Along With The Tide | Sirius and Remus

[Lena Marie Becket]

A week had gone by since the horrible night that had been her last detention with Silvanus Kettleburn. Lena could still feel his hands and his lips on her, as well as everything else, every time she closed her eyes. She couldn’t sleep but in fitful batches between the crying, remembering, and staying up all night being terrified of the nightmares. But she was trying to hide it the best she could. A perpetual Silencio had been cast on her bed so no one else in her dorm would be able to hear her behind the curtains. She didn’t want to worry them or let them know anything had changed. As far as everyone else was aware of, Lena had had her detention, had come back late because cleaning had taken so long, and that she refused to even speak of it. So far, most people seemed to accept her not talking about it because they knew she had disliked the professor greatly and was probably just trying to forget the hell that had been detention. Which was a bit of the truth, just not all of it. She had also dropped out of his class entirely. It wasn’t necessary for her to graduate after all.

Besides not being able to sleep much, she wasn’t eating much either, though that could have been partially because she was still in pain from what happened and just thinking about eating made her belly roll in a weird way. But, to stop her friends from asking questions, she did eat a little bit at every meal. And though she still did all of her school work on time, and still ran back and forth between classes and mostly acted like nothing had happened, there was still a huge change in a certain part of her personality that Lena was worried was starting to be noticed. She wasn’t as loving or tactile that she had been before being attacked. She didn’t hug Remus or ruffle his hair, she didn’t nudge Sirius’ arm or bump her hip against his when trying to tease him, she didn’t poke James to annoy him, all in all Lena had done her best to not touch any of the males in the school. And it wasn’t that she hated all men now. She just couldn’t…bear the thought of touching them, though it broke her heart. It was just, every time she tried to go back to normal and be her tactile self with her best friends, her heart would seize and all the memories from the attack would come rushing back and she would have to make some excuse and run to the nearest bathroom and throw up everything she had eaten earlier that day.

Such a change couldn’t go unnoticed forever. Least of all with the Marauders. Lena just had hoped that it would take them a bit longer to where she could at least try to be completely normal by that point, instead of just mostly normal. But judgement day came on an otherwise ok school day. The sky was a little cloudy but not too much to where it would pour rain at any moment, classes were finished with, she was curled up in the furthest corner of the Gryffindor common room near one of the fires in a plush chair, trying to do a bit of homework, and the tower was almost completely empty. There were obviously a few people about, but no one that was going to interrupt her while she was working. Everyone else was outside, enjoying the first slightly sunny day of the week to fly, play Quidditch, or just enjoy the outdoors, which left her amazing silence to get stuff done in.

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 621 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.

[Sirius Black!]

Sirius was having one of those days where it felt like he couldn't find anyone. It was a bit of a shame, too. He felt like he had a lot of energy. If it wasn't so nice outside, he probably would have taken to the woods and ran around as a dog. Unfortunately, there were too many people and he therefore decided to not risk it. He would have no doubt been noticed.

He had went into the Great Hall, but there was a very shocking little amount of Gryffindors in there. Instead, he just took a couple apples off the table and walked out again and wandered the halls. His mind wasn't running as hard as it had been for the past week. For some reason that he couldn't figure out, he felt guilty about what had happened with Emilia. Emilia was great - but there was just that part of the night he wish hadn't happened. He had seen her very naked, and he had even kissed her. Where was the guilt coming from? Was it even guilt, or did Emilia go from possible shag to bro-zoned so quickly that it weirded him out? Either way, he tried to keep his mind off of it. Unfortunately, Sirius hadn't been drunk enough that night to forget everything that happened. Although he did have a good laugh about their trip back into Gryffindor tower.

After a while, Sirius grew bored of walking by himself. He figured by now one of his mates would be back in Gryffindor tower. One of them was usually there... especially if they were alone. Then again, they might have been all together and he was the only one alone. It didn't hurt to try, though. When he first entered, no one really grabbed his attention. Most people were younger or were just passing through. He almost saw his journey as pointless when he saw Lena.

He wanted to say to himself that he just saw her and decided to walk over to say hello without much other thought. Instead, Sirius couldn't deny that he was actually excited to see her. He plopped himself down in the seat next to her and tossed her one of his apples without even asking if she wanted one. He didn't even know if she liked them. She had a good figure, though, so she must eat properly - right? Besides, who didn't like apples?

"There you are, stranger," he said, cheerily, apparently completely oblivious to the look on her face. He saw the homework she had out and he groaned, the smile disappearing from his face. "We have homework? I didn't know. Tell me it's something not difficult."

Sirius hadn't remembered any of his teachers saying they were assigned something. Then again, he was usually one of those last-minute workers anyways. He claimed he worked under pressure well, but really it was because he couldn't be arsed with it before the night before any assignment was due.

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[Lena Marie Becket]

The homework was going by quickly in the silence, which was better than she could have hoped. She hadn’t even had one person walk over, asking her for some help with something or other that normally happened every time a fellow 6th year noticed what she was doing. Lena liked to tease Remus that it was their curse, being some of the smart ones. All lazy, or just confused, Gryffindors would ask for their help with work. Most days she didn’t mind, and was more than happy to help. Lately, not so much, so it was great that no one had attempted it. Maybe she was exuding off a “Please don’t bother me right now” vibe? That or it was too nice a day for normal people to even remember that it wasn’t the weekend and they still have class tomorrow.

She was so into doing her work that her head hadn’t even lifted with the tower door opened and in walked Sirius, let alone that he was coming her way. Which, if she had, would have saved her a whole lot of embarrassment in the long run. As it was, she noticed the projectile coming for her first, instead of him plopping down next to her. Only seeing something coming at her from the corner of her eye she had yelped, frightened and surprised, and threw her hand up to block whatever it was, being reminded of how Silvanus had thrown her wand at her after, but once she felt whatever it was land harmlessly in her lap she blinked her eyes down, arm dropping, and looked down at a bright red apple in confusion before turning to the side and saw Sirius right next to her. Realizing how she had just behaved, she blushed darkly and busied herself with lifting the apple to her lips, a little hungry, a little wanting to hide her blushing cheeks, and a little bit not wanting to not accept a gift from the man well known not to share food often. A soft “Thank you, Sirius,” slipped out between her lips before she bit into the juicy apple and took a bite out, tongue sliding over her lips to catch the stray juice. Why oh why had she had to spazz out in front of him like that? A ball of something unpleasant rolled around her belly as she tried to focus on what was going on in the present, and talk to him like she used to. A small smile, thankfully genuine, made its way onto her lips at his words.

“Don’t worry. This isn’t due for another week. I just wanted to get a head start on things.” Thank Merlin that was normal and true enough. She hadn’t fallen behind in lessons only because she tried to use the work to fill her mind so she wouldn’t have to think about what had happened so much. A thought popped up and she looked beyond him, not seeing the others. An eyebrow rose as she tilted slightly to the far side of her chair so she could look at him more clearly, almost turned completely sideways. “So, Stranger, where are the other Three Musketeers?” The tales of the Musketeers were some of her favorites and she actually could see a resemblance between them and her boys. Sirius was a lot like her favorite Musketeer, D’Artagnan. “Are they out setting up a prank and you’re the alibi for later on?” It was something she could more than believe, though normally the alibi was Remus because he was the, slightly, more innocent one.

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 600 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus had been outside with Annelise, just enjoying the first real bit of spring sunshine, and had somehow ended up in a snowball fight (probably the last of this school year, if the rising temperatures were anything to go by). Could happen to anyone, obviously, and they had defended themselves bravely - but Remus hadn't been prepared nor dressed for it and neither had Annelise. Soaked and cold to the bone (but laughing, mostly), they'd made their way back to the castle to shower and change (and had Remus been a little more extroverted, he might almost have suggested 'abusing' the Prefect bathrooms together - but he wasn't that extroverted, so they'd each gone to their own dorms).
Now, he was dry and clean and comfortable, although no longer very much in the mood to go outside. He'd agreed to meet Annelise at dinner (as she had some stray homework to take care of) and Remus had this book his parents had sent him for his birthday that he couldn't wait to get into. With the castle practically deserted due to the good weather, Remus was actually looking forward to just sitting in front of the fire (to get the last chill out of his joints) and reading.

When he came down, the common room was practically deserted. Only Lena and Sirius were there (and although Sirius had the ability to make the common room seem full even if he was on his own, he didn't seem very loud now). He walked over just in time to see Sirius throw an apple into an oblivious Lena's lap and was about to smile, until he saw Lena's reaction to it. He had expected her to be startled, of course (maybe even teasingly throwing the apple or a pillow at Sirius in retaliation) - but he had not expected this. Even from the distance where he was now he could smell an explosion of cortisol and noradrenaline in her blood - fear, a flight-or-fight response. Although he didn't doubt that Sirius had snuck up on her, this reaction was altogether too strong. That and she'd been a little absent and stand-offish for a while now. Remus brow creased. He didn't know what to make of it, but he wasn't going to pry. Did it have something to do with the fact the year was almost over already? It would only last a few more months, after all. It was the only thing Remus could think of, mostly because he wasn't looking forward to missing his friends, either - but was that it? That had nothing to do with fear, not fear like this.. But surely, if something was seriously wrong, she'd tell them?

He chuckled softly and walked over. "Is there something we need an alibi for? I did nothing," Remus said, pulling his best 'I'm so innocent but not really'-face. He plopped down on the armrest of the chair Lena was sitting in (not thinking twice about it, he always did that, all the time, and the other way around too) and smiled at his friends a little lopsidedly. He was an awful liar when it came to them and although he'd loved a real, proper smile, something about Lena was nagging away at the back of his mind and it just didn't feel right.
"Better question - the weather is great, why are neither of you outside?" Remus, of course, had already had his dose of 'outside' for the day, but why were Sirius and Lena here? Sirius was very much an outside, active sort of person (when he chose to be, anyway) and Lena was smart enough, she needn't get a head-start.. so why?

[Sirius Black!]

Sirius noticed Lena's rather frightened reaction to the apple being tossed in her direction, but considering he was hardly the most tactful person in the world didn't seem to think there was anything sinister behind her reaction. Instead of doing the normal thing (which would probably ask if she was OK), he snorted with laughter.

"Since when do you have a phobia of apples?" he asked curiously. "I think there are far more worse things to be frightened of at Hogwarts... like walking behind Snape and slipping in the grease that falls from his hair..."

Sirius basked in the mental image of someone actually slipping in someone else's hair grease. Of course, the likelihood of that happening was slim to none, but if anyone's hair would be to blame for such a thing, it would no doubt be Snivellus'.

Normally, he wouldn't share food at all, but sharing with Lena was rather... natural. Of course he would still be irritated if they were to ever go somewhere to eat and she snuck food off his plate... but it was hardly the case with an apple. It was healthy, after all, and he wasn't going to be territorial over something like that.

"Oh good. You and Remus are nutters for ever getting ahead on things... I don't really see the point. I guess I'm just going to be a procrastinator for life. It's worked for me so far... when was the last time I actually didn't hand something in, right?" he tried to justify for himself. He usually got excellent grades even if he only started homework the night before. Naturally, Remus usually gave him a hand as well. He sometimes wondered if Remus only did it in an attempt to make them even for becoming illegal Animagi and going with him on full moons. "Of course not! Is there something wrong with coming to annoy you?"

Sirius grinned at her and finished his apple as Remus approached. "No one to go outside with," he stated. "I haven't been able to find any of you buggers all day."

He said all of this with an air of not caring, although sometimes it did bother him a bit when he couldn't find anyone he wanted to. If Sirius knew that a snowball fight had been involved, he would have been even more jealous. He was epic at them, although he had only taken part in one this entire winter. He had vowed to himself that next winter, he was going to put together a snowball fight war. It just needed to be done before graduation.

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[Lena Marie Becket]

Of course, he had to comment on her yelp. It was to be expected from him, after all. And if he hadn’t have said anything, then she would have to worry. So, trying to smile slightly while still blushing and trying to ease her racing heart, she said, “I don’t have a phobia for apples. That’s just silly. Anyone would jump if they suddenly had something thrown at them that they didn’t know was coming.” Though she desperately wanted to ignore the comment about more things to fear from Hogwarts, that wasn’t possible so she let out a little half laugh, not putting all of her try into faking it while she replied. “I wonder if that might be why no one walks behind him in the halls.” Was that true? Lena had never noticed. But it seemed like a good joke that Sirius would appreciate.

At least the smile this time wasn’t fake. It was cute, watching him trying to justify his reasons for not doing his homework long before it was due. So she shrugged, still smiling. “I didn’t say anything. You do always turn in your work on time. Even if you take forever long to actually do it and ask me or Remus to help sometimes.” Teasing was allowed, and a must, for their relationship. Her eyebrow arched next though. “Come to annoy me? And why is that?” So far so good. He had forgotten about her little incident, and she was able to talk to him normally as he wasn’t trying to grab her and tickle her or anything of the sort. Things felt like how they used to be, for a split moment. But then she heard a voice behind her and that moment disappeared again.

Lena jumped slightly for the second time that evening, her fear spiked once more, and twisted her head around a bit to look at Remus as he walked over while trying to pretend that she hadn’t just jumped again. When he sat next to her she actually turned slightly toward the other side of the chair so they didn’t touch but she made it look like she was just shifting and getting more comfortable because otherwise Remus might catch on. Whenever he did that before, she would usually lay her head against his side to be comfortable. Hopefully he would just think that she just wanted to be curled up in the chair. Goodness knew she didn’t want it to look like she didn’t want to touch one of her best friends. She just didn’t want to touch anyone. And was vainly trying to hide that fact from them because she didn’t want to hurt them, or for the whole sordid story to come out. A change of subject was needed so she quickly went to reply to his original comment. “I wouldn’t know if there is anything you need an alibi for. I mean, after all, you lot never tell me when you’re about to do a prank because you want me to be one of the pranked half the time.”

Remus’ question wasn’t unusual and she smiled slightly as Sirius answered. “Well I was doing homework before someone,” her gaze slid to glance at Sirius with a mock glare, “decided to throw an apple at me and distract me.” She turned back to looking up at Remus giving him a “What can ya do?” type of look that was probably very common between them when they spoke about Sirius’ or James’ antics. Then a thought occurred and she blinked, confused. “What are you doing inside? I thought you were going to find Annelise when you left hours ago?”

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 612 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus glanced at Sirius briefly, wondering if his friend also thought that Lena was rather out of character. He didn't seem to notice it specifically, though, and this made Remus doubt himself. Was he overreacting? Not that Sirius was that perceptive (not all the time, anyway), but then Remus could be a little overbearing at times.
The image of Snape making people slip on his grease made Remus snort, although he tried to hide it and not look too amused. Not that he liked Snape, not at all, but somewhere deep down he pitied him. He could imagine all too well what it was to have Sirius and James teamed up against you (and the nickname 'Loopy Lupin' did come from somewhere, although most of the bullying had died down by now, really, and he didn't feel as bothered anymore).
But no, wait - Lena jumped again, Remus was sure of it this time. He hadn't spoken that loudly, had he? Nor had he been particularly silent in approaching on purpose. And yet he'd caught her off-guard. Remus tried to push away the sick, knotty feeling in his stomach. Something wasn't right, his guts were telling him. He focused on trying not to think about it for a moment (and thus completely missed the fact that Lena moved away from him subtly).

"If you're feeling generous, I'd like one of those," Remus said, gesturing to the few apples Sirius had left. He was a bit peckish, but too lazy to leave the comfortable warmth of the common room to go all the way down to the Great Hall or the kitchens.
He didn't comment on Sirius' claim of being a procrastinator and how well that worked for him. He knew better than to change Sirius' mind - nor did he want to. His friends' laid-backness (although a source of annoyance at times) was one of the things he liked about them. And what right had he to try and change them, anyway? Plus, well, it did feel sort of good that Sirius Black sometimes had to ask for his help - he couldn't deny that.

When Sirius mentioned his not being able to find anyone all day, Remus did have the decency to look at least a little guilty. It was true that he was spending more time with Annelise, time that usually would've been spent with his friends - although a part of him felt he shouldn't be sorry, because where was James, anyway? Shouldn't he also be around? And couldn't Sirius keep himself busy? Really? But then again they were supposed to be friends.
"I did find Annelise," he said with a nod. "And spent some time-" knowing Sirius, he didn't mention the snowball fight on purpose. Either Sirius would be offended that he hadn't taken part, or he would drag Remus outside to start another one (and he didn't fancy getting wet again) - or both. "-but I can't just forget about you guys now that I have her, can I?" He smiled slightly - it was one of those things he felt guilty about and didn't know how to solve.

[Sirius Black!]

"Or maybe you're just a wuss," Sirius continued to tease. He was actually somewhat surprised to see that Lena laughed at his joke about Snape. Usually she wasn't a big fan of bullying or poking fun of someone else. He grinned, but didn't laugh with her. "More likely no one walks behind him in fear of us attacking him," he mused lightly. He paused and continued with, "Probably no one walks behind him, too, is because he has no friends. No one wants to walk that close to the creepy git."

It was sort of a test to see if Lena would continue to go along with the making fun of Snape. It wasn't like he thought something was up with her, but maybe she had changed her mind about the boy? Sirius knew it didn't take much. He was greasy, slimy and the most wretched things came out of his mouth sometimes. For all he knew, he said something to Lena that she found offensive.

"Why wouldn't I come to annoy you? It's my favourite time of day: Annoy Lena o'clock," Sirius lamely joked. "If it weren't for you and Rem, I don't think I'd remember half the things I need to hand in. I'm going to be a trainwreck if I ever do any post-graduation education."

Sirius wasn't really joking about that. To begin with, he had no idea what he wanted to do post-Hogwarts. He had no family and no money to support him. He had James' family but... they weren't going to let him crash forever. Besides, whatever Sirius would want to go for would no doubt be different than what Lena or Remus would choose. As much as he joked about it, he actually worried about his forgetting to hand things in.

Sirius cringed when Remus wanted one of his apples. He didn't share food, and this was his exact reason. He gave one to Lena and now Remus wanted one as well. He didn't care if it seemed stingy... it was just one of those quirks about Sirius. He guarded his food as well as... a dog.

"Here you go," he tossed over an apple. "Just don't make it a habit," he laughed. He grabbed the last of the few he had and crunched into it as well. He didn't want to be the only one not eating.

"Hasn't stopped you in the past," Sirius murmured to his apple when Remus mentioned not abandoning them for his girlfriend. He wasn't sure if Remus heard, and it was immature for Sirius to have said, but at the same time, Sirius had the annoying habit of feeling a little threatened when it came to outside-of-the-group people. He just loved his friends, and he supposed his biggest fear was that they would reject him. Instead of acting like he said anything, his eyes just darted between Remus and Lena in an interested fashion.

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[Lena Marie Becket]

A wuss? Lena couldn’t help but snort at that. He might be teasing but it’s almost a bit insulting. But she tried to tease back and didn’t call him on it. “Oh so I’m a wuss now? How is that possible? Nothing short of heroism is needed to handle you lot every single day.” It was true that she normally disliked when pranks were thrown at Severus Snape, and tried to not pay attention when the insults came out. But she needed something to help distract Sirius from noticing that she was a bit off. Maybe his hatred for the Slytherin would make him pay more attention to that than to how unusual it was for her in the first place. Her stomach squeezed at that last bit though. She couldn’t joke about that. But to call Sirius on it or not was a whole other matter. If she spoke up for Snape, Sirius would be mad at her. If she didn’t say something, she would be mad at herself. And Lena really didn’t need more inner problems. “Maybe he has friends outside of school?” Hopefully that was small enough that it wouldn’t make the boy beside her blow up with annoyance.

His joke did make her lips twitch slightly in a smile though. “I get my own time? That’s cool to know. Even if it’s time to annoy me.” Her head leaned comfortably into the couch, looking at him and then to Rem, trying to keep an air of relaxation and contentment on her face. If she wasn’t so hyper aware of everything because of what had happened, she would have been those things. But the damned detention had ruined her for at least a while and there was nothing that could fix that anytime soon. “Are you thinking about doing post-grad schooling?” They hadn’t talked about their futures before. Not Sirius and her anyway. “Honestly, I’m still not sure what I want to do once I graduate from here.” Which was true. Lena still had no idea what she wanted to be when she ‘grew up’.

Ooh that had to hurt him. Like she’d thought of before, sharing food was not the black haired boy’s specialty. It was a miracle him giving her something without provocation. Being asked was something completely different. But at least he seemed to be playing nice and tossed on to Remus anyway, making her give him a small smile in gratitude. With that completed she turned back to the boy sitting on the arm of her chair and nodded her head as he told her. “I’m glad you found her and had fun. It’s a beautiful day outside so I’m glad one of us enjoyed it.”

While Remus might not have heard Sirius’ comment, Lena had and she turned a frown to him, not happy that her favorite Marauder was poking fun at the other one when he finally had someone to be with. Sirius could be truly stingy with things, and people, at times. Their first and biggest fight had happened because she had spent too much time talking to James and not him after all. Her lips parted, ready to tell him to apologize, hand outreached to smack him upside the head as she normally would have at any other time. But as her hand got closer to him and “Oh shut” had slid out of her mouth, her body froze, noticing what it was about to do by instinct and her eyes widened slightly before she dropped her arm quickly, making sure not to touch him, finishing off her sentence with a soft mutter. “Up. Remus deserves to be happy.” This reaction wouldn’t be missed at all and she was already sinking back into the chair. Lena Becket not showing Sirius Black to mind his manners? It was completely unheard of. Her heart clenched as she looked down at the half eaten apple in her hands, hurriedly trying to think up another subject to try and direct their minds away from what she had just not done. “Where is James anyway? Or Peter? I never see them anymore…” Please let them take the bait. Please.

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 695 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus slightly pursed his lips at Sirius' 'wuss-comment'. He knew it was only teasing, but with the current circumstances (whatever the hell they were, because what was going on?!) Remus did not at all agree. Lena seemed to be able to hold her own just fine, though. Watching the interaction between his two friends, Remus was quiet. Now he was a quiet person by nature, usually anyway, but he was deliberately staying out of the conversation a little, just sitting back and observing. Something wasn't right and it made his guts squirm uncomfortably.

He had no choice but to reply to Lena's post-grad schooling question, though, and shrugged a little, dismissively. "Don't know. Probably not." It wasn't worth it, anyway. It would just cost him buckets full of money, if he could even find a place where they'd have him, and then what? He'd have put time and energy into extra schooling which would not help him on the job market at all. Nah, better to find a muggle job or something. Something flexible.

As Sirius cringer, Remus rolled his eyes and had to resist throwing the apple back at his friend as soon as Sirius had tossed it over. He turned it in his hands, not biting into it just yet, and glaring at Sirius as he mumbled about Remus abandoning him for Annelise. Of course he'd heard that, his hearing was a lot more accurate than the average person. Sighing, he threw Sirius' apple back at him. "Nevermind, keep it," he muttered, looking away for a second. Honestly, he'd just leave if it wasn't for Lena. Sirius could be so.. needy sometimes! It wasn't as though he really missed Remus, anyway - they both knew Sirius would much rather hang around with James and that Remus was second-best. (Or, at least, that was how Remus felt it was - and if it wasn't, it was how it should be, in his opinion. Sirius and James were a team. Sirius and Remus was just, well.. different.)
He was about to thank Lena for stepping up, but telling her it wasn't necessary, when she did something he'd not expect. She pulled back from giving Sirius a chiding slap - she'd never done that and there was no reason why she shouldn't do it now (honestly, Remus wouldn't mind slapping some sense in his friend himself). That and the drop of her voice, in volume and vehemence, and the overall reactions they were getting out of her.. Remus frowned a little, quarrel with Sirius forgotten as he sought his friend's eyes, as though trying to say 'do you have any idea what this is about?'

And then Lena tried to change the subject.. and Remus let her. It was cowardly of him, he knew, but what else was he supposed to do? Tell her she reeked of fear and that he wanted to know what was wrong with her? That would certainly cause a few unwelcome questions (because who can smell fear?). Besides.. maybe it was some sort of personal lady-problem or something and he didn't really want to be pulled into that, simply because he couldn't help her in that area..
Despite not mentioning how strange she was acting, he didn't answer her question, either, just glanced at Sirius and wondered how he'd react to all this.

[Sirius Black!]

"Oh, I'm hurt," Sirius commented in reply to Lena's remark about needing to be heroic to deal with them every day. He doubted that she actually meant it. He grinned at her, hoping that if she was even a little bit annoyed that this would annoy her further. Well, provided she wasn't truly irritated. He didn't like it when she was like that. In all honesty, Sirius could be like a child if someone was actually mad at him who he didn't want to be. If she were actually mad at him, and he wasn't mad at her, he no doubt would just bother her like a lost puppy.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Lena. "I don't even think Snape knew how to speak before coming to Hogwarts. Bet he was brought up by -" he paused for a second to look at Remus, and then decided to change his wording. "Bats or something."

"You can have more than your own time, if you want," he flirted. Sirius leaned forward on the couch and absent-mindedly fiddled with the sash on her wrap-sweater thing. Did those sweaters have their own name or something? He didn't really look at her face as he was emersed in his own thoughts on the sweater. Sirius let go of her sash at the question of whether or not he was planning on going to post-grad education. "Have I not told you my aspirations of being a male underwear model? Hopefully for wizarding magazines though, so the little photograph person of me can do this - " He then put his hands behind his head and thrusted the air in a provocative manner. Personally, he thought it was hilarious, and also a good avoidance of the question. "If you don't know what to do, you can always be the person who measures me to make sure I have the proper fitting underwear?" He turned to Remus. "And you? You can be my accountant for all the millions of Galleons I get in for every photoshoot. I'll even cut you a good percentage of what I make."

He felt rather pleased with himself for coming up with imaginary jobs for the three of them. He never really thought before about how awkward graduating would be for all three of them. Lena, being an orphan and being so smart that she had the world at her fingertips, Sirius with no real aspirations or passions, and Remus with his furry little problem. He could feel the potential awkward creeping into their conversation.

The awkward did come, but because apparently both Remus and Lena had superhuman hearing. He caught the apple and was tempted to throw it at Remus' face in the most immature manner possible. He wasn't about to do that, but it was a fun thought. He didn't really notice Lena's hand going up for a slap as he was rather focused on staring at Remus and wondering how much it would hurt to get an apple in the face.

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said in an off-hand, I-don't-care, kind of manner. He really wasn't in the mood for a fight. "I really shouldn't be so petty considering Remus admitted that I was a better snogger anyways."

He winked at Remus. He wasn't sure if this would have been his reaction if Lena weren't around. He and Remus could sometimes get at it, but he figured it was mainly due to the fact that they were almost experts at getting under each other's skin. Sometimes Sirius even though that they were almost opposites - other times he thought they were closer than either of them even realized.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Lena's lackluster reaction.

"No idea, haven't seem them around much," Sirius answered. He had noticed, too, and it was rather disappointing. Ever since their sixth year started, it felt as if Sirius hadn't spoken to what was supposed to be his best mate at all. Peter? Well, he was missing him too. Where the hell were they? It was a perfectly valid question. "What's up with you? If I have to keep being so annoying just to get a sexy slap out of you, I'm going to annoy myself. And that will be a first!"

He had to say something. Although he wasn't nearly as apt at picking up all the small signals Lena had been giving out all along as Remus, he definitely noticed that last one, and he wasn't going to ignore it. Was she really so mad at him that she wasn't going to give him a hit? Was she beyond that? It might have seemed selfish for him to believe that it was about Sirius, but really... didn't girls usually only get this way when it was about a boy?

[/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lena Marie Becket]

“Oh yes. I can see how broken up you are about it.” Her soft lips were tilted up in a smile, just enjoying a happy moment, trying to forget while at the same time was being amused at Sirius just being himself. “You know how bad you can get when you want to be in trouble.” Though sometimes she just thought the trouble was attracted to him, just like everyone else was.


“I’m sure he talked to someone, at least.” That joke wasn’t too bad. So her conscience didn’t hurt too much when she arched an eyebrow at Sirius and pretended to be concerned as she asked, “Is that even possible? Do you think they taught him how to do the echo thing?” Though she didn’t know how bats got into it. Wouldn’t a snake make more sense or something?

Such a flirt. Always would be, but she honestly wouldn’t have him any other way, even if she was a bit iffy with men lately. Lena laughed softly, tilting her head to look at him better. “Oh really? What else could I have besides just my own time?” Giving as good as she got with him wasn’t that hard. She really did like him and had for a long time. It just had to be forced out a little bit after the big situation. But her feelings for him hadn’t changed suddenly just because she got hurt. Though when his hand reached for, and caught, the strings on her cardigan sweater she hissed in a breath and her eyes got large, slowly moving back into the chair, away from his hand, before she caught what she was doing and held still. Pulling away from his touch would not be a good thing. Her whole body relaxed again once he let go of them, him obviously more distracted by their new conversation now. A soft gasp with a shocked laugh was her reply to his options for their future jobs, plus his hip wiggle. Her dark eyes looked up at Remus in amusement as she commented on it. “What do you think of his plans for us? I get the glamorous job of fitting him, and you get all the money. Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?”

Lena tried to stay out of the whole thing by that point. She’d already stuck her foot in it far enough. If the boys wanted to fight she would let them. If there was one thing a Gryffindor needed to know how to survive living in the Tower, it was that you should never EVER get in between two fighting Marauders. While they could possibly do harm to each other, they would do ten times worse to the person butting in. Something she had never done, but had witnessed others trying to do. Lena quite liked face where it was instead of it being on her butt like the poor unlucky sod that jumped between Remus and Sirius once. That had been hilarious to watch though. But when Sirius just let it all go instead of arguing, and then adding his two knuts, she smiled slightly and blushed at the same time because, well, it was true enough that Sirius was very excellent at snogging. All the boasts were pure truth, really.


It was to be expected that he would catch on. Remus not saying something first though was quite odd. She just sighed silently and tried to look as unassuming as possible while trying to think of something, anything, to say. But it was quite apparent that Sirius wasn’t going to let this go, him and his stubbornness after all, so she just shrugged and tried to play it off. “Nothing is wrong with me. And I didn’t know you thought my slaps were sexy. I didn’t know you were into that kind of kink. Besides, maybe you’re just not annoying me today?” Maybe that would take his mind off of it, but it was doubtful. That boy knew when to dog something into the ground. She had no idea that he thought she was mad at him.

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 686 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.

[Remus John Lupin]

Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius' badly disguised slip of the tongue. It's not like he really minded when someone made a joke like that. Well, okay, he did a little, but Sirius was okay, Sirius could do that without him getting to pissed off about it. Sirius didn't mean it, after all. Right?
As for other things that were typically Sirius, the flirting of course, Remus snorted. When they were younger and Sirius would say things like this, he felt uncomfortable and would feel like he was intruding - not now, though. He's long since learned that Sirius' flirting in public is meant to be exactly that - public. No need to feel like an intruder. Besides that, he'd seen Lena and Sirius exchange flirting for ages now - it was practically run of the mill.

What was less usual was the way Lena retreated when Sirius reached for her and the spicy tang of fear in the air made the hairs on the back of Remus' neck stand on end. This wasn't good at all. He frowned.
Sirius was already babbling about his mental idea for the future, however. He raised an eyebrow. "I? Your accountant?" He laughed. "Do you want to go bankrupt?" Still, it was a nice, silly little fantasy to endulge in.

Remus sighed slowly and pointedly. He really was going to have to chat to Sirius about what his problem was, before this escalated into something like last year - again. Sirius just had to realise that Remus could not give him undevided attention - never had, either, but apparently Sirius hadn't noticed that before.
But now was not the time, and Remus was glad Sirius had the sensibility to make a joke (a strained one, but still), so he smiled a little to show he'd forgiven his friend. There were more pressing things to focus on, such as why Lena was so on edge. She was denying it, but that just made him frown. "Lena, something is wrong. That much it obvious," he muttered, almost too quietly. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay, I guess - I can't make you, but don't pretend you're fine."

[Sirius Black!]

"Anything but a compliment from you hurts,"

[/b] Sirius continued, smoothly. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't actually know any romantic poems, he had the urge to recite some romantic poetry to her in the most dramatic and silly way possible. Maybe he would even include Remus in on the poetry, although he could imagine Remus feeling a little awkward about it.

Sirius noticed Remus rolling his eyes, but didn't respond to it. If Remus was in some sort of mood, let him be. He could always be misinterpreting the eye roll, but it usually expressed displeasure, did it not? He didn't know many young girls who would roll their eyes out of something good happening.

"No," Sirius said in reply to Lena. "I think even bats were too civilized for Snivellus, so they kicked him out of their flock. Or whatever bats have."

What were a group of bats called? Sirius knew that a flock of crows were called a murder, and a pack of lions was a pride, but what about bats? The thought perplexed him for a minute. He could always look into it further, but it amused himself to think that he would ever do self-study. Or, better yet, study for the sake of studying and not for class!

Sirius moved past Lena's question, as he didn't really have an answer for it. Really, he just said it out of being flirty.

"I'm already bankrupt, so it doesn't make much of a difference, does it?" Sirius asked, a hint of seriousness in his voice. With no family meant having no money, either. Luckily the Potters were so good to him and bought him everything he needed when he returned to school, including new robes, books, and the like. Sirius considered himself extremely lucky. Without his friends, what would he have done? Used some sort of emergency Hogwarts fund for the poor kids? But what about during holidays? He supposed he could stay up in the mountains surrounding Hogsmeade. He knew there were some good caves up there. "I'm sure if you tried hard enough you'd do a good job. Everything just ... comes to you."[/color] Sirius laughed. It was indeed a compliment, but it was the same for Sirius and James, too, was it not? Didn't all three of them seem to get the hang of anything? Of course they all had their downfalls, but none of them failed a class yet. Even Peter managed to fairly well for himself.

Although both of his friends smiled, Sirius didn't feel as if the joke had went over as well as he would have hoped. His own smile didn't remain long for that exact reason. He could even feel the tension rise around him, but knew it had little to do with his joke. Although Remus went his usual, sensible route, Sirius wasn't like that. He disregarded Lena's attempt to change the subject and, like usual for him, decided to be blunt.

"Yeah, OK, you're just as fine as Remus not caring about my comment earlier," Sirius said, rather sternly, referring to the comment Sirius had made about Remus ditching for Annelise. He didn't really pay attention to Remus, though. It wasn't about him. It was about Lena and the fact that she was being a typical girl and pretending that everything was OK when it clearly wasn't. [/size][/justify][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lena Marie Becket]

“Then you must get hurt quite a lot,” she teased at his comment. While she did compliment him sometimes, she couldn’t always do that. Teasing him, joking around with him, or play fighting wasn’t always complimentary to either one of them. The animal joke for Snape wasn’t going as mean as it could have, so it was progress. Though now Lena was also thinking about what on earth a group of bats would be called. “Bat reject. How sad.” She snorted in amusement, not really meaning that at all.

It was a nice idea, the thought of them going into the work force together. The three of them, as well as the rest of their circle of friends. Wasn’t very likely to happen, they would probably split up into so many different things. But Lena hoped, really hard, that they would be friends for the rest of their lives. She didn’t want to even fathom how lonely and sad her life would end up being without them in it. No family worth speaking of, and not any true friends. It was why summer break was so bad for her. There would be a way to prevent that, though. Lena was sure she would be able to make sure they all stayed in touch together. They just had to.

The fight seemed to be finished, which was a blessing. They weren’t carrying it on further or anything, they had just let it drop. And while Lena was very appreciative that Sirius and Remus were no longer sniping at each other, they seemed to be able to focus all their attention on her and the way she was acting. Not exactly a good thing when someone was trying to pretend to be normal when everything so obviously wasn’t. And after her last bit of weirdness, they seemed to have enough of not knowing and both of them asked her what was wrong. Well damn. This would complicate things quite a bit. Lena blushed darkly and shook her head while trying to think of something, anything, to say. Remus’ words had been nice but she knew better than to believe that he would just wait for her to tell him when she was ready. When something truly worried him, he tended to go after it just as stubbornly as Sirius at times. It was probably one of the reasons they were such best friends. And Sirius’ sarcasm definitely meant that whatever he said next wasn’t going to be any nicer.

So she needed to find some way to get them to relax. But they would know if she was lying. They always did. And lying just wasn’t her strong point anyway. She always looked away or fiddled with something or stuttered. Horribly embarrassing by half, but it was true. It was well known in Gryffindor that she had one of the worst poker faces around. So maybe a half-truth evasiveness would work. Not really a lie, but not telling them everything. They didn’t need to know about the shameful, terrible thing that happened to her. They would feel bad and probably try to kill Kettleburn, and then they would never ever treat her the same way again. It had already been a miracle that they didn’t treat her differently, in the long run, when they found out she was an orphan.

Finally settling that she couldn’t just stay silent forever with her cheeks bright red, because they wouldn’t leave her alone just for that, she shook her head again while raising her head and looking back and forth between them. Maybe not looking at either of them for a long period of time would help. “It’s really nothing you guys need to bother yourselves with… It’s just something that happened a few days ago. You don’t have to worry about me.” She wanted to say that everything was fine, but that was stretching it a bit and it wasn’t anywhere close to the truth at all. Her gaze focused on Sirius, remembering how he’d mentioned in The Big Fight about how he hated girls ‘playing games’. She wasn’t trying to play a game. Lena was just trying to protect them, and herself, from the truth. “I’m just still trying to get over it. It’s just something that happened. It’s ok.” She was so busy trying to get them to not blow up that she didn’t even realize she repeated herself. With that done her gaze fell back to her lap where the forgotten apple lay, as she hoped that they wouldn’t press it any further.

this is for SIRIUS and REMUS! it came out to be a lovely 762 words long, and my character is wearing something like CLOTHES. Hope this works.. The thread template was made by GREEN EGGS AND SAM! of caution 2.0 and the lyrics in the text are from forget paris.