LILY

Friends with James Potter…who would have guessed? Definitely not me, if anyone is actually counting. I give him one last small smile as I shyly glance up at him from my lap. I get up to leave, noticing Marley and Al waiting for me to walk to class.

"See you later, friend…" James smiles back at me as I'm leaving, and something inside me just inflates, and I instantly feel so much better and happier than I had been for a while. I can't believe how long it had taken me to realize James wasn't out to get me and make my life miserable, it's just…it feels like we should have been friends forever, but we weren't because I was so pig-headed, and he was, well, he was a big prat.

I reach my friends, and immediately begin to pester me with a thousand different questions.

"What in Merlin was that all about?" Al asks while tugging upon my robes impatiently waiting for my response.

"Yes, dear Lil, what was that all about?" Marley sputters in my ear, bouncing up and down like an excited little child. Well. This is going to be fun. I mean, I didn't think I could hide it from the world that yes, now I am friends with the one and only James Potter. I guess I didn't think it would be as much of a deal to everyone as it turned out to be? Next question: why is it such a big deal to everyone? It's not like it's any of their concern, anyway….

I must have been thinking aloud as we walked along the crowded corridor, as Marley responded with a snort.

"Of course this is a big deal to everyone, Lily. You hating Potter is, like, normal. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE knows it. The first years are warned about it their first week. Everybody knows to duck and cover whenever the two of you get into it. I'm telling you Lil, it has shakin' everyone up like bacon because you two are being nice to one another. Mmmmm…..bacon…" With that thought in her pretty head, she slipped away into a bacon-encrusted dream, seeing as she can't have enough of the stuff. We sometimes have to literally drag her away from breakfast…

I turn to Alice with a look of disdain on my face, "EVERYONE? Seriously? Everyone? I mean, I knew that a LOT of people were clued into the fact that Pott-" And then I stop, because I really am trying to call him James, because, well, that is his name, but it still feels weird to me. But oddly nice. And comforting. And…I'm not sure, really happy?

"Ahem. James." I correct myself, to the delight of my friends, who giggle at me. "I was aware that a LOT of people knew we, uhm, didn't get along, but I didn't know our business was ALL OVER SCHOOL and that EVERYONE KNOWS." I am so mortified. I could go right now and jump into the lake and have the giant squid eat me for supper I am so embarrassed.

"Well, I guess that's what happens when the most popular boy in school, who happens to be Head Boy and who also happens to be Quidditch captain while also being horrendously good looking is into you, the smartest witch of our year, who is also very kind, compassionate, and funny, and who is Head Girl as well. People tend to know things about people in power, Lil." Alice chimes in teasingly, making me feel like still wanting to jump in the lake, but a little less so.

Marlene then narrowly misses walking into a door whilst in her bacon crazy dream, but is pulled out of the way just in time by no one other than the best friend of the boy who I now call by his first name (James. James. JAmEs. Yep. Still strange to say. Maybe I'll call him Jimmy? Nope….that's even weirder…) Anyway, Sirius pulls Marley out of harms' way, flashing us his devilish smile.

"She dreaming about bacon again?" He asks us, with his eyebrows arched bemusedly high on his way-too-good-looking-to-be-fair face. We nod in unison, and to our surprise, he pulls out his wand, and poof! There was some crispy, crunchy, mouthwatering bacon on a plate, which he proceeds to present to Marlene, who laughs uproariously and gives him a huge hug.

"How did you know?" Marley asks him, her mouth full of bacon already, chewing happily.

He responds with a chuckle, "My dear sweet Marley, what do you take me for? I like to know at least a little about the girls I am veeeeeeeery interested in…I do know about your deep, bottomless love for bacon. You told me that one day you thought I wasn't listening…truth is, Marls, I listen to everything you say…" He ended sounding more vulnerable and truthful and less of the goofy Sirius that everyone knew.

Alice nudges me and mumbles, "he must really like her…" I nod in agreement, and the two of us walk quietly to class, leaving our friend Marley to have a quiet moment alone with Sirius.

I parted ways with Alice at the end of the corridor, she went left, and I went to the right to arrive at my Muggle Studies classroom. I can't remember why I wanted to take this class, seeing as I am a muggle, but I guess it is interesting to see what wizard-born families think dull everyday muggle-household items are. One person thought that an iron was funny, and that a dustpan was absolutely hilarious….hardy har haarr, eh?

Class gave me time to think though, and I slip into a deep musing. About Marlene and Sirius. Frank and Alice. They all seem so happy to be with each other, and I can't help but wonder when or if I will find someone that makes me so incredibly happy. I do want that one day though, someone to conjure me bacon like Sirius, someone who will stick with me through everything like Frank, someone who just loves me for me, and who I can love in return. I want the person that brings the best of me out when I am with them, and the person that I bring the best of them out.

Yeah yeah, I want I want. I do want a lot of things. But I can wait, I know what will happen will happen. I never thought that Potter and I would ever be on good terms. Crap, I did it again. JAAAAAAAAMES. This is going to take some definite getting used to.

I get knocked out of my reverie by a piece of flying paper that just hit me in the head, and I look down at the desk in front of me to see multiple balls of paper have landed there. Glancing around, I see no one openly (or creepily…) staring at me in class, so I cautiously begin to quietly open each one. I almost instantly regret it, as almost all of them are about James and me.

"Are you two dating now?"

"What happened between you and Potter?"

"Can I still date him even if you are right now?

All of them said something alone those lines, but the last one was the best,

"Dear Lilykins, I don't know why people are throwing so much paper at you, but it looked like fun, so I joined in. Forever your BBFL, Sirius XOXO."

I laugh (almost out loud, a big no no in this class unless you want a overly long lecture about how talking while the Professor is talking is bad), and glance back at Sirius, forgetting he was in this class with me, as almost always he doesn't show up or just sits in the way back. How he has gotten this far in school I will never know. He smiles at me, aims a large wad at my head, and shoots, but not before I silently cast a charm to shoot it right back into his face, where there currently was a priceless look.

I turn back to the front of the class, and feel like I've gained so much and have ridded myself of so much unneeded anger and frustration. I have so much to look forward to, seeing as I haven't made just one friend out of Po-JAMes, but another out of Sirius as well.

And I still cannot believe that the whole. Freaking. School. Knew. Absolutely. Everything. Eh, well, there's always the lake to turn to…