Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
"I don't know which is worse," Lily said, "My two best friends not talking to me or hating my job."
"How do you know Nicole isn't on some Auror thing?" Julia asked chopping on her salad.
Lily rubbed her eyes and put down the report she was reading, "Sirius or James would have said something if she was. They wouldn't just watch me go crazy over Nicole ignoring me."
"Well, I've tried to get a hold of her to but she really doesn't seem to be around. Maybe you should ask them?" Julia said.
Lily shook her head, "I have. They haven't seen her either." Lily got a worried look, "Maybe something's happened? Do you think I should talk to her mother?"
"Yeah right, she'd kill you."
"Yeah and she'd kill me if something was wrong and I didn't do anything," Lily said.
Julia shook her head, "Nicole knows how to take care of herself. I think you're reaching here."
"Why would I reach this far? I wouldn't want anything to happen to Nicole."
Julia just sighed, "Whatever, you're going to do whatever you want to anyway."
Julia threw out her trash, "Well I'm gonna get going. I'm hoping to get out of here early today."
Lily raised hey eyebrows, "A date?"
Julia grinned, "Yeah, it's our one year anniversary! Geez I can't believe Steve and I have been together that long! It's so weird!"
Lily smiled at her friend, "Ju, I'm so happy for you."
"I know, you've said that thousands of times. If you get any happier for me, I wouldn't need the emotion myself."
Lily laughed, "Sorry, I'll try to keep my happiness to myself."
"Good. See you later."
"Bye."
Lily tried to keep her mind off of everything and on her work but it was a difficult task. She missed her best friends and she kept having that nagging feeling that something more was going on. They all seemed to know something that she didn't or it was just her mind playing games with her.
"Evans!" Bolter yelled through the door.
Lily rolled her eyes at his lack of ability to knock on a door, "Yes?"
He opened it saying, "I need you in room twelve."
He just the door with more force than necessary, "Coming," She muttered.
She got up sighing and looked at the clock. Half past four and she couldn't help but be a little upset at herself. A patient was in a couple rooms down looking for her help and she was standing here groaning that her day was not over yet.
I'm a horrible person.
She was about to walk into room twelve when Bolter burst through the door almost knocking her down.
"About time!" He barked, "Decided to take your sweet time?"
Lily would have very much like to point out all the times that he failed to show to a room he was needed in but she kept her mouth shut. After her thoughts back in her office she felt she deserved a little punishment besides she did take more time to get there than she normally would have.
"Now get in there. I expect you two treat them quickly, there are two Aurors in there. Normally I would have one of my guys do it but seeing as their all busy."
Lily was too used to the insults to lash out at him but she couldn't help but be a little confused why would there be Aurors on this floor? This wasn't the floor for seriously hurt people.
"Right, so bed four."
Bolter stomped off looking a little putout; he was obviously looking for a fight. Lily rolled her eyes and walked into the room. The room only held four beds, two on each wall. Lily walked over to the fourth bed by the window and walked through the curtains. She noticed James and frowned, "What's going on?"
James nodded to the bed, "Oh."
"Hey, Lils," The thing said.
"Sirius!" Lily gasped, "What the hell?"
Sirius grinned or at least it looked like it. Lily couldn't tell with all the brown fur coming out of his face. James was standing at the end looking at the floor, she rounded on him, "What the hell happened?!"
James seemed to find the floor very intrusting because he didn't look at her when he said, "Er…see, he lost a bet."
Lily narrowed her eyes, "Bet?"
"Don't yell at him, Lils," Sirius said, "I'm the one that drank it."
"Drank it? Drank what?"
"Uh, see, we don't exactly know," James said daring to look up at her and regretting it immediately.
"What the hell do you mean you don't know?" Lily whispered angrily.
"I don't know," Mumbled James.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Look here. We were having lunch and these two girls walked in. It was obvious that they were together. If you know what I mean."
Lily made a hand movement to hurry him up.
"So I bet James that I could get there numbers. I mean I am Sirius Black. What kind of girl wouldn't want my number?"
Lily ignored the question, "I don't get how this has to do with you turning into big foot."
Sirius made a face expression that Lily couldn't read through the fur, "Well James said there was no way that I'd get there number. So he bet that if I didn't get their numbers I'd have to drink this potion that we confiscated off some wizard who was selling it on the streets."
Lily gasped, "It could have been poison!"
"Yeah, sorry."
"Sorry! You should be sorry for yourself! That's so dangerous. You could have gotten yourself killed. What were you thinking?"
James looked a little guilty, "Yeah, see, this is why we were hoping you wouldn't be the one treating him."
Lily rolled her eyes, "You two have got to the most irresponsible people I know."
James cringed, "I said we were sorry, can't you just fix him?"
"I don't suppose you guys know what the potion was?" She asked already knowing the answer.
The boys looked at each other then back at her and shrugged. She put her hands through her hair and sighed, "Okay, let's just hope this is nothing serious."
She glared at Sirius who was about to make the obvious comment. She walked over to Sirius and made the usual emanation. After her finds she grabbed the clipboard and wrote down everything.
"I'm afraid that I have no clue what you drank. It must be a personal make or a dark wizard could have tampered with it. You'll need to stay overnight where they can watch you and see what happens," Lily said.
Sirius eyes went wide, it was almost comical, "What do you mean see what happens?"
Lily sighed, "Nothing bad, they're just going to watch over you and see how it goes."
Sirius groaned, "Overnight?"
Lily frowned, "Well I guess you should have thought about that before you decided to drink some potion you got off the streets."
Sirius just grumbled something she couldn't hear.
"Come on, we've got to get you to room fifteen."
"What, why?" James asked.
"Cause I said so. Come on now," Lily said walking to the door.
She turned around and found Sirius reluctantly following James to the door. She rolled her eyes and opened the door for them. As they were walking through the hallway a lot of healers and patients were giving them weird looks and she couldn't help but notice that they were keeping their distances from them to. Lily smiled a little bit hoping that Sirius learned his lesson.
"You can stop smirking now," Sirius said.
"Huh?" Lily asked innocently.
Sirius just shook his head as they stopped in front of room fifteen. She let them in and showed Sirius to the free bed. She signed the clipboard and put it at the end of the bed, "Okay I'm going to talk to the healer in charge of this room. I'll be back."
They watched her go, "That couldn't have gone better."
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Yeah, she actually responded better than I would have thought."
"Yeah well I am an idiot for making you drink that stuff. The boss is gonna be pissed when he finds out," James said.
"Okay, you're all set," Lily said walking in, "Now, I have to go. I have tons of paper work to do."
James looked at the clock on the wall, "It's 5:15. Don't you get out at Five?"
Lily nodded, "Yeah but I figure I could just take it home."
"Do you ever stop working?" James asked.
"No," Sirius answered for her.
"It just requires a lot of time," Lily said looking at James. He would know, it was one of the reasons why they had to end it. They had no time for each other. She walked over to Sirius, "You're gonna be okay. I've seen worse."
"Yeah? That's why you acted like I was the bloody monster hiding in your closet?" Sirius joked.
Lily laughed and hugged him, "Don't worry, you'll be back to your old-
"-Hey, I'm not old-"
"-self in no time," Lily finished rolling her eyes at Sirius.
She pointed at James, "Visiting hours are over at eight."
He nodded but Sirius said, "Nah, get outta here, Prongs. I think I'm going to pass out here. It's been a long, harry day."
Lily couldn't help but smile, "That was lame."
"Padfoot, you're an idiot."
"I can't believe Sirius actually drank it," Remus said shaking his head.
Lily nodded, "Somehow I'm not surprised. I mean, I would hope that he would be smarter than that but in reality this is Sirius. He'd do anything."
"Yeah, I guess."
Lily grabbed another slice of pizza and leaned back on her couch, "I'm so glad that today is over. Sirius kept begging me to let him come home."
Remus laughed, "So when do you think he'll get out?"
"Hopefully soon," Said a voice.
Remus and Lily looked up to find James standing there.
"What happened? Lily asked.
"Ugh, he's so bloody frustrating! I stayed as long as I could until I got so annoyed I made up some excuse. I had to get out of there, he kept badgering me with stupid questions and I don't know."
"Yes well, it is your fault," Lily said as someone knocked on her door.
James refrained from replying because he knew it was true, he shouldn't have made the bet in the first place. Lily got up and answered the door and was shocked to find Nicole standing on the other side of it.
"Nicole!"
Remus and James sat up straight and watched as Nicole walked through the door.
"What the hell happened to you!?" Lily asked looking at the big black eye she had.
"Oh, nothing, sorry I haven't been in touch, it was an Auror thing," Nicole said.
"I meant your black eye," Lily said shutting the door.
"It happened on my trip," She explained, "Sorry but I'm not allowed to talk about it."
Lily helped Nicole to the chair and glared at James, "So I suppose you forgot to mention all this while I was freaking out about her missing?"
James looked at the floor and Nicole said, "Don't yell at him, Lils, he didn't know about it. Top secret."
James gave Nicole a thankful look behind Lily, she smiled, "Listen, I missed all of you. You've got to tell me everything's that's happened."
"And I think that's our cue to leave," Remus said, "We're so not sitting in on girl talk."
"Yeah, I think I've had enough of complaining from Sirius," James said getting up after Remus.
Lily and Nicole threw pillows at the boys as the left.
Lily smiled, "You won't believe what's happed to Sirius."
Nicole grinned and jumped from the chair to the couch, "Do tell."
"I think it's time to talk to Sam," Lily told Nicole two days later. Her bruise had gone down nicely, thanks to Healer Lily.
Nicole chocked on her drink, "What?"
"She's our best friend, she obviously needs us now."
Nicole lowered her eyes, "What do you mean obviously? Have you talked to her?"
Lily sighed, "No! I just think that she must be lonely and I feel bad abandoning her like this."
"Um, maybe you weren't there but she was the one who abandoned us," Nicole pointed out, "She got mad, she slammed the door and shut us out. Besides we can't talk to her unless she's done with that slime-I mean that boyfriend of hers."
"I don't care who she's dating. I'm going to talk to her. Tomorrow. You can come with me or you can stay behind, it's up to you," Lily said stubbornly.
Nicole sighed, "Ugh, fine."
"I can't believe we're doing this," Nicole said trying to keep up with Lily's purposeful strides, "And will you please slow down!"
Lily stopped unaware that she was going so fast, "Sorry. It's just, she's not at her house, not at her mom's, where could she be?"
Nicole looked at Lily not sure that she wanted to tell her this, "Lily why do you need to talk to her so bad? How do you know that this person is even Sam anymore? We're in the middle of a war here."
"I know! That's why I want to find her!" Lily snapped.
"Listen Lily, I should tell you something," Nicole said looking around to make sure no one was around. As it was the day no one was around. Nicole pulled Lily over to a bench.
"What is it?"
Nicole took a deep breath and said, "Listen, I think you should know something about Sam."
Nicole looked into Lily's eyes; she was so unaware of things around her. If she only really knew how bad this war was, but that was the point of not telling her about the Order, wasn't it? To keep her innocent. If Nicole told Lily the things she's done she wasn't so sure Lily would stay by her side anymore.
"Just tell me, Nicole, no more secrets," Lily said.
"Okay, Sam's in some trouble. She, uh, she's the main suspect in a murder investigation. The head Aurors have been on the case for a while now and everything is pointing to her."
Lily shook her head, she didn't believe it. Nicole put her hand on Lily's, "Lily listen, she's dangerous, I can't let you walk into something like this."
"She's our friend. We made a promise to each other that no matter what happens we are always friends first."
"This is different!" Nicole said.
"No, it's not. How could believe something like this? We shared the same dorm with her! She never once showed that she was capable of murder! She's our friend, Nicole."
Nicole looked at the ground guilt bubbling in her stomach, "Okay, you're right…she's at Snape's"
Nicole regretted the words coming out of her mouth the second she said them. Lily pulled out her wand and apparated on the spot.
"Lily! No!"
God, what have I done?
Alright I know I haven't updated in forever! I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me, okay I probably deserve it. Needless to say but I've been extremely busy but since my allergies were acting up like crazy I decided to take this day for myself and update. You can thank my mom for this. I've been taking nightly walks with her around the park and whichever of those pretty flowers don't exactly like my nose and throat at the moment. But I swear to you I'll try to update faster like I was doing before everything got so screwed up!
I really hope you like this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think! I know this one didn't have to do with James and Lily but that's coming up and worth the wait.