Simply Moony

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

The most wanted boys in Gryffindor - in more ways than one.

If you had Padfoot, you were lucky, but you wouldn't have him for long. In fact, Padfoot was the only one that any girl had a chance of being with.

Prongs had been seeing Lily Evans since third year; they were inseparable, and nobody even tried to part them any more.

Wormtail - well, I tell a lie when I include him in the "most wanted" category. Nobody ever wanted Wormtail. He was sweet in a way, but definitely not boyfriend material. He was always pushed to one side and ignored; no wonder he betrayed them all in the end.

And Moony...Moony was the most secretive out of all of them. He was shy and was ill a lot, and kept himself to himself mainly. Nobody had ever seen him with a girl, so there were lots of rumours fleeting around about his sexuality, as you can imagine.

And who, I hear you ask, am I?

Well...

~***~

"Chloe, can I borrow your Transfiguration book? I lent Sirius mine last week and I still haven't had it back."

"That doesn't surprise me...hang on, let me find it first..." I rummaged around under all the bits of parchment and handed the book to Kacia (pronounced Kay-sha). Kacia Darwin was my best friend. She was very 'alternative' - her hair rippled down her back in scarlet waves streaked with black, and all her clothes were either custom-made or customised, and was currently the envy of half the female population of Hogwarts - she was going out with Sirius Black.

"Thanks. Have you seen Lily anywhere?"

"She's probably off somewhere with James...why?"

"I want to look at her homework."

"She won't let you copy, you know that."

"Yeah, I know." Kacia grinned. "That's why I want to make sure she's not going to come in while I'm reading it."

She rolled off her bed and was halfway across the room to Lily's bedside cabinet when the door opened and there stood the girl herself.

"What are you doing?" she asked Kacia, frowning slightly.

"Nothing," Kacia lied, going back to her homework.

"Are you still doing that? It's to be in tomorrow morning, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but we're not all Brain of Britain, are we? Unlike some I could mention." Kacia frowned down at her homework and reached for my book again. "God, I hate Transfiguration..."

"Here, I've finished, you can copy mine." I handed her my finished essay, and Lily frowned at me.

"She won't learn if you let her copy," she said severely. "I'm sure Holly would have something to say about -"

"Give it a rest, Lily, you sound like a Prefect," Kacia mumbled, re-wording my essay.

"I am a Prefect."

"Oh, of course - how could I forget?" Kacia looked up. "Shouldn't you be off patrolling somewhere, anyway?"

"Yeah, I'm going in a minute. In fact -" Lily looked at her watch and stood up. "I'd better go now. See you later."

"Bye."

As soon as the door closed, Kacia threw down her quill and launched into a furious tirade. She seemed to really dislike Lily that year, although I didn't have a clue why.

"She is really annoying me lately! Who does she think she is, my mother? Honestly, one of these days I swear I'm going to smack her one, I -"

The door opened again, and Kacia quickly stopped talking in case it was Lily coming back. It wasn't. Sirius Black stuck his head round the door, customary grin in place.

"Kacia - a few of us are off up to the Astronomy Tower, you coming?"

Kacia looked from Sirius to her homework and back again, chewing her lip.

"I dunno...I've got all this to do -"

"Will you stop worrying about homework? You can do it in the morning, just don't go to breakfast. Are you coming or not? You can come too if you want," he added to me. "Keep Moony company, I hate it when he's alone and moping."

I looked at Kacia. I wasn't going to go if she wasn't - I hardly knew Sirius and his friends.

"Well...all right then. Coming, Chlo?"

"I s'pose so."

"Great. Hurry up, we're going now."

~***~

I vaguely knew Remus Lupin - Moony to his friends - from Charms. He sat near me and Kacia, and never really seemed to say much. Other than that, though, I didn't have a clue about him.

When Sirius said "a few of us", what he really meant was him and Remus. Kacia and Sirius didn't pay much attention at all to their surroundings - they were far too busy paying attention to each other. Remus sat staring up at the sky, not attempting any conversation, just staring.

"What are you looking at?" I asked. He tore his eyes from the sky and looked at me with a slight smile.

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Well, yeah, but are you looking at a particular star, or...?"

"No, I'm just looking. It makes you feel so small and insignificant, staring at the sky."

I turned my face upwards and stared into the endless blue-black expanse. He was right.

"See what I mean?" I nodded.

"Do you come up here a lot?"

"Most nights. I thought Sirius wasn't bringing Kacia, that's the only reason I came up here tonight."

"I know what you mean - it's not exactly great sitting here watching them chew each other's faces off."

"There's somewhere even better than here for stargazing, y'know."

"Where?"

"Come with me, I'll show you."

Trusting that Kacia wouldn't miss me, I followed Remus down the Astronomy Tower and along the nearest corridor. We were just about to go up the stairs to the third-floor when a voice called out.

"Stop!"

I knew that voice only too well. It was my sister, Holly, who just happened to be Head Girl. She looked furious as she came towards us, but then she saw who we were and her expression changed to one of intense disbelief.

"Chloe - what are you doing out of bed?" I shrugged.

"We were just up at the Astronomy Tower, and then -"

"No prizes for guessing what you were doing up there." I glared at her.

"What are you implying?"

"Well, it doesn't exactly seem innocent - you two on your way from the Astronomy Tower at this time-"

"We weren't doing anything!" I exploded. I very nearly mentioned Sirius and Kacia, but I caught myself just in time - the last thing I wanted was for them to be in trouble as well. "We were just - looking at the sky."

"How very sweet - doing Astronomy homework, were you?" She folded her arms across her chest, looking every inch like a younger version of my mother. Scary stuff. "Ten points from Gryffindor, now get back to where you belong or I'll make it more - and if I catch you out of bounds again, I'll report you to Professor McGonagall."

She stalked away, and I sighed.

"We'd better go back, then," Remus suggested.

"I hate her sometimes," I told him as we set off walking. "She's my sister, unfortunately. Thank God she's leaving at the end of the year. You should have heard my mum when I wasn't made a Prefect - she went on and on and on at me. 'Why aren't your exam results better? You're too lazy, that's your trouble, you never try your best!' She's always like that, expecting me to be perfect all the time, just like Holly."

"But you get good marks, don't you? I mean - you always seem to do OK in Charms..."

I looked at him. I couldn't tell for definite because it was dark, but I think he was blushing. Maybe he thought I'd think he was stalking me or something.

"I don't do badly. It's just that Holly's marks are always between ninety-five and a hundred percent, and mine - well, mine aren't. The highest I usually get is about eighty."

"But that's good, it's still better than what most people get."

We were at the Fat Lady now, and I spoke the password without even looking up.

"Custard tarts."

Nothing happened. I looked up and saw, to my dismay, that the Fat Lady wasn't there. I looked at Remus.

"What are we going to do now?"

"There's only one thing we can do."

"Which is...?"

"We'll have to sleep out here."

"You are joking, aren't you? There's no way I'm sleeping out here, we'll get trampled in the morning! Not to mention the comments we'll get in the morning..."

"Well, what other choice have we got? We're shut out."

I thought about it. He was right - we didn't have any other choice. I sighed.

"OK - but I don't think we should sleep. We should just sit out here until the Fat Lady gets back." Remus nodded.

"Right...where shall we sit, then?"