The snow had stopped falling and the trees basically looked like skinny naked old men (yeah, disgusting, I know) standing to attention in the growing warmth. What! I didn't come up with that, that was Peter's stupid interpretation! Lily's was a little more artistic.

'Wow…' she breathed the word, her eyes wide as she gazed dreamily out of the frosty window. 'It's like they absorb everything around them, like they have a million years worth of knowledge stored deep inside…'

That was when Peter decided to chuck in his opinion.

Bianca, Lily, Peter, Remus and I were in the common room. Lily had been gazing woefully out of the window while Remus and I sweated over our essays. Peter was holding a somewhat one sided conversation with Bianca. It didn't look like her heart was in it.

My hand had thrown away my quill and I'd stood up, stretching my legs and walking over to join Lily. Her forehead was pressed into the glass, her face white. I frowned and looked at her closer, but she turned to look at me and grinned. 'Get back to work, Potter!' I smiled charmingly and leaned back against the wall, folding my arms. 'Make me, woman.'

The raised eyebrows told me I'd gone a step too far. I held up my hands in mock surrender. With a smile, she glanced over at the others. Bianca was pretending to read a book while Peter chattered away, blissfully unaware that she was wishing she could disappear. Remus was intent upon his essay, face white, looking exhausted. I pulled a face and looked at Lily. 'Where's Susan?'

To her credit, her face remained dead calm. She shrugged, not looking at me. 'Don't know…'

'Don't care?' I finished the modern proverb and stared down at the floor beneath my bare feet.

She didn't answer, instead she stared at me, hard. She'd taken in more than I thought. 'Where's Sirius.'

'With Susan.'

'Don't know, don't care?'

'That seems correct, yes.'

She sighed and tugged on a lock of her hair. 'How's your hand?'

I lifted it level with my eyes, scrutinizing the bloody pulp that was my fist. 'Looking a lot better than Sirius' face, I can assure you.' I smiled wryly. Sirius, Peter and I had never gone down to meet Remus. Instead, I'd stormed into our room, bellowing and ranting and had laid into Sirius with all the force in my body. I was so furious. Not only that he'd put Remus, Snape and I in danger but that if I had given Lily a split second longer to think, she would have argued and stormed after me. Not to mention the fact that he'd put Remus' illness in jeopardy, not to mention my… ability.

'Are you ok, Lily?'

She jolted and looked up at me. It wasn't easy to miss the fear and pain in her eyes. But it was gone in a second and I was left to wonder if I'd imagined it. I decided to let it fly.

'Exams soon.'

'Yep.'

'You ready?'

'Are you?'

'Nup.'

'Me either. Can you Apparate yet?'

I opened my mouth to answer and hesitated. 'Well…' Lily's head swiveled. 'Alright, fine, I splinched myself when I was in second year and my Dad patched me up.'

'Where were you headed?'

I squirmed. Her smile grew. 'James..?' She poked me in the waist. 'Spill the beans!'

I muttered something and she gave me a sever prod. 'Oww!'

'So I can hear, boy!'

'I was aiming for the girls bathroom in The Three Broomsticks.'

'Why, did going to the boys toilets turn you on too much?'

I glowered at her. 'I was going to play a prank on you.'

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. 'That was you!' Yeah. That was me. A leg left behind and me balancing on one foot on one of the sinks, toppling over and smacking my head into the tiles, my enlarged spiders scattering as the jar smashed and crawling all over me…

It wasn't pleasant.

'I've never heard a more girly scream…'

'I'm never girly!'

She nodded solemnly. Then her hand swung into view and a hairy black spider dropped onto my nose.

I screamed.

Bloody females.

'James?'

It'd been a long time since I'd heard him call me by that name. Usually it was Prongs. I turned and fixed him with a look that offered matching panda eyes. Still, I couldn't help but feel guilty at the red marks and the black eye which adorned my so called best mate.

'Look James, I was a right git for what I did and short of snogging the guy, I've been and apologized to Snivellus-'

'You should stop calling him that.'

He blanched and nodded. 'Yeah… just wondered if maybe…'

'Forget it. We're cool.'

'Yeah… yes.' He nodded and stared into space. 'I spoke to Susan.' It was the tone of his voice which had me look at him closer. His face was carefully calm, but just beneath… he was mad.

'We need to have a word with Miss Evans.'