The Marauder's Tale [MOONY, WORMTAIL, PADFOOT, & PRONGS]

XXXII. The Full Moon

"Hey, Olivia! Wait up!"

Olivia stopped and turned at the sound of her name. She smiled as she watched James jog toward her. "Running a bit late?" she laughed.

James slowed down as he reached her. "Yeah, a bit," he admitted. "Eric would kill me if I was late for practice - especially the last practice before our first match!"

"Yeah, probably," Olivia agreed. "But now we're both going to be late if we don't hurry."

"We have time. Besides, you and I need to talk."

"Oh?"

"Yes. What's going on with you and this Ravenclaw?"

Olivia laughed. "Since when did you become one of my girlfriends?"

"I'm just curious," James grinned. "Besides, I thought you had a thing for Sirius. What happened with that?"

Olivia sighed. "Look, Troy asked me to go to Hogsmeade, so I went. I had a nice time, but it's not like I'm ready to marry him."

"And what about Sirius?"

"James . . ."

"Liv, he's my best mate, and you're one of my very good friends. I just want to keep up with what's going on."

She sighed. "Has he said something?"

"No. As far as I know, he has no idea that you have any interest in him."

"And he's pretty wrapped up in Bree Carson right now."

"Yes, he is," James admitted a bit reluctantly. "But that doesn't answer my question." He looked at her for a moment, and found that he didn't really need for her to speak the words. "Or maybe it does," he added softly.

"I still like him, okay?" she exclaimed. "But I'm not like you, James. I'm not going to sit around, waiting for Sirius to realize that he likes me too. I'm going to go out with guys if they ask me, and I'm going to have a good time. If that's a sin, then condemn me to hell right now."

"Whoa," James said softly. "Calm down, Liv."

"I won't!" she exclaimed. "I got this same lecture from the girls already! What if I did wait around for Sirius, and missed out on something really good in the process?"

"Liv, please," James said. "Please stop."

She looked up at him with eyes that snapped angrily. "My life is my business, James," she said quietly.

"I know it," he replied.

"And you're hardly one to judge. Look at you, so completely wrapped up in Lily that you can't even see the girls that are tripping over themselves to talk to you! Don't you even notice the way they all try to get your attention after the Quidditch matches?"

"No . . ."

"No, of course you don't! You're too busy looking for Lily, trying to see if she watched you play." She sighed. "James, face it. It's time to move on."

"But, I -"

"No, don't even start trying to tell me how much you care about her. You think I don't know? She's all you've thought of since first year. That's a long time to dream about a person who hasn't returned your feelings. Move on, James. Date someone else."

James looked at her in shock, his mouth literally open. He didn't know what to say. Her words reminded him of the simliar things that Sirius, Remus, and Peter had said to him.

"Look," she said, "I don't want to fight with you. Let's just go to practice, okay?"

James nodded dumbly, and followed her to the Quidditch pitch. She had given him a lot to process, but he knew he had to shelve it until later. He couldn't think about his lack of relationship with Lily now - it would ruin his concentration. And for the moment, Quidditch was the only important thing.