So, it's been a week. And this chapter is a teensy bit shorter than most, and I don't really like it much. But I had to get it out because it shows some important Lily-Norah bonding and some drama on the Frank-Marlene side! And I'm really, really sorry if this is confusing or choppy. Really. If there's something off about it, let me know and I'll fix it up, mkay?

Read on, Potterheads!

Rae

The Potions dungeon door opened with a creak. James and I whooped, throwing our papers in the air and dashed out of the classroom, racing each other to the Entrance Hall.

Panting, I dropped my bag with a grin, slumping back against the wall. "Let's drop our bags upstairs and then set out, yeah?" I asked as the others arrived. Remus and Peter nodded, Sirius grunted and Marlene linked her arm with mine. James fell back to walk alongside Sirius and we all headed up the marble staircase, chatting about what we planned to do in Hogsmeade.

"Zonko's," James declared. "I'm running low on Dungbombs."

"We'll have to put a glamour on them, mate," Sirius advised, although his tone was off. "Scrimby and his apprentice will throw a fit if they find us carting in Dungbombs."

"His apprentice… that Filch guy? With the cat?" Marlene asked interestedly.

"Yeah. His nephew or something. And that cat is the most annoying bloody thing on earth. He sends it to look for troublemakers," Sirius replied with a sneer.

"Really? How do you know?" Remus wanted to know.

"Oh, it found me while I was sneaking out the second-floor girl's bathroom. Filch arrived two minutes later and carted me off to McGonagall."

"I meant, how do you know he's Scrimby's nephew?" Remus asked with a long-suffering sigh, his palm smacking his forehead with a thwap.

"But while we're on the topic, Padfoot," James interrupted, "what exactly were you doing in the second-floor girls' bathroom?"

"Me, Liana Ashton and fifteen minutes. That's all I'm saying," Sirius returned with a leer. I grimaced and rolled my eyes. Could the wanker be any more crass?

"Yeah, I didn't want to know that," Lily said, voicing my thoughts.

"And what happened to Liana?" Alice asked concernedly. I was silent. I had an inkling that if I asked a question, Sirius would either ignore me or give me a negative response. Normally, this would be typical. But so soon after our sort-of truce, the others would definitely pick up on the vibes.

"She was smart enough to let me go out first. She sent me a note in Defence saying she got off without punishment."

"Are you guys together?" Marlene asked, an edge of something in her voice that I couldn't identify.

Sirius laughed. "Please." No other response was needed. It would be an amazing girl who finally brought the Gryffindor Sex God to heel.

Flicking my eyes sideways, I noticed a suspiciously relieved look on Marlene's face. I raised my eyebrows in amusement and she caught the movement, her cheeks flushing red in embarrassment at being caught out. The corner of my lip tweaked in a cheeky smile.

Marlene shot me a glare to melt one of Hagrid's rock cakes and grabbed my arm, holding it with a vicelike grip. I winced, protesting as she dragged me faster up the marble staircase before I could cause more trouble.

Once in the dormitory, I bumped her hip with mine playfully. "So. Does Miss McKinnon have a little thing for Sirius Black?"

Marlene gave me a disparaging look and crossed the room to dump her bag on the bed. "So? Who doesn't? I bet even you do." I opened my mouth in protest, but she cut me off. "All right, maybe you don't have a thing for him but at the very least, you must think he's attractive."

"Yeah, I suppose so," I muttered. But why bother with Sirius when you can have someone almost identical and nicer in every respect?

"So you admit that he's gorgeous?"

"I'll admit he's easy on his eyes," I said grudgingly, thinking about the way his hair fell into his eyes. I envisioned a pair of blue-gray eyes instead and a small smile quirked the corners of my lips. "But gorgeous is a bit extreme."

"Well, who would you say is the most gorgeous guy in Hogwarts, then?" Marlene asked me yanking the door open and holding it for me. Leaving my bag on the bed, I pasted a thoughtful expression on my face and pulled the door shut behind me.

"Well… I don't know. Maybe Vincent Clyde from Hufflepuff? Or… Sean Zeal from Ravenclaw?"

Marlene considered my decision with a pensive look. "Maybe you're right," she conceded as we entered the common room.

"Right about what?" James asked us curiously.

"Nothing," I said quickly. I eyed the clock on the wall and motioned to the portrait hole. "Shall we?"

"Yeah," James agreed. "Oi! Sirius! Remus! Peter! Evans! Let's get moving!"

I sighed, shaking my head sadly. James, James. "You know, Jamesie," I whispered, motioning for him to come closer. "If you want her to go out with you, try calling her Lily instead of Evans."

Oh," James said, realisation dawning. "Right."

"Honestly," I scoffed. "You wanker, it took you six years to figure that out?"

"He's always been a tad slow," Remus quipped. James glowered.

"Not the best wand in the shop, if you get my drift…" added Sirius.

"Well, if we're done making wisecracks about my mental facilities…"

"We're not," I interrupted. James ruffled my hair with a little more force than necessary as I passed through the portrait hole. I grinned at him through my ruffled fringe and swept my hair back, accidentally whipping poor Peter across the face.

The castle corridors were packed with students en route to Hogsmeade – third year and above, obviously. Rumour had it that the governors had thought to cancel Hogsmeade weekends altogether but that Dumbledore had appealed. Thank Merlin for that.

"Thank Merlin for what?" Marlene asked suddenly. I looked at her sideways before realising that I'd probably said the last part aloud.

"That we still have Hogsmeade weekends. Or rather, that Dumbledore stopped the governors from cancelling them," I clarified.

"Bes' Headmaster Hogwarts ever had," a familiar voice said from the side. My eyes flicked sideways, meeting a wide expanse of hairy brown coat, before veering upwards to find a familiar, beard-covered face.

"Hagrid!" I cried happily, throwing myself into a hug. "Where on earth have you been?"

"Bin righ' here!" Hagrid said, messing my hair in much the same manner as James. "It's you that haven' come ter meet me!"

I offered him an ingratiating smile. He chuckled and cuffed the back of my head lightly, sending me to my knees. He yanked me up by the scruff of my neck and prodded me forward, my friends greeting Hagrid as he did so.

Since first year, I'd always spent a lot of time with Hagrid. I hadn't been close to Marlene (let alone Lily or any of the others) and James was often with Sirius. One day, bored and frustrated, I'd wandered into a giant pumpkin patch and walked into a wall of someone. A someone who turned out to be the giant who'd herded us onto the boats the first day of school. After digging me out of the pumpkin I'd fallen into, we'd shared some tea and soon became fast friends.

I used to go down to meet Hagrid every single day during first year. James always wanted to know where I went, but I thrilled in keeping the secret from him, knowing how many secrets he and Sirius kept. At the beginning of second year, however, the wanker got his Invisibility Cloak and followed me to Hagrid's hut.

"This is where you've been going all this time?" he had demanded, forgetting in the heat of his indignation to keep himself hidden.

"You followed me?" I had shrieked.

"I was curious!" he defended himself. "You could've hung out with me," he added, a slight pout to his twelve-year-old lips.

"You were with Sirius," I reminded him frostily.

"I don't understand why you two don't get along," he complained, getting sidetracked. This was, of course, before all the hurtful, hateful stuff, but he and I fought regularly over little things back then, too.

"He's just so… infuriating!" I had cried.

A strange glint came into James' eyes. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you like him," he said slyly. I had whipped out my wand and drawn menacing circles in the air with it.

"Lucky you know better, then. Isn't that right?" He had backed away warily, eyeing my mostly harmless wand tip (I hadn't learned the Bat Bogey Hex yet).

"Yeah, yeah, I know better!" he had exclaimed, gingerly pushing the tip of my wand so it pointed at the ground.

I had pocketed it. "Good. Then I'll introduce you to Hagrid."

The evening had passed in the company of Hagrid, his boarhound puppy Fang and mugs of tea with rock cakes. And they really were rock cakes.

Hogsmeade was as picturesque as ever on the balmy summer afternoon. Shop windows announced summer sales, flowers bloomed in window boxes and the wizarding village was packed with people. The six of wandered around for a while, exclaiming at some item or another every so often. After about half an hour of this, James got bored and insisted we go to Zonko's. Not that I objected; I'd take any help I could get when it came to pranking James. I hated to say it, but it was really tough to outprank the prankster.

Zonko's was loud, colourful and absolutely stuffed with Hogwarts students. My claustrophobia started to kick in and after five minutes, Marlene got sick of feeling like a sardine and the two of us agreed with the Marauders to meet at The Three Broomsticks in half an hour.

This left us with thirty minutes to kill, so we settled down by a pond near the Shrieking Shack. We both knew Remus had to come here and suffer once every month. The poor guy suffered alone, away from people, and came away with scars the next day. I had noticed that James and the others sneaked off around the full moon too, but I had never questioned him about it.

Well, I had. But he'd closed off and been very evasive. I'd decided it wasn't worth a second effort. He'd been nice about not forcing information from me, and I decided I could afford him the same luxury.

We met back with the boys after a half hour of idle chitchat and general messing around. The day was too warm for a Butterbeer, so I settled for a Quesker, an iced, lemony drink with bits of strawberry floating in it. Marlene looked longingly at the Firewhiskey, but McGonagall, Hagrid and Flitwick wandered in and she opted for a Quesker as well. We returned to our booth to wait for our drinks, lazily watching the boys banter and take sips of their drinks. Nothing could beat the utter contentment of a warm Hogsmeade trip the day before summer vacation.

As Madame Rosmerta served our drinks and Sirius flirted with her, the door opened with a rush of warm air. I peered over Marlene's shoulder to see Lily Evans enter with her friends – Alice Prinkle, Hestia Jones and Em Vance. They were all three of them absolutely stunning. Lily with her fiery locks and startling eyes, Hestia with her pretty dark curls and sweet, full lips, Emmeline with her long curtain of brown hair and shining dark eyes and Alice with her sweet, heart-shaped face and petite, curvy figure. I felt nasty for thinking it, but I knew that she and Frank Longbottom would make a much better couple than him and Marlene. I knew she loved Frank, but I also knew that Alice had loved him since second year. Dealing with my own unrequited love, I understood what it felt like and couldn't help a small part of me hoping that even if I didn't get a chance with the boy I loved, Alice would.

James hailed the girls with enthusiasm, waving them over to our table so exuberantly that he knocked Peter's drink into Sirius' lap. Apologising profusely, he cleaned up the spill and ordered another for Peter. I did my best to loosen up with Lily, not wanting James to see my hostility. We eventually fell into a discussion about Potions, our shared love. It was an oddly Slytherin subject to like, but I liked it because it reminded me of cooking (something I wasn't able to do at Hogwarts) and she liked it because she had a natural talent for it. A prodigy, Slughorn called her.

Now, I loved Potions. But I was awful at it. It usually works out that whatever an individual is good at, that's the subject they like, but it wasn't so with me. I liked Potions but the only thing I seemed talented at was blowing things (things = my potion) up. I noticed Marlene and Sirius whispering to each other and I saw some flirtatious glances during our conversation, but didn't think much of it. At least, not until they both stood and excuses themselves. My jaw dropped. I knew Marlene had a thing for Sirius, but I'd assumed it was just lustful attraction, not an actual thing. I felt sick to my stomach as I thought of Frank. Now I knew for sure that she didn't deserve him. Call me a bad friend, but I didn't hold with cheaters or liars. Marlene was a great friend, and I loved her, but I couldn't let her cheating continue.

We'd have that conversation later, though, I decided, and sat back in my seat just as James proposed a trip to Honeydukes.

"I need some Sugar Quills, is anyone interested?"

"No," I replied. "I'm good."

He looked around, his gaze lingering hopefully on Evans, who shook her head no as well. Peter, Remus and the other girls stood up, and bidding us goodbye, they departed.

"Just you and me, Evans," I said with a lazy grin. I was too content to even feel uncomfortable around her, this girl who had held the attention of the boy I loved for the last five years.

"Just you and me, Rae," she replied easily. I frowned in bewilderment.

"Rae?"

"A new nickname," she explained. "I know you don't like Pup, and, well, I don't like Red, because that's kind of - "

"Your nickname, I know," I supplied for her. She nodded.

"So I thought of 'Rae'. It's a play on the 'rah' of your name."

A smile crept onto my face as I considered it. Finally, a nickname that I actually liked!

"I think it's perfect," I said with a grin. "But I highly doubt that the Marauders will be able to shake the habit of calling me Pup."

She studied me for a moment, her green eyes knowing, as if she knew of my dislike for her (well, she did know) and what she had done to warrant it.

"I know you're in love with James," she said abruptly. I started in shock, accidentally spilling my drink down my robes. She cleaned it with a flick of her wand, looking me squarely in the eye.

I sighed. "Yeah. Your point being…?"

She softened slightly. "If I could make him love you instead of me, Norah, believe me, I would. But love doesn't work that way. Sometimes, we have to work with what we've got. And I know you have something," she said meaningfully, inclining her head in the direction of the Slytherin table. "I just want you to know that I'd never try to steal James from you, unless you gave me your express permission."

I shook my head, utterly bewildered. "Firstly, I'm not ever going to ask how you know about Regulus." She opened her mouth to answer, but I waved my hand, cutting her off. "Secondly, Lily, James has never been mine. He's always been yours. You don't need my permission to go out with him." The words tore at my heart, but I kept speaking them, knowing they were true.

"Thanks, Rae," she said softly.

"Just to clarify, by the way," I added, "does this mean you've finally got a thing for James?"

"I guess so," she said uncertainly. "I mean, if he asked me out again, I'd likely say yes."

I smiled wryly. "In that case, you have my blessings, Red."

She reached across the table and took my hand. "And you have mine. I hope things work out with Regulus," she said softly.

"I hope so too," I whispered, watching him interact with his friends. He looked over at that moment and his eyes met mine, fiery blue steel against molten silver. I inhaled sharply and dropped my gaze, knowing full well a smirk had crossed his lips. Lily laughed at me, releasing her grip on my hand.

"Friends?" she asked me, holding out her glass.

I didn't even hesitate. "Friends," I repeated, clinking my glass against hers.

And that was how I made my peace with Lily Evans. My other friends were bewildered when we walked into the Great Hall laughing together, but we just smiled, a secret smile of hearts broken and friendship made.