Chapter 7: What Just Happened?
A week had come and gone and the tension between the Gryffindors had become greater and greater. Sirius was sitting by himself on the couch writing his Transfiguration essay when Lily walked through the common room doors with none other than James Potter walking next to her. "I don't understand how you don't get it. It's Quidditch! How is that not important?"
"The fact that you think a sport is more important than your education just proves how moronic that sport actually is!" Lily said as she moved towards the armchairs to sit down, but before she could James grabbed her arm.
He looked straight at Sirius as he spoke, "Lily, why don't we go study at the library, it's a little too crowded in here."
"But Sirius is the only one over here…" Lily said as James continued to drag her out of the common room. Once they got through the portrait hole, Lily shook her arm free. "Just what do you think you're doing? Sirius is your best mate and you've been ignoring him all week!"
"You're one to talk! I haven't seen you with Gabi or Mary this week either. You're just using me to hide from them aren't you?" James asked with an annoyed look on his face. He didn't even wait for her response before he turned on his heel and headed down the corridor without her.
"Potter! Hey!" She called after him but he didn't so much as slow down his pace. So with a shake of her head she headed back in the common room to see if Sirius would talk to her. But as she walked back in she realized she was walking in on a fight between Sirius and Remus.
"What have I done that is so bad? I've been treated like a disease this whole week!" Sirius shouted as he jumped off the couch and took a step towards Remus.
"Of course you're only thinking about yourself again! Do you even hear yourself?! All you ever say i and guess what? I'm sick of it!"
"I do not always think about myself!"
"Denial but figures you are a Black after all." With that last comment Sirius leaped off the couch and onto Remus. Soon the two boys became a flurry of fists.
"Stop it! Stop! You boys are not setting a good example! Sirius! Remus! STOP! I SAID STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Lily screamed as she reached for her wand. "PROTEGO!" The force of her spell sent both boys flying back to the wall. They want broke two chairs, a lamp, and had overturned the couch in their struggle. "What is wrong with you lot? You guys are supposed to be best mates, but lately all of you have been fighting like crazy!"
"He started it!" Sirius said as he spat out the blood that had trickled down from the gash on his forehead.
"You started this a long time ago." Remus replied with venom in his eyes.
"Both of you shut your mouths! Did I tell you you could talk? No I don't think so." She snarled, looking at the gash on Sirius' head and the rapidly forming black eye on Remus. "This is not over." Lily scowled as she waved her wand and healed the boys of her injuries. "I do not want to see you two fighting again! You are supposed to be an example for the younger students! Now go calm down and I will think about your punishment." Once she lifted the charm Sirius ran upstairs and Remus walked out of the portrait.
With a sigh she collapsed on the couch. 'What just happened?' This week has probably been one of the weirdest ones in her existence. 'Everything has been so different lately. James and Sirius and Remus are fighting. Mary and Gabi are not quite back to normal, so of course I get dragged between the two of them. How do they expect me to choose between the two of them? But maybe avoiding them isn't the answer either. Clearly James thinks so… what James? No it's Potter. Potter doesn't think so.' Lily sat on the chair rubbing her eyes as she tried to make sense of how much everything had changed and how fast. 'I'm even voluntarily spending time with Potter! Not only that but I let him touch my arm today with out freaking out! It actually felt pretty nice…but that's not the point! He is Potter. I do not like Potter. I do not like Potter touching me! Goodness this year is so weird…'
And of course as fate would have it, at that exact moment while she is debating Potter over and over again in her head, his big fat head comes bounding in through the portrait hole. But once he takes in the state that the common room was in the gloomy look flew off his face, replaced with one of concern. "Lily? Lily, are you okay? What happened here?" he said as he ran over to her looking at the damage his best mates had done on the common room.
"This mess is courtesy of your supposed best mates. And as far as how I am… You have never cared in the past so don't bother starting now." Lily said as she stood up and walked up the stairs to her room.
"What?" James said out loud to no one in particular. Shaking his head, he waved his wand and the common room was back to normal. What on Merlin's green earth could Lily be so upset about? She was the one using him, not the other way around…
As he climbed the stairs up to his room he started to hear muffled screams and what sounded like a window shattering. Hurrying up his pace he started to take the stairs two at a time, and then three. The noise kept getting louder and louder. With dismay he realized that the sound was coming from his own room.
He swung open the door to see Sirius throwing all of his possessions into his trunk and a few things of Remus' out the window that no longer had any glass. "SIRIUS!" James bellowed as he finally got over the shock of what he had walked in on. "What do you think you're doing?" He said as he stood in the exact same spot, unable to move.
"I'm leaving."
"And just where do you think you're going?"
"I don't know… somewhere, anywhere but here!"
"But… why?" James said as he watched his friend continue to throw everything into the trunk.
"Why? Are you really asking me why James? Do you realize this is the first time all week that you have actually spoken to me? I realized I made a mistake with Snape but I can't handle you and Remus treating me like I'm a moron! I need to get out of here!" Sirius exclaimed as he tried to move past James to the door, but James slid in front of him, blocking his path.
"Ohh no you don't. We have been through so much together I am not about to let you throw it all away now. And yes we are pissed at you and we should be. Especially Remus! Do you realize what could happen if Snape told people? It would be catastrophic! That doesn't mean you run away though! Remus needs time to deal with this. You can't expect him to wake up the next day and be fine with it! He almost killed Snape. All these years of precautions were almost blown because you lost your temper! So don't you dare blame Remus and me for the cold shoulder you are getting. Grow up. It's not all about you." James snapped as he grabbed the trunk out of Sirius' hands and placed it back on his bed before moving to the window and summoning up Remus's things before fixing the glass.
After he had finished he turned around to see Sirius standing in the same spot as before. "I… I never thought about it like that before. I thought you guys didn't want anything to do with me anymore." Sirius said as he stared at his shoes, guilt overcoming him. How could he have been so stupid?
"Pads… Remus just needs some time, and it would probably help if you apologized to him."
"Apologize… right." Sirius said as he walked down the stairs in search of Remus. With a sigh James collapsed on the bed with a sigh. This whole thing with Lily was starting to get more and more complicated. What is happening?
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As Lily climbed the stairs up to her room she started to feel guilty about how she had spoke to Potter, he was just trying to be nice and she snapped at him. Not that he doesn't usually deserve it, but he had been so nice. He had even been sort of a friend over the past week. As she walked through the door she realized that coming up her had probably been a bad idea.
There were two strange owls sitting next to her bed each with a rather thick envelope attached. Sighing she reached over and took the letters from them. She looked at the 'Lily Evans' scrawled across the front of the envelope in the handwriting that was once again starting to be familiar to her. Without even opening them she opened the drawer in her dresser and placed them with all the others.
She hadn't heard from her dad in years and now suddenly he wants to get in touch with her? Good luck with that.
() () () ()
"Remus?" Sirius poked his head around the corner of the library to see his friend with his head bent down over a pile of books. "Remus can I talk to you for a second?"
Remus looked up to see a side of Sirius he had only seen once or twice before. His usually cocky grin and air of importance were gone. Instead he was rubbing his hands together with his eyes pasted on the floor. "Sirius? What's wrong?"
"I… I was wrong. I shouldn't have done what I did. I didn't realize what I was doing while I was doing it. And I wasn't thinking about how I was making things… difficult for you and James. So I just wanted to come down and say, I'm sorry." And with that Sirius turned on his heel and walked out of the library, leaving a stunned Remus in his wake.
'Did Sirius just apologize?' Remus thought as he continued to stare after his friend. 'Wow. What just happened?'
