Disclaimer- I don't own it. If I did, I'd be rich. But I don't, so I am poor. Being poor, I have only my dreams. Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

No, I don't own that either.

Chapter 11: The Other Plan

Previously: She hardly knew where she was or what she was doing, but suddenly she was lying on her back on her bed, a stupid grin on her face. What on earth was she doing, lying around sulking? Lily Evans didn't back off when the going got tough! She knew what, or rather who, she wanted, and she was going to get him, no matter how mind bogglingly idiotic he acted!

So, he had made a plan, had he? Two can play at that game. So he listened to her singing, did he? He'd soon have a chance to hear a lot more! After all, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Lily sat up, thinking. She pushed herself up to the headboard of her four-poster and Summoned a quill and parchment. It was one of the things she loved about being a witch; she could be really lazy if she wanted to. She wrote a note, Summoned her owl, who appeared incredibly disgruntled, and told him to take it to Suzie, Caroline, Sarah, Remus, Sirius and Peter, telling them to come upstairs to the girls' dorms. This would work when a boy went up at the same time as a girl, the Marauders had discovered. Well, actually, Lily had discovered it, but the Marauders took the credit.

Downstairs, in the common room, Peter and Suzie were making out in a corner, much to the disgust of nearly everyone in the room. They were so quiet most of the time, that there was something rather strange about seeing them kissing so... enthusiastically. Sirius and Caroline were watching, stupefied, horrified, but fascinated by the sheer logistics of the thing. Remus and Sarah, meanwhile, were doing some Transfiguration homework together on a sofa in front of the fire.

Sarah sat up, rubbed her back, put down her quill, and said,

'Remus?'

'Mmm?'

'You know… the Plan?'

'Mmm?'

'Answer me in words, please. I know you find Transfiguration fascinating,' Remus snorted. Sarah glared at him, and continued, 'But I'm trying to talk to you. And you just going "Mmm" is very off-putting.'

'Mm-hm.' Remus looked up with mischief in his eyes, waiting for Sarah's reaction. She merely looked at him with an amused raised eyebrow.

'I take it that was "OK", right?'

'Mm.' Remus went back to his parchment as Sarah rolled her eyes.

'Well, Lily found out about it. And she's cross. Very, very cross. Like, with a capital "C".'

'Oh. That explains the not-speaking-to-you thing.'

Remus, seeing how dejected Sarah looked, immediately felt guilty about his joke, and about the Plan, put his homework down and sat up to listen.

'So we took one step forward and about ten steps back.'

'We did.'

'It's infuriating, Remus. They're just so right for each other.'

'They are.'

'Are you going to give me a sensible answer any time soon or am I going to have to beat one out of you?'

Remus snorted again. 'Sarah, I don't mean to sound pompous or overbearing, or come out with something that would usually earn James a slap from the inimitable Miss Evans, but just how were you planning on doing that?'

Sarah looked at him, straight in the eyes. Remus was slightly disconcerted, but did his best to hide it.

'Oh, I can think of a few ways. I am friends with Lily, you know. Well, I was yesterday.'

She sighed. She had been Lily's best friend since the pair had first got onto the Hogwarts Express, both of them Muggle-born, and had, unluckily, both stumbled into a compartment full of seventh-year Slytherins, who had questioned them, and then threatened and teased them both until they were nearly crying. Lily, unlike Sarah, calmed herself down at one point and got angry as opposed to hurt, and had snapped that she was Pureblood… Pureblood Muggle, at least. She had then dragged Sarah out of the compartment, drying Sarah's eyes and comforting her. There was something about Lily; even when the world was crashing down around your ankles, she was always calm and had an idea for fixing it.

Sarah sighed again. She missed Lily, even though it had only been one day. She missed nudging her in lessons, she missed talking over lunch, and she even missed her snipey comments when Sarah did something really dim. Suddenly, she spotted something near the ceiling.

'Hey, isn't that Socrates?' she said, amazed.

'Socrates? The old Greek guy?'

'No, not Socrates, the old Greek guy, you idiot, Socrates, Lily's owl.'

'Oh. And he's got a letter!'

'So he has!'

Socrates swooped low over the pair, and dropped the letter;

Sorry I got snappy, but I was very pissed at you. I need to speak to you right now, it's very important. In the girls' dorms. L

After reading the quick note, they looked at each other, confused.

'She's not pissed?' said Sarah hopefully.

'She needs to speak to us?' asked Remus, completely bewildered.

Sarah and Remus rushed up the stairs, and into the girls' dorms, to meet Lily. They burst through the door, and Sarah screamed at the sight that assaulted her eyes as she crossed the threshold.

It's getting to the good bit! Yay! Now I have told you that you want to read the next chapter (which you probably do want to, if you've got this far), please ignore me and review. About crayons. Red ones.

Larka :)