Chapter 7

A week later, James trudged the snowy Hogsmeade lane behind his three best friends. They kept exchanging worried looks, in the three years they had known him, they'd never seen him like this. He'd been in a funk all week. Ever since Lily had rejected him. He went to classes and meals, but he did his homework in the dormitory, and didn't talk nearly as much as he used to. He hadn't even jinxed anyone in a week.

"You guys go in, I'm going to knock some sense into him," Sirius told Remus and Peter when they arrived at the Three Brooksticks. "Get a table, we'll be in in a minute."

"We're not going in?" James asked.

"Nope. Your coming with me." Sirius walked towards the nearest alley, and James followed. Once they were there, Sirius shoved James into the wall. Hard.

"Ouch. What was that for?" James groaned, rubbing his shoulder that had the hardest impact on the wall.

"You need to snap out of this. She rejected you, big deal. It's not like she freaking died. You're my best mate, but your being insane." Sirius turned and walked back to the Three Broomsticks.

"Where is he?" Peter asked when Sirius sat down.

"I don't know. I left."

"What happened?" Remus asked.

"He pushed me into a wall, yelled at me, and then stormed off." James announced, appearing behind Sirius.

"I did not yell," Sirius responded, in a mock-offended tone.

"Well you should have. Have you guys ordered yet?"

"Yep, four butterbeers." Peter told him, licking his lips. James grimaced.

"Good."

Their drinks arrived a couple minutes later, and Sirius proposed a drinking contest, which he won.

"See, that's why no one should partake in contests related to food with me," Sirius burped. The others laughed. "Ohh. Look who it is." Sirius had just entered the bar. Followed by Lily and Mary.

"Don't do anything." James warned him. Sirius snickered, and then seeing the deadly look on James' face, looked down.

"I can't believe you, you never miss a chance to jinx Snivellus."

"Yeah, well…" James let his voice trail off, he was watching Lily get seated in the corner booth.

"I think you bruised James Potters ego," Mary informed Lily as they slid into their seats. "He's barely said anything these past couples days, and he hasn't jinxed anyone in a week."

"And your blaming that on me?" Lily asked.

"Well you rejected him."

"Well he deserved it." Severus inputted. "Do you have any idea how long it took for someone who knew the counter-curse to that blasted spell to come through the hall."

Lily gave him a sympathetic look, and he smiled back. Severus looked down at his watch.

"Oh, I've got to go, I'm meeting Mulciber." He got up and strode out of the bar.

"You know, he kind of reminds me of a bat," Mary told Lily, "Just the way his robes bellow out around him."

"Shut up," Lily smirked at her.

"Speaking of Severus, does he always have to hang with us?" Mary asked, avoiding eye contact with Lily.

"He doesn't always hang with us. And I didn't know you minded when he did."

"He's a Slytherin." Mary said, as if that explained everything.

"But he's not like the other Slytherins. He's my friend. He's the first connection to this world I had."

"He called a Hufflepuff second year a Mudblood the other day. Without a second thought."

Lily gasped. "I don't believe you."

"It's the truth. It won't be long before he starts calling you one too."

Lily stood up. "Shut up Mary. You don't know what your talking about. You have no right to tell me these things."

"You're right, its his right to tell you, but he's not. So I figured some one should."

"Whatever, I'm out of here."

She ran, tears gathering in her eyes, brushing past James and his friends in her rush to the door.

"What's that all about?" Sirius muttered.

"I'm going to go find out," James muttered back, and hurried after her.

He found her sitting on a rock just off a secluded path that led to the Shrieking Shack.

"Evans?" He asked cautiously.

"Go away Potter." She sniffed in.

"What's the matter?" he took a step closer to her.

"Go away!" She pulled out her wand. "Take one step closer to me and I'll hex you. I've learned a couple good ones."

"Fine." James threw his hands to the sky, and yelled it again for good measure. Then headed back to where he had left his friends.

Lily snorted into her scarf. "Drama queen."

"What happened?" Sirius asked when James got back.

"Where are Remus and Peter?"

"They went to stock up at Zonko's."

"Let's go meet them."

"Why aren't you answering my question?"

"Women are insane, did you know that? It's impossible to be nice to one. Im-freakin-possible." James groaned.

"I know mate."

"Can we go get something at Zonko's that will cause great pain to Snivellus?"

"Of course." They wandered back up the snowy street to the joke shop, where they found there friends examining a display of Dung Bombs.

"How'd it go?" Peter asked.

"I think I might have to stay single forever."

"Why?"

"Oh Peter," Sirius sighed, "Someday you'll learn not to ask so many questions."

"I can't wait for that day," Remus muttered. James and Sirius laughed, and Peter looked crestfallen.

"Are we almost done here? I say we hit Honeydukes, and then head back. There's something I need to check out of the library." James said, exchanging a meaningful look with Sirius. They needed new books, the ones they had weren't specific enough about the actual animagus process, mainly just background information.

"You? The library? What's going on that I don't know about?" Remus joked.

"Yeah I know, never thought that would happen." James laughed good naturally. They went to Honeydukes, then walked back to the castle. "Although," James began, continuing earlier conversation, "It shouldn't be that surprising, I am one of the smartest in my year. I wouldn't be surprised if I get made prefect."

"You'll never get made prefect, you get in way too much trouble." Remus told him. "Speaking of which, you guys have detention tonight for defacing that statue in the third floor corridor."

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding us." Sirius said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to accompany James here to the library to make sure he's not actually planning on studying or something crazy like that." They started up the stairs.

"I sure hope we can become animagi soon," Sirius said an hour later, as they poured over books in the library. "I don't want to have to go through all this." He was reading a book about the gruesome affects of animagi gone wrong.

"Don't worry," James assured him. "We're the brightest in our year, if anyone can, it'll be us."

"What about Peter?"

"We'll help him."

"And if we can't?"

James looked up from a chapter on how the animal is decided. "Well then I have a feeling he'll miss out on a lot of interesting nights."