There are more gossipers than Sirius Black could count on both his hands and feet at Hogwarts and, obviously, more than half of what the nosy bullshitters said wasn't true. Usually what he hears doesn't bother him at all; but there are so many lies that sometimes irk him and make him want to stand up on the Gryffindor table and correct the bastards in front of everyone while they whisper to their friends about how 'Sirius Black had a threesome with his brother and a seventh year Slytherin'. Actually, no – he'd rather stand infront of James Potter's favourite seat on the table and yell in his good-for-nothing face what a complete imbecile he is for even thinking that there is a possibility of 'Sirius shagging Lily Evans' - and if there was - that he would actually take it.

"It's not his fault, Sirius. He overheard someone talking about you and Lily shagging and he believed it. You know how James is." Remus Lupin, one of Sirius's best friends, said while apprehensively chewing on the side of a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean at the end of Sirius's bed.

"This has happened hundreds of times, though" Sirius replied, stubbornly. "You'd think he would start trusting me after I've already told him I don't want to shag or do anything with Evans a million times! He isn't even going out with her – she hates his guts." Remus spat out a bean he'd been chewing on in disgust and it landed on one of Peter's dirty socks. Sirius continued, "plus, I've never had sex. Why would James think I'd want Lily to be my first? He's got trust issues and he needs to sort them out."

"Ergh! What the hell was that? Argh, that tasted like… I don't even know but that was so nasty. Anyway, if you don't want James to believe the rumours then stop flirting with her. Want one?" Remus threw an orange coloured bean at Sirius before he even had a chance to reply.

"I don't flirt with her because I like her; I do it so James doesn't feel bad about getting rejected every time, you know. Because if he sees that she rejects me as well as him then we're both in it together. I don't even do it that often - I just do it when I see him beginning to spit out a stupid, cheesy and non-effective chat-up line." Sirius bitterly put the bean in his mouth. "James should actually be thanking me, not a lot of people sacrifice their dignity for their best friends like I've been doing so far - mmm, pizza!" Remus snorted, Sirius continued, "my intentions are friendly and truly harmless."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever had the displeasure of hearing come out from your mouth in my entire life, and that's saying something! How do you expect James to figure that one out?" Sirius shrugged, took another bean and chucked it in his mouth.

"Smart guy, innit?" Sirius finally said.

"He'd have to be able to read your mind to figure out your 'true, friendly and harmless intentions'." Remus finger quoted his last words and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Blueberry! I'm getting good ones."

The dormitory door opened and Peter, who was holding a long parchment, a book and a quill, came strutting in followed by James. Peter nodded his head towards them as a greeting and said, "I've finally finished my potions essay. I was sitting downstairs with Eudora 'cos she was helping me but then Cain came along and I'd only done half of it. So guess what I done, I went to the library and found James there!" Sirius raised his eyebrows and turned his head to face James who was topless and heading to the bathroom.

"And what made the great James Potter find his way to the library?" Remus asked sounding amused.

"Quidditch." James said, and shut the door without even turning around. Sirius clenched his jaw trying his mighty best to prevent himself from opening his mouth to shout at the git. He got up and walked downstairs to the common room. If James would still be acting like a stingy git the next morning, he'd say something; but if he'd cooled down over the night then he wouldn't say anything.

Sirius sat down on the puffy pink chair by the window that overlooked the Quidditch pitch which was currently invaded by Hufflepuffs on sticks – he was surprised they even had a team so early in October. Sirius leaned back on the chair and turned his head to look at who else was in the common room at twenty past ten in the evening. A few seventh years, fourth years and Lily Evans. She looked like she was finishing off another homework assignment and knowing her, it was probably given to her today and due next week. Sirius got up and began walking to her, she hadn't notice him approaching because if she had then she would've probably huffed and pulled an 'I don't want you here' face at him. He took a chair from a random table, dragged it to Lily's one and sat down. She looked up at him and sighed, Sirius noticed that she had bags under her eyes. "I don't have time to deal with you right now, please leave." She said, and Sirius smiled graciously.

"How fine it is to be in your company, too, Lily Evans. I'd love if you greeted me like that more often, I do love hearing you compliment me so much." He replied in a sarcastic tone. Lily gave a short snort and resumed writing on her parchment while Sirius continued speaking. "Don't worry, you don't need to deal with me for too long. I'll do the talking and you do the listening." He said, "What is it with you?" Lily continued writing on her piece of parchment and when Sirius didn't elaborate on his question, she looked up.

"What?" she asked.

"Out of all the girls James could fancy at Hogwarts, he chooses you. Why would he choose you? It's just stupid. You don't look twice at him, you hate him, you don't reply to him when he speaks to you, you don't even like Quidditch! You don't care enough to see the good in him and it just seems that you act coldly to him out of spite" Sirius brought his head down into his hands slightly dramatically, "you've changed James Potter. He went to the library today; we agreed to not visit the library at all in third year. That's out-of-bounds!" Lily finally gave up finishing her homework and was trying to keep a straight face while watching Sirius go through his friendship crisis. He then looked up at her, "at least talk to him. You don't have to like him, just acknowledge his presence."

"Is this because of that rumor that has been going around?" Sirius nodded and Lily continued, "I think one of the Ravenclaw's made it up after they found out I got the highest results out of the whole school in our OWLs last year, they were looking at me funny all day and in transfiguration and I could have sworn I saw one laughing at me" she said. Sirius frowned.

"That's besides the point. Listen, Evans, mine and Potter's friendship is on the edge and you're the cause of it." Lily looked offended. "Make him dislike you or just agree to go out on one date, tell him you didn't do anything with me-"

"Hey, I didn't do anything. If you and Potter can't get over your made-up drama then that isn't my problem." She packed up her things, said 'goodnight' and left. Sirius mumbled 'fierce' under his breath. Maybe I was a bit too harsh, he thought while looking around the common room once more.

It was October: it had been three months since Sirius ran away from his home and joined the Potter's. Everybody at Hogwarts and their uncle knew about what had happened to Sirius during the summer holidays and he'd never felt so exposed in his life - he was basically an open book. He got looks of sympathy from Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs passing by whilst Gryffindors 'whoop'ed and yelled 'saviour', but Slytherins would pass him and shout things like 'traitor' or 'mudblood lover'. On two occasions already he'd been so fed up he'd got himself into phyisical fights. He would have done a whole lot more if his friends hadn't been there to stop him.

"Oi, Sirius!" shouted Frank Longbottom, a seventh year student. Sirius and Frank met right after Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor. On the day of Sirius' sorting, every student in the Great Hall sat quietly as he walked proudly toward the Gryffindor table: not even the Slytherin table managed to let out a short 'boo' due to the utter shock on their faces. Frank was the first Gryffindor to stand up and clap, welcoming Sirius into Gryffindor. Soon after many other Gryffindor's were welcoming Sirius into their table and he sat happily by Frank.

"Yeah?" he shouted back, without looking behind him to see what Frank wanted. Frank threw himself onto the chair opposite Sirius and began speaking in a hushed voice, "next week Saturday I want to go to Hogsmede." Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Oh really, angel boy?" he replied, smirking. Frank didn't look impressed, Sirius continued. "What?" he asked, "can't I be surprised that the Perfect Prefect wants to sneak out of the school grounds? Why not this week Saturday? Why are we being so specific?" he ask.

"Because I need to-"

"No." Sirius said firmly.

"What!" Frank said loudly. People began turning towards them so he lowered his tone and asked, "why?"

"Because, Frankie dear, if I recall correctly: the last time we sneaked out of the castle to go to Hogsmede we got caught and when your mother found out you were with me, she beat me with her umbrella in-front of everyone on the train platform. I'll sneak out to go to Hogsmede with anyone but you" he finished. Frank laughed.

"Whatever. I'll ask someone else" Frank replied in a defeated tone and got up. While he was walking up the stairs to get to his room he shouted loudly for the remaining people in the common room to hear, "by the way, Sirius, wash yourself: you absolutely stink!" The rest of the common room turned to him with disgusted looks on their faces. Katy Jamesons, a fourth year girl, muttered, 'ew!' Sirius turned to her politely asked her if she wanted to "have the honour of smelling the mouth-watering pilose armpit he'd combed only a few hours ago" and she ran to her dormitory. Frank and Sirius always bantered together, Sirius felt as though he was the older brother he'd never had.

At quarter to eleven, when the Hufflepuff Quidditch team started leaving, he too got out of his seat and went back to his dormitory. He quietly walked in and got undressed into his pajamas and fell asleep like everyone else in the room.