A/N: Hi everyone sorry for the delay. I had a maths exam this week and fainted on friday so I haven't really been up to posting. Thank you for the reviews and alerts ect, they make me really happy :D A big thank you to Josie for helping me with this chapter. It's kind of half and half in this story and so you will proabably see the difference of who's writing what :D But anyway here it is. Enjoy

Over the next couple of days, Lizzie grew more and more certain that Severus did like her. There were little things about him that she kept picking up like he would sit next to her in every single lesson they had together. There were a few more things that she had spotted, like the way that he would carefully trace her footsteps between lessons, ensuring that every step was perfectly placed. Or he would imitate her, from the slightest glance from the corner of her eyes to the swift hand movements she would make. She thought about his dark, mysterious, captivating eyes and how they would be fixated on her day and night, following her every move, tracing her every step. She knew that she could find it in her to like him more. She wanted to like him more, but she just couldn't conjure up the right feelings, feelings that would change her life forever, feelings that could change her friend ship forever. She stroked back a bit of her hair, soft and curly; it lodged itself behind her ear perfectly. She took a small sideways glance, her eyes watered as she glanced at Sev. His hair sleek and black was covering his face, but as she expected, he tucked his hair back too and looked at her. She felt a small smile creep up the side of her face. She couldn't help it; her feelings were taking over her. She changed her glance to look over to the opposite side of the table to look at Lily. Severus shuffled in his seat and rearranged himself slightly further away. But when Lizzie glanced down, beside her hand she saw another hand, one with blue markings etched onto the back. They were close, too close. The hand slid its way forward, closing in. The nails were now touching; she could feel his warm hand getting closer. She snatched her hand away, before hearing a loud sigh from beside her.

Lizzie bumped into Severus later on that day, his book splattered all over a cold stone floor. Lizzie and Sev both bent down to pick them up at the same time. But she soon came across a book. It was an ordinary potions text book, but she had an urge to open it. Inside she was greeted by notes and scribbles, recipes that had been changed. But what had made her most curious though, was that inside the front cover was written: This belongs to the half blood prince. Lizzie looked up and squinted a Sev.
"Who is the half blood prince Sev?" she asked, her nose almost touching the paper as she indulged into another massacred recipe page. The book snapped shut, forcing him to lurch backwards in the process.
"No one in particular." he murmured, which is what Lizzie thought he had replied as. They both stood up, and she dismissed him.

From then on, things moved forward a whole new step. She was constantly passing Sev. Every time she caught a glimpse of his billowing cloak as his hid round the corner, she would make a mental note. Lizzie was walking alone along the old dusty corridor that led from the potions lab. She had just handed in an essay early for Slughorn. As she walked, thoughts were running through her mind. What should she do? He obviously liked her, and she couldn't do anything about it. She needed a sanctuary, a place of answers. Her train of thought was soon broken as she saw two Hufflepuff girls coming from the dungeons and up the corridor. Lizzie darted behind a pillar and peered out just so that she could see them.

The two girls were laughing over some witches magazine. Nothing could stop them laughing, not even when a rat scuttled past their feet. Apart from when Severus came up the corridor. They stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes fixated on his face. He glared at them then sped up the pace as he began to pass them. But the girl with long flame ginger hair stuck out her foot, as an act of cruelty to Severus. He flew high in the air, before landing flat on his face on the hard stone floor. Blood slowly trickled out of his nose, his right cheek slightly swollen from the fall.

The two girls left him, giggling, just as they had before with their shrill voices. Lizzie shot out from behind the pillar to Severus' aid. She hauled him up so he rested against the wall, and then gathered up all his books. "Thank you." his voice, soft and whispery. Lizzie then sat down with him.
"You ok, apart from the nose and cheek?"
"I'm fine as long as I'm with you." he replied.
Lizzie felt the touch of his hand against hers, and she then tightened her grip.

Blushing and letting go of his hand quickly, she took out her wand and cleaned up the blood from his face. Not saying anything apart from the healing spells, Lizzie's mind suddenly went haywire. She tried to ignore what Severus had just said to her, she tried to ignore the way she had just gripped his hand and she tried to ignore the conscience in her head screaming out at her lots of possible signs that she could possibly love him...

'No!' She thought. 'Just stop it. You don't love him...you can't, he's your best friend.' But nothing she thought could convince her otherwise. What if she did love him? It wouldn't be that bad...would it?

Finally cleaning him up, Lizzie looked up into his dark eyes and gave him a small smile. He seemed slightly uncertain for a moment before smiling back. The heat between them was getting to Lizzie and she cleared her throat to make sure she could think straight. ''I...ermm, I need to go do something Sev. You'll be alright now, see you later.'' Lizzie said standing up and giving him an apologetic smile, before hurrying off towards the safety of the main part of the castle.

Xoxox

The corridor echoed as students barged their way through, a flurry of capes sped past Lizzie's eyes. Chatter lifted the spirit, even the walls seemed to be whispering to themselves! But among the elated mood was one blue soul. This soul belonged to Lizzie. She was confused, tired and bored. Bored of mixed feelings, of feelings with no answers, feelings with no joy, feelings with no end and feelings for Sev. Her mind was puzzled; the corridor soon became an echo in the back of her brain. She felt herself being transported back to when she was with Sev in the corridor. She felt close, so close that she felt like someone understood her, and that someone loved her for once, and was not just ignored like her family had done all those times before. Lizzie turned a few more sharp corners, before climbing a short flight of stairs to the library. She pushed open the heavy oak door; a musty book smell greeted her warmly.

As Lizzie was in her fifth year, that meant she would be doing her OWLS at the end of the year. With this is mind, the teachers seemed to have pilled a whole load of homework on them from their very first lesson at school. It was hard work, getting through all of the essays they had to do, but Lizzie, unlike a lot of people she knew actually sat down and did the homework she was set that night. The only exception to that was her Ancient Runes essay which she thought she would start now.

She made her way through the mahongony selves of large and dusty hardbacks to somewhere at the back of the library near the restricted section. She knew that this was where all of the runes books would be. Tilting her head slightly she looked at the titles of the books on the spine. Some were big heavy books with peeling golden writing; others were creamy coloured, small books with black writing and were extremely dog-eared. Making her way along the shelf, Lizzie suddenly heard frantic whispers from behind the bookshelf. Stopping still she listened into the conversation which was going on. She straight away recognised the voices.

''Don't you get it? If we mess up now, we'll never get it right.''

''I know I know, but we can't wait any longer...''

''...Sirius we won't be ready for next full moon, it's like two days away, maybe next month if we're lucky.''

''But James!'' the voices seemed to have gotten more urgent and louder.

''No Sirius! We have to do it slowly, you know that. Otherwise who knows what will happen if we don't. All we need to do is get a few things sorted out and then we will be ready, I promise.''

There was a sigh and the voices subsided. Forgetting all about her homework, Lizzie stepped out from behind the bookshelf to where Sirius, James and Peter were sat. They seemed to be pouring over millions of books again. To make herself known, Lizzie cleared her throat and smirked as she saw the three boys jump and turn around in terror. She saw Peter try and hide all of the books on the table badly and James roll his eyes at his friend before saying. ''There's no point Pete, she might as well know.''

Lizzie, intrigued on what they were going on about, sat down in an empty chair next to James. She looked at each of them, waiting for someone to speak. However after about three minutes of silence, Lizzie rolled her eyes at them and began speaking.

''So what are you doing coming in the library all the time?'' She asked. Again the three boys were silent, as though they were scared about telling her. She could see them exchange looks with each other, trying, as it seemed to have a silent argument. Again she waited until she saw Sirius nod and turn his attention to her.

''Before we tell you, you have to swear not to tell Remus on any accounts.'' Sirius said seriously. Seeing her nod, he carried on. ''Okay, well back at the end of second year we all decided to find a way we could help Remus with his 'furry little problem.' Then when we had that lesson on Animagi back at the start of third year, we set upon that idea. We're nearly finished and just need to make sure everything works.'' He whispered extremely quietly, so anyone who would be eaves-dropping still would hear what they were on about.

Lizzie's mouth dropped open in shock. Were they really Animagi? They had really done this for her brother? She knew instantly how this would help him; she had read so many books on werewolves before. 'Upon the full moon a werewolf is no longer a human being. It is pure animal with only a small part of the human conscience. Werewolves do not attack animals that come in close range to it unless they think the animal is a risk to them; however they will easily attack humans. This is why it is always good to stay well away from a werewolf on the full moon.'

''You, you really did that for him?'' She asked, still slightly awestruck. When she saw them nod, a smile appeared on her face. All of a sudden, any thoughts of Severus and feelings disappeared and she thought happily upon this new bit of news. ''So what animals are you?'' Lizzie asked, keeping her voice down. Quickly just for extra precaution Lizzie took out her wand and muttered 'Muffliato' so that any passer-by could not hear their conversation. When she had done the spell she turned about to the three boys and waited for them to continue.

''Well I'm a stag, Sirius a dog and Peter a rat.'' James explained. After that he went into all of that they had had to do and what difficulties they had to overcome. After about half an hour of explaining and Lizzie helping them about a bit, she finally announced that she needed to find Lily as she soon would have finished her prefect duty. Biding goodbye to the three boys, Lizzie exited the library feeling much happier then when she had entered it. From that moment onwards, Lizzie respected the soon to be Marauders a little more than she had done.

Ps: The next chapter is an amazing one. Get ready for some shock :D