Chapter Five
James let out a frustrated groan and spun on the spot to see who had interrupted them.
"Bloody hell, what does it take to get some priv- Oh." James stalled. "Hi, Dorcas."
"For starters, don't even try to get any form of privacy in the middle of the common room," Dorcas stood, hands on hips eyeing the couple warily.
"Thanks for that." Lily muttered, rather stiffly. Her eyes were cast downwards to the smoldering embers in the fireplace.
"More importantly," Dorcas continued, a little gentler than before, "I need to know exactly what I've done wrong."
Lily's eyes shot up, unable to mask the cold anger and hurt now glittering in their emerald surface. Merely shaking her head she sunk down to her knees to sit on the hearth, her face glowing in the little bit of light thrown out by the burning embers.
Dorcas glanced from Lily to James, a worried yet expectant look on her face. She needed answers if her and Lily were ever going to be friends again. Or keep the friendship they still have…
Not moving too far from Lily's huddled up body, as though afraid that she would evaporate if he walked further than two steps from her, James threw Dorcas an apologetic smile.
"You know that I care for you," James began. Lily's head flicked to James ever so slightly. He coughed nervously. "That is, only as a friend."
Dorcas nodded slowly, eyebrows raised as if to show she already knew this fact.
"So," James continued, trying to gather some of his lost cool. "So, that means what we did down at the lake… Well, almost did, was wrong. Very wrong…" James stole a glance at Lily's face. Her features were set in a blank, soft expression, her hair glowing a deeper red than usual in the light of the embers.
Dorcas smiled bitterly and expelled a mirthless laugh. "I know all that. And I'm glad to see that the famous Potter has a moral bone in his body." She strolled over to Lily and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"I can only hope that Lily will forgive me for my mistake." She glanced up at James as she seated herself beside Lily. "Because I could see she'd already forgiven you."
Lily turned her head to Dorcas. "I do forgive you," she said quietly. "I didn't think you valued my friendship so much." With a small smile Lily reached out and gave Dorcas a hug of forgiveness.
With a small laugh as they broke apart, Lily said, "Forgive and forget, that what I always say."
"Aww, we're just one big happy family now!" Lily felt the breath knocked out of her as she was pulled into a bone crushing bear hug, along with Dorcas, from Sirius who had just slid down the stair banister.
"Yep!" she squeaked.
Sirius chuckled as he let go of Lily, still keeping a hand around Dorcas's waist. Dorcas grinned widely and kissed him on the cheek. Sirius whispered something inaudible in her ear. She glanced at Lily and James, smirked and then nodded her head.
Sirius stretched his arms up dramatically in the air and yawned widely. "Well, I'm a bit tired, actually. All this love has taken the energy out of me."
Dorcas nodded knowingly, her usual mischievousness back in place. "I think I better get you off to bed."
"Sounds good to me!" Sirius replied, jumping to his feet with a sudden burst of energy. With a wink at James he bounced off upstairs, Dorcas following closely behind him. Throwing Lily a last grin she disappeared up the staircase.