INVISIBLE STRING

4.THE TALKS

And although their friendship was great and James had stopped bothering Lily about going out with him, the though of a romantic relationship still always lingered in the back of his mind when he looked at her. He tried to supress it at first, but when he noticed how that didn't work, he embraced it.

"Prongs, you're staring like a creep again", Sirius muttered, making Remus behind him snort.

"Oh believe me pads, he might be physically look at us, but the mental images in his head blend us out completely."

Sirius laughed, the movement making Remus behind / under him shiver. "You're probably right, I recon he's thinking about Evans now"

"I recon the same my handsome Padfood"

"Oh handsome hm?"

"oh shut it, will you?", Remus muttered, his right hand still playing with Sirius's hair, twisting the strands between his fingers and slightly massaging the scalp hidden under his dark brown curls.

Remus was rolling his eyes, but of course, Sirius couldn't see that.

But Remus also couldn't see the smile playing around Sirius' lips.

"You two are disgusting", Peter said from where he sat on his bed, still not upright and lying with his face pressed down into the mattress, his words muffled.

"Pete didn't know you were awake", Sirius stated.

"I'm not trying to stay awake. I just smelled couple in the air and that woke me up from my great slumber", Peter retorted, voice still barely audible through the matress.

"Pete! You're so right. See he wouldn't betray me like you two do", James directed the last part at Sirius and Remus before speaking to Peter again in an obvious stage whisper, "We gotta team up against the disgusting cuteness of their relationship!"

Now Sirius and Remus were rolling their eyes. Simultaneously. It looked almost creepy from where James was sitting.

James was fishing the last blue gummy worm out of the package, frowning at it already being finished.

"How much air do they pack those sweets with?", he complained, as he balled the packaging up to a roundish form and threw it across the room into the bright red trash can Remus had put there.

"15 points for Gryffindor!", Sirius cheered and clapped mockingly.

James smirked at his best friend, mockingly bowing for him and nearly falling of his bed in the process.

He only catched himself last minute, his facial expression one of horror, which made Sirius and Remus burst out into laughter, Peter had already dazed off again. After he took some time to adjust himself on his mattress again, James joined his friends, holding his tummy from the way he was laughing so hard.

Mary, Lily and Marlene had gone right back to their rooms after the incident happened.

They barely answered the boys questions and Lily was sure she would hear about it tomorrow, but for the time being, nobody could know about the mysterious girl who - against all laws of magic - appeared right on the grounds of Hogwarts like she had emerged out of thin air.

Mary was stress painting her nails again, the third layer of baby pink not nearly having dried long enough as she was painting on another one, this time midnight blue.

Contrary to Mary, Marlene had been Stress peeling off  her nail polish, only leaving behind little marks of where the black colour had once so proudly stood.

And Lily would have been baking, but because their room wasn't equipped with their own kitchen, she was knitting instead.

Lily had learned it over the summer from her grandmother and now it was her most frequently used coping mechanism to deal with stress and strangeness.

And the mystery girl, as the trio had been calling her, certainly met all of these criteria.

Marlene was the first to break the silence, her nails already pealed so now she had no other choice than to face the cause of her problems.

"So... What just happened?"

Mary put away the nail polish, storing it safely in the first drawer of her nightstand. It was holy to her and although her friends were allowed to use it, she even painted Sirius nails with it, everyone knew that opening that drawer without Mary's permission would be a death sentence.

Her nails were neither baby pink nor midnight blue, just like the cherry red and the sunflower yellow from two layers before had mixed to for a sunny orange, the blue and the pink mixed to what appeared to be a violet colour.

"I have no bloody idea and that creepy me out", Mary admitted, wrapping her arms around herself, careful as to not destroy her drying nails.

Lily put away her half finished second sock and started to chew on her lip.

"Well, let's just collect everything we know and maybe we'll figure it out."

It seemed to be as good of an idea as any else so the girls noddingly agreed. Marlene hopped off from her bed, grabbing a piece of parchment from the floor and searching for her quill.

"Has anyone of you seen my bloody-"

"Second drawer to the right, next to the CDs and lipgloss", Mary and Lily replied simultaneously, the answer coming automatic from how often Marlene was searching for her quill.

The three of them paused for a moment, just looking each other and then erupting into a fit of laughter and giggles.

"Okay, back to the topic", Marlene seriously said as she fished for her quill and a glass of ink and seated herself on the ottoman before her bed, staring into the soul of Lily and then Mary respectively.

Mary nodded and Lily cleared her throat.

"Uhm okay, so what do we now?"

"That is a... A fucking good question, that is."