A/N: I’m so sorry I haven’t updated this in so long! Christmas kind of got in the way, I had uni work to do, and, my sister got The Sims for Christmas and I’ve become kind of addicted :-) I am going to finish this story, don’t worry, even if the updates are a bit spaced out from now on. So, here it is…chapter 4...
Chapter 4 “ Confusion
“I just don’t get it Moony, I mean, what did I do to her?” James flopped backwards onto his bed in frustration, then glanced at his friend, who was reclined on his own bed, a book laying open on his stomach.
“What exactly did she say?” Remus replied, a bemused smile on his face as James stood up and began pacing the room.
“Well, she asked me why I’d been ignoring her all day…then some stuff about how something had changed between us, then she rambled on about feelings, started insulting me and pushed me over into McGonagall! I don’t understand it mate, I really don’t.”
“Are you sure you didn’t say anything to her, or do anything to her?”
“No! That’s why I’m so bloody confused. I tell you, Moony, I’m never going to be able to understand girls, never!”
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“Urgh! He makes me so angry! Just standing there like he hadn’t a clue what I was talking about! Then landing us both in detention with McGonagall, honestly Alice, I could kill him right now!”
“Lily, I think you need to calm down. I’m sure James has got a reason for the way he acted…I mean, it’s weird that he’s pretending it never happened, especially when he’s fancied the pants off you for so long.”
“That’s what I don’t understand! Last night, when we kissed, he was being really great. I just thought…well, I thought things would be different between us, like we’d be boyfriend and girlfriend. I never thought for one moment he’d act like this.”
Lily frowned, and her eyes darkened in anger. “Argh! I’m going to kill him!”
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“Moony?”
“Yeah?”
“Where’s Sirius? I haven’t seen him since Potions “ and it’s not like him to miss dinner.”
“True.”
“So where is he?”
“More than likely, still in the hospital wing,” Remus replied, “we should probably go and see him. It’s a bit surprising that he’s not been back. Madam Pomfrey should have been able to restore his voice by now, surely?”
“I’d have thought so,” James said, frowning. “Shall we go and see him then?”
“Yeah. Come on, we can get Wormtail on the way, he’s in the common room doing that Transfiguration essay. Trust Wormtail to leave it to the last minute.”
They left the dormitory, Remus following James down the staircase, not really paying attention to where he was walking, and so, when James abruptly stopped, it was no surprise that Remus bumped into him.
“Oy! Why’d you stop walking?”
“I can’t go in the common room.”
“Well that explains a lot. Why can’t you go in the common room?”
“Evans is there.”
“And that makes sense, because…”
“Because she’s going to kill me.” James replied, very matter-of-factly.
“What are you on? Lily’s not going to kill you. Okay, so she got angry at you for no apparent reason, yelled at you, insulted you a bit, then pushed you into Professor McGonagall, but that’s no reason to think she’s going to kill you.”
“She is. First she’ll yell at me until I have a headache, then insult me until I feel worthless, then she’ll kill me, chop me up into little pieces, stamp on me a few times, turn my battered-body parts blue, then feed me to the giant squid.”
“Prongs, you’re being stupid, now let’s go and visit Sirius before he thinks his friends have forgotten about him.” Remus said, half-laughing at James’ absurd thoughts, and half-worried about his friend’s sanity.
“All right then. Oh no! She’s looking over here! We’d better go before she kills me. I’ll make a run for the portrait-hole, you grab Wormtail and then we’ll high-tail it to the hospital wing. Got it?”
Remus thought it was probably best to nod, and go along with whatever James said.
“Great! Let’s go!”
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“Mr Black, I don’t see any reason why you can’t return to your tower.”
A panicked look flew over Sirius’ face, and then he scribbled something onto the small blackboard Madam Pomfrey had given him to communicate with until the potion wore off.
Please Madam Pomfrey! I don’t want to leave! I like it here!
“Mr Black, your voice will return in a couple of hours. You may leave.”
Sirius frowned. He didn’t want to leave and face James. He didn’t want to have to admit what he had done. He picked up the chalk, and was halfway through writing another message to the nurse, when he felt a strange sensation in his stomach. It felt like it was going to explode, his insides were churning in and out, up and down.
He looked up at Madam Pomfrey and saw her staring at him, a horrified expression on her face.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the feeling stopped. Only to be replaced seconds later by a tingly-feeling on his scalp, and an itching in his eyes. His mouth felt like it was on fire, and he had the most terrible pain in his gut. It felt like the insides of his ears were bubbling and his nostrils were being stretched this way and that. It was the worst thing Sirius had ever experienced, and it was still going on. The sensation in his stomach returned, he felt like he was going to be sick, he felt bloated and full, his head hurt and his eyes itched and his whole body was in pain.
He could hear Madam Pomfrey in the background, muttering and performing incantations, but he didn’t know what was going on. And then everything went black.
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Lily was sitting in the Common Room with Alice and Dorcas, trying to do her Ancient Runes homework, but failing miserably. She couldn’t keep her mind off James and his strange behaviour. Over the past hour, she’d examined over and over everything that had happened leading up to last night and its events, and everything that had happened earlier in the transfiguration classroom. She sighed, and looked down at the page, but the runes looked like nothing more than strange squiggles on the paper. Frustrated with the homework, and frustrated with herself, she slammed the book closed, and glared at it.
“You know, Lils, staring at the book won’t get the essay done any more quickly.”
“Thankyou for that amazing insight, Miss Meadows. I’d say that calls for a round of applause!” Lily replied sarcastically, clapping her hands together twice.
Alice giggled, and Lily glared at her.
“What’s so funny?” she demanded of her blonde friend, who ceased giggling immediately.
“You are! Honestly Lils, you need to cheer up a bit. It’s only James.”
“Yeah,” Lily replied, “only James. Only James, who-” she stopped abruptly.
“Only James who what?” Dorcas prompted, when Lily didn’t say anything for awhile.
“Only James who’s been standing at the foot of the boys’ staircase for the past few minutes talking to Remus.” Alice replied, before Lily had a chance to say anything.
The three girls stared over at the stairs, where, indeed, James was standing, talking to Remus. All of a sudden, he ran, very quickly, towards the portrait hole, jumping over a coffee-table and a group of first year girls sitting on the floor, before leaving the tower without looking back.
Remus, meanwhile, had left the bottom of the stairs more slowly, moving towards where Peter Pettigrew was sitting. They exchanged a few words, then Peter began to pack away his things. As soon as he’d done that, they made their way towards the portrait hole, and the last thing Alice saw, was Remus shooting Lily a sheepish smile, before exiting the common room.
Lily shook her head, before looking at her two friends.
“You know what? I’m never going to be able to understand boys, never!”
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“Mr Potter, Mr Lupin and Mr Pettigrew. I’m sorry to have to tell you this. Your friend is…well he’s…” Professor McGonagall broke off, took a breath, and then continued. “We’ve contacted somebody at St. Mungo’s, they should be here shortly. Madam Pomfrey couldn’t do anything for him. It’s a tragedy, it really is.”
“Can we see him Professor?” James asked.
“Of course, Mr Potter, of course. I ask that you prepare yourselves for the worst. You may not recognise him. Such a shame…he was a good looking young man…such a shame.”
James, Remus and Peter followed the Professor through into the Hospital Wing, and over to a section of the wing that had been closed off by curtains.
“You may have fifteen minutes with him. I must go and see if the representative from St. Mungo’s has arrived yet.”
James glanced at Remus and Peter, then he took a deep breath, and pulled open the curtain. Nothing would have prepared him for the sight on the other side.
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A/N: Ooh…a cliffhanger! Sorry about the shortness of the chapter, and the lack of anything actually pertinent to the plot happening! What has happened to Sirius? Will Lily and James resolve their problems? Next chapter shouldn’t be too long, though I’m not making any promises! I’m back at uni next week, so I’ll write when I have time. Thanks for reading, and review!