AN: Rated T for language and brief nudity. Ok so uhhh, yea.Anyway this chapter has a lot of info on Sirius and his family. Also another one of James' practical jokes and Remus and Lily get even closer. Now as you may have noticed I have uploaded two, yes two, chapters. I have done this because I'm going to be gone for about a month (insert gasp and cries of 'no please no' here). However I have uploaded two chapters on one condition, and listen closely. You better all review both, yes both, of them. Be warned, if you do not, I will hunt you down and smack you over the head with a dead fish. Next chapter's pretty funny and may or may not involve a kiss. oooo. Alright well I'm off to relax and enjoy a good break. Hope your summers (or winters to my fellow aussies) are amazing. Be good and enjoy:

"Sirius?"

Sirius turned around, his eyebrows raised, and a quill in his mouth. He frowned however when he saw the speaker. "Fuck off."

The boy didn't leave though and instead took a smaller step closer to Sirius' table in the library where he was sitting alone. "Come on, Sirius, talk to me."

"Why should I? You're lower than scum."

"I'm your brother!" the boy said. Their resemblance was uncanny, both with very attractive faces, dark brooding eyes and hair that fell below their eyebrows. Standing in a bookcase a few rows away, Lily bent and peered between the shelves at the brothers.

"Dad wants to know why you're not coming home for Christmas."

"The same reason I haven't gone home for the last five years. I hate the whole lot of you!"

"We're your family!"

Sirius stood, knocking his chair over and took a step towards his brother. "She was six, Regulus. You remember that?"

Regulus' lips whitened and he took a hasty step backwards. "It was an accident."

"Like hell it was!"

Regulus didn't say anything for a while then he looked down at his feet. "If you don't remember, I was the kid standing next to you, fighting as hard as you were to save her."

"And if I hadn't been there, would you have stood up against our father?" Sirius seemed to wait for an answer but when none came he sneered at the younger boy. "I didn't think so. Why do you stay with them, Regulus?"

"I have nowhere else to go! And besides, I was only eight at the time if you remember, Sirius. I wasn't as strong as you."

"And you're still not. You're weak and pathetic. You go crawling back to those murderers year after year. She was our sister!"

Lily gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth before either boy could hear her.

"Shut up," Regulus hissed. "If you care so much, why haven't you told anyone yet?" When Sirius didn't say anything, Regulus frowned. "I didn't think so. You haven't got the guts for that have you? You're all talk. At least I don't pretend to be all good and noble. If anyone knew who you were -"

"Shut up!" Sirius yelled, immediately drawing the attention of Madam Pince who practically ran towards the Gryffindor sixth year and Slytherin fourth year. When she opened her mouth to screech at them, Sirius said, "Oh shut it, Pince. I was just leaving anyway."

---

"Cat got your tongue, Padfoot?" James asked in Charms class, their last class before the holidays. No one was working particularly hard and the tiny Professor Flitwick seemed to have given up.

"Sorry, Prongs."

"Listen, I know you're not a fan of Christmas. But this year'll be good, yeah? Half the Gryffindors are staying behind. It'll be fun."

Sirius shrugged and James surveyed him shrewdly, meeting eyes with Remus who stood on Sirius' other side.

"I wish I didn't have to go home for Christmas, it would be more fun to stay here with you guys."

"No one asked you, Wormtail," Sirius said bitterly.

James turned back to the frog he was supposed to be hitting with a singing charm but instead, he levitated it above his head and moved it slowly across the classroom so as not to attract attention. It caught Sirius' eye though and he watched it, a smile forming on his lips. With one last flick of his wand, James released the spell he was holding on the frog and it dropped a few centimetres into a cushion of red hair.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter as they saw Lily look up curiously to see what had hit her. Running a hand through her hair, she let out a shriek when her fingers found the frog.

"That wasn't nice," Remus commented as James left his desk and hurried over to Lily where she was hopping up and down waving her hands around her head as Sarah and Eleanor looked on in disgust, not sure what to do. James grabbed her arms and forced her to stand still. She did as she was told, her body shaking and saying, "Get it off, Potter!"

"I've heard that before," he joked. "Seem to be rescuing you a lot lately."

She glared at him. "Oh as if you didn't put that frog in my hair! GET IT OFF!"

James grabbed the frog out of her hair and grinned at her. "Get it off," he quoted. "That sounds quite sexual, doesn't it?"

"You are unbelievable," Lily breathed, taking a step away from him and the frog squirming in his hand.

"Aw, thanks sweetheart. You're not bad either Evans."

"Back to your desk, Potter. Stop harassing Miss Evans," Professor Flitwick squeaked, making his way over to see what all the fuss was about.

"Harassing? I just saved her!"

"Nice," Sirius muttered once James had wandered back over, a wide grin on her face. "I get the feeling she might have seen through that little trick though."

"Oh, really?"

"Yea, you know, just a notion."

James laughed and secretly congratulated himself. The plan had worked: Sirius was smiling.

---

Lily lowered her body into the steaming water and let out an audible sigh as her muscles relaxed and her skin began to warm up. Everyone was right: it was worth becoming a prefect just to use this bathroom. Lily swam a few paces in the clear bathwater (she hated bubbles) and then floated on her back, letting her long hair fan out around her. Mm, she could just feel her muscles loosening. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let her body sink beneath the water. She was under for about fifteen seconds when a hand grabbed her and in her shock, she gasped in a large mouthful of water as whoever it was pulled her out of the water.

Unable to breath, Lily choked and gagged, feeling panic begin to fill her body as she was pulled half out of the water. Coughing and gasping for air, her eyes didn't register the boy in front of her but she could hear that he was saying her name in a slightly hysterical voice over and over again.

Suddenly, a wand was at her throat and the boy said, "Anapneo!" Feeling her wind pipe and lungs clear, Lily took in a deep breath and her eyes focused on Remus Lupin, crouched beside her, his eyes wide with fear.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lily snapped, very conscious of the fact that she was naked and laying half out of the water, even in her half-drowned state.

"I thought you were dead!" Remus said, angrily, his face turning red. "You were just lying there!"

"I was relaxing!" Lily said as she slipped back into the water, trying to cover herself up, not that there was any point, he'd already seen everything. "What are you doing in here, anyway?"

Remus looked away from her and said, "I was coming to take a bath. The door was unlocked."

"Oh," Lily said, wishing he would leave. This was very uncomfortable. He looked back up and she glared at him. "Enjoying the view?"

Remus shrugged and blushed. "I…umm, well I'm actually not that into girls." He smiled shyly. "I would be attracted to you, but you're missing a certain body part. I thought you'd have guessed by now."

Lily shrugged and stood a bit straighter. "You're good at hiding it." She paused for a moment. "Why do you hide it?"

Remus actually let out a humourless laugh before he answered. "Same reason I don't tell people I'm a werewolf. I like to fit in, go unnoticed." Remus smiled. "You've learned quite a lot about me lately."

"Not just you," Lily muttered but didn't elaborate when Remus questioned her.

"Well I better be going," Remus said, standing and smiling. "I'm sorry for almost drowning you."

"Ah, that's okay," Lily said with a smile. "If you want to stay, I don't mind. I could use the company."

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Oh come on, the water's nice. I know you're cold and you're dying to get into the water with a gorgeous naked girl."

Remus laughed and shrugged, taking off his robes and folding them before unbuttoning his shirt.

"You're going to break a lot of girls' hearts, Remus Lupin," Lily said as Remus slipped into the water.

"It's not easy being a gay werewolf," he said quietly, once he was submerged in water. To tell the truth, he was as keen to have someone to talk to as she was. "One in every ten men are gay and about one in every hundred wizards trust werewolves. You do the math."

Lily smiled at him sadly and trod water for awhile before she swam over to the steps and sat down. "Do the boys know?"

"James and Sirius do."

"What do they think about it?"

Remus shrugged and smiled. "Like I said, they don't judge me. They like me for who I am."

"I'm glad," Lily said. She paused, wondering how to phrase her next question, but decided to go for the blunt approach. "What do you know about Sirius' family?"

Remus looked up and shook his wet hair from his eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"I overheard him arguing with his brother."

"They talked?" Remus asked, his eyes wide and keen. "He kept that quiet."

"It wasn't a friendly conversation."

"No. What did you hear?"

Lily paused, but she had to tell someone, and she trusted Remus. "From what I heard, it sounded like their father killed their sister."

Remus let out a deep breath and swam over to sit by her. He sighed and scratched his head. "His sister's name was Isabel. She was five years younger than him and he loved her so much. Well, I got that from how he speaks of her anyway. By the time she reached six years old, she still wasn't showing any magical powers. Sirius' father took her to various therapists, Healers and professors and they all confirmed it: she was a squib." Remus sighed again and rubbed his eyes. "Apparently their father was so angry at having a muggle in the family he killed her, in front of his two other sons. Used her as an example and made it look like an accident."

Lily gasped and barely noticed her eyes had filled with unshed tears.

"Sirius had just started Hogwarts by this point. It happened during the Christmas holidays. He was pretty messed up and when he told James and me…Well, I could hardly believe it. We wanted him to tell someone, Dumbledore, but he wouldn't He would never turn in his family, but from that point onwards he practically disowned them. Regulus, his brother, was still living at home. I guess he was brainwashed by his father, I don't really know. According to Sirius, he's always been weak."

"That's terrible," Lily whispered, hardly able to believe what she had heard. "That poor boy, Sirius can't blame him, what was he supposed to do? Run away from home? Where could he go?"

"I know," Remus said. "We've tried talking to Sirius but he just clams up when the subject's mentioned." Remus paused. "He really loved that little girl. The way he'd speak about her…" Remus smiled. "His whole face would just light up."

Lily touched his arm and he took her hand in his. They both sat there for a long while until the bath water began to turn cold then they silently got out and got dressed, and without a word, left the room together.

AN: Review or the fish will find you...I'm serious...Next chapter is very funny i promise. And no flames. I can feel the heat already. xxx