Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, as JKR does.

Chapter 11

Later that night, the Marauders - including Lena - were sat up by the fire talking. They always liked to stay up late, whether it be in the common room or in the dormitory, to chat and generally mess about.

' So,' said Remus, cutting through one of the random silences that had fallen across the room - them being some of the only ones left up, despite it being only 10pm,' Lena has a talent for healing then? '

Lena shrugged,' I wouldn't call it healing as such - just a little something I learnt to help out Sirius when he's in one of his scrapes.'

James lifted up his shirt, showing off his bandages,' See? She's got me all fixed up.'

Lena rolled her eyes and went to pull down his shirt - wondering as she did why the boys were so open about their bodies. Her fingers skimmed his skin as she did so, causing an odd sensation to go shooting up her spine.

The feeling brought a rush of colour to her cheeks, and made her wonder why she was feeling like this, as she quickly withdrew her hand and let it fall into her lap.

Sirius noted her change in colour with suspicion, ' Are you alright? ' he asked, raising an eyebrow.

' Fine,' she muttered before standing up,' Actually, you know what? I think I'm a little tired ... I'm going to go to bed.'

Sirius nodded and gave her a one armed hug as she swooped down to kiss his cheek goodnight.

As she walked away, Selena stopped at the bottom of the staircase to the girls' dormitorys, and turned back to call out to her friends,' By the way, James I think you ought to get a good night's rest after that injury of yours.'

James - to the suprise of his friends - followed her orders and stood up, bidding the other 3 boys goodnight, before coming over to hug Lena 'goodnight' and being able to whisper in her ears with that closeness.

' Meet you back here in 10 minutes? ' he asked.

' 30,' she whispered very queitly.

' What?' he echoed with a hiss.

' Well,' she said sheepishly,' I have to make myself look beautiful. '

' Don't bother,' he disagreed,' you're perfect as you are. '

Another voice interrupted their hurried exchange. Sirius called out,' Are you two going to go to bed or stand there whispering all night? ' he asked irritably.

' Good night Sirius! ' his sister called out before whipsering to his best friend,' compromise. 15 minutes,' and disappearing up the staircase.

Once in her room, Lena saw that her four room mates were asleep, so cast a quick silencing charm over her self and the area surrounding her bed and belongings so as not to wake anyone or be found out.

It took her the best part of 10 minutes to pick out an outfit, and the last five to fix her hair and add a quick bit of make up.

She left the dormitory after having drawn the curtains around her bed and when she got to the bottom of the staircase, she thought that James wsn't there - only for something warm to swish over her body and the heat of another human come close to her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she saw that James had thrown his invisibility cloak over her, and moved close enough to her so that they would both be concealed by the cloak.

Luckily Selena was petite - both slim and short - so the cloak covered both her and James fine, but it was often a struggle when more than two of the tall, well built boys wanted to use it.

James simply stood and looked her up and down and let out a low whistle, which earned him a smack to the back of the head from his companion.

Luckily, only Remus turned around from the sofas to look in their direction, and he seemed to pass the noise off as nothing - or so they hoped.

The paur of miscreants then hurried from the common room and once they were in the corridor, James tried to speak to her, but she shushed him by concentrating on the Marauders Map until they arrived at the statue of the one eyed witch.

Once James had spoken the correct incantation and he and his companion were safely in the passage and out of sight, Lena lit her wand up and glared at James.

' You are such an idiot,' she hissed,' what if Sirius' had heard? '

James rolled his eyes,' So what if he had - we'd have just had to tell them the truth.'

' We couldn't do that! ' Lena exclaimed.

James repeated his eye movement as they advanced down the passageway slowly and carefully,' So they'd have ended up coming with us - it wouldn't have been that bad.'

Lena scoffed,' Yeah, right. How do you think it would look to Sirius if his well dressed, done up sister and his best male friend are sneaking off together in the middle of the night? '

James paled a little,' Sirius would kill me if he thought there was something going on. There's rules about stuff likie this - you can't date a guy's little sister... not that we're dating, I mean.'

' No, we're not,' she said quietly,' and I'm not much younger than he is anyway.'

' You know what I mean. But we really ought to keep this a secret, hadn't we? We don't want him getting the wrong idea, now. ' Here he ruffled his raven coloured hair nervously.

Lena laughed and reached up to knock his hand aside,' Leave your hair alone,' she laughed,' it's messy enough as it is.'

James grabbed hold of her hand to stop her interfering and kept hold of her fingers for a few moments. He then moved as if he was going to embrace her but thought the better of it and leaned forward to pull open the door that led to the cellar of The Three Broomsticks.

Lena paused a moment, her eyes lingering on James, but she moved through the doorway regardless and headed for the other doorway - which would lead to the alley way behind the pub, so they could go for a walk around the village and the surrounding area.

It wouldn't budge.

' James? We're out of luck,' she sighed.

' What do you mean? ' he blinked.

' Door's locked.'

' Then unlock it,' he said as if ti were obvious, as he pulled out his wand and muttered and incantation to unlock it. It still didn't move.

' Protective spells againstr the Alohamora,' he told the other teenager,' bet that's because of trouble with thieves.'

' And I bet those theives were you and Sirius on a sneaky little trip like this one,' Lena grinned.

James shrugged,' Yeah, well, it looks like our sneaky little trip is over anyway. We've no where to go.'

Lena laughed,' James, don't be so naive. This is you I'm talking to, but you can't think of something to do in an empty pub cellar.'

James looked rather startled,' Merlin, Selena, I don't think that you and I should do ... that. It wouldn't be right for us.'

Lena swatted at his arm and shook her head,' Not that. Maybe if we were Sirius and one of his whores, but no. I meant ... look at all this alcohol. What could we do with all that, hmmn? '

James breathed a sigh of relief as he looked around at all the cardboard boxes,' But, isn't that stealing? '

' And when have you worried about that. Besides. it's not stealing if we leave money behind, is it? '

' I like the way you think, Lena,' he nodded sitting himself on the ground and reaching into one of the many cardboard boxes to pull out a bottle of Firewhisky, and to toss it to Lena, who sat herself down opposite him.

They each drunk a bottle whilst they spoke, before taking another. Lena drunk hers quicker than James, and was onto her fourth by the time he took his second. James thought nothing of it at first, until a while later when he looked at the bottles on the ground around them.

He knew he was drunk 4, and that since he handled his drink well, he was still in the right state of mind, and not drunk. As he counted the bottles, he realised that Lena had drunk 8.

It didn't help that she had never been one who could handle her drink too well - and firewhisky, well it was strong, so 8 of them? She was well and truly drunk.

As his friend reached for her 9th bottle, James knew that he ought to stop her before she did herself some serious damage, so stood up and grasped her wrists, pulling her to her feet too.

' We need to be going back,' he said,' It's 3 in the morning and we have lessons tomorrow.'

' Leshons shmeshons,' she slurred trying to be free of his grip,' whadda you care? '

' About lessons? Usually nothing. But you're going to have one hell of a hangover and your protective brother will kill me if we can't cover it up.'

' B-but I wanna 'nother,' she whined.

' Not today, Princess,' he sighed, steering her back throught the trapdoor to Hogwarts.

Once they were in the passage way, Lena turned to pout rather badly at James,' You spoi - spoil everyfin,' she told him sloppily.

' It's for your own good. What would Sirius do to us if he find out? '

She shrugged and stumbled a bit,' Sh-shiriush lovesh me, he won' c-care. He lovesh me, and you know who I l-l-love? '

' Let's not get into this,' James said, although he ached to know,' you'll regret it in the morning. '

' No! ' Lena suddenly said rather fiercley. She spun around and placed both hands on James' chest, pushing him against the wall and pressing herself up close to him. Her hands roamed up his body and James was torn between the odd emotions of longing which pulled his body and heart, and the sense of right and wrong which told im everything about this situation was wrong.

His longing took over when he found his own lips being capured by the softer, sweeter lips of his very inhibited friend. When their lips met, even thought it was a strange drunken kiss, he found it rather pleasing. This was suprising - he had never had feelings like this before for her had he?

It was only when he felt his belt being tugged sharply, that he realised what he was doing, and gently pushed her away.

' We can't do this,' he told her.

' Awww,' she sighed,' but I love you! '

' No,' he countered,' no you don't. You're awfully drunk and you'll regret this tommorrow. In fact, you wont even remember this tomorrow.'

This earned him a glare before Lena tried to storm off only to trip uo mere feet away, and for him to decide this was going to take too long, and to pick her up in a bridal style and proceed to carry her back to the common room.

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