Lily Evans: A History

Chapter 36 - Kassie's Choice
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James Potter groaned, blinking back the bright rays of sunlight that fell through his curtains and onto his bed. Muttering incoherently, he turned over and yanked on the blanket to pull it over his head. But, when he turned, he found he wasn't in his bed alone. He blinked, then his eyes grew wide.

"AHHHH!"

Lying next to him, half under the covers, his head on a pillow, was an alarmingly large, black dog. When James had opened his eyes, the dog barked, causing James to fall out of the bed, pulling the blankets with him and landing in a heap on the floor. James yanked and pulled for nearly a full minute before getting his blankets off his head, and was rewarded by a big, slobbery tongue licking him up his entire left cheek.

"SIRIUS I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

There was a faint pop in the room, and the massive black dog that had been looking down at James from on top of the bed turned back into Sirius Black, who then fell onto his stomach, laughing so hard that tears were welling in his eyes. James got up, grumbling the entire time, finally untangling himself from the blanket, and throwing it on Sirius, who continued to laugh. "What brilliant person told you to do that to me?" he demanded, muttering darkly under his breath while searching for his glasses approximately five feet from where they were laying. "I can't bloody see anyway, and I wake up with- with- a black mass of YOU next to me!" He pointed an accusing finger at Sirius, who had flipped over onto his back, but was still practically howling with laughter. Finally he found his glasses and shoved them on his face. The room came into sharp focus as Sirius tried to sit up, holding his sides.

"You should have seen the look on your face, mate! This is fantastic! Wait until I get Pete! He'll wet himself!"

Despite himself, James sniggered a bit at that and then rolled his eyes. He yawned, scratching the back of his head. "What time is it?"

"Oh!" Sirius said, jumping up off James' bed. "That's right. Livie said to wake you up, we're leaving in fifteen minutes."

"What?!"

"Better hurry," Sirius replied and bounced out of the room. James watched him go, his mouth hung open. He looked around the room at his trunk which was only half full, the clothes scattered here and there, his school books half piled up on his desk between open rolls of parchment and Horace's cage that was littered with droppings. "Great."

Twenty minutes later James dragged his trunk downstairs, carrying Horace's cage and yelling, "Mum! I need you to shrink Horace's cage for me!" At the finish of that sentence he proceeded to drop the cage, and in trying to not drop that, dropped his trunk on his toe as well. "Ow! Bloody hell!"

Olivia Potter came half running down the hall, looking frantic. She whipped her wand out, shrank Horace's cage and levitated James' trunk. "James wh--James Potter! Where are your trainers?!"

James looked down at his socked feet. "Arg!"

"If we get there on time it will be a miracle," Olivia lectured, floating James' trunk downstairs. "Hurry up!" she called back over her shoulder. When she arrived at the foot of the stairs, Sirius was at the front door, sitting on his trunk and blowing bubbles with his gum. "Oh no you don't, Sirius. You're not taking that with you to the train station this year. JAMES! HURRY UP! Where is Harry?"

Sirius, still chomping on his gum noisily, pointed down the hall where Harold Potter was eating a piece of toast with one hand and trying to brush his hair with the other. Giving up on the latter, he dropped the comb on a near-by table and crammed the remaining toast in his mouth. "Like father, like son," Olivia said to Sirius, who grinned and nodded. James came running down the steps, one of his shoes tied with the other lace trailing along behind him. "We're going to be late," Olivia complained, dropping James' trunk on the ground. "Harry, do you have those rolls of parchment that Fenwick wanted?"

Harold looked around, spotted his briefcase and opened it. "There were here last night. Where are the--oh, wait, Accio!" Seconds later two thick rolls of parchment came flying down the staircase and Harold caught them. "Ok, ready."

"Boys, are you ready?"

"Ready," James and Sirius said together. James was still bent over trying to tie his laces and Sirius was about to give him a shove so he fell on his bottom, when Olivia shook her head in a sharp No. Instead Sirius picked up his trunk and proceeded out the door, letting a purple bubble out of his mouth that floated up into the air as he went.

When they were outside Potter Manor, Harold waved his wand and a sleek black car came up to the front of the house and stopped. Olivia tapped her wand on the trunk to open it so James and Sirius could place their trunks inside, and then everyone got in.

By the time they got to King's Cross Station, even with Harold's magically amplified car squeezing through traffic, there was barely five minutes to spare before the Hogwarts Express left. Harold let Olivia and the boys out of the car at the station entrance and Olivia rushed them through the station, muttering things about "no fireplaces... completely rubbish!... utterly absurd…" and "should have known that James wouldn't get up by himself!"

James cast his mother dark looks, his stomach rumbling and reminding him he hadn't eaten any breakfast. With only seconds to spare, James and Sirius ran through the wall onto Platform nine and three-quarters and jumped on the train. "This is a fine way to start the new school year," James grumbled darkly. The train started moving, causing Sirius and James to hold onto the wall to stay upright. "Mum could have woken me up earlier and this could have been avoided."

"She did, mate," Sirius replied, sliding a door to a compartment open, sticking his head in, pulling it back and shaking his head no. They continued on down the train. "Several times, as a matter of fact."

"Really? I certainly don't remember," James replied. "And where are Remus and Peter, anyway?"

"Remus is probably in the Prefect compartment." Sirius jerked his head towards the front of the train. "Dunno about Pete--oh, wait, in here." Sirius pushed the door open enough to see Peter, but when he pushed it the rest of the way open, his eyes fell on Kassie, sitting across from him. "Found him." Sirius mumbled softly, staring at Kassie. The black haired witch seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

James poked Sirius in the back, making him go the rest of the way in. Having stared at Kassie for about half a minute, Sirius suddenly took great pains to not look at her. He stowed his trunk away and sat down next to Peter, taking a sudden interest in the scenery. James, either not noticing the tension, or ignoring it nicely, stowed his trunk away and sat down next to Kassie. "Where's Lily?"

"Prefects compartment," Kassie replied, taking her gaze from Sirius and turning to James. "She said she'd be back, though. I don't know when."

"I wonder who else were made Prefects?" James asked, more to himself than anyone else. He dug around in his pockets for some gold so when the lunch trolley came he would be ready. Or perhaps he'd go track the food down now; his stomach was still making a fuss.

Peter, who had been reading the back of his newest Chocolate Frog card (Alberic Grummion), answered, "Remus and Lily for Gryffindor, Hestia Jones and Emmett Nash for Ravenclaw, Rachel Bones and Tim Abbott for Hufflepuff, Euphemia Wilkes and--" Here Peter stopped, swallowing and leaning away from Sirius. "Severus Snape for Slytherin."

The outcome of this statement brought about the reaction Peter feared when he himself had heard the news. "WHAT?!" James and Sirius both shouted, their heads turning so quickly towards Peter that there may have been more than one case of whiplash in the room. James' coins went flying across the compartment. "Snape? The… that… Snape?!" Sirius spat, eyes wide.

Peter nodded solemnly, picking up a silver sickle from the seat next to him and throwing it at James, who caught it almost without looking. "Afraid so. I heard it straight from Davy Gudgeon, who heard it from Rita Skeeter, who heard it from Tim Jones, and his cousin is Hestia Jones."

James shut his mouth with a snap. "That is very confusing," he said calmly. "And since when does Rita Skeeter get her stories right, anyway?"

Peter shrugged. "Well, I talked to Lisa Valentine, too. And she confirmed it all."

Sirius opened his mouth, shut it and shook his head. "You were right, James," he said suddenly, sinking down in his seat and glaring out the window rather than at James because otherwise he would have to look at Kassie as well. "This really isn't a very good start to the year."

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Several hours later, Lily finally freed herself from the Prefects’ compartment by saying she had to go to the loo. Trapped in the same room with Severus Snape for that long wasn't exactly her idea of a fun ride to school. There had been so much tension in the room that she felt the air could have been cut with a knife. Finally able to breathe properly, Lily really did head to the loo. She pushed the door open and found, sitting on the sink and staring at her hands, Kassie. Lily shut the door, causing Kassie to look up sharply. "Oh, it's you," the black haired girl muttered and went back to looking at her hands as if she hadn't seen anything quite like them before in her life.

"Don't sound so thrilled about it," Lily replied, coming further in.

"Sorry."

"What are you doing?" asked Lily, leaning against the opposite wall.

"Nothing."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Does it have to do with Sirius?"

"No."

Lily blinked, crossing her arms. "Ok. And this thing that doesn't have to do with Sirius, is it about the problem you had at the end of last year?"

Still Kassie didn't look up. "Yes."

"Did you decide anything?"

"Yes."

Lily felt her body tense ever so slightly. "And what did you decide?"

Kassie looked up and opened her mouth, but at that moment the door to the bathroom flung open and two Hufflepuff second years burst in. Lily glared at them, but the damage had been done. Kassie jumped off the sink and left the room. Lily followed her, leaving two very confused Hufflepuffs in her wake.

Kassie went all the way to the end of the train looking for an empty compartment, but there wasn't one. Reaching the end of the train, she stopped and looked around as if waiting for another compartment to appear from thin air. When it didn't, she sighed heavily. "I don't think I can go back in there."

Lily wasn't sure where exactly 'there' was, but she could take a good guess. Kassie turned to face the window, pressing her forehead against the glass windowpane as the scenery flew past. "Why not?" Lily asked softly. "Has he said something to you?"

"No." Kassie replied. "Nothing."

Kassie's voice was so neutral that Lily didn't know if Sirius not talking to her was a good thing or bad. She had just opened her mouth to ask when the compartment door behind them slid open. A semi-tall witch with long, wavy black hair came out, a smirk appearing on her face when she spotted Kassie. "Well. Hello, poppet." Bellatrix Black said, lazily pulling her wand from her belt and twirling it between her fingers.

"Sod off Black," Kassie snarled, spinning around and pulling her own wand so fast that Lily didn't even realize she was reaching for it until it was in her hand.

Bellatrix tutted softly, smiling in a way that made her seem unhinged. "Now, now, Kassandra, play nicely."

"I could say the same thing, Black," Lily replied, stepping up so that her Prefect badge was clearly visible. "You'd better watch what you do or say this year or you'll find yourself in detention."

Bellatrix looked at the badge and her smirk became more fixed. "You're not the only one with a shiny new badge," she drawled, turning to go back in her compartment. "I'm sure this will be an interesting year."

"I'm sure." Kassie growled, looking Bellatrix up and down like she was nothing more than a piece of rubbish.

Two compartments down another door slid open and James stuck his head out. "I thought I heard you two out here. Everything ok?"

"Yes." Lily turned, going towards the compartment. She looked back at Kassie, who sighed and reluctantly followed. "Everything is as ok as it ever is."

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Lily didn't get a chance to talk to Kassie during the train ride to Hogwarts. Either they were in a room with Sirius (who took great pains not to look even remotely in Kassie's direction), James, Peter and Remus, or Lily and Remus were out patrolling the halls. By the time they arrived at Hogwarts, Lily was tired of explaining to first years that the giant squid hadn't eaten anyone, no matter what the older students said, and even more tired of threatening detentions on the older students who were saying it. By the time they approached Hogsmeade, Lily wanted nothing more than to either throw her Prefect badge back, or give detentions to every Slytherin on the train.

So it was with relief that the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and everyone started unloading. Along with everyone else, Lily left her trunk on the train and moved slowly towards the horseless carriages that would take them to Hogwarts’ front doors. Suddenly seeing an opportunity, Lily got in a carriage, dragged Kassie in with her and magically locked the door so no one else could get in with them. Kassie looked slightly surprised, but when she saw the look on Lily's face, sighed deeply.

"Ok," Lily said as the carriage started moving forward. "Talk quickly. What is going on?"

Kassie looked out the window rather than at Lily as she spoke. "I don’t want to go out with Sirius."

For a moment Lily thought she was hearing things. She had been so sure that Kassie liked Sirius; and she hadn't been the only one. Alexis, Kathleen, Gabrielle, Madison... everyone had been so sure. Lily was fairly sure she knew her best friend better than that. "Kassie, are you sure?"

Still the black haired girl didn't move her gaze from the passing scenery. "I have thought about it, Lily, and thought about it until I could scream. All summer, if I wasn't doing something, he was on my mind. But Lily…" Finally Kassie turned and Lily could see the tears in her eyes from the moonlight coming through the window. "I just can't do it. I can't."

Lily nodded. She didn't understand Kassie's reasoning, but her friend had a determined look about her that said her mind was made up and nothing short of a miracle would change it. As Kassie continued to stare out the window, subtly wiping a tear off her cheek, Lily felt very sorry for her. A few minutes later the carriage came to a halt in front of the school and Lily and Kassie got out, moving up the stairs into the entrance hall. Flying high above them, pelting first years with chalk, was Peeves the Poltergeist. Lily sighed, taking out her wand and preparing to just hex him and get it over with when the caretaker, Filch, came hurrying in through a side door and shaking his fist at him. "PEEVES! You foul creature. I'm going to the Headmaster right now!"

Peeves cackled and made a gross noise, then starting chucking chalk at Filch. Lily was torn between helping Filch out or letting the caretaker fend for himself but was pushed along with the crowd into the Great Hall before she decided. Shrugging it off, she and Kassie took their seats at the Gryffindor table. They greeted the other girls in their year and talked shortly about their summer holidays until Professor McGonagall called for silence so she could bring the first year students in.

The sorting hat was sat on a four-legged stool at the front of the Great Hall. The room was silent for a moment, the first years looking scared. Lily was disappointed to see that there were no more first years this year than there had been last.

Then the brim of the sorting hat opened and then burst into song. But Lily wasn't paying attention to the song: her attention had wandered to Kassie, sitting next to her, a tear escaping her eye that she wiped at hastily before it could be noticed by someone who wasn't paying attention. The redhead followed her gaze and saw Sirius turning his back to Kassie. Lily leaned over. "Kassie?"

"I'm fine." Kassie didn't turn to look at her, instead she moved so she was completely facing the front of the Great Hall.

Lily gave her a worried look that clearly said she didn't believe her, and looked back towards the front, but her gaze stopped on Sirius, instead. He had turned back around. When he spotted Lily looking at him, he averted his eyes quickly. Lily couldn't help but think he had been looking at Kassie.

"When I call your name," McGonagall started, snapping Lily back to attention, "you will come forward, sit on the stool, and place the sorting hat on your head. After you have been sorted, please join your house table. Abbott, Richard!"

A short blonde boy bounced up to the front of the Great Hall, not looking nearly as scared as his classmates. Lily took a quick look over to the Hufflepuff table and noticed Tim pointing to the first year, whom Lily assumed to be his brother, and saying something to a very pretty girl sitting next to him. By the way the girl was smiling, and reaching to place her hand on Tim's, she imagined it was his new girlfriend. But Lily honestly felt nothing about this. Feeling happier because of her lack of emotion towards Tim, Lily clapped with everyone else when Richard Abbott was sorted into Hufflepuff and took a seat next to his brother.

"Ackery, Otheller!"

A small brown haired boy moved nervously up to the stool, sat down and put the hat on his head. At once the hat slipped down and covered his face nearly to his chin. A few moments passed and the rim of the hat opened and announced: "Ravenclaw!"

On and on Professor McGonagall’s voice droned on through the B's to the K's. Lily only half-heartedly listening, and gave very little applause when "Lockhart, Gilderoy" was sorted into Hufflepuff, "Milley, Alease" was sorted into Ravenclaw, and "Prate, Artis" was sorted into Gryffindor.

Looking down the table, Lily noted that James and Sirius had lost interest as well, apparently deciding that instead of paying attention, planting dug bombs under a Hufflepuff's chair was much more appropriate. The stink wafted through the area, all the while Bertha Jorkins swearing she didn't do it. Peter was sniggering and Remus pretended that he hadn't seen; but Lily knew by the small frown on his face that he had.

"O'Brien, Emmett!"

"Gryffindor!"

At this point Bertha had turned around in her seat and pulled her wand at Sirius, who was taunting her. Lily saw Professor Kittle looking their direction and she hissed at James then nodded towards the Staff table. James turned in his seat, and Sirius, mumbling, followed suit.

"Sarr, Gwendolyn!"

"Slytherin!"

"I'm starving," Alexis muttered. "Hurry up!"

"Wellington, Tabitha!"

"Ravenclaw!"

By the time Professor McGonagall reached the end of the list, Lily felt as though there had been more like two hundred students in the first year class, as opposed to the thirty or so she had initially counted. Her stomach growled, reminding her that the cauldron cakes she had eaten on the train at lunchtime weren't staving off the hunger any longer.

Finally the last student sat down. Professor Dumbledore got to his feet and beamed around at everyone in the room. Lily couldn't help but smile to see him; he looked like there was nowhere on Earth he'd rather be than standing in front of these students, greeting them for another year of school. "Tuck in."

Food of all kinds appeared on the table and Lily began to dish out everything she could reach eagerly. She noticed, however, that Kassie barely touched any of the food. Lily spooned out some potatoes onto Kassie's plate. "Do you want me to pass the chicken?"

Kassie shook her head no and stared at her plate. Her eyes wandered up and down the table to where Sirius was laughing at something Peter had just said. Suddenly she stood up. "I'm not hungry. What’s the password?"

Lily started to say something, to ask what was wrong, but when Kassie looked at her the words died on her lips. "Hornbeam," she finally replied and watched as Kassie walked out of the room.

Not too long after Kassie left, Sirius got up from the table and left the room. Lily was curious about where he was headed, but paid it little attention until dessert was nearly over and James came over to her. "Have you seen Sirius?"

"A while ago," Lily replied, looking around.

James looked around for a minute. "I'll look for him in the common room, then."

Lily stood. "Remus, can you gather the first years on your own?" She barely waited for him to nod before she leaned towards Alexis. "Fill me in if Dumbledore says something important. I'm going to go and check on Kassie."

"OK," Alexis replied, her eyebrows knitted together as Lily followed James out of the Great Hall. She shook her head and went back to eating her cake.

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The common room was silent and empty when Kassie entered. Most students were downstairs, enjoying the welcome feast with their friends. But Kassie welcomed the silence. She needed time to think. Time to sort through the mess of feelings that were jumbled up inside her. Her mind had been filled with nothing all summer except the conversation she had had with Sirius before the end of last year. And she had been thinking, not so long ago, that it was ok for her not to like Sirius anymore than a friend. And that it wasn't her fault he liked her, was it? But something else... another thought kept rearing its ugly head up at her. The feeling that possessed her every time she thought about the night in the hall, with Sirius holding her. About how badly she had wanted then for something more to happen.

If she didn't like him as more than a friend, how come her heart fluttered at the thought of kissing him? Why did it feel like the hairs were standing up on the back of her neck when she saw him? Those weren't normal feelings that she should have for a friend, and Kassie knew it.

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, Kassie slumped down on the sofa, staring at the flames in the fireplace. Everything had been fine until she had seen him on the train. And then she had begun questioning herself. And never more so then when she saw him again, at the welcome feast. He had been looking at her, his eyes so sad until she caught him.

Even though they were avoiding each other, Kassie couldn't help the tightness in her chest that she felt when she saw him. The way his dark black hair fell over his forehead... the way a small dimple appeared on his right cheek when he found something amusing, but didn't laugh outright. Kassie shook her head again. This wasn't helping. With a frustrated sigh, Kassie stood up with every intention of going back downstairs in search of food. But upon getting to her feet, the portrait hole opened and the very last person Kassie wanted to see at that moment crawled through.

Kassie watched Sirius cross the room, not noticing her until he was nearly to the boys’ staircase. He stopped, staring at her like a rabbit caught in headlights. For several long minutes they stared at each other, neither saying anything. Then, finally, Sirius broke the silence. "I'm just getting something out of my trunk..."

He had already started up the stairs when Kassie found her voice. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she rushed forward. "Wait, Sirius. Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Sirius stopped, but didn't turn. "What about?"

"To your face, please," Kassie said, raising an eyebrow. As always, when she got close to Sirius, Kassie felt her temper stir. There was something about him.... But with her temper came a rush of feelings that Kassie hadn't understood before this moment. Swallowing, she reached her hand out and touched his. He recoiled back as if she had burnt him. Kassie snatched her own hand back, starting a bit at his cold response. "We need to talk about… well, you know."

"No, I don't know." Sirius turned, his eyes hard and blank. "We have nothing to say to each other, as far as I'm concerned. I understood what you had to say before clearly. There is no need for more excuses."

Kassie's face turned an interesting shade of red as she stared at Sirius. With fire in her eyes she closed what little space there was between them, raised her hand and noted with a certain amount of amusement that Sirius looked as if he was waiting for her to slap him. That most certainly wasn't on her agenda for the evening.

Far from being slapped, Sirius Black suddenly found himself on the receiving end of Kassie's kiss. Her hands were on his face, her body so close; her lips on his. It seemed to take forever for Sirius to realize that little fact, however. He stood, stark still, his eyes wide and staring at Kassie's face and closed eyes. And then, deciding that he really didn't care how they had got to this point, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer.

Somewhere about this time, however, questions were starting to explode in Kassie's mind. The first one was small enough. It said What are you doing? and when Kassie answered it with, Snogging Sirius, what does it look like?, a million other questions followed. Trying to gather her wits about her, Kassie pulled away from Sirius and took a few deep breaths. "Ok. Um, we should probably talk about this."

Sirius nodded, licking his lips but not letting go of her waist. "Right."

"Good."

"Glad we agree on that," Sirius muttered. He pulled on Kassie's waist and promptly began kissing her again.

It was a few more minutes before Kassie gathered enough of her thoughts about her to pull away again. When she felt his lips on hers, combined with the simple smell of him, Kassie lost it completely. She fought to stop the kiss and finally succeeded. This time she didn't go very far, though. Sirius had her pushed against the stone wall that followed the staircase up to the boys’ dorms and he wasn't budging. Taking a shaking breath, Kassie leaned her forehead against Sirius'. "We have to talk about this for a minute."

Sirius grinned, his blue eyes sparkling as they looked deep into Kassie's violet ones. The black haired witch felt like her lungs had stopped functioning. For a moment the two stared at each other, and then Kassie giggled slightly. "We can talk later."

For a second Sirius looked like it might disagree. But it was a very short second. While his mind for all of half of second screamed Hold it!, the rest of him had already decided on Shut up and snog her! This being Sirius Black, the decision wasn't a hard one. Sirius opened his mouth and then shook his head. "Oh, who cares?" And with those parting words, he threw all caution and explanations to the wind and pulled Kassie towards him once more.

It was this precarious position that James and Lily stumbled onto about five minutes later. The two of them, looking for their respective best friends, didn't have to look far. James entered the Gryffindor Common room, took about five steps forward and stopped dead. Lily climbed in after him, and had opened her mouth to ask James what was wrong when she found James' hand over her mouth. With a grin of pure glee on his face, James pointed towards the staircase where Sirius and Kassie where still kissing like a newly married couple.

Lily's jaw dropped and she rubbed her hand over her eyes. But no matter how many times she repeated this process, she still saw her best friend, who had only hours ago sworn she didn't want to go out with Sirius, pressed against a wall, snogging the self same person.

Noticing James was no longer beside her, Lily hurriedly tip-toed up to where he was standing, studying the two. Finally, with a grin, he placed his face as close to them as he dared and said, rather loudly, and in perfect imitation of Professor McGonagall, "What do we have here?"

There was a small scream from somewhere in the vicinity of Kassie, and she and Sirius leapt apart as if it had really been McGonagall who had spoken rather than James. One hand on her chest, Kassie looked back and forth between James, Sirius and Lily as if waiting for one of them to spontaneously combust. Sirius was running a hand through his hair (which looked like Kassie had messed it up rather badly) and trying his best to hide the absolutely huge grin that was bursting to get out.

"Well, well, well," James said matter of factly, tutting softly and crossing his arms, "this is a sight, don't you agree, Lily?"

"I do," Lily replied, crossing her arms and surveying Sirius and Kassie seriously. "Very interesting. Would anyone care to explain what happened between the Great Hall and here that James and I must have missed?"

Kassie and Sirius looked at each other at the same time, and then Sirius shrugged and Kassie giggled. "Um, actually we sort of haven't discussed that part, yet," Kassie muttered, Sirius nodding his head in agreement. "We were going to, though," she added, her face turning red.

"Oh? Before or after you finished snogging each other like there was no tomorrow?" James asked.

Sirius finally let out the grin that he had been trying to fight for the last few minutes and took a step towards Kassie. "Actually, now's a good time. So if you'll excuse us." And without waiting for an answer from James, Lily or Kassie, Sirius grabbed Kassie's hand and dragged her out of the room.

"I want all the details!" Lily screamed after her. Kassie didn't answer before the portrait hole closed after them. Lily was smiling so wide that her jaw was hurting. "I knew it. She's not a very good liar." She shook her head, uncrossing her arms and looking around. James was watching the portrait hole, a serious expression on his face. "James?"

"What?" James said, snapping his head around to look at Lily. For some reason he looked terribly embarrassed about something. Lily came closer, looking concerned. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking of something else." He laughed nervously and Lily thought that he was definitely hiding something. He ran his hand through his hair. "Well, I'm off to bed."

Lily started to stop James, to ask him again if he was ok, but she didn't get the chance. The portrait hole burst open and Alexis, Gabrielle and Kathleen - dragging Madison behind them - came running into the room. "Did I just see what I thought I saw?!" Kathleen gushed, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Lily. "Did I? Are they? What happened?"

The portrait hole opened again and Remus led the first years through. Lily grinned. "You did. But I have Prefect duties to attend to, excuse me."

"Lily!" Alexis whined, eyes wide. "But--"

"I'll be up in a moment," Lily replied and walked off. She threw a grin behind her to a very disgruntled Kathleen and joined Remus in showing the first years around the dormitory.

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Meanwhile, elsewhere in the castle, Kassie found herself being dragged up staircases that she didn't know existed, through doors that needed complicated passwords, and then halls that were so dark that she had to light her wand to see. Sirius, however, seemed to know exactly where he was going. Ten minutes after they left Gryffindor tower, Sirius finally stopped in what looked like a very old storage room at the top of a tower that Kassie couldn't place. She had lost her sense of direction a few stairways and corridors ago, and at that moment knew that if Sirius wasn't with her, she would never get out of this room and find her way back to Gryffindor tower.

But finding her way out of this tower was the least of the black haired witch's worries. As soon as the door behind them had shut, Sirius grabbed Kassie by the waist, pulled her towards him and attempted to kiss her lips once more. "Sirius, wait." Kassie pulled away from him, putting at least five feet between them. Sirius looked very confused. "We really do need to talk."

Sirius, his arms crossed against his chest, nodded. "Ok."

They stared at each other for a second. Kassie felt her body tense and she really would rather have come up here to snog than to talk. But first things first. "Right. So, eh, this is very different from where we were earlier. I-" Kassie sighed, turning violet eyes to Sirius in a pleading fashion. "I know what I want, Sirius. I didn't earlier, but I've pretty much got it all sorted out. But I have to know what you want before we can do anything else."

Sirius jumped up to sit on an old desk, his feet dangling off the edge and his pale blue eyes glowing slightly in the moonlight coming through the window. He studied Kassie for a moment that seemed to last an eternity. Finally, he said, "I want to be with you." Kassie opened her mouth, but Sirius wasn't done; "Mind you, I've wanted that for a while. But I mean, I would like you to be, you know, my girlfriend”.

Kassie felt a grin tugging at her lips. Sirius looked terribly uncomfortable, and even more adorable if that was possible. Biting on her bottom lip to keep from smiling, Kassie fought to keep a thoughtful expression. "Hmm. Your girlfriend? Because, you know, I've had my eye on Remus for a while."

"I'll have to curse him senseless," Sirius replied, jumping off the desk to stand in front of Kassie. "So, tell me, Miss Phillips, with the competition gone, do I stand a chance?"

"I suppose you'll have to do," Kassie replied, grinning and wrapping her arms loosely around Sirius' neck. "So long as you show me how to get out of this tower. I don't think I can do it alone."

"Why would you want to leave?" Sirius tugged on Kassie's waist so she was standing in front of him again. Gently he placed his lips on hers for a small butterfly kiss. "We could just stay here."

"True. But I would hate waste a perfectly good night of gloating, feeling smug and giving all these juicy details to the girls in my room."

"I'd hate to keep you from that."

Kassie put her hands on either side of Sirius' face and pressed her lips to his so gently that he felt it might have been a breeze. "So, shall we go?"

"If you insist," said Sirius, giving her a puppy-dog look. "One more for luck?"

Kassie tilted her head as if in thought and Sirius, laughing, kissed her once more. "Come on, then."

By the time they made it back to Gryffindor tower, it was very much past curfew. Sirius brought them out of a secret passage that wasn't far from the entrance to Gryffindor tower. He peeked out to be sure the coast was clear, and then tugged Kassie out. Kassie watched the wall move back together, looking as if it was nothing more than a solid wall. "That's amazing. How did you find all these passages anyway?"

"Hogwarts; A History, actually," Sirius replied. "You wouldn't believe the wealth of information in that book. If you read between the lines."

"You should make a map, so other people can get around like this."

Sirius stopped, looking thoughtful. "That's not a bad idea. But not for everyone else. Just us, James, Remus, Peter, Lily… Hmmm..." Sirius lapsed into silence after that, lightly tugging Kassie's hand to get her to hurry. They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, who eyed them suspiciously. "Hornbeam."

Kassie and Sirius parted in the empty common room. Sirius watched Kassie go up the stairs, and then with a huge smile on his face went up to his own room. He had no more than cracked the door open when he was suddenly grabbed, dragged in, and the door charmed shut behind him. Sirius looked up at his attacker who was looking at him through round-rimmed glasses. "You have a lot of explaining to do." James said.

Sirius looked around for help, but even Mark had stayed up for this story. Sighing, Sirius got up off the floor and dropped himself onto his bed. "All right, no need to be so pushy. I came up stairs earlier---"

---------

"---and so we are official." Kassie beamed brightly at the five girls in her room, all of whom were sitting on her bed, or Lily's, their legs crossed up under them and expressions of rapt attention on their faces. Happily Lily noted that Kassie looked better than she had in a long time. Her face simply glowed with excitement as she spoke, and happiness was written all over her. Lily was about to proclaim that she knew she had been right from the start, but she wouldn't get a chance.

Alexis hugged a pillow to her chest. "That's so sweet! If Sirius acted like that with every girl in school, he'd have hundreds falling all over him!"

"He does, anyway," Kathleen replied smartly. "Have you not heard of his little fan club? James, too."

"James?" Lily replied in surprise. "A fan club?"

"There's something about Quidditch robes that does it, I think. And both Sirius and James are on the team," Gabrielle explained. "But no matter, Sirius is taken. How many heartbroken girls do you suppose are left in the dust?"

"I don't care." Kassie grinned. "He's spoken for."

"Ugh, I hate you," Alexis said suddenly, chucking her pillow at Kassie. "How come you get the good one?"

"Yeah!" Gabrielle and Kathleen chimed in, each throwing their respective pillows at Kassie.

All too soon a fully fledged pillow fight broke out in the fifth year girls’ dormitory. The result would be six exhausted girls on the first day back to school. But none of them cared much. Good news was to be shared and rejoiced in, particularly now because outside the walls of the castle something evil was growing stronger. Someone who would steal away good times and laughter, causing the next six years to be lived in a shroud of darkness. Someone who would grow to be hated, fought against, and eventually feared by all six of the unknowing girls.

--End chapter 36.