A/N: Sorry for the delay, again. I had a bit of a rough week, so I had to leave the fanfic for a while. Thank you for all of your reviews, please keep them coming; Let me know what you like, what you'd like to see, who you'd like to see more of. ANYTHING!

Disclaimer (I think I should do these more :P ): I don't, obviously, own Harry Potter!

Chapter 16
Or,
Of Secret dates, Secret Rooms and Biology.

"Where's Lily?" Alice asked Marlene who was sprawled out in front of the fire. They hadn't seen Lily in hours, they'd heard an argument break out between her and James- but that wasn't news in the Gryffindor world, they always argued- and a lot of doors had been slammed, but Lily hadn't emerged from upstairs and nor had James.

"Maybe they're making out!" Sirius smirked; he had a pretty seventh year draped over his lap. Alice and Isabelle cringed. Marlene grinned at Sirius- she liked Sirius for his humour, it was much like hers.

"Hell yeah, that would be an improvement on the 'I hate you, you arrogant arse!" Marlene chuckled.

"And the 'Just give me a chance, Evans, stop being so stubborn!" Sirius added, grinning.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Lily has more than one brain cell. So she'll not be sleeping with James." Isabelle rolled her eyes. Alice and Remus- who had emerged from his revision mode- both laughed.

"James isn't that bad, Isabelle." Remus told her, with a pointed look- he'd heard from James about her and Sirius, and being clever Remus, he decided to give her an implicit lesson.

"He is if you're Lily Evans." She replied, matching his look. Isabelle was no fool; she could read pragmatic readings like a seer a crystal ball. The Gryffindor girl started to kiss Sirius, as well as whisper into his ear which made Sirius smirk and then pout, it also made Isabelle feel quite sick. She stood up. "I'm going to check on Lily."

Sirius' eyes followed Isabelle as she walked away- it wasn't his usual hungry glare, it was longing. It was loss. "I'm gonna check on James." He did care about James, he did want to make sure that he was okay, but he really wanted to talk to Isabelle. He stood up and followed her. "Hey, Izzy, wait."

Isabelle froze. "Don't call me that."

Sirius sighed. He knew it wasn't going to be easy, but he prayed to Godric that he would go easy on him this time. "I'm sorry, you know."

"So you've said." She continued to walk up the stairs, but he grabbed her arm softly. She turned around to face him. "Is there something I can do for you? Only I want to see Lily now, not next week."

Sirius smiled; she was always so witty. He found it cute. "I want to talk- no; before you reject it, just listen to me for a minute. I only want to talk. I want to explain my side of what happened- there are always two sides, right?" Isabelle reluctantly nodded. "So please just give me a chance. Let me talk, let me tell you what happened, let me tell you how I feel."

Isabelle hesitated, but Sirius was looking at her so expectantly; he looked worried, vulnerable even- like he was afraid of revealing true emotion. "Okay. We can talk." She told him, with a soft smile.

Sirius handed her some parchment. "Follow those instructions; I'll see you later, Izzy." And with a cheeky grin, he was off into the boy's dormitory. Isabelle rolled her eyes but entered the girl's dorm with a smile on her face.

Lily, unsurprisingly, was listening to music while reading a book. She looked up from the book and smiled softly. "Hey."

"Are you okay?" Isabelle asked, sitting next to Lily and grabbing the book from her hands.

Lily shook her head. "I feel so bad."

"Talk to me about it." Isabelle offered.

Lily swallowed. How could she tell Isabelle what happened? She'd surely ask questions, and Lily still hadn't told them about the incident with Snape. "I told James I might give us a chance."

Isabelle's mouth dropped open. "What?"

"I told James I might give us a chance." Lily repeated.

"Why? What changed?"

"James and I kissed on the night of the November ball." Isabelle gasped and Lily rolled her eyes. "It just changed how I felt about him, but if you look at it, I can't be with him- but he just won't understand! He doesn't understand that I couldn't handle more heartbreak, and if we got together, my heart would be broken; we wouldn't work, Isabelle! We're too different, too different!"

"You know what they say, opposites attract."

"We're too opposite. He's this perfect quidditch star with fans and- everybody loves him! I'm this girl who reads books and cares about my future, a girl that's had one relationship that messed up when everything was getting serious! He's a pureblood and I'm a muggleborn, he could get killed because of me! So could his family!"

Isabelle sighed. Lily was right. James and his family could be murdered because of the muggleborn connection which would be Lily- his brothers, mother, father, sister. They would all be murdered. And Lily would be left. "I understand you, I understand where all this is coming from, but Lily you can't lock yourself up like this. You might feel like the bad guy, and James might see you as the bad guy, but you're not the bad guy here. This is not healthy, and I won't allow it." Isabelle smirked.

"Fine, let me get washed up." Lily pointed to her blotchy face. "Oh, and if I have to stay downstairs, so do you- even if Sirius is there." Isabelle threw a pillow at Lily, who dodged it on the way to the bathroom.

"I'll see you down there!" Isabelle called, walking downstairs. Sirius was there, as was James and Remus. Hestia and Peter- who had been spending a lot of time together lately- were also there, in fact, they were sat on the same chair doing what appeared to be homework. A couple of seventh year girls had wandered over and sat very close to James and Sirius, much to the annoyance of Remus and Isabelle; Isabelle was annoyed because Sirius was due to talk to her in an hour, and Remus was just annoyed because he had to move from the sofa. Lily had put a touch of make-up on; she didn't want people to know she'd been crying. Before she left the dorm, an owl tapped on the window. It was Isabelle's, so she walked over to the window and let it in, taking the letter- and a mysterious package- from its leg.

Lily left the dorm, with Isabelle's mail in hand, she was ridiculously curious as to what these were, and who they were from. "Hey." She smiled.

"Where the hell have you been, Lily-Flower?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's Lily-flower now, huh?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I'm being spontaneous today." He replied.

"That's a big word for you." James snickered.

"It only has nine letters…"

"Eleven." Lily whispered.

"It only has eleven letters." Sirius said, sticking his finger up at James. "Anyway, Lily-flower, where have you been?"

"I've been listening to music and reading." She told him, sitting down next to Isabelle and handing her the mail. "These just came for you."

"You can't listen to music in Hogwarts; the magic interferes with the signal." The girl, who was massaging James' shoulders, said trying to embarrass Lily as well as sound intelligent in front of James.

"Well, lucky for me I'm not as dense as you, so I can listen to music here." Lily retorted.

"Harsh." James said.

Lily shrugged. "But true." She noticed Isabelle. She was smiling, in awe, at something in a little black box. "What is that?"

Isabelle snapped the box shut. "A gift."

"From who?"

"My brother."

"Can I see?"

"Nosey, much, Lils!" Marlene shouted.

"Hey! She's getting gifts; I wanna know what they are and who they're from!" Lily replied.

Isabelle stood up. "It's a necklace from my brother, satisfied?"

"Hmm, I suppose." Lily smiled, as did Isabelle; she hurried up to the common room and stowed the gift away.

"What do you think that was all about?" James asked; he was very nosey sometimes.

"I don't know, but she did not get the necklace off her brother." Lily replied.

"Does she even have a brother?" Alice asked.

"Yes." Sirius replied. Lily frowned and walked back up to the dorm to find Isabelle. She knew there was no way Isabelle received that necklace off her brother, whether she had one or not. Isabelle was flicking through her wardrobe, and Lily's suspicion was confirmed just by her attitude; Isabelle had a date. The letter and necklace were lying on the bed, so Lily went over and picked them up. The necklace was brilliant; a simple quartz stone in the shape of a heart, with a simply silver chain and it was beautiful.

"Lily!" Isabelle shrieked, as she turned around to see the ginger girl holding the necklace and letter. "Put that down!"

"I thought it was off your brother." Lily remarked, grinning.

"It is!" Isabelle shouted, and snatched the letter from Lily's hand.

"Fine, I don't believe you for one second but I'll let you get ready for you date-"

"It's not a date."

"With your admirer-"

"He's not my admirer."

"And I hope you have fun." Lily grinned and walked back downstairs, singing "Isabelle's got a date, Isabelle's got a daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate."

"I don't have a date!" Isabelle shouted from upstairs.

Lily laughed and grinned. "She has a date."

"Really?" Alice asked. "Congrats, Isabelle!" She shouted upstairs, it was always fun when one of your friends had a date.

"I DON'T HAVE A DATE!" Isabelle bellowed.

"Who with?" Marlene asked.

"I don't know. The letter didn't have a signature on it." Lily sighed.

"Damn, he must be clever." Marlene replied.

"Why doesn't she want to tell us?" Alice wondered.

"Maybe he's a Slytherin?" Marlene said.

Alice rolled her eyes. "There is nothing wrong with Slytherins, Marl…"

She wrinkled her nose. "Au contraire."

"He could be somebody one of us has dated." Alice suggested.

"Oh, please. Marlene doesn't date, you and I have only had one boyfriend each, and Hestia…" Lily trailed off. "Well, she's Hestia."

They laughed, and Isabelle walked down. She wasn't too dressed up, but she did look stunning (then again, when did she not?)

The group of girls gave a simultaneous "Ooooooh."

"Oh shut it. It's still not a date." Isabelle said.

"Yeah, yeah." Marlene grinned and Isabelle stuck her fingers up at Marlene.

"I'll be back later." Isabelle waved and walked out of the common room. The girls spent the rest of the night discussing Isabelle and her mystery man.

They made a pact to find out who it was.

Sirius paced backwards and forwards in a spacious room that only had one piece of furniture; a couch. It was the room of requirement and Isabelle had agreed to meet him there, he didn't have any idea about what the room should be furniture liked, so he went for a couch- he didn't want Isabelle to think he was being slutty, or desperate, he didn't want it to look like a date, he wanted it to be a simple, argument free, meeting. He had heard Lily singing Isabelle had a date, and he hoped that Lily had misunderstood and Isabelle was actually just getting ready to meet him; he didn't know if he could handle being stood up- he didn't know what he would feel like if Isabelle had another guy, and he didn't really want to find out either.

He checked his watch, it was half seven and he'd asked Isabelle to be there for seven. He wondered if she was just late, if Lily and the others had held her up questioning her about her 'date', or whether Isabelle was just messing with him and she wasn't going to show at all. He prayed it was the former, for what was the millionth time that night. The room suddenly shifted into a bedroom, and Sirius knew this wasn't Isabelle arriving. Only a Marauder knew how to combat the room's magic, and he was sure as hell Remus wasn't trying to use this room. It would be James and some whore, and he did not want to stick around to witness the scene. It was funny, actually, as this had happened to James once; he'd asked Lily to come to the room, so he could have a romantic night with her, she stood him up and Sirius had managed to combat the rooms magic- despite the fact James was inside, and despite all the rules and books which said it was impossible- and he wandered in with a girl hanging on his arm while a shell shocked James nearly had a heart attack, and proceeded to try and murder Sirius. He laughed at the memory, but then realisation dawned on him, and as James walked into the room with a giggling blonde, Sirius walked out.

"Have fun, Prongs." He winked as he left. He didn't know where to go. Back to the common room, or down to the quidditch pitch. He sighed and decided to go to the common room, he'd talk to Remus about the potions essay he had to do otherwise he was going to lose his quidditch privileges.

"Where you been, Padfoot?" Remus asked as soon as Sirius walked into the common room. "You do realise we have an essay due tomorrow?"

Sirius laughed. "It's alright, mate, I'm just about to do it." And Sirius, for the first time anybody could remember, sat down and wrote an essay. Remus pointed out any mistakes, gave him some helpful hints, and within an hour, he had an essay complete and time for himself. He was gazing into space when Lily, from across the other side of the common room (Sirius had moved for peace to do his essay) squealed.

Isabelle had walked in.

"You were on a date, you little minx!" She shouted.

Isabelle giggled. "Maybe, maybe not. You'll never know!"

"That's what you think!" She winked and grinned. Isabelle looked over and caught Sirius' eye; she had an apologetic look in her eyes, but he looked away straight away. He wasn't prepared to watch her chatting on to Lily about this date after she'd stood him up; it wasn't fair that he had to listen to all of this. He stood up abruptly.

"Padfoot?" Remus asked.

He looked at Remus. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" Remus looked worried. Poor Remus; he had so many problems himself, yet he always worried about others. He was a great friend.

"Yeah, I just have to be somewhere." He shrugged.

"At half ten?" Lily interrupted. "Curfew is eleven."

"It's important, Lily-flower." Sirius pouted.

"What can be so important at this time at night?" Lily asked, amazed, as Sirius grinned.

"Don't ask, Lily. You really don't want to know." Remus told her, pulling a face. He knew exactly where Sirius Casanova Black was going.

"If you must know, I'm going to Ravenclaw." He smirked.

"You'll never get in." Lily laughed.

"Oh, trust me, I will." Sirius winked.

"Before you go, Pads, where is James?" Remus asked, and Lily's stomach flipped. Jesus, stop doing that! She chastised herself.

"A private room with some giggling blonde." He shrugged. Lily's stomach flipped again, stupid, stupid flipping feelings!

"Delightful. Can't you give it a break?" Remus wrinkled his nose again.

"Remus, if I could I would, but I can't, so I shan't."

"Well, you could."

"Don't be silly, the girls need me, Moony. And they want you too!"

"Oi, don't influence Remus. Run along to your fancy bit, he's doing my homework!" Marlene shouted at Sirius.

Sirius saluted Marlene. "I don't need telling twice, laters!"

And with a smile at everyone, including Isabelle, he left for the Ravenclaw tower. Sirius Black was no longer willing to try; he wasn't going to be stood up again by the same girl, so the Casanova of Hogwarts was back. And he was back with a bang.

Everything had moved so fast over the past few days. James and were never in the common room, Lily, Alice and Marlene and Isabelle were always in the common room, and Remus was dotted around anywhere he could find some peace. This was definitely not in his dorm, with either James or Sirius shacking up and pleasing a lucky lady, or downstairs in the common room, with Lily and Isabelle singing; Lily had brought her cd player downstairs, and they were having a pre-Christmas party- it was definitely a pre-Christmas party, considering Christmas was over two weeks away, but they were excited to be going home to see their family.

Today, however, Lily and Isabelle weren't in the common room, yet James and Sirius were. It was the first time that Remus had seen them in days, without a female hanging around them. Lily's cd player was still in the corner as everybody enjoyed having music in the common room.

"Padfoot, Prongs, was a lovely surprise." Remus said as he sat down in the adjacent chair to the couch which James and Sirius were sitting on.

Sirius grinned. "It is, isn't it?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I know I don't really have to ask, but I'm going to in case you two have had a personality swap; what have you been up to?"

James smirked. "Doing all of my homework, sleeping in the library, the usual."

"We were studying with Ravenclaws, too." Sirius added.

"Biology, hmm?" Remus smirked.

Sirius chuckled. "Oh, you know me so well!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "And I thought the clever Sirius, who does his essays in record time, had made another appearance. Silly me."

"I'm sorry, Remus, but the women need me." He grinned and James laughed, it was nice to have a chat with Remus; they hadn't spoken to him in a while, and he missed it.

"They don't need the diseases though." Remus replied, grinning.

"Oi!" Sirius yelled, as the other two boys laughed; it was great winding Sirius up, they loved it. Sirius continued to yell protests, but James and Remus just continued to laugh even more. The boys stopped laughing when a high pitched squeal echoed downstairs from the girl's dorm.

"Give that back!" One girl yelled.

"No chance!" The other girl replied. There was a thud and a giggle, then Lily Evans appeared at the top of the stairs; her hair was wild, she was pink in the cheeks and she was grinning from ear to ear.

"Lily Evans!" Isabelle's voice came from in the dorm. "Open this door right now!" She was banging on the door.

"Use your wand!" James shouted up the stairs.

"James!" Lily shouted, as she ran down the stairs. "Why did you tell her that?!"

"You've locked her in the dorm!"

"So I can find out who her boyfriend is, you dolt!"

James chuckled. "Did you just call me a dolt?"

"Yes." She huffed and started to open the letter, while Isabelle yelled her name again. "No signature, again?!"

Isabelle ran down the stairs, missing the last five. "Lily, please, don't."

"He didn't sign it, again. Really? Why the big secret?"

"There is no big secret." She snatched the letter from Lily's hand, and walked back upstairs.

"I don't get it." Lily sighed.

"Maybe there was a charm to hide the signature." James suggested.

Lily's eyes widened and she looked at him. "You're a genius."

He smiled at her. "I do try."

Lily's heart faltered at his smile, he always looked so bloody gorgeous. She sighed inwardly, she wished she didn't feel like this; it hurt to know that she couldn't be with him. Lily's thoughts were disrupted by a portrait walking into the frame near her.

"Excuse me, dear fellows, but a handsome Ravenclaw is at our door." The portrait said.

"Let him in." Lily told the portrait, and he did.

"Do you think this is who Isabelle is dating?" James asked Lily, and she nodded. The both stared at the door, waiting, and then it opened.

Josh Richardson walked into Gryffindor.

A/N: Dun Dun Dun. Hehe. Just, y'know, review please. :3 Let me know you're favourite line! ;D
I STILL NEED A BETA, PLEASE MESSAGE ME!