Lupin's True Love

August 18, 1973

Veronica snuck away from camp and hurried to the main offices without James, Sirius, Peter, or Remus seeing her. Alastor stopped her for a moment but waved her on her way after she explained the plans to prank the boys. She shoved open the door and saw Mr. Arnold, the man who ran the Jetties, shuffling through the papers on his desk. He looked up when Veronica shut the door behind her.

"Miss Croft, how can I help you?" MR. Arnold stood and moved around his desk.

"Is Orlando around?" Veronica started to bounce on the balls of her feet.

"Just a moment." Mr. Arnold turned slightly. "Orlando! You've got a visitor!"

"Coming, Dad!" Orlando hurried into the room. "He saw Veronica twisting the hem of her t-shirt. "Hey, Veronica. I heard you had some trouble over in y'all's camp. Was it serious?"

"If you call changing my hair color to neon purple serious." Veronica huffed once as Mr. Arnold bit back his chuckles.

"Any ideas as to who did it?" Orlando was struggling to keep a straight face.

"We caught them but us girls want to prank them." Veronica leaned on the counter slightly. "Would you be willing to help us?"

Orlando glanced over at his dad and saw him pretending to clean the counters. "What can we do?"

Veronica grinned as she pulled the letters from her pocket. "Could you have these delivered to James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus?"

"Is it part of the prank?" Orlando took the letters.

"Oh yeah. We just need to think of something to put in the water balloons we're going to throw at them." Veronica laughed.

"I've got just the thing. Hold on a sec." Orlando hurried from the room. A moment later he returned and handed several phials filled with a neon green liquid to Veronica. "A drop in each balloon, add water, and watch the culprits change colors. They'll stay that way for about three days. The more you use the longer they change colors."

Veronica took the phials and slid them into her pocket. "Thanks, Orlando." Veronica waved as he hurried out the door.

She hurried along the path back to camp. She stopped with her hand on a branch she was shoving out of the way when she saw Remus and Allisandra walking along another path heading to the beach. She practically ripped the branch from the tree with one jerk of her hand before stomping back into the camp.

Alastor saw the mutilated tree branch hanging from Veronica's hand. "I take it you saw them."

"And you didn't stop him?" Veronica threw the branch at Alastor before running into the girls' tent.

Petunia looked up from her bag as Veronica scrambled up onto her bunk and screamed into her pillow. "Boy trouble?"

"What's it to you, Petunia?"

"I saw them. I warned him that you would be upset by it."

Veronica stared down at Petunia. "Whoa re you and what have you done with the witch-hating bitch?"

"Veronica, I know you don't like me and I don't like you, but I can't stand to see you love that moron so much and him not even see it."

"What do I do then?"

"Flirt with another boy. Better yet, make it one of his best friends. You could even kiss him."

Veronica gave Petunia a lopsided grin as she slid from her bunk. "That sounds like a good plan. Thanks, Petunia." She moved toward her bag. "You know you could be a little nicer to the rest of the gang."

"No way. I wouldn't want them to think I liked them." Petunia hurried from the tent.

Veronica shrugged as she pulled out her bikini and pulled it on. She grabbed a towel and hurried down to the beach. Lily was stretched out on a blanket with Brian. Petunia was sitting on her towel with Steven on his towel beside her. Nicolo was chasing Patricia while Emma and Aiden were both reading from the same book. Veronica looked around and saw Sirius talking with Melissa. She also saw Remus and Allisandra flirting with each other. Squaring her shoulders, Veronica walked over to Sirius.

"Hey, Siri, could you help me with something?" Veronica saw Remus turn to watch her and Sirius.

"Sure, Vee, what?" Sirius glanced down at Veronica.

"This." Veronica placed her hands on Sirius' cheeks and pulled his lips to hers.

Sirius stood stock still for a second before wrapping his arms around Veronica and pulling her flush with his body. They ignored the gasps coming from the rest of the teenagers. Remus stalked over to them and hauled Veronica from Sirius' arms.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing, Sirius?" Remus glared at Sirius.

"What?"

"You're snogging my girl!"

"You're too busy flirting with the bimbo from hell that I'm surprised you noticed!"

"How the bloody hell am I not supposed to notice?! You're snogging her in plain sight of the entire world!"

"Remus!" Veronica slid between the angry boys and slapped Remus hard across the cheek. "You've done nothing but ignore me since we got here! I wanted to show you what it was like!" She turned on her heel and ran back to the camp while Remus and Sirius stared after her.