4 – To be overtaken two times in one mile

Anna walked silently up the stairs in the thick socks her grandmother had just sent her. It was less than a week since she had walked up the stairs to thank Sirius for help. Now she needed to talk to James about something with the next Quidditch practise.

She reached the seventh year boys' dorm and stopped very abruptly. She didn't hear the boys talking inside, but instead she heard the tones of a guitar. She frowned slightly and pushed the door a little open, holding her breath. She saw Sirius sitting on his bed alone with his back to her, playing a guitar. The tones of the guitar were soft and she could feel them vibrating inside her. It was beautiful.

She shifted onto the other foot and the floor creaked. Sirius stopped at once and turned to her. He held the guitar so she couldn't see it.

"Oh," he said. "It's you. What are you doing here?"

Anna was sure she could hear a hint of annoyance and embarrassment in his voice. She smiled carefully. He did not return the smile.

"I was looking for James…" she said slowly.

"Well, he's not here," Sirius said, still sounding annoyed. "He's out running."

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

He shrugged. "It's okay…"

They looked at each other a few seconds. Anna bit her lower lip slightly while scratching her arm. He sighed deeply, apparently just waiting for her to go, but she ignored it.

"It sounded beautiful," she said silently.

"What?"

"The guitar… you play beautifully. I've never heard anything like it."

A faint blush crept up Sirius' neck and he scratched it uncomfortably. "Well. I'm really not that good. I've only-"

"I liked it," she interrupted before he could continue.

"You did?" he asked brightly.

She nodded. "Yes. It really was amazing."

He smiled. "Thanks…"

"Will you try and play it for me again?" she asked.

He bit his lower lip. "Err. I think I lost it. I can't find the concentration again."

She nodded but was sure it wasn't the reason. Sirius found his wand a swished it over the guitar and it shrank into a miniature version before putting it in his drawer. Anna frowned while tilting her head slightly to the right.

"Why are you doing that?"

He looked up. "Err…"

"They don't know?" she asked.

He bit his lip again. "Well…" he said slowly. "James would just… well he'd laugh if he found out. Just like he did when he found out Remus had taken dancing lessons."

She nodded. "No one knows?"

"Remus does, but that's all."

Anna nodded. "I understand."

Sirius smiled slightly. "You do?"

"Yeah," she grinned.

He suddenly shook himself and laughed. "Merlin, I just sounded like a girl there, didn't I?"

"Maybe a little," Anna said with a smirk. "But it suited you."

Sirius laughed again as she winked. They looked at each other a few seconds before Sirius suddenly got up.

"Well," he said. "I think I might go out and find Remus."

"He's down in the common room," Anna hurried to say, "talking to Mary."

"Let's get down there then," he said and walked towards the door.

Anna turned and started to walk down the stairs with Sirius right behind her.

"Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

Lily could hear her own regular steps in the grit while trying to breathe. She wasn't even halfway around the Quidditch pitch and felt like dying. What had she been thinking when she said she'd run a mile a week? It would be her death, she was sure of it.

"Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

Her legs felt dead too. She thought of Anna and Mary. Lucky ones. They were sitting back up in the Gryffindor tower, relaxing and talking. Mary was knitting her sweater and Anna had probably destroyed something or insulted someone. She always did.

"Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

Suddenly she heard steps behind her. Quick steps, like a running person. Lily stopped talking to herself and looked behind her, but couldn't see anyone. Yet she was sure someone was coming. She turned around and kept running. The steps behind her grew louder until someone almost popped up next to her.

"Hey, Evans!"

Lily almost stopped out of surprise. She groaned loudly. Not James Potter! He was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts; he was out running too.

"Hi," she grunted shortly.

She tried to speed up, but he just ran quicker, keeping up with her. She tried to control her breath. She didn't want James to know that she couldn't even run around the Quidditch pitch without almost collapsing.

"What're you doing out here?" he asked politely.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she sneered out of breath.

"Fine," he mumbled. "I'll just continue. Later."

He sped up and ran away from her. Lily frowned. She wasn't sure what had just happened. James had been nice to her and walked – well ran – away from her. It was directly contrary to how it used to be. She shook her head. Something here was wrong.

As she heard James' steps fade away she started again, "Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

But she wasn't sure it helped at all. Her lungs were screaming for air, and nothing but a break could help her. She slowed down and stopped completely after a few seconds. She placed her hands behind hear head and took a few deep breaths.

After half a minute she began to run again, her breathing not nearly as regular as normal.

"Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale."

She was almost the whole way around the Quidditch pitch and could begin to see the castle when she heard someone behind her again. She groaned. If it was James she'd probably die. It would be so embarrassing if he overtook her two times on one round around the Quidditch pitch. She sped a bit up and stopped her repetition of 'inhale' and 'exhale's.

To her dismay, James ran up beside her five seconds later. "How's it going, Evans?" he smiled.

"Awful," she said before she could think of a comeback.

She looked at him. He wasn't wearing his glasses and the ends of his hair were wet with sweat. Lily had to control herself; she couldn't help but think he looked sexy. She had always had something for men and sports, and even though this was James Potter, he was no exception.

"I could always pull a 'Sirius', if you collapsed and couldn't make it back to the castle," he said with a faint smirk.

"A 'Sirius?'" Lily panted.

"Yeah," James said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, like he did to Anna. Carried her all the way up to the castle."

"There's no need for that," Lily said shortly. "I can go by myself."

"Okay then," he said and sped up. "See you around."

"Sure."

Lily stopped up as James ran on. She studied his back, stunned for the second time that day. What had happened to her? Why hadn't she thrown him an snide comment when he first spoke to her? She growled to herself before she started to run back towards the castle again. She found some comfort in that she wouldn't have to it for another week!

Mary watched as Anna walked up the stairs to the boys' dorm. Suddenly someone else dumped down next to her. It was Remus.

"Hey," he smiled. "So, when's the next dance lesson?"

She grinned. "I don't know… when do you want to?"

"We can always find a date."

"Yea. How do you think I did in the first lesson?"

He shrugged. "Not bad."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she grinned. "Was I that bad?"

"No really," he said honestly. "You were good considering it was your first time."

A sudden picture flashed into Mary's mind at Remus' words, but she shook them away again at once; they weren't exactly nice pictures.

"I'm sure you'll learn it sooner or later," Remus assured her.

She hid a smirk at his words. "Sure," she said. "Err. Where're the other guys by the way?"

"Hmm," Remus said and frowned. "Sirius is up in the dorm, James is out running and I lost track of Peter in the library."

Mary grinned. "Lily is out running too," she noticed.

"She is?"

"Ah. She'll probably not be so happy if she meets him."

"Probably not," Remus said, also smiling.

Mary looked up towards the boys' dorm. The staircase Anna had climbed minutes before to find James.

"Err… Anna went up there, looking for James."

Remus laughed slightly. "Well she's not gonna find him."

"No," Mary said and looked thoughtful. "It's only her and Sirius."

"WHAT?!"

Mary almost jumped up as someone yelled behind her. She turned and looked at Edward. "Why are you shouting like that?" she asked irritably.

"Is my sister up there alone with Sirius Black?" Edward asked, ignoring Mary's question. Mary nodded. She noticed Remus tried to hide a smile out of the corner of her eye. "And they're ALONE?"

"Oh, calm down, Edward," Mary said. "It's not like they're doing anything up there."

Edward got up from the couch he and Jack had been sitting in. "I'm going up to look," he said.

Mary sighed and shook her head. When Edward got a thought like that into his head, no one could convince him otherwise. He moved swiftly towards the stairs, but stopped as two people came down.

It was Anna and Sirius and they were laughing.

"What were you doing up there?" Edward asked Anna before she'd even come all the way down.

Anna stopped, looking at him. "Relax, Ed. I just went up there to talk to James, and Sirius and I started talking."

Edward looked sceptical. "Am I supposed to believe that?"

"Er, yea," Anna said as if he was stupid.

"It's true," Sirius backed up. "And honestly, she was only up there for around five minutes."

"Yeah," Mary joined the whole thing.

Edward sighed, defeated. "Fine then. But if I ever catch you and Siri-"

"You won't!" Anna said before he could finish. "Okay? Just let it go, Ed! Let it go."

Edward walked away with Jack right behind him.

"Hmm. Maybe we should move on, Moony?" Sirius asked Remus.

Remus nodded. "Sure. To where?"

Sirius shrugged. "I'm hungry. The kitchen?"

Mary straightened her back and Anna stepped closer to Sirius.

"You know where the kitchen is?" she asked.

Sirius nodded. "Of course we do. We're the marauders. We know where everything is."

Mary got up and joined the three others. "Where?"

Sirius and Remus exchanged glances before they motioned for Anna and Mary to come closer.

"Lullaby," Lily said to the portrait of the Fat Lady and it opened.

She went through and was greeted at once by Mary and Anna.

"We know where the kitchen is," Anna said excited.

"What?" Lily asked, still out of breath.

"The kitchen," Mary said. "Remus and Sirius told us where to find it."

"Oh," Lily said simply, "Is that where you're heading now?"

Anna shook her head. "We were actually going to the library."

"Do you wanna come?" Mary asked.

"No," Lily said and shook her head. "I think I'll go take a shower."

"See you later then," Anna grinned and the two girls continued out of the portrait hole while Lily walked inside.

The common room was almost empty. She walked as quickly as she could (considering the situation with her legs) up to the girls' dorm and had a long shower.

Twenty minutes later she returned to the common room where she saw Remus, Peter and Sirius sitting around a table where a large bowl of cookies were placed. Suddenly James walked through the portrait hole. Lily sighed inwardly; it wasn't fair that a stupid guy like James could look so hot when he'd just been running! He's t-shirt was at this point soaking down his back and his hair was all wet too. Normal girls, Lily was sure, would be disgusted by this sight, and that was what bothered her. She tore her eyes away from him but too late.

"What're you looking at?" he grinned at her.

"I just…" Lily had had an insult at her lips only seconds before, but it was gone now.

James raised his eyebrows at her. "Nothing, I presume?"

"Exactly!" she said. "You're nothing. I guess that answers your question."

James smirked and moved on. Lily was mad at herself; it was the worst comment she had ever made, but every other nasty comment she had ever thought of had flown clean out of her mind.

She growled and moved out of the portraithole with every one of the marauders' eyes on her back. Once she was outside she headed towards the library to find Anna and Mary. She turned a corner and sighed deeply. Two people were standing there, snogging.

Lily hated to break up couples, but found it was her duty. She cleared her throat and the couple broke apart. She noticed it was Patricia, one of the stupid Gryffindors, and Anna's twin brother Edward.

"Kissing is not permitted in the corridors," she said shortly with a raised eyebrow.

Patricia glanced evilly at her and Edward sighed.

"Relax, Lily," he said. "It's not like we're pulling a 'Sirius', and doing it in a broom cupboard."

Lily sighed. It was the second time that day she heard the phrase: 'pull a Sirius', although they were both for completely different reasons.

"I don't care," she said. "Be a role model for the younger students and go somewhere else."

Patricia sighed and dragged Edward behind her down the corridor. Lily watched them until they disappeared. Then she turned around and continued towards the library.

"Hmmm," Anna said, scratching her cheek slightly with her feather quill. "How would Amortentia smell to me…"

Mary was biting her quill slightly. "I'm really not sure…"

Anna tapped her quill on the table. "I guess that smell the road at home has in the summer when it starts to rain… That must be 'slight rain on a dusty road in the summer'."

"That's a good smell," Mary said. "I think one of mine would be fresh baked bread… And the smell of pine. You know?"

"Pine?" Anna asked. "I'm glad I don't like that small. I'm allergic to that stuff."

Mary grinned. "But it is a nice smell."

"Uhuh," Anna said and frowned. "Another of mine would probably be… I don't know what to call it. You know that smell of Christmas?" she asked, unsure.

"Carnation!" Mary grinned.

"That's it!!" Anna exclaimed. "And the smell that's in my grandmother's house."

Mary looked up, raising both eyebrows. "Your grandmother's house?" she snorted.

"Yeah!" Anna said defensively and shrugged. "Don't insult my smells! It makes me feel safe and secure… Hmm, or maybe new shoes… I'll write both."

Mary shook her head and looked down. "I think another of mine would be vanilla…"

Anna nodded. "That's a good one."

"So is yours," Mary observed.

Anna heard footsteps behind her, and spotted Lily making her way towards them over Mary's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "No! Not the potions essay! I wanted to do that one too."

"But we're not even halfway through," Mary said. "You can easily catch up with us."

Anna pushed out a chair for Lily and she sat down, grabbing a piece of parchment. Anna looked down at the paper.

"Now you just have to write down how amortentia would smell to you."

Lily bit her quill, or rather Anna's quill, as she hadn't brought one herself.

"That's easy, Lily!" Mary grinned. "Even I can answer that for you!"

She grinned and nodded. "Yeah. But it's embarrassing. Professor Slughorn will read it!"

"So?" Anna asked. "Does it matter?"

Lily frowned. "Okay, but you're ruining my reputation as a model student… so… sweat from a guy… the smell of a new book..."

Anna and Mary exchanged smirks. Lily had always had a weird taste about guys. And the smells were just the same.

"…aaaaand hot chocolate!" Lily ended it.

"See," Anna said. "It wasn't that hard was it?"

Lily shook her head. "Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "I almost forgot!"

Mary raised an eyebrow. "What did you forget?"

"I think Edward and Patricia are dating!" Lily said in a rush.

Anna's jaw dropped. "No," she muttered. "That's not possible."

Lily nodded. "Yes! I caught them snogging up on fourth floor!"

Anna fell backwards in her chair, groaning. "Nooo!" she moaned with hands in front of her face.

"He can't! He has got to have more sense than that!"

"It's just what I saw," Lily said.

"I bet he just does it to annoy me!"

Mary grinned. "We'll have our revenge over them sometime!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't help the fact that she's dating my twin brother!"

"Just leave them alone," Lily said. "You can't do anything about it."

Anna groaned. "She'll end up as my sister in law."

Mary and Lily laughed.