Chapter Two:

Mary was still frowning at the space Sirius had left behind after walking off to catch up with James and his friends when she realized her mouth was slightly hanging open. What in Merlin's name just happened? All Mary had wanted to do was to politely thank Sirius – one moment of weakness of where she had to open up to him just a little – and he immediately used it to his advantage to embarrass her right in front of James and Remus.

Oh, how she loathed that arrogant smirk on his face when he thought he was being funny. And by the way, catching her had been completely unnecessary; she would have been totally fine on her own. In fact, all she would have needed was a gentle push to get on the train by herself, but what did Sirius do? He instantly wrapped his arms around her waist, even tried to hug her. How typical…

And now that she was about to tell him she did not appreciate him holding her close like that, he left before she would have had the chance. Mary angrily gnashed her teeth, feeling more annoyed by the minute. Sirius Black... What a complete arrogant prick! Why 99 percent of the girls at Hogwarts was fancying that guy was beyond her.

Well... Alright, of course she could see why girls liked him. As long as falling in love was all about appearances, that is. You had to be blind to not notice that Sirius Black was very handsome. But to Mary, personality was just as important when it came to falling for someone, and she certainly did not think highly of Sirius in that department. He was conceited, selfish and would consider a day he did not get a detention as a lost one. On top of all that, Mary was pretty sure Sirius only let Peter Pettigrew hang out with him, James and Remus so he could legitimately pester him.

But then Mary suddenly found herself thinking that if she looked at it in a more objective way, she had to admit Sirius catching her instead of letting her fall down had only been the right thing to do. And he had made sure she was doing alright first once they got onto the train. That was quite unlike the Sirius she knew. For a moment, he actually seemed concerned, which was... well, there was no other way to say it: nice. He also looked rather cute when he smiled. Mary had to shake her head to stop herself from thinking about that mesmerizing smile. What was she doing? Sirius Black was annoying and arrogant and she should not spare him another thought.

"Er… Excuse me."

Mary's mind got pulled back to the present by the voice of a small boy. Scared first-year, she concluded at first glance. She just assumed the boy had lost track of his friends, so she smiled down at him and asked kindly: "Hi there. Are you lost?"

"No," he replied. "I'd like to go to a carriage upfront, but you and your massive trunk are in the way."

"Oh. Right! Sorry about that," Mary said, slightly taken aback by his bold behavior. Certainly she had not been this assertive when she was going to Hogwarts for the first time. However, there was no denying that the boy was right. Her luggage was practically blocking the entire aisle. With a mighty effort, she pushed the heavy thing aside just a bit – why did she had to bring all those extra clothes? Why? – to let the boy pass. She then tried to move the trunk along the corridor a little further, but it would not not budge. Oh well, she reasoned, at least no one would be able to move it anywhere else either. It would be safe to leave her things behind and start looking for Lily and Brice's carriage instead.

Mary's search did not take long. Her friends were hanging out in the third compartment from where she had hopped onto the Express. Thankfully, there was no sign of Sirius - or any Marauder for that matter in the carriage – so she casually walked inside, heaved a relieved sigh, and flopped down on a seat near the door. "Hey."

"What took you so long?" Brice, a short blonde-haired with brown eyes who appeared to have been reading the Daily Prophet, asked in a cheerful way.

"Me and my sleepy head almost forgot to hop on the train in time," Mary replied nonchalantly.

"Or so we heard," a pretty redhead with emerald eyes noted shrewdly, grinning at her from the other side of the carriage.

Mary groaned. "Oh Godric, what did they say?"

Lily chuckled. "Something about you, Sirius and Remus literally having to make a jump for the train. Is it true you tripped and Sirius had to catch you from behind?"

Mary noticed she started to blush fiercely when she was once again remembered by having Sirius's arms around her waist before her mind slipped off thinking about that ravishing smile... She quickly pulled herself together. "Correction: I did not trip. The Express jolted when I tried to get on, that's why I fell. And of course Black was there right on cue to get his hands on me."

Brice arched an eyebrow. "Sirius Black wrapped his arms around your waist? Dear Godric, I can only imagine how awful that must have been."

"Well, you should know," Mary replied mockingly.

Brice had briefly dated Sirius back in fifth year, until he brutally dumped her when his eye fell on his next victim: an Beauxbatons exchange student called Stephanie.

Her friend laughed while shaking back her hair before she faked a dreamy sigh and pretended to stare out of the window. "Oh, I remember. Those were the happiest ten days of my life," she added jokingly.

"Well, I did not enjoy it. Mind you, this chivalrous act was completely unnecessary. Sirius did not have to catch me, a little push in the right direction would have done it, I'm sure."

She looked at Lily, who was frowning at her. "So what should he have done, then? Let you fall right on your arse? Mare, Sirius was only trying to help you. Why do you still hate him so much?"

A better question would be: why does Lily not hate Sirius? He was easily as arrogant as James Potter, his best friend who had been trying to woe Lily ever since third year. The weird thing was that Lily used to dislike Sirius as much as James, but all that changed by the end of fifth year when Peeves locked the two of them in a deserted classroom. Ever since that nightly encounter, they have been getting along fine.

Which, if you asked Mary, was suspicious to say the least. Lily kept saying nothing happened and all they did was hang out together until Filch and McGonagall managed to get them out of there, but seriously: spending hours in an empty classroom with Sirius Black and no (attempt to any) physical interaction whatsoever? Exactly.

Still, befriending Sirius had not changed Lily's feelings towards James. If anything, it only complicated things between the two of them, because Mary happened to like James Potter a lot. They had been good friends ever since their first year. He was a truly great guy. Not in a he's-so-cute-I-wanna-marry-him-and-have-his-babies kind of way, but she thought of him as a true friend. So the weird thing was that Mary was friends with James (but could not stand Sirius) and Lily liked to hang out with Sirius (and she hated James).

Surprisingly enough, Mary and Lily had not once argued about this confusing situation. And they would probably have to thank Brice for that, since she took a neutral stand and neither adored nor strongly disliked the Marauders. Well, except Remus Lupin, of course. Mary had started to suspect Brice was developing certain feelings for Remus a few months ago, somewhere around the end of last year. Even though she never talked about it, Mary had caught her staring at him a few times and -

"-So..." Lily inquired.

"So... what?"

"Why don't you like him?"

"Well, why don't you like James?"

The smile on Lily's smile faded rather quickly at the thought of James.

"There's your answer," Mary said, secretly feeling relieved Lily would not fire more questions about her feelings towards Sirius Black. She had not yet figured out why their recent encounter was confusing her so much, and she did not want to discuss it until she did. And if there was anything she could not do, it was keeping something personal from her friends.

She suddenly remembered that James had been named Headboy. "Oh Lil, I forgot to ask. How did you take it?"

"Take what?" Lily replied while helping herself to a Cauldron Cake from Brice's bag.

"James becoming Headboy. How weird is that? I mean, I'm happy for him, but the two of you together, who would have thought-"

Mary had stopped talking mid-sentence when she noticed the horrified look on her friend's face. All the color seemed to leave the redhead's cheeks and she had to swallow her bite of Cauldron Cake with great difficulty before looking up at Mary with big eyes. "Please, please, tell me this is a really bad joke?"