Part 9 Boys talk too

James Potter walked rapidly along the seventh floor corridor exhaling slowly and barely restraining from breaking into a run. He had just dropped Lily off at the Ravenclaw tower and was in a hurry to get away from that part of the castle, lest she decided to come back out for another row.

He could not believe his luck. For once, in what seemed like months, he was having fun, enjoying himself and his friends' company, and she just had to show up and ruin it. He was really regretting not having enough courage to break it off earlier that day. And now he would have to suffer it out for at least another month, before he could get enough nerve to try and sever ties again. Which meant he would have wait that long before he could officially ask Narcissa out, since he now was almost positive that she liked him back and would not object to his advances.

Almost… He couldn't be all the way sure. Nothing was ever for certain when it came to that girl – and that was part of her appeal. She was so mysterious and unpredictable, funny and yet serious, beautiful and dangerous... And he liked all of it. He liked her cool reserved demeanor and her occasional impulsivity, her sense of humor and her manipulative nature. It was like she was five girls in one… She had the good girl, the smart girl, and the bad girl sides of her all worked out and perfectly balanced.

Despite what everyone might have thought she even had a little bit of Lily in her; but that bit was never taken to the extreme. And though James did not quite realize it, that was one of the main things that drew him to her with such strong force.

All of a sudden there was a noise in the nearby corridor; James halted, craned his neck and stared into the dark.

"Hey," came a very familiar voice.

"Hey Sirius. You scared me mate. For a second there, I thought it was Lily coming back to yell at me some more." He laughed sketchily, but his friend did not join in. "What? Is something wrong, Sirius?"

"Not exactly. But I did want to talk to you about Lily. Can we walk?"

"Yeah… I was just on my way back to the common room, we can certainly walk together." James sounded apprehensive. Sirius's face was gloomy and his voice showed that he was definitely upset. "What about Lily, mate? Had she been complaining to you about me?"

"No. She hasn't. She hasn't done anything wrong at all, James. I really wish that you would see that. I don't know why you are doing this to her, but she does not deserve it. She's a great girl, who has inherited the unfortunate trait of being quick to lose her temper," he sighed and paused, looking intently at his friend. "So I guess it all comes down to this. I feel that it is my duty to warn you - Either make a clean break right now or commit yourself to her. And I mean, really commit yourself. I cannot stand this any longer - watching silently from the sidelines as you torture her with your impressive indecisiveness. You are hurting her, slowly but surely."

Now it was James's turn to look grim. His face grew dark and his voice came out quite cracked up when he replied, - "I know." There was nothing else to say. He already knew all of this.

"And James, - it might not be my place, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to trust me with it, but…. Have you been cheating?"

There was an uncomfortable silence between the two best friends as each one ogled the other, as if daring him to do something awful and bad.

"No!" James stuttered finally. It was the truth. "No! What makes you say that? I have not done anything of the sort." Yet, - he thought desperately, hoping that his friend was not able to read his mind. "Sirius, I had a talk with her today and we have agreed to stay together! Hasn't she told you that? I would have thought that the whole school knew that by now."

"I know what you agreed upon and I know that it made her very happy, but I also know that it is not what you want. And it is not fair of you to give her what she wants right now, when we both know full well that sooner or later you are going to take it away. James, I beg you, break it off. Break it off now, before she gets in too deep! I don't even care if you did cheat on her – that is not the most important thing at the moment. What is important is solving it once and for all." Sirius had said all this with a pained expression on his young, handsome face. James was genuinely surprised to see his usually goofy friend looking so serious. He nodded, but did not respond. There was nothing that he could say that would make anyone feel better. He had to figure things out for himself first, and now he knew that he needed to hurry.

The boys kept walking in silence. They were both painfully aware that, since they've reached a point in their lives that called for such uncomfortable and overly mature conversations, it meant that they were definitely growing up.

If James was any less concerned with his own problems at the time, he might have noticed that Sirius was taking too keen of an interest in James' girlfriend as of late. He was looking at her more often and more intently; when he spoke to her it was in a much gentler voice than James has ever heard him use before; he was always eager to give up a seat or lend her a hand or carry her books when his friends weren't around. Lily's friends took that as a sign of care and concern due to James's recent behavior.

But in reality it was much more than just that. Sirius Black, the notorious player and eternal bachelor all of a sudden found himself getting attached to a female. He was starting to have feelings that he shouldn't have ever dreamed of having. Lily belonged to his best friend after all. But he couldn't help it. He loved her feistiness, her impulsivity and hot-headed stubbornness – something that her boyfriend had long since stopped appreciating.

Sirius wanted to protect her, to shield her from harm, to be near her and bring her nothing but happiness. He didn't understand why. He didn't want to understand why. He just wanted for those feelings to go away. He was asking for trouble. Big, dirty, confusing trouble.

Sirius Black has never been in love before and he wasn't even sure he knew what love was, but he was beginning to realize that the feelings he was now having toward the beautiful Miss Evans were well on their way to growing into love.