Disclaimer: I'm not giving them back to JKR, I'm not! She, she… *sniffle*, injures them and kills them! *sob*, I'm going to keep them here with me where they can be nice and safe. *Glares at copy of OotP, and promptly bursts into tears*.  The characters are not mine, but I really, really wish they were.

A/N: There are no spoilers in here for OotP (thought I better say that right away), this fic isn't going to have spoilers for OotP, mainly because I've already written most of it and it's going through the betaing stages :) Big thank you to everyone who reviewed, I read them after finishing OotP, and major cheering up was definitely in order so thanx :)  I will try and get the next chapter out on Wednesday.

Summary: Lots of running away in this chapter, and avoidance of confrontations, which of course is inevitably leading up to… more running away *grin*, of course only the girls are hiding, the guys being much more mature are facing their… *snorts with laughter*, sorry I just couldn't keep a straight face :D

CHAPTER 12

James sat on his bed, his head resting against the headboard.  Why didn't she hit me? he wondered miserably. She just looked at me like I was nothing, he groaned, hitting his head against the headboard. What the hell is wrong with me God-dammit, it's like every time I get near her I lose my head.  Why the hell did I ridicule her like that? he thought.  It wasn't my fault though, why was she so pissed off at me… ok so the crystal thing must have come as a shock, but… Dammit, yelling at her isn't the way to get her to like me, he sighed dejectedly, putting his head in his hands.

Sirius stuck his head round their bedroom door. "James?" he asked. "You alright mate?"

"Bloody brilliant," James replied hollowly.

"Is this about Lily?" Sirius asked curiously, sitting down at the end of James' bed.

"Why do you ask that?" James replied in the same monotone voice.

"Cause you told me you liked her?" Sirius said, his brows knitting in confusion.

James groaned and rolled his eyes; "You're an idiot.  You know that?"

"I'm the idiot?" Sirius asked, sounding put out.  "Who just mocked the girl he likes in front of the whole school?"

James tugged at his hair in frustration. "She yelled at me first," he retorted sulkily.

Chuckling Sirius said; "That's the spirit, she'll be falling at your feet any minute now."

"Yeah," James scoffed, "because you're doing sooo much better with Fee." Sirius just glared at him.

~*~*~*~*~

The girls returned to their dormitory to find Lily crying on her bed.

"Lily?" Fee asked worriedly,

"I hate him! I hate him!" she sobbed, sitting up and drawing her knees to her chest, "He's always so mean. Calling me names and pranking me." 

"Lils, this is getting really primary school and I hate to add to it, but, you did start it," Bella said carefully, trying to lighten the mood.

"I know… but what about all the other times we fight," Lily said choking back a sob. "It's just he.. he.. he.." she stuttered, wiping her eyes. "God, he makes me so mad." Lily blew her nose on the handkerchief Fee gave her and let out a heartfelt sigh.

Bella and Fee left Lily in the dormitory and went down to the common room. Their friend needed some time alone. "What do you think?" Bella asked Fee.

"About Lils?" Fee inquired, causing Bella to shoot her a look. "Hey!" Fee exclaimed. "How was I supposed to know what you were talking about?  Don't look at me like that, I'm not the one who brought him up at dinner. Couldn't you see she was practically steaming? Only James gets her that annoyed." 

"Yeah," Bella agreed with a grin. "Why do you think that is?" she asked innocently.

"We both know they're perfect for each other," Fee replied. "Ok so maybe the years of seething hatred don't exactly point to that, but we are her friends, we know stuff, and you know what they say…" she grinned.

"There's a thin line between love and hate." Bella finished, returning Fee's grin. "Maybe they just need a bit of encouragement?" she suggested.

"No!" Fee exclaimed. "You tried matchmaking at dinner and that left our best friend crying her eyes out!" Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash from upstairs.

Bella and Fee looked at each other, "Lily" they said together.

"Okay I'll go and talk to Lils," you find out why James yelled at her at lunch, when they were finally doing so much better. Talk to Sirius or something, you can pretend its abooooout… Beatering," Bella decided, shrugging. "It'll be a good excuse to talk to one of the Marauders alone," she continued, running up the stairs to Lily before a wide-eyed Fee had a chance to protest.

"Like 'Beatering' is even a word." Fee muttered.

~*~*~*~*~

Knocking on the boy's dormitory door, Fee shuffled her feet impatiently waiting for someone to answer, while trying desperately to prevent herself from turning around and fleeing back down the stairs.

Peter opened the door cautiously, no one usually knocked. "Fee?" he asked in confusion, suddenly a grin spread over his face. "Looking for Sirius?" he added innocently.

Fee glared at him. "Is James in?" she asked, deciding to ignore Bella's advice and ask James himself, just because it was easier, not because she wanted to avoid Sirius, no sir-eee, not at all.

"Nope," Peter grinned. "He's out looking for Lily."

Fee's eyes widened in horror. "Oh God" she mumbled. James seeing Lily right now is sooo not a good idea, not unless he fancies having his insides ripped out, Fee thought morosely. "Where is he?" she asked desperately.

"Why don't you go and look for him?" Peter replied, grinning at the look of annoyance that flittered across Fee's face. 

Forcing past Peter and into the dormitory, Fee practically growled; "Where's James?"

"Why?" Remus asked, peering cautiously over the mountain of books on his bed.

"Look unless one of you has a death wish, you will tell me where the hell he is.  Now!" Fee said, practically yelling the last part.

"The library," Sirius replied evenly, he was leaning against the wall by the bathroom door, where he had been watching the whole scene, the corner of his mouth was quirked up forming a half grin.

"Thanks," Fee said, turning around she stormed out the door.

"Wait," Sirius yelled, running after her, pausing only to glare at his two manically grinning friends. "You're not going to kill James are you?" he asked, sounding worried.

Sighing Fee replied, "No," then half to herself, "not yet anyway," looking at Sirius' shocked face. "I'm just going to warn him to stay away from Lily."

Speeding up in a hope to end the conversation Fee practically ran down the stairs, only to see Bella stick her head round the corner of the girl's stairwell and give an encouraging thumbs up when she saw Fee and Sirius.  Great now I'm going to have to talk to him, otherwise Bella's going to know…something, Fee thought, rolling her eyes in frustration.

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Huh?" confused; Fee slowed down to a walking pace, as much as she didn't want to talk to Sirius, the thought of having this conversation with James was even less appealing .

"Why should he stay away from Lily? She yelled at him first, it's not like he's done anything wrong."  Sirius explained.

"Lily's not in the best mood right now. I have no idea what James did but it was something and something big.  Bella's trying to find out what right now," Fee said.

Suddenly they were stopped in their path as Lily sped past them, she waved cheerfully, adding a maniacal, "Hi Fee!"

A wheezing Bella caught up to them 5 seconds later. "Oh thank god," she gasped, leaning heavily on Fee. "Which way did she go?"

"Towards the library" Sirius said, staring after her in shock.

"Where James is," Fee supplied

"Dammit!  How the hell did she know he was there?" Bella puffed,

"Do you think she did? It might just be an accident, what did she say?" Sirius asked, causing Bella to stare at him incredulously. "Hey, I'm allowed to be nice, apparently Prongs needs saving again," he said shrugging.

"Fine," Bella said, still struggling to catch her breath. "I really need to do some more exercise."

"Bells!" Fee admonished. "What did she say before sprinting off?"

"Erm… oh!  She was ranting about, surprise, surprise, James and she was going on about his 'stupid hair' and 'stupid glasses', and something about a crystal."  Fee and Sirius exchanged puzzled glances. "Yep there was definitely a lot of ranting about a crystal and then she muttered something about proving the Professor wrong and then she went and did the running thing," Bella finished, glaring down the corridor Lily went.

"Ok so she's going to the library to look stuff up, not to yell at James," Sirius realised.

"But James is in there and looking for her," Fee said, worry edging its way into her voice.

"Uh oh," Bella said, as all three of them took off in the direction that Lily had just gone.

~*~*~*~*~