A/N - HOLY BALLS I ACTUALLY UPDATED

Ok

I'm sorry... Again. There's no excuse other than I'm rubbish :(

So without further ado I will do these (Long awaited) thank yous and stuff so thanks to - mykalahorse, BlackMoonWhiteSky, Trinityelizabethholly, Jane Callira Doe, Buzooka Zooka and BeautyWillRiseFromAllDarkness for following/favouriting and all that jazz

I am in the process of replying to reviews that I really should have replied to centuries ago right now - I am very very terribly sorry really

AlmondoftheStars - I've always kept writing I promise! I'm just really, really bad at writing with any form of regular timetable... Oops... But thank you so much! Your reviews are always appreciated very encouraging! :)

What else... Oh, this chapter is mostly to do with the relationship with Jennie and Charlie, but there's a little of the rest of the 'gang' sorry about that. I needed to sort out the stuff so I can move the plot on..

Anyway you don't care about that boring business so without further ado

Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. Obviously.

read on :)


At breakfast, Sirius was still milking it for all it was worth.

It had been over an hour since I had kicked him in bed and he was hobbling around overdramatically, ignoring me and just generally being a drama queen.
It was rather funny actually, what with absolutely nobody giving him any sympathy at all he was getting more and more frustrated.
I helped myself to some cornflakes as James pretended to feel sorry for Sirius whilst actually smearing butter all over his back.

"Loverboy not coming over today then?" Sirius noted with a nod to the door. Charlie was just entering the hall with a group of his friends, and while most of them paused by the doorway to say bye to him as he usually came over to sit with us at breakfast, he continued to walk to the Ravenclaw table, without so much as a glance over to our table.

"Like you care." I replied, knowingly to him, as I shoved a spoonful of cornflakes into my mouth.

Remus slid in next to me on the bench, "Told you he was pissed." He grabbed a sausage from the platter in front of me and didn't bother with the pleasantries of cutlery, instead preferring to tear the end off in his mouth.

"Pissed about what?" Lily asked, in between fanning her mouth after burning it on a cup of tea.

"Snape." I mumbled, knowing that now I had answered one question, the bombardment was on its way.

"You been running around with Snivelly?" James asked, in a mocking tone, just as Sirius discovered James' antics of the past five minutes and had taken off his butter covered jumper and was hitting him with it.

"Obviously James," Cut in Sophie, who had just arrived at the conversation along with Frank Longbottom who was trying to find Alice, and might just have saved me from a questioning, "Who would be able to resist Snape when they've got Charlie Lawson for a boyfriend?"

"What's so special about Lawson?" Sirius, who had perked up at Sophie's arrival, scowled.

"Well..." Sophie began, a smirk spreading across her face, "He's smart-"

Sirius cut across her, "We're smart." He gestured between himself, James and Remus.

"He's caring-"

"James has a hamster."

"Had a hamster." James interjected, bringing to memory the time that James' hamster had 'escaped' with help from Sirius, and consequently been run over by a car.

"He's sensible-"

"Remus is a prefect!"

"Not to mention incredibly good looking." Sophie finished, putting extra emphasis on 'incredibly'. Her smirk was so obvious now that it was even funnier as Sirius got more and more wound up.

"I'm incredibly good looking." Sirius replied, turning his tone in an instant, "And so are you. Fancy a walk?"

Eyebrows have never been raised higher.

Sophie however, let out a small laugh and shrugged. "You'll have a hard time impressing me Black, but you've got to try everything once." She stood up, as did Sirius, and the two of them walked out of the hall, with Remus calling after Sirius-

"We've got potions first, and I'm not covering your arse if you're late!"

When Remus turned his head back to the table he was sporting the same bewildered, yet amused look as the rest of us.

"What just happened?" Frank asked, in a breathy tone, a spoonful of cereal balanced halfway to his mouth.

"Sirius just happened." Lily replied, fetching an overenthusiastic laugh from James.

I spooned another load of cornflakes into my mouth, coughing when Remus made a remark about James and I inhaled the milk.

"Jennie, I've left my potions book in the Dormitory" Lily announced over the sounds of a dying friend, "Come with me to get it?"

I frowned as Remus stopped slapping me on the back, "It's in your bag, next to you." I remarked, pointing to the dark blue book sticking out of the top of Lily's schoolbag.

She rolled her eyes, "Just come?" and stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
I rolled my eyes and shoved one last spoonful of cornflakes into my mouth before standing up and pulling my satchel from underneath the table, bidding goodbye to the others, and following her out of the hall.


"What do you want?" I questioned Lily as she began to walk down to the dungeons. "We're not going to Potions... early... are we?" I asked, a horrified tone taking over my voice.

"No, we're not." Lily laughed, "I just wanted to ask you what you meant when you said that Severus is the reason that Charlie isn't talking to you, and I figured that it might be easier for you to explain if the other morons weren't around."

I laughed slightly, and uneasily, "There's not all that much to explain," I began, perching on the ledge of an archway carved into the wall. "Basically, he asked me to lay off of Snape when we were in Hogsmeade. And I never really agreed either way, but I think he thinks that I did."

Lily's face couldn't have looked more unsurprised if she had been trying.

"And then the other day happened and now we're here." I summed up, forming an unconvincing smile.

"You shouldn't have started the other day." Lily reflected, "It opened up that gap for him to mention-" She stopped herself, "You had every right after that."

"Not to Charlie though," I corrected her, "He doesn't know." I have been playing with a loose thread on the cuff of my school jumper, and now have accidentally made a hole in the material.

Lily took a deep breath in and out while she seemed to be thinking, "You have to tell him some day." She said, tentatively. "I'm not saying now." She quickly cut in as I went to protest, "But one day, when you're ready. He has to know."

"He was using you as an example why I should be nice to Snape." I bluntly said, disregarding her previous sentence.

"Me?" Lily asked, her face flushing only slightly as she fidgeted around with her bag strap.

"Yeah, he was saying that because you like him he can't be all that bad." I explained, standing up and beginning to walk down the corridor to the dreaded lesson.

"He isn't," She said, as if to confirm a point I had made myself, "He's just misunderstood, he's actually nice."

"To you."

"Because I'm nice to him." She counteracted, "But if you treat him like crap then you're going to get the same back."

I froze, "So he had a right to make a comment like that about my brother yesterday then? A comment like that, about my dead brother?" I asked her, my voice becoming more and more unsettled as the sentence went on. "Because I make the odd joke about his appalling hygiene?"

Lily flipped her beautiful hair over her shoulder, "You know that's not what I meant." She bit back, almost angrily.

I was about to throw another stupid retort at her when my other best friend came wobbling down the corridor, sniffing loudly and wiping his hand two and fro underneath his nose.

I tried to make myself as small as possible so that he wouldn't notice me, but obviously it didn't work.

"Ah Lily, and how is my favourite student doing today?" Slughorn asked as he saw the two of us, "Miss Smith don't touch that statue." He threw aside to me before tottering forward to converse with Lily.
She looked back at me with a look of desperation on her face so I laughed at her and waved goodbye, letting her be carried on towards the classroom with Slughorn. I on the other hand, have no talent in potions as was evident in a previous chapter in our story and therefore had absolutely no desire to be in the lesson any earlier than late.

So I decided to wait for the others to show up, then I could always hide behind Remus as I entered the classroom.

The wait for the group to turn up, was painfully short. They came down the corridor after the normal rush of students, Remus and Stephanie deep in conversation, James trying to charm Peter's hair without him knowing, Frank and Alice arm in arm, Molly and Arthur the same and behind the lot of them Sirius and Sophie, both looking like they had just woken up.


There was a great scraping of chairs on the floor as Slughorn issued the instructions for the potion we were to be making today and everyone got up to begin their work.

We, today, are working with our assignment partners to practice brewing the flask of Felix Felicis which completes the final stage. Sirius and I, as per usual, have been assigned to the desk right at the back of the classroom.

Sirius slammed the cauldron down on the table and flipped open the textbook with the instructions, "Jennie," He said, almost an announcement, "We're going to die making this."

"We can't even use it," I complained, rooting around in the pile of ingredients we had been issued with, "It takes six months to stew."

"Chop these up will you?" Sirius ordered, throwing a bunch of muddy roots from the pile to me and following that, throwing a silver knife.

I seized the knife and the roots and roughly started to slice them at any angle and size I pleased. Sirius on the other hand, was not being productive in the slightest. He was winking and smirking at Sophie across the room who kept shaking her head at him as if throwing off a little boy.

"Are your balls better now then?" I asked him bluntly, and loud enough for just him to hear.

"Oh ho yes they are." He said, cockily, snapping out of his pathetic routine to Sophie and regarding my root cutting with some distaste.

"You're such a child." I commented scraping all of the cut roots into a pile, "What's next?"

"I think Sophie might disagree," He remarked, throwing the ladle up in the air to try and flip it and catch it, instead it fell on his face. He was so smooth it hurt. "And, mash this thing with the roots, then chuck it all in." With this he flicked a sort of stone at me, along with a small hammer type object.

"Actually," I replied, slamming the hammer onto the stone and watching it crumple slightly, a silvery liquid dripping from a crack. "She doesn't look all that impressed." I looked up at Sophie, who was talking to Alice while Peter struggled with some sort of plant that had him in a nipple twist.
Alice was obviously asking Sophie questions, and in regard to the way she kept looking over at Sirius, they were about their little exploit. Sophie was laughing, but not in an embarrassed way, more of a teasing way.

"She just doesn't want to make Prewett jealous." Sirius reassured himself, swooping in and picking the pile of mashed roots up and putting them in the cauldron.

"Sophie's had loads of guys Sirius." I pointed out, "Most of them alot older, and more experienced than you. I think you might have disappointed this time." I laughed slightly, but stopped at the hurt look on his face.

"Stir it four times each direction and then add some unicorn blood." He ordered flatly, using the knife to scrape a gouge in the desk.

"Oh come on Padfoot..." I nag, stepping down from the mental step I had just put myself on above him. "I'm only kidding you, I'm sure you were wonderful." I say, stirring the potion clockwise and then anti clockwise.

Sirius perked up slightly, "Keep your distance midget," he instructed, raising an eyebrow and picking up a vial of powder, "You've got a man." He emptied the vial into the potion after I had added the unicorn blood and the liquid sparked slightly and became a dark shade of gold.

I rolled my eyes and stepped backwards from the potion as it suddenly began emitting waves of intense heat, bouncing off of something squishy behind me.

"Stir it seven times with the silver knife Mr Black, now!" Slughorn bellowed right in my face as I turned around.

I screwed up my eyes until he had finished and Sirius had sprung on the potion with the knife at hand.

"Alright Sir?" I blurted before I could stop myself.

"Miss Smith. Your blatant neglect of this potion damn near killed us all!" He scolded, raising his voice at the end of his sentence, chins jiggling in his rage.

I opened my mouth, exasperated. "My, neglect?"

Sirius stood behind me for the whole time laughing, right up until I was placed in another lunchtime detention. This time, for no reason. What so ever.


It had been a week since Charlie had last spoken to me, and I had to admit, it was now getting tiresome.

Surely he couldn't be that hung up over a small argument with Snape?

Even in Defence Against the Dark Arts, he had not made any conversation with me or responded to that which I had tried to make with him. The only words I had heard him speak were when he was jinxing or hexing me, after Professor Shiver had decided that we were to be practicing our counter attacks.

I was annoying everyone else too. Because I wasn't spending any time with Charlie I was around them 24/7 and they were getting irritated.

Lily decided to put an end to it one morning at breakfast, with the help of James and Remus.

"You're staying in there until you stop behaving like five year olds!" She called through the crack in the door before she locked it from the outside, leaving Charlie and I shut in a broom cupboard on the first floor.

"I'm clearly not the one she's referring to." I remarked sarcastically, moving to the far end of the cupboard and pulling out my wand, "Lumos"

Charlie was still standing at the door, "You can hardly believe I've been described as immature?"

I raised my eyebrows, "Well lately-"

"You're the one that behaved like an arse first."

"I had reasons." I snapped back at him.

"What reasons?" He asked, face still stony.

I paused, I should tell him. "They don't matter."

"But they're enough to break a promise."

"I never-"

"Close enough."

"No, it wasn't."

There was a rapping at the door, "You two sound like you want to stay in there for a while..." Lily's voice sang through the keyhole.

We both looked at each other.

"How's your hand?" I asked, this question had been a common greeting with Charlie ever since the incident had occurred, and however annoying anyone found it when used usually, it felt like a small mercy in this situation.

"Gross." Charlie replied, lighting his own wand and holding it up to the bandage that covered his injured hand. The bandage was tinged green.

"I don't want to alarm you but that's not normal." My disgusted tone turning into a laugh as Charlie suddenly moved his hand up to my face.

"Really?" He asked, sarcastically after throwing himself across me to put his hand between the back of my head and the sharp corner of a discarded torch bracket, as I moved away from his hand.

As he straightened himself up and tried to move back his jumper got caught on a broomstick handle and consequently rose up slightly, revealing his moley skin.

He coughed slightly and tugged it back down, looking at the floor and everywhere else but at me.

And then we were kissing. And I hated him and I hated myself for giving in but it seemed that it was not enough to stop me.

Before much time had passed at all both of our jumpers and Charlie's shirt were on the stone floor and I was against the wall, my hands pulling on his hair.
Cold fingers began to fumble with the top buttons on my shirt and shivers ran through me at every freezing touch.

And then Lily opened the door.

"There's no need to thank me." She stated smugly, before pushing the door to and walking off.

Charlie looked at me and grinned, and I shook my head and put my face into his shoulder, my own mouth grinning against his skin rather than letting him see.

I was almost dreading leaving this cupboard, not because of Charlie, but because of the smugness that would undoubtedly be coming from Lily for the rest of the day, week, month. Ever.


A/N - So, as always, please leave me a review if you would like to. I do love hearing from you and I will always reply, even if it happens to be three months late... heh sorry...