Waiting For You (A Marauders Story) [On Hold]

Chapter 1 - Seventh Year...

Voices, squeals and laughter bounced around the Great Hall, and that was just from Mary, Marlene and me.

We were finally in our last year of school and oddly enough, my nerves hadn't strangled me yet. The thought that this was my final year and that everything counted completely was utterly terrifying and entirely liberating at the same time.

I glanced down at my Head Girl badge pinned to my chest and felt a surge of happiness. Everything I had ever done was now paying off; this year was going to be amazing.

Marlene laughed loudly, breaking me from my thoughts.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and grinned at me and Mary. I raised an eyebrow at her and she flickered her eyes to the right.

I glanced at the person directly opposite her and laughed.

Black was glaring at the side of Marlene's head and despite the curtain of hair blocking him from her sight, she knew it.

Marlene and Black had been...something since the start of last year. I really had no idea what they were – any by their fights, neither did they. Sometimes they looked like the adorable everyone loved and hated, but most times you could look at them and know that one of them would be dead by the end of the week. Whatever they had, it was cute.

'McKinnon. McKinnon!' He pouted at her and by the jolt of my best friend beside me, he was clearly kicking her in the shins too. 'You can't ignore me forever!'

A smile formed on her face and I knew that she had taken up the challenge of never acknowledging him ever again. As amazing as they would have been, I knew it would never come true. Whatever they had, the multitude of fights they had never seemed to make a difference.

I put my head close to Mary's and whispered, 'Give her an hour and she'll be back to making out with him.'

She grinned and held up her hand, silently counting down from five.

As soon as Mary's fingers were curled into a fist, Marlene flipped her hair over her shoulder and glared at Black. He grinned back and before we knew it, they were leaning over the table making out like their lives depended on it.

Ah, back to normal.

Mary laughed as Peter silently handed over a galleon, grumbling into his pumpkin juice. I shook my head and laughed silently. My friends were weird.

Speaking of weird, we had been back at Hogwarts for an hour and I hadn't been asked out by the obnoxious Potter.

Not that I was complaining. An hour of reprieve from him was a blessing.

I glanced over at Remus who seemed even more run down than usual. What was odd, however, was Potter. Sitting next to his best friend, Potter was spreading the gravy over the table like butter on bread and trying to drink his steak and kidney pie.

Before I could ask him what he was doing, the food in front of us disappeared (not that he noticed). The sound of Professor Dumbledore clearing his throat silenced the room, even stopping the Blackinnon make out session.

'Now, welcome back and hello to the First Years. I know you all want to go off and pretend to be sleeping while you talk until classes start tomorrow, but there are a few things I need to tell you. The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds unless you wish for certain and imminent death.' He paused for a moment before continuing. "We also have a new Head Boy and Girl. Lily Evans and James Potter, please stand up. They are your Head Girl and Head Boy respectively.'

Potter and I stood at the same time and whispers exploded around the room. Perhaps I wasn't the only one confused about why the hell James Bloody Potter was Head Boy.