Chapter 5: The Plan

Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine.

Author's Notes: Again, a huge thank you to DracoGurlFurever for beta reading this and making it presentable. Also, thank you to freeluciusnow21, who has left me a review on nearly all the chapters posted so far - I'm so glad you are enjoying the story, and your reviews really inspire me to keep going. To everyone else who is reading, thank you to you too, and if you would like to leave a review, then I would love to hear from you. And now, on with the next chapter.

Chapter 5: The Plan

The group of Gryffindors had made their way directly to Gryffindor Tower after their run-in with the Slytherins. The boys had then immediately headed up to their dormitory, leaving the group of girls in the safety of the common room. Sirius was barely managing to contain the anger that he was currently feeling after the confrontation; as soon as he reached their room, his tenuous control snapped.

'Can you believe the nerve of them?' Sirius shouted, kicking his trunk forcibly. The impact was such that it made the open top fall down and close with a loud and, Sirius felt, satisfying thud.

'I know. Where do they get off calling Lily that?' Peter agreed, his voice showing that he was just as angry as Sirius.

'Yes, but did you notice her reaction?' Remus asked, sounding calmer than the other boys. Sirius was pacing the room and flexing both his hands into fists in an effort to work off the adrenalin that was coursing through his veins. He turned his attention to James, who was sat on the end of his bed, staring into space.

'Prongs – are you all right?' Sirius asked.

'Huh? Yeah, I'm fine,' James replied, trying to sound normal and waving his hand in dismissal. However, James continued to stare into space, and there were several minutes of silence before he finally spoke again. 'Please tell me that I didn't imagine her thanking me. I mean, that really happened, right?'

Sirius paused his pacing and took a minute to think. In truth, he was so enraged by what had been said that he hadn't really taken stock of everything else that had happened. He replayed the events quickly in his head.

'No, mate, you didn't. For once in your life, as far as Lily is concerned, I think you did the right thing,' Remus said warmly.

James let out a sigh and smiled as he fell backwards onto his bed.

Now, it was Sirius's turn to feel confused. After thinking about what had happened, he was confused by Sophia's actions. Well, no, that wasn't right. Her actions had been quite straightforward, but the meaning behind those actions and his response to her were what was puzzling him.

For the last few weeks, since the beginning of term, they had gotten to know each other really well during their shared free periods. In fact, Sirius would bet that he had learnt more about her in this short space of time than he had since they had come to Hogwarts five years ago. She had become more comfortable in his presence, and he felt like he was finally getting to know the real Sophia. He looked forward to his time with her, which was unusual for him – he never really looked forward to spending time with anyone other than the Marauders.

Yet, it was the way she had looked at him today that had really thrown him. As he played that picture back over in his mind, he tried to work out what he had seen in her face. There had been fear, definitely, and a pleading in her eyes, but there had also been more – something he couldn't put his finger on. Whatever it had been, though, he had felt compelled to respond to it. He'd never backed down from a duel in his life – especially not when his brother or Snape were involved – but somehow she had made him do exactly that. Okay, so, technically it had been seeing James lowering his wand after Lily's pleading that had made him lower his own wand, but Sophia had made him stop and think, and that was something of an achievement in itself. He began to wonder what had really motivated her to do what she did – and, probably more importantly, why he'd listened to her.

Throwing himself on top of his bed, he stretched out and looked up at the canopy overhead. The room had grown quiet, and Sirius allowed himself to really analyse his thoughts about Sophia. He thought about the last free period they had spent together, which had been the day before. Just like every other time, they had had their books out, but they had done very little work.

He felt his lips curl up into a smile as he remembered her reading a story she had found in the Daily Prophet that had proclaimed that drinking beetroot juice increased a person's stamina. He'd initially misunderstood exactly what she had meant by 'stamina', which had resulted in Sophia turning pink and stuttering, before he realised she meant stamina whilst exercising, and they had both then collapsed into fits of laughter.

He let his mind fixate on the image of her from yesterday – her smile wide as she chuckled, her blue eyes dancing with mirth. In that moment, she had been completely carefree and joyous, and it had allowed him to feel the same. 'She's pretty when she laughs,' he thought to himself.

Then, another image came unbidden into his mind; it, too, was from the day before. It had occurred shortly before they had packed up to go to lunch. Sophia had been working like a good student, doing her homework, but he had wanted her attention on himself. Thinking the logical way to get her attention was to stop her from working, he'd swiped the book she had been copying from. Sophia had been frustrated with him, but not overly so, because she hadn't been able to maintain her straight face as she tried to chastise him.

He'd waved the book backwards and forwards in front of her, always just keeping it out of her reach. That was, until she'd done the unexpected. They had been sitting side by side on this occasion, and in her desperate attempts to get her book back, she had launched herself at him, ending up almost sitting in his lap. He'd been so stunned by her movements that he'd lost focus, and she had been victorious in re-claiming her book. Thinking about those brief seconds again, he decided that there were definitely worse things in the world than having a lapful of Sophia.

He tried to think back over previous conversations with her in an attempt to pick up any sign that she was attracted to him. She would definitely blush whenever he paid her a compliment, which, he guessed, could be a good sign, but after ten minutes of thinking, that was all he could come up with. The problem, he decided, was that she was only just starting to come out of herself around him. He realised figuring Sophia out was going to be a challenge, and he wasn't about to turn one down. A true Marauders' smile graced his features as he set about devising a plan that would help him in his pursuit of Sophia.

As Thursday dawned, Sirius was prepared to put his plan into action. It was really quite simple – his primary objective for today was to simply try to work out if she was attracted to him or not. He would start by being his most charming self, enquiring about how she felt after the events of the night before. Girls liked guys who showed an interest in their feelings, or so he'd been told. He figured now would be a good time to find out if there was any truth in that statement. Once he'd (hopefully) confirmed that she was attracted to him, he would take it from there.

Normally, after his Charms class with Sophia, he would meet with Peter and James for their shared free period, but today he told them that he was going to spend it with Sophia working on their Charms essay. It shouldn't be too hard to persuade her to spend that time with him; he knew Lily was in History of Magic with Remus. The actual class was quite straightforward, with Flitwick giving a lesson on the theory behind the Patronus charm. Sirius's mind, therefore, drifted to the girl who sat next to him and what he was going to say during the next three quarters of an hour. When the bell rang, his plan was put into action.

'Say, Sophia, don't suppose you want to work on this Charms essay now, do you?' he asked, giving her one of his dazzling smiles that had served him so well over the years.

'I suppose we could, yes. You're not meeting Peter and James, then?' She concentrated on packing up her bag.

'No – I think they're working on their Astronomy charts or something. Shall we go to the common room?' He held out his arm for her to take and kept the smile in place. Sophia eyed him suspiciously before tentatively linking arms with him.

Once up in the common room, they took their usual seats across from one another, and both pulled out their Charms books, though Sirius hoped they wouldn't spend too much time looking at them.

'So, how are you today after what happened last night?' he asked, hoping his voice conveyed the right mix of sincerity and concern.

'Me? I'm fine, thanks.' Sophia looked up from her book, giving him a warm smile.

Sirius returned the smile, but he was a bit disappointed at her response. It hadn't left him much room to expand the topic and draw her into conversation. Then, a new idea came into his head. Perhaps he could steer her in the right direction if he brought up Lily and James.

'It was a bit weird though, wasn't it? I mean, that whole thing between Lily and James. Has she said anything about that to you?' Sirius fiddled with his quill whilst scrutinising her face.

'No, she hasn't, and I've not brought it up with her. With Lily, you have to let her bring things up when she's ready.'

'Hmm ... I see.' Sirius stroked his chin with his quill, wondering what his next move should be.

'Sirius, did James put you up to this?' Sophia asked softly, pulling him out of his thoughts.

'What? No, why do you think that?' He was now panicking slightly.

'Well, the questions about Lily, I wondered if maybe James had asked you to talk to me about her or something.' Sophia shrugged and turned her attention to her Charms book again.

'Bugger! That wasn't supposed to happen,' he thought to himself. He desperately tried to get back on track again. 'So, you sure you're okay then after yesterday?'

She looked at him, utterly confused, and paused for a moment before answering. 'Yeah ... I'm fine ... Are you okay?' She spoke slowly, as if talking to a three year old, and raised an eyebrow at him.

'No, yeah, I'm fine,' Sirius said dismissively. 'Why does she have to make this so bloody difficult?' he thought to himself. 'Right, time to change tactics.' This would be a risk, as it might anger her, but he was running out of other ideas.

'Can I ask you something?'

'You just did,' she replied with a smile, to which he rolled his eyes in exasperation. 'Of course you can – what's up?' She put her quill down and leant across the desk to him.

'Well, if, as you insist, there is nothing going on between you and Remus, can I ask why not?'

She gave a sigh, and looked slightly annoyed, as she leant back against her seat and crossed her arms. 'I thought you wanted to talk about something serious.'

'This is serious. I'm genuinely puzzled, and I want to understand what is going on between you two. You sneak off together, and neither of you will tell us what you're doing.' He gave her a look which he hoped would show her that he was being serious.

She seemed to consider her answer for a moment before she spoke again. 'Well, there is nothing going on between us, and I don't think there ever will be anything between us. We are just very good friends, and that's it. When we 'sneak' off, as you put it, we really are just talking.'

'What do you talk about?'

'I don't know ... just things. I guess I can talk to Remus about stuff that I couldn't talk to Lily or the other girls about.' Sirius seemed bemused by this explanation, so she continued. 'Okay, let's see how I can explain this better. All right, let's say that I have a problem that I need a guy's perspective on it – I'll talk to Remus about it. Likewise, if he needs a girl's perspective on something, he'll come to me. We can tell each other anything.'

'Hmm ... so if you are that close, why are you so sure that nothing will happen?'

'Simply because neither of us feels that way about each other,' she replied matter-of-factly, and Sirius was pretty sure that she was telling the truth.

'All right, I can accept that. So, do you have your eye on anyone else then?' He gave her a cheeky grin and waited for an answer.

'Um ... no ... not at the moment,' she replied, but Sirius noticed the slightly pink colour to her cheeks and the fact that she looked at her books as she answered. He smiled smugly to himself and settled down to work. He had all he needed for now.

~~~~~

Sophia spent the majority of the rest of the morning trying to figure out what had happened between herself and Sirius. He had been acting very strangely, and she had no idea why. His inquiry about her relationship with Remus wasn't entirely out of the ordinary, even if it was a little annoying, but his later question about whether she liked anyone else had thrown her into a complete spin.

In her own thoughts, she would admit that she found Sirius highly attractive – she wasn't blind, after all – but she had never thought any further than that. He was flirtatious in general, so she knew not to read anything into his actions, and her mind had a tendency to get carried away, so it was just better for her not to even entertain those thoughts. Still, the fact that he had asked her such a question was highly puzzling and also made her worry. Was he asking because he liked her?

Don't be stupid, what could he possibly see in you? she asked herself. She'd seen the girls Sirius had dated in the past, and she certainly was not his 'type'. Maybe he was asking because he knows of someone who does like me. It wouldn't be Remus, though, or James, for that matter, and I would doubt it would be Peter. But who, then? It just doesn't make sense!

After letting her mind ponder the problem all through lunch and through her free period in the afternoon, she decided that the best thing she could do was talk to Remus about it during their Herbology lesson after lunch. He was one of her best friends, so she knew she could trust him, and he was close to Sirius, too. Perhaps he might be able to help her figure out what was going on.

Professor Sprout had the class working in pairs to tend to a crop of Alihotsy* plants. The plants caused hysteria if the leaves were eaten, but other than that they were fairly harmless. Remus and Sophia had paired up as usual and were progressing well, when Sophia plucked up enough courage to ask him her questions.

'Remus, is Sirius okay?' she asked tentatively, while piling dragon dung into a new pot.

'As far as I know he's all right. Why do you ask?' He took the pot from Sophia and looked at her intriguingly.

'Well, it's just that ... today he was acting really weird around me. I don't know, I just wondered if he had said anything to you guys.' Remus started planting a clipping while Sophia prepared a new pot.

'What do you mean by acting weird?'

'Well, he was just asking funny questions, like what was going on between us and if I had my eye on anyone – I just didn't know what was going on with him.' She looked at Remus as she waited for a reply. His brow furrowed in thought, and his whole face seemed to grow dark.

'Hmm,' he grunted, 'leave it with me. I'll talk to him tonight.'

She could tell by his tone that something was not right, but she also knew she wasn't going to get anything else out of Remus, so she left the conversation at that.

~~~~~

Sirius mused over the day's events as he took a shower that evening. He was pretty sure that Sophia's blushing stemmed from the fact that she was attracted to him – which was a good thing – so now all he needed to do was plan his next move. The Hogsmeade weekend, which was in a few weeks, seemed like the best course of action, and he decided that he would ask Sophia to accompany him for the day. When he headed back into the bedroom, Remus was waiting for him.

'Hey, Moony. Shower's free if you want it,' Sirius said as he towel-dried his hair.

'I'm not up here to take a shower. I want to talk to you about something,' Remus said firmly, his arms crossed over his chest.

'What's up?' Sirius couldn't work out what would cause such odd behaviour in his friend.

'Sophia is what's up. What the heck are you playing at with her?' Remus' tone had gone from firm to bordering on becoming harsh. Remus was normally so placid and gentle that this change was worrying.

'Huh? What do you mean?'

'You know full well what I mean. She told me how you were asking funny questions today and acting weird with her. What are you planning?'

'Well, if you must know, I was intending on asking her out for the next Hogsmeade weekend. Is there a problem with that?' Sirius replied snidely; there was something about Remus' tone that was really beginning to annoy him.

'Yes, there's a problem with that.'

'Why? I thought there wasn't anything going on between you two? You have always denied anything, and she told me neither of you felt that way about each other,' Sirius replied. He was starting to get angry and couldn't work out what Remus' problem was.

'There is nothing going on between us, but I don't want you asking her out either.'

'What? That makes no sense whatsoever! You're not her keeper, Moony!' Sirius glared at Remus. He could not understand why Remus was behaving this way. All he'd done was talk to her; he hadn't even asked her out yet!

Just then, they were disturbed by James and Peter. 'Hey, what's going on in here – we can hear you two shouting from outside,' James said as he looked between Remus and Sirius, who were eyeing each other with their arms folded.

'Moony here doesn't want me to ask Sophia out on a date for the next Hogsmeade weekend and won't tell me why,' Sirius replied harshly, not taking his eyes off Remus. Remus, for his part, stayed still and silent, though his eyes continued to hold their harsh glint.

'What? Moony, is that true? And since when have you liked Sophia, Sirius?' Peter asked, looking baffled.

'That's not the point, Wormtail,' Sirius retorted.

'No, that's exactly the point, Pads,' Remus snapped. 'It's just a passing infatuation that you have, and I don't want to see her get hurt.'

'Are you saying that I would deliberately set out to hurt her?' Sirius shouted.

'No, not deliberately, but you would in the end. The only reason you're interested in her is because she's a challenge. I'm right, aren't I.' Remus made it a statement more than a question.

'No ... that's not the only reason. I've just ... you know, gotten to know her, and I like her. What's wrong with that?' Sirius was beginning to feel like he was being backed into a corner by Remus. He failed to understand why he had to justify himself like this.

Remus sighed, and for the first time since the conversation had begun, his features softened, his voice returning to his normal, gentler tone. 'Pads, Sophia is like a sister to me or something. I don't want to see her getting hurt. I know her better than you, and she's not the type of girl to have a fling with. Do you remember last year when she went out with Brendan Fuller?'

Sirius took a moment to think back. He vaguely remembered seeing Sophia and the Gryffindor Beater in the year above hanging round together for a short while. 'Yeah, well, what about it?'

'They went out for about three months, I think, and she was crushed when they broke up. It was a mutual break-up, but she still took a heck of a long time to get over it and she changed because of it. She became guarded – you must have noticed how long it takes her to feel comfortable around someone?' Sirius had to agree with that point and gave a brief nod before Remus continued. 'Listen, if you can tell me that you are really serious about her, then I won't stand in your way. Can you do that?'

Sirius thought about what Remus had told him. Sirius was not the type of guy to have a different girlfriend each week, but to be honest, the few girlfriends he'd had hadn't lasted that long.

He was attracted to Sophia and got along well with her, and he could count her as a friend. Yet, he had had no idea that she'd been hurt so badly until now. Could he, even unwittingly, cause her more pain? Maybe Remus was right; maybe he was only interested because she was a challenge – the thrill of the chase. He gave a big sigh.

'No, you're right. I can't say that. I promise, I'll forget about asking her out.' Remus relaxed, though he still looked slightly troubled.

'Thanks. I'm sorry for being so ...' Remus faltered slightly, a contrite look appearing on his face.

'Heavy-handed?' Sirius suggested, his tone light enough for Remus to know that he was joking.

'Yeah,' Remus agreed, a slight chuckle in his reply. He paused for a moment before becoming serious again. 'It's not that I don't think you would be good for her; it's just, I don't know, I guess I'm just protective of her. She's been a good friend to me, and I know how sensitive she can be.'

Sirius smiled, 'It's fine, Moony, really. I'm sorry for shouting at you – I can see that you're only looking out for her.'

Remus returned the smile, and Sirius knew that the matter had been put to rest. 'That's okay; so will you go back to acting normally around her for me, please? I'll just tell her you were fishing for dirt on me, or something.'

Sirius nodded in reply before giving Remus a slap on the back to prove there were no hard feelings. 'Just one thing – are you sure there's nothing going on between you two?' Remus merely glared at him. Sirius held both his hands up, saying, 'Okay, okay ... just checking!'

End Notes:

*Alihotsy Leaves - created by JK and listed in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. According to the Harry Potter Lexicon site, the leaves produce hysteria when eaten. http://www.hplex.info/magic/herbology.html