Chapter Twenty One

Metalmouth, Red and Squirt.

Lily was having a good day. Or good week. Actually, now she thought about it, it had been a pretty good year up to about now. All was well, Livvy was good, as she pretty much always as, easy going and happy, Lainie was good, being her usual high flying self and flirting with the school player, Sirius Black. Lily was somewhere in between, Happy and cheerful, James watching her every move, which felt pretty good actually. They weren't a couple but flirted so much that everyone had started to wish that they would just hurry and get it together.

She strolled down the corridors from her Head Girl meeting. Her arms were crossed over her white shirt and grey vest and she flicked her red hair, which curled about her shoulders. She heard someone behind her and turned around.

"Lily" James said, panting from running to catch up with her. She is gorgeous, he thought to himself, looking at her, her curly copper hair and green eyes sparkling. She smiled, showing her small white teeth.

"James." She said, as he fell into step with her. She looked at his messy black hair, which was scruffy and his uniform, dirty and rumpled compared to her ironed pristine one.

"Want to go for a walk." James said, grinning, trying to ignore his thumping heart.

"James, it ten o clock at night. And it's dark and cold. Much as I'd like to............." Lily said, smiling at him.

"Oh right." James said, feeling very stupid.

"Come on. I'll even race you." Lily said, flirtatiously, flicking her hair coquettishly, then taking off down the corridor. James took after her and pounded down the hall after her. Lily managed to make it to the portrait and clambered in just before James reached her. He threw himself through the portrait and just made it through. He grabbed Lily round the waist and tackled her towards the couch.

"James" she shrieked as she landed on the couch.

"Sorry Lily, couldn't resist." James said.

"Shut up you, at least I won." Lily said, ruffling his hair.

"No you didn't." James said, indignantly.

"Did so." Lily said.

"Did not." James said, lifting her up and holding her off the ground, enjoying watching her struggle as he was too tall for her to reach the ground.

"God, you two," Lainie said, appearing down the stairs, rolling her eyes.

"Get a room." Sirius said, looking up from the table where he was doing his homework. Lily and James blushed.

"Here, Lainie, let me left you up so you can pretend to struggle." Sirius said sarcastically, trying to left her up but discovering she was too tall. Discovering this wasn't going to work, he swept all of her up and spun her around, grinning satisfied.

"Put me down, you loser." Lainie said.

"No, I'll carry you to the end of the earth." Sirius said, gallantly.

"The couch would do." Lainie said, sarcastically "Thank you." She said, landing on the couch with a thump. Lily and James were very amused watching these two; they rolled their eyes at one another. Talk about flirting.

"Anyway, Lily, how was the rest of your day. I didn't see you after lunch." Lainie said, sounding surprised.

"Oh, I was organizing something for Professor Binns." Lily said, trying to keep a straight face and not succeeding. Quickly before she burst out laughing, she grabbed Lainie's hand and the two of them ran upstairs.

They burst into their dorm, chattering and giggling, like six year olds. They bounced and sat down on Lily's bed and lay down, Lainie's black hair mingling with Lily's burnished copper curls. Lily sighed happily, "So, what are we going to this weekend, Lainie." She said, happily, looking up as Livvy entered into their room, smiling slightly, the sun on her golden hair and her white shirt, grey skirt and long grey socks above slightly scuffed black shoes, she looked like a perfect student. She lay down beside the other two and kicked her shoes off.

"Good day, girls?" She said, fiddling with the silver bracelet on her wrist. Remus gave it to her as a present for Christmas.

"Yip. James exploded our cake we were making in the' microwave' thing in Muggle Studies. He put it on for a hundred minutes instead of twenty. Dick." Lainie said shaking her head.

"What's a micro thing for anyway, Lil."

"Cooking. I thought James was good at Muggle Studies." Lily said puzzled.

"He is, just not so good at the, um, 'homely' tasks. He burnt three shirts with the 'iron' and nearly exploded the oven. But he's good with TV's and stuff." Lainie said.

"Typical man." Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"But you love him anyway. Right." Livvy said, cheekily.

"No." Lily said carefully.

"Yes." They other two said.

"Well, maybe. But moving on, what shall we do this weekend? Lainie's got Quidditch training and Livvy and I have to run an extra charms study class, but apart from that, we are free." Lily said, as the other two exchanged glances.

"What, you two." Lily asked.

"We just didn't really know you stalked us." Livvy said.

"But you're lucky we've known you for so long and that we still love you, despite you're many strange habits." Lainie said, ruffling Lily's hair.

"Oh my God guys, I've got something I need to show you. I found it over the summer." Livvy said, jumping up and returning to the bed with a photo. The other two peered at it.

"Oh my God, wow, I love it. And the braces, Lainie" Lily said, grinning at the photo.

The photo was one of them taken at the end of second year by the lake. Lily had two long red plaits and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. She still had the same large green eyes which sparkled, her uniform was baggy, and her massive grey socks nearly overshadowed her small black shoes. Next to her was Livvy, with a thick blonde fringe and two curly blonde ponytails. Her eyes peered out through square glasses. She was tiny, at least a head and a half shorter than the other two. Lainie was head and shoulders above the other two and her mouth was a mass of metal. Her braces clouded her teeth and her black hair was falling out from her ponytail.

"Do you remember what James used to call us?" Lainie asked, linking her arms through the other two's.

"Course." Lily said, "Metalmouth, Red and Squirt."

After Quidditch on Saturday, Sirius was waiting for James to come down so they could go raid the kitchens for food. He was just wondering what he would get when he was interrupted.

"JA-AMES" Lainie yelled, coming out in a singlet and jeans.

"Shiiit" she said, upon discovering Sirius in the common room. "I wasn't expecting anyone." She said, smiling.

"Anything I can help you with?" he said, helpfully.

"Want to help me find my keys?" she said, hopefully.

"Okay." He agreed.

"You want to help me find my keys?" Lainie said, shocked.

"Yip."

"Cool. Now just the slight problem of the stairs..." Lainie said, thoughtfully.

They were in the girls dorm looking for her keys, well, Lainie was looking for them. Sirius was looking at her photos and through her stuff.

"What are you looking at," Lainie said, looking over his shoulder.

"Your photos and stuff." He replied. "Not for my keys?" she said. "No. these are way more interesting." He said as he turned around so he was facing her, extremely close to her actually. He looked at her, she was gorgeous, he thought to himself. Black hair falling into her eyes, amazing blue eyes and that smile, what a loser he thought to himself, you have this hot girl in front of you but you're too scared to make a move.

Lainie thoughts were quite similar. He is really quite good looking, she thought, okay, really good looking. He did have almost all the females in the school in love with him. Except Livvy and Lily. And her, of course, she didn't like him like that. Well, she might. But he didn't know that. She studied him. He had black hair which fell into his eyes, it was cutely messy and he was constantly pushing it out of his eyes; an action which made every girl in a twenty meter radius sigh. His eyes were dark chocolaty brown and slightly mischievous. He was slightly taller than her and lanky but muscled. Christ, Lainie realized, I'm thinking like one of his fan club. Say something; he'll probably think I'm lost in his eyes or something like that. Say something, please, say something, anything.......

While Lainie was panicking about what she should say, Sirius could see that she didn't know what to say and was quite enjoying it. She was turning redder and redder. Finally he decided to put her out of her misery and he tackled her onto her the bed.

"Hey," she protested as she hit the bed and he flopped next to her.

"What was that for?"

"Well, you obviously couldn't think of what to say to me. So I helped you out." He said, cheekily.

"I was just...... thinking." She said, fumbled for words.

"Nah, you're just another girl who is irresistible to my incredible charm and good looks." Sirius said, with a smile which said 'who could resist me'.

"Now you are so wrong." She said, punching him gently on the arm.

"Ahh, that old chestnut. The I soooo don't think Sirius is the sexiest thing on two legs chestnut." He said, wrapping a strand of her hair round his finger.

"Hey," she said, pulling her hair out of his finger.

"You are so wrong, I think it's the Lainie Robinson is the sexiest thing ever chestnut." She smiled, enjoying his shocked face. Then he leaned over her and leaned in by her ear. She could feel his breath on her neck and it almost made her shiver.

"Now there." He whispered, "You may be right." She felt the heat creeping up her face, she knew she would be bright red. And she knew how much he would be enjoying how flattered she was. And, true to form, he was, more than anything.

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