Staying

Yesterday I went to bed late. Not just because of astronomy, but also because the Remus thing upset me. Normally everything would have been fine, but since he had left our compartment we couldn't sort it out. Maybe I should have went after him. But when I saw him at the Slytherin table yesterday, with Snivellus and my brother and everyone else (except Lily, Mary and Marlene), I almost wanted to vomit.

"Prongs, you coming?", James said. I turned around and slowly stood up. Both Remus and Peter were already gone. "Where is Wormtail?" I asked tiredly and looked around. James put on his shirt and tossed me mine, which I put on too. "I don't know. Hey, do you think Lily is angry? Because of the Remus thing?", he asked worriedly. I looked at him and raised my eyebrow. "So we're calling it the "Remus thing" now?" I asked, not missing my bitter undertone. James sighed and patted me on the shoulder. "How about we apologize to him? Right over breakfast?" he suggested while putting on his red convers. I nodded somewhat grumpily and we slowly went down to the common room, where Peter was also waiting. “There you are!” shouted and ran towards us.

As we walked through the halls of Hogwarts, we mostly talked about homework, which was unusual. "Why was our schedule different yesterday?" James asked after a while. I laughed. "Because a few teachers were missing yesterday. Didn't you notice? That's why a lot of things were postponed yesterday. Normally we would only have had Study Hall twice before lunch, right?" I explained. Peter nodded in agreement. "And DADA with the Slytherins. After dinner we would have had double period for our first elective and then potions with everyone," Wormtail added. 

"And today?" James continued to ask as we turned the corner. I dug out my timetable, which was already crumpled. "First, double period Potions with Slytherin. Then free period, then lunch. After lunch, two History of Magic and then DADA, all with the Slytherins." I groaned in exasperation. "What kind of rubbish is that?" Great day. I grumpily kicked the first wall I came across, which of course was just a fake wall , which is why I lost my balance and fell. James and Pete burst out laughing while I picked myself up. "Come on now. I want to get this sorted out with Moony before he sits down next to Wilkes again." 

As we entered the Great Hall, I searched the tables for Remus - without success. We sat down with Molly and Arthur, who greeted us warmly. I leaned forward a little so I could talk to them better. "Hey, have you seen Remus by any chance?" I asked. Molly shrugged apologetically, but Arthur suddenly seemed to remember something. "Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I did, I think he wanted to go to the library. Might be skipping Potions. But it's Remus, so he's probably just reading." He shrugged his shoulders. I was about to storm off, but when I got up, Remus was already behind me. "Oh. Hi." 

"Remus! Sit down, please," Pete said and smiled. Remus thought for a moment before sitting down next to me. I also sat down again and turned to him. "Hey Moony, sorry about all the suitcase hexing stuff. Just supposed to be kidding, really," I apologized. Moony just laughed. "I know. I overreacted a bit and needed time to cool down." He patted me on the shoulder. “There was a full moon the day before, you know?” He turned to Molly and Arthur. "It always makes it so hard for me to sleep..." The two nodded in agreement. I immediately felt bad and looked at him apologetically. "Sorry again." He shook his head. "As I said, everything fits. By the way, Lily is a lot more mad at you than I am." James buried his face in his hands. "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" 

We walked down to the dungeons together, me trying to avoid throwing a curse at Snape, which Remus appreciated with a weak smile. The four of us sat down at a table. Sitting next to us were Dorcas Meadowes, Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch. In front of us Bruce Mulciber, Snape, Wilhelm Wilkes and Elizabeth Zabini. After a few minutes, Mary, Lily and Marlene came into the room, followed by Alice Fortescue and Frank Longbottom. Marlene sat down with Dorcas, the other four at the table behind us. Now we were complete. 

Slughorn started the lesson with a little review quiz where the only ones who knew anything were Remus, Lily and Snivellus. After that we should just do something to practice. We had two hours and could choose whether they wanted to work through the break, since it was a double lesson. While most people picked some simple potion from the book, James and I had fun mixing something together and hoping it wouldn't explode. Although an explosion would have been funny. In fact, there was one later, but not with us. With Marlene and Dorcas. Crouch had swapped Dorcas' beetles for spider legs, and so her potion spilled over and mixed with McKinnon's, causing Marlene's cauldron to blow up. Crouch got detention.

After Potions, the sixteen of us walked together to the library to do our homework. There was an unpleasant atmosphere between most of them, but not between the girls. They sat together and talked about the strangest stuff. We then wanted to go to lunch, but the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws who had brought us stuff came towards us. It was surprisingly harmonious, but a bit strange since it was only our year. We (the Marauders) scooted a little closer to the others and listened to the latest gossip. From "Rosmerta is supposed to be planning a new drink" to "You-know-who conspiracy theories" to "Who has something with whom?" everything was there.

Burbage, who was known for knowing everything about everyone, leaned forward. "So? Who do you all like? Apart from me, of course." Sinistra elbowed her in the side. “You don’t ask something like that!” she complained. "Why?" Burbage replied. "Because it's simply not appropriate!" "Hey, Burbage-" "Oh please, call me Charity, Sirius." "Ok, then Charity - why don't you say who you like first?" I demanded. Charity grinned at me. "I'm professional, I'm not into anyone," she explained, leaning back again. Snape raised his eyebrow. "That was a stone-cold lie," he said dryly (unlike his nose (sorry)). I grinned. "So? Who is it?" Pandora asked curiously and looked at Burbage questioningly. She looked straight down at the floor. "Okay, I'll start. But don't tell anyone, I beg you!" said Lovegood finally. We all leaned closer together. Pandora took a deep breath before whispering, "Xeno." Lily clapped her hands over her mouth. "I honestly thought you were into women!" Pandora laughed. "I do too, but not only.." 

That brought us to the next topic: sexualities. Pandora began. "I'm pansexual, that means-" "Yeah, we know what that means." This was followed by Emmeline Vance. "Sorry girls, but I'm straight as a ruler!" Mary cocked her head. "Like a bendy one?" Vance just laughed. Mary continued. "So I'm a lesbian."

"I thought you had a thing for Remus!"

"No, he's gay, isn't he?"

"I'm bi, actually."

I grinned. "I'm gay!"

Frank turned to me. "Are you together?"

"No ", said Remus immediately, but I put my head provocatively on his shoulder.

"Not yet.."

"Is that a confession?"

"Maybe?"

Silence. 

"I'm also pan." That was James. Peter smiled. "Sorry, but that's more than obvious." James shook his head indignantly. Wilkes looked around. "Anyone else who's pan?" he asked. Mulciber raised his hand, causing Snape to look up indignantly. "Excuse me? Why don't I know about this?" he asked, slightly hurt. Mulciber shrugged. "Sorry. I thought you were homophobic." Snape was now even more outraged than before. "Homophobic? I'm literally bisexual!" Lily looked up. "Oh me too!" Now Snape turned to her and smiled. "Glad you found yourself, Lily." Now Mulciber was outraged. "Why are you so nice to her?" he wanted to know. "Because she's nice to me." Marlene interrupted the two before an argument could break out. "I'm a lesbian too." "Same." That was Dorcas. She and Marlene looked at each other for a few moments before Dorcas broke eye contact and turned to Crouch and Rosier. "You're gay, aren't you?" I exchanged a look with James before willingly returning to the gossip. "I am. No idea about Evan, tho. But not straight, we've already fucked." Evan laughed briefly to cover up his embarrassment. "Polysexual, actually." 

"But you're not together?" asked Alice, slightly confused. "Nope. It was after a party, we were both drunk," replied Crouch. Sinistra leaned forward. "Do you think any of the teachers might be... not straight?" We weren't ready to come out ourselves yet, but we postponed it until later. "Certainly Dumbledore," said James. "What?? Dumbledore? Doesn't he somehow have 100 grandchildren?" Wilkes replied. Zabini shook her head. "We would know that. I also think he's gay." Murmurs of agreement followed. "Do you think he has a boyfriend?" I cringed in disgust. "Don't say 'boyfriend'. That sounds strange when you use it with old people. But no, I don't think so. But maybe he had something with Grindelwald. So like enemies to lovers." Prongs and Wormtail snorted, and a few of the others grinned too. "Unlikely. They only fought twice, then Grindelwald was locked away. But that would be tragic..." Lily murmured. Pandora put her arm around her waist comfortingly. "We're just talking. As you said before, quite unlikely," said Lovegood. Lily nodded and looked like she wanted to say something, but she got interrupted by Burbage. "Sorry, but break is almost over, so we should probably get going now."

Both History of Magic and DADA were boring. Too boring for my taste. So James and I snuck into a classroom and unleashed a Boggart, for which we got another detention. The detention was after dinner, which was also quiet. We had to scrub old trophies.

We went to bed late, everyone was already sleeping.