metanoia

Chapter Ten

Remus calmly walks into the Common Room after having gone upstairs to the Marauder's dormitory to drop off his belongings after attending a Prefect meeting with Lily and the other Gryffindor Prefects. James, Letti and Sirius were playing a rather intense game of Exploding Snap in the center of the room; Peter was watching them from his seat on the floor, taking pictures of their fun with the Muggle camera he'd found in Hogsmeade during their last outing, all while Alex sat in a plush armchair away from their chaos nearest the burning fireplace, reading a book she borrowed from Remus with her wand in her messy bun, twisting the scarlet and gold woven bracelet hanging on her wrist.

"Hello Remus. How was your meeting?" Alex mumbled tiredly as she finished reading Alice's perfectly written notes underneath Remus' annotations, noticing Remus approaching them with a growing pink tint in his pale cheeks.

Remus smiles softly at the girl, his smile quickly fading as he answers, "It was fine, Alex. Quite boring really but that's to be expected. Thank you for asking. Uh- hey guys, I'm not going to be mad so answer me honestly. WHO THE FUCK ATE MY CHOCOLATE!?"

Sirius, James and Peter all quickly pointed at Alex, who hadn't looked up from her book in an hour, before cackling like hyenas. Shocked by the identity of the culprit, Remus stands in front of the girl, tapping his foot as he waits for her confession. She calmly shut her book, looking up at the Prefect without an ounce of regret or remorse, "Yes, I ate it. I'm sorry, Remus, won't happen again. I wasn't aware that it was off limits and besides you lot have me working on that blasted thing all the time so consider it payment for my services."

Remus wanted to be mad at her, because she ate the last of his chocolate, but it wasn't her fault that she didn't know about his unhealthy obsession with chocolate. Remus plopped himself down on the couch near the fireplace, pouting because she'd eaten his chocolate and the boys didn't tell her she couldn't, "It's fine. But I'm still mad at you."

Alex chuckled as she opened the book back to her stopping place, looking over the top of the weathered pages to see the pouting werewolf, "Oh come on, Lupin. You know you can't be mad at me. You love me too much."

Remus rolled his eyes, smiling at the crackling fire, "I can still love you and be mad at you. That's like saying I can't both love James and Sirius and also find them incredibly annoying. I'm sorry but chocolate comes before all of you."

"Even me?" James and Sirius gasp together, laughing, completely not registering that Remus had just called them incredibly annoying.

"Especially you," Remus and Alex chorused together, turning to each other with shocked smiles at the coincidence, earning an agreeing humph from Letti as she ascended the staircase towards the girls' dormitories.

Letti had gone upstairs claiming that she was finally going to do her homework for Potions, Sirius and Peter began playing a round of Wizard's Chess at the table beside Remus when James sat on the ground in front of the sole girl in the Common Room, "Hey, uh- can we talk, Lex?"

She closed her novel once more and gave the messy haired boy seated in front of her a raised eyebrow, pulling the exceptionally long sleeves of the knitted jumper Gideon received from his sister Molly last Christmas holiday down to cover her forearms, "Lex?"

"It just came out, okay. I've heard Gideon call you it," he defended, rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's okay, Gid gives everyone nicknames. You can call me Lex if you want. Anyways, what's on your mind, Potter?"

James began nervously picking at the rug that he was sitting on, suddenly becoming very hesitant to ask her the question. "So you and Lily are friends, am I right in assuming that?" He asked, looking over the top of his glasses at the blonde.

Alex chuckles at the inquiry, nodding to confirm that they were indeed friends now, "I'm not as close to her as Letti is but yeah. That could be a word one used to now describe our relationship, yes. Oh, don't tell me you're asking what I think you're asking?"

"I am. I just want you to see where she is because last week she was actually nice to me and only addressed me as Potter rather than a toerag. If she doesn't feel the same, then I suppose it's finally time to give up. But could you please talk to her?" He begged, hopping up onto his knees.

In a moment of kindness she got up from her arm chair, lightly stretching before hitting James on the top of his head with the book and walking to the foot of the stairs that led to the girls' dormitories, "Fine but this is the only time I'm doing this. You hear me Potter, the only time. You're very fortunate I believe in love. But don't for one second think that you're not going to owe me for this because you will, big time. Goodnight all, I must do some recon for James. If I'm murdered because of this, make sure he's the one catching the heat because maybe he'll finally have a shot at being with her, in Azkaban."

"Thank you!" James called after her as the others laughed at her instructions to frame him for her murder.

Alex slowly ascended the stairs, taking her time to formulate how she's going to talk to Lily about James. She wanted this conversation to go well in favor of James, knowing that he'll be crushed if she doesn't reciprocate the feelings and he'll finally give up on any chance with her.  When she got to their freshly cleaned room Alice and Marlene were giggling while doing each other's hair, and Letti and Lily were sprawled out on the redhead's bed trying to do homework. 

"Hey Alex," Alice's light, sweet voice sings when she sees the girl fall face first onto her bed beside Crookshanks, who'd recently taken claim to her bed.

Alex raised her hand up in the air and grunted into the blanket to acknowledge her roommate, smelling the freshly laundered comforter, "Hi Alice. I like your new haircut, it looks nice." Then she slowly dragged her body across the bed, accidentally disturbing Lily's sleeping cat, until her head was hanging off the side of the mattress. She flips on her back to look up and see Lily meticulously working on her homework, "Hey Lily, do you have a second to talk about something?"

Lily happily closes her Advanced Potions book and faces her friend, "Of course. I'm all ears, I really could use a break from all this homework rubbish."

Letti snapped her book shut as well, propping herself up on her elbows, "Me too."

Lily and Alex looked at the brunette, laughing together, "You literally just started."

"Well, she did clean our room and made everyone's beds beforehand," Marlene countered, turning slightly to look over her shoulder as Alice braided her long blond hair down her back.

"Don't encourage her. She needs to do her homework, not compulsively clean to avoid doing tasks she doesn't want to do like she does every other time we have homework," Lily scolded as Letti thanked Marlene for being on her side. The ginger rolled her eyes at Marlene's mocking repetition, redirecting her attention to the blonde who'd asked for her attention, "Alright. What would you like to talk about Alex?"

"I know this is going to sound very odd, considering that this is quite unprecedented and we've only been friends for a short while. And don't feel obligated to tell me anything if you don't want to. But I've got to ask, do you fancy James, in the slightest? Because you haven't been calling him an arrogant toerag and been kind to him lately." The blonde asked hesitantly, offering Lily a piece of chocolate from her stash, suddening feeling like James was abusing her friendship with Lily for his own personal gain but to be fair she did want the pair together and she agreed to help.

Needless to say Lily was taken for a loop by the question, unsure of the answer herself, turning the chocolate frog in her hand while answering, "I'm not... I'm not quite sure. I used to think that he was an arrogant toerag and a bully but now... now I don't know. He's actually quite sweet and funny, and he doesn't bully people anymore. Except for when he hung Severus by his feet last year during O.W.Ls but even then he had my best interest at heart. Oh Merlin's beard, I think I do fancy him."

Upon hearing Lily's realization, Alice and Marlene loudly gasp and turn to face the other girls, shocked to hear that Lily actually reciprocates the feelings that James Potter has had for her since their First year at Hogwarts. Alex jumped up on top of her bed, scaring Crookshanks as she excitedly pumped her fist in the air, "I knew it! That's awesome."

"Then why did you turn him down last week?" Letti hummed over Alice's sneeze.

"Because I didn't know," Lily admits with her face turning a crimson color.