Deja Vu

Chapter 4 - After Easter

Sirius, James, Peter, and Lily,

Did you have a good Easter holiday? Mine was really good; my uncle taught me to fish and my aunt showed me how to make double chocolate chip cookies. I read a few really good books, and just hung out. It was rather fun, actually. What did everyone else do? I have messages for you all...

Lily: Was Petunia really scared of Sirius and Peter all holiday?

Sirius: I love you, and I missed you loads.

James: You forgot your entire stack of chocolate frog cards, so I rescued them from the clutches of a few rather over-ambitious third years. I'll give them to you later.

Peter: What was that owl all about? I know you mentioned something about Petunia and a shower, but I couldn't make most of it out. Your handwriting is terrible. No offence.

Remus.

Moony,

Hey, yeah I know. I was really annoyed about it, because my cousins came over and they were all swapping cards and most of the ones they needed were the ones I had about eight of and they had the ones I needed. I was going to owl you and ask you to send them along, but my mum was owling her friends constantly all holiday. Personally, I think it was because my aunts were driving her crazy, but I could be wrong... anyway, it was a really good two weeks off school nonetheless.

- Prongs.

R - Hi. I love you too. I missed you so much over the hols. Glad to be back, although it was really fun scaring Lily's sister. Her parents were well over the top about the whole magic thing; they treated us like royalty, or celebrities. It was so cool. I promise to make up for my absence later, if you see what I'm getting at.

- Sirius B.

Remus,

Hey, I'm glad you had a good holiday. I did too, except for the incident with the shower of course. Basically, what happened was that Petunia (Lily's sister, you know) was in the shower and didn't lock the door and I walked in and she didn't exactly have anything on. Not that I'm complaining, only... well, it's Lily's sister, isn't it? If you can make cookies now, do you want to make us some (hint, hint!)?

Peter.

Remus,

Yes, thanks, I had a good holiday. I'm glad you did as well. You should have come with us to my house. Petunia would have been even worse. She spent a while in hysterics, but then she realized we couldn't do magic outside of school and she calmed down a bit. Sirius spent the majority of his time using her as a surrogate-Severus Snape; pulling tricks on her here, there and everywhere, He picked the lock of the bathroom door when she was in the shower and Peter walked in on her. She spent the remainder of the day giving Peter the funniest looks, and he was bright red. Sirius was just giggling to himself for ages and ages. Anyway, I will talk to you later. How come we have a lesson straight away anyway?

Lily.

Lily,

I don't know, but it's Transfiguration with McGonagall, so we'd better be discreet with the notes.

See you later.

Remus.

Severus,

Hi, how are you? Did you have a good holiday? Mine was quite good for the most part, but not altogether brilliant. Do you realize that in a few months we'll be through with school? It's nearly the end of seventh year. Don't you think the time has gone fast?

Lily.

Lily: Yes, I noticed the time going quickly quite recently. It feels strange to be leaving, doesn't it? My holiday wasn't bad; I spent it at Malfoy Manor with Lucius, and we were attempting to recreate several pranks on his gardener, which terrified the man. When we left he was extremely twitchy, I must say.

Severus.

L - Hey, how are you? I just wanted to apologize again for what happened at the beginning of the Easter holidays. I was completely out of order, and it shouldn't have happened. I'm so, so sorry.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

Don't worry about it; no real harm was done, was it? Anyway, as long as neither James nor Remus ever find out, it'll be fine. We'll just be mates again, like before. You'll see, Sirius, it'll be ok. You're forgiven, but it wasn't entirely your fault, as I've told you countless times.

Lily.

L - Even though, I still feel responsible. Don't you think they'll notice that something's not right? If we tell them, they'll understand. We could just explain that sometimes things happen and we have no control over them. But, yeah, we can be friends again.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

They'd understand, sure, after a while, but it would break their hearts. Remus really loves you, and I think James loves me, and they don't deserve to be treated like that. We should just pretend it never happened.

Lily.

L - Ok, let's pretend it never happened. What never happened? See, I've already forgotten. Sorry. It's a good idea, though. Let's say nothing ever happened between us and we're just friends.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

That's fine with me. Ok, I'm going to stop writing to you now, so don't reply to this. Just nod so that I know you got it. Thanks.

Lily.

Wormtail,

What's all this I hear about you and Petunia Evans, then? Apparently, *something* happened between the two of you over the holidays (Padfoot's words, not mine). So spill.

- Prongs.

James,

Nothing happened, as you so nicely put it. I walked in on her in the shower, is all. We didn't *do* anything, not that it's anyone's business but our own. Anyway, no, nothing happened.

Peter.

Wormtail,

Ok, I believe you. No need to bite my head off about it. I'm sorry I mentioned it, it's just Padfoot says you're not exactly talking to him, so I thought I'd find out.

- Prongs.

James,

Well, nothing did. I'm sorry. I'm talking to him, why does he think I'm not?

Peter.

P - Hey, look, I'm sorry about that. I thought you weren't speaking to me because on the train back to Hogwarts you kept looking at me funny and didn't say a lot. I guess I was wrong. My bad.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

No, that was because my mind was being overly suspicious and... but it doesn't matter now. So we're still mates, right?

Peter.

PP: Hello, so I see you didn't bother turning up to the meetings during the holidays, then. Why? I thought you wanted to be a Death Eater; you said you wanted to prove to yourself and to your so-called friends that you could be good at something. Apparently, you were wrong. If you can't show up to even one meeting, maybe you're not ready to become one the Dark Lord's followers. Maybe there's still too much Gryffindor in you.

: Lucius.

Lucius,

You know I want to follow Him more than anything. I ended up going to Lily's house for the holidays and I couldn't really get away, could I? What was I going to say, "Oh, sorry, you don't mind if I just go out to kill a few Muggles such as yourselves, do you?" See, it's not that easy.

Peter.

PP: Fine, I see you have pledged your allegiance well. They're both Muggles? Whereabouts did you say they lived again? I'm sure our Master would be pleased to find out where the family of the amazing Lily Evans live. Maybe even pleased enough to make somebody a Death Eater... think about it.

: Lucius.

Lucius,

Really? They live in... but how am I to know you won't tell Him to earn yourself some bonus points? I'll tell Him myself, actually. Why exactly is He so interested in Lily, anyway?

Peter.

PP: He's going to kill her, you fool. The Potter's have Gryffindor blood in them, apparently, though I've never noticed anything special about them. As she's to marry Potter, she'll probably produce little Potter/Gryffindor heirs. He wants to kill them all off.

: Lucius.

Lucius,

They're my friends. I don't want to hurt them; I just want to prove that I can be as strong, as powerful, as them.

Peter.

PP: You want to join Lord Voldemort, yet you don't want to hurt people? They were your friends, past tense. You'll make new friends more powerful than them. You don't want to be friends with a bunch of worthless Gryffindors, do you? The only reason he wants you to stay 'friends' with them for the meantime is so that we can get as much inside information as we can. You're our spy, Pettigrew, and nothing more. Don't get such high hopes of yourself, or you'll be in for a mighty shock.

: Lucius.

Lucius,

It can't be as bad as seeing Lily's sister in the shower. Forget I said that. Ok, I'm happy with the arrangement we have, so... yeah, let's continue with that. I will get my Dark Mark, you'll see. Don't bother replying, as I'm not going to write back after this.

Peter.

James,

Hey, do you know if anything's wrong with Sirius? He's being quite distant and I think something's up, but I'm not sure what it is. Could you ask him? You're his best friend; he'll talk to you. Please just try, and if there's nothing wrong, I'll let the matter alone. Thanks.

Remus.

Moony,

I asked him and he just shook his head and muttered something along the lines of 'I'm fine, so bloody well sod off.' I think there is something up. Do you want to team up and find out what it is? I think there's something wrong with Lily, too, so you could help me figure that one out as well, if you like (and pick up on the major hint there, Moony!).

- Prongs.

James,

Sure, but what do you have in mind? If it's a prank of some sort, you'll have a hard time pulling it on Sirius; he's always suspicious. There's something wrong with Lily? Hmmm, that's strange. Maybe... well, James, you don't think that perhaps... no, forget it. What are you planning to do to find out?

Remus.

Moony,

When you start sentences, it's usually a good idea to finish them. You always start saying something and then end it with 'oh, no, forget it'. It's well annoying; I think your brain just works quicker than the rest of ours. Anyway, I don't know yet, but what was the rest of your little theory?

- Prongs.

James,

Well, they spent the holidays together, didn't they? They went to Lily's house with Peter. I just thought maybe something could have happened there. Since both of them are acting odd, you know. It's just a thought.

Remus.

Moony,

Lily wouldn't do that. You know she wouldn't, and Padfoot would never do anything to hurt you, or even me for that matter. I think you're completely off the mark there, Moony. Sorry, but I really can't see that happening. They wouldn't. There's no way they would do that. Besides, Padfoot's with you; he's gay. Nothing would happen for that reason alone, let alone any of the others I've mentioned.

- Prongs.

James,

I didn't mean that. I know they would never do anything of the sort. I just meant that maybe they'd had a falling out over something, or something like that. I know nothing would ever happen between them. Speaking of people acting strange, have you noticed how odd Peter's been acting recently? Maybe there's something wrong with him, too. Which, by the way, makes all three people that visited Lily's house over Easter. You don't think they all had a massive fall-out, do you? Or, maybe, they all did something really bad, like steal something, mug someone, or use magic outside school. How are we going to find out, James?

Remus.

Moony,

Maybe you're right. Not about the stealing, mugging, and/or using magic thing, but about them falling out. Maybe they all had a huge argument. I think the best thing to do would be to interrogate them. Oh, McGonagall's coming round to see how we've done with our Transfiguration notes. It's funny how we're studying Animagi at the moment don't you think? I don't see why they bother, though; we already studied them in fifth and sixth year, so why again in seventh? Talk about things being odd!

- Prongs.

James,

I don't know. Don't write back, because I have nothing more to say, really. If I think of anything else, I'll write to you or talk to you later. Interrogation sounds like a good plan, yes.

Remus.

P - Hey, what are you up to? I'm bored. We've studied Animagi about a hundred times and it's all the same. I'm going to ask McGonagall a pointless question and see what she says... it has to be something she won't have an answer to, though. Any ideas? If you don't have any, pass it along and see whether anyone else does. Thanks.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

How about whether or not dinosaurs were magic? Or something about Merlin? You could waste time and ask her about Merlin's life story, but that doesn't really involve Transfiguration, does it? Lily says why don't you ask her how come they don't use Transfiguration as corporal punishment (like Transfiguring off their limbs and switching bits around and stuff), or something? Good luck, it sounds like a good idea, and she can't give you detention for asking a question, can she?

Peter.

P - Ok, thanks. Tell Lily I said thanks, too. I'm going to use her question, though, because it involves Transfiguration more and it's something I would probably ask normally, so McGonagall won't suspect much more than usual. Ok, tell the others to watch the man in action.

- Sirius B.

Sirius,

What was all that about? Was there any point in that whatsoever? I thought Peter was joking when he showed me your note. We learnt something new, though; whoever would have guessed that the reason they don't is because they used to and it went a bit wrong, to say the least? McGonagall's descriptions were a bit graphic and overly vivid, don't you think? Maybe that was her way of letting you know she knew what you were up to, or something.

Lily.

L - I just got bored. We always study Animagi and I wanted something else to do. You know I have no patience whatsoever. Anyway, yes, you're right. We did learn something new, although I can't say it wasn't anything we couldn't have guessed for ourselves in a long enough time period. But you do have a point - she was a bit too descriptive. Bad mental images like that could scar us for life.

- Sirius B.

Remus,

Hey, how are you? Look, I just wanted to apologize if you think I've been a bit off with you lately. It wasn't intentional. I've just got a lot on my mind right now. Sorry.

Lily.

Lily,

I'm fine. That's ok; I figured you'd have a good enough reason. Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps to share problems, and you know I'm here if you want to talk. Did Sirius tell you anything about me over the holidays?

Remus.

Remus,

No. He said something early on about how you had given him permission to tell me something, but he never came out with it. I don't really want to talk about it, sorry. I'll sort it out soon, hopefully. Thanks for offering, though, and if I ever do need a shoulder to cry on, I know where to come.

Lily.

Lily,

Oh, ok. That's fine. I'm not going to force you. Well, the thing Sirius was trying to tell you is that I'm a werewolf. That doesn't change our friendship, does it? Nod across the room, because I'm not writing back after. I want to concentrate on Sirius' next pointless question to McGonagall.

Remus.

Remus,

Hey, I was going to nod, but I wanted to tell you that it doesn't change anything. You're a wonderful person and a brilliant friend. I don't think being a werewolf is anything to be ashamed of at all. Once a month most girls aren't so fun to be around, either.

Lily.