Caradoc Dearborn

March came quickly, and with it came gusts of wind that battered relentlessly on the castle walls and blew eerie shadows through the windows at night.

Lily, Jocelyn, Shayna, and the Marauders (A/N: from now on, when I say Marauders, I exclude Peter because he's like never around anymore) were sitting in the library (much to the distaste of Sirius and James) during their break, talking quietly. Shayna had once again become the happy, attentive teen she had been before, and was currently resting her head on Sirius's shoulder as he played with her hair.

A seventh year Ravenclaw passed by where the six of them were sitting. He was handsome; he had wavy auburn hair that tickled his ears, dark chocolate eyes, and a muscular build. Jocelyn eyed him as he walked past, and Lily and Shayna giggled in the background. James and Sirius glowered at him with narrowed eyes.

Jocelyn got up, ran her fingers through her dark, curly hair, and walked over to the wizard. "Hi," he said, tapping him on his shoulder. "I'm Jocelyn…do you think you could help me reach that book up there?" Lily and Shayna giggled again, listening to Jocelyn and drowning out the rest of their conversation.

"Hey, Lily," Remus whispered, "Who's he?"

"That's Caradoc Dearborn," Lily said. James frowned. "He's in our year. Ravenclaw, though. His father's a Muggle, I think…or maybe it's his mother. Anyway, he's a lovely person. Jocelyn's fancied him for ages, now."

"Oh," Remus said, turning over a book that had been lying on the table around which they were sitting. He picked it up and buried his face in it, though Lily could see that he was not reading it.

"Interesting book?" Lily asked, smirking. Since she had started hanging around with the Marauders, she had been smirking a lot more often.

"Yeah," Remus said quickly without looking up.

"What's it about?" Lily asked innocently.

"Something about this thing that has something to do with this other thing linked to the thing from before."

"I see," Lily said, shrugging at Shayna, who had been listening. Sirius and James had left a few moments after Lily had explained to Remus who Caradoc was.

Shayna smiled and whispered in Lily's ear, "Somebody's jealous." She gestured to Remus, who was watching wistfully as Jocelyn and Caradoc laughed softly.

?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿ ?¿

"How do you know so much about that Dearborn kid anyway?" James asked Lily that evening in the Heads common room as he paced around in front of her.

Lily laughed from where she was sitting sprawled on the floor, reading her History of Magic textbook. "Please, James, do you honestly think that Jocelyn kept her mouth shut about him for more than five minutes?"

"Well," James said, still pacing and looking entirely unconvinced, "why do you remember all this stuff about Dearborn?"

"Because, James, she brainwashed us," Lily said matter-of-factly. "I'm sure Shayna remembers all of that, too."

"But how would you know that he's a lovely person?" James said angrily, quoting her.

"Because we did a project together in fifth year," Lily said, standing up and walking towards James. She put a hand on James's shoulder. "Why are you so worried? Don't you trust me?"

James sighed and relaxed his tense shoulders. "Of course, Lily. I was being paranoid…I'm sorry. It's just that I'm afraid of waking up and finding that I fell asleep on the Hogwarts Express, and that this whole year didn't happen, and that you still hate me…"

He let his words trail off.

"James, why would you think that?" Lily said, her eyebrows furrowing together worriedly. "I love you, and I'd do anything to prove it to you." James's eyes lit up, and as he opened up his mouth to speak, Lily cut him off. "Except that."

"Why wouldn't you jump off a bridge to save me?" James said, looking at her with a confused frown on his face.

"Oh, so that's what you were going to say!" Lily exclaimed, smacking her forehead.

"Of course," James said, as though stating the obvious. "What did you think I wanted to say?"

Lily turned beet red. "Nothing, nothing. Just…forget that."

James suddenly looked at Lily as though seeing her for the first time. "Lily, you dirty girl!"

"I said," Lily said threateningly, "that you should forget that!"

A/N: So, this chapter doesn't really have much to do with the main plot. But, it just shows that Jocelyn is completely over Remus, while Remus…not so much, sadly. But, in the books he's single for Tonks, so I can't have them both together because I like Tonks better than Jocelyn anyways! Anyway, there are only a few chapters left to go before the ending, and one really crazy plot twist…so, review, please! Thanks.