Torn In Two: A Tale of the Marauders-(7) I Wish You Would Love Me

A/N: I know, I know. I said I wasn't going to be posting anymore on quizilla, but I figured that it wasn't fair to post on mibba and harrypotterfanfiction when you can only read stories on mibba if you are a member and I have to wait to upload all of the chapters on harrypotterfanfiction because of the validation process. SO, what I've decided is that I will continue to post on here until I am caught up on hpff and then I will go from there so that if you are not a member of mibba you can still read. Capisce? :]

And sorry for any crazy spelling mistakes and wonky fonts that might be here...I'll try and fix them later, if there are any. Anyway...make sure you've read the other six because it could be quite confusing if you haven't! >:{ GOOO!

Song of the Installment: Pretty Girl (The Way) - SugarCult



Because you loving me is
sweeter than apple pie



Torn In Two: A Tale of the Marauders

Chapter 7: I Wish You Would Love Me

Gizelle sprung briskfully out of the lavatories, towel slung limply over her shoulder's and her white pyjamas loosely clinging to her small frame. Lily had fallen asleep on her four poster, arms slung over the edge of her bed clutching a tiny reading book and mouth hanging slightly a gap. She smiled softly to herself, feeling her two dimples crimple against the smooth skin of her face. Lily looked so peaceful. How someone like Gretchen Roberts could possibly be associated with her, Gizelle could not even try to comprehend. She walked over and gently took the book out of her hand and placed it onto the night stand. She unfolded the quilt that lay beside her and laid it gently over Lily's sleeping form. She clicked off the light and silently crawled down to the common room, taking care to step on Gretchen's favourite pair of heels.

There she found Hannah, James and Remus lounging casually spread out over the three best squishy armchairs.

"Had to beat up the little first years to get those, did you?" She smirked sitting on top of Hannah's outstretched legs and almost falling off as Hannah moved them away from her bum.

"I wouldn't be talking, seeing as most of them tower over you, dear," Hannah stuck her tongue Gizelle's way.

Gizelle rolled her eyes, "I am not short, Hannah. I prefer vertically challenged, thank you very much."

Hannah moved her legs towards the floor, causing Gizelle to fall to the ground.

"Oi! I'll have you!" Gizelle tried to grab Hannah and bring her down to the floor beside her, however she ending up failing miserably, Hannah easily escaping from Gizelle's grip and locking her in a headlock.

"Gizelle you really need to do some strengthening. Get your muscles nice and tight. It's good self defense and maybe then I'd feel comfortable leaving you alone in Hogsmeade for once." Hannah said this as she had Gizelle, face smooshed into a pillow.

"I am not weak!" she said, or rather tried, as her head was still in between the armchair and its cushions.

"Actually, Hannah, that's not too bad an idea. We'll start next practice." James got up from his seat and made his way up to the boy's dorms.

"Where're you going?" Gizelle sat up as Hannah finally released her and quickly took his armchair before he could return to claim it.

"Some spare parchment," he replied, descending back into the common room, "going to owl the team for an endurance practice tomorrow. I'm thinking twenty laps around the pitch, no broom."

Gizelle shot a glare towards Hannah, "I really don't like you at the moment."

"Right, you lot, practice tomorrow eight a.m. sharp, no excuses or it'll be extra laps,"

Gizelle's jaw dropped. "James! Tomorrow's Saturday!" She exclaimed, "S'not right you making us get up early on a Saturday!"

"Why not?" James could really get a bit ridiculous sometimes.

"Well, I dunno, maybe because the vast majority of the world's population finds a great deal of comfort in the fact that they can sleep in 'til noon on a Saturday!"

"Well, Gizelle, most people aren't Gryffindor Quidditch players, are they?" He patted her gently on the head and made his way up to the boy's dorms. At the top he spun quickly around and pointed his finger towards the last three people in the room. "Go on, get to bed!"

"Yeah, yeah," Hannah waved James off with her hand and made to get up, but as soon as James's head disappeared, he slumped back into the armchair.

"Whatta nutter, that one. He's some screws loose up there somewhere..."

"Couldn't agree more, Hannah. He definitely needs to make things good with Lily, save us all a little sanity."

"Indeed..." Remus approved.

Just remembering that Remus was also in the room after being too caught up with James and Hannah Gizelle turned to him in excitement, "Remus! How are you mate? We haven't spoken in years! Honestly, how are you?"

He chuckled, "I'm great, Giz, just wonderful. And I wouldn't go as far to say that we haven't spoken in years, when it was just this afternoon that you were instructing me on just what was the exact way to milk a three toed Hippogriff, remember?"

"Oh...right, almost forgot, " She rubbed the back of her neck with her hand and giggled, "But that's a good thing to remember, mind you, never know if you might need to know that!"

He laughed, which made Gizelle smile. She loved Remus's laugh; so calm, so carefree. A welcome from all the times that he was engorged in his studies or too stressed to have a laugh with the group. Which he was more often than naught. He seemed to always have something deeper on his mind. Something darker, that Gizelle couldn't figure out, which frustrated her to high heaven. She was usually good at reading people but on nights like this, where Remus was laughing and having fun, Gizelle could almost forget that he was so mysterious.

"Oi!"

Gizelle ducked her head under her arms as another blow fell down on her back and feathers scattered across the room. Hannah had her pillow in hand and raised it once again on Gizelle, "AHH! No!" Gizelle slid in between Hannah's outstretched legs and grabbed a pillow from the opposite armchair. They paused for a moment, both with a pillow raised in the air ready to strike, and nodded simultaneously.

"Geddhim!" They lunged toward Remus who jumped up with a howl and ran towards the staircase of his dorm. Hannah, however, beat him to it and raised the pillow at him, "Nowhere to run now, ickle-Remykins!" She swung the pillow down, aiming at Remus, but he ducked away and ran back to the fireplace, arming himself with two pillows.

"Be warned," he said, "I have been trained in the art of combat," he flailed his arms kung-fu style, obnoxious animal noises escaping through his lips.

They scoffed, glanced at each other one last time and charged him with rather loud voices, floundering theirs arms towards their helpless victim.

Laughing, they beat each other senseless with the pillows and as the room became more and more covered with feathers, the louder they got, until finally, James stormed down the stairs and threw a pillow himself at the three. "You lot up in bed, now!"

He was quite the sight to see, in his Quidditch footy pyjamas and matching snitch sleeping cap, Gizelle could hardly contain her laughter, but just nodded her head, apologizing madly, and ran up the stairs to the girl's dorms, Hannah close at her heels.

~.:#:.~

"James, it pouring rain we can't keep playing like this!" Gizelle lay clinging on her broom for dear life. The rain pelted down on her as her arms wrapped tighter around the handle of her broomstick. She could barely feel her arms, let alone her fingers, which she had lost all sensation in an hour ago. An hour and a half of endurance training; running round and round the pitch until it started raining and the team would slip after each step as their trainers caught in the squishy mud. James decided that it was better to fly on brooms, than risk a sprained ankle, so this is where they had ended up: rain absolutely pissing down on them in 10 Celsius weather.

"James this is crazy, we're liable to get even more hurt if we fall off our brooms and break our neck than if we just quit while we're ahead. Hufflepuff's got no chance in Merlin's stripped knickers. Call it a day, yeah?" Gizelle's chattering voice barely reached to James.

James sighed to himself and nodded. Cheers erupted and the team flew down to the ground for a final group speech from the captain. "Right, good practice today everyone. Next Saturday we're a shoe in to win. Gizelle's right, Hufflepuff doesn't have a chance at us now, so everyone get changed and take a long shower; keep your muscles relaxed. And we'll meet for one last practice before the game!" They gratefully retreated to the changing rooms, Hannah and Gizelle buggering off to their designated 'girls only' changing quarters in the back of the dressing room.

They quickly stripped their soaking kits to the ground and changed into their warm down suits. Hannah was casually leaning on the side of the wall, waiting patiently for Gizelle to get her things together. It was always fun to watch Gizelle try and hurry while doing even the most simple of tasks.

At the moment, Gizelle had caught her foot in the strap of her Quidditch bag and she was shaking it rapidly, trying to loosen the grip that ensnared her. "Giz, would you care to hurry up? I'm completely knackered and I want to get to the showers before I have to see Gretchen and her ugly mug."

"Sorry Hannah, I'm trying, but this stupid strap is kicking my arse." Gizelle gave it one last shake and it flew off of her ankle and onto the floor beside it. She let out an exasperated sigh; quickly scooping the remainder of her kit into the bag and slinging it loosely over her shoulder, she followed Hannah as she turned out of the dressing room.

Quick, so as they wouldn't catch more than they wanted to see of their fellow Quidditch mates, Gizelle and Hannah ducked out of the main dressing room and ran past the stark naked male Quidditch players and out into the cool night air, covering their eyes for dear life, and what was left of their sanity.

Halfway up to the common rooms, Gizelle stopped and turned suddenly on her heel. "Oh, piss," she said, "Hannah, I've forgotten my trainers in the changing room. I'll catch up with you later, yeah?" Hannah nodded, throwing a slightly bemused look at Gizelle's retreating form, and continued on her way up to the common room.

The rain had stopped, she noticed, as her paced slowed to a casual stroll on towards the Gryffindor changing rooms. As the great cobblestone building loomed into view a strange sight caught her eye. A small figure out towards the pitch was making its way around. Gizelle immediately presumed that something must have been chasing the poor thing, because, really, who in their right mind would be running extra laps if they had not been threatened with a beating lest they fail to comply?

Forgetting her trainers for the moment, Gizelle found herself gliding over towards whomever it was running laps and was surprised to find that, as she drew nearer, the form belonged to non other than Sirius Black, in the flesh. Quite literally in the flesh, actually, as he was running with his shirt flipped over the back of his shoulder. Spotting Gizelle, he changed course of continuing around the west end hoop and stopped shortly in front of her. "Gizelle, whaterya doing here? Come to join me for a run have you?"

He paused, hands finding their way to the contour of his hip and pelvis bone, resting on either side of them, a small bead of sweat rounded over the peak of his abdominals and slid slowly onward towards the strap of his pants; his face scrunching up from the sudden stop and realisiation of the effort he had just exerted. Gizelle watched him with a strange curiousity in her eyes. Sirius was quite fit. She hadn't realised just how fit he was, but it was a bit hard for her to draw her gaze back up to his face, let alone keep her footing. She managed to recover, though, and for once was ready with a remark, "Sorry, but I've managed to keep my sanity over the years of association with you 'Marauders' and I wouldn’t much fancy loosing it on a run with you, mate. Aren't you knackered after all this training?"

"Well, no, not really. But that's the beauty of it, isn't it? Running and all. You don't get worn out as easily as most do." He shrugged his shoulders.

Gizelle blushed furiously. She wasn't sure if Sirius had gotten what she had from his statement, but never-the-less, she was now posed in an awkward position: Sirius Black sweating and shirtless, telling her that he wasn't easily exhausted after long exertions. Maybe her mind was just in the gutter.

"Well, I suppose that's a good thing, then. Still can't see myself joining you, though, sorry." But what frightened Gizelle more was that she could actually picture herself running with Sirius. And a pretty sight it was not. She imagined, face flushed, sweat pouring buckets down the sides of her cheeks, and her breathe catching in her lungs causing her to wheese and sputter in a pathetic attempt at keeping up with Sirius and failing to look halfway decent in the process. No, no. She was perfectly content in facing the consequence of being piss out of breathe after climbing the six flights of stairs to the Gryffindor tower, than to be put through an ordeal such as that.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders again, "Can't blame a guy for trying."

"Yeah, well I just came to get my trainers, forgot them in the rush to get out before you lot started showering. S'not fair, blokes getting their own shower and all."

Sirius shrugged, "Majority rules," he said simply. He motioned for Gizelle to follow him as he made for the changing room. Gizelle quickly located her trainers as Sirius rounded the corner in naught but a towel, switching a shower head on to full stream. Gizelle stole a last glance before he removed his towel and was out of the changing rooms, heart racing, before she saw more than she ought.

~.:#:.~

A blistering cold Wednesday morning and the group stood, shivering outside for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. This in itself wouldn't have been so bad, however, the fact that they were stuck looking after a group of very mischievous Kappas, who found it utterly hilarious to splash them with freezing cold lake water, wasn't much helping the situation. The whole point of the exercise, as their professor explained, was to trick the Kappa into bowing to them, which in turn would spill the hollow full of water at the top of their head, rendering them powerless. In theory, it seemed simple enough, but judging by the large and very colorful vocabulary being thrown around the Black Lake, it was quite clear that not many were having an easy time at it.

"Listen, you, I've had just about enough of your little jokes, now bow, dammit!" Gizelle was at her wits end. She had tried asking the Kappa nicely, offering it a pumpkin pastry, and even got down on her knees to beg for a while. The little Kappa merrily jumped up laughing, making a farting noise toward her and flipping water at her.

"Gizelle san wa taihen bakamono desu ne!"

"What? What did you call me? Why you little..." She grab the Kappa by its shoulders and tried to force its head down towards the water of the Black Lake. The Kappa shrieked with laughter at Gizelle's terribly feeble attempt to budge him and swiftly smacked a webbed hand at her arms. Gizelle screamed and let go of it, causing the better half of the class to look her way.

Gizelle fervidly apologized, expecting everyone who had turned to look away and while some did, a fair few's eyes remained locked on Gizelle, or rather her chest area. "What are you looking at?" She brought her gaze down onto her shirt and as she did so her cheeks flushed crimson. "Oh, in Merlin's stripped knickers! Perfect!" A large amount of water that had been deposited on her shirt by the Kappa had soaked through and was reveiling to the class a rather busty side of Gizelle they had never seen. "Oi! Whatchoo looking at, eh? Get back to your lesson and stop perving on me, yeah?" The onlookers, mostly male at this point, gave one last look and turned back to their own Kappas. Gizelle was furious.

"And you! I'll have your guts for garters!" she whipped out her wand and went after the Kappa who gleefully took the challenge and ran away cackling. Gizelle chased him flying spell after spell it's way; lucky for her the Professor was occupied helping Eva, who was having a mental breakdown at the Kappa's cheekiness, or she would have definitely received a detention. She had just about caught the bugger, but it turned suddenly and skidded off into the lake. Gizelle, trying to follow suit, was thrown completely off balance and stumbled forward straight for a rather sharp looking bunch of stones. She closed her eyes preparing as best she could for the impact. But it never came. She felt two strong arms securely wrapping around her and pulling her back up into a standing position. The arms turned her slowly around and rested gently on the sides of her stomach.

Gizelle brought her gaze up slowly. From the buckle of a trouser belt, up to the sculpted abdomen that could be seen through a now wet shirt, up to the two top buttons of shirt that were left casually undone with an equally casual loosened tie, past the cheeky grin that held fast, and finally resting on the perfect features of Sirius Black, himself. "You best be a bit more careful, I'm rubbish in speaking at funerals." He said softly lowering his head so that only Gizelle could hear. It was like a dream; a fabulous, wonderful, tremendous dream that Gizelle had all too often found herself in lately. She felt bumps rise across her skin at his touch.

"Dummm..." she sputtered out, unable to control her reflexes. She paused, eyes wide. Had she honestly just said 'Dum'? Was she that much of a wanker? She could have killed herself, but Sirius simple chuckled and dropped his hands to his side with a loud `plunk'. Gizelle tried her best with a smile and walked away mentally kicking her arse for her suavity.

Sirius followed after her chuckling to himself. Gizelle sure could be a bit bonkers sometimes...But he liked that. He liked Gizelle, she was a great friend.

Gizelle walked off, away from the pond and back up towards the castle. Class would be done soon and she really needed to get away from Sirius for the moment. He was driving her absolutely mad. Mad in a way she didn't quite understand. This was the first time she could remember actually fancying someone. Of course, she thought plenty of the blokes at Hogwarts were good looking, but she had never really thought of them as more than that. Sirius was the first guy that she could honestly see herself being with. He was smart, kind, had a good sense of humour, and was bloody gorgeous. So why was it that she was so terrified of being around him?

She kept going up to the Great Hall, she didn't care if she was the only one in there or if she was caught skiving off. She needed to be somewhere alone.

"Giz! Why'd you run off? It wasn't that bad, nobody was saying anything, I swear. I'd beat them bloody if they did, you know." Hannah walked over to where Gizelle sat, at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Yeah, I know. I just," Gizelle sighed drumming her fingers against the mahogany. "I dunno. Lately I've just been feeling, a bit...a bit different towards..."

"Sirius?" she interjected.

"How did you..." Gizelle was shocked. Usually Hannah was not too perceptive when it came to blokes.

"Lily. We were talking for a bit before I came to find you. She reckons you are just smitten with him. I think she's right, though, you know, after she mentioned it..."

"Right...Hannah, I'm just confused. I mean, when I see him, or he brushes up against me, I get these butterflies all wiggly in my stomach. And I start acting like a bumbling idiot, saying 'Dummmm'. And I mean, I've never felt this way about anyone before in my life. I've seen plenty of blokes who are well fit enough, but they don't do anything other than pose as a bit of eye candy." She sighed her frustrations out in a blow of heated air, leaning her head back against the table.

"Sooo...what you're saying then, is...you're in love with him?"

"I would have guessed fancied, but not loved!" Lily had come scurrying into the Great Hall, dragging Eva along behind her. The two stopped in front of Gizelle, who had her head buried in her hands and was shaking it back and forth muttering inaudible words to herself.

"She all right? She looks a pit peaky..." Eva's slender hand found its way to Gizelle's forehead and lay it there, for a moment.

"She's all right, in shock maybe, but all right."

Lily didn't look too sure, "So you love...Sirius?"

"Who loves Sirius?" Gizelle's head shot up out of her hands and made instant contact with the head of Sirius Black. He came walking into the Great Hall; head cocked to the side at the curiosity evoked from hearing what he thought was a confession of love, on his behalf. Following him were James, Remus, and finally Peter.