Better check your IM. It's Artemis!- After ages and ages of pondering, writing, erasing, writing some more... okay fine. After ages and ages of doing nothing for this story, I'm back with chapter two! Hope you like this one! :)

By and by, yes, I did change my Pen-Name if you're wondering. Don't expect to understand the strange workings of my mind.

ah, the wonderful Reviewers are answered-

Hurricane Rachel: Thank you, your review is very much appreciated. And actually, I've never heard that song, but I can see what you mean by reading the lyrics. Haha. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Please continue reading!

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JeanSyrotS: Ohmygosh! Jean! HEY! And thank you for your review! :) I'm glad you like it and I hope to be inspired enough to continue this further. And here it is! I really hope you like whatever I post next. Thx! :D

the Lame Credits- the Harry Potter world belongs to J.K. Rowling, including Hogwarts, some students, and ideas that shall fit into my story. All original characters and the plots are mine to own. Thank you, that's all.


"Oh, please, Lily. Slughorn is in love with you; you most definitely got an Outstanding, as always," I told a nail-biting Lily as we stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room. Lily really got on my nerves sometimes. Yes, she was one of my best friends but why did she have to be so darn worried about her grades? I mean, I'd understand if she failed a couple of classes, has a P average, sure then I can sympathize, but no. Lily Evans is a straight-O, sometimes E student. Then, it was just plain annoying.

"Well…I'm sure I got something wrong. I think I stirred clockwise and it should've been counter-clockwise…" she mused to herself, trying to remember. I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore her. "Whatever, Lils," I walked towards the heart of the common room, where Annabeth and Sophia, the butt of our quartet were doing homework beside the flickering flames of the fire. I slung my bag off my shoulder and slumped down on one of the couches.

"I hate potions," I stated calmly, lying on my back and closing my eyes. I'd never been good at them either. And Slughorn didn't particularly like me, either. It was a good thing Lily was one of my best friends, otherwise the professor would absolutely loathe me. I heard Sophia chuckle.

"News flash, Leen- you chose the subject this year," she pointed out. I could already picture the smug look on her face as she said it. Urgh. I mean, of course I was aware that I'd picked it, but it was only for the stupid career. I was, in fact, interested in becoming an Auror, and therefore badabing! I needed to take potions.

"Don't remind me," I mumbled. I wasn't in the mood to do homework right now. I had a three-foot essay due for Transfiguration tomorrow, but I figured I'd just do it later on. I wanted to rest for a little while…just a while… enjoy the rare opportunity of peace and quiet-ness in the Common Room at this time of day…just a little while…

"and then I hurled my shoe at his face and ran like hell. I mean, just the freaking look on his face was priceless!"

Oh, no… Footsteps approached from outside the Common Room.

Loud, obnoxious, annoying laughter. "Yeah, well that still doesn't top the incident- Gnomefields- with the devil-cat yesterday, so I win"

The footsteps stopped abruptly.

"No you don't. It so does."

"No, it does not."

"Yes it does."

"No, actually, I believe it doesn't."

BAM! I snapped my eyes open and raised my head a fraction of an inch as the portrait door swung open with such force that the back of it hit the stone wall. The fat lady screamed and instantly shut herself back as a huge mass of black robes tumbled into the Common Room, grunts and shouts emitting from it.

"-WASN'T EVEN HUMAN-!"

"-ONLY MESSED WITH HIS CLOTHES, AND-"

"-WELL THE CAT ONLY LOST FUR!"

And that concluded my all-too-short peaceful rest this evening. I shot a dark look at my friends and found them in states so different from one another that I had to stifle a giggle. Sophia was gaping, wide-mouthed at the spectacle, quill in hand and drops of black, forgotten ink spattering onto the carpet. Lily had decided to overlook the scene and was facing the opposite direction, eyes narrowed slightly and wearing a look of extreme concentration. Annabeth was looking half-amused, half-irritated, and was holding her wand in one hand, as if deliberating on whether interfering or not.

"Fine!"

The bundle of clothes which incorporated the likes of Sirius Black and James Potter was suddenly still. One of the figures untangled itself from the other and stood up, shaking its black hair out of its face and straightening round spectacles on his nose.

"Okay," he said diplomatically, crossing his arms over his chest and catching his breath for a few seconds, "Round four. Moony decides who wins next time, but for the record, animals count too."

"Fine!" snapped the heap of robes still on the floor. There was a pause. That's when Figure Number One noticed the rest of us. He grinned as if nothing had happened…and waved.

"Hello, ladies. What brings you to the dark depths of this room at this glorious time of day?" he inquired in what he probably thought was a charming manner. His eyes, of course, never left Lily. That boy had a strange, completely un-recruited obsession with my best friend. I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. But it was Annabeth who answered.

"As much as I'd like to ignore your question, Potter, I'll enlighten you with news. Firstly, 'day' was over about two hours ago. And secondly, we were enjoying the few quiet moments of peace that the room offered before you two decided to shatter our calmness like the two bigheaded, self-centered idiots that you are," she concluded, faking a bright smile. "What about you?"

I snickered, as did Sophia. James looked slightly taken aback, but that lasted merely a few moments. He nodded, accepting her response, and beamed once more. "Just came back from the prank of the century, you know, the usual."

"AHA!" cried Figure Number Two (still from the floor, mind you), and a hand shot up into the air. "So you admit that my prank was 'the prank of the century'?" James, thank goodness, decided to ignore this and turned towards the nearest couch, which happened to be the one I was lying on. I looked up expectantly. What? Was he actually going to make me move? Nah, even he was above that.

"Could you make room?"

…Or not. I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms.

"No. I was here first."

"Oh come on, Selena. You don't need the whole couch, and I have nowhere else to sit," he replied, pouting. Nice try. I motioned towards the rest of the empty chairs in the common room. He glanced to where I was pointing and then returned his pout to face me. "But I want to be next to you," he amended, getting down on two knees and resting his chin next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lily peek over her shoulder at the scene, frowning slightly.

I merely rolled my eyes. "Not a chance, James. See over there? Your friend seems to be doing quite fine without a couch," I pointed out, referring to Sirius, who was, unbelievably, still lying on his back on the floor. James sighed and stood up again.

"Padfoot?"

"Mmm?" came the response.

"Stand up,"

"I don't want to,"

"You're on the floor, Sirius"

"The floor is comfortable."

James looked at me, raising his eyebrows as though trying to prove something. All right, I had to admit, the Sirius excuse had been poor, but that still had no effect whatsoever on him having to steal my seat. I pretended to be sorry.

"Dang, yeah, well…that sucks for you. I'm not going anywhere." James' eyes turned to slits. Okay…kind of freaky. Then he turned around, and for a few precious seconds I thought he had actually given up and was walking away. Then, he took a few steps back and landed butt-first on my knees.

"Argh! Get off!" I yelped, shaking my legs and sitting up. The idiot started laughing. I grabbed hold of his shoulders and pushed him off the couch. He landed with a thump on the carpet. I swung my legs around and sat up properly, thoroughly annoyed. I smacked the side of his head and stood up, looking at Annabeth, who seemed ready to leave when the cue came. James immediately bounced up onto his feet (faster than I thought possible; he must have springs attached to his legs, or maybe they're made of rubber…) and landed on my couch, smirking at his victory.

I decided to ignore him for the rest of the day. "Ann?" I called. She stood up gladly, gathered up her stuff and followed me towards the girls' staircase at the end of the Common Room. I heard an unwelcome 'Thanks!' from behind me, and quickened my pace up the stairs. We got to our bedroom and shut the door behind us. I slumped onto my bed at the far end of the room and groaned.

"I hate James Potter. And Black, for the matter. Pair of insufferable, insolent, impudent…urgh!" complained Annabeth, shoving her books on top of her trunk and sitting down on her bed. I mumbled an agreement.

"You know he gets worse when Lily's around," I replied in his defense. Truthfully, I did like James. Don't get me wrong, not in the boyfriend, like-like way. As in, friendly like. He was funny, conversational, extremely polite and usually charming. There were, of course, exceptions. We had just witnessed one of the greatest. When he was hanging with Sirius and in the presence of Lily, he was nearly unrecognizable. I did try to talk to him about that once, and it didn't turn out so great. I mean, he kinda got pissed off, and as I wasn't going to apologize to him, he eventually had to swallow that abnormally large ego of his and end up asking for my forgiveness. But that was the end of it. Strangely, he never talks about his infatuation with Lily with me, nor anyone else besides the rest of posse for the matter. But anyway, that's off topic. What was I saying?

"I don't get why you're always all buddy-buddy with him. I mean, have you seen him, really? He's like…the world's biggest jerk! Doesn't he ever get under your skin?" Annabeth asked me, slightly bothered by my response, I could tell. I sighed, we'd had this conversation before. Many, many times.

"Yes he does, Ann. But you've only seen the arrogant, self-centered, stupid side of him. If you actually got to know him… well, he's an amazing person." I replied, fiddling with the hangings around my four-poster bed. Annabeth peeked suspiciously at me.

"You know, Lena. If I didn't know you any better I'd say you liked him and not Remus," she left her observation open-ended, waiting for me to respond. To be truthful, her opinion didn't surprise me (but I admit that my heart did a tiny leap when she mentioned his name). As I said, we'd had these conversations before.

"You know I don't. Besides, how could I like a guy that's obsessed with one of my best friends?"

Annabeth shrugged and lay down on her own bed, closing her eyes. I did the same, and for once, my peace was not interrupted.

"Selena?"

Dang.

"Yes, Annabeth?" I replied, sighing and opening my eyes again.

"You still have the Transfiguration essay due tomorrow,"

Dammit. Curse Transfiguration. Curse McGonagall. Curse everything.

"I know."

"…aren't you going to do it?"

"No."

"Okay."


Is that morse code? Hephaestus is trying to communicate- So what'd you think? Good? Bad? Please review. I'd really like your opinions. Should I keep going? What do you like? What do you dislike? Opinions welcome, just please try not to flame, I want constructive critisism, not put-downs. Thank you and good bye!