A death in the Faculty.

"So," James said to Sirius as they got ready for bed. "What happened today." He asked suggestively.

"Well.I woke up this morning to my best friend walking around our dormitory imitating a very weird fish, then I went to the great hall and had breakfa- " James broke Sirius off, "You know perfectly well what I mean.you know, in The Three Broomsticks." He said.

Sirius smiled, "Oh.. That thing that happened today.." Sirius sat on his bed. "Girls are so weird. You know, I mean I knew Abbey wanted me to ask her to The Three Broomsticks for a drink but even if I hadn't of she probably still would have gone to Hogsmeade and had a drink with me. Its ridiculous!" he exclaimed, flopping down, so he was laying.

James sighed. "Get to the point. Was anything resolved? Because everyone's noticed you and Abbey flirting, its about time you both got over it." Sirius rolled his eyes, "Okay, Okay! I'll tell you. Well.I went up and ordered two Butterbeers and came back, and we sat there for ages and neither of us spoke. So Abbey asked me if I'd invited her there for any particular reason. So I told her that I fancied her and she said she fancied me therefore why had we waited so long to tell each other? Then I told her she had been cryptic, though I don't think she appreciated that too much. Then we came back her and she said she needed to go and tell Lily something." He finished. "That's about it."

James' jaw dropped. "That's it. That's all that happened?" he asked, flabbergasted.

Sirius nodded, "Yep, that's it." James made a noise that indicated his playful aggravation and laid down on his bed. Sirius laughed, "As if you can talk, Moony told me what happened to you today. You followed around a girl who won't have you for half an hour until she cursed you. Smooth.very classy." James sneered at his best friend and pulled the hangings around his bed, leaving Sirius to laugh to himself.

* * * Weeks passed after the boys conversation and Hogwarts became increasingly quieter every single day. Nothing seemed to be happening. James or Sirius hadn't hexed Snape in a while. James or Lily hadn't been in a fight for a while and it seemed that in every house, absolutely nothing was happening. The only thing that had changed since that Hogsmeade weekend was a friendship. Slowly but surely, Ruby Snare, the Marauders, and Abbey had become friends. The only person Ruby hadn't made an effort to be nice to was Lily.

One afternoon while Abbey was sitting on a bench waiting for Sirius, Ruby approached her. "Hey Abbey," Ruby said sitting down next to her. "Hi," Abbey said smiling, "You look tired." Ruby rolled her eyes, "You don't know the half of it. Snape and I were up 'til.-" Ruby stopped quickly, her eyes widened. "RUBY!" Abbey exclaimed. "You know what will happen if you keep it up. YOU WILL BE EXPELLED!" Yelled Abbey, maybe a little too loudly. Ruby sighed. "Oh so what? I don't care, neither does anyone else." She said in a fed up manner. "We all care if you go!" Abbey said sincerely. "No-one does! Anyway, who cares if I'm with Snape? We're friends. It was unfair of Dumbledore to separate us." Ruby said loftily. Abbey continued, "Well that's fine with me but it's not with the Faculty!"

"Screw the faculty!" screamed Ruby, "I don't give a stuff about the stupid Faculty! What about James 'n Sirius? I don't see the 'faculty' separating them and moving one to Hufflepuff!" Abbey sighed, "Well I can't speak n behalf of them, but I know they'd be upset if you got expelled." Abbey said warmly. Ruby sighed angrily,

"I don't care, seriously. Severus and I ARE allowed to talk, and if I have to do that the hard way, I will." Abbey gave up. It was like fighting a brick-wall.

"If you don't mind me asking, what attracts you to him?" Ruby's eyes widened slightly, with shock.

"He's... he's... well its hard to explain." She finally said. "He's always been by himself and he and I related to each other as soon as we met. I am his only friend. Therefore there's a bond, whether either of us likes it or not. We are like family to one another."

Abbey was about to answer when Sirius came bounding around the corner.

"GORGEOUS!" he yelled; kissing his hand and blowing her a kiss, all over- exaggerated

Abbey looked at Ruby with the look of 'Sorry, we'll continue this conversation some other time' in her eyes.

Abbey waved at Sirius and stood up, "Well, see you." She said, with one last glance at Ruby, she walked off with Sirius, as they both headed off to their History of Magic class

"Hey Abbey!" yelled Lily, from across the other side of the classroom. Abbey winked at Sirius and walked over to Lily.

The fifth years settled down and started getting ready for the class, with their teacher, Prof. Binns.

After about five minutes, with no-one paying much attention to anything, a girl from the back let out a piercing scream and pulled everyone's attention to the blackboard, for out of it, had just walked their Professor. Only, he was a ghost. All jaws in the room were scraping the desks. Prof. Binns looked up. ".Yes?" he asked, "Is there something wrong?"

The room was silent.

James slowly raised his hand. "Professor, um, I hate to break it to you, but.you're a ghost."

The sentence obviously didn't faze the professor. He looked down at his hand. "What do you know, so I am." He said plainly.

* * *