Chapter Seventeen

Strategically placement is an art I like to say. Well, I haven't actually said it before but you get my drift. Lily and I spent the rest of the day carrying out strategical placement, wandering around the corridors of Hogwarts. When dinner came, we grabbed food from the Great Hall as surreptitiously as possible before fleeing again for the safety of the corridors. In the midst of our wanderings, I suddenly remembered the 'delicate matter' that Lily had yet to explain to me and I internally smirked at the image of a flustered Lily.

"So, Lilykins, you didn't explain what a certain Mr Potter did that got you all in a tizzy," I stated, slyly sneaking a look at her.

She started wring her hands and a delicate blush appeared on her cheeks. With a furtive look around she pulled me to a stop and opened her mouth a few times before closing it, as though unsure of what to say.

I lost patience. "Well, spit it out!"

With a panicked look, she whispered, "He kissed me!"

I stared at her. I will admit I was in slight shock. I mean, I knew Potter liked Lily, but he kissed her? I never thought he'd have the balls to do it.

"Like, properly kissed you?" I questioned, just to make sure.

"Yes!" She looked around again, leant in and whispered gravely, "I think I may have liked it."

I looked at her solemnly and grasped her shoulders. "Lily," I said, "I'm going to give you some advice and I want you to take it. You go find that boy and..."

"Punch him?" Lily interjected.

"No, I was going to say..."

"'Cause I really think that will help," she said, interrupting me again. "It'll, you know, release all the tension that's built up."

"Lily, would you just..."

"Sorry, I keep interrupting you, Clio," she said before putting on a helpful face. "What advice where you going give me?"

I stared at her, racking my brains before finally saying, "You know, it's just gone clear out of my head. Although, I don't think violence is the way forward, Lily," I finished carefully.

I doubted it would look good if Lily Evans, the ultimate teacher's pet, started beating up James Potter, the ultimate rebel (a third years words, not mine, can I make that clear). And that would hardly be setting a good example to the rest of the school.

"Well, maybe you're right," Lily agreed grudgingly and we carried on walking in companionable silence.

I halted suddenly, pulling Lily to a stop with me. Was that footsteps behind us...? I cocked my head and listened closer. If I was not mistaken, I could hear the footsteps and muffled conversation of the very people we were avoiding...

"Why've we stopped?" Lily asked irritably.

I shushed her hurriedly and motioned that Black and Potter were possibly behind us at an unknown distance.

"You could just use words, Clio," Lily said, obviously unimpressed with my motioning. What can I say, charades had never been my strongest point.

"Black, Potter, behind us," I hissed, with a glare thrown in for good measure.

Lily's face slid into a look of horror and with reflexes I didn't know she had, pulled me into the nearest corridor.

"Why Lily, I didn't know you felt this way about me," I said lowly with a devious smile.

"Shut it," Lily whispered furiously. Wow, Lily's eyes scrunched up really small when she was tense...

Black and Potter's voices floated closer to us and I snapped out of my thoughts abruptly. I held my breath and I sensed Lily was doing the same. Scraps of conversation floated in our direction and I listened intently.

"... she slapped me! I mean, what the hell? All I did was kiss her!"

I looked at Lily with an eyebrows raised questioningly and she looked down guiltily. She hadn't mentioned she'd slapped the poor boy! I slapped myself mentally. Who was I to be calling a Marauder a poor boy?

"Women. You know I tried to apologise to Clio the other day?"

He was calling me by my first name! We were definitely not on first name terms at the moment. Hell, in my book, we were barely making it to last name terms and you know who's fault that was? Sirius Black's.

"... didn't go to well though. But at least she didn't slap me."

"What, you tried to kiss her too?"

"Yeah, but she kind of told me stay away from her..."

I tried to look as innocent as possible as I avoided the force of Lily's questioning stare. The pair's disembodied voices drifted away from us and Lily cautiously peered out into the main corridor to check they'd gone a safe enough distance.

"Sirius kissed you?"

"You slapped Potter?"

We stared at each other.

"Yes," we said simultaneously, avoiding each other's eyes guiltily.

Lily smoothed down her hair and brushed the wrinkles out of her uniform. "I suppose we all make mistakes," Lily said calmly.

I raised my eyebrows. "Slapping the poor boy is not a mistake, Lily Evans." I really need to stop calling James a poor boy.

"It was a reflex action!" Lily protested as we began to walk. "Who are you to talk anyway? 'Cause if we're being honest, kissing Sirius Black is not a mistake."

I sniffed. "It most certainly is."

"Yeah right."

The next morning equals hellish.

Strategic placement had forced us to stay out walking until midnight. Well, not quite forced us but you catch my drift. We thought if we went back any earlier there was a chance the Marauders might be in the common room and facing... certain people... was to be avoided for as long as possible.

Compared with Lily and I's grouchiness, Ray was being surprisingly chipper and had thankfully forgotten her experience with the horror novel yesterday.

"Remus gave me a magazine last night when he saw me sitting by myself in the common room," Ray said with a lovesick smile at breakfast.

Lily gave an acknowledging grunt.

"He asked why I wasn't with you guys and I said you'd abandoned me," Ray threw in a playful glare, "because you were probably avoiding Sirius and James for reason which you have yet to tell me," Ray said, with meaningful look at us.

"Black kissed me and I told him to leave me alone," I explained dully, eyes not leaving the paper in front of me.

"Potter kissed me and I slapped him," Lily said mimicking my tone of voice.

Ray's eyes brown eyes widened in shock. " Really? Damn it, I wanted to be kissed!"

Trust me, she doesn't, I thought darkly.

"Anyway, look! I'll show you the magazine Remus gave me," she said excitedly and heaved her bag onto the table with a thump to rummage though the contents. I stared in awe as she pulled out folders, textbooks, parchment, quills... everything. That bag was magic...

"Hah! Here it is!" Triumphantly, she brandished a magazine in front of us.

"It's got planes on," Lily said.

"Well, it's a plane magazine," Ray explained, not losing of ounce of her excitement.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, planes, they're really interesting."

Ray perked up with enthusiasm. "They are! I just hadn't realised how interesting before I read Remus's magazine."

Planes? Seriously? Ray's infatuation was getting a little bit crazy... I exchanged slightly freaked out looks with Lily.

"Anyway..." Lily started, "We should probably go to class. C'mon Ray, we have Astronomy."

"What do you have Clio?" Ray asked as she tucked her borrowed magazine away.

I thought for a moment and then groaned. "Divination. With Sirius Black. Help me."

Lily snickered. "Good luck with that."

"Shut it, Evans," I muttered.

The Divination classroom was enveloped in the usual cloying cloud of incense and I was insanely glad my seat was next to one of the few windows in the room.
Above the regular noise of the classroom, I heard footsteps approach the seat next to me. I sneaked a look out of the corner of my eye. Yep, it was Siriu— I mean Black. He eased himself into the chair diagonally opposite me and I could tell by the look in his eyes he was going to try and talk about the... incident. He opened his mouth and I silently prayed for a miracle.

"Today we shall be using crystal balls, my dears, and keeping with the previously decided pairs," Professor Trelawney cast a beady eye round the class. "So, I want you to take turns looking into the crystal ball and cop down what you see and then compare, contrast and analyse, class, compare contrast and analyse."

Sirius shifted forward on his seat. "Clio, you can't just ignore wha—"

"Mr Black, please concentrate," Trelawney swooped over with a jangle of bracelets and waft of floral perfume. "Come now, look into the crystal ball and copy down what you see."

Sirius cast her a look of irritation before leaning over the crystal ball and staring intently. I watched as his brow furrowed in concentration and hair over his eyes that he didn't bother move away.

"Don't break the concentration, Mr Black," Professor Trelawney urged as she handed Black the quill and parchment he'd been reaching for. "Come now, copy down what you see while it's fresh in your mind."

Sirius's quill flew over the parchment as stars, moons and symbols formed on the page with careful precision.

Trelawney beamed and nodded to me. "And now you, child, look into the ball."

I drew the crystal ball closer and ignored the penetrating grey eyes staring at me. I looked into the misty depths and concentrated. Images began to appear in the haze and my hand automatically found the quill and parchment placed beside me. It was odd looking into a crystal ball. It was as though you were falling into it, falling through fathoms, and whatever was there just washed over you.

Foggily, I brought my mind out of the crystal ball and looked down at the scribbles that littered my parchment.

"Well," Professor Trelawney breathed, her eyes bright with excitement, "well, would you look at his class."

"What are we meant to be looking at?" I questioned with a frown.

"Class! Gather round! Gather round, class!" Professor Trelawney cried enthusiastically, ignoring my question.

Reluctantly, I glanced at Sirius to see if he had an answer.

"Our parchments they're the same," he murmured through the haze of incense.

My eyes flicked back and forth between the two pieces of parchment in astonishment. He was right. They were exactly the same, right down to the last placement of the last symbol.

I opened my mouth and closed it. What the hell do you say in a situation like this? Hey, it's possible that the heavens may have intertwined our existences? I think not.

Trelawney clasped her hands excitedly and looked around the class. "Now can anyone tell me if they have seen or heard of in instance such as this where two gazings of a crystal ball have yielded the same prediction?" Silence greeted her question but undaunted she ploughed on. "Such a case is extremely rare and only occurs where two lives are inexplicitly intertwined for the rest of eternity."

You have got to be kidding me here.

Professor Trelawney fixed Sirius and I with a misty eyed stare and smiled dreamily. "My dears, I hope you are blessed with a life time of happiness and love together. Come now class, back to work!" She patted us each on the head fondly. "It seems there are signs in the stars for you, my dears."

She left with sigh of happiness and waft of perfume and left Sirius and I staring at each other.

I leant back in my chair and crossed my arms as Sirius leant closer over the low table, ignoring the looks being thrown our way.

"Clio, we are going to talk about what happened between us and you are going to stop ignoring me because frankly, it's getting a little bit childish," Sirius warned lowly.

Childish? Moi? Never.

I leant forward, mimicking Sirius' position. "How about we don't talk about... the incident... and forget it happened and carry on as normal?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Normal being what exactly?"

You know what I've noticed? In romance books the sexy male hero can always raise one eyebrow, without fail. I think this is an incorrect portrayal because, come on, in reality the majority of people fail miserably at raising one eyebrow. Except Sirius, which makes him... a sexy male hero? Okay, bad thoughts, bad thoughts...

I winced as I scrambled for something to say. "Normal being... friends?"

Again the eyebrow was raised. "Friends," Sirius said, as though he was testing the word.

"Friends," I said more certainly this time.

Sirius nodded slowly and said slowly, "I guess we're officially friends then."

He held out a hand and I took it hesitantly.

"Friends," I repeated slowly, looking at the boy in front of me as though I was seeing him for the first time, my stomach beginning to tingle.

Authors Note! *Jazz Hands*

I apologise for semi-abandoning my story! Buuuuut I've just remembered I love my characters and they are fighting to be written! Ah my lovely characters... Thank you all muchly for the reviews! I've decided that I'm gonna try and start reply to the reviews i get 'cause i just love you all so much! Ah who am i kidding, who reads authors notes anyway? Weeeeelll, i do but i'm just cool like that...

Night night!