Immortal Memories -part one-

Chapter 5: Twisted Love

Realizing he’d been asleep caused him to flinch, considering the preceding circumstances. He felt cold and, upon picking up his head, noticed that he had no clothes on and there was a draft blowing in from the open window across the room.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” said a comical voice from somewhere behind him.

He turned his head around to find James sitting cross-legged on the corner of the mattress, wrapped in a fleece blanket that looked rather warm and tempting. The boy smiled devilishly but laughed out loud when he saw Sirius’ returned expression. His sapphire eyes sparkled as he looked over Sirius’ body, his smile growing all the while. Yet he just sat there, watching the other boy shiver. Sirius was so tempted to crawl over to James and wipe the smile off his face. He would have if he weren’t so cold. Then again, if he were under the blanket he wouldn’t be cold, especially if he was with the person who currently had said blanket.

He closed his eyes and shook his head before taking a deep breath and burying his face in the mattress. He slowly lifted his arm and pushed himself up into a sitting position, then turned to look at James. His eyes narrowed and James’ widened before he hopped off the bed and ran around, still wrapped in the blanket that fell to his feet when he stood, to crouch on the floor behind Sirius’ bed. Sirius sighed, slightly annoyed, but amused nonetheless. Shaking his head again, he got off the bed, quite aware of his lack of clothing, and walked ever so silently across the scarlet carpet toward his own bed.

He saw the faint shadow of the other boy behind his bed, illuminated by the candle that, for some reason, was left burning the night before. He considered pouncing on James, but figured that might be kind of awkward, so he settled for kneeling on the floor and magically binding the boy’s ankles. This proved rather successful, as it prevented him from running anywhere, or at least long enough to baffle him as to why he couldn’t move his feet. Sirius used this moment for what he’d intended to do and slipped under the blanket with James, to which he got a typical response from the blue-eyed boy.

“Oh, Sirius, the floor? You can’t really expect me to stay here can you?”

Sirius only smiled and wrapped his cold hand around the back of James’ neck, making him shiver against the touch. Sirius gently tugged the blanket from the boy’s grasp and took it with him when he went around the other side of his bed to curl up under the covers to make himself warm. To his surprise, James didn’t follow him. He rolled over and opened the hanging curtain just a bit to see what he was doing to find the boy’s face nearly touching his own. He quickly closed the small gap, placing a soft kiss on James’ lips, and then drawing back under the comforter. A moment later, he felt James slide in beside him and his arms around his waist.

He twisted around to face him and whispered, “You’re such a tease.”

“But of course. You’re so cute when you’re frustrated.”

“I think maybe you’ve gotten hit in the head by a bludger too many times.”

James laughed and muttered, “You have no idea. I might just be crazy enough to tie you down and have my way with you.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “I must say, that’s new, but it wouldn’t really do any good would it?”

“Ah, probably not. Now, enough talk...”

“Happy Christmas!” Remus said happily upon entering the Great Hall.

“Dear, it’s not Christmas,” Molly replied.

“Geez, can’t let me have one moment’s happiness can you?” he replied, sounding hurt.

Molly looked up. “Happy? About what?”

An evil grin crept onto Remus’ face. “I’ve discovered something. And using this little piece of information I can do something more evil than you’d ever thought I was capable of.”

“And this would be...?”

“Classified,” the boy said simply. “But I will tell you this: it has something to do with our lovely exchange students.”

“What are you trying to prove now? That they’re demons or something and must be expelled immediately?”

“Or something.” He smiled and grabbed a piece of toast. “Say, have you seen James recently?”

Molly shook her head. “No, sorry. Wasn’t he in your dorm this morning?”

Remus replied with a simple no and took a bite of his toast. “So there’s a game, but no Seeker,” he said calmly. “That’s not going to work out very well.”

“Don’t be so sure,” a voice he recognized as James’ said.

Remus glanced to his left to find James and Sirius, both in bathrobes, taking their seats next to him at the table. At the same time, and rather suddenly, the captain of the Gryffindor team, Christopher Donovan, came over to the table with a rather disgusted look on his face.

“Our team’s been cancelled,” he said irritably. “Both our Beaters and Claire have decided they can’t play. Not that you’re helping either, Potter, coming in here dressed like that.”

“Shove it, Donovan,” the Seeker replied harshly. “How I choose to dress is none of your concern.”

The two had never been on good terms. In James’ opinion, the blonde would have been much better suited in Slytherin. Neither of them knew why they didn’t get along, but James suspected it might have something to do with his sexuality. Not that he cared what anyone else thought.

The captain stalked away hopelessly. He’d learned not to mess with the “blue-eyed demon” as he called him, after the incident in second year. Not only was it a prank too horrible for words, but Potter had also enjoyed it and pinned the blame on Chris without any evidence to prove otherwise. No, he never angered James Potter after that.

“Well, I guess this means we didn’t have to wake up early after all,” Sirius said cheerfully.

“We?” James responded. “If you recall correctly, it was you who was asleep.” He smiled, tilting his head sideways at Sirius.

“You can’t tell me you stayed up all night,” the other boy responded. When James said nothing, he shook his head. “You did, didn’t you? I don’t know how you do it...”

“Never mind how I did it. Now eat something before you spaz out again,” the blue-eyed Seeker replied, half serious, half joking.

“Um...spaz?” Molly asked. “Since when do you spaz, Sirius?”

“Uh...since...wait a second! I do not spaz, James!”

The other boy laughed. “Yes. Yes you do.”

“Tsk, tsk, boys,” Remus interjected softly. “We do not need a lover’s spat at the breakfast table.”

“Shut up, Remus,” James and Sirius said in unison.

“Finally, you agree on something,” Molly said.

“No dear, they obviously agreed on a shower,” Remus replied.

“Shut up, Remus,” the two boys said again.

“You know it’s useless,” Remus muttered. “I’ll just keep on. You’ve got to expect that when you have a boyfriend.”

“You’re one to talk,” Sirius countered.

“Am I really?”

“God! You know you can be so annoying sometimes.”

“At least I didn’t wake up in the wrong bed this morning.”

Molly chuckled. “Remus, Sirius, we don’t need a lover’s spat at the table.”

“Why you!” the boys said together, turning to face her, then looking away, arms crossed, mirror images of each other.

“Sirius, is there something I should know?” James teased.

The other boy sighed before responding. “No, I’m going back to bed.” And with that, he stood up and began to walk away.

James called after him, “No! You can’t do that! The game’s about to start!”

“Then you had better get dressed,” Sirius called back over his shoulder.

James pouted for a minute before he got up to follow Sirius back to the common room. He wanted to stay in his bathrobe...

The Quidditch match—Slytherin versus Ravenclaw, the replacement for Gryffindor—turned out to be a rather sorry excuse for a game. Ravenclaw lost miserably, only scoring twice in the whole game. They even caught the snitch and still lost. James, watching from the locker room, thought the Slytherin team’s strategy was amazing and that Gryffindor would probably have lost as well. I guess it was a good thing our team got cancelled, he thought incredulously. To be humiliated like that in the first game of the season, especially with our moves...oh, that’d be just horrible.

“What are you doing in here, Potter?” Chris Donovan’s voice asked from behind him.

James spun around, a look of shock going across his face. “I could ask you the same thing,” he replied.

“Well, I am the captain after all,” the blonde said.

“Hn...whatever.”

James walked out of the locker room and around the edge of the field, in the direction of Gryffindor tower. Of course, he hadn’t expected to run into Arthur Weasley along the way.

“Hello, James,” the red-headed seventh year greeted him.

“Hey,” James replied.

“You seem depressed,” Arthur said. “Is something wrong?”

James shook his head and began walking again, motioning for Arthur to come with him. “No, just getting a hard time from Donovan again.” He shrugged. “It’s nothing really.”

“Yeah, it sucks that your team got cancelled.”

James chuckled. “Not really. We got to see all their moves so now we’ll be prepared for our game. It turned out for the better, and I got to stay in my bathrobe.” He smiled, gesturing to the green towel-like fabric wrapped around him.

“Speaking of which,” Arthur said. “That was some scene you and Sirius pulled this morning. Not many kids are willing to come to breakfast with nothing but a bathrobe on.”

James looked at him and arched an eyebrow. “Who are you calling 'kid'?”

The red-head laughed. “I’m just messing with you. Come on.”

He turned to go around the lake, taking the scenic route back to the castle, with James picking up his pace to catch up and walk beside him.

“Hey, Ava, why don’t you come down and join the party?”

“Sorry Julie, I have homework,” Avelon replied.

“Yeah, so do the rest of us, but you don’t see all of us sitting around working, missing out on a good time do you?” the younger girl replied. “Besides, it won’t kill you not to study for one night.”

Avelon sighed. “No,” she murmured. “It will not kill me.”

She stood up from her position leaning back against the headboard of her four-poster and walked toward the door. As she passed Julie, the girl said something.

“Oh, by the way, your brother’s here.”

As Avelon walked out to the railing of the balcony outside the dormitories, she saw Viktor standing by a table in the near corner. Slightly confused as to his reason and means of being there, she walked down the spiral staircase and approached her unaware brother.

“Interesting, I did not get a memo of a new student in our house,” she said quietly, startling the younger boy.

“Ava, I had to see you,” he said. He sounded a bit flustered.

“Is everything alright?” the girl asked.

Viktor stepped forward and reached a hand out to push a few stray strands of hair behind his sister’s ear. The girl felt her breath catch in her throat. She didn’t even flinch, but actually welcomed it, when Viktor leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips. When the boy saw the longing in Avelon’s red-violet eyes, he wrapped his arms around her small waist and pulled her closer, as she whispered something barely audible.

“I have waited...”

He smiled and kissed her again, this time longer, both of them oblivious to the stares they were receiving from most of the people in the common room.