Chapter 4:
'So, you know what I heard?' said Sirius jovially to the others that evening.
'What?' said Peter. Remus looked up from his parchment, but James made no sign of having registered the comment.
'This oughta interest you, Pongy.' continued on Sirius, in a sickeningly cheerful voice. James just looked away.
'Fine! I see you're not to be taken in by tantalizing hooks. Cut straight to the punch line, Sirius! Lily dumped Frank.' he said.
James' eyes hardly flickered.
'Come again?' said Remus.
'The darling love of Jamsie's life who he wants to shag senseless and make lots of babies with dumped his proclaimed 'mortal enemy'.' exclaimed Sirius. 'Though I thought that was Snivellus or Malfoy.' he added as an afterthought.
'Well that's...that's great!' said Remus, looking expectantly at James.
'How can she have dumped him, if they weren't going out in the first place.' said James in a low voice, his eyes flicking to Remus. It wasn't really a question.
'That's not the point!' said Sirius quickly. 'The point is she's back on the market, Jamsie! You'll have to turn on that Potter charm now, aye?'
James stood up.
'She doesn't fucking want me. She doesn't even want to be around me. If she had her way, she probably wouldn't even want me to live. And what's life without her, anyway?' he said, walking out of the common room, leaving his friends speechless.
Sirius was worried. He knew James was in a bad mood, and he liked to stay up late, but it was two-o clock in the morning and James was not yet back. In fact, Sirius hadn't seen him since he has disappeared out of the portrait hole hours before. And he was still not quite sure why James was in a bad mood in the first place. He had heard some people whispering about James blowing his top and shouting at Lily, but Sirius disregarded it. James would never shout at Lily.
But still, he was worried. What if something happened to James? No one could deny it, James could be an arrogant little bugger, and if he went wandering off, lost in his thoughts, got himself tangled in a dangerous situation he thought he could handle by himself...Sirius didn't want to think about it.
Soft footsteps came padding down the staircase. Sirius looked up to see a haggard looking Remus standing at the top.
'Has he been back yet?' muttered Remus wearily. Sirius looked away, and shook his head. Remus sighed, and started descending down the stairs.
'Do you think he's ok?' asked Remus. Sirius shrugged.
'I don't know.' he said. 'I don't know.' he repeated, under his breath, and covered his face in his hands.
'I'm sure he'll be fine, Siri. He can look after himself.' Sirius stared at Remus. How could he be so calm?
'What if he's not, Remus? What if he's not, aye? What if our best friend is out there, somewhere, lying in a pool of blood and we're here saying to ourselves "James is a big boy, he'll be fine!"? Huh? You know what he's been like recently! He's been on a downward spiral. He's not eating, and he barely sleeps. He didn't even pass his recent transfiguration test! Transfiguration, Remus! He got an Outstanding for transfiguration on his owls! What if Lily going out with Frank was the last straw? FUCK, what are we going to do?' Sirius spewed out, and began pacing around the room.
'Sirius, calm down. You're tired, and you're making yourself hysterical. He's got an invisibility cloak, remember? He'll probably just be wandering around the castle, and if he's not, nothing will harm him because nothing will see him!'
'We have to do something!'
'Well, what do you suppose we do, Sirius?' questioned Remus wearily, closing his eyes. 'We can't go out into the forbidden forest in the middle of the night looking for him. We'd more likely die than find him. And what if James woke up in the morning and found that his friends had gone gallivanting off to 'save' him and they were killed? He'd never forgive himself!
'We can...go to Dumbledore!' shouted Sirius.
'And turn in our best friend?'
'He could be DEAD, Remus!'
'Can't you hear yourself? Don't you think you're being a bit irrational? He's probably just sitting in the library, brooding, planning for the millionth time how to get Lily. Jesus, Sirius, he'll probably have a damn good laugh at you in the morning! You're being paranoid! Go to bed. I am.' and with that, Remus retreated back up the stairs.
Sirius shook his head, and tried to make himself go back up to bed. Course he was being silly. Course James was fine. He was just...having a bad day. He'd be wandering around the corridors in his cloak, maybe stealing some food from the kitchens...Sirius laughed. Cheap little bugger, he thought to himself. With this thought in mind, Sirius made he way quickly up the staircase, into bed, and within about a minute, he was asleep.