living with them, ginny weasley & the marauders

fourteen

fourteen; the plan is officially being put in action tonight

After Charms, Ginny dawdled around the corridors for awhile, rather bored. After a good half an hour, she finally made her way up to Gryffindor tower to put her books (which Dumbledore had sent a house elf to give to her the previous night) and equipment away in her dormitory.

Walking casually up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, she spoke merrily, "Aurea Rinocerotis," and the fat lady swung open as per usual.

Upon entrance, Ginny was met with a rather peculiar sight. Sirius and Peter were sprawled lazily across the couches and Remus was sitting boredly in an armchair. However, what made the sight rather unusual, was that around the three boys laid stacks of half empty packets of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans.

"Uh, hey guys," She said cautiously, taking her shoulder bag off from around her neck and slowly lowering it onto the spare armchair.

"Oh, hey Binny," Sirius replied, not looking up from the packet in his hands.

"It's Ginny, Sirius," Remus rolled his eyes at his best friend, who rolled off the couch lazily.

"Yeah, sorry Hinny," Sirius said, getting her name incorrect again.

Remus just rolled his eyes again, and shook his head. Ginny was ignoring the fact that Sirius didn't know her name, because she was more focused on the scene unfolding before her.

"Uh, so, what's going on here?"

"We're using or heightened senses of smell—" Sirius began.

"—to sniff out the bad beans—" Peter added.

"—so that we can put them all in one box—" Remus continued.

"—and give them to James," The three finished happily in unison.

"You lot are so weird," Mary commented, coming down the girls staircase with Peyton behind her. "Don't you have anything better to do with your lives?"

All three boys looked up at Mary, hesitated for a few seconds, and then at the same time, shook their heads and responded with a simple, "No."

Mary rolled her eyes and continued to exit the common room, but Peyton stayed behind and began a conversation with Ginny.

"Our plan is in action," she confirmed, to which Ginny nodded. "Remus is going to study with her tonight."

"I'm going there tonight too," Ginny informed her. "James has agreed to talk to me and let me help. And I may have a plan B, depending on how good James' song writing skills are."

"James' song writing skills?" Peyton scoffed. "I wouldn't be relying on that one too much. He wrote this atrocious poem for her in fifth year. He finished it with something about Lily being fit and having—"

"—nice legs," Ginny laughed.

"He showed you?" Peyton raised her eyebrows in shock.

"Yeah, why?"

"You two seem to be getting on well." She shrugged. "James doesn't usually socialise regularly with very many people. It must just be a red head thing."

Ginny laughed, and hit her newly found friend playfully on the arm, "Hey!"

"As long as he doesn't fall in love with you, I don't really care," Peyton said. "But if he does, make sure you let him down gently. He seems to go for the girls who play hard to get. He must like the public rejection."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that," Ginny replied seriously. "James may love the public attention, but the rejection is a whole other story. He said he was sick of it."

"He actually told you this?" Peyton asked in disbelief. "He probably doesn't even tell the other marauders this stuff!"

"Trust me, there are some things he just doesn't tell them," Ginny sighed. "Did you know that he plays guitar? And he sings?"

"No way!" Peyton exclaimed. "Are we talking about the same James Potter?"

"Yeah, I think so. Is it the one who has ridiculously messy hair, hazel eyes, rectangular glasses, a killer body build, is a Gryffindor seventh year, was elected as head boy and Quidditch captain and...is insanely in love with Lily Evans?"

"Nah, I meant the cute Ravenclaw first year," Peyton's voice was dripping with sarcasm, which caused Ginny to giggle.

"What are you ladies giggling about?" Sirius questioned from his position on the floor.

Peyton spun around and scowled at him disapprovingly, "If you must know, Black, we were talking about cute Ravenclaw boys."

"Excuse me?" Sirius said, obviously offended in some way. "Why would you be talking about them, when you have me? You could be having a discussion about how hot my abs are. That would keep you busy for a life time."

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Black," Ginny scoffed. "The only thing that I could possibly say about your abs is that they are non existent, due to your dear obsession with Bertie Botts."

Remus, Peter and Peyton laughed, but Sirius looked murderous. If this is the look he had when he was thrown into Azkaban, then Ginny couldn't say that she would've disagreed with decision.

Thinking about the future made Ginny think about what she was doing in the present (which was technically the past). How was all this going to effect the future? Would it change anything? Ginny became quite panicked (though she tried not to show it) and had a sudden urge to go and read that book that she'd borrowed from the library, the day she had met with Remus.

If she was meddling in James and Lily's relationship, would that change their future? Every move she made could make a difference. What was a time glitch? How did it work? Ginny needed to find out before it was too late. If Dumbledore knew what it was, why couldn't he have just told her himself? That man was so damn vague with everything that he talked about; he needed to learn to be more direct.

She wouldn't have any time to read it after dinner, seeing as she was meeting up with James. The only free time she had to read it was now. Ginny was just about to go and get it, when she felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Come on!" Peyton said happily, pulling her to the portrait hole. "I'm starving!"

Ginny sighed and followed along, with the three boys (Sirius muttering grumpily about his brilliant abs) trailing behind obediently.