Sirius's Top Ten

I know, I know, it's an actual chapter! I am sooooooooooooo sorry that this took so long! So long, in fact, that I'm quite sure that no one actually reads this anymore. I was in Europe for most of August this summer and at my cottage for the rest (no internet connection) so I couldn't update at all, and this chapter was hard to write, but I think it turned out okay and works with what I've got planned next. I have a weird idea on how to end this, but… I'm not sure. We'll see. L Thanks to everyone who actually reviewed.

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Chapter 21: We're Done

"I knew he would react like this! I mean, honestly, is it really his business that some old boyfriend is writing me letters? Honestly, it's not like I reply! And I he should know I love him! And getting all pissed off because I wasn't around for Valentine's Day? Honestly, how immature can he be? I honestly don't know why I bothered with him." Lily vented angrily, sitting on her bed in the Gryffindor sixth-year girls dormitory. Cass and Abby sat with her on the opposite end, listening patiently. Cass kept putting up a finger whenever Lily said 'honestly', which seemed to be her favourite word to rant with.

"That's four." Cass announced.

"Really?" Abby replied, cocking her head to the side in confusion. "I had five."

"Can we please pay attention to the issues in my life?" Lily asked icily. "Honestly, you call yourselves my best mates."

"See, there's five!" Cass said with a pleased grin, before it faded as she caught a glare from Lily. "Well, honestly Lily, it would be easier to err… 'pay attention to the issues in your life' if you told us what happened."

Lily's face went blank. "Oh."

Abby grinned. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad. Start from what we know. James came to your house to apologize for being a prat about Valentine's Day. What next?"

"He apologized. I accepted. Then he came to the wedding, which was horrible by the way. Then we went to the reception, and then Mario turns up. And he starts asking about the letters he's been sending me, you know, the 'I still love you and I know you still love me' letters where he's being an arrogant prat."

"You always seem to fall for them." Abby commented with a sly smile. "Arrogant prats I mean."

Lily paused her story telling for a moment. "I do not, Abigail!"

Abby laughed. "You do so, Lily Marie Cordelia!" Lily winced, and Abby continued. "Let's see, there was Oliver, but he doesn't count since you never really were 'with' him. Then Mario, who you just said was an arrogant prat, and you've always thought James was one too."

"Shut it." Lily replied snippily, unable to find a counter-argument. "Anyways, James gets all pissed off for not telling me. And he…"

Flashback

"He sent you love letters?" James asked in disbelief, no longer trying to control the volume of his voice. "And you didn't tell me?!?"

"I…" Lily began, suddenly at a loss for words. 'Fuck.'

"You what, Lily?" James asked sharply.

Mario was silent, holding a slight smile.

"I didn't think it mattered. And it doesn't. Look, I'm sorry if you're mad about this James, but you know I love you – "

"No, actually, I don't know."

End Flashback

(A/N: Sorry I put a flashback, I thought it would be better that Lily rambling some more.)

"And then he left." Lily finished glumly.

"Wow." Abby said softly.

"What do you mean, wow?" Lily demanded angrily.

"Well Tig… You've both messed up. You should have told him about Mario's letters – and I would have told you to but I assumed you had." Cass added quickly as Lily opened her mouth to argue. "And James completely overreacted, he should trust you."

"Exactly!" Lily yelled, thrusting her fist up into the air and ignoring Cass's comment about her being wrong as well. "He should trust me! I'm the only one who's allowed to have trust issues! I mean, he started going after me only because of a dare! A game! I get to have trust issues, not him!"

"Well… yeah." Abby agreed quietly. There was no real point in arguing with Lily about this unless she wanted Lily mad at her, which she didn't. A mad Lily was a hard thing to work with; it took ages before she forgave you. James was the only one who seemed to have some sort of gift when it came to Lily forgiving him.

"And he's so immature! Getting mad about Valentine's Day. And Cass had to help him come to his senses and then he came and said sorry after telling me about how Cass had forged a letter to get me back sooner so we could talk and he could apolo – " Lily stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened.

"If your eyes widen any further, your eyes might pop out, Tig." Cass said with a smile.

"Cass… You and Sirius…" Lily said quietly.

"Oh yeah. That." Cass muttered, looking quite displeased to be reminded of her incident with Sirius.

"Come on, tell us what happened." Abby said softly, rubbing Cass's back as Cass's eyes welled up with tears again. Cass shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"No. It's stupid. And I'm fine." Cass insisted, shifting away from Abby's reach.

"You're obviously not fine, Cass." Lily said quietly. "James told me that Sirius kissed you. When?"

"At breakfast on Valentines Day." Cass answered shortly.

"And then he said it was a mistake?" Abby asked softly.

"Yeah." Cass nodded slightly. "He said he must have gotten hit by an arrow or summat."

"Aww Cass, I'm so sorry." Lily said softly, as both she and Abby enveloped Cass in a hug. "I mean, here I am ranting about James…"

"They're both pricks." Abby said loyally. "Unless… that you're going to get back with James?"

"I've apologized for not telling him, there's not much else I can do. And if we needed help from other people to patch things up, then it obviously wouldn't have worked." Lily said quietly, tightening her hug around Cass.

"So that's it then." Cass declared finally. "Aside from Remus, we are officially done with the Marauders."

"Agreed." Abby seconded.

"Agreed." Lily finalized. "We're done."

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Only across the common room, four boys were having a similar conversation, minus the tears, which were too feminine, and the tight hugs, which were too… uncomfortable. James sat on his bed, Sirius paced the floor amid scattered items of clothing and pranking equipment, Remus sat on his bed, and Peter ate his chocolate frogs.

"I mean, can you believe her?" James demanded angrily. "She didn't tell me that her creep of an ex-boyfriend was writing to her!"

"She probably thought you'd get mad and react like this. And she was right." Remus said calmly from his bed, safe from being strangled by James.

"But she didn't tell me!" James persisted.

"Did she apologize?" Remus asked.

"N – yes." James muttered quietly.

"Exactly." Remus said knowledgably. "You completely overreacted."

A look of realization came over James's face. "Shite. I really did. I left right while she was trying to explain."

"What was she saying?" Remus asked; as he cracked open a book, finding his good deed of the day completed.

"She apologized and then said 'you know I love you' and I just said 'No, actually, I don't know.' And then I left." James said somberly.

"Well that was smart." Remus said with a slight sarcastic tone, knowing James wouldn't get mad. He couldn't, considering how much damage control Remus had just performed.

James nodded. "God I'm an idiot. My temper… I just… It got out of control again."

"It often does." Sirius remarked dryly. "You're right, you are an idiot."

"That coming from the guy who totally screwed with Cass Flemmings." James said coolly.

"I didn't 'screw' with Cass." Sirius snapped.

"Then what would you call it? What's another word for completely leading a girl on?" The volume of James's voice was rising dangerously again.

"I wasn't leading Cass on." Sirius persisted, though his voice stayed relatively even.

"Then what do you call kissing a girl – who fancies you – then telling her it was a mistake?" James snapped.

Peter, who hadn't realized the question was somewhat rhetoric, began listing off words he thought might be appropriate. "How about tricking? Or screwing with? Or deceiving? Misleading?"

"Shut it, Wormtail!" Sirius and James both yelled simultaneously.

Though saying the same thing at the same time would normally cause the two friends to grin or laugh, it did little to change the situation this time.

"Okay, fine!" Sirius agreed. "I am an arse! But at least I'm not as bad as you!"

"Excuse me?" James said huffily.

"I'm not as bad as you." Sirius repeated. "I'm not an insecure, jealous arse who just walked out on the best thing that's ever happened to him!"

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By the next morning, the atmosphere in the Great Hall much resembled that of 'the Great Freeze'. No one was talking to the Marauders, aside from Abby who only spoke to Remus, and no one was talking to the Marauder Troupe either. It had been hard to miss the yelling and crying on either sides of Gryffindor Tower and it had circulated through the rest of the school quite quickly. Though the details on Lily and James's break-up were quite vague, everyone now knew about Cass and Sirius's kiss on Valentine's Day (if they had missed it) and that the Marauder Troupe was now the ex-Marauder Troupe.

Lily sat quietly between Cass and Belinda, with Abby and Oliver across from her. It felt odd not sitting next to James, as she had grown accustomed to it, but she would adjust again. Cass was stirring her cereal mindlessly, and Abby had her nose in a Potions book. Belinda smiled awkwardly.

"So," Belinda said wobbly, bravely trying to make conversation. "Anything exciting on today?"

"Not really." Cass replied softly, before looking up to see Amos approach her. Her face paled slightly.

"Hi, Cass. Can we talk?" Amos asked, sliding in next to her.

Cass nodded mutely.

"I heard about Black kissing you. And I wanted you to know that… it's okay. I really don't mind, because obviously you didn't want him to. So we're okay. Okay?" Amos spoke softly, and kept looking at her with concern. Cass nodded again.

"Thanks for understanding Amos. Want to take a walk tonight?" Cass asked quietly. Amos smiled and nodded, and Lily couldn't help but wince.

Her face then grew into more of a grimace as James entered the hall, and approached her almost immediately. Amos moved out of the way, and Lily reminded herself to kick him for it later.

"Can we talk Lily? Please?" James asked quietly, shooting dirty looks at people watching them, which was pretty much the entire hall.

"No, we can't James." Lily replied with an unsteady voice. She felt Cass's hand take hers under the table, and give her a reassuring squeeze.

"Lily, please, I was an idiot. Can't we just talk for a moment?" James persisted.

"No." Came the short reply.

Much like he had when he first asked her out, James grabbed her other hand and yanked her to her feet, dragging her out of the hallway as she stumbled behind him, her face flushed. Easily more than a hundred eyes watched them leave; Cass stood up angrily to stop James, only to be pulled back down by Oliver, surprising both Cass and Abby, and his girlfriend.

"Let him talk to her, at least." He reasoned.

"JAMES POTTER, LET ME GO!" Lily screamed, her feet sliding on the marble floors of the castle as James continued to drag her from the Great Hall. Finally finding a reasonable spot, he stopped, causing Lily to nearly keel over.

"We need to talk. It's my fault. I was jealous, mad you didn't tell me…" For the first time in his life, James fumbled for the words.

"I apologized for not telling you James. It was wrong, I should have. But you… You should be able to trust me with these things, and you obviously don't." Lily said as lightly as possible, though her eyes were starting to well up.

"I do! I do trust you!" James insisted.

"No, you don't James. And I don't understand why. I'm the one who should be insecure." Lily continued, ignoring James's protests.

"You should be insecure?" James repeated, looking somewhat confused.

"Yes! Weren't you the one who started this whole thing for a bloody contest? Our relationship is based on a bloody contest! If you hadn't been so arrogant and started the bloody contest then this whole thing wouldn't have happened! You only started talking to me because of a bloody contest! How do I know you even really like me and this isn't just another contest? How?!? SEE, I GET TO BE INSECURE!" Lily yelled the last bit, tears beginning to flow down her cheeks. James moved closer in attempts to wipe them away, but she stepped back quickly.

"Lily…" he said softly, reaching out to her.

"No, James. We're done. I just, can't take this. You? Insecure? Honestly, I just can't."

Lily walked only a few steps before she broke into a full-out run, away from the one boy she had been sure she was in love with.

"I'm insecure because I'm head over heels for you, Lily. I'm not good enough and I was worried you'd realize that and leave me. And you did." James Potter spoke hoarsely to the empty hallway.

"Pipe up ol' chap!" A man from one of the paintings called. "There are other fish in the sea!"

"But she's the only one for me." James finished glumly.

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Oooh, what happens next? What do you WANT to happen next? Review and find out!