"Lily, I'm sorry if my confession made you uncomfortable." Jeremy said, apologetically.
They had just finished their potions class and were heading to the Great Hall for lunch. Slughorn had partnered her up with Jeremy for the triple lesson of Potions and had been slightly awkward; since Slughorn had said there was to be no conversation except for the work they were doing they hadn't had a chance to talk until now.
"It's fine, it was just a shock that's all." Lily replied.
They entered the Great Hall and Jeremy took it upon himself to sit with her at the Gryffindor table and the two of them helped themselves to sandwiches.
"It's nice to spend some time with you though, it seems that you spend all your time with Potter." said Jeremy.
Lily's smile faded as she poured herself a goblet of orange juice.
"Look I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that-
"I can't help it Jeremy, we're in the same house. We're Head boy and girl this year. We're friends." said Lily.
"Lily, I understand. I'm sorry."
They ate their lunch and changed the subject to their studies, to which Lily suggested that they get together on Saturday to study in the library to which Jeremy was rather pleased about. After lunch, Lily had a free period and returned to the common room to get started on her Charms homework as well as October's prefect patrol schedule.
When she walked through the portrait hole and slumped down onto one of the chairs in front of the fire when she noticed Marlene come over to sit next to her. Lily eyed her best friend curiously.
"What's the matter with you?" asked Lily.
"Sirius Black. He asked me out to Hogsmeade on Saturday to which I agreed and he tells me over lunch that he's going with that slut Georgia Huntley." Marlene grumbled.
"Georgia Huntley?"
"Yeah she's on the Ravenclaw team and she's a fifth year. She knows of Sirius's reputation as a womaniser and couldn't wait to offer herself on a plate to him."
"Bit desperate isn't she?"
"When it comes to James Potter and Sirius Black, girls who don't have any dignity would do anything." said Marlene.
"James isn't like that."
"He likes the attention Lily, I'm not saying he's as stupid as Sirius is." Marlene snapped.
Lily pulled out several pieces of parchment and started working on the essay, while Marlene continued to mope next to her. She didn't know what to say to her best friend, she wasn't exactly one to give someone advice about a boy problem when she had one herself which she didn't know how to sort out. She knew that Marlene had had a soft spot for Sirius since their fifth year but it was only now that it seemed to be going somewhere, only for Marlene to get hurt in the process. She managed to convince Marlene to do homework instead of moping around to which Marlene agreed.
When the bell rang, Lily's free period was over. She gathered her things and bade Marlene goodbye and headed for Ancient Runes to which she knew a certain boy that her best friend had a thing for took as a subject. Lily entered the classroom and saw that Sirius was actually on time for a change and pulling things out of his schoolbag. She took the empty seat next to him and he turned to her, his smile fading in surprise that it wasn't Remus.
"Evans, I was expecting Remus." he said.
Lily pulled out her textbook and placed it on the desk in front of them, smiling slightly.
"We need to have a little chat." Lily stated.
Sirius frowned, "About what?"
"About you ditching my best friend at the last minute because you got a 'better offer'." Lily hissed.
"It wasn't like that-
"No? Because Marlene's pretty pissed off that you cancelled for Georgia Huntley."
"Marlene's too good for me, I'm scared I'll mess it up."
"Well she was happy to give you a chance Black and now you've already messed it up."
But before Sirius could say anything else to Lily, the a substitute teacher entered the classroom and instructed them to read twenty pages of the textbook and to translate the pages into English on their parchment. Lily and Sirius worked in silence, until Sirius passed Lily a note which made Lily smile.
Get Marlene to meet me in the entrance hall before dinner, I want to make it up to her.
Lily met his stare and nodded, causing him to grin widely. It made Lily curious when she thought of how he was going to make it up to Marlene. The rest of the lesson dragged by and Lily, who usually found her Ancient Runes classes rather interesting, was feeling rather bored after translating the whole twenty pages into English. The subsitute then told her to help Sirius, who was rather glad to have Lily helping him.
When the bell rang to indicate the end of the lesson, Lily and Sirius packed up their belongings and headed down the corridor back to the common room. Lily dumped her schoolbag on her bed and saw Marlene sitting crossed legged on hers doing some homework assignments.
"Marley?"
The blonde looked up and smiled.
"What's up Lily?"
"Sirius wants to talk to you in the entrance hall before dinner." said Lily.
Marlene's smile faded and she turned her attention back to the homework.
"What does he want?" Marlene asked, snappily.
"He wants to make it up to you." Lily replied.
"He's going to have to do a lot of grovelling-
"Just go!" Lily urged.
Marlene rolled her eyes and got off her bed and walked arm in arm with Lily down to the entrance hall, giving Lily a parting hug before heading over to where Sirius was stood. Lily smiled when Sirius led Marlene off to talk in private and she headed into the Great Hall. She sat at the Gryffindor table and helped herself to roast potatoes and roast beef when she noticed that James and Remus had joined her.
"We couldnt leave a beauty such as yourself on her own." James complimented.
Lily's eyes twinkled as she smiled at the two boys before tucking into her food. The three of them chatted away about their days and when the boys began to ask the other where Sirius was, Lily told them that he was alone with Marlene. After the three of them had eaten, they returned to the common room for the night.
After several minutes of snogging in a broom cupboard in the dungeons, Marlene pulled away from Sirius to catch her breath. Sirius was grinning from ear to ear, evidently pleased that he and Marlene seemed to be going somewhere. He walked closer to Marlene, backing her against the door but before they could resume their snogging session, they heard two people in the corridor outside.
"Jeremy, we need to talk about this!"
"What's there to talk about Georgia?" Jeremy growled.
"We slept together last February and I fell pregnant. I went to St Mungo's and had it dealt with. We slept together again in August and I'm pregnant again!" Georgia cried.
"Well that just goes to show that your contraception isn't working."
"And clearly the condom broke twice! Don't you care?"
Marlene looked at Sirius with wide eyes and Sirius confirmed that the girl was none other than Georgia Huntley.
"Look the first time happened because I was sexually frustrated as Lily wouldn't sleep with me. The second time was a distraction from the pain of my breakup with her." Jeremy explained.
"So you used me? And what about the baby?" asked Georgia.
"Well until we figure what to do, how about we go and take our minds off it." Jeremy said in a raspy whisper.
"What about Lily?"
"I'll get her back, Potter won't win her over. But for now I'm enjoying the fun we have together."
Marlene and Sirius continued to remain quiet as they heard Georgia giggle seductively and they listened as Jeremy and Georgia walked down the corridor and heard a door slam in the distance.
"We need to tell Lily." said Marlene.
"How are we going to tell her that her ex-boyfriend cheated on her whilst they were together and got another girl pregnant and when they broke up he slept with the same girl and got the same girl knocked up again?" asked Sirius.
"I don't know but she thinks Jeremy is a nice guy, she needs to know his true colours."
"I can't believe he got her knocked up twice at fifteen and she's only just turned sixteen, she's still a kid herself." said Sirius.
They both left the broom cupboard and headed to the Great Hall for dinner, both trying to think of a way to tell Lily without hurting her feelings about what Jeremy was really like.