a/n-sorry for the long wait. as of monday...well, i'm hoping for the best with my soon-to-not-be extinct home internet. enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Six

As Sirius got up from the Gryffindor table and followed his classmate out of the Great Hall, he was nothing short of confused. Why on earth would Lily Evans, of all people, want to talk to him?

It surely couldn't be anything to do with Head duties. James was the Head Boy, not Sirius. And Lily obviously wasn't looking for James, either, as she had just spoken to him moments before and had appeared to be totally aware of the fact that it was James she was speaking with. And—Sirius shuddered to think of it—she was most certainly not asking me anything about any sort of homework they could possibly have due in class that day, which Sirius quite obviously knew nothing about. Remus would be the one to ask about that sort of thing.

So, in short, Sirius Black had no idea why he was following Lily Evans out of the Great Hall—and away from a quite spectacular lunch—to talk about who knew what. Sirius was immediately thankful that Lily's goal in life was not to become one of those touchy-feely muggle doctors who always wanted to sit down and talk about feelings—therapists, Remus had called them on the many occasions Sirius and James had been driving him insane. That brightened the outlook of whatever his conversation with Lily was supposed to be about considerably.

Lily led Sirius to a secluded corner of the Great Hall, opposite the giant hourglasses recording house points. Even as Lily patiently waited for Sirius to catch up with her, he saw a few emeralds fall to the bottom of Slytherin's hourglass.

"So…" Sirius began slowly when Lily did not immediately begin speaking. "What's up, Evans?"

"I wanted to speak to you about James." Lily replied hesitantly.

"What about him?" Sirius asked cautiously. "And why even ask me? You could just talk to him yourself."

Lily just shook her head. "You're his best friend. I gather there are some things about him you might be able to…help…me with." She finished delicately.

"Like…?" Sirius prompted.

"Why does he keep asking me if I hate him?" Lily questioned. The glint in her eyes told Sirius quite plainly that James' constant nagging was clearly driving Lily insane.

"Ah…yes, that." Sirius began. "No idea." He paused, a thoughtful expression one rarely saw on Sirius appearing on his face just then. "Well, actually I suppose I do. But it's long and complicated, and it has a long a complicated story behind it that I'm not even sure I understand." He frowned now. "Actually…I think the back story centers entirely around something I said." He shook his head slightly. "Sorry, Evans, it's one of those strange things that James does. Although, truth be told, he does have good intentions."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Been spending some time with Remus, have you?"

"Why does no one think I can speak intelligently?" Sirius demanded. "First James, and now you. Jeez…Remus was right—you two are meant for each other."

"Oh?" Lily inquired, eyebrow rising ever higher. "Remus said that, did he?"

"Don't tell him I told you so." Sirius said swiftly. "No one's supposed to know that I'm supposedly helping Remus in his attempts to get you and James together with a plan that Remus doesn't even have but just theorizes about daily."

"I see…," Lily said slowly. "Moving on, there was something else I wanted to ask you about James."

Sirius looked at her expectantly.

"It kind of goes along with the first one." Lily said, putting off asking he question. "I suppose I could have asked you before…but, anyway, does James hate me? I mean, he keeps asking me if I hate him. Does he want me to hate him?"

"Oh yeah." Sirius said lightly. "That's just about the only thing I understand about his crazed thinking. James' goal is to get you to hate him."

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to achieve?" Lily asked slowly.

"Erm…happily ever after?" Sirius offered. "I'm not entirely sure. But in James' book, you hating him is supposed to be a good thing."

"And you don't think that's odd in any way, do you?" Lily continued her questioning.

"Well, I may not feel as strongly about it as Remus does," Sirius began, "But I can't really say I'm a fully supporter of this whole you-hating-Jamesie plan. It just seems to me to be a bit of a let-down after you actually hating him for the past six years."

"Hmm…it does, doesn't it?" Lily said a bit ponderingly, more to herself than to Sirius. "The only problem," She continued, now definitely in full conversation solely with herself, "Is that I've never really hated him."

"Say that again." Sirius requested.

"Huh?"

"You just said you 'never really hated James.'" Sirius said with an accusatory tone. "Do you have any idea how much my ears have suffered through the years because you 'hated' James?! I'm surprised they even still work!"

"Think positively, Sirius," Lily remained calm although Sirius was quite plainly shouting at her. "At least it hasn't affected your hair."

Sirius' eyes went wide as the plates he wasn't using to not eat lunch. "Oh…that would be bad…I don't even want to think of the nightmare it would be if my hair were anything less than its current perfection."

"You've seriously been spending too much time with Remus." Lily stated.

"Ha ha, very funny." Sirius muttered at the unintentional pun.

"Look, here's the bottom line, Sirius." Lily said. "I wanted to talk to you, because I need a better understanding of what's going on inside of James' head."

"Why would you want to understand that?"

"Because…" Lily began but immediately trailed off. Her gaze drifted to the hourglasses across the hall. "Have you noticed anything peculiar about James this year so far?"

"If you're referring to his blatant preference for not pranking people, then yes, I have." Sirius replied. "Otherwise, that'd be a solid no."

"He's stopped asking me out." Lily stated. "It all boils down to that." She sighed, still not looking at Sirius. "I can't believe I'm telling you any of this. In fact, I wasn't even planning on talking to you at all today until I saw you talking to him in the Great Hall." She paused and took a deep breath. "A year ago…a few months ago, and I would have loved the fact that James had stopped asking me out. Now, however, I'm not that lucky."

"So, let me get this straight." Sirius said when Lily didn't continue. "The whole reason you wanted to talk to me right now, combined with what you're saying now, all means that you've decided to actually like my little Jamsie?"

"Isn't he older than you?" Lily asked, avoiding admitting the answer to Sirius' question.

"It's definitely a possibility." Sirius said offhandedly. "But that's not the point. I asked you whether or not you like James as more than just…well, a regular everyday type of person."

"Well, I suppose I do." Lily said slowly. "I'm not sure why, but I do."

"He'd be pleased, if you told him."

"I highly doubt that." Lily said. "Have you ever seen his reaction to me telling him that I hate him?"

"Of course." Sirius said with a shrug. "He's always ecstatic about it. But now that you've gotten me thinking about it, I think I've remembered the story behind that."

"Yes?" Lily prompted impatiently.

"James has some convoluted thought that it's better for you to hate him than for you to be totally indifferent about him." Sirius said. "His reasoning—which was originally Remus', as I recall—Is that, if you hate him, than you're actually taking the time to feel some sort of emotion for him whether it be hate…or, what he really wants: love."