Chapter Three

Lily slumped in one of the arm chairs, her hands furiously rubbing her eyes to stop herself from collapsing completely and bursting into tears. Scraping her long red hair into a pony tail, she glared at the dying fire, wishing that everything could just turn back and never have happened.

"Lily!" Dorcas had pleaded. "No, Lily. Nothing has happened. We were just mucking around!"

"Yeah." Lily quickly bent to gather her fallen papers. "Just like last time, isn't it?" She asked, glaring daggers at James. With that, she stalked off to the castle, carefully wiping a lone tear from her cheek…

"LILY! LILY, COME BACK! PLEASE!"

James's voice had echoed from the lake as Lily ran up the grounds. Determinedly ignoring him she weaved her way through the crowd in the Entrance Hall, disappeared up the flight of stairs and around the corner…

Maybe she had overreacted. Maybe… Maybe Dorcas was right. Maybe they weren't doing anything. But her pride would not let her admit that she was in the wrong; that she really had just come at the wrong time.

But what if I hadn't interrupted them then? Then what would have happened… They were so close…

Lily shivered and tugged a blanket from the far couch. As she stood to wrap the blanket around her, a faint creak of someone clambering through the portrait hole sounded and a silhouetted figure emerged to stand in the doorway.

A frown creased her brow as Lily tried to make out who it was. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise as she recognized the person.

"Remus? What are you doing up?"

Remus smiled somberly and walked over to Lily. "I could ask you the same question."

"You could." Lily said, flopping back down into the armchair, sighing dejectedly.

Remus settled himself in the couch opposite Lily and leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he studied her.

"Something happened with James, didn't it?" He asked gently.

Lily nodded numbly, staring disjointedly at the fire and around the room.

"He…and Dorcas…Ugh!" Lily shook her head apologetically and punched the arm of the squashy armchair. "I just can't believe he would… and HER! Suppose to be my friend!"

Remus nodded sympathetically and let her rant. From all the years that he and Lily had completed their Prefect duties together, he knew it was just best to let her get it all out in one go.

"…says they 'weren't doing anything'. HA! Weren't doing anything my ass…"

With one last heaving grunt Lily fell quiet, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at the wall hanging menacingly.

"Done?" Remus asked, a slight smile on his face.

"Yes." Lily replied grudgingly.

Remus smiled at her. "You know, James is probably upstairs right now, kicking himself – mentally and physically – for stuffing up."

Lily nodded, casting her eyes over to Remus's amused face.

"Yeah I know. And he should be too," she paused and lowered her voice. "I thought he -" She cut off her sentence abruptly and bit her lip.

"Look, thanks for your help Rem, I really appreciate it. But I think that I should go upstairs and… go to sleep."

Remus nodded as Lily stood and replaced the blanket in it's original position. He knew that she was defiantly not going to sleep, but truly needed some alone time. And he could understand that perfectly.

"Well, if you ever need someone to talk to, you know I'm here." He said comfortingly, taking a step towards her.

Before making her way to the steps she swung her arms around Remus's neck in a friendly hug. "Thank - "

"Already getting some action with me out of the picture, eh?"