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Chapter 3

End of Sixth Year

Dorcas tapped her quill on the parchment while she, Lily, and Marlene were studying for their end of year exams in the library. Things had been tense for a while between Dorcas and Lily after the incident at the Three Broomsticks, but they had made up pretty quickly. Lily apologized and had even hung out with Dorcas and Sirius a few times, finally admitting that Sirius wasn't so bad. She had eventually admitted that Sirius seemed to be…well…serious about Dorcas.

Marlene reached out to stop Dorcas from tapping her quill.

"You're driving me mad Dori." Marlene said in exasperation. Dorcas grinned.

"Then my plan has succeeded." Lily chuckled.

"So where's that boyfriend of yours anyways?" She asked with a grin. Dorcas blushed.

"He's doing something with James." She admitted and Lily frowned with a sigh.

"Probably planning another prank."
"Oh lighten up Lils!" Marlene said grinning. "You have to admit, seeing Narcissa Black dancing the tango with Severus Snape during breakfast last week was hilarious." Dorcas and Marlene both let out giggles remembering while a small smile played on Lily's mouth.

"Yes. Well. That was rather amusing." Lily said before turning to her book and flipping some pages absently. Dorcas pulled her book closer and shifted in her seat trying to concentrate. It was no use. She closed the book.

"What's up?" Marlene asked- her own concentration beginning to fade.

"I think I'm going to give up for the night." Dorcas replied. She looked contemplative for a moment. "I think I'll go down to the kitchens." She grinned and began to put her books away.

"Oh!" Marlene exclaimed while bouncing in her chair. "Can you get me some éclairs? I want to finish these last few sentences up. But I'll bring your books up and meet you in the Common Room." Lily gave a sigh.

"I guess I should head back to Gryffindor Tower." Marlene looked at her surprised.

"Why should you do that? Let me sneak you into Ravenclaw Tower." Marlene grinned happily between the two of them. "We can have a midnight feast!" They smiled and agreed. Dorcas got up to go.

"Thanks for bringing me bag up. I'll see you guys soon!" The other two merely waved their hands as she began her journey to the kitchens. Sirius had shown her where the kitchens were last month and even since then Marlene had been clamoring for more éclairs. Unfortunately with their OWLS fast approaching, this was the first time she had really gotten to go back. Dorcas frowned as she reached a crossroads in the castle. She couldn't remember which the path to the kitchens was.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A greasy voice said behind her. Dorcas wheeled around. It wasn't past curfew yet, but with exams so close, most people were in their common rooms of the library studying.

"Snape." She said coolly before randomly picking a corridor to go down. While she didn't really agree with how mean Sirius was to Snape, she wasn't particularly found of the sixth year Slytherin.

"Meadowes. Out without your loathsome boyfriend." He sneered and Dorcas' steps faltered as she stiffened.

"Don't talk about Sirius that way." She said fiercely without turning around. Snape made an ugly face at her back.

"Such loyalty." He said softly but dangerously. "But I wonder if you would be so loyal to him if you knew what he was up to."

"Just leave me alone." Dorcas said in an exasperated voice and she began to walk at a quick pace. But Snape managed to catch up to her and he grabbed her arm.

"I'm trying to help you!" He spat but she yanked her arm away.

"No you're not!" She yelled angrily, color coming to her cheeks.

"He's with another girl." Snape yelled back and Dorcas paled.

"You're lying." She said and glared, but there was a seed of doubt in her mind. That would be a stupid thing for Snape to lie about to her. Snape shrugged.

"Suit yourself." He said and turned to walk away. "I can show you if you want." He said nonchalantly over his shoulder.

"Fine." Dorcas spat withdrawing her wand. "But if you try anything…" He looked at her with a sneer.

"Not a chance." And turned around weaving his way through the castle, his robes billowing out behind him. Dorcas followed at a slight distance, feeling stupider and stupider the longer they walked until Snape came to an abrupt halt in front of the door to an unused classroom. "Here."

"Here?" Dorcas asked. She didn't hear anything and hesitantly reached out and touched the doorknob before jerking her hand away. "You could be lying." She said again. He rolled his eyes.

"I'm not." Snape replied calmly and watched as she reached out again before pulling away a second time. Snape sighed in impatience before yanking the door open himself and pushing Dorcas forward. She gasped and stood frozen at the sight before her.

There was Sirius. Her boyfriend whom she loved. Naked and on top of some equally naked blonde girl. Her gasp made him pause in his motions and look toward the door where he saw Dorcas looking devastated and Snape behind her looking triumphant.

"Don't stop!" The blonde said in exasperation, apparently not caring or noticing the new arrivals. Dorcas choked back a sob and turned and ran, pushing past Snape on her way back to her Common Room. Sirius swore and hastily disentangled himself. "You might as well finish. She's going to end it anyway." The blonde girl commented.

"Sod off." Sirius said throwing on his robes hastily and walking towards the door. He gave Snape a dark look and a black eye on his way out. "Dorcas!" He called and went to follow her, but she had disappeared. "Damnit Dorcas! Come back!" He went to Ravenclaw Tower and sat outside but no one came or went. After a couple of hours he trudged back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Meanwhile Dorcas fled from the corridor and made record time to Ravenclaw Tower. She had no idea how she managed it since she could barely see thanks to the tears in her eyes. He throat felt like it was closed. She should have known. Andrea Simmons, a muggleborn girl in her year, had come back from Christmas break all upset about her boyfriend cheating on her.

"If he's not getting it from you, he's getting it from somewhere else." She's said bitterly one night. At the time, Dorcas had dismissed it as bitter ramblings, but now she accepted it as a universal truth. Still crying, she stumbled through the door to the tower.

"About time! Where's my éclairs?" Marlene asked cheerily. Then she frowned as she took in Dorcas' tearstained face. "What's wrong?" She asked and she and Lily hurried over. The glanced at each other.

"Let's go up to your dormitory." Lily said quietly. Marlene nodded and between the two them, they helped Dorcas up to the girls' dorm and they all sat on her bed.

"What's wrong Dorcas? You're scaring me." Marlene said and Dorcas sniffed a few times before telling them haltingly what had happened. They looked at each other shocked. Lily's face turned bright red in anger while Marlene's fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"THAT PRAT!" Lily exploded and got up from the bed and began to pace around the room. "I swear to God I'm going to curse him so bad he'll wish he never even thought of being such a disgusting-"
"Lily. Not now." Marlene said unclenching her fists and wrapping an around Dorcas. Lily looked abashed but quickly nodded and rejoined them on the bed.

"How about I stay with you guys tonight?" Lily suggested and Dorcas smiled at them through her tears.

"You guys are the best." She rasped and the three girls hugged each other, their thoughts all centering on the same thing. What would happen at breakfast tomorrow?

OOOOOoooOOOooOOOooOOOO

Dorcas slowly walked with Lily and Marlene down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She was dreading seeing Sirius again, but was grateful for Lily and Marlene, who had promised not leave her side until they had to because of classes.

"Oh! Damn!" Marlene hissed as they entered the hall. Sirius came walking towards them as soon as they entered. He looked remorseful, but they could all see that he fully expected to be forgiven.

"Dorcas I-"

"Get away from me." Dorcas said in a furious voice. Marlene and Lily jumped a little at the intensity of Dorcas' voice but they knew that Sirius deserved everything she dished out. Sirius however, looked truly shocked.

"Look. I wanted to say that I'm sorry." He said with a penitent look. Dorcas laughed, but it wasn't her usual good natured laugh. It was a bitter sound and Sirius' confidence faltered.

"You're sorry?" She said. "You're sorry!" Sirius felt his confidence slip away at the angry look on her face. He had never seen her that upset before. "It's a little too late for sorry, Black."

"But I-"

"You what?" She said gathering steam and not noticing that people were starting to look at them. "You think it's just ok, what you did? That because you smile at me, I'll just say ok and everything will be just like it was before?" She took a deep breath and lowered her voice looking him in the eye. "Well it'll never happen. I don't ever want to see you again." And with that she turned and walked out of the Great Hall. Sirius looked between Lily and Marlene forlornly.

"I didn't mean it." He said and both girls glared at him.

"You never do, do you Black?" Marlene asked before going to the Ravenclaw table to get some food for the three of them. Lily turned away to follow Dorcas, but Sirius grabbed her arm. She glared at him.

"Sod off, Black." She snapped and stormed out of the room. Alice quickly went after her, having heard everything from her table. She sent Sirius a glare as she raced from the Hall. James came up with an angry look as well.

"So this is why you were upset last night?" He asked quietly.

"Leave it Prongs."

"No. This is why I told you that Dorcas was off limits! But you promised- you swore to Padfoot- that you wouldn't be a prat to her." James sighed. Neither boy noticed Marlene slip by laden with food.

"Look. I made a mistake." James snorted and Sirius sent him a look before lowering his voice. "Look Prongs, we'd been going out for months and we hadn't…" He rubbed his head. "You know." James made a face.

"Sirius- Dorcas is like a sister to me. I don't want to hear this."

"Well you're going to." Sirius said. "I was frustrated but it didn't mean anything. I care about Dorcas. Hilary was just there."
"Look. I know her. This was a big deal." James said shaking his head.

"Well if she just would have shagged me, I wouldn't have-"
"So it's her fault?" James asked in exasperation.

"Well not entirely. But if she hadn't been a prude about certain things-" Sirius broke off as James punched him. He looked at James in surprise, holding his eye. A hush fell over the room.

"Sirius. You're my best mat and I'm sorry I had to do that. But you're being a complete berk. You just said that you care about Dorcas." James paused and Sirius nodded. James sighed. "Then you should act like it."

And with that James left the Great Hall taking out a spare piece of parchment on his way so he could find Dorcas. Sirius stared after his mate, pondering what James had said. There was no way around it. He had screwed up royally and it might have cost him two of the most important people in his life. He scowled as he saw Snape sitting at the Slytherin table bent over a piece of parchment. It had been Snape who'd showed Dorcas where his was. All the furious feelings that Sirius had been feeling towards himself suddenly shifted direction and pointed towards Snape instead. He'd get revenge.

James turned the corner and saw the four girls sitting on poufs (most likely Alice's creation) munching on some toast. He slowed down as they looked towards him.

"Not now Potter." Lily snapped.

"Look. I just wanted to make sure that Dor was ok."

"Don't call me that." Dorcas muttered out of habit. He gave a half smile. But Dorcas didn't smile. "Tell me you didn't know about this?" She said in all seriousness.

"Of course not." He knelt down on the stone floor. "I would've given him a black eye long before today if I had." Dorcas' mouth twitched.

"You punched Sirius?" She asked and winced as she said his name. James patted her arm.

"Yeah." He grinned at her. "It's sure to have left a bruise." Dorcas gave him a weak smile.

"You swear you didn't know, James?" She asked at last.

"He didn't." Marlene answered. James looked at her surprised. "I overheard them talking after I went to get food." James nodded in thanks.

"Thanks." Dorcas said and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I know it's just a stupid school relationship. But I don't know…" She trailed off.

"You thought he was the one?" James said, but he wasn't looking at Dorcas. He was looking at Lily. Dorcas nodded as Lily blushed.

"I've got to go." Alice said regretfully, breaking the moment. "I've got my Charms NEWT."

"Go." Dorcas said smiling at her. "And thanks Alice." Alice bent to give Dorcas a hug before racing off to her exam. Marlene sighed.

"I suppose we should go to class." She said forlornly. "C'mon Dori. Let's get to Ancient Runes." Dorcas nodded and they got up to go.

"Thanks James. It means a lot to me that you'd actually do that. I know he's your best mate." Dorcas said but James cut her off.

"What he did was stupid and out of line." James paused as though debating what he was going to say next.

"Go ahead and say it." Dorcas said knowing that look on his face from when they were kids.

"Maybe. Maybe one day you'll be able to forgive him. Because even though he's a prat, he does love you Dor."

"Too soon for that." Dorcas said with a pained smile. Marlene began to lead her away. "And don't call me that." Dorcas said over her shoulder. James gave a half smile before turning to look at Lily.

"That was really decent of you." Lily said after a long pause. James waved his hand as though dismissing what she was saying.

"It's the truth. And besides, Dorcas has always been a good friend to me. Even when I'm the prat." James said with a grin and Lily chuckled.

"She has. Sometimes, I'd give her a hard time for being so fond of you." James snorted.

"Sometimes?" Lily blushed and he grinned. Without thinking about it, his hand ruffled up his hair, making it look windblown. "So Lily, er- do you maybe, want to go out with me sometime?" Lily looked him over seriously and James felt like he could drown in her emerald green eyes. She looked so serious at first glance, but looking deeply into her eyes, James could see a glint of humor.

"Maybe." Lily said at last and left James standing in the hall with a bemused look on his face.

"Maybe." James repeated awed as he watched her walk away. If he could have seen it- James would have been surprised by the smile that spread across Lily's face.

"Maybe." She said softly to herself.

OOOOOOOO

OK don't hate me. I just thought that Sirius would probably be that kind of guy at 16. I mean with all his family issues he would probably sabatoge any good romantic relationship subconsciously or consciously. Anyways...there's more to come! Review for quick updates!