-Us and Them-

Chapter 10: Before There Was The Shrieking Shack

"Ow!" James woke up to find a large brown package that had landed on his stomach. "What the--?"

A fully-dressed Sirius grinned languidly, leaning against James' bedpost. "A pressie for you, Prongsie," he smirked. "Open it."

Remus groaned in his bed and covered his face with his hands. "Sirius, please do not wake me up with a pseudo-Aussie phrase like that again... For your own safety," he added with a grimace.

"Why would I ever use an Aussie phrase, Rems?" asked Sirius, eyes wide. (Unfortunately for him, the result was one which vaguely recalled a would-be axe murderer attempting to beguile a small child with speed-infused chocolate frogs.)

Remus ignored him. "Don't blink like that, Padfoot. Koala impressions just aren't your style," he said calmly, rummaging around for a sock.

"Yuck," squealed Peter. "I hate koalas--all brown and slimy and bug-eyed," he said emphatically. "You better listen to Rems, Sirs, or I think you might regret it," he advised, nodding meaningfully.

"Wha--Sirs!" The handsome black-haired boy began to look dangerously murderous.

Lupin was not much better. "Rems? Peter, remind me to concoct a potion sometime that grows sense," sighed Remus, forcibly restraining a very angry Padfoot from pouncing on poor Peter. "Granted, we appreciate you greatly, but there are limits…James, give me a hand here, before Sirius loses control and starts drooling all over me," he called out. "James?"

James was staring at the package with an expression of disbelief. "Sirius, what the heck is--is this?"

Sirius wriggled out from where Remus had him pinned against the wall. "Congratulations, Prongsie! You are now a fully recognized member of the Hungry Catapults." He grinned cheerfully. "Isn't that great?"

James eyed the other three dubiously. "Sure," he answered slowly. "Sure." He backed out of the room.

Sirius eyed James' rapidly receding figure curiously. "Geez, Remus, what's wrong with him?"

By the time breakfast was over, Lily's misadventure had ceased to be so much a source of excruciating interest to the Gryffindor girls. Unfortunately, the lull in nosiness ("it's just 'friendly concern,'" Jo had protested) came too late for Lily, who, after staying up literally half the night, had attained a record half hour of sleep before the girls woke her up and pried the rest of the story from her unforgiving self.

"What?" mumbled Lily, slowly trudging down the stairs, still half asleep.

"I said 'hey Lily'," replied her companion, smiling slightly.

"Oh?" She blinked sleepily at the tall figure. "Okay," she yawned, and proceeded down the stairs. Strangely enough, the stairs down to the dungeon didn't seem quite as steep and long as usual. And her back didn't ache at all. And her bookbag was curiously light. Lily decided that her sensory perceptions must have been jolted out of proper working order by the past night.

They walked in a comfortable silence until her companion's voice came again. "Lily? You just walked past the door."

She looked back; she had. "Oops," she giggled sleepily. "Thanks," she said as reached the Potions door, and very nearly fell through it. What were they doing today? Oh yes--basic healing elixirs, ever since Dumbledore had ordered the curriculum "modification" a month ago.

"Uh, Lily? Do you want your books?" asked her companion, surprised.

"What?" She asked for the second time, turning around and rubbing her eyes.

"Your books."

"I have my books," she replied, unconcerned. She felt her shoulder for the strap of her bag. "See? Oh wait... maybe not," she conceded, an expression of worry spreading across her face. Lovely. Just lovely. I must have left them all the way back up in the Great Hall, she thought, pouting slightly.

He laughed. "Here, Lily," he said, walking towards her table and setting down his load. "You need to take a nap later, or you'll fall off the tower in Astronomy tonight," he grinned. Hazel eyes twinkled.

"Yeah?" replied Lily, plopping down into her seat. "Thanks," she whispered, and blinked again, feeling slightly owlish and drowsy.

"Anytime," he responded, smiling, running his hand through his hair unconsciously and making it stick up more than ever as he settled himself in a seat near three other furiously laughing boys.

The professor had been droning for a good ten minutes when Lily's head suddenly shot up. Hazel eyes... tall... messy hair... She felt herself begin to panic. James Potter!

"Yes," sighed a little voice inside her head. "Took you long enough," it commented.

"Shut up," she said to it, finally awake. Wait... James Potter walked me downstairs and took all my books for me? And saw me like this

…Far, far upstairs, Professor Trelawney started at the echo of a shriek. Her eyes grew wide for a moment, before she recovered herself and quickly seized the moment to make a prophecy. "Doom marches forth from its darkest lairs... to claim the life of a girl!" she croaked darkly into the face of Regina Sorenson, who wrinkled her nose at the stink of garlic and rosehip tea marching its own way forth from Trelawney's mouth.

Sirius was worried. Very, very worried. And of course, being worried and being Sirius, he made sure to arrange his eyebrows in an attitude of "charming concern," as well as wrinkling his forehead slightly to present a very pitiable figure indeed as he paced the grounds after dinner. The fact that several girls had swooned in the past half hour did not bother him (it would be several minutes they could recover and throw themselves at him again)--rather, he was analyzing a matter of much greater gravity.

Delamere. Leigh Delamere. What to do with her? The girl was simply insufferable. Merlin's whiskers, she had dyed his hair blonde, among other offences. And she had almost made off with his prized Cirrus 170! The nerve of her!

Sirius sighed. If she had been anyone else, he could've just kissed her senseless, had a long, serious talk with her about the dangers of disturbing his hair and broomstick, kissed her again, and been done with the matter. As it were, Delamere remained (most unfortunately) Delamere, and subsequently the Ice Queen. And to complicate matters, he was going to the Christmas Ball with her. Worse still, he found that her presence also seemed to severely impair his judgement, rendering his mind of little or no intelligent use.

The handsome black-haired boy groaned. Things simply can't get any worse, he thought morosely.

Then somebody tapped his shoulder. "Black? We need to talk."

Padfoot whirled around. The dreaded words, and an even more dreaded voice.

Never mind, he thought to himself. In front of him stood all five-feet-eight-inches of the Ice Queen herself. Her arms were crossed, with a forbidding, haughty expression on her face.

When faced with situations such as these, there is only one option for men like Sirius.

He, too, shrieked.

Several seconds of earsplitting noise later, Sirius stopped.

Delamere stared. "What in Merlin's name was that for?" she asked, hardly believing her ears. She had no idea that teenage males could reach such a pitch.

"Uh... emotional release?" Sirius looked hopeful. His mind wandered under the mask of innocent childishness. I wonder how she'd react if somebody told her how beautiful she looked right now, he thought for a moment, before he registered the look on her face.

Her expression was that of one staring at a slug which one stepped on by accident, only to find it spewing grey, gluey goop all over the pavement. After a long, uncomfortably pregnant and soon to be expecting silence, she spoke again.
"Sirius Black, you are the world's biggest idiot," she drawled coldly, in utter indifference to the woeful look that had suddenly come into his eyes. Disgustedly she turned go back to the castle, alone.

"Wait--Leigh--" He stopped and stared blankly after her swiftly disappearing figure.

Leigh's mind was filled with a million different hopes and wishes. Their only similarity was that each and every one was now shattered past repair. She'd thought that maybe there was a chance for them to work everything out before the ball turned into a fiasco for her and her friends, but that little glimmer of hope had died in her as quickly as it had come. She'd even thought, for a moment, that there was a glint of something different in the piercing blue eyes that he raised to her face--something meditative, appreciative, sincere.

But he never spoke, she reminded herself. Even if there was something different, he didn't let you know. She sighed. You tried. You're blameless, finished the voice in her head.

I know, she responded, and resisted the urge to turn around.

If the tall, blonde girl had looked back, she would have found a Sirius Black nobody had ever been allowed to see before. The most sought-after boy in the school had once thought to win the bet, win the girl, and stay intact under his façade of mischief and playful immaturity. But things changed, and people fell, and Sirius had already lost in more ways than one.

He stared after her rapidly disappearing form, all trace of humor gone. And for the first time since the fateful breach with his family so many years ago, Sirius Black understood how it felt to hurt.

"Shh," whispered Jo urgently, face now returned to its normal color. "Remus, don't move."

The two were walking peacefully over the quiet, abandoned grounds. It was dark and after hours, but Lupin, ever resourceful, had led her out by one of his many secret exits.

"There, by the lake," she murmured, pointing towards a small dark figure huddled not far off, at the edge of the silvery stillness.

The brown-haired boy stared. "No," he breathed, disbelieving. "That can't be... it looks like--like Sirius," he finished softly. "Jo--?"

She shrugged, perplexed. "I have no idea," she replied. "Wait—no, scratch that. I have an idea, but it's highly unlikely," she said, continuing at a nudge from Remus. "Leigh said that she was going to have "a talk" with him earlier." She paused, remembering. "But surely it's not because of that? I mean, does Black even like Leigh?" She bit her lip, frustrated and worried for both their friends.

Remus let out his breath. "I don't know," he responded slowly, concerned and worried for his friend. "But we'll just have to find out, won't we?" he finished, as a determined half-smile crept over his face.

The pretty black-haired girl slipped her hand into his and gently led them back to the castle. "I suppose so," she sighed softly, noting the glimmer of starlight in his soft brown eyes and feeling infinitely lucky as they disappeared into the night.

Yes! I figured out a new line-break etc system. It's remotely pretty, so I'm okay. these things look kind of like butterflies, which is kinda cool ;-) Sorry if the characters are getting a little OOC... will fix. Hopefully. Til then, deal with it :-) I'm still really pissed that I can't use stars or my pretty smilies anymore... only these. :-(

limbo-gal: yeah... short... hides Sorry, guys. I hope this one's slightly better on the length side .
melody-dance: Not quite. No werewolf-remus... An angry centaur, tho :-) as you doubtlessly now know. I think I'll extrapolate on this a little more in later chapters. We'll see. And yes, I apologize for the shortness. shrinks my bad:-( I think this one fixes the prob, tho :-)
glaz: wait... guys in white shirts and ties, yes, but around 20? No such luck. Well, kind of such luck. Meaning we had a college student (yes, he's lots of fun and cool .) with our school's team, but he just came cause he used to be on the team and it's our coach's last year, and he (college guy, not coa ch) wanted to help coach our ted turner team (the college guy and his partner were 9th in nation last year), and yeah. He doesn't count, tho, cause no white shirt :-) No, I -probably- won't discontinue :-) Almost certainly not. Just keep reviewing, tho, and referring, if you want to guarantee that your life span will not be horribly cut short ;-)
Zekintha: Mrs. Latin Speaker! What do you mean, Mrs. Latin speaker? Mademoiselle, I insist ;-) Not married yet, nor am I planning to do so any time in the near future :-) Glad ya like it tho, CC. I need more real-life friends that appreciate this stuff :-) Most of mine sadly do not.
The Notorious Madame M: Hey. sugar is great stuff :-) 'siripoo'? Oh my. You might be worse about Sirius than I am! -is amazed- I'm answering your questions later. see bottom of page, k? good.
myobgirly: Aww... thanks so much! I'm very glad you like my story. Cause in the end, you guys are really the ones who keep me writing :-) Who's your favorite character?
Tymeless-Moment: Yeah... I haven't really addressed the animagus incident yet... Don't worry, I'm getting around to it :-) It will definitely have its place (not huge, but nevertheless there.)

K, Madame M (aka Spazzie) is dying to slake her curiousity :-) , so here goes:
I live: in Seattle, WA. Well, Redmond (Microsoftieville! Long live the software giant. No, I'm -not- being sarcastic. Get over it, ppls ;-) )
Fav. color: uh, this is a dangerous question...powder-pink-cause-it's-pretty-green-(allshades)-cause-it's-soothing-and-blue-to-wear-and-own-stuff-in-(same for pink)-and-wine-red-and-black-to-wear-and-shades-of-purple-for-most-others-as-a-nice-neutral-color. 'neutral'. In my world. :-)
On sugar: it's great. especially at debate tournaments, where sugar and caffeine make up about 98 of my fuel sources.
On Sirius: I -love- Sirius! Such a diehard hottie :-) Then again, James and Remus are very nice too. Ron has emotional self-control issues, and is not very attractive. Harry is... well, Harry. He's Daniel Radcliffe (despite the horribility of the movies :-( ). Who admittedly is kinda goodlooking, but not groupie-caliber. I mean, he doesn't even have real green eyes! -dies- But Malfoy... Malfoy is -SO- a hottie... mmm... Tom Felton... :-) random: hey, there was a guy at nationals who looked kinda like Tom Felton... not quite, tho :-) and personality problem, besides. that's just not cool.

So, M, I think I just managed to make that every bit as long and boring as yours :-) so no fear. Now if only you'd get Ashley, and Maddy, and Chelle, and Ari, and everyone else, to read my fic and -review- :-)

Love and hugs,
-CD

PS. Oh, about the 'pressie' thing... Let's just say that one of my friends has a tshirt with aussie-english phrases on it, and that I am way too intrigued by it ;-) I have now learned, among other things, that pressie is present, barbie is barbeque, and--get this--mozzie is mosquito.

They pet name their -mosquitoes-. o.0 I always knew there was something wrong with those fuzzy koala-types... ;-) j/k, I love aussies and will marry one (or a kiwi--er, new zealander, if ya don't know) if I can. :-)