Chapter 8

Lily jumped slightly and let out a little yelp as someone put their hands over her eyes. A few seconds later, she felt warm breath on her ear and hear someone whisper, "Care to go for a little fly around the pitch?" Lily chuckled, taking the hands in her own and pulling them down off her eyes. She looked up at the man behind her and, turning, gave him a quick kiss.

"I've got to finish my homework, sweetheart."

"Please, Lily? You've got the entire weekend to do your homework. Even if you let me take you to Hogsmeade, you'll have all of Sunday. Please?" Lily sighed exasperatedly and smiled.

"I promised everyone I'd spend Sunday with them, seeing as I haven't spent much time with them between the fight and then the thing in the forest. But we'll be together all day tomorrow, with Hogsmeade and what not. I'm really sorry, Lucius, but I need to finish this. You know I would if I could." Lucius sighed and sat down next to Lily, kissing her softly on the cheek.

"Alright, love. I guess I should work on my homework as well." Despite the disappointment in his voice, Lucius still managed a smile as Lily handed him a piece of parchment and quill.

Quidditch Pitch

"If it isn't Miss Mae-Anne." Bryant smirked as he hovered near Mae; she was sprawled out in the middle of the quidditch field, looking up at the stars. "Watcha doin?"

"What's it look like I'm doing you dolt? I'm looking at the stars." She smiled inwardly as Bryant touched down and walked over to her. He sat down next to her cross-legged, watching her. "What?"

"I don't want to ruin this … it's serene and everything out here –"

"But." Bryant chuckled and shook his head before continuing.

"But … I want to know what we are, Mae." Mae sat up and looked him in the eye, with a confused expression on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"Listen, Mae-Anne," Mae smiled at Bryant's affectionate nickname for her, he was the only one that ever called her that, but she liked it. "I can't do this anymore, okay? I can't go from day to day wondering if how you're going to act the next day. I … I love you; you know that. I've loved you since the moment I met you. But I want there to be an 'us'; something relatively permanent. I don't like this business of changing what's going on every day. If we can't nail ourselves down to a definitive relationship … then maybe, we aren't meant to have one."

Mae felt like she had just been hit with a sledgehammer; she never thought Bryant would go so far as to say he didn't want a relationship with her.

"I … Bryant … I don't …" Mae shook her head and screwed up her face, trying to keep back the tears. She looked at Bryant, who was just staring at her, expressionless. This was just too much; bursting into tears Mae sprinted back towards the school.

An Hour Later

"Oy! Bryant! You going to come down and tell me what's wrong?" Remus smirked as Bryant threw him a look that could kill. "Hmm, I guess that's a no. Well, I'll just have to talk to Mae then." Remus started towards the school but, just like he had planned, Bryant flew in front of him only seconds later.

"Damn you, Moony." Bryant touched down and started walking back towards the center of the pitch, dragging Remus behind him. "Sit," he stated dryly, pointing a finger at the ground.

"My wish is your command, oh wise master." Remus snickered as Bryant tried to stifle his own chuckle. Remus sat down and then looked up at Bryant, expectantly. Bryant observed that he looked strikingly similar to a five year old waiting to hear a story, but immediately shook the thought from his head. "So what happened?"

"I tried to talk to Mae about … having a definitive relationship. You know?" Remus nodded, wordlessly. "Yeah, well … she burst out crying and ran away. I may be dense when it comes to women, but I'm no fool. I know she won't talk to me … not for a while a least. I know Mae …" Bryant trailed off and avoided Remus' eyes.

"Honestly!" Remus stood up and threw his hands in the air. "First James, now you, next it'll be Sirius! My god!" He ran his hands through his hair, frustrated.

"Oh shut up Remus! D'you honestly think I would be in this position if I had a choice! I don't even know what I did wrong!" Remus sighed heavily and shot Bryant a sympathetic, apologetic look.

"I'm going to talk to Lily, she'll know what to do. We'll fix this, I promise." Bryant smiled gratefully as Remus clapped him on the back.

"What would we do without you Moony?"

"I tell you one thing, you'd all be single and miserable." Remus shook his head, smiling, for a moment before starting back towards the school.

Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory

"He doesn't want to have a relationship anymore!" Mae wailed. She buried her face in a pillow, sobbing violently.

"Shh, Mae, honey, it's going to be okay." Gina rubbed her back soothingly, trying to calm her down, to no avail. Mae's head was in Toni's lap and Gina and Lily were sitting on either side of her on the bed.

Lily caught Gina's eye and mouthed 'going to talk to Remus'. Gina nodded in understanding as Lily crept off the bed and out of the dormitory. She ran down the dormitory steps and reached the Common Room just as Remus, James, Sirius, and Bryant strolled in. "You!" She pointed a finger at Bryant, glaring menacingly. He started to back away, but Lily was much too quick and caught him by the collar. "D'you have any idea what you have done!" she screamed.

"Lily, come on, now. Let's just calm down for one second and think about this." James and Sirius tried to pull Lily away from Bryant but she wrenched her arms out of their grips.

"Think about this James! Think about it! My best friend is upstairs crying her eyes out and you want me to think about it!"

"Lillian Matilda Evans, will you please sit down so you and I, the only two rational people in this group, can talk about things?" Remus asked calmly.

"Don't you even start with me Remus Alexander Lupin!"

"Alexander!" James, Sirius, and Bryant asked at the same time before bursting out laughing.

"Oh dry up. Come on, Remus. We're obviously not going to get anywhere with these three and I need to get my wand before I can hex his manhood off." Bryant immediately stopped laughing and swallowed hard at Lily's statement. He watched with big eyes as she and Remus made their way up to the boys' dormitory.

"Damn … I really screwed up, yeah?"

"Damn straight you did. Look, my fuzzy friend, Lily and Remus are involved now. And that means things will work out." Sirius smiled and clapped Bryant on the back reassuringly.

Gryffindor Boys' Dormitory

"Well perhaps if Mae wasn't so bloody stubborn, then Bryant wouldn't be feeling the way he is!"

"Oh, so now it's Mae's fault, eh? That's rich, Remus, that's oh so rich," Lily replied bitterly.

"Okay …" Remus said slowly. Lily was running her hands through her long red hair repeatedly, trying to figure out what they were going to do to fix things. "Alright, Lil. Why don't you tell me what's really going on?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lily snapped, a little too quickly.

"Yeah, because I'm really supposed to believe that right?"

"Ah, you narky bastard." Lily started to leave the dormitory, but Remus caught her around the waist and pushed her back in, putting himself between her and the door.

"Okay, now I know something is seriously wrong. You never swear. So sit down and tell me what's going on." Lily sighed and flopped down on Remus' bed, burying her face in her hands. Even more worried now; Remus sat down next to her and squeezed her shoulder. "Lily, I've known you since we were little, you can tell me anything. You know that." She sighed again and nodded.

"Lucius … his dad is … do you know about that new wizard that's rising to power? The one that everyone's afraid of?"

"Umm, yeah, Volderpot or something like that. What of it?"

"Lucius' dad is … in with him. It's some bad shit, Rem. Dark Arts and stuff like that. Besides that, if Lucius' dad ever found out about me … he'd kill me or Lucius or both of us." Remus pulled her into a tight, comforting hug.

"Shh, Lil, I'm sure its okay." She pushed him away, standing up, and sniffed indignantly.

"No, Rem. It's not okay! Don't you get it! If he finds out about this, about Lucius and I, Lucius is dead. No questions asked. Dead. His father expects him to become a Death Feeder or something. Something about a follower of the Dark Lord." Her voice was taking on a more than slightly hysterical tone. "But I love him, Remus. What am I supposed to do!"

Remus stood up and enveloped her in a hug again. "That's not for me to tell you, Lily. That's for you and Lucius to decide." She nodded wordlessly as she pulled away.

"I'm sorry, Moony. I just … it was hard and … I needed to tell someone." She wiped away the few tears that had leaked out of her eyes and took a deep breath. "Right now, we need to figure out what we're going to do about Mae and Bryant. She needs time." Remus shot her another worried look before resigning himself to the fact that she had definitely closed the conversation about Lucius and Voldemop, or whatever his name was.

"Bryant didn't mean what he said to her. At least not in the context she took it. He loves her, we all know that, and she loves him just as much. But Bryant doesn't want to and can't deal with her fickleness, and frankly, I agree with him." Lily scoffed and shook her head.

"You don't get it, Remus. Mae is … it's not my place to tell you. But until Bryant can make things right, on his own … there's nothing we can do. We can't interfere with this one." Her expression had changed to one of frustrated sadness, with a touch of contempt, none of which Remus understood.

"But, Lily, why!" Lily and Remus looked up to see Bryant standing just outside the open door of the dormitory, a sad, confused look on his face.

"You wouldn't understand." With that, Lily left the men to themselves. A few moments later, she heard a strangled cry and saw a black cat dash out of the Common Room, as she started to walk up the girls' dormitory stairs. She shook her head as she reached the dormitory and Mae's bitter sobbing reached her ears again.

A/N: I'm soooooo sorry to all of you readers! I know I've been horrible! This will be re-posted again soon once its beta'd and I'll answer all review there, sorry again but I don't have time to do that right now. Please review, even though I've been a horrible person!