Without Warning

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Moony Knows Best

"So then I said, well if you wanted the toad, why din choo just say so!"

Hoots of laughter escaped from Sirius' drunken mouth as he listened intently to Indigo's equally drunken tale unfold.

They were now sitting on the ground behind the same bush that had been used as a concealment dvice from earlier, both slugging away on their flasks respectively.

Sirius sighed loudly. "You know, I'm glad this happened."

Indigo smirked mid-swig. "That what happened?"

"This! This situation. Otherwise my night would have been completely worthless and completely...sober."

Obviously he'd gotten over his drunken tantrum somewhere along the lines...

"What's so great about this situation?"

The flask Sirius was holding to his lips faltered as he met her eyes. Pausing for a second, he then said rather gruffly, "Firewhiskey."

Indigo grinned. "Well, I'm glad I could be of some assistance, Black."

"Oh no. I assure you, the pleasure is all -"

"Shh."

"What?" Sirius murmured, looking at her.

"Shush!" Indigo grabbed his arm abruptly to hush him.

"What?" he hissed indignantly

"Someone's coming."

They both sat stock-still as they heard footsteps clunk against the paved stone of the courtyard. Slowly and quietly, she peeked through the leaves of the bush and suddenly gasped.

"Who is it?" Sirius whispered.

"Peter," groaned Indigo. "Be quiet will you - I don't want him to find me."

She obviously had no idea whom she was asking to be quiet.

Looking over at Sirius, her face fell into an alarmed expression as he grinned menacingly.

"Don't you dare, Black!" she warned.

He winked and opened his mouth.

"P - mmfmm."

It transpired that Indigo's reflexes were not affected at all by her drunken state and that her hand was faster than Sirius' tongue in drunken situations. She clasped her hand tightly around his mouth and relished in the fact that for once she had been faster than Black's notoriously fast mouth, which when sober ran at about a mile a minute.

Hand still in place, she chanced another peek through the leaves and saw Peter scuffing his shoe on the pavers; doodling in circles and heading slowly back towards the entrance. Beside her, Sirius was struggling to free himself from her grasp.

"Stop it!"

"Mmffmhnnd!"

"Wow, that's the most intelligent thing you've said all night, Black. That's something to be proud of, that is."

He scoffed sarcastically at her and struggles violently to free himself, but to no avail.

Sirius quirked an eyebrow.

She raised one back.

Suddenly, he jumped to his feet, taking her with him.

She wasn't a Quidditch player for nothing, however. She fastened her hand securely back around him in a type of headlock.

He yelped then scowled at her. As she grinned at her own genius, he grabbed her arm with both his hands and thrust her backwards.

Unfortunately she was still clinging to him and before she knew what was happening, they both toppled back into the bush, legs and arms flailing everywhere.

"Argh, geroff!" Sirius yelped as she landed on top of him and in the process elbowed him severely in the ribs.

"Shut up!" Indigo demanded, lying stock still on top of him.

This time he actually did what she asked - possibly only because of her sharp elbows, but still. They lay there in silence in the positions they had landed, Indigo tangled on top of him, listening for any movement.

Peter's footsteps could be heard faintly, finally leaving the courtyard.

After a few more hasty seconds of looking into the pitch-blackness, Indigo looked down at Sirius and flushed as she realised the predicament they were in. They were so close she could feel his breath on her neck.

"Now will you get off me McKinnon? Normally I wouldn't mind a gorgeous woman lying all over me but you're sort of cutting off the oxygen supply to my brain."

Her mouth gaped like a goldfish as she registered what he had just said, before she stuttered, stammered then finally scoffed. Feverishly she rolled off of him and onto her back on the ground beside him.

"That was...so close," she panted, with her eyes closed and her hands resting on her chest, which was emitting a fast, rhythmic beating. Though whether it was from the stress of having Peter potentially find her or from lying on top of Sirius Black, she could not decide.

Sirius propped himself up on an elbow, shifting on to his side to face her.

"What's so bad with Peter anyway?"

Indigo sighed. "Must we go into this?"

"I never knew you were so shallow, McKinnon."

Indigo snorted as she lay there with her eyes still closed. "Please! This coming from the guy who has won the Mr-Shallowness-Of-The-Year award since birth!"

"What can I say, some of us are just born with the talent."

"I'm not shallow," she said more seriously.

He scoffed.

"Peter's just not my type, all right?"

"Well then. Pray tell McKinnon, who is your type?"

Her eyes flew open and slowly, she turned onto her side to see him still propped up on his side, raising a questionable eyebrow and grinning cheekily.

Was it just the alcohol, or was he flirting with her? Well, in his defence he was an infamous flirter anyway. But was he actually genuinely flirting with her?

Hmm, maybe her trusty Firewhiskey tactic would save her night after all.

***************

"So explain to me again, how on earth did you know about the Funky Chicken dance? I thought it was a complete Muggle thing." Lily looked up at James quickly and smiled before looking away again.

It was strange, they'd been dancing together all evening, which meant they'd had their arms draped around each other for most of the time, but for some reason they were still acting shy. Lily kept avoided eye contact with him for prolonged periods of time, preferring to look over his shoulder at the scenery. This didn't seem to bother James much however, as he seemed to be doing the exact same thing.

Maybe it was a mark of how much they liked each other.

Or perhaps James had a certain prank playing on his mind. At that moment though, Lily had his full attention.

"Well it really is a rather embarrassing story. I blame it all on Sirius, of course."

Lily snorted. "Seems like Sirius is a good excuse for most of the situations you get yourself into."

"Well what else is he good for?" James grinned and shifted his arms slightly, which were slung around her waist.

Lily grinned, then looked away, biting her lip.

James smiled momentarily at her flushing cheeks then looked back over her shoulder, noting that Alice Fletcher was dancing with ... Frank Longbottom. Then where was Sirius? He was obviously preoccupied somewhere, otherwise he would have been right there on the dance floor, telling Longbottom where to shove his wand. James swivelled them round as he looked from one side to the other in the hope of spotting Sirius somewhere.

"Er, James?" Lily asked.

"Mmm?"

"I hate to break it to you, but this isn't exactly how the Tango goes, if that's what you're trying to do."

"Huh?"

"Well, you just seem to be doing a lot of swishing and turning from side to side."

"Oh...oh, no. No, I was just wondering where Sirius was. I can't see him anywhere."

James breathed in sharply as she leant into him and stretched her head over his shoulder. He turned his head towards her, smelling the scent of her hair again like he had that day at Hogsmeade.

Lily blushed furiously as she felt the skin of his cheek graze against her own.

"Er, yeah!" she said feverishly. "He's definitely not in here."

Come to think of it, she hadn't seen Indigo for a while either.

She went to lean back off him, but he moved his hand up from her waist to the flat of her back, keeping him close to her.

Oh god, what did she do now? He'd made a move for crying out loud. He'd just pulled her in so tightly to him she could feel the warmth radiating from the curve of his neck. She better say something memorable, she thought.

"Er, lovely evening, isn't it?"

Lovely evening isn't it?! What the hell was that?!

"Mmm," he murmured in reply, resting his chin against the side of her temple. He couldn't believe he was being so forward and she wasn't throttling him. The thing was, he'd been waiting for this moment for so long. She didn't seem to mind, either.

She relaxed slightly, letting her cheek settle on his shoulder. Sighing contentedly, she turned her head, facing in towards his neck and breathed in what she had come to know as the James smell.

After the initial shock of being so close to one another, they were beginning to realise that this felt very normal, very familiar. They relished in each other's warmth - they'd never felt so at ease before.

James looked up again as someone caught his eye.

It was Bellatrix, dancing over the other side of the floor with that git, Lestrange.

James swivelled around in the hope of finding Sirius, but to no avail. Sirius was nowhere to be found. In fact, James was sure his best friend was probably lying drunk in some bush in the courtyard or something. Damned Firewhiskey.

James did however, know that Remus would have his eyes peeled and be prepared for the signal. Remus was always on the alert.

As he began to figure out how he could steer their dancing over in order to get close enough to Bellatrix, there was a bright flash across the enchanted ceiling.

"Whoa, look - a shooting star!"

"Where?"

James reached his hand in the air and pointed it out to Lily.

This was definitely a bad move. A 'numb-skull move' would be what Sirius would have called it. But with Sirius out of action, and Remus standing by, James' innocent gesture had caused a complete lack of understanding.

James cringed as he heard a loud whizzing noise swishing over their heads. The Zonko's products let rip through the air, hurtling down towards Lily.

"No," squeaked James.

"Wh-?" Lily's query was suddenly cut off by a loud 'splodging' noise that smattered on top of her head.

"Argh!" Lily shrieked as the room gasped, all eyes rounding onto her stinky, slimy form.

"Oh shit," muttered James.

She was momentarily stunned, but managed to look up at him and growl. "This was your doing, wasn't it?"

**************

"So let me get this straight. Basically, what you're saying is that you like bad boys."

"No! I didn't insinuate that at all!"

Sirius gave her a look.

"Well, maybe just a little bit," Indigo paused thoughtfully. "But it's not like I want some Death Eater in training or anything!"

"And I'm sure Peter isn't one of those either, so what's the problem again?"

Indigo looked at Sirius coyly. "I just don't like him...I have other...I mean, there is...I have other prospects, all right Black?"

"Ooh, sounds intriguing...Who?"

"You know, for someone who is so against 'girly chats' you seem to be a rather large gossip."

Indigo grinned as Sirius let out a hearty laugh. It was quite surprising actually; she'd never made him laugh like that before.

"Stop putting me off the scent. Who is this lover boy of yours?"

"He's not my lover boy."

"Okay. Well what house is he in? Do I know him? Do I know of him?" He paused for effect. "Is he a Ravenclaw snoot?"

Indigo frowned slightly and picked at the ground with a twig.

"Oh god, he's not a Slytherin is he? I forbid you to coerce with the enemy, McKinnon!"

"Oh shut up, Black, of course he's not a Slytherin."

"Well at least he's a he..."

"What?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well I always thought that you were rather..." Sirius trailed off and grinned. Indigo threw her twig at him and he chuckled.

"Look, if you really want to know who it is, I guess I'll just -"

"ARGH!"

"What the hell was that?" Indigo asked urgently.

"I don't know, it sounded like it came from inside the Hall. C'mon." Sirius jumped drunkenly to his feet and grabbed her arm in order to pull her to her feet. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Nice firm grip you've got there, Black," she said as she rose to be eye-level with him.

"Don't you know it." His grey eyes gleamed cheekily back at her.

********

Lily looked through her slime-ridden, stringy hair that was now smothering her face, and straight into James' eyes.

James, who looked absolutely horrified, flinched slightly as she glared at him.

"Lily...oh god...I didn't...it wasn't - "

"Save it! Just...I can't believe...you...Well done. Very funny. You got me. Congratulations. You've really out-shone yourself this time."

"Oh, Merlin," Sirius muttered to Indigo, whom was gaping at the scene playing out before them.

"No, Lily...I-"

"Don't touch me!" She screeched as James advanced towards her with a napkin clutched in his hand. "Just...don't come near me, Potter!"

James stopped dead in his tracks. She'd called him Potter. This was not a good sign.

"Lily, you have to believe me, I -"

"Don't even try to explain, Potter. Don't waste your breath. I've heard this story so many times before. I'm sick of it. It's got old really fast."

"Please Lily, just -"

"NO, Potter! Stay the hell away from me!" She looked at him hard, shaking her head. "Ugh, I can't believe it. What was I thinking?!"

With one last glare, she turned on her heel and marched through the crowd of on-lookers.

If her feelings for him could have been physical objects, they would currently lie shattered on the ground.

"I better go," Indigo muttered hurriedly to Sirius, who nodded.

James watched Lily go, suppressing his feelings as they tried to bubble to the surface. He heard faint footsteps clambering up behind him.

"Prongs," Remus panted. "I'm so sorry. It's just I thought you were giving the signal and so I just assumed it was Bellatrix, but if I'd looked I - "

"S'okay, Moony, "James smiled miserably, as Sirius arrived beside him. "It's finished now. It's over."

"What?!" Remus and Sirius yelped in unison.

"It's over. She'll never forgive me again. I've blown my last chance," said James dejectedly, as he sat down on a nearby chair.

Sirius looked at him hard, lost for words. "Well then...well...good! She was nothing but trouble anyway."

James stared up at his best friend. "You think so? Really?"

"Well, I -"

"No!"

Both Sirius and James turned to Remus.

"No. James, look. You have had this thing for her since as long as I care to remember. I thought you'd get over her eventually, but you haven't. Your desire has just grown stronger. Doesn't that tell you something? Tonight, I saw this electricity between the two of you. I know you felt it too. Do you want that to die, Prongs?"

James looked down at his feet. Sirius continued to gape.

"You have to go after her," Remus said.

"Yes," said Sirius faintly, after a moment. "Yes...yeah. He's right, Prongs. Go...Run!"

James looked from Sirius to Remus slowly. Then, without a word, he jumped to his feet and sprinted from the hall.

"Well ... that went well!" Sirius nudged Remus in the ribs.

"We'll talk about you dishing out advice again later," muttered Remus, watching the back of James' retreating head.