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

TBLPoS

A Fresh Start

TBLPoS

James sat high above the Quidditch pitch circling slowly on his broom feeling sorry for himself. He had actually made progress with Lily and it wasn't even real. It literally required a love spell to get Lily to consider him as boyfriend material. He realized that Sirius was trying to help, but how could Sirius think that James would want to force Lily to be with him or that he wouldn't feel even worse once the spell wore off and Lily hated him again? The whole situation was completely fucked up and James couldn't see any way to fix it. There was no way that this ended well. Lily would never speak to him again if she found out. He would be too bitter at loosing his chance with Lily and his trust in Sirius to speak to Sirius. He wouldn't even be able to keep his memories of the last few days with Lily because they weren't real. The Lily who liked him was fake. The memories were fake.

James was pulled from his dark thoughts by a ribbon of red whipping around on the grass of the pitch. Upon flying closer to the earth, James discovered that the ribbon was actually Lily's curls being pulled about by the fierce wind. He would've shot back up into the sky if he hadn't made eye contact and could've pretended not to notice her, unfortunately they had locked eyes so he resolutely headed to the solid ground. He knew he needed to tell Lily what was up, but he didn't know if he was ready to handle the fall-out yet.

"I know Sirius cast a spell on me," Lily said bluntly as James landed on the grass.

His hair flew about his face and the setting sun flashed off of his glasses blocking his eyes from view as he asked, "did he reverse it?"

"He told me that you didn't know he did it. Is that true?"

"I didn't know he was going to do it, but I could tell he did something," James said trying to be as honest as he could with Lily ignore the fact that she hadn't answered his question.

"I also heard that you guys aren't speaking right now."

Lily paused after her statement as if waiting for something. After a few strained seconds James said, "we aren't friends anymore," to fill the silence.

"Is it because of me?" Lily asked emotionless. Her face was stiff and void as it had been the whole conversation.

James wasn't sure if Lily was furious or hurt or anything. Her complete control over her emotions scared him a little bit. Lily wasn't usually this closed and controlled. He didn't know what the right answer was so he stuck to the truth, "Yes. I would like to be able to say that I'm not his friend anymore because he would mess with someone's life like that, but that's not true. I might've found it funny if it was someone besides you. I can't be friends with Sirius anymore because every time I think about him all I can think of is the fact that he ruined my chances with you. Even worse, actually, I lost you and now I know how wonderful being with you could be."

Lily stood quietly contemplating him.

Awkwardly James added, "I swear I didn't know about it and I wouldn't condone it. I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore and I won't ask you out again or bother you for the rest of the year. I really am sorry Lily. I didn't mean for you to do anything that you didn't want to do."

"You didn't." Lily looked down at her feet as she began to explain the spell, it's effects, and length, "The spell made me less inhibited, so I didn't really do or say anything that I didn't already want to do or at least think about normally. Furthermore, the spell took effect while I was sleeping the night we were talking in your dorm and ended the next night before we kissed … so those were all things I did as normal me." Lily stopped talking and peeked at James. His eyes were still hidden by the sunset leaving Lily feeling uneasy.

"So do you like me? Like really like me?" James asked.

"I don't know. I think so. I think I do. I'm just confused. This is a lot to take in you know. One day I hate you and then I don't and then I'm jinxed. I … I just don't know," she finished weakly.

James smiled slightly at Lily, "how about we just start over ok? We can grab lunch with Alice sometime since I won't be seeing much of my friends for a while."

"Why wont you see them?"

"It's not fair to make the rest of them choose between me or Sirius."

Lily was silent in thought for a few seconds again, "Alice doesn't think we should be mad at them and … and I don't think we should either."

"Them?" James questioned.

"Nikki and Sirius. They did it together, although it was all Sirius' idea. Alice said that it was obvious that they did the wrong thing but no actual harm came out of it and they were trying to help their friend so… I dunno I think I'm just going to try to forget it." Lily shrugged and looked back up at James, "is that weak of me?"

James smiled down at Lily, "No, I don't think so, but why were Sirius and Nikki working together?"

"I think they're dating," Lily said as they started walking back towards the castle.

"They're what!?"

TBLPoS

Nikki and Sirius were wandering aimlessly down the hall feeling a bit sorry for themselves. It had all turned out so terribly wrong. Sirius had lot his best friend and Nikki had lost her first real female friend. Lily wasn't caddy and bitchy like so many of the girls here were. Lily also wasn't just trying to befriend Nikki because of the fact that she was a connection to James and Sirius. Tears started to fill Nikki's eyes as she came to a stop in a deserted corridor.

"What's wrong love?" Sirius questioned mechanically.

"Us," Nikki choked in a broken whisper, "We're terrible people."

"No we're not-"

"Yes we are," Nikki interjected childishly.

Sirius rolled his eyes slightly at her before putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her to a seated position on the floor, "we had good intentions at least… that has to count for something, right?"

"I guess," Nikki said leaning against the wall and looking to the arched stone ceiling.

"See," Sirius tried to reassure her, "now wipe those tears. It'll get better, I promise."

"It has too, right?"

"Right," Sirius said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Well this is a depressing scene." Sirius and Nikki jumped and the intruder's voice. When they looked down the hall they saw James striding towards them with Lily trailing a little behind. Once James reached them he made the briefest eye contact with Nikki before turning his attention to Sirius. "I need to talk to you, privately."

Sirius nodded slowly coming to his feet. He pushed himself off of the wall headed into the empty classroom across from where Nikki was seated. From her position on the ground she could see the two boys clearly, but they were out of her range of hearing so she looked back at the ceiling to watch the torch light dance along the stone.

"I was always so fascinated by the charm that made each classroom here soundproof; it's quiet ingenious," Lily said as she sat down next to Nikki.

Nikki looked at Lily out of the corner of her eye. Lily was staring at James and Sirius. Nikki decided to do the same and added, "I guess I took it for granted. I've never been to any other school before."

"Back when I was in elementary school, muggle school for little kids, before I got my letter here, you could hear the classrooms in the hallway and the hallway in the classrooms. It could get hectic sometimes, especially if you were taking a test and some other kids were messing around in the halls."

"I didn't even know they put a charm on the classrooms," Nikki said awkwardly. Lily was acting so calm, yet Nikki was pretty sure that she had betrayed her in the worst way possible and that there was no coming back from that. Needless to say Nikki was a bit confused.

"I read it in 'Hogwarts: A History.' It's a good book you can borrow it."

Nikki was shocked by this offering. Did Lily still want to be her friend? Was it possible that Lily could look past this and forgive her? "I'd like that," Nikki said with a slight smile as she peeked at Lily only to find Lily peeking at her.

"Alice thinks I should forgive you and that we should all go back to being friends," Lily said softly while returning to look at James and Sirius. Sirius' head was hung in shame and James looked dark and menacing.

"I hope someday you can, but I understand if you can't. I don't know if I could," Nikki admitted honestly. It was silent for a while so Nikki just watched the boys. James' raged seemed to die out literally deflating him. His shoulders slumped. His arms fell weakly to his side and he hung his head in defeat. Sirius started talking moving his hands rapidly as if explaining something.

"I think I forgave you when I saw your tears," Lily's voice startled Nikki. Lily was speaking again before Nikki had even comprehended her first statement, "I'd like to start over, if you want to?"

The boys in the empty classroom hugged as Nikki processed what Lily was saying. "I'd like that," Nikki admitted smiling at Lily who was smiling at her.

Lily faced forward again and said, "Looks like they've made up too," pointing at James and Sirius who were walking towards them with silly grins on their faces.

Looking up at James and Sirius smiling and laughing together, Nikki knew that everything was going to be ok. She looked back at Lily and smiled again, "looks like it."

TBLPoS

A/N: Here it is! I may do a short epilogue for this story, but that is only if people want me to write it. I hope you liked the story and if this is my only story that you have read that you will check out some of my other ones. : )