A piece of paper landed on Emma's test. She looked up to Sirius's face grinning up at her. She opened the crumpled paper carefully under her desk. She read:

What did you get for #5?

She laughed to herself, then flattened the paper on her desk and wrote the answer then threw it back. Sirius mouthed "thanks" to her and went on with his test. Emma turned back to her paper and finished off her last answer.

There was still 20 minutes to go until the end of the period. She went through and corrected her test, finding no mistakes, and she still was stuck in the class room for another 10 minutes.

Emma stared at the back of Sirius's head and tried to concentrate on picturing his face grinning at her. She couldn't do it. The face kept turning into another boys face. "No." She thought. "I will not think about him. Sirius, Sirius, Sirius."

At last the teacher told them that they could go. Emma stood up and walked toward the door, but a tap on the shoulder made her turn around. It was James. The face that she had previously saw on Sirius' face was standing in front of her in the flesh.

"Hi Emma. I was wondering if you have seen Lily anywhere. She wasn't in class today."

"No, sorry." Emma looked at her feet. She wished she could think of something interesting to say.

"Oh. Okay. Well…I'll see you around then. Bye." Without saying goodbye, Emma turned and walked out of the classroom doors. The wave of relief took all the stress off of her from the exams. It felt amazing to be out of the stuffy classrooms at last. She looked around for her friends. They were sitting my the lake a little bit farther down from where Emma was standing. She skipped down to them.

"Hey girls!" Emma said sitting next to Fiona. "How did your tests go?"

"Oh mine was terrible. I didn't understand any of it." Fiona said looking down at the question sheet she still had clasped in her hand.

"Fiona, we all knew you weren't going to do well on any of the tests." Lily said laughing.

"I think they should let me pass for trying. It's my fucking parents fault." Fiona had been taken out of the school at the beginning of the year, because her parents didn't agree with the administration. When Fiona turned 17, she left her parents house and returned to school.

Fiona looked up and froze. The other girls spun round to see what she had seen. Sirius and James followed by a few boys were walking toward them. The girls looked back at Fiona who blushed. It was well known that she was in love with Sirius.

"Damn. Someone please hide me." Lily whispered. Emma looked back at her, confused. Fiona giggled.

"James and Lily had a fight this morning." Lily glared at her.

"Oh, is that why you didn't come to the exam?" Lily nodded.

"I will just take it later. They will understand."

"Understand what?" James kneeled down next to Lily.

"Nothing." Lily turned the opposite way. Fiona made some room for Sirius to sit down, but Remus took the seat instead.

"Hello Fiona." Remus smiled at her. He had always been an odd one, and from the look on Fiona's face, she didn't like it much that he had sat down next to her.

"Oh come on Lil. I didn't mean anything." James slid his hand down Lilly's arm, but she pulled away. "Lilly, please."

"James, I don't feel like talking." James rolled his eyes.

Fiona could feel an argument coming on. "Emma, I need to go talk to a teacher. What to come?" Emma nodded and ran off with Fiona, with the boys following them.

"Lilly, turn around. Talk to me. Please." Lilly smiled to herself. She liked having this control over him, but at the same time she knew it was wrong.

"James you can't just do things and then apoligize, because I know you are just going to do it again. Why can't you just leave Severus alone?"

"Because he is so...slimy. I don't think he should desearve us being nice to him." Lilly turned around. It took a lot not to yell at James right then. But she had to remember that she knew Severus in a different light than James, and he had never seen the side of him that she had.

"I just think that you could be nice to him by not bothering him. Why don't you just stay away from him?" James rolled his eyes.

"Lilly, thats not how it works. He wants to hurt me too, so I am protecting myself."

Lilly spun around to glare at James. "Stop it, you know that he would never be able to touch you. You and your friends make sure of that."

James looked hurt. "Lilly... Why do you always stick up for him. He wouldn't do that for you." This took Lilly by surprise. She had never thought of it that way. She wasn't sure that he would.

"I'm just tired of you and your friends messing around with the other kids. Why cant you just pick on each other or something?"

"Oh we tried that aleady." James laughed. "Lilly I dont see why you care so much for this guy. You know how he is. He desearves everything he has coming to him." Lilly didn't answer. She decided she was done with this conversation, because it wouldn't go anywhere unless she admited her secret friendship. She kissed him.

James started. "What was that for?" he spluttered.

"I just thought you needed one. I haven't kissed you in over 2 days." James laughed and kissed her back.

"Yes I did need it."