Nothing In Aruba
You got some issues that you gotta deal with
I see that you always up in ya feelings
It's like you hiding something and concealing
Boy, I'm tryna be real with ya
“There you two love birds are!” Marlene flashes Peter and Ursa a bright smile when she sees them hand in hand, “Wanna play monopoly with us?” she's already setting up the game alongside the marauders, Regulus and Lily, on a coffee table in a secluded corner of the common room, away from the few leftover couples making out or a few chilled conversations on their way there, most people seem to have gone to bed –except for Frederick passed out on the couch, Fabian had dibs on their dorm room for the night– and the music lulled into a soft melodic hum, a gentle companion instead of an intruding staple. There's only the ma
“Sure” they sit on the floor, Ursa propped up on Peter’s lap. He tries not to touch her, he doesn't want her to feel octopus-ed-ly prisoned by his body, but even he has to admit he looks stiff and awkward, so he settles for only shackling her a little bit with a loose arm around her middle. She leans back onto his chest, he can feel her muscles taught and tight against him but her face is relaxed, she's always been a great actress.
“Are we doing teams of couples?” Peter searches for an excuse to stop touching her, if they say no and they're on different teams then it's an excuse for them to sit apart, with their actual partners
“Okay, rude, some of us are single” Marlene tosses them a plastic house and Peter smiles at her
“Where’s Mary?” Ursa frowns and Lily’s smile tightens
“Snogging King” Sirius answers from the couch
“Give me your shoe” Ursa whispers to Peter
“What? Why? I’m not giving you my shoe” she rolls her eyes and turns to James
“James, give me your shoe”
“What do you want my shoe for?” he asks as he hands it over
“Thanks” her smile turns away from him and she throws it to the other side of the room. It smacks Sybil Trelaweeny on the back and Pandora looks up beside her. When Pandora’s blue eyes find Ursa she gestures for her to come over “Wanna play Monopoly with us? You can be on Lily’s team”
“Yay!”
“James, give me your other shoe” she holds her hand out
“You know, you could just stand up and talk to her” he gives it over with a sigh
“Or use magic to summon the one you just tossed”
“This is more fun” this time she smacks the back of Dorcas’ head, she was in the middle of a sentence, talking to Bones
“I was in the middle of doing something!” Dorcas hisses
"Seemed like you were trying to do someone"
"Duh!"
“What’s she even doing here?” Marlene sneers at her
“Playing” Ursa yanks her down “now, so Marlene can stop moping about being lonely and single –accio quill, accio paper— I’ll write down the names and we’ll just pick at random”
“Wait, not you” James points at her with narrow yet teasingly friendly eyes “you’ll cheat”
“Fine.” she rolls his eyes “Here Peter-Pet, you do it” she slides the parchment over to the blond and it says D&M 2getR in hasty writing.
Peter sets her down beside him, out of her lap –probably a bit more unkindly than he should for their little charade but he's taking the opportunity to let her soften a bit, he meant the part were he said he didn't want her to be uncomfortable–. He shoots her a glare that says 'unlike you I won't cheat', so incredibly boring of him. He turns the parchment around and she rolls her eyes at him. She shoves her brother out of the way and slumps down on the couch.
Peter writes down each name and cuts it up into little tiny pieces, he doesn't cheat “I wanna pick out the names!” Sirius squeals and reaches his hand into the papers in Peter’s hand “Moonbeam!” he kisses Remus’ cheek “my Moonshine and –drumroll please–” he gets it from Peter and James “Regulus!”
“That pairing actually makes sense” Marlene notes
“More than the real one actually”
“Hey! I’ll have you know we’re perfect together” Sirius slips onto Moony’s lap and gives him an open mouthed kiss with far too much tongue for everyone else present –not that Remus seems to mind too much about it–. Regulus whips him on the side to stop it as he’s forced to witness the sight of his brother's tongue trading spit “We balance each other out” he’s about to fall back out onto the couch in order not to make Remus uncomfortable, he knows he isn’t a big fan of public displays of affection, but Remus keeps him secure with an arm around his waist and Sirius melts into him
“Next one!” Marlene crawls over the table and pulls out two names “Peter aaaaand Sirius!”
“We’ll crush them” Sirius winks at him
“You know it” Peter winks back
“I wanna pull out a name, can I pull out a name?”
“It’s my turn to pull out a name” Lily butts in, stealing James’ turn, she's right after Marlene if they're going clock-words
“James wants to do it” Regulus speaks in a low threatening voice with a deadly glare, and Lily falters
“Okay, jesus, fine, your boyfriend can go next, Jesus Christ” she sits back down and James kisses Regulus' cheek who’s bites down on a smile
"You two make me wanna barf" Sirius gags
"That's just the alcohol" James waves him off
"No, it's not the alcohol. I'm sober and you make me wanna barf too" it's one of those few rare occasions where Ursa agrees with her older –and dumber– brother
"Can you just pick out the names so we can get on with it?"
"Oh look, my name! Let's see, the lucky girl who's gonna be on my team is…" he glances at Sirius and he fills in with a drumroll "Ursa!"
"I can work with that" she shrugs "but you're not gonna go easy on my brothers"
"But look at this face" he beams at Regulus deadly glare like it's the most adorable thing he's ever seen, he buries it in kisses before Sirius reminds him of the puking endangerment
"Love, why don't you go next?" Ursa smiles at Peter sounding awfully sweet
"Alright babes," Dorcas beams instead and takes the lead, blowing a kiss at her "it looks like the beautiful redhead's gonna be patterning up with… hold on, I can't unfurl it– there– Pandereta" Lily blushes and Pandora smiles at her shyly. Dorcas turns to Marlene with a radiant grin "that means you and I will be partnering up hot stuff"
"What?! No! That's wrong, give me that!" She scrambles over but sure thing, the papers don't lie
"Welcome aboard, padner" Dorcas –horrible fake accent and all– winks at her and Marlene makes a sound too dangerously close to being shot "why don't you roll the dice, padnah?" She doubles down on the terrible accent, making it sound somehow even worse than before
Marlene opens her mouth to say something crude but Ursa cuts her off with a “Can we just play already?”
“Fine” Marlene huffs.
The rounds droll on and on, the properties are bought and sold. Marlene’s frown turns upside down when they’re on the lead. She even hi-fives Dorcas when she rolls a five that grants them completion to the green color. James and Ursa are clearly last, James refused to let her cheat so he rolls the dice each and every time with no smidge of luck and only landed on Baltic Avenue, the second cheapest property on the entire board. Ursa blames James for this, she bitches and moans about it until Lily and Pandora roll their eyes and let them buy the cheapest of all properties from them, and complete a color.
“Love,” James flashes his most dashing smile at him “baby, I’ll swap you Mediteranean Ranean for Avenue Boardwalk” the absolute cheapest for the absolute most expensive one
“Not even Baltic Avenue?” Remus grumbles
“Not a chance Jaime”
"Aww, Jaime" Dorcas and Marlene coo, Regulus would've smack glares their way if Marlene hadn't taken care of it the instant she realizes her coincidence with Dorcas
“How about if he adds in a strip tease?” Ursa chimes in
“What?! That’s not in the rules, you can’t—”
“Wait Lils," Marlene tuts her back "let this play out” Marlene sits back on her chair with a delighted, entertained grin
“I’m listening” Regulus hums, leaning forwards
“Not happening baby Black. Besides, he’ll do that for free if you ask, he does it every day”
“You watch him take his clothes off every day?” Ursa quirks her brow at him with a smirk and of course it works, they take the bait
“No!” he glares at Ursa “I just mean he always comes out of the bathroom in only a towel and—”
“And you watch?” Ursa butts in before he can finish with a devilish smirk hidden behind a frown
“No— I—” he glares at her
“Now hang on, what is this about you watching my boyfriend strip every day?”
"Aw, moony, I'm flattered, I feel so sexy" James is almost certain the smile Ursa flashes him is genuine
“What is it? Am I not enough for you Moony?” Sirius peers down with a full bottom lip
“No, of course you are Sirius, sweetheart, it’s just—”
“Oh my— he’s not one of the thems is he?!” Sirius gasps
“What? No! Of course not!”
“But you just stare at him every morning.”
Remus makes a distressed sound and Ursa pats his hand. He hands over the property with a huff
“Thank you very much” Ursa takes it merrily
"Answer the question Lupin" Regulus growls
“Well now that he has Sirius to gawk at in the mornings, I’m sure he would’ve noticed if Lupin was ogling someone else— as in he would've lost his utter bloody mind”
“Yeah, that’s true” Sirius settles down but looks like a kicked puppy when he clutches one hand in the other and mumbles “but you still would’ve picked me even if James was an available option, right?”
“He’d pick you over anyone, you bloody moron”
“What she said” Moony whispers with a nod in Ursa's direction, not looking away from his boyfriend
“Really?”
“Always” Sirius lights up and Remus smiles softly at him
“Now hang on, you would’ve slept with James, wouldn’t you?” Regulus gives Remus the deadliest glare he’s ever received “You would’ve slept with him if you could and—”
“Hoped it’d been Sirius instead?” Ursa cuts off her twin “your boyfriend’s hot, people notice, now get over it” she waves him off and Regulus crosses his arms in front of his chest with a put out pout. James tugs him over until he’s sitting on his lap and kisses his face until he’s fighting a smile instead.
Peter fights back his fascination as he watches the entire interaction. The girls don’t hide it, Marlene even snickers at the three idiots –so easily manipulated– while Lily is just exasperated and arguing about the rules with Dorcas. Peter’s suddenly grateful that he’s not in love, he isn’t looking forward to being that level of an idiot, Remus and Regulus are supposed to be the smartest out of them (only behind maybe Lily).
Ursa lets them have their peace for one more round before James turns on Peter and Sirius “we’ll trade you Baltic Avenue for Park Place” the second most expensive property that would mean they’d complete the most expensive color
“Keep dreaming, pretty boy” Peter waves him off
“What if we add in 500?” he throws the money in front of them
“Still no” Sirius raises his nose
“Okay, new deal:” Ursa smiles at them “You give us Park Place and James clocks like a chicken for a whole minute”
Peter and Sirius turn to each other with the same glint in their eyes.
“Oh come on!” Lily rages but they ignore it
"Lily, he's gonna clock like a chicken!" Marlene hisses for her to shut up and let them witness that absolute masterpiece
Sirius and Peter turn to James and Ursa with a beam but Peter holds a finger up in the air to stop Sirius before he can accept it. “Five minutes”
“Two. Five minutes is far too long, it’ll be less funny”
“I see your point.” He holds his hands together in front of him, contemplating her argument, like a proper business man. “Two and a half”
“Deal” They shake on it. She smiles at him and he smiles back at her. For the first time he’s sure she's manipulating them –sorta. Does it still count if you're aware you're being manipulated?– and he doesn’t mind it in the slightest. And okay, he hadn't exactly minded when she had Remus, Sirius and Regulus metaphorically throwing their own feces at— each other?— James?—. Butchered metaphor aside, it was fun. Even if she’s getting what she wants, even if she’s manipulating him, negotiating with her is fun. He wonders if maybe he should do that instead of just blindly doing anything she says because— alright, yes, she did have a point about it saving them some time. He wonders if she enjoys it too. Maybe he can have some fun with their forced interactions.
Then James is clocking like a chicken, arms are chicken wings and Peter forgets all about her. Water snorts out of Marlene’s nose as she chuckles and Peter ends up a soft puddle on the ground and even when that same property bankrupts him and Sirius, essentially the one that makes them lose, he can’t help thinking that it was fucking worth it anyways.
“Now if you excuse us, I believe promised someone a strip tease” James stands up with a feline grin and Regulus' blush doesn't stop him from eagerly standing after him
“But let's go to my room” he shoots Remus a nasty side-eyed glare.
“I’m sure Barty and Evan won’t even glance his way” Dorcas chimes sarcastically and Marlene snorts before realizing she laughed at one of Dorcas’ jokes, she glares down at the ground instead in a mixture of anger and shame
“I’m going to bed” she stumps away
“I’m coming with you!” Lily calls after her, she turns back to Pandora before following up the stairs “You can stay in our dorm if you don’t wanna go all the way back to Ravenclaw”
“Thanks for the invite, it’s not like Slytherin is on the OTHER SIDE OF THE BLOODY SCHOOL!” Dorcas cries out and Marlene turns her head away so no one will see the shameful smile on her face.
“I’m not getting in the middle of that." Lily waves a finger back and forth between the blonde and brunette "You can crush with the boys” Lily kisses her cheek and takes Pandora’s hand to guide her upstairs to her bed, you know, in case she gets lost.
“She’s right about Barty and Evan.” Regulus pouts at James even though he’d never admit to such an unseemly thing as pouting “At least your roommates won’t give us a running commentary”
“Uhm, hell no. You’re not doing any of that honky-ponky anywhere near me. Besides, do I need to remind you it’s my birthday? If there’s a strip tease happening in our room is Moony’s gift to me, my birthday gift because it's my birthday, I'm the birthday boy”
“I’m not giving you a strip tease, birthday boy”
“Why not? Moony—” he bites down on his lip trying not to laugh at the awful joke that’s about to leave his lips “moon me” he bursts out in laughter until Remus yanks on his new collar and he falls quiet, biting on his bottom lip instead and breathing hard as he stares up at Remus with big dark shot eyes
“good boy” he all but purrs. "Behave and I'll let you give you a lap dance. After you strip" their breathings aren’t the only things hard as they head upstairs. Ursa and Regulus stare at them in identical looks of horror. Ursa shivers at the dreadful icy shiver as she considers giving up her hearing ability just to make certain she'll never have to hear that ever again
“Ew” Regulus wrinkles his nose at them before turning to Ursa with big puppy eyes because seeing his older brother get horny isn't enough to make him stop being horny
“Fine” she rolls her eyes “send Barty and Evan to my room— tell them to burn the sheets and scurgify the matress if they shag”
“You’re the best”
“I know” she smiles as everyone leaves, the chilled conversations are gone, there's only a few couples snogging on couches. And Peter, he doesn't have a dorm to drift off to unless he wants to pour bleach down his eyes at the sight of what Remus and Sirius are doing there
“So, wanna play chess?” he sighs, he’s not going up to his room any time soon knowing what’s happening up there.
“Sure” she sits down and starts setting up the pieces, the muggle kind, Peter’s magical one is upstairs and the one in the common room is acting as a pillow to Mary and Kingsley. She stares at the queen in her ringed hands “actually, I’m beat, I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
"Didn't you just give up your bed?" Oh Merlin, is he trying to convince her to spend time with him? Has he lost his mind? Didn't he hate her only a few hours ago?
"But Pandora's isn't" she winks at him and slips away through the portrait
“Oh,” he doesn’t know why he’s disappointed. He shouldn’t. Did her little veritaserum stunt actually work? Does he believe her? Is a whole month of lies and hurt and hating suddenly forgiven? Erased? It can’t be.
He still hasn’t come up with a decision when he falls asleep on the couch
Not gonna do the most for your attention
I ain't that girl, no, that's not my intention
I think that you might need an intervention
Boy, I'm keeping it real with ya
“Yeah, apparently, she lied” Peter tells the Marauders at lunch because they’ve slept the whole morning away and didn't get a chance to discuss Ursa's little stunt last night
"Wait, so you're saying this whole drama was just a miscommunication trope?" Remus stares at Peter with his mouth agape after he’s told them everything Ursa said
“What’s a trope?”
“It’s a book thing” Remus dismisses it with a wave of his hand
"More than miscommunication trope it sounds more like it was trauma-response, lashing-out trope"
"James, I will burn your psychology books" Remus snaps at him
"It's happening again right now" James stage whispers and Remus glares as intensely as sun during summer
"As much as I hate to admit it –and I’m trying to change, be better about it– that does sound like something I would do too– cut deeper than they’ve cut you”
“You’re not your sister sweetheart” Remus tells him softly, even if his hands are clenched into fists
“No, but… I’m more like her than I like to pretend, you of all people know it well”
“Sirius, we talked about this, you need to forgive yourself”
“Did you forgive yourself for stabbing her?” Sirius counters bluntly and Remus clenches his jaw
“It’s different and you know it!” he hisses “we’re not talking about me anyways”
“He’s right, we’re talking about Ursa” James cuts them off before they can get started and Sirius sighs
“Yeah. I don’t know what to do about her”
“Buy a house and move to Aruba?” Peter suggests and James frowns at him
“Why Aruba?”
“Why not?” he shrugs and James chuckles “It sounds pretty” Sirius nods like he can’t argue with that “look, I already thought about it all last night and came up with nothing”
“That’s not a bad idea actually,” James scratches his chin “We just do nothing and see what happens”
“Nothing isn’t something. Nothing isn’t a plan. Are we friendly with her? Do we ignore her?” Sirius presses and James shrugs
“I don’t know,” he shrugs
“She’s already proved she’ll fuck us over even with our guards up and I’m tired of worrying, it’s exhausting and this month alone I’ve put on— I-don't-know-how-many kilos it takes to make my pants feel tight— maybe James’ idea isn’t so bad after all”
“What?!” Remus sputters “Pete, that’s ridiculous!”
“No, actually, he’s onto something” Sirius cuts in and Remus sighs
“Fine, whatever, it’s your call Sirius”
“It’s your call too, she hurt you”
“I hurt her too, and she’s your sister”
“Technically she’s the sister of all of you” Peter hums
“Ew. No.” Sirius wrinkles his nose at him
“Sister-in-law”
“Oh, yeah” the disgust shifts to gooey love the next and he wraps his arms around Remus “sorry your in laws are all cray cray”
“I think you can't say that, but Regulus can” Remus teases into the kiss
“Oh, you two are all chummy again?” Sirius grumbles
“Are you jealous sweetheart?”
“Yeah, I thought I’d made that pretty obvious”
Remus smiles at him and it turns into a smirk “Then why don’t I show you how much I want you sweetheart?”
“And only me?”
“Only you”
“And f.y.i., for the record, Regulus only wants me!” James chimes after them as they scatter off to their dorm or maybe a broom closet, the dorm is too far away for how eager they are.
Nah, it's not that deep
(Nah, nah, nah, nah)
It's not that deep
(Nah, nah, nah, nah)
It's not that deep
Marlene stands in a lovely red dress she borrowed from Mary “Do I look okay?” she fidgets with the hem of it and gives Ursa fearful puppy eyes
“You look terrified. And uncomfortable.”
“Don’t listen to her” Mary shoos her “you look lovely”
“She does look lovely. She also doesn't look like herself. She can look lovely and like herself, why did you dress her up into someone she’s not?”
“I didn’t dress her up! You make it sound like she's wearing a costume!”
“She’s literally wearing your clothes and your makeup” she holds back the urge to roll her eyes at her, Mary gets all prissy when she does
“Well this would be easier if I knew who she’s going out with!” Mary huffs
“Not the time for that,” Ursa waves her off “We need to fix this”
“Hey!” Mary protests and Ursa hushes her
“What clothes do you feel the most confident in?” Ursa opens Marlene’s trunk
“I don’t know” Marlene shrugs sinking into her shoulders.
“I do” Ursa swifts through her clothes in search for something “Put this on over the dress” she tosses her a spiky leather jacket
“But it’ll ruin the cut of her cleavage!” Mary wails
“There’s worse things than that”
"There's also better things! Like anything other than that jacket"
"I think she looks hot. Badass." Ursa shrugs and looks at Marlene with a smile that she knows makes the girl's stomach flutter— not that it takes much to do that, only a few easy conversations and she already had her wrapped around her finger, it's easier when girls can appreciate her beauty to the queerest extent
"You do?" If Ursa had a bigger heart she'd find the way she says it adorable, so hopeful and vulnerable. Like a pet. Ursa wants to barf, that is pathetic. She actually reminds her of her brother a little bit. She shoves the reminder of his collar away. She doesn't often make mistakes but she'll admit, that was a miscalculation
"Yes. And so will your date, I promise, just be yourself"
"Myself?"
"Yourself" aka not pathetic, their little talk not too long ago after Frank's makeover made her think she might be able to turn her into someone enjoyable to be around, she was bound to find a back bone if she kept fumbling around at some point
"Myself" Marlene smiles back with a confident tilt to her mouth "okay. Mars, smoke out my eyeliner"
"Okay?" Mary gives her a funny look before complying and it's that look right there that makes Ursa think she might be a problem down the line if Marlene ever tries to be fun instead of a dull loaf of wet bread "come find me as soon as your date ends" Mary tells—orders her before she lets her go "I want to hear everything!" No one tells Ursa's pets what to do. Only Ursa can.
"Me too" Ursa kisses her cheek and Mary kisses her other cheek. Marlene goes off with a sigh and Mary rounds on Ursa, who's sprawled out on Lily's bed and scanning her bookshelf
"I know you won't tell me who it is, but can't you at least give me a tiny clue?" Mary begs, so predictably, so uninteresting "what house is he in?"
"Why are you assuming it's someone from school?"
"It's someone outside of school?!" Mary practically takes away Ursa's ability to hear, she has such a drilling and annoying voice. Maybe she can make her a little bit quieter… she knows exactly how to do that, how to get her out of the way while she's at it too. But she can't resist a final jab before it
"Why are you assuming it's someone outside of school?" She asks with a smirk Mary groans at that. Again, far too loudly. She's the human embodiment of fingers on chalk. “And why are you assuming it’s a boy?”
“She’s seeing a girl?” Mary whips her head around so fast her neck lets out a cracking sound she ignores
“Why are you assuming it has to be either a boy or a girl? I didn’t say she's seeing a girl, but she might." A thrill runs up her spine and she positions herself so she can see Mary's reaction out of the corner of her eye before she speaks again. She certain she won't cry but one can still hope "And she might have red hair and she might have freckles and she might have stunning green eyes”
“She’s dating Lily?” Mary grabs onto her bed to keep herself steady
“She might” she hums running a finger through the larger domes of the bookshelf. Mary looks pale and like she might be sick. Ursa giver her a minute but when –as expected– there's no spectacle she drills on “Do you know where Lily is?”
“She’s in the library, studying with Remus and—”
“Gotta give it to her, that’s very believable, don’t you think?”
“Lily and Marlene aren’t dating. I would know”
“Sometimes we see what we want to see” she says it even though she's a firm believer that only stupid people do that. She hums and peruses through Lily's books on defense against the dark arts, Mary just needs a little push and she'll be out of her hair “Are you sure she’s in the library?” Mary glares at her and grinds her teeth together. She gets up with a huff and storms out of the room. Predictable. Easy. Gryffindors really are a piece of cake, so much action and no thinking
Ursa pulls out her wand revelio. Her eyes scan the bookshelf again and she smirks to herself “Knew it” that was fast. And easy. She soft of had bigger hopes and expectations for Lily Evans ability to hide thinks.
She gives the room a thorough look in the small window of time she's allowed in case Mary rushes back to yell at her. Some people may call it nosey snooping, but they don't understand that people are tools for her to use, and it's handy to know what features they come
with.
I know that you're used to the girls that chase
I won't play those games
If you wanna talk you come to me
I'm done wasting my time and energy
You're not my only option, wait and see
It's not that deep