Hey everyone, here's the next chapter. It's more of a filler than anything, but let me know what you think anyway. Please and thank you. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 9

The first thing Lily noticed the next morning was that Summer was absent from her bed. Despair overcame her as she remembered the ordeal the girl had suffered, and all to please Robyn. What had surprised her most was that last night she had seen the real Summer, and she had been nothing like the girl she had been pretending to be for the past seven years. In fact, now that Lily thought back, Summer wasn't always that way. When they started sharing a room in First Year, Summer had actually been quite friendly and even a little shy, but then she started hanging out with Robyn and that lot, and she became a total cow.

Lily couldn't fathom having to pretend you're someone you're not in order to be accepted by your 'friends.' Faith would never expect her to act a certain way and vice versa.

The room was quit, but for the soft snores coming from behind the curtains of the other girls' beds. Lily made her way to the bathroom--thankful that it was Sunday, meaning she didn't have to deal with classes after such an eventful day--and drew herself a hot bath. The good thing about a general Sunday, the others didn't wake up for a few more hours so she had plenty of time to soak in the bath and interruptions were very rare.

Stripping of her clothes, she stepped into the tub and slid down until, allowing the warm water to loosen her muscles. She let her mind go blank; there was no schoolwork, no snobby girls, no Voldemort, no Head duties, just her and the water. This was her drug of choice: baths.

Sometime later, when she was all pruned, Lily stepped out of the tub and wrapped a white, fluffy towel around her body. Re-administering the towel after using a Drying spell on her body and hair. She brushed her teeth quickly and relished in the clean, refreshing feeling.

When she finally left the bathroom, Carmen was gone and Faith was sitting up in bed, stretching.

"Good morning," Lily said, cheerfully on the way to her trunk.

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled her friend. The only time Faith was grouchy in the morning was on weekends, when she would have liked to sleep in late but woke up before she felt she was fully ready to.

"Faith, you do this every weekend," Lily began, as she took out Muggle clothes to wear. "You know you're not going to sleep in the way you hoped so why does it always upset you?" she asked, though she knew she wouldn't have it any other way. Truth be told, she didn't know what she would do if she woke up on Saturday or Sunday morning and Faith was chipper.

Faith merely grumbled as she stood and made her way to the bathroom.

"I'm heading down to breakfast," Lily called. "Do you want me to wait for you?"

"You'd better wait for me," Faith said, her voice cheerful. Lily knew that the prospect of food would cheer her friend up.

With a slight shake of the head, Lily went to the task of making her bed. She was a bit of a perfectionist; she couldn't function the rest of the day unless she knew that her bed was made nice and neat. She was smoothing out her pillow when Faith emerged from bathroom. Lily waited as Faith threw on a pair of jeans over the shorts she slept in. Another thing Lily didn't get was how people could traipse around in their nightclothes; she had to be decent before she could go present herself to the world. By decent she didn't necessarily mean make-up, but just clothes that would cover her sufficiently more than her flimsy nightgown. However, Faith didn't care what people thought, Lily suspected that she would go to class in her pajamas if the Professors would allow it.

"Okay, I'm ready," Faith announced, running a brush through her hair before slipping her feet into flip-flops.

The two girls left the dorm. On the way to the Great Hall, Lily listened to how Faith couldn't wait to see Dean.

"I don't know how I'm going to make it through the week," she was saying. "I mean, we don't have but a few classes together and even then we don't sit any where near each other. I think we have a free period together on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course, there's weekends, but with all our homework, who knows how much of that we'll actually get to spend together?

"At least we get to have meals together," Faith said, always looking on the bright side of things. "So, what's going on between you and James?"

The question startled Lily. "What do you mean? We're just friends."

"Uh-huh," Faith cooed. "For now maybe."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Lily insisted.

"Okay, whatever you--"

A voice saying, "Guess who," cut Faith's words short as an anonymous pair of hands covered her eyes.

"Dean!" Faith squealed as she spun around and embraced the boy in a hug. And just like that, Lily was practically invisible. Not that she minded, with the way that conversation had been going. Plus, she loved seeing her friend happy.

"How are you, Lily?" Dean asked as he and Faith laced their fingers.

"I'm all right. You?"

"Never been better," announced Dean, with a smile directed at Faith. "After you, my lady," Dean offered, holding the door open for Faith as well as Lily.

The girls thanked him as he wrapped his arm around Faith and followed them to the Gryffindor table. Dean waited until Faith had gotten herself settled on the bench before taking a seat.

"See, I told you he was a gentleman," Faith whispered to Lily with a never-ending smile.

"How come you never do that for me?" Carmen asked her boyfriend.

"Because you would probably call me sexist pigs if I waited for you sit down. I can hear you now, 'Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I'm incapable of seating myself.'"

"Oh, right," said Carmen, as the others chuckled.

"You two know each other so well," Dean said. "You must've been dating for ages now."

"It's been a few years," Carmen answered. "I figure, I've got a good thing going with this one, why break it off?"

"Oh, ha-ha," Kevin retorted, though he wrapped his arm around her waist as Carmen smiled triumphantly. Four people walking over to the table captured his attention. "Well, well, well look who decided to join us. I have to say, Sirius you must be a pro at those Silencing Spells because I didn't even know that Summer had stayed the night in our dorm until I woke up this morning and saw that she was in your bed."

"What?" Carmen inquired indignantly, "You mean you let Summer sleep in their dorm with Sirius but I'm not allowed to stay up there with Kevin."

"Nothing happened," Summer insisted with a blush while taking her seat.

"Summer, this is Sirius we're talking about. Do you really expect us to believe that?" Kevin asked with a smile.

Lily tried to catch James' eye as to discern what he knew of the situation, but he was busy piling eggs on his plate, oblivious to the conversations around him. Lily couldn't help but noticed harshness with which he stabbed at his food--not to mention that he barely said two words to anyone, including Sirius.

Robyn finally joined them a few minutes later, taking her seat next to Summer, who was also being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Aww, the happy couple." Robyn's coo came out sounding more like a sneer; Lily doubted that Robyn had ever cooed at anything in her life. Summer's laughter at a joke--told to her by Sirius--died down a bit as the newcomer accommodated herself.

"Hey, Robyn," Summer replied as if everything between them was wonderful.

"Lily, would you pass me the gravy?" James asked, speaking for the first time all morning.

"Yeah, sure," Lily said. Glancing around for the requested item, she noticed that it was over by Sirius. Uh-oh. She reached over slightly and Sirius handed her the bowl. "Here you go." She placed the dish next to James.

Breakfast had ended and everyone was going their separate ways. Carmen and Kevin were heading to the library; Robyn had already dragged Summer away from the others, so that left Lily, James, Sirius, Faith, and Dean standing outside the Great Hall.

"Hey, Faith, I kind of already made plans with my friends today," Dean explained as his mates approached the group. "But they said I could bring you along if you wanted. We're probably just going to hang out."

"No, go ahead, hang out with your mates today," Faith said, but Lily could hear the regret in her voice.

"It's no problem, really, they're totally cool with it," Dean insisted.

"Yeah," agreed one of his friends, "we've been wanting to meet the infamous Faith that Dean won't quit talking about." The comment brought a blush to Dean's cheeks.

"You've been talking about me, huh?" Faith teased, smiling as she placed a hand on his arm.

"Don't worry, Dean," Lily assured him, "she couldn't shut up about you last night either."

Unlike Dean, the confession didn't bother Faith in the least.

"Oh, really now?" It was Dean's turn to give Faith a look of amusement.

"Are you two coming or not?" Dean's friend asked.

Dean turned to Faith. "What do you say?"

"Sure, why not?" she answered before allowing Dean to take her by the arm and lead her off, his friends following.

When Lily turned back around, she saw Remus and James walking off. "We'll be at the Library," Remus informed them.

Lily was about to head back to her dorm when Sirius' voice stopped her. "Can I talk to you?"

Lily turned back to him. "I take it you didn't tell him," she said, already knowing about what he wanted to talk to her.

"I wanted to, but Summer wouldn't let me. I explained to her that James would understand, but she insisted that she didn't want anyone else to know…"

"So, instead you let your best mate be pissed at you and think you betrayed him?" Lily guessed with an understanding voice.

"James'll get over it, but I've already put Summer through enough. If she doesn't want people to know, then the least I could do is give her that much." Sirius shoved his hands in his pockets and stared down at the floor.

Lily studied him for a second. "Sirius." She placed her hand on his arm and waited until his eyes met hers. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're a bad person."

Sirius nodded, but Lily noticed how his hands balled into a fist in his pockets as his gaze drifted back to the floor.

"Look, if Dumbledore or anyone finds out, I'll take the blame and say that you and James had no idea," he offered in a mutter. "I'll even say that I coerced Summer into it so she doesn't get in trouble."

"How's she doing any way?" Lily asked.

"She cried herself to sleep last night," Sirius said miserably, and it was then that Lily realized that the boy looked like he hadn't slept a wink. "I feel so responsible. I mean, I know she says I shouldn't, that she acted like it was what she wanted, which she did a great job of, but I should've known."

"There was no way you could've known, Sirius. Summer's a great actress. She's fooled everyone into thinking she's someone she's not for the past six years," Lily insisted. "I mean, if anyone is to blame, it's Robyn--she made Summer feel like she wasn't good enough. That she had to be someone else to get her approval."

"And yet she's still friends with her!" Sirius stated angrily. "After all that Summer went through last night, she went back to that--" Sirius calmed himself with a deep breath. "I'm sorry; I just don't get how any one could be friends with someone like that."

"She's been doing it for so long, she doesn't know anything else."