SUGAR… OH HONEY HONEY…

I never thought I'd get this chapter out of my head. I don't like the fact that it's been two years and it's unfinished! I like a finished story, even if it's crappy… that's why I don't leave the theater no matter how appalling the story has become. Having less questions in my head is preferable.

Anyway… you know the deal: JK Rowling owns everything you recognize and the rest… well, they're mine.



nobody said it was easy... no one ever said it would be this hard... -- coldplay, "the scientist"

~*~*~*~

CHAPTER FIVE: Oh… Sugar!

"Sirius…" Regulus muttered in a typical Slytherin drawl. Yet, he looked as surprised as older brother; and there wasn't a trace of arrogance on his face. He simply didn't expect Sirius to be there. After all, they might be attending the same school, eating in the same Hall… but they weren't exactly treating each other as family anymore. And meeting and greeting wasn't really part of their routine.

Sirius clenched his teeth. After all the efforts he put in avoiding his brother… a moment together with him – of all places – in a smelly, dank room wasn't really on top of his priorities. "I suppose you wouldn't want to be breathing the same air as I do," he muttered through gritted teeth; his eyes glaring in an almost unfamiliar intensity. "I've been mingling with Muggleborns and the stench might sting your sensitive lungs."

James placed a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder. He wanted nothing more than to see Regulus – and the rest of those greasy Slytherins – being dragged down into the bottom of the lake by the Giant Squid; however, it would be much more satisfying if he had the blessing of Dumbledore to do that. He then looked at Regulus as if saying not to make any trouble.

But Regulus was remotely interested in an argument. It was clear that he wanted none of this. James saw no anger or hatred in him. Yet, something there in his eyes… there was something there that James couldn't quite point out.

"You don't understand, said the younger Black."

Sirius shook his head and gave a mirthless chuckle. "I thought I made that clear when I lugged all my things out of that house and never came back to that hole."

Regulus didn't blink. He looked his brother straight in the eyes and said, "I'm doing what I should be doing." He took a step forward; and then stopped when Sirius straightened up to his full height. "You will thank me later," he spoke without emotion but as if he was stating a fact.

"For what? Being a narrow-minded prejudiced –" Sirius stopped himself. This conversation was of no use. He could pull out pointless talks with any other person just for the heck of it – because he was Sirius and he was insane like that. But this, a fruitless discussion with his brother was only stupid the most. He sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, saying, "Bloody hell, I'm getting out of here," and darted out of the Owlery.

* * * * *

Sirius came marching down into the grounds as his best friend followed a few paces behind him. He was breathing deeply – completely frustrated. Walking blindly, not caring where his feet were leading him, he just wanted to get away from that blasted owlery as far as possible.

"Sirius, let it go…" James said in a comforting groan as Sirius violently kicked a lone pebble out of the way.

Sirius stopped on his tracks and James saw his shoulders come up and down, indicating one deep breath. He then put his hands behind his head and continued walking until he found a stone seat under one of the many trees populating the school grounds.

A strong silence hung in the air. James wouldn't even joke about it. Maybe if it was Malfoy up there – then he could joke about it. But it wasn't. It was Regulus – Sirius' estranged brother – or the other way around; for it was Sirius who separated himself from his entire family.

"I know. I did," Sirius cut in through the quiet. "Well I thought I did. But I know you get that it's not actually easy to understand when your whole family is against you. Especially when they're against you for such crooked reasons."

James cleared his throat. "You do know that it's you who's really against them? And good for you, too," he said, stating a matter of fact because as a matter of fact, the Black family beliefs (starting foremost with Purebloods being better than any other wizards and all Muggles) were not actually making any rationale in Sirius' books. And by the time they were in their fifth years, Sirius had packed his belongings which were not tainted with any Black family crest; and lived with the Potters.

"I knew it." It was Remus, emerging from the direction of the lake. His friends turned to look at him curiously. They were flashing perplexed expressions that he turned behind him thinking if he was actually the one they were staring at. "Hell just froze over," he said as he turned back at James and Sirius.

"Mooney!" Sirius suddenly stood up, leaving his crappy mood at the stone seat. "You're supposed to be in the Hospital Wing making sure you're still human!"

Remus smirked. "I'm fine. It's seeing you here actually standing at half past six in the morning that's creeping me out." He paused and then smiled teasingly. "Are you still human?"

"It's Regulus, my brain-washed brother," said Sirius, as his eyes flinched saying the word 'brother'. "Can't figure them out still. Supposed to be blood related. Ha!" He kicked another pebble that was innocently resting just beside his foot and almost hit Remus.

In spite of it, Remus chuckled as he watched the stone barely hitting him. "I thought you've got very well acquainted and used to Mrs. Potter's cooking – even if you're supposed to have your own place now." He smiled, waiting for Sirius' protests – because Sirius had moved out of the Potters last year and got a place of his own. But he wouldn't ever mind when James' mother Apparated at his house to bring in home-cooked meals.

And Sirius – being Sirius – only flashed a mischievous look and stuck his tongue out like a little boy. "What are you doing out of the hospital?"

"I said I'm fine now. The school nurse let me out."

In a second, Sirius grabbed Remus by the shoulders and opened the lids of his friend's eyes to the full extent with his hands – that Remus had to wrestle away from him and his weirdness. "Yep. You're good," Sirius said, patting Remus hard on the shoulder. Then… his eyes strayed to something that Remus was holding and in hysterics, said, "Don't tell me you were out for a morning stroll with that notebook?!" as he pointed at the notebook in Remus' hand like an unwanted plague.

Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes. "It's a sketch pad," he said, flashing the notebook up in Sirius' face. "And I'm carrying this just in case."

"Just in case what? Just in case you suddenly have the opportunity of returning that to its rightful owner?" Sirius bellowed – apparently back to his insane self.

"Shut up."

"You have an uncanny way of recovering, haven't you?" James commented with furrowed brows – a smile playing across his lips.

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah… but I still don't know who's sending those letters to Toni," he said. And he started to stroll his way back to the castle as he muttered, "Just have to thank her lucky stars that they're not bloodied notes."

Remus looked at James with perplexity written all over his face. "Bloodied notes?" he mouthed.

But James just shrugged as he looked on at his best friend walking back to the castle. Because, he, himself didn't know what it was about but let it pass since Sirius was naturally morbid when angry. He turned back to Remus and was about to say something when out of nowhere, Kiara came walking towards them.

"Mornin' Kiara," James greeted with a wave as she past them. But she only half-a-glanced their way and smiled involuntarily, which was not entirely herself. "Hey," she said without even slowing down. But then a few feet past, she stopped.

Turned around.

And made a bee-line towards James. "James." Her tone sounded like she was about to ask him something but half-way through, she shook her head and muttered, "No. Not you," and made her direction back to the castle.

James and Remus looked at each other – utterly confused. "Well, people are definitely up. And they're weird."

* * * * *

His shoes squeaked loudly onto the corridor walls as James suddenly stopped into a screeching halt. That afternoon, as he returned back to the castle after another round of Quidditch practice, he spotted a somewhat curious announcement on the bulletin board. Two steps back… and a few glances around… he snatched the paper from its tack and found himself a valid reason to talk things with Lily.

Things involving a certain person named –

Adrian Sawyer.

For the record, James had managed to keep his mouth shut about what he was planning that afternoon. Of course, the main thing that glued his lips together was the fact that Lily's friends would think he was jealous. Which I'm not! he kept chiding himself and, really, it was because he was, say, paranoid.

That afternoon, he stood at the girls' dormitory door. He was confident enough to ask Lily – especially now that they were going to be alone – why she was suddenly close friends with Adrian; or just plain and simple talking to Adrian. Not that I'm jealous. He was curious especially because of the fact that Adrian Sawyer was a boy who fancied sitting in the school grounds – preferably at the edge of the Forbidden Forest – always staring straight at nowhere like he never stopped thinking.

And so… after pre-occupying himself with Quidditch practice, still in his robes, he made a straight path towards Lily's room… door. And with a beat of one, two, three in his head, he knocked at the door and came barging into the room just as Lily opened a crack that she almost tripped backwards. "Sorry," he muttered, noticing that she was a tad literally taken aback by the visit.

"James, what are you doing here?" she asked, with knitted brows. She stepped out of the room and went round about as if looking for something.

James, of course, scratched his head and came out of the dormitory. Because… it's actually pointless to be in a place where the one you wanted to talk to isn't there. "What are you doing?" he asked as he followed her around.

Lily stopped. "You know." She suddenly stood straight up to face James, almost bumping their heads together – as James was slouching slightly. "I've always been curious. How come you and Sirius could come up and down the stairs without falling flat on your faces?"

A shocking yet not out of place inquiry from the brightest girl in seventh year… that James was a bit dumbfounded for a while.

He smiled.

"That's a very interesting question, Lils, but see –"

"Yes, that's why I asked it."

James bit his lip. "Do we have to talk about that right now?"

Lily sighed. "Just curious. I mean I'm Head Girl and this…" she gestured a hand referring to James' person "…a boy in the girls' dormitories… It's just against the rules." She paused and shook her head knowing that James was getting a tad annoyed – much to her enjoyment. "You shouldn't be here."

"Oh, great. You're still angry," declared James, swishing his hands about, not knowing whether to point at her or not – because her mood was fluctuating as mad. Because when suddenly she decided that he was pointing with an accusing finger… he would be half-past dead in a second.

But fortunately for him, she only mocked a look of surprise. "Angry?" she said with a hand on her chest. "I am just being proper, aren't I?"

James stopped. He had run into a dead end… again. And yet, he felt lost. Because that was what Lily always did to him. She drove him crazy like that; it was psychedelic that he swore he could see stars and moon dusts rounding about his head right then. And although his robes apparently gave away that he just came from another Quidditch practice – where Lily wasn't invited, by the way – he sighed and said in a fashion of surrender, "We had Quidditch practice again this afternoon…"

"I know that. I bunk with your Chaser."

"And I know… I still didn't… allow…"

Lily waved a hand. "That's so yesterday."

James was so close into pulling out his spiky unruly hair. "Then why are you mad still?"

"I don't know…!" She stopped and stared at him as if realizing that she just said something wrong. "I AM NOT…! Mad." She gave an audible sigh as she watched him surely in the middle of an agonizing confusion. "You" she bobbed her head "on the other hand, need a shower."

James ran a hand through his face… probably trying to wipe away the sight of Pluto dancing with Saturn's moons in front of his eyes… "Whhh…aaat?" he moaned in a painfully confused manner.

But, Lily, for reasons unknown even to her (apparently), marched back into her room saying, "Yeah, you heard me," before slamming the door shut.

Without another word.

This was utter insanity! James thought as he rubbed his hand profusely on his head that transformed his unruly hair into absolute notorious disarray. But before he could proceed living his momentarily baffling existence, Lily came out of her room again – with an evident mission to ignore him. And so… without thinking twice… as she came towards the stairs – where he was currently standing (still basically lost) – he flashed a piece of paper on her face.

To the content of James Potter's heart, Lily almost fell backwards when he practically stuck the paper to her nose.

Lily made a grunting noise as she collected herself from James' sudden paper-swishing and grabbed the parchment from him. With one look she said, "Hogsmeade weekend this Saturday. This has been up since last month."

"No," James said, pointing up a finger. "That's new. And official. From Dumbledore."

Lily looked at him in confusion. Because the announcement looked the same. Because it's the same thing!

"An unbelievably earlier curfew!" James blurted out when Lily seemed to obviously miss the point.

"Uh –" She read the piece of paper more thoroughly this time – "Oh…"

"Oh?" Oh?! "Students should be back on or before six pm," James said in a tone that was only his own – the same tone he used for an entire day when he learned that Quidditch games would likely be cancelled in times of heavy rain. What? What..? What?! "The sun isn't even yawning at six pm."

"The sun doesn't yawn, James."

James let in a deep deep breath of air. "This is the weirdest fight we have had… E-VER," he said matter-of-factly.

Lily rolled her eyes. She pushed the paper back at James' chest saying, "We're not fighting," and continued her path towards the staircase leading down the common room.

"No," James muttered with a shrug. "We're just arguing."

"We're not!" Lily protested without stopping. "We're not in any argument… because…" And she left it at that then continued her way down the stairs.

James waited for more… because in any normal conversation, that statement needed… MORE.

But Lily was on a roll and she purposely left him hanging by it.

"Where are you going?" James asked as he followed her down.

"Somewhere."

"You're meeting with someone?"

"Yes. And you can't come –" Lily stopped as she realized that they were standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Is this staircase broken?"

"What?"

But she didn't answer him. She just smiled… a mischievous smile – something she might have actually caught from James Potter. And then, she started up the stairs to try out that little naughty experiment she had in her head.

Now, James, preoccupied with the thought of tailing Lily wherever she went, followed her back up. Well, at least he tried. But it was on the sixth step when he realized something wasn't right… the ever familiar loud, wailing, klaxon-like sound resonated within the walls of the staircase – exactly as he remembered it during his first year when he and Sirius tried to play a prank on the girls – and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. Suddenly, he was on his knees and then toppling over towards the bottom of the stairs – just like his first year. Only this time, Sirius wasn't there to topple over first and break his fall.

Unfortunately, there was a bit more Gryffindors in the common room than he had expected to see him land on the ground – oh, correction – slide on his face towards the common room floor. But to his luck (or maybe thanks to his reputation) they weren't paying attention – or pretending not to pay attention – because they had expected it of James. After all, he did it once before.

Once he felt the cold hard solid ground kissing his cheeks, he immediately went up on his feet and rubbed the stars and moon dusts that fell off from rounding about his head… Well, that was profoundly embarrassing. Potter, you are such an idiot! And exited the common room like nothing happened.

* * * * *

"I don't want any trouble, alright? Nothing of your nonsensical… nonsense, okay?"

"Well then, you shouldn't have made me come. Anyway, I'm a very sensible man. I don't do nonsensical nonsense. Sensible nonsense maybe… Actually, yes."

Toni stopped and spun around meeting Sirius' eyes with an expression of 'don't make me hurt you' plastered all over her face. Sirius was a few paces behind her as she was making her way towards the Great Hall to meet with Eric – the boy who asked for her help in Arithmancy – the same boy that Sirius was going to mince into a million little pieces the minute his precious Hufflepuff hands place themselves somewhere they didn't belong.

"Be mature about this," Toni carefully mouthed her thoughts one word at a time.

"I'm no—!"

"There's mature," Toni interrupted, counting with her fingers. "There's jealous but forgivable. There's immature, which is not funny –"

"Is that some sort of hierarchy –?"

"And then there's ridiculous, moronic, stupidity!" She interrupted again, pronouncing each word with such emphasis as if placing Sirius in that category.

Sirius made an expression of realization and ridiculousness at the same time. "You know, I don't know which part of this conversation I'm supposed to be offended with but I'll let all of that slip."

"I'm tired. And I'm just saying that I don't want to deal with moronic stupidity."

Sirius let out a loud sigh. "Well then you shouldn't have agreed on teaching this guy Arithmancy!" he said matter-of-factly. "Can't he get someone from his own House? Someone who didn't need any Quidditch practice – because they suck nonetheless."

Toni opened her mouth to retaliate. But then thought better of it and she crossed her arms across her chest. "I'll ask him that if you tell me what you were up to last night."

Suddenly, Sirius fidgeted and ran a hand through his hair. "Last night?"

Toni feigned a shocked expression herself – the same beautiful sarcasm that Sirius fell for in the first place. She rolled her eyes and then scratched her head as she looked at him, frustration evident on her face. "Gallivanting around school again… I'm surprised there wasn't any chaos at breakfast…"

"Because we did NOOOTHING!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Oh, yes right… and I'm the queen of England," Toni said in a sing-song voice, as she made a little twirl in her place.

Sirius watched her with a smile on his face – genuinely not knowing if he was going to be delighted or annoyed. He bit his lips as their eyes met again; and batting his eyes… he muttered, "You're the queen of my heart…"

"You're…" Toni paused and after a deep breath of sanity said, "next to impossible. Do you kn—?"

"I know that," Sirius interrupted. "Hey, look! It's your boyfriend…" he said, pointing past Toni towards the Hufflepuff table.

"See? You're –"

Sirius watched her struggle with her words as he acted out many many stupid 'What? I can't hear you…' gestures that Toni ended up saying, "Shut up."

"What? I didn't say anything," he said, following her as she turned around and stalked off towards the Hufflepuff table where Eric was at.

Eric stood up from his seat as Toni reached him – with Sirius stalking behind her. "Hi," he greeted with a smile, although there was an obvious confusion on his face. "I… thought we were going to study?"

"That's why I'm here," Toni replied in a lively tone – knowing that Sirius was just right behind her; at the same time, trying to manage to ignore him. But try as she might…

"And me, too," Sirius said, announcing his arrival ever so proudly. "Cause I happen to be an Arithmancy genius." Haughty, conceited, and really stuck-up – but Toni could only elbow him at the ribs to shut him up; and hoping against hope that he would stop piling his credentials on Eric's face.

But Eric – who was confused to begin with – was now perplexity personified, not knowing if he should smile, get offended, or just laugh out loud. He ended up, nevertheless, settling for a soft chuckle. "But I asked you to help me," he said, looking at Toni; practically ignoring the presence of His Genius.

"Yes… so I'm here." Toni started making her way towards the other side of the table to sit beside Eric. But two enormous hands clutched her on the shoulders – that she almost fell backwards – and realized that Sirius had decided to guide her to sit across the table from Eric, instead. Toni sat reluctantly as she glared at Sirius. And Sirius, being Sirius… only smiled at her and then kissed her on the cheek before he plopped himself beside her.

Eric shook his head, smiled at the ridiculousness of the situation, and sat back down. "I'm sorry. I just didn't know you had a six foot shadow," he muttered under his breath.

"Does it matter?" came Sirius' reply – although he wasn't really supposed to say anything, he realized when Toni shot him an icy glare.

"I didn't mean…" Eric interrupted, sensing a little of why Sirius was there in the first place. "See here, mate," he said, looking at Sirius, "I really just want to understand this subject –"

"And so here we are!" Sirius blurted out in a hundred miles per second, as he drummed his fingers on the table – that was easily disrupted when Toni plunked her huge Arithmancy book on his precious hands. He made a face of pain and she just smiled at him like he smiled at her a while ago.

Toni rolled her eyes at Sirius and faced Eric. "Don't – just ignore him," she said, shaking her head; and waving at Sirius like he was a fly on her nose.

"Yup!" Sirius joyously blurted out still. "I'm just going to be here…" he trailed as he glanced at Toni and saw the plot of his murder in her eyes "…here… eating this…" he stretched his hand and reached for anything to eat at the table, "apple," and smiled annoyingly at Eric.

* * * * *

In a questionable absence of normality, James found himself sitting under the tree by the lake – short of counting the grass leaves around him. He was quite bored for the first time that he didn't have Lily by his side because she, as she said a while ago, 'had other important things to do'.

And he couldn't go with her.

No.

And he didn't try insisting either, thinking that Lily was just trying to get back at him.

He heaved a deep sigh and stood as he picked up a piece of stone from the ground. And with eyes narrowed towards the water… he aimed with much precision… and concentration… then… threw the stone into the lake and watched it jump a few times before it began to sink underwater. He smiled to himself. Apparently, he could be so proud of himself even without anyone watching him. So, he picked up another stone… and another… and another… Until…

James was about to throw another stone into the lake when he saw bubbles from the water like a dozen divers were just coming up from scuba diving. He froze for a moment, curious. And then realized what it was when the water finally stirred and a couple of tentacles rose above the surface. Oh, he thought as he saw the Giant Squid's tentacles rise up into the air. For a while, he thought the Squid got angry with him for throwing those stones that he took a step back a bit startled and, frankly, quite frightened that it might swallow him whole or something. But in another second, the tentacles dived back into the water with much force and speed that James wasn't able to manage to think at all and just realized… SPLASH!

The next thing he knew, he was still standing by the lake – oh, just like a second before – only this time, he was soaking wet and thinking that the Giant Squid was laughing his inks off – if squids could laugh. "Oh, great… Thank you. Thank you very much," James muttered to the water (the Squid disappeared into the lake) as he brushed his wet hair back with his hand. "Not that I didn't take a shower this morning… but a bit of freshening up once in a while doesn't hurt."

He was about to take out his wand to dry himself up when Remus – being the lake as his refuge once in a while – came into the scene and found James as he was still dripping from his robes.

Remus suppressed a laugh as James looked at him with narrow eyes. He scratched his nose, trying to hide the widening smile he had on his face.

And for a few seconds, they just looked at each other as if daring the other to speak.

Fortunately, Remus wasn't Sirius because if he was, then he would push James back into the lake after James magically dried himself. "What have you been doing here…?" Remus asked once James was done dripping wet. He looked around… so many questions in his head rounding about right then and none of them had anything to do with James being there… but James being alone and yet he managed to push himself into the lake? Was that it? "…alone…?"

"Don't I have the right to reflect on my life once in a while?" James answered rather defensively. "You do it all the time!"

"Yes… but I don't take a swim in the lake – with my robes and shoes on – as I ponder on life's delicate balance…" Remus teased, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "Are you possessed?"

"If you should know," James began as he stuck his wand back in his robe pocket and walked towards Remus, "it's a very confusing time for me… puzzling, actually." He stopped just a few paces from his friend and continued, "Nobody warned me that having Lily Evans as a girlfriend would be one bloomin' labyrinth."

For a while, Remus stared at James like his friend suddenly turned green.

"What?"

"And you have been reading…" Remus quickly said, the smile flashing back on his face. "Using big words now, eh?"

But James ignored Remus and instead, he slowly muttered something out of the ordinary. It was almost a whisper that Remus could barely hear it. "How would you deal with Lily?"

Remus scratched his head. "What do you mean? I deal with her fine. You're the one who always has the problem."

"Well…" James began but hesitating at the same time. "If it turned out that she actually liked you back… you'd be the one in my shoes right now –"

"Why do you ask such questions, Prongs?" Remus interrupted knowing just what James meant by that. He used to like Lily – as more than a friend should – but then, she admitted that she only saw him as a brother and Remus kind of… moved on after that and he wasn't one to think of 'what ifs'. "I don't even know what she saw in you," he replied, instead, lightening the mood. "I'm kidding…" he said as he chuckled when James smirked at him like a little child. "Well… usually, when you're having Lily troubles… you tend to fly around the Quidditch field…"

James cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "I don't quite have my broom right now."

"Your pride and joy?" Remus chuckled. "And why aren't you going ballistic right now? Unless it was confiscated by a certain girl named Lily… Evans."

"Yes!" James suddenly exclaimed that Remus involuntarily took a step back. He sounded excited.

It was weird.

"Yes…? And you're happy?"

"I'm so stupid!"

"About what? Letting her have your pride possession?"

"It's a good idea!"

By this time, Remus had completely abandoned all hope of understanding what his friend was talking about that he just simply muttered, "Wow, really?" as he scratched his head while watching James smile suspiciously… "Are you sure you're alright?"

"No, it's great… And you know what's so best about it?" James continued, utterly unaware that he was quickly sailing away into the sea of the crazy and left Remus in sane land.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Uh-What?" he said, when James only looked at him as if waiting for him to answer the question.

I thought about it. I! Me! Not Sirius Black. James Potter."

Remus stared for a while at James and then said, "Uh-huh. Alright. Go on then," as he gestured James to get away from him. But in the second, without any warning… James' hand grabbed his arm and quickly dragged him away from the lake and back to the castle. "Hey… wait – what? – wait!"

* * * * *

Toni heaved a sigh and glanced to her side. Sirius was still sitting beside her although his head was already resting on his hand as he drifted off to sweet slumber about ten minutes ago. So much for being 'Sirius, Arithmancy extraordinaire!' She, on the other hand, had just finished explaining a rather complicated formula to Eric. "Now, do you get it?" she said, as she straightened up, stretching her back.

Fortunately, Eric smiled and said, "I actually do. Now I get it."

"Oh great, then." It was Sirius, miraculously waking up from his snoring. Toni shook her head. She knew it. It was too good to be true that Sirius would let himself fall asleep when she was just inches away from Eric – or Error, as Sirius called him. "Is it over?" Sirius said.

"Not quite," Eric replied, his expression ambiguous of whether he was enjoying that Sirius was annoyed or that he was actually sorry that Sirius was annoyed. "There's just one thing that's still bothering me," he said; and gestured for the Muggle pen that Toni was holding. He reached out as Toni handed him the pen that he slightly touched her hand. It wasn't like they were short of quills, actually… But somehow, the ink bottle they were using just a minute ago had managed to disappear. Eric smiled as he held the Muggle pen in his hand. "One of the many things that fascinate me about Muggles, actually."

Toni smiled.

And Sirius saw this.

He wasn't very happy and the ink bottle had reappeared on the table at the same time. He smirked at Eric and with a tone of sarcasm Toni rubbed on him, he said, "Wait 'till you hear of the telephone. It will drive you crazy. You'd think bells are ringing in you ears." He smiled, as both Eric and Toni looked at him. "Honest!"

* * * * *

Still dragging a hesitant Remus along with him back to the castle, James' eyes caught sight of her favorite redhead across the school grounds. Lily had just finished talking with a fellow student who he recognized at once – Bianca, a Ravenclaw prefect. "Lily!" he called out. He quickened his pace towards her direction not taking any chances on his girlfriend disappearing on him again.

Remus saw this as an opportunity to disappear himself. He wasn't going to wait and see whatever 'good' idea was bubbling in his friend's head right then.

Lily waved goodbye to Bianca and waited for James to reach her with his giant steps. And at the moment of contact – like a freakish dj vu – her hand came swishing up as she flashed a flyer on his nose. "Whoa!" James blurted out as he backed up a good few inches away.

Still a bit cross-eyed, he took the parchment from Lily's hand. "A Prefect's Meeting?" he said, reading it.

With an audible sigh and a roll of the eyes, Lily stepped closer to James looking at him as if that would squeeze out the proper memory from the recesses of his brain. "Hogsmeade weekend…" she said. "Prefects meeting… Hello?" she added, hoping against hope that a ray of light would shine upon him.

And fortunately, it did. "Perfect," James groaned, scratching his head. "I forgot all about that."

Lily snorted. "Along with so many things…" she muttered under her breath as she pretended to shuffle among the books she was carrying.

"Again with the fighting."

"Uh!" Lily feigned a shock expression. "We're not fighting!" she insisted – still partly trying to convince herself.

"Oh I bet we do!"

"No we're not!"

"The fact that you're disagreeing with me if we're having a fight or not is a fight itself. Face it Lily, we're fighting."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous. Just be there tomorrow at the meeting."

* * * * *

"What kind of fight are you actually in that you have to hide this from James?"

Lily looked up and saw Toni across the dormitory room – holding up a broomstick. "I'm not hiding that," she said as she closed the door behind her and walked past towards her bed. "He left it. And I'm not going to give it back until…" she trailed and ended with a groan. She unloaded her books and threw herself on the bed – acting like the conversation was over.

"Until…?" asked Toni in a sing-song voice. She put the broomstick against one of Lily's bedposts and sat beside her. But Lily only stared back as if she heard nothing. "Well?"

Lily hesitated for another second but finally sighed audibly and said, "Until God knows when," staring straight up at the roof of her bed.

Toni lay down beside Lily and sighed herself. "For what it's worth, Sirius is annoying the hell out of me."

"Tutoring went bad, huh?"

"Oh God!" Ton exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "It was totally exhausting! I felt I was watching over two six-year-olds."

"Why?" Lily chuckled. Somehow, she was thankful that she wasn't in Toni's shoes right then. "Sirius met his annoying match? Must've have been painful."

"Actually… come to think of it, Eric wasn't the pain in the neck. It was Sirius Black. Sometimes, I feel like he's just being immature on purpose."

"Boys…" Lily groaned in agreement.

Toni sat up and looked at Lily straight in the eyes. "You're still upset about that tiff you had, aren't you?"

"N-nooo…" Lily said in utter denial. She grabbed a random book from the foot of her bed and lay on her stomach – browsing through the pages thoughtlessly.

"Lily," Toni said, putting a sudden halt on Lily's page-ripping activities.

"Hey –"

"Lily… it was just… a Quidditch practice."

"I know that."

"He felt guilty after you left."

"I know."

Toni narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "So… what exactly is the problem, Lily?"

"Nothing." Lily pushed herself up from the bed and stood up – arms crossed.

"You're still upset… because suddenly… James isn't crawling at your feet anymore?"

Lily's jaws dropped at Toni. "I can't believe you just said that!" her voice screeched in the highest pitch her voice could possibly go.

Toni smirked and stood up. "Well I can't believe you're holding our Quidditch captain's broom hostage. You do know that as much as I like you… we want – no – we need to win this game." She paused as Lily stared blankly at her – looking utterly careless about whatever worth Quidditch could have. "Li-ly!" she shrieked in a very unrecognizable way as she shook her friend on the shoulders. Fortunately, this woke Lily up from her trance. Because Toni wasn't exactly the shrieking type… unless it was utterly necessary.

Like… right now, apparently.

"Lily," Toni began again, as she stared at her straight in the eyes. "Do you know why we need to win this game? Because if we don't win this match… it means that Slytherin – yes… Slytherin – those… greasy dungeon people – it means that they win the match. They. Will. Have. The Quidditch Cup. Lily!" she shrieked again, making Lily jump. "It means that we would have lost to them. We would be less than those greasy dungeon people." She slowed down… to her final words. "We… are… doomed…"

A strong pause surrounded everything for a good solid second until Lily had recovered from her friend's sudden outburst. "Oh my God, when did you get so overly dramatic?"

"I cannot possibly repel everything Sirius Black. I tend to absorb some of his insanity," Toni replied as she grabbed James' Cleansweep and handed it to Lily.

Surrendering to the inevitable anyway, Lily sighed audibly. "Fine," she groaned and grabbed the broom from Toni. "I'll give this back to him." But as she made her way to the door, she retreated just as quickly. "Yes, maybe in an hour."

"I'm counting."

* * * * *

While Lily was mustering up enough patience and humility… James was still in the school grounds, scratching his head looking for a way to carry out his master plan. As he strolled around in so deep a thought which would start scaring Remus, he heard a sound that would unmistakably be music that seemed to be coming from the Forbidden Forest.

Strange.

He had never heard of centaurs playing… music.

More interested than intrigued, James followed the sound towards the Forbidden Forest. He was well aware that going inside the forest was forbidden… but then again… going into the kitchens in the middle of the night was also forbidden in some unwritten rule book… he would do it anyway. So what would be the difference?

But he didn't need to go inside the forest. Because as he reached the edge of the woods, he came across the source of the sound – Adrian. Yes, who else could it be? he thought. As he stalked up to Adrian, resting against one of the trees, he could hear Lily's voice nagging at the back of his mind. Potter, what do you think you're doing?! Potter, are you out of your mind?! Potter, he's done nothing to you. Pot—

"Potter…"

For a second there, James thought Lily just Apparated behind him. But then he realized… Lily's voice, though as feisty as she might be, was as girly as her petite size. Not nearly to sound like a guy who had gone under puberty three years ago. Besides, the music had suddenly stopped playing… so best to say it was probably Adrian.

He looked back at the forest as Adrian turned around and faced James – who, by now, shook himself off of his trance and continued to strut rather dauntingly towards Adrian.

"I knew it's just some time before this happens." Adrian muttered, squinting to shade his eyes from the sun; but nonetheless, was quite unaware that James was supposed to make him feel a bit intimidated. Quite possibly, maybe he thought that James just stuck a piece of board on his back and neck.

As peculiar as it was that Adrian knew that he, Potter, was the one stalking up behind him, James managed to act just as casually. He walked a few more steps without saying a word as he kept his hands in his robe pockets – aside from trying to remain stern in spite of himself; mostly it was because he knew that flailing his arms animatedly in the air while talking wasn't exactly exuding much confidence, especially when you're trying to intimidate someone. "And what exactly is this that's happening?" he said with a shrug; and gave himself a good smack on the head in his mind. What?! What exactly is this that's happening?! Is that everything you can come up with?!

Adrian smiled a smile like he knew something that James didn't… and leaned back on his tree, comfortably looking up at James' six-foot stature hovering him. "What brings you here then, eh?"

James cleared his throat, looking around as if the reasons were rustling within the leaves around him. "Well… for one…" he paused. "This forest is forbidden."

There was a pause. And Adrian looked at James, clearly waiting for something more – something more that would make a little bit… more sense. "Are you serious?" Obviously, that was everything.

"Uh—" James ran a hand through his hair and sniffed like something repulsive just passed through his nose – probably something he'd picked up from the many Muggle movies he'd seen. "It's the Forbidden Forest," he shrugged, "I'm not joking."

Adrian chuckled under his breath. James ignored him. "I mean, are you serious that you came all the way here just to tell me that?" He paused to watch James carrying on with his 'grim' face – that no one was actually used to because he never really reprimanded any one like… that – weird authoritative, almost Malfoy-ish manner. "I'm not going in," Adrian pointed, "the forest. If that's what you mean."

"So… what exactly is this that's happening?" James repeated… lost for anything else to say.

Adrian smirked, apparently unaffected and finding this situation quite amusing at the same time. "Hmmm…" he mumbled and slowly said, "I'm only taking a wild guess… but does anything about this answer to Lily Evans?"

James would have said something to deny that it was about Lily Evans. Because it wasn't about Lily Evans. Or… at least when he knitted his eyebrows and flashed an expression of total denial directly at Adrian… it wasn't about Lily Evans.

It really wasn't.

It… really… not-exactly—alright-maybe-just-a-little-bit-about-Lily-Evans.

"For what it's worth," Adrian said, as James stood before him – starting to twitch as he tried to stay standing still – "I'm not the kind who steals…. anything," he eyed James meaningfully, "or anyone."

James snorted. "And what exactly does that have to do with anything I have to say to you?" He stopped suddenly, realizing that his hands had escaped and were now waving uncontrollably in the air.

Adrian cleared his throat but didn't say anything. Somehow, he liked the idea of James being lost for words… oh, to shut up one of the two most annoyingly noisy people of Hogwarts – it was a feat that he knew only Lily Evans had done before. "Everything," he said as he stood up. "Alright," he shrugged, "humor me. What is it that you have to say to me, anyhow?" he raised his harmonica and blew out a very very familiar music to James. "Look, mate, I have to go," he said, not waiting for any reply. "But if you need anything," he played out that tune again, "I'll just be in the castle."

James opened his mouth to call out a retreating Adrian but no words could come out. Adrian was eerily right all the way… about him being the one stalking up from behind, about Lily Evans… even about that tune Adrian suddenly kept on playing as he made his way back to the castle.

Curious.

* * * * *

An hour later, after Toni practically pushed Lily out of the girls' dormitories together with James' Cleansweep, Lily grudgingly dragged herself up the boys' staircase towards James' dorm room. Ah! This is unbelievable! She was very much hesitant in doing this. After all, he was the one who needed to apologize. Or at least, that was what she believed. Because my stupidity has been over! I've already kissed his virus-infested mouth last week! I caught a flu, by the way –

"Hi, Lils, what are you doing here?"

Lily turned to see Remus standing beside her – standing at the door… outside their dorm room.

When she didn't respond, Remus smiled, noticing what Lily had in her hand. "So, it's true, you're holding that hostage," he said, pointing at the Cleansweep in her hand. Lily smiled in agreement. "You know, you might have actually done something good… see… James' vocabulary shot up to a level of extreme weirdness when I saw him reflecting about things a while ago at the lake."

"Yeah, well—"

"Remus! Where have you been, you feral dog?"

Lily and Remus both turned their heads and saw James opened the door. But none of them had the time to react as James pulled Remus inside the room, quite apparently ignoring Lily.

"Hey," Lily called out as James was about to close the door behind him.

"Lily…" James smiled. The door was so thinly opened that only half his face was showing.

"Uh… can we talk?"

James looked at her for a second and cleared his throat. He turned back inside the room and then back at Lily. Scratching his head, he said, "You know, now's not really a good time."

But Lily only rolled her eyes and thought that if she kept on talking anyway, he would listen. "Look, James—"

"I'll talk to you later. I promise," James interrupted and then, without as much as a warning, closed the door.

"W—Hey!" Lily shrieked, jumping back in surprise. "Did you just slam the door on my face, you miserable prat?!" she called as she repeatedly banged on the door as hard as she could. And realizing that her petite hands were not enough, she started banging James' Cleansweep on the door. After all, it was much sturdier and James could buy another one in a heartbeat in case she decided to break it into million little shreds.

"Later, Lils." Lily heard James' voice traveled from the other side of the door.

"What?!" Lily demanded, exhaling audibly as she ceased banging the door at the poor broom's expense. "Why won't you let me in?"

Lily was about to knock again when suddenly, James opened the door to peek outside. He sighed audibly. "This is the boys' dormitory. And this… a girl… in the boys' dormitories… it's just not right." He smiled a very sheepish smile that made Lily's hair stand on end.

As a sign of resignation, Lily kicked the door so hard that it hit James' face in the process.

"Ouch…!" James groaned.

"You are such a pain in the ass," Lily grumbled under her breath. "Fine then!" she said before she stormed back down the stairs. "And I'm turning this broom into a million little toothpicks!"

Now, James would've panicked if Lily had blurted that out at any other time. But not this time. Because, this time, he had a plan. And besides, she wouldn't really shred his Cleansweep into a million little toothpicks… would she?

* * * * *

"Sirius! Black!"

Three heads – belonging to James, Sirius, and Remus – emerging down from the boys' staircase looked up to see a really annoyed Toni standing in the common room. Apparently, she had been waiting there, but then again, as the girl said… she was after only one of them – Sirius Black.

Sirius smiled widely and walked up to Toni like he hadn't seen her in ages. "Toni!" He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, which seemed to have no effect at all because the next thing he knew, Toni was flashing a piece of note on his face.

"I told you to stay away from him. Don't fail to listen the next time," she said, reciting the words on the paper. And after a deep sigh of frustration, she glared at Sirius. "Seriously?!"

Sirius didn't respond but grabbed the paper from her. Alright, this note-sender was starting to crawl up his skin. "Oh, that's it. I'm going to trace who's been sending this rubbish."

Toni knitted her eyebrows and shook her head. "What?" Because, really, he just needed to look in the mirror.

"Boils and warts?" Sirius said, suggesting the ideas bubbling in his mind. Finally, a legitimate reason to give someone a toad skin in the early morning breakfast time. "Maybe horns and a tail…"

"Alright, hold it," James interrupted, grabbing Sirius by the shoulders.

"I know! What about a Mohawk made of skunk's hair? And stink?" Sirius insisted, really getting into it. But James pulled him aside before he started making up more possible ways of torture.

"We'll deal with that later. I'll just have to borrow him for a while," James smiled apologetically at Toni, who already had her hands on her hips – staring at them with vicious vicious eyes. "He's going to be returned in one piece. And then you can mince him after then, alright?"

"Wh-what…?" Sirius protested, having no clue where the conversation just went.

"Fine, take him," Toni said in hesitation, rolling her eyes. "He'll just send me another note, anyway." She shrugged, raising her hand in surrender.

"But I didn't send the note!" Sirius shrieked a girly shriek that his voice broke three times as he delivered that measly sentence – probably also because James had finally pulled him towards the portrait hole by his collar.

"Yeah… tell me about it in your little note," Toni smirked walking past them through the portrait hole herself.

"Wait!" James called out as they, too, left the common room. But when Toni ignored him, he nudged Sirius to do something.

"Toni…!" Sirius called, as he ran after her. "Oh… An-twa-nehhtt!" he called her louder – by her full name, his voice bouncing off the walls – and worse, he was singing. And surely, raising the hair out of the skin of every person who could hear him.

Well, at least that stopped her from walking any further. Toni spun around with her hands across her chest and glared with eyes so narrow, Sirius was starting to look like a maniacal bug just waiting to be squashed. "What?"

"Well…" Sirius started, holding Toni's hand in his. "I think you should go back to your room. Is Lily there, by the way?"

Toni raised an eyebrow and cautiously, asked, "Why?"

"Why? Well… why…" he turned to look at James.

"Because you know how these two are crazy, you know," Remus interrupted, circling a finger at the side of his head – crazy. Toni looked past Sirius and at Remus who was leaning lazily against the wall beside him. "And Lily still has that broom of James, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah…" Toni's face lightened up with a mischievous glint. "She was just about to dissect it a while ago," she added with a shrug.

"What? No… she wouldn't do that," James said as unaffected as he could be… but deep inside, he knew, he wanted to run back inside that portrait hole and yell his insides out for Lily to spare his Cleansweep. "No. No." He paused. "Toni, please don't tell me you're being serious."

"Fine," Toni sighed audibly. "I'm being serious. No, I'm not being serious. Wait. What was the question again?" She waited for some form of twitch or any sort of reaction from the three, just so she could raise her index finger to interrupt them. "No, wait…" she said with a quizzical look on her face, as if she was trying to remember something. "I mean—" And then she turned around without another word – practically skipping away into the halls.

It was a good few seconds before James and Sirius realized what happened. Sirius turned to James with eyebrows knitted before blinking a few times. "Wait. What…?"

* * * * *

Half an hour later, Lily was still staring at that abominable Cleansweep that she had thrown on top of her bed. She was deliberating on throwing it down on the floor and stomping on it for no end. But then, she might actually put a dent on it – which was not really an option because as angry as she was with James Potter, she wanted the Gryffindor House to win the Quidditch Cup or else Slytherin smirks would be parading the hallways as long as the remaining of the school year lasted. Her endless pondering was only interrupted when someone entered the room.

It was Toni, carrying a tray load of food. "You can't. Just can't. Apparently, you simply just cannot keep having me do this every time you and James have one of your weird moments," she said before Lily could breathe a single word.

"Weird moments?"

Toni sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. She placed the tray on Lily's bedside table and then turned back to her friend. "It's not that you're going to drive me insane. Apparently, I'm used to that now."

"Hey –!"

"If this keeps happening, people are gonna think that I'm being such a pig having to carry off with all this food after I've already had my dinner!" Toni declared before a cupcake on the tray caught her eye and she started to feast on it. "Shut up," she said when Lily eyed her meaningfully. "I'm the one who brought you dinner."

Lily chuckled and said, "You're also starting to get the Sirius' appetite, you know," as she bit into her sandwich. She smiled from ear to ear when Toni suddenly stared back in wide-eyed protest. "I'm not going to try dragging you out of bed if next thing you have is an over-the-top love of sleeping."

"Huh!" Toni exclaimed and grabbed the second and last cupcake on the tray. "No dessert for you, young lady." She smirked as Lily gave a sudden surprise. She backed a few steps away and leaned against the window as she enjoyed her second helping. "What are you bumming about anyway? At least James is not being such a boy sending you anonymous notes telling you to stay away from the Quidditch pitch."

"Oh, James? Not being a boy? The fact that he kicked me out of Quidditch practice was a concrete proof enough. I could go to court for official declaration with just that."

"I don't even know now if he's being overly insecure or just being such an immature jerk."

Lily pondered for a while. "Either way, that's being immature don't you think?" She paused and then chuckled. "Or maybe he actually admits that Eric Flatts is better-looking than him!" she said before laughing with Toni. "Anyway, you're not entirely sure that Sirius has been sending those notes. I would think that he's got enough sense to not address you as Antoinette Turner."

Toni let out a sigh of defeat. "Yeah, probably. But still…"

A few seconds of silence ensued as they enjoyed the rest of their dinner. Then, from somewhere outside the window, a sound of some sort of music entered the room. It was the sounds of guitar playing. Lily looked at Toni, who was standing at the window. And lo and behold, Toni almost choked on her cupcake when she saw such an awfully puzzling scenario. Lily then stood up from her bed and neared the window, not really knowing what to expect from the reactions on Toni's face.

"Lily!"

"Omygod…" Lily whispered, her hand placed involuntarily on her chest – seeing James in his most detention-deserved effort as of date.

"Lily!" James exclaimed again as he saw her standing at the window. "There you are, my love!"

It took a while, but they realized that James, Sirius, Remus… and Adrian – of all people – were standing on some kind of a platform. Only, this platform was floating by the works of some spell – like a magic carpet, only it was wood. And Adrian – poor thing – was holding his guitar playing the intro into a Muggle song as they floated up to the girls' bedroom window.

Putting the surprise of having to see meek and quiet Adrian dragged into this maniacal circus aside, Lily put her hands on her hips and demanded, "What on earth are you doing, Potter? You're not allowed to do that."

James ignored all the ongoing questions in both the girls' faces. He smiled endearingly at Lily and said with a glint of mischief in his eyes, "Oh but I'm not in the girls' dormitories…"

"And you dragged Adrian into this?" Lily could not put that thought aside any longer. Because apparently, the chaos was just starting to get more disastrous as other Gryffindor girls were getting curious themselves and began looking out their own windows.

James smiled even wider glancing at Adrian and then back at her. "Yeah… I realized that. Peter couldn't be here but in any way, Peter cannot play a mean guitar, can he? 'Cause we lot are not really gifted with musical talents except from…" he paused – but that didn't make anything better anyway, "singing!"

"Oh my God. When did that happen?" Toni protested, eyeing Sirius lividly. She was about to turn back and leave the insanity when Sirius suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Hey you!" he called. "As I am already standing here, this is for you too."

Toni's face almost dropped to the floor. She so wished that although she was connected to Sirius in some way, this wouldn't happen. "What?!" No way would she be sung to from a flying platform with Sirius singing! "Don't even think about it!"

"Oh…" Sirius said as if reconsidering all things embarrassing. But apparently, "Too late."

Toni turned crimson red at the humiliation of everything that was happening. It was madness! Sheer madness! She covered her face as if not knowing Sirius and tried to escape once again. But Sirius only got louder. "Oh, don't go turning your back at me!" So she decided to stay and resolved to the fact that maybe this would be the lesser of two evils.

Lily, on the other hand, turned to Remus looking like this was one heck of a question she wanted answers to. But Remus just shrugged and muttered, "Just in the wrong place at the wrong time," as he steadied his wand, apparently being the one assigned to keep the platform floating.

She was about to say something else. Maybe a spell to bind them all to complete silence and then turn back time and just studied in the library like she was supposed to! Maybe this wouldn't have happened? Because she wouldn't have gotten the idea to attend Quidditch practice. And then she wouldn't have to argue with James and his weird antics. And maybe… just maybe… this horrendous event wouldn't have happened.

Just maybe.

But too late because James turned to Adrian and shouted. "Hit it!" And then the guitar playing went louder and the shame… oh the shame… just kept on coming.

"Oh, sugar. Oh, honey honey. You are my candy girl…! And you got me wanting you…"

"Oh please let this be a bad dream," Lily muttered to herself, shaking her head as she looked onto the heavens… maybe a terrible lightning storm would do it.

"Oh, honey!" It was now Sirius' turn to sound like a dying cat… or a pig about to be roasted alive. "Oh, sugar sugar. You are my candy girl… And you got me wanting you!" He even had the nerve to wink at Toni.

"I just can't believe the loveliness of loving you…" James sang again.

"I just can't believe it's true." As Sirius took over the second voice.

"I just can't believe the one to love this feeling too…"

"I just can't believe it's true."

As the chorus came in, they both belted out, "Oh, sugar. Oh, honey honey. You are my candy girl…!!! …And you got me wanting you…!!!"

"Oh honey!" James cried out, his throat just trying to give up on him.

"Oh sugar, sugar," Sirius let out before he muttered quickly to James, "Don't shout too much. Stay on tune."

"You are my candy girl…!"

"And you got me wanting you!"

As the instrumental break of the song played, Toni bit her lip and shook her head. "This is the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to me."

"Hey!" Sirius yelled, swaying to Adrian's guitar playing, as he looked on Toni. "We're not yet finished."

"Apparently! Because I haven't dropped dead yet!"

But he ignored Toni as his part came up once more. "When I kissed you girl, I knew how sweet a kiss could be."

"I knew how sweet a kiss could be."

"Like the summer sunshine, pour your sweetness over me."

"Pour your sweetness over me."

And with the last lines of the song, James and Sirius created such a ruckus that the other girls watching from their windows were already laughing. "Oh!!! Pour a little sugar on it honey!!!...!!! Pour a little sugar on it baby!...!!!!..." They alternated and adlibbed their own lines and it was complete insanity but apparently so heartfelt for them since they both had their eyes a bit closed to be able to feel the message of the song.

And then Sirius just went for it and sang in a high note, "I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah!!!"

The last 'yeah' just rang endlessly in the air because Adrian suddenly stopped playing. For some reason, that was the only time Sirius actually felt a slight embarrassment. He turned to Adrian and rolled his eyes. "I wasn't finished."

But James nudged him and all of them looked down to the ground. Unfortunately for them, Professor McGonagall was looking up at them with stern eyes through her glasses. But fortunately for Lily and Toni, the mortification which seemed to have run on endlessly was finally over.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black…" she paused for a while and adjusted her glasses, unsure if she was seeing their faces clearly, "Mr. Lupin…" she declared slowly still a bit uncertain that Remus actually participated in this big of an antic. "And Mr. –" she completely stopped when she saw Adrian. She was expecting to say Peter Pettigrew just because he would complete the four but… surprise surprise! "Sawyer?"

"Professor," Adrian acknowledged in a soft voice and a slight wave.

There was a split second that McGonagall's mouth looked like it dropped. No one noticed though, because the attention that James and Sirius attracted was not fading very fast. "I suggest you get yourselves down here right this minute if you do not wish to extend your detention until after you leave Hogwarts," McGonagall managed to say, after finally settling on the facts.

"Be right there, Professor!" James replied in a jovial mood no matter what. After so many years of detention with McGonagall, he had learned that no amount of sucking up would lead him out of punishment. But before the platform started floating down towards the ground, he heard Lily muttered, "James, you're such a geek." He turned to her and winked. "I know. That's why you love me." He smiled, although Lily just smirked and rolled her eyes at him.

* * * * *

After classes, McGonagall led the way through the halls with James, Sirius, Remus, and Adrian following her. It was time for their detention which was all worth it according to James – and Sirius perhaps – but turned out to be a really stupid idea for Remus and Adrian apparently. While McGonagall walked the halls in her normally stern manner, James and Sirius sauntered behind her calmly.

"McGonagall looks awfully relaxed," Adrian whispered to Remus. "In her own way," he added noting that McGonagall was a different kind of human behavior.

Remus smiled. This was probably the first time Adrian was ever in detention and expected McGonagall to be a bit vile, perhaps, because she liked order among the students. "It's James and Sirius," he replied, bobbing his head towards the two. "To be honest, what they did earlier was so above behaved compared to their other antics pre-detention." He paused, thinking it over. Other students would've probably only gotten some sort of warning. Adrian could've had just a warning, too… if only he wasn't with James and Sirius at that time. "Honestly, these two should include detention as part of their class schedules."

Adrian gave out a nervous chuckle. "So where is she taking us exactly?" he asked again when they turned a corner, noticing that they were now directly towards the trophy room at the end of the hall.

All four of them waited as McGonagall opened the door. Sirius and James were still head-banging to the tune they were singing that afternoon – even if that song was not even remotely close to suitably head-bang to. "I reckon they've done this before?" Adrian muttered to Remus as he watched James and Sirius bobbing their heads.

Remus smiled widely. "More than McGonagall would wanna count, actually," he replied as the professor led them into the room.

Big wasn't an enough word to describe the trophy room. It was enormous – like the Great Hall – only filled with… trophies. There were shelves upon shelves of golden, silver, and bronze cups and the walls were covered with plaques and a few golden brooms stuck to the wall. Adrian's eyes could not help but wander. It was so vast he wondered how many years of trophies were actually in the room. Of course, he had never been this part of the castle as he was more preoccupied with schoolwork and his music instruments. Could not say the same thing about the Marauders, though. They were very well versed with various parts of the castle.

"Well," McGonagall started, clasping her hands together as she looked at each of them and probably thought that this was going to be as useless as the other hundreds of detentions they had. "This room is in dire need of dusting as you may notice," she turned around completely aware of the vastness of the room, "starting with one trophy at a time."

"Oh no," James shook his head in disbelief. "I thought you were going to make us sweep the floor or something—"

"The floors are quite clean, Mr. Potter."

"Professor, this place is hundreds of years old!" James squeaked. "I might even see my great great great great grandfather's name carved on one of these."

"Well, you earned it, Mr. Potter."

Adrian shifted. He was a bit confused. "Well, how hard can it be to clean this place? I know a spell—"

But even before Adrian could finish, James snorted and Sirius let out a 'tsk tsk' sound, shaking his head. "Oh Sawyer… you goodie-goodie," Sirius said as he pulled his wand from his robe pocket.

"What?" Adrian watched as Sirius handed his wand to McGonagall. Next was James. Then Remus. Like they were doing some sort of secret 'hand shake.'

That was how much they were in detention – they actually had formed some sort of standard operating procedure.

"No magic, Mr. Sawyer," McGonagall said, nodding at him to indicate that his wand was being confiscated, too. Then, she conjured up four pails of water, some soap, and a pile of rags beside her. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Sawyer will be starting with this side," she pointed at the left side of the room, "and Mr. Black and Lupin will be starting with that side," she pointed at the right side of the room.They all stared at her. "Well? If you're going to finish before midnight, I suggest you begin now," she said, clapping her hands. The four started getting their own pail of water, soap and rags.

"Midnight?" James asked. "Aren't we supposed to be back in our Houses at ten?"

"My office is down the hall, Mr. Potter. I'll be back before midnight to check on you." They all just shrugged at each other.

But McGonagall was already halfway out the door when Adrian called, "Wait, how are we going to rinse—?"

"No," Sirius grabbed Adrian on the shoulder and turned him around away from McGonagall. "No, Sawyer… shshsh…" He did this as he shook his head at McGonagall as if to say 'don't mind him, he's new to detention.'

They all smiled and kept quiet until McGonagall left them.

"I may be wrong here," Adrian started as soon as the door closed, "but this is physically impossible."

Sirius just shrugged. "Yeah… actually you're right." Then he left with Remus and went to the other side of the room.

"Uh—" Adrian was going to call them back, to regroup or maybe form a strategy on how to go about the cleaning process. But then again, what was the point? They probably knew what they were doing. And so, he turned to James, who was left standing next to him.

"Don't worry," James said with the same offhand shrug his best friend just gave a while ago. "She's not seriously going to keep us here until everything's spick and span." He carried his supplies and stopped by the dusty – almost grimy – Quidditch trophies.

Adrian followed him and chose the shelf across from James'. He put down his supplies beside him and sighed audibly. "So this is what you do, huh?" he said, as he ran a finger on the surface of one of the trophies. And then sneezed. "Seriously, mate? They really don't clean this?"

"Yep," James replied, not really understanding what Adrian just said. He grabbed one of the Quidditch cups and started rubbing profusely. "What you do for a woman," he muttered under his breath.

"You'd die for her."

"Huh?" James turned around, not really hearing what Adrian just said. Because they both could hear Sirius' singing voice bouncing off the walls.

Adrian only smiled. "I mean really? Black and Turner?"

James laughed. "Toni has never had detention," he said. And then raised his voice so that he could be heard at the other side of the room, "And good for her, eh, Sirius?! Or else Toni would be begging me to be a Beater so she could have her own bat to shut you up with!"

Sirius' singing stopped. "I told you, Prongs! She's a Chaser! And she's a very good one! Let's not mess things about!"

James broke out into a loud laugh.

"What about you?" Adrian asked James, as he finished polishing the medal in his hands. "Ever thought of being a Chaser?"

"I'm a Seeker," James snorted.

"Change is good. The enemy won't know what to do. Talk about unexpected."

* * * * *

At exactly eleven forty-five in the evening, McGonagall came back into the room and dismissed them; but not before, unfortunately, handing their wands back to them. The boys happily went back to their Houses or so they should. But Remus made a detour into the Astronomy Tower that night. Hoping to encounter a friendly face perhaps.

"Oh, that's just not right," Sirius blurted out the minute Remus told them to go ahead to the dormitories. "Are you carrying that notebook with you now?"

"Shut up," Remus said as he ignored his friends' impersonations of girly giggles; and made his way to the Astronomy Tower.

Remus made a bee line into the Astronomy classroom as fast as he could. He wasn't keen on having another detention due to staying out after the curfew. Now, if only she was here, he thought as he opened the classroom door very quietly.

The classroom was dark; with only the little light from the night sky piercing in through the windows. He could barely see the furniture and actually bumped his foot onto one of the hard-wood desks with a quiet thump.

"Huh!" A soft gasp came from inside the classroom.

"Hello?" he whispered through the dark, squinting at the direction where he heard the voice.

Nobody answered.

"Someone's here. I know I wasn't imagining," he said but still no one answered. But in the next second, there was a scuffling noise that sounded like a pair of feet in a hurry.

Remus watched closely and saw a shadow moving through the room. He could easily follow the figure now as his eyes adjusted to the dark – the silhouette of a girl shifted from one window to the other in a hurry.

"Wha—?! How did you do that?"

Remus was now face to face with the other midnight prowler – Lucy. It's her! "I—" he stopped as he figured out where he was. "…don't know," he continued in confusion as he realized that literally one second ago, he was standing a good twenty feet from the window where they were now standing by.

"Uh… did you just Apparate?" Lucy spoke, as she moved aside from Remus and for the door. Although, she was taking her time for she was curious herself.

Remus turned and followed her with his eyes. He was still trying to picture the details of her face. Their moment that other night was very brief. Even so, that time outside the library. But he couldn't risk having to charm his wand with 'Lumos' just in case any teacher – or Filch – was lurking about just hunting for students to put into detention. Or put back into detention – that would be the case for him.

"You can't Apparate in Hogwarts –"

"I know," Lucy interrupted as Remus began to explain. She turned around and stood still, facing him. Something about the dark made her feel comfortable enough to stay this time. "I can't. But how would I know that you can't?"

"I didn't. I can't."

Lucy let out a sarcastic chuckle. "You just ran very fast. Lunged like a dog, huh?"

Remus was stopped. Her comment hit very close to home. "Not—" he paused, "not like a dog. Just… ran – it was dark! How sure are you that I wasn't standing next to you and you just didn't see me?"

"Because this room is not completely black and I'm not completely blind," she breathed in before she added, "Remus."

And as if hypnotized when she called his name, Remus took a step towards her. "You know my name."

Lucy shook her head and sighed. "You hang with Potter and Black, who seem to never get tired of pissing off the Slytherins… I think everyone knows your name at least. And don't change the subject," she suddenly said, pointing at him. Although, it didn't really do anything much for they could barely see each other.

Remus chuckled softly. "It's not that important." He paused and waited for her to say something. He watched as Lucy's silhouette appeared to sit down.

"You're magicked," said Lucy, her voice accusing. It wasn't a question nor even an innocent statement.

Right at that moment, Remus sensed a spirit of uneasiness from her. It was familiar… like she knew something and she was afraid of it. Yet, he treaded slowly towards her, and then sat on one of the chairs a few feet in front of her. "Magicked?"

"What happened to you when the lights went out? The Charm. It was the spell that everyone's talking about –"

"The catalyst," Remus muttered under his breath as he recalled what James told him; as Dumbledore said. Expect magic, Mr. Potter. Then, he went out of trance. "Wait, how do you know so much about what happened then?"

Remus waited for Lucy to reply but apparently, his questions went a bit too much. Lucy stood up then turned for the door. "It's late."

"Wait!" called Remus, as he stood up and raced towards her. "Wait, Lucy!" But he was too mindful of his steps; afraid that she might be right – that he might be magicked. And he didn't want that. He didn't want any part of the spell. Even if the only thing it probably did to him was make him run faster.

To his satisfaction, Lucy paused as she held the door handle in her hand. "You know my name?"

"I—" he didn't continue, turning his head towards the windows as he heard mumbling sounds from outside. He wondered if she heard them too. But alas, when he turned his head back to where she was standing, she was gone.

"You're treading on dangerous grounds. Do you actually think that we are not aware of what you're trying to do?" came a voice that was so familiar, its taint of drawl should be patented.

Malfoy? Remus thought, making his way through the dark and out onto the rooftop.

"There is nothing going on," came a second voice. There was also a hint of Slytherin in his voice – and familiar at that. Although he couldn't really tell for sure.

Remus leaned over the balustrade to verify if he was really hearing Malfoy and another Slytherin, at least. But he couldn't tell their faces because they were standing behind shadows. Although, this time, he knew that there were three of them.

"Don't even try to pretend, Black." Black? Remus' ears perked up, and confirmed that indeed it was Regulus when Regulus' face was exposed to a bit of light for a split second. "People talk," said the third voice again. It definitely was not a Slytherin, Remus thought, as his tone did not have that particular quality they get when exposed to too much Slytherin dialogue.

"People? Suddenly they qualify as humans now?" said Regulus.

Malfoy sniggered, although he still sounded like a snake more than anything. "You should know where your loyalties lie, Black."

Regulus straightened his coat. "I know where I stand. And I know what I'm doing," he said, turning around to walk away.

But Malfoy grabbed him by the arm and whispered although imposingly, "Don't start cleaning your hands now. You are one of us," then left.

~*~*~*~

you better run like the devil, 'cause they're never gonna leave you alone! you better hide up in the alley, 'cause they're never gonna find you a home! -- my chemical romance, "house of wolves"