A/N Yes...it's been awhile since I've updated. I guess I'm rather known for being inconsistant in my writing. XD Sorry. Hope you enjoy this chapter anyway! These guys are such fun to write.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, book or movies....or any of the characters for that matter.
Chapter Three - In which Peter practices his spying skills. As we know all too well, he'll need them later in life.
Peter crept up the stairs to the girls' dormitory in his rat form, heart pounding against his tiny rib cage. To his relief, the stairs had remained stairs. Apparently a male rat didn't count as a boy.
He reached the top of the stairs and rose onto his hind legs, looking around. Everything looked a little different through a rat's eyes. Things were blurred, a little distorted. He had to crane his neck and squint in order to make out the writing on each door. Finally he located the door labeled "Fifth Years," and scurried over. Peter paused and contemplated the prospect of how he was going to get in. Eventually he concluded that there was nothing else for it - he'd have to squeeze under the door. Exceptionally glad Sirius and James weren't there to laugh at the sight of him, he flattened himself as much as he could and painfully dragged himself under the door.
The first thing Peter noticed was that the girls' dormitory was not very different than the boys'. Theirs was a little brighter, perhaps, but it could be just that they had more lamps lit.
"Hestia, d'you mind closing the curtains over there?" Peter recognized Lily's voice and swiveled his head her way. She was sitting on her bed, wrapped in a dressing gown with slippers on her feet, her vivid red hair making her instantly recognizable. "The breeze is a little chilly."
The dark haired girl closest to the window drew the curtains shut. "Did anyone finish that essay for McGonagall?" Hestia asked anxiously. "I wasn't sure exactly what she wanted - "
"I'm done with mine," answered Lily's friend Mary Macdonald. "If you like, I'll have a look at yours tomorrow and see if it's all right."
"That's be great." Hestia appeared relieved. "Hey, where've Leah and Natalie gone? It's after hours, they'll be in trouble if they're caught out..."
At that precise moment, Peter heard footsteps quickly approaching from the hall outside. He barely managed to duck under Lily's bed before the door swung open and two girls, giggling helplessly, rushed inside and slammed the door.
"Where've you been?" Lily demanded, sounded exasperated but amused. Not so different from the way Remus sometimes spoke to Sirius and James, Peter thought.
"Lost track of time," gasped one girl. "I was in the library, waiting for Leah - she was probably off snogging that Ravenclaw boy somewhere - "
"I was not!" The girl, Leah, sounded indignant. "I wasn't, Nat!"
"Anyway, when Leah finally got back to the library we'd missed curfew and had to run for it back here before someone caught us," Natalie giggled.
"And ooh, Lily, we heard something about you..."
Peter's ears pricked up.
"Did you really kiss Remus Lupin on the cheek at dinner tonight?"
There was a thud - Hestia appeared to have dropped something. "What?" she yelped. "Remus?"
"She did, I saw her!" Mary's voice said delightedly.
"Thanks so much, Mary," Lily said. Her bed shook as she flopped back onto it and Peter almost ran out from under it - he felt as if it could collapse upon him at any moment.
"So when did you start liking him?" Leah's voice sounded gleeful.
Lily sighed. "I don't, really. I mean, he's very nice but - honestly, I'd only ever think of him as a friend."
"Ooh, Lily, I'd never have thought it of you!" Natalie sounded just as excited by the gossip.
"Thought what?" Lily sounded bewildered.
"That you'd lead someone on like that!"
"What? I'm not! Remus doesn't even like me that way!"
"He used to, I think," Mary said thoughtfully. "Couple years ago...maybe even last year...."
"I thought it was only James who fancies Lily?" Hestia asked. "Well - James and that Snape boy in Slytherin - " Hestia's voice expressed a note of distaste.
Lily laughed. "Severus and I really are just friends. He's really not so bad, we've been friends for years. As for Potter....yes....I know he fancies me. That was part of the reason I kissed Remus, not that it's any of your business."
"Oooh!" Natalie and Leah dissolved into giggles again. Peter felt slightly irritated at them. Natalie and Leah were the type to giggle at just about anything - he himself had been the cause of their laughter on numerous occasions. On the last instance, James had finally gotten annoyed enough to send a jinx their way. Unfortunately, it had been in the middle of a Herbology lesson, and Professor Sprout had deducted ten points from Gryffindor.
"What?" demanded Lily irritably.
"So you only used Remus to make James jealous?" Natalie asked amid giggles.
"I wouldn't say I used him," Lily answered. "Like I told Mary earlier - of Potter and his friends, Remus is the one I like most - and he's more my type than Potter will ever be..."
"So are you going to go on with this?" Leah asked eagerly. "Pretending you fancy Remus?"
"No!" Lily seemed shocked. "That's mean! I won't do that to him....maybe you would, Leah...."
Natalie and Leah seemed vaguely disappointed.
Lily put out the lamp next to her bed. "If you all don't mind, I'm going to bed now." Lily still seemed a little irritated as she forcefully pulled the hangings around her bed closed.
Having nothing more to hear, Peter scurried out from under Lily's bed and made his way out of the girls' dormitory and back to his own. He wiggled under the doorway and with a pop, turned back into himself, his back a painful from crawling under doors.
"Wormtail, mate! You made it!" James grinned.
"So how were the ladies?" Sirius asked, flipping himself onto his stomach and smirking over at Peter.
Peter went over and sat on his bed next to James's. "Well, first there was a load of talk about homework and whether or not Leah'd been off snogging some Ravenclaw bloke - "
"Bet she was, mate, I see them together all the time," Sirius interjected snidely.
"But anyway, then Leah and Natalie started asking Lily about Remus and she says she only thinks of him as a friend."
James looked relieved, Sirius bemused. "I didn't even know she liked him that much."
Peter threw a pillow across the room so it hit Remus, who was laying on his bed, reading. "Oi! And Mary reckons Remus used to fancy Lily."
James whipped his head around. Rubbing his neck, he asked, "Did you?"
Remus looked up. "Well, yes, I suppose so, but that was years ago. Second year, as a matter of fact - "
"You never said anything about that!" James cried indignantly. "Why didn't you?"
"I was twelve, James," Remus said patiently. "And I got over her pretty quickly - once it was clear she didn't want anything to do with any of us - "
"Blimey, Remus...." Sirius shook his head. "I thought we didn't have any secrets from each other!"
"It's nothing to be worked up about!" Remus was turning rather red.
James folded his arms. "Yes…well….you ought to have told me!"
"Well, I'm terribly sorry, James. I thought it was irrelevant," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
James muttered something unintelligible and hopped onto his bed.
"Cheer up, mate," Sirius said. "We've just found out Evans does not, in fact, fancy Moony. You ought to be thrilled."
"We've also found out Moony likes to keep secrets from his friends," James said, his voice muffled by his blankets.
"Well, we already knew that, didn't we. He kept the werewolf business quiet for quite some time." Sirius leapt onto James's bed and snuggled under the covers with him. "Don't be mad at Remus. Cheer up, or I'll have to make you."
James glared at Sirius. "Get out of my bed, Black."
"Only if you promise you won't be angry anymore," Sirius said, poking James on the nose. James swatted his hand away.
"Sirius…" Remus said warningly.
"All right, all right! Merlin's beard. I was never even angry, now get out of my bed, you sick-minded canine." James aimed a kick at Sirius as he tumbled to the floor.
"Such violence…" Sirius crawled back into his own bed, shaking his head.
Remus put out the lamp next to his bed. "Good night, everyone," he said firmly.
"Good night, Moony."
"Night, Sirius."
"Night, Prongsie!"
"Good night, Padfoot."
"Night, Wormtail, old pal."
"Sleep tight, Sirius."
There was silence in the dormitory for several moments. "Moony?" Sirius hissed.
"Yes, Sirius?"
"D'you reckon if we send Wormy back into the girls' dormitory….and if I were to concentrate very hard on myself…"
"That wouldn't be difficult for you, would it?"
"No, but if I did….would I work my way into their minds and then they would talk about me and Wormtail could let us know how charming they think I am?"
"Sirius? You think yourself charming enough already."
"But it's always nice to hear it again…."
"Sirius?"
"Yes, Moony?"
"Please go to sleep."
"Yes, Moony."
A/N Reviews are appreciated!