the secret of Erised {s.b.}

chapter 12: turning

"He looks so good," A Hufflepuff girl whispered to her friend.

"I know !" the other one replied, "I mean, I always knew he was attractive, but this is something else..."

Those were the types of comments that had followed Sirius around school ever since they got back from summer break and began their fifth year at Hogwarts. Like every other teenage boy, he enjoyed the attention and the constant comments that girls would say about him, but after a while, he got tired of everything. It hadn't been twenty-four hours since they returned and three different girls had already asked him out. 

"I don't understand how you're not taking advantage of this, Padfoot," Remus said taking Sirius' mind off Esmeralda, "If I got that type of attention I would -"

"Oh, please !" Peter said, "What would the nice and polite Remus Lupin do with all of that attention ?"

"You're too pure to know that sort of information," he replied.

Sirius chuckled and shook his head.

"Moony, be my guest," he said, "I would rather you snog them than Peter."

"Oi "!

"Sorry, Wormtail. I'm just stating facts,"

"Whatever," Peter replied, "Where's James ?"

"Probably stalking Lily again," Remus said as he shook his head, "Is he not going to get that she is not interested ?"

"How do you know that ?" Sirius asked, "People change all the time."

Remus scoffed at his friend's ignorance. For five years James had been nothing but arrogant and, honestly, rude to Lily Evans. He had no sense of respect for the girl's privacy and personal space.

"We haven't been here for a full day and I just know that he has asked her out at least six times," Remus said.

"Actually," James said as he caught up with his friends, "It's been eleven times already."

Sirius high fived him and Remus rolled his eyes. Peter tried to get a high five from James, but he was too slow so he quickly high fived himself.

"Would you leave the poor girl alone ?" Remus asked as the four of them turned the corner of the corridor, "She is a human being."

"Oh, you're the one to talk !" Sirius said, "Two minutes ago you were saying that you would love getting the attention I get from girls."

"Exactly," Peter agreed, "We didn't let you finish, but Merlin knows what you would've said if we would've let you."

"That's different," Remus argued.

James and Sirius raised their eyebrows at him and pursed their lips. Peter shook his head and patted Remus' back sarcastically.

"Sure, mate," Sirius said.

"Whatever you say, Mr. Prefect,"

After all of their lessons, the Marauders were in their usual Seats in the Common Room. It was their first full day of classes which was always tiring due to the fact that they hadn't done magic in months. The only spell they performed during the summer was the Animagus spell that they had to do in order for the potion to work. Since all of them lived with other witches and wizards in the house, the Ministry did not notice any underage magic in any of their households. Also, the Animagus spell was so rare and controlled by the Ministry that Animagus spell activity was not monitored outside of the Ministry.