Chapter 3: Liebe und nicht krieg machen

Disclaimer

I hereby disclaim all to do with Harry Potter.

Author: Herb3

Story: Never let me go

Chapter Three: Liebe und nicht krieg machen

On the Morning that dawned Halloween, great big piles of amber, gold and red leaves could be seen littering the grounds of Hogwarts elegantly. The school was bursting with excitement as that evening after the Hogsmeade visit, Dumbledore was holding the annual Halloween feast. There were whirls of rumors going about on what the decorations would be. One fifth year swore up and down to the Marauders that Dumbledore was going to charm real skeletons to dance on the table tops. A fourth year girl said that there were going to be clouds of live bats that would follow idiots like Severus around. I of course docked her points for speaking so inappropriately. Most however believed that he was hiring a musical guest and as usual, there would be hoards of sweets to rot everyone's brains out.

Phoebe, however was quite preoccupied towards the end of the month, it was rather odd. She would blush at the most odd points of time and get really pale at others. She never spoke to neither Gwen nor I about it. Of course Gwen had her suspicions, and each and every one of them pointed back at Remus. I caught her gazing off into space during classes oddly. Because Phoebe O'haare didn't stare off into space for nothing... though it was quite a deal more odd that when the morning of Halloween did arrive that she announced that she had a date. Now of course it was only normal for Gwen to go crazy and ask her who It was so that she could give her consent and of course me to squeal and be merry. Even though Gwen would not show how happy she was for Phoebe, she was.

So when Phoebe left, Gwen of course rounded upon me and said,

"I'll bet you a billion and a half galleons that its Remus." she grinned.

I rolled my eyes at her while pouring myself some pumpkin juice.

"Maybe."

"No! Not maybe. Yes! it is I know it. I've got this happy feeling in my gut."

"Ok Miss I'm never finding love because it sucks."

"I just want everyone else to find it. Plus I've got to be strong." she said haughtily.

"Sure Gwen. Sure. But when this bites you in the arse dont expect me not to say that I told you so."

"Yeah, ok Lily boo."

It was at this moment that a rather familiar Tenor voice came from behind us.

"Good Morning Ladies."

Gwen growled and stabbed her banger.

"Good Morning Sirius." I said before taking a bite out of my toast.

He descended into the spot next to Gwen who glared at her food.

"Good Morning Lily, Gwen." James said before sitting down next to me.

I looked up at him.

"Good Morning James."

Gwen looked over at us and smirked so I sent her a rather disapproving look. She characteristically rolled her eyes and stuck a piece of egg in her mouth.

"So what might you two fine ladies be doing in the village today.

"Avoiding idiots like you." Gwen spat.

"Aww now Gwenie poo... let us not get too shrewy this morning." Sirius said descending an arm around her shoulder.

She looked up at him in disgust and shrugged the offending arm off. It did little good however, because he just put it right back.

I sighed.

"Can we please just eat in peace?"

"Sure Lily boo, you know my motto. Lieben nicht krieg."

"And what does that exactly mean?" Sirius asked with a sausage hanging half out of his mouth.

Gwen rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Love not war Black."

"Again, Peaceful breakfast Gwen." James smiled.

"Sure..."

"So really, what are you two doing today?" Sirius asked again.

Gwen glowered at him, her face turning a scarlet shade of red.

"We dunno Black but be sure that we will try our hardest to avoid you."

"Oh my dear sweet Gwendolyn, when will you see?"

"Only in your dreams Black."

"Oh and you do star in quite a lot of them my dear Gwen. They usually involve the Quidditch pitch and a moon with lots of nakedness."

Gwen's face if possible got even redder. So I naturally decided to intervene in this stupid charade they had going.

"I've got a date today."

Gwen tore her murderous eyes off of Sirius and focused on me. James looked confused with his goblet half way to his face and Sirius just smiled.

"Well done Lily bean. Who's the lucky guy?"

Gwen narrowed her eyes.

"Yeah and why pray tell haven't you told me?"

"Err well... I didn't want to give you any ammunition."

"For what?..."

She thought.

"Merlin! You've finally realized."

Sirius and James looked confused.

"Realized what?" Sirius asked.

I turned to James who was still sitting with his goblet half way to his mouth. I pulled a rather bewildered look to my face.

"You haven't told him?"

"Err..."

"I would have thought you'd be bragging." I smiled coyly.

He just looked at me bewildered for a moment before he caught on to what I was doing.

He grinned

"Well no. I thought that it would piss you off so I just kept quiet."

Sirius's eyes grew. His jaws dropped. And then he looked like he was going to cry.

"Prongs! How could you not tell me...?"

"Pads..."

"Me? Your own best friend. Adopted brother."

"Padfoot."

"How could you Prongs..? you wound me so..."

"Sirius listen..."

"No Lily, and you too? I thought we'd become friends."

"Black cool your jets. Shouldn't we be happy for them? Now that Lily's got her head out of her arse and realized that she fancies him?"

"But I'm so hurt."

"Stop being a drama king Sirius."

"But I'm not Prongs."

James rolled his eyes.

"Look mate, I'm sorry. Its only a date."

"Ok fine then. When I actually get the love of my life to agree to go on a date with me I wont tell you until the day of." he pulled a fake sob. "And then you will see the pain that I'm going through." he sniffed. "I thought we were friends? And you didn't even tell me? After all we've been through?"

"Again Sirius, please stop being such a damn drama king. I highly doubt that you will ever in this lifetime get Gwen to agree to go on a date with you." James smirked.

Gwen laughed.

Sirius glowered.

"Who says that its her?" he spat.

"Got a problem Black?"

Gwen said narrowing her eyes.

"With you always."

"Well you can take your problems to your convenient slut Rita and get them sorted out there."

"Fuck you Ackles."

"Merlin knows that I hope its not you."

I frowned.

"Ok you two. Stop. Sirius we're sorry we didn't tell you. If its any consolation James will name you his first child's godfather."

James turned to me with a glare.

"What? Like I want that prat turning my son into a damn man whore?"

"I take personal offense to that."

"I'm agreeing with James here Lily. Are you bloody mad? And you do realize that there is a high percent chance that this child you speak of might be yours too.?"

"I have faith in him."

Sirius puffed his chest proudly.

"Thank you Lily bean."

"Well we should probably head out then eh?"

I smiled at James.

"Sure. You'll be ok with Sirius right Gwen?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"No."

She frowned.

"Where is Peter? I can actually stand his presence."

James smirked.

"He's on a date. He wouldn't quite say who he's out with though."

Her face paled.

"So I'm stuck with him all day?"

"Yep."

She looked defeated.

"Fine."

I turned to James.

"Where is Remus?"

Sirius grinned.

"He is on a date. He would not tell us who with, but I'm pretty sure that we can all figure out who."

"Interesting. So James you ready?" I asked standing up.

"You bet." he told me following me out of the hall. When we were out of hearing range I turned to him.

"Thanks for doing this James. I'm just so sick of those two at each others necks all of the time."

"I completely agree with you. Remember when they actually used to be friends?"

That was true, up until our fourth year they were quite friendly with each other.

"Yeah. I wonder what did happen between them."

"I have no idea. He never told us."

"She was much the same. But regardless, thank you for going along with this anyways."

James grinned at me.

"Don't worry Lily. What are friends for?"

ooOO00OOoo

James and I ended up spending the entire day in the village. We visited a whole load of stores and shops including Honeydukes for their to die for chocolates; Zonko's for James's obsession with pranking, though he promised me that he'd only use them on Sirius which for some reason that I cannot fathom, I believed. Then we visited Skivinshafts so that I could get some new quills and parchment. On a whole we had quite a lot of fun together. The conversation was so normal and natural you'd think we'd been friends for years not months. It was only around noon time did we see both Gwen and Sirius walking out of the Quidditch store looking quite harassed and heavily annoyed. I looked up at James and grinned. He got my message.

We tried our hardest not to be recognized by anyone by stealthy ducking behind random students and hiding behind rubbage bins. The two of them were headed towards the Three Broomsticks when a rather familiar platinum haired girl bounded up to Sirius with an annoying giggle and a way too friendly smile. Gwen's eyes darkened half ready to rip the girls head off, she never did like Rita Skeeter much, but then not many people did. Skeeter flipped her blond hair back flirtatiously and giggled again before batting her eyes prettily.

"Oh Siri-boo." she cooed.

He looked at her in disdain before pulling a glower to his face.

"Go away Rita."

He steered Gwen into the pub trying to loose Skeeter. However it was in vain as she grabbed Sirius by the elbow and held him back.

"Sirius, I just want to have a little bit of fun."

"Well I want you to leave me alone." he barked at her in disgust.

He ripped his elbow from her and pushed Gwen into the pub.

James and I slipped through the door unnoticed and shrugged down into a booth next to theirs so that no one could see us. We both looked at each other and smirked, we'd be able to hear they're conversation.

"Sorry about Skeeter. She never could take a hint."

"Sure."

"Why don't I go and buy us some butterbeer on me yeah?"

Gwen nodded and he walked away.

He returned five minutes later with two large mugs of steaming hot butter beer. He placed one of them in front of her and smiled. She looked up at him and nodded her head in thanks. Then they just sat there for about twenty minutes in this disgustingly uncomfortable silence just drinking they're butterbeers and staring off into space.

"So..." Sirius started. "How's your sister liking Hogwarts?" he asked her trying to strike up a conversation.

Gwen sighed.

"She's liking it a lot. She's already made some friends and is ahead in her studies." she replied with a small smile.

He matched her smile.

"Well that's good then yeah?"

"Yeah. She's happy too, so therefore I'm happy."

"Good. Good."

The tension was then broken between the two when Gwen stood up and said,

"Lets go back to the castle yeah? I challenge you to a chess match."

"Your so on Ackles." he said bounding to the door.

They left by racing each other down the street and back up to the castle. I turned to James.

"Well that solves it." James said sitting up.

"Solves what? They're insanity?"

He laughed.

"True, those two are completely bonkers."

"Yeah bonkers for each other."

We got lost laughing.

"I wonder where Remus really is?"

"On a date remember?"

"Oh yeah, though I just wonder who with though." I said sarcastically.

"Want to find out?" he asked mischievously.

He started to grin.

"And just how are we going to do that?"

He grinned wider before grabbing my arm and dragging me from the pub.

"Come on."

We turned down high street and ran to the edge of the village to a meadow behind some trees.

"Look." James said pointing to a rock.

I looked to where he was pointing and grinned. There sitting was Remus and to my intense pleasure so was Phoebe. They were just sitting peacefully observing the landscape.

"Phoebe?"

Remus asked her gently.

"Yes Remus?"

"Umm, I just wanted to tell you that I... I had a really good time today and if you erm well... if you err wanted we should do this again... sometime."

By this time Remus of course was beet red.

She smiled and laid her head upon his shoulder.

"I had a really good time too Remus, and I'd absolutely love to do this again."

"Really?... I mean cool."

Phoebe giggled at him.

"Yes, cool."

He put his arm around her shoulders.

"I'm glad you had fun Phoebe."

"Did you?"

"More than I thought I would, because I was erm.. rather nervous and was sure I'd wreck this somehow."

"Oh Remus you never give yourself enough credit."

"Hmmn maybe."

I turned to James and smirked but he just pointed back to the rock. Remus and Phoebe were kissing. I looked back and smirked brighter. He smiled and motioned that we should turn away and let them have some privacy. We walked back through the wood to High Street where we made one last stop in Honeydukes to get some chocolate frogs for Grendel. Then we turned back to where the road was that would lead us back to Hogwarts. The feast that night was as magnificent as it always had been with the floating pumpkins and clouds of bats. Phoebe and Remus showed up blushing hand and hand; Gwen and Sirius showed up ten minutes late due to a chess game with an unspoken treaty hanging like curtains between the two; and Grendel showed up with her new friend Emmeline Vance a fellow first year of hers that had jet black hair, with Peter trailing along behind them looking at his shoes. We all sat down and listened to Dumbledore give his normal speech while McGonagall stared us all down making sure we weren't being disrespectful to him. We all talked and laughed and enjoyed the last Halloween feast in a merry atmosphere before retiring to bed to face the year to come.

Authors Note:

Well that's all for now folks.

Ta for now,

Herb3