A/N: thank you to everyone!!! And half-blood prince? Excuse me?

Disclaimer: Do I look like JK Rowling?

Chapter 22

James and Sirius were obsessed. With Quidditch. They had everything to do with Quidditch. Brooms, books, stickers, autographs and everything you could possibly have! They weren't the only ones either. Gemini, Katie and Anna were Quidditch mad as well.

Lily hated Quidditch. She didn't see the point in it at all. It was a load of stupid people who obviously had a death wish, flying around on sticks. She didn't see what all the fuss was about. Football was bad enough and that wasn't even that dangerous. Why did everyone get so excited about Quidditch? It was just like every other sport! Stupid and pointless.

Another thing Lily hated, well not really hated, but strongly disliked was Katie. She was so irritating. She followed her and Gemini round constantly nowadays. She couldn't understand. What was so interesting about her and Gemini she couldn't see. No offence to Gemini or anything.

It wasn't the fact that she was horrible or anything. The total opposite, she was really nice. It was the constant talking. She didn't stop. She talked and talked and talked all the time. Every single minute of every single day. It was so irritating.

Katie started off as friends with James and Sirius but had grown apart from them lately. She said it was because she wanted some friends that were girls and that this was her way of doing it. By talking them to death.

"Have you ever watched the muggle show Big Brother?" Lily asked Gemini. Gemini hadn't so Lily went on. "Well it's this television programme where twelve people are put into a house together and aren't allowed to leave."

"That doesn't sound very nice!" Gemini said, startled at the idea of a human zoo.

"They go on it out of their own choice. Well, anyway, I feel like we're in it sometimes. Like we can't get away from her!" Lily said, exasperatedly.

"Get away from who?" Gemini asked, confused.

"Katie, she's been following us," Lily said.

"Has she?" Gemini asked.

"Yes, haven't you noticed?" Gemini shook her head, "Well it's really irritating me! She won't leave us alone, she's always there and she's ALWAYS talking!"

"Woah! Calm down Lils!" Gemini said, "She's really not that bad. Once you get to know her that is."

"But how can you get to know her? That's what I don't understand. She talks constantly!" Lily moaned.

"Honestly Lils, have you never sat down and talked to her instead of just listening? Have you ever tried to get to know her?" Gemini said.

"But Gemini! She's so irritating! And annoying, and horrible, and small, and really, really sickening to watch, and…" but what else Katie was in Lily's eyes Gemini never knew because there was a small sob at the door and a flash of brown hair rushed out of the doorframe.

"Great Lils, now you've done it. Well she won't be stalking you anymore will she," Gemini said sarcastically.

"I never said she was stalking me!" Lily said.

"Whatever," and Gemini left the room in search of Katie.

Lily flopped down on her bed, stunned. How could her best friend just leave like that? It wasn't like she didn't have a proper argument or anything. Her argument was sensible, true and fair. Katie was annoying and she was following her and Gemini around all the time. Now she doubted that either Katie or Gemini would talk to her again. Life was unfair.

Gemini rushed down the stairs and followed the other girl out of the Common Room.

"Katie! Katie!" she shouted, but the girl didn't stop. "Please let me talk to you!" The dark-haired girl rushed through the crowd of people in the corridor and down the stone steps into the library. Gemini tried to stop her but was stopped from going into the room by a lunch time supervisor who said that the library was full.

Remus Lupin sat in the library copying out spells into his notebook. He was helping the librarian put back the books that people had rented and he thought he might as well learn something new as he did it. First years normally weren't allowed to work in the library but because of Lupin's keenness he was hired straight away.

"Excuse me, excuse me! You're not allowed to chew in the library! No food in here! It's one of the rules!" he said to a group of fourth years, they just laughed at him and blew even bigger bubbles. "Mr Snoop! Mr Snoop sir! They're not obeying the rules!" he squeaked. The fourth years glared at him whilst they took out their gum and held it in their hands. One of them leaned against a bookshelf and stuck theirs on one of the books.

"What's this Mr Lupin? They're what?" Dreyfus Snoop the librarian said icily as he hobbled over to Lupin and the fourth years.

"They were chewing sir" Lupin said. Standing up straight and smoothing out the creases in his robes.

"Really boys? Chewing? Chewing in MY library?" he said, in his slippery voice. They all gulped and moved their hands around, the chewing gum was obviously becoming hard. "And what's this?" he said, lifting out one of the books from a nearby shelf, the one the boy had stuck his gum to. "OH MY!" he shouted and dropped the book. "Detention all of you! You will sort out that pile of books" he said, pointing at a mountain by his desk, "into alphabetical order! Tomorrow lunchtime. I shall see you then!"

"But sir!" Lupin said, after the boys had gone, "that was my job!"

"Quiet Lupin!"

"Remus!" someone sobbed from behind him. He turned around and saw Katie with tears running down her face.

"Katie! What's wrong?" he asked. But he couldn't understand a word she was saying, she was crying too hard and mumbling all he words. "Come on," he said and took her away from the library and into the school grounds. He sat her down on a bench near to the greenhouses and tried to get her to talk again.

"It'snotfairwhydoesshehatemesomuchwhathaveieverdonetoher?" she rambled out then started breathing heavily. She breathed faster and faster and tears were still streaming down her face. Lupin didn't know what to do. She was having a panic attack and Remus had never seen any one do this before. He had no idea what to do. He'd heard Sirius say that you just slapped them but he doubted that that would work.

"Calm down Katie, things can't be as bad as they seem. Even if whomever you're talking about does hate you, which I'm sure they don't, you still have loads of good friends. Like me, James and Sirius and Anna and everyone likes you! You can tell me all about it and I'll sit here and listen if you just calm down."

Slowly Katie's breathing returned to normal and she dried her eyes with the sleeve of her robe. She looked at Remus; he obviously meant what he'd said so she decided to tell him everything about what had happened in the dormitory.

"Well who cares what she thinks! She's so full of herself anyway! And at least Gemini likes you, and I do and James and Sirius do! You've got loads of friends, so don't worry about what she thinks! Ignore her and show her how you don't need her!" Remus said.

"Thanks Remus, you're a great friend!" Katie said and hugged him. They sat and talked about the Quidditch match next week; Hufflepuff versus Gryffindor when they heard raised voices coming their way.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU WERE DOING WITH HER! YOU WERE STILL WITH HER!"

"WE'RE ONLY FRIENDS! THAT'S IT! SHE WAS HELPING ME WITH MY HOMEWORK!"

"I'M SURE SHE WAS, AND WHAT ELSE WAS SHE HELPING YOU WITH?"

"THAT'S IT! SHE'S ONE OF MY SISTER'S FRIENDS!"

"WELL, I DID WONDER WHAT A THIRD YEAR WOULD WANT WITH YOU! YOU'RE SCUM!"

"SAR-AH!"

"DON'T YOU SAR-AH ME! YOU'RE DUMPED ANDREW WOOD! I DON'T WANT YOU TO EVER TALK TO ME AGAIN!"

Remus and Katie watched as Sarah Chadwick stormed away looking very cross indeed. Andrew Wood dragged himself along behind looking very upset. He was telling the truth but Sarah wouldn't listen to him. He saw Remus and Katie and went to sit with them.

"You hear that?" he asked them.

"Yeah"

"Sorry mate"

"Ah, it's ok, I was getting sick of holding her hand anyway!" he sighed. All three of them sat there staring out across the school grounds. Watching the sun laugh and dance merrily over the lake, which was slowly thawing out.

"Women!" the three of them sighed and laughed.

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