CHAPTER FOUR

Author's note: Basically, this is edited. -O

"I'm not calling you a liar but don't lie to me."

Florence and the Machine

They hadn't even reached the top of the stairs before Eliza began to tease, "So Potter's finally going to leave you alone, huh? Like that will happen! You loveee him, you love Jameees!"

Lily punched her jokingly, rolling her eyes and raising an eyebrow as they approached the Gryffindor Common Room where their friends awaited them, "Well you and Remus were nicely snuggled up before Evil Emma came along, so I dunno why you think you're the one to be teasing, mate."

Eliza rolled her eyes exasperatedly and pushed Lily sideways as she addressed the Fat Lady, "Metamorphagus."

Giggling as Lily staggered sideways and landed against the wall, Eliza clambered through the portrait hole clumsily, anticipating the retaliation Lily was about to unleash on her. She staggered, nearly losing her footing as she tried to scramble up and away from Lily. But a strong hand stopped her from falling. She looked up and smirked at the sight. It was Daniel Wood; seventh years' resident Adonis. She grinned flirtily at him, "Strong man, eh?" With a chuckle she sauntered off towards the marauders, Lily trailing behind her somewhat reluctantly, annoyed that her revenge would have to be postponed.

Daniel's eyes followed Eliza across the room, not leaving her until she had flopped herself onto the sofa around which the boys were clustered. Folding her long legs up under her, she nestled down into the sofa, leaning her head on the high arm of the sofa. The common room was quite busy, the faint chatter of friends who have missed each other, and have a lot to catch up on, filling the room. Sirius was sitting next to Eliza, his back against the side of the sofa and his legs stretched the length of it, resting next to Eliza's hip. Lily was sitting in the armchair next to Remus' and Peter was on the floor. James was sitting on a pouf, his eyes scanning the room.

Just as Eliza settled into her seat, Marlene and Molly came down from the dormitory and sat on the floor by Peter, where they continued to gossip, as they had been doing all day, shooting furtive looks around the common room.

Lily, meanwhile, was repeatedly glancing at James, who in turn was shooting barely concealed stares at Sophie Henshaw, a girl in fifth year who was the object of many boys' affections.

Lily scoffed and crossed her legs, "Yeah James, think again. There is no way Henshaw will go for you."

Peter shuffled, hugging his knees to his chest, and muttered, "She seems to be looking back, though."

Sirius scoffed, looking at Lily with interest in his eyes. He leant over to her and grinned, that winning grin that could knock the breath out of a girl.

"Why were you watching James anyway? You jealous he's not eyeing you up?"

Lily rolled her eyes and sneered, before standing abruptly and going to sit with Marlene and Molly, joining in their gossiping (or bitching) session immediately.

Eliza smiled to herself, lost in thought, feeling Daniel Wood's eyes on her. For a good five minutes she sat like that, staring into the fire and barely listening to the sounds of the Common Room or the idle bickering and chatting of her friends, just appreciating the feel of Daniel's eyes on the side of her face. After a while, Remus leaned over to her from where he was sitting in an armchair to her right, reading a heavy, boring looking book. "What you smiling at Liza-Lou?"

Before she could reply, Sirius suddenly emerged from behind the sofa in an army crawl. At Eliza's feet he stood up and flopped down onto her lap dramatically. She groaned as all the air was forced out of her.

"Sirius, how many times, you have a bony arse!"

"Err, Sirius, what were you doing on the floor?" Remus had a laughing twinkle in his eyes, as he watched Sirius attempting to make himself comfortable on Eliza's lap, which was much to her consternation.

"Sneaking up on Eliza." He turned away, ignoring their amused looks.

"Hey, Molly. You look beautiful today," he winked and beckoned for her to come over and talk to him. She gave him a long and lazy look up and down before shrugging and turning back to the girls.

Sirius groaned, "What is it with that girl!" He launched into a rant about girls who manage to resist his charms and what should be done with them, whilst James and Peter pretended to listen and nodded sympathetically.

Remus leant behind Sirius and raised an eyebrow, "Comfy?"

She glared at him and aimed a kick his way but this sudden movement caused Sirius to wriggle therefore causing her pain.

"Ouch! Jesus, he cannot be serious."

Sirius turned to her, "I am in fact, completely and utterly Sirius." Laughing heartily to himself he turned back to the boys and continued to rant. Eliza rolled her eyes, "Oh not that again!"

Remus laughed and asked her, "So, who's your ting, then? Hmm?" His voice was light but he felt an odd sense of dread.

She grinned, "Oh, I'm really not feeling the 'boy' situation at the moment. There are simply no good looking guys out there with even half a brain cell to rub together."

"Oh great, so I'm ugly!"

"No, you're stupid."

He grinned at the implied compliment, flushing slightly. "By the way, what did you do to your hair?"

She laughed, "What?"

"Well it seemed… different. Like not quite curly… But not straight."

"…Yes, Remus, it's called wavy hair and it is exactly the same as I have always had." She looked distinctly amused, her eyes twinkling and the fire light dancing across her features.

"Well, it's pretty." The words were out before he'd given them a second a thought and he was surprised that he didn't regret them.

"Umm, thanks." She raised an eyebrow at him, unfazed by the turn their conversation seemed to have taken.

"I don't like curly hair." He sighed and looked away, his gaze settling on the fire which was roaring in the ornate fireplace, "Wavy is much nicer."

She wrinkled her nose and laughed lazily, "Emma has curly hair."

He laughed awkwardly and scratched his neck, "Oh, so she does." He glanced at her, almost nervously but she just rolled her eyes at him and shook her head briefly before turning away to watch Just as he was thinking to himself how much he had missed this, the warmth she brought wherever she was and the way she made him feel at ease in a way even Sirius and James couldn't, when he heard Marlene call from the stairs, "Eliza, we're going to bed, you coming?"

Eliza jolted out of their conversation and smiled at Marlene, "Yeah, I'll be up in a second Marley. Sirius, get off."

She shoved him hard, his attention elsewhere as he was deep in conversation with James about frog flavoured ice cream. He landed in a crumple on James' feet, head butting Peter's knee on the way down.

"Fucking hell, Eliza!" He looked at her angrily, but Remus could see something else in his eyes when Sirius looked at Eliza, other than anger. He pondered it for a second and then brushed it off.

She grinned and skipped off quickly but as she reached the stairs, Remus caught up with her. Taking a deep breath, he grasped her wrist, voicing something that had been worrying him all day now.

"Look, Eliza, listen. I know you're not telling me the full story with this scar thing. They are so not a drunken mistake and the others might be swallowing your bullshit, but I know you too well for that. What's going on?"

She grimaced, turning to face him, a steely glint flashing in her brown eyes as she stared him down.

"Look, it's nothing Remus, so just drop it, okay?" Her tone was dangerous, warning him against pushing the matter but he ignored it.

"Eliza, please-" But she cut him off before he could finish, her tone icy, her eyes blazing.

"Seriously, Remus! Why must we argue on the first day?" She stepped back down off the stairs so that she was in front of him, staring straight into his eyes. "Are you determined that we should be giving each other the cold shoulder for the first week? For fucks sake, just keep your nose out of my business!"

He stepped back and crossed his arms tightly, anger and steel set into every line of his face as she stared at him furiously.

"Oh, so now I'm in the wrong for caring, well isn't that fucking typical," he spat, his voice growing louder and colder with every word.

She rolled her eyes, "I don't need this."

He darted forwards and blocked her way, his tone dropping that note of anger and becoming soft and caring, "Please tell me, Eliza? Please."

He saw sympathy flash in her eyes only to be quickly replaced with defiance.

"Think back to first year Remus, we all went along with your atrocious lies back then so just run with mine now okay, you wanted privacy and I want mine too so let's just leave our scar stories as they are and not judge, yeah?"

He pursed his lips in worry, "What are you saying? Is this as serious as… you haven't been bitten?"

She muttered something under her breath and pushed him out of the way.

"What did you say?" He must've misheard.

She practically growled at him as she tried to get past him, but however much stronger Sirius might be than him, Remus was not weak amd wouldn't budge."Remus I am going to bed!"

He stepped aside but his voice was pleading, "No, wait, please tell me. I'll worry."

She rounded on him, the defiant glint shimmering in her eyes again.

"Tell me what Emma wants you to do. Then I'll tell you what you want to know."

He groaned and stared out of the window at the cloudy sky.

Eliza's laugh was mocking as she looked at his reaction, "Look, what a fucking surprise. It's all 'let's be open and honest, let's tell each other everything'- until I want you to tell me something." She sighed heavily. "It's a joke." She was walking away when Remus finally gathered the courage to choke out quietly, "Eliza." She turned and looked at him with one slightly raised eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"She… Um, well… She doesn't want me to speak to you anymore, says it's you or her. I have to choose. Because I've never told her I loved her."

The words came out in a rushed breath, like sudden vomit. A filthy silence fell between them. He didn't dare look at Eliza's face for fear of what he would see, but when she said nothing, he looked up at her with trepidation.

The blank look that smothered Eliza's features; her eyes staring blankly at the wall, her lips pursed in shock and irritation, said everything that she did not, voiced all the anger, hurt and worry that she left unsaid as she whipped around and walked quickly up the stairs to her dormitory.

In the girls dormitory.

The door flew open with a bang and Eliza stormed in, throwing open her trunk and searching through it. The other girls watched silently as she searched, cursing and muttering until she found the little box she had been looking for.

She was across the dormitory in a couple of strides and threw the window open, clambering onto the windowsill.

"Eliza, you know that isn't safe!"

"Shut up Lily. Marlene do you want a smoke?" Eliza's voice was devoid of any emotion as she lit her cigarette with her wand. Marlene slipped out onto the ledge next to her and took the proffered cigarette. Together they smoked in silence, whilst Lily whined about the smell and Molly snored softly.

Just as Lily's whining began to quiet, Emma stormed in and climbed straight into bed fully dressed.

Eliza gave her the middle finger, "Meddling little bitch." She muttered for only Marlene to hear. Marlene leant a head against her shoulder, her curls tickling Eliza's cheek.

Eliza swung her legs back inside.

"So, Lily. Jealous that James likes Sophie Henshaw?" Eliza was joking but her face was blank and her eyes sad.

Lily responded by chucking a pillow at her so hard it nearly knocked her from the windowsill.

"Oh yeah, attempt to kill me Lily- slight over reaction!"

Lily grinned. "Sorry! Look, I'm knackered, so g'night my lovelies."

With that she drew her curtains. Marley climbed in silently and began to change into her pyjamas. "Avoiding the question?" She called to Lily, earning merely a scoff and silence as a response.

As Eliza changed she sighed, "I don't understand Remus at all, d'you know that Marlene?"

A catty voice floated over from around the corner, "That's because he isn't yours to understand, McFadden."

Marlene laughed and called out as she climbed into bed, winking at Eliza, "Shut the fuck up, Emma."