Simply Moony

A week later, we were all sitting in the common room. Kacia was perched on Sirius' knee - as I'd predicted, everything was back to normal in their wiggy idea of paradise. To everyone's surprise, though, there had been no big row, just a quiet discussion, which from what Kacia told me was a lot of Sirius apologising and denying rumours. James and Lily sat next to each other, their hands loosely linked. Peter was struggling with his Potions homework, and Remus was nowhere to be seen.

I sat cross-legged in a chair, watching Sirius, who seemed to be dying to tell everyone something.

"Is something wrong?" I asked him. He looked at me.

"Er - no, I just had an idea..."

At this, James' head turned sharply and he looked at Sirius.

"What about?"

"Well...Kacia, will you move, please? I can't explain properly with you sitting on me..."

Glowering only slightly, Kacia got up and dropped into a seat next to him. Sirius leaned forwards.

"It's a bit more risky than usual - if we get caught, we're dead - but it's probably the best thing I've ever thought of."

"You always say that," Peter put in, looking up from his homework.

"Yeah, and I'm always right. My ideas get better, I'll be at genius level soon. Anyway. Here's what we do..." Sirius looked around and lowered his voice. "Me and James sneak down to the kitchens about twenty minutes before dinner, wearing the Invisibility Cloak. When we get there, James stays under the Cloak, so it looks like I'm the only one there. I talk to the house-elves, distract them for their work - and whilst I'm doing that, James sneaks over to the food for the Slytherin table and sprays the food with Love Potion."

"So when they start eating -"

"They'll all be besotted with each other!" Sirius finished. He was grinning again, and so were James and Peter. Lily, however, looked as sour and disapproving as a manky lemon.

"And how, may I ask, are you going to brew a Love Potion? The ingredients aren't exactly basic, you know!"

"We just break into -" Sirius' face fell. "Oh."

"Exactly. If any of you lot get caught near there again, you'll be in trouble before you've even started!"

"Well, we just get someone with a clean record to do the stealing," James shrugged. He looked at Kacia. "What about you?"

"Nope, my record's anything but clean. The amount of times I've been caught out of bed - and then of course there's the time that I accidentally turned Professor McGonagall purple."

I grinned at the memory - well, until all heads turned towards me. My heart sank.

"No."

"Oh, please, Chloe!" Sirius begged. "We need you!"

"Well - what about Peter?" I suggested weakly.

"We always get Peter to do it, it's too suspicious!"

"Oh, go on, Chlo," Kacia said. "You're the only one with a completely clean record." I sighed.

"OK, I'll do it."

***

"Right - you're sure you know what to do?"

"For the tenth time, yes!" I said exasperatedly. "You put some undiluted Bubotober pus in your potion. It bubbles up, fizzes everywhere, then explodes. I take advantage of the chaotic situation and go and steal the ingredients for the Love Potion."

"Good," Kacia said approvingly. She glanced at her watch. "Right - I'll do it in exactly five minutes. Be ready, OK?"

"OK."

We'd set up our equipment quite near the storeroom door, so I'd easily be able to slip in and get what I needed. I watched Kacia take the bottle of Bubotober pus (stolen from Herbology, the previous lesson) from her pocket, look around to check that nobody was looking, and pour the whole lot into her cauldron.

The effect was instantaneous. Kacia's potion - perfectly brewed so far - began to fizz and bubble. Professor Equitas, the Potions teacher, came rushing over, shouting at Kacia for about two seconds before the whole cauldron exploded. Equitas was a short, irritable man who always favoured the Slytherins - which meant that his name, meaning fairness, was very unsuited to him.

I'd known it would explode, but I didn't know it would be such a big explosion. Everyone shrieked as the potion - a particularly difficult Colour-Change Potion - splattered everywhere. I slipped unnoticed into the storeroom, quickly got the correct ingredients, and then came out again to see Kacia with a bright pink face, and a couple of weird bumpy spot things from the Bubotober pus.

Well, that was it. I couldn't stop laughing.

"It's not funny!" she snapped over her shoulder, as she hurried to the front of the classroom for some antidote.

I was still laughing as we went back up to the Common Room. The worst of the colour and the spots had gone, but some pinkness still lurked around her cheeks, making it look as though she was blushing.

It was lunch, but we'd all agreed to meet in the Common Room to fine-tune the plan. It was funny - I'd hardly even spoken to Sirius, James and Peter until Remus and I had become "an item." They'd somehow worked out that I was the best at Potions out of the seven of us, so I was the one chosen to brew the Love Potion. Wonderful.

We went straight up to the boys' dorm. Sirius was practically jumping around the room; James and Lily were, um, busy, and Remus and Peter were discussing the upcoming Quidditch match between Slytherin and Hufflepuff.

"Got the ingredients?" Sirius asked us, the moment we went in.

"Oh, nice to see you too," Kacia commented. Sirius ignored her, and looked hopefully at me.

"I've got them here," I said, pulling the bag from my robes. Sirius got even giddier (if that was possible).

"Sirius, will you calm down?" Lily said. "It might not even work."

"Of course it'll work," Kacia snapped. "Why wouldn't it?" Lily remained silent, her cheeks slightly pink (not unlike Kacia's, although Lily's weren't the effect of a Colour-Change Potion).

"Right," Sirius began. "Now that we're all here, I just want to go over what'll happen at dinner. We do not, under any circumstances, mention the plan at the dinner table. We remain calm and act as though everything is normal. Then, when the Slytherins start to eat, the potion will kick in. Don't laugh until others start to laugh, that way you won't look at all suspicious. Understood?"

We all nodded. Sirius turned to me.

"Chloe, I want you to start brewing that potion as soon as possible. I don't care how you do it, just find a way." I nodded. "Lily, you're going to have to help her."

"I don't think -" Lily began, but James interrupted her.

"Nobody is going to know it was you," he told her. "Just do it, OK?" Lily stared at him for a moment, and then sighed.

"All right. I'll help."

"Remus, I need you to go down to the kitchens - find out for definite which one the Slytherin table is in the kitchen. I think it's the opposite way round to the Great Hall, but I don't know for sure." Remus nodded.

"What about me?" Kacia said. Sirius hesitated, but only for a moment.

"You can help Chloe and Lily with the Love Potion. Try and find a way to make it as strong as possible. Well - I think that's everything. As soon as the potion's finished, we'll put the plan into action."

As I was about to leave, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to see Remus. He pulled me to one side, waited until everyone had left, and then closed the door.

"Well, I know we haven't been uninterrupted for a while, but this is a bit extreme, isn't it?" I smirked. "Or can you just not wait to have me to yourself?"

"The second one," he said, sitting on his bed against the pillows. He gestured to the space next to him. "Come and sit down."

"So now you can't wait to get me into bed?" I smiled, kicking off my shoes and leaning against the pillows beside him.

"On the bed, Chloe, not in it," Remus corrected. "You have a very gutter-ish mind, don't you?"

"I know. Sorry."

"What lessons have you got this afternoon?" I thought for a moment.

"Er...just Charms, and then a free period. Why?"

"I thought we could go for a walk in the grounds. Just the two of us."

"Good idea. I should start on that Love Potion really, but I presume that Lily and Kacia will be able to handle it."

"That's if they haven't torn each other to pieces by then."

The bell rang, and my stomach growled loudly.

"Bugger - we've been here all lunch! I'm starving."

"So I heard," Remus grinned. "Well, tell you what, we'll go to the kitchens and get some food off the house-elves after Charms."

"Will they give us some?"

"They practically throw it at you. Now come on, we'll be late."

We shared a kiss, then set off down to Charms.