A/N: okay…this chapter was really fun to write for some reason. I love writing anything with Lily I guess. This was just fun. I hope you like it. REVIEW!! Always appreciated .

Lily was glad that she'd confided in someone other than herself; she was happy that now she had someone looking out for her. But she was also scared he'd tell James. They were best friends, after all, and it hadn't been some stupid little plight of hers. It was something huge, that she admittedly would've told her best friend, in his position, even if sworn to secrecy.

She walked into the common room, completely unaware of all the eyes following her to her seat. She rummaged through her bag looking for a book, but the voices that carried over to her made her stop and listen.

"James Potter and Sirius Black! I swear it's the truth, Melinda!" Emma Warren whispered to her best friend, Melinda Drake. Lily risked a glance upward and saw the two of them sitting across from each other by the fire, Melinda wore a look of thoughtfulness.

Lily had always liked Melinda. She was sweet and not one for gossip, which is why it came as a shock to everyone that her best friend was Emma Warren, who gossiped about everything and every one and didn't care who she hurt in the process. But she was always right, so people inevitably listened to her.

"Well…it's a bit far-fetched, Em. I mean, drugs? That's so….I don't know…not like them." Melinda said. Lily's heart caught in her throat. Drugs? What was she talking about? Her James? And Sirius? It didn't compute. No.

Emma made a scoffing noise, "Oh please. I dated Sirius Black for six months last year, remember?" She leaned in closer to Melinda as if for dramatic effect, "I mean, he was into the stuff then, but…not this hardcore. I hear James almost passed out in their dormitory a few nights ago. Word has it that Sirius doesn't even have it under control anymore…and that James is practically a junkie."

Lily couldn't breathe; she felt as if all the air in her body had been sucked out of her with Emma's words; she didn't want to listen anymore. She couldn't hear this anymore…but she couldn't move either.

"And where are they supposedly doing all these drugs? I mean…they couldn't do them all up in the dormitory right? They'd get caught for sure." Melinda said, leaning against the arm of the chair she was sitting in. Emma shrugged.

"Room of Requirement, I suppose…" she said, and then began examining her nails as if bored with the conversation. "Oh!" she said excitedly to Melinda "Did you hear? Marlene McKinnon has started dating Remus Lupin…." But Lily drowned her out.

She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She couldn't believe that her James – her perfect James – had been lying. Lying straight to her face, and didn't feel a moment's guilt over it. She felt as if she was going to vomit. She closed her eyes for a second and tried to breathe, but it was becoming more and more difficult and then breaking into her pool of despair and hopelessness entered a voice.

"Hey Lily." Marlene McKinnon's voice drifted into Lily's mind. "Are you alright? You look sort of…What's wrong?" Lily opened her eyes to look at Marlene, She tried to speak, but nothing was coming out. She swallowed and when she spoke her voice was hoarse.

"I…I have to go." She shot out of her seat and tripped over herself running out the portrait hole.