Chapter 7.

A Not So Sirius Day

'Lily Lily Lily Lil-aaaayy… do do do do do do do… and do ya do ya do ya do ya do do do do,' sang Sirius as Lily and the Marauders walked down to Potions. Lily was hand in hand with James and was rolling her eyes at Sirius.

'Where did that come from?' she whispered to James.

'Let's just say, it involved a time machine, ten minutes in the year 2007 and two months detention with McGonagall,' said James.

Lily giggled; she could always count on hanging out with the Marauders for a laugh.

She looked around at Remus who was walking behind them with his hands in his pockets, she caught his eye and she grinned and pointed at Sirius, Remus gave her a look that said 'Don't ask' and she giggled again, she had to admit being with James had made her so happy, and that he made her so happy, she couldn't help but smile all the time.

There was only one flaw in Lily's oh so perfect life at the moment… her friends. Lily had been hanging out with James and his friends ever since she started going out with him, that she hadn't seen much of her own friends lately. Or more like they hadn't seen much of her, Lily had a feeling they were ignoring her, as if she'd done something totally wrong, she lay in bed for hours staring at the ceiling replaying what had happened in the past month, trying to recall if she'd done something wrong. She had a feeling it had something to do with Remus, she had indeed seen Anisha and Remus in deep conversation and Remus coming from it looking thoroughly troubled.

In lessons Anisha and Fiona worked together and they only said hi to her, totally forgetting that they were best friends, forgetting that they had promised to stick with each other no matter what.

And all in all Lily felt… stung. It was as if she had lost her best friends for no absolute reason, she wanted to go up to them and tell them all about James, about how they had gotten together, about how happy he made her, she wanted to blurt out everything she felt and talk about meaningless stuff for hours. But she couldn't, she couldn't do those things with James or even Remus, she needed her girls.

Again in Potions, Lily was paired up with James, Slughorn who had taken the news of them dating with a load of shock continued to pair them together.

After Potions, Lily headed towards the library, and no matter how much she liked James, she felt she could no way study with him around; he was too much of a distraction.

She sat in the library, doing her Transfiguration homework, she looked up from her work and noticed that Remus sitting not far from her, she wondered why he hadn't come over to her so she got up herself and went over to him.

'Hey Remmy!' she whispered as she snuggled herself next to him on the couch that was near the Potions books.

Remus looked up and half-smiled, 'Oh, hey Lils, didn't know you were in here,' he said quietly.

'Thought so, anyway what's up? Have you done McGonagall's homework yet? It's solid,' said Lily.

'Erm no, I was working on Potions right now,' said Remus not looking up.

Lily noticed that he seemed distant, coming to think of it; he had been doing for a while now. 'Remus, what's wrong?' she asked quietly.

'Nothing,' said Remus firmly.

Lily moved up a little away from Remus, something had just clicked in her mind.

'No. No, you're lying to me Remus,' she said.

Remus looked up startled, 'What are you on about Lily? Nothing's wrong, really,' he said.

'No. No. You've been uncomfortable around me for long now, and you and Anisha fell out … and then I saw you two talking a few days ago … and you didn't look too happy after it … and Anisha isn't properly speaking to me either. It doesn't make sense,' said Lily, more to herself than to Remus.

Lily stared at Remus, 'Please tell me what's up,' she said, tears welling in her eyes now, 'I'm losing my best friend,' she whispered. 'Please.'

Remus looked as if he was about to say something, he had gone pale and looked as if he was going to be sick, 'I cant … ' he said at last, and with that he grabbed his books and got out of the library.

Lily stared after him in surprise; she wiped her tears away and hugged herself. She had no idea what was going on, but she was going to get some answers.

x---x

'What the hell is going on?' hissed Lily as soon as she spotted Anisha sitting in the common room with Fiona; it was still lunch so it was empty.

Anisha looked up in surprise, 'W-what?' she said uncertainly, even Fiona looked startled.

'Don't what me Anisha. I have had enough of you,' said Lily she turned around to Fiona, 'You as well,' she added.

'What? What have we done?' said Fiona.

'What have you done? What have I done? Why are you treating me like this?' said Lily desperately.

'Treating you like what?' said Anisha.

'I'm your best friend!' said Lily.

'We know!' said Anisha.

'Then what the hell is going on?' demanded Lily.

'What do you mean?' said Fiona.

'You don't know? You don't even bloody know? You don't know that we haven't spoken properly for about two weeks now? That the most conversation we had is 'hi and bye'? You don't know that you two have been ignoring me like we haven't been best friends for six years? AND YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW THAT I HAVE TO SPEND ALL MY BLOODY TIME WITH THE MARAUDERS BECAUSE MY TWO SO-CALLED BEST FRIENDS REFUSE TO SPEAK TO ME FOR GOD KNOWS WHAT REASON?' yelled Lily, tears of fury and sadness were pouring down her face. 'Just please, tell me what I did,' she added in a whisper.

Fiona got up and wrapped her arms around Lily who backed away and raised a hand, 'Don't,' she said in a strained voice.

'Lily please, let us explain,' said Fiona pleadingly, Lily nodded, Fiona looked over at Anisha who was staring fixedly at the floor trying to swallow back tears.

Anisha looked up, her face stained with tears. 'Erm… I – uh,' she choked. 'Er, I talked to Remus a few weeks ago … to tell him I was in love with him.'

Anisha paused, and looked confused, 'Lily it's not my place to tell you, I'm just really terribly sorry for being so horrible, I didn't mean to ignore you at all and I uh, I just couldn't stand being around any Marauders,' she carried on.

'Not your place to tell me what? What happened with Remus?' asked Lily.

'I uh, went and told him I was in love with him… and he …' she said. 'He… said he was in love with someone else.'

'W-who?' said Lily, just hoping and wishing that what she was thinking wasn't going to be true.

'You…' whispered Anisha with a tear falling silently down her face.

'No,' said Lily, everything was coming together like a jigsaw puzzle now, as if all those years and memories were pieces of the puzzle, finally making sense at the end.

It was true that Lily had suspected in her fifth year that he liked her, but maybe sensing her suspicions he had then claimed he liked Anisha.

He had led Anisha on…

No wonder Anisha hadn't spoken to Lily for so long, why Anisha had claimed Lily was so insecure and was too blind to see things in front of her.

Why hadn't Remus told her?

Perhaps it had been because James liked her?

Or was it fear of rejection?

If Remus had asked her out a few years ago, would she have said yes? Thinking back to then she most probably would have, would she be standing here hopelessly in love with him instead of James?

'Lily?' said Fiona quietly looking at her, 'Are you all right?'

'I'm fine, I uh, I just need to think,' said Lily, and with that she spun around and headed straight out of the portrait hole.

x---x

'Have you seen Lilayyyyyy?' called James as he entered the portrait hole to Fiona and Anisha, who were in determined conversation.

They looked up, Anisha quickly wiped any trace of tears and looked around for Remus, 'Have you seen Remus?' she asked ignoring James's question.

James looked slightly annoyed but he shrugged, 'Don't know, might be in the library,' he said thinking.

'Thanks,' said Anisha and rushed past him without another word. Fiona sighed and put her head in her hands, 'Hey hey hey, what's wrong?' said James kindly.

'Just bloomin' everything,' she said. 'This year hasn't started out as great as I would have hoped.'

'What are you on about? It's great! Me and Lily are happy-' started James.

'You and Lily are happy? Well James, there's a lot of things you don't know after all,' said Fiona as she got up and headed towards her dormitory.

'What's that meant to mean?' called James after her.

'You don't want to know,' said Fiona quietly in an undertone before entering her dorm room.

James shook his head, totally confused, his face lit up as Sirius came in followed by Peter.

'Pads! Wormyyy!' he greeted.

Sirius grinned, 'Prongsie old boy! I single handed came up with a fabulous plan to prank dear old Snivellus,' said Sirius proudly.

James face dropped, 'Pads, I don't do that anymore,' he said.

Sirius gasped, 'Don't have a silly willy you billy!' he said.

James screwed his up in confusion, 'Whaaat?' he said.

'He means don't be stupid you loved up saddo,' explained Peter.

'Silly willy you billy? All I can say is PADFOOT MATE WHAT ARE YOU ON?' said James loudly, making Peter snigger and several people look up at them curiously.

Sirius grinned, 'Strictly sugar Prongsie,' he said as he did a little dance showing how hyped up on 'sugar' he was.

The fifth year girls giggled in anticipation, Sirius turned around and winked at them, making James roll his eyes.

'Anyhoo, after that not so clever trick you played on me turning my hair pink which I might add still makes me look fantastic, I got an idea, why not turn every Slytherin's hair pink? Pink is the new green,' said Sirius.

'It's pretty amateur though, don't you think?' said James.

Sirius shook his head, 'Nope, it's simple and that's what makes it brilliant!' he said as Peter nodded eagerly.

James sighed, 'If you say so, I don't think Lily will approve though,' he said.

'You don't think Lily will approve of what?' said a voice behind them, Remus had just come out of nowhere (portrait hole).

'I thought you were in the library,' stated James.

'I was,' said Remus indifferently as he placed himself on the comfy couch near the fireplace.

'O-kay, anyway Anisha was looking for you,' said James.

Remus sat up, 'Uh, she was?' he asked.

'Yeah,' said James.

'I wonder what she wanted,' muttered Remus to himself, not noticing that his friends were watching him suspiciously. Remus looked up, Sirius was eyeing him with a half knowing look in his eye, 'Er, Pads, you want to go to the kitchens?' he said.

Before Sirius could answer James nodded his head delightedly, 'I'll go,' he said.

'Oh,' said Remus softly. 'Can you get me a er, pumpkin pasty?'

James looked taken aback, but then shrugged, 'Coming Wormtail, Pads?' he said to the two boys.

Sirius shook his head, 'I uh, need to… sleep,' he made up not so cleverly.

James looked at him weirdly, 'O-kay then, are you coming?' he said to Wormtail. 'Don't say no,' he added threateningly to him.

And with that the two boys headed down to the kitchens leaving Remus and Sirius in the common room.

'What's happened?' asked Sirius.

'Lily,' said Remus, and he told him what had happened in the library.

Sirius however looked untroubled, 'Oh so what?' he said. 'Trust me, she wont find out you like her.'

He had spoken too soon.

'Oh there you are Remus,' said Anisha hurriedly. 'I need to talk to you.'

'What about?' asked Remus, she gave him a look that said clearly she didn't want to speak in front of Sirius. 'It doesn't matter, you can say anything in front of Padfoot.'

'Uh, I don't think you'll want me to,' she said uncertainly.

'Just go ahead woman!' said Sirius.

Anisha sighed, 'Lily knows,' she said, and she explained everything that had happened before.

'No, no, no!' said Sirius. 'How could you do that you idiot?' he yelled at Anisha.

Anisha leered, a tear spilled down her face, Remus got up and shoved Sirius, 'What the hell is wrong with you?' he said angrily to him. 'She did what was best.'

'I'm so sorry Remus,' sobbed Anisha. 'I had to, she was crying and screaming and she had a right to know.'

'Where is she?' said Remus.

'I don't know, she said she needed to think,' said Anisha.

Remus nodded and he dashed upstairs to his dorm, indeed looking for her on the map, she was in the Astronomy Tower.

'Don't let James find out,' said Remus to Anisha. 'Please,' he added as he stormed out of the portrait hole.

x---x

'Hi,' said Remus softly to Lily, who was sitting hugging her knees staring out the tower.

Lily looked up, 'Hey,' she said.

'Can we talk?' he said, Lily nodded and moved up so he could sit next to her.

'I'm – sorry, sorry Lily,' he said.

'Since when?' she asked.

'Third year…' said Remus.

She nodded failing very badly not to look disgruntled.

'Remus… why? Why didn't you ever tell me?' said Lily turning sideways to look at him.

He stayed quiet and stared ahead at the sky.

'Was it – was it because of James, because James liked me? Remus, if you had asked me back then I would have said yes, it would have been me with you and not with James,' said Lily.

'Lily, would you prefer that?' said Remus, she stared at him feeling confused. 'Would you rather me and you, or you and James?'

'Remus – right now, I would do anything for James, if you had asked me earlier it would be a yes, 100,' said Lily. 'Why didn't you ask me out Remus?'

'Because – because James saw you first, you were his,' said Remus.

'I was his? I WAS HIS? I am not property Remus!' said Lily.

'That's not what I meant Lily,' said Remus, quite shocked with Lily's sudden outburst, she had just been so calm.

Lily sighed, 'I'm sorry – I just, well I have never told anyone this before – so uh – here goes … Remus back in third year, I used to like you. But I never asked you out because – because Anisha had seen you first,' she said with her head in her hands.

To Lily's surprise, Remus laughed, oh yes, he laughed like there was no tomorrow.

'Ironic isn't it?' he said finally.

Lily stared at Remus, and then laughed as well. 'Yeah, yeah it is,' she said. 'Remus, it's going to be really awkward between us, I mean yeah I used to like you, but I hate to say this but I don't think there's any chance that my feelings for you will ever change-'

'Lily! You don't think I know that? This is why I never told you before, well partly why, and well, you had and always will be James's, and not as his property,' said Remus.

'Thanks Remus, please don't let it get awkward, I really like having you as a friend,' said Lily.

'Same here, and erm – can you tell Anisha I'm sorry?' said Remus.

'No prob,' said Lily getting up. 'Oh and Remus, were those, erm notes, from you?'

'Yeah, I don't know what possessed me to do that, sorry. And er – Lils? Can we keep this between us? Like not tell James?' said Remus.

Lily laughed and nodded, 'Your secrets safe with me Remmy, now come on I haven't done Potions homework yet……'

x---x

Sirius hummed as he made his way back from dinner, once again he was on his own, this seemed to be happening a lot lately, Peter was nowhere to be found, Remus was in the library, James was with Lily.

Could it be possible that the Marauders were drifting apart?

Nah.

Sirius winked at a few girls who went past him and they sighed in response, he grinned to himself, at least he still had his charm, better than anything else. To be honest he hadn't had a snog in three days now, he had been so busy concentrating on cheering Remus up and trying to figure out why McGonagall always wore that green hair grip that he had forgotten all about meaningless snogging.

And that didn't bother him… surprisingly.

Sirius continued humming a random song when he bumped into somebody.

'Oh sorry,' he said to a girl with jet-black hair, and a fringe that covered her right eye. He had never seen her before.

She nodded and walked past him without giving him another look.

Sirius shrugged, but as he walked up to the Gryffindor Tower, he found himself thinking about the girl, why didn't he know her? He was sure he knew every girl in the school, except some Slytherins, that must be it, she must have been a Slytherin.

He shook her thoughts off, but the girl had already made a permanent place in his subconscious without him realising.

x---x

'So you want to steal Fiona's underwear because she chucked porridge all over you this morning?' asked James, trying to make sure he hadn't misunderstood.

'Yeah!' said Sirius enthusiastically.

'Even though you know she's my cousin?' said James.

Sirius nodded.

'Count me in,' said James grinning.

Remus just then joined them for lunch, he looked at Peter who was intently watching James and Sirius's conversation.

'Planning a prank are they?' he asked Peter.

'Why yes we are Moonikins,' answered Sirius before Peter could even nod.

James laughed, 'So you want in Moony?' he asked.

'Oh thanks but I have to rearrange my socks,' said Remus with a straight face.

James and Sirius pulled a face at him while Peter sniggered. They turned from the other two and carried on planning.

'So you're going to sneak into their dormitory and grab Fiona's panties and leg it out of there, of course you'll have to be Padfoot, while I stand out and guard from under the stairs,' said James going through it all.

Sirius nodded.

'And then what exactly are you going to do with Fiona's panties?' interrupted Remus.

'What do you think?' scoffed James.

'Er…' said Remus.

'I'm going to pin them on the notice board,' snickered Sirius matter-of-factly.

'Clever,' said Remus sarcastically.

'You'll see, she'll be embarrassed like hell,' said Sirius with a weird gleam in his eye.

'O-kay, you do know Lily wont be happy about this?' said Remus to James.

'I'm sure she'll see the funny side of it,' said James hopefully.

'She will,' said Sirius encouragingly, although he didn't look to sure himself.

'Whatever,' said Remus. 'I'm going to the library, I said I'd do homework with Fiona, so I guess you can do your 'clever prank' right now.'

'Wahey! Come on Prongsie, we got work to do,' said Sirius.

x---x

'She tortured me into telling her!' said Peter pleadingly to Sirius who looked angry.

Sirius had only just got the panties when Fiona was at the bottom of the stairs holding James and Peter by the ear, a very amused Remus behind her. Apparently Fiona had blackmailed Peter into telling her what Sirius was planning, and Peter had obviously given in.

Fiona had then grabbed her underwear, given Sirius a good hard slap and then dashed upstairs to check if her dormitory was in one peace.

'I hate to say this Padfoot, but you're losing your touch,' said Remus, who was trying very hard not to laugh.

Sirius glared at him, 'You'll lose your touch in a minute,' he muttered, but he didn't look too angry, in fact he looked more depressed than anything else. He slouched into an armchair, the others followed.

And it was as if something had clicked inside his mind, as if something had just woken up, something that had been asleep for nearly two days.

'Where's Lily?' asked Sirius to noone.

'I'm here,' said a sweet voice, Lily gave James a peck on the cheek and sat on his lap. 'What do you want?' she asked Sirius.

'I was wondering, who else lives in your dormitory? Because when I was up there, there were four beds, and three of them were messy, you don't stay up there anymore do you?' said Sirius.

'Erm… there used to be me as well, but now it's just Fiona, Anisha and Kate,' said Lily indifferently.

'Kate?' asked Sirius, his ears perking up; the thing asleep was very much awake now.

'Yeah, Kate Myers,' said Lily.

'Who's that?' asked James.

'What do you mean who's that? She's been here since first year!' said Lily.

'I think I know her, I think I worked with her in Transfiguration once,' said Remus. 'I don't see her much though,' he added.

'Yeah,' said Lily. 'She's a bit of a loner really.'

'What do you mean?' asked Sirius.

'Loner: someone who's usually alone Padfoot,' said Remus slowly.

Sirius rolled his eyes at him, 'I know, but what do you mean? She doesn't have any friends or what?'

'Nah, she spends most of her free time on her own, I think she reads and writes a lot, I don't know, we don't exactly talk to her well, we don't think she exactly likes talking,' explained Lily.

'Wow, that is one weird chick,' commented James.

'Well you would be as well, her brother was murdered in our second year,' said Fiona who had just come down, she smirked at Sirius but he didn't notice, he was in deep thought.

'Myers…Myers…Zeke Myers!' said Sirius after a minute. 'He used to be on the Ravenclaw team, don't you remember when he got killed? Dumbledore made that speech?'

'Oh yeah…' said James, immediately feeling guilty, the rest also fell silent.

'I had forgotten about that,' said Lily. 'But remember Fi? She never talked before that either.'

'She never talked?' asked Sirius.

'Well, you know what I mean, she only talked if you asked her a question or something, we did try to make friends with her, but I reckon she prefers being on her own,' said Lily.

'Wow…' said James, 'I'd hate to be a loner.'

'Same here,' said Lily, and Remus and Fiona nodded; Sirius however was staring at the floor, looking as if he was actually thinking hard.

'I think I'm going to have an early night today,' said Sirius, and with that he got up and went upstairs.

'I guess the blow of not getting a prank right must be bad,' said Remus.

'You're right, Sirius never goes to bed at – 9.30,' said James.

x---x

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