claret, sirius black

28

chapter 28

JAMES WAS INSISTENT to find out exactly what Lenora and Sirius were, and if James Potter knows how to do anything then it's how to get his own way.

The four Marauders were in their dorm room and James had already brought up Lenora three times and each time Sirius swiftly changed the subject. At the present, Sirius was sitting crossed legged on the cold, hard dorm floor with a plate full of crackers to his left. Remus was sitting on the other side of the room, with his legs crossed the same as Sirius' with Peter Pettigrew was in his Animagus form clutched in his hands. The two boys were hiding crackers around the room to see if Wormtail could sniff them out. Sirius had hidden one in an unknowing James' pocket, so when Remus let Peter go he scurried across the floor and up to James' bed, then crawled up his leg to find the cracker.

James squealed, slapping his leg and jumping straight out of his bed and Peter crawled into the pocket of his pyjamas. Sirius and Remus doubled over as they laughed, both of their faces pink as they watched James prance about the room as if his leg was on fire.

"Wormtail!" He shrieked, still frantically shaking his leg, "Get out of my pocket!"

The two boys were still laughing when Peter turned back into his normal self, sitting on the floor in front of James' legs. The screaming scared him back to a human.

"You two are bastards!" James and Peter both said in unison.

"Don't blame us," Remus grinned, "You're still fully aware when you're in your Animagus form." He pointed to Peter.

Peter's cheeks were red. "My morals were blinded by the cracker!"

The two boys howled again. Peter stropped towards his bed but made sure to take the plate of crackers from Sirius first.

"I thought it was a spider," James frowned, his arms crossed over the plaid pyjama shirt he wore. "That's why I screamed."

Remus and Sirius stopped laughing for a split second until they looked at each other again, another loud outburst of laughter erupted. James flopped back on his bed, a little too aggressively as the mattress creaked and sounded as if it was going to fall through. Luckily it didn't.

"Did he get the cracker?" Sirius asked, a small chuckle still in his voice.

James frowned again and reached into his pocket, gasping as he pulled his hand back out. "He did!" James exclaimed, Peter laughed from his bed, James stuck his middle finger up at the blonde boy.

Sirius laughed again, standing up and walking to his bed, opening the top draw and pulling out a packet of cigarettes. He opened the carton, pulling a cigarette out for himself and then flicking one across the room to Remus who stuck his thumb up back to him as he caught it.

Remus stood up, his pyjama trousers were too short for his long legs as they finished just above his ankles. He was already wearing a jumper so he didn't shrug a coat on as Sirius was about to.

"Do you want one Pete?" Sirius asked, waving the packet about. Peter shook his head.

"The smoke makes me cough because of my asthma," Peter stated as a matter of factly. Sirius shrugged, sticking his thumb up at the boy who was wrapped in his quilt with the crumbs from the crackers spread across his mattress.

James sat up in his bed again. "Where are you going?" He asked, now standing up.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other.

"Outside," Remus said, slowly.

"Wait!" James said, "You can smoke out of the window if you like."

Sirius narrowed his eyes, "Who died and made you king of the dorm."

James ignored him. "Go on, as long as you tell me what's going on with you and Lenora."

"Are you going to make Moony go outside?" Sirius asked with an eyebrow raised but Remus tutted and made his way to the window, his cigarette already lit.

"Go on," James said, practically begging as he dragged his words. Sirius rolled his eyes and followed Remus to the window, it was pushed open but it doesn't open wide enough to stick your head out, unlike the common room window.

Sirius sat beside Remus, who had already taken up the entire windowsill. James stood a healthy distance away, his arms crossed and a demanding look on his tan face.

"Tell us then," James said, shaking his dark hair from in front of his eyes. "What's going on with you and Lenora?"

Remus looked eager to know as well and Peter looked in the direction of the other boys, his ears pricked.

"Nothing." Sirius insisted, taking a drag on his cigarette and watching as ash fell to the floor, he looked up at James to see if he had noticed. He hadn't.

"Liar," James exclaimed, pointing his finger. "It doesn't look like 'nothing' when you're sitting together and sharing a coat whilst watching Quidditch."

Peter nodded from across the room.

"She was cold!"

"You could've given her your coat," James said pointedly, "You didn't have to share it with her."

"I offered! She said she wanted to share it."

James narrowed his brown eyes suspiciously.

"I also saw that your hand was around her waist."

Sirius shrugged, taking another drag on his cigarette, the smoke spreading inside of the room instead of out of the window like James hoped it would've.

"What else," James murmured.

"The invisibility cloak," Peter said.

"Ah," James pointed. "Thank you, Pete, I forgot about that." He coughed as Sirius stuck his middle finger up at Peter, just before flicking the cigarette out of the window. "When you borrowed the cloak I checked the map and you went into the forest with Lenora!"

"I thought you had gotten over the stalking thing?" Remus frowned.

James raised his hand to dismiss him. "It doesn't count if Sirius is sneaking around the school with a girl."

"Lenora and I are friends." Sirius stated as he sat down on James' bed, Remus disposed of his cigarette as well and sat on the next closest bed which was Sirius'.

"Surprisingly, after you made her cry."

"How do you know about that?" Sirius asked.

Remus shrugged. "I happen to have friends in Ravenclaw who are also friends with Basil."

"Oh!" James exclaimed, like an excited puppy. "That's what he said to you in the corridor!" He looked to Remus for confirmation. Remus nodded, his curly, brown hair bouncing against his scarred forehead.

"What did you do to make her cry Pads?" James asked. Sirius shrugged so James looked towards Remus, who also shrugged but he quickly glanced disapprovingly at Sirius as if he somehow knew the real reason.

"It was a misunderstanding," Sirius claimed.

"That's bollocks!" James cried with a small laugh.

"Lenora doesn't seem to be the type of person to cry." Peter added from his bed, where he was still wrapped up in his quilt as if it was a cocoon.

"She isn't," Remus said as he rummaged through Sirius' bedside draws, grabbing a bar of chocolate and opening it.

Sirius took no notice.

"So," James clapped his hands together, the sun had set hours ago. "Are you going to tell us?"

"There's nothing to tell!" Sirius exclaimed as he sprawled himself all over James' bed. "We're just friends, you can ask her!"

So James, being James, made it his new mission to ask Lenora Claret himself.