metanoia

Chapter Sixty-one

"We haven't gone to Hogsmeade together in ages, why don't we go this week if we're all free?" James suggested as the Marauders lounged in their dormitory on that weekend, Alex claiming James' bed for herself. Trying to maintain distance between her and two of her best friends as she tried to decipher her feelings for them. After Sirius told her he would be letting her figure out her feelings, she and Sirius were back to how it was before all the emotions got in the way, pestering each other in the friendliest manner possible.

James turned to Peter, snapping as he shot finger guns at him, "Wormtail? You in?"

Peter and Alex locked eyes across the room, since their confrontation earlier that year they hadn't even been in the same room as the other with an exception of the Winter Holidays. Alex spoke before him, announcing that she would go to Hogsmeade that weekend but she would have to sneak in only to be reminded that her Aunt signed her permission slip. After hearing her answer Peter shook his head no, arising from his bed and crossing the room to leave, "Count me out. I think I'll stay and go to the library. "

"Pads, do you have detention this week?" James inquired, looking to his right at his best friend, who was currently brushing his hair.

Sirius shared a knowing yet sad look with his best friend, dropping his brush on his bed, "Umm, what's today?"

"Today is Saturday, Sirius," Alex giggled, throwing a pillow at the wildly styled haired Gryffindor adjacent to her.

Remus looked up from his book at the sound of the girl's harmonic giggle, seeing the glimmer of mischief in his two mates' eyes. As Sirius returns the pillow that was thrusted at his head, landing it on her thighs as he confirmed that he had in fact received detention for transfiguring Severus Snape's Pop Rocks into fireworks in front of Professor Slughorn. James looked to the sole Marauder, who hadn't provided an answer, asking the same question with the raise of his eyebrow. Remus snapped his novel shut after reading the last sentence of the chapter, shaking his head no, "I'm free. I only planned on going to the library to study for our upcoming N.E.W.Ts but those aren't for a while."

"So, the three of us will be going to Hogsmeade then?" Alex repeated, jumping off her cousin's bed to go to breakfast.

James smirked evilly to Sirius when her back was turned to them, "Oh, actually I can't. I just remembered that I promised Lily that I would take her to Madam Puddifoot's. She's been asking me to go with her for ages. So actually it will be just you and Remus then."

"Is that okay with you, Alex?" asks Remus when she stopped turning the doorknob, frozen by the blindside that James and Sirius had planned to help Alex figure out her feelings by setting them up. He didn't devise the plan, neither did Sirius trying to keep his promise that he would back off to let her figure her feelings out herself, however James wanted her to be happy so he enacted this two part plan. 

Her thoughts raced as quickly as her heart, both making her feel as though she were to explode at any moment. The thought of her and Remus alone wasn't so unrealistic, they spent more time together than any other pairing among their friend group because of the hours they spent studying and completing their schoolwork. Her excitement quickly deflated and was replaced by anxiety, turning to face her friend with a completely neutral expression on her face, "Yeah, totally. Why wouldn't I be okay with us going to Hogsmeade? It's not like we've never done it before."

Before any of the Marauders could remind her with any degree of concern or snark of the undiscussed feelings that lingered between that particular pairing, Alex escaped the dormitory and ran to the Great Hall to get some breakfast. She ran past her roommates and some of her friends in the Gryffindor Common Room, not stopping when their concerned calls filled the room. Remus and the Marauder descended the stairs, stopping when they found their friend's small group at the sofa. Lily looked up from the Daily Prophet that she and Letti were reading together, seeing the look of accomplishment on the men's faces, "Did it work?"