Okay, I'm not too sure about this one... I seem to have lost my muse. I wanted to concentrate more on the 'action' rather than the relationships now - see what you think. As always, thanks for the reviews!

Chapter Twenty-One – Suspicious Minds

A month passed, and James and Lily were still going strong. The work was steadily building up for the sixth years, as they were now in the second half of the school year. Next year they faced their NEWTs. During the first week or so of their new relationship, James and Lily were constant smiles and adoration, always in each other's company. Their friends soon grew tired of it, but even more so when the bickering began in the second week. They were still hardly ever out of each other's eyesight, but now they spent their time arguing. It was very much a love-hate relationship.

Sirius, happy at first for James, was getting disgruntled that he'd lost his best friend, in some ways. Being a prefect, Lily constantly urged her beau to be better behaved, and he felt obliged to, rather than anger her unnecessarily. However, this meant that Lily and Sirius were always pulling him in two different directions, and his rebellious tendencies were hard to break, to the Marauders' delight.

The Quidditch season was going well for the Gryffindors, and James liked to think it was due to his own skills as Seeker and Captain. They'd won both the games they had played so far, and the next one would take place in two weeks' time, against Slytherin. They were determined to win this one, too, as last year they'd narrowly lost to the enemy house when James had been hit and knocked off course by a Bludger just before he caught the Snitch.

James was discussing his team's chances of winning with Steven Brown in a corner, on a rare occasion when he was not with Lily. She was sitting with her friends at one of the tables, doing some homework. They were gossiping about Bethan's relationship with Marley, which seemed to be flourishing. This was another factor contributing to Sirius' usual dark moods.

Lily let herself drift from the conversation and gazed across the room, absent-mindedly nibbling the tip of her quill as her eyes came to rest on James. She smiled, watching him wildly gesticulating in his ranting about Quidditch, while Steven tried to get a word in sometimes. After a minute she looked over at the next table and saw Remus helping a couple of first years with their Potions homework. Unconsciously she leant her head on her hand and watched him patiently going through each point over again until they understood it, never getting annoyed or short-tempered, or not showing it, anyway.

She was startled out of the clouds by a quiet voice beside her asking, "Any regrets?"

Lily looked around to see Sirius sitting next to her, his feet up on the table and a knowing look in his eye. She turned again to see James, demonstrating a star Seeker's moves to a now bored-looking Steven Brown. Her eyes turned back to Remus, unwearyingly explaining the properties of a Potion ingredient to his young pupils. She shook her head, smiling slightly. "No, I think me and Remus were too alike from the start."

"Good, because I wouldn't tolerate you hurting both my best friends." Sirius treated her to a stern look, and she knew to take him seriously.

"I would never hurt James, Sirius," she said with a reassuring smile, and turned back to her homework. Sirius sat back, satisfied with this answer, hands behind his head and his bare feet still up on the table.

"Sirius, your feet are absolutely huge!" Bethan stopped chatting to gaze in wonder at the offending feet.

Sirius fixed her with a piratical smile. All he needed to complete the picture was a cutlass between his teeth. "If you're impressed by size you'll be pleased to know it doesn't stop at my feet," he said lazily.

Bethan was stuck for words then, and her face went pink from such suggestiveness from her old crush.

Sirius grinned further at this reaction he'd got. "Oh, come on," he said, "Don't tell me your horrible, six-foot, tight t-shirt-wearing boyfriend isn't up to standard?"

Bethan recovered quickly; the rosy cheeks turned from embarrassment to anger. "Quite the contrary," she answered in clipped tones as she turned her eyes back to her homework. "We were just talking about him, weren't we, Sarah?"

"Oh, yes," Sarah agreed. "You may have met your match, Mr Black!"

"Never!" Sirius was interrupted in his attempts to keep his reputation, by Peter clattering into the common room through the portrait, out of breath and his round face looking flushed.

"Where's Adriana?" he demanded, for some reason staring right at Sirius.

Sirius blinked in surprise, looking at Peter over his shoulder. "How the hell should I know?" he asked. "Where's she supposed to be?"

"We were supposed to meet at the library half an hour ago!" Peter squeaked, looking at his watch. "But she never turned up – I thought you might have something to do with it."

Whilst the girls wondered why on earth Adriana was going out with Peter over Sirius, James came to his friend's rescue. "Why don't you look for her on the Map, Wormtail?" he suggested, giving Steven Brown a break from the Quidditch rantings. He went up to the bedroom to get the Marauders' Map, as Peter sat down next to Lily.

Something stirred in Sirius' mind. He sat forward slowly, fingers on his temples, trying to remember what it was... Adriana... the Map... He fell off his chair suddenly. The girls laughed at him sprawled on the floor, hair in his eyes, and Remus looked around from his first year buddies.

"She's with the Slytherins!" Sirius shouted, to the bemusement of the others. He jumped to his feet impatiently. "I saw her on the Map, months ago, meeting with Snape and Regulus and a few others – I was suspicious at the time, but I forgot about it."

The others were just looking at him. "Yeah, and?" Peter prompted him.

"Well don't you think that's a little weird?" Sirius said anxiously. "She was meeting with those slimy evil gits – what the hell for?"

"What are you suggesting?" Peter asked, his face starting to look flushed again. At that moment James came down the stairs again, brandishing the Map.

"Sorry, it was at the bottom of my trunk," he grinned as he got his wand out to reveal the magical plan of the castle. "Let's see where your missus is, then..."

The sound of the portrait hole opening again made them turn around, James' wand poised on the parchment, to see Adriana entering the room, looking as beautiful as usual. Peter rushed over to her.

"Angel, where were you?" he gushed disgustingly. Sirius put his face in his hands. "I thought you'd run into trouble or something."

"No, of course not," she answered soothingly. "What I ran into was Professor Harlem, and you know how he likes to talk – he was very excited about this eclipse thing coming up in June, I couldn't get away." She took his hand and led him towards the stairs. "Come on, let's get some privacy."

The other sixth years stared until the couple was out of sight. Sarah turned to the others. "Does anyone else just not understand that?" she asked. "I thought I'd get used to it, but they're such a weird couple."

"Hmm, it is rather odd," Bethan agreed, going back to her work. "She must just like nothing guys. No offence," she added, glancing up at James.

"None taken, I completely agree," he said, putting the unused Map away. "I think that's the explanation Sirius has settled for, eh, Padfoot?"

They turned to Sirius, who was still staring in disbelief at the stairs. "What a cock and bull story!" he said eventually, pointing a long finger up where Adriana had been. "She met Professor Harlem? Yeah, what were they doing together?" When the others looked shocked, he yielded in his views. "Okay, so Harlem wouldn't do that. But something's not right here... And I'm not jealous, I just... I think you were right all along, James." He looked up at James, his face unusually serious.

"No I wasn't, Padfoot." James looked slightly disturbed. "She's a nice girl, my first impression was wrong. Mate, just – get a grip."

Sirius sunk in his seat, glowering with his arms folded as James walked away. Remus, having sent the younger students up to bed, successfully and without drama for a change, came over to join them.

"Sirius, you're worrying me," he said. "I like to trust your judgement, but this thing about Adriana seems a bit crazy. So she was talking to some Slytherins – it could have been about anything, they might not have been meeting at all, just a coincidence. Besides, she's a Gryffindor."

Sirius leant forward and whispered in Remus' ear. "I don't trust her, she has no nasal hair!"

Remus laughed, with some relief. "Yeah, okay, I knew you were just joking." He went over to sit with James by the fire. Sirius slumped further in his chair, thinking. No one believed him or understood his concern, but he was starting to seriously wonder whether Adriana had an agenda of her own. He had no idea what it could be, but if it involved the Slytherins it couldn't be good.

He eyes the Marauders' Map lying on the table next to Lily's pile of books. Tapping it with his wand, he muttered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" and leant over it as the inky corridors appeared all over the parchment. His eyes dropped to the bottom, the Slytherin common room in the dungeons, and in one corner he saw four dots telling him, sure enough, that Regulus, Bellatrix, Snape and Malfoy were conferring.

They could be talking about anything, he told himself reasonably, looking out the window at the dark sky and seeing the Dog Star. But they could be discussing their latest rendezvous with Adriana. Adriana – the Gryffindor spy?