"What the hell was going on, Moony?" James questioned. James had summoned Peter into the dorm and he was sitting on his bed, looking thoroughly confused.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Well, I walk in here, intending on going to bed after once again being turned down by Lily, and I see Moony making out with Rachel!" James told him on the edge of shouting.

"James, please keep this down! Rachel and I really don't want Sirius to know," Remus begged.

"That his girlfriend was cheating on him with one of his best friends? You really don't want him to know?" James retorted sarcastically.

"Listen, James, that's not how it happened. She didn't just come in here and decide to kiss me, that's not how it works,"

"Well then, tell us how it works," Peter said to Remus.

"Okay, I came in here to go to bed, but Rachel was already in here. She was curled up in a ball and crying her eyes out. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she and Sirius got into a fight earlier and she saw him kissing Cindy Walters afterwards,"

"After the argument?" Peter asked.

"No, during," James said sarcastically.

"Anyway, I came and gave her a hug and before I knew we were making out," Remus finished.

"Sirius cheated on Rach?" James asked.

"Yeah," Remus confirmed, feeling angry with one of his best friends.

"I can't believe he would do that," Peter told them.

"I know. I mean, he was in love with her. I've never seen him this crazy about someone," James agreed.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Sirius greeted at the door. He looked like he was trying to be in a good mood, but was honestly depressed.

"Sirius Orion Black, you son of a—" Remus greeted and started toward Sirius, but James and Peter held him back. They couldn't help but notice that Sirius's face had drained of color.

"Gosh, Moony, what's ticked you off?" Sirius tried to act like nothing was wrong, but it wasn't working very well.

"Well, let's see, that you made your girlfriend start bawling her eyes out because she saw you kissing Cindy Walters!" Remus answered.

"Oh . . . that,"

"Padfoot, what the hell were you thinking?" James demanded.

"Well, for starters, I was exceptionally drunk, but I've done a Sobering Charm, which is why I have not collapsed and am able to remember what has happened. Plus, I thought that maybe we had broken up,"

"She was looking for you to work things out," Remus told him.

"She w—" Sirius started but James cut him off.

"Look, maybe you should talk to her in the morning once she's had a chance to cool down," he suggested.

"Yeah, I'll do that,"

The dorm had never been as quiet as the four of them tried to fall asleep.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

"Rach, sweetie, do you want to stay here today?" Lily asked her best friend softly.

Rachel opened her swollen eyes a tiny bit and saw Lily looking down at her. She nodded her head. Last night, Rachel had told Lily everything that had happened.

"Okay, I'll bring you some toast," and Lily left the room.

Rachel curled up in a ball with her sheets and tried to alleviate that misery she was feeling.

"Rach?" came a soft voice from the doorway. Rachel rolled over and saw Sirius standing at the door, looking hesitant, as if he was waiting for her to hex him.

"Go away," she told him with the strongest voice she could muster.

"Please Rach, I love you so much. If I could take back what I did I would in a heartbeat, but I can't do that. I mean, how crazy must I have been to do something like that? I haven't done anything like that since we've been going out."

Surprisingly, Rachel didn't do anything when she felt Sirius sit on the edge of her bed. He leaned over her and tried to kiss her, but she slapped him away.

"No, Sirius, you can't just kiss me and make everything all better, make it all go away. It doesn't work like that!"

"Rachel, can we please just talk about this?"

"No! When I wanted to talk you had your tongue shoved down Cindy's throat!" Rachel rejected in a louder voice. Her anger was flaring again and it showed in her voice.

"Well when I wanted to talk you just walked away!"

"That didn't give you the right to start making out with the first thing that started flirting with you!" she yelled back.

"Can't we work through this? I thought we could get through anything,"

"I don't think so, Sirius. You're a totally different person to me now. I used to think of you as someone who would never hurt me, ever!"

"I thought we had broken up!"

"Number one: no! Number two: get out before I hex you into another universe!"

"Fine!" and the door slammed. She immediately felt the tears coming again and fought them back. Sadness wasn't the only thing she was feeling, she was also guilty and she wanted to apologize to someone. Rachel dragged herself out of bed and walked across the hall to the boy's dorm, intent on apologizing to Remus. She opened the door and was startled to see all of the guys in there, Sirius glaring at her.

"Um, Remus, can I talk to you real quick?" she asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, sure, over here," he said, and beckoned her over to one of the more private corners of the room.

"Look, I'm sorry about last night," she told him quietly. "I didn't mean to put you in that situation,"

"It's okay, you were upset, and I'm happy that I was able to comfort you," he accepted, "even if it wasn't in the smartest way,"

"So we're okay?"

"Of course,"

"Does he know about last night?"

"Oh, there's no way I'd tell him about last night. He'd hex me into oblivion,"

"Yeah, maybe it's better that way. Even though there's practically no hope left for me and him, I still don't want to become the bad guy and I certainly don't want him mad at you,"

Then she left.

She went into her room and curled up with her blankets, intent on staying there for the day.

During the next few days, she stayed in her room, only getting out of bed to use the bathroom. Lily brought her the homework and spent most of her free time hanging out with Rachel. James, Remus, and Peter dropped in on occasion and every time Sirius wanted to join them, she absolutely refused to have him in the room. The first time she was out of bed longer than five minutes was for Quidditch practice, which wasn't until a week after the previous Quidditch match. From then on, though, she stayed out of bed and acted as normal as possible with her friends, including Sirius. Soon after Rachel had rejoined the world again, James, Remus, and Peter immediately learned to not leave Sirius and Rachel alone together. Every time it happened, Sirius looked nervous, like Rachel would still consider hexing him, and Rachel almost had steam coming out of her ears and could've probably breathed fire if she had opened her mouth, not to mention they would start fighting with each other.

Now that Sirius was single, hordes of girls were constantly throwing themselves at him, but surprisingly, he turned down every one of them, including Cindy Walters. Rachel had stopped wearing the necklace that Sirius had given her during Christmas last year, but absolutely refused to take off the promise ring that she had received for her anniversary. Many people found these actions quite strange and came to the conclusion that maybe the two weren't completely over each other yet, but couldn't admit it. One night in the middle of June, though, when they thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.

"Well, she just came up to me the other day and started kissing me!" Remus exclaimed when discussing a Ravenclaw girl. "Now, she completely avoids me! What if I'm a bad kisser?"

"Moony, trust me, you're not a bad kisser! I certainly would know and I'd recommend you to a friend," Rachel assured him, not registering what she said at first until she saw the look on Sirius's face.

"H-how would you know that Moony is a good kisser?" he managed to choke out.

"Um, well, that night, um, Remus was comforting me, and one thing led to another," Rachel told him uncomfortably.

"There's nothing going on between us, though. It was just something in the moment," Remus said quickly.

"You made out with one of my best friends!" Sirius cried out, looking very angry. James and Peter stopped their homework and looked up, waiting for the new argument to start.

"Well, that was after you shoved your tongue down someone else's throat!" Rachel shouted back.

"You're one to talk!"

For the next ten minutes, Rachel and Sirius yelled at each other, but cooled down, and started studying again, acting as if nothing had happened, as they always did after one of their episodes. Unfortunately, during Transfiguration, Sirius and Rachel sat by each other and started bickering soon into McGonagall's O.W.L. speech.

"Rachel, Sirius, detention! See me after class!" she told them forcefully, effectively ending their arguing.

They sat there, not talking or even looking at each other, for the rest of class and saw McGonagall after the bell rang. Tonight at 8 o'clock they would be working with Filch in the dungeons cleaning cauldrons.

That night, Rachel and Sirius walked down to the dungeons chatting like friends, regardless of the obvious ill feelings they still had for each other. Deep down, they hated being that way, but never did anything about it.

A couple of hours later, the two took a shortcut after cleaning numerous cauldrons. Their hands were slightly blistered and extremely sore. Instead of trying to make small talk, they walked in a comfortable, yet not comfortable silence that only the two of them could achieve. Both stopped dead in their tracks when they noticed a large and mysterious looking stone door in front of them.

"Has that always been there?" Sirius asked.

"No, this is the first time I've seen it, and we've taken this path hundreds of times," she replied, feeling just as flabbergasted as him.

"Well, let's see where it goes," he said, opening the stone door with his wand. Before she could say another word, Sirius walked into the room.

"You know, Sirius," she said, running in after him, "I really think we should get out of her—"

Her statement was cut off by the door slamming shut behind them, leaving them in a thick darkness.