CHAPTER 6

The next week passed quickly. Sirius still didn't talk to me much. I hated that we weren't talking, but I was occupied. Between Remus, Chris, and Claire, I was very rarely alone. I still hung out with all the Marauders and was still considered one of them, but I tended to stray from the group if we'd go somewhere and Remus would always be by my side.

I often caught myself wondering what he'd think when he found out I was his date to the ball.

"Fang!" I heard a familiar voice call. I was sitting in the Shrieking Shack. I looked up and saw James coming towards me.

"Sirius is in the Hospital Wing. He was on the steps and they changed right as he was stepping off, and he fell onto the staircase that was under the one that changed." James said. I turned into my wolf form and he turned into a stag and we ran. I was a few feet in front of him until we reached the castle. Then since we had to turn into humans, he was faster.

We both reached the Hospital Wing completely out of breath. We ran inside despite us panting hard. Madam Pomfrey was busy working on him so we stood there with Remus and Peter.

Once Pomfrey was done with Sirius, we all stood around the bed. She'd mended his bones but he had to stay until that night.

"how do you feel?" I asked.

"I've been better." Sirius replied, looking at me. I glanced at my watch and saw that it was seven in the evening. We all stayed in there talking to him until Pomfrey shooed us out at ten. Sirius was going to be able to leave an hour later.

"I'm going to go to bed." I said. The other three didn't pay much mind to me so I went to my dorm.

I woke up around three that morning and saw a big black dog laying on the floor next to my bed.

"Sirius." I said quietly. He lifted his head and looked at me. "Get out of the damn floor. If you're going to be in here, you're not going to be down there."

He climbed onto my bed and looked at me. I patted the bed next to me and he wiggled up next to me. I knew that given certain circumstances I shouldn't have done it. I mean, he liked me, I liked Remus, and this was basically letting him think I felt the same way.

The next morning, I woke up and was surprised to find the black dog still there. It was Saturday so all the girls slept in. Sirius was asleep on the bed so I grabbed my stuff and went to take a shower.

When I came back to my bed, he was still there. I sat in the middle of the bed and drew the dark red curtains together so that no one would see us. Claire knew Sirius's Animagus form, but the other girls didn't and would freak out if they woke up and saw a big black dog.

"You better not have fleas." I growled at the dog after soundproofing my bed. The dog just looked at me. Sirius cocked his head to the side and gave a dog grin. "Sirius, I mean it. If you have fleas while in your dog form and got them on my bed I'm gonna kick your ass from here to Australia." he let out a bark of a laugh. He walked over to me and licked my face, climbing into my lap.

"Padfoot…you know there's not an 'us' and that there never will be, right?" I asked. He looked up at me and I saw the hurt in his eyes but he nodded and continued trying to crawl onto my lap. I laid down and he curled against my stomach. We laid like that until Claire pulled the curtains away from my bed.

"Lizzie, he needs out of here, now!" she whisper-yelled. Sirius took one look at me before bolting out of the dorm. He turned and I saw the goofy dog grin on his black furry face before he turned and trotted off. I knew that once he was at the bottom of the stairs he'd turn into a human again.

"Why was he in here cuddling with you?" Claire asked.

"I really have no clue. I woke up last night and he was laying in the floor next to the bed in his dog form and then I told him to get out of the floor so he curled up in bed. I just hope he doesn't have fleas while in his dog form." I replied.

"He's been laying beside your bed almost protectively every night for the past week. Its like he's expecting something bad to happen to you. I know I said to go for Remus, and I'm not going to tell you not to, but I'd go for Sirius if I was you." Claire said.

"After all this time, I'm going to stick with Remus. Sirius…he's a great friend and I would consider him dating but we all know it wouldn't work out between me and him and it would most likely ruin our friendship if we tried dating and then it didn't work out. Or what if we got married and didn't realize until several ueasr and a child later that we just weren't going to work?" I asked.

"Why wouldn't it work?" Claire demanded.

"Because it just wouldn't." I snapped. I got ready for the day, wearing my stuff for once. I had jeans that had holes in the knees and a bright blue plaid shirt. I went down to breakfast and didn't even bother sitting with Claire and Chris. I went straight to the Marauders.

"So we don't have to send Sirius to get you today?" James asked when I sat down.

"No." I replied.

"So are you going to accompany us to Hogsmeade?" Peter asked.

"I wasn't planning on it." I replied.

"Aw Lizzie how can you just abandon us?" James asked. I turned to look at him.

"I'm not abandoning you." I laughed.

"Pwease come with us." James said, giving me puppy eyes.

"You know, you suck at that." I said.

"Sirius." James said. I put my hands over my eyes so I couldn't see the face Sirius was making, but they pried my hands down.

"Fine." I sighed after having a stare down with Sirius's puppy eyes. They pretended to cheer, earning us strange looks. After breakfast, I ran upstairs to get some galleons and sickles before meeting the boys

We went to the Three Broomsticks and sat in a corner booth. I was in the corner of one side, Peter was next to me, and the other three boys were on the other side. I had grown to like Peter instead of being creeped out by him. He wasn't as bad as I had originally thought. Remus was in the corner on the other side looking down. He was obviously upset by something but I didn't know what. Sirius was in the middle, and James was on the open end.

"There's a lot of girls glaring at you." Peter said. I looked over Sirius's shoulder and saw a bunch of girls glaring at me.

"I can't imagine why." I replied. Peter turned into his rat form and crept closer to the girls, being careful not to be seen. He wasn't the sneakiest and was eventually seen on his way back to our table by the waitress. She was about to kick him, but I was on my feet within seconds.

"Oh there's my rat!" I said, picking Peter up and hurrying back to our booth. Once everyone was once again looking away, Peter scurried into the bathroom and came back in his human form so not to cause suspicion.

"So, any reason they appear to hate our dear Furrybutt?" Sirius asked. He still called me Furrybutt although I always protested.

"They think you and Lizzie are dating." Peter replied. Sirius twisted in his seat. He turned around quickly.

"Damn it!"

"What?" I asked.

"They're that group of girls that literally stalks me." Sirius complained, burying his face in his hands.

"It doesn't help that they saw you sneaking out of the girls stairs this morning." Peter said.

"How did they see me and how did you know?" Sirius asked, looking up.

"I was under a chair in my rat form and they were hiding behind a couch and saw you sneak out from the first landing. You really should have waited until you were up in our room before changing back instead of changing near the bottom of the girls steps." Peter replied.

"Shit." Sirius said.

"That reminds me, Claire said you've been up there every night for the past week. Why?" I asked. I saw Remus's head snap up.

"Because of those exact girls. I had known they thought we were together and I heard them plotting how to get you out of the way." Sirius replied.

"I'm not gonna tell you two what to do, but if I was you I'd make it look like we were dating while in front of them." James said.

"I don't know…that would make it where Lizzie seriously had to be guarded, with the way that group is." Sirius said.

"Why do they think that?" I asked.

"Everyone thinks so because of how close you and Sirius seem." Remus said. It was the first word I had heard him speak all day. True, he was the quietest out of the group, but he was never this quiet.

"Well I hate to tell everyone but I don't like Sirius that way." I said.

"We all know that. They don't. Use it to your advantage, Sirius. If they think you're with a girl that you actually like they may stop." James said.

"Well what's the plan? Because I'm not doing this unless it's a flawless plan." I said.

"Just act like you and Sirius are dating until we get to Hogwarts. And never be by yourself." James replied. I glanced at Sirius and sighed.

"If Sirius thinks we can pull it off." I said. We all looked at him and he thought it over before finally nodding his head.

We left the pub and walked up the path. Once his group of stalkers were close enough, Sirius stopped.

"Lizzie." he said. I turned to look at him. He kissed me. I kissed back, knowing if I didn't make it look like a real kiss we wouldn't fool the girls. He put his arms around my waist, pulling me up against him. I put my arms around his neck and tangled my fingers in his hair. He pulled away when he needed air.

He grabbed my hand and we started walking again. The other three were waiting for us further up the street.

"Don't look back, but the girls are giving you death glares." James said quietly.

"God, they're gonna murder me in my sleep." I groaned after sneaking a glance back at the girls.

"Nope because you're not going to be in there alone." Sirius said.

"You're not going to be there." I said.

"Nope but neither are you. You'll be with us." Sirius said. I looked at him suspiciously. He smirked. Once we got to Hogwarts, we all went to the Shrieking Shack. Although it was generally the place where Remus changed into a werewolf, we had taken to hanging out there since absolutely no one else realized it was there.

"Let it be known, no more kissing." I said, looking at Sirius.

"That's fine. At least we gave them 'proof'." Sirius said. We all stayed there until dinner time, talking. Sirius, James and Peter bolted down the tunnel while Remus and I took our time.

"Moony, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, Lizzie." Remus said, but his tone sounded dead.

"Remus." I said. He didn't say anything. I tried another time but my patience was wearing very thin very quickly. Finally I pushed him against the wall.

"Now tell me what's wrong. You've been there for me, and whether you like it or not, you WILL tell me. And don't think about saying 'nothing' again because I know damn well there's something wrong with you." I said. He looked down at me.

"Fine, I can't have the girl I like, because one of my friends are absolutely crazy over her and it would kill him if I got her, and I'm pretty sure she likes him back." Remus replied.

"Lily?" I asked. He shook his head. I didn't have a clue who would like Peter, and I knew it wasn't me.

"We better be going or they're going to notice we aren't there." he said a couple of minutes later. I followed him down the tunnel and up to the castle.