Chapter 4 - Interruptions
Remus was staring intently at a girl. A girl with deep blue eyes and long, black midnight hair, to be precise. It was the girl from the train, and he hadn’t realized that she was in Gryffindor. He had thought she was in some other house, for surely she was worth noticing.
The nameless girl seemed to be deeply absorbed by a book she was reading. What Remus did not know was that it was one of his favorite Muggle books, Anna Karenina. He had read it two years ago while enduring a very tedious summer. He considered going over and talking to her, to at least find out her name, but he was too timid. That was more of a thing Prongs or Padfoot would do. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the guts to.
In a second Sirius came in, looking hassled.
“We have got to do something about Prongs, mate. Honestly, he’s losing it. The fool asked Lily out again, when he himself said that he wouldn’t. He said it was going so well, he just decided to pop the question. As it happens, someone interrupted them, and she didn’t even answer the question. But he also mentioned she was struggling with the answer before that someone interrupted him. Oh, and yes, I also found out that they have their own quarters, as they are the Heads. So what do you think, Moony? Could it be true, or is he trying to make himself feel better? And honestly, we should do something about this! It’s been going on forever!”
Let’s just point out that Sirius did in fact talk extremely fast when he was worried about something. Remus had to concentrate to keep up, and therefore took some time to answer the question in hand.
“Well,” he started out slowly. “I do know that Lily is really important to James, and that he would do almost anything to get her to go out with him. And, although I do think she’s a great girl, and I understand why James likes her, I do believe it’s getting a bit out of hand,” he said hesitantly, knowing that comment would bring an explosion from Sirius. He was right.
“Thank you! Finally someone agrees with me! He’s too desperate for her; it’s not good for him! And once he starts thinking they are friendly with each other, she does this! I really wonder who it was that interrupted them. I mean, imagine if she had said yes. Prongs would have been ecstatic,” he said regretfully.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions about what James would do, though, Padfoot. Think about it for a second, and talk to him about it first. Please don’t get any crazy idea about what we should do! And don’t even think about trying to get him interested in another girl! You know it wouldn’t work!” he said severely.
“Yes, I’m sure he completely understands,” said Sirius sarcastically. “For once, you are wrong, Moony. You know what James is doing right now. He’s pretending to be perfectly fine while devastated inside. And no, I’m not trying to be sentimental, it’s just the truth.”
After that, Remus got a very thoughtful look on his face and, after a while, started smiling slowly.
“I agree with you,” he said. After enduring a gasp, and a very shocked face from Sirius, he continued. “For different reasons, though. Let me explain, Padfoot, before you go into a rant. I like Lily - ”
“Oh, wonderful, you too?” interrupted Sirius.
“I like Lily as a friend,” Remus said, emphasizing that last part, “and I also think that she likes James, but can’t give in, because that would be admitting defeat for her, and she’s too proud for that, so she simply keeps saying no, no matter what her feelings are. In a way, I feel sorry for her,” he said sorrowfully. “But, I believe that if we think of a plan to make her jealous, she will eventually give in.” He stopped when his friend started talking.
“Wait, let me just try to understand this, mate. Are you engaging in something that is not completely honest, right, and moral?”
“You just had to put it that way, Padfoot, didn’t you? But yes, I suppose if you put it that way, yes. I am engaging in something that isn’t completely moral, honest, and right!” he said mockingly.
“You will never cease to amaze me. Honestly, who ever would have thought… Well, forget that. You talked about a plan, Moony? Does that wonderful brain of yours offer any ideas? Can you please elaborate on the whole jealousy thing? It is, after all, a very wide topic.”
“Very well, let’s start. I was thinking of pointing out to James…” They proceeded to plan everything out, without noticing that someone hadn’t been reading Anna Karenina for some time now.
Some hours before
Just as Lily was turning around to give him an answer, they both heard someone knocking on the door. Looking at James for a few seconds, she gave him an apologizing look and went to see who it was. To James’s surprise, the person was the mysterious girl from the train. The one who had gone into the Marauders’ compartment by mistake. She was as startling as before, with her expressive blue eyes saying she was uncomfortable at where she was currently.
“Um… I’m really sorry if I interrupted anything. Professor Dumbledore sent me to get you. He said something about… not wanting to miss something that concerns you? I believe that is what he said,” she said a little afraid. It was a known fact that if you were in the company of Lily Evans and James Potter “ at the same time, of course “ you would suffer dire consequences. The girl had obviously heard the rumors, and was a bit weary, wondering what they would do next.
Surprisingly, they just nodded and started walking towards the door. The girl went first, then James and Lily.
“Well, let’s go, James. I am dying to see why Dumbledore is so bent on having us there, right at this moment,” she said, lifting James’s spirits just a little by calling him James. He could really get used to it…
“And I wonder why he used that particular student to go get us. It seems strange that out of the whole Great Hall, he had to choose that one person who is not known to anyone…” she muttered to herself.
The black-haired girl had hurried up and had sat herself at the Gryffindor table, away from the Marauders (with the exception of Remus, who wasn’t there), so James and Lily were forced to go in alone, with all eyes turned to them.
No one had noticed, but Professor Dumbledore had risen, and was now clearing his throat loudly. All heads rapidly turned to him and he smiled.
“I wanted to take advantage of this moment and present the Head Boy and Head Girl of this year, the Gryffindors James Potter and Lily Evans.” Everyone clapped loudly, except the Slytherin table, who was looking at them with a scornful look impossible to describe. The people in it who did clap “ Lily and James were liked by almost everyone “ were frozen when they saw Lucius Malfoy’s face. They knew it was bad, very bad, to do something that he would disapprove of, so they stopped and looked embarrassed.
Meanwhile Lily and James, mortified, smiled uncomfortably and quickly went to sit at the Gryffindor table. They were in such a hurry to sit down, that they didn’t even notice that they had sat next to each other. Lily looked for her friends and saw that they were looking at her strangely. Suddenly she realized the reason for that.
Wonderful, I sat next to Potter! What else could possibly go wrong today? First he asks me out, someone interrupts me just as I’m about to say yes, and now I have to sit next to him without noticing! she thought miserably.
She got up discreetly and went to sit with her friends, who were looking at her suspiciously, and started to giggle uncontrollably. Great, what will they say now? Probably that I like Potter, like always! Will I tell them about what happened? she thought sitting down, narrowing her eyes at them. She smiled sweetly before sticking some beef in her mouth.
“So, Prongs, what’s going on? You planning on telling us what happened that you both came in at the same time? Not to mention, together? What date is it? I’m definitely marking this day in my calendar. Hey Wormtail, you got a calendar?” he said excitedly. Peter just shook his head and looked at James expectantly.
“So?” he said.
“Well, we have a common room. The Heads’ room. We have separate bedrooms, of course, and even separate bathrooms, but we share a common room. Dumbledore took us there, he showed us around, told us the password, which by the way I’ll ask if I can change very soon, and then left, telling us that we had to be here, in the Great Hall, in fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, he did not tell us he would send someone when the fifteen minutes had passed…” he said annoyingly.
“So someone showed up?” asked Peter quite stupidly.
“Yes, Peter, someone showed up. Remember the girl that came broke into our compartment on the train?” They nodded, not understanding one bit.
“Well,” James continued, “she was the one that came in. She knocked on the door, and Evans went to answer it. I had asked her out seconds before “ “
“What?”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Come on, James, you said yourself you weren’t going to ask her out again, at least for some time, and five minutes later, you do!”
“Yes, well, it just came out. I guess it’s a reflex to ask her whenever I see her. It’s something I instinctively do. Let me keep going now, and don’t interrupt me!” he said threateningly. Sirius put up his hands, as if saying that he hadn’t done anything.
“Go ahead, I’m listening,” he said.
"Ok, so I asked her, and I could swear she was about to say yes, when that girl showed. But Lily looked as if she was really indecisive, like she was thinking out the pros and cons of saying yes… or no. Well, whichever it was, she couldn’t say anything, because we were interrupted…” he said sadly.
“You might want to try to refrain yourself from asking her out for some time now, Prongs. Besides, I thought she was calling you by your first name. I would heartily call that an improvement,” said Sirius, patting James in the back.
“But you know what, I really feel sorry for you. I mean, look at you, you’re pathetic! I feel, as your best friend, that it is my responsibility to get you out of this. Now I understand what people mean when they say a girl can make you miserable. Honestly, I can’t remember a time when you weren’t miserable over Lily… How sad,” added Sirius, with a pitying face.
While Peter covered “ or tried to “ his laugh, James punched his friend in the arm, looking sarcastically appalled.
Unbeknownst to them, they were thoughfully being watched by a certain girl on the Gryffindor table.
Yay, cliffie! Well, it's not that bad, and I'll update soon enough, so don't get mad at me, guys! Ok, ok, question time: who do you think the girl is? I narrowed them down when I said Gryffindor table, so one of you better be right! So press that little button, and REVIEW! Please. And thanks to those that did review!