chapter
↳ six
moodboard
↳ marauders

-

"Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four . . ."

Sirius walked into the dormitory he shared with four other sixth year boys and paused as he saw a shirtless James Potter doing push-ups on the ground. "Wanna tell me what's going on, Prongs?"

James looked up, bashful, before losing his form and falling to the ground with a thud. "I thought you were Lily. She comes up with Remus around this time to study."

Sirius rose an eyebrow. He didn't question the fact that a girl was entering the dorms; they had figured out the counter-spell to the staircase years ago. No, he was more concerned with how his friend was going about trying to impress said girl. "You're seriously going to act like you were doing push-ups but forget the fake sweat? Also, fifty-two? These are fake, Prongs; step it up to the hundreds."

"Oh, Padfoot, what would I do without you?"

In short, that is how Lily and Remus happened upon a shirtless James Potter being doused in water by Sirius Black's wand as he called out, "How do my shoulders look, mate?"

"Pretty sexy from this angle," Sirius casually replied, cocking his head to one side to inspect James' form.

"What are you two doing?" Lily asked, finding it startling: the rate of speed James had suddenly adapted.

"Two hundred and forty-nine, two hundred and fifty. Wow, I think that's all I can take today, Padfoot."

Remus rolled his eyes. "We saw your little theatrical preparation beforehand, guys."

"Oh," James said, although he didn't look as embarrassed as one might think he would, dripping with cold water and wearing nothing but his uniform pants. "Well, thanks for the help, Padfoot. As I always say, even if it's late, appreciate!"

Remus sighed like a mother might after catching her child playing in the litter box. "James, put on a shirt before you catch a cold. Sirius, mop up all this water before someone slips on it. Speaking of, where's Wormtail?"

"He's in the owlery, I believe. His mother sent him fudge."

Remus' eyes lit up at the mention of chocolate, but he merely nodded at the information and sat down with Lily at the foot of his bed. "Listen, we've got a lot of studying to do for ancient runes so if you two could keep it down, that would be lovely."

The pair agreed, and James plopped onto his bed in a fresh tee shirt. He pulled his golden snitch out from his nightstand drawer and began tossing it into the air, catching it as it fell.

Sirius cleaned up the water with a simple drying spell before he sat down on his own bed, grabbing his favorite muggle motorcycle magazine and flipping through the pages.

For awhile, the only sounds that could be heard were the low murmurings of the two students, the buzz of James' snitch, and the flip of the magazine page. That was until Peter walked in, holding up a package triumphantly. "Mum brought the fudge!"

Everyone put their activities on pause and gathered around the chubby boy, who was very pleased to be the center of attention. He opened the tin and let everyone take their pick before he grabbed his own chocolate cube and sat down. "Guess who I saw in the common room?"

"Who?" James asked first, having already finished his first piece of fudge. He began to lick his fingers but Lily swatted his hand away and chided him before he could.

While James got up to get a napkin, Peter answered, "Benji. He told me he's finally going to ask Marlene out today."

"Alright, Benny!" Sirius whooped, nearly outshining Lily, whose reaction was further on the negative side: "What? He can't!"

"Why not?" Sirius asked. "Benji's a good kid."

"That's not what I meant," Lily pursed her lips together, "Marlene is ace. Well, aroace."

"Well, I think she's pretty great, too. I wouldn't say she's ace, though — "

"Oh shut up, James!" Lily said. "Marlene is asexual and aromantic. She's not into people. Like, at all."

Sirius frowned. "She doesn't even like cuddles?"

"She likes the platonic kind," Lily said, "Anyway, Benji is going to get rejected."

Remus reacted first. "I guess we should save some of this fudge for when he comes up here broken-hearted."

As if on cue, Benji Yoon strolled in, scratching the nape of his neck and sighing.

"Hey, Benji, we've got fudge!" Sirius said, hoping to cheer the boy up before he got too upset.

"I'm actually so stupid," Benji answered, walking towards his bed and falling face-first into the sheets. One would think he had gotten drama lessons from Sirius. Perhaps he had picked up the dramatic trait from rooming with the boy for so long.

"How were you supposed to know Marlene had the ole ace card up her sleeve?" Sirius said, rubbing Benji's back and simultaneously dodging the pillow Lily threw at him. "Just find a rebound. That's what I do when I can't get over a girl."

"That's why I'm stupid," Benji moaned, his voice muffled by his scarlet sheets. "Out of all the people I could've chosen as my rebound, I chose the one girl who doesn't date."

Sirius cringed visibly, his hand retracting from Benji's back. He gave Lily a frantic look, as if to say please handle this one, but Lily looked just as befuddled as he did.

"I didn't know you liked someone else, Benji," Sirius spoke in a softer voice.

"I don't just like her, I love her. But I feel like we're so far apart and she'll never want to date someone like me. That's why I told you I liked Marlene. I've been trying to force myself to move on." Benji huffed immaturely, only stopping to ask Sirius to keep rubbing his back. "It's comforting me in my time of emotional stress," he whispered.

"Maybe I can help," Sirius said. "I do have a lot of luck with the ladies."

James snorted and Remus let out a sarcastic, "Yeah, in an alternate reality," before Sirius glared at them to shut up.

Benji sat up finally, adjusting his robes. "Fine, help me if you want. It's Demetria Jones."

-

Peter walked back to Gryffindor's table, his once-full tin of fudge now empty, as he had passed them around to people during dinner, much to Remus' dismay. "Okay, the good news is that she's super nice and even offered to bake me fudge since I was sharing all of mine. The bad news is there's no way she's going to trust a word any of us say."

"Why not?" Sirius asked, biting his thumbnail as he scanned the Ravenclaw table. Benji had opted out of dinner, claiming he wasn't hungry, so the marauders figured now was the perfect time to figure out a way to get the two together.

Sirius had told them of that previous morning, where it seemed as if Demetria liked Benji back. Now all they needed to do was get one of them to confess. Since it seemed like Benji wasn't going to do that any time soon, they decided they had a better chance with the chatty ravenclaw.

"Have you forgotten?" Remus asked, slowly chewing his buttered roll. "Her best friend isn't too fond of Gryffindors."

Sirius broke out into a grin. "Ah, Millie. But she's Benji's twin sister, right? She'd be able to help us."

"D'you think she would?" Sirius followed James' gaze to the Slytherin table, where Millie was holding hands with Regulus under the table.

Sirius grinned. "Of course she would. Obviously, she can't resist the Black charm."

"Okay, so say we get Millie in on the plan," Remus said, ignoring Sirius' remark. "Then what do we do?"

"We get them to fight," Sirius answered immediately. "It'll release their sexual frustrations into the air and before we know it, they'll be making out in empty classrooms."

"As classy at that sounds," Remus said slowly, "Maybe we should try a different approach, like trapping them in a room together."

"That's cliché," James retorted. "Let's just all bail on them at the last minute and force them to spend time together."

"You are all horribly cliché and stupid," Lily interrupted their conversation. "Just become friends with Demetria and Millie. Then, when Benji hangs out with you all, he'll be forced to hang out with Demetria too. It'll be a natural progression."

"How will that help?" James pondered. "Why are you even in this conversation?"

Marlene sat beside Lily, nodding along at everything the redhead said. She had felt a bit bad about turning Benji down, but the news that she wasn't the one he truly liked made her feel a lot better. Better enough to want to help get Benji his true love. "It'll be less intimidating if there are a few girls in the friend group. We can help Demetria open up a bit more around Benji while you guys do the same with him."

"Also," Lily shot a teasing look towards James, "If my plan works, it looks like we'll be going to Hogsmeade with you guys."

James gulped. "You're in."

-

Millie wasn't really sure what to do when Benji intercepted her and Regulus' way to the common room. His frantic expression was enough for her, and she bid Regulus a quick goodbye before pulling her brother to the side. "Benji, what's wrong?"

"Many, many things, Sis. But most importantly, I just walked in on Lucinda Talkalot crying in the prefect's bathroom. I was going to take a soothing bath but she was blubbering like a baby and you know how I am when women start crying."

"Oh, I know." Millie studied her brother's panicky expression. She reminisced to the time in fourth year when she had gotten her heart broken for the first time, and Benji had nearly cried just seeing a single tear run down her face. "I'll go comfort her. Where's the prefect bathroom?"

"The fifth floor. You can't miss it."

"Alright, see you tomorrow, Benji."

"Yeah. We need a sibling catch up because I have a lot to tell you."

"You got it."

-

Either Benji was over exaggerating when he said Lucinda was blubbering, or the Slytherin quidditch captain had calmed down considerably since he had visited.

"Who's there?" Lucinda's voice echoed off the bathroom walls. "This is a prefect bathroom! Get out!"

"It's Millie!" Millie managed to say, afraid of Lucinda who had impeccable muscles and could lift nearly two-hundred pounds. She definitely didn't want to be on her bad side. "I come in peace."

Lucinda sniffed. Millie took it as a sign to keep talking, "Benji told me you were crying, and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Millie rounded the corner to see Lucinda, curled into a ball on the stone cold floor, staring at a very small muggle device.

"Is that . . . " Millie couldn't say it. She wasn't sure how to.

Lucinda squeezed her eyes shut, and a stray tear fell onto her cheek. "I missed my period so I asked my big sister back home to send me some. They're all positive, Millie. I'm pregnant."

Millie furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she lowered herself onto the ground, gathering the muscular seventh year into her arms as a mother would. "Do you . . . Do you know who the father is?"

Lucinda nodded into the crook of Millie's neck. "It's Martin, from Hufflepuff. Y'know, the chaser?"

Millie's eyes widened. Lucinda must've been the seventh year Demetria spoke of their first night back. Perhaps it wasn't a bet after all. Just two people happy to see each other again.

"My parents are going to kill me. I had this huge dream of becoming a cross fit champion, but my body is going to change too drastically with a baby. Then there's a matter of sending it off for adoption or keeping it with me. Martin is going to leave me as soon as he finds out."

"No," Millie cooed, patting down Lucinda's hair gently. "Martin's a good kid. I'm sure he'll want to support you."

Lucinda frowned. "I doubt it. What sixteen year old boy is going to support some girl he knocked up. We only just started dating during summer break, Millie!"

"Alright, calm down and I'll think of something."

"Don't bother," Lucinda said. "Tomorrow, I'm sending a letter to my parents as soon as I talk to Martin. What I really need is help keeping this a secret from our professors. They might kick me out."

"How do I do that?"

"I'll get morning sickness," Lucinda said. "I won't be able to captain quidditch practice in the mornings. I'm officially crowning you co-captain, who will act as captain in my absence."

Millie opened her mouth in shock. "Are you sure? That's a lot of responsibility to trust me with."

"The less people that know about my situation, the better."

"What do I tell Benji?" Millie whispered. "He was freaking out because you were crying."

Lucinda chuckled. "Your brother is so sweet. Just tell him I'm having mood swings, or some boy broke my heart."

"You got it." Both girls stood up then, and Millie turned to the taller girl with a gentle smile adorning her face, "Hey, Lucinda?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm always here if you need someone."

"Thanks, Millie."

-

a/n:

i bet you guys weren't expecting any of this (okay, maybe the benji/demetria thing)

now we're getting the plot rolling!

and don't be afraid to leave feedback on what you like/don't like abt the book! anything is appreciated!