A/N: Chapter 10 is here. So please read it and review!

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"Sammers, we have to run! We'll be late too! We've got five seconds!" Suzanne screamed at the other two. The three girls crept out as slowly and inconspicuously as possible. They didn't want the boys to notice that they had been present for the very same reason as they had. What they didn't notice, however, were that the boys were long gone.

The boys, on the other hand, had run out before Lily had, knowing that if they had lingered they would have been caught easily. The DADA professor, Professor Inkle, was surprised to see that they were the first to show up. Soon after, Lily and James walked in, trying to be as oblivious to the other as was possible. They sat down on opposite sides of the room, Lily by the window on her own, and James with his friends at the front of the class. Soon, the rest of the class walked in, and Professor Inkle decided to start.

The Defense classes on Fridays were doubled with the Hufflepuffs, just like Herbology. This was a problem for Lily, as a certain Hufflepuff by the name of Alan Wilkes, fancied her. Usually, Lily's friends were with her to keep him away, but today was an exception.

Jeez, where are you three? Don't tell me you've been eating for so long… Lily thought dejectedly. Where were her friends? I just hope Wilkes doesn't see me sitting over here…

But her hopes were in vain, for soon enough, Alan had walked up to her and asked if he could sit by her. Having been brought up learning never to say 'no' to someone, she gave him a weak smile and agreed. The boys, minus James, turned around to look for her. They spied her slouching low in her chair, trying not to be noticed, while Alan was making forced conversation with her. But soon, everyone was looking up front, for Professor Inkle was ready to teach.

Sammy, where are you? Jeez, guys, this is torture. Why did you leave me alone? Now I'm stuck with Alan for the next hour and a half…

"Today, class, I have prepared something rather different from the usual mundane lectures that I give daily to my young students. Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to introduce you to certain creatures that often mislead even the most experienced of wizards. I have decided to make this a special project for you all, so as to start the year with something fun and entertaining. I will assign you all to groups of three or four – I said I'm making the groups (the students had started chattering, deciding who to group up with) – and I will assign each group to a certain species of Dark creatures. Now, since we are of two Houses here today, I am afraid that I shall have to split up the Houses, since we do not always have class together. Now, please Gryffindors on my left and Hufflepuffs on my right. Now snap to it!"

Most students had fallen into a stupor during his long speech, and therefore they were slightly dazed as to what was to be done. Lily and Alan, however, were wide-awake – Alan stating his unhappiness that they were to be split up and Lily climbing over the tables in order to get as far away from him as possible. Unfortunately, the only empty seat was one next to James Potter. Groaning, she plopped down into the seat next to him, and tried to ignore the fact that he was as unhappy at the seating arrangement as she was.

"Now that we have been split up, I will assign you –" he began, but a sudden interruption caused him to stop.

"Hurry up, Suzie, we're already – late," Sammy shrieked, but her voice fell when she skidded into the full classroom. Lily perked up when she saw them, but cowered once more when she saw Inkle's face.

"Five points will be taken away from Gryffindor, ladies. Now sit down. I hope from now on that you will never be late – for your own good. Hurry up and sit down before I add a detention to go along with that!" he barked. The girls flinched under his words and sulked along to the very back, sitting with a couple of Hufflepuff girls who took one look at them and stuck their noses in the air, apparently disgusted with their ragged appearance and disgraceful entrance.

Lily turned back to look at them, shook her head, and sighed. At least they didn't have to sit next to Potter. But afraid to cost Gryffindor any more points, she looked straight at her teacher and didn't turn back anymore.

"Now, first I will call out the Hufflepuff groups: Nick Jackson, Janice Parker, Aidan Ross, and Nadine Williams; Garrett Slinger, Michel Johns, and Mark Donaldson; Martha Summers, (A/N: This name is in my other fic. Sorry for the lack of creativity but I'm running out of names…) Serena Slander, and Matthew Jacobs; and finally, Alan Wilkes, Maria Serrano, Scott Matthews, and Nadia Williams. Please get with your groups. Creatures will be assigned by group number."

There was a swish of cloaks, rustling of papers, and a quiet murmuring as the Hufflepuffs rearranged themselves, silently muttering their disapproval or happiness at the groups.

"Settle down, everyone. Now, Gryffindors: Samantha Rogers, George Davis, Frank Longbottom, and Sirius Black; (at this, both Sirius and Sammy groaned their displeasure, and glared at one another) Peter Pettigrew, Mina Matheson, and Pooja Kamala; Remus Lupin, Katherine Hopkins, and Suzanne Urban; Liliane Evans, (Lily glared at the professor), John Turnwell, Jackie Northing, and James Potter. Get together, class, and I will assign the creatures, chop, chop!"

Once again, Lily groaned. She had seen the groupings as a way of getting away from James, but now she was stuck with him for a week or more. She slouched down in her chair, and wrinkled her nose at the sight of Jackie and John approaching them hand-in-hand. Neither James nor Lily could fathom why eleven-year-olds bothered finding classmates of the opposite sex who had a fancy for them. It seemed to be a complete waste of time.

"Alright, alright, settle down, Gryffindors. Now, Group Number One from both Houses – your Dark creature is the kappa. Twos have the red cap and both the Group Threes have the boggart. Group Four – you have the werewolf. Oh – I don't think I mentioned it, but you will not be given any help from any of the professors nor will you be allowed to work with your counterpart groups in other Houses. Any attempt to break this rule will result in an automatic zero on your grade for this project."

On hearing this, everyone groaned again. But Lily, instead, raised her hand and shook it violently, nearly knocking James' hat off his head.

"Now will everyone please settle down – uh, Miss Evans, you wish to ask me something?" he asked, rather surprised at her sudden ferocity in her attempt to speak to him.

"Well, supposing only one person breaks the rule – will the whole group get the punishment?" Lily asked, biting her lip.

Professor Inkle furrowed his brow and thought for a moment before replying, "No – I do believe that would be unfair. Therefore, only the disobedient student will receive the punishment. Perhaps I should change it to a detention – or two… Yes, two detentions would probably be better. Does that answer your question, Miss Evans?" Inkle said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yes – thanks Professor…" Lily said, looking away from him so as to hide her smile. Her eyes were sparkling in a way that made James very uncomfortable.

Her friends noticed the evil glint in her eyes, and grinned at one another. "I wonder what Lily's got up her sleeve. I hope it's something good – we really need to do something to get back those guys for trying to pull the same prank as us – and making us get late…" Pooja whispered to Suzanne who was sitting in front of her.

"Sorry to bust your bubble, honey, but she doesn't know that they were causing the trouble. And another piece of advice – don't go blabbing around to the whole world – everyone'll want to know how we know about what the boys did… After all, we're to blame too, I guess – but just shut up and work with your group," Suzanne replied. "Remus is shooting me dirty looks and Mina looks as though she's going to rip Peter's throat out…," she added softly.

For once, the silence in the classroom had not been filled with snores and Professor Inkle's monotonous voice, but with the rustling of papers and the scratching of quills – even an occasional giggle or a cry of frustration.

"Hey, Evans – how do you tell the difference between a normal wolf and a werewolf?" James asked Lily suddenly.

Lily bit her lip and thought for a while, and then answered, "Werewolves are bigger I think – and their snouts or longer or something or other like that. And I think their feet have fewer toes – or are there more? I don't know – something or other like that. Werewolves are stronger any way. And Potter, don't call me Evans."

"Okay – thanks for giving me the info, Liliane," James said.

"Don't call me Liliane, either," Lily said ferociously through gritted teeth.

"If you say so, Tiger Lily…" James said, surprised that she could get so worked up over her name.

Lily just sighed and went back to her work. She didn't want to admit it, but she liked that nickname – Tiger Lily. A small smile escaped her, but she shook herself up almost immediately and went back to poring through her book.

"You two really should try and get along. We'll never finish in time if you don't," Jackie told them.

Both Lily and James were shocked. They looked at each other and then looked back at Jackie as though she was insane.

"Jackie's right – even if you two don't want to, at least cooperate so that we can finish this project. The two of us want good grades even if you two don't," John snapped.

This shocked the two even more. They were actually asking them to get along. They had never thought that their feuds had bothered anyone else – but here were two of their classmates practically begging them to be friends. James opened his mouth to say something in his defense, but Lily answered them first.

"You're mental – both of you. Are you actually asking me to get along with that git? You've got to be kidding!" Lily burst. Her expression softened a little as she said, "It's not as though we haven't tried…"

James looked at her – confused. First she had called them mental – then she had called him a git – and after that she had said that they had tried together to be friends. Sure, her first and last statements were true, but she had still confused him.

"Well, you can't go on hating one another forever. At least try not to spend all your time hurling insults every which way. If you concentrate on work maybe you'll forget about your feud."

This made both of them think for a while. This was something neither of them thought would happen – they were being taught to be nice by a pair of twits. But it's worth giving a try, thought Lily. She didn't make her thoughts known, but instead bent her head over her work again.

"Yeah, whatever – let's just work, okay?"

"Uh – work, right…" James said unsurely.

Four tables away, Sammy was having problems with her partners. Two of them were working just fine – it was the fourth with whom she was having the problems.

"So kappas have lanterns hanging from their tails to lure travelers out of dark places to their death. Okay, I finally got that right. At least there's one thing I know for sure – they live in Japan," Sirius said, finally glad that he had gotten something correct – or so he thought.

"No, Sirius – you've got it all wrong. Kappas live in Mongolia, not Japan!" Sammy shrieked.

"What proof do you have that they live in Magnolia? Where is that anyway?" Sirius said, skeptical.

Sammy couldn't help giggling. "It's not Magnolia, dummy! You make me think of our street – Magnolia Crescent… But anyway, it's Mongolia – on the border of China."

"And you know this because…" Sirius asked.

"Suzanne told me she went there once to visit an uncle who lives there. He works at an organization that collaborates with some Muggle TV show called National Graphic or something. And I also happened to win five Geography Bees in a row in Year Four in primary school."

"Jeez – I remember that. I couldn't answer anything right except for the bit on the American colonies. And you just went up there and answered everything as though you had the answer key right in front of your eyes," Sirius said, shaking his head slightly. They had both gone to the same Muggle School before Hogwarts – and even though their friendship had almost come to an end in their second year – when James moved in – they had still been classmates. James' parents hadn't liked the idea of sending their son to a Muggle school.

"Do you remember Adrian? We called him the Bug-Catcher because of all the worms and flies he used to catch and put in the teacher's desk," Sammy said, smiling absentmindedly, and staring into space.

"Yeah – and then there was Maggie and Aggie – the twins, remember? They looked exactly the same but they were exact opposites. Maggie was the pickiest and most stubborn of all the girls in school – even you, Sammers – and Agatha was the biggest tomboy in the school," Sirius said, grinning at her as though they were still friends.

They both sighed together, and grinned at one another. But almost immediately, Sammy realized that she was supposed to his enemy, and looked away, biting her lip so hard that she thought it would bleed. Not knowing what to say or do, she started twirling her hair around her index finger, still biting her lip hard, her eyes darting from one side of the classroom to the other. She didn't want anyone to know that she had been having a decent conversation with Sirius again.

Sirius on the other hand was thinking hard. He had never thought he would miss talking to Sammy. But then again, he had never thought he would end up being her enemy either. Why couldn't their relationship go back to what it was before? They had grown up like brother and sister, and now – it seemed as though sibling rivalry was too mild a term to describe their enmity. Surely just being friends with someone new wasn't reason enough to make her hate him. Okay, so when James moved in Sirius practically forgot about Sammy. But he didn't hate her. The truth was that he had thought that James would think he was sissy and a girl-lover if he knew that Sirius' best friend was a girl. But after time, he had forgotten her, being too wrapped up in playing Quidditch and doing things with his new best friend. Sammy had become a thing of the past.

Sirius wanted to tell her he was sorry, and ask if they could start afresh now that were starting afresh in school, but he wasn't sure whether she would buy his story or not. It wasn't her fault. He decided that he'd ask her later.

Professor Inkle, who had been walking down the aisles and inspecting the students' work, was almost at their table. He picked up a book quickly and started to read. But he found it hard to do. The words blurred before his eyes and he couldn't concentrate. He tried to force his mind to stay in focus but everything just swirled around in front of him.

Oh jeez, don't let me cry now, not now. Everyone's going to laugh at me and James will abandon me for sure now. Come on, I haven't cried since I was four, why start now? Pull yourself together, man.

Just as Professor Inkle was about reach their table, the alarm on Sirius' watch went off. He jumped up with a cry as though someone had poked him in the behind with a pin.

"Aah – oh, sorry, Professor, sir – I – that is, my alarm went off. Uh, I think class is over now…" Sirius said, staring at the floor, and scratching his head.

James was grinning at him, Remus was shaking his head, and everyone except for Mina and Peter were snickering. Mina had been too busy screaming at Peter and Peter had been too preoccupied trying to get his pencil off of the floor with Mina holding on to the collar of his robes to notice what had happened. He looked at Sammy, and she seemed to be shaking with silent laughter. He smiled slightly and thought – five, four, three, two, one – blast off.

On 'blast off' Sammy exploded. She hadn't been able to keep her laughter inside any longer and she had rolled back in her chair and had started laughing as hard as was possible for her. She tried her best to stop herself, but it was to no avail. Soon everyone was laughing along with her.

"You're – such – a – such a – blundering fool – Sirius!" she choked out, smiling up at him.

Sirius looked at her and grinned widely. He no longer had to ask her anything – she had known what was in his mind and had answered already.

"Enough is enough! Class is dismissed – now please leave!" Professor Inkle yelled over everyone's voice.

Everyone filed out quickly, all except Sirius, Sammy and their friends. Lily was about to go up to Sammy and ask her what happened, but decided that it would be better to ask her later – when the boys weren't around. She grabbed Suzanne's arm and dragged her out.

"What are you –"

"Don't ask questions," Lily said quickly. Pooja saw the two of them going and decided to follow.

Sammy opened her mouth to say something to Sirius but saw the boys listening and shut her mouth quickly and stared at the floor. She muttered a quick, "See you later," and walked away slowly. James grinned at Sirius and Remus winked at him. Sirius glared back and contemplated whether or not to call after her. He finally decided not to. Remus, James, and Peter were already on the verge of teasing him for the rest of the afternoon, so instead he walked slowly out of the classroom, pretending that he couldn't hear the catcalls James and Remus were sending his way. They followed him out and took him by surprise as they linked their arms into both of his. Peter was running behind them on his squat legs trying to catch them up.

"So, Sirius, what's up with you that old acquaintance of yours?" James said casually.

"Nothing's up, okay? We've just – how do I put it – we've just reinstated our friendship…" Sirius said, at a loss for words.

"I see," Remus said skeptically.

"What – you don't believe me?" Sirius asked him.

"I think you know the answer to that."

Sirius rolled his eyes and shook his head at them. They continued walking towards their Common Room. (They didn't have any more classes that day.)

"Honestly, I don't go jumping into things like you guys do. I take one-step at a time. It's not like what you think. Look, she's been sore at me for ages 'cause of you, James. Ever since you moved in, I've pretty much ignored her, even though – well, we were best friends before you moved in next door.

"You met her once, I think. Do you remember the girl who was swinging on the tire from the tree on the house across the street? You asked me who she was once, but I refused to answer because I didn't want you to find out that I had ever been friends with – with a girl. I know this sounds really stupid, but I didn't want you to think I was a sissy baby or anything because my best friend was a girl. And, well, it continued like that to the point where I never thought of her or anything. Sure, I still saw her in school – the Muggle School I went to – but I avoided her as much as possible. After the summer of fourth grade, I never even saw her – until the train ride here, of course. To Hogwarts, I mean.

"She's changed quite a bit – totally and completely. She does her hair differently, she's a lot more boyish, though she was always a bit of a tomboy, but she's still as stubborn as she used to be. That's for sure. And her laugh – it'll always be the same. Whenever she laughed at me, she would try and hold it in for a while so as not to hurt my feelings or anything, but five seconds and she'll explode – just like she did today," Sirius said, smiling slightly.

"Sirius – James – Remus – wait up!" Peter squeaked from behind them. They had been walking relatively slowly, but Peter was in no position to walk at the same speed. Mina had finally given up on him doing anything and had retreated after untying his shoelaces. He had tripped over them on his attempt to leave the classroom, had fallen over a number of desks, and now had a large cut running down his leg.

"Crikey, Peter, how'd you get cut like that?" Remus asked, bending down on his knees so as to inspect his leg.

"Mina untied my shoelaces without me knowing, and when I followed you guys out I tripped over them and crashed into the desks. I tore my robes too, look," he said, twitching his robes so that the tear was visible.

"I say, that Mina has a serious attitude problem. I saw her screaming at you. Strange that Professor Inkle didn't say anything," James said, scratching his head.

"Who else was in your group?" asked Remus.

"The Indian girl – Pooja, but she didn't do much. She was trying to talk to Suzanne the whole time," Peter answered.

"Jeez – you'd better talk to Professor Inkle. He might let you change groups or something – but I doubt it," Sirius suggested.

"Can I just go to the Hospital Wing first?" Peter said, wincing in pain.

"Sure thing, Pete – just hang on, okay?" James told him, grabbing his arm, and putting it around his shoulder. Sirius did the same thing with his other arm.

"Come on, Remy – you're lagging behind," Sirius called back. James and Sirius had started running along supporting Peter. They looked strangely like entrants in a six-legged race, except for the middle two legs, which belonged to Peter, were not touching the ground. (His height was two feet less than that of the other three.)

"You three are acting like three-year-olds," Remus told them.

"Do you mean each of us are acting like three-year-olds or the three of us combined?" James asked him, grinning.

"The latter – sorry about the confusion…" Remus said, rolling his eyes at his friends.

The four continued on – stopping only to leave Peter with Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse. Upon reaching their Common Room, they saw the four girls huddled together in a corner. By the looks of it, Sirius had the feeling that Sammy had related everything to her friends too. When they heard the boys' entrance, the four heads turned their way. Lily was grinning like an idiot, and Sammy was blushing furiously. The three boys exchanged looks. Then, Suzanne got up clumsily and walked over to them, staring at the floor.

"I – that is we – well, we want to – to – well, basically we want to know if you guys are willing to just forget about whatever happened within the past week. We barely know one another, and yet we hate each other. We decided that it wasn't very fair of us to judge you guys without really getting acquainted first, and we hope you guys think the same. So – well, we were wondering if you guys were just willing to forgive and forget – you know that sort of thing. We are – so how's about it?" Suzanne said in a rush, as she held out her hand.

It took the three boys a while to understand what she had been telling them. They weren't yet used to her strange American accent, and the fact that she probably was the fastest speaker in the West didn't help. But when they finally absorbed all that she had said, they forced a smile at her. Remus took her outstretched hand and shook it.

"We're fine with it if you are," he said, grinning.

"Ya hear that, guys?" Suzanne called back, withdrawing her hand. "It's all okay!"

"Yeah, whatever – guys let's go," James said. He had never cared much for sentiment or girls. Besides, he wanted to work on their DADA project. The sooner they got done, the sooner he could get rid of Jackie and her stupid philosophies.

"We're right behind you," Remus answered, and followed James up the stairs. Sirius hesitated a bit, but then decided that it was best to go on. But Sammy got up and stopped him.

"I want to talk to you about – stuff," she said to him. Before he could answer, she grabbed his hand and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Sammy what –" Sirius began, but he stopped when Sammy let go.

"Sirius, I don't know why you did it, but I hope you've realized that it's not worth it."

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, even though he knew exactly.

"I'm talking about this whole thing with you and James and me. We were best friends, Sirius – best friends. And all of a sudden Potter comes along and what happens to me? I just become a dream – a very bad dream, wasn't I? But you can forget dreams – they're easy to forget. But what about reality, Sirius – can you forget that? Can you forget about happiness and emotions, especially those that are strong? You may have forgotten about the old Sammy – the seven-year-old who pushed you so hard on the tire-swing that you fell off and had to get stitches on your nose – but the new one – the real one, has come back. And I'm not leaving, whether you like it or not."

Sirius was rather stunned by her speech. He had expected her just to ask him why he hadn't been talking to her for the past three years. In stead, she had lectured him.

"Sammers, I didn't mean to. If you knew why I did it, you would understand."

"Oh, so you had a reason, did you? And what reason was that? Did you think I would beat you up if you brought your new friend over to my house? Were you too scared that you wouldn't have any friends if James caught you playing with a girlie?" Sammy taunted. She didn't realize that she had hit the nail right on the head.

"The latter would be more accurate…" Sirius muttered.

"So you dumped me in order for James to like you. That's typical of you Sirius. You take everything –"

"Oh, so now it's entirely my fault, is it? How was I supposed to know that you really were all girly at heart and start crying?"

"You idiot, I did not cry. I'd have to be the most imbecilic being on the planet to cry over you."

Sirius didn't know how to answer that so he settled for glaring back at her.

"Listen – in case you hadn't realized, I wanted to apologize to you for everything," he said harshly. But it was in a softer tone that he added, "I never thought I'd say it, but I kind of missed not having you around."

Sammy looked up at him with an eyebrow raised.

He grinned at her and said, "I mean, after spending nine years of my life listening to your constant chattering and forcing myself to get used to it, it would be hard not to."

"Very funny, Black – just tell me, did you ever manage to tell Potter about me?" Sammy asked him.

"No, I never told him anything. At least, I didn't until today. He asked me what was going on – both he and Remus thought we were going out, can you imagine? But I told him pretty much everything after class."

"I see, and –" she began, but she stopped when they heard footsteps coming their way.

"Sammers, come on in. We need you to – uh – help us with – um – Transfiguration," Pooja said, stumbling for words. She didn't dare let Sirius in on what they were really doing.

"Yeah, hang on – I'm coming," she called back. Turning back to Sirius, she said, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess…" and followed Pooja through the portrait hole.

When they were through, Pooja asked hurriedly, "Did he ask you out?"

"What – are you nuts? We're just friends, dummy." And with those words, she picked up her stuff and walked up to their dorm.

"Guys – I think we've got more work to do," Pooja said to the rest of them, as soon as they heard the slam of a door.

"What do you mean by that?" Suzanne asked.

"Well, instead of a prank, let's work on some real cupid business."

"What are you getting at?" asked Lily, as surprised as her other friend.

"I mean, let's get Sam and Black together."

"It's not going to work, but if you want, you can go ahead and try it," Lily said, getting up and dusting off her robes. "I prefer getting the boys in trouble with Professor Inkle. We just have to find some stuff of Remus' or something, and hide it in James' things and they'll be caught. I hate to get Remus in trouble, he seems pretty nice, but James is awful."

"Uh, can we sleep on it?" Suzanne asked. "All this thinking is giving me a headache."

"Good idea – and Pooja, don't count on it."

"Don't count on what?"

"Don't count on getting Sirius and Sammers together. It is definitely not going to work."

"That's what you think. I know Sam from before Hogwarts – almost as long as Sirius knew James. I've got a chance at this. You just do your work and I'll do mine," Pooja answered, a strange look in her eyes. Lily hesitated, but then decided that it was best to leave Pooja to her own devices. She'd figure out sooner or later.

"Let's go, guys," Suzanne whined again, this time from the foot of the staircase.

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming Suzie."

The three walked up, hoping to worm something out of Sammy, but she had apparently fallen asleep.

This has got to work. It just has to. And I know exactly how to make it work, thought Pooja. She was sure that for once, her brain wouldn't let her down.

*