Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just the original characters and the plot. No copyright infringement is intended.

"But why not?"

"Because! Sirius, let it alone!"

Lily looked up, slightly amused, as her best friend threw her bag down on the table and sat with a sigh on the stool next to hers. In the week since Evie had revealed her true feelings and history to her, life at Hogwarts seemed to have turned on its head.

Sirius had apparently recovered from the shock of Lara breaking up with him rather easily. He also seemed, to everyone else's shock and bewilderment, to have accepted that he had feelings for Evie. After ignoring her for the majority of the weekend, he had cornered her after breakfast on Monday and asked her to Hogsmeade the following weekend.

Lily had not been there for the exchange, but from what Evie had told her, Sirius had had a difficult time understanding that when she said no, she meant it. Since then, Sirius had asked Evie out no less than six times, in a myriad of ways. There had been the note passed in Potions Monday afternoon and the flowers dropped by her plate at lunch Tuesday. He had waited for her to emerge from her private lessons with Madame Pomfrey Tuesday afternoon, asking her again to please, just go for a butterbeer. During Defense Against the Dark Arts Wednesday morning he had nearly let James set him on fire in his state of distraction. In Charms that same day, Lily herself had been ready to hex him when he charmed a daffodil to ask Evie for him. And Thursday night, James had returned from Quidditch practice in a blind rage: Sirius had been too busy asking Evie out again to notice the Bludger heading straight for Alexander Styce's head.

"What does this make, seven?" Lily asked Evie, who was studiously ignoring Sirius's pleading looks from the table next to theirs.

"Eight!" she huffed. "He asked me again last night. It was even more pathetic than usual." She said this last bit loudly, shooting Sirius a venomous look that spoke volumes.

Lily bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. The image of Sirius begging a girl to be his date was highly amusing. It was a refreshing change of pace and she told Evie as much.

Evie grimaced. "I might find it more refreshing if it wasn't me he was asking!"

Lily looked at her carefully for a moment and then shook her head. "I can't help but feel a little responsible. James asked me if I thought you'd ever change your mind on Monday night. I told him no," she said, hurriedly defending herself from Evie's murderous stare.

"So how is this at all your fault?" Evie asked.

Lily shook her head, smiling. "I have a feeling that when I refused to give James any information, he gave Sirius some advice anyway: to just do what he did."

Evie groaned and Lily laughed, patting her hand sympathetically.

"I really don't like your boyfriend," Evie growled, though Lily could see a glint of amusement in her eyes.

"He can be a rotten toerag at times," Lily agreed, sagely.

James chose that moment to sneak up behind Lily, startling her into a laugh as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Who is a toerag?" James asked Evie as he released Lily.

"You."

His eyebrows rose and then, catching a pointed glance from Lily, looked over to where Sirius was sitting. Remus had come in and, thankfully, distracted him, but James caught the hint nonetheless.

"Ah, my faithful friend has been pestering you?" He leaned in closer to Evie. "You could just say yes, ask Lily—it has rather pleasant results."

Lily shoved him away, though she couldn't quite keep the smile from her face. It had yielded very pleasant results for them.

"Or you could tell him to leave me alone," Evie suggested. "What about the team? Aren't you worried he'll ruin everything—again?"

James's grin widened. "Not at all. It didn't ruin a thing last time: Lara is playing better than ever. And besides," he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I have it on good authority that he likes you a good deal better than he's liked anyone else before."

Evie flushed and her frown deepened. "Well that's too bad, because I like him a good deal less than I like most people in general."

James shook his head and was about to respond when Slughorn entered the dungeon, booming a loud hello. James rushed away to sit with Sirius and Remus, and Evie turned to her textbook, still studiously ignoring Sirius's attempts to get her attention. Lily turned to face the front of the room, thinking ruefully that it really was too bad Evie couldn't say yes: everyone would be a lot happier, at least for the time being. It was what would happen later. . . . Lily shook her head, trying not to think of what would happen when Evie left. There was no use wondering about the what ifs. Instead, she turned her attention to Slughorn, who was just beginning to write the instructions for the Wiggenweld Potion on the chalkboard.

Evie rushed from the room as soon as Slughorn dismissed them, nearly running into a brooding Severus Snape in the process. She was not interested in spending another moment deflecting Sirius's advances.

Cutting across the castle by way of hidden passages and trick staircases, she reached the Gryffindor common room before any of her classmates and quickly ran up to the girls' room, collapsing on her bed in breathless giggles as soon as she reached it. Who would have ever thought she'd be fleeing before the advances of anyone.

For just a moment, she let herself imagine what life might be like if she just gave in to Sirius. She closed her eyes, picturing the shock on his face. He wouldn't hear it the first time she sad yes, at least not immediately. No, he would keep pestering her for a moment before her words registered and then his expression would change to that smirk and he would make some stupid joke, probably involving a pun on his own name. She smiled, knowing how he would make her pay for holding out before kissing her. . . .

She stopped, groaning, and pushed herself off the bed. There was no point imagining it. She couldn't give in, for both of their sakes. The immediate joy of it would only result in inevitable suffering.

Crossing to the window, she picked up the pitcher of water off the windowsill and poured a glass, forcing herself instead to picture what would really happen.

The first moments would be exactly the same, though colored by a tinge of guilt. And then they would have what? A month, maybe two? Two months of being together which, knowing them, would likely involve a lot of bickering as well. She would get angry with him for doing stupid things, he would ask too many questions and be upset when she refused to answer. And even when they were having fun, she would be feeling guilty.

And then, whenever Dumbledore was able to get a time turner, she would have to leave, likely not even saying goodbye because that would be too much to handle and how would she even be able to start to explain without telling him everything? And he would be left here, with a too late explanation from Lily and all the danger his future promised, while she returned to a world where he was already dead.

She was crying again. She had never cried so much in her damned life. Time was messing everything up. She took a big gulp of the cold water, her brow furrowed as she continued to blindly stare out the window.

"Don't you think you're coming on a bit strong?"

Remus and Sirius were practicing transfiguring pillows into owls nonverbally, a task neither of them found very challenging. (Their extracurricular activities prior to their fifth year had left them with a higher than usual proficiency in the subject, something that Professor McGonagall often found both vexing and perplexing.)

"What's that?" Sirius asked and waved his wand lazily, a large barn owl taking the place of the gold pillow on the desk before him.

"Evie. Coming on too strong." Remus said, frowning. His own pillow transformed into a white-faced hawk owl with a pop.

Sirius turned to look at him. "You really think so?"

"It's been less than a week and you've asked her out eight times. Maybe you want to give her some time to think it over?"

Sirius grinned and turned back to his owl, which had started pecking at his textbook. He waved his wand again and the pillow reappeared in the owl's place.

"I'm serious," Remus continued. "And don't say so are you," he said, anticipating his friend's pun. "You are going to overwhelm her."

"Precisely the point, Moony," Sirius said, laughing. "Although, seriously, does Evie really seem like the kind of girl who would get overwhelmed? She can more than hold her own."

"Maybe I'm just worried you're going to end up getting slapped again," Remus replied sardonically.

Sirius looked over at his friend again. "You really think it's too much?"

"Yes." Remus waved his wand again and the owl disappeared.

Frowning, Sirius considered this. In all honesty, he wasn't sure how to handle the recent developments with Evie. He knew he liked her, a lot. He had a feeling that there was another four-letter word he should be using in place of like, as crazy as it sounded. And he had an inkling that she might feel something similar for him. It seemed impossible that she didn't. James had agreed with him, although he had warned him about Lily's firm insistence that Evie would not want to date Sirius.

James had, of course, recommended that Sirius take a page from his book. It had, after all, worked out in the end for them. Though of course it had taken a good four years to work. Somehow Sirius didn't think he had the same luxury of time.

"What would you recommend?"

Remus turned to him, startled. "You want my advice?"

Sirius smiled. "Moony, you might not have noticed this but we always want your advice on the important things."

Remus looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what's more surprising: you admitting that or saying that this is important."

"Of course it's important." Sirius dropped his voice. "I really like her, Remus."

"Then slow down and give her some space." It was Remus's turn to smirk. "You need to give her some time to like you again."

McGonagall came up behind them then, startling them both. "Any progress, boys?"

Sirius sat up straight and flicked his wand at the pillow. "I'm thinking of calling him Fredrick," he said, turning his head from side to side as he examined the owl that had appeared.

McGonagall looked as if she was trying to suppress a smile as she replied, "Frederica might be more apt, I think."

Sirius shook his head and sighed. "Not another girl!"

Remus let out a short bark of laughter before demonstrating his own proficiency with the spell and watching as his smaller owl fluttered up off the desk.

McGonagall nodded approvingly at them both and moved on to James and Lily's desk.

Sirius looked glumly at Frederica, stretching out a hand to stoke the top of her head. The owl hooted softly. "At least you like me," he muttered.

Remus watched his friend and shook his head. "Sirius, I don't think the problem is that Evie doesn't like you."

"Then what is it?"

"I think she just doesn't want to date you."

Sirius turned to him, perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"The two aren't mutually exclusive," said Remus. "She can like spending time with you, appreciate you as a friend, and maybe even like you more than just that, and still not want to date you. There may be other factors at play."

"Hmpf," was Sirius's only reply.

Remus continued anyway. "For example, she might be worried about the Quidditch team. Or perhaps she's caught on to the fact that you're a bit of a womanizer. Or," said Remus, smiling, "She may have noticed that you aren't very attractive underneath all that swagger."

Sirius raised an eyebrow imperiously. "Well that certainly cannot be it." He considered the other options. "The Quidditch one would make sense but I'm relatively sure that she's the one who convinced Lara to stay on the team. So I've no doubt that if things went south with us, she'd have no problem keeping it separate. Which only leaves the womanizer bit."

Remus shrugged. "Or there's something that we don't know that's holding her back. She could be pining for someone back home."

Sirius's stomach gave a sudden lurch. "She told us she stopped dating."

"Doesn't mean she didn't have feelings for someone. You know, unrequited." Remus's grin widened. "Like yours."

"If Frederica were still a pillow, I would throw her at you, Moony."

Remus laughed. "If you want my advice. . . ."

Sirius gestured for him to go on.

"Try acting normally for a bit. Treat her like a friend, stop asking her out, stop asking anyone out."

"But then how will she ever say yes?"

"I doubt she's going to forget anytime soon that you're interested in her. And I'm not saying ignore her: you can do nice things for her and not ask her out every other second."

"You really think that will work?"

Remus shook his head. "Quite honestly, I've no idea if anything will work. But I can guarantee that your current tactics are guaranteed to fail."

Sirius nodded and gave Frederica's beak another stroke before turning her back into a pillow again. "Thanks, Moony."

"Anytime, Padfoot," said Remus, smiling wryly.

Later that day in Charms, Remus watched as Sirius put his advice into practice. He could tell that his friend was barely able to restrain his own impetuous nature, but he seemed to be making a good effort, only stopping briefly to say hello to Evie before joining James at a desk.

"How long before he asks her out again?"

Remus jumped, startled, as Lily sat down next to him. "Hopefully at least a day."

"You really think he can go that long?" she asked, pulling her textbook out of her bag. "It's already been, what? Three hours?"

Remus grinned. "A record."

Lily returned the smile. "You talked to him?"

He nodded. "What gave it away?"

"He's acting like a normal human being?" She looked over to where Evie and Peter were now sitting, talking companionably.

"I informed him that James's advice might not have been the best to take."

"You couldn't have given James the same advice three years ago?"

He laughed. "Oh, I tried. He didn't listen."

"Well, let's hope Sirius does."

Remus turned to her, hesitating a moment before asking, "Do you think she'll ever say yes?"

"She shouldn't." Lily's response was immediate, and as soon as she said it she looked embarrassed, turning towards the chalkboard and flipping through her textbook to the recommended section.

"Lily?"

She sighed. "I just think it would be better for everyone if she didn't."

Remus was silent for a moment, considering the implications of this. "There's something we don't know, isn't there?"

Lily stayed silent.

"Because if there isn't, what other reason could you have for saying that?"

"Quidditch?" Lily suggested weakly.

Remus shook his head. "There's something we don't know. Because otherwise, there's absolutely no reason why two people who clearly like each other as much as those two do, shouldn't be together."

He felt, not for the first time a twinge of jealousy. He was used to thinking about James's future, which had always involved Lily. But he had never considered that Sirius might find someone too. Remus was all too aware that he would never find someone of his own. Being what he was, how could he? There would always be a reason not to be with someone for him.

"Sometimes there just is." Lily's words shook him out of his moment of self-pity.

"That's not good enough, Lily, and you know it."

She sighed. "I do, Remus. Trust me, I really do."

They sat in silence, ignoring each other until Flitwick entered the classroom and started the lecture.

Remus barely heard what the professor was saying, still mulling over his own feelings. Sirius had found the perfect girl, had literally had her dropped into his life, and for some reason couldn't be with her. Shouldn't the way that they felt about each other trump everything else? Remus thought about what he would do in a similar situation: wouldn't he fight for love? Isn't that what they were all supposed to be doing?

He sighed, knowing that if he were in Sirius's position, he'd be pushing Evie away just as hard as she was pushing his friend away. He would never want to see someone he cared about get hurt, and being with him would inevitably lead to that.

And just like that, he understood. Tearing a piece of parchment off his scroll, he scrawled a note to Lily.

She doesn't want him to get hurt?

Lily read the note and, not even looking at him, nodded.

He pulled the scrap back and jotted down a new question.

And he will get hurt?

Lily looked at the new question for a moment before writing her response and pushing it back to him.

We all will.