Chapter 21

Sirius

"Sirius, maybe you just… Try to apologize to her?"

I sighed and shook my head. "Tried. She wouldn't even hear me out, Prongs," I replied, but glanced down a little guiltily. What if she heard me talking to Cathy that night and thought I'd just moved on to the next girl? I roughly shook my head and looked back up to him. "What about Lily?"

James just rolled his eyes a bit. "She's still so upset about poor ol' Snivellus. I'm honestly just giving up on Evans, I think. She's never even bloody given me the time of day," he went on, but I could see the glint of sadness in his eyes.

"James, you really don't think-" I gave Peter an angry look to leave it, "never mind," he finished and Peter shrunk into his seat while I turned to the window of the compartment. Peter mumbled something about some food and walked out, ending the conversation.

The last month hadn't been my favorite. Actually, thinking about it, it probably stood a good chance at being my worst. I'll admit, I'm not exactly a very emotional kind of guy most of the time, but I'd honestly tried with Izzy. The first week after our fight I tried countless times to try to talk to her, but every time she'd completely ignore me. She's been spending all her time with Evans and Vi, the Prewett twins, and that weird kid in Ravenclaw with the long hair. Sometimes, I see her with Remus, but that's mostly during prefect patrols because I think she's trying to stay as far away from me, James, and Peter as possible. She's completely trying to take herself out from the Marauders.

Why did I have to be so stupid? But I've got to admit, I loved seeing Snape's face while he was hanging upside down… But Izzy's face made it suck.

The worst part was that we were on our way home for summer, meaning I was off to my own home. Hopefully, though, I'll stay with James after he comes back from his trip to America. And Remus should be visiting us later in August, but I highly doubt Iz will decide to come with him. Usually, after going through a break-up I'd just go snog some random "fangirl" of mine and be done with it, but this time it'd been different. She was my best friend, and it bloody sucks to lose a best friend.

I found myself glaring and mumbling to myself when Moony came in from his prefect duties. I wanted to ask about Izzy, but he'd been pretty serious that he was refusing to get into it after she'd forgiven him.

"Snape's gone and messed with another first year. You'd think he'd be done with that by now, wouldn't you?" Remus said, obviously exasperated.

I clenched my fists. "I ought to show that Death Eater-" I started, but Remus sent me a look and I tried to calm myself. There was a silence in the room until I decided to change the subject. "What're your plans for this summer, Moony?"

Remus shrugged. "Staying at home mostly, I'll be relieved when I come visit in August though. My parents are going bloody insane; I think they can't wait to get rid of Iz and me. Must be too scared of us to want to keep up with it anymore," Remus finished, shrugging a little at the end. I glanced at Prongs and noticed him looking the same way I did, with a little pity and sadness for our friend. "But enough of that, excited for America Prongs?" Remus finished, obviously feeling uncomfortable with letting out that last bit of information.

James nodded, grinning a little, " I heard the girls there are babes, and swoon over English accents. It'll be a nice change from the stuck-up English girls here," he said, obviously enjoying his daydream, probably about an American snog. Both Remus and I knew he meant Lily, but said nothing of it.

I thought about saying something positive about my summer, but knew there wouldn't be anything positive about it. I was going home, to my pureblood mania family. Not to mention my Death Eater cousins, all of who are definitely going to be recruiting Regulus this year. I stretched out across the seat hastily to forget about the summer that was soon approaching and tried desperately to sleep.

Izzy

I stormed into my compartment compiling of Lily and Alice Brewer, the Head Girl of Gryffindor who graduated this year. "I can't do it anymore! I won't! I'm quitting next year, it's just too annoying!" I stormed in and paced about the compartment as much as I could, muttering to myself.

Lily and Alice just watched me until Alice softly asked, "What is it, Izzy?" She's always been one of the friendliest people I've ever met.

"Being a prefect. I'm sorry Alice, but I hate it. I hate showing first years around, I hate prefect patrols, and I hate it all!" I yelled, continuing my pacing angrily.

"Izzy… What brought this sudden hatred on?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"Sev- Snape! And his bloody friends! They were bullying a first year! A first year! And I had to stop them with Remus! It was terrible! So, I'm quitting," I simply finished, finally sitting down. Alice looked horrified and Lily looked angry.

"I really must talk to Frank about this! See you both later," Alice said and we nodded, both slumping in our seats.

"Those bloody swine! How dare they? Especially him after- after what happened!" Lily ranted and I nodded, agreeing. After exams Snape had just become worse with his little Slytherin clan. They had started harassing students, more in particular, muggle-borns. And since I had begun distancing myself from the boys, I had more time to read. Voldemort and his death-eaters were rising to power and the chance of war was increasing every day.

I bit my lip, trying to stay away from the thoughts creeping into my mind and looked out the window. It was storming lightly, nothing the train couldn't handle, but still, there was a slight eeriness to it…

In that moment, Vi chose to come in and sit down. "Fabian and Gideon are working on some prank to pull on Arthur when they get back," she announced while shrugging. Lily nodded, smiling, and began talking to Vi while I just watched. Ever since Sirius' and mine's fight, things have been a bit rocky between us. She tried to get me to hear him out, saying he did nothing wrong, but I wouldn't hear it.

"He was bullying a student!" I yelled, trying to hold my temper back to no avail.

"Yeah, because Snape and his friends were being rude!" Vi countered.

"But he wasn't throwing any spells! But then James had to have a go at him!" I glared at her. "Which Sirius just had to back up, didn't he?"

I snapped back to the present when I heard, "Izzy?" Vi smiled gently at me, almost hesitantly.

"Uh, yeah, what were we talking about?" I forced a small smile, trying to feel comfortable speaking.

"Meeting up for summer vacation. I can't hang out with Petunia all summer," Lily said, frowning at the mention of her sister's name. "I can't believe she's dating that prat Vernon Dursley, or should I say Vermin. He's completely vile," she finished, unable to contain the look of disgust on her face. I scrunched up my nose and Vi spoke up.

"Well I'll be spending the rest of the month with my lovely pureblood family. And then I'm off to Molly's, thank Merlin she's letting me stay there."

I couldn't contain my smirk. "Don't get pregnant on us, Vi, always use protection," I warned slyly and she turned pink, but I could tell she was happy we were getting back on good terms. "What?" She'll be spending a whole month in a house with Fabian!" I tried to defend myself from the glare Lily was giving me, but she was suppressing a grin.

The three of us spent the whole train ride chatting, eating, and laughing and I finally forgot about the boys and I was glad to be reminded that I haven't lost all my friends.