Ok this chapter is going to be between Caitlin and Sirius. I know it's meant to be a Lily and James story but this is the only way I can get the plot to move on. It'll flick between Caitlin and Sirius' POV. Hopefully you'll be able to follow it. I'll get to James' bit next chapter.

Chapter 16 : Caitlin and Sirius

Sirius was running. And Sirius never ran. Looking to be in a hurry completely wrecked his haughty, bored, 'I'm too cool to give a stuff' image. The truth was he was too angry now, 'to give a stuff' about his image. He was livid.

James had arrived late down to the Shrieking Shack last night – extremely late. Sirius had got tired of waiting for him and Remus was getting restless. He though he would probably be able to manage Remus out round the grounds by himself, but he didn't want to risk it – two large animals where definitely better to keep him in check, than one. He decided to go and see what was keeping James, so he sat just beside the Whomping Willow, and gave a few barks to hurry James up a bit.

When James finally did arrive, he transformed straight into a stag and bolted down the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Sirius followed. They couldn't communicate as animals, but he could sense something was wrong. Once inside the Shrieking Shack, James indicated that they would be staying there for the night, but it was not until the next morning at breakfast that he explained why.

Remus, already peaky due to the full moon, had thrown up as soon as James had told them. Caitlin had been encouraging Lily to spy on them for years. Sirius couldn't believe it.

'Snuffles?!' the voice inside his head screamed, as he continued to sprint to the Gryffindor Tower. 'Snuffles?!' Snuffles was a pet name that Caitlin used for him in person, she used it in front of people. She used it in front of Lily. Lily was smart, it wouldn't take her that long to work it out.

'Why would she do this?!' his thoughts screamed again. His fury was incensed even further when he caught a glimpse of Caitlin's robes whipping into the portrait hole, and slamming the Fat Lady behind her.

"Eagle's Wing!" he said sharply to the Fat Lady, and she swung open again. He arrived into the empty common room, the rest of the house was still at breakfast. He marched over to the bottom of the staircase that led to the Girl's Dorms.

"Caitlin!" he roared up them.

"What?!" came Caitlin's defiant voice, echoing back down.

Was she standing at her doorway, or on the stairs? He took a chance and carefully placed his foot on the bottom stair. At once a loud horn went off, and the stairs turned into a smooth, stone slide. His chance paid off and Caitlin arrived, slumped at his feet.

"You animal!" she screamed, standing up and flattening out her robes.

"Yes well, you'd know all about that," he sneered at her. She slapped hard across the face, but he didn't even wince.

"What do you want anyway? Chasing me up here?!" she spat.

"You know exactly what I want! I want to know!" he spat back. "Cait, why did you do it?" he almost pleaded.

She gave no answer but simply folded her arms, and looked away from him.

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Caitlin could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but there was no way she was going to let him see her cry. No, this was not her fault, it was his! He couldn't see the pressure he was putting her under, he was too stubborn to realise how she might be feeling.

"Cait, do you see what you've done? Did you see what you did to Remus this morning? It's already full moon at the moment, he doesn't need anymore stress!" he roared at her again. He paused, looking at her in disbelief. She didn't turn to face him, she couldn't, it was getting harder to stop the tears. "How could you let her spy on us? What if she had seen? What if she had found out? She could have reported us! Do you know what would happen then? DO YOU?!" He stretched his arms out towards her, and collected himself a bit. "Cait, how could you do this to me? To my best friends?" he finished, his voice a bit calmer.

Caitlin broke. Those were the words. She knew he was going to say them, but for a moment there she had hoped that he wouldn't have. That he would have realised. Nope. Not Sirius. Still old clueless Sirius.

"You and your best friends," she whispered bitterly. "YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIENDS!" she said again in a high-pitched shriek. Sirius took a few steps back, he clearly hadn't expected this outburst. Caitlin turned to face him, all the time making flamboyant gestures with her arms.

"What about me? Huh Si? What about me and my best friend? Lily is my BEST FRIEND! And I've had to lie to her for well over a year, just to keep your dirty little SECRET! Do you know what it feels like? Every time she asks me about you, where you are, what you're doing, and I have to lie back to her? She knows! Deep down she knows there's something up! And it kills me that I can't tell her, and she thinks I can't trust her! Do you know what that feels like?

"But no you don't know what it feels like at all, do you Si? Because you've never had to keep anything from your friends! Oh no, not your precious friends! There's no secrets between the Marauders! You'd do anything to keep them happy! You know the only reason you're up here now is to tell me off, make sure I won't tell, not to try and reconcile with me, not try and make up with me. You know sometimes I feel the only reason you go out with me is to keep me quiet. When we break up you're only worried about me blabbing, you don't even miss me," she finished quietly.

"You know that's not true," Sirius whispered. "I... I..." Caitlin knew what he was trying to say. He'd always managed to wrangle himself out of saying it before, usually she let him off, not this time though.

"You what?" she snapped.

"I love you, alright?" he snapped back.

"God you're so romantic," said Caitlin sarcastically.

"Is that it?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. "You're not even going to say it back?"

"Why should I?" said Caitlin defiantly.

"Well I suppose why should you," said Sirius glumly. He sat down on one of the sofas in front of the fire, with his back to Caitlin. "You probably don't love me." Caitlin couldn't help but feel herself feeling a bit sorry for him at these words. Perhaps she was being a bit harsh with him. "I mean obviously you don't love me, because you promised me you wouldn't tell Lily, and if you loved me you wouldn't break your promise." His head slumped as he finished, he was more talking to himself than Caitlin. She couldn't help but feel he looked like a little, lost boy.

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Sirius was indeed very glum that he had just opened himself to Caitlin and she had thrown it back at him, but he was still putting on a bit of an act as well. He pouted his lower lip a bit for effect. It seemed to work because Caitlin placed herself gently down beside him on the sofa.

"Si I didn't break my promise. I didn't tell her. I was just... giving her a push in the right direction." Sirius looked at her, lip still pouted. She lifted his arm and put it round her. "I'm sorry," she said, pouting her lip as well, he knew she knew he was acting – the game was up.

"I'm sorry too," he admitted, and pulled her a little closer. She resisted.

"Friends?" she asked suddenly.

'What?!' Sirius' thoughts must have shown on his face.

"I think it's better this way," Caitlin added quickly, and she lifted his arm from round her and scooted further away from him on the couch.

'Right,' he thought. 'If she's talking about just being friends then there is going to have to be some drastic action.'

"Cait," he said cautiously. "Do you want to go to the ball with me?" Caitlin sat up straight and looked round at him stunned.

"But you... hate balls," she stuttered.

'I know,' said a gritted voice in his head.

"Yea but I reckon I would have a good time if I was with you," he said giving her a look he knew made her all of a flutter. She looked away from him again quickly, ignoring his gaze.

"As friends?" she said teasingly. Sirius could take it no longer.

"Yea as friends that are dating," he stated simply. He noticed Caitlin flash him a mischievous grin. "You're winding me up aren't you?" he asked, realisation dawning on him. She nodded and scooted back under his arm, her head resting on his chest. They lay there in silence for a while, snuggling up on the sofa.

Sirius lay enjoying the fact he had got her back, until a sinking feeling gripped him.

"Uh you realise you still can't tell Lily?" he asked shutting his eyes tightly, waiting for the row to start again.

"I know," sighed Caitlin, sitting up slightly. Sirius relaxed. "I still don't like it though!" she added.

"I know, but we just don't know how she'll react. We can't risk it." Caitlin put her head back on his chest and didn't respond. "Look are there any secrets you have that you'd like me to keep from my friends? Even the score a bit?" He was trying to show her he had actually taken in the things she had shouted at him.

"Well nothing that could land me or my friends in Azkaban, no," she said sarcastically. Sirius glared at her. Caitlin sat up again and bit her lip, she was obviously deciding whether to tell Sirius something or not.

"Go on," said Sirius slowly.

"Well... Oh no I don't think I can. Lily would kill me," Caitlin explained. Sirius gave her another glare, put his right hand over his heart.

"Lily will never find out I swear," he said mockingly.

"Ok," said Caitlin, sitting cross-legged on the sofa beside him, she took his two hands in hers so they were face to face. "Lily likes James," she squealed.

Sirius looked at her dumbfounded for a moment. This was something she though was on a power with his best friend being a werewolf, and the others being illegal animagi?

'God women are weird' he thought.

Caitlin was sitting looking at him expectantly, so he decided he better fain interest.

"Oh my God!" he squealed back at her, clapping his hands together. Then he leant back into the sofa and rolled his eyes slightly.

"You're missing the point," Caitlin moaned, lifting his arm and shaking it a bit. "James likes Lily!" Sirius was unimpressed yet again.

"Cait, no he doesn't, that's all just a bit of a laugh for him, trust me," he said, lying back further, and closing his eyes, he was still exhausted from being up all night with Remus.

"No it's not anymore! Haven't you noticed the fact that he's stopped asking her out?" Caitlin said anxiously.

"Oooooo... he's stopped asking her out, that must mean he likes her!" he said sarcastically.

"Look there's other stuff as well! Believe me James likes Lily!" Caitlin whined. Sirius was starting to get a bit fed up with this now, all he really wanted to do was for her to put her head on his chest again, so he could hold her as he fell asleep.

"Right well, does Lily know this?" he yawned, putting his arm round her and pulling her back over towards him.

"Yes," said Caitlin, giving in and resting her head against him.

"Well then why can't I tell James? It would save a lot of time," he said wearily.

"No," said Caitlin sharply.

"Why not?" he whined. He didn't understand the way women thought at the best of times, but especially not when he was this tired.

"Because you promised," Caitlin pointed out, just as the portrait hole opened. Sirius turned his head slightly, and opened one bleary eye to see who it was. He yawned and gave James a weary salute as he passed.

"Yea," James laughed. "Heading that way myself," he said pointing towards the staircase that led to his bedroom. He prompted skipped up them, and out of sight.

"Yea well I won't tell him," Sirius said once he knew James was out of earshot. "I'll just give him 'a push in the right direction.'" With that he fell into a sound sleep.
Ok it's back to James' POV next chapter. Hope you liked that little aside though.

Just to keep you all up to date:

Lily likes James.

James likes Lily.

Lily knows she likes James.

James knows he likes Lily.

All the Gryffindor 7th year girls know Lily likes James and James likes Lily.

Sirius and Remus know that James likes Lily but only Sirius knows that Lily likes James.

James knows that Remus knows that he likes Lily, but he doesn't know that Sirius knows, neither does Lily, in fact only Caitlin knows that.

And just to add further confusion James thinks that Lily likes Remus but he hasn't told anyone that he thinks this, but he knows that Remus doesn't like Lily.

Peter doesn't know anything. He's a rat!

luvsirius: Thanks again my ultimate faithful reviewer! By the way, are you going to write again any time soon? Your last fanfic was excellent I really think you should do another one!

Crazayladay: Lol, look I updated again before Sunday!! I have my own idea of what's going to happen when Lily finally tells someone about the letter. You'll have to keep reading to find out. Emm in my story no Remus doesn't like anybody, well he probably does, but he's not going to get anyone, sorry! He's too busy trying to deal with the whole 'teenage werewolf' thing, so he has a hard time getting close to anyone because he's not sure he can trust them. This reflects on the other Marauder's relationships as well as you've just seen, girlfriends ask too many questions! So they all just tend to have wee flings and then drop them when they get too close – that's James and Sirius by the way, Peter's never had a girlfriend because he's a loser. This is the way it was until Sirius started with Caitlin. God that's a lot of background information you probably didn't want to know. Auck well there you go anyway!

nightwanderer: Yea I am proud, chapter 12 was meant to make people laugh but I don't think some people approved. Awh well, that's just my sense of humour I suppose!

mcbgurl12: Wow thank you, but if this is the first one about the Marauders you've read I suggest you read the ones on my favourite stories link on my profile, they are really, really good too! But don't forget about mine!

Heck E. Nah: Oh right, well that chapter was weird yeah, but I was just in one of those moods. For your other question, see above.

b.o.r.e.d-h.e.l.l-y.e.h: Thanks for putting me on alert! Glad you like my fic!

JulesFelton: Thank you, I plan to keep going with it, I want to see it finished even if nobody's reading it! Which people are at the moment, thank God!

DayDreamer743: I know poor Remus, but I imagine life isn't easy for werewolves! Thanks for your review!

inadequate: Again wow, some people are so nice in their reviews! I'll try and update soon but I'm not sure because of my exams.