A/N: hello! hello! hello!

it's feels like ages since i've updated and i'm very sorry for that but i do have a good excuse:

my laptop charger just decided to go *poof* on me when i was halfway through my spanish homework (writing a letter to a columbian guy, aren't i cool?) and because my laptop is a dell laptop and they've kindly decided to make their chargers completely different to every other charger that exists, it didn't work with any others in the house. however, thanks to the amazing-ity of the local computer shop they managed to supply us a copy for half the price that dell would so my writing withdrawal symptoms have been cured! (seriously, i'e been typing on tables and driving everyone insane! :L)

it's awful because i've lost about two chapters worth of writing time over the many, many random days off we've had in england and now i have nothing in my unpublished folder. nothing.

HOWEVER! it is thanks to the following people that i am still happy and eager to write: the mysterious anon reviewer (whoever you are, you have style :L), Yune - The Ravenclaw Writer, inktongue, Pyscho17, joanvindiesel (you know i didn't think it could get any better than the chapter 34 review but then BAM! it did :)), IzzyBel, THE JUDSTER, loisje, Lady Alba, SMUSH04, siriusblack4evaxX, klutz5637, garia, Dreamer of Narnia, FezzesRCool125 aaannnnddd the wonderful, amazing, fabulous, amazing, running out of adjectives, it's too late for such an enthuasiastic update (!) Mercy'sFoundaWayForMe and seeing as she's been such an ace beta, and i've been a rubbish one recently, you should go read her stories.

i must say (i forgot in the last chapter) that the A Most Dickory idea . . . not mine unfortunately! it's the idea of MoonWafflesOfDOOM's so yeah there's a late disclaimer!

anyways, before i fall asleep (or get told off for breaking the internet curfew :L) enjoy the chapter!

5th Nov

If I Hear One More Firework I'm Going to Throttle Someone

10:00am

It was the allocated note-sending time in Arithmacy when the thought hit me.

Hey! Padfoot! – B

What? – S

You know Lily – B

No – S

Don't be awkward, you know she doesn't like blood? – B

No – S

Sirius! – B

Fine, yes! What of it? – S

Well, I was thinking, at Halloween – she proper doused herself in fake blood – B

Right? – S

Don't you think it's strange? – B

A little – S

You're no fun to talk to today – B

Whatever – S

Oi! Evans – S

Leave me alone Black – L

Ginger? – B

Billie, I'm trying to take notes! – L

For us both? – B

No – L

Thank you! – B

. . . – L

I guess I'll never know.

11:45pm

Sirius and I are not talking.

What's the point?

Dumbledore really came up trumps with his detention. Not only was it one of the most foul experiences of my life, one in which I nearly got attacked by a savage creature, it's bloody bonfire night. Yes, while everyone else has been eating toffee apples and warming themselves up beside bonfires whilst enjoying a firework display, Sirius and I have been trawling about knee deep in threstral turd whilst lugging around a great hunk of meat for them to eat. I CAN'T EVEN SEE THE THRESTRALS!

We left the rest of the Marauders at about 7 o'clock. James and Remus had got a fire going and it was almost unbearable to leave. Sirius seemed in a good mood though, I was optimistic. I shouldn't have been. Hagrid greeted us joyously when we knocked on his cabin door, I always feel sorry for him, he doesn't get many visitors and he's such a nice guy. Sirius was thrown to the floor of his hut as Woolly, Hagrid's young boarhound, dived on him.

"'Lright Billie?" He asked me, leading us all out of the warmth. I nodded, eyeing the forest warily, I had a right to be nervous in the end but nobody listens to me do they? "Saw yer int' last Quidditch game, yer 'mazing on a broom. You and yer brother . . ." I blushed a little and he smiled a wide smile.

"What are we up to tonight Hagrid?" Sirius asked, peering into the tub of animal remains Hagrid had led us to. He looked so disgusted when Hagrid dropped a colossal, raw cow bone in his unintentionally outstretched hands.

"Threstrals, need feeding an' Dumbledore off'rd your 'elp 'cos of yer detention. Feel sorry for ya both to have it tonight . . . It being Bonfire Night 'nall." I huffed as a hunk of meat was tossed into my hands. Off we go then!"

Hagrid ushered us into the black mouth of the forest opening and I grew steadily more nervous. The forest is forbidden for a reason right? It's ok for Hagrid, he's like what? Seven - seven and a half foot? And Padfoot roams around the forest like it's his home away from home every full moon.

"You ok Bills?" The aforementioned Padfoot grinned at me. Personally, I didn't find anything about the situation remotely amusing. "Feeling a little . . . nervous?" Hagrid had strode on ahead, mumbling to himself about threstrals and other no doubt interesting things and in a failed attempt at flirting Sirius had sidled up next to me and forgetting he had a huge cow leg in his hand, he managed to wipe it in my face.

"Merlin! Thanks for that Sirius!" I spat out some cow flesh and tried my best to wipe the juice of my face. Fortunately for Sirius he didn't laugh at me although he didn't exactly apologise either.

"Lighten up Billie! It was an accident!" He retorted angrily, stepping away.

"You've just wiped cow blood in my face and we're in the middle of the Godric-forsaken Forbbiden Forest – YOU lighten up Sirius." Hagrid was still oblivious to our argument that was starting.

"That doesn't even make sense!" I was told loudly. I was ready to tell him exactly why and how it made sense when Hagrid told us to be quiet.

"If you wanna lay yer meat down there, I think I can 'ear 'em." We stood in silence, listening. Neither Sirius nor I made any indication of moving. "In fac', I think they're off tha' way . . . you two walk of tha' way and see if they come. 'll wait 'ere."

"But we won't actually be able to see them." Sirius pointed out and Hagrid chuckled.

"Listen, they're noisy buggers. Go on!"

Sirius sighed and turned on his heel and after casting Hagrid a well deserved distrustful look, I followed. We walked in silence for a while, trying not to think about the vile smell coming from the meat in our arms. Fireworks kept exploding high above the canopy.

"How the hell are we supposed to listen for threstrals if they keep going off?" I asked angrily, obviously to myself.

"It has to be better than mucking out Mrs Borris' turd Billie." Sirius said quietly as if he thought I'd forgotten he was there. I shot him a dirty look.

"If that was our punishment we'd have done by now and we wouldn't be alone and getting steadily more lost in the middle of the forest."

"We're not lost! I know the way back." Sirius looked around quickly but even through the dark I could see the uncertainty in his eyes. A sudden snap of twigs made us both jump, eyes darting around to find the cause of the sound – there weren't just threstrals out tonight, neither of us were naïve enough to think that. Another sharp snap indicated that whatever it was, was coming closer. Thinking at top speed, I threw my chunk of meat onto the floor as far away from me as possible at least then whatever it was might prefer that to my bodily meat. Sirius did the same shortly after. Then, right before our very eyes the meat was torn from the bone, disappearing into thin air. I swore softly. "Threstrals?" Sirius asked me. It was a perfectly justified question but I was angry at him so, yeah, I snapped.

"No. They're chuffing pixies."

"Holy Merlin what is wrong with you tonight?" Sirius' voice was a low whisper but the anger was evident. Another firework blasted in the sky and made me jump, stupid James and his stupid fun.

"What's wrong with me?" I whispered back just as heatedly, "I'm in a bad mood, you know like the ones you're in every other bloody day?" Sirius visibly bristled. "What's with those, huh? You seem to tell James everything but when the rest of us ask it's just: Oh, Padfoot's in a bad mood. You're worse than bloody Lily during her time of the month!" A stab of anger plunged my side when I thought of Lily, no doubt she'd be having more fun than me and she was with Diggory for Godric's sake!

"Shut up Billie." I hissed as loudly as he dare. The meat was still being ripped away and the faint sound of chomping teeth could be heard underneath the stupid fireworks.

"No really, you can't stand it when everyone else is in a bad mood yet you expect everyone just to be fine with the fact that you're always in one!"

"I said shut up Billie!"

For the first time that night I was properly glared at. A full-frontal Sirius Black Glare which is usually only used on Slytherins and people he was really angry at. When used on other people it usually invokes fear and the desire to flee his company or give him his way. Not me though.

"Ok, I will shut up; I'll shut up all the way back to my pigging dorm." And without waiting for a reply I turned on my heel and marched off.

In hindsight that probably wasn't the best thing I could have done. Within a few minutes I was very lost and somehow I had managed to stumble into a darker part of the forest, a darker, wetter and colder part of the forest. Those stupid fireworks were still being blasted above my head as I fumbled with my robes and drew my wand, non-verbally lighting the tip of it. I kept walking, quite possibly round in circles, jumping at every snapped twig and cursing every time another firework went off. Then I heard it.

A long deep growl had disturbed the infrequent silence of the clearing I was fumbling through and I cannot even begin to describe how scared I was right then, I'm still shaking now. I spun round, waving my lighted wand about hoping to catch a glimpse of whatever had growled at me. The low, rumbling sound grew louder as it came closer and I figured out that whatever it was must be smack bang in front of me.

"STUPEFY!" I cried out, the clearing flashing red and then dropping pitch black as the only light from my wand tip was extinguished. Then, in true Gryffindor spirit, I sprinted the hell out of there. I could no longer see where I was going and I tripped over several tree roots and managed to scratch a big gash into my face by running past a thorny branch. I couldn't hear whether the creature was behind me or not because of, you guessed it, the stupid fireworks but finally the dim light from Hagrid's trusty lamp could be seen in the distance. Before I'd gotten anywhere near Hagrid and Sirius, Woolly bounded over, barking and carrying on.

"Billie!" Sirius came jogging over, Hagrid striding close behind, "Your cheek, what happened?" He reached out to inspect the cut but I dodged him and went over to Hagrid.

"Have the threstrals been fed?" I asked.

"Billie?" Taking that as an affirmative I began to stride towards the visible forest edge.

"Good, then let's get the hell out of here."

I'm just so . . . Damn! I don't even know how I feel! I'm angry, at Sirius and Hagrid and – and those goddamn fireworks! I don't even know what's wrong with me, I just want to be let alone and of course Sirius wouldn't do that would he? I've tried cleaning up that cut on my face but the spell I used has made it sting like hell and start to bleed again, all over my Weird Sisters pyjama top. I need Lily but she'll either be patrolling or still out having fun with all the other bonfire-goers. Hey maybe, she'll have ditched Diggory and will have spent the night with James and Remus . . . Maybe she'll have dumped him again! I swear he wasn't this much of a unicorn turd the last time they went out. Whatever, the chances of that happening are slim and it's just another reason for me to be angry tonight, which is probably why I shouldn't think about it too much. I'm tired but I probably won't be able to sleep – that's my pessimist's view anyway.

1:00am

I was still awake when Lily snuck back into the dorm, a hell of a lot later than she usually would. I listened to her crash about the dorm trying to find her pyjamas, then I heard the sound of the bathroom door shutting, and after the taps had been shut off I could hear the hollow sound of her brushing her teeth.

"Billie?" She called out quietly once she'd done in the bathroom and I could hear her bare feet padding over to my bed. Vaguely I wondered whether she'd open my curtains and try to talk to me and deciding I wasn't in the mood, I rolled over so I could pretend I was trying to sleep. Apparently, she was in the mood to talk. My curtains were pulled open slowly, almost cautiously. "I know you're not asleep." Lily sounded like she was grinning and I almost growled.

"No, but I'm trying to." I felt my quilt cover being pulled back and Lily climbing in, shutting the curtains behind her.

"I have good news." She told me after a minute or so of silence. I rolled over to face her, hoping that she was going to tell me about her and Diggory's break up but her green eyes widened in shock as she saw my cut. "Merlin Billie! What happened?" She sat up and reached out to touch the gash. Unlike with Sirius, I didn't flinch away, after all, Lily hadn't done anything wrong really. I sat up too, wincing as her finger ran over the sorest bit.

"I got lost in the forest and something came after me," I explained tiredly, "I stunned it and then ran but my face got scratched." Lily frowned.

"Did you try to heal it yourself?" I almost laughed at the way she overlooked the fact I was nearly eaten and instead was about to scold me for my awful healing attempt. I nodded, turning slightly pink. "Billie! What have I told you about trying to heal yourself?"

". . . Not to?"

"Yes! Not to! All your face is bruised now and it could have been a lot worse, you know how bad you are at healing spells so you shouldn't attempt them and they drain away a lot from the caster and judging by your story it sounds like you've been through a lot tonight." She slid back out of my bed and fetched a thick, old book from under hers.

"Whoa! Don't bring that thing in my bed! This is a book free zone!" She snorted and ignored me. "Nerd!" I tried to wind her up, "Geek! . . . Geekswotnerd!"

"You know, you sound more like Sirius Black every day?"

"Ugh, don't even talk to me about him." I warned her, frowning as she sighed.

"Please don't tell me you've fallen out again." My angry outburst was cut off as she grabbed my face and began to reel of a list of spells to mend it, despite all the things I wanted to say I knew not to disrupt her concentration. Lily's good but she could still leave scars.

"Yes we have fallen out." I informed her, "He's a dickhead and I don't like him."

"Of course," She agreed but didn't agree at all, "You're both so childish, don't worry, you'll be back friends in the morning just like every other time." I gasped in mock horror, my anger slowly beginning to ebb away.

"I am deeply offended, I think we're never ever going to be friends ever again and you'll have to break up with Dickory because I'll only have you to hang around with and not the Marauders and you like me more than him." Lily laughed a little at my gabbled scenario. "I'm being serious!"

"You and Sirius are too alike," I groaned loudly at the pun, "You just don't have any other way to . . . had release the tension between you both other than screaming at each other at the moment."

"At the moment? Wait! Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"I'm not suggesting anything I'm just saying that you're similar!"

"Actually, I think you're suggesting that Sirius and I – ugh, I don't even want to think about it!"

Lily took one look at my (now healed) face and laughed out loud. "Anyway, enough suggesting, you said you good news?"

"Oh yeah!"

". . ."

"Professor Jubential's in a much better mood and he says he'll teach you guys what you missed." While this was good news, it wasn't exactly as thrilling as I had hoped. Still, Lily seemed happy about it so I played along.

"Cool, when did you find this out?"

"He came out to the Gryffindor bonfire to watch the fireworks," I nearly cried at the mention of those stupid things, "And he started talking to me because James was letting the fireworks off, Remus was standing guard with an aguamenti ready for when he set himself of fire and the rest of the Gryffindors didn't even really notice he was there." She inhaled happily, "You should have seen the fireworks Bils, they were fantastic!"

"No!" I cut her off, "No, they really, really weren't! In fact, I hated them so much that if I ever have to see or hear another firework ever again I am going to throttle someone. Preferably Sirius."

"Whoa, ok. Exaggeration maybe?" I promise I won't mention them?" She asked and I nodded. "Sir was talking about you, you and Sirius actually."

"Oh really?" I asked, suddenly feeling quite intrigued. "Should he really be doing that?"

"That's what I thought! Probably not but since when has that stopped him?" We laughed, Sir should have really been fired by now. "He worries about you . . ." Lily gave me a careful look but I gestured for her to continue. "Well, not really worries but – it's obvious he cares about you and he wants the best for you. He was telling me how he was surprised that you and James were as close as you are, especially with all the crap you get off your parents." I laughed quietly and she frowned, "Well, it is crap, and you definitely don't deserve it!"

"Lily, it's fine-"

"-No! It's not fine! Ugh, it gets me angry every time I think about it!" She wasn't lying, it suddenly it was like someone had lit a fire in her eyes, kind of like the way she always looks at James when she's mad at him.

"What else did Jubes say?" I changed the subject subtly.

"Stop trying to change the subject!" Ok, well maybe not that subtly. "But he was explaining to me why you and Sirius are such good friends." I growled. Yes, I actually growled.

"Oh really?"

Lily began to explain to me exactly why darling Sirius and I were friends, something along the lines of because we compliment each other's personalities so well and because we're the only other people who don't take the rubbish of the other person. I suppose there was a little truth in what she was saying but it doesn't make me like him. Not tonight anyway. I wanted to ask her about Diggory but I daren't, the subject has become a kind of taboo, we just haven't talked about it yet but I'm sick of not being able to see her whenever like I used to because of her stupid boyfriend! We all hate him!

My favourite ginger found her way back into her own bed about half an hour ago with the parting words.

"I'm tired, have fun writing about how much you hate Sirius in your diary – which is a book! – I'll see you in the morning." And with a cheeky grin she hopped through my curtains and drew her own. I didn't even get chance to explain to her how my diary is NOT a book, it's a diary and besides, I write this "book" so that makes it ok – I mean who wouldn't want to read my diary? Actually, I'd rather not know.

Well, good night! Good morning?

A/N: reviews always lead to quicker updates, just saying you know . . .