Sirius went to bed alone that night. He wasn't really sure why. He just did. He had been making out with some 7th year, also drunk, but found he really didn't want to shag her. It must have been the booze. When he woke up that afternoon, he had the most massive headache. How much had he had last night?
The month of May brought with it the sun and an explosion of green on the grounds. The boys, even the newly-reformed James, were skiving off all sorts of classes. They found it was rather nice to go back to regular final exams after the insanity of O.W.L.'s the year before. It made skiving so much easier.
The first attacks of the month hit the 6th years hard. William Seymour was rushed home to visit his Aunt Francine at St. Mungo's one afternoon. Another 6th year Ravenclaw, Phillipa Gettilfinger, left 4 days later.
When Dorcas stood up from her spot on the couch next to Lily that night and pulled Sirius upstairs and away from the table he had been sharing with James, Remus, and Peter, Lily looked up at the other abandoned friends. Remus had his nose in a book and Peter was excitedly asking James questions. Lily imagined they had something to do with Sirius and Dorcas' activities. James had a slight smile and was answering them with an occasional laugh. She honed in on him; loving the way his shoulders shook when he was trying not to laugh at Peter and the way lips curled up at the ends. He looked up at her and smiled broadly. She returned it and stood; making her way to the table.
"Were you abandoned too?" he asked when she arrived.
She nodded; sitting in the chair next to James that Sirius had left empty. "It seems they have found better ways of dealing with grief than by talking."
He laughed. One short loud guffaw. "I think its working though," he said. "Sirius has been annoyingly chipper lately."
Lily smiled. "I know, Dorcas is even smugger than usual." Then, for some unknown reason, this came out of Lily's mouth. "Want to try it?"
James' entire body froze. Remus and Peter both stared at her; gaping. Lily was just as surprised by the words that had come out of her mouth.
"I'm joking, of course," she tried to laugh it off.
James laughed weakly; recovering himself. Then he broke it a huge, rather mischievous grin.
"What?" Lily asked.
"If I had said that, you would have hexed me into next week."
"I would not have," she said; rather offended. "You know, James, I thought we were actually becoming friends and then you make a comment like that."
She stood, hurumphing proudly as she did.
"Oh shut up and sit back down, Lily," Remus rolled his eyes. "You know you would have."
Lily looked at Remus in shock. "I… I…" He smiled at her and raised his eyebrows. Then she sighed and sat back down. "Alright, I would have."
James was still smiling and Remus was looking at Lily very strangely.
"Oh stop it," she rolled her eyes.
Sirius kissed Dorcas' wet mouth hard one last time as he pulled out gently. Then he rolled off of her to lay face up on the left side of his bed. Dorcas exhaled loudly and then sat up; immediately grabbing the bra that lie on the pillow right above her head. She was beginning to fiddle with the straps when Sirius looked over at her.
"Wait," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Stay for a little while."
She looked at him strangely; almost fearfully. "Why?"
"I don't know," he propped himself up on one elbow to face her. "Just stay."
She put her bra back down on the bed. "Do you want to do it again?" she asked.
He shrugged. "If you want."
Dorcas was silent and her proud head was held high in deep thought.
"Oh just stay," he rolled his eyes; sitting up and looking her in the eye.
"Can I at least put my clothes on?" she asked. He nodded. She scrambled around the bed for a few minutes with Sirius watching her pull on her knickers, jeans, bra, and tee-shirt. He pulled his jeans on so not to be the weird naked one in the bed. When they were both satisfactorily covered, they lay back down on the bed face-up. They weren't touching and Dorcas had her arms crossed over her chest.
Sirius sighed and looked up at the red canopy over his head. He couldn't remember why he had asked her to stay. There was a heavy awkwardness in the air around them. He turned and propped his head up with his left elbow. Dorcas looked tense.
"I saw my brother today," he said suddenly; not really even to her. "I haven't spoken to him in a year."
She uncrossed her arms and turned her head to look up at him. "I didn't know you had a brother."
Sirius nodded. "He's in Slytherin. 4th year. Regulus is his name."
She was silent; but continued to look up at his eyes, which were now focused on the post near her feet.
"He's my mother's favorite." Sirius said quickly. "He's into that whole pure-blood pride thing like the rest of the lot."
"What happened?" she asked.
Sirius shrugged. "Not much really. We had just heard about Phillipa and I saw him walk into the Great Hall with a bunch of people: Rosier, Montague, you know the crowd. They were laughing. Then he looked at me and sort of frowned. And that was it."
"I'm sorry," she murmured softly.
Sirius scoffed. "You don't have to be sorry, it doesn't mean anything. I've made up for Regulus with James."
"I'm sorry," she repeated.
Sirius was silent. He lay back down. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and then was gone.
The last few weeks of term flew by as every student struggled to teach themselves the stuff they had been ignoring since January. Exams came and went in a flurry of excitement. The Gryffindors all passed their subjects, though Lily was a bit disappointed in her Arithmancy grade.
"I can't believe I only got a 93," she had roared; almost throwing her book against the wall of the girls' dormitory.
Dorcas didn't tell her that she'd received a 97
Before they knew it, it was time for the end-of-year feast. The Great Hall was decorated in blue and bronze since Ravenclaw had won the house cup that year. No amount of Quidditch cup points could make up for the obscene amount of points McGonagall had taken for Sirius' stunt in April. The festivities were still ultimately enjoyable for the Gryffindors. James and Sirius kept charming the Ravenclaws' goblets to squeak "Gryffindor is still better" everytime they went to take a drink. It wasn't exactly a subtle stunt. The entire Ravenclaw table had turned to glare at the two of them when a rather scared 3rd year had dropped the glass to the floor and it had shattered.
"We are in a magical institution," James had said. "They should know these kinds of things are bound to happen."
The next day, everyone hauled their trunks down to Hogwarts station to meet the train which would take them to King's Cross. James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, and Dorcas found a compartment near the middle of the train. After they had all gotten settled, Remus and Lily hurried off to the prefect compartment at the front of the train.
"It'll only take a few minutes, Dorcas," Lily promised; somewhat sorry that she was leaving the girl alone with those particular boys.
"Its fine," she shrugged. "Take your time."
"Alright," Lily looked at James and Sirius, especially Sirius, and then disappeared.
"She doesn't like what we're doing," Dorcas said flatly.
"I figured," Sirius leaned back against the wall; stretching out his long legs and crossing his ankles.
"Speaking of things Lily wouldn't like," James said. "Does she know about the first deal the two of you made?"
Dorcas shook her head. "I haven't told her."
"Well could you?" he said, leaning forward, his brow furrowing a little. "And make sure she understands I had absolutely nothing to do with it."
Sirius put a hand on his friend's back. "Tying up loose ends before you pop the question again, huh?"
James shrugged Sirius' hand off and scowled. "I like being able to talk to Lily Evans without her biting my head off. I don't want her finding out about that stupid idea and hating me again."
"I'll talk to her," Dorcas said, nodding.
"Good Luck," Sirius smirked.
"You're coming with me," she said simply.
"What?" Sirius popped up.
"It was your idea. You're coming with me."
Sirius scowled.
When Lily and Remus returned, Dorcas stood and took Lily outside of the compartment; glancing at Sirius as she walked. James punched his shoulder.
"Better go, mate."
Sirius grumbled and stood up. He slid open the compartment door and joined Lily and Dorcas.
"What is it?" Lily asked, looking up at the two noticeably taller people standing in front of her.
"Well," Dorcas said. "Do you remember how in November, Cade Bradley and Sirius were in that fight because Sirius had shagged Julia Connors?"
Lily laughed and nodded. "Yeah."
"Well, the reason he shagged her was because I asked him to."
"You have a thing for strange sexual arrangements, Dorcas, don't you?"
Dorcas smiled slightly and then looked up at Sirius expectantly. "Well, he wanted something in return…"
"Is that why you're shagging him now?" Lily asked; looking rather bored.
Dorcas kept looking at Sirius, her eyebrows raised. He glanced angrily at her; as if she was asking him to shake Snape's hand.
Finally, the stalemate ended and her dark eyes broke him. "I asked Dorcas to give me information on you. James had nothing to do with it." He glared at her again. "If it helps, she didn't really give me anything good."
"The whole thing stopped after we fought in April," Dorcas said to Lily's somewhat confused face.
"Well you two are full of great ideas," Lily chuckled.
Sirius looked at her in surprise. "So you don't care?"
She shrugged. "Not really, you have been analyzing everything I've done since 4th year, Black. And you, Dorcas, well if this whole undercover bit stopped two months ago, then….. it really doesn't matter."
Sirius grinned. Dorcas smiled with her lips closed. Lily shrugged again. They all returned to the compartment.
"James'll be glad to hear that." Sirius muttered to Dorcas.
When they reached King's Cross and began to say goodbye for three months, James took Lily aside.
"Hey," he smiled nervously. "I was wondering if…well…if I write to you this summer, will you write back?"
Lily thought about the piles of letters she had received from James the past two summers and how she had unceremoniously burned them in the stove.
She nodded. "Sure."
He broke out into a huge smile. "Alright," he said.
They stood there awkwardly looking at their shoes for a few seconds before Lily threw her arms around James' shoulders. He wrapped his around her waist and they embraced for a few seconds. When they separated, Lily was blushing and James looked down at his shoes. "Have a good summer," he said.
"You too," she murmured before she turned around and walked to her parents.
It was going to be a great summer