A/N quite a short chapter, but I like how it ends and so I left it.

Chapter 9

McGonagall let them out just before breakfast, and as they all went down the hallway, only James and Sirius were talking, the other four just walking in silence. Sirius swung an arm around Tonks' shoulder.

"Aren't you glad that Pomphrey's finally letting you out of the Hospital Wing? You said last night you wanted to get back in class." Tonks muttered something she thought to be a yes and shrugged his shoulder away.

"Aw, come on coz you know you still want to talk to me!" Lily watched how Tonks shrugged and walked ahead of them. There was something wrong, she could tell. Call it a woman's instinct.

"I think that Tonks just needs a bit of fresh hair, right?" She grabbed the girls' hand and began leading her outside, before Sirius said,

"Oh, I'll come!" Lily shook her head.

"No, Black, you bumbling idiot. there's clearly something wrong and she is going to tell me, without you four idiots on her back."

The two stepped outside, where Lily lent against the wall. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

"Remus… this morning. I woke up and they were talking and… and he said he didn't love me." She said it as if she might brake at any second, and Lily pulled her into a hug.

"You know he's lying. Because he wants to protect you."

"And what if he isn't? what if… what if what happened changed his mind about me. I left. I should have stayed, I should have told him it didn't matter-"

"It matters and you know it." Lily snapped, holding her friend at arm's length, "As much as I hate to say it, your cousin is right in some respects. You could have died, and Remus should have helped you. but that's in the past, okay? You need to move forward and forget that all of this ever happened. Screw the damn Marauders. From now on, I'm sitting with you at the Hufflepuff table, ok? James will understand. The minute you are out of that hospital wing we'll sort you out, get you hair and stuff done, and we'll go and have some fun, alright? I hear that the Ravenclaw quidditch team is practicing this afternoon, I'm sure that James would appreciate the pointers on the opposing team's strategies. What do you say?" She smiled at the girl, who meekly nodded, before steering her back inside where the boys were waiting.

"We've had a chat and decided that it would be best if we all," she glanced at Sirius, "Forget about everything that's happened lately. So after breakfast, me and Tonks are going to get all done up and go scope out the Ravenclaw team." She smiled at James, who smirked.

"How are you planning on doing that?" he asked. She smiled and pecked him on the cheek.

"We are two very attractive females, and last time I checked the Ravenclaw team are all male. I trust you understand." James dramatically rolled his eyes and sighed,

"Fine, just don't expect me not to smash them up if they go too far." Lily nodded at her boyfriend and turned to the rest f the group.

"We also decided it would be best if Tonks distanced herself from you all a bit, so I'll be sitting at the Hufflepuff table with her-"

"No! right now she needs to be with her friends!" Sirius interrupted, only to have Lily sharply turned on her.

"I am her friend. What she needs is for you to back. Off. Okay, Black?" you could see in Sirius' eyes that even he feared the feisty red haired girl before him, though chances are he'd never admit it.

"whatever, Evans." He turned and pulled Tonks into a hug, before holding her at arm's length. "Have fun. And don't go getting yourself hurt anymore." Tonks nodded and they pushed into the Great Hall, Remus falling quietly behind the others. As the doors closed, the six of them turned to face eachother, the girls on one side and the boys on the other. Lily smiled at James, before they separated. Dumbledore and McGonagall saw this strange interaction from the Teacher's Table. McGonagall smirked. Clearly they had come up with some arrangement, her detention had clearly worked. Dumbledore, however, wasn't smiling. He knew full well that they were all miserable, and that people do stupid things when they're miserable.

Tonks could fell the gaze of her fellow Hufflepuffs on her and Lily as they munched on their toast. Lily wanted nothing more than to hex them all, but she knew that being angry was going to get her nowhere. She swallowed the last piece of toast and sighed. "Come on Tonks, let's go find Alice and we can get ready." Tonks nodded and shoved the last piece of bacon in her mouth before running after the girl. They found Alice and began walking up to Gryffindor tower.

"So, Tonks, how are you holding up?" She asked with a small smile. Tonks shrugged.

"It hurts, but I'll live. We're avoiding the subject for now."

"Is that such a good idea? My mother always says that it's best to confront your issues. But I mean, it's your choice." She said, not wanting to accidentally insult either girl. She knew how they could get when they were annoyed.

"I don't think that will really help on this one, Allie. Thank you for agreeing to do this for us." Lily said, squeezing her friend's shoulder. The girl laughed lightly.

"Anything for you two. Besides, Marlene was doing my nut in, anyways." she rolled her eyes, "All she ever goes on about is how Sirius is never around anymore. I told her she was being ridiculous, but it appears that she is jealous his cousin is getting more attention than her." The three girls rolled their eyes in unison, before climbing through the portrait hole. They ran up to the girls' dorm and began to get ready.

"if you don't mind, I'm going to stick to doing you two up. I don't really need any quidditch plans, plus I have a transfiguration essay due for tomorrow." She smiled and grabbed the hairbrush from the dressing table.

"Here, Tonks, come sit." She patted the seat and Tonks obediently sat down. Alice began to brush her hair as Lily got her makeup out and stood by the mirror.

"So, you two are planning on doing what, exactly?" she asked, continuing to brush Tonks' hair.

"Well we are going to go and flirt some Quidditch Strategies out of Davies and his crew." Lily winked and returned to doing her makeup.

The common room was full of people when Lily and Tonks emerged, and though a couple of people turned to stare, they were mostly oblivious to them. "James!" Lily called, and the boy turned where he sat on the sofa, along with the three other Marauders.

"Wow… Lily, you look-"

"yeah, yeah," she said, wafting a hand of dismissal, "Is there anything in particular you'd like me to focus on with the Ravenclaws?"

"Um, yeah, er, here." he handed her a list, and she smiled, before turning to Tonks. They headed out or the portrait hole.

"You two look divine!" The woman said with a smile. The two thanked her and made on their way towards the quidditch pitch.

"Hello, Boys!" Tonks remained quiet beside Lily as they got to the pitch, but her friend greeted them all with a bright smile and a wave. They all stopped where they were, one of the beaters almost falling of his broom dodging a Bludger. Davies swooped down to the ground and leaned against his broom.

"Hello, ladies, have you come to watch some talented quidditch playes rather than you house's poor excuses for teams?" Tonks could tell by Lily's expression that she didn't appreciate the last comment. Her boyfriend was the captain, after all. she decided to take over.

"That's right." She said with what she hoped was a flirtatious smile, "we were hoping you could impress us with some of your fancy moves." She winked at him as the rest of his team landed beside him.

"You heard them, show them what a good team looks like!" he said, turning to them before looking back on the girls. "you two gorgeous girls go and watch from the stands." He smirked at the pair of them before kicking off the ground. Lily rolled her eyes,

"My god, is he big headed. Do none of them even realise I'm the girlfriend of the opposing team's Captain?" she asked, and the pair laughed. They sat down in the stands and waved as the boys looked down on them. Davies flew down to them and began telling them what each move was called and what he planned on doing with them during games. He was eating out of Lily's palm, and Tonks had to supress a laugh as Lily controlled a quill to write everything down beneath the bench in front of her.

"You're all so talented, Thomas! I don't understand how Slytherin wins the cup with a team like yours!" she said, batting her eyelashes. Davies looked rather proud.

"Because the Slytherin team are dirty cheats. I hear that they are planning on switching all the brooms in the shed to jinxed ones before their match with Gryffindor." He said casually, trying his best to look cool. He was failing miserably.

"So, you play Gryffindor next week, right?" Tonks said, allowing Lily to quickly check her notes as Davies turned to her. He nodded, with a smirk.

"We sent a spy to watch them practice a few nights ago, so we know a few of their plays." He winked at her, and she had to stop herself from punching him. Sending a spy to watch Gryffindor? At least James and his team weren't stupid enough to literally explain all of their plays to the Captain's girlfriend.

"Well, thanks for letting us watch you. We really are shocked at your pure talent. Can't wait to watch you kick Gryffindor's backside." She winked and the pair of them stood up, practically running out of the stands. Davies watched them with a dazed smile on his face.

"that guy is dumb. Well, at least now I can tell James to change his plays, plus give them a few of Davies' and tell him to get his team to keep their brooms in their dorms." Tonks nodded as Lily skimmed the notes, before the pair headed quickly up to Gryffindor Tower.

"James!" The pair ran into the Gryffindor common room, and he stood up as Lily ran over. She explained everything Davies had told them, and James nodded sternly.

"Jones! Watson! Go and get the team's brooms from the shed and bring 'em up here! replace them qith the school's brooms!" the pair ran out of the room, confused but willing to obey their Captain. James sat heavily on the couch and rifled through his bag, pulling out sheets of parchment and filing through them.

"Sirius, go and give this to Marshall and tell him he has to learn it by Saturday." He handed him a piece of parchment and continued to rifle through his pile, "Tell her to give this one to Peters" he handed him a second before running over to the seeker, who was stood in the corner laughing with his friends; "Davies got someone to spy on us, I need you to learn this play by Saturday, got it?" the boy nodded with a determined expression as James ran back to the girls.

"Cheers, Lils. You two really are the best." He pulled them both into a hug, before running off to help Jones and Watson bring in the brooms.

"I think we did pretty good, although I'll have to get Davies back for that comment about James' team." Lily said with a nasty look on her face. She turned to Tonks and smiled.

"That was hectic. How about we go get Alice and head to the library?"

The library was silent – no surprise there – and Tonks, Alice and Lily were sat in the corner, trying to keep their conversation away from the other people there. "Wow." Alice said, her eyes wide. Tonks and Lily had filled her in on everything that had happened before, during, and after detention.

"So what's your plan now?" she said to Tonks, her finger moving elegantly in the air as her quill magically wrote her essay. Tonks shrugged.

"I suppose I'll just have to… try and move on…" she smiled sadly, her finger also in the air, but moving with much sharper and harsher movements. Lily was the only one writing her essay completely by hand, and she looked up from her parchment with a sigh.

"You'll be fine, Tonks, honestly. Sev turned bad. And I mean, now I have James."

"You didn't like Severus like that though." Lily looked at me with a raised eyebrow, before turning her head back down to her parchment.

"I suppose your right. Still, he was my best friend, and it was a horrible time." She said, before rolling up the parchment and shoving that along with her quill in her bag, which was slumped against her chair.

"Are we finally going? Thank the lord, I was soo bored!" Alice said with a laugh. She flicked her wrist, and the parchment and quill flew into her bag. The three girls got up, Alice and Lily with their bags over their shoulder, Tonks holding her equipment in her arms. They headed towards the Gryffindor common room, when Tonks stopped and looked towards the basement stairs.

"I'll meet you at dinner. I have a couple things I need to do." she smiled at her two confused friends and hurried down the stairs, coming to the barrels she had begun to forget.

She rarely entered the common room now, and entered the dorms even less. She looked around at her housemates. She had actually begun to forget the black and yellow uniform, even though she wore it herself almost every day. She had begun so used to seeing a room full of people in red that her brain had begun to function it as the normality.

"Well look who's back." Tonks woke up from her daze to see Avalanti watching her from the couch. Jessie, Lauren and Aliana were wither her, and they looked at her anxiously.

"So we heard about Wolfie attacking you," she smirked, "Bet you don't want to stand up for him now. tell me, what was it like to be almost murdered by a werewolf?" Tonks didn't even think twice. The girl coiled on the ground, clutching her bloodied nose.

"How dare you! You, You…. Metamorphic bitch!" Avalanti threw herself at Tonks, who's hair had gone a violent red. They wrestled on the floor for a minute, before the horrible girl took Tonks' hair and yanked it back, holding her head backwards.

"How does it feel?" she seethed into her ear, "To have your own boyfriend almost kill you?" Tonks glared up at her roommate.

"You should be in Slytherin. You're vile."

"So should you. Black." She let the word roll off her tongue, and Tonks riled in her grasp, trying to hit her, trying to escape. Suddenly her arms fell to her sides, and her legs glued themselves together. The common room was silent, and Tonks looked up. Lauren had her wand held out at Tonks. She was immobile, with a hole house worth of students against her.

"Please… just let me go… Hufflepuff are meant to be the kind house but you are all bullies!"

"We aren't bullies, Nymphadora. We're protecting our own." Jessie said, her tone full of venom.

"Lights out, sweetie." Avalanti winked at her, and then all went black.