Disclaimer: I own nothing familiar from the HP Universe. All dates used in this story are taken from the timelines of HPLexicon.

Here's the last chapter in this group of five and I wanted to thank all of the readers who took the time to review.

Chapter Ten

During class, Artemisia paid close attention to McGongall's lecture then paired up with Lily. James and Sirius had also paired up and not for the first time, she noticed how James tried to catch Lily's eye during their classes together.

Halfway through the class, having watched everyone else's tries and hopefully learned from their mistakes, Artemisia confidently took her first try at changing a book into an animal. Taking a deep breath, she tried to think of an animal to concentrate on. Instantly her mind sprung forth a vision of the dog that had been in the kitchen of Grimmauld place, when she had first arrived. In her mind, she made it smaller and added a few changes to it. If it was Sirius's dog, she didn't want it to look too much like it. After a steadying breath, she smiled at Lily before giving her attention to the task at hand. She muttered the incantation and the book changed. The dog startled everyone around her when it let out a sharp bark. Artemisia grinned largely as McGonagall came to stand next to her.

"Very good, Miss Wyndham. A little larger than what I asked for, but very good. Ten points."

Artemisia and Lily spent the rest of the class playing with the dog until McGonagall told everyone to change their animals back to books. She sighed as she smiled apologetically at the dog. She had always wanted one while growing up but her father was allergic.

"Bye, bye, pup." She said giving it one more pat. It whined as though it knew what was coming and she quickly turned it back into a book. Picking it up, she returned the book to the stack on McGonagall's desk.

"Why a dog?" Sirius asked her when she returned to her seat to write out the homework.

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"It reminded me of a grim." Peter shivered in his seat.

"Artemisia grinned at him. "Peter, don't you know, it's bad luck to be superstitious."

McGongall who was walking past their desks, chuckled at this. Artemisia looked up at the professor in surprise. She had never heard her laugh before.

"Isn't it superstitious to believe in bad luck?" Sirius asked from behind her.

She turned and met his eyes. "Of course, that's the entire point." He frowned in confusion and she shook her head. "There isn't really anything that constitutes luck." She stood up to leave the room. He joined her as she walked down the hall.

"So, you don't believe in luck?"

"Not one little bit." She returned with a smile.

"Then I suppose you don't believe in fate either."

"Oh, I believe in fate, but not as in everything is laid out pure and simple before us with no choice of where we'll end up." She shook her head. "We all have free will and it is up to us to choose the path to travel when it comes before us. Where that path ends, there will always be another choice." She wondered about this for a moment. If that was true, then how did she end up coming there? Then she remembered. Even it she had done all this before, there had been nothing stopping her from not doing it. It had been her own choice to come to the past, even if at the time it hadn't seemed like there had been any other choice for her.

Before Artemisia knew it, autumn was all around her and the first Hogsmeade weekend was announced. She had just finished her homework and was helping Shawny with her charms paper as Lily laughed at the conversation flowing between the two girls. It was then that Artemisia witnessed her first James/Lily confrontation.

"Hey, Lily." James smiled at the redhead as she glared over at him. Artemisia looked between the two in surprise. "Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"How many times to I have to tell you this, Potter? I am not interested in you and I will not go with you to Hogsmeade. The words were slowly spoken through clinched teeth, and then with another glare, Lily stormed out of the common room. James sighed before returning to the other boys. Artemisia didn't miss the hurt look in his eyes when Lily said no to him. She looked towards Shawny for an explanation. The one she got wasn't what she expected. Of course, she had noticed that James and Sirius could be complete arseholes but that didn't mean that there wasn't a good side to them. After a few minutes of listening to Shawny, Artemisia stood up.

"I'm going to go talk to Lily."

"Good luck." She laughed, then called out after the girl. "Could you put this in our room?" She held out her bag. Artemisia gave a nod as she took it with her.

After putting the bag away, she stood hesitantly before Lily's room gathering the courage to knock. When she did knock, Lily opened the door and the redhead looked for lack of a better word, sad, but that didn't make sense.

"Why won't you go out with James?" The words just spilled out of her. Lily flushed and Artemisia expected the girl to slam the door in her face. Instead, she looked down the hall before gesturing the blonde into the room.

Artemisia frowned slightly. All this past stuff was starting to remind her of the muggle movies that she had seen with Laelia in London when she was supposed to be shopping in Diagon Alley. She was taking classes with her professor and falling for a guy that would end up being known as the wizarding world's most wanted criminal. She was relieved that Sirius wasn't asking her to Hogsmeade. That was one headache she certainly didn't need.

She sat down on Lily's bed and push a honey coloured strand out of her eyes. Lily began to pace before her. After a long silence, Artemisia decides she isn't going to speak and asked the question she wanted answered. "I know you want to say yes to him, so why don't you?"

"Because then he's won." She replied balefully. Artemisia stared at the redhead, her dark green eyes wide. Out of all the things that Lily might have said that took the cake. She started giggling and soon slid off the bed onto the floor. It seemed like such a long time since she had a really good laugh at something. She had tears rolling down her cheeks when she finally looked up at Lily. The redhead was leaning against the wall as she shook with laughter. "I can't believe I said that."

"Well, if that's the way you feel about it then we'll just have to figure out a way in which someone else wins." Her eyes lit up as she thought of the perfect plan. It reminded Artemisia a bit of a joke that she and Laelia had played on Isabella, but it might work. "I have a plan." She announced with a large grin. Who would have thought that she could be whimsical? "I'll be right back."

Artemisia dashed down the stairs and headed straight to where the four boys were sitting. At first, she didn't see what everyone else in the room was watching. That would be Sirius and Sunny snogging. It brought her to an abrupt halt and she fell over into James's lap as she tried to regain her balance. She had never been all that graceful.

The Head Boy looked at her in surprise and she grinned at him. "Fancy meeting you here." He burst into laughter as Remus helped her to her feet. "Sorry about that, James." She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Sirius had broken away from Sunny and seemed to be trying to catch her eye. 'Too late, buddy.' She thought to herself. 'That ship has not only sailed but is now sinking into the sea.' She looked at James for a moment wondering how to voice her idea. "Do you really want to spend all day with Lily in Hogsmeade?" She tried to look as innocent as possible. It must have worked because at first he looked blankly at her then nodded slowly. "Great." She had never been all that good at expressing emotions, but the next thing she knew she was giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Don't make any plans. I have an idea." Without another word, she walked out of the common room and into the hall, where she headed towards the library. She was almost there when Sirius appeared by her side. She found this strange because he hadn't come up from behind her but had been waiting further down the hall. "How did you do that?" She asked.

"Do what?"

"Just appear out of thin air like that."

"Maybe, I apparated." Sirius grinned.

"Nice try, but I know that you can't apparate in Hogwarts. Ever read Hogwarts: A History?" He shook his head. "Me, neither, but a girl from my old school had and she mentioned that fact."

He laughed and his arm slipped over her shoulders as they walked towards the library. "I hope you aren't planning to use a potion on Lily."

Artemisia looked at him in surprise. "Why you I do that?"

"Don't look so surprised. People do think that way."

"I don't." Hurt laced her tone and Sirius quickly spoke to repair the damage he might have caused with his words.

"Hey, I didn't mean anything by that." He gave her a smile and when she smiled back, he knew that he didn't have to worry that she would stay mad at him for accusing her of thinking about using a potion on Lily. He leaned forwards as they stopped by the entrance of the library. Artemisia knew he was going to kiss her and her hear sped up in anticipation, until she remembered what she had seen in the common room. The picture that came to her mind was the equivalent of ice water. She backed away from him and shook her head at him.

"I'm not about to kiss you, Mr. Black."

"Why not?" He gave her a lazy smile. "I bet there isn't one good reason for us not to kiss."

"I have three." She announced off the top of her head.

"Name them." She hadn't expected him to challenge her words.

"You were just snogging Sunny."

"That's not a reason for me not to kiss you." He leaned towards her and her eyes widened with the understanding that going from the arms of one girl to those of another was something Sirius obviously had no problem with.

"I won't kiss a guy that I know has kissed another girl in the last 72 hours." He blinked at her in surprise. She glanced about the room and quickly counted the five people in the room. "I never snog when more than three people can see it." Artemisia needed just one more, odd, rule and then she'd have him completely off kilter. An idea strikes her and she barely held back a large grin. "I never snog a guy that I've known for less than six months." He looked at her in shock. He continued to sit at the table gapping at her while she checked out the book she needed for the DADA assignment and walked out of the room. Artemisia was still chuckling to herself when she entered the common room. James and Remus gave her questioning looks. She had to tell them. She had seen the way the four boys behave with each other. She sat down at the table with them and looked around the common room. "Where's Peter?"

"He said he was going to the library." James answered.

"Oh, I didn't see him there."

"What's so funny, Fifi?" He asked, when she continued to chuckle.

"Well, James, if you swear not to tell Sirius, I'll tell you."

"Why wouldn't we tell Sirius?" Remus asked, looking intrigued.

"Because if you keep it a secret, I can promise you a day in Hogsmeade with Lily."

"By force." James shooked his head. "No thanks."

"Sweet Circe, what is with you boys jumping to conclusions. One day, no force needed." She rolled her eyes. "All you have to do is keep a straight face when Sirius tells you about my little rules and tell him that they are reasonable."

"Okay, I give. Even if the day with Lily doesn't pan out, I wouldn't mind a good laugh at Padfoot's expense."

"Okay, Sirius tried to kiss me on our way to the library. I told him that I had three reasons why I wouldn't kiss him."

The boys laughed merrily at this. "What were the reasons?"

"I'm glad, you boys, brought that up." She pretended to sigh and then gave them the reasons. The two are laughing hard by the time she finished the last one.

"Is there any truth to them?" James asked, when he could control his laughter.

"Well, I've never given the number of people that see you any thought. I just couldn't kiss someone that I just saw snogging the daylights out of someone else. As for how long I have know the guy, I came up with that one on the spot." She caught sight of Lily sitting on the other side of the room and stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to talk to Lily."

Later in the boys' dorm...

"I just don't understand how she could have such rules." Sirius ran a hand through his hair as he looked around at his best friends. "Snogging is one of those things that you can't make up rules for."

"Well, actually…." Remus stopped from at a glare from the dark-haired boy.

"You know what I meant." He growled.

"Six months?" Peter's eyes were wide as the implications came to him.

"Well, you might have a chance in kissing her in," James paused as he counted out the months, "February."

"Prongs, you're not helping. Those rules are ridiculous."

"Yes, they are."

"No, they aren't, Wormtail." Remus shot the boy a look, in hopes of shutting him up. Every time he agreed, Sirius started off again. "No girl wants to know that she isn't the girl the boy wanted in the first place. That she's just one of many."

"What Moony is trying to say, is that a girl wants to be special." James started but Sirius was quick to cut him off.

"If you two girls are done telling me how to handle girls, can we get out of here? I want to go to Hogsmeade and forget about her rules for a bit."

"I'm all for that." James replied, getting up from the bed.

Sirius followed the other boys out of the room. February, how was he supposed to resist the pull of her for that long. He was just going to have to get her to break her rules. He smiled, suddenly feeling better than he had since Fifi had dropped her rules on him. If he knew one thing, that was how to get away with breaking a few rules.

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