Disclaimer - It's not mine. It never was. I'm just borrowing the characters, so don't sue me. And the lyrics to the song are the property of Dolly Parton.

A/N- Okay people, here is just a little something I whipped up in a few days that absolutely would not get out of my head no matter what I did. If anyone has ever heard the song 'Jolene' then they might be able to understand where I'm going with this.

Anyhow, the actual lyrics to the song are supposed to be journal entries in the main character's diary. So, now that this is out of the way, I hope you guys enjoy.

Later,

A.A.

Chapter 1

"Potter!!! When I get my hands on you, you are going to die a slow and very painful death!!"

The occupants of the Gryffindor Common Room stared up the stairway leading to the seventh year girl's dormitories as a fuming Lily Evans came down the stairs. The normally calm Head Girl stopped at the foot of the stairs and glared into the Common Room, searching for the object of her eternal ire, James Potter.

The occurrence of Lily yelling at James Potter had become an all to common sight as of late. Ever since the beginning of the year, James had tried everything in his power to get Lily to notice him. It was common to see James and his buddies plotting their next prank, which would somehow or another involve Lily at some point or another. But what was not so common was an angry blonde headed, blue eyed Lily Evans standing at the foot of the staircase, wearing Slytherin colored robes.

"Sabine! Where is that rotten excuse for a wizard?!" yelled Lily, spotting a girl over in the corner doing homework. The girl in question, Sabine LeFay, looked up at the Head Girl and frowned. Sabine and James were good friends, seeing as how they had grown up together. And Lily knew that if any of the students knew where Potter was, it would be Sabine. The girl was practically the fifth Marauder -mischievous and smart-, and very protective of the boys, especially James.

Upon hearing her name, the brown headed, blue eyed Sabine looked up from her book and frowned.

"I don't know where he's at. Lily." she said, shaking her head. "He and Sirius took off about ten minutes ago for the Quidditch Pitch, though. Try looking there." Lily nodded and stormed out of the Common room, Hell bent on ringing James Potter's neck for pulling the ridiculous prank on her.

When the portrait finally slammed shut, every Gryffindor in the room heaved a sigh of relief.

"He's not on the Pitch, is he?" came the amused voice of Arabella Figg a few minuets later. Sabine grinned and moved over to a window to watch as the angry red head stalked across the grass and towards the Pitch.

"You honestly think I'd send her to where James is right now?" Sabine asked, cracking a mischievous grin. "She'd kill him!"

"You're covering for him?" Arabella asked.

"Don't I always?" Sabine answered, waving her hand in a dismissing motion. "Somebody's got to keep that boy out of trouble."

"More often than not, especially lately. It seems like every girl I know is trying to snag either James, Sirius, or Remus, especially James. How many times have you run interference for him this week?" Arabella asked, her hand on her hip and a smile on her lips.

"Do you mean from Evans, or the rest of the female population in this school?" Sabine grinned.

"Both."

"Evans, about eight times. Everyone else, 142, and it's only Wednesday. So, that count could double between now and Friday." Sabine answered, shaking her head.

"Damn." Arabella said. "It's just a pity the one girl he wants, does not want anything to do with him."

"Yeah, well….life sucks." Sabine said. Arabella only nodded in silent agreement.

"Don't I know it." she said, walking back to her game of Wizard's Chess.

Sabine sat in the window seat of the Tower, watching as the figure of the Gryffindor Head Girl grew smaller against the skyline.

'Lily this. Lily that. I'm so sick of hearing about her. I'm going to go nuts if James keeps on about her.' Sabine thought angrily. 'She doesn't want him. Why can't James open up his eyes and see what's in front of him, instead of going after her. That boy's persistence amazes me at times…'

Leaning back against the windowsill, Sabine watched as the sun slowly began to set, her mind fixated on her friend James.

Sabine had known James since childhood, and had grown up with him, as well as the infamous Sirius Black. The three children had formed a close knit friendship during their younger years that had seemed solid and nearly unbreakable….until the boys hit their fourth year at Hogwarts and their hormones had kicked in. Ever since then, the boys had been chasing skirts, and loving every minute of it. Up until that point, Sabine's affinity for the two had been only based on the close friendship they had shared, in fact it was still like that as far as Sirius was concerned, but James had begun to be a completely different story.

Even since the end of her fourth year, her feelings had slowly been changing for the messy haired boy. At first, it had been easy for her to ignore the fluttery feeling of warmth she would get anytime he gave her that endearing, mischievous grin he was so famous for. She had chalked it up to her own body's hormones, and her reaction to a guy. She had even dismissed the sinking feeling of utter disappointment when James had started dating girls, rationalizing it as over protectiveness on her part for her friend. Even when James would screw up with his current girlfriend and come running to her for advice on how to fix whatever he had messed up, and she could feel the intense pangs of jealousy crash through her, she pushed it off as being mad because he did not spend as much time around her as before.

'Denial is a bitch!' she had thought for the longest time.

Sabine knew she was headed for a heartache, falling for her childhood friend, but she could not help it. James was her best friend and confidant. They had always stuck by one another, through thick and thin, and she knew her growing affections for him would cause massive amounts of confusion if he should ever find out.

So, almost on reflex, she had buried the treacherous feelings deep in her heart, not allowing them to surface except for in the dead of night when she was alone in her bed. The rest of the time, they stayed hidden away, festering to a point where Sabine thought it would cause her to go crazy. But once again, she would just bury them deep down and watch as James flirted with nearly every girl in school.

For nearly two years, she had done this, playing the part of the platonic, childhood friend to James; when all she really wanted to do was strangle any girl who dated him and keep him to herself. And this feeling only intensified when James had set his sights on the fiery tempered Lily Evans, a red headed Muggle born witch who had knocked down every one of James' advances, along with him on occasions.

At first, Sabine had been glad that Lily had refused to rise to the taunts and teases James presented. She was happy Lily was so disinterested in him, even though she never told James of her elation. Every time Lily would brush James off, Sabine could not help but jump for joy on the inside, even though she would put up an amused front when around James. She felt guilty for getting pleasure from James' pain, but she could not help that, either. Her double life of feelings had been tearing her up for months, but she hid everything, too afraid of ruining her friendship with him to do anything about her feelings.

She had hoped that James' infatuation with Lily would wane in time, seeing as how Lily kept pushing up her defensive walls. Unfortunately, it was not happening.. James was still being persistent, which was normal. But what scared Sabine the most was Lily's recent reactions to his teasing, taunts, and challenges.

Evans was buckling.

After nearly two years straight of James trying to gain her attention and favor, Lily Evans was starting to give in to him. It was only little things that had changed as of late. The red head would smile at him every now and then when she thought no one was looking. She'd talk with James for longer periods of time, and even laugh at some of the pranks he'd pulled. They were spending more time together, even if it was because of their duties as Head Boy and Girl. It was just little things, but they stood out a mile as far as Sabine was concerned.

James had been ecstatic with the subtle changes in Lily's behavior, believing he was finally getting a well deserved chance, and that had only spurred him on even more. In fact, that was why Lily had just been pranked.

Sabine knew that James loved being able to ruffle the usually calm Lily, causing her anger to shoot through the roof. James had confided in Sabine that he purposely got Lily mad because he liked knowing he was one of the few that could cause her to react like that. Anger was the one passionate emotion he knew he could get out of Lily, and he revelled in that knowledge.

Meanwhile, during these dramatic confrontations, Sabine had many times caught herself wanting to completely destroy the stable grounds James had already formed with the fiery witch.

She was jealous, and she was scared.

It was pure and simple. She wanted James, but did not want to ruin her friendship with him.

Sighing as the sun finally set, Sabine pulled out her journal, turned to a well worn page that she had read over many tines since James had started his relentless pursuit, and read the beginnings of a verse she had written:

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,

I'm begging of you, please don't take my man.

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,

Please don't take him just because you can……

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A/N - Okay, how'd that chapter go. I know it is kind of a rough start, but it does get better. Just so everyone knows, each chapter takes place at different times during the seventh year of school for James and Co.

They all tie together in the end, but I figured I'd give you a warning so no one got too confused.

Anyway, I hope you liked the beginning.

Later,

A.A.