living with them, ginny weasley & the marauders

eighteen

chapter eighteen; alright, i think that it's definitely time for a new plan.

"Merlin, Moony, what the bloody hell happened to you?" Sirius asked as Lily guided Remus into the boys dormitory. "You look like you've just walked into the Whomping Willow."

"I punched him," Lily stated simply, not having the energy to put up with Sirius tonight. She guided Remus over to his bed, as he got under the covers.

"Um, why?" Peter frowned, just as confused as Sirius.

"Because, I was mad at him," Lily huffed, not bothering to elaborate.

"You know, Evans, if you don't give us satisfactory answers to our questions, we're just going to keep pestering you, right?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Fine," Lily sighed. "Remus played a cruel trick on me which caused me to admit to James that I still like him, so I got mad at him and punched him in the face, and then I apologised and we cried into each other's arms. The end." Sirius looked like someone had hit him over the head with a frying pan. Lily frowned at him. "What?"

"Sorry, I'm still processing the whole 'admit to James that I still like him' part," Sirius said.

Lily rolled her eyes. "What about it?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that this morning at breakfast you said, and I quote 'He has his whole life to be an asshole. Is he trying to use it all up in one day?'" Sirius mimicked Lily in a high pitched voice, flicking his hair for extra exaggeration. "And literally, all he was doing was eating."

"Okay, yeah, whatever, I lied," Lily dismissed.

"Lily fancies prongs!" Peter exclaimed excitedly.

"You're a bit late on that news, Peter," Remus chuckled.

"And thanks to you, now he knows all about it," Lily said angrily. "You guys have got to stop meddling in my love life. I admit that I still like James, but I'm not going to date him. And the sooner you get that through your thick heads, the better, because you'll only be causing James more pain by leading him on. I've made it very clear what I want. Don't try and change it."

As soon as Lily stomped out of the room, Sirius laughed. "She doesn't even know what she wants."

"Yeah," Remus said as he crept out of his bed.

"Where are you going, Moony?" Peter asked curiously, sitting up in his bed.

"Oh, um, I just..." Remus tried to come up with an excuse for leaving the dormitory. "I left my book downstairs in the common room."

"Can't you just accio it?" Sirius frowned.

"Um, no," Remus said, running from the room, clutching his eye. "Bye!"

As he reached the bottom of the boys staircase, he looked around to make sure that Lily was definitely gone, and when he was absolutely sure, he approached the two fourth year girls quietly.

"Um, hi, I'm Remus," He introduced himself in an awkward whisper. "We don't know each other, but I was wondering if you could do me a favour?"

"What is it that you want?" The blonde girl asked. "I'm Evangeline, by the way"

"I was just wondering if one of you could go up to the seventh year girls dormitories and get Peyton and Ginny for me," he asked hopefully.

Evangeline hopped up from her seat tiredly and raced up the girls staircase until she got to the seventh years. She knocked on the door and entered, seeing four girls sitting on their beds. Mary was fast asleep in her bed, Dorcas was folding her clothes on hers, Peyton was finishing her History of Magic essay, and Ginny was just sitting on her bed, thinking.

"Hi," Evangeline yawned, covering her mouth. "There's a guy named Remus down in the common room, and he wanted me to get Ginny and Peyton for him."

Peyton and Ginny got up and followed the blonde girl out of their room and down to the common room, where she went back to sit with her friend. "Thanks Evangeline," Remus said. The girl just nodded in response and turned to face her friend again.

"Remus! What happened to you?" Peyton panicked, seeing Remus' eye and rushing over to him. "When did you get this?"

"Lily punched me," He explained. "She figured out what I did to her quill, and got a little bit mad."

"A little?" Ginny raised her eyebrows at him, as Peyton used her wand to fix as much of his face as possible.

"Okay, very angry. But, really, I'm fine," He said, swatting Peyton's hand away from his face. "Peyton, stop. I'm fine, I swear."

"Yeah, but I can't help but feel partly responsible for this," She said, continuing to fix his face. "I mean, the whole quill trick was kind of my idea in the first place."

"Well, by the way Lily reacted, I don't think it went so brilliantly," Remus sighed, as Peyton finally backed away. "We need another plan. Preferably one that won't get me beaten up."

"I've got something in mind, but it may take a few months," Ginny said.

Peyton hesitated. They didn't have a few months. For all they knew, they could die tomorrow. It was heartbreaking really, but that was the reality of it. It sucked, to be perfectly honest, but they couldn't change it. Well, perhaps they could... They could be doing more, but they weren't. They could be out there right now, fighting death eaters, but that wouldn't be giving them any better chances of survival.

"You mean the plan you were explaining to me in the dormitory?" Peyton asked. It was a good plan, but there were quite a few things that could go wrong. And if they didn't get James and Lily together soon, who knew what would happen.

"Yeah, I think it'll work," Ginny nodded. "But I need to go talk to Lily so that the quill incident doesn't blow our whole plan. Does anyone know where she is?"

"I thought she was going back to her common room," Remus shrugged.

"Alone?!" Peyton screeched. "Remus, there could be death eaters roaming the castle. You can't let her walk back on her own!"

"I'll go find her," Ginny offered.

"No, you can't go alone," Peyton said strictly.

"I'll find Lily, and we'll be together," Ginny reasoned. "Peyton, we'll both be fine. Trust me. I know how to fight off a death eater if I have to."

"You're acting like you've survived a war," Peyton rolled her eyes. "Fine. Go. But be safe."