A/N: I UPDATED.

This is a bit of a filler (A good filler, I hope though) just to get you guys ready for the drama (yes, there is more drama) that is on the way. And just to remind you of a couple of things, clear up other things and confuse you with more things :D Yay. I love that. Confusing you guys. IT'S SO MUCH FUN.

But srsface. If you guys dont remember the things hinted/mentioned in this chapter, do not be afraid to ask in a message or review, I will answer (and probably confuse you further, this time on accident).

Chapter 48

Lily Evans, Alice Prewett, Marlene McKinnon

Lily Evans

This is so wrong. So, so, so wrong. But so right. Oh, so right. So incredibly, unbelievably, amazingly right. But wrong.

I find myself giving away the most un-Lily-like-noise when James' lips make contact with my neck, and a furiously red blush creeps up my neck and to my cheeks.

He pulls away, a large smirk over his face as he tilts his head. "Did you just moan?" his eyebrows raise at me.

"No." I refuse, moving to sit up, even though he's still hovering over me.

He leans down, his lips inches away from mine. "Are you sure?"

"Just kiss me again and shut up, Potter."

"James." he corrects me, but kisses me anyway.

"James." I mumble against his lips.

"Lily-" he replies, smiling against mine.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm snogging James Potter. In his dorm. Lily Evans is in James Potter's dorm. No, not only is she in his dorm, but she's in his bed. Snogging him.

Like the world is judging (and punishing) us James and I are forced apart when the door of the dorm is pulled open. I stifle a scream, but James works fast; pulling the covers over me and jumping from the bed himself.

"Padfoot-" James' voice is breathless.

"Prongs?"

"What are you doing here?"

"In my own dorm?" There's a long pause. I stifle a cough. "Is everything okay, mate?"

"It's fine. Perfectly fine."

"You're staring at me."

"You're just very handsome."

I bite down on my lip not to snort.

"Right, have you seen my wand?"

"Under your pillow?"

There is a longer silence.

"There it is-Why are you staring at your bed?"

"I...I'm not."

Oh God no...

"... Is there someone there?" I can almost see Sirius smirk.

"Please. Just leave, okay?"

There's a laugh – Sirius' without a doubt – and then there's a sound as the door slams shut.

I pull the duvet off, staring at James who looks relived that Sirius

is gone and then breaks into laughter.

"That was close," he leans down to kiss me again but I pull away, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Why was it so easy of him to expect you had a girl under there?" ... Wow, Lily, where the hell is this tone coming from?

James furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Because I'm sorry, your 'lying-flat-and-not-be-noticed-plan' wasn't really working out? It was kind of easy to see there was someone lying there."

"You're calling me fat."

"You're sounding like Mary."

I grimace. "He almost found out, James-"

"Would that be so horrible?"

I wince at his tone. "Yes."

He shakes his head, opening his mouth to say something but the shuts it again.

I give him somewhat a smile. "I told you... I don't want anyone to find out... yet… and Sirius nearly did..."

He sighs, "C'mon, Lily. Let's save this conversation for later." he

gives me a small smile, leaning down again. "Can't we continue?"

My eyes focus on his lips as my own mumble. "Okay..." What the hell is this boy doing to me?

Alice Prewett

"I mean, you guys must've noticed Lily's acting weirdly." Marlene is saying as she sits down on her bed and looks pointedly at me and Mary.

"Not really." Mary shrugs, pulling the brush through her tangled - now bubble-gum-pink hair. Why she decided on that colour, I have no idea, but she claims she was in a need for a change. I guess that's a valid reason, we all seem to be in the need for that, though I don't plan on colouring my hair... that bright. Ever. "She's always at the library."

Marlene grimaces. "Yeah, but-"

"Lily's probably just exhausted from everything that's been going on. Get off her case." I cut her off, pulling the covers of my bed over myself.

"Who pissed you off?" Marlene frowns at me.

"I'm not pissed off." I reply, rolling my eyes.

"You sound pissed off." Mary points out.

"I'm really not. Just a bit frustrated-" With everything.

"That's the same thing really." says Marlene.

"It doesn't matter, okay?"

"So things aren't going well with with Longbottom?" the blonde raises her eyebrows and I suddenly have to battle the urge to stab her.

"I'm not talking about Frank-" My heart aches. "-with you."

Both girls look surprised by my cold-tone, but I pay it no visible attention.

"Ouch?" Marlene looks over at Mary, who shrugs.

"Seriously, Marlene." I look at her. "Have you ever shared your boy-stuff?"

"I share my stuff." Marlene scoffs.

"Yes, because we know so much about you and Sirius-"

This is where Marlene finally snaps. "There's nothing going on between us."

I sigh. "And what does 'nothing' mean exactly?"

"Probably that they're back to shagging," Mary says, frowning over at me.

Marlene's head snaps up in her direction. "Whose best friend are you?"

Mary holds her hands up in surrender, popping her chewing gum loudly. "It's just... like, Lene, I'm just worried about you."

"You're worried because I might or might not be shagging Black again?"

"He's back to being Black?" This time I speak and Marlene looks at me, sighing.

"Look, I promise you guys I'm not shagging him. I'm not shagging anyone, which really is a problem because I'm honestly in a need-"

"That's enough." I cut her off, but can't help but crack a smile, even though I know this is a classic 'Marlene changes the subject' move.

Mary bites her lip, looking at Marlene who meets her gaze and frowns, but neither of them say anything.

"You're keeping something from me." I point out, sitting up in my bed and looking at the two of them.

Mary sighs loudly, plopping down on the bed. "It's nothing." she says. "It's gossip Ali, you don't like gossip."

I want to point out that I'm positive that she's lying, but instead I settle on just scolding her for the nickname. "I don't like being called 'Ali' either, but that doesn't stop you."

"Do you really wanna hear about how Dorcas Meadowes went down on-"

I cringe. "Please, don't continue."

Mary grins victoriously.

"So, there's nothing going on with you two?"

Both of them swallow and shake their heads.

"And with you?" Marlene asks, eyebrows raised.

"Nope," I swallow, eyes flicking to the wall. "Nothing going on."

I guess that's what we're back to; keeping secrets and lying to each other. Hogwart's never felt so much like home...

Marlene McKinnon

I don't know what to do. I'm absolutely blank. What the hell do they all want from me?

Maybe they've driven me into depression.

Mary keeps bringing Avery up - I thought she was stopped by now, but apparently that only lasted for a day or two, now all she can talk about is how he's going to come to me soon and claim his prize, like I don't bloody know that?

And now Lily's been acting weirdly, disappearing for hours, claiming that she's studying at the Library. But I went there. Yes, I actually went to the Library the other night to look for her because I needed help with my Potions essay (Yes, I'm going to fail Potions) and she wasn't there. So where the hell is she?

Alice is being unusually pissy. She went on a date with Longbottom like ages ago but has refused to talk to us about him ever since - if they went on another date, I don't know. Maybe he's gotten bored of her. I don't know. She wont tell me. But I did see the two of them talking to each other few days ago. She hasn't been in a good mood since.

But what is bothering me most... is Sirius fucking Black. It's like sixth year all over again. With just less sex. Actually, there's no sex. Because he wants me to tell him that I love him.

Which I don't.

Which I might do. But I can't possibly tell him that. He doesn't actually want me to tell him that, does he?

What kind of twisted game is he playing with me now? Seriously, this is the most twisted he's going to get.

Unless… Unless he loves me too. But, he doesn't. He's Sirius. He's Sirius Black. Sirius Black doesn't love people he makes people love him.

But he made me fucking love him.

Everything I've been through for the past years, all the shit, everything's been his fault. Okay, that's maybe a bit over the top, but seriously it always links back to him. To us. If only there was an "us". Which if I'm being honest with myself, there really wasn't one.

Okay, I'll admit it. I want an 'us'. That's not something I can get, no matter what Sirius seems to be hinting at.

Giving me false hope that maybe if I tell him how I feel, he'll tell me the same and we will be together again, just this time we'll be better.

But Sirius doesn't work like that. It's always a game with him, just like this is, some game. He's grown bored of the chase or the secret meetings in broom closets, he wants something new, something exciting. Except that for me this isn't exciting at all.

I'll admit that that boy has some serious (No pun intended - Merlin I've started cracking bad jokes because of him) hold over me , and I have tried to break it off. I swear I have. I just fail. I fail everything anyway. Potions, Herbology (Technically I didn't fail, I just gave up on that)… and then my love life is failed as fuck. Does it even count as a love life?

Mary's combing through her hair with her fingers - it's disgustingly pink and the sight of it makes me want to vomit. But I think she likes it and I'd rather not have her mad at me to add on everything - then again, if she's mad at me she wont talk to me, meaning that she wont have the chance to whine over Avery some more.

Like she could read my thoughts, Mary looks up, her eyes finding mine. "So… I was thinking…" she starts, biting nervously on her lip and I know that here it comes.

"Oh, that's a new one, I thought being a stupid bimbo was working for you?" I try to sound light, like I'm kidding but I can't shake of the spiteful tone in my voice (Sirius-or-Avery-related-thoughts-and-discussions make me angry) and I see the flash of hurt on her face.

"You're in a great mood aren't ya Lenie?" She tries as well to sound happy and teasing. But just like I did, she fails.

"What were you thinking of?" I roll my eyes, getting myself ready for the discussion I don't want to have. Might as well get it over with and hope this means she wont talk about it again for a couple more days. But that's probably wishful thinking.

"Yesterday… With Alice in the dorm?"

"Yes?"

She sighs. "I think she noticed we were keeping something from her."

"And?"

She seems frustrated with my answers, and she sighs again. "I think we might as well tell her."

I raise my eyebrows. "Tell her?"

"Yes, about Avery."

"About Avery?"

"Stop repeating me." she scowls. "I think we should tell Alice about your deal with Avery."

I sigh, reaching out for my own hairbrush. "Why? I doubt it's something Alice wants to waste time on thinking about, she has Longbottom problems doesn't she?"

"That's the other thing I was thinking about."

I resist the urge to make another comment, she seems too frustrated already. Or maybe it's me that's so frustrated.

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't we do something about that? The whole Longbottom thing? Try to help them get together or something?"

"Yes because you and I are the masters of love lives?" I snort loudly. "My boyfriend Sirius and my other boyfriend Daniel, that went so well and ohmygod, you and Reg are basically engaged-" I regret my words as soon as I see the look on her face.

I haven't seen Mary cry often. Not real sad tears. She throws a fit when she breaks a nail, yeah, but crying because someone hurt her feelings? That hasn't happened in a while. And when it used to happen I'd hex said person. But now I can't quite do that because those tears threatening to fall are my fault, aren't they?

"Mare-"

She holds up a hand to shut me up, shaking her head. "Things with my ex-boyfriends were never not good when we were together. Even if I don't have a boyfriend right now." her tone is harsh. "Reginald Cattermole is not a subject to be discussed." she wipes her hand harshly over her eyes.

"You know I didn't mean that." I say, trying to give her a smile.

She shrugs. "No, I don't know Lene. I've no idea what's going on in your head, I don't know what's going on and why you're ignoring your problems again-"

"You're not ignoring yours?" I give her a look. I don't actually know if she has any problems but… this is Mary, she always has something going on.

"You're hiding away from Sirius, hiding away from your feelings, hiding away from Avery-"

"And what? What is so bad about it exactly?" I cant stop my voice from being harsh. "Black and I are done. For good, we're not sleeping together, we're not dating and we're not in effing love."

Mary bites her lip. "Lene... what does Sirius want from you? I know he isn't leaving you alone-"

"Nothing I can give him. Avery can come and claim his prize when he wants to, he hasn't yet, so I'm not going to walk up to him and remind him of the fact he can 'collect' whatever he wants."

"What if he wants you?"

"I doubt Avery's the dating type-" I know what she means, but I play obvious to it anyway.

"Are you going to shag him?" she whispers the word, even if we're alone in the dorm.

I hesitate. "We don't know if that's what he wants. Avery dislikes Gryffindors, he probably doesn't even want to shag me."

"He tried."

My eyebrows narrow. "We're not talking about that."

"That was an almost ra-"

"Mary." I bite out at her and she goes silent. "It wasn't. It's in the past, it's all in the past! Can't we just move on-"

"That's what we're doing I guess." Mary's voice is low. "I guess 'moving on' means 'moving apart'."

I look at her, eyebrows slightly furrowed and a weird feeling in my stomach.

"Friends come and go I guess." Mary continues, in the same low voice, sounding slightly cryptic.

"I'm not going anywhere Mare…"

She gets up from her bed, shrugging. "I know, you think you can move on Lene, but you can't." she makes her way over to the door, glancing at me over her shoulder. "So maybe the problem isn't that you're not leaving, but that you're being left."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" I ask her, but Mary's already out the doors, and I'm far too afraid that I understand perfectly what her words mean.

A/N: OH MY GOD CHARACTERS. WHY CANT YOU JUST BE HAPPY AND FRIENDS? Oh, right... because I control your lives and I'm evil. Got it.

Here is where I apologize deeply for like, not updating for like... ages. Soooooo, IM SO SORRY. PARDONE. I was in Spain. For three weeks. The other months were.. uhm.. busy... hehehe.

It's not even long. But like, it's written in Spain and I only had few hours of computer a day, sometimes no hours a day D: Sooooooooo you have to forgive me.

I just wanna say thank you for still reading this.

I love you.

So much.

And if you review.

I will give you a cookie through the internet.

A really good cookie.

And a hug.

Is this a deal you can refuse?