A/N: Oh hey, look, here's me updating two days in a row. I'm so awesome. You know what I deserve for being this nice to you? A nice little review! And you want to know why I updated this quick? BECAUSE OF ALL TH BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS WHO REVIEWED LAST CHAPTER *HUGS YOU VERY VERY TIGHT* I love you all more then anything! Okay... go ahead and read and review and make my day.

The pain is unbearable every time I see her. There is so much I want to say that day she walks up to the Quidditch pitch a little bit late. I want to drop everything, run to her, and kiss her long and hard so that she knows that I never wanted to have to end things with her. But of course, that wouldn't go very well.

All Sirius and I are able to do is sit around and feel sorry for ourselves for having lost the people we need with us. And that can't be.

"Do you have any Firewhiskey?" he asks, both of us lying on our backs in the room we share. I sigh.

"Not unless you really want to break into my dad's private storage and get some."

He pauses. While he does a very good job of covering it up, Sirius has confided to me that he's actually quite terrified of my dad. "Never mind then," he says, making the wisest decision. "Actually...fuck him. Fuck what he did. I'll be right back." He stands and leaves the room, and I know that eventually my dad will find out and ground us or something stupid. And I don't care.

That night is spent with me and Sirius quietly attempting to drown our sorrows with alcohol, but all it seems to do is remind me of every heart-racing moment our lips would touch, or my hand would find its way to the curve of her waist, or I would just stare into her eyes and lose myself in their endless green. All of that was so far away now. And I missed it desperately.

At some point in the two weeks in between Quidditch camp and September first, Sirius and I get our school letters. And for some insanely bizarre reason, I have been made Head Boy. Head Boy. Me. I had never really been known for my maturity or sense of responsibility, but I guess Dumbledore thought I would be the best choice. I did have some experience from coaching the camp...but still. At the very bottom of my letter, there was a post-script saying that Lily is to be the Head Girl. Well, isn't that just splendid.

I can tell that I'm going to be in for a rough seventh year. Honestly, I did a pretty great job of trying to avoid Lily last year, but so much has changed since then. Back then, it was just strong infatuation. Now, it's head-over-heels-in-love.

Whenever I have a spare second or two, my mind can't help but wander to a certain redhead, and mostly about how I hurt her so much. Because when I took her heart and so cruelly tore it into a million pieces, I actually did the same thing to myself. And now here I am, nothing but an empty shell. She gave me purpose, happiness, a certain enjoyment in life. And without her...there's nothing.

I never thought I would say that: James Potter, guy who could have any girl he ever wanted, would feel incomplete without just one girl. But she wasn't just one girl. She was the one girl. And that was what made all the difference.

"We should get girlfriends," Sirius says to me three days after the Quidditch last class, interrupting our hard-core session of...moping. Even the consideration of dating someone so soon after being with Lily just stumps me. Why would I want another girl when I have experienced a girl that no one could possibly beat?

"You're sure?" I ask, not sounding convinced.

"No."

"Thought so.'

"Well, we should at least do something, Prongs. Instead of just lying around feeling sorry for our sorry arses."

I sit up, giving him a sarcastic look. "And what," I say, "would you possibly suggest?"

Sirius thinks deeply for a moment, which at least somewhat amuses me. "Actually, I was hoping you'd have some idea. You usually do."

"Yeah, well, I also usually don't go through gut-wrenching heartbreak, but look at me now."

He sighs. "I know the feeling."

"James," Lily whispers, interrupting our heated snogging session.

"What is it, love?" I ask while trailing a line of kisses across her neck to her ear. I had dragged her to the storage closet during lunch break-the same one we had been caught by Oliver in a few days ago. She didn't mind, however, as displayed by our current state.

"I'm aware that this probably isn't the best moment for this conversation," she starts, and I can't help but think, please not the sex talk, please not the sex talk, please not the sex talk. I really don't want to venture into that with Lily, at least not right now. I mean, talk about awkward. "But it's been bugging me for a while now..."

"...Go on, Lily," I say softly, kissing the top of her head after I do so.

"Well, I was just wondering, maybe, like, do you have any idea, cause I don't, what you think is going to happen, or maybe not happen, or something, like, when we start school?" I breathe a sigh of relief, being grateful that I know the answer to this question.

"Well, I could tell you what I had in mind," I murmur before leaning in to kiss her once again. My tongue traces across her bottom lip and I can feel her smile under mine before she lightly pushes me away, chuckling slightly. Her smile causes me to break into one of my own, and we stand there goofily grinning at each other before she finally says, "Well, say it!"

"Oh, right," I stammer, running the hand that's not supporting Lily's back through my hair. "Well, once we get to school, I will no longer be your coach, and there will be absolutely no rules saying that we can't be together. So I'm going to take you on dates during Hogsmeade weekends and hold your hand in the corridors and even snog you in the broom cupboards if you let me. I will let everyone there, whether they be a professor or first year or ghost, that you're absolutely mine, and that I'm absolutely yours, and that no one can change that or stand in the way of it."

I barely get the last word out of my mouth before Lily starts kissing me again. About four minutes later, we come up for air and she whispers, "I think I like that answer."

So do I, Lily. If only it could still be possible for the two of us.

The next day, Sirius and I go into London posing as two Muggles to try and enjoy the day away from the memories of ex-girlfriends and wizarding wars and all the shit going on in our lives. Basically, it is just a well-need vacation for the both of us.

My mother had requested for us to go to Diagon Alley and get some school supplies, but neither of us want to. Again, we're just there to be Muggles. We enter a small pub overflowing with them watching a football game on a...a...damn it, I learned about this in Muggle studies. It's a...a lelevision?

The annoying part about being wizards in the Muggle world is that the legal age for Muggles is eighteen instead of seventeen. Why, I have no idea. It's just some stupid law they have. I mean, seventeen is so much more reasonable. But anyway, we're also not technically able to drink alcohol until we're eighteen, but Sirius and I also choose this pub because the bartender is a rather attractive female with black hair and lots of tattoos. She has a pretty tough attitude, but Sirius and I flirt until it is more than enough to make her forget asking us for our identification.

We sit in the corner of the table, slowly sipping at our beers (which, by the way, taste much worse than their more buttery counterparts) in silence. Sirius snaps me out of space by saying, "What do you think of that girl over there-the one with blond hair?" he gestures to a bird standing by the entrance talking to a few friends. She's pretty, sure, but not stunning. Merlin, I need to stop comparing girls to Lily Evans all the time.

"She's not bad," I reply. "But her redhead friend is better." Sirius gives me a look, and I shrug.

"Hey," I tell him. "Alice is blond." At that he grumbles something incoherent and takes downs the rest of his drink in one chug. For the hell of it, I do the same, but I'm pretty sure it makes neither of us feel any better.

"Let's leave," Sirius says, and I immediately agree. I slap a twenty-pound note on the table, hoping if that will be enough for a couple average-sized drinks, and file out of the door, not giving the redhead or her blond hair a glance.

We walk around London a bit more, and I can't help notice how Sirius always tends to steer away from the direction of the river, and no where even near Westminster or Tower Bridge. I can tell he's trying to be subtle, but when he says stuff like, "Wait! I do not feel like going anywhere near water today. Let's go check out the West End," it takes much of my effort not to roll my eyes.

We do indeed check out the West End, a tourist-filled area advertising musical plays everywhere. Muggles have such interesting ways of entertaining themselves. I wonder if Lily likes musicals.

No, you don't, James. You're done wondering and worrying and caring about her. You're mind is going to stop wandering to her in a spare moment. All that will end.

What a load of bullshit that is.

Since both Sirius and I are, admittedly, at least a little tipsy, we get a plethora of odd looks from passersby watching us jump in the rain puddles and run around on the sidewalks. It's a good distraction, really. This day is a good distraction.

Chuckling, Sirius throws his right arm around my shoulders and I return the gesture. "Prongs, my brother," he says, slightly out of breath. His cheeks are pink and his hair falls in his face, but it still manages to look quite good. I've always been jealous of his attractively messy hair, hence my bad habit of messing up my own hair. Lily used to hate that.

Oh, fuck.

"Prongs," Sirius says again. "It's good to know that even when the loves of our lives get engaged to other guys, or when we had to break up with them due to bull-shitty parentals, that we'll still have each other. I'll have one hell of a mate my whole life."

"Gosh, Sirius, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were in love with me," I reply, giving him a grin. We laugh, knowing how untrue that is. I'm laughing so hard that I lean forward, supporting myself on my knees, and right as I do a red bolt of light shoots bye just where my head was.

Wait just a minute...that cannot be good.

"Padfoot!" I exclaim, shoving him out of the way of a green light. We pull out our wands and look around for any attacker, but there's no one in sight instead of a crowd of random Muggles.

"Prongs, we have to lead them away from the Muggles. Who could be attacking us?"

"Maybe some Slytherins from school who also happen to be wandering London in a slightly drunk state?" I say while casting a Shield Charm to defend us from another spell. I just can't tell where they're coming from, which greatly annoys me.

"Good point. Anyway, we need a back road or something...Ah, fuck, we're in the middle of the West End! There are no bloody back roads..." I interrupt Sirius by grabbing his arm.

"Ever tried Apparating before, mate?" I ask.

"Oh, right, there's that too." Both of us close our eyes and concentrate hard, but I don't feel the familiar tug-at-the-navel that comes with Apparating. Well, this just gets better and better. "They put a bloody Anti-Apparating Charm on the place. Fan-fucking-tastic," says Sirius.

"For us, yes. For you...not so much," says an unfamiliar voice. Sirius and I glance at each other and I let go of his arm, holding my wand out in front of me. About twenty feet in front of me, a hooded and masked figure dressed in all black stands there, not doing anything. But the sense I get from this guy...it's not a good one.

"We have no intention of hurting you, James Potter and Sirius Black. We simply want to take you along with us to a place, to meet a...friend of ours. I'm sure you'll find what he has to say quite interesting."

"Oh, yeah? Well, excuse me for having my doubts. What happens to be this 'friend's' name?" Sirius asks, maintaining a cool facade. While he speaks, I notice two other men like the first one walking toward us from the right and the left. Well, isn't this just spectacular. Every nerve in my body is sending messages to my brain saying, Get out of there now. If only it were that easy.

"Oh, I'm sure you've heard of him. He's quite famous, really. His name is so well-known in the wizarding world that most don't dare say it. Soon it will be that way outside just wizards, so that even lowly Muggles will tremble with fear at the slightest mention of it..." The scary man trailed off, his voice thick with anticipation. Sirius and I share a glance, now being more certain as to who this man is.

"Look, I get what you're saying," I start. "But we have no interest of joining you. Sorry to put a damper on things, but, erm...better luck next time...?" More men have joined the fray and we're outnumbered about three to one. There's no way we're going to be able to get out of this unscathed.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure to say so, Potter," the man chuckles. "The Dark Lord has powers and connections you couldn't even dream of. Join his side, and you'll have anything and everything at your fingertips." Had this happened only a few months sooner, I might have actually considered this. But now the only thing I want is this one girl, and there is no way she'll ever take me back after what I've done.

"Look, we're not looking for a fight here-" Sirius begins, but he is cut off.

"Oh, neither are we," sneers the man, who I can safely say is definitely a Death Eater, along with the other black-robed wizards. "We have our ways of making you come...peacefully. You do so, Potter, Black, and no one gets hurt. Not you, not your friends, not your families, not anyone...else." The Death Eater turns his head towards me, and for a moment I swear he knows everything about me and Lily...but how? That's utterly impossible.

"See, here's the thing, I don't intend on coming with you or anything, but I'm most certainly not getting hurt," I drawl slowly, trying to inconspicuously poke Sirius in the leg with the tip of my wand. "So you can tell your boss that I'd rather-"

"SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA!" Sirius bellows, thankfully having picked up on my hint. His random outburst distracts the Death Eaters for us to Stun two of them for the both of us before beginning to duel with the other ones. 'Siberian Orchestra' is a plan developed by all four Marauders typically used when hexing Slytherins or getting into fights, but the same thing technically applied here.

"I don't know if we can take them!" I yell to him as we dodge, deflect, and shoot spells. "We need to get out of here!"

"Gee, thanks Prongs! Never would have guessed," he replies, ducking behind a telephone booth. "Do you happen to have any more brilliant ideas in that genius mind of yours?" I roll my eyes at his sarcasm, but then something does come to mind.

"What if we tried-" I'm cut off suddenly as I notice more spells flying past me towards the Death Eaters, and I think maybe more of them have come and are attacking us from behind. But as I turn around, I see a few friendly faces: Alastor Moody, Hestia Jones, some other strangers, and...oh fuck. Frank Longbottom heroically runs up with the rest of the Aurors and starts also firing spells. I turn to look at Sirius, whose face has adopted a look of pure loathing at the sight of Alice's fiancé.

"Don't just stand there, Potter, Black, get under some cover!" Moody growls at us. I've met him through my dad before, and thus am used to his rough way of handling things, so I do as he says without hesitation. Sirius takes a bit more effort, looking like he's about to hex Frank into next week, but I grab his wrist and drag him away.

"Don't do it, mate," I tell him, desperate to get his attention away from Frank. "She would kill you if you did anything to him."

"What about what he did to me, eh? What...what she did, too?" I freeze at what he says, caught off guard by his actual logic, but quickly regain my composure.

"It's still not worth it," I say quietly. Sirius pants heavily, chest moving up and down, and I can almost see his mind turning. Before he has a chance to say or do anything he might regret, I grab his wrist again and Apparate away to the safety of my front yard, where a soft rain is falling.

Sirius doesn't say anything, but instead turns and walks inside silently.

I follow him.

A/N: Now, I know you all are pissed they aren't back together, so go tell me that in the reviews. I'll probably be updating around Wednesday next time, but if we get a good number of reviews I'll update maybe Monday or Tuesday. WHO KNOWS! SO GO REVIEW JUST IN CASE! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and remember you can find my on tumblr at ofcatsandthings(.)tumblr(.)com