A/N: Hah... Still uploading, though I fear it's out of a stubborn pride now. I love all the Marauders, with the one exception of Peter. but really who can blame me? But I do think it would be interesting for JKR to write something more about that time period... oh what fun.

Chapter Four

Sirius was still staring at the door Serena had left through.

"I think she's angry." Peter said then.

"Thank you for the obvious." Sirius snapped at him, growling softly. "She's just angry with me for saying she's in love with Malfoy."

"I had better go find her... She looked really upset..." Lily shook her head, grabbing her bag and standing up. "Amazing Sirius. I think she's the first girl not to fall under your spell, other then me of course. I knew there was a reason I liked her." She walked out, still shaking her head.

"Well she could do worse then to fall for me."

Sirius groaned and turned to look at Malfoy who was sneering down at Sirius. Snape was as usual only a few steps behind him, a smirk on his face.

"Though the idea of a Gryffindor liking me makes me nauseous." Malfoy's lips twisted in a grimace. "But if it has to happen, at least it's an attractive one. Maybe I'll go take her up on her offer."

Sirius stood up, anger shooting from his eyes. Immediately Remus and James were standing as well. "Stay away from her." Realizing how this sounded he tried to cover it up. "Just stay away from any Gryffindor. After all you've got Snivellus there to keep you company on cold nights..." Both Slytherins' eyes widened and wands were suddenly pulled.

"What are you doing?" McGonagall said calmly beside them both. Without a word, the wands disappeared back into the folds' of their robes.

"Nothing.. Professor. Black here was just letting me know about a situation I'll need to deal with. If you'll excuse me." Lucius swept past them, out of the hall, Snape struggling to keep up.

McGonagall regarded Sirius seriously. "Keep out of trouble Mr. Black. Mr Lupin, Potter, try to exercise some control over your friend." She then too left the hall.

"Padfoot...?" James started tentatively.

Peter was staring at the door that Lucius had left through, but brought his eyes to his friends at James' voice.

"You were really protective of Serena there..." Remus asked, looking a little worried.

Sirius fought back the urge to growl at the mention of the name. "The damned chit just insulted me, for no reason. Still no one deserves Malfoy's attention." He muttered as he grabbed his own book bag. "We're going to be late for Charms.

Serena had stalked half way to this class angrily insulting Sirius Black in her head, before she realized she realized that she was thinking about that boy far too much.

The idea of her falling in love with Snape or Malfoy had made her physically sick, and she had instantly been angry with the fool who had suggested it. A small voice in the back of her head suggested that Sirius wouldn't have known how sickening this idea was to her, that she was supposed to be new. How could he knew they would be so detrimental to her future friends' happiness? But she ignored it. The idea she would have a crush on people who had so crushed her friend's lives was as disgusting as liking Peter. But not as bad as Sirius... the voice in the back of her mind whispered again.

Luckily Lily came along and found Serena before she had started to beat her head against the wall.

The two took a seat in the front of their Charms class.

"Don't judge Sirius too hard, 'Rena..." Lily said softly. "It's true he is a ladies man to a certain degree. Most girls gladly fall in love with him. It has to do with his face I assume."

Hearing this didn't improve Serena's mood so all she did was grunt in reply.

"But he's a good guy despite it. He's just had a long history with women who fall for him before they even know him, it's hard for him to deal with a different type is all. You should have seen him when he found out I never had liked him, but James. It's like he had found an entirely new species." Lily laughed softly, and even Serena had to smile at the expression she knew would have been on his face.

"I don't like people accusing me of things though." Serena said. "And it was obvious to him, liking Malfoy was an accusation."

"Well it's certainly not a good idea." Lily said sensibly. "You don't, do you?" Immediately she was concerned and the auburn haired girl had to clamp down the immediate nausea that those words produced. It was almost as bad as if Harry had accused her of loving Voldemort.

"No..." Serena shook her head emphatically. Lily just nodded, because at that point other students and their Charms teacher entered the room.

Five minutes after class had started, the Marauders finally arrived, their entrance met with a sharp declaration of Gryffindor losing 20 points, five each, from their Professor. Even in this time period, Serena found herself glaring angrily at the boys for costing her house points.

"Oh now you've made her even more mad." James nudged Sirius. They sat at the table next to where Lily and Serena were sitting, ignoring them completely working on their homework.

"How am I the one to blame? You all were late too."

"We wouldn't have been if you hadn't gotten into a fight with Malfoy." James let his voice carry.

"You got into a fight with Malfoy?" Serena turned and stared at Sirius, not aware that she had practically screamed that. Sirius was more surprised by the panic he thought he glimpsed in her eyes, but it was gone quickly enough. He immediately went cold, reading that as more proof that she liked Malfoy.

"Miss Strangeblood..." The professor taped on her desk. "Pay attention. I do hope you're not going to fall into the normal trap with Mr. Black. So many young women do..." He shook his head, and Serena stared down at her desk, her face a bright red.

Everyone laughed at this, except for Remus who looked worried, Lily who was trying to cheer Serena up, and Sirius who knew that little joke from the Professor was going to cost him later.

At the end of the class, the boys started to catch up with Lily and Serena who were walking rather hurriedly back to the common room. They stayed back though, listening in on their conversation.

"I do NOT like Black." Serena said emphatically to the red haired girl, who put up her hands in protest.

"I never said that."

"Sirius is... he's... he's an egotistical lout! He makes fun of me all the time, he keeps picking on me, on my last name."

Behind her Sirius winced, looking about ready to apologize when Serena continued on.

"I actually prefer Remus, at least he's nice to me." Serena said, giving a small hmph, completely unaware that the boy's had caught up with them by now. Lily's grimace though alerted her to that fact, and dreading it she turned to see them all staring at her in shock. Remus' face was a bright red, and he couldn't meet her eyes. James was laughing, and Peter just looked confused. Sirius though was burning holes into her with his eyes. Immediately Serena regretted saying that, she had just wanted to... She wasn't sure what she had wanted. She had just panicked at the idea of liking Sirius. It had slipped out.

She blushed and before anyone could say anything, she turned and sprinted back to the common room.

"Way to go Moony." James patted his friend on the back. Sirius though said nothing and stalked off in the opposite direction.

"What's got his knickers in a twist?" James said, amused though at his friend's reaction.

"Like she said... He's used to all the girls liking him." Peter said, then grimaced before he realized Sirius had left and no one was going to hit him.

"Even Sirius wouldn't begrudge his friend a girl..." Lily looked thoughtfully at Sirius' back as he left.

Remus though was still trying to get his throat to start working, his face bright with the sudden blood flow.

During the next few weeks, Serena came to a serious snag in her plans. The beginning step was not going as she had hoped, and it all had been because of that one slip of her tongue. She needed to get into the confidence of all the Marauder's, so that if she ever got information on Peter, they would trust her. Except a month had passed and the only people she spoke to with any feeling of friendship were Lily and strangely Peter. The former because since they were both girls they felt the need to stick together, and the later because he thought she was amazing to stand up to Sirius. The rest though kept a certain distance from her. Remus was still amazingly embarrassed when he saw her, finding it hard to speak to her, tripping over his own tongue and going red. She understood that though, after all she had said she liked him, even if she hadn't really meant it in the way everyone assumed. Every time she tried to explain it though, Remus would basically run away from her. It was annoying, but if she could just pin him down, she could solve the problem with him.

It was the other two that were confusing her. Lily couldn't offer much explanation to the situation either. Just that Sirius was angry and when Sirius doesn't like something, neither does James.

So the crux of the problem was Sirius, and if her plan was going to work, he was the part she had to put into place. The only time she saw him without any of his other friends around was during their care of magical creatures class, which had been hell since the beginning, since she knew no one, except Sirius. And he was stonily silent to her, never even looking at her really.

Finally after having had enough of this behaviour, and after a particularly horrible class with blast end skrewts, Serena resolved to put an end to this stalemate. On the way back to the castle, she grabbed Sirius' hand and forcibly pulled him into the Forbidden Forest.

"Trying to get me killed in here?" He asked, calmly watching her as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be here with you." Serena snorted, breathing heavily from the effort of dragging a man who was taller then she was. "There's nothing dangerous in this part of the woods anyway. The giant spiders, giants, and centaurs are on the other side." She shook her head. "Harry told me that."

"Who's Harry?" Sirius asked, immediately curious, forgetting about being dragged here. "How do you know what's in here if you only transferred a month ago?"

Immediately Serena cursed herself, in her anger with Sirius, she had let information slip. Instead of explaining though she just decided to ignore it.

"None of that is your business." She huffed, but immediately sighed since Sirius was back to his stony treatment of her, enough cold air coming from him to cause it to snow.

"I don't know WHY you hate me? It can't be just that I didn't fall for you can it? You're not THAT egotistical!" Serena shook her head, hair falling into her face, that she pushed back angrily. She found herself angry with Sirius, not for disrupting her plans anymore, instead angry that he wasn't speaking to her. She had found herself watching him too much this last month, watching him laugh with his friends. She had also found that her heart clenched painfully every time he turned silent when she came near, only to start laughing and smiling as she passed.

"Who said I hate you?" Sirius snorted derisively. "And maybe I am that egotistical? Not that you should care anyway right? All the girls who fall for me are fools aren't they?" Serena grimaced as her own words were thrown back at her. "Does it really matter to you if I talk to you or not?"

"Yes..." Serena said quietly, surprised at the tears she found in her eyes. She didn't know why exactly, but it did disturb her that he wasn't talking to her. She had found, much to her continued annoyance, that she had enjoyed his company that first week, even if he had spent most of it teasing her. But at least it had been fun.

"You said you liked Remus." He said softly, his anger dissipating at the sight of her bright eyes.

"What does THAT have to do with anything?" Her voice rose a bit, exasperation rising again. "I like Remus. He's been nice to me... even if lately he can't talk to me. I don't have a crush on him though. You all came at the wrong time though... I just meant that I liked Remus more then you. After all he was far nicer. I didn't want anyone to think I liked you okay. I didn't think I needed to be added to your list of women."

"You don't like Remus?" Sirius asked quietly, having apparently ignored everything else she said. Amazingly Serena found herself smiling slightly at the pleased look on the man's face.

"Shouldn't you be a little more disappointed for your friend?"

At this Sirius blushed ever so slightly. "I'm not that worried for him... He has plenty of admirers at the school. Though I think he was just pleased for once he had an attractive one."

"I'm not attractive." Serena snorted, and Sirius had a roguish grinned plastered to his face. "I'm sure Remus was mainly pleased someone appeared to like him over you, for once."

"It happens." Sirius shrugged. "Look at Lily. She never looked at me once... Barely looked at James more then once either truth be told, but then... she's stubborn."

"Poor Remus though..." Serena looked worriedly at Sirius. "You don't think he's going to be too hurt by this do you? I really wasn't lying when I said I liked him."

"He'll get over it. He's not in love or anything." Sirius looked down at the ground, suddenly rather bashful. "I'm really...sorry." The last word was almost too soft to hear, but Serena's ears picked it up and she grinned. She knew immediately that this was not something that Sirius did too often. "I shouldn't have treated you like a leper for the last month. I was just...jealous." The last word this time was even softer, and Serena even had trouble hearing it, but she did. Though she certainly doubted it.

"Jealous?" She asked, to verify it. The raven haired youth just nodded dumbly. "You really are egotistical aren't you? Imagine thinking all the girls should like you..." Serena smiled, sounding rather amused instead of annoyed with Sirius.

"I didn't mean it that way!" Sirius said, looking hard at Serena. "I wasn't jealous because you didn't like me... I was jealous because..."

"What are you two doin' in 'ere?"

Both of them jumped in surprise at Hagrid, the groundskeeper's sudden appearance in front of them.

"Imagine using the Forbidden Forest as a lover's meeting spot..." Hagrid shook his head in shock. "Get out now, or I'll report you up to the headmaster." He shooed them out of the forest, and both students found themselves laughing about it as they walked back up to the castle, the lights starting to dim with approaching nightfall.

"I can't believe he actually thought we were having an illicit romantic meeting. In that forest!" Serena shook her head, wiping the water from her eyes from laughing so hard.

"I think I might be hurt by that... Is there something wrong with having an illicit meeting with me?" Sirius placed his hand on his heart, looking affronted.

"I suppose that WOULD be the type of place you'd bring a girl on a date." Shaking her head, the young girl continued to walk on, but was stopped by a hand on her arm.

"I was jealous because you liked Remus and not me. Not because you didn't like me."Sirius said softly, finishing what he had been about to say in the forest. Serena's eyes widened, staring at him, her heart beating wildly against her chest.

"How exactly... are those two things different?" She licked her lips, trying to make her brain work again, except it was hard when she found herself staring at his lips instead. She was amazed her voice had only broken the once.

"One means I wanted you to like me because all girls do. The other means I wanted you to like me and only me, I was jealous of Remus. I don't know why but I've thought about you too often since you came. I couldn't stop looking at you."

"That's not true." Serena scoffed. "You've been avoiding me like the plague this last month. Every time I even looked at you, you were studiously looking somewhere else."

"Well you didn't expect me to let you catch me at it did you?" Sirius grinned again, that typical roguish grin that turned any girl's knees to jelly. "After all you liked one of my best friends, and as crappy as a friend as I was for liking you, I wasn't about to let you know about it."

"But I don't like Remus..."

"I know that now..." Sirius moved closer to her, and she stayed where she was. The logical side of her brain was telling her that this was a very bad idea, and that she needed to leave. But she couldn't move a muscle, all she could do was stare at Sirius' lips, wondering how a boy had such perfect, pink lips, and wondering what they would taste like. A second later she found out as Sirius gently lifted her chin up and moved his lips down to capture hers.

A strangled groan broke them apart, and they both stared up the steps at Remus' who was looking in pain.

"We wondered...where you were... Came to see where you were... sorry..." Remus turned and took flight. Serena covered her face in her hands, her cheeks red from shame and embarrassment. She heard a sickening thud, and moving her hands saw Sirius, his fist planted in a nearby tree.

Without another word to him, she ran past him, up the hill into the castle. The small voice in the back of her head though was telling her repeatedly that mint kisses tasted good.