Because We Are Made Of Dreams

Obliviate

"Do you think I should do something special with my hair?"

Clara sighed heavily.

"No Lils, I think your hair is perfect."

"I am being annoying right now, aren"t I?" asked the ginger girl, turning her attention back to her friend.

Clara let out a laugh, lying on her bed, and she turned on her side to have a better view of Lily.

"Lils, you"re already gorgeous, and Liam wants to spend the afternoon snogging you like mad. He probably doesn"t give a damn about your hair."

Lily blushed hard.

"You are so romantic sometimes Clara!"

"I"m simply realistic."

"Bullshit..."

Lily took another look at her reflection. She was getting ready for her date with Liam. Apparently he had prepared a picnic by the Lake. It was now the second day after the incident with the Slytherins at the Quidditch pitch, and as neither the Slytherin nor the Gryffindor boys had misbehaved, Lily could afford herself a bit of time to relax with her boyfriend without feeling guilty. Also, she knew Clara would keep an eye on them, so all was fine.

"I"d better go," said Lily to her friend. "I"m gonna be late."

Clara rolled her eyes, smiling nonetheless.

"You"re never late Lils, relax."

"Bye Clara!"

"Bye."

Lily hurried out of the dorm and into the Common Room. As she passed through the room, she barely noticed the Marauders, all sitting by the fireside, playing Exploding Snap. Clara came down a few minutes later, and sat on an armchair, completing her crossword from the Daily Prophet.

"Where was Lily heading in such a hurry?" asked Remus.

Clara jumped as a card exploded, much to the amusement of the boys. As she was relaxing again, she finally answered.

"She has a date with Super Tan."

"Really?" asked James, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Yep. Picnic by the Lake apparently."

James felt the familiar pain inside his chest, and though he summoned all his strength to remain stern, Sirius noticed his discomfort. It was time to drive the conversation away from Lily.

"And where are the other girls? Have they all abandoned you?" Sirius asked her.

"I"m afraid they have," answered Clara with a sigh. "Alice is with Frank, and Marlene had some work to do in the Library, so, I guess it"s just me and my crossword."

Sirius lost the game, and got up, annoyed. He took a chair and sat next to Clara, reading her crossword.

"Patronus," he indicated, pointing at a blank line.

Clara smiled, amused.

"You love spoiling other people"s crosswords, don"t you?"

Sirius grinned mischievously.

"One of my passions in life, indeed."

They laughed, before continuing together to answer the riddles. After a while, Clara asked the question that had been going on and on in her head since Saturday.

"By the way, I"ve noticed you all haven"t been busy planning any pranks today. What are you going to do with the Slytherins?"

The four boys exchanged a quick look.

"We have arrived at an agreement, that perhaps we should wait and see," answered Remus cautiously.

Clara propped up an eyebrow.

"Good!" she said, surprised. "Why have you changed your minds?"

Sirius looked up at her, knowing that the question was directed more towards him than any of his three friends.

"I guess I listened to the advice of a friend," he answered, smiling to her.

Clara grinned back at him, amusement shining in her green eyes.

"Well, you should be careful Sirius, or soon you"ll get responsible!" she replied jokingly.

They all laughed, and Sirius shook his head.

"Don"t get too optimistic!"

"I wouldn"t dare."

Sirius shook his head once more, before pointing at the crossword again.

"Pumpkin."

Clara sighed.

"s**t Sirius! You"re too quick for me at these things."

The boy laughed, feeling really relaxed for the first time since the incident with the Slytherins. This girl really was a laugh...

---------------------------------------------------------------------

After diner, the Gryffindors lingered on in the Common Room, and when Lily came back from her date with Liam, she found her friends in the middle of a fierce game of Gobstones with the Marauders and Frank.

"So, how was your date?" Marlene asked her as Lily sat down on the floor between her and Clara.

"Very good. We talked, and ate his picnic, and laughed..."

"And snogged..." Alice completed for her.

Lily threw a cushion at her friend, laughing.

"And he invited me at Hogsmeade, for the first trip of the year."

"Hmm, yes, it"s in two weeks I think," said Clara.

"Yep."

"Well, I guess I don"t even need to ask you two..." Clara continued, pointing at Frank and Alice.

The couple exchanged a tender glance.

"I guess you don"t have to, no," Frank answered, blushing slightly.

"Marlene?" Clara asked, turning her attention towards her.

"No date. What do you think of a little "girls afternoon"?" her friend answered.

Clara grinned.

"Perfect!"

"What are you boys going to do?" asked Lily.

"I guess Sirius will have to find himself a date..." started Remus.

"I still have plenty of time, it"s only in two weeks," Sirius interrupted him.

"I thought you had detentions for several weeks," said Marlene.

"I asked McGonagall and she didn"t forbid me to go to Hogsmeade actually. So I will have my three detentions, but I can go to Hogsmeade and serve my punishment a week later."

"What about you James?" asked Alice.

He looked up at her. He had remained silent since Lily had entered the room. He had first been stricken by her looks, and then she had started to talk about Super Tan, and now he was feeling all miserable again. Life really was cruel sometimes...

"Well, I don"t know yet. Guess I"ll have to find a date too, if Sirius abandons me."

Lily felt her body tense. Please, not again. Everything had been fine since the beginning of the year, he had not asked her anything since their trip to Hogwarts, and she was hoping so much he would keep it that way.

"Mate sorry, but it"s Hogsmeade, and it"s the beginning of the year, I need a date," replied Sirius.

"No problem. I just have to start looking for someone I guess."

To Lily"s surprise, he didn"t add anything. No stupid proposal, no surrealistic scheme to ask her out... It didn"t sound much like James Potter.

"I guess it"s time for us to think seriously about operation H.G.P," said Sirius mischievously.

The four boys snickered, but none of the others could understand a thing.

"Operation what?" asked Clara, her brow furrowed.

"Operation H.G.P," answered Sirius. "Hot Girl for Pr..."

He stopped just in time, and corrected himself before anyone could notice.

"Potter."

They all laughed.

"What a stupid name!" mocked Frank.

"Hey!" Sirius protested."It"s a really cool name for an operation. Shut up Longbottom, or do better yourself!"

"You"re the one who came up with the name?" Clara asked him.

"Well, be sure that Sirius will always find a name for any operation you will want to organize, no matter how silly it can be," answered Remus, laughing.

"And so you created a mission to find James a girl?" Clara asked him, barely believing what she was hearing.

"Of course," answered Sirius.

The girls exchanged a look, and doubled over in laughter. After a while, they finally managed to calm down a bit, and were able to continue the conversation where they had left it before Sirius had interrupted them with his silly acronyms.

"What do you think about the fifth year we saw the other day in the Library?" asked Sirius.

"Merlin, are you kidding? The girl seemed completely nuts!" answered James, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"She was gorgeous," argued Sirius.

"I don"t want to be with someone just to snog her, Sirius."

"Why don"t you ask Shelley?" proposed Marlene.

"Who?" James asked naively.

"Shelley," answered Clara, surprised by his ignorance, "the blond girl in our year. She used to sit next to Marlene in Potions."

Realisation struck James.

"Oh I see, blue eyes, she"s always hanging out with the brunette, what"s her name again?"

"Salma," answered Remus.

Sirius and James stared at him.

"Mate, Merlin knows you"re like a brother to me, but sometimes your tendency to know everything is extremely annoying," said James.

"I agree," added Sirius.

The werewolf merely shook his head, amused.

"It"s not a bad idea actually," continued Alice, ignoring the boys" remarks. "And you can be sure she won"t say no if you ask her out, she has a crush on you it would seem."

James thought for a while, before answering in a shrug.

"We"ll see."

Lily got up.

"Well, I don"t know about you all, but I"m exhausted."

"I"m heading to bed too," said Clara.

Soon all the girls were gone, and Frank went to bed too. Only the Marauders remained for a little longer in the Common Room, sitting in front of the hearth, watching the flames dancing in the dim light.

"Do you think there"s any hope?"

His three friends turned their attention towards James, frowning.

"Do you think I will forget Lily one day?"

None of them answered for a while. Finally, after a deafening silence, Sirius put a reassuring hand upon his friend"s shoulder.

"There"s only one way to find out, mate. You have to try to forget her, to try to live your own life."

"I am trying," James protested.

"Maybe you should try to be with someone else. Perhaps... if you"re with someone who wants to be with you, who is willing to love you, then you will forget Lily."

James sighed heavily, running a hand through his already-messy hair.

"I guess you"re right."

"You should try to talk with Shelley," advised Remus. "She"s a nice girl."

James nodded.

"But what if it doesn"t work?"

Peter shrugged.

"You could still try to "Obliviate" her from your memory."

"What a brilliant idea Wormtail," answered Sirius wryly. "Erasing the memories of someone you see every day is very useful! He would probably fall in love with her all over again."

Peter shrugged again.

"Maybe he wouldn"t."

"I think Padfoot is right Wormtail," James answered in a sigh. "I would probably fall in love with her again."

"First try to operation H.G.P: Shelley!" said Sirius enthusiastically.

James laughed despite his terrible mood.

"Okay, deal. But if it doesn"t work, I"ll try Obliviate."

Remus, James and Sirius laughed, while Peter glowered at them, and they headed towards the boys" dormitories, too tired to argue any more.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, I"m dying, that"s official."

Clara let herself fall down onto her bed, waiting for Marlene to have finished with the shower. Shelley propped up an eyebrow, looking at her over her romance novel.

"Quidditch was hard?" she asked Clara.

"I didn"t even thing I had muscles there," Clara answered, rubbing the backs of her legs.

Lily giggled.

"Well, you signed up for it."

"Thanks Lils, that"s very supportive."

"Oh but the boys are so wonderful!" said Salma dreamily.

Clara laughed wryly.

"Well, you wouldn"t think that after Sirius spent forty-five minutes throwing a Bludger at your face. I"m not even sure I can move my arm anymore."

She tried to reach out for Lily, going suddenly overdramatic.

"Lils, if my dad asks, please tell him I died for a great cause. I did my very best. By the way, if you could also tell him I"m sorry for having eaten the last of the chocolate frogs last summer... Yes, it was me, not the neighbour"s son. I"m sorry. This is my last will Lils, I hope you"re taking notes."

"If it"s your last will, may I have that lovely top of yours, the green one?" asked Lily, fighting hard not to laugh.

"Of course, you can take everything. I"m dying, what do you thing I care about a bloody green top?"

"Sorry, it wasn"t appropriate."

"Thank you. Now I"m going to rest, finally. After this long agony, I see a light..."

She dramatically put a hand on her heart, and let her head fall onto the bed, making a terrible dying noise. The three girls couldn"t help but laugh this time. All of a sudden, Clara propped up her head again though.

"One last thing, if Alice asks, she can"t have my red lipstick she adores. She"s too busy with Frank anyway to be here at my last moment, so she doesn"t deserve it."

"Noted," Lily answered with a nod.

"Good."

Her head fell once more on her pillow, and she emitted again her ridiculous dying noise, and Lily, Shelley and Salma doubled over with laughter.

"Come on Clearwater, it can"t have been that bad!" said Shelley.

"It was," answered Marlene, entering in the bedroom, still drying her hair with a towel.

"It was torture," confirmed Clara, without opening her eyes.

"Maybe they"ve been pushing you a bit, because it was your first training session," said Salma.

Clara laughed wryly.

"Actually, James said they had gone easy on us because it was our first day on the team."

"I reckon they"re going way too far," said Marlene, sitting down on her own bed.

"I don"t know," protested Clara, opening her eyes. " If they are training that hard, it"s probably because we all need to."

"I won"t survive," replied Marlene, shaking her head.

"Of course you will."

Clara sighed heavily, before getting up and heading for a well-deserved shower. Her friends waited for her to go down to diner, and they took the seats that had become usual to them these past few weeks, next to the Marauders.

"Are you alright?" asked Sirius with an amused smile when Clara let herself fall heavily next to him, exhaustion covering her face.

"I have discovered new parts of my body, and not in a pleasant way," she answered.

She tried to lift her right arm to take her fork, but she winced, and used her left hand instead.

"Merlin! Are you kidding? We went easy on you!" James protested.

"Sorry?" asked Marlene, threat in her voice.

"Okay, never mind," James laughed.

"Seriously, are you alright?" asked Sirius again.

Clara was clearly in pain because of her arm, and he didn"t think her state of exhaustion, just like Marlene"s, was funny anymore.

"I"m fine," Clara answered, still using her left hand and struggling to catch a potato with her fork. "I just can"t move my arm."

"You should go to the Hospital Wing."

"Of course not. It"s going to pass, tomorrow morning it will be gone."

"Are you sure?" Sirius insisted.

"Yes, I"m sure," Clara answered, half laughing.

She narrowed her amused eyes.

"Are you actually worried about me?"

"Well, considering that you"ve spent most of your time training with me and my exercises, yes. I would feel guilty if I had broken our new Beater at the very first training session."

"You didn"t break me, relax."

"Good. "Cause James managed to get the pitch for Friday."

Marlene looked desperately at the Quidditch Captain.

"He"s kidding, right?"

"No he"s not," answered James. "We have missed a session, and now we"re behind. We have to book up as many sessions as possible if we want to be ready for the first match against Hufflepuff."

"We will be ready," Sirius reassured him.

"By the way, we wanted to ask you," Lily said, turning to Remus," are you going to go to Hogsmeade this month?"

"No, the full moon is just the night before, I will probably be too sick," the werewolf answered, shaking his head.

"That"s a shame, you would have been welcome to her "girls afternoon"," sighed Marlene.

Clara nodded.

"Well, I don"t really know how I"m supposed to take that remark," laughed Remus.

"Well you"re a friend of ours, so you could have come," answered Clara simply. "Don"t worry, we"re not doubting your masculinity for a second."

"Thank you."

"So in fact, all of your friends are welcome to join you at Hogsmeade?" asked Sirius, the ghost of a smile forming in the corner of his mouth.

"Sure!" assured Marlene.

"Then why are you calling it a "girls afternoon"?" asked James.

Marlene rolled her eyes.

"A "friends afternoon", if you want."

"So," continued Sirius, "it means that if my date is terrible, I can join you?"

Clara smiled at him, amused.

"Of course you can. But only if you"re gentle with us during the Quidditch training," she added jokingly.

Sirius let out a laugh.

"Deal, sounds fair enough!"

"Have you found yourself a date yet?" Peter asked him.

"Sure."

"Who is it?" asked James.

"The fifth-year girl we saw the other day in the Library, whom you were stupid enough to pass on," Sirius answered with a wink.

"She didn"t look very interesting," said Remus. "Don"t you think you could get a bit bored?"

Sirius looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"I don"t intend to spend the day talking with her Remus. And I don"t reckon you can get bored of snogging someone."

Remus rolled his eyes.

"I should have known."

"Of course you should have."

"I really don"t understand your behaviour towards girls," Clara told him.

Her tone was slightly annoyed, and Sirius noticed it at once, though he merely shrugged in answer.

"What do you want me to say? I"m just interesting in the snogging part really."

"That"s not how it works Sirius."

"Well, it works quite well for me."

"But you"re hurting those poor girls!"

"Oh come on Clara, everyone knows perfectly that I"m not the kind of guy who wants a serious relationship or anything."

"But some of them may actually think that it"s different with them."

"Well, they are the ones idiotic enough to think so. I"m not giving them any false hope, don"t worry."

Clara sighed, before frowning slightly, suddenly realizing...

"By the way, why didn"t you try anything with us?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked her, his mouth full of chocolate cake.

"Well, you"ve tried to snog every girl in our year - except the Slytherins of course, but they don"t count, "cause they"re in Slytherin. You"ve tried to snog every single good-looking girl of this school probably, but you never tried to take any of us on a date... Why?"

Sirius looked at her in the eyes.

"Honestly?"

"Yes please."

"Remus forbade me."

He stuffed another gigantic piece of cake into his mouth, his lips curving into a smile. The three girls turned a confused look towards Remus, who stopped eating, and answered cautiously.

"Well, I know how terribly he behaves with girls, and I thought it would be very complicated to see you all every day in class and everything, if Sirius had been a jerk with one of you."

"Hey!" Sirius protested, but no one paid him any attention.

"Wow, that"s very kind Remus, thank you," said Clara.

"Yes it is, thanks," added Lily.

Marlene thanked the werewolf too, and Sirius couldn"t believe his ears.

"Wait a minute, you think it"s kind of him that he forbade me to try to have a date with you?"

"You"re a heartbreaker Sirius," answered Clara. "It"s very protective of him to tell you to keep your distance with us."

"I can"t believe it..."

"Well, you can hardly be surprised, when you said yourself not five minutes ago that you weren"t interested in any serious relationships," answered Marlene.

"Still, you trust me, it"s so comforting!" Sirius replied wryly, quite hurt.

"Sirius, we"ve started to talk to you this very year, why do you think we didn"t start before?"

"Years of insanity?"

"Years of lucidity you mean," Clara replied. "We did think you were kind of a jerk. But you"re okay now, don"t worry. And that"s partly thanks to Remus actually, because if you had hurt one of us, you would be dead by now."

Sirius couldn"t restrain a laugh.

"Well, I guess he was right then."

"Yes, he was."

Shelley and Salma walked pass them and sat with their friends. Sirius nudged James.

"Here is your future date mate," he told his friend. "You"d better go and ask her out, before another guy tries."

"I guess you"re right."

James stood up and strode towards the Gryffindor girl. His friends saw him talk for a minute with the blond girl, who blushed, and grinned, nodding enthusiastically. James sat back with his friends as if nothing had happened.

"I guess it went well," said Clara, smiling.

"Yep, I"ve got a date. So no more operation H.G.P Sirius, thank you."

"For now," Sirius replied, "Merlin only knows what"s in store for you."

For the rest of the meal, James didn"t look once at Lily.