A/N: I'm terribly sorry for the stupidly long delay. I had writer's block and then a plot bunny for another multi-chaptered fic ate at me until I started writing it, so I've been working on that instead. When I finally got writer's block for that fic, I remembered that I hadn't updated this in a while, so here you go. The plan is to continue updating monthly like I did in the beginning and we'll go from there. This isn't a very long chapter, but it was important that I set this up before continuing. By the way, this chapter in particular, is rated PG-13 for language. Hope you enjoy, and please review if you read.

Friendships

"McGonagall?"

"Leg-Locker Curse. Imagine the glare of death we'd get from her for that one!"

"Dumbledore?"

"A candy charm of some sort. Simple, but effective if we want to keep him off our tails."

"Filch?"

"Grooming charm, definitely a grooming charm."

"Moony?"

"Babbling curse."

"What? He talks," I defended as Sirius and I made a list of spells and hexes we would love to try on certain people. "Alright then, how about Wormtail?"

"Growing charm."

"Pft, I definitely agree with you on that one, poor bloke. Snivellus?"

"Now you're talking! De-greasing charm. Or better yet, a hover cloud charm; whatever gets the grease out of the filthy thing he calls hair," Sirius smiled wickedly at me. "Alright, my turn," he smiled, and I noticed the way his gaze drifted past me.

"What would you use on Evans then?"

Lily, of course. That's where his gaze was concentrated, and I knew I had to play my cards right on that one. She would, of course, be watching and listening to every word I said and I had to make sure I didn't put my foot in my mouth.

"Easy. I'd use a perfection charm, except it wouldn't work because she's already perfect," I smirked. I received a dramatic eye roll for my efforts from my best friend and a smack on the back of my head from Lily who had just come up behind me.

"Bollix! There is no such thing as a perfection charm and you knew I was behind you. That's the only reason you said it," she berated me, trying to hide the blush that was creeping up her neck.

"I meant it though," I responded, hiding the smile that was threatening to give me away, so I kissed her on the cheek instead.

I couldn't help but feel that my day brightened up the moment Lily walked into the room. I always knew she did strange things to me, but I never realized how much she affected everything around me as well. Suddenly, everything that had been bothering me before she walked in was forgotten and everything that I dreaded became something to look forward to. I became a different person around her, and although she appreciated my efforts, others found my new attitude hard to swallow.

Sirius rolled his eyes once more at the affection shared between Lily and I before mumbling something unintelligible under his breath and stalking up to our dormitory.

Sirius was particularly put off by my love life. He wasn't upset at the fact that I had a girlfriend, because I've had many girlfriends in my years at Hogwarts. He was upset because he knew Lily was different. He was there in fourth year when I tried writing an anonymous love letter to her that sounded more like I was describing a pastry rather than expressing her beauty. He was by my side in fifth year when she yelled at me for humiliating Snape in front of everyone, and he was the one who told me she'd come around. He was also there in sixth year when I was close to giving up on her altogether after she hexed me for asking her out on a date to Hogsmeade in front of the seventh year Ravenclaw she had a crush on. He changed my mind about giving up on her, reminding me that I was James Potter, and that I never quit. He was always supportive when I was down and was never afraid to be ruthlessly honest with me when I needed him to be. He kept my head out of the clouds, and in return, I made him feel like the brother I never had. I understood that he wasn't loved like a child deserved, and that he had never had the type of closeness with anyone as he had with me. I made it a point to make him feel needed; to make him know that his opinions were the most valuable to me above everyone else's and could never be replaced.

Perhaps that's why he was having a difficult time dealing with my intimacy with Lily. He probably felt left out and discarded. I never stopped spending time with my friends after I started dating her, but I wasn't always there either. Conversations that used to be dominated by plans of dung bombs in the corridors, and sneaking out in the middle of the night suddenly became discussions concerning a certain red head and evenings spent on quiet strolls by the lake. Grand entrances into the Gryffindor common room by the four marauders were replaced by quiet conversations between three friends and tales of famed adventures in the kitchens slowly became myth. Sirius and I didn't spend as much time together as we used to, and I couldn't keep telling myself that things weren't changing. It wasn't as if Lily was holding her wand to my head making me spend time with her. I wanted to be with her every moment of the day, but I didn't want to alienate the one person who had already shown his undying devotion and unrivaled friendship to me. I had hurt Sirius in the same way he had been hurt before, but I'm sure it hurt so much more coming from me.

xxxxxxx

"Where's Moony?" I asked as Sirius and I sat on our four poster beds.

"Library," he responded, not even bothering to look up at me.

"And Wormtail?"

"With Moony," he responded, lifting up the Daily Prophet he was reading to cover his face.

It was a dull March afternoon, the first in months, and I was ready to pull my hair out. My homework was done, my essays had been written days in advance (Lily's idea) and all Head Boy duties had been taken care of. Hogwarts wasn't supposed to be boring. It was supposed to be full of pranks, mishaps, and stolen treacle tarts from the kitchens.

"I'm bored," I declared.

"Don't talk to me about boredom," Sirius commented as he made a show of straightening out the newspaper he was holding and mumbling something that sounded like estranged best friend.

I considered him for a moment and I immediately felt guilty. I always thought I could talk about anything with Sirius, but things had changed since the beginning of our seventh year and I didn't know how to tell my best friend that things were going to remain that way. We weren't kids anymore, camping out in our dormitory or under my invisibility cloak planning pranks and I think that scared him. We would be graduating in June and who knew what was next? Sirius and I had always planned to move in together after Hogwarts and work as Aurors, but with Lily in the picture, I couldn't see that happening anymore. I wanted to be with Lily after Hogwarts and Sirius would have to accept that.

"What are you on about?" I asked, hoping he would go into one of his brooding moods that he was prone to doing those days simply to avoid an argument we were bound to have.

He looked both ways, as if searching for someone before he put his paper down, looked at me, and pointed his finger at his chest.

"Could it be? Is James Potter actually speaking to me?" he shot back at me with a sad look in his eyes.

"Sirius…." I warned.

He had a disgusted look when he threw the paper aside and began pacing in front of his bed. I immediately knew he was hurt and upset. He kept opening and closing his mouth as if to tell me something, but continued to pace as his anger grew. I had only seen Sirius that upset once before, and that was when he ran away from home in the summer leading up to our sixth year at Hogwarts.

"You know James?" he started. "I never took you for the type of bloke that would choose a bird over his best friend. She hated you mate, and I know you love her, but why do you let her take over your life the way she does?"

The first thoughts that came to mind were to tell him that he didn't understand because he had never loved or been loved by anyone, but I stopped myself just in time. Sirius didn't need to hear that, and it wasn't true. As sappy as it sounds, he was loved by all four of his best friends; I especially loved him as a brother, and I knew he understood that. It had just never dawned on me that he would react that way the moment someone took hold of that part of my heart that was yearning to be filled and could never be touched by him. Sirius figured we would be bachelors together until we were well into our thirties, and then we would settle down with crazy women that were willing to take us in. It surprised me how hard I fell for Lily at such a young age, but I never even thought of how much it would affect Sirius. I was leaving him behind already, and he was panicking.

"She hasn't taken over my life Padfoot," I soothed. "She's always in my thoughts, yes, but she hasn't done anything to me that I haven't wanted."

He stopped pacing and looked at me hard. His eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open. If I didn't know Sirius so well, I might have thought he would start to cry.

"So that's it then. She's in your life and it's good-bye to the pathetic bloke that has been by your side through thick and thin. It's good-bye to seven years of friendship because you fell in love with a selfish schoolgirl that doesn't even know you and is probably just biding her time until she finds someone else to kiss her arse?"

"Sirius," I began as I massaged my temples. "I'm not gonna forget about our friendship because I fell in love with her. Actually, I should consider it; you're acting like a total twat. Instead of congratulating me for finally getting the girl I've been pining over for years, you get mad and mope around like I just broke up with you," I lectured. "You're supposed to say 'Congratulations, buddy, you finally did it,' or 'I'm happy for you mate, can I be your best man at the wedding?'"

"Best man? You want me…you want to…" Sirius shrieked in an abnormally high voice. "Wedding?" he finally choked out.

"I'm just saying," I replied, surprised that something like that had come out of my mouth.

"You're just saying," he deadpanned. "And next thing I know, you'll be saying you want to name your baby after her father," he said and let out an audible sigh.

I had never seen Sirius so vulnerable. His shoulders were slumped, his hair was uncharacteristically tousled and he had a panicked expression on his face.

"Sirius, it just came out. We haven't talked about a wedding or babies, and I don't see why you're getting so worked up about this," I explained, and it was obviously it was the wrong thing to say. The next thing I knew, Sirius was in my face, finger pointing painfully into my sternum and he was shaking all over.

"Who said I was worked about it?" he demanded in a freakishly high voice again. "Who said I had a problem with you procreating after prefect meetings? Who said I cared whether or not you get married? I've only been your best friend longer than she's known you're alive, no worries," he finished, finally removing his finger and continuing to pace in front of me.

"Sirius," I called out, but he shrugged me away. "Padfoot," I tried again, and this time he went and sat on his bed. "Look, I'm sorry I've been neglecting you guys lately and I'm sorry I've made you feel like I don't value our friendship anymore. Things changed, I changed. I'm sorry for a lot of things I've done, to you in particular, but I won't apologize for spending time with Lily and I won't apologize for falling in love with her. I only hope that you can see how happy she makes me and I wish you could feel what I feel when I see her smile in my direction," I smiled and walked closer to his bed. "She's the one, Padfoot, just like I've always told you."

We were quiet for a few minutes and I couldn't tell if it was a good or bad thing. Sirius had a reputation of keeping a grudge for years and I really didn't want to be on the wrong end of that one. Just when I thought he wouldn't speak to me anymore, I looked up and saw him laughing.

"What?" I asked, very confused as to how quickly his mood had changed.

"You're a sodding girl, Prongs. You're a sap and you don't even know it," he continued to laugh, and by then he was wiping tears from his eyes. "Honestly, 'I wish you could feel what I feel when I see her smile in my direction.' What is that? Are you sure you aren't a poof, because you sound like one."

"Oh that's rich, coming from Mr. 'I never took you for the type of bloke that would choose a bird over his best friend.' You've been moping around like a scorned old maid and you're teasing me about it?" I asked, amused at his change of expression upon quoting him.

"You're the one she has by the balls mate, not me," he answered smugly.

"Sod off, you stupid git," I laughed, throwing a ball of socks, the first thing that was at my disposal, at him. "You're just jealous, admit it."

"Jealous, of you," he asked in mock disgust. "I should probably be celebrating your absence. Now everyone will see my pranking genius and I alone can take the credit," he said and he threw a pillow at me.

"That's it, you asked for it," I yelled, and I lunged towards him, landing on his stomach and pushing him away. He in turn, was yanking at my hair and aiming punches below the waist.

We didn't hear the door of the dormitory open and we didn't even notice when Peter walked around us to get to his bed. What finally pulled our attention away from our rugged play was when Remus threw water at us and looked at us in disbelief.

"So, what happened to letting the 'bloody wanker' know you wouldn't be taken advantage of, hmm? What happened to putting him in his place and calling it quits on your friendship?" Remus asked with amusement on his face as he sat on his bed.

I looked over at Sirius with a raised eyebrow, and all he did was shrug before fixing up his hair and picking himself off the floor.

"I never said that," he replied before he picked up his Daily Prophet again and holding it upside down. "You must be thinking of someone else Moony, because I would never say that about my best friend."

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