He didn't say anything.

"What are you doing here?" asked Lily once again, gulping down a huge lump in her throat.

With no reply, James Potter only approached her and sat down beside her. Then he asked quietly, "Why are you crying?"

"It's none of your business."

"Yes," said James, looking at his best friend. "It is my business, since you're my best friend."

Lily scoffed. "You'll never understand, being the great James Potter you are," she said, looking away from those haunting hazel eyes.

"And what does that mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything."

James was absolutely clueless and confused right about now. He had no idea on why Lily was acting like this towards him. As far as he knew, he wasn't doing anything wrong, especially to her. If so, then why was Lily like this?

"Lils," said James softly, suddenly finding himself entrances with the shimmering auburn locks that was spilled over her shoulder. "I…it's surprising, you know? I mean… I feel like I'm not your best friend anymore."

She didn't answer him.

"If there was anything wrong…if I did anything wrong, then I'd wish you'd tell, not keep it to yourself."

Sobs escaped her throat. "But I can't, that's the problem, James. I just can't."

He raised his eyebrows, hazel eyes glimmering behind wire-rimmed spectacles. "Why? I'm your best friend, Lily. Why can't you tell me?"

Deep inside her, anger started to reign. Can't James see how hard it was to keep everything inside? Especially when this 'thing' that was bothering her all year was about him? Honestly, Lily thought, as she tried so hard not to cry, that James could be dense as a brick.

"Because it concerns you, alright?" muttered Lily spitefully, even though she didn't know why she said it in that way. Maybe it was the anger that made her say those words that way. Maybe it was the irritation that was growing inside of her. God, she loved James Potter so much to the point she was even afraid of loving him. Gee…did that make sense?

James once again put his trademark confused puppy's look and raised his eyebrows again at the beautiful girl seated beside him. "Me…?"

"Yes," spat Lily, "It concerns you, are you happy now? Or maybe you just can't get enough attention and maybe not enough girlfriends that you'd want the whole thing, right?"

"Lily, what do you mean –

"I'm just so stupid, alright? Stupid enough to fall in love with a boy like you, my best friend, known playboy of the school. I'm stupid enough to fall in love with you and then later fear, because I'm afraid that you'd just throw me off after you've finished with me!" said Lily, forcing herself not to face James. "Do you know how hard it is for me to keep it all to myself? I have to endure every single day with you kissing a girl, having a snog session every night within the common room and not say a word at all. I can't say 'Oh James, I must say I'm getting irritated with all that snog sessions'. I can only look at the girls you toss around and fear that I'm going to end up like them!"

"Lily —

Lily glared at the stone veranda, still not making herself face James. "Don't 'Lily' me, James, that won't work. If I could only do what Aurora had said, I'll do it. But you know, James, the fear of rejection's starting to eat me up inside –

"Then why didn't you just tell me?" asked James, looking bewildered.

Lily turned her head, making him see her tearful green eyes. "Oh god, for one of the most intelligent students in the whole school, you are pretty stupid, aren't you? It's not easy to stride up to you one day, surrounded by your endless girlfriends and say 'Oh hi James, I'm Lily Evans, your best friend, and I've been in love with you for the whole year!'"

Stupidity started to reign over James's dumbstruck head. "But other girls can do it –

Lily glared at him, tears running down her flushed cheeks. "Well I'm not one of those girls! Gee, James, I've been your best friend and I'm surprised you seem not to know a single thing about me! Your girlfriends probably erased me off your memory!" She stood up and brushed off the snow off her coat. "Have a nice life without me, alright?"

And then she stormed off, tears spilling profusely down her face, auburn hair whipping about and disappearing from the Astronomy tower before James could even stand up.

"Lily…"

*

"It's blueberry!"

"No, it's raspberry!"

"Blueberry!!"

"Raspberry!!"

"Why the hell would you know the flavor? I'm the one who's using it!"

"I'm an expert, since I've kissed so many girls, and I have a keen sense of smell."

"Not including me, and as I said, I'm the one who's using it!"

"Fine! If you're the one who's using it, let me see it then!"

She looked around her bag and shuffled her hands in her pockets, trying to see if the stick of lip balm could be seen anywhere. "I don't have it with me right now."

"Ha! So it's raspberry, then!"

"No, it's blueberry!"

"RASPBERRY!"

"BLUEBERRY!"

"RASPBERRY!"

"Goddammit, Sirius! If you're so intent in knowing what flavor of Aurora's lip balm is, why don't you just kiss her to get it over with?!" Remus Lupin cried exasperatedly, making the two stop arguing over the said flavor of the lip balm. A moment earlier, Sirius (seated next to Aurora at the Gryffindor table, a deadly combination) sniffed out a fruity scent and blamed Aurora's lip balm, accusing it to be flavored raspberry. Aurora argued, saying that her lip balm was flavored blueberry. And thus started the petty little fights the two sixteen-year-old purebloods kept on doing for the past days.

"Fine," murmured Sirius, smiling a demented smile. "I will."

And he took Aurora by the shoulders, also by surprise, and pressed his lips firmly against hers.

Sirius, after the stolen kiss, licked his lips in a taunting manner and smirked evilly at Aurora. "Blueberry it is, then."

Aurora, meanwhile, was mad beyond her wits. She threw her knife and fork down on her plate and death-glared Sirius to the fullest extent, wishing under her breath that Lucifer would appear and take Sirius down to hell. As anger started to reign over her, she stood up abruptly that it took Sirius and Remus by surprise.

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL A KISS FROM ME, YOU GODDAMN PATHETIC DOG!" shouted Aurora, glowering upon Sirius, triggering her mad temper. Remus groaned in frustration, irritated on how stupid Sirius might be on some occasions. "YOU'LL DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING TO WIN A STUPID ARGUMENT!!! OH, HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE, SIRIUS BLACK —

Her voice was echoing all over the Great Hall. Even Slytherins, including Sirius's younger brother Regulus and his cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa, looked at them with great interest. Andromeda, meanwhile, was staring amusedly at them along the Gryffindor table.

"Miss Callaway!" said Professor McGonagall, striding dangerously down the aisle that separated the Gryffindors from the Hufflepuffs. "How dare you make such a racket in this Hall? Quiet down before I am forced to take points off my own house."

"But Professor McGonagall –

"Another thing like that, Miss Callaway, and I'll send you and Mr. Black here to detention," said Professor McGonagall in a final tone.

Unfortunately, anger got the better hold of Aurora. She turned to Sirius, who was smirking evilly at her, licking his lips once again. "JUST BECAUSE OF YOU!" she shouted, apparently forgetting what Professor McGonagall just said.

"Miss Callaway, five points from Gryffindor." Said Professor McGonagall curtly, walking away from the Gryffindor table and approaching the High Table.

Aurora glared at Sirius for the last time. "Fine, I won't sit here." She said, moving a few seats away and sitting beside Lily, who had been quiet all the time.

"I really hate that stupid dog, stupid dog, stupid dog," chanted Aurora over and over again, jabbing her new knife at the pancakes she was supposed to slice. "Stupid dog, stupid dog, stupid dog," she continued.

After a while of chanting, Aurora looked sideways at her best friend. "Something wrong, Lils?"

Lily snapped out of her reverie. "Huh? What?"

"I asked if there was something wrong going on with you." Aurora repeated, raising her eyebrows in query. "You seem to be out of your mind more often."

"Nothing's wrong, Aurora," said Lily, prodding her stack of pancakes without much thought. "I just think I'm having a bad day."

*

"I hate that girl," said Sirius, stabbing his leftover scoop of butter. "I hate that girl, and I would forever hate her, as long as she lives…"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "But you kissed her, you idiot."

"Well," said Sirius, staring down the table at Aurora, who was looking concernedly at Lily. "I did like that kiss."

"And yet you hate her," said Remus, chuckling.

Sirius, meanwhile, stared at James, whom he had not heard a peep from the entire morning. "Anything wrong, Prongs?"

Remus looked at James too. "You haven't said anything all day."

"I'm just concerned, you know…about Wormtail falling down the whole marble staircase…" said James offhandedly.

"Since when were you concerned about Wormtail?" asked Sirius, curious.

"What?" James asked, eyes widening. "What did I say?"

Remus looked at him with an unexplainable expression on his face. To James, he looked suspicious. "James," he said seriously. "What happened between you and Lily the other night?"

James looked defensive through his wire-rimmed glasses. Nervously, he ran a hand through his unkempt hair. "Nothing happened."

"Really now," remarked Sirius, suspicious too. "If nothing happened, you wouldn't be acting this strange."

"Really, nothing happened," said James.

"We'll be the judge of that."

**

Only hushed voices could be heard inside the library, with the inclusions of whispers buzzing about and quills scratching, books being shut and books being opened. Several students could be found inside, doing assigned homework and research for different essays.

James, meanwhile, was absolutely unfocused. He was tapping the end of his quill incessantly on his piece of parchment, making a huge inkblot develop into an even larger one on the surface. Peter seemed to be hypnotized by the continuous jabbing of the quill tip on the paper, and Sirius was watching the inkblot broaden. Remus, meanwhile, was the only one who was able to concentrate on his work.

"You know, Prongs," said Sirius, tearing his eyes off the inkblot. "You're going to make a huge hole out of that inkblot if you go on."

James looked at Sirius, apparently clueless of what he was doing. "Oh," he said, staring down at his scroll of parchment.

"Honestly," said Remus, peering at them over his book. "James, what's bothering you? You're really out of your character today."

"Nothing's bothering me, Moony," said James, starting his tapping-the-quill-tip-on-the-parchment habit again. He ran a hand nervously through his messy jet-black hair. "It's just that…"

Well? How could he say it? That for the past few days he's been feeling a weird emotion he'd never felt before? That for the past few days, he had become absolutely smitten and absolutely in love with his own best friend?

James just couldn't help it. From that dramatic night on the Astronomy Tower, Lily had never left his mind. He always thought about her, how angelic she looked, how perfect a girl she was…slowly he found himself entranced whenever he looked at her, on how beautiful her auburn locks looked, how beautiful her startlingly green eyes were…

And then he realized – she was the perfect girl for him. He realized how blind he had been, how stupid, as he found himself falling deeper in love with her. She'd been there forever, ever since he had set foot on the Hogwarts Express, especially when he accidentally dropped his wand and Lily handed it back to him. She'd been there for everything as he had been there for her.

Sirius raised his eyebrows, opting to ignore Peter's bobbing head that started to follow James's quill. "It's just that what?"

"I feel funny," said James, covering up his confused emotion.

"Something you ate?" asked Peter, still following James's quill.

James grinned. "Maybe it WAS something I ate."

"C'mon now," said Sirius, waving a finger. "You're not telling us anything."

"I just said I felt funny."

"Felt funny about what?" Remus asked.

"Do I need a reason to feel funny?"

Sirius pretended to look thoughtful. "I think yes, because if you feel funny all of a sudden without any reason at all, people might consider you mental, my friend."

James glared at him. "Do you need to know?"

"Yes, because we're your best friends." Remus remarked over the top of his book.

"Well, I have another best friend," said James, looking away from the peering eyes of the two Marauders.

Sirius's brain did function properly; problem is his brain wasn't as fast as Remus's. "You're in love with Lily, aren't you?" asked Remus, still looking inquisitively at James.

Prongs looked bewildered. "No." he denied.

"Yeah you are!" Sirius chimed.

"No I'm not!"

"Yeah you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Goddammit, why don't you just admit it?! You love Lily!"

"Goddammit," mocked James, "Why don't you just admit it?! You love Aurora!"

Sirius's eyes flashed. "Hey! I do not!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

"Do not!"

A female voice interrupted. "Do you mind?" said Aurora, glaring at Sirius as she pushed James's and Sirius's faces away. "This is a library, and we're trying to work here." She motioned herself and Lily, who was sitting on a table near them.

James's face went startlingly rose.

"Oh, why are you here, Callaway?" Sirius said, smirking once again. "Want another kiss?"

She grabbed a book and slammed it on Sirius's face. "Kiss this."

Why You Annoy Me: Part 6

Author's notes: Sorry for the long delay! I got lots of work to do. ^^ I hope you all liked!!! Personally, I liked the part wherein Sirius got his stolen kiss, but hey, I dunno about you…

So, please, R&R!!!