A/N: Amy's POV, this chapter is dedicated to reader, reviewer, and best friend Missing Triforce, who is going to be doing stupidity ratings of the characters for every chapter in the review section, if you want to check those out. :D Should be fun!

-C

As much as Vanessa was for the idea, I knew that Sirius liked his girls to be a little bit coy, so I told her so and resolved to tell him she was on the fence when he next asked about her. I was far too good of a friend to sabotage her, although it had certainly crossed my mind, so I would, of course, say that she was leaning toward a relationship. What I didn't know how to explain was the black eye I woke up with courtesy of Lily Evans. Sirius would ask, I knew, but I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of going to the hospital wing. I could handle it on my own. Except that I couldn't. But I would figure out how to and I would be fine.

Right when we promised, I met with Sirius during our free period to discuss Vanessa. He was in his room, pacing as he waited for me to show up. When I tapped him on the shoulder he grinned, sitting down on the nearest bed and gesturing for me to sit beside him.

"You talked to Vanessa?"

"Of course," I said, forcing a smile.

"What did she say?"

"She's on the fence," I lied easily, already warning Vanessa that I was going to do that. It was part of the chase, and she'd been disgustingly okay with it. In fact she was more eager about the lie than I was. "But I would say she's leaning toward the idea if that helps."

"What's holding her back?" Sirius cried, gripping my hands. For a split second my breath caught and I almost could make myself believe he was getting excited about me instead of Vanessa, but his imploring look snapped me back to reality.

"Um, I'm not entirely sure, Vanessa's pretty cryptic, but I think she's worried about your commitment levels. You don't tend to stay with any one girl very long."

"So how do I convince her I'm interested in something serious?" he said, and I cringed, wondering if he really meant that, if Vanessa was truly more important to him somehow than the others had been. If so, why? Why not me? Why couldn't he look at me like that?

"I don't know, honestly," I muttered. "I don't date, remember? Talk to Remus. I'm sure he'll be able to figure something out."

"Speaking of Remus," Sirius whispered, touching his fingertips to my bruised eye, "what in the name of Merlin happened to your eye?"

I blushed, vaguely wondering what Remus had to do with anything, but I shrugged and said, "Nothing, I...I must have punched myself in the face while I was sleeping. It's not a big deal."

"You're not getting away with that, young lady," Sirius said firmly. "Why haven't you seen Madam Pomfrey yet?"

"I can heal it myself," I said proudly. "It's not a problem."

Sirius snorted.

"Amy, love, you're terrible with healing charms. What really happened and why aren't you really going to do something about it?"

I turned away from him, debating with myself over whether or not to tell him. I'd kept the feud more or less a secret for so long that he'd be bothered, I hoped, by the fact that I'd not told him. But on the other hand, how could I tell him? It would cause stress with James, and I could fight my own battles.

But I couldn't, obviously, because I was sitting there with a black eye.

"It was Evans," I whispered, looking down at my hands instead of facing him.

"What?" he demanded. "What are you talking about? Evans blacked your eye? Why?"

"Evans and I, we don't get along," I admitted, letting him lift my chin so that I was looking at him, even though I was incredibly embarrassed. "We... Well, she doesn't like that I'm friends with you and James and I don't like the way she treats you and it's been escalating for years now. Last night she sort of attacked me... Marlene and Sarah broke it up, but she must have gotten a good punch in at some point, I don't really remember, but I woke up with this."

Sirius shook his head angrily.

"You have to get this looked at. I'll not have you walking around with a black eye letting that bitch think she's won until it fades. Remus is going to take you to the hospital wing and you're not going to argue. Is that understood?"

"Why aren't you taking me?" I half countered, half begged. I wouldn't have minded going so much if Sirius was the one taking me there, telling Madam Pomfrey what an outrage it was that I had been attacked by another student. But that was wishful thinking again, and such thinking got nowhere.

"Because," he growled. "I've got some things to tend to. I'll tell you when you're back. I don't want to see your pretty face again until it's completely bruise free, do you understand me?"

I blinked at him. He'd called my face pretty. He'd never done that before. Perhaps he was all worked up about the Lily Evans thing, or maybe it was his way of trying to talk me into going to the hospital wing. If that was the case, it was working!

"Where's Remus, then?" I said, a bit breathlessly.

Sirius pulled out a bit of parchment, tapped it, muttering something I couldn't make out, and he examined it for a moment.

"He's just got to the common room, class must be over. I'll go fetch him. Don't you try making a run for it, missy."

"I wouldn't dare," I called after him as Sirius rushed downstairs to get Remus, who followed him back into the room, confusion on his face that instantly melted to concern at the sight of my eye.

"Amy," Remus whispered, kneeling in front of me, gingerly touching my bruise just as Sirius had done minutes before. "Come on, hospital wing, right now."

I said goodbye and allowed Remus to lead me out of the common room, into the corridor, and away to the hospital wing.

"Sirius didn't give me details," he said softly. "What happened?"

"Lily Evans hit me," I said honestly. I'd told one Marauder, it was bound to get to the others before dinner. Why not tell him myself?

"Why would she do that?" he asked, stunned.

So I explained the feud again, explained that we'd gotten into a fight, explained everything I'd explained to Sirius. I realized it felt remarkably good to get such things off my chest. Remus shook his head wonderingly.

"Sometimes Lily baffles me," he admitted. "I can't imagine anyone ever having a problem with you."

"Why?" I snorted. "Because I'm such a pushover?"

"No," he said quickly, shaking his head. "No, because you're so sweet and helpful and...and..."

"And that's all code for pushover, I know," I sighed, coming to a stop in front of the door to the infirmary. Remus stared to say something, but I cut him off. "Well, I may as well get this over with. Come on."

Remus followed me into the infirmary, where Madam Pomfrey was setting the broken arm of some second year Hufflepuff boy, probably got into a fight. I felt deep sympathy for him, but he was out in a matter of seconds with minimal scolding.

"Now, sorry for the wait, dears," Madam Pomfrey said kindly. "What seems to be the - oh, dear, what happened to your eye?"

I blinked.

"It's black," I said dully, and she frowned a bit.

"Yes, I can see that," she said slowly. "How did it get this way?"

"It got hit," I said simply.

"By who or what?" she said impatiently.

"Ah, that was my fault, Madam Pomfrey," Remus lied. "I was stretching and I smacked her in the eye on accident and, well, you know I don't really know my own strength."

"Oh, yes, well, let's get it fixed up then," Madam Pomfrey said, finding bruise paste in her office and carefully dabbing it on my eye. Then she cast a charm and I looked in a mirror across the way. The bruise was completely gone.

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey," Remus and I said at the same time, and she just smiled, saying it was nothing and telling Remus to be more carefully when he was swinging his arms.

"Yes, ma'am," he said eagerly, leading me back out of the infirmary and to the common room.

"You lied," I said after we'd been walking for a while. "Why did you do that?"

"Well, you weren't going to tell her the truth," Remus said, sighing, "and since she would think you were up to something dishonorable if she didn't have a plausible story I provided one for the sake of your honor, all right?"

I was confused as to why he would do such a thing, but he was right. When a girl didn't say why she was hurt, the first thing anyone thought was that she was being beaten by some boy she was being promiscuous with. It was sweet of him to stand up for my reputation, and I told him so.

"It's not a problem," he sighed. "So you talked to Vanessa?"

"Yeah, they'll probably be together by the end of the week," I said, trying not to sound too bitter. "The real question is how long they'll last, knowing the two of them."

"Well, let's not take bets on it," Remus joked. "I always lose those and I can't afford to lose any more money to you."

It was true, Remus was strange about betting. Either he was really bad at guessing things or he found ways to let me win on purpose, which would be silly of him. In spite of having a large family, I had plenty of spending money, but Remus, in spite of being an only child, was incredibly poor. Giving his money away to me for no reason really wasn't something he ought to be up to, but I didn't really understand the world inside Remus's head.

Actually, the Marauders were, more or less, a mystery, even to me.

I decided while we were walking to try to be a wingman for Sarah in her love for Remus.

"So, did you see the dress Sarah wore yesterday?"

Remus blinked.

"Ah, no, I don't think so. Which one was it?"

"The blue one, with the feathers on the sleeves. Her mother hates that dress."

"No, I don't think I've seen it."

"It's the one she wore to Hogsmeade with us," I said, frowning. Was he really so oblivious to Sarah, or to clothing? After all, he had the picture from the trip on his bedside.

"Oh," he said. "Sorry, I don't know much about fashion."

"Oh," I muttered, trying to figure out a new direction. "Well, I think it's a very nice dress. I'd like to know what you think of it sometime. I'm thinking of buying one like it, you see. I think it shows off Sarah's legs nicely. She has very nice legs. Of course, it wouldn't look as good on me, but that's a given."

"That's not true," he said quickly, then he turned pink and said, "I mean, you've got very nice legs and... I mean, I'm sure it would look lovely on you."

I frowned. He was missing the point, although I was flattered that he thought I had nice legs because I didn't think so at all. They were too muscular, too defined, and way too bulky, especially with comparison to Sarah's beautiful legs. But at any rate, we were at the portrait hole and climbing into the common room and the conversation had to stop at that point, not because Sarah was around or anything like that, but because James rushed up to us, frantic, fuming, and furious about something, grabbing Remus and leading both of us to their dormitory.

"What's got you all in a tizzy?" I asked when he'd closed the door behind us and started pacing furiously.

"Sirius is in detention!" James roared. "Would you like to know why, Amy? Would you care to know what this whole debacle is about?"

"Um, yes, that would be nice," I said, confused.

"Sirius pulled a prank on Lily Evans, charmed her arms to her sides!" James cried. "I mean, why would he even do that? And she knew it was him because she heard him say the charm so she went straight to McGonagall and he's in detention for the rest of the day and when McGonagall asked why he did it, do you know what he said?"

"No, James, I wasn't there," I said, growing exasperated. "Why don't you tell me what he said?"

"He said that she deserved it!" James roared. "Why in the name of Merlin would he think that she deserved to have her arms charmed to the side of her body, Amy? Why would he think that?"

"Why are you asking Amy?" Remus snapped finally. "Why don't you ask Sirius?"

"Oh, I did," James hissed. "He told me that it was because of Amy. That's why I'm asking Amy!"

I shifted uncomfortably. This was part of why I'd never told Sirius or anyone about the feud with Lily. I didn't want to come between the Marauders, especially James and Sirius. I knew how much they meant to each other.

"Lily hit me," I said softly, knowing that James wasn't going to leave me alone until he got answers. "Last night, we got into a fight, and she gave me a black eye. Sirius saw it this morning and he sort of flipped out I guess. Remus just took me to the hospital wing to get it fixed up, actually."

"Lily hit you?" James asked softly, as though trying to wrap his brain around the concept.

"Yeah," I muttered.

"And she gave you a black eye?" he clarified.

"Yup."

To my surprise, James's face broke into a grin and he said, "Lily can give a black eye. My Lily-flower can give a black eye. Isn't that hot?"

I spluttered a bit and Remus sighed, "No, James, it's not hot. It's terrible."

"What do you mean?" James asked, still grinning like an idiot.

"I mean the reason Lily hit Amy is because she's friends with us," Remus snapped. "She doesn't like Amy because Amy's friends with you and Sirius."

"You mean she's jealous?" James said hopefully.

"No, I mean she hates everything to do with you," Remus growled, "and Amy's been taking the fallout in silence for years and it had to come down to being physically assaulted before she even said a word to us about it. You should be thanking her for putting up with so much crap on your behalf all these years instead of being upset with Sirius and proud of Lily!"

James blinked.

"Right," he said slowly. "Sorry about your eye, McAuley."

"Don't mention it, Potter," I sighed.

"So how're things going with Vanessa?" James asked, flopping onto his bed happily. I suspected he wasn't very sorry at all, but he was trying, and that was more than usual, so I wasn't too upset with him.

"Great!" I said as cheerily as I could muster. "I think they'll be together before the week's out."

"Too slow for Sirius, you know," James laughed. "If I didn't know any better I'd say he was in love with the bird."

I inwardly felt sick at the thought, but then Remus said, "Yeah, like Sirius's capable of falling in love."

And then, if possible, I felt even sicker.

"Right, well," I muttered, "I'll do the best I can, but it's not like I can snap my fingers and make everything work out."

"I'm sure you're doing your best," Remus said earnestly. He bit the inside of his cheek for a moment and then turned to the picture beside his bed of us at Hogsmeade, pulling it over to where we were sitting, looking at it and saying, "This the dress you were talking about?"

He held the picture out, but I knew it was the dress. Looking at the picture was just my way of being as not-creepy as possible.

"Yeah, that's the one," I said happily, inwardly jealous of how amazing photo-Sarah's legs looked, especially compared with how stubby mine looked in the school uniform I was wearing.

Remus looked at the dress again, then looked at me as though imagining me in it, and I was surprised by the small smile and the tinge of pink at his neck that appeared as he looked at me.

Finally, Remus cleared his throat and said, "Yeah, I think that'd be great on you."

I looked at the picture again, frowning slightly. Vanessa was wearing an adorable miniskirt, and even photo-Sirius was having a hard time not looking at her legs. No wonder Sirius wanted to date her. She didn't have my drab wardrobe. She didn't have my stubby legs. She was perfect, absolutely perfect, and even a pretty dress like Sarah's couldn't possibly make me into what he wanted.

I wasn't perfect.

"Yeah, I'll think about it," I said quickly, realizing Remus was still looking at me, as though waiting for something.

Just then, Peter came in and squeaked, "Did you hear Sirius hexed Lily?"

I groaned burying my face in my hands.

"Yeah," Remus sighed. "Yeah, we've heard."

"I'm going to go," I sighed. "I'll see you guys around. Let Sirius know I appreciate it, whenever McGonagall lets him out."

"You don't have to leave on my account, Amy," Peter squeaked anxiously. "I'm sorry if I upset you or something. I didn't know-"

"It's fine, Peter," I assured him, heading for the door. "I need to be on my way anyway. I've got homework to finish. Sarah and I have been putting it off and it's time I get to it and get it done."

I walked away, firmly turning down Remus's offer to loan me his assignment for reference and went back to my own dormitory, nervous about what Lily Evans would do when she saw my unmarked face.