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attraction

- moony -

When I wake with a start, sure I'd been having a nightmare but unable to remember even the smallest part of it, it's to a nearly empty dormitory. I sit up and look around, stretching my cramped back a little. Sirius is lying out on his bed rather grumpily, prodding a Cauldron Cake wrapper with the tip of his wand. Only two of the dormitory beds are made, and James' isn't one of them.

"Padfoot?" I ask groggily, and his shoulders tense a little in surprise before he turns over, pocketing his wand, to grin at me. "Why're you still up here?" Outside, the sun is shining, and everything is bright with light reflected off of the layer of snow on the ground. It has to be well past breakfast. Sirius is even fully dressed.

"Nothing to do," he tells me. "I thought about waking you up, but you looked like you'd had a right awful night, so I left you alone."

"I did," I admit, groaning and swinging my legs off the bed. "Where's James?" I would have expected Prongs and Padfoot to be off together, stirring up mischief... or at least down in the common room finding ways to frighten the first years while they waited for me to wake up.

Sirius waves a hand dismissively and replies, "Off with Evans somewhere." Then he sits up, brightening, and I watch him suspiciously. Obviously he's got news for me, and I can guess what lines it'll be along if James and Lily are together. "She's finally giving him the time of day. He's practically her love slave. She even," he laughs just at the thought, "convinced him that Snivellus isn't all that bad."

I laugh. "I guess we were right about her, then." I pull off my pajamas and yank my robes over my head before asking, "So, how'd all this come about? I missed a lot, going to bed early, didn't I?"

"You did," he agrees. He looks up at my hair and laughs, standing up to find a comb to toss me. I catch it less than deftly, but I manage not to drop it, and I begin to give my hair at least a halfway decent comb-through. Sirius continues, "So apparently, James chased Lily to the library, and she couldn't very well strangle him to death with the librarian there. They couldn't have a screaming match, either, or they'd get kicked out, so... I guess they ended up talking, and James 'saw the light', and they're getting along perfectly well, now. Typical girl." He grins. "She's perfectly happy with him when he sees things her way." He's at least half joking, which I suppose is better than being completely serious about saying that, since I don't think Lily's like that at all.

"Can't really blame him for being willing to say anything to make her like him," I comment, finishing up my hair and tossing the comb back to Sirius, who catches it almost badly as I did—which explains why he isn't on the Quidditch team, either. "He's liked her for ages, and he's finally managed to get her to treat him as more than the gum on her shoe." I'm exaggerating, of course, but to James it felt this way; he didn't understand why Lily didn't like him back.

Sirius nods, frowning, and apparently decides to change the subject. "Ready for the full moon tonight, Moony?"

I shudder, and I can see that Sirius regrets the question. "As ready as I've ever been, I guess," I murmur, but the nightmares are nipping at the back of my mind. "It'll be freezing," I comment, trying to sound as if I'm just making conversation about the weather. "Especially if it snows again."

"Sorry," he says quietly, and I look at him, surprised. "It's fun for us, but I know what it was like for you when you were little... I guess I understand having nightmares about that."

I start to nod, but then I protest, "I haven't had nightmares, I've just been sleeping badly, I mean, the moon's almost full, that's got to have some effect on the werewolf..." I trail off, giving up. James probably told him how I woke him up Thursday night—or maybe it was in the wee hours of Friday morning. I guess it's no use denying that I was having nightmares.