A/N:

Hello loves! Another apology for taking (let's just call it a while) to update… I hope you are all having a fabulous New Year! 2015 already…

Also, I don't know if I've ever said this before, but to those of you who take the time to review chapters, I just wanted to say a massive thank you. Feedback is really important to me, and with your input I can find ways to improve the story and make it more enjoyable to both read and write. I love you guys more than I can say. Thank you for being supportive I really appreciate it.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Not the creator of the Harry Potter series. *cries*

Chapter 21 – All the Confusion

"I swear Professor Trelawney just wakes up and thinks 'I'll just tell another child that they're going to die today, shall I?" Mary whispered, after Professor Trelawney had exclaimed to Marlene that death awaited her outside, gestured wildly at the window as the girls passed her by in the hallway.

Marlene coughed in response and walked away. "What does she burn in her classroom that makes her smell so strangely? And why is she still dishing out predictions to us? We don't even take Divination…"

Mary shrugged, "I sincerely doubt anyone has ever taken her predictions seriously. Really she probably shouldn't be a teacher, frightening kids so often. Someone should look into it."

Lily snorted, "You know if she ever gets a prediction right, I think she'll be more surprised than anyone."

The girls laughed as they made their way into the charms classroom.

Mary took a seat near the back of the room and looked around her as she pulled her books out of her bag. "Where's Hest?" she asked, puzzled at the absence of their friend.

Alice appeared at the desk and sat in the row in front, accompanied by Frank Longbottom.

"I saw her with Sirius in the common room at lunch." She said, "I think they were arguing about something."

Mary snorted, "Typical."

At that moment Professor Flitwick entered the class. He began to climb the mountain of books on his desk, so as to see the entire class.

While his back was turned, James, Sirius and Hestia snuck inside the room and moved to the back of the class.

Hestia gave Lily a "don't even ask" look and sat down beside her.

Professor Flitwick turned and began to address the class, "Today we will be practicing the Confundus charm, in pairs."

The class slowly rose to their feet, James and Sirius began jostling each other with chairs as the rest of the class moved the furniture to clear a space to practice.

"Ah, no, I think Mr Potter and Mr Black would do better if you were separated." Professor Flitwick announced as he flicked his wand and the chairs they had been fighting with whizzed to the other side of the room.

"You might also learn to arrive earlier to my class if you would invest in a watch," he added, giving the boys a look that clearly said he hadn't missed their entrance.

James and Sirius looked down with sheepish grins on their faces.

"Mr Potter, with Ms Evans if you please," Flitwick instructed smiling at Lily, "Mr Black with Ms Jones."

Lily moved across to James, he quickly messed up his hair with his hand. She rolled her eyes.

Sirius swept across to Hestia in a flourish and waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively. She swatted at him but laughed all the same.

"So" James said, looking at Lily nervously, "What charm are we doing again?"

She flicked her wand at him in a wide arch and said loudly "Confundo!"

James looked shocked for a moment he shuddered and then he looked around himself in confusion.

"What happened?" he asked perplexed, as Lily burst out laughing.

Professor Flitwick arrived out of no-where. "Well done Ms Evans! Well done indeed! And on the first attempt?" he asked.

Lily nodded minutely, going red in the face as the other students turned to look.

"Five points to Gryffindor!" Flitwick squeaked, waved his wand at James to reverse the effects and turned away.

James shook his head and snapped back to reality, "You cursed me!" he said, outraged.

Lily giggled, "It's what we're supposed to be doing you great dolt!"

James pouted, "Well you could have given me some warning," he huffed.

Lily laughed again, "Okay then, warning!" she said quickly.

James put his hands up, "Wait, no –

"Confundo!" Lily yelled, and James shuddered and immediately looked confused once again.

Lily laughed as he stood there scratching his head.

After charms the group were heading down to Lunch when Lily announced she was going to look for a book on immobility charms in the library.

"Lilykins, Flitwick only gave us the essay today, we have a full week to worry about it" Sirius whined.

"I'll be down in a few minutes, I promise," Lily said as she turned away from the others and adjusted her bag on her shoulder, "I just want to pick it up now less I forget later."

James waved his hand at her dismissively as Sirius was about to protest, "Leave her go Pads, Merlin knows she's always at her happiest after a trip to the Library. If you put her in a bad mood, she'll just take it out on the rest of us!"

The other laughed as Lily walked away, "I heard that!" she said over her shoulder.

"You were meant to!" James chuckled in reply.

As Lily turned away Remus watched the expression of James' face. He looked at her, with a goofy, lopsided grin on his face.

"Prongs," Remus asked meekly, "Hold up a second."

Sirius gave Remus a quizzical look, but skipped ahead with the girls none-the-less.

James turned around to Remus, the goofy grin still plastered to his face. "What's up Moony?"

"How are things with Lily?" Remus asked with a strange expression on his face.

James shrugged, "Mate, I have no clue really. One minute she's yelling at me and the next she's laughing with me."

"Mmm" Remus replied.

"Why do you ask?" James questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

Remus thought Lily had been acting a lot nicer towards James recently, but he didn't want to give him false hope.

"No reason, I just wanted to make sure our two Head students were on the same page." Remus said.

James laughed, and shoved Remus playfully, "Oh Moony, always thinking about the school-work."

Remus laughed and smiled to himself knowingly.

As Marlene made her way down to the Great Hall she allowed her mind to wander as Mary began a game of rating the Hogwarts boys that they passed on the stairs.

She only added to the conversation by saying "No, Amos Diggory is more of a seven" as she took her seat at Gryffindor table.

She reached for some spelt bread but shortly realised that there was none left in the basket. She huffed and looking around she noticed the only table with any left was Ravenclaw.

Mumbling "I'll be back," to Mary as she rose, she paid little attention to her surroundings as she made her way across the nearly-empty Hall.

She reached for the bread basket while looked around for some marmalade when her hand made contact with something warm and soft.

Realising she had reached for the bread the same time as someone else she paused and said "Oh sorry."

"No, it's.." came the low voice of Regulus Black.

Marlene looked up at the sound of his voice, marmalade clutched in her hand.

Whatever he was about to say died in his throat as he caught her gaze.

Marlene snapped back to reality and waving the marmalade in the air she said "Yeah– this…" and turned back to Gryffindor table.

Regulus looked after her and paused, as if about to say something more but decided against it.

Marlene could feel him watching her make her way back to the table and felt her face heat up.

She let out a long puff of air when she sat down again.

Mary, who had been discussing the variety of Ravenclaw verse Hufflepuff boys turned and gave Marlene a look. "There's marmalade over there you dolt!" She said, pointing at a selection of jams further down Gryffindor table.

"Oh, I..." Marlene started to say, but mumbled something incoherent and started absently smothering marmalade all over a banana.

Mary frowned at her, "You're so weird Marls."

Lily walked through the shelves of the library absently brushing her fingers along the spines of the books. She overheard someone chatting in the next row and she was about to go tell them off when she heard what one of them said.

"No, Amos said it was over for good Shell. He said he likes someone else."

Lily recognised the voice as Sarah Thompson, a seventh year Ravenclaw who once dated James. Lily had never liked her much.

Lily was only interested in the story because Sarah had mentioned Amos. She crept closer to the end of the row to hear more clearly.

"It wasn't because he cheated on you, surely?" came the voice of the 6th year Hufflepuff Shelley Mclaggan; part-time prefect, full-time gossip.

Sarah scoffed in reply, "he would never." She said with finality.

"So you have no idea who this other girl is?" shelly asked.

"Actually…" Lily moved towards the side of the bookshelf to hear but her path was suddenly blocked.

"Ms Evans," said the cool voice of Professor McGonagall.

"Pro-professor" stuttered Lily in reply.

"I thought I would find you here." Professor McGonagall nodded, disregarding the startled look on Lily's face and continued, "Ms Evans an issue has arisen amongst the school Quidditch teams regarding the pitch schedule. The Slytherin team have requested an hour extra of practice on Tuesdays, which of course runs into the Gryffindor team's practice time."

"Okay," Lily responded, unsure of why she was being told this.

"As Mr Potter is the Captain of the Gryffindor team and therefore a little more" she coughed "invested in the argument, I felt it would be wiser to intrust resolving this issue to you instead."

Lily nodded, understanding that James would much rather leave the Slytherins with no practice times, and replied "leave it to me Professor."

Lily quickly found the book she needed for charms and made her way down to the Great Hall to grab a short lunch, the conversation she had overheard entirely forgotten.

A/N: I thought about continuing on with this chapter, but I decided to just upload it and start working on the next one straight away.

Hope you all enjoyed it, please review and let me know what you think!

Love

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