Chapter Three

Fiona considered Emmeline a nice person and a good friend: despite her initial coldness towards most strangers, she was intelligent, fair, polite, discreet and loyal (she would never tell someone else one of your secrets, that was for sure); also, once she had warmed up to you, she showed a dry sense of humour and even an unexpected gentleness when handling your feelings and opinions.

Unfortunately, though, her protectiveness coupled with a stubbornness that would make her an excellent Auror in the future, could make her become worse than a mother hen.

And right now, Fiona wished Emmeline wasn't so damn obstinate!

"So you...talked?" The black-haired witch told her, for the umpteenth time. Fiona rolled her eyes without raising her head from her Potions notes.

"Yes, Emmeline. You know, talk: manipulating your exhaling breath with your teeth, tongue and lips in order to form combined sounds to express a concept and communicate with another sentient being..." She mocked her, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No need to be so caustic, young lady!"

"No need for you to sound like Aunt Trixie, Mel!"

"Who?"

"Aunt Beatrice, my Da's sister; I told you about her, didn't I? She's a nun."

Benjy, who had been following the banter with attention, fell on the ground with laughter.

"The one who fainted and said you needed to be exorcised when you told her you're a witch?" He asked, wiping tears from his cheeks.

"Exactly!" Fiona answered, underlining an ingredient and taking a note on the parchment's side. That particular incident had caused quite the drift inside the O'Flaherty family: her dad hadn't spoken to his sister for months after that, but Fiona had taken it as a joke and used it as a funny story to prove that her family was, indeed, mental.

The little group of friends was sitting in the school courtyard, under an old oak near the lake. Fiona was trying to reread the notes she had taken during the day, while Emmeline had abandoned her school books in order to pester her with questions about Sirius Black and their 'meeting' before Transfiguration; Celine was laying on the grass, her blonde hair spread like a halo around her face, watching the clouds that raced each other on the Scottish sky. Benjy was sitting with his back on the tree trunk, Dorcas beside him with her Herbology text on her lap; Hestia, on the other hand, was waving her wand around, revising the spell they had learned at Charms.

"Something tells me I should be offended by such a comparison..." Emmeline muttered, frowning at Benjy who was just putting himself back in place after falling down.

"...Or, you could stop asking me the same thing thousands of times trying to find some hidden meaning in my answers, don't you think?" Fiona completed, raising her eyes to meet her friend's, then arching an eyebrow to let her know just how much annoyed she was.

"I just can't believe it, Fiona! Sirius Black just doesn't behave that way, especially with girls!" Emmeline complained, raising her hands above her head in frustration. Again, Fiona wished she hadn't said anything when her friend had asked her why she had gotten inside the Transfiguration classroom at the last minute.

"Well, it's not like you interacted with him that much, Mel...He could have been in a good mood!" Hestia said, making water appear from her wand and using it to create a decoration in the air.

"It's not like I desire to interact with him at all, Hestia!" Emmeline retorted. Dorcas nodded, behind them.

"What did you talk about?" Celine asked Fiona out of the blue, without moving her eyes from the sky.

Fiona smiled at her friend and roommate, before answering: "Books, in particular the one he has to read for Muggle Studies."

Dorcas raised an eyebrow. "You mean Sirius Black can read?"

"Amazing, isn't it?" Emmeline added, with a glance at the curly-haired Hufflepuff. "He does, especially if the book comes from Professor Banks' list of choices. Sometimes I think Black would throw himself under the Express if Banks told him to!"

"You're confusing Professor Banks with Potter, Em!" Benjy retorted, smirking with his eyes closed. "Longbottom once told me that staying in the same dormitory with them is like living with twins, with Lupin as the third brother...and being the guest!"

"Poor guy." Dorcas commented drily, passing a hand through her boyfriend's hair.

"Well, at least his life is never boring!" Benjy smiled, sniggering when Dorcas slapped him on the shoulder.

"Dorcas, you shouldn't make fun of Sirius in such a way! I know you don't like him, but honestly, he doesn't deserve such mocking from you and Emmeline!" Hestia exclaimed, looking very disappointed at her housemate for her behaviour.

The two witches scoffed, but didn't speak back: Hestia had the power to make people feel ashamed when they did something wrong without necessarily judging them that usually only mothers have. Fiona thought she would become a fantastic mum in the future. Or teacher. Or Healer. Honestly, Hestia could decide to do anything with her life and Fiona would bet she'd be successful!

"At least, Sirius doesn't refuse to read a book simply because he's heard enough about it already!" Fiona added, putting imaginary quoting marks to the last part of her sentence and sending an eloquent look at Emmeline, who rolled her eyes.

"He didn't have you pestering him for a year about said book, I'd like to remind you!"

"I was enthusiastic!" Fiona cried, putting her hands on her hips.

"You were monothematic." Dorcas corrected her drily.

"Anyway, I just asked him how he was liking it and he gave me his opinion, nothing less, nothing more!" The ginger girl said, finally, huffing in exasperation.

"He asked your name! Evans saw the two of you shaking hands on the class door!" Emmeline retorted, crossing her arms.

"Well, they'd never met before, you can't expect him to know the whole school, can you?" Benjy said, starting to get tired of that conversation. He trusted Fiona well enough to imagine that if she didn't make a great deal of something, then neither should them.

"And Lily is suspicious of everything the Marauders do...she would think they're plotting something even if she saw Remus blow his nose." Hestia added, sighing.

"I don't believe she hates them as much as she says." Celine reflected, raising to sit up.

Fiona's eyebrows raised in curiosity. "What makes you think that?"

"Well, she's always complaining about them, quite loudly, and always keeping them in check. If she hated them so much, wouldn't it be more logical to ignore them and not care, like Dorcas and Emmeline do? I think she saw some positive changes in them, but she's too scared of having to revise her opinions about them, especially Potter." Celine explained, smiling gently at a bird that had approached the tree in search of food.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks" Fiona quoted, smirking. As usual, Celine had made a deep consideration about a person simply after a long observation. The girl's perceptiveness was amazing sometimes.

"Can you imagine arriving at breakfast one day and find Potter and Evans speaking amiably to each other?" Benjy asked, in a wondering tone.

"As much as I can imagine the Founders coming back to life." Emmeline answered drily, not amused.

"It would be the end of the world!" Dorcas added, rolling her eyes.

"It would be nice, though..." Hestia pondered; she didn't like seeing her friends fight.

"Mathematically possible, but statistically improbable." Fiona commented, without raising her eyes from her notes. "Not this year, at least."

"It could happen sooner than we think." Celine said, hugging her knees.

Silence fell on the little group for a second. Then, Dorcas exclaimed: "I beg your pardon?"

"They haven't been fighting for days now; James doesn't pester her anymore and she's obviously confused by this. I believe that Lily'll soon discover that she actually can have a civil conversation with him." The blonde elaborated, looking at the tree's leaves above their heads.

"I won't believe until I see." Emmeline retorted, crossing her arms in a defiant move.

"Oh, thou woman of little faith!" Fiona exclaimed, smirking at her friend.

No matter what Fiona could think about the perfect innocence of her talking with Sirius Black purely out of a fortuitous event, the rest of the student body (especially girls) had quite a different opinion.

Lily Evans mustn't have been the only one who had seen her and the Marauder shaking hands, because even a few days after the fact Dorcas had heard little groups of girls whispering and speculating in the bathroom about the 'mysterious redhead' that seemed to have captured Sirius's attention.

Fiona had heard them herself, but at first had simply brushed it off as simple gossip born out of boredom: it was, after all, only the second week of school, nothing really juicy had happened yet; the Marauders' pranks had stopped being the talk of the day for a long time by then, unless they were amazingly unbelievable.

Unfortunately for her, nothing else happened to distract the professional gossipers from her own case, so by the weekend, someone was still talking about it! Fiona started to find it immensely annoying. Especially the stares; some seventh year girls looked openly at her as if asking 'why her and not me?'

The fact irritated her to no end, not because she really wanted to attract Sirius's attention, but for a question of principle. Who were they to believe her inferior in any way?

"Don't they have anything else to talk about?!" She growled quietly while buttering her bread on Saturday morning. "Where have all the other conversation topics gone?"

Benjy smiled sympathetically. "Oh, don't worry, Fiona, it'll pass soon enough. Quidditch trials start today, so they'll have something new to talk about..."

"Yes, boys will, not girls!" Emmeline retorted, sending another withering glare towards a giggling group of Hufflepuffs that were trying to peek at Fiona. Dorcas saw her friend's move and acted to keep her nosy housemates at bay.

Benjy sent a smirk to his colleague. "Mel, darling, just because you don't care about Quidditch it doesn't mean that most of the other girls won't be interested on seeing what will happen this year on the pitch!"

He looked around with circumspection and made them lean nearer to him, as if to reveal an enormous Ministry secret. "And I'm not talking about game strategies, if you know what I mean..."

Emmeline swatted his shoulder and went back to sitting upright. "So, everything is going to die out by itself because they'll all be too occupied in stalking the Quidditch teams? This is one of the reasons I hate this sport!"

Fiona rolled her eyes. "Honestly, I don't understand what they see in Quidditch players...okay, it's a cool sport in itself, but it doesn't seem like it requires such physical strength, unless you're a Beater!"

"Make sure Dorcas doesn't catch ear of you saying this, otherwise we'll never hear the end of it!" Emmeline commented, drinking her tea.

Dorcas was Hufflepuff's top Chaser and Captain and greatly obsessed with Quidditch. She could go on talking about strategies for hours and sounded like a general guiding her troops during trainings (she let only Fiona and Emmeline see them, because she was absolutely sure they wouldn't tell anyone her playing schemes). Watching her play was as fascinating as it was scary; most Keepers were terrified by her.

Fiona's eyes twinkled with mischief. "Oh well, I'll just have to bring her to one of my brother's matches and then we'll see what she has to say about it!"

The Irish witch liked Quidditch, but her heart would always belong to rugby: she had grown up watching it played in her house courtyard, in Elementary school and also in her little town; her father had been a Fly-Half when he was young. Not to mention, both her older brothers (Patrick and Flynn) were professionals in important teams and some of her cousins and uncles were Sunday amateurs.

She wouldn't train a rugby Outside-Center for a Quidditch Seeker for all the gold in Gringotts. Not even if said Seeker was Regulus Black, who was considered one of the most handsome players in the school.

Well, after his elder brother and James Potter, of course.

"If you actually do, remember to also bring me, I've never seen a sport like that...I mean, running for one ball and pushing people down on the ground for it...sounds cool!" Benjy added, smiling excitedly.

"Because it is, Ben!" She retorted, finishing her breakfast.

"But" She added, placing her open palms on the table. "As much as I love talking about rugby, the core of the conversation is another: are you telling me that there is absolutely no news, not even on Witch Weekly or The Daily Prophet, that could distract people from me?"

Benjy shrugged. "Well, I don't know about Witch Weekly, but I can assure you that the Prophet hasn't got much to report as of lately. After the Gaunt Jr. scandal this summer, there wasn't much else to talk about...Had there been the Quidditch World Cup, it would have been another story!"

"Ah, yes, I remember that...despicable affair indeed." Emmeline said, shaking her head in disapproval.

Fiona looked at her friends, an eyebrow raised. "Uhm...did I miss something?"

"Did you ever read the Prophet this summer, Fiona?" Benjy asked, his own eyebrows disappearing behind his hairline.

She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "My sister goes hysterical every time an owl comes, so I decided that I'd rather have a peaceful summer..."

"Oh, well, no matter, I'll just tell you then." Benjy said, raising with his friends in order to go out and reach Celine, who had gone out early to see the unicorns Hagrid had taken in the forest for the fourth years.

As they walked, Benjy started telling the story.

"A couple years ago, there was a newborn star in the wizarding political scene: he was discreetly young, fascinating, talented and with great charisma; his name was Marvolo Gaunt Junior, the last scion of one of the oldest Pureblood families in England. He had all that it took to be a leader for the most...let's say traditional of the Purebloods inside the Ministry and Wizengamot."

"Let me guess: he was a bigoted bastard." Fiona interrupted him, her brows already furrowing in dislike.

"You could say that." Emmeline added drily.

"He seemed to have enormous success with his fervent words and most Pureblood members of the Wizengamot were starting to gravitate around him and were ready to help him in having his laws approved...Some even sponsored him as the new Minister of Magic! But then things started getting harder and harder for his campaign."

"How so?" Fiona asked, entranced by Benjy's incredible ability to entertain.

"Well, some of the more moderate members of the Wizengamot, including some pretty old Pureblood families who still had some intelligence left, made it known that they considered Gaunt's opinions far too similar to those of Grindelwald...not exactly a beloved character, especially here in England!"

Fiona's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?! He was that bad?!"

"Yes. Father always said that he got goosebumps every time Gaunt spoke in Wizengamot sessions." Emmeline said, tucking a lock of black hair behind her ear.

"After this, the 'normal wizards', as to say, started to note the similarities and even the Foreign Governments expressed their displeasure for the line that Magical England was following with Gaunt and his associates."

"His popularity fell tremendously amongst the wizarding population, no matter what he said. Finally, just this summer, a French reporter who was investigating Gaunt here in England found some people that could have gone at Hogwarts with him. He had always said he'd been a Slytherin, but no one remembered a Gaunt ever entering this school since the 1700's, when the family fell in poverty and disgrace."

"So...what happened?" Fiona pressed, more and more curious.

"Well, there were many housemates of his in the Wizengamot, most actually sponsored his campaign...but some others, who weren't in Slytherin, recognized him immediately. He had been a Slytherin, yes. But his name was Tom Riddle."

"Not exactly a magical name." Emmeline added, seeing her friend's confusion.

"He changed his name after graduation...so what?"

"You see, for someone that constantly speaks about the necessity to give Purebloods all power and put Muggles, Muggleborns and Halfbloods 'back to their place', and I'm quoting, it doesn't seem much coherent if he's a Halfblood himself, and his father was a full Muggle."

"The reporter found out that his mother was Merope Gaunt, who had died giving birth to him and had called him Tom Marvolo Riddle, like the father and the grandfather. The fact in itself wouldn't have been that scandalous, had it not been for his hypocrisy in speaking against non-Pureblood wizards and witches."

"After this, even some Purebloods who had sponsored him, like the Malfoys, the Blacks and the Lestranges, were disgusted, because they had really believed in what he said, but finding out they had listened to a Halfblood was a spot on their honour."

"Now he's also suspected for the murder of his Uncle Morfin and the whole of his Muggle relatives. Not a pleasurable thing." Benjy ended, sighing.

The trio walked silently for a bit, until Fiona mumbled: "How hitlerian of him."

"Excuse me?" Emmeline asked.

"What does 'hitlerian' mean?" Benjy wondered.

"In the Thirties and Forties, there was a Muggle man in Germany, called Adolf Hitler, who caused the start of World War Two, at least on the Muggle side. This Riddle/Gaunt person reminds me a lot of him."

"How so?" Emmeline insisted, curious.

"Well, he indoctrinated a whole country that the only people who were worthy of living were supposed to be German, tall, blond, blue-eyed, Christian and non-Communist. All the others had to die, especially if they were Jew."

Benjy looked positively appalled. "It sounds a lot like Grindelwald..."

"They probably influenced each other." Fiona shrugged.

"How does it relate with Riddle?" Emmeline asked again.

"Because Hitler said all of this, but he was Austrian, short, ugly, dark haired and eyed and even had Jewish relatives."

There were a few seconds of silence, until Emmeline and Benjy exclaimed in unison.

"WHAT?!"

They finally reached the paddock near Hagrid's house. Celine was sitting on the wooden perimeter, quietly singing. Since she couldn't see them arrive, Fiona cleared her throat to make their presence known. The blonde turned slightly around and smiled.

"What do we have here?" Fiona asked, leaning to see the animals inside the paddock.

"Hagrid managed to find a little family...aren't they adorable?" Celine answered, smiling tenderly towards the horses.

A powerful-looking stallion with a long and intricate horn was looking at the new humans with circumspection, keeping an attentive eye over the mare, just as starkly white as him, but smaller and more elegant in her moves. Nearby were trotting two foals: the youngest looked a bit uncertain on its golden legs, almost too long for its small body; the older one had already changed its coat to silver and was sporting a brand-new horn on its forehead. It seemed pretty proud of it.

Fiona sighed seeing them, unconsciously smiling. "Aw, they're so cute!" She whispered, climbing up to sit next to Celine and take a better look.

Benjy noticed that his presence was making the parents nervous, so he took a couple steps back, but stayed near enough to be able to converse with his friends. The stallion, seeing the move, gave a snort and slightly relaxed. Emmeline, being a girl, didn't have such problems, but preferred standing behind the border.

"The fourth years don't even know how damn lucky they are...four unicorns in all phases of growth!" Fiona turned towards the other two. "D'you reckon I could go back to fourth year Care's lessons?"

Emmeline chuckled and said: "Well, I don't think Professor Kettleburn would say no to you...He seems incapable of that!"

"Teacher pet!" Benjy joked, sticking out his tongue at the redhead.

Hagrid approached them just a second later, his strong arms full of herbs and fodder for the animals.

"Lunch time, beauties! Oh, hullo there!" He said, smiling when he saw them over the mass of vegetation he was carrying.

"Are you fattening them, Hagrid?" Benjy asked, grinning incredulously.

"Abs'lutely not, Benjy! The colts need a lot of it, they 'ave to grow up...an' didn't ya see how big the stallion is?" The half-giant answered, putting the food down near the horses. "How's ya kids doin'?"

"Pretty well, thanks." Emmeline answered, observing the silver foal run towards the food and stuff its muzzle in it. It must have been pretty hungry.

"'Ave ya tried petting them yet?" He asked Celine, whom he had already seen when she had arrived.

"No, I thought I'd let them get used to my presence, since the parents are here too..." The Ravenclaw answered gently, smiling at Hagrid.

"Right'o" Hagrid nodded, moving to take some water for the horses.

"Hey, Hagrid, what's the gender of the pups?" Fiona asked, chuckling when she saw the golden one stumble on its own hooves and the mother nudge it up with her muzzle, gently.

"Da silver 'un is a boy, I think da goldie is a girl, thou'! I haven't checked yet...it's still too small, da mom doesn't let me get that near!" The man answered, stroking his long beard.

After eating, the silver colt had decided that he wanted to take a look at the humans and trotted near them, snorting and sniffing. Celine and Fiona smiled, putting one of their hands down so the little unicorn could smell them. When he seemed satisfied from the inspection, he pushed his muzzle into their palms, in an obvious desire of being petted. The two Ravenclaws giggled and obliged him.

"His coat is so soft..." Fiona murmured, entranced.

"Look, the golden wants some petting too!" Celine whispered back, looking at the youngest who was walking towards them, eyes wide and ears up. The girls repeated the ritual and petted both foals at the same time, murmuring sweet nothings to the little magical creatures.

"Mel?" Benjy whispered, leaning towards his black-haired friend.

"Yes?" She asked back, in his same low tone.

"I think we lost them."

"We so did!"

They spent most of the day at the paddock, where Hestia and Dorcas also reached them, after looking for them anywhere they could think of. Hestia had positively squealed at the sight of the unicorns and had sat next to Fiona and Celine to pet them. By the time they got back to the castle to actually do some of their homework, in the late afternoon, the three girls had managed to pet even the adults...and according to Professor Kettleburn, who had stopped to watch the animals and conversed with his favourite students (Fiona, Hestia and Celine), the mare had even seemed inclined to let one of them mount her! Not that they had tried, the redhead had thought it more prudent to not rush things all in one day...

They spent most of the evening and night talking about silly things, laughing and trying to do their homework (only Emmeline managed to complete something, but Fiona had started most of her essays and just needed to complete and revise them). They went to sleep quite late, so it wasn't a surprise that on Sunday morning they approached breakfast looking positively zombie-like.

"Whoa, girls! What's with the eye bags?" Benjy asked, smirking through a yawn.

"Have you seen your face, Ben?" Fiona retorted, snarkily.

"Nope! You really think so low of me that I would cheat on Dorcas with a mirror? You wound me!" He said, putting a hand on his heart with a melodramatic move. Fiona laughed out loud.

"Three words. You. Are. Mental." Emmeline growled, stuffing her nose into her teacup, in a not-so-feminine gesture.

"Oh, we know." Benjy replied, grinning like an idiot.

"But you love us anyway!" Fiona added, still laughing.

"Guys, are you drunk?"

The trio turned around and met Dorcas's incredulous and confused expression. The Hufflepuff was standing behind them, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.

"Merlin's pants, no! We're perfectly sober!" Emmeline cried, although her scandalized tone was muffled by the teacup. She was still inhaling the fumes of her beverage trying to wake up completely.

"We just stayed up late...You know how your boyfriend gets when he doesn't sleep much!" Fiona added, taking a sip of coffee and eating a whole biscuit in one time.

"Speak for yourself, ginger! You're just as mad as I am!" Benjy retorted, laughing.

"Wrong! I'm madder than ya, and damn proud of it!" She bellowed back, raising a fist in the air as if she had won something.

Dorcas and Emmeline looked at each other, looked at them, then at each other again.

"Is this what sleep deprivation does to them?" Dorcas asked.

"Apparently."

"Okaaay...I don't think I ever want to see what happens if they drink."

"Neither do I." Emmeline sounded almost funereal.

"Are you done?" She asked next, sending a wary look towards Fiona and Benjy, who seemed to have stopped laughing.

"Yup." Fiona answered, scratching the back of her head and looking at the Hufflepuff table just in time to see Tonks get up and trot towards the Gryffindors, her hair taking a wavy, shoulder length, bubblegum pink style.

"Aw, won't you look at that?" She whispered, nudging Emmeline out of her tea and attracting Dorcas's and Benjy's attention on the Metamorphomagus. The three saw the fifth-year greet her cousin and Potter with confidence before blushing and saying hi to Lupin in a much more 'I-totally-have-a-crush-on-you' way.

"Jeez, if Lupin doesn't get it now, he doesn't deserve her!" Emmeline mumbled, narrowing her eyes towards the Gryffindor Prefect, who was blushing too, but hadn't seemed to notice Tonks' own rosy cheeks.

"He's a boy, Emmeline, what did you expect?" Dorcas whispered back, in a resigned tone.

"Oh, come on, Tonks, just snog his face off!" Fiona whined, looking at the two indecisive teenagers.

"Why so anxious?" Benjy smirked, putting his chin on the back of his hands.

"They'd give the gossipers something serious to talk about..." She grumbled, noticing with dismay that Tonks had decided to sit down between Alice Prewett and Mary MacDonald and just keep talking to Remus.

"Damn it" The ginger girl thought, turning back to her breakfast.

The Ravenclaw trio had just gone back eating in discreet silence when a bellow coming from the Gryffindor table made them jump on their benches.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL-?!"

James Potter walked swiftly towards the center of the Quidditch pitch on Saturday morning, carrying his broom on the shoulder and the box with the balls under his other arm. The sky was terse, with a few white clouds covering the sun and a gentle wind that made his scarlet and gold cloak move slightly behind him and between his legs.

"Perfect day for flying" He thought, looking around to see some of his housemates sit on the bleachers, while the candidates for the missing positions in the team were warming up in a corner. Padfoot was walking towards him, waving his Beater bat up and down in boredom. He was wearing the team uniform too and, as usual, made it look like a high fashion piece.

James smirked when his best friend was near enough to hear him. "Is there a photographer for Witch Weekly among our viewers that I didn't know about, Padfoot?"

"Are you insinuating something, Prongs?" Sirius smirked back, stopping beside him and turning to look at the others.

"Oh, nothing, you just looked like a cover boy, that's all!"

"I thought you liked Evans...and anyway, you're not my type, darling, sorry!"

"You're not mine either. Besides, it would be incest!"

They were silent for a couple of seconds. Then, Sirius turned to look at James with a confused look and whispered: "Why are we even talking about this?!"

"Dunno. Moony would say it's because we're mental." James shrugged, peeking at the bleachers hoping to see a certain redhead sitting there...

"She's not coming, mate." Sirius murmured, looking at his best friend with something akin to sympathy in his grey eyes.

James sighed. "I know. Can't stop myself from checking, though."

Sirius patted him on the shoulder and then moved his chin towards the approaching candidates.

"What do you think?"

"Well, we need a Seeker, a Keeper and someone you can stand for the second Beater's position..." He sent Padfoot a side look. "About that..."

"...Behave." He warned him.

"Yes, ma'am!" Padfoot smirked, messing up with Prongs' hair.

James smiled in resignation, before putting up a sort-of-professional face (the Captain's Face, as Frank had dubbed it) and greeting the mix of boys and girls with their brooms on their shoulders whose looks varied from excited, self-assured, nervous and terrified. He recognized Henry Robbins and Kathy Paddles, the fifth and fourth years who had played as his fellow Chasers the previous year.

"First of all, I'd like to see your flying abilities, so get on your brooms and disperse on the pitch...Do your best, but don't get too acrobatic!" He said, trying to sound sufficiently commanding.

He saw Padfoot smirk, mount his broom and take off in one fluid motion, getting some admired looks from the youngest ones. He followed him with just as easily, soon getting flanked by Kathy and Henry.

Most of the youngest candidates were either too nervous or too out of practice, because they hardly moved around: when James gently asked them to leave the pitch, none of them protested.

He was surprised to see Marlene McKinnon floating gracefully around the rings, flying with a very good technique. James approached Sirius, elbowed him slightly and whispered: "When were you going to tell me that your ex-girlfriend could fly that well?"

"I don't remember ever having a girlfriend for once, Prongs...Marlene and I were just snogging partners for a few weeks, that's all." Padfoot shrugged. "And honestly, she was the only one besides us that could already manoeuvre her broom at the first Flying lesson in first year...of course she can fly well!"

"I'm really curious to see what she wants to try for, though...Can you imagine her as a Beater?" Prongs asked, smirking.

"Knowing her temper, it wouldn't surprise me!" Sirius retorted drily, leaning down on the broomstick with his elbows.

It came out that Marlene was trying for the Keeper position; at first, seeing some pretty burly seventh years that were to be her rivals, James believed she would have a difficult time. But he had to rethink his statement when he saw how fast and precise she was: she was even able to block one of his best throws and he was one of the best Chasers of the school!

By the end of the trials, Marlene was chosen as the new Keeper; Anthea Wilson, a small, shy but amazingly talented third-year took her place as Seeker and George Allen, a burly fifth year with a great mass of curls and a dimpled smile became Sirius's partner as Beater.

Walking back to the castle, the three sixth years talked about the new formation.

"It seems like you found someone you liked, Padfoot." James said, smiling at his best friend.

"Not like it was a difficult choice, Prongs...he was the only decent candidate! His being friendly and actually tolerable is an unexpected plus!" Sirius answered, smiling sardonically.

"The little Wilson surprised me...I'd never thought she would be that good!" Marlene interjected, moving her broom from the right shoulder to the left one.

"She's a natural, Marly. Right frame, fast reflexes, good flying technique...Trust me, we'll hear her name again, probably in a professional team!" James explained, sounding pretty much enthusiastic of his new team member.

"What about you? I've never known you'd wanted to play Quidditch!" He added, looking at her with curiosity.

"I've always played Quidditch and the Keeper position is my favourite, but the place, as you know, has been occupied until today by someone I couldn't honestly beat." She answered, smiling slightly, recalling her predecessor, Darius Malcolm.

"And then, you totally needed someone who wouldn't have their magic scared off of them by Meadowes!" She concluded, laughing. James shivered, remembering his Hufflepuff counterpart.

"Meadowes or not, we have the potential to get the Cup this year...and the next, considering that we have no sevenths in the team!" Sirius said, smiling cheerfully.

"Feeling ready to celebrate, Sirius?" James smirked, elbowing him.

"Are you not, mate?" His black-haired friend retorted, elbowing him back.

"Talking about celebrating, Sirius: it's just the second week and you've already started your girl hunt?" Marlene asked, smiling mischievously towards the Beater.

She didn't expect James' and Sirius's blank looks in return.

"Uhm...What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, blinking in confusion.

"Merlin's pants, Black, have you been walking around with wax in your ears? Everyone is talking about you and a Ravenclaw redhead in our year!" She huffed, exasperated.

Whatever reaction she expected from the notorious serial snogger, as Mary called him, and from his best mate, them stopping abruptly, James looking at her wide-eyed with shock and Sirius's expression darkening wasn't among them.

"What?!" James was the first to speak, although not in a very coherent way. He turned to look at his best friend, whose face was looking suspiciously tense.

"This is ridiculous, those two hardly talked to each other apart from that Transfiguration lesson!" He thought, blinking rapidly.

James saw Sirius take a deep breath, then look at Marlene with an icy look and tell her: "Since when did you become a gossip monger, Marlene?"

Well, at least he was still calling her by her given name. James took a small relieved sigh.

"I'm nothing of the sort, I'm just reporting what I've heard in the last few days!" Marlene retorted, sounding a bit offended.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well, let me tell you something. Fiona and I met for the first time on Monday, we talked a bit walking to Transfiguration, introduced ourselves to the other and that's all. I am in no way snogging her, actually, I probably won't be snogging anyone for quite some time in the future and if the wagging tongues have nothing else to talk about but this, it means that the Marauders need to get active again!" He said the last part looking at James in the eye.

James nodded, knowing what he meant and felt that his best mate was really getting in stride with all the 'become a girl's friend without snogging'. He had become protective of his choice already...

Marlene looked at the two of them, an eyebrow raised in scepticism.

"No need to get so antsy, Sirius! Since when do you care about what they say about you?"

"I don't. But I care when this has repercussions on innocent people. Like Fiona."

James lowered his head to hide a smile while they entered the castle in complete silence.

The two black haired Marauders entered their dormitory, where Moony was waiting for them, sprawled up on his bed, reading. The boy looked up from his book hearing his friends' paces and immediately saw the dark expression on Sirius's face.

"Ok, what happened?" He asked, closing his book and putting it down.

James just put his broom down before rummaging on his bag to find something to wear, but Sirius huffed loudly, literally collapsed on his bed and grumbled: "It happened that you were right, Moons...They do think of me as a man-whore."

James emerged from his pile of clothes just in time to see Moony's eyes widen in shock. The amber-eyed boy turned to him and asked again: "Care to explain, Prongs?"

The Marauder shrugged. "We were coming back from the Quidditch trials and Marlene asked Padfoot if he was already on his girl hunt...Apparently, his encounter with Fiona has become the most juicy topic of conversation around here!"

"Vapid, nosy, useless harpies!" Padfoot growled, sounding uncannily similar to his Animagus form.

"Ouch." Remus whispered, making a face. "Do you know how Fiona's doing?" He asked the shaggy haired boy.

"I have no idea." Sirius answered, grimly. "We didn't speak again after Monday, but I would have tried to find out, had I known what was happening!"

"She probably doesn't care" James murmured, polishing his glasses. "Unless she's completely oblivious, which I hardly believe her to be, she would have reacted already if the thing bothered her..."

"On her place, Lily would most certainly have!" He thought drily, letting his imagination float to his favourite redhead.

"Then she's better than me, apparently." Sirius whispered, kicking his Quidditch boots off, his stormy grey eyes still fixed on the ceiling.

"Well, you could always wait until Monday and casually ask her how she's doing..." Remus proposed, going back to reading.

"Yeah. I should." Was the grumbled answer, while the Marauder moved to grab his own Muggle book.

James went showering and sent a last look towards his best mates; he smiled thinking that it was probably the first time he'd seen them both reading at the same time!

On Sunday morning, the Marauders had decided to get up discreetly early in order to exploit the whole day: they had their homework to do and there was a big prank to prepare. Sirius would not rest until he hadn't put the gossip mongers back to their place!

When they got to the Gryffindor table, only a few housemates were already there. Of their year, only Lily was eating her breakfast.

As usual, James felt his heart lose a beat when he saw her ruby locks and beautiful face and his stomach filled of butterflies. He had to close his hands in fists in order to contain himself from reaching out and caressing her.

If he did, he wouldn't probably live long enough to tell it.

Just as Sirius had his bet with Remus, he had his own promise to keep. He needed to make sure that Lily wouldn't hate him anymore and in order to do this, he had to change the way he approached her.

During the week, he'd done quite a good job, in his modest opinion. He hadn't teased her with continuous compliments (although he thought she deserved them all) and hadn't asked her out once. He had just greeted her and talked to her politely, only when he felt it necessary.

Her positively stunned expressions had looked quite satisfying, he had to admit.

"Good morning, Evans! How are you feeling today?" He said, smiling at her, but sitting at a reasonable distance from her. She still disliked his physical presence, unfortunately.

She looked up from her cup of milk, pointed her suspicious emerald eyes on his face, then answered in a guarded tone: "Perfectly fine, Potter. Thank you."

He smiled again, nodding at her, before simply starting to load his plate for breakfast. He met Remus's eyes and his friend gave him a little encouraging grin.

"Good job!" Sirius mouthed, sitting next to him. James noticed that he had brought his Muggle novel down.

"Weren't we supposed to do our homework after breakfast?" He asked him, looking curiously at the book.

"It is homework, Prongs. Not reading it for my pleasure, remember?" Was the calm answer. Remus chuckled.

By the time the Gryffindor table and the rest of the Great Hall were full, the Marauders had already finished eating, but decided to stay and talk with their housemates a little more. Sirius actually isolated himself by opening his novel and starting reading, Remus and James kept up a conversation with Frank and the girls.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a blur of bubblegum pink coming in their direction, soon followed by Tonks, who almost jumped to hug Sirius and James.

"Hullo guys! How ya doing?" She chirped, sounding incredibly cheerful. Her smile was so wide James worried it would break her face in two.

"Until you fell on me, positively peachy, Dora!" Sirius answered snarkily, reaching up to mess his little cousin's hair.

"Humph! Reading doesn't suit you, Sirius!" She retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. James laughed out loud, thoroughly amused at the antics.

"Hi, Tonks...Is it me or you seem very happy today?" He told her, putting his arm around her narrow shoulders.

"James, I'm always happy, don't you know that?" She chuckled, messing his black locks.

When she turned towards Remus, James had to bite his cheek to not start laughing again. She had gone has pink as her hair, who had gotten slightly wavy and looked shinier than before.

"Hi, Remus." Her voice sounded like honey. James saw Sirius smirk from behind his book. He may be reading, but he was sure as hell following the conversation!

"Hello, Tonks." Was the only answer Remus offered, seeming too twitterpatted to be able to say anything else. The presence of that particular Hufflepuff tended to make him become incoherent.

James was suffocating trying not to laugh and hoped that Moony wouldn't run away when they got up, because nothing and no one would save him from a good interrogation about his reactions to Tonks!

The girl in question had sat down between Alice and Mary and had started talking with the Gryffindor girls, but was still shooting hopeful glances towards Remus, but never catching him when he did stare at her.

"Tsk! And then they say I am a hopeless case!" He chuckled to himself.

James turned to Sirius to engage him in conversation, but stopped before saying anything: his best friend was reading avidly, almost urgently, his expression a mixture of shock, curiosity, incredulity and disbelief.

Before he could do anything to understand what was happening, Sirius shouted: "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL-?!", making the whole Great Hall look up at him.

"Padfoot, what is it?" Remus asked, sounding worried. His shaggy haired friend didn't answer, because he was craning his neck to scan the crowd of students, as if looking for someone.

"Padfoot?" James added his own calling, but Sirius murmured "There she is" then jumped on his feet and walked at light speed towards the Ravenclaw table, almost shouting: "FIONA!"

The whole school stopped and they all noticed said red haired Ravenclaw turn towards him.

Whatever they had expected (a lovers' fight, a sensational kiss...), no one imagined that the girl would scan Sirius's face, get a look at the book he was still carrying, grin widely and exclaim: "Let me guess...chapter thirty-four!"

Sirius waved the book around. "Where did that come from?!" He bellowed, looking positively incredulous.

Fiona started laughing so hard that she almost fell from her bench, while Sirius reached her and sat on the empty space beside her as if the whole Ravenclaw House wasn't looking at him like he had gone crazy.

"Weren't expecting that, were ya?" She wheezed, clutching her sides.

"Expecting it? Expecting it?! I can't fucking believe this!" He shrieked, his eyes still wide as if he had seen Merlin in person appear in front of him.

"Hey, it was you who told me he had the hots for her, why so surprised?" She smirked and even from the Gryffindor table James could see that she looked positively Marauder-like!

"Having the hots is one thing, proposing marriage all of a sudden is a bloody another!" He answered, gesticulating wildly. "And then-for Camelot's sake, who told him how to speak with a girl?! Has this person ever heard about tact?" He ranted, not bothering to lower his voice.

It was Benjy Fenwick that stopped him, after watching the two of them as if following a tennis match.

"Uhm, guys, not to disturb such a...vivacious conversation, but could you please tell me what the heck are you talking about?!"

"Pride and Prejudice" They answered in unison, as if it was perfectly normal.

Emmeline Vance had a strangely disgusted reaction at that. "If you really have to talk about that thing, will you please do it as far away from my ears as possible?!"

"Oh, right, spoilers!" Sirius said matter-of-factly. He took Fiona by a wrist and asked: "Mind if I steal her for a couple minutes?"

Benjy laughed and made a gesture that seemed to mean 'go on', so Sirius and Fiona got up and moved towards the Gryffindor table.

Remus and James were looking at their friend with their mouths agape, positively shocked.

"Prongs, what just happened?!" Remus whispered, his voice hoarse.

"I honestly have no idea, Moony!" Was the only answer James was able to give him.

Sirius arrived with his hostage and James noticed that the girl was really short and tiny, probably wouldn't reach Padfoot's shoulder, but looked pretty amused at his friend's antics, her eyes still shining with laughter.

"Guys, this is Fiona O'Flaherty. Fiona, these are my housemates." He announced.

"Yeah, Sirius, I actually know most of them!" She told him, smirking. She turned to Tonks, who was blinking rapidly, as if to understand what was going on. "Yo there, Tonks! Nice colour!"

"No one here but me follows Muggle Studies, so we won't spoiler anything." Sirius added, sitting down back at his place and gesturing Fiona to sit next to him.

"Now, what is it with this story that he's actually in love with Elizabeth? And this bloody fight?! I almost blew an artery!"

"Oh, but this is nothing, my boy...Wait to see what happens on the next chapter!"

"WHAT?!"

"Prongs?"

"Yes, Moony?"

"I think we lost him."

"We so did, mate!"

AN: I don't own Harry Potter, nor 'Pride and Prejudice'.

Happy Birthday Harry!

Goodness me, how long has it been? Sorry about that, guys...I've been writing this chappie during pauses between study sessions and sometimes the inspiration didn't come up when I needed it! .

There's a lot of dialogues in here and I've put irony in wagons, so I hope you'll have a nice laugh while reading!

Now, I'd like to thank IchoseSlytherin, cb, Natto'n'aliens, tinyhobbit and xbamsod for leaving their comments...I'm so happy to read what you think about my little story!

Hoping you like this one...

Have a nice 'Harry Potter birthday!'

Hyacinth Judy