WayHey!! Cant wait..

Yay!! *Dances*

ooc--Right-o, peeps! Here we go! (Finally! ) Your charrie(s) can start anywhere they want*, but please remember not to RP someone else's character. As Kyla has said above, she's away for a while, so the situation for James is as follows (roughly--Kyla, when you get back, you can add more details if you like!): James has been called back home for some reason. He had to leave his owl behind and is therefore unable to write. His friends probably assume someone's ill or died or something dramatic and/or urgent, but it doesn't have to be--we don't have to depress ourselves! He'll be back in a week or so anyway. By the way, let's say it's been a day or so since James left, and since then Lily's accepted Severus' invitation to the Ball (for reasons 'unknown'), so James doesn't exactly know yet.

*I would appreciate it if Peter (what am I saying? I'm playing Peter!) and Sirius would start just after the end of a torturing dance lesson by (probably) McGonagoll. After that you can do what you want!

Oh! Last note: Teachers. Anyone can RP them as long as it's sensibly... If it gets confusing, we'll work something out!

SO, after my rant--Away we GOOO!

~~~

A thin, worn hand curls around a wand and dry lips mutter incoherently.

A second later, the piercing shriek of Remus' alarm clock is no more.

He moans, and rolls back over in his soft, warm bed. The duvet is cosy and snug around his floppy pyjamas; and as his eyes close softly once more, dreams and deep sleep welcome him.

That's the moment before he realises he needs to finish the homework James left him after he went away on that 'urgent business'; sort out that dance timetable he promised to work out; and oh! Who said they'd consult Peter later?

ME. What a DUMB, stupid thing for me to agree to! Sure, Peter seemed pretty desperate, but I'm way in over my head here! I'm the one who needs help! I don't know how much more of this I can take...!

Unhappily, Remus drags his feet out of bed and slumps to the floor uselessly as he realises he's missed breakfast.

Then again... Peter and Sirius have it worse. That 'dance punishment' of theirs ran right through breakfast... If I was in their place, I'd be begging for anything spare right about now--but I'm not, and I have far too much to do to worry about a proper breakfast... Those disgusting nutritional snacks it is then!

And, rubbing his tired eyes, Remus pulls himself wearily to his feet and makes to his trunk in an attempt to rummage for some presentable clothes amongst his messed-up trunk.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Peter moans, amaturely massaging his right foot with his hands, a worn sock clenched tightly between his teeth.

His feet ache, he's ravishingly hungry, and there's little he'd like more right now than his nice, snug bed back in his dorm.

Maybe I should head over to the Great Hall... Remus is probably waiting impatiently for us..... Oh! I have that confession-talk-thing later! Better make a note...

Peter grimaces as he gets to his feet and searches through his pockets for a usable quill. He finally finds a self-inking one Remus gave at the start of their Fifth Year. Every year since First Year he's done the same thing, and all because Peter kept spilling ink everywhere, every lesson... Out of nerves, or something else Peter himself can't quite remember.

After scribbling the desired note on the base of his sock, Peter slides his foot back into his shoe and replaces the quill back into it's correct pocket.

Then he looks around, albeit confused.

Where's Sirius?

~~~

ooc--I'll begin Severus' start another time.

Penelope grinned to herself as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. The charm she had found the other day in a textbook she had flipped through in the library had worked perfectly. Her long blonde hair was curled in tiny little waves and the Ravenclaw had to admit that it looked pretty darn good on her. Giving her reflection another check, she immediately stopped. It still felt so weird for her to spend so much time in front of the mirror. Before, all she ever did was make sure she didn't have food in her teeth or that her hair was brushed. But now?

It's because of him... She thought to herself. I have to work extra hard or I won't compare up to the other girls. She said, sighing, as she pulled at a curl and watched it return to it's proper place. Stepping away from the mirror, she spotted her book bag that was placed on her dresser. Pulling out her homework from last night, she eyed it carefully, looking for mistakes. She always wanted to hand in a perfect assignment. It was the Ravenclaw in her.

Making sure that there was no glaring mistakes, she carefully placed it back into her book bag. Swinging it onto her left shoulder, she left the girls dormitory and the Ravenclaw common room and made her way down to the Great Hall.

Severus Snape sighed a long, exasperated sigh and considered once again another hair wash.

So far, all his attempts to get it 'fluffy' and 'stylish' like so many of the other Fifth Year Students had been in vain.

Is it finally time to give up?

One more glance at his reflection; his flimsy, soaked hair hanging uselessly over his night clothes; and a quick check of the time; finally made his decision for him.

I'll try again tonight... Or tomorrow.

The reason for all this trouble and fuss was the attention of one fiery-haired Gryffindor by name of Lily Evans. After that humiliating incident involving the word 'Mudblood' and several troublemakers, Severus had barely gotten a word from her unless it was about schoolwork.

But, just the other day, not so soon after James' short departure--result! She'd accepted his invitation to the upcoming Ball. Whether or not this was just to spite James or whether she actually wanted to accompany him was a different matter entirely.

Whatever the reason, it didn't matter. Severus had possibly his last chance at getting back on her good side, and he wanted to look good, or 'cool', or whatever he had to do to make the most of it.

And if that included using 'Fluffy Puffy Cherry Shampoo'... Well, so be it.

Grabbing a hair towel, Severus made his way back to his dorm. Several minutes later, he emerged once more--school bag over one shoulder; hair looking greasy but slightly better kept today; and a determined expression on his face--he was going to make today a rememberable day!

... Somehow.

Remus' yawn dragged on for a good few seconds as he shuffled bleary eyed through the huge doors of the Great Hall.

After shoving 5 Nasty Nickel's Nutritional Nutty Bars down his throat, Remus had found himself none the better and had henceforth resorted to stuffing his already bulging rucksack with yet more necessities; and had since then managed to drag himself unwillingly to the Great Hall for breakfast.

He slumped onto the first free seat he saw, which was at an area of a table unoccupied by the bustling life of well-rested students.

After dropping his bag to the ground with a resounding 'THLUMP', Remus proceeded to grab everything edible within reach and piling it precariously onto his plate.

He was ravishing, exhausted, stressed, over-worked and low on patience. His hair was unkempt and sticking up at odd angles. His clothes were particularly shabby and way too large for his slender frame. It was pretty obvious he'd dressed in a hurry and without caring much for his appearance.

This said, he still had a 'healthy' appetite...

Trudging her way into the Great Hall, Penelope spotted Remus at the Gryffindor table in his usual seat and gave him a bright smile and a wave. Looking around, wondering if her best friend, Valentine Twilight was awake yet, she glanced at the Ravenclaw table. There she was...sitting with a bunch of first years...

Penelope walked up to her best friend and greeted her with a happy smile. "Hey." She said to her, raising an eyebrow at her blush. Wondering what she was blushing at, she laughed as she immediately clued in. "Oh you." She teased and sat down, looking at the tiny first year beside her.

Scooping a pile of scrambled eggs onto her white plate, she dug into her breakfast, also watching the Gryffindor table. She wanted Sirius. And she wanted to know if he liked her hair or not.

Valentine shrugged, still blushing furiously, sneaking looks to Remus. Oh, how handsome he was, how he never seemed to try. She put some toast and beans on her white plate and put a small amount into her mouth, careful to not spill any on her clothes.

She sighed. "You're always confident. I'm always the wallflower. What's wrong with me?!" She moaned, now not paying attention to the food and taking a large bite of the toast-and-beans combo. She shoveled another mouthful and swallowed. "Am I like, a freak of nature?" She moaned, sinking down.

"Me confident?!" Penelope laughed as she wiped her mouth with a napkin when she finished eating her eggs. Not at all. She said, eyeing her reflection in the back of a nearby spoon. "And you're sooo not a wallflower." The girl reassured her friend. "I mean honestly, Remus is just kinda of oblivious." She said, taking a quick glance at their subject of conversation. "Maybe you should just flirt with him some more in class or something." She said, looking at Valentine.

Valentine raised an eyebrow. "Me? Flirt? That would be like asking Einstein to lose his I.Q. points." She sunk down even lower, taking a bite of toast-and-beans. It was impossible for Valentine to be 'flirty' or whatever the other girls did. She sighed, fiddling with a string on her sweater, sneaking secret glances towards Remus, sighing.

She watched Yasmin, so casual-cool next to Remus. She widened her eyes and a gasp spilled out of her mouth. How did she DO THAT?

Penelope sighed. "I know you can! You just gotta.... go talk to him. Flirting is something every girl does naturally." She said, trying to encourage her best friend. "Just start talking to him when we have class. Ask him if he did his homework. Or ask him how to do one of those hard Arithmancy questions!" The blonde said, trying to give Valentine conversation starters.

"Who are you talking about?...Oh. Nevermind." She said, noticing the girl that had joined Remus. It was definitely one of the girls that rivalled her from Sirius's affection.

Yasmin looked confused as Remus rambled about something that she couldn't quite catch. She looked at him in confusion just to see his cheeks burn up and Remus glancing in a certain direction. She turned to see who he was looking at and then turned around and smiled.

"Oh, I see." Yasmin said smiling as her brown eyes twinkled with excitement. "You like Penelope don't you. I think she's a little to high matience for you but, I guess whatever floats your boat is fine."

Yasmin nodded in understanding as she pattedRemus on the back. "Maybe you should just go talk to her." She suggested as she slipped a lock of hair behind her ear.

Remus looked over to her direction as soon as Penelope was giving her tips. Valentine squealed and flushed even more, burying her nose in the book even farther than before, and counting down to 30 before lifting her head out of the book completely as to not give herself and excuse to hide. She wasn't really reading the book anyways. To answer Penelope's uttered words, she turned to her and replied, "Please. Just. Keel me." she whispered. "Remus keeps looking over this way! Oh. MY. GOODDD!" Valentine whisper-screamed, hopping on her seat. She glanced again, this time a little more longingly, a little longer before flushing and turning again. She tugged at a lock of her wavy-curled hair and brought her nails up to her lips, only to drop them. She shouldn't bite her nails, she'd regret it later anyways.

"Oh, Penelope, I don't know what to do! He's making me all disorganized. Last night I totally lost track of time and kept reading until... Well, this morning!" She moaned. She always fell asleep at exactly 12 am to wake up at 6:30. She probably had dark circles down to her cheeks. She moaned, flushed some more and buried her head in her arms which were on the table.

Remus choked loudly on his Pumpkin Juice and tried not to splutter it everywhere when he realised what Yasmin was saying.

"W-what!?!" He coughed, still in a state of shock.

"I don't--I'm not--Penelope???" Remus exclaimed, just as his bag gave in and split, spilling dozens of books and quills and ink bottles and all assortments of things including those Remus-proclaimed 'icky Nutritional things', and various assortments of certain Marauders' homework, more specifically the recently completed bundle of James' abandoned homework.

Remus groaned, hoping that it really was just something to do with his bag and not the emotional time-bomb of his 'condition'.

"That's not what I meant." He continued, eyeing the books that were furthest away from him in the stress-related hallucination that they might just sprout legs and run off without him.

Remus placed a thin hand to his forehead, squeezing the bridges of his nose lightly in an attempt to get himself to concentrate once more.

When he looked up once again, the books were still there and not about to walk off. Remus sighed and dropped to the ground by his seat, scooping as many up as he could.

"It's just that I have this... Feeling... About something..." Remus shook his head vaguely, piling the few books he'd managed to gather onto a pile on his vacated seat.

"It's hard to explain. I mean, sure, Penelope's a nice girl but I--we're just friends."

It's not like I'd have a chance with anyone, anyway...

Deep in thought, Remus returned to his remaining books.

Silently, Severus Snape slid into the bustling Great Hall.

He ignored the crowds of students and made his way over to a vacated seat on the Slytherin table.

As he sat, he recognised the student beside him and they entered into a light conversation as he choose his breakfast.

Today... He thought quietly. Is going to be the day!

Yasmin jumped at Remus's outburst. "Oh my gosh! Are you alright?" Yasmin asked as she helped him pick up his books. She didn't know what was wrong with Remus these days. Usually, he was so organized and calm but these days he was jumpy and disorented. Maybe he was taking drugs.

"So, then who are you looking at if it isn't her?" She asked as she tipped her head in confusion.