The Most Popular Couple In School

Chapter 2: Sirius' reaction

Sirius wasn't there when Lily and James got back, but Remus was, so Lily introduced James to Remus and they all sat there for a while, laughing and chatting like old friends.

James has fitted in so well, thought Lily, I'm glad. I don't think he had many friends before.

This new guy's actually really nice, thought Remus, and great at thinking up pranks too! I can't believe we never thought of putting a Love Potion in Snape's drink!

Remus is really nice, thought James, I was a bit worried they'd all hate me. I hope Sirius is as nice. He ought to be, if he's Lily's boyfriend.

Eventually, they headed off to bed, Lily to sleep, Remus and James to carry on their conversation in the boys' dormitories.

***

The next day, Remus cornered Lily before breakfast. He and Lily were both early risers, but Sirius tended not to get up til the last minute.

"Lily, you've got to be careful," Remus cautioned, "if you want James to be accepted by Sirius. He's very territorial and if he sees you being over-friendly with him, he'll hate him forever."

"What do you mean, Remus?" Lily was confused. "If you're implying that I'm in any such way interested in James, you're sadly mistaken. Sirius is the only one for me! Anyway, James isn't really my type," she lowered her voice, but a shadowed figure nearby leaned closer and, unnoticed, managed to catch her last words, "He's lovely, and great at pranks and everything, but he's a bit shy and geeky for me."

***

Lily went up to the boys' dorm to wake up Sirius. "Oi, lazy!" she yelled, pulling the covers off his bed, only to find that... Sirius wasn't there!

She ran down the stairs to where Remus and James were waiting for her. "Sirius isn't there! Did he come back last night?!" she asked, panicking. Where could he be? What if he's been attacked? Lily was frantic with worry.

Remus thought aloud, "No, I don't remember hearing him come in, he's not normally very good at being quiet."

"Well, when did you last see him? What did he say? I need a clue, anything!" Lily was nearly hysterical.

"Calm down Lily," said James calmly, "I'm sure Sirius just fell asleep in the library or something."

She snapped at him, "Calm down?! CALM DOWN?! My boyfriend is MISSING and all you can tell me is CALM DOWN?! And he won't be in the library, because, unlike you, he DOESN'T live there!"

She ran off.

James stared at Remus, hurt and shocked. Remus apologised, "I'm really sorry, she's not normally like that, honest! I've never heard her be that, well, nasty before. I guess she's just really worried about Sirius. It's true, he's not normally away for this long, I'd be worried myself, if I didn't know where he was."

"Yeah, I don't mind, I'm sure she'll apologise later. But if you know where he is, why didn't you tell Lily?" asked James.

"Well, two reasons. One, I didn't get a chance. Two, he asked me not to tell her. Said he needed to go and think alone for a while. He's in the-" Remus cut off, realising what he'd almost let slip.

James sensed it was something Remus wasn't ready to tell him yet and didn't press the point. "Well, let's go to breakfast."

"Yeah," said Remus, relieved James hadn't questionned him further, "Lily can apologise to you, she'll have found Sirius."

"How can you be so sure? He might still be thinking." James replied.

Remus laughed. "No matter what Sirius is doing, he never misses a meal!"

***

As promised, they found a starving Sirius stuffing himself while Lily smothered him in kisses, apologising for scaring her and avoiding questions as to where he'd been. At the sight of James, Lily blushed and apologised profusely, then introduced James to Sirius. James and Sirius got on fine, and Lily and Remus let out breaths they hadn't known they were holding.

Heading up to first lesson, where James and Sirius sat together, and Lily and Remus together, Lily questionned Remus.

"Do you think I apologised enough? I felt really bad afterwards. Do you think he thinks I'm that horrible? I don't know what came over me! I was just so worried about Sirius!"

Remus replied, "Don't worry, I explained. He doesn't mind. Everything's fine." Except, Remus thought, you seem to care far too much about what James thinks, Sirius is spending time in the Shrieking Shack "thinking" and James is looking at Lily an awful lot. But he didn't say anything. Remus never did.

***

Later in the common room, Lily was sitting on Sirius' lap while Remus and James tested out each other's chess abilities. James was much better than Sirius (not a hard achievement).

Sirius asked Lily, "So where did you meet this James guy anyway?"

"Oh," she replied, "I met him on the way to the Astronomy Tower. We went and did the Astronomy homework together. Strange that you never noticed him before."

"You WHAT?!" Sirius shouted, throwing Lily off his lap onto the sofa and standing up.

"I did my Astronomy homework. Is that so bad?!" Lily was shocked, and she'd bashed her elbow.

"No, the other bit. You," pointing at Lily, "and HIM," pointing at James, who was calmly playing chess with Remus on the other side of the room, both of them oblivious to the chaos ensuing twenty metres away, "ALONE in the ASTRONOMY TOWER?!" Sirius was turning red. Lily saw the danger and quickly averted it, as she was used to doing.

"No, we weren't alone. There were a couple of nice Hufflepuff girls there, we helped them with their homework." Lily sweetly replied, not batting an eyelash at the blatant lie. If a little white lie stopped Sirius blowing his top, it was worth it, right?

Sirius calmed down, apologised for his overreaction, and proceeded to make it up to Lily.

On the other side of the room, Remus and James turned back to their game, both thinking the same thought, What sort of relationship is based on lies?