Disclaimer:  I do not own any characters, places, magic or anything to do with the world of Harry Potter that you recognise.

Monday Mourning (Chapter 4)

Ari figured that something was up at breakfast on Monday morning.  Sirius was staring at her whilst trying to make it look like it wasn't – Ari knew that he was staring at her and instantly thought that he was up to something.  Lily seemed to be thinking about something else and, as a result, was talking very awkwardly to Ari.  James mainly looked worriedly at Lily, but kept giving Sirius strange looks.

Ari sighed.  "Okay – will you lot tell me what's up?"

Sirius quickly spoke before anyone else.  "Nothing."

Ari stared at Sirius' all together shifty expression and raised one eyebrow.  "Okay, let's rephrase the question into some simple, understandable even to Peter questions.  James – why do you keep giving Sirius strange looks?"

James laughed.  "Because he's a weirdo."

"Hey!"  Sirius tried to hit James, but James moved too quickly.  James leaned back in his chair and coughed the word 'obvious'.  Sirius tried to hit him once more.

"I know he's a weirdo James, you didn't need to tell me.  Sirius – no question – just quit staring at me, it's bloody annoying."

"Seriously – did I look like I was staring at you?"

"No, that's how I realised you were staring at me."

"Very funny, I don't think."

"Whatever – just quit staring at me.  Lily – what are you thinking about and why are you talking really awkwardly?"

"Ari, I need to tell you something."

"Fire."

"I think it would be better in private."

Ari pulled a face.  "In Defence Against the Dark Arts?"
"Yeah."

It wasn't quite as easy as that.  Professor Rewoats put the Seventh Years into pairs – Lily and James, Summer and Remus, Ari and Sirius, Georgia and Peter, Lissa and Callum etc.

Sirius was being suspiciously nice to Ari, so it was kind of obvious that he knew what was going on.  He wouldn't tell Ari, so she passed an angry note to Lily.

Ari: Tell me what it is.

Lily: What?  You want me to write it?

Ari: Whatever.  Just tell me NOW.  Sirius is seriously weird when he's trying to be nice!

Lily: Promise not to blame me?

Ari: Yeah……….Is it serious then?

Lily: Yeah, you better not say I'm lying either.

Ari: If it's that serious, how come James and Sirius know about it?

Lily: Well, they were there.

Ari: Well, I'll get Sirius to tell me then.

Lily: You might not believe it coming from him.

Ari: Just tell me now Lily, before I ask Sirius.  If they were there then that's three of you, so you can't all be lying.

Lily: It's about Andy.

Ari: Hmmmmm…..

Lily: The first night I was in the hospital wing (Saturday), James came to see me at night.  He got me some food supplies from the kitchens first and Sirius was hungry so he went with him.  Sirius waited outside the hospital wing while James came in to see me, and he heard voices in the next corridor – Helena and Andy.  Then they came round the corner and started 'eating each other' as Sirius puts it.

Ari: WHAT?  How do you know he's not lying?  I thought you said you and James saw it too?

Lily: We did – Sirius came in and told us and we didn't believe him so he showed us.

Ari: So it's true?

Lily: 'friad so.

Ari: Shit.

James: I offer the services of the Marauders for all revenge plans and operations.

Ari laughed aloud.

Ari: Thanks James, but I don't need the Marauders to carry out a decent revenge plan.  Just watch and wait – Andrew will get what's coming to him.  Don't tell him he's dumped yet you guys – I'm going to go for the whole public humiliation thing.

Lily: Okay

James: Sure thing.

Ari sat in silence for a while, thinking about Andrew and what a complete and utter liar, cheater and all together idiot he was.  Sirius gave her a concerned look.

"Ari – are you okay?"

"I'm fine Sirius.  Just thinking."

"Ari, he's a worthless idiot – just forget about him."

Ari grinned at Sirius.  "That's the general plan, but revenge comes first."

Ari slipped into the Ravenclaw boy's dormitory that night by means of one of the many secret passageways that she knew about.  She carefully picked through Andy's clothes and charmed most of them to display insults.  She also used an itching powder spell on all of them before leaving through the secret passage.

Andy awoke late on Tuesday morning and had to dress quickly.  He didn't notice anything wrong with his clothes – that was the genius of the charms that Ari had used.  He walked into the Great Hall for breakfast that morning with absolutely no idea why everyone was sniggering and laughing at him. His clothes were graffitied with unflattering words about him; dishonest, bullshit-talker, liar, arsewipe, and many more words to that effect.

Andy sat through his lessons trying to ignore the sniggers that were coming his way.  He still had no idea what was going on and was sort of preoccupied with scratching himself.  He itched all over for no reason – it was so bad he even thought about going to the hospital wing.  He met Helena in an empty classroom at break-time, and the mystery of the sniggering was solved as she immediately told him about his clothes.  They spent their break trying to get rid of the charm, but failed miserably.  The words got bolder and they'd wasted valuable making out time.  As he approached the Great Hall he saw Ari waiting for him to come to lunch.  She looked pretty angry.

"Ari – what's up?"  He saw her eyes on his emblazoned clothes.  "I don't know who did it."

"Really?  I do."

"You do?"  Andy was confused.  What an idiot.

"Yes."  They were walking into the Great Hall now and people were staring and sniggering at him again.  "It was me."

Andy stared at Ari in shock – he still had no clue what she was talking about (and he had the nerve to call himself a Ravenclaw).

"I know about Helena."  Ari slapped Andy's face for the sheer hell of it, and was inwardly satisfied as a bright red slap mark appeared across his face.  "Consider yourself well and truly dumped."

Ari turned to walk away as Andy started to talk – whatever he had to say wasn't worth hearing.

"Well, you probably cheated on me anyway.  I never should've gone out with you in the first place – you're just a cheap whore.  A –"

Andy's rant came to a halt as Sirius' fist collided with his face.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who was generous enough to give me a review! (hehe)

Child-of-scorpio: You got it right! Ari had to believe Lily because James and Sirius were there too. Thanks!

Luthien RhiannonCat5: Lol! My Ari is short for Ariadne, so it's different anyway. Does your spell check tell you to write Air instead of Ari? Thanks!

Faded-DreamsX2: Thanks!

Mystical Starlight: Lol! Thanks!

MuGgLeNeT27: Lily is going to reveal all to James (lol, I just read that back and it sounded rather rude! I mean all her secrets about the Easter holidays!).  She's got to trust him, or at least know him/like him a little bit better first.  Thanks!

Bridget: Thanks! I like the phrase 'I'd best be going' too, even though my dodgy grammar check tells me it's wrong.  People say it in real life, so I put it in. 

Lee tea: Tea! Cool name!  Lol – what's funny about the tea part?  Maybe if you imagine them with posh accents it's funny or something?! :o) Thanks!

Tessa: Glad to know I'm helping you get through coursework - I hate coursework of any kind so I understand when you say it's killing you!  I still have a week of school left 'till the Easter holidays. :o(

Jen: Thanks!

Karen: Thanks!

Shamrock13: Thanks!

Everyone: Karen the reviewer is one of my friends from school, and she always nags me about putting the next chapter up.  I sometimes ask her for ideas, but she never has any good ones (hehe-she'll probably hit me for saying that, but it's true.). 

Yeah, I didn't want to go too far with Andy, because the best revenge would be for Ari to be happy with someone else, (which she might be later on).  I just didn't want her to seem too obsessed with him – he's a worthless idiot and is therefore not really worth wasting her time on.

Please review this chapter as well – more Lily and James in the next chapter (and a bit of Ari – being rather bitchy)! Thanks!

Tanya*