Chapter 9

The entire way home, Sirius pestered James about why Remus was still mad at him.

"Am I really going to be persecuted for the rest of my life for a stupid mistake I made?"
"Looks that way," James said.

"Who else knows? What did he mean by that?"

"Longbottom and Evans know," James told him.

"Evans knew?!"

"Yes, she knew," James said.

"How?"

"Frank's father let it slip that there was a student at Hogwarts that was a werewolf and once they knew what they were looking for, it wasn't hard to figure out who it was."

Sirius gritted his teeth and asked, "So why isn't he mad at Evans?"

"Because Evans didn't tell anyone!" James yelled.

They entered the home, where James immediately headed toward his room. He passed his mother's house elves as they cleaned. Sirius followed him, lighting up a cigarette.

"Don't smoke in the house! My mum will kill you!" James said, turning round to steal Sirius's cigarettes.

"She's out of town for a few days, mate. She didn't tell you?" Sirius said.

"No!"

"She and Mrs. Spears went to Paris."

"In that case, give me a fag," James said, pointing to Sirius's box of cigarettes.

They both lit up their cigarettes and walked to James's bedroom, where he dropped off his trunk and other bags.

"So how's it been?" James asked, sitting on his bed to change his shoes.

"How's what been?" Sirius asked.

"Being here. At home with my mum," James responded.

"Oh…it's been…," Sirius sighed, searching for words, "it's been…wonderful."

"Wonderful? Why?"

"What do you mean, why? It just was," Sirius said.

"What have you been doing all this time?" James asked him.

"Sleeping," Sirius replied. He paused and then said, "But not alone."

James smirked, "So that's why you're so cheery."

"You should try it some time."

"I do actually, thanks," James said.

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"None of your business," James said. "What about you? Who have you been…with?"

"I can't tell you," Sirius said.

"Fine. I haven't been with anyone since Emily. So tell me, who?" James wanted to know.

"I seriously cannot tell you," Sirius repeated.

"Padfoot!"

"James, I can't," Sirius said, looking at him earnestly.

"It's Mary again, isn't it?"

"No!"

"Why can't you tell me?"

"She asked me not to tell anyone," Sirius said, shrugging.

"Then why'd you bring it up?"

"In case you worry when I don't come home some night. I'll be at her place," Sirius said.

"Does my mother know?"

"Know the girl or know I'm seeing someone?"

"Both."

"She knows the girl. She knows I'm seeing someone. She does not know that said girl is the girl I'm seeing."

"Uh huh," James muttered, nodding.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well, I kinda saw Spears staring at you when we were at the station," Sirius said.

James grumbled something unintelligible.

"What was that?" Sirius asked loudly.

"She wants to get back together," James said clearly.

"And you…?"

"I don't know," James said distinctly. He stood and walked to his trunk, calmly unpacking all his things.

"Why not?"

"Evans," James said.

"Oh, James, not this again," Sirius sighed disgustedly. "I thought maybe you'd given up on that."

"Something happened," James said suddenly.

"With you and Evans?"

"Yes."
"Well, what?!"

James smiled and proceeded to explain the whole situation to Sirius.

"And no one else knows?"

"No."
"Not even Mary?" Sirius asked.

"No," James confirmed.

"Wow," Sirius said quietly.

An owl swooped into James's room and dropped a letter off in Sirius's lap. He tore open the letter and began to smirk.

"Who's it from?"

"My lady friend," Sirius said, standing. "I've got to go see her."

"Right now?"

"Yes!" Sirius said.

He stood from his chair and Disapparated instantly. He landed in the middle of the West End in London, walking up to a townhome. He rang the bell and a short time later, the door was opened by a strikingly beautiful brown haired woman. She was tall and thin, in her late thirties and wearing a silk chemise.

"What took you so long?" she asked, pulling him into the house. The woman shut the door and began to kiss Sirius as he entered the house. This was Libby Weston, a woman nineteen years his senior. Libby Weston was Mr. Potter's former secretary and very close to the family. On an evening visit to see Mrs. Potter for dinner in April, Mrs. Potter demanded that Sirius take Libby home for safety. He walked her four blocks in complete silence, until they reached her door.

"You're cute. You don't have a girlfriend to hang out with? You'd rather have dinner with Caroline and myself?" Libby asked him as they walked to her door.

"Used to have a girlfriend," he shrugged.

"Well thank you for walking me home," she said. "I know Caroline appreciated it as well. And thank you for having dinner with two old ladies such as us."

"No trouble," Sirius said, sighing. "And you're not old."

"I am," she said.

"No," Sirius said, smiling. "You're beautiful and…Merlin, if I were older or you were younger or…something, I would—"

Sirius couldn't finish his sentiment because Libby kissed him. Since then, they had been seeing one another regularly without Mrs. Potter's knowledge. However, there was one other thing that they had to careful about. Libby Weston was married.

Libby would owl Sirius when to come over and they would begin their clandestine affair, smoking cigarettes and drinking wine after they had finished.

"So let me get this straight," Libby started, "you used to date Alston MacDonald's youngest daughter?"

"Yes," Sirius confirmed, referring to Mary.

"And he didn't try to kill you?"

"Oh, he tried," Sirius laughed. He inched closer to Libby, trying to kiss her. "I run fast though."

"He's a very bad man," Libby said.

"I know," Sirius said.

"What about his daughter?"

"She's getting worse with age," Sirius said. "Very easily influenced."

"I can't believe you dated her," Libby chuckled.

"I was young."
"You're still young," Libby corrected him.

Sirius was quiet for a moment and then said, "No one knows about us, right?"

"Hm?"

"No one knows that we're a thing?"

"I don't think so. I haven't told anyone," she said. "Have you?"

"I told James I was seeing someone, but not who it was or anything about you."

"Just that you're shagging someone?"

"Yes," he said. Libby rolled on top of Sirius's body and began to stroke her fingers up and down his body.

"Do you have other friends besides James?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Who?"

"I doubt you know them," Sirius laughed.

"I might. Mr. Potter talked about James's friends a lot," she said.

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Know him."

"Remus Lupin."

"Oh, the wer-"

"How do you know about that?" Sirius asked in surprise. He sat up in bed, causing Libby to roll of him for a moment.

Libby sighed, "Harry was concerned at first. You know, that James would get hurt being friends with him. It's good that you're friends with him. You're a good person."

"Not that good of a person," Sirius mumbled.

"Why do you say that?"

"I sold him out. I got drunk and told someone where to find him one night while he was transforming."

Libby giggled.

"It's not funny," Sirius said. "He won't talk to me."

"Make it right then."

"How?"

"I think that's for you to decide," she said.

Days later, Sirius arrived at Remus's home in Nottingham. Sirius rang the bell and after a few moments, the door flew open to reveal Remus who was in a white hot rage.

"Hi," Sirius said quietly.

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Now's not a good time!" Remus insisted. As he said this, a beautiful blonde woman walked out the front door of Remus's home screaming at him in French. Remus yelled back in French and Sirius was completely confused.

The woman made a final speech in French and then promptly disapparated. Remus was speechless.

"Moony, you OK?" Sirius asked him. Remus shook his head and then headed back into the house. Sirius followed, unsure of what had just happened. Remus sat by himself at the kitchen table, staring off into space.

Sirius cautiously sat down next to him and noticed Remus was staring off into space.

"Who was that?"

"Huh?"

"Who was that? The girl?"

"What are you doing here?" Remus asked him, ignoring Sirius's first question.

"I came to talk to you," Sirius told him.

"I really, really don't want to talk," Remus said, standing and snapping out his trance.

"Who was that, Moony? The girl?" Sirius persisted.

Remus began walking out of the kitchen and down the hallway to his bedroom with Sirius following.

"Moony, I'm not leaving, so you might as well tell me," Sirius said.

"Her name is Adeline," Remus said, sitting down on his bed and leaning back into the pillows.

"Interesting name," Sirius said, sitting down at Remus's desk.
"She's French," Remus sniffed.

"So I gathered. She break up with you?"

"I don't know. We're…I don't know what we are," Remus said quietly.

"Does she uh…does she know?"

"Well, I don't know. Have you met her yet? Because if you have met her, I'm sure she does know," Remus snapped.

"I can see this is going to go on for a bit then, huh?"

"Yes…"

"Well, if she did break up with you, you should go find someone new. Because…you're a nice person. And you deserve to be happy. Or…at least to get laid," Sirius said.

Remus smirked. "I'm not going to forgive you immediately, Padfoot."

"I respect that," Sirius said.

"But thank you," Remus said.

"You can punch me in the mouth if you want," Sirius suggested.

"No thanks," Remus laughed.

"Well, do something mean to me!"

"No. I'm not stooping to your level," Remus said.

"I can respect that as well," Sirius replied.

Lily's mother passed away a week after the term had ended. Since then, she spent her days watching the television with her sister and sister's boyfriend, Vernon. Her father had resigned from his position in Parliament and stopped working. He sat in his office at home and sobbed, while Lily and Petunia listened hopelessly.

"I'm going to go get some water. Do you want anything?" Vernon asked Petunia, getting up from the sofa. Petunia shook her head and sighed, listening to their father sob uncontrollably. She turned to Lily, who stared straight ahead at the TV.

"Can't you do something?" Petunia asked her.

"What?"

"With your wand?" Petunia said.

"You can't fix broken hearts with magic. Believe me, I've tried," Lily said.

The doorbell rang and Vernon walked to the door and opened it quickly to reveal Frank Longbottom standing at the doorway holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Can I help you?" Vernon asked.

"I'm here to see Lily."

"Oh, come in," Vernon said. Frank walked into the home and into the living room where Lily sat watching TV.

"Lily," Frank said quietly. Lily turned to look at him and her mouth dropped.

"Frank. What are you doing here?"

"Heard about your mother," he shrugged. Lily stood from her stop to greet him. "Brought these flowers for you. I know they're your favorite."

"Thank you," Lily said, smelling the flowers.

"Lily, don't be rude, introduce Frank," Petunia said. Lily gritted her teeth and turned to Vernon.

"Vernon this is Frank. Frank this is Vernon, Petunia's boyfriend," Lily said kindly.

The two men shook hands while Petunia watched carefully.

"Frank is Lily's ex-boyfriend," Petunia said. "He cheated on her."
"Petunia!" Lily scolded.

"Well, he did," Petunia said, sighing.

Lily grabbed Frank's hand and led him away from her sister and Vernon. They traveled up the stairs and to Lily's room, where Lily promptly locked the door.

"Sorry," she said.

"No. Don't worry about it," he said. Frank sat down on Lily's bed and smiled.

"You didn't have to come by," Lily said.

"I know," he said. "I just wanted to make sure you were OK."

"I'm fine," she said, staring at her shoes.

"How's your father?"

"Oh…he's…not well," Lily said, walking over to the bed to sit with him.

"How are you?" he asked, inching closer to her and putting his hand on her leg.

"Uh…," she started. "Things are kind of just…foggy right now. Very, very foggy."

"I miss you," Frank said. He moved his head toward her and attempted to kiss her, but Lily turned her face so his lips hit ear. Frank moved his lips down from her ear and to her neck and back up to her lips.

"That's um…please stop," Lily breathed. Frank stopped kissing her and then looked into her eyes.

"Do you really want me to stop?"
Her mind began racing to what James Potter had told her weeks ago. She would do stupid, stupid things this summer holiday.

She finally answered Frank, "No."

A while later, Frank and Lily left her bedroom only to be met by Petunia.

"Oh, you're still here," Petunia said, looking at Frank.

"Leaving now," Frank said. He smiled at Lily and then walked down the stairs and out of the house.

Petunia simply stared at Lily.

"What?"
"Are you back together?"

"Uh…I don't know," Lily said.

"You shouldn't be with him," Petunia said.

"Why? You've never liked him anyway."

"I've never liked him because I knew from the very beginning he was a rat," Petunia spat.

"What?"

Petunia turned round and walked into her bedroom. Lily followed obediently.

"I thought you just…you know, hated him because…just because!" Lily said.

Petunia shook her head and began to fold her laundry.

"At first I thought he was nice. I thought it was nice that you had gone to a completely different world and…made friends. Had a boyfriend," Petunia offered. "A boyfriend that wasn't Severus Snape."

Lily smiled.

"Do you ever see him?" Petunia asked.

"Occasionally," Lily said.

"Dad saw him lurking around the house the other day. Did he tell you?"

"No," Lily said.

"He's trouble, Lily," Petunia said. "And so is Frank. You will be miserable with him."