Chapter 2

Sirius's POV

We entered the carriage, Lily's friend, Lynette, still in my mind. James and I met up with our other two friends, Remus and Peter, and found a carriage.

"Hey Padfoot," James said, waving his hand in front of me. "You're still thinking about her?"

I looked at him. He gave me a look. "Yeah," I answered simply.

"Ha! I knew it! You like her," he said, raising his fists up in the air.

Remus looked at us. "Who's 'her'?" he asked.

"No one Moony," I said.

"Oh shut it Padfoot, you wouldn't stop staring at her," James said.

I punched him. "I wasn't staring at her."

"Who is this girl?" Remus asked.

I was about to answer when James jumped up and answered himself, "Lily's cute new American friend, Lynette."

Remus sighed, "What, another girl?"

"No, we just met," I said.

"Sirius here likes her already," James said, hitting my back.

"You're the one who was flirting with her," I retorted.

"Well, she was cute," James said, "besides, you weren't flirting with her so I thought I would."

I saw Remus roll his eyes as Peter said, "James, seriously, flirting with a first year is so…"

"Whoa! Who said anything about a first year?" James asked.

"Lynette transferred from the United States Academy of Magic, she's a fourth year like us," I explained.

"Oh, sorry, when you said 'new', I thought you meant that she was a first year," Peter said.

"Wormtail, as charming as I am, I wouldn't really flirt with first years," James said, laughing.

"Oh yeah, he charmed Lynette alright," I said.

"She didn't think of it as an insult like Lily?" Remus asked. He was the closest to Lily in our group. Ever since day one, Lily has always loathed James…and me. But it was different with Remus. She liked him because he was the smartest out of all of us and he had 'manners'. Although Remus would play pranks along with us, Lily believes that we only drag Remus into it and that he had nothing to do with pranks.

"No, actually she didn't. If I do say so myself, she actually flirted back," James said.

"Really?" Peter asked. He's the 'dead brain' in our group, but he's a good friend.

"Yes, if Padfoot here won't ask her out on a Hogsmeade weekend, I will," James said, rather confidently.

"Really James, I hardly think Lily would let that happen if she was her friend," Remus said, his face buried in his book.

"Forget Evans, I'll hang her up in the Great Hall half if I have to, but I will ask Lynette on a date," James said with a big grin. "Well, if you don't ask her," he said to me.

"Go ahead and ask her, I'm not interested in her," I lied.

"Fine then, but I'll ask her when your cousin and Lily are out of the way," he said.

The carriage came to a stop and we got out and walked with the crowd to the Great Hall. Nearly Headless Nick floated by and greeted us. Professor McGonagall was waiting with Professor Slughorn outside the Great Hall and ushered us in. We all sat down at our tables and the first years, Lynette with them, came in and walked up to the sorting hat.

Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, stood up and started to make his speech. "This year, not only the new first years will join us, but also a new transfer student from the United States Academy of Magic. May I introduce Miss Lynette Carson." his voice boomed throughout the room.

Lynette walked up to the stool and Professor McGonagall placed the sorting hat on her head. It was silent for a moment, as the hat was making a decision and then shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Everyone clapped and Lynette made her way to the table, sitting next to a beaming Lily. The sorting ceremony went on, the last student sorted into Ravenclaw, and then the room was filled with laughter and conversations as the food appeared. I looked at Lynette who was in a deep conversation with Lily as she poured some pumpkin juice in her goblet. She looked up at me smiled. Lily turned around and scowled at James who was talking to Peter while filling his mouth with food. Remus was eating and reading slowly, turning the page between bites.

"Hello cousin, enjoying the view over there?" Narcissa asked from behind me.

I turned. "What are you talking about?" I asked her.

She gave me a disbelieving look and pointed over to Lynette and Lily as she said, "There, you've been staring at her for the past five minutes."

"Who? Evans?" I asked, not looking at her.

"You're such a bad liar cousin," she said, frowning. "Why don't you ask her for a walk or something?"

"Sorry, but I'm not interested in Evans," I replied.

"I didn't mean Lily, you prat! I meant Lynette," she said.

"Either way, I'm not interested," I said coolly.

Narcissa waved her hand at me, "Whatever, I'm just trying to help you out here. Donovan Blake was just talking about asking her on a date. And Jonathan Smith from Hufflepuff was bragging about how he's going to win her over. If you ask me, I think Lynette wouldn't even go with either of them."

"Well, let Jonathan and Donovan make fools of themselves," I said, stuffing a large amount of mashed potatoes in my mouth.

Narcissa gave me an amused look. "Fine, if you don't care about who Lynette dates, then I might just play matchmaker on her and Eric Smith," she said.

I gulped. "Eric Smith? The proud, know-it-all, Ravenclaw Quidditch chaser?" I was never fond of the guy. He's popular, but not as much as me, and some girls liked him. "I hardly think that Lynette would even go for the guy."

Narcissa smiled, knowing that she was getting to me, and answered, "Well actually, Lynette was talking to him in the carriage. We were the last ones out and I introduced them. He already asked Lyn if he could take her out on a Hogsmeade weekend. She said maybe and that she'll think about it, but I certainly think that she'll say yes. If she really meant to say no, then she would have said it."

"Narcissa, you're absolutely going no where with this. And as amusing as it is, you're going to have to stop now," I said, giving her my famous smirk.

She merely laughed and said, "Oh, Sirius, I'm not as thick as you think. If you don't want to admit that you like Lynette, then fine. I'm just giving you the chance of admitting so you won't have all that pressure on you when you keep denying. I'm going to talk to Lily and Lynette now." She stood up, laughing, and ruffled my hair very roughly, then went off.

"What was that about?" Remus asked, putting his book down.

"Nothing," I said, grouching.

Soon, Dumbledore made his 'new start of term' speech and then I went with the rest Gryffindors to the common room. James and I stayed in the common room while mostly everyone else went to their dormitories. Lynette and Lily were sitting on the couch laughing and talking.

James made his way up to them. "Hello Lynette, Evans," he greeted.

"What do you want Potter?" Lily asked harshly.

James was furious. "Can't we just have one civil conversation Evans?"

Lily stood up. "No, you started it in the first place. In our first year, you had to pull all those pranks on me just to get attention! You deserved every detention you got!" And without another word, she ran up the girls' stairs.

Lynette was speechless. She too ran up the stairs, waving bye to James and me. I just went with James up to our dormitories and went to bed. I couldn't sleep though. Tomorrow was the start of a new term. More pranks, parties, and Quidditch games. And more classes, homework, and exams.

I thought about what Narcissa said. "I don't like Lynette," I forced myself to think I really don't know if I do like her. I mean, usually if I like a girl, I'd lose interest in a week or so. No girl has held on to me that long, they just move on. Lynette is different from other girls. Well she seems different. She doesn't drool at the sight of me. She probably just doesn't like me though. Narcissa's words just keep repeating in my head. I sighed. Maybe I'm just kidding myself.

The first couple of weeks went by fast. Lynette was gaining popularity quickly since she was friends with Narcissa and Lily, who were fairly popular. Everyone knew her and gossip was pretty much revolved around her. Narcissa wasn't lying about Eric Smith. Rumor says that he asked her to his study partner for Transfiguration since he wasn't 'good' at the subject. There's also this other rumor saying that she agreed to go with him on the first Hogsmeade weekend that was a week away. I thought it was absurd, but James was jealous.

"How could that little git ask her first?" James asked. We were eating breakfast in the Great Hall but not many people were there.

Remus sighed. "Maybe he likes her too James."

"Well Lynette doesn't seem to like him back. She's probably only going out on a date with him because she feels sorry for him," James said, smiling.

"I hardly doubt it," Remus said.

"What are you talking about Moony?"

"Well, Lily told me the other day that Lynette does like him," he answered. "Apparently, Narcissa knew that Eric liked her and got him to ask her out."

"Narcissa," James hissed. "That bat, bimbo-headed, witch!"

"What did you say about me Potter?" a shout came from behind us. It was Narcissa, her face furious with her arms crossed.

James smirked, "Well at least I didn't have to say it to you anymore since you heard."

"You prat!" Narcissa spat. "Don't blame me that Eric got to Lynette first! It's your own fault that you didn't ask her quick enough!"

"Well I wanted to ask her when you and Evans weren't with her, but I couldn't do that since you two won't let her out of your sight," James shouted back. "It's not like I would petrify her."

"No wonder why no strong-headed, straight thinking, decent girl would go out with you with that attitude," Narcissa said harshly. Then she stormed off.

"I don't think Lily would be too happy with you when she finds out that you said that to Narcissa," Peter remarked.

"Lily's never happy with him Peter," said Remus.

"True," I agreed.

"Enough talk about Evans," James said. "I'd rather eat my breakfast without her in my head."

"So you admit that you think about Evans often?" I asked, teasing.

James flushed. "No, I just meant that I'd rather eat in peace without Evans ruining my morning."

"Well too bad because we have double potions with her right now," Remus informed.

James moaned, "Great, just what I need, Evans coming up to me during potions and shouting at me for what I did wrong."

"Well Lynette has the class with us too, maybe you can put your charm on her then," Peter suggested.

"Yeah, I could do that," James said, smiling mischievously.

I felt my stomach squirm. "But I don't think Evans would let you come within twenty feet of Lynette," I said.

"Sirius has a point," Remus said, agreeing with me.

"We'll just see about that," James said.

The bell rang and we ran to the dungeons. We were a few minutes late and Slughorn had to take away a few points.

"Now class, we will learn about the ingredients of the Polyjuice potion," Professor Slughorn said. "We'll partner up," he waved his wand and a list was up on the blackboard. "Find your partner and turn your books to page 92." I looked at the list, searching for my name.

"Hello Sirius," Lynette greeted "I guess you're my partner."

I checked the list. "Yeah, I guess so." We went to the back table and started to place out the ingredients for the potion.

"Um, Sirius, we don't have any lacewing flies," she said, checking the ingredients list again.

I looked at the list. "I'll go get some then," I said. I went into the student store cupboard. A jar labeled "lacewing flies" caught my eye and I grabbed it. I went back into the room and saw James talking with Lynette. I sighed.

"So Lynette, why did you say yes to Smith?" James asked.

Lynette's cheeks turned pink. "Well, I thought that it would be mean if I said no. He seems to like me though."

James smirked. "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk after Herbology."

"Um…well Lily needs me to…uh," she said, glancing at Lily who was talking to Frank Longbottom, her partner, and then she looked at James, "alright, I suppose she wouldn't mind."

James smiled. "Good, see you then," he said, walking away but not before shouting "Yes!" with a face that says 'Victory!'

Lynette gave a small laugh and looked at me. "James is so hilarious," she said, "Well, let's get started."

I was sitting on the common room floor, waiting for James. Remus was sitting on the large armchair reading another one of his boring books, and Peter was writing his essay.

"James and Lynette have been gone a long time, don't you think Padfoot?" Remus asked me teasingly. He only uses my nickname when he's teasing me.

I gave him an angered look. "What do I care?"

Peter snorted. "Well, you like her don't you?"

"I do not!" I shouted. Some Gryffindors looked my way.

"Don't lie to us Sirius," Remus said. "We're your friends after all."

"Remus is right," Peter said.

"I do not like her!" I yelled.

Remus sighed. "Narcissa was right."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Narcissa told me about the conversation that you had with her," he said. "I agree with her, you like her."

Peter smiled. "Wait until Prongs finds out," he said.

"Well James might not be angry," Remus said.

"Better get a head start Padfoot, or Prongs might kill you," Peter joked.

Remus laughed. "I hardly doubt that a girl can come between Padfoot and Prongs, but I guess it's possible."

"No girl is going to come between me and Prongs!" I exclaimed.

"What girl would come between you and Potter?" a voice asked. I turned and saw Lily walking over to Remus. "Really Black, you can't keep a friend because of a girl?" she asked.

"Shut up Evans," I said. She shrugged and started to talk to Remus about something.

A few girls were walking by and I recognized some of them. One was Danielle Abercrombie, the leader of the group. Her right-hand friend, Patricia Patil, was whispering something in her ear. Danielle smiled at me and winked. I put a smug look on and ran my fingers through my hair as I looked at her. I heard the girls giggle, on of them said "He's so cute."

Danielle walked up to me, her friends right behind her. "Hey Sirius," she greeted. Her friends giggled. "Ahem!" she coughed, motioning to her friends to leave.

"We were just leaving," Patricia said, pushing all the girls out of the common room.

As soon as her friends left, Danielle turned her head back to me. "So anyways, Sirius, do you want to go to Hogsmeade next week with me?" she asked flirtatiously. "I mean as in a date."

I smirked. "Sure," I said, I moved closer to her. "But are your friends going to follow?" I asked.

She laughed as she shook her head. "No, they can manage without me," she said, moving in closer. "How about your friends?"

"They'll manage without me too," I said.

"Good, so we'll meet here in the common room?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," I answered.

"Alright, well I need to go," she said, walking away slowly and blowing me a kiss. As she went out of the portrait hole, James came in with Lynette.

A/N: I know it's not really a good time to just end the chapter but it was getting too long. PLEASE REVIEW!

I don't own Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling does.