OMG! I love all of you reviewers so much! 15 of them since the last update! And you made it well past 100! You do realise you've set yourselves a standard now don't you (wink wink nudge nudge) :-) As I do every chapter, thanks so much to my reviewers: browneyez, american nymphadora, tm7, chickibabe46, messyblackhair66, appleali, xo-MidnightSun-ox, amanamanam, Deedsla, queenshinkokami, Michela.77, Amenti, Emotionalised, laxrules18 and AuthoressMegz. Messyblackhair66 deserves some special recognition for being my 100th reviewer.

For anyone that was confused about last chapter, Lily was just having a bad day. Sometimes you just have those days where everything seems to go wrong. People were snapping at her because they were just in a bad mood and lashing out at anyone, as we all do sometimes. Lily just happened to suffer everyone's bad mood in one day.

Marly is completely love struck and beyond common sense. It happens to those we least expect and she won't hear a word against what she wants to believe. No one said it was rational, but it happens and unfortunately for Lily, she gets to wear Marly's hostility for the meantime. Hopefully this chapter will clear up some other questions.

Just for the record, I try and update as soon as possible. Sometimes that's in 3 days sometimes in 2 weeks. I don't think I've left an update for longer than 2 weeks and I do try and update weekly, but as you know that doesn't always happen.

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Ch 22: Grapevine

But things weren't better the next day. Nor did they improve at all that week. Somehow (through Natalie Lily suspected, not that she said as much) rumours about Marly whispered through the halls of Hogwarts, turning heads as the stories grew further and further from the truth.

James had apologised but Lily barely had time to register it. Usually she would have made a fuss, kicked up a tantrum or left him to suffer for a while. But this week, Lily just did not have the energy.

Lily had repeatedly tried to be friendly to Sirius (he and James still hadn't made up) but to no avail. He seemed to get edgier and nastier each time she tried to start up a friendly conversation so she soon gave up.

Marly grew more and more distant. Despite the rumours and the disapproval from all her friends (and everyone else in the school for that matter), Marly continued to fawn over Will. It was almost sickening to listen to and Lily desperately hoped that she hadn't been anything like that when she had started going out with James.

"Is it true?" James had demanded once the Marly rumours had gotten out.

"Is what true?" Lily asked wearily as she picked at her breakfast.

"That Marly is going out with a Slytherin. Some slimy piece of scum called Will Rutgers."

Lily looked surprised. She had not heard the buzzing yet and was surprised that James had found out. Not that it was a secret or anything.

"Umm, yeah." Lily said a little hesitantly. She was all too aware of James' feeling towards the Slytherins.

"What on earth is she thinking?" James said angrily. "The Slytherins are scum. I'm going to go and talk some sense into her." He made a move to stand but Lily pulled him down.

"No you won't." He looked at her in surprise. "It's got nothing to do with you." Lily said simply.

"Are you saying you're okay with this?" James asked incredulously.

"I'm not saying anything. It's not my business either. She can do as she pleases." Lily said emotionlessly.

James just stared at her dumbstruck. "Lily, she's you're best friend. How can you just let her do something like this?"

"It's not up to me to 'let her do things'. She makes her own decisions. And her own mistakes. I can't tell her what to do." Lily said reasonably.

"And you don't feel in the slightest bit that you should try and talk your best friend out of making a terrible mistake? You're just going to sit by and watch it happen." James was looking at her as if he's never seen her before. He looked almost, disgusted with her. "Well if you won't talk to her, then I will." He pulled his arm from Lily's loose grip and moved to stand up again.

"There's no point. She won't listen." Lily said quietly. James stopped.

"What do you mean? We've become friends, she'll listen to me."

Lily shook her head sadly. "James, you are not the first nor will you be the last to try and talk some sense into her. It won't work. She is completely manipulated by this guy."

James sat back down. "What do you mean?"

A soft sigh escaped Lily. "I've tried. She won't hear a bad word against him. Even from me. Marly has ignored every warning and every disapproval so far. I doubt she's going to start listening to any now." Lily felt her throat constrict slightly as she spoke. James seemed to notice her hurt, for when he spoke, his voice was as gentle as she'd ever heard it.

"I'm sorry Lil. I didn't mean to get cross." He kissed her lightly on the forehead and for once, Lily didn't blush at the public display of affection.

"It's okay." She offered a small smile. "What have you heard about Will Rutgers?" She asked after a short pause, debating whether or not to ask, whether or not she really wanted to know.

The change on James' face was instantaneous. His gentle look hardened immediately and his mouth curved into a small frown.

"That guy is bad news. He's evil." The venom in his voice chilled Lily to the bone. "Before they graduated he hung out with a group of Slytherins who I'll bet joined Voldemort as soon as they were out of this school, before even." Lily looked shocked but didn't interrupt.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked in barely more than a whisper. Her blood had frozen in her veins and fear filled every inch of her.

James nodded gravely. "Positive. I'll place my bets that he's part of the ranks too. He's just smarter than some of the others and doesn't openly show his allegiance. He's like the secret weapon, the hidden spy."

"How do you know all of this?" Lily's eyes looked at him widely.

"I'm a Marauder. I have my ways." Was all he said. Lily opened her mouth to argue but he turned away. It wasn't an annoyed or nasty turn away. But it was clear that he wasn't going to tell, no matter how much she pushed him.

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"Hey, you know that seventh year Gryffindor? Mary or something, tall with curly hair? Yea her. I heard she's going out with a Slytherin! Can you believe it?"

"It's disgusting. Will Rutgers I heard."

"I've heard of him! Nasty bugger. She's a disgrace to the house. Betrayal I say."

"I used to like her. Always had a great wardrobe she did. Good fashion sense. Pretty too. She could have anyone, why him?"

"She's obviously really desperate!"

"Is that a hicky I saw? Yuk, that's gross. From a Slytherin!"

"Someone said she's turned into a real bitch since she's been seeing him. I quite believe it."

"What about the Head Girl. They're best friends I thought? She looks sad lately. Maybe they had a fight."

"Nah, I heard she had a fight with James. Are they broken up?"

"Yea, I heard a seventh year whispering that they're not friends anymore either. Apparently Marly cheated with James before getting together with this Slytherin. Lily found out. Do you think it's true?"

"Must be, if a seventh year said it."

"That slut! I can't believe she's a Gryffindor. Cheating with her best friend's boyfriend and hooking up with a Slytherin. That's low."

Whispers were carried at an alarming rate through the corridors. What was worse was the small amount of truth, if any, that most of them carried. Barely a conversation amongst the Hogwarts students was heard without a single mention of Marly's latest relationship, which somehow moved onto Lily, to James, to the Marauders to…

By lunchtime it was all over the school that not only Marly was dating a Slytherin but her and Lily were now sworn enemies, Lily and James were no more, Marly had cheated with James, Will was apparently planning to beat James to pulp for getting it off with his girlfriend, the Marauders were splitting up, Lily was mentally unstable from all the emotion trauma she had suffered this year and

No one at all seemed to care that most of this had absolutely no truth behind it. It was getting too much for Lily who had been hounded all day for 'insider's information' on every matter until everyone suddenly backed off when the story of her 'mental instability' came out.

"Lily, what's going on?" Asked James at lunch.

"I don't know." Lily said tearfully. "Everyone is spilling out all this crap. I don't even know where it all came from."

It was bad enough that the whole school (especially her fellow Gryffindors) were bad mouthing Marly to no end for dating a Slytherin, but why did they have to drag Lily into it?

"What have you heard?" Lily asked cautiously. She wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

"Well, apart from everyone dissing Marly, some absurd rumour that I cheated on you with Marly." James said angrily.

A worried frown crossed Lily's face. She had hoped that one hadn't passed through the whole school.

"You don't actually believe it do you?" James asked disbelievingly, watching her expression carefully.

"No, of course not." Lily said quickly. She didn't believe a word of it. She trusted James.

"Lily, you do know that I would never do anything like that. Ever. I love you too much." James said urgently. He didn't know why it seemed so important for her to know this, but it did.

"I know." Lily nodded.

James wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips tenderly. Lily felt herself relax into his arms and for the first time in over a week she felt calm.

"Hey!" Someone yelled behind them, pointing in interest. A crowd of gossip-hungry students peered at them and whispers began again.

"I guess they made up. Oi, are you guys back on or what?" Another person yelled.

James looked over in growing anger, his arm still protectively around Lily.

"Bugger off all of you." He said loudly. "And mind your own business. If I hear one more whisper about Lily I'll find out where it came from, and believe me I will, and you will sorry. Don't mess with a Marauder." James added threateningly.

Any other day, Lily would have reprimanded James for threatening younger students, but today she was too grateful.

"Thanks." She said softly.

"You okay?" James brushed a strand of fiery red hair off her face. "Better get to class now, you don't want to be late." Lily couldn't help but smile.

---

The gossip surrounding Lily settled down considerably since James' threat. The Marauders were held in such awe that no one, apart from the odd Slytherin like Snape who appeared to have little more than cotton wool between his ears, would dare get on their bad side. Some people sprouted off threats with no intention of ever following them through. With the Marauders, no one doubted them. They were a bunch of the cleverest, mischievous, sneakiest wizards in the school.

The harsh rumours continued to spread (minus the ones concerning Lily) despite Lily's best attempts to squash them down, despite her repeated defence of her friend. People simply didn't want to hear the non-scandalous side more commonly known as the truth. They seemed to live for the juicy gossip and tall stories that were so ridiculous that everyone believed them.

Marly seemed to take everything in her stride. There was no doubt that she knew every whisper of gossip that followed her yet she laughed it off casually. But Lily could see through her. The black picture people were painting of her was getting to her, under the surface. Her smile was fake, her casual manner that bit too careless to be believable.

Lily badly wanted to hug her friend, tell her it was okay, comfort her as she had done for Lily more times than she could count. But Marly was as casual and fake with Lily as she was with everyone else. She wouldn't let anyone, not even Lily, know how much it really bothered her. How much she just wanted to hide in her dorm and escape all the cruel words people didn't even bother to try and whisper in her presence.

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It was well past dinner and Lily was roaming the castle. She walked into the crowded common room. Lily really needed to speak to James but he was no where to be found. Scanning the room quickly her heart sank again as she realised he wasn't here either. Nor were the other Marauders for that matter which only caused to increase Lily agitation.

As her eyes scanned the room anxiously again she spotted Sirius walking towards the portrait hole. With raised hopes her eyes whizzed over the students again. If Sirius was here maybe Remus, or even Peter would be around. To no avail. Sirius seemed to be the only Marauder she had seen in the last hour.

With resignation, Lily hurried to the portrait hole to catch Sirius. He may not have been her first choice but she really needed to see James and right now he was her only option. Lily hastily made her way down the corridor when finally Sirius came back into view.

"Excuse me, do you know where James is?" Lily asked politely when she had caught up to him.

He turned slowly, his expression looking as hostile as ever.

"I'm not his keeper. Why should I know where he is?" Sirius said brusquely as he turned away from her. That snapped Lily's last nerve.

"Alright Sirius. I'm sick of this. Just what is your problem with me?" Sirius looked surprised at the evident anger in her voice.

"I have been nothing but civil and friendly towards you and you can't even be polite enough to return the favour. I don't know what I've done to make you dislike me if you would care to enlighten me." Lily continued.

Frazzled, she roughly tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and stood watching him with her hands placed angrily on her hips. Sirius seemed to return to his sullen mood and simply shrugged noncommittally.

"I'm not an idiot either. I know that the fight you had with James has something to do with me and that has something to with why you're so nasty all the time to me. Can you just tell me what I've done to offend you so that we can all move on? It is really worth fighting with James over?"

"You really think a lot of yourself don't you?" Sirius said nastily. Lily looked taken aback at his harsh words. "You think that everything revolves around you. Well for your information Evans, it doesn't. Maybe you should just mind your own business and stop butting in when your help isn't wanted." Sirius spat. Lily's mouth was open in shock, however, she recovered quickly and her anger returned.

"You're just an arrogant, proud, pig-headed jerk. Look, I don't care if you don't like me because I've tried to be nice and frankly, it's your problem now not mine. And don't think that I'm doing this because I feel a strong sense of liking towards you, which I don't, or for myself. I'm doing this for James. Because even though you're fighting because you're both to proud to apologise, you're still his best mate. He's been as down as you lately and I hate to see him like that."

"And just in case this means anything to you, I would never try and do anything to come between the Marauders. I'm not trying to take your place or turn James into a rule-abiding, conscientious student." Sirius looked slightly guilty but Lily ploughed on.

"I don't want things to change between you and him and I don't want to get in your way. And I think even you would agree that I just want James to be happy. And he's not happy without his friends. The Marauders mean everything to James and so do you." Lily finished her rant to find Sirius looking down at the floor.

He didn't speak for a while and Lily just watched him in interest. Finally he looked up.

"I don't do apologies very well." He began awkwardly. Lily was so surprised. She had never seen Sirius look remotely awkward in his life. He seemed to handle ever situation with casual indifference and humour as if nothing in the world could faze him.

"I was angry and jealous and so I took it out on you. I was wrong. You're one of the best things that have happened to James. He's lucky to have you. And he wouldn't be happy without you." The words seemed to cost him every ounce of everything he had to say.

"Thank you." Lily whispered. Her voice seemed to have deserted her slightly and it was the best she could manage. "But you don't need to explain yourself to me. Save that for James."

As if his ears were burning, James rounded the corner of the corridor.

"Lily –" He began happily when he spotted her but he stopped when he noticed Sirius. His face closed off and he radiated hostility.

"James –" Sirius began awkwardly but James cut him off.

"I have nothing to say to you." He said harshly. Lily walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder soothingly.

"Just listen to him. You might learn something." She said quietly.

She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't let your pride get in the way of something important to you." She whispered.

And with those words she walked away. She would leave them to it. Despite all their hostility she knew they would work it out. Lily had no idea of all the things the Marauders had gone through for each other, no matter the risks. But she could understand the bond of friendship they shared, the importance they all had for each other. The very thing that made them the Marauders.

As she walked she pondered how one little thing, so tiny and insignificant could cause so much damage. How some tiny, insignificant thing could tear people apart. This is what Voldemort feeds on, she thought. This is where he gets his power, from those small faults in human nature. The pride that hold people back from the things and people they care about most.

Things may not have gone her way that day. Her own life may be in a mess, her own friendships tearing slowly at the seams but she knew it would all work out. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even next week. But true friendships don't crumble away that easily. There are ups and downs and everyone deals with them in their own way but when they need each other most, they're there for each other.

Marly would come to her senses. Natalie would learn to see the grey areas, not just the black and white. Lily would be there to pick up the pieces, to forgive and forget. And even if her own light wasn't shining all that brightly, at least she might have made someone else's glow that little bit brighter. Made someone she cared so much about just that little bit happier. And that in itself made her light glow that little bit brighter too.

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I hope this chapter made sense. It still leaves a lot of unresolved issues but they will happen in due course. In this chapter I kind of wanted to put in some of the ups and downs of high school. Sure this is set 30 odd years ago in a world of magic but I don't think things can be all that different. Some of your best memories come from high school, but it can also be a place from hell. I think most people have suffered the effects of a nasty rumour and while they are horrible, they are by no means rare.

I don't think I need to remind you since you have all written the most awesome reviews last chapter (which I am eternally grateful for) but just in case you've forgotten, please review!