Skyler's P.O.V.
I woke up a week later to find three boys waiting at the end of my bed. James, Peter, and Remus jumped when they looked over to see my eyes open.
"Oh my God, Skyler, don't do that!" Peter said. I chuckled and sat up, only to be pushed back down on the pillow by my brother.
"Hey, what was that for?" I asked. He sighed and started pacing. I started to worry, so I got off the bed and held James in place. "What is wrong?!" I asked. He only scolded me, and pushed my back on the bed. "Where's Sirius?" I asked, only to get a few frowns from my best friends. Lily walked in the room, and plopped herself on my bed.
"How are you feeling?" She asked. I looked at the boys, trying to get them to say anything to me, but they wouldn't say a word.
"I would feel a lot better if someone told me why James is acting like someone's coming after him." I muttered. James looked over at me and grimaced, and I returned the look.
"Oh, well, there's a Slytherin going around and telling people that you're in the hospital wing. He saw what happened in the hall." She said nervously. I sighed, preparing for someone to rant about how this wasn't good, and how people are going to know about me, but it never came.
"Where's Sirius?" I asked again. Lily looked down, but I knew if nobody told me she would. As I waited for an answer, I also waited for Sirius to come strutting in like always.
"The Slytherin is also saying that you agreed to go out with him......" She said. I shrugged, but then realization came over me.
"Sirius doesn't believe that, does he?" I asked. "You guys don't believe that, do you?" Lily pursed her lips, and I knew my assumptions were correct. I got out of the bed, this time with no interjections from James.
"I wouldn't try to find him..." Peter said quietly. I just continued to get my stuff together, including a few chocolate frogs.
"What's the worst that could happen?" I asked, hoping that the answer wasn't that he would blow up in my face.
"Well, I'm not really sure. He's been really distant lately, and very moody. He's been having some, uh, alone time." Remus explained. I nodded, knowing that I wasn't going to heed their warning. James had calmed down once it sank in that I wasn't going out with a Slytherin, and he sat in a chair beside the bed.
"I'm going to look for him." I said bluntly, running a hand through my tangled up hair.
"Did you not listen to word we said?" Asked James. I scoffed.
"I'm sorry what did you say?" I said, trying to hide the humor in my voice.
-~~-
I walked into the Gryffindor common room, hoping to find Sirius, whether or not he was mad. To my surprise, he was sitting my the fire, as if waiting for me to turn up.
"What do you want?" He asked, not really bitterly, but almost jealously. I wanted to scream at him, but I knew that wouldn't help.
"I want you to get your head straight." I said. I sat down across form him, waiting for any answer.
"I think your head is the one that's not straight." He said, again making me want to scream.
"Think, Sirius. Does it make any sense whatsoever that I would go out with a Slytherin liar?" I asked. He looked up, just momentarily, and I could tell he was pondering what I said. Still, he seemed to want to be stubborn.
"I-I just don't know anymore, everything about you doesn't make sense." He said, almost as if he were defeated.
"That is what doesn't make any sense. Sirius you are my best friend. I tell you everything, so why would you listen to some Slytherin. You've never listened to them anyway." I told him. I was hoping he would see eye to eye with this, but I was wrong.
"Skyler, I don't know what to believe because you were full of secrets before we became friends; whose to say you can't have more." He said finally. I couldn't help being filled with hatred for him. He accused me of cheating on him, and keeping secrets from every one of my friends.
"I hate you, Sirius." I said quietly. I could see he was hurt, but he had no idea how much being accused of lying hurt me. I stormed out of the Gryffindor common room, only to bump into the other three Marauders. I huffed at my bad luck.
"What happened in there?" James asked. I wanted to yell at them, too, but they didn't really do anything.
"I hate Sirius." I told him flatly. He stared at me as if I was an unknown creature. I only rolled my eyes.
"That explains so much." Remus said sarcastically. I crossed my arms, wanting them to try to get on my bad side.
"Well, why don't you let him explain it to you." I said, walking away from the three boys.
-~~-
"You should really eat." Lily said as we walked around the grounds. I only shook my head. I was starving, but I wasn't going to be pulled to the Gryffindor table by my brother, only to be sat next to Sirius.
"I'm not hungry." I lied. She looked hesitant, but she let it go. "Besides, if I do get hungry, I'll just go to the kitchens." I told her. She shrugged, and we continued to walk to the Great Hall. I wasn't going to eat, but I was going to meet up with Brayden White, a pureblood friend of mine.
When we got to the Great Hall, I easily spotted Brayden's dirty-blonde hair at the Ravenclaw table. He spotted me fairly quickly, too. We were going to hang out at Hogsmeade for the day, and I was really happy that I had him for the day.
-~~-
Sirius's P.O.V.
-~~-
I watched as Skyler and her ex-boyfriend meet up at the end of the Ravenclaw table, and she seemed almost relieved that she had someone else to hang out with. The brilliant Ravenclaw and Skyler went out in fourth year, but they decided to just be friends. Now, as they laughed and talked, I wondered if I pushed Skyler that far away.
"You did a fine job, mate." Remus said from beside me. I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm and watched as they continued to talk about Merlin only knows what.
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." I said, slightly bitterly. He shrugged my tone off and returned to his lunch which consisted of steak and rolls.
"You were the one who believed Snivellus." James said, watching me watch his sister.
"Last time I checked you believed him, too." I spat, looking over at him.
"Well, we all took the chance to believe her." He spat back. I wanted to leave, but I saw Skyler and Brayden get up to leave, so I stayed sitting down.
"This isn't going to solve anything. We all know that she's going to stay far away from us as long as Sirius is around, so we might as well wait it out." Peter said. I returned my attention to the rest of the Marauders, and I tried to keep my mind off of the beautiful werewolf, but I just couldn't.
"Do you think that Ravenclaw will take her?" I asked after it had nagged at my brain for a good fifteen minutes.
"I don't know, mate. I honestly think it's a possibility. She seems happy around him." Remus said. James looked like he would rather Skyler spend her time with anyone but the Ravenclaw, but he didn't say anything about it.
"I know it's not like me to say this, but I feel bad." I admitted. James nodded.
"You're right. It is unlike you to say that." He said. This time I did get up to leave, but instead of going to the Gryffindor tower, I went to the carriages that were taking students to the wizarding village. I didn't know why, but I just did.
-~~-
Skyler's P.O.V.
-~~-
I sat in the carriage with Brayden, waiting for the friendly insults that would inevitably come my way. I thought of some good to shoot back at him.
"So, why did you want to go to Hogsmeade with me, of all people? Or why did I agree?" He asked, humor in his voice.
"I don't know. I guess I just really missed hearing your annoying, high-pitched voice." I said. He rolled his eyes. I held back the laughter that threatened to come bursting out of me with every insult. Seemingly, faster than possible, we made it to Hogsmeade, both of us in a fit of laughter as we got out of the carriage.
"I know something that you don't know..." Brayden said as we were getting chocolate frogs from Honeydukes.
"You, having the brain made of straw, do not know most things that I don't." I said, adding an insult in for fun.
"Says the one who wasn't placed in Ravenclaw, but placed in Hufflepuff." He scoffed. I smacked his arm playfully, and he cringed. What a sissy. I thought to myself.
"I'll have you know, Hufflepuffs are smart, brave, and cunning. Not to mention kind, loyal, and hardworking." I told him proudly.
"Yeah, okay. Anyway, do you wanna know or not." He said. I gave it a small thought before nodding like an idiot.
"Yes, please. I would love to know what I don't. Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure." I teased. He rolled his eyes again as we walked out of Honeydukes and to the Three Broomsticks.
"I'm serious. I think you might even like this." He said as we got our butterbeers. We sat at a table with our butterbeers. I thought about how I couldn't wait until I was old enough for firewhiskey. I had heard great things.
"Tell me now." I whined. I watched as he took a long drink of his butterbeer, only to slosh it down his shirt when I gave him a pinch on the arm.
"Okay, I'll tell you, but only because you're being difficult." He said. I waited for an answer as he cleaned off his shirt. This time I waited patiently for him to finish.
"There is going to be a Hallows Eve Ball." He said, his eyes filling with amusement as I gasped with happiness and surprise. "And it's going to be a costume ball." He said happily. I bounced on the seat, but, not wanting to get my butterbeer on me, I stopped.
"That is really good information to have. How did you get it?" I asked. He gave me a wink that meant he wasn't supposed to know.
"I have my ways. Anyway, it's about a month away, the twenty-ninth of October, and I'm guessing they're going to tell the rest of the students soon." He said, spiking my curiosity.
"Only a month? I didn't know I was in the hospital wing that long." I said. Most of my friends knew that I was in the hospital wing, but they really didn't know why, or at least I'm guessing. He nodded, a little worried that I didn't know how long I was in the wing. I was in there for almost a month.
"Yeah, you didn't know that?" He asked. I sighed, remembering that, just that morning, I had left without hearing a word about my health. I also remember that I must've slept through a full moon.
"I didn't. I left the wing without saying anything to Madam Pomfrey." I said as indifferently as I could. On the inside, I was panicking.
"Oh, well, I'm sure she'll say something about it later. And are we going to uphold the tradition?" He asked. Brayden and I had a tradition that when there was a ball or a party, we went together. When James and I spent a lot of time at Sirius's house, I was always dragged into going to parties with Brayden White. He was a distant cousin of Sirius and Regulus, and we became good friends after being dragged to party after party with each other.
"Of course we are, Bray! Don't be stupid!" I half shouted, getting a few uneasy glances from other people in the pub.
"You seem to have forgotten that someone else might want to go with you." He hummed.
"Who would that be?" I asked.
"As if it's not obvious! Sirius will be asking you in a heart beat." Brayden said with a smirk. I tensed at the mention of Sirius's name.
"I don't think he will. You see there is a rumor going around that I am going out with some Slytherin." I told him. He looked shocked.
"He really believes that git, Snape?" He asked. I gasped, not knowing until now which Slytherin would dare to get on my bad side. Didn't they know that badgers ate snakes?
"Severus Snape is the jerk spreading the rumor?" I asked, just to make sure I had heard him correctly.
"Yeah, I thought you of all people would know that. Seeing as you're normally the first one to beat up the rumor spreader. Then getting detention for a week for it..." He said. It was almost dinner time, and now I had already begun to dig into my chocolate frogs. I was saving those for the next full moon, though.
"Let's go back to the castle." I said in between frogs.
"Sure, and you should really pace yourself with those frogs. You don't want to become bigger that you already are." He said with a smirk.
"Whatever!" I shouted at him. He laughed at me and ran away, knowing that I would chase him. As I ran after him, I got tired. I sat by a tree, only to be spotted by a very guilty looking Sirius Black.
"Hi." I said bitterly. He sat down next to me, and I got up, leaving the tree and the pureblood Marauder.
"Moonsong!" He shouted at me as I left him behind. A carriage that was going back to the castle came by, and I jumped on the back of it. I could still see Sirius's face with a deep frown that could easily match my own.