'Here we go again, I kind of want to be more than friends.'

The Day After

"Potter, I swear, this better not be a joke."

"It's not! They're in here!"

Riley was woken up by James and Lily's voice's outside of the broom closet, now starting an argument. She was nuzzled into Sirius' neck and felt his arm over her waist. She sighed as she felt her cheeks redden.

"Sirius," she whispered. "Sirius, Lily and James are outside."

"Five more minutes," he mumbled.

"No, now."

Riley moved away from him and he removed his arm from her waist, muttering a sorry. The pair stood up and put the brooms back to where they had previously been and Sirius folded up the invisibility cloak. Riley opened up the door to reveal Lily and James arguing.

Lily stopped and turned to them.

"Why were you in there?"

"The Fat Lady wasn't at the portrait when we arrived back last night."

"What were you doing out late last night anyway? We had a detention!" Lily asked, folding her arms over her chest.

"We had business to attend to," Sirius shrugged but beside them, Riley froze. She had completely forgotten about detention with McGonagall. "Now do you mind? I think we should go get ready for class."

"As a prefect-"

"Moony didn't stop us," Sirius said. "He's a prefect. Why don't you go discuss it with him."

X

Riley got dressed quickly and looked into the mirror. The bun she had put in last night had long strands of hair hanging out of it. She sighed and pulled it out letting her hair fall down her back. It had went curly from the bun so she cleaned it up with her wand.

She smiled half-heartedly into the mirror and her eyes flickered at Mary's make-up bag. She never wore make-up. Only at dinner's with her parents and family friends. She opened the bag up revealing hundreds of cosmetics. She dug through the bag and found the mascara. She pulled the top off and looked back to herself.

Would Sirius like it?

Riley shook her head. What on earth made her ask herself that? She put the mascara back into the bag and put it back where it originally sat.

She grabbed her bag from the bottom of her bed and opened the door.

"We're talking," Lily said and entered the room.

"Lily, I've not had breakfast yet!" Riley moaned. "Can we not talk later?"

"No! You were out past curfew last night and I demand to know why!"

"It was nothing," Riley shrugged. "We went down to the kitchens."

"With Potter and Black?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep."

"So why did Potter return alone?"

"He left early."

Lily seemed to consider the answer and moved out of the way to let Riley past. Riley smiled at her, declaring a win and walked by her. As she walked down the stairs to the common room she heard Lily run up behind her.

"By the way," she whispered into Riley's ear. "You shouldn't blush so much around Sirius. He might think you like him or something."

Riley stopped, open mouthed as Lily skipped by her, winking at Riley as she passed a cheeky smile on her face.

"Lily Evans!"

Riley cried, running after her.

"What?" Lily asked innocently.

"Where did that come from?" Riley exclaimed.

"You've been doing it a lot recently. Especially this morning…" Lily said and then gasped. "Did you two-?"

"No! Oh my God, no!"

Lily shrugged.

"Sorry, had to ask. So…do you like him?"

"What?" Riley asked. "No! Of course I don't. Not in that way. He went out with Claudia for the love of Merlin!"

"Ok, ok. Keep your knickers on! Let's go get food."

When they entered the Great Hall, Riley looked directly towards the Ravenclaw table, in search of Claudia, Victoria and Regina but she couldn't see them.

Riley took a seat next to Remus at the table.

"Morning," she greeted him.

Remus only nodded. Riley looked at him. He looked deathly pale and his face was sunken.

"Remus, are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine…" Remus replied. "I'm not feeling to great, really. I think I'll go see Madam Pomfrey."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, no. I'll be alright. I'll see you later."

He nodded at Sirius and James and got up and left the table.

"So, have you saw Claudia around?" Sirius asked Riley.

"No, I haven't. I've not saw the other two either," she replied. "But, what I want to know is why they woke up."

Riley's eyes rested on James who shifted on his seat.

"What did you do, Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"I meant to only unfreeze the other two but I forgot it would work on Claudia too," James explained. "I forgot we were going to do it once everyone was done."

"What's done is done," Riley shrugged. "Claudia is now walking around with only half an eyebrow on."

The three of them laughed at the image when Lily shot them a dirty look from down the table.

"Are we in Care of Magical Creatures first?" Riley asked them.

"Yep," Sirius replied. "Then Muggle studies."

"Let's start heading down."

X

On her way down to Care of Magical Creatures, Riley kept looking around anxiously trying to see if Claudia was around. She knew that if she had went to Madam Pomfrey, she wouldn't be able to fix her eyebrows ASAP. Hair re-growing potions usually took a full 24 hours to brew.

Sirius and James were walking close and seemed to be talking seriously about something for once. Riley put as much space as she could between the two incase she accidentally heard something she wasn't meant to. If it concerned her or they felt she needed to know, they would let her know.

As she walked, she thought about Lily's idiotic assumption. There was no way Riley liked Sirius in that way. She had despised him for the last four years! It wasn't that she didn't find him good looking because there was no doubt that he wasn't. But…no, she couldn't like him. Sirius was arrogant, sarcastic, mean. He was also fun to be around. That was the only good thing, though. There were too many faults that Riley couldn't stand. So, no. She didn't like him

Claudia had liked him and whatever Claudia likes is a stay away zone but she and Claudia were not the type of sisters that would never dare betray each other… .

Riley happened to look at Sirius at the exactly wrong moment. He was laughing and Riley just happened to notice his smile. It melted her heart. It was so warm and so real. His grey eyes were sparkling and his hair was just falling perfectly.

She looked away just as he turned to her so she could hide her blush. She was going to murder Lily.

X

The first four classes of the day that Riley was in had Sirius in them. And in all of him, he sat near or beside her. In Care of Magical Creatures, you could sit anywhere and out of habit, James, Sirius, Peter, usually Remus and Riley sat together. Then, Sirius sat next to Riley in Muggle Studies. In History of Magic he sat at the desk behind her and in Defence Against the Dark Arts, he was behind her too.

He was everywhere and she could not escape.

As soon as Defence was finished, Riley darted up and caught up with Lily who was walking with Mary.

"Mary! You don't mind if I steal Lily for two seconds? I need to talk to her about something privately."

"Er, no, of course not," Mary replied, uncertainly. "I'll just see you both at lunch."

As Mary walked away, Riley rounded on Lily.

"You! I hate you so much right now, it is unbelievable!"

Lily looked shocked and scared. "What did I do?"

Before Riley told her, she looked around the hallway that was slowly emptying out.

"I fancy Sirius Black and it is all your fault, Lily Evans!" Riley said in a hushed whisper, just incase. "If you hadn't of put the idea in my head, I would not be in this predicament!"

Lily was smiling. "It's not a predicament!"

"It is! He went out with Claudia. I cannot go out with someone who went out with her for Merlin's sake!"

"I think your blowing things way out of proportion, Riles."

"I'm not!" Riley said. "If she finds out I like him, she'll kill me. I'm not even joking!"

Lily laughed and hooked her arm through Riley's.

"Ok, Riles. Whatever you say."

X

The rest of the day wasn't so bad. Claudia never turned up at lunch either and Riley got a break from Sirius in Ancient Runes and he didn't sit anywhere near her in Transfiguration. Though, she was terrified. McGonagall had been giving her looks all through the class and she knew she was in deep trouble.

Once the bell went, McGonagall called for Sirius and Riley. Riley, being at the front was at her desk in a second and with the look McGonagall was giving her, it felt as though Sirius was taking forever on purpose.

"I would like to know why it was only Miss Evans that turned up for her detention last night."

"Sorry, Professor," Sirius replied. "It completely slipped our minds. Riley and I were in the library studying."

"It still does not give you both the right not to attend detention for doing wrong," McGonagall replied. "All of next week, you will both serve detention."

Riley nodded in response.

"Now off you go."

Sirius and Riley both turned and left the classroom.

As soon as they were out, Riley turned to Sirius.

"Good cover story. I think she believed it."

"Well," Sirius smiled, "I wouldn't think she would like to hear the truth, would you?"

"You're right," Riley grinned and then a sudden though hit her. "I wonder how Remus is…He never showed up for anything today. It's not like him."

"I'm sure he's fine," Sirius turned away from looking at her. "He'll probably be up in the dorm, eating some chocolate."

Riley laughed. "Probably. But he is off ill quite a lot, isn't he?"

Sirius gave her an unsure look. "You think so?"

"Yeah. Maybe he's not. It might just be me," she said and they continued their walk in silence.

They approached the Fat Lady and gave her the password and entered the common room. Lily and Mary were sitting next to the window. Riley said goodbye to Sirius and went and joined them. Sirius went straight up to his dormitory.

"Is Moony down there?" he asked James and Peter.

"I think so. Probably," James said, peeking out at the window.

"When are we leaving?" Peter asked.

Sirius and James looked at each other as if silently deciding and James turned back to Peter.

"Right after dinner."

X

Sirius, James and Peter entered the Great Hall at the very start of dinner and started to stuff the food prepared down their throats. Riley later joined them, Lily and Mary sitting further away a little. The Great Hall was starting to fill up and Riley gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth.

Sirius dropped his spoon.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

She only pointed over the hall. Sirius followed and saw a girl wearing a hat walking furiously fast to the Ravenclaw table.

"You don't think it's-?"

"Lily!" Riley called. "Are we allowed to wear baseball caps?"

"Inside? No," Lily shook her head. "Why?"

"I suggest you go speak to the Ravenclaw prefects. A girl in their house is wearing one."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Lily was up and off. Riley and Sirius watched in glee as the Ravenclaw prefect went over to Claudia who started shaking her head furiously. He then walked down to the teacher's table and spoke to Flitwick, who stood up and left the table.

Every head in the hall turned as they watched the tiny teacher who never left the head table, walk down his own house table.

Claudia had turned around and his voice piped through the Great Hall.

"Miss Martinez, your hat is not apart of the school uniform. I'm afraid you will have to remove it."

Riley bit her lip in excitement as Claudia slowly reached up and took off the hat. Lucky for Riley and Sirius, Claudia was sitting facing them and the two of them along with many others burst out laughing.

Madam Pomfrey must of not had any hair growing potion on her because Claudia still only had half an eyebrow. Riley buried her face into Sirius shoulder who was shaking with laughter.

Claudia let out a frustrated cry and ran out of the Great Hall. Poor Professor Flitwick was left standing looking half amused and half stunned.

Woo! A long chapter! Partaaaay! I have a funny feeling you guys might like this one so leave a review and let me know, okay?

Abbey

xoxo