Dear Diary,

I can't believe the year's almost over, already. It's weird. It seems so fast, but looking back, SO much has happened. The Halloween dance, that whole amnesia thing, me and Jeremy (followed closely by the whole me liking James thing), and Sirius and Agie breaking up, even though that was only about a week ago or so.

Yes, it has been a busy year, and everyone here is putting me under a lot of stress right now. I've got Jeremy constantly around me, and James seeming like he's constantly around me (though it could just be that I notice him more now), Adriyana's constant crying on my shoulder, coupled with Sirius asking how to win her back…it might be nice to get away from all that.

Although, not much is waiting for me at home except for mosquitoes and Petunia, and that's not exactly thrilling.

Maybe things will get better.

Lily

"Er…Lily?" Jeremy asked. "What are we doing?"

Lily and Jeremy were currently wedged between one of Hogwarts' many suits of armour and a cold stone wall. "We're hiding," she whispered, rolling her eyes as if it should have been obvious.

"But there's nobody in the corridor besides us. Or are we just practicing hiding in case we need to hide sometime in our futures? Because that's actually kind of weird, Lil."

"Shh!" Lily whispered, putting her hand over his mouth, and pointing back into the corridor. "Look."

Lily wondered why Jeremy hadn't seen her before, but there was someone else in the corridor. It was Adriyana, actually, and she was looking at her feet with a downcast expression on her face. She walked past the suit of armour they were hiding behind, not even noticing they were there.

Lily sighed in relief, and noticed Jeremy's questioning stare. "I kind of just need some time away from her. I've been keeping her company a lot lately, but it gets depressing, because she's constantly crying or upset, and I just need some time away from her." She looked up urgently. "Does that make me a horrid friend?"

Jeremy shook his head. "Not really, Lil. It seems like she's just looking for attention, because, if you notice," he motioned towards Adriyana's disappearing figure, "she doesn't cry when she's alone, just when there's someone around to give her sympathy."

"Yeah…I-I guess," Lily said, a bit torn. What Jeremy had said was a bit harsh, even if it might be true, and she was suddenly torn between spending time with Jeremy and comforting her friend.

He noticed her stormy expression. "Hey," he said. "Did I do something wrong? Let me make it up to you, c'mon, I've got something to show you!" he said brightly.

"But…just one hour until curfew…"

"You'll get back in time, Lil. You worry too much."

She shrugged and took Jeremy's hand, as he pulled her off to who-knows-where. She'd had enough confusion and misery for one week, and she was willing to do whatever she could in order to crack a smile.

Sirius stared blankly at the blazing fire in front of him, not really taking in anything going on around him, but watching the orange flames dance back and forth, back and forth—

"Padfoot!"

Sirius jumped. "Ah…right here, Professor!" he called, raising his hand.

James stared at Sirius for a moment. "Since when had a Professor ever called you 'Padfoot'?" He sighed, then motioned to the chessboard in front of them. "Your move."

Sirius moved his Queen forward. James grinned, moving one of his pieces up as well. "Checkmate."

"Damn it," Sirius said, tonelessly, eyes back on the fire. "You beat me."

"Yes," James responded. "I know."

Sirius focused his vacant eyes back on James. "Sorry, Prongs. Don't really feel like doing much, right now, I'm still—"

But James didn't ever find out what Sirius was about to say, because at that moment, a very irate Lily stormed through the portrait hole, distracting Sirius enough that he stopped talking, and distracting James enough that, even if Sirius did keep talking, James would have never heard.

Lily plopped down angrily in one of the chairs by the fire, muttering things under her breath.

"Something wrong, Evans?" A voice next to her asked. She turned around, seeing James.

"You should know, it was all your fault, kind of…" she muttered under her breath, not even loud enough for James to hear. "Well, my fault, too, and his…but it's still mostly yours."

James just cocked his head to the side. "Sorry…what was that? Didn't hear…"

Lily spoke a little louder this time. "Fight with Jeremy."

Lily almost laughed at the look on James' face, as he tried to look sympathetic, but was also trying really hard to keep a huge grin on his face. "I'm very sorry about that," he said, nodding his head. "What was it about, pray tell?"

Lily's eyes flickered to Sirius' face, surprised he hadn't burst out laughing. "Er…he…was late…for…our…study date! Yeah, that's it."

I'm a terrible liar, Lily thought. But I could never tell him what really happened…

"So, Lil, what do you think?" Jeremy asked, waving his arm towards the huge library window, where some candles were set out, and two slices of the cake served after dinner were set. "If Pince finds out, she'll kill me, but I did good, right?" He smiled hopefully.

"You did good."

He raised his eyebrows. "Want some cake?"

Lily laughed and sat down in front of the open window, letting the cool May night-time air blow her coppery hair off her face. She looked out the window, seeing the beech tree the Marauders so often sat under. Why, she'd seen James lounging there, just that afternoon. She sighed wistfully.

She realized the boy next to her had said something, and was now waiting for an answer. Without thinking, she said it: "Sorry, what was that, James?"

Jeremy froze. "What'd you call me?"

After that, it had only gotten worse. Jeremy kind of got the wrong idea, she was wishing he was James…maybe just a bit, but it wasn't like she didn't like Jeremy at all.

From there, they got into a decent size shouting match, Jeremy yelling about how James had stolen his shoes, and Lily still liked him more, and Lily screaming that she just knew too many people whose names started with J.

And now she was back in the common room, staring at the very person who'd inadvertently started her first lover's spat.

That probably wasn't the best idea, so Lily tore her eyes away, choosing the nearest distraction, Alice's copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration; left behind that afternoon, and now sitting on the coffee table right in front of Lily.

James stared glumly at the chessboard. This game just wasn't as fun when Sirius didn't have his competitive spirit, or wasn't flinging the board across the room in frustration (which never seemed to get old).

"Wanna play again?" James asked Sirius dully.

"No."

"Gobstones, then?"

"No."

"How about the, 'who can eat the most Every-Flavour Beans in a row without making a face' game?"

A sigh. "No thanks, Prongs."

"Well, what if we—"

"I'll pass."

"Fine. I was only trying to—"

"Thanks anyway. I'm tired, gonna go to bed now," Sirius muttered vaguely, and disappeared up the stairs.

"We should get them back together, they're making the entire tower depressed," Lily said, not looking up from her book.

James smiled at Lily. "Yeah 'course." Anything to spend time with you. "Anything to help out a friend."

Lily studied James for a moment. James didn't do anything but stare back, guessing the expression on his face probably looked a bit like a gasping fish. He didn't move, however, and gradually, the attentive look on Lily's face turned into an annoyed glare. "...Well…what do you think we should DO, then?"

"Oh! Er…we could…" James weighed his options. He could help Sirius and Adriyana, but then he couldn't spend any more time with Lily. Or, he could stall, be around Lily a lot more, AND, as a bonus, possibly prolong her fight with Jeremy by keeping her away from him. If he did that though, Sirius would just be a boring lump of a best friend for that much longer.

Lily smiled at him. Such a beautiful smile. "We could.."

What the hell. Padfoot would understand. "Er…well…I've been doing this kind of thing for a while, planning things, I mean…you can't, er, expect to think of a plan right away." Yes, that's it, James, you brilliant mastermind, you. "It takes a little time to think about. So, we can…brainstorm some ideas tonight and tomorrow, right?" She nodded. "And, er, I'll meet you again tomorrow? Same time, same place?" He gestured to the couch, trying not to smile as he mentally dubbed himself James Potter, Master of The White Lie.

"Okay," Lily said. "I'm kind of tired, anyway." She yawned. "See?"

He smiled. Wow. It worked. "All right. See you tomorrow, I guess." Huh. Sounds a bit like a date. I guess this is as close as I'll ever get. "Er, goodnight then."

Lily, already at the foot of the girls' stairs, giggled. "Bye, James." She wiggled her fingers, smiled, and the disappeared without another word.

James listened to her disappearing footprints, bemused. Lily and Jeremy must have been a big fight if she was already on the rebound. He knew she'd really been flirting with him that time, it wasn't just delusion.

He didn't think so, at least.

Adriyana woke up, looked out the window at the barely risen sun, and groaned, pulling her pillow over her head. If there was one thing worse than tossing and turning in bed for hours before falling asleep, it was tossing and turning in bed for hours before falling asleep, THEN waking up four hours too early.

She looked up, noticing she'd had such a fitful few hours of sleep that her head was now where her feet should be, one of her legs dangled off the bed, and her duvet was bunched around her waist.

She rolled over, facing the cocoon of blankets that was Alice, and, because of her angle on the bed, the wall next to her headboard, which now looked strangely empty. Oh, yeah, she thought. That's where the picture from the Quidditch game used to be.

She looked up, pushing tangled waves away from her eyes, glancing at the clock on the wall. Six in the morning! It's Saturday, for Merlin's sake! There is not ONE thing I can think of that would ever make waking up at an hour like this okay.

Adriyana tossed the pillow that had also ended up at the foot of the bed back to the top, and then climbed back up there as well, yanking the duvet up to her shoulders, waving her wand to close the curtains around her bed (How did they get opened in the first place?), and closing her eyes.

Sleep didn't come. She tried everything she could think of, but eventually forced herself out of bed when she heard the ring of Lily's alarm clock, which went off every morning at seven-thirty.

"Dammit!" Adriyana yelled, stumbling out of bed and towards the mirror.

"Morning, gorgeous," she said sarcastically. She tried running her fingers through her hair, but they got caught in the knots and she winced. "My hair looks like James', almost like it's bent on world domination."

Behind her, someone laughed. "Morning, Lils," Adriyana said dully.

"Morning, Agie. Looks like you left your eyeliner on yesterday."

Adriyana shook her head. "No, I just didn't sleep." She touched the dark circles under her eyes. "I'm going to go take a shower, okay?"

Lily nodded, handing Adriyana her bathrobe and hairbrush, and giving her a tight hug.

Lily stepped down the stairs of the common room. She'd been feeling bad about making what was basically a date with James ever since breakfast, where she felt Jeremy's eyes on her during her entire meal. When she finally turned to look at him, he'd smiled and mouthed, "Sorry!"

So, she figured, she should just get her plan going now, and maybe she wouldn't even have to deal with being alone with James again.

Her eyes scanned the common room, until they landed on her target. Sirius was leaning on the wall next to the portrait hole.

She didn't know how he'd done it, but she knew Sirius could somehow get into the girls' dormitories, because she'd seen him there during the Holiday. Now that she'd convinced Amber and Alice to get out of there, all she had to do was get Sirius to go in.

As she got closer to Sirius, her heart beat faster, a little thrill coursing through her system. Maybe this was why the Marauders liked to prank people so much, for this rush. Of course, she was doing it to help a friend, not humiliate an enemy, so it wasn't the same thing at all.

Finally, she reached the portrait hole, and without looking directly at Sirius, she said, "She's upstairs," and kept walking, the shuffle of paper and feet behind her was her only indication that he'd heard what she said.

Several hours later, around noon, all Adriyana had managed to do was get cleaned up and dressed, and eat the blueberry muffin Lily had brought up for her. She hadn't left the dormitory at all that day, but at least now she was finally alone in it, and she sat on her bed, doing the crossword in Lily's copy of The Daily Prophet that she'd "borrowed."

She wondered vaguely why she hadn't locked the door to the room. She thought the other three girls knew to leave her alone when she got like this, lest a shoe be hurled towards them.

Yet, she still heard the door creak open about five later, just after she'd found three across ("Martin Miggs"). She turned to the door. "Could you just--"

She turned around, but instead of seeing one of her roommates, who would no doubt be smiling in an unnerving way, and she didn't want them there anyway, the only thing that stood in the doorway was a gigantic, shaggy black dog.

Well, at least the dog wouldn't try to talk to her. "C'mere, Doggie." She patted her bed, beckoning the dog to sit down next to her, and he ran forward eagerly, jumping onto the bed.

She gave the strange dog a hug, cheek resting against his soft fur. The dog seemed to relax and think he was comforting her, because he jumped about a foot in the ear when she let out a sob, her voice cracking halfway through.

"Sorry, Doggie. You just...you kind of remind me of him…it's hard to explain." her voice shook. "Here, have some..." she held out a napkin full of leftover muffin to the dog.

She managed a weak laugh as the dog ate the crumbs, then licked off the ones sticking to her hands, and then she scooted up on her bed a little, knowing the dog was still there, but not acknowledging it much.

"Do you think I should forgive him, Doggie?" she asked after a while, wiping tears on her sleeve.

Silence. Of course, she hadn't expected the dog to actually say anything.

She sighed, still looking at her pillow. "One bark for yes, two for no."

"Agie?"

Adriyana jumped, and her crying ended in one loud hiccup. Tentatively, she inched the pillow down a little, looking at the place where the dog had just been.

When she saw Sirius sitting at the foot of the bed, she couldn't make words come out of her mouth, and Sirius must have mistaken her shock for anger. "Adriyana, I swear I didn't mean—"

"Where'd the dog go?" she whispered, looking around the room dazedly. "There was a dog, right? I'm not crazy?"

"Listen, Agie. I'm the dog, his name is Padfoot. I'm an Animagus."

"Why?"

"Well…I can't tell you why. S'not my secret to confess, really."

"No, I mean...why'd you tell me?"

Sirius moved closer. "Because I trust you," he put his hands on her cheeks, wiping the remaining tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "Trust you with my deepest, darkest secret."

Adriyana slapped Sirius' hands away, not saying anything.

"See, you said that you don't think I trust you, but here's proof that I do, so I figured that, you know, we can get back together now, possibly."

Adriyana almost laughed, because she knew Sirius was completely expecting her to forgive him like that, just like every other girl at Hogwarts would.

Instead, she didn't say anything, just slipped her hand away from where Sirius' had landed on top of it.

He sounded more uncertain the next time he spoke. "I'm really sorry, Agie. I wasn't trying to hurt you, in fact, that was exactly what I was trying to prevent. Don't you think we deserve another chance?"

Yes.

"Say something, Agie."

When he'd waited a full minute and she still hadn't responded, he started walking to the door.

"Sirius, wait!"

His footsteps stopped. Determinedly not looking at him, Adriyana spoke again, still in the same place on her bed.

"I'm just confused." And scared, a little. But mostly, I just miss you.

"You can't say I don't trust you," he said, voice indicating that he was absolutely sure of himself. She gave in, looking up and meeting his eyes.

Oh, Sirius, I'm sorry, so sorry, just don't look at me like that...

That look caused something inside Adriyana to shatter. "Listen. Meet me at the Astronomy Tower tomorrow night. We'll talk. I promise."

Adriyana was suddenly struck with the irony of the location she'd picked, but didn't say anything.

He was quiet for a while. "Why tomorrow?"

"I need some time." To pull myself together a bit. "To think."

"We don't have that much time left, it's almost June," he said, walking to the door and grabbing a silvery cloak. "But…I'll be there, Agie."

And with that, he left.

Lily hadn't gone anywhere, really, when she'd left the common room, just walked in a big circle. Now, as she found herself walking back through the portrait hole, and saw Sirius with a sullen expression, folding paper airplanes and launching them into the fire, she knew it could only mean one thing.

She still had to meet with James later.

At ten o' clock that night, James walked down the dormitory stairs. The common room wasn't completely empty, but the only thing that mattered was that Sirius and Adriyana weren't there, and it looked like the coast was clear.

"James! Over here!"

Instead of the spot she usually sat, in front of the fire, Lily was on a cushy scarlet couch in a more secluded corner of the common room, waving at him rather indiscreetly.

"'Lo, Evans. How'd you do, planning-wise?" He plopped down on the couch next to her, his hand landing so close to hers he could feel the heat radiating off of it.

"I did okay, I guess." She shrugged, blushing slightly, which was adorable.

"Yeah? I don't think we need an amazingly complicated plan." Unless it means more time with you. "Sirius and Agie are spontaneous, right?"

She nodded.

"I was thinking we lock 'em in a closet, and put a spell on it so they can't get out unless they snog."

Lily laughed, rolling her eyes. "It's more complicated then that, James. They need to reconnect on an emotional level, not just a physical one."

"You said what, now?" James asked, causing Lily to roll her eyes again.

And so the conversation progressed. About an hour later, they'd strayed away from the topic of Sirius and Adriyana altogether.

"So, I've got an Invisibility Cloak, and that's how we barely ever get caught. Or, we used to, but now we barely fit under it."

"I've hear they're really rare, I'm kind of surprised you have one," Lily said, looking into the fire.

"I could show you, if you want," James said. "Maybe…some other time?"

"Are you just trying to spend time with me, James?"

"Yes," he said. "I mean, it's nice to have someone new to tell all my stories to."

"Oh." Lily sounded kind of disappointed.

"But, also," James said, his face inching closer to Lily's, even though her head wasn't even facing his, "You're so…beautiful."

He was so close now he could smell flowery shampoo, could see the shift of the light as her head turned to his.

"You're so...beautiful."

Lily's heart skipped a beat. She knew he'd do this, somehow. That's what James was like. Once they started having a conversation, he took it as a love confession. Give him an inch, he took a mile.

And yet, she turned her head so that she was facing him, and oh Merlin he was close. So close, she could see her eyes in his glasses. So close, their noses were practically touching.

Suddenly, she couldn't move, couldn't even talk...couldn't do anything.

A/N—Heh. I made this one longer! ducks hail of arrows

And I did try REALLY hard to keep Sirius IC, but I think he's kind of off on some lines in there.

Oh, and the next chapter will start exactly where this one ended.

((Yes, that's really the end. It doesn't scroll down anymore, see? Just that REVIEW BUTTON left…))