A/N: Another GIANT chapter - I thought I'd take some time to do this story since I have absolutely nothing to do today. It's another 2-Part one. Enjoy!

CHAPTER SIX:

Love, love, love, love, love

* * PART ONE * *

"They still going at it?" Remus asked as he sat down next to Sirius during breakfast.

Sirius snorted. "You tell me," he said as he pointed to the boy next to him. James was still quarreling with the girl he sat in front of. Natalia looked bored, glancing at the bickering pair.

"Look! It's a blue jelly! That symbolizes calmness and peace!"

"He's attacking the evil Nifflers with the blue jelly, James!"

"Well, he's going to be at peace after he kills all the Nifflers, won't he then?" James flipped to another comic book. "In this issue, Globsie goes to the jelly store..."

"Whose comic books are these anyway?" Natalia stared disbelievingly at the pile James had on the table. "These must be the most ridiculous comic books!"

"They're mine," muttered Peter, looking sheepish. "I let James borrow them for his argument. He was up all night, trying to come up with reasons why the comics are educational."

Sirius laughed as he stuffed a couple of pancakes into his mouth. "They're alright," he said. "Not bad, I suppose, but Globsie's got a bit of obsessive issues there."

"You haven't filled up your plate, Remus," said Natalia suddenly. "Alright there?"

"I'm feeling innovative today," replied Remus readily, smiling, "I feel as though I could write a poem, or compose a song. I feel as though I should accomplish something today."

Natalia looked sympathetic as she nodded. "I had that feeling once," she said. "But after eating myself sick and vomiting into a toilet, that feeling soon vanished. Eat up, mate," she began piling food onto Remus' plate. Remus laughed as he pushed the food away.

"It's a good feeling," he smiled as he put his plate down. "I'm off to the library to contemplate on my creative masterpiece. Cheerio!" And he went off. Sirius barked with laughter at the dumbfounded look on Natalia's face.

"Some people like to do work, Lynx," he told her smugly. "They prefer not to vomit in the toilet for four hours straight."

"How did you know if was four hours straight?" Natalia demanded. "Wait - were you the one hanging around the girls' bathroom, and not Moaning Myrtle?"

"Bloody hell, woman, anybody would be curious if someone suddenly ran off sick and started making loud belching noises into a toilet," Sirius defended himself. At this moment, Lily overheard and stared at Peter, Natalia and Sirius.

"Vomiting? What are you talking about?" she asked. James burst out laughing.

"Padfoot, were you talking about the time in third year when you filled Nat's pumpkin juice with -" He stopped talking abruptly as soon as he caught Sirius' look.

"What?" Natalia bore her gray eyes into Sirius, "What did you do to my pumpkin juice?"

"Aw, nothing much," Sirius tried to sound careless, "You know, just a bit of sugar and..." he muttered some very incoherent words, but Natalia still managed to hear.

"SIRIUS BLACK! THAT'S BLOODY DISGUSTING! Where are you going - get back here you bloody dickhead! Stupefy! Furnunculus!"

What rhymes with 'story'? Glory, gory, inventory, but that doesn't sound very poetic, does it? Remus mused contentedly to himself as he tapped his head lightly with his quill. He had out a crisp, blank parchment and was happily planning to spend over a quarter of the day, succumbing to his poetic cravings.

Thinking a bit more, he quickly jotted down a few words onto his parchment and read the words over to himself.

After reading it twice over, Remus liked his idea, but it seemed as though the wording was somewhat off. Frowning slightly, he gently furrowed his eyebrows as he scratched his head. So hard he was at his work, that he hardly noticed someone tap him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around to face a pretty girl with long golden hair and light brown eyes.

"What're you doing?" asked Malia brightly as she sat down next to him. Remus appreciated her company - he couldn't resist the cheery aura she always carried around her.

"I felt creative this morning," he told her. "So I thought I'd write a poem."

Malia seemed interested.

"A poem? That sounds nice. Do you mind if I read what you've written?" she asked, and he complied, rather shyly. Malia smiled as she took the parchment and read it over silently, mouthing the words to herself.

"Can't quite get the wording right," said Remus modestly, "I've still got a lot to do."

"Well I think it's brilliant," Malia said. "But if I could offer some suggestions, maybe you could change a few words here, and rearrange the beginning part? The wording there is a little confusing," she added helpfully, pointing to the words. Remus took the parchment and crossed out some words and scribbled down a few more. He reread it to himself, and his eyes sparkled at the poem's improvement.

"It is loads better, thanks," he said appreciatively, "I never knew you to be the poetic type, though," he added honestly. Malia laughed.

"I know. I'm just waiting for Shara to kick me out," said Malia tiredly, "I'm getting rather frustrated with these shortened skirts."

"Why wait?" Remus asked. "Why don't you just leave?"

Malia looked horrified at the very thought.

"They'll eat me alive," she said in a hushed voice. "Completely swallow me up and spit me up! And besides, I don't really have any friends to hang around with," she added, sounding slightly embarrassed.

Remus seemed to ponder on this.

"I'm your friend," he gave her a warm smile, "I'll help you out."

Malia smiled sincerely.

"Thanks, then," she said, flushing slightly, "Well, I've got to go, good luck on your poem, Remus," she gave him a quick peck on his unsuspecting cheek. She immediately gasped, as though just realizing what she had just done.

"Oh my gosh," she sputtered, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to -" And without another word, she disappeared out of the library before Remus had a chance to even react.

Remus could still feel his cheek burn even after Malia had long left the library.

"Will you?"

"No."

"Will you?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What's going on?" Natalia whispered to Sirius. She had just come back from a standard detention from Professor McGrognon for transforming Bellatrix's teeth into porcupine quills.

"James is trying to ask Lily out," Sirius whispered back. "His tactic is to annoy her senseless."

"I think it's working," said Remus as he pointed to the red-headed girl, whose jaw tried to stubbornly stay calm, but Natalia could clearly see a vein twitching. Soon after dinner, James had taken to annoying Lily, rather than arguing with her. Peter had all his comic books back, and was now sitting on a small pile of the books, reading.

"But we had Hogsmeade -"

"No."

"Don't those count as -"

"No."

"After all we've been through -"

"No."

"- you won't go out -"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Aw, come on."

"No."

"...Don'tgooutwithmethen!" James said in a rush.

"No."

"You really won't?" said James, a grin protruding on his face.

"No - hey, wait a blasted moment!"

"Too late," said James gleefully, hopping about. Lily was flabbergasted; she dropped the book she was holding and stared at James.

"I won't go out with you!" she said to him firmly.

"But you already said you would," James grinned at her. "Didn't she, Padfoot?"

"Afraid you did, Evans," said Sirius gravely. "You agreed to go out with him."

Lily bit her lip and turned to Natalia.

"Tell them I don't want to go out with them," she said, almost pleadingly, "Nat!"

Natalia sighed.

"As Lily's best mate," she said solemnly, "I'm afraid I have to step in." Lily breathed out in relief, but froze when she saw Natalia's eyes twinkle mischievously.

"Sorry, mate, but it's about bloody time," she stated. "There's no way out. Anyway, Lily, you've already gone on a few dates with him to Hogsmeade already, so it shouldn't be too difficult." With her wand, she enchanted what looked like an official document.

"But those weren't dates!" protested Lily. "They were - they were - congenial social excursions!"

Natalia blinked, all while holding the official document.

"I'm just going to pretend that I understood what you just said," she told her. "So that we can just get this over with. Sirius, the quill."

Sirius obediently passed Natalia her quill. She used her quill as a pointer, pointing to various parts of the documents as she spoke.

"This is a contract of everything you said," Natalia explained happily. "As you can see, you clearly agreed to go out with the aforesaid, James Potter. Right here in paragraph 1, 4, 7, and 12, in lines 1, 7, 19, 21... and so on and so forth."

"And to show that you two are really going out," added Sirius, taking the contract from Natalia. "You must adhere to these regulations."

"First of all, the both of you must spend at least one hour of alone time together," Remus read, grinning foolishly as he played along with the arrangement.

"That has nothing to do with homework, or duties, or other stuff like that," explained Peter, looking giddy.

"There is no maximum time, and if you must succumb to intimacy," at this Natalia smirked as she read. "Please do it in the privacy of a locked and silenced room of some sort, so that others may not be prone to disposing their dinners unintentionally over it."

Lily glared at her.

"And what if I don't?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"If you don't," Natalia cleared her throat, "we, the jury, must conclude that because you broke this contract, we have no choice but to place a Permanent Sticking Charm on the two of you until you learn to get along."

"Sounds good to me," said James, shrugging. Lily stared fiercely at him, and he turned away, whistling an innocent tune that sounded suspiciously like 'Magic, Magic'.

"I won't," she muttered, "you can't make me sign this ruddy contract."

"Too late, mate," Natalia stuck out her tongue, "It's formed from verbal actions, signing is not needed."

"Since when?" Lily exclaimed, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously.

"Since I invented verbal contracts two minutes ago," said Natalia cheerfully, rolling up the parchment.

Lily gave an annoyed sound and stormed up the dorms. Natalia chuckled. She noticed that James had started to look slightly unsure.

"Give it time, mate," She patted his back encouragingly. "It's like, that Muggle sport - with that big stick..."

"Fishing," Peter spoke up promptly, while Sirius snorted.

"Right, fishing," Natalia grinned. "Pretend Lily's a fish. A parrotfish, interesting fish it is, apparently it excretes mucus for protection - anyway, you have to wait, but give her a big worm - I think Lily would prefer truffles though - and just when she bites, you reel her up - or in this case..."

"Get to the bloody point," Sirius interrupted. She stuck her tongue at him.

"Just be nice, and keep away when she's got steam blowing out of her ears," Natalia told James. James blinked, his eyes suddenly brightening up.

"Did you say she likes truffles?" he asked. "What kind?"

"I think it was chocolate truffles with raspberry..." said Natalia thoughtfully. "Why, are you planning on -"

The portrait hole slammed shut.

"He's in an awful hurry," commented Remus amusedly.

"Aww, that's so sweet, Jamesie's bringing truffles to his fair lady," cooed Natalia.

"I brought you back Pumpkin Pastries from Hogsmeade once!" Sirius pointed out.

"We're not going out, you git," She rolled her eyes. Sirius shrugged nonchalantly as he vanished away James' and Lily's dating contract.

"I hope he brings us back some," said Peter, rubbing his stomach, "all this contracting business has me starved."

Dear Lily, I wanted to apologize for tonight's events, and hope that we could start over. Actually, we can't, since Sirius and the lot put that spell on us, but I was hoping to be friendly to one another. Why don't we chat up a bit after dinner tomorrow?

James

P.S. - a little bird told me that you liked these, well sort of. After that business about the parrotfish and worms. Anyways, enjoy.

Lily smiled to herself as she folded up the letter and opened the small box. Her smile grew when she found a dozen chocolate-covered raspberry truffles, lying quietly and looking delicious.

"You have no idea what kind of little bird she is," Lily laughed to herself. After a few hours of thinking to herself, all her initial shock and anger vanished away. Taking one of the truffles, she slowly bit into it, savoring the taste. Maybe it's time to give him a chance, Lily thought to herself, smiling. She put the rest of the truffles away in a safe place and went to sleep.

About an hour later, Natalia came into the dorm quietly, not wanting to disturb the others (quite out of character, but I suppose she didn't want to put up with five cranky and hysterical girls.) She noticed a small note from James on Lily's end table, and a half-opened box of chocolate truffles. She grinned to herself. Really, this silence is really getting out of hand.

"MUSTARD!" she screamed impulsively, laughing wildly when the four of the five girls screeched and threw pillows and makeup containers in her general direction.

* * PART TWO * *

"WHAT!"

Natalia whirled around in surprise from the shriek. It took her a while to realize that it wasn't directed at her.

"Bugger, Lily should get dressed faster," She mumbled to herself as her curiosity grew as the screaming progressed. The screaming, she had decided, was coming from downstairs in the common room. Finally, Natalia couldn't take it anymore and crept out of the dorms, and spied on the group in the common room. Shara Robertson had apparently called a loud meeting with her fellow Gryffindor fan girls, and they were all huddled around in the middle of the room. However, Malia seemed to be isolated. Robertson was shaking from anger.

"You can't do this," she was seething. "You can't just -"

"I - I think I am," Malia was saying, not too confident in herself, "I don't want to worship Sirius Black anymore. For your information, I - I think he's... pigheaded."

Natalia could have snorted loudly when she heard the rest of the girls gasp in horror and horror. It was an absolute miracle she was able to hold it in. She glanced at her watch - it was quarter after six.

"You know, I've been awfully nice to you these past years," said Shara icily. " I can't believe you'd turn on me like this. You're selfish, you know that Malia? You're selfish, inconsiderate, and ungrateful," she turned to the other five or so girls, "Let's go." They stomped away, glaring at Malia, before disappearing out of the common room. The shyness Natalia hadn't seen in a while from Malia seemed to reappear as she huddled into a small ball, biting her lip as she took deep breaths. Figuring she had seen enough, she walked slowly down to the common room.

"Good morning Malia," said Natalia cheerfully as she walked down, you all right there? I saw you with your cousin just now."

"I'm fine," Malia gave a small smile. "It's just the initial feeling, is all. I broke apart from them."

"So I've heard," replied Natalia, chuckling, "It was a bloody screaming contest down here." She laughed as she sat down beside Malia. Malia's smile grew.

"Yeah, Shara can do that," she said. "She's the queen at screaming."

"Reminds me of first year," said Natalia thoughtfully. "When she got awful upset at me when I put Flobberworm bits into her shampoo. There were bits of worm twitching in her hair all day, and most people thought it was hair lice. Screamed at me straight for two hours, it was horrid, I didn't know the Silencing Charm then."

Malia laughed. "I came to Hogwarts sometime in the middle of second year, you see," she explained after a short silence. "Mum and Dad moved me from America to here, and I had to transfer schools. Granted, I was born in England, but still, I didn't know many people back then." Natalia nodded understandingly. It made sense. Malia didn't have time to make friends, since she moved late. So for five years Malia's had 'friends', but never really got the chance to make new ones, because of her natural shyness.

"Nat? Where did you - oh there you are," Lily said as she came down the stairs. "Hello, Malia."

Natalia got up. "Come on, let's go to down to breakfast," she said. "Do you want to eat with us, Malia?"

"Yes, come sit with us," Lily added with a smile. Even though Lily had no clue what had just happened, she still welcomed Malia without question.

"You should sit with James, Lily," said Natalia playfully, winking at her friend, "I bet he'd like it." Lily's face grew as red as her hair, but she said nothing.

"So... Beauregard," James said later in breakfast. "Heard any rumors about me lately?" His hazel eyes glittered curiously and mischievously. Remus secretly wondered if he was going to one day drop dead, judging from the mound of food he had filled onto his plate. Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. As it turned out, Lily did indeed, sit next to her 'boyfriend'. Of course, it had absolutely nothing to do with Natalia maniacal threats that required a squished porcupine and a purple alligator.

"As a matter of fact," replied Malia, "I have heard. I've heard that Lillis Lisse has taken a fancy to you."

"Really?" said James, looking genuinely shocked. "She has?"

"Lillis Lisse is a temptress!" Lily burst in. "Why, she's just as bad as -"

"Sirius Black?" Natalia grinned at the boy across from her. She managed to dodge a bagel that came flying at her.

"Actually, I was going to say Bellatrix Black," said Lily darkly. She shrugged.

"Runs in the family, I suppose," she said. Sirius glared at her.

"They're not my family," he hissed at Natalia angrily. She smiled at him and handed him a nicely buttered bagel in reply. He ate it contentedly and had nothing more to say. Malia gulped down her milk.

"Which reminds me," she said, wiping her mouth with her napkin. "Bellatrix Black seems to be infatuated with Rodolphus Lestrange. Not just for a snog, mind you, but the real thing."

Natalia snorted so loudly that she inhaled her cereal through her nose.

"Bella Black? Roddie Lestrange? They're -" she ended off with a sneeze, blowing the cereal bits into Sirius' orange juice.

"One just might lose their appetite from just watching Nat eat, you know," said Remus casually. Sirius nodded slowly as he continued to watch the soggy cereal swim in his juice.

"Can I have your orange juice, Sirius?" said Peter suddenly, "I'm so thirsty." He reached out to take Sirius' glass before Sirius could reply.

"Peter, the orange juice has got -" Remus stopped talking when Peter started to gulp down the orange juice with gusto.

"Ergh, I think I just lost my appetite," Sirius made a disgusted sound. "Right Nat?"

Natalia was in deep discussion with James, Malia and Lily. Actually, it was the other three who were doing the talking - Natalia was just trying not to laugh.

"Should I ask her out?"

"You can't, James!"

"Why not?"

"Because - because - because of the - you know," sputtered Lily, her face red. She was not going to be the first to mention the enchanted contract. "Anyway, she has a new boyfriend every week! She's outrageous!"

"I don't know, she's had her eye on James since the beginning of October," said Malia, shrugging. "And that's been over a month."

The reason why Natalia was laughing was because Malia was reasoning with why Lisse may like James, when Lily clearly didn't want to hear about it. And Malia had no idea what effect it was having on Lily.

"See Lily? Lillis likes me, or rather, should I call her, 'Lil-Lil'?" James smirked, looking over at the Ravenclaw table, knowing that it would irk Lily. A girl with brown hair and a piercing through her nose caught his eye and winked playfully at him, licking her lips seductively. James flinched slightly, but he looked back at the group smugly, as though he enjoyed Lillis' rather forward actions.

"She - she does drugs! She smokes!" Lily protested. James shrugged.

"Dunno, it'll be fun to go out with a bad girl," he grinned. "The good girls get boring easily. Maybe I'll go find her tonight."

Natalia knew James had gone too far with his teasing when she saw Lily's face grew a deep scarlet as she got up and walked away.

"I reckon you went a bit too far, mate," said Natalia. "She was probably going to give you a chance, you know. She opened the box of truffles," she added, as though it meant something significant.

She distinctly heard James mutter under his breath a single, foul word.

I'm sure you can guess what it was.

For the rest of the day, Lily completely ignored James, turning around whenever she saw him. She seemed determined not to note his existence. However, James seemed persistent, trying to get her to talk to him during Charms. Lily did not even acknowledge him when he accidentally doused his arm into some dangerous mixture during Potions. During lunch, Sirius and Natalia noticed the consistent protests from James and the coldness of Lily.

For James it was even worse than when Lily was blazing mad and shouting insults at him. The cold shoulder she gave him meant that she didn't even want to think that he was alive, and was indifferent to him. In the end, he grew frustrated. Finally, he got fed up, and merely sat numbly on the couch while Lily briskly did her homework on the other side of the room.

"Well," called Natalia. "It's been an entire day and it's time for you two to spend an hour alone together. It's in the contract," she grinned. Sirius nodded as he held up the official document.

"What contract?" asked Malia curiously, but Natalia mouthed to her 'I'll tell you later'.

"Here ye, here ye," Sirius announced to the room, "Let us leave this room so that Lily Evans and James Potter may be alone together. And if they don't comply, they know the consequences." He ended off with an evil cackle as he and the others seemed to exit the common room. Of course, the common room was far from empty - a group of first-years were getting all excited over a pet cat, some third-years were laughing at a joke, and a seventh-year girl was poring over a potions book.

However, Lily did not move from where she was sitting, and neither did James. He had stubbornly put into his head that if Lily didn't want to talk to him, then he didn't want to have anything to do with her. Neither of them noticed that Lily's chair was shifting closer to where James sat on the couches.

"Are they doing anything?"

"Nope, but Lily's chair is starting to move," replied Sirius. Natalia nodded.

"Good. Maybe that'll tell them that we mean business," said Natalia cheerfully, not looking at all concerned about the fact that they were about to permanently stick their two best friends together. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's not a Permanent Sticking Charm though," he pointed out. "Otherwise, they'd be stuck for life."

"I know, but a regular Sticking Charm will do well enough," shrugged Natalia. Soon after explaining everything to Malia, she had taken to going to the library. She didn't seem to find as much fun in spying on the couple like Sirius and Natalia did.

A few moments later, Lily had realized she was shifting and had frantically tried to evade. James himself had figured out what was going on and was moving as far back as he possibly could. Unfortunately, he could only move half a centimeter as Lily's body neared his, until they were touching back to back.

"Great, Potter, this is all your fault," muttered Lily, noting his existence for the first time that day since breakfast.

"I don't think you helped this situation at all, Evans," James sniped back, thoroughly annoyed with the way she was behaving. They were silent for a few minutes.

"So did you get a nice snog with Lisse?" asked Lily nastily. "Did you find her fit to your needs?"

"Bloody hell, woman, don't get me started," snapped James. "You're too bloody sensitive."

"I'm too sensitive? Potter, you are a pig! You hear that a girl likes you and you forget about everything else! You make me sick!"

"Who said about me forgetting everything else? You, on the other hand, hear someone liking you and you treat them like dirt!"

"Well, I wouldn't treat them like dirt if he wasn't such an egotistical pig! You treat people like their beneath you, you bully people, you, Potter, are the biggest pig I've ever seen!"

"Then you've obviously not laid eyes on yourself lately," James returned spitefully, "otherwise you'd disagree."

"You think this is getting out of hand?" Sirius whispered to Natalia - they were mingling with the third-years, both to hide and listen in. But she shook her head.

"Hush, it's just getting interesting," said Natalia, her eyes sparkling as though she knew something Sirius didn't. It was actually quite an interesting sight, watching two people screaming their heads off at the other, all while being glued to each other's backs.

"You don't even like me - you're just one of those people who want a girlfriend as a trophy. It'll probably heighten your popularity, you think?"

"How do you know I don't like you?" roared James, "when you didn't even give me a chance!"

"Then what's this about Lillis Lisse?" sniped Lily unhesitating. "Could you be liking two people at once?"

"So - so what if I like two people at once, huh?"

Lily let out an angry huff.

"You, Potter, are impossible!"

"You just can't handle someone else liking me, can you?"

"This has nothing to do with anything!"

"Really? Then maybe I'll go find Lillis, snog her a bit and be father to her children then," James remarked sarcastically. "Give her a good shafting, I will."

He groaned inwardly when Lily kicked him hard in the leg.

"You are such a git," she muttered, not with the energy she had before. But James didn't seem to notice as he continued to plow on.

"You know, I bet she's really good at it too, we could probably be on the job all night," he continued. "I hope you don't mind if we're too loud, what, with all the moaning and getting all knackered. Merlin, I'm getting a stiffy just thinking about her..."

"Stop it!" Lily cried out, "s-stop it!"

"Oh, but I forgot," jeered James. "You don't like her, do you? What, with the drugs and smoking... maybe I'll try a bit of weed and intoxicate myself, how would you like that, Evans?"

When Lily didn't reply, James looked over his shoulder. He saw that Lily's head was drooped and she was using her hand to silently wipe away tears. He felt a huge weight of guilt being dropped into his stomach as all his resentment drifted away.

For a few moments, he didn't know what to say.

"You - you know I don't mean that, right Lily?" he said quietly, "You know that - you know that I was joking."

Lily was still silent, but James could feel her arms still trying to wipe away her tears.

"I don't like Lisse," he said, feeling that he should continue. "All that I said was just to tease you, you know that right? I," he turned around to face her, "I think I like good girls more." He saw her tear-streaked face and her glistening, puffy green eyes. He gently wiped away her tears with his thumb, gazing at her.

"You know you're still the prettiest girl even when you've got puffy, swelling red eyes?" he said, smiling slightly. Lily laughed slightly and looked down, a faint blush protruding on her cheeks.

"You're quite the charmer, aren't you James?" she smiled, wiping away more tears. "You always have the best compliments."

"I know I do," he said jokingly. They stayed silent for a few moments, Lily's eyes still downcast.

"Sorry about what I said before," she murmured after a bit, still not looking up. "You're not that much of a pig, anymore at least."

James lifted her chin up and looked at her. Her eyes weren't as puffy anymore, but her cheeks were still red. What he meant was true - she was still extremely pretty. Her soft red hair just seemed to frame her face perfectly.

James wasn't quite sure what had happened, but her lips loomed closer to his and they were soon kissing. His arms had found his way around her waist, and hers were wrapped up around his neck. It was truly a magical moment, for the two of them. It was even enough to make Natalia and Sirius pause and smile, feeling happy for their chums.

"How sweet," she cooed quietly to Sirius, still in their hiding place. "It's so breathtaking, like something out of a fairytale," she sighed dramatically. "Let's make catcalls," she added mischievously.

"None of them seemed to have noticed that the Sticking Charm wore off while they were screaming at each other," snickered Sirius.

Pretty soon, the room was filled with two people's catcalls and whistles.

Shocked, James and Lily broke apart, though their arms stayed in the same position. Natalia and Sirius got out of their hiding spots, clapping and taunting them.

"Only took a day, as well," commented Natalia, eying them mischievously. "Brilliant - I had my money on a week." She grinned. "Quite a subject, don't you agree Healer Black?"

"Indeed, Healer Lynx, indeed," nodded Sirius, scrutinizing them carefully. When Lily nuzzled her head into James' shoulder, Sirius and Natalia made a loud fussing sound.

"Wands out," Lily murmured to James while nuzzling into his neck, "in three... two... one."

"They've got their wands out - RUN!" Natalia shouted when she saw James and Lily holding out wands. In her haste, she ran over Sirius in order to evade the couple. However, both she and Sirius, in the end, succumbed to two unfortunate Bat-Bogey Hexes.

"I knew I should have picked my nose earlier," Natalia muttered to herself as she felt her bogies flying out of her nostrils.

"Does this mean things will be different between the two of them?" Sirius said to Natalia, who was having quite a time with bogie-bats attacking her.

"So you don't like Lillis, do you?" Lily asked James suspiciously as they watched bogies flying out of Sirius' nostrils.

"Of course I don't!" protested James, holding his hands up when Lily pointed her wand at him. "I'll agree with anything you say!

Lily smiled.

"Then I think Quidditch is the most ludicrous sport in all the world," she said, "and it should be banned from Hogwarts."

"Oi!" shouted James and Natalia at the same time.

"That's going a bit far, isn't it?" said James, lowering his hands, "I mean, it's Quidditch! It's got the brooms, the speed, the adrenaline..."

"It's just a bunch of idiots on brooms playing catch," snapped Lily, heading out of the common room for Head Duties. "There's absolutely nothing good about it!"

"Oh yeah?"

"How are your bogies doing, Natalia?" asked Sirius placidly as Lily and James fell into another heated argument outside the portrait hole, "Lucky for me, mine disappeared."

"Yeah right they disappeared, you git!" shouted Natalia, "that's because they're attacking me!"

Sirius succumbed into fits of laughter as she tried to bravely defend herself against both her and Sirius' bogies.

"Merlin, they've got my nose hairs! Get away! Stupefy - oh bugger, sorry about that Louise! I swear I didn't mean it!"

"And the couple returns," Natalia said, motioning to James and Lily with a magnificent gesture the next morning at breakfast.

"Do you want another Bat-Bogey Hex?" inquired Lily, giving her friend a meaningful half-smile. Natalia grinned at her.

"You can't, I picked my nose this morning," she said triumphantly. "So there."

Sirius looked disgustedly at her. "I did not need to know that," He grimaced. "Did you wash your hands?"

"What for? I used my wand!" Natalia declared, taking her wand out and making a motion that implied she stuck the wooden rod up her nose. When she realized that the entire group was giving her ghastly expressions, she sighed. "I was joking, honestly," she said. However, everyone continued to give her strange looks.

"What are you doing?" James asked Natalia. She stuck out her tongue at him.

"What does it look like? I'm coming for Quidditch practice," she said proudly.

"It's freezing outside," Sirius complained. "I'm staying indoors with Remus and Peter. Have fun practicing in the blistering cold."

James grinned at him before exiting the common room with Natalia.

Once they got there, however, they were shocked to see that the Slytherins were jeering at them; their faster, more expensive brooms are hovering in the air.

"Hey, we booked the pitch for today!" yelled James, waving his broom at them. "Get off the pitch!"

"And why should we?" said Rodolphus smugly.

"Yeah, what is your team of Gryffindorks going to do about it?" sneered Evan Rosier. The rest of the Slytherins must have thought this to be terribly clever because they all started guffawing loudly.

"Now, now, team," said Regulus smoothly after their snickering died down. "We must not be rude to our fellow classmates. If they really have booked the pitch like they said, then we will trust that they have. Come, my team, let us go to the library and study," and the Slytherin team flew away on their brooms.

James eyed the suspiciously.

"I don't trust them, I don't trust them one bit," he declared.

Natalia snorted.

"Since when does Regulus talk without using contractions?" She rolled her eyes. "You go on and practice - I'll watch out in case any funny business goes on," Natalia told him, and James set off to organize the rest of his team. With a school broom in hand, she hopped quietly onto her broom and zoomed to where the Slytherins had flown off.

Bloody school brooms, always leans to the left, Natalia thought to herself as she steered herself from crashing into the Slytherin bleachers. While she was concentrating on not crashing, her faulty broom took a sudden spurge of speed, causing her to lose control. She ended up swerving behind the Slytherin bleachers and crashed right into the Slytherin Quidditch team, knocking them off their feet. Their wands flew into the air in surprise, so no doubt they were plotting something. It was at this time that Natalia's broom decided to stop.

Her eyes widened as the Slytherin boys began to get up, snarling and looking murderously at her.

"Go, broom, go!" she shouted at the broom, nudging her broom to move faster as the Slytherins mounted their brooms. Her wheezy broom gave a start as she speeded away, the Slytherins quickly gaining.

"Stupefy!" a red light shot past Natalia's head and towards.

"Thanks, Aden!" She yelled to the Hufflepuff Seeker who had just stepped onto the pitch, aggravating the Slytherins even more. She sped down the Quidditch pitch, the Slytherins now riding right beside her.

"James! Get your bloody arse over here!" shouted Natalia loudly, glaring at the sneering faces of Rodolphus Lestrange and Evan Rosier.

"Nat, stop your broom!" she heard a voice call, and she immediately obeyed. Though slowly the broom stopped, the Slytherins were caught off guard as the team continued to zoom along, having to make sharp turns to catch Natalia, but she was saved as the entire Gryffindor team shot various spells at the Slytherins. Natalia saw Sirius grinning from ear to ear as he had his wand out, cursing his younger brother into oblivion. Once she was off her broom, all the Slytherins seemed to have passed out onto the ground.

"Thanks mates," she said cheerfully, as though she had not been riding for her life less than ten seconds ago. "But I think I'll skip out of Quidditch for today." She continued grinning as she grabbed the school broom and headed towards Sirius, who was staring at her intently.

"What did you do to them?" he asked in amazement. "Even those people aren't prone to ganging up on one person."

"I flew into them," answered Natalia easily, shivering slightly. "But the better question is," she rounded on him, "What were you doing on the Quidditch pitch? I thought you didn't like the 'blistering cold'."

"You... you forgot your winter cloak," he said quickly and bluntly, handing her the heavy and stiff garment. "You'll freeze to death without it."

Natalia raised her eyebrow at him, seeing that he, ironically enough, was not wearing his cloak, but clad in a simple black sweater and jeans.

"Thanks," she said, laughing as she took the cloak and slipped it on. It was then she realized that the cloak she was wearing was actually Sirius', and, judging from the warmth of it, he had just worn it not five minutes ago.

"Oi, Nat... Lynx, wait up!"

Natalia was just walking back up to the Gryffindor common room by herself when she heard her name being called and turned around. She raised her eyebrow when Aden Irving ran up to her, before running his fingers quickly through his hair.

"Boys always seem to do that," said Natalia. Aden looked at her quizzically.

"Boys always seem to do what?" he asked.

"Play with their hair, of course!" snorted Natalia, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Bit strange, really. And all this time, I thought girls played with their hair more."

"... Sure," Aden said, raising his eyebrows slightly. "So, Nat, you going to Hogsmeade this Saturday?"

"Maybe," Natalia shrugged her shoulders. "Why?"

"Well," continued Aden, "do you have, erm, a date?"

"No..." Natalia looked at him strangely. "Why do you ask?"

This question seemed to frustrate Aden, because he gave her a look. "Because I want to ask you!" he blurted out. "Is that really so hard to figure out?"

Natalia seemed slightly dumbfounded, as though she had not figured that out at all. She looked up at the ceiling for a brief moment, before returning her gaze to Hufflepuff's Golden Boy.

"Well, what if I don't want to go with you?" asked Natalia, grinning. She folded her arms, looking at him curiously. Aden seemed slightly crestfallen, until an idea seemed to pop into his head.

"If you don't," he said, retaining a bit of his confidence, "then I'll just have to use the favor you owe me to ask you." He grinned at her, folding his own arms. Natalia looked thoughtful for a moment, before shrugging her shoulders.

"Then I suppose I have to go with you, won't I?" she said, pretending to sound miserable. "Oh well, we all must go through traumatic and harrowing experiences at least once in our lives." She concluded her dramatic speech with a huge sigh, before smiling.

Aden grinned widely at her response, knowing that she was joking.

"Excellent, then I'll meet you outside the castle on Saturday at around nine then," he said, and flashed her a dashing wink before sprinting off. Natalia gave a small smile as she went into the common room, quickly met up by the rest of her friends.

"How much is a Butterbeer, anyhow?" asked James. "Never got around to finding out. I've just been paying Rosmerta a couple of Galleons each time and I don't count the change." They had bullied the first-years out of the comfortable chairs and were now sitting on them comfortably. Natalia had rested herself on an armrest of the chair Peter had occupied himself in. The rest had either found other chairs, or were sitting on the floor.

"Prissy rich boy," laughed Natalia. "Can't even figure out how much a Butterbeer costs. You've been spoiled silly," she grinned.

"Well, why don't we find out then?" said Sirius, "We'll all go to Three Broomsticks during Hogsmeade and find out."

"Er, can't," said James, looking oddly happy. "You know..." he pulled Lily closer towards him. Lily's face was flushed red as everyone looked at them amusedly. She pushed him away, folding her arms in annoyance. James shrugged and looked innocent.

"Alright then, while you two go find out together, Remus, Peter, Nat and I will go," said Sirius, grinning at the couple. He looked at Remus and Peter disbelievingly when the two of them shook their heads.

"I've, er, got a bit of a date myself," said Peter hastily. Everyone looked at him, shocked.

"With who?" they asked simultaneously.

"Prudence Workins," he muttered, disliking their voices of absolutely surprise. "That fourth-year in Hufflepuff." His face reddened. They were all silent, as though waiting for Peter to suddenly jump up and shout 'Surprise!' and reassure them it was all a joke. It didn't happen.

"... Well," said Natalia after a short pause. "Good on you, mate. 'Bout time you got yourself a nice girl," she winked at him.

"And I promised Professor Flitwick that I'd help clean up his class that morning," added Remus.

"And of course, this has nothing to do with Malia Beauregard helping out Professor McGonagall with her own classroom," said Natalia firmly, her eyes twinkling with mirth. Sirius grunted slightly at the lack of company coming with him to Hogsmeade.

"Guess it's just you and me, Lynx," said Sirius. "While everyone else is snogging each other."

"Oh, can't," answered Natalia carelessly, "you see, I have a date as well. As you so quaintly put it, I will be 'snogging' - " - she used her fingers to form air brackets - " - Aden Irving."

"What? When was this?" demanded Sirius, looking aghast.

"Less than ten minutes ago," said Natalia. She noticed Sirius' eyes were flashing angrily, and gave him an amused look. "Lighten up, Sirius - I'm sure you can ask any girl to accompany you."

"I can't believe you're going with Aden Irving!" he defended himself, "he's a prat!"

"Yes well, it's either this or I pay up twenty Galleons," said Natalia.

"When are you meeting him?" asked Lily placidly, because Sirius continued to look heated.

"Saturday, nine o'clock, outside Hogwarts," said Natalia, bouncing around a bit.

Sirius looked careless as he snorted. "Whatever, yeah, I'll find another girl to come with me. Oi, Louisa!" he called to the first girl who passed him. "Hogsmeade with me?" he asked, sounding more like a demand then a question. However, Louise didn't seem to mind at all.

"Sure thing, Sirius," chimed in Louisa, before giggling slightly and running out of the portrait hole, when she had only just came in twenty seconds ago. Sirius turned and looked almost triumphantly at everyone, namely Natalia.

"There, see?" he said. "Nothing to it."

"Good job, Black," Natalia approved, not looking very concerned. "Now we've all got some snogging to do."

For some reason, Sirius' face went dark once Natalia mentioned that 'we've all got some snogging to do'. He had much less to say throughout the rest of the evening.

Chapter End Notes: I hope you enjoyed that chapter (Took me forever to write)! I really don't know what to say. Review away!

Luv,

ArcanusRose