CHAPTER 5
Once I was in the Shrieking Shack, I ran up some stairs and found a room with a large mattress in the middle of the floor. One sniff was all it took for me to realize that was where Remus normally slept when he was in here. There were three piles of blankets in the room, indicating where the other three slept. I laid in the one that was obviously Sirius's and prayed that they wouldn't realize I wasn't in the castle when they came back that night.
Apparantly my prayers weren't meant to be answered because before long I heard footsteps. I closed my eyes so that I looked like I was sleeping.
"Any idea why she took off so suddenly?" James asked.
"I'm not sure, but she took one look at Sirius's face and went outside. Then when he left her outside the store, she turned and took off like a bat out of hell." Remus replied.
"She's sleeping." James muttered when they walked into the room.
"We should leave her until she wakes up." Remus said quietly.
"Sirius said he'd back off of her if you wanted her." James said suddenly. Remus didn't answer. I heard them walk away and a new set of footsteps entered the room. I quickly identified the smell as Sirius.
I heard a bark and lifted my head.
"Chris and Claire are worried sick about you." Sirius said, in his Animagus form.
"I don't see why." I said.
"Because they said you ran past them and wouldn't even stop." Sirius replied. I didn't say anything. We turned into humans and I allowed him to lead me back to the castle. Chris and Claire greeted me as soon as I stepped into the Common Room. Sirius left my side to join his friends by the fireplace.
"Are you alright?" Claire asked.
"I've been better. I think I'm just going to go on up to bed." I replied.
"Alright." they said.
In the middle of the night, I woke up. The other girls were dead asleep. I quickly located what had woken me up. A very familiar big black dog was sitting on the foot of my bed.
"Sirius, what are you doing in here?" I asked the black dog. He walked up to my pillow and licked my cheek before jumping down. I could tell by the way he kept looking back at me as he left that he wanted me to follow.
I followed him down to the common room where he turned into a human again. He avoided my gaze.
"Lizzie, I think it would be better for us to not be friends anymore." Sirius said.
"If that's what you think is best." I said. He nodded and went up to his dorm. I went back to bed.
The next morning, Claire dressed me again. When we walked past the Marauders, Sirius once again avoided my gaze. I sat in my normal seat across from Claire and Chris.
"So how long do we have before Sirius comes to get you this time?" Chris asked.
"I don't think Sirius is going to." I replied. A few minutes later, to my great surprise, Sirius came.
"Moony wants to borrow Lizzie for a while." He said, still not looking at me. I followed him back to the others. Remus got up and gestured for me to follow him. I followed him down to the lake.
"What happened last night? Sirius slipped out of the dorm in his dog form, and when he came back he acted like something inside him had died, and I noticed he wont even look at you now." Remus asked.
"Last night I woke up and he was sitting on the foot of my bed, and when I asked what he was doing there, he licked my cheek before going to the common room. I followed him and he turned into a human and said he thinks its better that me and him aren't friends anymore." I replied.
"He was crazy about you." Remus said.
"But I like someone else." I retorted.
"James?" Remus asked.
"No." I replied.
"Well other than him and Sirius, I really don't know who you'd like since Peter, James, Sirius, Chris, and I are the only guys that I know of that you talk to."
"Well…it was one of the people you mentioned." I replied. I was suddenly aware of the yellow cat sitting under a tree with a small brown dog. I knew it was Claire and Chris. I gave them a pointed look before turning back to Remus.
"I better go. Chris and Claire were under the impression I was only going to be gone for a few minutes." I said.
"I'll walk you back to the common room?" the way he said it sounded more like he was asking my permission. I smiled and we talked the whole way up there.
Chris and Claire did their part and were in the Common Room when we entered. I walked over to them. All of the Marauders were in the common room as well, to my dismay.
"So in the course of five days, you've become a Marauder…" Chris trailed off.
"Apparently." I replied.
"Well at least you're friends with him. But we still have a little over three weeks left." Claire said.
"True." I replied. James walked over.
"Sorry to interrupt, but there is a Marauders meeting, and Lizzie is obligated to come since she is a Marauder." James said. I followed him and to my surprise he led me to the dorm that the four male Marauders shared.
"As we all know, the Christmas ball is coming up in three weeks." Sirius said.
"Oh my gosh, you had to drag me up here for this?" I whispered to James.
"Wait a minute and you'll see why." James whispered back.
"And your point?" Remus asked. Sirius's eyes turned towards me for a split second.
"We should all have dates this year." Sirius replied.
"You've always had dates." Peter said.
"But you, Moony, and Lizzie haven't." James said.
"So?" I asked.
"So this year you three should really work on getting dates." Sirius said.
"No girl would ever go with me." Peter said.
"Theres a few that would." James pointed out.
"Who would go with a monster?" Remus asked.
"You're not a monster." I said before I could stop myself.
"Still, who would go with me?"
"I know a girl that would LOVE to go with you." Sirius said quickly.
"Who?" Remus asked.
"She'd kill me if I told you. But how about I have her meet you the night of the ball as a surprise date?" Sirius asked.
"I guess. As lon as its someone you think I'd like." Remus replied.
"Alright. I'll tell her now." Sirius said, walking out. I waited for a minute before saying I had to leave. Sirius met me at the bottom of the stairs.
"You need to get a mask so he doesn't recognize you." Sirius said.
"Already taken care of." Claire said, coming up behind me. I started to walk off, but Sirius grabbed my elbow.
"Lizzie." he said softly. I turned to look at him and noticed Claire had already left.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm sorry about last night. But Remus was convinced I was going to get you before he had the chance, so I had to do something." Sirius said quietly. I hugged him before walking away. When I looked back, he was smiling.
I went and sat by the lake. Half an hour later, Remus sat beside me.
"Padfoot seems more normal." I noted. Remus nodded.
"I had a talk with him about what you told me." Remus said. I glanced at him.
"So what's your opinion about Sirius's idea?" I asked.
"It would be a lot better if I knew who it was." he replied.
"Well, I don't know if you'll like her, but I know the girl and she's crazy over you." I said.
"Who is she?"
"I'm not allowed to say. That would defeat Sirius's whole plan." I replied.
"What's she look like?" he asked.
"She's got black hair. That's all you're getting." I laughed.
"Well that narrowed it down, but there's still a LOT of girls that could be the one he's planning." Remus said. "Please?"
"She's Gryffindor."
"Well I'm glad she's not a Slytherin." Remus said.
"Moony, I thought you were the one out of the group that didn't judge people like that."
"I don't normally, but I don't want the first person I go to a ball with to be a Slytherin." he replied. "You know, we have to get a nickname for you. It's kind of strange that the rest of us have one and you don't."
"Well I'll leave the nickname up to you four." I laughed. We went to the Common Room and found that the other three weren't there. Remus started up the stairs to the dorm while I stayed in the common room.
"Aren't you coming?" he asked. I caught up with him and we entered the dorm.
"Lizzie needs a nickname." Remus said the moment te rest of them looked up at us.
"Fang." Peter said.
"Furrybutt." Sirius laughed. I turned and glared at him.
"Oh yes, Sirius, I REALLY wanna be known as Furrybutt." I said sarcastically. He laughed.
"Well I can't think of anything else." James and Remus said.
"So I guess out of the two suggestions, Fang is best." I said. The others agreed.