AUTHOR'S NOTE: I only got one review for the last chapter -tear- Ah, well...hope you like this one!! -grin-

A Paradoxical Life
Chapter 6: Enter- Lily

Before turning in, Rianna was sure to point out that if Regulus thought she and Remus had been flirting, it was nothing compared to what he and his black haired "girlfriend" were up to earlier. She promptly refused to hear the blushing boy explain that they were studying. What a day it had been! The firewitch climbed into bed feeling like she could just collapse. It was hard for her to imagine she was only sixteen, and not ninety-nine.

Yawning and feeling herself lulled into sleep, she made a quick mental note to return Severus's potions book back to him. She'd lost hers, (wonderful how these things happen) and borrowing Severus's had been no good- he'd written all over it. So much so, that it was impossible to make out the actual text. Checking one out of the library until she ordered a new one was probably her best bet, at this point. After that, however, she had little time to spare for thoughts, having drifted into blissful sleep...

Remus Lupin had no sooner sat on his bed and taken off his robes when he heard what he knew would be but the start of some very uncomfortable days. Sirius started, of course.

"Hey Moony, how're you doing, mate?" Remus chose not to reply, and continued preparing for bed.

"Yea, how're you feeling?" James wanted to know. Both spoke with barely concealed mirth. At Remus's persistent silence, they pressed on.

"How's your girlfriend doing, Moony?" Sirius inquired, as though he really cared to hear an answer. They both burst out in laughter and Remus tried valiantly and maturely to carry on with his life despite their childishness- it did no good, of course. "How is she, Moony? Fine and dandy? How are the kids? The kids okay? How many have you lot got, anyhow? She seemed quite keen to start on the task, if you ask me-"

"I didn't," Remus supplied, slightly irritated and more than a little tired. He just wanted to get some sleep, honestly. Did they have to dish this out to him at this time? And, great, all that pumpkin juice he washed the pies down with had to have its consequences now, of course. Irately shuffling out of his sheets, he made for the bathroom in the far corner of the room, reflecting that perhaps the others would be asleep by the time he came back.

No such luck. Sirius, in fact, followed him to the bathroom and a few seconds later, James did too. Now quite annoyed, Remus attempted to take care of business anyhow. Sirius nodded at his friend's, err, "utensil". "Did she get a load of that yet?" James and Sirius guffawed stupidly.

"You know, it's hard for a man to pee when his two best friends are going to be standing there watching him so avidly. It's quite disconcerting, actually." He made his way to the sink, miffed.

"No it isn't," Sirius countered. "Here, you can watch me all you want," he invited, pulling his robes over his head and getting ready to take care of some business himself.

"No, thank you," the sane one replied shortly, making his way out of the bathroom, eyes rolling at the impossibility of those two.

As he was leaving, he heard James boasting, "Pfft, I could get mine further, no problem!"

"Oh yea?"

"Sure can!"

"I'd like to see you try-"

"Just watch, then."

"You know," Remus called over his shoulder, "It's a bit too much love when two men are in there with their pants down at the same time." There was a second of silence and then both James and Sirius came hurtling out of the bathroom, both looking a tad green and acting as though the other had a virulent form of cooties. Thankfully for the werewolf, this effectively put their plans to brutally take the mickey out of him on hold- at least for the night.

The next morning, Rianna awoke fresh and ready to take on the new day. Contributing to this refreshing feeling was the fact that she knew she would never have to take anything Sirius dished out at her any longer. She now had, in her possession, what she liked to call "leverage". That is, one peep from him, and the headmaster would definitely be finding out about that pretty cloak he had. This would be a very good year, she could tell.

Humming slightly out of tune, she made her way down to the breakfast table, once again, in her green velveteen pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. It was only Sunday. How she relished the weekends! Propping open a new book she'd checked out recently against the jug of pumpkin juice, she commenced to read and eat at the same time, sometimes forgetting to eat while so engrossed in reading. She felt rather than saw Regulus come down and sit beside her.

There weren't many people in the Great Hall just yet. They liked to take their time, since there really wasn't anything pressing to get done- not even homework, since term had just started. Well, seventh years had it, but who really cared? The weather was too beautiful to worry about homework.

The girl reading found it a tad harder to concentrate when a quartet of laughing young men came down the stairs, cuffing each other lightly this way and that. Still, she forced herself to read normally, reminding herself that the book was far more interesting, anyways.

In reality, it wasn't all four of them that were laughing. More like Potter, Black and Pettigrew were, at the expense of Lupin, who merely smiled and rejected anything they said. Rianna flipped a page and carried on minding her own business.

"When's the hot date, Moony? Or are you skipping straight through to the honeymoon?" They guffawed some more and Remus resigned himself to just putting up with their idiocy until they eventually gave up. This was the plan, anyway.

"Where'll the wedding be? Some dark, cursed cave, no doubt." James nodded to emphasize his point.

"Nono, they'll want it in their ancient and most noble house, of course. Hey, Moony, you a pureblood?"

Despite his resolve not to say anything, he really couldn't help himself when he asked, perplexed, "Honestly, Sirius, what has that got to do with anything?"

James and Sirius blinked. "Well, she's a Slytherin, isn't she? Her family's bound to be pureblood, and proud of it." He made a face. "Gross." Then a new thought struck him. "Hey, wait, then you guys probably won't get married! Even though you're pureblood too, the in-laws probably won't like you associating with the likes of us, for one thing- and there's your condition..."

James sucked his teeth. "Tough luck, mate. She seemed really into you, too. Or maybe she wanted you in her!" Remus blushed, mortified, and batted at his friend.

"Guys, seriously, that's just rude. Enough already!" He might as well have been talking to a wall for all the good that did.

"Excellent, Prongs!" Sirius commended, and the two high-fived each other. "But wait, no, there's still hope for our mate- they'll just have to elope."

"We can conduct the ceremony inside the Womping Willow!" James exclaimed, getting excited. The two dissolved in laughter and continued to make outrageous plans. If Remus didn't start associating with some sane people soon, he'd be in St. Mungo's in no time- and not due to his lycanthropy, either.

Rianna read the same sentence for the fourth time in a row and still didn't register it's meaning. It was hard to read and comprehend at the same time while certain persons were cackling like hyenas at the next table over. She grit her teeth. Honestly, a person couldn't even read in peace around here. Making an irritated "tsch" sound, she left her breakfast half finished and shut her book, tucking it under her arm. Throwing a quick dirty look at the offending table, she made her way to the library, where she was sure to find some Madame Pince-induced silence. Thank heaven for her.

Movement in the table across from theirs made the four marauders look up in interest. "Hey, your girlfriend's off to somewhere," Sirius noted mildly.

"She's not my girlfriend." The response had become almost automatic.

"Whatever."

"Anyhow, she has the right to go wherever she wants, you know."

"Don't defend her so easily, you're sounding like a whipped chap." James sounded disgusted at the prospect, even as his eyes followed a laughing redhead's as she entered the Great Hall and sat down. This did not pass the werewolf's notice. He laughed derisively.

"Oh yea, speaking of whipped..." He made a noise like a whip crack and called over, "Hey- Lily! Lily!" The results were instantaneous. James stiffened and a wild, scared look came into his eyes. He wasn't ready! What was he supposed to say?! He quickly messed up his hair in an effort to look cool, suave, as though he really didn't care what he looked like, and just let his natural, ruggedly handsome looks take over. Looks he didn't have, by the way. Then, just as quickly, he flattened his hair, remembering she had admonished him quite firmly against the ruffling of his hair.

Lily came over to where they were sitting, looking a little puzzled, but also on her guard. "Yes?"

"H-hey Evans." James's voice was a little hoarse and it nearly cracked with the effort of maintaining normality around this particular girl.

"Potter." She nodded in acknowledgment and turned to Remus, who had called her over in the first place.

"How was that Charms test, do you reckon?" he asked casually.

"Oh, it was a piece of cake, I thought. I mean, really, Flitwick exaggerates too much." She rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulder. James watched the track it took and the way it settled, mesmerized.

"How about Potions?" Remus wanted to drag this out. It wasn't everyday he was able to render James speechless and utterly at a loss to do anything but gape stupidly.

Lily shrugged. "It was okay. How about for you?"

He shrugged likewise. "Same. What about that one potion we had to do...the..."

"The Mentis Novo?" (A/N: Mentis is Latin for Thought, and Novo is change, according to freedict dot com, so this is a thought changing potion. To control, in a sense, how people think)

"That's the one."

"As easy as all the rest of them. Slughorn's not exactly the hard type, is he?"

"I actually had a bit of trouble with that bit about preparing the unicorn hair- what exactly are we supposed to do with it?"

"Oh, that's easy," she supplied immediately. "Why don't you come down to the dungeons before lunch and I'll show you?"

"That's not exactly an ideal place to be before lunch..." He made a face at the thought of all the pickled things in jars floating around.

Lily laughed. "I agree- but I really don't have time before then at all today!"

"It's fine, thanks for helping."

"Sure, no problem- today before lunch, don't forget!"

"I won't," he affirmed and she winked at him.

"It's a date then!"

James almost had a heart attack. As soon as Lily had bid them farewell and gone to her end of the table, he pounced on Remus, snarling and practically foaming at the mouth. "What a friend you are- how could you agree to a date with your best friend's girl?!" He had Remus by the shirtfront, pressed against the table. A voice cleared behind him and he looked up. It was Lily.

She raised an eyebrow reprovingly at James and said to Remus, "By the way, I forgot to tell you- bring your Potions book, please. I'd rather not carry mine around."

"Sure, will do," Remus answered from his place against the table, looking up at her.

"And how many times do I have to tell you to stop bullying others, Potter? You don't ever learn, do you? And I'm not your 'girl', so you can forget about that, as well." She threw a disgusted look at him and marched back to her end of the table. James instantly deflated and sat in a self-pitying gloom for the rest of the day, occasionally throwing dirty looks at Lupin.

"How can you be so at ease around her? She's gorgeous!"

"Yes, well, I, unlike you, don't think with my eyes, or, ahem, anything else but my brain, for that matter."

James cuffed Remus's arm. "Don't talk about her like that. And don't think for a minute that you're meeting her alone!"

"That was only fun for like, five minutes," Sirius complained. "I'm going to go find that Slytherin wench. At least she's more entertaining. Wanna come see your girlfriend Moony?" he invited. "Keep her on a leash, maybe?"

"Haha, very funny. I have homework."

The one called "Padfoot" shrugged, "Suit yourself." As he got up and left, he could still hear James moaning about why girls seemed to like Remus so much, even though he was about as cautious as a ninety year old hag.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I bet we could all come up with a few reasons why, huh? Well, what'd you think of it? I love reviews, and I though this was a pretty long chapter, perhaps? Please review! -smiles-