OK, OK, so shall we continue? BTW, all the poems mentioned are real poems, and I did close reading practices on all of them last semester. "A Dream Deferred" was the one that came up in the real test. I can't remember who wrote them, but rest assured, I don't own the poems. The novel I mention is "Disgrace" by J.M Coetzee, and it did win a Nobel Prize, so go read it...if you think you can handle it. The main character's thought process is interesting...although not half as interesting as the thought process in "The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time" by Mark Haddon, not that anyone's interested...*whistles innocently*

Oh, and the wand polishing joke to grab my attention is based off a Simpsons episode in which a poster reads "SEX! Now that we have your attention, vote for Bart!"

Thanks for reviewing, Andrea. Which virtual Marauder would you like?

It felt weird to be alone in my room for once. There was only one time since anyone came out of my head that I slept alone, and that was on the night of the full moon, when I'd paralyzed Draco, and everyone else was out. I wondered about asking one of the boys to share my room, just because it felt lonely, but I decided against it. They were only a door away, after all.

Everyone had work the next day, so I let the boys take my car, and I took the bus to uni, going over techniques and essay questions in my head.

When I was there and the exam began, I turned the page...and felt relieved. I'd seen the close reading poem before, and I remembered everything I'd written about it. Unfortunately, it was "A Dream Deferred", instead of the easier "Nantucket" or "We Real Cool". But I did my best, explaining some of the more disgusting imagery, and the use of stanzas.

The short answer questions weren't too hard, and I wrote a long paragraph on how this character changed history, or how that story contributed to life now. The essay was the hardest bit, but luckily, one of the practice questions I'd used came up, and I was able to write all about the positive elements of an otherwise twisted and sometimes disturbing novel, even if it had won the author the Nobel prize for literature.

It was still a gruelling two hours, and I was pleased to have it over with. But as I walked out past the car park, ready to take the bus home, I heard a familiar horn greeting me, and voices yelling my name.

I stopped, and my car drew up beside me. James grinned at me from the passenger seat. "Come on, get in!" he said, adding to the two in the back, "Budge over and give her some room."

"That is, unless she wants to sit on your lap, Wormtail." Sirius quipped from the driver's seat.

I shook my head as I got into the car. I noticed that Remus was next to the opposite window and Peter was just shuffling onto the middle seat. I smiled at the guys, saying "No offence to anyone who would actually want a girl to hold right now, but I really would not want to crush a guy by jumping on their lap." I pulled my seatbelt on as we drove off. "So...aren't you guys supposed to be working?"

James turned around and winked mischievously. "We got what we call 'compassionate leave'." he said. "Besides, they're letting us go for the half-year break."

"And we thought we should celebrate the start of the break!" Sirius chimed in. "Of course, the main celebration starts later tonight, but we thought it would be a start to come pick you up."

"And what if I thought I'd failed?" I asked, making myself look dejected.

"You think that?" The smile faded from the faces of the two in the front seats.

"This is why you two should think before acting." Remus sighed, before asking "So, um, how did it go?"

I grinned again. "Don't worry, I think I passed. And thank you, Remus, for actually being considerate enough to ask."

The grins returned to everyone's faces. "Well then, it is time to celebrate!" James said dramatically.

I didn't have to guess about how the celebration was going to go. I knew these boys better than I ever had before, and I knew that throwing a party was their style.

"So I'm guessing that we're picking up some vodka on the way back?" I said, sighing. I didn't like alcohol myself, and although I had drank it before, I'd never liked the taste, the hangover, or the blanked out hours of the night before I'd crashed.

"Oh, we already got it." James assured me. "You know us, always prepared."

"But, isn't there only six of us in the house?" I asked. "That's not really much of a celebration in your eyes, is it?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised." Sirius muttered quietly. I heard, but didn't comment.

But hey, he was right. At precisely eight thirty that night, I was lying on the couch, reading a book. Draco was lounging on the floor, watching TV (for a superior pureblood who showed disdain for anything from the non-magical world, he really liked Muggle technology), and I had no idea where the others were. Anyway, the four of them appeared in the doorway the second the clock's second hand reached the 6. I looked up at them and smiled.

"WAND POLISHING SESSIONS! Now that we have your attention..." James laughed (I started giggling at the innuendo), "You, go get dressed in something more...well, feminine. Take more than ten minutes and we come in. Take ten minutes or less and be prepared to know the power."

"She always takes ages." Draco drawled from the floor. "Be prepared indeed."

I didn't know what he was on about, but I obediently put on my leather skirt, stripy top and leather jacket. I decided to wear my silver boots, and going all out, I redid my eye makeup and brushed my hair out so it was straight and shiny.

There was a knock on the door. "You have one minute left!" Sirius' voice called through the door.

I rolled my eyes and called back "I'm ready!"

I was ready to leave the room...but I wasn't prepared for Sirius to fling the door open and then look me up and down. That damn sexy smirk that all pureblood wizards seemed to have (but was far more effective on this face) appeared.

I covered up my surprise and slight nervousness by smirking back. "See something you like?"

"I always have." Sirius teased, before, without any warning, he picked me up bridal style and started carrying me out of the room.
"Sirius Black, put me down!" I hollered. No matter that it was possibly the hottest guy in the wizarding world, I did NOT like being carried without any warning, although...I had to admit, if I'd had warning, I wouldn't have minded so much.

Sirius just grinned at my discomfort. "Certainly." He set me down.

"Warn me next time you do that." I muttered. "Why did you, anyway?"

Sirius shrugged. "For fun. Most girls would give anything to have me carry them around like that."

"Yeah, yeah, we all know how modest you are." I muttered. "So why did I need to be down in ten minutes?"

We'd gotten to the end of the hall by this point, and I was definitely not prepared for that "power" James was talking about. I was greeted by the music from my Michael Jackson CD blaring out. The song playing at that moment was "Billie Jean". They'd obviously made a playlist from my CDs, rather than from wizarding bands.

But it wasn't just the music that threw me back. It was the people. It seemed like there were at least fifty. And the boys had completely transformed the house into a pop-up club for the night.

I didn't know most of the people, so I asked the boys.

"We found a way to bring people from our world here temporarily." Remus explained to me, as he was the only one that didn't immediately become the centre of the party. "They'll have gone by six-thirty tomorrow morning, though. The others thought that if we were going to celebrate, they should bring everyone sixteen and over from Gryffindor Tower in our seventh year. They even managed to get them to bring some Firewhiskey."

Another song began, by Avril Lavigne. Even though it was five years since I'd religiously listened to every CD of hers that I could get my hands on, I still liked it, and it was one of her newer songs, "Smile".

"You know that I'm a crazy b*tch, I do what I want when I feel like it!

All I wanna do is lose control..."

Hey, it was my party, so I decided to go and have fun. Things got a bit blurred after that...I think I forgot the number one rule of parties: Never let your drink out of your sight. As I've already said, I didn't like alcohol, so I didn't pour myself any. But judging by the rest of the evening, I'm pretty sure someone spiked my Chi (herbal lemonade). My clearest memory was just dancing and even that's a bit blurry. The clearest thing was the sound, and Lavigne's voice singing the second verse of "Smile", and I think that's just because it fitted my situation: "Last night I blacked out I think, what did you, what did you put in my drink?

I remember making out and then...

I woke up with a new tattoo, your name was on me and my name was on you.

I would do it all over again..."

I think I got one dance with all of the boys (including the ones I didn't know), but apart from that, all I had to go by was what I woke up to the next morning.

So what DID I wake up to the next morning? Well, you'll have to wait and see. And review.