"Urugh!"

Raising my elbow from the table, I rubbed gingerly at it, and my fingers came away wet and sticky. Hearing Marlene snigger slightly, I looked up furiously.

"Whose smart idea was it to drip maple syrup everywhere?"

"You," replied Ashleigh calmly, "When you smothered it all over your pancakes just now."

The sniggers grew louder. Rolling my eyes, I hoiked my arm up to eye level and squinted at my elbow.

Mmmm. I loved maple syrup. Even the sight of it of my own skin looked pretty damn yummy.

"Bet you can't lick it off," Marlene said suddenly, as though reading my thoughts.

"Bet I can," I replied at once.

"You can't," piped up Ashleigh, "It's impossible. Scientific fact."

I snorted. "Scientific fact my anus. I can lick maple syrup off anything." And to prove it, I grabbed the end of my elbow, stuck my neck out, and started wrenching it closer to my face. "Here's what I think of scientific facts!" I said, sounding slightly muffled as I inched my chin steadily along my arm. Marlene was watching me with her mouth hanging open.

"Here I come!" And with that, I stuck my tongue out, and lolled it out as far as it would go.

Ah, bollocks. Just out of reach. I launched my tongue out again for a re-try, but again, it just fell short. Giving a sort of chimpanzee-like "Uurrrruugh!" I grabbed the end of my tongue and tried to force it onto the sweet syrup just centimetres away from it…

"Lily?"

I swung around with my thumb and finger still pinching the end of my tongue and my elbow still residing somewhere around my cheek. Moony stood there, staring at me with the smallest of politest frowns on his face.

I stared at him blankly, wondering why my heart had started drum rolling itself onto my ribs.

And that was when I felt the dribble sliding down my wrist.

Horrified, I yanked my hand away from my mouth, and spit went flicking off the end of my fingers. Moony followed the shining globule of saliva with his eyes as it went sailing merrily past his shoulder, then hastily pretended he hadn't seen anything.

Even though it landed on his ear.

"Hi!" I said hastily, praying to God that he hadn't noticed, "I – um – sorry, I was just - "

"Can I speak with you?" He cut over me abruptly. "In private?" He added, glancing significantly at Ashleigh and Marlene, who were both pretending very hard not to look interested in the slightest. Zea didn't count, seeing as she was asleep in the butter dish.

"Yeah, 'course," I muttered, standing up at once and following him out of the Hall.

He turned around to face me once we were in the Entrance Hall, and stood there looking quietly at me through strands of honey brown hair. Vivid blue eyes locked without pity onto mine, and a feeling of enormous regret washed over me. I could still see the hurt in his face, and I suddenly despised myself for what I had said about him.

"Moony - " I began, wanting desperately to apologise, to make it better somehow, but he cut brusquely over me.

"Don't call me that. Only my friends call me that."

I paused, thrown, red colouring my cheeks. "I'm sorry, Remus," I mumbled, but it sounded so pathetic, so lame, not how I'd wanted it to sound at all. He spoke again, in the same harsh, wooden voice.

"You had no right to say those things about me last night, Lily."

"I know!" I cried unhappily, unable to keep it in. "I know, and I'm really sor - "

"If you don't like me, you could have said it to my face."

"You don't understa - "

"How can you label me so quickly? How can you spend a mere hour or two with me, and then judge me?"

I closed my eyes against the tears. "Remus, I know all this," I whispered, fighting to stop my voice from trembling. "I've said this to myself a thousand times. I was stupid. I didn't think. I don't think you're boring, not really, but I just don't know you well enough." My eyes were burning in a film of water, and I stared determinedly up at the ceiling to stop them from falling. My voice faltered and died.

Moony spoke quietly. "You're right. You don't know me. At all." He sighed suddenly, and the coarse tone in his voice softened slightly. "But I'd be a hypocrite if I were to judge you for talking to your friends about other people. So, after this, I'm prepared to just let things go back to the way they were. Agreed?"

I looked up at him. Another pull of regret twanged loudly in my chest. "I'd like it if we could still be friends," I said softly, though not with much hope. He raised his eyebrows.

"You want to be friends with a boring person like me?"

"Stop it!" I cried, unable to stand the guilt any longer, "Stop it, I told you I'm sorry, I told you I didn't mean it!"

Moony stared at me expressionlessly. Then he said two words. "Joke, Lily."

I stared at him, my jaw hanging loosely. "Oh!" I laughed nervously. "Oh, I see."

"Lily, I'd like to be friends with you, but let's make it clear: I don't think we make a very good couple. Evidently, I appear to come across rather tedious and dull when I'm dating people." A hint of a teasing smile hung about his mouth, and I gazed at him, almost unable to believe it.

"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"Nope." A flash of hurt still resided in his face, but it was slowly disappearing. I paused for a moment, fighting a new urge that had sprung up in me, then I choked out the words in a quavering voice.

"Would you mind if I hugged you?"

He looked stunned. "Hug me?" It was as though he'd never heard the words before, and he looked so cute when he was baffled, and I was so happy that he had appeared to have forgiven me, that I simply stepped forward and flung my arms around his neck to give him the tightest hug imaginable.

No, I don't like him like that any more. But I felt the occasion called for a hug, ok? I was happy, damn it!

My happiness filtered away slightly, as I heard a tight voice behind me. "Hello, Remus."

I released him at once, and spun around to see Potter standing there, his eyes fixed coldly on me. From behind me, Remus replied equally stiffly: "Morning, James."

The air was thick with tension, and I took my cue to leave gracefully. "See you later, Remus," I muttered, and slipped quietly away. I brushed shoulders with Potter as I left, and he reached out to grab my elbow. I froze.

"Sirius wants a word with your friend, by the way."

"Which one?" I asked, keeping my voice carefully neutral.

"That Zea girl."

"Fine." I twisted my arm violently away from his, and carried on marching into the Hall, my head held high, mind still buzzing with everything I had just been a part of.

Slipping back into my chair, I smiled absent mindedly at Ashleigh and Marlene's curious stares, then reached over the table and poked Zea in the scalp. "Zea, wake up."

A grunt. The black haired head didn't move. I poked again. A slightly louder grunt this time, followed by a middle finger being jabbed in the air in my general direction.

"Well, fine then!" I huffed in a mock-offended tone, "I was only going to tell you that Black wants to talk to you, but if you're going to be like that…"

There was a pause. Then there was a strange 'glop' as Zea pulled her forehead out of the butter dish. "Huh?" She muttered, looking at me through bleary eyes. "Er – who?"

"Black! You know, Sirius Black?"

"Why does Sirius want to talk to you?" asked Marlene sharply, a slight frown on her face. I glanced swiftly over at her. After dating Black for such a brief period so long ago, she still gets tetchy whenever he's mentioned.

"How the hell should I know?" snapped Zea, but her eyes refused to meet any of ours. "Erm – where is he?" She craned her neck around the Hall as though expecting to see him waving at her.

"Don't know," I shrugged. "Probably where they usually sit."

"Why does Black want to talk to you?" persisted Marlene, and there was no denying it, there was touch of ice in her tone. "He never talks to you."

"Obviously, he does now," replied Zea, and her own voice had a scathing edge to it. "S'cuse me, I think I'll go find out…why he wants me…"

She got up, swung her legs over the bench, and strode away. Marlene gazed after her, fire blazing in her dark blue eyes. Me and Ashleigh exchanged worried glances.

"Mar?" I leant forward, trying to catch her attention. "Is there anything going on?"

"Going on? What do you mean? There's nothing going on!" Her voice came out unusually high pitched. I frowned.

"You're a crap liar, Marlene," I said severely. "Don't tell me you fancy Black again."

Marlene jumped up like she had been stung. "You think you know everything, Lily, but you don't!" She shrieked, right into my face, then before I could try and say anything, she turned on her heel and stomped away.

Honestly. That is what she did.

"Has the whole world gone bloody crazy?" I asked Ashleigh, who was also looking pretty stunned.

"Either that or it's us," she replied, then cracked a smile. "I like to think it's the former, but you can never tell."

0o0

I was trailing sadly to Ancient Runes, wondering despondently why I had taken a subject that, yes, was fascinating and a pleasure to learn, but also meant I became very derived socially, as none of my friends took it.

I sighed, holding my books to my chest and running my eyes over the portraits on the walls. Some of them waved and called out to me, but I could only manage a vague smile in return. My mind was caught up in a whirl of confused thoughts. Marlene and Zea…Black and Potter…it was too much for one day.

"Hey, Evans!"

Bloody hell.

Footsteps came thumping up the corridor behind me, and a strong smell of cigarette smoke came with them. Purple fingers of smoke entwined my ankles briefly, and the next second, Potter was beside me, a cigarette hanging from his lips.

"Hi," he said, grinning at me and expelling a cloud of berry purple smoke over his shoulder. "You look grumpy."

"Oh, and I wonder why," I said sarcastically, holding my breath as more smoke rolled in vivid plumes toward my face. I strode straight through it, and my nose broke it cleanly in two. "What do you want?"

"A conversation?"

I rolled my eyes. "Me and you don't converse, Potter. We exchange insults. Didn't you know?" I breathed in deeply, then choked as purple fumes went straight down the back of my throat. For a moment I battled inwardly against the hacking urge to cough, then it died away.

"Oh, Evans, Evans..." Even through the haze of smoke, Potter's grin was visible. "Don't try to hide it. I know, inside, you're screaming with desire for me…"

I really did choke that time, and this time I ended up bent double in a coughing fit, eyes streaming. "You what?" I gasped eventually. I breathed in more foul purple fumes, and with a snarl of frustration, I tore his cigarette away from his fingers and ground it into the floor with my heel.

The smoke vanished instantly, but the smell still lingered. Potter looked mildly surprised. "You don't smoke, I take it?"

I shot him a scathing look. "No. I'm not stupid like that." I gave another weak cough, then tentatively straightened up. Potter was looking at me with his head on one side, something of a concerned look in his eyes.

"You OK?" His tone indicated he couldn't care less.

"Fine," I said roughly, shoving past him to continue to my lesson. "Just piss off now, Potter. You're seriously getting on my nerves."

He waited until I was about ten steps away, then called after me. "I've got something to tell you."

I hesitated, then stopped and turned around. "Go on, then."

He opened his mouth, but just at that moment, footsteps were heard around the corner. Professor Sprout appeared, grubby fingernails raking through her fly-away hair. She seemed to be muttering to herself, but stopped abruptly when she saw us. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, with no trace of her usually cheerful disposition. "You should both be in class."

"Yes, Professor," I agreed at once, snatching my chance to get away. "I was just going to my lesson."

"I'll talk to you later, yeah, Evans?" Potter called after me. He sounded slightly frustrated.

"Not if I see you first," I said under my breath, as I flipped a hand over my shoulder without bothering to turn around.

I did wonder, though. As I sat through Ancient Runes, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what it was that Potter needed to tell me.

0o0

MY EXAMS ARE OVER!

Actually, they finished quite a while ago...(gulps) I bet half of you have forgotten who I am, haven't you? Yes...ah well. I believe I can live with the pain (sobs)

Thank you SO MUCH for all of your wonderful reviews. Really, you all do rock. And I when I receive my GCSE results, I will be sharing them with you. Don't try and stop me. You all deserve to know, the amount of people who wished me luck...it was so touching...(sniff)

Anyway...how about a review? Gosh, that does seem cheeky to ask, after not updating for such a hideously long time...but you all still love me, don't you? Don't you? DON'T YOU? (deranged grin)

Peace out, Sock Rockers

Bubbles xxx