(Disclaimer: I own nothing.)

Chapter Four

The rest of the day passed with no further events and soon, James found himself sitting in the armchair beside the fire, talking with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Remus then suddenly clutched his side with pain written across his unusually pale face.

"Remus? What's the matter? What's wrong?" The boy just closed his eyes. After a few short moments, he stood up and told them he wasn't feeling well and was going to go to the hospital wing. "Do you want someone to bring you down?" asked Peter. The boy just shook his head.

"Er – thanks, but, I'll be fine. I'll see you guys later." Then he walked off. Sirius watched after him in worry.

"He's not acting himself…is he?" James looked at his other two best friends with a certain dawning on his face.

"Actually, he hasn't been acting himself once a month," he told them. Peter looked at him with a shadow pass behind his eyes as if he just remembered something. Sirius, however, was looking at someone who was advancing towards them.

Andrea smiled and sat next to him. "Hi, Sirius," she greeted pleasantly. The boy was looking at her with a sort of dazed expression as if wondering why she was speaking to him.

"H-Hello." He paused as her smile brightened. "Er – can I help you with something?" She nodded but then there was a scream from the girls' dormitory. Hallie came racing down to Lily who was with Lydia and Gwen who were intent on watching Andrea and Sirius.

"It's gone, Lily! I can't find it anywhere!" she screeched. Lily took hold of the other girl's shoulders and shook her.

"Hush, calm down." Hallie shut her eyes tightly and then looked at Lily.

In a hushed and frenzied whisper, she said, "Lily, it's my book. It's not where I always leave it – it isn't there." Almost the whole room had their eyes on the two girls except Sirius who was looking at Andrea. Hallie and Lily, nevertheless, didn't seem to mind the stares, or, didn't notice them.

"What book?" asked Lily.

"My book," replied Hallie. She looked as if she was about to burst into tears. Lily took hold of her arm and pulled her towards the dormitory.

"It has to be there somewhere." But Hallie looked doubtful. "Come on, it couldn't have just disappeared." Gwen ran up to them.

"Where are you guys going?" she whispered urgently.

Hallie turned to her without expression. "I'm going to find my book, that's what." The other girl rolled her eyes.

"Can't you look for it later? What about the prank?" By this time, everyone was back to what they were doing moments ago. Hallie glared at her.

"No." She then led Lily up to the dormitory to help her look for the book.

"What does it look like again?" Hallie looked exasperated.

"It's this big and has periwinkle fuzz on it." Lily smiled.

"Of course it's periwinkle…"

"It was under my bed beneath my box of jewelry. Now it's gone." She flopped onto her bed and pulled the covers over her head.

"When did you find it was missing?" asked her best friend as she sat at the foot of the four poster.

"Do you remember when I was humming that song during lunch? I finished the tune during dinner and came back up here to write it down and get Sirius' filibuster fireworks for the prank but I couldn't find the book!" Under the covers, she turned over and put her new periwinkle pillow over her head.

Lily walked over and pulled the covers off her. "Are you sure you put it back?" Hallie turned over to look at her best friend.

"Lily, you know how much that book means to me, don't you?" The other girl nodded and hugged her friend.

"I'll help you find it. You should go to sleep, you look worn out from prank planning." Hallie forced a smile.

"Thanks, Lily."

~*~

Lily walked down the steps and pulled James aside. "Do you know what happened to Hallie's book?" James looked at her uncomfortably. She could always tell what he was feeling by the expressions upon his face and at the moment, there was a bit of guilt and unease displayed.

"Er – what book?" She put her hands on her hips and looked at him in accusation.

"When did you start keeping things from me?" He looked to Sirius who was completely wrapped up in a conversation he was having with Andrea.

"Can we talk about this later? I – er – have to do something," he asked Lily quietly. She looked at him and sighed.

"Meet me here at midnight." At this, James looked at her. There was sorrow in her eyes.

Her parents…she was so close to them. There was a rush of guilt that passed through him which made him nod and walk towards Sirius.

Taking hold of the boy's arm, he hauled him to the staircase to speak. "Where'd you put the book?"

Sirius blinked at him dumbly. "The book?" he questioned innocently.

James frowned. "You know what I'm talking about, the whole common room witnessed Hallie's little outburst. Where'd you put the book?"

The other boy sighed. "Can we talk about this later? I think Andrea's going to ask me out tonight." He turned to leave but James blocked him.

"Sirius, Lily knows I know that you took it." At this, Sirius looked at his best friend in impatience.

"I don't care. It's none of her business." He paused. "And since when do you care? We always do pranks, this is just another one of them, and it's not as if I'm going to keep it. Take a chill pill." Then the boy pushed past and down the steps leaving a bewildered James behind.

~*~

Lily lied awake at ten o'clock that night waiting for midnight to come when she heard Gwen's voice out of the darkness. "Hallie, are you awake?" There was a rustle from Lily's right where her best friend lay.

"Maybe."

"Er – right…well, I wanted to apologize about how I acted a while ago…I was just eager to do the prank," said Gwen softly.

"I should hope you were."

A pause.

"Um – alright. There's another thing too. You missed detention with Jenkins."

Another pause.

"So? Detentions are going to add up sometime, might as well start now."

"Oh, er – right. 'Night, Hallie." There was a sigh and another rustle from Hallie's bed.

"G'night."

At last, in what seemed forever, midnight came. Lily got up hoping her friends were asleep and walked down the steps to the common room where she saw a figure sitting on the hearth before the fire. When she took a seat beside him, he looked at her.

"So…where's the book?" she asked softly. James looked back at the fire.

"I don't know."

"But you did help take it?" The boy sighed. "That would be a 'yes' because Sirius couldn't get all the spells Hallie and I put on it." He looked at her sharply at this.

"What do you mean?"

"I helped her put curses and other protective spells on it and no offense to Sirius, but he doesn't do too well in Charms class," she told him. "And who but his best friend, Mr. Know-It-All, to help him take them off?" Lily noticed him turn an unusual shade of light green and smiled. "James, I'm not telling you to steal the book back from Sirius or-," but he cut her off.

"I truly don't know where he put the-" James cut himself off and put a hand over his mouth. "I – I mean to say that if he – if he did take it, I-," he stuttered trying to cover up but Lily just laughed and hugged him around the shoulders.

"Stop speaking right there, you'll just dig yourself into a deeper hole. I just want you to consider asking Sirius to give the book back to her. It may not look it because of the periwinkle fluff covering it, but it really is important," she told James. He nodded but didn't look at her.

"Lily, you know he'll think I told you that he had it don't you? He's already angry with me." She sighed.

"I-I know, and, I'm really sorry about that…" but he waved his hand to dismiss the apology.

"It isn't your fault. But what's so important about this book of hers?" he inquired looking at his friend.

Lily looked at him and saw that she could trust him by his sincere expression. Forgive me, Hallie, but I think I'm doing the right thing, prayed Lily to herself. "The book was given to her by her mother, and, you know she doesn't have a father so she really looks up to her mother. Well…her mum's a singer. She and Hallie make up songs together sometimes. Hallie puts the songs into that book and when she finds new tunes any time during the day, I always go with her to the dormitory where we take the charms off the book so she can write them in." She looked to James.

"It really is important to her, James. Her mum's obsessed with becoming another star, as big as that huge band called Hocus Pocus, and the only thing, to Hallie, that keeps her and her mother close is that book. Her mum doesn't give her a second look unless she has another idea, or to talk about a new song or something of that sort. Do you see what I'm saying?" she asked James gravely.

"Yeah, I do. I'll try to get Sirius to give the book back, Lily, but I can't promise you anything." She smiled at him thankfully.

"That's all I ask." She paused and fiddled with her hands for a moment. "James, you know you can tell me anything, right?" He looked at her piercingly as if searching for something.

"Yeah…"

Looking at him straight in the eye, she said, "Are you hiding something? Because you know I'm always here."

"No," he replied quickly, "I mean, no, everything's alright," he added when she looked at him funnily. He stood and offered her a hand, which she gladly took. Lily gave James a tight hug before escaping to the girls' dormitory. He watched after her with a strange expression upon his face, and then he too went to his own dorm.

~*~

Lily was smiling softly as she climbed into her four-poster bed, but then a voice interrupted her thoughts. "I can't believe you told him, Lily. I thought you were my best friend." Lily abruptly turned around and found Hallie sitting on her bed cross-legged while facing her.

"Hallie – I –"

"I know you told him," the girl's voice. "It was our secret, you promised me you wouldn't tell anyone." Lily looked at her apologetically.

"Hallie – I know I can trust him, it seemed the right thing to do. You're book will be back with you in no time," she told her best friend, but the girl only shook her head.

"That isn't the point. Friends are supposed to keep their friends' secrets secret." Hallie sighed. "You don't know how much that book means to me."

"Yes, I do, you told me." Hallie shook her head again.

"Lily, you don't know. You really don't know how important it was if you would tell James so easily. And I doubt you every did know how much it meant to me." She closed her curtain and got comfortable on her bed.

"Hallie, I'm so-"

"Sorry? You're so sorry? Never mind it, just forget I said anything at all." Lily knew by the clipped edge of her friend's voice that the conversation was over.

~*~

James climbed onto his bed but Peter's voice interrupted him. "James?" He stopped and looked to the bed across from his. "What's wrong with Remus?" There was a rustle on James' right.

"Yeah, I really think something is up. He hasn't been acting like himself and is always leaving every now and then," said Sirius. James listened to his friends' worry about their other best friend and smiled slightly.

"Remus disappears once every month and around that day, he falls incredibly ill. Do you guys remember when we went to the hospital wing where he was supposedly at because he was sick again? And when we owled his aunt to check on him when he was supposedly there with a sick uncle?" The two boys nodded in the dim light of the full moon outside their window.

Suddenly, Sirius snapped. "I get it! I get it! He's a -," but James silenced him with a look. Peter looked at both boys inquiringly.

James whispered in the quietest voice that he could muster, "Werewolf." Peter's eyes expanded to the size of tea saucers as his mouth formed a large 'O'. The other two boys laughed.

"But why didn't he tell us? We're his best friends!" exclaimed Sirius indignantly. Peter seemed to be thinking about this but answered.

"Maybe because people think werewolves are monsters, and he thought that we'd feel the same." James looked at him to see the small plump boy clutching a pillow. Sirius shrugged.

"Maybe, but Remus isn't a monster, just look at the guy. He may be a bit roguish…but-," he got cut off by James who threw a pillow at him. There was soon a pillow fight between the three boys before one of the pillows hit a boy at the far end of the room.

"Hey, you three, cut it out! I'd think you'd want to try out for the quidditch team tomorrow!" This shut the boys up and Leo Garnet, the seventh year Gryffindor quidditch team captain, smiled to himself and shook his head.

"I forgot about that!" said Sirius.

James grinned. "Surprise, surprise."

Peter shook his head. "I'm not trying out," he told them softly. The other two boys stopped squabbling and turned to look at him in shock. "Don't look at me like that, you both know I'm not good at it. I'll be much better off in the stands with the rest." James sighed and smiled at him.

"Whatever floats your boat."

Sirius cleared his throat, "I'm not sure about you, but I'm hitting dream land so I'll have my lids wide open tomorrow at quidditch tryouts." And then the boys got comfortable for sleep to come to them.