A Reason in Madness

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also some reason in madness."

Chapter Seven: The New...Couple?

Lily awoke two days later with that massive feeling you get when you know you should be upset or distressed but you can't remember the reason, so you're perfectly fine except for that feeling (whew).

So, she went to her bathroom (also, as was her dorm room, bedecked with a plaque reading "Head Girl"), pulled off her night clothes, and got in the shower. It was about ten minutes later when she was washing her hair, that she began singing.

"You are my sunshine; my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away. The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms. When I aw-" Lily's hands feel from her head to her sides as everything came back to her. The reason of the strange, burdening feeling. The reason she was nervous about seeing James yesterday. The reason James had avoided her yesterday.

Lily got out of the shower, dried herself off with a towel from her own linen closet, dressed, and headed downstairs. Just as she stepped off of the last stair, someone slung an arm around her waist. Twisting to her right slightly to see her captor, Lily saw none other than the infamous Sirius Black himself.

"Hello, Lily, darling! I how you are doing well on this fine, fine day," he said in a posh accent that couldn't have fooled a complete stranger.

"Sirius," Lily said, "what are you doing?"

Sirius swung her into his arms in a tight hug.

"Lovely to see you, too, my dear!" he said, loud enough for everyone in the common room to hear. "Pissing off my best friend, oh lovely one." Wow. He actually answered her question, despite the fact that he began running his fingers through her hair while he did so.

Lily pulled herself away from Sirius and looked around for James. When she spotted him, she found that he was glaring at Sirius. His eyes flickered to hers for a brief second before glancing quickly away at anything except his best friend and Lily. He got up form his chair by the window and shouldered past them, bumping harshly into Sirius as he past. When the portrait closed behind him, Sirius said, "Well! I never!" His frown transformed into a grin. "Did you see his face!?"

Lily shook her head at the immaturity of the situation, rolled her eyes, and headed towards the Great Hall.

"Wait, Lil, we're not through yet!" Sirius ran after her, just then realizing she had left.

"Oh, yes, we are," she replied.

"Oh, no, we're not, darling." He smiled at her and swung an arm over her shoulders, bringing the other behind her knees and lifting her off her feet.

"Sirius! Put me down!" she screamed, kicking and pushing at his arms.

"No can do, sweetie. I must achieve my goal," he told her as he carried her into a corridor directly off the Great Hall. "Do you think you can walk yet?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"Yeah."

"I will run as fast as I am physically able to."

"Then I'm not putting you down. I'll walk straight into the Great Hall carrying you. You know, where practically the whole school is..."

"Mother of a guinea pig! Fine, I won't run- just, put me down."

"And you'll hold my hand?"

"No!"

"I'll kiss you, I swear. Right in the middle of the Hall."

Lily jumped to the ground and grabbed Sirius's hand. Sirius grinned down at the redhead. "Never knew you felt that way about me. 'T'will break dear Prongs's heart, it will..." Sirius sighed. "Oh, well!"

Just as the...ah... "couple" walked inside the Hall, Lily tried to release Sirius's hand and run over to where Keida was seated. However, Sirius saw this coming (well, duh!) and held onto her hand tight. "It's not nice to lie, Lily, dear. Besides, it always comes back to bite you in the butt."

When Lily looked at him strangely, he continued. "I have experience in those matters." Lily responded with a simple, "ah," and left it at that. But that was when their holding-of-the-hands went unnoticed no longer.

Suddenly, Keida came up in front of Lily and said, "Sorry, but do you mind if I steal Lily for a sec?"

Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment (wow...who knew?), then replied, "No can do, Brennit." He removed his hand from Lily's and placed his arm casually across her shoulders. Keida cocked an eyebrow at her best friend. As the three walked back to the Gryffindor table, she whispered, "What's going on?"

"I have no idea. I came down from my dorm and her just grabbed me. He did say something about pissing off James, though."

"Potter?"

"Is there another James?"

"Uhh..."

"What's all this whispering about?" Sirius had leaned in front of Lily and whispered to the two girls.

"Nothing, Sirius," Lily replied in a normal volume. "Now, am I allowed to sit on my own, or must I do so on your lap?"

"Not a bad idea, Lily flower." He enunciated his last two words.

"Mother of a- why did I say that!?" Once Sirius had pulled her into a sitting position on his lap, she let her head fall forward onto the table in front of her. "Ow..." she sat up, rubbing her forehead. "Sirius, please let me get up!"

"Well..."

"Humph. When did this happen, Padfoot?"

Lily, Keida, and Sirius turned around to see a not-very-happy James Potter.