Thanks to csr for the quote.

A bell is no bell 'til you ring it,

A song is no song 'til you sing it,

And love in your heart

Wasn't put there to stay -

Love isn't love

'Til you give it away. – Oscar Hammerstein

I was on edge the next morning as we all made our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but a casual reconnaissance of the room told me that Potter and the rest of the Marauders had not yet appeared. Lily had perked up since last night, and sat with her back to the doors, cheerfully engaged in conversation with Katie and Alice concerning the various options for their breakfasts.

Thus it was that I was the only one to notice a nervous-looking James Potter enter the Hall, his gaze immediately honing in on the flash of auburn that constituted the back of Lily's head. Peter, Sirius and Remus stood behind him, holding the identical stance of crossed arms and straight legs, looking for all the world as though they were shooting the album cover for a cheesy boy band.

James took a deep breath, and then started forward towards Lily, a look of determination on his face. Katie became silent as his shadow fell across the table, and turning round, even Alice fixed him with a death-glare. Catching sight of him, Lily exclaimed angrily:

"You have some nerve coming here, Potter! I thought I told you-"

He silenced her by holding up one hand, and then, looking directly down at her, his face a stoic mask, said quietly:

"I promise you that this will be brief. I merely came over here to apologise for my words and actions over the past 6 years. I had no notion that I had so deeply upset you, and can only stress that it was never my intention to do so. However, I have now come to understand how you must have viewed my words and actions, and offer my sincere apologies for any embarrasment, humiliation or other unpleasant emotion I may have inadvertently caused you. I do not expect your forgiveness, but would like to say that in future you will have no cause to be angered or distressed by me. Thank you for your time; I hope you have a pleasant day."

With that Parthian rejoinder, he turned on his heel and walked off, his footsteps echoing in the silence of the Great Hall. News and gossip travel fast at Hogwarts, and most of the population of Hogwarts would have undoubtedly heard of the huge argument. Pupils from various tables were stretching out their necks as if they thought that might enable them to hear the quiet apology that James had just proffered. As for Lily, she and the rest of my friends were sitting at the table with open mouths, staring in amazement at James' retreating back.

I felt my lips quirk into a small smile, which I hurriedly suppressed as Lily turned to look at me.

"What...I mean...?" She stammered.

My friends were looking at each other incredulously, clearly lost for words. Unsure of what to say, I kept my mouth shut and summoned a confused look to my face to match theirs.

"Wow." breathed Katie eventually. "I think hell may just have frozen over. Was it just me, or did James Potter actually apologise?"

"No, I actually think he did." interjected Alice. "Or else this is a really weird dream."

"Who'd have thought James Potter would actually apologise?" asked Katie.

"Not me." stated Lily.

"Me neither." I joined in.

"He must have finally listened to what you were saying, Lil. All that stuff about how he was bullying people and whatnot." added Katie.

"Unless it's just a ploy to get you to go out with him." put in Alice.

"But wouldn't he have asked her out then?"

"Yeah. I kind of feel a bit bad about shouting at him now. Well, I mean I felt bad about it anyway, but as always consoled myself with the fact that he's a prat. But now..."

"I'd give it time to see if he's actually sincere, Lil. I mean, come on, any fool with a mouth can apologise, but as they say, actions speak louder than words. Maybe you should just wait to see if he "walks that talk" before you rush headlong to any conclusion." I advised.

I know I had told Potter that I would help him with Lily. However, she was my best friend and so my first loyalty was due to her. The last thing I wanted to do was to let her get all comfortable with James, and then for him to break her heart or something, all because I had taken pity on him.

My guilt was rapidly increasing, first through helping James get Lily to give him a chance, and now telling Lily to be careful. I felt banging my head against the table in confusion, but realised that that wouldn't solve anything, and would most likely result in a trip to the Hospital Wing. So I smiled at Lily, and grabbing a roll of the table, stood up, and announced that I was going to clean my teeth before first lesson. None of them had finished breakfast, and so I arranged to meet them in Transfiguration.

Leaving the Hall, I thought about all my confused feelings. The term "best friend" is used far too lightly and too often nowadays, but there are no other words to describe our relationship. We had met at the Gryffindor Table in first year, and had begun talking about our impressions of Hogwarts. We were both extremely nervous, both coming from muggle families, and having no idea what the next seven years, let alone the next day, would entail. Lily, however, was being very friendly and conversant to those around her, comfortable with chatting to people that she had never met before. I, on the other hand, had perhaps muttered five sentences to the various people who tried to strike up conversations with me since leaving my parents at eleven am that morning. Lily had noticed me sitting huddled in my seat, pushing my mashed potato round my plate and had taken pity on me.

Unlike the others, she had determindly persevered in talking to me, despite my unresponsive one word answers, and soon enough (though I still have no idea how it happened), she had drawn me out of my shell and we were chatting away about the different classes that we would have to take with some kind fifth years. From there, we spent the next year as an inseparable couple, gradually getting to know and trusting one another with our intimate secrets.

It was Lily who was the first to know of my feelings Sirius, when I blushing whispered it to her late one night in our dorm. We had incorporated Katie and Alice into our ranks, and even though we were rather a tight-knit group, I would still say that Lily knew me better than the others did, and perhaps even better than my own family did. Spending five years living in the same room as someone will do that to you. Particularly when you share an unusual hair colour (although my hair was far darker than Lily's ruddy tresses).

I would say that as we grew and developed throughout our time at Hogwarts, so did our friendship. It went from being that of a little girl's "Best Friend"-ship, with friendship bracelets and obsessing over boys, into a profound adult "Best Friend"-ship, in which we talked together of our fears about the future, as well as our hopes and private thoughts, and so we each had a person we knew would support us no matter what. Not to say that we never disagreed, because we did, but we always made up afterwards. She was good at bringing me out of my shell, and I was good at getting her to calm down, and not to stress out about things.

Despite her tendency to obsess over work, she was a hilarious person to be around. One of my cherised memories was from summer during our fourth year, when my older brother Dan was trying to chat up his fourth girl of the afternoon. I was silently disapproving, but it was Lily who threw me a wink before stalking up to Dan and asking him how much success the doctors had had in curing his gonorrhoea. The look on the girl's face was priceless.

It was really strange, I mused to myself as I walked along the corridors back to the dorm, that suddenly everything seemed so adult now. Life had progressed from crushes, and secretly exalting when a boy so much as looked at us, to full-blown pangs of heartache, and real conversations with the opposite sex. Although, to be fair, I still sometimes secretly exalted by way of an internal dance when I saw an attractive guy appraising me. I was still female.

I was interrupted from these thoughts by the sound of my name being called, and I turned round to see James sprinting along the corridor towards me. It was rather like being faced with a herd of charging elephants, and my first instinct was to get out of his way, but fortunately he slowed down and stopped before he ran into me and sent me flying.

"Rose!" he panted, and then had to lean over with his hands on his knees for a good two minutes before he could catch his breath. When he finally did, a slew of questions tumbled out of his mouth.

"How did it go? Was it alright? It wasn't too long was it? Moony said it was too long, and Sirius was telling me to go down on my knees, and Peter said to give her flowers and then I didn't know what to do and then I thought she might hex me and then I didn't know if she'd even listen, and then...and then...and then..."

"James!" I poked him in the shoulder. "For goodness' sake, CALM DOWN!"

He stopped, and stared at me. Oh, right. I may not be nearly so shy as I was in first year, but I was normally not the kind to shout.

I took a deep breath.

"It was really good. A great length, not too flowery, and walking away afterwards was perfect. That must have been hard."

He nodded in agreement.

"So now I avoid her?"

"Pretty much."

"Right. I better go and start now then."

"Good luck." I told him.

He smiled, and then surprised me by leaning forward and hugging me.

"Thanks, Rose."

"No problem."

He was halfway down the corridor when I shouted after him.

"James!"

He turned and looked at me quizzically.

"Be caring, sweet and sensitive, but make her legs feel like jelly and her knees go weak."

He beamed back at me, and then saluted me.

"Of course, Sergeant Loganberry." I was still smiling as I walked up to the stairs to my dorm to clean my teeth.

It was on my way to Transfiguration that I was suddenly glad that I had just cleaned my teeth. One moment I was walking along the fifth floor corridor, and then next I had been jerked into an enclave much like the one we had hidden in on the night of our detention, except that this one was smaller, and fit only two people. I caught of whiff of a smell which was strangely very familiar, but before I could pursue the memory, a voice whispered "Lumos", and Sirius Black's face was illuminated just inches from my own.

I jumped back the few inches that I could before I hit the wall, and stared at him.

"What on earth have you just dragged me in here for?"

"A quick snog before class."

I narrowed my eyes at him, forcing my face into a ferocious glare, if only to belie the excitement which had sprung up in the pit of my stomach.

"No thanks. What's the real reason?"

He sighed. "If you don't want to have a little fun avec Monsieur Noir, then what I wanted to ask you was why you are helping James?"

"And you thought this was the best place to ask me?"

"Would you have preferred at breakfast in front of your friends?"

"I suppose not," I conceded.

He stared at me. I looked blankly at him.

"The question?" he said.

"Oh! Right, sorry. Um... well. I'm helping James because...he seemed pretty upset last night when Lily had screamed at him, and I came to the conclusion that he must really care for her."

"Right. But that doesn't really explain why you are helping him to get Lily to go out with him."

I huffed, exasperated. "I'm not helping him to get Lily to go out with him, I merely helping him to get Lily to give him a chance." I explained. "In the end, it will be up to Lily if she wants to date him, not because James has changed overnight. He seemed to be so distraught that she hated him that I thought I'd go and talk to him. Upon talking to him, I came to the conclusion that he really did care for her, it's just that he made a pig's ear of it, and now she won't even give him the time of day. But I think that if she were to give him a chance, then he would make her really happy. When all is said and done, what I want for my best friend is for her to be happy, in the same way I'm sure that you want your friends to be happy."

He was still staring at me, his head cocked on one side, and his eyes calculating. I started to feel a bit awkward under his scrutiny, and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I looked down to avoid his gaze, and my eyes settled on his chest, which was a scant few inches from my face. The butterflies awoke in a frenzied flapping of wings within my stomach as I discerned the hard definition of his muscles, even through his shirt. Bad Rose, I thought, and managed to tear my eyes away as he began to speak.

"You know, you are a really kind person."

What was with the compliments? I hate compliments. Luckily, I was saved from thinking up some reply to this as the bell rang, and Sirius and I realised that we were late for Transfiguration. McGonagall may be a young, pretty teacher, but she was very strict. We stepped out of the enclave, blinking in the bright light of day, before rushing down the corridor at full speed, and running as fast as we could to Transfiguration.

Upon entering the classroom, we were met with Professor McGonagall's stern gaze. Before she could give us detention, Sirius quickly said:

"My bag broke, and Rose helped me to fix it and collect all my books."

McGonagall shrewdly looked at the both of us, and then to my surprise nodded, and motioned for us to sit down. I made my way over to the empty seat next to Lily, and began to take notes. At least Transfiguration was simple, unlike the rest of life.