I hate school.

Disclaimer: Don't even go there. You whose is whose.

Recap: Eli promised Lily not to go crawling back to Jack and their toxic relationship and James overhears her. Lori Timmon and Dale Marshfield are new on the Gryffindor team. Lily's boyfriend, Tommy Petch is keeper for Ravenclaw's team. Marlene told her siblings about their parent's being in possible danger, following the advice of Sirius, who was told by James who promised Lily not to tell anyone about it.


Eli walked down a corridor after lunch, hand-in-hand with Jack Powell.

Jack Powell was tall and blond, with bright blue eyes that matched his Ravenclaw robes. He usually had a sneer on his face and a girl on his arm. That girl was usually Eli.

"So, I've been thinking," Eli said, "about how you're going to graduate this year."

"Yeah, so?" Jack asked.

"Well," Eli hesitated, "it's just… what will happen to us?"

Jack stopped, causing Eli to stop too. "What do you mean 'what will happen to us?'" He had a small, cheesy smile on his face that told Eli he wasn't going to take her seriously.

"I mean," Eli said, as seriously as she could, "if you won't be around, how can we have a relationship?"

"Eli," he dragged out her name as he said it. "Baby, stop worrying so much. We'll figure it out when we get there."

"But Jack," Eli tried, but he cut her off by pressing her against the wall and kissing her. She pushed him away lightly. "Jack, I'm serious."

Jack took a step back and frowned. "Look, Eli, if you're going to be like this, then—"

"If I'm going to be like this?!" Eli yelled. "You're the one being a major jerk with a dick attitude! Why can't you just listen to me and treat like a human being!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Don't be a bitch, Eli."

"I am a bitch!" Eli yelled. "You should know that! If you're dating me, you should know that I'm a bitch and you should be smarter about what you say!"

"Okay, you know what?" Jack said, stepping back. "I'm gonna leave you to calm down, because obviously any civilized conversation with you is impossible! Maybe you're the reason why this relationship never works out." He turned and walked away.

At his words, Eli's face fell. What if he was right? What if she was the reason that they never worked out? Eli started to walk to Gryffindor Tower, but as she turned the corner, she jumped at seeing Eric Tomkins casually leaning against the wall there.

"Sorry," he laughed. "Didn't mean to scare you."

Eli huffed and started walking again. Eric started following her. "Why were you standing there?" she asked him.

"Well, I was on my way to lunch when I stopped to watch the show," Eric joked. "It was quite the comedy act."

"Ha, ha," Eli said, sarcastically.

"Actually, I just didn't want to walk out in the middle of that and get screamed at by you," Eric said.

"Well, then, you're smart. Why aren't you going to lunch?" Eli asked, annoyed by his presence.

"Because I'm curious," Eric answered.

"About what?" Eli snapped.

"I thought you told Lily that you wouldn't go crawling back to him," Eric said, nonchalantly.

Eli gasped and turned to face him, her dark hair whipping around her head. "Who told you that?" she asked, her voice sharp.

Eric shrugged. "Potter."

"How did he find out?!" Eli yelled.

"I have no idea," Eric said, quickly, putting his hands up defensively. "I just happened to be in the room when he told the Marauders."

Eli's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "What?" Eric had assumed that if Eli got madder, she would explode, but now, madder than before, the word came out in a hoarse whisper. "The Marauders know?" Again, her voice was hoarse and Eric felt bad for her, almost.

"Yeah, but, I mean, it's not that big of a deal, right?" Eric said, trying to calm her.

"Maybe for you! But what else do they know?! I mean, Lily wouldn't tell them! Especially, Potter! So, he must have eavesdropping! And I said—" she hesitated and looked at Eric before saying "—some other stuff that they can't know!"

"Look, James didn't say anything other than your promise not to go crawling back to Powell," Eric said, calmly.

"That doesn't mean he didn't say anything," Eli muttered.

"Just because he knows one part of the conversation, doesn't mean he knows all of it. Maybe Lily did tell him," Eric suggested.

"No," Eli said, sternly.

"How can you be so sure?" Eric asked.

"Because," Eli said, "I know Lily. She wouldn't do that."

"Well, then, I don't know what to tell you," Eric said, shrugging.

"Yeah, well, thanks, I guess," Eli said, muttering the 'thanks' part.

"What for?" Eric asked, confused.

"Informing me of the Marauders' prying ways," Eli said, bitterly. She turned and started to walk away, but then stopped and looked back. "By the way," she called out to Eric, "he came crawling back to me. So, technically, I didn't break my promise." She turned and kept walking.

Eric shook his head at her and started walking in the other direction.

xoxo

Lily sat in the library, doing homework. She was finally starting to understand a certain charm when James sat down across from her.

"What do you want?" she asked, groaning.

"Hello to you, too." James said, grinning crookedly.

"What do you want?" Lily repeated, more forcefully.

"I just wanted to say hi. Have a nice conversation with my favourite redhead! 'Don't know what I'd do without you!"

"That would be horrible, never to see you," Lily said, sarcastically. "Don't you have practice, or something?"

James rolled his eyes. "No," he said bitterly, "Slytherins booked the pitch for today. Bastards."

"They have to practice too, you know," Lily said practically.

James bit back a 'Snivellus' remark. "Yeah, great, but the first match of the year is Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. And the Slytherins has been using all of the practice times. We have barely had any practice."

"Then talk to Madam Hooch," Lily said.

"I did! Yesterday actually. She said she would start limiting their practices, but that doesn't make up for all the practice time we've lost!"

"Afraid you'll lose to Ravenclaw?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," James said, miserably. His answer surprised her, she expected him to be cocky and say no. "Ravenclaw's too good. And they have more experienced players, since we had to get two new ones this year. Lori won't be able to keep up with Thomas."

"Tommy," Lily corrected. Her boyfriend was the Ravenclaw keeper.

"Whatever," James said. "The only new player on Ravenclaw is Tony Core, a chaser. The other two can keep up without him."

"Well, maybe you should try, instead of relying on natural talent," Lily said, a false-sweetness in her voice.

"You think I have natural talent? I'm flattered," James said, hand on his heart.

Lily scowled. "I didn't say it was good enough to win."

"Of course it is!"

"Then why haven't we won the cup in years?" Lily thought for a moment, then her face broke into a grin. "Actually," she said, smiling evilly, "I think the last time we won was in our first year, when you weren't on the team. What does that say about your 'natural talent?'"

James's eyes narrowed. "That's not my fault. We got a lot of new players our second year."

"All I'm saying, is that I would love to win this year."

James grinned wolfishly. "And what if, hypothetically, I won the cup for us this year?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "What do you want?" She might as well play along. It might motivate him.

James sat back, thinking. "All this power," he said.

"It has to be reasonable," Lily said, warningly.

"Okay, okay," James said, innocently. He thought for a few moments. "If we don't win, I will stop bothering you for the rest of school. Until we graduate. If I win the cup for us, then you have to go on a date with me."

"Deal," Lily said. But, to her dismay, he continued.

"And," he cut her off. "You have to kiss me. On the pitch. After the game. In front of the whole school."

Lily hesitated. She thought about it. Really, there was no way they would win. "Deal," she said.

James grinned. "Then I can't wait for our first kiss, in front of everyone. But, who knows," he said, getting up, "maybe it won't be our first kiss." He walked away, giving her no time to respond.

But as he walked away, she couldn't help but smile to herself.

Maybe they would win, and she would have to kiss him. Maybe they would win, and she would have to go on a date with him.

But, recently, he hadn't been so bad. Maybe he had changed. Maybe he was worth at least trying to be friends with. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

Maybe everything would be okay.

xoxo

Dinner went to hell.

Lily, Marlene, Eli, and Maria were on one side of the table, while the Marauders and Eric were on the other.

In the beginning, they were talking, laughing, and saying teenager stuff. But then Sirius asked Marlene, "How did the talk with your siblings go?"

At the question, everyone looked at Sirius. Everyone, that is, except for Lily, who looked at James with wide eyes. James forced himself not to look at her.

Marlene, not realizing what was wrong, smiled sadly and said, "They took it as well as they could have, I suppose. They were nice to me for once, which is good. Valerie even said 'I love you.'"

Remus, Peter, and Eric were confused, not having known about the situation with Marlene's parents. Eli and Maria, having been told by Marlene and Lily, were confused as to how Sirius knew about it.

"Wait," Eli interrupted, before Sirius could say anything.

"How do you know about Marly's… family problems?" Maria asked.

"You son of a bitch," Lily said, glaring at James. "How could you?"

"You know," James said, putting his hands up defensively, "I didn't expect him to talk to her about it!"

"But you still told him!" Lily said, harshly. "You swore on your life!"

"Yeah, well, I'm probably gonna die young anyway." He grinned at Sirius, who grinned back, and said, "Probably something cool, like a battle-with-a-giant-gone-wrong. Besides, I think it worked out okay. Right? I mean, everyone's still—"

"Wait," Marlene said, looking at Lily sadly. "You told James?"

Lily looked at her best friend, shocked. "Marlene, no I—"

"Don't lie," Marlene said, growing visibly angrier. "Don't you dare lie to me!"

"Marlene," Lily pleaded, "I'm sorry. I wasn't—"

"What?" Marlene said, angrily. "You weren't what? Being a good friend?"

"Marlene," Lily said desperately, "just listen, I—"

"Hang on," Eli said, anger growing on her face. "If you told James about that, then did you tell him about my promise to stay away from Jack?"

"What?" Lily asked turning to Eli. "Of course not! He was eavesdropping!"

"Oh, so you keep her secrets locked up nice and tight, do you?" Marlene asked bitterly.

"Marlene, it's not like that!" Lily said, turning back to Marlene. But then she turned back to Eli, a confused expression on her face. "How did you know that James knew about that?"

"Eric told me," Eli said, still glaring at Lily.

Everyone turned to Eric. Marlene and Eli were angry. Lily and Maria were confused. Peter, Remus, and Sirius looked curious. James looked pleadingly at Eric.

Eric, himself, looked like a deer in the headlights.

"How did you know?" Maria asked.

"James told the Marauders," he said, quickly. "I was just in the room."

James shut his eyes, preparing for the onslaught of verbal attacks.

Everyone's heads swiveled in the direction of James.

"I can't believe you," Lily said, her voice disgusted.

"I am pretty unbelievable," James joked.

"Do you think this is funny?" Maria asked.

"You promised!" Lily said.

"I promise a lot of things," James said, casually.

"Why were you eavesdropping anyway?" Eli asked.

Sirius opened his mouth, but James kicked him under the table before he could say anything.

"Information is good to have. I know a lot of things that I probably shouldn't. We all do," he said, referring to the Marauders. "One of us finds something out, we tell the others. It helps in random situations."

"Like what?" Eli asked.

"Well, Lily's dad died over the summer, so I haven't brought anything related to that up. Might set her off." Marlene, Maria, and Eli gaped at Lily.

"I know Maria lied to you all about her father." Maria looked away from the others, angry at James.

"I know that Marlene stole Eli's pearl necklace a few years ago and lost it." Marlene's eyes widened.

"I know that Eli got back together with Jack."

"You got back together with Jack?" Maria asked Eli.

"That's how the whole 'James knowing about her promise' thing came up," Eric said

"You promised you wouldn't!" Lily said to Eli, disappointed in her.

"He came crawling back to me! Not the other way around!" Eli defended.

"It doesn't matter!" Maria said. "You went crawling back when you agreed to go out with him again!"

"Yeah?" Eli challenged. "What's this about your father?"

Maria's eyes flashed. "That doesn't matter."

"But my love life does?" Eli asked.

"Eli," Lily said, warningly.

"Shut it," Eli snapped. "You don't get to talk!"

"Eli, don't yell," Marlene said.

"I will yell if I goddamn please," Eli said. "You know how much I loved that necklace!"

"I know, and I'm sorry," Marlene said, sincerely.

"Obviously not sorry enough," Eli said.

Then, there was silence. A sickening silence in which everyone was afraid to speak. No one moved either. Just looked around and prayed for someone else to break the silence.

Finally, Eli got up and left, without another word. Then Marlene. Then Maria.

"Lily," James started, his voice apologetic.

"Don't," Lily cut him off sharply. She had tears in her eyes as she said, "Don't you dare. You are the most disgusting, most foul creature I have ever had the displeasure to know. I hope you rot in hell."

She got up, and left.

"Nice one, James."

"Thanks, Lupin."

xoxo

September passed into October. The leaves on the trees changed. Most were now various shades of reds, oranges, yellows, and even purples. The days grew shorter slowly, and the breeze picked up, chilling the land. The Whomping Willow had shaken all of the leaves off, having been too impatient to wait for every leaf to fall. Apllaot, the bowtruckle, had cleared all the fallen leaves around the tree he lived on. A small circle of mostly dead grass was the only thing allowed at the bottom of the tree, and the seventh years enjoyed throwing piles of leaves at the base of the tree and running away to watch Aptllaot scurry around pushing the leaves out of the way, annoyed.

Lily was mad at James. Maria, Eli, and Marlene were mad at Lily, James, Sirius, and each other. Even the Marauders were on edge with each other.

The days passed and nothing looked like it was going to get better. On the eighth of October the full moon was expected, and Remus was feeling extremely under the weather. As an indirect consequence of this, the Marauders were arguing far more than usual. In potions, Remus sat in agony in the back next to Peter while Sirius and James argued at the table next to his about the correct way to make a potion.

Suddenly, Remus remembered something. "James," he said, so softly that Peter couldn't even hear him. "James," he croaked out, louder so that Peter could hear him.

"Prongs," Peter yelled, but James couldn't hear him over the argument between him and Sirius. Peter took an empty bottle of slug hearts and threw it at James. It hit him on the head and bounced off, hitting Maria in front of him. She ignored it, not wanting to speak to him.

"What the hell?" James asked, glaring at Peter.

"Moony was calling you," Peter explained, annoyed. James, Peter, and Sirius looked down at Remus, whose head was in his arms on the table, looking half-dead. Instantly, all the boys forgot about their troubles and moved closer to him.

"What is it, Moony?" Sirius asked, his voice filled with concern.

"Lily," Remus said, softly.

"Yeah, she looks good today," Sirius remarked. "What's your point?"

James swatted him. "He wasn't done, you prat."

"We were supposed to patrol tonight," Remus said. "You have to… tell her I can't…"

"Um," James scratched the back of his neck, saying, "none of us are on very good speaking terms with her right now."

"One of you… has to tell her," Remus said, his eyes flashing dangerously.

James put his hands up in surrender. "Fine, one of us will do it."

"Good," Remus said—or, rather, mouthed. His lips moved, but none of the Marauders could hear a sound come out. Remus fell asleep, and they let him.

xoxo

"Wands in," James said, holding out a small bag. Sirius and Peter put their wands in the bag, the two sticks slipping easily into the bag that had a larger interior than exterior. James put his in as well. "Who would like to do the honours?" Peter and Sirius just stared at him. "I guess I will," James grumbled.

James reached into the bag and pulled out one of the wands.

"NO!" Sirius exclaimed upon seeing that James had his wand. "Dammit! This game is rigged."

"You had the chance to pick," James shrugged. "Have fun!" He gave Peter and Sirius back their wands and grabbed his own.

"I better not get hurt!" Sirius said as they started to walk down to the common room.

"We will walk to the library with you, but we are not going in," James told him. "Then I might get hurt."

"Oh, and we wouldn't want that," Sirius said, sarcastically.

They walked out of the common room through the portrait hole. They walked down to the library, where James and Peter shoved Sirius in. He looked around on the first floor for a while, until Madam Pince, the librarian, walked over.

"What are you doing?" she asked harshly.

"Do I need a reason to be in the library, open to all students?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Madam Pince snapped back. "Yes, because you don't come in here unless you are lost or looking to cause trouble."

"For your information, I'm looking for someone," Sirius said, cockily.

"Who?" she barked.

"Lily Evans?" Sirius said.

Madam Pince huffed and crossed her arms. "Why do you need her?"

"I have to talk to her about… private information," Sirius said, his voice wavering after he realized he did not have a good reason to have to talk to Lily.

To Sirius's surprise, Madam Pince said, "She's upstairs. Second level."

"Thanks," Sirius said, then muttered, "you old hag." He turned toward where the second level was and put out his foot. A book-staircase formed under each foot as he ascended toward the second level. When he stepped on a solid floor, he looked around.

The redhead he needed was sitting not far away at a table, her back facing him. He walked over and sat across from her.

She did a double take upon seeing him. Her eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"

"You know how you're patrolling with Remus tonight?" Sirius asked, trying to sound confident under her hard stare.

"Yes," she answered, monotone.

"Well," he said, twiddling his thumbs nervously, "Remus is sick, so he can't patrol tonight."

Lily's eyes widened and she became visibly concerned. "Is he okay?"

"Um, yeah," Sirius said, taken aback by her sudden change of attitude. "But he needs to rest, you know?"

Lily nodded. "Tell him I hope he gets better."

Sirius nodded slowly. "Okay. Got it."

Lily started to do her work again, but when Sirius didn't move, she looked up at him again. "What?" she asked, annoyed.

"I didn't know," Sirius said, softly, not meeting her eyes.

"What?" Lily asked, confused.

"None of us did. He didn't tell anyone," Sirius explained, still not meeting her eyes. "About your dad, I mean. James didn't tell any of us."

"Oh," Lily said, still a little confused as to how they got onto that subject.

"I don't expect you to forgive him or anything," Sirius said quickly. "But he actually cared enough not to tell us, in case we said something. That's pretty big for James."

Lily stared at him for a long time. "And all the other things?" she asked. "About my friends? He didn't have any problem telling you about those."

"I know," Sirius said. "But, when it really counts, you can trust him."

"I'll take your word for it. Now I have to get back to this, so could you please leave," she said. It wasn't a question.

Sirius got up and left without another word. He tried.

xoxo

Quidditch also suffered from the conflicts of the sixth years. Marlene and Sirius, the beaters, were barely speaking, and Marlene would yell at James when he spoke to her. Bradley, the seeker, had been informed of what was happening by Marlene, and, for once, had taken her side. He, too, was barely talking to Sirius and James.

This made practicing very hard and they were always a mess on the field. Plus, the fact that they had two new players only added to the mess.

On Saturday, James had booked the pitch for the entire afternoon for practice. He had been barking orders at them the entire time, but it was when it started to rain that everyone's moods hit rock bottom.

"McKinnon, don't take your eyes off the bludgers," James yelled at her.

'Oh, I'm so sorry, James," Marlene said, sarcastically.

"You should be. And let Sirius get to them, too," James said.

"I would, but I don't know if I can trust him," she said, raising her voice so that Sirius could hear her. He ducked his head, but didn't say anything.

James sighed and moved on. After another hour, he called for them to land.

He led them into the locker rooms and looked at them. They were all drenched and tired.

"Look," James said, "I know that everyone's a bit on edge lately. But if we want to get the cup this year, we have to trust each other and focus. I don't care what's going on off the pitch, but on the pitch, we're a team. Act like one." He turned and walked out angrily.

xoxo

Lily and her friends in other years and other houses had become considerably closer since her usual friends were no longer speaking to her. In the common room, Lily sat with fifth year Julie Hall. Lily liked Julie a lot, the only problem was that she was in the James Potter Fan Club. But Lily looked past that usually, because Julie was nice.

Lily and Julie were happily talking most of the night, but around midnight Julie went to sleep. Lily stayed up reading in an armchair by the fire. Then, Remus sat down in the armchair next to her. She ignored him.

"Hello, Lily," he greeted softly.

She ignored him.

"Please tell me you're not mad," Remus groaned.

Lily took a deep breath and looked up at him. "Why ever would I be mad?" she asked, her voice mockingly sweet.

"I don't know, honestly," Remus said. "But you haven't spoken to me for a few days. Is it because I couldn't patrol with you? I am sorry about that, but I was sick."

"Oh, don't worry, I know," Lily said, her voice still terrifyingly sweet. "It's not your fault. But you're right. I am mad at you."

"Why?" Remus asked, earnestly. He leaned forward looking pleadingly at her with wide eyes.

"Well," Lily hissed, all the anger she felt towards him forced into that one word, "let's think. James knew about my father. And the only other person who knew about that, who's even remotely connected to James is—" she pretended to think for a moment "—oh, that's right! You."

"Lily!" Remus said, hurt. "You can't possibly think I told James about that!"

"How else did he find out?" Lily asked.

"I… I don't know," Remus said, defeated. He lowered his head, not looking at her.

"He said it himself. You four tell each other everything," Lily said. She got up, and started to leave. But then, she turned back to him and said, "You know, I'm really not surprised by James's horribleness, but I am really disappointed in you. I thought you weren't like them. I thought you were better than them." With that, she turned and walked to the dormitories.

Remus felt worse than any full moon he had been through yet. But she did raise an interesting question: How had James known?


Thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed. Reviews make me happy, so if you liked this chapter follow, favourite, and review. Reviews can be good or bad, as long as they're nice. I appreciate all feedback as it helps me write. Stay gorgeous and i'll see ya next time!

~Jill
MissSlytherinxoxo

XOXO