Location: The Great Lake and Hogwarts Castle

WEEK EIGHT of 7th YEAR


"Padfoot, come on. Please, just do me this favor."

"Not going to happen, Prongs. You're my best mate, but I have my limits."

"Sirius." I said, abandoning our nicknames. Sirius raised his eyebrows at me. "I'm being serious. I'm asking you as my friend to do this for me."

"No. I've made it clear what I think of her." He said, shaking his head. I felt my temper rise a notch.

"I know, you prat, that's why I don't see you as much anymore. If you weren't so crystal clear about your feelings for her all the damn time, we would still eat together. We could all hang out together. We'd get more than just nights, mornings, and full moon outings."

"Don't lay that all on me." Sirius snapped back. "You're so busy you can barely see straight. Being Quidditch captain takes up most of your evenings. Head duties take up all your time in between classes. And now that you are Head Boy, you insist on actually using time in class, so we've stopped talking then. You moved out of the room, so we don't have late nights or early mornings. You have patrols and meetings now, which takes up a huge chunk of free time. You took NEWT level classes, so we barely have any classes together anymore. You eat lunch with her. You could have told her, "Hey Haley. Hell no I won't abandon my friends at lunch to eat with you." But you didn't. You let her dictate your moves. Now, I know you're trying to reform your personality. That's all well and good, buddy, but just remember, that a push over and a whipped dog is not a better version of yourself. I think you need to take responsibility for the lack of time we've spent together this year, because it is more your fault than mine." It went silent after he finished. He looked angry, but not aggressively so. He seemed more like he desperately wanted to persuade me. And, I had to admit, he had a point.

"Well," I said, breaking the oppressive silence. Sirius looked at me expectantly. "I suppose you have a point. Look, if I promise to stop letting her push me around so much, and if I invite you on some patrols, and promise that we will hang out this weekend, will you promise to try harder to like Haley?" Sirius exhaled loudly at the end of my statement.

"That's not what I was going for, mate."

"I know, but I am not breaking up with her. Is it a deal?" I asked.

"Why do you care what I think of her? I know you mate, and I know this won't last."

"Of course it won't." I agreed quickly. "But, she's with me now. And I am sick and tired of all of your comments about her. Because of them, she won't even hear your name. You really hurt her, you know. Girls are sensitive. You make all these snide comments about her looks and personality, and it cuts her up. She cries about it to me, sometimes. She's not as bad as you're saying. Obviously, if I spend so much time with her, there must be admirable traits about her, right? We're friends, and I know you, and I know you wouldn't hate her that much if you got to know her. She's not perfect by any means, and I am not saying you'll ever be close. But I want you two to be, at very least, acquaintances. So, please Sirius, do this for me. Please." He was silent for a beat. "If you two become friendly, we can eat meals together again." I hoped this would be a big enough enticement for him.

"What do you exactly want me to do again?" He finally asked.

"Just go up and ask to hang out for a half hour." Sirius snorted.

"She'll never agree."

"No, I've already talked to her about it. She agreed. Because she wants to make me happy." I said pointedly, hoping to guilt trip him into it.

"What would we do?" He asked, seeming exasperated and annoyed.

"Talk! Go for a walk! Practice spells! Work on homework! I don't know, Padfoot. Use your imagination." He sighed deeply.

"Only because you're my best mate, and I owe my life to you. But, just so you know, every fiber of me doesn't want to do this."

"Thanks, mate." I said sincerely, choosing to ignore the rest of his sentence. He grumbled something intelligible before turning. "Oh, and Padfoot?" He turned, looking grumpy.

"Yeah?"

"Be nice." He gave me a dark look, and stalked off. I smiled to myself as I walked off in the opposite direction. He could be a pain, but he was a good person deep down. I knew they wouldn't have an awesome time, but at least they were both making efforts.

I had a lot to do: homework, Quidditch plays to make, meetings to plan, patrols to organize, practicing to do, and a sadly ignored room that was in desperate need of cleaning. Instead of doing any of this, I took out the map and looked for Lily's dot. She was out by the lake, no doubt enjoying the sunshine. We hadn't gotten a chance to really talk in a while; we talked almost nonstop about homework and head duties, but we hadn't just chatted for weeks. I decided to go see her, and put off everything else. It could wait.


When she came in sight, I noticed she had a schoolbook beside her, but was paying it no mind. It seemed that she was feeling much like I was today—in no mood to do schoolwork.

When I came within hearing distance, I called out to her.

"Hey Lily." She smiled.

"James. Where's Sirius and or Remus?"

"They're both studying for the Potions exam." I lied. She gave me skeptical look, which I couldn't help but chuckle at. "Okay, Remus is studying, and Sirius is off with Haley." Or at least, he had better be. I should have checked the map to make sure he was on his way to meet her, and not off procrastinating. Too late now.

"Excuse me?" Lily said, sounding completely disbelieving. Her face was hilarious; it was a mixture of complete surprise and total disbelief. She apparently was quite aware of Sirius's feelings for Haley. I wasn't surprised; he hardly kept them a secret.

"No, I'm serious, actually. Sirius is spending time with Haley." I said.

"Why?" She asked, sounding baffled.

"I asked him to. I was aware of his, uh, dislike, and it bothered me. I want them to be friends. I asked him to hang out with her for like a half hour and get to know her."

"Sounds fun." She said. Lily truly was one of the most nonjudgemental person I ever met. It was one of the most admirable qualities she had.

"Good thing I don't have to worry about you or Remus on that. You two are so much more open minded." Remus too, because of his ailment, refused judgement until he was driven to it.

"Oh, well, thanks." She said, and then quickly changed the subject. She never really did know how to take a compliment. "Have you started the Charms homework?"

"Do you mean the two foot long essay?"

"Yes, that piece of slime."

"No. When is it due?" I asked.

"Tomorrow." Oh, great. I'd have to start that soon.

"I probably should have started before today." She laughed.

"I haven't started either. I've been trying, but I just can't. It's too nice out. And we're graduating in a few months. I don't know why, but I just don't feel like doing anything. I have such an itch to graduate. It's not like I actually want to get out of Hogwarts; I love it here, and will have no idea what to do with myself out of school. But...Is this making any sense?"

"Loads." I assured her. "I know what you mean. There's nothing out there that I am eager to get to. I don't want to have my own house, or job, or any of that. Especially with the war." I continued on quickly, not wanting to dampen the tone of the conversation. "And I really do love it here, and don't want it to be over. But...I just don't actually want to do anything."

She readily agreed with me. We continued to talk pleasantly for about a half hour, until I excused myself. I wanted to meet up with Sirius, and see how his half hour had gone. As I walked away, I couldn't help but think about a comment she made in passing. All she had said was that it was easy to be around me. I wasn't entirely sure what prompted her to say it. My guess was that she was mulling over how different our relationship had become. Before, it was always strained. We couldn't have a two minute conversation without me being obnoxious or her jumping down my throat. Now, we not only were able to small talk, but we could also talk about more serious matters. It really was quite the transformation. But when I agreed with her comment, that wasn't what was on my mind. I was thinking about just how easy it was to enjoy myself around her. It was never stressed. We could just talk and talk and talk, and if I hadn't interrupted our conversation, we probably could have gone on for several more hours. It was easy. There was no straining the make conversation. There was no trying to make ourselves sound better. There was no embellishing stories to sound cool. We could just be ourselves with each other. It was easy. And that kind of relationship—that's hard to find.

Speaking of which, as I rounded the corner, lost in my thoughts, I almost bumped straight into Sirius. I was about to apologize, before I caught sight of who I had almost plowed over.

"Hey mate." I said. The moment after I spoke, I caught the look on his face. I was instantly worried. Sirius and I had one of those relationships that I just spoke about. We could talk about everything and anything for any given amount of time. I was closer to him than anyone else. We just straight up told each other everything. There was no lying, and there was no softening of stories. We were candid. While this caused our brotherhood, it also caused many a row. And, by the look on his face, we were about to have another one.

"James." He said, his tone confirming my suspicions.

"So...How'd it go?" I asked, trying to sound optimistic.

"It was the most boring half hour of my life, and I swear, I am about a half step away from murdering you." I blinked.

"Wait. What?" I asked, confused. Boring?

"I thought I was going to melt of sheer and utter dullness. It was the most tedious thing ever. She talked about her hair, Prongs, for fifteen minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES! Do I look like I care about the type of shampoo she uses?"

"Maybe, since you have such nice hair, she thought you cared about hair? Maybe she thought it was a topic of mutual interest?" I suggested. I sounded normal, but I was in awe. Had he actually made it through spending time with Haley alone without offending her? It was sounding like he may have. Him being bored meant that had to have sat through her talking, which means he wasn't talking, which was an extremely good thing.

"I don't care about hair, James. I don't do anything to have this 'nice' hair you speak of. I do not want to hear about hair. It was not a topic of mutual interest. After a half hour, all I really know about her interests are her hair and you."

"Me?" I said.

"Yes, you. When she wasn't discussing her perfect brunette curtain—her words—she was badgering me about your true feelings. Did you think your relationship is serious? How long did your relationships usually last? Did I think you two would make it through the Quidditch season? Just how good of friends are you with Lily? My God, James. Never again. Never." He looked severely annoyed with me, but I couldn't be further from annoyed with him.

"Mate? Padfoot?" I said.

"Yes?"

"Thank you so much. Thanks for not offending her. Thanks for keeping your mouth shut when you could have told her to shut the hell up. Thanks for not interrupting her, though I know you wanted to. Thanks for putting up with that solely for my benefit. Thanks for being nice."

"Stop getting sappy." He said, looking at his feet. While annoyed, I could see he appreciated my thankfulness. He no doubt believed he deserved it.

"Yeah, I've been getting in a habit of that. I really got to stop. Well, you know, you did kind owe it to me, after making her cry and all." He opened his mouth to retort, but I cut him off. "Anyway, let's not fight. Let's not talk about Haley. Let's go hang out." Sirius breathed deeply.

"Doing what?" He asked, sounding more relaxed.

"Your choosing." I said.

"Follow me." He said, smirking. Of course he already had an idea. I couldn't help my smile as I skipped up to his side. No matter what girl I ended up with, she would have to put up with Sirius, and that was a fact. He wasn't going anywhere.