By the next day, the entire population of Hogwarts had heard the news of James and Lily's fight and subsequent breakup. And if they hadn't, they would soon because the once inseparable couple was…separated. However, the few that knew exactly what the fight was about kept their mouths shut—leaving ample room for various other conjectures and theories to sprout.
"I heard that James finally got to his senses and broke up with her." A Ravenclaw brunette whispered. Her friends nodded fiercely, sending the red head in question pity filled glances as they passed. Lily rolled her eyes. The least they could do was not talk about her behind her back…right in front of her. The threesome passed the Marauders as they were looking for suitable seating in the Great Hall. Yumi glared, Arabella regarded them with a frosty gaze, and Lily paid no attention whatsoever. They settled on three seats as far away from the four as possible.
"Harsh," Peter winced into his buttered toast.
"You can't very well blame her," Sirius remarked. Remus said nothing.
"And I suppose this means you've lost, Prongs." Sirius continued with a shrug, "I won't blacken your name too badly, of course. You've done enough damage to it as it is."
"I still have a little less than two weeks." James replied curtly.
"What you still have is that mark on your face where she slapped you." Remus replied flatly. James was at least happy he was talking again. He hadn't said much as of late.
"Don't remind me." James mumbled, absently rubbing his swollen cheek. He looked up from his unappetizing meal to see a few Gryffindor and Hufflepuff girls glaring at him. Another group of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs eyed him predatorily. He sighed, his eyes roaming the crowds until Lily came into his sight—albeit indistinctly. He ran a hand through his unkempt hair as he wondered how she was faring thus far.
Lily, unlike James, was actually quite happy. She had sorely missed not being James' girlfriend. A flock of owls soon barged into the hall, dropping letters everywhere. Lily grinned. Not a single letter for her and she would love to keep it that way.
"I'm glad to see you smile!" Yumi said ecstatically as she watched her friend pour milk into her bowl.
"Yes, but I don't think this calm will last for much longer. You know, Hogwarts: the gossip mill."
"Well, I don't particularly care what they have to say about me—" Lily trailed off as another group of girls passed by.
"I hear that Lily was dating James only so she could get closer to Sirius." Lily fell straight out of her chair. Yumi and Bella stifled chuckles to no avail.
"Lily, you okay?"
"Sirius? Where did that one come from?" Lily asked, wide eyed and quite perturbed. This sent her two friends into a frenzy of laughter.
Sirius sneezed. "Where did that come from?" He asked, thoughtfully rubbing his nose.
"You see Sirius, when the nerves in the nose—"
"Oh very clever, Prongs," Sirius rolled his eyes, "It's a wonder how Lily isn't begging to come back to you as we speak." James seethed.
"Maybe someone's talking about you." Remus replied calmly before James could begin eviscerating Sirius with his spoon.
"It's an Asian myth that when you sneeze, someone is talking about you."
"Now who would want to talk about Sirius when they could be talking about me?" James said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Although the people talking about you right now probably aren't saying very good things."
"Mr. Moony?"
"Yes, Mr. Prongs?"
"Shut up."
A small smile, "Yes, Mr. Prongs."
-
It had been a whole week of very mixed feelings for Lily Evans. On the one hand, life had become almost as it had once been before James Potter and his betting nonsense—it was the almost that left Lily torn. While she generally did not care much for rumors, even she could not help but become irritated when said rumors were about her—always. Thus, Lily was somehow relieved when she noticed James Potter gesturing to her from the corner of her eye as she was traveling to dinner.
"Oh, I think I've left my books behind in Charms!" Lily called out to her two friends, who had never left her side ever since the unfortunate breakup.
"Lily, you're holding your books!" Arabella called after her.
"Oh, Bella, let it be. She's been putting up a strong front all day, maybe she just wants a little time alone." Yumi chided, nudging the other in the shoulder as they continued in the opposite direction.
"Good, I was afraid we'd never be able to meet with those two acting like your body guards." James muttered as he watched the other two disappear around the corner.
"They have a reason to," Lily shrugged, ignoring James' frown.
"I told you—"
"Yes, yes, it's not your fault—blah blah, can we get on with it?"
James let out a small 'hmph', "Well, there's about a week left 'til the Christmas ball and if we want to accomplish the bet, we're going to have to get back together."
"And how shall we do that?"
"Erm, well, as long as we make a big entrance, everyone will just assume things have worked out between us."
"Sounds better than anything I can come up with," She replied, resting her chin on her palm.
"What?" James asked, shocked, "But I thought you were smarter than me!"
"I am," she replied without missing a beat, "I didn't snog Trina Cannon."
"I told you—"
"Although even I must admit I'm rather glad to get back together."
"Why Lily dear, you missed me that much?"
She rolled her eyes, "No, but with Yumi constantly mentioning her brother, Shiro, as a possible date to the ball, other professors offering love advice, and some of the most horrid rumors to ever grace the face of Hogwarts, I'm just a little perturbed."
His eyes gleamed, "What kinds of rumors?"
"The stupid kind."
"Lily!"
"Well then, since I've just now given Arabella and Yumi the slip and it probably takes longer then five minutes to make up; care for a game of chess?"
"Don't change the subject!"
-
"What time is it?" Lily asked, concentrating on moving her knight.
"It's been about and hour."
"Oh."
"So, shall we introduce ourselves as a couple again?" He asked, moving a pawn forward.
"Just…one…second…" She replied slowly, brow furrowed in concentration.
"And Lily?"
"Yes?"
"Checkmate." He said triumphantly, grinning as she stared in shock at the chessboard.
"Let's go," She said stiffly, hastily standing and stalking out of the library.
"Oh Lily," James sang after her, "I do believe you've forgotten the terms of the chess game."
"What terms?" She asked, voice saccharinely sweet and full of innocence as she walked quickly away from him. With his longer legs, James was able to overtake her in a few strides. He took a hold of her wrist, grinning like a cat.
"Well if I recall, you are supposed to tell me all about those awful rumors flying above your pretty little head."
"Okay." Lily took a deep breath as James earnestly let go of her wrist. She ran.
"Hey!"
And, only mere inches from the Fat Lady's portrait, Lily Evans was tackled to the ground—though as gently as he could have managed—by James Potter. She squirmed in protest but he merely grinned in response, "Rumors?"
"But rumors are an unfounded waste of mind numbing lies that people tell in order to feel better about themselves and—" As his look suggested James was not going to let up until she spilled, Lily sighed, "Oh bugger—fine. People have been saying that I only started going out with you in order to get to Sirius…and Remus…and Peter…and Frank…and—"
"You know, I don't think I want to hear the rest of this." James muttered, growing slightly red in the face as he helped her off the ground. Lily stuck her tongue out at him as the Fat Lady swung the portrait open, muttering about the lack of modesty in the kids of this generation. They looked at each other before bursting out laughing and entering the common room in merry spirits. Both paused, however, on seeing the entire common room staring at them with wide eyes.
"On second thought, perhaps we don't want to be present for the starting of new rumors." James muttered under his breath.
"I concur." Lily replied.
"Then a walk it is!" James cried, taking Lily's hand easily before bolting as fast as he could manage out the portrait door.
"Well," Remus stated from his position by the fireplace, "That was…odd." Sirius was too surprised to speak and Peter was blinking rapidly. Arabella stood just as shell-shocked as Sirius before coming to her senses and running up to the dorm, slamming the door shut in her fury.
Yumi's subsequent shout of, "Oh dear, Bella!" turned the Marauders' attentions to the Asian as she tried to follow after her friend. She was stopped by Sirius' arm.
"What the hell is up with her?" He demanded, eyebrow twitching irritably.
"What do you care?" Yumi sneered, trying to twist out of his viselike grip, "Let go of me." Remus and Peter held Sirius back and she rubbed her sore wrist painfully.
"Sorry." Sirius muttered, only sounding slightly so.
"Look," Remus took over in his soft but firm voice, "we just want to know what's wrong."
"Nothing." She replied stiffly, making Sirius groan in frustration.
"We just want to help." Peter pleaded softly. She sighed, unsure of what to do. Yumi's resentment of the Marauders was offset slightly by her initial support of them when Lily and James had first become official.
In the end, her better nature won out and she began, "Bella is…not very fond of boys like you. Something happened once to her, something that hurt her deeply, and it was because of someone like you guys and—I…I think that's all I can say about the matter."
"That explains her initial bitterness to us." Remus mused. Yumi shot him a glare.
"Well, she didn't want Lily to go through what she went through. What did you expect her to do, ask you all to tea?"
Remus shot his eyesbrows up in mild surprise at the unusual rancor in her voice. Yumi sighed, "Sorry. But seeing Lily and James together even after he's already hurt her—even I'm rather upset about that."
"But Trina was the one to kiss James!" Peter declared, "Not the other way around!"
Yumi's eyes widened in surprise, "Is that true?"
At Peter's fervent nod, Yumi rubbed the back of her neck subconsciously, "Well then someone ought to tell her."
She was about to head for the stairs again when Remus suddenly asked, "Where's Sirius?" The door to the 6th year girl's dorm closing softly seemed to reply in volumes.
"Well, that was…" Yumi trailed off, unable to even blink at such a strange turn of events.
"Odd?" Remus supplied.
"Yeah."
-
"Oh Miss Bella," Sirius sang sarcastically, partly because of contempt and partly because he knew no other way to reveal his presence. She looked up at him from her position on the bed, with her pillow clutched tight in her arms. He sighed inwardly, glad of the tears not present in her eyes. If there was one thing Sirius Black could not stand; it was a crying woman.
"Did you think I would cry over something as ridiculous as that?" She asked him flatly, violet eyes boring such deep holes into his brain that he felt rather like he was undergoing a lobotomy.
"How did you—can you—can you read minds?" Sirius asked, eyes widening.
"No idiot, but I can read faces," she said, amusement draining her of her anger, "What do you want?"
"I…" And Sirius found that he had no answers.
"Surely, Mr. Black, you did not come in here to check in on my well being." And amusement turned to dry cynicism.
"…Yumi told us." Sirius muttered, feeling it was safer to place the blame on her friend.
"Oh."
Sirius narrowed his eyes as she remained expressionless, "Oh? That's it? That's all you're going to say?"
"Then what shall I say?" She replied loftily, placing her pillow down and meeting his narrowed gaze. "Shall I proceed to tell you in every way possible how your very being sickens me to the core? That humans—and I use the term loosely—like you are perhaps the most foul—"
Her eyes widened and she let out a startled gasp as Sirius' enraged face was suddenly before hers, "Just where you get off acting all high and mighty? So you had your heart broken once, big bloody deal! That doesn't give you any right to generalize this hatred onto us. And just who gives you the right to dictate who is human or not, huh?"
The brunette found herself at a loss of words, for perhaps the first time in her life, at the malice so evident in the voice of the most jovial Marauder. Sirius exploited this silence, "Well? Answer me. Unless, I'm sorry, am I too lowly a wretch that you cannot find it in you to deign to talk to me?"
"James—"
"James what?" Sirius growled, his face inches from hers, "James is my best mate and you know nothing about him so don't ever think you do."
"He hurt her." She replied, trying to keep her voice as even as possible, despite her shaking frame. Her pride kept her eyes locked onto his although she so desperately wanted to break contact. He took a shallow breath, blinking rapidly as he recognized the fear in her eyes and the trembling of her hands she tried so hard to hide.
"I—" his mouth suddenly felt very dry, "Trina kissed James."
She looked at him as if her were mad, "P—pardon?"
"Trina. She was the one that initiated the kiss. It wasn't James."
"O—Oh." And then silence filled the room, adding to the already nearly suffocating tension in the room. He saw her absently clench and unclench her hands and silently cursed himself for getting carried away.
"Look, I—" she stared as he groped for the words, "Lily will be fine. Whether she's with James or not, she—she's a strong girl." He ended lamely. He couldn't find it in him to apologize, even if it was him at fault; he had too much pride for that.
"It's not up to me to dictate her happiness." She mused languidly. He inwardly winced at her wording but she seemed to have regained her composure. "Thank you." Her pride would allow this.
"You're—Yeah. Sure."
"And Sirius?" Arabella asked softly as she turned to face him. And he suddenly realized that it was perhaps the first time his first name was uttered from her lips and how close in proximity they had become during his entire tirade.
"W—what?"
"You have detention for going into the girl's dorm." She said coolly before pushing him off of her bed with ease. He muttered obscenities into the carpet.
-
A/N: Oh dear, many things took a turn for the better in this revision, and I'm actually rather fond of it, if only for the last scene.
When I first started this fic, I was under the impression that Sirius was probably the most playful, jovial one of all the Marauders (because of those pictures Harry saw and other characterizations I had read). However, stumbling across an excellent post on Sirius with regards to the OotP canon facts at 7thyeartrain (which is by far the most intelligent MWPPL era fan community I've found, btw) reminded me that Sirius was really nothing like the Sirius most people portray him as. He's much darker and bitterer. And though I couldn't change the fic to suit Sirius' character, as this is supposed to be humor first and foremost, I thought that I could allude to it.
So for the sake of this fic, with everything Sirius has had to deal with, I can imagine him trying valiantly to be nothing like his family. However, the bitterness from his past would have left him with a darker side, which can get out when provoked, but this side horrifies him as he thinks he might be just like his family who disowned him. Not a terrible rendition of Sirius, I hope, since it was rather fascinating for me to write that last scene—bitter!Sirius is ever so interesting. Of course most of you don't care a whit about that or anything I have to say so let's move on to the next chapter.