“That you will win Lily Evans’ heart,” the others recited in unison.
“Yep, heard that one before,” observed Sirius boredly. “When are you going to give up, Prongs? You’ve beaten that horse to death, and now you’re trying to ride it! Give it up, would you?”
“But this year I know I can do it!” James insisted, rolling on his side and rising on an elbow to look at Sirius in the next four-poster.
Sirius also raised himself on an elbow, facing James.
“Prongs, Lily Evans is a hopeless case. She despises you. She hates the very air you breathe! She’s “”
“Not like the other girls here, I know!” snapped James, sitting up in his anger. “That’s “”
“Why you like her,” sighed Sirius. He rose and sat down on James’s bed, beside him. “Look, maybe we’re both idiots. We both fancy girls that are hopeless cases. But do you want to know the difference between you and me?” he questioned.
“Tell me,” James demanded, one eyebrow cocked.
“I realize she’s a hopeless case, Prongs,” said Sirius quietly.
“But it’s different for you!” insisted James, getting angry again. He jumped to his feet and started pacing back and forth. “At least she talks to you! At least she doesn’t despise you! At least “!”
“She cares about me?” questioned Sirius, with a sad smile. “Yes, she does. And you know something, Prongs?”
James sat down beside him again and buried his face in his hands.
“What?” he muttered.
“That’s the most torturous thing about it. Knowing she loves me, and yet knowing that she’ll never love me the way I want her too.”
James took his face out of his hands and looked at Sirius.
“I know,” he whispered.
“I don’t understand women, Prongs,” said Sirius, standing up and placing a hand on James’s shoulder. “But I do understand rejection.”
James gave a wry smile.
“I guess we all do,” he sighed.
“But not all of us accept it,” Sirius observed. “Do you?”
“I guess I have to, at this point,” admitted James sadly. And with those depressing words, the Marauders bade each other goodnight.
“You know, Lily,” Jocelyn began as the two changed into their pajamas, “James “”
“Really isn’t so bad,” Lily finished, sighing. “Honestly Joce’, you have a whole year to come up with a new start of term speech, but you inevitably give the same one. Why can’t you come up with something new? Even the Sorting Hat comes up with a new song every year, and it’s “ well, a hat,” she concluded lamely.
“Well that’s observant of you,” said Jocelyn sarcastically. “The Sorting Hat’s a hat, who would have guessed?”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“That wasn’t the point!”
“You’re right, the point was James Potter, but good effort at changing the subject,” said Jocelyn quickly.
“I don’t want to talk about James Potter, Jocelyn,” said Lily, annoyed.
“And why not?”
“Because when it comes to James Potter I have absolutely nothing to say,” said Lily loftily.
“Wrong!” shouted Jocelyn, making the other three girls in their dormitory jump. She quickly lowered her voice again, but continued with the same intensity. “You don’t want to talk about James Potter because you have everything to say, and that scares you!”
“That’s a lie!” said Lily quickly, her voice rising.
“Is it?” Jocelyn demanded. “Then why are you arguing about him with me? Why did you scream when you found out he was Head Boy? Why did you care that I didn’t tell you about his appointment? Seems odd behavior for a girl who claims she doesn’t care a jot about him!”
Lily snatched her wand off the bedside table and pointed it at Jocelyn.
“Take it back, Jocelyn!” she growled.
Jocelyn just smiled calmly. She’d seen Lily like this before.
“What are you going to do? Curse me? Do it, it’ll only prove my point!”
Lily slowly lowered the wand until it was pointing at the floor.
Jocelyn continued to smile, and gave Lily an I-told-you-so sort of look.
“Oh, shove off!” snapped Lily, sitting down on her four-poster, and angrily ripping her hangings shut.
“What classes do we have today, Moony?” Sirius questioned at breakfast the next morning.
“Transfiguration,” Remus told him, checking the schedule.
“Excellent,” said James happily.
“I have Muggle Studies first,” Peter observed sadly. Poor Peter had only got one O.W.L., an acceptable in Charms. He therefore had had to take all his classes from forth year again in his sixth year, and was taking fifth year classes this year.
“Well that should be easy enough,” said Lily, who was sitting across from him.
Peter looked at her as though she had suddenly sprouted antlers.
“It’s one of the hardest subjects there is!” he protested.
“Nonsense,” said Lily, dismissing his objections with a wave of her hand. “The problem with the wizarding community is that they make Muggles entirely too complicated. They’re not. They’re really quite simple!”
“Anything’s simple if you’re raised with it,” Remus pointed out, speaking to Lily over Jocelyn’s head, since she was sitting between them.
“Well, yes of course,” said Lily touchily. “But Muggles really aren’t that complicated “”
“And neither are the Dark Arts,” Sirius spoke up from next to Peter, not addressing Lily directly, but instead staring up at the enchanted ceiling, which was unusually clear and sunny that morning.
“Are you mad?” Lily demanded of Sirius. “Of course the Dark Arts are complicated, why do you think “?”
“They’re not complicated for me,” said Sirius stubbornly.
“Well that’s entirely different,” said Lily edgily.
“Why?” demanded Sirius. “There are things that Muggles do that we wizards find fascinating, but that are second-nature for you because you were raised with them. And there are Dark spells that are difficult for other wizards, but that I could do like that” “ he snapped is fingers “ “because I was raised watching them done.”
“No, it’s not the same thing,” Lily insisted.
“Suit yourself,” shrugged Sirius, and returned to his toast.
“N.E.W.T.s are the most important tests you will ever take at Hogwarts. They will affect your career opportunities, you’re salary, you’re “ Black! Potter! Will you pay attention!” Professor McGonagall interrupted her lecture irritably.
Sirius and James looked up at her in bewilderment. They had been bent over a piece of parchment, and having a whispered discussion on their plans for the next full moon.
“Thank you! Now as I was saying, N.E.W. “ Mr. Lupin, you were made Prefect for a reason, and you would do well to remember that that privilege could be revoked at any time, if you are not fulfilling your duties!”
Remus’s jaw dropped.
“But Professor, I wasn’t doing anything!”
“That is precisely my point. Your friends may not listen to me, but I would think they would listen to you! Can you not control them?”
“If you can’t stop us, Professor, I don’t think anyone can!” said Sirius, his mouth twitching insolently.
For a moment Sirius thought he had gone too far. Professor McGonagall looked as though she was about to explode.
“That’s probably true, Mr. Black,” she said finally, and Sirius distinctly saw the corners of her mouth twitch. “However, I would appreciate it if you and Potter would at least try to exercise a little respect in my class.”
“Right-o, mate,” said Sirius, sweeping the parchment he and James had been examining back into his bag, and leaning back in his chair. Professor McGonagall allowed herself a small smile at that, before turning back to the class to resume her lecture with her usual severity. Sirius looked back to grin at Jocelyn, only to be sent a disapproving look by Lily, which annoyed him. What business was it of hers? She was always getting involved in the Marauders’ affairs, he reflected bitterly. Just like that morning with Peter and Muggle Studies. What did it matter to her if Peter was doing poorly in Muggle Studies, or if he and James talked during Transfiguration, or if they occasionally tortured Snape? She was a right little nosy, know-it-all, goody-two-shoes, that’s what she was.
I don’t know what James sees in her, he thought to himself. I really don’t.
He didn’t know what Jocelyn saw in her as a friend, either.
Harasses her because she likes to hang around with us, that’s what she does, he thought angrily. What’s it to her if Jocelyn likes to spend time with us? Jocelyn was friends with us long before she was friends with her! She’s a jealous little git, that’s what she is! And she ruins all our lives because we all have to listen to James go off about how wonderful she is, the idiot! Wonderful! Ha! She’s an annoying prat!
But the bell rang before Sirius could continue his mental tirade against Lily Evans.