Chapter 11 - Reunions

I walked down the hall to my old dorm quickly. It was getting late and the prefects would start patrolling soon, not that it mattered to me anyways since I was Head Girl. I said the password Marley had told me earlier and the Fat Lady swung open obligingly. I walked into the common room— It was weird to be in here knowing that I actually didn't live here anymore. I felt like I didn't belong.

"Lily?" I heard a voice say from the couch near the fire and I spun around to see Sirius and Remus sitting there.

"Hey," I said unsurely. I hadn't talked to either of them at all over the summer. I felt awful about it. I had begun to write Sirius several letters, all of which I had quickly crumpled up and threw away. But that was no excuse. I knew they were probably still mad at me for what happened at the end of the year with James and I wasn't too sure how to act around them now.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked accusingly and the words were harsh. I saw Remus elbow him in his side before he turned back to me. I shrank back a little and muttered that I was here to see the Clique.

"Wait," Remus said as I turned to go up the stairs. "We haven't seen you in ages. Won't you stay and talk for a bit?"

I turned back towards them. Remus gestured for me to come over to them and I obeyed, my feet moving slowly and unsurely.

"Aren't you guys mad at me?" I asked quietly when I stood in front of them.

"Yes," Sirius said, staring resolutely into the fire.

"No," Remus cut him off, throwing him a sharp look. "We're not mad at you, Lily," he said, his voice softening. "Come sit down."

I saw in the armchair next to the couch. "I'm sorry I didn't write at all this summer," I blurted out. "I didn't know what to say after… well, you know."

Sirius huffed and continued staring into the fire. Remus, however, smiled.

"It's ok, Lily." He said gently. "Did you have a nice summer?"

"It was alright," I said, chewing nervously on my bottom lip. "I broke up with Chris about two weeks after school got out."

Sirius's head snapped back toward me. "You what?"

"I broke up with him," I said again, looking directly into his steely gray eyes. "You were right. He wasn't right for me at all…"

Sirius's face split into a grin but he quickly hid it. "Sorry though, that must have been rough."

"It actually wasn't. For me, at least. Chris wasn't too happy about it, though," I admitted. That was a bit of an understatement. Chris had been completely devastated. I tried very hard to block that particular memory of the summer from my mind. I did not look forward to seeing him at all in class.

"Well, Lils, I'm not gonna lie," Sirius said as he moved to sit on the armrest of my chair. "That makes me really happy."

I scoffed and tried to push him off but he stayed put.

"Look, sorry I've been such a git. But you know how it is with friends…" Sirius muttered.

"Yeah, I know…" I said and the image of Pippa curled up in my lap crying, flashed before my eyes. "Look, I gotta go. I'm here to see the Clique."

I got up from the chair, taking extra care to shove Sirius off the armrest and walked past Remus, ruffling his hair as I went. It felt good to have things cleared up between us.

I skipped up the steps to the girls' dorm and knocked lightly on the door before entering. The room looked exactly the same except that my usual bed was empty.

Pippa was hunched over on her bed painting her toenails a shiny gold. Marley was lying on her stomach on her bed leafing through her Potions book. And Emilie was unpacking clothes from her trunk. They all looked up when I entered and then started talking all at once, asking me questions about my room and what it's like living with a boy.

"I haven't even been there for an hour yet," I laughed. "I have no idea what it's like living with a boy. The entire time I was unpacking he was just sitting in the common room twirling his wand. I have no idea what his problem is. He's been acting so weird today."

"You mean why hasn't be been acting like he's madly in love with you?" Emilie said lightly from her bed. I pressed my lips together in a hard line.

"That's not what I mean, Em," I snapped, taking a seat next to Pippa on her bed.

"Come on, Lily. So he's acting cold to you. So what? You did kind of reject him pretty harshly last June," Emilie said raising her eyebrows at me.

"Can we not bring that up please?" I growled at her and she fell silent, returning to unpacking her trunk.

"Let's talk about something else," Marley suggested, sensing the tension between Emilie and I.

"Good," Pippa said and she reached down into her trunk and pulled out a handful of small black books. "How about how we're getting these to everyone?"

"Pip, I thought you said you'd figure that part out," I sighed.

"I tried," Pippa said innocently. "But I couldn't think of anything."

"Well, there's no way we can personally give everyone a book," I said, thinking out loud. "And we can't get into any of the other dorms. The only ones who can do that are the teachers and the house elves…"

"That's perfect!" Pippa exclaimed, her hazel eyes lighting up. "We'll have the house elves put them there!"

"Yeah right, Pippa," Emilie said rolling her eyes. "The only way they'd do that for us is if we bribed them with something."

"Like butterbeer?" I suggested. Pippa squealed next to me and threw her arms around me, kissing me on the cheek.

"You guys are so brilliant. That will totally work. I don't know why I can't come up with these things on my own anymore. I used to be so good at it," Pippa said shaking her head sadly. We all knew why she couldn't but none of us said it out loud. Her mischief had slowly declined after she and Sirius broke up, and since last June especially it was like she couldn't concentrate on anything, let alone pranks. Now that she had some idea in her head for trouble, I didn't have the heart to discourage her, especially when we'd come this far already.

Emilie and I walked quietly downstairs later that night, hoping that Sirius was still down there. Luckily we found him sitting alone by the fireplace, reading what looked like a letter.

"Sirius?" I asked cautiously as we approached the couch. After our conversation earlier I was pretty sure that we were on good terms again.

He looked up at us, startled, and quickly crumpled the letter in his hands.

"Hey," he said and I could hear a hint of anger in his voice.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Huh?" He looked at me and saw my eyes flicker to the crumpled paper in his hands. "Oh, this. Letter from my mother. It's just a long list of curses at me. She sends them roughly four times a year."

"That sounds awful," Emilie said in her light, breathy voice. She sat down next to him on the couch and placed a sympathetic hand on his knee.

"Really, it's ok. I'm used to it by now," Sirius shrugged.

"Families suck," I said sitting down on the other side of Sirius.

"So what are you ladies doing up so late?"

"Well, we actually needed to talk to you…" Emilie said, glancing quickly at me. We had agreed that since I was the closest with Sirius, I should be the one to ask.

Sirius saw our exchange of glances and looked at me curiously.

"Ok, we have this kind of project that we're working on," I started, unsure of how to proceed. "You have to promise us that you won't say a word about any of this to anyone. You're the only one we can trust with this…"

A crease formed between Sirius's silver eyes as I spoke to him.

"Sure, Lily, I promise. What's going on?"

"Ok, well like I said, we have this…project. And it will eventually involve the whole school but in order for it to involve the whole school we need the house elves to help us. And for that we need a bribe, which we thought could be butterbeer. Only we have no idea how or where to get enough butterbeer to bribe the house elves."

Sirius thought it over for a minute. "You guys aren't very good pranksters. Pippa would know, wouldn't she? She's done tons of stuff like this before," he said, laughing slightly.

"Well, Pippa hasn't really been much of herself lately," Emilie said quietly, avoiding Sirius's questioning stare.

"Is she ok?" He asked, and there was an edge of panic in his voice.

"She's fine, Sirius," I soothed. "She's just been sort of distracted lately so she can't really focus properly on anything."

"Well," he said calming down a bit. "I guess I could help you get the butterbeer. It's going to involve going to Hogsmeade, though. And I'm not doing it alone. Normally James would help but since you don't want anyone else to know, one of you is going to have to come with me."

"Lily will go," Emilie volunteered and I shot her a glare. "You're Head Girl, if anyone catches you out late they'll just think you're doing patrol."

I wrinkled my nose. She had a point. "Fine, I'll go," I said shrugging.

"Well, geez. Don't get too excited over spending time with me, Lils," Sirius scoffed in mock offense.

"Sirius, I'll be very happy to spend time with you," I soothed him. "But speaking of patrols, I have to get going. Potter and I have our first patrol tonight. Let me know when you want to go to Hogsmeade, Sirius." I said and I left him and Emilie on the couch.

I jogged down the long hall and skidded to a stop in front of Potter who was waiting outside the Heads dormitory.

"Sorry I'm late," I apologized breathlessly and I doubled over to catch my breath.

"It's fine," Potter said indifferently, shrugging. He started walking down the hall and I ran a few steps to catch up with him.

"What on earth is going on with you?" I asked, still a little breathless.

"What do you mean?" He asked coldly, not looking at me.

"I mean… why aren't you annoying the hell out of me? Since we've been back you've been quiet, passive, and normal; all things that are uncharacteristic of you," I said, falling into step with his long stride.

"What's it matter to you?" He snapped, his cold hazel eyes boring into my emerald ones.

"It doesn't really," I said defensively. "But it's just— well, it's surprising, this change in you. I didn't expect it, that's all."

"Well, life is full of surprises," Potter said bitterly as we went through a door leading to the grand staircase.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I liked the old you a lot better," I muttered quietly to myself, sure that he wouldn't hear me.

"Why the hell did you break up with Chris, Lily?" Potter burst. We had just stepped onto a staircase that had begun to move and I was trapped, scared at his sudden outburst.

"He wasn't right for me," I said quietly, shrinking back against the stone banister of the stairs.

"'He wasn't right for me'…" Potter mused to himself, chuckling slightly. It was a dangerous kind of laugh, the kind that made the hairs on the back on my neck stand up. Why wouldn't this stupid staircase go faster? "And you broke up with him two weeks after school got out. Couldn't bother yourself to send me a quick letter, could you?"

"I didn't know what I would say, James," I explained, walking quickly down the steps as the staircases reconnected.

"You could have said anything, Lily," Potter grabbed my arm and pulled me back. It wasn't forceful, it was urgent. "Anything would have been better than nothing. Even if you didn't want to be with me, just something. I spent weeks trying to figure out what the hell happened between us that night. And then I finally just gave up."

"You gave up?" I repeated, unexpectedly upset by this. I felt something pull at the back of my stomach like I was going to be sick. I hadn't counted on feeling like this. Just a year ago what I would've given anything to hear Potter say those exact words, that he was giving up on me. So why did they hurt so much to hear now?

"I'm with Holly now. And I really like her," James said, a strange sadness edging its way into his voice.

"Well, good for you," I said, my voice sounding cool and indifferent. Potter could never find out how much this hurt me. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of thinking I actually had feelings for him and was affected by his having a girlfriend. I could never let him see me even the tiniest bit vulnerable like this ever again.

"I think we should split up to do rounds from now on," I said. "It'll be more efficient. I'll take the north side of the castle, you take the south." And I strode off down a dark, empty corridor, leaving Potter and any feelings I might have had for him behind.

A/N: Happy May everyone! And a new chapter! So Lily reconnected with the Marauders, Sirius is kind of in on the secret now, and James has apparently given up on Lily.

So do you think he's REALLY given up? Or is he just deluding himself?

Feedback is wonderful, and all you readers are wonderful, let me know what you thought of this chapter :)