Disclaimer: I don't own the characters (except for Venus, Anna and so on), spells, places etc mentioned, they are JK Rowling's. I am not making any money out of this story.

Genre: romance, friendship

Pairings: James/Lily, Sirius/OC, Remus/OC (please don't be prejudiced against this!)

Author's note: I'm revising this story as of June, 2008. Please review! Thank you.

1

Waiting For You

"Accio Map!"

The Marauders' Map flew from the boys' hands and landed in the firm grip of Venusta Vance. In Latin, the word "venusta" meant beauty, charm and elegance, which was a good definition for the girl; she had long, straight black hair and beautiful, wide eyes hovering between green and yellow. However, being one of the best-looking girls in Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry wasn't a big deal for this sixteen-year old witch; she preferred hanging around with her best friends than dating stupid boys, to the great dismay of the said boys.

"What is this?" Venus wondered aloud, a curious smile lighting up her face as writing began to appear on the map:

Mr Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present THE MARAUDERS' MAP

"Give that back to me, Venusta," Sirius Black snarled from his armchair near the fireplace.

Knowing her for years, he was perfectly aware that she didn't like her full name and preferred being called Venus. But Sirius loved teasing people. Especially girls. And especially Venus. Both of them were pure bloods and therefore somehow related, although they didn't even know which relatives they had in common. Pure bloods wizards were all related, but Sirius and Venus couldn't consider that they were of the same family.

However, they did look like each other: Sirius had the same dark hair and the same eyes, although his were more often sparkling with amusement. His handsome features were usually lit up by laughter, whereas Venus often wore a sarcastic expression on her face. Both of them were tall and good in class, although Sirius never seemed to study. All in the head, as he and his best friend, James Potter used to say. Messy, jet-black hair and sparkling hazel eyes behind round glasses: James was sitting next to Sirius. They hardly ever appeared to be separated; after six years of friendship, they were more like brothers than best friends.

Sitting next to them were the two last Marauders: Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Remus was a quiet, clever boy who had amber eyes and a shy smile; however, for reasons unknown to most of the pupils in Hogwarts, he happened to have a few grey hair and a permanently tired expression. At first sight, Peter looked somewhat insignificant compared to his three fellows Marauders, who had brains, looks and fame; he was small, clumsy, rather fat and far from being top of the class. But it was he who tied the Marauders together, he who had first made friends with James.

"Accio Map!" Sirius said exasperatedly, raising his wand. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

It was indeed one o'clock, and the warm and welcoming Gryffindor common room was empty except for the Marauders and Venus.

"I could ask you the same question!" Venus looked outraged, but decided to answer anyway. "I wasn't sleeping; I heard a loud noise so I came down to see what had happened."

Sirius and James shot Peter a reproving look; he had dropped a big candelabra that decorated the fireplace, which had landed on the floor, breaking with a loud bang. Peter gave a weak squeak and looked away.

"And - how surprisingly," Venus kept on sarcastically, "I find you four here. What the hell are you doing? Going to lose points for Gryffindor again?"

"This is none of your business," Sirius snapped.

"Oh, yes, Black, it is," Venus snarled back. "Unfortunately, I happen to be in the same house as you. But if you do something - whatever, I'll go and wake Lily up, and we'll go straight to McGonagall tomorrow."

At the mention of Lily, James's eyes lit up; Lily Evans, Gryffindor Prefect and Venus's best friend, was his dream girl for years. Usually, James could have a girl easily; but not Lily Evans: she seemed to hate him.

"But we haven't done anything, have we?" James said innocently, speaking for the first time. "We were just...talking."

Venus eyed him suspiciously, knowing that he was up to something; the Marauders were keen on all kinds of pranks, jokes and mischief. Actually, that night, they were elaborating projects for the full moon, which was two days away. The reason the four boys were so interested in the date of the full moon was that Remus was a werewolf; he had been bitten when he was a little child. When they had learnt it, Sirius, James and Peter, far from rejecting their friend, had decided to become Animagi to keep Remus company during the nights when he transformed. In their fifth year, they finally managed: Sirius became a large, black dog, James a magnificent stag, and Peter a small rat.

"Go back to bed, Venusta," Sirius sneered. "You wouldn't want to be sleeping during class tomorrow, now would you?"

But Venus stood still, staring at them severely.

"I will do whatever I want," Venus replied fiercely. "I will stay here until you go to bed."

"If you want, you can even follow me to my bed," Sirius said in honey tones, but Venus happened not to blush at that comment.

She made her way towards them, took the seat next to Remus, and waited. She had always wondered why he stayed with Sirius, who was such an idiot. Even though she admitted James was arrogant too, she liked him very much; moreover, he was the Quidditch captain, and she just loved Quidditch. The Marauders couldn't do anything while Venus was there, so they had to come up with a new plan soon, and this wasn't very difficult. James yawned hugely and stood up.

"I'm so tired," James said. "I'm off to bed. Are you coming, guys?"

James winked at Sirius and Remus, who immediately understood what James was up to and stood up as well. Peter, however, looked clueless as usual, but he just did what his friends did.

"Why do I have the impression that it's just a plan of yours?" Venus said suspiciously.

James turned to her and gave her a condescending smile.

"You're paranoid, Venus dear," James said, winking.

Venus rolled her eyes and watched as the four boys made their way up to their dormitory. She sighed and, guessing that she'd better go back to bed and try to sleep, climbed up the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories.

A few minutes later, the four boys made their way back towards the common room, this time under James's Invisibility Cloak.

"She's gone," James whispered. "Now, how about a walk near the lake? I don't feel like sleeping at all."

His friends nodded, and the four of them made their slow and cautious way out of the castle.

When Venus woke up on the next day and drew the curtains of her four-poster bed open, she immediately informed Lily about her meeting with the Marauders the previous night. Lily listened to her with a look of dismay on her pretty face, her bright green eyes widening. She unconsciously ran a hair through her thick, dark red hair, mimicking the usual gesture of the very boy she disliked.

"They were up to something again, I'm sure," Lily replied, sighing. "But what can we possibly do to stop them? Nothing, I'm afraid."

But Venus looked thoughtful.

"Maybe we can - I mean we can't have tried everything, can we? I'll think about it in History of Magic."

As she had expected, Lily looked revolted. She was the best student in their class and always paid attention to the lesson, more than everyone else Venus had ever met.

"Venus, you can't do that," spoke a sleepy but amused voice from behind the curtains of the nearest bed.

A few seconds later, Anna Ripperton's blonde head appeared as she drew the curtains open. Anna was Muggle-born, like Lily; she had honey-coloured, short hair and soft brown eyes. She was smaller than Lily and Venus and less tempered.

"Anyway, come on, girls or we'll be late," Lily urged and the three friends made their way down towards the Great Hall.

"What are we doing tonight?" Sirius asked, his mouth full of food.

"I thought we could explore that tunnel we discovered last night, behind the Blind Wizard's statue," James replied excitedly.

"Oh, guys, couldn't we just rest for once," Remus complained. "If we keep on like that, you'll have to drag me you-know-where tomorrow."

Although his voice was low, Remus was still afraid that someone would discover his secret, though, thanks to James, most of his classmates believed he just had a problem with a badly-behaved rabbit.

"Fine," James sighed. "We'll go without you."

"Hum, we're forgetting something, Prongs," Sirius said. "Quidditch practise."

"Oh, right," James sighed. "By the way, I have to tell Venus about the new tactic I came up with."

"Couldn't you just tell her to go to hell and send us a postcard?" Sirius suggested hopefully.

"Sirius, she's the best Chaser in the team," James replied earnestly.

"I know," Sirius scowled.

Venus was one of the only girls in the school that didn't seem to be affected by his charm, and that just pissed him off.

"And try to be nicer to her," James said casually. "She's Lily's best friend after all."

Sirius accidentally spilt his pumpkin juice on James's plate, but the dark-haired boy didn't seem to mind as the object of his affection had just sat down a few seats away.

"Hi, Lily!" James said cheerfully, turning his full attention to her.

"Potter," Lily replied quite stiffly. "I'd just like to let you know that I'm waiting for anything that you four do wrong to go straight to McGonagall. Understand?"

James smiled sheepishly and nodded. As he opened his mouth to say something, she said:

"I happen to be in a hurry, so please don't bother me today, for God's sake."

"Right, if I can't even be nice to you, I don't know what I can do," James snapped, sick and tired of her behaviour; he was only trying to start a conversation, and, as always, she snarled at him.

"Perfect, then don't say anything."

With that, Lily turned and began filling her plate with sausages.

"Bad luck, Prongs," Remus said softly.

James smiled sadly. The worst was that the more she pushed him away, the more he loved her. He was still in love with her even after all these years; it wasn't a teenage crush, and, whatever anybody would say about it, James knew it was Love. A love like that only happened once in a lifetime; so he kept waiting.