In the Tower
Part One: N.E.W.T's and Graduation
Summary: Sirius, Remus and Peter lock James and Lily in a tower over Christmas Break. They don't have anything, except for a little bit of food and the passion within themselves. And right now, they're just letting it out.
Disclaimer: Ack, these are meaningless and you already know that I don't own it. Do I have to write it over and over again?
Author's Note: This chapter is really not my best...
Previously: "Can I have some bacon?" He said, tears welling up in his eyes. She gave him the tray. "Bye,"
"Bye," he disappeared again, and she swallowed her mouthful, and watched the three true Marauders run around until the moon disappeared and they were themselves.
"The sad thing is," she whispered to herself, "he won't remember anything about this once he's born." With a soggy smile on her face, she turned from the sky, and disappeared, going off to her dream room.
Why, you ask, was I bound and chained in this cold and dismal place? Not for any mortal sin, but the wickedness of my abhorrent face! Erik, Phantom of the Opera
"Oh shut up Remus," Somailia said wearily, falling onto the nearest couch and sagging into it with a sigh of relief. "I have testing tomorrow as well, and I would like to have a good sleep before the time comes."
"Right, sorry," Remus said, snapping her text book shut and putting it down on the table in front of her.
"It's okay," she said, slurring her words and waving her hand away, warding off the apology.
"I'm just really nervous," he said, his whine coming in to play again.
"Remus, you're smart, you'll do fine," she swore.
"Yes, yes, but how do you know?" He said, his eyes glittering with nervousness.
"Do I have to knock sense into you, or should I let James do it?"
"You have to relax," she told him soothingly. She stood and rubbed her eyes, stretching and yawning. "Now, if you'll excuse, I'm going to bed," and with a lethargic kiss on his temple that made him instantly relax, she tromped out of the Gryffindor Common room and strolled down to her dormitory, completely forgetting about her text book.
"Sirius," she said casually in greeting as he walked past.
"Hey Som," he said, catching her around the waist, swinging her around and kissing her sweetly on the cheek. She yawned widely. "What's wrong?"
"The testing is tomorrow," she said, ignoring the fact that he was so ignorant to it. "And all I want to do right now is sleep."
"Sleep then," he said to her lightly, twirled her out of his arms, and then he jogged lightly to the portrait of the fat lady. "Pleasant seeing you today, my dear." He said, grinning handsomely. "That pink dress on you is very flattering." She blushed, her skin color blotching.
"Why thank you, Mister Black,"
"Bumblebees," he said dreamily.
She grinned and let him in right away. She would live to regret how sweet he is one day. He skipped into the common room and jumped down onto the nearest couch, landing limply on a soft figure. He looked down at the figure and grinned softly. She reached up and touched his cheek with a shy smile on her face. "Hello Sirius," she said softly.
He raised those awesomely shaped eyebrows at her and quirked a grin. "Guinevere," he said suavely, "how are you today?"
"Fine I guess," she said, squirming comfortably underneath his weight. "I'm really nervous about our N.E.W.T's though,"
We all make mistakes. No one can admit that they haven't. Sirius has made a number of mistakes in his life, and will continue to make many mistakes. This was just one of the many.
"I think I can help you with that," he said smoothly as he leaned down and kissed her deeply, and she moved up toward him willingly. The Portrait opened for a moment.
"I think I-," Sirius heard a girl say, but he couldn't tell who, he was too involved into this dammed kiss. "Oh my gods," He heard next, a strangled shout of his name, and then the portrait slamming shut. Sirius shrugged it off and continued kissing Guinevere deeply.
The portrait opened again, and the next thing he felt was him being tugged out of Guinevere's hold on him by the back of his shirt. He landed on his knees, and with his eyes narrowed, turned to look at the ignoramus who did that to him. She looked at him with a cool disregard. "You're an idiot."
She pulled him up from the back of his shirt and dragged him out of the portrait, threw him out, snapped at him to talk to Somailia because she's quite pissed off at you, and then stomped into the common room again, where Sirius could hear Lily screaming at Guinevere.
"I didn't expect that from you," Somailia sneered at him with a haunted look in her eyes.
"Come on Somailia, it's been at least four months."
"You are an asshole! You loved each other! And I just saw you-" she stuttered out the last words disbelievingly.
"What? Saw me what? As a prime roast? Or a turkey sub? Was I on a motorcycle? Or in tight leather pants? I know you want me to be in that."
"You're disgusting! I don't know why she even liked, loved, you and I have no clue how I could stand you for so long!"
"It seemed that I was your friend only because of her."
"That's what I implied, isn't it? I guess it's true than."
"How do you feel about me?" He said, coming closer, and she narrowed her eyes at him and stood her ground.
"Well, couched inside me I want to hate you. But I know I can't, because you and your stupid antics and that tiny bit of your saving people thing has grown on me. And you're a good friend, most the time, and you really help me out, but I hate the way you deal with things."
He pulled a sympathetic face and stepped toward her, his arms outstretched toward her. She dodged out of his reach. "I don't need your fake sympathy." She told him coldly, taking his facial expression and his attitude the wrong way. "All I need is my charms book."
Lily jumped out of the portrait hole at that time with her eyes blazing and threw Somailia her charms book. She caught it easily, gave Sirius one last cold look, spun on her heel and darted away. Lily and Sirius both watched her go, and once she disappeared from their vision, Lily looked hard at Sirius. "You're an idiot."
"It didn't mean anything!" Sirius cried, trying to defend himself, following her when she started walking away.
"Yeah, just like Snape doesn't mean anything to James."
"He doesn't." Sirius said, confused.
"Exactly, but it might mean something to someone else." She lengthened her stride, and he did the same. She would not rid of him that easily.
"But he doesn't mean anything to anybody."
"Sirius, everyone means something to someone, no matter what you think."
"That's not true."
"Sirius," she said sighing, rounding on him. "One insignificant person can change everything."
"Like Snape can change anything," Sirius scoffed.
"Sirius, the President, all presidents, at some point in their life weren't that special."
"What about her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the second? She was special!"
She sputtered. "Of course she was different, she was a princess. The royal family has always been special."
"Fine, fine." They left it at that.
They started walking aimlessly through the halls. Sirius saw someone move out of the corner of his eye, and said instantly and calmly, "fuck off Snape."
"Language, Black, language."
"Bugger off, Severus, we're just walking. You should be studying."
"The fiery mudblood and the pureblood traitor, what will dear Potty have to say for it?" He raised his eyebrows innocently.
"Why are you even reprimanding us? Ten points from Slytherin for stupid name calling." Lily snapped at him.
"That cannot do anything to us now," He whispered heavily, and Sirius and Lily took a step toward each other in the cold that suddenly encased them.
Lily, thinking quickly, snorted. "You sound like Gollum. `My precious,'" she said, making the s's become very long and drawn out.
The candles that lit the halls since seven thirty that evening were suddenly snuffed out. Lily stiffened and almost collided with Sirius to try and reach him. They heard Snape's slimly laugh somewhere off to their right. "Bad luck to you," he said slyly, and Lily felt something cold grab hold of her arm and start pulling her.
Snape, in the darkness, sauntered over to Sirius, who was whimpering, looking around madly in the darkness. "He took her, you know."
"Who, what-" Sirius screamed.
"The Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, he took her, if you know what I mean." Snape disappeared, cackling away. Sirius was screaming, trying to run, trying to hide from the visual that suddenly came into his eyes.
Lily tried to scream but she couldn't, smoke wrapped around her neck, lifting her and pulling tighter, like a noose. Her eyes widened and she tried to look at Sirius, and he was running she could see the gleam of his thick hair swinging trying to run away. But the scary thing was that he running from someone, he was running from the dark. It was swooping after him, spread out and looming over him. It suddenly plunged down onto him, and he felt to the floor with a loud scream, his wand flying out of his hand and landing on Lily's shoe. Her face was turning purple as the smoke clenched tighter, but she threw her foot forward like a cheerleader and his wand landed into her hand.
She summoned up her happiest memory, all the Marauders simply grinning at her no trace of contempt or being unsettled anywhere. "Expecto Patronum!" A weak smoke came out of his wand, and she changed her mind, gasping for breath. The memory that immediately came to her mind was James and her were, well, I really cannot say. She focused all her energy on remembering the ecstasy of the moment, and she cried out, "expecto patronum!"
A Siberian tiger burst out of his wand and loped over to the deep patch of darkness, darker than anywhere else in the corridor. It tore into the lethifold and pulled Sirius out by his collar. He crawled on his hands and knees gasping, and Lily started going dizzy. Her patronus sensed it and ran toward her, bunched together, and sprung at her, and the smoke instantly pulled back, and her patronus leapt through her, and she felt the rush of absolute happiness as she fell toward the ground.
She clutched at her neck, and turned, massaging the area, looking through the corridor for it. It had already dissolved, and the torches in the hall burst into their light and she and Sirius were instantly encased in it. They crawled toward each other panting, and then threw themselves at each other, hugging each other close to them. They knew each other in a new light now. They knew they would always have the other's back, even if the other didn't want it.
James groaned and rubbed his temples, closing his eyes and trying to find some peace as he crammed in some last hours for his N.E.W.T's the next day. He opened his eyes and scanned them quickly over the page, reciting the words in front of him quickly. He slammed the book shut, and walked slowly up to his room, fell onto his bed and drifted restlessly off to sleep.
Remus shifted uneasily in his bed, twisting and turning every which way. He jumped up and gasped, looking around the hangings of his bed wildly. He was breathing like he just ran a marathon. He got out of his bed quickly and tore of the dormitory, looking. For what, he wasn't so sure. His cat, Milkshake, was awaken by his rummaging, and her meow echoed in the silent air. He ignored her.
He fell to his knees in front of Peter's bed and looked under it. That's when he saw it. There was a pool of blood underneath something. He couldn't tell what it was. He reached under the bed and touched it, feeling the utter coolness of it. He closed his eyes in a grimace, wrapped his hand around whatever he was touching, and gave it a swift jerk. The dead weight of it moved a few scant inches.
He backed up and pulled harder. It came free from its hiding place, and he opened his eyes. Tears instantly sprang into it. Lily's body was lying in front of him, knife holes plunged into her skin repeatedly, and the knife was sitting innocently in her heart, its cool silver light glaring in the moonlight.
He gasped and jumped out from his bed, and ran over to Peter's and looked under it. Nothing was there. He fell to his knees in a kneeling position and cried pitifully, thankfully. Sirius stepped languidly into the room and fell on his bed. He yowled at the next moment and jumped up, looking for Remus. "You're cat just bit me in the balls," He stated plainly, then raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "What happened?"
Remus just waved it away, sobbing heavily. "Okay then," he said still looking at him concerned. He linked his fingers together behind his back and stretched them as far out as they would go. His shoulders cracked, and he shuddered in delight. He sat on his bed, careful to avoid an aggravated Milkshake, and said randomly, "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth," Remus said, wiping his eyes and looking at him.
Sirius gave him a strange look. "Did you like Lily?"
"Yes," Remus said slowly, "in fourth year. Truth or Dare?"
"Dare," Sirius answered promptly, easily.
Remus grinned maliciously. "Go streaking through all the halls, and make sure people see you. Do the N.E.W.T's in the nude," he said, thinking of something he knew that Sirius, and most of the girl population, wouldn't mind.
"Deal,"
Lily almost got whiplash as she saw Sirius streak by, his hair flying out behind him in a banner. "Sirius, detention tomorrow night, and please, NO MORE STREAKING!" He turned around and started jogging backwards, and she shielded her eyes. He saluted her, and then took off running again. "Damn that stupid boy," she growled, and continued on her way back to the Head's Room.
She stomped into the head's room and up to James' room, where she shook him awake. "What-," he asked drowsily.
"Sirius is streaking through the halls," she told him flatly, and he burst out laughing in his sleepy stupor.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow," he said, and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep.
"Please do, I don't like seeing him dangle there. I'm sure the other half of the lady population won't mind, but I do."
"Remus probably dared him,"
"Remus would never do something like that," she said affronted.
"Yes, he would."
"No, he wouldn't," she bantered.
"Lily, he's been one of my best friends for seven years now. I'm pretty sure I know he would dare Sirius to do that." He turned and buried himself deeper into his blankets. "Now, if you don't mind, I want to sleep. You can go to your bed as well, testing tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She grumbled and he watched his wall as her silhouette bent uncertainly over his bed, change its mind, and walked away, shutting the door. He groaned and buried his head in his pillow. He was going to be up for a while.
Somailia walked down to breakfast dolefully, clutching her books to her chest as she climbed down the steps. "Hello, Somailia," a voice said from close by her, and she stopped on the steps and waited for him.
"Hey Sirius," she said, still looking at her feet, instinctively going the route to the Great Hall she knew so well. As they walked toward the great hall she felt all the people walking around them, and she felt them staring at her and Sirius.
When one of the girls walking toward them fainted and everyone gasped, she looked up. Everyone was gawking at them, and she looked confused at Sirius. He was grinning leisurely at them all. She clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes widened involuntarily.
"Sirius," she squeaked out, and he looked at her with that smile still on his face. "You're naked."
"Yup,"
"Why?"
"Remus dared me," Sirius said, just as Remus jogged down the stairs, yawning and stretching, his hair flopping all around his face and getting in his eyes. She rolled her eyes and shoved one of her books in front of him.
"Keep it there, I have to go yell at my boyfriend now."
"Okay!" He said cheerfully, and waved at her before trotting off into the Great Hall. As he disappeared behind the doors, she saw her book fall outside the hall, and not a few seconds later, everyone screamed.
"You're an idiot," She said as she walked up to Remus, who smiled at her sweetly.
"Um, thank you?" He said looking down at her. She shoved her books into his stomach, and he doubled over, gasping. "What was that for?"
"For being an idiot,"
"How am I an idiot?" He said, collecting his breath and standing up straight, following her down the stairs and to wherever she was going, because it wasn't the Great Hall.
"That stupid prank of yours humiliated me! He was walking right next to me for at least three-"
"You didn't notice?" Remus interrupted her, stifling laughter.
"No I didn't notice!" She yelled at him indignantly, stopping and looking at him.
"How?"
"I was looking at my books, thank you very much. I only looked up when I heard a girl hit the ground in a dead faint!"
He laughed, and told her tenderly, "At least you weren't the naked one, eh?"
"That isn't funny Remus!"
"At least he had his wand," he cut himself off, stuffing his fist into his mouth and laughing harder.
"You- you're despicable! That's gross!"
"I learned it from a Marauder," he said, smiling. "Now c'mon," he held his hand out to her, which she pointedly ignored, sticking her nose up in the air arrogantly. "Please?"
She reluctantly stuck her hand out and he grabbed it, pulling her towards him. Her lips twitched as she was holding back a smile, but kept her face rigidly impassive. He wrapped his free arm around her back and held her tightly to his lanky frame, and she slowly let her tension out until she was standing limply, and happily, in his arms.
"Now we're pretty late for breakfast, and your exams start in, what, half an hour? My N.E.W.T's start at around the same time, we have to go now." She shook her head against the crook of his neck.
"Can't we just stand here?"
"We can if you want me to fail, and you want you to fail yourself."
"Fine, fine, if we must." She slowly unraveled herself out of his arms, picked up the books she dropped before walking over to him again. Benignly, he wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her temple as they started walking back toward the Great Hall.
"James, please just give him the detention now. And just conjure up some clothes for him, please!" Lily begged James, burrowing her head into James' chest as Sirius ambled into the Great Hall, shocking every occupant in it.
"I think it's rather funny," James said, smirking as Sirius sat down in front of him and squirmed uneasily.
"I'm gonna have splinters in my ass, I can tell," he grumbled, telling James. He tilted his head back and bellowed out some deep laughter, and Lily felt it coming up from his belly.
"Sirius, sorry to spoil this dare, but I have to get you some clothes."
"No, don't!" Sirius cried, jumping up and instantly sitting back down again, catching the stares of the girls that were watching him hungrily. "This is only the first half."
"Oh dear lord no," Lily wailed, taking her head from James' chest to hitting it repeatedly on the table.
"Don't be doing that, Lilikins, you'll kill all those precious brain cells you need in there," Sirius said, and she grimaced and closed her eyes.
"I'd rather be killing my eyes so I wouldn't have to see that, thanks."
She heard a tid bit of a conversation coming a few seats away. "How did that fit in me?"
"And my ears too," she told Sirius, who heard the conversation as well. James, scowling, pulled Lily's ears, and ignoring Sirius' pleas, conjured up some clothes that instantly snaked their way onto Sirius.
"You suck," Sirius told him sulkily.
"Only lollypops," James said, making Lily smirk against the table.
Sirius smirked even more. "What kind of lollypops?" He questioned innocently.
James looked like he was about to explode with laughter. Lily in horror slithered her way beneath the table.
"Evans is trying to catch a peek!" She heard someone shout, and loud, obnoxious laughter consumed the hall, coming loudest from the Slytherins.
She quickly tried to sit up and hit her head on the top of the table, and the slam echoed in the strange silence that consumed their area of the Gryffindor table. James grabbed her by the back of the robes and slowly lifted her so, humiliated, everyone could laugh at her openly. "Back straight, face impassive, and they'll known they can't get to you," he told her raucously in her ear.
She did as he told and the laughter slowly dwindled, and everyone went back to their own business. "Good enough," Sirius said as he picked at his food angrily.
"Oh come off it, Sirius!" James said to him, his face pleasant but his tone low and almost a growl. "Did you really want to prance around the whole school naked?"
Sirius looked down at his food and mumbled out mournfully, "Maybe."
"You're not proving to anybody that you're great, you know." James said to him flatly, and Lily saw a tear drop onto Sirius' plate. "You think that you're the king and everyone will worship you, but you know they don't. You're a fading star, and I know you know it. Don't try to be bright again." James stood abruptly and walked stiffly out of the hall, not looking back for them.
With a mélange of anger, pity, and over all grief, Lily stood from her side of the table and walked over to Sirius', pulled him up by tugging on his arm briefly, and then with her arm around his waist to keep him upright more than show any compassion, walked out of the Great Hall.
When they had reached, the area of the halls that no one would even look in them for, Lily stopped them, and then hugged Sirius tightly. He stood emotionless in her grasp, and looked over her head, his stare blank. "C'mon Sirius, he didn't mean that," she pleaded with him.
"Yes he did, he meant every word."
"No he didn't!"
"Sirius, you are not a fading star. Like he would know what was going on in the sky," she said, smirking. "You're the brightest star, and that reflects onto your personality. You're brilliant, you're stupendous, and I hope I'm not making your ego grow, and you're just you, Sirius. Me, nor James, nor anybody else, could change and shape you."
He finally looked down at her and his eyes watered ever so slightly. She reached up and threw her arms around his neck, forcing him to shrink to a bit over her height, and he hesitantly wrapped his arms around her waist.
"We're going to be late if you don't actually hug me, because I'll keep us waiting until you do," she told him seriously. He groaned and hugged her tightly for a few moments. "Okay, now we can go," she said, and they pulled away from each other, and happily, skipped down the corridor to the Great Hall.
Remus and Somailia almost banged heads with Sirius and Lily as they turned the corner to the Great Hall. "Oh, hullo," Lily said cheerfully to them, and Somailia raised an eyebrow at her.
"Right… where's James?"
"Crap," Sirius said as Lily bolted away from them, screaming James' name. Sirius plugged his ears, and Remus wisely did the same. He looked at his watch, and then counted slowly.
"Five, four, three-," Remus slowly counted. Lily screamed so loudly the walls reverberated with the sound, and Somailia instantly jammed her fingers into her ears. "She's early today!" Remus shouted to Sirius, who nodded in agreement.
"Why is she screaming?" Somailia shouted loudly to make herself heard over Lily's incessant high pitch and now the low rumble of James' yelling.
Sirius looked over at her and winked. "Mating call of the Potters,"
She looked at him abashed. Then she grinned wolfishly. "Wonder what it's like when they're doing it."
Sirius laughed whole heartedly and Remus just shook his head, smiling slightly to himself. "Do you think they have enough time for it?" He asked them.
Sirius looked at him and experimentally unplugged his ears. They started ringing from the sound, but he ignored it. "Well, it depends on how long they want to keep doing it."
"Knowing them," Somailia said lightly, "it'll be a while."
"Nah," Remus said, shaking his head. "I think that they'll make it short so they won't miss the exams." Somailia's eyes widened.
"Crap! My first exam is in Divination," she looked down at her watch, "and it starts in five minutes! Oh holy shit, I'm gonna be late! Uh, well, bye!" She said, kissed Remus full on the lips for a moment, blew Sirius a kiss which he `caught' and placed on his cheek, pretending to blush and be bashful. She ran and turned around a corner but they heard her steps long after they could no longer see her.
Remus trembled as the screaming stopped, and then started quickly again. "Make up sex," Sirius murmured.
Remus snorted loudly and clapped a hand over his mouth, keeping, or at least trying, to hold in the laughter. "Ah c'mon boyo," Sirius said, shuddering, "We can't possibly worry about those weirdoes now; we have a few big exams to take this morning. Shall we go in and make up lame excuses for their absence?"
"Let's," Remus said, and they shook on it. "Now we're really going to be late you know,"
"Right," Sirius said in a way that made him sound very much like Hugh Grant. He didn't know that of course, Hugh Grant's first movie came out in 1982. "Right, shall we go then?"
They bowed to each other formally, linked arms, and set off at a trot back to the great hall. As soon as they turned the corner all the seventh years, excluding James and Lily of course, was standing in front of them, nervously counting on their fingers or waving their wands. "What exam is this?" Sirius asked, trying to remember.
"Ah… transfiguration,"
"Really?" Sirius said, sounding perplexed. "James really should be here, then."
"Speak of the devil," Remus muttered as James came skidding up to them, his hair messier than usual and his clothes astray. "You missed some buttons there, James." Remus said, nodding toward James' shirt.
He looked down at it, and indeed more than a few buttons were unbuttoned, enough to make all the girls completely want to start drooling. He buttoned them up haphazardly, and Remus, throwing his hands up and muttering to himself, batted James' hands away and did them himself. "You put all the stupid buttons in the wrong hole."
"Where's Lily?" James asked his eyes unfocused as he looked around the hall.
"Coming around the corner," Sirius said cheerfully, and indeed, she was. She walked in casually, looking like she didn't just do you-know-what with James.
The examiners had arrived the day before, and as soon as Griselda Marchbanks threw, open the doors, the Marauders, excluding Peter and including Lily, marched confidently in.
Somailia shook with pride as she was given her Exam results. She opened it warily, and then she squealed so loudly half the Great Hall looked at her. But she didn't care, or even realized it, for she jumped over the table and ran over to Remus as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. She hugged him tightly from behind and his eyes popped in surprise. James laughed quietly to himself as he sat down, and Lily grinned as she walked by to go talk to Guinevere. Sirius slid into the seat next to James, and watched the other two, perplexed.
"I got O's in everything!" Somailia cried, far too happy, as she sat down and shoved her results in James' face. "See, see, and see?"
"Er, yes." James said, scanning over the parchment with a silly grin on his face. He gave it to Sirius, and Somailia just kept grinning, and sat down next to Remus, who wrapped an arm around her waist. From an outsider's perspective it looked like he was being possessive, but in reality, well, he just liked holding her tightly.
"Congrats," Sirius said formally, handing the parchment back to her solemnly, "you are now a braniac geek! Just like you're boyfriend." He looked over at James, who took on the same expression. "We failed, mate. Guess it's time to go back to Hell."
"Damnation," James said, and took off his glasses to wipe his eyes mournfully. A real tear leaked out of his eyes. "And I was so happy here, molesting girls and violating everything I was brought up to be."
Somailia leaned toward Remus and whispered something in his ear, looking at the other two suspiciously. He nodded and grinned. Somailia sat again, grinned at them, and kicked James in the shin while Remus did the same with Sirius. They both screamed and jumped up, hopping on one foot while massaging their shins. Lily looked at the yelling boys, looked at Somailia and Remus with a raised eyebrow, and then raised her goblet in a sober salute. Remus nodded his head in acknowledgement and Somailia, in a sudden rush of excitement, saluted her, grinning widely.
James stopped hopping first, glared half-heartedly at the couple, suddenly grinned and leaned over the table and gave Somailia a full kiss on the lips, did the same to Remus, and then trotted over to Lily, who he kissed deeply, and she responded in the same way.
Sirius just kind of smiled and said to Somailia, "Good job, and see ya later." And then, his head bowed and ignoring the world around him, he walked away.
Somailia sighed, her excitement blown out of her and looked at Remus, who was watching Sirius walk out of the hall. He finally shook his head and looked back at her. "I hate when he tries to be a loner."
"Me too,"
"He really annoys me when this happens."
"Completely agree."
"Whose turn is it to comfort him?"
Remus took a small notebook out of his pocket and flipped a few pages. "You still own me…. Twenty-five more until we're even."
"I knew that," She said, and reluctantly stood, pulling her exam results toward her. She folded them and handed them to Remus. "Uh… just hold them for me."
"No problem," he said smiling gently at her. He lengthened his spine, you guys know how to do that don't know, and he kissed her sweetly on the cheek. "Bye," he whispered against her skin, and she smiled just listening to him.
"Bye," she said, kissing him on the forehead, and with a regretful good-bye, ran out of the hall into the direction they watched Sirius run to.
Sirius trudged slowly around the castle, wishing that it would snow instead of it being hot and sunny. But his wishes, like all of his wishes lately, weren't going to come true, so he settled into going into the cold recess of his mind. After a long while, he was tackled to the ground and landed on his stomach, while whoever knocked him down sat on his waist, straddling his waist and cackling happily. "Now come on, tell me that wasn't fun."
"That wasn't fun."
"Bloody wanker," Somailia said, snatching up some of his thick silky hair and braiding it messily. He felt the slight pull as she pulled his hair tighter, and they sat like that for an hour, or so it seemed, until she was done and his hair was done in odd braids scattered all about his head. "There!" She said, satisfied. "It's lovely,"
He groaned. "You know this kind of hurts for me?"
"Really," she asked, interested as she drummed a little tune on his back with her fists, "I did not know that!"
"It's uncomfortable, you're a dead weight."
She dug her fist painfully into his shoulder and he groaned again, and put his head down onto the cold stone floor. "That felt good." They said at the same time.
"I'm only 125,"
"All the other girls who did this were around one hundred."
"Because all the girls you've had on your back are sluts and only think that if they weight 100 pounds, have their face caked in makeup, lost their virginity when they were fifteen and not afraid to flaunt it are perfect." And then she laughed lightly and leaned over him closer. "Besides," she whispered, trying to hold back a giggle, "aren't you supposed to be on their backs when you want it like this?"
Sirius paused a moment. "Yes,"
She giggled loudly in his ear and had to place her head between his shoulder blades to keep from her laugh to ring through out the halls. "That wasn't that funny you know," Sirius said, shifting his weight around.
"It is to a sixteen year old girl with her mind in the gutter and her boyfriend hasn't pressured her to doing any more than she wanted to do."
Sirius sulked as thoughts whizzed through his mind. "Sirius!" Katie gasped, giggling as they pulled back from each other in his bed at the Potter house.
"What?" He stated innocently. She removed his hand from her inner thigh and placed it flat against her stomach.
"Nothing,"
"I never forced any girl to do something they weren't ready to do." Somailia slowly climbed off him, walked over to the wall they were closest to and sat down, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. He crawled over to her and sat down beside her.
"That's because they were scared you would make fun of them if they said no. So they simply didn't." She looked up at him as a tear trickled down her cheek. "You weren't used to the word no, were you? Still aren't," she shook her head, sniffling. "She was your first no, and you suffered for it. The other girls were just flings, one night stands, flavors of the week, and they all told you to keep going on, don't stop, and you didn't. But she told you no and that were new to you. And you're still suffering because that was the chance you never had." She carefully diverted her eyes from his.
Sirius sighed. They were back to talking about this again. The one thing they talked about for months, alone, crying together. He put his arm hesitantly around her shoulders as she bowed her head to cry, and then threw herself into his arms, crying loudly. He tilted his head and kissed the crown of hers, ignoring the fact that his shirt was getting soaked. Somailia ignored the fact, after a few moments, that her hair was wet.
She whimpered it out so quietly that Sirius barely heard the whisper of it himself. "I want to know the fact how she did."
"I wouldn't know," Sirius said cockily. Somailia burst randomly into hysteric tears.
"She was my best friend ever and I just couldn't, still can't, believe she's gone dammit!" She burst into a fresh wave of tears. "I'll have no one next year to be with! She was my only friend at school before you guys came along." She was wailing now, and Sirius patted her back awkwardly.
"I have to tell this to someone," she said, getting up and backing away slowly, wiping her eyes despite the tears still flowing.
"Katie will hear it," he said softly, and she looked at him, captured the last bits of composure and wrapped it around herself in a cemented, barbed wired wall.
She nodded curtly, and with a swift wave good bye, set off down the stairs, and tore out of the hall and toward the stairs. She didn't look back.
Lily put a hand to her mouth and watched Sirius silently as he undid his braids. Under James' invisibility cloak, in her mind she was contemplated what Somailia had er ranted. She didn't know what to expect anymore. This whole school was just a bloody roller coaster and she was barely hanging on over the hills and sharp turns, every school drama and scandals, ricocheting off each other nonstop. Passively, Sirius stood and twirled the last braid he had left in his locks, coincidently the one she first braided, in his fingers, looked straight past the suit of armor Lily was hiding behind and said hollowly, "I know you're there."
She squeaked. "Just joking, I really didn't know you were there, but thank for letting me know you were." Sirius said, and strolled off, bumping shoulders with Lily along the way. "Nice to know you like to invade my privacy."
She threw the cloak over her head. "I was worried, I did this on my own, the other two didn't know about it!"
"But you're the one who wanted to do it, weren't you?"
"That's not how it is-!"
"Of course it isn't, but it's how it seems."
He walked farther away and was almost in the shadows. "How long has she been ranting to you like that? How long have you two hidden those feelings?"
He turned on his heel and walked rapidly toward her, making her back up into the wall. "We've hidden it by not discussing it. How else do you hide something like that?"
"You don't," she told him, gulping. "You just tell it."
"Sometimes, Mrs. Potter, the truth is harder than hiding it." He pulled back from his closeness with her. "Now if you'll excuse me, tomorrow is graduation, and I would like to have everything ready by then." He glared at her, "Boxed and hidden away."
"This will come back to you some day!" She called to him as he walked away, but he walked on, his back straight, head held him, purpose and power radiating from him. For the first time in a long time, Lily was dead scared of someone.
Somailia stared hard at the rain that fell outside her window as the train rushed by, gathering speed to a destination it goes back and forth to every year. Everything around her was unfeeling; the rain will fall on you, no matter who you are. The train rushed past everything without a second to look or care, just going past. She closed her eyes, pressing her forehead against the window and letting a tear leak out of her eye. The light glared down harshly all around her. James sat in front of her and Lily beside him. Remus was sitting right next to him, playing Exploding Snap with Sirius, who kept sending glances at Lily. Lily pretended to ignore them, and focused her attention on talking to James, who was holding up his end of the conversation quite happily.
James was fiddling with something in his pocket every few moments, and kept checking his watch. "Do you not want to talk to me?" Lily asked, frowning.
"No, no it's not that at all!" James said, jumping and looking at her. The compartment door slid open and Somailia heard her cheery voice.
"Anything off the trolley dears?" James jumped up and ran toward her, nodding rapidly. She moved out of his way and he rushed out of the room, shutting the door carefully.
Lily raised an eyebrow at his antics but shook her head; it was just another quirk of James' personality. She looked at Somailia, but she didn't notice. And the cold wall was unfeeling, because it was cold. And the window was unfeeling, because it could break any moment and let in the unfeeling rain.
"Som?" Lily asked quietly, and Somailia looked at her, cold and unfeeling, just like all the things she was listing in her head.
"What." She questioned sharply, and Lily drew back, not expecting it.
"Um…" Lily said, speechless. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?" She blurted out.
Somailia smiled slightly. "Ah, Mary Poppins, my favorite movie,"
"Yeah I love that movie," Lily said as James came back into the room.
"Chocolate frogs for everyone," He said cheerfully, and dumped the lot of it on the floor, which everyone dove for. He pulled out one from his pocket. "Chocolate for the lady who needs the chocolate," He bowed, holding it out to her.
She snatched it out of his hands and blushed bashfully, but ripped it open anyway. He sat down next to her and watched her, his eyes lit up expectantly.
She was about to swallow when the chocolate got caught in her throat. She chocked and spluttered, and James pounded her hard on the back. Something covered in chocolate flew out of her mouth and landed on Remus' cheek, which he looked at disgusted. "Take it off my cheek please."
Somailia, with a small grin, pulled her sleeve down over her arm and picked it up, dropping it into Lily's hands. She wiped it off on her jeans and looked at her carefully. "Oh my gods…" she said, trailing off. "You said when you were nineteen and I was eighteen!" Remus, Sirius, and Somailia stared at James, perplexed.
"My birthday is in two weeks, and you're birthday is in two months, am I right?" Lily nodded, and Somailia smirked and started jumping up and down in her seat.
"Well then, how about in three months?"
"Three months," Lily breathed out, and nodded, her head in the clouds.
"What in three months?" Sirius and Remus shouted at the same time. Lily huddled into James' side for a moment, and then came out and shoved her hand in their faces. "I would rather not like to have that in my face- oh my gods." Remus started, and then cut himself off.
It was a simple engagement ring, to say in the least. It was silver, and had little emeralds studded into it. When Sirius finally understood, he stood, grabbed Lily, and kissed her on the mouth. He put her back in her seat, lugged James up and did the same with him.
"I must say, Lily," James joked, "now that Sirius kissed me, I may have to ask for that ring back." He saw her face, "JUST KIDDING!"
"You better are kidding Mister Potter, because if you did, well…." She paused to find some words. "If you were serious, don't you dare say that pun-?"
"I wasn't going to!" Sirius whined.
"-than that might of given you uh… no sex for two months. And then I wouldn't marry you."
James choked and started begging. "That's pathetic," Remus muttered to Somailia, and she smiled slightly.
"Well, of course it is, but we're all still teenagers here. We all still want to have fun while we can."
He turned her head and kissed her deeply, which she responded to. "You know," Sirius said, interrupting the couples, who turned and glared at him, "I think there's been too much kissing lately."
"Yeah right," They all said together, snorting. "When have you ever thought, before, there was too much kissing?"
"Never, but I'm making up for it now." Remus sat down, slammed Sirius in the wall and gave him many rough head noogies. "No, no please none, the dreaded noogies of Remus. Ahh!"
Harry and Katie watched them and were snorting like lunatics, munching on chicken wings, nuclear if you must know, and sipping on mineral water. "They're absolutely insane," Harry said snorting so much that water came out of his nose and went through the clouds, landing on their window as rain. None of the Marauders, excluding Peter and including Somailia and Lily, noticed.
"Of course they are! They're my best friends and your parents after all."
"You really weren't this insane when you came here."
"I was depressed like you've never known," she said, softly.
"I sense a but coming on…" he said, and Katie just to be literal sat on him.
"Yeah, a butt came on."
He snorted and bit into his wing. "How are we eating these things? Aren't they like, super hot?"
"Of course they are, that's why they're called nuclear. But, hey, up here they taste exactly how you want them to taste. Like… mine tastes like chocolate most the time, because I'm a chocoholic, but then it'll taste like cookie dough, which has got to be the best thing in the world. What does yours taste like?"
Harry thought a moment, and took a huge bit of the chicken wing. He closed his eyes and sighed in bliss. "A muffin with bacon, cheese, and ketchup." She raised an eyebrow.
"Those are rather good, I must agree."
Katie looked down at the others again, who were singing at the top of their lungs, and getting lots of threats about it, "Lily and James sitting in a tree…" and you know the rest.
Katie snorted. "Sometimes, for being old teenagers, they are so childish."
"They're trying to be happy during a time where everything only brings pain," Harry said reasonably.
She whacked him on the back of a head with a bone she just polished off. "Let me think poetically here, please?"
"If you're the poet, I'm the writer," he said shifting to the side so rapidly she fell off him and landed on the edge of the cloud, where he picked her up one handed. "You're quite light."
"Yeah right," she said, lying flat on her stomach again. "Light being 120, right,"
"On the contrary, I've had to lift 245 before."
"Ouch! What were you lifting?"
He looked at her sadly. "Ron and Ginny,"
"Sorry baby," she said, wrapping a sympathetic arm around him and pulling her to her, kissing his temple and letting him burrow his head into the crook of his neck, trying hard not to cry.
"You want to know the saddest thing?" Harry muttered.
"What," she said, dropping her newest chicken wing and stroking his hair.
"Before you're born you can only hang out with people who've already died. You're great fun and all, don't get me wrong, but you didn't have to go through what I did."
"I've been through a lot more than you know," she said softly, and hugged him tightly, before he fell asleep in her arms, exhausted from her tears.
"Hurry up, James and Lily, so he'll know what real love is before he's too far gone." She whispered into the fading afternoon, and it flew away from her into the howling wind below.
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