SOMA

3.

Sirius Black's head was surrounded by dark green flames which licked at his handsome face and fashionably messy hair. Frustration masked his face and he kept looking back into the flames of the fireplace suspiciously, as if someone was watching. Remus had an idea he was looking out for Peter Pettigrew. They all considered Peter to be a friend, but he had been grating on all their nerves as of late.

"Alright, Padfoot?" Remus grinned, seeing the distress in Sirius's eyes.

"I tell you, Moony, she is driving me mad." He said emphatically "It's like living with bloody Narcissa again. All she does is talk about nothing and I can't exactly get away from it, can I? I mean, at least Peter has no dignity and can meet her every wish. I think he's in love with her, if you really want to know. The poor fool's following her around like he's in love with her, anyway. Ugh, that's disgusting. Peter. In love." A wild look came into Sirius's eyes then. "I must get back to London, Remus. Can you please do something about getting us out of here."

"Oh come on, Sirius." Remus laughed, "Dorcas and Peter aren't that bad."

Sirius sent Remus a severe look. "It's not just that, Remus. It's this city. There is definitely something unfriendly going on here. I don't know what it is." He paused and looked back again. "Bugger," he mumbled to himself and then yelled something toa personin the room on his end of the fireplace.

Remus always thought Sirius looked rather like a darker, more masculine version of James. They both sported the fashionably tousled black hair, they both had hazel eyes, remarkably pale English complexions, lean Quidditch builds, and average heights. Perhaps they looked alike because they had grown up together, Remus wasn't sure. But there was definitely something different in the ways that they carried themselves.

Sirius thought the world was against him, and behaved rather like a thick-headed teenager with a superiority complex. James was less arrogant, more cautious, but just as emotional. At some point, he had started feeling not like the world was against him, but leaning on his shoulders. James was far more self-involved than Sirius. He generally thought everything was about himself but for the most part it always was.

"Remus?" Sirius asked, bringing a hand out of the flames to wave and get his friend's attention. "Mate? Where's James?"

"In his room." Remus said, rolling his eyes. "Sulking."

"Oh god," Sirius groaned. "What's happened?"

Remus tossed himself down in one of the large over-stuffed chairs that populated the living room area. "I ran into Lily." He said. "It was interesting. She's getting married to Thomas McCarthy. Know him?"

"Oooh. Yeah, I do know him. Class guy… Did Prongs take it badly?"

"Well," Remus shrugged and pushed his fingers against his temples. "That combined with the fact that Lucious Malfoy can actually sue James for stalking him…"

"No fucking way"

"Yeah." Remus nodded. "Next thing you know, Voldemort's going to be prosecuting us for attempted murder or something."

"This is absolutely bollix!" Sirius exclaimed, "This would never have happened with James's Father as Minister"

Remus gave a short sarcastic laugh "Well, there was a reason Voldemort had him killed, then" he muttered.

"Bugger off," Sirius said and Remus was about to retort when he realized Sirius was talking to someone else on his end of the floo. Sirius's head came back and he sighed. "Dorie used to date Thomas McCarthy's younger brother Stephen. You have to get me out of here Moony." He added quickly, and then "Fuck off Meadows. I've had it out of you—what?"

"What is it?"

Dorcus Meadow's dark head appeared in the fire place. She was a small woman of about twenty-five with sleek auburn hair and brown eyes that usually had a decent amount of black shadow around them. She might have been small but there was something utterly defiant and stubborn about her person. She was wearing dark purple robes and glaring at Sirius out of the corner of her eye. "Did you find the book by Etienne de Cardieneaux?" she asked

"Er--- yes, how do you know about that, though?" Remus asked

"Sirius told me, of course." she said off handedly. "It used to be in my family's collection. My grandmother sold it to Flourish and Botts. I had one of my old house elves look it up in the registry. I knew it was familiar."

"Do you have a point?" Sirius said loudly.

"Sod off, Sirius. You're just upset because you can't read." She snapped and then looked back at Remus. "That book is the best idea James has had thus far. Not that I'm promoting dark magic. He needs to have someone watch him while he does it."

"James isn't doing any dark magic." Remus said stoutly. "He's just looking at it for ideas. We already had an incident a few years ago with Tom Riddle when James went off the deep end with dark magic. He knows better."

Dorie snorted "Please, who do you think you're all fooling? Sometimes measures must be taken for a greater good. Like getting me the fuck out of the Eastern Block for a start." shecrossed herarms and stared pointedly at Remus. "I went to Durmstrong, remember... If he needs assistance."

"There isn't going to be any bloody dark magic, Meadows" Sirius fumed at her. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"You're a fool," She said emphatically.

Remus sighed and left the room, letting the two fight it out in the fireplace.

-

Lily couldn't concentrate on dinner. She was sitting at a large table in the dining room of her and Thomas's house in London. Thomas's parents were one of the older pureblood families so even with the meager salary he made as an Auror there was always a steady flow of gold from the massive vault in Gringotts.

She was sitting across from Thomas and besideher future sister-in-law Laurel Chang-McCarthy, a pretty woman a bit older than Lily who was married to Thomas's brother Stephen. They had two kids together and Laurel talked about how worried she was leaving her babies at home with a sitter for a while before the conversation moved to the ever present topic of the war. Thomas was an Auror and his brother worked for the Ministry but for the most part they both did their best to pretend it didn't exist.

The reality of it was the Ministry and the Aurors could not do much to stop Voldemort, there was too much resistance and bullshit involved. It took people like the Order of Phoenix to do anything in the way of progress. There it was again. Thinking about the past. Thinking about the Order, about Remus, about James. Bastard.

She and Laurel started talking about the wedding and how big and splendid and elegant it would all be. Lily wasn't paying attention though. She would look at her ring and see how beautiful it was or how stylish and sleek the décor of the dining room was or just how fine the dresses she and Laurel were wearing were an all it did tonight instead of making her happy reminded her of the war. Of the people dying. Of the Order. Of James. It made her want to scream or at least escape from the dinner party to take a muggle prescription drug or two.

"Lily are you quite alright?" asked Stephan. "You look quite faint."

"No, I'm perfectly fine," she said, smiling thinly at him. "I feel a bit tired, though. You know, working with books all day" she gave a tittering laugh and Laurel joined in with her so that they sounded like twin bells.

"Oh, I do envy you Lily. I wish I still had the time or energy to have a little job for myself. You know? But once I had the twins there was just no time. Perhaps when they get a bit older I'll go work in a little café or something."

Lily nodded. She didn't like the way that had sounded. Like working in a bookstore was some kind of novelty—some last straw of independence from her husband's life. Was she being paranoid? She must be. She loved her job and she loved Thomas. Their eyes met over the table, and she smiled at him, remembering she wanted to be there afterall.

After Stephen and Laurel left, Lily sat down at her night table and got ready for bed. On an impulse she got a piece of parchment and a quill and started writing a letter.

"Who's that for?" asked Thomas, sideling up next to her. "Secret admirer?"

She elbowed him. "Of course not, I ran into my old friend Remus Lupin today at work. I think I'm going to ask him to have lunch with me tomorrow."

"Remus Lupin? He works for Professor Dumbledore, right?"

"Yeah" she said, chewing on the end of the quill. She settled for a quick note and handed it to Thomas to read while it dried.

Thomas smiled at her lovingly, "Sounds great, love" he said, pulling her into his arms. Lily felt a twinge of something in her chest as he did so. Although she didn't want to admit it to herself she knew exactly what—or rather who it was twinging and reminding her. And she knew that now that it was back she would have a time getting rid of him.

-

Remus,

Sorry if I was short with you today. It was really nice to see you. You're a good friend and I missed you. I'm sorry. Shall we get lunch tomorrow?

See you then,

Lily.

-

simplysarcstic: thank you, i'm glad you like it. hopefully you'll like where i take it. :D

jewels5: i turned off the review blocker-thing. thanks. :D. thanks for saying you think it's original. hopefully i can keep it that way, so much of the lily/james stories are exactly. the. same. you know?

ta, guys.

leave me a love note? please?