Disclaimer: I don't own this. You know that. I know that. My stuffed bear knows that.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry. Did I mention I'm sorry? I just was completely unable to write on this story. But I think it's getting I'm thankful for all your reviews! They make me smile. I'm so sorry it's been so long. Enjoy the chapter. It's longer than the last one. Like twice as long. I think.

Replies—

Gwendolyn James—Thanks. You're in luck, I'm finally updating. Hehe.

Ron-lover-for-life—Thanks. Eventually she will, I can't promise how long it'll be before she cracks though.

Siriusforeva—Yeah, I feel bad for them too. Trust me, I think you're about to feel even worse for Lily after this chapter.

Bulgly—Thanks. I really liked that chapter too. I felt that I got to show the side of Sirius people don't tend to see.

Susan D—Thanks! That's exactly what I was going for.

Squidluvr4eva—hehe, oh yes she should.

Leha—Thanks

Faerie Lover—That was Sirius's honest and (please, please forgive the pun) serious side. I see him as totally loyal to James and having that kind of reaction if somebody was hurting James like Lily is now. Besides, in Order of the Phoenix, remember how moody Sirius got? I can see him really getting angry like this. Aw, thanks for saying I'm a great author. blush I'm not really, this was supposed to end like 6 chapters ago. Not a sob story, just finally introducing some plot. Sorry it's been so long since I updated. I've only got a few lines of the next chapter done. I had my big AP exam on Friday and I was studying all week and I had to work on a huge Latin project.

Frankie Beeblebrox—Thanks. I think I'd go for "terrified" rather than interesting when it comes to Sirius Black threatening me. Hehe.

BrokenSkye—This chapter is longer. This is mainly Lily, but I'll try and bring some more James in. I've got a lot of James in one of my other stories, so this is kind of a lot of Lily.

Aihjah—Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. I try to keep everybody as canon as I can.

Gryffspopgurl—Thanks. Don't worry, this is almost twice as long I think.

Maria—Glad you liked the court theme. I was nervous about it.

Feline-go-meow—Thanks. I'll try and get over to read the stories soon. I'm way behind on stories I promised to read and I really want to read them. I'll try and get to them soon. Not much school left.

Briana Marie—That chapter was one of my favorites to write. Yeah, I felt bad about torturing her in this story…I always have so much fun torturing James. I decided it was his turn not to be tortured, though he is hurting on the inside. Hope you like this chapter.

SnufflestheInsane—Thanks. Yeah, the first few chapters are pointless and dumb, and then a plot appears out of nowhere. Hehe. Sure you can borrow the court idea. I love when somebody likes my ideas enough to ask if they can borrow them.

Ashley48506—Thanks.

GryffindorGoddess28—Those are good ideas, but I already had this chapter kinda planned, but some of them might work later in the story. Hope you like this!

Swishy Willow Wand—Hope this was soon enough.

J.E.A.R.K.Potter—Thanks. Yeah, it made me sad a little too when I was writing it.

Clyana—I hope your exam went okay. I don't think Sirius was trying to be mean just to be mean, he was trying to stand up for James because James is his best friend.

Tigerlily98—Thanks. Hope you like this.

Horseluver—Thanks

Harryandginnyforever—Thanks.

FlamezFlyer—Thanks. The trial isn't in this chapter but it's coming. I really liked writing the speech for Sirius. I think it was really him. You know how he gets all moody during Order of the Phoenix sometimes?

rOkstA—hehe. It might take her a while to come to her senses, but she'll come around eventually.

Lil Bazza—Thanks. I see Sirius as more moody than angry. Just kinda sulky, you know? Thanks, it will…eventually. Time to cue evil suspense music. Hehe.

Hi Im Crazy—Thanks. This chapter is like twice as long.

DOJ—Thanks. Glad you liked it!

Chapter 8: Ignored

When Lily woke up, no one was in her dormitory. She figured she must have overslept because she'd been up so late, but that still didn't account for this. Her alarm should have gone off. Someone would have woken her. Now she only had about 15 minutes to get ready, eat, and get to class.

She decided that she had no choice but to forgo this morning shower. She looked through her trunk and couldn't find her robes, eventually she found them under her bed. After that, it was her socks. She could not find two matching socks anywhere. In the end she was so frustrated that she wore one red sock and one green sock. She gathered her books, which she hadn't gotten a chance to put together the night before as she usually did, and left the tower at a dead run.

Why didn't they wake me? she thought again, as she ran breathlessly.

She skidded to a stop in the Great Hall and took a seat at the end of the table and started chewing on a piece of toast.

She hardly had a moment to eat before it was time for class to start and she had to leave. She was still chewing on toast as she hurried to class.

Her bag ripped when she was still two hallways away and she was five minutes late after having to gather all her books.

Fortunately she had charms and she was Flitwick's favorite student. He didn't punish her.

On the other hand, two Ravenclaw girls shot her death glares as she sat down and she could have sworn one of them tried to trip her when she went up to Flitwick's desk later to ask a question.

When she went out in the hallway to go to her next class no one spoke to her. She tried to say something to a Hufflepuff friend of hers, but apparently the girl didn't hear her.

In Transfiguration, someone pulled Lily's chair out from under her when she was about to sit down. Lily suspected it was the Hufflepuff who sat behind her and was friends with James. What was going on today? People seemed to be ignoring her and now deliberately trying to make things difficult. What had she ever done to William? What had she ever down to Dorcas and Elphias to cause them to glare at her in Charms?

She looked around as she got up to see if maybe James had told William to do this. No, he was sitting there, staring at the wall with his head in his hands, taking no notice of anything.

She started paying attention the lesson again and forgot everyone's unusual behavior.

At lunch, Lily went down to the Great Hall and tried to sit between two girls she knew. They immediately scooted closer to each other on the bench, a deliberate sign that she was not supposed to sit with them. This happened three more times, with 7 other people.

Finally, Lily sat on the end of the table, alone.

She would have sat with Alice, but she couldn't find her anywhere.

After a lonely lunch, she left the table early to go wait outside of her next class.

She was waiting and there were about ten minutes left before class was supposed to start when Remus showed up.

"What's going on, Re?" she asked. She was the only one allowed to call him Re, and she knew it. She used the nickname now to show that she wanted honest answers and that he was her friend and deserved to get honest answers.

"Lillers," he said, using her old nickname as well; the nickname only he was allowed to use. "I'm your friend, so that's the only reason I'm speaking to you now. I'm giving you a warning. You're not paranoid. Everybody really is out to get you. I'm your friend, but I'm James's too. You've hurt him, and you've hurt him bad. I'm not going to stand to see him getting treated like this. Neither will Sirius or Peter, or his other friends. Sirius and James have a lot of friends." He was suddenly very interested in staring at his shoe. "James doesn't know it, but Sirius has been calling in favors and getting people on his side. Between Quidditch and overall popularity, James and Sirius both have a lot of friends."

"You said that already."

Remus's eyes shot up at her. "Shut-up. I'm getting to the point. James doesn't know it, but Sirius put the word out that you've hurt James and a lot of people here don't want to see him hurt. He's been talking to people all day and getting them to talk to other people. You've got most of the female population and at least a quarter of the male population here against you. Thought you ought to know that."

"You're not against me, are you?"

Remus gave her a sympathetic look before he continued. "I know this is hard on you, but you can't play with other people's feelings. I'm…I'm not speaking you again until you make your mind up about him one way or the other. I'm sorry, but that's the way it has to be. You can't treat people like yo-yos."

"But, Re—"

"No, Lily. No 'Re'. We're done until you decide. You have to make up your mind."

Just then, the rest of the class started showing up and Remus turned his back on her to talk to his friends.

Lily sat alone during Potions. Normally she would have sat with Remus or Alice, but Remus wasn't speaking to her of course and Alice didn't turn up until just before class started. She was breathing heavily as though she had run to the dungeon all the way from Gryffindor tower (which she had). She grabbed a seat next to Frank and scribbled a quick note to Lily that said, "I've got big news. I'll talk to you after class or when we get up to get something from the student supply cabinet." She discreetly dropped the note and kicked it to Lily.

Lily picked it up, read it, and crumpled it up again.

Eventually it was time to get things from the student supply cupboard and Alice caught Lily's eye when she got up.

"Alice, everyone's been horrible to me today," whispered Lily. "They've ignored me and been deliberately rude. That never happens to me. And it's everybody."

"Sirius is behind it."

"I know," Lily said grimly. "I heard he's been talking to people."

"More than that, look what I found." Alice grabbed a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.

Lily took it and read it. "Are you tired of girls who think guys have no feelings? Are you a friend of James Potter? James has been hurt by one of these heartless fiends and needs your help. I'm placing banning myself from any friendly contact with Lily Evans, who has treated James just like this! She made him think she liked him, dated him in secret, and then humiliated himself in front of the common room. Join me, Sirius Black, in making her miserable and earning James some self-respect back!" Underneath was a poorly drawn illustration of a stick figure girl with red hair and green eyes holding a knife with a heart on it. "Where did you get this?" asked Lily, almost trembling.

"The common room, somebody must have left it there. But that's not all. I heard Sirius got people to take these flyers into the other house common rooms too. And, I don't know how he managed it, probably by batting his eyes at some girl; he got posters up all along the girls' dormitory staircase. When everybody was leaving for class to start at the end of lunch, I checked the boys' dormitory. Flyers inside every dorm but the 7th year guys. I guess Sirius didn't want James to know about them."

"So that's where you were."

Suddenly there was explosion, some smoke, and when the smoke cleared Lily looked back to see that her cauldron was melting rapidly. Someone came over then and had the decency (or maybe not) to pour cool water on it to stop the melting, but by then all that remained was a large metal blob. The desk was mostly ruined too.

Professor Turpin looked exasperated, "Who did that?" She looked back at the usual suspects. James Potter was sitting quietly in a corner, staring at the wall. Sirius Black looked grim. Remus Lupin was scribbling down notes from the board. Severus Snape was playing with a piece of string. Who else would have tried to destroy Lily Evans's cauldron? Lily was such a good girl. "Miss Evans, why don't you go share Mr. Longbottom's cauldron?"

They got the rest of their ingredients and Lily sat between Alice and Frank.

Frank gave her a sarcastic grin. "Isn't bloody awful to be on Black's hit list?" he asked.

Hope you liked this. I swear I won't go so long between updates again. I just had no will to write and no idea what to write. I'm going to try to update all my stories equally now and in order so this should be about every 4th or 5th update. Hope you like this. Thanks for your patience. Again, I'm so sorry for the long wait! But for once, I do have the next chapter started. A whole 2 sentences. I know, I know. Sorry. PLEASE don't hate me.