Hi guys! This is just kind of for fun, so don't be too harsh. I welcome criticism, but only constructive please! I can't promise to be always consistent with my posts, but now that schools out I should be better about it than I have been in the past. I used to write a lot of HP fanfic, but this is my first in a while, and I also haven't reread the books in a while, so just a warning now- I probably won't always have all the facts perfect, but I'll do my best.

This is mainly a Sirius BlackxOC fic, with a lot of JPxLE, set in the seventh year of Hogwarts, and maybe going beyond.

Disclaimer: I, however unfortunately, do not own any of the Harry Potter world. I do however own all unrecognized characters, and take credit for deviations in recognized characters personalities.

Chapter 1

"No."

"Oh, but Lily, PLEASE?"

"No. Now get out."

I looked up from my Witch Weekly to see my best friend Lily Evens glaring at James Potter's retreating back as he left our compartment, after another pitiful attempt in asking Lily out. We had been aboard the train just long enough to find a compartment and change into our school robes and so far James had been rejected twice. James, for the egotistical prat he was, could bounce back from rejection surprisingly well. He had a lot of practice, of course, so that must have helped.

"Are you ever going to say any thing but 'no' to him?" I asked. This was an old argument. Both of us had been saying the same thing for years. Yes, I could call him an egotistical prat one minute, and then support their future relationship in the next. It never was a question of if, always of when.

"I'll only ever go out with him if he manages to shrink his impossibly large head. Which, will never happen, so no, I'll never say anything but no." She replied, opening up her book and starting to read. It was upside down. Obviously she wasn't reading. Did that mean she was thinking?

"He's nice. And he's very cute." I said watching her carefully. We had had this conversation many times. It was habit, routine almost. We knew our lines. But I've found it's often what Lily doesn't say that is the most important. She's always just brushed me off, but this time felt different.

"Oh, he's nice, real nice. Nicest person of the year. I mean hexing people 24/7, what could be sweeter?" She said sarcastically. That sounded completely Lily.

"Come on, why don't you give him a chance? I'm sure he's matured over the summer." Again, words I had said multiple times, and gotten the same response each time. I had my fingers crossed that this could be different.

"Yeah, matured into a bigger jerk." She muttered into her book.

"Lily, you can't pretend to read." I said, playing my final card, in hope of keeping this conversation going. Lily was stubborn, and I knew that better than anyone. So if I had a chance of her weakening even the slightest, I had to take it. It could never happen again.

"Why can't I pretend to read?" She said snobbishly over her book. She looked down her straight nose at me, and I could only point. She huffed, and flipped her book right side up and returned to "reading."

I sighed and stared out the window at the rapidly passing countryside. I could see my reflection over the passing trees and farms. My mahogany colored hair looked grey in the glass, and I could see the messy bumps on my head from when I had merely scrapped it up into the long ponytail earlier. My bangs seemed too long, and started to cover my hazel eyes, the color of which I considered my best feature, seemed colorless as they looked back at me. My face… I suppose it was pretty. My face was rather heart shaped, and I had had an unfortunate encounter with a muggle who informed me I resembled a pixie. The comment could have either been directed at face, or my unfortunate height, or lack thereof. We sat in silence and the miles passed by. She suddenly shut her book with a slam. I looked away from my reflection, expecting her to start explaining something fascinating in her book, but she only stared out the window at the passing farmlands. I continued to look at her, waiting for her to start. I assumed she had moved on, gotten lost in her book like usual. She sighed surprisingly heavily for the introduction to an educational lecture, and then proceeded to shock me with an emotional rant.

"I just don't get it. Ever since third year he's been asking me out constantly. And does he keep asking me out because he can't stand the embarrassment of being turned down, or does he really like me that much?" This was a new addition to our script. Usually I can only press her so far on the James issue before she lets her temper out, and I though I had reached my monthly limit.

As she spoke, her voice got louder and louder and the words started flowing faster and faster. "And everyone always says we'd be a cute couple. I mean, you say. Every single time he asks or sends Black to do it, you tell me that we'd be cute and to give him a chance. Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew say it. Everyone. I can't see it. He's obnoxious, self-centered, jerky, troublemaking, childish, selfish, and rude." She stopped herself, and stared playing with the two rings on her hands.

As I watched her face, a flicker of different emotions played across it. Of course everyone thought they'd be a cute couple. Everyone, James included, could see that they were perfect for each other. There was no rhyme or reason to it, that was just how it was. She was the only one who could knock him off his throne, and he was the only one who could get her to come off her podium. She calmed him, he made her laugh. She made him a decent human being, he made her a teenage girl. She was everything serous and logical, and he was everything light-hearted and fun. While they were opposites they brought out what no one else could in each other, and made each other… better.

She was the only one who couldn't, or rather wouldn't, see it, the possibilities, the truth. As the emotions changed, I realized something for the first time. "You do like him, don't you?" I whispered. I was shocked. I had always known that James and Lily would be together for forever, but I though it would happen after Hogwarts. Years after, when they had time apart. Time for James to grow up a bit more, and time for Lily to realize everything didn't come down to a grade.

"No! Yes…. Maybe! I don't know…." She said still, looking at her hands. "Every time I let myself start to like him he does something that reminds me why I say no to him everyday. And then there are just some times when I want to strangle him, he gets so annoying. Sure, I might be physically attracted to him, but why would I want to spend anytime with him when he acts like he does?

But then there are other times when he's nice and sweet and I want to pull him into a corner to start snogging out. But there's the physical attraction thing again. Everyone is attracted to him. He's a very attractive boy. His eyes are attractive, so is his hair, I just want to run my fingers through it some afternoons. His laugh is attractive; it makes me want to laugh too. He's attractive! And why can't I stop saying attractive?"

"Lily." I said. I didn't have this conversation ready. We were breaking new ground, going some place I didn't think was possible yet. "You still think of him as a fourth, fifth year boy. When I say he's actually grown up a bit and become more mature, I mean it." Maybe there was a chance? I just wanted Lily to be happy. She was my best friend, my closest. We're like sisters. I knew James would make her happy. "He's always going to be pulling pranks and jinxing people, and acting stupid. That's what boys do. Every boy does it." She looked up from her hands and sighed in defeat.

Defeat? I didn't know that was in Lily the Stubborn's vocabulary. I smiled to myself. Lily was changing, she was putting her bright, logical mind to use, and getting over her stubborn, nonsensical hatred of James Potter. Fingers crossed.

"Okay. I'll give him a few weeks. If he can act like a grown up person, I'll say yes to him for one date. Then we'll take it from there."

"Seriously?" I asked, surprised she would agree so easily. This hadn't taken any urging from me at all.

"Seriously." She replied with a smile. "But you'd better hold me to it. Knowing me, I'm going to try to back out." She would. The minute James did something, anything stupid, I knew she'd be back here complaining. I didn't get my hopes too high yet, but I had some. "Without hope you have nothing," and I wanted to hold onto something.

"I'll hold you to it." I could tell she was uncomfortable with the situation. This was new, for both of us. I had always given her a little grief for refusing to wee what as so obvious to everyone else, but I'm nothing if not a supportive best friend. I'd always complain, then go along with what my stubborn friend had decided. Lily is stubborn and opinionated. For the fist time n our entire friendship, Lily wasn't certain of something, and neither of us knew what to do. So we sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, searching for a safe topic of conversation.

"Oh guess what?" She said, suddenly bouncing up and down in her seat. She was trying to distract both of us, and by the way she was fumbling with something in her pocket, I could make a good guess what.

"You're Head Girl." I said, already knowing the answer. It was a good distraction.

"YES!" She squealed with absolute delight. She pulled out a letter and a shining gold badge out of her robe pocket and handed them to me. The badge was surprisingly heavy and the size of my palm and had the Hogwarts emblem on it. Above the emblem were the words "Head Girl" and below was "Lily Evens". I opened the letter and started to read.

Dear Mrs. Evens,

I am pleased to announce that you have been chosen as Head Girl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As Head Girl you will have a variety of different tasks that must be performed. On September 1, at 2:00, please report to Compartment 2 to receive the first of these and meet the new Head Boy and Prefects.

Yours Sincerely,

Professor M. McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"I knew you'd be Head Girl. Who else would they choose?" I said. Lily was perfect. Or as close to perfect as humanly possible. I suppose I'm biased, but she was smart, gorgeous, nice, and everyone loved her. It would have been impossible to even consider anyone else for Head Girl. Even with her temper, she was one of the sweetest people I knew. All first years loved her as a prefect because she stood up for them, and while she was a stickler for the rules, she was fair to all houses. "Who do you think Head Boy is going to be?"

"I have no idea." She answered, seriously. "I'm hoping for either Remus or that Ravenclaw, Nikolas Actley. I think it'll probably be Nikolas though. I don't think they'd want to have the Head Boy and Girl from the same house."

"I hope it's Nik. He definitely deserves it, and he said this summer that it would look very good when he applied for the Department of Mysteries. It's not like Lupin doesn't deserve it, but he's always sick. And they couldn't have to Heads from the same House. Some Slytherin parent would complain." We sat in easy silence until Lily looked at her watch. "Well, its 1:55 now, I should probably head up front."

"Kay. I'll be here reading." I said. She left the compartment and I re-opened my forgotten magazine, hoping I could finish the style quiz before I was interrupted next. I could never find peace or quite on the train. Of course, three minutes later I was interrupted by Sirius Black.

"Hey Adrienne. " He said, slightly awkwardly, not acting like himself, and avoiding my eyes. He was the only person, besides my mother, whom I didn't correct when they used my full first name. He was the only one who I enjoyed hearing it from.

"If James asked you to ask Lily for him, or to ask me to ask Lily, the answer is the same from less than an hour ago." I said, keeping my eyes in front of me and trying to hide my blushing cheeks behind my magazine.

"Oh, no!" He quickly said, actually looking up at me. "James didn't send me…" We drifted into an awkward silence. I didn't know what to say. Like every girl at Hogwarts, I had had a major crush on him. It was gone… Except for when he leaned against the wall, in already disheveled robes, running a hand through his long black hair, his face gorgeously handsome, his blue eyes… Nope. No crush here.

When I was sure my face had lost it's pink tint, I lowered my magazine. "Then what can I do for you?" I pointedly avoided use of his name, knowing he would be able to tell how much I enjoyed saying it. I also avoided his eyes, knowing from experience how easily I could be caught in them, and thus reduced to babbling idiot. I looked off somewhere behind him, into the hallway where the trolley sat stopped, outside the compartment beside mine.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" Our terrible silence was interrupted by the old witch pushing the food cart.

"Umm" Sirius said quickly, looking pleased with the interruption, which I could understand. It was a rather pointed silence, and if he was here by orders of James, which surely he was, he knew the uncomfortable position that put us both in. We weren't really friends. Lily's James hating made that rather difficult, as James and Sirius were as close as Lily and I. But we were in the same House and many of the same classes, and were more than just acquaintances. Whenever James went through Sirius, me, or both of us for Lily, our… friendship of sorts… suffered.

"I'll have the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, and she'll have Drew Balls." He paid and handed me my Drew Balls, as my chin dropped.

He must have found my expression amusing, because he finally relaxed and laughed and used the back of his hand to return my jaw to its normal position. His hand on my face made my heart flutter and my cheeks to turn warm. I finally looked up and got lost in his blue eyes, as I knew I would. His eyes became cloudy and he released my face, his hand having moved up to be holding my cheek while I swam in his eyes, and he sat down quickly across from me.

He forced a rather fake laugh. "Don't look so shocked Addy." I blushed a bit more and his laugh turned real. "So I know your favorite, to die for, got to have it, candy. No need to lose your wits." He said, flashing his Hogwarts renowned smile, making my already unsteady heart skip another beat.

Calm down Addy! No need to lose your head. Act cool for heavens sake! He's not interested and he'll know you like him if you blush one more time.

He had moved onto his beans, and was no longer looking at me, for which I was grateful. I opened my Drew Balls and pulled out a purple one. Drew Balls were the one candy I loved and the only one I really ate. My dad had introduced m to them when I was younger, and now was addicted. We sat in silence, this one less awkward and more friendly than the one before. I was oddly pleased that he was here with me. We weren't saying anything, but this was the longest we had ever been alone, and I was happily surprised it wasn't too awkward. I knew I didn't have a chance with him, but it was nice to know that we could be friends once Lily and James got their act together. Call me masochistic, but I was happy.