I really got on a roll and decided to make it up to you with another chapter quickly - please still review though, I'm halfway to 300!

For any of you interested, I'm majoring in criminal justice and minoring in psychology at Curry next year.

I apologize for the lack of contact between Lily and James right now, hopefully the next chapter will bring lots of awkward run-ins, because those are so much fun -D.

---

"Stop ignoring your own problems, Lily, confronting me about mine won't make the fact that James Potter is in love with you go away."

"Susan, shh!" Lily hissed, looking around the crowded shop, "I'm just saying that the way you're treating Remus is ridiculous."

"Ridiculous? I'm being ridiculous? Lily - he's a -"

"Shh!" Lily hissed again, louder this time, "I know what he is, Susan. What are you suddenly, a Slytherin?"

Susan's face fell, "That isn't funny," she stated indignantly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that you have been so ignorant to it, you won't even give him a chance. Before you knew, everything was fine wasn't it?"

"Ooh," Susan picked a dress off the nearest rack, "What do you think of this one?"

Lily scrunched her nose, "I'm going to a Winter Ball, Susan, not a tarts and vicars party. And don't change the subject."

"A what party?"

"Never mind...and stop changing the subject!"

"I love him, Lily, I don't know what else to say. I-"

"So what is the problem? The only difference is that now you know a secret about him. A secret, by the way, that he trusted you enough to share with you. The only people who know are James, Sirius, Peter...and me. But that's only because I forced it out of him. Just, please stop shutting him out. He can't take it much longer."

"Okay, all right, I'll talk to him."

"Thank you."

"And you'll talk to James and tell him that you're a filthy liar?"

"I won't."

"Fine," Susan frowned.

Lily sighed in frustration, "Susan, none of these dresses are right. None of these colors look good with my hair. That pink one you forced me to try on was absurd."

"If you wear your hair up for the ball it might not clash as badly - with any color I mean. Here, go try this one on," she urged, holding up a shimmery aquamarine dress.

Lily contemplated it for a moment, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth. "Are you sure I'm not too pale for that color?"

"No, of course not, just go try it on, what will it hurt?"

Lily took the hanger and disappeared into the dressing rooms. She walked into the small cubicle that she had most definitely had her fill of that day and set her things down, pulling her plain muggle clothes off and setting them on the bench. Taking the dress off of the hanger, she let the material slide down her body until she only had to slightly tug it into place and fasten the straps behind her neck. She turned around slowly to look at the reflection in the mirror - anticipating another horribly clashing color or another repulsive cut (a particular blue dress she'd tried on earlier had made her look as though she was with child). This dress, however, was neither. In fact, looking at it actually made her smile a bit. It was tighter than she would have normally preferred at the top, but she could deal with it, and at the waist it flared out - only slightly - and fell down to the floor. It was shimmery, and had patterns lined with metallic beads all over it.

"Come on, Lily!" Susan whined from outside the door, "It can't possibly be that bad."

Lily opened the door and looked at her friend expectantly.

"Now that," Susan smiled, "Is a dress. Who do you think you'll stun more, Sirius or James?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Shut up. Merlin, I'm glad this adventure is over. Let's buy this and get out of here."

She quickly changed and put the dress back on the hanger, leaving the dressing rooms to pay for the dress. In addition to being the best one she tried on, it was also the most expensive; Lily had looked almost pained to be handing over the galleons it cost her, but Susan managed to convince her that it was all for the best.

The girls emerged from the shop, Lily with the large box in her arms.

"Bollocks, it's cold out! Want to go the pub for a Butterbeer, Lils?"

"Yeah, okay. I don't feel like carrying this bloody parcel around Hogsmeade anyway."

Susan laughed and rolled her eyes, "You are the most unconventional girl-"

"Don't start."

"Right."

They walked into the crowded pub and looked around for an empty table. The place was flooded with Hogwarts students, all talking and laughing obnoxiously.

"I see one," Lily said, shielding the box protectively with her arm as she began to push her way through the crowd.

The minute they sat down, a tall brunette waitress walked over.

"What can I do for you girls?"

"Two butterbeers please. Actually no, three," Sirius said, appearing out of the crowd and sitting down at their table.

The waitress raised her eyebrows and smiled, "Three butterbeers. Right."

Lily cast a half-smile toward Sirius, "In a giving mood are you?"

"What, I'm not allowed to talk to my girlfriend?"

Lily felt her heart jar against her ribs, "That's not what I meant."

He laughed, "I know. Say, Susan," he said, turning his attention on the other girl, "I have a friend over at my table and he's in rough shape right now. See, this girl he's totally in love with went an' broke his heart, and I'm thinking maybe you can help him out."

Susan flushed, "What is this, a conspiracy?"

The waitress placed the three drinks on the table, and Sirius flashed her a smile.

"Fine," Susan said, picking up her butterbeer, "I'll go."

When she was gone, Sirius turned to face Lily and smiled at her warmly. His gaze traveled down to the box she was holding and he raised an eyebrow, "What's that?"

She blushed, "It's nothing."

"Nothing looks like a whole lot of something," he chuckled, "What is it? Is it a dress?"

"No - yes, fine, yes it is."

He sat back in his chair and grinned, "I can't wait to see it."

"It's nothing special."

"By the way you're blushing, I'm guessing it's something very special, otherwise you wouldn't be so embarrassed. Girls, after all, do wear dresses sometimes you know."

"I know," he smiled, reaching for her hand. He held it for a moment, brushing the pad of his thumb over the top of her hand.

She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. She knew that gaze, his blue eyes were piercing hers, a small smile was settled on his lips...it was the same gaze that James had given her the other night when-

No, no she couldn't handle another confession, she couldn't handle the L-word again.

"Sirius, I - err, I should go."

"But Lily, we don't have to be back at the school for an hour. You haven't touched your butterbeer...what's the matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been so strange lately...have I done something wrong?"

She sighed, "No, Sirius, you didn't do anything. I'm sorry, you're right. I haven't been myself lately."

"And you're sure nothing's wrong?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Could we get out of here and go for a walk? It's rather loud and-"

Sirius smiled, "That's more than fine with me."

He took a few galleons out of his pocket and left them on the table, leading her out of the pub. Once outside, she tucked the box under her arm and half smiled.

"It's snowing."

Sirius smiled, "You like snow?"

"Only when it first starts to fall," Lily replied, "It's peaceful."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, dropping his hand to his side and casually letting it slide into Lily's, causing her heart to stop momentarily.

It was in that moment that she realized what was really going on - that despite her feelings for James, she wasn't quite ready to let Sirius go yet.

"Did you know James broke up with Bellatrix this morning?"

Lily raised her eyebrows, "He did?"

"Yeah," Sirius laughed slightly, "Thank God. At first I thought it was kind of a good thing because-" he trailed off, "Well just because, but she's..."

"Your cousin," Lily finished.

"Yes, but no, that wasn't what I was going to say. She's out of her mind. She's evil."

"Yeah, I - yeah, I guess."

Sirius shifted uncomfortably and smiled, "So, are you going to let me see your dress?"

She laughed, "No."

"Well, won't you at least tell me what color it is?"

"Aquamarine."

He lightly grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him, a small smile playing on his face, "I'm sure it's a nice color on you."

She laughed, "It was the only color that didn't clash horribly with my hair. Besides black, that is, but I hate black."

"I like your hair."

"I know," Lily smiled, "But it makes my life difficult sometimes."

Sirius chuckled, brushing a lock of hair out of her face and leaning down to kiss her. When his lips brushed hers, to her great surprise Lily felt-

...Absolutely nothing. What in the devil was going on? She wasn't sure, but all she knew what that Sirius' lips on hers was having little to no affect on her at the moment. She'd concluded only minutes ago that she wasn't ready to let him go yet, that he gave her a warm feeling that she wasn't quite ready to let go of yet; but perhaps, her rational side thought, you are only holding onto your friendship. This made sense to Lily. Perhaps she wasn't romantically infatuated with him at all. Or perhaps she just liked the attention, which she knew very well she could get all of and then some from James - whom, for the record, she knew she was romantically infatuated with. That much was clear to her.

When Sirius pulled away and smiled at her, he didn't seem to have felt the difference, and if he had he hadn't shown it. He gave her hand a squeeze and continued to walk, striking up another conversation that Lily tried her best to keep up with as her thoughts began to take over each corner of her mind.

---

In the pub, Susan had timidly approached the table that Remus, James and Peter were sitting at. She walked up behind Remus, wringing her hands together. James and Peter spotted her before Remus had and looked at one another.

"Er, Moony, Peter and I are going to go into the back room and see if there are any games going on or anything, we'll-"

"Well wait, I'll come with you-"

James quirked an eyebrow and looked up at Susan, and Remus followed his gaze, turning around.

"I was hoping we could talk," she said quietly.

Remus' eyes softened, "Yes, all right. Here?"

"Maybe somewhere more private," she shrugged, "And quieter."

"Yeah," he agreed with a nod, looking at James and Peter, "You can stay here, mates. I'll catch up with you later."

The other boys nodded, and Remus and Susan made their way to the back of the pub where there were several closed off meeting rooms.

"Is this better?"

She smiled at him vaguely, "It's fine."

She sat down on the moth-eaten couch and picked at a loose thread on the hem of her sweater, "Remus, I'm sorry..."

She looked up at him expectantly, and when he didn't reply she continued, "I shouldn't have reacted like I did, I was just...startled. And, well, despite the message I may have accidentally sent, it doesn't change my feelings for you."

When she looked back up at him, his eyes were sparkling slightly, and a smile was threatening to break his expression at any second, "I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to scare you - I just wanted you to know. I trust you and...I love you. I didn't want to keep anything from you, especially not something like that."

Susan smiled, "I hadn't even thought of it like that - all I could think were negative thoughts, that you'd been lying to me all along or something," she sighed, "It must be so hard."

"It's not easy," he smiled uneasily, "And it's hard to make friends - even harder to get girlfriends. They all run away."

She frowned, standing up to wrap her arms securely around his neck, "I'm sorry, Remus. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," he insisted, "I understand your reaction...I'm just glad you're back."

"Yeah," she smiled, "Me too."

---

When they returned to Hogwarts that night, Susan caught up with Lily in the Great Hall.

"So?"

Lily raised an eyebrow, "So...what?"

"You left the pub with Sirius today. What happened?"

Lily grinned, turning to her friend excitedly, "He kissed me."

"Of course he did, he's your boyfriend, but I still don't see the part where that's a good thing?"

"It's a very good thing...when he kissed me, I felt absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"Not even - nothing?"

"No."

"Which means..."

"Which means," Lily grinned, "That psychologically, I only want to be friends with Sirius - nothing more. James is the one I want. I love him."

"We both knew that, though."

"I know, but I wasn't sure. I thought I still had feelings for both of them, and that's why I felt so guilty about wanting to break up with Sirius, but now I know for sure."

Susan laughed, shaking her head, "Whatever makes you feel better."

"And you and Remus? I'm guessing everything is fine?"

Susan smiled, "Yes, it's perfect."

"I knew it would be."

"You think you know everything, don't you?"

"No," Lily chuckled, "I know I know everything. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Lily," Susan smiled, walking up the opposite staircase to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

Once inside her room, Lily slid the box with her dress in it under her bed, smiling to herself. Her new realizations took an enormous weight off of her chest, and for the first time in nights, she assumed that she would finally sleep well.

---

Short list of review thank-yous since I just updated yesterday:

Ruinsul - Not a lot of Bellatrix in this one, but omg another update in two days? I'm very proud of myself, hope you're excited about this one too -).

Sweet 16 Movie Buff - Criminal justice is going to be my major next year, and I'm going to minor in psychology. Glad you liked the situation with Susan Remus, and sorry about the lack of situation with Lily and James - it's coming, I promise! Now that Sirius is somewhat out of the way, Lily can start trying to make it up to James (and probably failing a few times - amusing, yes?).

Gwendolyn James - Good suggestions, actually. I was planning on a little cat fight at some point, but we'll see, hehe. Glad you can sympathize with the fact that I actually do have a life outside of (though not much of one...lol just kidding). And thanks! I'm sure I'll love college.

friticatized - Haha, I've always ragged on Lupin for having a "time of the month." Oh, Lupin. I do love him -D.

Hawaiian-Rachael - Thanks! I updated as soon as I could. This has probably been my quickest update ever.

Review please -D.