=Four=

Slytherins and Stubborn Arseholes

I spent the rest of the week attempting to juggle my ever so involved room mates who wanted gossip 24/7, Terry who had taken to stalking me in the hopes that the Marauder's would back off, Lily who wanted nothing to do with the Marauder's, The Marauder's themselves, Snape, Reggie and the ever so faithful Xavier, Merlin I do not deserve a friend like him.

Things were getting better though. Snape and Reggie must have been vocal about my 'skillage' and their like of me because I often got curious or respective gazes from the Slytherin table. I had to admit I did admire their cunning and resourcefulness. I had the feeling that soon I was going to be approached and interrogated but until then I was my usual quiet smiley self. I was glad that the weekend had finally arrived. I wanted to spend some quality time with Xavier in the library, I was prepared to be stolen away by the Marauder's at some point and I did need to have a chat with Terry which was going to take place now, during breakfast.

"Terry you know your one of my best friends right?" I smiled; it seemed to get me what I wanted in this time. It didn't in the future I can tell you that much.

"Yes, that's so sweet of you Rose." He grinned.

"The Marauder's aren't ever going to be able to replace you okay? Nor you, Xavier, I just enjoy their company every now and then just like you enjoy Mason, Carter and Caleb's company, Terry." I explained softly.

"Okay, I get it. Stop hogging Rosie, huh?" he laughed and tugged my hair, then I laughed with him, "sorry I've been such a git." He chuckled.

"Its okay, can we go out to the pitch this afternoon?" I asked eagerly because I knew he might like some time to have me all to himself, since I was sticking to Xavier this morning.

"Yeah! I can't wait to see what you can do, I need the practise because tryouts are Sunday afternoon." And with that he strutted off to find the guys. Xavier and I looked at each other, snorted then he laughed while I giggled.

"Good thing your good with people, Rose." He was still amused.

"Yeah, or that would have been awkward. Come on let's get to library and steal the good seats before everyone else thinks of it." I felt much more at home now, more at ease with my new friends.

It was a good idea to come early and get goods seats since the library was deserted, for now. It was always busy on the weekends because students were too lazy to do it over the week and then they have two days where they have to rush it to get it done. We settled ourselves in what had become our favourite spot, in the corner by the large window. It wasn't anything special, just a round table with five chairs. We didn't have a zillion essays to rush, we didn't have homework at all we, Xavier and I, just liked to sit and chat in this part of the library.

"So would it be alright if I came out and watched you and Terry play quidditch?" Xavier asked since quidditch our current topic of conversation.

"Sure, Terry shouldn't mind since you don't actually play." I giggled.

"Yeah, I nearly killed everyone but myself at flying lessons, they had me sit out, and the parents would not have been thrilled to receive a letter saying a child on a broom had killed their son/daughter along with the rest of the class." He laughed and I giggled more.

"Well, one day I'm getting you on a broom, Xavier Phillips, that is a promise." I smiled.

"One day when we're both dead an buried and not any danger to anyone but ourselves." He laughed.

"And Merlin." I finished for him. The conversation went on like this for a while and we were both enjoying ourselves immensely. Eventually we were engrossed in a full out wizard's chess war. We were both very good at it so it took as an hour before we finished one game.

"Phillips." A voice rang out tartly, it was Reggie and I couldn't help but smile.

"Do you mind if we have a chat with Rose." Severus sneered.

"It's okay." I reassured him. As much as he disliked conflict he wouldn't have left me without my reassurance.

"I'll see you back at the common room and we'll have lunch, yeah?" he smiled.

"Sure." And with that he left. Reggie slid into the seat to my right, Severus to my left and two girls sat in the seats across from me.

"This is Bellatrix Black" Severus inclined his hand to the heavy lidded girl with black hair, "and Narcissa Black they're both in my year though Narcissa is a year younger." I could match their faces to their future selves and briefly to flashes in the defence class but they hadn't been in class when I had shown off my patronus. I smiled and their expression looked disbelieving.

"So you're the little redhead with all the 'skillage'?" I giggled at the way Bellatrix said skillage and nodded.

"You're not joking are you, Severus?" Narcissa asked sharply.

"Of course not, Cissy," Reggie soothed, "she is the one with all the 'skillage'."

"Well she's going to prove her skill, we're brewing amortentia in Potions and everyone is having trouble. Give us advice as we go along. That will do for a start." Bellatrix said and we got down to brewing the potion.

I had the book in front of me and followed along. Add this here, the colour isn't right add more of this, forget stirring it like its quicker if you do it like so and by the time we had finished a perfect batch of amortentia sat in front of us.

"Alright, I'll admit she has talent." Narcissa said.

"I agree but in our next defence lesson you'll that one lesson to help us produce corporeal patronus' wandlessly. If you can't do it I'll take this next comment back. You do have skill." Bellatrix said. I beamed and she looked taken aback. Was I so hard to believe someone like me could like Slytherins?

"So Reggie, is that all you guys are here for?" I asked.

"Nope now its general conversation time." He chuckled but looked pleased that Bellatrix and Narcissa seemed to have accepted me.

"Am I allowed to call the two of you by your first names?" I asked eagerly, it was a good question since they were both Blacks.

"She calls Regulus and I by our first names." Severus stated.

"Alright." They agreed.

"Cool, Bellatrix and Narcissa it is then." I smiled.

"Why are you so smiley?" Bellatrix asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Severus asked the same thing and I can honestly say I don't know." I giggled.

"So do you spend much time with my cousin?" Narcissa asked. She was testing my knowledge; both Reggie and Sirius were her cousins.

"Do you mean Reggie or Sirius?" I asked.

"Sirius." Both she and Bellatrix seemed pleased.

"A bit, I don't think he likes me much but I like Remus best so I put up with him." I smiled, it was technically the truth. I often put up with Sirius for the sake of spending time with Remus.

"I don't mean to scare you, but you do know that Lupin is a werewolf?" Bellatrix lowered her voice.

"Yes, I do. You tell by their eyes. All werewolves have a dark brown dot in their iris underneath the pupil. A fact you won't find in any book." I barely had to lower my voice for it to be a whisper.

"And you don't care?" Narcissa asked.

"No." I answered. They looked surprised.

"Are you a pureblood?" Reggie asked out of nowhere.

"Does it matter I?" I asked.

"No." they all lied at the same time.

"Yes, I am. I'm French by blood though." I said softly. I kept my tone neutral I didn't want come across as a blood maniac but I didn't want to come across as a blood traitor either, I had to watch myself with these Slytherins. They all smiled and it looked as though they were willing to look past my house and friends. I was in and it had been easy, sort of.

"I was thinking we should all study together Wednesday nights, weren't you?" Bellatrix addressed her sister.

"Yes," Narcissa agreed, "we should."

"Do you want to come and study with us? We're the best at potions." Reggie grinned.

"Sure, I never have anything planned for Wednesday nights anyway." I smiled.

"Well, you should probably go meet up with Phillips, see you around Rose." Bellatrix then left smiling.

"Yes, by Rose." Narcissa joined her sister.

"I like Bellatrix and Narcissa." I commented with a smile.

"We thought you might." Severus smirked and Reggie grinned.

"We'll see you in class, Rose." Reggie said and left with Severus. I packed up and went to go find Xavier.

He was sitting in the common room being asked a lot of questions by Lily. The Marauder's sat back and watched, looking amused. I stood very quickly in the shadows and watched. They wanted to know about why they had seen me with the Slytherins. Xavier just told them that he respected my privacy and had made sure I was okay with being left alone with them, he trusted my judgement. I couldn't make out what else was being said but Remus looked concerned, James worried, Peter was calm but Sirius looked like he was about to go on a murderous rampage. I was touched by their concern but I could take care of myself, I got enough babying in the future and I didn't need it here. I stepped out of the corner, still unnoticed, and walked up so I was at the side of Xavier's chair.

"Hi, what's going on?" I murmured, mostly to Xavier. They needed to know that I was not stupid.

"Look, I'm going to be honest here. We're concerned about why you're hanging out with the Slytherins." James said.

"I like them." I said in a quiet but 'duh' sort of tone.

"They aren't nice, Rose, they're Slytherins-" Sirius started.

"No, really?" I interrupted but it didn't have the desired effect with my voice being as soft as it is.

"And they're dangerous, plain and simple." He finished with a growl.

"Look, my mother taught me to see the best in people. The Slytherins I talk to are witty, cunning, resourceful and funny. I like that. My mother also taught me to acknowledge the bad traits in people and to look past them. They may be dangerous but they haven't done anything wrong yet." I explained, Molly had taught me that, only she had never meant for it to be applied to Slytherins.

"I trust Rose's judgement, if she thinks it's too dangerous or that something is going to go wrong, she'll walk away but until then I don't have a problem with her having friends that are Slytherin." Xavier said. Judging by the look on Sirius' face things would have gotten ugly if Terry hadn't chosen to flounce in with two brooms in hand.

"Hey, I have two brooms so you can borrow one, Rose." Terry smiled and tugged my hair.

"Oh, I was wondering if I could sit and watch in the stands." Xavier said.

"Should be fine." Terry said.

The Marauder's and Lily looked like they wanted to finish the conversation.

"SHIT! Quidditch try-outs are… NOW!" Sirius yelled and with that we, excluding Lily, went down to the pitch.

Watching the try-outs was no where near as fun as acting playing and Merlin how I missed being in the air. While Sirius and James went over everyone who had played I finally got in the air with Terry. We had fun with the quaffle and one of the girls who had tried out for chaser came and joined us. I was having so much fun. Nothing was as good as being in the air, it made everything okay for awhile, it made you forget your troubles and just relax. It took me a few minutes at adjust to playing with different players but soon we were perfectly synchronised.

Terry made the team which was great. James and Sirius looked really put out. I think they were surprised at how good I really am. I giggled at them and they huffed and muttered to themselves looking annoyed. Too bad they wouldn't let me play. I mean, I can handle myself. I've fought deatheaters and lived, survived being possessed by Lord Voldemort but they don't know that. Oh well at least I could fly with Terry whenever I wanted.

"Wow, you are good." Terry laughed.

"I said I was."

"Good was an understatement. You could give James a run for his money." Sirius laughed and our touchy topis from earlier were tossed aside. I had to admit teenaged Sirius surprised me. I hadn't expected him to be so… well, I can't think of the word but I did expect him to be livelier and pull a lot of funny and amusing pranks. Then again, we had only been at school for a week and I had caused a bit of a commotion.

While the new Gryffindor quidditch team practised I sat and talked with Xavier, Peter and Remus. I liked this Peter he was a good person with a nice sense of humour. Remus and I talked defence. I found it really weird to be giving advice to the man who taught me defence in my second year (he was the one to get me really interested in it). He was having trouble with his patronus, which I found funny when he was the one to teach Harry how to do it. Peter threw in his two sickles here and their on the defence topic. Xavier wasn't to animated since we were talking about seventh year defence and not sixth.

"Are you lot done gossiping like old ladies, I'm starving!" Sirius barked, only he was grinning.

"When are you not hungry?" Remus muttered.

"When I'm shagging someone." He replied as if to say 'duh'.

"You're such a sleaze." Peter said.

"Yes, I am." Sirius smirked, "Women just fall at my feet, well except Evans and Rose, there."

"Well, if you're waiting for me to swoon, you'll be waiting their a long time." I think the only reason any of the Marauder's can pick up my voice from a distance is because they're animagi.

James, Remus, Pater, Xavier and Terry burst out laughing and Sirius muttered something looking rather annoyed. I was glad when it was time for dinner, it had been a long day and all I wanted to do was eat and then sleep. I ate dinner with the girls in my dorm because they didn't give me a choice. I noted Remus' amusement as I was dragged away, James was busy flirting with Lily and getting slapped, Peter had already begun to pile his plate and Sirius still looked annoyed.

Each blonde took her time to describe her day in detail. Amara had spent the day in the Library attempting to finish her Herbology essay with Nicole, Jean and Tiffany. When they had finished each of them had a date in various empty classrooms or broom closets. I ate slowly concentrating on the cutting of my food and taking my time to chew each small mouthful. They didn't seem to mind my silence; in fact, I think they liked the fact I didn't want to fit in with them.

"So have you slept with Black yet?" Tiffany asked me. I choked. What?

"Oh, she means either of them." Amara expanded and I knew from their smiles I was going red, who wouldn't?

"No." I just managed to say but I don't think they heard.

"Sirius is really good." Jean grinned and sighed, obviously remembering something I didn't want to know about.

"Good? You mean a God!" Nicole laughed and Tiffany nodded.

"Wait, you've all slept with him?" I managed to say amidst my disgust.

"Yeah, you'd be hard pressed to find a girl other than Evans who hasn't." Amara laughed.

"Oh, only girls fourth year and above, he isn't a paedophile." Tiffany stated. I was never going to be able to look at Sirius the same way again.

I just about exploded with happiness when Xavier and Terry rescued me. I had heard that Sirius was ladies man but there is a big difference between being a ladies man and a man-whore. Now I had to live in a dorm with four tall effing blondes that all slept with Sirius, what fun! Hardly.

I went to bed early. At least I had all Sunday to get over my disgust. There was no way I was going to be able to be friendly and smiley with him anymore. I wasn't frigid but I didn't like guys who just used girls like that, whether or not they minded. I was asleep before they came in to sleep.

I did not wake up to the sound of my alarm that morning. Instead I woke to find myself being poked by Remus, with the rest of the Marauder's standing behind him grinning. I groaned and closed my eyes. They had to be kidding? I didn't dare look at the clock. I then received a sharp poke to my shoulder.

"Go 'way, Mooney" I sighed a rolled around.

"Get up, Rose." Sirius ordered. When I huffed and made no effort to move, someone suddenly picked me up and dumped me on the floor. I felt the beginnings of tears and looked up. I was really beginning to dislike Sirius Black.

"It's…" I looked at the clock and sobbed, "One in the morning." I finished with a sniffle.

"God, we wake her up in the hopes of her having fun pranking with us and Sirius makes her cry." James chuckled and shook his head.

"Oh, sure, lay all the blame on me." Sirius huffed.

"Well, you picked her up and dumped her on the floor." Peter snapped. They were so loud, how were my dorm mates sleeping through this. Remus must have noticed my gaze and guessed where my mind was wondering.

"We used a silencing charm around their beds." He smiled softly, "Sorry, we woke you, we'll leave if you want."

"No we won't," Sirius barked, "She's up now, she might as well join us."

I sniffled, "Fine, I'll get dressed then."

"Feel free to change in front of us." He grinned. I felt more tears well up. What had I done to deserve this at one in the morning?

"SIRIUS!" they yelled at him.

"Why are you so loud?!" I was crying now. Good, since when did I get so emotional?

"Now, look what you did? She's crying!" Peter wasn't impressed nor was Remus. James on the other hand wasn't bothered and that was probably because these were the sorts of things he did all the time concerning Lily.

I grabbed a pair of jeans and long sleeved shirt and went into the bathroom. I dressed quickly, put on a pair of sneakers and looked at them. James looked amused.

"What?" I uttered.

"You really are tiny." He laughed and I went red.

I yawned, "Okay, let's get going them."

"Boy, do we have a treat for you," James said as we descended the stairs.

"Wait, how do you get into my dorm? No, forget it I don't want to know." I muttered off and continued walking. The Marauder's had paused behind me but then followed me whispering among themselves.

"So here's the plan," James started as they lead me along a corridor, "first we're going to prank Slughorn, then McGonagall…"

"But I like McGonagall." I whispered to myself.

"Jeez, we're not going to kill her." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Then we're going to go after Marlowe." James grinned evilly.

"Flirting with students, the man-whore." Sirius spat.

"You're one to talk." I murmured. The Marauder's turned and looked at me.

"What?" Remus asked. I decided to go along with him and be a little bold.

"I said he's one to talk, don't think the girls in my room don't talk." I kept my voice soft; I didn't want to start an argument.

"For Christ's sake, you didn't sleep with all the girls in her dorm did you?" Remus voice was disbelieving but he knew better.

"He did." I said, "And every other girl with the exception of Lily, third years and below, his relatives and me."

"Couldn't keep it in your pants, could you?" Peter scoffed.

"Look, I have an abnormally high amount of testosterone, okay?" Sirius spat back.

"Do we have to talk about this when I'm present?" I murmured.

"Good point, if you so much a touch Lily, I will kill you." James commented a minute later.

"Why would I touch Evans?" Sirius snorted. I sighed, knowing where this was going.

"Are you saying she's ugly?!" James yelled.

"Okay! Cut it out! We're supposed to impress Rose with our pranking skills but instead we're disgusting her with locker room conversation." Peter had had enough and so had I. I couldn't help but hug him, he looked surprised.

"Thank you." I smiled. Why did Sirius looked pissed off so often? Did he not like me or not like that I liked Slytherins? God, I give up on men.

"So what are we doing to each of the teachers?" I giggled. It had the desired effect. All four of the boys grinned.

"We're off to see Slughorn first. We're going to have him dressed up in pink and purple and…" Peter trailed.

"We'll make him look like a hooker!" Sirius suggested triumphantly. I burst out into laughter and Sirius wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"I told you that you'd have fun!" he grinned cockily and I rolled my eyes at Remus who stifled his laughter and snorted instead.

We broke into Slughorn's private with the help of a knife Sirius owned. I wasn't quite sure how it worked but it did. Using a bunch jinxes, hexes and charms Slughorn was dressed in a tight pink shirt (eww) and a purple denim skirt (double eww). His hair was dyed pink and each side of his moustache was died purple and plaited. One complex charm made sure it couldn't be removed by magic, it had to wear of. I giggled at the thought of Slughorn stuck like that for and entire 48 hrs.

"Having fun?" James asked me, smiling.

"Yes." I giggled.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Lily shrieked, I flinched, Sirius snorted and Remus smiled.

"Lower your voice, Evans, poor little Rosie's always flinching when you shriek." Sirius laughed.

"Well?" She huffed, running her fingers through her hair.

"We're…" James started.

"Off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz." Sirius sung in my ear and I laughed.

"We're pulling pranks. Do you want to join us?" I offered knowing she'd say no. She wouldn't turn us in; only because I hadn't mentioned it was the teachers who were our victims.

"Have fun then, but if you get her in trouble…" Lily trailed off, leaving things up to the boy's imagination, and walked back to her dorm.

Next on our list was Professor McGonagall. We didn't need to open the door to her chambers, we vanished the glass from one of the windows outside (We flew out there. Then Remus and Peter levitated niffler up to us were we would shove them through the window. Preparing pranks isn't always fun I'll tell you that. It took us nearly an hour to do this one. Merlin knows how many nifflers ended up in her chambers when we had run out of them. Professor Cooper was using the nifflers for his fourth year class, or he had planned to. We put the glass back in the windows, flew down and headed off for Kit Marlowe's chambers.

"What are we going to do to him?" I wondered aloud.

"We haven't decided, got any ideas?" Peter asked. What sort of prank could we play on Marlowe; I didn't really want to but… I was having fun.

"How about we jinx him to say really inappropriate things to everyone?" I giggled.

"It's good but we've done it before." Sirius said and James nodded in confirmation.

"I know." I burst into a fit of giggles. I walked over and tugged on Sirius' sleeve to get him to lean down. There was no way I could reach his ear otherwise. I whispered my idea and he coughed and then grinned.

"What? What?! I want to know!" James whined.

"She suggested we do the jinx and pour shrinking solution down the front of his pants as well."

"Brilliant, now all we have to do is get our hands on some shrinking solution." Remus chuckled.

"We could break into Slughorn's private storeroom?" I suggested.

"Spoken like a true Marauder!" James laughed, "I knew you'd be fun with hair that colour."

"So you judge how fun people are by their hair colour?" I wasn't sure I understood.

"Yes, you have prettier darker red hair than Evans, so you're more fun." Sirius said as if it were a fact I ought to have known.

"Okay." I shrugged and we set about robbing Professor Slughorn. The storeroom was full of well labelled vials. Remus soon found it.

"Medium or Extreme Strength?" he asked.

"Extreme." The boys answered.

"Hey, how about this? It turns people's genitals," I giggled, "into the genitals of the opposite sex."

"You said that so properly." Peter laughed and I went read and muttered a 'shut up'.

"Steal that. How about this? It causes inappropriate hallucination?!" Sirius yelled.

"Good, get that one." James smiled.

"We should only use the shrinking solution; we should save the others for another time." Remus said and everyone nodded.

I waited outside while they took care of Professor Marlowe. I yawned and sat down. I had the feeling they were doing something extra to humiliate him but I was tired. Probably from being woken at one in the morning. I ended up falling asleep.

"Rose... Rose… ROSE!" Nicole yelled.

"I'm up." I muttered sitting up in bed.

"You have got to come down to the great hall and see what happened!" She waited for me to throw on some clothes and dragged me down the stairs. I stopped to talk to Xavier and she just left. Breakfast was waiting. Only I never got to eat breakfast did I? On my way to the hall I was stopped by Reggie. Xavier knew to just go and enjoy breakfast; hopefully he wouldn't say anything to Terry. The one thing I could not handle was Terry joining the Marauder's in trying to get me to stay away from them.

"Have fun last night?" Severus drawled and I smiled at him.

"Yes."

"I never took you for the pranks sort." Bellatrix commented.

"I'm not but they didn't seem as if I had much of a choice, so I thought I might as well try and make an effort to enjoy myself." I explained.

"Well, I'd watch out. Sirius is the type of guy to say you helped. He thinks detentions are some sort trophy proving how great their pranks are." Reggie explained.

"Yes, I know. He's very… I still can't sum him up in one word. He's immature, brash, a sleaze and has no idea how to treat women." I huffed remembering how he had picked me up out of bed and just dumped me on the floor.

"Do you want to have breakfast in the kitchens?" Narcissa asked eagerly. She was a nice person, they all were. Why was I the only one who could see it?

"Sure."

The conversation over breakfast was easy going. They, unlike the Gryffindor's didn't feel the need to yell. They were loud but normally so which I found relieving. My relationship the Slytherins was so simple while the one I had with the Marauder's was so awkward, though I blamed it all on Sirius.

"So I heard that you can play quidditch really well." Bellatrix smiled a genuine smile.

"Yes, I can."

"What position?" Reggie was eager to ask.

"I play chaser and seeker. I prefer chaser though because it meant I was less likely to get bludgered." I giggled.

"I play seeker for Slytherin." He grinned. I hadn't known that, he didn't come across as the quidditch type but Sirius played so maybe it was genetic.

"Really, I didn't know that." I voiced my earlier thought.

"I think it runs in the family, the ability to play quidditch I mean." I giggled at that since I had that thought only moments ago.

"Alright I'm going to come straight out and say it but what's your secret?" Severus asked and I looked at him. What had I done to give him the impression that I was keeping a secret? My talent in defence and potions wasn't enough to give him that idea. That could just be passed off as intelligence. I studied his face and he was serious.

"I'm not keeping a secret, Severus. I don't know why you would think that." I kept my voice soft and looked him right in the eyes. He dropped it but I knew he was going to pursue it at a later date.

The rest of breakfast blew by and Reggie and I said goodbye to Bellatrix, Narcissa and Severus.

"Finally, every time I want to spend alone time with you they just incite themselves along." He looked irritated. I giggled. I studied the differences between Sirius and Reggie. The height was the first thing, Reggie was shorter. Sirius had dark grey eyes and Reggie's were blue but they both had the same pitch black hair and classically shaped nose. Their personalities were the biggest difference though.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him.

"The differences between you and Evans." He said and I laughed, "When you first arrived everyone expected you to this miniature version of her. As you can imagine everyone was surprised when I told them otherwise."

"I like Lily, she's nice." And I did, I just hated it when she shrieked.

"What about my brother?"

"Why do you ask?" I was curious to know the answer.

"I don't know, just the way he looks at you. I know him well enough to know when he's out of his depth." Reggie snickered and I opened my mouth then snapped it shut.

"I'm… out of his depth?"

"Yes, he can't figure you out and it irritates him. Amuses me though." He laughed and I whacked his arm.

"I don't know if I like your brother." I muttered.

"So, I irritate him," I continued, "does that mean he doesn't like me, or…"

"I don't know. It's not like I'm able to go up and ask him. Try the werewolf." He huffed.

"Remus." I said.

"What?"

"Remus, his name is Remus. I've never understood why people address everyone by their last names."

"Fine, Remus then. But I'm only going to call him that when it's just the two of us. I don't want to get hexed to death." Reggie gave in. Well, at least I was getting somewhere; he was nowhere near as horrid as everyone had made him out to be.

"Hey!" someone called out. I turned and groaned when I saw Sirius jog up to us.

"Sirius." Reggie managed but not politely.

"Regulus." He replied and I laughed. I couldn't help it. They were brothers and the way they treated each other was ridiculous.

"Rose, I'm sorry to interrupt," I snorted, "but Lily really wants to see you." Sirius said uncomfortably.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow Reggie." We said goodbye and I followed Sirius around randomly for a few minutes.

"Lily doesn't need to see me, does she?" I asked knowing the answer.

"What do you see in him?" Sirius turned to face me.

"You make it sound like I'm dating him."

"Are you?" not only was it accusing but it was worried too.

"No, I really like Reggie but I barely know him." He looked like he was trying to figure out how to say, or ask, something. I guessed Sirius didn't have serious conversations with women, at all. My neck was beginning to hurt from looking up at him.

"You are good person but you're so naïve, Rose."

"Naïve, you think I'm naïve!" that was the last straw, "I am not naïve!"

"You don't understand how dangerous the Slytherins are!" he yelled.

"Yes, yes I do! But so far I'm the only person with enough guts, with a strong enough backbone, to try and help them, to do something about it!" I yelled.

"You don't think I tried! I did and it didn't work!" Sirius snapped, I guessed he meant his brother. I knew I was crossing a thin line but he needed to hear me.

"Maybe you were going about it wrong, or maybe, maybe you were the wrong person to do it!" I didn't like the pained and angry expression he was wearing.

"YOU… FINE THEN, HAVE IT YOUR WAY! Just don't come crying to me when everything blows up in your face. God, I hate you! Why the hell did Remus have to find you cute and funny! Why don't you just go back to wherever you came from?!" He yelled and stormed off. That hurt. I came here to save him and a lot of other people, not that they know this, and this is the way he treats. I'm only trying to do the right thing.

I walked off. I didn't bother with trying to hide the tears, I just didn't care. God, I knew a lot about Sirius Black but I didn't know he was a stubborn arsehole. I walked around for a while until I had calmed down and went back to my dorm. The second I saw all the blondes sitting around giggling, I felt the tears start streaming.

"Awwwww, what's wrong?" Nicole asked looking worried.

"Nothing, it's nothing." I muttered. I was never going pranking ever again and Sirius Black could drop dead. I was tempted to give up, to go home but I realised I couldn't. The damage was already done and home didn't exist anymore.

Xavier and Terry, according to Jean, were downstairs with Nicole and worried. I told her to tell them that I was just tired and missing home. They seemed to accept it or just agree to leave me to wallow in self pity. Merlin was I grateful for the friends I did have here. I came to the conclusion that if people wanted to be friends with me then they would have to come to me. I'd had enough of going to them. I was already in with the people I needed to be friends with. For now, it was enough.

a/n: Sirius can be a be a jerk, huh? I have no idea what'll be in the next chapter so hopefully you'll be surprised.

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