Chapter Twelve
Lily sighed as she followed Remus through the common room and made sure that everyone was in, if not in bed. As she climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories she found herself wondering how someone as pleasant as Remus Lupin could be friends with Potter and Black. Pettigrew she could understand – he was, and she hated herself for saying it, rather dim and a bit of a follower; all he seemed to contribute to their group was the hero-worship which Potter and Black so desperately loved while they, in return, protected him from being picked on and left as an outsider. Remus, however, was different – he was intelligent, kind and had no difficulty in making friends so how one of the quietest people she had ever met had fallen in with them would always remain a mystery to her. Even after a year of being a Prefect alongside him though she had very few answers – as if sensing that talking about them would rile her up, Remus – rather wisely – had clearly made the decision to leave any discussion about his choice of friends to times outside their duty hours. Still, now that she was faced with the prospect of having to spend time with the group and be civil to them she was tempted to ask him about them.
Her duties took her a while because many of the girls wanted to talk to her – another well known fact was that, even if you weren't in Gryffindor, you could always talk to Lily Evans and she would listen kindly, no matter what year you were in. It was another aspect of her personality which split the opinion of the school straight down the middle – on one hand it made it rather difficult for the girls who were jealous of her to fully hate her because there was always the knowledge that she was completely undeserving of it niggling in the backs of their minds while it spurred others on and made their hatred even more zealous. "She's so bloody righteous," some could be heard muttering in hallways on their ways to lessons, "like some kind of fallen angel." Another would say, "I just don't know how she does it or why. It's not like it makes us hate her any less."
When she returned to the common room she found Remus helping a third year with his Defence Against the Dark Arts homework, his worn frame enveloped by the cushions of the armchair which he was sitting in as he explained the ways to defeat a Kappa to the poor boy.
"I've finished," she mouthed to him before collapsing into the sofa opposite and sinking into its sagging back.
"How many inches have you got left Jack?" he asked kindly as the boy squinted at his parchment.
"About two," he estimated.
"Right well the stuff I just told you ought to cover that then – if not just start writing a bit bigger," he chuckled before moving to sit next to Lily so that they could chat without disturbing him. Before Remus had even managed to open his mouth something hit his lap, knocking all of the air out of him in a large "Ooompf!" This something had long legs and equally long arms which wrapped themselves around Lupin before draping themselves over the sofa. Beside the 'something' crashed another one, with wildly escaping curls bouncing around his head and a hacking laugh which approximated a bark, his even longer legs lying across the whole of the sofa. "Hello Moony my old friend!" he cried. "Long time-"
"No see!" Potter added with some particularly dramatic fake crying noises.
"It's been about an hour and a half," he replied, his voice sounding fairly odd as James' arm snaked itself around his windpipe.
"Oh but it was torture without you mate," Sirius whimpered. "We had no one, no one, to tell us to work at all. I felt absolutely lost without you."
"Is this really necessary?" Lily complained, wondering whether she would ever be able to escape them.
"Of course it is my fair Lily," James cried, rolling off the sofa and prostrating himself before her, laying his head on her lap and moaning. "We only want to talk to our dear friend Moony."
"Fine, I guess I'll be going then. Goodbye Remus, I'll see you in lessons tomorrow if you ever make it out alive." As she stood up, knocking Potter's head off her lap, she felt hands grasping at her legs, pulling her back down. She kicked them away but they came back, pushing her back down onto the sofa. "Please stay?" Potter asked, pouting and pulling what he most likely assumed was an adorable face.
"No Potter," she frowned, "I'm going to bed."
"Please?" he begged as Lupin pulled a face at her from behind Sirius' flailing arms.
"I'll see you later," he said. "Prongs get off her, she wants to go to bed and you're molesting her."
"You're really not going to stay?" Sirius asked, managing to combine being incredibly annoying with sounding incredibly hurt.
"No, I would rather not be jumped on by you louts," she sighed. "Besides I'm tired – Potter let go of me!" she shouted. "I'm not going to stay down here!"
James immediately let go of her and let her head up to her dorm; from behind her she could hear their chatter and cries as well as the high pitched squeaks of Peter's laughter as he revelled in whatever it was that they were doing down there. Potter's reaction had surprised her though, in previous years it had taken her far longer to get him to do anything and, even then, she had rarely managed to make him do something he wasn't already going to.
As Lily vanished upstairs James stared after her wistfully until Sirius hit him on the head. "Come on Prongs!" he cried. "We've got a lot of work to do and we need you focused, not pining over Evans!"
"I like pining over Evans," James moaned as he rubbed his head. "I've been doing it for so long that I can't not pine over her."
"James, if you don't mind me saying, I really don't think that this obsession of yours with the poor girl is particularly healthy," Remus pointed out.
"I know, you've told me that hundreds of times Moony my friend," he replied, "and I will give you the exact same answer I have given every other time you said that: it's not an obsession because let's be realistic – Snivellus is obsessed with Evans. I just admire her from afar. I know – no let me talk Moony – I know you all think I'm crazy and that it's creepy and that I ought to leave her alone but it's not like I'm... following her around trying to smell her hair or asking girls in other years to bring me her toothbrush, I just really like her and I want her to at least give me a chance – although preferably that chance would last rather a long time."
"Okay fine," Sirius said as Peter nodded his head enthusiastically along with James, "but can you please 'like her from afar' later? We have a lot to do tonight if we're going to have this prank be ready for tomorrow morning."
"Will you be joining us in detention then?" James asked.
"No, you know I can't risk it," he replied as James jumped in his chair and shouted, "I knew it!"
"Oh come on Prongs!" he groaned. "Please, let's not talk about this now!"
"I am merely saying that I don't think it's very fair for me to have to put all thoughts of Lily aside when you will not even be taking part in this evening's activities for fear of jeopardising your Sunday afternoon meeting with Jones," he said.
Sirius shook his head and sighed, running his hands through his unruly hair. "It's different Prongs," he said, "whereas you, because you hold no appeal whatsoever for Evans, can only dream of her, I have the actual chance to spend time with Cassie and no, I don't want to 'jeopardise' it," he mocked. "Besides, I am focusing on the task at hand and putting in my all even though I won't be taking part in it."
"I wish you would Padfoot," James wailed, shoving his head into Sirius' lap and looking up at him with a pitiful expression; Sirius just ran his hands through his hair and mussed it all up, causing James to leap off his lap as if he had been electrocuted, shoot across to the other side of the sofa and instantly start fixing it. "Are you serious?" he cried.
"Yes, you know that. You've known me for four years James, I'd hope you know my name by now." Sirius laughed to himself and ducked the knight which came hurtling towards his head.
"You're horrible! I like it messy but not too messy! You know that! Merlin I hate it when you do this!" James was desperately fiddling with his hair while the other three boys were crying with laughter at his vanity, something which they had always made sure to use against him.
"Oh calm down Prongs," Lupin sighed, "it's not like Lily's here anyway; there's nobody to impress."
"It's the principle of the thing Moony," he replied as he pulled out his wand and started causing a breeze to swirl around Sirius' head. Knowing that it would annoy James even more instead of complaining he just grinned and said, "Thank you Prongs; how did you know I was getting a bit hot in here?" The breeze picked up to a tiny hurricane which whirled around his head, lifting his hair up and filling his ears with a rushing noise. Eventually, after a few minutes, Lupin got so sick of the noise and of not being able to hear himself think that he waved his wand and made the wind die down again. "Now," he said, casting a full Body-Bind on both of them, "can we begin?"
The next morning Lily slid into her usual chair in Charms and pulled out various sheets of parchment, smiling at Mary, Alice and the back of Cassie's head – the front of it was already slumped on the worn desk, tendrils of hair curling over her shoulders and pooling around her. It would always astound her how Cassie managed to sleep for most of the day and yet still be tired in the mornings; she barely functioned over breakfast and it took about an hour for her to actually wake up once lessons had started, not that Lily didn't feel like doing that too half the time.
Most of the classrooms were boiling inside and Lily could feel herself drifting off in every lesson that she had, the heat taking hold of her and winding through her bones, slowing down her mind and forcing her eyelids closed. With most of their lessons entirely useless but the students unable to leave school to go home the professors had resorted to sitting at their desks and letting the students sleep in the summer heat; either that or they would try to teach them off-curriculum charms and spells which they found interesting. Only Professor Binns still insisted on lecturing his classes on the war between the trolls and the giants of the French Alps which took place in 1543 due to a border dispute, four cut down trees and some misplaced food but, as had been the norm throughout his lessons during the year, he didn't notice that nobody was paying attention anyway.
The days dragged by painfully slowly, trailing a haze of heat in their wake, and then suddenly it was Sunday afternoon and Cassie was nowhere to be found.
"She's talking to Sirius," Mary said, raising an eyebrow and emphasising his name – it was rare for any of one group to address a member of the other by anything apart from their surname. "They left about an hour ago and went outside while you were reading."
"Oh," Lily said as the two girls giggled, "I wonder whether we'll have to fish a corpse out of the Black Lake."
"If we do my bet would be on it being Black's," Alice piped up. "Cassie absolutely ripped him to shreds last time they spoke. Although it could be both of them I suppose," she amended, "he is a formidable opponent when he wants to be."
"What are you doing now then?" Mary asked. "I'm assuming you've finished that book?"
Lily grinned and said, "You'd be right. I don't know, I just thought I'd come to chat to you."
"Okay but Alice is going to run away in a couple of minutes and talk to Frank," Mary giggled.
"Hey!" she cried. "He's... sweet."
"Oh don't lie Alice, we all know that you've liked him longer than Cassie liked Sirius," Lily chuckled.
"Cassie only started liking him in fourth year though..." she replied confused as Lily shook her head.
"No, she liked him in second year first," Lily said. "I thought you knew."
"I had no idea," Mary said. "She keeps everything to herself all the time. Second year? Really?"
Lily nodded and said, "Yeah. I think she stopped in third year but..." She shrugged and chuckled. "I just don't understand our relationship with 'the Marauders' sometimes."
"Neither," Alice sighed. "Just give me a normal boy any day of the week."
"Well you've got one," Mary teased as Alice blushed and buried her face in her hands. "I'm weirdly excited to hear about Cassie's afternoon," she said after they had finished laughing at Alice's embarrassment.
"Same," Lily agreed amusedly, "it'll be interesting to hear what happened."
Hi guys, this might be the last update for a week or so (unless I manage to get some in in a couple of days) because I'm going off on my D of E for about 10 days next Sunday so...!