DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognize isn't mine besides I am a poor college student who owns nothing so suing me would be pointless.

TBLPoS

Outside Help

TBLPoS

Remus was still stretching out his sore limbs when someone started pounding on his door. Before he could even move towards the door it was flung open. "Remus. Remus?" Lily looked at each bed before finally spotting Remus on his in the corner. "Oh thank Merlin. I'm sorry to just burst in when you're not feeling well but-"

"I'm feeling fine. I'm a little sore but that's about-"

"Wait, you mean, that you aren't sick? That lying bastard. First he tricks me then he tells Potter all of those things I said. I am going to kill him. I swear I will tear his insufferable head from his equally insufferable body."

Remus got up and grabbed Lily's shoulders to stop her from pacing. "Who are you talking about?"

"Black," Lily snarled.

"Oh." Remus led Lily to his bed and sat her down on it. He sat next to her and said, "Yeah, he has been up to something lately."

Lily laughed sarcastically. "Really? You don't say?" She dropped her head into her hands and continued, "He is messing everything up."

"What did he do? I mean I know about his talk with you, but I don't think that that would mess anything up."

Lily sighed. "It's not that. I said some things while I was arguing with Black. I didn't mean them or anything I just said them because I was angry and then HE repeated them and now Black and James are fighting and I feel horrible. They never fight and I kind of caused it and I just feel so awfully guilty."

Remus was quiet and took in everything that Lily was saying. "So you did say … those things."

Lily nodded her head dejectedly. "I'm awful aren't I?"

Remus laughed and hugged Lily to him. "No, you're not awful. A little hot headed at times, but not awful." Lily laughed. "Trust me when I say that you didn't ruin James and Sirius' friendship. They get into little tiffs every once in a while, but they always get over it. They're like brothers; nothing can get between them, not even you so don't worry."

Lily bit her lip. "Are you sure?" Remus nodded. "Okay. Well since you're obviously not sick and I have nothing to do right now do you want to go get some hot chocolate? I know it's your favorite and I could use something warm, so what do you say?"

Remus stood up and pulled Lily to her feet. "As if I would say no? Let's go."

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James made it all the way to the Quidditch pitch before he had worked off most of his anger. He honestly didn't understand why it was so hard to get Evans to even be civil with him. He was a good guy. He was smart, funny, and almost everyone else liked him. He just didn't get it. What about him was so repulsive to Lily? James was brought out of his own musings by the solid thunk of feet hitting the ground.

James looked up to find Nikolette Scott, a chaser on the Gryffindor team, dismount her broom. She walked over to James with her long even strides and sat down next to him. "Hey, cap'n."

James looked over Nikki. When you were talking to Nikki it was hard to remember that she was a girl because she acted so much like one of the guys, but once you looked at her it was apparent that she was not a boy. She was almost the direct opposite of Lily. While Lily was almost as tall as James Nikki stood almost a head shorter than him and where as Lily had a willowy frame that belonged to a ballerina, Nikki was given the shape of an hourglass. The only thing they had in common was that they both had green eyes, although Lily's were a bright emerald green where as Nikki's were more of a mossy green. James and Nikki sat in silence for a while just taking in the smell of crisp autumn air and the freshly cut grass. The pitch always made James more comfortable. "You're a girl, right?"

Nikki laughed at James question. "Last time I checked."

James nodded thoughtfully. "What do you want when it comes to a guy?"

"What? Why?"

James looked over at Nikki and read the confusion on her face. "I'm all out of ideas on how to get Lily to go out with me and you're a girl so I figured you'd have some secret trick or something."

"A secret trick? No sorry. I don't think there's a secret trick that suddenly makes all girls fall in love with you." Nikki put her hand companionably on James' leg. "If you want my honest advice, cap'n, here it is: move on. If she doesn't see that you are an amazing catch than she's not going to. I personally think that once you stop showing her attention she'll realize that she likes you, although I could be wrong. I'm not very good at reading people."

James shook his head. "I don't want to give up."

"Then don't. Think about it for a few days, yeah? Then once you have thought it over decide what you want to do, but you need to get over her."

James scoffed. "You would agree with Padfoot."

Nikki's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Sirius talked to you about this?"

James' head fell forward. "Yelled would be a better verb, but yeah."

Nikki grimaced a little. "That doesn't sound too pleasant."

James laughed. "It wasn't."

"Don't beat yourself up over this stuff, James. If it's meant to happen it will. Have faith. I'm going to go hit the showers: are you cool?"

James waved her away. "Yeah, I'm fine." Nikki started walking away as James called out to her. "Oh and Nikki if you stretch your legs out behind you in that dive you were practicing you'll have more control. Just be sure to grip the broom with your ankles."

Nikki smiled at James. "Thanks, cap'n," she said before jogging to the locker room.

TBLPoS

Sirius cursed as another book gave him absolutely no ideas on how to get Lily to stop being such a twit. "Mr. Black, refrain from uses such profanities in my library or I shall be forced to throw you out."

Mrs. Pince was the new librarian at Hogwarts. She had just graduated a few years earlier and was already back. She was a mousy little blonde who loved books more than people, but she was a good librarian. She normal stayed out of the students' way and was easily mollified. However she had been hovering around Sirius since he began to toss books around and showed no sign of leaving him alone. "Sorry, I just can't seem to find anything useful here."

Mrs. Pince huffed in indignation. "I assure you that there is a book here for you, it just takes assistance to find. What kind of book are you looking for?"

Sirius scratched the back of his head. "I don't rightly know, actually."

"Well, what are you trying to do with the information?"

Sirius quickly scrambled to find a good excuse that explained why he needed a book that made people act out there secret thoughts. "Well … umm … You see Mrs. Pince, I have a problem. I … um … I can't express my feelings, yeah that's it, and I was hoping that there was a spell or something that could help me out."

Mrs. Pince smiled warmly at Sirius. "That is wonderful, Mr. Black. I find that young men do have a problem admitting there inside emotions. You need to be looking in the self-help section."

"We have a self-help section?"

Mrs. Pince looked outraged. "Of course we do!"

"I didn't mean it like that." Sirius quickly backpedaled, "I just meant that it was surprising that your library, here, has enough room for all of the wonderful books we have now and a self-help section. I don't think that the Ministry library has this big of a selection and variety of books."

Mrs. Pince blushed at Sirius' statement and led him to the self-help section. "Here we are. Now the best books for what you're talking about are probably either Feelings: How to Express Myself for Squibs or Professor Will D. Abandon's book. He is from the Salem Institute and he is amazing. I would recommend his book, Unleash Yourself: Incantations to Set You Free, if you are looking for incantations and spells. Feelings is more about meditation and non-magical easy to follow steps."

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Pince, if it weren't for you I would have never found this," Sirius said as he grabbed the sleek leather binding of Unleash Yourself.

Mrs. Pince smiled in satisfaction. "It was nothing. Now normally you need permission from your head of house to check out that book but I'll let it pass this time since it is apparent that you are trying to change your ways."

Sirius smiled at the little librarian. "Thank you again, this will be very useful," with that said he walked out of the library and headed for the dungeons. He went down to a few corridors and then turned right down a dead end passage. At the end of the passage was a portrait of his great-great-grandfather, Phineas Black. Sirius approached the portrait and said clearly, "Isla." The portrait swung to the side to reveal Phineas' secret chamber. The chamber was basically a secret bed room that Phineas used when he was Headmaster of Hogwarts. It was his haven where he didn't have to put on any airs or be anything, but himself. Sirius had been surprised when he realized that it did the same for him.

Sirius walked in the room turned left and placed his recently acquired book on the table in front of him when he heard someone speak from behind him. "I was wondering when you'd get here. I expected you sooner, to be honest."

TBLPoS

A/N: Here is the fourth chapter FINALLY! I totally dropped the ball this time. It took me hella days to update this chapter. The next chapter will hopefully be up this weekend or mid next week. Tell me what you think about Nikki. Do you want to see more of her? Reviews equal love.