CHAPTER 8

Apparently according to a group of gossiping third year Gryffindors, Sirius had spent the night asleep on one of the sofas in the common room, he hadn't braved the dormitory.

James and Lily had led a confused and battered Remus up to the hospital wing where they were dismissed by Dumbledore who had been waiting for them. With promises to visit as soon as possible and that everything would be fine, they left an even more confused Remus to have the last nights events explained to him by their headmaster.

The duo headed silently back to Gryffindor tower, an awkward distance between them. Neither sure how much last night's closeness had been comfort or a furthering of their relationship.

They both managed to shower and change, meet up with Peter and fill him in and all with no sign of Sirius. The three of them went to breakfast and still no sign of their prodigal pack member.

With no classes to attend now that lessons were over, they sat in the hall for a while, until they thought Dumbledore's explanation should be finished then headed back to the hospital wing.

Madame Pomphrey was bustling around with her usual aplomb; Snape appeared to be long gone. Curtain screens surrounded one bed and the three Gryffindors slipped inside silently.

Despite the fact that Remus had to be aware of their presence he said nothing, he simply remained laying on his side, staring away from them.

"Hey Moony," James offered.

No response.

"We- Um-" James trailed off and looked towards his companions for help.

Oddly enough it was Peter who tried to engage Remus next. "Lily managed to stick in form all last night. That was pretty cool." Peter sighed, shoulders dropping when all Remus did was pull the comforter up further over his head.

Lily let out a huff of breath because really, what's with boys? And stalked around the bed so she was in front of Remus, gently she shifted the pillow and sat down besides him. Laying a hand carefully on his back she began to rub soothing circles, after a few moments he relaxed a little and the shifted over. His arm reaching across her legs to hug her to him, Remus rested his head on her thigh.

Lily continued to rub his back silently offering comfort, following her example James sat on the other side of the bed and awkwardly rested a hand on Remus' shoulder offering support. Peter sat down on the end of the bed, drawing his knees up and watching the goings on.

The remained like that for some time, Lily deliberately ignoring that her robes were becoming steadily more and more damp.

It was several days later that Sirius reappeared. The others could only guess that he was eating in the kitchens because he didn't come to any meals. He seemed to be sleeping in the common room still as well, entering after the others had gone to bed and leaving before the came down in the mornings. Whilst sneaking up to the dormitory when he knew no one was there to get clean clothes.

Lily was getting a little tired of it all. Remus was refusing to talk about the whole thing, but that was unsurprising, since Dumbledore had explained Sirius' behaviour to him, he had said very little. James was fuming and on the odd occasion that Sirius was in close proximity to him made loud comments about traitors and the true meaning of friendship. Peter of course went along with the majority.

Soon enough another full moon rolled around, Remus claimed that he didn't want anyone near him, so Lily and Peter agreed to sit this one out, whilst James stated bluntly that he wasn't going to leave his friend to suffer alone.

So Lily found herself sitting alone in the common room, Peter had disappeared once more, to where she had no idea. She was reading a book on advanced charms in preparation for next year, knowing that Hermione would be proud of her and squashing the thought the moment it arose.

Lily was distracted from her reading by a howl. Initially she thought it was Remus and for a moment she was terrified that he had somehow gotten lose and was on the grounds. Another howl made her realise she was wrong, standing she strode to the window.

There before the whomping willow, howling mournfully at the moon was Padfoot.

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After seeing Sirius' obvious misery last night, Lily decided to track him down and have it out with him. As Sirius was the one in the wrong as far as she was concerned it was up to him to fix this mess. And if that meant some not so gentle convincing then so be it.

She had managed to sneak a quick peak at the Marauders map before returning it to James' trunk and was soon heading off to an abandoned class room in pursuit of their errant pack member.

Any thoughts of a screaming match went out the window the minute she saw Sirius' truly dejected form. He was sitting on an old desk, the room was littered with books and parchment as well as empty butter beer and pumpkin juice bottles, sweet wrappers lined the floor. It was obvious this had been his hiding place for some time.

"I don't suppose you want to talk about it?" Lily asked softly.

Sirius startled, then forced himself to relax. "Talk about what?" He asked without turning from the painting he was staring at.

"Why you did it." No need to explain what it was.

Sirius turned his head slightly, "Should you be talking to me? I wouldn't want the others to turn on you because of m-"

"Bull. You just want to avoid the question!" Lily snapped, irritated that Sirius was avoiding the question, she stalked over in front of the desk he was on, forcing him to acknowledge her.

"I'm not trying to-"

Not wanting to hear any excuses Lily cut him off. "Maybe, just maybe I could have understood you trying to frighten Snape but you could have killed him!"

"I-"

"And what about Remus? Did you even think about what this stunt would do to him? What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't! Ok, I didn't think!" Sirius exploded.

"Oh, there's a surprise." She responded, voice dripping with sarcasm. A long silence ensued, Sirius studiously trying not to make eye contact with her. Lily sighed and hoped up onto another desk to sit opposite him.

"I-I didn't mean to hurt Remus." Sirius offered, running a shaky hand through his hair.

Lily nodded, that much she had guessed, "Have you told him that?"

Sirius shook his head, "I never get anything right." He thumped his head into his hands then rubbed at his eyes with the heel of hands.

Sighing Lily asked, "What were you trying to do Sirius?" At his look she intervened before he could come up with an excuse, "The truth- you owe it to Remus- he trusted you and you betrayed him in the worst possible way."

"Do you think he'll ever forgive me?" He asked, his voice unbearably small.

"I suppose it depends on why you did it and what you're willing to do to make it up to him."

Sirius nodded, as if he suspected that but wasn't quite sure what to do about it. "The thing is, he- Regulus- told Snape that I-" Sirius' mouth snapped shut, and he looked away from her, an uncomfortable silence settled around them.

"You can tell me."

"You're from a muggle family right? They don't appreciate you being magical do they?" Lily winced slightly, she hated it when anyone mentioned anything that reminded her of the lie she was living. Feeling guilty about yet another untruth she shook her head, Sirius continued haltingly. "All my family are Slytherins...there's the occasional Ravenclaw but - never mind."

"Sirius-"

"It doesn't matter."

And the sad thing was he truly believed that. "It matters to me." The red head replied, Sirius looked up at her, expression pathetically grateful and nodded.

"I'm the first member of my family to ever be sorted into Gryffindor. You can imagine how much my pure-blood supremacist parents loved that." He paused then lost in his own memories, then continued, "In my first year no one trusted me - James was a life line - everyone else in Gryffindor was convinced I was a dark wizard."

"You're from a dark family?" Lily forced herself to ask, she knew all about Sirius' family of course having heard Harry and her parents talk about them.

Sirius snorted, seeming a little amused. "You haven't heard of the Blacks? Of course not, you're muggle born. Well to make it simple half the family ended up in Azkaban after Grindelwald fell. All for the greater cause of preserving the 'rightful heirs of the magical world.'"

Lily was silent for a moment, before asking, "How bad was it?"

Sirius looked up startled, as if he had forgotten she was even there, "What?"

"When they found out you were a Gryffindor."

"I think that they'd suspected for a while. They tried to trample any 'undesrable' behaviour out of me."

Lily froze, she'd heard that expression before, something Ron had said about Harry. She had heard from her Father and brothers about how bad the Dursley's were but she always suspected that no one knew the full extent of it. And now...had Sirius been abused too? Neglected?

Suddenly feeling awkward and unsure Lily began to rethink her plan.

"So Regulus told Snape something about-"

Sirius cringed and looked away. Lily decided not to push, she could still remember over hearing her parents discussing the fact that the twins had seen a bed in the cupboard under the stairs at Privet drive. It was something that she had never mentioned to anyone and neither had the twins and them being considerate was an indicator of how serious the situation had been. She could only imagine how mortified Harry would be if all and sundry knew he had lived in a cupboard. She glanced at Sirius wondering what could be so mortifyingly embarrassing and painful to him that he would endanger one of his closest friends without pause for thought.

She had never pushed Remus into telling her about his condition and she wasnt about to push Sirius.

"I'm here if you ever want to talk." She offered finally. Sirius nodded, carefully avoiding her eyes, he was grateful she wouldn't ask him to explain.

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A few hours later Lily was heading back to Gryffindor tower, she had spent the best part of the morning trying to convince Sirius to try and patch things up. He had agreed once she had promised to approach the other marauders first. The rest of the morning had been spent playing exploding snap whilst Lily relayed any gossip and interesting happenings to Sirius. She had snagged lunch from the kitchens and they had eaten it in Sirius' den. All the while he seemed so pleased for her company. Once again she found herself wondering how he ever managed twelve long years on his own.

As soon as the portrait door swung open, Lily stepped through and collided with someone. Glancing up she saw it was James. She offered him a smile but he didn't seem inclined to return it.

He turned on his heel and went back into the common room, a confused Lily following.

James spun round, "Where were you?"

"What?" Lily asked in surprise, suddenly grateful that the common room was empty as the other students were either in class or outside enjoying the sunshine.

"Where were you?" He repeated his voice both angry and impatient.

Lily shrugged, slightly irritate at his behaviour. "I was walking."

"With Sirius." James accused.

"What were you doing? Spying on me with your map?" Irritation turned to full blown anger when his expression betrayed that that was exactly what he'd done. "How mature."

Any embarrassment that James had felt was quickly shaken off. "What was he telling you?" He demanded.

"How is that any of your busine-"

James began pacing, body taunt. "You don't know what he's like, he charms girls all the time, no doubt he came up with some absurd story to gain him sympathy when it's Remus who-"

"I thought Sirius was your best friend?"

James turned to her, his face a picture of incredulous shock. "After this stunt? Pranks are one thing but this?"

"So that's it? He makes one foolish mistake and five years of friendship are just gone?"

James floundered for a moment, searching for a suitable response. Eventually he flung up his arms. "I knew he'd get you on is side!"

Lily shook her head in frustration. "I'm on no ones side! Grow up James! You've avoided him for weeks, you won't let him apologise, what do you expect from him?"

"He shouldn't have done it in the first place!" James practically yelled, deliberately avoiding the question.

"But he did! What do you want him to do? Get a time turner and go prevent his past-self from-" Lily stopped abruptly realising what it was she was saying. James seemed to get the point though, he flopped down into one of the fire side chairs and let out a long sigh.

"Did he say why?"

"He made a mistake. He regrets it- he's being punished by the school, his family have been contacted- we've ignored him completely for a month. Isn't it time to let it go?"

James tried one last ditch attempt at winning the conversation, "I-are you sure he didn't try spin some tale-?"

"Honestly, James Potter! He didn't charm me- give me a false sob story. Anyone would think you were jealous!" She exploded, ready to laugh at such a ridiculous idea until she saw the blush spread across James' face.

"Oh."

"Yeah, so- pretty dumb huh?" He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, eyes fixed on the floor.

Lily sighed, "No, not so dumb. I guess I'd be a little jealous if you disappeared one morning and had gone and had lunch with another girl."

James' head snapped round, his expression shocked. "Oh- so, mutual jealousy? That's kinda cool."

"Kind of daft more like." She replied with a laugh.

James grinned, "Yeah but I guess if we, um, what I mean is if we sort of made things clearer then we wouldn't need to be jealous about stuff."

"You know that made absolutely no sense." Lily replied but the halted James when he looked like he was about to explain further. "But if your asking me, in a very daft way, to be your girlfriend, then the answers yes."

James grinned at her and Lily soon found herself grinning back.

"So, um." He started uncertainly, "I guess Sirius has had enough time to think about things. I'll speak with Remus, it's his call but I'll try and patch things up if I can."

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…END CHAPTER…

A/N haha, bet you thought that I'd disappear for another 2 years? No such luck. Updates should be fairly frequent, I'm aiming for one a week, writings going well (touch wood)… in fact I've managed to write around 30,000 words over the last couple of weeks on this story and a Lord of the Rings one… feel free to check that out, its called Kelly (you can tell that titles aren't a strong point for me, neither are summaries), is a humour/romance/drama thing.Yes I know, shameless self promoter!

Thank you to my reviews! You people make me smile. Keep 'em coming. PLEASE REVIEW – any comments or suggestions are welcome, if there's something you really want to see happen please tell me.