65Everyone turned to look at Sirius. As he walked into the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall, who was sitting at the teacher's table, was shocked to see him. They watched as she hailed him, stepped down the raised platform, and they appeared to discuss something very important. After that, he walked over to the Gryffindor table, smiling to himself, and sat down next to Remus. "Hi everyone," he said. "Yep, I'm back."
"Sirius, why are you back? What happened?" Remus asked.
"Me going over there was a terrible idea," he said, and told them all what had happened at the Potter Estate. "So, I said Hogwarts, but the floo network didn't respond, and that was when I realised that McGonagall had probably closed off her line again. So, I flooed over to that abandoned restaurant behind Dervish and Banges and walked back," he told them.
"How is an abandoned restaurant still connected to the network? Doesn't the Floo Regulation committee check?" asked Alice.
"Well, I'm glad they didn't check, otherwise I couldn't have returned, and would've had to just stand there..." said Sirius.
"Very awkward," said Remus, nodding, and everyone chuckled.
"Especially when they think you're a death eater," said Marlene grimly.
Sirius nodded sadly and looked around the table at all the food, and grabbed a chicken sandwich. Peter and Remus exchanged looks.
"They're just paranoid, Sirius," said Peter.
"Yeah," said Remus.
"No, he's worried about James," said Lily, guessing quite accurately and Sirius looked up at her.
"Yeah, I am, I have no idea what's gonna happen, but it didn't look good," he replied.
"Well, what's the worst that could happen in this situation" she asked him.
"They somehow convince James' parents to chicken out of the war, and James to sever all ties with me," said Sirius, and everyone knew that was the dumbest thing ever.
Remus chuckled. "That will never ever happen, Pads," he said. "You know that."
"It won't, what will really happen, is James's cousins will sever all ties with them instead," said Lily.
"Why couldn't it have a nicer ending? Danielle and Albert realise how silly they've been?" said Remus and everyone smiled.
"Don't think that's likely, mate," said Peter immediately.
"You're really sweet Remus for being so optimistic," said Marlene.
"Well, maybe they will come round, but not today," said Sirius fairly, and everyone murmured in agreement. Remus knew he was just saying it to humour him, but he was grateful anyway.
"So," said Mary, looking really confused. "When you say you walked back to the castle, you just walked in through the front gates and no one saw you? I don't understand," said Mary. "I thought there were security trolls and enchantments at all the entrances?"
The Marauders grinned at each other. Sirius shrugged. "Hmm, there might be a different way to get in and out of the castle..." he said, and the girls looked extremely interested.
"Care to divulge this different way?" said Frank, who had also been listening in.
The Marauders chuckled. "A passage," said Sirius, pretending to think deeply.
"A secret passageway into the castle?!" asked Mary. "That's so cool!"
Peter and Remus watched in dismay as Sirius told them about it. "Yeah, a passageway that connects the pantry of this abandoned restaurant to Hogwarts," answered Sirius, and the girls exclaimed.
"Well, where is it?!" asked Alice.
"How do we get in?" asked Marlene.
"It's behind the mirror on the-" Sirius began to say, but Remus kicked him.
"Ow! Remus!"
"What the hell, Sirius? Are you a Marauder or what?" said Peter.
But Sirius just laughed. "I just had to tell Minnie how I was able to come back just now," he explained. "She's gone to contact Floo Regulation and Control and shut the line down. And she also forced me to tell her about the passageway, so she's probably gonna shut it down or block it for security reasons."
"That was surprisingly responsible of you, Sirius," said Remus.
"Aw damn," said Mary. "You got me all excited for no reason."
"This sucks," said Marlene.
"That passageway can't have been the only way in and out of Hogwarts," said Alice, and the Marauders avoided each other's eyes.
"You've got an Auror's head there, Alice," said Sirius, and she beamed. "There was another one that the Slytherins were using. But we discovered it and got that one shut down too, didn't we?" Then he high-fived Peter.
"It seems to me that there's something missing in what you are saying," said Lily shrewdly.
"Whatever do you mean, Lily?" said Sirius dramatically.
Lily merely looked at him thoughtfully and went back to her sandwich. "I don't know, but there's something."
Sirius and Remus grinned at each other.
Later that night, Sirius clutched James' letter in his hand, read it and sighed. "What is it? What does he say?" asked Peter.
"He says Albert and Danielle left," Sirius replied. "And he will be coming back to Hogwarts tomorrow."
"What time?" asked Remus.
"Around eleven," said Sirius. "Oh, by the way, did you talk to Lily?"
"Oh, he did," said Peter, grinning. "Lily said earlier that she likes James now."
"Really?" said Sirius.
"Yeah. And I didn't even have to go and ask her anything, she came and told me herself," said Remus.
Sirius smirked at him. "Ah," he said. "You wouldn't have talked to her otherwise, would you?"
"I would have! After what we saw in the lake," said Remus indignantly. "And how could I have disobeyed a direct order from your lordship?"
Sirius laughed. "In that case, there are many things I'd order you to do," he said.
"At your service, my lord," said Remus, grinning.
"Okay, goodnight!" said Peter loudly, and quickly pulled his curtains other two laughed. Making Peter afraid was very entertaining.
Before Sirius went to bed, he re-read the letter. And then he thought long and hard about Lily and James, and came to a decision. The next morning, he walked up to the girls' table where Lily was idly playing with a Fudge Fly wrapper, instead of studying. "Hey Lily, can I talk to you?" he asked. The other girls suddenly looked very interested.
She looked up at him. "What about?" she asked, and he rolled his eyes.
"If I could tell you that here, I wouldn't be asking to talk to you in private, would I?" he said, getting a little annoyed.
"It's probably about James, Lily," said Marlene.
"Yes, now will you come?" he asked.
Lily got up and followed him out of the Portrait hole. "What's up?"
"Are you-" he had to pause as three seventh years walked past.
"So, you like James," he said casually, but she knew it wasn't a statement, it was a question, and she could feel the full weight the question held. This was not Remus the neutral, impartial banana tree, asking her, this was Sirius, very chaotic, very partial.
"Yes," she told him.
He turned to glance at her as they climbed the stairs down the Tower. "So, what are you going to do about it?"
"Er. Ask him out, I guess," she said.
"Are you serious about him?"
"Yes."
"How serious?"
"Very. I mean, I like him. A lot," she replied.
"Okay. I just want to make sure, you're not going to-" he stopped himself, not wanting to say, 'hurt him again'.
But she seemed to understand. She nodded. "I know I haven't been easy to deal with."
"I didn't mean it like that," he said.
"But you did, Sirius. And it's fine," she said.
"He wrote to me last night, he said his cousins had left," Sirius told her. "Obviously, he's not going to send me long paragraphs describing how sad he's feeling, but I know him, he's gonna be pretty torn up about the whole thing."
"Okay," she said, nodding.
"And I just want you to be completely sure about your feelings," said Sirius. "Cos he's gonna be a little... vulnerable when he returns, and I..."
"You don't want me to fuck him up further," she said. "I get it, Sirius. I am completely sure of my feelings now."
"How sure?"
"So sure, if he asked me to marry him right now, I'd say yes," she said, and he laughed. "But don't tell him that," she said quickly.
"I know, I know. I'll tell him when he tells me he's going to propose to you," he said, and she grinned.
"That would be perfect."
"But there is something else you should know, Lily," he said tentatively.
"What is it?"
He sighed. "I don't know if I'm doing the right thing by telling you this," he mumbled. "I haven't even told Marlene about it."
"What is it?" she asked again, more curiously. "Is this about his invisibility?"
Sirius stopped abruptly and looked at her. "His invisibility?! What are you talking about?" he asked her.
"Nothing, it's nothing, forget I said anything," se said, waving her hand like Hagrid does.
Sirius grinned to himself. This girl is more clever than we thought.
"You were saying?" she said.
"Look Lily, I'm only telling you this, because you want to be with James, alright?" She nodded solemnly. "And you have to promise me you won't tell anyone. Because this relates not only to James but to all of us, even to Remus."
"Remus?"
"Yes, Remus. And after I've told you this, if you decide not to ask him out, you must still promise not to tell anyone about it," he said.
"But I am going to ask him out," she said.
"You still have to promise."
"I promise, Sirius," she said seriously. "I promise I won't tell anyone what you're going to tell me."
"And you have to be careful about mentioning it even to us, you can't-"
"I know, I know, I have to be careful who might be listening in," she said.
"Yeah," he said, looking around. "Let's go into that broom cupboard."
"If this is a prank to get me to go into some booby-trapped broom cupboard…" she said.
"You sound ridiculously paranoid."
She sighed and followed him in, wondering what kind of Marauder secret she was going to be privy to.
"So, you know about Remus' condition, right?" he asked her, sitting down on the floor.
"His lycanthropy? Of course."
"What did Remus tell you about it?" he asked.
"Um, well, that he changes into a werewolf every month," she said.
"Yeah, but what else? Did he tell you how he feels?" Sirius asked her.
"Yeah, he gets all these aches and pains before the transformation," she said. "And sometimes he is so ill after the whole thing, that he has to stay back in the Hospital wing..."
"When did you find out about him?" he asked her.
"Some time before Christmas in fifth year," she said.
"So, you didn't know before that, did you?"
"No, when he and I became friends in fourth year, he told me he had this muggle condition related to his immunity, so he would get ill from auto-immunity issues," she told him. "I tried to visit him in the Hospital wing once or twice, but Madam Pomfrey never allowed me to see him, she always told me that e was too ill to meet anyone."
"Right," said Sirius.
"Yeah, but I did notice that you boys used to visit him every time, sand she would allow you, but not me," she said and chuckled. "I was always really jealous of that." Sirius smiled at her.
"After I found out his real condition, I was allowed to visit him," she said. "And these days, he doesn't even stay in the Hospital wing long enough to need a visit."
Didn't you ever wonder why you weren't allowed to visit him in fourth year, but are allowed now?" Sirius asked her.
Lily frowned. "Because I didn't know, back then?"
"Do you think you would have guessed his condition simply by visiting him?" he asked her.
"No," she said uncertainly.
"So why do you think you weren't allowed?"
"Honestly, I didn't even think to wonder that," she said.
"Werewolves need to roam free, they need to eat, they need that monthly dosage of human flesh," he explained, watching her reaction carefully. She didn't look disgusted, only more intrigued. "I assume you know of the Shrieking Shack?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Yeah, that's where he goes to transform, right?"
"Yeah… it's bigger than his basement back home, but it's still an enclosed space. It's not natural for a werewolf to be locked up. A trapped werewolf often gets frustrated, and since its own body smells like a human, the wolf would scratch and bite itself, resulting in Remus coming back every time, looking like someone had sharpened their tools on him-"
Lily gasped. "What?"
He nodded. "Yeah, he would come back with scratches, bites, broken bones," he said, and he had to pause as he remembered those days."His shoulder would be dislocated almost every time..."
Lily covered her mouth with her hands in horror. "I had no idea," she whispered.
"Well, as you know, I'm obsessed with him, so I followed him one time in second year, and discovered his secret," he said, smiling a little. She smiled back. "After we found out, we begged Madam Pomfrey to let us visit him in the Hospital wing, and that's when we discovered what the wolf did to him every time. And it constantly ate at us, to watch him come back from his transformations looking like a used punching bag or a human pin cushion!"
Lily patted his arm to comfort him.
"Poppy would put him back together, you know, but it wasn't enough. We really wanted to do something to help him… reduce his pain, to make his transformations easier. So we researched. We spent months and months in the library, reading every book on werewolves we could get our hands on. James even went through his library back home over the summer, he was determined he would find something... and he did."
"What?"
"Animals. Werewolves don't hurt animals," said Sirius.
"Huh?"
"Yeah, he found it in an old -fig book, but we really didn't know what we could do with this information. Until we came back for our third year and McGonagall showed us her animagus form, and we knew we had the perfect solution."
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, nervous to hear what he was gonna say next.
"We had to become Animagi."
"Animagi?" she said incredulously.
"Yeah," he said. It wasn't easy, finding information on it. There were about a thousand books on human transfiguration in the library, we went through each and every one of them…"
Lily's jaw dropped.
"Nothing in any of them. No information on how to actually become Animagi. We even went through McGonagall's file cabinets and books, getting caught multiple times-"
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, laughing.
"Yeah... basically spent most nights in the library, making the worst excuses so Remus wouldn't find out what we were doing," he said and she laughed.
"Yeah, he would never allow any of this is he knew," she said.
"Exactly. So half our time in the library, and the rest of the time in detention with McGonagall, who just knew we were up to something, but she never found out what," he said, smiling.
Lily chuckled again.
"Finally, I realised, there was only one thing left for me to do... raid my own library back home. So, that's what I did. I went home for Christmas with a mission. I got caught there too, the books were booby trapped. Twenty lashes each time I was caught, but it was worth it-"
"Lashes?!"
"Yes, Lily, lashes. That's one of the lighter punishments in the Black household," he told her, smiling humourlessly.
Lily remembered Marlene telling her about Sirius's parents using the Cruciatus curse on him over the summer, and nodded gravely at him.
"Yeah, the traps were there for a reason. Some of the books in there are so filled with Dark magic, that they could probably eat small children," he told her, chuckling. "It took a while for me to figure out how to break the detection charms in the library, but with the help of my Uncle Alfie, I managed to. And I finally found a book that gave detailed instructions on how to become an animagus. But it was so complicated that I completely freaked out. It seemed impossible. When we came back for the second term, I showed the other two the book. Peter, obviously shared my view, but James was determined. He read the instructions, and he told us that it was actually doable. He was the one who convinced us… inspired us… It was so difficult, the spells, the enchantments, the potions, the occasional nightmares, the body pains from ill-attempted transformations... he was the one who kept us going through all that... through the mental breakdowns, Pete and I wanted to give up a thousand times, but he convinced us to keep going."
Lily was so in awe and so wide-eyed, that Sirius chuckled at her.
"It took us longer than it would have, because we had to keep it from Remus. I'm sure he suspected something, but he never asked us. He's like that, Remus... he was probably afraid of angering us or something. Plus, we had to secure the most rarest ingredients ever, for the transformation potion... one of them was the red flowers of this freshwater plant called Macarenia clavigera, which is only found in one place in the world, the Caño Cristales river in Colombia... and then there was this particular lichen from Tasmania, Australia. And the feathers of the Tragopan-"
"How did you acquire all these ingredients?" she asked dubiously.
Sirius sighed. "Lily, don't ask questions to things you don't want answered," he said.
"I did hear Hog's Head is like a hub of dark dealings," she said, almost smiling.
"You might have heard right," he said hesitantly.
She chuckled. "And I'm guessing some part of the Black fortune might have gone into these dealings?" she asked shrewdly.
"It did, and I regret nothing!" he said, and she laughed. "At least all that wealth was useful for something!"
"So you obtained these ingredients, then what happened?"
"We worked almost every night and over the holidays... that potion took three months to brew... and finally, we did it last year. We became Animagi," he told her.
Then he didn't speak for a few minutes, giving her time to digest the information.
"Wait," she said, finally. "You actually became Animagi?" she asked him. He nodded, smiling at her. "And you got registered?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"No, we didn't. It's illegal for underage wizards to do it."
"Jesus Christ! You're all illegal Animagi?!" she whispered, and Sirius chuckled again. He especially liked her religious reference, it was so muggle. "You're not fucking with me, are you? This is not some elaborate prank, right? Cos if it is-"
"It is not. I swear to you, Lily. I can show you if you'd like," Sirius offered.
"Show me?"
"Yeah, I'll show you my animagus form," he said.
"Um…"
"Brace yourself!" he said cheerfully and and immediately transformed into the black dog.
Lily squealed, clapping her hands over her mouth in shock. He wagged his tail enthusiastically and sat down in front of her, transforming back to human again, crouching on all fours. She gaped at him speechlessly.
"Evans? Lily, are you alright?" he asked, shaking her.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm just... wow. You're a dog! You're an animagus!" she said, evidently having not recovered from the shock yet.
"I'm an animagus," he agreed, smiling at her.
Lily just blinked at him for a few moments. He didn't interrupt her thought process, he knew her brain must be whirring.
"Can you show me again?" she asked, smiling avidly.
He nodded at her and transformed into the dog again. She stared at him, enthralled. He pawed at her and she looked down and took his gigantic paw in her hand. He transformed back, and she looked up at his face again.
"Padfoot," she said softly, releasing his hand. "Those nicknames are not silly and meaningless, are they?"
"No," he said, shaking his head.
"What does Prongs mean?" she asked immediately.
Sirius smiled at her. I guess she does like him. "He's a stag, Lily," he told her.
She chuckled. "This is unbelievable! You became Animagi… illegal Animagi for Remus?"
"Yes. We go to the Shrieking Shack and hang with him the whole night, keep him company... stop him hurting himself," Sirius said. Don't think I need to tell her about our excursions. She'll kill us.
"You keep the werewolf company?" she asked, her eyes, wide. "Don't you get scared?"
"We were nervous the first few times, to be honest. Pete still nearly pisses himself every time, but I think it helped that I'm a dog. I can understand the canine mannerisms."
She burst out laughing, mostly out of shock. "You talk to the werewolf?" she asked.
"I do. He understands me perfectly," he said proudly. She smiled at him. "Er, James does too, not just me. And Peter. He's a rat. Wormtail."
"Oh wow, he can turn into such a small animal?"
"Yeah. It's amazing."
"Amazing." she agreed, nodding. "Wow," she then said, leaning back and resting her head against the wall behind her. "And Remus doesn't hurt himself anymore?"
"No, he doesn't. Sometimes the wolf tries, but we stop him," he told her.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Sirius' words kept reverberating in her head. He's a stag, Lily... James was determined...He was the one who convinced us… inspired us… It was so difficult, the spells, the enchantments...he was the one who kept us going…he-
She frowned. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked him.
"Just... so you know," he said. "I know you won't tell anyone, because we did it to help Remus."
But she shook her head. "You thought I might leave him if I found out he was an animagus, didn't you?" she asked.
"Er… Well, if you put it like that, it sounds pretty dumb, but I just didn't want him to get hurt."
She stared at him, thinking. It wasn't dumb. It showed how much Sirius loved James. "Why would I leave him, Sirius? I'm just more in love with him, thinking how much he's done for his friend... I won't hurt him, Padfoot," she said, and he smiled at her use of the nickname. Then she hugged him. "Thank you for telling me. Thank you for trusting me, I won't let you down, I promise."
"It's... yeah," he said, hugging her back.
When they went back to the Common room five minutes later, Remus met them at the Portrait hole. "What may I ask were you two doing in a broom cupboard on the sixth floor?" he asked them.
"Oh Remus," said Lily, remembering everything Sirius had told her, and hugged him. Sirius grinned at his confused face.
"Will you stop it already? You're so infuriating!" they heard Marlene yell and turned to look at her. She was talking to Peter. "You aren't taking all the facts into consideration!"
"What the fuck is going on?!" Sirius asked Remus.
"They've been at it for about ten minutes now," said Remus helplessly. "It's a debate on who is the better Magizoologist- Newt Scamander or Gulliver Pokeby."
"Yikes, getting into an argument with Marlene about anything is dangerous business," said Sirius.
"Scamander himself referenced Pokeby in his book, that itself shows who the superior one is," said Peter hotly.
"Oh Merlin!" said Marlene, exasperatedly looking up at the ceiling. "He only did that, because Pokeby is one of the few Magizoologists who complied all this stuff into a book!"
"Exactly what I'm saying!" said Peter. "You've proven my point."
"I haven't proved your point!" said Marlene. "Just because he was the first one, doesn't mean he was better, and let me tell you why. His work is so clinical and terribly boring. Have you ever tried reading it?"
"I have, I found it perfectly normal," said Peter.
"No you didn't, Newt Scamander's work is so thorough, he presented way more practical data on so many undocumented species, he busted so many silly myths-"
"Pokeby's work looks deeper into the creature's anatomy and physiology, which was actually a great help to me," said Peter.
"He'll accidentally reveal everything, come on," said Sirius urgently, and the two of them ran over to the arguing people to head Peter off.
At a quarter past eleven, the Portrait hole opened again, and James stepped in and looked around for his friends.
Sirius got up and walked over to him. "Hey Prongs, how's it going?" he asked, handing him Coco.
James grinned. "As well as can be expected, Padfoot," he said, stroking Coco's soft fur.
"And your parents?" he asked.
"I've sent them on a trip to Seal Island near St. Ives," said James. "Thought it might do them some good."
"Sounds excellent," said Sirius. "But I can't believe what you wrote in your letter, it really hurt my feelings, you know."
"What?" asked James.
"You said it's just you and your parents now, you seem to be forgetting about me, your brother," said Sirius, grinning broadly.
"Sirius," said James, hugging him tightly. Sirius patted him on the back.
When he let him go, Sirius shrugged. "And Moony."
James chuckled. "Oh yeah, my brother-in-law."
"And Dorcas and Regulus," Sirius added, grinning. James nodded, chuckling. "And Marlene and Iker, cos she's my sister." James smiled at him. "You have a huge family, James," said Sirius, and pointed at the people sitting near the fire. "Look."
Remus, Peter, Dorcas, Alice and Frank, Marlene and Iker, and Lily all waved at him.
"Come on," said Sirius, and dragged him over to them, and they all stood up as he approached.
"Hi guys," said James, getting really emotional.
"We'll always be there for each other, James." said Alice.
"Thanks guys, I love you," he said, looking at all of them.
"We love you too," said Lily, a little dizzy with excitement. James smiled at her, making her nervous. Suddenly her hands were clammy. "How are- how are your parents doing?" she asked him, stepping forward lightly.
"They're fine, they've gone on holiday to St. Ives," he told her, putting a squirming Coco down on the floor.
"Lily's no good at small talk, James, you should know that," said Marlene.
"Um, okay," said James, a little confused.
"Well, so..." she said, ducking her head.
"Wow, you sure are blushing a lot today," said Alice, and Remus sniggered. Lily felt her burning cheeks.
"That's not blushing, she's blooming," said Marlene.
Peter chortled. "Lily flower's blooming!" he said, and everyone laughed. James looked at her curiously.
"I've honestly never seen her like this," said Remus.
"Shut up, Moony!" said Lily.
"Ah, there's the Lily we all know," said Marlene, and they laughed again.
"Did you just call him Moony?" asked James excitedly. "Did you know I came up with that name?"
"It's a nice name," she said shyly.
"So, Lily, didn't you have something to say to James?" said Sirius loudly.
"Ugh, Sirius," said Lily, looking anywhere but James' face. "I er- Um..."
James looked even more curious now. "What's going on, Lily?"
"Shy people produce less amounts of serotonin, James," Remus explained to him. "So, in situations like these, their nor-adrenaline increases, making them nervous. That's Stage 2."
"What? M- my serotonin levels are fine!" she said, irritated.
"Uh-huh."
"I am not a shy person."
"Then why were you stammering?" Remus asked him, and she had no answer to that. "Lily thinks you're cool," he said quickly to James, who looked delighted.
"I do not-"
"Oh, yes she does," maintained Remus. "She told me last year at that pool party."
"You think I'm cool?" James asked Lily, who looked outraged.
"You were invited to that?" Marlene asked Remus, extremely confused.
"No, I don't," Lily made it clear, and James donned a mournful expression.
"Hey!" Sirius said to Lily.
"No, I wasn't-" Remus replied to Marlene.
"Then how-" Marlene started asking Remus.
"Hold on!" Lily said loudly, gesturing with both hands. "Let me clarify. At the time, I did not think you were cool..."
"And now?" Peter asked her.
"Now..."
James' delighted expression was back on.
"It appears to be a different story, yes," agreed Peter.
"Wait, what's Stage 1 of the thing, then?" asked Sirius, and Lily rolled her eyes.
Remus smiled. "Dopamine release. It makes you excited, yet keeps you focused. And Stage 3 is oxytocin. It makes you feel comfortable around your loved one," said Remus, and Sirius grinned at him. "But enough about the stages of love... Lily? You were saying?"
"Love?" asked James, unable to believe any of his senses, not just his eyes and ears.
"James, I um... I..." said Lily, then she looked up at his face. "James, will you go out with me?" she asked directly.
James stood there, gobsmacked. Everyone laughed at his expression. Then he looked at Sirius. "You heard that, right? I didn't imagine that, right?" he asked, and everyone laughed again.
"Yeah, it's happening, Prongs," said Sirius, smiling at him.
"I told you she'd come round," said Dorcas.
James still couldn't believe it. He slapped himself across the face and everyone exclaimed.
"Right, it's not a dream because that definitely hurt!" said Sirius, and everyone laughed again.
He covered his mouth with his hand. "You're not joking, are you?"
"I'm not that insensitive, James," she said, and he fell to his knees in front of her and hugged her tightly.
"Aww," said Alice, tearing up. "Finally."
"Yes, finally," said Peter.
"James, you haven't given me an answer," said Lily, ruffling his untidy hair. It was surprisingly soft.
James let go of her and stood up. "Wait, first tell me this," he said seriously.
"What?" she asked nervously. Everyone was curious to know what he would ask her.
"Remember on our first Potions lesson this year, Slughorn mentioned Veritaserum? What was the joke Snape was laughing about? Why were you so embarrassed?" he asked her. Sirius smacked his own forehead.
Lily put her hands on her hips. "That's it, I've changed my mind, I think I'll ask Severus out instead-"
"No no no!" he exclaimed and everyone laughed. "No please. I'll go with you, of course I will, did you think I would have any other answer?"
Lily grinned. "Okay, then," she said, holding his hand. Her heart filled with yayness.
"Oh, how cute, they're holding hands," said Marlene.
"Man, I never thought I'd see the day," said Frank.
"I know, so much drama," said Marlene.
"Look who's talking, what about you two, breaking up every fifteen days for the past three years?" said Alice.
"Please Alice, it's not like you two were angels," Marlene said to her. "Every time I spoke to Frank, he either wanted advice on how to get you to talk to him again, or advice on what gift to give you. You guys alternate between being cloyingly cute or frightfully sullen, there's no in between."
Sirius laughed loudly and everyone looked around at him.
"You and Remus are the most dramatic of them all," said Frank. "Being all secretive, making mountains out of molehills… you two deserve each other, seeing as you're both crazy."
Everyone laughed. "Can't keep things to yourself, Marlene?" said Sirius and she looked guilty, but only slightly.
"Apparently we were secretive," muttered Remus to Dorcas, and she giggled.
"None of us are normal," said James.
"Normal? Where's the fun in that?" said Lily.
"Si, la normalidad es un camino pavimentado," said Iker and Marlene chuckled at everyone's confused faces.
"Vincent Van Gogh compared normalcy to a paved road," said Marlene.
"Yeah. One that's comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow on it," said Remus.
"Can I kiss you now?" Lily asked James, and he couldn't believe she said that.
"This is the happiest day of my life! Lily, yes, but I'm not kissing you in front of these arseholes. Come on," said James, and they walked over to the Portrait hole, amid whistles and hoots from the others.
Coco suddenly jumped into Marlene's lap and she shrieked, and Remus and Sirius laughed. Then Sirius put his hand in his pocket and took out what looked like a greeting card.
"What's that?" Remus asked him.
"Received it this morning. Take a look," said Sirius, grinning and handing it to him. Remus took the card and opened it. It read-
Dear Sirius,
May this New Year bring you joy and many more wonderful adventures.
Happy New Year!
-The Lupins.
"What the heck?!" said Remus, re-reading it.
Sirius just laughed. "What's the problem? I think it's sweet."
"It's so cringe-y!" said Remus. "Oh, why does she do these things?"
"Remus, I like it," said Sirius, taking the card back. "Don't you dare write to her whinging about this, it has nothing to do with you."
"Nothing to- this is my mother!" said Remus indignantly.
Sirius sighed. "Yes, that's why you won't get it."
Oh. Remus realised the sense of acceptance this small gesture brought with it, and smiled. "I think I get it now."
Sirius put his head on Remus' shoulder and sighed contentedly. "Love you, Moony."
Author's note: And that's the happy end to my story, you guys! Feeling nostalgic somehow. Thank you for reading :) Every single one of your reviews encouraged me, especially when I was second-guessing what I'd written. Couldn't have done this without you, I love you all.
Also, I have no idea what to do with my life now... perhaps I'll just keep reading Wolfstar fics till the end of my days heh-heh-heh.
Plz plz plz do review. Tell me what you thought of it, what you liked, heck, tell me anything. Tell me if you like cats or dogs. And your fave ice cream flavour! :D :D :D Mine's chocolate.