Chapter 16: Lets Make a Match
Monday, September 19, 1977

"Will I ever get to see my boyfriend again?" I asked Remus at breakfast.

"When I get to see my potential-girlfriend again," he replied, staring to my left. "I think Padfoot is in there somewhere, too."

I turned my head to my left, staring where James usually sat. He was still there but it was hard to see him.

As soon as we sat down he was tackled by Sirius, Emmeline, Marlene, and Dorcas, four of the six new members of the Gryffindor House Quidditch Team.

I haven't seen him since.

Remus, Peter, and I just tried to eat our breakfast but it was hard with what was going on next to us.

"Well, could be worse," Peter said between bites of waffles.

"What do you mean, Wormy?" I asked him. He blushed a little at the new nickname I've been using for him.

"Well, I mean Fabian and Gideon could be in that dog-pile, too," he replied.

Too true. Those two were the same size as James. They were sitting a few seats down from our normal location at the end of the Gryffindor table closest to the Professors' table. Their friends were patting them on the back and congratulating them as they passed by. They were smiling at the news and congrats but they were really distracted by the photo in their hands. Apparently their sister had sent photos of their three nephews, who ranged in ages from seven to a year. They were also excited over the news that she was pregnant again.

I glanced up at the Professors' table. I think McGonagall and Dumbledore are laughing. They were looking in our general direction.

I looked back down at the group of people to my left. This is getting ridiculous. I turned back to Remus, waving my wand in the air. "Should I?" I asked.

He nodded. "The boy needs to eat something."

I turned to the pile of friends, pointed by wand, and flatly stated, "Relashio." The four of them instantly fell backwards, released a panting and slightly disheveled James. I put my wand away casually. "Eat your breakfast," I told them, using the same tone I've heard my mother use on me and Tuney many times. The four new teammates got up and trudged back to their usual seats.

"That wasn't very nice," Dorcas told me, sitting down in her usual place to my right. "We were just expressing our gratitude."

"You four dog-piled him for twenty minutes. I think he got the hint." I pushed her untouched breakfast plate towards her. "Eat," I ordered, pointing at the plate.

James turned to me, mouthing the words thank you. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. He started digging into his breakfast.

"When does practice start?" I asked him.

"First one is Wednesday after Transfiguration," he said. "You going to be there?"

"If you want me to be, just ask," I told him with a smile.

"Lily, will you go to Quidditch practice to support us?" he asked, then lowered his voice. "To support me?"

I smiled and kissed his cheek. "Of course I will."

Marlene turned to Remus. "You're coming too, right?"

"Sure, I guess," he replied.

Marlene turned to me. "You make sure he's there, Lils."

"Yes, ma'am," I replied with a sly grin. I glanced at Emmeline and Dorcas.

We have a project.

[DM] - Why the parchment? Why can't we use the notebook? I like that cute little notebook.

[LE] - Because the notebook is an open invitation to everyone. This is a private party.

[DM] - I know what we have to talk about but this is Runes, so the boys aren't here. So why can't we use the notebook?

[EV] - Because they might read it next time we use it around them, obviously.

[LE] - Exactly. And we can't let Marles in on this.

[DM] - That explains the passing of the parchment under the table.

[EV] - Lils, I think she's finally catching on.

[DM] - I hate you sometimes, Em.

[LE] - Chill out, you two. We have business!

[EV] - Right. Operation hook-up Remus and Marlene needs to happen.

[DM] - And it needed to happen yesterday.

[EV] - No, it needed to happen the first day we got on the Hogwarts Express.

[DM] - First year.

[LE] - FOCUS, ladies! How are we supposed to do this?

[EV] - We meet in the Room of Requirement after Transfiguration because Marles is catching on to our strange behavior. ABORT! ABORT!

We need a place to talk in private with no interruptions. Pass one.

We need a place to talk in private with no interruptions. Pass two.

We need a place to talk in private with no interruptions. Pass three.

Suddenly a door appeared across from the familiar tapestry of trolls in tutus. We scurried in before anyone could see us.

"Haven't been in here since our last Patronus lesson," Emmeline mentioned. "Looks different."

Indeed it did. It wasn't quite so large and there were three giant bean bags in the center of the room.

"Speaking of Patronuses," I said, plopping into a giant green beanbag that appeared to swallow my small frame whole. "Did you ever conjure that corporeal one?"

"Yes!" Emmeline exclaimed, plopping herself into a purple one. "A leopard! Sirius was a great teacher."

"Oh?" Dorcas said, taking the third beanbag, a red one. "Do we need to hook you two up next?" she asked with a wink.

"No! Sirius is not boyfriend material. He's someone you go to for a good time," Emmeline answered.

"So, have you?" I asked her, grinning.

She blushed in response.

"MERLIN'S BEARD, YOU DID!" Dorcas exclaimed. Emmeline hid her face in her hands.

"I thought this was about lighting a fire under Remus and Marlene," she said, her voice muffled from her fingers.

"We have time. We're done with classes. We aren't going to the library for homework until after dinner. Talk," Dorcas said. "When was it? Was it just snogging? Or did you shag him senseless?"

"Dorcas!" Emmeline said. "I didn't shag him. We just snogged. A lot. And it was after Quidditch tryouts. Remember how we didn't meet up in James and Lily's room? We came here, instead."

"Oh, please tell me it wasn't in these beanbags," Dorcas said, squirming a little in her beanbag.

"No, no, no. Room gave us a bed," she said quietly, blushing again.

"You had a bed but didn't shag?" Dorcas asked, confused.

"I think if we kept going, we would have," Emmeline admitted. "But honestly? We were exhausted. James worked us to the bone. I think we both had all that leftover, pent-up stress and anxiety and just needed a release. He and I were returning from dinner alone and one the way back to the common room we passed by here, and I kissed him. He kissed me back, noticed where we were, paced, and the rest is history."

"Think it will happen again?" I asked her.

"Honestly, I don't know," Emmeline answered.

"You look upset about that," Dorcas commented with a grin.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a great time. The boy knows how to make a girl feel good," she said, relaxing back in her beanbag. We all laughed. She sat up and looked at me. "How's James, then?"

"What?" I said, confused with the sudden change in direction.

"How's James in the snogging department?" Emmeline repeated.

I felt the blood rise into my cheeks. "Aren't we here to talk about Remus and Marlene?" I asked meekly.

"Don't you try to pull that, too," Dorcas said. "Didn't work for Em, not working for you."

"He's bloody fabulous," I exclaimed, not being able to contain myself. I nearly rolled off the beanbag in my excitement. "Maybe it's a Marauder thing," I wondered aloud. "If that's the case, Marlene is a very lucky girl."

"Now I feel left out," Dorcas said, pouting.

"Peter's free," Emmeline said, grinning.

"Not happening," Dorcas said, flatly. She turned to Emmeline, "You haven't staked a claim on Sirius, right?"

"Dorcas!" Emmeline and I said in shock.

"What?"

"Lets get back to the subject at hand. Marlene and Remus," I said, shaking my head and laughing at the turn the topic has gone. "You guys saw them before tryouts, right?"

"Being all cute on the couch in your common room?" Emmeline asked.

I nodded in reply. "Remus and I had a chat in the Potions classroom when we were working on the Draught of Peace. Pretty much told him to suck it up and take a chance. The worse that can happen is that it doesn't work out because their relationship isn't like that. Their friendship is too strong to break over something like this."

"I agree there," Emmeline said with a nod of her head. "They've been friends forever."

"So I think we need to plant the idea in Moony's - I mean Remus's - head," I said. They looked at me funny. They still weren't used to my using their nicknames. "I spend a lot of time with James. Anyway, maybe plant the idea to take her to Hogsmeade on Saturday? I can talk to James tonight to make sure practice either doesn't happen or is early."

"Lils, that's brilliant!" Dorcas said.

"How do we plant the idea in Remus's head?" Emmeline asked.

"Easy," I smiled at her. She raised her eyebrow in response. I put on my best Marlene voice, "'Lils, make sure Remus is at Quidditch practice with you, okay?' Sound familiar?"

"You'll be in the stands with him on Wednesday!" Emmeline hit her own forehead, suddenly remembering the morning conversation.

"Maybe get him to corner her after?" Dorcas suggested.

"Make sure she doesn't leave the locker room until I can get him outside it," I told them.

"We need some sort of signal, then..." Emmeline wondered aloud.

"I have the perfect idea," I said. "Remember how tired you guys got the other day? After the party?" They nodded at me, looking confused. "Well, that was my, James, Alice, and Remus's doing. James's idea, my potion work, and Remus helped with execution."

"You slipped Sleeping Draught in our Butterbeer bottles when Remus was distracting us!"

I smiled sheepishly. "Yup, just enough to make sure none of you were awake in the common room when James posted the roster."

"You guys are good," Emmeline said, an impressed smile on her face.

"What does Alice have to do with anything?" Dorcas asked.

"Well, we had two pieces of parchment. Mine was a bunch of random phrases, and hers was made to look like a love letter from Frank. I cast a Protean Charm on it. She just had to transfigure the letters on hers and I'd get the message on mine. What if we did something similar?"

"What would we cast it on?" Dorcas asked.

We sat there in silence, thinking. If only we had two pendants... something with words, I wondered to myself.

"Lils..." Emmeline said, a confused tone to her voice. She was staring in the center of our circle. On the floor were four heart-shaped silver pendants on silver chains. I picked them up. On the front was the phrase that I read aloud, "A friend is someone who can see the truth and pain in you even when you are fooling everyone else."

"Aw! These are so sweet!" I said, examining them. "They're perfect!"

"And why are they here?" Emmeline asked, a little freaked out.

"Think of where we are, Em," Dorcas told her. "This place caters to your every need, as you may recall," she said, wiggling her eyebrows at her. Emmeline blushed.

"It wasn't the room that did that," she mumbled. Dorcas and I laughed until we clutched our sides.

"But why are there four?" Dorcas asked once she regained composure.

"Well, I thought how I wish we had charms or something. I guess the room realized we were talking about a fourth person, so now we each have one. If I cast the charm, we can all see the message. We'll just give hers to her after the fact," I said. I took out my wand and cast the Protean Charm on the necklaces. "Try it!" I said, handing them each a pendant and putting mine on. I slipped the fourth in my pocket.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Emmeline said, pointing her wand at the pendant.

"Whoa, it gets hot!" Dorcas said, jumping in shock.

"It's not that bad," I told her. I looked at the pendant's new message.

Testing, Testing, One Two Three!

"They work!" I exclaimed.

"We should keep them under our shirts, just in case. We don't want Marlene to see until after we do this," Dorcas said. We nodded in agreement.

"I'll give her the fourth at dinner that night," I said. "I really don't think it will be hard to convince Remus, though."

"How so?" Emmeline asked.

"He called her his 'potential-girlfriend' at breakfast when you all were attacking my boyfriend."

There eyes bugged out of their heads.

"Yeah, I commented that I will never see my boyfriend again. He said that 'he was worried that he'd never see his potential-girlfriend again.' It was adorable!" Let alone the Full Moon wasn't until next week but that's something that only the Marauders, Marlene, and myself need to worry about.

"Hands in, girls. It's time for action!" Dorcas said, putting her and in the center. We followed suit. "For Marlene!"

"For Marlene!" Emmeline and I said in unison.

Now it's time for step one: get James to make sure Quidditch practice doesn't screw us over.

"You guys are seriously playing matchmaker?" James asked me for the twentieth time since I returned from the Room of Requirement.

"Yes, I'm not going to explain it, again!" I already told him everything from Remus's comment at breakfast to what we were planning. "Now, Quidditch practice on Saturday. Is it happening or not?"

"I scheduled the pitch for nine in the morning. You got lucky," he said as he rolled his eyes.

"I have to talk to you about something else," I said, the tone of my voice changed to worry.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Well, when we were chatting in the Room of Requirement, Emmeline mentioned something that happened after Quidditch tryouts."

"You mean her and Padfoot?"

"You knew?"

"Yeah, he told me after it happened. But I thought I was the only one that knew."

"You were until tonight. She admitted it there but we keep that stuff within the group. I'm just concerned. Em's one of my best friends and has been since we were eleven. I don't want to see her get attached and get hurt."

"I am a little, too. Sirius does have a hit-and-run style to him but with how close the eight of us got this year, I don't think he's going to do anything to hurt her. That's why he confided in me after. He never confides in me about his latest fling but he did about Em."

"Really?" I still wasn't convinced. "I'm starting to love Padfoot like someone loves a little brother-"

"You're the same age," James said flatly, cutting me off.

"I love him like a little brother," I repeated with a grin, "but I will react harshly if anything happens to her."

James pulled me close, "I won't let that happen," he assured me, sealing the promise with a kiss.

Author's Note: The friendship quote is from www-dot-boardofwisdom-dot-com.