I want to dedicate this chapter to my friend Emma. She's going through a really bad time right now so I just want to let her know I'm here for her.

To say that life was a nightmare for the next few days was a bit of an understatement. Lily had never before been the focus of everyone's attention before, and now that it was happening she didn't like it. The looks, the whispers behind her back, the rumours that Jacob finished with Alex for her and they were now an item were all ridiculous. How people could stand or want to have this everyday she did not know, but one thing she did know was that it needed to stop…somehow.

Jacob's friends rallied against him, not understanding how he could give someone as pretty and popular as Alex up. Especially for someone like Lilly; the bookish wallflower with an attitude problem. To them it was madness and so Jacob had to endure days of his friends disbelieving grunts and their statements of his stupidity.

Alex's days were a little better. The very next day after the break-up she had received a large number of invitations for dates but she turned down every one of them. It was good to know that people didn't feel sorry for her or hate her but she decided she decided she wasn't ready for another relationship. She had pretty much jumped straight into the one with Jacob after splitting up with Sirius and she didn't want to do that again, it just caused pain. And anyway, she needed to work on a plan to become Sirius' first serious girlfriend…again.

-

"Potter, hey Potter!" Lily hissed quietly one Potions lesson.

No response came from the big-headed buffoon.

"Potter!" she tried again, her voice a little louder this time.

He still didn't hear her but someone else did, and unfortunately it was Professor Jenkruss.

"This is supposed to be a silent lesson so that I can assess your individual potion-making skills. Conversing with your fellow students is not the way to do this. 30 points from Gryffindor, you have Miss Evans to thank for that."

A collective groan sounded. After the humiliating Quidditch defeat and the subsequent increase in points for Ravenclaw, Gryffindor were at the bottom in the running for the House Cup. All points mattered and they couldn't afford to lose any.

Lily gave a huffy sigh, not really caring about a few lost points; she had more important things to worry about. After scribbling a few words on a piece of parchment, Lily scrunched it up and crouched on the floor under the pre-text of picking something up. She carefully threw the parchment at James' leg, hoping it got there and that he would notice it.

Sirius' leg was itchy. Really itchy. And it wasn't the kind of itch that would simply go away when you rubbed the sole of your shoe on it. It wouldn't go; it was as though he had fleas or something. There was only one solution, his nails. Sirius' nails were long but not in a feminine kind of way, he just didn't like to cut them. It wasn't as though he filed and polished them, not often anyway.

He bent down, giving his leg a good, hard scratch. The relief he felt was immense but quickly forgotten when he found a ball of parchment by his leg. Curiosity got the better of him as he picked it up to read.

I need to talk to you. Meet me by the Willow at lunch.
Lily

A foot stood on his and when Sirius looked at its owners face he saw a look of interest on it. Sirius' own face told James all he needed to know for the moment; 'I'll tell you later'. Sirius watched as James shrugged and added another ingredient to his potion. Adding his own teaspoon of fly eggs, Sirius turned to flash Lily a charming grin. Nothing came in return.

-

'Did he just smile at me? Eww." Was Lily's first reaction before it even occurred to her to ask "why?"

She threw the fly eggs into her potion and watched as it turned a sickly yellow colour instead of dark lavender. Her eyes scanned the list once more and she realised, with a comical look of horror, she had added the wrong ingredient. Or more precisely, she had added the right ingredient twice. She now had double the amount of fly eggs and still no frogspawn.

Jenkruss informed the class they had two minutes left. 'Two minutes to sort this mess out," she thought as she hurriedly threw another load of every ingredient, finishing with two lots of frogspawn. Just in time too, as she added the last bit Jenkruss called for the potions to be bottled.

Lily's was now a deep blue but it was the best she could do now. She bottled the potion and took it to the front of the classroom, ignoring Jenkruss' raised brow and malicious sneer. As she headed back to get her bag and leave she passed the Marauders. She was ignored by two, smiled at by Remus and given a wink by Sirius. She frowned at the latter and would have been worried by his behaviour if it weren't for the fact that he was Sirius and often weird. She forgot all about it as she headed for Herbology.

-

The meeting, and the moments leading up to it, went as followed.

The bell rang, signalling the end of Charms. Sirius was one of the first people out of the room and was stood outside waiting for the others when Lily passed him.

"See you soon," he called after her.

She seemed to turn slightly but shook her head and turned back before she actually looked at him.

A hand waved in front of his face, trying to get his attention. The hand was connected to James' arm, Sirius grabbed at it.

"What?"

"Are you coming to the Great Hall for lunch?" James asked him.

"No," was Sirius' distracted reply.

"Sirius Black is turning down food?" asked Peter's incredulous voice.

"I have – er – I have things to do," Sirius replied coolly, his eyes following Lily's retreating figure down the corridor.

"Who's the lucky lady this time?" James asked, knowing his friend too well.

Remus stayed quiet throughout the whole exchange, watching Sirius as he examined Lily. With narrowed eyes he spoke, "If he's not coming, he's not coming. Let's just go."

"Good luck mate," James called back to Sirius as Remus dragged him and Peter away.

After they had gone, Sirius made a quick visit to the bathroom. Ensuring his hair was smoothed and combed he left, headed outside to meet Lily by the Whomping Willow.

"Evans," he said suavely when he was within hearing distance.

She spun around. "You're la – What are you doing here?"

She looked at him with a perfect mix of scepticism and annoyance.

"You asked me to come," he reminded her.

"No I didn't."

"Sure you did. You sent me a note in Potions."

"No I didn't."

"You did, I have it here." He pulled the crumpled parchment from deep in his pocket.

"That was for Potter, not you."

"Pot…Why are you writing notes to James?" he spoke in a suggestive voice, as though he already knew the answer.

Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. "Not for reasons you're thinking Niffler-brain. I need his help but I can see I'm not going to get it now so let's forget about it."

She began to walk away but Sirius called her back.

"Evans, wait. Maybe I can help?" he offered.

Lily stared at him blankly for a minute then laughter trickled from her mouth.

"You? You're kidding right? I didn't even want to ask Potter, it's just an emergency. I mean no offence Black but while I may be in dire need of help, I'm not desperate."

"That's not how it seems to me. Come on, give me a try. What do you need help with?"

So, against her better judgement, Lily told him, and while she agreed his plan was a good one and she would go along with it, she had a horrible feeling at least one of them would live to regret it.

-

"He was very impressed with your work," Narcissa was informed, making her smile slightly. "But they weren't quite what he was looking for. He wants something a little more…Well, with more of an edge. He said he liked the snake idea but it's not developed properly. You have a week to get it right, understand?"

Narcissa nodded. "Yes. Snake idea, but a bit more spine-tingingly chilling, right?"

Lucius smiled cruelly. "Right. Don't mess it up, everything depends on this."

"Yes, Lucius," she mumbled.

-

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention?" Sirius' voice boomed throughout the Great Hall.

Teachers and students alike turned to look at the over-confident twelve-year old standing on his chair, motioning for the red-head beside him to do the same.

"Get up her," he hissed urgently, keeping a bright smile on his face for the crowd.

The red-head sat bemused in her chair.

'What is he doing? This wasn't part of the plan," her wild thoughts told her.

"Lily," he hissed once more.

Overcoming her perplexed stubbornness, Lily stood on a chair beside the boy.

"I am aware that after the crushing defeat Gryffindor faced in the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game earlier this month, it appeared that one of our own was involved in an 'affair'. An affair that led to the separation of second year Ravenclaw Jacob Andres and another Gryffindor, second year Alexandra Fentworth. Well it is my great honour to put the record straight. Miss Lily Evans, the so-called scarlet-woman of Hogwarts, is, in fact, not the cause of this separation nor was she, or even is she, involved in a relationship with Jacob. I know this because she has assured me, Sirius Black, over and over, and as her boyfriend I feel compelled to believe her."

Whispers resounded throughout the room at this shocking declaration and at that moment at least four people saw red with anger at Sirius' announcement. This included Lily herself, 'I'll kill him,' was the thought of her and one other, while others, but mainly two, were thinking 'I'll kill her.'

A/N: Sorry for the long time to update, I haven't been able to get on the comp; my bro is obsessed with talking to his girlfriend every night. I got home before him today so I managed to get on before him otherwise you'd have longer to wait. And the reason for it being so short is that I have a long chapter that I'm splitting in two, I'll update again next week.

Oh, and I had no intention of Lily and Jacob getting together, yet anyway, I just wanted to see what you all thought about it. And a warning for the next chapter; Lily is going to come across as a bit of a "Gentlemen's woman", it's intentional, I just couldn't think of a way to wind up a certain character more than for Lily to do what she will do, you'll see.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and thanks to my reviewers of the last chapter.

Rae