Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else

A/N: this chapter will include mentions of deaths/death eaters/dark marks/voldemort/and yada yada yada : enter at your own risk

Chapter 2

Three weeks into the semester and the teachers were already giving the seventh year students a hard time. Tests, tests, tests, 'Detention! You're not looking at page 439!', tests and more tests.

The sudden sound of a quill dropping on the table from none other than James Potter startled the students out of their dream world during History of Magic. They were writing a 13 inch essay on why Magic was important, 'during class of all times and places', and James had been the first one to finish. As soon as they were finished all they had to do was put their essay on his desk in a pile and enjoy the spare few minutes they had of no class. Remus was next, then some other Gryffindors, a few Slytherins, Sirius, the rest of the Slytherins, Peter, and finally the other Gryffindors.

"Guys, this is awesome, we have a free period now!" James said excitedly.

He didn't notice the sad eyes of Lily Evans that were watching him. If she was being honest, she missed not having him nag her everyday to go out with him. Marlene tugged on her arm.

"Come on Lils, we have to get to Herbology." She reminded her, pulling her through the corridor filled with pupils of all years.

Herbology, a lesson she's wished she'd dropped like the Marauders had.

Sirius had, of course, noticed Lily staring at James, and he didn't approve of it. He'd never liked Lily, well, not until third year where she'd pushed James in the lake and screamed at him to 'be with his own kind', signaling to the giant squid. It surprised him, he didn't think the girl had that much rage and confidence in her. The marauders didn't speak of that moment, however.

Maybe he'll confront her about this later, now wasn't the time to dwell on things like that.

"We can go and relax in the common room, anyway, dinners after this period." Remus said matter-of-factly.

"Great plan, Moony." Sirius said as he sped up to the Gryffindor tower, daring them to race him.

They all did, and they all lost.

"Ha!" He said happily, pointing a shaky finger at them as he tried to control his breathing, "you can't outrun me!"

"You had a headstart!" James argued.

"Not by a mile!" Sirius argued back, smiling.

Later on while James was serving yet another detention Sirius found this was the perfect time to talk to Lily.

"No Pads, you're not going to tell Lily to stop staring at James. She can do what she wants." Remus reasoned, apparently to deaf ears.

"I just want to protects Prongs, I'll be back in a bit."

"I'm sure Prongs wants Lily to stare at him. He is sappy like that."

Sirius thought about it for a moment. He wanted his best friend to be happy, of course, his friend was head boy and he had to do his duties with Lily, but James hadn't even cared about that. Perhaps he'd finally gotten over his huge world wide known crush.

"But Rem, James doesn't like Lily anymore. He never talks to her, doesn't even look at her..."

"How do you know he isn't just trying to hide that fact that he still likes her?"

"How do you know that he hasn't actually got a crush on her anymore?"

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Just leave it until later, yeah? It's too early to cause a commotion."

"Okay."

OoOoO

It was time for them all to go to sleep. Sirius woke up around 2AM, the thunder outside making him jump in his sober state. He heard the rain padding against the windows. Is it already the end of summer? He thought bitterly.

He walked downstairs into the common room quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up. Then, he lit up a cigarette that kept him occupied for the next half an hour.

Footsteps.

Shit, he cursed to himself. He tried to make himself as invisible and quiet as he could, but to no avail. The person spotted him.

"Who's there?" That was Evans' voice.

"Evans? What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same Black."

"The rain kept me up." He said eventually, and silently prodded Lily to say why she was up.

"I just couldn't sleep."

"Anyway, Lils, you're just the person I needed to talk to. Do you like James?" He asked.

Lily was dumbfounded. Where on earth had that came from?

"What?! I- well- I guess we're better than we used to. We don't talk anymore..."

"You didn't answer my question."

"No!"

"I'll take that as a yes-"

"Look, Sirius. Why are you asking me this? Me and James are through. He doesn't even speak to me while we do our duties together, unless he's telling me to go down the other corridor or something. Do you know why he doesn't talk to me anymore?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure he's gotten over you. I mean you're always rejecting him, and the reason I asked is because I noticed you keep staring at him."

"I do not!" She tried to justify herself but she knew it was no use.

"Yeah yeah," he smirked, "Well, if you ever realise you do have a crush on James, I can help you."

"Wait!" She said as he was walking back up to his dorm, "I... I think maybe that..." she couldn't believe she wa showing to tell Sirius if all people this, "I think I do like James. But he doesn't even look at me anymore, what changed? That's the only thing I want to know."

"He thought he didn't deserve you. What changed was that you gave him a detention for giving Snape a detention when he called you-" he stopped himself, "but then you gave James a detention for 'picking on him'."

"I was angry- I-"

"So you decided to take it out on the one person that tried to help you? If you ask me, I personally don't think you deserve him but I will help you. I'll just convince him that he likes you."

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I'll speak to you tomorrow."

OoOoO

The next day the school was gloomy. It wasn't until Remus read them the newspaper that they understood why.

Sirius noticed Remus' face pale, "What's wrong Moony?"

"Moony?" James asked when he didn't answer.

Peter looked over his shoulder and read the newspaper.

"'Body found. Seventh year Ravenclaw student of Hogwarts, Holly Admiral, was found at the bottom of Red Water lake in her hometown Manchester with her throat slit and several stab wounds to the chest.'" He paused, "They couldn't get sufficient enough evidence because the knife found near her had been in the water and the fingerprints washed off."

The other three shared a look mixed between horror and sadness. They knew Holly Admiral had been one of Remus' other friends as well as in that girl group in Ravenclaw. They, obviously, had been excused of classes for the rest of the day.

"I'll tell the teachers you don't feel well if you need to lay down in the dorm." Sirius told him as he felt pity for Remus.

"It's okay, Sirius. We need to learn to deal with- you know." He said, his throat closing up already, "Thanks, though."

They all hugged Remus tightly when they stood outside of class before it started, successfully making him feel better.

"Don't worry about it, Rem." Sirius whispered to him as they walked into class, and he couldn't help but feel grateful that he had such great friends.

Sirius pushed away the fact that he knew Remus had avoided reading out that Bellatrix was a confirmed suspect of the killing. He'd read the rest of it when Remus had dropped it in shock. Voldemort was riding to power and there was nothing they could do to stop it.