Authors Note: Honestly, does it give you some kind of twisted pleasure to be mean to people? Because frankly, it's immature and stupid. If you wanted me to change something in my story, you can come up with a constructive way of telling me, because you are not even giving me information about what exactly is bad. Oh, and also, how would you possibly know that I had responded to you if you didn't read all of the most recent chapters? Also, I would remind you that you reviewed chapter 40-there, I caught you in your stupid lie.

Listen, there are several ways that I can see this going:

1. You keep reviewing me and saying nasty unfounded things and I shoot you down again and again.

2. You stop reviewing and we all get on with our lives

3. You give me some constructive critisism and help me to improve my writing

4. You write a sory, and I can give you nasty reviews-which I'm sure would not be difficult based on the level of writing skill, wit, and intelligence that you have demonstrated in your reviews

5. You write a story and I give you constructive critisism and teach you how to be a good person by example

No matter how this goes I'm fine with it, because I can handle your immaturities and stupid reviews. Look, I do not want to keep going with this, it's ridiculous that I should have to keep justifying it-if you don't like it stop reading it. But as I said, I'm fine with shooting you down if thats the way you want to play. It's not my first choice, but if you want me to, I will- so if you want me to be mean to you, review again and we'll see.

This is a long one!!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter:

My sister "youknowme" who reviewed about 9 times and won the contest for 150th reviewer

Amela- who also reviewed a bajillion times and had some great ideas

Helena of Sweden- thanks for your ideas for chapter titles!

Sarah- ps, i love you for looking up in the thesaurus

Ourlittlesecret7

Marauders'grl

Thank all of you so much!! Oh, and also thanks to all of you who said mean things to my anonymous reviewer in reviews (myself included of course...) thank you, I appreciate your support of myself and my story.

Chapter 43

Rumors?

Lily was very busy for the next few weeks, especially over easter break, which she spent running from teacher to teacher taking notes and practicing new spells they had learned. She caught up quickly and did all of her make-up work dilligantly. Alice was still ignoring her, she was still ignoring James, and all of her friends were doing everything in their power to make Alice and Lily become friends again.

On a sunny, warm, quiet day at the end of the easter break, Lily put down her quill and scratched her head. She had just finished an essay for Professor Binns and was prepared to stop working for the night. She looked out the window and saw that it was still light out, the days were growing longer and longer, causing her sense of time to be mixed up and confused. She did not realize that it was well past dinner, because it was still light out.

Lily herself had spent dinner writing her essay, and did not put the late hour and the empty common room together with her growling stomach fast enough to know that she would be going to bed hungry.

"Lily, I didn't see you at dinner tonight, where were you?" Asked Caroline, entering the common room amoungst giggles and chatter.

"We haven't had dinner yet silly." Lily said, putting her books in her bag and brushing her hair away from her face. Alice, who had been walking with some sixth year girl, looked past frostily, pretending not to hear Caroline, Lily, Holly, or Janette as the sat down on one of the over stuffed couches in front of the fire. "She's mad at you lot too then?" Lily asked, sad that she had brought her friends in to this mess.

"Yes, has been ever since we sat with you rather than following her. But what do you mean we haven't had dinner? Where did you think we were? We just got back." Holly said, her voice going from sad over Alice to confused about Lilys previous statement.

"Really? This light and dark changing around with the longer days has got my sense of time totally out of whack." Lily said, glancing out the window.

"Yes, well, you'll never guess what I've heard about our darling Alice." Janette said, bored with the subject of eating. In answer to the eager, yet slightly nervus expressions on her friends face she continued. "Well, you know how she's been hanging out with the residant sluts of Gryfindor tower?" Janette said, refering to the sixth year girls who had reputations around the school for doing things that disgraced the name of Gryfindor. When they all nodded affirmitively she went on again. "Well, she seems to be fitting in quite well." Janette said, hinting pointedly.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked as Lily and Holly just stared, shocked that their darling Alice could have turned in to a slut.

"Well, people talk you know? And some of the things I've heard..." She trailed off, shaking her head sadly.

"What have you heard?" Holly asked, dubiously looking at Alice who was busy flicking her hair and making eyes at a gaggle of boys surrounding her group of girls.

"Well, for one, I've heard that someone walked in on her in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room." Janette said candidly.

"With who?" Gasped Caroline.

"Doing what?" Holly said slyly.

"What about James?" Lily found herself asking. When the other girls looked at her, smiles playing across their faces, she blushed hotly.

"Who do you suppose?" In answer to their blank expressions, she told them who. "None other than Frank Longbottom himelf. From what I heard they were doing some serious making out."

"The slimeball!" Holly declared.

"That's illegal!" Lily said.

"Do the school trustees know?" Caroline asked. "Because that sort of thing could get him fired in a second."

"Does James know?" Lily asked quietly, but fortunately no one heard her over their gasps and proclomations of horror and discust. If James did not know, although what he had done to Alice and Lily had been inexcusable, he deserved to be told. Lily just did not want to be the person to tell him. "Holly, you should tell Sirius, that way he can tell James." Lily said, attempting to sound casual and nonchalant.

"Why do you care so much whether or not James knows?" Holly asked slyly, giving her a suspicious grin, an expression she had adopted after prolonged hours in the company of Sirius.

"I just think that it's not fair for him not to know, I mean, to him." Lily said. "Alice is my friend, but thats just not right."

"But, what if the rumors aren't true? What if he finds out and then it turns out that it was merely a rumor, and then whoever told them broke them up for nothing, unless you're trying to break them up intentionally? Have you decided that you like James after all?" Holly retorted, looking at Lily head on, seeing what her reaction to this would be.

"Well then, maybe you should find out if its true. Where and when did you say they were found kissing Janette?" Lily asked, matching Holly stare for stare, but brushing off her last comments regarding Lilys interests in James.

"The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, right after dinner on Tuesday night, they were seen walking out together from the dining hall. And they were seen leaving together again the next night, someone, namely Reeta Skeeter, no surprise there, followed them. They were seen, allegedly, making out on one of the desks. Very dirty if you ask me, I just hope it wasn't mine. Well, I think there could be some truth to it, I mean, he does favor her an awful lot in class." Janette informed them, casting a dubious glance in the direction of Alice, who was still flipping her hair for all it was worth. At this rate she would be bald before long, what with the amount of times she ran her fingures through it combined with all the ridiculous flicking. She never used to do that, or at least if she did Lily had never noticed it before.

"Well, yes Janette, I've noticed that too, but favoritism and hooking up are two totally different things." Caroline told them, defending Alice in her own way.

"Why do you ask Lily?" Janette said, ignoring Caroline with a distainful eye roll.

"I was just thinking, if they did it twice, who is to say they wont do it again?" Lily said, "I mean, we need to know for sure before we spread anything around, right Caroline? And what better way than to do a little first hand snooping?"

"I like the way you think!" Holly told her. "Now I know why you are my bestest friend in the world! Besides you two of course." Holly added at sight of the looks on Caroline and Janettes faces.

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The girls waited until after dinner the next day to put their plans into action. In anticipation of their super-stealth mission, or 'Mission Bring Her Down' as Holly refered to it as when Carline was out of hearing range, the girls had sought out their darkest, tightest clothing. They wore sneakers as well, so that they would be able to move quietly. They put these clothes on underneathe their robes, and went off to dinner. They made sure to get seats near to Alice in case they missed her slipping away while involved in their eating.

James was sitting next to her, and Sirius looked confused as to where to sit. He had been in the same prediciment for some time now, although he usually chose Holly over James. The other three boys did not know what to do either, and they normally took it in turns to sit with James. Tonght, since they were sitting close to each other, Sirius and James were able to sit next to each other, separating Holly and Alice. Alice was ignoring her one time best friends to the best of her ability. She did not pay very much attention to James either, Lily did not fail to notice, and spent considerable time glancing towards the staff table. As she laughed with her new friends, Lily wondered if they knew or not.

Just as Alice finished her meal and stood up, Professor Longbottom did the same. Lily looked at him and saw him make his excuses to Professor Bluebell, who he had been engossed in a convorsation with. Not, apparently, engrossed enough to fail to notice Alices departure. Alice walked out of the front hall, followed only moments later by Professor Longbottom. So far, so suspicious. Lily, Janette, Caroline, and Holly all stood up.

"I'm finished baby, no no no, you can stay here with James and finish eating, I'll see you in the common room tonight." Holly decreed coyly, pushing him back in to his seat gently, yet firmly, giving him a secretive smile and wink. The girls walked out of the room, all of them concious of the stares that followed them. Well, not that there were really that many, mainly just Sirius, James, and Ben, as well as Severus and some of the other guys who had been sitting near the girls.

They disappeared in to a closet, removing their Hogwarts robes and shoving them into a far corner so that they would not be found. They emerged into the deserted entrance hall looking very spy-like. They all giggled a little at the ridiculousness of what they were doing, and at the idea of what people would say if they found them. Lily was having serious thoughts of changing back into her normal robes, that would at least be easier to explain if they were caught spying on Alice and their teacher, or scrapping the whole mission alltogether. She mentioned to the other girls that she looked like some kind of sleezy Bond girl, only to be met with looks of confusion.

"Oh, it's just a muggle movie that people are really quite fond of. About a secret agent, thats what made me think of it, and all the women dress in really tight outfits and look like total sluts. Not that we are of course." She said, trying to explain. She voiced her thoughts that what they were doing was not wise, but eventually got caught up in the moment and enjoying the adventure. They walked quietly down the hallway, pressing themselves against the walls and waving their wands at imaginary attackers.

Once, Lily mimed pointing a gun, but the other girls ignored her attempts at an explanation, Janette gave he the famous eye roll and they continued to make their way down the corridor, giggling the entire time. If anyone were to walk down the hallway at this moment, they would see four girls pretending to be stealthy secret agents and failing miserably.

They finally reached the hallway of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and silenced their giggles, walking towards the cracked door. Inside they heard noises, it sounded suspiciously like lips smacking. Lily went to the door first, peering through the slit to see exactly what she had expected, and exactly what she had dreaded. There was Alice, lying on the desk while her Professor kissed her amost violently, leaning forward on top of her. Lily backed up quickly, trying not to make any sound and miming frantically at the others to move away quickly before they were seen. Holly followed reluctantly, after first taking a quick peek herself.

"Oh my god, that's like, illegal"

"What the hell were they doing?" Caroline asked, looking at a stricken Holly.

"Make a wild guess Caroline, just take a shot in the dark." Holly told her.

"Making out? But why is that so bad? I mean, you and Sirius hook up all the time." She said, and when she put it like that it almost sounded like what they had been doing had been perfectly reasonable.

"Caroline, do you understand that one, he is like 5 years older than her, and two, he is her teacher for heavens sake!"

"Oh, right, but she could do worse you know. I mean, he is rather dishy." She said, blushing and attempting to justify her remark. "And he is a really good teacher, and five years really isn't that long. Besides, Alice is almost 16, so thats really only like four years."

"Caroline, that is no excuse." Holly said, shaking her head.

"And you know that if Holly says hooking up with someone is bad, than it's really bad." Janette said, causing Holly to blush as well.

"Besides, she already has a boyfriend!" Lily said. "Well, I mean, she got so mad at me for supposedly causing James to cheat on her when she's cheating herself the whole time." Lily said, also blushing.

"And you're sure that that is why you're upset by this, not because the certain person she happens to be cheating on is James Potter?" Janette asked slyly, making Lily turn an even darker shade of red.

"Of course not, that's ridiculous, I don't, I mean, no." Lily blustered, fumbling over her words.

"Mmm hmm." Janette said. By this time they had arrived at the marble staircase, unfortunately the rest of the students were now exiting the great hall, full of dinner.

"Shit! Quick, everyone in here!" Holly whispered, giving their clothing the once over. They all crammed into a dark classroom, stumbling over desks and chairs and what felt like a broom handle.

"Where are the lights?"

"Ow, who stepped on me?!"

"Open the door a little, I can't see anything!"

"Shut up everyone! Do you want to get caught dressed like this?" Lily whispered, the voice of reason as always. Just as the words passed her lips, however, they saw in the dark a pair of lamplike eyes. They glowed yellow except for two dark slits that were the pupils.

"Shit! It's Mrs. Norris, everyone back away slowly." Holly hissed. Too late. They could already hear shuffling footsteps outside in the corridor, Filtch was never far behind his cat.

"Well, what have we here? Students prowling the corridors? Barging into empty classrooms? Writing rude words no doubt?" Filtch said in his wheezy voice. He had apparently run all the way tere and was slightly out of breath. He raised his torch above his head so he could see the girls more clearly.

"Please Mr. Flitch sir, we were playing at spies because we thought we heard noises in here, so we wanted to try and catch Peeves in the act of doing whatever he was doing. When we came in here we accidentally let the door close and couldn't see anything andstarted stumbling around in the dark. You do understand, don't you Mr. Filtch sir?" Holly said, adopting a high pitched voice and taking a step or two forward, she was apparently using her Veela charms, because Filtch had a glazed look in his eyes.

"Of course, come along Mrs. Norris, lets leave these nice young ladies alone. Good evening." He stepped backwards, never taking his eyes off of Holly.

"Holly! You're as bad as Alice!" Caroline giggled. The girls rushed out of the classroom and found the closet they had left their robes in before Filtch could come to his senses and return with Professor Gondlegots.

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The girls slipped into their robes hurredly and ran up to the common room. They pushed their way through the portrait hole slightly out of breathe.

"Where have you been? You left dinner before us!" Sirius asked looking up. "Holly, are you cheating on me?" Sirius asked, sounding serious.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous, we were having some girl time out by the lake." Holly told him.

"You weren't, I was just looking out the window and I didn't see you anywhere."

"Well darling, just a minute ago we were in the castle walking up to Gryfindor tower, thats how we got here, through the castle corridors, is that alright with you if I walk through the corridors?" Holly told him, sitting on his lap and running her hands through his hair, teasing him. It was sometimes scary how easily she could lie.

Before he could argue further, she kissed him. Everyone else looked away, James shouted for them to get a room. Sirius grinned mischiefously when she stopped and moved over so that she could sit next to him and watch the chess game unfolding before them.

James had been beating Peter easily, but he was now making stupid errors. Something was distracting him, and he had stopped paying attention to the game and was now staring at Lily. Lily, who was determinedly looking at the game, did not realize this as she did not even glance at James. She watched as he moved his queen into a dangerous position. Peter could have taken it with his bishop, but he apparently did not see that move, and instead ordered his pawn forward one square. James casually took the pawn, putting Peters king in check mate.

James stood, stretching, and Lily finally stole a glance at him. He looked tired, and sad, his eyes did not have the sparkle she had grown accustomed to, she was so shoked by his appearance that she founde herself staring at him, and he was staring back.

"James, buddy, we all know Lilys pretty, but try to control yourslef. Stop undressing her with your eyes already!" Sirius said, shoving James playfully. He blushed slightly, as did Lily, and they both looked down self consiously. Not long after Lily excused herself, claiming that she needed an early night, as she was planning to spend all day and night tomarrow studying. As she went up the stairs she heard James laughing uproariously, she also heard Alices voice, she had apparently returned from her evening tryste with professor Longbottom.

Authors Note: Hope you enjoyed, next chapters are really good. At least I think it's the next chapter that's good...I dunno...and you might not think so...but I do. Haha, well, anyway, read and review and I'll post more soon! 250th reviewer gets a walk in part, seeing as I need a couple new characters for the sequel...yay!! I'm only gonna be able to do this a few more times, I think 444 (not that I plan to get that many reviews, I just love the number 4, so if you are number 444 than I will give you a main part in the story). Only 444 reviews is a lot, and way too much to hope for, so I'll just shoot for 250, kay? And I'm still trying for my 100,000 word goal too! I have so much to do! But now I'm just rambling, so click the little button to review and give me some feedback, ideas, complaints (but only if you phrase them nicely and in a constructive way or if they are justifyable-i.e. i spelled your name wrong) and then sit back and wait for me to post the next chappie. I normally post again after about 10 reviews from a given chapter, or when I get home, or when I have it written. Whichever comes first.