Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, only Nia, Bella and anyone not in the books belong to me

A/n: I'm sorry I'm so late with this, again. I feel the rolling of the eyes but I couldn't help it. I went on holiday for like a month and I had to get this typed up as quickly as possible on top of school starting again but anyway.

**This Life Thing **

James turned up at the library the following morning, a full fifteen minutes early. Lily was nowhere to be seen. Deciding to spend his time productively, as opposed to spending it staring into space, he got out his books and highlighted problematic areas and pulled out his textbook for some reading.

"Sorry, I'm late! Bella forgot to wake me up in time" Lily said quietly, taking heavy breaths between her words, she looked like she'd ran straight from the tower.

James glanced at his watch "one minute past ten. I'll let you off this once but don't make it a habit, Evans" he joked.

She gave a small, constrained smile and began to pull out her books. "Let's get started then. What can I do for you?" she said.

James picked up a scroll of parchment "well I couldn't pinpoint exactly what I needed help with so I thought you could check over my essay content and we'd go from there"

"That sounds fine" she answered, taking the scroll from him. She scanned through it thoughtfully and so began their tutoring session.

Lily had just been enumerating on the properties of crocus essence and why it couldn't possibly be used in a revival concoction ("it has sedating effects, look…") when they heard some frantic whispering from behind them.

The Heads exchanged glances and turned their heads to gaze enquiringly at a group of third year girls. As soon as their eyes fell upon them, the girls quietened and immediately began going about their own business. Lily and James turned back.

Just as Lily had regained her thread, the whispering started again. She stopped, dead in the middle of her sentence. Lily then cast a fleeting glance over James' right shoulder and watched as one of the third years cast just such a glance at her and James.

James cleared his throat "d'you want me to go talk to them?"

"No, don't. They'll just tell everyone how sensitive you are about me" Lily whispered.

His eyebrows rose questioningly "how do you know that?"

"They're third years. Girls don't have much to do but gossip in third year" she explained.

"Oh" he said blankly "do you want to go to the lounge, then?"

"They could have fun with that too, but at least I won't be able to hear them"

James rose and waited for Lily to follow and together, they left the library.


"I think I have a plan" Sirius announced to Remus and Peter while depositing himself on his favourite armchair.

"Plan for what?" Peter asked.

"For getting Nia to go out with me"

"I thought you were just going to 'give her some time' " Remus said.

"I was, but the new plan is so much more fun"

"Merlin, help me now" Remus muttered, rolling his eyes. Sirius, ignoring him, began to inform them of his stroke of genius.

"I'm going to make her jealous by asking another girl out" he explained concisely, with a hint of pride in his smile, almost as if no one had ever thought if this before.

"I don't think you should" Remus objected.

"Why not?"

"Dunno, I-I'm just…I can just see it all going wrong. And besides, it's not really right, is it?"

"It's what you're doing" Sirius protested.

"Not really. I'm just supposed to make her a bit curious, make her want to get my attention. I'm not messing with her head or anything"

"Okay whatever, but still, it'll work"

"Or it could backfire and bite you in the arse" his friend kindly pointed out "besides mate, you don't want to be fucking with a girl's head, they'll go all vicious on you. You have no idea"

"And you do?" Sirius questioned.

"Not personally but remember, it happened to James in fourth year"

"Oh yeah" Peter said out loud, recalling a particularly nasty incident.

"Nia's not like that" Sirius merely replied.

"You'd be surprised"

Sirius thought about his words while Remus finally decided he was going to move his knight forward.

"I'm still doing it, I reckon it'll make that whole Cameron issue go away quicker" Sirius voiced.

"Good luck"

Now, Peter had an argument. "Who are you going to find who's going to be happy for you to use her to get at Nia?" he put forward.

Sirius looked thoughtful again "it's going to need to be someone I've known for ages and someone who I don't majorly fancy and who doesn't really fancy me" he listed.

"Yeah, you don't want to complicate things" Remus remarked sarcastically.

"But she needs to be someone who'll be around a lot and who's going to understand my motive"

Peter, looking as though a light bulb had gone off in his head, said eagerly "what about Cara?"

'What about Cara?' Sirius asked in return.

"Why don't you have Cara pretend to be your girlfriend? She won't care" Peter further elaborated.

"And she doesn't have a boyfriend" Remus added, moving his bishop.

Sirius looked to be enamoured with the idea "that's perfect. She'd probably love to; she'd think it'd be a bit of laugh. And she's around quite a bit because of quidditch. Pete, you're a genius"

Peter looked rather pleased with himself.

"Cara!" Sirius called to a group of sixth year girls in the distance.

"Oy, Cara!"

A girl turned and frowned at him before grudgingly answering to his summons.

As she walked closer to him, Sirius had leisure to observe how much the idea had to offer. Cara matched his criteria perfectly.

Cara Phillips was a reasonably tall girl. Her wavy brown hair fell just past her shoulders and was of a pretty, warm tint. She had a little nose, large hazel eyes and a friendly, outgoing personality.

"What's the matter Sirius?" she asked.

"I need your help"

"What with?"

"Operation: capture Nia Fletcher" Remus muttered. Cara glanced between the three boys before allowing her ready smile to appear and taking a seat on the armrest of Sirius' armchair.

"A mission, excellent. What are we doing?" Cara asked eagerly.

"I knew you'd be up for it. I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend to make Nia jealous"

His teammate wrinkled her nose "oh I don't know" she mused doubtfully.

"Oh come on, Cara!" Sirius whined.

"You know I love missions and stuff but that's a bit mean"

"That's what I said" Remus chimed in.

"Not to mention that it could go wrong in about a hundred different ways"

"Also what I said"

Sirius scowled at the pair of them while Peter looked on, distinctly amused, apparently oblivious to Remus' reminder that it was his turn.

Cara continued to brainstorm "and Nia's on the team. When you tell her, she'll hate me. And even if you don't, she'll still hate me and I like Nia"

"Please? Please Cara?" Sirius pleaded. The girl looked at him piteously and felt herself weakening at his hopeless expression.

"Well it is getting a little pathetic between you two and it is a good cause. And I suppose I could smooth over any grudge she might harbour for me"

Sirius' face transformed completely and he grinned at her disarmingly.

She took one look at him and sighed in defeat "and I do like a mission"

"I knew I could count on you" he said triumphantly "did I mention how gorgeous you are?"

"D'you know, I might believe you if I didn't know the motive behind the compliment" Cara said, sticking out her tongue.

"But you are hot" Peter stated bluntly.

"It's true" Remus added.

"You guys are sweet" she replied with a smile. Her hazel eyes suddenly widened "I'll do it Sirius, on one condition"

"Anything"

"I'm going to use you to make Gideon Prewett jealous"

"Oh alright then. Why?"

"Because he won't ask me out! We're really good friends and everything but I fancy him and I'm not 100% subtle, exactly. I do think sometimes that…Either way, I want him to ask me out and he won't do it" Cara complained.

"Cara, if you're being as clear as you say and you get along and the idiot's not asking you out, he's either got another girl in his eye or he's gay" Sirius said shortly.

"I hope not. Well, we'll see"

Just then, two girls descended the staircase. A short pretty brunette and a taller, curvaceous girl.

Cara whispered "follow my lead" and burst into a fit of excellently performed giggles "shut up Sirius"

The boy, not missing a beat, raised his eyebrows and said in a voice Nia knew very well "so? Are you going to go with me or not?"

"What would we do though? We couldn't go to Hogsmeade"

Sirius leant over and pretended to whisper something in her ear. Cara acted embarrassed and giggled again "Sirius!" she said and pushed him. He grinned at her.

"Oh alright then. Just the one?" Cara asked.

"Just the one? That's a bit disappointing"

The girl looked surprised "you mean?"

He shrugged "yeah, why not?"

"Oh, well…yeah, I'd love to"

Nia was rooted to the spot, staring at them. Her eyes were wide, her expression, dumbstruck. Bella glanced from the boys by the fire to her shocked best friend.

Eventually, Nia shook herself out of her daze and said "let's go over there" pointing to a corner, the farthest possible distance from where Sirius and Cara were holed up.

Bella glanced once more at the offending corner before following her friend. As they took their seats, she began warily "Nia, don't have a spasm now"

"Does it look like I'm having a spasm?"

"No but you do look like you're going through the prelude" Bella observed truthfully, Nia merely glared.

"For your information, I'm perfectly fine and have no intention of overreacting over a perfectly normal situation" she said in a tone of utmost calm.

Bella looked puzzled "really? I thought you'd have been crushed after Sirius just asked Cara out and was being all flirty like" she paused "kind of like how he is with you, actually or used to be anyway"

Tact had never really been Bella's strong point. She said what she thought without thinking before she said it. This habit of hers was the despair of many of those around her, including her friends, parents, siblings and her grandparents to name but a few.

The prevailing despair at this moment was that of Nia Fletcher's. She stared at her friend in disbelief before rolling her eyes.

"Thank you Bella!" she snapped "God what, just what would I do without a friend like you?"

Having heard this tone far too many times to mistake it, Bella replied guiltily "oh no! That wasn't very thoughtful of me, was it?"

"No actually, it was quite horrible" Nia answered conversationally.

"I'm sorry. You know I don't mean to"

Nia simply nodded as she looked over to Gryffindor's newest couple. Bella's eyes followed her gaze and her expression softened.

"Don't look like that, Fletch!" Bella groaned, trying to lighten the mood by employing her nickname from their first year days "it's not good for you"

She simply got the briefest look in response, making the brunette sigh "you aren't surprised?"

Nia said nothing but the inner conflict was painstakingly obvious.

"Aaaaww Fletch!" Bella cried in exasperation but gave Nia a hug, nevertheless. "Come on! Be reasonable"

"I know I'm not being fair. It's just, I didn't think he'd find another girl" Nia complained.

"Well he couldn't find another guy, could he? I don't think he swings that way" Even this didn't succeed in making Nia smile so Bella gave up.

"Look, he's just a normal boy. A normal boy that a lot of girls happen to like, you couldn't expect him to just wait around"

"But it didn't seem like…I don't want to sound like I'm up myself" Nia broke off.

Bella shook her head "you won't, just say it"

"I didn't think he liked me like that. I thought it was…well, more than that, stupid as it sounds"

"It was, probably still is. But, you made it pretty clear that you had no intention of saying yes, anytime soon" the brunette pointed out.

Nia groaned in frustration "that's not true! I do, I did have the intention of saying yes. I just couldn't do it right now"

"Yeah well, at the end of the day, he wasn't bound to you in any way. So, when a pretty girl came along, same interests, nice personality and started flirting with him, why should he have turned away?" Bella argued fairly.

Nia didn't answer for a second, trying to cling to the sense of injustice, as best she could. It was a losing battle. Nia knew very well that Sirius hadn't done anything wrong. Truth be told, it was all her own fault.

Sirius, having spotted them, waved for the two girls to join his friends and Cara. Bella looked instinctively at Nia, who resolutely rose and walked towards the familiar group.

"Morning Nia, Bella. You looked a bit lonely there, thought you might like to join us" Sirius said cheerfully. Remus very discreetly rolled his eyes and focused very hard on the chessboard to ignore Bella.

Sirius, Cara, Nia and Bella chatted lightly for a few minutes. Nia entered wholeheartedly into the conversation. A little too wholeheartedly, her eagerness to seem unfazed, shamelessly giving her away. Peter added his own comments now and then but Remus hadn't said a word.

"Good morning Remus" Bella said sweetly. He waited until he'd watched his pawn take Peter's rook before looking up at the pretty brunette with a very good impression of surprise.

"Huh? Oh, hey Bella, Nia. Didn't see you there" he said carelessly.

The girl looked at him for a while and could think of nothing more to say than "oh!" She wondered vaguely if she'd offended Remus at all because she just couldn't explain his sudden coldness. It was odd.

Remus gave her another smile before returning to his chess game, leaving both Bella and Peter in shock. The latter finding it difficult to believe that his friend could turn away from a girl like Bella when she was being so nice.

Within the comfort of his own thoughts, Peter, like Lily, was not entirely sure Remus' plan was ever going to work. He also thought that cool as he tried to be, Remus just ended up acting like a twat.

Peter invited her to join him "I'm no good, you know. Nothing on Remus but two's better than one. Don't you think?"

Bella looked from Peter to Remus before nodding and sitting beside the former.

Nia meanwhile, was conversing with her two teammates. She had been avoiding referring to their new status but found it a little impossible to ignore when Sirius' arm went around Cara's waist and she in turn started running her fingers through his hair.

"Am I missing something?" Nia asked in the same overfriendly tone, inwardly cringing as she heard her own voice.

Sirius grinned at Cara before replying "no, it's just me and Cara are going out now"

Nia's fake smile tightened "really? How nice for you!" she muttered and then turned to Cara and asked sweetly "d'you know the other day, Jake Havering asked me out, only I'm not sure if I should say yes. Do you think I should, Cara?"

The addressed girl raised her eyebrows and looked duly impressed "Jake Havering? That tall Ravenclaw with the smile? Uh-yes, you should. He's gorgeous, Nia"

"That's what I thought" Nia started, Sirius' right hand clutched into a fist and he quickly looked away "but I wasn't too sure. He's a bit shy and we haven't really talked much but he seems really nice so I said I'd think about it. Now I think I might as well. What do you think, Sirius?"

Sirius stared at her for a second before indifferently replying "Havering? I dunno, what's it to me?"

"Oh, I just thought, since you're such a close friend, you might want to advise me"

"Well I don't want to"

"Why not, Sirius?"

"You know exactly why, Nia"

"Do I? No really, enlighten me" Nia persisted in a tone of utmost sweetness.

Cara looked thoroughly entertained, as did Peter.

Bella and Remus however, felt a little uncomfortable, especially as they considered the potential that Nia and Sirius' conversation possessed. They instinctively looked to each other.

"D'you want to go for a walk?" Bella asked quickly.

'Yeah actually, a walk sounds really good right now' Remus answered just as hastily and then looked at Peter enquiringly.

"'No, you guys go. I think I'll stay" Peter responded, grinning as he listened to Sirius and Nia's lethal exchange.

Once outside, Remus looked back at the portrait hole with a relieved smile. "You have excellent timing" he commented to his partner.

"Thank you, I thought I handled it rather well, myself"

"You did. You don't think they'll kill each other or anything, do you?" Remus asked, half seriously, half jokingly.

"In what sense, physically or mentally?" Bella asked.

"Both"

"Physically, perhaps, it was too early to hazard a safe guess. Mentally, most definitely"

Remus laughed and carried on walking in silence until Bella spoke up.

"What happened anyway? I mean, one minute, he's still trailing after Nia and the next, he's all over Cara and they're like going out now. He seems to have completely forgotten Nia; I'm just a bit confused"

Remus thought before he answered. Should he tell the truth and relieve Bella's mind or should he remain a good friend and lie for Sirius, thereby not breaking an unsaid promise and also, perhaps, aiding Sirius in his evil genius?

"I wouldn't say he's forgotten her. But, no offence or anything, there's only so long we can wait around, you know?"

Bella looked thoughtful for a moment and sighed "I suppose you're right. I mean I told her the same thing but even so, I didn't think he'd do a 180 that quickly. I thought he'd be a bit more gradual in his approach"

"Sirius doesn't really do gradual, if you know what I mean. He's very all or nothing"

"Well, you would know, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah" Remus finished. And they continued on in a comfortable silence. Bella then spoke up.

"I haven't talked to you in ages. Not properly anyway. I think the last time we had a proper conversation was at the party after the Hufflepuff match. Barely seen you since"

"Has it been that long?" Remus started "I hadn't noticed. But I suppose it may have been a while. I've just had so much work and then you know, throw prefect stuff into the mix, haven't had time for much else" he explained.

"I bet you haven't" Bella replied blankly and then after a pause "actually I'm not surprised, there's your mum as well, isn't there?"

Remus looked confused "my mum?"

"Yeah, Lily told me about how ill she is. That's where you went last week, wasn't it? To visit her? How is she?" Bella asked.

He stopped and turned to stare at her for a moment before resuming "yeah, she's fine…for now"

"For now?"

"I mean, she was fine when I left her but I won't get a proper update 'til I go again, next month and speak with the healers and stuff" he explained, not looking her in the eye.

"Oh right"

Neither of them spoke for a minute. Bella looked up at him and studied his face. It had become paler and he looked completely lost in his thoughts. She smiled sadly.

"She'll be fine, you know"

Remus looked at her and attempted to return her sympathetic smile "yeah, hopefully"

"Well, she's come this far, hasn't she? And she's got you. And your dad" she said, he simply nodded.

"I think it's really great, how much you look after her and everything. It must take a lot of strength, or at least I think anyway. Leaving every month to check up on her and then on top of that, you manage school so well" she paused for a moment but he still didn't reply.

"It's just…I don't think I'd be able to do it. I can't even imagine how it must feel, having to see my mother so ill" Bella stopped abruptly and looked him in the eye.

"I talk far too much, you don't mind, do you? That, that I'm talking about it? I can stop, it's just, I didn't think" she ventured.

He shook his head and smiled "no, it's okay. I don't mind" he thought for a moment "it's not too bad. At least I get to see her, right? It could be worse"

"Yeah I mean, look at Sirius' mum" Bella pointed out.

Remus' eyebrows rose "how do you know about that?"

"Oh everyone knows about that. Well I mean, not at school precisely, but like, at home" she elaborated.

"I see"

They turned into a new corridor and past a couple of empty classrooms.

"So I never asked you, did you have fun with Pearce?" Remus started.

Bella's brow furrowed "Pearce?"

"Mark Pearce. You went to Hogsmeade with him, right? How'd it go?"

"Oh, him. Erm, it was okay, I guess"

Remus heroically suppressed the urge to grin "just okay?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Bella looked resolutely ahead and nodded "just okay"

"Well that's too bad. Hopefully, the next one won't be"

"Hopefully" she muttered.

"Listen, d'you mind if I turned back? It's just, talking about mum, I remembered I need to send a letter home, is that alright?" he said.

"Yeah, of course. Go ahead, I'll finish the walk alone"

"Great, we'll talk later, I promise"

"Sure" she replied brightly and watched him go.

Walking away, Remus wasn't entirely sure he'd gotten the response he wanted.


"Okay, now repeat the ingredients needed for a revival concoction, without looking" Lily ordered.

"Okay, you need three unicorn hairs, preferable foal hairs, two pinches of crushed hellebore, a dash of spine of-" but James had to break off as an animal jumped into his lap. He looked down to see a beautiful grey Persian on his knees.

"Oh hello!" he said in a friendly tone.

Lily gasped "Brioche! There you are! D'you know, I've been looking everywhere for you. Have you been hiding here, you idiot?" she cried.

Brioche looked at her mistress disdainfully, thoroughly resenting her tone.

"How did you…oh no!" exclaimed Lily before reaching over to remove her cat from James' lap.

"Oh Bri, I'm so sorry. You know how I get, when I'm reading" Lily said apologetically, almost forgetting that James was present. Brioche didn't look to be much mollified.

"I don't do it on purpose, you know. I try my best to remember you"

The cat mewed in response and stopped glaring.

"Are you starving? How've you been feeding yourself, eh?" but the cat had no further answers to give. Instead, James cleared his throat.

"So she's your cat" he started.

"Yeah, why?"

"I found her here on Tuesday and tried to let her out"

"Well that was very nice of you but she wouldn't have left" Lily said apologetically.

"I noticed. She just stared at me"

"She would. Unbelievably lazy, won't even get her own food"

"That also struck my observant mind. So I've been leaving her food every morning since Tuesday" he admitted.

Lily stared at him, eyes widened in appreciation and gratitude "you haven't!" she whispered in disbelief.

James grinned "I have"

"Oh thank you, thank you so much!" she cried happily and made a movement as if to get up and hug him but she recollected herself almost immediately and cleared her throat.

"It's okay, nothing really" he said deprecatingly, shrugging his shoulder.

Lily smiled at him shyly "well I'm glad you found her"

"Forget about it. I liked her. What did you say her name was? Bri?"

The girl looked down at her pet fondly "yes. Well no, actually her name's Brioche"

"Brioche?" James repeated with a slight smile.

She looked back at him "I like it"

"As you should. It's a lovely name" James amended hastily. The corners of her mouth twitched.

"Keep a closer eye on her next time" he added.

"I will. Tell me how I can make it up to you" Lily questioned anxiously.

"Make it up to me?"

"Yeah, I owe you one for looking after Bri" Lily said.

"No, you don't. You're already helping me with Potions"

"Oh that doesn't count! I had to do that. It might affect your whole life"

"Great. Now I realise how hugely I'm in your debt" he thought for a moment "but if that doesn't count…you can do something else"

"Anything"

"I'd like to be friends" James proposed.

"Friends?" Lily repeated dubiously "w-we are friends, in a way"

"No, I mean proper friends. Like how you're friends with Remus. Obviously I don't mean like Nia and Bella. But not just same house, same team, Head boy and girl sort of friends" he elaborated.

The girl stared at him thoughtfully. James thought he sensed a good deal of reluctance in her eyes. Well that was bound to happen, really.

"But-but it took two years for me and Remus to become friends like we are" she protested.

"Can you try? I'd really like it, if you did. I think it'd be interesting, being friends with you"

Her eyebrows rose "really?" he nodded.

She gazed at him hesitantly for a further few seconds.

"W-well you did stop my cat from starving. I guess I can try" she said, almost to herself.

"Excellent" he replied.

"But it's not that simple, you know. Not for me"

"I understand"

"It could take two years" she added

"I don't care" he said.

They shook hands and continued with Potions.

An hour or so later, Lily returned to her dorm, Brioche in hand, having parted from James in the common room.

"You've been tutoring a long time" came a familiar voice. Lily jumped and her hand went to her chest.

"Bloody hell Nia!" she gasped.

Nia put down her book but her expression remained unchanged "sorry, what took you so long?"

"I never quite appreciated how awful James really is at Potions" Lily said in response.

"Of course"

The redhead held up her cat "look who I found!"

The other girl looked up and smiled though Lily sensed a little constraint "excellent!"

"Where's she been?" Nia asked.

"I forgot her in the prefect's lounge last week and James found her"

"Oh"

"And he's been feeding her for me too" Lily added, setting her bag down on the bed and taking a seat.

"That was nice of him" Nia commented distractedly.

"It was, wasn't it?" the head girl replied.

"Paying him back or are you even now?"

"Well he asked me to be friends with him in return. Proper friends"

"And?"

"I told him I'd try" Lily finished.

"Good for you"

They fell silent and Nia continued to flicked through a copy of witch weekly, trying to bring some order to her thoughts. Lily pulled out a book and started to read.

"Shit!" Nia cried as the page ripped while being turned violently by her angry hands. Lily glanced over at her best friend.

Her usually serene air was marred by something, some sort of tension in her bearing. Her forehead was set in a thoughtful frown, unusual for someone reading Witch Weekly, Lily thought. And her gaze was a thousand miles away.

"Nia?" her friend called.

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" Nia said defensively.

"I don't know. But you seem a little tense" Lily replied tentatively.

"Well I'm fine so don't worry about it" Nia assured. She couldn't be doing with questions. Especially not from Lily who always managed to pry out of you, whatever it was she wanted to hear.

"Are you stressed?" Lily asked, with a sympathetic smile on her face. Nia scowled and looked away.

"Yes, I'm stressed. Happy?" she snapped.

"About what? Homework? If you need any help, just-" but Lily was cut off by her irate friend.

"I. Am. Fine. And I don't need your help, thank you very much" Nia interjected tersely and then got up from her bed "now, if it's perfectly alright with you, I'm going to get ready for Quidditch practise"

"We don't have practise tonight" Lily commented coldly, satisfactorily ruining Nia's dramatic finish.

"Yes, we do. It was rescheduled, didn't James tell you?"

"No"

"Of course. I'm sure you were very busy together with this charming new friendship of yours" Nia said before walking over to her trunk to take out her quidditch robes.

Lily gasped at Nia's snide remark and her eyes flashed lethally. Silently, she got her broom and her own quidditch robes and left to change in the changing rooms instead.

As soon as the door slammed furiously behind her, Nia's head snapped round. She stared at it for a full minute before her eyes widened and a hand flew to her mouth "what've I done?" she whispered, ashamed of herself.

Lily traipsed across the grounds with a reeling mind. She hadn't cared about the snapping at first. They were seventeen and of the female variety, it happened. But the unnecessary nastiness of that last remark was just pushing it way too far.

She had seen resentment in Nia's eyes with that awful satirical gleam in them. And that horrible smirk and the snide last line. How dare Nia speak to her like that? Nobody spoke to her like that!

Lily charged into the changing rooms just as heatedly as she'd charged out of her dormitory but her thoughts were interrupted by an astonished voice.

"Lily?"

The Head Girl looked up to see a pretty face peering at her curiously.

"Oh. Hey Cara" she replied.

"What are you doing here? Don't you normally change in your dorm?" Cara questioned.

"Yes, well, there's been a slight change of plans today" Lily answered politely.

"Did you and Nia fight?" the sixth year asked casually.

"Something like that. Nothing too big, though" the other girl answered, slipping her robes on.

"Was it about Sirius?"

Lily's head turned sharply to face her teammate. Her eyes narrow but her tone offhand "no. Should it have been?"

Cara looked at the older girl thoughtfully. Obviously, she didn't know. Was it worth telling her the truth now and complicating team relations further or lying and letting her find out about it later, which she inevitably would?

"No, it was just an idea"

Lily opened her mouth for further enquiry but Nia's head popped round the door "we're starting guys, come on"

Cara almost sighed in relief but stopped herself while Lily merely sauntered past Nia, without so much as looking her way.

Once they had assembled on the pitch, James was ready to begin his practise. "Alright, well our next match is against Ravenclaw" he started "we have to win it"

"No!" Sirius cried in mock disbelief. James looked at him and grinned.

"Three laps round the pitch, Sirius. Running" he ordered.

"Are you having a laugh?"

"Nope" James continued to grin at his best friend whose handsome features broke into a smile too "alright, just you wait" he said ominously before setting off in a run.

"Right then. Today, we're trying a new formation" James said, instructing them all as to where their starting positions were to be and where to stick to. As always, the new formation made no difference to the seeker whatsoever.

"Evans, you just keep your eye on that snitch"

Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Keep her eye on the snitch? Never! Instead, she smiled and nodded.

James carried on "but since we're short a beater, let's all take a seat for a minute and watch him do his laps. Should be fun"

Several of the team members laughed as they placed themselves in the stands to watch Sirius make his way around the colossal pitch.

"You know he's going to murder you, don't you?" Nia asked him with a smile.

"But it's just so amusing" James commented as Sirius panted and threw him a glare from the opposite side, a gesture to which the former replied with a cheerful wave.

"If you wake up with green hair tomorrow…" the girl trailed off. James turned to look at her with raised eyebrows and a sardonic curl of the lips.

"I'd like to see him try"

Nia laughed but it quickly transformed into a frown when she heard Cara shout "come on Sirius!" as he ran past to which Sirius responded with a wink and a smile which made Nia inadvertently sigh.

"You know he was smiling at Cara, don't you?" James asked.

"I know"

"You're pathetic"

"I know" Nia groaned as her head fell on James' shoulders. He laughed and patted the side of her head.

"Hang in there, Fletch"

"Alright, I've told you what to do, so go!" the captain shouted after having repeated the instructions for Sirius' benefit. It took some effort to completely master James' new formation but they eventually managed it creditably.

"Okay Evans, I'm letting out the snitch for the last time. Phillips, Johnson, Fletcher, we stick to this for now. Sirius, Leighton, you know what you're doing but Sirius your bludgers are losing distance. Firmer grip"

Nia saved the first three goals but the chasers succeeded on the fourth. The beaters did as they were told, as did Lily, or she tried.

She looked around for the snitch. Where was it? As of yet, she hadn't glimpsed a glimmer of gold anywhere. If she took much longer, James would not be happy and would prolong the practise. Nobody wanted that.

A faint beating interrupted her reflections. There was nothing round her ankles, a glance downwards informed her. Lily then looked behind and frowned. The snitch had stationed itself on her broom tail. If she reversed, it'd fly away. She couldn't afford to let that happen.

"Stay very still" she commanded her broom. Keeping one hand clutched around the handle in a death grip, she swung a leg round and slid off.

Thus it was that Lily Evans could be seen hanging in mid-air with nothing keeping her suspended but five of her fingers wrapped around the paralysed broom over her head. All things considered, she didn't look too fazed. Her teammates stopped and stared.

"Lily!" Nia cried anxiously "what are you doing?" but Lily didn't blink an eye.

Under the mesmerised gazes of the others, she reached out her right hand and swiped the snitch so fast, they almost missed it. Then, still being gaped at, she just managed to get her full right hand around the broom, hoisted herself up and climbed back on.

"I've got it!" the red head called to six wide eyed, disbelieving faces.

"Fucking hell" Sirius breathed audibly.

"Bow down to the queen" Jack Leighton said, a grin spreading over his face. The rest of the team started to clap.

"What the fuck was that?" James asked.

Lily shrugged "I was just catching the snitch"

"Unbelievable" James whispered and turned to other five "practise ends here. You can all go away and think about how mediocre you are and how superior Evans is"

They descended and made for the changing rooms, all whispering to each other. James went to pack up the various equipment; Lily took a sip of water and then got back on her broom. After packing the last of the bludgers, James took a seat to watch her.

Her technique and flair were inimitable, no one could fly like she did, he thought. She was a fast flyer, not the fastest but fast nevertheless. The genius lay in her creativity and grace. The countless ways she devised to catch the snitch, the flurry of loops, swirls and turns she made, to throw off an opponent.

James jumped on his own broom and flew to her side, silently proposing a race. She accepted and they tore off around the pitch.

James was the faster flyer, no doubt but nearing the end, Lily swerved in front and jerk reversed, causing him to have to slow down to avoid collision. Once he did that, she sped off, having created sufficient distance between them.

"That wasn't an honest move, Lily that was pretty underhanded" James commented after they had resumed their seats in the stands.

Lily ran a hand through her red hair and smiled "sorry, but you were going to win"

"I didn't say it was bad, it was clever. It just made me lose is all"

She didn't respond but tilted her head back with closed eyes and smiled as the November wind collided gently with her flushed cheeks. James stared at her like this for a moment before turning away.

"I can't believe you've never seen a league match" he said, out of the blue.

"Never"

"If I said Dai Llewellyn to you, what would you say?" he asked.

"Aren't they building a ward in his name, at St. Mungo's?" she replied.

"Is that it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing"

"How'd you start playing?" he asked. Lily looked at him for a second before replying.

"I don't know, it was just something to do, I suppose. And I was good at it" she said.

"So why are you on the team?"

"To have people to fly with, I guess"

"Why do you bother trying to win?" the boy questioned, every answer he got puzzling him more and more.

"Once you're on a team, you don't let it down. Besides, you'd kick me off if I didn't" she answered.

"So all those catches and wins and everything. Do they mean anything to you?"

"Not particularly" James gaped at her.

"Why not?"

Lily sighed and said nothing for a moment; his questions were beginning to be a bit too probing. But she had to make an effort; she had promised him she would.

"I'm a dancer, have been ever since I was little. When you dance, you're only really successful when you, yourself have performed outstandingly. So for me, in quidditch, I only feel successful if I've done something outstanding" she explained bravely.

"Such as?"

She turned to look at him with twinkling emerald eyes and a shy smile playing at her mouth "such as that catch I made just now"

"It was pretty amazing" they stayed silent for a while for which Lily was grateful. After the pause, James spoke again.

"What do you live for?"

"Excuse me?"

"You fly, not because you really want to, you just happen to be good at it. You're on the team, not to compete but to have people to fly with. You win, not for personal satisfaction, but because it's your duty. What do you live for?" he repeated.

Lily turned away a moment to think about it.

"To see what it's like" she answered eventually.

"To see what what's like?"

The girl turned to look him square in the eye, her own emerald ones looking distinctly caustic and self-mocking.

"This life thing" she said, her lip curling a little.

James stared at her blankly, watching her silently laugh at herself. Her simple, sarcastic words reverberated in his mind. Recovering, he managed his last question.

"And?" he asked very quietly. Neither of them looked away.

"I'm still waiting to see what the fuss is about" Lily replied with the same wry smile.

They held each other's gaze. Studying his hazel eyes critically, Lily thought she saw something akin to comprehension in them. Somewhere within herself, she felt one of her countless walls tumble down and it wasn't altogether comforting.

They finally looked away and out into the hazy distance, not completely registering the vision before them; immersed in their own thoughts.

"I'm going to go" Lily said aloud, unsure as to why. James nodded but didn't look round.

"Bye"

"Bye"

And then she walked away.


"Where have you been?" Bella demanded as the door to seventh year girls' dormitory shut behind one, Lily Evans.

"Did a bit of extra flying and then got talking to James" Lily explained.

"You guys have been spending a lot of time together, lately" Bella said cautiously.

"Have we? Well he stopped Bri from starving and in return, we're going to try to be friends. Real friends"

"Good for you" and then with a grin, she asked "where did you forget her this time?"

"The prefect's lounge" Lily answered guiltily.

"Aw, poor Bri!" Bella laughed and reached over to stroke the cat.

"Well it serves her right for being too bloody lazy to move!" Lily said sternly, earning what looked like a reproachful glance from Brioche.

Nia walked out of the bathroom, her tight black curls damp from the shower. Lily stiffened and said nothing. This for some reason, made the other girl melt instantly. She ran over to sit beside the redhead.

"Oh Lily, don't be like that! Please. I'm so sorry, I really am, I didn't do it intentionally" Nia apologised.

Lily stared at her hard "well?"

"I'm just a little on edge"

"It was really spiteful, you know, some of what you said"

"I know and I only realised it when you stormed out, I wasn't thinking about any of it, I'm sorry"

Before Lily could respond, Bella interrupted.

"What are you guys talking about? Have I missed something?"

"Nia went all mood-swingy on me before practise and then she got a bit mean" Lily summarised briefly, making Nia smile.

"I was not mood-swingy! It was Sirius!"

"So now we get to the heart of the problem" Lily said, rolling her eyes "what now?"

"He's going out with Cara"

"He's doing what now?" Lily said, thoroughly surprised.

"Going out with Cara" Nia repeated dolefully.

Lily's mind seethed. That idiot! That complete and utter idiot! She had specifically told him to be there for her, help her out and what did he do? Go and make himself fucking unavailable!

"That's not good" she said with a grimace.

"You're telling me" the other girl mumbled.

"Well don't whine about it! Have you decided what you're going to do?" Bella asked.

"What can I do?"

"Don't be stupid! There's always something to do!" she paused "why don't you try breaking them up?"

"No that's just…petty. I won't do it. He's her boyfriend now, that's all there is to it. Besides, Sirius never tried to break Cameron and me up, did he?"

"No he didn't, but had he possessed an iota of sense, he would have"

Lily took the matter into her own hands "look, she's not going to break them up. And even if she did, what would be the point? If he asked her out, she'd still say no. She's already told us, she's not ready" she argued.

"But I think I am now" Nia muttered sheepishly.

Her two friends turned to stare at her in silence.

"Lily, I think I'm going to slap her" Bella declared.

Nia winced while Lily gravely put a hand on Bella's shoulder.

"No Bella! It would achieve no purpose" she said.

"You idiot!" the brunette cried.

"I know!"

Bella simply glared and shook her head, Lily waited for Nia to continue.

"I realised it just before practise which is why I was being so awful. It's just I thought about Cameron and I tried to blame him, only then it hit me how much he actually doesn't matter anymore and then I thought about how much I really liked Sirius, only it's too late"

"Do you want to tell us what happened over the summer, now? It might make things simpler for you" Lily suggested.

Nia looked at her two friends thoughtfully before sighing in resignation "alright, sit down" the other two obliged.

"Let's hear it then" Bella said kindly.

Nia fidgeted with her fingers and stared resolutely into her lap.

"H-he was cheating on me" she said in small voice.

"That prick! What did he do?" Bella exclaimed.

Lily gave her impetuous friend a quelling glance "just start from the beginning"

"Well he wasn't just cheating; he was doing it in a big way. It started about two weeks into the summer. Not the cheating, I'm not sure how long that had been going on for, I'm talking about the finding out" Nia rambled.

"We understand"

"His friend, do you remember Matt Kingsford?" Lily and Bella nodded "I bumped into him at Fortescue's and he said he needed to talk to me"

"About what?"

"Well he told me that Cameron was seeing this other girl behind my back. All through the school year, he'd be with her and when the holidays started, he'd take up with me"

"You're joking!" Bella whispered.

"Perfectly serious, I assure you"

"But why would his friend tell you that?" Lily asked.

"He said I was a nice girl and that it was just wrong, what Cameron was doing and that I'd be better rid of him. And something about how I was still in school and there'd be plenty of time to deal with stuff like that when I was older" Nia recounted.

"He sounds like a nice guy" Bella remarked.

"Yeah, he's very sweet"

"What happened after Kingsford told you that?" Lily prompted.

"Well the next time we went out. I asked him about it, confronted him"

"What did he say?"

"Nothing, he acted all shocked and started saying that Matt was just jealous that he didn't have a girlfriend like me. And all this other rubbish to make me feel guilty. Like didn't I trust him? Didn't I know how much he loved me?"

"And you believed him?" Lily asked quietly. Nia shrugged.

"I don't know if I believed him but I wanted to so I let it go" she trailed off, her voice lowering towards the end. Her eyes had a hard, glazed over look and her expression was of bitter reminiscence.

"Then what?" Bella asked.

Nia snapped out of her thoughts and stared at her friends. Where, before, her tone had been quiet and embarrassed, now it was sour and much more resigned.

"I went to his flat one day to surprise him, around the middle of the holidays and I heard voices. It was him and some girl"

"They weren't…"

"No, when I arrived, they were just talking. I heard him saying 'you have nothing to worry about. She's got nothing on you. You're the girl, I really love' " Nia quoted.

"He didn't!"

"He did. Practically regurgitated all the things he'd said to me at dinner, that night"

"What a bastard"

"Then the girl asked him why he hadn't broken up with me and he started saying 'I keep trying but I feel so sorry for the kid' and then something along the lines of 'she's pretty but she hasn't got much else going for her' and how he'd definitely do it very soon"

"And then she got all doubtful and he started the guilt trip thing again, it made me sick. After that, I just left" Nia finished.

Lily and Bella exchanged anxious glances as the third girl fell into another fit of abstraction.

"Nia, I'm so sorry" Lily voiced.

"So am I" Nia replied wryly.

"So how'd you break up with him?"

"Sent a message through Matt to tell Cameron he was dumped" her lips curling sardonically as she said the words. Her friends grinned.

"Nice!" Bella said. The three girls laughed.

They spent a few moments in thoughtful silence before Nia voiced her thoughts aloud, almost to herself.

"Two years! Two years that I'm never getting back. Completely wasted with some stupid guy who was so pointless and I didn't even see it! I could've been doing anything, I could've-"

"Been with Sirius?" Bella supplied. Nia looked up and smiled, appreciating her comprehension.

"Too late, now that he's got a girlfriend" she mumbled miserably.

"Not for long" the other girl threw in. Nia looked at her in exasperation.

"Bella! I am not going to break them up!" she cried.

The addressed girl tutted and folded her arms "fine, just sit around and whine about him all year, then"

Lily stepped in once again "there are other ways!" glancing at her two bickering friends.

"Like?" Bella asked.

"Like, why don't you get yourself a boyfriend" Lily suggested.

"Oh I don't know" Nia said doubtfully.

"But you told Sirius and Cara, you were going to say yes to Havering!" Bella said, confused.

"I was only saying that!"

"So he didn't ask you out?"

"No he did but I was never going to say yes"

"Why not?" Lily said.

"Because I like Sirius"

"Yes but Sirius has a girlfriend and Havering's, well, you know" Bella argued.

"Yeah I know. But wouldn't that be wrong?" Nia asked.

"He doesn't have to know"

"I'm not sure I should"

"Look, just say yes. There's no reason why you shouldn't. He's good looking and smart and really sweet and if, if going out with him happens to make Sirius jealous, so be it" Bella reasoned.

"So I should say yes?"

"Yes!" the other two cried in unison.

"Alright fine, I will" Nia conceded.


A week later, when Lily and Bella had their next Herbology lesson, Lily told her about her suspicions of Sirius' motives behind asking Cara out.

Fortunately, Nia had opted to take Ancient Runes (a decision no one could explain) so the only Gryffindors in the room were the two aforementioned females and James, Sirius and Remus. Peter having been a grade below the cut-off line.

"What is he? Thick?" Bella snapped, directing a glare at an unsuspecting, oblivious Sirius Black.

"He must be" Lily replied solemnly "there's no other excuse for such inanity"

Bella shook her head and considered the Marauders once again; blindly chopping Lily's chomping Chinese cabbage in half "well to be fair, it would have worked, had she not been so bloody...what's the word?"

"Principled?" Lily suggested dryly, pushing her severed cabbage to the side and getting a new one. Bella smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Honestly Lily! There is a time and a place for principles"

Lily threw a sidelong glance at her friend and shook her head without saying anything.

"Do you realise what a mess, we've gotten ourselves into?" Bella questioned, dexterously peeling her own cabbage.

"No, enlighten me" the red head answered distractedly, while scribbling something on her parchment.

"Well Sirius wants to go out with Nia so he asked Cara to make Nia jealous and now Nia wants to go out with Sirius but he's got a girlfriend, so she's got Jake to make Sirius jealous and dump someone he's not really going out with anyway"

Lily's quill stopped moving and she thought about what Bella had just said.

"Good God. What have we gotten ourselves into?" she exclaimed.

"Tell me about it. But it's too late to go back now" Bella said in resignation.

"Mm. And it's all his fault that everything's as tangled as it is" Lily added thoughtfully.

"Very true" and with that the brunette turned reflectively upon James, Sirius and Remus again.

"Remus looks good today, doesn't he?" Lily remarked, her eyes never leaving her work. Her friend frowned.

"You're doing it again"

Lily, head still bent, turned a fraction to send one of her best smiles up at Bella, her eyes dancing. "Am I?" she asked airily.

"Lily, you quite clearly are!" Bella answered.

Lily nodded "it was just an observation"

The other girl glared and looked over at the boys again. Her eyes couldn't help falling appraisingly upon Remus, now that Lily had mentioned him. Lily was right. He did look good and only slightly haggard. But what that had to do with anything, she couldn't understand.

She shifted her gaze to James and then to her studious best friend "James looks good today too, really good. Wouldn't you say, Lily?" she said innocently.

"I dunno, I didn't notice" Lily said distantly but looked over as the words left her mouth. Bella watched as the former's emerald gaze ran over James critically.

"Yeah, I suppose he does. Although, his robes are decidedly crooked" Lily said, scratching the tip of her nose. Bella sighed, there was nothing even slightly, non-platonic about the way Lily had looked at James.

"Do you notice everything?" Bella questioned.

"Everything"

Bella's knife came crashing down aimlessly as she turned to look out of the window.

"Isabella Aldringham! What have my cabbages ever done to you?"

The class ended and the seventh years made their way out. Lily and Bella walked behind the marauders and as soon as they got close enough, Bella grabbed Sirius' elbow and dragged him in the opposite direction, alongside Lily. Remus and James followed, understandably intrigued.

As soon as they reached an empty corridor, the five of them came to a halt.

"You arse" Bella declared. Lily remained silent while the other two snorted.

"Pardon?" Sirius asked.

"I said. You. Arse"

Lily looked at Remus and said in the sweetest of tones "Remus, be a dear and remind me what I told Sirius to do, with regards to Nia"

Remus cleared his throat and bit back a laugh "something along the lines of 'being there for her', wasn't it?"

"Thank you"

"What part of that did you translate as 'ask Cara Phillips out to make Nia jealous" Bella demanded.

"Um, sorry?" Sirius offered,

"Yeah, sorry's right because now that you're someone else's boyfriend, she won't even bother thinking about you" Bella retorted. Sirius' grey eyes widened.

"What?" he cried.

"Yeah, not so pleased with yourself now, are you?"

"And she won't try and break you up because she's too bloody nice" Lily added angrily. Sirius looked at her for a second.

"Aren't you supposed to be shy?" he questioned. Lily's eyes widened and she started forward but James held her back.

"Watch it Padfoot" he warned, the girl shrugged him off and took a breath.

"And thanks to you, she's going out with Jake Havering" Bella concluded.

"What? She actually said yes?"

"Yes! They're going out and unfortunately for you, Jake happens to be an excellent boyfriend, one that Nia would be a fool to want to give up" Bella hissed.

"Are you having me on?" Sirius said.

"No! No, I am not having you on!"

"Shit" he said thoughtfully.

"What? Did you think you'd picked the odd one out? Wake up Sirius, Nia's gorgeous, she can have her pick of the guys round here just as you can have the pick of the girls" Lily reasoned calmly but coolly.

"I know, I know, I'd forgotten that" he muttered wistfully.

This made Lily snap ever so slightly "God! Are you actually as thick as you look!" she exclaimed. Sirius examined the girl before him.

A raging female was a pretty intimidating sight as it was. But when the female in question was a mere three inches shorter than you, had red hair and startling eyes which were currently flashing oh so dangerously, the intimidation factor was doubled.

"You're-you're pretty tall, aren't you Lily?" he remarked cautiously.

"Pretty tall, yes Sirius, I like to think that"

"You-uh-wouldn't happen to have a good right hook, would you?" he asked casually.

"Make one more useless comment and you'll find out" she said in a measured but lethal tone.

"I'm sorry! Please don't hit me"

"Sirius, I swear to God" Lily warned.

"Okay, okay but what am I supposed to do?"

"The only thing you can do now, is just talk to her, help her out. Make her see how amazing you are" Lily advised.

"And we say that with the least amount of faith in the word 'amazing' " Bella chimed in. Sirius' smile faded, James and Remus snorted again.

Sirius groaned "what have I done?"

"I told you it was going to go wrong. Look, two days in and already the arse biting begins" Remus said, both girls smiled at him.

"And you can't break up with Cara because she needs you to make Prewett jealous" Lily said. The thorn in her flesh gasped and opened and closed his mouth in shock.

"How do you know that?" he demanded.

"Magic" she snapped.

"Don't let us catch you messing up again" Bella said, jabbing a finger in his chest.

"Yeah or you'll want to erase the meaning of Saturday from your mind. Because you will be spending them in detention with Professor Binns for the rest of the year" Lily threatened. The boy's eyes widened in horror.

"Hey! Y-you can't do that. I-I mean…Binns! Come on, y-you wouldn't!" he faltered.

Lily leant in, an inch away from him and in the veriest but most menacing whisper, said "fuck up again and see if I won't"

With that, the girls turned to James and Remus "are you guys coming to Charms or d'you need to go to the tower?" Bella asked pleasantly. The boys blinked.

"Um, no we're-we're going now" James answered.

"Great, we'll go with you" and the four of them set off, leaving a shocked and perplexed Sirius behind them.

"Well that went rather well" Bella said brightly as they turned a corner, the others laughed "I'm proud of you Lily, well done"

"Yeah Lily, you were fantastic, I was petrified and I wasn't even in trouble" Remus commented "how d'you do that?"

"You can always go a little out of the way for your friends" she replied passively, shrugging her slender shoulders. James stared at the drastic change in her.

"Are you bi-polar?"

Lily smiled "no, of course not but I do have a temper"

"Who'd have thought?" Bella joked.

They reached the Charms classroom and took their seats, Peter was already there. Nia came from her Ancient Runes lesson, a couple of minutes later and Sirius, not long after that. Lily observed him as he entered.

He looked just as he normally did. A little arrogant, very indifferent and slightly bored. As he sat down with his friends, he winked at Nia who rolled her eyes but smiled nevertheless.


The rest of the week passed relatively peacefully. The workload mounted steadily, the professors eager to cram in as much as possible before the Christmas holidays. To remind them that said holidays were a good month or so away was found to be futile.

It was due to this that Lily found herself rushing into the common room to dig out an Astronomy textbook she'd forgotten to take to the library with her.

As she was returning from the dormitory, book in hand, she heard a familiar voice calling to her from somewhere in the middle of the common room.

Lily looked around and saw a blonde girl waving to her from where the sofas were situated. She smiled and walked towards her. "Hey Annie, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Come and sit down, I haven't talked to you in ages" Annie said, pointing to an armchair beside her.

Lily looked apologetic and shook her head "I'm sorry, I'd love to but I really can't. I've got so much work to do, you wouldn't believe how much"

"Sorry Lily but you'll have to stay. Bella's ordered us to do so. Something about working since you got off, skipping meals, etcetera. Basically we're to make you take a break if we see you" the younger girl explained.

"We?" the redhead asked in some confusion. Her question was answered as she looked to Annie's left. "Oh! Hey Jake" she said politely. The boy looked at her and smiled "hey Lily"

Jake Havering was a seventh year but in Ravenclaw. He was very tall, lean, had wavy dark brown hair, dark blue eyes and would only have qualified as passably good looking but for his disarming smile and amazing, deep voice.

"Seriously Lily, you should take a break" he said in his soothing voice, smiling up at her, his expressive eyes inviting her to take a seat.

Looking down at him, Lily (no easy person to impress) could feel herself weakening and felt her own face break into a wide, genuine smile. Another rare occurrence. Not being able to resist, she sat down.

"Fine, you got me to stay" Lily proclaimed ruefully.

Annie laughed "deadly, isn't he?" nodding at Jake.

Lily smiled in response "why is he here anyway?"

"Who? Jake? Oh, Jake and I go way back, he's one of my best friends" Annie replied.

"But aren't you two years older than her?" Lily asked the boy.

"Who cares about age anyway?" he said nonchalantly but then looked pensive "now that you mention it though, how did we become friends, Annie?"

Annie thought for a moment "Oh, I remember! You tutored me in Herbology in second year, I think. And then somehow, most unfortunately for yourself, I started telling you all my trivial second year tragedies and we went from there"

"That's sweet" Lily remarked.

"Besides, my friends are all doing that Potions essay so I've no choice but to hang out with her"

"Oh! Charming!" Annie retorted. Lily laughed at the pair of them and then they lapsed into silence.

"Why isn't anyone saying anything? Surely something must be happening in your, fast paced, ever so fascinating seventh year lives" the fifth year exclaimed.

When the other two simply shrugged, comprehension dawned on the young girl "you've not been initiated into Lily Evans' very private, very select society of insiders, have you?" she asked Jake.

"Lily Evans' what?" he asked, thoroughly puzzled.

"You don't understand Lily at all. She's a rather secretive creature and talks only to a very few people, members of the aforementioned society"

"Shut up Marianne, stop lying" Lily muttered, shaking her head.

Annie ignored her "I think he should be allowed in, look at that face" she turned to the boy "smile for her, Jake"

Lily sighed and threw a cushion at Annie and then looked at Jake.

"I suppose I could be a bit friendlier, now that you're Nia's boyfriend" she said generously.

"That would be nice" he replied.

"You're going out with Nia?" Annie asked, surprised.

Jake stared at her for a second. Lily's attention was caught and she surveyed him quietly "um, yeah I am"

Lily noticed the change in the tone, how it had become slightly evasive.

The other girl blinked and looked blank for a second "oh. Since when?"

The Head Girl frowned and Jake cast a quick, apprehensive glance at her before answering "about a week and a half, I think"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I dunno…must've forgotten" he said dismissively. Annie frowned as she looked at him. Eventually, her pretty face broke out in a smile.

"That's great! Good for you. It's about time you got a girlfriend and Nia's really great!" she said.

Lily's green eyes had not yet left the Ravenclaw's face, which held a thoughtful, troubled expression.

"She really is, isn't she?" he said finally "didn't think she'd say yes, actually"

"Why wouldn't she have said yes?" Annie asked.

"Or didn't you want her to?" said Lily.

Her and Jake's eyes met for the briefest second before he shook his head "of course I did. But, you know, she's not short of offers, is she?"

Annie laughed "you don't give yourself any credit, Havering. That smile will take you places, my friend"

Lily continued to watch him as he considered Annie. His face was straight but Lily thought she detected a wry smile in his dark eyes.

"Or so you say" he replied.

Lily finally turned away from him and looked at Annie "so, have you got your eye on someone?"

The other girl's brow furrowed and she cast an eye around.

"Not particularly but I could do with a bit of a laugh, I suppose. Find me a sweet, relatively good looking guy for Hogsmeade, I wouldn't say no"

The other two laughed "I'll try" Lily said and looked around too.

"What about James Knight?" she suggested, discreetly nodding over at a sixth year close by.

Annie followed her gaze and gave the unsuspecting boy an appraising glance. "Yeah, why not? He'll do"

Jake looked between the two girls intently. "Want me to set it up?" Lily asked, exchanging a furtive glance with the Ravenclaw.

"Yeah, go on. But can you?" the blonde questioned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're not going to go hide in a corner or anything, are you?"

Lily blushed as Jake snorted and stuck out her tongue "no, I think I'll manage"

Annie shrugged "go for it then"

The redhead smiled and rose. Jake's face was blank as he stared off into the distance.

Quietly, she walked over to a group of sixth year boys, a little way away. "Mind if I sat down?" Lily asked shyly.

They looked a little confused but shook their heads. "Lily Evans, by the way"

"Yeah, we know. You hang out with Bella Aldringham and Nia Fletcher, don't you? Uh-Head Girl, Gryffindor seeker?" one of them ventured.

Lily stared at him for a second, mulling over his words. Biting back a small, almost mirthless laugh, she replied "yeah, that's it. Nice to meet you but I really just need to speak to James here"

The boys looked towards their friend who looked taken aback.

"Me? What've I done? I've not forgotten a detention or anything, have I?" he said.

Lily smiled "no, not quite"

"Oh. Well then, what is it?"

"Well I wondered if, maybe, you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with Annie" she proposed.

"Annie?"

"Annie Aldringham" the girl answered calmly. Several of the sixth years looked at her disbelievingly.

"Annie Aldringham? Are you serious?" James Knight asked, eyes widened.

"Perfectly serious"

He cast his brown eyed gaze at Annie, who winked at him before turning to say something to Jake. He looked back at Lily, grinning.

"Yeah, alright then. Tell her to meet me in the entrance hall or should we meet in the common room?"

"No, entrance hall sounds fine" and with that, Lily got up and said in her characteristic, quietly curt way "nice talking to you, see you around"

"Bye" a few of them called back as she walked back towards Annie and Jake.

"Done. You're meeting him in the entrance hall at the next Hogsmeade trip. Okay?"

"Excellent. Cheers Lily" Annie replied.

"No problem" Lily said before looking at Jake "you're going with Nia, aren't you?"

Jake seemed as if he was shaking himself out of some sort of trance "huh? Oh-oh yeah, I am"

"Okay, well that will give me time to buy her Christmas present then. D'you mind keeping her away from me for the day?"

"Course not" he said.

"Thanks, and now, if it's okay with you, I'll return to the library" Lily announced.

"Go ahead, we've kept you long enough" Annie said with a smile.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, this little break has been…most enlightening" Lily murmured, exchanging an allusive glance with Jake who frowned as Lily held his gaze for a moment.

Comprehension suddenly dawned and he looked as if he was seeing Lily for the first time. It was all a moment's work. Smiling to herself, Lily exited the portrait hole, her mind reeling.

"Hey Lily" came a voice in passing.

"Hey Kate" the Head Girl replied, absent-mindedly. She walked a little further and then halted, an idea rapidly materialising in her head.

She was in a matchmaking sort of mood and it didn't look like he was going to do it on his own. Lily turned and called to the retreating figure.

"Kate! Hang on a minute" and she walked back to meet the Hufflepuff prefect.

"Are you free for Hogsmeade?"

The girl before her looked confused "um…yeah, why?"

"Do you want to go with Remus Lupin?"

Kate blinked, rather stunned. "Oh. Why can't he ask me himself?"

Lily thought fast "oh you know, we've got so much work and everything. He barely makes time to eat"

"Oh right…and he knows, right?"

"Of course he knows, so what do you say?"

"Yeah, okay then. I'll go with him"

"Great, he'll be thrilled" Lily said, her smoothness surprising her "entrance hall?"

"Well I might be late, so just tell him to meet me in the Three Broomsticks"

"Great, so that's sorted"

"Right, well bye"

"Yeah, see you later" and with that, Lily continued onwards to her destination.

She sat down beside Remus, just as she had before. Her books still spread out, untouched.

"You took a while" Remus commented, not looking up.

"Yeah, Annie convinced me to take a break. You've got a date for Hogsmeade, by the way" she threw in casually, picking up her quill and resuming her Astronomy homework.

Now, Remus looked up "I've got a what?"

"A date. For Hogsmeade"

"Since when?"

"Since just now when I set it up. You're meeting Kate Seabrooke in the Three Broomsticks. Where's Mars in relation to Orion's belt, again? I always forget"

Remus ignored the question "hang on. Are you out of your mind? Why would you ask Kate Seabrooke out for me?"

"Well it didn't look like you were going to ask anyone so I did it for you"

"Why?" Remus questioned, unable to understand.

"Look, you need to get out more and on top of that, it'll help you with Bella. All you have to do is go to Hogsmeade and have a good time. And if you should happen to mention it to Bella afterwards…." She trailed off, shrugging.

Remus stared at her "I-I guess you're right. But…you're insane, do you know that?"

"Not insane. Genius" Lily said simply.

He smiled and shook his head "yeah, that too"

A/n: Okay I know this chapter wasn't exactly the most L/J centred but it was very much about developing Lily and establishing her character more firmly by seeing her reactions to certain situations. Anyway, read and review!