disclaimer-We've recently decided to branch out and become co-owners of the Honey Sweet Corporation. As such, we own Honeykings and Honeyqueens (Honeybarons coming soon!). Sadly, however, we do not own Honeydukes. Or, in general, Harry Potter. 'Tis a sad day indeed.

Chapter Thirteen—Secrets and Spies

Dorcas Meadowes was by no means a pessimistic person, far from it, in fact. However, she also wasn't the world's most optimistic person, either. Indeed, it was quite hard to be optimistic when your best friend happened to be one Marlene McKinnon. That isn't to say that Dorcas didn't positively adore her best friend, because she did. It was just…Marlene could be a bit…much at times, especially when the tiny redhead was running solely on caffeine, which happened to be the case far too often for Dorcas' liking.

And this was why Dorcas couldn't help but let her optimistic side take over one Thursday morning, towards the beginning of November. After being woken up by Marlene jumping on her, having to take Marlene to Professor McGonagall to heal her broken collar bone, and having Marlene run off on a mad search for coffee with Sirius, Dorcas couldn't help but optimistically begin to believe in miracles when she and Remus successfully snuck into the large breakfast room in the hotel, unnoticed by both Marlene and Sirius. That isn't to say of course that Dorcas wouldn't have positively loved to have eaten breakfast with her best friend and Sirius. It's just…she also knew that it was best to take breaks from those two whenever possible, especially in public places where they were prone to cause mass chaos with barely any effort at all.

So, in short, Dorcas was quite happy to be enjoying a nice, quiet, peaceful breakfast with just Remus on their first morning in Florida.

If Dorcas hadn't been neglecting her pessimistic side, however, she would have known that it was too good to last.

"Oi! Dorcas! Moony! Where are you?" A loud voice yelled, causing a majority of the occupants in the room to turn to the entrance, where James was standing, Lily slightly behind him, shaking her head with a bemused expression on her face.

"PRONGS!" Sirius hollered from the other side of the room. "YOU AND MRS. PRONGS SHOULD COME SIT WITH ME AND MARS!"

"OK! JUST LET ME FIND MOONY AND DORCAS FIRST!" James hollered back. "I PROMISED DORCAS I WOULD SEE HER LATER AT BREAKFAST!"

At this point, Lily smacked James' arm lightly. "'Mrs. Prongs'?" She questioned lightly, though there was a gleam in her eyes that made James slightly afraid for his life.

"Ah…yes…" James said slowly. "You see…er…I do believe Sirius has already ingested more than his fair share of coffee already this morning, so he—and more importantly I—can't really be held accountable for anything he says, or calls anyone."

"I see…" Lily said slowly, still with that look in her eyes. Then, a giant grin lit up her face and she grabbed James' hand. "Shall we go join them for some breakfast, then?"

Meanwhile, whilst James and Sirius had been having a lovely conversation with each other across the room, Marlene had been busy scanning the room in search of her best friend and the sandy-haired boy who always seemed to be her constant companion when she wasn't with Marlene. It was as Lily and James were beginning their own ahem conversation, that she finally spotted them. And, of course, now that she knew they were in fact in the room, she had no choice but to invite them to join her and Sirius at their table.

"DORCA!" Marlene practically screamed, causing Dorcas' shoulders to slump in defeat. So much for going under the radar… "YOU AND MOONY SHOULD COME SIT WITH US!"

"Maybe they'll be quieter if we join them?" Remus suggested in such a way that Dorcas knew that he didn't even believe himself.

"The peace was nice while it lasted," Dorcas said by way of reply.

Much to Dorcas, Remus, and Lily's immense surprise, the meal did proceed in quieter tones once all six of them were settled at the table with food on their plates. Although, this might have had more to do with the fact that Professor McGonagall had entered the room shortly thereafter, with their muggle studies professor trailing not far behind. The aforementioned muggle studies had a rather hopeful expression on her face, but it quickly disappeared once her eyes alighted on the table containing Sirius. So McGonagall had been telling the truth after all…

Remus was in the midst of a discussion with Lily about an upcoming exam they had in Ancient Runes when James suddenly dropped his fork and pointed at the sandy-haired boy.

"You!" He exclaimed, looking as if he had just had an epiphany.

"Me?" Remus questioned, pausing mid-sentence in his conversation with Lily.

"And you!" James pointed at Dorcas now.

"We have names, James," Dorcas said patiently.

"Hehe, and you rhyme, Dorca," Marlene said with an overly cheerful giggle, causing Sirius to start giggling as well. Dorcas knew she should have chased after them earlier to make sure they didn't get any caffeine... Oh well, too late now.

"But…you-Moony!" James exclaimed. "You two! Neither of you denied it! That means I was right!"

"Right about what?" Dorcas questioned, more than a tad confused at this point.

"James, dear, are you alright?" Lily asked, concerned about her boyfriend. James, for once in his life, ignored her in favor of answering Dorcas' question.

"You and Moony!" James said triumphantly. "You're…dating."

Remus choked on the bite of scrambled egg that he had just taken while Sirius spit out his coffee (thankfully missing everyone).

"What?" Sirius yelped while Marlene was staring at her best friend in shock. "Moony and Dorcas? Dating? What are you talking about, Prongs?"

"And how could you not tell me about this?" Marlene demanded, directing her question at the blonde girl across from her. "Since when have you been dating Moony, Dorca?"

Remus and Dorcas did not answer immediately, preferring the deer-in-headlights look over verbal communication.

"Never mind that for a moment," Lily said, "How was James, of all people, the one to figure it out?"

"You wound me, Lilyflower," James announced dramatically. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to do that anymore? And besides, it was fairly simple to figure out. They're Remus and Dorcas. Obviously they're meant to be together."

"That is pretty much a given," Sirius agreed.

"But how did you know, James?" Marlene pressed. "Other than the obvious that they're meant to be together—and honestly, you two, don't even try to ever deny that. Your mutual—and crazed—love of sarcasm alone makes you perfect for each other."

"Well," James said slowly, drawing out the monosyllabic word as long as possible before continuing, "After the simply charming discussion we had this morning about yours and Sirius' sleeping arrangements last night, Dorcas took it upon herself to physically assault me and I may have referred to her as Moony's girlfriend, which I only just realized that he never denied. Therefore, they really are dating."

At this (not entirely sound) logic, the thus far silent couple, practically as one, let out sighs of defeat.

"You were bound to find out eventually," Remus admitted. "I mean—we were going to tell you…when we got around to it. I guess we've been talking about it so much lately, that I didn't even register that James referred to Dorcas as my girlfriend earlier. Also, just for the record, I'm pretty sure poking someone doesn't fall into any category of physical assault, James."

"You were going to tell us eventually?" Lily repeated, drowning out James' protests. "How long have the pair of you been dating?"

"A while," Dorcas said with a shrug, taking a sip of her orange juice.

"How long is 'a while'?" Marlene asked suspiciously.

"A year and a half?" Dorcas looked to Remus for confirmation, who nodded his agreement.

Once again, they were all greeted with the oh-so-wonderful sight of Sirius spitting out his coffee.

"And you're only just telling me, your best friend in the entire world, now?" Marlene demanded at the same time Lily incredulously questioned, "That long?"

"Oh come off it, you lot. Did you honestly think we were always studying when we 'went to the library?' How much studying do you think two people need to do?" Remus asked.

"You lied to us?" Sirius asked incredulously. "I feel like I don't even know you anymore, Moony! Clearly we can't be friends anymore."

"What a tragedy," Remus replied dryly. "Somehow, I have a feeling that you'll get over it. And before we know it, you'll be bouncing around, completely high off of the sugar and caffeine that you'll inevitably sneak in under my nose."

"Hmm…" Came Sirius' thoughtful response. He turned to Marlene. "Mars, do you suppose Moony is a Seer?"

"I think it would be awfully nice if he was," Marlene replied. "Because then it means that all of our future endeavors to sneak in contraband will be successful! Honestly Moony, finding this out about you is almost worth you and Dorca being so dreadful and secretive."

"You two are hopeless," Remus declared, slumping against the table—an action that was both a result of his ongoing despair over Marlene and Sirius in general and also the fact that he was quite tired as the aforementioned pair had disturbed his slumber so rudely that morning. Dorcas patted him consolingly on the shoulder.

"Do you think he's broken?" James asked with visible concern, when Remus made no move to sit up again. "Because, personally, I'd love to take advantage of his Seer abilities to find out if Gryffindor is going to dominate at Quidditch once again this year and thus win the House Cup."

Lily merely rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "Hopeless…all of you…"

"But that's why you love me, right?" James asked, grinning brightly at her.

"That's really not the point here," Marlene cut in, preventing any reply Lily may have had to that query. "The point," She said pointedly, "Is that Moony may in fact be broken. What on earth are we going to do now?"

"Chocolate," Sirius said immediately. "Duh. According to Moony, chocolate fixes just about everything. Obviously it will work now."

"An excellent suggestion," James stated. "Anyone know where the nearest Honeydukes is?"

"…No," Marlene said shortly. "This could be a problem."

"Clearly we need to find a map," Sirius said decisively.

"Um…you guys?" Lily interrupted them at this point.

"Yes, my dearest Lilyflower?" James asked.

"You do realize there's only one Honeydukes, right?" She asked. "I mean, yeah, there are also Honeykings and Honeyqueens, which are owned by the cousins of Mr. and Mrs. Honeyduke. But they're all in Great Britain. We're in America, remember? And muggle America at that. If you're really set on this plan, you're going to have to find some other kind of chocolate.'

"WHAT?" Remus was sitting fully upright once more. "'Some other type of chocolate?'—What kind of barbaric place is this?"

"Huh, you know," Sirius said thoughtfully. "I think we fixed him. I guess chocolate does have some magical healing properties that only Moony knows about if merely discussing the chocolate food group makes him better."

At this point, Dorcas and Lily exchanged glances that indicated just how much they agreed that all of their friends and/or significant others had lost it. Clearly time changes weren't good for any of them.

"I think it's about time we got going," Dorcas said swiftly, pushing her chair back from the table and standing up, Lily following close behind. "I'm sure it's almost time to be meeting the professors before we head out for the day."

"Yes, yes it is," Lily jumped in. "Let's just…let's go."

Five minutes later the six seventh years were all making their way out of the breakfast room. It was just as they reached the exit that a trio of girls, who all appeared to be about the same age as them, arrived there, too.

"Oh, hello," the lone brunette of the group said, stopping just short of the door. She gestured for them to go through it first. "You can go ahead."

"That's quite alright," Remus said politely, having recovered from his brief bout of insanity of just a few moments previously. "You can go first."

The brunette smiled widely at him. "Thank you," She said.

To the surprise of the Hogwarts students, the three girls stayed with them as they walked down the hallway to the hotel lobby.

"So," The brunette continued speaking, "Are you here on a school trip?"

"Yes, we are," Remus answered politely, while Sirius and Marlene (still more than slightly high on their contraband caffeine) gave her suspicious looks.

"That's so cool," The girl continued. She indicated herself and her two friends, "So are we. Where are you from?"

"We're all from England, but our school is in Scotland," Remus explained. "Where are you from?"

"Salem," The girl replied promptly. "Oh, and my name is Cecilia. And these are my friends Paige and Natalie."

"I'm Remus," the sandy-haired boy responded. "And this is Sirius, Marlene, James, Lily, and Dorcas."

"It's nice to meet all of you," Natalie said with a small smile.

"You too," Lily replied with a smile of her own. "So where are you headed for your trip?"

"Disney World," Paige stated. "It's for our Cultures of the World class."

"That's us as well, actually," Lily said.

"No it isn't," Sirius protested immediately, looking confused. "It's for Mug—oof!"

Lily had elbowed him sharply in the side. "Ignore him. He just gets confused because we're here with our…er…our music profess—teacher as well as our Cultural Studies teacher."

Cecilia nodded in understanding just as the group finally entered the lobby. "So, not to change the subject completely or sound like we're totally stalking you or anything, but before, in the breakfast room, we kind of caught snatches of your conversation and…well, did you say something about Honeydukes chocolate?"

"No. No, of course not," Remus said immediately, looking slightly alarmed. "We weren't talking about chocolate at all, in fact. Nope, can't stand the stuff."

"But Moony…" Sirius began slowly. "You love chocolate. Are you feeling funny again?"

"Oh...er…" Remus scrambled frantically to try and come up with something to say. "Right, we were talking about chocolate. But I didn't say anything about Honey—what was it? 'Honeybaron?' Nope. I said Hershey's. Yep, that's my favorite kind of chocolate. I really just can't get enough of it. Well, I see our professor over there so we'll be going now. Bye."

And without another word, he hurried over to where the two professors plus a handful of their classmates were all standing on the other side of the room, the other five hurrying after him following their own rushed goodbyes.

"There was something suspicious about that girl," Marlene said immediately, once the six of them had regrouped. "She was asking too many questions."

"Maybe she was just being friendly," Dorcas offered.

"But then why did she want to know about Honeydukes?" Sirius questioned. "Clearly she's a spy."

"Okay then…" Remus said in a tone that indicated he agreed with anything but Sirius' assessment of the situation. "Either way, we're going to have to be more careful from now on."

"Remus is right," Lily agreed. "Not that it has really been any different on any of our other field trips, but we're completely surrounded by muggles now, and we're going to be here for more than just a few hours. I'm pretty sure the whole point of these trips is to gain a better understanding of the muggle world, so that means we shouldn't constantly be discussing the wizarding world."

"Wait…" James said slowly, "There's actually a point to these field trips? I thought our dear Muggle Studies professor simply wanted an excuse to spend as much time with us as possible."

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend as the aforementioned Muggle Studies professor attempted to call their group to order. "Let's just go see what she has to say. The sooner we can lose you in the crowded park"—Lily glared at him, "Ahem, I meant the sooner we can get to Disney World and interact with a variety of people and explore all of their many cultural differences, thus fulfilling our actual purpose for being here, the better."

"That's what I thought," Lily said succinctly. "But you're right, let's go."