At the sound of the voice, Rainer jumped and quickly spun around. She then found herself looking at none other than Sirius Black. He wore a rather smug looking grin on his face and was casually leaning against a tree. Rainer slowly rose to her feet, having no idea what to say.
"I...uh...I am going to...soon...." Rainer started, fumbling her words and feeling like a complete idiot.
Sirius smirked wider. The good thing was that he didn't seem mad about her leaving like she did and yet he also seemed to already know what she was doing. Sirius then moved away from the tree he had been leaning against and slowly walked toward Rainer. She continued to stand there, feeling very awkward.
"So," Sirius started, stopping a few feet in front of Rainer. "Are you going to tell me why you just left us like that?"
Rainer gaped. She hadn't been expecting him to say that. Actually, she hadn't been expecting to have been caught. It was stupid actually, for her to think that. Did she think she could just sneak away, telling them she had to buy something and just never come back?
Sirius was still intently watching her and waiting for her response. A zillion things were spinning in her mind and a bunch of different lies came to mind, but in the end she just gave up. "Fine...I'm sorry. I know it was rude and I didn't really think it through all that much...Truth is, I'm uncomfortable with you guys."
She could feel Sirius' eyes watching her as she stared at the grass. After a moment, where Rainer thought she was going to die under his gaze, Sirius walked toward her. Looking up, she caught his eye and immediately wondered what he was doing. About a foot away from her, he stopped. Being much taller than Rainer, she had to look high up to see into Sirius' dark grey eyes. She froze. She wasn't use to having an extremely good-looking guy standing this close.
"Why are you uncomfortable around us? We're perfectly harmless." Sirius responded softly, getting even closer to the very nervous Rainer. Stepping back, Rainer shook her head but didn't say anything else. Sirius then grinned. He obviously enjoyed his affect on her. Running a hand through his hair, he said, "Come on Rowland; let's go back to the Three Broomsticks."
With that, Sirius turned and began walking back toward Hogsmeade. Rainer stood there, momentarily stunned. Already a few paces ahead of Rainer, Sirius looked over his shoulder. "Coming?" he called back. Oddly enough, Rainer followed.
"Hello all! Miss us?" Sirius greeted loudly, strolling proudly through the doors of the Three Broomsticks. A few heads turned in his direction but then went back to what they had previously been doing. Remus could be seen rolling his eyes from the table and James grinned.
"What took you so long Rainer?" James asked curiously. Rainer found that she was unable to look him in the eye and shrugged, sliding into the empty seat she had been sitting in before. Sirius quickly found a seat next to her and casually draped his arm around Rainer's shoulders, making her eyes pop out in surprise.
"She just couldn't find her size of robes, that’s all." Sirius responded, grabbing Remus' Butterbeer and taking a large swig. Remus frowned and grabbed it back from him.
"Couldn't find your size?" James repeated, looking at Rainer for confirmation. Rainer nodded quickly. She was surprised that Sirius didn't tell his friends why she actually left. She had thought that they told each other everything...apparently she was wrong. She glanced momentarily at Sirius who was looking quiet comfortable in his chair. Maybe she was wrong about him. She seemed to always think the worst of Sirius and this time had been very wrong.
"What were you looking for exactly?" Remus questioned, his light blue eyes observing her from across the table. Rainer swallowed, as if doing that would delay answering for a second.
"Robes," she answered quietly. She hated how all the guys were now focusing on her. She also hated how Sirius' arm was still around her shoulders. Remus nodded, his brow furrowed. He looked like he was about to say something important when Sirius abruptly cut him off before he had a chance.
"So, Prongs. Have a chance to talk to Lily while we were gone?" He asked, looking back over at the redhead and her friends on the other side of the room. James followed his gaze, a sad look on his face. A number of emotions hit Rainer when she saw this. One of them was jealously. She wished that she could have the attention of James like Lily did, even for one day. The other was hate. This hate was directed at the particular redhead that James fancied. The last was the feeling of giving up. How long had she had a major crush on James? It had probably been since fourth year and now she just felt tired of it. She was tired of never being noticed by him and worst of all, knowing that she would never be noticed by him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Sirius watching her and realized that she had been staring at James that entire time.
"No, I thought about going over there, but Remus said not to." James finally answered. Rainer quickly diverted her attention from him, studying one of the bottles of butterbeer on the table.
Sirius cleared his throat, "Well I for one think you should go over there and say hello!" he declared. James looked curiously at his best friend.
"You think?" he asked, looking back to Sirius with a look of hope on his face. Rainer had no idea what Sirius was doing and thought that it was a bad idea. Lily wouldn't like it to much if James came over and started talking to her.
Sirius nodded enthusiastically, "Sure I do. What do you guys think?"
Peter nodded, "I think you should talk to her."
Remus shook his head, "I think it’s a horrible idea."
James was now looking at Rainer. "Uh...I don’t know..."
"Then it's settled!" Sirius said, pulling his arm away from Rainer, "You should go talk to her....I'll come with you!" Remus caught Rainer's eye and rolled his own, knowing full well it was a horrible idea. Rainer wondered if Sirius knew that or was looking for something to do.
Soon, James and Sirius were making their way over toward Lily and her friends with Peter following excitedly. Remus slowly rose from his seat, looking like this had happened a thousand times. Rainer got up as well, making her way over to the other side of the room.
The guys had already reached Lily when she got there. Lily was sitting at a small table with a few girls that Rainer didn't know very well. She recognized one or two including Jillian Young, a 5th year Gryffindor and some Ravenclaw girl.
"What do you want Potter?" Rainer could hear Lily snap in annoyance, setting her butterbeer down with more force than needed.
"Nothing Evans except to see how you were," James responded, his hand come up to mess up his already messy hair.
Lily groaned standing up from her table as Rainer pushed through the guys to where Lily was. When the redheaded spotted Rainer, she stopped, smiling. "Rainer! Hi." Rainer smiled faintly at Lily but didn’t say anything. Then, Lily furrowed her brow. "Did you come to Hogsmeade with them?" she asked, eyeing the four boys.
"Umm..." Rainer found herself unable to answer, for reasons unknown to even herself. Part of her didn't want to say yes for fear of what Lily would think of her. As much as she hated to admit, she liked Lily. Then, a thought came into her head, reminding her of why she always hated Lily in the first place and then quickly said: "Yes."
Lily looked vaguely confused for a moment or two. "Why did you come with them?" she asked, looking from James to Sirius with a scowl.
"Because Remus invited me," Rainer responded. Lily looked like she wanted to say something but then decided against it. Motioning to her friends, they all stood up. The other four girls with Lily all started toward the door.
"Do you want to come with us Rainer?" Lily asked, her face softening. Rainer hesitated. She didn't want to hurt Lily's feelings by saying no but part of her wanted to say yes.
"No, she doesn’t Evans," Sirius spoke up. Rainer looked over at him, a bit surprised. Sirius, however, wasn't paying attention to the small brunette looking at him for an explanation but looking at Lily. Looking to Rainer for confirmation, Rainer nodded. The frown reappeared on Lily's face before she nodded.
"Don't come near me again Potter," she said coldly before walking off to join her other friends who were waiting by the door.
"I told you that you shouldn’t have come over here," Remus spoke up. James frowned and walked angrily toward the door. Sirius quickly followed. With a sigh, so did Rainer.
For the rest of the day, it seemed that Sirius was trying his hardest to make Rainer feel as comfortable around the guys as possible. He always included her in their conversations, making sure she was never left out. He didn't press any embarrassing questions on her and always asked her opinion when deciding on a store to go to. Rainer was feeling a lot better about being around them and was very thankful for Sirius.
"We better head back to the carriages," Remus said a while later. It was about time to start back to Hogwarts and Rainer found herself feeling a little upset about that. She was having so much fun with the guys that she found herself being a lot more talkative than usual. Unfortunately that was still a lot quieter than most people.
"What!?" James exclaimed, "We haven't even been to Honeydukes yet!"
"Yes we have," Sirius said with a smirk.
James frowned, throwing his hands up. "Well we have to go back! I've eaten all my candy!"
Rainer laughed softly along with Sirius. They had gone there not to long before and all the guys bought some candy. Rainer didn't want any. "Well I don’t think we have time to go back---"
"Sure we do!" James said excitedly, "Come on!"
Rainer then found herself running to Honeydukes with the four Marauders. When they got to the shop they found it a lot emptier than earlier. Probably all the Hogwarts students were on their ways back to the carriages by now. "Hurry up Prongs!" Sirius called after James who had already dived at the candy. Even Peter had gone to buy some more.
"Hey Rainer, I haven’t seen you buy anything yet," Remus pointed out.
Rainer shrugged, "There isn't anything I want to buy."
Sirius snorted, "Not even some candy?" He seemed surprised by the fact that she wasn't stocking up like the other boys were. She shook her head. Incredulously, Sirius said, "Come on! Don’t be daft."
Rainer smiled slightly, "I'm not daft, I just don’t want any candy, that’s all..." Now that she had started talking about it, she found that she was feeling a bit hungry and currently had a rather large sweet tooth for some chocolate. "Maybe I will get some..."
Sirius grinned, "Now you're thinking clearly."
Rainer moved from Sirius and Remus and started gathering up candy and different sweets. She only stopped when she realized how much of a pig she must look like. She waited behind James and Peter at the counter until they finished paying and then moved up to pay herself. Dumping her candy on the counter, she dug through her robes for her money. When she didn't find it, she panicked.
"That'll be thirty-five sickles," the witch behind the counter told her. Frantically, Rainer searched in all of her pockets for some sign of her money. She always kept it inside a red velvet bag and now, that bag was nowhere in sight.
"What's the problem?" Sirius called from where he and the others stood waiting by the door. Rainer only looked at them momentarily before going back to searching for her money. She had over 12 Galleons in there!
"Thirty-five sickles please," The witch repeated, looking a little impatient. Rainer felt a little sick. She had a lot of money, and now it was gone. Where could she have left it? She had it earlier, she knew that.
"I...Uh..." Rainer wasn't sure how to tell this woman that she was going to put all her sweets back because she lost her money.
"Rainer! What in bloody hell are you doing?" Sirius said, strolling up to her. "Were going to miss the carriages if you don’t hurry....what's the matter?"
Great, Rainer thought to herself. Now I'm going to cry.
She could feel her eyes starting to well up with tears that she was determined not to let show. Blinking them back, Rainer looked up at Sirius, trying not to let on just how upset she really was. "I think I lost my money..." she said quietly.
Sirius stared for a moment, processing what she just said. "Are you sure? Did you check all your pockets?" he asked. Of course she had! She wouldn't jump to conclusions like this if she wasn't positive. Nodding angrily, Rainer quickly wiped her eye where a tear had started to form.
Sirius looked at the shop owner, waiting behind the counter and eyeing the two. Reaching into his robes, Sirius brought out his money. "How much?" he asked. Rainer watched him in surprise as the Witch retold the price for the third time. "Here you go," he said, handing over thirty-five sickles, "Keep the change," he added with a wink and a charming smile.
As the Witch put all her candy into a bag, Sirius turned to Rainer who was sniffling and trying hard to keep her composure. "Don’t worry; I'm sure the money'll turn up. Are you sure your even brought it?"
Rainer nodded, looking down. "I'm certain of it."
"Here you are," the witch said, handing the bag of sweets out for someone to take. Rainer hesitated. Sirius had just bought her all that, and now, along with sadness, she felt a bit guilty. Sirius grabbed the bag and then steered Rainer toward the door, his arm around her shoulders.
"What happened? What took so long?" James questioned. Sirius shook his head, his arm still around Rainer's shoulders.
"Nothings wrong. Come on, we better go."
Sirius fell behind the other three, still beside Rainer. "Are you ok?" he asked, looking down at her with concern. Rainer nodded, sniffing. She knew she must have looked pretty pitiful, only she couldn't help it. She had been saving that 12 Galleons for quiet awhile, and now it was gone. She didn't come from the richest family so it was hard to get that money all on her own. "How much did you lose?"
Rainer looked up at Sirius, into his dark grey eyes. "12 Galleons," she muttered hopelessly. Sirius looked a bit shocked, like he hadn't been expecting it to be that much but then regained himself but smiling.
"I'll give you the 12 galleons."
Rainer's eyes went wide, "No! I don’t want your money," she said. Sirius looked almost disappointed. Shaking her head, the sad little brunette looked back down at the ground. When they reached the carriages, she crawled in and didn't say another word to any of the guys all the way back.
When she finally came to her common room, Rainer burst into tears. Sitting on the end of her bed, she couldn't help but cry. 12 Galleons! That was a lot and now it was gone! She was mad at herself for being stupid enough to lose it! She dropped the Honeydukes bag into her trunk with a sigh. She was grateful that Sirius was so nice about it though.
Falling backward, Rainer listened to the slow rumble of thunder coming from outside. The sky was now clouded over with grey and the rain was slowly starting to come. Always liking thunderstorms, Rainer welcomed it. She was pretty tired from her day of marching around Hogsmeade with the four Marauders. It was so surreal being there with them since she usually was all alone. She was lying there, thinking sadly about her missing money when the door slowly opened. In came Lily.
"Hello Rainer," she said coolly, dropping her arm full of bags onto her bed. Rainer sat up, drying her eyes with her sleeve.
"Hi," she said quietly.
There was a silence between the two girls, broken only by the loud crack of thunder. "So...," Lily started, "Why did you go to Hogsmeade with Potter?"
Rainer was a bit surprised by Lily's question. "I don’t know...Because Remus asked me if I wanted to."
Lily observed her for a moment, her brilliant green eyes shining with curiosity. Curious about what, Rainer wasn't quiet sure. Taking this moment of silence as an opportunity to leave, Rainer started toward the door. "I think I'm going to go...uh...to the library."
Lily had started shuffling through papers and books that had been laid out on her bed. When she heard Rainer's soft voice, she looked up. "Ok, I guess I'll see you at dinner."
Making her way downstairs and vaguely wondering if she should actually go to the library like she told Lily. She hadn't actually planned on going there but just came out as an excuse to get away from Lily. Exiting through the portrait door, Rainer wandered aimlessly through corridors until she came upon the sound of voices.
Following the sounds of talking, Rainer could soon make out who it was. Sirius and James. Rainer felt her stomach flip slightly at the thought of James. Rounding a corner, she saw that she was right. Both Sirius and James had their backs to Rainer and were standing side by side in the middle of the corridor. For a moment, she couldn't tell why they were there, but soon she could tell. Severus Snape was standing in front of them, looking ready to kill. Both the other boys had there wands out and aimed cautiously at Snape.
At that moment, Snape reached into his wand and pulled out his wand. It seemed obvious that one of the guys said something to upset him. As soon as his wand was visible, James shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
At once, Snape's wand flew from his grasp and landed neatly in James' hand. Sirius let out a bark like laugh, "You have to be quicker than that Snivellus!"
Snape looked murderous and started toward the two boys, now wand less but was easily stopped. "Wingardium Leviosa." Sirius said simply with a simple flick of his wand. Soon, Snape's feet were no longer on the ground and his whole body was slowly rising into the air.
Snape then let out a very long and loud string of curse words that echoed down the empty corridors. Rainer realized how odd it was that there was nobody around. "Now, now, Snivellus." James said with mock authority. "You shouldn't be using such foul language."
Sirius laughed, "I think he deserves to be punished...Engorgio!"
It took Rainer awhile to see what it was that caused both James and Sirius to be sent into an uncontrollable fit of laugher from where she was standing, but soon could see. She almost had trouble keeping quiet herself. Snape's nose, that was already very large had started to swell. It was now twice its normal size and still growing. James was laughing so hard he had resorted to using Sirius for support.
Snape had started cursing again, making the boys laugh even harder. With his nose to big it had changed Snape's voice making it sound extremely nasally. Rainer bit her lip, trying to keep from laughing. She didn't want them to know she was standing there.
Sirius had finally stopped laughing long enough to go back to sending jinxes at Snape. "Densaugeo!" he shouted. Rainer immediately recognized that spell, having someone use it on her before. Just like she thought, Snape's teeth had already started to enlarge as well, matching his very large nose.
Snape was shouting in rage as James turned the levitating Snape upside down. His robes hung down over his head but luckily he was wearing pants. Rainer could remember the end of the previous year, after there O.W.L's. unfortunately that day, only his underwear was there.
Looking behind her, Rainer could hear the sounds of voices. They seemed to be coming in that direction. Turing her attention back to the three boys, she looked just in time to see a very odd sight. Snape's clothes were changing. His previously billowy black robes were slowly turning into a short, flowery dress. James and Sirius looked like they could no longer stand up from laughing so hard. Snape, however, was livid with anger.
The upside down Snape was soon turned upright again and Rainer thought that the boys were finally finished torturing him but was wrong. A large bucket then appeared over Snape's head and soon a huge wave of water came spilling down onto Snape. He was then soaked head to toe. His flowery dress was soaked and clung to his body. Water droplets drip off his enormous nose and down onto his large bucked teeth.
"You'll pay for this," Snape threatened, trying hard to get free but with no luck.
Sirius and James seemed to have not heard Snape's threat and continued to roar with laughter. It was a pretty ridiculous sight, but at that moment, Rainer decided that she'd seen enough. She had actually then realized why Lily got so upset when James would hex people. Normally, Rainer didn't care. Snape called her Mudblood with every chance he could and whenever she saw the guys hexing him in the hallways, she continued on her way telling herself Snape was getting what he deserved. She wasn't one of those people who crowed around to watch. Now, seeing the sight that she saw, felt very sorry for Snape. He was defenseless and was being mercilessly humiliated.
The voices were drawing ever nearer, and part of Rainer didn't want them to come this way because then they would see Snape. She was really feeling bad for him now. She always knew that the Marauders hated Snape and always hexed him with every chance they got, but she never thought it would be like this.
A group of people then found there way to the hallway. They came from behind Snape so James spotted them first. "Ah, look Snivellus, you have an audience!"
Sirius barked out in laughter as the group of girls, all with upturned noses, cautiously walked closer. Some were laughing out loud now, while others looked disgusted. "That’s a good look for you Snape!" one of the girls called out. They all roared with laughter.
Looking at Snape's face, Rainer gathered up her courage and decided that they had gone too far. Marching out from the spot she had been watching from, Rainer walked up behind the two boys. "What are you both doing?" Rainer said, finding herself using a stern voice that didn't exactly fit with her.
At once, the two guys spun around, both wearing expressions of surprise. "Why, hello Rainer. Have you been watching the show?" Sirius said with a pleased smirk.
Scowling, Rainer shook her head. "Why don’t you just let him go?"
James put on a face of mock thought, "Hmm...I don’t know. What do you think Sirius?"
"Nah, I don’t think so James. I'm having too much fun." Sirius responded, wearing a smart grin.
Rainer scowled even deeper, crossing her arms over her chest. "What is wrong with you both?" she asked angrily, pulling out her wand. For a brief instant, a look of fear cross the guys faces, thinking that she was going to hex them, but when they saw that she was lowering Snape to the ground, the look disappeared.
When Snape's feet touched the ground, his nose had shrunk back down to its normal size and his teeth had gone back to normal as well. Rainer also changed his clothes back and dried him off. Turning her gaze back to Sirius and James, she grabbed Snape's wand out of James' hand and tossed it to Snape.
"What did you do that for?" James whined, looking at Snape who was already rushing off, brushing angrily passed the group of girls.
"Because you two were being awful to him," Rainer responded, feeling a little bit shyer now that her anger had toned down.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "So you and Snape are best mates now?"
Rainer glared, "No! I just think that you two are being so awful to him when he didn't even do anything! In my opinion, doing that is no better than him calling me a mudblood." Before letting either respond, Rainer turned around and stomped off.
When Rainer got to the common room, she was still really upset. She kept thinking about James and how much she fancied him. Seeing him torture Snape the way he did made Rainer go into deep thought. She was ready to flop down onto the sofa when she heard someone calling her name.
"What?" Rainer asked a bit rudely, seeing Sirius walking over to her. James had entered with him but was going up to his dormitory.
"Here," Sirius then reached into his robes and tossed something to her. Rainer instantly recognized it. It was the little leather bag she kept her money in.
"My money?" Rainer said, saying it more as a statement than a question.
Sirius nodded, eyeing her. "I thought you might want it back..."
"Where did you find it?" Rainer asked in awe, feeling happy once again.
"Well...Snape had it actually..."
Rainer's stomach sank. Was that why they had started hexing him? Before she could ask, Sirius had turned and started walking away. Rainer stared after him, knowing that she was right in her guess. She then felt bad and stupid for what she had said to them earlier. With a sigh, Rainer sat down.
"Hey Rainer," Lily said, appearing in the portrait door. Rainer managed a weak smile back. "I just was in the library and didn't see you there..."
"Oh...well...I didn't stay long..." Rainer said.
Lily sat down beside her, "Something the matter?"
"Hey Evans," came the voice of James. Lily automatically rolled her eyes and then again at the sight of James messing up his hair. He sat closely beside her on the sofa and tried to put his arm around her. "How are you Evans?" he asked.
"Get away from me Potter," Lily said, pushing his arm away. Soon, Lily was angrily marching up the stairs and James was left staring sadly after her. Rainer watched James closely for a moment wondering if he would ever just give up on Lily and realize nothing would ever happen with her...
A/N: This one took a little bit longer to get out than I though...Sorry about that. I'd love to hear your reviews on what you thought about this chapter. I had a little trouble with the whole Snape hexing part....What did you guys think ot it?
-HollyM
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