Chapter 17: Confusion and Chaos Reigns

Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling.

Author's Notes: Once again, I must thank DracoGurlFurever for her superb beta work on this chapter. Also, thank to you for sticking with me and this story this far. I hope you like this chapter, and if you have any comments, I would love to hear from you. Thanks.

A couple of chapters ago, I posted a note about my pony being ill. Well, just as an update to that, his condition did improve slightly but then unfortunately, he relapsed, and there was nothing else for us to try. He was put to sleep peacefully on New Year's Eve. It was a horrible decision to make, and it was extremely upsetting, but I know it was for the best and he's now free from pain and at peace.

Chapter 17: Confusion and Chaos Reigns

Sirius woke suddenly to the sound of James cursing loudly. His whole body felt as heavy as a lead weight, and he barely managed to keep his eyes open as he heard Remus speak from across the room.

'What is – Merlin!' Remus shouted before groaning loudly. 'Oh, my muscles hurt!'

'I know!' James sounded slightly strangled as he spoke.

'You pair of babies!' Sirius huffed at the pair of them as he summoned his brain back from sleep so that he could sit up in his bed. 'You can't possibly be that sore after a bit of danc – oh, bloody hell!' Sirius exclaimed. All the muscles in his arms, legs, and stomach burned as he tried to move. His calf muscles felt unbelievably tight, and his arms shook with effort as he tried to support his weight on them. He quickly allowed himself to flop back into the bed, thoughts of getting up and moving immediately far from his mind. It just hurt too much; even the longest game of Quidditch had never made him feel this bad.

'See?' Remus and James replied smugly, in unison.

'What is all the racket about, anyway?' Peter said groggily, his speech half-muffled by his pillow. 'Can't a guy sleep in peace?'

'Have you tried to move yet, Wormtail?' Remus asked.

'No, why?' There was a slight pause as Sirius heard Peter's bedcovers rustle. 'Oh, bloody hell, that hurts!'

'Precisely,' James said wryly. 'I think, if we just move really slowly, it will be better. Okay, on the count of three, we'll all try to get out of bed. One. Two. Three.'

After a few minutes of silence, Sirius spoke. 'Why didn't you move, Prongs?'

'Me? You didn't move, either!'

'No, because I was waiting to see how much it hurt you to move!'

'Thank you very much, then,' James said sarcastically. 'Well, we can't very well stay here all day, can we? We have to try to get up – no matter how much it hurts.'

With that, all four boys carefully moved around in their beds. After much muttered curse words and sharp intakes of breath, they all managed to get into a sitting position, although none of them dared to try to stand up just yet; their thigh and calf muscles were still protesting after being forced to shift position.

'Merlin's pants, Pads – look at your arm!' Peter exclaimed, his eyes wide and startled.

Sirius gingerly lifted up his left arm, his shoulder muscles just as sore as the rest of his body. Sure enough, along the inside of his upper arm was a very large purplish bruise, a yellowish green outer bruise surrounding it.

'Blimey, I guess Sophia wasn't kidding when she said these ceilidhs leave you with a bruise, was she?' The other three boys all started examining their arms to find that they too held similar marks, although none was quite as impressive as Sirius'.

Sirius was sure his was worse from dancing the final dance – Strip the Willow – with Sophia. They had gone at about twice the speed of everyone else as they had spun their way down the line. He had barely managed to keep his feet under him at one point, and he'd collided with Sophia with some force, linking his arm with hers quickly, trying to steady himself. Sophia, though, had been laughing as she quickly spun on her heel round him before letting go of him once more. By the time they had finished, he had been dizzy and out of breath but smiling broadly, fully understanding at last Sophia's enthusiasm for ceilidhs.

An hour later, the boys had managed to stand and had done their best to stretch out their muscles, easing the pain enough for them to get dressed and go downstairs. They found their way to the dining room, only to see that everyone else was already present, and they readily helped themselves to the buffet breakfast that was spread over the table.

'Good day, gentlemen, I trust that you slept well?' Mary asked.

'Yes, thank you, although getting up this morning was a different story entirely,' James responded jovially. 'I think we all pulled muscles we didn't even know existed.'

'Tell us about it,' Lucy stated as everyone round the table chuckled softly. 'Sophia was the only one in our room who could move with relative ease.'

'I'm just more accustomed to it, that's all,' Sophia said with a smile.

'How's your arm today, Sophia?' Sirius asked, eating a mouthful of porridge.

Sophia held her arm up for all to see. 'I'd say, by the size and colour of this little beauty, I had a very good night last night,' she grinned.

'You really are weird,' Remus said, an affectionate tone in his voice, softly shaking his head in disbelief.

'Only just worked that one out?' James chuckled, giving Sophia a wink as he did.

'Hey! What is this? "Pick on Sophia Day" or something?' Sophia shot back, failing to suppress her amusement at their taunts.

'I won't have anyone picking on my daughter,' Alasdair said sternly, causing James and Remus to jerk in surprise and pale slightly in fear. Alasdair pinned them both with a steely gaze as the tension around the table grew before he spoke again. 'That's my job,' he stated, breaking into a grin and letting out a deep belly laugh.

Remus and James let out a big sigh of relief before joining in with the rest of the table in their laughter.

'Dad!' Sophia exclaimed, frustration evident in her tone.

'Sorry, lass, I couldn't resist. Your faces were a picture!' Again, Alasdair let out a loud laugh before he continued eating his breakfast.

'Anyway,' Sophia said pointedly, 'Mum, Dad, and I are going to visit my Grandmother this afternoon. Will you all be okay to stay here with Hector?' The Marauders and the girls all murmured their agreement. 'Good, we shouldn't be too long – only a couple of hours or so.'

That afternoon, once Sophia and her parents had left, the rest of the teenagers settled themselves in a room Hector called 'The Snug.' It was a cosy room; the fire crackled away merrily, warding off the winter chill from outside. It reminded Sirius somewhat of the Gryffindor common room, with its large comfortable sofas and thick rugs under foot.

Hector opened the door of a cupboard to reveal a selection of small boxes, each about the size of a book, with brightly coloured drawings and text on them. Hector told them to pick whichever one most appealed to them, and they would watch it on the television. Unsurprisingly, James was quick to select a film that shared his name. Hector's broad grin at the selection assured Sirius that James had made a fluke good choice as they all settled on the sofas to watch.

Despite knowing a small amount about televisions, it was an interesting concept to Sirius, one that he would be keen to learn more about. He was longing to ask questions about how it worked, but he couldn't do that without raising suspicions, so he was forced to sit in silence and let the moving pictures on the glass fronted box wash over him. Perhaps it was something he could ask Sophia about sometime.

The James on the screen seemed to make a living by travelling over the world killing the bad guys and getting the girls. However, this guy was also Scottish, and Sirius couldn't help but think of how another Scottish berk had stopped him from getting the girl last night. Well, maybe that wasn't entirely fair – yes, Hector had interrupted them, but it hadn't been on purpose, and really, he'd been very hospitable to all of them since their arrival. Also, Hector seemed a lot more interested in Melanie than he was in Sophia, so that was just fine.

Sirius wondered what the best plan of action would be now, after coming so close to asking Sophia out the night before – should he spend time planning his next move, or should he just remain as spontaneous as he could? He decided that, up until now, spontaneity had been working well for him; given how much time he now spent with Sophia at Hogwarts, he was sure he wouldn't have to wait long until the next opportunity presented itself.

His ponderings were cut dramatically short when the movie showed a blonde girl coming out of the sea in a white bikini. Yes, this James bloke certainly did have all the luck.

~~~~~

Sophia was relieved to return to Hogwarts. She'd had a lovely time at the Hogmanay ceilidh, and dancing with Sirius had definitely made the night one she would always remember, but at the same time it had thrown all her emotions into chaos. Sirius now occupied her thoughts ninety percent of the time; each time she saw him or spoke to him, it got worse. She analysed everything he said or did around her to look for any clue that he might return her feelings, but even if she did spot something that might confirm her hopes, the pessimistic side of her brain dismissed it as wishful thinking. She refused to broach the subject with him because she was terrified of receiving a negative answer, not only for the obvious reasons of fearing rejection but also because she worried how something like that would impact their friendship.

Her reactions had also not escaped her mother's notice, and Sophia had faced a torrent of questions about Sirius when they had been to visit her Grandmother. Luckily, her mother had not brought up her suspicions in front of her father, or else it would have been very awkward.

It was almost a relief when classes started again, as it gave her something else to focus her energy on. However, this also meant that she had to endure the torture of Charms class with Sirius, not to mention the free periods that they shared alone. This was made worse on the second Monday back as Sirius was in a particularly mischievous mood and spent most of the Charms lesson trying to annoy her by pinching her side or knee and trying to whisper things to her. How he never got caught by Professor Flitwick, she didn't know, but she was thankful that she escaped without a detention and her cheeks turning only slightly pink.

The next day, this slow torture continued as she and Sirius shared a free double period between break and lunch while Remus and Lily were at History of Magic and James and Peter went to Astronomy.

'Oh, can we please go outside?' Sirius whined, tossing his quill down on his Charms book. They had taken up their usual seat in the Gryffindor common room, but the weather today was sunny, with only a slight nip in the air that a Warming Charm would fend off easily.

'Sirius, you know as well as I do that we won't work if we go outside. If you want to go outside, then I'm not stopping you, but I have to get this essay done.' Sophia didn't look up from her work as she answered him. It was the fourth time that he'd asked the same question in half an hour.

'It'll be no fun if I go out there by myself. You can't honestly want to be cooped up in here when the weather is this good. Who knows how long we'll have to wait for another day like this? I promise that I'll work – we can sit by the beech tree,' he pleaded.

Sophia eyed him suspiciously, and he gave her a puppy-dog look which made her stomach do a flip-flop. It was the last push that was needed to break her resolve.

'Fine! We'll go outside, but you had better try and work, Sirius – this essay has got to be finished for Friday.'

With that, Sirius eagerly packed up his things; Sophia took her time, and they walked down into the grounds together. Once they reached the beech tree, they sat down beside one another and pulled out their books again.

About ten minutes after starting, Sirius broke the silence and asked Sophia a question about the essay. Gradually, as time wore on and more questions were asked, the pair slowly lost their focus, as they were prone to do, and the conversation took a turn away from school work.

'You know something,' Sirius started, staring at her with a contemplative look on his face and causing her to feel slightly uncomfortable.

'What?'

'You look a bit like a yucca plant with your hair like that,' he replied before letting out a bark of laughter. Sophia felt her hair with her left hand, a soft frown appearing on her face as she did. Her hair had been annoying her while she was studying, and so she had twisted it roughly up in a bun; she could feel that there were indeed large pieces of hair sticking straight up in the air above her head.

'Charming,' she replied sarcastically, picking up her Charms book and playfully hitting him with it. 'You really know how to make a girl feel good.'

'Always a pleasure,' he retorted, with his trade mark grin, which caused her to roll her eyes. She needed to show him that two could play this game and racked her brain to find something that she could throw back at him. Smirking internally, she carried on with their conversation.

'Well, anyway. Moving on from your brilliant flattery techniques, have you heard what Peter has to take care of for his Care of Magical Creatures class?' she asked innocently.

'Yeah I did hear him mention something – what was it ... it's like a pig-type creature, isn't it?'

'That's right – a Tebo. Apparently, Professor Kettleburn had real trouble getting the Ministry to allow him to have a few here. There's all sorts of charms on the pen to stop them disappearing. I think it's a bit of a shame that they have to be kept outside, though – especially as its still winter at the moment, and they're originally from Africa,' she said.

'Haven't you heard how much mess they make? I mean, you could hardly keep it in your bedroom, could you?' Sirius said with a dissmissive laugh.

'Well, why not? You stay inside, don't you?' she asked, raising an eyebrow.

'What?' Sirius shouted; Sophia started laughing. 'That was below the belt.' He theatrically clutched his heart, pretending to be mortally wounded.

Sophia continued to laugh at him, looking smug.

'You know, I think that calls for payback ...' Sirius' face changed into the look he usually got before playing a particularly good prank; Sophia suddenly stopped laughing and started to look worried.

'Sirius ... what are you going to do?'

He drew closer to her in a predatory fashion, a mischievous grin firmly in place, before he suddenly reached out and started to tickle her. They both started laughing as she tried in vain to push him off. She over-balanced and ended up falling onto her back, but Sirius was not one to be put off easily, and he continued to tickle her, positioning himself across her torso to avoid her legs which she had started to kick in reflex.

'Do you take it back?' he asked with glee, grabbing hold of her wrists and pushing them into the ground to stop her from grabbing at his robes.

'Yes! Fine,' she said between pants of breath from laughing. He was inches from her face and his hair had flopped forwards and was brushing her forehead, but she didn't notice that. She was lost, looking into his eyes, trying to decipher what he was thinking. They were frozen like this for several moments before Sirius moved down and touched his lips against hers. Sophia was shocked, but quickly forgot herself as she started to return the kiss; her eyes, fluttering, closed instinctively.

It started slowly and gently before growing stronger as she felt his tongue against her bottom lip. She responded without thinking and allowed him entry to her mouth. The kiss grew deeper and more passionate before he suddenly broke it off and sat up like a bolt of lightning. Sophia looked up at him in confusion, a million thoughts running through her head. His face was ashen, and his hands were trembling as he covered his mouth. She looked at his face, and all she could see was shock and remorse.

'Oh, Merlin ... oh, my .... I'm sorry ... I'm so sorry ... I should never have ... oh, crap ... I'm such an idiot ... please ... oh, what have I done!' he stammered, leaping to his feet and gathering his things.

Sophia was utterly confused for a moment; she didn't know what to do. She eventually got a message through to her body to move, however, and she propped herself up on her elbows, watching as Sirius swung his bag over his shoulder and walked quickly back to the castle without a backward glance, leaving Sophia to wonder what the heck had just happened.

End Note:

Yes, I know I can be very evil sometimes.

Did you guess the film they watched? It was, of course, the James Bond film, 'Dr No.' which was released in 1962. It starred Sean Connery as James Bond and Ursula Andress as Honey Rider. As I'm not completely sure when VCRs and video tapes became widely availible, I hope you will forgive me if this wasn't possible in 1976/1977.

Finally, a Tebo is decribed in 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' as a warthog-like creature native to central Africa that can become invisible at will. Again, it is property of JKR.