A/N- Heyyyy! Sorry for the longer gap between chapters. Semester's started once again and I was having trouble wrapping up the end of the chapter. Anyway, I got a lot of lovely reviews in the last chapter and I have to say that I was beyond thrilled! It really is the best thing to read about all your thoughts on the story! Hope you like this chapter as well!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Dany had a bad feeling about the detention. It was too much of a coincidence that James had wound up getting detention moments after her - successfully ensuring that they served whatever punishment together. Her mind ran over various possible reasons, including James being a closet s&m. As progressive as the 70s were, she wasn't very thrilled at the mental image of him in strategically positioned leather.

No. That probably wasn't the reason. Was he trying to booby trap the dungeons? As plausible as that reason was, it was negated when McGonagall informed them that they would be serving detention in the trophy room. And there was no way James Potter would do anything to harm the contents of the trophy room. It housed too many Quidditch related items, and a sizeable amount of plaques with his name on it. Hence.

Was he covering for the rest of the Marauders while they pulled an even more elaborate prank? Seeing as Filch would be busy supervising (gloating over) their detention, he wouldn't be able to watch other parts of the castle, giving the other three plenty of time to create chaos.

That was it! That was the master plan! And she was now an unwitting accessory. Drat. She spotted the object of her elaborate musings, walking (pfft, strutting) into the common room, his hand slung over a slightly higher set of shoulders. The almost collar length hair meant that she couldn't require too many guesses to figure out who it was. One, actually. His grey eyes sought her out and she looked away almost immediately, a deep scowl forming on her face.

Not only had he humiliated her like that, but he hadn't made a single attempt to apologise to her! Lily had pestered her for a week, before giving her some space. And that had helped. She was more inclined to listen to anything the red head had to say. But Sirius? She huffed to herself and stomped off to the dorm. She was better off not speaking to him anyway. Her life was much calmer and less dramatic.

"Why is my life so dramatic?" Dany muttered to herself as she watched Filch chase after James and Sirius, the latter of whom was holding onto a very wet and very irritable Mrs. Norris, while Remus and Peter ran off to distract a quickly closing in McGonagall.

"Unfortunate consequence of being a Gryffindor?" Lily supplied, shrugging her shoulders. "Come on, Marls snuck out a ton of food from the kitchens. Let's leave it to the boys to clean this up." Dany raised an eyebrow at her friend before acquiescing with a devious grin.

Exactly an hour earlier, Dany had dragged her feet to the Trophy Room, not looking forward to spending a large amount of time polishing mouldy objects next to a very restless Gryffindor. Thankfully, McGonagall had said that they could come and collect their wands from her after 2 hours. Which meant that Filch couldn't keep them there as long as he wanted.

"Get on with it," the gnarly caretaker growled, sitting down in a large chair and biting into a questionable looking sandwich. "And I better not see any funny business. And that means you, Potter!"

Polishing trophies was not a fun activity. Probably why it was part of detention and not your regular Saturday night. Oddly enough, James appeared to be rather subdued, working on his portion of trophies diligently. Maybe she had been wrong about her conspiracy theories. Maybe James had actually decided to take the punishment without any arguments. Maybe he had really matured in the last few months. Maybe… Maybe he was just waiting for the right moment and since it had finally arrived, was whispering frantically and incoherently to her!

"What?" she hissed.

"Move away from the vent." It was rather comical to see the always cocky James Potter, gesturing with the most ridiculous and unreadable hand movements. "Do it!"

Not that she was planning to listen, but James chose the exact moment that the vent was blasted open, to pull her out of range. She was about to frown at James but Filch's current state prevented her from doing much else but stare at him.

"How dare you?! You'll pay for this! This isn't the end!" he roared, running out of the trophy room with bright pink hair and a rather fetching pair of rabbit years growing rapidly from either side of his head.

"Pete's not that fast. So hurry up!" Dany's eyes bulged out at the sight of Remus taking out his wand and running behind Filch. She was even more stunned to see that James was not standing alone. In fact, he was standing with the two people she absolutely wanted nothing to do with.

"Dany, before you say anything, just hear us out. We don't have much time before Filch gets back. You can yell at us for however long you want, but please just hear us out." Dany frowned and pursed her lips, not having the heart to snub James.

"We're so sorry about everything that happened," he continued, his eyes sparkling earnestly. "It was horrible and humiliating and we were total twats."

"Dany," Lily came forward hesitantly. "What James said is true. We never should have hidden anything. But more importantly, we shouldn't have tried to trick you like that."

"Then why did you?" Dany's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Because I was confused. And embarrassed. A-and… Well, you know how I've always hated James' prankster ways. And for the longest time, I stuck to my hatred. But after you called me out during breakfast that time, it kind of made me see things clearly. How I was being stubborn and childish, how James wasn't as terrible as I always made him out to be, and how I probably fancied him… And then when we started our relationship, I felt very worried about what everyone would think. What you would think, Dany. Because you were the only one who had caught my bullshit. And I was scared of being judged. But I was wrong. You would have never judged me. I was just being insecure and paranoid. And I ended up hurting you. I'm so sorry. Will you ever be able to forgive me?"

Dany didn't have the heart to remain angry after that speech. Lily Evans - the most popular, beautiful and perfect student at Hogwarts was standing in front of her at her most vulnerable, and Dany knew at that moment that this girl was probably the closest thing she'd ever have to a best friend.

"I forgive you, Lils," she said, with a small smile. "And you as well, James. Not that I was ever very angry with you in the first place." James grinned and ruffled his messy hair even further while Lily hugged her tightly.

"What about me?" Dany's neck prickled with irritation at the sound of his voice. He hadn't said anything this whole time.

"What about you?" she asked, testily.

"Do you forgive me?"

"No."

"What?!" Sirius spluttered, staring at her in confusion. "You forgave these two! Why not me?"

"I must have missed the part where you apologised for your behavior. Which, I might add, was abominable!"

"'Abominable'? Which decade do you live in?" he spat out, his eyes dancing with anger.

"And you wonder why I haven't forgiven you?"

"You're just too stubborn for your own good! It's been ages! Just let it go!"

"Not until you apologise!" yelled Dany, her face flushed with anger.

"Why the hell should I apologise to a temperamental little brat like you? Throwing tantrums whenever things don't go your way! You're just-"

Crack. James and Lily gasped in horror as Dany's fist collided with Sirius' face. He staggered back and blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. Dany's hand was shaking but her expression was seething. If that wasn't enough, Mrs. Norris chose this exact moment to jump on Sirius' head and start attacking him viciously.

"URGH! Geroff me, you mangy cat!" Sirius yelled as James rushed over to pry the animal off his best friend.

"What do you think you're doing? Get away from my-" Filch's words were drowned by Mrs. Norris' screech as James blasted her off with a jet of water.

"Mrs. Norris!" he yelled, lunging for his cat. Sirius ducked out of his way but cat just refused to let go of him. Filch's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head in rage.

"Padfoot! Prongs!" Remus and Peter ran up to them but stopped short at the sight in front of them. This was definitely not looking good. Lily had already begun to discreetly move out of the zone of destruction, pulling Dany by the sleeve.

"What in Godric's name is going on?" Everyone froze in horror at the sound of McGonagall's voice which was getting closer every second.

"Run!"

And that's how Dany's first detention had ended. With Sirius and James running from a deranged Filch with Mrs. Norris in tow, while Remus and Peter sacrificed themselves to the ire of an already irritated Transfiguration professor.

"Why is my life so dramatic?" mused Dany.

Later that night, the Gryffindor common room witnessed the entrance of four very weary looking sixth years followed by a livid Head of the House. Needless to say, detentions were handed out and points were deducted. What pleased Dany, though, was the smell of wet cat that hung off Sirius, which McGonagall forbade anyone from removing with magic or otherwise.

"You could at least attempt to disguise your abject glee at his current state," whispered Lily, trying her best to avoid grinning. McGonagall was far too angry to risk it.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," muttered Dany, the corner of her lips threatening to lift up.

"I know a spell that'll make that smell last for a week at least," added Marlene, in a conspiratorial tone.

"Marls?" asked Lily, not sure why her friend was willing to humiliate Sirius further.

"He's been way off during practice. And there's only so much you can blame on his guilty conscience," she muttered, darkly. "I almost got my elbow broken his morning."

"Are we doing this or not?" she added, impatiently.

"I think it would be a crime not to," Dany said, feigning concern.

"Besides, it'll be nice to see him and Snape facing off after this," mused Lily. "Cat stench or hair grease - the toughest game of 'would you rather' in recent times."

"Well done, everyone!" Slughorn bellowed, his hands placed on his ever increasing belly. "Your Potions assignment was far better than I had anticipated. Your marks are on the board, so please have a look at them. But before we get to that, I would like to give special mention to the best pair in class - for their outstandingly brewed batch of Polyjuice, Ms. Wilson and Mr. Black! Please give them a round of applause!"

Dany flushed slightly, not sure of how to react. Since the assignment had ended, she was no longer expected to sit with Sirius. Slughorn bringing everyone's attention to her also meant that her attention was brought to Sirius. And she was still very annoyed by his behaviour from the day before. What she hadn't expected was the glare that Snape sent her way. It was scathing and she almost flinched. Lily was also surprised and frowned at her former friend.

"Ignore him, Dany," she whispered, turning her away by the shoulders. "He's jealous because your potion was the best."

Unfortunately, ignoring him didn't seem like much of an option. After class, Dany found herself alone with the Slytherin, while her friends had walked ahead towards the common room. Snape's eyes were filled with disgust as he looked her up and down.

"Black's newest conquest," he sneered. "Did you bribe someone to do the assignment for you? Or perhaps Slughorn himself?"

"Excuse me? What exactly are you insinuating, Snape?" she asked, incredulously.

"I'm sure you can figure it out."

"I am, most certainly, nobody's conquest," she said in a low voice. "And we brewed the potion by ourselves."

"That's right, Snivellus." Dany turned to see Sirius, James and Lily standing behind them. Sirius had spoken, his face dripping of disdain. "No bribery involved, I'm afraid."

"Black," spat Snape. "Here to rescue your little slag?"

Lily gasped in horror and took out her wand. "Watch your tongue, Snape. You can't use this sort of language in school."

"I'm sure some soap would be good to clean out that filthy mouth of yours," growled Sirius, getting ready to hex Snape. The Slytherin hesitated slightly, seeing he was outnumbered by the Gryffindors.

"Don't, Sirius," warned Lily. "Leave, Snape. And I'll be docking points for your language."

"You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus," sneered Sirius, lowering his wand.

"Go on, Snape," said James, speaking for the first time. "Leave. Now."

"You can't tell me what to do, Potter," hissed Snape. "I'm not afraid of arrogant, privileged, Gryffindors like you. Strutting about the castle like you own it. You'd better watch your step. Things are changing out there."

Sirius and James both pointed their wands at Snape, who had already got into position for a fight. Lily looked between the two sides, unsure of whom to stop. As much as Dany wanted to escape from this situation, she knew that it had started with her. And she couldn't just leave things like this.

"Stop it," she said, finally. "Both of you know better. Snape was talking to me. So why don't you just move along…" She left the suggestion in the air, imploring James to take the hint and leave with Sirius.

"She's right," muttered the bespectacled boy. "Come on, Padfoot." Sirius grudgingly agreed, and the three of them started walking away, leaving Dany with Snape.

"Look," she began, trying to mend things as best as she could. "I don't want any trouble, Snape. So-"

"You filthy Mudblood!" he spat, venomously. Dany's eyes widened in horror, knowing that this would definitely bring back James and Sirius. Sure enough, she saw Snape raise his wand, ready to fire. For the first time in the longest while, Dany let her instincts take over. Before anyone could strike, she muttered a quick Disarming Spell and Snape's wand was knocked out of his hand.

"Levicorpus!"

"Silencio!"

James and Sirius had Snape dangling from his ankles in the next instance. By now, a small crowd had gathered around them. Lily was working to disperse them before a teacher appeared.

"Let him go!" Dany said frantically, growing more worried by the escalation of the situation. "He's not worth it!"

"Go on," said James, his eyes and voice betraying his anger. "Get lost, Snivellus!"

Snape glared at them with pure loathing before walking away, leaving Dany unusually shaken.

"Disgusting prat," breathed Sirius, putting away his wand.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" James and Lily looked between Sirius and Dany with matching bewildered expressions. Her brow was creased and her eyes with dancing with fury.

"What do you-" Sirius tried to ask but was cut off by her.

"Why did you do that? Why in Godric's name are you so trigger-happy? Next time, mind your own business!" she yelled, clenching her fists and running off towards the stairs.

Sirius stood there, confusion, anger and frustration bubbling inside him.

A lot of stuff happened in this chapter lol. I'd love your thoughts on Lily's reason for deceiving Dany. And the Sirius-Dany dilemma isn't just so simply solved. He's really stubborn and she would rather not put up with any kind of bullshit. But then, I really want to know what you guys think. SO please review!

Cheers xxx