At breakfast the next morning Lily and her friends were silent, as was the Marauders. There was an uncomfortable silence between all of them. Quite a lot of the Gryffindors had been woken up by Lily and James' very short row and so they all knew that they had fallen out. Everywhere Lily and James looked there were small groups of people huddled talking and staring at them. Each of these small groups contained at least one Gryffindor. James looked away from a group of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff girls and jabbed his sausage with his fork.

"I guess, this is all my fault" Remus said.

"No, it's Prongs' fault for not being honest with Lily." Sirius said. "Really James, I thought you'd know better then to keep a secret from the girl you love." He tutted. James could have killed him at that moment. It wasn't like Sirius wasn't keeping secrets from April.

"What exactly happened last night?" Remus asked.

"Lily was out by the Quidditch pitch and you caught her scent." James told Remus. "You ran towards her, Padfoot attacked you and I got Lily to safety." Remus went pale, he knew that it would be another two nights before his transformations stopped. He hated that he had gotten Lily and James' relationship in trouble.

"I'm really sorry" Remus said. "Does she know about me?"

"Yeah, she's alright about you, she also knows about the Marauders but not the whole story." James said.

"What!" Sirius shouted, "You told her?" He attracted the unwanted attention of several students, including Lily's.

"I had to." James said. Sirius glared at him. James understood why. They had all promised that they would never tell anyone their secret and James had broken it. James would be as angry as Sirius was if his best friend had told someone. Sirius stood up and launched himself across the table at James. He knocked James over and the two rolled on the floor. James tried to get control of Sirius' clenched fists but failed. Sirius punched James around the face. James clenched his teeth and kicked Sirius off. They both scrambled to their feet and drew out their wands. Lily and April both got to their feet.

"Is this a trick or for real?" muttered a sixth year Hufflepuff girl to her Gryffindor boyfriend.

"I don't know." He muttered back.

"Boys." April said stepping between Sirius and James. Lily was more reluctant to intervene though she knew she had to. "Come on, stop fighting, it's breakfast." She said. April looked at Lily for help when Sirius and James looked like they weren't listening. Lily sighed and took a deep breath. She walked to James and grabbed the back of his robes and dragged him out of the great hall. He followed reluctantly and kept his glare on Sirius. April was fussing over Sirius and he seemed a little flattered by the attention she was finally giving him. When Lily and James were in the entrance hall and away from the main hall Lily stopped and turned to face James.

"What was that about?" Lily asked James, she had her hands on her hips and waited expectantly for an answer.

"You" James said. He didn't look at Lily and stared at his wand.

"Me?" Lily asked slightly amazed, though she had guessed it was about her when Sirius had shouted. "What about me?" James stared at her wondering if he should tell her. She had told him last night that he was supposed to tell her the truth. He opened his mouth to tell her but then closed it and shook his head in a no.

"I won't tell you unless Sirius and Remus say it's ok. It probably is but I've already betrayed their trust in the last twenty four hours." James said. Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing, sure James had loyalty to his friends and she respected that, she had loyalties to her friends but she was James' girlfriend.

"What about me?" Lily asked him, "I'm your girlfriend and I discover you're an-" James put a hand over her mouth and told her to shut up as a few students stared at them.

"Don't say it out loud." He hissed at her. Lily pushed him away.

"Don't tell me to shut up." She said slightly annoyed. "I'll keep you secret, I'm not stupid."

"I noticed" James muttered under his breath.

"What?" Lily asked. James looked at Lily.

"Nothing darling." He said sarcastically, "Now if you excuse me I have some lessons to get to." He said imitating Lily's most common comment to him from their sixth year. Lily stared at him with her mouth slightly open in shock. The few students that had been watching her started talking and one was about to say something to Lily when Lily gave them a look that warned them not to say anything and the students hurried on their way before Lily started handing out detentions.

*    *    *    *

"The head pupils are pleased to inform the school that there will be a ball on the 14th of February in the Great Hall. There will be a live band and as much food as you can eat provided by the kitchens. It will be a formal ball so Dress gowns will be required. This event is for Fourth year upwards, though younger students may attend as dates. More information will be given closer to the day." April read off the notice board to Lily and Jenny. "The head pupils are pleased?" she said to herself. "It doesn't look like it." April looked at Lily who was angrily writing out the list of Ingredients for Veritaserum and how you make the potion.

There was a lot of uneasy tension among the Seventh year Gryffindors. The slightest mention of James to Sirius or Lily would get them both angry and Lily would go to the library, mention Lily to James and he would storm off somewhere. Remus, April and Jenny were at a loss. Peter didn't seem to mind the rift in the two groups of friends and he spent a lot of time talking about it just loud enough for either one of Sirius, James or Lily to hear if they weren't with him.

"Shut up April" Lily said. Lily hated being angry with James and would be more then willing to make up with him if he approached her to say sorry that he had been a complete fool and would never keep anything from Lily again.

"So, I guess you're not going with anyone to the ball right now?" Jenny said softly, not wanting Lily to get angry again. Lily had just calmed down from an hour of ranting about her useless boyfriend.

"No, I don't want to go to that stupid ball anyway." Lily said.

"Now I know that's a lie." April said sitting down opposite Lily. "Now look me in the eye and say that," Lily looked into April's sparkling brown eyes. She couldn't say it but she noticed something in April's eyes that was never there before.

"Have you slept with Sirius?" Lily asked April. April looked at Lily in shock.

"How…how did you know?" April asked.

"It's in your eyes." Lily said. Jenny looked at April in surprise.

"You slept with Sirius?" Jenny asked.

"Yes" April said slightly uneasily, "He was upset about James telling Lily whatever he told her and because I wasn't paying much attention to him so the other night we sort of slept with each other."

"Where?" Jenny asked, "There's no where you can, you know, do it." Jenny said.

"Well, he took me to this weird room. It was filled with roses and it had a bed and there was soft romantic muggle music playing from somewhere." April said. She smiled and her eyes glittered slightly. Lily gave a quick smile.

"At least some of us are getting some." She said without thinking. April and Jenny looked at her curiously.

"What?" April asked.

"I just miss James." Lily said. "It's really hard not being with him."

"Then go and apologise, he's in his dorm room." Jenny said. "But he'll be coming down later for Quidditch practice, the next quidditch match is the Saturday after next, two weeks before the ball."

"I'm not going to apologise, he was the one who kept the secret from me. How does he expect us to make it work forever if he hides things from me?"

"Forever?" April said, "What do you mean by forever? Do you want to spend your life with him?" April looked at Lily. Lily looked away shyly.

"We've talked about it." Lily said, referring to her and James.

"But you're eighteen." Jenny said.

"Seventeen, my birthday is in a few months." Lily corrected.

"Still," Jenny said.

"Team get ready for Practice." James shouted as he climbed down the stairs. He made a beeline for the girls and Lily went quiet and continued with her work. "April do you still have my broom?" he asked. April jumped to her feet. She looked at Jenny and Jenny stood up as well and closed a few of her books.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to give it back after the…events of the past week" April took Jenny's hand and they both went to the dorm. James stood near the studying Lily in a very awkward silence. He desperately wanted to just be able to talk to her again and to be able to hold her. He didn't think he had done anything that wrong and if she'd give him the chance to explain why he had become an animagus and why Remus had been wandering the grounds then maybe he could get her talking again.

"Have you told Jenny and April?" James asked.

"No." Lily said not taking her eyes away from her work. "I said I'd keep your secret didn't I?" She glanced at her book and wrote down the last ingredient on her piece of parchment. James noticed her handwriting wasn't as neat as it normally was.

"Thanks." James said. Lily didn't say anything. She put her quill away and closed her book, she had finished her homework that wasn't due in until the next week. She picked everything up carefully and stood up. She faced James for a few seconds before going to her dorm to put her things away.