Chapter 11- Tempers and Sirius's Ass

"What, did you offer to look up goblin rebellions for her?" James asked incredibly, one arm wrapped around Lily's waist, and the other holding her hair behind her. She turned her head sideways and gave him a very edgy look.   

"And what do you think?" she muttered, turning back to the gigantic book on the table in front of her.

James sighed. He should have known that her defenseless demeanor wasn't going to last. "I think you shouldn't tell them that we…I mean you're going to the library every night."

She snapped the book shut and shifted in his lap. "Then what would you rather me tell them?"

"Well…"

She huffed, "Don't answer that!" and hopped to her feet. "Damn that Heather! I'm going to get her back for this!"

            "Sure, I can see how that works…you let out your rage on a friend who unknowingly asked you to do her a favor when you told her you were going to the library." He tapped his chin, "yep, sounds wonderful."

            Lily slammed the book back onto its shelf, earning a look from the librarian. "You don't know my friends like I do!"
            "Whatcha doin'?"

Lily spun around, her face bright red. "Now is not the time Luke!"

            Luke appeared taken aback, his blue eyes questioning. "Well I was only-"

"Save it man, she's in a hissy."

            She turned back around. "Excuse me?"

James clamped his mouth shut and tried to look innocent.

~*~

            Jessica stifled a laugh into her pillow. "I can just see Lily now, that was brilliant Heather!"

            "I told you," Heather replied with a grin, brushing dark hair out of her face. "Now do you agree that it's much more fun to wait until she admits it herself?"

            "Yeah, I guess you were right…wow, that's a first." Jessica smiled, pretending to contemplate. She got a smack in the head for it, but what else is new?

            There was an extended silence, both of them grinning stupidly into the air. Heather suddenly suggested, "Let's go down to the common room, I'm bored."

            Jessica nodded and they set off. It wasn't too late, so there was still a considerable amount of people sitting in chairs, on the floor, and frankly all over the place. The two girls spotted three of the Marauders and sat near them.

            "Hello!" Jessica said loudly, causing them to look up from what might have been a "private" meeting. Sirius grinned up at her and replied,

            "Welcome! Sit down and feast with us!"
"But there's no food."

            "Yes, I know that." He replied as if they were the stupid ones.
Heather and Jessica exchanged a glance and bit their lips to restrain smiles.

            The boys quickly started talking about quidditch, and naturally Jessica joined in, being the fanatic that she was.

            "I completely agree!" she yelled, causing some first years to look over.

Heather, however, was not quite as enthralled. Sure, quidditch was fun. But she heard enough about it with Jessica around all the time. She became fixed on a piece of parchment lying on the ground behind Sirius. It was rather shriveled and blank, she wondered why he had not already thrown it out…

            "What are you staring at?" Sirius' voice broke her thoughts.

"Huh?"

            Peter laughed nervously, shifting and almost reaching for the parchment but pulling back at a look from Remus, who said, "Why Padfoot, of course she's just staring at your ass!"

            "What?" Heather exclaimed, looking bewildered at the normally quiet Remus. "Why would I be doing that?"

            Sirius gasped. "Are you saying my ass isn't nice?" He made a hurt face at the thought, causing Jessica to laugh.

            "Of course your ass is nice, you know that…everyone knows that."

Sirius gave her a smug smile. "Yes, you're right. Everyone does know that."

            "Oh honestly." Heather rolled her eyes.

~*~

            James was very puzzled, lying back in his dorm. His three friends snored around him, but he was wide awake, staring at the blank ceiling. What should he do about Lily? She was so confusing, but at the same time, he loved that about her. He loved that he never knew whether she was going to bite his head off or snog him senseless. It was like a flip of the coin, and it kept everything exciting.

            Then again, he couldn't help but wonder how she could keep the fact that she had been physically abused from everyone for as long as she had. It was terrible! He was seriously considering giving this guy a what for, but then again, Lily had warned him not to. So he'd be better off doing it the legal way…Which is what? Telling Dumbledore? No, he wasn't sure what to do yet, but he would do something.

            Meanwhile, he decided, he should act more understanding of Lily. He should help her out more, not snap at her as much…Yes, that's a very good idea. I'll start tomorrow. He drifted off to sleep much faster.

~*~

            McGonagall surveyed the classroom, filled with the seventh year Gryffindors. They stared back at her in slight apprehension, as usual. "You all know that you need to choose a career very soon. I know you talked to me about this back in fifth year, but I still would like each of you to take a moment today to write down your goals on a piece of parchment and place it on my desk." She paused and sighed. "I also thought you would be pleased to get out of learning something new today."

            Sirius nodded vigorously and she said no more, having given them their instructions. Each student brought out their parchment and ink, and soon the sound of scratching quills filled the room. Sirius seemed particularly intent on his work. His lips were pursed and he was in deep concentration.

            James turned to Lily once they had both turned their brief papers in, and sweetly asked, "What did you write down?"

            She glared at him and replied through clenched teeth, "I want to be an auror." Sure, she was supposed to be acting like she hated him. Only, today, it was so much easier for her to do that for some reason. And James simply wasn't taking the hint…it was slowly driving her insane. He nodded, giving her a stupid smile.

            "Do you need any extra quills?" he asked. "I have tons."

She grunted and turned away, back to her friends. "What did you do last night?"
            They chuckled and glanced at Sirius, "Talked about Sirius' ass, if you must know."
            "Excuse me?"
"Never mind, not important." Heather replied.

            Lily was still very annoyed with Heather and felt no shame in letting it show, so she had been directing her questions to Jessica all day. She ignored Heather, who was inwardly very pleased because of this. She had even gotten her essay on goblin rebellions done early, in addition to pissing Lily off, who had absolutely no idea that she was being set up.

            James, meanwhile, was tentatively tapping Lily's arm. "What?" Lily said loudly in annoyance.

            Unlike his usual self, he ignored her tone and continued to act sweet. "I was just wondering if you needed any help with your homework tonight."

            "Oh, sounds like a date to me." Heather said with a wink.

Lily wasn't sure which one of them to glare at first, but luckily was interrupted by Remus anyways. Sirius had just returned to his seat after placing his parchment in front of McGonagall, and he looked rather pleased with himself.

            "What did you put down?" Remus was asking.

"Oh, just stuff."

            "Like what?" Peter said quietly.

"I want to be the first black president in America." He said proudly, puffing out his chest.

                 "You aren't American!" Peter protested.

"So, I can act like it! Not all Americans are like Luke!" He glanced over at the blonde, whose nose was almost touching his parchment while he tried the scratch his head with the hand that was holding his quill.

     "No, but I don't see how that helps you. And you still can't be president, you weren't born there." Peter stated knowledgeably, feeling important.

James momentarily forgot Lily and butt in, "I think the more important problem is that you aren't black Padfoot, sorry." He sniggered.

 Remus grinned. "I'm with Prongs."

Lily looked bewildered, wondering if this was what their normal conversations consisted of.

            "Black." McGonagall's voice interrupted them. "Would you come up here a moment please?" She looked like she was trying not to smile, but you never really knew with her. She might be fighting off a glare.

            "Well I think that settles it." Remus said, looking at Peter, who nodded.

James turned back to Lily, "I'll carry your books back to the common room for you." She glowered at him.

            The bell rang in a few moments and students scattered, most of them heading back to the Gryffindor tower, since this was their last class of the day.

            Three Marauders, Jessica, and Heather all sprang out of the classroom, laughing loudly and talking about Sirius and his idiocy. Lily and James trailed behind them, letting themselves drift farther and farther apart from their friends.

            "Well I think you can act normal now, they probably can't hear anymore."

"James, shut up." Lily snapped.
            "This day's been alright, don't you think? Not much work to do at all! Sirius is so dumb…"

            "James." She said warningly.
He continued, "Do you want to meet me in the Heads room? I mean, whatever you want, either way…doesn't matter to me."

            "For the love of God, James, shut it!" She raised her voice. "You've been driving me up the wall all day! Enough with your nice attitude! I don't want your charity!"

            Since the last of that had been a yell, their friends overheard and stopped to glance behind at Lily and James.

"Holy cow." Heather said.

"The Hindus would agree with you there." Jessica said, smirking.

"Right, let's get out of here." Sirius said loudly, while they watched Lily's face become darker and darker. They hurried off.

Lily and James had stopped in the hallway, with her looking ready to hit him. He was confused and wasn't exactly sure how he should be reacting. "Uh…I was only trying to help."

"I know bloody well why you're acting like this, and I don't like it! Just because I told you about what happened a long time ago, doesn't mean that you can start acting like I can't take care of myself! Because I sure as hell can!"

"I know that, I just-"

"And don't give me that 'but I love you' crap, because I don't give a damn! I've had a bad day, okay? Actually, I've had a bad week. My friends are beginning to drive me nuts, Luke is trying to kill you, although he doesn't know that it's you yet, and to top it all off, you've started acting like an obsessive maniac!"
            "Er- I'm sorry?" He tried. Then he remembered that this really wasn't his fault and began to get angry. "You have no gratitude, do you? And you're so self-absorbed! Haven't we had this conversation before? Well I'm sick of you thinking you're the only person here!"
            Her mouth dropped open. "I don't think I'm the-"

"I only wanted to help you out, and here you are yelling at me!"

            She grinded her teeth together furiously, "Well you deserved it!"
"If that's how you feel, then I might as well forget about you altogether! How about that?"

            "Fine! You do that! And just so you know, I won't be meeting you in the Heads room! Not tonight, or tomorrow night, or any night!  So don't expect it!"

            He gave a rough laugh. "Oh don't worry, I won't be waiting for you."

They stalked off separately, their faces heated and fists clenched.

~*~

            Jessica and Heather descended the staircase to the common room, wanting to get as far away as possible from Lily, who was as mad as they had ever seen her. At the moment, neither of her friends really cared to know why. It had something to do with James.

            "I wonder if James is angry too, or if it's just Lily."

"Yeah. Dunno."

            Jessica spotted Sirius leaning over his books near the foot of the stairs. Remembering their conversation the previous night, she snickered and walked over to him, firmly smacking him in the ass.

            He paused for a moment, and then tilted his head towards her. Jessica's grin faded as quickly as it had come- that wasn't Sirius.

She blushed, something that very rarely happened to her. "Oh…er…sorry- thought you were someone else…um, I'll be going then…" She walked off, thoroughly embarrassed, and spotted the real Sirius across the room. Heather, who was at her side, suddenly began to chuckle.

@~~~~~~~~~@

A/N: Thanks for reading! Or maybe I should say thanks for waiting, since once again it's been awhile since the last update. Though I do have my reasons, which I've already explained in the new chapter of BA, so I don't really care to repeat it all, for the sake of those who read both stories. Lol, actually I'm just lazy. And it's late. And this is a really boring and pointless Author's note, so I'll just be going now…after the thanks, that is.

Lamina Court- It sort of made sense, to answer your question…although, you don't remember what your question was, so let's just forget the whole thing! Thanks for the 'good luck with moving in', we're actually almost finished now, but crap is everywhere. I'm finding a lot of stuff I forgot existed, so it's sort of like Christmas lol. Okay, I really need to go to bed or something – I'll shut up now. Carolinus Took- I know, that was so sad…of all of the people JK could have killed off, she had to pick him! Thanks for reviewing, though, lol. High?D- Glad you find it amusing. Her friends can be mean, yes, but so can Lily, and James, and all the rest of them. Hope you liked this chapter! Jamie Noble- Well that's good enough for me! I never know what to say either…SummrMagic- It's funny you should say that, since that's what I usually think about stories that I like. It's just hard to imagine that people might actually look forward to these updates the way I look forward to my fav stories being updated…yeah, or maybe they don't =) Thanks for reading! Lola- Lol, I feel bad, I took so long to write this…yeah, that's pretty much why I like L/J stories too. Oh, and we're finally out of the hotel! It's nice to have my own room. Although the computer needs to be fixed now lol, lightning knocked the modem out – so now I'm using my stepdad's laptop. Oh well, works for me. Sakura Moon- yes, Lily's definitely hates to love, I have to agree with you there ;) Luke is still trying to kill James, but then again, he has no idea that it's James he's supposed to be killing yet, so we'll see how James reacts to the whole thing probably next chapter. And then yes, he might play a prank on Chris. I'm still deciding that one though. KristiexxNguyen- Sure I'll email you! Just after I post this – provided that I don't forget, that is. Lol, I'm bad about that sometimes. Starling94- Lol, thanks so much for the every chapter reviews. I'm glad you're finding the story amusing! Hope you continue reading =) Lexie13- Hey! You have me on your favorites list. I'm really flattered ;) I never know what to say to people in review thanks either, as you can probably tell…Under the moons Influence- Lol, I know what you mean with those 'all the same' stories. It's so much harder these days to find a good story. Not that I'm saying mines really good or anything, but you know what I mean…I do try to be different though, if I can.  Thanks for reviewing! Frozen Quill- Happy-Luke. Lol. I've heard the best descriptions of Luke in reviews. I think that's one of them =) You're right, everyone basically wants to kill each other- how did that happen? I seriously didn't plan that one out lol. Lily Among the Thorns-89- Lol, I lied again. It wasn't soon. But I do thank you for reading anyway! Toria- You've got the right idea! I say soon and it ends up being the opposite- I think I jinx myself or something. Anyway, glad you've come back again. It's really very flattering that people even care since these updates take forever and are always so short ;) Golden.Slumbers- You aren't a horrible reviewer, of course not! I tried to add more Marauder stuff in this chapter, just for you =) I know, if JK kills off Remus, I think she'll have to answer to me! Remus has always been my favorite, and that would really suck…anyway, thanks again. Cho-Look-Alike- Lol. Lily- tell her friends? I don't know if that's going to happen anytime soon, but I guess you never know…Slytherin-fanatic- I'll keep updating, I just can't promise it'll be soon, because whenever I say that, it ends up being longer than usual! Thanks for r/r! Kylaya- Lol, yes, she is losing vital time with James' lips, and it's obviously beginning to make her very angry. I agree, James is sweet, but he can be a bit dim sometimes…Emerald2- Lol, Lily won't be able to stand Luke too much longer, I'll promise you that. Brunet-barbie-84- You've got that one right, it does always take me so long! I'm hoping that I'll break that habit, but I refuse to say it, because if I do, it will never happen! Thanks for another review! Angelic-devil11- Yep, I think we all want to know when the 6th book is coming out now, because we're all so impatient (at least I know I am). Wow, you are the 200th reviewer *hands out a ribbon*. Now that's special- I bet you think it's all worth it now lol. Me- Okay, so there was nothing much about what James is going to do about Chris in this chapter, but I promise more of that in chapter 12! And thanks for coming back to read more! Freakyfroggurl22- Lol, yeah she was caught in the act. You know, it's really nice to see that you're still reviewing, after so long. You're probably one of my longest reviewers, actually ;) Jctigerwolf4e- I was hoping it wasn't too sappy, so I'm glad you don't think so! Hope you keep reading! Elven Dagger- Thanks, I definitely will! How could I not when I have people telling me they like it? Akili Daniels- Lol, you're right. The next step is always to write a new chapter…I seem to have trouble with that sometimes. Alex'z Death Chic- Really? You think it's funny? Thanks! And yes, Luke is very dumb. I feel sort of weird, making him so dumb, since he's American, and I'm an American…but then again, I know a lot of dumb people lol, so I suppose it all works out alright.

Okay, I was starting to fall asleep near the end there, so I think I'll be going to bed…thanks again to all of you. I won't even mention the next chapter, because if I do it'll end up taking longer than I think it will=)

~Emily~