The Defence class chattered noisily, wondering where their teachers had got to. Lily was about to go and find someone when Ginny strode in, looking grumpy. She kept muttering 'Bloody Potter,' and halted in front of the class.
"Harry isn't coming today," she informed them, "I tried to wake him up but he hexed me in his sleep. Don't know why I bothered, it's HIS bloody job to lose."
At that moment, Harry hurried in, great black bags standing out under his eyes. He caught Ginny's eye for a moment, but then broke the contact quickly.
"Sorry I'm late. I was up till three in the morning kicking couples out of broom closets," he gave Sirius Black a dirty look, "And then Ciad kept whining on for hours, saying she was shedding skin and I was being an insensitive prat in ignoring her."
Ginny, who had been maintaining a glare since then, let out a short laugh.
"Alright, you're excused. Apart from for leg locking me in your sleep. I had to bunny hop all the way to the staff room!"
Harry looked embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry about that, Gin."
Ginny flashed him a smile. "No harm done, apart from the shame of having to bunny hop in Fred's old T-shirt and a pair of knickers."
Sirius whispered very audibly to James, "Wish I'd caught that!"
He didn't even see Ginny pull her wand out, but in less than a second he found himself under a silencing charm. Making an odd gagging sound, he looked around, bewildered. Harry was looking at Ginny with a very stern expression on his face.
"No Ginny, that wasn't very nice, was it?"
Ginny stuck her tongue out.
"Now although I am bewildered by Potter thinking that seeing you gallivanting round in a Cannons shirt is attractive, but we agreed at the beginning of term that you weren't going to hex my pupils. Now take off the charm before I give this lovely class some blackmail material on you. I'm your older brother's best friend, and they're forever quoting your diary in front of me. The one in your second year was particularly interesting..."
He was drowned out by Ginny's vengeful shriek.
"You read my diary? You PRAT! How could you?"
Harry looked at her calmly. "One, I did not read your diary, I just overheard Fred and Bill discussing some of its finer points. Two, take the bloody spell off Potter or I'm upping your training to eight hours a day."
Grumbling, Ginny flicked her wand at James and he found himself able to speak once more. "Fifteen points from Gryffindor for inappropriate comments and if you make any similar remarks within my hearing you'll be serving a duelling detention."
Harry spoke cheerfully, but his eyes were slightly steely as he looked at the embarrassed boy.
This, however, just gave Remus further conviction that Harry had feelings for Ginny, as he hadn't seemed in the least pleased by James's comment.
_._._._._._._
"I call this meeting to order!" Remus rapped his knuckles on the arm of his chair, and the Marauders fell eagerly silent.
"Wow, this place is definitely an improvement on our old HQ!" said Sirius, looking around admiringly at the Heads Common Room. James grinned.
"Beats old Moony's bed, eh?"
"Down to business," Remus interrupted hastily, knowing full well that if his two best friends got side-tracked, it would be near impossible to get them back on track, "In light of recent developments, we'll be looking at a bit of human psychology."
The other three rolled their eyes expressively. "Say x had feelings for y, and y had feeling for x," he started.
"Is this Arithmancy?" asked Peter, looking confused.
"No Peter, it's to make the situation hypothetical." Remus explained. Peter screwed up his face.
"Hypo what?"
"Never mind. So to make their feelings appear less serious,"
"Hey, MORE Sirius is good!"
"Shut up, Padfoot. As I was saying, x and y flirt to mask their feelings, but it is brought to the surface in certain ways, such as protectiveness on x's part and the fact that y makes small gestures such as touching x's hair in a comfortable manner."
"Oh, for heaven's sake Moony, just speak English. I don't think I can look at Wormtail's confused expression a minute longer!"
Remus sighed. "Subtlety's really wasted on you lot, isn't it? Basically, Potter's protective and Ginny seems comfortable with close physical contact."
"Oh. Well why didn't you say that in the first place?"
Remus didn't get a chance to reply, as at that moment Lily emerged from her room. She flashed the Marauders a smile, having got friendlier with them recently.
"Hi you guys!" she turned to James and said half-heartedly, "They shouldn't be in here, you know."
James looked at her pleadingly, and as she finished speaking, a knock came at the entrance of the Common Room.
"Oi, Lils! Are you going to let us in or not?"
Blushing, Lily opened the door and Marnie and Alice came in. James mouthed 'They shouldn't be in here, you know!' at her, and she gave him an embarrassed smile.
"God, I'm such a hypocrite. Hi Al, hi Marnie?"
The two girls smiled at the Marauders and seated themselves on one of the many squashy sofas.
"What're you lot doing? Planning mayhem?"
Sirius gave her a charming, crooked smile.
"Maybe. Or we may just be planning how to get two teachers together."
Lily conjured tea for her friends, and curled up in an armchair with a surprised "You've noticed?"
Sirius snorted, and James retorted, "Lily, a blind wombat in a coma would notice. They're flirting so hard I'm surprised that Ginny is foofing a fan around in Potter's face and saying, "Fie, fie!'"
All three considered this for a moment, and then Marnie came out with something that surprised the boys greatly.
"Can we help?"
The Marauders all wore varying expressions of shock, but James managed to recover himself enough to croak, "Why?"
While Marnie was considering, Lily said musingly, "Well, it'd probably be a good idea if you think about it. We might be able to show a bit of insight, even though those two are so damn unpredictable, and also we're just plain nosy about them."
The Marauders considered, and finally Sirius stuck out his hand and said pompously, "My friends. We formally induct you into Operation Get Our Outrageously Flirting Teachers Together before We All Die of Frustration."
He shook Lily's had solemnly, while James said to him accusingly, "You've changed the name of the operation! You can't do that!"
He seemed outraged, but Sirius merely smiled patronizingly and said to his friend, "Dear Prongs. When you have pulled the pranks I have pulled, made the mayhem I have made, you will not give stuff about the name of our bloody operation."
James's strop vanished, and he beamed at his friend with a placid, 'Fair enough.'
There was silence for a minute, until Alice asked casually, "What's with the nicknames? They seem kind of – random."
Remus and James both burst into explosive coughs while Sirius decided it was time to cause a distraction by summoning a large fluffy object. Upon seeing it, James groaned.
"Padfoot now is not the time to play with Binky."
Sirius buried his face in the soft fur of the toy rabbit, making crooning noises. His fellow Marauders ignore him.
"Don't worry, he's actually fairly sane," James reassured the girls, who were looking at the seventeen year old boy lovingly cradling his toy rabbit warily.
"Now, we think it's a good idea to give Potter and Weasley a few prods in the right direction. Only we're completely at loss because the two of them are so unpredictable. Any ideas?"
Lily considered.
"Are you staying at school for Christmas?"
James nodded.
"Yeah, my parents are on a mission over Christmas so I'm not going home, why?"
Lily paused thoughtfully.
"I just thought...maybe we could wait till Christmas when everything's pretty informal and rope them into a game of Truth or Dare or Spin the Bottle or something."
James surveyed her, impressed.
"That was unexpectedly devious, Lily. You have the makings of greatness in the pranking world."
Lily gave an uncharacteristically mischievous smile.
"Well, I have a sister, who gets on my nerves, don't I? I need some ways to annoy her, and I'm afraid it's corrupted my sweet and naïve brain."
James swept a deep bow to her, while Sirius cried in delight, "She irritates her siblings! That makes a Marauder!"
Remus cleared his throat.
"Lily's plan is bloody marvellous, but in the meantime we need to do something to get them thinking about each other in a potentially romantic way. I suggest a 'Comments Campaign' where we all make strategic comments on their relationship, and keep making remarks like "You should really get together."
Sirius turned to his friend with a slightly manic gleam in his eye.
"Moony, that is pure genius. I salute you." Remus bowed.
_._._._._._._
Ginny took her broom out of her trunk and returned to the sitting room, where she found Harry waiting. She gave him a small smile and pulled her hood over her head, hiding her vibrant hair from view. Stepping over to the window, she swung a leg over her Comet 300 and kicked off the ledge, closely followed by Harry.
The wind whipped down her hood and her waist length hair streamed out like a banner as she turned a small loop-the-loop. A joyful cry met her ears as she turned her head to see Harry zoom past, spinning and looping his broom into impossible manoeuvres, corkscrewing down into a vertical dive before pulling out millimetres from the highest turret.
Pausing to hover, Ginny reflected that Harry had never been truly happy at any point in his life, and that he'd once said that flying was the only bolthole, the only breakaway. In a way, it was like the child that had been crushed deep inside him had learned how to play on a broom. For the millionth time she cursed the Dursley for breaking his spirit. She didn't really know the details of his childhood, but Ron had once told her that he had tried to kill himself several times before he went to Hogwarts.
No child should want to die...
She shook her head, mentally reminding herself that it was thee past. If there was one thing that this war had taught her, it was that life was for living.
Harry whooped loudly as he pulled out of another dive, startling Ginny when she realized that she was on her broomstick, almost fifteen hundred feet in the air. She looked affectionately at the windblown head.
Yep. He's definitely living now.