A/N: I'm back from the very unexpected summer hiatus! Hopefully next chapter won't take three months to publish *goes to hide in shame*
Miggie: thank you for your kind words!
Everything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling, if that wasn't obvious
R&R
/Liz
"Yes, Mr. Black, I know it's your birthday." McGonagall put her wand down on her desk. "And I have no intention of 'ruining' your day, but I can't allow house elves in my classroom."
"Come on, Minnie." Sirius smiled.
"No, Mr. Black." McGonagall raised her voice as she got closer to his desk, to make herself heard over the elves' singing. "I can not teach with 'happy birthday' being sung in my ear." She turned to the half a dozen elves standing behind the desk Sirius and James shared. "I'm sorry, you'll have to leave."
Immediately, the elves' singing stopped and they scrambled out of the classroom, mumbling "yes, Ma'am" and "sorry" as they left.
"Sorry, mate." James leaned over to Sirius as McGonagall made her way back to the desk.
"Not your fault Minnie's in a bad mood," Sirius said. "It was a good idea."
He leaned in and glanced at James' piece of parchment where they were supposed to be taking notes.
"Really, Prongs?" He grabbed the piece of paper. "L.E.+J.P. That's very classy. You might as well write 'hey! Lily Evans will you have my children?' ."
"Shut up." James took the piece of parchment. "Wanna play hangman?"
"Only if you promise the words will never again be 'green eyes' or 'red hair' ."
"That was once!" James protested.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black. Is there anything you want to share with the class?" McGonagall once again stopped mid-sentence in her revision of vanishing spells.
"Just one thing, Professor." Sirius grinned. "L.E.+J.P."
"If it wasn't your birthday I'd kill you." James leaned forward and pulled out a strand of Sirius hair.
"Oi, mate! That hurt." Sirius rubbed the place above his ear where James had pulled.
"You deserved it."
"No one understood it anyways." Sirius crossed his arms.
"L.E+J.P." Mary repeated. "How're you not getting this, Lils?"
"Because it's Sirius," Lily said, opening the door to the dorm. "He's being ridiculous."
"Who's being ridiculous?" A voice asked from inside.
"Marls?" Lily asked.
"Surprise, or something."
"When did you come back?" Lily went over and sat beside Marlene on her bed.
"Like…half an hour ago." Marlene glanced at the watch on the night side table.
"How are you?" Alice sat down on the other side of her.
"Okay." She shrugged. "I wasn't gonna miss tonight though."
"What's tonight?" Alice frowned.
"Sirius' birthday, they're having a party."
"And we're going?" Lily sighed.
"Well…I am. It's Sirius after all."
"You mean Sirius. Who's nothing but a friend?" Lily asked.
"Oh yeah, that you can pick up on." Alice glowered at Lily.
"What?" Marlene asked, turning to Alice.
"Sirius said something-"
"Ridiculous," Lily put in.
"Sirius said something in class today. McGonagall asked if there was anything he and Potter
wanted to share with the class and Sirius said 'L.E.+J.P.'."
"Really?" Marlene smiled. Mary hadn't noticed how much she'd missed that smile until now.
"He said that?"
"Yes," Mary put in. "Will you please tell her that it isn't just Black messing around?"
Marlene opened her mouth but Alice interrupted before she got to it.
"Okay, we're getting off subject. Marls just came back from being home because her mum died, and we're just telling gossip that'll have no meaning in a few years."
"So James and Lily won't be relevant in a few years?" Mary asked.
"No!" Lily exclaimed. "We won't."
"Still, not the important part." Alice pressed. "How are you feeling, Marls?"
"Actually, Al." Marlene looked up. "I'd rather not talk about it."
"Yeah, sure." Alice refolded her hands in her lap. "No problem. I need to go get a library book. Are you coming, Lily?"
Lily glanced between Mary and Marlene.
"It's fine, Lils," Marlene said. "We won't…I don't know, claw each other's eyes out."
Lily smiled hesitantly. "Sure."
"Mary."
At Marlene's words Mary looked up from the article she'd been reading. She'd only gotten a few sentences in. Every time she started over she was soon distracted by how quiet the room was and found herself on the edge of saying something before changing her mind and starting the article over again.
"Yeah."
"Could you fix my hair?" Marlene touched one of her braids.
"You don't like it?" Mary asked. "It's…stunning."
"It was all my aunt's idea." Marlene chuckled.
"Oh…thank Merlin. I thought you actually thought it looked good."
"Oh, no. Aunt Edna is great, but she's a bit…old fashioned."
"So the no make-up…thing." She gestured towards Marlene's face.
"Apparently I'm 'too young'." Marlene laughed again.
There was a moment of tense silence before Marlene spoke again.
"So, can you?"
"Oh, yeah…sure." Mary sat up on her bed. "Curls?"
Marlene nodded. "How did you know?"
"You were talking about it for the Hogsmeade weekend."
"Right."
"Okay, wait. I'll go get the rollers."
"Why don't you use magic?"
"Rolls work flawlessly. Magic, not so much." Mary chuckled, rummaging through the desk drawer.
"Okay then. Work your magic."
Mary took the final roll from Marlene's hair and the soft curl fell and framed her face.
"Sit still, and I'll get the spray." She hurried into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind her, she breathed out. She couldn't remember the last time she and Marlene had been alone for this long, and she half expected them to break out in a shouting match at any moment. She opened the cabinet next to the mirror and took out the hair spray. She could've used magic, sure, but it was nice doing it the Muggle way. Going through the ritual of rolling and waiting, unrolling and spraying was calming and normal.
Taking a look in the mirror and folding a piece of hair right, she went back into the dorm.
"Okay, sit still."
She lifted a curl at the back of Marlene's hair and sprayed it with a generous amount of hair
spray. She lifted another one and sprayed it, slowly working her way around Marlene's head. All the while her mind was on those two words she'd never said, and whether she should do it now.
"I'm sorry." As the words slipped from her lips it didn't sound like her voice.
"What?" Marlene turned her head and the sudden movement caused Mary to jerk and
Spray some hair spray on Marlene's cheek."
"About…Cody. And everything else." Mary turned her back to Marlene as she went to get a tissue to dry the hair spray away.
"You don't have to be nice." Marlene took the tissue and patted her cheek. "Just because of…my mum."
"I'm not."
"Then why?"
"I…I don't know."
"It's weird."
"What do you mean?" Mary had stopped spraying but still held the container in her hand.
"Me…being nice. To you. I've never done that before."
"I haven't really been the best to you either."
"No, but I started it. It was just…people always comparing us. I was sick of being compared."
"Aren't you still?" Mary put the container down on the drawer and sat down at the edge of her bed.
"Yeah, but it's not gonna get better because I'm being a bitch."
"You…you were never really a bitch."
"Well…"
Somewhere behind them, Mary heard the door open and close. But she didn't pay any attention
to it.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Amelia Harris stepped into Mary's view.
"Er…" Mary was pulled back to reality. "Nothing."
"Oh, rolls!" Elizabeth exclaimed and came over to Marlene's side. "My sister has these."
"Yeah, I'm curling her hair for tonight." Mary was happy for the excuse to talk.
"What's tonight?" Amelia asked.
"You don't know?" Marlene turned. "It's Sirius' birthday."
"Oh, of course. He mentioned it at Quidditch practice."
"Mary, are you done here?" Marlene gestured towards her hair.
"No." Mary sprinted off the bed. She'd entirely forgotten about the spraying. "I'm not."
"Finally. Where were you?" Marlene exclaimed when Alice and Lily opened the door to the dorm.
"Well, we ran into Frank-" Lily began.
"Oh, really?" Mary grinned and looked to Alice.
"It was nothing."
"No, just about half an hour of nervous banter." Lily smiled.
"It wasn't that bad, was it?"
"No, Al, you did fine."
"Merlin, Marls. Your hair!" Alice exclaimed.
"Mary did it. Doesn't it look nice?" Marlene touched one of her curls.
"So…you two are…"
"Everything's fine." Marlene smiled
Ten minutes passed before the door opened and Marlene stepped in.
"Blimey, Marls." Sirius came up to her.
"Oh, shut up." Marlene smiled.
"No, really. You…you look great. The hair is…"
"Thanks." Marlene touched one of her curls self-consciously. "Mary did it."
"MacDonald?"
"Yeah."
"I thought…"
"We're fine." Marlene shrugged.
"Speaking of the devil, where are the others?"
"They're coming. Lils couldn't find her dress."
"Evans in a dress? Woah, Prongs will go wild."
"Merlin, you two are disgusting." She shook her head with a chuckle.
"I'm not disgusting, I said you look nice."
"And there were no implications there." Marlene raised her eyebrows.
"No! What do you think?"
"Well…I don't know. You're…you."
"You're hurting my feelings, McKinnon!" Sirius put a hand over his heart.
"Merlin, you're impossible." Marlene pushed him aside just as James appeared from the crowds.
"Marls. You're here."
"Of course I am. Wouldn't miss our dear Siri's birthday." She threw an arm around Sirius' shoulder and pulled him to her side again.
"I should veto that nickname right now, but I kinda like it." Sirius planted a kiss on her cheek,
Forgetting about James.
"Woah, slow down here!" James looked between the two of them.
"Oh, Prongs, you don't need to be jealous." Leaning forward, Sirius kissed James' cheek too.
"Okay but seriously Marls." James wiped his cheek. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"Stop worrying. I'm fine."
"Because you know if you weren't-"
"I swear, if you finish that sentence I will strangle you."
"What's Potter saying now?"
"Evans. Hi." James stood up straighter and rubbed his cheek again.
"Keeps asking if I'm fine."
"I'm just worried. Do you want a drink, Evans?"
"Sure. Show the way." Mary and Alice followed her as she disappeared into the crowd after James.
"Okay, what was that kiss about?" Marlene turned to him.
"I dunno, didn't think about James."
"That's the only problem?" Marlene frowned.
"What?"
"You kissed me. We don't kiss."
"Calm down. It's not like I snogged you in front of everyone."
"Sorry, it was just…weird." She rubbed her cheek just like James had.
"I won't do it again," Sirius promised.
"I didn't say that."
"You kinda did."
"I just mean. It was weird, because you haven't done it like…ever, but I didn't say I didn't like
it."
"Did you?"
"Well…I don't know."
"You're acting really weird, you know. I've given my mum bigger kisses than that, and you know who my mum is."
"Well that's not fair, you caught me off guard."
Sirius looked like he was about to say something, and when he didn't Marlene frantically searched her mind for something, anything, to start a conversation about. But Sirius beat her to it.
"You want a drink?"
"Please."
"Doesn't Marls seem a bit too fine?" James plopped into the chair next to Remus.
"Dunno, why?"
"Her mum fucking died. And she's acting like it's any other Friday."
"Well she's probably just in denial."
"You think?"
"Sure. Wouldn't you be?" Remus shrugged.
"I guess." He took a sip of his butterbeer. "Hey, isn't that Caroline?"
Remus looked up and his eyes scanned the room. "Where?"
"Over by the drinks table."
"Oh…" Remus looked down again. "Yeah."
"What?"
"It's just, things didn't end too well."
"Really? I thought it went fine. No one abandoned anyone, no one got into a screaming match."
"You weren't there." Remus fidgeted with the straw in his drink. "I was…horrible."
"I thought we went through this in the Three Broomsticks."
Remus sighed. "You're right, forget about it."
"No, what is it?"
"I was so rude. She was being all nice and blond and perfect, and I acted like a spoiled brat."
"Actually, Moony, I don't think 'blond' is a character trait."
"And red hair is?"
"Oi, watch out." James jabbed his finger at him.
"Sorry."
"Guys, you're boring." Sirius and Peter came over to them.
"I don't feel like dancing," Remus said.
"Oh come on, Moony, it's my birthday." Sirius grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.
"Come dance."
As Sirius dragged him onto the dance floor, and James followed behind them, the music changed. James saw Peter and Sirius glance at Remus, who frowned before his face lit up.
"No way. You put on Bowie?"
Sirius smiled wider as Life on Mars echoed from the walls. "You looked so down."
"Caroline's here." James leaned in towards Sirius as he said it, but Remus still heard him.
"Grant?"
"No, Caroline Munro is here." Remus sighed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Who's Caroline Munro?"
"Some Muggle actress my mum likes."
"So…Grant's here." Sirius said.
"I think I saw Annie over there." Remus nodded towards the sofas pushed towards the back of the room where he thought he'd caught a glimpse of Caroline's twin sister.
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what? You've been smitten with her forever."
"I'm not 'smitten' with her. I'm just saying she's one good looking bird." Sirius glanced towards the back of the room. "But, you know, there are rules. You dated her sister."
"I went on one date with her. I don't really think that counts as dating." Remus shrugged. "In that case, you're dating McKinnon."
Ignoring James' loud huff, Sirius looked from Remus to the group of sofas. "Are you sure?"
"You have my blessing to do…whatever."
"But…"
"It's your birthday, not mine."
"Yeah, Padfoot. Go get shagged." James' exclamation made heads turn. "I said that a bit too loud, didn't I?" He lowered his voice.
"Just a tad," Peter said. "Are you thirsty? I'm thirsty."
The Bowie song had ended without Remus realising it, and the song by a wizard rock band that had replaced it seemed to shake the entire room a bit with each beat and Remus didn't know how they'd been able to make themselves heard over it. As they pressed their way through the room to the drinks table, they multiple times had to dodge for dancing students who were flinging their arms around like they weren't connected to their bodies. Finally, with a weird looking green drink in one hand and a paper cone with popcorn in the other, they found a group of empty poufs and chairs.
Not long after they'd sat down, Marlene and Alice joined them.
"Where's Siri?" Marlene asked as she settled on a pouf pushed up against the wall.
"He's getting lucky." James smirked.
"Really?" Marlene bit her lower lip. "Who?"
"Grant?"
"Caroline?" She turned to Remus. "I thought you were dating her."
"One date people, one date." Remus put his hands in the air.
"No, Annie," James told her, ignoring Remus.
"Really? That's…" The song changed again. "Oh, Al! Lils loves this song. We've gotta go find
her." She jumped from her seat as if it'd burnt her and pulled Alice with her onto the dance floor again.
"What's wrong with her?" Peter asked as they disappeared into the crowds.
"Dunno." James shrugged.
As curfew drew closer, the room quickly emptied and by the time she and Marlene had tracked down Lily, Mary and Dorcas, Alice finally felt like there were room over to breath. Abba was playing and Lily somehow managed to convince them to dance. Alice had never felt more like an elephant on ice than she did as she tried to follow what the others did, but it was a lot of fun. Until the song switched and suddenly a dozen or so couples seemed to grow from the floor, swaying in step with the slow song.
"Okay, can we sit down now?" Alice made a move to go off the dance floor.
"We can, but I think you'll need to stay." Lily smiled and jerked her head towards something Alice couldn't see.
"What?"
"Your knight in shining armour." Mary pretended to pass out in Lily's arms.
Alice turned and saw Frank coming towards them.
"Hi." He bit his lower lip.
"Hi." She smiled.
"Do you…do you wanna dance?"
"Yeah."
Over Frank's shoulder Alice saw the girls scatter away, giggling and whispering. She rolled her
eyes.
"What?"
"Oh…nothing." She turned her head away slightly and giggled as Mary turned and made thumbs up. "Just the girls."
"They're trying to force us together, you know?" Frank swayed her from side to side. "Our
friends."
"I know." Alice smiled.
"It's silly…isn't it."
"I guess." Alice shrugged, biting her lip, but she really didn't know what was silly and not anymore. Everything had gotten so mixed up.
Frank looked like he was going to say something, but changed his mind in the last minute. Adjusting her hands on Frank's shoulders, Alice was desperately trying to come up with something to say.
"The song is nice." She didn't know if it would have been better to stay quiet.
"They've got nice music taste." Frank nodded, his cheek tickling her forehead. "It's not as nice at
six thirty on a Saturday morning though."
Alice giggled.
"Neither is being woken by 'who stole my hairbrush?', 'I can't find my lip gloss!' and 'Has anyone seen my necklace?"
"It could be worse though."
"How?" Alice chuckled.
"They could be not nice, or like…Slytherins."
"For that we'd need to be Slytherins too," Alice pointed out.
"Right…didn't think about that."
"You're cute." Alice chuckled. She hadn't meant to say it out loud, but it slipped out before she could think about it.
"You're cute too."
Smiling, Alice continued swaying to the music.
Once the song had ended and Frank said he'd go find Arnold, Alice found Marlene and Dorcas sitting in the chairs beside the drinking table.
"We got the best spot!" Marlene exclaimed as they came closer, rising her glass in the air.
"Good job," Alice chuckled. "Where're the others?"
"Lily's dancing with some 6th year, and Mary's with Cody."
"So he finally plucked up the courage to come close to you then?" Alice asked. "Last time didn't traumatise him?"
"Pretty sure it did, he looked like he was about to shit his pants." Marlene smiled widely.
Laughing, Alice sat down in one of the other chairs.
"Lily should be back soon though, that bloke that managed to pick her up was…" Marlene wrinkled her nose and shook her head.
"-disgusting?" Dorcas suggested.
"Yeah." Marlene laughed. "Pretty much."
At that moment Lily came stumbling towards them and fell into one of the bean bags. "Thank
god," she sighed.
"Hey, where did Prince Charming go?" Marlene grinned.
"Don't remind me." Lily buried her head in her hands.
"So…bad?"
"I think I gave up after the 6th time he asked if my hair colour was natural."
"He's interested in you, that's not too bad." Marlene leaned back and sipped her drink.
"He also wondered how I could be single since I'm 'such a catch'."
Alice wrinkled her nose at the mere thought.
"I think it was somewhere around there that I tried to run for it, but that damn song wouldn't stop playing."
"Where's the twat in shining armour now?"
"I think he went to the loo, but I was a bit busy running in the opposite direction to pay close
attention." She chuckled nervously.
"Guess who did dance with Prince Charming?" Marlene made an over explicit nod in Alice's direction.
"Really?" Lily smirked.
"Thank you." Alice eyed Marlene before turning to Lily, who'd sat up straighter. "It's no big
deal."
"I must ask, when will it be a big deal? Snogging in the hallways, is that enough? Or maybe your wedding?" Marlene counted on her fingers. "The birth of your first kid?"
"Oh, shut up." Alice raised her hand to cover her smile.
"Will you look at that smile?" Marlene nudged Dorcas, not that she'd have needed to, because Dorcas was already watching. "She luuves him."
"Will someone shut her up? Before she starts making kissing noises." Alice couldn't stop herself laughing now.
"Hey, you should name your kid Marlene!"
"Seriously, what's in those drinks?" Alice asked as Marlene gulped down the last of what was in her cup.
"With those guys in charge." Lily nodded towards the drink table where three of The Marauders were standing, pouring up new drinks. "Who knows?" She shrugged, smiling.
"Did anyone see where Padfoot went off to?" James asked, pouring another drink.
"Not after they left the room." Peter took a couple ice cubes and put them into his glass.
"Well people are starting to leave, someone ought to go find him."
"They could be anywhere." Remus sipped his drink.
"Do you have the map?" Peter leaned in towards James.
"No, I didn't count on this evening including a rescue mission." James rolled his eyes. "We'll just have to look for him like people without a magical map do."
"Is this what normal people do when they wanna find someone?" James leaned back against the wall. "It's exhausting."
"We've been looking for ten minutes." Remus laughed.
"So?"
"I think he means that's not that long," Peter replied.
"Let's split up then."
"What?" Remus looked at James.
"You know, we'll find him faster then."
"That's an idea," Peter said.
"Okay so Moony, you'll go right, and Wormtail will go left."
"What will you do?"
"I will go back and make sure no one takes our seats."
"You're not. You're coming with me." Peter grabbed James by the arm as he made a move back towards the Room of Requirement, the corridor split down by the painting of the fat priest. Dragging a disgruntled James with him, he started down the corridor.
Remus was about to turn left and continue down the stairs at the end of the hallway when he remembered the bathroom halfway down the corridor. He'd checked behind the tapestry opposite from the bathroom door, and he'd forgotten to actually check the bathroom.
Pushing the door open, he'd expected it to be empty. Most people were doing their best to get back to the common rooms before curfew, and the bathroom wasn't the most accessible from the Room of Requirement. But as he stepped in, he heard the tap running. Turning towards the sinks, he saw a girl running her hands under the water. She looked up.
"Lupin." She bit her lower lip.
"Hi, Annie."
"I'm Grant to you."
"What?
"You do not know me well enough to call me Annie."
"Okay…"
"So, what are you doing here?"
"Looking for Sirius. You were with him, weren't you?"
"Of course I was." She flicked her hair, looking at him like he'd seriously offended her. "But I
don't know where he is."
"Well, I'll keep looking then." He turned to leave.
"Yeah do that." He thought there was a sneer to her reply. "Maybe you'll find your decency while you're at it."
"Okay, what?" Remus stopped and turned.
"Yeah, like you thought Car wouldn't tell me."
"Caroline?" Remus felt his hands sweat.
"My sister, who's waay out of your league, asks you out. You say you'll go, but then you're rude, unpleasant and you abandon her halfway through the day. You know, if you didn't wanna go you could've just said so. It's not like she didn't have better things to do."
"I'm…sorry." He tried to be discrete about drying his hands on his robe.
"I tried to warn her, you know, 'there are much better blokes for you, no good spending your
time on those who'll end up sad and alone.' I said 'go for someone who might actually marry someday', but she insisted on going with you. I never trusted it."
"Thank you, for your enormous confidence in me."
"I was right, wasn't I?" She pulled the strap of her dress up.
"Er…"
"Err?" She repeated.
"It's complicated."
"Complicated? What kind of lame excuse is that?"
"I've gotta go."
"Yeah. Do that."
Walking towards the bathroom door as quickly as he could without running, he slammed it shut
behind him and continued on down the corridor at a faster pace. Not looking where he was going, he almost bumped into Sirius right outside the Room of Requirement.
"Merlin, Moony, are you alright?"
"Yeah sure, why wouldn't I be?"
"You're pale as a ghost." He took one of Remus' hands. "And your hands are sweating. What
happened?"
"I…I ran into Annie."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"Yeah."
"I was going to tell you."
"How do you even know?"
"She's fit, but she likes to complain."
"Well, at least I know it wasn't my imagination, I was horrible."
"You weren't."
"But…?"
"She's talking nonsense."
"So, you're into her for a year, then you snog her and all of a sudden she's talking nonsense?"
"What can I say?" He shrugged. "My magic doesn't work on everyone."
"Yeah, I'm not impressed."
"Fuck you."
"Padfoot, language!"
"Like you care."
"I found him." James came through the door, Peter coming behind him, and threw his arms around Sirius.
"Yeah, Prongs, I'm already on it."
"Still," James muttered. "I found him."
"Why are we standing here?" Peter asked.
"I don't know," Remus said, thankful for the distraction. "Let's go…get a drink."
"That one has got enough of it." Peter nodded towards James.
"It's not even alcohol in the drinks." Sirius frowned.
"Well then he's stoned." Peter shrugged.
"Or drunk on love," Remus suggested.
"Shut up guys. I'm normal."
"Come on Siri," Marlene whined, leaning in towards him. "I love this song."
"I said no."
"Come on 'Siri', dance with your lady." Remus grinned.
"She's not my lady, right, James?"
"Right."
"I've got some opinions about lady too, you know." Marlene looked down at him. In heels, she was as good as towering in front of him.
"Do you wanna dance?" Sirius looked at her.
"Maybe not, if you're gonna be like this." She smiled. "Maybe I'll dance with James."
"I can't dance. I'm not dancing," James protested.
"Yeah, you'll have to have Evans ask him for Prongs to get up from that chair."
"Lily, c'mere." Marlene teased, falling together in a fit of laughter as James jumped up and straightened out his robes.
"Not nice," James muttered, falling into his seat again.
"Please! I won't call you Siri," She turned back to Sirius.
"Fine."
"Thank you, Sirius." She grinned, taking his hand. Sirius followed her out onto the dance floor, turning to look at the rest of them in horror. James laughed heartedly, having recovered from his sulk, or because he was getting revenge, Remus didn't know.
"Why are they still here?" James nodded towards the rest of the Gryffindor girls sitting across the room. "It's past curfew."
"Maybe you're underestimating their rule-breaking ability."
"That's just mean, Evans is on me all the time about breaking school rules."
"You're breaking the rules too right now, so you're still 0 to about 2000."
James poked his tongue at Remus as he laughed.
"I'm gonna get a drink. You're just being mean."
"And you just want an excuse to be close to Evans."
James didn't reply as he got up and left.
"Do you think there is something between them?" Peter leaned in towards Remus, even though
they were the only two left, and looked towards the dance floor.
"Sirius and Marlene?" Remus hadn't thought of it before. "I don't think so. They've been friends forever."
"They'd be cute," Peter said reflectively.
"Yeah…maybe." Remus looked at them.
"What are we talking about?" James returned, balancing an over-filled cup of butterbeer in his hand.
"Nothing." Remus straightened up, taking a sip from his own drink and glancing at the pair on the dance floor as Sirius spun Marlene around and she laughed.
"That's because of me, you know." Arnold made a gesture towards Frank and Alice sitting in the corner of the room, chatting.
"It's not." Lily looked at him. "Do you know how long I've begged Alice to do something about that…situation?" She gestured towards the pair.
"Hey, who almost had their arm broken trying to push a certain someone onto the dance floor towards his damsel in distress?"
"His what?"
"It's an expression."
Lily didn't comment on it further.
"I swear though, if I have to go through one more week of this, I'll go mad. I can't keep having my arm broken."
Lily chuckled. "It's not really a problem here, is it. Pomfrey would just fix it in a minute."
"It's not fair really, we needed to go do things by hand for ten years, just because no one would tell us there was another option."
"Our music is better though."
"Oh, yeah."
"There's a reason they're not playing wizard music, and by that Celestina Warbeck-"
Arnold laughed.
"-and it's because we're just so bloody much better than any of them," she finished off, also laughing. "I've gotta go to the loo, watch my drink."
"Why?" Arnold looked around at the very scarcely populated room.
"Oh bloody hell, just do it." She stood and went towards the door.
"Lily. Hi." The sound of his voice made her stop at the spot.
"Sev." She turned. "What're you doing here?" He looked like a deer in spotlight which, she had to admit, made her better in some weird way.
"I…I was just-"
"You were just waiting here hoping to catch someone leaving after curfew so you could report
them?"
"No…I-"
"You know, I don't understand why you're always trying to get those boys into trouble. They're quite good at managing that by themselves."
"But everyone just…" he sneered. "They think they're so great."
"So? Don't let yourself sink to their level. I actually like you Sev."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we're friends remember?"
"Right."
"And I don't want to fight, because the other week was nice."
"It was."
"Well…you know. Until it wasn't."
"I'm sorry. I was going to talk to you after, but it just all got so messy, and-"
"It's fine. I could've said something too, but it's been a rough couple of weeks."
"How's that friend of yours? Melanie?"
"Marlene's fine." Lily bit her lip so as to not express her annoyance that he still didn't know the names
of her closest friends.
"She's fine."
"Good."
"It wasn't their fault, you know. They weren't trying to...you know...kill anyone." Severus fiddled with his hands.
"Seriously, Sev? People died. I don't care if they meant for it to happen or not."
"Sorry, just saying."
"Why would you even bring that up?" Lily felt her face flush and tears sting behind her eyes. "I thought we'd established where the line is."
"We never said anything."
"Well it doesn't take a genius to see that we've got very different views in some areas, so then why do we keep ending up discussing them?"
"Because you're my best friend, Lil." Severus bit his lip. "I don't wanna limit what I can talk about."
"Then maybe it's better we don't talk at all." Lily raised her hand to quickly dry away a tear that escaped from her eyes as she turned and hurried towards the bathroom.
The bathroom door opened and Marlene appeared. She was beaming and there were pearls of sweat in her hairline.
"So, you're talking to Snape again?" she said, wiping her forehead with a paper towel.
"He's my friend. You're dancing with Black again? Oh wait not again. You've never done it before. Let's talk about that."
"Don't try and change the subject." Marlene pointed her finger at Lily.
"Don't bring up Severus as the subject and I won't."
"Fair enough."
"Are you going back to the dorm soon?"
"I don't know, why?"
"Well Mary is Merlin knows where with Cody, and I'd hate to break up the lovebirds back there once they've finally started talking-"
"Oh yes. That was about time."
Lily nodded, chuckling. "-and I'm very aware that we've got an 9 o' clock class tomorrow."
"I'd forgotten that part of school," Marlene groaned. "I'll just get my bag from the room and we can go."
He sat up straight in bed, at first not knowing what had woken him. Then a flash of light appeared outside the window. James felt his heart beginning to beat faster as he trembled on the nightstand for his wand, ready to fight back the attacker. Until he realised they weren't under attack.
"Padfoot," he hissed, reaching out to poke his friend. Sirius grunted and rolled over. Stepping out of bed, James tried again, this time pulling the pillow away from under his head, still nothing.
"Bloody hell, Padfoot, wake up."
A loud bang made James think the tower was going to split in two.
"What the hell was that?" Arnold sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"It's a lightning storm."
"What did you say?" Peter's voice came from the other end of the room.
"I said, it's a lightning storm." James kicked Sirius so hard he fell off the bed.
"Oi, mate. What was that for?" He rubbed his side, disgruntled.
"The thing," James hissed at him. "It's time."
"Thing?" Sirius looked up, just as another flash of lightning lit up the dorm for a split second,
followed soon after by another thunder-strike that made the windows rattle. "Oh. The thing."
"What're you talking about?" Arnold asked.
"Nothing." James tried to find something to say. "We've just…er…gotta go get something."
"You'll get in trouble." Arnold sat up straighter. "You don't even know if it's safe."
"It's fine, we're just going down to the common room," Sirius said, saving James from coming
up with something.
"Oh, okay." Arnold lay down again and turned over on his side as James reached in under the
bed and retrieved the cloak and map from their hiding place. Meanwhile, Peter and Sirius had gotten out of bed and woken up Remus, who didn't seem too pleased with the interruption of sleep.
"What're we doing?" he mumbled, eyes still half closed as he wobbled out of bed.
"Lighting," Sirius whispered.
"Bu-"
"Quiet."
Remus nodded and closed the door behind them with minimal noise as they exited the dorm.
After hiding in a bathroom to avoid running into Filch, and taking a detour so as not to appear right outside the Slytherin common room, they found themselves outside the door of the abandoned Potions classroom.
"Who's going in first?" Remus asked.
"I don't wanna." Peter took a half step back from the door.
"I'll do it." Sirius stepped forward and turned the lock, slowly creaking the door open. The
dimly lit room looked like it had when they left it. The crystal phials in their stands, each on its own table in the middle of the room. James took a step forward, not daring to breath a sigh of relief just yet, he looked at the phials. Not until he was so close he thought he'd knock over the table, did he see the bright red colour of the liquid inside.
"It's fine," Sirius announced, looking at his own phial.
"Mine too," Peter said.
"It's not done yet though," James reminded them. He wanted to celebrate, they'd made it. But the
hard part was only beginning.
"Phial, incantation, wand." Sirius counted on his fingers across the room. "I guess we're good to
go."
"Wand…" James bit his lip. "Fuck."
"No, Prongs."
"Sorry, I forgot."
Sirius and Peter looked at him.
"I wanted to get out of there before Arnold could continue to question us."
"Well go get it, quick." Sirius ushered him out of the room, throwing the invisibility cloak on him as he did so.
All he could hear as he hurriedly moved up the stairs were his own feet echoing against the stone floor and the hard patter of rain against the windows. Rounding a corner on the 6th floor, he stopped dead. Sitting slouched on the bench halfway down the hallway was Lily. He needed to pass her to get to the common room, but he didn't know how he would manage to pass without her noticing, and if she did he would be in trouble. He took a rash decision and pulled off his cloak, not wanting to risk exposing both himself and the cloak. He sped up his pace, now just wanting to get out of there quick enough. Keeping his head down he didn't notice Lily had stood up until he ran into her side.
"Potter?"
Of all the tones he'd heard her voice in before, this wasn't like any of them. It was like she didn't even care that he was out of bed, wandering the hall at 3am.
"Yeah."
"What're you doing here?" She swallowed and when James looked up he saw her eyes were wet.
"Er…I was getting some hot chocolate."
"Storm woke you up too."
"Yeah." He fiddled with his hands. "What're you doing here, doesn't feel like the right place to
be?"
"Couldn't sleep." She dried her eyes with the sleeve of her nightgown.
"You should get some chocolate from the kitchen too, works wonders." A thunder-strike hit the
castle again and reminded James what he was doing.
"Perhaps…"
"I've gotta go, get back to sleep before that sugar kicks in, you know." He didn't want to leave her, but what choice did he have? If he didn't get back before the storm was over they'd have to wait for the next one, months or possibly years from now.
She nodded and he patted her shoulder quickly before hurrying past her and down the hall, throwing the invisibility cloak over him as he went.
"Finally, what the bloody hell took you so long?" Sirius ushered him into the room and closed the door behind him.
"I ran into Evans."
"And so it begins…" Sirius rolled his eyes. "The day our dear Prongsie choose a bird over us."
Peter and Remus nodded in agreement.
"No, guys, I actually ran into her, almost knocked her over."
"Merlin, you really can't just talk to her like a normal bloke, can you?"
"Not to interrupt this very important conversation, but we haven't got all the time in the world."
Remus nodded towards the phials on the table.
"Oh right." James pulled his wand from his pocket. "Let's do this."
He raised his wand to his chest and in unison with the other two they all spoke the incantation
"Amato animo animato animagus."
"We're supposed to drink it, right?" Peter took his phial out of the stand and looked at it.
Sirius nodded. "Every last drop."
"That shouldn't be too hard." James looked at the bare mouthful of liquid contained inside it.
"Speak for yourself." Sirius raised the hand with his phial in the air. "For a new marauders era," he announced before putting the phial to his lips and swallowing it all in one sweep. James followed his example and from the corner of his eye he saw Peter do the same.
For a moment, nothing happened and James feared it'd all gone wrong, they'd failed. Then a pain more fierce that anything he'd ever felt paralysed his body. It felt like his chest was on fire and he had to bite hard not to yell out. He heard Peter scream across the room but it didn't seem real, like he was looking at the room from above. And just as he thought the pain was subsiding his heart started beating faster, until he was forced to stumble across the room and grab the table so as not to fall to the floor. Then the second heartbeat made itself known, beating harder than the first. An overpowering urge to close his eyes came over him and as he did so he saw it. The large, magnificent stag he'd dreamed about for so long, ever since it had first appeared in his mind almost a year ago. It came running towards him and as it was about to run into him, the pain increased again and, crying out, James did his best to stay standing upright but his knees folded underneath him and he felt himself falling forward on all fours and his mind filled with a fog that prevented him from thinking straight.
Once his limbs had stopped aching and he opened his eyes, Sirius found himself looking down on two very furry legs and paws. Remus still stood leaned against the door, but his expression wasn't one of worry and concern, like it had been. He looked happier that Sirius could remember ever seeing him. A large stag was standing across the room from him, and he thought if stags could smile, it did.
Just as he had stood up (after figuring out how to navigate two more legs than he was used to) and was attempting to move, he was almost knocked over again by something. Looking over, he saw a rat running across the room and Remus starting to chase after it. Sirius followed, cornering the rat as Remus picked him up. He still flung from side to side trying to get away.
"Calm down, Wormy." Remus took a firmer grip around him. "You're fine."
Although still squirming, Peter calmed enough for Remus to look away from him.
"Hey look, you're a dog." He laughed at Sirius, who tried to poke his tongue at him, but realised
that it didn't give quite the same effect when he was a dog, so he retorted to leaping forward and pushing Remus backwards, making him stumble backwards into the tables and releasing his grip around Peter to reach out and stop himself from falling. Sirius wanted to laugh, but he found dogs apparently couldn't.
"Can you believe we just did that?" James fell down on the couch in the empty common room.
"I can't." Remus took one of the armchairs.
"It was so scary." Peter walked over and threw a log on the fire. "I thought I'd die."
"Yeah, we noticed." James let out a snort of laughter. "You almost knocked Padfoot over."
"Oh no, I'm sorry." Peter looked at Sirius.
"Don't worry. I'm more concerned that apparently dogs can't laugh." Sirius sat down on the part
of the couch James wasn't occupying.
"Stags can't either, you know." James stretched out his legs in Sirius' lap. "Or I would've."
"It's weird, isn't it?" Peter said.
"What? That stags can't laugh? I thought so too."
"No, that it's done now. We've worked towards it for so long, and now it's just gone."
"It's not gone. Last time I checked you were able to turn into a rat." Sirius laughed.
"And, you know what, I think I'll just get greater from now on." James said, leaning back against the armrest.