[[A/N: Hey all! I know this chapter is short... sorry about that. Crystal has been feeling depressed and is also busy sometimes. Also suffering from writer's block. Anyway, hope you all enjoy! Reviews are appreciated!]]

Lily wasn't as impressed as Remus was by my little stunt. She scowled at me all night, until finally I huffed at her.

"Oh, stop looking at me like that, Lils! You know it didn't mean anything."

"That just makes it worse," she retorted, throwing down the book she had been attempting to read. "I could understand if you were actually moving on, but you're just using Hyper to get back at Sirius and Mira. That's as bad as what Melanie did!"

I glared at her; she may have had a point, but the comment still dug at me. "As bad as what Melanie did? Really? And what about what Sirius did? And what Mira did?" I took a deep breath and folded my arms across my chest, leaning back against my pillow. "Every single one of them turned on me. They knew who they were messing with," I muttered.

Lily sighed and shook her head at me, the scowl remaining on her face. Annoyed, I yanked my bed curtains shut.

Breakfast the Monday morning was a rather short affair. There were a lot of stares and whispers, probably about Hyper and me. I sat with Lily, eating pancakes and trying to ignore it. I didn't last long and eventually got up and left. Lily sighed and stared after me, but I ignored it, striding out to Care of Magical Creatures an hour early.

It was nice outside, regardless of a fresh powder of snow. It crunched lightly underfoot while I walked, stopping only when I reached the cover of the tree where Sirius had comforted me as Snuffles. I leaned back against the trunk, carefully not to slip. The sanctuary didn't last long: crunching footsteps behind me made me stiffen.

Why couldn't everyone just leave me alone? I closed my eyes for a second against the brisk air, taking a deep breath.

"Artemis?"

My eyes snapped open and my head whipped around at the sound of Sirius' voice. I froze as our eyes met for the first time since he'd punched me. They were thoughtful, with a trace of something else. With relief, I remembered that the bruise was now healed; but the emotional ones were still there, as were the rules that he'd put into place. He was breaking them now, but suddenly I was afraid of that. I pushed myself off the tree and looked down at my feet.

He took a breath as if he were about to say something, then exhaled like he'd changed his mind. I pursed my lips. Muttered, "Sorry," as if I'd done something wrong.

And then I ran. Well, walked quickly, but I might as well have.

Sirius didn't follow.

Lunch was considerably worse. It seemed like most of the rumors were dying away, as far as I could tell anyways. What made it worse was Melanie Jordan.

She was the last person that I wanted to see, but there she was, standing before me with one hand on her popped out hip and the other running through that long brown hair. Her face was smug, but there was an emotion hiding in her eyes that I couldn't quite identify. For a second, I stared at her, anger coursing through me; and then I pushed it down and turned back to Lily, who had done a significantly better job of ignoring the brunette.

"I know that McGonagall is strict, but her counseling didn't help at all? I mean, she seems very-"

Melanie cleared her throat loudly, tapping her foot against the floor impatiently. I snorted and Lily glared at her before continuing.

"She just seems like she would be pretty experienced at handling troublesome students."

"I'm not-"

Melanie cleared her throat more loudly. I paused and turned to look at her with a dark look.

"Oh, Artemis! And Lily! I feel like it's been forever!" She sat herself across from us with a cheerful grin. My entire body tensed, and Lily could tell; she gripped my arm in warning.

"What do you want, Melanie? You know you're not supposed to talk to Artemis."

"Oh..." And she looked so disheartened that I almost laughed at her. But she instantly perked back up. "Well, it won't take long. Anyways, Artemis! I just wanted to congratulate you!" The urge to strangle her was back, the anger breaking through the dam faster than I could plug the holes. Lily's grip on my arm tightened. "That trick yesterday was very impressive! Tell me, was Paxley in on it? Or were you trying to hurt him too?" My breathing was increasing, my face growing warm. But something seemed off about Melanie's smugness. Something was wrong; her smile was there, but her eyes were narrowed.

In anger? Curiosity pulled over my anger; why was Melanie so angry? She had what she wanted.

Lily was scolding her again, insisting that she needed to leave. "As Head Girl, I have to enforce the rules, and right now you're breaking them. If you don't stop talking and leave now, I'm going to give you detention!"

Melanie completely ignored her this time. "Well, either way, it was excellently done! The look on Mira's face when she saw you two: priceless! And Sirius," her voice got quiet, so quiet I had to lean forward to hear it. Lily tried to pull me back, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, but I needed to know what she was going to say. Something in me told me to back away, to leave with Lily and ignore her.

"Melanie! Get the fuck away right now, or I swear to Merlin I'll hex you!" Lily warned, dropping all professionalism and glancing around at the oblivious teachers' table.

"Sirius was furious. He's not over you yet, I suppose, so it was to be expected. I imagine that was the main goal anyways." Melanie tilted her head at me, brown hair falling over one shoulder. "But I guess I should thank you. I mean, I've basically been offering myself to him every night and day since we got back together, but he just wouldn't start back where we left off."

My stomach dropped another inch, and Lily stopped talking.

"But your little trick pushed him right over the edge, and last night I had the best sex of my life! He was just putting all that emotion into it, and, just, oooh!" She sighed happily and put a hand on her chest, but I didn't hear anything after 'sex.'

All that fury that had been building, all that anger: it died. It was one of those times when my insides went cold. There was a horrifying roaring in my ears, so even though her mouth kept moving, kept describing her experience in bed with my ex-boyfriend, I couldn't hear a word.

But even though it was cold, calm, it was still anger. I had put aside my fork when Melanie sat down, and taken up a glass instead. It was a bad idea, as it turned out: whether from out of control magic or my own strength through my anger, the glass shattered in my hand and suddenly I was clenching a handful of glass. Lily's hand grabbed my bloody one, and I could tell she was yelling at Melanie, who was still smiling that smug smile. But the roaring was all I could hear.

Except the laughter. In my head. And outside of it. My own laughter joining Voldemort's in a weird scale. The blood from my palm was dripping onto the tablecloth, but I ignored that. The roaring dimmed as I stood up, Lily following as if she were going to stop me. Honestly, if I decided to leap over the table at Melanie (which was tempting), she would probably hex me if it meant saving my dumb ass from expulsion. But instead I just smiled. It was a smile that mirrored Melanie's exactly, except that as I smiled hers faltered.

"I'm happy for you, Melanie," I said quietly, knowing that I needed to leave before the anger that made me hurt her came back. I pulled my bleeding hand from Lily's and slammed it on the table loudly. Melanie and Lily both jumped. "You two deserve each other," I muttered, and turned on my heel to leave, leaving a bloody handprint on the table. Lily was two steps behind me, muttering something about how I should just stay calm.

But there was one more obstacle to deal with between me and the door: Sirius and James, both of whom had stood up at Lily's yelling and had taken a few steps down the small aisle. Together they were enough to block the entire thing. Instead of moving when they saw us hurrying away from the scene, they both just stared at me with horrified looks.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, just like before, but unlike before, I cut him off, shoving him backwards with my bloodied hand.

"Well," I said brightly, louder than I'd meant in half hysteria that I was barely holding back. How was this smile even still on my face? Sirius was staring at my bloody hands in shock. "You win! And your prize: you get exactly what you wanted. I"m never going to speak to you again."

And I shoved past James before anyone could see me cry.

Again.

Sirius stood stone still in the aisle, staring at where Artemis had just been standing. He turned, but she was already gone. He took a step forward to follow, to run after her, but James stopped him. Lily was about to push past him as well, but he stopped her with a look.

"Let her be alone for a while," he said quietly. "Think about it: do you think stubborn, hurt Ar really wants anyone to see her right now?"

Sirius swallowed. Turning back to the place where Melanie was still sitting, smiling conceitedly at the bloody handprint on the table. She made eye contact, and he scowled at her. Merlin, she was a bitch. James followed his glance and imitated his expression. With a sigh, he pulled his best friend towards the door, aware that conversation had finally picked back up throughout the Great Hall. Presumably about what had just happened. Lily followed behind, looking back over her shoulder at McGonagall, who had reached and was talking to Melanie, pointing at the blood with a stern look. Once they were out of the Hall, she turned a glare on Sirius and James.

"What the bloody hell?" she hissed. "What the hell is wrong with her? Hasn't she caused Artemis enough pain and misery? Hasn't she caused all of us enough misery?" And then she turned on Sirius. "And what the hell were you thinking? You've been dating her for two weeks! And you're already shagging her?"

Sirius flushed and resisted the urge to tell her to shove off. James saved him from that.

"He broke up with her last night."

Lily gaped at the pair. "B-broke up with her?" she stuttered, looking between the two of them with wide green eyes. Then she punched Sirius in the shoulder, though that had little effect. "You ass! You had sex with her and then you broke up with her? Merlin, no wonder she was out for blood!"

"And she got it, too," James said sadly, looking at the blood now streaked on Sirius' robes. She ignored him, punching Sirius again.

"Do you have any idea what that does to people? How awful that feels?"

"No," Sirius snapped, wiping at the blood nervously and taking a step out of her reach. "Do you?"

"No! But I imagine it feels pretty fucking awful! Why did you sleep with her if you were going to break up with her?" Lily looked ready to pull out her red hair, a troubled grimace gracing her face.

Sirius sighed and looked at James as if this were his fault. "I... I don't know. Artemis just... she got me." James sighed and took over, since obviously Sirius was too in shock to give Lily a straight answer.

"Yesterday, after Sirius saw Ar snogging Paxley in Madame Puddifoot's, you remember?" Lily scowled at him. He continued quickly. "Well, she got him... riled up, let's say. Jealousy does stupid things to people, right? So... well, he did the first thing he could think of to get back at her: shag Melanie."

"Except all I could think about while we were doing it was Artemis," Sirius interrupted. "I kept thinking about her and how much I wished Melanie were her and how much I would rather be shagging her and I couldn't finish and I just realized... I couldn't date Melanie anymore. Not when all I could think about was how much I'd rather be with Artemis. How much more I enjoy being with Artemis, even if we aren't having sex. So... I told her we needed to talk. And I told her exactly what I just told you. And as you can see, she didn't take it well."

Lily snorted. "Are you surprised?" She sighed and shook her head at the two guys. "I swear, you two never think about the consequences of your actions!"

Sirius ignored her and started up the stairs, not looking forward to Divination. "I was going to tell her... Artemis, I mean." He heard the other two's footsteps on the stairs behind him, so he assumed they were still listening. "I was going to tell her this morning. That I had sex with Mel, and that we were over and... that I was sorry. I was going to ask if we could put this stupid mess behind us and be together again." He paused on the landing and let Lily and James catch up. But they were right behind him.

"So why didn't you?" James asked quietly, looking at him sadly. "At least then she might understand. She'd still be upset, but maybe not as much."

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "I got cold feet. She was just standing there, and she looked at me, just waiting for me to say something. And I think I realized she would be mad. So I didn't do it. I chickened out. But... I was going to tell her, soon."

James patted his friend on the back comfortingly, and Lily patted his arm.

"She'll come around," Lily said doubtfully. "Just give her some time to get all her emotions in order; and then you can go to fixing what's broken between you two." She was trying so hard to be optimistic, but Sirius could see the doubt, and hear it in her voice. And it scared him, because she always seemed so sure. And she knew Artemis almost as well as he did.

They continued to Divination solemnly, waiting at the bottom of the ladder in complete silence while the other students around them chatted cheerfully. Sirius noticed that Artemis was not present.

She showed up at the last minute and joined the three of them without a word. Sirius couldn't help but feel relieved.

But Artemis didn't even glance at him; she didn't speak at all. Her eyes were slightly red, her mouth was turned down in what would have been a cute pout if Sirius didn't know how much rage was behind it. She didn't say a word, even when Aurelia stopped by them and complimented her on her timely appearance. She just shrugged and picked up the tarot cards sitting on the table.

"Alright, students," Aurelia began airily, hugging her robes to herself as she positioned herself in the center of the room. "We are going to begin reviewing for N.E.W.T.s. The time for learning is gone; now is the time to refresh our minds, delve into the knowledge that we already have, hidden deep in our memories. On the tables before you, you have a variety of things: tarot cards," Artemis shuffled the deck bitterly, her eyes coming to rest on the Professor while Sirius continued to gaze at her, "crystal balls, tea leaves, et cetera. Think back to your weakest moments in this class, and know what you need to work on most. We will begin with the tea leaves, I think. Everyone, prepare your tea cups while I brew the tea."

And with that, she swept off to find her teapot, the students clambering after her with their teacups. Artemis sighed and placed the tarot cards back on the table, instead picking up the purple china teacup nearest to her. And Sirius noticed that her hand was still bleeding.

"Artemis," he said quietly.

She looked at him, and her gaze was sharp enough to cut diamonds. Anything he wanted to say died in his throat. The hope faltered in his heart. She didn't wait for him to fail to speak; she stood up and followed Lily and James to the line for tea. Sirius watched her go, sorrow welling in him.

She loathed him. He could see it in those icy eyes. She absolutely hated his guts. She was wishing him a horrible death.

But she was so torn, because she loved him too. He could tell by the tears that welled when she looked at him. By the way her hand shook as she walked away. And if that was the case, well, maybe there was hope for them yet.

Sirius picked up the pink cup that remained on the table and followed her.

I looked at Lily's tea leaves mournfully. Not because of the tea leaves; just because I was so miserable. What the bloody hell was I doing? Still trying to win, I suppose. But this was just masochistic. Sitting next to Sirius like I always used to. Listening to Lily and James try to hold a conversation without making anything awkward. But refusing to look at him. Refusing to speak at all, mostly in fear that all that anger and jealousy and sadness would make my voice crack. Because then I would cry. And I was not going to cry in front of Sirius. There was no way.

He was staring at me. Which was the goal, really. My masochistic revenge. I could feel him gazing steadily at my red eyes, my still-bleeding hand, my hard stern frown. And the look on his face when he'd tried to talk to me: complete terror, like he was afraid I was going to tear his head off.

And maybe I was? He sounded so... worried? But after he ignored me for two weeks, after everything that had happened, it almost felt like he didn't have the right to be.

But how else was I supposed to feel? I thought angrily, turning the book in my lap to the tea leaves section and glaring back at the cup. Lily was saying something about me having something precious returned to me, coming into a lot of money, and then dying a tragic death. I hardly gave her prediction a second thought, hardly gave my own a first thought until Aurelia looked our way. Then, with a sigh, I pushed the anger to the back of my mind, attempting to ignore Sirius' gaze.

Wordlessly, I pushed the book at Lily. Hoping my voice wouldn't sound too hoarse, I said, "You are going to have a lot of luck, see many places, have a healthy baby, and also die a tragic death." Lily snorted and took her teacup back.

"Ridiculous," she stated, turning her cup around to look at it from the other side. "How do you even know which way to hold it?"

"You wing it!" James said cheerfully. He was looking at Sirius' cup with his head craned sideways and one eye squinting half shut. "See, if you look at it this way, Sirius, you're going to break something valuable, lose any money you manage to get, discover something amazing! And then die a tragic death by choking on a marshmallow."

I snorted, and Lily laughed. "And if you turn it around the other way?" Sirius asked; I noticed him glance at me not-so-stealthily. James opened his eye and shrugged.

"I think maybe we ought to just take this subject as a loss, mate," he said with a grin. "Don't know how we managed to pass the O.W.L. in the first place."

Sirius sighed and nodded. He looked at me again, and I folded my arms and looked away.

"How can you say that?" Lily argued, taking the fact that the three of us were probably going to give up on passing Divination as an insult to herself. "After four and a half years, you're just going to give up?"

"Lils, I don't know if you noticed," James pointed out gently, "but we're all miserable at this subject. Obviously, we just don't have the Gift."

Lily huffed and shook her head. "I don't care! I'm not giving up! And neither are you, Artemis!" My head jerked up from where I was looking at my hands and wishing that I could strangle Sirius. I had only been half listening, but I'm pretty sure Lily was volunteering me again. "I'll go get us some more tea!" And she trounced off without giving me a chance to argue. I stared after her in a daze.

James chortled at my stunned expression, and Sirius reached out like he was going to pat my back reassuringly. He stopped short, seeming to remember that he would probably lose his hand if he did. We sat in awkward silence for a moment before James stood.

"Going to help Lils with the tea!" he explained with a meaningful look between the two of us. And then he bounced away after his fiery girlfriend.

Okay, so now I was going to strangle all three of them. Coming to class this afternoon had clearly been a bad idea.

Sirius took a breath, and I instantly whirled around to glare at him, nearly breaking my neck in the process.

"Don't," I warned before he could breathe a word. "Just don't." He paused, but it was only temporary.

"Can't we just talk, Ar?"

I couldn't help it: I laughed. It was cold, unamused laughter, and I could only hear that same cold anger in it. I wondered if Sirius heard it too. He grimaced.

"Just give me a chance to explain-"

"Oh, the same way you did me?" I snapped back before I could stop myself. My red eyes met his worried ones and he visibly flinched. "I don't fucking think so."

"But-"

"I'm done talking to you, Black. So just stop." I forced myself to turn away from him, picking up my book and praying that he would just leave me alone. Maybe not forever, but just for this class.

And he did. He sat back, lips pursed and gazing at me with sad silver eyes. Eyes that didn't leave me for the rest of class.