A/N: I am soo sorry for not updating sooner- but this chapter took quite a while for me to write. But I believe that this one is my longest chapter yet, and it is chock-full of drama and such, so I hope that it was worth the wait. It will keep you busy for a while, I can tell you that! Well- enjoy this chapter! It really was a labor!

Chapter Fourteen: Only Fools Play with Love

"You can't possibly expect me to come out like this?"

James, Peter, Sora, Lily, and Sirius all stood in front of the door to the boys' dormitory, large, expectant smiles on each of their faces.

"Come on Moony, you know the bet" Peter said, grinning extra wickedly, thankful that he hadn't lost the bet instead.

"I agreed to the dress- not to the purse and the bows and the jewelry" Remus moaned. The rest of the H6 looked at each other, trying not to laugh.

"Just come on out, mate, stop the suspense" Sora said. There came a groan from the other side of the door.

"Don't worry, Remus- we won't laugh" Lily said.

"Speak for yourself" James retorted. Lily swiftly silenced him with a sharp punch to the side.

Slowly, the door creaked open. All five teens craned their necks to see the boy on the other side.

Standing in the doorway was…a surprisingly pretty girl. Sora, James, Lily, Peter, and Sirius all stood their, gaping, at Remus. He was wearing a floor length pink and gold dress with his shoulder length hair tied up in two, large pink bows. He was wearing various pieces of jewelry, including snap on, dangling earrings.

"Oh…my…" Lily said, breaking the awkward silence. Then James started to snicker, Sirius joining him. Pretty soon, the H6 (minus Remus and a very vexed looking lily) were all on the floor, rolling, shaking with laughter.

"Oh grow up, you lot!" Lily said for the sake of Remus, though on the inside, she too was quite amused.

"Come on, Lils, you can't pretend like this isn't funny!" Sora said, gasping for air.

"It's not that bad" Remus muttered, his face turning a bright red.

"Not that bad! Moony- you look like a contestant in a beauty pageant!" James cried as Peter began to warble out something that sounded vaguely like some sort of pageant music.

"Stop it!" Lily cried. Sirius nodded his head in agreement.

"Seriously, Wormtail, your making my ears explode" he said. Peter promptly hit him on the head with his wand.

"That's not what I meant…" Lily said lamely, attempting to tackle Sirius, who was trying to curse a pig tail on Peter.

"Let's just go out and get this over with" Remus said, unenthusiastically, walking towards the portrait hole, leaving the fighting, giggling group behind him.

"Wait for us Moony!" Sirius cried, quickly forgetting all about Peter and Lily. The rest of the H6 all got up and followed Remus out of the common room, huge smiles on their faces. Even Lily, who was the most sympathetic of the bunch, couldn't help but grin at Remus's get up. He really did make a rather fetching young girl…

By the time the H6 reached the Great Hall, the school was in a buzz about the "new girl" in school.

"Who is that lass with the H6?"

"I can't tell- never seen her before"

"She's a fox- ain't she?"

"Yeah, but why is she wearing such fancy clothes and jewels?"

"Who cares- look at the size of those jewels, she must be loaded!"

"I'm never going to get over this, am I?" Remus groaned after the seventh person came up to the group dying to be introduced to him.

"No way, Moony" James said, grinning widely. Remus just frowned into his eggs, picking at his bracelet.

"You girls wear too many…things" he moaned, motioning to the necklace and earrings.

"Ah, don't complain, Remus. You're lucky actually" Sora said. Remus looked at her in disdain.

"Lucky? How in any way am I lucky?" he cried.

"Well, you actually make a very pretty girl. It makes it easier on you. Could you even begin to imagine one of this lot in a dress and jewelry?" Sora asked, pointing her fork towards James, Peter, and Sirius, who seemed to be having a contest over who could wolf down the most bacon in five seconds.

"Wro? Ush?" Peter asked, mouth full.

"Point taken" Remus said, glumly, actually wishing that he too could take place in the contest. He may not look like it, but he could tuck in bacon fairly well if he did say so himself.

"Never mind, just try to get through today" Sora said, trying to be encouraging, but failing. Comforting had never been one of Sora's strong points.

"Oh…my…god" Lily whispered suddenly from next Remus. Sora looked up at her friend, only to find her staring, mouth open, at the entrance of the Great Hall. She followed Lily's eyes and gasped.

"My, who do we have here?" Sora asked, looking at the boy standing in the entrance.

"He's…he's gorgeous!" Lily whispered, her hands flying immediately to her curly hair, trying to fix it into place.

"Lily, remember James" Sora said lightly. Lily immediately sobered, and the glassy look in her eyes disappeared.

"Yeah, your right" Lily said, quickly bringing her hands back into her lap. "But he is rather easy on the eyes"

And so the boy was. He had dirty blonde hair that fell gracefully to his shoulders in a messy, effortless way, framing a sculpted face and two of the largest, longest lashed hazel eyes ever seen in the walls of Hogwarts. He walked in a casually confident way and when he smiled half the girls in the room melted. He was… beautiful, there was no other way to describe it.

"I think he's coming here" Lily whispered. Remus looked up, finally noticing that the two girls next to him were having a conversation.

"That guy looks familiar somehow" Remus said, looking at the new boy.

"We've never seen him before" Lily said. Remus just shook his head and nudged Sirius, who was sitting on his other side.

"Sirius, look at that kid- I remember him from somewhere" he said, Sirius looked up from his food at the new boy and sucked his breath in.

"Oh bloody…" Sirius whispered.

"What is it?" Remus asked.

"That's Adrian Potter" Sirius whispered furiously, casting an apprehensive look at James, who was deep in conversation with Peter about something or another- completely oblivious to the boy walking over to them.

"Wait, wait, Adrian Potter as in the infamous cousin that James's is always griping about?" Lily asked. Sirius nodded his head gravely.

"The same Adrian Potter that James told us last week that he would hex into oblivion in he ever saw again?" Sora asked. Once again, Sirius nodded his head.

"Well this is going to be buckets of fun" Remus said, wolfing down the rest of his breakfast in case James turned the table over in anger like he had done their second year when the eggs were too cold.

"Think we should warn James before he comes over here?" Lily asked, looking worriedly at James.

"Oi James!" Adrian called loudly.

"Too late" Sirius said, covering his ears.

James turned his head towards the person who had called him, smiling, obviously expecting it to be one of his other friends or admirers. His eyes fell upon Adrian and ever so slowly, the smile slid off his face and was replaced by a look of horror and disgust.

"Glad to see me, cousin?" Adrian asked, smiling widely at James, eyebrows raised. James just gaped at the boy, who casually walked up to them and sat in the seat next to his cousin, promptly kicking out the second year boy who had been sitting there before.

"A…Adrian?" James stuttered, still shocked.

"As sharp as always I see" Adrian said lightly "are you going to finish that, I'm starved?" he asked, before taking James's plate of bacon and tasting a piece.

"What the hell are you doing here, Adrian?" James asked, his shock beginning to ebb away and be replaced by fury.

"Always so confrontational, cousin" Adrian said, munching on another piece of bacon. "I enrolled here, if you must know"

"Enrolled, here? But what about that French school you went to? Beaubuttons" James sputtered.

"It's Beauxbatons, idiotic cousin" Adrian drolled "and I felt like a change of scenery. France is nice and all, but there are only so many sun drenched beaches and delicious food a person can enjoy before it starts to get dull. I felt like coming back to the homeland- breathing some good old fashioned Scottish air"

"Good old fashioned Scottish air, my foot! You just came here to torture and ridicule me! Mother sent you- didn't she?" James asked. Adrian scoffed.

"No, Aunt Marissa did not send me- I came on my own volition. And I did not come for torturing or ridiculing either- you know how much I adore you cousin" Adrian said, grinning widely. James opened his mouth, but was cut off by Sirius.

"Been sorted yet, Adrian?" the boy asked. Adrian turned towards Sirius and smirked.

"Ah, Sirius, I was wondering when I would be seeing you. Are you still living with James here, or have you finally gotten enough money to afford your own place? I know how much real estate costs in these parts, especially for the…less fortunate of us" Adrian said, sounding sympathetic, though his eyes clearly gave another message.

"Affording a place was never the problem with me, Adrian. And besides, I bought myself a nice flat next to my cousin's at the beginning of this year" Sirius answered.

"Oh…a flat. I've read about those. They are supposed to be quite quaint, I've heard" Adrian said sweetly, before turning his eyes over to Lily, Sora, and Remus.

"Now, who is this lovely little lady?" Adrian asked, beaming at Lily, who immediately flushed red despite herself.

"You leave Lily alone you little bugger!" James growled. Adrian looked over at his cousin with eyebrows raised.

"Oh…girlfriend?" he asked. James nodded his head proudly. Adrian looked once again at Lily, smirking.

"She suits you" he said simply before turning his head towards Sora.

"Are you another one of James's girlfriends?" Adrian asked.

"That is disgusting" Sora said icily, before turning her cold, blue eyes on the boy. "Sora Kaito" she said plainly, her words dripping with malice. There was something about this Adrian kid that bothered Sora greatly. She could see why James hated him so much.

"Ah, miss Kaito. Aunt Marissa has spoken about you before. Honor to finally meet you" Adrian beamed, holding his hand out. Sora stared at it for a good minute before finally shaking it.

"Maybe you could show me around the school" Adrian asked the girl. Sora looked up at him, her own smirk plastered on her face.

"Maybe…later" she answered. Adrian nodded his head.

"Touché, dear" he said before turning his large eyes on Remus.

"Now, this little lady looks a bit familiar. Have you brought her home before, James?" Adrian asked. Remus turned a ferocious shade of red.

"That's Remus Lupin, you've seen him a few years ago, Adrian" James said, Adrian raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I guess everybody has one of those friends" Adrian said, smiling slightly.

"I lost a bet" Remus mumbled, still a blinding crimson.

"You keep telling yourself that, love" Adrian said.

"Hey listen, no need to be so rude" Peter said, angrily. Adrian turned to him.

"Ah Pettigrew, nice to see you again as well. You've lost a bit of weight I see, did that fat girlfriend of yours dump you?" he asked. Peter turned as red as Remus and said something quite nasty under his breath.

"Say that again, Pettigrew" Adrian said.

"Ah, leave them all alone, you prick" Sora said loudly. Adrian turned towards her and smiled.

"I don't think you were part of this conversation, Mistress Kaito" Adrian asked. Sora glared at him.

"I don't think you were ever wanted in this group" she said softly "so if you know what is good for you, you will leave, Master Adrian" Sora said.

"Listen here, I…"

"I think Sora asked you to leave, Adrian. You should listen to her" Lily said suddenly, green eyes narrowing. Adrian looked at both the girls, eyebrows raised.

"And why would I hold Mistress's Kaito's words in such high respect?" Adrian asked.

"Because I'm guessing you'd like to survive" Sirius said coldly, looking straight at the boy. Adrian looked at Sirius for a moment and then broke out into a nasty smile.

"Ah, so this is how it is" Adrian said softly before turning on his heels, leaving the Great Hall and a group of vexed teens behind him.

"Not that great of a people person, is he?" Sora asked lightly.

Adrian, after he left the Great Hall, swept into the owlery, the wheels in his head turning. He called his owl down to him and took out a piece of parchment and a quill out of his pocket. He touched the tip of the quill to his lip for a moment and then started to scribble a letter.

Dear Aunt Marissa,

I arrived at Hogwarts- no troubles there. I followed your directions and they worked perfectly, the big oaf put me into Gryffindor without me even trying on the hat. Now I can keep an eye out on James and Sora for you, just like you asked. It seems as though James has found himself a girlfriend, Lily Evans. The idiotic large man told me that she was a mudblood- which is just what we need to complicate this whole situation. I can take care of her if you so wish. Sora, on the other hand, has no boyfriend as far as I know, but that Sirius Black obviously fancies her. I can remedy that rather easily, though. Everything here is under control for right now. Write back at your earliest convenience.

You're Nephew,

Adrian

Adrian read over his letter once and smiled, tying it onto the claw of his owl and watching her fly out into the night sky.

"Better get some rest, I've got a long day ahead of me" Adrian said to himself before leaving the owlery.

By the end of the week, everybody in the school knew two things- the new boy Adrian was taking the H6, especially James, up in a storm and that he had a fancy for Sora. The first thing was rather unusual. Ever since Sora and Lily had managed to rile the Marauders, nobody (besides maybe Alice Catton) had managed to surprise the group since. So of course, the rest of the school had a wild obsession with him. Of course, the fact that he was gorgeous helped with that obsession as well.

The second thing was a bit more subtle and entertaining to the Hogwarts crowd. By the end of the first week, Sora couldn't even walk down the hallway without being bungled by some sort of request from Adrian for her to go on a date with him.

"It must run in the family" Lily told Sora one day after she helped her escape from a dozen lawn gnomes who were singing an odd ballad to the girl in the middle of the hallway about how much Adrian loved her.

"He is a major jerk- but I can't help but feel a bit flattered" Sora said as a shower of red heart confetti fell un top of her head "and a little annoyed".

"It is a bit cute- no matter how much of a snob he is" Lily said, clutching on to a pink and white teddy bear that Sora had thrust at her after finding it on her bed that morning.

Plus, Sora thought, but wouldn't admit to Lily, she sort of liked Adrian fawning after her because it looked like he was making Sirius a bit jealous. Ever since Adrian had showed up, Sirius had been very moody and sullen, especially around Sora. At first the girl thought that he was sulking over the fact that Adrian had called him poor; but now Sora wasn't quite so sure about that. Sirius had never shown any signs that he had liked Sora, but the girl couldn't help but wistfully hope that maybe all of the attention she was receiving from James's cousin was making him envious. Fancies and wishes, that was all.

"It's free period. The rest of the H6 are probably hanging around outside, do you want to go" Lily asked Sora.

"Yeah- hopefully out there we can escape from those things" Sora answered, pointing at the lawn gnomes, who were creeping over to them again. Her and Lily dashed through the corridor and headed outside, the gnomes hot on their tale.

When they stepped out into the sunshine, Lily immediately saw the boys sitting under their favorite tree, throwing things at one another.

"They're over their" Lily said, pointing at the tree. Her and Sora headed towards it and crashed on the floor next to where James and Remus were sitting. Peter was a few feet away brandishing his wand ferociously as he tried to practice a new spell and Sirius was sitting in the tree branches, lazily reading a book.

"You know you have glitter heart confetti in your hair" James said lazily to Sora, who cursed loudly and shook her head, trying to get the hearts off.

"I'm guessing that had something to do with Adrian" James asked, eyebrows arched.

"Of course it does! You've seen the way he's been acting all week!" Lily said to him.

"And I'm guessing those things also have to do with Adrian" Remus said, smiling lazily, pointing to the group pf gnomes who were making their way to the tree, croaking out their wonderful melody. Sora groaned and hid her head in her hands.

"Not them again" she whined.

"Again?" asked Peter, who had given up on his practicing.

"They have been following Sora all day. It's getting to be pretty annoying now" Lily answered.

"It always been pretty annoying" Sora snapped, frowning. "I wish that I could just talk to him and straighten everything up"

"Well. Speak of the devil" James said, looking over at the castle, which Adrian had just come out of.

Adrian looked around, spotted the H6, and beamed. He walked over to them in his confident gait, his perfectly tailored robes floating behind him. James looked like he was about to hurl.

"What do you want, Adrian?" James asked icily as the boy reached the tree.

"Nothing to do with you, little cousin, don't fret. I just wanted to talk to Sora" Adrian said calmly.

"Yeah, what do you want to talk her about?" Sirius asked from his place in the tree. Adrian looked up at the boy and smirked.

"I do not see how this concerns you at all, Sirius. You just go back to your reading. God knows you need all the help you can with your school work. And on that note, you better go back to practicing your charms, Peter. The professor did comment on them quite dreadfully last class" Adrian said, turning his head towards Peter, who blushed a ferocious shade of red.

"They weren't that bad" Peter mumbled. Sora rolled her eyes. All of this pointless bickering between Adrian and the boys was starting to wear her down.

"What did you want, Adrian?" Sora asked. The boy, suddenly remembering that Sora was sitting a foot away from him, turned his head towards her and smiled.

"Well, I would rather talk to you in a place that is a bit more…private" he said, sweeping his eyes across the cord under the tree.

"I rather like it here and don't want to move" Sora said lazily "if you are going to say something to me, I'll have to ask you to just say it here"

Adrian smiled at her. Perfect, he thought, everything was going as planned.

"Well, you know that this weekend we have our Hogsmede trip. I was wondering if you would like to go get lunch with me then" Adrian said. Sora looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"Get lunch with you as in…"

"As in a date" Adrian answered, all calm confidence.

As soon as the words left Adrian's mouth, there was a loud crash behind Sora. She turned around to find Sirius on the ground, apparently

He had just fallen out of the tree and was now laying on the ground, letting out a long, rather horrible string of curse words out. Sora refrained from rolling her eyes.

"Well the thing is Adrian…"

"Sora will never go out with the likes of you!" Sirius blurted out, interrupting the girl. Both Sora and Adrian turned around and stared at him.

"What?" Sora asked. Sirius nodded his head.

"Sora has much better tastes than you, Potter. She's holding herself off for someone worthy of her" he said, Sora just gaped at him.

"Sirius Black, are you trying to tell me what not to do?" she asked. Sirius looked at her incredulously.

"You can't mean to tell me that you were considering going out with…with Him!" Sirius cried. Sora scowled at him and turned back to Adrian.

"Adrian, I would be honored to go on a date with you this weekend" she said promptly before glowering at a shocked Sirius and leaving in a huff. Adrian just smiled to himself. Everything was working as planned. Sora was flaming mad at Sirius and he was now going out with Sora- which meant that no other guy could either. He had promised his aunt that he would keep Sora and James uninvolved with other people, and he now was keeping one half of the bargain. Working on James would be next.

Adrian's and Sora's date was horrible, in Sora's opinion. He really was as conceited and fake as he seemed. He might be a gift to the eyes, but he was weary to the soul and she really did not care for him much. Adrian on the other hand, had a lovely time on the date. He had spent the whole time talking about his favorite subject, himself. So at the end of the day, he asked Sora out again, making sure they were in front of Sirius when he did so. Sora reluctantly accepted, but that was only after she saw Sirius's face.

"Can't you see I'm doing this to knock some sense into you, you big dolt?" Sora thought furiously in her mind- but Sirius remained as aloof as ever. Soon Sora and Adrian where the new big couple in Hogwarts, even surpassing James and Lily. But then again, why wouldn't they? Adrian was known to be the most gorgeous, mysterious boy in Hogwarts and Sora was the most unattainable girl in the school- them becoming a couple was a match made is gossip heaven. Only Lily knew how miserable Sora really was dating Adrian.

"If you hate him so much, why are you going out with him?" Lily shrieked at her friend one day.

"It's complicated" Sora muttered in return.

"But you hate him!" Lily cried

"And you hated James!" Sora retorted.

"Yeah, well I grew to love him. I don't see you growing to even stand Adrian!" Lily answered. Sore just sighed and left the heads' room, telling Lily that she had to get some rest. It had been two and a half weeks since she had been going out with Adrian and the boy sucked all the energy out of her with his constant ramblings about himself. Sora found that she just needed some time to herself and went to her secret place on the astronomy tower where she stood for a few moments, just staring off into the distance, the chill of the late November air freezing her to the bones.

Sirius wandered up the tower about an hour later, just when Sora was thinking about going back to her dormitory and sleeping.

"Oh, you're up here" Sirius said lamely once he saw Sora.

"Um, yeah, but I think we should go- it's going to rain soon" Sora said back, equally as lamely. The air had been getting thick though.

"It's not going to rain" Sirius said. Sora just stared at him.

"Yes it is" she said

"No it's not"

"It is- I know!"

"Prove it!"

Suddenly the first light droplets started to fall, quickly picking up pace. Sora looked at Sirius, her eyes dancing with mirth.

"Proved it" she said lightly, smiling despite the fact that she was getting quite wet. Sirius just stood there and scowled, becoming equally drenched.

"I really should be going, though. Long day tomorrow" Sora said, starting to walk away.

"Date with Adrian?" Sirius asked, tone hard and bitter. Sora turned around to look at him.

"Actually I do have a date with him" she said, trying to sound happy, though she was actually revolted with the thought on the inside.

"Do…do you even like him?" Sirius asked Sora, his face contorted. Sora turned to him and tried to smile politely, though it came out more like a grimace.

"Adrian is always very polite to me and he likes me a lot" she answered, which caused Sirius to let out a frustrated sigh.

"Yeah- but that doesn't mean that you like him!" he said impatiently. Sora looked up at him and scoffed.

"Why does it even matter to you if I like him or not? Why would you even care the least bit?" Sora asked, her voice rising a bit. Sirius just stood there, mouth shut firmly. Sora walked up to him, the rain soaking her through- though she really didn't care.

"You…you shouldn't be with someone you don't like" Sirius said flatly, simply. Sora let out a mirthless laugh.

"Well who do you want me to be with Sirius? You? Do you want to hear me say that I like you? That I've liked you all along? Well fine then- wish granted. I love you. I've loved you ever since fourth year! There I said it. But why does it matter? You don't even care about me and you never will! I was this close to giving up on you, Sirius Black, but…"

Sirius cut her short by sweeping down and kissing her firmly. It shocked the daylights out of Sora, but she couldn't say that she wasn't pleased. When they finally broke off, Sora didn't know whether to slap the boy or kiss him again.

"I've been meaning to do that since third year" Sirius said to the girl wistfully. Sora looked up at him in shock. Then she punched him square in the shoulder.

"Ow! Why did you do that you mad woman?" Sirius cried, clutching his shoulder.

"That, my dear, was for the torture I suffered through these past two and a half weeks dating Adrian to make you jealous" Sora answered, laughing despite herself. Even Sirius managed to grin widely, though his shoulder was smarting.

"Ah, so that's what it was. Stupid idea, really" Sirius said. Sora just smiled.

"Well it ended up working, didn't it?" she asked.

"Oh, why it did, didn't it. Remind me to thank Adrian for that" Sirius responded.

"You can do that later" Sora answered, a large grin creeping up on her face.

By the time the two teens went back to the common room, they were completely soaked through, but beaming despite it. Sora raced up the steps to her dormitory, a large, silly grin on her face that she couldn't seem to get off (not that she wanted to or anything). By the time she showered and dried herself off, the clock read 10 o'clock; which surprised the girl, who felt like she had stayed up for much longer than that.

But despite the long day that she had, Sora felt too keyed up to go to sleep. Instead she opened the drawer on her bedside table, in hopes of finding a good book to read. Instead, her eyes fell on a large pile of unopened letters from her father, the last one coming just at the beginning of the week. Just a few hours ago, Sora had been angry at her father (still about the whole college issue), but now she felt too happy to really be angry at anything. So, in an amicable mood, Sora decided to finally open one of her father's letters and read it.

She took the latest letter and opened it up, eyes scanning over the words once, then twice before she finally got the full meaning of it. Her stomach sank and she suddenly felt quite queasy. She looked down at the letter and the same three words jumped out at her "you", "James", and "engaged". She read the whole letter once more through and did the first thing that came to mind.

She screamed.

A/N: Ah, so how was that for a chapter? In the next one you get to see how Sora and Sirius- as well as the rest of the H6- react to this shocking bit of news. And let me just warn you- the biggest new turn in this story will be coming up in the next chappie! As always, please review- I love hearing from you. Thanks a lot!