Sorry about the wait, though I suppose it wasn't too long this time.

Disclaimer: Not mine, most of the characters are JK Rowlings, as is the whole world.

Alanna came to the next morning to a persistent tickling sensation on her nose. She scrunched it, still not opening her eyes despite the red glow against her lids that told her the sun was well up. The tickling continued. She swatted at her nose. Suddenly a high-pitched giggle erupted from next to her bed. Her eyes flew open this time, and she squinted at the assault of light attacking her sensitive eyes. When the glare faded, Sarah was keeled over, feather quill clutched firmly in hand, reduced to a fit of hysterics. Alanna scowled and sat up, then gave her a small smile.

"Too early," she groaned, throwing the covers off herself in an attempt to join the living. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head sleepily.

Sarah had sobered up somewhat and had proceeded to shove her watch within inches of Alanna's bleary gray eyes. "It's one O'Clock in the afternoon, Lily's out with McLaggen, Em's turned traitor and is snogging downstairs--"

Alanna had jumped out of her bed upon hearing that she had slept away half of her Sunday, but laughed when it was mentioned that Em had somehow found someone to snog between last night and now. "Who could she possibly be snogging alread--- Ouuuuuuccccch" she had slammed her toe rather painfully into an uneven floorboard, and began hopping around the dormitory muttering expletives.

Sarah sighed and pulled at her mahogany curls, ignoring Alanna's predicament. "That's the treasonous part... She's down there making out with Black."

Alanna stopped her bouncing mid-hop, momentarily forgetting her throbbing toe. "What?"

Sarah nodded and rolled her eyes. "She seems unaware of the fact that we all hate half of the Marauders. The exceptions being Remus and sometimes Peter." She sighed. "Oh well, Are you up for some lunch? I've been waiting for you to get up!"

Alanna nodded half-heartedly; she really wasn't in the mood to go anywhere near Sirius and Em, and wasn't quite sure of which she was more furious at: Sirius, for being happy when it seemed that he made a concerted effort to make her life hell, or Em, for claiming to be their friend while she was hooking up with their enemy. Not even bothering to shower, she threw on some robes before meandering out of the bathroom and collapsing on the bed.

"Don't they have room service here?" She asked, barely stifling another yawn.

Against her better judgment, Alanna found herself walking into the common room moments later, passing Sirius and Em, who were indeed locking lips on the over-stuffed couch in the center of the common room. Mercifully, they were both much too involved with each other to notice Alanna and Sarah, who hurriedly made out of the room before heading off to the Great Hall.

oOo

After a few hours in Hogsmede, Lily finally managed to extricate herself from McLaggen, after a rather boring date that consisted of much talk (by McLaggen, of course) of Quidditch and politics and other things Lily didn't find much interest in, as well as a bit of kissing. While Lily couldn't deny that Ty was a good kisser, it was certainly not worth the aggravation of his personality. She had thanked him for the 'good time,' (lying through her teeth) and walked calmly out of Madam Puddifoots, before breaking into a run up the path that led toward Hogwarts. She stopped short of the gate, and regained her composure before entering the castle.

Lily took her time walking to the Gryffindor tower, wondering where Sarah, Emily and Alanna might be. As she entered the common room, part of her question was answered immediately; Sarah stood in the center of the common room, talking to Peter.

"Where are James and Remus?" She asked, exasperated. Peter squirmed under her gaze.

"I dunno," He answered, "I-- er, I've got to go," He said, before rushing past Lily in his haste to leave.

"What was that about?" Lily asked, confused. Sarah shrugged and sat down on the couch, sighing. Lily sat down across from her on an overstuffed chair.

"I want to talk to James and Remus," Sarah said, twirling her wand between her fingers idly. "I want to find out what's up with Em and Sirius, and why James and Sirius are treating Alanna like she's dirt," She explained at Lily's rather befuddled expression. That's when Lily realized that neither Alanna nor Em were present, and she looked around, as though they were hiding behind one of the over-stuffed chairs.

"Where's Alanna?" She asked, not mentioning Em, as it seemed Sarah didn't seem quite in the mood to discuss their other friend.

"She's with that Ravenclaw, Stacy," She said, looking at her watch, "You know, her transfiguration tutor.. I don't see why we can't be her tutors..."

oOo

Alanna had been with Stacy, who was wearing a very odd assortment of muggle and wizarding clothing of all colours, for almost an hour, attempting to turn a match into a needle. But it was no good; she simply couldn't, no matter how hard she tried. She secretly knew she was a rubbish witch, and besides, she could hardly think about matchsticks or needles when someone she thought was a friend was making out with her enemy, who also happened to be some sort of bizarre crush to her. She said the spell, and the match twitched, but remained very match-like. Stacy sighed, and pulled out her own wand.

"Here, look again. All you have to do is twitch your wand, like this--" She demonstrated, and the match straightened and became more shiny and silver, with a sharp end,"--it's a bit of a wrist flick, you don't have to flourish it at all... you try, go on," She set a fresh match on the table, and Alanna tried again, feeling quite pathetic. She pushed all of her other thoughts from her mind, and focused for once on the spell, seeing that Stacy's patience was wearing thinner as her jokes became fewer and farther between. With a flick, the match transfigured into a needle, and Alanna grinned, feeling quite pleased with herself despite the enormous time and effort this one simple spell had cost her.

Stacy whooped, ecstatic, "Way to go!"

oOo

Alanna joined Lily and Sarah at almost nine O'Clock, feeling exhausted. "What've you all been doing?" She asked, though she really wasn't listening that much. Lily went on to explain how McLaggen was almost as much of a pain as Potter. She was just describing how he had gone on a rant about the Chudley Cannons when Emily entered the common room, quite alone.

"Hey guys," She said, beaming. "What have you all been up to?" She pushed a first year over on the couch, and sat down next to Sarah. Alanna scowled.

"Not snogging pompous toe-rags?" She offered, clearly making no attempt to hide her displeasure at Emily's behaviour all day.

"Speak for yourself," Lily groaned flatly, hunching down a little lower in her chair and looking slightly embarrassed.

"What?" Em said, a look of utter innocence flushing her face, but it was obvious that she was about as saint-like as a Norwegian Ridgeback, and Alanna snapped.

"What's wrong with you, Emily?" She demanded, her face flushing with colour. A few second and third years who were in the immediate vicinity stopped what they were doing to watch the show, but Alanna ignored them, and so did Emily and Lily. Sarah glared at a few of them, causing them to at least pretend they weren't completely listening in to what was going on. Alanna continued, undaunted, "You know that none of us like him, and he's a downright arse to me. So the first chance you get you go off and ditch us so that you can snog him all day?" She was close to yelling by now, almost completely unhinged. Without waiting for an answer, she clattered up the stairs, and changed quickly into her pyjamas so that she could just go to bed. As she got into bed, though, she saw a great full moon glowing eerily from outside the window, and shuddered; she knew why Sarah had been having trouble finding the Marauders, and wondered what Em had really just been doing, as there was no way she had been snogging Sirius.

She feigned sleep as Sarah and Lily came up to try and talk to her, and soon it came, mercifully dragging her off into the world of her dreams, both pleasant and otherwise.

I hope you're all enjoying this very Potter-filled summer, don't know about you all, but I just finished Deathly Hallows and it was very, very intense. I could still include it into this fic, too, if you guys wouldn't mind, so PLEASE tell me whether you would like me to incorporate what we've learned from the Deathly Hallows into this fic, or if you would prefer I keep it as an AU sort of thing.