"Jacob, don't get me wrong. I think no less of you're family, in fact I applaud their persistence, but you'll have to agree that it is rather odd that old Dora Moore just so happened to disappear when the fortune was in her hands..." Slughorn was babbling. Just as he always did, but this time, watching him talk endlessly about family's rises to power was even more revolting than usual. This time he happened to be stuffing duck into his mouth at the same time.

A large table was covered in various puddings, meats and pastries. In the middle of the table sat a large, ceramic rabbit, a basket in its white paw. This basket was filled with every chocolate egg available. The table was surrounded by students, Slytherins making up the majority of them, spare Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Milly Finn and a few Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students. They had all been invited to the room to celebrate the return of school after the Easter holidays.

Jacob merely nodded, watching Slughorn politely while Adelinda Woodfrey cringed in the corner. The Slytherin girl twisted a lock of her blond hair around her finger, smirking over at young Regulus Black. It was clear that Adelinda was enjoying the look of poor pleasure on the boy's face whenever she acknowledged his existence.

Lily merely rolled her eyes, nudging Milly beside her. She gestured to the watch on the girl's wrist.

"Almost over." Milly mouthed and Lily felt the relief rushing through her body.

Sirius Black smirked over at them, winking at Lily before returning his attention to Slughorn. He propped his feet up on the table, nearly knocking over a bottle of butterbeer in the process.

"You know what I think, Professor?" He said innocently, plucking a pumpkin pasty off a plate, eyeing it cautiously.

"Sirius?" Slughorn said, turning to Sirius with a curious frown. He couldn't mask how astonished he was that Sirius Black was even bothering to contribute.

Sirius took a large bite of the pasty and lent forward as if sharing a secret. "Well...I was always under the impression that Dora died because of all the food she inhaled." he shrugged. "I suppose the barrels of fire whisky couldn't have hurt either.

Jacob sneered at him. "What exactly are you trying to say about my family, Black?" he asked him, coldly.

"Nothing...well except that your great aunt weighed more than a carthorse, but you shouldn't care about that. You've never met the woman." Sirius said, shrugging casually as he sat back in his chair.

Lily arched a thin, scarlet eyebrow at Sirius. "How exactly do you know about his family anyway?" she asked him curiously. She felt a foot nudge her under the table. She glanced at Severus, but his eyes were fixed intently on the glass of pumpkin juice in his hands. One the rare occasions that Sirius decided the "Slug Club" was worth his time, Severus preferred to remain as invisible as possible.

Sirius smirked at her before shrugging. "Family tree. I've seen her picture." He turned his attention to Jacob. "Believe it or not, you and I are distantly related." He took in Jacob's scrawny appearance, his thin face and his limp, perfectly straight blond hair. "Very distantly."

"Now what is that suppose to mean?" Jacob asked, straightening up to his full height, an incredibly unimpressive sight.

Before Sirius could answer Slughorn spoke.

"I assume you'll all be attending my welcome back party?"

Milly blinked at him, a chocolate egg halfway to her mouth. "Isn't this the welcome back party?"

Slughorn's eyes sparkled excitedly. "No, no, no! I planned something a little more exciting." he announced, letting out a loud, booming laugh.

Lily arched an eyebrow, unsure of what caused the sudden, mirthful outburst.

"How would you all like to attend a formal dinner?" he asked. "I thought I could invite a few of my own friends, play your cards right with them and you may find yourself on the easy path to a high-paying job in the ministry." He winked at them cheerfully as he babbled on about his many wealthy acquaintances.

After a few more minutes Lily was out of there, Milly hurrying along by her side, chirping happily about her wardrobe for the dinner and who she might consider inviting to go with her.

"You reckon you'll go with James?" she asked her.

Lily rolled her eyes. She was sick of being polite to people who insisted on forcing her to listen to their endless rants on why she should accept James and how lucky she was to have him.

"No." she replied, a cold edge to her voice.

Milly just giggled. "Just you wait until he hears about this from Sirius. He's not going to leave you alone until you say yes. You're going to be getting so many flowers over the next few days."

With that she winked and skipped off the the Hufflepuff common room happily.

--

Lily sighed, sliding down the wall and sitting down on the floor, resting her head on her knees. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. For once in her life, Milly had spoken some sense.

James had barely let her out of his sight over the past few days. He seemed to take pleasure in her every rejection. To him it seemed that the chase continued.

"You right, Lily?" A voice asked from above her.

"God, Potter, just go a-" she trailed off when she looked up, meeting the kind face of Remus Lupin.

"Remus, hey. Yeah...yeah I'm fine. He just..." she nodded at him. "Well you know him better than I do. I'm sure you can guess..." She trailed off, quickly realising she was rambling.

Remus offered her his hand, pulling her back to her feet.

They walked in silence, neither of them entirely sure of where they were going. Lily finally spoke up.

"Would you like to go with me?" she asked him, nervously, pausing to lean against the stone wall, her auburn hair blowing slightly in the wind.

Remus stopped walking and turned to look at her in surprise. "What?" he said, biting his lower lip as he folded his arms awkwardly over his chest. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Lily."

"Why?" Lily asked him stubbornly. "We're just friends, Remus. Why shouldn't we?" She flicked her hair out of her eyes, placing one hand on her hip.

Remus arched an eyebrow at the hand down on her hip. She may not have been aware of it, but the way she lent against the pole, the way her hip was cocked. If he was James the last thing he would have been thinking about was them just being friends.

He blushed slightly. "Won't James be mad?" he asked.

Lily shrugged. "Not if you explain it properly. Come on Remus. We're just friends. It's not a date."

Remus bite his lower lip, pausing to consider the probabilities of James crushing his skull. "Alright then, Miss Evans." he began, his voice turning a little playful. "It seems that we have a non-date."