Chapter 10

Lily woke to find a note on her bedside table. She picked it up eagerly and read it quickly.

"Lily Evans, working so peacefully,

Sometimes I wonder how I fell in love so easily."

Another poem! Lily thought. Whoever it was, they were a pretty corny poet. God, were they corny or what?

Nichloe stirred then sat up suddenly. "Lily?"

"Yes, Nichloe?"

"Have I done the right thing?"

"What right thing?" asked Lily, having no idea what her friend was talking about.

"Going out with Sirius. Should I be going out with him or focusing on my schoolwork like you?"

Lily groaned and shoved her face into her pillow. "I don't know, Nichloe. You're the one going out with him," she told her friend, her voice muffled.

"You're right," said Nichloe confidently. "I'm going downstairs." Nichloe dressed quickly then raced out of the dormitory.

Lily dressed too, but not as quickly as her friend. There was still two hours before school started.

When Lily went down into the common room, stuffing the poem into her bag, she found Sirius sitting in an armchair staring mournfully at the fireplace.

Lily had no idea what made her do it.

"Sirius? Are you alright?"

Sirius looked up at her with sad eyes. "No," he said sombrely, and then turned back to the fireplace.

Lily watched him for a moment. "Well, what's wrong?"

"Your friend," Sirius replied, spitting out the last word.

"Nichloe? What did she do?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all. Except break up with me." With that, tears escaped from Sirius' eyes and he buried his face into the arm of his chair. He did not want Lily Evans of all people to see him crying over losing a stupid girl. Why was he crying anyway? That was something he couldn't work out.

Lily was shocked. "Nichloe broke up with you? Why?"

"She said I distracted her. I can't believe this. Why am I crying?"

"I dunno," replied Lily. "But I have to go. See you around."

Lily ran down the marble staircase, desperate to find Nichloe. She hoped it wasn't what she had said that made her do this. After all, it wasn't because she wanted to focus on her schoolwork that she didn't go out with anyone. That was just her excuse.

Lily found Nichloe in an empty classroom. Her strawberry blonde fell around her face and her normally sparkling blue eyes were dull.

"Nichloe? Have you been crying?"

"No," said Nichloe with a sniff and rub of her eyes.

Lily got straight to the point. "Did you break up with Black?"

"Yes," said Nichloe and more tears escaped from her eyes.

"Why?" Lily asked curiously.

"Because…because…because…I wanted to be more like you, I guess Lily. Focus completely and utterly on my schoolwork."

"Nichloe. You can still go out with Sirius and focus on your schoolwork. You just have to have balance as well. Like know when it's not the best time to be going out with Sirius when you have a big exam the next day…do you understand?"

Nichloe wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. "Yeah, I do. Thanks Lily. You've been a big help. By the way, you should go out with James. You two would look so cute together."

Nichloe left the classroom.

Lily was left with her thoughts. (Again.)

.x.x.x.

James got out his Nimbus 1000. He thought that it might bring Sirius out of his sadness. He took it downstairs into the common room.

Sirius was still sitting mournfully on an armchair.

"Hey, look Padfoot. I got out my broomstick for an early morning joyride. Wanna come?"

Sirius shook his head wretchedly. He stared at the empty fireplace.

Nichloe came into the common room. "Sirius? Can I speak with you for a moment?"

James stood in front of his friend. "No way. You've broken his heart enough for today. Go up to your little dormitory and cry your little heart put because Sirius ain't coming back for you, no way in hell does he ever want to see you ever again…"

Sirius stepped under James' outstretched arms. "Course you can. Let's go outside, shall we?"

James just stood stupidly with his arms outstretched.

Lily scrambled through the portrait hole. She saw James' pose. "No Potter, I do not want a hug…I'm doing fine without one."

James suddenly realized Lily was in the room. He lowered his arms quickly to his sides. "I wasn't asking for a hug, I was protecting Sirius…well, trying to…"

"What's with the broom?" Lily asked him.

"Well, I was gonna take him for a joyride but then Nichloe came along so the idea went with him."

"I'll come for a joyride," said Lily eagerly. She loved the feeling riding a broomstick gave her.

James looked startled by her decision. "Um, well, ok then, we'd better go outside though…"

"Not that you would follow that rule though, eh, Potter?" Lily said remembering when he and Sirius had flown the broomstick up to her and Nichloe's dormitory.

James grinned and ran a hand through his already untidy black hair. "Right. But I figured you'd wanna follow it, so I must do as you command." James gave a clumsy bow that sent him toppling down the marble staircase.

Lily waited a couple of seconds then walked down calmly after him.

She found James trying to gather himself together at the bottom of the staircase. A group of fourth year girls walked past and giggled at the sight of him crumpled on the floor.

James picked himself up self-importantly and brushed down his robes.

"Always one for attention, aren't you Potter?" Lily asked him smiling, as she met him at the bottom.

"No," said James quickly and he shouldered his broomstick.

That sixth year Ravenclaw walked past Lily and winked at her.

Lily smiled shyly back.

"Lily, you've gone as red as your hair."

Lily turned on James; she hated it when people mentioned how red her hair was. "Really? And how red is that exactly? As red as this?" Lily raised her hand and slapped James' cheek.

James was taken aback. He touched his cheek where Lily slapped him. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked quietly.

Lily stalked off to the Great Hall.

She sat down at Gryffindor table and began to serve herself breakfast.

The Ravenclaw who had been admiring Lily came over and sat beside her. "Hello," he said. "My name's Joe Law. You're Lily Evans aren't you?"

Lily blinked. "Yeah, I am. How do you know me?"

"Professor McGonagall is always saying I'm just like you in Transfiguration class."

"How do you mean?" Lily wasn't good at Transfiguration. This might be the same for Joe.

"She says I have natural talent, but I don't know how to use it." Joe laughed. "I'm much more comfortable working at a cauldron personally."

Lily smiled at Joe. "Same here."

The two chatted then Joe said he'd better get back to his own table.

Lily waved good-bye and turned back to her breakfast. He was nice…very nice…

.x.x.x.

"Aah, just the man we wanted to see," said Sirius, nearing the Great Hall with James beside him and Remus and Peter on his other side. "Snivelly."

Severus Snape froze. He knew that tone of voice. They were gonna do something. He began to make a beeline for the Great Hall. But there were too many people and they were all crowding in together.

Snape was getting desperate. He could tell those four boys were gaining on him.

"Um, Sirius, he's sort of getting away."

"Remus, you have no idea of the factors that speed and a crowd can have. He's not going anywhere," said James with a smirk.

James got through the crowd easily and reached Snape first. He pushed him to the side where Sirius caught him and silenced him.

Peter and Remus hurried all of the students into the Great Hall, telling them something about there being a special strawberry breakfast surprise.

The crowd was gone in a flash with the promise of Strawberry Breakfast Surprise.

"Good work, Moony, Wormtail. Now, to business." James turned to Sirius. "How heavy's his book bag?"

"Pretty heavy," replied Sirius, struggling to lift the jam-packed bag.

"Moony, help him," James ordered.

The two boys lifted the bag high.

Snape was doing a silent mercy dance.

The bag fell heavily on Snape's head. He was knocked out instantly.

"It must have been heavy, knocking him out like that," commented James.

.x.x.x.

Wow! Ten chapters! This calls for some celebration!

Celebrate good times, come on plays.

I will.

Thanks to all my readers! Oh, and S. K. ….notice the name of Lily's Ravenclaw friend? Hehe!

I hope that all you people out there who have been reading this story faithfully and silently bugging me to update (I know you do it…I do at least coz I don't wanna sound rude by telling them.) are enjoying it. I know it hasn't actually been too funny so far, but I'm trying to fix that a bit. This chapter was a bit funnier…ok it was lame. But I thought it was funny! And isn't the author's thoughts all that matter? Nah…it's the readers who count! Isn't that right?

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