Turning Tables

Chapter 30 - Again

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'So. Hogsmeade.' Sirius sat up on his bed and looked round the room expectantly. His statement was met with a certain amount of bafflement as each of his friends waited for him to elaborate. James stopped tapping his quill against his parchment, Remus looked up from his newspaper and Peter stopped searching the underneath of his bed for the three galleons he was certain he'd lost under there.

Obviously Sirius had been expecting more of a reaction, because he rolled his eyes and bounced forward until he was perched on the very foot of his bed, his eyes shining as he accompanied his words with expressive gestures.

'This Saturday is Hogsmeade. Just like the last Hogsmeade visit, I will be escorting the ravishing Ms McKinnon, and Prongs will no doubt be glued to the lovely Lily like a bowtruckle to a tree. I prefer not to speculate on what Pete will be doing, since I was unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of him with his hand up Wellbeck's shirt last time.'

Peter saluted proudly and promptly received a pillow in the face from Remus. Sirius laughed loudly at Peter's affronted face before he continued.

'Which brings us to the subject of Moony.' Remus immediately picked up his Daily Prophet and disappeared behind it again.

'Oi, none of that!' Sirius gestured with his wand and the newspaper soared out of Remus' hands and landed at the foot of James's old bed. Remus sighed and folded his arms defensively.

'What about me?'

'Well, you never told us how that little date you had with Huxley went, and I was just wondering if you were taking her again this time? Actually, let's be honest here, we were all wondering, but I'm the only one with the balls to ask you outright.' Sirius glanced at both James and Peter, who at least had the grace to look a little abashed.

Remus turned his head to stare out of the window for a moment or two before he huffed his frustration and turned back to his friends. 'Why don't you harass Frank about Hogsmeade visits?'

Sirius held up a hand to silence the others before any of them could speak. 'Hang on, I've got this one mates. To answer your question Moony: One; he's not here to harass, and two; there's no point, since we all know he's going with Alice and they are going to wander round in a world of their own like love's young dream.'

Remus let out a cynical sounding snort. 'You're not going to let this go are you?' Sirius grinned and shook his head, leaning forward in anticipation of a response.

Remus groaned and ran a hand through his air in a manner eerily reminiscent of James before he answered. 'Fine. If you must know, I haven't asked her yet, and I don't know if I'm going to.'

'What?'

'You bloody idiot!'

'Mate, sometimes I'm ashamed to call you a Marauder.'

Though his friends' words varied, their reactions were the same; disbelief and incredulity. Remus rolled his eyes.

'Look, I'm just re-thinking things a bit okay? Julia is great...'