Thank you all SO MUCH for waiting! I'll try to be a little better with the updates from now on. I literally rewrote this chapter seven times; I couldn't make it fit in right until this last time. Enjoy, and thanks again for the patience! 3 Annie

Lily opened her eyes slowly. Mellow sunlight was creeping in through the window above her bed, and she could hear an owl hooting in the distance. She stretched languidly, and sighed. There had been many ups and downs to the weekend, all things considered, but it could have turned out a lot worse. Lily looked at her bedside clock and realized that she had awoken a full hour before she needed to be awake. She settled back into her blankets, trying to remember what dream she'd been having.

The more she tried to recall it, the more it slipped away; it was like trying to hold water in your hands. She remembered a special occasion and a dark hallway…and then with a start, she remembered McLaggen's intoxicated face. She felt her body tremble, and her breathing hike. She tried to calm herself, after all it was just a nightmare, but her heart had already set off at an alarming pace. She took a few deep breaths in and out, and forced herself to think of something else, something happier. Of course it would be James who popped into her mind.

She let her mind drift over the happy moments they'd shared that weekend, when her mind began to wander. She hadn't really seen Peter all day yesterday, so she supposed that it was entirely possible that he had told Snape about her accident. And really, how else would he have known? Her friends hadn't told anybody, and she was sure that McLaggen hadn't either. And why would Snape throw out such a random name? It didn't make sense.

She made up her mind to ask Peter about it personally.

She got up and dressed; there was no way that she could fall asleep again. Lily grabbed a book from her trunk and walked downstairs to read it. She hadn't even gotten to the bottom stair when she stopped. Sirius was asleep on a couch, sprawled across its cushions and cuddling with a pillow. She stifled a laugh, and sat in her favorite armchair beside the now-dead fire. He would occasionally say a random word in his sleep, but since most of what he said was incomprehensible, Lily ignored him until he very clearly said 'Alice'. She lowered her book and looked at him curiously.

"Alice" he mumbled again before pulling the pillow he was clutching closer. Lily looked at him, slightly confused. She really wanted to know what his dream was about, but knowing Sirius, it could be anything. Maybe he knew another Alice. She settled back into her comfortable position and resumed her reading.

It wasn't long before Sirius moved again; he seemed to be a restless sleeper. Lily gave him a cursory glance, but then she spied something that made her stop in shock for a moment then shiver in disgust. A very perverted bulge was beginning to make itself known to the world just south of Sirius' pant-line. She looked at him in horror for a moment before she remembered that this was just something that happened to guys apparently, every once in awhile…but she was still grossed out. She turned back to her book, gagging slightly. She tried to read, but found she couldn't concentrate. It was like trying to read with somebody staring at you. She sighed; people would be waking up soon, it wouldn't be fair to let everybody see something as embarrassing as that.

"Sirius" she said aloud, to try to wake him up. He didn't stir. She said his name louder, but he just twitched, and turned to lay on his back more, making the problem worse. Lily pinched the bridge of her nose, knowing what she had to do. Letting loose a long sigh, she put down her book, and leaned over him. She closed her eyes, and shook his shoulder slightly. He murmured slightly, and Lily took ahold of this opportunity. She called him name out while she was still so close. Sirius jerked awake, dropping the pillow he was holding. He looked at Lily, who was now scooting back to her chair, and then paused. He looked down and spasmed, grabbing the pillow and holding it to his lap like nothing was wrong.

"What's up Lily-Pad?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant, all traces of sleep gone thanks to his…surprise.

"I didn't think you would want to be found like that" Lily replied, trying desperately to keep the laugh out of her voice. Now that he was awake, this was positively amusing. She watched his face slide into a deep crimson, and then lighten up again.

"That is something I usually reserve for my lady-friends" he joked.

"Or Alice, I suppose" Lily laughed.

Lily's laugh stuttered and went out when she saw Sirius' face. He was frozen with surprise, and when he saw that she was joking, he tried to laugh like she was. Intuition stirred up inside her. Was Sirius looking at her like that because he thought that she'd caught him doing something he wasn't supposed to? Like Alice, for instance.

"Speaking of Alice, actually, I heard that her and Frank were getting serious" she said, deliberately baiting Sirius. He couldn't actually be doing something with Alice, could he? That would change Lily's entire outlook on her best friend. She'd known Alice as nothing but true and loyal to her loved ones, even if she sometimes relied on improvising more than strategy.

"Are they? Good for her" he replied in a somewhat strained tone. It went without saying that he really didn't want to be talking about this, his joking mood gone in a flash.

"Yeah, just the other day she was talking about how she and Frank were meant to be, and how nobody could possibly measure up to him in her eyes. I thought it was rather sweet" she continued anyway. She was stretching the truth a bit, but Alice had been talking about how much she liked Frank recently.

"Sweet, yeah"

"And you should hear the way she raves about his, ah, assets. Any guy would be lucky to receive such compliments, best she's ever had, so to - "

"Could you stop, please?" Sirius breathed out. Lily hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath. "I'm really not interested in your friends' sex life"

"In your dreams you are" she accused.

"What does that mean?" he asked, turning to her.

Lily gestured toward his crotch.

"How do you even know what I was dreaming of? For all you know I could have been dreaming about the foxy Minerva McGonagall" he scoffed.

Lily laughed before saying, "Well if it had been her you were dreaming of, I'm willing to bet it was her name you would have been moaning"

"Moaning?"

"Well, sort of"

"So I was saying Alice's name?" he asked. He was trying to sound skeptical, but Lily could hear the underlying horror.

"And then you pitched a tent" Lily giggled.

"Well that's weird" he said, not quite looking at her.

Lily waited for him to say more, but it seemed that he wasn't going to say anything else. He was being a complete space cadet, staring at nothing with a muted look of dismay laid delicately across his features. It looked at home there.

"She never said she and Frank were meant to be" Lily offered, seeing how this affected him.

"Then why did you say she did?" he asked, his voice whipping in irritation. He seemed to realize his mistake when he took in Lily's expression.

"Could it be that Sirius Black actually likes a girl?"

Yet again, her words stunned him. But not for long.

"What? Me? Like Alice? Right"

Lily just looked at him. They had a mini staring contest, which Lily won when Sirius let out a huge sigh.

"Fine" was all he said.

Lily was disappointed. It wasn't any of her business what her friends did with or without their boyfriends, but she'd thought that Alice was better than cheating. When had she had the time to cheat anyway? She was always complaining about how little time she had with Frank as it was. Lily sighed.

"How long?"

"A month or so. Maybe more"

"Are you going to stop this any time soon?"

"Stop? I don't think I can do that. I know you have crazy grips on your emotions, but we're not all made that way" he countered angrily.

"But she has a boyfriend! Don't you feel even the tiniest bit guilty?"

"Why would I feel guilty? I'm not doing anything wrong!"

"But she is!"

"Wait, what? Does she like me too? Did she say anything about me?" he asked, suddenly sounding overly excited and completely not like Sirius.

"Well I'd hope she likes you if she's cheating on Frank with you!" Lily replied, utterly confused.

"Cheating on…? …Do you think we're…ooh…Lily; she's not cheating on Frank. I have a crush on her. That's it" Sirius explained, "I don't know what you were thinking, but I haven't touched her at all"

It took Lily a moment to go back through the conversation and see where she had assumed wrong.

"So…you like Alice, but you haven't done anything with her" she clarified.

"Yup"

"Oh" she said, feeling slightly dumb for jumping to conclusions. Then she felt sorry for Sirius in a way she never thought she would. The one girl he wanted was the one girl who would never have him.

"I'm sorry" she said quietly. He shrugged.

"So you've liked her for a month now, not been with her for a month"

He didn't bother to acknowledge this with a reaction.

"If you don't mind my asking…what made you see her that way?"

"It's actually kind of funny" he half-laughed, the ice melting around his demeanor, "We were in Hogsmeade and she was trying to find a present for Frank's birthday. I was behind her in line and she was telling the cashier how much she couldn't wait to give it to him…and that kind of stuck with me, the way she was talking. She was so passionate about him, but when I saw her in the common-room later, she was being so careful wrapping the gift, trying to make it perfect and not just doing it by magic. Except then I just noticed her. I began noticing more and more every day until I just accepted the fact that I liked her"

"I'm sorry" Lily said again, because she didn't know what else there was to say. Alice was crazy about Frank, and although he was in Ravenclaw they tried to make time to see each other every day; Lily just couldn't see any room for Sirius in that picture.

"Me too" he mumbled as he got up; Lily guessed his problem had, ah, gone down.

"Is that what you told Mary, when you turned her down?"

"No. I told her that while dating her would be as sensuous as it was completely breathtaking, I couldn't date her because I wasn't good enough to deserve that, and a guy like me shouldn't try to hold her back. And then I told her that whatever guy she did end up landing with would be the luckiest guy in the world, and I was jealous of him"

"And she really bought that?"

"Most girls do, you'd be surprised"

"Most girls?"

"Please, Lily, she was hardly the first to want to put a leash on yours truly"

"You're horrible" she joked.

"At least I know it" he sighed as he slumped back down on the couch.

"I'm horrible, too, though, if that makes you feel better" Lily injected.

"How are you horrible? Well, still horrible, I should say" he asked as he winked at her.

"Because I want to curse that stupid Patil girl into tomorrow"

"Why? She'd just hit on the future James while she was there"

"I know! Is it horrible of me to get jealous like that when I think about her? I mean, I don't want her anywhere near him"

"Do you think that she might sway James?"

"No, I don't. It's just, she's rather pretty, I guess, in an obvious sort of way…"

"Oh yeah, obvious beauty, that's the worst. I like it when I have to really look for it. Makes me feel like I've earned it" Sirius joked.

"You know what I mean" Lily said while laughing, "It's just the way she wears her robes and flounces around trying to get the attention of everything male"

"She does do that" Sirius mused, "But if it makes you feel better, she's definitely not the best kisser in the House"

"You know what? I know I should be surprised, but I'm not. You would know that"

"Of course I would. I dunno if you know this Lily, but we Marauders, we're a pretty gorgeous bunch. But since James had been wrapped up in you for the past few years, I've been getting a lot of attention"

"And you love every second of it" Lily smirked.

"Naturally" he laughed.

A steady trickle of students was filling up the common room now, keen on a bit of pre-class studying. Their conversation died out slowly, only after Sirius made her swear on all that was good and holy that she wouldn't breathe a word of his crush to Alice, but picked back up again when James ambled down the stairs half asleep with his robe on backwards. Lily laughed and helping him rearrange his clothes so that they fit properly. She was smoothing out the creases on his shoulders when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lightly. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, and Lily could almost feel him about to ask her to be his girlfriend. The air tingled with tension.

Until it broke.

"James! Oh, I'm so glad I could catch you before you went to breakfast, there's just something I wanted to ask you about on the History homework, remember how you said you'd help me? Anyway, now we can go down together" a voice rang out from somewhere behind Lily. It was the last voice Lily wanted to hear. A decent night's sleep, it seemed, had not doused Patricia Patil's insanity.

Lily wanted to cling to the embrace that she and James were wrapped in, but with another girl in the picture, chatting up a storm about goblin rebellions, the moment lost its shimmer. And with the embrace successfully disengaged, Patricia from that point on refused to move a foot away from James. Throughout breakfast, James seemed determined to give Lily his undivided attention. The situation soon grew strained due to the fact that there wasn't really a whole lot to talk about, but if Lily didn't keep talking, Patricia would swoop in and try to steal James away with mindless chatter of her own. James' eyes begged Lily to keep talking.

History of Magic was a disaster-piece. Though James had sat between two of his friends, Patricia sat directly behind him and whispered things at him the whole period. He studiously ignored her. To Lily's amazement, halfway through the class, when Patricia finally seemed to realize that James was ignoring her, her eyes settled upon Lily, who was sitting three or four seats over. If looks could kill, Lily would have been dead at least four times by Patricia's eyes.

Transfiguration passed much the same way, though at lunch Patricia seemed to have backed off of both of them. After lunch, James departed with a kiss to Lily's forehead and was off to Muggle Studies, while Lily and her friends departed to Divination. Not halfway down the hall did Patricia manage to catch up to them.

"Lily!" she called much too loudly and angrily, causing many students in the crowd to stop and turn their heads toward Lily and the fast-approaching Patil.

"I see you finally stopped trailing after James like poop on a fish" Lily said leisurely as Patil got within earshot.

"What's the deal, Evans? I thought I told you to stay away from James!" Patil half-yelled. Her voice was much too loud for the proximity they were in. More people stopped to listen in, interested. The crowd tittered.

"I thought you understood that you were delusional"

Mary and Alice were behind Lily, and she could tell that they were confused. She'd forgotten to mention how bat-shit crazy this girl was.

"Look, he might have liked you at one point, but you really have to stop wasting his time. Let him have a chance with somebody who actually gives a damn! I bet he doesn't even like you like that anymore"

Lily didn't know exactly what to say, so it was good that Mary stepped in to her rescue.

"Ah, then I guess you didn't hear him last night when he was telling her how she was way out of your league and how girls like Lily don't just grow on trees"

"Yeah, that's too bad I guess. We could use some shade" Patricia countered. The swelling crowd ooohhed.

"Look Lily. Let's not argue with that idiot. She'll drag you down to her pathetically low level and beat you with experience…and fat jokes" Alice said with such a cold, condescending tone that the entire crowd of onlookers went completely quiet. And with that Alice grabbed Lily's hand and walked away, with Mary slightly behind.

Divination was hard. All Lily wanted to do was chuck the crystal ball she was supposed to be seeing crap in and hurl it across the room. Unfortunately, Patil shared this class with Lily and her friends. The entire period, Patil sulked around in the corner with her friend, Evelyn Vane. If she ever had any children, Lily would tell them to never, under any circumstance, take Divination. It was just dreadful, even without the persistent nagging irritation that was Patricia Patil.

As much as Divination made time feel like it was crawling by, it still ticked on. Not too soon, the bell rang, and Lily and her friends shot out of classroom eleven like fireworks. They had a break until nine that evening when they trooped up the Astronomy Tower, and Lily was really angling for some Patil-free hours. With any luck their spat this afternoon had warded Patricia away. At the very least, momentarily.

Lily burst into the common room, and came face to face with none other than Peter Pettigrew. Alone. This struck Lily as odd, as Peter was almost never out of the Marauder's shadow. She stopped, and looked him in the eye. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked at her with a firmness she hadn't known he possessed. Alice and Mary were not paying attention to where her gaze was, but as far as Lily was concerned they were not needed for this conversation.

"Hey Peter, can I talk to you for a second? Alone?"