So, Deathly Hallows is out, and I've finished it in the following day after the event. It was wonderful! Don't worry, I won't give anything away, even though I'm dying to discuss! Maybe send me a little message and we can talk our heads off about it? Splendid.

I'm sorry it took me so long to finish this.

---

Chapter Seven: The Tumultuous Tail

"How can you deny that that was beautiful?"

"Alright, alright, the part about the rice really was. Can we go now? It smells like…saliva and ink in here."

"Does saliva have a smell?"

"It always smells that way."

"Right. I'm just making excuses."

"Peter!"

"What?! I didn't do it!" The boy snapped out of his stupor.

"Just come on." Sirius dragged him up by the arm.

James glanced at Lily, Lily at Sirius, and Sirius at James. Then they turned to look at the back of Remus retreating into the hallway. Peter stared at his own feet.

"Hello Sirius!" They jumped at the shrill voice, the one being mentioned almost falling over, hand pressing against the doorframe. Lily glared. It was Aril, or her so-called toothpaste sharer prancing down the corridor. Since when did she not acknowledge one of her best friends? Since Pretty Boy came to town.

Meanwhile, Sirius was becoming painfully awkward. He must get out. Bag Remus and his tail, he'd lose a thousand games just to get rid of this person. But it wasn't as if she was completely detestable. She was a Gryffindor, after all. Damn that blonde woman…he thought. James nudged him in the side, urging him to respond.

"Um…Hello." He pulled an impassive look, but it didn't seem to faze her.

"Where are you off to?" She seemed genuinely interested. Sirius looked left, then right. She was heading left. All the better to go in the opposite direction.

"Er…" He edged along the wall away from the rest of the group. "That way." Then he positively fled.

"Well, see you later then!" She called after him, a hand raised to her mouth. "Hmm." She sighed, disappointed, and continued on her way.

James was preoccupied with holding Lily back by the arms. "Ignore me, will she?" She snarled.

"Just let it go," he said, "She'll come to her senses soon enough. Besides, no one I know has succeeded in chasing after him. Then she'll go back to spending time with you, you'll see. Sirius has always been scared of her, anyway." Lily stopped struggling.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I even told her he was marrying Remus." He looked a little too pleased with himself at that statement.

"…Good."

"I never agreed to that!" Remus was in a small panic, but the others seemed to ignore him. Lily shook her arms away from James, regaining calm. She brushed herself off with a sly smile on her face, addressing him.

"Thanks for restraining me, I might have strangled her."

"Oh, no problem--"

"But you know," she said, looking him in the eyes, "There are some things that I need to go against you about…things that involve a certain blue-eyed boy." James looked clueless.

"Sorry?"

Lily gave a frustrated sigh, cleared her throat and tossed her head at Remus. The boy in question looked from James to Lily with one eyebrow raised.

"Let me give you a hint, Potty. It starts with 'T' and ends with 'L'." James shook his head.

"I…still don't follow."

"I'm playing, you dunce! The game! Petie told me all about it!"

"Stop calling me Petie!"

"You…you know?" A shocked and aggravated look became planted on his face. He rounded on Peter. "And you, you went behind our backs! That's just…sick and wrong!" he said, quoting Sirius.

"Well, that's what you get for not including me!" Peter retaliated.

"I am not including a female in this!" James stated, turning back to Lily.

"OH, so now you're sexist?"

"No! It wasn't the plan! The plan was gold and now you're just going to spoil all of it! Besides, you don't even know the rules."

"I don't need to know the rules. All I need to do is win."

Remus was absolutely beside himself with worry. What had his friends been planning to do to him all this time? He lunged towards James and took him by the collar.

"What are you all planning?" he demanded, "What are you going to do to me? I'm tired of being the pawn for your stupid games!"

"Please," Lily rolled her eyes, "Stop being so melodramatic, Remus. It might even make you laugh…once someone wins."

"He can't know!" shouted James. "He can't know, or it will end for all of us! One of us has to finish, and it's going to be me."

Remus focused on James.

"Not if you don't catch me, Prongs."

Before James knew it, Remus was flying down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him.

"SEIZE HIM!" James was in a frenzy, Lily and Peter as well were chasing after the light brown blur, all becoming dizzy in the spell's grip. No matter how nauseating it was, they continued in what they assumed to be a straight path, bowling over some innocent students in the hall. The students shouted at them, but there was no time to apologize.

Everything was black and spinning…where was Remus? James roared in frustration. As long as he was chasing after Remus, there was no way the spell would stop. His head was so heavy, he was almost on the ground…

---

Sirius was running, but he didn't care about where he was going. Stopping in a deserted corridor, he caught his breath, relieved yet slightly mortified at what he had done. How could he have just run off in the other direction? Maybe he should have actually tried to speak to her, get her away in a reasonable fashion instead of acting like a coward. He sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. The only ones who knew his mind were his friends, and he was perfectly happy with that. Maybe his friends were chuckling at him now for running away…But he didn't mind. He even gave a half-smile at the thought.

Just as he was thinking these things, a blur with a mop of light brown hair was heading toward him with surprising speed. But the figure saw him at the end of the corridor and skidded to a stop, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Moony?" Sirius looked up at his friend. "What are you doing here?"

Remus tensed, as if Sirius would be making a sudden movement.

"Er…I…" It was difficult not to trust Sirius, even if he was in on whatever game they were playing. Sirius motioned for Remus to sit down next to him.

"Here, here, I'm sick of running, and I'm quite lonely I'll have you know." Remus sat down slowly, still

suspicious and eyeing.

"Don't worry, I don't really feel like getting up."

Remus smiled. "How do I know you won't attack me?"

Sirius tried to seem offended. "Why Moony, how could you ever think of such a thing? I'm loyal, friendly, energetic…I even know a few commands. Did I mention loyal?"

"Yes, but you tend to run off quite a bit, with no sense of direction--"

"I have a perfect sense of direction."

"Whatever you say, Padfoot."

"So…" Sirius turned to face his friend. "How are the others?"

"They are a little…delayed."

"Ah, I see. So, will you stay with me and not run off?"

Remus thought for a moment. "Sure," he said, most likely figuring that there wasn't too much that could happen.

"Good!" If it was one thing Sirius hated, it was to be alone, even for a short while it seemed. It was odd, he thought they would say, but then again Sirius figured he was generally odd already. Not that it was a bad thing. He didn't mind if he frightened some people…It was fun to mess with other's heads.

"…Hey Moony?"

"Yeah?"

He sighed. "How much trouble do you think the others are getting in?"

"I have no idea…I don't know why they couldn't catch up with me. It was strange."

"Hmm."

---

"Damn it, damn it!" James whispered. The spell was wearing off, he was giving up. He looked around and saw that Peter had gone smack into a wall, and Lily was lying a small distance ahead of him.

"Well, this is lovely James. So this is why you fell over in transfigurations. I can see why." Lily said. "It's cruel…why did you make it so harsh?"

"We were wanting a challenge!"

"I can see that."

"Ow…" Peter mumbled.

"Look, maybe we should just get up and forget it for now…"

"I'm actually with you on that."

"Hey, Prongs?" Peter called.

"Yeah?"

"Help…"

"Oh, sure." He took his friend by the arm and hoisted him up. "Hopefully no one else was too intent on watching us make fools of ourselves."

They began to walk, wanting to clear their heads of the sick heavy feeling.

"I think I'm all funned out again."

"Tell me about it." They took a left, right, left, ambling down the hall, wanting to get very far away from where they had fallen.

"You know," said Peter, "I wonder where Padfoot must've got off to."

"Yeah, bet he's safe though."

But lo and behold, as they turned another right, they saw him at the very end, sitting silently with Remus, no less. Their heads were slightly drooped. What a fool Sirius had been! They tiptoed up to the pair as far as they could go…

"HEY!" James yelled, startling them both. Remus put his arms up in front of him to block whatever may come. James reached for his wand, and all was black and sickening again. But something moved his ankle and he lost his footing, and he grabbing onto what felt like a human arm.

"Hey!" Lily shouted, also hitting the ground with a thud. He didn't know what had happened to Peter, but he wouldn't be surprised if he had gone out first.

"I don't understand!" Remus said. "Why--" he stopped speaking.

Something very peculiar had happened.

"Why you little--" It was Sirius. Surely Peter could not have won?

"Surprise, surprise."

"You!" he shouted in blindness, "You!"

"Obviously."

He could see the blackness dissipating from his eyes, and could make out Peter on the ground rubbing his head, and Lily standing to face the culprit. As his head cleared he could see Sirius still sitting on the floor glaring with hatred, but momentarily looking away to smile at an extremely embarrassed Remus Lupin. He could see a glistening silver wolf's tail.

Finally, finally it had happened. But in the worst way he had thought possible.

"I was actually very intent on watching you make fools of yourselves, Potter." Snape said with contempt.

James could think of nothing to say, except something incredibly childish.

"I…I hate you." he sighed.

"I know." The corner of his enemy's mouth upturned.

"But how? How did you know?"

"I made the connections after watching you topple over many things. The werewolf sought safety…So I assumed with what person, and I was right."

James was utterly disgusted. "You--you assumed…"

"Yes." he said with a cold stare. With that he turned, his robe billowing behind him as he crept out of sight, carrying deep satisfaction at the misfortune of James Potter and his friends.

"He lives to make my life a living hell." James mourned.

"No kidding." Lily seemed rather puzzled, but not disgusted. And there was something else in her face too…Amusement?

"I can't believe he got to it…" Peter whined. "And now we can never play again."

"Thank God!" cried Remus. "How…how did you come up with this--torture?" He glared at James once again.

"It-it was Lily's idea!" he stammered.

"Excuse me?!" Lily demanded, "My idea? You're lucky I'm going out with you now. So very lucky. Idiot."

"…Well, you gave me the idea."

"It was brilliant!" said Sirius, his gray eyes shining. "I told you it would be endearing! I mean, come on, Moony. That's why we love to see you embarrassed out of your mind."

Remus looked helpless, a shade of red glowing in his face as he observed the shiny silver tail.

"And hey," James suggested, "You can still obtain the color pink."

"What?" they all said in unison.

"…Never mind."

"Now if I could just get some of that fur," Sirius said, "I could make a nice book cover."

--The End--

---

Alright. I know the ending was abrupt and…blah, and maybe I shouldn't have put Snape in. I wanted to so, though. But it's 5 in the morning, and I'm just tired. I really hope you enjoyed it. I'm so glad that it's done! Thank you for reading and reviewing!

-snowbirdy