parents after all

chapter 14

Chapter 14- The Yule Ball

As the Yule Ball drew nearer, everyone was becoming increasingly frantic. The hype was in the air; Remus could practically see boys and girls making heart eyes at each other and people constantly whispering during lessons and meal times asking their targets( he decided that crush was not the right word to use because, well, the person you asked didn't have to be your crush) to the ball. Sometimes loud cheers broke out with a bunch of girls oohing and wowing, sometimes it ended with a weep and a few hexes. Anyway, after nearly a month of adaption, Remus was immune to sudden emotional outbursts and life continued the way it had always been.

'No, but thanks for asking,' Remus ducked away from the gaze of a hopeful girl – a Hufflepuff third-year, he made a mental note to think about where he had possibly met her after the emergency of having a piss. He was surprised that someone had actually bothered to ask him, but as usual, he was not going to make himself noticeable among the new Hogwarts crowd.

But life did become more interesting for his friends. His fellow time travellers (the male ones in particular, he noticed) were caught up in the same frenzy as the other students. Sirius, charming as always, had earned himself a reputation among the fairer sex within the mere few months since he came and a fans club for him had since been established. He had been receiving invitations nonstop since the day the Ball was announced, and every night the Gryffindor prefect had to shoo away the mass of girls congregating at the Gryffindor Common Room for normal students, demanding to see the non-existent Black boy, ignoring the prefect's claim that he had no idea where the transfer students lived.

James, on the other hand, was no weaker rival to Sirius. Apart from his resemblance with Harry, the Hogwarts champion, his easy-going, friendly personality had also added to his popularity among the students. At the same time, the frequency of Lily protesting had been increasing at an alarming rate which Remus found worrying.

'Go away, Potter,' said Lily, her nose buried in her Charms notes. 'No matter how many times you ask, the answer is still "no".'

'But we're Harry's parents!'

'He understands perfectly the situation we're in,' said Lily evenly without looking up at James. 'Also, for the sake of protection, I don't think we should get too close with anyone else. Yes, Black, I'm talking about you.'

'Remus told Cho his middle name,' Peter chose to comment at this precise moment. Remus resisted the urge to smack him on the back.

'Well, not any closer. Not outside the Gryffindor crowd of our year,' said Lily.

'What about not outside this room?' asked James hopefully. 'Then we don't have to worry about our safety –' He shut up at Lily jabbing her wand in his direction.

'Actually,' Peter cleared his throat, 'I was going to say that Remus telling Cho his middle name was a clever act. I think it's time we make up fake names, like, can I just stop pretending to joke that I'm Saint Pettigrew? '

Lily stopped reading and studied him for a moment.

'Call me Petunia.' And then her attention returned to her work.

                          

The few days leading to the Ball were the most chaotic. Classes could no longer continue normally with students' attention wandering to Merlin knows where, even the teachers were buzzing with excitement. Flitwick even made his double a free lesson and simply announced that they would 'rest a bit for the Ball'.

Remus felt himself burning with agitation. It was uncommon that he was like this when the full moon was a good two weeks away, given that he was normally good-natured (towards outsiders, at least). Though he and Sirius had made up a few days after the Cho incident, things did not seem to get better but became increasingly annoying: James's nonstop wooing assaulted his hearing, Sirius's nonchalantly throwing winks at girls but never actually accepting to be their date made him nauseous, even Peter talking to new girls got under his skin.