Author's Note: Okay, I'm having trouble replying to reviews (I used to know how to do it, but then I forgot), so I'm not replying to reviews. But as for the oreos, just assume that Ryan knows what they are because she lived in the States for a little while (instead of the truth, which is when I wrote the chapter I didn't know they don't really have oreos in the UK now and I was just too lazy to change it).
This is the chapter. Or the chapter before the chapter. You'll see what I mean. Just pay attention, there's a lot of plot in this one (and fluff. Plot and fluff go together hand-in-hand in my book).
Chapter 9- Letters and All Around Stupidity
Finally! It took her long enough! Sheesh. I've been waiting for since the beginning of the year. I thought she would never get around to me. Agrippa, she certainly takes her time.
Hi, my name is Morgan Watson, matchmaker extraordinaire. I am happy to say I am in charge of setting up my three best friends.
Well, maybe in charge isn't the way to put it. I was in charge of the Alice Carter-Frank Longbottom mission. I can take full credit for that-and I will. It came out rather well, if I do say so myself. If they don't get married, they better have a hell of a good reason. They so crazy for each other, I don't think there's any reason that they shouldn't.
I can't take full credit for the Lily and James project. Hell, I can barely take any credit. I'm leaving that up to the Marauders. I mean, I trust Ryan well enough, and she could control those boys with the snap of her pretty little fingers if she wanted to. She just chooses not to, for some reason I cannot understand in the slightest. I mean, honestly, what girl doesn't want the Marauders at her beck and call. Just imagine having Sirius Black come whenever you wanted him-
Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Just ignore me. I have a bad habit of getting onto tangents, and it's near impossible to shut me up. So, if that happens, just ignore me. That's what everyone else does.
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yeah, Lily and James. As I said, Ryan is officially in charge of that project. She can have it. Those two are the most difficult people-No, I take that back. Lily is the most difficult person I have ever met. Not that she fully intends to be difficult, she's just stubborn as a mule. There's so much… chemistry between the two of them. No, wait, potential chemistry would be better.
And sexual tension. I have never met a pair of people with more UST than James Potter and Lily Evans.
Not that I would tell Lily that.
("That's such a romance novel term. UST. What does that even stand for?") Shut up, Sirius. What are you reading this for anyway? ("Just making a statement.") Shove off.
But Miss Marauder and her boys can take care of that. I only help when she asks me to or when I see an opportunity that's just too good to pass up. Don't get many of those, so I take them when I can. I worked my bloody arse off last year, so I'm laying back this year.
Well, at least when it comes to Lily and James. Ryan and Remus are something else entirely.
The two of them are a pair. Talk about falling for your best friend. And the worst thing is that neither one of them realizes it. Well, I guess I should take that back too. Sirius said that Remus knows, he just refuses to do anything about it. Doesn't want to ruin the friendship or something like that.
I suggested friends with benefits. Sirius said he already offered that idea to Remus without much success.
I'll let you in on a little secret-I've been working with Sirius since the beginning of the school year to get Ryan and Remus together. I can't stand the prat most of the time (he's a pig), but it's in the best interests of our best friends. We have to be extremely careful about how we do it, though. First of all, we don't want them to find out. We can't let anyone find out. It just… wouldn't work well. Secondly, if we somehow screw this up, we don't want to screw up their friendship. We're playing with fire, but that makes it all the more exciting.
You would think they would be the easiest to get together, but they're the hardest. The number one problem (behind the fact that they won't admit they fancy each other) is that they're both scared of being in a relationship. I know you can't tell by looking at them, but it's more obvious if you know them. They don't want to get attached. They don't want to fall in love.
I don't know either one's reason, but I know they have one. I'm sure they know each other's reasons. But I don't need to know the reason. I just know that they need to get over it.
On second thought, Sirius probably knows. Hang on, let me ask him. ("Bugger off, Watson. S'not any of your business.") Hmph, well. Thanks for the cooperation, Black. (I'm sticking my tongue out at him right now, but he's too busy pretending to do his Astronomy homework to notice.)
We may need to call in back up. I was thinking Lily and James might just be the perfect people. Hey, wait a minute… Yep, that just might work. In the process of hooking up Ryan and Remus, we would be showing Lily that James cares for the well being of others, i.e. Ryan and Remus.
Ha, this might not be so difficult after all.
More over Marauders. Watson's on this case.
-Morgan
&-&-&-&-&
For the first time (in Alice's memory), Lily, Morgan, and Alice were sitting with the Marauders during breakfast. Voluntarily. It had even been Lily's idea! Of course, her excuse was that she needed to talk to James about Head stuff, but still. Alice was taking it as a sign. Of what, she wasn't sure, but still a sign.
She looked down the table to where Lily and James were arguing. Well, they weren't really arguing as much as they were… debating.
"We can't decorate in just red and gold, James! The ball is for the entire school. Not just Gryffindors."
"So? What colors do you think we should have?"
"One color from each house, just to be fair. Yes, every house. I don't like it any more than you do, but I'd rather go ahead and do that than argue with Slytherins."
"We could always just silence them. Or curse them. Either way, I have the satisfaction of pointing a wand at a Slytherin."
"James. You're Head Boy." Alice noticed the slight smile on Lily's face and couldn't help but smile herself. They were making progress. Lily could have a normal conversation with him without storming away annoyed. James had managed to convince her to start calling him by his first name. They could (almost) be considered friends. They certainly acted like it. Alice wasn't sure who she should thank for the progress, but she would thank them if she ever found out.
Morgan sat next to Lily, flirting shamelessly with Sirius. He flirted right back. Probably more out of boredom than actually liking each other, but you could never tell with those two. Ryan and Remus sat across from Alice.
"We have to work on the Transfiguration project sometime," Remus was saying.
Ryan shrugged innocently. "I'm going to be sick soon. I have to get as much of my regular homework finished as I can so I won't have so much to do next week. I don't think I'll have time."
"And since you're sick, you can't do any work?" Remus asked. Alice could almost see the trap he was waiting to set on her, although she didn't know what it was about.
"No more than my regular work," Ryan said, still looking innocent. "Sorry. Maybe after I'm better. I won't be so tired then."
Remus smirked slightly. "I guess you can't go out on Wednesday either then."
Ryan frowned, trying to remember what was on Wednesday. Suddenly, she looked at him sharply. "Remus, you can't-"
"You'll be too tired, Rye," he said, mocking her innocence.
"That's not fair-"
"I don't want you to come if you're going to be too tired. What happens if you get stuck again?"
"I won't get stuck again," she said defiantly. "The last time I got stuck, I was fifteen. I haven't gotten stuck since then, and I don't plan on it either. Stop being such a smarmy salaud. For the record, that means bas-"
"Is the full moon on Wednesday?" Peter asked. "I thought it was on-" Remus and Ryan both gave him significant looks, and he stopped talking. Alice was about to ask what was so special about the full moon when the mail arrived. An owl landed in front of Alice, and she grinned. Who cared about the full moon anyway?
"Lily, Frank wrote to Alice again," Morgan called happily.
Lily looked down the table in interest. "Well? What did he say?"
"I haven't even opened it yet," Alice said, taking the letter attached to the owl's leg. "I'll let you know. After I read it."
An owl dropped a letter on Ryan's plate. She picked it up, looking at it curiously, before slitting it open and pulling out the letter. As she read it, her face paled slightly and her curious look turned into a scowl.
"Rye?" Remus asked uncertainly.
"It's nothing," she said, smiling what looked like a slightly forced smile. She stuffed the letter into her bag.
"Did your dad write you again?" James asked.
Ryan frowned. "Uh… Not exactly." She stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'll meet you in class. I forgot my Defense book."
After she left, the rest of them looked at each other questioningly. Peter was the first to say something. "Do you think she knows we don't have Defense today?"
&-&-&-&-&
"Hi, Wheat."
Ryan looked up to see Morgan sit on one side of her and Sirius sit on the other. If she hadn't been so worried about hiding what she had been working on, she might have asked them what they were doing. As it was, she stuffed her parchment under her book and into a large pile of notes. She hitched a smile onto her face.
"Hi, guys."
"What're you working on?" Sirius asked.
The smile became even more forced. "Oh, you know. This and that." She waved her hand vaguely. "What's up?"
"Well, Clearing decided to pair us up to work on that Potions project due Friday," Morgan said (Ryan swore internally; she had forgotten all about it). "And we need someone to make sure we don't kill each other."
"You've always gotten along just fine before," Ryan said distractedly, scribbling a note to herself to find James ASAP so that they could finish `that damn project' (which showed Sirius and Morgan how truly distracted she was to have not sworn in another language). "Better than everyone else anyway. What's the problem?"
"He's being a bigger arse than usual," Morgan said.
Sirius snorted. "You're just mad because I won't tell you about that thing."
"Those things, Black," Morgan corrected him. "There's more than one. Two, if you want to get specific."
"Isn't mine to tell," he said, shrugging. "Ask them."
"You know what?" Ryan said. "Because I am extremely sleep deprived, I'm not even going to ask." She hadn't snapped at them, but Sirius and Morgan both got the feeling she would if they weren't careful. "Sirius, if you can find James in the next ten minutes and bring him here, I'll help you two make sure you don't kill each other. I-" She stopped and shook her head. "No, you stay there. I'll get him." She paused for a second before turning to them again. "Sirius, switch seats with me. You have to sit next to her if you're going to work with her."
Sirius scowled. "Yes, mum."
"Si, that is possibly the biggest insult you could ever give me," Ryan said lightly, standing up. Sirius did the same, and the two of them switched places easily. "I don't want to be anything like your mother. Your mother's a bitch." She flashed a grin. "No pun intended, of course."
"Funny," Sirius said sarcastically. "We're going to Moony next time."
"No, we're not," Morgan retorted. "Because there won't be a next time. I'm never getting paired with again."
"I-" Sirius started.
"I see what you mean," Ryan said, cutting him off. "Alright. Talk about the project and maybe you won't argue that much. Try it." Although Morgan and Sirius still managed to find things to argue about, Ryan made sure none of them turned into shouting matches. Which was a good thing considering the library (where they were working) was full of very stressed looking Ravenclaws that might curse the first person to say something. After about twenty minutes, James walked into the library. He looked around and made a face at Ryan before walking over.
"You rang?" he said dryly, sitting in an empty chair next to her. "What is it?"
"We need to do that-" Ryan stopped in mid-sentence and pretended to glare at James. "You already did it, didn't you?"
"If you're talking about the Potions thing," James said, grinning. "Yep, I did. You're welcome."
"I helped him," Sirius said. James raised an eyebrow. "Well, not really. That was Moony. I just kept them company while they did it."
She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Thanks. No need to baby me yet, but thanks anyway. I assume you made it-"
"Look like your handwriting, naturally," he said, grinning. "Anything else, Fireball?"
She smiled slightly, shaking her head. "No. Wait, yeah. There is. Besides not calling me Fireball. Can you make sure they don't kill each other while I go get a book?" Sirius and Morgan opened their mouths to protest they wouldn't kill each other, but Ryan held up a hand. "Humor me. Besides, you never know with those Ravenclaws. Be right back." She got up and walked off between the shelves.
As soon as she was gone, Sirius leaned over and started looking through her stack of papers. "Don't you think that's just a little rude?" Morgan asked.
Sirius snorted. "You sound like Evans- Lily," he corrected himself before Morgan or James could get a chance to. "She doesn't care. I do it all the time."
"What about that thing she hid when we came over?" Morgan asked.
"What thing?" James asked.
"What do think I'm looking for?" Sirius asked, grinning at Morgan. He yanked a parchment out of the pile and scanned it, frowning. "What the hell-"
"What?" James and Morgan demanded. Sirius handed the parchment to Morgan, who held it so that James could read it too. Morgan could automatically recognize Ryan's handwriting. It wasn't addressed, but it was obviously a letter.
Just who the bloody fucking hell do you think you are?
Yeah, that was my first thought when I got your pitiful excuse for a letter. Just who the hell does he think he is? Then I remembered. Oh, yeah. You're that psychopath that ruins people's lives. Then I started laughing.
That's right, it made me laugh to think that you would actually think that you have a chance. That I would think you have a chance. That I would actually want to help you. Hey, hate to break it to you, but I hate you. Hate you and your beliefs. Hate you and your ideals. Hate you because you make- No, never mind. I just flat out hate you. Strong enough for ya?
And you thought I might help you? Hi there, but perhaps you've never heard of Terrence Miller? That you be my father, you BASTARD. God, how stupid are you? Don't answer that, I already know. I'd heard you weren't the brightest crayon in the box, but COME ON. My father is an Auror. And you think I'd want to help you?
You still want my answer?
I hope you rot in fucking hell down there with all of those Death Eaters.
The other three exchanged confused looks. "You don't think…?" Morgan trailed off uncertainly, biting her bottom lip.
"No," Sirius and James said in unison. "He's stupid," James continued.
"But he couldn't be that stupid," Sirius finished. Morgan kept biting her lip uncertainly. "At least if it is him, she telling him no in every possible way she can think of," Sirius added helpfully.
Morgan nodded. "At least we found this instead of-" She stopped and quickly handed the parchment back to Sirius. "She's coming." Sirius stuffed the paper back into the pile right before Ryan walked over.
Ryan looked between the three of them. "All of you look guilty. You realize that, don't you?"
"That's because we're always guilty, Wheat," Sirius said, grinning. "You should know that by now."
She shook her head, smiling. "Don't doubt it. Did they argue?"
"Not much," James said.
"We're almost done, anyway," Morgan said, closing her books and starting to put things in her bag.
Sirius blinked at her. "We are?"
She held up two rolls of parchment and showed him a third one that was half full. "Look like we're almost done to you?"
"Your handwriting is crap, Watson," Sirius replied easily.
"Yeah, so? You knew that. It's better than yours any day. And it's for Clearing anyway. It's not like you care."
"Yeah. True."
"I don't think you two need a babysitter anymore," Ryan said. "Now I need to find Remus. Any clue-"
"Dorm," Sirius and James said in unison.
Ryan nodded. "Thanks." She all but threw her stuff into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder without closing it. "I'll talk to you all later."
"Hey, Rye," James said, stopping her. She looked at him, looking slightly annoyed. "Just… get some rest before Wednesday, alright, love?" She sighed and nodded before turning and walking out of the library.
"What's Wednesday?" Morgan asked.
"S'not any of your business," Sirius said.
Morgan raised an eyebrow. "Must have to do with those things, because that's the exact same thing you told me when I asked about them. Okay, another question then."
"We're all ears," James said.
"Why is it that both of you - the two that aren't in love with her - are the two Marauders that always end up calling her `love'?"
"Bleeding hell, Watson, she's practically my sister," James said. "If I had a sister, I'd probably call her `love' too."
"What are you going to call Lily, then?" she asked innocently
"What- Why- Where-" James sputtered for a minute, looking at her in shock. "Lily. I'm going call her Lily. Dammit, what's going on?"
"Just wondering," Morgan said, shrugging. "I just thought that was kind of odd. Gathering information, in a way."
"Mate, sometimes it's better to just not ask," Sirius advised him.
&-&-&-&-&
Ryan was, for lack of a better term, royally pissed. And furious. And down right insulted. Who did he think he was?
It would be in your best interests to accept.
Best interests? Best interests for whom? Not her, that was for sure. It would be in her best interests. Yeah. Right. Uh-huh. Forget the fact that her dad would be furious is he found out. Forget that her friends would hate her. Forget that her ten-year-old brother wouldn't trust her. And all of them with good reason!
It would be in your best interests to accept.
Not that she was planning on accepting. That much was for certain. She couldn't, for one thing. She wouldn't for another. Didn't he know where her powers came from? People with the power of the Phoenix had at least one gene from the Gryffindor line. Didn't he know that?
Granted, most people didn't. It didn't mean she was the heir or anything. But she was, however distantly, related to Gryffindor. Like people born with Parseltongue had at least one gene from Slytherin. That was just an identifying factor. Each founder had one. She could've been the great-great-great-great-great-great grandchild of his half-sister for all she knew (if Gryffindor had a half-sister, which was unlikely). She didn't even know or care if Godric Gryffindor had an heir anymore, she just knew it wasn't her.
And she knew that he was an idiot.
If you're going to plan on taking over the wizarding world, you should at least know your history, right? And that was part of wizarding history. Chances were he thought she didn't know it. Chances were he didn't care. But that didn't change facts.
The heir of Slytherin had asked a relation of Gryffindor to join his side.
It was almost laughable, really, if Ryan was in the mood to laugh about it. Maybe when she would laugh about it when she got over how insulting it was. But not now. Now was not the time to laugh about it.
Had he asked any of her other friends to join him? Or was it just her? Surely he asked people other than her. She was powerful, maybe, but she wasn't better than James. Or Lily, although she was a Muggleborn. Or Remus either, for the grades he got. Surely he knew that.
Her primary question though was how he knew. How did he know about her powers? Most people didn't. A lot of people thought there was some kind of disease that went around between the Marauders, the way Remus was out once a month and she was tired so often. Not that that made people stay away from them or anything.
Only people close to her knew about her powers. Well, and a couple of very observant people in their classes that figured out she was sick once every three months at the exact same time every year. But other than that…
Had Sirius' cousin Bellatrix noticed? It was possible. Not exactly probable, but possible. Ryan had a couple of classes with her, but she didn't seem extremely observant. Or maybe Bella's little sister Narcissa had noticed? Or, ever more probable, Snape had noticed. The possibilities were practically endless. Any Slytherin- or even a person from another house- could've figured it out.
It didn't matter, though. Ryan didn't care. She wasn't going to accept. She had no reason to accept. Sure, there was power, and who didn't want power? She could join the elite, the letter had said. She would be in the inner circle. She would know who every Death Eater was and could turn in anyone she wanted for her own bargaining tool if necessary.
But she didn't want it. She didn't want that kind of power. Hell, she wasn't sure she wanted any kind of power. Power corrupts. Power got in the way of personal things, and she had enough personal problems, thank you. She didn't like to lead. She wasn't good at it. She just came up with the ideas, and Remus made them work. They made a good team-
But that wasn't the point! The point was Voldemort (she could say it without flinching, despite the new fear of saying his name) wanted her on his side. Well, hell if he'd get here. She'd move to Brazil before joining him, and she'd hated living in Brazil. She'd die before she joined him. Her dream was to be an Auror so that she could fight him on her own.
No, she wouldn't join him. Never in a million years. Not a chance on Earth or in hell. Which, she decided wryly, was where he belonged. She hoped she was one of the ones to send him there.
&-&-&-&-&
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"No."
"Yes. I'm going, and you can't stop me."
"Oh, really?"
"Really."
"I think I can."
"You and what bloody army?"
Remus sighed and rubbed his forehead. He knew better than to argue with Ryan when she was in her weak period, especially lately. Ever since she got a letter the week before, she'd been tired and it didn't take much for her to snap at people. A drastic change from her normal personality, but it couldn't be helped. There was no way he was going to let her. Not this time.
It was the day before the full moon and four days into Ryan's weak period. And she was starting to feel it. Not that she would admit it, but it was perfectly clear to Remus. Ryan, naturally, wanted to help out during the full moon, and Remus, naturally, didn't want her to. The other Marauders were strangely silent about the argument.
All of them knew who was one whose side, though. That much was obvious, even though no one had said anything about it. James and Sirius were both on his side, and Peter didn't care. But the other Marauders stayed out of that argument, as they did whenever that subject came up. It wouldn't matter anyway, Remus knew. Ryan was more stubborn than all of them combined when she wanted to be.
"You're right," he admitted finally. "I can't stop you. But Ryan…" He reached out a hand. He thought of putting it to her cheek, but he changed his mind at the last second and put it on her shoulder.
Her eyes flickered to his hand before meeting his eyes squarely. "But what?"
"Just… Please, Rye. I just don't want you to get hurt."
She sighed. "You always forget it's easier for me to transform than it is for them. I do it naturally, no extra magic involved."
"True," he agreed, "but that didn't keep you from getting stuck in fifth year. Remember that? You were stuck for-"
"Twelve hours, yes, I know," she said, rolling her eyes with a slight smile on her face. "Honestly, Remus, you were more worried about than I was."
"Probably. It can be a little disturbing to wake up with a Phoenix sitting next to you." She laughed, and he smiled. "But I was only worried because I care about you and I don't want you to get hurt." Okay, so maybe he said a little more than was necessary, but he needed to prove a point.
She smiled and put her hand over his. "I know, Rem. Really, I understand. But it's so easy. And you know how the guys are always hurting the next morning because they use different muscles or something like that? I don't. It doesn't hurt me at all. I know what I'm doing, and if I start getting tired, I'll transform back before I get too tired. Okay?"
"Do you promise?" he asked her, eyeing her seriously.
She raised her right hand. "Swear on my little brother's head."
Remus chuckled. "I hope for Dan's sake that you don't break that promise." She grinned too.
Remus suddenly realized he'd been staring into her eyes for the past couple of minutes. Surely she noticed? If she had noticed, she didn't seem to mind because she was staring back. He was pretty sure that, if he didn't look away soon, he was going to end up kissing her. But he couldn't look away. Nor did he want to.
He was considering what would happen if he did kiss her and if it would be worth it (his immediate decision to the latter question was yes) when she made the decision for him. Ryan took the step that separated them, stood on the tips of her toes, and kissed him. Remus only hesitated a second before kissing her back.
Sirius and James chose that moment to come into the dorm. Luckily the two of them were arguing about something and didn't notice Ryan and Remus until they jumped apart.
"You can't-"
"Sure, you can…" Both boys stopped in the doorway to the room and looked the pair in front of them. Sirius smirked. "Are we interrupting something?"
"No," Ryan and Remus both said a little too quickly.
James smirked at Sirius knowingly. "You sure? Because we can-"
"No, I was just leaving anyway," Ryan said hastily. She threw Remus a look. "I'm still coming tomorrow."
Remus shrugged and nodded. "I didn't doubt it." She nodded too before pushing past the pair in the doorway and going down the stairs. James and Sirius looked at Remus expectantly. "Don't ask," he said wearily.
"Hah!" Sirius exclaimed joyfully. "We were interrupting something! Weren't we?"
"Yes, Padfoot," Remus said, sitting on his bed and looking at his hands. "You were."
"About bloody time!"
Remus gave him a dry look. "Not now, Padfoot, alright?"
"He's right," James said, shrugging. "It took you long enough. You better not leave it there, though."
Remus opened his mouth but closed it again quickly, shaking his head. "Women are damn complicated."
"Learn to expect the unexpected, Moony," Sirius said cheerfully.
"It just wasn't unexpected for the rest of us," James added just as cheerfully.
&-&-&-&-&
"Stupid!" Ryan exclaimed furiously, storming into her dorm. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." She wasn't exactly sure who it was that she was calling stupid, but it fit the entire situation pretty well. It wasn't until she slammed the door behind her that she noticed Morgan sitting on the floor and Alice and Lily sitting on their respective beds. All three were looking at her questioningly.
Ryan swore in Greek. "Skata."
"That bad, eh?" Morgan asked nonchalantly.
"I would ask," Lily said, "but I know I wouldn't get an answer, so I'm just not going to bother with it."
"To sum it up, I just topped myself when it comes to stupidity," Ryan said as calmly as she could managed.
"We gathered as much," Alice said lightly.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with any of your fellow Marauders would it?" Morgan asked carefully. Ryan didn't see the other two give her warning looks. "The tall, light haired one? Sandy brown hair, light brown eyes- You know the one I'm talking about, right?"
Ryan wanted to run and hide. It wasn't a normal instinct for her, but running seemed like a good way to get away right then. "Yeah. I know the one. What makes you think this has anything to do with him?"
"Because Sirius was looking for you through your mirror, and he was saying something about how he was sorry to have interrupted you and Remus."
Ryan froze in the middle of pulling out her homework. She turned around slowly. "He what?"
Morgan grinned innocently. "Well, I think that's what it was. He kept yelling, so we turned it over. It was coming out a bit muffled, but I think that's what he said. Isn't that what you heard, Alice?"
Kaitlyn Scoder and Meredith Winters chose that moment to walk into the dorm. Ryan didn't think she'd ever been so happy to see them in her life, and she never would be happy to see them again. But she didn't like where the line of conversation was heading. They wouldn't talk about it with two gossip queens in the room, surely.
Luckily for Ryan, Morgan dropped it. But it was only a matter of time…
&-&-&-&-&
A phoenix landed on a stag's horns gracefully. A big black dog growled at her in a way that she translated to mean, You're late.
The truth was that she almost hadn't come for reasons didn't feel like admitting to anyone. But she had decided to come, and now she was wondering why she had.
She took flight and flew at eye level to the stag to see what he had to saw to her. The stag gave her a look that said, If you're going to come, be on time.
She gave him a look back that said quite clearly, He had you three. Which he did! They didn't really need her. What use was she anyway? She was the scout. That's all she did. Well, and pull fur occasionally. But they didn't need her to keep him in check.
Merlin, she sounded like Peter.
The reason she had come was simple. She remembered once, in fifth year, she had been sick during a full moon. She didn't get sick often, besides her weak periods, but when she was sick, she was really sick. The next morning, when the boys all came in with a few extra scratches and bruises, they informed her that he was always much calmer when she was around. She hadn't known why at the time, but she had a pretty good idea now.
The werewolf let out a loud howl that scared a rat into shrill squeaks. The phoenix rolled her eyes and landed on the werewolf's back and dug her claws into his fur. She chirped once, sharply, right by the werewolf's ear. I'm here, dammit. The werewolf stopped howling almost immediately.
If a stag and a dog could grin, those two would be grinning at each other widely and knowingly. She'll have him whipped in no time.
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