Chapter 24:
After dinner, Sirius made his way to the empty charms classroom to meet Louise. James walked with him, "so you know what you're doing?"
"Yeah, I just put on the old Sirius charm, win her over, maybe kiss her a few times and then dump her in the most public, embarrassing way possible?"
"Sounds about right," James said, hitting his best friend on the back, "you can do this! I'll see you later." James walked away leaving Sirius behind. Sirius walked into the classroom to wait for Louise. Ten minutes later Louise walked into the room.
"Hi Sirius," Louise said nervously.
"Hi," Sirius smiled.
"So," Louise continued awkwardly, "we should practice…"
Sirius nodded, "sounds good."
"So the song is really simple. The Latin verses are the exact same as the English verses just…"
"Just in Latin?" Sirius joked.
"Exactly," Louise smiled at him, turning slightly red in the cheeks. Maybe you should try singing it… I brought my gramophone so we could play the music."
"Where's Sirius?" Remus asked as they all sat together in the Gryffindor common room.
"He's on a date," James said quickly. Rachel curled up at his side. She had been with him all day and James was getting slightly fed up of her constant presence.
"A date? Who with?" Marlene asked.
James looked around the room, "where's Peter?"
"Erm, gone down to the kitchen with Mary I think," Alice said.
"He's on a date with Louise. You know that girl from the frog choir?" James answered them.
"The one who was horrible to Peter?" Lily asked, "what's he doing going out with her?"
"Well… we have a plan to back at her for what she said about Pete." James replied honestly. "It was either this or hex her."
"That's terrible," Lily frowned.
"She deserves it," Remus said.
"Usually you're the one telling us we're going too far," James laughed.
"She was a complete bitch to Peter," Remus, shrugging her shoulders, "we stick together – we're the marauders after all."
"I can't believe you agree with them," Lily complained.
"Lily you forget that I am one of them," Remus said jokingly.
"Humph."
"Apparently, Evans given up on the English language. Apparently words don't express her anger enough." James laughed.
"Whatever Potter!" Lily snapped.
James sighed, "Anyway. Today was a good day." James turned towards the others. "Did anyone else think that Peter and Mary were kind of cute?"
"Yeah! I soooo saw that," Kate giggled.
"What?" Lily raised an eyebrow, "Mary MacDonald and Peter Pettigrew? Are you serious?"
"Yeah. Believe it or not they were adorable," Marlene said. "So Sirius isn't serious about this Louise girl. It's just a prank?"
"Just a prank," James nodded.
"Are you feeling slightly…" Remus began.
James cut across him, "don't embarrass the poor girl." James winked at Marlene.
"So what's the plan for tomorrow, James?" Rachel asked.
"Er, I'm not sure. I was thinking of spending the morning flying with Sirius and then working on homework in the afternoon. So you should probably just spend the day with your friends. I'm not really going to be much fun."
"Oh ok," Rachel moped.
"Don't look so down about it," James laughed, "we spent the whole day together today."
"I know. It's just that well I kind of enjoyed spending time with you James."
"Yeah, me too," James smiled briefly.
"I'm going to go to bed. Night," Rachel said quietly.
"Night Rach," James said, kissing her on the cheek.
Rachel made her way up the stairs, leaving the second years alone.
"Guys what should I do?" James asked, shaking his head gently. "I mean she's hot but she's driving me mental!"
"I don't know. Maybe you should just end it," Remus offered.
"You can't just end it," Lily scolded them, "that's just cruel."
"Isn't it crueler to stay with her?" James asked.
"It's not even been a week! Give it a week," Lily told him.
"A week?" James asked, "Then I can dump her?"
"It's up to you. I just think you should give her a fair chance." Lily explained.
"Say's you, who's dating two guys at once!" Kate laughed.
"Well… we're just getting to know each other," Lily blushed. "Besides, I never said I was in a relationship with Trevor. I just agreed to one date."
Sirius offered to walk Louise back to her common room. She was a Hufflepuff. They made their way down towards the kitchens. "Is the Hufflepuff common room near the kitchens?"
"Er – yeah," Louise answered secretively.
When they reached the portrait of the bowl of fruit, Louise turned to Sirius, "we should probably say goodbye here."
"I guess so," Sirius nodded.
"I'm quite impressed Sirius," Louise smiled.
"How come?" Sirius asked, uncertainly.
"My friends all told me to be wary of you. They told me that you'd be trying to drag me off into a broom closet in the first fifteen minutes."
Sirius laughed, "Sometimes I can be a gentleman." Sirius lifted his hand to play with her hair. Louise smiled.
"I can see that."
"Do you think we could do this again?" Sirius asked.
"Erm yeah sure. It's been quite fun."
"How about Tuesday night?" Sirius asked, running his hand through her hair.
"Ok. Cool. Sounds great."
"It's a date then," Sirius smiled, before leaning down to kiss her gently on the cheek. Sirius heard a noise behind him. When he turned, he saw Peter and Mary staring at them in shock.
"I'll see you later Sirius," Louise called as she walked slightly down the corridor before disappearing.
Peter didn't say anything. Instead he walked away from Sirius and towards the Gryffindor common room.
When they reached the common room, Peter turned on Sirius, "I don't get it. Why were you kissing that absolute cow?"
The other second years could hear Peter shouting through the portrait hole and came to see what was going on, "Oi get in here!"
The three of them entered the common room. "You were kissing Louise Mitchell!"
"Yes, I was. Well kind of. It was only on the cheek so it barely counts."
"After what she said," Peter huffed.
"Well yeah," Sirius grimaced.
"Pete can I explain?" James asked.
"I don't think anything can explain the fact that one of my best friends has betrayed me!"
"Don't be so melodramatic Peter," Remus said, "you've got the wrong end of the stick."
"Oh right," Peter snapped, "so now it's my fault. Stupid Peter just doesn't understand."
"That's not what we're saying," Remus frowned.
"After what she said, Sirius wanted to hex her, right then and there in the middle of practice but I convinced him that there are better ways to get her back. She humiliated you, embarrassed you so we're going to do the same to her!" James blurted out quickly.
"I'm making her fall for me so I can publicly break her heart," Sirius said proudly.
"That's terrible," Mary responded.
"You'd do that for me?" Peter asked.
"Of course man, we're – we're brothers." Sirius said in response. "Marauders through and through."
"We should write a code," Peter laughed, now feeling relieved.
"Don't be gay Pete," James said before whispering, "sounds great but it needs to be a secret." James winked at the slightly plump boy.
I thought I'd save the bad news from the outside world for the next chapter...
Next chapter...
The first week is over...
Bad news from the world outside Hogwarts...
Quidditch Tryouts...