Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter related. Any terminology, places or people that you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Twelve

Roxanne was staring out the train window, lost in thought. The Marauders, Lily, Marlene, Mary, Dorcas and her were all sharing a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, on their way back to school for their sixth year. Everyone in the compartment was laughing and joking together, except for Roxanne who was watching the scenery go by. Rhiannon had came back into the Quidditch shop on the day Ryan's trousers came in and it took all of the self restraint that Roxanne had to not start screaming that she and Ryan had been together. 'Okay, so maybe we just kissed pretty passionately, but who cares? If she's going to go around and hold hands with him, then she deserves to be lied to.' Roxanne thought with a scowl. She shook herself out of her thoughts and tried to focus on the conversation in the compartment.

"I still cannot believe that Cameron is your cousin and I never knew!" Dorcas was saying to Mary Mac with a laugh.

"Yeah, me either. I could have sworn that I mentioned it at least once." Mary told her.

Dorcas shrugged. "Maybe you told me and I just never processed it right."

Everyone laughed. At that moment, the compartment door opened and Severus Snape stood in the doorway, not looking anyone in the eye except for Lily. He had shoulder length greasy black hair, black eyes, a prominent nose, and he was very pale. The compartment went quiet.

"Lily? May I speak to you for a moment?" He asked softly, peering at her though this curtain of hair.

"She doesn't want to Snivelly. Get the hell out of here." Sirius said meanly.

Dorcas scoffed and gave him a dirty look. "Shush."

Sirius just rolled his eyes. Snape paid him no attention. Lily just stayed in her seat, looking torn.

"Please. Just give me five minutes." Snape said, the plea evident in his voice.

Lily nodded. "Okay. But five minutes only." She stood up and followed him out of the compartment, shutting it behind her. James looked upset, but uncharacteristically said nothing.

Dorcas turned on Sirius. "What is your problem? He was not talking to you. Why were you so mean?"

Sirius scoffed. "Do you remember why they stopped being friends in the first place? You remember what he called her?"

"Of course I remember Sirius! Us girls were the ones who helped her though it after it happened if you don't remember. But don't you think that you should probably just grow up, be the bigger man, and leave him alone?" Dorcas spat.

"No, I don't." He said simply.

Dorcas rolled her eyes and scoffed. "You just do not know when to quit do you?"

Sirius opened his mouth to retort when James spoke. "Maybe she's right Sirius."

Sirius's eyebrows almost got lost in his hair as he looked at James in disbelief. "What? What are you talking about Prongs? This is Snivelly!"

James looked determined. "I'm just done with him, it's not worth it anymore. Now don't get me wrong; if he comes at me with his wand raised then you can bet that I'll raise mine too." James paused, looking serious. "But I'll really try to not start anything with him anymore."

Sirius was speechless. He sputtered a little trying to come up with something, but just couldn't think of anything to say. He just folded his arms, half shrugged and sat back in his seat, a sour look on his face.

A few minutes later, Lily walked back into the compartment, looking distinctly bad tempered. No one spoke for a few minutes, then James dispersed the tension by bringing up one of his more thought out pranks.

As everyone laughed and listened to James, Dorcas studied Lily sadly. She knew that the girl was extremely upset by the fact that her and Severus weren't friends anymore. Dorcas had always felt pretty sorry for him, not really knowing why Sirius and James bullied him so much. She was well aware of the circumstances in which their friendship fell apart and she backed Lily up one hundred percent when she made her decision to cut ties with the Slytherin. However, Dorcas just couldn't really understand where Severus was coming from. He was obviously smitten with the redhead. They had been friends long before coming to Hogwarts, and it seemed weird to Dorcas that he would have ever picked people like Avery and Mulciber over Lily. Sean Avery and Mark Mulciber were Slytherins as well, and exactly what people ended up stereotyping as the "quintessential Slytherin". They were cruel, ruthless and they both had extremely nasty senses of humor. Dorcas despised both of them. They were very open and honest about their plans after Hogwarts, and those plans included Voldemort. Just thinking about the "man" made Dorcas's blood boil. How could they even think about joining him? They were just kids and had no idea how far Voldemort would go to get power. This confused Dorcas even more in regards to Snape. He was certainly very knowledgeable about the Dark Arts, but Dorcas had a very hard time imagining him as a Death Eater. She shook her head sadly. It was amazing to think that 16 year old's would have to choose what side they were on in a war. It pained Dorcas to think about all the innocent lives that were being lost at that exact moment.

"Honey? You okay?" Sirius asked her concerned.

Dorcas pulled herself out of her thoughts and tried to smile at him. "Yeah, just got lost in my thoughts for a minute."

Sirius nodded at her and turned back to James who was still going on about his more well thought out pranks. Dorcas looked across from her and watched Roxanne for a few moments. The girl was staring out the window, lost in her thoughts. 'That's been happening a lot lately.' Dorcas thought. Roxanne would put up a good show, as if she was interested in any conversation that her friends were having, but after a while she would zone out and become completely immersed in her own little world. Dorcas wondered if it had anything to do with Remus and Marlene. Roxanne had stated point blank that she was definitely not interested in Remus. However, they did end up kissing in the summer, and it made Dorcas wonder if Roxanne wasn't having some sort of jealously.

If Dorcas were to see into Roxanne's mind however, she would have discovered that she was dead wrong about Roxanne's thoughts. Her mind didn't stray to Remus and Marlene once, her thoughts were on one person, and that was Ryan Thompson. It also so happened that if Dorcas were to be interested in why Roxanne was thinking about him, she would be out of luck. Roxanne just didn't know. Over and over again, the vision of Ryan and Rhiannon kissing in the front of Quality Qudditch Supplies ran through her mind and frankly, Roxanne was sick of it. She finally admitted to herself that she wouldn't be opposed to snogging him again or maybe twice more, but she refused to believe that she liked him. There was just something about him that was holding her back. The way he looked at her... as though she were a piece of meat, she really didn't appreciate that. He had a sort of sneer/drawl thing going on when he talked to her, and she didn't like that either. What Roxanne didn't realize was that these were extremely feeble excuses.

"Roxanne? Common, the train is slowing down, you better get ready." Roxanne looked up to see Dorcas eying her critically. Roxanne nodded and proceeded to get her things. 'Just stop. You are not his girlfriend, you're barely his friend. Just don't think about him anymore. You had your chance, he was perfectly rude to you, and now it's over so just stop." She told herself firmly. The train finally jerked to a stop, and she followed her friends out of the compartment and up to the castle.

While seated at the Gryffindor table, Roxanne's eyes seemed drawn to the Slytherin one. Ryan and Rhiannon were sitting next to each other, Ryan's arm resting on her shoulder. They were talking to Bellatrix and her boyfriend Rodolphus Lestrange. Avery and Mulciber sat close by as well, Brienna seated next to Mulciber, whom she was staring at sappily. The group was laughing unpleasantly at something and Roxanne tore her eyes away to focus on her meal.

Instead of staring at the Slytherin table, Lily was doing her best to avoid looking even in the general direction. Severus was staring at her, and had been for awhile. When they used to be friends, he would do that a lot to try to get her to communicate silently with him, which being friends for so long, they were particularly good at. Flustered, Lily refused to look at him, very set in what she had decided. She wished it didn't have to be the way it was, but Severus just would not cut ties with Avery and Mulciber, whom he hung out with constantly. Lily just couldn't look past the fact that everyone Severus hung out with seemed insistent on making her feel horrible about her parentage. If Severus calling her a mudblood at the end of their fifth year was an isolated incident, she may have been able to look past it and forgive him, but it wasn't. He was involved in much muggle-born slandering that he thought she didn't know about, but she did. She was very aware about what him and his friends said about muggle-borns behind her back and she just couldn't put up with it anymore. She knew all about it and turned a blind eye to it for so long that she felt absolutely horrible. She wanted to give him another chance, she really did, but it was just impossible. That was basically what she told him on the train. That if he insisted on staying friends with the people he was and kept on acting like a little Death Eater in training, she just could not be friends with him. It wrenched her heart to say something like that to one of her oldest friends, but she hoped he would take it to heart and change his attitude.

"Well, you scared me half out of my wits, what did you expect?" Dorcas was saying jokingly to Cameron who was a few seats away from her. He had just asked her about Diagon Alley and how on earth she could have been so off her guard.

Cameron shrugged. "Not for you to practically scream that I was a murderer!" He laughed.

She laughed too. "Well technically I was yelling that Sirius was a murderer."

The two laughed together and Sirius looked confused. "What? Me?" He asked Dorcas who was still laughing.

After a few moments, she calmed down. "Yeah, when he came up behind me, I thought it was you so I screamed your name and how fucked up you were."

Everyone laughed and Sirius smiled. "I wouldn't have done that to you though. You know that."

Dorcas smiled and pecked him softly. Cameron looked away and focused on his food again. Meanwhile, even though Remus was with Marlene, and she was sitting right next to him, he couldn't help but glance Roxanne's way more than once. He noticed her looking over at the Slytherin table and was slightly confused. Was she looking at Snape who was staring at Lily? Or maybe... He scanned the Slytherin table trying to see who she would be staring at, and no one really stood out to him. "Here honey, you should eat some more. You need your strength." Marlene's voice brought him back to earth and he smiled at her. "You're right as always. Thanks."

Marlene beamed. "Of course. And don't forget our Prefect duties hon."

Remus nodded. "I won't." He tried not to look at Roxanne for the rest of the night, even though the was still extremely curious as to who she was staring at.

Unbeknown to Roxanne, Rhiannon was having the exact same issue that she was over at the Slytherin table. For some reason, she just couldn't stop herself from staring at Cameron Adams every few minutes. 'He has really grown up this summer,' she thought to herself, echoing the sentiments she thought of before when she bumped into him in Diagon Alley. Cameron was one of the only Gryffindor's that she could really stand. She had always considered him an acquaintance that she liked to talk to when her friends were not around. She pried her eyes away from him and made eye contact with Roxanne Bennett who was obviously in the middle of staring at someone around her. Roxanne quickly tore her eyes away and started talking to Mary Mac who was sitting beside her. 'Well that was weird... I wonder who she was staring at.' She thought vaguely. She shook herself out of her thoughts to listen to Bellatrix who was of course talking about her plans after Hogwarts.

"It's only a matter of time before the Dark Lord takes over the Ministry, and when he does, I'll be only to ready and willing to pledge my allegiance." She was saying snobbishly. Everyone included in the conversation nodded, except for Ryan and Rhiannon. "I mean, this is a new world order I'm talking about. You-Know-Who is pretty much taking over the wizard world, and I really can't say I mind all that much."

Rhiannon rolled her eyes inwardly. 'Why can't she just shut up?' She thought irritably. The desserts appeared on the table, granting her wish. Bellatrix stopped talking and helped herself to some apple pie.

Over at the Gryffindor table, Sirius was looking back and forth between Cameron and Dorcas who were still talking, and he felt a slight pang in his stomach. 'Are they flirting?' He asked himself in disbelief. Dorcas was smiling the way she smiled at him when they shared a private moment, and even though he had never seen Dorcas and Cameron spend more than ten minutes together, they seemed to have a multitude of inside jokes.

"No! He was the one that said that Mary, do not believe him!" Dorcas said indignantly but with a smile.

"Oh Dorcas, you cannot lie your way out of this one. You were the one who brought up how annoying Mary was and then got all sad because I wouldn't agree with you." Cameron told her seriously.

Dorcas just laughed and buried her face in her hands. "Liar!" She said, and it came out very muffled.

Mary laughed too. "Don't worry Dorcas, I believe you. Cameron just loves to lie."

Cameron acted scandalized and put a hand to his chest. "Me? Surely not. I have no reasons to lie."

"Exactly, which makes it even worse that you do it!" Dorcas cried, pointing at him.

Everyone laughed, except for Sirius, who was becoming more and more uncomfortable. He put his arm around Dorcas's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. She ignored it.

"Oh, and another thing. You were the one who said that you would rather people didn't know that Mary was your cousin in the first place!" Dorcas said triumphantly.

It was Mary's turn to look scandalized. "Cameron! I thought you loved me! We're family!" She said at the top of her voice, making sure it carried up and down the table.

"Hush! Hush crazy! You'll ruin my reputation!" Cameron said.

Everyone laughed again. "I say that we should teach Cameron a lesson when we get to the common room. What do you say Mary?" Dorcas asked, crossing her arms.

Mary nodded. "I agree. I think he should know exactly how I feel about him being embarrassed of me as a cousin, when clearly it's me who should be ashamed of him."

Cameron laughed. "Well, if you guys can catch me, then go for it!" It sounded like a challenge.

Dorcas just raised her eyebrows at him. "Deal. It's so on."

Cameron raised his eyebrows as well. "Fine. But I feel like we should raise the stakes."

Dorcas's eyebrows went even higher. "You have to sleep sometime Adams."

He laughed. "That sounds like a no. Fine," he went back to his meal. "I figured you couldn't handle it anyway."

Dorcas bristled. "Oh I could handle anything you threw at me. Anything you could concoct in your tiny little brain."

Oooo's rang out from the other students and Cameron smirked. "Okay fine. If you catch me within 15 minutes, you win. But if I evade you for that long, then I win."

Dorcas looked thoughtful for a moment. "Is magic allowed?"

"I don't think so. Let's not try to do anything that will get us a detention." He said logically.

Dorcas smirked. "Not so cocky now are you? Afraid of a detention?"

Everyone laughed and it was Cameron's turn to look thoughtful. "Okay. You convinced me. Magic's allowed from both sides and the 15 minutes starts once we exit the Great Hall. Sound fair?"

Dorcas nodded. "Fine. Sounds good to me."

"Oh, and it has to just be you and Mary. It would just not be fair if all you guys were after me."

Dorcas nodded again and held out her hand. "Deal." They shook on it.

"So what does the winner get?" James chimed in.

Cameron looked thoughtful. "How about winners choice? They get to make the loser do whatever they want."

Everyone laughed and Dorcas and Mary nodded.

"Oh this is going to be fun." Cameron said happily.

"You know, you don't have to do this Dorcas." Sirius told her grumpily.

Dorcas just smiled. "Oh, what's life without a little risk?" Sirius just shrugged and scowled a little.

A couple of seats down, James noticed Lily carefully avoiding looking anywhere but her plate. He put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped a little.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you.. are you okay?" He asked her concerned.

She barely nodded. "I'm fine."

James wasn't convinced. "Lily, I understand how you feel. It sucks losing friends."

Lily looked at him, her eyebrows raised. "Do you really Potter? Because somehow, I don't think so."

James was surprised. "No, I do. I'm just trying to make you feel better."

"Well, it's not working. Look, why don't you just quit the act Potter. I know that you don't care that me and Severus aren't friends anymore, so stop acting like you do. You've always hated him! And for some reason I've forgotten why I hated you so much, but now the reason has come back to me in full force. I'm done playing nice with you. You have done nothing to deserve it." She said loudly, gaining the pair an audience.

"I stood... I stood up for him.. on.. train." James said flabbergasted, not knowing where Lily's anger was coming from.

"WOW! One time! After the multitude of times you bullied him instead! Just stop Potter!" She told him as James opened his mouth to retort. Lily slammed her fork down that she had been pointing at James, got up and stalked out of the Great Hall. The Gryffindor table went quiet as mostly everyone stared at James, who sat stock still in his seat, a very confused look on his face. After a few moments, he got up dejected and walked out of the Great Hall as well.

"Prongs! Prongs wait!" Sirius said to his retreating back. He turned to Dorcas. "I better go make sure he's okay. See you in the common room later?" Dorcas nodded, just as confused as everyone else. Sirius got up and followed James. Marlene had already rushed after Lily, leaving everyone else to finish their desserts in silence.

A few minutes later, Albus Dumbledore stood up and dismissed them all, reminding them of every thing that was banned and to stay away from the forbidden forest. Remus got up quickly to herd the first years and Dorcas looked over to see Cameron stretching. She laughed. "That's not going to help you." She told him.

He just smiled at her. "You never know, it just might." And with that, he jogged away from her, weaving in and out of students. Just then, Dorcas realized that she was losing. "Oh shoot!" She said, and she waved at Mary Mac to follow her, and she hurried out of the Great Hall. When the girls made it into the entrance hall Cameron had disappeared.

"Oh no! Do you have any idea where he went?" Dorcas asked Mary as her eyes darted back and forth looking for any sign of him.

Mary shook her head. "No, but common, lets go upstairs and just start searching corridors." Dorcas nodded and they started running, keeping their eyes open.

After ten minutes, Dorcas stopped running in a fourth floor corridor, out of breath. "Mary! Let's just go up to Gryffindor tower! He probably just ran up there and is sitting in his bed!"

Mary laughed. "Okay, let's go."

The girls made it up to the tower to see Roxanne, Peter, and Remus in the best seats by the fire. Dorcas made her way over to them. "Have you guys seen Cam?"

They all shook their heads. "You guys haven't found him? You only have like three minutes left." Roxanne said.

Dorcas didn't answer but looked around the common room. She went over to tables and looked in every nook and cranny.

Mary sighed. "Okay, I think we lost."

Dorcas sighed too. "Yeah, I guess. Well that sucks. I was just distracted by Lily and James's fight and I practically forgot about the bet."

Mary nodded. "Yeah. I really hope he doesn't make us to anything too embarrassing."

A few moments later they heard a voice behind them. "And... time." They turned around to see Cameron with an eye on his watch.

"How did you get in here without us seeing you!" Dorcas asked dumbfounded.

Cameron smirked. "A little thing that I like to call a disillusionment charm."

Dorcas's jaw dropped. "So you've just been in the tower the whole time?"

Cameron nodded and Mary busted out laughing. "Oh you are such a jerk!" She said in between her laughter.

Dorcas did not laugh. "You are such a cheater. The bet is off."

Cameron smirked. "Umm no, because it was your idea for us to even use magic."

"But I.. but you!... ugh." Dorcas stuttered. "Fine. You win." She conceded.

Cameron smiled evilly. "Okay, that's settled. Now onto the subject of payment."

Mary sobered up immediately and Dorcas just looked nervous as Cameron rubbed his hands together, still smiling.

A.N. Sorry about the long wait! I've been really busy with the holidays and everything, but hopefully now I can go back to regular updates. Please review! :D