Hey guys! It's been a while! Sorry for the long, long, long wait. I've been super busy with school and getting ready to move, so I haven't had as much time to write. Luckily school is coming to a close, and I'm hoping to get some chapters out during Christmas Break! I just wanted to let you guys know though that I have NOT given up on this story. I am going to see it to the end and then perhaps a sequel? Well, we will just have to see. :) Once again, thank you for all the follows, reviews, and reads even while I was gone! I love hearing from you guys and what you think about this story so please do review! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own this computer and my OC's! (I try to be a glass half-full kinda gal.)

Chapter 9: And Two Sides of a Coin

The rest of the month of September passed by quickly. It mostly involved quidditch practices, large amounts of homework, and hanging out with the Marauders. Yes, I was in fact hanging out with them. After that day we all went to the Black Lake together (minus Peter), things began to change. Not just the leaves on the trees as fall came, or the cooler weather as the weeks slipped by. No. It was something else entirely. We were actually acting like friends! Of course I knew that this would happen eventually, but the quickness and entirety of it startled me.

What I think scared me even more was the fact that it felt so natural for me. Perhaps it's because when we hung out, it would normally be us sneaking out once everyone was asleep, the invisibility cloak around us, setting up pranks that were usually meant for some of those slimy Slytherins. Actually, the invisibility cloak was somewhat around us. It seems that the added addition of me finally made it where not everyone could fit under the thing and be completely hidden.

I won't lie and say that it wasn't fun. It was actually loads of fun. Setting up some kind of motion sensing stink bomb in front of the Slytherin common room down in the dungeons. Having Lucius Malfoy come into the Great Hall the next morning, stinking so bad that you could practical see the fumes coming from him, definitely had its benefits. Also, I liked having a laugh every once in a while. Being able to have people to talk to was also quite nice, but there was still this small part of me that was scared. Scared that I would become too dependent on them. So dependent that if they left me… I normally tried to ignore this part of me.

Besides hanging with the Marauders though, nothing else exciting really happened, and soon we were slipping into the first weeks of October. And that's where the first new bouts of excitement began.

I was standing in a very dark place. It was so dark that couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. There was no sound, no air, only darkness. Then I suddenly saw a light flash on. It was small and very far away, but for some reason I began running towards it. It felt like forever, but I finally reached that small light. As my eyes adjusted, I could just make out a person still hidden in the shadow of darkness. They stepped forward and I realized who it was. It was Sirius!

He just stood there smiling, looking amazing as ever. I felt my own mouth began to slide into a smile, and soon I had almost as large a smile as Sirius (though probably not a beautiful as his). Suddenly, the light vanished and I was absorbed in darkness once again. Then, another flash, and the light was back, but this time, it was coming from Sirius, who was still standing there smiling at me.

What is going on? After thinking this, Sirius abruptly turned around and began to run off.

"Wait!" I called after him. I began running after him too, trying to make my short legs catch up with his long ones. But, before I knew it, I couldn't see Sirius any longer. The light was gone and darkness was once again engulfing me. I didn't know up for down and I had a hard time breathing. I was lost! I was stuck! I was-

I woke up suddenly, my ear stinging slightly. I opened my eyes just as I felt somebody flick my ear. Probably not the first time, I concluded from my already semi-stinging ear. As I felt this someone flick my ear again, I reached up suddenly and grabbed said person's wrist, twisting it slightly.

"Ow! Hey, that hurt!" someone yelled as they pulled their wrist from my grasp. Wait a minute, I recognized this voice. I turned over to see Sirius Black sitting on my bed as he held is red wrist. It took me a minute to process everything. Sirius Black was sitting on my bed. That mean's he was in my dormitory. Sirius Black is in fact a boy, which means he somehow got into the girls side of the tower. So Sirius Black is a creepy pervert, I concluded.

After processing it all and coming to my conclusion, I sat up, took my pillow, and began to beat him over the head with said pillow profusely.

"Oi! What are you-! Stop! Hey!" he yelled as he tried to block the pillow from hitting his head. I swung down again and felt him grab the pillow this time. Soon, the pillow was flung out of my hands and Sirius Black was left looking down at me with a smirk on his face.

Uh oh. Sirius quickly lunged forward and began tickling me! Yeah, he was seriously tickling me. Too bad for me I was extremely ticklish.

"Stop! Ha! Sirius cut it out!" I managed to say in between my laughter. "Please! Haha! Stop tickling- ha- me!" Finally, he relented and began laughing right along with me. That's when I remembered that he was sitting in my bed, with me still in my pjs no less! I quickly pushed him off of the bed for him to fall into one giant clump on the floor.

"Hey! I thought we were done with-"

"What the hell are you doing in the girls side of the tower?!" I screamed, cutting him off in the process. "To make matters worse, you are in my room, sitting on my bed, watching me sleep! If I knew you are such pervert I-"

"I'm not a pervert!" He quickly said, his voice sounding somewhat strained. "I came in here to wake you up actually! We have quidditch practice in an hour!"

"Well then why didn't you get a girl to come wake me up?!" I screamed, still in a bit of a rage.

"Well, um, nobody really knew who you were…" he said sheepishly. He stood up and began to walk towards my trunk at the foot of the bed.

"What about Lily?" I asked as he opened my trunk and began going through it, probably looking for my quidditch practice clothes I surmised.

"I asked her when she came into the common room, but she wouldn't talk to me because I was with James."

"Alice?"

"She sorta gave a squeak and ran away."

"Cind- you know what, never mind." I stretched and laid back, looking up at the ceiling. I listened as Sirius continued looking for my uniform.

"You know, I don't understand why you don't just leave this thing in the changing room down by the field," he said as he continued to rummage.

"Because I don't like changing down there in front of perfect, little Cindy", I replied. "Plus, if I left my clothes down there, she would probably burn them." Sirius gave a short laugh.

"I don't think she's that bad. A little overbearing sometimes, but not bad," he said in return. I simply rolled my eyes. "Oh, by the way, before I woke you up, you seemed to be having one hell of a dream. Was it about me?" I could practically see that handsome grin on his face as he said this. I was about to deny it when I suddenly remembered that Sirius was in fact in my dream! I felt my face go red as I stuttered for words.

"No you were. I mean you weren't! You were in my- I mean not! You were not in my dream." Sirius laughed and I could feel my face get redder and redder.

"It's ok for you to dream of me, Jess! There's nothing wrong with-," he stopped short. I sat up on my elbows and looked at him to see him holding up a hot pink bra. My hot pink bra! I felt my mouth gape open and my mind go blank as I watched him staring at the item in his hands somewhat awkwardly. I felt my face get even redder than it was before, and I thought I was going to die!

"Well, nice color choice," Sirius replied as he flung the bra at me. "I didn't think you to be the pink sorta girl." He quickly regained his cool and began to continue his search through my trunk. I soon became aware that he wouldn't look at me. Of course I was certainly fine with that seeing as how I could barely speak and was quite sure my face was as red as a firetruck.

"Ah, here we are," Sirius finally said. He threw the practice uniform towards me and closed my trunk, still not daring a look at me. "Go ahead and change. I'll wait for you downstairs." And just like that he was out the door and gone. I still sat there gaping before falling back into my bed again.

After taking a quick shower and changing, I walked down the stairs towards the common room where I thought I would meet my apparent doom. Luckily, Sirius seemed to have forgotten the whole bra fiasco, or at least was pretending to, so things weren't awkward. We went to the Great Hall and fetched James who was eating with Remus and Peter. I said a quick hi to Remus and Peter and grabbed a few pieces of bacon on the way out which I ate as we made the long trek towards the quidditch pitch. I wished I could have eaten more though because on Saturdays, we normally practice from the morning to right before dinner.

Maybe Remus and Peter will come to watch us for a while. Peter always has food with him, I thought as we arrived at the pitch. James and Sirius went into the boys changing room while I went to the supply closet to grab one of the brooms.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Nobody herself," I head a high-pitched voice say behind me.

"Well, if it isn't Miss Pain in the Arse," I replied turning around to see that it was exactly who I thought it was. Cindy Sanders stood there with a smirk on that stupid face of hers. After we both got on the quidditch team we had started to be more venomous to each other. Whether it was because we were seeing each other more often, or if it was because I had been hanging out with Sirius more often is unknown. All I did know is that lately she had been doing everything in her power to humiliate me, especially in front of the team.

"Well, I'd rather be a pain in the arse than nobody know who I am," she replied smugly. "Now if you will excuse me." She pushed me out of he way and walked into the storage room to look for her broom. I had a sudden urge to slam the door shut and lock her in, but I held myself back and quickly walk towards the pitch.

Practice was absolutely grueling. The October wind had picked up and made it very hard for flying, though Daniel still insisted on practicing all day. He said that the harder the conditions, the harder the practice, and the better we become.

"Or we could all fall off of our brooms," I whispered under my breath. I heard James and and Marcus Williams, the appointed seeker on our team, chuckle. Daniel looked at all of us sternly.

"What was that McClendon?" he asked as he rested his eyes on me.

"Nothing," I replied quickly.

I guess being around the Marauders so much has made me start to speak my mind more often. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, I thought. I turned to look over at Sirius who was smiling at me. Maybe it is a good thing.

After Daniel went over all the plays we would be doing and what we needed to work on, we took a few laps around the field and got to work. The beaters were hitting the bludgers at targets. The seeker was tasked with looking for Daniel's silver watch which he says he had hidden somewhere around the pitch for the seeker to find. Daniel said he did this on purpose so the seeker will get used to finding shiny objects like the snitch. I think it's just because he lost his watch last practice and doesn't want to look for it. The chasers on the other hand had to make at least a hundred goals on Sirius, who as the keeper was supposed to block over five-hundred of them. An easy task for Sirius, but not for us.

"You ready to get scored on, mate?!" James screamed across the pitch to Sirius, quaffle already in hand.

"Go ahead and try!" Sirius screamed back, a slight smile coming onto his face although he was trying to be serious. At this, James shot off across the field, zig-zagging left and right before he came to the goalposts. He aimed for the left one and fired. I watched as it soared through the air. Just as I was thinking that there was no way Sirius would be able to stop it, he swooped in and did just that.

"Good try, Prongs!" Sirius yelled as he threw the quaffle back at him. "Maybe next time!" As I was trying to decode the origins of James's nickname in my head, I felt someone almost push me off my broom.

"Oops. My bad," Cindy sneered at me. She took the quaffle from a smiling James as she began to fly towards Sirius. Well, I don't exactly know if fly is the right word for what she was doing. It was more of a floating I suppose. After about a minute or so, she ended up in front of the goal posts. She threw the quaffle at the one on the right. Sirius didn't even have to guard the goal post though because the quaffle didn't even get there. It fell to the ground right in front of the goal post, probably about 10 feet away from it to be precise.

"Aww, dang it," Cindy pouted with that sugar sweet voice of hers turned on.

"That's ok Cindy. Just keep trying!" Sirius said as he swooped down to get the quaffle lying on the ground. As he did this, Cindy turned her head towards me to flash a smug smile. I rolled my eyes at the whole situation.

"Hey! Jessalyn!" James called. I looked down to see that he had landed on the ground for some reason. I lifted an eyebrow at him to which he replied by flinging something in my direction. I caught it to see that it was the extra quaffle Daniel gave us in case we lost the other one. Suddenly I realized why he got this for me.

"Thanks!" I smiled down at him. Then, I quickly sped off towards the goal posts. Sirius had just retrieved the quaffle Cindy had thrown and was handing it back to her as I whizzed by and scored a goal.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Sirius pouted as flew towards me.

"You can't get distracted Sirius. Hasn't Daniel engraved that into your brain by now?" I replied, smirking.

"Well, then don't worry. I'll be sure not to be distracted next time," he said flashing a smile at me.

"I'll still score on you," I countered as I flew down to retrieve my quaffle. When I flew back, Cindy snatched said quaffle from my hand.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but you better stop now before someone gets hurt," she whispered harshly to me.

"I'm not playing at anything," I replied. I watched as James zoomed towards the goal posts as he tried to throw Sirius off.

"Don't give me that crap," she said, floating in front of me so I couldn't see James anymore. "I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to take Sirius away from me."

"I can't take something away from you that you never had," I said as I tried to see around her.

"The thing is, I don't know what your reasoning is," she continued, obviously ignoring my comment. "I've only come up with two explanations. One: You're trying to get back at me for being so mean to you all these years. Or two: You have feelings for Sirius." Now this made me give her my full attention.

"I don't have feelings for Sirius," I said honestly, "and I'm not trying to get revenge on you. I'm simply hanging out with my friends." The word still felt foreign on my tongue, and I'm pretty sure Cindy could tell.

"Friends?! You think that Sirius is your friend?! You think that the Marauders are your friends?!" She began to laugh a cold, sadistic laugh. "Yeah right. They aren't your friends Jessalyn. Nobody would ever actually want to be your friends. Not even Peter Pettigrew would want to be your friend! Don't you see?! They are obviously using you for something! You obviously have something that they want. Why else would they try so hard to be nice to someone who-"

At that very moment something hit Cindy in the face. She stopped talking and held up her hand to her right cheek which was at the moment very, very red.

"Sorry!" James yelled as he flew over towards us. "I thought you would see it." He reached out his hand to look at her cheek which had been hit by the quaffle James threw.

"Stop!" she yelled just before James's hand reached her face. "Don't you dare touch me you idiot! How the hell did you think I would see you throw something at me when I had my back to you?! It's probably going to be all swollen tomorrow and ugh! You are one of the stupidest people I have ever had the disgrace of knowing!" After Cindy's bought of anger, I looked over to see James's face. His glasses had fallen down the bridge of his nose, and his mouth was open, gaping at what had just transpired. Obviously, he wasn't used to seeing this side of Cindy.

"It's not his fault you can't catch the quaffle Cindy," I said, trying to take up for James.

"Why you little-"

"What's going on?" Sirius said, interrupting Cindy as he flew over towards us. Cindy looked at Sirius who had a concerned look on his face. He obviously hadn't heard anything that was just said. Then, very suddenly, Cindy broke down in tears.

"James hit me in the face with a quaffle and then Jessalyn yelled at me for not catching it!" Cindy cried. Now it was my turn to gape at her. Sirius turned to look at me and James, who I'm pretty sure was wearing an expression almost the same as mine.

"Guys, you know that Cindy is still learning. You shouldn't be so hard on her," he said looking pointedly at me. I looked away with a not so pretty look on my face.

"Now, apologize."

"What?!" I turned back around to look at Sirius in confusion.

"I said apologize," he repeated. I was about to say exactly what I thought about that when I noticed his eyes. They had this look about them, an almost pleading look.

"Sorry," James mumbled to Cindy. Now everyone was looking expectantly at me.

"Ugh, fine," I said as the last of my willpower drained from me. "I'm sor. I'm so. I'm," James elbowed me in the side, "sorry!"I glared at James who in return gave me a sheepish smile and shrugged.

"Now, do you need me to take you to Madame Pomfrey?" Sirius turned back to a still sniveling Cindy.

"I'm ok. I think I just need to sit down for a minute," she replied as she wiped at her green eyes which were glistening with tears.

She's still pretty even when she cries, I thought to myself somewhat disgusted. I watched as Sirius gripped Cindy's shoulder and flew them both to the ground. My eyes continued to follow them as they walked towards the stands so Cindy could sit down, and when they were just out of earshot-

"What the heck just happened?" James asked, still in a state of shock.

"That is Cindy Sander's true form. Pretty scary, huh?" I asked him. He nodded his head as he stared at the girl who was now sitting down with Sirius at her side.

"That was scarier than the time I asked Lily out at the Three Broomsticks," James said as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"What happened?" I dared to ask.

"She called me a toerag, threw hot butter beer in my face, and ran out. Apparently girls don't like being told that they remind you of a dragon." I looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "I meant her hair! 'Cause it's red and most dragons breathe fire, and that wasn't a very good pick-up line was it?"

The rest of the practice went by quickly. Soon I had forgotten all about Cindy, and was focused on making those hundred goals on Sirius. I ended up with 59, but hey, it was better than last time! At the end, Daniel gathered us together to give some sort of team speech or something. I ended up zoning out after the first minute of it. Something was bothering me, but I couldn't figure out what.

Was it something Cindy said to me? Yeah, I think it was. What was it she said? I tried hard to recall our conversation before her theatrics began. Oh, yeah! She said that the Marauders were using me, but that can't be true. Can it? Well, I don't have anything to give them, so- Wait! My thoughts were suddenly brought back to the day we got to Hogwarts. All the Marauders were fighting over that Chocolate Frog card, and Remus gave it to me! But, none of the Marauders know that. Do they?

"McClendon…"

And they were nice to me even before that, but maybe it was just because I was interesting at the time. I did crash throughout their window after all.

"McClendon…"

So, what if what Cindy said is true. What if they are all being nice to me because they want that stupid frog card. No, that can't be it. They actually want to be my friend. Right?

"Jessalyn!"

"Huh?" I looked up to see the whole team staring at me. Daniel was practically seething.

"Could you see me after practice for a minute? Unless, of course, you need to stare off into space again?" Daniel snapped at me. I shook my head, slightly embarrasses.

"Good. Now, let's break." Daniel said. The team all came together, put their hands in, and lifted them into the air. Afterwards, everyone either went to the changing rooms or back to the castle, except for Daniel and me of course. I watched as Cindy latched onto Sirius's arm and James stayed on the complete other side of Sirius. Every now and then he would give a fearful directed at Cindy.

"Now, McClendon," Daniel began once everyone was off the pitch, "I noticed that you had a hard to concentrating today. Is something wrong?" He said all of this with obvious fake concern.

"No. I was just tired," I lied to him.

"Hm, I see. Now that that's over, how 'bout we hang out sometime?"

"I- wait what?" I was taken aback from his sudden change in topic. I could feel my eyes get wider as I began to process what was happening.

"I said, why don't we hang out sometime?" He smiled at me with a somewhat crooked smile. His brown eyes were shining in a mischievous sort of way.

"You mean as friends?" I asked, already knowing what he meant.

"That, or something more," he purred as he walked towards me. I in turned walked back.

"Uh, well, I'm not really looking for a boyfriend at the moment, and uh."

"I didn't say we had to be dating," he replied as he continued to walk closer to me. "I just wanna have a little fun is all." I continued to back away. "You are a pretty girl Jessalyn. Not only that, but you have become more outspoken lately. I like that."

Well, I don't like this!

"Thanks, but I'm going to have to reject your offer. I'm just not that interested in that kind of stuff, and um, I better get back to my friends. I wouldn't want them to worry about me or anything!" At this, I quickly turned around and sped away, leaving a disappointed Daniel behind. I ran all the way to Hogwarts castle where I caught up with Sirius, James, and Cindy.

"Oh, hey Jess! What did Daniel want? He didn't make you do extra laps or anything, did he?" Sirius asked me.

"No. Nothing of the sort. He just wanted to talk abut things with me," I breathed out, still shaken up by the whole encounter.

"What sort of things?" James asked.

"Oh you know, quidditch things," I replied. I saw Cindy, who was still latched onto Sirius's arm, raise her eyebrow at me. She obviously didn't believe my terrible lie. I gave a quick, awkward smile to all of them. Sirius simply shrugged and we all walked into Hogwarts together, leaving the biting wind behind us.

As soon as we got inside I turned and began to race up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower.

"Oi! Where are you going?" Sirius called after me. "The food's this way!" Sirius pointed towards the Great Hall.

"Oh, um, I'm not hungry!" I called back.

"But, you haven't had anything to eat all day beside that bit of bacon this morning." After he said this, my stomach growled in realization. I was actually starving, but I needed to get away and think about things, and the best way to do that was to be alone.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm not hungry at all. I-" Growl. I smiled awkwardly as my stomach let out a large growl. "Ha ha." I began to laugh as I turned around and bounded up the stairs before anyone could stop me.

Once I had gotten back to my dormitory, I took a quick shower, changed into my pjs, and began to think. I thought about many things: this morning with Sirius, my talk with Daniel, and most of all, what Cindy said to me.

Is all they want really this card? I thought as I pulled it out of my trunk where I had put it after Remus had given it to me. I flipped it over to see the wizard Ptolemy staring back at me. He glared at me, obviously not liking being stuck in a trunk for so long. I grinned sheepishly in return.

That's when I heard footsteps. I quickly stuck the card into the bathrobe that I was wearing, and stopped to listen to the footsteps as the clambered up the stairs. They sounded odd. It almost sounded like the person had four legs, but if they had four legs then would they really be a person? I held my breath as this thing stopped in front of my door. They opened it, and I looked up to see Sirius standing in the doorframe.

"What the heck are you doing here Sirius?!" I exclaimed as I stood up.

"Shhh!" he hissed at me before closing the door behind him. "I'm here because I was worried about you. You were acting really strange earlier."

"Sirius, I'm always strange," I deadpanned.

"True, but you were stranger than normal," he replied without skipping a beat. I sighed.

"Sirius, I-" Growl. Both of us looked down at my stomach which had just made that awful noise.

"Still not hungry?" he asked, smirking slightly.

"Maybe a little bit," I replied sheepishly. He smiled.

"Well, dinner's already over and all the girls should be coming up here anytime now, so how about we go for a little food run."

"Food run?" I asked quizzically. "You going to hit up Peter's secret stash of licorice wands or something?"

"No," Sirius laughed as he opened the door. He motioned for me to come which I did so uncertainly. "Something even better."