A/N: Thank you all for your lovely words in your reviews and for the follows and favorites. If I was smart, I would really slow down the updating so that I can write ahead and avoid the dreaded block that may come, but since I'm on a roll, I might as well post. Enjoy!

Chapter Seven: Who do I flirt with?

The next day I woke up feeling less depressed. I just needed to talk to Sirius and sort it all out. Maybe he'd break up with me for good, but at least then I could move on. There were plenty of other cute lads to snog at Hogwarts – who needed him?

Still though, the thought of speaking to him was oddly intimidating. As usual, he didn't seem to be bothered in the least by our argument or the fact that we had now not spoken in over a day. He was laughing during Care of Magical Creatures when I arrived with Lily and Dorcas, pointing at Bertram Aubrey's new headgear – an even sturdier looking metal helmet with a buckle – and wiping tears from his eyes. James was laughing beside him but upon seeing Lily, forced himself to simply hold back a grin.

"Oh give it a rest Black!" Lily said nodding kindly at Bertram. "I think he looks cool – like he's from the future or something."

I watched as James' mouth fell open and Sirius' eyebrows twitched together. He met my eyes for the first time in over a day, and for a moment, I thought we were both going to burst into laughter. But then he looked away and rolled his eyes at James.

"There you go Prongs – just borrow Aubrey's helmet and Evans will be all over you," Sirius said.

I fought another smile and sat down on the grass beside Dorcas without looking at Sirius. If I wasn't careful, he'd make me laugh and the quaffle would no longer be in my hands. Dorcas elbowed me and her eyes were shining with mirth, so I squeezed her hand and we both turned to watch Lily with her typical look of rage. Bertram was blushing and muttering to himself. He was probably thinking of a way to correct Sirius' grammar and forgot to stand up for himself.

"Leave him alone," she said firmly and Bertram's eyes fell on her face. He gave her a kind of simpering look and I fought not to laugh again.

I muttered, "I thought he fancied you, Dorcas," and groaned when she shoved me in to the grass. She was so violent!

"Chill Padfoot," James said when Sirius opened his mouth to send another retort at Lily. "You are literally giving me an ulcer."

Lily looked surprised, but Sirius just rolled his eyes and scowled.

"You're just saying that because of her," he muttered, but even so, he gave up on teasing Bertram and leaned back against his hands. His eyes flickered to me and although they looked cool and indifferent – he unexpectedly gave me one of his half-smiles. Because I was so taken aback by the friendly gesture, I didn't respond, and he immediately seemed to lose interest and look away from me towards Kettleburn. It was obviously 'not enough' from my end. Agh, stop it, Kate.

"You know," Bertram said suddenly, glancing at Lily as she sat down with Dorcas and me. "Potter – the term you should have used was 'figuratively' – Black didn't literally give you an ulcer."

There was a pregnant pause and Lily sighed.

"He doesn't do himself any favours, does he?"

Sirius let out his bark-laugh and James furrowed his brow at Bertram.

"Aubrey, shut up before I literally give you a bleeding ulcer."

Lily, Dorcas and I only had one Free all together since they took so many subjects but, annoyingly, they wanted to spend it in the Library – again. I mean I wasn't as allergic to the place as Sirius and James were, but occasionally I quite liked to faff away my time in the Common Room playing Snap or taking a nap or…heh, acting like a prat.

"That's a half rhyme right?" I asked my friends and they stared at me like I had two heads. I made an inward note to write it down and run it by Remus – we'd been writing a song about procrastination and hadn't worked on it in weeks.

"Anyway," I said flipping my hair over my shoulder. "Frees are supposed to be – just that – messing about once in a while."

Dorcas and Lily exchanged a look and Dorcas sighed heavily, pursing her lips in such a Mafalda-like way, I wondered why Lily had been made Prefect when such an uncomical girl existed in our year.

"Free lessons are for studying and taking the pressure off during the highly-stressful NEWT years," she said mimicking McGonagall to a T.

"Oh Minerva my dear, I didn't see you there!" I said, grabbing her hand and shaking it pompously.

Dorcas' pupils disappeared under her eyelids for a moment and I shrieked.

"Alas! I am mistaken – you're clearly Mafalda not Minerva!"

Lily laughed and I grinned as Dorcas swore under her breath. She was très ennuyeux just like my sister.

And then, as if I had summoned her, I heard a voice yell, "Kate!"

Oh bollocks and bugger it all to Bristol. I'd forgotten the Ravenclaw Common Room was near the Library.

"Oh no! Lily – please protect me," I begged as we all stopped and turned to see my sister running towards us, her hair looking frazzled and more out of place than usual. Dorcas gave a slightly evil laugh, and Lily laughed only marginally more kindly when she shoved me away from hiding behind her. I had quite forgotten in the past day and a half that the Marauders had embarrassed Mafalda's boyfriend on my behalf. The news must have only just reached her – swotty Prefect circles weren't as gossipy as the rest of the school. She had halted in front of us now and I braced myself, expecting the worst.

I gave a yelp of surprise however, as she threw her arms around me and I sighed in relief, hugging her back. I raised my eyebrow over Mafalda's head at Lily, who shrugged looking equally puzzled. Dorcas looked a bit putout and I bit back a grin.

"It's okay Maffie," I said, patting her on the head a bit. She let go of me and I was alarmed to see that tears were in her eyes as she looked up at me with concern. It was a very foreign look on her face.

"I just heard what happened with you and Kyle on Tuesday. I couldn't believe it! And he had the nerve to tell me like I was going to yell at you for it!"

"Well," I said, still looking at my friends as their mouths dropped open in surprise. "To be fair to him – I was shouting quite loudly."

"Oh I know – you were probably throwing a tantrum – but he had no reason to yell at you and throw those cards in your face. And he had no right to interfere in your argument like that either. That was your business! It's your Common Room too and if you want to yell – you yell!" she said, stamping her foot.

"Mafalda! Is that you?" I asked in shock and I heard Dorcas give a harrumph of agreement.

My sister laughed, wiping her eyes. "I've finished with him. He has an awful temper. I can't believe he hit your friend Remus as well. Especially when, from what I hear from Marlene, he was trying to keep the peace!"

"He almost hit Sirius too," I said, hoping for a little sympathy towards my boyfriend who she hated. I knew we were fighting, but still – I so rarely had opportunities to hear my sister say kind words about him – I had to take advantage.

Her lips pressed together and she shrugged.

"Well yes, he shouldn't have almost hit him either. Although – I believe the pink hair was your fella's handiwork?"

"Could have been any of them to be honest," Lily said. "It was a huge scuffle."

"Although Sirius does have quite the talent for colour-changing charms," Dorcas added.

"Kyle's seen that they've all lost points, but I took points from him too so it would be fair," Mafalda nodded. "Thank Merlin I'm not in Gryffindor."

I laughed. "They'll win back those points tenfold by the end of the month. We play you in Quidditch in a week and you know how that usually goes! Don't think you'll beat us out of the House Cup again this year!"

My sister laughed and patted me on the back. "We'll see – Mum and Dad have a bet on whose House will win this year. Anyway, I better get off to Transfiguration – I'm very nearly late."

With that, she hugged me, and then a bewildered Lily and a chuckling Dorcas before shooting off down the corridor at top speed.

"Your sister confuses me," Lily said.

At the end of the day, I went down to the Pitch after wolfing down dinner to catch the end of practice. James was bellowing orders at everyone and I wasn't surprised to see them all looking out of breath and annoyed at him. He took Quidditch so seriously – like it was a matter of life or death. Surely he'd let them go to dinner soon – I mean how long can you fly on an empty stomach anyway?

My eyes strayed to where Sirius was chatting to Lizzy. She was blushing as he tossed his Beater bat back and forth between his hands, probably making some awful joke. Ugh. Why did he always seem perfectly at ease whenever we had fights? I was sitting around questioning our whole reason for being together and he was cracking jokes. I saw him nudge Lizzy playfully and watch as she flew off towards James and I felt a stab of jealousy. He hadn't looked at me like that in months. He was used to me now and was getting bored, I was sure of it. Or maybe he was sick of the drama and Lizzy was nice and reasonable, therefore more attractive than me. And I guess she was good at Quidditch and he liked talented people – she did look a bit striking and athletic as she swooped over to the team huddle. I guess it must have been the only place she felt confident – I bet if I tried to talk to her now, she wouldn't even stutter.

Sirius had tried to teach me Quidditch last year when we'd still been in our awkward why-the-hell-hasn't-he-asked-me-out-yet phase, and I'd been trying to impress him. It went pretty abysmally – I was quite good on a broom and had grinned when his eyes did that drift out of focus thing, but once it came to trying to catch the Quaffle, I had fallen apart. Actually fallen apart: I'd been thrown off his broom and ended up dislocating my shoulder and breaking three bones in my arm. Remus and I had come up with one of our best songs while I was in the Hospital Wing – 'You Love Quidditch but it Breaks my Bones' and Sirius had felt so guilty about it, he couldn't even bear to visit me more than once.

As I sighed, I saw his eyes flicker around the Pitch and come to a stop at the stands where I was sitting. I gave him a feeble wave and saw his whole body slump with tiredness – the previous good humour gone in an instant. Just the way every girl wishes their boyfriend would look at them.

After calling something to James, who was barking his head off at a Second Year, Sirius flew over to me and hopped the railing before taking a seat beside me on the bench. James narrowed his eyes slightly but said nothing, simply continued to berate the rest of the team for their apparent incompetence.

"James looks to be in good form," I muttered, still watching him.

Sirius chuckled hollowly. "He has himself convinced we're going to lose the opening match. Never mind that it's Ravenclaw and the last time we played them, we beat them 540 points to 10."

"Well, he was always the reasonable sort," I said, finally turning to face him. He was watching my face with a tense expression that contrasted wildly with the relaxed way he was slumped over the benches.

"Hey," he said, turning the side of his mouth.

"Hello," I said, wanting to jump off the edge of the stands.

"Kate," he sighed. "She's just a mate. Hardly even a mate – just good at Quidditch. You don't need to be jealous."

I fought off a groan and nodded. "I'm not jealous Sirius. I just…"

His eyes suddenly shone with amusement but his mouth didn't give him away - it remained in a grim line. His eyebrows pulled together and after a few painfully quiet seconds, he cleared his throat. "I heard about the Boggart with the Fifth Years."

Merlin! I'd almost forgotten that I was trying to keep that a secret. Since Dorcas and Lily hadn't mentioned anything, I'd just assumed I got away with it. Oh Godric – what if everyone was laughing behind my back?

"She told you?" I asked, nodding my head at Lizzy with my blood boiling with hatred. Why had I even been nice to that horrid snitch of a girl?

"Nah, Krish Kumar did. Don't worry, he said you were brilliant," he said, patting my back. Suddenly, he smirked – his mouth finally betraying him. "So, you reckon I look funny bald, eh?"

I sighed. Trust him not to address the actual problem and tease me instead. I wasn't sure if I liked that or hated it. On one side, it was embarrassing that he knew about my insecurities and I was glad he hadn't pointed them out – although hopefully if this Kumar kid was the one who'd swooned, he hadn't made it seem that bad anyway. On the other side, I wondered – was he not taking my worries seriously just because I'd managed to banish the Boggart in the end? I just stared at him and the smirk faded from his face and he rolled his eyes, looking away from me and back towards the team.

"What?" he asked in a light tone.

Why did he always look so bored when he spoke to me? Why did it always seem like he had something better to do? It was all well and good when you didn't know him: it made him seem mysterious and impossibly attractive – but once you did know him, it was infuriating.

"It hurts my feelings when you flirt with other girls," I said in a tiny voice. Even though I knew Lily and Remus' advice was sound, I still felt stupid for saying it. It made me feel clingy and obsessive and half of the reason Sirius liked me was because I was supposed to be easy-going and carefree.

His eyebrows were screwed up now and it looked as though he was trying to understand a very difficult Arithmancy problem. Which really would have been a feat because he'd never taken the subject.

"But I do it all the time – we joke about it. It's harmless," he said, sounding genuinely confused. It was only because I noted his sincere tone of surprise that I didn't attempt to hit him over the head with his Beater's club.

"Even if it's harmless, it's hurtful. I only joke because I don't want to make a big deal of it," I said twisting my hands in my lap as I looked back at him through my eyelashes.

He laughed shortly and then looked apologetic. "Sorry – just weird to hear you of all people say that."

I smiled stiffly and twirled some hair around my finger. He caught my hand and locked our fingers together.

"You should have said something earlier. I just thought it was part of our act – along with the excessive public displays of affection and the arguing at the top of our lungs. I didn't know I was hurting your feelings."

I laughed this time and elbowed him. "The arguing would never happen if you could keep it in your pants." I regretted the words instantly – it hadn't been exactly what I'd meant, just the first thing that had come into my head.

"Hey!" he said, pulling me to him and looking at me oddly. "I have never cheated on you."

"The flirting!" I argued.

He let me go and looked really offended. He even folded his arms and his mouth twisted into a childish pout. "You do it too!"

"Me?" I snapped in disbelief. "Who do I flirt with? Oh, I suppose I told Frank Longbottom he had a nice haircut last week, but that's only because he's Head Boy and was trying to put me in detention."

Sirius shook his head. "What about Remus?"

My mouth dropped open, but he was still talking.

"Or James or even Peter! You flirt with all of my friends shamelessly!"

I wanted to laugh but I couldn't – not when he actually looked a little anxious as he said the words.

"Sirius! That's not flirting! They're my friends too."

He rolled his eyes. "Right, sure."

We sat in silence with both of us fuming, and soon the sky was getting dark and James had finally let the Quidditch team break up for the evening. Dinner was probably already over – the poor sods. The Dictator flew over with a look of unfamiliar concern on his face and hovered near us. Sirius didn't look up – he was still tapping an erratic beat on the wooden benches beneath us.

"Everything all right?" James asked carefully.

Kind of him and all, but he'd clearly never heard of the phrase 'Read the room' or Pitch or…situation. Whatever.

"Yes. Go away now, please," I said in a stiff voice before I snapped my head towards Sirius. "Sorry…was that too seductive of me?"

James' eyebrows flew up under his fringe and Sirius broke into that abrupt bark-laugh and doubled over with chuckles. Soon, I joined in and James just made a face and flew away calling us "nutters". Sirius threw an arm around me and we continued to laugh until finally, we lay on our backs and looked up at the sky. This was why it was so difficult to split up with Sirius for good – we made each other laugh and even though I couldn't help being manic and hypersensitive sometimes, I really did prefer acting carefree and easy-going. Sirius sighed and hugged me to him and I placed my palm on his chest as we watched the stars get brighter with the darkening sky. It could have actually been quite romantic.

Of course the ponce had to spoil it by standing up and dragging me to my feet before I could even point out the constellation that I knew he was named after.

"Okay – no more flirting with anyone else," Sirius said, wrapping my arms around his neck and placing his on my waist. I looked at him skeptically and he chuckled weakly.

"It'll be like we're married."

He looked a bit ill as he said the words.

"Don't look so thrilled," I mumbled.

"Kate, you know I don't like giving soppy speeches," he sighed, leaning his head back with a painful sounding crack.

"Well, occasionally I like to hear them," I said, pulling his neck down and forcing him to look at me. He looked exasperated and his eyes were mid-roll, if you can imagine it, as he said his next words.

"I like you Kate. I chose you. There's no one else."

And because he looked like he might throw both of us off the side of the stands in humiliation, I forgave him and we kissed. It was all I'd really needed to hear, I suppose, though a few romanticisms might have been nice. But that had never really been Sirius' style.

After stopping in the Kitchens to grab Sirius dinner, we stopped in a corridor to snog for about ten minutes before heading to the Common Room to tell everyone that they could stop worrying about us. We were both smiling when we entered through the Portrait Hole but shockingly none of our friends, who were all sitting together minus Remus, seemed to notice or care that we were holding hands. I cleared my throat and Lily shushed me, so Sirius just shrugged and we collapsed on to the sofa together. James glanced at us and nodded.

"Remus is telling Sarah to stuff it," he said before waving his wand so that we were included in the eavesdropping spell.

"What?" Sirius exclaimed as we turned to watch.

"He's being really nice," Dorcas said, shaking her head at James. "He would never ask anyone to stuff it anywhere."

I heard Sirius and James guffaw and I held back my own grin at the innuendo.

"In any case," I said. "I'm glad he and McDanger aren't getting betrothed. She has awful taste in music."

Peter groaned. "Jenny is going to kill me for this. Kate, this is all your fault!"

Sirius clicked his tongue. "Did you tell him to dump her because of her taste in music?"

"He's not dumping her – they were never going out in the first place," I replied.

"Poor bloke finally gets a snog and you're telling him she's not good enough," James sighed, shaking his head.

I felt a twinge of guilt at this remark but didn't comment – I didn't think Sarah wasn't good enough, just not right for Remus. And he thought so too. This had nothing to do with me.

I turned back to look at Remus and Sarah and noticed that several of the younger kids seemed to be watching with soppy looks on their faces. I was surprised to note that Sarah was wearing a similar expression while Remus spoke.

"You're really brilliant Sarah and I had a great time with you – but I just think we're too different..." he was saying. "I hope you don't hate me for this."

She shook her head but her tongue slipped out to wet her lips. "Is this you playing hard to get, Remus?"

His eyebrows flew up and I felt Sirius snort beside me.

"No, of course not!" Remus replied. "I don't play games like that."

"Mmm-hmm," Sarah said, twirling her hair around her finger as she gazed at him. I wondered idly if I looked that empty-headed when I twirled my hair. I only did it when I was bored or feeling uncomfortable, so I decided I could empathize with Sarah. Maybe she looked like an airhead, but she was probably crying on the inside.

"I'm so sorry, I feel like such an arse. You didn't deserve this," Remus said, his face still creased with guilt and concern. Godric, why didn't he cut himself a break? They'd only known each other three days – surely this was an unnecessary amount of emotion to put in to a brush-off. The last boy I went out with for less than a week had simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sorry" and honestly, that had been enough for me.

"Okay Remus, you go and don't play your games," Sarah smiled and he looked filled with relief before James removed the spell and we turned back to our circle.

"Remus is such a sweetheart," Lily said with a sigh.

"Er, yeah. Good man," James said, running a hand through his hair and ignoring Sirius' scoff.

"Yes, yes, he's brilliant – we all know that. But did you see that look on her face?" I demanded a little too loudly.

Dorcas looked uncomfortable. "Yeah I did. It's almost as if his lack of interest has made her fancy him even more."

Sirius, James and Peter laughed.

"Birds are mental," Sirius said, flicking hair off his eyes and stretching back over the sofa. "Two galleons says she tries to snog him again today."

"Nah, she'll wait until tomorrow," James disagreed.

"Ahhh Jenny is going to kill me!" Peter moaned again, putting his head in his hands. He really looked a bit sad and pathetic. I felt bad that Fringy would act so unreasonably, so I reached over the table and patted his knee.

"Don't worry Pete – I'll take care of this."

Everyone blinked at me. Sirius and James exchanged a look. Cue the Marauder silent conversation as deciphered by Clever Kate: Sirius – 'Isn't she brave and cool with that take charge attitude?' James – 'Do you think Lily thinks I'm a good guy?'

Peter however groaned even louder. "You are just going to destroy things even worse."

"I take offence! I can solve any problem big or small. McDanger is hardly a challenge."

Sirius' mouth twitched and he threw his arm over my shoulder, glancing behind him in the process. He smirked. "Well, good luck with that, Kate. Prongs, I'll take those two galleons."

We all whirled around and saw that Sarah had pulled Remus to her by his tie and pressed her lips to his. He let out a yelp of surprise before his eyebrows creased together and he pulled away from her gently. He said something again, gave her a small smile and headed over to us with his eyes round and his hands awkwardly fiddling with his pockets. Sarah was still watching his back with an intrigued smile on her face and I groaned as Remus sat on the armrest of the sofa beside Sirius.

"Er…hi," he said.

And then James and Sirius burst into hysterical laughter. Peter joined in half-heartedly even though his head was still ducked in worry. Remus just sat there on his armrest looking sheepish and lost and embarrassed and I desperately felt the need to hug him. I resisted though – feeling hyper aware of Sirius' offhand comment about me flirting with him, so instead I just punched Sirius and glared. He rolled his eyes but fell quiet and squeezed my shoulders.

"Are you okay Remus?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"You look really uncomfortable," Lily said and he grunted.

"What are you talking about? I'm completely at ease," he said with a heavy exhale.

I chuckled and leaned over Sirius to pat him on the knee before I hurriedly pulled it back. I'd now patted two Marauder's knees and I couldn't be sure that this wasn't flirtatious in Sirius' eyes.

"Did you hear any of that?" Remus asked, elbowing a still laughing James angrily.

"Only bits," I said. "You were very kind."

He ran his hands through his hair looking stressed. "I am such a prick."

"Relax Moony," James said. "You are the least prickish of us all. Look, she even looks like she still fancies you."

Remus turned in alarm and grimaced when Sarah waggled her fingers at him. When he turned around again, he kicked Sirius who was grinning manically.

"Shut up."

"Don't worry Remus, I'll sort this out for you," I promised.

He looked back at me skeptically. "How? What do you have in mind?"

"Don't you bother yourself with that."

Lily and Dorcas laughed and Remus turned to them looking terrified.

"Oh no…what?"

"It's just…you know, she's got that look," Lily said.

"That Katie look," James grinned, nodding at her.

"Hey, lay off," Sirius said and frowned when James laughed loudly in his face.

I kissed Sirius' cheek. He never usually stood up for me in front of James. Especially not when my alter ego was involved – he must have actually felt bad for fighting with me.

"I will fix this!" I said when I moved away from him.

Remus gave me a half-hearted smile. "Well…thanks then, Kate."

"Not a problem."

Dorcas sighed. "You do know why she's doing this, don't you Remus?"

GLAH. She was the worst. I had almost managed to get away with it without causing any suspicion or alarm!

"Well," I started stiffly shooting my horrid friend a glare. "As soon as we send Sarah on her way, we can move on to Girl Two."

And then, I ran at top speed up to the dormitories, cringing when I heard the usually polite Remus say, "She'd better run."

A/N: Oh Kate, you persistent fool of a girl. :) Thanks for reading.