Chapter 18 - The Chocolates

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James, Sirius and Peter ended up with an extra hour's detention for the cat drawings on the black board, leaving Grace and Remus by themselves. As soon as McGonagall let them leave, they both headed straight for the Hufflepuff common room to see if Ely was alright, only to find that he was having a nap. Instead, they played with Charlie, Abbey's Firefox, as she explained what had happened.

"Those bloody Slytherins! They're getting worse each year, I swear. Ever since that 'Dark Lord' fellow turned up, all they care about it terrorizing muggleborns," Grace exclaimed, startling Charlie who was sitting in her lap. The Dark Lord, or He-who-must-not-be-named, was a powerful wizard with a very strange set of beliefs who was starting to gain followers from the wizarding community, a large portion of whom seemed to belong to or had previously belonged to the Slytherin house.

"But not all Slytherins are like that," Abbey reasoned "What about Severus?"

Grace groaned, wrinkling her nose at the thought of the rather unpleasant greasy haired boy that Lily Evans, a good friend of hers, seemed to get along so well with. Grace and the other Marauders however, resented the boy greatly, and neither Abbey nor Lily could understand it.

"C'mon, he's not that bad," Abbey said.

"Yes he is," replied Grace and Remus in unison.

After arguing with Abbey over whether or not Snape was a decent person, Grace and Remus left the Hufflepuff common room.

"We still have another half an hour until the others get out," Remus said, checking the small gold watch around his wrist. "Do you want to go to the library or-"

"Let's go outside!" Grace suggested, cutting him off and grabbing his hand without thinking. She dragged him all the way to a tree on the grounds around the castle and laid down on the grass beneath it. She then tugged on Remus' hand, which was still intertwined with her own, pulling him down beside her.

"Grace!" he cried as he fell to the floor, laughing.

"Sorry," she grinned, although it was clear that she felt absolutely no remorse for her actions what so ever.

They laid in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the serenity of being outside and away from the others for once, before Grace realised that she was still holding his hand and released it.

"You never gave me my Changing Chocolates, you know," Remus told her breaking the comfortable silence.

"Damn, I was hoping you'd forgotten," Grace chuckled in reply.

"I would never forget about chocolate. Who do you think I am, Fel?"

"An idiot," she said with a grin, turning slightly onto her side to face him, only to find that he was already looking at her.

"Rude."

"An adorable idiot."

He raised an eyebrow. "Adorable?"

"An adorable dorky idiot," she added, quickly, causing him to laugh again. "An adorable dorky unco-ordinated idiot. An adorable-"

"You do realise that adding more words to that sentence isn't going to make me forget about the chocolate," he said. "Besides, I can't even tell if you're talking about you or me anymore. "

"Fine. You can have a chocolate," she told him as she sat up, grabbing her satchel from beside her and pulling the packet out.

"A chocolate? One?"

"Yes, Moony, one. I only have four left, and they're supposed to last me until Christmas," she defended. Her auntie had sent up a packet of twelve Changing Chocolates during the school holidays, and after her mother forced her to give one to Remus, Peter, James and Sirius when they had spent the afternoon at her grandparents' house, she soon found her supply running out.

"How about two?" He asked, sitting up beside her. "C'mon, I participated in the prank."

"Remus-"

"Please," he begged, pushing out his lower lip and making his eyes go wide in one of the best puppy-dog faces that Grace had ever seen.

She sighed. "Okay."

"Yes!" Remus cheering, dropping the puppy-dog face immediately.

"But no more Party Poopin' Lupin for the rest of the year, understood?" Grace added, causing him to groan.

"Fine. But you need to give me another one the next time you get a packet."

"Deal," she said as she handed him one. "Do you want the other one now or-"

"I think I'll save it for later, but you better not eat them all."

"No promises," she giggled, before throwing one into her mouth as Remus did the same.

"Merlin, I love chocolate," he sighed as soon as the small ball hit his tongue.

"Not as much as I do," Grace replied with a grin.

"Yeah right."

The pair proceeded to throw grass at each other, as one does when they are having an argument outside with their best friend. They ended up staying outside for another whole hour, chatting about who in their group had the best hair and trying to climb the tree they were seated under, before heading to the Great Hall to meet the others for dinner.

"Where have you two been?" Peter asked as soon as they sat down. "We got here half an hour ago and you were nowhere to be seen."

"We were outside. I guess we just lost track of the time," Grace said, serving herself some potatoes.

"Is that why you have grass in your hair?" Sirius asked.

"What? Where?" she replied, frantically running her hands through her shoulder length hair.

"Here, I'll get it," Remus offered, picking out a few stray pieces of grass from her hair, before turning so that Grace could do the same to his. "How was the rest of detention?"

"She made us sort through the storage cupboard. It was terrible," Peter answered.

"Don't remind me," James said dramatically, with wide eyes, as if he could see something the rest of them couldn't. "Never again."

---

So I think I'm finally starting to accept that this story is cheesy af.
Fun fact - I turned fifteen yesterday. Oh yeah and I GOT A PET SNAKE AND I NAMED HER NAGINI AND SHES SO SMOL AND ADORABLE.
- Grace

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