Lily Evans, Annmarie Shipley, and Gwendolyn Carter had been best friends since day one of Hogwarts. At first glance, they all seemed so different from each other that it seemed nearly impossible for them to be in the same room with each other, let alone be best friends, but they were, and they knew that they always would be.

Lily Evans had long, beautiful red hair that reached her mid-back and emerald green eyes that could captivate nearly anyone. Annmarie was slightly shorter than Lily, with jet black hair with red streaks in it and deep blue eyes that were currently lined with black eyeliner. Gwen was the smallest of the three, and had deep chestnut colored hair and brown eyes that had golden flecks in them. Needless to say, the three were the most gorgeous girls in Hogwarts and were loved by nearly everyone- four boys in particular. The three friends were currently sitting in a circle on the floor of their compartment, laughing and chatting merrily after an entire summer of being apart.

"Lily, I'm begging you, PLEASE tell me you didn't read through half of our school books already" Annmarie said dramatically, looking at her pleadingly.

Lily looked affronted and brushed her long hair over her shoulder and said, "I didn't."

"Oh, thank Merlin. I was really going to start worrying about you then—" But Annmarie cut herself off when she saw Lily start to grin slyly. "Uh-oh…. What?"

"I read through all of them." Lily finished happily.

Annmarie groaned and put her head in her hands while Lily and Gwen started laughing.

"Honestly, Lily" Annmarie said, her voice slightly muffled by her hands. She looked up and continued, "That's unorthodox."

"Wow, Annmarie!" Gwen exclaimed in mock surprise. "You used a big word! Congratulations!"

Lily giggled and said, "Don't go congratulating her yet, Gwen, be sure she knows what it means first."

Annmarie glowered at them for a minute and said with an exaggerated pout, "Sheesh, only been back a couple hours and you're already making fun of me."

At this both Lily and Gwen started laughing anew and shaking her head slightly, Lily moved to sit next to her and wrapped her arms around her neck. "Awww, Annmarie, you know we love you."

Annmarie sighed and patted Lily's head as she said, "Yes, yes, darling, I know. And I love you too." She then grinned mischievously and sprang up to lie down on the seat, and let her head hang off the back so she was looking at Lily upside down. "But you know who loves you more?" She asked with a grin, waggling her eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Oh, no, Annmarie, if you even THINK it—"

"James Potter."

Lily groaned and pulled a disgusted face as Gwen said, "Oh, really, Annmarie, don't remind her."

"You know, Lily, I will honestly never understand why you don't like him. He's smart, funny, amazingly good looking—"

"Arrogant, pig headed, self- centered—"

Annmarie ignored her and continued, "And I honestly don't think that there is any boy in Hogwarts who could possibly be better then him—well, Sirius, of course—but other then that, there's no one. You have one of Hogwarts' best bachelor's after you and you're treating him like dirt!"

Annmarie finished her rant with a flourish and looked up at them expectantly, waiting for Lily's usual protesting concerning James' affections towards her. Both Lily and Gwen, however, were looking at her suspiciously with sly grins on their faces. Annmarie sat up properly and pull her legs up so she was sitting Indian style on the bench. "What?" she asked them in confusion, now looking at them right-side up.

"Who is the only boy better then James Potter?" Gwen asked giddily.

Annmarie gave her a funny look. "Gwen, what in the bloody hell are you talking about?"

Gwen ignored her however and turned to look at Lily. "Lils, have you by any chance heard of a boy named Sirius Black?"

"Why, yes, I do believe I have. He's not really my type, but I have to admit, he is quite fetching…" Lily replied innocently.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on—"

"Actually, we should be asking you that, Annmarie." Gwen said as she moved to sit next to her on the seat.

Lily sat on her other side and said, "Yeah, you never did tell us what was really going on between you two."

Annmarie blushed and said, "Who? Me? And Sirius? Oh, nothing, obviously, we're just friends…yeah, just good friends…"

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Oh please, we're not blind."

Annmarie grinned slightly then and said, "Allright, allright, we just… have this weird sort of game going on, I guess. But in all honestly, we are really good friends, you know that, we have been for ages now, and we just sort of, poke fun at each other and mess around a bit."

"You mean flirt a bit." Gwen corrected.

"We do not!" Annmarie said heatedly.

"Do too" Lily muttered quietly.

"Do not!" Annmarie said with a pout.

"Fine, fine, Annmarie, whatever you say…"

"Hmph. I do NOT like Sirius." She said, crossing her arms and slouching in her seat. When they looked down at her disbelievingly, she said quietly, "I don't."

Lily looked down at her and smiled softly, "Are you trying to convince us of that, or yourself?"

Annmarie didn't answer her, only looked down her crossed arms. Lily sighed and looked over at Gwen and mouthed, "Change the subject!"

Gwen's eyebrows scrunched together as she wracked her mind for something to say. "Oh!" she said suddenly, making the other two girls jump in shock. "I've got PICTURES!! Wanna see?" she said excitedly, bouncing slightly in her seat.

"Yeah!" Annmarie exclaimed happily, all earlier thoughts forgotten. "Where did you go again?"

Gwen replied as she rifled through her trunk. "Oh, we went to this really beautiful island in the Caribbean, bloody far away, but well worth it…"

Meanwhile, a loud bang echoed throughout the boys' compartment, and Peter's eyebrows got thoroughly singed. Once the smoke cleared, the boys looked around at each others faces, which were all covered in soot.

"Allright" Remus said, chuckling. "Maybe it's time to put this game away."

"Awww, c'mon Moony, that's no fun." James whined.

"Well, I guess we could continue playing, but you wouldn't want to be all sooty when you see a certain Ms. Evans again, would you?"

The game was back in its box before Remus even finished his sentence. They all laughed and a few spells later the four boys were clean and all eyebrows were intact.

"Speaking of Ms. Evans, where is she? Annmarie is probably with her…" Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Awww, does Sirius miss his girlfriend?" James asked mockingly.

Sirius gave him a playful shove and averted his eyes as his cheeks turned slightly pink. He considered his answer and replied carefully, "She's not my girlfriend, Prongs." He did in fact miss her, but he wasn't up to admitting that right now.

"Well, she could be." James quipped.

"Yes, well, you're one to talk, Jamsie my friend. How long have you been pursuing Ms. Evans? And tell me, how long has she been your girlfriend?" Sirius replied with a casual grin.

It was James' turn to blush as he muttered, "She's not my girlfriend, Padfoot, but not for lack of trying."

Sirius' grin grew as he mimicked, "Well, she could—"

But James cut him off by tackling him before he could finish his sentence. Remus shook his head affectionately as he stepped over their wrestling forms in order to get to the door.

"I've got to go on patrol, guys- prefect duties, and all. But perhaps a good way to solve this little dilemma would be to go find them and talk to them?" Remus winked at them. "Just a suggestion, guys." He then left the compartment, leaving James and Sirius panting on the floor and a bewildered Peter sitting on the bench.

"You know, Prongsie, I reckon our dear Moony has a point." Sirius stated.

"Mr. Padfoot, I do agree with you." He then jumped up and reached down to grab Sirius' hand and pull him to his feet. "What do you say we go find them? You go to the left, I'll go right, and just give a shout when you find them."

"Righto, Captain Prongs!" He saluted James and then turned to look at Peter. "We'll be back in a jiffy, Pete."

"Er… Sirius?" he replied hesitantly.

"What's up, Pete?" Sirius asked, turning around to look at him properly.

"What're you gonna do about your… ya no…" he used his hand to motion towards Sirius' cheek.

"Oh! Bloody hell, I almost forgot. Thanks Pete." He paused and James saw some worry creep up into his eyes. "What AM I going to do about it? Is it bad, James?"

James thought quickly before whipping out his wand and muttering a concealment charm. Instantly, the bruise on Sirius cheek faded away and was replaced with the smooth skin that was normally there. He then replaced his wand and looked at Sirius innocently. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Padfoot, mate."

Sirius smiled at him gratefully and opened his mouth to speak, but James waved his hand dismissively and said, "You ready to go?"

Sirius' smile grew into his famous grin and he said, "Absolutely."

Lily, Annmarie, and Gwen had their backs to the compartment door and were all huddled together, looking at the pictures that Gwen had taken on her vacation to the Caribbean.

"I took this one off the balcony of our room. Look how far you could see! I swear, you could see miles of clear blue water. Ooh, and you see there, that little spec on the water? That's the boat my parents went on to go scuba diving." Gwen said excitedly.

Annmarie gave her a funny look. "What in the name of Merlin is scuba diving?"

Lily and Gwen laughed at her. Annmarie was the only one of the three that grew up in the wizarding world, so they often ended up explaining many muggle things to her, which Annmarie usually never understood.

"It's when you swim really deep underwater to look at the marine life." Lily explained patiently.

"Marine life? What, like fish?" she asked, a weird look on her face. "Why would anybody want to go swim around with fish?"

"Some people find it fascinating." Gwen said, while Lily nodded her head emphatically. "I know my mum loved their different colors. All bright and exotic and everything."

Annmarie gave them an incredulous look. "So people actually risk their lives by swimming hundreds of feet underwater, where there's no air, by the way, just to see the little blue fish swim around with the little yellow fish?"

Lily and Gwen burst out laughing, and Annmarie continued to mutter to herself under her breath. "Bloody insane, if you ask me."

As Lily calmed down and caught her breath, she looked at her watch and said, "Oh, guys, I have to go."

"Prefect duties?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah. I'll be back as soon as the meeting's over. See you later." She said, standing up and moving towards the door.

"Bye Lily" Gwen said.

"Later Lils" Annmarie said. Once Lily was gone, she looked over at Gwen and said, "Show me more!"

Gwen smiled and flipped to the next picture. "Here's me on the beach. See those things in my hair? They're tiny little shells that sparkle under the light. They're so pretty."

"So are you, Gwen." Annmarie said quietly, looking down at the picture. "You look gorgeous."

Gwen blushed and said, "No more gorgeous then you, Annmarie."

Annmarie smiled sadly and shook her head. "Me? Gorgeous? Not a chance."

"I happen to disagree with you" a soft voice said from behind her.

She whipped around to see Sirius in the doorway of the compartment, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. Annmarie felt her breath catch in her chest as she looked at him and a huge smile split across her face.

"SIRIUS!" she exclaimed happily, and ran over to him and practically jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. He had to bend down slightly in order to wrap his arms around her waist, so he tightened his hold and stood up straight, bringing her feet up off the floor. She squealed slightly and pulled her head back so she was looking him in the face, and found him grinning at her.

"Miss me?" he asked cheekily.

Instead of answering him, Annmarie laughed and moved to be put down, but he only held her tighter to him, not letting her go. Annmarie sighed in mock exasperation and rolled her eyes affectionately and said, "Yes, I did, Sirius. Happy now?"

His grinned widened and he said, "Yes, very." He then set her down on her feet and turned to Gwen. "Hey Gwen" he said cheerily. "Have a nice summer?"

"Hello, Sirius" she replied with a smile, looking slyly between the two of them. "Yeah, it was fantastic, thanks" She responded.

"And what about you, Annmarie? How was your summer?" Sirius asked, not giving Gwen time to ask how his own summer was. Annmarie beat him to it though.

"My summer was fine, although it would have been better if I had heard from you once. What were you doing, that had you so busy?" she asked curiously.

His grin faded slightly and he replied genuinely, "I'm sorry, Annmarie."

Annmarie was shocked. Did Sirius just apologize? To her? For what? Thoroughly bewildered, she opened her mouth to question to him, but Sirius spoke before she had a chance to.

"I have no excuse." He then walked forward and took her hand, kissing it softly. "Forgive me?" he inquired innocently, looking up at her with puppy dog eyes.

Annmarie felt her heart melt, and she heard Gwen let out a wistful sigh. She grinned and brushed her thumb slightly over Sirius', which was still holding her hand. "Of course, Sirius. But—"

He let her hand go and interrupted her quietly. "It's getting dark out" he said, looking out the window behind her. "We'll be at school soon."

Gwen jumped up at this. "Oh, yes! We should get changed."

Sirius grinned at them and sent them sly looks as he said, "I'll leave you to it, then."

He moved to leave the compartment, but hesitated in the doorway. He then turned around and looked directly at Annmarie, a lopsided smile on his face. "And Annmarie …I think you're beautiful."

And with that he grinned at her one last time, turned around, and left the compartment.