Chapter 12
Wow, it's been…years? Really? Well, then I am sadly remiss in giving you this chapter. And I'm sure that most of you have stopped reading by now. It's ok, I deserve it. BUT, I'm going to update anyway. Because I happen to like this story and think it deserves an ending. (I don't know how far away that ending is, but we're getting a lot closer.)
So if you're still out there, I'm still writing. Because fanfiction is cheaper than therapy.
"What the hell are they doing out there?" Remus and Sirius were hunched in the window, struggling to see the girls in the garden. Their hiding spot for eavesdropping was foolproof, except for the fact that the window was hidden behind a giant bush which also obstructed most of their view of the girls and they couldn't hear a thing they were saying. But, other than those small details, it was working splendidly.
"Who cares? My cheek still hurts." Sirius rubbed the red blotch on his face, continuing the same complaint he had had ever since Lily left the room.
Remus felt an exasperated sigh coming on. "And you're watching them just as intently as I am because you don't care?
"I'm just waiting for one of them to start stripping or something."
"Sirius, this is a heart-to-heart, not some pervert's version of a slumber party."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Right, Mr. Peeping Tom, like you weren't waiting for the exact same thing." He turned back to the window, leaning his forehead against the glass. "Wait, did you just call me a pervert?"
"I'm not ever going to dignify that with an answer." Remus continued trying to catch anything through the window.
"But that is an answer." Sirius poked him.
Remus glared at him. "For your information, I'm trying to help James."
"By spying on the girls?"
Remus stood up, crossing his arms. "And what exactly are you doing at this precise window, Padfoot?"
Sirius stood as well, crossing his arms as well in order to mock his stature. "For your information, Moony, the closer I keep an eye on Kat, the better head start I can get." He looked out the window once more. "Shit. Where'd she go?"
"So it has nothing to do with the fact that Rachel is out there?" Sirius didn't respond, now filled with fear because he couldn't see where Kat was anymore. Remus sighed and left, heading towards James' room.
Sirius banged his head on the glass as the rest of the girls left the garden. "Damn it." He muttered to himself. "My cheek still hurts."
"I have a plan." Rachel whispered to Lily right before they stepped back inside the house. "Trust me, it's going to work."
Lily hesitated. "Wait; is this the good kind of plan or the bad kind of plan?"
"There are no bad plans, only bad executions of plans." Rachel's face broke out in a grin that rivaled Sirius' bad-boy smile.
"No, I'd say that climbing on top of a moose head and then waking up in bed with a boy you aren't sure you hate or love constitutes a bad plan." Lily countered, pushing open the back door.
Rachel waved away her comment. "You were drunk; there was no planning, only doing." She stopped and the two girls gave each other the same look. "That came out wrong."
A few hours later nothing new had developed. James refused to leave his room despite various coaxing from Remus, Lily was upstairs writing frantically in her diary, and Sirius was hiding from Kat. Kat was in the library with Remus, who had found the perfect spot for both books and the sun. All in all, everything was pretty much back to normal.
Rachel was so over normalcy.
She'd had to search all over the house and the grounds to find Sirius. In the end, she had merely stumbled onto his hiding place in the same bathroom they had hid in last night. She should have known; after all, Sirius was never above using the same trick twice.
He jumped half a foot in the air when the door opened. "Merlin woman! The least you could do is announce that it's you."
Rachel smirked. "I enjoy seeing you freak out over a girl, Siri, I do. That's not why I was trying to find you, though."
Raising an eyebrow, Sirius stepped a lot closer. "Oh, I see. You wanted some of this too, huh?"
She stifled a laugh, but managed to hold it together. "Yes." She mustered the word as seriously as she could.
Sirius was thrown. "I, er, what?" Rachel was enjoying this far too much. She began to play her role a little more seriously. She moved closer, placing her hand on his chest, playing with the neck of his shirt and batting her eyelashes.
"Oh, Sirius." She made sure to use his full name this time, so that she had all of his attention. "Surely you must have known how I felt, all this time." She leaned in, now putting both hands on the back of his neck and brushing her nose against his cheek. "Kiss me."
Sirius hesitated. He had never hesitated before. Normally, he would have kissed her before all of the talking started. There was this strange feeling; like alarm bells were going off in his head. He wasn't sure if it was because Rachel was James' older sister, or because…well, he might actually like her. He shuddered at the thought, and then was brought brutally back to the present as Rachel blew air on his face.
"Sirius?"
He swallowed, hard. This was either the greatest moment of his life, or the worst.
James was in the middle of making objects float around the room when Sirius walked in and ruined everything. By now, it was after three in the afternoon and James still hadn't gotten dressed. He was calmer, happier, and had unanimously made the decision with himself to live in his bedroom forever. Lily would never have to see him again, and he could agonize over their short, drunken kiss for forever. It was the perfect plan.
Sirius opened the door and immediately hit the vial of ink that had been floating by, spilling all over James' bed. There was a crashing sound as all the other random objects in the air fell when James lost his concentration.
"You spilled ink all over my bed, and you broke my favorite snow globe in one smooth move. And you wonder sometimes why we're friends." James complained, moving to pick up the shattered glass from off his floor.
Sirius was unconcerned, shutting the door behind him. "Oh lay off. You hated that snow globe; it was from Peru and it didn't even move." James didn't say anything, still wallowing in his misery.
There was a silence before Sirius spoke again. "So…"
James looked up at him with inky hands. "Padfoot?"
"Prongs." Sirius began, but he couldn't go on.
"Sirius."
"James."
James sighed. "Well, now that we know each other's names, maybe we can have a conversation?"
"Right." Sirius tried to start again, but found he was faltering. "Good news, or bad news first?"
James groaned. "Bugger. Alright, bad news."
Sirius steadied himself and blurted it all out at once. "Your-sister-and-I-are-going-out-on-a-date." He said very quickly.
James tensed and his grip on his wand got tighter. "You're…what?"
"Ah, but good news!" Sirius continued, knowing that his death was imminent unless he spoke very rapidly. "You and Lily are also going out on a date."
He had James cornered. Should he kill Sirius, or jump for joy? Decisions, decisions…He opted for just being shell-shocked.
"What? How? ...When?" He dropped his wand very close to the ink pool on his sheets. Sirius stepped over and graciously took it from the bed, just in case he decided to go with his other instincts and hex him to death.
"You're. Going. On. A. Date. With. Lily." Sirius repeated slowly, as if he were speaking to a madman. Which could be technically true, if he had still been in possession of his wand. "I'll let that sink in for a moment."
James slowly turned away from Sirius, sitting on the bed. The ink rushed down the sheets to meet him, but he didn't notice. "But," He stuttered, "I haven't even asked her out yet."
Sirius grinned. "Oh, that pesky problem? That's being taken care of." He winked, which was never a good sign.
"You want me to do what?" Lily stared at Rachel in disbelief. They were sitting in Lily's room. She was still holding the pen she had been using to write her very long diary entry (now over ten pages back-to-back).
Rachel shook her head. "See, you're missing the point. I don't want you to do it; you want you to do it. Well, I want you to do it too, but that's next to the point. The point is in a little box, and that is next to it, see?"
"I think I'm blind, because I don't see anything you're trying to tell me." Lily took a deep breath and tried again. "So you kissed Sirius and now-"
Rachel interrupted her. "Hold up, I did not kiss Sirius."
"But you said-"
"I said I didn't mean to. It wasn't supposed to happen like that; that was not the plan, ok? Besides, he kissed me."
Lily shook her head and smiled. "Is it your job to be confusing?"
"Yes, I'm very good at it. I'm a woman."
"Ok, so you didn't kiss Sirius. But now you two are going out on a date?" She set down her pen. This news was way more interesting than the angst she had been writing.
"A very certain type of date." Rachel corrected her.
Lily laughed. "What type of date?"
"The fake kind."
"Ah," Lily nodded. "I know that kind well. But you two kissed?"
Rachel buried her face in her hands. "That part wasn't supposed to happen! I was only going to go in, tease him a bit, and then tell him the plan. How was I supposed to know he would fall for it before I told him I was joking?"
Lily gave her a look that said it all; the pitied look. "Have you met Sirius?"
"He's not allowed to get to me this easily. I'm the older one! I seduce him, not the other way around!"
Lily nodded, but tried to get back to the point she was actually interested in. "Right, but you said something about James and me going on a date?" She was so excited at the prospect that she was feeling tingly all over. The pit in her stomach threatened to come up her throat.
Rachel snapped out of her moment of weakness and came back to the land of the sane. "Oh yeah, that too."
The beating in Lily's heart reached a fever pitch. "So he's going to actually ask me out?"
"Uh, no. We're just meeting the boys there."
"Oh." The beating calmed down considerably. "That's disappointing."
Rachel shrugged. "That's life."
"A date?"
"A date."
"Merlin help me."
There's more coming your way, in a fanfiction website near you!
A little sneak peek:
The infamous double date happens; some bad times, some worse times, some feline times, and finally, something good might happen.
Also, I'll try to throw something in with a pineapple. You know, for fun.
Thanks for reading!
Emmablk1
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