“Professor, we weren’t sneaking around the corr “!”
“Silence Miss Black!” snapped McGonagall. “I should have expected such behavior from you! You’ve always spent too much time around Black and Potter for your own good! I would have hoped Miss Evans would have had a better influence on you, but it seems “” she stopped, her nostrils flaring, and turned on Remus. “I would have thought you, Mr. Lupin, would know better than to be hiding in broom closets during class times! You are, after all, a Prefect!”
Remus didn’t answer but continued to stare at the floor, apparently fascinated by the stonework.
“Fifteen points from Gryffindor, each!” McGonagall decreed. “And detention!”
She waved them out of her office. They walked silently towards the Charms corridor together.
Please don’t let him be angry, Jocelyn thought desperately. The last thing she needed was to be fighting with Remus. He was her last ally.
“I’m “ er “ sorry about that,” she said finally, just before the reached the classroom.
“It’s all right,” he shrugged. “I was long overdue for detention anyway. One of the disadvantages of not hanging around with Sirius and James so much.”
He smiled, but Jocelyn didn’t laugh. The joke somehow wasn’t very funny when you were looking at Sirius and James’s stony faces at opposite ends of the classroom. They were usually at the same desk, bent over a piece of parchment that had nothing to do with the class. To see them separated and taking notes was unnerving.
Jocelyn and Remus seated themselves at the empty desk between Lily and Sirius, and James and Peter. Lily tore off a corner of her parchment, scribbled something on it, handed it to Sirius and whispered something to him. He passed it to Jocelyn without looking at her. Jocelyn opened it to see a note in Lily’s neat handwriting.
Where were you in Transfiguration? ~ L.E.
Jocelyn sighed. She should have known Lily wouldn’t let that one slip. She quickly scrawled a cryptic reply.
Busy. ~ J.B.
She handed it to Sirius, who passed it to Lily. Lily opened it and gave Jocelyn an exasperated look before replying.
Well that was obvious! I meant, what were you doing?
I had to talk to Remus.
I don’t like the sound of that! About what?
Jocelyn frowned at the message and thought carefully before replying.
Certain situations in the Hogwarts population.
Seriously, Jocelyn!
I am being serious!
I heard a rumor you got caught.
Well, yes, but we only lost thirty points… and got detention.
Oh, that’s not bad at all!
Jocelyn looked up at Lily, who rolled her eyes at her. She gave a small grin.
It could have been worse. What did we miss in Transfiguration?
We’re still working on the chair-dogs. Sirius has gotten worse, though. His chair only sprouted ears and a tail.
Jocelyn looked quickly over at Sirius. He was getting worse in Transfiguration? She looked at James on Remus’s other side. Behind his stony countenance she definitely detected a glimmer of smug, self-satisfaction. Which meant that James most certainly was still quite fine in Transfiguration. More than fine, he was probably getting better. The situation was getting worse all the time. She quickly found another scrap of parchment and scribbled a note to Sirius.
What’s up in Transfiguration? ~ J.B.
Sirius shot her a hard look when he read it, then wrote a hasty reply.
I thought you weren’t speaking to me. ~ S.B.
I never said that!
I’m your cousin. You don’t have to for me to know. Besides, I’m not speaking to you.
Jocelyn gave an angry growl when she read that, and looked round at Sirius. He gave her a sorry-but-not-really kind of look, and shrugged. She angrily tore up the note and burned it with a wave of her wand.
“If this doesn’t clear up soon,” she muttered to Remus, “I’m going to go mad.”
He gave a humorless smile, and nodded.
But things didn’t clear up soon. Two weeks after the infamous Hogsmeade weekend the Marauders were still divided. Sirius and James hadn’t spoken since the day Sirius had tipped James’s desk over. The two maintained a stony silence in each other’s presence, and it was noted by everyone that they discreetly chose seats at opposite ends of classrooms, the Gryffindor table, and the Gryffindor common room. Peter and Remus went awkwardly from one to the other, not so much trying to get them to make it up as trying to stay on friendly terms with both. Lily, of course, sided with Sirius, and either ignored or was truly unaware that she was the cause of this rift between the greatest mates of all time. Jocelyn sided with no one, but fought with everyone, except Remus, who had somehow managed to stay on her good side throughout the entire ordeal.
The biggest question in everyone’s mind (except Lily’s, and perhaps Peter’s) was what was going to happen at full moon. It was fortunate that it had occurred just a few days before that fateful Sunday as that gave them a lot of time, but it was still in two short weeks, and it didn’t look to anyone as if Sirius and James’s friendship was going to be repaired that quickly.
Sirius himself tried not to think about either the full moon or James. He had actually been rather relieved when Jocelyn gave him an excuse to fight with her as it gave him something else to focus on. Her attempts to make it up with him were unsuccessful, not because he was angry with her but because (unconsciously, anyway) he knew that if he were friends with her again he would have to think about his much more important damaged friendship: James.
Probably the most bizarre outcome of the whole situation was the three new pairs that had been developed. Before the six had been in three simple and obvious pairings: Lily and Jocelyn, James and Sirius, Remus and Peter. Now, however, they were split quite differently: Lily and Sirius, Remus and Jocelyn, and James and Peter. It was clear to everyone that these three pairings were not nearly as compatible as the old ones had been, and it was rumored throughout Hogwarts that Lily Evans had stolen her best mate’s boyfriend, though fortunately none of these whispers ever reached Lily, Jocelyn, or any of the Marauders.
All of them couldn’t help but notice, however, the teacher’s behavior toward them. Indeed, Professor McGonagall seemed unnerved that Sirius and James were no longer whispering but instead were taking notes.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally paying attention, Black!” she commended Sirius, but everyone could tell that her heart wasn’t in her compliment, and no one could blame her. The open hostility between Sirius Black and James Potter was indeed disturbing.
A/N: You know the drill: eight reviews = update!