Mrs Jessica Black




And once again I finished a new chapter. We've already reached the 13th chapter and are slowly starting to reach the end.
In this chapter another revelation about Sirius and the required humor to write a Marauder story.

I've picked up that some people think the characters I use in my stories are too much starting to talk and think like me. This is not true. I do have an explanation of this thought;
I myself am being very influenced by the people in my story. I like them so much, that I started to act and think like them. It's not the other way round.

I repeate once again: With every line I write, I think: "what would he do?" "what would he say?"


Anyway. Here's the new chapter.


~::Chapter Thirteen::~


“There are two rooms over there,” James explained when they had entered the enchanted tent. “Only three people will fit in those rooms, so I suggest to just sleep here in the middle. We can move the beds.”
And so they did.

After bringing the bags into the tent and unpacking what needed to be unpacked, they went for a walk over the campsite. They met and greeted some people they knew from school. Remus went to talk to a girl from their year. While Peter was trying to stop a wasp from bothering him, James and Sirius tried to understand a little girl who was babbling in a weird language at them.
“Hoe heten jullie? Waar komen jullie vandaan? Ik ben al vier. En jullie?”
Sirius and James blinked and looked at the large, brown eyes of the foreign girl.
“Er-” Sirius started, “I’m afraid we don’t speak your language. Can’t you speak English?”
The girl just blinked and kept staring at them with those huge eyes.
“Of course she doesn’t.” James said, placing an elbow in Sirius’ ribs. “You don’t understand a word we’re saying, do you?”
The little girl didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Then she pointed at the tent on the other side of the path.
“Mijn mama gaat straks broodjes kopen. Gaan jullie ook broodjes kopen?”
“If… we could cope with broad oaks that have gone in July?” Sirius said slowly, raising an eyebrow.
James snorted. Then he burst out laughing.
“Wha’?!” Sirius blurted out.
“Sorry, hoor. Ze praat tegen iedereen.” A woman who was undoubtedly the girl’s mother, said to Sirius and James, taking hold of her daughter’s hand.
“Sorry?” Sirius said. Almost choking on laughter he shoved James aside.
“Oh, you’re English. I’m sorry about little Jessy here. I hope she didn’t bother you?” The woman said kindly in English, with a funny accent.
“Oh no,” Sirius replied, “We had a very lovely conversation about - er - trees.”
Remus and Peter had joined them now.
“Oh, heb je met die jonge Engelsman gepraat, Jessy?”
The girl nodded, a wet finger, which just came out of her mouth, pointed at Sirius.
“Hij wilt ook een broodje.”
The woman laughed and turned to the boys again.
“She insisted me to give you a French roll too.”
“Well…” Sirius started, but Remus interrupted, gently leading Sirius away from the woman and the girl.
“Don’t feed him. He’ll plunder your stock once he gets started.”
The woman laughed. “Kom Jessy, we gaan. Zeg maar doei tegen de jongens.”
“Dag!” The girl said, waving frantically.
The woman said good bye and went off.
“Bye.” The four boys said and they walked further on.
Sirius looked around at the little girl for one last time. Then he asked:
“Was that German?”

*

The four friends had made their beds. It had suddenly started to rain and so they had gone back to the tent.
James and Remus were playing chess at the moment; every move closely watched my Peter and Sirius.
“Give it up, Moony.” James said teasingly as his Knight threw Remus’ last Rook off the board.
“No,” Remus replied, “I’ve still got a chance to win. I beg you. Don’t ruin that happy thought.” He smiled and made his last Knight make a move. “Check.”
James grinned. “If you want to make any chance of winning, I advise you not to listen to Sirius’ advice.”
“Hey!” Sirius complained while the others sniggered. “It’s not that I’m that bad. You’re just better. ‘S all.”
(James made another move that made, which made his King crush Remus’ Knight to the ground.) 
“Sirius, mate.” James said, laying a friendly hand on Sirius’ shoulder. “You should really try to learn that you shouldn’t take me so seriously all the time. Well- I know your name’s Si-”
“Don’t make that joke! I hate it when people do that!” Sirius broke him off, a warning expression on his face.
“Oh, Sirius,” Remus said kindly. “You would be so much more relaxed, if you just didn’t ‘bite in everything’. But… we know you can’t.”
Remus made another move. 
“Oh no!” he said after making it. “Can I please undo that one?” He looked at James with begging eyes.
But James grinned broadly, then he shook his head. 
“Sorry. Rules are rules.”
Remus moaned complaining, when James made his move and mouthed; “Check mate.”
“I was so close!” Remus said, removing his fringe out if his vision.
“Well,” James said cheerfully, “At least it was a good match. When I play with Sirius…” he said, eyeing Sirius amusingly.
“Oh, shut up!”

*

Mr Pettigrew entered their tent.
“Guys,” he said, slapping his hands together. “It’s almost dinner time, but we have no food. Some one - or two – will have to go to the little camping store to get food.”
“Dad!” Peter said, not believing his ears. “It’s raining! Very hard!”
“Well, your mother wanted to ask you when it was still dry, but you were already gone. Here’s some Muggle money. Get yourselves something too.” Then he left.
Peter let out a moan.
“Well…” he said. “Who volunteers?” and as expected, no one made the slightest gesture to go outside.
Then Peter threw the money pouch at James, who automatically caught it.
“Why don’t you go?” Peter asked. “You’re very… spontaneous.”
James shook his head. 
“No, I’m allergic to rain.” he made up, throwing the bag back at Peter. “And besides, they’re your parents.”
Peter caught the pouch again.
“Wait,” he said. “Sirius, you go. You know how to pay with Muggle money.” Peter said, throwing the pouch towards Sirius now.
Sirius, however, didn’t catch it but let it drop down next to him on the bed.
“That’s only a matter of counting, you know.” He said rather bored.
“You know what?” Remus said.
“What? You’re going?” James answered hopefully.
“No, let’s draw straws.”

And so they did. They decided that two people would go.
“Okay, ready?” Remus said, holding out four straws. “Pull.”
James, Peter and Sirius pulled each one straw out of Remus’ hand.
“Okay… look.”
They all showed their straws. James’ and Peter’s straws appeared to be the shortest, so they both let out a moan.
“Have fun playing outside.” Sirius said teasingly, a broad grin spreading across his face.
“Thanks, Mr Casanova”.  James said sarcastically, an expression on his face far from cheerful.
He and Peter wrapped cloaks around themselves and left the tent.
“I hope it doesn’t rain like this during the match. We won’t see a thing!” James said, rain streaming down his face.
“I bet it’ll clear up later.” Peter replied.
“Yeah, and I bet, that in the time that happens, we’ll already be back in the tent.”
Peter didn’t know whether to laugh or not so he said: 
“Welcome to England.”
James smiled briskly. “Hey, would your dad mind if we would buy some snacks for tonight?”
Peter shook his head.

“Say, Moony.”
“Hm?”
Sirius sat down next to Remus, who was making the puzzle in the Daily Prophet.
“What is it with James?”
Remus looked up from the paper. ”What about him?”
“Well- He keeps calling me ‘Mr Casanova’ and ‘Womanizer’ and stuff. Yeah, I know he used to do that for quite a long time,” Sirius said, seeing the ‘doesn’t-he-always-?’ expression on his friend’s face. 
“But he does it an awfully lot these days.” he added. “Do you by chance know why he does that?”
Remus frowned, folding the newspaper and laying it down next to him. 
“Well…” he started. “I’m not quite sure if it’s wise to tell you.”
“What do you mean?” Sirius said a little offended. “Are you saying you guys have got a ‘secret’ you don’t want to share with me?”
“No more than you’ve got for us…” Remus said quietly, regretting he said it as soon as he had.
Sirius frowned. 
“Wadda you mean by that?”
Remus sighed.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, I really want to know!” Sirius said impatiently.
“Well…” Remus started, thinking up a way of saying it as subtle as possible. “James wanted Peter to follow you… He saw you.”
Sirius kept his frown. “What do you mean ‘he saw me’? Where?”
Remus didn’t say anything for a while.
“In Diagon Alley… with the girl…” he said carefully.
Sirius opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. Remus detected a curtain tension on Sirius’ face. Then he smiled.
“It’s okay.” he said. “It can happen to anyone.”
“What are you talking about?” Sirius said again, a lot more defensive than before.
Remus smiled again.
“You’re in love.” he said lightly.
“I’m what?! No way! No. I’m- It’s-” as Sirius struggled to safe himself out of this, he felt for the first time in his life his cheeks began to glow a little.
Remus laughed heartily. 
“Oh, Padfoot. Don’t worry.” he rested a hand on Sirius’ shoulder, who still seemed to be looking for words to defend himself.
“I mean,” Remus continued, “It can happen to anyone of us. See here! Even the most handsome, most popular, toughest, I-don’t-fall-in-love, I-don’t-believe-in-girlfriends guy, has fallen in love.”
“I’m not in love and she’s definitely not my girlfriend! You know I don’t do such things.” Sirius muttered.
“I know. And I know why, but falling in love is a very natural thing. You don’t have to be ashamed of it, Sirius. I know who she is and man… is she beautiful! Don’t you see? She suits you. You’re exactly the same. Outside and inside. Good looks, bit haughty…” Remus said, giving Sirius an encouraging tap on the shoulder.
“So,” Remus continued. He didn’t feel like letting Sirius know he knew already quite a lot about the girl. “What’s her name?”
“That’ll be Nanya.” Sirius muttered.
“Nanya?” Remus replied.
“Nanya business.” Sirius muttered, even darkly this time.
Remus sighed. “Nah, you’re right. Sorry about that.” he said softly.
Sirius sighed heavily. Then it was quiet for quite a while. 
Sirius sighed again. Then said softly:
“Her name’s Cecile.”
Remus looked up. He was surprised and happy at the same time. ‘He’ll melt.’ Remus thought. Then he said:
“That’s a nice name.”
“Actually,” Sirius continued, still not looking at Remus. “It’s Cecelia, but Cecile is easier.”
“Well, that’s nice too. She’s in the seventh year?” Remus asked carefully.
“She will be, yeah.”
“What did you do with her?” Remus dared to ask.
“We went for a drink.” Sirius said very clearly.
Remus narrowed his eyes, knowing that Sirius did more amusing things with pretty girls apart from having a drink with them... “Really?”
”Yes, Moony. Just a drink.”
And again there was a short pause.
Sirius finally looked up at Remus’ friendly smiling face.
“You won’t tell James or Peter, will you?”
“Do I ever?” The warm expression on Remus’ face relaxed Sirius a bit.
“And besides,” Remus added. “What’s there to tell if you’re not in love…?”
Sirius just smiled wearily.
“I gotta go to the loo.” He said as he stood up.
Remus hesitated but really felt the urge to know. 
“But you did kiss her… Why?”
Sirius stopped.
“I didn’t-”
“Sirius. You’re doing it again.” Remus said, wearing a way more concerned look on his face.
Sirius sighed.
“Okay, I did kiss her. But once has to be the first time.” then he continued his way to the washroom. He walked in and closed the door. Then he opened it again.
“And I’m not in love!” he said and closed the door again.
Remus laughed and said:
“Of course you’re not.” 
But he knew his friend too well to just believe his words.


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