Ch. 21: Biting Butts and All That Mattered

"The librarian yelled at me," I whispered while Lily yelled at James some more. She patted my head and giggled.

"I know, the whole campus heard," she replied, smiling. We laughed and continued to watch the show that Lily and James were putting on.

"I'm glad I found you," I whispered to her gently.

"I'm glad you found me too," she whispered back, resting her head gently on mine. I let my heart melt at her words and enjoyed the moment.

-21-

"Go beat her up, Jack," I urged the small dog, pointing to Lora as she hid behind the maroon sofa. She peaked out and crawled over behind the armchair that Lily was sitting in. She had been refusing to joke around with us, even though this week was Easter Break. The teacher's had piled on plenty of work for all of the Hogwarts students to busy themselves with during the warm and beautiful week. James, Lora and I had already finished though.

I laughed as I saw Jack scurry over to where Lora was and begin to bite at her butt. It was another trick I had taught him (I used James to represent Lora, so now as a consequence Jack went around biting James arse whenever he saw him). She swatted him away and stuck her tongue out at me. She crawled over to me and layed her head down on my leg.

I was sprawled out on the common room floor with James at my side. I had originally wanted to go outside and go swimming in the lake but Lora has a deep fear of mermen coming up and eating her legs off out of jealousy and James wanted to convince Lily to date him again. Their fighting the other day had snowballed so out of hand that Lily had broken up with him and began spending more time with that oil slick, Snape. This only made James more jealous though so he was spending the day blowing kisses to Lily.

"Are you giving me kisses, Jack?" I heard Lora ask. I looked down and laughed as I saw Jack licking away at her face. She looked up at me and giggled. As I stared into her blue eyes, I wanted to see something more. I wanted to see the longing for me that I wanted her to feel. I wanted to see a sense of caring and ownership. If it had been my idea of a perfect world, Lora's stunning, bright eyes would have held love for me in them. They would be beckoning me to come closer and to be hers. It was not a perfect world though, and Lora's eyes read none of that. All they showed was the laughter gleaming in them at the idea of her pet licking the tip of her nose.

To distract my from the aching pain that my heart was not sending out, I raised my eye sight towards James. He looked back at me and blew me a kiss.

"What the-" I laughed, cut off by Jack's barking. He must have just realized that James was in the room (Lora dropped him the other day so he hasn't been acting too bright lately). He immediately ran over to Prongs and began snapping at his rear end. James tried to push Jack away but the small dog refused to leave. Lora laughed as Jack kept barking for James' arse. I felt her lean onto my shoulder and I looked over. She rested her head gently against mine and gave me a small smirk when I smiled at her. I tried to tell my rapid beating heart to slow down but it refused.

Things had been worse than ever lately whenever I was around Lora. I think it's because I know that the end of the school year is not that long away. Only two more months; two more months until I had to tell Lora how I felt. I had pictured myself telling her but…it never ended well. I couldn't let James tell her for me because Lora deserved to hear it from me. I tried to convince myself that she liked me but I knew that she was like this to James and Remus too. Maybe she felt more for me? I doubt it. The question always arose in my thoughts though, why am I so nervous around Lora but I'm always super confident when I'm near any other chick in this school? I had just settled on the answer that Lora was it. She was the one that I could picture spending the rest of my life with. All of the other girls didn't even come close in comparison. All I want is Lora, but she's the one girl that I'll never be able to have.

"Lora, take your dog and keep him off my arse," James declared as he picked up the small dog. Jacks feet were running swiftly in the thin air as he was passed on to his owner. Lora held onto Jack as she set him onto my lap. He circled around a few times before setting down. Though he remained motionless, he cut his eyes at James and refused to look anywhere else.

"Hey guys," Peter said as he entered the common room. We knew he had been upstairs chatting with Remus (who wasn't feeling very good. It was his time of the month). A sense of betrayal swelled up inside of me and I followed James suit as he stood up.

"Hey Wormtail," hearing his nickname, Peter glistened with pride, "come take a walk with us," James said, slapping his hand casually on Peters back. Peter nodded, somewhat nervously, as the three of us began to exit the common room.

"I wanna come!" Lora exclaimed as she stood up to follow us. Jack, who sat in her arms, still stared at James fiercely.

"Stay here, Lora," I instructed her. She pouted at me sadly, trying to convince me to let her come along. I pouted back and smiled as she giggled. I watched her sit down on the couch as I shut the swinging portrait behind us.

"So, uh, what's going on guys?" Peter asked, wringing his hands as we walked down the hallway. Students covered the grounds outside of the windows, working diligently on their homework while chatting casually with their friends. Some students who had finished early were lingering in the hallway, talking with one another or just making their way somewhere.

"Peter, did you have fun at the library when you went with Lora, Remus, and Lily?" I asked in a normal voice, though I could already feel myself growing angry.

"Uh, yes. Very much so," he answered, his small, blue, watery eyes glancing away from me as he answered.

"Did you, Peter? Did you enjoy it?" James asked. I heard a sharpness in his voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I knew James didn't tolerate lying, especially not from someone who he thought was his friend.

"Yes, Prongs," Peter whispered, slowing down once he heard James ask the question so harshly.

"Don't call me that!" James shouted, catching the attention of passer-by's in the hallway. He lowered his glance and shook his head angrily. "Don't lie to me, Pettigrew."

"Wha-"

"We went to the library that day, Peter. We know that you weren't there," I interrupted, a snarl growing in my furious voice. I hated people that lied to me. Especially when it's someone as close as Peter was to me. He was supposed to be my friend. We let him join us and we showed him our secrets. I mean, we became illegal Animagi's together! Is there a tighter friendship than what we shared?

"James, Sirius, please don't be mad-" he pleaded.

"Too late," James growled.

"I-I have a reason!" Peter answered quickly, his voice out of breath and growing heavy.

"Then what is it?" I snapped.

"I-I was with a tutor. Please don't laugh at me. It's just that I haven't been doing so well in my studies and you two are always so great in classes. I just wanted to be smarter like you-"

"Is that all Peter? You could have told us that you were seeing a tutor," James replied slowly, a smile forming on his face.

"Well, I just didn't want you to laugh at me," Peter answered slowly.

"Peter! We're your friends! Why would we laugh at you?" I said smiling. I had been worried that we were going to lose Peter to something bad like we had lost Addie but thank goodness that we weren't. Peter was our friend and losing him right after we had lost her would have been unbearable.

"Sorry, guys. I guess I was just worrying over nothing," the small boy voiced, looking up at us with a smile in his eyes. We clapped his back and laughed at our mistake as we made our way back to the Gryffindor common room.

As we slowly treaded down the corridor, Addie came up on the side, walking in the opposite direction. For a spilt second, she looked at us. I saw resentment in her eyes as she looked at me and James. A different expression read across her face when she looked down to Peter. I didn't care though. It was her loss that she had stopped being our friend. We had Peter back and that's all that mattered right now.

That and the fact that I have two months until I probably lose another friend.

My best friend.

Lora.