"Did you hear that Molly Prewett and Arthur Weasley are getting married?" Dorcas asked trying to distract her best friend. The entire dorm had been tense and negative since James had introduced Amelia. Of course nobody dared to mention it, but Lily's jealousy was obvious and practically radiating off of her.

"The ones who graduated last year?" Lily asked. Everyone silently thanked Dorcas for distracting Lily.

"Yeah!" Dorcas replied, quite proud of herself.

"I hope James and Amelia get married." Lily smirked.

—
"Hey Jamie." Sirius said as James came back in the dorm. All of the boys except James had been hanging out in the dorm for quite a while, and he had just decided to come back in the room.
"Hey, Siri." James waved absentmindedly, not noticing everyone in the room staring at him. He hadn't told anyone he had a girlfriend until the 'family meeting'.
Remus got up off his bed. He walked up to James, who looked at him.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Remus asked, smacking James in the head.

"What?" He asked, rubbing his head where his friend had just smacked him.

"Amelia?!" Peter exclaimed.

They were all upset at James for 3 reasons.
1. He didn't tell his friends he had a girlfriend
2. Poor Amelia Boot, who is a very kind girl, is going out with a boy who's visibly in love with another girl
3. They saw the look on Lily's face after he announced that he was dating someone.

All three were mad he made Lily that upset, but Remus was livid.
She was his first best friend. How dare someone upset her like that.

"Guys. think about it. Lily is never going to like me, so I have to move on. I know I've been in love with her for 6 years but Amelia asked me out and I thought it was time to face the facts. She is not my soulmate, apparently." James shrugged. He seemed so causal. It was off-putting, really. He had just suddenly moved on from his crush of six years?

"I give it two weeks. That boy is wrapped around Lily's finger." Peter laughed once James left the room.
-

"Hey, Jamie!" Amelia ran over to the Gryffindor table near the marauders and the girls.
Everyone but James internally rolled their eyes. They all hated that they didn't like her though. She was kind, pretty, smart and honestly, just a good person. But she was dating James, and her name was not Lily Evans, so they had to hate her.

"Hi, Amelia." James gave her a quick peck. He looked over to see Lily's reaction immediately after. He thought it was quick enough that nobody noticed, but Amelia definitely did. She pretended it didn't hurt to feel like your relationship is only for making someone else jealous. But she shouldn't complain. James had been asked out by boys and girls and everyone else for years and she was the first one he said yes to. She had no right to be upset about dating a marauder, for goodness sake. So many kids would die to have that popularity.

-
The general bad mood of the friends was only worsened by what happened later that day.

After the 3rd class, Sirius was rushing down the halls, head high, attempting to get to his next class gracefully, calmly and entertainingly. That didn't quite work out.

He was just walking down the hall when Sirius felt large, sweaty hands on his shoulder. He was turned around and found himself face to face with Avery. Avery had all of the makings of a perfect death eater. Small mind, creepiness, ability to make any situation uncomfortable, blind hatred of people who are different than him.

"To whom do I owe this pleasure?" Sirius asked, attempting to maintain composure as Avery grabbed his robes and pulled him away from the crowd.

Suddenly, two figures appeared behind Avery. Both were also slytherins. Both big fans of Voldemort.

"Little birdie told me you like men." Avery taunted.

This was Sirius's first time heaving judgment about his sexuality. Not that he was surprised, he was prepared for it.

"Really? What gave it away? Was it the rainbow socks, the shirt, the cape or the guy i kissed last year?" Sirius smirked. He knew the one thing these people didn't like was when others weren't afraid of them.

Instead of storming off like he expected, Avery instead grabbed Sirius's robes and lifted him off of the ground. Sirius squirmed slightly, for he was much smaller than the boy holding him.
Suddenly, he was knocked into the brick wall, hard. Avery had pinned him to the wall. He was defenseless and now, in pain. Brick wall to the head can never feel good.

Avery kept taunting Sirius, calling him horrible names, threatening him. He had no idea how to make it stop. Everyone, including teachers, were in class already.

Well, except one.

What happened next was nearly instantaneous.

A punch hit Averys head, he dropped Sirius, he got up and turned furiously to whoever had punched him.

Sirius peeked over to see who his knight in shining armor was.

Lo and behold, Remus John Lupin.

"Did you just punch me?" Avery yelled in Remus's face.

"Did you just harass my friend?" Remus asked back, smirking, grabbing Sirius's hand and walking away.

Once the two were out of sight of the Slytherins, Sirius exploded.

"Remus, why the fuck did you do that? You could've gotten yourself really hurt! That was so dumb of you, you have to be careful. You're a target to these kids. You can't go around punching them." Sirius yelled at his best friend.

"You're mad at me? I just helped you get away from those horrible boys! Do you really think you have the right to be mad at me?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do! You put yourself in danger, Rem. You don't want to admit it, but they hate you too. I could've handled them. I didn't need your help!"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay!" Remus yelled back. Tears filled his eyes, Sirius's nose began running. They never fought about important and real things, especially not yelling level.

"Why? Why did you need to make sure I was okay?"

"Because I'm in love with you!"

Was the first thought in Remus's head. The second being, because I love you. The third, because I have a massive crush on you, my best friend of 6 years.

"Because you're my best friend, Sirius." Remus said. That was the last thing he wanted to say, but alas, it's all he could muster up the courage for.

Sirius stormed off, leaving Remus alone with ears ringing and thoughts swirling about all of the things he wanted to say.

a/n
sorry this chapter is a little short, it had to establish some things. also i am having a concerning amount of fun making Amelia really hard to hate. I hope I'm doing ok lol. yeah so the camping trip will be in a couple chapters and we'll get some peak jealous lily. anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and please correct me if I made a writing mistake at any point in time. thank you so much! I love you!

~ brynlee