Disclaimer: I obviously own nothing that appears in Harry Potter.

A/N: I'm really sorry about this, guys. I would have had this chapter up last week but I had an allergic reaction to this medicine I had started taking and things were not good for a little while. Haha, I won't go into details but we'll just say that I spent pretty much the last five days in bed, absolutely miserable and hopped up on benadryl. Thank you to Suddy (I think your threats might have worked! Hahah :) ), james-s2-lily, Andrien and SweetPsychotic2358 for the reviews! I really appreciated it. I really didn't like this chapter when I wrote it but I've gone back and changed some things and now I'm not too sure how I feel about it. So… please review!

Chapter 14

When Lily got to her dormitory, she was relieved to find that Emily had made it to the toilet. She leaned against the door to the bathroom and said, "Regretting that last shot yet?" Emily, who was kneeling in front of the toilet and trying to keep her hair out of harm's way, just groaned. "What were you thinking anyways?" Lily asked sternly. "Was feeling numb really worth all of this?"

"Go away," Emily said before vomiting again.

"No!" Lily said, walking into the bathroom. She sat down next to Emily and held her hair out of her face. "You need to hear me on this, Emily. I know you're hurting right now but the only thing that's going to make you feel better is talking to –"

"Okay, really Lily," Emily cut her off, sounding very annoyed, "I have my face in a toilet and I'm vomiting up my insides. Sirius Black is the absolute last thing I want to talk about right now."

"Fine," Lily said curtly. She really wanted to get up and leave Emily to deal with the mess she had created on her own but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She knew Emily would stay with her if their positions had been switched. Then again, Lily knew she wasn't stupid enough to get herself into a mess like this.

After half an hour, Emily was finally done. She sat back against the wall and muttered, "Thanks."

"It was no problem," Lily said, lying through her teeth.

"Yes it was," Emily said. "Look, I'm sorry. I know I haven't exactly been myself lately but…" she trailed off, suddenly not wanting to admit how horrible she had felt the last few days.

"That's the understatement of the year," Lily smirked. Emily smiled slightly at this. "We're all worried about you, you know," Lily said.

"Why? I'm fine," Emily muttered and Lily knew she wasn't being honest.

"No, you're not," Lily said. "You're downing entire bottles of firewhiskey to feel numb. I wouldn't call that fine."

Emily sighed and said, "It just sucks."

Lily waited for Emily to elaborate. When she didn't, Lily asked, "What does?"

Emily looked at Lily as if she couldn't believe that she had asked that. "You don't know? Really?" Emily said in disbelief.

"Well, I can't read your mind!" Lily said, frustrated.

Emily shook her head and stared at the floor. After a few minutes of silence, she said, "I just… I tried so hard to get over him, you know? And all he had to do was look at me and I turned into this pathetic, love-struck girl that couldn't even think before she acted. Whenever he's around me, I can't think properly." Her eyes started to water and she groaned in frustration. "And now look at me! I've turned into one of those girls."

"What girls?" Lily asked, confused.

"You know, the girls that we always used to laugh at. The ones who cried for days after he dumped them," Emily sniffled, wiping away the tears that had started to fall. "I just wish things would go back to the way they used to be."

Lily bit her lip, not knowing what to say. She knew what Emily wanted to hear but she also knew that that was the exact opposite of what she needed to hear. "Emily," Lily said, moving so she was sitting next to her, "things aren't going to go back to the way things used to be. You have to accept that." Emily nodded at this, finally seeming to realize that. "I know I've said this a hundred times, but you need to talk to him."

Emily laughed bitterly and said, "He doesn't care."

"You don't actually believe that, do you? Emily, you were friends with him for five years! How can you even think that he wouldn't care if you guys just stopped talking to each other?" Lily said. "Even I can tell that this is bothering him."

Emily sighed and looked down at the tiled bathroom floor. She thought for a moment and then said, "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right," Lily said, feeling somewhat exasperated.

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "And you get on James for his arrogance."

Lily narrowed her eyes and said, "That is completely different, Sullivan."

"Sure it is," Emily said weakly. She laid back on the floor and said, "I'm not talking to him today, though. I still feel sort of drunk. And pukey."

"Right," Lily smiled, "I think that's my cue to leave." She got up and said, "But you should take a shower, you've got a bit of sick in your hair."

Emily groaned from the floor and gave Lily the finger. Lily laughed and exited the bathroom. She could hear crying coming from behind the drawn curtains of Samantha's bed and Lily hoped that Samantha hadn't heard anything that they had said in the bathroom. She was halfway out the door to the dormitory when she heard Samantha call out, "Lily?"

Lily turned around and saw that Samantha's head peeking out from her curtains. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were all wet. She immediately felt bad and walked over to where Samantha's bed. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.

"No," Samantha said, tears running down her face. "I have to ask you a question."

"Ok," Lily said. "Ask away."

"But I'm not sure if you'll answer honestly because it has to do with one of your friends. So I'm just going to ask it and I would really like it if you told me the truth," Samantha said, looking worried.

"I'll try to," Lily said, feeling very uneasy.

Samantha bit her lip and asked, "Is there something going on with Sirius and Emily?"

Lily tried not to react to this. "I don't think so," she said. Samantha looked like she didn't believe her and so Lily continued, "I don't know. You'd probably have to ask her."

"Oh," Samantha said, looking down. "Ok."

"Sorry," Lily said. She patted Samantha on the back as she cried. "Why did you want to know?" Lily asked after a few minutes.

"He called me Emily while we were…" Samantha trailed off, starting to cry harder. Lily's eyes widened at this but she didn't say anything. She continued to pat Samantha on the back until Samantha had stopped crying. Samantha wiped at her eyes and said, "Thanks, Lily."

"It was no problem, Samantha," Lily said, getting up.

At that moment, Emily walked out of the bathroom drying her wet hair with a towel. When she saw Samantha's puffy eyes, she walked over and said, "Samantha, are you alright?"

Samantha stood up and glared at Emily. Lily stood up too, hoping to stop whatever was bound to happen. "Has anything happened between you and Sirius?" Samantha asked, although she looked as if she didn't want to know.

Emily glanced nervously at Lily, not knowing what she should do. "What do you mean?" she asked, trying to sound confused.

"You know exactly what I mean," Samantha said.

Emily looked at Lily again and could tell by the look on her face that she thought Emily should tell the truth. "Nothing really happened," Emily said.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Samantha said, confused and angry.

"I kissed him, a couple of days ago. But it only happened once," Emily said. Samantha's face hardened at this and Emily felt awful. "Samantha, I'm so sorry. I feel so awful. It was a mistake."

Samantha responded to that by punching Emily in the nose. "I can't believe you!" she yelled. "You kiss my boyfriend and then just expect me to forgive you because you feel awful? You are such a bitch!" With that, Samantha turned and stormed out of the dormitory.

Lily turned to her friend and saw that her nose was starting to bleed. "Emily, your nose!" Lily said.

Emily wiped at her nose and then looked down at the blood on her fingers. "That went well," she laughed bitterly.

"Come on," Lily said. "Let's go see Madam Pomfrey."

"Why?" Emily asked. "I'm fine."

"It might be broken!" Lily said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at her friend. It was just like Emily to act like she was fine when there was blood pouring from her nose.

Emily scoffed at this. "She's not –"

"Oh, come on!" Lily interrupted her. She grabbed Emily by the arm and dragged her out of the room.

-----

"Come on, Padfoot! Just tell me what happened," James said for what felt like the fiftieth time. Sirius had refused to tell James what had happened with him and Samantha, although James had a very good feeling that it had something to do with Emily.

"No," Sirius said, sitting back angrily in his seat. "I don't want to talk about it."

James threw his hands up in frustration and he leaned back in the armchair he was in. Finally, he grinned mischievously and said, "Look, you can either willingly tell me or I can give you a few more butterbeers and then ask you."

Sirius's face darkened at this. He knew that whenever he had drank enough, he was willing to tell anyone whatever they wanted to know. He glared at James and muttered, "I called her Emily."

James eyes widened at this. "Oh," he said awkwardly.

"Yeah," Sirius said darkly, crossing his arms over his chest.

James smirked. "Well, I don't blame you," he said sarcastically. "It's such a common mistake to make, seeing as how their names sound nothing alike." Sirius glared at him but didn't say anything. "And, I mean, they have so much in common," James continued. "I know I'm always confusing them."

"Shutup, James," Sirius muttered.

James laughed and said, "What's going on with you, anyways?"

"There's nothing going on with me," Sirius said.

James snorted. "You called your girlfriend by another girl's name. I wouldn't call that nothing."

"It's not like I haven't done it before," Sirius said, annoyed.

"But you never dated any of those girls for as long as you've dated Samantha," James pointed out. Sirius didn't say anything; he just looked down and glared at his hands. "And you never called any of those girls Emily."

Sirius scowled and said, "Did I just see you and Evans having a proper conversation without any yelling?"

"Yeah," James smiled, getting thrown off track by Sirius.

"What were you guys talking about?" Sirius asked, grinning. He hoped his plan to get James to completely forget about what they were talking about had worked. Usually bringing up Lily Evans did the trick, unless James was really determined. It wasn't that he didn't want James to know what was going on with him; it was just that he wasn't even sure about it. He had felt completely discombobulated ever since Emily had kissed him.

"Oh, we were just talking about Emily," James said. "And that is completely beside the point! You still haven't told me what is wrong with you."

"Yes, I did tell you," Sirius said. "There is nothing wrong with me!"

"Fine," James said, frustrated. He sat back in his chair and scowled.

They sat in a tense silence for a while. Then Sirius said, "It's just… I can't stop thinking about her and it's driving me crazy!"

"Samantha or Emily?" James asked, relieved that he was finally getting somewhere with Sirius.

"Who do you think?" Sirius said angrily. James didn't say anything, he knew that Sirius had meant Emily. After a few minutes, Sirius continued, "I mean, who does she think she is? She set me up with Samantha!" James didn't know what to say to that because he could see Sirius's point. "And what I really don't understand is why she even kissed me if she only wanted to be friends."

"She's confused," James said simply.

"She's not the only one," Sirius muttered.

"What's so confusing?" James asked, not understanding what Sirius had meant. He thought it was pretty simple, Emily had feelings for Sirius that weren't returned and now they both wanted to go back to being friends but it was insanely awkward. "If you'd just talk to her, then you could go back to being friends!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You don't get it."

"Obviously," James said, exasperated. "What, do you have feelings for her or something?"

"I don't know!" Sirius said, sounding very annoyed.

"But you can't!" James said, trying to make sense of it. "I mean, she's Emily. You can't do the things you normally do to girls with her, Sirius. She's not like that." Sirius glared at James and James knew that he wasn't being helpful in the least. He decided the best idea would be to shut up. He sat back and watched as Samantha stormed down the dormitory stairs and over to a couch in front of the fireplace, where Gwenog Jones was sitting. "Don't you think you should go talk to her?" he asked Sirius.

"No," Sirius said.

"Why not?" James asked, confused.

"She's too angry," Sirius said, grinning. "She might just kill me."

"I wouldn't blame her." James laughed and watched as Samantha and Gwenog talked to each other while glaring at Sirius. "I think they're talking about you," James said.

"Probably discussing the best methods of castration," Sirius muttered.

James snorted at this but didn't say anything. He noticed Lily dragging Emily down the stairs of the girls' dormitory and he jumped up. "I'll be right back, Padfoot." Sirius didn't respond to this. He saw the two girls too and noticed that Emily was holding her nose and had blood dripping from her hand. When James got over to the two girls, he said, "Merlin, Sullivan, what happened to you?"

"Samantha punched her," Lily said, trying to drag her friend across the room.

James laughed at this but tried to cover it with a cough at the looks they both gave him. "Why'd she do that?" He opened the portrait hole for them and then followed them out.

"I told her that I kissed Sirius," Emily said simply. She pulled her arm from Lily and said, "Just because I had a little bit to drink doesn't mean I can't walk by myself!"

Lily raised an eyebrow at this as Emily stumbled over her own two feet. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes!" Emily yelled angrily.

"Why did you tell her?" James asked curiously.

"I don't know," Emily muttered.

"Because," Lily said, sounding annoyed, "she deserved to know the truth!"

"Yeah, but you might have wanted to wait until you were a safe distance away," James smirked. They reached the Hospital Wing and Emily went inside, insisting that James and Lily stay outside. "Is she alright now?"

"She's drunk and might have a broken nose, of course she's not all right!" Lily said, rolling her eyes exasperatedly.

James gritted his teeth and tried not to say one of the many cheeky comebacks that were popping up in his head. "I meant about the whole… situation with Sirius," James said softly.

"I don't know," Lily said. "I think I've finally convinced her to talk with him but I'm not even sure if that will work."

"Why not?" James asked.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, you know how Emily is, she's not exactly very open and talkative about how she feels. She just seems so confused about everything. I don't think she even knows what she wants out of all this."

James sighed and said, "Sirius is the same way." Lily snorted and rolled her eyes at this but didn't say anything. "What?" James asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious what he wants?" Lily muttered.

James looked quite indignant at this. He opened his mouth to say something when Emily came out of the hospital wing, grinning. "All fixed," she announced to the both of them. "Can you believe that she actually broke my nose? I should go and congratulate her." Lily rolled her eyes and laughed at her friend.

"I'd stay away from her right now," James said before stalking off down the hall.

"What was that about?" Emily said as she made her way back to the common room with Lily.

Lily shrugged. "I guess I made him angry."

"Well that's different, him stalking off because of something you said," Emily laughed. They started walking down the hall and Emily said, "Hey, isn't that's like, the second time today you've had a nice, civil conversation with him? Well maybe, that one wouldn't count as exactly civil but…"

Lily raised her eyebrow at this and said, "So?"

"I'm just pointing it out," Emily said, trying not to sound too suspicious.

Lily narrowed her eyes at Emily. She knew she was up to something but she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what it was. They walked in silence until Lily said, "I think there's something going on with him."

"Why?" Emily asked.

"He's been acting funny lately," Lily frowned. "I actually think he's been ignoring me! And when he does talk to me, he's overly nice."

"Really?" Emily grinned. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Lily said.

Emily rolled her eyes and said, "Lily, you're always complaining that he won't leave you alone and now he is!"

"He's up to something," Lily said, ignoring what Emily said. "I know it."

"You have to admit that it's nice though," Emily said. "Right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," Lily said.

-----

"Where do you think we should go tomorrow night?" James asked the other marauders as they walked through the corridors of Hogwarts to Care of Magical Creatures. The full moon was the next night and they were trying to decide where they should go exploring next.

"I don't know," Sirius said, "but I'm sick of walking around the grounds all night. We've already seen everything there is."

"We could look around Hogsmeade," Peter suggested. "There has to be more than shops there."

"No!" Remus said, getting even paler than usual. "There are too many people around!"

"Nobody will be outside that late!" Sirius said.

"I don't know," James said thoughtfully. "The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head are usually open pretty late."

"Exactly," Remus said. "It's too much of a risk."

"What about the forbidden forest?" James suggested.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Peter asked nervously. "I heard there were acromantulas in there."

Sirius laughed. "Peter, nothing in the forest will bother us if we have a werewolf with us."

James sniggered while Remus looked around nervously. "Will you keep it down?" Remus hissed.

James smirked and said, "Don't worry, Moony. No one knows about your furry little problem."

Remus, still looking worried, blushed and said, "They will if you three keep talking so damn loudly about it!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "So the forest it is, then?" They turned the corner and a second year Slytherin named Bertram Aubrey ran into Sirius and dropped the books in his hand. "Watch where you're going!" Sirius said, scowling. The boy muttered something as he bent down to pick up his books and Sirius said, "What did you just say?"

"I think he called you a wanker," Peter smirked.

Sirius smiled mischievously and said, "Oh yeah?" He waved his wand and suddenly the boy had boils all over his face.

James was torn. He usually enjoyed hexing the little Slytherins with Sirius but he knew this was something he'd have to stop if he wanted Lily to like him. "Padfoot," James said, trying not to smirk. "You are acting like a wanker."

Sirius looked shocked. "You're going to defend the little prat?"

James just shook his head and waved his wand, muttering what he thought was the counter-curse. However, he was quite wrong because although the boils on Bertram's face disappeared, his head started to swell. "Oh shit," he muttered, staring in horror as Aubrey's head swelled to twice its normal size. Sirius was doubled over in laughter while Peter sniggered. "Moony, fix it!"

"I don't know how to!" Remus said, in shock. "Why'd you do it if you don't know the counter-curse?"

"I thought that was the counter-curse!" James said, in a panic. Peter laughed harder at this and Sirius had to lean against the wall, he was laughing so hard.

"How can you get those two mixed up? They sound completely different!" Remus said, trying very hard not to laugh.

Professor Flitwick appeared at the end of the hallway and ran to the second year's side. "Aubrey, we need to get you to the hospital wing!" Flitwick said. He took the boy by the arm and started to lead him up to the Hospital Wing.

"Aren't they going to get into trouble?" Bertram said indignantly. "This is an illegal hex!"

Sirius and Peter stopped laughing at once and James's mouth dropped. Flitwick looked confused and said, "Who?"

"Potter and Black!" Bertram said.

"Oh, you are going to regret that," Sirius said, advancing on Bertram.

"That's enough, Sirius," Flitwick said. "Right, Potter and Black, you will both get a detention. Now Bertram, we really need to –"

"But that's not fair!" James said.

"Yes it is," Flitwick said sternly. "It is basically his word against yours and frankly, his is much more reliable. Now come on, Aubrey, we really have to get you to the hospital wing." With that, Flitwick led Bertram down the hallway towards the Hospital Wing.

"What a load of bollocks!" Sirius said angrily. "I can't believe he ratted us out right in front of us!"

"We have to prank him," Peter said.

Sirius nodded and turned to James. "What do you think, Prongs? Should we start a pranking war tonight or wait until tomorrow?"

James laughed and said, "Tonight, definitely." He looked over Sirius's shoulder and muttered, "Oh shit."

"What?" Sirius said. He turned around and saw Emily standing a few feet away with her hands on her hips, looking murderous. "Oh," he smirked. "Looks like you're in for it."

She stormed up and James and punched him on the shoulder. "You fucking prat!" she said. "You're lucky Lily wasn't here to see that!"

"I was trying to help him!" James said.

"How is making his head swell up helping him?" Emily said angrily. She grabbed her book bag and started hitting him with it. "You are such an idiot! You were making so much progress and then you go and do something stupid like this!"

"It was Sirius's fault!" James said, trying to defend himself from her blows.

"Sure, blame me," Sirius laughed. He turned to Peter and Remus and said, "Come on, we're going to be late." They both look confused because they knew Sirius didn't really care about being late but followed him anyways. They were right, Sirius didn't really give a shit if he missed class altogether but as soon as he saw Emily, he felt like there were butterflies ten times their normal size doing back flips in his stomach and he didn't think he could stand being near her.

James had finally realized what she had said and his eyes went wide. "What do you mean, I was making so much progress?" Emily didn't answer him; she was too busy watching Sirius as he left. James grabbed her shoulder and started to shake it. "Emily! You can't just say something like that to me and then not bother to explain it!"

Emily pulled free of him and said, "Yes, you were making progress! The keyword there being were, seeing as how none of it's going to matter once Lily finds out about this!"

"What kind of progress?" James said. "Does that mean she doesn't hate me anymore?"

"No, she hated you less!" Emily said. "But that doesn't matter now!"

The warning bell rang and Emily sighed in frustration. She started walking the opposite way James was going down the hallway. "Emily, wait! Where are you going?" James said, running after her.

"To class!" Emily said, very exasperated.

"But what should I do now?" James said. "Can I ask her out now? Or should I start talking to her again? Or –"

"Do not do anything!" Emily said warningly. She had stopped outside the door to O.W.L. Charms and turned to face James. "The first thing we have to do is make sure Lily doesn't hear one word about what you did to Bertram Aubrey."

"I was trying to help him!" James protested.

"That doesn't matter!" Emily said as the bell for class rang. "Look, I'll talk to you about this later, alright?"

"When?" James said, but Emily had already entered the classroom. "Shit!" he muttered. He turned and ran down to the grounds, where the Care of Magical Creatures class was held. When he finally got there, he was at least five minutes late.

"You're late, Mr. Potter," Professor Kettleburn said. "That will be ten points from Gryffindor."

"Sorry, professor," James said as he walked to his spot next to Sirius.

"What happened?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Apparently, I'm making progress with Lily," James whispered.

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Remus said.

James shrugged. "I guess so."

"So what are you going to do now?" Sirius asked, shocked.

"I don't know," James said. "She said we'd have to talk about that later."

"That doesn't sound good," Sirius said. They stood in silence, listening to Professor Kettleburn go on about yetis. Sirius noticed Peter staring longingly at a sixth year Hufflepuff named Rachel Graham. When they had to break up into groups, he elbowed James in the side and said, "Do you think we should help him out?"

James smirked and said, "Why not?" He grabbed Peter by the elbow and said, "Wormtail, why don't you go work with Rachel?"

Peter's eyes widened and muttered, "I think she already has someone to work with."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter and said, "She's sitting by herself!"

"I don't think it's such a good idea," Peter said as he started to blush.

"Well, you're not working with us," Sirius said as he pushed him towards Rachel.

"What?" Peter said, shocked at what Sirius had said. He turned to James and said, "Come on, Prongs. I don't think this is a good idea. I mean, isn't she dating Vincent McDonald?"

James laughed and said, "How am I supposed to know that? Pete, you're never going to have a chance if you never talk to her. Now stop making excuses and go!"

"Unbelievable," Peter muttered before turning and walking timidly towards Rachel.