Doesn't Ring a Bell

As expected, the next couple of days passed without incident; Sirius and Katrina got a double detention for 'explicit behavior' in the Great Hall, and Peter was caught spying on Snape in the shower, but other than that, nothing major happened - until the day of the Hogsmeade trip, that is.

On the day it was scheduled, nobody could wake Sirius up. James tried splashing him with ice-cold water, Peter jumped up and down on his bed and Remus pulled him out of his bed and onto the floor with a huge bump, but all to no avail. They ended up just charming his clothes onto him and levitating him down to breakfast.

They sat him next to Katrina, who jumped when his head fell into his bowl of cereal. This woke him up.

"My hair!" he screamed, for there were now cornflakes and milk in his hair. He ran out of the Great Hall yelling something about getting revenge on the heathens who had ruined his beautiful hair.

Everybody in the Hall just ignored him. Just the Marauders being themselves, and they weren't pranking anybody, so there was no reason to worry.

After breakfast, Remus, Peter and James went up to the dormitory to find Sirius sulking on his bed.

"Come on, Padfoot, Katrina's waiting for you to take her to Hogsmeade for Valentine's Day," Remus coaxed.

"No." Sirius crossed his arms.

"Come on, you're not going to stand your girlfriend up on Valentine's Day, are you? And she got dressed all pretty...that nice, low-cut red shirt with those tight black jeans..."

Sirius's eyes lit up, and he was out of there before they knew what had happened. Remus smiled. He knew his plan would work.

They followed Sirius to the Entrance Hall, where they found a crowd of people scrambling for a position in the line to buy flowers and chocolates for their girlfriends, or, in some cases, boyfriends.

James joined the line. The others waited for him, avoiding being crushed by people frantic to get last-minute gifts or trying to get out the doors to Hogsmeade.

After a few minutes, James emerged from the throng, holding a bouquet of roses.

"Evans?" Sirius questioned. James nodded, trying to get some fresh air. "Come on then, guess we better find Katrina and Emma and get outta here." Sirius motioned for them to follow him.

"Where do you think they'll be?" asked James, catching up with them.

"Oh, I think I have an idea," said Remus, pointing to a group of girls gathered around what appeared to be a few dozen bouquets of roses on legs. Emma and Katrina were trying to see who was carrying them.

"Oh, Alice, you're so lucky," one of the girls from the middle sighed. Emma smiled to herself. Apparently, Frank really was as sweet as Alice said. She turned around and nearly walked straight into James, who was scanning the crowd of fawning girls for Lily.

She turned again and greeted Remus with a quick kiss. He pulled out a gift from behind his back, smiling as he did so. Her face lit up as she took it from his outstretched hands. She made to open it but he stopped her. "Not yet, later..." he said mysteriously. Her expression was full of curiosity, but she put the present carefully in her backpack anyway. Katrina looked on in interest, and a shadow of annoyance crossed her face, but it was only there for a split second, and Sirius, his eyes on her top, noticed nothing.

"Well, should we get going then?" asked Remus.

"Not yet! I haven't found Evans yet!" said James indignantly.

"Look, there she is, walking the long way round the lake; if you hurry, you can probably catch up to her," Peter pointed out.

"Okay, guys, I'll meet you in the Three Broomsticks!" James called over his shoulder as he ran to catch up with Lily.

"Evans! Hey, Evans!" he called as he got within ten meters of her. She turned around, saw who it was, and kept walking, picking up the pace a little.

Unfortunately for her, James caught up.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked irritably, not looking at him.

"Well, I got you...uh, a Valentine's gift." He held out the flowers for her.

Lily smiled sweetly.

"Aww, that's so sweet of you, Potter, and I'm sure the giant squid will love them." She then whistled loudly through her thumb and forefinger and, indeed, the giant squid came floating lazily to the surface. She threw the flowers to it, and walked off. James looked on as the squid ate the bouquet of roses he had given Lily and felt an emotion he had never felt before: dismay. Of course, James didn't know how to react, so he shrugged, and walked slowly to Hogsmeade, where his friends were waiting for him.

* * * * *

He found the five of them sitting at a table, swigging Butterbeer. Sirius was holding several bouquets of roses and Katrina looked like she was sulking.

"Hey, Prongs, how'd it go?" Sirius questioned, looking up as James walked in.

"Great!" James answered. "As long as 'great' means she fed my present to the giant squid and walked off," he finished dejectedly.

"Ah, mate, don't worry, you can have any girl in the entire school," Sirius said in an attempt to comfort him. Emma cleared her throat. "Well, any single, straight girl, that is," Sirius amended. "And who's also not Lily Evans..."

"Sirius, shut up," Katrina said in an annoyed tone.

"Er, you wanna come with me, Emma? I have something important I have to talk to you about," Remus asked, sensing the gathering storm between Katrina and Sirius.

"Sure," Emma replied, happy to escape - Sirius and Katrina were now arguing; over what was unclear.

As soon as they got outside, Remus led Emma to a quiet, secluded area around the side of the Three Broomsticks that Emma had never known about.

"Okay, open the present now," Remus told Emma nervously. She obligingly pulled it out of her backpack and carefully removed the wrapping paper, to reveal what appeared to be a stuffed, gray toy dog.

"It's a werewolf," Emma said to Remus, the slightest hint of a question in her voice, but also with a kind of knowing glint in her eye.

"Well, you see, that's what I wanted to talk to you about..." Remus started nervously.

"This is my biggest secret, and I don't want to keep it from you, but I don't want to frighten you away either..." Remus continued to babble. Emma looked down at the toy in her hands, then back to Remus, and something clicked.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?" she questioned.

Remus looked alarmed. "How did you guess?" he asked.

"I'm very observant," Emma said, smiling. "Also, it doesn't scare me away, just makes you seem sexier and more intriguing to me. James, Sirius, and Pete all know, right?" she added.

Remus looked relieved and nodded. "They became Animagi to help my transformation become easier; James is a stag, Sirius is a dog and Peter is a rat," Remus explained further. "Katrina already knew, her family and mine have been friends for ages," he finished. "Shall we go back and see how the war is going in there, then?" He tilted his head toward the Three Broomsticks.

"Alright, but only if you promise to stand in my way if I get caught in the line of fire," she bargained. Remus winked and picked up her hand. "Come on, then, before there's a casualty." They walked in to find Katrina red-faced and shouting and Sirius cowering, looking confused, behind his chair.

"But you said you didn't want a Valentine's gift!" Sirius yelled at Katrina.

"Well, you should have gotten me one anyway! Don't you know how girls' minds work?" she rebutted.

"I think it's pretty obvious that I don't." At which point Katrina stormed out of the pub and could be seen walking back up to the castle.

"PMS," Emma said knowingly, and went to follow her friend to see if she could calm her down.