Disclaimer: See chapter 5.
"Chloe, I'm scared." Sirius said shakily. She looked at him oddly. Sirius didn't get scared easily.
"Of what, sweetie?" She asked kindly.
"You. Us. I've never cared about anyone besides the Marauders. I'm going to mess this up, I know it." He said, desperately hoping she'd understand. "I can't lose you."
"Sirius, if you want to have a break, then say so. I don't want to be left alone like all those other girls. One night, then you run off. I wont let you walk away from me." She was already on her guard. Sirius gave her a worried look. What did she mean? "When you're over this slump, come find me. Until then, bye."
She stood on tiptoe and gave him a light kiss before walking away. With every step she took, her heart broke a little more. He wasn't coming after her. He was letting her go. Tears blinded her vision and she sped up, running away.
"Don't go. I-I love you." Sirius whispered to her retreating back. She was gone. His world was gone. He was gone.
OoOoO
James was being oddly quiet. It seemed to Remus that he had taken another emotional blow. Sirius wanted to get him out of the aftermath, but nothing had worked so far. He'd tried setting up a prank on Snape, dancing around like a girl and proposing to Jon Davies, even groveling for prank advice. Nothing doing.
"Oi! Prongs!" Sirius bellowed from across the common room. Everyone turned to stare at him.
"Oi! Padfoot! What?" James shouted back, pretending not to be an emotional wreck. Everyone turned to stare at him, now.
"It says on the bulletin board there's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend! Who are you going with?" Sirius hollered as loud as he could. James rolled his eyes.
"We've known for ten seconds! Who're you going with?" James knew that it only took Sirius 5 seconds to find a suitable date to Hogsmeade.
"Bree Forster!" He shouted without missing a beat. A tall, curvy blonde stood up from beside the fireplace.
"You are?" She asked. James looked confused. Was this Sirius' girlfriend or something?
"Oh, yeah! Almost forgot! Wanna go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend, Forster?" James laughed at his best friend. He'd forgotten to ask his date to be his date! This was one thing Sirius hadn't forgotten before, so it was quite a shock. The girl nodded and sat back down. "Anyways, Prongs, back to you! It's been nearly two minutes now!"
"I told you, I don't know!" Several girls – okay, several dozen girls – tossed their hair flirtatiously. James looked at them wearily. "Er, I do know, actually. I just have to ask her."
"So go for it, then!" Sirius was losing all patience. James looked like he was nearly in tears.
"Shut up!" James was very angry that something as simple as a date could make him feel this empty. Sirius suddenly figured out that James was talking about Lily. James thought she hated him. Sirius knew better. Lily was a touchy subject with James. Sometimes tears, sometimes freaky/odd denial of 'affection'. He strode over and sat directly across from his best friend.
"Look, mate, you've got to move on. Maybe you're not sure of what you want right now. Maybe you should just let her go. She's ruining your life! It was just one kiss!" Sirius muttered quietly, so that only James could hear. He had to give James that extra nudge. Usually telling him he wasn't good enough did it. Not this time. He immediately wanted to take back his words when he saw James' face go ghostly white. James closed his eyes and took at deep, shuddery breath.
"You think I haven't tried?" James said. He opened his eyes to meet Sirius'. "You think I want to be in love with her? I can't get over her! She's stuck in my brain! She has been since first year! She's not gonna leave that easily!"
"I'm sorry, mate." Sirius whispered. He felt the same way, but probably not as strong. He loved Chloe, but now she was out of his reach.
"And that kiss…that kiss was the best I've ever had. She's just too perfect." James seemed to be in a trance. He did this a lot. Sirius had even given them a name. TLT. The Lily Trance. Isn't that cheerful? Suddenly, James started laughing. Sirius looked at him as though fearing his friend's sanity.
"Er, what's so funny?" Sirius asked, moving away from this Mad Man incase he snapped and turned murderous or something.
"Well, when you think about it, I never really had a chance with her, did I? She's been telling me that since the first time I asked her out in first year! All that stuff about my big head; she's right!" He broke off his rant for the laughing got too out of control. Sirius chuckled nervously. What is he on about?
"Come on, mate. Time for bed." Sirius pulled James off the couch and led him to the Boy's Dormitory. James would snap at any moment now and Sirius was fairly sure his best friend didn't want to burst into tears in front of the entire Gryffindor population.
Once sitting on Sirius' bed, James stopped laughing. He stared at the same spot on the floor for what seemed like an hour. Here we go, Sirius thought, spotting the tears in James' eyes. Three, two…one.
"I'm a total screw up, aren't I? I've spent the last six years of my life chasing a girl who won't be caught. You're right, Sirius, I've got to get over her." James mumbled through his tears. Sirius' head whipped around at James' words. Had he heard him right?
"What?" He asked hopefully.
"You're right."
"Really?" Sirius nearly shouted with glee. This brought a small smile to James' face.
"Yeah." James groaned. It was going to be a chaotic few days now that Sirius was 'right'. "But the novelty wears off pretty quick, so don't throw a party."
"A party?" Sirius starred at him like he was nuts. Then a thoughtful look came over his features. "That's a great idea! We should have it tomorrow, since it's Saturday. No school the next day. You're brilliant!"
"Hey, if I'm brilliant, I should be part of this party." James wasn't about to let a party at Hogwarts go by without his as a guest of honour. It hadn't happened yet, so why start now? " After all, I am the one who said you were right. I deserve some credit."
Sirius eyed James suspiciously. Was this a trick? Or did James really want a party? James gave him puppy eyes and Sirius gave a girlish scream.
"Argh! Alright, alright! Fine, I'll share! Now stop doing that!" Sirius tackled James, which, of course, started a friendly fistfight. Well, friendly as far a fist fights go. James' fist connected with the side of Sirius' head and Sirius fell over, pretending to die painfully. He made some retching sounds and James promptly sat on him.
"Hey! Can't a guy die in peace?" Sirius protested indignantly.
"Not if it takes you an hour."
"I suppose."
A group of boys walked in with a bunch of girls close behind. The girls stopped
and giggled when they saw James Potter (gasp!) sitting on Sirius Black (another gasp!) who was (of course) still pretending to die painfully. Their jaws dropped when the boys who all girls (except Lily. Or maybe not) considered to be Gods stood and waved shyly at them.
"Hey, ladies." Sirius said smoothly in an exaggeratedly deep voice. The girls giggled again, obviously in awe that a Marauder was talking to them, no matter how general it was. Sirius' gaze fell on the boys. "Got any extras, men?"
"Sure." A tall blond boy from the seventh year said. A redhead and a blonde walked to stand beside Sirius and James. Perfect. Sirius thought blondes were easy to seduce because of a muggle joke he'd heard when he was eleven about 'dumb blondes' and James had a slight (enormous) obsession with redheads. "By the way, that's my sister, so be good."
The seventh year nodded at the blonde and Sirius grinned. James shook his head, knowing exactly what was coming next.
"Do you mean 'be good' in the sense that precise at my snoggin of be careful at how…far I get?" Sirius asked, smiling as James mouthed the words in time with the ones coming from his mouth. The boy looked shock, but quickly realized that it would be fruitless to try to set Sirius straight. He catches on fast, thought James.
"So there they lay. 8 couples snogging their brains out in the Boy's Dormitory. James was having issue with pretending this girl was Lily. Now that he'd kissed Lily, he couldn't fake it. She just wasn't Lily. Sirius also had some difficulties. His eyes kept flickering over to the smiling picture of Chloe Teofila on his bedside table. The blonde just wasn't Chloe.
"I can't do this!" James and Sirius exclaimed at the same time. The redhead stared at James as though she had been expecting this, but the blonde girl's shoulders slumped at the fact that she wasn't good enough for Sirius Black. Sirius grabbed her hands and looked into her eyes consolingly. He was really good at turning down girls gently. Call it a gift, call it lots of practice. It's all the same, really.
"Hey, it's alright. There's a Mr. Right out there for you, even if he doesn't double as Mr. Black." She still didn't look convinced, so Sirius started the flow of encouragement up again. "Look, you're a beautiful girl. There're wack loads of guys out there who would be honoured to have you. I'm just in love with someone else."
The blonde nodded and smiled weakly at him as she picked herself up off his bed. The redhead looked expectantly at James as if waiting for her explaination.
"I'm fairly sure you know my story… I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name." James smiled lopsidedly. The girl rolled her eyes and smiled.
"Sienna Cole."
"Right. I'm fairly sure you know my story, Sienna." Sienna smiled knowingly. James Potter had always and would always be in love with Lily Evans. Everyone knew that. Except maybe Lily Evans.
"I know it, but does she?"
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A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews! I think this might be the last chapter before I head out on my trip. I might be able to squeeze in another, though.
fudge-butter: You shall see! Muahahaha!
ReadingRobyn: You are right on the details, aren't you? I like it. It shows that you don't miss anything in a story. That's good because something happened in this chapter that will be important in the sequel. I do hope you read that. Anyways, I'll fix that library thing for you and you just read that one more chapter you asked for!
cali4me92: I'm glad you liked it. Here's more!
lemon-light: thank you, thank you, thank you! I try to update as much as possible, but I've got a horse to tend to, a trip to go on, and just a whole lot of stuff that usually happens!
firelily28: That is so cool about your penname! Thank you for the awesome reviews! I hope you like this chapter as well as the last one. I'm not sure if it's the best I've had.
Next Chapter: Sirius and James' party!