NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!- WATTPAD MADE ME CHANGE THE RATING BECAUSE OF THE LANGUAGE!!!!!! HAS IT CAHNGED????

Chapter 5

"And I need you now tonight, and I need you more than ever! And we'll only be making it right, 'cause we'll never be wrong together!"

No. No. NO. This was not happening. This was her first night in the Head Tower and Lily needed her beauty sleep for tomorrow –or, in fact, today, as it was 2am in the morning- as her first day as Head Girl, and Sirius-bloody-Black's voice was not coming from her Head personal common room, disrupting her sleep and making the walls of her dormitory vibrate.

"We can take it to the end of the line! Your love is like a shadow on me aaaall of the time! I don't know…the rest of the words! Dah nah nah nah na! Doo doo doo doo!"

It was happening. It was actually happening.

"Murder will happen tonight," Lily announced to the walls, her voice chipper and jolly. In a swift motion, she thrust off her bed cover and grabbed for her wand. As she searched around for her nightgown and slippers, her ears perked up at the sound of voices coming from outside. Many, many voices. Much cheering. Much drunken merry cheering.

"They're not having a party," Lily dismissed at once with a forced laugh, trying to convince herself. She found her orange Garfield slippers and shoved them on her feet, storming towards the exit. "They are not having a party," she hissed, flinging open the door.

They were having a party.

The word 'KILL' flashed up in Lily's wrathful, fiery eyes. It was especially suspicious that James was not in sight. Hiding from her, eh? Murder. Tonight.

People were lounging around her Head Tower as if it were new years, for Merlin's sake. Chatting, drinking, dancing, you know, acting like there was nothing to worry about and they weren't doing anything wrong. They only had classes in a few hours and Lily might just kill every one of them in their sleep tonight.

Well well, the permanently open Portrait of the Fat Man may be one of the contributing factors to why Hogwarts students seem to be just filing in and out without a care in the world.

Lily immediately stormed up to the portrait with her hands on her hips.

"What do you think you're doing, keeping open?" she asked the Fat Man hysterically. "You're just letting people come in and out - without a password, might I add! Your job is to ask for the password, for Christ's sake! That's what portraits do!"

The Fat Man looked affronted. "I'd have thought keeping open would be a privilege for you to see my lovely face!" He cupped his hands around his flabby chin. Lily replied with a deadpan expression. "And that bloke over there told me to stay open," he pointed over to Sirius Black.

Lily groaned and put her head in her hands. "Some stupid idiot told you what to do and you obeyed him? You're supposed to obey the Head Boy and Girl!"

"Look here, missy," the Fat Man said, "I don't answer to no one, me. I don't obey anyone…except for the Fat Lady, but that's a different matter altogether!"

Lily gave him a look which said 'Spare me the details' on the topic of the portrait affairs, and how that was even possible. Turning on her heel, she flounced her way through the mass of partiers towards Sirius.

"Forever's gonna start tonight!" Sirius sang. His hands were clutched around a microphone he'd somehow conjured up for this joyous occasion; he had somehow managed to clear an area of the Head Tower's common room to use as some sort of karaoke area.

"Forever's gonna start tonight!" Sirius crooned. "Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight!"

He tried to impersonate the echoing on a professional record, but didn't get the same effect and only an odd look to why he had just repeated the last word of 'tonight' four times. He made a bow and the small crowd formed around him applauded with added wolf whistles.

"You've been Sirius Black," he pointed a finger to the crowd, shaking the microphone which made an ear-piercing crackle, "and I've been a great audience! Drive safely and God speed British Isles! G'night-y night…" He stumbled into the crowd in search for the spiked punch bowl and a bathroom to hibernate in afterwards.

"Sirius!" Lily ran up to him, where she was instantly used as a post for him to lean on as he wobbled, looking quite smashed. "God, you smell of cheesy socks," she remarked, his whiff quite over powerful. "I can't tell you off because you'd be too hammered to remember, so where's James to take the blame on?" she asked Sirius, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Went for coasters with Pete," he mumbled vaguely. "Sleep time now…" He nodded off, legs giving away.

"Not 'sleep time' when you're holding on to me!" Lily said, pulling him up again. "Where's Remus? Why isn't he looking after you?"

"Dic…" Sirius mumbled, again with much ambiguity.

Lily quirked an eyebrow, forcing herself not to be amused when she was supposed to be thoroughly annoyed about what was going on. "Remus went for 'dick'?" she queried, pursing her lips.

"Dic…" Sirius tried again. "Dic…tionary…"

Lily looked a little disappointed as his answer became more logical. "Dictionary? Right…don't tell me Remus is looking up words in the dictionary at this time in the morning?" She sighed. "That boy and his love for vocabulary…"

"Dream…" Sirius garbled.

Lily had enough of being babysitter. "I'm putting you down on the couch, Sirius. On your front so you don't die by choking on your own vomit."

"Righto. Thanks very much, redhead." He petted her hair.

Sirius suddenly found himself head-first into the cushions of a chair. Lily hadn't thought of him possibly dying due to suffocation, but someone would probably take notice of him sooner or later.

The reason why Sirius had been left unoccupied without his parent was because his guardian, Remus Lupin, had gone on a mad dash to the library. No, he had not gone to look up any word definitions as Lily had presumed, but was flicking desperately through the pages of The Dream Oracle.

The news was not good. For once he felt like book-burning. He felt like Sirius, throwing books into the common room fire with raging thoughts! Never had he thought such treacherous feelings about literature!

Remus kept his head down and eyes glued to the page of the Dream Oracle, whilst impressively walking the corridor to the Head Tower. He nearly slammed into a few castle walls because of his lack of awareness, but finding out what that dream with Sirius meant was much more important.

To dream that you are homosexual means that you are not comfortable with homosexuality and suggests some fears/anxieties about your masculinity (if you are male) and femininity (if you are female). You may be experiencing some insecurity in your relations with the opposite sex.

"What?" Remus murmured to himself, scratching his head in confusion as he re-read the passage in the book. Grudgingly, he carried on reading.

If you are homosexual in your waking life, then the dream is simply a reflection of your own self.

"No," Remus quickly dismissed, almost laughing. "Most definitely ruling that one out." His fingers threatened to rip the book to shreds or pelt it at a corridor portrait, but heaving a sigh, he read on.

On a side note, it is common for expectant fathers to have dreams of homosexual encounters.

On this informative 'side note', Remus slammed the book shut. Unless he was having babies he did not know about, this stupid Divination book was a load of rubbish. What did books know anyway? Honestly, the only thing they were really useful for was to make good door stoppers.

Remus immediately took that thought back.

Following the sound of party music, he made it to the Head Tower and walked through the portrait of the Fat Man. Making a determined 'I'll show you!' look at the Dream Oracle, he scanned the many partygoers and walked up to a pretty girl, tapping her on the shoulder.

The short-haired girl whipped around with an inquisitive look.

"Hello," Remus greeted her politely. He vaguely remembered she was a Hufflepuff but that was about it - his usual exquisite memory was poor lately due to bad dreams. "I…er…um…" He was very aware that he felt like he had a frog in his throat and this was harder than it looked in the films. Nonetheless, the girl smiled at his fumbling. "Would you like to, er, osculate?"

The girl didn't quite understand and mouthed the word 'osculate' whilst looking up, as though she were checking it were in the vocabulary of her brain. "Do you mean snog?" she queried.

Remus nodded timidly. "Yes. That."

"Sure." The girl shrugged her shoulders, grabbed Remus by the collar and dragged him to a dark corner.

Five minutes later after much tongue waggling, Remus reappeared with disheveled hair where strands stuck out in a very James Potter-like fashion, a crimson face, and many bold lipstick marks smeared across his mouth and cheek.

"See you later alligator," the girl smiled and returned back to her friends.

Remus waved the girl off, watching her back, unaware of the phrase she'd used. "The same to you…large…reptile?" he said uncertainly.

Remus stuck the Dream Oracle in front of him, a mighty self-righteous expression on his features, and said, rather childishly, "In your literary face, Dream Oracle!" He pointed a defiant finger at the book, and then suddenly screamed as a pair of hands landed on his hips from behind him. "WAAAH!"

"Muh-hoony!"

"Your hands are on my waist," Remus pointed out the obvious. He observed Sirius in front of him and breathed a quick sigh of relief. "You're drunk! Oh, thank God!" He made a mental prayer to the ceiling for the logical explanation to Sirius' touchy-feely manner.

Sirius appeared to be up from the couch and was now on a walkabout. "What did your dic…" he mumbled drowsily.

"What?"

Sirius tried again by leaning on Remus' shoulder and speaking close in ear, making his voice more audible.

"Diiiiiic!" Sirius shouted. "What did your…dic say…?"

Remus reddened as a few partygoers picked up on their odd conversation. "I beg your pardon?"

"What did your dream dictionary say?" Sirius asked finally, this time more specific.

"Oh! Oh. Er," Remus slid the Dream Oracle to the floor and kicked it with his foot under a common room chair. "The dream wasn't in there!" he fibbed.

Sirius made an ugly face as he collapsed back on the couch with his cheek pressed up on a bent elbow. "That f*cking sucks," Sirius stressed. He never had control of his cursing after he consumed too much alcohol and swore continuously without realizing. "What were we talking about again?"

Remus tried to keep on track. "Don't worry, Padfoot. About the dream, I mean. I'm mighty certain my dream did not reveal any secret homophobic feelings because I just conversed with a girl!" he revealed. "Without knowing her name! Quite publicly, might I affix! And I enjoyed it!" He bounced on his feet, quite uncharacteristically. "Right there!" He pointed to the corner. "In the vicinity!"

Sirius didn't seem to show the same zest. "When you say 'converse', you do mean snog, right? Because having sex in the corner in front of around thirty people at a party is not only wrong but a little male whore-ish."

"Of course I didn't!" Remus said. "I'm not you."

"Ooo!" Sirius pinched together his forefinger and thumb to indicate how close Remus was to suffering his drunken verbal abuse. "I'll let that one slide, Moony…"

"Do you want to vomit on my trousers now?" Remus asked. "I'm wearing the ones with many pockets."

Sirius looked at his clothing. "And so you are," he confirmed, promptly emptying his insides.

Meanwhile, Lily was pushing herself past a line up of jolly Gryffindors doing the conga and a crowd gathering round a Hufflepuff doing a human beatbox. She quickly spotted James with his hands full of drink coasters, running around in panic, along with Peter who had been told to place coasters around, which he was doing as he threw the coasters like Frisbees and watched them collide with many people's heads.

"Can you please use a coaster?" James pleaded quite on edge to a Ravenclaw. The boy continued his full attention to the girl he was chatting up and slapped down his mug of Butterbeer. The drink instantly sloshed at the impact and a made a ring on the wooden table.

"Damn it!" James cursed, and quickly tried to get rid of the mark by rubbing it with his elbow. "Lily's going to kill me…Mate, what did I just say?" he asked the Ravenclaw, who continued to ignore him and completely knocked over the Butterbeer as he perched the girl on the table, who he promptly started kissing.

Lily crept up behind James with an infuriated expression on her features.

"Knock, knock," she said in a menacing tone. She tapped him on the shoulder with her long nails which threatened to pierce his skin, a hint of how much trouble he was in.

"Who's there?" James answered cheerfully, not turning around or realizing who the voice belonged to. Peter, who stood in front of James, quickly shook his head and mouthed 'Run!'

Rolling her eyes, Lily spun him around and James exclaimed a mighty, "Bugger!" He dropped his coasters to the floor and tried to ignore the deafening noise from everyone around him.

"Well, I'll carry on placing coasters, shall I?" Peter took the hint and skipped off merrily, throwing his coaster Frisbees.

James ran a hand through his hair in agitation. "Fancy seeing you here, love?"

"I sleep here, remember?" Lily reminded him. James cowered, prepared for the lecturing of a lifetime. "What the hell is going on here? A party? Are you completely off that messy, adorable head of yours—do not one side curve smile at me, James Potter!" she cut off, glaring.

James cursed, his plan of physical attraction not winning her round. "It was Sirius' idea," he snitched, "All his idea." He pointed a finger ready to blame his friend but couldn't find him as he was currently missing, hunched over toilet in the bathroom yet still being sick on Remus' many-pockets-trousers. "I can see how Sirius' absence could make him un-blameworthy, but I swear, it was all Sirius' idea," he stressed, friends loyalty at this point clearly not that important.

Lily leaned in dangerously and if James wasn't corrected, her hair was glowing with ferocity. "I want these people," she gestured to the partygoers, "out of here in five minutes."

And with that, she stomped off to her dormitory and shut the door with a slam.

Minutes later there was a knock heard at Lily's door. She flung the door open, expecting the hallway to be empty and quiet with no partiers. She got neither and only an embarrassed James Potter.

"Erm…I don't have a watch," he mentioned too late.

Lily could not believe her ears. "For goodness sake!" She stepped out of the doorway, with her hands on her hips. "Let me get on your back."

Her invitation could easily be incorporated as a sexual one, and James –of course- took it as this. "Your sudden horny moods really, really confuse me, you know."

"I want to get on your back so I will be on higher ground and everyone will listen to me," Lily clarified in a dangerous tone.

"Oh," James said, her explanation not any more understandable, "Um…what exactly do you-"

Before he knew it, Lily climbed on to his back and held on to his hair to avoid any possible falling. "Ow ow ow!" he complained.

Lily clapped her hands and received no attention. Pointing her wand to her mouth, she magnified her voice and addressed the students who quickly froze in silence, wondering why the Head Girl was using the Head Boy as a donkey.

"Everyone out of my tower!" Lily ordered. When there was no movement, she repeated her fiery glare and added, "Now. Don't think that I won't snitch you to McGonagall if you don't move this second-" she wagged a finger "-I am a goody two shoes and have a prudish attitude!" she divulged.

"You heard the lady!" James helped. "Party's over people! Skedaddle! Skedaddle, I say!"

The students made a disappointed 'Aaaaw' in chorus, before filing out of the Head Tower.

"And shut the door this time, Fat Man!" Lily heaved a sigh once the last partier had exited. The Fat Man made an upset 'Hmph!' in response and closed the entrance.

"I swear," Lily climbed off James' back and groaned at the destructive mess the students had made, "If I have black panda eyes tomorrow you're in for it."

"You can just use that make up stuff to cover them up," James suggested and pulled her forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. "Nice pussies…"

"I BEG YOUR PARDON?"

"Your slippers!" James quickly elucidated. He watched Lily break away from him his embrace with an enraged look. "I was talking about your cat slippers!"

Lily quickly went into her dorm and shut the door with a slam for the hundredth time that night.

"Love you?" James called hopefully through the door. He received no response. "Night, then!"

Lily dreamt of mysterious letters and knives…

The next morning, James chewed openly on his bagel with a morose appearance. Clearly he was not used to the early mornings of Hogwarts school days again, and looking at the lesson timetable McGonagall had given him only dampened his crappy mood.

"Potions with Slughorn," Peter spoke dejectedly. He became slightly chipper as he found fun in dunking his toast into his orange juice, watching the sides of the glass splash.

"Doesn't McGonagall know seeing The Slug so early in the morning does nothing good for my bowel movements?" James grumbled. "Is Lily looking at me?" he asked suddenly, secretly side-glancing down the far end of the table where Lily sat with her friends eating breakfast. He stopped himself from standing up and looking over because that would be too obvious, as if peeking out your head in the middle of the table was not noticeable enough.

Remus glanced over the usual Daily Prophet and saw Lily paying no attention to what James was doing, more engrossed in chatting with her friend and sipping her coffee.

"No," Remus informed his friend. James slumped more in his seat and glared pointedly at the fourth Marauder sitting across him.

"It's all your fault, you tosser," James blamed.

Sirius purposely dropped his spoon into the bowl of his porridge and crossed his arms indignantly, by accident flicking Remus with white spots which made the boy stand up with a groan.

"What are you moping about now, arseface?" Sirius complained. He finally caught on to James' gaze down the table where Lily appeared to be sitting the farthest away place from her boyfriend. "Why isn't redhead sitting with you?"

James huffed, "We're not attached by the hip, you know! We don't have to sit next to each other at breakfast and dinner like an old married couple! Jesus!"

Peter winced at James' slight outburst. "She's in a mood with you because of the whole party last night, isn't she?" he accurately guessed for once.

James was about to lie but found his face smacking on to the wooden table in defeat.

"She didn't even wait for me so we could eat breakfast together," he spoke in a quiet, saddened voice. "I even got the house elves to make pancakes in the shape of lily flowers…"

Peter's eyes widened, "You what?"

James slid down the table a plate of lily flower shaped pancakes sprinkled with sugar, honey and melted chocolate.

Peter drooled. "Erm…I don't think Lily's going to eat them now, really, is she? So can I…?"

"Knock your self out, Wormtail," James mumbled to the wood.

Peter greedily began to gobble down Lily's specially made breakfast whilst Sirius dug in his fork and spiked four pancakes, chewing on them with his mouth wide open.

"I highly doubt the factor of a party last night got Lily into a mood," Remus said.

James tilted his head up, remaining huffy. "How was I supposed to bloody know that she would take my complimenting of her pu*sy slippers the wrong way?"

Sirius choked on pancakes. "Back up a second, mate!" He put his hands up, eyes incomprehensible. "Pussy slippers?" he murmured.

"I dunno," James shrugged. "They were these slippers with an orange striped cat on them."

"Garfield," Remus tried to say in his most intellectual voice. "The cat's name is Garfield."

Sirius found himself nodding and picturing the slippers in his mind, "Hmm, pussy slippers, eh?" He licked his sugar-covered upper lip. "Kinda cute."

"I hope you're only picturing her slippers, Padfoot," James growled.

Sirius winked, "Of course," then directed his attention to the ladies to the right of him. "Hello there, fair maidens." He nodded handsomely. The girls didn't know how to react so nodded back to be courteous, yet unmistakably bemused.

"I bet you were all wondering about my absence of our first day back at Hogwarts, eh?" Sirius presumed.

"You were missing yesterday?" asked a passing seventh year, Georgina, who passed the Marauders on her way out of the Great Hall. James nodded in acknowledgement to her; her warnings of Derrick being the spawn of the devil last year quite helpful to him. "I thought it was much quieter than usual, Sirius!" she laughed.

Sirius stuck out his tongue at her which she replied with more laughter. "Ignore that Ravenclaw fruitcake," he told the girls, watching Georgina's retreating back out of the corner of her eye. "Anyway, gather round to hear the exciting tale of how I never made it on the Hogwarts train!"

The girls did not assemble and their backs remained straight, continuing to eat their breakfast.

"I said, gather, papooses!"

Grudgingly, the girls hunched their backs to listen closely.

"Well, there I was, walking to the platform of nine and three quarters for the last time, as a seventh year!" Sirius began his formidable tale. "Unfortunately I was late because I'd just cured some lepers and fed some starving children…"

James tried not to snort whilst Remus looked on the verge of smacking him with his newspaper.

"When suddenly-" Sirius signaled to Peter and he made a smack on the table for a 'sudden' noise effect "-I was attacked by Death Eaters! Twenty of them!" The girls gasped, clutching each other's hands in terror. "Of course, you know they were sent by…" Sirius whipped his head around in all directions to make sure it was 'safe.' "You-know-who…You do know who you-know-who is, right?"

"We know who you-know-who is," one of the girls clarified smugly.

"Wait," one of the curly-haired girls cut in. "I'm not so sure. When you say you-know-who, are you talking about you-know-who, or are you talking about you-know-who, who is a complete utter prick and cheated on me last year."

"No! C'mon, you've got to know who you-know-who is! How many you-know-who's are there in the wizarding world?"

"Well, there's a list of ten that aren't supposed to be mentioned in our girly conversations but they're mostly crushes or ex-boyfriends," a brunette explained.

"You-know-who is gorgeous, isn't he," her blonde companion giggled.

"You know you-know-who's so gorgeous!"

"I'm talking about Lord Voldermort!" Sirius said finally, which was quickly followed by a gasp and 'Sssssh' by everyone in the Great Hall.

"Uuurgh! That you-know-who isn't gorgeous," the blonde rectified.

"How do you know?" the dark haired girl laughed. "You've never seen you-know-who!"

"I know, but anyone who kills people isn't good-looking-"

"Can we puh-lease get back to the subject of me?" Sirius interjected, pointing a thumb at himself. "Moi?"

The girls heaved a sigh before leaning in closely again.

"Well, there I was, surrounded! I had no means of escape and my friends had abandoned me. Prongs was off shagging Evans-"

"Padfoot!"

"And the other two were doing stuff," Sirius revealed his poor story-telling skills. "So -in a crafty manner- I grabbed for my wand, placed in my jacket pocket because everyone knows that there is a risk of your buttocks blowing up if you put your wand in the back pocket of your jeans like some stupid git I know-"

"How many sodding times do you feel the need to take the piss out of me for that?" James cut in, tempted to fling his breakfast plate at Sirius' head. "I've put my wand there for over six years and my arse is still in place, so screw you!"

"Then," Sirius carried on, as the girls were on their edges of their seats, "I managed to stupefy five of the Death Eaters with my, er, quick spell-casting. Then, I managed to fully body-bind another five of the Death Eaters. But then, unexpectedly, one of the evil blokes kicked my wand out of my hand!" An intake of breath was made by the girls. "Of course, now I had no protection! So dodging in between the pillars, I managed to avoid the odd killing and torturing spell," he spoke nonchalantly. "Ooo, and the Muggles! They were also at risk so I saved them too! Even the ugly ones-"

"Good grief. I'm going to Potions," Remus announced, getting up from his seat.

"But we've got like ten minutes," Peter pointed out.

Remus grumbled, being early plainly not a dilemma, as he grabbed the Daily Prophet and made his way to the exit.

"C'mon, Moony! I was just about to mention the part where you smashed a pillar by throwing a Death Eater into it, saving my life!"

"That never happened!" Remus yelled. "And those girls would be stupid to believe that!" He stormed out of the hall, his newspaper under his arm.

"They're not stupid, they're just open-minded!" Sirius yelled as he stood in flare-up. "Mork!" he said lamely once Remus was out of earshot. He sat back down, shrugged, and then went back to eating the lily-shaped pancakes.

James frowned in confusion. "What's up with Moony?" he asked. He eventually gave in to helping himself to Lily's pancakes. "Just the teensiest bit high strung, isn't he? It's ages until that time of the month."

"I saw him reading the Dream Oracle in the dorm this morning," Peter mentioned.

James remained frowning. "But he doesn't even take Divination!"

Sirius had remained in silent pondering until he become conscious that he had women to adore. "Anyway, back to what I was saying, ladies…" He frowned when realized the girls had disappeared and was left with an empty space next to him. "Bugger," he cursed disappointedly.

"Sirius," Peter poked his hand.

"Ow. What was that for, rat boy?"

"Your hand," Peter poked it again. "Look."

Pulling a face at Peter, Sirius eventually tilted his head down to look at the back of his hand; a girl's phone number had been written scruffily across it with added kisses of 'xxxxx.'

Sirius punched the air. He then realized he didn't know what the numbers actually signified. "What's it mean?" He goggled at the numbers. "Some sort of girl code? Like Latin…but with numbers? You're good at Latin, Wormtail," he thrust his hand at Peter, "What's it say? Does it say I'm sexy? I bet it does, doesn't it, Wormtail?"

"I think you're mistaking the boy who is good at Latin for Remus, not me. And that's a telephone number," Peter said, poking his hand again. Sirius gave him a look which said 'Stop with the poking, already!'

"Moony's explained a billion times what a Muggle telephone is," James said exasperatedly. "It's the same thing you yelled down in that Muggle telephone box where a fire engine turned up after you prank called about a fire."

Sirius scoffed. "How am I supposed to know what a telly-phone is? I'm full wizarding blood! I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MUGGLE WAYS!"

James wiped the pancake bits that flew out of Sirius' mouth and onto his face. "For the love of Merlin, if you've got something to say and you're mouth is full, don't effing say it. And I also feel I have to say this because Moony isn't here: really, what kind of stupid girl writes her phone number when we're in Hogwarts?" he pointed out.

Sirius' smile fell. "Bugger. You're right, Prongs," he said dismally.

"Who cares if she's pretty, eh?" Peter spoke with a mouth full of chew up food.

"Technically yes, Wormtail, but Padfoot won't know which girl wrote it since she didn't even write her name. And he'd have to wait for the school year to end to get in contact with her, not to mention get hold of a telephone."

"Yeah…but who cares if she's pretty, eh?"

James gave up. "You two are pathetic when it comes to women," he said. "You just let them walk all over you. It's embarrassing. I mean, you should learn from me—Oh, Lily, darling!" He spotted her go by from where he was sitting at the table and he instantly stood up, following her. Sirius and Peter watched as James managed to catch up with the redhead and began walking backwards in front of her as she walked forwards.

"Morning, Lily!" he said cheerfully. She looked expressionless and carried on walking. "Didn't see you this morning. Did you forget to wait for me? Going to Potions early, are you? I was thinking of too. Good minds think alike, eh?" He continued to ask questions that were not answered as Lily stepped around his figure. "Want me to walk you to class? No? Okay! I'll carry your books if you want? Lily?" He watched her back as she flounced away. "Save a seat next you in potions, will you? Lily? Okay! See you in class later, then! Love you!"

James sat back down at the table in front of Sirius and Peter. "Well…I think that went rather well, don't you?"

"You're in my seat."

Lily upturned her head from searching for her Potions book in her bag to see James in front of her desk, who for some reason was glaring pointedly at her friend Nicole sitting next to her. Nicole remained mute and began chewing the end of her quill in perplexity.

"You are in my seat," James said more slowly, his hands leaning on the desk with what you could call intimidation.

Lily whipped her head back and forth between the two before asking James, "Have you been inhaling cake mix again?"

James stomped his feet and pointed at Nicole quite rudely, which the girl reacted to by slapping the finger away with an amused laugh. "She's in my seat!" he told Lily.

"But you never sit next to me in Potions!" Lily reminded him. "In fact, you never sit next to me in any classes because you always sit with your bum boys." The three remaining Marauders sitting at the back of the class made an exclamation of, 'Hey! Its marauders! It's not that hard to learn!' "Always at the back row of the class, messing about!" she added.

James couldn't help but agree with her. "Yeah, but! And there is a big massive 'but' here! That was last year, and we're going out now." He grabbed onto Nicole's arms, where she made an outcry of 'What are you doing? Aaaaah!' as James picked her up and planted her on his former seat next to Peter.

"Hi," Peter greeted her.

"No way," Nicole rejected quickly before he could say no more.

James grinned at Lily as he sat next to her and nudged her with his knee. "I think it'll be fun sitting next to you all year!"

She tried to hide the fact that she was bothered. "James, one," she began the list of reasons why they could not sit next to each other, "it's not how it works. Two, if we see too much of each other –and we are already sharing a tower together- we will get sick of each other. And I don't want to get sick of you. And three, I'm in mood with you still." She shoved James off his stool with a boot of her foot. "Nicole, you can come back now!"

"Thank God!" Nicole said, very much relieved. She put a hand to Peter's shoulder. "Bye, Pettigrew. I'll miss this," she pointed a finger between them, referring to their one minute conversation of silence.

Once Professor Slughorn got the class started and assigned the potion to be made, the students instantly got to work, grabbing ingredients and setting up cauldrons.

Despite the task at hand that could potentially sidetrack Lily, she felt foolish when she thought of the Half Blood Prince. Ashamed, even. Like she was betraying James.

Slipping her hand around the handle of the silver knife, Lily made a cut into the root which easily sliced because of the amazingly sharp blade. It cut so quickly she made an intake of breath. She again looked at the detail of the handle, the twisting of tendrils and lily flowers. Her eyes glazed over as her eyes locked on her initial of 'L' in what looked to be diamonds. Who was this 'Half Blood Prince'?

Nicole glanced over from stirring her potion and nudged her side. "Are you alright?"

"Uh…yeah!" Lily answered her, flustered. She decided she probably had enough of cutting ingredients and put the knife down.

"Woah, posh knife!"

Lily jumped as James appeared at her desk once again and swiped the knife off her desk, avoiding her frantic hands to hide it.

"You shouldn't be wandering from your desk, James! Your potion!" she reminded him, pointing to his desk where James' potion appeared to be bubbling over its rim.

"Oh, the guys will deal with it," he said casually.

The sound of a spitting potion, the overwhelming smell of petrol, added with a couple of shrieks of "Prongsie! You added too much bubotuber pus!" and "AAAAAARGH!" was heard.

"Right…" said Lily.

James span the knife in the air and caught it, not making Lily swoon but instead making her shriek, "Do you want your hands cut off, nutter?" He moved the knife between his fingers and asked, "Where'd you get it from?"

His question ruled out any thoughts of Lily thinking James gave her knife for a joke.

"Diagon alley," she lied. "Now give it back."

James seemed satisfied with her answer and swung the knife between his forefinger and thumb. Smiling quite charmingly, he stretched out his hand to give the knife back but at the last minute tugged it away, leaning on her desk closely to her.

"Do you forgive me yet?" he asked with a solemn look.

"What?" Lily said absentmindedly, her eyes locked on the knife. James waved a hand in front of her face because of her glassy expression and she apologized, looking guilty.

"Do you forgive me?" he asked again. He played with the fingers of her hand following the instructions of her potions book.

Did he have to keep swinging the knife like that? It swung like a pendulum. Or a clock counting the seconds of her guilt while she tensely tried to respire normal breaths.

"Lily?"

James was looking at her with concern.

"'Course I do…" Lily answered eventually, and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth to satisfy him. The peck was instantly followed by wolf whistles by the class and a firm look from Slughorn.

With a smile, James stabbed the knife into the desk and skipped back to his desk, whistling. He didn't see Lily's guilt-ridden look watching his back.

Nicole raised an eyebrow, suggesting the question, 'What's going on, Lily?'

She merely looked away and carried on stirring her potion.

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