Chapter 7- Dates and Making Plans
("And may I present to you the one, the only-" "Sirius, shut up. Let him tell the dannato story.")
Do I really have to tell it? ("It's your turn, Wormy. Everyone has to take their turn.") Oh, alright. The first time Prongs asked her out? Uh… Oh, yeah, I remember now. Yeah, Padfoot and I still laugh about it sometimes. Mostly Padfoot though. ("It's a funny story!" "Stop interrupting him, you idiot!")
We were just walking down the corridors one day in fifth year, I think. Because Ryan was there and Evans looked- ("Don't you finish that.") -different. She looked different. That's all I was going to say, swear! Honest! ("You tell her, Wormtail!" "You need to shut up, Padfoot.")
Anyway, Evans looked different. So it was fifth year. I think. Anyways, we were just walking down the corridor and Prongs saw Evans up ahead of us. Well, Evans and Watson and Carter. ("They have first names, you know.") Oh, sod off, Ryan.
Prongs'd been mooning over Evans since the beginning of the year, even if he wouldn't admit it. He was always talking about her. Still is. One minute he's making fun of her or complaining about her, the next minute he sounds like he fancies her. Insane.
For some reason, he decided to yell her name down the corridor. "Hey, Evans!"
She turned around, and she already looked annoyed. Just from him yelling her name. Not a very good way to start a conversation. "What do you want, Potter?" she asked coldly.
"What makes you think I want anything?" Prongs asked, using the famous Marauder look of innocence. He and Sirius pull it off the best, but it never works on McGongall. Or Evans, now that I think of it.
"You're talking to me, aren't you?" Evans asked.
Prongs winced. "Ouch, Evans. That hurts. Actually-" I could tell he wasn't as confident, and Padfoot and Moony and Rye could tell, but Evans and Carter and Watson couldn't. "-I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend."
And then the entire corridor went silent. You could've heard a quill drop. Watson gasped in shock, and Carter's eye widened. Even the four of us were too shocked to say anything. We knew he fancied her, but we didn't think he'd actually do anything about it. We thought he'd get over it before he did anything stupid. We were, obviously, wrong.
Evans took two steps forward and slapped Prongs as hard as she could across the face. It kind of echoed in the empty corridor.
"I think that's a no," Padfoot said, smirking slightly as Prongs rubbed the side of his face.
"James Potter, that is the most immature and cruel prank I've ever heard," Evans spat. "I thought even you were above asking out girls as a prank." She turned and stormed down the hall. Carter and Watson exchanged a look, glanced at Prongs, and ran after Evans.
"It wasn't a prank!" Padfoot tried calling after her.
"She either didn't hear you," Moony said.
"Or she doesn't care," Padfoot finished.
"Me thinks that was just a tiny bit pricky," Ryan said, calmly leaning against the wall and trying not to grin.
"Uh… better luck next time?" I tried.
And there were plenty of next times. But every `next time' was just as bad as the first one. A lot of them were worse. She obviously doesn't like him, so why doesn't he just give up on her all together?
-Peter
&-&-&-&-&
"Ryan!!" Lily exclaimed, exasperated.
"Yes?" Ryan responded innocently.
"Can't you sit still for a minute?" Lily asked. "You've been practically bouncing off the walls all morning. Just what are you so excited about?" It was during breakfast. Ryan had come in late, as usual. Morgan and Alice had gone on ahead to class, and Lily was waiting for Ryan while she finished up some Head stuff that she needed to get done.
"A lot of things," Ryan said cheerfully, grinning at her frustrated friend. "The main one being that Quidditch starts today. Did I mention that? Our first practice is this afternoon." She stopped and frowned slightly. "No, wait. This'll be my first practice. The rest of the team had two last week when I had detention." She grinned. "But I'm still looking forward to it. Have I ever told you how much I like Quidditch-"
"I thought you were never in a good mood in the morning," Lily cut it darkly.
"Oh, I'm only in a bad mood until I get a shower. Then I'm much happier. I like to be clean. Besides, I had a really good idea this morning."
"Oh?" Lily asked. "About what?"
Ryan grinned. "Secret Marauder business. I'd tell ya, but then I'd have to kill you. And that wouldn't be good for anyone."
"For… anyone?" Lily asked suspiciously.
Ryan rolled her eyes. "Yes, anyone. Don't be so paranoid," she added, grinning. "If I killed you, it wouldn't be good for you. Morgan and Alice would be tres sad. I would probably get sent to Azkaban. If, that is, the Ministry could find me before Sirius, and that's only if Sirius could find me before James. And then, if Morgan and Alice or James or Sirius killed me, Remus would be extremely sad and Peter… Anyway, it just wouldn't be good for anyone." She waved her hands in a circle. "Set off a whole cycle of events."
"Hm, I see." Lily gave her another suspicious look as the bell rang and they headed to class.
Ryan shot her another innocent smile. "I wouldn't ever plan anything that would involve you without your consent."
"Of course you wouldn't. And I'm the queen, is that it?"
Ryan laughed and nodded. "Exactly it. Your Majesty."
&-&-&-&-&
"Hey, Rye!" fourth year Keeper Stephanie Letmen called, running to catch up.
Ryan grinned. "Hey, Steph. How's it been?"
Stephanie shrugged. "Pretty good, I s'pose. You?"
"Same old stuff," Ryan replied. She looked up as they entered the Quidditch Pitch, shielding her eyes. "Trey, you haven't been practicing!"
"Oh, shove it, Ryan!" a brown haired boy yelled back. Trey Recher, a fifth year Chaser, threw the Quaffle at her. Ryan dodged it as if it was a Bludger. "You're supposed to catch that, you know."
"Hey, you stick to catching your balls, I'll stick to catching mine," she yelled back. She paused, thinking. "No, let me rephrase that. You stick to catching Quaffles, I'll stick to catching Snitches." Trey snickered before turning to talk to sixth year Beater Mark Barden.
"I'll stick to hitting balls then, how's that?" Aubrey Bradley landed next to Ryan and Stephanie. Aubrey was a sixth year Beater. She and Mark didn't always get along, but it was amazing how well they could work together when they wanted to (namely when James threatened them or during matches).
Ryan laughed. "Well, if that's what you want to do." She smirked slightly. "I think kicking `em's more fun, personally."
"Oh, gross," Stephanie said, scrunching her nose. Ryan and Aubrey laughed.
"Watch out!" The three girls ducked without needing to look up. Cameron York (a third year chaser) stopped in front of them, smiling sheepishly. "Uh, sorry. Can you-" Ryan picked up the Quaffle and threw it to him. "Thanks." He flew off, throwing it to Trey in the process.
"Cute kid," Aubrey said, shaking her head. "For how stupid he is."
"His aim's awful," James commented lightly, coming up behind them. "We're working on that though."
"Shouldn't there be more than this?" Ryan asked him.
He shook his head. "This is all of us. I'm still looking for a reserve Chaser, unofficially. But I didn't want to hold try-outs just to get a reserve. That's stupid."
"And a lot more pain than it's worth," Aubrey added.
"I'm thinking about Anthony Underwood," James said. "What do you guys think?"
"I think he's a pain in the arse," Mark said easily, landing next to the others with Trey and Cameron right behind him, "but he's got a hell of an arm."
"Well, you're a pain in the arse and you're still on the team," Aubrey said. "So you two should get along fine." Mark scowled.
"His aim's worse than Cameron's," Trey said. "He's probably the best we've got, though. Unless you want to try Cassie-"
"You just want her on the team because you fancy her," Cameron said, smirking. Trey reached to hit the back of his head, and Cameron ducked, grinning. "It's true though. She's not that great. She just happens to have-"
"York," Mark said, slapping his hand over Cameron's mouth, "one of these days, your hormones will kick in. And then, if you can see at all, you will want another girl on our team. No offense, ladies. But you're all hands off."
"Thankfully," all three girls muttered in unison.
"I agree," James said. "Anthony it is then. I don't want to deal with any more… relationship issues than I already have to. Besides, I have to train Cameron to aim anyway." Cameron blushed slightly. "Mark, let out the Bludgers. Do NOT let out the Snitch. I just want to pass around for a while. Everyone else, get your arses in the air. Our first match is on the 29th. And it's against Slytherin. You all know what that means-"
Ryan nearly fell off her broom as she spun around to face him. "The 29th? As in October 29th?" James nodded. "Maledizion."
"What language was that in?" Cameron asked. It was pretty much a known fact that, if Ryan swore, it was almost always in another language. It was also a known fact that about 75% of the time, if Ryan spoke in a different language, it was a swear word.
"Italian. It means damn it. As in dammit, James, that's a really bad day for our match against Slytherin, especially since that happens to be the exact middle."
"The exact middle of what?" Trey asked teasingly. "Your time of the month?"
"Recher, if you like having a head, shut the hell up," Aubrey snapped. "And don't joke about that. It's hard to play a Quidditch match then, thank you."
Trey snickered as Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Please tell me you're getting all the perverted jokes out now."
"Are we being perverted?" Trey asked innocently.
"Let me think about that. Hm… Yes." Trey snickered again.
"You mean the exact middle?" James demanded. "As in not the day before, not the day after? The worst possible-"
"Would I joke about that?" Ryan snapped. The rest of the team all blinked at once. None of them (except for Aubrey, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time during her fourth year) had ever heard Ryan snap at anyone.
James took a deep breath and let it out. "I never said you were," he said as calmly as he could, "but what I meant was is it right in the middle? On the exact middle day?"
"Yes."
"Okay. I'll work on it, alright?" She nodded. "Okay. Everyone, get passing. You know the drill! Get in a circle, start moving it around. Cameron, always pass it to Trey. Always, unless I tell you otherwise. Got that?" Cameron nodded. "Watch out for those Bludgers, we don't have Mark and Aubrey to watch your arses this time. You've got to do it yourself."
The team started passing dutifully, but none of them were really concentrating on what they were doing. Stephanie and Aubrey were wondering what Ryan and James had been talking about. Mark was halfway wondering about Ryan, halfway wondering about another female on the team (and she wasn't a fourth year).
James was wondering how he was going to convince someone to change the date of the match. Ryan wondered is there was a way for James to change the date of the match.
And for the last two?
Trey wondered if Cassie would be willing to go out with him. Cameron wondered which one of the other males on the team he would be most like if and when his hormones finally did kick in. He hoped it would be James, even though he wasn't having much luck in the female department. At least he knew how to handle a very pissed off Ryan Miller. And that, in Cameron's unbiased and uneducated opinion, was a definite bonus.
&-&-&-&-&
"I've got it." Lily looked up from the stack of papers in front of her to see James standing in front of her, looking triumphant.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"This big event thing," James said, waving his hands. "The one besides the ball. We should do a Muggle carnival. You know, with that big fair-ness wheel-"
"Ferris wheel?"
"Yeah, that. One of those. And the games and the prizes and everything. What do you think?"
Lily frowned thoughtfully for a minute before nodding. "I think that could work. We could hold it in the spring, possibly." She nodded again. "Good idea, Potter."
James wanted to say "Don't look so surprised, I'm not a complete idiot." But he somehow thought that that would be considered rather pricky, and even though he wasn't positive about that, he wasn't about to take his chances. He smiled slightly. "Thank you." He did add, though, "I came up with it all by myself."
He was rewarded with a slight smile. "Wow, Potter, finally learning how to use that head of yours?"
He decided to take it in stride. "Sure. I use it all the time. How else would great minds such as Ryan and Remus- and yourself, of course- be able to spend any time with me at all?"
"They manage with Black, don't they?" Lily asked dryly.
"They can only have so many pity cases, Lily," he responded seriously.
She looked for a second like she was going to laugh, but she just shook her head. "Although your great wit never ceases to amaze me, Potter, we need to get to work. I-"
"It's James."
She looked at him oddly. "Excuse me?"
"My name," he said slowly, "is James. Not Potter. At least… all of the people I get along with call me James." Bad move, James, he thought, wincing inwardly. They hadn't officially declared a truce yet. Who was to say that she didn't still consider him an enemy?
"Doesn't mean we're friends," he said calmly when she opened her mouth. "Just means we can have a conversation without snapping at each other. Which is something we've been doing for the past ten minutes or so."
She paused, looking like she was considering it. "You're right," she said thoughtfully. He started to break into a smile and had to look down so that she wouldn't see. "But don't think I can just start calling you by your first name all of the sudden," she added quickly. "It- It takes getting used to, you know."
"Of course," he said. She sounded a little flustered, but he wasn't sure why. At least it was a start. And he had to start somewhere.
&-&-&-&-&
"She hasn't done anything," Sirius complained from the floor in the common room. "Ryan's had two weeks to come up with a matchmaking plan, and she hasn't come up with anything."
"First off, they're not matchmaking plans," Remus said, not looking up from the book he was reading. "She's just trying to get them to settle their differences enough so that they can spend time in the same room. Secondly, maybe she does have a plan. She just hasn't told you what it is yet."
"You know what she has planned," Sirius said accusingly.
"I just know Ryan Miller. If she doesn't want to tell you something, she won't. It's that simple."
"She asked for our help, though," Peter said, frowning.
Sirius nodded. "Exactly. Thank you, Wormy. She asked for our help. If she didn't need our help, she wouldn't have told us. If she needs our help, she should tell us she needs our help. Besides, I know she doesn't have a plan."
"Oh, really?" Remus asked dryly, finally looking up. "And just how do you know?"
Sirius grinned. "I am the all powerful Sirius Black, Moony. I hear all, I see all, I know all. If I haven't heard about, it doesn't exist. That simple."
"Well if you are the all powerful Sirius Black and you are, as you say, all powerful, why don't you just do something about it?"
Sirius frowned thoughtfully for a second. "You know what, Moony? That's a good idea. Why shouldn't I do something about it? I have to listen to him complaining too. Screw Ryan's plan. I'll just use my own."
Remus had the feeling he shouldn't have said anything. "I was joking."
"I'm not."
"Locking them together in a broom closet isn't going to work."
"Who said anything about broom closets?"
"She'll kill you when she finds out," Peter put in. "She told you she'd handle it."
"Nah, the only person she ever considers actually murdering is James," Sirius said easily. "Well, and her dad. That doesn't count though. Besides, she's not exactly handling it if she's not doing anything, is she?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Didn't think so. So, if she's not going to take care of it, I will."
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