“If I recall, you said it was brilliant,” retorted Remus bitterly. “And you put it all into motion, so it’s just as much your fault as mine.”
“You’re lucky the full moon’s not for another month,” she snapped. “There’s still hope.”
“Not much,” he responded dubiously.
“Curse James for being so thick!” said Jocelyn viciously, as James himself entered the Great Hall. “This is all his fault!”
“Peter,” said Remus, turning to his friend, “let’s play a game. How many people d’you think Jocelyn is going to blame about this before breakfast is over? She’s already at two. I’m going with an even dozen.”
“Nine for a Galleon,” Peter replied at once.
“You have a lot of faith in her honesty,” Remus remarked.
“Oh shut up, the pair of you!” snapped Jocelyn. “You know Peter, if you had helped us this whole thing probably would have turned out a lot better.”
“That’s three,” noted Remus, tallying it on a scrap of parchment. Jocelyn snatched it away from him.
“Stop being a prat and work on a new plan!” she instructed him.
“Are you sure you want me to?” he questioned. “After all, my last one was rubbish.”
“No, your last one was brilliant,” she corrected. “It’s just that Sirius and Lily didn’t play their parts well enough. Especially Sirius! What was he thinking, telling her his whole life story like that? The idiot!”
“Two more. We’re already to five and she hasn’t even started eating yet,” Remus observed, speaking to Peter in an undertone.
“I can hear you,” Jocelyn informed him, ladling porridge into her bowl, just as Sirius entered the Great Hall.
“Morning all!” he greeted, sitting beside Jocelyn and immediately helping himself to a stack of toast.
“Where’s Lily?” Jocelyn asked him warily.
“Coming, coming, not to worry,” he assured her.
Jocelyn and Remus exchanged a look.
“Who’s worried?” she muttered.
“I am,” Peter told her honestly.
Jocelyn rolled her eyes. Peter really didn’t understand sarcasm.
“You’re what?” questioned Sirius, frowning at Peter.
“Worried,” he replied.
Jocelyn groaned and buried her face in her hands.
“About what?” asked Sirius, clearly confused.
“Muggle Studies,” said Remus quickly, kicking Peter under the table. “Aren’t you, Wormtail?”
Peter was about to reply that no, he wasn’t worried about Muggle Studies just then, he was worried about the new James-Lily-Sirius triangle, but fortunately Lily’s arrival interrupted him.
“Hello! What’s for breakfast? I’m famished!” she announced, looking around at them with a smile, and seating herself on Sirius’s other side. She helped herself to a bowlful of porridge. “Sirius, will you be my partner in Potions this morning?” she requested, smiling sweetly up at him.
“Excellent,” Sirius responded, grinning down at her.
Jocelyn turned to Remus, who shook his head apologetically.
“I’m in Ancient Runes,” he reminded her ruefully. He had never been good at Potion making, and had consequently given it up after fifth year.
“I guess that means I’m with James, then,” said Jocelyn grimly. She pushed her bowl of half-eaten porridge away and stood. “If anyone has anything to say to me, do so now,” she told them sarcastically, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “I won’t be on speaking terms with you for the next two hours.”
“Good luck with your potion, then,” said Sirius cheerfully, completely missing the point.
“Thanks,” she said coldly, and made her way over to James.
“So,” said Jocelyn uncomfortably as she stirred their potion the appropriate number of times.
“So,” echoed James coldly. He threw their shrivelfig into the cauldron.
“So “ er “ we’re… almost done,” she observed awkwardly.
“You don’t have to make conversation with me, you know,” snapped James irritably.
“I know,” she answered.
“Then stop trying!” he growled, not looking at her, but staring at something on the other side of the classroom. She followed his gaze and understood.
Sirius and Lily were carefully yet cheerfully brewing their potion, which was the perfect shade of turquoise they were supposed to achieve. They were chatting casually and seemed unaware of anyone else in the room. Jocelyn gave a wry smile. It was all she could do not to hate them as well.
“It’s done,” James announced suddenly.
“Oh, right,” said Jocelyn, tearing her eyes from her two best friends. She took the flask James handed her, labeled it, and brought it to the front desk, where it would be graded. There she met Sirius.
“You seem to be having good fun,” she noted, unable to keep a note of resentment out of her voice. Sirius, however, was oblivious.
“I am,” he answered, shrugging. “She’s a good potions partner.”
“So is James,” she told him through gritted teeth.
Sirius flinched as though she had struck him.
“Jocelyn,” he said warningly. “Stay out of it.”
Jocelyn folded her arms across her chest.
“You always say that about everything,” she said bitterly.
“I always mean it,” he growled.
Jocelyn gave a cold smile.
“And I never listen,” she told him. She went back to her table then. She didn’t have to say anything more. He had understood her words for what they were. A challenge.
“Ancient Runes is “”
“Complete rubbish!” Sirius interrupted Remus irritably.
“Actually, I was going to say, ‘A much better class than Potions,’ but I suppose that fits as well,” Remus replied mildly, his mouth twitching.
“Anything is a better class than Potions,” snapped James, addressing Remus and determinedly not looking at Sirius.
Sirius opened his mouth to contradict James and remind him that nothing was worse than History of Magic, but remembered just in time that they weren’t on speaking terms and shut it again. The Marauders were in their dormitory getting ready for bed, a task that was becoming increasingly awkward as the hostility level between James and Sirius became higher.
“Anyone want to play chess?” Peter questioned, entering the room.
“I will,” said Sirius and James at the same time. They looked at each other, realized what they were doing, and quickly looked away. Sirius began fussing with his bedclothes, while James polished his already spotless glasses. Peter looked uncomfortably between them.
“All right, then,” said Remus, breaking the tense silence. He and Peter left for the common room, leaving Sirius and James alone.
After another three minutes of busying himself with his bedclothes, Sirius, realizing he had to stop eventually, stopped and looked over at James, who was polishing the left lens of his glasses for the seventh time. Sirius opened his mouth to say something when something scarlet caught his eye. James’s ink-stained robes were spilling out of his open trunk. Sirius’s face hardened. He shut his mouth, climbed into his bed, and when James finally looked over at him, he appeared to be asleep.
“I’m not speaking to you, you know,” Jocelyn informed Lily as they readied for bed.
Lily looked over at her with an expression of mild surprise.
“Why not?” she questioned.
Jocelyn rolled her eyes. Not (as one would imagine) because Lily was impossibly clueless, but rather because she had missed an excellent opportunity to say something sarcastic and witty.
“‘Why not?’” she questioned incredulously. “‘Why not?’ Because you are responsible for the falling out of the two best mates in the school! That’s ‘Why not’!”
Lily gave an irritated sigh.
“You don’t seriously believe that’s my fault!” she said exasperatedly.
Jocelyn gaped at her.
“You don’t seriously believe it’s not!” she gasped.
“Of course I do!” said Lily briskly, waving her hand with an impatient air. “How could I be responsible for it? I mean, I barely hang around with the idiots!”
“Which is why you’ve hardly left Sirius’s side for the past three days,” said Jocelyn dryly.
“Oh honestly, Jocelyn, you’re being ridiculous!” snapped Lily impatiently. “Sirius and I are friends! You’re friends with him as well! Are you responsible for his and James’s falling out?”
“Of course not, but that’s entirely different!” growled Jocelyn angrily. “I’ve been friends with Sirius my whole life! You, on the other hand, became friends with him about fifty-four hours ago! Think if you’re James: One day, out of nowhere, you look up from your toast to see your best mate walking in with the girl you fancy! What are you “”
“Oh, don’t give me the ‘Put-yourself-in-Potter’s-place’ speech!” said Lily dismissively. “Besides, Sirius and I aren’t together! We’re just friends! And if Potter jumped to conclusions “”
“Wait, what?” Jocelyn interrupted suddenly.
Lily frowned at her.
“‘What’, what?” she questioned.
“What did you just say?”
“I said ‘If Potter jumps to con “’” Lily began, but Jocelyn cut her off again.
“No, before that.”
“I said ‘Sirius and I aren’t together’,” Lily repeated slowly, her frown deepening. “Why?”
But Jocelyn was staring at Lily with something close to wonder.
“So “” she said jerkily. “So “ you’re not “ he’s not “ you’re not?!”
“No,” Lily answered, shaking her head.
Sirius had claimed that what had happened in Hogsmeade had been purely platonic, and Jocelyn had played along to pacify him, but she hadn’t really believed him. After the way he and Lily had been acting she didn’t see how she could believe him. But if what Lily said was true…. Jocelyn felt light. She wanted to scream, sing, jump up and down “
Suddenly she came to herself. She cleared her throat and tried to clear her mind.
“Well James doesn’t know that,” she said severely. “And this has been really confusing for him!”
“Well, like I said, if he can’t figure that out “” Lily tried to say for the third time.
“No!” said Jocelyn forcefully. “You don’t understand any of this! The way you and Sirius have been acting “ but this will change everything!”
Lily stared at her friend, clearly concerned.
“You have officially cracked,” she told her honestly, and got into bed.
The next morning Jocelyn entered the Great Hall and walked purposely over to Remus.
“Hi,” he said, looking up from his Transfiguration book.
“Hi,” she said tensely, giving a very fake smile. She tried to move as close to his ear as possible without anyone noticing. “I need to talk to you,” she told him, without moving her lips.
He frowned at her.
“Now?”
“Yeah,” she said, her lips still frozen in an unnatural smile.
“But what about Trans “?”
“Remus,” she growled, “this is kind of important!”
“McGonagall’s not going to be happy,” he protested weakly.
“Are you going to be happy if you have to transform by yourself?” she muttered. The smile was becoming more and more frightening.
Remus got the point. With a resigned sigh he closed his book, grabbed a few pieces of toast, swung his bag over his shoulder, and followed her out of the Great Hall. She dragged him into a broom closet off the entrance hall just as the bell rang.
“What’s up?” he questioned, as soon as she had shut the door.
“Sirius and Lily aren’t together!” she told him excitedly.
He frowned at her, trying to make his eyes adjust to the darkness.
“I know,” he said.
It was so dark he didn’t see the look of shock on Jocelyn’s face. He heard it in her voice though.
“You did? How?” she demanded.
It was lucky for Remus that Jocelyn couldn’t see him smirking at her.
“How didn’t you?” he asked her, unable to keep a smug note out of his voice. “You’re a girl!”
Jocelyn kicked over a bucket and gave a frustrated scream just as the door of the broom closet opened. The scream became more high-pitched in surprise when she saw who it was.
“Well, well, my sweet,” said Filch to his cat, Mrs. Norris, with an evil grin. “What have we here?”
A/N: The eight reviews rule still applies!