Sirius chuckled to himself as him and Hermione walked down a long, dark passageway on the second floor. He knew that James had a crush on Ginny, and was quite satisfied with his clever matchmaking skills. Not only that, but he was going to get to spend a few hours with Hermione...alone. This night is certainly turning out better than I thought, he cheerfully thought.
"May I ask why you're laughing?" Hermione ased him, slightly raising an eyebrow.
"Ah...at the fact that you're going to be stuck with me the entire night. You know, most girls would be dying right now if they were you. You don't seem as excited as you should be."
"My my, aren't we modest?" she said sarcastically.
Grinning, he replied with a casual, "But of course!"
The rest of their walk passed in silence as they headed towards the one-eyed witch. Each was lost in their own thoughts about the other.
Hmm...she won't be as easy as I'd hoped, the tall, black-haired Marauder thought to himself. I'll have to work harder on her than any of the others. I think she might pay off though...But Remus! Ah, I don't want to upset him. He's obviously taken with Hermione... Sirius grit his teeth, and pushed the thoughts out of his mind.
Meanwhile, Hermione's mind was a blur of confused thoughts. Does Remus like me? He acts like it....but then, Sirius acts like it too. I'm so confused...do both of them like me? I like them both as friends, but I don't know if....Oh Merlin, where's Ginny when I need her...
Sirius suddenly halted, causing Hermione to crash into him. She pulled away, rubbing her noise and wincing. "What?" she asked, a little bit annoyed.
They had reached the statue that would take them into the basement of Honeydukes. Crouching down beside it, Sirius whispered "Dissendium!" and the stone hump on the witch's back slowly moved aside to reveal a dark, somewhat damp tunnel carved into the ground.
"Ladies first," he said with a flourish of his wand, shooting her a charming smile.
Rolling her eyes jokingly, Hermione positioned herself above the opening, then let go. Sirius followed her, and with a clunk, the stone slid back into place.
Back in the astronomy tower, James had just picked Ginny to be the second half of his dare. Naturally, she accepted graciously with a blush.
"Lets help these guys clean up first though," Ginny said.
Her and James did so, helping Draco, Lily, and Remus fold and pick up the blankets. Charming the half-filled bottles of firewhisky away, Remus grabbed the stack of blankets, and began to head back down into the castle without a word to any of the others. A few moments later, James and Ginny also followed him down, although they were headed towards the Room of Requirement rather than the Gryffindor common room.
At last, Draco and Lily were left alone. Awkwardness was quick to settle thickly between the two of them as Draco leaned against the far wall and Lily looked out wistfully into the night.
"So," he said, breaking the silence. "Um...you about to head to bed?"
"Yeah," she said quietly. She remained stationary beside the window, though, continuing to gaze at the moon. "Beautiful night, huh?"
"Mmhm," he answered. Walking over, he stood beside her and looked out at the velvet-black night sky. It was indeed a beautiful night; the stars shone brightly and there was not a cloud in the sky to mar the perfectly crescent-shaped moon.
"May I ask what happened?" Lily asked even more quietly than before, looking at him intently.
Draco's face twisted into a look of grief and anger. His jaw tightened, and he gripped the ledge of the window tightly. It was obvious that he knew what she was asking about, but did not want to answer.
"Nevermind," she said, turning back away. "It's not my place to ask, I guess."
"How did you know?" he said, his voice somewhat choked up.
"Know about...?"
"About...well, what caused you to ask me that question?"
"You didn't seem to happy when I looked at you after..." she paused, biting her lip "...after the kiss."
"Yeah well something happened before that I'd rather not talk about right now," Draco answered shortly, a hint of underlying fury in his tone.
"Which is why I said it's not my place to ask."
"I'm going to bed," he muttered without looking at her. Turning around, he started to stalk out the door.
"Wait!" Lily said, holding out her hand and quickly striding over to where Draco had paused, a few feet away from the door. "Tonight was...I don't know. I can't explain it. I'm not sure if you felt it too, but that kiss was amaz-"
"Good night, Lily," Draco interrupted, glaring down at her. As she looked up into his face, the words she had been about to say died off. The storm that was brewing inside his slate grey eyes was violent enough to have killed off anything. She took the hint, and nodded defeatedly.
"Good night," she answered softly, watching him walk away.