Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and events from J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter books. I am writing this for my own enjoyment and hopefully for the enjoyment of readers. Anything you recognize belongs to JKR. The rest belongs to me.
Chapter 71: When One Door Closes…
Sirius, James, and Peter all made it back to their dormitory that morning without getting caught. They were exhausted from staying up all night with a werewolf, but a jolt of excitement ran through the boys' blood. They had, after all, pulled off one of the most difficult pieces of magic, albeit illegally, without getting caught and had been able to sneak out of the school and back undetected. With the Marauders' Map, James' invisibility cloak, and their ability to transform into Animagi, they started to feel invincible. It seemed like nothing could bring the boys down.
Nothing, that is, except a few girls. Alice had been understandably angry at Sirius for his attitude toward her before he had left to meet Remus. After swallowing his pride, Sirius approached her the next day and apologized. Alice grudgingly forgave him and they decided to continue dating. Despite appearing happy on the outside with each other, a wedge was formed between the couple and neither could admit yet that their relationship was steadily heading south.
Lily was also proving to be difficult. James continued his current plan - following her around and sitting near her during meals, whether she liked it or not. He made certain to wear his 'Captain' badge whenever she was nearby, charming it to shine extra bright. That backfired, however, when the intense gleam reflected directly into her eyes and nearly blinded her. Alice had had to guide Lily to the hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey had forced her to wear a pair of thick, unattractive glasses, charmed to help her vision until it could heal on its own. For three days Lily had to walk around with a pair of glasses that magnified her green eyes to the size of saucers.
James, wanting to make amends and further his effort to impress Lily, remembered that her birthday was at the end of September. Remembering her love of literature, James ordered what he considered the 'perfect gift' from an owl order catalog he had found by Sirius' trunk. On Lily's birthday, James waited on pins and needles for the inevitable moment when Lily would open James' romantic gift and tearfully hug him, admitting her undying love for him.
To his surprise, when Lily opened the gift during breakfast and started to read it, her face turned a brilliant shade of red and she looked anything but happy. Double checking the card that came with the package, Lily grabbed the book and stormed over to James, who was surprised to see a little vein pulsing in the center of her forehead.
"Evans!" he greeted with a confused grin. "Happy bir-"
"Potter!" she interrupted. Brandishing the book in his face, she exclaimed, "What is the meaning of this…book?"
"It's a birthday gift," James explained, as if it were obvious. "I thought you liked poetry."
"You call this trash poetry?" she forced out. "It's disgusting!" Tossing the book onto the table, she added, "I can't believe you thought I would enjoy something like…that." She shook her head and marched back to her seat, ignoring the questions that Marlene and Alice were firing at her.
James, after a minute of staring at the fiery redhead, confusedly turned his gaze toward the book sitting in front of him. "I don't get it," he told the Marauders, who were torn between sympathy and mirth at the scene that had just occurred.
Remus finally picked up the book and opened it to a random page. After reading a few lines, his eyes bugged out a little and he raised an eyebrow toward James. "Prongs, you do realize what's in this book, don't you?"
James gave Remus an obvious look and replied, "Of course! I ordered a book of poetry for her. I figured she'd like it."
Remus suppressed a smirk and carefully said, "Prongs, these aren't just poems…they're limericks."
"So?" asked James.
"Where exactly did you order this from?" asked Remus.
"I found it in a catalog by Padfoot's trunk," explained James.
Remus nodded in understanding while Sirius grabbed the book out of his hands.
Reading the first line of a limerick, Sirius said, "There once was a girl from…" Seeing the rest of the limerick, Sirius placed his head on the table as he let out a series of side-splitting guffaws.
James, confused about the entire situation, grabbed the book and read the limerick in question. Seeing the nature of the poem, James felt his stomach drop as he realized just what kind of poetry he had sent to Lily for her birthday. "Ah, bloody hell," he moaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose in an attempt to ebb the inevitable headache. "I just gave Evans a book of dirty poems for her birthday."
This comment sent Sirius into another tirade of laughter. Remus and Peter couldn't help but break out into chuckles at James' mistake.
James sent them a nasty glare and admonished, "It's not funny! This was not in the plan."
Sirius, trying to catch his breath, snorted and picked his head up from the table.
Peter, torn between wanting to laugh and not wanting to tick James off, settled for laughter masked as a coughing fit. Once the 'coughing spell' was under control, he asked, "What plan, Prongs?"
"The plan for Evans to go out with me," James explained.
Sirius, wiping the corners of his eyes, said, "Well Prongs, if she didn't realize how you felt about her before, I'm sure she has an inkling now."
"You've left quite an impression on her lately, Prongs," said Remus. "First you blind her, then you give her dirty poetry. What next? Are you going to feed her to the Giant Squid?"
James let out a frustrated groan. "This is just great," he said sarcastically. "I need to figure a way out of this mess."
Sirius said, "Too bad we haven't learned memory charms yet. Then you could 'obliviate' this latest catastrophe."
James turned to Remus and said, "Moony, old pal - she listens to you. Maybe you could try and smooth things over…put a good word in for me?"
Remus gave James a wary look and replied, "I dunno, Prongs. I've already tried to talk you up a bit to her and she gets a bit closed off and touchy whenever the subject is brought up."
"Just try again, will you?" pleaded James.
"Alright, alright, I'll try," Remus acquiesced.
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Since Lily was celebrating her birthday, that meant that she wouldn't meet Remus and Emm for a study session until later on in the week. Despite the momentary break amongst the study group, the professors continued to ply the students with piles of assignments.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was certainly no exception. Not only were the fifth year students assigned their regular mountain of pre-O.W.L. work, but they were continuing to play 'catch-up' with the assignments Professor Dover had never gotten to the previous year.
Many of the fifth year students were nervous wrecks, trying to stay on top of their studies. One student, though, was having a tough time keeping up with the extra subject matter in DADA. It was for this reason that Alice was summoned to Professor McGonagall's office one afternoon.
Alice, surprised to have received an owl from the deputy headmistress, could only guess at why she was asked to come. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Sirius had done something stupid and by association, made her guilty of something.
"Ah, Miss Lyons," said Professor McGonagall. "You're on time. Please have a seat," she said, indicating the crimson chair in front of the desk. Seeing Alice nervously take her seat, Professor McGonagall managed a small smile. "You are not in trouble Miss Lyons."
Alice let out a small sigh of relief and relaxed. "What did you ask me here for, Professor?"
"Professor Darme has spoken with me about your grades and participation in his class," said Professor McGonagall. "According to him, you are amongst his top students." Seeing Alice blush, McGonagall continued, "I summoned you here to ask you to tutor another student who is having difficulty in that class."
"Me?" said Alice. "Tutor? I've never tutored anyone before."
"After reviewing the marks for the class, I decided you would be best for the task," said McGonagall. "There are other students who also have high marks in DADA." Looking at some parchment, she said, "James Potter - he is too busy with his duties as captain and let's face it…he's not the most studious student in the class." Continuing down the list on her parchment, she added, "Sirius Black - his schedule will likely be filled with detentions. Lily Evans - she has prefect duties."
"What about Remus, Professor? He's got high marks," suggested Alice.
Professor McGonagall frowned a bit before replying, "In addition to being a prefect, Mr. Lupin has other responsibilities that will make him unable to take on such a task."
Alice nodded and said, "You mean his sick mother?"
Professor McGonagall nodded tersely and said, "That leaves you, Miss Lyons. The student you would be tutoring is not suffering in DADA, however it has been brought to my attention that he has career ambitions that would require high marks, and he wants to have the best chance at scoring high on his O.W.L. in DADA. You would meet him three times a week for an hour, and Professor Darme has agreed to award you extra credit. If you help this student score a high mark on his O.W.L. for DADA then you will get a written commendation added to your school file."
Alice thought about it. James was sure to keep her busy with Quidditch practice, however Wood had consumed a lot of her time when he had been captain and she had managed to keep up. She certainly felt sympathetic toward the student in question. She herself wanted to be an auror and she knew that would require high marks on several of her O.W.L.'s. She had to give the student credit for coming forward early on in the year and seeking out help. How could she say no?
"Alright," said Alice. "I'll do it."
"Excellent," said McGonagall, another tight smile appearing on her face. "I'll arrange the first session for tonight at 7 p.m. in the library and at that time you two can arrange your schedules accordingly. Remember - there are to be three tutoring sessions per week."
"Yes, Professor," replied Alice. Before she stood to leave, Alice remembered to ask, "Professor? Who will I be tutoring?"
"Mr. Longbottom," replied the deputy headmistress.
"Frank?" asked Alice, looking a little nervous.
"Yes, Miss Lyons, Frank Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Erm…no, Professor," said Alice, "no problem whatsoever."
After Alice left the office, she wondered what she had just gotten herself into. Frank had always been very sweet to Alice, but it had not been a secret that he had harbored a crush for her. Last year, he had finally gathered the courage to ask her out, only to be turned down. Since then, he had still been friendly toward her though he kept more of a distance. And when Alice started dating Sirius, he rarely spoke to her unless necessary. He had never been rude to her or outwardly angry or jealous, though she suspected he had been hurt by her rejection.
Walking into the common room, she immediately spotted Sirius. He wasn't difficult to find, considering he was in the middle of yet another argument with Marlene. Alice sighed, getting tired of the strain from being the middleman, or rather middlegirl. She wearily approached the pair and cleared her throat to announce her presence.
"Alice!" exclaimed Marlene. "Good, you're here! Perhaps you can explain to your chauvinistic boyfriend the finer points of equality among the sexes!"
Sirius snorted and said, "Equality, eh? This coming from the girl who spouts off about how all men are pigs!"
"Not all men, Black," said Marlene. "You, in particular."
"Ahem," said Alice.
Not hearing her, Sirius continued, "Well at least I'm not some uptight wench!"
"Ahem," repeated Alice.
"Uptight wench?!" gasped Marlene.
The two continued to argue despite Alice's attempts to draw their attention. She glanced over at Lily, who was sitting on a couch nearby trying to focus on her Charms homework, despite the loud commotion. Alice approached her and plopped down next to her.
"How long has this one been going on?" asked Alice.
"Twenty minutes by my last count," replied Lily, checking her watch.
Alice shook her head and said, "I'm so tired of playing peacemaker between those two. Why can't my boyfriend and friends get along?"
Lily let out a dry laugh before replying, "You knew how Marlene and Sirius felt about each other before going out with him."
Alice sighed again and said, "Yeah, but I was hoping that they'd make an effort to get along, for me."
"They did at first, sort of," said Lily. "It's just that Marlene and Sirius know how to push each other's buttons."
Alice glanced at the two and unhappily noticed that Marlene's hair was now a shade of purple while Sirius' hair looked like it had been permed. She made a weak whining noise before turning back to Lily, saying, "I have to tutor someone tonight. If those two manage to finish arguing without serious damage and actually ask my whereabouts, you can let them know that."
Lily nodded, watching Alice run up the stairs to grab her books. Turning back to her Charms book, she was finally starting to tune out the shrieking pair when all of a sudden she felt the weight of someone sitting next to her on the couch. A bowl of popcorn was shoved in front of her. Looking up at the source, she saw James wearing an amused smirk.
"What do you want, Potter?" she asked, still perturbed by his choice in birthday gifts, let alone the fact that he had bought her something to begin with.
"I wanted a good seat," he replied. "To enjoy the show," he added, pointing to Sirius and Marlene. By this point they were both on the floor, having both thrown the Jelly-Legs Jinx at each other at the same time. James chuckled and casually reached into the bowl, grabbing a kernel of popcorn and tossing it into his mouth.
"What do you find so amusing?" asked Lily. "They're going to kill each other if this keeps up." Remembering that she was a prefect, Lily stood up to stop the duel. She was stopped by the warm grasp of James' hand on her arm.
"C'mon Evans," he said. "It's best to just let them have it out."
"I can't let them curse each other," said Lily, trying to pull her arm away. "Let me go, Potter."
"On one condition," he replied. "You have to sit here and eat popcorn with me."
"I don't have to do anything," she retorted. Twisting her arm free, she hurried out of his reach and backed straight into the middle of the duel. Unfortunately, she caught the brunt of the hex Sirius had aimed at Marlene, and soon felt a tickling sensation under her nose. Reaching up, she was horrified to feel a mustache growing.
Marlene and Sirius immediately froze, shocked that Lily had gotten hexed. "Lily-" started Marlene.
"Evans, I'm sorry," said Sirius, torn between guilt from accidentally hexing her and mirth at the sight of her mustache.
Lily drew in a few steadying breaths before saying, in a barely controlled voice, "Detention. Both of you."
James approached and reversed the spell, restoring Lily to her normal appearance. "There," he said. "No harm done. Now do you really need to assign them detention, Evans?"
"Yeah, Evans," said Sirius. "I did say I was sorry."
Lily, who, between her hair and face, closely resembled a fireball, said, "You were dueling. That's against the rules and somebody could have gotten hurt."
"Lily," said Marlene. "We really are sorry. C'mon, I'm your friend, Lily. I can't believe you would assign me detention!"
Lily sent her a nasty look before saying, "You're lucky detention's the only thing you have to worry
about. If I weren't your friend I would have also taken house points. I'm still tempted, so if you want me to
do that I suggest you keep testing my patience."
Hearing no further arguments, Lily started to walk to the stairway. As she reached the bottom step she turned around and added, "Oh, and by the way, Sirius and Marlene, while you were in the middle of your argument Alice tried to catch your attention. It seems that you two were too occupied to notice her or pay any attention to what she had to say. Perhaps you should consider how it feels for her to have her best friend and boyfriend constantly arguing before something like this happens again."
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Alice walked into the library and threw her books onto the first empty table she saw, causing a loud sound to reverberate throughout the massive room. She didn't catch the nasty look that Madame Pince threw her as she plopped into a chair and rested her head on her arms, trying to ebb the headache that wanted to plague her.
"Alice?" said a familiar voice.
Alice looked up to see the Frank standing next to her, his worried brown eyes focused on her. "Hi, Frank."
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'll survive," she replied. "Marlene and Sirius were at each other's throats again," she added.
"I see," he nodded in understanding. "What was it about this time?"
"Does it even matter?" she asked with a dry laugh. "I don't even know, but if there's a subject to argue about, they'll find it." She shook her head and added, "I'm getting very tired of trying to play peacemaker between those two."
"Then don't," he said. "You shouldn't have to baby-sit those two."
"Yeah," she said. "I kind of gave up trying just now. I left them in the common room and I'm kind of afraid to go back and see what damage they've caused."
"Thanks for the warning," he said. "I'll try to steer clear of the common room for a few hours." Looking around, he said, "Well, I'd better get going. I'm supposed to meet someone here."
Alice was surprised. She thought he knew she was his tutor and had approached her because of that. After all, he hadn't tried striking up many conversations with her since she had started dating Sirius. "Actually," she said, "I'm your tutor."
Frank's eyebrows shot up and he said, "Oh…okay."
He sat down across from her and for a few minutes they busied themselves arranging their books and parchment, not quite sure how to start. Finally, when there was nothing left to arrange an awkward silence settled between the two.
"Alice," Frank finally said. "I realize you probably aren't thrilled at the idea of tutoring me. I didn't realize that it would be you when I approached McGonagall."
"So you don't want me to tutor you?" asked Alice.
"No, it's not that," said Frank. "I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable about the whole thing. I realize that I was a bit…eager for a while, following you around and everything. I don't want you to worry about that. I'm not going to ask you out or chase you around like I used to."
"I'm not uncomfortable," said Alice, lying just a little. "No worries, Frank."
"Good," he said, smiling.
"Where do you want to start?" asked Alice.
"I suppose I need to review a bit since we're getting crammed with last year's information this year. How about we review the Unforgivables?" he suggested.
Alice and Frank delved into the subject of DADA and before they knew it, their hour had long since passed. Frank looked at his watch, shocked at the time. "Wow!" he said. "Didn't realize we were here for so long."
Alice peered over at Frank's watch and smiled, saying, "We'd better get going before Pince throws us out."
"Yeah," agreed Frank. "I expect Filch'll be prowling the corridors soon looking for the 'miscreants'."
They gathered their books and walked back to Gryffindor tower, chatting about casual topics, and laughing when the subject of Professor Darme's thick accent came up.
Once they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Alice suddenly remembered, "We never decided when we're going to meet."
"It's up to you," replied Frank. "You have Quidditch practice to work around."
"How about Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the same time?" suggested Alice. "We could meet in the library and when we want to practice some of the Defense spells we can find an empty classroom."
"Sounds good," said Frank.
"I'm not going to wait here all night," said the Fat Lady, impatiently. "I have a date with a gentleman whose portrait is on the fifth floor."
"Sorry," said Alice. "Amicus Fidelus."
"'Bout bloody time," muttered the Fat Lady as she allowed them to enter.
Once they stepped through, Frank turned to Alice and said, "Thanks for doing this, Alice."
"I'm glad I can help," she replied and added, "I'm sure you're going to do just fine once O.W.L.'s come around."
Frank smiled and said, "Good night, Alice."
"G'night, Frank," she replied before he turned and went up to his dormitory.
"Where were you?" came a voice from across the deserted common room, causing Alice to jump in surprise.
She turned around to see Sirius sitting in an armchair by the fire. Still annoyed at his and Marlene's earlier antics, she coolly replied, "Oh, so you noticed I was gone?"
"Yeah, Evans mentioned something when she was reaming us out for dueling earlier," he said.
Alice shook her head and almost laughed. First her boyfriend ignored her to duel her best friend, then he didn't
even notice she was gone until her other best friend pointed it out to him.
"You still didn't say where you were," said Sirius.
"You're right, I didn't," said Alice, turning around to go to her room.
"Oy," said Sirius, standing up. "You don't have to act so twitchy. If it makes you feel better, Evans assigned us detention."
Alice turned back around and said, "No, Sirius. It doesn't make me feel better. I'm tired."
"Tired?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm tired," she repeated. "I'm tired of having to constantly play the peacemaker between you and Marlene. I'm tired of trying to find time to spend with my boyfriend who disappears a lot. I'm tired of expecting you to pay attention to me. I'm tired of expecting that you would notice that I'm gone without Lily having to tell you."
The pair stared at each other from across the room for a while, a realization coming to them. Alice slowly approached Sirius, her eyes a little watery.
Sirius, looking down at the floor, shuffled his feet a bit and asked, "So what now?"
Alice took a shaky breath and said, "I think you know, Sirius."
He nodded and looked at her. "Yeah, I guess I do. It makes sense. I think it's been coming for a while."
"I think it's better this way," she said. "It'll be awkward for a bit, but if we end this now then hopefully we won't end up hating each other."
"Can't have that," he said with a tight smile.
"Nope," she said. "After all, we can't start hurling Bludgers and Quaffles at each other's heads. I don't think our captain would appreciate that," she added with a small smile.
"I think he'd be amused, but then he'd yell at us to save it for the Slytherin team," mused Sirius.
An awkward silence fell between the two before Alice said, "So I guess that's it, then."
"Yeah," agreed Sirius, raking a hand through his hair in a manner eerily similar to James' habit.
"Good night, then," she said, leaning up to give him one last kiss. As their lips met that last time, they realized that the spark was indeed gone between them and that cemented their decision to break up.
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A/N: Sirius and Alice are now over - however when one door closes, a window opens… Isn't that the saying? I think this is my longest chapter yet. Things may slow down a bit - I'm trying to write the new chapters. I just finished chapter 73 - it's not easy trying to change James into a prat. I'm just trying to keep in mind what Sirius said in OotP to Harry about James. To refresh your memory…'Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around,' said Sirius, shrugging. "He couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her.'
Thanks to my latest reviewers: Alicia78, Anu, nanopy, God'sgirl, astronomylover, DreamAngel, PottersPrincess, Golden Phoenix, likediamondrain, anonymous (x2), granger1191 (x2), Remus'sweetie, sweetie513, Watermelon!, tigerfairy, Mani12191, Jo Bob, delpheena (x3), and Naikalam.
Next chapter: Aftermath of the breakup.