Disclaimer: we do not own Harry Potter. Or a small portion of the song from Bubblegum Crisis.

Chapter twenty five

Ellie, Kat, Emma and Lily were walking down the corridor during a free period. It had been a few days since James had told lily that they needed some space.

"Did you hear about the new exchange student?" Kat asked Ellie.

"Oh, the one from Belgium?" Ellie asked in reply.

"Yeah, but I heard on the grape vine that he's from Australia originally." Kat said.

"Really, it seems strange that there's an exchange this late in the year." Lily said scratching her head.

"That's what I thought, that is until I heard…" Kat whispered as she signaled to the others that she was about to tell them something very private. "I heard that his family is in some sort of secret society, and he was transferred here for his own safety."

"Oh wow! Do you know when he arrives? I can't wait to meet him." Ellie said enthusiastically.

"Hey! You've got a boyfriend." Lily yelled.

"I know, but it will be nice to have another Australian around here, and by that I meant someone else who likes vegemite." Ellie said.

"Right…" Kat replied trailing off.

There were a few people in the library, but there wasn't any noise. That is until Sirius smacked James over the head.

"I thought Lily told you that you needed a break! Not the other way around!"

"Why'd you hit me?" James said rubbing his head.

"Because you are a stupid git." Sirius said with great satisfaction.

"Ok maybe, but still…."

"Still what, you love the woman, so why do you have to be so gosh dam stubborn?" Sirius said angrily.

"She's just different…her views are very different to mine." James said trying to make Sirius see sense.

"You know what James; sometimes you can be so fucking stupid." Sirius said angrily.

"What me? This coming from someone who hides from his girlfriend just after she tells him that she's pregnant." James said trying to defend himself.

"You didn't just say that!" Sirius said rising form his seat.

"Yeah, I did!" James said also rising from his seat.

Emma came through the door to see her fiancé and one of her best friends punching, kicking and pulling each other's hair.

"What are you two doing?" she screamed, trying to pull them apart. "You stop right now. Don't you dare try and punch him while I'm standing in the middle of you, you might hit my stomach and then you would have to deal with me!" she shouted.

"Oh yeah, cos you're so strong," James teased.

"That's it!" she said loudly and slapped them both, hard on the cheek.

They both stopped and stared at her.

"I am sorry I had to do that, but it was for your own good, and James, you insulted me."

"I'm sorry," James said to Emma and then walked off, he wasn't going to apologize to Sirius right now, he wasn't in the mood.

"Shit…" Kat whispered to Ellie. They had been spying on James, Sirius and Emma.

"Come on, we better follow James." Ellie said as she pulled Kat hurriedly towards the corridor.

"Yeah, he's probably going to do something stupid." Kat said.

"James!" Ellie shouted down the corridor. They were running after James. He didn't slow even after they called his name.

"I've got an idea. Accio broom." Kat said as she flicked her wand. Her broom came hurtling towards them. Ellie and Kat jumped on.

They flew threw the corridor. It didn't take long after that to find James. He was talking to a sixth year.

Kat and Ellie jumped off the broom. While Ellie waited for her broom Kat was talking in hushed tones to James.

"Sometimes I wonder how on earth we became friends, but we are, so Ellie and I are going to help you." Kat announced in the same hushed tone.

James nodded his head. He wasn't going to argue with Kat, fighting with her was like hitting a brick wall, pointless and painful.

Just as Kat mounted her broom and pulled James onto it the main entrance doors flew open revealing Dumbledore and the new student Matt.

"Not now…" Ellie said. She really wanted to meet Matt, but she wanted to help James.

"Ah, Just who I was looking for." Dumbledore said.

Ellie lowered her broom to the ground and greeted Dumbledore.

"Hi, you must be Matt. I'm Ellie, and those two are Kat and James." Ellie said holding out her hand.

"It's great to meet you, Dumbledore told me about you."

"Yes, I did, I was just about to come and let you make yourselves acquainted with Mr. Jefferson. But you were all about to go flying, although I am not going to ask where Mr. Potter's broom it. But perhaps you might take Matt with you?" Dumbledore asked very suggestively.

"Um, yeah sure." Ellie said. She signaled for Matt to hop on the back of her broom.

"Hey, thanks." He whispered into Ellie's ear. Ellie blushed. Then she thought of Remus and controlled herself.

The four of them flew up around to the small island that was situated in the middle of the lake.

"Alright, here we are. James go and find the tree." Ellie demanded.

James left and walked off into the woodlands in search of a tree.

Matt looked very strangely at the two girls who apparently thought that searching for a tree wasn't weird, especially when there were trees all around them.

"So where are you two from?" Matt asked Kat and Ellie. They had both sat down on the sand.

"Well Kat here was born and breed here in England. But I was raised and born in Australia." Ellie said. Then Kat added.

"When we get back to the castle we'll introduce you to the others. There Sirius, and Emma. They're a couple, emma's pregnant and they're getting hitched. Then there's Peter and Remus. There the other two Marauders. Then there's Lily, James girlfriend." Kat concluded. Ellie shifted nervously when Kat mentioned that Lily was James's girlfriend.

Matt must have seen this nervousness because he then asked, "If Lily is James's girlfriend then why isn't she here?"

Kat found this question slightly personal.

Ellie replied. "They are having some issues. But everyone knows that they'll get over it. They always do."

Kat agreed. They drifted away from the personal conversation and headed into interests and miscellaneous stuff.

When Ellie mentioned that she and Kat were musicians Matt almost fainted.

"I have never heard of such a thing. Isn't that like a muggle thing?"

"No! It's not just a muggle thing. Ellie, summon your guitar please." Ellie zapped her guitar and began to gently strum on the strings.

Kat slowly began to sing.

"I feel your presence whenever you're near, the sadness it melts from my heart. When im all alone I can't go on, I need you with me. Rather than folding and just giving in. I summon your strength in my dreams. Believe in your powers to make all things whole, like the other half of my soul. You give me the strength to go on."

"Ok, I guess I was wrong. But that was a beautiful song. Who wrote it?" Matt asked.

"We did. We wrote it about how so many people are lost and scared, and that they still have the hopes of all those that they love within them." Ellie said. Tears were forming in her eyes. Kat thought that this might be a good time to go and see if James had found the tree yet. She asked Matt to accompany her into the woods.

As they walked deeper into the small forest Matt asked, "Why exactly are we searching for a tree?"

"I wondered why you took so long to ask. It's not just a tree. It is like a retreat inside a tree. The marauders stumbled across it in first year, now it's just like a special space. We tend to bring people who we think need to be isolated here."

"Why didn't someone else bring him? Why did it have to be you and Ellie?" Matt asked. He was so confused. This was not the kind of first day that he had expected.

"Ellie and I are the best flyers, except for James, but he is in no condition to fly." Kat said.

Lily walked around kicking a pebble around the school grounds; it was a way of getting things of her mind. She was sick of constantly thinking about James and what a jerk she had been toward Emma's private issues. She had no right to butt into her life like that and question what she was doing with her life.

"Lonely?" A voice came from behind her; Lily spun around quickly and found Emma, in her jogging clothes standing in a pregnant woman stance; one leg forward and one hand rested gently on her stomach.

"I guess," she shrugged. "It's just me and a pebble."

"Well it's just me and my stomach," Emma laughed, "can I walk with you?"

"Sure." Lily said quietly, "no offence but aren't pregnant people meant to lie around eating and bossing people around?"

"None taken," Emma said quickly, "no, that's in the later stages of pregnancy, so you better start preparing yourself now!" she joked.

Lily laughed with her, and then stopped suddenly. "Look, Emma, I am sorry about what happened, I didn't have a right to tell you about your life and what to do with it."

Emma looked at Lily, she was right, and how could she stay mad at her. Emma didn't even know how she had survived so long without Lily.

"I'm sorry too, it was stupid, let's forget about it," she said.

"Now there are two things left to do on my agenda," Lily said a few minutes later, "number one, make Sirius and James become friends again and two get back together with James."

Emma smiled at her best friend. "I think I can help you with both of those."

After there little chat by the lake Emma and Lily wandered aimlessly around the corridors when they came across the statue of the one eyed witch. Emma looked at Lily. They mutually agreed that they needed to get out of the school grounds.

"Should we go and check out Frida's?" Lily asked.

Emma nodded excitingly. Frida's was this little café that was hidden in one of the back streets of Hogsmeade.

As they walked into Frida's they heard the strangest noises coming from the kitchen.

"What in the land of England's name is that?" Emma asked trying to peak into the kitchen.

"I don't really want to find out…" Lily said. The two of them turned to leave, but as they reached for the door handle a rather plump woman yelled there names.

"Ah Emma! Lily! What a wonderful surprise. I wasn't expecting either of you today. I was just teaching the cook how to decapitate a hotfoot." Frida signaled for the two girls to take a seat. She gave them some menus and a pot of tea.

Emma was laughing so hard by now, although lily just sat there very confused.

"That is the all time strangest lady in the entire universe." Emma announced.

"I still don't understand why we come here?" Lily said confused.

"Because I find her soo amusing!" Said Emma.

Kat and Matt entered the tree. (A/N I never ever thought I'd write that sentence.)

"James!" Kat yelled.

Suddenly James appeared from underneath the stair case.

"Someone else is here! I can feel it!" James said sneakily like a spy.

"James don't be ridiculous, only you, the rest of the marauder's, the girls, and matt know about this place!" Kat exclaimed.

"Right and I've only been here for a day, so I haven't told anyone." Matt added.

"Then it can only be Sirius or Remus…" James said. Then he ran ferociously around the basement trying to find them.

"Kat…" A voice whispered from behind the toilet door.

Kat and Matt turned around and were confront with Sirius.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Kat asked quietly, but very seriously.

"I came here because I thought I'd be alone, but I guess you had the same idea. Bet you could get acquainted nicely with the newbie here. Oh by the way, I'm Sirius Black, Hogwarts hottie." Sirius said.

"Yeah, this is Matt. Oh and by the way, Sirius here is one of the most up him self people I have ever met."

"Me, up my self? I would never do such a thing. But what about you miss everyone's in love with me?" Sirius said in a lad de da voice.

"Oh shut up, this is not the place for one of our your horse is smaller than my horse games!" Kat said. Matt was standing there very confused. He was trying to figure out if they were being serious, or if this was just one of those things they did.

Sirius must have known what Matt was thinking as he responded by saying, "Don't worry Matt, we do this all the time."

Kat nodded in agreement then said, "Go and talk to James."

Sirius grumbled then walked off to find James.

In the mean time Kat and Matt left to go back to the castle with Ellie. When they arrived back on the small beach Matt asked Ellie a question.

"If we take the brooms, how do James and Sirius get back?"

"They'll find a way, but they'll probably swim I guess." Ellie said seriously. Matt looked mysteriously at her.

"When she says swim, she only means to that small island over there." Kat said pointing to a secluded island. "There's a tunnel under one of the rocks that should take them back to the castle." Ellie added.

Matt nodded.

"Listen Dude, you're stupid!" Sirius said to James. "But no the less man, we made a pact here seven years ago." Sirius stopped to make sure that they were in the right spot. "We agreed that we would never fight because of a chick. And we can't break this pact."

"I guess." James said shrugging.

"Mates?" Sirius said holding out his wand.

"Mates!" James agreed clicking Sirius's wand.

"What do you say we get out of here and go eat something?" Sirius suggested.

"I couldn't have put it better myself." James agreed.

That's it! Love Kat!

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