The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

As the fifth years enjoyed their new freedom Lily noticed that Cassie was becoming more and more frustrated. At first it had been because she had finally discovered that it was Sirius Black who had been annoying her throughout their classes – something Lily, Alice and Mary had decided not to tell her, preferring to laugh at her angry expression when her books constantly disappeared or tiny parchment birds fluttered endlessly around her head with no visible culprit; Lily had been disapproving at first, especially since it was Sirius Black, but after a while the funny side showed through and they chose to keep it a secret from her – but then he stopped and she became even more irritable and jumpy.

It had been a sunny afternoon when Sirius had approached Cassie and asked her out, receiving in return not the answer he had been hoping for but rather an ear splitting and terrifying lecture on how he had been too mean to her for her ever to go out with him. When she had told him the girls had laughed at first but Lily could see that it had really bothered her friend – she was too insecure to say yes to anyone who approached her, especially if it was one of the Marauders who were known to delight in making fun of people and with whom none of the four girls had ever been friends. The fact that the number of boys who had asked Cassie out stood firmly at about two did nothing to aid Lily’s attempts at convincing her that she was beautiful and worth going out with.

Still for some unknown and mysterious reason, once Cassie had yelled at Black and told him to leave her alone, he had and this sudden cease of any interaction with him seemed to be taking its toll on Lily’s friend.

“It’s obvious that she likes him,” Mary said one day over a game of wizard’s chess.

“Pawn to C6,” Lily said. “I know but she’ll never give him a chance; I mean he’s annoying, he’s arrogant and he’s nearly as bad as Potter but he would never have actually done what she told him to if he didn’t like her. Those two don’t even listen to Lupin and Pettigrew sometimes so it must be serious.”

“No he’s Sirius,” Mary interjected dryly. “Bishop to A3.”

“I’d rather have her going out with Black and happy than moping around like she is,” Alice muttered.

“She spends nearly every lesson staring at him in a daze… it’s actually a little disturbing,” Mary added.

“We need to intervene,” Lily said decidedly. “Something has to happen. They need to talk to each other or it’ll get ridiculous.”

Alice looked at her as if she were insane. “I never thought I’d live to see you set your best friend up with the best friend of your mortal enemy. But then again Cassie and Sirius aren’t exactly the best of friends either so it’s a bit of a shock there too,” she said with a chuckle.

“Oh shut up. I just want her to be happy and if that means getting her and Sirius Black together I’ll do it,” Lily answered as she directed her knight across the board.

“You’re such a saint Lily Evans,” Alice said sarcastically.

“Check Lily,” Mary interrupted.

“Not quite.” Lily made a small adjustment to her bishop. “Checkmate.”

The next day Lily leant over to Cassie in Charms and began to work on her. “You have to talk to him Cassie,” she said, repeating herself over and over again throughout the day as she wore down her friend’s defences. It was hard work but eventually, with Alice and Mary’s help, she managed to twist Cassie’s arm into agreeing to go and talk to Sirius.

“This had better work Lil,” Mary muttered as they watched Cassie walk over to where he sat, under the same beech tree as always, the one where Sev-