About two weeks had passed when on a Wednesday evening Remus, Peter, and Eleanor were playing a game of exploding snaps in the boys' dorm.
After her little talk with Sirius, Eleanor had become a lot closer to the boys, and she hung out more with them too. They were still waiting for the next storm to come so they could finally conclude their project and start their real adventure as Animagi.
The three of them looked up as the door opened. James and Sirius walked in, they had just finished their Quidditch practice. Harper had found it very easy to decide who was to become part of their team; Sirius was by far the best out of all of them and Marlene McKinnon was another good addition to their team.
"How was practice?" Eleanor asked as the two boys put away their stuff and sat down on their beds.
Sirius grinned, "Bloody brilliant."
"Good, good," James said, taking off his shoes. "Listen, Sirius and I were just talking about a system we can use to contact each other, and I think we came up with a pretty good idea," he said enthusiastically.
The others put down their playing cards to pay attention to what James had to say.
"So what if we all had an item, right, just something random like a-a pebble or something," Remus and Eleanor shared a confused look. "We can somehow probably put spells on it that when one of us like 'alarms' it, it can heat up. And so when it heats up, we'll know that we have to get together," he explained proudly.
Remus raised his eyebrows. "You came up with this?" he asked James. He shook his head and pointed at Sirius, who was leaning against his headboard with a big grin on his face.
"It's brilliant!" Peter said, obviously very excited about the idea.
"Yeah Sirius," Eleanor mused, "Quite impressive."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Always the tone of surprise," he sighed before laughing. Eleanor laughed as well.
"Anyways," James continued, "I think we should start on it as soon as possible because we don't know when the next storm will be, and of course we want to keep the number of full moons Remus has to spend on his own to a minimum now." They all nodded.
Eleanor bit the inside of her cheek. "Speaking of full moons," she looked sideways to where her brother was sitting on his four-poster.
"Yeah, Saturday," he said, staring out ahead of him.
Peter chuckled. "I had literally almost forgotten you're a werewolf," he said. Remus laughed, but that laugh turned into a scowl when he saw James and Sirius grinning at each other.
"Werewolf?" said Sirius, frowning.
James pointed at Remus, "There-wolf!"
"Oh fuck off," Remus groaned.
Eleanor clapped her hands to her mouth. "Swearwolf!" she gasped.
They all broke into laughter. Even Remus, who usually hated it when this standard joke of theirs came along. The five of them looked up as they heard a knock on the door.
"It's open," James said loudly. The door opened and a pair of bright blue eyes peeked through.
"Oh good, I thought you'd be here," Amelia said, walking in and closing the door behind her. She sat down on the floor next to Eleanor. "I need to tell you something," she said, her cheeks started to go red.
Sirius lay down on his stomach on the edge of the bed so his head poked out in between Amelia and Eleanor's, who were sitting against his bed. "Oooh, girlie talk, spill it, Lia," he grinned, wiggling his legs.
Eleanor looked to her right. "Oi! Bugger off Black!", she chuckled and ruffled up his hair.
"But I want to know!" he got off his bed and squeezed in between the two girls. He fixed his hair and put his arms around the both of them. Amelia and Eleanor glanced at each other over Sirius' shoulder.
Remus had a disgusted look on his face but decided not to say anything.
"You smell nice Black," Eleanor said, casually leaning into his embrace
Amelia nodded in agreement. "You do smell nice, is that cologne?" she asked, looking up at him through her lashes.
Sirius frowned, looking at Eleanor and then at Amelia, then back to Eleanor again.
"You know what maybe I shouldn't be sitting here," he said, obviously getting a bit uncomfortable. The girls giggled as he got up and sat back on his bed. He was still frowning, trying to figure out what just happened. James wiggled his eyebrows at him.
"So," Eleanor began, scooting over a bit to her friend, "What did you want to say?"
A smile formed on Amelia's face. "Ryan Hughes asked me out to Hogsmeade this weekend," she said, blushing madly.
"NO WAY!" Eleanor shrieked. Amelia nodded. She grinned broadly and hugged her. Meanwhile, the boys were sharing confused looks.
"Who's that?" James asked curiously.
"Yeah who is he?" Remus mused, frowning. Sirius raised an eyebrow at his speedy remark.
Amelia blushed. "He's a Ravenclaw, fourth year," she said, fidgeting with the end of her ponytail like she always did when she felt nervous.
"Why would you date a Ravenclaw," Sirius huffed.
Eleanor turned around to face him. "What's wrong with Ravenclaws?" she asked. Sirius shrugged.
"Gryffindors are way more fun. I mean, look at us," he grinned.
"Did you just suggest they should date us," James said, being very confused by all of this. Sirius stuttered.
"I- I mean, if they wanted to," Sirius' grin widened.
"EW!" Eleanor shouted. Remus threw a pillow at Sirius, hitting him in his face.
Sirius gave him an angry glare. "You'll pay for that one Lupin," he growled. Sirius grabbed his tie from his nightstand and tied it around his head. Remus looked like he knew what was coming, as did James and Peter, who were gathering all of their pillows.
The girls gave each other a look.
"FIIIIGHT!" Sirius yelled as he jumped off his bed and attacked Remus with a pillow. James let out a sort of tribal cry before joining the pillow fight and Peter chimed in as well.
Eleanor and Amelia just laughed as they watched the scene. Remus was at a losing hand, with both James and him on top of him, tickling him. But then when Remus had asked them to stop for the thousandth time, the other boys finally gave in. They were all out of breath.
Eleanor grinned to herself and grabbed her wand.
"Aguamenti," she mumbled. She pointed her wand at the boys, using it as a sort of hose. The boys shrieked as the cold water completely soaked their clothes.
The water stopped when Eleanor lost her focus because she was crying with laughter. As was Amelia. The two girls were clinging to each other.
Sirius looked at his mates and they all gave each other nod.
"ATTACK!" James yelled. The four of them jumped off the bed and started hitting Eleanor and Amelia with pillows.
"YOU WILL REGRET THIS!" Sirius shouted as he grabbed Eleanor from behind, who was trying to escape.
She couldn't stop laughing as Sirius held onto her, causing her clothes to become wet as well.
"Nooo," she laughed, letting herself fall to the ground to free herself from him. Meanwhile, the fight was still going on amongst the others. But Sirius was ahead of her. He turned her on her back and straddled her.
"Any last words?" he grinned down at her, running a hand through his wet hair to get it out of his face.
Eleanor couldn't stop laughing. Her heart was racing as she looked up at him. Realizing what was going to happen, she tried to push him off.
"Well, guess not then!" he chuckled and he started to tickle her in her sides. Soon Eleanor was crying with laughter and squirming underneath him, trying to break herself free from this torture.
What the two of them didn't seem to notice was that the others had already stopped the pillow fight and were now staring down at them. Remus cleared his throat.
Sirius abruptly stopped and looked up the others who were standing in a row, looking quite confused. Although Amelia was trying to hold back a smile.
Eleanor's face turned red and she scrambled out from underneath him. Sirius was blushing as well and took the tie off his head when he stood up. Remus raised an eyebrow at him. James used a spell to dry all of their clothes.
"So," Eleanor said after an immense awkward moment of silence. "We'll er see you tomorrow I guess," she smiled at the boys. Then she and Amelia left their dorm and closed the door behind them.
She stayed to listen at the door. Remus said something, but she couldn't hear it properly.
"Oh piss off Moony," she heard Sirius reply.
Moony?