Disclaimer: Yeah... *tears*

Wake me up
Say enough is enough
I'm dying to live
Something's gotta give
Oh
Pull me out
Of this sinking town
I'm dying to live
Something's gotta give

~Something's Gotta Give, All Time Low

Dany was staring at herself in the bathroom mirror, wondering if she actually looked as good as Lily insisted. It wasn't like last New Years when she had felt like she was doing her namesake justice; she was pretty the first Danilynn Charlotte wouldn't have been particularly impressed with the simple dress that she was wearing, let alone the average silver heels.

"Dany, give it a rest. You look freaking phenomenal so calm down and smile a little. It won't hurt, I promise." Marlene commented as she glanced in the bathroom. All four of them were ready except for Lily, who was still deliberating on earrings. Dany smiled at her friend. They had been incredible through her argument with Sirius; they had never waivered and Marlene and Alice, who she had only vaguely told what had happened never questioned it and were steadfastly against anything that had to do with him. She felt awful for cutting him off like she had but she just didn't have it in her to take a few of the things he had said lying down.

"Yeah, I know…I just can't say that I'm overly excited about this dress is all." She admitted to her friend. Marlene smiled and pulled her away from the mirror.

"You'll look beautiful in anything you wear, Dan. Seriously you could be in a burlap sack and still look like royalty." She said and Dany hugged her quickly.

"Thanks Marles…really. You're an incredible person." She said and Marlene smiled before Lily started yelling at everyone to get going. The girls walked down to the common room, taking care to not trip in their heels, and were met with the completely unwelcome sight of their Fourth Year male counterparts walking down their stairs at the same time.

"Well this is awkward." Alice said quietly and all three other girls nodded in agreement.

"Do we say anything?" Marlene whispered and Dany shrugged.

"I'm going to say hi to James but that's it for me, I think." She whispered and Lily nodded in acknowledgment. It turned out that she didn't have to go say hello to James because he walked to her first.

"Aw, little Dany. You look beautiful." He said and she smiled.

"Thanks…you know you don't clean up too badly either. Still can't control that hair?" She responded and James shrugged.

"It's a force of nature. I've given up the good fight." He said and she smiled again. James hugged her and she hugged him back tightly before waving goodbye to him and leaving with her friends. Lily fell into step with her, Marlene and Alice walking in front of them.

"So, how is it that you can still talk to Potter even after Sirius—?"

"James was my brother long before he was Sirius' friend. Family first, Lils. Family always comes first." She responded and Lily nodded before putting an arm around her. They walked like that for a bit until the reached the Entrance Hall.

"I see your date; I have to say that you have some pretty hot arm candy." She whispered to her friend and Dany laughed. She found Brady's blonde hair pretty quickly. Lily was right.

"Yeah, I guess I do…" She said quietly back and Lily winked before pushing her towards her date. Dany walked over and he smiled.

"Dany. You look fantastic." He said and hugged her. She smiled and hugged him back.

"Thanks. You know I like the dress robes. It's a nice change." She said and they walked into the Great Hall together. "Oh wow, this is beautiful." She murmured and it was beautiful. Everything was silver and bright.

"I forgot that this is your first Yule Ball. You seem older than you actually are most of the time, to be honest. Well you should know in advance then that someone will inevitably dump a bottle of firewhiskey into the punch bowl within the next two hours." He said and she laughed.

"Oh, I think I'll be avoiding that then. A drunk Dany isn't a good one." She commented and he chuckled.

"What? Are you an angry drunk?" He asked and she shook her head.

"No, I'm an emotional drunk. I usually end up crying in some capacity. My friends try their best to keep me sober in public places. It's a wise choice on their part." She said and he laughed at that.

"I'll keep that in mind…I would suggest avoiding any form of drink after about ten then." He said and she nodded.

"I think that would probably be for the best."

"I see your friends are staring." He said suddenly and Dany looked around. Lily, Marlene, and Alice were all staring quite obviously.

"Oh that's embarrassing. I'm sorry. They're so nosy but I love them to death." She said and looked at them and raised an eyebrow. All three quickly looked away.

"No, it's fine. Do you want to go talk to them?" He asked and she looked surprised.

"Are you sure you want to meet them? They're kind of…well they like to ask questions." She said and he nodded.

"Sure. You seem like you'd have pretty good taste in friends." He said and they walked over to the three girls.

"Uh guys, this is Brady. Brady, this is Lily, Marlene, and Alice." She said and all three girls smiled.

"Oh please, me and Al are just the average level friends. It's Lily that's verging on sisterhood." Marlene commented and, surprisingly, Brady laughed.

"Does that I mean Lily's permission to date her sister?" He asked and Lily looked like she approved of that idea. Marlene caught Dany's eye and mouthed 'he seems nice'.

"I think it does." Dany said with a laugh. "So, do I have your approval Lils?" Lily looked like she was deliberating.

"I don't know yet. But it appears that your brother definitely has some definitive ideas on that topic. Here he comes." She said and Dany turned around to see not James, but Rhaegar.

"Rae." She said and he smiled at her.

"Dany. You look beautiful…I mean not up to your usual standard, but still beautiful." He said with a wink and Dany threw her hands up in the air.

"I told you, Lillian. I told you that I wasn't on top of my game tonight." She said and Lily put her hands up in surrender.

"Sorry, I was just giving you my opinion." She said defensively. Dany glanced back at her brother, who was staring intently at her date.

"So girls if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a couple of minutes with my sister's date." He said and they all nodded and walked off, leaving Brady with her much taller brother, who looked completely impassive.

"He seems nice, Dan." Lily said as they linked arms.

"Yeah, I mean he's never been anything but nice to me so that's a good sign I guess. I don't know you guys, I'm kind of flying blind on this." She said and the other girls nodded in agreement; none of them had ever dated before either.

"Hey guys, I know that we're not really talking about him at the moment because Dany's rightfully pissed but I seriously think that we need to give Dan her money." Marlene said and everyone looked at her.

"What are you on about?" Lily asked and Marlene pointed towards the door. Sirius had just walked in with his friends and Kimberly. "Damn, he actually brought her. Danilynn, you get your six galleons now but we're holding off on the second bet. I still don't think they're going to break up tomorrow." Lily commented and all three girls handed her two galleons, which she put in her purse victoriously.

"I'm phenomenal at this…I think I found my calling: professional gambling." She said with a grin.

"He looks kind of bored, doesn't he?" Alice asked absently and they all looked at her. "What? Sorry but it looks like Sirius wants to jump of a bridge. That's the face of a man being bored to death." She justified and they all looked over at him. He did indeed look like he was on the verge of knocking himself out he was so bored.

"It's been like twenty minutes since the ball started. If he's bored already, that's the sign of an unhealthy relationship." Marlene laughed. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Lily honestly thought that Dany looked lovely but even she had to admit that she didn't look like she had the last time she saw her friend in a dress. Last New Years, she had been smiling and seemed so happy that she was almost glowing. Now, she looked good, incredibly pretty, but Lily always thought the word was more than skin-deep and she just didn't seem happy enough to be beautiful. She hadn't been completely happy since she had her falling out with Sirius almost three weeks ago. Like hell she would ever say that out loud. Lily had reservations about saying anything of that nature to her friend, but her brother didn't. Rhaegar had called her on it though; Lily supposed that was the luxury blood siblings exercised.

Brady seemed like a nice enough guy, Lily thought as they all finished dinner. He had opted to sit with them instead of his own friends. He had claimed that they all thought that it was only right and had given him their blessing on that. The rest of the ball passed rather uneventfully, the only thing really coming out of it was that Dany was now official with Brady Harris.

The next morning, Lily woke up only to see that Dany was already awake and writing a letter. Lily got out of bed and her friend smiled.

"Hey Lils." She said before putting her quill down. "So do your feet hurt as much as mine do?" She asked and Lily walked experimentally and winced.

"Yeah, they hurt alright. Damn I don't know how you do this all the time with your family." She said as she tried to hobble to the bathroom. "Where are Marles and Alice?" She asked as she walked back out of the bathroom.

"They're already up and down at breakfast. Oh, and I'm looking forward to collecting your money, just by the way." She said with a grin and Lily rolled her eyes but said nothing. Dany had an uncanny ability to guess Sirius' dating habits, at least she had when they had been speaking; unfortunately for everyone, they had still been on pretty good terms when the bet had been set. Lily guessed that she would indeed be collecting money sometime today.

"So confident, Danilynn. What if you lose?" She asked and Dany laughed.

"Then I'll be handing out galleons…but alas, Lillian I won't be losing on this lovely Sunday morning." She said with a grin as the two girls walked down to breakfast.

"Whatever you say…so are you and Brady like official yet?" She asked and Dany nodded.

"I think so. I mean he asked me to Hogsmeade next time we go last night. That won't be until after break though." She said and Lily grinned. If anyone deserved a cute and seemingly kind boyfriend, it was Dany. She'd had a crush on Sirius for way too long. As much as Lily had hoped that something would come of that, it wasn't looking good right now. Being used was a touchy subject for her and he had played off it spectacularly, albeit it was probably unknowingly, and Dany had been pretty cut up about it for about a week and so Lily was still pissed at the Black boy.

"That's exciting. Oh gosh, we just lost you to your boyfriend, didn't we?" She asked and Dany shook her head and laughed.

"Oh please, like I'd ever put him over you guys. You can live without boys, sometimes it's easier than living with them, but you can't make it without your sisters." She said and bumped her shoulder into Lily's as they entered the Great Hall. Lily tried her best not to choke up. That had been so unexpected, and it had caught her so off guard, and because of that it had been able to hit her right in her feelings. They sat down next to Marlene and Alice and they all started talking over breakfast about the looming New Years Party. Suddenly James, Remus, Frank, and Peter walked in and Sirius was noticeably absent. Dany grinned. "I told you so." She said and everyone groaned. Damn, she was always right.

"He might have just slept in, Dany. No one's handing you money yet." Marlene said, although she sounded like she knew that she would be handing her money over. Fifteen minutes later, Sirius walked in without Kimberly. Dany grinned but no one said anything, continuing to watch. Another five minutes later, Kimberly walked in with her head down and spoke to a few girls at the Hufflepuff table before they all left again.

"Pay up, ladies." Dany said and they all silently handed her money, too impressed with her guess to even protest or complain. Suddenly Brady walked over and smiled.

"Hello girls." He said and they all greeted him and he kissed Dany quickly.

"Hey, Brady. You want to sit down?" Marlene asked and he shook his head.

"I can't, I have Quidditch practice in fifteen minutes. I just came by to say hello to my amazing girlfriend and her wonderful friends." He said before kissing his girlfriend and walking out of the Hall.

"Dany, I love him. If you weren't dating him, I'd be going after him myself." Marlene said and Dany smiled.

"Yeah…he's pretty great, right?" She said and everyone nodded in agreement; they certainly all liked him. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Sirius talking to Potter, who seemed irritated with his friend. Sirius said something defensively and James stood up and shook his head. They were clearly starting to argue.

"Hey guys, check it out." Lily said and nodded towards them. Everyone turned her attention to the bickering boys. James looked downright frustrated and Sirius looked like he didn't want to hear it. Both were standing on opposing sides of the table. James gestured down the table and snapped something before walking out of the Hall. Sirius seemed annoyed and followed him out. Remus, Frank, and Peter looked like they had no idea what had just happened. Lily felt the same way; Potter and Sirius never fought. Ever.

"What the hell was that?" Alice asked no one specifically.

"No clue. If James isn't back in a bit I might try to go find him." Dany said before taking another bite of her eggs. Lily thought that trying to find Potter would only end in running into Sirius accidentally but she didn't say anything about it; Dany wasn't an idiot and she could definitely hold her own against him. Another fifteen minutes passed and Dany looked concerned and stood up. "I'm going to go look for James…he might act like he couldn't give a shit about anything but he's probably not too happy after that. I'll meet you girls back in the common room." She said and walked out of the Great Hall in search of her Godbrother.

Sirius had just been dumped. He had just been dumped again. Not like he could really blame Kimberly, he hadn't been a shining example of how men should treat their dates last night. He walked into the Great Hall and sat down across from James.

"Hey, man." James said through a mouthful of cereal. Sirius said hello back absently as he watched Brady walk over to Dany and her friends. He kissed her and then spoke to all of them briefly before kissing her again and leaving. He walked by them on his way out of the Great Hall; Sirius guessed that he probably had Quidditch practice or something. "You really should just apologize to her." James said suddenly and Sirius redirected his attention to his best friend.

"For what? I didn't do anything wrong." He said.

"That doesn't matter. If you really want to get back in her life, I'd consider apologizing. I'm just saying as not only your friend, but as her Godbrother." He replied and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to apologize for absolutely no reason. If anything she should be saying sorry for calling me a hypocrite." He said and James suddenly stood up and shook his head.

"You really don't see it, do you? You are being hypocritical. That advice you gave her? That could have been anyone else talking about you, Sirius. I know you don't want to admit it, but you're using those girls and that's fine, I don't care, that's your choice; but you can't tell her to stay away from him when you do the same thing." James said and Sirius stood up too. Where the hell had this come from?

"I do not treat them the same way he treats girls. He can barely stay with one at a time." Sirius snapped. He vaguely saw Remus put his head in his hands.

"Okay fine, so you don't cheat on them. But you might as well with how fast you jump between them. And I agree with you, she needs to stay away from him, but it's too late for that so I think the least you could do is go down there," James gestured in their general direction, he could have been pointing at the whole table it was so vague, "and apologize so when her relationship implodes, you can at least be there to help her up again; my sister's a romantic at heart and I promise you that a breakup will be hard on her. So do your damn job as her friend and be there to help her up when she falls. It's what she'd do for you." James hissed before walking out of the Great Hall. Fuck.

"He's right you know." Remus said quietly and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Remus. Thank you so much." Sirius said before walking out of the Hall, making sure to go a different direction than James had. He realized a little while later that his feet had taken him to the corridor by Transfiguration. He paused and leaned against the wall. He knew Dany was prideful, she always had been, and so was he. Had he been wrong to tell her that her boyfriend was an ass? No. Had he been wrong to get mean? Maybe. She definitely hadn't been a saint in that conversation either though. If he was being honest they were probably both in the wrong and both needed to apologize.

As if the universe had heard his thoughts, Dany suddenly appeared around a corner, about ten feet away. She looked at him and looked like she was going to turn around to go somewhere else.

"Hey, Dany?" He asked cautiously. She paused.

"What?" She said, not sounding particularly friendly. He tried to walk towards her and she didn't do anything; she just stood where she was, watching until he was close enough to hold a conversation.

"We need to talk." He said and she looked like she was going to tell him off. "Okay before you yell at me for being an asshole, just hear me out, alright?" he added quickly and she nodded. "I know that I'm not really in any place to criticize other guys for using girls. And I realize that your dating life has nothing to do with me and that wasn't my place at all to interfere with that, so I'm sorry for trying to make it my business. And I'm also really sorry for the naïve comment; that was just uncalled for." He said quietly and she smiled a little. That was a positive sign.

"Thank you. I'm sorry for calling you a womanizer…and I actually liked Angie; I shouldn't have brought her into that. And sorry for the 'you're not a friend' comment. That was a little extreme…it just kind of came out." She said softly and he nodded. She really did look sorry; maybe he wasn't the only one that hadn't enjoyed the three-week-long feud.

"Thanks. So can we just agree to disagree on your boyfriend, at least for now?" He asked and she nodded and really smiled. It was the first one he had seen from her since they had fought.

"Yeah, I think we can do that…I really did miss you, you know." She said quietly and he smiled.

"I guess we're both just a little stubborn, huh?" He said and she laughed.

"Yeah, I think it's fair to say that that's an understatement. So you'll be glad to know that your ended relationship just won me nine galleons." She said as they slowly started to walk back towards the Great Hall, together.

"Did it really? Are you guys upping the bets or something?" He asked and she shook her head.

"No…it was two galleons as always. I was just the only one that thought Kimberly would make it to the Yule Ball. And then I put another galleon on you two splitting today and everyone bet against me." She said with a shrug. The girl was good, he had to admit; even he hadn't known that he was getting dumped today.

"Wow, that's a gutsy bet. I'm impressed." He said and she grinned.

"I told Lily last night that I think I've found my calling in professional gambling." She answered and looked like she was on the verge of saying something but changed her mind.

"So I take it that you were looking for James, and not me." He said and she nodded.

"Yeah…he's probably somewhere in the castle with a wounded ego or something right now. What were you two fighting about?" She asked and then, judging by the look on her face, realized how invasive of a question that was. "Actually, I take that back. It's none of my business, it's just that you two never fight." She said.

"No, it's fine. He was yelling at me to apologize for being the ass I am. That was it, really. And we fight more than you'd think, but it's just never in public." He said and she nodded quietly and stopped walking.

"I'm going this way…I told the girls I'd meet them in the common room. I'll see you later, okay?" She said and smiled quickly before walking off.

"Hey, Dan?" She turned around.

"Yeah?"

"Not everyone is trying to use you, I promise." He said and she smiled a little.

"Thanks…it's just hard to see sometimes." She responded before rounding a corner and vanishing from his view. He was so relieved he wanted to cry. That would put an instant end to his argument with James, which was just a bonus to the fact that he and Dany had managed to bury the proverbial hatchet. Sirius continued to wander for a while and he soon ran into James, who was looking out a window overlooking the grounds.

"Hey, Brother." Sirius said quietly and James looked up.

"Look, Sirius I don't want to lecture you right—"

"It's over. Seriously, calm down and please stop lecturing me. I fixed it; it's over. If I never hear you lecture me again, it'll be too soon." Sirius said and James raised an eyebrow.

"You apologized to her? The words 'I'm sorry' actually came out of your mouth?" James asked incredulously.

"Twice actually, so can we all move on?" He said and James grinned.

"She essentially owns you…damn, she doesn't even know it, either." James teased him and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah that's super nice of you James. Your welcome for taking your advice." He retorted and James laughed.

"You should be kissing my ass for telling you to apologize, mate. So how did that conversation go?" He asked and Sirius shrugged.

"Not bad…I ran into her near McGonagall's class and I said sorry and then she said sorry and then we made up and now it's over." He said and James looked like he thought that was far from a satisfactory answer but he said nothing about it.

"Well, I'm glad that it's over and you two have metaphorically kissed and made up…unless you literally kissed her." James said with a smirk. Sirius flipped him off.

"Fuck you, James. You're just pissed that any kind of headway you made with Lily was essentially just destroyed. Sorry about that, by the way; I didn't know that they'd all react so…intensely to what happened." He said and James looked rather put out but waved a hand.

"Yeah, I didn't think that they'd all get so pissed either. It's the way girls are though, if one of them hates you, they all hate you. And it's okay, about Lily I mean. She'll come around eventually…maybe. Unless it just wasn't meant to be." He said sadly and Sirius raised an eyebrow. He had never heard James even consider giving up on Lily.

"Wow, that was unexpected. And since when do you believe in fated relationships?" He asked, incredulous. James shrugged.

"I don't know. It's just—I love her, there's no other way to put it, and she just doesn't want much of anything to do with me. Maybe I should start giving up on her…maybe Dany was right; you can't keep your life on hold for someone you'll never have." He said and Sirius looked at him sharply just as James' eyes widened; he clearly hadn't meant to say the last part out loud.

"Why would Dany say that? She loves you and Lily together." Sirius asked him and he got the impression that James was scrambling to come up with an answer that wasn't completely sketchy.

"Oh, uh she was talking about someone else. It just seemed to apply to the situation is all. She's a smart one, you know. And she's also a good listener. If you ever need someone to talk to, I strongly suggest her. Well, I just realized I have detention with McGonagall so I'll see you later. I'm glad you and Dan cleaned up all that bad blood." He said and quickly walked off in the opposite direction of Transfiguration.

Well that was strange. With nothing else to do, now that James had practically sprinted off in the completely wrong direction, he started to walk back to the common room. He walked through the portrait hole and was surprised, yet gladdened, to see Lily, Alice, and Marlene sitting with his friends (minus James, who was probably still hiding from him for some reason). They all looked up and smiled at him. Remus waved him over.

"Sirius, I think Lily has something she wants to say, now that no one else wants to kill you." He said and Sirius looked at Lily.

"Yeah, sorry for being a right bitch but she comes first and when she's mad, I'm mad." Lily said easily and Sirius shrugged. "She was pretty torn up for about a week and that didn't really help either." She added on and Sirius felt his stomach twinge.

"No, I get it. Her enemies are your enemies. It's solid logic, Evans." He said and Lily grinned. Even though Lily had a hard time standing James, she had always liked Sirius to some extent, or so Sirius always had the impression of.

"Alright, now that I've said sorry, you're allowed to sit down." She said and Sirius sat between Remus and Alice. Alice smiled a little and said "sorry" quietly. He really understood why they had all gotten pissed and didn't hold it against them. "Oh, and you should know that your dating habits are costing us money left and right." Lily added on and he laughed.

"Yeah, I heard…sorry, I can't control when I get dumped." He said and Lily shook her head slightly. Suddenly, Marlene looked up, obviously distracted and excited.

"It appears Quidditch practice is over." Marlene said quietly and the other two girls looked up and grinned before waving. Sirius, Remus, Frank, and Peter all turned around to see that Dany had just walked in, holding hands with Brady. Brady looked pretty at ease, but Dany looked uncomfortable. "Hey you two." Marlene said as Dany caught Sirius' eye and mouthed, "play nice" at him. He rolled his eyes but nodded. Dany sat down next to Lily and her boyfriend sat next to her. Marlene, Alice, and Lily were clearly friendly with him and none of the guys present knew what exactly to say.

"Hey guys. Lily, I see you're no longer trying to disembowel Sirius." Dany said with a grin and Lily laughed.

"We came to an understanding. It's a high maintenance job, being friends with you; he gets it. It's exhausting, to be honest. We should start a support group, Sirius. We can call it 'being friends with Dany is harder than you'd think' and of course you're all invited." Lily said and Sirius couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I think I can get on board with that…it really is harder than you'd think. Just so needy, Dan." Sirius said and Dany rolled her eyes but still smiled.

"Okay, I'm not that bad. I think Lily and James would be scrapping over who got to be president of that particular club…I don't know if James counts though, he's practically family." She said with a laugh.

"Oh, does that mean I'll be fighting him," Lily gestured to Sirius, "for the presidency? I'll take you down, Black. She was mine first." She said and everyone laughed. Sirius noticed that Brady had been quite silent the entire time, ever since he had said hello to the girls. He sat next to Dany, watching the conversation happen. Sirius realized that he probably had no idea what his girlfriend's friendships were like when they weren't all fighting with each other.

"Oh please Evans, I'd like to see you try…actually I take that back; we just finished fighting and I seriously don't want to be on the receiving end of the Lily Evans Glare for any longer. I mean don't get me wrong, it pales in comparison to Masters over there, but still." He said and she laughed.

"I reign victorious." The redhead said and Dany looked amused, watching them argue.

"My glare isn't that bad. I just…take after my dad, is all." She said defensively, looking for a partially true way to say that it wasn't terrifying.

"No, it's exactly that bad. And I don't doubt that you take after Daniel…I do not want to be the idiot to cross him the wrong way. I don't have a desire to be tossed in Azkaban." He said and Dany shrugged.

"You're just lucky that I didn't tell him that we were fighting. He takes my feelings very seriously, you know." She said solemnly, even though she was clearly trying to not smile and failing. Sirius realized that he hadn't even thought of the repercussions of the fight in terms of her parents; her father could probably toss him into jail, if the mood struck him one day, for essentially no reason.

"Oh, I'm feeling very fortunate right now." He said sarcastically.

"See this is why I'm the better friend, Black. I don't have to live in fear of Daniel because I don't do anything wrong." Lily threw in and everyone laughed.

"Oh shut up, Lily."

"I'm flattered you two, I didn't know that my high maintenance, needy, friendship was so sought after. It really warms my heart to know that I'm so loved." She said and Sirius noticed that Brady didn't look overly thrilled with this line of conversation. He wondered how they all put up with the constant presence of his girlfriends; for the first time he was getting a look at their perspective and found it kind of annoying.

James had practically run away from Sirius when he had caught that he had literally just quoted Dany talking about Sirius to Sirius. Unfortunately, he realized a few minutes later, he had run in the wrong direction. He was absolutely busted unless Sirius had forgotten where Transfiguration was and hadn't noticed that James had run north instead of south. Whoops. James slowed to a much slower, more casual walk, and thought over his situation with Lily; what he had told Sirius was true. He didn't know how much longer he could keep waiting on her because it really seemed like he couldn't get her to like him if his life depended on it.

Dany had definitely taken her own advice and James was starting to wonder if he should take it too. It was a question he pondered for a while, he thought about it all the time over Winter Break. He saw Dany a good bit and at New Years, he had hung out with Sirius and Lily because Dany was otherwise occupied with her boyfriend being there. It appeared that Daniel didn't particularly like or dislike Brady and seemed rather neutral on the boy, clearly not taking to him the way he had Dany's friends. Maybe it was because he was his little girl's first boyfriend and his paternal instincts were kicking in, full-force; or maybe it was because he, like all other men, knew that he didn't have what was best for Dany in mind. No matter the reason, Daniel was clearly not happy with his daughter's choice in boyfriend. Before they had left for the night, Daniel had pulled James aside.

"Watch him. Something's…off with him. I'm not going to say anything to her because it's her choice, I trust her judgment, but I still don't like the feeling he gives me." Daniel had muttered and James had nodded before leaving with his parents. They had all been rather unenthused to see Sirius walk off with his parents, but, unlike last year, Walburga Black looked like she had just won a great victory sometime tonight. James found that somewhat unsettling. Lily for her part had looked stunning as always (despite James currently considering moving on, he couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked), but Dany just couldn't seem to duplicate the same glowing happiness that she had possessed last New Year's Eve. It was like ever since the middle of last school year, she hadn't been quite the same; something had changed with her and James had almost hoped that Brady would be able to draw it out of her, make her really and truly happy, but to no avail.

He was standing at the Platform with his parents, who were fretting and worrying, as always. He caught sight of Dany's white hair flashing a few feet away.

"Oh I see Dany. Bye Mom!" He practically shouted at her as he tried to avoid his mother, who was attempting to fix his hair. He walked towards Dany and saw that Brady had already beat him to her. She smiled and he kissed her in a way that James wasn't sure was appropriate for First Years to see. She broke off the kiss and smiled before hugging him lightly. Dany looked up and saw James. He grinned and walked over.

"James!" She said and he laughed as she hugged him.

"I know, I've missed you too in the last two days that I haven't seen you, Dan." He joked and she shoved his shoulder. "Hey, Brady. Good break?" He asked in what he hoped was a neutral way. It apparently was because the other boy nodded.

"Yeah, it was great to get away from school for a bit. I have OWLs coming up and I'm beginning to get a little nervous about it." He said and James remembered that he was, in fact, a year older than them.

"Yeah, I can only imagine how brutal the workload is? Should we just start prepping for the horrors now?" He joked and Brady nodded.

"Start getting ready…except I don't know if there's really anything you can do to prepare for the dictatorship that Minerva McGonagall has over Fifth Year. It's awful." He said in response and James thought that he wasn't going to have much trouble with Transfiguration seeing that he, Sirius, Frank, and Peter were getting closer and closer to becoming animagi every week. If he were being honest, it was really only Sirius and he doing the heavy lifting on that one; Frank and Peter were along for the ride.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said and as soon as the conversation died, Dany grinned and looked behind him.

"Lily!" She said and hugged her friend. Lily grinned and hugged her back quickly before greeting both James and Brady.

"Hey guys, good breaks?" They both nodded. "I'm glad to hear that." James saw her eyes flick around. "Has anyone seen…?" She trailed off and Dany and James shook their heads.

"No, you all are the only people I've seen that I really recognize or care to recognize." Dany said and Lily nodded, obviously concerned. James knew why; no one had heard from Sirius since New Years. Dany didn't look overly thrilled with the situation either. Brady clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

"I hope he's okay." Lily said, concerned. It warmed James to her; she truly cared about Sirius, even though she could barely stand James himself.

"I know you're super concerned, Evans; fortunately for you, I'm right here." A voice suddenly said from behind Brady, who jumped at the sudden appearance. They all looked around and saw Sirius, looking pretty healthy. It was the best he had looked in a while after coming back from break. James grinned.

"Such a big ego, mate. Who said we were talking about you?" He said and Sirius shrugged.

"Call it an educated guess." He responded. "Hello, ladies." He added on to Dany and Lily. Lily quickly hugged him and he chuckled and hugged her back. Dany smiled and hugged him too. "Wow, this is a shockingly warm welcome back." He said as Dany hugged him for a second longer than she probably should have in front of her boyfriend. James glanced at Brady and sure enough, he didn't look overly thrilled with it. James thought that Brady better get used to it; he and Dany hadn't been dating for more than a week before break had started and so he was used to having her one-on-one at her house or otherwise. He had no idea just how much of her time and attention that Sirius took up on a regular basis; he was tied with Lily, who was her, hands down, best friend. If Brady had a problem with Sirius, James had a feeling that things weren't going to last long or they were going to get very ugly in some capacity.