I don't need it. I don't need him." Right. Like that was true? Not to be corny but he completes her, or she completes him. It's yin and yang, put two perfect, yet completely different, halves together and let them mix and a little of each will rub off on the other. Not my place to point this out though. I'll leave that to Lily, she's the common sense one, she's the one who's job it is to smack Becca and I around when we're being senseless idiots.
"Okay..." I said reluctantly. We sipped our hot chocolate for a while. I had to agree with her on one thing, I wasn't ready for that kid of relationship either. It is a big commitment after all. But then, I'm not the one who is completely utterly blindly happy when I'm around my boyfriend, or even just thinking about him. I mean, Max is nice and all, but definitely not my 'Prince Charming', and I see no 'happily ever after' looming on that horizon. Not that everything should be that perfect, but there should be some semblance shouldn't there? Now I could imagine that happening for some people I know. Lily, Remus, and James were some of those people that things like that actually happened too. Not me. Depressing thought.
Becca was staring at me suspiciously. "What's wrong with you now?"
"What do you mean?"
"You have one of those looks on your face, the depressed look of a woman who wants what she can't have. Plus you were sighing. A lot. You sighed sadly at least eight times in ten minutes."
"Oh."
"Spill. Who is he and who is he dating?"
"Damn mind reader."
"WHO?" she urged. She was getting all excited now. At least someone takes joy in my pain. And at least now she wasn't all depressed and focused on her and Sirius.
"I haven't a clue what you are talking about."
"Now you have to tell me!"
"No, I don't, seeing as there's nothing to tell."
"Tell me! Come on! You know you want to! It helps to share, remember? Come on! Tell me, tell me, tell, me!"
"You're acting like a hyper puppy."
"I know, and I'm just as gosh durn persistent and annoying as one too. NOW TELL ME!" she insisted.
"FINE! JUST SHUDDUP!"
Becca settled down and sat quietly with bated breath.
"I have a small, tiny, itty bitty little crush on someone." I made a gesture with my fingers demonstrating exactly how small the crush was. "Highly insignificant, completely un worth mentioning really."
"Really?" she said.
"Yes, really." I replied.
"And the issue is that he's dating someone else?"
"Yes."
"You see a break up in their foreseeable in their immediate future?"
"No."
"You want me to make a break up foreseeable in their immediate future?"
"NO! Of course not. They are both friends and I wouldn't do that to them."
"You wouldn't be, I would."
"They're friends of yours as well."
"Hmm..."
"What? Why are you 'hmm'-ing?"
"I think I know who you're talking about..."
"Really? Who do you think it is?"
"I think you have a big whopping crush on a guy, and that he is attached to one of our friends, and that you are denying the major ness of the crush to preserve the friendships, and that the guy who you are pining for day and night is-"
"Has anyone here seen Lily?" Mikki burst into the room. "I left the party after her and she isn't downstairs and I needed to ask her something about someone."
"Um... Private moment. You. Interrupting." Becca said.
"Really? Did she leave with anyone?" I asked.
"I don't know, I didn't see her leave, I was talking with some friends from Ravenclaw. But I know she left and I thought she would be back by now."
"What's going on?" Win asked, walking up behind Mikki.
"Lily is half drunk and missing." I said. "Who saw her last?"
"I walked Makenzie back to her dorm just now. We left Lily and James sitting on the couch together. I think they were getting ready to come back as well."
"That's not good. James had a bit to drink a well. I hope they aren't in trouble or passed out in a hall somewhere. That would be bad." Mikki said.
"Really? You think?" Becca said sarcastically. "Let's go find them." She hopped off the bed, chugged the last of her hot chocolate, put on her robe and bounced out of the room and down to the commons. Everyone else followed, me putting on my robe as we descended the stairs. "Yo! Rach, Remus, snog-fest is over. We're on a man hunt. Lily's disappeared. Remus, could you go and check and see if James is upstairs for us?"
"Sure thing." Remus said, reluctantly getting off the couch and walking up to the boys dorm. He came back a few minutes later and said "He's not up here, I'll help look for them."
"Is Sirius and Peter coming?"
"Sirius is a little, erm, indisposed right now, and Peter isn't up there. Let me just grab my cloak and I'll be right down, okay?" Remus disappeared again. He remained disappeared for another ten minutes, and when he came back it was with a worried look on his face.
"All right, let's go!" Becca lead the pack of us outside of the commons and separated us into groups. "Remus and Rach, you go the back way back to the party and see if you see them on the way. If you don't check filches office and MacGonagall's, I think she's the teacher patrolling tonight. Win, Mikki, you check the first through fourth floors between here and the party. Rebby and I will check the fourth, fifth and sixth and some other random places. Ready? Break!" This apparently meant 'scatter to the wind and don't come back till you find one or both of them.'
Becca and I looked around, checking the fifth and sixth floors first, the heading to the seventh floor. We didn't find them, or any trace of them anywhere. We ran into a couple of ghosts on the way who said they hadn't seen the pair of them since the game, and Filches cat Mrs. Norris once, managing to escape her by Becca's quick thinking of 'if you throw a wad of paper, she will chase it' a plan which, while I had my doubts about it, succeeded. We were now working our ways through the seventh floor.
"So, after this we check the great hall, the kitchens, the lake, and the astronomy tower." Becca said.
"Why would they be there?"
"I don't know, but with James you never know do you?"
"Good point."
That's when we heard a scuffling noise coming from a door a little ways down the corridor. We were only three halls down from the party, and odds were good it was just some drunken couple trying to snog in a broom closet.
"Wonder who's in there?" Becca said.
"Probably some kids from the party."
"You don't think it's Lily and James do you?"
"No, I have very little faith in that option. It's probably some random kids we barely know."
"Hmm... Never hurts to check." she said, opening the door before I had the chance to stop her. I mean really? What business is it of ours if some kids are snogging in a closet? She opened the door to reveal
"Remus? Rach? What are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"We got, er, distracted from our search. We were walking down the hall you see, and we decided to look in the broom closet, then the door closed and we couldn't get it open, then-"
"Remus, stop rambling, you're a horrible liar. Just, you and Rach go check the Astronomy Tower and the Great Hall. We'll meet you back at the commons." Becca said, stopping Remus mid tirade. He really was a horrible liar. Or at least, he was just now. I'm pretty sure he can lie like a champ when he runs into a teacher in the middle of the night with Sirius, James and Peter, but just now, he was the worst liar I have ever seen.
"That was kind of awkward." I said. "Lets keep going I guess..."
We continued searching and when we turned the next corner we heard scuffling noises and a couple of soft thumps coming from another door a few feet ahead. The two of us walked up to it.
"So, you feel like opening this door as well? Cause I'm pretty sure Remus and Rach aren't in this one." I said rolling my eyes.
"Yup!" Becca said, pulling the door open, yet again, before I could stop her. Honestly! Does she have some strange fascination with catching people snogging in broom closets? Wait, scratch that, rug closets. Rug closet? Since when does Hogwarts have rug closets? Becca and I dodged a couple of rugs that fell out of the door as we opened it.
"Um..." Becca said. I looked more closely at the closet and my jaw dropped. Holy crap. These feelings were shared by Becca who said "Holy shit."
James was holding Lily with an arm around her back and another holding them up against a wall of rugs. Lily had her arms around James's neck and was snogging his face off. Damn. Not what I was expecting to find. Holy effing shit.
"Shit. Fuck. Damn. Hell." Becca said. Apparently she was extremely surprised as well.
"I'll say." I agreed.
James seemed to come to his senses and looked over at us grinning sheepishly. He seemed slightly embarrassed to have just been caught snogging Lily by her best friends. Lily either didn't notice, or didn't care. She pulled his face back to hers and kissed him some more.
"Well, then. This is awkward." I said.
"Yeah." Agreed Becca "Let's, um, let them be..." She tried to close the door, got it caught on a rug, banished the rug, and closed the door swiftly. The two of us leaned against the wall just outside of the rug closet and slid down it to sit on the floor. "So... Not lost then huh?"
"Nope. Not lost. Not passed out either."
"Possibly on crack though."
"No, that's just Lily. James is perfectly sane."
"Maybe he slipped her something earlier."
"Could be. I don't think he would though."
"Maybe the world really is ending. Is there anything in the Bible about 'when enemies snog and men who can't hold onto women say I love you, the world id about to go up in a fire-y cataclysm'?" Becca asked with a still slightly stunned expression on her face.
"No, but then I don't know a lot about that kind of thing."
"Huh..."
"Hmmm..."
We sat silently for a few minutes. Then the door opened and Lily peeked her head out with a confused look on her face. She looked down at us and popped back inside. Then she opened the door again and looked out once more at us. "Oops." she said, as if that summed the entire thing up. 'Oops.' Yikes.
"Yeah, oops isn't making a lot of sense for me. You want to expand on that?" Becca asked, with a slightly amused look on her face now.
"Er... No?" she said nervously. She walked out of the closet, followed by James who looked really nervous and worried, and yet happy.
"You! What did you do to her?" Becca rounded on James.
"Me?! I didn't do anything to her. She threw me into the closet. And she started kissing me first."
"You lie! She would never-!"
"Er..."
"Lily? Something you'd like to share with the group?" I asked.
"Um... James smells good?" she said sheepishly.
"Hm..."
"Mmmmm... He does smell good." Becca was now sniffing James who was looking at her like she was insane.
"Becca... BECCA! Stop sniffing the poor boy... Man... Man-boy. Stop sniffing the poor man-boy, would you? You're freaking him out."
"Oh, sorry." Becca stopped sniffing James.
"It's okay." James replied, ruffling his hair with his hand.
"So." I said.
"So." agreed Lily.
"So..." Said James.
"So... Are you two getting married now or what? Because if you are we need to get started looking for decorations and stuff." Becca said, smirking at the two of them. They were unusually close to one another and both looked like they'd rather be in the rug closet snogging still.
"Hell no!" Lily said a little too quickly.
"NO!" James said, just after Lily.
"Uh-huh..." Becca eyed them suspiciously "Dating? Boy friend and girlfriend? Snog buddies? What? Come on, we need some information here. I mean, I just found my best friend snogging the guy she swore she'd never snog in a closet full of rugs. A little information would be nice."
"Er... Professor MacGonagall was coming down the hall and I saw it on the map and I shoved us in the closet but then I couldn't reach my wand and the rugs fell and I gave in." Lily rambled.
"Ah, I see." I said. I kind of did. At least, what she said made some sense, just not all.
"Relationship status?" Becca demanded.
"Er..." James looked at Lily. He was just itching to ask Lily the same thing, I just know it.
"Still just friends. I think. Maybe. You know what, I'm going to go back in the closet now. You're coming with me." she grabbed James's hand and dragged him inside the closet. "And you two are going to stay there for a moment." She closed the door behind her.
"Yup."
"Yeah."
"So... Standing the hallway while they snog... Yeah, still awkward..."
"Uh-huh." I agreed.
The door opened again a few minutes later. James was extremely happy, Lily looked a tad annoyed, but otherwise happy as well.
"So?" Becca asked.
"So-"Lily began, but was cut off by James, who was practically bouncing in place.
"We're going on a date!" he said smiling from ear to ear.
"Lily?" I gave her a questioning glance.
"I figure, screw it, it's not like one date will hurt anything. I might hurt you if you tell anyone though." she said, looking at James.
"Huh?" he asked.
"No need for the entire school to know you've finally managed to get me on a date. Tell Sirius if you like, Remus maybe, but if they so much as let a peep of a peep of a squiggle of this out, I'm killing them my self with my bare hands."
"You're a little scary." I said.
Lily didn't respond though; she was too busy watching James and Becca hop around like a bunny rabbits in excitement singing "Lily's going out with Ja-ames! Lily's going out with Ja-ames!" in a little sing song voices.
"Good for us, now would you stop? Someone might hear you. Plus I'm tired. Let's go back to the commons."
"Yes ma'am!" James saluted her then began following her down the hall. Becca and I followed as well. When we had caught up, James scooped Lily up and began carrying her down the hall.
"Awww! How cute!" Becca exclaimed. She then turned to me and attempted to scoop me up like James had, but fell down in the process. "Sorry lover, I'm not as strong as I thought I was." We helped each other up and continued down the hall, James laughing at us and Lily looking more annoyed by the minute.
"Put me down already. I can walk on my own!" she said.
"True, but a princess such as you should not have to walk on her own."
"Put me down before someone sees!"
"It's three in the morning, no one is going to see."
"But... but..." Lily seemed to be out of steam. "Fine!" she huffed.
The rest of the way back to the commons we talked about their date. We asked where they were going to go and when and all that. They had no clue, but apparently James had a few good ideas that he had been working on for a couple of years. When We reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, James let Lily down so she could climb through the portrait hole, then followed her through, as did Becca and I.
We gave everyone else a quick explanation about how the two had hidden from MacGonagall and gotten locked in a closet because the door knob didn't work on the inside and how Becca and I heard them yelling through the door to let them out. This story seemed to go over well enough and everyone drifted off to bed to get a good nights sleep.
Everyone except for Lily that is. She woke up at 5 a.m. screaming.
I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock; 4:57 a.m. Yuck. I was having trouble sleeping. I woke up at some point after having a weird dream about, well, about him and about Lord Voldemort torturing him and I woke up slightly startled. It wasn't a fun experience. I calmed down fairly easily, realizing and dismissing it as a bad dream immediately, but when I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, I couldn't. My mind wouldn't let me. I rolled around for at least a half hour attempting to get back to sleep, but in the end realized, as I looked at my bedside clock, that this task was going to be nearly impossible to accomplish.
Then, of course, the rest of the girls dorm had the same basic problem I did; they were all awakened by a nightmare. Of course, they weren't the ones having the nightmare, Lily was.
First she was simply mumbling in her sleep again. Over and over, the same thing, the exact words muffled by the heavy curtains around her bed. Then the screaming began. She shot bolt upright, her curtains flying back, seemingly, of their own accord. The pitcher of water burst, as did the glasses next to it, the full length mirror on the wall cracked, the windows shattered.
That was one hell of a scream.
"Lily! LILY! LILY!" I had jumped out of bed and was now shaking her, trying to get her to wake up. It wasn't working so I grabbed my wand and shot water out of it at her, hitting her directly in the face, but it didn't even faze her. She kept screaming at an unnatural pitch. I slapped her in the face, but that didn't work either. As a last ditch attempt I used a silencing spell on her to make her screams soundless. Becca, Win, Rach, and Mikki were all out of bed and standing around Lily's bed now, giving her the same shocked and worried look as I was. The spell wore off after only seconds and her screams were audible again. "LILY! WAKE UP LILY! WAKE THE BLOODY HELL UP!" I shook her a couple more times, but it still wasn't working.
Then, quite suddenly, she stopped, closed her unseeing eyes, opened them again, and looked over at me and the girls. "Oh, my." she said plainly. Then she fainted sideways onto the floor, her landing softened by the blankets that had flown off of her when she had begun screaming.
"Holy shit." Becca said. She seemed to be saying that a lot recently, and I seemed to be agreeing with her on those points a lot recently.
"Becca, go get the boys, we need to take her to the hospital wing, she's burning up!" I said, touching my hand to Lily's forehead. She had a major fever and she was sweating like a pig. Becca shot out of the room like an arrow from a bow, out the door and down the stairs faster than a cheetah. "One of you go and get MacGonagall or Dumbledore or both." I said to the others. Rach and Mikki took off in search of the two Professors. "Win, get me a washcloth with cool water on it please." Win was gone to the bathroom and back before I even had a chance to reposition myself next to Lily's head. I took the cool damp cloth and wiped Lily's face with it, then folded it and placed it on her forehead. After a couple more minutes of silent worrying, James burst into the room, Becca, Sirius, and Remus hot on his heels.
"How is she?" James asked, the worry evident in his voice. He kneeled down beside her and, seeing how pale she was and the sweat breaking out on her forehead said "Not good then." and scooped her up in his arms. He took off out of the dorms without so much as another word.
I jumped up and followed him out the door and down the stairs, Becca, Sirius, Remus, and Win followed as well. The group headed straight to the hospital wing, James in the lead, practically running. Tears were streaking down my face. 'Not good. Not good, not good, not good.' I thought to myself 'Her fever is really high. This is not good.'
As though sensing my thoughts James actually broke into a light jog, Becca and I right along side him. When we reached the hospital wing I held the door for James as he carried her in and Becca ran to the office at the end of the room and banged on the door "MADAME POMFRY! Get your healing butt down here! We got a seriously sick kid down here, damn it!"
A few seconds later Madame Pomfry appeared at the door to her office and opened her mouth to berate Becca for her use of language and such, when she saw Lily in James's arms and instead rushed to her, telling James to put her on one of the beds.
"What happened to her?" Madame Pomfry asked, a low orange lit came from her wand as she pulled it back and forth over Lily's body. "No serious injuries..."
"She was sleeping. She had a nightmare, a really bad one by the sound of it. She started muttering in her sleep then sat up in bed and started screaming. Her eyes were wide open, but she couldn't see anything, she was still asleep, and I tried to get her to wake up, but it didn't work. Everything was breaking, the mirrors, the windows, the glasses. Her bed curtains were nearly ripped off of her bed and her covers were...And then she just stopped, woke up, turned to me and said 'oh, my' of all things, and fainted to the floor. I felt her forehead and she had this horrible fever and she was sweating all over and so pale..." I let my trail off. I was shaking and I hadn't even realized it. I collapsed backwards, Remus catching me before I hit the ground. He picked me up and put me in a chair, kneeling down in front of me. "Are you alright? You're not sick too are you?"
"No, no I'm fine, just a little shell shocked is all." I replied.
"Are you sure?" he asked. He seem genuinely worried.
"Yes. I'll be fine."
"Lily has a fever of 107 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm going to give her a potion to bring it down." Madame Pomfry walked briskly to her office to retrieve the potion. When she came back she administered the potion, forcing Lily to swallow it. She waited a minute, then checked Lily's temperature again. "Hmm... 106, it's going down, the potion is working. I'm going to give her this dreamless sleep potion so she can get some rest, that should help her fight off whatever it is that's giving her the fever."
Everyone sighed with relief. Her fever was going down, she would be okay. "Oh thank God!" I exclaimed, hugging the first person I saw, in this case, Remus. He seemed slightly surprised at first, then hugged me back gently.
"It's okay, she's fine, she's going to be okay." Remus whispered to me reassuringly. I knew she would be okay, but it seemed more real when someone else said it. I buried my face in his shoulder and cried my freaking eyes out.
"What's going on here?" Professor MacGonagall stormed into the hospital wing, Mikki right behind her. "What is the matter with Miss Evans?"
"I'm not sure Minerva, the girl had a high fever, which is going down now thankfully. I haven't a clue what caused it though."
"I'm sure you'll discover the cause Poppy. Miss Evans is doing better now then?" Dumbledore walked into the hospital wing briskly, heading straight to Lily's bed. Rach was with him and walked over to stand by Lily's bed as well. She looked over at me crying my eyes out in Remus's shoulder and acquired a strange look.
"Yes, she seems to be responding well to the potions I gave her. Hopefully after some rest the fever will subside and the rest of her symptoms with it."
"You have it all in hand then?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, then if you and Professor MacGonagall would accompany me into the hall for a moment?" The three adults walked from the room into the hall.
Everyone looked very relieved that Lily was going to be okay. Becca, who was standing between Sirius and I, looked down and squeaked loudly.
"What the-?" Sirius said, looking over at her and trying to figure out what was wrong.
"Er, nothing..." Becca had dodged to the other side of Remus and I, and I could now see why she had squeaked. All she had worn to bed was an overly large t-shirt that barely reached her upper thigh and exposed a bit too much of her. In her haste to get the guys and get to the hospital wing with Lily, she had completely forgotten to grab her robe. Wait a second... I looked down at my own clothing. Oops. I pulled away from Remus, and hid on the other side of him as well.
"Um... Any particular reason I'm being used as a human shield?" he asked, slightly confused.
"Er... Well, you see, we were in such a rush to get Lily here we completely forgot to grab our robes."
"Um, so?" Sirius asked raising an eyebrow.
"So we're not exactly decent, okay?" Becca said irritatedly. She was right of course, where she was wearing the big t-shirt I was wearing a thin tank top and boxer shorts, not exactly appropriate attire.
"Um, what do you mean not de- OW! What did you do that for Prongs?!"
"You're an imbecile. Shut up."
"Damn you get tetchy when Lily's sick." James glared daggers at Sirius, which was when Sirius decided to have his brain flash and realize what we were saying. "OH! You're not properly clothed, okay... Here!"
Something warm black and fuzzy landed on Becca's head. It was Sirius's cloak. "Thanks." Becca said, putting it on.
Remus stepped forward a little and untied his cloak as well, handing it to me. "Here, it's not much but it's better than running around the castle in tiny shorts."
"A-hem... Been checking out my clothing have you?" I teased. Well someone had to relieve some of the tension in here, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I took the cloak from him and put it on.
"I-I, er, no, of course not, I just sort of noticed, er... er..." Remus stammered, blushing bright red.
"Calm down silly goose, I was just teasing."
Madame Pomfry came back into the room and announced that a few of us could stay, but that the rest had to go back down to the dorms and could come back up later to check on her. "Professor Dumbledore specifically mentioned Rebby, Becca, and James. They rest of you can fight it out over who else gets to stay. I'm going to be in my office if anything happens or if any of you need me." she waited long enough to make sure that Mikki, Win and Rach had started towards the door, then turned and walked back to her office, closing the door behind her. Rach paused at the door and looked back at Remus. "Aren't you coming?"
"No, Lily and I are better friends than we seem. I'm going to stay for a bit." he smiled at her sadly and she smiled back with a look of understanding and something else. Then she turned and left the hospital wing.
"What about you Sirius? Are you going to stay or go?" Becca asked.
"Stay of course. She's your best friend and James's new girl friend. She may not get along with me very well, but that doesn't mean I can't be good moral support." Sirius said solemnly.
"Thanks." Becca said sadly. Crap. She wanted to break up with him and he was being really nice. Not exactly the best timing.
James hadn't moved from the spot he was in since he had put Lily on the bed. He stood there, face etched with worry, and didn't say a single thing. He didn't move either, and at one point I could have sworn he'd stopped breathing. Remus and Sirius found us all some chairs and forced James to sit in his.
At some point we all rifted off to sleep in our chairs. Even James nodded off, his head resting on Lily's bedside, her hand clutched tightly in his own. When we woke up it was light out, probably around 10 a.m., and I was missing potions class.
Well, not really potions class, because it was a Sunday, but my potions tutoring from Professor Caulder who had decided I needed extra help. I'm really not very good at potions. I always get my mincing and my dicing mixed up. I'm also not very good at cooking, I tend to burn things. A lot.
"It's about time one of you four woke up." I looked up at Lily's bed to see her sitting up, resting against a bunch of pillows and reading a book.
"LILY! YOU LIVE!" I yelled.
"Shhhhh! They're still sleeping!" Lily hushed me. I looked around and noticed that everyone was sleeping in their chairs.
"Oops, sorry. Where'd that book come from?"
"Madame Pomfry gave it to me after I told her I wanted to be a healer. She said to look for my symptoms and see if I could figure out what's wrong with me. So far all I've got is either a random over night fever or the flue. Except it hasn't lasted long enough to be the flue, so I'm going with the random overnight fever, most likely caused by extreme stress and physical strain."
"Well I didn't think we got that physical last night, but if you say so." James said from his position in his chair. His eyes were still closed and his head was still resting on the side of Lily's bed, so at first I thought he was talking in his sleep.
"Not funny James." Lily glared at him.
"Come on, just a little funny? Not even the teensiest, tiniest bit?"
"Nope." James looked crestfallen. "But I'll let you keep holding my hand if you go get me a glass of water." James perked up and, hopping from his chair like an over eager puppy, poured Lily a glass of water and handed it to her. Then he reclaimed his position in the chair by her bed and held her hand again. "Thanks." she said, drinking the water.
"A little thirsty?" I asked her.
"Just a lot. I think I sweated out half my weight in water last night. I've been parched for hours, but I didn't want to bother any of you, seeing as, according to Madame Pomfry, you stayed up nearly all night with me. And she would know as she did stay up all night, it is her job after all. She went to get some rest when I woke up and my fever was gone."
"Hmm..." Becca said, waking up as well. She opened her eyes lazily, stood, walked out of the hospital wing to the restroom, walked back in a couple minutes later and got a glass of water, which she drank all of before reaching her chair again and curling up in it yet again. "LILY!" her eyes shot back open as she realized that Lily was awake and sitting up in bed. "YOU LIIIIIVVVEEEEEE!" Becca took it upon herself to glomp Lily right then and there.
"That's what Rebby said." Lily choked out from Becca's tight grasp.
"Yeah, but she won't live for long if you don't let her go. You're restricting her breathing you nincompoop."
"Oh, sorry, right." Becca released Lily and sat back down in her chair. "How long have you been up?"
"About and hour."
"Huh... Oh! I just remembered something!" Becca got all excited and looked over at me excitedly.
"Er..." was all I said. I literally had no clue what she was all excited about.
"Audvoidio!" Becca caste the spell that made people go temporarily deaf on James. "Stupify!" Then she stunned him and James slumped in his chair. "Now, where was I? Oh yes! I know something you don't know!" Becca was practically bouncing in her chair.
"Er... What?" asked Lily. Apparently I already knew it, whatever 'it' is.
"Rebby has a crush on-" he looked all around to make sure no one else in the room was awake "REMUS!"
Um... Whoa now, wait, hold up, that's not right...
"Er... No I don't." I said.
"Yes you do! You said so last night!"
"I never said 'Remus'! I said I had a crush on a guy who is dating a friend! Not that I had a crush on a guy that is dating a friend and his name is Remus!" I replied defensively.
"Er... Oh... Well then, I'll pick up where I left off last night... WHO IS IT?" Becca asked throwing herself at my feet and doing a good job of pretending to kiss my feet and beg.
"Oh, just tell her already! I mean, I've known for ages who you like, and that Max guy is creeping me out. He keeps leering at you in class, it's disgusting." Lily said making a motion known to most of the world to mean 'makes me sick'.
"What do you mean you've known? I never told you, I've never told anyone!"
"I'm not blind, I figured it out." Lily rolled her eyes.
"TELL MEEEEE!" Becca begged rather loudly.
"FINE! But not right now... Later... Right now I'd rather talk about you and your 'issue'." I said pointedly. If she was going to break up with Sirius then she might as well get Lily's opinion on the matter first, she tended to come up with points on the matter of boys that neither of us thought about. That's why she's the 'voice of reason' in our little trio.
"Er... No."
"Anabell Elizabeth Rebecca Burns! You tell me right now or I'll have you 'taken out' by a trained assassin."
"Um..." was all I could come up with to say to that.
"Hey! That's my line!" Becca said indignantly.
"Grrrr..." Lily growled at Becca. Literally growled. But it wasn't like a dog growl, it was more of a cat growl. Weird.
"Fine! So, SiriustoldmehelovesmelastnightandIdon'tknowwhattodobecauseI'mnotreadyforthe'L'wordyetandIdon'twanttohurthimbutIthinkIneedtobreakupwithhimandit'sallgoingtotearmeapartandIjustdon'tknowwhattodobutIdecidedlastnightthatIwouldbreakupwithhimsothat'swhatI'mgoingtodo." Becca said all in one breath. She said it so fast that all of her words sort of melted together.
"Try again." Lily said "This time slower, calmer, and with actually breathing."
"Last night Sirius told me he loved me and I don't know what to do because I'm not ready for the 'L' word yet. I don't want to hurt him, but I think I need to break up with him and it's going to tear me apart. I just don't know what to do and I decided last night to break up with him, and that's what I'm going to do." Becca said again, this time slower and with breathing.
"Well, if you don't love him, why stay with him? I say dump the loser and we can all stop hanging out with him and his lot of hooligans." Lily said. Dang that was brutal. I could have sworn she'd be on Sirius's side too. Even though he doesn't even know he has a side that needs backing.
"Well, I mean, it's not that I don't love him, it's that I don't know if I do love him. And they aren't just a bunch of hooligans! And Sirius isn't a loser!" Becca replied, starting out normal, then becoming more and more defensive. "And if you feel that way then maybe we shouldn't be friends!"
Lily, who I was sure would look angry or sad, instead smiled at Becca knowingly and said "Well now, there's your answer to question number one."
Becca looked stunned. She flopped back into her chair. "Oh."
"You just need to calm down and do what your heart tells you."
"That was corny."
"Yes, well, you get the meaning don't you? Good. Now undo my date for this weekend so I can remind him that he's a loser and a hooligan like Sirius is."
"Okay." Becca waved her wand and said the counter curses, causing James to come back to consciousness and be able to hear again.
"Er... What just happened?" James asked, looking from Becca's stunned expression, to my relieved one, to Lily's amused one.
"Nothing, just knocking some sense into one friend and trying to knock the truth out of the other."
"Oh, okay... That makes sense."
"She also referred to you and Sirius as Losers and hooligans." I added.
"Oh, er, thanks?" James replied. Poor guy, so conflicted. I could almost see the little scale in his brain bobbing back and forth: Lily, pride, Lily, pride, Lily, pride, Lily... Etc.
"What's going on here? You guys having a party without me?" Sirius said, getting out of his chair and stretching, a large yawn engulfing his face. "Nice to see you're up and around Lily."
"Yes, well, nice to see you care Sirius." Really, it's not that Lily doesn't like Sirius, it's that she has an issue for his general disregard for the rules and his lack of respect for her and her office of Prefect.
"Nice to know that you care that I care." Sirius said back. He doesn't not like Lily either, he just has an issue with her having an issue with his general disregard for the rules and his lack of respect for Prefects... And I think he's a bit jealous that she monopolizes so much of James's time without even trying, without even wanting James to be paying so much attention to her. You know, best-friend-itis. You'd think he'd have gotten over it by now wouldn't you? Guess not...
Remus woke up soon after this and the six of us joked around for a while until Madame Pomfry came bustling in and checked Lily's temperature once more, then, after declaring her perfectly healthy, bustled us out of the hospital wing. We meandered back to the Gryffindor commons to change clothes and then ended up going down to the Great Hall for some food. Lots of food.
"It's a nice day out." Lily said when we reached the Great Hall. "We should go for a picnic."
We gathered up some food in a basket that Sirius conjured and headed down to the 'Marauder tree' as it was known by anyone in 5th year or younger. Some how by hanging out under the tree all the time, the Marauders had made it off limits to anyone in a grade lower than them, and quite a few in the grade above as well. It was like, 'oh, the Marauders hang out under that tree! We are unworthy! Unworthy I say! Unworthy of hanging out in t he same spot as their godly good looks and mischievous antics and humor have been more than once! Swoon!'
Whatever. It's just a bloody tree.
We reached the tree and set out the food on a huge blanket that Lily conjured and began to dig in.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join?" Mikki appeared at the picnic just behind James and Lily, straight across from where I was, holding the hand of a boy. A six foot tall, brown ear length messy haired, sparkling blue eyed, tan skinned boy who, among other things, was her boyfriend and Becca's younger brother. His name is Caleb, and he is hot. I mean smoking hot. The guy sizzles I the rain for god's sake. Right... Off topic. Caleb, while quite athletically inclined (and how could he not be with all of those muscles?), was more into muggle sports than quidditch, the only well known wizard sport. He skateboarded, snowboarded, played street basketball, and, like his sister, swam like he was a freaking dolphin. By this I mean he's really good at swimming and can hold his breath for a long time. A really long time. Like 3 minutes. Maybe 4 on a good day. Mikki had managed to somehow trick him into dating her sometime last month. I don't mean that she couldn't get a guy or anything, it's just Caleb for the longest time refused to have anything to do with Becca's friends because he thought we were all weird insane psychotic lesbians. Not that he has issues with lesbians, he just got a little confused about how close we all were and are. The insanity bit he had right though.
"Sure, have a seat." Lily said, indicating a large vacant void between Sirius and Becca. Hmmm... Wonder why that's there? I rolled my eyes at the two of them; what idiots.
Caleb in all his godliness sat down, as did Mikki, and fixed themselves some sandwiches as well. We all ate our food and washed it down with water and pumpkin juice. We were joined just after we finished our food by Rach and Win who had been out wandering about when they realized we were under the tree and came to sit with us.
"Hey hun." Rach said, leaning down and giving Remus a kiss on the cheek. He blushed and quickly shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth, which was really too much to eat all at one time, and choked. So much for hiding your embarrassment.
"So... You're okay then Lils?" Rach asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a random fever, probably brought on by stress and physical and mental exhaustion. I have been studying a bit more than usual recently, we have a few tests coming up after all."
"Um, they aren't for another month now, and you know everything, so you don't need to study to begin with." Becca said, munching on some left over chips. "You're like God, you know everything."
"Um... No, no I don't."
"Well, you're pretty damn near close." Said James smiling. "See, you're God's right hand man, Remus is God. He knows all. He sees all. He surmises all."
"Do you even know what surmise means?" Lily asked him, smirking.
"No, not really, but I like the sound of it." he smiled back sweetly.
"It means to make a guess about something." she explained.
"Well then, I surmise that I could kick everyone's but in a game of 'duck, duck, goose'!" James said suddenly, jumping to his feet. He began walking around the picnic blanket tapping people on the head. "Duck, duck, duck, duck, g-duck, duck, d-GOOSE!" James took off around the circle, Becca hot on his heels. He made it to her spot just before she managed to catch him.
"Damn. I was so close too."
"You guys are weird." Caleb said. Even his voice is hot. It's all deep and masculine. He's more mature than James and Sirius, the oldest guys in our grade, and he's a year younger than them. How does that work? Who knows and who cares so long as it does.
"Yes, we know that, thank you." Becca replied.
"We're not actually that weird, just random. We tend to come up with our own ways of amusing ourselves instead of choosing to bore ourselves with the conventional methods."
"Example?" Caleb prompted giving me a strange look.
"We prefer to play whatever game pops into our head that's unusual, like 'duck, duck, goose' for example, instead of something everybody plays all the time, like wizards chess or exploding snap."
"Hmm... I think you're all just weird." He said again, wrinkling his forehead as if in concentration. "Yep, definitely just weird."
"Babbling bumbling band of baboons." Becca piped up.
"Er..." was all Caleb could come up with.
"Oh, no, it's back!" Lily exclaimed, laughing slightly. We had been talking non stop about Professors MacGonagall's random outburst after class on Friday. She had just stood up from her desk, thrown her arms in the air and yelled 'Babbling bumbling band of baboons!' then sat back down and started writing something. Now, every time anyone said anything about being weird or random, one of us would say that and we would all crack up laughing. Which, of course, we did when Lily said it. All except Caleb who blinked a few times.
"Yep, you're all insane too. Now I remember why I avoided you for so long."
"But you just love me and my friends so much that you just couldn't resist coming back now could you?" Becca asked him, smiling widely.
"Um, no." Caleb replied. "I got tricked into a date, then dragged down here by Mikki."
"Really?" I asked, like I didn't know that already. I had been one of the first to know, I have good contacts in the Hogwarts underground gossip ring.
"Yes, really. She stopped me in the hall right in front of all of my guy friends and a few other kids in our class and asked me out. What was I supposed to say? No? I'd never live down turning down a date with a pretty girl."
"Thanks for the pity date." Mikki rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the arm.
"Anytime." Caleb smiled at her and then stretched and laid back on the soft grass. "So, this is what you guys down here under this tree huh? Just sit and eat and talk?"
"Yeah, this is pretty much it." Remus replied.
"Occasionally we go swimming or climb the tree or pull little pranks on one another, but this is usually it." James added.
"No plotting of world domination? No wild and crazy parties? No scheming to overthrow the king of England and the Minister of Magic so you can rule Britain?" Caleb asked.
"Well, yeah we do that stuff too, but we try to keep that low key." Sirius winked at him.
"Oh, I see." Caleb laughed. He has a really nice laugh too, it's deep, like his voice, but it has a slight lift to it at the end that makes it kind and happy.
The, let me count now, ten of us sat and talked for a while, occasionally playing odd games and making jokes at Caleb's expense since he was the newcomer to the group. Eventually we decided to head back up to the castle, dropping the picnic dishes off in the Great Hall as we passed it. We were all headed up to the Gryffindor Tower when Mikki suddenly smacked herself in the forehead. "Crap! We have to finish that project for charms!" Mikki exclaimed.
"Oh crap!" said Rach.
"To the library!" yelled Win leading their charge to the Library to finish their project for tomorrows class.
The rest of us continued up to the commons. I was ignoring the conversation, contemplating Sirius and Becca's 'situation' when I forgot to skip a step and my leg sank through the stairs. "AGH!" I yelled in surprise.
"I got ya!" Caleb exclaimed, grabbing me under my armpits and pulling me back up to my feet. Gosh is he strong. And quick on his feet too.
"Thanks." I said, smiling at him.
"Er... Yeah, no problem, um, I just forgot I have a thing I need to do, in a place, er, yeah, right... Uh... Bye!" He took off like a bat out of hell, rounding the corner at the end of the hall before we had even finished climbing the rest of the stairs.
"That was odd." Said Becca. "And he calls us weird." She shook her head.
Lily raised an eyebrow at Caleb's actions and muttered "Interesting."
"What was that Lils?" Becca asked.
"Oh, nothing." Lily replied, looking over at me with a knowing smile. What the crap?
Before we reached the portrait of the Fat Lady Remus, who had been in the lead of the group, stopped suddenly making Sirius, James and Lily all ram into his back. "Oh! I nearly forgot! Everyone into this old dusty unused classroom so I can tell you something." That was kind of random.
We all filed in and Remus shut the door behind us and then addressed the group, focusing mainly on Becca and I. "So, I've been pondering this for a while, about a month now, and have decided that I think I can trust you all with a secret." He paused, looking at James, then Sirius, then Lily who all gave him encouraging nods. Then he looked from me to Becca a couple of times. "I'm a werewolf, and they're animagi." he pointed at James and Sirius.
"Haha, very funny Remus. Can we get back now? I had this book I wanted to finish reading and-"
"I'm not kidding Rebby. I'm a werewolf."
"You mean like, fuzzy, furry, fluffy, fanged and fabulous? Not to mention the claws, paws and oversized jaw?" Becca said.
"Uh, yeah."
"The once a month presto-chango into a furry critter of evil desires to rip peoples throats out and eat them?"
Remus sighed "Yes."
"And the howling to the moon and such?"
"Yes."
"Huh, cool, too bad I already knew that." she said.
"You did?" I asked, looking at her incredulously. This was all a complete shocker for me. It was like a slap in the face. I mean, you think you know a guy, then BAM! He's a werewolf and you know nothing about him.
"What?!" Said everyone else in unison about a millisecond after I had said my bit. "When did you find out?" asked Lily.
"Forget that, how did you find out?" asked Remus.
"I was curious where you dolts were off to every night on the full moon, so I put a disillusionment charm on my self and watched you leave one night. You started talking about a 'furry little problem' and 'that time of the month' referring to Remus, then one of you said something about a transformation. I put 2 and 2 and 2 together and got 6. This was the last full moon during school last year."
"And you didn't bother to tell your two best friends because?" I asked.
"Well it was obviously a secret, and definitely not mine to tell, so I let it be." She seemed utterly un-phased by the entire idea of it.
"Did you know about us as well?" James asked.
"No, now that bit is a surprise. I didn't know you were animagi. I figured you were just going to were ever it is he goes during the full moon and hanging out outside his door to keep him company, I didn't know you were out gallivanting around in animal form with him. Bloody dangerous idea if you ask me."
"My thoughts on the idea exactly." agreed Remus "But by the time I figured out that they were becoming animagus it was too late to convince them not to. They're a determined bunch it seems, stupid and addicted to danger with slight hero complexes, but determined."
"Gee, thanks Remus, we'll be your loyal friends anytime." James rolled his eyes.
"So... The point of this was to tell us your secret?" asked Becca. She seemed completely at ease with the situation. I was a little freaked out. I mean, this is a lot to dump on a girl.
"The point was to tell you two and then to ask and see if you wanted to become animagus as well. Lily discovered me on the train on the way to school, and we offered to teach her to become an animagus. She said only if you two could as well, something about you being smarter than you looked, and I decided that I might as well tell you everything if I were to tell you that they are animagus. Peter too, wherever the little rodent is..." Remus looked about, as if just then realizing that he hadn't seen Peter all day. None of us had for that matter. I could swear he was up to something sneaky, but then, when isn't a Marauder up to something sneaky?
"Sounds cool to me, I'm in." Becca said. "Just, don't expect me to be gung-ho on the whole 'dancing with werewolves' thing."
"Huh? Who said anything about dancing?" Sirius asked.
"Never mind, muggle reference." she said.
"And you Rebby?" Remus asked, looking at me questioningly.
"Um... Uh... So you're a...? And they're...? And you both knew?" I paused a moment, then said "Damn I'm out of the loop!" Becca rolled her eyes at me. "I'm in!" I said excitedly. Remus looked relieved, as did Sirius and James. Lily smiled confidently, and Becca commenced our secret handshake, which had a lot of weird moves and intricate hand clap things too it.
"Er... Right then." Remus said after we had finished our handshake, looking at us as though we had grown another head each. "So, you know you can't tell anyone any of this right? It's a complete and utter secret, not even most of the teachers know. Just Dumbledore, MacGonagall, and Madame Pomfry. And the only students who know are in this room, excluding Peter."
"Got it." I nodded my head in understanding.
"Comprende, everything's under lock and key. Bueno." Becca said.
"You really need to stop speaking in Spanish, it's confusing." I said.
"Yes, well, you'll get used to it. At least I'm not speaking in Russian or Bosnian or German, then you'd have no clue whatsoever as to what I was saying. There aren't a lot of Russian, German, or Bosnian cognitives you know. At least with Spanish some of it makes sense to you."
"True, there is that." I agreed.
"What's a cognitive?" asked Sirius.
"And where is Bosnia located on a map compared to England?" asked James.
"Oh, never mind." Becca said, rolling her eyes at them. "Shall we?"
The six of us left the dusty old classroom and walked the rest of the way to the commons. We hung out by the fireplace for the rest of the afternoon, Lily disappearing at one point and coming back with a load of books, which James made hover twenty feet in the air until Lily agreed to sit in his lap. He was slowly getting the better of her when it came to the 'keep the relationship secret' thing.
That night, Lily forced me to reveal who I liked to Becca. I was kind of reluctant to do so, really reluctant to do so, because I didn't know how she'd react. Of course, that's the chance one takes when coveting your best friends brother.
"Caleb? CALEB? You like Caleb?! What the crap is wrong with you? Are you mental?" was her response. Not as bad as I had thought it would be. I thought she might pull out the protective sister mode she keeps hidden so well under that layer of sisterly hatred.
"Because, he's hot, he's nice, he's talented, and he's hot."
"You said that once already." Lily pointed out, smirking at me.
"Yeah, well, it's true."
"Yeah, but he's also my brother, and you're like my sister, so it's like my brother is dating my sister and... eeeeeeewwwww..." Becca paused and made a gagging, disgusted face.
"Um, that's nice, I think of him more as the random kid that lives at your house occasionally in the summer and who I rarely see."
"He does spend more time at his friends house than at home in the summer, that's true, but he's still my brother... Eeewww... How can anyone find him attractive, he's my brother for Christ's sake."
"He also happens to be hot."
"You've already said that twice."
"Touché."
"So," Becca paused. "So, how long have you liked him?"
"Since pretty much forever, I like to keep it hidden underneath several layers of disdain and annoyance. Except when I'm around him recently, then the crush tends to float to the surface and I act like a complete idiot around him."
"I noticed that, thought you just had a bit of the fire whiskey still in your system from last night."
"Um, no."
"Huh..."
"So... On to Becca's problems!" I changed the subject as swiftly as possible. The less we concentrated on my crush the more we could concentrate on telling Becca that she's daft for breaking up with Sirius. If she still plans on it, which was my point in bringing it up. "What did you decide?" I asked her. What? I like to get straight to the point.
"I... I decided... I decided to not decide. I mean, I guess you're right, he doesn't deserve to just be dumped out of the blue for saying he loves me, but I still have my reservations... I dunno... I'm just... I'm too indecisive I guess, so I'm just going to let it be and see how it goes from here."
"I can understand that." I nodded my head in agreement with her decision.
"Good. Now go get out your wallet and pay me, woman, relationship therapy is expensive these days!" Lily said, laughing at the confused look on Becca's face.
"But... I never hired you... You offer your services and mentioned nothing of payment..."
"Always read the fine print! How many times have I told you? always read the fine print! Otherwise they could be saying that every other Friday you have to dress up as a giant chicken and try to fly off of skyscrapers and you'd never know."
"A wonderful example Lily, speaking from experience I take it?"
"No... Not really..."
"Uh, right." I said. "So... Bed. Goodnight!" I jumped into my bed and pulled the covers over my head.
"Um... That was sudden..." Becca said.
"Well, not really, I mean, she has plenty to look forward to while asleep." Lily wiggled her eyebrows at Becca.
"Oh, I see how it is, you'd rather dream about your widdle crushy-pooh than talk with us huh?"
"NO!" I said, sitting straight up, throwing the covers off in the process.
"Uh-huh, right. Well, don't go to bed just yet, I was about to bring up the most interesting topic all night, it even trumps you being in love with my brother." Becca shuddered. "Ew..."
"I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH HIM!" was my response to this. I wish I hadn't yelled quite so much though, it made it seem like I actually did like him and was trying to hide it.
"Riiiiigggghht. Just keep on telling yourself that Rebs." Becca rolled her eyes. "So! Lily, your turn to be put on the spot! What exactly was your nightmare about? I mean, it had you pretty worked up, and you've been having a lot of weird nightmares recently. What's with that?"
"Well... I have no clue what the deal is with having so many, but I do remember what happens in them. Almost every time. Most of the time their the same thing too. At first it stars out normal. I'm dancing with a cute guy or playing quidditch or reading or something, but then it gets all weird. At some point I start to fall, and I keep falling until I hit water. It's a big deep pool of water, like in a lake or a big pond or something. The water is black, and I can't see anything but the surface and the moon above me. I'm treading water, and I start to try to swim to the shore, but I can't reach it and I start to sink. I end up drowning at the end." Lily tapered off.
"Wow... Creepy..." Becca said.
"But, last night's dream was different. It was just as real feeling, like a not so distant memory. Like, when you think about something that you just did the day before. Clear, but fuzzy... Anyways, last night the dream pattern was completely different. At first I was sitting on a couch. It was brown leather, very soft, and comfortable. I realized I was holding something in my arms. I looked down and realized it was a baby. A little boy with jet black hair and bright green eyes. My eyes. He was smiling happily and started to giggle. Then I looked around and noticed I was in a living room, but not one I had ever been in before. A man asked me something from another room, and I yelled back an answer. There was a knock on the door and I heard the man yell to stay put, that he would get it; but I got up anyways. I carried the baby with me into the hall. At one end there was a kitchen and a stairwell leading upwards. Along the walls were dozens of picture frames with happy people smiling and laughing. One of the people in the picture closest was me. There was a man with me, but I couldn't see his face in the dream. I couldn't focus on it. Then I heard a door click open, and I looked down at the other end of the hall. A tall man with jet black hair like the baby's was opening the door. I could only see his back. I started to walk towards him, but then he slammed the door shut and caste a locking spell on it. He yelled for me to run. Then everything went black. I heard a scream. A woman was screaming, really loudly. She just kept screaming and screaming and screaming. Then I realized I was screaming too. Next thing I knew I was in the hospital wing with five people snoring their heads off around me and James pinning my arm to the bed." She finished, looking around at us. "It was really creepy. When the man yelled for me to run, I had such an overwhelming feeling of being scared. I little started shaking, in the dream that is. I wasn't afraid for myself though, was scared for the baby and the man. I just wish I could have seen the man's face. It really bothers me that I don't know who it was..."
"You know... There's a movie idea in there somewhere... A book maybe..." Becca pointed out.
I raised an eyebrow at her as if to say 'perhaps a little delicacy?' "Well, at least you know it was just a dream. I mean, things in dreams don't come true usually, do they?"
"No... I suppose not..."
"They do for some people." Becca said.
"Becca! Not now!" I hissed at her. Great, the baboon was going to make Lily feel worse.
"Well, they do! And really, she should know." Becca turned and looked directly at Lily. "They do sometimes..." Becca pointed out. "Muggles call it Precognitive Dreams or Dena Vu Dreams. Of course, they believe it's trick of the mind, a memory created by their mind during a dream and remembered later on. Of course, wizards have explanations for them too. We call them premonitions, and we call the people who have them, who truly have the sight, Seers. Now, the question is, do you really have the sight? Or do you just have flashes that come true?"
"Well, I... I don't know... I mean, I've had dreams that have come true before, but nothing major... Just, a meeting with someone, the way I'm greeted by someone... It clicks back to the memory of the dream... I always just thought it was coincidence."
"That's what muggles think too." Becca said.
"I thought that Seers saw things when they were awake by going into a trance-like state. Or in crystal balls or tea leaves or tarot cards or something?" Lily asked.
"Well, usually... You see, Seers 'see' in different ways, it's specific to the particular Seer. Most 'see' through visions. The visions can be brought on by touching certain things, something someone says, or maybe even just the presence of a certain person. Others 'see' through the use of things like crystal balls and tarot cards. Not everyone who can see through those things can see through visions, and the same is vice versa." Becca paused.
"How do you know all of this?" Lily asked. I was curious about that myself.
"My grandmother used to have visions. Never anything big, things like when a baby would be born, who was going to visit the next day. Silly little things." Becca smiled sadly to herself. She really had been close with her grandmother and grandfather. They had both died, supposedly of heart attacks. Probably they had actually been killed by the killing curse though, linking them to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. She didn't talk about that though, she tried not to even talk about her grandparents most of the time.
"So what about the dreams?" Lily asked, breaking the sad silence.
"The dreams! They're the most interesting part. You see, a Seer is rare enough, but a Seer who 'sees' through dreams is even rarer. There's usually only one of them every hundred years or so on record. Probably more out there that ignore their gift and scratch it off as a strange intuition or something." Becca was really excited now, she was using her hands to illustrate things as she talked. "Now, a Seer who 'sees' through dreams usually has the ability to 'see' through visions and other methods as well. They can utilize tarot cards and crystal balls easily, as well as tea leaves and other methods such as those, but having the visions is harder, and extremely difficult to initiate."
"So... If I am having precognitive dreams, then I'm a really powerful Seer?"
"Yes, very likely."
"But there's no way to prove it, is there?" I asked.
"Actually, there is." Becca smiled mischievously.
"I'm afraid to ask..." Lily said, looking at Becca suspiciously.
"Well, then don't ask, because I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to kidnap you tomorrow at some point and drag you off to undergo my 'Test of Seerness'. And you shall have no choice in the matter." Becca smiled evilly.
"Uh-oh..." I said.
We joked about it for awhile, about how Becca was going to kidnap Lily and toss her off the Astronomy Tower or feed her to the giant squid or something, then The other girls came in and we all went to bed. Lily's sleep was peaceful that night, as far as I know.
Of course, in the great scheme of things, nobody knows very much, do they?