Disclaimer: JKR owns most of the people, places and events you read about … in this story, anyway.

A/N: Just to avoid any confusion – not every student in Hogwarts's a vampire :P It's just the one.

- Chapter Thirty-five -

~ Rebounds and Rejections ~

It seemed to Lily that James was putting all his best efforts in avoiding her, and she wasn't wrong. He wouldn't speak to her for days afterwards, which was quite an achievement as they sat next to each other in most of the classes they had together. She didn't miss how Peter and Sirius would glare at her sometimes, the former more timidly. Lily was glad they all had Defence Against the Dark Arts together first thing on a Friday morning, although no one was keen on Darktoff; it was the only class she had with all of her Gryffindor friends.

She, Alice, Cassie and Vanessa were the last ones to line up outside the classroom before class. Lily glanced at her watch and saw it was a few minutes to nine. She took advantage of this and walked past her fellow classmates to get to the Marauders. They ceased their laughing and joking about upon looking at her.

'What?' said Sirius coldly.

'I want to talk to James,' she said calmly.

Sirius looked like he was going to say something else, but James lifted his hand and said, 'It's cool, I've got this.'

He followed Lily well away from his friends, his expression carefully composed to betray none of the wild things he was thinking about or feeling.

'Am I really just a game to you?' she said unevenly. 'You've had your kiss and you want nothing to do with me anymore. You don't need to care about me now; you've had the last girl in Hogwarts who is of age.'

James looked incensed and wounded. 'Is that what you really think of me?' he demanded. 'Is that the opinion you hold of me? You think I'm some jack-the-lad whose mission is to get to every girl in Hogwarts?'

Lily didn't say anything. She dropped her gaze, unable to stand the fury in his eyes.

'You think I was lying about all those times I told you I care about you?' he continued, still sounding angry, only less so. 'You think I don't die a little inside whenever I see you upset? You're wrong. Of course I care about you; you've begun to mean more to me than nearly anything else. Well, at one point you were. After all the reformations I made to myself for you, you still think of me that way …'

'I'm … I'm sorry,' she whispered. 'I didn't mean that. But the other night in the common room … you just pushed me away and I don't understand why.'

Stupid tears began welling up in her eyes again. She blinked them back. Seeing this, James's frustration melted away slightly. He chose his words carefully and looked into her eyes deeply so she knew he meant them.

'Lily … I love you,' he said intensely. 'I love you a lot. I have done for an unimaginably long time now. Well, okay, it's only been a couple of years that I realised I love you,' he corrected, 'but that feels like decades when the one you love is right next to you, yet you're still painfully far from her.'

He began playing with a strand of her hair, making her breathing more uneven and colour rush to her cheeks.

'I've always loved you,' he whispered. 'I've never stopped. I tried, but it was too hard. I thought maybe dating other girls would help me get over you. That obviously didn't work out as I'd planned.'

'I don't understand,' said Lily faintly. 'What's the problem then?'

'I love you,' he repeated simply, dropping both of his hands by his side. 'You just broke up with Downs. You're clearly not over him yet. And I don't want to be your rebound. I know I'm worth more than that. I know I love you more than that. I want to be more than just a rebound for you … more than just a rebound.' His voice broke on the last word. 'I want you, I really do, just not this way.'

She wanted to argue with him. She wanted to tell him he wasn't her rebound, she had begun to recognise her feelings for him and he was the only one she wanted … but she didn't. She just swallowed hard and nodded, not even bothering to smile; he did.

He softly said, 'Come on, we're probably late.'

He beckoned her towards the classroom.

They forgot how Darktoff wasn't a morning person. Well, he wasn't an afternoon, evening or night person either, but he particularly hated mornings.

'Late,' he muttered darkly when they entered. 'Tut, tut, tut,' he said, his lip curling. 'That's the Head Boy and the Head Girl in detention this evening.'

'What?'

'But, Professor –'

'Five points from Gryffindor,' he said loudly. 'Take your seats.'

'Professor, it was my fault, not Lily's,' James began, but Darktoff quelled him with the evils. 'Okay …' he muttered, following Lily to their seats.

They got out their parchment, quill, ink bottles and textbook and pretended to pay attention for the entire hour they were studying. But it was pointless, for neither could concentrate. Lily inwardly cursed herself, asking why she didn't keep to the promise she made when she was eleven to not fall in love until her school studies were over.

Lily thought the Potions class that followed the miserable Defence Against the Dark Arts would cheer her up slightly, but she was wrong. Slughorn decided it was time for them to study Amortenia.

'Can anyone tell me what Amortentia actually is, before we get any further into it?' Slughorn asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet, as usual.

Despite feeling gloomy, Lily's hand shot in the air before anyone else's.

'Yes, Lovely Lily?' he smiled.

'Amortentia is an extremely powerful love potion,' she answered. 'The drinker becomes infatuated with the person who slips it to them for about twenty-four hours. However, the potion doesn't actually create love, as no magic can.'

'Couldn't have put it better myself,' he boomed jovially. 'This potion's more than just a toy. Love is too strong a magic to be brought on by magic itself.'

Lily pretended she didn't notice James staring at her from the corner of his eyes. She felt her cheeks reddening deeply, though, and James didn't miss this.

'Now, an interesting thing about this magnificent potion,' Slughorn continued, pacing and staring around at his suddenly eager class, 'is that its aroma is unique to each individual.' He then stepped back to his desk and removed the lid of his cauldron.

Almost immediately, an unbelievably appealing scent wafted around the cool dungeons. Each student found themselves inhaling deeply, some smiling stupidly with their eyes shut tight.

'I smell that new cologne Heaney from the Quidditch team released,' said Sirius dazedly. 'Merlin, I've got to go out and get it.'

'I smell … st – Li – freshly mown lawn,' said James dreamily, 'like on the first Quidditch practice after school starts.'

'Strange people,' Cassie said, although she, too, wore an absentminded expression.

'I smell lavender …' Alice whispered happily. 'Lavender and honey and new parchment …'

'Which takes us back to "strange people"' Cassie murmured.

They weren't the only ones exchanging the aromas they picked up.

'Is that vanilla essence? Mm … I hope there's ice cream at dinner today.'

'What, in this weather?'

'I can smell Moaning Myrtle's bathroom …'

'You what? You know that's the girls' loos, right?'

'Of course.'

Slughorn then cruelly lidded the cauldron again, and students' dreamy faces were wiped away immediately as their slouches turned into straight backs.

'Now, we shouldn't really be making these in class,' said Slughorn uncomfortably, 'I mean, imagine twenty or so seventh-years running amok with love potions,' he joked. 'However, I think this class is fairly mature. And it's much better getting the experience of producing a potion first-hand as opposed to reading about it.'

Murmurs of agreement sounded across the dungeons, to Slughorn's pleasure.

And they were off.

The rest of the school day went agonisingly slowly for Lily and James, having separate lessons, but they could breathe when they weren't with each other, as they found out. Alice was stubborn that they were to sit in the common room with the Marauders when classes were over, as Remus had offered to help her with the Transfiguration homework McGonagall had set; Cassie reluctantly followed, because she couldn't do it either.

'I don't want to sit with them!' Lily muttered furiously as they dragged her away with Vanessa. 'I don't need help with my Transfiguration homework! In fact, I've already done it! Alice, get off.'

Alice ignored her easily. They were finally over by the Marauders, two of whom appeared to be plotting.

'Alice, really, we could help you with your homework,' Lily continued muttering, although she was louder than before. 'Why did you seek the help of a Marauder?'

She was now aware of how the four boys looked up, although none of them said anything.

'You're going to sit here doing whatever until you have to go off to your detention,' Alice snapped aberrantly.

'I could probably use your assistance, Lily,' said Remus, 'in explaining things to Alice when I can't get the message across.'

Lily smiled quickly, feeling guilty for not being able to hold her acidic tongue. 'That happens quite a lot then?'

'Of course,' he smirked.

'What are you trying to say?' said Alice in a disbelieving high-pitched voice.

'Nothing, nothing,' said Remus quickly and kindly. 'Let's get to work then …'

Alice and Cassie sat down either side of him and concentrated extremely hard on what he was saying. Vanessa was busy filling out a moon chart for Astronomy. Lily sat there uninterestedly, sighing every five minutes and looking around for a distraction, while her mind wondered off to what James and Sirius could have been doing with their low mutters and parchment … and how the former had rejected her …

She stood up abruptly. 'Need some air,' she said quietly, before leaving as fast as her legs could carry her.

'What's gotten into her?' James asked inaudibly.

'No clue,' Vanessa had answered.

Lily decided to visit her favourite school owl in the Owlery. It would be cool and breezy up there. She bumped into a certain someone when she got there.

'We have got to stop meeting here,' said Lily breathlessly, although she was smiling.

'Yeah …' Jason said uncomfortably. 'I see you found a way around anyone going to Azkaban. Well done. I knew you would find a way around that.'

'Really?'

'Yeah … some part of me that was getting told to shut up by the other part.'

A giggle slipped between Lily's lips.

'So what are the Marauders planning for me?' he asked, sounding troubled.

'They're planning something for you?' Lily grinned, pretending to sound curious.

'They should be,' he mumbled. 'You know, after everything I did …'

'Hey, if they thought of planning something,' she said kindly, 'they're not planning anything now.'

'I don't get why not,' he said quietly, turning away from her.

'I wouldn't let them,' she said softly, turning him back around.

'Why?' said Jason, sounding frustrated. 'I don't get why you people are … are … killing me with kindness! You're supposed to hate the guts out of me! But instead you just let me go like everything I did was perfectly all right when it isn't, because I hurt so many people.'

Lily smiled to herself.

'What?' Jason said exasperatedly.

'It's you,' she replied. 'You're feeling remorse for the terrible things you had done. Besides, your intentions were, in a sick and twisted way, good.'

'They were?'

'Yeah,' she said gently. 'I feel really touched that anyone would do this much for me. And I think that anyone who would go to such extents should be given a second chance … I mean, you only got a little lost along the way and went on the wrong route with things, right?'

'I suppose,' he said shyly. 'Would you really give me a second chance?'

'Jason …' she said in a broken voice, 'you're a nice guy – well, vampire – but I mean a second chance in somewhere new, some place clean. If I were the right girl for you, I would accept you as a vampire, and I realise how devoted you can be. I'm sorry, Jason.' She stood on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek.

She then turned on her heel to find that the end of their little exchange had an unwanted spectator.

*.*.*

'Moony …'

There was no response.

'Moony …'

There was still no response.

'MOONY!'

'Merlin, Sirius!' Remus exclaimed. 'What do you want? I'm a little busy with Transfiguration here!'

'It's okay,' said Alice cheerfully; Remus gave her a dark look.

'Moony, I'm bored.'

'You're always bored, Sirius,' said Remus, not even glancing at his friend. 'You should have gone with James.'

'What, to send an owl to his precious Mummy and then go to Darktoff's detention?' Sirius shuddered. 'No, thank you. Now, entertain me.'

'What do you take me for?' said Remus, somewhat irritably. 'A circus freak or something?'

'More or less,' said Sirius lightly. 'Whatever that's supposed to mean,' he added in an undertone, rolling his eyes.

Remus shook his head before saying, 'Go annoy Vanessa.'

'I can hear everything you're saying – I'm right over here,' she said curtly, waving her hand.

'Feel free to go right over there,' said Sirius carelessly, pointing in the opposite direction.

'Yeah? Well, you, Mister, can go –'

'Vanessa,' said Remus sternly, not looking up from Alice's work.

Vanessa began muttering to herself rapidly. The others caught phrases like, 'Sure, side with him …' and 'Tch, Marauders …'

'Haha,' said Sirius, 'you called me Mister! I'm really feeling the respect now.'

'Yes, Black,' said Vanessa sweetly, 'I respect you so much …'

She waved her wand and pointed it at Sirius, muttering something inaudibly. Before their very eyes, Sirius was fighting off grotesquely enlarged snot with even bigger wings.

'Ew, that's GROSS!' Cassie screeched at the very top of her lungs, making Remus think she did some permanent damage to his already sensitive ears.

'What did you do to him?' said Alice, torn between feeling horrified and awestruck.

'Bat Bogey Hex,' said Vanessa smugly, blowing the tip of her wand. 'I was waiting for someone to try that out on. I haven't done it in years …'

It took a lot of time for Sirius to fight off his own snot. He turned to Vanessa afterwards, enraged. She concealed her fear quite well; everyone in Hogwarts knew it was time to start running (and fast) when you infuriated a Marauder. She merely stood up and looked at him with the same haughty expression he would have whenever he got one over her.

He continued staring at her, his eyes looking sinister. He then waved his wand dramatically a few times and said something so quietly under his breath that Remus wasn't even sure he had said anything.

All of a sudden, Vanessa's hair was a brilliant shade of green, too bright to look at upon first sight. Her nose was about five times longer, very pink and had three large bumps. Her lips had swollen to the size of tomatoes and her ears were more like those of an elephant's.

Everyone in the common room turned and roared with laughter at her, pointing and holding their sides; some even had tears in their eyes. Feeling tears well up in her own eyes, Vanessa hung her head low in humiliation. Sirius instantly felt his stomach drop as guilt overwhelmed him.

'Wait, Vanessa –' he began quietly, holding out a hand, but she had already turned around and ran out of the common room, as the staircase to the dormitories was blocked with more Gryffindors laughing raucously. 'Hold up!' Sirius shouted after her.

She didn't even turn around.

Sirius followed her out of the common room, anyway. He may have a reputation as a hurtful prankster, but even he knew when he had crossed the line. He looked along the corridor and saw a door dissolving into the stone wall. The Room of Requirement.

Walking past the wall three times, Sirius thought to himself, I want to be in the room Vanessa goes when she wants to be alone.

The Room revealed itself to Sirius. With an air of content, he turned the brass handle of the ornate wooden door and entered the breathtakingly beautiful room. If he didn't know he was indoors, he would have thought he'd just entered a park of paradise. There were fields of jade green grass with a couple of trees, rich in leaves. There didn't seem to be a ceiling at all; when Sirius looked up, he only saw pure white. There was also a pretty stone pathway which separated the fields. On one of them was a pearly swinging bench with Vanessa perched delicately upon it. Her features were slowly returning to normal: her nose was getting smaller and less bumpy, her lips were medium-sized and her ears were only just visibly round behind her chocolate-coloured hair.

He quietly sat down next to her and put an arm on the top of the bench near her shoulder. She had both of her arms in her lap and gave no sign that she noticed him. She looked beyond sad.

Sirius exhaled deeply. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I guess I went a little too far.'

'Yeah,' she said faintly, 'you did.'

'Although green hair did kind of suit you,' he said with a small laugh, playing with a random strand of her hair.

'Whatever, Black.'

'Can we talk?' he asked uncomfortably, watching her carefully.

'We are.'

'I mean … can we come to a truce? No love, no hate. I'm sure plenty of people are sick of hearing the two of us bicker all the time. And I've got to admit I'm pretty tired of being mean to you.'

'And hurting me,' she added.

'Yeah. So … friends?'

Vanessa hesitated.

'You can't reject me,' Sirius grinned.

'Fine. Friends,' she muttered.

'Sweet,' he said. 'So … come here often?'

Vanessa laughed slightly. 'Whenever I need to get away from you guys.'

'Us guys?'

'Yeah. Alice and her curiosity … Cassie and her complaints … sometimes, everyone gets to me. I just come here. When Aaliyah and I had our first fight while … a few months ago, I came up here.'

Sirius knew she was about to say "while we were going out". The atmosphere became awkward … but Sirius was great with awkward moments.

'It's a great place,' he said appreciatively. 'I'm surprised you thought this up.'

Vanessa stuck her tongue out at him. 'Thanks. I wanted a lake, too, but I didn't want to ask too much of the Room.'

All of a sudden, a winding lake appeared between some fields.

'Or you could do it for me,' she giggled.

'That I could. Come on, let's swim.'

'What are you, insane?' Vanessa protested as Sirius pulled her up and dragged her along to the edge of the lake.

'That's what they all ask.' He winked at her. 'Oh, come on, Vanessa!'

Without warning, he slipped and fell back in the lake.

'WHOA!' he shouted, bobbing up and down in the water. 'Hel … lp me!' he shouted with water in his mouth.

'Sirius, quit playing about,' she giggled, sitting down beside the lake.

'Help!' he repeated.

When she didn't listen, he swam over to her and dragged her down.

She screamed, but what was the use? There was no one around to hear her. Instead, she fought off Sirius by splashing large amounts of water in his face. Slipping a little, she got back onto the grass and ran off, out of the Room of Requirement. She must looked a sight; her clothes stubbornly stuck to her body and the water dripping off her hair left a stream of water behind her.

'I'm gonna get you,' Sirius shouted after her, chasing her while slipping on some water. 'Whoa, Filch isn't gonna be too happy about this …' he added quietly. He resumed chasing her again.

The Fat Lady didn't even wait for a password. She squawked in apprehension as soon as she saw Sirius and Vanessa, and swung open.

'Ha. Real G's don't need passwords to get in,' Sirius said, having barked with laughter.

'G's?' Vanessa repeated, using some first-years to dodge him inside the common room.

'Gryffindors, Gills,' said Sirius, circling the first-years.

Vanessa rapidly ran to their friends and hid behind Remus, although he couldn't hide her well.

'What happened to you?' Alice shrieked, standing up to get a better look at her friend.

Vanessa didn't reply, but merely ran when Sirius came for her.

'Hold it,' said Alice sternly, holding onto Vanessa (and then squealing at her cold and wetness). 'You, missy, are going to go upstairs and get dried and changed.'

'Why?' Sirius groaned. 'She looks great like that!'

'Because you can see right through her clothes,' Cassie scoffed.

'I was actually thinking about how much of a mess she looked compared to her usual irritatingly neat self,' said Sirius. 'It makes me feel better about myself, you know?'

Vanessa stuck her tongue out at him, but allowed Alice to steer her away. Before they ascended the stairs to the girls' dormitories, Vanessa could have sworn she saw Sirius grin somewhat shyly, and couldn't help but grin herself.

Friday 3rd March 1978

A/N: Thought I might shine a little sun onto the story.

I've already started the sequel to this! (: Planned loads. It's so sad, but happy. I'm gonna hate writing it almost as much as I'm gonna hate then end of DHP2. Gotta finish this story first …