When Doves Cry

~~Why does my heart cry? Feelings I can't fight~~
I woke up early in the morning, going for a jog in the cool morning air before getting ready to spend the day with my Marauders. While I was jogging, a figure came up and began jogging beside me. I surreptitiously glanced over to see who it was, and felt my heart quicken a bit. Mason Cross, a gorgeous sixth year Ravenclaw, was jogging beside me. And he wasn't wearing a shirt. Merlin help me.
We jogged in silence for awhile, keeping perfect pace with each other. When we got near the greenhouses, I started to slow down, and he followed suit. Finally, we slowed to an easy walk, completely alone in the peaceful morning.
"Hey," finally said. We had stopped walking and were gazing at the Forbidden Forest. From where we stood, it looked beautiful, not foreboding.
"Hey," I said back.
"Sorry to just upset your morning ritual, but I knew you jogged, and I like to jog as well so I thought I'd join you." His golden brown hair was a bit plastered to his head with sweat, and his abs were glistening with it.
I smiled and shrugged. "It's not a problem. There's nothing wrong with having a little company."
"Why don't any of your friends jog with you?"
I laughed. "The only one who would be likely to be that physical is Remus, but he's not really an early morning person. None of them are, actually."
"Well, I guess I'll just have to keep jogging with you so you won't get lonely." He smiled at me, his sea green eyes causing my heart to melt.
"Only if you can keep up," I said with a grin, turning and running back to the castle. I heard him laugh before he followed me. I had to admit, he was pretty damn fast. In no time at all, he was again running by my side. Not that I was trying super hard to outpace him, seeing as I'd said he could only continue to jog with me if he could keep up...
"Not bad," I said when we got back inside.
"I kept up. I guess that means I get to continue jogging with you every morning."
"I guess it does."
"I need to go shower off all this sweat, but I hope we can hang out in a bit. Maybe around eleven?"
I fought back the mental image his words had started to conjure and nodded. "Yeah, that would be fun."
"Great. I'll meet you by the Great Hall, okay?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"See you, Roxi," he called over his shoulder as he walked off.
I headed to the Gryffindor common room, still swooning over him. He was totally gorgeous, obviously smart since he was in Ravenclaw, and he seemed nice. The total package. Lily was already up by the time I made it back to our dorm, but our other two dorm mates were still sleeping. It was Sunday, after all.
"You look cheerful," Lily noted when she saw my face.
"While I was out jogging, Mason Cross came out to jog with me." I sat down on my bed
She grinned. "Really? He's that attractive Ravenclaw, right?"
"Yeah. He said he'll have to keep jogging with me in the mornings to keep me company."
She sat down next to me, curling up on my bed. "He's never gotten into trouble, as far as I can remember. I haven't heard anything from the Ravenclaw prefects about him ever getting out of line."
"He also said he hopes to see me later."
"Later today?"
"Yes! I'm having such a girl moment, I don't even know how to contain it."
"Are you going to tell your boys?"
I scoffed. "Are you kidding me? He's like the perfect guy. Why on earth would I scare him off by telling them? You know James and Sirius have unreasonably high standards for who I can date. And violent methods of making sure no one below their bar gets close to me."
"So how are you going to explain your absence today if he wants to hang out?"
"Um... I'll just tell them I'm spending the day with Adri, Sev, and Reg. They'll never actually go down into the dungeons to make sure I'm telling the truth."
She nodded. "Not a bad plan. But before you do anything, you need to shower. You're all sweaty and gross."
I hit her in the head with a pillow, sticking my tongue out at her, but did go to take a shower. She did have a point. Once I was properly cleaned, I set about deciding what to wear. I didn't want to look like I was trying too hard to impress him, but I did want to make an impact with my outfit. Finally, I decided on a black skirt that came to my mid-thigh, a red camisole, and black sneakers. Cute, a bit spunky, and good weekend wear. Perfect.
Next, I had to decide on hair and make-up. I finally decided to just let my hair air dry (which really meant using my wand to speed up the process) since it would become naturally wavy, and I went with a light amount of make-up: mascara, a light layer eyeliner to make my eyes pop, and red lip gloss to match my shirt.
"What do you think?" I asked Lily once I was ready. "Too much, not enough, or just right?"
"I think just right. So what are you two gonna do today?"
I shrugged. "Anything would be fun, as long as I get to look at his attractive face."
"Well, it's 10:45. You could go ahead and head down there now."
I nodded, heading out of the girls dorm and down into the common room. I was just about to leave through the portrait hole when I heard a whistle behind me.
"Well, well," James said, coming down from the boys dorm. "Aren't you all dolled up?"
I rolled my eyes, hoping they wouldn't automatically assume I was going to meet a boy. "Not really. I'm just wearing something fancier than school clothes."
"Going somewhere special?" Sirius asked from beside James.
"Just the Slytherin common room. I thought I'd spend some time with Adrian, Severus, and Regulus."
Sirius snorted. "Well, give my best to my precious little brother," he said sarcastically.
"If any of those Slytherin bastards put the moves on you, let us know," James said. "We'll teach them a lesson or two about messing with our Roxi."
"I will," I promised, walking out of the common room before they could say anything else. Since I was a bit early, I took my time, walking at a leisurely pace. By the time I made it down to the Great Hall, it was probably close to 10:55, which was good enough for me.
"Roxi," Mason said from behind me. I turned around and smiled at him. He looked awesome. He was wearing dark slacks and black t-shirt that outlined his abs and left his arm muscles wonderfully revealed.
"Mason," I said with a smile.
"You look good," he said, looking me up and down.
"So do you," I answered with a flirtatious smile.
"So, what should we do today?"
I shrugged. "Anything. But we can't be out in public."
He chuckled. "Ashamed to be seen with me?"
I chuckled nervously. "Not exactly. More nervous about the consequences of you being seen with me. Two people in particular should not know that we're hanging out today."
"James and Sirius?" he guessed.
"Those would be the two."
He nodded. "Yes, I've heard horror stories about what happens to guys who try to get close to you. All right, then we can have our date somewhere private. How about the top of the Astronomy Tower?"
I smiled, ridiculously happy that he had specified our hanging out together as a date, and nodded. "That would be fun."
First, we went down to the kitchens and got a bunch of food from the house elves, and then we went up to the Astronomy Tower and had a picnic up there. We talked while we ate, getting to know each other. We spoke about our favorite school subjects (DADA for both of us, although he also loved Potions), what we wanted to do after Hogwarts (awkward question for me, I just said mom because it was all I could think of; he wanted to be a healer at St Mungo's), and our favorite sweets (both of us had a weakness for a Muggle candy called Red Vines). We were getting along really well. We had no idea that Sirius and James had run into Regulus, who was sitting out by the Black Lake, without Severus, Adrian, or me.
(These events were later filled in for me by James and Regulus, who was quite annoyed at having his peaceful day interrupted by his obnoxious brother and "that mental friend of his," as Regulus liked to refer to James.)
Sirius and James had been walking about the castle, completely bored. They were trying to think up a prank to do, but it didn't seem as fun without all of the Marauders there to participate. Remus was in the library, Peter was with that girlfriend of his, and Roxanne was with the Slytherins . Or so they thought.
"Oi, James," Sirius suddenly said, noticing Regulus sitting outside by himself. "Didn't Fangs say she was gonna spend time with Regulus today?"
"Yeah, she did. Why?"
"Look," Sirius said, pointing to Regulus. "Why's he sitting out here alone?"
"Maybe he decided he wanted some peace and quiet and left," James suggested.
"No, Roxi doesn't visit them very often anymore, and he loves spending time with her. He'd never admit it, but I can tell. He wouldn't leave just to sit alone and study. Let's check it out."
James nodded, following Sirius over to Regulus's side.
"What do you want?" Regulus asked when they arrived, not bothering to look up from his book to address them.
"Drop the attitude, Reg," Sirius said. "Weren't you supposed to hang out with Roxi today?"
"Roxi? No. I thought she had plans to spend the day with you lot."
James and Sirius frowned. "She told us she was spending the day with you, Snivellus, and Adrian," James said in confusion. Suddenly remembering the Map, he nudged Sirius and motioned for them to leave. "No matter, we'll find out where she is."
When they got back up the the Gryffindor boy's dorm and got the Map out, they began scanning it for my name. What they saw surprised them. I was most definitely not in the dungeons with my brother. In fact, I was about as far away from there as I could possibly be. I was in the Astronomy Tower, and my dot was terribly close to another dot labeled Mason Cross. I was with a boy! One they hadn't approved of!
Meanwhile, Mason and I were laying down on our stomachs, looking out across the horizon.
"If you had just one pinch of Floo Powder, and the opportunity to travel to just one place in the world, where would it be?" I asked him.
"Hmm... Somewhere with lots of sun. And maybe an ocean. Like Jamaica. What about you?"
"Jamaica sounds nice. Maybe I could get a tan there."
"You don't need a tan. Your skin looks beautiful in the creamy white color it is now."
I looked over at him and smiled, the tint of a blush on my cheeks. He leaned in a bit closer, slowly making the distance between our mouths smaller and smaller. Our lips were mere centimeters away from touching, and my heart was racing, when--
"Hey, Roxi," James said loudly, barging in our our date.
"Oh, shit," I said, pulling quickly away from Mason. He, too, quickly moved back, apparently hoping James and Sirius wouldn't have seen him about to kiss me. His chances of survival were much higher if they thought he hadn't touched me.
"So, hanging out with Adrian and the snakes, are you?" Sirius said, crossing his arms and looking at me.
I sighed. "Well, I couldn't very well tell you I was hanging out with him. You'd have sabotaged my date."
"Oh, so this is a date?" James asked. "It's not just you hanging out with a friend?"
I cursed before standing up, putting my body between James and Sirius, and Mason. "If you two do anything to hurt, hex, curse, scare, injure, maim, kill, or otherwise bother Mason, there will be hell to pay. Am I understood?"
Sirius looked from me to Mason, who had stood up by now, and shook his head. "Whatever. Doesn't matter anyway. Let her have her date." He turned and stalked off, leaving me and James shocked.
"I know we like to mess with your beaus because none of them are good enough for our precious Roxi, but he seems particularly annoyed." He pointed his wand at Mason. "Have you done anything to anger him in the past?"
"What? No. I hardly know him. It's not like we have a lot of chances to interact." Mason looked just as confused as I felt.
"Hmm..." James said, putting his wand away and scratching his chin. "Well, I guess I'll leave you two alone and go see what's bothering Sirius. But I'm warning you, if you defile my little sister, I'll make you pay." He gave Mason a serious look before leaving.
"I'm so sorry," I said, covering my face with my hands. "They act like my brothers, and they seem to think any guy who talks to me is only trying to do a shag and brag. They get overly concerned."
I heard him chuckled and felt his fingers surround my wrists, gently pulling my hands away from my face. "Well, I can see why. Someone as beautiful as you would cause worry in any brother, blood relation or not. But you can put their minds at ease and tell them I'm not interested in a shag and brag." He leaned forward and kissed me gently. I felt like fireworks were exploding in my stomach, and my heart was doing a happy dance. I kissed him back, closing my eyes and enjoying the moment. Everything was perfect.