Chapter Twelve - Encounters of a Tense Nature

Kristen glanced up, a bit of dark blonde hair unsympathetically landing against her face. She brushed it away, allowing her dark eyes a clear view of her cleaning partner. That they should be considered partners of any sort was undoubtedly surprising, but more than that, she was confused to find herself not feeling any sort of resentment towards him. Whatever tension had been present between them in the Heads room during the incident had been largely left behind.

Across the Great Hall, which they had been assigned to cleaning as a form of detention, Remus Lupin polished the legs of the old Hufflepuff table. As much as she wished she didn't, Kristen admired his work ethics. He didn't complain, didn't drag on or mope. He simply cleaned, working at his own pace and occasionally her ears caught wind of faint humming. It was difficult to be angry with someone of that temperament. The fact that he was supposed to be her enemy seemed so futile right then. Remus must have felt her eyes on him; he looked up at her with a questioning expression. Her glance slipped and fell. She resumed scrubbing.

Kristen was different from her friends. All three of them were different from one another in ways of their own. It was a little strange that they got along as well as they did. She was certainly the most quiet of the three. She couldn't help it, really; there was just something set in her mind that made her that way. Sometimes she wouldn't notice that she was not talking, that she was only listening to a conversation. It never seemed to bother her friends, however, and that was good enough for her.

She smiled absently, thinking of how Selene might as well have been her complete opposite, in both appearance and personality. The black-haired girl could be downright rough sometimes. When she was angry, it was like walking next to a bomb that was bound to explode at any moment, bits and pieces of everything flying around her like mad. Scaring people away was definitely not a problem when Selene was around. And Lily… she was just Lily. She always held the right answer easily in her palm, always had a way of making everything organized. This was what made it so hard to comprehend everything that had happened recently. It was as if Lily had transformed into a completely different person.

Sighing, Kirsten leaned to the right and dipped her rag into a bucket of soapy water. Every once in a while, there was a whisper in the back of her mind telling her that perhaps Lily was right…maybe, just maybe, there was some truth in the absurdity that her friend had been yelling at them. But then another voice, expressing a concern for loyalty to everything that she had been loyal to in the past, would rebound. She wondered, however, about her loyalty to her friends in particular. No, friend…how could you be loyal to both when you had such differing opinions of what was right? You couldn't, and that was another problem. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling as if she needed to come to some conclusion or she could very well go as mad as Lily seemed to have gone. No, however much she might, just a little, secretly agree with Lily's ideas (and James's, if she must acknowledge him at all), she was with Selene on this one. Lily's untruthfulness made her angry, although she suspected that she was not even half as angry as Selene. Until that anger died down, there was no way she was going to confront Lily about anything of the compromising sort. Oh well. Things could certainly be worse, after all…

"Are you okay?" His voice startled her out of her thoughts. Her eyes popped open, and she realized suddenly that he was next to her, cleaning the Ausculto table now…and he didn't seem mad at all. Not even disagreeable. He still had that spark of wonder and calm in his eyes, and for some reason, it comforted her a little. She didn't exactly enjoy residing in a battlefield; she simply endured it without thought of change.

She smiled weakly at Remus after a moment, an action which, even at this point, surprised her. "Why shouldn't I be?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "How should I know? It's not as if I know you."

"I guess…" she hesitated. "We should consider that a good thing, I think." We? There's not supposed to be any we.

He nodded his head slightly in agreement. He appeared unaffected by the association; the use of the word we. "Or else we would end up like James and…Lily," he said the redhead's name a bit funny, as if it was foreign to him.

"Er, yeah, I guess." Kristen paused and added, "Or Selene and er…Sirius."

He smiled suddenly, his eyes lighting up. "Sirius can get so worked up sometimes."

She glanced at him crossways, smiling as well. "Believe me, so can Selene." They both seemed to have forgotten any enemy boundaries that had been up before, at least for the time being.

"I'll bet that after Selene started the argument, he fumed and blew up." He let out a low chuckle.

Kristen, however, was not amused in the slightest. Her small grin faded as quickly as it had come, and she looked rather displeased. She wasn't about to blame something on one of her best friends, and especially not in the presence of him. Realization of the situation in front of her seeped back in. "Selene," she stated in a firm and hard voice, "was not the cause of that fight."

His grin faded as well. He turned to her, and they both looked like they were squaring off for battle. Perhaps they were; their expressions had very suddenly and similarly turned grim and irritated. "Oh, you think so?" Remus asked softly, his eyes boring into her face unpleasantly. He now seemed to see her for what she was supposed to be, to him.

"Yes, I do. Sirius was most certainly the cause of all that. I think I would know better than you."

"Really? Would you? Well, I tell you, it wasn't my friend's fault!"

"Why am I even arguing this point with you? It's not as if you have any idea what you're talking about! You're…a Cavillor. I'm most certainly not. Why the hell am I even talking with you!" She was furious, not only with him, but with herself as well. She had thoroughly confused her intentions. She was not supposed to be conversing with him; what had she been thinking?

"I don't know," he replied darkly. "And of course you're not a Cavillor. You don't have the qualities." He scowled.

Kristen snorted and mumbled something, or more like growled it. The table beneath her fingers was now gleaming from the way she was scrubbing it so hard.

But then, there was always the simple fact that neither Kristen nor Remus was as much like their friends as they had always hoped. They didn't have the state of mind to attempt to kill one another. Their anger seemed to creep away slowly. After a few minutes of intense cleaning on both of their parts, Kristen's eyes darted upwards and met his halfway. Embarrassed, she glanced back downwards, but not without a small smile curving her lips, one that expressed both amusement and regret.

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Lily tapped a finger on the top of the couch. She couldn't seem to stop. What a stupid thing to do; why couldn't she concentrate? She wished she could just climb into bed. Her dreams would take her away form having to deal with any of this. Then again, her bed was in her dorm, in her dorm were her friends, and in her friends was an intense anger, directed at her. She sighed deeply.

"You're not listening to me, are you?" James asked, exasperated. It was not the first time she had floated off that day.

Lily shook herself and blinked. She focused on his face and gave him a small, apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, James. I haven't been much help."

"No, you haven't."

Dropping her hands in her lap and squirming to face him on the couch, so that her back was against the armrest, she made a face. "Well, you don't have to be so blunt about it."

"What, do you want me to lie to you? I was only telling the truth…you've been staring off this entire time."

She watched as his dark eyes penetrated hers. "No, I don't think that I do want you to lie."

They fell silent, watching each other, neither seeming to realize that they were doing so, or perhaps not caring. Softly, he started, "You seem a little out of it tonight, are you okay?"

She considered the question. Was she okay? That depended on how you defined okay… "I don't know," she replied finally.

"Oh."

Lily sighed, rubbing circles over her temples. She couldn't look at him. This would not hold up if she kept looked at him, and found him looking at her like that. Not now that she knew, very well, what it felt like to be kissing him. She had let it go too far; far enough to the point where it was nearing addiction. He was addicting. Could you want something so much, when you knew it was wrong to have and you shouldn't, and call it anything other than an addiction? Well, she would have to break herself of this addiction, because it was not what they needed right now. This was ridiculous; she was a smart person, she had a good mind with cool logic. Surely she couldn't have lost all of that in the span of a couple months. No, they would work on this, and she would bury any other urges that might come to mind.

"So do we have anything new to work with?" Her voice was hopeful; far more hopeful than she felt.

His forehead wrinkled and he looked away. "I dunno."

It was Lily's turn to be exasperated. "You're so much help."

"Let's not argue about this."

"Whatever, we need to get back to work anyway," she snapped, knowing that they weren't angry with one another. Tension could be a strange thing, with its whims and inclinations.

"As I was saying, when you weren't listening, again-"

Her eyes widened in annoyance. "Alright! I get the point."

He cleared his throat. "Let's prepare a speech. Maybe we could present it to the prefects first, if you want, but we need to start this. Even if Dumbledore has to hide us somewhere so nobody attempts to kill us…" He paused to chuckle.

She observed him grimly. "That's not funny, you know."

He wiped the smile off of his face and continued. "It needs to be out in the open. I don't care whether our friends come along first or not…we can't just sit around anymore."

Lily nodded, however much she wished she could disagree, he was right. They had to do something. Things weren't going to get better by them sitting around, staring at one another and wishing the situation was anything different.

He rolled his eyes. "You really are in another world tonight."

"You have no idea…"

He absently rubbed his thumb against one of her feet, which she had propped beneath her on the couch. "I wonder how our friends' detentions are going."

"Or have gone," Lily corrected. "Selene and Sirius's should be over, as far as I know."

"I wonder how hurt they are this time."

Lily laughed and their eyes met. Her smile faded. She was beginning to feel ridiculous, really; like a deranged sap, or one of those girls she had always made fun of. No, this wouldn't do. She rubbed a hand against her forehead. He noticed, though he couldn't possibly know what she was contemplating.

"Maybe we should talk about this tomorrow, and just head up to bed for now," James suggested suddenly, backing away, his hand falling away from her feet.

"Probably…" Lily rose from the couch and stretched, watching as James followed her movements. They turned towards one another, their hands dropping limply to their sides. Lily leaned in slightly, thinking she would offer him a quick kiss goodnight on the cheek. She stopped halfway, remembering what had happened the last time in her dorm, and she decided against it. They both smiled weakly, averting their gazes. As they made their way out the door, James patted her awkwardly on the back; the most contact he could trust himself with in that moment.

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"Perhaps we should chain them," Dumbledore chuckled.

McGonagall had a persuasive scowl upon her lips. "I say we let them kill one another, Albus. It might teach them a lesson or two."

"Don't be rash, Minerva. If they're dead, they will not have learned what I hope for them to learn. I have a feeling this will all be settled in good time. For now, I'm rather enjoying the argument; I haven't had something to laugh about in days."

On the other side of the room, Selene's chin slumped into one of her hands. How much more of a hell could they put her in? Damn that Cavillor. They insisted that he should be in the bed directly next to hers. She had only just gotten out of the dratted Hospital Wing that morning, and it wasn't as if it was her fault that she was back so soon. It was his! It was all his! He would pay for this, if she had any say in the matter. Oh yes, she already had plans forming…

She glanced over at him. He noticed, and scowled back. "What are you looking at?"

"A pile of scum with no brain."

"How original," Sirius spat.

She glanced away, her hands itching to clench and hit him as hard as they could manage. Madame Pomfrey was off looking for the correct potions to heal them. Who knows how long they would be in here this time.

Could he sense her burning hatred? She hoped so. She certainly hoped that it scared him out of his wits…if she had any to begin with. "Why do I deserve to sit here with this?" She muttered absently.

He glanced her way again, venomously. "Are you talking about yourself again?"

"Oh, very clever, Black. I'm amazed at your maturity."

"Maturity?" He feigned amazement. "It's funny you should bring that up. I was under the impression that you didn't know what the word meant."

"Haha," she replied dully. "I know far more than you ever will, I assure you."

"We'll just see about that."

"And how, might I ask, are you going to prove anything to me?" Her face took on an expression of superiority as she inspected her nails. She ignored the aching of her broken leg. At least Madame Pomfrey had already taken away most of the pain. Along with their wands…

He growled something under his breath that she barely heard, but barely was enough to infuriate her. She was so angered, in fact, that she attempted to lunge off her bed at him. It was unsuccessful, as Madame Pomfrey reappeared at that moment.

"Good heavens, are you trying to do yourself in? I thought you had learned a lesson."

Professor McGonagall appeared from behind the stout woman, looking grim indeed. Her appearance certainly didn't comfort Selene. Or Sirius, for that matter, who was staring at the foot of his bed, looking as if he were condemned to a horrible immediate future.

"I am more disappointed than I can convey to you, with the manner in which you are disgracing my House. I informed you quite clearly," she began, "of the consequences of this. I thought you had some sense left in you, but I must have assumed incorrectly. All of next week, you shall have detentions together." The two of them groaned, naturally. She did not blink an eye. "If such punishment fails to work, we'll find something that will. I suggest you spend a bit more time thinking about your mistakes."

"My mistakes?" Sirius snorted.

McGonagall stared at him. If he had ever been on her good side, it had only been for a very short while.

Selene turned to Madame Pomfrey. "How long until I can go?"

The nurse opened her mouth to answer, but McGonagall was quicker. "Oh, you won't be going anywhere tonight."

"What?" The two teenagers stressed in union. Professor McGonagall simply gave a curt nod, pressed her lips together, and went about her way. Madame Pomfrey did not seem any more excited about this news than the two students were. Dumbledore appeared from where he had been standing on the other side of the room. He passed by the beds with an amused gleam in his eyes. He offered them a small smile and a nod before exiting.

"Alright then," Madame Pomfrey announced gruffly. "Let's get started."

Selene and Sirius groaned and glared in turn. This would not be a night to remember.

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"You didn't!" Kristen spun around, having felt something slimy run down her back. After looking at the ground behind her, she found Remus's rag lying there. He was standing above it, wearing an honestly apologetic expression.

"Well," he raised his hands in explanation, "it slipped. It's your fault for keeping the water bucket over here." He watched her stiffly, a grim expression covering his face.

Suddenly she smiled and threw the rag at his chest. "Alright, you're lucky you look so innocent all the time. Just don't drop it on me again."

Remus nodded fervently and let out a breath. She noticed and set her own rag down.

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know- it's just that- well, we've fought once before. You saw what happened to our friends earlier…I didn't know what you might do."

She faced him, no longer smiling. "And you think I wasn't worried about what you might do to me? Do you honestly think that the fights that have gone on here were all one-sided? That you're innocent of it all? That-"

"No! I just-"

"Whatever." She spun on her heel and surveyed the Great Hall. "It's good enough. I say we're finished."

"Yeah," he responded lamely. He dropped the rags into the bucket and picked it up.

"Just leave that here," Kristen said, still not looking at him. "McGonagall charmed it to disappear on its own."

"Oh." He set it back down and watched her with his grayish eyes. When she began to walk towards the entrance, he followed, catching up with her. "It must be almost midnight."

"Probably past." They approached the stairs silently. There were two reasons they didn't carry on a conversation; neither truly felt like doing so, and they both knew that they shouldn't.

They neared the top of the steps. Kristen let out the breath she was holding. "I'm sorry for yelling like that…"

Remus was so surprised by this comment that he fell into the sinking stair with a small yelp. "Oh damn," he grimaced.

She smirked, her dark eyes flashing. "That, however, I am not going to help with."

He watched her as she walked away, pensive and confused as he began to sink deeper and deeper into the stairs.

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Lily allowed her face to sink further into her pillow, wishing that she could at least take a nap so that she could forget her thoughts, but it was the matter of her excessive number of thoughts that kept her from sleeping. She groaned, her fingers digging into the comforter beneath her.

"Er- Lily?" She heard James's voice from across the room and her head shot up, causing her to feel slightly dizzy. "I know that I probably shouldn't be up here or anything, but – well, Dumbledore wants to see us."

Lily frowned. "Oh." For some reason, she felt disappointed. Shaking herself, she scooted off her bed and stood to face him. He was staring at her, unmoving. "Shouldn't we go, then?"

James shifted. "Right. Yes."

Lily followed him out the door, and then waited. He stopped and glanced back at her, about to say something. She shook her head fervently, conveying her ideas through her eyes. He understood immediately; they could not be seen together, not even talking to one another without a clear argument as a reason.

After several moments, she followed in silence, thinking about a million things at once. Really, she should be making plans for the next prefect meeting, or at least thinking about the essays she needed to write for her NEWTS classes. Unfortunately, she could not choose which thoughts to have, and even if she could, she was not sure that she would choose any of the above.

She finally met up with James some time after exiting the portrait hole. "What did he want to see us about?" Lily inquired quietly.

James shrugged. "I have no idea."

Lily found herself also wishing that she might concern her mind with whatever the headmaster might want them for, but unfortunately her thoughts only stayed along that strain for a moment. After that moment, she found it increasingly more difficult to ignore James's hand, which was swinging so close to hers as they walked, that she could simply stick out a finger and touch it. The point may not have been touching James's hand, but still, it was driving her mad. His presence was driving her mad. She truly enjoyed the way he smelled, and the way that she recognized the way he smelled… not that she would admit it to anyone. She laughed aloud. Who in Merlin's name would she admit it to? Her friends who were currently angry with her, or anyone else who would be angry with her if she did admit it?

James gave her a strange look that trailed off into something else as they neared the stone gargoyle leading up to Dumbledore's office. Lily purposely ignored his eyes on her as they climbed the winding stairs. They found the door uncharacteristically open.

Dumbledore glanced up, his blue eyes grazing over them as they seated themselves in the two seats before him. There were darker circles under his eyes, but Lily was relieved to see that their usual glint had not left.

The headmaster wasted no time. "I asked you to see me because of a problem between two friends of yours."

Lily and James's eyes met and they instantly felt some of the tension leave their limbs.

"Selene and Sirius?" Lily inquired.

"Yes. As you know, they had detention together this evening."

Lily nodded. "It should be over by now, shouldn't it?"

James was chuckling. "I hope they didn't succeed in killing each other."

Dumbledore nodded. "No James, they did not. However, they are both spending the night in the hospital wing."

The grins faded off their faces. "Are they okay?"

"It's nothing that cannot be mended. Professor McGonagall thought it necessary that they spend the night just as they are."

"But-" James appeared slightly worried. "What if Selene tears Sirius's eyes out while he's sleeping?"

Lily swung her head towards him and smirked. "Are you really that afraid of her?"

"Well…" James trailed off, shifting in his seat.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "As I was saying, we have a problem. Your Head of House and I are unable to think of a proper solution. These are your friends; I thought you might be able to assist us. Detention does not seem to be solving the issue, as you can see."

A long pause ensued. Lily chewed her lip. "Er-" She ran a hand through her auburn hair, her eyes slipping over to James.

He was chuckling to himself. Lily shook her head, and he seemed to realize that the other two were watching him. "Well," he said, "we could always put them in therapy sessions."

Lily began to laugh. "Oh, sure. That would be just brilliant, I can see it now…" The two of them held silly grins on their faces.

Dumbledore looked between them as a twinkle came into his eyes. "Actually, James, that may not be a bad idea."

James's mouth dropped open. Lily exclaimed, "Professor?"

"I was only kidding," James added.

"No, Muggles have proved that therapy does in fact help."

"Are you mad?"

"I assure you, Miss Evans, that I am not. Even if Miss Kelehan and Mister Black do not respond to therapy as, let us say, normal students might, they will respond…in their own manner."

His eyes held a far-off appeal, one that Lily had simply begun to accept as something she would never understand. She did, however, trust her headmaster immensely, and she suspected he was correct in whatever he was assuming. Lily imagined the look that would appear on Selene's face when she was told that she would be going in for therapy. She smirked to herself, causing James, who had been watching her, to grin.

Dumbledore witnessed the exchange in silence, and gave them a thin smile. "I see that you have been taking my advice."

"What's that, professor?" James turned towards him, pulling his eyes away from Lily's face.

"Spending more time working together."

"Oh, yes…" Lily blushed faintly and shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I thank you for your assistance, Lily and James. You are dismissed, free to go about whatever you wish."

Lily smiled at him. "Thank you, Professor."

James grinned, "I'll let you know if we have any better ideas."

Dumbledore smiled serenely and nodded.

As they were descending the stairs and taking their leave of the stone gargoyle, Lily gently touched James's arm, causing him to jump slightly.

Lily, blushing, ignored this. "I can't believe you just said that."

He stared at her. "Why?"

"Therapy?"

"Well, I dunno. It seemed funny in my mind. I didn't think he would actually go for it."

"No…" Lily trailed off. She heard a noise off to their right and stopped, shivering slightly. How could they be so stupid as to speak to one another like this right in the path of anyone who cared to listen?

"Well, well." Lucius Malfoy stepped out in front of them. "What have we here?"

James had time only to scowl once he recovered from his initial shock. It seemed that the both of them had forgotten about unspoken rules. James felt so comfortable with Lily these days that acting like he hated her in public, or not talking or looking at her at all, was becoming increasingly more difficult. He had a feeling, as he stared into Malfoy's icy expression, that they would pay for this neglect.

"The prat Cavillor and the mudblood Ausculto, associating together…" Malfoy clicked his tongue, "you should be ashamed of yourselves. Such a scandal, as it seems…"

"Get out of my sight, Malfoy. Go find your greasy friend."

He ran a slow glance over James, his face taking on more of a supercilious expression than usual. "No, I rather think this is more interesting, at present."

"Why should you care?" Lily snapped. "You're a Slytherin, not an Ausculto or a Cavillor. I doubt if either group would have you."

"I care," he stuck his nose up higher into the air, "simply because this could cause major problems for the two of you."

Lily grabbed James's arm and tugged. "Come on. This isn't worth it."

James grit his teeth as Lily dragged him off. Once they were out of earshot, they stopped on the side of the corridor.

"Can you believe that prat?" James whispered. "What a haughty-"

Lily groaned. "James, we have to be more careful."

James sighed. "Well, yes. But we agreed that it's not going to be for much longer anyway."

Lily's face was scrunched up. "James," she said impatiently, "that ass is most likely going to let everyone know before we have the chance to explain anything."

He fell silent, realizing the impact of her words. Their friends were one thing…what would the rest of the school attempt to do with them? Wage a war? Something of that size may seem completely unreasonable, but…so were a lot of things, in James's opinion.

Lily suddenly grabbed his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug, not caring that they were on the side of what could be a very public corridor. "I'm so sick of this…I'm actually scared of what other people could do."

James sighed, allowing himself to press his nose slightly in her hair. She was scared? Lily Evans, the girl who had an answer, and usually a correct one, for everything? He placed his arms around her waist and inhaled sharply. "Me too."

Lily buried her face against his chest, wishing she didn't feel guilty for holding him so tightly. She pulled back carefully, taking a deep breath. "Thanks, James. It's a…it's a comfort to know that you're here, you know."

James smirked. "Comfort, huh? Is that all I get?"

Lily suddenly felt very awkward, standing there and watching him, knowing that she should be turning the situation into something they could be nonchalant about, the way he was…and she couldn't. She simply stared at him, her lip beginning to hurt from the way she was biting it.

"We should be getting back," she said in answer, her eyes probing his. "There's no use standing here, where more people could overhear us."

James said nothing, but followed her in silence. There was a deep crease between his eyebrows as they entered the portrait hole. He almost did not have the energy to act like he was not willingly with the Head Girl. It didn't matter; the only person watching was Lily's friend Kristen. Lily slowed, glancing hopefully at her friend. Kristen acknowledged nothing; instead her eyes slipped away, and she engrossed herself with the book in her lap, something far simpler than forgiveness.

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A/N: Soo, as some of you can no doubt tell, I have mainly copied and pasted sections from the old story, which has led to several problems. I have, however, rearranged the order in which most scenes are presented. By "copy and paste", I mean that I changed maybe ten whole sentences. This is a problem mostly because of inconsistency; that is, I do hope that my writing has improved somewhat over the past year or two, and should I have re-written this chapter, it may have turned out differently these days. The thing is, I simply don't have the patience to be doing that. Rewriting the first part was something I sincerely wanted to do, but now that I don't have any major qualms with the plot, I don't necessarily want to rewrite scenes in the same way they are presented here, solely for the sake of hoping that my writing is better now than it used to be. I think you probably understand what I mean, right? If that was overly confusing, I'll try to re-explain later :) The thing is, I'm slightly impatient to be completely this section of the rewrite and moving on to entirely new material. This doesn't mean that I won't be careful with the rest of these chapters, because that's exactly what I'm trying to do.

On another note, I really dislike clichés. And for that reason, I have to do something about the pairings in the old fic. This is not to say that I didn't love these people together, and in fact, I had never planned on two of them getting together in the first place, it just happened. That shouldn't happen in a story I've planned out, however, so I'm going to be returning to my original plan regarding those two characters (clearly I am not using names for giving-away reasons, not just to confuse the hell out of you. Even if you are intelligent people and have more likely than not figured it out anyway...). As for the other pair, they'll continue somewhat along the same lines as before, simply because I can't resist at all. I have to give in to some clichés at some point. Their relationship will change slightly in nature, though. But that's all for another time, and other chapters, and basically...you'll see ;)

Thank you ever so much for reading. I do hope that you'll continue, and that you'll let me know what you're thinking (I mean about the story, but should you simply be wanting an ear to listen, I could be here for that too). :)

GoddessoftheMaaN- That makes me happy ) Thank you for always making me smile.

Sex- Lol, I'm glad to hear that. This story is (somewhat unfortunately, I suppose) PG-13, so we'll just have to steer clear of all that. Or most of it, anyway.

Shadyday9- Lol, yeah. Selene is supposed to be amusing, so it's good that you found her so. Thanks a bunch, as usual.

Mila- Thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me, it really does. I hope you continue to read.

Helen- Love can't be easy, can it? It's not as interesting that way, for some reason. For all that we want happiness, we do like to see it earned. I do, at least. So yes, Lily and James must go about earning it, and I'm glad that you like my demented version of things thus far.

Emily