Hey all!
This is my second fanfiction. I’m still working on my other one, Come Back to Me.
Here’s a quick overview of the story.

The world sees the Marauders as the cool easy going pranksters. There isn’t anything that could get in their way and they don’t have anything to worry about.
Is that the real truth of the Marauders, though?
Is that really all that there is to them?
When James’ secret comes out, it helps look past the masks and see the real people behind them. The Marauders see each other for who they really are, as do their other friends and classmates.

So, yeah.
This is basically a story of the way I see the Marauders.
There are defiantly some things in this story that I don’t think you were expecting, but you will have to read on to find out what. You won’t get to see it for a couple more chapters, at least.
Well, hear goes!

Chapter 1

James finished his drawing by adding the red hair on the girl’s head. The hair flowed around her as she lay in a bed with her eyes closed and no expression on her face. She could have been sleeping, but James knew better. He sat back and looked down at the drawing. There in front of him was a beautiful, red headed girl. Looking down at the picture, he sighed and looked around. He caught sight of his clock next to his bed and saw that it was 9:00. Since it was Saturday, James had a full hour more to himself then usual, which is how James managed to finish the whole picture in one day.
Along with that major secret, James had also hidden his drawing skills and hobby of writing songs from his friends. Drawing and singing were things that James had begun doing when he was 6 and became lonely. It was something that James liked to do by himself and in secret, because if anyone found out, he knew that the questions would lead to the secret. Even after being best friends for 6 years, James wasn’t ready to share that with them. No, it was better to keep it away from them.
Now, it was time to get up. James got off of his bed and pulled out a cardboard box from underneath. He opened the box and pulled out a yellow folder. He put the drawing into the folder and placed it back into the box next to the guitar. James also put in the drawing pencil he got in Diagon Alley a couple years earlier. It went back to black as he laid it down in the box.
James closed the box and then went over to his trunk. Today was the day that he was going to go back home for the summer, so he had to have his things packed and ready to go. Pulling out his wand, James shrunk the box and put it into the trunk and pulled out some clothes for the day. He shut the trunk quietly so as not to wake his sleeping friends and went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

The shower turning on awoke Sirius, as it did every single morning. He looked at the clock and smiled. It was just after 9:00; James was a regular alarm clock, so Sirius never bothered with one. He lay there for a while, like he did every morning after James went into the shower. Sirius liked having the 10 or so minutes to himself in the mornings to collect his thoughts. There were always things in his head that never seemed to go away. Sirius could push them to the back of his mind during the day while he was wearing his mask, but they would always come back at night and be there in the morning. During the day, Sirius was the guy who every girl fell for. He played the roll of a hot guy that ironically never dated, but had girls falling at his feet, that he pretended he didn’t know about really well. He did his best to hide that secret longing in his heart and just said that no girls were good enough, which wasn’t exactly lying. He did a great job at being Sirius Black, the Marauder, but always hid Sirius Black, the person from the world.
Sirius lay there thinking until the shower turned off. He sighed and prepared himself for another day behind a mask.

Remus woke up to the sounds of James moving around the room. He knew that it was James because it always was. He always tried to be quiet, but the wolf senses always kicked in and Remus heard him and woke up. He lay there in bed while James showered, just like every other morning.
He wished that he could tell his friends about the way he felt, but he never seemed to be able to. They already knew that he was a werewolf, but after they knew that, and didn’t care, he didn’t think that this was something that he could just tell them. His fears of not having a normal life always stayed hidden. Remus made sure that nobody, not even his best friends, knew about the way he felt. He knew that there was nothing that could be done about it. If he told his friends, they would say that it didn’t matter, but Remus knew that it always would. He didn’t need his friends telling him that it wouldn’t, just to make it more clear that it would.
As the shower turned off, Sirius called to him from his bed across from Remus. “You up yet, Moony?”
Pushing everything to the back of his mind, Remus replied, “Yeah, I’m up.”

“You up yet, Moony?”
“Yeah, I’m up.”
The first words of the day in the room woke Peter up. He tuned out his friends’ voices and thought to himself before James came back out. It was the same wake up call in the morning and the same few minutes to himself that peter had before it was time to begin the day. Peter had always wanted to be more out spoken in the group, but he never managed to. He was afraid of being made fun of, so he stayed quiet and let his friends do the talking. Behind the quietness, Peter was a great guy with a lot of great ideas and suggestions. If he ever bothered to share them, he wouldn’t have to hide, but he was afraid to. James, Sirius, and Remus were all out spoken. They said whatever was on their mind without fear of sounding stupid. Peter knew that he could do the same, but he was afraid.
“Who’s next?” James asked as the bathroom door opened.
Remus and Sirius raced to the door, and as usual, Remus won. Sirius pouted as James chuckled and went over to his bed. Peter got out of bed, just as Frank and Kyle got up and said their good mornings.

This was the typical morning in the boys’ dormitory. The four Marauders got up and had their time to themselves before being forced to put on their masks to hide themselves from the world


Well, what did you think???
Leave me some comments!

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Love ya
Chocolaterox

Thanks for the feedback!
I’m so glad that you all like it so far, and nothing has happened yet!
Anyways…

Chapter 2

Once they had all showered and finished packing their trunk, they all went down to breakfast. They dropped their trunks off in the Entrance Hall before going into the Great Hall for breakfast before it was time to board the Hogwarts’ Express.
They were being their usual Marauder selves and eating breakfast.
Girls were flirting with Sirius, James was talking about Lily Evans, Remus was telling him to shut up, and Peter was watching in awe as the girls fell over themselves to get to Sirius.
Then, in walked none other than Lily Evans, along with her best friends, Emily Kenting, Alice Pitman, and Carly Soames.

Lily led her friends as far away from the Marauders as possible when they got down to the Great Hall.
She despised them all. Well, she didn’t mind Remus, just wished he would control his friends, and Peter, well, he was Peter. She didn’t really know enough about him to hate him, but she didn’t know enough about him to like him, either.
Lily knew that Emily had a thing for Remus, but he seemed to think of her as a friend, like he did Lily. Lily tried to make Emily admit that she like Remus, but she never would.
Emily was jabbering away again about Lily giving James a chance.
“Come on, Lily! He’s so sweet, and you have to admit that he’s hot. How can you heartlessly turn him down all the time? I mean-“
“Put a sock in it Em!” Lily snapped. “I will never, ever go out with James Big-head Potter!”
“Actually, I think his middle name is And-“
“I don’t care, Emily!”
Well then, you’re loss.”
Lily was about to say something when Frank Longbottom and Kyle Tylers sat down across from Alice and Carly.
Frank started to talk to Alice as she sat there, trying to think of something to say. Emily and Lily were trying not to laugh at the look on her face. They both knew that she had a crush on him. Lily and Emily also knew that Frank liked Alice. However, whenever they mentioned this to her, she would start going on about how amazing Frank was and how he could never like someone as boring as her. This was usually when Lily, Emily, or Carly would put a silencing charm on her and remind her of how amazing she was.
Alice had light brown hair that went just passed her shoulders and matching brown eyes. She was really pretty and had about 10 guys asking her to Hogsmeade every time there was a trip scheduled. She would, of course, turn all of them down, hoping for Frank to ask her out, but he was shyer than he seemed.
Alice also had an amazing personality. She was the second loudest of the group, only beaten by Emily who never shuts up, and Alice was always the one to do something crazy. She was the type of person who would jump into the lake when it was 40 degrees outside. Alice seemed to always know what to say to cheer a person up, and she understood that Lily didn’t like Potter, unlike Emily.
Alice had finally managed to come up with something to say to Frank and the 2 of them were talking and eating as if they were old friends.
Carly on the other hand was staring down at her plate while Kyle was staring at her.
Carly was really pretty and was really great around her friends, but she was really shy around other people, particularly Kyle.
Carly had black hair that also went just past her shoulders, but it was wavier than Alice’s. She had blue eyes and the sweetest smile. It was impossible not to smile when she did. Half of the guys in the school would date Carly in a heartbeat, but she was just too shy to talk to any of them, plus she had a massive crush on Kyle.
Though she was quiet, Carly was the peacemaker of the group. She was the one that always stopped Alice from doing something stupid, made Emily shut up about how amazing Remus was, and was able to stop Lily from ranting about James.
If only Carly would come out of her shell a little while she was around other people, she could easily be loved by everyone. Once you got to know her, it was impossible not to love her.
Emily was just about to nudge Carly in the side to make her look up, but then, Dumbledore stood up and announced that it was time to go to the Hogwarts’ Express.
The students stood up and all headed out onto the grounds to get a place in the carriages that would take them to the train.

Remus followed his friends into a carriage, but seeing as two of his friends were James and Sirius, and they never stop eating, the Marauders were the last ones out.
Since they couldn’t find an empty carriage, the four boys ended up joining Frank and Kyle.
“So, Kyle, you think you will ever manage to ask out Carly?” Sirius said innocently.
“What?!” Kyle shouted turning to look at Sirius.
“Come on, we all know that you like her.”
“I do not!”
“Yeah, you do.”
“What makes you say that?” Kyle challenged.
“Apart from the was you were staring at her during breakfast?”
“And you said so last week when we were playing truth or dare?” James added.
Remus laughed at the look on his face and said, “He got you there, mate.”
Kyle glared at him which made the other Marauders join in laughing while Frank said, “Give it up.”
“’Oh, Alice is so pretty. I wish she would go out with me, but I doubt any one that amazing would give me the time of day. She’s way to popular to like me. What am I going to do, Kyle?’”
The Marauders howled with laughter as Kyle finished mimicking Frank.
“I don’t say that!” Frank shouted.
“Yeah, you do!” the other 5 shouted back still rolling around laughing.
Frank was about to retort when someone from behind them asked, “I don’t see what’s so funny.”
The six boys looked up and saw that they were at the train station and their carriage door was wide open. Emily Kenting was standing there, giving them a weird look.
“When did you get here?” Frank quickly asked going red in the face. Emily was best friends with Alice.
“When I walked past and hear laughing.”
“We were laughing practically the whole ride,” James pointed out.
“Okay, when Frank shouted, ‘I don’t say that.’”
Frank’s face was starting to go back to its original color when Emily asked, “What don’t you say?”
“That he’s in love with A-“
“That he’s in love with apples,” Remus said quickly shooting a look at Sirius who just shrugged.
“Mhm,” Emily said eyeing the 6 boys before leaving, though Remus distinctly heard her mutter something that sounded like, “Alice.”
The other boys didn’t hear her since they didn’t have werewolf ears, so they started piling out of the carriage. Remus, on the other hand was staring at the place that Emily had been standing, deep in thought.
“Are you coming, Moony?” Peter asked.
Remus jolted out of his thoughts and replied, “Yeah, I’m coming.”
He giving himself a little shake of the head and followed Peter out of the carriage and into the train.


Well, there you have it!
Is it good???
Is it bad???
Is it horrible???
Are you still going to read it???
I need to know!!!
*Clears throat*
So...
let me know.

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All I have to say is…
Happy Halloween!

Here’s the next chapter


Chapter 3

“I caught it! I caught it!” a 6-year-old girl shouted on one sunny afternoon. Her and her brother were playing catch with her in the back yard while their parents were inside preparing their surprise birthday party.
“Great, now throw it back!” the girl’s twin brother called.
She through it and he easily caught it.
“You are really good at catch. I bet you’ll be really good at Quidditch when we get to Hogwarts,” his sister said to him.
“So will you! It’s in our blood,” her brother replied.
The girl was about to reply when there was a bang behind the boy. He turned to see a cloud of smoke rising from the ground. The fumes were making the boy cough and he was getting quiet dizzy.
The cloud of gases was right on top of him when he was suddenly pushed to the ground.
Still feeling slightly dizzy, he looked up to see his sister laying, sprawled on the ground where he was moments ago.
She was losing consciousness as she inhaled the gasses. She was feeling light headed and found that she couldn’t lift her head and her eyes were starting to droop.
Out nowhere, she felt a set of arms lift her up. The last thing she saw were hazel eyes, filled with guilt, fear, and worry.

“God, my head hurts,” she muttered, moving her hand up to her head. She found that she couldn’t open her eyes; they were heavy and seemed resistant to lift. She had no idea where she was, only that she was laying in a comfortable bed and was feeling quiet stiff.
Then her mind went to her brother. She remembered him lifting her out of the cloud of gas; she knew it was him because of the eyes. They were exactly like her mum’s but yet, they seemed different. She wanted to see him, but she was confused right now, not even really sure what was going on.
That’s when she heard the voices and noticed the beeping.
“She’s awake!” a voice exclaimed.
“I realize that,” another one said.
“Well, it’s been a while. I was beginning to lose hope.”
“We all were. Now, lets start looking her over,” another voice said.
“Someone owl her family; they’ll be over the moon to see her awake.”
“Especially that brother of hers. He spends almost the entire holiday here.”
“He really is a sweet boy. Have you heard the songs?” someone else asked.
“Oh yes, amazing talents that boy has. Especially with a quill and ink. Those drawings of his are absolutely magnificent.”
“Yes, yes, we know. Now, could we move on, please? Someone send the owl, and the rest of you come here and help me.”
“Sure thing. I’ll go and take care of that owl.”
“Great, now the rest of you, come on.”
Now, the headache was getting worse. All of the voices were making it hard for her to keep up. All she knew was-well, she didn’t know anything, but she was going to change that.
“Does someone mind telling me what’s going on?” she asked.
“Oh, she can talk!”
“I heard.”
“Yes I can talk, now, what’s happening?”
“Her sentences seem to be put together well, and her brain seems to be perfectly normal. Actually, it seems to be better than normal. This is interesting.”
“I’m sure it is, but I’m still clueless over here.”
“What’s interesting?” someone asked, completely ignoring the girl.
“Rather than the intellect of and 6 year old which the normal patient would have, her brain seems to have grown with her. It has caught up with her age.”
“And that means…”
“She has the intellectual level and maturity of a 17-year-old!”
“Oh.”
“That’s great and all, I think, but I would really like to know what’s going on before my head explodes!” she yelled, growing impatient.
“Oh! Sorry. Well, to make all of the long sentences shorter and hard words more understandable, you inhaled to many experimental gases that were accidentally released from the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic. This caused you to fall into a 11 ½ year coma. Your brain has grown with you, and you seem to be perfectly normal which is quiet unusual.”
“So I’ve been in an 11 year old coma and have a really bad migraine and you think I was able to take in much more than that?”
“You woke up from an 11 year coma with a 17-year-old’s brain, though it shouldn’t have advanced that much.”
“That makes it simpler, but I still have a head ache.”
“I’ll give you something for that, now, do me a favor and open your eyes.”
She was just about to do that when she thought of something.
“Some how, I have no idea how, I know that it would help my memory a bit more if the first thing I see after waking up is the last thing I saw before falling unconscious.”
There was silence, then…
“Good Lord, you’re right. I have a lot of work to do with you, but first thing’s first, what was the last thing you saw?”
“My brother’s eyes.”


Yeah, I know…
What was that???
You’ll have to leave me tons of feedback telling me you want to know, or else you’ll have to wait longer.
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Even though I didn’t get too much feedback, I feel like posting this, and I hope I get more feedback because I’m really starting to think that not enough people are enjoying this story.
Chapter 4

Remus sat down on the train by the window. The other 5 were talking, but Remus wasn’t paying them any attention. He was too busy staring out the window, thinking about a certain blond with bright blue eyes and a heart wrenching smile.
“Remus John Lupin!”
“What?” Remus asked looking up at his five friends who were all staring at him.
“What’s wrong with you?” James asked.
“Huh?”
“We have been trying to get your attention for about 10 minutes!”
“Oh, I was just- err- thinking about the school year. It was a lot of fun, don’t you think?” Remus covered quickly, hoping that none of the boys noticed him turning red.
Sirius, Peter, Frank, and Kyle went back to talking about the school year, but James was still eyeing him suspiciously.

“So, Alice. How was breakfast?” Lily asked on the train.
Alice turned a shade of red and muttered, “Fine.”
Lily, Emily, and Carly burst out laughing as Alice turned even redder.
When the laughter had subsided, Emily said, “Hate to say so, but, I told you so!”
“Shut up.”
“Anyways, Carly, if you’re planning on getting a date with Kyle, you had better at least look at him. I mean, you’re the one who says that he’s gorgeous, so looking at him can’t be that hard, could it?”
It was Carly’s turn to turn red as the other girls laughed.
“But she’s right, Carly,” Lily said. “If you want him to ask you out, you have to talk to him, or at least look at him.”
“First, he has to like me.”
“Well then, step one is complete, and so is step two.”
“What was step two?” Alice asked Emily.
“She likes him.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t like me.”
“Yeah he does,” Lily, Emily and Alice said at the same time.
“Just ask him out. He’ll say yes and you’ll have your proof.”
“I am not going to ask him out, Alice! I don’t like him enough to embarrass myself!”
“Admit it, you’re in love with him,” Emily said.
“I already have. You, however, are always talking about how nice and sweet Remus is. You know practically everything about him. You’re always dying to go spend time with him. You never shut up about what you guys did together, and yet, you keep on insisting that he’s just a friend.”
“He is just a friend!”
“Yeah, but you wish he was more.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That you’re in love with him!”
“No I’m not!”
“Yeah, you are!” her three friends shouted back.
“Prove it,” Emily said crossing her arms and sitting back in her seat.
“I think Carly just did, but if you want more proof, I could make a simple truth potion…” Lily said.
Emily made a face and her friends just laughed.
‘This is all I need,” Lily thought. ‘There is no need to change anything.’
Unfortunately for Lily, everything was about to change.

As the train neared King’s Cross, James got quieter and just stared out the window. It was regular thing for him, so Sirius didn’t think much on it. He just figured that James was excited about seeing his parents and Stacey and Lauren again. Stacy was James’ younger sister who was now 10-years-old. She was a little ball of energy, always running around and shouting. Lauren was the Potters’ good friends’ daughter. She was 16 when her parents died in a fire that took place at her house. After that, she spent holidays with the Potters. They took her in, sort of the same way they took in Sirius. A couple months after she had graduated from Hogwarts, she found herself a little flat and a job. Mr. and Mrs. Potter still considered her a daughter, so she almost always visited. She was now she was now 24-years-old and still spent most of the day at the Potters’. She looked after Stacey whenever she could and came over for the welcome back dinner for James and Sirius that Mrs. Potter always cooked for them.
She was a sister to James, Stacey, and Sirius, and he couldn’t wait to see her.
“We’re almost there, you guys,” James said. “The train should be there in about 5 minutes, so we should get ready to get off.”
The boys got packed up and ready to get off as soon as the train stopped. When it did stop, the 6 boys dragged their trunks off of the train and onto Platform 9 ¾.
“Bye!” Frank and Kyle called. “We’ll see you guys in a couple of months!”
“Bye!” the Marauders called as Frank and Kyle disapperated.
“I guess I’ll see you guys next month,” Remus said to the James and Sirius. “Have fun in Egypt, Peter,” he added. “Bye!” and he also disappeared with a crack.
“Enjoy your vacation Wormtail,” James said.
“Yeah, and bring us back something good.”
“Sure, Padfoot. Bye.”
“Bye!” James and Sirius called after him as he went to join his parents.
“Let’s go, Prongs. Maybe you’re mum’s still making cookies, and we could snag a few.
“Yeah, let’s go,” and he disapperated with Sirius right behind him.

“We’re home!” James shouted when he walked through the front door with Sirius.
“James, Sirius!”
A little girl with red hair ran right at them and threw herself onto James for a hug.
“Hey there, Munchkin. How’s it going?”
“Good,” she replied then went over to hug Sirius.
“So, how’s the little fireball doing?”
“Okay,” she giggled and led the boys into the house.
James sent his and Sirius’ trunks to their rooms and followed his little sister.
“So, what’s new?” he asked.
Just then, a pretty blond woman came in and smiled at them.
“Hey, you guys!” she said grinning from ear to ear.
“Hi, Lauren,” James said and hugged her.
“So, like I was saying, what’s new?” James asked when Lauren had let go of Sirius, and he had sat down.
“Can I tell him, Lauren, please!” Stacey begged.
Lauren looked from James to Sirius then turned to Stacey and said, “Sure. If we don’t tell him right away, he might attack us”
Stacey squealed and hopped over to James.
“What is it?”
“James, she’s awake!” Stacey exclaimed.
“Re-really?” James asked thinking that it was too good to be true. “She-she’s awake?” He looked from the beaming Stacey up to Lauren who was also smiling.
She nodded and James’ face split into a wide smile.
Sirius was looking from one person to the other, thoroughly confused, but the others didn’t notice as James got up, went over to the fire place, and took some Floo Powder. He threw it into the fireplace and stepped in, shouting, “St. Mungos!” and disappearing in the green flames.
“Well,” Lauren said, “that was expected.”

Another chapter
Let me know what you think.
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hey, you guys!
All I have to say is…


Chapter 5

“Lily!”
“Rachel!” Lily ran over to her friend and threw her arms around her.

Lily had just stepped out of the car and Rachel was already there. Rachel was tall and thin. She had long brown hair and brown eyes. She was a muggle and everyone told her she should be a model. She had no idea that Lily was a witch and just thought that she went to boarding school, just like her other Muggle friends.
Lily had had a lot of friends, but when she started at Hogwarts, she started falling out with most of them. Besides Rachel, there was Rebecca and Katie. The three of them were the only one of Lily’s Muggle friends to actual bother trying to stay friends with her the first summer when she came back from Hogwarts.
“It’s been forever! Let me take a good look at you.” Rachel held Lily back at arms’ length and nodded. “You definitely got taller and your hair’s longer. How many boys have drooled over you so far?”
Lily snorted. “Potter’s scared them all away. I swear; all of the boys are afraid to look at me because he would probably get them sent to the Hospital Wing in less than 3 second.”
“Has he actually done that yet?”
“No, but he’s the prank king. If a guy gave me a look, Potter would immediately start planning the next big prank on him and being the object of Potter’s pranks is the last thing anyone wants.”
“Okay, you’ve started ranting about the kid not even 5 seconds after you got back. Summer is the time to forget all about him, remember?”
“Right. I’ll take my stuff inside, have lunch, and then meet you and the others at your house, okay?”
“Works for me. See you in a bit,” Rachel said and walked back to her house.
Lily took her trunk into the house and the first thing she heard was, “The freak has entered the building!”
“Great to see you, too, Petunia,” Lily said walking past her sister and went upstairs.
She entered her room and sighed. ‘It’s good to be home.’

James fell out of the fireplace at St. Mungo’s Hospital. As soon as he stood up, the receptionist, Jenny, called, “James, when’d you come back from school?!”
“’bout ten minutes ago!” James shouted over his shoulder as he ran towards the fourth floor.
“Ha, cough up, Connor!” jenny yelled before James disappeared through the doors.
James ran right up to her private ward.
“James!” his parents were already there, sitting outside of the room. His dad was grinning from ear to ear, and his mom had tears of joy running down her face.
“The healers said that you had to go in first,” his dad said.
“Why?”
“No idea, now go,” Mrs. Potter said.
James opened the door and was immediately pulled into the room and shoved into a chair next to his sleeping sister.
“What’s going on?” James asked.
“She woke up an hour and a half ago and seemed to have the intellect of a normal 17-year-old,” Scott told him. Scott was the healer in charge of Jessica.
“And why do I have to be the first one to see her? And why is she sleeping?”
“I don’t know why or how, but you’re sister seemed to know that seeing the last thing she saw first would help her memory.”
“She lost her memory?” James asked, fearing the worst. He looked down at his sister, laying in bed in the same position that she had been is for the past 11 years.
“Oh no. she hasn’t had memory loss. After she suggested the idea, we asked her what she remembered. We asked her about almost everything, and she remembered it all, but she kept on insisting that there was something she was forgetting. She refused to open her eyes because she said that she had a feeling that whatever she was forgetting was something important. We decided that it wouldn’t hurt, so we gave her a sleeping potion and decided to wait for you.”
“And why did you need to wait for me?”
“She said that the last thing she saw were your eyes.”
James was about to answer when the trainee healer, Cheryl, came in with a potion bottle in her hand.
“Ah, thank you, Cheryl,” Scott said and took the potion from her.
“No problem,” she replied. “You know, James, she’s a lot like you.”
“What do you mean?” James asked without taking his eyes off of Jessica.
“When she woke up, she demanded we tell her what was happening ‘before my head explodes.’ Then, when Scott told her, she said, ‘So I've been in an 11 year coma and have a really bad migraine and you think I was able to take in much more than that?’ during the whole time we were talking, she was very annoyed. We could tell because of all of the annoyed sarcasm that you always seem to be so full of.”
James smiled at Cheryl before looking back down at his sister.
“I’m going to give her the potion to wake her up, okay?” Scott said.
James nodded and took his sister’s hand.
Scott gave her the potion. After she had swallowed, she began to stir.
“I swear, if you keep putting me to sleep, I won’t be able to sleep for another 11 years after I get out of here.”
James was so happy; he was at a loss of words. All he could do was give her hand a slight squeeze, making her turn her head. She was still for a second then her face split into a smile. Her eyes flew open and she jumped up and threw her arms around him. James hugged her back, happy to finally have his best friend back.

Stacey was still grinning widely.
“I doubt we’ll be seeing much of him this summer,” Lauren said.
Sirius, still thoroughly confused, asked, “What just happened?”
Lauren’s smile faded and Stacey turned to him.
“James is all happy because Jess-“
“Stacey.”
She looked up at Lauren and muttered, “Sorry.”
“Sirius,” Lauren said. “I know that James should have told you, if not right away, then eventually, but he didn’t. You have to understand that it was a hard thing for him to do. He completely changed after it happened. He became afraid to talk about it. It became his weakness. Whenever it was mentioned, you could tell by the look on his face. It upset him. When he was younger, he cried, a lot. After starting school, he just hid it. If it was mentioned, he would leave. He didn’t want people to see him like that, and he didn’t want to have to talk about it. It brought him down. He was afraid to tell people about it because of that. His reaction whenever it was mentioned was enough to prove that. Whenever we mentioned it, he left. I think that he left so we didn’t see him cry, but we knew that that was what he was doing. He didn’t want others to see him cry. Telling you, or anyone else, about it would really upset him, maybe make him cry, and he didn’t want anyone to see that. That’s why he didn’t tell you. He does trust you; he just wasn’t ready for you to see him like that. You can’t blame him for not telling you.”
Sirius sat in shock after Lauren’s speech. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but he was still amazed at what he had just found out. Whatever it was that James was keeping from him, it held a part of James that Sirius was sure he had never known.
Eventually finding his voice, Sirius asked, “What exactly is this ‘it’ you’re talking about?”
“I’m sorry, Sirius, but that’s still something for James to tell you.”
Sirius just nodded. He had a feeling that whatever this big secret was, it was a good thing that was sure to change everything, especially James.

Not much, but hey…

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^
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[*HINT*^]

I meant to update before going away for thanksgiving, but it got a little hectic.
I just got back and took a long hot bath [even though I only went to Louisville, Kentucky which is only 2 hours away].


Chapter 6

Once all of her friends had found their families and had made their plans to meet up at Carly’s next month, Emily found a cab to take her to her house.
Well, it was actually a huge mansion, but Emily tried not to think of the fact that her family was loaded. Not when all of their money was blood money. Whether it had been conned from the innocent, or was the result of thievery, it was unfair and undeserved. It disgusted her to think about the fact that whatever she owned was bought with money that belonged to other people who actually deserved to live.
Emily hated the thought of her “family.” What normal person wouldn’t hate people who based their life on stealing and badmouthing and torturing “bloodtraitors,” “halfbloods,” “mudbloods,” and “muggles.” That’s all that mattered to them: money and “pureblood.”
Of course, Emily’s friends didn’t know about this; she had made sure of that. How could she tell her friends that they were exactly the type of people who her parents would like nothing more than to kill? Not exactly the best way to make and keep friends. No, it was just better to keep all of that to herself. Emily told her friends of the fun childhood of dolls and puffy little dresses and the summers of big family reunions, just like every other normal girl. She had managed to make them believe it, and her life was perfect that way.
It wasn’t exactly that easy, though. The girls had decided back in first year that the first and last summer they would go home and spend time with their families, but every other summer, they would take turns going to each others’ houses for the second month of the holiday. After second year, Emily met Lily’s parents and her Muggle friends. They had a lot of fun and had soon become very close. The summer after that, she had met Alice’s family. They were the perfect family with fun parents, grandparents that always brought gifts, siblings that were perfect friends, really cool uncles and aunts, and bratty little cousins that were always fun to be around anyways.
The next summer was supposed to be Emily’s turn, but she canceled it at the last minute by telling her friends that her nonexistent baby brother was deadly ill with some kind of super contagious disease. It was hard to convince them because they had never heard of the baby brother. In the end, Emily told her friends that he had been born with the disease and she didn’t want to talk about it back then. Now that it had been confirmed that he would die shortly, she thought she should tell them. Emily even ended the explanation with a perfect sob scene. They ate it all up. The only down side was that her friends gave her sympathetic looks for a full month. They only stopped when Emily put on another perfect show, this time telling her friends to leave her alone. After that, Emily’s “little brother” was never mentioned again.
The summer after that was supposed to be Carly’s, but her mom unexpectedly had a baby a month early, and they were too busy to have the girls. Instead, they all decided to go to Carly’s house this summer. That way, they could all be there for Carly’s little brother Jacob’s first birthday. They would also get to meet her whole family at the birthday party. From what Emily knew, Carly’s family was like Alice’s; there were a lot of them and they got along great. The only difference was that Alice’s family is all witches and wizards, but Carly’s mom is Muggleborn, so there were Muggles as well.
This was why Emily was worried about going. Since Emily’s parents didn’t know anything about Lily’s family, they didn’t realize that she was Muggleborn, so Emily was able to get away. Carly’s parents, however, had gone to school with Emily’s, so it would be near impossible to get away. She would have to plan it perfectly. They were supposed to reach Carly’s only two days after Emily’s seventeenth birthday, so she would be able to sneak away. The down side to this was that there was no way Emily would be allowed back in the Kenting house.
The driver pulled up to the mansion and stopped the cab. He stared at the house for a minute before getting out to get Emily’s bag out. He was, of course, wondering why a girl who lived in such a palace was taking the cab. Emily sighed and got out. She paid the driver and was sure to give him a huge tip. She didn’t like the idea of being in possession of so much money that she shouldn’t even have, so she did her best to get rid of it.
After paying the driver, Emily walked up to the front door, preparing herself for what’s to come.

“Can we go to St. Mungo’s, please?” Stacey begged Lauren.
“Later,” Lauren replied with a quick glance at Sirius.
Sirius realized that she really wanted to go, but didn’t because of him. Whoever it was that was in St. Mungo’s, she was really important to the Potters. Lauren and Stacey obviously wanted to see her, and Sirius didn’t want to hold them back. “Go ahead,” Sirius said to Lauren.
“Honestly, it’s okay. Well stay here. I was making cookies anyways.”
“You know Lauren, you aren’t a very good liar,” Sirius told her with a smile. “Besides, you know that I won’t let anything happen to the cookies.”
“Are you sure?” Lauren asked.
“Yeah, he is. Let’s go!” Stacey said grabbing Lauren’s hand and dragging her towards the fireplace.
Sirius let out a bark like laugh and said, “I’m sure.”
“Thanks, Sirius, ands make sure you leave some cookies for the others!” Lauren called over her shoulder as Stacey dragged her over to the fireplace and shoved the pot of Floo Powder into her hand.
“Don’t worry; I’ll leave them a couple to share.”
Lauren rolled her eyes and threw the powder into the fireplace and stepped into the green flames with Stacey, shouting, “St. Mungo’s!”
Sirius went into the kitchen and sat at the counter, waiting for the timer to go off. He was still deep in thought, wondering about this mysterious person that everyone was so eager to see. Obviously, James was really close to her, probably more so than the others. She had probably also been in St. Mungo’s since before Hogwarts since everything seemed to have been normal with James and the other Potters ever since he had known them. She was also probably in a coma or something because Stacey had said, “She’s awake!” also, obviously, it was a female. Now, all James had to figure out was who she was, what her story was, and how exactly she was related to James.
Sirius was contemplating all of this in his head when the timer interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey there, Wolf Boy!”
“Hi, Connor,” Remus greeted his older cousin. Connor was 25-years-old and was proud to say that he had made up the nick-name that almost everyone in the family used for Remus. Remus had grown used to it over the years and had learned to just go with it. It didn’t bother him as much as it bothered his mom.
“So, you find any hot girls?”
Remus just rolled his eyes and pushed passed him and into the house. Every year Connor had asked that same question when Remus had come home for the holidays.
Remus’ entire family was there and they were all greeting him before he even made it into the room. They were always there when Remus came home because the family always spent the beginning of summer there. Since Remus was the only one that was in school right now, he was the one they always had to wait for to begin the party. Once he got there, however, the party began before he had time to drop his trunk.
Remus sent his trunk to his room and joined the rest of the family in the backyard, knowing that he had no choice.

“So, what have I missed, do you have a girlfriend yet, what do I look like, how’s Hogwarts, and have you replaced me yet?” Jessica asked immediately.
James smiled at his sister. This was definitely the Jessica that he knew. She was always hyper and asking questions.
“I could never replace you as my sister or as my best friend, Hogwarts is amazing, you look exactly like mom, the girl that I like hates my guts, and you have a little sister.”
“That’s sweet, how exactly is Hogwarts amazing, that’s what everyone said when we were little, typical, and WHAT!?”
“You have a little sister, I don’t want to talk about it, it’s true, it would take forever to tell you, and I’m just a sweet person.”
“I repeat, WHAT!? That bad, I know, try to sum it up, and yeah right.”
“I am sweet, Hogwarts is full great people and people that are fun to prank, not to mention how big the castle is and all of the secret passageways, except the homework sucks, then why did you ask, yes, that bad, and I repeat, you have a little sister.”
“Okay, now my head hurts. Just answer the important question: how do I have a little sister!?”
“Please don’t tell me that this is the only thing that your brain isn’t caught up on.”
Jessica hit James on the head and asked, “What’s she like?”
“Like you except younger.”
So she’s a perfect angel?” Jessica asked innocently.
“Since when have you been a perfect angel, Tigger?”
Jessica smiled at the old nickname and was about to answer, but the door suddenly flew open.
“Jessie!”
Before either teen had a chance to react, Mrs. Potter had thrown herself onto her older daughter.
“Love you too, Mom, but I’m finding it hard to breath.”
“Oh, are you okay? Do I need to go get Healer Scott?” Mrs. Potter asked frantically.
“Calm down, Mom, she’s fine. Now get out of the way so dad can attack her.”
Mr. Potter came forward and hugged Jessica tightly.
“Again, can’t breathe.”
Mr. Potter stepped back and smiled down at his daughter. “The house will be at complete chaos. With James and Sirius already there, Remus coming next month, and Jessica back, there won’t be a moment’s peace. Add to that Stacey, the miniature Jessie, and we are going to have a complete disaster on our hands.”
“Who are Sirius, Remus, and Stacey?” Jessica asked.
James looked away from his sister and replied. “Sirius and Remus are two of my other best friends.”
“And Stacey?”
He looked back at her and said, “Your little sister.”
“So I have been replaced,” Jessica said in a fake disappointed voice.
“A person can have more than one best friend and more than one sister. I did before, and I do now.”


Yeah, not to dramatic, or so it seems. *coughlastsentencecough*

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amv_hearts_hp, I love you for being the only one *gives you ‘the look’* to leave me feedback! Thank you sooooo much.
I can’t believe I’m still posting this.
You all should just be happy that I have nothing else to do.


Chapter 7

“Oh, yeah!” Jessica exclaimed. “How‘s Ca-“
“Jessica!”
The four of them spun around to see Lauren running into the room. She threw her arms around Jessica and said, “God, I’ve missed you.”
“I would say I missed you too, but I didn’t realize I was gone long enough to have any time while I was in my coma.”
Lauren stepped back and said, “Oh, great, you haven’t changed.”
Jessica ignored her and said to her parents, “See, Lauren doesn’t wish to suffocate me. You should take hugging lessons from her.”
Lauren and James laughed while Mr. Potter shook his head and Mrs. Potter rolled her eyes.
“Hi!”
Jessica looked down at the little girl. “Red hair, brown eyes, pretty face, sweet smile, perfect angel, just like me, definitely my sister. Stacey, right?”
Stacey shyly nodded her head and looked up at her older sister.
“Well, let’s see if you’ve been taking hugging lessons from Lauren.”
Stacey smiled and gave Jessica a big hug. When Stacey stepped back, she told James, “Sirius is watching the cookies, so we have to check on him, or else he’ll eat them all.”
James looked up at Lauren who gave a slight shake of her head.
Jessica was confused again and asked, “What happened?”
“Nothing,” James said. “I just better go and check on those cookies.” And with that, he left, leaving and unconvinced Jessica behind.

Sirius had taken the cookies out and they were cool enough to eat, but he was still trying to figure out what was going on. He was sitting at the counter again, staring into the cookies, not really seeing them.
His thoughts were again interrupted, this time, by a voice behind him asking, “Are you trying to figure out which cookie to eat first?”
Sirius spun around to find James looking back at him.
“Oh, no, I was just thinking.”
“About what?” James asked sitting down next to Sirius and reaching for a cookie.
“Nothing much, just trying to figure out what was so big that my best friend didn’t have time to tell me about it.”
James withdrew his hand and looked up at Sirius.
“It can’t be that bad,” Sirius said seeing the look on James’ face.
James sighed and replied, “It was.”
“What was it?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have all summer.”
James sighed again, but told him anyway.
“When I was six, my sister and I-“
“But Stacey’s only 8,” Sirius interrupted, getting a little confused.
James looked Sirius straight in the eye and said, “Not Stacey. Jessica.”
“Jessica?”
“Jessica, my twin sister.”
Sirius stared at James in shock for a minute before saying, “You’re right, this is going to be a long story.”

Emily walked into her house and took a look around. You would never guess that the worst criminals to ever live lived in that house. It was perfect and bright. There was not a speck of dirt anywhere.
Emily went quietly up to her room, trying not to make a sound. Maybe she could out up there until next summer and come down at night for food. Emily made it up to her room without being discovered. She went inside and dropped her trunk on the ground and dropped herself on to the bed. Her room was different from the rest of the house. The rest of the house was perfect and clean, but it gave off the feeling of something bad. It was almost too clean to belong to normal people. Emily’s room, however, was the perfect messy, but not too messy. There were a few clothes lying around outside the closet. The dresser was a mess as well and the desk. The book shelves were full books in rows, but not perfect rows like a library. Emily didn’t read those books, however because they were all about how to achieve perfectness. They were about how to look perfect, act perfect, and make everything perfect. Emily had decided that they were books on how to hide that you were a heartless criminal.
Emily’s favorite parts of the room were the walls. They were covered in pictures of her and her friends. They were all pictures from Hogwarts; well, almost all of them. There were some from the dance classes she was forced to take when she was 6. She had dreaded going there, fearing that they would be like the etiquette classes, but they soon became her life line. The instructor was kind and she enjoyed making fun of the little kids who couldn’t dance, or the little kids who danced like they were perfect and think that the whole class loved them. Then there were those three kids who were always goofing off and driving the instructor up the wall. Their mom would come and pick them up, listen to the instructor’s complaints, then scold the kids who would respond with some cheeky retort causing their mom to roll her eyes or shake her head. There were 2 different women who alternated to come and get them, so Emily didn’t think that they were all three related, only two of them, even though they all acted like brother and sisters. They had stopped coming half way through the one year course, and Emily had no idea what happened to them.
Emily’s favorite part of the classes was her partner. They would both do their best not to laugh when those kids did something funny because they didn’t want the instructor to tell their parents. If Emily had been goofing off, her parents would have gotten really mad at her. Her partner’s parents were the same. Emily had grown close to him; they were almost like brother and sister. She found out that his family was the same as hers, and that was what brought them really close together. They learned things about each other’s lives, and they found out that their families hated each other because they were competing for the ‘worst family to ever exist’ title.
At the end of the lessons, they had promised to see each other at Hogwarts, but when she got there and found him, he ignored her. It was as if he had forgotten her. Emily occasionally thought she saw him looking at her, but when she looked back, he was talking to his friends.
Nonetheless, Emily knew that she wouldn’t have gotten through her childhood without him. He was her best friend, even though he didn’t remember. Emily knew that she would always owe him something. Maybe she would tell him; she would maybe just go up to him next year and say, “You may not remember but you are the only reason I made it through my childhood, -“
“Where are you, you little, *****! Come and get your dinner!”
They noticed.
Emily sighed and went down to join her family for dinner which was the last thing she wanted to do.


Yep, there you go. More things to figure out.

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Let’s hope that we don’t have repeat of the last time you saw this little link.
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Love ya
Chocolaterox

Yeah, so the story’s getting confusing, but, like I said in my feedback thread (Where some of you went to *smile*), it’ll get more confusing before it starts to make sense. It’ll be kind of confusing with everything happening until after they get to Hogwarts. Because of that, I’m going to try and wrap up all of the unimportant stuff in this chapter, that way, we can move on with the story concentrating on what you we need to concentrate on.
I am sorry about everything that doesn’t make sense, but it is important, or else it wouldn’t be there. It’ll get better soon, I promise!
Please don’t dessert me!
(Please!)

Chapter 8

Lily had unpacked and eaten lunch and was now ready to go over to Rachel’s house to meet up with her and Rebecca and Katie.
She walked over to her house and knocked on the door. The second the door flew open, Lily’s vision was obscured by a mass of blond.
“Lily!” Katie shouted.
“Katie!” Lily shouted back at her returning the hug.
“Oh my God, it’s so good to see you!”
“Great to see you, too, but can I get into the house?”
“Oh, right, sorry,” Katie said and stepped back. Katie had had a growth spurt. She used to be about 5’4”, but had grown to be about 5’8”. Her blond hair was longer and her bangs framed her face wonderfully. Her blue-green eyes were shining bright as ever and the smile on her face made her even more beautiful. Katie had always been the prettiest of the foursome, and Lily knew that she always would.
“My God, Lily!” Katie exclaimed. “You look, like, 10 times better. What is in the water of that boarding school of yours?”
“I’m not sure, but you have had quite a year, too.”
Katie smiled and led her into the house. “Rachel’s in her room and Rebecca isn’t here yet, go figure.” Rebecca was always the late one.
They had just walked into Rachel’s room when the door bell rang again.
“I’ll get it!” Katie called and ran back down.
“I swear that girl is why too over the top hyperactive,” Rachel said.
“And Rebecca is always late and disorganized, I’m too neat and clean, and you’re just perfect.”
“Yes, exactly!”
Lily rolled her eyes and looked around the room. It was still the same as it had always been; pictures covering the walls, half made bed in the corner, random stuff in random places, a few clothes laying around here and there, it looked perfectly normal to Lily. She had long since learned that this was what a normal teenage girl’s room was supposed to look like, but Lily took pride in saying that she was not normal.
“Oh, my gosh, I’m sorry I’m late! I was so excited about seeing Lily that I lost track of time! Is she here yet?” asked the brunette in the doorway.
“You are impossible,” Lily said shaking her head.
“Lily!” Rebecca shouted, and threw her arms around her friend, the same way that Rachel and Katie had greeted her.
“I’m glad to see you, too,” Lily said and hugged her back.
Rebecca stepped back and asked, “Why is it that every time you come home for the summer, you look different?”
“Because you haven’t seen me in a really long time,” Lily replied.
“So, if I saw you every day, you wouldn’t change at all?”
Lily rolled her eyes and asked, “Does Rachel look tanner, does Katie look taller, does your hair look longer?”
Rebecca ran over to the mirror and examined herself. Then she turned back around and took a good look at Rachel and Katie. The other three girls watched I amusement. Finally, Rebecca exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! I never noticed that before!”
Lily rolled her eyes again and said, “Because you see yourself and the others so often that changes like that aren’t as noticeable because they happen so slowly.”
“That’s weird.”
“Yes, very weird, but let’s move over that topic, shall we?” Rachel said.
“Okay,” Katie said jumping onto the bed and facing Lily, “Tell us everything.”
The other three sat down, and talked about the last 10 months, catching up on everything.

“Wow, that is a long story,” Sirius said when James was done.
James just nodded.
“So, let me get this straight. You have a twin sister named Jessica. She fell into a coma when you were 6. You never told me about it because you didn’t want to talk about it. She just woke up, and now everyone is fussing over her.”
James nodded again.
“Wow,” Sirius repeated.
“So, are you mad that I didn’t tell you?” James finally asked.
Sirius gave him a look and replied, “Of course not! I get what you were going through, and I don’t blame you at all for not telling me. I know that I wouldn’t have told if I were you.”
“Good,” James said and took a cookie.
Sirius did the same and asked, “So, is there anything else you’re not telling me?”
To Sirius’ surprise, James replied, “I draw when I’m bored, I was forced to learn how to dance when I was 6, I taught myself to play the guitar when I was 7, and I write things down as songs when I have too much in my head.”
Sirius stared at James in shock again.
“Meaning that I had no life after the incidence, all the way up to when I went to Hogwarts,” James added.
“That makes two of us, then,” Sirius said.
James gave him a questioning look to which Sirius replied, “I took dance classes when I was 6 also, I have a habit of singing in the shower, and I write short stories to get things out my head.”
“You any good?”
“I haven’t danced since the classes, I don’t know what my singing sounds like, but I doubt it’s any good, and the stories are average, I guess.”
The two looked at each other for a second before saying at the same time, “We are such nerds.”
They smiled at each other and ate their cookies in silence.
“So,” Sirius began. “Can I see those drawings?”
James eyes him for a second before replying, “Only if you promise not to laugh.”
“Promise,” Sirius said.
James hopped off his stool and went up to his room, Sirius following right behind him.
James went over to his trunk which was standing in the middle of the room and got out a small, cardboard box. He pointed his wand at the box, and Sirius watched as it grew back to its original size. Out of the box, James took out a yellow folder which he handed to Sirius.
The folder was thick, and Sirius was sure it would have fallen apart if it hadn’t been for the fact that James had obviously put a charm on the folder to make it bigger, and one to keep it together.
Sirius opened the folder. Inside, there were drawings of almost anything you could think of. The first one Sirius saw was a drawing of a beautiful red head girl. She looked like she was sleeping with no expression on her face. Her red hair was spread out on the pillow. The surrounding whiteness made it stand out. Her face, though it held no expression and her eyes were closed, look perfect. Sirius could see that she would look even more beautiful if her eyes were open and she had a smile on her face. Her features reminded Sirius of Mrs. Potter and Stacey. He knew who this was.
“Is this her?” Sirius asked James, just to be sure.
James nodded and said, “Yeah. I drew that this morning. Whenever we are supposed to be going home, I start thinking of her a lot.”
Sirius nodded and put the drawing down. He looked through all of the other drawings as well. There were some more of Jessica Potter, but there were also drawings of the Marauders, the Potters, some teachers at Hogwarts, and even drawings of Lily Evans. As he looked through the pictures of Lily, Sirius wondered how James was able to look at her close enough to draw her with that much detail without her catching him.
There were also pictures of the Marauders I their Animagus forms, running around with werewolf Remus. Some drawings were of other animals or plants.
They weren’t all things, however. Some of them were even nice scenes. There were drawings of scenes like the Black Lake, the Hogwarts grounds, the mountains around Hogwarts, and a couple really nice ones of all of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade from the top of a hill by Hogsmeade.
James had also drawn sunrises and sunsets from all sorts of different places. Some of the drawings even showed the night sky. That would explain why he was sometimes gone in the mornings or late coming back to the dorm some evenings.
Sirius was amazed at the drawings and just couldn’t get enough of them.
He finally tore his gaze from a drawing of a full moon night with the forms of the Marauders in their Animagus forms and Remus as a werewolf by the Forbidden Forest.
“These are really, good, James,” he said looking up at him.
James blushed a little, but smiled and said, “Thanks,” before joining Sirius in looking through the drawings.


There you go!
Not a very confusing chapter, but the next one probably will be.
Leave me feedback!
You want to keep me very happy and get a lot of chapters out of me because in 2 ½ weeks, I’m going to Texas for Christmas and I’ll be gone for another 2 ½ weeks.
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Chocolaterox

Thanks for the feedback people!
Let’s see how this goes.

Chapter 9

“Someone better get home to make sure James and Sirius don’t finish off the cookies for dinner,” Mr. Potter said around 6:30.
“I would go back, and I would love to stay here, too, but Luke’s taking me out tonight,” Lauren told them.
“Whose Luke?” Jessica asked suspiciously.
“My boyfriend.”
“And you forgot to tell me about him?!”
“Um, yeah?”
“How could you?! I feel so unloved!”
“I’ll tell you all about him tomorrow, but I need to go get ready,” Lauren said getting up and giving Jessica a hug.
“Fine,” she pouted with her arms crossed.
“Take care,” Lauren said.
“Bye,” everyone chorused back.
“Oh, and check on the boys while you’re there!” Mrs. Potter added.
“Sure thing, Amy,” Lauren said and left.
“And then there were three,” Jessica said. “So, how is Carly? Have her James continued my noble work?”
Her parents exchanged looks and before Mrs. Potter carefully replied, “We haven’t seen too much of her lately.”
“Meaning?”
“Well, you see-“
“Amy, Jake, one of you can stay, but the other needs to go home with Stacey,” Healer Scott Said popping his head into the room.
“I’ll stay and Jack’ll take Stacey home, that alright,” Amy asked.
“Fine, but I call staying tomorrow,” Mr. Potter replied.
“As long as you don’t freak out for no reason.”
“When have I ever freaked out for no reason?” Amy asked in mock outrage.
“Well, I could name a few times,” Jake began.
His wife rounded on him and asked, “Like when?”
“Well, mostly all of the incidents that included me, a wand, a really clever hex, and Jonathan Kenting,” he replied carefully.
“That was not pointless!”
“Yes-“
“Leave it, Dad. I love you. Bye. Hurry back.”
“Alright, sweetheart, I love, too. See you soon. Bye Amy, dear. Come on, Stace.”
“Bye,” Mrs. Potter called.
“Bye,” the 2 waved before disappearing out the door.

The next morning, James woke up and went down for breakfast a little earlier than usual.
No one was up yet, so James looked around for food. There was no way James was going to attempt making his own breakfast because the last time, that ad almost ended in a kitchen fire.
James was just about to give up his search when his dad came down.
“Lauran stayed out last night?” he asked.
“Yeah, and I’m starved. I wish mom hadn’t decided to stay with Jess last night.”
“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for Sirius to wake up.”
“That won’t happen until I starve to death,” James complained.
“Well, have some milk and cereal, then,” his dad suggested.
“But I wanted pancakes,” James whined.
“Suit yourself.” Jake sat down at the counter next to James.
“Why don’t you get yourself some toast or something?”
“I wanted pancakes,” Mr. Potter said.
James rolled his eyes and continued to wait for Sirius.
Half an hour later, Sirius came down and sat with the others.
“What happen to breakfast?” he asked. “I’m starved.”
James jumped up and pulled Sirius out of his chair and shoved him into the kitchen. “Get cooking.”
“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Because Mom would kill me if I burnt the house down,” James replied.
“And I’m where he got his cooking skills from,” Jake added.
Sirius glared, then grumpily, he started to make some pancakes.

Sirius had forced James and Mr. Potter to at least set the table while he made the pancakes.
Cooking was the only thing the Potter men could not do, so when Lauren and Amy weren’t around, Sirius was forced to do it. He had learned to cook when he was very little because there were a lot of times when his parents got mad at him and refused to cook for him.
Sirius called his cooking skills a curse whenever James or Jake made him make them breakfast, but Jake said that it was a good thing because girls always went for guys who could cook.
Sirius’s usual response was, “I don’t need anything other than my amazing good looks to get girls.”
So far, the table setting wasn’t going well. Jake was purposefully working really slowly, and James was messing up everything that his dad had set up.
Stacey came down, just as Sirius was finishing up. When she saw the table which was now set with no plates, forks, or knives, she immediately started teaching her dad and brother how to properly set the table. Sirius laughed as he watched James and Jake follow Stacey’s instructions.
When the table had been set perfectly, Sirius brought over the pancakes and served some to himself and Stacey before beginning to eat.
“What about us?” James asked.
“Do it yourself,” Sirius replied.
“But-“
“I made them, so you have to serve yourself.”
“Stacey didn’t have to.”
“Yeah, because she set the table.”
“Actually, I set the table,” Jake interrupted.
“And I helped,” James added.
“With Stacey telling you how to do it because you couldn’t do it yourself.”
“Fine, pass me the pancakes.”
“You can walk, get them yourself.”
“That’s bad table manners!” Stacey shouted.
“Yeah, Sirius, that’s bad table manners,” Jake repeated.
Sirius sighed and passed the plate of pancakes over to James and Jake.
They eagerly helped themselves and began to eat.
“These are really good,” Jake said taking another bit.
“Yeah, you should learn to cook like him, dad,” James said.
“Why don’t you.”
“Because the last time we tried that, almost turned the house into ash.”
“That’s going to be your excuse all the time, isn’t it?”
“Yep.”
Jake rolled his eyes and continued eating.
“I need to on purposefully accidently start a kitchen fire,” Sirius said. “Then I can use that excuse, too.”
James was about to reply, but was cut short by the arrival of Lauren.
“Hey, pancakes smell good. Sirius made them, right.”
“They’d smell burnt if he hadn’t,” Sirius replied.
“Bighead,” James muttered.
Sirius ignored him asked Lauren, “So, what did you do all night?”
“Nothing much,” Lauren replied nonchalantly.
“I’m sure,” Sirius smirked.
“How was your date?” Jake asked.
“Pretty good. Luke took me to a really nice restaurant, we went for a walk in the park, he proposed, it was a really beautiful night; no clouds and bright stars and-“
“He proposed?!” Jake shouted out.
James’s fork had stopped half way to his mouth and Sirius’s mouth was hanging open, revealing a quite disturbing sight.
“You’re getting married?!” Stacey asked.
Unable to contain her excitement much longer, Lauren let out a squeal and shouted,” Yes!” running over to hug Stacey.
“Congratulations,” Jake said, also hugging Lauren.
“Alright!” Sirius exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’ve always liked Luke, and now, he’s going to be like my brother-in-law,” James said.
“Thanks, you guys,” Lauren said hugging both of them as well.
“Well, this is great, but I’ve got to go get ready for work,” Jake said heading out of the kitchen.
“I have so much to do. I need to tell everyone and pick bridesmaids and a Maid of Honor, oh and I need a dress, and a date!” Lauren started muttering to herself and sat down at the table.
“I need to tell everyone, and send out invitations and pick a place and-“ She suddenly stopped talking, and the excitement suddenly left her face as tears suddenly sprung to her eyes.
James and Sirius exchanged worried looks before kneeling down on either side of her and putting their arms around her.
“What’s wrong, Lauren?” Sirius asked.
“My parents!” Lauren wailed. “I wanted them to be there! Mom was supposed to help me with everything and-“ She suddenly stopped again and renewed tears fell from her eyes.
“What is it?” James asked.
“Who- whose going to walk me d-down the aisle? I can’t walk down by myself!” and with that she put her head in her hands and began to sob.
“Lauren,” James said, “I know you miss your parents, and no one can replace them, especially on your wedding, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be anyone else.”
“What are you talking about, James! She shouted. “I don’t have a mom or a dad! What am I supposed to do?!”
“That’s not true, Lauren.”
“Yes it is!”
“You still have Amy and Jake,” Sirius said.
“Exactly,” James said. “Mom’ll help you with everything and Dad would be more than happy to walk you down the aisle. If you can’t have your real parents, then you will have your second parents.”
“Do you really think they would?”
“Of course they would! Mom’s a nutter when it comes to weddings.”
“And Jake?”
“Dad would love to.”
“Dad would love to what?” Jake asked coming back into the kitchen.
When he saw Lauren’s tear streaked face, he went over to her and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have a mom to help me with anything or a dad to walk me down the aisle,” Lauren cried.
“But you and Amy would love to do that, wouldn’t you,” Sirius asked.
“Of course,” Jake replied pulling Lauren into a hug.
“You’ve always been a daughter to us. You are part of the family.”
“Thank you,” Lauren said with a watery smile. “I just miss them, and I started to freak out.”
“It’s understandable, but you’ll always have us, no matter what; remember that.”
I will.”
Jake smiled and said, “Alright, I’m headed off to work.”
When he was gone, Stacey ran up to Lauren and asked, “Can I be the flower girl, please, please, please!”
Lauren laughed and said, “Well, that makes 3 problems solved then.”
“Yay!” Stacey cheered.


Yeah, that’s that, not as confusing as I thought since I decided to add this little bit in. I thought I might just maybe need to add something cheerful for the future because you never know.

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Remember what to do when you see that?

Love ya
Chocolaterox

Chapter 10

It had been a month since Jessica had woken up and she was still in St Mungo’s. She was still having a lot of tests performed on her and the only people allowed to visit her were the Potters and Lauren. Jessica was dieing to meet Lauren’s new fiancé; James wanted her to meet Sirius because he was pretty sure that they would get along. They were so much alike; they were both loud and annoying, they both liked to cause chaos, and they both simply enjoyed having fun.
Jessica was waiting for James to return with some dinner for her and James when someone rushed into the room.
“James! We have to go; it’s getting dark!”
Jessica looked up and couldn’t help noticing that the boy was very good looking, however, she shook that thought off and replied, “James is not here, but Miss Jessica Potter would just love to know who you are.”
The boy stared at her, but then quickly looked away as if he had just realized that he was staring.
“I’m Sirius, Sirius Black,” he said.
“Oh,” said Jessica, “so you’re the famous Sirius. James talks a lot about what you 2 and the Marauders get up to.”
“And James talks a lot about what you 2 got up to when you were little.”
“Yeah, those were the days. All I had to worry about was what the three of us were going to do next and who we would annoy.”
Sirius got a confused look on his face. “Three?” he asked.
“Yeah. Me, James, and-“
“Sirius!”
Jessica and Sirius looked over at the doorway to see James standing there with some food.
“What are you doing here? And how did you get here in the first place?”
“I came to tell you that it’s almost dark so we have to go, and I got here the same way I always get into places I’m not supposed to be at when there is a young lady under age 20 working the desk.”
James laughed out loud. “And it never gets old.”
“Yeah, not that I’m not glad that I can get into places quite easily, but it does get annoying.”
James was still laughing, but Sirius ignored him.
“We really need to go, James.”
“Go where?” James asked when he had stopped laughing.
“Don’t tell me you forgot,” Sirius groaned.
“Sorry, but I forgot,” James replied.
“Yeah, I’m sure Remus would love to hear about this. It’s not every day that he gets dumped for a girl.”
“I like to think of myself as more than just ‘a girl,’” Jessica interrupted.
“Yeah, she is my sister.”
“Still, you swore you would be there this summer since you can now apperate.”
“What are we talking about?”
“Remus!”
“Wha - oh! Oh ****! I can’t believe I forgot!” James exclaimed.
“Me neither,” Sirius muttered while James quickly turned to Jessica and said, “I really have to go. Don’t ask because I can’t tell you, but I’ll be back tomorrow.”
And with those words, James and Sirius disappeared before Jessica could get in another word.

The first month of summer flew by for Lily. She spent every waking moment with her Muggle friends. She did her best to stay out of her house because Petunia was always there, ready to throw insults at Lily.
When there were only 3 days left before she went to Carly’s, Lily began to pack. She had never been one to leave things to the last minute so she started to pack a little early. She also began to do her homework, so that she didn’t have to do as much of it at Carly’s.
When her friends came to call, she forced herself to turn them away so that she could finish up on everything. Her friends offered to help, but Lily said no because they didn’t know about her being a witch, and it would complicate matters if they saw Lily’s Care of Magical Creatures book with its many moving pictures.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell her friends about her magical abilities, she just didn’t know how. What if they thought that she was some sort of freak like Petunia thought? What if they were afraid of her? What if they got mad at her for not telling them sooner?
Lily did her best to not think about these thoughts as she quickly finished up her homework.

Carly was sitting on her window ledge looking out at the night sky. It was past midnight, but she couldn’t sleep. Carly knew why she couldn’t sleep, but she didn’t want to think about it. Carly knew that she wouldn’t get a chance to visit St. Mungo’s when her friends came over. She would have gone the first month of summer, but she was so busy with baby Jacob that she never got time.
Now, she was regretting not making time. She felt guilty for not going. Carly knew that a person in a coma wouldn’t really know who was visiting him, but she still felt bad. She had always gone once a month. After starting school, she was only able to go once during the summer, but she still went.
These thoughts were running around her head as she sat there looking out at the sky. Out of no where, a figure appeared in the sky. Carly looked closely at it and saw that it was flying through the air, a bit wobbly, but she couldn’t make out what it was. It didn’t look like a bird and it was too close to the ground to be an airplane. Whatever it was, it was flying straight towards her.
Carly got up and closed her window, staring at the thing through the glass instead. As it got closer, Carly saw that it was a person flying on a broom. When the figure got closer still, Carly was able to make out the face, but it wasn’t what she was expecting.
Carly quickly threw open the window again and let the person in. she landed on the soft carpet and set down her broomstick before looking back up at her.
Carly couldn’t help but gasp at what she saw. Bloody shirt, blood streaked long blond hair, busted lip, black eye, and blood pouring down the beautiful face from a wound in the side of the head was Emily Kenting.


I have been so busy that I didn’t even get any time to tell that I went to Texas for 2 ½ weeks. On top of that, I didn’t even post.
Now I feel really bad.
I got back from Texas on Saturday night and haven’t had any time to post this any sooner. I was in such a rush to post that I didn’t put any of this before the chapter.
I feel so guilty about not giving you the promised chapter before leaving that I’m going to maybe give you more later tonight or tomorrow.
I started typing last night, continued this morning before school, and came straight to the computer to finish up right after school.
Now that I’m done making up excuses and trying to make keep you people for hating me, I’d just like to say…I’m really, really, really sorry for not posting any sooner (really). Please don’t hate me! I know I haven’t posted in a month, and I feel soooooo bad about it.
I promise I’m going to do my best to post at least every other day from now on, but I might not be able to. My grandparents just went to India for 2 months so I have to do all of the cleaning and half the cooking that my grandma used to do. My mom’s going too in 2 weeks so the 2 weeks after she leaves, I have to do all of the cooking. In short, I’ll be busy. On top of that, it’s midterm season.
Even with all of that, I’m going to do my best to post every other day, but you can look forward to at least once a week.
Enough of my rambling.
Please leave me some feedback!

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

I’m hoping for a lot more since the story should be getting good again.
Lots of love
Chocolaterox

P.S.
Thanks a lot Tatze!
Reading your feedback made my day.

I was going to post this last night but I had no feedback, so I decided to wait until today morning, but I slept in because I was watching the extremely sad BCS championships (I’m a true Ohioan) so I decided to post after school, so I did my homework and checked to make sure I got some feedback, and thanks to potter_obsessed_chick and JSB 073 I’m going post now.
(Wow that was a long sentence.)

Chapter 11

“We’ll miss you!” Rachel said hugging Lily.
“I’ll miss you too,” Lily replied. “All of you,” she added looking over at Rebecca and Katie.
“Make sure you write to us,” Rebecca said, also giving Lily a hug.
“I will.”
“And say hi to Alice, Emily, and Carly,” Katie added hugging Katie after Rebecca stepped back.
“I will.’
“And try and loosen up,” Rebecca said.
“I will.
“And give that poor boy James a chance,” Katie said.
“I will not.”
Rachel and Rebecca laughed and Katie rolled her eyes.
“Bye!” Lily called to her friends one last time before getting into her mom’s car.
“Bye!” Lily’s friends called after her.
Mrs. Evans backed out of the driveway and drove down the street. Lily’s mom had always insisted on driving Lily to her friends’ houses, and this time was no different. Lily didn’t really mind because she liked having that extra time to spend with her mom. At home, she never really got that because Petunia was always insulting Lily and that resulted in arguments which Mrs. Evans then had to resolve.
30 minutes later, the car pulled up to large white house. It had a beautiful garden at the front complete with a fountain.
“Why is it that your friends have such big houses?” Mrs. Evans asked her daughter.
“Because all of their families for generations have been obsessed with helping out the wizarding community which resulted in them getting important and high paying jobs,” Lily replied.
“What types of jobs?”
“Auror work, Healing, important Ministry people, things like that,” Lily replied getting out of the car.
“Sounds…important,” Mrs. Evans said also getting out to help Lily with her trunk.
Once the trunk was firmly on the ground, both of them turned to face each other.
“Well, I guess this is it,” Mrs. Evans said.
“Yeah, I guess it is,” Lily replied.
Mrs. Evans pulled Lilly into a hug. “Have a good term. I’ll see at Christmas.”
“Okay, bye,” Lily replied and walked up to the house.
“Bye, take care!” her mom called after her.
“You too!” Lily yelled before ringing the doorbell.

“Wha-what happened to you?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Well then, sit down. I’ll go and get my mom.”
“No!”
“Why not?”
Emily sighed and said, “You’ll see once I tell you.”
“Fine,” Carly said sitting down next to Emily on the bed, “But I’m fixing you up first.” She pulled her wand out from the drawer to her night stand and began to heal Emily’s wounds. Once she was all done, she turned to her and asked, “What happened?”
“Well, everyone has their little secrets, including me.”
“If this has anything to do with you secret, I don’t think it’s very little.”
“You’re right, it isn’t.”
“What is it?” Carly asked.
Emily had thought this over while she was flying to the Soames’ house. She knew that she couldn’t make up any story to get out of it this time; she had to tell Carly the truth.
Emily took a deep breath and said, “My parents are evil Voldemort supporters, and they hate my guts.”
Carly stared at Emily with a disbelieving look on her face. “They’re what?!” she cried.
Emily sighed and told Carly her whole story. About how her family was rotten from the start, how they hated her for not being like them, how she had made up the stories of her childhood, and how she never had a little brother. When she was done, Carly just sat there staring at her.
Finally, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Why do you think I didn’t tell you? Most of Alice’s family is Aurors and she’s planning on being one herself, your family is half Muggle, and Lily is a Muggleborn; you guys would hate me if you knew!”
“As of right now, I know and I don’t hate you.”
“But the others might hate me if they knew.”
“No they wouldn’t,” Carly argued.
“Yes they would!” Emily shouted back.
Carly was silent for a moment before asking, “Was it your parents who hit you?”
“Yeah,” Emily replied quietly.
“Why?”
“They found out that I was coming here and half of your family is Muggle. They didn’t like that.”
“But you were at Lily’s house,” Carly said.
“Yeah, but that was because they didn’t know that Lily was Muggleborn. They went to school with your parents, so they knew them. I had invented Carly Smith when I came home after first year because I knew that they hated your parents. I on the other hand already loved them because of the stories I heard about ‘The stupid Gryffindors led by Potter and Soames.’”
“Yeah, now that I think about it, I remember the stories of the ‘Kenting idiot and his band of idiots in chief.’”
The 2 girls laughed for a while before Carly suddenly quieted down.
“What is it?” Emily asked.
“I’m sorry,” Carly said looking Emily straight in the eye. “It must have been horrible having to be hated by everyone you meet for the first 11 years of your life.”
Emily smiled a small, sad smile. “Actually, it was only the first 6 years of my life.”
Carly gave Emily a questioning look.
“I made a friend in my dance classes when I was six named Sirius Black.”


I know that’s no news to most of you, but it’s still a good stopping point.
Please leave feedback (please).

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I have nothing to say.

Chapter 12

“Where did you go?!”
Those were the first words James was greeted with when he returned the next morning when he returned to Jessica’s room the next morning.
“I told you,” James replied, used to Jessica’s outbursts, “I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?” Jessica asked.
“Because it’s not my secret to tell,” James replied.
Jessica eyed James as if she was looking for something in his perfectly calm face.
Finally she sighed and said, “Fine. If that’s true, then there’s no way I can get it out of you.”
James smiled and sat down next to her. “So, what’s new?”
“Nothing much, besides the fact that I get to go home tomorrow.”
“You do?! That’s great!” James sounded so excited that Jessica couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“Yes, it’s great, but get over it before you pee your pants,” Jessica said.
“Sorry,” James said. “I’m just excited. Remus is coming over tomorrow, also.”
“So I’ll get to meet him tomorrow?”
“Yeah, and I’m sure you’ll like him as well.”
“As long as he doesn’t follow rules, I’m sure we’ll get along great,” Jessica said.
“He does follow rules,” James said. “He’s prefect, remember?”
“Oh yeah. So I’ll hate him.”
“No, you won’t. He’s the best prefect ever. We could get away with anything the nights he had patrol because he always signs up to patrol most of the corridors that we need to use whenever he had patrol duty. Plus, I think the only people he punished were the Slytherins. Trust me, you’ll like him.”
“Well, I’ll take your word for it.”
The two spent the next couple of hours talking about random things.
“So, have you figured out what was so important that you were forgetting?” James asked.
Jessica looked like she was thinking. Then she asked James, “You know your friend Sirius?”
“I wouldn’t be friends with him if I didn’t know him,” James replied.
Jessica rolled her eyes and asked, “Did he ever learn to dance?”
“Yeah…”
“I think he was in our dance class.”
“Sirius? Are you sure?” James asked.
“Yeah. Remember? We knew that two of the kids came from dark families and we never talked to them.”
“You think that was Sirius?”
“Well, his name is Black and, if I remember correctly, which I think I do because the last things I remember, other than this past month, are the day it happened and the day before when we went into class, Black and Kenting were the names of the kids from dark families. Remember, our parents started telling us all those funny stories after we got the class lists and saw their manes on there.”
“It could be; Sirius did say he was six when he started taking his classes.”
“And that girl was named Emma Kenting or something like that,” Jessica added.
“Emily Kenting?!” James exclaimed.
“What about Emily Kenting?”

“Sirius Black?!” Carly exclaimed in shock. Well, she wasn’t going to judge, considering who her first friends were.
“Yes, Sirius Black, and before you say anything, if it weren’t for him, I would have exploded. Those classes were horrible.”
“So, you have been friends with Sirius Black and just forgot to mention it?”
“I haven’t been friends with him. When we got to school, it was like he forgot I existed. I don’t think we have ever said more than 2 words to each other while at Hogwarts.”
Carly smiled. “It’s the same with me.”
“You were friends with Sirius, too?” Emily asked.
“No,” Carly said. “I was friends with James Potter.”

Sirius walking down to Jessica’s room with Stacey chattering along beside him.
He had just reached the partially opened door when he heard James shout, “Emily Kenting?!”
“What about Emily Kenting?” Sirius asked walking into the room.
James and Jessica turned to see who was there.
“What about Emily Kenting?” Sirius repeated when neither one of them said anything.
“Were you dance partners with Emily Kenting?” James asked.
“No,” Sirius replied a little too quickly.
“You’re a horrible liar,” James said.
“I thought I was the best liar?” Sirius said.
“Yeah, when you’re lying to a teacher about a prank.”
Sirius didn’t want to tell them the truth. If he did, James would convince him that it didn’t matter and he should talk to him. Because James was so good at convincing you of anything, Sirius would talk to Emily, they would become friends again. Then, one of the “true Blacks” would find out and tell his mom who would then go and-
Just the thought made him shudder, which James saw.
“What is it?” James asked.
Sirius looked up at him with a pained expression. Seeing the look on his face, James’ face softened a bit.
Sirius looked over at Jessica who had the same look on her face as her brother. He looked back over at James and sighed. James had told him his big secret; now, it was Sirius’ turn.
“Yes.”
“I guess this is going to be a long story also,” James said motioning for Sirius to sit down.
Sirius nodded and sat in the chair. “Yeah, it is. We became really good friends and learned a lot about each other when we started the classes. We also found out that our parents hated each other. Something about one taking the other’s glory in the world of the dark. We managed to hide our friendship, and things were going great, but at the end of the year, when we put on our cute little show for our parents, things went bad. Mom never came because it wasn’t important enough, but that’s a good thing. Dad came, however, and the second we got home he told my mom. She, of course exploded. She yelled at me a lot for “befriending the enemy,” or something like that. I was only six or seven at the time, but I still got really made at her for trying to take away my only friend. In the end, she made me shut up by-by saying that if I ever talked to her, she would, she would-“
Sirius broke off and looked up at James and Jessica. He didn’t have to say it; they knew.
“She would what?”
The three tanagers looked down at the confused little 8-year-old. Sirius had forgotten that Stacey was there.
“She would get even madder,” James said quickly.
“Oh,” Stacey said, not looking very convinced.
“Why don’t you go find Lauren?” Jessica suggested.
“Alright!” and with that, Stacey went off in search of Lauren who was training to be a healer in the children’s ward.
“Sirius-“
“Don’t, James,” Sirius interrupted. “She’s planted my brother and cousins as spies. If they found out, Emily would drop dead the next day. She’s one of my best friends, even though she probably hates my guts, and I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“I bet she was hurt when the guy she considered her best friend started to ignore her,” Jessica said.
“But at least she’s safe. Besides, I bet she’s over it by now.”
“But you’re not. You need someone that you can relate to. James and I were in that dance class as well, and, even though we were 6, we noticed that you guys were close. I also noticed that you weren’t very happy when you had to say good bye at the end of class.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, there is no good reason to dump a friend.”
“I did it for her life!”
“It’s still not good enough. It’s still like James saying that he decided to stop being friends with Carly because it brought back to many bad memories; it’s stupid and pointless.”
“What?”

Not too much, but it’s exciting enough, isn’t it???
Exciting enough to click on that little link down there???

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p.s.
thanks for being the only one to leave feedback on the last chapter, JSB 073.

I would just like to point out that you should all be very happy that I’m posting this because only JSB 073 (who’s left feedback for almost every single chapter) left me feedback for my last 3 posts, and potter_obsessed_chick who left feedback for chapter 10.
I feel so unloved at the lack of comments that I might cry.
Moving on…


Chapter 13

“James Potter?”
“James Potter,” Carly replied.
“Wha-?”
“His parents and my parents were friends in Hogwarts. We’ve been best friends since before we even knew what a friend was. For the first 6 years of my life, it was always Carly, James, and Jessica.”
“Who’s Jessica?” Emily asked.
“James’s twin sister,” Carly replied. “Don’t ask because it’s a very long story that I’m coming to,” she added when Emily opened her mouth to talk.
“The three of us did everything together; our parents used to say we were like triplets, and we were. James and Jessica were practically my brother and sister. We knew everything about each other, and I can still tell when James is lying or, joking, or being serious, or even when he’s been crying, and believe it or not, that does happen.”
“James Potter cries?” Emily asked in shock.
“Not so much anymore. It was mostly just 1st and 2nd year. These days, he’s usually just on the verge of tears when his birthday gets close or it reaches Christmas time. Sometimes he gets a little down when people say he has really great Quidditch skills because that’s what Jessica used to say. Well, it was actually more like, “You are defiantly going to be the best Quidditch player at Hogwarts!” every time he did something cool on a toy broom or caught a difficult pass when playing catch. That’s actually what they were talking about when…it happened.”
Carly broke off and Emily saw that there were tears in her eyes.
“Sorry,” she said looking up. “It’s just that I miss Jessie and I miss talking to James. I miss being Cassie.”
“Cassie?”
“That’s what James and Jessica called me when we were 2, and it stuck. I mean, try getting a 2-year-old to say Cassandra. Even I couldn’t say it.”
“Cassandra?”
“I didn’t think you would remember,” Carly said with a smile, “but back in 1st year, for like, the 1st week of school, all of the teachers called me Cassandra. I had hated that name for as long as I could remember it; that’s my actual name. Carly’s just my middle name. Anyways, I convinced everyone to call me Carly when I was four, just like I convinced you guys when I met you, but James and Jessica had a real problem getting “Cassie” out of their heads. They were the only ones allowed to call me that. My parents always called me Carly after I told them to. I almost forgot Cassandra when I came to Hogwarts. When the teachers started calling me that, I got really mad. After the first week, however, they started to call me Carly, just like that. I never questioned it, but I’m still confused by it.
“Anyways, that has nothing to do with the story. James and Jessica were my best friends and we did everything together. We would annoy people and come up with the most horrible pranks, for toddlers, and cause mayhem. It was actually usually me and Jessie that played the prank James was always the distraction. James used to say that we were more like sisters than him and Jessica; he said we were two-of-a-kind.”
Carly wiped a tear from her eyes and looked up at Emily who was immersed into the story.
“Then, one day, when they were 6, James and Jessie were outside playing catch. Normally, their parents would have been outside watching them, but they were inside planning out a surprise 7th birthday party for them. From what James said, they were having an innocent conversation on who would be good at Quidditch at Hogwarts when a colorful cloud appeared out of nowhere behind him. He said he couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t see, but then, Jessica came out of nowhere and pushed him aside.
“The next thing we knew, Healers were telling us that Jessie was in a comma and would most like be there for a long time.”
Carly was now flat out crying there were tears running down her face and he voice was a bit shaky.
“It hurt me to see my best friend like that, but it was nothing compared to James. He locked himself in his room for 3 days. He would have starved if the house elf hadn’t been able to apperate up there to bring him some food, not that James ate much of it. When James finally let me in, I tried to talk to him, but he just kept saying that he wanted to see Jessica again.
“About a week later, I went to see him again and he told me - he told me to never come back. He said-he said that he couldn’t bare to be near somebody who reminded him so much of his sister. He told me not to ever talk to him again.
“Ever since then, whenever our parents got together, we stayed at home. We never talked; we never played. At Hogwarts, we barely looked at each other. We pretended the past had never happened. I became the quiet shy girl who tried to keep away from new people and never talked to people she didn’t know. James seemed to become loud and obnoxious, but I knew better. There’s no way he can hide himself from me. I can see through that mask he’s made for himself. I know that he’s still the same James he always was. He really isn’t so bad, Emily.”
Emily just nodded and put an arm around her friend.
“As much as it he hurt me by pushing me away, he will always be like a brother to me. I want to tell you right now that everything Lily says about him is wrong. She is completely wrong about him. James cares about the people he loves more than about his own life. There was this one time when we were 3 and Jessica was in the garden. She was looking at the flowers and James and I were watching her. Then, suddenly, she started to cry. James ran over to her and Jessica said something about a bee. You know bees die after they sting, so this one was lying dead on the ground, but James picked up a stick and started banging away at it. Their mom came out and yelled at James for ruining the garden, but he’s just said, ‘But it hurt Jessie,’ and continued whacking at it until his mom took the stick of. The whole show made Jessica laugh and James just smiled and said, ‘At least you’re not sad anymore.’
Carly laughed at the memory before continuing.
“Lily’s so wrong about James being arrogant and big headed. You can tell that sometimes, he just wishes all of the attention would go away. His pranks are just a way for him to cheer people up. Yes, they are usually aimed at the Slytherins, but, honestly, there’s no way to cheer them up anyways. And so many times at like the beginning of the year or something, I’ve seen him helping out first years and giving them pointers. And he’s always standing up for people.
“Above all, however, the one thing Lily’s got wrong about him is that he’s only into her for the chase. That is so not true. He cares about her a lot. You can see it in his eyes whenever he looks at her. When she turns him down or yells at him, James looks like he’s unaffected and doesn’t care, but you can see in his eyes that it hurts him that Lily doesn’t see him for who he is. I know she doesn’t really have the chance to see the real him, but it’s easy to see that he wants to show her the James behind the mask. It really does hurt to hear Lily say those things to him, and I want to tell her how great James is, but…I can’t.”
“Why not?” Emily asked, speaking in for the first time since Carly started the story.
“Lily hates his guts. If she I told her, she wouldn’t believe me.”
“She might.”
“Then she’ll hate me when she finds out that the mask James is hiding behind is built the same way as the me I used to be; the me I wish I still could be.”
Emily just hugged her, and the two girls sat there like that for a long time.
“Why did you tell me?” Emily finally asked.
“You told me your secret; I thought I should share my own,” Carly replied. “Besides, you would have found out when it became light out anyways; I still haven’t gotten rid of the evidence. James may have been 6, but he still looked exactly the same, but without the glasses.”
“We should get some sleep,” Carly said looking over at the clock which read 4:30. “Hopefully, we can squeeze in a few hours of sleep before we have to get up and de-Potter my room.”
Emily nodded, and the two girls fell back and fell asleep.

“Exactly, it’s absurd!”
“Are we talking about Lily’s friend, Carly Soames?”
“Yeah, what other Carly is there?”
“James, explain,” Sirius said. “Since when were you friends with Carly Soames?”
“Oh my gosh,” Jessica gasped. “I was right, wasn’t I? Wasn’t I, James?”
James sighed before replying. “Yes.”
“You are such an idiot.”
“I know.”
“It’s so pointless.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“She was practically your other sister!”
“I know, Jessica!” James shouted.
“Then why did you do it?” Jessica asked.
“Because she is, was, too much like you. I needed some time, okay? I was going to go talk to her later.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because I realized that she probably hated me. The way I said it to her. It was horrible.”
“Which is exactly why you should have told her that you were sorry,” Jessica said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I know Carly; she probably took what I said to heart and hates my guts right now.”
“If you knew Carly, you would know that she doesn’t hold grudges.”
“I can’t face her; she’d probably scream at me.”
“Wait a minute,” Sirius interrupted. “Carly Soames screaming at anybody is a picture I cannot see in my mind. Are you sure we’re talking about the same innocent little Carly Soames?”
“Yes, Sirius,” James said.
“The one that Kyle’s in love with.”
“Yes!”
“Then you better start explaining because I seriously think I missed something here; no pun intended.”
“James turned to face Sirius and told him the other half of his story. The part where Carly was his second sister and he cared about her as much as he cared about Jessica. James told Sirius about how much Jessica and Carly were alike, and how he couldn’t stand Carly being Carly because she was like Jessica. He told him about how he told her to just leave him alone after Jessica’s accident and how he had regretted it afterwards. James told of how he was going to apologize the next time she was supposed to come over, but she never came. James told of how he was going to talk to her at Hogwarts, but he couldn’t work up the courage. Now, their friendship was like a distant memory or like a dream; it could have been forgotten, or maybe, it never existed.
When he was done, Sirius just sat there and stared at James and Jessica as they continued their argument.
“You have to talk to her, James,” Jessica said softly.
“I can’t,” James replied without looking up.
“Why not?”
“Because-because everything is so different now. Our friendship seems to have disappeared, and the people we used to be are gone. We aren’t the same people we used to be. It’s all just…different.”
“You still seem to be the same. You’re still funny and caring. You have fun but know when to stop. You still act rashly, and then you regret it, but you can’t make yourself correct it without a little push. You are the same James that I grew up with, and I’m sure Carly’s still the Cassie we all know and love.”
“You might be right about me, but not Carly. I can’t even think of her as Cassie anymore. Every time I saw her during first year, she was Cassie, but then I realized, she wasn’t Cassie anymore, she was Carly. She’s so quiet now, you wouldn’t believe she’s the one who came up with the idea to switch dad’s shampoo with vegetable oil. She can’t still be the girl who used to go up to random kids at the park and say, ‘Wanna play catch?’ she isn’t the one who played with the kid that was alone on the swings; she is the kid on the swing.”
“Are you trying to say that the loud, funny, social Cassandra Carly Soames has ne friends!?” Jessica exclaimed.
“Of course she has friends; how can she not when she’s her. It’s her friends that have me convinced that she hates my guts now.”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“I mean that her friends hate my guts,” James replied with a sigh.
“Why would they hate you?”
“Lily Evans hates me because I ask her out, Alice Pitman hates me because she thinks everything Lily says about me is true, and Emily Kenting hates me because, well, I don’t know why she hates me, but I’m sure she does.”
“She probably hates you for being friends with me,” Sirius said, speaking for the first time since James told his story.
“Shut up you guys,” Jessica said. “You are all so stupid. Now, listen to what I say, and I guarantee you that you’re life will stop being so full of guilt.”
“Or your money back,” James muttered under his breath.
Jessica ignored him and said, “Sirius, talk to Emily and at least tell her why you stopped being friends with her. I doubt I can knock some sense into you, but maybe you’ll believe it when she says it.
“James, tell Carly that you’re an idiot and that you’re sorry that you stopped being friends with her. Tell her that you still think of her as a sister, even though you haven’t talked to her in, like, forever. Then, let her tell you that she doesn’t hate you and let her tell you how much it hurt her that you stopped talking to her. Feel guilty and then, become friends again.
“When you have both done what I told you, and you have your best friends back, let me say ‘I told you so’ and then reply, ‘Yeah, you did,’ and all of your problems will be solved.”
“But-“
“No.”
“just lis-“
“No.”
“You don’t get-“
“Just do it!”
“Fine, but after we get back to Hogwarts,” James said.
“Fine,” Jessica replied.
“Fine,” James and Sirius chorused back at the same time.
“Fine.”


I know that this chapter is very monodialogue on Carly’s part, but I did my best.
Just let me know what you think because I’m really honestly starting to feel abandoned right now.

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718


Lots of love,
Chocolaterox

I was happy to see that I got some new feedback.
One thing, however, is that I want to clear up the fact that I was thinking of stopping this story. Even if I get no feedback, I will try to keep going, if not for anyone else, then for me because this is something I enjoy doing. The feedback just makes it easier to keep going, and it speeds up the process, so don’t think it’s okay not to leave feedback.

All right, now I’m done with that, so let’s see what I have here.


Chapter 14

“Lily!” Emily shouted as she flung open the door. “I can’t believe how you’re always so perfectly on time.”
“And I can’t believe you’re early,” Lily replied walking into the house. “When did you get here?”
“Half an hour ago. It was easier to be on time since I could apperate.”
“Well, mom still insisted on driving me,” Lily replied.
“Yeah, mom’s are like that.”
“So, where’s Carly at?” Lily asked.
“In her room. Wait until you see it; it’s amazing,” Emily replied, leading Lily up the stairs to the second floor.
She stopped outside a room with the words, “Cassie’s Room” written across the door. There were flowers painted around the words and a messy drawing of three stick figures was put onto the top of the door with what looked like a Sticking Charm. Each person in the drawing was labeled. One girl was labeled “Cassie.” The other was labeled “Jessie.” In between the girls was a boy labeled, “Jay.”
Lily was confused by the words and the drawing. She turned to Emily and asked about it.
Emily gasped, but she quickly covered it up and said, “Oh um, you might remember, but I didn’t. Carly’s real name is Cassandra which is what Cassie’s short for. Carly is just her middle name.”
“Oh,” Lily replied. “What’s with the drawing then?”
“What draw-Oh, um, that one, well, you see…” Emily began, stumbling over her words. “That’s, um-“
Just then, the door flew open and Carly came out. “I thought I heard voices,” she said. “What are we doing, admiring my door?” she asked jokingly.
“That’s exactly what we were doing,” Emily said. “Lily was just wondering about your drawing.”
What drawing?” Carly asked looking at the door. Then, seeing it, she gasped. Then, slowly, she turned to Lily. “Oh, that drawing. Well, you see, I drew it when I was three. It’s a drawing of me and my, um, imaginary friends.”
“Your imaginary friends?” Lily repeated.
“Yeah, did you never have any?”
“No.”
“Well I did and they were my best friends ever and you will not make fun of them,” Carly said in a tone that said that that was final.
“Alright then,” Lily replied sounding a bit unsure.
“Great,” Carly said. “Come on in then.”
Lily followed Carly and Emily into the room and looked around. The walls were a little bare, but it was painted a soft pastel purple. There were pictures of Carly with the girls and of Carly with her family on the walls. There was a big white bed on the right and a gigantic window that stretched across the back wall. The window started where the bookcases were at in the other end of the room and it ended right before the bed. There was a nice alcove looking out the window by the bed. Right in the middle of the window was a white desk, over flowing with stuff.
In the center of the room was a big cardboard box.
“What’s in the box?” Lily asked.
“Oh, it’s just trash that I was cleaning out,” Carly replied. She grabbed her wand from her bed side table and waved it at the box. It disappeared, to where, Lily did not know.
“Alice isn’t here yet?” Lily asked putting her trunk down.
“No, not yet,” Emily replied.
“And my parents went out early to get things for the birthday party tomorrow,” Carly added. “My family will be coming this evening and you guys can meet Jacob when my parents get home.”
“Alright,” Lily said. “What do we do until then?”
“Let’s go down and see what the house elf is making for lunch while we wait for Alice,” Carly suggested.
“Okay, just lead the way, Cassie,” Lily replied.
Carly froze and turned to face Lily. “Don’t call me that,” she said. “I hate it.”
“Then why’s it on your door?” Lily asked, still a little shocked by Carly’s change in attitude.
“Because it is.”
“But-“
“There are only two people allowed to call me that, and you are not one of them.”
“It’s just a name.”
“It’s more than a name, it’s my identity.” Carly said it as if the subject was closed, but Lily wasn’t done yet. She was about to reply, but she caught sight of Emily shaking her head and sighed.
“Okay, let’s just go see what’s for lunch.

The three girls went down to the kitchen where they were greeted by a house elf who was bussing herself with lunch.
“Hello, Miss Carly and Miss Carly’s friends. Lucky was just preparing a lunch for young Misses. Master and Mistress Soames shall not return until after lunch is to be served.”
“Alright, thanks, Lucky,” Carly said.
“You is welcome, Miss. Oh, and Miss Carly, you is receiving an owl.”
“Oh, thanks,” Carly said and went over to the table to retrieve the letter.
Carly picked up the envelope and looked at the front to see who it was for. It said, “Soames Family.”
“Well, I’m part of the Soames family,” Carly said opening the letter.
Out fell two pieces of parchment. Carly picked up the first one and as about to unfold it when the doorbell rang.
“That must be Alice,” Emily said.
“I’ll go get it,” Lily said, leaving the kitchen.
Emily nodded and finished unfolding the letter.

Dear Conner and Lindsey,
We are writing to let you know that we have some amazing news. I’m sure you will want to know about it, and we want to tell you in person. I know you are having Jacob’s birthday party tomorrow, but do you think you could come by the day after?
I also know that Carly has her friends over, but we would like her to come as well. I promise you, you will not regret coming. She can bring her friends if she wants to, but it really is important.
This is a really big thing for us, and we would like to share this with you because it will affect you as well. Please let us know if you can come, and if not, please try to find a day that you can come. Any time this summer would be fine.


With love,
Jake and Amy Potter


P.S.
If Carly still doesn’t want to come, which is perfectly understandable, please have her read the other letter.

-Jake and Amy

“What could it be?” Carly asked Emily who had been reading over her shoulder.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Do you think you’ll go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should read the other letter first,” Emily said.
Carly nodded and picked it up.

Dear Carly,
I know you probably don’t want to hear from me and I wouldn’t blame you for hating me, but please, just hear me out.
You really need to come. It’s really big and we really want you to be there, even more than we want your parents here. There are two reasons for that:
1) I really need to talk to you, even though you may not want to hear it.
2) You have to see what we want to show you. It might bring back Cassie, which is what I really want, other than to have you back as a friend.
Please come and hear what I have to say and see what we want to show you. You can bring the others if you want to, even though I doubt Lily will want to come. Especially since Sirius and Remus will be here.
But whether or not they come, I really want you to come, so please come.

Love
James


“Can I open my eyes now?” Jessica asked, sounding a little irritated.
“No, not yet. We’re almost there, just a few more steps.
Jessica sighed and kept walking.
“Okay, stop,” James said.
Jessica stopped. She heard the sound of a door being opened.
“Okay,” came James’s voice. “Open your eyes.”
Jessica opened her eyes and gasped. In front of her was a bed room painted a soft blue. The sheets on the bed were a soft green. The carpet was bright white and the furniture was just barely off-white. The bed was on the right, and, on the right, were two doors. The walls were covered in pictures of Jessica, James, and Carly when they were kids, and pictures of the whole Potter family from when they were little. There were also dog stuffed animals in different places all around the room.
The most amazing part of the room, however, was the drawings on the walls with the pictures. There were drawings of Jessica with her family, Jessica with Carly, Jessica with Carly and James, and of Jessica lying in her hospital bed. There were also drawings of different dogs and some nice sunsets and scenes.
“Wow, is this my room?” Jessica asked James who was standing next to her with a very excited expression on his face.
“Yeah, what do you think? Mom and dad picked out the furniture, I picked out the colors and the pictures, and Sirius made me add the drawings. Oh, and Stacey picked the dogs.”
“I love it!” Jessica said walking into the room and looking around. “And I love dogs and blue and green and - wait, where did the drawings come from?” Jessica asked facing turning and facing James.
“Oh, well, I um-“
“He drew them,” Sirius said appearing behind James. I think they’re pretty cool and thought you would like them as well, so I made him agree to hang them up in here.”
“Yeah, I love them!” Jessica exclaimed. “I can’t believe you drew them, James. Since when did you draw?”
“Since I turned seven and got bored with nothing to do,” James replied.
“So, I guess that explains what that healer was saying about you and a pencil,” Jessica said.
“What?”
“When I woke up, the healers went crazy and started talking about who would be happy that I was awake. That led to a conversation of, ‘that brother of hers’ which led to something about songs and drawings before another healer yelled at - hey, what about songs?”
“He taught himself to play the guitar, too. And he wrote songs,” Sirius said before James could say anything.
“Seriously? You play the guitar and sing, too? Why would that Lily girl hate you?”
“Well, it’s not something I advertise to the public,” James said.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not.”
“Well, it should be.”
“Well, it’s not.”
“But it should be.”
“It’s not; closed topic!”
“Alright, alright, it’s not,” Jessica said holding up her hands and looking around the room.
“How do you like it, Dear?” Amy asked coming into the room with her husband.
“I love it,” Jessica replied.
“Can you believe James drew these pictures and we didn’t even know it until last week?” Jake asked.
“I know. It’s so cool.”
“Are you guys done mocking me now?” James asked.
“We aren’t mocking you, James,” his dad said. “We are just commenting on how good they are.”
“What we came up here to do is tell you that we are planning on having the Soames over for dinner the day after tomorrow and they don’t know that Jessica is awake yet, so that’s going to be a little surprise for them.”
“Oh really? That’s great!” Jessica exclaimed. “I’ve been dying to see Cassie again.”
“Yeah, we were going to tell them to make sure they bring along Carly.”
“Great!”
“Alright, then, I need to go and send that letter,” Jake said walking out of the room.
“And I need to go over to Lauren’s and help her pick out invitations,” Amy said, also leaving. “Oh, and she’s coming over with Luke for dinner tonight. Incase I’m not back in time, help Cookie, Sirius.”
“Awww, do I have to?” Sirius asked.
“Yes, Cookie is just one house elf and can’t prepare a meal for 8 all by herself, especially when two of the 8 are you and James.”
Sirius groaned as Amy left.
“I hate cooking,” Sirius complained.
“You don’t hate it, you’re just embarrassed by it,” James said.
“Same difference.”
“It’s your own fault that you can cook you know.”
Sirius said nothing and just walked out of the room, mumbling something about Remus getting here.
“Sirius can cook?” Jessica asked.
“Yeah, and it’s a good thing to because mom goes out early on the weekends and we try to give cookie a break and if Lauren doesn’t come, we would be stranded. I tried to cook once and it almost ended in a kitchen fire, and dad is about as good as me.”
“Yeah, I remember dad’s cooking.”
James smiled and watched as Jessica went through the other two doors and admired her huge bathroom and gigantic walk in closet.
When she was done, she turned to face James and said to him, “You know, Carly’s coming in a couple of days.”
“But we agreed on at Hogwarts,” James said.
“Yeah, so no one has to make any special trips, but if she’s coming anyways…”
James stared at his sister and then sighed and replied, “You’re right. And I’ll write her a letter telling her that I need to talk to her and persuading her to come in the first place because she probably won’t want to.”
“Good,” Jessica said pushing him out of the room. “Now go do that.”
James nodded and walked to his room and got started on the letter.

Lily opened the door and found Alice beaming at her.
“Hey, Lily,” she said, giving Lily a hug.
“Hi, Alice.” Lily replied, hugging her back. “How are you?”
“I’m great, but I missed you guys.”
“Yeah, we all missed each other,” Lily said leading Alice to the kitchen.
“You okay Lily?” Alice asked sounding worried. “You seem distant.”
“What? Oh, I’m okay, I’m just a little worried about Carly.”
“Why, what’s wrong with her?” Alice asked going straight into panic mode.
“Shhh, Alice, it’s not like that, it’s just that she seems different. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try,” Alice said.
“Well, her door says ‘Cassie’s Room,” Lily started.
“Cassie?”
“Yeah, according to Emily, Carly is her middle name. Her real name is Cassandra; Cassie for short.”
I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t remember either, but, remember how the teachers called her Cassandra for the first week of first year?”
Alice put on a thinking face, then suddenly gasped and said, “Oh my gosh, you’re right!”
“Yeah, and then, on her door, there’s also a picture of three stick figures that Carly says she drew when she was three. There were 2 girls and a boy. The girls were labeled ‘Cassie’ and ‘Jessie,’ and the boy was labeled ‘Jay.’ When I asked Emily about it, she started stuttering, then Carly came out, so I asked her and she said that it was a picture of her and her imaginary friends that she drew when she was four.”
“Her imaginary friends?” Alice asked sounding like she didn’t believe it.
“That’s what I said, but she got all possessive and weird; it was odd.
“The really weird thing, however, is how she got when I called her Cassie. She told me not to call her that and that she hated it. Then she told me that I wasn’t one of the two people that was allowed to call her that. I told her to calm down, that it was just a name, but she went all weird and said, ‘it’s more than a name, it’s my identity.’”
“Wow,” was all Alice could say.
“Yeah.”
“I never thought Carly could be like that.”
“Neither did I,” Lily said with a sigh. “Oh well. This just means we’ll have to keep a closer eye on her, and Emily, too because I think she knows something.”
Alice nodded and said, “Let’s go find them so they don’t get suspicious.”
Lily nodded, and the girls continued on their way to the kitchen.


So, I added the last part at the last minute because I wanted to make it a bit longer.
Let me know what you think.

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

(please)


Lots of love,
Chocolaterox

Chapter 15

The rest of that day seemed to pass fine for Lily and her friends. They hung out outside and helped set up for the party when Carly’s parents came home.
Jacob was adorable. He was really happy all the time and always all smiles. He loved getting into trouble. He was the opposite of Carly; actually, Carly’s entire family was opposite of her. They all were loud and seemed to love trouble. The girls had already heard plenty of stories of the trouble everyone got into.
The most surprising thing for Lily was hearing of the trouble Carly got into.
She was helping her mom with dinner when her older brother, Justin, joined Lily, Alice, and Emily outside. He was a fun guy. He was already 24-years-old so he had moved out and was living in America. According to Carly, he hadn’t been back to visit for 8 years, not counting last year when Jacob was born. He worked as an Auror there.
“Hey,” he said taking a seat.
“Hi,” the girls chorused back.
“So, how’s Hogwarts?” he asked.
“It’s great,” Lily replied. “We have a lot of fun, even with all of the work. It’s like a home away from home.”
“Yeah, I know the feeling. I’m pretty sure it’s the same as when I went there, except with a lot more trouble.”
“You got that right,” Alice said. “With Potter and his little Marauders running around it’s dangerous to walk down the halls because you never know when the floor will disappear on you.”
Justin laughed and replied, “Yeah, that kid was always for trouble, though he was usually the one in the background: the one who usually found and caught the snake.
“Carly on the other hand, was the headache. She was the one to who put the snake in your shoe. I mean seriously, it could have been poisonous.”
“Carly put a snake in your shoe?” Lily asked in shock.
“Since when did she have such a evil little mind to even come up with that?” Alice asked.
“Well, Jessica came up with the idea no doubt, but yeah, Carly put it in there.”
“Why?”
“I think she was hoping it would bite me and I wouldn’t have to go away to Hogwarts that year. It didn’t work as they planned it, but for 5-year-olds, it was a pretty good idea.”
“Who’s Jessica?” Lily asked.
“She’s –“
“Lily, Alice, let’s go find Carly,” Emily interrupted.
Lily raised her eyebrows, but nodded and got up with Alice.
“See you later, Justin,” Alice called as they walked up to the house.
Justin waved at them before going to join his dad and uncles on the other side of the yard.
Now Lily was even more confused. How had Justin known Potter? He was out of Hogwarts by the time they all got to school. Though, if he knew Potter, he couldn’t have really known him; James Potter wasn’t the one in the background.
And Carly putting a snake in her brother’s shoe? That was a little unbelievable as well.
And, who was Jessica? And why did Emily stop Justin from telling them? Was there something important that Lily had missed?
She was sure that Emily knew something that she wasn’t telling, and Carly had a huge secret that she should have shared.

Jessica was sitting in the living room, going through all of James’ drawings that weren’t in her room. She had convinced him to show them to her after about half an hour of asking. Wanting to spend some time outside of her room, she had brought them down. Right now, they were all spread out in front her and organized into piles according to subject.
She was just about to add a drawing of James’ friend Remus to the “friends” pile when a person fell out of the fireplace.
Jessica looked up from the drawing to see a mirror of it looking down at her.
“Wow, that’s weird,” she said putting the drawing down.
“James! Sirius!” she shouted.
“What?!” they both called back at the same time from the kitchen.
“Remus is in the living room!”
“Coming!” James called back.
“Give them a minute,” Jessica said to Remus. “Lauren just made cookies.”
Remus nodded, even though he was extremely confused.
“I need some more folders,” Jessica said to herself looking down at the piles of drawings. “Tell James that I’m not done with those and he better not touch them,” she said to Remus walking out of the room.
A second later, James and Sirius came out of the kitchen and went over to the very confused Remus.
“Hey, Moony,” Sirius said. “How’s it going?”
“Great, how ‘bout you guys?” he asked, still confused.
“I’m good, but James here is on top of the world,” Sirius replied.
“What, did Lily decide to go out with him?” Remus joked.
“Even better,” James said with a huge grin on his face. “My twin sister is no longer in a comma.”
“What?!”
“Speaking of Jessie, I told her to give those back as soon as she’s done,” James said going over to the drawings.
He was about to pick them up when Jessica came back.
“James!” she yelled. “I’m not done. Get away from there!”
“Well sorry. You were gone so I assumed you were done.”
“Well I’m not. I need to put them into their proper folders.”
“There is only one folder.”
“Not anymore,” Jessica said waving the folders in her hands in James face.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve organized them. Now I need to put them into folders according to category.”
When did you start organizing?”
“No idea,” Jessica replied before getting back to work.
“Not like they’re going to stay in their ‘proper folders,’” James muttered.
“James?”
He looked over at Remus who was, again very confused.
“Oh yeah,” Jessica said. “You never told him I existed.”
“I know that,” James muttered.
“Well, just letting you know. I mean if you keep forgetting to tell your best friends that you have a twin sister, then I’m sure you would forget that you never told them.”
“Well, I never forgot to tell them or that I didn’t tell them.”
“Oh, that’s right; you just didn’t want to tell them. I wasn’t important enough for your friends to know about. Lucky for you that I was in a comma and you didn’t have to deal with me for 11 years, but to bad for you, I’m back.”
“What are you trying to say?!” James shouted at her.
“That you never cared enough about me to let people know about me!”
“What?! Is that what you think?! Well, I’ll have you know that I care about you a lot and only didn’t tell my friends because it hurt too much to think about my sister lying unconscious in a hospital bed!”
Jessica was silent for a minute, then she started to laugh.
“What?”
“I can’t believe we are still doing this,” Jessica said. “We haven’t done this since you and Cassie went out with mom to buy me a birthday present.”
James laughed as well. “You’re right!”
“Sorry,” Jessica said. “Old habits die hard.”
“It’s okay,” James replied. “Can’t expect much more of you.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“You’re an idiot.”
“Thanks, you’re annoying.”
“I do my best. I think I’m really getting good.”
“So do I.”
“And I’m really confused at the moment,” Remus said out of nowhere.
“You still haven’t told him.”
“I know, Jessica!”
“Just double checking.”
“Just a little confused,” Remus said.
“You might want to sit, Moony,” Sirius said. “Maybe in the kitchen. This is a great story to go with cookies.”
“Haven’t you had enough?” Jessica asked him.
“No,” Sirius replied, dragging Remus to the kitchen with James right behind them.
Jessica shook her head and finished with James’ drawings.

“Explain,” Remus said the second the door had closed behind them.
James took a deep breath and said, “That was my twin sister Jessica who I never told you about because I didn’t want to think about the fact that she was in a comma since we were 6-years-old.”
Remus stood there, trying to absorb all of the information James had just given him. He sat down and said, “Details, please.”
James and Sirius sat with him. James began to talk while Sirius ate cookies.
By the time James was done, Sirius had eaten 10 cookies and Remus had heard the things he had least expected to hear. The idea of James having a twin sister was bizarre enough, but then hearing of his friendship with Carly Soames was crazier. Add to that James’ hobbies of drawing, singing, writing songs, and playing the guitar, and you have the most unexpected things all put together.
“Wow,” was all Remus could say.
“Yeah, I know,” James said. “And I know I should have told you, but hopefully, you can see why I didn’t.”
“Yeah, I see. It’s okay,” Remus replied.
“Good,” Sirius said. “Now that that’s done, let’s go find Jessica so that you can properly meet her.”
“Okay,” Remus said getting up with his two friends and setting out in search of the other Potter twin.

“Are you sure you want to go alone?” Emily asked.
“Yes, Emily, I am,” Carly replied with a sigh. “This is something I have to do by myself.”
“Alright, if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, so, next order of business; what are we telling Lily and Alice?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Carly said.
“You sure you have it all worked out?”
“Yes!”
“Okay, okay, just making sure.”
Carly and Emily were sitting in the kitchen the morning after the party. Emily had decided to join her parents, Jacob, and Justin on their visit to the Potters’ house. She knew that she needed James back, and she felt that the only way was to go there today.
“Just stick to what I say, okay?” Carly said to Emily.
“Okay,” Emily replied.
When Alice and Lily came down, Carly turned to them and said, “I need to go out today.”
“Where?” Lily asked suspiciously.
“My parents’ friends invite us over once every month. I forgot about it until mom reminded me last night. You guys are allowed to come, but I doubt you would want to.”
“We’ll come,” Alice said.
“You don’t want to come. I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to. I mean, they treat me like a kid or something. They’re always telling me where not to go, what not to touch, what not to look at; it’s like they expect me to break everything that has any type of contact with me.”
“Are you sure you don’t want us to come?”
“Yes, Alice. You guys hang out around here and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“If you’re sure,” Lily said uncertainly.
“I’m sure,” Carly assured them. “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, then Alice and I’ll go shower.”
“I’ll probably be gone by the time you’re done, so I’ll see you guys later.”
“Okay. Bye,” Lily called.
“Bye!”
When they were gone for sure, Emily turned to Carly and asked, “How do you lie so easily?”
“I don’t exactly lie,” Carly said. “I just create the wrong impression.”
Emily gave her a questioning look and Carly just smiled.
“They do invite my family over once a month, but I never went after the whole…incident. They understood and never really minded.
“They are allowed to come, but they probably wouldn’t want to because of James, Sirius, and Remus being there.
“I do have to go, but not because somebody is telling me to, but because I know that I won’t get peace until I do. I have to go for myself.
“They have treated me like a kid every time I’ve been there since I was a kid every time I went there. They also restricted me, but not so severely. Most of it was just joking or obvious stuff like don’t touch the rat poisoning or something.”
Emily just shook her head at the explanation.
“Are you ready to go?” Mrs. Soames asked sticking her head into the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute,” Carly replied.
“Okay, Sweetheart.”
“I’ll see you when I get back,” Carly said to Emily.
“Yeah, and good luck with James,” Emily said.
“Thanks,” Carly said getting up. “Bye.”
“Bye.”

“Don’t forget about me,” Jessica said.
“We won’t just stay here until we come up,” James replied.
“Okay, and remember, if you forget, I skin you alive.”
James rolled his eyes and went down to the living room with Sirius and Remus to join his parents and Stacey.
“Are they here yet?” James asked walking in.
“Yes, and they all brought their invisibility clocks which is why you can’t see them,” Jake said.
“Really?” James asked.
“No.”
James stuck out his tongue and sat down with the others.
The plan was to say their hellos and talk until the subject of their urgent letter was brought up. At that point, they would lead the Soames up to Jessica’s bedroom, throw open the door, and enjoy the looks of shock and surprise.
After they were all done talking about how great it was to have Jessica back, they would go off and do as they please.
After about 5 more minutes of waiting, the fireplace turned green and the Soames arrived.



Now what???
Tell me what you think
(Please)

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Chapter 16

“How are you?” Amy asked them as they stepped out of the fireplace.
“Tired from yesterday, but fine other than that,” Mrs. Soames replied. “I’m mostly existed because Connor here was intent on having the party go on all night.”
“And I’m tired because Lindsey wanted to get here early resulting in only 5 hours of sleep,” Mr. Soames said.
“No one told you to stay up late.”
“No one told you to get up early,” Mr. Soames shot back.
“I wanted to get up early,” Mrs. Soames said.
“I wanted to stay up late.”
“Then why are you complaining!?”
“Why are you!?”
“Glad to see that you two are still the same,” Amy said.
“Yeah, I didn’t already have enough headaches with James here and his over the moon attitude all summer long,” Jake muttered.
“I have a perfectly justified reason to be over the moon,” James said.
“I thought we were going to wait to tell them,” Stacey said.
“We were,” Remus told her.
“We better not though, or else she’ll die of claustrophobia,” Sirius said.
“Oh yeah,” Carly said. “You had to tell us something. What is it?”
“James?” Jake said looking over at him.
James smiled a wide smile and motioned for the others to follow him. They all followed, curious to see what the Potters wanted to show them.
James led the group up to the second floor and to a door opposite James’ room, next to Stacey’s.
Carly, being short and in the back couldn’t really see anything, but she heard her mom gasp and saw her dad turn to look over at Mr. Potter with his eyebrows raised.
“They are marveling at a door with ‘Jessie’s Room’ written on it and a really amazing drawing or you three in the flower garden,” Sirius whispered to her.
Carly’s eyes went wide. “
“Jessie?”
Sirius nodded.
Just then, James threw open the door. Everyone went in and looked around. Carly walked forward and looked up at the door. Sirius was right; the words “Cassie’s Room” were written in the center of the door, right below a drawing of three 5-year-olds that Carly knew for sure was from a picture that she was sure used to be in her room.
The room was big and beautiful. The thing that had Carly all excited though was the red-head girl sitting on the bed.
“Cassie!”
“Jessie?”
“No, I’m the ghost.”
“Oh my god! I can’t believe it!” Carly cried running forward and hugging Jessica tight.
“Can’t breathe!”
“Oh my gosh, I missed you.”
“Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of that,” Jessica said.
“Well, we all really did miss you,” Lindsey said coming and hugging her as well.
“Even though it has been peaceful,” Mr. Soames added.
Jessica stuck her tongue out at him.
“I better start checking my shoes for snakes again,” Justin said.
Jessica ignored him.
“You have got to tell me about yourself,” Jessica said to Carly. “I refuse to believe those idiots over there.” She pointed over at James and Sirius.
“I am not an idiot,” Sirius said.
“I am,” James sighed.
At this point, Sirius got out of the chair he was sitting in and pulled everyone out of the room, leaving James, Jessica, and Carly.
“I need to use the bathroom,” Jessica said going for the door to the bathroom after everyone else had left.
Carly sat on the bed staring at James as he stared at the carpet.
“I hate you,” she said.
James sighed and looked up. “I don’t blame you.”
“I mean you practically ruined my life. You aren’t the only one that missed her. I needed someone to talk to, and only you knew her well enough to relate to how I felt. You could have made the whole thing easier for me you know. Instead, you went and made it harder.”
James got p and went to sit next her.
“You really are and idiot. You – you –“ She choked on her tears and buried her face in her hands.
“I know,” James said softly, patting her on the back. “I wouldn’t have done what I did if I wasn’t an idiot. I’m sorry.”
“And that’s supposed to fix everything. We aren’t 5 anymore, James!”
“I know. I know what I said to you was stupid. I would have told you what I’m telling you now if I wasn’t so me.
“I really did need you back then. I would have talked to you a lot sooner; I would have told you that I was sorry, but I knew you were mad at me. You can hate me if you want, Carly, but, to me, you will always be my sister, the Cassie that I’ve always known and loved.”
“I can’t believe you, James!” Carly exclaimed. “You’ve been my brother since the moment I was born. You’ve been one of my best friends for so long. You are one of the only two people that I have ever felt like me around.
“James, siblings fight. They say, ‘I hate you,’ and ‘I never want to see you again.’ The other one gets mad, but in the end, they know that their brother or sister really does love them. I know you didn’t mean it James; I know what you were going through. I felt it, too. You hurt me, but I know it wasn’t on purpose. I forgave you a long time ago; I was just waiting for you to forgive me.”
“Forgive you for what!? You didn’t do anything!”
“You needed time. I needed to be with someone, but you needed to be alone. I didn’t think about you much when I came to your room 11 years ago looking for comfort. I should have given you time.”
“I should have been there for you,” James said. “Instead, I yelled at you. As your unofficial older brother, I should have thought of you first.”
“Forget it James; it’s done,” Carly said wiping her tears. “It’s in the past.”
“Okay, let’s pretend it never happened,” James said getting up.
Carly nodded and also stood.
“You can come out now, Jessie!” James called as he and Carly made their way to the door.
“Thank God!” Jessica sighed coming out. “You guys are so annoying!”
“And we’re proud of it,” Carly said.
The three best friends made their way back downstairs as if nothing had ever happened.

“So, what do we do now?” Lily asked.
“I don’t know,” Emily replied. “Alice?”
“No idea.”
The three girls had spent most of the day outside, just walking around and talking. They had had plenty of conversation with various Soames, and the conversation all involved young Carly getting into trouble.
This was making Lily even more sure that Carly was hiding something. She had to find out why Carly was hiding whatever it was. Hopefully, she would be able to get it out of her.
“How about dinner?” Emily suggested.
Lily and Alice agreed, and the three girls made their way into the kitchen.
They sat at the table and ate their spaghetti, talking as usual.
“What do you think is going on with Carly?” Lilt asked casually.
“What do you mean?” Emily asked, suddenly seeming a bit tense.
“Oh, come on, Em!” Lily exclaimed. “I know you know what I’m talking about. There is something wrong with Carly.”
“Everyone has their secrets, Lily. It’s up to Carly if she wants to share hers.”
“We’re her best friends! I think we deserve to know!”
“Maybe, but it could be something that Carly knows will make you mad. Maybe she doesn’t want to make you angry at her. She has the right to hide things yes, we are her friends, but that doesn’t mean she has to tell us everything.”
“That’s BS, Emily!” Alice shouted. “You only say that because you know!”
“You’re right,” Emily said. “I know, and I think she should tell you guys, but I also understand why she wouldn’t want to tell. Especially you, Lily.”
With that final statement, Emily got up and walked out of the kitchen and up to her room.

She had cracked. She couldn’t help it. Lily had put her under pressure, and she never did well under pressure. As she was talking, all Emily could think of was getting out of there before she completely spilled the secret. She didn’t tell, but she said enough. Carly would have to tell, and she would have to tell soon.
Emily dropped down onto her bed. Even though it was only 8:30, she fell asleep.

Sirius couldn’t help it. No matter how hard he tried not to stare, he just couldn’t help it.
Jessica was different from any person he had ever met. She was he own person. Her personality, her attitude, her everything was just so…different. There was no other way to say it. He didn’t know where the feelings were coming from. They weren’t like anything he had ever felt before.
However, Sirius knew he couldn’t have these feelings. Jessica was James’ sister! He was sure there was some unwritten rule where guys couldn’t date their best friend’s sister.
He would just have to control it; it couldn’t be that hard, could it?
Boy was he wrong.
James, Jessica, and Carly were sitting and talking in the backyard, and Sirius and Remus were watching them. Actually, Remus was reading a book, and Sirius was watching Jessica.
“You know, Sirius,” Remus said putting his book down. “There is no rule saying you can’t like your friend’s sister.”
“What are you talking about?” Sirius demanded tearing his gaze away from Jessica.
“You’re allowed to like Jessica.”
“I don’t like her!” Sirius exclaimed.
“I never said you did; I simply said you were allowed to like her,” Remus replied.
“But you said it like I actually liked her.”
Remus just shrugged and said, “I always thought that it would be better for a guy to date his friend’s sister.”
“What?”
“Well, if a guy can trust anyone with his sister, it would be his friends, right? More specifically, their best friend. A best friend is someone you can trust with anything, right? Why not your sister.”
“What are you getting at?” Sirius asked.
Remus shrugged and just said, “James wouldn’t care if you dated Jessica because he knows you wouldn’t hurt her. He also knows that you know that he would kick your butt if you did.” With that, Remus picked up his book and walked back into the house leaving Sirius sitting there, thinking about what Remus had said.
What he had said made sense, but you can’t expect protective older brothers to think like that, can you?
Sirius thought a little bit more and decided to talk to James. Not directly, but just to see what James would say.
Yeah, that’s what he would do.
With that final though, he got up and went up to his room.

Jessica was so happy that things were back to normal, for now. She had been talking with James and Carly for a very long time. They were telling her of the pranks that the marauders had pulled. So far, all of them seemed hilarious.
Jessica also got to say “I told you so” to James because he was the star Chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and had helped his team win the House Cup for the past 5 years. He had even been captain last year.
According to Carly, he was amazing.
“You haven’t really ever really flown, have a Jessie?” James asked.
“No, actually, I haven’t,” she replied.
“Well, let’s go change that,” James said. He got up, pulling Jessica and Carly behind him.
He led the girls to the broom shed.
“I haven’t seen you fly either, Cassie.”
“Yeah, I only fly at home. I’m not that great,” Carly replied.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” James said taking three brooms and going over to the Quidditch pitch.
He got onto his broom and shot straight up into the air. Then, he dived back down. James pulled out of the dive 6 feet from the ground and hovered.
“Show off,” Carly muttered.
“Get on!” James called.
Carly got onto one of the brooms and flew up into the air. She flew around a bit before joining James; though her dive wasn’t as steep as James’, her agility was great.
“You aren’t bad,” James said to her.
She just smiled and landed next to Jessica.
“Well, are you going to get on?” Carly asked her.
“You want me to just get on and fly, just like that?” she asked looking at her as if she were crazy.
“That’s what I did.”
Jessica just looked at her.
James joined them and said, “It’s not really that hard. You get on, lean forward to go and pull the broom up a bit to stop.”
Jessica stared at the broom before shrugging and picking it up. She got on, following James’ instructions.
“Now go,” James said.
Jessica leaned forward and she soared up. She flew around and then dived back to the ground. She landed neatly much to her own surprise.
“Wow, Jessie,” James said looking at her in shock. “You’re a natural. I fell off and broke my arm my first time.”
“And you just let me go up there!” Jessica shouted. “How could you!?”
“You didn’t fall, did you?”
Jessica lunged at him, but James got back onto his broom and flew up.
Jessica got onto her own broom and followed him with great speed. James was shocked for a second before he quickly flew away. He zigzagged through the sky, but Jessica stayed on his tail. James dived 30 feet from the ground and pulled out of it 5 feet up. Jessica followed suite, but neatly pulled out of the dive only 3 feet from the ground.
James landed and stared up at his sister. “I think you’re a shoe in for Seeker,” was all he could say.
“What?” Jessica asked landing next to him.
“You’re brilliant!” Carly exclaimed.
“I am?”
“That dive was amazing!’ James exclaimed. “I sure wouldn’t have been able to do that my second time on a broom.”
“I’m really that good?” Jessica asked.
“Yeah you are!”
Jessica just smiled and turned to Carly. “Let’s see what you’ve got,” she said.
Carly got onto her broom and flew around. She changed direction pretty well and was good at keeping her balance.
When she touched back down, James turned to her and said, “All you have to be able to do is protect some goal hoops and catch the Quaffle you’ll make a great Keeper.”
“You think so?” she asked.
“Yeah,” James said.
Carly smiled and said, “Let’s go get some dinner.”
Te other two agreed, and they made their way back up to the house.

Tell me what you think (again).

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Chapter 17

‘What am I going to do?’ Carly asked herself as she paced her room the next morning. She had come home late last night, and all of her friends had been asleep.
Early that morning, though, Emily had come to her room and told her that she had almost told Lily and Alice her secret. Emily swore she didn’t tell, but she did say that Lily and Alice defiantly knew that something was up. She would have to tell them something.
The day before, Carly had talked to Jessica and James, and they had said that she should tell her friends the truth. Carly knew she had to tell them, but she didn’t think she was ready.
‘But I have to tell them something!’
Carly sighed and sat down on her bed. She decided to take a long shower. It might help her think of something. And the shower did work. Carly knew what to tell her friends, and she wouldn’t even have to lie.
When she got down to breakfast, Carly found all three of her friends sitting there, eating pancakes. When she walked in, they all looked up.
Emily was looking at her pleadingly, as if she was asking for forgiveness. Carly just nodded at her with a light smile, but Emily got the message.
Alice was looking at her questioningly, and Lily was glaring.
Carly sat down with her own pancakes and began to eat.
“Spill,” Lily demanded, still glaring.
Carly sighed and looked up. “I guess it really is nothing,” she said. “I should have told you, but I guess I was afraid to talk about it.”
“What is it?” Alice asked.
“Yesterday, I went with my parents to their friends’ house; I already told you that. What I didn’t tell you was that they have a daughter, and I’ve known her my entire life. We’re practically sisters. Her brother says that we’re like twins, and we kind of are. We were born only about 4 months apart.”
“So she’s our age?” Lily asked.
“Yeah,” Carly replied.
“Then why haven’t we seen her at school or something?” Alice asked.
“That is the answer to many questions,” Carly replied. “You see, when she was 6, she was outside and she got caught in some sort of dangerous magic cloud that leaked out of the Department of Mysteries.”
“What happen?” Lily asked looking a worried now that she had lost her glare.
“She fell into coma.”
“Oh my gosh!” Lily gasped. “That’s horrible.
Alice nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, it is horrible,” Carly said, “but she apparently woke up at the beginning of summer. She was allowed to come home a couple of days ago, and that’s why they were so desperate for me to come to their house. It was a surprise for all of us.”
“But why didn’t you tell us about it?” Alice asked.
Lily shrugged and replied, “It was just a sore subject.”
“Well, at least she’s awake now,” Lily said.
Carly nodded and said, “And even worse than that is that she hasn’t changed a bit.”
“That’s bad?”
“Yeah, she’s an annoying brat. Why do you think her parents made us keep out of everything? I didn’t lie about anything I told you guys yesterday.”
“So that’s it?”
“That’s it,” Carly replied.
“And you were worried about telling us that?” Alice asked.
Carly just shrugged as Alice laughed and walked upstairs to shower with Lily.
“You just forgot to mention that little part to me!” Emily exclaimed when the two girls had disappeared.
“Sorry, but I was more concerned about what I was going to tell Lily and Alice when you came into my room this morning,” Carly said shrugging and continuing on her pancakes.
“That’s so great, though!”
“I know,” Carly agreed with a huge smile. “James is so ecstatic. Sirius even said that he hasn’t even mentioned Lily which, according to Sirius, is quite an accomplishment.”
“Yeah, I’m not really surprised at the fact that James talks about her.”
“Yeah, neither am I. but James, he was so different. I was, of course, right; his annoying act at school is just that: an act. I have a feeling that with Jessie back and his friends knowing about her, he’s going to be more himself this year. I don’t even think he’ll have time to ask Lily out continuously with all of the excitement.”
“Looks like Lily might just maybe get her wish.”
“Yeah,” Carly said, “but maybe, it’ll make Lily want to take that wish back.”

The next two weeks went by wonderfully at the Potters. James, Sirius, and Remus got into their share of mischief as usual, this time with Jessica joining in as well. Stacey caused her own mischief, and they saw a lot of Lauren who was freaking out about her wedding which was scheduled to be during Christmas break.
One morning, James, Sirius, Remus, and Jessica were sitting at the counter in the kitchen enjoying pancakes cooked by Sirius after much persuasion by Jessica when 4 owls flew in the kitchen. Each owl landed in front of the person who the letters he was carrying were addressed to.
“What’s this?” Jessica asked untying he letter from the owls leg.
“Hogwarts letters!” Sirius exclaimed happily taking his own.
After they all had their letters, they opened them up. James, Sirius, and Remus got the usual start of term notice which they tossed aside. They also got their book lists which they looked over.
Jessica read her letter which was the same as the one first years would be getting, but it also told her that they had decided to start her in 7th year after talking to her healers. She would be getting more information when she got to school and was to get supplies for every class she was interested in.
She told the others this and then took a look at the list of class choices. Sirius and Remus were telling her what classes to take, but James was staring at the other letter he had received.
“What’s up?” Sirius asked him taking the letter from his hand. He looked at it and began to read:


Dear Mr. Potter
I am pleased to inform you that I have decided to make you Head Boy. No it’s not a mistake and no, this isn’t Mr. Lupin’s letter. I’m not joking and I’m not crazy, so put your mind to rest, Mr. Black. I am aware that you were not a Prefect, Mr. Potter, but that does not matter.
You are to meet the Head Girl in the Prefects’ compartment on the Hogwarts’ Express on September 1st and meet me in my office after the feast.
Remember, I like Acid Pops.

Sincerely,
Albus Dumbeldore
Headmaster

P.S.
You are to help your sister out at school, though I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you. The Head Girl will also be informed to help.


“This is a joke, right?’ Sirius asked as he finished reading. “Dumbledore’s gone crazy.”
“Did you not read the letter?” James asked, still half in shock himself.
“Is there a badge?” Remus asked.
James turned his envelope upside down and out fell two badges and another letter.
One of the badges was, indeed, the Head Boy’s badge, and the other one was a Quidditch Captain’s badge.
“You’re Captain!” Sirius exclaimed happily.
“I notice,” James said quickly reading the letter telling him he was captain.
“Congratulations, James,” Jessica said. “On both accomplishments.”
“I don’t see why you’re congratulating him on turning to the dark side,” Sirius said.
Jessica hit him on the head and asked, “When will we go to Diagon Alley to get this stuff?”
“I’ll ask mom later, but we should be able to go this weekend,’ James replied.
“Great!”
“Good, now that that’s settled,” James said changing his tone. “Go outside and practice your Quidditch.”
“What?” Jessica asked.
“We are going to win the Quidditch House Cup again this year and we can’t do that without a good Seeker.”
“What’s your point?”
“Everyone I tried out last year, which was practically the whole Gryffindor house, was horrible, except for our original Seeker, but he graduated last year, and I need a good Seeker.”
“And that’s me?”
“Yes, so go practice,” James said pointing out side.
“But –“
“Go.”
“I can’t –“
“Yes you can.”
“No, I ca –“
“We’ll help you. Now move.”
Jessica sighed and got up. The three boys followed her out, and they began to teach her the basics of Quidditch.

Later that day, Carly, Emily, Lily, and Alice received their Hogwarts’ Letters.
They opened theirs up and looked at the book list.
“We should go to Diagon Alley soon,” Lily said.
“Yeah, when can we go, Carly?” Alice asked.
“I’ll ask my mom, but I’m sure she’ll let us go soon,’ Carly replied.
Alice nodded and the four girls put their booklists back into their envelopes.
“Hey, you guys,” Lily said. “There’s something else in here.”
“What is it,” Emily asked.
“I was about to find out,” Lily said pulling out the other letter. “’Dear Miss Evans,” she read. “I am pleased to inform you that you have been made this year’s’ - Oh this is so exciting!” Lily squealed jumping up and down.
“What is it?” Emily asked.
“I’m Head Girl!” Lily exclaimed.
“Oh congratulations!” Carly squealed throwing her arms around Lily.
“Thank you,” she said after hugging everyone. “This is so great!” Lily looked back at the letter. “I need to meet the Head Boy in the Prefects’ compartment on the Hogwarts’ Express and see Professor Dumbeldore after the Welcome Feast.
“Oh, and there’s a P.S. ‘There will be a new 7th year joining us this year. You are to help the Head Boy help her should he ask you for help.’”
Carly and Emily exchanged glances. No doubt the new student was Jessica. Carly had a feeling that Lily wouldn’t take too much of a liking to her.
This was sure to be interesting.


So, what do you think???

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Yay!!!
I got more feedback than usual!
Okay, here’s the next chapter

Chapter 18

The rest of the week passed by with a lot of Quidditch. It was easy to see that Jessica really was a natural on a broomstick. She had only ever ridden a small toy broom up until this week, and she was probably already a better Seeker than anyone else in Hogwarts.
James had decided that he was going to get Jessica a new broom when they went to Diagon Alley at the end of the week. That way, she would be able to try out for the house team. He didn’t think she needed to try out, but you never know when there is someone better waiting for the position.
It was like with the Keeper thing; last year’s Keeper, Jack Williams was really good. James was certain that he wouldn’t be able to find a better Keeper. He wasn’t planning on holding tryouts for those positions that were already filled, but then, when he saw Carly fly, he could instantly tell that she had a hidden talent. After dinner, everyone had gone out to play Quidditch, and not even James could get the Quaffle past her. Unless Jack had done some major practicing over the summer, James was pretty sure he was off the team.
When Saturday rolled around, James, Sirius, Remus, and Jessica all got ready to go to Diagon Alley. The first thing they were going to do was get Jessica a wand. Then, they would get their books and other things. After that, they would go to get Jessica some robes. Sirius would go with her since he also needed new robes. James and Remus would go get the broom a bring it back to surprise Jessica.
Remus and Sirius apperated to Diagon Alley, and James took Jessica with him. She was taking lessons at the ministry, but she wouldn’t get her license until the end of summer.
“Let’s get my wand!” Jessica said excitedly when they got there.
“Alright,” James said. “First stop, Ollivander’s.”
The group went into the shop.
“Ah, Miss Potter,” Ollivander said when they got in. “I was wondering when I would be seeing you. Are you ready to get your wand?”
“You bet!” Jessica replied.
“Great, just come over here and let me take your measurements,” Ollivander said.
Jessica went forward and the tape measure began to measure Jessica.
After many measurements and many wands, they had found Jessica the perfect wand: oak, unicorn hair, 11”.
Jessica was overly happy as they shopped for their other supplies.
“Okay, Jessica and Sirius get robes and meet me and Remus at the ice cream shop,” James said.
“Where are you going?” Jessica asked.
“I’ve got to grab a couple other things,” James replied.
“See you in a bit,” Sirius said dragging Jessica over to Madam Malkins’.
“Let’s go,” James said, and he and Remus made their way to Quality Quidditch supplies.
When they got in, they went straight over to the brooms.
They picked out the best one, a Nimbus 360, and paid for it. Then, they went out of the store and headed towards Florean Fortescue's.

That Saturday, Carly, Lily, Emily, and Alice all got ready to go to Diagon Alley. After breakfast, they apperated over there. The first thing they had to do was visit Gringott’s. Once they all had full money bags, they set out to do their shopping. They bought books, restocked their potion’s ingredients, and were now heading towards the little clothing store before heading back to Carly’s.
“God, these bags are heavy,” Alice groaned as they walked. “Can’t we just go? We don’t need new clothes that bad, do we?”
“No we cannot go,” Emily replied. “We can’t pain ourselves with school shopping and not treat ourselves to some clothing.”
“It would be a better treat to be able to put theses bags down,” Alice muttered.
“It’ll be worth it when we pick out twenty new cute outfits.”
“That’ll take forever! I’ll pull a muscle or die of exhaustion or something!”
“No you won’t.”
“Yes I will!”
“No, you won’t.”
Yes I will! These bags are killing me! Aren’t they heavy, Lily?” Emily asked turning to Lily. When she looked over at her, however, she saw that Lily was carrying only her purse.
“Hey, where are your bags?” Emily shouted.
Lily silently reached into her pocket and pulled out her shrunken bags.
“Why didn’t you tell me I could do that?” Emily asked.
“It was funnier to hear you complaining,” Lily replied.
“That’s not fair!”
“So, life’s not fair.”
Emily glared at her and shrunk her bags as well. Alice and Carly followed suite, and they all put their bags into their pockets before continuing on their way to the clothing store.

“Thank you,” Jessica said to Madam Malkins as she paid for her robes.
“Any time, Dear,” she replied handing her the bag. “Bye.”
“Bye!” Jessica and Sirius called walking out of the shop.
“So, where’s the ice cream shop?” Jessica.
“Just down here,” Sirius replied.
Jessica nodded and then asked, “Can, I ask you something?”
“Technically, you just did,” Sirius replied with a smile.
Jessica sighed. “Can I ask you something else?”
“You just did.”
“Sirius!”
Sirius laughed and said, “Go ahead.”
“Why do you live with us?” Jessica asked. Seeing the smile immediately slip off, she added, “You don’t have to answer, I was just wondering.”
Sirius shook his head and replied, “No, it’s not like that. I guess you deserve to know anyway, seeing as it’s you house.
“Well, you know my family’s evil, right?”
Jessica nodded hesitantly.
“It’s okay, I know it’s true,” Sirius said seeing her hesitate.
“Anyways, when I came home for summer after 5th year, my parents were, once again, going on about the “return of the traitor.” I ignored it as usual, but when they started talking about the “scum” I had befriended, I lost it. I don’t know why; it was just like the last straw. I guess I sort of blew up at them, but they, of course blew up at me as well. The next thing I knew, I had put permanent sticking charms on the things I my room and I was flying to your place with my trunk strapped to my broom. I’ve been living at your place ever since.”
“Wow,” was all Jessica could say. “I mean, I sort of knew it had to be something like that, but I didn’t know exactly what had happen.”
Sirius just nodded and said, “We’re here.”
Jessica looked up and saw what was clearly an ice cream parlor. It just had the feel of an ice cream shop.
When they got there, they saw James and Remus right away. They were sitting at a table, not too far away from where they were, with a ling thin package laid across the two extra chairs.
“Care to share?” Jessica asked motioning towards the package when they had reached the two boys.
“Go ahead and open it!” James said excitedly.
Jessica raised her eyebrows, but opened the package. When she had unwrapped it, she found a broomstick.
“A broomstick?” she asked.
“You don’t like it?” James asked sadly.
“Of course I like it,” Jessica said quickly. “I just think that there’s more than a kind gesture behind the gift.”
“Well, you got that right,” Remus said.
James glared at him and said, “I just want to make sure you don’t have an excuse for not trying out for the team.”
“You can’t make me tryout,” Jessica said.
“Yeah, I know,” James replied. “But I know you will for me because you know I would be crushed if you didn’t.”
“In other words, he knows you’ll tryout because you won’t want to see the Gryffindor team lose the cup,” Remus said.
“You don’t even know if I’ll be in Gryffindor,” Jessica said.
“Sure you will!” James exclaimed. “You are completely Gryffindor material. I mean, if you see some of the other people in Gryffindor, you honestly wonder how they got in. don’t worry, you’re in.”
“And what if I’m not?”
“Then I’ll take the broom away so you can’t try out for some other team and ruin Gryffindor’s chances at winning.”
“How sweet,” Jessica muttered sarcastically.
“You know you love me,” James said with a sweet smile.
“Yes, that I do,” Jessica replied hugging him. “Thanks for the broom.”
You’re welcome,” James replied hugging her back.
“But you are not going to get it back if I’m not in Gryffindor!” Jessica said strictly.
“I won’t worry about it,” James said taking his seat. “I know you’ll be in Gryffindor anyways.”
Jessica just rolled her eyes and sat down next to Sirius.

Well, feedback please!!!

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Okay, so this chapter sets up for everything else that happens. Well, all of the chapters do that, but this is the main one. the following events all depend on an event that is introduced in this chapter.
i hope you enjoy it!
here you go!

Chapter 19

That next week went by wonderfully. Carly, Emily, Lily, and Alice did everything from making cookies to just sitting around doing nothing. They played with baby Jacob, watched movies on the Muggle T.V. went swimming, and did just about everything else. The clothes they had bought in Diagon Alley looked great on all of them which was the requirement for almost all of their clothing.
Whenever they went shopping together, they split the cost of their expenses equally. Then, they divided the clothes among themselves, each one of them choosing the outfits they like best. Once all of that was taken care of, they were free to borrow each other’s clothing whenever they wanted.
Of course, they weren’t all the same size, so everything didn’t fit all of them perfectly. That’s what magic was for.
Lily was average height and curvy. She could pull off almost anything because she managed to fit into it all.
Alice was short and just thin enough to go with her height. It wasn’t exactly easy to find her clothes because she was thinner than average, but it wasn’t overly difficult either because she wasn’t too skinny.
Carly had the perfect figure. She wasn’t too tall and not too short. She wasn’t too skinny or too fat. She had natural curves that were perfect for her. This made it the easiest to find her clothes. Her friends sometimes envied her because of her perfect shape.
Carly on the other hand envied Emily. She was the tallest one of the group. She had the figure of a model who could wear just about anything. Her height and figure made it hard to find pants, but again, there was magic to fix that problem. She was so thin, that people might think that she didn’t eat at all, but that was anything but true. Emily ate all the time, and yet didn’t gain a single pound. She was just lucky to be born with fast metabolism. Emily sometimes thought she was too thin, but she defiantly wasn’t. Her figure was just perfect for her.
Even though they all had such different shapes, they were able to find clothes for all of them, though it might not be possible without magic. But thanks to a few handy spells, they were all set to go back to school.
Even with all of the excitement of the end of summer approaching fast. Carly still hadn’t forgotten about her little problem. She knew that everyone would know that Jessica was James’ sister; there wasn’t really any way to hide that. If Carly told her friends that Jessica Potter was the Jessica she had told them so much about, they would flip out. There was no way to prevent sharing that information. Lily was sure to figure out that if Carly had known Jessica Potter for so long, then chances were she would have had to have known James Potter for just as long because he was Jessica’s twin. She would ask Carly for an explanation, and Carly knew that she had no other option than to reveal the entire truth.
The question was, how would Alice, and especially Lily, take the news. Even if Lily understood Carly’s friendship with James, which Emily had been saying for so long that she would, then that was great, but would she understand why Carly hadn’t told them sooner. Alice might be okay with it, but with her temper, Lily was sure to get mad at Carly, if not for not telling them sooner, then for not telling the entire truth when she had told them about Jessica.
Emily had assured her that it would be fine, but Carly wasn’t so sure about it. Lily hated James! She had said once that James was so horrible that any person that could stand his company would have to be just as horrible as him, if not worse. Carly knew that that was not true and that James was a great guy, but Lily sure didn’t believe that.

Carly wasn’t the only one facing problems with her friends. Emily was also lost for what to do. Carly had told her to just tell Alice and Lily the truth about her friendship with Sirius, but Emily didn’t think it was such a good idea. Even if they did get over the idea of her being friends with him, Emily didn’t want them to hate Sirius even more. They already had the wrong idea of him. They thought he was an egotistic, self-centered jerk who couldn’t get over his own good looks. Emily didn’t need them also thinking that he was a jerk who didn’t care about others’ feelings.
Emily wasn’t looking for excuses for him, but she knew that there was some reason he had dropped his friendship with her. After hearing about her friendship with James from Carly, Emily was sure that things couldn’t be as they seemed. Sirius couldn’t be such a horrible person as to purposely hurt a friend if he was friends with a person that was as good of a friend as James was.
As Emily looked for answers, she pushed Carly to admit the truth to her other two friends while she did the same to Emily.
Lately, Emily had begun to wonder what type of friendship this was if it was so full of lies, suspicion, and incomplete truths.

James, Sirius, Remus, and Jessica were enjoying the warm sun as they sat outside one afternoon. Currently, Remus and Sirius were teasing James which was a normal thing. What were they teasing James about? That would be the same thing it always seemed to be to Jessica: Lily Evans.
“Is this your year James?” Sirius asked.
“Because it wasn’t last year,” Remus said.
“Or the year before that,” Sirius added.
“Or the year before that.”
“Shut up,” James muttered.
“But seriously,” Remus said. “You have to do something major if you want any chance.”
“And it can’t be anything stupid,” Sirius added. “Because you’re past attempts haven’t gone so well.”
“Really, I thought they went pretty well,” James said sarcastically.
“All I’m saying is that you have to do something different. You can’t just ask her out all the time.”
“I don’t even know if there’s any point anymore,” James said. “I mean, I remember when I asked Carly why she was afraid to tell her friends about me and Jessica.”
“What did she say?” Remus asked.
James sighed and replied, “She said it was because of Lily. She said that Lily was convinced that associating with a Potter automatically made you a horrible person.”
Jessica had been sitting listening to the conversation. Sirius, Remus, and James had been talking about this all summer. James kept saying that Lily hated him more than any other person, or thing for that matter. Jessica couldn’t believe it. True, she didn’t know what James was like at school, but still. It seemed to her that Lily had made her opinion up at her very first meeting with James and refused to change her mind. Those were the type of people that annoyed Jessica the most; the people who were too stubborn to take the time to get to know people or to accept that people can change.
“Oh, come on,” Remus said. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
“Are you kidding!” James exclaimed. “Don’t you remember her ‘phase’ back in 5th year? Remember when she decided to stop being friends with you because you were friends with me? She said something like, ‘How can you stand Potter! I honestly don’t see how you can be friends with him and still be a normal human being. I’m not taking my chances and being friends with someone who could be turned into some sort of monster.’”
“But it’s like you said; it was just a phase. I’m friends with her now,” Remus argued.
“Yeah, but what about what she said at the end of last term?” James asked.
“What did she say?” Sirius asked.
“You don’t remember?”
“He was in detention,” Remus said.
“Oh yeah,” James said. “Well she told me that she wouldn’t go out with me because I was loud, annoying and egotistical.”
“She always says that,” Sirius pointed out.
“Yeah, but does she always say that I could drop dead right then and there and it wouldn’t matter to her?”
“Well, what that girl needs is a serious reality check! Maybe if you hit her in the head with a bludger she would have some sense knocked into her!” Jessica shouted suddenly. “I wouldn’t mind doing it myself!”
“Deep breathes, Jess,” James said. “Calm down.”
“I will not calm down!” Jessica yelled. “I don’t see how you like her, James! How does a person not know anything about a person and hate him because she doesn’t know him? Maybe if she was a little less self-centered, she would be able to see that you’re a great guy.
“You know what, I’m going to go and send a nice long Howler Cassie. How can she be friends with this girl when she know just how great you are?!” Jessica was halfway up when James pulled her back down.
“Okay, first thing, calm down,” he said. “Second thing, you are not sending any Howlers. Also, I like Lily, and I will not waste the rest of the day listing my reasons why. Lily thinks I am the person everyone else thinks I am, and that is just a big fat jerk. You honestly can’t blame her for hating me. And one more thing, Lily is anything but self-centered. Stubborn, yes, but not self-centered.”
“Well, it seems that she is,” Jessica said. “If she doesn’t bother taking the time to get to know you –“
“She hasn’t been given the chance. By the time I thought of that idea, it was too late. There is no way she’s going to get a chance to get to know me now.”
Jessica was silent for a minute. The wheels were turning; she had an idea. “I know how to give her a chance to get to know you.”
“How?”
“You know how you guys were saying the other day that you had no idea about your Start of Term Prank?”
“Yeah,” James nodded.
“Well, how about we kill two birds with one stone?”
“Will you just get to it,” Sirius asked impatiently.
“Okay, okay,” Jessica said. “Here’s what we do. You know how the First of September is a Friday, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I could just hide the fact that you’re my brother for that weekend. It wouldn’t be too hard. Then, when classes start, they all find out who I am and completely flip out. I bet we can expect some pretty good reactions. And just think of the things could find out in the girls’ bathrooms. All those girls that tell me about how much they’re in love with you, the guys that talk about how cool you are, the first years that are intimidated by you, I could go on forever.”
The boys sat there for a little bit, then Sirius exclaimed, “That is the best Marauder prank ever!”
“So, you like it?” Jessica asked.
“Like it?” Remus said. “We love it!”
Jessica smiled and said, “Glad I could be of assistance.”
“Hold on,” James said. “How is this supposed to help with Lily?”
“Oh right,” Jessica said. “Okay, I’ll sit with her and Cassie and their other two friends on the Hogwarts’ Express. I’ll listen to Lily go on about how much she hates James which usually happens on every train ride according to Cassie. Then I’ll talk about my awesome brother and make Lily fall in love with him. Somewhere in the course of that weekend, she’ll find out that James Potter is my brother, and all secrets will unfold.”
“Do you think it’ll work?” James asked.
“It’s worth a shot,” Jessica said shrugging.
“Okay,” James said, “but we have to do a lot of preparing so it doesn’t seem set up.”
“Man, if we pull this off, it’ll be huge.” Sirius said.
The others agreed.

About a week after the trip to Diagon Alley, Jessica was sitting by her window and looking out at the sky. She had never seen such a sight. There were so many times she looked out the window and saw the sunset. She had been out of the hospital for exactly 28 days, and she had seen the sun set every single evening for the past 28 days. She saw the moon come up and the sun disappear, leaving behind a beautiful blend of colors, but never had it been so amazing.
She remembered when she was little, she would see an extraordinary sunset. It just came out of nowhere and set the sky on fire. This was one of those sunsets. One of those extraordinary sunsets that you only see once in a while. It was something different.
Staring out the window, Jessica thought that she would get a better effect of the sunset if she went outside. She got up, grabbed a jacket and walked through the house. Her parents had gone out, Stacey was with Lauren tonight, and James, Sirius, and Remus were doing who knows what in one of their room. That left Jessica to walk through her house alone to the back door. She went out through the kitchen and went straight to the garden. She walked through the garden until she found a spot under a large oak tree that she, James, and Carly used to play by all the time.
Jessica leaned back against the tree and watched the sun disappear. The red, orange, yellow, pink, and purple sky slowly faded to black. The whole time, Jessica was hypnotized by the colors.
Long after the sky had turned dark, Jessica remained sitting out there. She found that it was calm and peaceful. It was the perfect time, place, and environment to sit and think.
She let her mind wander and let the thought come as they please as she sat and relaxed under the tree. It was the perfect, cloudless night with the stars shining bright and the bright full moon shining down.



So, what do you think???
Analyze this chapter for the obvious foreshadowing and leave your predictions in the feedback thread. If you don’t have predictions, still leave feedback.

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Thanks for the feedback, people!
I’m sorry I didn’t get this up sooner, but I’ve been kind of busy.
I have a longer than usual chapter with more excitement in it, simply because I’m just in a really good mood after Super Bowl XLII last night. My team won which I was extremely thrilled about.
For those of you who don’t live in America, the Super Bowl is, in my opinion, the biggest football event ever. Actually, it’s probably the biggest sports event ever period
Anyways, you probably don’t care, and if you do, it’s only because it made me happy enough to give you this:


Chapter 20

“What are we going to do now?” Emily asked.
“We should go and start packing up our stuff,” Lily replied. “We go back to Hogwarts the day after tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to pack now,” Alice whined.
“Yeah,” Carly agreed. “We can pack tomorrow. Let’s do something else right now.”
“Like what?” Lily asked.
“I don’t know.”
“How about we pack now so we aren’t rushing around tomorrow.”
“We won’t rush around,” Alice said. “We have all day tomorrow.”
“You guys will put it off to like after dinner.”
“No we won’t.”
“Yes you will; you always do!”
“We can’t all be perfect like you, Lily,” Emily interrupted.
“I’m not perfect.”
“You know, she’s right,” Carly said lightly. “She’s way too neat, she always has to be right, and she’s too quick to judge people.”
“There is nothing wrong with being neat,” Lily shot back. “And I don’t always have to be right.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Give me one example.”
“When you were practicing changing your hair color,” Carly replied.
“What about that?”
“You were sitting in the common room and trying for an hour and wouldn’t believe that you were moving your wand wrong!”
“I wasn’t moving it wrong!”
“You were flicking your wand when you were supposed to bring it straight up, and then flick it.”
“No I wasn’t.”
“See!” Carly exclaimed, “You’re doing it again! You won’t admit that you’re wrong!”
“Fine, I am wrong sometimes,” Lily admitted. “But I am not too quick to judge people.”
“Two words,” Carly said. “James Potter.”
“Why do you always bring him up in every single conversation?!” Lily shouted.
“I do not!”
“Yes you do!”
“I do not bring James up in every single conversation,” Carly replied indignantly.
“Well, almost. You’re always telling me how horrible I am to him and how I should give him a chance.”
“No I’m not!”
“You have been doing it all month!” Lily shouted. “And the sad thing is that you do it more than Emily.”
“So, did you ever think that I just want you to get over yourself and give the poor guy a chance? Do you even see how you treat him? Do you ever think when you’re shouting at him? Do you know what you told him the last time you were yelling at him?!” Carly shouted at Lily.
“What did I tell him?!” she yelled back.
“You told him –“
Carly was stopped by an owl that flew through the open window. She went over to it and untied the letter that was attached to her leg. “Thanks, Snowflake,” Carly said sweetly to the white owl.
She hooted and flew over to the desk and settled herself down and looked over at Carly. She was clearly supposed to bring back a reply.
Carly laughed, surprised that an owl could belong to such a mischievous person and be so obedient. She opened the letter and read:

Dear Cassie,
I was supposed to owl you two days ago, but I forgot, just don’t tell Jessie. I was supposed to ask you if you told Lily and Alice about…everything yet.
The reason we were wondering is that Jessie came up with this idea for this prank for when the school year starts, but no one can know that she’s my sister, especially Lily.
I won’t go into detail, but the highlight of our awesome prank is that we don’t tell anyone that Jessie’s my twin sister the first weekend of school.
Then, when everyone finds out, we can laugh at the looks on their faces.
I think Jessica just wants to “knock some sense” into Lily. She’s too, Jessie. She has made up her mind that Lily is a horrible person for not liking me. Don’t worry though; I made her give Lily a chance. It’s not like it’s Lily’s fault that I’m so rude to her, is it? She doesn’t have to like me and I’m not going to force her to.
I just like this prank because it’ll be funny. Plus Jessica said that she could use it to show Lily that I’m not so bad. She swore not to judge her on her opinion of me, but I still think you’ll have to keep an eye on her. Knowing Jessica, she’ll tell Lily off and make her hate her as well, which is not at all necessary.
Just don’t let Jessica get too angry when Lily tries to convince her to hate me. She almost sent you a Howler for being friends with Lily when she found out that Lily said she wouldn’t care if I died.
So, just owl me back and tell me if you told them, and if you didn’t, don’t tell now.
You are now an official participant in the Marauders’ Prank.

-James

The letter somehow rid Carly of her anger. Lily just didn’t think when she was talking to James, and James knew this, to a certain extent. It was just Lily’s first nature to get angry when she saw James and when Lily got mad, she didn’t think.
Carly quickly sent a reply to James, telling him that Lily and Alice knew nothing of her relation to him.
When Snowflake had set off, Carly turned back to Lily. “I’m sorry,” she said.
Lily, taken aback by this sudden change in attitude, just stared.
“I know I over reacted,” Carly continued. “I just don’t know what’s gotten into me lately.” ‘Or maybe I do,’ she added to herself thinking of Jessica and James.
Lily managed to find her voice and replied, “Its okay. I see where it’s coming from. I just can’t help but hate him.”
“Hopefully, we can change that,” Carly said with a smile.
“How?”
Carly just shrugged and said, “Let’s go pack.”
Lily smiled and replied, “We’ll do it tomorrow. Let’s go outside.”
She led the way out with Carly. Alice and Emily exchanged confused looks.
“What calmed her down?” Emily asked.
Alice shrugged and asked, “Who was the letter from?”
Emily shrugged.
The two girls went out to join Lily and Carly in the garden.

“Are you sure she won’t come out?” Remus asked worriedly as the sun started to set and the three boys walked deep into the woods behind the Potter Mansion.
“Yes, I’m sure, Moony,” James replied. Just calm down, won’t you?”
“I just don’t want to kill your sister, James,” Remus replied.
“You won’t. We’ll be with you to stop you,” Sirius assured him.
“Yeah, but what if she decides to come outside?” Remus asked worriedly.
“She won’t!” James sighed. The conversation had been going in circles like that all day.
“How do you know?” Remus inquired.
“Jessie and I have that whole twin thing going on.”
Remus was about to reply, but he looked up and saw that the sun was almost gone. “You guys had better change,” he told James and Sirius. “The moon is about to come up.”
The other two nodded and transformed into their Animagus forms; James turned into a beautiful stag, and Sirius turned into a big playful dog.
The moon appeared in the sky and Remus began to change.

Jessica sat against the tree well into the night. Her thoughts were going all over the place tonight. She was wondering if she would fit in at Hogwarts. Normally, Jessica didn’t care weather of not she would fit in; she had always been content with being who she was when she was little. That still hadn’t changed, but Jessica wondered if who she was was good enough at Hogwarts. She knew that she would always have Carly and James no matter what and Sirius and Remus, too, for that matter, but what about the others? Carly had assured Jessica that her friend Emily was dying to meet her, but what about everyone else? Jessica was sure Lily Evans would hate her the second she found out exactly who Jessica was; Sirius and Remus’s teasing of James had already convinced her of that.
Then Jessica had another thought; would she be able to keep up with the school stuff?
Remus had already lectured James and Sirius on behaving themselves because this was sure to be a very hard year being their last. Plus, there were the NEWTs to worry about. Jessica was really worried about those as well; after all, she hadn’t ever studied magic before. The healers had assured her that she would do fine because of the advances in her brain. James, Sirius, and Remus had occasionally tested her on things they had already learned, and Jessica seemed to be getting it and had preformed quite a few good spells. She had even passed her apperation exam.
James kept on reassuring her that she would be fine. He said that she was sure to have plenty of friends and top marks.
“And you can take any frustrations that you might have out on the Slytherins,” Sirius had added.
Jessica smiled as she remembered that day when the three boys had been teaching her some basic “defensive spells” which were really jinxes and hexes that she could use on the Slytherins.
Jessica was so immersed in the memory that she didn’t hear the heavy breathing behind her.

That full moon was going just fine. James and Sirius were following Remus around as he wove through the trees. Remus hadn’t tried to attack either one of them yet which was good. All was going well until Remus suddenly stopped. He looked around, then suddenly set off again, going a lot faster than before.
James and Sirius followed behind him as fast as they could, wondering what had caused him to run so fast.
Remus was way too fast for James and Sirius to keep up with when he was running at full speed, so they were both glad when he slowed down as he neared the garden.
By the time the werewolf had stopped, the dog and the stag had caught up to him. They were standing some 10 feet away, watching him to see what he was doing.
James looked around and saw that they were in his favorite place in the garden; it was the very place that he had spent so much time planning chaos with Jessica and Carly.
But why were they there?
James was confused as he watched Remus slowly make his way over to the giant oak tree. On his right, James could tell that Sirius was just as confused about what was going on.
It wasn’t until the werewolf had moved over a little that they saw why they were there.
Right in front of them was Jessica staring wide eyed at the werewolf that was just barely a foot away from her, still coming closer.

The second he saw Jessica’s horror struck face, Sirius leapt towards the werewolf. He had distracted Remus from Jessica for a moment, but it wasn’t enough. He pounced at her, landing right on her legs. The crack echoed through the still night as Jessica gave a cry of pain.
The werewolf was lowering himself towards her; she turned her gaze towards the big black dog that was making his way over to her at top speed; her expression was begging him to hurry; she knew he was her only hope.
Just as the werewolf was about sink his teeth into Jessica’s leg, Sirius pushed him off of her.
The werewolf instead turned to growl at the dog and leapt at him. Sirius met him in the air; they fell to the ground in a battle.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius could see the stag make his way over to Jessica. She clearly couldn’t get up and walk anywhere, much less run away from the werewolf that was intent on reaching her.
Remus gave Sirius a particularly rough push right into the big oak tree. Sirius felt one of his front legs break.
Seeing that Sirius was down, James went to continue the fight with Remus.
Sirius ignored the pain and got up. He went over to Jessica who was still on the ground, watching the stag and werewolf fight before her; there were still tears running down her face, and she looked like she was still in great pain.
Looking down at her legs, he saw that one of them was clearly broken. Her leg was at an odd angle and the bone was sticking out just a little bit. You could almost not see it because of the blood surrounding it. Sirius couldn’t bare to look at it and instead looked back at her face. She was losing consciousness.
Behind him, James and Remus’s fight was getting closer to them.
Not knowing what else to do, Sirius turned back into a person and picked Jessica up, just as she passed out.

It wasn’t until she felt the hot breath on her neck that Jessica turned to look behind her. What she saw made her freeze in fear.
There was a fully grown werewolf getting closer and closer to her.
Her brain was telling her to get up and run, but her body wasn’t listening. Jessica was barely aware of anything at all until the werewolf leapt at her and landed right on her legs. The pain was horrible; she let out a cry of pain, unable to hold it in.
The fear of the werewolf that was inches from biting her was keeping Jessica from crying out again. She turned her face and saw a big black dog making its way towards them. She hoped it would hurry; couldn’t it see that the werewolf was about to kill her?
Suddenly, the dog pushed the werewolf off of her. She felt the weight lift and looked over at the dog and werewolf that were fighting before her.
Beyond them, she saw a stag making its way towards her. It stopped before her and looked down at her leg which was clearly broken. The stag lowered his head and looked at her, right in the eyes. Jessica thought the eyes looked familiar, but the fear and pain was keeping her from thinking clearly.
The stag seemed to be telling her that it would be okay, and Jessica believed him.
Suddenly, the dog flew straight into the tree that Jessica was still leaning against. The stag immediately leapt away to take his place fighting the werewolf.
As she watched the fight, Jessica felt her consciousness slipping away.
Jessica saw the dog turn into a person, though she couldn’t make out the face, just before everything went black.

Sirius ignored the pain in his left arm as he carried the unconscious Jessica back to the house. He somehow managed to get the door open and took Jessica into the living room. He laid her down on the sofa and turned the lights on with a wave of his wand.
Sirius gently rolled up Jessica’s pant leg. He could now clearly see Jessica’s leg and it was a lot worse than how it looked in the moonlight with her pants covering it.
He quickly conjured up a wet cloth and gently cleaned up the blood around the spot where the bone was poking out. He waved his wand and it healed its self, leaving no trace of wound behind, apart from the minor cuts and scrapes that were covering her.
Sirius gazed down at Jessica. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked, even though her pants were a little ripped, her clothes were dirty, her hair was a mess, and there was dirt smeared on her face.
She looked almost peaceful, but the pain and fear that had been on her face before she fell unconscious was still there.
It had hurt him to see her pain and her begging eyes staring at him while Remus was on top of her. He wanted to make the pain go away and never return.
If the werewolf hadn’t been one of his best friends, he would have hurt him so much more.
“Sirius!”
Sirius jumped and turned towards the kitchen from where James was calling.
“In the living room!” Sirius called back.
James came rushing into the room looking truly horrible.
“Remus is back in the forest but I don’t know how long he’ll stay there,” James said joining Sirius next to Jessica. “I’ll have to go back and check on him.”
Sirius just nodded.
James was about to say something when they heard a howl outside.
James looked worriedly down at Jessica.
“It’s okay,” James said. “She’ll be fine. I’ll stay with her.”
James nodded and got up. He placed a kiss on Jessica’s forehead and went back out through the kitchen.

The first thing Jessica saw when she woke up was Sirius’s anxious face. After she blinked a couple of times, she saw Sirius sigh with relief.
Jessica blinked a few more times and looked at Sirius and couldn’t help but notice that he was filthy.
Then, out of nowhere, it all came back: the sunset, the werewolf, the stag and the dog that turned into a person, everything.
“Are you alright?” Sirius asked her.
“The-the werewolf,” Jessica stuttered. “It-it jumped on me. My-my leg. It h-hurt.” Jessica stopped as she began to sob again.
She didn’t want to cry; it made her feel weak, but she couldn’t help it. Werewolves had been her biggest fear ever since her dad came home from work one day and told her about the little boy who had been bitten. He had told her about how he would have to go through painful transformations every month during the full moon, and he would lose his senses. He was cursed.
Jessica was so afraid after hearing that, and the fear still stuck.
“It’s okay,” Sirius said softly to her. “The werewolf won’t be back tonight and your leg is fine.”
Jessica was still shaking with fear. She hated feeling so weak, but even at the beginning of her fear of werewolves, she hadn’t been this frightened.
Sirius sat by her and whispered comforting words to her until she had calmed down.
“H-how did I get here?” Jessica asked looking around at the living room.
Sirius was about to reply James walked in.
Jessica looked over at him and realized that the sun was beginning coming up.
“Jessie!” James exclaimed running over to her. “How are you feeling?”
“O-okay,” Jessica replied. “Better.”
James sighed with relief and looked over at Sirius. “Did you get any sleep?”
Sirius shook his head. Seeing that James was about to say something, Sirius said, “I don’t sleep on full moon nights anyways. Besides, you’re the one who was out all night; I was just sitting here.”
‘What was he talking about?’ Jessica wondered. ‘What does he mean he doesn’t get any sleep on full moon nights anyways?’
“How is he?” Sirius asked before James said anything else about sleep.
James sighed and replied, “He’s okay.”
‘Who’s “he”?’ Jessica thought.
“He fell asleep a couple of hours ago, but I wanted to stay with him just in case,” James continued. “He changed back in his sleep and I fixed the worst of the injuries before coming back.”
“You left him there?!” Sirius exclaimed.
“I wanted to let him rest.”
Sirius glared at him indignantly.
“And I don’t want to be the one to tell him,” James added sheepishly.
“Someone’s going to have to tell him?” Sirius said.

“Somebody’s going to have to tell who what?”
James and Sirius turned to the doorway and saw Remus. Jessica tried to sit up, so she could see over the back of the couch, but she failed.
Remus came over to them, but froze the second he caught sight of Sirius.
“What happened to your arm?!” he exclaimed.
Sirius looked down and saw the broken arm. He had completely forgotten about it in his worry about Jessica. “So that’s what hurt so badly,” he muttered. “I had forgotten.”
“What happened to it?!” Remus repeated.
“It just got broken,” Sirius replied.
“How did it brake?” Remus demanded.
“It-it really wasn’t so bad when it smashed into the tree,” Sirius started nervously. He hated telling Remus about the injuries he had caused him. Remus always felt so guilty when it really wasn’t his fault.
“It looks pretty banged up to me!”
“That’s just because it got worse because I forgot to fix it, and-and –“
“And what?”
“And I carried Jessica in with it,” Sirius finished quickly, closing his eyes.
James also braced himself for the explosion.
“Why did you need to carry her inside?” Remus asked slowly and deathly cold.
“Because her-her leg was broken and she was unconscious,” Sirius replied fearfully.
“How did her leg break?” Remus asked in the same tone.
“It was completely our fault,” James interrupted. “We should have been more careful and paid attention to what you were doing. We’re really really sorry.”
“I asked, how did her leg break?”
“You landed on it,” James replied quietly.
“I knew it,” Remus whispered. “I knew it.”
He turned to walk out, but then stopped. He turned to Jessica and said, “I’m sorry,” before walking out without another word.

“It was him, wasn’t it?” Jessica asked quietly.
James and Sirius exchanged glances before James slowly nodded.
Jessica sat there in shock. She had barely known Remus for a month, but he was already one of the sweetest, nicest people she had ever met. She couldn’t picture him as a werewolf; it just didn’t seem to make any sense.
“It really isn’t that big of a deal,” Sirius said quickly. “Remus is the nicest guy ever.”
“I know,” Jessica said. “That’s what makes it so hard to believe.”
The three of them sat in silence for a while, then Jessica asked, “When did it happen?”
“When he was little,” Sirius replied.
“Remember that day dad came home from and told us?” James asked. “It was him. I figured it out when Remus told us when he…when it happened. It was only a month before…”
Jessica nodded. She saw Sirius’s arm and remembered what he had said. “You should fix that,” she said pointing at it.
“Good idea,” Sirius said fixing it with a wave of his wand. “That’s better.”
“How did you carry me in? And how did Remus throw you into a tree?” Jessica asked. “I mean, you weren’t there, were you?”
James and Sirius exchanged another glance.
“Well, you see,” James began. “That’s kind of a long story.”
“I’m listening.”
James nodded and told her the story of how he, Sirius and Peter had become Animagi.
At the end of the story, James and Sirius both looked over at Jessica, waiting for her to speak.
“The dog and the stag,” she said quietly.
James and Sirius nodded.
“So, then, you’re the dog?” Jessica asked Sirius.
Sirius nodded again.
“And you’re the stag?” Jessica asked her brother.
He also nodded.
“Wow.”
James and Sirius both nodded.
“Are you going to do anything but nod?”
They nodded their heads again.
Jessica sighed and tried to get up, but she just fell back down.
“What do you think you’re trying to do?!” Sirius asked.
“Leave?” Jessica replied hopefully.
“Nice try, but you are going to stay right there and rest.”
“Sirius,” James said. “You sound like Madame Pomfrey.”
“Your point?”
“She’s fine. We just need to help her get up and she’ll be able to walk.”
“But –“
“We’ll help her get to her room, so she can rest there,” James said.
“Fine,” Sirius resigned. “But you are going to sleep in there!” he said Jessica.
“Actually, I wanted to go talk to Remus,” Jessica said.
James and Sirius looked at each other again.
“Will you stop doing that?!” Jessica exclaimed. “It’s highly annoying.”
“Sorry,” James said. “It’s just that we’re not sure visiting Remus is a good idea right now. Just give him some time to except that he’s innocent, then talk to him.”
“I’d rather talk to him now.”
“I know, but –“
“And I’m not changing my mind.”
James sighed and replied, “Fine.”
“But you are going to sleep after that,” Sirius told her.
“Yes, mom,” Jessica said trying to sit up again, but failing.

There you are
About twice as much as usual. I wanted to make it longer, but I don’t have time to type more right now and I want to post right now, so this will have to do.
Tell me what you think!

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So sorry about the wait, but I won’t waste your time, so here you are!


Chapter 21

James and Sirius walked upstairs with Jessica. After walking her up, and after fair amount of convincing from both James and Jessica, Sirius went to get cleaned up before going down to the kitchen to make breakfast. James also went to get cleaned up before going downstairs to watch Sirius make breakfast.
Jessica stood outside of Remus door. She took a deep breath and knocked.
“Go away!” Remus called from behind the door.
“Remus,” Jessica said. “Let me in.”
“I don’t feel like talking to anyone right now!”
“Then let me talk and you just listen.”
“No! Just leave me alone!”
Jessica sighed and went to her room. She went to her bedside table and found her wand. Outside of Remus’s door again, Jessica pointed her wand at the doorknob and quietly said, “Alohamora.”
There was a click, and the door unlocked. Jessica slowly turned the door handle and opened the door, just enough to peak in.
Remus was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. When he heard the door open, he turned to see who it was.
“I really need to talk to you,” Jessica said quietly.
Remus sighed and sat up. He motioned for her to come in, and she did so, closing the door behind her.
Jessica went over to the bed and sat down across from Remus.
“What do you want to talk about?” Remus asked after a couple minutes of silence.
“What’s wrong?” Jessica asked in reply.
“What do you think?”
“Is this some sort of guilt routine? You go and hide when people really need to talk to you, and you can’t even look at them when they find you.”
“How can I face you, or anybody else for that matter, after I almost murder you?”
“Is that what this is about?” Jessica asked. “You think that I won’t want to talk to you or something? Do you honestly think that you being a werewolf changes anything? You are still the same guy you were when I met you last month, but now I know that you become something else once a month at night.”
“More like I become a monster,” Remus muttered.
“I won’t argue with you there, but it’s just once a month. The rest of the time, you are a kind and sweet person. I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal out of this.”
“Because I’m a werewolf!” Remus exclaimed. “I almost killed you!”
“It doesn’t matter that you’re a werewolf, and you didn’t almost kill me. You just broke my leg,” Jessica replied calmly.
Remus just looked at her for a minute. “You honestly don’t hate me?” he asked finally.
“No,” Jessica replied with a smile.
Remus smiled back. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Jessica laughed.
“For not hating me.”
Jessica just smiled and gave him a hug.

“If she manages to get through to him, I’ll try to cook,” James said sitting at the counter.
“Have a little faith,” Sirius replied. “I mean Jessica probably could get through to him.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know,” Sirius replied sliding the eggs onto the plate before cracking some more into the pan. “There’s just something about her.”
James raised an eyebrow but said nothing because just then, Jessica walked in, talking and laughing with Remus.
James was shocked that Jessica was actually able to get through to him. It had taken the other Marauders a whole week to get Remus to except that they were still his friends after they had found out that he was a werewolf.
Sirius just smirked at James and said, “In the kitchen.”
James went over to the kitchen and was about to take the spatula from Sirius when Remus cried out, “What are you doing?!”
James and Sirius turned to him, and he asked, “Are you crazy?!”
“Well, I have been told so a few times,” Sirius replied, “but I don’t think it’s very true.”
“I was being serious,” Remus said, still looking a bit shocked.
“Okay, okay,” Sirius said turning back to the stove and sliding the egg off of the pan before turning back to Remus. “What did I do?”
“You let James into the kitchen!” Remus exclaimed. “And you almost let him cook!”
Sirius stood staring at Remus while James just looked clueless. Finally unable to hold it in, Remus burst out laughing, joined by Jessica and, eventually Sirius while James, finally having caught on, put on a fake hurt look.
Once they had all calmed down, Remus said, “Seriously, though. What were you thinking handing a spatula to James?”
“He said that he would cook if you stopped acting like an idiot,” Sirius replied.
“I said no such thing!” James exclaimed. “I just said I would cook if she got through to him.”
“Same thing.”
“No it’s not!”
Sirius just shook his head and went back to cracking eggs into the pan.
James went back to the counter and was joined by Remus and Jessica.
“Did mom and dad come home?” Jessica asked.
“I don’t know,” James replied. “I was out all night with Moony. Padfoot?”
“I didn’t hear them,” Sirius replied from the kitchen.
“I guess not then,” James answered Jessica.
“Where are they then?” Jessica asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry,” said reassuringly. “If they’re out past 1:00, they find a place to spend the night. They usually get home early in the morning.”
As if to prove James’s words, there was movement out by the main entrance, and the Amy and Jake walked into the kitchen a few minutes later.
“You guys are up early,” Jake commented. “Any particular reason?”
“No, not really,” James replied causally.
“How was last night?” Amy asked looking towards Remus who turned away.
“Fine,” Jessica answered her mother.
James and Sirius nodded their heads in agreement, but Amy was still peering at Remus intently.
“Well, we aren’t going to take your guys’ word for it,” Jake said seeing the tension. “Remus, you always were the trustworthy one. How was last night?”
Remus sighed and replied, “Fine, except I messed up Sirius’s arm and broke Jessica’s leg.”

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” Alice sighed as girls dragged themselves up the stairs, except for Lily who seemed to be perfectly content.
“I don’t see what you’re complaining about,” Lily said. “It’s not like the end of the world. Besides, I thought you couldn’t wait to get back to school.”
“I can’t,” Alice replied. “But I can wait for the packing.”
Lily just rolled her eyes at her.
After they had all reached the top of the staircase, they all went their separate ways to their rooms to pack their things for Hogwarts.
Alice had gotten most of her things into her trunk and only left out the things she would need for the next day. Having nothing else to do, she went over to Carly’s room.
She entered the room and found Carly looking through a big cardboard box for something.
“What are you looking for?” Alice asked going over.
Carly jumped and looked frantically at the door. Seeing Alice, she quickly straightened up and pushed the box behind her with her feet. “N-nothing.”
Alice gave her a look and went over to the box.
“Really, it’s nothing,” Carly tried to convince her and get her away from the box. “It’s not really anything of interest to you.”
“It might be,” Alice replied. She got passed Carly and reached into the box, pulling out the first thing she could and looking at it.
Carly closed her eyes as Alice’s got really wide as she looked at a photograph of three 4-year-old kids; one clearly Carly, the other unrecognizable, and the last: James Potter.

“You what?!” Amy exclaimed.
“But its fine now,” Jessica interjected quickly and walked over to them. “See.”
“How’s your arm, Sirius, dear?” Amy asked.
“Perfect,” Sirius replied. “It only got messed up because I picked Jessica up with it and forgot to fix it for a few hours.”
“How do you forget to fix a broken arm?!”
Sirius shrugged and replied, “I guess I was more worried about Jessica regaining consciousness.”
“Are you alright, James?” Jake asked.
“Great,” James replied.
“And how about you, Remus?”
“I’m okay,” Remus replied without looking him in the eye.
“Oh stop it, Remus!” Jessica sighed. “We went over this. I thought you were over it.”
“Alright,” Remus nodded. “I’m over it.”
“Great,” Sirius said enthusiastically. “Now, who wants breakfast?”

“Anything you’d like to tell me?” Alice asked.
“Yes,” Carly sighed. “You’d better sit.”
Alice did as she was told, and Carly sat down with her on the bed.
Before saying anything, Carly magically locked the door and put a Silencing Charm on it.
She turned back to Alice and said, “First, you have to swear not to tell anyone, especially Lily.”
Seeing that Alice was about to protest, she added, “She’ll find out anyways this weekend.”
Alice nodded, so Carly continued.
“Well, you know how I told you about Jessica? My best friend who was in a coma?” Alice nodded. “Well, she’s James’s twin sister.”
“What!?”
Carly nodded. “Yes, and I was, am, as close to James as I am to Jessie. We were always together, even before we could talk. We had sworn to remain best friends forever, even though we are closer than friends. James and Jessie are like me brother and sister. I mean, even though James said that he didn’t want to be friends with me after Jessica’s accident, and even though I was stupid enough to believe him for the past 10 years, when I went over there last month, it was almost like we had never been separated.
“I know I should have told you guys, but let’s face it; Lily doesn’t need another reason to hate James.”
“Wow, that was unexpected,” Alice said. Carly just nodded. “But you’re right, you should have told us.”
“I know,” Carly said. “And I was going to tell you yesterday; I almost screamed it at Lily, but then, I got a letter from him. It said that the Marauder’s Prank was going to be to hide from everyone that Jessie was James’s sister for the weekend and enjoy the looks on their faces when they find out, but he also said that Jessica came up with the idea, and it was mostly for her to get “knock some sense” into Lily. James said that Jessica already doesn’t like Lily much because she hates James, so James just said that I need to keep Jessie from blowing up.
“I really did want to tell you, but I just, couldn’t. After getting the letter, I just thought ‘I’ll wait until we get to Hogwarts and tell them with James and Jessie there to prove hoe great James is.’”
“You told me now,” Alice pointed out.
“I know,” Carly replied. “I guess I was just mostly nervous about telling Lily. I mean, you know the things she says about him.”
“Yeah,” Alice laughed. “I know.”
The two girls sat in silence for a while, then, Alice spoke up. “I never really thought he was a bad guy. I mean, he was over confidant, but I noticed that it was only around Lily. I saw him helping out younger students and noticed how Slytherins usually only got pranked a few days after calling Lily something foul, and if it wasn’t a Slytherins, it was one of the jerks that Lily went out with and it was after he cheated on her; I always thought that that was sweet.”
Carly nodded in agreement. “So did I and I could tell, even around Lily, that his over confidence was just an act. Something to make himself look good and hide the real James. If you really knew James, then you would know that the way he is at school is practically opposite of the way he really is, and noticed when I was at his house this summer that it’s the same for Sirius.”
“Isn’t it funny how well a person can hide someone great underneath someone so completely opposite?”

Feedback! [Pretty please!]

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So, I was hoping for more feedback, but I guess I’ll take what I can get.
Here’s the next chapter!

Chapter 22

Sirius was in his room, packing his stuff for Hogwarts. James and Jessica were doing the same thing in their own rooms, but Remus, being the good boy that he is, had already packed.
Sirius was just wondering what Remus was doing when Remus walked into his room.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius asked.
“Nothing,” Remus replied with a shrug as he went to sit on the bed. “I just didn’t have anything to do.”
“Well, why are you in here?”
“Because I have to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Are you trying to hide that you like Jessica?”
“Be quiet!” Sirius hissed. “You know her room’s right next door.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Well of course I’m trying to hide it!”
“Just checking because I think James has noticed.”
“What?!”
“I don’t know,” Remus shrugged, “but he’s been looking at you oddly every time you’re talking to Jessica.”
“Why?”
“It’s pretty easy to tell that you like her from the way you look at her.”
“How do I look at her?” Sirius asked.
“With a different type of glint in your eyes. It isn’t the ‘Prank’ glint, but not the usual happy one either; it’s…different.”
“That is so not true!”
“Yeah it is,” Remus replied simply.
Sirius sighed. “Okay, let’s just drop it. We sound like girls.”
“Okay, I’ll drop it,” Remus said, “for now.”

All of the things Jessica had to take to Hogwarts were all packed, and now, Jessica was lying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling.
It had been quite an eventful day, even though it was only after lunch. Jessica was preparing herself, mentally, for Hogwarts. She was excited, but nervous at the same time. She had been looking forward to the whole experience and meeting new people, but there were definitely people that Jessica was sure she didn’t want to meet. For example, those Slytherins already sounded like nasty pieces of work, and she only knew what James, Sirius, and Remus had told her about them.
Then, there was Lily Evans. Jessica really did want to meet her; she had to see what was so amazing about her that had captured her brother’s heart, but she was sure that she wouldn’t like her. True, all Jessica knew about Lily was what her friends and brother had told her, but that didn’t really help much.
Carly said that Lily was a great person and a really good friend. She also said that Lily was smart and nice to everyone, except for James.
That was the point that Sirius and Remus had proved. They talked a lot about how much Lily yelled at James for no reason.
James on the other hand, talked about how great Lily was. She was pretty and smart and nice and on and on and on.
Jessica had told James that she would give Lily a chance, but she wasn’t so sure that that would be so easy. Even if Jessica managed to like Lily, would Lily like her? Jessica was a lot like James; she loved pranks, enjoyed flying, was out going, and didn’t think she would mind sending a couple of the hexes the boys had taught her at the Slytherins. Plus, Jessica was sure Lily wouldn’t like this little prank, and she had learned that Lily Evans had one heck of a temper.
Oh well, it couldn’t be too bad, could it?


I know, that’s weak, that’s why I’m posting this as well.


Chapter 23

“Come on, James! Wake up!” Jessica shouted knocking on James’s bedroom door.
“Shut up, Jessica!” Sirius yelled back from his room.
“You have to get up too!”
“What time is it?!” Remus shouted.
“7:30.”
“We still have 3½ hours! Let us sleep!”
“But I’m bored!” Jessica whined.
“Then go back to sleep!” James yelled at her.
“I can’t. I’m too excited.”
“Be excited in a couple of hours!” Sirius shouted.
“No, and I’m hungry, and mom and dad went to work, and I can’t cook.”
“Get Cookie to make you something,” James told her sounding agitated.
“She’s asleep, and I’m not waking her.”
“Get a bowl of cereal.”
“I don’t want my last breakfast in this house for who knows how long to be cereal. I want chocolate chip pancakes, Sirius.”
“No!” Sirius shouted from his room. “I’m asleep!”
“You talk really loudly in your sleep!” Jessica shouted back.
“Make her the pancakes, Sirius!” Remus yelled. “I’m trying to sleep!”
“So am I!” James yelled.
“Please!” Jessica begged Sirius.
“No!”
“Please!”
“No!”
“PLEASE!” Jessica, James, and Remus yelled.
“Fine!” Sirius growled. “Just give me a few minutes.”
“Yay!” Jessica cheered happily.
A few minutes later, Sirius came out of his room, looking thoroughly grumpy. “Let’s go down,” he growled, but Jessica ignored the growl and went down with Sirius with a happy smile on her face at the prospect of warm chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.
Sirius grumpily made the pancakes and put them in front of a cheery Jessica. She added a lot of maple syrup and happily ate. Sirius watched her for a minute before turning to leave.
“Where are you going?” Jessica asked.
“Back to sleep,” Sirius replied grumpily.
“But you just got up.”
“Yeah, against my will!”
Jessica just shrugged and added more syrup to her pancakes.
“Don’t you think that’s a little bit too much?” Sirius questioned.
“Nope,” Jessica replied taking a bite.
Sirius just shook his head and left muttering, “No wonder she’s crazy.”

Come on you guys! Hurry!” Lily shouted at her friends. “We still have to eat!”
“Calm down Lils,” Carly said coming out of her room. “We still have an hour.”
“Yeah, but if we want to eat –“
“Oh, put a sock in it Lily,” Emily said coming out just as Alice came out of her room. “We will have plenty of time to eat and get there.”
“We can’t miss the train, though. And I have to get to the Prefects’ meeting. How would it look if the Head Girl was late?”
“Yeah, well, I’m the new Gryffindor Prefect and you don’t see me freaking out,” Emily replied.
“Yeah, but that’s different.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes it –“
“If you’re so worried about being late, then wasting time arguing pointlessly isn’t exactly the best idea, is it?” Alice cut in.
“Come on, let’s go and get some breakfast,” Carly said before Lily could reply. “Lucky has already prepared breakfast.”
“Alright,” the others agreed, and they went down to enjoy a warm breakfast before setting out for Platform 9¾.

Once Sirius had gotten back to his room, he collapsed onto his bed and closed his eyes. 10 minutes later, he groaned and dragged himself out of bed; he couldn’t get back to sleep, so he decided to get ready.
An hour later, Sirius was ready to go back to Hogwarts, and he had nothing to do for the remaining 1½. He made his way down again and into the empty kitchen. He started making his own pancakes, but just as he finished, James and Remus entered the kitchen. James took the plate of pancakes that Sirius was about to pick up, said a quick, “Thanks,” and began to eat.
“Those were mine!” Sirius exclaimed.
“Make some more for yourself,” James told him.
Sirius glared at him and turned pack to the stove.
“Oh, and make me some while you’re at it,” Remus added.
Sirius glared at him as well, but made the pancakes nonetheless.
Another half an hour later, all three had finished eating, and James and Remus went up to get ready while Jessica came down, all set for her first day of Hogwarts. She joined Sirius at the counter and started eating the chocolate chips that were still sitting there.
“Haven’t you had enough sugar for one morning?” Sirius asked her.
“Nope,” Jessica replied popping another chocolate chip into her mouth.
Sirius just shook his head and stared at her as she ate the chocolate chips. He thought the happiness on her face as she ate the chocolate was rather cute.
“What?” Jessica asked noticing Sirius’s stare.
Just amazed at how much chocolate you can stomach,” Sirius replied.
“It’s good stuff!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Yeah, but so much?”
“Have some,” Jessica offered.
Sirius took some, and soon, they had finished off the chocolate chips.
“You’re right; they are good,” Sirius said to Jessica.
“Of course I was right. I’m Jessica Potter.,” Jessica said. “I think I want some more.”
“You really are crazy,” Sirius said shaking his head.
Jessica just stuck his tongue out at him and hopped off the stool. She went into the kitchen and started to search for more chocolate chips.
James and Remus came down just then.
“What’s she doing?” James asked.
“Looking for chocolate chips,” Sirius replied.
“There was a whole bag of them on the counter when we left,” Remus pointed out.
“Yeah, but we finished them,” Sirius replied.
“You ate all of those chocolate chips?!” Remus exclaimed.
“She ate most of them,” Sirius said pointing at Jessica.
“Oh great,” James groaned. “This is going to be just painful.”
“I found them!” Jessica exclaimed from the kitchen holding up a bag of chocolate chips.
James, Sirius, and Remus audibly groaned.
Jessica just shrugged and asked, “Do you want some?”
James pointed his wand at the bag, just as Jessica was about to reach in, and made the bag disappear.
“Hey, where are they?!”
“Gone,” James replied.
“Give them back!” Jessica demanded.
“No way,” James said. “You’re crazy enough without all of this sugar.”
“Oh come on, please,” Jessica begged.
“No.”
“Please.”
“No,” James said. “We have to leave in 10 minutes. The train leaves in twenty. Let’s go get our trunks.”
Jessica pouted, but she joined the others upstairs, and they grabbed their trunks and brought them down to the living room.
“Mom and dad couldn’t make it because they got an urgent call and had to go. I got a letter while we were getting ready/ Lauren and Stacey are still going to come with us to say goodbye, though,” James said. “They should be here in a bit, then we can all leave together.”
“Sounds good,” Remus replied.
A few minutes later, Lauren and Stacey appeared in the fireplace.
“Hi!” Stacey exclaimed bouncing over to them.
“Hey there, Munchkin,” James replied. “How was your morning.”
“It was weird,” Stacey replied. “I went to sleep in my room and woke up in Lauren’s guest room. I think I sleep walked all the way over there.”
“I told you,” Lauren sighed. “Your parents dropped you off while you were asleep because they got an urgent call and had to go into work and, they didn’t want to leave you with the idiots.”
“It was still weird.”
“So, are we ready to leave?” Lauren asked.
“We aren’t speaking to you,” Jessica said before the others could reply.
“Why?”
“You called us idiots!”
“It’s not my fault that the truth hurts.”
“That was not the truth. I am no idiot.”
Lauren just rolled her eyes and turned to leave. “Want to get going?”
They nodded their heads and began to apperate out. James and Remus went first, then Lauren took Stacey.
“You coming?” Sirius asked Jessica who was standing with her arms folded.
“She insulted me!” Jessica exclaimed. “And now she expects me to be over it!”
“Oh get over it. if we don’t leave now, you won’t get to go to Hogwarts.”
“No! I want to go!”
“Well then, apperate to Platform 9¾,” Sirius said.
Jessica nodded and closed her eyes, but then opened them again. “I can’t,” she said.
“Why not?” Sirius asked.
“I don’t know what the Platform looks like,” Jessica replied.
Sirius hesitated for a moment, but then said, “Then grab my arm and I’ll side-along apperate with you.
Jessica nodded and took a hold of Sirius’s arm. The second she touched his arm, Sirius felt a tingle in the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath, ignoring the tingle, and turned on the spot, apperating to Platform 9¾.


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Chapter 24

They had apperated right onto Platform 9¾ in front of the scarlet Hogwarts Express.
Jessica stood staring up at the train without bothering to let go Sirius’s arm, not that he really minded.
“Padfoot, Jessie!”
They both jumped and turned around. Jessica quickly let go of Sirius’s arm leaving him with a slightly empty feeling.
The others were standing a few feet behind them, waving them over. Sirius and Jessica went over.
“Say your goodbyes quickly, Jess, or people will start to notice,” James said to her.
She nodded and hugged Lauren and Stacey goodbye.
“Make sure you write and tell us everything that is happening,” Lauren told her.
“And bring me back a lot of stuff when you come for Christmas,” Stacey added.
“Sure thing,” Jessica replied.
“And Amy and Jake told me to tell you that they don’t want any more negative letters, boys,” Lauren added to them as she gave each one of them a hug.
“Hey, it’s not us you have to worry about this year,” James said. “It’s Jessie.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you are going to get into a lot of trouble and mom and dad will have to deal with letters from Dumbeldore.”
“Me, get in trouble? Never!”
“Jake and Amy had better be prepared,” Lauren muttered.
Jessica stuck out her tongue.
“There’s Lily,” Remus suddenly said.”If we want this to work, then you have to leave now, Jessica.”
Jessica nodded, said one last goodbye to everybody and disappeared into the crowd.
“Do I want to know?” Lauren asked.
“Start of term prank,” Sirius replied nonchalantly.
“Of course,” Lauren said rolling her eyes. “How could I forget? I don’t even know why I told you guys to stay out of trouble. It isn’t going to get anywhere.”
“No, this is actually a pretty good prank,” Sirius said.
“And it won’t physically, hurt anybody,” Remus added. “Jessica came up with it.”
“And you expect me to believe that it won’t cause any harm?” Lauren snorted.
“We are just pretending that Jessie and I aren’t related,” James said, “just for the weekend. Then, we can laugh at people when they find out.”
“Jessica thinks it’ll be particularly funny to hear what is said in the girl’s bathroom” Remus said. “She said that from what Carly told her, those girls won’t be able to face her ever again.”
“What did Cassie tell her?” James asked.
“She wouldn’t say.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch, and it scares me just a little bit.”
Before anyone could say anything else, the train whistle blew and people started scrambling onto the train.
“Bye!” the boys called as they hurried to the train.
“Bye!” Lauren called. “Try to keep it under 40 detentions!”
“Bring me stuff!” Stacey yelled.

“Let’s get on the train,” Lily said in a hurry. “We have to get to the meeting, Em; we can’t be late.”
“The meeting doesn’t start for 15 minutes after the train leaves,” Emily pointed out.
“So?” Lily asked pulling Emily onto the train. “I have to be on time and meet the Head Boy. What type of impression would I make on him if I was late?”
“You probably know him already since you two would have had to be prefects together for the past 2 years.”
“Yeah, but this would be our first meeting as heads.”
Well, she was exactly like the boys and Carly had described her, Jessica thought as she watched the red-head make a fuss. This was sure to be an interesting weekend.
“Okay, but come with us to get a compartment before you go,” Jessica heard Carly say. “That way, you know where to find us and you don’t have to take your stuff with you.”
“Fine,” Lily huffed, “but let’s go now.”
Jessica watched the four girls get onto the train. Jessica got on as well, but decided to wait until Lily Evans had left before making her entrance. She slowly walked down the train, pulling her trunk behind her. A lot of people looked at her curiously; mostly the older students; they were clearly wondering who she was.
Jessica didn’t know it, but she also earned herself a few scowls from the girls, mostly because boys were staring at her openly. She, of course, didn’t notice this and continued to walk as the train picked up speed.
Jessica saw Lily and Emily walk out of a compartment few minutes later. They walked down in the train in the opposite direction Jessica was coming from, so they didn’t see her.
When they had disappeared, Jessica pulled her trunk over to the compartment. She slid open the door and stepped in.
“Jessie!” Carly exclaimed jumping up and enveloping her in a hug.
“Cassie!” Jessica mimicked Carly’s shriek.
“How’d you find us already?” she asked as Jessica sat.
“I saw the other two come out of here,” Jessica replied.
“Oh, okay then,” Carly said with a shrug. “So, this is Alice.” she pointed to the other girl who had brown hair and a kind face.
“Nic to meet you,” Jessica said.
“You too,” she replied with a smile. “Not every day you meet a long lost Potter twin.”
“What?” Jessica asked confused. She thought Carly had said that only Emily knew.
“Oh, right,” Carly said. “Alice snooped into my personal belongings yesterday and found out.”
“I didn’t snoop!”
“Yeah, you did.”
“No I didn’t!”
“Fine, if it makes you feel any better.”
“I didn’t.”
“Okay.”
“I didn’t!”
“Okay!”
“Okay, so you both have different opinions on what snooping is,” Jessica said in an attempt to shut them up. “Moving on.”
“Are you excited about Hogwarts?” Carly asked.
“Yeah, after everything I’ve heard about it,” Jessica replied, “but I’m more excited about this weekend.”
“Yeah, I want to see Jennifer Thompson and her little gang humiliated.”
“Who is Jennifer Thompson?” Jessica asked.
“Jennifer Thompson, Eliza Moore, and Lindsey Carter are the most annoying, snobby Ravenclaws. They think the world revolves around them and everyone worships them,” Alice explained.
“Basically everything Lily says about James, except in the girls’ cases, it’s actually true,” Carly said.
“They also have an obsession with the Marauders,” Alice continued, “and they talk about them in the bathrooms.”
“The things they say,” Carly said shaking her head. “And people actually believe them. Thompson genuinely has most of the girls in the school convinced that she was secretly dating James in the end of sixth year and that’s why he stopped asking Lily out. Imagine the look on her face when she finds out that she told that to James’s sister who would obviously know the truth.”
“Not to mention how much she talks about how good looking he is and how much he likes her, and how much she knows about him, and basically how much of a fake she is and how much she knows about telling lies.”
“I personally worry about some of the guys in the school,” Alice said looking out of the compartment.
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“Is James the over protective type of brother?” Alice asked in response.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Jessica replied.
“He is,” Carly said. “Remember what he did to poor Tyler Hunts when he accidently hit you while on the swing? Poor guy was gone for a week and James almost got kicked out of the day care.”
“Yeah, but Tyler had broken my nose. It was different,” Jessica pointed out. “I don’t think James would push a guy off of a play set onto the concrete below if he was dating me.”
“He would if the guy was an absolute jerk.”
“I would know not to date a jerk,” Jessica said.
“Not if the guy was like Jared Davis,” Alice said darkly.
“Who is Jared Davis?” Jessica asked.
“He was a 7th year Ravenclaw last year,” Alice replied. “He was practically perfect. He was Cute, Head Boy, Quidditch Captain and Seeker, smart, funny, and everything else, plus he liked Lily. They went out for almost 4 months, but then, one day, Lily was doing her prefect rounds at night. She was walking by an empty classroom when she heard something in there. Well, people are always making out in empty classrooms after hours, so Lily opened the door to dock some house points and give them detention, but she wasn’t expecting to find Carol Towns attached to Jared Davis by the lips. It was horrible,” Alice said sadly shaking her head.
“Lily found out that Jared had been cheating on her for 3 months,” Carly continued. “She cried for a week and practically stopped eating Jared went around like nothing happened, until the Quidditch final that is. It was Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw, and most Hufflepuffs sided with Gryffindor because everyone knew about what Jared did. Then, on top of that, James made sure that Frank and Sirius took their Beater jobs very seriously and his Seeker tricked Jared into flying into the ground at least 5 times. After he got out of the hospital wing, Jared had an ‘accident’ with a hippogriff in Care of Magical Creatures. Suspiciously, he had the class while the Marauders had a free period which they had spent outside. A lot of odd things had found their way into Jared’s food, his shampoo got switched with a balding potion that keeps magic from helping the hair grow back, and itching powder ended up in his robes somehow. When the snake found lodging in his shoe, I was positive why the Slytherins were getting a break. I’ll bet Jared was over the moon about finally getting away.”
“Oh great,” Jessica said sarcastically. “Now I have to give all the guys I want to date jerk tests.”
“Don’t worry,” Carly reassured her. “The Jared thing taught all the guys a lesson. And you are James’s sister. The guys may be jerks, but they aren’t idiots.”
“Well, getting back to the original topic of conversation, why are you worried about the boys in this school?” Jessica asked Alice.
“It’s just that I’ve lost track of how many boys have walked by staring at you,” Alice replied.
“Well, people are bound to get curious about the new girl,” Jessica said shrugging, clearly missing the point.
“It wasn’t curious staring,” Alice said. “It was if-a-guy-catches-someone-looking-at-his-sister-like-that-he’s-dead staring. I only worry about what they will say in front of James, or to James.”
Jessica gave her a blank look. Why would a guy give her that type of look? She was a pretty average girl.
“Jessica Potter!” Carly exclaimed. “Don’t give us that look; I know exactly what it means. Don’t be so surprised. You are an absolutely gorgeous girl who James is already starting to worry about.”
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.
“Last month when I was there, you had gone to the bathroom and the rest of us were talking. I mentioned to James how he had better not become overprotective and he said that it was ‘natural brother instinct.’ He said that with the way he had heard guys talking about some of the girls in the boys’ bathrooms it would be hard not to. And Sirius added, ‘Especially when it’s Jessica and her looks.’ Did you not wonder why James didn’t talk to Sirius for half an hour after you got back?”
Jessica blushed, but was saved from having to respond when the door banged open to reveal an amused blond behind a very disgruntled red-head.

“Let’s find a compartment, then Moony and I’ll go down to the prefect’s compartment,” James said as they walked down the train.
“You just want to put off telling Evans that you’re Head Boy,” Sirius teased.
James was about to respond when somebody behind them asked, “You’re Heads Boy?”
The three boys turned and found Peter looking at him with his eyebrows raised.
“Yes,” James replied, “and we have no idea why.”
Remus shook his heads and asked, “Where’s your trunk?”
“Oh, I already put it in a compartment with Frank and Kyle,” Peter replied. “I just had to make a quick trip to the bathroom.
“Oh, so where is the compartment?”
“Just a little ways down. I’ll show you.” Peter lead the three to a compartment where Frank and Kyle were sitting, already playing Exploding Snap. After dropping off their stuff and explaining to Frank and Kyle that they too were worried about Dumbeldore because of his choice of Head Boy, James and Remus walked to the prefect’s carriage.
When they got there, it was surprisingly empty. The meeting was to start in five minutes and Lily Evans was at least 10 minutes early to everything. James and Remus looked at each other and shrugged before sitting and continuing their conversation on the coming year.
“Well, I can assure you that this year is going to be different than any other year,” James said.
“Yeah, with you as Head Boy,” Remus snorted.
“Exactly, I’m going to make sure that this year is more exciting.”
“Oh yeah? How are you going to do that?”
“Well, we can have Hogsmeade trips a lot more frequently, like once a month. And we can have a dance this year to shake things up a bit. And I won’t give us detention for our pranks!” James said excitedly.
“You do realize that the teachers can still do that, right?” Remus asked.
James ignored him and kept talking about everything that they could do. “- and we can have a school wide snowball fight!”
Remus shook his head and leaned back in his seat.
A couple minutes later, the prefect arrived and James stopped talking about the coming year. As each prefect walked in, he or she stared at James in astonishment.
At 11:14, the only people that still hadn’t arrived were Emily and to James’s surprise, Lily.
Finally, she rushed in with Emily behind her.
“Sorry I’m late; I lost track of –“
She stopped at the sight of James and stared at him in disbelief.
“Don’t worry, Evans,” James said with a smile. “You’re right on time.”

“Let’s get going,” Lily said, “We don’t want to be late.”
“Calm down,” Emily said with a laugh. “We still have five minutes.”
“Yeah, and that’s how long it will take us to get there!”
Emily rolled her eyes, but didn’t speed up.
Lily sulked and walked with Emily as she talked.
“So, who do you think will be Head Boy?” she asked.
“I don’t know; as long as it isn’t Snape, I don’t care,” Lily replied, still grumpy.
“I doubt Dumbeldore would make Snape Head Boy,” Emily assured her. “I mean he’d probably be too busy reading about the dark arts to do his job.”
Lily agreed and looked at her watch. “Oh God!” she exclaimed. “We only have 1 minute!” She almost ran the rest of the way to the Prefects’ compartment with Emily behind her shaking her head.
She pushed open the door say, “Sorry I’m late; I lost track of –“ Lily stopped midsentence when she looked up and saw none other than James Potter standing in front of her with a Head Boy badge pinned to his shirt.
“Don’t worry, Evans,” James said with a smile, and not an annoying cheeky one either. “You’re right on time.”
Lily just stood there gapping at him until there was a tap on her shoulder. “Could you let me in?” Emily asked from behind her.
Lily came back to her senses and moved into the compartment. Emily came in behind her and took the remaining seat leaving Lily standing with James.
Lily was still too much in shock to do much of anything, so James began the meeting.
“Alright,” he said. “First of all, I’m James and this is Lily and we’re the Heads so you have to listen to us. You all know you are Prefects and have to be responsible and everything, so I won’t go over that, but don’t forget that; you can’t do whatever you want just because you have the badge with the little ‘P’ on it.
“Now, you all have to patrol from 9:00 to 11:00 every night. You can take one day off every week if need it to catch up with homework or find yourself in the hospital wing or something. You also need to patrol the train for at least an hour whenever you get around to it.
“When the train gets to Hogsmeade Station, help the first years find Hagrid and lead them to your common rooms after the feast. You need to tell people in your house, and only people in your house, the passwords which Lily will give you.”
Hearing her name, Lily snapped out of her shock the James actually sounded responsible and looked up. She hadn’t been listening, so she didn’t know what she was supposed to be doing. “What?”
“The passwords,” James replied.
“Oh, right,” she mumbled and pulling out the house passwords. She passed them to the 7th year prefects for ever house; Emily gave Lily a knowing look as she handed her the passwords, but Lily ignored her. “When the passwords change, you’ll be given the new passwords,” she said snapping into her speech voice. “We will be having meetings every month in the library; the date will be sent to you by owl. And I think that’s about it, right?” she added to James trying not to glare at him too hard.
“Yep, that’s it,” James replied ignoring Lily’s look. “Don’t forget to patrol the train and you don’t have to patrol the castle tonight. Oh, and start brainstorming some new ideas for this year to be discussed at the meeting. We’ll see you there!”
The prefects, except for Emily and Remus, all filed out; the girls looked somewhat disappointed that they could no longer stare at James with a good excuse. Lily doubted they took in any of the meeting.
“Let’s go,” Lily said pulling Emily out after the prefects not wanting to give James a chance to ask her out.
However, they were only a few feet away when James stopped them.
“Hey, Evans!”
“No, I will not go out with you Potter!” Lily shouted turning around and glaring at him.
James looked let down, but said, “I was just going to tell you that Dumbeldore wants to see us after the feast,” before walking away with Remus who gave Lily a look and smiled at Emily.
“Ugh! He makes me so mad!” Lily exclaimed.
“He makes you mad by not asking you out?” Emily asked, amused.
“No, he makes me mad by being Head Boy!”
“Well, Dumbledore’s the one who made him Head Boy; it’s not really James’s fault.”
“And the way he was talking during the meeting!”
“You’re the one telling him to grow up, so I don’t see why you’re so disappointed when he does.”
“It’s not that; it’s just – ugh!” Lily stalked off towards their compartment.

Emily rolled her eyes and fallowed her.
When they reached the compartment, Lily was still fuming and banged the door open.
“You alright, Lily?” Alice asked seeing the look on her face.
“No!” Lily shouted not even noticing the other girl that was in there. As a girl, Emily could say that she was pretty; must be a family thing.
“You won’t believe who’s Head Boy!”
“Snape?” Carly asked slightly amused. Emily was pretty sure that she had gotten a letter from James and Jessica and she knew it was James.
“Worse; it’s Potter!” Lily exclaimed.
Emily rolled her eyes and sat next to the other red head who was probably Jessica.
“That’s not worse the Snape,” Alice said.
“Yes it is!” Lily cried. “At least Snape’s not rude!”
“At least James doesn’t call you an ‘M’ you-know-what.”
“But Potter always asks me out!”
“And Snape always looks down your shirt these days.
“Know he doesn’t!” Lily gasped.
“Well, he’s not going to let you notice.”
“Potter is always annoying me, though!” Lily continued ignoring Alice. “He always asks me out and bugs me and is mean to everyone and…”
Emily tuned out of Lily’s rant. She would go on forever without noticing anything around her. Instead, Emily leaned over to the girl next to her. “I’m Emily,” she said quietly.
“Jessica,” she replied still glaring at Lily.
“She doesn’t mean it,” Emily assured her. “She’s just trying to find reasons to ‘hate’ him. This time, she got set off because he was responsible at the meeting.”
Jessica took a deep breath and smiled at Emily. “Probably because Sirius bet him that he couldn’t,” she replied.
Emily tried to look indifferent, but Jessica still gave her a knowing look. “Well, either way, Lily was just pleasantly shocked but doesn’t want people to know that she had any pleasant feelings related to James Potter.”
“- I swear I’ve had enough of that ego! I will not put up with any of his nonsense if I have to be Heads with him!”
“Great,” Carly interrupted Lily’s rant. “Just reform him then and you’ll be able to stand him. Then you won’t have any excuse to not be in love with him.”
“I’m not even dignifying that with an answer,” Lily said glaring at Carly before sitting by the door and staring through the glass door.
“She’ll notice you when she’s done trying to convince herself that she doesn’t like James,” Carly whispered to Jessica.
A few minutes of silence later, Lily cried out again. “Why do boys keep slowly walking by our compartment multiple times with more and more friends every time?!”
“See?!” Alice exclaimed. “Lily sees it too! Those boys are so dead!”
Lily jumped and turned to Alice while Emily looked at her too, confused.
“It’s not because of me!” Jessica cried. “They probably do that every year and you don’t notice; you’re all, quote, ‘absolutely gorgeous’ too!”
“They haven’t done that before; trust us, we would have noticed.”
“Then they’re just curious about the new girl.”
Alice shrugged. “If you’d like to think that.”
“I would,” Jessica replied. “I shudder to think of what – ow!”
“Sorry,” Carly said. “Foot slipped.” She had stepped on Jessica’s foot to keep her from saying “James.”
Jessica sat glaring at her until Lily asked, “Who are you?”
“Oh yes,” Carly said. “It’s nice to see that you’ve stopped thinking about James and have noticed Jessica.”
“Oh, you’re Jessica,” Lily said. “I’m so sorry! I was just thinking about the torture and –“
“It’s okay,” Jessica cut her off with what looked like a somewhat forced smile. “It’s nice to finally meet you.” Emily thought that she sounded as if she didn’t completely mean it, but Lily smiled back and replied, “You too.”
There was a moment’s silence, but as another group of boys went by, Lily smiled at Jessica again and said, “You know, they’re right; you are really pretty.”
Jessica’s smile changed to geniune as she replied, “Whatever,” before asking about Hogwarts. That conversation carried them all the way to Hogwarts.


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Chapter 25

When they had reached Hogwarts castle, the boys walked into the Great Hall. Sirius saw professor McGonagall lead Jessica away from the throng of student heading into the Great Hall. She caught Sirius’s eye and smiled at him. He smiled back before following his friends to the Gryffindor table. They sat down and started talking about their summer.
Sirius could tell that James wanted to say something about Jessica, but he knew that he could risk blowing their cover if he said anything right now.
A few minutes before the sorting, Jessica walked in with a proud smile. All eyes turned to look at her, but she sought out James who was looking anxious. She gave him a discreet smile before joining the other Gryffindor Seventh Year girls a little ways from the boys as they congratulated her on making it into Gryffindor.
James looked happy that his sister was in his house, but didn’t say anything
“Man, those rumors on the train weren’t wrong!” Kyle exclaimed.
“You got that right!” Frank agreed with him as Peter nodded his head in agreement.
“What rumors?” Sirius asked.
“If you had stepped out of the compartment at least once on the train, then you would know.”
“Well, Moony and I went to the Prefects’ meeting and we didn’t hear any rumors,” James said.
“That’s because you were talking about how Lily didn’t even yell at you and weren’t paying any attention to anything around you,” Remus told him.
“You heard them?”
“Yes!”
“Well, I didn’t,” Sirius said.
“Because you didn’t leave,” Kyle said to him.
“Well, what were these rumors about?”
Kyle opened his mouth to answer, but didn’t get a chance to because just then, Professor McGonagall walked in with the First Years.
They were looking around with awe and fear as they walked into the Great Hall. Sirius saw them nudge each other and point up to the ceiling which was mirroring outside’s beautiful, cloudless night sky.
When they reached the front, McGonagall stopped them and placed the Sorting Hat and the stool in the very front before the frightened new students. Some of them gasped as the hat sang its song. After the applause had died down, McGonagall read out the names of the students. Finally, when they had all been sorted, and the hat and stool had been taken away, Dumbeldore stood up and, everyone fell dead silent and gave him their attention.
“Welcome to Hogwarts to our new comers and welcome back to our old faces. I’m sure you are all awaiting the delicious meal today, so I will save the speeches for later and allow you to dive into your food.”
As Dumbeldore sat down, and the food appeared, James and Sirius did just as Dumbeldore had said and dived into their food.
“So,” Sirius said after having calmed down. “What were you guys saying about rumors?”
“I don’t think you want to know,” Remus said.
“Why not?”
“I just don’t.”
“I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” Kyle said.
“So, what is it?”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Remus said.
Sirius ignored him and turned to Kyle. James looked over too as he chewed on his chicken.
“Well, they weren’t lying about the new girl being hot.”
James choked on his chicken while Sirius stared at Kyle.
“What, you don’t agree?” Kyle asked.
“No, she’s hot, but –“
James spat out the pumpkin juice he had been using to wash down the chicken and glared incredulously at Sirius.
“I just, uh, meant, I, um, can’t stop looking at her,” Sirius said quickly at the look from James, but the glare just worsened.
“I mean, uh, she isn’t bad to look at,” Sirius said, but the he was still under James’s glare.
“She’s, err…pretty?”
James’s glare didn’t soften, but Remus gave Sirius a look, and he fell silent before he dug himself a deeper hole.
“What happened?” Peter asked.
Sirius didn’t lift his eyes and neither did James. Remus, mouthed, ‘Drop it,’ at Peter and he did going back to his dinner.
Frank and Kyle looked uneasily from James to Sirius, but they too returned to their dinner.
The rest of the meal went by in an uncomfortable silence.

“Wow, that’s a lot of food!” Jessica exclaimed as the food appeared and she dug in.
The others dug in too, though a little less vigorously the Jessica.
They were enjoying their food in silence when a rather loud conversation a little down the table reached their ears.
“Well, they weren’t lying about the new girl being hot.”
All five girls looked down at where the Marauders were sitting with Frank and Kyle. Jessica turned red at Kyle’s words while Carly looked put out when she saw who the speaker was. They watched James choke on a piece of chicken as Kyle asked, “What, you don’t agree?”
“No, she’s hot, but –“
Jessica turned, if possible, even redder as James spat out his pumpkin juice and glared at Sirius who was trying to cover up his words.
“I just, uh, meant, I, um, can’t stop looking at her.”
It was possible for Jessica to turn redder.
“I mean, uh, she isn’t bad to look at.”
The color in Jessica’s face just kept on rising.
“She’s, err…pretty?”
By now, Jessica looked as if all of the blood in her body was in her face, and she was glad when she saw Remus stop the conversation.
Emily and Carly were giving Jessica knowing smiles while Alice smirked in a told-you-so way.
“I swear that’s all those idiots think about!” Lily exclaimed. “They judge girls on how they look; forget their personalities!”
She got no response, but left it at that.

As the main course disappeared and the dessert appeared, the occupants of the Great Hall started to look over at the Marauders. Dessert was usually the time that their pranks took place, so they were all waiting anxiously for it to happen, but nothing happened. Dessert had disappeared and no one had turned into a pig or started doing the Hooky Pokey.
Dumbeldore stood up for his speech and all eyes turned towards him. He gave all f the usual reminders about Quidditch and banned objects and places and asked the Heads to meet him in his office.
As everyone started getting up and leaving the Great Hall, Remus disappeared to guide the First Years, and the other boys went up to the common room.
James split up with them and went to the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore’s office.
When he got there, he saw that Lily was already there.
“Hey, Lily,” he said to her. “You going to stand out here or go on up?”
She turned and glared at him. “I would go up, but we obviously don’t know the password, so we have to wait for Professor Dumbeldore to get here.”
“He’s probably already up there,” James replied.
“Then how are we supposed to get up!?”
“Cockroach cluster.”
“What?”
Suddenly, the gargoyle revealed the hidden staircase up to the office.
“Ladies first,” James said motioning for Lily to go up. She did, and James followed her.
“How did you know the password?” Lily asked as they climbed the stairs.
“I thought of the most disgusting candy I could think of.”
“I beg to differ, James.”
James and Lily started and looked up. Dumbeldore was smiling down at them from the top of the steps.
“I happen to think that Cockroach Clusters are a delightful treat once one gets used to the taste.”
“I’m sorry, Sir, but it just so happens that yours and mine tastes in sweets are completely opposite,” James said sweetly.
“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Dumbeldore said. “Now, let’s step into my office and take a seat.”
James and Lily stepped into the office after Dumbeldore. Lily looked around in awe because she hadn’t been there yet. After Lily was done admiring the office, she and James sat down and faced Dumbeldore.
“Well, first of all, congratulations to both of you. I’m sure I’ve made the right choice with you two as Heads,” he said, “despite what you might think,” he added smiling at James. “Now, I know that you will keep things here interesting. Don’t be afraid to try something new; there is nothing wrong with change. I have a feeling that there is a lot of negative change and dark times coming our way, and we will need something to keep the student body going. I’m trusting you two to keep this school running as smoothly as it has always been going.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” Lily said. “You can trust us.”
Dumbeldore smiled at her and said, “I know that. Now, I’m sure you are ready to sleep, so your Heads’ common room is in the same corridor as the Gryffindor common room behind the painting of the dog. The password is ‘unity.’ I’ll leave you to go now. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Professor,” James and Lily said leaving the office and walking in silence to the picture of the dog.
“Unity,” James said.
The dog barked, and the painting swung open. James and Lily climbed in and looked around.
The room looked like an exact replica of the Gryffindor common room, except it was bigger. Lily’s room was on the left and James’s on the right.
James went up to his room after looking around and calling, “’night, Lily,” to Lily who was going to her room.
“’night, Potter,” she called back.
‘At least she replied,’ James thought walking into his room. It looked exactly like his room at home; all of the pictures and posters were on the walls and his clothes were even unpacked and messily strewn across the floor or shoved into the closet. The bathroom was also the same as his back home.
James got ready for bed before finding his two-way mirror so that he could talk to Sirius. He wasn’t mad at him; it was just the whole ‘brother thing’ as Carly had put it. Actually, James had already noticed the way Sirius looked at Jessica, and he knew that there was something there.
“Sirius black,” James said into the mirror.
A couple seconds later, Sirius’s face appeared in the mirror, though he looked quite scared.
“Y-yeah?” he asked.
“Oh come on, Padfoot!” James heard Sirius shout in the background. “What’s he going to do to you through a mirror?”
James decided to ignore the whole subject and asked, “How’s it going?”
Sirius smiled and replied, “Good. We were just getting ready to sl-“
He was cut off by Kyle who was holding a conversation with Frank as they walked into the dorm.
“I thought you liked Alice,” Kyle said.
“I thought you liked Carly,” Frank shot back.
“Well, I do.”
“So do I.”
“Then why were you staring at the new girl?” Kyle asked.
“I was getting over the shock of her good looks,” Frank replied. “Why were you staring at her?”
“I’m a guy. I see a hot girl and I’m gonna stare, but doesn’t change the fact that I like Carly. When I get used to seeing her all the time, I’ll be back to admiring Carly. The new girl, I can get used to, but not Carly.”
“But you agree that she’s still hot?”
“Will you please shut them up?!” James cried at Sirius exasperatedly.
“Gladly,” he replied waving his wand at them so they fell silent.
“Thank you,” James said. “I was just about to come over and bang their heads into the wall. I don’t want to hear anyone every having that conversation ever again.”
“Neither do I,” Sirius said.
“Oh, stop it, you guys,” Remus said. “You know perfectly well that you two would be having the same conversation as them if it weren’t Jessica.”
“No we wouldn’t,” James said.
“Yeah well, you wouldn’t know because she’s your sister, but don’t you try to deny it, Sirius.”
“You guys are dead in the morning,” James said.
“What did we do?”
“There are some thoughts that you don’t share about girls with their brothers, and you are just digging yourselves a deeper whole.”
“I didn’t even say anything!” Remus exclaimed.
“You implied that you agree with every single one of their words,” James replied.
There was a moment’s silence, then Remus said, “I won’t deny it, but –“
“You are so lucky you can’t see his face right now, Moony,” Sirius said.
James took a few calming breaths then said slowly, “Just drop the subject now. Let’s stop talking about Jessica, and move on to a subject that doesn’t lead to a conversation that makes me want to give you a good punch in the face.”
“Gladly,” Sirius said.
“Not so fast.”
“How did you get your voice back?” Sirius asked frank who had spoken.
“Used my wand and silently took the charm off,” Frank replied.
“I should have thought of that,” Kyle said.
“Well, you didn’t. Now, James, would you care to explain?”
James sighed. “Padfoot, give them the mirror, and Wormtail, too.”
Sirius did as he was told, and soon, there were three curious faces staring back at James out of the mirror.
“Well?”
“Jessica’s my twin sister who’s been in a coma for the last 11 years.”
“What!?”
“To bad we don’t have some cookies,” Sirius said. “They go great with this story.”
“Sirius.”
“Sorry.”
James told his three friends the entire story.
When he was done, all they could say was, “Wow.”
“That’s what we said,” Remus said.
“There isn’t much more to say,” Frank said.
“Hey, James,” Kyle said. “Ignore everything I said about her, okay. Let’s just all erase it from our memories. I like Carly; she’s hot, too.”
“And almost like a sister to Prongs,” Sirius added.
“On second thought, pretend I didn’t say that,” Kyle said. “Carly’s not hot; she’s, um…I’m just going to go to sleep and hope I wake up tomorrow.”
James laughed and shook his head; it was kind of funny, but still: she was his sister, so this was the line.
Frank was about to say something, but James cut him off. “Don’t get yourself into the same boat as Kyle and Padfoot.”
“Good idea,” he said. “’night.”
“Good night,” James said to them before putting the mirror on his bedside table and getting into bed.
James went to sleep that night feeling assured that everything was going to be alright.
If only he knew how wrong he was.


Feedback please!

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 26

The next day, Jessica, Carly, and Carly went down to breakfast where they meet up with Lily. After eating, they went down outside to sit by the lake because the weather was so nice. Lily, Emily, and Alice asked Jessica about herself and she gave as truthful answers as she could without giving anything away.
Jessica asked more about Hogwarts and the people there.
“Who should I avoid?” Jessica asked, mostly to see what else Lily would say about James being a git.
Before Lily could say anything, however, Carly replied, “Jennifer Thompson, Eliza Moore, and Lindsey Carter. They’re the most annoying girls you’ll ever meet.”
“They somehow managed to get into Ravenclaw, but they are the stupidest girls you’ll ever meet,” Alice added.
“Carter’s the worst,” Emily said. “She thinks that the whole world’s in love with her and she can do whatever she wants.”
“Emily,” Carly said. “What you mean is, ‘I think Carter’s the worst because she’s in likes Remus.’”
Emily glared at her while Alice laughed.
“Actually,” Lily said. “Thompson’s the worst, but they’re all pretty horrible. Their skirts are so short I don’t see the point in them wearing them and if they stuffed anymore tissues into their bras, then their shirts will explode.”
“Oh, and don’t get started on all of their gossip, and they talk about the Marauders as if they were Gods or something,” Emily added. She put on a high-pitched breathy voice and mimicked them. “’Remus smiled at me today; he likes me! Sirius is going to ask me to Hogsmeade! I’m already going out with James Potter, but it’s a secret so I can’t go to Hogsmeade with him.’ It’s disgusting.”
“That’s not even the worst of it,” Lily said. “Thompson has an unhealthy obsession with James Potter. She talks about him twenty-four seven. ‘James is hot! James’s hair is cute! James is really good at Quidditch!’ then she starts making things up. ‘James is a really good kisser! James is the best boyfriend ever!’ how would she know?”
“It’s not as bad as carter’s obsession with Remus,” Emily said. “She practically stalks him. And she said that she hooked up with him at the end of fifth year, and people believed it!”
“Including you,” Alice said.
“I didn’t believe it!” Emily exclaimed. “Why would I believe something that stupid?!”
“You wouldn’t, unless it was about Remus Lupin.”
“Oh, hush up!”
“Did you notice how Emily hates Lindsey Carter, the one who likes Remus, and Lily hates Jennifer Thompson, the one who likes James?” Carly asked Jessica.
“That has nothing to do with it!” Lily exclaimed.
“You keep thinking that, Hon,” Alice said.
Seeing that Lily was about to say something, Carly said quickly, “Let’s go inside and show Jess some more of the castle.”
The others agreed and they trooped in.
After giving Jessica a complete tour of Hogwarts Castle, the girls decided that it was time for lunch.
“Let’s make a stop at the bathroom,” Jessica suggested as they walked to the Great Hall.
“Alright,” Lily said leading the way into the closest girls’ bathroom.
As they pushed open the door and stepped in, they heard a very unrealistic conversation taking place.
“So, you were there all summer?”
“Yeah, I spent the entire summer at the Potters’.”
“What did you do?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Was it fun?”
“Oh yeah, and his parents loved me!”
At this, Jessica couldn’t help but snort causing the girls to stop doing their hair and makeup and look away from the mirror.
“Oh, look,” one of them said. “It’s Evans and her little gang of do-gooders.”
“And the new girl,” another one added.
“Oh, yes,” said the first. She turned to Jessica and said, “I’d advise you to keep away from them or else you’ll be destined to be a goody-goody.”
Jessica just laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Other than the idea of me being a goody-goody?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“The fact that people actually believe anything you say. It just sounds fake.”
“Well, you apparently have spent too much time with Goody-Two-Shoes Evans. I hope you know that that automatically means you have no chance with any of the Marauders.”
“Oh, the ultimate let down,” Jessica said sarcastically. “Like I care.”
Carly snorted, but Jessica ignored it.
“How about we find a bathroom that isn’t filled with desperate wannabes?”
“Who are you calling a wannabe, New Girl?”
“You,” Jessica replied simply.
“Oh, I get it,” she said with a false sweet laugh. “You have already caught a glimpse of James Potter, and you’re jealous that he’s already mine.”
“You have no idea how disturbed that thought makes me feel,” Jessica said.
“I actually think that the thought would disturb James more.”
“I think that maybe, your right.”
“Yeah, of course I am.”
Jessica just shook her head. “You are so annoying, and I’ve only known you for like, five seconds.”
“It’s because you’re jealous.”
“Oh yes,” Jessica said sarcastically again. “I’m jealous of the gunk on your face, the tissues coming out of your shirt, and your poverty which is probably the reason you don’t have any skirts that fit you and shirts that won’t ripe when you put them on.”
“Oh, well aren’t you just smart.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, what you are is a stupid new girl that thinks that she can come in and everyone will love her. Well, for your information, no one likes you; I talked to my boyfriend James and his friends last night and they think you are hideous. Oh, and did I mention they hate red hair?”
“You know what? I liked Jess’s idea,” Lily said. “Let’s find a less contaminated bathroom. Later, *****.”
And with that, they walked out, Jessica, Carly, Emily, and Alice staring at Lily in shock.
“Did you just –“ Alice started shaking her head, but not finishing.
“Did I just what?” Lily asked.
“Did you just swear?”
Lily just shrugged. “She was annoying me.”
“She was mad when Thompson said that James doesn’t like red hair,” Emily pretended to whisper to Carly.
“No I wasn’t; I was just annoyed.”
“To tell you the truth,” Jessica said, “So was I. I was just about to say that, but Lily beat me there.”
“Yeah,” Carly said. “You got annoyed when she mentioned that you have no chance with any of the Marauders.”
“What are you trying to imply?” Jessica asked.
Carly just gave her a knowing look and looked over at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall where Remus, Peter, Frank, and Kyle were watching James and Sirius stuff their faces.
Jessica watched them as well, but didn’t say anything. She did not like Sirius! Did she?

“Do you think it’s safe to let James in there?” Sirius asked Remus gesturing towards the boys’ bathroom. “I just saw Diggory go in there.”
“Your point?” Remus asked.
“I noticed that he and his friends were looking over at the girls far more often than necessary.”
“Well, in that case, it’s about as safe as letting you go in there.”
“What are you guys doing,” James asked. “Debating whether or not the bathroom’s safe?” he joked.
“Yes, actually, we were,” Sirius said.
“Why?”
“Diggory’s in there.”
“Oh!” James cried pretending to understand. “And you care, why?”
“You did not see him outside.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Jessica was out there.”
“Oh,” James said; this time, he really did get it. “Well, I’ve always wanted a good reason to punch him in the face.” he pushed passed Sirius and Remus, but Frank held him back. “I thought this was your prank?”
James looked at him, then sighed, “Fine, I won’t punch him now, but can I collect more reason to do it later?”
Frank just shook his head and let him go. “Alright,” he said to Kyle, Remus, and Peter. “Kyle and I’ll hold back James, and Remus and Peter hold back Sirius, got it?”
Sirius rolled his eyes at them. “Oh please, you have nothing to worry about.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Remus muttered as they walked in.
“Forget Evans; she’s too much of a good girl anyways. The new girl is just as hot, plus she doesn’t seem to be very goody-goody,” they heard Amos Diggory say. When the others entered, he turned. “Oh, hey you guys!” he said.
“Hi,” James said stiffly while Sirius nodded at him curtly.
“Get ready,” Remus whispered.
“We were just having a discussion on the new girl.”
“So I heard,” James said.
“I think she’s pretty hot, and she doesn’t look too hard to get anything out of, don’t you think?”
James and Sirius looked ready to pounce, so Remus, Peter, Frank, and Kyle grabbed a hold of their arms and dragged them backwards.
“Actually,” Peter said. “I think we should get to lunch. You know how rude these two can be when their hungry.”
The other three nodded in agreement, and they dragged James and Sirius out of the bathroom.
“I worry for his safety,” Kyle said motioning towards the bathroom as they walked away.
Remus, Peter and Kyle agreed as they watched James and Sirius plan the next prank on Diggory.


Because I’m bored.



Chapter 27

Jessica woke up the next morning to the sounds of loud girls. She groaned and turned over in her bed; why did they have to be so loud?
“Why won’t she wake up?”
“I have no idea. Can you think of anything else that’ll wake her up?”
“No. let’s wake Jessica; maybe she can get Emily out of bed.”
Jessica groaned again and pushed the blankets off of herself. She pulled back the hangings around her bed and climbed off of her bed. “Try what Sirius did this summer,” she suggested.
“Oh, she’s awake!”
“I noticed, Alice,” Carly said shaking her heads. “What did Sirius do?”
Jessica smirked and walked over to Emily’s bed. “Hey, Remus!” she said loudly.
“Remus isn’t –“
“Hey, Remus, how’s it going?!” Emily asked as her eyes flew open and she sat up in bed looking around.
Jessica, Carly, and Alice laughed really hard. “It’s just as funny as when Sirius did it to James and Remus!” Jessica laughed.
Emily was glaring at Jessica while Alice asked, “How’d you know?”
“Cassie mentioned it over the summer,” Jessica replied. “I thought it was a pretty good method of waking people up. Sirius and I snuck into James’s room quite a few times and when nothing worked, Sirius resulted to saying really loudly, ‘Hey Lily!’ and he’d shoot right out bed and look around.”
Emily was still glaring while Carly laughed again.
“Well,” Carly said, “we should get ready. It’s already 10:00 and, if we don’t get down soon, we’ll get a long lecture from Lily.”
The girls got ready and they all went down to breakfast half-an-hour later.
Jessica smiled at the James and Remus as she passed them, but turned red at the sight of Sirius.
“There you are!” Lily exclaimed as the girls sat down with her. “God you guys sure do sleep a whole lot. What’s the point of the weekend if you’re going to sleep through it?”
“The sleep through it part?” Alice muttered buttering some toast.
“And what’s wrong with Emily?” Lily asked ignoring her.
Carly smiled and replied, “She didn’t like Jessie’s method of waking people up.”
“And what was that?” Lily asked.
“She pretended to greet Remus real loud, and Emily shot right up,” Alice told her.
Lily laughed, but then turned to Jessica and asked, “How did you know Emily liked Remus.”
The others froze and looked at her. “We stayed up late talking last night,” Jessica said quickly and smoothly. “Emily just let that little fact slip to me.”
“Oh,” Lily said. “That makes sense.”
Carly sighed with relief while glaring at Alice who just shrugged.
Jessica looked at all of the food in front of her and decided to go with the chocolate chip pancakes; there was nothing better than chocolate in the morning.
She put a stack of pancakes on her plate and drenched them with syrup. She found a fork and caught sight of Sirius who was watching her. He caught her eye and shook his head before turning away. Jessica went back to her pancakes and took a bite. She chewed and swallowed before taking more. She finished them all within five minutes and took seconds.
“What is wrong with you?” Carly asked watching her.
“They’re good!” Jessica said taking another bite.
Carly just shook her head and finished her eggs.
Jessica finished her pancakes just as the mail owls flew in. one delivered a copy of the Daily Prophet to Lily. She paid the owl and unrolled the paper. She took one look at the front of the paper and gasped.
“What happened?” Alice asked.
Lily just shook her head and read. “Daylight Attack. Yesterday around 10:00 in the morning, Aurors were called to a small town outside of London because of a deatheater attack. There weren’t too many deatheaters when the Aurors were called, so there were only about 10 of the top Aurors there. More deatheaters arrived when the Aurors were called. They outnumbered the Aurors 3 to 1. Ignoring this set back, the Aurors fought bravely until the end.
“The deatheaters are followers of You-Know-Who and have been attacking all over on his order. This however was the first daylight attack we’ve seen, and it has the wizarding community in fear. It was bad enough to look out your window at night and see the Dark Mark floating in the air, but now we have to worry about seeing it during the day as well.
“Ministry officials have refused to comment on any casualties due to the attack, but we have learned from a ministry insider that there have been injuries and deaths. We have learned that two top Aurors have lost their lives and one is severely injured in St. Mungo's. There have also been many smaller injuries, but they have been easily fixed. St. Mungo's won’t release any information on their patient, and the ministry won’t release any names.
“On a little happier note, two deatheaters have also died, but again, we have no names. We hope to be able to learn more and will hopefully be letting you know. For now, let’s us pay our respects to our fallen heroes and pray for the one an inch from death.”
“That’s horrible!” Alice cried.
Lily and Carly nodded sadly in agreement, but Jessica just sat staring at the paper. James had said that their parents wouldn’t be able to see them off because they had to gotten an urgent call; they had gone to the fight. She hadn’t thought much on it then, but now. What if something had happen to them?
No, nothing had happen to them; they’re strong, and they wouldn’t leave, not now. Jessica had just woken up and Lauren was getting married, and Stacey was still too young to lose her parents. No, they were fine. ‘I’ll write them a letter and, they’ll reply saying I was crazy for worrying. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.’

Jessica suddenly got up and left.
“Where are you going?” Lily asked.
Jessica turned and Lily saw tears in her eyes. “I-I have to write to m-my p-parents,” she replied with a shaky voice before turning back around and leaving.
“What was that all about?” Lily asked. “Are her parents Aurors?”
Neither Alice nor Carly said anything. Carly was looking down at where the Marauders were sitting. It looked like Remus was reading his paper out loud, and the others were hanging on his every word. Remus finished reading and slowly lowered his paper. James was staring at the paper while Remus, Sirius, Peter, Frank, and Kyle were watching him apprehensively. Suddenly, James got up and left the same way as Jessica had. Lily knew his parents were Aurors, but she still found him looking oddly blank without his famous smile and that glint in his eyes.
When James had gotten up, Alice and Carly looked away from them and turned to Lily instead. Carly shook her head sadly. “Poor James. His parents are the best Aurors in the ministry. His dad himself is the Head Auror, and if that’s not bad enough, his uncle is the second in command. James’s parents, and uncle and aunt must have been at that attack. He must be so worried about them all.”
Lily snorted unintentionally, but she couldn’t help it. James Potter and any human emotion never seemed to go together, but Lily knew that what Carly said was true; he must be worried. Lily actually felt a little sorry for him. “What about Jessica?”
“Her parents must have been there, too,” Carly replied. “They weren’t able to come see her off because they got a call.”
Lily didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything.

James went up to send the letter he’d written to his parents. He had convinced himself that they were okay, but he wanted to be sure.
When James entered the Owlery, he saw that Jessica was standing there, watching an owl fly off. She turned when he came in. “I already sent them a letter,” she said in a hollow voice.
James nodded and walked over to the window to stand by her.
Suddenly, Jessica threw herself at James and hugged him tight. James hugged her back as she began to sob. “The-they’ll be-be o-okay, r-right?”
“Of course they will be,” James replied trying to convince himself just as much as Jessica.
The two stood there for a while, and Jessica’s sobs subsided slowly.
She wiped her eyes and said, “I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to them.”
“We don’t have to worry about that,” James said confidently. “They’re too good to get hurt.”
“I hope so,” Jessica said.
‘So do I.’

The rest of the day passed slowly. James and Jessica walked back to the Gryffindor common room together, but went their separate ways once they had entered.
James went to sit with the other boys in the “Marauders’ Corner.” It was by the window with a table and chairs to work at, and the boys had pushed a couch into the corner as well.
Jessica went up to the girls’ dormitories so that she could be by herself.
James wasn’t feeling very talkative, but the others all did their best to keep his mind off of his family.
A couple owls flew in and delivered letters to some other students who James knew had at least one parent that worked with his parents. They’d read the letter and a relived look would appear on their face. James was happy for those people, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but think that the chance of his parents being dead was greater.
By the end of the day, the chance of his parents being dead had doubled.
After going to dinner, which James ate none of, he said goodnight to his friends and went up to the Head’s Dorm. James sat down in one of the couches in front of the fire and watched the wood burn. He was worried out of his mind about his parents and aunt and uncle.
His dad’s sister, Madison, was his mom’s partner while Aunt Maddie’s husband, David, was his dad’s partner and Deputy Head Auror his dad who was the Head.
And, on top of that, they had a 7-year-old daughter named Sophie and Aunt Maddie was pregnant. Losing them would be just as bad as losing his parents, because their uncle and aunt had always been like second parents to James, Jessica, and Stacey.

Lily returned to the Heads’ common room that night at 8:30; she had half-an-hour until she had to go for her patrols.
When she came in, she saw James sitting there staring into the fire. He seemed so different when he was torturing Slytherins or getting into trouble with his friends.
Lily walked to her room trying not to disturb James, but he looked up and asked, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure,” Lily said and hesitantly sat next to him.
“I already know this year isn’t going to be the same as others; we are in our final year of school, and have to take our NEWTs at the end of the year. That added to Head duty is stressful enough, but then there’s the worry of what’s going on out there. I don’t think I can handle our arguing as well. Can we just try not to argue? It would make it a whole lot easier on both of us.”
Lily was in shock. First of all, James was talking to her without asking her out. Second, he sounded and looked so different. He seemed so tired and drained. There was no laughter in his voice, no smile on his face, and no twinkle in his eyes. Third, he was being the responsible one. He was trying to end their conflict unlike Lily who had just resolved to ignore him unless they were in a meeting. He really did seem to have matured.
“Yeah,” Lily found herself saying. “I think it would be a good idea.”
James smiled slightly, but then, it disappeared and Lily wondered if it had been there.
“Thanks, Lily,” he said. Then, he got up and said, “I’m going to sleep.”
“But we have to patrol in 15 minutes,” Lily said.
“I can’t,” James said shaking his head. “I need to sleep off the thoughts of me and my sisters or my little cousin being orphaned; I’ll take my night off tonight.”
He walked to his room, and was about to enter when Lily called, “Goodnight, James.”
This time, Lily was sure the smile had been there as he replied, “’Night, Lily,” before closing the door behind him.


And it’s no longer happy. Don’t worry, though, it won’t last too long; just a few chapters, hopefully.
Tell me what you think!

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Chapter 28

Jessica woke up feeling much better the next morning. She decided that she was being stupid and her family would be perfectly fine; they were too strong to get themselves killed. Besides, she had a big day ahead of her. Today, she would reveal that she was James’s sister and it was the first day of classes.
It was 7:30, so Jessica got out of bed, and quietly gathered her things before going into the shower. Carly, Emily, and Alice were still asleep.
After taking a nice, warm shower, Jessica got out of the bathroom to see the other girls waking up.
“You’re up early,” Emily commented.
“Yeah,” Jessica said shrugging. “I don’t know why.
“How are you doing?” Carly asked.
“I’ve decided that I was being stupid,” Jessica replied. “I don’t even know for sure if they’re dead, which I’m beginning to doubt. They can’t leave know and they’re too strong. I’ll probably get a letter from them at breakfast telling me that I was being stupid and wishing me good luck on my first day of classes.”
“Good,” Carly said nodding her head.
“Well,” Alice said gathering her stuff, “I call the first shower.”
“Technically, it’s the second shower,” Emily said from her bed.
“Whatever,” Alice muttered heading into the bathroom.
There was still an hour and a half until classes began, so Carly got her stuff ready to take a shower when Alice was done and set it out on her bed while Emily stayed in bed saying that she was too tired to get up.
“You’re lucky Lily isn’t here,” Carly said to her.
“I know,” she replied.
Carly rolled her eyes while Jessica sat on her bed silently.
During the weekend, Jessica had actually grown to like Lily. Apart from her rants about James, Jessica thought that she was actually a really sweet girl, and she saw why James liked her, even though she hated him.
That was Jessica’s worry. Lily hated James, so she wasn’t going to be very thrilled when she found out that Jessica was his twin sister.
Carly seemed to know what Jessica was thinking. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Lily will probably be mad at first, but she’ll get over it.”
Jessica glanced up at her and gave a smile. “I hope so,” she said.
A few minutes later, Alice came out and Carly went in. Emily got up and gathered her stuff while Alice went to the mirror and used a drying spell on her hair before combing it into a ponytail at the top of her head. Jessica did same but let her hair hang lose in its natural soft curls.
Even though Jessica’s hair was red like Lily’s it was still different. Lily’s hair was easily noticeable as red hair. It was a deep, bright red and stood out. Also, there were a few darker red highlights in it.
Jessica’s hair on the other hand was a darker red. It was really kind of hard to describe it, at least for Jessica. It was in between Lily’s hair color and an almost auburn red, but there were streaks of all of the colors in between making it hard to exactly distinguish the shade of red. Jessica preferred Lily’s hair color because at times, hers looked almost auburn.
Carly walked out of the bathroom and Emily dragged herself in.
“She really hates getting up early, doesn’t she?” Jessica asked.
“Oh yeah,” Alice said checking her appearance in the mirror. “Even if she gets up, she will still be dead all morning. Either that or really hyper.”
“Why hyper?” Jessica asked.
“No idea.”
Carly dried her black hair and it fell into its waves. It had grown out over the summer and was almost down to the middle of her back now. She looked into the mirror trying to decide what to do with it.
“Leave it down,” Jessica suggested. “It looks pretty when it’s down.”
“I don’t know,” Carly said uncertainly.
Jessica looked at her for a second before smiling and going to her trunk. She pulled out a book and flipped through it until she came to the right page. Jessica turned back to Carly and flicked her wand at Carly’s hair. It became a straighter and Jessica flicked her wand again.
Carly’s hair was straighter at the top, but as it got closer to the bottom, it curled softly.
Carly looked into the mirror and smiled. “How’d you do that?!”
“I was in my mom’s room and found this book filled with different hairstyles you can do with you wand. She gave it to me and I thought it would look good on you,” Jessica replied.
“Have you learned spells?” Alice asked.
“Yeah. The boys taught me the basics, and I tried some other things on my own. The healers said that it wouldn’t be too hard to learn because they’re easy spells for people my age, I just didn’t know them.”
“Well, that’s good.”
Jessica nodded in agreement as Emily came out. She saw Carly’s hair and exclaimed, “Oh, I love you hair! How’d you do it?”
“Jessie did it,” Carly smiled.
“Can you do mine?” Emily asked Jessica excitedly.
Jessica laughed. “Sure, just dry it and comb it and let me think.”
Emily did as she was told while Jessica looked at her hair thoughtfully. Emily’s hair was golden blond, but she had so many natural highlights in so many different shades of blond that it was hard to tell. At the roots, Emily’s hair was light brunette. It fell down her back in between soft waves and soft curls.
Jessica decided what to do and looked through the book. Then, she pointed her wand at Emily’s hair and it straightened. It was layered, making it look even better.
Emily smiled happily and said, “You are our official designated hair dresser.”
Jessica blushed slightly and put her book away.
“We have 45 minutes for breakfast before classes start,” Carly said. “Shall we go down to breakfast?”
“Yeah, sure,” the others replied, and they all grabbed their bags and went down to the Great Hall.

Lily met up with the girls in the Gryffindor common room, and they all walked down to the Great Hall together.
“Carly! Emily!” Lily exclaimed when she saw them. “What happened to your hair?”
“You don’t like it?” Carly asked feigning disappointment.
“Oh no!” Lily said. “I love it. I was just wondering how you did it.”
“Well,” Emily said pushing Jessica forward. “Our official, personal hairdresser did it for us.”
“You did?” Lily asked.
Jessica nodded blushing slightly.
“I love it! Where’d you learn to do that?” Lily asked.
“My mom has this book on hairstyles and stuff that can be done with simple spells. I was looking through it this summer and she gave it to me. I practiced most of the styles on myself while the guys were off sleeping or eating,” Jessica replied hinting at what she was about to reveal.
“What guys?” Lily asked.
“My brother and his friends,” Jessica said.
“You have a brother?”
“Yeah, he’s the best. Nicest guy you’ll ever meet and loads of fun to be around.”
“Now that’s a new one,” Lily said. “Alice and Carly are always talking about how horrible it is having brothers.”
“I don’t know about Alice’s, but Cassie’s brother can be a pain. It’s mostly his inability to keep secrets and his brotherly over protectiveness. She and I were having an innocent conversation about boys and Justin came and started telling Cassie that she wasn’t allowed to think about boys like that until she was 30.”
They all laughed at that.
“But, is your brother like that?” Lily asked.
“I don’t know,” Jessica replied with a shrug. “I hope not.”
“Well,” Carly said with a smirk. “You don’t have to really worry about it even if he is a bit like that.”
“What not?” Jessica asked.
“He’s not like Justin completely. If you were to date, say, his best friend, he wouldn’t really mind.”
Jessica stopped dead. “What are you trying to imply?”
“That you clearly have a crush on –“
“I have a crush on no one!” Jessica shouted.
“If you want to think that, you can, Hon, but you know it’s true.”
“Is not!”
“Then how come you kept looking at him all day when I was there this summer and turned red every time you saw him or he was mentioned ever since we got here?”
“I did not!” Jessica cried indignantly.
“Yeah you did!” Carly, Emily and Alice said at the same time.
“Wait, your brother’s here right now?” Lily asked having worked out the various clues that had been dropped.
“Did I forget to mention it?” Jessica asked pretending to shocked that she’d “forgotten.”
“Yeah,” Lily said not catching the fake tone as they entered the Great Hall and sat down. “What house is he in?”
“Gryffindor,” Jessica answered beginning to smirk.
“Really? What year?”
Jessica smirked wider.“Sev –“ she started, but she was cut off by the mail owls who flew in. She immediately looked up hoping to see Snowflake among the mass of gray and brown, but she wasn’t there. Jessica sighed and looked down as an owl delivered Lily her Daily Prophet. Lily saw the Headline and gasped.
The others looked at her and held their breaths, fearing the worst.
“What is it?” Carly asked fearfully.
“They have more info on Friday’s attack,” Lily replied.
“Let me see!” Jessica said grabbing the paper out of Lily’s hand. She began reading it to herself. As her eyes moved farther down the page, they grew wider. Tears started to fill her eyes until she finally couldn’t hold them back any more. They fell down her face as Jessica got up, threw the paper on the table, and ran out the hall.

Emily slowly reached out her hand and picked up the paper. She began to read, and her eyes also grew wide as they moved down the paper. When they reached the bottom, she silently got up and walked out without saying a word.
Carly looked down at where the boys were sitting and watched as Remus lowered the paper he had been reading out loud and looked apprehensively at James. The others looked at him too, but James was staring at the paper with a blank look on his face. He slowly rose from the table, too and walked out. When he moved, the others looked up and watched him walk out.
When he was gone, Sirius turned and met Carly’s gaze. She gave him a questioning look, but he just shook his head and motioned for her to read. Carly picked up the paper with shaking fingers, afraid of what was written on it, but she looked at the front and read.


Yes, I know I’m evil, but that’s what you get for not leaving feedback.
Maybe, I’ve taught you a good lesson.
Now, click on this little link and leave me some lovely feedback so that you can find out what happened soon.

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Yes, I left you at a horrible cliffhanger for way to long. I am horribly evil. (Please don’t hate me!) I’m doing my best to make up for it, I promise. I have one month until state testing so the teachers are being really mean. That, however, is a really lame excuse. I will have nothing to do for a week, though, because it’s spring break and my trip to Florida was canceled at the last minute (*tear*) so I will spend all of my free time typing this.
Again, I’m really sorry for taking so long, but [I hope] I will have this chapter up by the end of the week (today’s date: March 24, 2008).
Anyways, that’s enough of my babbling that you people will probably skip over anyway.
This post is really a big bribe for you all to not hate me, so, enjoy!


Chapter 29

‘Daily Prophet reporters have found the information the wizarding world has been awaiting. We have the full story you have been waiting for:
‘There were few Deatheaters spotted by the witch who contacted the ministry. Because they were told that there were only 7 or 8 Deatheaters, Head of the Auror department, Jake Potter, only had 9 other Aurors accompany him including his wife, Amy Potter, sister, Madison Connors, and her husband, Deputy Head Auror, David Connors. Along with those four, the accompanying Aurors were the top Aurors in the Ministry. It has been confirmed that Madison Connors was pregnant with a second child and only brought along because she refused to stay behind and her brother didn’t see a very big threat in the attack.
‘How wrong he was.
‘The deatheaters seem to have found out the Aurors were being called to the scene, and they sent for reinforcement. By the time the Aurors had arrived, there were over thirty Deatheaters there, and they could spare no time sending for help. The Aurors dove right into the fight and bravely fought the battle.
‘Only when half of the Deatheaters’ forces had fallen did others begin to retreat, taking their injured with them. Only five stayed behind to finish their duel with the Connors. Aurors watched apprehensively, but they were afraid to fire curses into the duel in fear of hitting one of their own. It is with heavy hearts that we report that the duel ended with the deaths of the Connors.
‘Enraged by this incident, Jake and Amy Potter ran forward to continue the duel. Three of the five Deatheaters apperated, but two, caught up in the duel with the Potters, remained. It was a short while later when a missed curse caused a building to crumble did this fight end. The rubble from the building buried the two deatheaters, taking their lives. While we have the deaths of the two Deatheaters, Jonathan and Kristen Kenting, who have one daughter in Hogwarts, to be glad about, we mustn’t be too cheerful. The rubble also hit Amy Potter, seriously injuring her. She was rushed to St. Mungo's where she is still being treated. There have been no improvements in her condition, but the Healers still have hope. “It isn’t over until we say it’s over, and we won’t ever give up on Amy,” states a Healer on Mrs. Potter’s case. The entire wizarding world will hold this hope for Amy Potter, for she is the mother of 17-year-old twins at Hogwarts and a 10-year-old daughter at home. She and her husband also have custody of their 7-year-old niece who was orphaned due to this battle.
‘We honor the bravery of the Aurors who lost and risked their lives for the sake of mankind, and hope for nothing more than Amy Potter’s full recovery.’
Carly raised her eyes from the paper to meet Lily and Alice’s questioning gaze. She sadly shook her head at them and just sat there, unsure of what to do. She couldn’t believe what she had read. How could Maddie and David be dead? James and Jessica’s fun loving and almost teen-like aunt and uncle were just as close to her family as the Potters. The thought of their death was horrible. And Maddie was pregnant! Sophie was so excited about having a little brother or sister; she had even picked out names. How was she taking the death of her parents? She was probably currently with Stacey at Lauren’s.
Carly felt another pang at the thought of Stacey; her mom was in St. Mungo's. Did she know what was happening? If so, how was she taking it? And what about James and Jessica? They must be hurt as well at the thought of almost losing their mom and losing their aunt and uncle. Then, Carly thought of Jake. He must also be crushed because of his wife’s condition. When they were little, James had always joked about how he would die if anything happened to Amy so James, Jessica, and Carly better keep an eye on her when he wasn’t around. The three kids would promise to take care of her, and then, Amy would lightly slap him on the arm and tell him to stop being so dramatic. They would all laugh about it then, but it didn’t seem so funny right now.
Carly was pulled out of her thoughts when somebody sat down on either side of her. She looked up to see Remus and Sirius.
“We should talk to them,” Remus said.
Carly nodded in agreement.
“Remus will talk to James, you find Jessica, and I’ll talk to Emily,” Sirius continued.
“How will we find them?” Carly asked.
Sirius allowed a small, brief smile before pulling out a piece of old parchment. He took out his wand and tapped the parchment saying, “I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.” Immediately, lines stated to appear on the parchment. They formed a map of all of Hogwarts and Hogwarts’ ground bearing the “The Marauders’ Map.”
Carly, amazed, leaned closer to the map and saw that it showed not only every single room and corridor in the castle, but also passages that Carly had never seen before and a few passages that led out of the castle boundaries. The most amazing thing, however, was that the map showed every single person in Hogwarts and what they were doing. Looking at the Gryffindor table, she saw her own name labeling a set of footsteps in between footsteps labeled “Remus Lupin” and Sirius Black.”
“Where did you guys get this?” Carly asked in awe.
“We made it,” Remus replied.
“How?”
“That’s our little secret,” Sirius replied mysteriously. “Right now, however, let’s try and find James, Jessica, and Emily.”
Carly nodded and began scanning the map. “Jessie’s in the Astronomy Tower!” she exclaimed after a minute of searching.
“James is in his room in the Head Dorms and Emily is…by the lake outside,” Remus said.
“Great,” Sirius said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait!” Remus cried.
“What?”
“I need the password.”
“Oh, right,” Sirius said pointing his wand at the entrance of the Head Dorms and mumbling something Carly couldn’t hear. Little letters appeared at the spot where the wand had hit the map. “The password’s unity,” Sirius told Remus.
“Thanks,” Remus said getting up and leaving the hall. Carly also got up and ran out with Sirius following behind her.

Lily watched everything happening in front of her with mounting confusion. What was in the paper? What does it have to do with Emily, Jessica, and James? Since when was Carly on such good terms with the Marauders? Why on earth had it been decided that Sirius Black would go talk to Emily?
“What is going on?!”
Lily voiced her last question out loud.
“I’ll bet the answer’s in the paper,” Alice replied.
Lily looked down at it with fear of what she was going to find.
“Wh-who wants to read it?” Lily asked with her voice shaking.
Alice looked up at her with fear in her eyes as well before she slowly reached forward and began to read out loud. With each word she read, Lily grew more afraid. ‘How could any of this happen?’ It just didn’t seem fair.
When she was done reading, Alice lowered the paper and looked over at Lily with a blank expression. “I guess that answer the questions,” Alice said weakly.
“One of them,” Lily said. “We still don’t know what this has to do with Jessica, why Carly seems to be on such good terms with the Marauders, and why on earth did they decide that Sirius Black would go talk to Emily.”
“I don’t know the answer to the last question, the second one is a long story, but I know you’re smart enough to answer the first one yourself,” Alice replied.
Lily looked at Alice confusedly. What did this have to do with Jessica? James’s uncle and aunt had died, and his mom was in St. Mungo's. Also, Emily’s parents had died; the sentence stating that called for a long explanation, but where did Jessica fit into all of this?
Then, the conversation from before the mail had arrived came back:
“…your brother’s here right now? ...what house is he in?” “Gryffindor.” “What year?” “Sev –“
“Seventh,” Lily breathed. She looked back at the Daily Prophet and remembered what it had said:
“Amy Potter… mother of 17-year-old twins at Hogwarts…”
The pieces of the puzzle were trying to fit together in Lily’s head, then, suddenly, it clicked.

Jessica looked out over the grounds from the top of the tower. The fresh breeze blowing through the air was relaxing. She took a deep breath closing her eyes and let it out. In her mind, Jessica saw all of the times when she was little and her uncle and aunt would come over for dinner. Maddie would help Amy in the kitchen while Jake and David were left to babysit James and Jessica. They would always complain about it. One time, Aunt Maddie had offered to switch jobs with the men resulting in an almost kitchen fire thanks to Jake.
Jessica smiled at the memory; it was clear that the Potter men could not and would not ever be able to cook.
What would poor Stacey and Sophie do about food if her mom –
No, she wouldn’t think about that. Her mom was going to be fine, absolutely fine.

Jessica was looking down at the lake when Carly found her. She hesitated at the door; what was she supposed to do?
After a few seconds, Carly walked over and stood by Jessica and looked down at the grounds. The view from the tower was beautiful. You could see all of the grounds: the lake, the forest, everything.
There were a few minutes of silence during which time Jessica and Carly just stood there, the latter trying to figure out what to say.
Finally, Jessica broke the silence; “Is she g-going to be o-okay?”
Carly looked over at Jessica and saw that she was crying. There was a pained expression on her face, and she seemed to be begging Carly to tell her that her mom would be fine. Carly wanted to tell her that, but was it true? Was Mrs. Potter going to be okay? No one seemed to know for sure; they didn’t know how to help her. What if she didn’t make it?
Carly mentally shook herself. Thinking like that wouldn’t help at all. She should be holding hope like the healers in St. Mungo's. How else was she going to be able to help Jessica?
Jessica was still begging Carly with her eyes as more tears rolled down her cheeks. What was she supposed to say?
There was another minute of silence before Carly replied.
“If we love her enough.”
Jessica broke down into sobs as Carly’s eyes also filled with tears. She reached over and hugged her best friend and let her cry into her shoulder while her own tears fell onto Jessica’s back.
Amy Potter would live.
Carly was certain of that. She would be okay because too many people needed her to be.

“James?” Remus asked quietly entering his room.
James was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. There were no tears in his eyes and no expression on his face. He didn’t move when Remus came in; he made no acknowledgement to his presence.
Remus walked over to the bed and sat down facing James. They sat in complete silence for five minutes. Remus was trying to figure out what to say while also hoping for James to talk to make it easier to figure out what to say.
Finally Remus thought of something to say. “It’s going to be okay.”
No one said he thought of something original.
“How can you be so sure of that?” James asked angrily. “Sophie lost her parents and Stacey, Jessie, and I are losing our mom! If she doesn’t make it, it’ll crush dad! And what about Jessica! She was so desperate to get to know her mom after being knocked out for 11 years; how is she supposed to do that if mom is dead! What do we tell Stacey?! ‘Your mom is dead,’ isn’t going to go over well with a 10-year-old! And Sophie has no one now! How do you explain to a seven-year-old that she’s an orphan child?! Dad will have to take care of 2 kids when he’s not at work! Lauren can’t babysit them all the time with the wedding! And, on top of everything, he has to plan a funeral! How are we supposed to get through this?! We have already lost Aunt Maddie and Uncle David; we can’t lose Mom, too! What are we supposed to do?!” he finished angrily gasping for breath and glaring at Remus.
“You-you take everything one step at a time,” he replied calmly. “You haven’t lost your mom, and you won’t. She will be okay; as long as we hold hope, she will make it through this. Sophie will be okay, also. She has all of you and the memories of her parents; you all do. Lauren loves Stacey and Lauren like her own sisters, so she’ll take care of them until things settle down. She has a lot of other help for the wedding, and she and Luke won’t mind postponing it until things settle down. There is nothing to worry about.”
James looked at Remus. There was a moment’s silence before James spoke again.
“I’m s-scared.” His voice broke, and his eyes filled with tears.
“It’s okay to be,” Remus said soothingly. “You’re supposed to be scared and worried, but you’re also supposed to have hope that everything will be okay.”
James nodded and looked away. “Is Jessie okay?”
“Carly went to talk to her.”
“And Emily?”
Remus was silent for a minute before he replied. “I think she’s more upset about what they did than what happened to them. I think she’s worried about how you and Jessica will treat her. Sirius will knock some sense into her.”
James nodded again. “She isn’t responsible for her parent’s actions.”
They fell silent again and looked out the large window in the back of the room.
Everything would be alright.

She couldn’t believe they would do that. How could they do it? She had never thought they would something so stupid! And of all the people to kill.
Emily sat there, leaning up against a big oak tree, staring out over the lake. She couldn’t face anyone. They all knew now. It was quite obvious from the paper. And, what was worse was that of all the people, her parents had killed James and Jessica’s family. She was so happy to have Jessica as a friend, but there wasn’t much hope for that now. And Carly had been saying how when the whole ‘prank’ thing blew over, they would all become the best of friends with the Marauders, Frank, and Kyle, but was that really an option now? James’s aunt and uncle had been killed by her parents, and Emily knew for a fact that Sirius considered James’s family to be his own.
Also, just because Carly was so understanding to the fact that her parents were evil, Emily didn’t think the others would take it well, with or without her parents’ little escapade. Lily being Muggleborn and Alice’s family being devoted to anything against Voldemort along with Jessica’s aunt and uncle’s deaths weren’t very good circumstances to help anything.
Emily Kenting was now a Deatheaters’ daughter.
The thought disgusted her.
As if it weren’t bad enough that they made her home life ****, they had to mess up her life with her friends as well, simply by joining the forces of a stupid lunatic. Now, Emily was going to have to go through the rest of her school year, and the rest of her life, with everyone hating her; the Slytherins because she was a “Bloodtraitor,” and they knew it, and the not Slytherins because her parents were Deatheaters and they didn’t believe she was a “Bloodtraitor.”
This was just great.
Suddenly, Emily felt another being’s presence. She didn’t dare look up to see who it was; the last thing she needed was for somebody to tell her all the truths of her ‘family’ that she already knew. Maybe if she ignored them, whoever it was would leave.
No such luck.
The person silently sat down next to her. Emily didn’t turn to see who it was, but she figured from the figure of the shadow that it was a well built, extremely tall, boy.
A few moments later, Emily turned her head slightly and looked up at the person next to her and almost let out a gasp. She quickly turned back to the lake before he saw that she had turned. He was looking out into the lake and seemed to be thinking about something, but what was he doing here? Why would he, of all people be here with her? He was supposed to hate her!
There were more minutes of silence that Emily spent contemplating his arrival. He had barely talked to her in the six years they had been at school; he ignored her or avoided her. Or, he didn’t even remember her, so why was he here now? Did the Prophet article remind him of who she was? But shouldn’t he hate her anyways for what her family had done?
But that wasn’t him, or at least the him she knew. He understood her, even at such a young age. He knew that she wasn’t evil, and he knew how she was feeling; he always seemed to know. It was always the first thing he noticed about her whenever he saw her if her parents had yelled at her or hit her. He was there, ready with comforting words and surprising understanding for a six-year-old boy.
And here he was again, out of the blue, waiting with words of comfort to reassure her that it was going to be alright.
Emily decided not to question it any longer; she needed somebody to talk to, and he was the perfect person.
She turned to him and asked him, “Why did they do it?”
He turned to her and simply replied, “Because they wanted to.”
“But why?”
He was silent for a moment before he replied. “Because that’s who they are. Yes, it was a horrible thing to be, but that’s not how they saw it. They saw it as a good thing because they don’t think the same way as we do. There really is no better explanation than that. It’s always hard to try and understand something from such a different and opposing view.”
It made sense, kind of. It wasn’t understandable. It couldn’t be.
“But of all the people to kill, why them?”
He turned back to the lake before replying, “They didn’t choose Maddie and David because of any particular reason. It was simply because they were there. They challenged them, and Deatheaters duel to kill.”
“Why though?!” Emily cried out. “Why?! It isn’t fair!”
“No, it isn’t,” he replied turning back to her, “but that’s the way it is. We can’t change it. All we can do is stop it.”
They were silent for a while. He had turned back to the lake and was looking into the depths of it. Emily was thinking over what he had said. He was right, there was nothing they could do, other than fight it.
Then, another question formed in her mind. “Will they h-hate me?”
He didn’t ask who she was talking about, just turned to look Emily straight in the eye. His answer was simple. “No.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” Emily asked. “My parents killed their uncle and aunt!”
“You parents,” he said. “No you.”
“But –“
“No ‘buts.’ It’s that simple. It isn’t your fault. You can’t control what your parents are or what they do; the only person you have any control over is yourself. You are only responsible for your own actions and no one else’s. It’s not your fault.”
“But they –“
“They know it. They know you can’t control it. They know it has nothing to do with you. They won’t treat you any differently because of it. It doesn’t matter to them who your family is; all that matters is who you are.”
“How can you be so sure?” Emily asked him.
“You do remember who James’s best friend is, don’t you?” he asked in response. “He and his family have never treated me any differently; it has never mattered to them.”
“But your parents didn’t kill any of their family.”
He just shrugged. “They are still just as bad. I know that even if they did, it would still make no difference. They don’t care.”
“And the others? What about Lily and Alice?”
“They’re your friends, aren’t they?”
“They were,” Emily said sadly, “but I doubt they want anything to do with me now.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” he questioned.
“Lily’s Muggleborn and half of Alice’s family are Aurors!”
“If they judge you for anything but you, then they aren’t worth it.”
They were silent again. Maybe he was right. Maybe, they wouldn’t care. Maybe they knew that she was nothing like her family.
Just as she was thinking this, another thought hit her.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she whispered to herself quietly. Then, she looked up at him. “Lily always said that. She said that a person is as bad or good as the background they come from. She mostly said it in the middle of a rage about James and how his family’s probably just like him, but still; she believes it: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Sirius’s only response:
“The apple may not fall far from the tree, but it can be carried away before the tree’s shadow hits it.”

She just stared at Alice. That made no sense whatsoever; she had gotten something wrong. Lily went over it again.
Jessica had said she had a brother currently at Hogwarts. She also said that he was in their house, but she hadn’t said he was in seventh year.
‘Who are you kidding, Lily?’ asked a voice inside her head. “What other year starts with “Sev”?’
But it didn’t have to be James Potter.
“Amy Potter… mother of 17-year-old twins at Hogwarts…”
It was the only thing that made sense. Jessica was Jessica Potter, James Potter’s twin sister.
Lily looked disbelievingly at Alice. “You knew, didn’t you?” she accused.
Alice merely nodded fearfully; no one could face Lily Evans’s wrath, except maybe James.
“And how come I didn’t know?”
“I’m sorry Lily!” Alice broke down. “Carly swore me to secrecy and –“
“She knew about this too?!” Lily raged.
“Lily, she had to know about it. She’s the one that told me,” Alice replied quietly. When Lily was mad, even Alice got kind of scared.
“How did she know?”
“You forgot how she knows Jessica. You forgot what she said this summer.”
Lily remembered Carly’s words:
“…I’ve known her my entire life….”
Lily looked back at Alice.
“Carly told me everything. They’ve been a threesome their entire lives. When Jessica fell into a coma, she and James had a little argument. They got over this summer, and they’re best friends again. She says that James is like her brother, except better than Justin.”
“Carly Soames is friends with James Potter?”
Alice nodded apprehensively.
“Why didn’t I know?!”
“How would you have reacted?” Alice asked her tentatively.
“I would have thought she’s crazy,” Lily replied without thinking.
“Exactly,” Alice said. “You would have put her down. Imagine how hard it must have been for to live with 6 years of you constantly insulting every aspect of James. She really cares about him; listening to you must have been hard for her, and it must have made her feel that you wouldn’t accept it. You wouldn’t have been able to accept it.”
Lily stared at Alice in shock. She hadn’t stopped to think about it, ever. She did say horrible things about James, and Carly just took it, the whole time. She had even said so many times that people who liked James were crazy; she hadn’t realized then that she had been saying all of that in front of somebody who was so close to him.
“She should have told me,” Lily said quietly.
“She should have, but it’s understandable why she didn’t, isn’t it?”
Lily found herself nodding. Seeing it from Carly’s point of view, it did make sense.
Then, something else came back to her.
“Why didn’t I know about Jessica?”
“That was her idea for the start-of-term-prank,” Alice replied. She looked straight at Lily as she said it. “Carly said that the letter she got form James said that she said she came up with it because she thought it would be funny, but James has a different theory. Jessica hated the idea of you giving James such a hard time. James thinks that she came up with the prank to make you see sense.”
Lily just stared at Alice in shock. Was she really that bad?
Alice wasn’t done yet.
“After meeting Jessica, I think Carly’s right. If it weren’t for James, Jessica would have slapped you across the face the first time she met.”
Lily looked, if possible, even more shocked. “Jessica hates me that much?” she asked faintly.
“She did,” Alice said. She looked determinedly into Lily’s eyes as she said the rest. “She actually likes you now, but if I were her, or Carly for that matter, I would hate you.”


I go back to school tomorrow. (*tear*) My goal was to have this up tomorrow, and I almost did, but I decided against the cliffhanger and decided that you could wait a day for me to modify it and make it 2 ½ pages [on Word] longer.
It would have been up even before that if I hadn’t gone and burnt my fingers, but, I always manage to burn myself at least once every two months since last year’s boiling water incident.
Oh well, if I’m lucky, somebody is still reading this.
Let me know what you think of it, and you are allowed to scold me for being so mean, but don’t be too harsh.
Feedback is right down there.

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 30


Professor McGonagall was moving up the Gryffindor table, passing out the time tables. When she got to Peter, Frank and Kyle, she said, “I’m going to give you the time tables for your other three dorm mates as well. You have a free period first, but I expect to see Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black in my class after that.”
“What about James?” Peter asked.
“He, his sister, and Miss Kenting have permission to take off as much time as they need,” the Professor replied before moving on to give a similar message to Lily and Alice.
“Are we missing something big here?” Peter asked.
“No, I think we’re all caught up here, Pete,” Kyle replied sarcastically.
“This is very bad,” frank said from somewhere in his own world. “Imagine how hard it must be for them.”
Kyle and Peter nodded.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my uncle and aunt and almost my mom, all in the same day,” Kyle said.
“Me, neither,” Peter agreed. “I mean, I don’t have any uncles or aunts, but in the sense.”
“Do you think we should go to talk to James,” Frank asked.
“Remus went,” Kyle replied. “And besides, I think he needs some time to himself. Let’s just go up to the common room until Transfigurations. Remus and Sirius will come up there and we can pass on their schedules to them. We can go see how James is doing during lunch and pass on McGonagall’s message.”
Frank nodded and Peter got up. “Shall we get going?”
Frank and Kyle followed him out leaving behind the gossiping students in the Great Hall.

Jessica finished crying and looked up to face Carly. “I need to talk to James.”
“He’s in his room. Remus is with him. Do you want to go down?”
Jessica nodded.
“Come on,” Carly said leading Jessica down to the Heads’ Dorms. “Unity,” she said getting to the portrait. It opened up and Carly and Jessica crawled in. Ignoring the beauty of the room Jessica rushed to the door that said “James Potter” and threw the door open to reveal James and Remus staring out the window in the back of the room.
“James?”
James and Remus turned to see Jessica on the verge of tears. The second she saw James’s tear streaked face, she broke down again. James rushed over to her and pulled her into a hug as he began to silently cry again, as well.
Remus quietly left the room and found Carly in the common room.
“We should leave them alone for a while,” Carly said looking up to see Remus.
He nodded and said, “We should head up to the common room. Hopefully, our friends have our timetables and they’ll go up there to find us the first chance they get.”
Carly nodded and the two made their way back to their common room in silence.
Carly was playing absentmindedly with her curled hair. It seemed to be so long ago that Jessica had curled it for her and Emily had dubbed her their “personal hairdresser.”
Remus gave the Fat Lady the password and they climbed in silently. Frank, Kyle, and Peter were sitting around the fireplace. Carly silently went up the girl’s staircase, but Remus went over to his friends who were calling him over.
“We have a free period first, but you, Sirius, and Carly have to be in Double Transfigurations next,” Frank told him.
Remus just nodded.
“How’s James doing?” Peter asked.
“Okay,” Remus replied. “Carly and I left him and Jessica crying in his room.”
There was silence.
“Did you know about Emily’s parents?” Kyle asked.
Remus nodded. “I found out over the summer. She and Sirius used to be in the same dance class when they were six and became friends. Sirius stopped talking to her though because of some ‘pureblood family rivalry’ thing going on between the Blacks and the Kentings. Sirius’s mom threatened to kill Emily if Sirius ever talked to her again.”
The other three boys stared at him in shock, but the words came from behind them.

Emily was letting Sirius’s words sink in. He was sort of making sense, but would everyone else see it that way? Emily doubted it. She was glad that at least Sirius understood. He was her friend again, and he would make it easier.
But why wasn’t he her friend before? What had happened since they were six? And what changed his mind.
Emily voiced her questions to Sirius.
“I was always your friend, Em, in a sense,” he replied with a sigh. “I just…couldn’t let you know that.”
“Why though?” Emily asked.
There was a pause before Sirius replied. “Because…my mom threatened…you. She said that-that if I talked to you again, she would make sure you w-weren’t there for me to talk to. I couldn’t let her hurt you, all just for my sake.”
Emily was shocked. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn’t this. “Is that really all that this whole thing was about?” she asked him. “You decided that it was okay for you to never talk to me again when I need you, just because of some stupid, empty threat?”
“It wasn’t an empty threat. When we left for Hogwarts for our first year, she told Bellatrix to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn’t ‘associate’ with you. I couldn’t let you get hurt.”
“I was hurt when you started to ignore me,” Emily said quietly.
Sirius smiled. “That’s what Jessica told me while she was giving me the same lecture you’re giving me.”
“Well, she’s right,” Emily said definitely. “It made no sense for you to do that. I’m not afraid of your mom. You are still the only friend I have that can completely relate to me; I’ve need that a lot over the years.”
“Would it help if I said I was sorry?” Sirius asked her.
“You don’t need to,” Emily smiled. “I shouldn’t have been expecting more from an idiot like you.”
“I bet I’m your favorite idiot, though.”
Emily just laughed; she had her best friend back, now.

Lily and Alice silently walked back to the Gryffindor common room. They hadn’t spoken to each other since Alice’s outburst. Lily was just contemplating everything that had happened in breakfast in her head. Everything she’d learned was overwhelming her, and Alice’s outburst was the cherry on top. She had never realized how bad she was. She was harsh, rude, and just maybe a little self-centered. Lily didn’t try to be any of those things; she didn’t even realize until now that she was any of them. Carly was one of her best friends, and yet, there was a whole part of her life, more of her than she knew, that she had no idea about. Lily had never really registered the hurt in her eyes when she insulted James and people who associated with him, and he hadn’t thought much on the pleading tone in her voice when she was tell Lily to stop it, but now that she though back to it, it was all right there in front of her. And now Emily; how could Lily not know about Emily’s home life? She had never noticed it, but Emily was the last of them to leave the Platform at the end of the school year and the first one there; she never went home for the holidays; she never talked about her home, except the baby brother story that was probably false, and the girls hadn’t ever met her family. Lily couldn’t believe that with all of that, she had never realized. No, Lily was too busy to notice; she was too busy doing homework to notice her friends’ live, or she was talking about her amazing family, never seeing the sorrow in Emily’s eyes, or she was talking about how horrible James was, never seeing the hurt on Carly’s face. Lily had never tried to see if there was more to Carly than the quiet friend, but there was so much more; there was a loud, energetic, bubbly girl down there, and Lily had never noticed in the past few days that that girl was coming out.
Now, Lily saw where Alice’s frustration was coming from. Jessica may have been able to miraculously except Lily, but if she were her friends, Lily would have dumped herself a long time ago. How had Carly been able to stand Lily and go so long without yelling out? How did Emily deal with everything without anyone to talk to? How did Jessica except Lily as a friend? How did Alice remain Lily’s friend after what she had learned over the summer? Had she maybe felt some guilt, too? But Alice didn’t insult one of Carly’s oldest friends without seeing her pain. Lily agreed with Alice; how could Carly remain friends with her? How did Jessica keep herself from slapping Lily across the face? How could any of them stand her?

Alice hadn’t meant to say it. She hadn’t meant to sound so rude to Lily, but she also couldn’t help but feel the way she said she did. She loved Lily; she was one of her best friends, but what about Carly and Jessica? If she were in their position, would she, Alice, be able to forgive Lily for everything? Alice didn’t know; it was hard to think about. But it wasn’t just Lily that was at fault; she, Alice was, too. Had she noticed anything about Carly? Had she tried to learn of Carly’s past? Had she seen the hurt on her face while listening to Lily’s ranting? Had she thought anything about, or even really noticed, Carly’s nature? The way Carly had been so quiet, so reserved; had she noticed or tried to find out Carly’s reality? No. Alice had except that Carly was the quiet one. She was the peace-maker, the level-headed one. There was nothing more to her than that. Alice had never tried to find out if there was anything more than that or if there was anything bothering her or hurting her. Alice hadn’t thought about Carly’s past.
Same with Emily. She had no idea about what Emily could have been going through at her home. She hadn’t heard anything about Emily’s home life and knew nothing about her parents; she had never asked. She never tried to learn about her life. To Alice, Emily was simply the person she saw; Emily was their crazy, energetic, happy-go-lucky friend; Alice had never thought of her being anything more. She never tried to find out.
And now, Alice knew about Emily as well; she knew about her family and her past.
But did she really?
No.
Alice only knew what the paper had said; that her parents were deatheaters. Alice knew nothing else. How was Emily’s life at home? Did she live in fear and pain? Did she need somebody to talk to? Why hadn’t she told them? Had she, Alice done something to make her feel that she couldn’t trust her? Alice wanted Emily to know that she could trust her. she wanted Emily to know that she would always have a friend named Alice Pitman for anything.
She thought back to breakfast, and thought of something else. Sirius Black. He seemed so concerned about Emily when he and Remus came down to their end of the table to talk to Carly. He himself had volunteered to talk to her. Did Emily, too, have a secret, past tie to a Marauder like Carly did? Had she held a secret friendship with Sirius?
No, she hadn’t. Alice realized, finally saw, what she had been seeing over the years at Hogwarts. She finally understood the look on Emily’s face every time Sirius walked by. He was always standing there while James and Lily were having one of their public rows; that was the only time the Marauders and the girls were really near each other. Every one of those times, Emily had been looking over at Sirius, as if she were hoping for something. Alice had first thought that it was Remus she was looking at, but this made more sense. The look on her face, filled with hope of just a mere glance, but Sirius had never spared her one. What had happened?
As if in answer to her question as she walked in to the almost empty Gryffindor common room after Lily, she heard, “Sirius’s mom threatened to kill Emily if Sirius ever talked to her again.”
Alice was in shock, while Lily just shouted, “Oh wonderful! I’m just learning more and more of my best friends’ dark past! By the end of this day, I won’t have any friends left to talk to!”
With those words, Lily stomped up to the girls’ dormitories to her old room.
Alice stayed put, staring open mouthed at Remus. She hadn’t been expecting an answer quite so major. It was hard to grasp.
“W-what?” she finally stammered, sinking into a nearby arm chair.
The boys had turned at Lily’s outburst and watched her stalk up the stairs.
When slice spoke, they turned back to her.
Remus sighed, “They met when they were six in dance classes and apparently became the best of friends, but Sirius’s parents weren’t too pleased when they found out. The Blacks and the Kentings don’t really get along. Sirius’s mom threatened Emily to keep Sirius away from her.”
Now she knew. Alice knew of all of her friends’ secrets, hopefully. She didn’t think she could take anymore. The thought of what Emily must have gone through at such a young age was hard to grasp. Alice just couldn’t believe what her friends had gone through and felt that she had the easy life.

Lily wasn’t really mad, just more upset; not at her friends, but at herself for not knowing any of this before. She had insulted Sirius as well; Emily must have gone through what Carly did. Loosing such a good friend, then having to listen to constant insult of them; Lily didn’t know how she would have been able to stand it.
It was now, as she walked to her old room, that Lily realized how strong Carly and Emily were, and how horrible she, Lily, was.
As she walked into the room, Lily heard sobbing. It was Carly. Her hangings were pulled around her bed, but Lily knew she was back there.
Lily hesitated; would Carly even want to talk to Lily; Lily wouldn’t want to if she were her. but Lily wanted Carly to know that Lily still cared about her; she didn’t want Carly to have go through anything alone; she wanted to make up for the past six years of pain she had inflicted upon her friend.
Lily walked quietly over to Carly’s bed and softly opened the hangings around her bed.
Carly was sitting in the middle of the bed, sobbing into her hand.
Lily sat on the bed next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at Lily before throwing her arms around her and sobbing into her shoulder. Lily let her, hugging her back and comforting her friend.
When her sobs had subsided, Carly pulled away and sat staring at her hands folded in her lap. “The Potters have always been like my second family,” she said. “Maddie and David were like my own aunt and uncle, and if anything happens to Amy, it’ll be like losing my own mom.” She looked up at Lily. “I don’t think I’ll be able to take it.”
“You don’t have to worry about it,” Lily told her soothingly. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. I’ve known Jessica for only three days and I’m judging James from last night, but I think you all care about her enough for her to stay for you.”
Carly smiled. “Thanks, Lily,” she said.
“For what,” Lily asked.
“For not hating me.”
Lily was shocked. “You’re supposed to hate me!”
“For what?” Carly asked bewildered.
“If I were you, I’d hate me for saying such horrible things about James. I can’t imagine what it would be like listening to someone say such things about you or Emily or Alice and remaining quiet about it and not hating the person for saying those things.”
Carly shook her head. “Everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. That’s all it was, Lily; it was just what you think of him. You’re allowed to think that, just as long as you didn’t state it as fact.”
“But I did state it as fact.”
“No,” Carly shook her head again, “You said it like fact, but you never said that it was fact. You never came right out and said, ‘James is a prat and everyone has to agree to it.’ you didn’t say it was fact. It was your opinion; you personal judgment on him. You let Emily think that he was an oaky guy and you let me no agree with you. that’s the difference between saying something as a fact and saying it as an opinion; in fact, you expect everyone to agree with you, but in opinion, you let others believe what they want to and don’t force them to agree with you.”
Lily couldn’t believe how amazing Carly was. She would have a very hard time finding another friend.

Alice walked into the dormitory to fine Lily and Carly sitting on Carly’s bed, hugging each other. The sight of her two friends still being friends made Alice smile as she said, “I feel so left out!”
Carly tuned to her and smiled. “Well then, what are you waiting for?”
Alice smiled and tackled her two friends into a hug.
She smiled at Lily, and she smiled back, and Alice knew that they were friends again, or maybe, had never been not friends.
“We have your timetable,” Alice told Carly pulling it out and handing it to us. “We have a free period now but, McGonagall said that she’s expecting us in Double Transfigurations next. Emily, Jessica, and James don’t have to go.”
Carly nodded. “We have 10 minutes then before we have to leave.”
Alice, Lily, and Carly spent those ten minutes talking about happy things, letting the gloom that had been cast upon them disappear for the time being.

“We should tell Sirius that McGonagall’s expecting him to be in Transfigurations,” Kyle said. “I wouldn’t put it past her to give him a detention if he’s not there.”
“How do we get down to the lake, tell him, and be back in time for class, though?” Peter asked.
Remus thought. “He has his mirror on him,” he said, “and I stole James’s this morning before the post came.” He pulled the mirror out of his pocket and held it up so that he could see his reflection. Then’ he said clearly, “Sirius Black.”
Remus’s reflection was replaced by Sirius’s.

“What’s up, Moony?” Sirius asked through the mirror.
“McGonagall’s expecting you in Transfigurations in 10 minutes,” Remus replied. “She’ll give you a detention if you’re not there.”
Sirius sighed. “Alright. Em, and I’ll be up.”
“She doesn’t have to be there.”
“Okay, then I’ll see you guys in a bit,” Sirius said before putting the mirror back into his pocket.
“What was that?” Emily asked, intrigued.
“Marauder’s secret method of communication,” Sirius replied. “That was Moony. Transfigurations is in ten minutes.”
Emily sighed. “I don’t really want to go to class.”
“Didn’t you hear him?” Sirius asked. “You don’t have to come.”
“Yeah, but I don’t feel like being by myself either.”
Sirius was silent for a moment before digging back into his pocket and pulling the mirror back out. “Remus Lupin,” pronounced clearly.

“What is it, Padfoot?” Remus asked into the mirror that had just grown hot in his pocket.
“Get the time and place of my detention from McGonagall,” Sirius replied with a slight smile. “I’m spending the day catching up with an old friend.”
Remus rolled his eyes, but smiled as he said, “I’ll see you tonight.”
When they had all taken their seats in Professor McGonagall’s class room and the bell had rang, McGonagall came in and began to take roll call.
When she got to Sirius’s name and got no reply, she looked up at Remus and asked, “Is there any particular reason Mr. Black isn’t here?”
“He asked me to get the time and place of his detention,” Remus replied. He couldn’t help but smile. “He’s spending the day catching up with an old friend.”
The professor sighed and looked back down at her clip board and continued with the roll call, but Remus saw a hint of a smile that she tried to hid behind a look of disappointment.
The Gryffindors smiled with Remus, the girls somewhat shocked at Sirius, the Ravenclaws looked clueless.
McGonagall never did give Remus a time and place for Sirius’s detention.

The rest of the day of classes passed by dully. There were plenty of rumors circulating the school. It just goes to show you how dense the student body was that they were all trying to figure out who James’s twin was; some said that it was a Slytherin. Some students believed that Amy Potter was already dead and James wasn’t seen because he was at the funeral.
The students also seemed to think that Emily was an undercover Deatheater. Some students even went as far as to say that she had been at the attack and was now hidden away, plotting her revenge on the Potters for her parents’ deaths.
The Gryffindor seventh years ignored these rumors and didn’t comment when they were asked to confirm them.
James and Jessica had been in the Heads’ dorm all day according to Sirius who at dinner said that he’d been checking the map.
“Do you think we should go talk to them?” Frank asked.
“I think they’ve had enough time,” Remus said.
Everyone but Emily, who was staring down at her plate, agreed. Sirius noticed her and said to her, “They won’t care.”
The others all agreed having realized what was bothering her. She hadn’t really minded the rumors; she’d ignored them all day. She was more afraid of Jessica and James’s reactions to her.
“Let’s go up to the Head dorms,” Carly suggested.
They all got up and went up.
When they got through the portrait hole, they saw Jessica and James sitting on the couch, both with small smiles playing on their lips.
When they saw the others, they got up to greet them.
Jessica sought out Emily and immediately pulled the shocked girl into a hug.
“Don’t worry about it,” she whispered to Emily. “It doesn’t matter.”
James smiled at her in agreement as Jessica released her.
“What happened?” Carly asked noticing their slightly happier mood.
“We got a letter from your mom,” James said.
“Mom’s awake!” Jessica exclaimed. “She’s going to be okay!”
The others all smiled as well.
Things were finally starting to look up.


I am sooooo sorry about taking so long (again) but state testing is next week and our teachers are trying to ‘prepare’ us. They go on all of next week and Monday of the week after, but then it’s done, so, hopefully, the teachers will go easier on us. I promise to try and update more frequently after that, but I can’t promise that I will, just that I’ll try, because I have Come Back To Me to work on, and I have another fic formulating in my head. once I get enough of that worked out to be sure that I can go somewhere with it, I’ll post that to. What I’ve got so far is pretty good, so I have hope. Look out for it. I’m hoping to get it up after things calm down in school [and I get a title for it ]
Oaky, so that’s it from me for about two weeks; hopefully you’ll hear from me after that, most likely in Come Back To Me.
In the mean time, keep the feedback coming. I haven’t gotten too much lately and I really miss it .
Link right down there in the red.
http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

This is a little shorter than my other posts lately, but I wanted to get something up.

Chapter 31

As September came to a close, things were getting back into their normal routines.
Actually, scratch that.
Frank and Kyle were spending more time with the Marauders because Lily, Jessica, Emily, Alice, and Carly were spending more time with them. The Marauders were now openly nice, contrary to the past don’t-let-people-see-you-help-the-first-years; they also were cutting down the hexing slytherins to a bare minimum, meaning they only hexed them twice a day, when they were being particularly nasty towards others. Sirius had had a very public shouting match with his cousin Bellatrix who was planning on reporting to Mrs. Black Sirius’s rekindled friendship with Emily who was no longer avoided and given death glares because of it. The “It’s Friday!” pranks were becoming more like random “I had nothing to do yesterday so I planned this” pranks. Lily had actually been caught laughing at a few Marauder pranks. Carly was no longer her quiet self, but a new person who was actually the old one that had been covered up by a new person that was now gone. This resulted in many boys finally noticing her, much to Kyle’s disappointment. The Marauders had been caught actually doing a little homework out by the lake, without getting distracted ever five seconds. Sirius was no longer flirting with random girls, though only the Marauders, Kyle, Frank, Lily, Emily, Carly, and Alice knew why. James was becoming more concerned about his family, putting writing to them at the top of his priority list. The most shocking thing of all, however was that Lily wasn’t constantly screaming at James; they actually had a few civil conversations. True, they were mostly only conversations at Prefects’ meetings, while patrolling at night, or when they found themselves bored and alone in the Heads’ Dorms, and they weren’t very meaningful conversations, but it was still a big step for them.
Yeah, things defiantly weren’t back to normal; they were even better.
Of course, it wasn’t all good. Deatheater attacks were becoming even more frequent, contributing to James’s worry. Amy Potter had been discharged from St. Mungo's in time for Madison and David Connors’s funeral at the end of September. James and Jessica had been very subdued around the time of the funeral, but their mother’s recover helped them. They had managed to build themselves back up with the help of their friends. James wasn’t the same again to the whole of Hogwarts, but Jessica saw no change, and Carly was happy that he was, “back to his old self.” He was still the same, but in a bit more mature and kinder way; there was more than the Marauder side to him now.
James had held the Quidditch try-outs and all of the old players returned, except for the Keeper, Josh Tylers.
Jessica, as James had said, was much better at the Seeker position than anyone else that he had tried out. She had dismissed all the possible rumors that she only made it because she was James’s sister after catching the Snitch before anyone else, no matter who she was up against.
Josh had been confident that he would make it back onto the team, but James wasn’t so sure. After much persuasion, the reminder of the particular day that summer that involved Quidditch, and the return of her old personality, Carly tried out. She beat Josh and every other person trying out, much to her own surprise.
The team now consisted of chasers: James, 6th year Matt Walker, and 5th year Abby Meyer, Beaters: Sirius and 6th year Aaron Fisher, Keeper: Carly, and Seeker: Jessica.
James was happy with his team and was confident that they had a pretty good chance at the cup this year. Now that Quidditch had been added to the list of things to do, James was getting increasingly busy.
The homework load wasn’t helping much. The teachers were piling it on at an even more alarming rate than the year before which was the only reason the Marauders allowed themselves to be caught actually doing it in public. Jessica was finding it hard to get used to, especially considering that, even though she could learn it quickly and somehow knew a lot of it, there were plenty of things that she needed to be caught up on. Her friends were all helping her to the best of their ability, but they had their own work to do, and it was getting hard for all of them to keep up. Even Lily was having a little trouble getting it all done.
The first week of October, James and Lily were up late finishing homework in their common room while the others were in Gryffindor Tower doing the same. James finished his Potions essay due the next day and sat back with a sigh of relief. Then, he looked down at his Transfigurations book and groaned; he had an essay due in two days on Animagi. He knew it wouldn’t be to hard considering that he had studied Animagi for four to five straight years, but he had decided to try and not leaving his homework to the last minute like in the previous years because he had so much other stuff to do this year. James looked up at the clock on the wall which read 12:32 a.m. and decided to do it tomorrow. He had a free period right after lunch; he could go out by the lake and get it done quickly and help Jessica with hers like he’d promised to at the same time.
With this decision, James began to pack up his stuff.
Lily looked up from her Potions essay which she was finishing up and raised an eyebrow. “You finished everything?” she asked in disbelief.
“Well,” James replied, "not Transfigurations, but I’ll do that tomorrow during my free period with Jessie. I promised to help her, and this way, I can kill two birds with one stone.”
“What if you get more homework you need to do during that time?” Lily challenged.
James shrugged. “I’ll get it done,” he replied.
“But you have Quidditch tomorrow, too,” Lily pointed out. “And we have to patrol right after dinner which you will probably run Quidditch practice into anyway.”
She had a point. “I’ll try not to prolong Quidditch, and if I do, I’ll take a detour to the kitchens during patrol.”
Lily opened her mouth to argue more, but James cut across her.
“Besides, I still haven’t taken my day off this week, so if I really need to, I’ll just take a break from patrols.”
Lily looked as if she was about to say something, but James cut her off, again. “I think we need a break from all of this. How about a Hogsmeade trip next week? It would be a good excuse to make Frank and Kyle ask out Alice and Cassie. They have been so obvious for so long that it’s not even funny. What is funny, however, is Sirius’s pathetic attempts to hide that he likes Jessie, don’t you think?”
Lily nodded and said, “I guess a Hogsmeade trip would be good. We could all relax a little.”
“Exactly, James said. “I’m just surprised that we didn’t come up with this idea any sooner.”
“Oh well,” Lily shrugged. “I guess we’ll go see Dumbledore tomorrow?”
James nodded and opened his mouth to say something when he remembered something. Remus had reminded James of it, though it was just a simple bit of sarcasm, while he and Sirius were saying how James was nothing but a boring old, regular Head. Remus had mentioned James’s speech on himself being the best Head ever, reminding James that he had decided that he was going to plan a school dance. At the time, it wasn’t anything serious, but James had thought on the idea and decided that it would be a nice change.
“James?” Lily broke him out of his thoughts.
“I was just thinking, how about we do something a little bit different this year?” he asked her.
“What type of different?” Lily asked, eying him suspiciously.
“Nothing bad, just, what if we had a Winter Dance?”
Lily was silent for a minute and James was praying that she wouldn’t refuse the idea.
“I don’t know,” she said finally. “We have so much to do, and planning a dance would take up more time.”
“We have the prefects helping us and if we start planning early, we can do a little bit at a time instead of trying to plan it all at the last minute.”
Lily nodded slowly as if she was still considering. “Keep talking.”
“Okay, well,” James started, glad that she was agreeing. “We have this month and next month to plan and most of December to set up. I already thought that it would be a good idea to plan a Hogsmeade trip close to the day we pick for the dance so that everyone can get whatever they need. For music, we could hire a band; I’m sure we can find a good one. Food won’t be so hard; we can just sort of do what they used to do for the Yule Ball during the Triwizard Tournament. The decorations can be all wintery and everything like snow and ice and stuff.”
“Yeah,” Lily said nodding, warming up to the idea. “I can just see the Great Hall now; we can have those decorated Christmas Trees and holly and mistletoe everywhere. We can have red and green tablecloths and –“
“No," James interrupted, "I wasn’t really thinking of a Christmas dance because it would have to be on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and I for one want to be home for Christmas. I want to see everyone, and I know they’re all dying to see Jessie, especially my extended family. I don’t get to see them very often, but everyone’s there for Christmas, and it’s always so much fun. I don’t want to miss that. I was thinking more of a Winter Dance with snow and ice sculptures. You know that magical snow that doesn’t melt that we could decorate the Hall with, and we can make Snowmen and stuff out of it. Then, we can have ice sculptures in all of these different shapes everywhere. We can hang icicles from everything and coat it with ice. There’s this charm we use at home so that the ice and snow isn’t cold, wet, or slippery. The theme colors can be blue, white, and silver; a bit more wintery that way. We can end term and have the dance a couple days later, and people going to the dance can go home a few days later, after the dance. That way, we can have our dance and be home for the holidays.”
Lily was a bit shocked at the amount of thought James had put into it, but she liked the idea. She, too, wanted to be home for the holidays, and this was a great idea to have the dance at all.
“I like it,” she said after a minute or two. “It sounds good and you have a lot of the major details worked out. We just have to take care of the smaller stuff, as Professor Dumbledore, and run it by the prefects. We can talk to Dumbledore tomorrow when we got to ask him about Hogsmeade.”
James agree, glad that Lily liked the idea. “Only, let’s not tell the rest of the students yet. We’ll have a meeting with the prefects and get started on the plans, then announce it next month. We’ll tell our friends though; they can help out.”
“Good idea,” Lily agreed. “We don’t want to get everyone too over excited and make them stop concentrating on school work.”
“Yeah,” James said. He got up, picking up his bag. “I’m going to get to sleep; we still have classes tomorrow, and it’s almost one.”
Lily looked up at the clock and nodded in agreement. “I just want to finish this essay.”
“Finish it tomorrow,” James told her. “You need to sleep.”
“I’m almost done. I just have a few more sentences left. I’ll go to sleep the second I’m done.”
“Okay,” James said walking to his room. “Goodnight.”
“Good night, James,” Lily called as James shut the door behind him.


Sooooo…
I’ve been feeling very neglected in the lack of feedback, so I would just love to get some.
I really, really, really miss hearing from you all, so pretty please leave me a little something.

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Chapter 32

The girls walked down to breakfast the next morning, talking with each other as usual. As they talked and walked, they caught a lot of the attention of the boys they passed, and it wasn’t so much of a surprise to any onlookers.
First, there was Lily: Beautiful, Head Girl, and know for being James Potter’s crush for the longest time. Many boys lived in fear of talking to her because of James, but that did not mean that they didn’t enjoy looking at her. Granted, they only looked at her after they had double and triple checked that James wasn’t within 50 feet of them, and they still didn’t talk to her, but still.
Then, Emily. She had already attracted plenty of attention with her loud and cheerful personality, but it was now for sure that everyone knew about her because of her parents. Emily’s blonde hair was envied by many girls and she had bright blue eyes that entranced many boys. Of course, she only had eyes for Remus, but other boys didn’t know that, and they didn’t mind staring openly at her.
It was the same for Alice. She was pretty and energetic making her noticeable and well known in school. Boys usually noticed her as the loud Gryffindor who would jump into the lake in the middle of winter if she got bored and still look very good after she climbed out dripping wet.
Now that Carly had become a lot less shy and more energetic and mischievous, she was turning heads and causing boys to drop open their mouths and drool. Because not too many people knew about Carly in the first place, her personality hadn’t surprised them. What did surprise them was that she was the friend of Lily’s that they hadn’t noticed before and was oh so close to the James Potter. Her long dark hair made her bright blue eyes pop even more. No boy was able to look away after seeing those eyes.
As for Jessica; no boy could look away after simply seeing her. She was drop dead gorgeous and attracted the most attention. She first caught boys’ attention with her loud and bubbly personality. Once she got their attention, they were unable to look away from her. Most of the boys who looked over were entranced by Jessica and only looked away when they noticed the other girls, though they kept looking back. Every single one of them would have run forward every time they saw Jessica and ask her out, but she was the twin sister of the James potter. She was even more off limits than Lily. Everyone had been shocked to learn that James had a sister, never mind an outrageously beautiful twin sister. Boys seemed to think that they were being punished or something because the one girl their shallow selves wanted a good song out of was way out of bounds. They would only dare to go near her with more than friendly intentions when they were looking for death. They were all dead scared of James; the boys would much rather take their chances with asking out Lily.
Jessica just found this all funny. She didn’t care and only winked at the boys or sent them flirty smiles to laugh at the looks on their faces as she did so. Jessica didn’t care much for the boys, so she didn’t care that James had scared them all away. When she started liking a boy, she’d approach him herself and give James a nice long talking to. Of course, she didn’t know that none of this was necessary because James approved of the only guy she would actually have any feelings for; Jessica was unaware of these feelings herself.
Another amusing aspect was Jennifer Thompson, Eliza Moore, and Lindsey Carter’s expressions when Jessica walked into the bathroom to hear Jennifer talking about her summer with James again. When Jessica scoffed real loudly, Jennifer turned to glare at her, but said nothing, knowing that Jessica knew it was all fake; after all, Jennifer might be stupid, but she did understand that Jessica lived with James. Jessica found that funny as well and made it a point to loudly ask her about her summer every opportunity she got. The other girls were delighted to have the proof they needed to prove that Jennifer, Eliza, and Lindsey were big fakes. The year had started out great for them.
“Oh, yeah,” Lily said as they began eating in the Great Hall. “James and I need to talk to Dumbledore after breakfast.”
“Why?” Alice questioned.
“Can’t tell you yet,” Lily said mysteriously. “It’s a secret.”
“Oh, come on,” Emily begged. “Please?”
“I’ll tell you after we clear it with him,” Lily replied. “No point in getting your hopes up, then crushing them.”
Emily was about to beg some more, but the marauders walked in and took their seats a little ways down from them. Emily immediately lost focus on everything around her as her eyes found Remus and she drifted off to who knows where.
“Well,” Alice said with a sigh looking over at her friend, “we’ve lost her.”
Emily had been doing that same thing every time Remus walked into the room for the past couple weeks. Her crush was getting just a bit out of hand.
“So,” Carly said conversationally, “how’s it going living with James?”
“Not as bad as I thought,” Lily replied looking a little shocked herself. “As long as he’s not planning any pranks or being an idiot, I can call him an almost acquaintance.”
“Almost acquaintance?” Carly questioned with raised eyebrows.
“It’s not like I would voluntarily talk to him or partner with him in class, but I will talk to him when necessary. We defiantly aren’t friends, but not quite acquaintances yet, either.”
“Yet,” Carly pointed out. “You are bound to get there and past it sometime.”
Lily shrugged. “We might be able to be friends.”
“You will be friends,” Jessica said. “If anybody knows my brother, it’s me. I know for a fact that he won’t be settling anytime soon for ‘almost acquaintances.’”
“And besides,” Alice added, “you like him without knowing it anyway.”
“I do not!” Lily shouted, outraged at the idea.
“First step is denial, sweetheart,” Alice said lightly.
Lily was just about to answer back, but Frank and Kyle came and sat down with them, immediately striking up a conversation with Alice and Carly.
“And then there were two,” Lily said to Jessica.
She nodded, looking back at Emily. Jessica followed her gaze to where her brother and his friends were sitting and talking. Just as she was about to turn away, Sirius burst into laughter, followed by the others, and Jessica couldn’t help but enjoy hearing Sirius’s bark-like laugh. She watched him laugh as his eyes lit up and he looked carefree and at peace with the world.
Jessica shook her head and turned back to Lily who was doing the same, looking back at her.

James and Sirius glared down the corridor while Peter and Remus rolled their eyes. It never ceased to be funny. Ever since the school had discovered that Jessica was James’s sister, the boys would immediately divert their attention from Jessica the second they noticed James had caught them looking. They were steering clear of him if they knew James had seen them looking towards his sister where they definitely shouldn’t be looking.
The amusing situation that had just taken place was the highlight of them all. It had already happened countless amounts of time, and it was still hilarious.
Every time Amos Diggory caught sight of James, he would immediately get a fearful look on his face, turn around, and trip back down the corridor while James and Sirius threw him murderous looks.
Amos seemed to know that Remus and Peter wouldn’t be able to restrain them when they were too busy laughing.
“Come on, you guys,” Remus said tugging on Sirius and James’s sleeves. “Breakfast.”
At that word, they snapped out of it and led the way to breakfast, though they were plotting how to get Diggory with their next prank.
They spent breakfast the same way, until James glanced at his watch. “Oh yeah,” he said stopping mid chew, revealing a quite disgusting sight. “I have to meet Lily after breakfast.”
“Oh yeah,” Sirius said. “What are you meeting Lily for?”
“It’s a secret,” James said, not catching on.
“Really?” Sirius raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“Honestly, Prongs,” Remus said rolling his eyes. “You are slow.”
“Wh-oh, no!” James said as realization hit him. “I’m trying a different approach, remember.”
“Obviously,” Peter said. “Or else, you would have already been slapped 50 times.”
“But she hasn’t gotten mad at me once,” James said proudly. “Except that time on the train, but that didn’t count.”
Sirius began laughing at him, too much so to hear Remus add, “At least you aren’t being as obvious as Padfoot.”
The others laughed as well, enjoying the limited, worry-free time they had left.

“Hey, Lily,” James said approaching her on their way to the Headmaster’s office.
“Hi,” Lily replied turning to him before continuing walking.
They walked in silence and gave the gargoyle the password to reveal the staircase. They climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.
“Enter,” came Dumbledore’s voice.
James and Lily did so to find their Headmaster sitting at his desk and putting a piece of parchment into one of the drawers.
“Ah, what a pleasant surprise,” he said smiling at them. “Have a seat.”
They sat down.
“What can I do for you this fine morning,” Dumbledore asked.
“We were wondering if we could schedule a Hogsmeade visit for next week,” James said.
“That sounds like a great idea,” Dumbledore said. “Gather the prefects and have them post notices in their common rooms. Is that all?”
“Actually, no,” Lily said. “James had this idea for a dance this winter.”
“Interesting,” the old headmaster said. “Continue.”
James and Lily explained everything they had planned out. When they were done, Dumbledore was smiling at them.
“I knew you two would make a great pair. This is exactly what we needed. Discuss the idea with the Prefects and then bring the final plans to me. We can begin with this project as soon as you are ready.”
“Thank you, Professor,” Lily said.
“Any time,” he replied. “What class should you be in right now?”
“History of Magic,” James told him.
“I dare say you won’t need a note from me for that class, correct?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.
“No, sir,” James said.
“Alright then, you may go ahead,” Dumbledore smiled at them.
They got up to leave and headed for the door. Lily turned to say goodbye to find the old professor writing on the same piece of parchment he had been putting away when they came in.


Not very long, but I’d still love some feedback!

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JSB 073 is officially my favorite person ever for being the only one to leave me feedback for my last chapter.


Chapter 33

That coming weekend, James and Lily held a meeting with the Prefects about the Hogsmeade trip and the dance. They were all really excited about the dance and jumping at the opportunity to help with it. it had been decided that the Gryffindors were in charge of decoration, Ravenclaw was in charge of scheduling and entertainment, Hufflepuff was in charge of food, and, Slytherins was in charge of clean up, much to everyone’s, except for the Slytherin Prefects’, amusement.
Lily and James were finalizing everything and helping whoever needed help. Because decoration took a lot of time, they would also help their fellow Gryffindors with that.
With the orders to have a basic outline of the plans ready within two weeks and sent to James and Lily to be looked over, the Prefects all hurried out of the library in excitement.
“So, we’re having a Winter Dance?” Emily asked as she, Remus, and the two Heads followed everyone else out.
“Were you paying any attention at all?” Remus joked, causing Emily to blush, though only James and Lily noticed.
“Where did this idea come from?” Emily asked quickly.
“James,” Lily replied simply.
“Really?” Emily turned to James with a raised eyebrow.
“I have good ideas!” James defended.
“Didn’t say you didn’t,” Emily said. “I’m just surprised that you did.”
“Is that an insult?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s not very nice,” James said. “I’ll have you know that I have plenty of awesome ideas. Remember that shampoo bottle and bar of soap that followed Snivellus everywhere in fourth year telling him to take a shower? That was all me,” he stated proudly.
“Well then, you have your moments,” Emily told him simply. Seeing that James was about to argue back, she said to Lily, “We have to go and tell the others about the dance. Come on.”
The two girls disappeared down the corridor, leaving James and Remus staring after them.
“And I thought Sirius was obvious.”
The two boys jumped and turned. “Krissy!” they exclaimed simultaneously, seeing a beautiful blonde smiling at them.
To put it plainly, Kristy Williams was the Ravenclaw version of Lily Evans, except with blonde hair, brown eyes, no temper, and a friendly relationship with the Marauders. She would have gotten along rather well with Lily if it hadn’t been for the fact that Lily thought she was crazy.
None of the Marauders dated very often; they had had very few girlfriends at Hogwarts, and they were usually nice girls as opposed to girls from their fan clubs. One of those girls that was lucky enough to say that she had once dated a Marauder was Kristy. Actually, she had dated three of them.
She went out with Remus in third year, but he broke it off after two months because of the werewolf thing. She had dated Sirius for the better part of fifth year, but they had ended it at the same time, both agreeing that it wasn’t going anywhere. Kristy and James had been together for the second half of sixth year before Kristy broke up with him, saying that he still liked Lily, which he agreed to.
Despite that, she had remained great friends with the Marauders, simply because of how much of a sweet and friendly person she was.
Kristy was a model student and didn’t scare off first years looking for help with a temper or hex and slap boys when they bugged her, unlike Lily. She was a perfect contender for Head Girl and was a Ravenclaw Prefect. Remus had a suspicion that Dumbledore had only not made her Head Girl because he wanted Lily and James to get along.
“We haven’t talked to you all year,” James said hugging her and stepping back to allow Remus to do the same.
“I know,” she said. “I’ve just been so busy with school and everything. You have Heads duties, now, on top of everything else and Remus is too busy spending his time with a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed Gryffindor,” she added to Remus with a sly smile, making him blush. “Then there’s Sirius being too distracted drooling over Jessica who I have yet to meet.”
“Well, it’s a nice day out,” James said grabbing Kristy’s arm and pulling her along.
“Where are we going?” Kristy asked.
“To meet Jessica!” James said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Remus rolled his eyes and walked along with them, catching up with Kristy on her summer.

“Guess what, guess what, guess what!?” Emily exclaimed excitedly as she and Lily joined the other Gryffindor girls by the lake.
“What?” Alice asked in a bored voice.
“We're having a winter dance!”
“We are?” Alice asked looking up at Lily, suddenly interested.
“Yeah,” Lily nodded.
“James was all excited about doing something different this year after finding out that he was made Head Boy,” Jessica said. “I think he mentioned a dance.”
“So, when is it?” Alice asked.
Lily and Emily were about to begin explaining everything to them when Sirius and Peter joined them. “So, what’s new?” Sirius asked sitting down lazily.
“We’re having a dance this winter,” Carly told him excitedly.
“Oh, James was serious about that?” he asked.
Lily nodded.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Lily and Emily began telling them everything and were just barely finished when Jessica looked up towards the castle and asked, “Who’s the poor blonde James is dragging behind him?”
The others looked up and Sirius stood up excitedly and was already running towards them, yelling “Krissy!”
Peter got up and quickly followed, not wanting to be lefty behind with the girls.
“Who’s ‘Krissy?’” Jessica asked with a tad bit of jealousy as Sirius hugged her that only Carly caught.
“Kristy Williams is Sirius’s ex-girlfriend.” Carly told her, watching her expression carefully.
“Ex?”
Carly nodded. “She dated Remus in third year, Sirius in fifth, and James in sixth year. Lily pretends to hate her, but we all know that she’s jealous.”
“That is bull –“ Lily began, but Emily cut her off, knowing what was coming.
“She’s remained very buddy-buddy with them,” Emily said, a little indignantly.
“She’s jealous, too,” Alice pretend whispered.
Emily opened her mouth to retort, but Carly went on.
“Kristy is actually quite nice. Lily just doesn’t like her because she likes the Marauders.”
“She dated three of them!” Lily exclaimed. “That girl is crazy!”
Jessica shrugged. “James didn’t think so,” she said out of nowhere. “He liked her.”
The other four girls looked at her with raised eyebrows, but didn’t inquire for the boys and Kristy had approached them.
“Kristy, this is my sister Jessica,” James said proudly gesturing towards Jessica.
“Nice to meet you,” Jessica said.
“You too,” Kristy smiled.
“You obviously know Lily and Emily,” James continued. The two girls gave a somewhat strained smile. “And then there’s Carly and Alice.” Those two gave Kristy genuine smiles as she smiled back, and she and the boys sat down.
“What were we talking about?” Remus asked as they all settled down.
“The dance,” Alice replied.
They all talked for another half hour until a Ravenclaw girl with curly brown hair came towards them. “Kristy!”
She looked up and smiled. “Hi, Sammy,” Kristy greeted her best friend.
“I’ve been wondering where you’ve been,” Sammy said. “Brian said that he lost you after the meeting.” Brian Collins was Kristy’s other best friend and the other Ravenclaw Prefect.
“James dragged me out here,” Kristy explained.
“You make it sound like you didn’t want to come out here,” James pouted.
“Glad that we cleared that up.”
James playfully glared at her and she smiled. “I was joking; you know I love.”
“Who doesn’t?” James asked smugly.
“Snape?” Kristy suggested.
Sammy sat down with them and was introduced to everybody that didn’t already know her.
“Brian told me about the dance,” Sammy said. “Are you guys going to kick me out when you’re planning?”
Kristy shook her head. “We could always use more opinions.”
“Yay!” Sammy cheered. “I’ve always wanted to plan a dance. Brian said I wasn’t allowed to know anything.”
“You know he was joking, right?”
“Oh.”
Kristy rolled her eyes. “Where is Brian now? He was supposed to help me with Potions.”
Sirius gasped. “A Ravenclaw needing help on school work?”
“Shut up, Sirius,” Kristy said.
“Why’s Brian helping you?” Sammy asked. “He knows nothing about Potions, and your one of Slughorn’s best students, after Lily.”
Kristy blushed but didn’t answer her. “Where is he?”
“He was with Aaron in the common room,” Sammy replied with a red tinge on her own cheeks.
“So that’s why you left,” Kristy said with a smile.
Sammy didn’t respond.
Kristy got up. “Brian and I had better get started on that Charms.”
Sammy raised an eyebrow and Sirius was about to correct her, but Remus stopped him.
“I’m sure you’ll get plenty of ‘studying’ done, for both Potions and Charms,” James said winking at her.
Kristy, realizing her mistake, blushed, but just waved and said, “See you guys later,” before she and Sammy headed back to the castle.


Because I am so desperate to get feedback:


Chapter 34

Throughout the rest of the month, the relationship between James and Lily was pretty much the same. They talked with each other often enough to discuss the dance and had a few social conversation because the girls were for some reason that made no sense the Hogwarts spending so much time with the guys. Lily wasn’t too happy about it, but the whole group was like a chain reaction.
The Marauders were always together, no question about it. Carly and Jessica insisted on being with them because they said that they had a lot of ‘bonding’ with James to catch up on, though they obviously did have alternative motives such as setting up some friends. Emily was finally getting her chance to catch up with her oldest best friend, so she too was with them. If Carly was there, then Kyle was bound to show up, and with Kyle always came Frank meaning Alice was more than happy to join them. Not wanting to spend all her time by herself, Lily had no choice but to join the group. And there you have the most powerful group of people that had the rest of Hogwarts’ population astonished.
As November came to a close, the whole school was buzzing about the dance. There weren’t any flocks of girls hoping to go with James or Sirius to Hogsmeade that December because the Hogsmeade trip was for dance outfits. Instead, there was a twice as big hoard of girls chasing them in hopes of being one of theirs' date for the dance. It seemed that every girl in the school was hoping to go to the dance with, if not James or Sirius, then one of the Gryffindor boys, but not all of them were taking the same approach.
“Finally, some sane girls!” Sirius sighed with relief as he rushed into the Head’s dorm one day, two weeks before the dance after being chased by his fan club. He had no idea of how ironic his statement was.
Jessica looked up at him and smiled sweetly. “We are anything but sane. We willingly converse with you.”
Sirius stuck his tongue out at her and picked her up out of her chair, sat down in it, and put Jessica on the ground.
“Hey, that was my chair!” Jessica shouted at him from the ground.
“Not anymore,” Sirius said simply as he leaned back and rested his feet on the coffee table.
“Sirius took my chair!”
“Sit on him,” Emily told her absentmindedly without looking up from her chess game with Remus.
Jessica did just that, sitting on Sirius’s legs. Because he wasn’t expecting that, Sirius’s legs collapsed and fell off of the table, and Jessica ended up on the ground, again.
“Sirius dropped me!” she shouted.
“I didn’t drop you!” Sirius argued back. “Your fat self crushed my legs.”
“I am not fat! You are just too weak!”
“I am not weak!” Sirius shouted.
“Then how did you drop me?” Jessica challenged.
“You’re heavy!”
“Shut up you guys,” Lily said without looking up from her homework.
“Oh, just go to the library,” Sirius said to her.
Lily looked up. “It’s after hours and you guys need to be in the common room so that James and I can finish our work.”
“Oh, come on!” Alice whined. “You’re kicking us out?”
“Yes.”
“But you can’t do that!”
“Technically, I can.”
“James, make her let us stay,” Kyle ordered.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” James said.
“So you’re going to be all goody goody now, too?” Kyle asked.
“Who do you think you are calling a Marauder a goody goody?” Sirius shouted, outraged.
“Yeah, Marauders are not goody goods,” Peter said.
“They are if they kick their friends out of the Heads’ Dorms,” Frank said.
“It’s after hours!” Lily yelled exasperated.
“Nice going, Sirius,” Alice said. “It was all nice and quiet here before you came in.”
“It’s not my fault if my wonderful personality gets everyone so excited,” Sirius said.
Alice rolled her eyes at him.
“No one likes you Sirius,” Jessica said, still on the ground at Sirius’s feet. “You throw innocent little girls on the ground.”
“You are not little and certainly not innocent; you are an evil little devil,” Sirius said to her.
“You said I was little.”
“Shut up you guys; I’m trying to beat Remus in chess,” Emily said.
“Like that’s ever going to happen,” Carly scoffed.
“Just one more move, then I win, so ha!” Emily said triumphantly.
“Sorry, Love,” Remus smiled. “Check mate.”
“What?!” Emily shouted. “How did you win?!”
“I’m just better than you.”
“But, I was winning! You were cheating!” Emily concluded.
“What type of person do you think I am?” Remus gasped in mock dismay.
“A Marauder,” Emily replied simply.
“I’ll have you know that I am just too good at chess to match anyone else’s juvenile abilities.”
“Save it, Em,” Carly said as Emily was about to retort. “You know it’s true.”
Remus smiled triumphantly while Emily crossed her arms and sulked.
“Okay,” Lily said, “Get out.”
And with minimal protests, only the two Heads were left in the dorm.
“Homework?” Lily asked turning to James.
James shook his head. “Bed.”
“But we have work to finish!”
“It’s Friday,” James said. “You have two more days to do it.”
“But –“
“And we have an early Prefects’ meeting tomorrow so you have to be up for that.”
“Fine,” Lily sighed heading off to bed.
“’Night, Lily!” James called.
“Good night, James.”
To say the least, the night didn’t turn out to be that good.

Lily was running through the Forbidden Forest; she had to warn him. She was following a glisten of silver, though she couldn’t make out what it was, she had to reach him before it did. Lily was running as fast as she could, not even feeling the cold air around her, not at all fearing what could jump out at her. She had to get to him to warn him about it; that was more important.
Lily was getting closer to the silver, and she realized that it had stopped. ‘Almost there,’ she thought.
When she was close enough to see it, she stopped dead. It turned to her and Lily let out an earsplitting scream.
A body-less hand was pointing a long, threatening sliver dagger straight at her.

“Lily! Lily, wake up!”
Lily jolted awake and sat up straight, trembling all over.
“Lily, are you alright?”
James was holding her upper arms on either side and looking concernedly into her face.
Lily just nodded slightly as James handed her a glass of water. Lily emptied the glass, and he took it back from her.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Lily shook her head. She looked over at the clock on her bedside and saw that it was 3:07. “You-you sh-should go back to sleep,” she said to him.
“Are you sure?” he asked her.
Lily nodded.
“Alright, Lily,” he said getting up from her bed. “You can come to me if you need to talk. Good night.” He headed for the door, but turned before Leaving. “It was just a nightmare; don’t worry about it.”
Lily nodded. “Thanks, James.”
James nodded at her and left.
Lily lay back down, but she couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the knife and every time she opened her eyes, she saw some glisten of silver.
Finally, at 3:33, lily got out of bed and went out into the common room. She sat on the sofa and grabbed a charms book off of the table and red it by the light of the dying fire.
Soon, she fell asleep.

She was running again, chasing after the thing. It stopped and Lily saw the hand and knife, but this time, she held back the scream, and the hand began to float away. Lily chased after it; she had to warn him. It was getting faster, and Lily soon lost sight of it.
There was a loud yell that shattered the still night and Lily began to run faster.
She soon reached a clearing and looked around.
There, on the other side of the clearing, was the hand and the dagger, but this time, the dagger didn’t glisten sliver.
As turned to Lily, it shone red with blood.
Lily felt sick and scared as she looked down beneath the dagger, and she couldn’t hold back the scream this time.
“James!”

Lily sat up straight again and looked wildly around herself; she hadn’t screamed out loud this time.
Looking at the clock, Lily saw that it was 4:54.
Lily hesitantly looked over at James’s door before getting up and walking to his room. She slowly opened the door and walked in. she carefully stepped over the various items strewn across the floor and made her way to his bed.
James was sleeping peacefully in his bed with the blanket only covering his legs, leaving Lily to be able to see his bare chest. She couldn’t help but stare, but then, realizing she was doing so, she pulled her gaze away and to his face.
Lily hated to wake him, but she didn’t want to be alone.
Lily reached out her hand and gently shook his arm. “James.”
He was a heavy sleeper as he didn’t even move at all. “Lily shook him harder and said louder, “James!”
He slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times as his eyes focused on her.
Seeing that it was Lily, James quickly sat up and looked at her with concern. “Are you alright? Did you have that nightmare again?”
Lily nodded. “It killed you,” she barely whispered.
James paled, but he didn’t say anything as his eyes widened and he scooted over in his bed.
Lily gratefully climbed under his covers, comforted by having someone, anyone, else there. She closed her eyes, and soon, Lily had drifted off into sleep.

Lily awoke the next morning to a bright light, and she saw that it was streaming in through the open windows. Lily closed her eyes again and took a deep breath, but she suddenly sat up again, her eyes flying open. Her pillow smelled like cologne.
Lily looked around herself and saw that she was in James’s room. Why was she in there?
Suddenly, the nightmares from last night came back, causing Lily to shutter as she saw James’s body the way it had been in her nightmare.
Remembering about him, Lily looked around, looking for James. Her eyes rested on the ground next to the bed where there was a pillow and a blanket. James had slept on the ground after she fell asleep. Lily couldn’t help but smile and think that that was rather sweet of him.
“Lily, there’s the meeting in half an hour.”
Lily turned to the door to see James standing there. She smiled slightly at him before nodding. “I’ll just go and get –“ Lily froze and looked up at James in horror. “Did you say half an hour?”
Lily scrambled out of his room and ran into her own, running around to get ready. She took a short shower and threw on the first pair of clothes she could fine. She ran a comb through her hair, found all of her notes and stuff for the dance, and shoved them into her bag before running out. She had 15 minutes to get breakfast and get down to the library.
“Lily!”
She turned to see James on the couch she had just run by to get out of the room.
“I still have to eat breakfast and get there and –“
“Calm down, Lils,” James said soothingly, and surprisingly, she did.
He held a muffin out to her and said, “This should be enough to last the meeting, then I’ll show you where the kitchen are.”
Lily took the muffin gratefully and mumbled a thanks.
“Let’s go,” he said pulling her out into the corridor as they set off for the library. Lily finished off her muffin and turned to James.
“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier? It’s all your fault that I didn’t get a proper breakfast and look like ****.”
“I figured you didn’t get much sleep last night,” James shrugged. “Besides, you have enough food. You can eat to your heart’s desire later. And you look beautiful, so stop worrying.”
Lily blushed slightly, but didn’t reply as they entered the library and sat down at the big table for the meetings in the back.

The meeting ran longer than expected, so by the time they got out, it was 15 minutes ‘till lunch.
“Hurry up, Em,” Lily said dragging her friend to the Great Hall. “I’m starved.”
Emily just laughed and shook her head. “You could have come down to breakfast this morning, Lils.”
“I slept in and wasn’t expecting the meeting to run two bloody hours late!”
Emily just laughed some more. “Note to self,” she said. “Don’t talk to Lily when she’s hungry; she gets very angry.”
Lily slapped her arm, causing Emily to yelp in shock.
“Just like our little Padfoot,” said James coming up behind them. “Gets a tad touchy when he’s not fed.”
“Try completely mental,” Remus said. “You, Emily have it easy.”
Lily ignored their conversation on hunger. She wasn’t very grumpy because she had only eaten a muffin thus far; it had more to do with the nightmare the night before. She had been distracted throughout the meeting thinking about it; what did the dream mean? Or did it mean anything at all? Well, it had to mean something; she wouldn’t have dreamt of James’s untimely death for no reason. Maybe it had some sort of long winded meaning about somebody being out to get James and kill him in the most brutal way possible. Or maybe, it meant that James would get stabbed in the back by a friend. Dreams use scary ways of telling you simple things like that, too. It could have simply meant that the forest was dangerous, but that was a known fact, or it could have meant that James would die before his time. There were so many possible meanings that could have come out of that dream that it was starting to hurt Lily’s head.
She shook her head slightly and entered the Great Hall with Emily, James, and Remus, still talking about the effects of hunger.

That evening, Emily had gone down to the library to do some homework, seeing as when she tried to do it in the Heads’ Dorm with her friends, she got easily distracted. She was supposed to be doing her Potions essay last night when she was playing chess with Remus.
The mere thought of him distracted her from the essay, and Emily had to set her quill down and get her focus back on the essay. Only two more sentences in, when she was interrupted.
“Mind if I join you?”
Emily looked up and met Remus’s pale blue eyes. She found herself shaking her head and motioning to the chair across from her while inside her mind she was screaming, happy to be in his presence, but at the same time scolding herself for letting him join her because there was no way she was going to be able to concentrate on Potions now.
After 10 minutes of staring at her essay with no thoughts in her head except for the fact that Remus was writing away on his parchment across from her, Emily gave up. She only had the conclusion left, so she’d finish it tomorrow in her dorm where Remus couldn’t come distract her.
Instead of focusing on homework, Emily focused her attention out the window where the Gryffindor team was practicing. Jessica, Carly, James, and Sirius were there right now. Alice and Lily had both finished their homework and were sitting out by the lake. Frank and Kyle had been discussing the Transfigurations essay Emily had finished the day before, and Peter had said that he needed a break from homework and went out to watch the practice.
Emily’s thoughts drifted to Remus who was focused on what looked like his Charms essay which Emily had to start tomorrow. The dance was coming up and the signs for it had gone up around the school, getting all of the students excited. The teachers were trying to get the students do as much homework as possible before they completely lost all concentration on classes.
As she thought of the dance, Emily couldn’t help but wish that Remus would ask her. They had been friends for a while now, and Emily had really developed what Alice called a not so small crush on him. He, however, didn’t date much. There had been a few girls, not lasting too long a couple of years ago, but recently, he hadn’t shown much interest in girls at all. When Emily had causally brought up the subject of the dance on time and asked him if he was planning on asking anybody to go, he just shook his head and said that he didn’t really like any particular girl at the moment. Emily had immediately dropped the subject in case he realized that she liked him.
“Emily.”
The voice broke through her thoughts and Emily saw that it was dark outside. She turned to find that Remus was now sitting next to her and looking at her with concern. When had he moved?
“We have 15 minutes to get up to the common room and the library closes in five,” Remus said. “I was halfway out when I realized that you were completely of it. What are you thinking about?”
‘You,’ Emily said in her mind, but out loud, she just replied, “Nothing, just pretty tired today I guess.” She started hastily gathering her stuff and shoving it into her bag. Remus helped, piling her books and parchment in front of her neatly so it wasn’t all disorganized.
“Thanks,” Emily said putting in the last book and looking up at Remus with a smile.
Big mistake.
Emily’s eyes met his, and suddenly, all thoughts flew out of her mind. He was looking right back into hers with an undistinguishable emotion in his eyes.
As the second ticked by, it felt like hours to Emily. Out of nowhere, some strange power took over Emily’s mind, and she reached up and kissed him.
It only took a second for Remus to respond, bringing his hands to her face as hers found their way around his neck.
Suddenly, Emily’s thoughts came back to her and she realized what she was doing and practically jumped away from him. Ignoring the disappoint that was running through her, urging her to kiss him again, Emily jumped out of her chair.
“I h-have to g-go,’ she managed to stutter out as she ran out of the library and up to her dorm, leaving a thoroughly confused Remus behind.



So, first of all, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to update. This would have been up a 2 weeks ago, but I decided that chapter 33 was too short and nothing really happened, and it was honestly more of a filler chapter than anything, so I added chapter 34 which turned out horrible and I redid it with ideas coming out of nowhere. In result, this post is longer than my past few, and you can take it as a bribe for feedback.
I will be very disappointed if the bribe doesn’t work.

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718


PS
There might be some mistakes because I was in such a rush and didn't get around to sending it to my cousin to be checked over, but just ignore it.

Chapter 35

“Hey, Em; where’s Remus?”
Emily ignored Alice and hurried past her friends up to her dorm. There, she sat on her bed and wondered what was going on. Why had she kissed him? Why had she run away?
Well, the first one was easy; he was so damn irresistible. Then, why had she run?
Emily’s mind was telling her that she had run because she knew he didn’t like her, but her subconscious mind was saying something different. If he didn’t like her, then why did he kiss her back?
Her subconscious mind was making a good point. Maybe he did like her back?
Emily sighed and fell back in bed. Maybe if she slept on it…
Emily was asleep before she could even finish her thoughts.

Okay…what had just happened?
One minute, he was looking into her beautiful blue eyes, and the next he was kissing her. Then she was running away, but Remus decided not to think about that part.
Remus looked around and saw the library was nearly empty and thought it would be best to go before he got in trouble for being in the library after it closed. He bent down to pick up his bag and, seeing that she had forgotten hers, he picked up Emily’s as well.
Walking back to the common room, Remus thought of any possible reason that she could have possibly ran away. Not even realizing it, he reached the portrait whole, gave the Fat Lady the password, and stepped through to the common room.
Remus, come here!”
He turned towards the fireplace and saw all of his, very confused, friends sitting around it. He went joined them, sinking into an armchair and dropping the bags on the floor.
“What happened?” Lily sure wasn’t bothering with small talk this evening.
“We were sitting there, doing homework, then we were gathering her stuff into her bag, then we were kissing, she was running, and I was standing.”
Everyone just stared at him with shock written all over their faces.
“Dormitories, now,” Jessica ordered, standing up.
The other girls got up and they were all trooping up the stairs to the girls dormitories, leaving the boys sitting by the fire.
Once they heard the door shut, James turned to Remus and demanded, “Who kissed who, why did she run, and why did you not run after her?”
Remus sighed. “She kissed me, I think. I have no idea why she ran away, but I was a bit too much in shock to chase after her. By the time my senses kicked back in, she was long gone.”
“Well then,” Sirius said standing up. “I think the solution is quite simple.”
“It is?”
“Sure it is,” Frank replied as the rest also stood up. “You talk to her tomorrow.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea –“ Remus started.
“Yeah it is,” James said. “We all agreed on it.”
“I didn’t.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Kyle said.
“I think Lily’s going to sleep in here tonight, so I’ll sleep in the boys’ dormitory as well,” James said.
And with that, they all went up to sleep, leaving Remus sitting alone by the fire. He sat there, thinking about nothing, just watching the fire die out. He only broke out of his trance a couple hours later when he heard someone coming down the stairs from the girls’ dormitories.
Remus’s head jerked up and he looked around to find Emily stop at the bottom of the stair, catching sight of him. She immediately turned back around, but Remus was up lightning fast and grabbed her arm, pulling her back down.
“You can’t keep running,” he said softly.
Emily refused to look at him, so instead she stared down at the carpet. “Yes I can,” she mumbled.
“No you can’t,” Remus said, almost dragging her to the sofa and kneeling down in front of her. “You have to talk.”
“About what? I didn’t mean to do it, and now it’s messed everything up.”
“Is that it then?”
“Isn’t it?” Emily asked in reply.
“Don’t I have a side in this story?” Remus asked.
“What’s your side?”
Remus was silent for a moment before replying. “This amazing girl I’ve like forever kissed me and then ran away, and I want to know why.”
Emily looked up at Remus despite herself with shock written all over her face. He looked right back at her with a neutral expression and a questioning gaze.
“I-I didn’t mean to; I just couldn’t help it and it happened and now…” she trailed off looking at him, hoping for him to understand what she was saying.
“You just want to go back to the way it used to be,” Remus said with disappointment, going to go stand up.
“No!” Emily stopped him. “No, that’s not it.”
“Then?”
“I don’t want to be just friends, Remus. I like you, a lot and…I want...”
“Will you go to the dance with me?” Remus interrupted.
Emily smiled and nodded. “Thank God, I thought I ruined everything,” she laughed.
Remus stood and sat down next to her and they sat in silence for a while.
Slowly, Remus mind drifted to his secret. He couldn’t be with Emily and not tell her that he’s a werewolf. It’d be like lying to her, and he couldn’t do that. But he couldn’t tell her either…could he?

“Wake up, Emily! Now!”
“What?” Emily grumbled as she turned over in her bed. It was Saturday, it was early, she had come up to bed late last night, and Lily had interrupted a very good dream about Remus. Emily did not want to get up.
“We are going to have a very long talk right now, so get up!”
“I’m tired!” Emily whined.
“None of us are, and we went to sleep way after you. Get up!”
“What time is it?”
“10:30; you’ve had 12 and a half hours of sleep. Get up!”
Emily groaned and sat up to face an angry looking Lily. “I only had nine and a half hours of sleep, so I’d like to catch up on it if you don’t mind,” Emily grumbled and fell back into bed.
“Nine and a half is plenty as well, but you’ve had more than that. Do we need to re-teach you time and math?”
“No, I just meant that I woke up and sat in the common room for 3 hours with Remus.” Oh no.
“What?” four voices shouted.
‘Why can’t you think about what you say before you say it?’ Emily scolded herself. She was not going to be able to get back to sleep without giving her friends a nice long explanation.
Four pairs of arms pulled Emily back up and sat her up.
“Explain,” Jessica demanded as Emily opened her eyes again.
Emily sighed and started to talk about how she randomly woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so she went down to sit in the common room, but found Remus there. By the time she was done telling them about their conversation, however, she was absolutely beaming.
“When were we going to find out about this?” Alice asked.
Emily shrugged.
“Well, I’m very disappointed,” Carly said.
“Why?” Emily asked.
“I was having so much fun planning how we were going to force you and Remus together. You’ve spoiled all my plans.”
“You’ve corrupted her,” Lily said turning to Jessica.
“No I haven’t,” Jessica replied. “You corrupted her; I just came back and saved her.”
The others laughed and Emily fell back into bed again.
“Oh no you don’t,” Lily said. “You are getting back up and coming down. You can’t sleep through the day.”
“Sure I can,” Emily said.
“No you can’t,” Lily said dragging her out of bed.
Emily groaned as she was pulled out of bed and forced to get ready by her friends.



I’m so sorry it’s so short, but my brain just shut down when I tried to think of what else to add to it.
I don’t know if I’m too happy with this, but I’d love some feedback to see what you guys think!
http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Yes, I know this is way too short, but I had a difficult decision to make. I could either a) update this story with a really long post, or I could b ) update all three of my stories with somewhat short posts. I chose option B.


Chapter 36

“Today, in your pairs, you are to practice turning your partner into an animal. As I’m sure you remembered, you were to practice this over the weekend, so I’m sure that you’ll get it by the end of class. After an hour, I will ask each one of you to come up to the front of the class and demonstrate the spell. You may begin.”
“She has got to be kidding,” Jessica groaned. McGonagall had put everyone in assigned sets for the day so that people would actually work. Spending a double period trying to turn someone into an animal wasn’t going to be easy.
She turned to Peter, her partner, and looked at him, clueless of where to begin.
“Don’t worry, if you don’t get it by the end of the hour, I’ll help you out,” he winked.
Jessica looked at him, confused, but then remembered. “Thank you!” she exclaimed, smiling brightly as they got to work.
However, Jessica soon became frustrated because she couldn’t get Peter to turn into a rat, no matter how hard she tried.
After a while, they decided to switch. After about 15 minutes, Peter managed to give Jessica an orange and black striped tail, but nothing more. Happy with himself for the moment, he suggested switching back.
Jessica was still a bit unsure, but agreed. After 5 minutes, Peter finally grew some rat ears out of the top of his head, much to Jessica’s delight.

Lily on the other hand was lost. She hadn’t practiced at all that weekend because she had had the nightmare again, completely distracting her. Now, she stood facing Sirius with no idea of what to do.
“Anaphormus!” she shouted, pointing her wand at Sirius and picturing a pig.
Nothing happened.
“You’re not concentrating enough,” Sirius said.
Lily grumbled to herself about know-it-all-Sirius. It was no secret that Transfigurations was one of the Marauders’ best subjects. It also happen to be the only one that Lily got an E in on her OWLs.
“You do it if you’re so smart!” Lily shouted back at him, knowing perfectly well that she was five seconds away from having four legs.
And of course, Sirius shrugged, pointed his want at Lily, and the next thing she knew, she was on all fours. Of course, he had to show off and do it nonverbally.
Lily looked down at her feet and saw that she had hooves and her legs had light brown fur on them.
She looked back up to see Sirius smirk at someone behind her and turn her back into herself.
“Mr. Black, good job. 10 points to Gryffindor,” McGonagall said, looking both shocked and impressed. This attracted the attention of everyone else. The Ravenclaws looked shocked that Sirius Black of all people had managed the spell first. The other Marauders rolled their eyes while Jessica muttered “Show off.” The rest of them exchanged looks. Though they knew Sirius was capable, he never really bothered to participate, so they were surprised.
When everyone had gone back to work, Lily asked Sirius, “What did you turn me into?”
“A doe,” he replied. “Thought it fit your personality.”
“How so?” Lily narrowed her eyes.
He shrugged. “They’re very proud.”
Lily glared at him, but chose to ignore it and try to turn him into a pig again.
After 10 minutes of it still not working, and people turning into animals around her, Lily groaned and lowered her wand, thinking of spells she could use on Sirius and pretend that the ‘Anaphormus’ spell just went wrong.
“You know, if you’re too busy being angry, the spell isn’t going to work,” Sirius said, watching her glare at the floor with amusement.
Lily lifted her gaze to glare at Sirius instead.
“Lily, I’m trying to help,” he sighed. “Try to concentrate some more.”
Lily took a deep breath to calm herself and readied herself to try again. She closed her eyes, picturing a big, fat, pink pig, opened her eyes, pointed her wand at Sirius, and said the spell. To her amazement Sirius grew a curly pink tail.
Though it wasn’t an actual pig, this was progress. Lily was congratulating herself when Emily, who was working with Frank behind sires, broke out into laughter.
“What?” Sirius asked, turning around.
James and Kyle began laughing as well from behind Lily, attracting the attention of Carly and Alice who were working close by. Soon, everyone was laughing, except for McGonagall who didn’t find the tail funny, Sirius who didn’t know why everyone was laughing, and Jennifer, Eliza, and Lindsey who were glaring at Lily.
“Back to work!” McGonagall barked. Everyone turned back to their partners, still smiling as they began to shout “Anaphormus!” again.
“What did you do?” Sirius asked, turning back to Lily.
“I tried to turn you into a pig, but only got the tail,” Lily replied with a giggle.
“You mean I have a curly pink tail?” Sirius asked.
Lily nodded.
“Well then, get rid of it!” Sirius shouted.
Lily laughed, but concentrated again and got rid of the tail.
“Thank you,” Sirius said. “But why a pig?”
Lily shrugged. “Thought it fit your personality.”
Sirius smiled. “Fine, but this time, try and make me look like a pig instead of a human with a tail.”

“That was funny!” Kristy laughed, turning back to Remus.
“Yes it was,” Remus agreed. “But you still have to turn me into something. And no tails or ears this time.”
“Okay,” Kristy sighed. She pointed her wand at Remus and said “Anaphormus.”
The next thing he knew, Remus was on all fours and looking up at Kristy who was cheering. Looking down, he guessed that he was a dog, but when Kristy changed him back, he asked to confirm it.
She shook her head, “Close. You were a wolf.”
Remus tensed. “Why?”
Kristy shrugged. “I like wolves.”
Remus nodded, knowing that he was being paranoid. She couldn’t figure out that he was a werewolf. She had even said a few years ago that she like solves. Her turning him into one was just a coincidence.
“10 more minutes!” McGonagall called from the front of the room.
“Okay, try it a couple more times, then I’ll try to turn you into a bunny again before we have to do it in front of the class,” Remus said to Kristy.
She nodded and turned him into a wolf and back a couple times, then Remus turned Kristy into a cute little bunny and back.
Once sure that they could do it, the two sat and watched the rest of the class. Most of the class seemed to be able to do it, but Jessica couldn’t do more that shrink Peter and give him some rat ears. Lily still hadn’t gotten farther than the tail, though Sirius tried to help her. Kyle seemed to find it funny that he’d turned James into a black cat that didn’t look very happy about it. Emily was a golden retriever puppy and Carly was a chocolate lab puppy. The two were playing around Frank and Alice watching them. Sammy who was stuck in a group of three with Brian and Aaron had turned both of them into frogs who were now hopping around her while she tried to change them back.
Finally, McGonagall called for everyone to be back in their human form and in their seats and Brian and Aaron stood still for Sammy who glared at them.
Once everyone was settled down, McGonagall called pairs up one at a time. Most people succeed, but Eliza and Lindsey who gave each other a lot of fur and Jennifer who managed to give her partner horns.
When Remus and Kristy went up, they did perfectly, much to Remus’s relief.
Peter managed to turn Jessica into a tiger, and Jessica was relieved when Peter turned into a rat, though Remus thought that there might be more to that then meets the eye.
Lily looked dead scared when she went up, and she looked to be in shock when Sirius turned into a big black dog.
She was so in shock that she just stared at him, and Remus understood and pointed his wand at Sirius who saw him and changed back.
“Thanks for not turning me into a pig,” Sirius said causally to Lily who only nodded, dumbfound.
The bell rang, signaling the end of class, and everyone stood up, ready to go to lunch.
“You should all be able to do that nonverbally by Thursday!” McGonagall shouted over the noise.
Kristy waved goodbye to Remus to catch up with Sammy, Brian, and Aaron.
Peter and Jessica caught up with Remus as James and Sirius hurried past them.
“This is just great,” Jessica moaned. “I have two and a half days to be able to do this.”
“What do you mean?” Peter asked innocently.
Jessica looked at him questioningly, but Peter just smiled. “You mean…”
Peter nodded, smiling wider, and Jessica cheered loudly and threw her arms around Peter in a hug. “Yes! Thanks so much for helping me! I owe you.”
“No problem,” Peter replied.
“Come on, let’s go get some food,” Jessica said speeding up as they neared the Great Hall.

“That was good Transfigurations,” Emily commented to Lily as they sat up in the Heads’ Dorm.
Lily only shook her head. “I don’t get it,” she said. “I was going for a pig.”
Emily laughed. “Maybe you pictured the pig wrong.”
“No,” Lily sighed. “I just can’t do this right.”
“Are you sure you’re okay, Lily,” Emily asked, worried. “You’ve seemed distracted lately.”
Lily nodded. “I’ve just been having nightmares and they’ve been getting to me.”
“Do you want to talk about them?” Emily asked.
Lily quickly shook her head, not wanting to think about the hand and the dagger…and James…dead.
“It helps,” Emily said gently.
Lily looked at her and saw pure concern. She was trying to help, and it would benefit Lily to accept it, so, she told her. Lily told Emily about the hand, the dagger, the blood, and James’s mangled form. When she was done, Lily was holding back tears. She hated those nightmares; they were so horrible, and they were always the same.
Emily looked at Lily sympathetically. “It’s only a dream, Lily.”
“I know, but I also know that it’s one of those dreams that mean something, I just can’t think of what,” Lily sighed exasperatedly.
“Well,” Emily started, “it could mean that James is going to die due to brutal murder, or you should stay out of the forest, or James is going to be horribly betrayed, or he should keep away from knives, or you should worry when you see randomly floating body parts.”
“I thought of all that!” Lily cried. “Except the last one; I was taking this bit too seriously to think of that.”
“Sorry,” Emily apologized. “But you know, there is one more meaning to that dream.”
“What?”
“Maybe it just means that you’re afraid to lose him.”



I’m low on my writing fuel ( AKA feedback) You know how to resupply me

*hint*

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Make sure you read the AN at the bottom. It would be up here, but I don’t feel like it right now.

Chapter 37



“There are too many things to choose from! I don’t know what to get!” Carly exclaimed, looking around at all the dresses.
“I’m sure you’ll find something,” Emily said also looking through dresses.
The dance was in 1 week, and the girls were in panic mode, except for Emily.
Emily always had an easy time picking out dresses, and clothes in general. Plus, she already had a date.
“Says you!” Alice shouted. “You have a date and look perfect in any dress! The rest of us have to find a dress and have a week to get dates!”
“Calm down, will you? You’ll be fine and you know if you want a date that, there’s a group of Gryffindor boys trying to work up the courage to ask you.”
Carly didn’t respond but went back to silently searching for a dress.
“This is not working,” Jessica sighed, putting back the 8th dress some 20 minutes later. “I don’t even think I’ve been dress shopping before.”
Emily, who had already paid for her bright blue, knee-length strapless dress and was watching them walked over to a rack of dresses and handed Jessica a dress three minutes later.
Jessica looked at the small black dress, looked at Emily, then back at the dress.
“What?”
“Emily! That thing is tiny! How am I supposed to fit into that!?”
“You’re a lot skinner than you think,” Emily replied. “Trust me; go put it on.”
“What’s the point?” Jessica asked taking the dress. “It’s not going to work anyways.”
“I get to say I told you so.”
Jessica rolled her eyes at her and took the dress into the dressing room.
Emily stood with her arms crossed, confident that the dress would look good on Jessica. It was all black and tied around the neck. Emily guessed that it would finish just above her knees.
When Jessica walked out, Emily’s jaw dropped. She had been the sure that the dress would look absolutely great on Jessica, but it looked freakin’ amazing.
“See, I told you it wouldn’t work,” Jessica smiled triumphantly.
“Did you even bother looking in the mirror before coming out?”
“No,” Jessica shook her head.
“Well, you should have,” Emily said turning her to face the mirror. “There is no way you can deny that you amazing.”
Jessica just nodded dumbly, unable to grasp that the girl staring back at her through the mirror was her. The dress went in at all the right places, hugging her curves perfectly. It finished two inches above her knees, but didn’t look too short because Jessica was tall at 5’8”. The dress was backless, and the v-shaped neckline dipped enough but not too much. It was a simple dress, but looked absolutely perfect on Jessica.
“You are a genius,” Jessica managed to get out as she looked at Emily through the mirror.
“I know,” Emily smiled happily.
“I’m defiantly getting this dress before someone else.”
“Honey, no one else would be able to pull that dress off,” Emily said. “Only you can where it and, first of all, fit into it and look that good.”
“You’re the best,” Jessica exclaimed. “You are our official dress picker-outer.”
“I am honored,” Emily laughed. “Alice is a genius when it comes to shoes, Lily is an expert on jewelry, and only Carly can do your make-up and make it look all natural, plus you’re already doing our hair. It’s like fate brought you to us.”
Jessica laughed as Emily wiped a fake tear from her cheek.
“Okay, I should get out of this dress before I rip it.” Jessica turned to walk back into the dressing room, when they heard Carly calling for them.
“There you guys are,” she said coming around the corner. “We thought you’d gotten lo – Who are you trying to torment, Jessie!?”
“Um, no one?”
“What’s with the shouting?” Alice and Lily came around the corner.
“Jessie’s try to murder Sirius!” Carly shouted accusingly.
“Okay, one, I’m not trying to murder Sirius, and two, why are we talking about him?”
“Jess, that dress looks amazing on you, seriously,” Lily said. “It’s like you-don’t-wear-a-dress-like-that-to-something-where-your-
brother’s-going-to-see-you amazing.”
“James is going to have to deal,” Jessica stated. “I’m getting this dress.”
“Now, Jessica,” Alice said seriously. “You really should think of the pros and cons to getting the dress.”
“Well,” Carly started. “Pro, she looks freakin’ amazing. Pro, the rat faced ******* will explode when there is no one paying attention to them. Pro, I get to say that the hot girl is my best friend –“
“Pro, someone will finally go to a dance looking better than Emmy,” Lily continued, making Emily blush slightly. “Pro, boys will drool.”
“Con,” Alice cut in. “James might murder every male in the Great Hall for looking at her. Con, Sirius will pass out and then she can’t dance with him all night like we all know she wants to.”
The others broke out laughing, except for Jessica who turned red. “Why, does everyone keep bringing up Sirius?”
“Because we know things,” Alice wiggled her eyebrows.
“What are you trying to imply?”
“That you have a not so little crush on Sirius and won’t admit it.”
“I do not!” Jessica cried out indignantly, though she was blushing red.
“Even to yourself,” Alice added.
“You’re crazy,” Jessica shook her head.
“Whatever you say, Hon.”
“Back to getting the dress,” Lily went back to the original subject. “I say you get it so James kills all those guys and then I can be rid of him because he’ll be chucked into Azkaban.”
“Or,” Emily interrupted. “You could get this dress,” she held up a sparkly dark green halter-neck, “and James will have heart failure, killing him before he can kill anyone so the rest of us girls can still stare at all the hot guys this school has to offer.”
“You have a boyfriend,” Alice pointed out.
“And I’d rather him not get murdered before the dance.”
Lily looked at the dress. “I like it, but do you think I’ll look good in it?”
“I wouldn’t have picked it out if I didn’t. Now, go, put it on, and Jess, pay for that dress.”
Lily and Jessica did as Emily said, and walked out of the dressing room together, Jessica back in her jeans and T-shirt, and Lily looking absolutely beautiful in the knee-length dress.
“Okay, Em,” Carly turned to Emily. “I want one.”
Emily laughed and turned back to Lily. “You’re getting that. You look great.”
“You think?”
“I know,” Jessica replied. “If you don’t buy, then I’ll buy it for you.”
“I do look pretty great, don’t I?” Lily examined herself in the mirror. The front was sprinkled with sparkles that faded as they reached the bottom. The color of the dress went great with her hair and stood out against her milky skin.
“Yeas, you do, but I want one!” Carly whined. “Emmy!”
The others laughed as Emily disappeared. Lily twirled one last time in her dress before changing back into her regular clothes.
“Shall we go pay for our dresses?” she asked Jessica.
Jessica nodded. “Let’s go.”
The two disappeared as well while Alice and Carly stood around by the dressing rooms, waiting for Emily to return with their dresses.

“This is unbelievable,” Sirius shook his head sadly. “The dance is in one week!”
“I think it’s funny,” Remus commented and threw some sugar quills into their bag of goodies from Honeydukes.
“Shut it, Moony,” Sirius said darkly.
“I think it’s funny,” James agreed as he added some more chocolate frogs.
“Why? You don’t have a date either.”
“Yes,” James agreed. “But that’s because I’ve decided that I shouldn’t ask Lily and ruin all of what I’ve been working on. You, my friend, are dateless because you’re too chicken to ask her to the dance.” He put some cauldron cakes in the bag before moving to the section of gross tasting candies. “Do you think we could get some of these cockroach clusters on to the Slytherins’ plates at the dance and get them to eat them?” James held them up.
No,” Remus shook his head. “Get the house elves to switch the gummy worms with these in the candy parfait.” Remus threw him a package of candy gummy worms that looked like the normal candies, but tastes like actual worms.
“Brilliant,” James put them into the bag as Peter dropped in a bunch of Pepper Imps and Ice Mice.
“What are you talking about James?” Sirius asked.
“What?” he looked up. “It’s a good idea.”
“Not the worms,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “Who am I chicken to ask to the dance? I’ll have you know that Sirius Black isn’t afraid of anything, especially not asking a girl to a dance.”
“Unless it’s Jessica,” James said obviously.
“N-no!”
“Great, than you’ll ask her.”
“W-wait. Are you – no. You see – you got it all wrong. I don’t – I mean I – no, that-that’s not – I mean what makes you think I – I don’t –“
James looked at him expectantly while he continued to blabber, turning increasingly redder.
“ – I just – I don’t like – I mean I do – not like – no – I – you see –“ he looked up at James’s amused expression. “Please don’t hurt me?”
James couldn’t help but laugh. “Only if you ask her. If she dates one of those losers, it’s your fault.”
“Pl – wait, you’re not mad?”
“No.”
“Even thought I like your sister?”
“Better you than Diggory.”
“So I’m allowed to ask her out?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God,” Sirius sighed with relief.
James shook his head and put some bars of Honeydukes best chocolate into the bag. “Anything else?”
Peter grabbed the Bertie Bott’s Beans and 11 giant candy canes. “Got it all.”
“Great.” They paid for their candy and walked out of the shop.

After agreeing that Alice’s sparkly purple spaghetti strap dress and Carly’s dark blue strapless were perfect, they paid for the last two dresses and went off to buy shoes and jewelry. As promised, Alice and Lily picked out perfect matches for everyone.
Finally, it was time to go meet up with the boys for lunch at the Three Broomsticks. When the girls entered, they found Frank and Kyle already sipping butterbeers at the back of the room where they had pushed two tables together. Led by Alice and Carly, who seemed to be in a hurry, the girls bought their own butterbeers and made their way to the two boys.
“Finally,” Frank sighed. “Why must girls always be fashionably late?”
“Because it’s fashionable,” Jessica replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Frank rolled his eyes as the girls took their seats and Kyle asked, “Did you get everything?”
“We did our shopping for the dance, but we still need to hit the usual stores,” Emily responded.
“Can we see the dresses?”
“No,” Jessica smiled knowingly, “but I’m sure you’ll like them.”
Kyle blushed a little, but was saved by the entrance of the Marauders making their way towards them with butterbeers.
“We’re here!” Sirius announced loudly.
“I see that!” Jessica replied in the same tone.
Sirius stuck his tongue out at her and she responded by doing the same.
“How very mature you two are,” Remus rolled his eyes.
In response, both of them stuck their tongues out at him.
“Let’s order food!” James exclaimed.
Rosemerta, having heard him was already making her way towards them.
20 minutes later, everyone was eating, or in Sirius and James’s case, having an eating contest. Of course, they were the first done, shortly followed by Jessica who was also a pretty quick eater.
“What’d you guys do today?” she asked James and Sirius.
“We had to go to the book store because someone,” Sirius looked pointedly at Remus who just shrugged and continued eating, “lost their Potions book and seemed to think that it was oh so important to get a new one.”
“How did Remus lose his potions book? Isn’t he supposed to be organized or something?”
“Yeah well I lost my book and had to borrow his and he forgot where I put it.”
“You mean you lost his book?”
“No,” James interrupted. “Remus lost it, because he has to keep track of what Sirius takes from him and where he puts it. It’s his own fault for not watching the book.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “So basically, Sirius stole the book and lost t and now you’re blaming Remus because it was his book.”
“No – yeah that’s actually it.”
Jessica sighed; they were such idiots, but that’s probably the only reason people liked them: free entertainment. “What did you do after the book store?”
“Honeydukes,” Sirius replied.
“So I’m guessing there are no free samples left?”
“There are still some cockroach clusters and blood flavored lollipops.”
“I’ll pass.”
“But we got some fake gummy worms to switch with the real ones for the Slytherins,” Remus said. “They look like the real candy, but taste like the actual worm.”
“Brilliant,” Jessica smiled. “I’m guessing that was Remus’s idea?”
“Hey!” Sirius cried indignantly. “It could have been me!”
“Or me,” Peter added.
“Was it,” Jessica asked.
“No,” they answered together.
Lily silently watched her friends discussing random things such as Quidditch, the dance, Christmas, and things like that.
“Please!”
“No.”
“Oh, come on Carly!”
“You can see the dress at the dance,” she told Kyle who responded with a pout.
Last year, Carly would have turned beet red and been staring at the table if Kyle had been talking to her. Now, however, she was nothing like that. It amazed Lily to see her so differently now. She seemed more like herself; the shy girl never seemed to make sense to Lily, but this did.
“Hey, Sirius,” Alice interrupted his conversation on Quidditch with Frank.
“What?” he sounded slightly annoyed. That boy and his Quidditch.
“Make sure you reserve a bed in the hospital wing for the night of the dance.”
“Why?”
“Someone’s going to try to kill you that night,” Alice smiled slyly.
“We went over this!” Jessica exclaimed, turning crimson. “I’m not trying to kill you Sirius.”
“Oh good,” Sirius sighed with relief. “Why does Alice think you are?”
“Emmy picked out the perfect dress for her.” Suddenly, Alice gasped in mock horror. “What if Emily’s trying to kill Sirius and Jessica is just part of the plot?!”
“Oh, darn, you caught me,” Emily pretended to look frustrated.
“Why would you do such a thing?”
“Well, you see…”
Both girls ignored Jessica and Sirius who were sitting with very bright red faces, not looking at each other. James’s knowing looks didn’t help.




So, I leave for a two week vacation tomorrow, so don’t be expecting anything for two weeks, maybe more ‘cause I’ll have to actually get settled back home before I can post.
I do hope to come back to a lot of feedback, though, so don’t disappoint me.
Seriously, I’m giving you all “the look” right now, except for Regitze (Thank you so much!) so you better leave feedback, or else, I’ll be mad, so…yeah!
Leave feedback!

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

I’m back!
(please don’t hate me for disappearing!)
And I love Regitze and agriggs6 for actually leaving feedback while I was gone. No, the Marauders don’t have a band, but James does play the guitar which you’ll hear from later. I know what you mean about getting mixed up with all the fanfictions going around
Anyways, back to the rest of you : I don’t know how long I can stay mad so, screw that!
I swear I’m doing my best to try and make this story interesting, but I’m apparently not so good at it

Common message on all fics: If I see that my three current stories are still doing well, then I have this other one that I’m thinking about posting after I finish Come Back to Me, which is sadly coming to an end
Just keep that in mind cuz my newest fanfic is totally different and exciting and I swear this is not a bribe for feedback [completely].
If you want me to post the new story, then just let me know in the feedback thread for any of my stories. If you don’t then don’t tell me to and I won’t bother.

So, anyways, back to this story: Here’s the next chapter!



Chapter 38


“Lily! Lily, wake up!”
Lily jolted out of her sleep and sat upright in bed, looking wildly around until her eyes found James’s face, staring down at her in concern.
“Lily, are you alright?”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Lily nodded, absentmindedly taking the glass of water he offered her.
James hesitated for a second before sitting down on the edge of Lily’s bed.
Are you sure you’re okay?” James asked. “You’ve been having the same nightmare for a week now. I don’t think that’s normal for a completely random dream.”
Lily only nodded. “I’m fine. It’s just, my minds way of trying to tell me something; happens all the time.”
“But not in nightmare form.”
“Apparently, this is important. My mind must want me to pay attention to it.”
James looked at Lily for a moment before getting back up. “Alright, but if you want to talk, you know where to find me.”
Lily nodded, again. “Thanks, James.”
He just smiled slightly and nodded. “Try to get some sleep, without any dreams.” Then, he was gone.
Lily lay back down in bed, but didn’t try to sleep. That nightmare was bad. Not only did it freak her out, but her brain wouldn’t switch off for hours afterwards.
Ever since she talked to Emily, every time she had that dream, her words came back to her, clear as anything.
But Emily was talking crazy. Her explanation implied that she, Lily Evans, had a crush on James Potter. That was crazy; she barely even liked him!
Well, okay, so she didn’t dislike him; James was almost, sort of, a friend, but she, by no means, had a crush on James!
Did she?

“Where are Emily and Alice at?” Carly asked.
Jessica shrugged. “How do I know?”
“Lily?”
“What?”
Lily opened her eyes and looked over at Carly who had just come in the door and Jessica who was messing with her hair in front of the mirror of the Girls’ dormitory.
“Emily and Alice?”
“Oh, right,” Lily sat up. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them since Herbology. Alice was talking to Remus about their ‘evil plant’ and Emily was telling Aaron to hurry up and ask Sammy to the dance.”
“Oh, yeah, I saw that,” Carly nodded. “I’m telling you, even the armchairs in the common room aren’t that red.”
“Lily?”
Lily turned to Jessica who was looking at her curiously, half her hair in a funky knot at the top of her head.
“Yes?”
“What’s wrong with you?!”
Lily jumped at her sudden loudness.
“What?”
You’ve been out of it since this weekend!”
“No I haven’t,” Lily argued back indignantly.
“Yes you have. You don’t pay attention to anything, we always have to repeat questions for you, and you didn’t even hear Cassie come. You haven’t even taken notes all week! All you do in class is –“
Silence.
The door opened and Emily came in. “Sammy and Aaron are officially going to the dance together!”
Silence.
“What happened?”
“Jessie?”
“Oh-my-god!”
“Jess?”
“Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!”
“Jessie, what happened?”
“Oh my god!”
Stop saying that! What happened?!”
“Lily!”
“What about Lily?”
Jessica stared to Lily with wide eyes. “Lily, you –“
“I think Frank asked me to the dance!”
The four girls whirled around to the door. “What!?”

“Moony, prank!”
“Oh, right. Coming Prongs!” Remus shouted to his three impatient looking friends. “I’ll see you later Ali.”
“What?” Alice looked up from her evil plant muttering.
“I gotta go and work out that prank for the dance with the guys.”
“How hard is it to tell house elves to put some worms in a parfait? The elves do all the work.”
“That’s not the prank!” Remus cried indignantly. “That’s just a messed up sundae.”
“Okay, okay,” Alice held her hands up in defense. “What’s the prank?”
“We can’t tell you!”
“Okay, calm down,” Alice laughed.
“Moony!”
“Bye, Remus,” Alice waved.
“See ya!” Remus called over his shoulder as he ran off to join his fellow Marauders.
Alice continued up to the castle alone. Emily was ahead of her, talking to Aaron about Sammy.
Sammy was teasing Brian and Kristy who had officially become a couple at the Hogsmeade trip. Carly was walking with Kyle and the other girls were snickering at Aaron who was in front of them and looked red, even from where Alice was standing.
“Hey, Alice!”
“Holy ****!” Alice spun around. “Don’t do that!”
“Sorry,” Frank laughed.
The two walked in silence for a while.
“Wait,” Alice stopped.
“What?” Frank stopped too.
“We have a free, right?”
Frank laughed. “Yes.”
“Oh good,” Alice resumed walking. “I need the time for the homework.”
“You could do it tonight.”
“With Sirius around?” Alice snorted. “Yeah right!”
“True,” Frank agreed.
“I am so looking forward to the break. The second half won’t even be boring.”
“How is any part of break ever boring?”
“Family can get boring.”
“Not with my family,” Frank said. “My mom is nuts.”
“Yeah, I think I met her once. Was she the one with that hand bag?”
“Yup, that was her.”
Alice laughed. “She actually wasn’t so bad after you got past the hand bag,” she stated fairly.
“And the craziness.”
Alice shook her head. “Everyone says that about their parents.”
“And in my mom’s case, it’s true,” Frank replied.
Alice just shrugged. It was amazing how she could talk to him without getting all nervous now. A lot had changed lately, but if it meant she could hold intelligible conversation with Frank, Alice didn’t mind.
“So, you’re looking forward to Marauder New Year’s Eve?” Frank asked with a raised eyebrow.
Alice looked at him suspiciously. “Am I wrong in doing so?”
“Oh, no,” Frank shook his head. “New Year’s Eve in the Potter Mansion is the best. It’s just the New Year’s morning part. I’ve never had a worse headache in my life. And I could barely do any magic to get any cleaning done. Thank God Amy and Jake were only kidding about having to clean the ballroom by ourselves.”
“That bad?”
Frank nodded.
“Amy and Jake are James’s parents?”
“Yeah. They’re the best. Only they would allow such a party and not make you clean everything, though that maybe because they can do it with one wave of their wands, and James and Sirius do everything that’s ever asked of them.”
Alice stopped walking and looked at him skeptically.
“Well, it’s usually, ‘James, look after your sister,’ or ‘Sirius, make me breakfast,’” Frank said. “The result is Sirius making pancakes while James and Stacey watch him.”
“Sirius cooks?”
“He won’t admit it, but yeah. Kyle and I are there for the second half of every holiday break, and Sirius ends up making breakfast and lunch half the time. James isn’t allowed in the kitchen after an incident with a microwave and spoon. I wake up to the sound of Jake trying to put out a fire; it was a loud affair.”
Alice shook her head. “I can’t believe how much time I’ve spent thinking of James and Sirius as a pair of stupid pretty boys. Now, I’m actually friends with them.”
Frank nodded. “I’m pretty sure I would have had the same assumptions if I hadn’t lived with them for over six years now. They let their guard down in the dorms; conversations on what to buy mom for Christmas and how much they miss their baby sister and all that other non-macho stuff.”
“And all it took was one summer of confessions for us all to end up friends.”
“I’m sure it would have happened eventually with James and Lily as Heads anyway, and Jessica,” Frank pointed out.
Alice nodded.
“It’s funny how well they actually work together, isn’t it,” she said after a moment of silence. “James and Lily.”
“It is,” Frank nodded. “And even more funny how James has stopped asking her out.”
“Jessica said something about a new approach.”
“Whatever Dumbledore was thinking making them work together, I thank him for it,” Frank said. “It was getting annoying to hear Lily 101 every second I spent in the dorm.”
“And the dance,” Alice said. “No other Heads would have done so well with it.”
“Why do girls love dances so much,” Frank sighed. “All they’re for is extra good food.”
“Because we get to get dressed up and dance!” Alice exclaimed.
“Oh, yeah, the dresses are a plus.”
Alice shoved him.
“Just saying,” Frank raised his hands in defense.
“And then we get to spend hours talking about who we want to go with,” Alice sighed, looking away from him. ‘Even if we’re to chicken to ask.’
“Oh, and who have you decided you want to go with?” Frank asked with a slight smile.
Alice stopped and looked nervously at him. “Um…”
“You don’t have to tell,” Frank said quickly.
Alice relaxed and continued walking.
“Have you asked?”
Alice shook her head.
“Why not?”
Shrug.
“What if he asked you?”
Alice whirled around to face him. “Probably won’t. the dance is in just a few days. I’m just one of the many cursed to be dateless.” She let out a sigh. Why not just ask him now? It would have been the perfect opportunity. ‘’Cause you’re too scared.’
“Tell me about it,” Frank sighed. Why is it that you always like the person who doesn’t like you back?”
“It’s not always like that,” Alice said. “Look at Remus and Emily.”
“Or James and Lily.”
“Lily’s just stubborn and confused. She just doesn’t know that she likes him,” Alice said. “Just you wait and see; James and Lily will be together by the end of the year.”
“If you say so,” Frank shrugged.
The pair fell into silence as they walked through the castle.
“What the rest of them get together and I’m stuck going to the dance alone?” Alice broke the silence.
“I’ll take you,” Frank said with a shrug.
Alice stopped dead a half second before Frank took in what he had said.
“Only if you want to,” he said quickly. “Just so we’re not all alone and…”
Alice nodded. “Now I just have to force them together,” she muttered under her breath.
“What?”
Alice looked up. Did he hear that?
“Hello, password!”
The two jumped. They hadn’t realized that they were already in front of the common room.
“Mistletoe.”
The portrait swung open and the two quickly made their way in.
“I get Sirius and Jessica,” Frank broke the silence. “They’re the easiest.”
Alice stood staring at him for a full five seconds before getting her thought process back.
“Then you have to take James and Lily as well.”
“I don’t like Jessica! Let it go! We are not going to the dance together!”
Alice and Frank watched Sirius stalk up the stairs with the rest of the Marauders following behind with smug smiles plastered to their faces.
“Well, I guess that’s not gonna work,” Frank said looking back at Alice.
“Yeah.”
Silence.
“Well, I give up,” Frank said.
“Me too,” Alice agreed.
“Meet you hear at seven?”
“Sounds good.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Alice stood staring at the stairs for five minutes after Frank was gone, not even noticing Emily skipping in through the portrait hole.
Did that really just happen?
Alice concluded that two people never get together like that unless they’re on TV. However, she was sure that she and Frank had just made plans to meet in the common room at seven on Saturday evening.
That, was very unexpected.
Suddenly, it sunk in that she, Alice Pitman, was going to the Winter Dance with Frank Longbottom.
Before she knew it, Alice had flown up the stairs and was pulling the door to her dormitory open.
“I think Frank asked me to the dance!” she announced.

“You did what now?”
“I sorta, inadvertly, asked Alice to the dance,” Frank repeated.
Five pairs of eyes stared back at him.
The Gryffindor seventh year boys stood in silence for a full minute before someone regained their voice.
“Way to go mate,” Sirius clapped him on the back.
“Two down three to go,” Remus said. “And we still have six more months. this is good. I say Sirius next.”
“Shut up.”
“How’d it happen?” Kyle asked.
Frank explained the conversation best he could. When he was done, the others were just looking at him with knowing looks.
“What?”
“Well,” James said. “That would only work in getting you two together if you were already almost together anyways so…told you so!”
“Shut up.”
“You know it’s true. Or else, you would have been standing in an awkward position for a long time.”
“I personally would have preferred it to not work out the way it did,” Peter said out of nowhere.
“Why?” Frank asked.
“Well, if you knew that getting to go with Alice o the dance was the prize, those three would already have dates to the dance.”
The other five stared at Peter in silence, trying to work out what he had said.
“I’m with Pete,” Remus declared after a minute or so.
“Let’s get to Runes,” Sirius stood up and led the rest out of the room.
They all sat down at their desks, still very confused.






Only half satisfying and really horribly lame after having fallen off the face of the earth, but I have a limited amount of time. I had family come visit and this is the first chance I’ve had to get to the computer for more than 5 minutes, so I spent a full hour typing this chapter which is pretty pathetic, but still.
I would still appreciate feedback seeing as I almost got none for my last chapter. (love you Regitze and agriggs6!)


http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Gee, thanks. I can feel all the love in that feedback thread.




Chapter 38

“Okay, back to previous conversation,” Emily said as the girls sat down for dinner.
“Which was?”
“Something about Lily,” Emily answered turning to Jessica. “What’d she do?”
Jessica smiled evilly at Lily. Yes, she knew her behavior very well and knew exactly what Jessica had noticed.
“Our all knowing, overly stubborn, always right Lily dear has –“
“Hey you guys,” James greeted as the boys came out of nowhere and dropped into the empty seats.
Jessica’s face dropped; she’d been so excited to reveal her secret, but she definitely wouldn’t do it with the guys around.
Lily visibly relaxed and let out a sigh of relief, though it was coming out eventually, of course.
The girls sat in silence as the boys greeted them and grabbed their food towards them.
“Well, aren’t you lot quiet today?” Kyle observed. “Don’t stop your conversation on our account.”
“No really, conversation stopped,” Lily said quickly, seeing Jessica smirk at her.
Kyle and Remus exchanged looks, looking from Lily to Jessica to the other confused girls while James and Sirius didn’t notice anything due to their eating contest which Peter was watching excitedly. Frank on the other hand looked a little out of it, so the two decided to fix that.
“So, did you girls here the big news?” Remus asked, grinning evilly.
“Oh, yes,” Kyle said with an identical grin. “Very big news.”
“And what’s that?” Carly asked.
Kyle looked at Alice with fake shock and surprise. “You didn’t tell them?”
“Oh, that,” Alice mumbled, shifting slightly in her seat. “Yeah, I mentioned it.”
Carly smirked at her. “More like announced it really loudly when Jessie was just about to tell us about Lily, completely distracting us from that important conversation with her overly excited anecdote.”
“What’s up with Lily?” Remus asked with a teasing smile.
“Nothing, nothing,” Lily looked down at her half finished chocolate cake to hide her blush. “I gotta go to the library and…look over my…Charms essay.”
“I’ll go with her,” Alice stood up to follow. “Maybe steal some of her essay…”
Before anyone could stop them, the pair was gone.
“What’s up with them?” James and Sirius had finally stopped eating.
“Hey, do you think she wants the rest of that cake?”
“Sirius, you had like four,” Jessica sighed.
“Yeah and there’s no more left,” Sirius said, taking Lily’s cake. “This is good.”
Jessica rolled her eyes and went back to her favorite treacle tart.
“Seriously though, what’s up with Lily and Alice?” James asked.
“We all know Ali, but I have no clue about Lily,” Emily said.
“Jessie?”
“Not now,” Jessica shook her head. “I want to enjoy this for a while longer.’
“Jessie!”
“Plus I’m not that cruel,” Jessica eyes the boys.
“We won’t tell,” James said quickly. “We swear.”
“It’s not about you telling,” Jessica rolled her eyes. “It’s about you knowing.”
“What can’t we know?” Sirius asked.
“I’m not stupid.”
Sirius shrugged. “You never know with the pretty ones.”
Jessica interested herself in her treacle tart and didn’t respond.
“I’m gonna go and uh…Charms.”

“Lily –“
“It’s nothing, Ali,” Lily sighed as she glared out the window at the setting sun.
“I don’t know,” Alice shrugged. “Jessica’s got you good with this one.”
“Honestly, she can tell you guys for all I care,” Lily shrugged.
“Then why’d you run away?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Lily shot back.
“I left to figure out what’s up with you.”
Lily gave her a look.
Alice cracked. “It’s just awkward until 7:00 on Saturday evening.”
“Only if you make it awkward,” Lily told her. “You just have to talk to him like usual and it’ll all fall into place.”
“I don’t know,” Alice sighed. “I mean, until today, we were friends, and after Saturday we’re dating, but what about the in between time?”
“You’re whatever you make yourselves,” Lily answered. “And I’d decide fast and make it something you’re comfortable with because you have to work together in Double Charms tomorrow morning.”
“What? Oh my God, you have got to be kidding!” Alice exclaimed. “I totally forgot about that!”
“Can I pretend to work on Charms with you guys?”
Alice and Lily turned and their jaws dropped.
“Don’t look at me like that! I go to the library, sometimes!” Sirius defended.
“Like when?” Lily asked.
“Like, when…when I’m hiding,” Sirius replied as he sat at the table with them.
“Who does the almighty Sirius Black hide from?” Alice asked, smiling that teasing smile.
Sirius shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Lily and Alice looked at each other and smirked. “Fan club.”
Sirius glared.
“It’s okay Sirius,” Alice patted his arm.
“So,” Lily asked after a moment’s silence. “Why are you here?”
Sirius looked uncomfortable again and Lily and Alice smirked at each other again.
“Jessica.”
“I don’t like her!”
Madame Pince turned to glare at him, but he ignored her.
“Sure you don’t,” Lily gave him a knowing smile.
Sirius let out a big sigh and got up to leave. “I came here to get away from that look.”
Lily grabbed his arm and pulled him back down. “I’m sorry, Sirius; no more looks, I swear.”
“Well, because I know the girls just love to have me in their presence…”
“Ugh, you know what, never mind. Go away.”
Sirius sat down again and put on his puppy dog face. “Sorry, sorry, please let me stay,” he begged. “I don’t wanna endure anymore people telling me that I’m in love with Jessica.”
“Well,” Lily turned to Alice.
“Because you’re begging…”
“…and have the most irresistible puppy dog face…”
“…you can stay.”
“Yay!” Sirius exclaimed.
Alice laughed. “So, where did you get that puppy dog face?”

“You’re late,” James said.
“So,” Lily shot back. “We were having a party of not evil friends.”
“Oh really,” James asked as they set off on their patrols. “Where did you have this super exciting party? Who all was there?”
“Oh you know,” Lily shrugged. “Library, me, Ali, and Sirius.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“At least no one was prying into someone else’s personal life!”
“Lily,” James sighed. “That’s what friends do.”
“Well, then…some friends!”
James shook his head. “So, what was Sirius doing in the library?”
“Joining our party!”
“Yes, I know that,” James shook his head. “I just didn’t know that after over six years of best friendship that Sirius ever went to the library without Moony bribing him.”
“Oh, he goes there all the time,” Lily said.
“Really? What for?”
“Hiding.”
James laughed. “What exactly did he say he was hiding from?”
“Well, he wouldn’t tell you guys this because he likes me and Ali better, so don’t tell him that I told you he goes there, but he goes there to hide from his fan club,” Lily told him.
“Huh,” James looked thoughtful. “No wonder we can’t find him when he disappears. We never look there.”
“Don’t worry,” Lily consoled him. “I wouldn’t think to look for Sirius Black in the library, either.”

Alice returned to the dormitory to find Emily, Jessica, and Carly sitting on her bed and looking towards the door.
“Um, can I have my bed back?”
“Where have you been?”
“Library?”
“After it closed?”
“Had to take some time to walk back after we got kicked out.”
“Who were you with?”
“Lily and Sirius.”
“Didn’t Lily have to start patrol10:30?”
“Yes?”
“Do you realize that it’s almost 11:30?”
“Yeah…”
“So, what have been up to?”
“What is this, twenty questions?”
“Yes, and we ask the questions; we have 14 more left,” Jessica said quickly. “What have you been up to?”
“Can I have my bed?”
“We ask the questions! Answer us!” Jessica shouted.
“Wow, what’s wrong with you?” Alice looked at Jessica curiously.
“Oh don’t mind her,” Emily waved it off. “She’s just in a mood because of our previous theory of you being with Sirius.”
“Will she attack me if I said I was?”
“What were you guys doing?”
“I knew you liked him!”
“What were you and Sirius doing out in the corridors after hours!?”
“Breathe, Jessie,” Carly placed her hands on Jessica’s shoulders.
“Wanna help me out a bit?” she asked turning to Alice when Jessica continued to glare.
Alice smiled a knowing smile, but joined the others on her bed.
“Well, you can stop looking at me like that ‘cause I do not like him,” she said to Jessica. “If you remember, I’m going to the dance with Frank.”
“Then what –“
“Lily and I were sitting in the library talking about how I have to work with Frank in Charms tomorrow when Sirius decided to join us and we were very shocked, so he explained how he came to the library to hide all the time. Then, he was about to leave because Lily gave him the look so she apologized and asked him to stay and he went all arrogant so she told him to leave, so he begged us to let him stay and we agreed ‘cause he’s got the most adorable puppy dog face you’ve ever seen which he perfected after spending so much time begging the Potters’ house elves for the cookies they were supposed to hide though he never got his cookies. Then we talked about how Mr. and Mrs. Potter managed to live with him and considered the possibility of brain damage which they passed on to James which Lily confirmed after having lived with him for 3 ½ months so then I laughed at them because they both have to live with brain damage James.”
Emily, Carly, and Jessica stared at Alice with wide eyes.
“That’s what you did in the library until 11:30?”
“No,” Alice said. “We did that until 10:40, then Lily realized that she was late for patrols so she ran out and then Madame Pince caught us still in the library talking about how bad of an effect James has on her because she’s never late and we agreed that they’ll be together by Easter, and then Pince kicked us out and we started walking back here.”
“And that took you over half an hour?”
“Yes,” Alice nodded. “We took the longest path possible because Sirius was afraid to come back to the dorm and didn’t want to come back.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew the boys weren’t going to leave him alone so I made fun of him the entire way back and laughed a lot when he started considering sleeping in the Room of Requirement.”
“Why wouldn’t the boys leave him alone?”
“Because he gave them the perfect opening to start bugging him about liking Jessica which I said was true but he denied it which proves that it’s true so I started bugging him about it and he said that I was breaking the rule.”
“What rule?”
“The rule was that we weren’t supposed to bring up the subject because of which we had ended up in the library in the first place, but I told him that the library meeting was over because Lily left and we were allowed to go back to being real friends and tease each other mercilessly, so he started telling me about how I’d liked Frank forever, but I already knew that and told him so and then I told him that he still didn’t know that he was in love Jessica and he got annoyed with me so he took a short cut up here to get away from me, but I followed him and told he couldn’t get away from me because I was following him but he said that he could get away from me faster if he took the short cut so I quickly soaked up the last bit of time I had to tease him and he went upstairs as fast as possible when we got back, but I laughed at him because the rest of the guys would be continuing my work of bugging him, but he said that I was more annoying because I bugged him with an annoying girl voice so I promised to keep bugging him until he admitted it and came up here so that he couldn’t say anything else and I won.”
“I don’t think I understood any of that,” Carly shook her head.
“I’ve got a headache. I’m going to sleep,” Emily went over to her bed.
Jessica just shook her head. “When will you guys actually understand that Sirius does not like me?”
“When he stops liking you,” Alice answered.
“Which won’t ever happen,” Carly added.
“So, never,” Emily finished.
“Ugh, can you stop being so annoying?” Jessica stomped out the door and down to the common room.
“Hey, you guys have five more questions left,” Alice broke the silence that followed.

Jessica sat glaring at the fire, curled up on the sofa in her shorts and tank top.
They were all very confused people. It was obvious that they thought she liked Sirius, which she didn’t, so they told Sirius that he liked her, which he didn’t, to try to make her feel better which was not necessary. Would it ever stop?
Seriously, what would give them the idea that she liked him? It was very much ridiculous. He was Sirius for crying out loud! She just kept him around to have someone to make fun of when she was bored. Everything he did or said was make-fun-of-able plus she loved that cute little hurt face he made…because it was funny. Yeah, it was just really funny. And Lily and Alice agreed that the puppy dog face was cute, so it was okay to think that, and every female on the planet thought he was hot, but they didn’t all like him, so she didn’t either. These were all just general things.
Sirius was just…not her type. Yeah. He was Sirius, which wasn’t her type. She liked the funny, hot, tall guys that were all athletic and fun to be around and not all boring and annoying, but they could be annoying but it wasn’t annoying because she liked them…but not Sirius. Really, not all of those things described Sirius; he…was Sirius so he didn’t fit the last requirement.
Yup, everyone else was just confused. Just because she didn’t mind Sirius’s company and didn’t have a crush on anybody else, they all thought she liked Sirius, which was not true. Definitely not true.
'Spending an awful lot of time trying to convince yourself of something you’re so sure is true.’
Ugh, stupid Cassie voice. That voice was very confused too. It thought like Cassie who was confused, so the voice was also naturally confused.
She, Jessica Potter, did not have a crush on Sirius Black. Definitely not.
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
Jessica jumped about a mile and turned to find Sirius looking at her curiously.
Jessica took a deep breath to calm herself down as Sirius sat down next to her. “God, you just gave me a heart attack.”
“So sorry,” Sirius apologized, rolling his eyes. “I wouldn’t want you to die.”
“Definitely not. You’d be heartbroken if anything happen to me.”
“Yeah, so don’t let anything happen to you,” he told her softly.
Jessica turned to face him curiously. He did not sound like Sirius. Definitely too serious for Sirius.
“I won’t,” she promised quietly.
“Good.”
Jessica turned back to the fire. Something was up with Sirius. Something was not right. He never talked like that. He was always all sarcastic and not serious.
‘He likes you.’
Jessica shook her head. No, it was not that. Definitely not that.
“Are you okay?”
Jessica jumped and turned to him again. “Oh, yeah. Just Cassie’s being annoying.”
“What’d she do?” Sirius asked.
“Her confused voice keeps telling me stupid stuff that is so untrue, but the stupid voice won’t believe me.”
Sirius laughed. “I don’t even want to know what goes on inside that messed up head of yours. There’s something wrong with you. You’re probably more messed up then James, and that’s just bad.”
Ha, told you so! In your face stupid Cassie voice!
“That’s probably why I like you so much.”
‘In your face!’
“Like I enjoy your company more than most people’s,” Sirius said quickly. “You know, free entertainment and what not. Like if I had a choice between you and Lily when I was bored, I’d go to you ‘cause you never stop amusing me, you know what I mean?” He looked hopeful.
See, I was right! I’m always right.
“Yeah, sorta like how I only hang out with you ‘cause I need someone to make fun of and you’re a guarantee for that.”
“Did you just insult me?” Sirius asked.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “This is why.”
Sirius glared playfully at her in response and she laughed.
Jessica looked out the window and suddenly jumped up and ran over to it. “Look, snow!”
Sirius got up and joined her. “It’s pretty late this year,” Sirius commented, watching the tiny flakes float gently to the ground and stick there. “James was all disappointed that he would get his giant snowball fight.”
Jessica turned to him looking like an excited 4 year old. “I love snow. It’s so pretty and white. It’s the best in the middle of the night when it’s all dark, but there’s a thick layer of snow and every thing’s so white and the sky just looks so different, so…beautiful; it’s lighter than it should be and just, hard to explain.”
Sirius smiled at her as she turned back to the window but didn’t respond.
“I’m gonna stay up and watch.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow. “The snow?”
“What else?”
“You can’t stay up and watch the snow, Jess,” Sirius told her.
“Sure I can,” Jessica shot back.
“We have classes tomorrow.”
“But it’s the first snowfall of the year,” Jessica protested. “I can’t give up this opportunity to see the Hogwarts grounds all covered in snow. I might not get another chance to see it like this at night before James’s snowball fight.”
“We have Double History tomorrow morning,” Jessica reasoned. “That’s plenty of time to catch up on sleep.”
Sirius sighed. “It’ is a review lesson…”
“I love you Sirius!” Jessica exclaimed happily, turning back to the window.
‘She finally admits it.’
“Don’t you ruin this for me.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Sirius said confusedly.
Jessica turned to him. “Oh, not you; I was talking to Cassie.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “First she hears voices, then she talks to them.”
“I’m ignoring you and standing here, watching her snow.”
Sirius pulled out his wand and transfigured two of the wooden chairs at the desks into comfy armchairs and summoned them to the window.
“Sit.”
Jessica sat and then turned to Sirius who sat in his chair across from her. “What, are you my babysitter?”
“Goodness knows you need one.”
Jessica glared at him but turned back to the window. The snow had picked up, creating a thin layer of white on the grounds.
‘See he wants to spend as much time as possible with you.’
Jessica ignored the voice and watched the snow fall.

“Jessica. Jessica, wake up.”
“Go away.”
Sirius sighed. “Jessica.”
Jessica snuggled deeper into her blanket and kept her eyes closed.
“Jessica,” he said softly. “The snow, remember?”
Jessica’s eyes snapped open and she sat up, turning to look out the window.
The snow had stopped falling, leaving a layer of untouched white on the grounds. The sky was an orangey gray that you only saw when it snowed.
“I didn’t miss the best part.”
Sirius chuckled. “Yes. Are you ready to go to sleep now?”
“I just woke up.”
“And you’re still very tired.”
Jessica turned to him crouching in front of her chair. “When did I fall asleep?”
Sirius shrugged. “About three hours ago. It’s probably about 4:00 right now.”
“Why didn’t you wake me up sooner?” Jessica asked.
“I thought that if I watched you sleep long enough, I might be able to pretend you’re as innocent as you look sleeping, but it didn’t work.”
Jessica glared at him. “I’m gone.” She stood up.”
“Great, she’s everywhere; I see her even when she’s not here. Will you stop haunting me?”
Jessica turned to leave, dragging the blanket behind her.
“Can I have my blanket back?”
Jessica turned to look at him. “It’s yours?”
“Well, I conjured it, so yeah.”
Jessica looked down at the blanket. It was very soft and white with blue snowflakes on it.
“No, I like it.”
“Fine,” Sirius said. “Just take my things.”
“Good night.”
“Sweet dreams.”
“As long as you’re not in them.”
‘Though you know it’s the other way around.’
“Shut up!”
“What?”
“Cassie.”
“Why do I always go for the crazy ones?”






Since you were all evil and mean to my lonely feedback thread, nothing exciting happened, though it could have. And, if you’re all mean again, I won’t tell you about Lily in the next chapter either, and Jessica and Sirius will never get together, and I’ll kill everyone on Christmas and end the story.
But you know how to prevent that.

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Yay, no one has to die!




Chapter 39

“Sirius!”
“Go away!”
“Wake up! This is important!”
“I don’t care!”
“It’s about Jessica!”
Sirius sat straight up in bed and pulled open his hangings, looking around at Remus who was smirking.
“You don’t like her.”
“It was only a coincident that you mentioned her name,” Sirius said calmly. “I would have gotten up to tell you to go away, even if you hadn’t mentioned Jessica.”
“Fine then.” Remus went towards the shower. “I’ll leave you alone and take a shower.”
Sirius hesitated as Remus opened the bathroom door and stepped in. “What about her?”
Remus came back out with a smirk. “Where were you last night?”
Sirius groaned. “You said this had to do with Jessica!”
“Okay, I lied,” Remus shrugged. “I already know where you were last night; I just wanted to hear you say it.”
Sirius glared.
“Where was he last night?” Peter asked, crawling out of bed.
“Down in the common room.”
“What were you doing in the common room?”
“Watching Jessica sleep.”
“That’s stalkerish, mate,” Peter patted Sirius on the shoulder and brushed passed him into the bathroom.
Sirius was glaring at Remus. “How do you know that?”
“Because I woke up at 3:00 and you weren’t in bed, so I quietly went down to the common room to see if you were there and you were.”
Sirius didn’t reply.
“Wow, Black is out of bed before us.” Frank and Kyle crawled out of bed and joined the other two by Sirius’s bed.
“What’s going on?”
“Sirius is definitely in love with Jessica,” Remus replied.
“Am not!”
Remus ignored him. “Is watching a girl sleep for hours not proof of that?”
Kyle raised an eyebrow. “That’s creepy.”
Sirius sighed. “We were talking and she fell asleep and I didn’t want to wake her until the snow stopped so she could see it!”
The other three exchanged looks.
“It was snowing and Jessica wanted to see the Hogwarts’ grounds covered in snow, so she decided to sit by the window and watch the snow fall. I sat with her because I knew she would fall asleep, so I was planning on waking her up to send her up before the sun came up. She fell asleep and I decided to wait until the snow stopped so that she could see what she wanted before going up to bed.”
“How long did you watch her sleep?”
“We were sitting watching the snow and she fell asleep about three hours before I woke her,” Sirius said.
“So you watched her sleep for three hours?”
“No!” Sirius shouted exasperatedly. “I watched the snow for three hours before waking her!”
“But you were sneaking long peaks at her the whole time?”
“Ugh!” Sirius turned away and gathered his clothes for the day, stomping off towards the shower as Peter came out.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s mad that we know he’s in love with Jessica.” Frank replied.
Peter shrugged. “Ah well.”
The four boys went about their business in silence for a few minutes before Kyle stopped dead.
“Did he say snow?”
The boys rushed to the nearest window and looked out at the grounds which were indeed bright with snow.
Sirius came out of the bathroom and looked over that his four roommates huddled around a single window with their noses pressed against the glass with a raised eyebrow.

“Snow!”
Jessica was startled awake and then groaned, rolling back over. She was not ready to get up.
“There’s a bunch of snow outside!” Carly said excitedly. “Look at it!”
Emily and Alice got out of bed and looked out the window.
“Wow, it snowed a lot over night,” Emily said.
“Jessie, get up!”Carly pulled open her hangings. “There’s a bunch of snow!”
Jessica covered her head with her blanket.
“Jessie!”
“I already saw it. Go away!” Jessica groaned.
Carly frowned “When?” she asked.
“Last night,” Jessica answered in a muffled voice from under her blanket.
Emily and Alice joined Carly around the bed.
“Where’d you get this blanket?” Alice asked.
“Sirius,” Jessica answered.
Emily and Alice exchanged looks.
“When?”
“He conjured it for me last night,” she replied. “Will you people leave me alone?”
“No,” Emily said. “What happen last night?”
“Nothing,” Jessica answered from inside her blanket again.
Emily sighed and pulled the blanket off her head.
“Don’t make me drench you with water,” she threatened.
Jessica sighed and sat up in bed, pulling the blanket back around her. She really liked her new blanket.
“You guys were being annoying so I went downstairs and then Sirius showed up so we were talking and then it started snowing so I went to watch it and Sirius said I needed a babysitter so we were both watching and then Sirius woke me up and I saw the snow and stole his blanket and came up her to go back to sleep,” Jessica answered before falling back onto her pillow and closing her eyes again.
The other three girls exchanged looks.
Carly grabbed the blanket and Emily and Alice each grabbed a leg and pulled Jessica out of bed.
“Hey!”
“Talk.”
“About what!?”
“What happen with you and Sirius?!” Carly exclaimed.
“Nothing!” Jessica shouted back.
“Tell us every single thing you said to each other,” Alice said. “Like everything, and don’t forget anything.”
Jessica groaned. “What’s the point?”
“So that we can show you how everything he said can be translated into proof that he likes you!”
“I was there,” Jessica said. “He never said he likes me as anything more than free entertainment.”
Carly gave her a look.
“Seriously. He said I was screwed up and there was something wrong with me and that’s why he likes me.”
The other three exchanged looks.
“Because I’m entertainment.”
They all gave her looks.
“Did he say the first part normally, then add the second part quickly and explain himself too thoroughly?” Emily asked.
“So?”
“He likes you.”
“A lot.”
“And he said so last night.”
“You’re just too stupid to get it.”
“Ugh!” Jessica jumped up and stomped off into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
“She’s in denial.”

“What’s wrong with them,” Lily asked as she and James sat down at breakfast, pointing at Sirius and Jessica who were sitting as far apart from each other as possible and glaring at their food.
“They’re in denial,” Carly replied.
“I’m not in denial!” Jessica shouted.
“Neither am I!” Sirius yelled. “I have nothing to deny!”
“Neither do I!”
James and Lily looked at each other and shrugged, digging into their breakfasts.
“Hey, it snowed,” James said suddenly. “We can have that snowball fight tonight.”
Emily, Carly, Alice, Remus, Peter, Frank, and Kyle smirked at each other.
Jessica and Sirius groaned and stood up, stomping out of the Hall.
Lily and James raised an eyebrow at the rest of their friends.
“No snowball fight?” James asked.
“All they did last night was watch the snow,” Frank said. “Even after Jessica fell asleep.”
“Sirius definitely did not spend three hours watching Jessica sleep,” Remus agreed.
“Nor did he mention that he likes her because she nuts,” Emily added.
“She’s only entertainment,” Carly nodded.
James and Lily exchanged looks.
“I miss sleeping in the Gryffindor dorms,” Lily sighed.

Lily, Jessica, Frank, and Kyle were working on some last minute homework during their free period that Friday in the library before lunch. James and Sirius were off pulling some pranks, Carly and Peter were bugging Sammy and Aaron, and Remus, Emily, and Alice were last seen debating the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw teams’ chances at the cup with Kristy and Brian.
Jessica finally set her quill down and looked up at the others.
The rest were still scribbling away on their essays. Jessica, bored of watching them but too lazy to get up and leave, decided to be annoying. That was always fun.
“Hey, did you guys know that the dance is tomorrow?”
Lily looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. “I helped plan it; I should know when it is.”
“Oh, I was just checking,” Jessica shrugged. “I figured that you might have forgotten since you haven’t asked anyone yet!”
“I did,” Frank announced proudly.
“And it wasn’t very hard, was it?” Jessica asked.
“Um, no,” Frank replied. “I did it by accident.”
“Yeah, tell them that,” Jessica motioned towards Lily and Kyle.
“I’d rather not waste my time,” Kyle said, returning to his essay.
“I don’t like anybody,” Lily shrugged nonchalantly and returned to her essay as well, though she was very red in the face.
“Sure you don’t.”
Lily set her quill down and looked up at Jessica with raised eyebrows. “Can you say hypocritical?”
“Hypocritical,” Jessica repeated.
Lily sighed and picked her quill back up.
Jessica shrugged at her, and turned back to Kyle.
“Do you want to ask Cassie out?”
“No.” Kyle didn’t look up.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like her?”
“Yes.”
“Want me to ask her out for you?”
“Sure, do whatever you want, just leave me alone.”
Jessica shrugged. “Okay.” She got up, packed up her stuff, and left the library.
Frank looked at Kyle with a faint smile. “Uh, mate?”
“What?” Kyle looked up at him.
Frank looked pointedly at Jessica’s empty seat.
“Oh, ****!” Kyle jumped up and ran out the library.
Frank and Lily exchanged looks and went back to their essays.

“Jessica!”
“Hey, Kyle, what’d she do?”
Kyle stopped and looked desperately at James and Sirius.
“Have you seen Jessica?”
“Yeah, she just asked for the map so she could find Cassie,” James replied. “What’s up?”
“****. Where was she?”
“She, Remus, Sammy, and Aaron were headed towards the Great Hall for lunch,” Sirius answered. “Why, what’s wrong?”
Kyle didn’t reply, but rushed passed them towards the Great Hall.

“Hey, Cassie!”
“Jessie! What’s up?”
“Kyle wants to know if –“
A hand clamped down on her mouth, and Jessica was dragged away before she knew what was happening.
“What’s wrong with you!?”
“Hey! I was just about to ask her for you!”
Kyle glared at her.
“What?”
“Who told you you could do that?” he asked.
“Uh…you did?”
“I didn’t know what I was saying!”
Jessica placed her hands on her hips. “Well than, figure it out so you can save me the trouble.” Then, Jessica turned to stomp back towards the Great Hall, but stopped halfway and turned back. “By the way, she’ll want to know what you wanted to know!”
Kyle glared some more. “Then don’t answer her!”
Jessica scoffed. “Of course I won’t! Do I look like an idiot?”
Kyle sighed in relief.
“You will.”
“I’ll what!?”
Jessica just turned away.
Kyle just stood there, staring after her.
“You okay?”
Kyle jumped and turned to find Frank, Sirius, James, and Lily.
“Yeah, sure,” Kyle replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because you’re standing in silence staring after my sister,” James replied.
Sirius suddenly gasped. “You like her!” he accused.
Kyle’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“You like Jessica!” Sirius repeated. “That’s-that’s just…what the ****?!”
“Sirius, I don’t –“
“Don’t try to deny it!” Sirius glared at him. “I mean, you know that I –“
“Yes Sirius,” James interrupted with a smirk. “We know, but how ‘bout you say it aloud for us?”
Sirius looked around at the smirking faces and Kyle’s slightly confused and worried face. “I-I…I like her, okay?” he sighed. “There you have it. You were all right; I admitted it in Honeydukes; I’ll stop denying it. I like her.”
“You like who?”
It was Sirius’s turn to jump and turn around.
Of course, Peter, Remus, Emily, and Carly were smirking at him behind Jessica’s back, but Sirius ignored them, knowing the others were doing the same at his back.
“Uh…no one, let’s go eat.” Sirius pushed past her and hurried into the Great Hall.
Jessica stared after him in confusion while the others were still sporting big fat smirks.
Jessica turned to them with a puzzled expression.
“Who does he like?”
James just shook his head and followed Sirius.
Jessica looked at the other. “Seriously, who does he like?”
“Why do you want to know?” Carly wiggled her eyebrows at her.
“Just curious,” Jessica shrugged nonchalantly. “He told the rest of you, so why not me?”
“You just didn’t get here in time is all.”
“I got here the same time you did.”
Carly looked back at her with a blank expression for a second, then cleared her throat. “We already knew, though, and we tried to tell you, but you just don’t listen. Who’s hungry?”
The others all nodded in agreement and also headed for the Great Hall.
Jessica raised a confused eyebrow at them, but then followed.
“Hey, he knows I don’t like her, right?” Kyle asked.
Lily laughed. “Oh, yeah. He was just pulling your leg and wasn’t suspecting it to backfire. No, we told them about Jessica and how she was tracking Carly down.”
“Oh yeah,” Carly said as they all took their seats around James and Sirius. “What was that all about?”
“Nothing,” Kyle answered quickly before Jessica could get a word out.
Carly raised an eyebrow at him, but went back to her food.

The second the final bell rang, James and Sirius shouted loudly for everyone to hear and led the way out onto the grounds for their snowball fight. All the snow got trampled and half the school was going to be sick for the dance and Madame Pomfrey was not happy because she already had students coming in every other minute for Pepper-Up Potions.
The snowball fight had been a huge success, and there was talk amongst the younger students to turn it into an annual thing. McGonagall shot down this talk, saying that if there was a school wide snowball fight next year, she would give everyone detention.
The snowball fight had last for two and a half hours, well past sunset, until McGonagall came out and made everyone come back in for dinner.
As all the students went in, Jessica hung back, wandering around to the beach tree by the lake and sitting on the hard ground, all snow having been scraped up to make snowballs.
Ever since lunch, there had been heavy flirting going on between Carly and Kyle, much to Jessica’s delight, but she wasn’t paying much attention to it.
She may be good at hiding it, but Jessica had spent all her time since lunch being jealous of the unknown object of Sirius’s affection.
She knew it was silly to be jealous of someone she didn’t even know, but Jessica was all green and…monstery.
It was halfway through History of Magic, right after lunch, that Jessica had finally given in to all that she had been denying; Jessica finally admitted, to herself, that she had a crush on Sirius.
Jessica sighed as she stared up at the orangey-grey sky. It was going to snow again tonight.
That thought took her, once more, back to the night she’d spent in the common room with Sirius. Earlier that day, in History, Jessica had analyzed her thoughts that night before Sirius showed up out of nowhere and that was what had lead to her big realization.
She had spent a full 10 minutes staring straight ahead at Binns in shock before being able to properly think again. With the return of her thinking ability, Jessica’s thoughts drifted to that denial, but it was useless; he was everything she was saying he wasn’t, what she wanted.
Jessica shivered into her coat as a cool breeze blew, and she suddenly realized that it was below freezing; funny how in thinking about Sirius, Jessica had totally forgotten about the cold.
She’d snuck away to have some time to think to herself; all day, there had been distractions as Jessica tried to make sense of everything in her head, and she needed it all to go away. As she sat there in the dark, and cold, Jessica continued to try to understand.
It was hard. She liked him, she admitted, but what now? Did she want to like him? Was it okay to like him? Was this going to start something with James? Would she be able to take the “told-you-so’s” What was she supposed to say to him? How would he reply to what she said? How should she act around him? Would she be able to be the same, even if she tried? When you liked someone, you began acting differently around them, didn’t you?
What are you doing out here?”
Jessica started and looked around to find Sirius hurrying towards her.
Now what? She had only started questioning herself! She hadn’t answered any of her questions! What was supposed to happen? How was she to handle this? Would he notice any difference?
“Good Lord, Jess,” Sirius dropped sown next to her and wrapped his jacket around her.; she hadn’t realized she was shivering. “Are you insane?”
“You said I was,” Jessica replied, using that same bit of her brain that always talked to him, the relaxed part. How was that part working now? Shouldn’t it be malfunctioning with all those sparks and zaps?
Sirius laughed slightly. “Okay, fine, how about this? Can’t you limit your insanity and not scare us all to death?”
Jessica looked at him with a confused expression.
“We had no idea where you were at! It was all very scary, then I thought of the map and ran up to get it and found you here, though I think the others are still freaking out.”
Jessica raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell them?”
“I was a bit more worried about you being eaten by something from the forest or dying from frostbite,” Sirius replied. “Didn’t think to let the others know, though that would have been a good idea.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. Sirius was a bit rash.
“Anyways,” Sirius continued. “Why are you out here?”
Oh, you know, thinking about you and trying to figure out what to do with you and thinking about you and all the usual stuff.
“I just need to think, in quiet.”
Sirius snorted. “You do that?”
Jessica hit him on the arm. “Yes actually, but you wouldn’t be able o figure that out because, let’s face it, what can you understand?”
“I’ll tell you what I don’t understand,” Sirius replied.
“We don’t have that much time.”
Sirius ignored that.
“I don’t get what, if anything, goes on inside that heads of yours. Disappearing in the dark and cold and not telling James where you were at? He just about took our heads off, but Carly stopped him, telling him it would be easier to find you if we were all still alive.”
“That’s James’s problem,” Jessica shrugged. “I’m not allowed to be by myself?”
“Sure you are,” Sirius answered her. “Just tell James you’re going to be by yourself so he can take the cloak and follow you.”
Jessica turned to him with a look.
“He says it’s brotherly instinct,” Sirius shrugged. “I don’t get it.”
Jessica turned away and stared across the lake; though she couldn’t see very far, Jessica could just make out the outline of the mountains around them. The night was too cloudy to see anything more.
“What were you thinking about?” Sirius broke the silence.
Jessica shrugged; like she was telling him. “Just…stuff.”
“Care to expand on that?”
Jessica shook her head. “Not really.”
Sirius shrugged. “Fair enough.”
He left it at that.
Jessica smiled. Just add that to the growing list; he knows when to leave her alone.
It was hard to believe that she’d barely known him for five months; it felt like forever. Other than James and Carly, Jessica was probably closest to Sirius. He was the first one she’d met, but Jessica thought it was more that they just…connected. James had told her that they were alike, and maybe that was the common ground they started on and were able to build up from that.
“Do you want to go in before James has a seizure?” Sirius asked. “He was completely having a spasm attack when I left.”
Jessica laughed. “Sure.”
Sirius stood and offered her a hand. Jessica took it and let him pull her up, but he didn’t let her go, and instead pulled her a little closer as they began to walk back.
She could get used to this.
“You’re still shivering like mad,” he informed her.
“That’s because I’m cold,” Jessica replied sarcastically.
“Didn’t think about that before staying out, did you?”
Jessica shrugged. “Like you said, I’m not much of a thinker.”
Sirius laughed. “One of the many things about you that makes you so entertaining.”
Jessica smiled.
And as they walked back, one of her questions came back to her: When you liked someone, you began acting differently around them, didn’t you?
Yes, there was a certain way you acted.
The thing was, after deciding that she liked him, Jessica acted no differently.





Dance in the next chapter or two!
Yay!
*cheer*
I’m excited about that.
Wanna know what else makes me excited?
Feedback.
And when I’m excited, I write faster!

http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 40

It was probably the loudest scream ever heard that woke Jessica the morning of the Winter Dance.
Actually, she jumped out of bed like a scared rabbit, but at least she didn’t fall out of bed like Emily.
“Carly, what’s the matter?” Alice asked, rushing over to her; she was the only one actually awake, but honestly; 10:00 on a Saturday morning?
Emily muttered under her breath about sleep deprivation and her “aching butt” as she pulled herself off the ground.
Jessica wrapped her new blanket around herself and crawled out of bed to join the other two around Carly who was sitting straight up in bed with a look of shock on her face.
“What’d you have to wake me up for?” Emily asked, glaring as she climbed on to Carly’s bed and crawled under the blankets.
“Carly?” Alice asked when she didn’t respond.
Jessica looked down at her in worry and climbed onto the bed in front of her. “Cassie, what’s going on?”
Carly snapped out of her reverie and looked around at the three girls looking at her in concern.
“I-I don’t know what woke me up, but I was awake and I was angry because I was having a good dream, and I didn’t want to get up, so I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t.”
“And that’s why you screamed and interrupted my precious sleep?” Emily asked, glaring again.
Carly shook her head, a faint smile on her lips mixed with shock.
“I opened my eyes and found this on my finger.” Carly held up her left hand.
“What are we looking at?” Jessica asked.
“There’s a paper cut on my pinky.”
“So?”
“I got a paper cut in my dream, right there,” Carly replied. “I remember.”
The other three exchanged looks.
“Are you sure?” Alice asked. “What was this dream about?”
Carly shook her head. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“Cassie?”
“In the common room, my copy of Pride and Prejudice should still be sitting on the coffee table.”
“Okay…” Jessica said. “What was this ‘real life event?’?”
“Kyle asked me to the dance.”
“What now?”
Emily was now wide awake and sitting up in Carly’s bed while Jessica and Alice exchanged looks of shock.
Carly smiled suddenly. “Kyle asked me to the dance! Oh my gosh! I’m going to the dance with Kyle!”

“Speak.”
Sirius practically dragged Kyle out of bed.
“What the ****?!”
“Why are you awake before us and dragging Kyle around like a dog, Padfoot?” Peter asked as the other three looked on in amusement.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Kyle glared up at Sirius from the ground. “What do you want?”
“For you to start talking.”
“About what?”
“What you did at 1:47 last night!”
“What did I do at 1:47 last night?”
“How am I supposed to know?!” Sirius cried out exasperatedly.
“I’m pretty sure I was sleeping,” Kyle responded.
“No, you weren’t! I saw you on the map because you weren’t in bed!”
Kyle blinked up at Sirius a couple of times.
“Should I go ask Carly then?”
Kyle’s jaw dropped as the memory of the night before came rushing back.
“Holy –“
“I – oh my God!”
“And that’s why they think we’re stupid,” Sirius said.
“Kyle, what happen last night?” Frank asked.
“Oh that’s pretty obvious,” Remus said. “Everyone seems to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night and run into their girl this week, so there was obviously an encounter with Carly. What I need to know is what was said…or done.”
Frank turned to Remus with a raised eyebrow. “Have you snuck out in the middle of the night this week and ran into Emily?”
Remus nodded. “But that’s beside the point. What happened Kyle?”

Kyle sighed and turned over again.
Five minutes later, he turned over yet again.
And then again a few minutes later.
Kyle had a problem. Okay, so it wasn’t a big problem, but how annoying is it when you can’t fall asleep, no matter how hard you try?
Yeah, very annoying.
It was just one of those random nights where you can’t sleep for no particular reason.
After another annoyed 15 minutes, Kyle sat up in bed and looked over at his clock; it was 1:14 meaning he’d been trying to sleep for over an hour.
Thinking that maybe he just had to get out for a while, Kyle got out of bed and made his way down to the common room.
“Oh, God, you scared me.”
Kyle all but jumped out of his skin and spun around towards the armchair by the fireplace to find Carly looking up at him.
“You have got to stop doing that,” Kyle said as his heart beat returned to normal and he walked over to her.
“Doing what?”
“Scaring me to death like that!”
“I scared you?” Carly gave him a look. “You just came out of nowhere! One second I’m alone, and then I look up and there’s this big fat shadow by the stairs.”
“Hey, I’m not fat,” Kyle stated.
“Whatever.” Carly rolled her eyes and went back to the book sitting in her lap.
Kyle sat back in his armchair across from her and smiled slightly as he watched her read.
There’s a dance in under18 hours.
Kyle frowned. Jessica had been in his head all day, being very annoying. She was like the part of your brain that always told you the truth you were trying to ignore, making it hard to ignore anything.
From the first day she stepped foot into Hogwarts, everything had changed, but in a good way. James was leaving Lily alone, which was a feat thought impossible, but Lily didn’t seem to be liking that.
Sirius was completely losing all of his Siriusness. It was pretty obvious to everything living, and the dead ghosts and nonliving paintings, in Hogwarts that Sirius really did like Jessica, much to the disappointment of most of the Hogwarts population. There were guys that never even got a chance with Jessica because Sirius had unofficially claimed her, and then there was a giant fan club that had lost all the nonexistent chances with Sirius, thought they wouldn’t admit it.
Then there was that major change in James being so much less James-like and Carly becoming so much more like a not as extreme version of James.
Seriously, when did Carly start suggest turning the Slytherins’ hair scarlet and gold?
Not that Kyle didn’t like any of the change; it was because of the change that he was sitting here right now with 9 more best friends than the year before. It almost seemed unnatural to think of the previous years when he and Frank sat on the sidelines and watched James and Lily go at each other every other hour. And he couldn’t even remember what had made it so hard to speak words to Carly, because now, it all just seemed to flow so well, mostly because she seemed more herself than ever before.
It was funny how the entrance of one person had made such a change in all of theirs’ lives.
But nothing can change if people don’t listen to me! Do as a say! Dance in less than 18 hour!
Yeah, he would just randomly blurt it out and she wouldn’t burst into laughter because that’s how it worked. Kyle rolled his eyes at the annoying little voice.
“What?”
“Huh?” Kyle jerked out of his thoughts.
“Are you rolling your eyes at me?” she asked with a playful glare on her face.
“No I’m rolling my eyes at Jessica,” Kyle replied.
Carly raised an eyebrow at him.
“She won’t get out of my head; it’s very annoying and she’s trying to convince me that things are so much simpler than they are.”
Carly gave him a skeptical look and went back for her book.
“Don’t you ever get that annoying little voice that tells you everything you want to hear, but you don’t believe because something’s telling you that it can’t possibly be true?”
“Oh!” Carly nodded in understanding. “You’re talking about the Jessie Voice!”
“Uh…yeah, sure,” Kyle nodded.
“Yeah, it says everything you know she’d be saying in reply to your thoughts or whatever it is that’s going on right then and there.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Kyle nodded. “The very annoying one.”
“She’s been bugging me for years,” Carly told Kyle. She picked her book back up and went to close it, but she ended up dropping the book and screwing her face up in pain. “Ow,” Carly said, touching her pinky lightly.
“What happened,” Kyle asked, half rising from his chair with a look of concern on his face.
“Nothing,” Carly shook her head quickly. “Got a paper cut; I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Relax, Kyle,” Carly laughed. “And sit down.”
Kyle did so. “Are you sure you –“
“It’s a paper cut, I’m not dying!”
“Sorry, but it never hurts to be safe.”
“I think we’re safe,” Carly laughed. Anyways, like I was saying, I thought that if I went and talked to James, Jessie would leave me alone, but then she just had to come back to haunt me again.”
“What about James?” Kyle asked, puzzled.
“Oh, it was the whole not speaking to each other for 10 years thing,” Carly said. “We fixed it this summer and I thought the voice would leave me alone, but then, I came back to Hogwarts and it wouldn’t leave me alone about –“
Kyle waited, but she didn’t finish.
“About what?” he asked.
“N-nothing,” Carly said quickly.
It was Kyle’s turn to look skeptical.
“Okay,” Carly caved. “Everything.”
“Like?”
“None of your business,” Carly said firmly. “Like I was saying, everyone’s got the voice, but most people are lucky enough to not run into the face that goes with it.”
Kyle laughed. “You never seize to amaze me.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” she smiled.
God, it was such a beautiful smile.
So, then what are you waiting for!
Kyle scowled.
“Uh…sorry?”
Oh, no not you,” Kyle said quickly. “It’s the voice.”
“Oh, okay.” She said, and then she started laughing. “Jessie was telling me about how apparently, she may be our voice, but I’m her voice and I drive her up the wall and I think it’s funny because…well, because it is.”
Kyle smiled. “You can do that to people.”
Carly glared. “Do I annoy you?”
“Well,” Kyle thought about it. “Not so much now that you actually talk to me; it’s so annoying trying to figure out what you’re thinking.”
Carly blushed slightly. “Well, then thanks for returning the favor.”
Kyle laughed slightly. “No problem.”
The two lapsed into silence, Carly staring at the fire and Kyle watching her face.
Her eyes eventually got droopy and she let out a long yawn.
“Time for bed?” Kyle asked.
Carly turned to him and nodded. She stood and headed for the girls’ staircase and Kyle went for the boys’.
Halfway there, Jessica just had to come back and annoy him some more.
What are you waiting for!?
Some unexplainable force made him stop and turn. Seriously, he had no idea where it came from.
That’s it…
“Hey Carly?”
Wait, why was he talking?
He definitely had no control over his words; his mind was completely taken over, probably by Jessica.
“Yeah?” she turned to him questioningly.
This is it!
Wait, he didn’t want to say anything!
“I was wondering…” nothing! “…if you wanted to go to the dance with me?”
Yes!
Who asked that?!
“What?”
“Do you want to –“
“Oh my gosh, yes!”
Ha!
Carly blushed. “Um…yeah sure.”
Kyle smiled. “Goodnight.”
Carly nodded. “You too.” Then, she turned and flew up the stairs.
Kyle just stood there in shock.
Had he just asked her to the dance?
You did, and she said yes! Told you so!
Kyle just stood there.
And it wasn’t so hard, was it?
Kyle managed to unfreeze himself and realized that Jessica had given him back control of his body.
He turned and went back up before she could stop him.
My work here is done…for now.

“Jessica took over your mind and made you ask her?” Frank asked skeptically.
“Yes!” Kyle replied.
Frank just gave him a look and turned away.
“Honestly! She just made me turn around and ask. I wasn’t planning on it or anything! I couldn’t even stop myself!”
“So, are you mad at her?” Peter asked.
“I never said that…”
“Well, then it’s all good.”
“Jessica just completely took over?” Frank asked again.
“She would do that, you know,” Remus said.
Sirius nodded in agreement with a far off smile. “She’s just so great that way.”
“She took over my mind and that makes her great?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah,” Sirius said. “You wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
Kyle glared and stood up, heading for the shower.
“Hey, you have a date to the dance!”
“With Carly!”
Kyle smiled slightly as he shut the door behind him.

“Lily! James!”
They both looked up to find the other girls making their way towards them at the breakfast table.
“Would you look at that,” James laughed. “Jessie and Emmy are out of bed before noon.”
“It was all her fault,” Jessica pointed an accusatory finger at Carly as they all sat down.
“Anyways, like I was saying,” Alice said after a few moments, “guess what you guys missed this morning?”
“We missed something else?!” Lily groaned. “Ugh, why do we have to have stupid separate dorms? I want to know what’s happening!”
“Oh, yeah,” Alice said. “This was huge.”
“Colossal,” Emily nodded in agreement.
“Gargantuan,” Jessica added.
“What happen?” James asked.
“Guess who has a date to the dance?” Jessica asked excitedly.
James and Lily looked at her.
Jessica sighed and blushed slightly. “With Kyle.”
Lily’s eyes widened and she turned to Carly who was trying to turn invisible.
“Really?”
Carly nodded with a wide grin.
“Oh my gosh!” Lily squealed. “How’d it happen?”
“We were in the common room last night and we were just talking and then I got tired so we were going up to bed and then out of nowhere, he asked me!” Carly was absolutely beaming by now.
“He just asked; just like that?”
Carly nodded.
“Then what?”
“I said yes and he said goodnight and we went to sleep,” Carly said.
“This is so great!” Lily exclaimed happily. “Now, all we need is for Jessica and Sirius to get together.”
Carly, Emily, and Alice nodded in agreement.
Jessica blushed. “I don’t think so.”
“Aww, what’s the matter?” Alice smirked at her. “Are we still in denial?”
Jessica ignored her and went back to her pancakes, though she was turning red in the face.
Emily and Lily exchanged looks.
“Are we getting past the denial?” Emily asked.
Jessica nodded.
There was only a second of silence and then, Lily, Emily, Alice, and Carly were shrieking like mad.
As everyone in the vicinity turned to stare at them, James jumped up and practically ran out, muttering something about “crazy girls” and “must find the guys.”
The girls were too bust interrogating Jessica to take any notice.

“I come baring great news!” James announced as he stepped into the seventh year boys’ dormitory.
“I really doubt it was mind control,” Frank was saying.
“It was!” Kyle shouted back. “Would I really have asked otherwise?”
“Um, yeah.”
“I’m telling you, she was in my head!”
“She’s in all of ours’ head,” Remus pointed out. “Our minds haven’t been taken over yet.”
“See, he agrees with me,” Frank pointed over at Remus.
“But it would be just like her to take over his mind to manipulate him into doing something he so desperately wanted to do, but was too chicken to go through with.”
“Ha, he’s on my – wait, what?”
Peter made his way over to James with a bemused expression on his face.
“What’s going on?” James asked.
“Kyle thinks Jessica took over his mind and made him ask Carly to the dance but Frank says it’s impossible and I have no idea whose side Moony’s on. Oh, and Sirius is daydreaming about Jessica.”
“But I had no plans to ask her!”
“Split second decision.”
“I tried to stop myself, but she wouldn’t let me!”
“You didn’t want to stop yourself.”
“She made me do it; I did not!”
“Hey, if you want to go and tell her that, I think they’re all still interrogating Jessie on moving past the denial phase in the Great Hall, but I should warn you, she was really happy so even if you let her down gently, it won’t go so well and then I’ll have to hunt you down, so your choice really.”
Kyle, Frank, and Remus spun around to face James.
“When’d you get here?” Remus asked.
“Frank was saying something about mind control,” James said before turning to Kyle. “Anyways, did you want to go tell her you changed your mind?”
“No!” Kyle exclaimed. “Why would I do that!?”
James shrugged. “You kept going on and on about how you didn’t want to ask her to the dance.”
“Yeah, but I’m glad I did.”
“That makes no sense.”
Kyle groaned. “I’m getting some breakfast.” He stomped past James and Peter and out the door.
“Oh, yeah, I came to tell you guys that Jessie’s moved past her denial phase, so this might be a good time to go through with your promise, Padfoot.”
“What?” Sirius jumped out of his daydream.
“Did I hear something about Jessica and being past the denial?” Kyle came back.
James nodded.
“What denial?” Sirius asked.
“The ‘I don’t have a massive crush on Sirius though everyone knows I do’ denial.”
Sirius blinked at him.
“You’re nuts,” he fell back on his bed.
“If you went into the Great Hall right now, they’d all still be shrieking and asking her trillions of questions about it,” James said. “I swear, they just went into to total girl mood, like it’s unnatural.”
“I don’t believe you,” was Sirius’s reply.
James shrugged. “Suit yourself.”






The shortest wait for a chapter in forever; I’m so happy.
Yes, Phoenixgirl, that was plenty enough for a quick update. Thanks!

Okay, so the dance will be in the next chapter, I’m 99.9% sure. I’m really excited and sort of put this fic at the top of my priority list because I got the next few chapters all planned out, like well into holiday break and I’m so excited to type it all out. so, the bottom line is, I’m going to be typing so fast and if you want me to post just as fast, I need tons of feedback, so…



http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 41

If an outsider walked into Hogwarts, he’d think that it was an all boys' school. The reason being that every female occupant of the castle was locked in her dorm getting ready for the dance which started in half an hour.
Some had been there all day, others for a few hours, and a few for only 10 minutes, like the Gryffindor seventh years who were now frantically running around the girls’ dorm, trying to find all of their things.
After having put on the correct dresses, and jewelry, it was time for hair and makeup and they had 20 minutes. But that was no reason to be freaking out, right?
Wrong.
“We barely have twenty minutes!” Alice shouted. “What is taking you so long Carly?!”
“Hush,” Carly said, putting eyeliner on Emily who was, as always, calm and collected about the dance because she was Emily and looked good no matter what.
Jessica, who was messing with Lily’s hair in front of the mirror was already ready to go because, being in a coma for 11 years, she had missed the stage where girls start to freak out over how they look. It’s not like it mattered anyway because even with her hair straight and down, and after she refused to allow Carly to do anything other than put some eyeliner and mascara on her, “but not too much,” she looked perfect.
“There, done,” Carly said, setting the eyeliner down and turning to Alice who was a nervous wreck.
“Are you almost done with Lily, Jess?” Emily asked.
“Yeah,” Jessica replied as she flipped through the book. “I know what to do, but I need to find the spell…okay, got it.”
She turned back to Lily who was nervously staring back at her reflection in the mirror.
Jessica laughed. “He asks you out when you’re in your school uniform, Hon. Calm down.”
Lily whirled around to Jessica with her mouth open. “W-what…”
Jessica just shook her head and picked up her wand and waved it over Lily’s head, saying the proper spell in her head.
Lily’s hair fell into perfectly, lose curls around her face. Then, Jessica found her blue sapphire studded hair clip and waved her wand over it turning the sapphires green to perfectly match the dress.
Lily’s eyes widened. “I can’t. What if I lose it?”
“I know a charm to prevent that,” Jessica told her, turning her back to the mirror. She set to work, pulling back hair from the front of Lily’s face and clipped it to the back of her head, leaving a few strands out to frame her face.
“How’s that?” she asked.
Lily smiled. “Perfect. Thanks.”
“Alright, Em, you’re up.”
Emily sat down in Lily’s chair while Lily went and took Alice’s place in front of Carly and Alice went over to Jessica’s hair book, flipping through the different styles.
Jessica ended up doing Emily’s hair in a twist at the top of her head.
Alice, who was still having a panic attack, spent ten minutes trying to tell Jessica what to do with her hair, but she ended up telling Jessica to pick for herself.
Jessica rolled her eyes but found the perfect up do with curls falling out in the book and it did look absolutely perfect on Alice who then spent five minutes thanking Jessica as she did Carly’s hair in perfect large curls cascading down her back. It was perfect because Carly’s hair had really grown long and beautiful.
Jessica shot a Silencing Charm at Alice before turning to the others and asking, “Are we ready?”
Emily and Carly nodded while Alice glared at the back of Jessica’s head and Lily nervously met Jessica’s eye.
Jessica sighed and gave Lily a look.
Lily had been secretly freaking out because Jessica had cornered her earlier and made her promise to tell the others her “big secret” before they went down to the dance.
“Okay, let’s go,” Carly said, heading for the door.
“Not so fast,” Jessica smirked. “Lily dear has something she’d like to tell us.”
The other three turned to Lily who was turning increasingly redder.
After standing looking at Lily for a full minute, Emily sighed and asked, “Are you telling us anything?”
Lily replied by looking down and mumbling something to her shoes.
“Sorry, didn’t catch that,” Carly said with a raised eyebrow.
“You-were-right-I-was-wrong-I-like-James.”
Alice, Carly, and Emily stared in shock while Jessica just stood there and continued to smirk.
“W-w-wh-what?” Carly managed to stutter.
“Please don’t rub it in my face or say ‘I told you so,’” Lily begged.
“But we did,” Carly pointed out.
Lily glared.
“Not that we didn’t already know,” Emily said, “but what brought it on?”
“You and your stupid dream advice,” Lily glared.
Emily shrugged. “Can’t be stupid if I was right.”
“Wait, what dream?” Jessica asked.
Lily shook her head “Nothing; it was a nightmare really.” She was not about to tell Jessica and Carly about how she’d been dreaming about James’s untimely death.
Alice tapped Jessica on the shoulder and looked at her impatiently.
Jessica laughed. “Oh right, here.” She removed the spell and Alice gave her an annoyed look before turning to Lily.
“Oh my gosh, that’s great!”
Lily rolled her eyes at her. “Let’s just go, okay?”
“Of course. Off to see James.”
“Somebody want to silence her again?”
“No!” Alice turned and ran, or tried to run in her heals, out the door and down the stairs.
The others laughed and followed her, reaching the common room a fashionable 5 minutes late.

Sirius pulled up a chair next to Lily who was talking with Peter, Aaron, and Emily about how they, yet again, had a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Not once had a teacher stayed for more than one year and Peter was telling them about how there was a curse on the job.
Lily laughed. “And who put this horrible curse on the job?”
“I don’t know!” Peter exclaimed. “All I know is that my parents said that they never had the same Defense teacher twice.”
“And that proves that no one is good enough to teach us how to defend ourselves,” Emily said.
“Or that someone thought it would be funny for Dumbledore to have to annually look for a teacher and put a curse on the job,” Sirius said.
“Or someone got really angry when they were fired,” Aaron added.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Boys,” she sighed.
“You said it,” Emily nodded in agreement.
“I’m telling you, there is a curse!”
“And I’m telling you there isn’t,” Emily said standing up. “I’m going to go dancing.” She stomped off and the others watched her in amusement, waiting.
Sure enough, not even 30 seconds later, she was back.
“Wanna dance with me, Aaron?”
He laughed and stood.
“Come on,” Emily dragged him away.
Lily just shook her head and watched all the people on the dance floor. She and James had managed to book a famous wizard band, Pixie Dust, so everyone was happily dancing away on the dance floor.
Lily turned to Sirius and Peter. “Either of you know what time it is?”
“Yes, let me just look at the watch on my wrist except look at that,” Sirius held up his arm, “no watch.”
Lily whacked him on the head.
“Hey, what was that for!?”
“A simple no would have been fine.”
Sirius pretended to pout.
Lily turned away from him and started a conversation with Peter.
“So, what’s new?”
Peter smirked slightly.
Lily gave him a questioning look, but he just shook his head and motioned to Sirius who was now staring at the dance floor where James and Jessica were currently laughing together as they danced.
“James told us about a very interesting event that took place at breakfast today,” Peter said.
Lily shot him a puzzled expression before quickly catching on. “Oh, yeah, Jess. Yeah, that was only slightly random.”
She noticed that Sirius was now listening into the conversation.
“So, what exactly went down?” Peter asked. “James only gave us the highlight.”
Lily shrugged. “Alice was teasing her and then she’s admitting things, you know, I think something went on by the lake last night…”
“Are we still doing this?” Sirius sighed, turning towards the pair with a pained expression on his face.
“Sirius, what’s gotten into you?” Lily asked.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Sirius shot back. “Don’t think we haven’t noticed you mooning over Prongs all week.”
Lily turned red but chose to admit that particular comment. “Don’t turn this on me; you lot can attack me later, but right now, we want to know what’s up.”
Sirius sighed. “I don’t even know.”
Lily and Peter exchanged looks. This was so not Sirius behavior.
“Try to figure it out,” Peter said encouragingly. “It helps to talk it out.”
“Okay,” Sirius sat up in his chair. “I like her.”
“We sort of figured that bit out, mate. You stare at her enough and yesterday and Honeydukes were definite –“
“Wormtail.”
“Sorry, go on.”
Sirius nodded slightly. “I like her, a lot, like I didn’t every think that…I just wasn’t expecting it to hit so hard.”
Lily placed a hand on his shoulder. “So, you like her; go and tell her that.” Lily smiled slightly. “We already know you’re head over heels; it’s not helping to repeat it to us.”
“But it’s not that simple,” Sirius sighed. “I can’t just…:”
“Why not?”
“What will she say?”
Peter sighed and rolled her eyes. “Were you not paying attention to our earlier conversation?”
“I’m sorry if it’s rather heard to believe your gossip,” Sirius said sarcastically.
“You won’t know what she’ll say if you don’t try it out,” Lily told him. “Tell me that you didn’t get some vibe last night.”
“How do you –“
“We’re girls, what do you expect,” Lily shrugged. “Tell me.”
“I don’t know,” Sirius slumped down in his chair. “I mean, I think there was something but was it just me?”
Lily shrugged. “One way to find out.”
Just then, they distinctly heard the clock chime somewhere outside.
“You have half an hour,” Peter told him.
Sirius looked back out at the dance floor where James and Jessica were still dancing as the band struck up a slow tune.
He turned back to Lily and smiled slightly. “Mind helping me out?”
Lily gave him a puzzled expression, but then nodded, standing and allowing him to lead her on to the dance floor.
Once they were out on the dance floor, Lily looked around for Jessica. She spotted her with James, but Sirius seemed to already know as he was leading them towards the pair.
Lily looked up at Sirius’s face and suddenly saw something in his expression and gasped. “You’re going to set me up!”
Sirius smirked. “Yep.”
“But –but…”
Sirius laughed at her. “Just figured it was about time you took your own advice.”
Before Lily could protest, she was spun around and when she looked back up, it was to find James’s hand in her own, his hand at her waist.
“What –“
Lily quickly collected herself and cleared her throat. “Peter and I talked some sense into Sirius.”
He raised an eyebrow at her, but then caught sight of Sirius who was now dancing with Jessica.
He nodded in understanding and smiled. “How’d you manage that?”
“Honestly?” Lily said. “No idea. It probably wouldn’t have even worked if he hadn’t seen the opportunity to set us up.”
“What?”
Good job, Lily!
She mentally kicked herself.
Lily focused her eyes away from James, determined to not look him in the eye. She caught sight of Sirius leading Jessica out the Great Hall and felt slightly proud of him.
Months of denial and he was finally getting somewhere.
Unlike you.
Lily frowned. Of course, everyone had been complaining about the “Jessica Voice” lately; it was only matter of time.
“You alright Lily?” James asked.
“Hmm?” Lily turned back to James
Darn it!
Lily had to quickly regain her thought process as she met his eyes.
She nodded and took an imaginary deep breath before responding. “Just Jessica…”
James laughed. “She’s gotten to you, too then?”
Lily nodded.
“I guess that’s Jessie for you,” James sighed. “She always did have a way of getting into your head and making you do what she wants.”
“Like taking over your mind and forcing you to ask someone to a dance?” Lily asked with an amused smile.
James laughed again and nodded. “Believe it or not, there have been odder things we’ve discussed and argued over.”
“And that does not surprise me one bit,” Lily laughed.
The two lapsed into silence again and Lily vaguely heard the band start on a different song.
Her mind was reeling. The half that sounded like Jessica was screaming at her that this was the perfect opportunity, but the part that still sounded like her was telling her to not say a word.
As the Jessica part got louder, Lily found that she had suddenly begun to sympathize with Kyle.
“Why did you stop asking me out?” Lily blurted out before she could stop herself.
Lily could almost hear the Jessica Voice smirking at her.
“What do you mean?” James asked, looking at her curiously. “I mean, I thought you wanted me to?”
Lily shook her head. “But why?”
James wore a thoughtful expression. “I guess I figured it might be easier on both of us,” James said slowly. “You don’t have to scream anymore and I don’t have to lose any more of what teeny tiny bit of dignity I might have left.”
Lily stared down at her shoes, not really sure what to say.
“Why do you ask?”
Lily looked back up, careful to not look directly at him, knowing full well that she couldn’t afford to lose her thoughts again the way his eyes made her do.
“I-I was just wondering?”
“Why?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Jessica made her shift her eyes to look up at James’s to find that he was searching her face for any hints.
“I was just…wondering if you…if you were going to…to ask again.”
Stupid Jessica!
You know you love me.
“It depends…” James said slowly. “What would you say?”
Lily smiled at shyly at him.
“I might say yes.”

“Whoa, where did you come from?”
One second, she was dancing with James, and then the next, it was Sirius with his arms around her.
He laughed. “How are you?”
“Wonderful,” Jessica smiled. ‘Considering the current position…’ “Any particular reason Jamie disappeared?”
“Jamie?”
“Yeah,” Jessica laughed. “I used to call him that and it randomly came up in our conversation and he doesn’t like it anymore so I figured, why not annoy him a bunch?”
“Of course,” Sirius said. “Because you do the opposite of what is asked of you, correct?”
“Mhm,” Jessica nodded. “But seriously, why’s he gone?”
Sirius motioned to the right and Jessica turned to find James and Lily dancing and talking…together.
“Aww, how’d you manage that?”
“Oh, you know,” Sirius shrugged. “She thinks she won and then I get her when she least expects it.”
Jessica gave him a look. “Right…”
“Okay, remember the other night?" Sirius asked.
Jessica raised an eyebrow, “Random change of topic, but okay. Which night?”
“The one with the snow when you stole my blanket.”
“Oh yeah,” Jessica smiled. “Good times.”
Sirius nodded. “You have got to see this,” he said, suddenly leading her off the dance floor and towards the doors.
“Wh –“
“It’s so much better than seeing the snow from inside,” Sirius cut her off, leading Jessica out into the Entrance Hall.
“Are we going outside?” Jessica asked, stopping him halfway to the door.
“Yup,” Sirius replied, attempting to drag her out.
“But I’ll freeze to death!” Jessica exclaimed, pointing to her little black dress.
Sirius looked at her with a sudden blank expression. He quickly snapped out of it and pulled off his black jacket and draped it around her shoulders.
“Better?" he asked.
All Jessica could do was nod. The scent of him on the jacket was making her slightly light-headed.
‘Snap out of it, Jessica!’ she scolded herself.
Jessica regained control of the cool and collected bit of her brain, still surprised that it was still working.
“But now, you’ll be cold,” Jessica pointed out.
Sirius shrugged. “I’ll live. Besides, this is worth it.”
Jessica looked down, and then suddenly back up.
“My shoes –“
Sirius reached for the jacket and pulled his wand out of an inside pocket. He waved it at Jessica’s shoes and they turned from black two-inch heels into fuzzy black snow boots.
Sirius returned the wand to the inside pocket at looked down at Jessica expectantly. “Any more excuses?”
Jessica shook her head, looking back at the shoes.
“But you know,” she said, allowing him to grab her hand and lead her towards the great oak doors. “The shoes now completely ruin the outfit.”
Sirius snorted. “You look beautiful regardless of your shoes.”
Jessica blushed and didn’t reply.
As Sirius pushed the door open, a huge gust of cold air hit them full force, causing Jessica to shiver.
Sirius quickly pulled her out, wrapping his arm around her, and closed the doors.
“Okay,” he said, leading her down the steps. “Look around.”
Jessica did and she couldn’t help but gasp as she saw the sky and the grounds clearly. It had snowed again, covering up all the damage done to the snow during the day.
The sky was the same orangey-grey she loved and the snow managed to somehow glisten even without the sun or moonlight.
“Wow,” Jessica breathed looking back at him.
Sirius nodded in agreement. “The snow at night’s always been one of my favorites as well,” he told her.
Jessica smiled.
Sirius suddenly pulled Jessica along again, down to the tree near the lake.
“Look,” he pointed across the frozen lake.
Jessica looked and gasped again. There was more light tonight than the night before and Jessica could see the mountains surrounding Hogwarts more clearly. They were covered in white snow, going on for miles, and managed to sparkle in an invisible light.
Jessica turned back to Sirius after a moment’s silence.
“So, why are we here again?”
Sirius turned back to her as well with a fake wounded expression. “You don’t want to be here?”
‘You’re here.’
“No, I never said that,” Jessica said. “I was just wondering if there was any specific reason.”
Sirius shrugged. “I didn’t know if you’d get a chance to see this again, so I figured, take it while you have it.”
Jessica raised an eyebrow at him and turned back towards the lake.
There was another breeze, causing Jessica to shiver again. Sirius tightened his arm around her, pulling her closer to keep her warm.
Jessica didn’t particularly mind the cold if Sirius was going to keep her close.
You know what you should do?
Oh, she was back. Carly just had to put in her two Knuts worth.
Yup.
Jessica frowned.
“You okay?”
Jessica quickly turned to Sirius and nodded. “Fine. Absolutely fine.”
“Do you want to go in?” Sirius asked. “It’s freezing out here.”
Jessica shook her head quickly.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. “You want to die of frostbite?”
“No, I just need to tell you something.”
Wait, what?
No, no never mind.
“What?”
Nothing!
“I, uh…I, um…uh…”
Out of nowhere, Jessica reached up and kissed him.
Yeah, like actually kissed him.
And it was a good kiss.
Sirius didn’t respond for like, a second, but then, he was shifting her in his arms to make her more comfortable, kissing her back.
It was one of those cliché fireworks and explosions kiss, but it was one heck of a kiss.
Neither one of them knew how long it was before they had to come back up for that evil thing called oxygen, but they eventually broke apart.
“Uh…that,” Jessica said blushing like mad.
Why did Carly have to get so involved in everything?
‘Oh, you know you loved it.’
“I’ll just, um, go,” Jessica said quickly, going to pull away, but Sirius pulled her back.
“What if I don’t want you to go?” he asked softly.
“Then…uh…”
Oh, bugger.
The calm part of the brain had died.
Sirius bent down and kissed her again.






If I rushed anything, then I’m really sorry, but I’m like super excited.
Let me know what you think!



http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 42

“Okay, start talking, now.”
“Why are you here?”
“Doesn’t matter; talk.”
Jessica smiled. “Only if you talk first.”
“Ugh, I don’t care who talks first, but somebody better spill!” Carly exclaimed, falling back on her bed.
The girls were all up in the girls’ dormitories, still dressed in their clothes from the dance, clearly waiting for Jessica.
Alice was looking impatiently from Lily to Jessica, Carly was lying back in her bed, and Emily was looking amusedly at the two red-heads.
“Lily wants to talk first,” Jessica pointed, making her way to her bed.
“No, wait!” Alice said. “Lily won’t tell us anything about what you’re supposed to be telling us, Jess.”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Did you not see Sirius drag her out of the Great Hall?”
“What?!”
“She was dancing with Frank, remember?” Carly smirked, sitting back up.
Alice ignored her and stared wide-eyed at Jessica.
“What happened? Oh my gosh, did you guys getting together? Did you kiss?”
“Lily first,
Jessica motioned.
“Oh, we already know they’re together,” Alice said quickly. “I want to know about you and Sirius!”
“How do you know we’re together?” Lily asked, though she was turning red.
“Oh, please,” Carly scoffed. “Anyone who was watching you would have figured it out.”
“Because they were in the Great Hall and we were free to stare,” Emily said turning to Jessica, “unlike you.”
“So you and James are together now?” Alice asked Lily.
Lily smiled widely and nodded.
Alice squealed and threw herself at Lily.
The other three joined the group hug, all suddenly jumping up and down, shrieking like 12-year-olds.
Finally, they fell apart and collapsed on to Emily’s bed.
“This is so great!” Carly exclaimed.
Jessica nodded in agreement. “Six years of listening to James talk about Lily is pretty annoying. I mean, he only came during the holidays.”
The other four exchanged puzzled looks. This happen way too often.
“What?” Jessica asked, seeing the others looking at each other.
“Nothing,” Emily said quickly, all the girls suddenly smiling excitedly again. “So, tell us all about what happen after you two left.”
“Okay, so he dragged me outside –“
“In the cold?” Lily asked. “In that dress and those shoes?”
“He transfigured my shoes and gave me his coat,” Jessica said offhandedly, “but that’s not the exciting part. Okay, so we’re outside and you wouldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The sky was gorgeous and the mountains looked amazing and the grounds with the snow –“
“We’ve been going here for over six years,” Emily said. “We’ve seen the grounds. Get on with it!”
“Fine,” Jessica glared. “But I bet you haven’t seen the grounds after it snowed at night before everyone walked all over it without a window in the way.”
“So?”
Jessica crossed her arms triumphantly.
“Ugh! Finish the story!” Carly whined.
“Fine,” Jessica sighed. “So, we’re outside and it looks amazing except it’s freaking freezing, but seeing as Sirius was there I could really tell, but he asks if I want to go in and then she,” Jessica pointed angrily at Carly, “made me stop him and then I had to say something.”
“What’d I do?” Carly asked.
“You got in my head and messed with it.”
“Just like you did to my boyfriend?”
“Oh, so he is your boyfriend now, is he?”
“Shut up!” Emily shouted.
The two turned to glare at her.
“Story?”
“Oh, right,” Carly turned back to Jessica. “Carry on.”
“Okay, so where was I?”
“By the lake!” Alice exclaimed.
The other four turned to her and gave her a look.
“Oh, right, in the story,” Alice mumbled slightly red.
“Carly made you stop and you had to say something,” Lily said.
“Oh yeah!” Jessica nodded.
The others waited for her to continue, but Jessica was too busy staring off into space.
“Jessie!”
“What?” Jessica jumped and turned to her friends as if just remembering they were there.
“So what’d you say?!” Lily asked.
“Oh, sorry,” Jessica apologized. “I didn’t know what to say so I kissed him instead.”
“What?!”
Jessica grinned widely, bouncing up and down on the bed. “Oh my gosh, yeah! It was amazing and all cliché and everything and, oh my God! I kissed Sirius Black!”
The five girls were shrieking and bouncing around excitedly for the second time that night.
“Okay, okay,” Emily said as they calmed down some more. “What’d you do after that?”
Jessica shrugged. “We kissed some more and then he asked me to be his girlfriend.”
More shrieking and bouncing.
“Oh, my God, Jessie! What’d you say?”
“What do you think?” Jessica rolled her eyes at Carly.
“Yes?”
“Yes!”
More shrieking.
After they had all taken deep breaths and calmed down some, they all fell back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling in silence.
“Okay,” Lily finally stood up. “Enough acting like 13-year-olds; it’s time to get out of these dresses and get to sleep.”
“We’re allowed to act like 13-year-olds,” Alice said. “This is her first boyfriend.”
“Gee, thanks, Ali,” Jessica rolled her eyes.
“Not that it would be had you not been in a coma forever, but considering the circumstances…”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Jessica also hopped off.
“I need to get to sleep and make sure this isn’t all an amazingly incredible dream that I don’t want to wake up from any time soon,” Lily said as she found her shorts and tank top she slept in.
“Oh trust me,” Emily said with a dreamy smile as the others started getting changed as well, “the way Remus kissed me, this night is no dream.”
“Amen,” Jessica nodded in agreement, thinking of Sirius.

“She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said yes! She said –“
“I kissed her! I kissed her! I kissed her! I kissed her! I kissed her!”
James immediately shut up and turned to Sirius who had walked into the dormitory sporting a wide smile.
“Thank you,” Remus sighed. “He was getting really annoying.”
“You what?!”
Sirius smiled sheepishly. “Well, she kissed me first but –“
“Jessica?”
Sirius nodded.
“The my sister one?”
Another nod.
“The Jessica one?”
“Please don’t hurt me!” Sirius exclaimed. “I mean, if we’re dating then we’re gonna kiss.”
“So you’re together?” James asked.
“Yes,” Sirius nodded.
“Congrats, mate” Peter called, “We were so right, weren’t we?”
Sirius glared. “Shut up.”
Peter shrugged and went back to his stuff.
“So, you and my sister, huh?’ James said, turning back to Sirius.
“Hey, look,” Sirius held his hands up, “you said it was okay and I really like her and –“
“Yeah, but I didn’t actually think you’d manage to work up the courage to ask her!” James exclaimed.
Sirius gave him one of those “what the heck?!” looks. “What the ****!?”
James sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just need to get used to the idea.”
Sirius nodded. “Understandable.”
The two got changed and ready for bed.
“Oh, and Padfoot?”
“Yeah?” he looked over to James.
“If you hurt my sister, you’re dead.”
Sirius groaned. “Oh, come on, Prongs! Not the speech! Do you really think I’d do that?”
“Hey, look, she’s my sister and I love her to death so if –“
“James!”
“It’s either me or all the others tomorrow,” James said, referring to the rest of the Potter family.
Sirius paled slightly. “Uh…”
“Just, Sirius, you know Jessica. I mean, the Healers said that she’s going to be a bit lost and what not, and I know she’s much better now, but just keep an eye on her, okay?”
“Are you done yet?” Sirius sighed.
“She’s my sister, Sirius,” James repeated. “Just be careful.”
“Do you really think I would let anything ever happen to her?” Sirius asked sincerely.
James sighed. “No, but –“
“Relax, Prongs,” Sirius interrupted.
James glared. “Fine.”
“Okay,” Remus said. “Now you, James.”
“What?” He turned to find Remus and Peter giving him very serious looks.
“You are officially going out with Lily.”
James nodded.
“So, don’t screw it up,” Peter said.
“Or we’ll have to hunt you down,” Sirius told him very seriously.
“Before she does,” Remus added.
“Um…”
“Because she’s our friend too and we like her better than you,” Sirius told him.
“Why are you all ganging up on me?!” James exclaimed. “Why didn’t Remus ever get attacked?!”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Sirius said, giving Remus a severe look. “He did.”
“And you two!” Remus shouted, dumping water from his wand on Frank and Kyle who had been completely out of it after their dates.
“What the –“
“What was that for?!”
“These are good clothes!”
“I don’t particularly care much for your new clothes right now,” Remus glared.
“What did we do!?” Frank exclaimed.
“Oh, trust me,” Sirius said. “You want to hear this from us before all of Alice’s Auror family.”
Frank paled.
James nodded. “Don’t go thinking you’re safe just because they’re not here.”
“You’re always being watched.”
Frank gulped. “Is Alice’s Auror family as mean as you guys?”
“No,” Peter said. “But there’s a lot of them, and they’re big and their Aurors.”
“Right, um…”
“I’m on their side,” Kyle said. “You might not want to risk breaking up with her.”
“Oh, don’t think you got off,” James rounded on Kyle. “If Cassie gets hurt, I won’t be happy. And when I’m not happy, I’m no fun.”
“I-I…”
“I’m supposed to be looking after her, and I take my job very seriously. And besides, Justin compared to Alice’s Auror brothers is…well, nicely, he’s just mean.”
Kyle nodded jerkily with a scared expression on his face.
They all stood in silence for a moment, until Peter decided to finish this all up.
“Since I’m single, I got plenty of time to hunt down people. It’s not too hard to murder a person in his sleep…”
“Okay, okay!” Frank cried out. “No broken hearts, I swear!”
“Alright then,” James smiled suddenly. “We should be getting to sleep. We go home tomorrow!”
The others all nodded in agreement and got prepared for bed.
“Hey, Sirius,” Kyle said quietly. “Are you scared?’
Sirius looked over at James and shook his head. “No, not really. I got of really easy.”
“Did you?”
Sirius jumped and turned to face James’s murderous glare.
“List of top six most important people to me. In no particular order,” he added giving Kyle a look. “Stacey, Sophie, Lauren, my mom, Lily, Jessica, and Carly. Got it?”
“Aw, I’m not important to you?” Remus asked.
James sent him a glare.
“Sorry.”
James turned back to Sirius a Kyle. “Good night.”
They both nodded and quickly climbed into their beds.
“I’m going to have nightmares tonight,” Kyle mumbled.
“Don’t turn them into reality.”

“Oh, my gosh, I’m going to miss these!” Jessica sighed as she took another bite of chocolate chip pancakes.
“How do you eat so much sugar so early in the morning?” Lily asked, eyeing the syrup.
“It’s good!”
Lily shook her head at her.
“She’s in love with chocolate,” Carly said. “I still remember when she went through a stage and she wouldn’t eat anything that didn’t have chocolate in it.”
“Oh yeah,” Jessica sighed. “That was a good tasting week.”
“A good tasting week?” Alice asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jessica nodded.
Alice only shrugged and took another bite of toast.
“But you know,” Jessica said as she drenched her second pile of pancakes in syrup, “I have had better pancakes.”
“Really,” Emily asked. “Where?”
“I can’t remember,” Jessica shook her head. “I wish I could though. Those were really good pancakes. With a lot of chocolate.”
“Cookie?” Carly asked.
Jessica shook her head. “Ate those for a month after I got back home. Third best.”
“Lucky.”
Jessica paused with the fork halfway to her mouth, but then shook her head and put the pancake in her mouth. She swallowed and cut another piece as she said, “I haven’t had those forever; I’m talking about pancake after I woke up. Lucky’s fourth best, followed by my mom.”
“I’m telling you,” Alice said, “house elves make the best food; can’t beat ‘em.”
Jessica shrugged. “Haven’t eaten food made by any house elf other than Hogwarts, Cookie, and Lucky.”
“Maybe you were dreaming,” Emily suggested.
“Nope; you can’t dream up such great taste.”
“Are we really discussing pancakes?” Lily asked.
The others nodded.
Lily only shook her head and went back to her eggs as the others continued to try and figure out Jessica’s mystery pancake maker.
“Morning!”
Lily spun around to find James smiling at her as he took a seat next to her, the rest of the boys following behind.
As Remus, Peter, and Frank sat down, Lily noticed Sirius and Kyle hesitate, shooting nervous looks over at James.
“What’s wrong with them?’ Lily asked.
Remus laughed. “Prongs here is having loads of fun.”
“Hey,” James defended. “This is serious business. I have to lay down the law.”
“Could you do that without the death threats?”
“What about Wormtail!?” James exclaimed pointing to Peter who shrugged. “’It’s not too hard to murder a person in his sleep?’What about that!?”
“Peter didn’t wake up and continue glaring at us for the amusement of seeing his friends be afraid of him,” Frank pointed out.
“Oh, come on!” James exclaimed. “You can’t tell me that this isn’t hilarious!” he motioned towards Sirius and Kyle who were still standing, whispering to each other and shooting James nervous looks.
“It is funny,” Remus nodded, “but if Sirius is too scared to eat now, you know he’ll steal all of our food on the train.”
“Five more minutes,” James proposed.
Remus rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
James smiled happily and glared at Sirius and Kyle again, who took an unconscious step back and looked away.
“Um, why exactly are you threatening them?’ Lily asked.
“Oh, we had to give each other the speech last night. I scared them all,” James announced proudly.
“Oh, you weren’t scared?” Remus asked with a look on his face.
“No.”
Remus, Frank, and Peter all glared at him venomously.
Lily watched slightly amusedly as the color began to slowly drain from James’s face and his expression got more scared.
“Okay, okay!” James cried, looking away from them. “Lily, swear to me if I every hurt you, you’ll kill me before they do?”
“Oh,” Lily blushed, “that speech. Um, yeah sure.”
James smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
They ate in silence, Sirius and Kyle still standing nervously.
“What are they talking about?” Peter asked, motioning to the rest of the girls who still hadn’t acknowledged the boys’ presence.
“Something about pancakes,” Lily replied, rolling her eyes.
Remus raised an eyebrow.
“They’re trying to figure out Jessica’s Mystery Pancake Maker.”
“Alright then,” Remus turned away.
“Jessica once ate really good pancakes, but she can’t remember who made them.”
“Oh, okay.” The boys nodded
“Hey, you think they deserve a break now, James,” Frank asked, motioning to Sirius and Kyle.
James looked over too and sighed. “Oh, alright. Padfoot, Tylers!”
They jumped and turned to him nervously.
“Hungry?”
The two carefully analyzed James’s expression and looked hesitantly at each other.
“I’m not going to kill you.”
“Okay then,” Sirius grinned and the two boys approached the table.
Kyle sat in the empty seat across from Lily and Sirius sat down across from Jessica.
“Morning Jess!” he smiled.
Jessica jumped as the girls abruptly ended their conversation.
“That’s me.”
“Oh, of course, Sirius!” Jessica exclaimed, turning excitedly back to the girls. “You guys it’s Sirius!”
“Yeah, I see him,” Carly said.
“No!” Jessica exclaimed. “Sirius is the Awesome Pancake Maker!”
Sirius’s smile faltered. “Uh, what?”
“Don’t worry,” Alice laughed. “Frank told me all about your ‘hidden talent.’”
Sirius glared at Frank who shrugged.
“Sirius cooks?” Carly raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“And nothing gets burnt down?” Emily added.
“No, that’s James,” Remus informed them.
James glared at him, but Remus ignored him.
“Sirius, will you make me chocolate chip pancakes when we get home?”
“Uh…”
“Please!” Jessica begged.
Sirius sighed. “Fine.”
“Yay!” Jessica cheered.
“Why did she have to beg?’ Sirius grumbled.

The Hogwarts Express had almost reached Platform 9¾ when James realized a major catastrophe.
“Sirius!” James exclaimed. “We forgot to plan a prank!”
Major catastrophe in the Marauders’ opinion.
Sirius blinked at him a couple times, neither noticing the girls rolling their eyes at them.
“Oh, no, you’re right,” Sirius gasped.
James and Sirius liked to prank the Potter family every Christmas holiday when they came home. This year, it had completely slipped their minds to plan something.
This was not good.
In their opinion.
“We have to go plan one, quick,” James said hurriedly. He tried to stand, but Lily, who was settled in his lap laying a game of Exploding Snap with Alice and Emily wasn’t moving.
“Lily! We need to plan our prank!”
Lily shook her head. “I’m sure your family will make it.”
“But –“
“I don’t want to move.”
James fell silent and stared at her. Then, he sighed deeply. “Well, if that’s how you feel…”
“It is,” Lily nodded as she threw down a card.
“Oh well,” Sirius shrugged sitting back in his seat. “Not like I can move anyway.” He motioned to Jessica who had fallen asleep with her head resting on his chest.
Remus snorted. “More like you don’t want to move.”
Sirius shrugged and motioned to James who only shrugged back and watched as the cards blew up in Alice’s face.
Sirius looked down at Jessica with a slight smile on his face, one arm wrapped around her.
James gasped suddenly. “I know!”
“What?” Frank raised an eyebrow at him.
“I know what our prank could be!”
“Really?” Sirius jerked his head up. “What?”
“Remember how in the beginning of the year, we all pretended I wasn’t related to Jessie?”
“Except someone forgot to pass the message on to me,” Lily added bitterly.
“Sorry, Sweetheart,” James said quickly. “But remember?”
Sirius nodded.
“Okay, so how about we use that and twist it around a bit?”
Sirius raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure your family will recognize her.”
“No,” James shook his head quickly. “I mean, how ‘bout we don’t tell anyone you’re dating and see how long it takes them to figure it out.”
Sirius looked at him skeptically. “Is it really that not obvious?”
James shook his head. “No! “You’re not supposed to make it obvious!” he rolled his eyes. “You’re hiding it!”
Sirius stared at him blankly for a second.
“No,” he said, turning away.
“Oh, but Padfoot!” James cried. “It’ll be so funny when they work it out!”
“That’s what we said last time but the truth didn’t come out so pretty that time, did it?”
The whole compartment was suddenly silent and still.
“I-I didn’t mean it like that,” Sirius broke the silence quietly.
James shook his head. “Never mind. Consider yourself forgiven…if you let me do this.”
“James!” Lily scolded.
“What?” he shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
“I’m not going to agree.”
“We’re here, here, you guys,” Carly said as the train started to slow.
Sirius turned to Jessica and slightly shook her. “Jess, wake up.”
She shifted slightly but didn’t wake up.
“Jessica!” he said a little louder.
She moved again but still didn’t open her eyes, but Sirius knew she was awake.
He sighed. “Come on, get up; we’re here.”
“I don’t want to!” she whined.
“If you get stuck on the train, you won’t get to see your family.”
Jessica’s eyes snapped open and she sat up, looking around at all the others who were getting their things packed up to get off the train.
“Hey, Jessie,” James said. “Will you help me out with a prank?”
Jessica shrugged. “Sure, what do I have to do?”
“Pretend you’re not with Sirius.”
Jessica stared at him blankly.
Sirius sighed. “He wants to prank your family.”
“Oh!” Jessica exclaimed, nodding with understanding. “No.”
“Oh, come on, Jessie!” James exclaimed. “Don’t make me beg!”
“Too late,” Kyle coughed.
“Hey, if I were you, I wouldn’t make me angry,” James glared at him.
“Leave him alone, James,” Carly sighed.
“Whatever,” James turned back to Jessica. “Come on, please? It’s only around everyone else.”
Jessica shook her head again as the train came to a complete stop.
“I’ll let you call me Jamie.”

“I can’t believe you agreed to that,” Sirius shook his head as he, Jessica, and James set off in search of a Potter.
Jessica shrugged. “I get to call him Jamie and get free drawings whenever I want.”
Sirius sighed. “I won’t even make you make me pancakes,” Jessica told Sirius.
Sirius only shook his head. “The rest of the kids will,” he sighed. “They always do.”
“I see dad over there,” James pointed.
“I don’t see him,” Jessica looked where he was pointing.
“Right there,” James sighed impatiently.
“Where?”
“Da –“
“Wait!” Jessica stopped James from calling their dad over. “Is he looking?”
“No,” James shook his head.
Jessica pulled Sirius into a kiss until James cleared his throat impatiently.
“Last kiss,” Jessica shrugged.
“I’d rather not have to see that,” James shook his head.
“You could have looked away,” Sirius pointed out.
James ignored him and led them to where he had seen Jake.
“Daddy!” Jessica suddenly exclaimed, finally having spotted him, and ran into his arms.
“Hey, Sweetie!” he hugged. “How was it?”
“Great!” Jessica exclaimed.
“So, any boyfriends I need to scare?”
“Uh…”
“No,” James said quickly.
His dad gave him a look.
“Honestly, she has no boyfriends that you need to scare. Besides, I’m really good at the scaring thing,” James boasted. “Just ask Cassie’s boyfriend.”
“Carly has a boyfriend?” Jake asked.
James nodded.
“Do I get to scare him?” Jake asked, going into protective “uncle” mode.
“We already did that,” Sirius said proudly.
James nodded. “He was so scared; he was having nightmares, and he was afraid to eat breakfast this morning,” he laughed. “And, he wasn’t the only one.”
Sirius faltered slightly.
“Aww, poor Kyle,” Jessica said. “I can’t believe you gave him nightmares.”
“Well, he was being sarcastic,” Sirius said.
James ignored him. “So, are we going, dad?”
Jake nodded distractedly, looking around the station.
“Uh, dad? What are you looking for?”
“So, this boy, Carly’s boyfriend, is he a good kid?”
Jessica laughed. “Kyle’s great, except he doesn’t like me.” Jessica’s smile fell.
“Why not?" her dad’s head snapped back to her.
“I annoy him.”
“You annoy everyone, Jessie,” James laughed.
“Do not!” Jessica argued.
“No, it’s true,” Sirius nodded. “They all say so.”
“Do I annoy you?’ Jessica asked.
Sirius sighed. “I wish. I’m stuck with Prongs in my head all the time.”
“What’s wrong with me?” James asked.
“Nothing,” Sirius shrugged. “I just like Jessica better.”
Jessica smiled smugly at James. “See, everyone likes me better than you, Jamie.”
“Right, and now I’m lost,” Jake said.
“Oh, you see, we all discovered this year that we all have this annoying little voice in our head that tells us what to do and annoys us to death. For most of them, it’s Jessica, but I got stuck with James,” Sirius explained.
“Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Jake nodded. “I had Maddie in my head for almost a month telling me to stop moping after the whole…thing.”
Jessica smiled sadly as James and Sirius exchanged looks.
“So, uh, let’s go?” Jessica asked.
Jake nodded. “I just want to see this boy…”
James laughed. “So, what would you do if Jessica had a boyfriend?”
“Beat him up,” Jake said distractedly, looking around the station.
Sirius shuffled slightly away from him with a worried expression.
Jessica only rolled her eyes. “Do you even know who you’re looking for?”
“No.”
“Oh, look, there he is!” James pointed.
“Where?” Jake spun around to where James was pointing.
“Frank! Kyle!” James shouted.
The two boys turned and waved.
“Come here!” James shouted.
They exchanged looks but walked over, leaving their trunks with Frank’s crazy mom.
“What’s up?” Frank asked as they approached.
“It’s one of them?” Jake pointed.
James nodded.
“Ugh! Why?”
Jessica raised an eyebrow at him.
“I can’t dislike them.”
“Why does he want to dislike us?” Kyle asked.
“Actually, just you,” James said.
“Him!?”
Sirius nodded.
“Uh, why?”
“Are you dating Carly?” Jake rounded on him.
Kyle face morphed from confused to scared as he nodded.
“Just like last night!”James exclaimed as Frank laughed.
“Oh, James!” Jessica scolded. “Dad, stop, being mean.”
Kyle nodded again. “Y-yeah. I thought I was supposed to be afraid of her brother.”
“Oh, you are,” Jake told him, his expression going back to normal. “Good luck!”
“Thanks,” Kyle said sarcastically. “Can we go now?”
Jessica nodded. “Bye!”
Both boys hugged her and waved. “See you guys in a couple weeks.”
They nodded and waved back.
“’Kay, can we go now?”
“Sure,” Jake nodded. “We’re apperating outside the house.”
James and Sirius nodded and disappeared, reappearing in front of the giant mansion, Jake and Jessica appearing a second after.
“Come on,” Jake said, turning to the boys.
The three teens followed him to the front door. Jake put a hand on the doorknob but caught sight of Jessica out of the corner of her eye and snapped his head over.
“Not you!” he exclaimed.
“What –“
Jake grabbed his daughter’s hand and dragged her to the side. “Wait here,” he commanded before turning his back on her and marching back up to the front steps where the two boys were exchanging confused looks.
“What about Jess –“
“Pretend she doesn’t exist for a few minutes,” Jake said, pushing the door open and leading them in. “I think everyone’s in the kitchen.”
James and Sirius raised their eyebrows at his back before dropping their trunks in the entrance and following him to the kitchen.
As Jake had said, everyone was in the kitchen.
Amy, Aunt Katherine, and Aunt Lena were helping Cookie with dinner which was a big deal because of James, Sirius, and Jessica’s homecoming.
James’s Uncles, John and Jared, were talking at the kitchen table.
Stacey and Sophie were sitting at the other end of the table, coloring with a big box of Muggle crayons in front of them with another one of James’s cousins, Tyler.
James’s older cousins, Elizabeth, Chloe, and Josh being older siblings to Maria and Mark, who were 15 and 13, and teasing them about one thing or another.
When they saw the James, Sirius, and Jake enter, everyone got all excited just because they were Potters and that’s what they did every time they saw someone after an year.
After everyone was done being excited and had all settled down, Amy turned to her husband and asked, “Where’s Je –“
“Shut up!” Jake hissed at her. “Do you want to ruin everything?”
“What’s happened?” Jared asked his brother.
“Nothing, nothing,” Jake shook his head.
Katherine raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t believe you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you spent the last two days being way too overly excited about James and Sirius coming home,” she replied. “You’re never that excited.”
Lena nodded her head in agreement. “Except for back in school when you had a really big prank planned.”
“You think I’m about to prank you?” Jake asked. “The boys have already taken over for that.”
Josh got really excited as he asked, “What’s the prank? When are you doing it?”
James rolled his eyes. “We can’t tell you. Just be patient.”
“He’s not patient, remember?” Maria asked. “He’s an idiot.”
“Am not!”
“Are too, you big idiot!”
“She’s mad at him for scaring away her boyfriend,” Mark told James and Sirius.
“Did he deserve it?’ James asked.
Mark shook his head. “No, I liked him. He wasn’t even a big chicken; he’ll be back.”
“And that’s the only thing keeping me from killing the idiot,” Maria glared at her older brother.
“No, I did a pretty good job,” Josh said.
“We’re moving away from the topic of discussion!” John exclaimed. “Are you planning a prank, Jake?”
“No!” Jake exclaimed. “I told you; James and Sirius are doing that!”
“If you mess with me, you’re dead, James,” Elizabeth threatened.
“Or me,” Chloe added.
“Oh, no, you’ll love this one,” James smirked. “Don’t worry.”
“What is it?” Josh exclaimed.
“I told you; I can’t tell you!” James exclaimed. “But you won’t be happy,” he added.
“I won’t?” Josh’s face fell.
“Nope,” James shook his head. “And neither will dad or Uncle John or Uncle Jared and maybe Mark.”
“What is it?” Jared asked suspiciously.
“Not telling!” James smirked.
“Sirius?”
Sirius didn’t answer. “Will they really be that mad?” he asked James nervously.
“Ha, knew you were scared!” James laughed. “Their Potters.”
“Right, um…” Sirius’s gaze fell on the clock and his eyes widened. “Holy, ****! She’s been outside for over 10 minutes!” he turned on his heal and ran out of the kitchen.
“She’s outside?!” Amy shrieked. “Are you crazy, Jake! It’s freezing out their!”
“If she gets sick, mom’s going to kill you, dad,” James said. “And Sirius; he dragged her outside last night during the dance.”
“He did?” Jake asked. “Why?”
“James shrugged nonchalantly. “Something about snow; I don’t know. They get along really well; I think I’ve been replaced as best friend.”
“Who are we talking about?” Chloe asked.
Before anyone could reply, there were voices heard in the hallway.
“I’m telling you, I’m not going to get sick!”
“Your dad is crazy. Why he made you stand outside for ten minutes, I don’t know. It’s not like the shock is going to get bigger if you wait ten minutes.”
“Sirius, dad is dad; that’s just the way he is.”
“Well, I know that; it’s a family thing.”
“Yeah – no wait, does that include me?”
“Are you a Potter?”
“Yes.”
“Then, yes, it does,”
“Hey!”
“Come on, everyone’s just dying in there.”
“Why was I stuck outside, again?”
“Your dad got over excited about surprising the rest of your family. Come on, move!”
“But what if –“
She was cut off as Sirius dragged Jessica into the kitchen.
There was a shocked silence as Potters stared at Jessica with wide eyes.
“Surprise!” Jake broke the silence with a wide silence.
“Is that –“
“Yes! But how –“
“How come we didn’t know?”
“Are you sure it’s her?”
“It is! I think it is. Is it?”
“But that doesn’t –“
“Jessica?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, my God!” Lena shrieked and attacked Jessica in a huge.
“Why does everyone try to kill me?” Jessica’s muffled voice asked. “Only Lauren and Stacey actually want me to live.”
“Oh, good Lord, she hasn’t changed,” Lena looked down at her with a frown.
“Thank you,” Jessica smiled sweetly.
After another round of hugs and “I can’t believe you’re here”s, everyone settled back down and the women returned to the kitchen and everyone started asking about the first term of the last year.
About 45 minutes later, James happened to look into the kitchen and he raised an eyebrow at all the food. “Has everyone’s appetite just doubled or something?”
“Oh, yeah, we forgot to tell you guys,” Amy said. "Lauran, Luke, and the Soames are coming for dinner.”
“Cassie’s coming?” Jessica asked excitedly.
Sirius laughed. “You guys said goodbye barely an hour ago.”
“So?” Jessica rounded on him. “Am I not allowed to be excited when my best friend comes for dinner?”
“Yeah, and Carly’s got a friend staying with her?”
Jessica nodded. “Emily.”
“Right, Emily Kenting,” Amy nodded.
Silence.
“What?”
“Like, Kenting?” Jared asked.
“Oh no,” James sighed.
“I’m just asking,” Jared said.
“Yes, Emily Kenting as in Kenting as in Gryffindor,” James said.
“You’re letting a Kenting in your house?” Jared asked his brother.
“Hi, my name is Sirius Black as in Black,” Sirius said.
Jared turned to him. “Oh, right, well I didn’t mean it like that. I mean the Death Eaters who murdered my sister –“
“Were not Emily,” James interrupted. “I swore to her that no one held anything against her, so you have to like her just fine.”
Jessica snorted. “You can’t not like Emily.”
Sirius nodded in agreement. “Emily’s too likeable for her own good.”
“Well, if you’re sure she’s not a Death Eater…”
“If Emily’s a Death Eater, I will never get another detention,” James said definitely.
“Great then,” Jared smiled suddenly. “So, Jess; got yourself a boyfriend?”
Sirius quietly shuffled away from him, looking down at his shoes.





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Chapter 43

“Lily!”
She was attacked by a flying mass, which she deduced was her friends, the second she stepped out of the car.
“Oh, my gosh, I’ve missed you so much!” Rebecca exclaimed.
“I missed you more!” Katie shouted.
“Not as much as me!” Rachel added.
“I missed you guys, too,” Lily laughed. “But I would love some air.”
The three girls stepped back and looked at Lily.
“You just keep getting hotter, Lils,” Rachel told her.
“And you keep getting taller,” Lily shot back.
“What about me!” Katie asked.
“You have become even more overexcited,” Lily informed her.
“Is that a good thing?” she asked.
Lily laughed.
“Becca was on time today,” Lily turned to her.
“Are you proud of me?” Rebecca asked with a proud smile.
Lily nodded. “Very.”
“Lily, get your things in the house!” Mrs. Evans shouted from the porch.
“Okay!” Lily shouted back before turning back to her friends. “Who’s house are we meeting at?”
“Yours,” Rachel replied.
“What –“
“We have noticed that you have stopped inviting us over, ever since disappearing to that special people school, so we’re going to fix that,” Rebecca informed her.
“You-you can’t!” Lily said quickly.
“Why not?” Rachel put her hands on her hips.
“Because…”
“Not good enough!” Katie exclaimed, running to the house.
“But –“
Rachel and Rebecca lifted Lily’s trunk and hurried after her.
Lily ran after them, hoping to overtake them. She rushed past Rebecca and Rachel, but Katie was still far ahead of her. she burst into the house, ignored Petunia, and ran up the stairs, coming to a halt in the hall where she saw Katie standing outside the door.
“It’s locked,” she frown at Lily.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief inside her head, remembering at she had magically locked the door before leaving that summer, in case Petunia decided to have a little fun.
“Oh, well, um, we’ll have to wait for dad to come home and open it,” Lily said. “That’s what I was going to tell you; mom was cleaning and she accidently locked the door behind her this morning, at least, that’s what she said in the car.”
Katie looked at her skeptically.
“Let’s go down and stop Rach and Becca before they tried to carry my trunk up the stairs,” Lily pulled her away from the door and down the stairs.
At the bottom of the staircase, Rachel and Rebecca were struggling with the trunk, and Lily couldn’t help but laugh.
“What have you put in here?” Rebecca glared up the stairs.
“Clothes and books,” Lily replied.
“Of course, she’d have books,” Rebecca rolled her eyes.
“They give us a lot of homework over the break,” Lily informed her, walking down the stairs.
“How are we going to get it up,” Rachel asked.
“We aren’t,” Lily replied.
“Why not?”
“Because her mom locked her bedroom door by mistake,” Katie answered her.
Rachel and Rebecca nodded slowly and set the trunk down.
“So, what now?” Rebecca asked.
“Kitchen?” Lily suggested.
The others nodded in agreement and the girls made their way to the kitchen where Lily’s mom was cutting a batch of brownies.
“Yum!” Katie exclaimed, hurrying over and taking a brownie.
“Yes, you may have some brownies, thank you for asking,” Mrs. Evans said sarcastically.
“Thank you, Laura!” Katie said through a mouth of brownie.
The others rolled their eyes and took brownies as well.
“If you want some hot chocolate, it’s in the cupboard,” Laura told them. “I have some food to buy. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
They all nodded.
“Bye mom!” Lily waved.
“Okay, so you have a lot to tell us about,” Rachel said to Lily.
“What do you want to know?” Lily asked.
“Did you make sure to write to us?” Rebecca asked.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes.”
“Did you say hi to Alice, Emily, and Carly for us?” Katie asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you try to loosen up?” Rebecca asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you give that poor boy James a chance?” Katie asked.
“Yes.”
“Ha, it worked!” Katie exclaimed jumping up and doing a happy dance.
Lily shook her head and blushed.
“Yeah, we so tricked you this time!”
“No, I just took your advice,” Lily blushed some more.
“What?” Rebecca asked.
“I, uh…”
“Lily,” Rachel said sternly.
“I agreed to go out with him!” Lily exclaimed, going even redder in the face.
The other three stared at her for a second before shrieking and jumping at her.
After a bunch of hugging and shrieking, similar to the night before in the dormitories, the three girls all took their seats at the table again and Rebecca handed Lily a brownie.
“This is your prize.”
Lily rolled her eyes and took it.
“So, how come you didn’t tell us about this?” Rachel asked.
“It only happen last night,” Lily said. “At the dance.”
“This is good,” Katie said.
“Very good,” Rachel agreed.
“Super good,” Rebecca added.
Lily raised an eyebrow at them.
“This means that you’re becoming more Lily-like,” Katie explained.
“Lily-like?”
“Yes,” Rebecca nodded. “Uptight Lily is not Lily. Happy Lily is Lily.”
“You guys are crazy,” Lily shook her head, taking another brownie.”
“You know you love us,” Katie smiled cheekily at her.

Jessica was swamped.
She’d been home for three days and her family was still going nuts over her.
Jessica spent plenty of time with Elizabeth and Chloe and she found that, though she loved them, they didn’t seem to be the most…interesting of her family.
The two sister were 22 and 20; Elizabeth was the older one, but they both acted about thirty. Jessica figured they got it from Aunt Katherine’s side of the family because Potters did not act that sophisticated.
Elizabeth and Chloe were those types of women from the high-class society that did the whole tea party thing, but they that whole debutant-with-the-good-life-that-was-sophisticated-
but-mean-at-the-same-time thing going.
Jessica didn’t hold it against them, but it admittedly got boring. She guessed that it was because that’s what Aunt Katherine’s family was, admittedly, she was a bit more rebellious which is why Jared fell for her, but the two girls had spent too much time with their grandmother as kids. According to James, they loosened up when they were here, but they went back being annoyingly perfect once they were back in America.
Maria on the other hand was “so thankful for female company that doesn’t drive me up the wall other than mom and Aunt Amy.”
Jessica sympathized with her younger cousins; talk about the high-class ball…thingy 24/7 for six Christmases straight must have been crazy-ing.
Maria usually spent most of her time with Josh, Mark, and James while Elizabeth and Chloe went off doing whatever it is they do, but she said that there was only so much you could take with only boys for company, and she was therefore grateful for Jessica’s company.
Aunt Lena was an older version of Jessica; the type of woman that would always be a teenage girl at heart, always laughing and joking and reminincing about the old days of driving Slytherins up the wall. Uncle John was almost only slightly bit more mature, and it was easy to see where Josh, Maria, Mark, and Tyler got their personalities from. They were Potters through-and-through; well, officially it was Heartman, but same thing.
Currently, Jessica and Maria were sitting across from Stacey and Sophie at the kitchen table, eating chocolate chip pancakes with a bunch of maple syrup all over them.
Three guesses who made them.
James, Josh, Mark, and Tyler, being males with Potter blood, were banned from the part of the kitchen with all the appliances and stuck watching Sirius make their pancakes from the stools at the counter.
“Oh, wait, Jessica, Jessica!” Maria said excitedly. “She plays Quidditch!”
“Nope,” Jessica shook her head again, taking another bite of pancake.
“Will you stop doing that?” James sighed exasperatedly.
Both girls ignored him.
“I don’t get it,” Maria shook her head. “Head Girl, follows rules, doesn’t approve of pranks, doesn’t play Quidditch, why does James like her? It’s worse than Aunt Kathy.”
“Head Boy right here!”
“No, it’s not even close to Aunt Kathy,” Jessica said. “Lily doesn’t disapprove of pranks, she just restricts them more than we do, and she doesn’t necessarily mind other people breaking rules, she just has never seen any reason to make a huge infraction herself.”
Maria blinked at her and then shrugged. “Still don’t see it.” She popped another piece of pancake in her mouth and turned to the kitchen. “These are really good.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius muttered.
The adults had opted to wait for the last minute to do their Christmas shopping so they were all currently in Diagon Alley trying to find the right gifts for everybody four days before Christmas.
Elizabeth and Chloe had gotten up early and disappeared to who knows where, so when the rest woke up around noon, they immediately begged Sirius for pancakes for brunch and he begrudgingly obliged after Jessica gave him her puppy dog face.
“Is there anything they have in common?” Maria turned back to Jessica who shook her head again.
“It’s because she’s got the whole good-girl-that’s-not-actually-good thing going,” Sirius said.
“Really?” Maria asked. “I was under the impression that Miss Evans was a good girl.”
“That’s what she wants you to think,” Sirius replied. “She forgot about going to her patrols the other day because she was having way too much fun talking to me.”
“Ohhh!” Maria exclaimed nodding as if everything had fallen into place. “James likes her because she’s brain damaged!”
“Where did you get that from?” Mark asked.
“She was enjoying the company of Sirius?” Maria scoffed. “Something’s wrong with that girl.”
“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, rounding on her. “People enjoy my company!”
“And they’re all Potters,” Maria pointed out. “She fits perfectly, James.”
James blushed, but didn’t reply, too interested in his pancakes.
“What about Remus and Peter and Frank and Kyle and Emily and Carly and Alice?” Sirius asked.
“Worthy of being honorary Potters,” Maria shrugged, finishing off the last bit of her pancakes and getting up from the table. She took the plate and put it in the sink where it began to magically clean it’s self, and then, she went back and hopped up onto the table.
“I wonder,” Sirius said, sending an ever so tiny discreet smirk at Jessica, “what would be the condition a girl might be suffering from if she were dating me?”
“Other than your previous snogging partners?’
“A really girlfriend that I actually like.”
Maria scoffed. “If, there was any girl that screwed up, I don’t think there is an existing diagnostic for her.”
Jessica made a face at the back of Maria’s head when no one was looking while Sirius tried to contain laughter and James said, “I agree.”
“You don’t have a girlfriend you’re not telling us about, do you?” Maria asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Finally!” Josh exclaimed. “You haven’t had many girlfriends, you know.”
“Is she hot?” Mark asked excitedly.
“Of course she is,” Josh scoffed. “Why else would he be dating her?”
“Is she nice?”
“Who cares? Do we get to meet her?”
“We met Kristy at Diagon Alley once, but that’s it. She was nice,” Mark said.
“And hot,” Josh added.
“Is that all you think about?”
“No,” Josh shook her head. “She has to be a good kisser. Is she a good kisser?” he asked Sirius.
Sirius was too busy making pancakes to reply.
“Who said he has a girlfriend?” James asked quickly while Jessica sat there and did a lot of blushing.
“He doesn’t?” Mark’s face fell.
“No one said he does,” James repeated.
“So he has a girlfriend and doesn’t want to tell us,” Maria smirked at the back of his head.
“No one said that!” James cried.
“But no one denied it either.”
“Is she hot James?” Josh asked.
“I do not feel comfortable answering that question,” James replied, going red.
Josh gave him a weird look before turning to Sirius. “Is she hot?”
“I’m done!” Jessica announced, jumping up from her chair and quickly taking the plate to the sink.
“I’m not staying for the answer.” James left his plate on the counter and turned to leave with Jessica.
There was silence for a moment.
“Well?”
“No one wants anymore pancakes, right?”
Sirius walked away without waiting for a reply.

“Great job with not blowing it!” James snapped at Sirius as he entered the living room.
“You’re the one who gave it away!” Sirius exclaimed.
“Well, I’m sure you and Jessie did plenty enough blushing to give it all away!”
“I personally don’t particularly care whether or not they find out,” Sirius shot back. “This was your prank. I’d rather not have to do this.”
“I think you would,” James replied back. “That way you don’t have to tell them all right away and have an excuse for it.”
“I’m not scared!”
“Sure,” James rolled his eyes.
Sirius didn’t reply.
“Hey, where’d Jessica go?” Maria walked in.
“Oh, she went up to her room to do something,” James shrugged.
“Okay then,” Maria shrugged. “James, you still owe me a rematch.”
James smirked and walked to the Wizards’ Chess set in the corner of the room. “You ready to lose?”
“I beat you last time,” Maria rolled her eyes as she sat down across from him.
James faltered. “I – you cheated!”
“Whatever you say James.”
They set up the board and began the game.
Sirius got bored before the first move.
“I’m going to go find something to do,” Sirius stood and left.
He ended up in the kitchen again, no surprise there, to find Josh and Mark fighting over the last pancake.
“Sirius!” Josh exclaimed seeing him. “Make him give me the pancake!”
“Make me another pancake!” Mark said.
“No and no,” Sirius said, turning to walk back out.
As he passed a window on his way out an elegant eagle owl tapped on it and Sirius let it in.
The owl flew to Josh and dropped a letter on his empty plate before settling on the back of a chair.
Josh immediately gave up the pancake and quickly tore open the letter.
“Who’s it from?” Mark asked through a mouth full of pancake.
Josh didn’t reply, too immersed in the letter.
“Josh?”
No reply.
“Josh!”
Still no reply.
Mark got annoyed and made to grab the letter out of his hands, finally getting a reaction.
“What?!”
“Who’s it from?” Mark repeated.
Josh rolled his eyes. “No one you know; a friend from back home.”
“I know all your friends,” Mark replied.
“Not this one,” Josh said, going back to the letter. “I met this one in training last summer.”
“We hear about all your friends when you first meet them,” Mark frowned. “Why haven’t I heard about this one?”
Josh was too into the letter to respond.
Mark got annoyed and went to grab the letter again, getting it this time.
“Hey!”
Mark ignored him and began to read.
“Give it back!” Josh exclaimed.
Mark stood on the counter, still reading the letter, his face going into a wider and wider smirk.
Josh made to stand on his own stool, but he was too tall and couldn’t draw himself to his full height.
“Mark!”
“Why’s there shouting?” Jessica returned with James and Maria behind her.
“Mark stole Josh’s letter,” Sirius replied, watching with amusement as Josh stood hunched over and tried to grab the letter back from a smirking Mark.
Maria pulled out her wand and summoned the letter to her.
“Hey!”
Maria ignored her brothers and looked down at the letter.
“You can’t do that!” Josh exclaimed.
Maria snorted. “What, with 11 overage witches and wizards currently staying here?”
Josh jumped down from his stole and snatched the letter away from Maria, who was smirking, and shoved it into his pocket.
“What is it?” James asked.
“Josh has got a girlfriend that actually writes to him,” Mark smirked, “that no one knew about and he’s been with her since this summer.”
“Is she hot, Josh,” Maria smirked, “and a good kisser?”
Josh glared at the smirking faces and stalked off.
“Who would have thought?” Mark got down and put his empty plate in the sink.
“It’s good for him,” Maria said. “His girlfriends, if you can call them that, usually last for barely a day if their lucky and they’re all disgusting.”
Maria made a face but then smirked. “I love this!”

“Where is everyone?”
Jessica and Maria looked up to find Elizabeth and Chloe in the entrance way to the kitchen.
“Grown-ups are buying Christmas presents, boys are playing Quidditch, and Munchkins are locked in Stacey’s room,” Jessica replied.
Chloe nodded and sat next to Maria at the counter.
“Why is this family always in the kitchen?” Elizabeth asked, taking another seat next to Jessica.
“Because we’re Potters,” Maria said. “This is where the food is.”
“And yet, we’re not fat.”
“Do you realize how much Quidditch we play?” Maria asked. “You can’t be a Potter without being outstanding at Quidditch.”
“Thanks,” Chloe said sarcastically.
“You’ve never tried Quidditch before,” Jessica reasoned “Your mom instilled a way too good-girl thingy in you.”
Maria nodded in agreement. “You’re defaming the Potters.”
The two sisters glared at their cousins.
“You know we’re kidding, right?”
“Didn’t sound like it,” Chloe huffed.
“That’s because you’re forgetting this Potter mannerism,” Jessica explained. “I mean, I was in a coma for over 10 years I still got it.”
“Well, you know what?” Elizabeth glared some more. “Apparently, you people have forgotten that dad is adopted so we technically have none of that ‘Potter blood’ to make us all immature.”
Before either of the other two could say anything, Elizabeth and Chloe were gone.
Jessica turned to Maria. “Uncle Jared’s adopted?”
Maria nodded and frowned. “It was a big revelation for a us kids a few years back, so now, whenever we bug Lizzy and Chloe about their lack of Potterism, they bring that one out and walk away.”
Jessica frowned too. “But why?”
Maria shrugged. “I guess they think they don’t fit in and everyone’s picking on them for it.”
“But we all love them for it,” Jessica reasoned. “If we were all screwed up, this house would be ash.”
Maria laughed and nodded.
“But it’s also that they feel that by ‘forgetting’ we don’t really care much or something.”
Jessica frowned again. “If everyone forgets so often that they think of him as a ‘True Potter’ than why is that bad? Isn’t it good that he’s so accepted?”
Maria shrugged. “That’s what I thought. I mean, it was sort of like Lauren, except grandma and grandpa went and made it official because he was only like, three, or something.”
“Wow,” Jessica sighed.
Maria nodded. “Sorry, we forgot you didn’t know.”
Jessica shrugged. “A lot of people do that about a lot of things.”
“Sorry,” Maria gave her a sympathetic smile.
“Never mind,” Jessica shook her head. “Back to what I was saying before they got here.”
Maria went red and looked down.
“Oh, come on!” Jessica exclaimed. “I don’t even know the guy!”
“But if you say anything to Josh, it’ll be over before it started,” Maria said.
“He’s in no position to talk,” Jessica said.
“I still can’t believe he has a girlfriend,” Maria shook her head. “No one expected that from him at all.”
“That’s what I’ve been told,” Jessica said. “The likability for that was supposed to be right up there with James and Lily getting together, but that did happen.”
Maria nodded in agreement. “It was about as unlikely as Sirius getting another girlfriend he actually like. Apparently, Kristy and Sammy were the only sane girls in the school that were actually available seeing as the rest were apparently ‘claimed.’ He already decided he didn’t like Sammy, so that left no one in the school.”
Jessica only nodded, Maria not noticing her going red again and paying too much attention to the counter top.
“I say he comes to America,” Maria continued. “There are plenty of normal girls there; all the ones Josh hasn’t already ‘dated.’”
Jessica still didn’t reply.
Maria frown and looked at her. “You alright?”
Jessica jumped and nodded. “Great!”
“You’re acting weird again, just like breakfast.”
“I’m not acting weird, and I wasn’t at breakfast either,” Jessica argued.
“I think something’s up and I’m going to find out what,” Maria told her.
“You changed the subject again!” Jessica exclaimed.
“So did you,” Maria pointed out.
“Come on, back to original topic of conversation,” Jessica sighed.
“It’s just this guy in the year above named Jason Greene,” Maria muttered, looking back down.
“So, why haven’t you said anything to him?” Jessica asked impatiently.
“He happens to be one of my best friends’ older brother,” Maria replied.
“So?”
“There’s a rule about this kind of stuff,” Maria told her.
“There is?”
Maria nodded.
“No matter what?”
“Yeah, unless the best friend decided to make an infraction.”
“Oh good,” Jessica sighed in relief.
Maria raised an eyebrow at her. “What?”
Jessica faltered slightly and looked up at her. “Oh, nothing,” she said quickly. “Just, you know…you have a chance now.”
“I do?”
Jessica nodded. “Yeah, if she’s a good friend, she’ll make an infraction thingy.”




Okay, the next chapter is one of the ones I’ve been excited about.
Wanna know why?
Well, you have to wait for the next chapter, so ha!
The more reviews I get, the sooner you get to find out, because guess what?
I already wrote it!


http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

I would have posted this sooner, but I sorta redid it, slightly, but this is the chapter I was excited about, so enjoy!



Chapter 45

“Dinner!”
Barely a minute after the magically magnified voice of Amy Potter rang through the house, the dining room was packed.
After all, they were Potters.
Just like they had been doing all week, everyone was stuffing themselves with food and half of them were also trying to talk which resulted in a lot of disgusted looks from Elizabeth and Chloe.
The Potters were all supper excited because Christmas was on Sunday and it was currently Wednesday.
James still couldn’t believe that Sirius and Jessica had lasted so long without giving away their relationship, though there had been a few close calls and Maria was getting suspicious while Aunt Lena kept looking at the pair funny and Amy was asking Jessica about boys more often and bugging Sirius about his “secret girlfriend,” though no one had actually confirmed that there actually was one.
As James looked across the table, he knew that Sirius and Jessica were holding hands under the table and he just had to roll his eyes. His family really was thick for the most part.
Next to him, Chloe and Mark were fighting over the treacle tart on the plate in between them, neither one wanting to ask someone to pass the plate of fresh treacle tart on the other side of the table.
Maria was, again, bugging Josh about his new girlfriend, but he still refused to speak, much to the amusement of his parents.
As dinner eventually came to an end, the Potters slowly made their way out into the family room, gathered around the Christmas tree, sitting back and relaxing as had become ritual.
It was close to midnight and Jake, Jared, and John were in a heated debate over who had gotten the most beautiful daughters, much to the embarrassment of the girls and the amusement of the rest.
“Will you all just shut up?” Katherine finally sighed exasperatedly.
“We have to get this settled,” Jake crossed his arms.
“Fine,” Lena sighed. “Let’s put it up to a vote.”
“But that’ll be too biased!” John argued.
“We need a nonbiased judge,” Jared agreed.
Lena glared. “Fine, Sirius, you can be the nonbiased judge.”
“What?” Sirius jerked his head up.
“You’re the nonbiased judge,” Jake told him. “Which one of us has the most beautiful daughter?”
Sirius blinked at him.
“Nonbiased my ***,” Maria muttered under her breath so only Sirius could hear.
He quickly jerked his head around to her to find her staring definitely up at him.
Sirius suddenly smirked at her. “David.”
The three men stared at him.
“What?”
“Just look at her,” Sirius motioned to Sophie who was currently situated in his lap.
“Well, now that’s settled,” James finally broke the silence that followed. “I think it’s bed time.”
The others all nodded and muttered agreements, getting up and gathering various things that they had brought in with them.
“Clever answer Sirius,” Maria smirked at him.
Sirius smirked right back. “Oh, you know it’s a tie, but your dads weren’t going to accept that.”
“Right,” Maria nodded. “Between Uncle David and Uncle Jake.”
She was gone before Sirius could get another word out, leaving him standing on the steps with James coming up behind him.
“She knows, you know.”
Sirius nodded. “Yeah.”
“Since breakfast the other day.”
“You started that.”
“You’re the one who asked her about the severity of Jessica’s brain damage,” James shot back.
“But you’re the one who refused to answer the question,” Sirius said.
James shook his head. “There are some things you just can’t say about your sister.”
Sirius shrugged. “If you can’t suck it up, you just gotta deal with it.”
James sighed. “Whatever,” he shrugged and made his way rest of the way up.

So, there she was, all snuggled up nice and warm in bed, just about to fall asleep with her eyes closed and all these pleasant thoughts for good dreams running through her head, all excited for Christmas in a couple of days, when Jessica heard the door to her room quietly open and then close.
Her steady breathing stopped and she froze under her blanket as she waited for whoever it was to say something.
“It’s just me, Jess.”
Jessica let out the breath she’d been holding and jumped out of bed, grinning widely at Sirius. “You know, you could have given me a heart attack.”
Sirius ignored her and waved his wand, turning on the lamp by her bed, and made way towards her.
“What are you doing here?”
“Can't a guy want to see his girlfriend?” Sirius asked.
“Is that all?” Jessica asked.
Sirius bent down and kissed her softly and Jessica immediately melted into it, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.
“Anything else?” Jessica asked once they’d pulled apart.
Sirius nodded and pulled away from her, sitting in front of her on the bed.
“What?”
“I wanted to officially ask you out on a date.”
Jessica laughed. “When’s that going to happen?”
“I was thinking tomorrow…”
Jessica raised an eyebrow at him. “How’s that going to work out?”
Sirius smiled mischievously at her. “Don’t worry, I’ve got that all figured out.”
“What –“
Sirius kissed her again and smiled. “Just go with what I say tomorrow morning, okay?”
“But I –“
Sirius cut her off again with another kiss.
“Trust me?”
Jessica nodded.
“Great, then I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” Sirius smiled.
Jessica gave another nodded.
Sirius stood and then looked down at the bed with a frown.
“What?” Jessica asked.
“Is that supposed to keep you warm?” Sirius asked, pointing to the thin blanket Jessica had snuggled under.
Jessica looked down and laughed. “Oh, yeah, apparently, Josh thought it’d be funny to give Stacey, Sophie, and Tyler water charmed to not be able to magically dry and have them dump it on me to wake me up this morning, so I had to stick my winter blanket in that Muggle dryer. I forgot to ask mom for another one.”
Sirius sighed and pulled out his wand, conjuring up a nice thick, warm blanket for Jessica.
“Thanks,” she smiled up at him.
Sirius only rolled his eyes, smiling back and kissing her one last time.
“Sweet dreams,” Sirius said, turning for the door.

As Sirius closed the door behind him, he saw that Lena was coming out from Tyler’s room, but stopped and frowned when she saw Sirius.
“What are you up to?” she asked suspiciously.
Oh God, make something up quick Sirius!
“Jessica, uh, told me earlier today about how the kids drenched her blanket this morning and she couldn’t get rid of it magically because of one of Josh’s spells so I’d told her I’d conjure her one for tonight,” Sirius explained.
Lena nodded slowly. “Okay…”
“I should get to sleep…” Sirius headed to his room.
“You know what Sirius?”
“What?” he turned to her.
“A few years ago, I had this case in St. Collins’,” she told him, referring to the magic hospital she was a top healer at in America. “It was this young girl, when she was around 16 or so, she’d tried to drive a Muggle car and it had ended in a crash landing her in a coma. She was completely out of it for 5 years before she miraculously just woke up. I immediately ran tests and such and I found that though she was now 21-years-old, her mind had stayed at 16. Of course, since we had magic, I was able to get her a potion that would help her brain mature faster; in about a year, she’d be acting her age, for the most part, but there were still little things that would permanently be her young habits that she wouldn’t be able to get rid of.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow but nodded slowly.
“I had her coming in once a month to check on progress and such and she had managed to mature in a little over half the estimated time frame. She was thrilled, as was her family, and she had a new boyfriend and was so excited. Over the next two years, she stayed the same, still coming in once a month.
“One day, she came in and told me her boyfriend had broken up with her. I asked her why and she told me that he said she was too childish and too immature and he couldn’t take her acting like a little girl anymore.”
She gave Sirius a significant look, and he just had to look away, knowing exactly what she was saying.
“It was hard for her to deal with it because, though she was 24-years-old, those 16 and 17-year-old bits couldn’t take it. It was a full year before she was able to go back to normal and found a boyfriend that accepted her and married her and she was able to be happy again.”
Sirius nodded. “If only she’d met the second guy first.”
Lena nodded slowly. “If only, but now I have to worry about the first guy with every other similar case I see.”
“The second guy would never do what the first did, and maybe, the others could meet that second one first.”
“Maybe,” Lena agreed. “I hope.”
There was a moment’s silence as Lena watched Sirius carefully before he finally turned away.
“Good night.”
“’Night,” she replied, walking to her room and shutting the door behind her.
Sirius stood there for a second before walking to his own room and falling onto his bed and closing his eyes.

“Jessica. Jess, wake up.”
She ignored it and pulled her blanket over her head. She could tell it was still too early to get up.
“Jessica!”
“Ugh, let me!”
“Hey!”
Jessica sat straight up in bed and glared at James who had bounced on her bed and was now sitting there with his arms crossed, grinning at her.
“See, that was so much easier,” he turned to Sirius who only shook his head.
“Why am up so early?” Jessica whined.
“It’s after 9:00.”
“During break!”
“We have a date, remember?” Sirius reminded her.
Jessica grinned suddenly. “Oh yeah!”
James rolled his eyes at her.
“I still don’t get it,” Jessica said. “What are we telling everyone else?”
“Don’t worry,” James assured her. “We have it all figured out.”
Jessica raised an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t worry about it right now, sweetie,” Sirius told her. “Just get dressed and meet us in the kitchen.”
Jessica sighed and got up heading for her closet.
Sirius caught her arm and pulled her back.
“What?” she looked up at him.
He smiled and kissed her. “Morning.”
Jessica grinned back.
“Ugh, you guys are sick,” James made a face and crawled off the bed. “I’m gonna go shower.”
Sirius laughed while Jessica rolled her eyes at James who was leaving the room with an annoyed expression.
“I should get dressed, too,” Sirius said, letting go of Jessica’s arm.
She nodded. “When are we going?”
“10:15,” Sirius replied.
Jessica nodded again and walked into her giant closet while Sirius left for his own room.

An hour later, Jessica was skipping into the kitchen to meet the boys and found them sitting at the counter with Jake, talking to Amy who was cooking in the kitchen.
“I’m here!” Jessica announced.
James turned to roll his eyes at her. “We can see that.”
“When are we going?” Jessica asked, hopping onto the empty stool next to Sirius.
“When you finish eating,” Sirius pushed a plate of warm eggs to here.
Jessica sighed dramatically and picked up her fork.
“You have time,” Jake said. “Carly’s late to everything.”
Jessica looked at Sirius with a confused expression, but he gave her a significant look.
“Yeah, but Lily will freak out on us if we’re late,” James reasoned.
“No, we’ve fixed her up,” Sirius said, “She’ll be fine.”
“Okay, I’m done,” Jessica pushed her plate away, “Can we go now?”
Amy laughed and nodded.
The three teens got off of their stools and went to go get their coats.
“Be back by dinner!” Amy called after them.
“Or else you won’t get any!” Jake added.
“I think that’s good advice to take,” Sirius said. “With the way your family eats and all.”
James shrugged. “We like to eat.”
The three of them found their coats and money in their rooms and met back down in the family room.
“Are you leaving?” Jared asked, looking up from his chess game with Lena.
Jessica nodded. “And make sure you save us some dinner in case we don’t make it back in time.”
“Sorry, can’t make any promises,” he said.
“Cookie will save us something,” James said triumphantly.
“Unless we tell her not to.”
“You’d let us starve?” Jessica made a puppy dog face.
“Yep,” he nodded.
“But look at the face,” she pointed.
“Yeah, look at the face, Jared,” Sirius laughed.
He looked at Jessica and then turned away. “**** genes,” he muttered, making another move and looking up at Lena.
James, Jessica, and Sirius burst into laughter as Jared glared at Lena who was giving him her puppy dog face.

“Lily and Cassie and Emmy are coming?” Jessica asked excitedly as Sirius dragged her after James into Diagon Alley.
“Only Carly and Emily,” Sirius told her. “They’re our cover. We told everyone that we’re meeting up with everyone, but only Carly and Emily actually have to come because your parents talk.”
Jessica grinned happily. “Great! I’ve missed them.”
“James is spending the day with them,” Sirius told her. “We are on a date.”
“Darn it!”
Sirius pouted at her. “You don’t want to be on a date with me?”
Jessica looked at him and quickly shook her head. “No, no, I didn’t say that!”
“You implied it.”
“No, no, I want to be on a date with you,” she assured him.
“Are you sure?” Sirius asked, still giving her his sad face.
“Yes,” Jessica nodded. “Come on, be happy again! Please?”
Sirius laughed. “Oh, alright,” he smiled, “only for you.”
Jessica smiled.
“Oi, hurry it up!” James shouted at them impatiently.
Sirius rolled his eyes at him and grinned down at Jessica. “He doesn’t like being used,” he told her. “As if he isn’t using us.”
“He’ll get over it when Cassie gets here,” Jessica sighed sadly. “He always liked her better.”
“Don’t worry, I like you better.”
Jessica looked up at him. “Even better than James?”
“Definitely,” Sirius nodded. “James is annoying. You’re adorable.”
Jessica smiled.
“Ha, he likes me better than you, Jamie!”
“What?”
Sirius and Jessica caught up with him in front of the ice cream parlor, and Jessica smirked smugly at him.
“Sirius likes me better than you.”
“So?” James crossed his arms. “I like Cassie better than you, so ha!”
Jessica’s smile dropped and she looked away.
“Good job, James,” Sirius pulled Jessica into his side. “No need to remind her.”
James looked at his sister concernedly. “Jessie?”
She didn’t reply.
“Aw, Jessie!” James exclaimed. “You know I love you!”
“Liar,” Jessica huffed.
“Jessie –“
“Go away,” Jessica pointed.
“But –“
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“I –“
“I’m mad at you,” Jessica turned away from him, pulling Sirius with her.
“Aw, James, what did you do now?” Carly sighed.
Jessica’s face brightened up and she ran to Carly and gave her hug. “Cassie!”
“Love you too, Jessie,” Carly grinned.
Jessica stood back and grinned at her, until she caught sight of Emily and attacked her next.
Emily laughed. “It’s been so long; like an entire week.”
“I know,” Jessica nodded seriously.
Emily laughed again and hugged Sirius.
“So, what did you do, James?” Carly asked.
“He likes you better than me,” Jessica pouted.
“Of course he does,” Carly said. “Why wouldn’t he?”
Jessica gasped and turned away from her. “I’m not talking to you either!”
“Jessie!”
“Let’s go, Sirius,” she took his hand and led him away.
“We’re meting back here at 5:30!” Sirius shouted over his shoulder.
Jessica continued to pout as they walked and Sirius couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?”
“You know he loves you, right?” Sirius asked her.
Jessica nodded. “It’s just fun being mad at him.”
Sirius sighed and shook his head.
“So, what are we doing today?” Jessica grinned up at him brightly after a few moments.
Sirius smiled. “Whatever you want.”
“Then you’re in for a long day, mister,” she led him into a clothing shop.

“Lily! Phone!”
Lily sighed and stood from her bed. “Coming!”
It was probably Rachel, Rebecca, or Katie asking to hang out. Lily had spent the entire week oddly on edge, or more so than usual anyways. She didn’t know why, but she was starting to think about telling them more and more; she’d even written to some of her other friends and they’d all replied that she tell them.
This left Lily in a dilemma. To tell or not to tell?
Lily picked up the phone off the counter and held it to her ear.
“Hello?
“Lily!” Katie exclaimed. “You’re coming to my house for a sleepover tonight.”
Lily laughed. “Says who?”
“Says me!”
“When did you get so demanding?”
“Since Rachel called and told me she’d kill me if you didn’t come,” Katie replied.
Lily laughed again. “Alright, I’ll be there. When am I coming?”
“Um…15 minutes.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Thanks for the advanced warning,” she said sarcastically.
“No problem,” Katie waved it off. “See you in a bit!”
“Bye,” Lily said, hanging up the phone.
“What’s happening?” Laura asked her daughter.
“Is it okay if I spend the night and Katie’s?” Lily asked.
Laura nodded. “Sure. When are you leaving?”
“Um, 15 minutes.”
Laura raised an eyebrow.
“You know Katie,” Lily shrugged.
Laura laughed. “About as long as you’ve known her,” she nodded. “How long has it been?”
Lily sighed. “13 years. Katie and Becca and Rachel and I met in preschool.”
“That is a long time,” Laura said. “So long that you should be able to trust them.”
Lily jerked her head up to her mom. “What?”
“You need to tell them the truth, Sweetie,” Laura sat down at the kitchen table.
Lily sighed and sat in the chair across from her. “I-I just…I don’t know how.”
“Just tell them,” Laura told her. “They love you, so they’ll accept it.”
“But I’ve put it off too long, mom!” Lily cried. “They’ll be furious with me!”
“At risk of sounding cliché,” Laura said, “better late than never.”
Lily thought of her friends back at Hogwarts and how much she loved them. She thought of what secrets they’d held in fear. And, suddenly, the world had just decided to throw them all out in the open together, and they would just have to wait and see what happened.
Lily wasn’t angry with any of them; how could she be mad at her friends? All she thought was that, maybe, if they told sooner, this year would have happened sooner. The new laughs, new happiness, new friendships, none of it would have happened if those secrets hadn’t been shared.
Lily sighed and looked up at her mom.
“Tell them?”
Laura smiled.
Lily sighed again and stood up. “I have less than ten minutes to get there with my things or else Rachel will kill Katie.”
Laura laughed. “Alright.”
Lily went up to her room and gathered her things, throwing them into a bag. She saw that she had barely five minutes to walk down the street to Katie’s and grabbed her wand and pulled on her coat.
“Bye mom!” Lily called as she walked out the door. On the front drive, she found her dad shoveling snow because of a large snowfall the night before.
“Where are you off to?” he asked seeing her with her bag.
“Running away from home,” Lily replied.
“Realize your mistake and come back home soon,” he told her.
“I’ll be at Katie’s if you want to try and change my mind.”
He laughed. “They better be taking good care of their runaways there.”
“I’ve heard it’s good,” Lily assured him.
Mr. Evans rolled. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be back around lunch,” Lily nodded.
“Okay, bye then,” he waved.
“Bye, daddy,” Lily waved, setting off down the street to Katie’s.
When she got there and rang the doorbell, she was, of course, greeted with a hug from an overexcited Katie. So what else was new?
“Lily! Come on! We’re going to lock ourselves in my room and stay up all night and play truth or dare and have so much fun and –“
Lily couldn’t help but laugh. “Are the others here yet?”
Katie nodded, leading Lily up to her room. “And thank god you got here, too. Rachel was just about to kill me.”
Lily rolled her eyes and followed her into her room, dropping her bag in the corner, to find Rachel and Rebecca positioned in front of the mirror, Rebecca messing with Rachel’s hair which did indeed look a bit screwed up.
“Lily!” Rebecca exclaimed.
“Okay, sit,” Rachel pointed to the beanbag chair bye the bed.
Lily raised an eyebrow but did as she said while the other three gathered around her.
“Okay, what?” Lily asked, seeing the looks on her friends’ faces.
“We have to talk,” Rachel said.
“We-we do?” Lily asked a little shakily; she’d known they were getting suspicious.
“There’s something up with you,” Katie said.
“What makes you say that?” Lily challenged.
“Starting with the fact that you’re scared to let us in your room…” Rachel began.
“…and you’re very vague about your school,” Rebecca added, “you never write us directly, but send letters through your parents –“
“And they’re written on parchment!” Katie interrupted.
“Right,” Rachel nodded. “And we’ve looked up Hogwarts, but the school does not exist.”
“In short,” Rebecca said, “you’ve been lying to us for seven years and I think it’s truth time,” she crossed her arms and looked definitely at her.
Lily sighed. “That’s what my mom said before I left.”
“Well, then, she’s right,” Rachel said.
Lily looked down into her lap, playing with her bracelet. “It’s just…”
“Lily?”
She looked back up at them.
“You can tell us, whatever it is,” Katie told her.
“That’s right,” Rachel nodded, “we love you Sweetie, whatever it is.”
Lily sighed. “It’s kinda…big.”
“What, are you a space creature or something?” Katie snorted.
Lily laughed slightly. “Close.”
Her friends looked at her with puzzled expressions.
“I…” Lily looked straight at them, “…I’m a…a witch.”
Her three friends looked at her in shock.
“A…what?”
“A witch,” Lily sighed, looking away, “with magic and stuff.”
Silence.
Katie suddenly broke out into hysterics. “That’s good,” she laughed. “Real good. What’s the truth?”
Lily shook her head and pulled out her wand. She pointed it at her head and silently changed the color of her hair to bright blue.
Her friends looked ready to pass out as Lily changed it back.
“That’s the real truth.”
“M-magic?” Rebecca broke the silence that followed.
Lily nodded. “Magic.”
“And the-the others?” Rachel asked.
“Emily, Carly, and Alice,” Lily nodded. “We go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”
They stared.
“Wow,” Rebecca gasped.
“That’s big,” Katie agreed.
Lily nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she looked away. “I was…scared I guess,”
“Of what?” Rachel asked.
“That…that you would react like…like Petunia,” Lily replied.
“How did she –“ Katie started, but Rachel cut her off.
“That’s why she always calls you a…”
“’Freak,’” Lily nodded sadly.
“Oh, Sweetie,” Rebecca crawled over and gave her a hug, the others joining in as well.
“So, you’re not mad?” Lily asked as they all sat down again.
“Mad?” Rebecca asked.
“No!” Katie exclaimed. “This is so bloody cool!”
Lily laughed. “That’s what dad said.”
“What else can you do?” Rebecca asked excitedly.
“Anything,” Lily replied.
“Anything?”
Lily nodded. “It only took a total of 30 minutes for five of us to get ready for the dance.”
Katie gaped. “30?”
Lily nodded. “30.”
Rebecca scoffed. “Impossible.”
“Did you look any good?” Rachel asked.
Lily smirked and went over to her bag, pulling out her photo album. She flipped to the end as she walked back to her friends and pointed to the picture of the five girls laughing and waving.
“It’s moving,” Rebecca gasped.
“Forget that!” Katie exclaimed, pointing as Remus came into the framed and pulled Emily away. “Are all magic boys that hot?”
Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. “No.”
“Darn it!”
“But you should see this picture,” Lily flipped to the one of the guys.
Katie stared.
Rebecca and Rachel leaned in to see as well and had the same reaction and Lily couldn’t help but laugh.
She pulled the album away and started flipping back through it.
“Hey!” Rebecca exclaimed. “We weren’t done!”
Lily only continued to flip with a smile on her face, stopping at a picture around the beginning of October on an unnaturally warm day the group had spent swimming in the lake.
She shoved the album back at her friends, biting back a laugh.
“****,” Rachel whispered.
“I want to go to your school!” Katie exclaimed.
“Who are these people?” Rebecca asked.
Lily laughed. “James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank, and Kyle,” Lily answered, “resident brain-deads of Hogwarts.”
Rachel stared back at her in shock. “You’re dating one of them?”
Lily laughed again and pointed to James as he chased Jessica and Carly through the water.
“You said no to that?”
Lily glared. “He used to be very egotistical and mean.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. “So?”
Lily laughed and shook her head. “I should warn you to not pass out or have heart attacks when they all come to visit,” Lily told them.
“They’re coming here?” Katie asked with wide eyes.
Lily nodded. “I asked my mom and wrote everyone yesterday to see if they could come over the day before we have to go back to school. We’re all going to be at James’s but I know you were all dying to see the girls again, so I figured we could apperate over or something.”
“Apperate?”
Lily nodded. “You disappear and then reappear somewhere else, sort of like teleportation.”
The three girls stared.
“But it’s really uncomfortable and you feel like you can’t breathe,” Lily made a face.
“It’s still cool,” Rachel said.
Lily shrugged.
“Magic,” Katie sighed. “That is so amazing; you are so lucky.”
Lily sighed and smiled sadly. “If only.”
“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked.
“The Magic World is really neat and amazing and I met so many wonderful people, but there are things there, scary and dangerous things. And lucky me landed there in the midst of it all,” she said bitterly.
“What kinds of things?” Rebecca asked.
“Things like –“
Lily was cut off by a tap on the window.
She looked over and frowned, seeing James and Jessica’s owl, Snowflake, sitting there impatiently.
Lily went to the window and let it in, taking the letter.
It was addressed to her quickly and sloppily in James’s handwriting.
“You get mail by owl?” Rachel raised an eyebrow.
Lily nodded, opening the letter.
She gasped as she read it; this could not be happening.
“What’s wrong?” Rebecca asked.
“Scary and dangerous things,” Lily repeated softly. “Like…this.”





How evil am I?



http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Yes, I took a horribly long time and it was really mean of me to do so with such a cliffhanger.
I blame stupid quarter exams.
I always have pathetic excuses, don’t I?
You are allowed to hate, but please read anyway.



Chapter 46

Sirius looked up at the giant clock in the center of Gringotts and sighed. “Jess, we have to meet the others in 10 minutes,” he said to Jessica.
“So?” she asked, eating chocolates.
“Are you still mad at Carly and Prongs?” Sirius asked.
“Yes,” Jessica nodded.
“Come on,” Sirius sighed, pulling Jessica by the arm towards Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor where they were supposed to meet up with the others.
“But I don’t want to go yet!” Jessica whined.
“Do you want dinner?’
“Yes!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Then we have to get home,” Sirius replied.
“But do we have to go with James?” she made a face.
Sirius laughed. “Yes.”
“Fine,” Jessica huffed.
Sirius took her hand and the pair began walking down the street.
“Hey, Sirius?” Jessica asked after a couple minutes of comfortable silence.
“Yeah?”
“Why do you like me?’
He stopped. “What?”
Jessica looked down, blushing slightly. “I was…just wondering.”
Sirius smiled. “I don’t know, Jess,” he said.
She shuffled her feet, still looking down at the ground.
“The whole world is changing,” Sirius said. “Things are getting bad and they’re going to get a whole lot worse.”
Jessica looked up at him fearfully.
Sirius chuckled slightly. “Not that you have anything to worry about,” he told her. “But we have to face that it’ll be harder to be happy soon. What with Voldemort killing people for no reason and having to grow up soon, it’ll be hard, but you make it slightly easier.”
“I do?” Jessica blushed.
Sirius nodded with a soft smile. “You’re always happy. If you can be happy, it’s easier for me to find a reason to be happy; it sort of makes the bad things go away for a while.”
“So if I was sad, you wouldn’t like me?” Jessica asked.
“No,” Sirius shook his head. “I’d just have to make you be happy.”
Jessica smiled. “So you like me no matter what?”
“No matter what,” Sirius nodded.
Jessica grinned. “Let’s go see Jamie!” she exclaimed, pulling Sirius with her.
He laughed. “I thought you were mad at him.”
“I changed my mind,” Jessica shrugged.
Sirius shook his head and allowed her to pull him the rest of the way as she chattered about how she was going to trick James into giving her her Christmas present early by pretending to be mad, but she decided that it was boring.
Sirius couldn’t help but smile at her happy, excited expression. In the back of his head, he heard Lena’s words, but Sirius just couldn’t think of letting her go. He wouldn’t, he decided; he couldn’t.
“Jamie!” Jessica exclaimed, speeding up to a run, dragging Sirius behind her.
James laughed. “Has she been dragging you along like this all day?”
Sirius shrugged. “Somewhat.”
“How was your date?” Emily asked.
“Jessica shops a lot,” Sirius replied, pulling out a handful of shrunken bags from his pocket.
“Oh, I wanna see what you got!” Carly said excitedly, grabbing the tiny bags and reaching for her wand.
Before she could return the bags to their normal size, however, there was a sudden bang, causing them to jump and look around.
Sirius’s mouth practically fell open.
This could not be happening.
Not here. Not now.
Jessica grabbed his arm, fearfully looking into his face.
Sirius turned back to the others. “We are leaving, now,” he said.
“Straight home,” James nodded, turning to Carly and Emily.
But they didn’t seem to hear. Emily was staring blankly as screams echoed through the streets.
Carly was shaking in her place, unable to move.
James grabbed both their arms and turned on the spot, disappearing with the two girls.
Sirius grabbed a firm hold of Jessica to do the same, but he had to pull her away as the Death Eaters made their way to their end of the street.
“Sirius!”
He pulled her away to an empty alleyway to disapperated from, but he couldn’t.
“Sirius!” Jessica repeated in a panicky. “Why aren’t we going!”
Sirius shook his head.
Anti-Apperating Charm.
“Jessica,” he said to her, grabbing hold of her shaking shoulders. “Look at me.”
She looked up at him with fear on her face and in her eyes, lip quivering, tears filling her eyes.
The building they were by suddenly shook and Jessica gripped his arm tighter.
“I swear to you, I’m going to get us out of here,” Sirius told her. “I need to you to trust me. Can you do that?”
Jessica nodded shakily.
Sirius looked up at the building as parts of the roof fell in, and then he turned to the chaos on the street.
He pulled out his wand and knew it was time for the inevitable.
“We need to get out of here before the building collapses on us,” Sirius told Jessica.
She looked at him fearfully; she couldn’t speak out of fear, but he knew just how scared she was.
“I promise you’ll be okay,” Sirius told her. “I will die before anything happens to you.”
Jessica looked at him as if she’d been slapped in the face. “Sirius…”
He shook his head and kissed her softly.
“You’ll be fine,” he repeated.
Before Jessica could say anything, Sirius brought her as close to him as he could and pulled her to the edge of the alley, jut as a particularly large piece of building fell behind them.
He saw that the Death Eaters were more into causing havoc than hurting people directly and that only some were actually dueling with people who were brave enough to fight.
Sirius slipped out and dodged his way around people and rubble towards Gringotts. That would be a safe, impenetrable place.
Suddenly, he was hit in the leg and fell to the ground. Something had flown at him.
Jessica screamed and fell to her knees at his side.
“Gringotts,” Sirius gasped. “I’ll be fine.”
“Sirius –“
He pulled himself up, supporting his weight on his left leg. Jessica was at his side, attempting to help him walk.
Sirius shook his head. “I’ll be too slow,” he said. “You need to go.”
But Jessica refused to go, pulling Sirius’s arm over her shoulder and helping him limp towards the side.
“Jess...” he started, leaning against a bookstore.
But before he could say anything more, a group of frightened witches ran by, in between the two, and when Sirius looked back, Jessica was gone.
No.
“Jessica!” he shouted.
He ran through the mass of flying curses, pain suddenly disappearing. He had to find her.
There were screams and shouts all around him, but Sirius didn’t hear them. He looked wildly around for that flash of red, but all he saw were dark cloaks and multicolored jets of light. He felt a few stings on his back and arms, a tiny prick shooting through his leg, but it was nothing.
He had to find Jessica.
Sirius ran towards Gringotts, but it just got farther away. He couldn’t reach it, and suddenly, he was pushed away into the side of a building.
Lights flashed in his eyes but he shook his head and tried to stand. He had to get up; he had to find Jessica.
Sirius blinked a few times, and as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
The jets of light stopped, the cloaked figures disappeared, things stopped falling, people stopped running.
Aurors were everywhere, blasting things out of the way, bounding fallen Death Eaters and instructing people to take fallen innocents to St. Mungo's.
Sirius pulled himself up continued to run, ignoring shouts from Aurors around him.
Finally, as Sirius stopped for just a second as the pricking in his leg got worse, he saw her.
She was just a shadow in a side alley, but he saw her.
Sirius ran to her, and saw her sitting against a wall, legs hugged to her chest, chin resting on her knees, eyes blankly staring straight ahead.
“Jessica!” he shouted, dropping to his knees in front of her.
She didn’t respond.
Sirius went to brush her hair out of her face, but gasped as he pulled his hand back, looking down at it.
Blood.
Sirius lit his wand in the shadowy alley and saw the side of her head completely soaked in blood, hair tangled and matted, a few cuts and scrapes across her face.
“Jess…” he gasped, pulling her up.
She stood limply, not responding.
Sirius held her close, closing his eyes and hoping, turned on the spot.
When he opened his eyes, Sirius let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Potter Mansion.
He lead Jessica up to the house; she followed numbly, expression still blank.
Suddenly, as they walked and Sirius began to slightly calm down, having Jessica back, he gasped. The pain in his leg increased times 100, his arm felt like it was on fire, his back stinging as the cold winter air hit it.
Sirius gasped in pain, sinking to his knees right in front of the door.
Jessica just stood there numbly, not reacting at all.
Sirius heaved himself up and reached for the door. He had to get her inside and get someone to look at her.
He pointed his wand at his leg, healing it, leaving nothing but a bit of blood he’d worry about cleaning later.
Sirius took Jessica’s hand and pulled open the door, pulling her into the empty entrance hall. It was eerily quiet in the house which was usually bustling with activity at this time of day with all the Potters there.
Barely three seconds after the front door slammed shut, Tyler came running in with Sophie and Stacey right behind him.
“Sirius!”
He smiled slightly and slid down to the ground as there were more footsteps, and, sure enough, James and Emily lead a stampede of Potters into the entrance.
Sirius barely had time to open his mouth before he and Jessica were surrounded by people with wands pointed at them, trying to heal as much as they could.
Sirius vividly noticed that none of the adult people were present, unless you were counting Elizabeth, Chloe, and Josh, but they were always pushed into the kids category, despite their age.
“St. Mungo's,” Elizabeth finally said. She was a trainee Healer at St. Collins’, along with her sister, and they had most likely been left behind in case Sirius and Jessica returned injured. “Jessica has to go there no matter what, and half these things on Sirius are cursed. These bandages won’t hold and they won’t heal magically.”
“What’s on me?” Sirius asked, looking down at himself.
“You,” James said, “seem to have failed to follow the first basic rule of Defense.”
Sirius gave him a confused expression.
“Never leave your back open,” James elaborated.
“Oh,” Sirius looked over his shoulder, trying to see the damage, but to no success. “I was trying to find Jessica and –“
“People!” Carly interrupted, grabbing Jessica’s hand. “St. Mungo's!”
Sirius nodded and went to stand, but Emily appeared out of nowhere and stopped him.
“What?”
“I don’t know how long you’ve been walking around like that,” she said sternly, “but you are done.”
Sirius opened his mouth to question, but he suddenly found himself in the air.
“You’re levitating me to St. Mungo's?”
Emily nodded, floating him carefully into the living room to the fireplace where the rest were gathered, just as Carly and Jessica disappeared in a whoosh of green flames.
“Did they fix her head?” Sirius asked concernedly. “It looked horrible when I found her, scared me to death and I don’t think –“
“Shut up Sirius,” Emily interrupted, floating him into the huge fireplace, getting in after him. “She’s healed.”
She threw the Floo Powder into the fireplace and clearly shouted, “St. Mungo's!”
They reappeared in the busy waiting room, but Emily did not seem to be feeling patient enough to wait.
“Sirius!”
Emily and Sirius turned, or Sirius tried to turn but didn’t succeed from the air, to find Lauren rushing to them.
“Oh, god, I practically had a heart attack when James said there had been an attack, and then you didn’t come back – is Jessica –“
“Breathe, Lauren,” Emily said. “Carly’s taking Jessica to her healer. She was hit in the head with something. Elizabeth was freaking out but I don’t know –“
“It’s screwed something up,” Sirius said bitterly.
“What?”
“And it’s my fault.”
“Sirius?”
“Will you let me down,” Sirius asked.
“No,” Emily shook her head.
“But I –“
“No,” she repeated. “Lauren, Elizabeth said these won’t heal magically,” Emily gestured to Sirius’s back. “She went with Carly and Jessica to talk to the healer, but she told me that they would need to be treated the Muggle way.”
Lauren nodded gravely. “Of course, Death Eaters would make sure of that for the most part. I’m going to let them know that my ward is filled up and check Jessica in. Just take him to my ward.” She disappeared into the crowd and Emily just stood there.
“Where’s her ward?”
“63,” Sirius replied. “Fourth floor.”
Emily nodded and hurried off to the fourth floor, weaving Sirius around healers as she went.
Finally, she slowed as she entered the high 50s, stopping at ward 63. The plaque read “Children’s Ward Three.” Under that was written that healer-in-charge was Lauren Miller and trainee-healer was Christopher Keener.
Emily quickly pushed open the door and deposited Sirius in the last bed by the window.
“What’d you do, Sirius?”
“Diagon Alley,” Sirius answered Chris who was filling out papers for a 7 or 8-year-old girl who seemed to now be sleeping.
Sirius opted for sitting on the bed, seeing as his back was supposed to be damaged.
“What were you doing there?”
“Date,” Sirius replied quietly.
“Date?”
Sirius nodded. Calmed down from the chaos, Jessica’s face swam to the surface and Sirius couldn’t help but think of her condition. All he knew was that it was not good. The blankness of her expression and the numbness of her movements was enough to see that.
“Emily?” Sirius turned to her. “Long-term residence, ward 46, Healer Scott Dunn. I just need to know how she is.”
Emily nodded, understanding what he meant. She hurried out the door, just as Lauren entered.
“Keener!” Lauren barked. “Finish the records later! Do you not see Sirius over there?”
“Sorry,” Chris set down the forms and joined Lauren by Sirius’s bed. “What do you want me to do?”
“Get started on his arm,” Lauren told him. “I need to fix these gashes.”
Chris nodded, pulling out his wand.
Sirius turned to his left arm for the first time and his eyes widened in shock. The skin was red and blistered in some areas, charred in others. It seemed he’d been hit with a burning spell; that would explain the burning sensation.
“Not going to fix magically,” Scott said.
“I just said that!” Lauren snapped.
“You didn’t mention that, Lauren,” Sirius told her.
“Oh,” she paused for a second with the bandages. “Well I’m saying it now. You need to get those Muggle things.”
Chris nodded and went into the back to find the things Lauren was talking about. He returned with what looked like an armful of gauze.
“We need a lot,” Chris answered Sirius’s silent question.
Sirius only nodded as Chris got started, first inspecting the burns, and then finding the appropriate medicines.
Lauren finished up and replaced the bandages, making them tight, trying to stop the bleeding.
When she was done, she turned to help Chris gently wrap gauze around Sirius’s arm.
She seemed impatient as if she was hurrying, and Sirius sighed.
“Chris can finish,” he said. “You can go see how she is.”
Lauren jerked her head up and shook her head. “I wasn’t –“
Sirius cut her off. “Honestly. I mean, you’re supposed to be mad. After all, it is my fault.”
Lauren sent Sirius a fierce gaze. “I’m sorry. What?”
Sirius sighed and looked away. “I was with her so –“
“If I remember correctly,” Lauren interrupted, “James mentioned on my way up here that you said you were looking for her.”
Sirius nodded. “My fault again. I –“
“Which means,” Lauren said loudly, “that you weren’t with her.”
“Exactly!” Sirius exclaimed. “If I was, then I could have –“
“Gotten hit instead? I saw Chloe; she said that, right now, it’s mostly shock and fear. I don’t think she would have been in any state to get the both of you out of there.”
“But –“
“You can’t tell me that she was in any state to do anything,” Lauren said.
“No, that’s my point,” Sirius replied, “I should’ve –“
“Just be quiet, Sirius,” Lauren snapped. “You did everything you could. To tell you the truth, it seems to me that you saved her life, so just be quiet.”
“But –“
“Chris, get the records down,” Lauren stood up as the last of Sirius’s arm was covered. “I’ve got to go check on Jessica.” She left quickly, leaving Chris sitting there with raised eyebrows.
“What happened?”
Sirius sighed. “I almost got Jessica killed.”
“Sirius!”
He looked up to find Emily glaring at him. She shut the door behind herself and marched over to his bed.
“Emily, how is she?” Sirius asked. “What’s wrong? How bad is it? Is she –“
“He’s running tests and kicked us out,” Emily replied. “He said that it wouldn’t be anything too bad.”
Sirius looked away.
“I would like to ask you a favor,” Emily said.
“What?”
“Stop acting stupid for at least five second!”
“Uh, this is a hospital.”
Emily ignored Chris and continued to glare at Sirius.
“It is not your fault.”
“How would you know?” Sirius challenged.
“Because Healer Dunn had to review her memory and I went with him and saw everything,” Emily said. “And he, Elizabeth, and I have agreed that the only thing wrong with it is before you found us.”
“What?” he gave her a puzzled expression.
Emily smirked at him. “We saw the part before you found James, Carly, and I.”
Sirius turned red and looked away.
“What happen?” Chris asked.
Emily turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
“Chris Keener,” he stuck out his hand.
Emily took and shook it. “Emily Kenting.”
Chris gave her a puzzled expression. “Ken –“
“Yes, Kenting,” Emily said. “Got a problem with that?”
“Uh, no?” he looked over at Sirius who cracked a smile.
“What are you laughing at?” Emily turned back to him. “I have stuff on you.”
“What type of stuff?” Chris asked with a smirk.
“The type of stuff that would so kill his reputation,” Emily answered with an evil smile.
“Sounds good,” Chris said. “Continue.”
“Sirius Black!”
The three jumped to find Elizabeth with her hands on her hips.
“Uh, yeah?”
“Were you planning on mentioning anytime soon that you were dating my little sister?”
“You’re what?” Chris turned to him in shock. “Isn’t she like twenty-something? Isn’t that –“
“Jessica you dimwit!” Elizabeth snapped at him, still glaring at Sirius.
Sirius looked away. “It was James’s idea. He thought it would be funny to not say anything and…”
“Prank?” Elizabeth sighed.
Sirius nodded. “We forgot and he came up with the last minute idea to which Jessica agreed in exchange of some ‘pretty pictures.’”
“Oh, you mean like the ones in her room?”
Sirius nodded.
Elizabeth sat down with a sigh. ‘Well, this is a relief,” she said. “Aunt Lena had us all freaked out.”
“What’d she say?”
“She was saying something about a patient a couple years ago –“
Sirius groaned. “Oh, god, she hates me!”
Elizabeth sent him a puzzled expression.
“She was telling me about that the other night. I thought it was meant to be some sort of warning.”
“Probably,” Elizabeth nodded. “That and her idea of a counter-prank because she figured you guys out.”
Sirius nodded. “So did Maria.”
“You guys?”
They turned to find Lauren in the doorway, looking shakily at them.
“Scott’s asking for whoever’s here.”
Emily and Elizabeth immediately jumped up out of their seats.
Sirius tried to get up, too, but Emily pushed him back down.
“But –“
“No,” she said. “We’ll go find out and get back to you, but you’re staying here.”
“No! I want to –“
“Chris,” Lauren interrupted. “The potion?”
Chris nodded and found a dreamless sleep potion and brought it to Sirius.
“No!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want to sleep!”
“Sirius,” Lauren said firmly. “As your healer right now, I’m telling you that you have to take the potion, or else I can Stun you.”
“You wouldn’t,” Sirius said.
“I would,” Lauren said, looking straight at him.
Sirius looked back at her, not backing down.
Lauren sighed. “Sirius, if it’s anything big, I will personally wake you and let you know, but if you want to be able to get up to go see, her, you need to get rest now.”
Sirius let out a sigh and slumped back, turning to Chris.
Chris gave him the potion and Sirius gulped it down and turned to the doorway as Lauren followed Emily and Elizabeth out before falling into darkness.

James paced the hall impatiently. Scott wouldn’t let them in as he ran tests, so he was stuck outside of Jessica’s room with Carly, Elizabeth, Chloe and Lauren.
He looked impatiently to the clock on the far wall. Ten minutes. How long could these tests take?
James looked down the hall and then back at the all too familiar door.
“I’ll go and see him if you want,” Elizabeth stood from her chair.
James shook his head. “I want to see how he is, but I want to know what’s happened to Jessie,” he said.
“I get it,” Elizabeth said, turning to Sirius’s room. “I’ll go check on him and let you know.” She left down the hall and James sighed and began pacing again.
He walked back and forth for another five minutes before the door finally opened. James turned quickly to Scott. “Well?”
Scott sighed. “Someone get the others that are here.”
Lauren nodded and quickly hurried away to find Emily and Elizabeth.
“Is it bad?” Carly asked.
James put an arm around her shoulder and looked at the healer as well.
He only sighed. “Worse,” he replied.
They lapsed into silence as they waited. James’s mind was reeling with horrible possibilities.
“But it can’t be that bad,” Carly said. “Not Jessica.”
James could only nod as they waited.
A couple minutes later, the other three returned, and they all turned anxiously to the Healer.
“Well?” Emily asked.




You can’t really complain.
It’s long enough.
And interesting enough.
I promise, it won’t take as long with the next chapter with our exams finishing tomorrow.
Please leave feedback!




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Okay, so like I had said before, I had a bunch of ideas for this and was typing away and got like, four chapters done in two weeks, but I didn’t post anything because when I start writing like that, I have to do a lot of editing, and I did. So, that’s my excuse, plus my busy schedule.
But enough of that. Now onto poor Jessica who no one cares about, except Phoenixgirl, so I’ll tell you so she doesn’t have to wait anymore.




Chapter 47

“Well?” Emily asked.
Scott sighed. “I personally think that she got lucky,” he said, “but every family I have to tell these things to takes it differently.”
“What happened?” Chloe asked. “Is it really bad or just kind of bad or –“
“It depends on how you look at it,” he said.
“Can we not draw this out?” Lauren sighed. “Just get to the point, Scott.”
“It’s sort of like she’s gone back to where she started from when she first woke up,” he started.
“But that’s not too bad,” Lauren said. “She was fine then, going on about how everyone was trying to kill her and everything.”
James nodded in agreement. “She was perfectly okay.”
Scott sighed and shook his head. “Except it’s worse.”
Silence.
“W-what do you mean?” Carly asked.
“When she first woke up, she was perfectly at 17-year-old maturity,” Scott explained, “except, obviously she wasn’t going to get there right away since she had to get used to it. Then, there would be the rare times, even far into the future, where she’d act like a child again. Those would be the times when she’s feeling an extreme emotion like really happy or really sad or really mad or something, but over all, she was fine.
“Now however, it’s different. She got hit pretty hard for not even potions to work properly –“
“You can’t fix it?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Scott shook his head. “It’s not too bad, though. She just won’t act her age on some accounts. She’ll be gullible, a little ignorant, kind of the trusting, easily-tempted, naïve like a child. It’s actually unusual because while there’ll be that, at the same time, she will still be just as smart, her magic won’t be impaired, she will act normally at times. It’s sort of depending on her mood or situation, and just her day-to-day life.”
“So what does that mean?” James asked. “That my sister’s mix of a 7-year-old and a 17-year-old?”
“Something like that,” Scott said. “It’s kind of confusing and you just have to get used to her sometimes not acting her age.”
Emily laughed suddenly. “We’ve had plenty enough practice between this over here and that idiot in Lauren’s ward,” she pointed over to James.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “But she is right, you know,” she added.
“So we’re just okay with this?” Chloe asked.
Lauren shrugged. “We have to be.”
“As long as she’s okay,” James turned to Scott.
“Oh, yeah,” Scott nodded. “She can leave the day after tomorrow.”
James nodded. “Can we see her?”
Scott stood aside. “She’s sleeping until tomorrow morning.”
The six of them hurried into the room and crowded around Jessica’s bed to find her sleeping. She did look perfectly okay, like she was sleeping.
Carly and Emily each sat on opposite sides of her on the bed while the others settled into chairs.
“So do you think this is big enough to go wake Sirius?” Elizabeth asked.
“Sirius would categorize it as big enough even if it was a bruise on the arm,” Lauren scoffed. “I’m not waking him until tomorrow morning.”
“He is not going to be happy,” Carly told her.
Lauren shrugged. “He’d be mad anyway when I tell him he’s not allowed to leave until he’s healed enough, which will be a little over a week by the way, so it doesn’t make much of a difference.”
James sighed, looking at Jessica’s face. “I’m going to write to the others then,” he stood heavily. “Let them know that Sirius won’t be there when they come, and Remus and Peter will want to come with everyone else since I’m staying here.”
“James,” Emily stopped him.
“Yeah?”
“Sirius is being stupid and saying it’s his fault and he won’t listen to me,” she told him.
“He won’t listen to me, either,” Lauren said.
“Well, he won’t listen to me,” James sighed. “Maybe mom or dad, but I’ll give it a try tomorrow.”
Lauren nodded. “And if you’re staying here, only two other people can stay with him,” she added.
“Mom and dad will want to stay here,” James said.
“Can we stay?” Carly asked, motioning to herself and Emily.
James nodded. “I’ll be with Sirius.”
“Parchment and ink in my office,” Lauren called after him.
As he left, Chloe turned to Elizabeth and asked, “Should someone tell the others back home?”
Before she could respond, the door burst open and a mob of Potters burst into the room.
“What’s happening?”
“Mark said that you had to bring Jessica and Sirius here.”
“Is she okay?”
“What’d Scott say?”
“Where’s Sirius?”
“Is he okay?”
“Did you heal the rest?”
“How’s her head?”
“Where’s James?”
“Shut up, people!” Lauren shouted. “Sirius is sleeping in my ward; he’ll be here for around a week. Scott said Jessica’s fine, and can leave the day after tomorrow.”
“Thank God,” Amy sighed in relief.
“Stop giving them false hope, Lauren,” Elizabeth said. “She’s fine and everything, but she’s, as James puts it, ‘a mix of a 7-year-old- and 17-year-old.’ She’s not going to act her age all the time and is going to be all gullible and ignorant and everything.”
“Which isn’t that bad,” Lauren added.
There were silent exchanging of looks between the lot of them before John finally broke the silence.
“Yeah, you’re right; she’s fine.”
Everyone else nodded in agreement and gathered around her bed.
“Where’s James?” Josh asked.
“He’s with Sirius writing to the others,” Carly said. “He just wants to let them know what happened.”
“But I thought you all went to meet up with all of your friends there,” Jake said with a puzzled expression.
Carly smirked slightly. “You’ve been pranked.”
“Their prank was lying about who their meeting in Diagon Alley?” Jared asked.
“I think they’ve lost their touch,” Jake said as John nodded in agreement.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Is it all Potter males?”
Carly nodded. “It’s a family thing. No cure.”
“What?” Jake asked.
“That wasn’t the prank,” Carly sighed.
“Then what –“
“Sirius and Jessica are going out.”
That statement was followed by a lot of silence and shocked expressions from all males in the room.
“I’m sorry,” Josh said, “What?!”
“Last minute prank,” Emily shrugged. “James’s idea.”
“S-since when?” Jake asked.
“Since the night before we came back,” Carly told him.
“And about time to,” Emily added. “It was just waiting to happen.”
Carly nodded in agreement. “It was more obvious than James and Lily.”
Everyone just stared.
“That’s it?” Lena asked. “I thought it had been longer than that.”
Carly shrugged. “If Jessica hadn’t been denying it all the time and Sirius wasn’t shouting ‘I don’t like her!’ every five seconds, you’d think they were together long ago.”
“And you freaked him out,” Elizabeth said to Lena. “He was convinced you hated him.”
She shrugged. “It was a way too good opportunity to pass up.”
“What happened?” Katherine asked.
“Aunt Lena thought it would be funny to tell Sirius about that one girl from forever ago at St. Collins,” Elizabeth replied.
“Lauren!” James burst into the room. “Chris told me to come get you; Sirius is bleeding again.”
Lauren jumped up and hurried passed James who waved to his family before hurrying out as well.
“What happen to Sirius?” Jared asked. “Josh and Mark are not very specific.”
“He got hit by a bunch of spells that won’t heal,” Emily replied. “His arm’s all burnt and there are huge gashes all over his back.”
“What did he do?” Jake asked. “Run through the middle of flying curses?”
Carly nodded. “He lost Jessica.”
Amy stood up and turned to the door. “I’m going to go see how he is.”
Jake stood as well and kissed Jessica on the forehead. “I’ll come too.”
As they left, the rest began talking quietly amongst themselves.
It had barely been a few minutes before Scott came back. He abruptly stopped in the doorway, looking at all the people.
“Evening Scott,” Lena waved.
“Wh-why are- okay, you all need to leave,” Scott pointed out the door.
“What?”
“I can’t let there be twenty people in here!” Scott exclaimed. “Go home and eat dinner or something.”
“But –“
“Visiting hours are over in a few minutes anyway. Go see Sirius or something; I think I heard something about him dying again.”
Lena jumped up out of her chair in a hurry. “He’s dying?”
“Er…” Scott looked at her, “Yeah, sure.”
She hurried out, followed by over half of the rest of the Potters.
“That wasn’t the nicest thing to do,” Maria said as the room was practically emptied, apart from herself, Emily, Carly, and Mark.
Scott shrugged.
“They’re going to kill you.”
Another shrug.
“You know –“
“Oh, just get out already,” Scott pointed to the door.
“But Jessica –“ Mark started.
“Will be fine,” Scott cut him off. “Sirius is seriously losing a bunch of blood and the hospital will kick you out in five minutes anyway.”
Carly and Emily stood from the bed and followed Maria and Mark out.
“Aunt Amy and Uncle Jake are staying with her,” Maria said to Scott on her way out.
Scott nodded. “Fine.”
As they entered Sirius’s room, it was to find a lot of glaring Potters, plotting the death of one Healer Scott Dunn.

“It says they’re all fine,” Rachel said soothingly to Lily who’s eyes were brimming with tears.
“Yeah, except for the ‘Got to go; Sirius is bleeding excessively again,’ part!” Lily exclaimed. She was freaking out from James’s letter, though he had said that Jessica was perfectly fine and Sirius would be healed in no time. Especially the last part. Knowing James, he hadn’t meant to add that part though, but when James was freaking out he said, or wrote, too much.
“It can’t be so bad,” Rebecca reasoned. “How much can a guy bleed from a jet of light?”
Lily glared at her. “You know how the news has been talking a lot about mysterious stabbings causing people to bleed to death?”
Rebecca nodded fearfully.
“These are the mysterious stabbings!” Lily exclaimed hysterically.
“You know what Lily,” Katie stood up and went to her bag. “You need some chocolate.” She returned with a large chunk of chocolate and handed it to her.
Lily looked at it, but didn’t take it.
“He’s in a hospital,” Rebecca said soothingly. “There are doctors everywhere.”
“Healers,” Lily corrected.
Rebecca raised an eyebrow at her.
“We call them Healers.”
“Same thing,” Rebecca waved it off. “The point is the your friends are fine and you don’t need to be freaking out.”
“I do need to be freaking out!” Lily cried out. “This is just the beginning! We’re all gonna die! There’s nothing to save us! You could all die; they’re after James’s family we all know perfectly well, and they’ll probably want to kill me and anyone I love for the sake of me being a Mudblood! There’s no way we can all make it!”
Her friends looked fearfully at her; they didn’t know what she was going on about, but this did not seem like the time to ask.
“Come on, Sweetie,” Rachel said softly, taking the chocolate from Katie. “Just eat it and calm down.”
Just then, there was another tap on the window and Katie quickly got up, letting the barn owl in.
Lily shakily took the little package and opened it. out fell a small vial and a note. Lily picked up the note and read:
Sorry; didn’t mean to scare you. I was panicking. He’s fine; Lauren’s fixing it. I’ll see you in a few days. He’ll laugh at you for freaking out; I will tell him.
Lily took a calming breath and picked up the vial. Calming Draught.
She smiled slightly and took it, feeling better.






I think I deserve some feedback, but I may be biased. After all, I did take a while and it’s still extremely short, but at least I posted, eventually.
If you care about me than you’ll leave me some!




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Chapter 48

Jessica opened her eyes and looked around. She groaned inwardly, taking a hand to her head which was throbbing horribly.
“God, my head hurts,” she muttered, turning over in the bed to find Scott and Cheryl pausing from doing healer things and turning to look at her.
Cheryl chuckled as she brought Jessica a potion. “Déjà vu?”
Jessica gave her a confused look.
“When you first woke up this summer, you said the same thing,” Cheryl explained.
Jessica nodded slowly, remembering. She looked curiously at the potion Cheryl held in her hands.
“It’ll help with the headache,” she said.
Jessica nodded, suddenly eager, reaching for it. “Gimme!”
Cheryl laughed and handed her the potion.
Jessica took it and drank it, her head feeling better instantly.
“Thank you,” she sighed. “Why didn’t you give me that stuff last time?”
“We didn’t know how your body would react to it, considering everything.”
Jessica sighed. “Well you could have figured it out,” she muttered under her breath.
“Great to see you’re the same as usual,” Cheryl went back to her healer stuff.
“So, how long have I been out?” Jessica asked.
“We checked you over yesterday and then put you to sleep,” Scott replied.
“And?”
“And what?”
“So, what’s wrong with me!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Oh,” Scott said, turning to her. “You’re fine.”
‘Fine?” Jessica asked.
“Perfectly okay,” Scott nodded.
Jessica raised an eyebrow an him and then turned to Cheryl who nodded in agreement with Scott.
“So, what happen to the rest?” Jessica asked. “At risk of sounding arrogant, I thought they’d be here.”
Cheryl laughed. “Well, only two could stay, so your parents were here.”
“So where are they now?”
“Sirius started bleeding a bunch again and Lauren had promised to let them now when that happened, so they rushed over there when Carly came to tell us,” Scott replied.
“W-what?”
“Scott!” Cheryl shouted.
“What?”
She gestured to Jessica, dropping whatever it was she was doing and rushing over to her.
Jessica however was too busy freaking out to take any notice.
She suddenly remember Sirius all bloody, his arm charred, but she couldn’t make herself do anything. She last remembered seeing him in the entrance of her house, and then, he was gone.
“W-what happened?”
“He’s fine,” Cheryl said soothingly.
“You said he was bleeding!” Jessica shouted. “A whole day later!”
“It just happens randomly,” Cheryl said. “Lauren said it’s nothing to worry about. She has him on plenty of blood replenishing potions and she’s worked out a pattern for the most part so she can get to it before it gets too bad. He’s just sitting there glaring at everyone for not letting him go see you while Chris and Lauren try to stop the bleeding.”
Jessica did not look appeased.
“I swear, I didn’t mean it like that,” Scott said. “He’s fine. Six healers said so.”
Jessica laid back down and closed her eyes. “My head hurts again,” she said.
“Do you want to sleep?” Cheryl asked.
Jessica nodded, eyes still closed. The day before was replaying behind her eyelids. The lights and the dark cloaks, and Sirius was hurt, and then he just disappeared. She tried to find him, but she couldn’t. And then she got hit, and she fell and she just got out of the way. He’d find her; he said he would.
“Take this,” Cheryl said softly.
Jessica opened her eyes and saw a potion she recognized as the dreamless sleep potion. She took it from Cheryl’s hands and tipped it into her mouth.
She suddenly felt groggy, and then everything got blurred behind her closed eyelids and she was asleep.

Jessica awoke, a feeling of confusion overtaking her. She lay there, eyes closed, trying to remember what was happening. Slowly, she remembered the trip to Diagon Alley again. And then, when she woke up, what Scott had said about Sirius.
Calm down, Jessica, scolded Carly’s voice in her head. He’s okay. Scott and Cheryl said so. And so did Lauren and a bunch of other people.
But still, she couldn’t get the image of him out of her mind. She had to go see him.
She opened her eyes and sat up tentatively, just in case another headache came on, but she was safe. she swung her feet around and went to stand when voices came in through the cracked open door.
“Is she going to be alright?”
A sigh. “I love it when patients have a lot of people that love them and worry over them, but why can’t you all just come at once?”
“Because we just found out when we asked about Carly and Emily. We had taken Jacob to visit his grandparents and then we come back and find out about an attack at Diagon Alley and Potters and going on and on about Jessica and Sirius and we have the right to worry and –“
“Deep breathes, Lindsey. If it was really bad, we’d know about it already.”
“Definitely,” Jessica finally recognized Scott’s voice reply. “I’m surprised you don’t already know all the rumors, what with the Potters being, well, the Potters.”
“Yeah, well, Lindsey freaked out and shoved me into a fireplace as soon as she heard the words ‘Sirius and Jessica are in St. Mungo’s.’”
That was Carly’s dad, Connor. The Soames must have found out what happened.
Well, duh! Mom just said so!
Jessica ignored Carly, planning on surprising Connor and Lindsey, but she was stopped by the next words.
“So, how is she?”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay, but not the same.”
What? Didn’t he and Cheryl just tell her that she was fine? Perfectly fine?
Jessica wracked her mind, and came to the conclusion that that was indeed what she had been told.
“What’s wrong? Is it really bad? Will she –“
“She’s fine, but her minds been jogged a bit, again.”
“What does that mean? You’re not being very specific! I want –“
“Lindsey!” Connor stopped her. “Let the man speak.”
“And she was almost better too,” Scott sighed, “and then she had to go and get hit in the head by some giant chunk of wood. The simplest way to put it is that she’ll be immature again, like when she first woke up, except she won’t get better naturally this time when she’s used to being 17 again.”
“What – what does that mean?”
“She’s got her magic and her knowledge still, but emotionally, most of the time, she’ll be at least 10 or 11, maybe 12.”
Okay, no one had told her that bit.
“But is she –“
“She’s perfectly fine other than that. What with family and friends like this, I’m more worried about Sirius’s bleeding. She’ll be okay; I know everyone will take amazing care of her, and that’s all she’ll need. A little guidance and people looking out for her, but it’s not like James doesn’t do that already.”
That statement was followed by a lot of silence in which Jessica’s mind was reeling.
They’d lied.
Why?
Was it that she couldn’t take it? Was she too mentally unstable or something?
“Does she know?” Lindsey finally asked.
“No.”
“Good. The Jessica I know would feel that we’d look at her differently. We wouldn’t, we won’t.”
“I know, but Amy told me the same thing,” Scott said. “When she’s realized that no one see’s her differently, they’ll tell her.”
Jessica pondered. She was different though, wasn’t she? There was something wrong with her now.
Sirius always said there was something wrong with her, but now, it was true.
Sirius. Did he know? What would he say? He’d break up with her. Who’d want to date a brain damaged?
But he said he liked me for being messed up.
‘Don’t be stupid, Jessica! He obviously didn’t mean it like that!’
No, you stop being stupid! Carly shouted in her head. Sirius likes you no matter what. Stop freaking out.
What to do?
“I think it’s time for the girls to get home,” Connor said. “Not to mention that Justin and Lucky need to be informed of what happened.”
“They’re with James sitting with Sirius,” Scott said.
“Have Jake and Amy left?” Lindsey asked
“Yes. Jessica and Sirius are fine, Lauren’s working here, James refuses to leave, and Emily and Carly have been here, so we got them to go. There was a lot of stuff that need to be done at the Ministry after the attack.”
“I guess I’m going in then,” Connor sighed.
“Let’s go get the girls,” Lindsey said. “Thank you Scott.”
“Sure thing.”
Retreating footsteps could be heard, before a shuffle of papers and the door creaking open.
Jessica was laying back down in bed in less than a second, looking still asleep.
She heard Scott come in and shuffle around in his office before he was gone again.
Jessica stayed as she was. So they thought she was weak. She’d show them, Jessica decided. She’d show them that she was perfectly capable of acting her age.

“I’m still mad.”
“You’ve said that plenty of times,” James didn’t bother looking up from his book as he continued to write his essay. Carly’s idea, not his.
“I just want to see her!” Sirius exclaimed. “Her rooms not even far from here!”
“Walking might open up the wounds again.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, but that’s already been happening completely randomly.”
James nodded. “Which is why we shouldn’t risk it.”
Sirius glared some more.
They kept saying she was okay, that it wasn’t that bad; this only Potterized her even more, Carly had said. But he just had to see her himself to be sure she was fine. Sirius hated that every time he thought of Jessica, it was that last memory of her so blank that he remembered.
“James,” Lauren appeared from her office, “I’m kicking you out tonight.”
“What? No! Come on! Why?”
Lauren rolled her eyes. “As you can see, Sirius is perfectly stable and so you have no reason to need to stay here.”
“But –“
“I don’t care,” Lauren cut him off. “Hospital rules say you have to be out now.”
“You can’t –“
“I have got plenty more baby James stories,” Lauren put her hands on her hips and said sternly.
James gaped at her. “You wouldn’t.”
“Hey Sirius,” Lauren turned to him, “did I ever tell you about the time James –“
“Don’t!”
“Leave then,” Lauren pointed to the door.
James looked at her helplessly before turning to Sirius still in his bed.
“I don’t want you here,” Sirius said to him. “I’m still mad at you.”
James glared and stood from his chair. “Fine than!” he huffed, roughly shoving his things into his bag. “I won’t be seeing you soon!”
“See you in the morning,” Sirius called after him as he stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Luckily, the ward had been emptied that day as all of the recovering children had been healed and checked out.
“I’m mad at you too,” Sirius turned back to Lauren who was still standing there, watching him.
At his words, she shrugged and turned back into her office, messing around with some more boring paper work.
Sirius turned his head out the window, looking out at the violet and navy sky of dusk, with a sigh.
Why didn’t he just sneak out or something? He was a Marauder after all; it couldn’t be too hard.
Sirius was just preparing himself to get out when he heard the door creak open.
He turned and smiled at Jessica.
She waved slightly with a shy smile, shuffling her feet.
She looked okay. Better than okay actually; she looked wonderful, as per usual, but maybe he was biased.
Sirius was just happy to see Jessica okay, without that look of fear or blankness from the day before.
He scooted over in his bed and patted the empty spot next to him. Jessica grinned wider, letting the door close behind her as she approached Sirius’s bed.
“How are you?” Sirius asked.
Jessica scoffed. “I’m the one walking. You, on the other hand are still sitting around in a bed.”
Sirius faked a glare at her. “Leave me alone.”
Jessica shrugged. “Alright than,” she turned back to the door.
Sirius’s eyes widened and he grabbed her wrist, pulling her down onto the bed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Sirius’s demanded.
“You told me to leave you alone,” Jessica stated obviously.
Sirius sighed exaggeratedly. “I was joking.”
“Oh,” Jessica said nonchalantly. “See, I didn’t get that because I didn’t know that you were clever enough to actually have the ability to do that.”
Sirius glared, looking highly offended. “You’re mean!”
Jessica shrugged. “That’s what they tell me.”
Sirius huffed, crossing his arms and turning away from her.
“I could seriously go you know…” Jessica started getting up.
“Ha! Not a chance!” Sirius pulled her back down, locking his arm around her. “You’re stuck with me ‘till I release you.”
“Oh, joy,” Jessica sighed dejectedly.
Sirius smiled again as they fell into a comfortable silence. Suddenly, the prospect of being stuck in the hospital wasn’t so bad.
Jessica shifted slightly, making herself more comfortable and letting her head fall onto his chest.
Then suddenly, she jumped away from him as if she’d been burned, looking back at Sirius with wide eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius asked quickly. “What happened?”
“Healer Scott and Cheryl said you were hurt!”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “That’s why I’m stuck in the hospital.”
“No,” Jessica shook her head, “you’re still hurt and I’m sorry I forgot. I didn’t hurt you did I? God, I just totally forgot. I do that a lot. I’m really sorry, really. Are you alright? I didn’t mean to –“
“Jess,” Sirius cut her off, “I’m fine.”
“A-are you sure?”
Sirius laughed. “Positive.”
“But they told me that you had all these cuts and they kept randomly bleeding and – doesn’t it hurt?”
Sirius shook his head with a smile. “Lauren found a spell to block out the pain.”
“She – she did?” Jessica asked worriedly.
“Yes,” Sirius laughed again.
“So I didn’t –“
“Come here Jess,” Sirius sighed.
Jessica tentatively approached him, still a bit unsure.
Sirius rolled his eyes and dragged her closer by the hand when she was close enough.
“See? I’m fine,” Sirius said, putting her back in her original position.
“If you’re sure…”
“I am,” Sirius assured her.
“Okay…”
“Relax, Jess,” Sirius smiled.
Jessica nodded slightly, doing just that.
They lapsed into another silence as Sirius looked back out the window at the changing sky. The violet had receded, a darker navy-black taking over as the stars came out.
Tomorrow was Christmas and everyone was coming a couple days after that. Remus and Peter had written back, promising to visit on Christmas day and Carly and Emily would already be there as well.
Sirius was pretty content as of now. It was Christmas, he would get to see all the rest of his friends in a few short days, he had Jessica, and there were no longer Potters out to get him. They had all visited that afternoon, bringing with them a bunch of glares and speeches, similar to James’s lecturing the last night they had been in the Gryffindor Dorms.
Sirius had done a bunch of stuttering and scared looks and had concluded that he’d never been so scared in his life. James, on the other hand, had laughed at him. Laughed! That’s why Sirius was mad at him.
“Hey, Sirius?” Jessica broke into his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Why are you in the children’s ward?”
Sirius looked at her blankly for a couple seconds before his eyes went wide.
“That’s a good question. Lauren!”
Lauren was out of her office in a blink of an eye. “What’s wrong? More blood? I thought – Jessica! What are you doing here? Does Scott know –“
“Why am I in the children’s ward?” Sirius cut her off.
Lauren blinked at him. “What?”
“Why am I in here?” Sirius repeated, gesturing around.
Lauren looked around as well. “Oh!”
“Slightly slow,” Sirius muttered to Jessica who smiled.
“Because I don’t trust panicking healers with family and friends,” Lauren replied.
Sirius grinned smugly. “You care about me!”
Lauren scoffed. “No, I just pretended to for the sake of those mental Potters.”
“Hey!”
Lauren ignored Jessica. “Besides, I was bored.”
“I’m sure,” Sirius smirked.
“What, you think I’m lying?”
“No,” Sirius shook his head. “I know you are.”
“Am not!”
“Sure.”
“I’m not!” Lauren exclaimed.
“Whatever,” Sirius shrugged. “Would it help if I pretended to believe you?”
Lauren contemplated for a second. “Well…okay.”
“Great,” Sirius smiled. “I’m hungry.”
“So?” Lauren asked.
“I’m not allowed to leave so you have to bring me food.”
“Do not!” Lauren cried out.
“Fine then,” Sirius crossed his arms. “I’ll laugh at you from above when your patient dies of hunger.”
Lauren glared at him. “Fine, but only because I don’t want to be laughed at from below.”
“Above,” Sirius corrected.
“Yeah right!” Lauren scoffed, walking out the door.
Sirius turned to Jessica who had her eyes closed with her head resting on his chest, but she was still awake.
“Shouldn’t you be in your room?”
“Yes,” Jessica replied.
“You going to go?”
“No.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Go on. It’s bed time.”
“I’m not tired!” Jessica exclaimed, snapping her eyes open.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’m not!” That was followed by an yawn.
“Oh, come on!” Jessica whined. “I’ve been sleeping all day! I’m tired of sleep.”
“Jess…”
Jessica pouted. “Sirius! Please don’t make me go to sleep.”
Sirius looked at her, but then sighed. “Fine, I won’t make you.”
“Yay!” she cheered.
Sirius smirked as she lay her heads back down, eyes dropping closed.
A couple minutes of silence later, Sirius was playing with Jessica’s hair when the door burst open.
“Sirius!”
“Shh!” Sirius hushed Scott, gesturing down at Jessica who was asleep.
“How did she get here?”
“It’s called legs, Scott,” Sirius rolled his eyes.
“Stop being smart,” Scott snapped.
“Sorry,” Sirius shrugged, “it’s just who I am.”
Scott glared.
“Where’s Lauren?”
“Getting me food,” Sirius replied.
Scott sighed, looking at Jessica. “I just wanted her to sleep in the hospital for one more night.”
“She is in the hospital,” Sirius pointed out.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Scott said. “She can stay if Lauren –“
“It’s fine,” Lauren walked in with food. “Just go back to your research or whatever.”
“You sure?” Scott asked.
Lauren nodded. “Who wants to wake up on Christmas all alone in a hospital?”
Scott nodded. “True.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Lauren said, setting the tray of food across Sirius’s legs and turning back to the healer.
“Okay,” Scott said, “but I want her in tomorrow morning before she leaves.”
“No worries,” Lauren waved him out. “Bye.”
“Hey, Lauren,” Sirius said, swallowing some food.
“What?”
“Aren’t you going home?”
Lauren snorted. “And find out you bled to death in the middle of the night? Yeah right!”
Sirius smirked smugly. “You do to care.”
Lauren glared. “I just don’t want to be fired.”
“Whatever you say,” Sirius grinned, taking another bite of a roll.
Lauren glared and marched back into her office and closing the door behind her.
Sirius raised an eyebrow at the closed door until he felt Jessica move, snuggling closer to him.
Sirius grinned down at her, diving back into his dinner.





Feedback please!!!

(Thanks a bunch, Phoenixgirl!)




http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

Chapter 49

“Merry Christmas!”
“Wha -?” Sirius awoke, looking around.
“I said, ‘Merry Christmas!’” Carly exclaimed jovially, entering the hospital room with a bunch of presents levitating in front of her.
“Presents!” Sirius exclaimed, sitting up straighter.
Jessica groaned and woke up as well, looking around. Her eyes lit up at the gifts, now piled on an empty bed. “Presents!”
She hurried to get up, but Sirius’s was still holding her.
“Ugh! Sirius! Let me go! I want my presents!”
Sirius ignored her. “I thought you weren’t coming back?” he smirked at James.
“I came to see Jessie,” James rolled his eyes, like it was obvious thing in the world.
“Well, Emily and Carly are here to see me, right?” Sirius turned to the two girls.
“Sure, Sirius,” Emily laughed, getting settled on a spare bed with Carly as James took a seat in a chair.
“Sirius!”
Sirius laughed. Jessica was still struggling to get up.
He decided to take pity on her and levitated the presents over and dumped them in front of them on the bed.
“Yay!” Jessica exclaimed, ripping paper off of presents.
Sirius did the same, just as excited. Seriously, it was Christmas. How could they not be excited?
After a good 20 minutes being spent on admiring their Christmas presents, Sirius and Jessica sat back again with satisfied smiles.
“Are the others coming?” Jessica asked.
“No,” James said. “They don’t want to have to get up to come down here and decided to just spend the day at home in their pajamas with all that food.”
Jessica’s smile dropped. “Oh,” she said quietly, looking down at her hands.
“James!” Emily wacked him on the head while Carly rolled her eyes and Sirius sighed, hugging Jessica.
“He’s lying, Sweetie,” he said.
Jessica looked up at him, hopefully. “He is?”
“He’s James,” Sirius shrugged. “He does that a lot.”
Jessica glared and James. “I dislike you.”
James held his hands up in defense. “You weren’t supposed to believe me!”
Jessica only glared, attempting to throw a drawing he’d given her at him, but the parchment didn’t go far before fluttering back down to rest on the bed.
James smirked. “Good job.”
Jessica glared some more. “Go away,” she pointed to the door.
“I don’t wanna,” James said.
“But I told you to go away!” Jessica shouted.
“So?”
“So! You have to listen to me!”
“No I don’t.”
“Yeah you do!” Jessica shot back. “I’m the smarter twin!”
“Are not!” James argued.
“Are too!”
“Are –“
“How ‘bout you two just hug and make up?” Carly sighed. “This is annoying.”
Emily nodded her head in agreement.
“Ugh! Fine,” James sighed dramatically and got up from the chair. “I’m sorry for lying to you Jessie.”
Jessica eyed him suspiciously for a moment before resigning. “Fine, I guess, I’m sorry for telling you to leave.”
James hugged her and sat back down.
“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Carly asked.
“No,” James and Jessica mumbled.
A second later, Sirius’s stomach growled.
Everyone looked at each other and burst out laughing.

Christmas lunch. With the whole family. Wonderful, as per usual. However, Lily seemed distracted, eyes continuously darting towards the clock. And Lily wasn’t really an impatient person. Which is why her family became concerned.
“What’s wrong, Lily?” Laura asked.
“Nothing,” Lily smiled quickly.
To tell the truth, it wasn’t making much sense to her either. Okay, fine, so the girls were like her best friends and she loved them to death and would of course be freaking out if they were hurt. Sure, she could always use the Jessica excuse, but it wouldn’t fool her mind. It just didn’t make sense. Sure, she’d become friends with the boys over the past few months, but they weren’t like bestest best friends, were they? She didn’t love them like the girls; she hadn’t known them long enough.
But she had known of their existence for six years before Jessica, who she’d been friends with for the same time. But she’d hated them for those six years, so it didn’t really count. They were still pretty annoying, so she wasn’t even really good friends with them. Therefore, she shouldn’t really be this anxious over him.
“Lily?”
“How long do you have to be friends with a person before you start to care about what happens to them?”
Okay, blunt, but this was confusing, and she was too anxious to try and figure it out on her own.
Oh wow, maybe she was changing. Since when did she ask people for help?
“What’s going on with you?” her dad, Michael, asked.
Lily shrugged. “I’m confused.”
Her parents exchanged looks while Petunia scoffed, but Lily decided to ignore it.
“If you’re friends with them, you automatically start to care,” Laura said. “It’s a buy one get one free.”
Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. Great, that helped.
“What if we’re not great friends?” Lily pushed. “I mean, I hated him for the longest time and now we’re friends, except not great friends because he’s annoying, so we’re not good friends, but I’m freaking out about him bleeding to death, which usually wouldn’t bother me, plus, James told me it’s not very likely. Does it make sense for me to still worry?”
“Um, sorry, what?”
Lily sighed. “Never mind.”
Her parents exchanged some more looks.
“Lily,” her dad said, “I think you’re in denial.”
“Of what?” Lily asked, perplexed.
“Well, you say you disliked this guy for some time, but you’re friends now, but you think you’re not great friends because you are denying being friends with him because you disliked him for so long so this would mean you were wrong.”
Lily blinked at him.
“Ugh, you two are confusing,” Laura sighed. “Why must you talk like that?”
Lily ignored it, thinking.
Maybe it was easier to accept being close to James because she discovered she actually had feelings for him, and she’d never really had anything against Peter, and Remus, Frank, and Kyle had been her friends for a while already now, just not as close, but she had never liked Sirius, and there wasn’t any specific reason for them to become great friends, so she was confused that it turned out she enjoyed his company more than she had thought. That made sense.
So then, her worrying about Sirius dying, even though he probably wouldn’t, was justified and now made sense. So, the fact that she was currently freaking out and wanted to go see him in St. Mungos’ made sense now too.
Lily abruptly stood from the table.
“Where are you going?” Michael asked.
“St. Mungos’,” Lily replied. “I’m currently freaking out and have to go see Sirius.”
“Well, isn’t that polite,” Petunia sniffed, “going out to see friends when you should be with your family and the people you love on Christmas.”
“But Sirius is in the hospital, randomly bursting out bleeding and could maybe possibly bleed to death, though it’s really unlikely, but I still want to go see him. And besides, my friends count as family since I love them too.”
Petunia blinked at her. “Freak,” she mumbled, getting up from the table and stalking out the room and up to stairs.
“Is it okay if I go?” Lily asked, turning to her parents. “it won’t be for too long.”
“Of course,” her mom said. “Your friend’s in the hospital.”
Lily smiled. “Thanks.”
She hurried to her room to get properly dressed, considering she was still in her Pajamas, and then apperated to St. Mungos’.
She made her way to the front desk and got in line behind a man who had shoes with fangs biting his ears.
“Can I help you?” the witch at the desk asked when Lily reached her.
“Um, yeah,” Lily said to the young blonde. “What room is Sirius Black in?”
The witch, whose name tag read Jenny, narrowed her eyes at her. “I can only tell that to family.”
“Er, yeah,” Lily said. “I’m his…sister, Lily.”
“I don’t believe you,” Jenny said, crossing her arms.
“What? Why not?” Lily exclaimed.
“Because he has no sisters,” Jenny replied.
“How do you know?” Lily challenged.
“Because Amy Potter told me so when she told me who was and was not allowed to know where his room was.”
Lily gaped. “Well, er, fine, so we’re not related,” Lily admitted, “but he is a friend of mine and I was hoping to get a chance to go see him.”
“Sorry, Honey,” Jenny shrugged. “If you’re not on the list, I can’t tell you anything.”
Lily sighed. “Fine.”
She walked away dejectedly, but then brightened when she saw the time. Lunch time, meaning James would have to be eating and/or getting food for Sirius. She decided to try the cafeteria. She hurried up the stairs to the top floor and looked around the cafeteria. Sure enough, she caught sight of James, with Carly walking with him, heading out the cafeteria with a tray of food in hand, already eating.
She rushed over to them quickly. “James, Carly!” she called.
They stopped and turned. James brightened at the sight of her and even stopped eating.
“Lily!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve had a Christmas revelation,” she explained.
Carly raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’ve discovered that I actually don’t want Sirius to die and oddly enough wanted to come see how he was doing,” Lily elaborated.
James and Carly stared.
“Your last letter went on and on about how Jessica was all perfectly okay, but you said that Sirius isn’t.”
“Yeah,” James nodded slowly, “Lauren’s still worried about the cuts because she can’t heal them, just bandage them up.”
Lily nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”
Carly and James exchanged looks but led her down the hall and down the stairs.
“Oh, yeah,” Lily said. “Merry Christmas.”
James laughed. “We are a bad influence on you.”
Lily shrugged while Carly laughed as well and nodded.
“She defiantly needs it.”
“How is Jessica?” Lily asked. “I know she’s all healed and everything, except…”
“She’s great actually,” James said. “More or less the same as she used to be, but defiantly a bit more gullible, and there are mood swings.”
Carly laughed. “The ‘mood swings’ correspond with James’s. if he’s mean to her, she’s sad, if he’s nice, she’s happy, and if he tries to trick her, she’s mad.” Carly gave James a look, but he only shrugged.
“How did you find us?” James asked. “Jenny only has our family and the Carly’s on that list of hers.”
Lily smirked. “It’s lunch time. Either you’re getting food, or someone is getting food for Sirius.”
Carly laughed and James pouted.
“You know it’s true.”
“I’m a growing boy!” James defended. “I need my food and energy!”
Lily only rolled her eyes and followed Carly into ward 46.
“Guess who had a Christmas revelation!” Carly said, entering the room.
“Who?” Sirius asked through a mouth full of food as Carly set the tray she was carrying down next to him.
“Seconds?” Lily raised an eyebrow at the still overflowing tray of food across Sirius’s lap. “After that?”
“Lily!” Jessica exclaimed, from next to Sirius on the bed.
“What are you doing here?” Sirius asked rudely.
Lily put on a hurt expression. “I came to see you, but if you don’t want me here, I can go,” she turned back around.
“No!” Jessica cried out. “Lily! Come back!”
“If Sirius apologizes for being rude,” Lily stated.
“Sirius,” Jessica turned to him, “say you’re sorry.”
“No,” Sirius said, not looking up from his food.
“Fine then,” Jessica huffed. She stood from the bed and went to walk away, but Sirius looked up alarmed.
“Hey!” he cried, pulling her back down.
“What?” Jessica crossed her arms.
“You can’t leave!”
“Well, if you’re being mean to my friends, then I’m going to go away and hang out with them.”
“Fine,” Sirius said, resettling Jessica on the bed. “I’m sorry I was rude to you Lily. Please, please forgive me.”
“Well…” Lily put on a thinking face.
Sirius gave her the puppy dog face.
“Oh, fine!” Lily sighed.
“Yay!” Jessica and Sirius exclaimed.
Lily laughed and walked back to the back of the room.
“So, what were you saying about Christmas revelations, Cassie?” Jessica asked.
“Lily had revelation,” Carly said.
“What type of revelation?” Sirius asked.
“I discovered today at lunch that I actually like you,” Lily said.
“Didn’t you already?” Sirius asked confused.
“Yeah,” Lily nodded, “but I didn’t know it because your stupidness overshadowed it.”
“Oh, o – wait – hey!”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Like this.”
“You’ve hurt my feelings!” Sirius pouted.
“But I still like you, remember?”
“Oh yeah!” he brightened.
Lily rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Don’t worry,” Sirius smirked smugly. “It’s inevitable.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Lily muttered, giving Sirius a hug.
“So, then James wasn’t lying?”
“No!” James exclaimed. “I told you I was telling you the truth!”
“Uh, what are we talking about?” Lily asked.
“About you being worried about me,” Sirius smirked some more.
“Oh, yeah,” Lily blushed slightly.
Sirius laughed. “But I’m still alive so it’s all good!”
“Are you sure you’re okay though?”
“Yes,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “I’m great. And I’d be even better if I could get out of here!” he added loudly.
“Too bad!” a voice shout out from the office.
Lily raised an eyebrow.
“Lauren,” James answered her unasked question.
Lily nodded in understanding.
“But it’s so boring in here!”
Lauren came stomping out of the office with her hands on her hips and a glare. “You are staying here until I find a way to heal you!” and then she stomped back.
“Oh, yeah,” Sirius said smugly, “she defiantly doesn’t care about me.”
“She still doesn’t know?” Jessica asked worriedly.
Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes. “She will.”
Jessica didn’t looked reassured.
Neither did the rest of the girls.
“You should really be a bit more concerned,” Lily said.
Carly nodded in agreement. “She’s right. You know that if she can’t eventually fix it, it won’t be good.”
“Definitely,” Emily said seriously. “And you know you’re not concerned enough when Lily’s more concerned about you, Sirius.”
Lily cracked a smile and rolled her eyes.
Sirius on the other hand just scoffed. “We all know she’d be devastated if I died.”
The funny thing was, he was right. If anything happened to any of her friends, old or new or Sirius, she’d be heartbroken. And that caught her by surprise. She never thought there would be so many people she’d love so much.

The house was quiet. Eerily so. Seriously, the Potter Mansion during holiday break, quiet? Yeah right.
There was always bound to be someone looking for a midnight snack or watching TV in the living room. They were Potter for Pete’s sake!
But tonight, it was quiet.
Or, hold on, Jessica thought it was quiet, but she was awake, so it didn’t count.
She was hungry, of course, so she was walking down to the kitchen for some food. A nice big piece of chocolate cake would be enough to satisfy her.
With her mind set on cake, Jessica pushed the door to the kitchen open and walked in. she went straight for the cake, grabbed fork, and settled on a stool at the counter and dug in. of course, the cake was fantastic. It was chocolate. And Cookie made it. And Cookie was amazing. She was the most amazingest cake maker in the history of cake makers.
Jessica was enjoying her cake very much, but she was a bit confused. Why was she awake? She always slept through the night and didn’t wake up until somebody attacked her bad. Yet, here she was, at 2:00 in the morning, waking up and craving cake. Well, it was cake, so of course she was craving it all the time, but not the point. Why did she wake up in the middle of the night? It wasn’t for the cake, of that she was sure.
Jessica pondered for a while. It had been a long two days. In fact, Jessica was shocked that it had been only three nights ago that Sirius was sneaking into her room and conjuring up blankets.
Now, she was sitting in her kitchen at two in the morning eating cake while Sirius was still grumping around in a hospital bed. Lauren had kicked Jessica out that night, despite Sirius’s guilt trip. She didn’t go for the theory that Sirius suffered from separation anxiety disorder and that he’d die if she left, and then she’d be fired and go to Azkaban.
Reflecting on the day, Jessica was slightly unhappy with herself, she was convinced that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, but she felt she was doing a lousy job of proving it. On the bright side, he didn’t seem to have learned of Healer Scott’s stupid theories so far because he hadn’t broken up with her yet.
Lauren had been working really hard to find a way to fix Sirius, so hard that Jessica was beginning to agree with Sirius that she didn’t want him to die. The lot of them had spent the better part of the afternoon shoving Lily in Lauren’s face, saying that she’d eventually see the light and realize she liked Sirius as well.
Everyone was coming over the day after tomorrow; well, technically, it was tomorrow, but same thing. Lily had invited everyone over for the last day, for which Jessica was very excited. She’d felt slightly left out when the other three girls started chattering about Lily’s Muggle friends. However, Jessica, Carly, Emily, and Lily had spent a good smug while giggling about Lily’s Muggle friends’ reactions to their boyfriends. This was while the girls had accompanied Jessica to Healer Scott’s ward for a checkup before she could be officially released. When they came back and were still giggling, the boys all gave them scared looks. And then Remus and Peter showed up and after very excited greetings, and a few moments of awkwardness while Remus and Emily greeted each other, James and Sirius relayed the girls’ “odd and creepy behavior” to the other two boys who responded with raised eyebrows while the girls giggled some more.
It’s not like they could be mad at Lily’s friends or anything; they did have super hot boyfriends, and, as Lily had pointed out, they were meant for making other girls jealous anyway. Seriously, what other reason would they keep those idiots around? Carly and Jessica laughed while Emily pointed out that there was always the amazing snogging.
The boys had almost kicked them out after that, but it only took one puppy dog look from Jessica and James and Sirius caved.
Jessica smiled at the memory, absent mindedly reaching for more cake, but she was shocked to find that there was no more left.
No more chocolate cake.
It was gone.
Jessica sighed.
Oh well. Cookie would make more for tomorrow.
Jessica looked around at the time and found she had spent a good hour eating cake. Well, it had been a lot of cake, and she had been distracted.
She let the plate magically clean itself in the sink at shuffled back up to her room. She snuggled under her covers, falling instantly to sleep.
And it was a pretty heavy sleep.
She didn’t even hear James have a heart attack in the kitchen while Josh screamed about the missing chocolate cake.




So, I fell off the face of the earth, for which I’m sorry, but now, I posted. Yay!
This shall be you’re Christmas gift.
And now, it’s only fair you give me something too.
How ‘bout…feedback???
Either that or a giant white tiger.



http://www.veritaserum.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry458718

I didn’t get any feedback for the last chapter! Was it really that bad?
Well, this horribly short one isn’t any better. Sorry!




Chapter 50

Jessica looked up from her book when she heard hurried footsteps coming towards the living room. She turned just in time for the door to be thrown open and to be attacked by her favorite brunette.
“Get off of me Alice!”
Alice did so. “Oh, my god, I wanted to come see you sooner but mom and dad wouldn’t let me and everyone told me you were alive but I was still freaking out and you know,” Alice whirled around to James who had come in after her, “you’re not very good with reassuring letters.”
James only shrugged.
“But seriously,” Alice hurried on, “you are okay right? No lasting damage or any of that crap, and I see you’re intelligence is okay,” she gestured to the book, “or are you trying to re-teach yourself how to read? Oh, can you still talk because – oh no wait you already yelled at me, but can you hear me? No one said anything about your hearing. Why are you looking at me like that? Oh my god! You can’t understand me! Can you? Oh, that just sucks!”
“Alice!” Jessica screamed. “Shut up!”
“Oh, yeah, sorry, you don’t know what I’m saying so this is probably annoying, right? Oh, god, I’m sorry. I’ll –“
“Alice, I can perfectly understand your nonsense blabber and it is very annoying,” Jessica said. “Sit down,” she pointed to a chair, “and shut up.”
“Y-you’re okay?” Alice said unsurely as she hesitated at the chair.
“Yes!”
“Okay…”
“Eat this,” James came back in through the door and shoved a brownie in Alice’s hand.
She looked up at him confusedly.
“Moony says that chocolate calms the nerves,” James replied.
“And the headaches,” Jessica added. “I want one.”
“Then go and get it,” James pointed to the door to the kitchen.
“You get it for me,” Jessica demanded.
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
Jessica gave him the puppy dog eyes.
“Ugh! Fine!” James stomped out to the kitchen.
“So, how you been?” Jessica turned to Alice who was swallowing her brownie. “And don’t say anything that goes with ‘worried, scared, freaking out, ect.’”
“Annoyed,” Alice said.
“Annoyed?” Jessica raised an eyebrow.
Alice nodded. “At my parents for not letting me come see you and –“ she suddenly froze.
“Uh, Ali?” Jessica said a little hesitantly.
“Oh my god, is Sirius okay? I can’t believe I forgot about him! Nobody told me anything about him! Except James; he said that Sirius was bleeding a lot. Oh my god! Did Sirius bleed to death? I don’t want him to bleed to death! There’s no one else stupidly annoying enough to be enjoyable! Who am going to laugh at and make fun of? Oh my gosh! Now I have no Potions partner! I’m going to fail now! I suck at Potions! I miss Sirius!”
“Aww, I missed you too, Ali!”
“Sirius!” both girls pounced on him, neither having heard him floo in, Alice to busy freaking out and Jessica to busy trying to ignore her.
“No one told me you were coming back today!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Yeah, no one told me either, but apparently, Lauren had a revelation in the middle of the night and fixed me and she finally let me out.”
“This is so exciting!” Jessica said happily. “I was –“
“Okay, I got a bunch of brownies and – Padfoot!”
“Brownies!”
“How come you’re not in your sick bed?”
“Lauren had a revelation in the middle of the night and fixed me and she finally let me out,” Sirius repeated, grabbing some brownies.
“It seems everyone’s having revelations,” James laughed.
“Who all?” Alice asked as the other two laughed as well.
“Lauren,” James said, “And then Lily a couple days ago found out that she liked Sirius, and, from what I could make out, it seems you have realized just how much you love Padfoot as well.”
Alice scoffed. “Yeah, for laughs and Potions.”
Sirius smirked. “Whatever.”

There were many more shouted greetings, shrieks, and hugs all around in the next fifteen minutes as the rest of the gang arrived in the Potters’ living room.
Once everyone had seen their rooms, dropped off their stuff, and had had their fair share of brownies, everyone sat back and relaxed in the living room to catch up.
“Hey, what happen to the rest of your crazy family, Prongs?” Remus asked from his spot on the ground with Emily in his lap.
James shrugged. “How would I know? No one ever tells me anything.”
“There is apparently a wedding planning party at Lauren’s,” Sirius sighed. “Every female resident of this house has flocked to the place. What is with girls and weddings?”
“They’re so exciting!” Carly cried, literally bouncing up and down in her seat. “With the dresses and the decorations and the food and everything, and you get to spend all your time shopping and looking through catalogs and it’s always fun to plan things, and you can make people sit with people they don’t like because you get to make up the seating chart, or, you can put Josh and Maria at the same table with Lizzie and Chloe and put Sirius and Jessie at different tables on opposite sides of the room, and they’re a perfect place for pranking, and you get to dance and wear heals and not feel like a midget and the pretty dress and get your hair done, and they’re just so sweet and happy and –“
Kyle held her down firmly by the shoulders to keep her from bouncing the sofa while Frank put a hand on her mouth to muffle her voice and Emily said, “Shut up, Sweetie.”
“But weddings are so much fun!” Alice exclaimed. “And the spring ones when it’s all pretty and there are all these flowers, and then you get to wear a pretty dress and look all hot and dance and there’s always the super cute boy that you have to try and get a dance out of, which is hard to do when you’re friends are being annoying about it,” she threw a glare and Carly who was smirking, “and then it sucks when he doesn’t snog you senseless–“
“Oi!” Frank cried.
“Oh, wait,” she looked at Frank with wide eyes. “Darn it, I –“
“Make the annoying girl noises stop!” James cried suddenly, clutching his head dramatically.
The girls, minus Jessica, were all giggling like crazy, remembering the McKinnon wedding.
“I’m leaving if they don’t,” Frank sent a glare to Alice who could no longer be considered sitting next to him.
“No!” Alice cried. “I don’t want you to leave!”
“I’m sure you can find some other ‘super cute boy’” Frank sneered, “to snog you senseless.”
“No!” she gasped. “I didn’t mean it! I swear I didn’t I – I was referring to flirting with you at the McKinnon wedding!”
“I don’t – wait, what?”
“I said I –“
“But that was almost three years ago!”
Alice turned beet red.”Oh, er…um…oh ****.”
The girls who’d gotten their giggling under control were smirking, while everyone else was still slightly confused.
“Well, you see, I didn’t want to go, but then Carly made me so she wouldn’t be all lonely and she was trying to make me stop being all party-pooper so she started talking about boys and – it’s all her fault!” Alice pointed wildly at Carly.
“What’d I do?”
“You – you told me to find a cute guy and get over it!” Alice cried, and then her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh boy.”
“Oh, I get it!” Jessica exclaimed.
“Uh, no you don’t,” Alice shook her head quickly.
“Yes I do. You were at the wedding and being a party-pooper, so Cassie told you to find a cute boy and get over it, and then you found Frank and decided he was cute enough and that started your extremely long three year crush!” Jessica finished proudly.
Now Frank was smirking too and Alice, still bright red, threw a furious glare at Jessica.
Her eyes widened. “Oh. Sorry Ali!”
Alice just glared some more.
“You think I’m cute Ali?” Frank teased. He was enjoying this.
Alice blinked at him some more, but then sighed.
“Oh, well; screw it,” she threw her hands up in exasperation. “No, not anymore.”
Frank gaped at her. “But –but – what are you talking about?” he cried. “I am a very good looking bloke, even more so than three years ago!”
“No,” Alice shook her head, “what I meant was that three years ago, you were cute, but then, you grew out of your cuteness.”
“What?”
“No, now you’re just plain hot.”
“Wha – oh,” he blinked at her for a moment, while Alice sat, waiting expectantly.
And sure enough, his face broke out into a smirk. “Why thank you, of course, I always knew and everything, but –“
“Shut up,” Alice said. “Gloating is not hot.”
He shut up.
Remus rolled his eyes. “Is there even a difference between cute and hot?”
“Yes!” all five girls shouted.
Remus’s eyes widened and he threw his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Hey Ali?”
Alice turned to her boyfriend.
“Want me to snog you senseless now?”
“No!” came the response from almost the whole room.
Alice shrugged. “Sure.”
Needless to say, the room was practically emptied in almost 5 seconds flat, leaving the couple to “snog each other senseless.”





Yay! I love Alice:D
Don’t hate me for disappearing! You should love me for getting this up now. Finals start the day after tomorrow, so, technically, I should be studying, anyways, but that wasn’t gonna happen today.
Now, I don’t know how long until the next post, on any of the stories. I’m in major overload with finals, and then the second half of the school year. Next quarter is supposed to be the worst, and I get to start learning to drive soon (Yay!) Well, soon in my book. [Exactly one year until I turn 16!]
Anyways, sorry, I’ll do my best, and please don’t hate me!
Love always
Chocolaterox

PS
Feedback would be lovely for the birthday girl! {ME!!!}



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