chapter 9

Two weeks later, the scratches on the four Marauders were beginning to fade. They loved hanging out with their werewolf friend, but they sometimes wished he wasn't so violent. Sure, a few scratches were quite hot to the girl, but having half your face in bandages was an entirely different story.

"James?"

James opened his eyes and wondered how he could have fallen asleep in the kitchens. He also wondered where his friends had gone. Well, Sirius had gone to bed early as usual – the kid fell asleep even before dinner and they weren't able to wake him up with anything – but he thought Remus and Peter had come to the kitchens with him.

"James, do you hear me?"

James looked up and saw Laura looking at him worriedly. He smiled at her, and wondered why she looked so concerned.

"Yeah," he answered, "What's wrong?"

"You're asleep in the kitchens and it's past midnight already," she explained, "I thought you were ill or depressed or something."

He laughed and shook his head, "No need to worry, princess. I'm just tired… and worried," he added.

Laura grabbed a chair and sat in front of him. She stole one of the cupcakes he'd ordered from the house-elves and took a bite from it, while studying his face intently.

"What are you worried about?" she asked softly when she'd swallowed her bite.

"Sirius," James answered truthfully. She sighed and nodded comprehensively, yet looked at him questioningly. Her face was like an invitation to tell her all about what was bothering him. An invitation James accepted with both hands.

"I don't know what's wrong with him, Laura," James sighed, "He barely eats and when we try to force-feed him, he gets mad. He sleeps so much lately, it can't be healthy anymore! I think he sleeps over 20 hours every day. Can you imagine? Everywhere you see him, he's asleep."

"He hasn't talked to me in nearly a month," Laura added, "and every time he crosses my path, he either ignores me or glares at me."

"Yeah," James sighed, "He's a total jerk lately. All we do is fight, over every little thing. It's so annoying. No, he's so annoying! He's my best friend and I would trust him with my life if I had to, but lately, I don't even want to come near him. I don't know what has gotten into him, but all he does is shout at us and complaint. He has terrible mood swings. And he takes awfully long showers, at least twice a day."

"What has that to do with anything?" Laura asked not understanding.

"I don't know, Lau…" James covered his face with his hands, "I just really want to help him, and he just won't let me, you know?"

"I know," Laura whispered, sounding depressed. They were silent for a moment and when James looked up at her, he noticed she was crying.

"Hey," he mumbled, taking her in his arms, "I'm sure everything will be okay. Don't cry, Laura."

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, while clinging to him and burying her face in his shoulder, "I'm being all pathetic and weak. I just miss him, James… I really really like him and now he won't talk to me anymore and I don't know what I've done wrong."

"You've done nothing wrong," James assured her and he stroke her back comfortingly, "And you're not at all being all pathetic and weak. I'm here for you, you know that."

"I know," she sniffled, "I'm sorry, James"

"Don't be," he whispered, "Really, don't be."

They sat in silence for a little longer, hugging each other. James heard Laura's sobs subdue but didn't let go of her. She'd push him away if she felt the need to.

"James?" she asked after a while. He hummed in response.

"How about we go back to the common room?" she asked, "It's quite late already."

"Sure," he answered. He let go of her and yawned. She softly giggled and yawned as well. James grabbed his stuff and said goodnight to his favorite house-elves, who'd felt like it was their duty to stay up until their guest left.

"It's been two weeks since you last asked Lily out for a date," Laura stated, "When are you going to ask her out again?"

"I'm not going to ask her out again," James mumbled.

"What?" she asked, sounding surprised, shocked even, "Why not? I thought you loved her?"

"I do," he said, sounding a bit strangled, "more than anything in the world. But she doesn't love me back."

"So you just give up on her?"

"I guess…" he sighed.

"James," Laura said sincerely, "You have to fight for your love."

"I don't see you fighting for Sirius' love," James stated bitterly.

"I'm not in love with Sirius," she laughed, "I'm in love with Chris, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah…" he grinned.

"Seriously, you can't just give up because she's not interested. You just have to fight harder," Laura said, "You don't see Caroline giving up on Nina either, do you?"

"What?" James asked.

"Oh, Merlin…" Laura covered her mouth with her hands and stared at James in shock, "I shouldn't have told you that. You were not supposed to know. No one was."

"Tannys is in love with Ravenclaw Nina Sanders?" James asked flabbergasted.

"Yes. You have a problem with that?" Laura asked defensively.

"No…" James shook his head, "No, not at all. It's just that… I should have seen this coming. I kind of caught them in the library two weeks ago. Of course they seemed nervous. Shit… I ruined it all for her, didn't I? No wonder she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you, James," Laura laughed, "She's just a bit jealous. You and Sirius get all the hot girls in school. That's quite hard for a lesbian, you know. Every time you fall in love, the girl is in love with you or Sirius. I would be jealous too if I were her."

"Oh…" James mumbled, a bit embarrassed.

"And I don't think you ruined it all for them, since, last time I checked, things were going quite smoothly between the two of them," Laura smiled, "I give them one more week at most, and then they're together."

"You do that kind of stuff?" James asked surprised.

"What kind of stuff?" Laura answered equally surprised.

"Setting dates on someone else's relationship," he explained.

"Sure," Laura smiled, "Why not?"

"How long do you think until Lily and I…?" James asked carefully.

"Oh no, James," Laura shook her head, "You and Lily go way back. I'm not putting dates on you two, 'cause I'm not even sure the two of you will ever be together. No offense."

"None taken," James sighed, a little depressed.

"Mouse tail," Laura said, next to him.

"What?" he asked, thinking he hadn't heard right.

"That's the password, silly," she grinned, "We're here."

"Oh…" James grinned as well, "Right."

He let her climb in first and followed shortly. They paused a minute in front of the doors that leaded to the stairs to the dormitories and smiled at each other.

"I had a nice talk," Laura said.

"Me too," James confirmed, "Why were you looking for me, actually?"

"Looking for you?" Laura laughed, "I wasn't. I was looking for food, 'cause I was hungry."

"Oh," James laughed too, "How come you know where the kitchens are?"

"Sirius showed me in our second year," Laura smiled and gave him a quick hug, "Now, sleep tight. I'll see you in a couple of hours."

"Great," James groaned, "Only a couple of hours of sleep left… See you later, Lau."

They parted and James dove into his bed, without bothering to take of his clothes. They were wrinkled already anyway. He sighed and fell asleep.

He woke up a couple of hours later by someone shaking him. He moaned in annoyance and tried to push his attacker away without having to open his eyes. It couldn't be morning already. It felt as if it were still in the middle of the night. But he realized it couldn't be the middle of the night, 'cause he'd had a nice talk to Laura back then.

"What?" he groaned.

"Welcome to the land of living," Remus said, "I'm glad you've decided to wake up. We couldn't wake you up in the kitchens, so we just let you sleep. How did you get here?"

"Laura," James mumbled and hid his face under his pillow.

"Aha," Remus said, "So you're chasing her now?"

"I ain't chasing no one, Moony," James answered annoyed.

"Not even your 'Lilyflower'?" Remus asked mockingly.

James did open his eyes now. He pushed away the pillow and looked at his favorite werewolf. He thought over the conversation he and Laura had had and shook his head. This time, she was wrong.

"No, Moony," he sighed, "Not even Evans."

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