I'll Follow You Anywhere

"Prongs, what's going on?" I asked as James strode by on his way to our own dormitory.

"I never want to date Lily again," he replied furiously as he slammed the door shut after him.

I looked over at Lora as she made her way towards her dormitory to comfort Lily. She didn’t seem bothered at all about what James had just said.

-23-

"It can't be that bad, James," Remus stated as he buttoned up his white uniform shirt. We were all sitting in our dormitory, getting ready for the school day that was unfolding for us. Peter was lying on the ground, searching under his bed for another sock to wear. I was sitting on my trunk, rolling my sleeves up and listening to James complain about Lily.

"It is! All she ever talks about is studying. And she keeps nagging me to study with her. 'Oh James, you're going to fail the exam if you don't study'," Prongs mocked, putting on a high voice to imitate Lily. I chuckled at this. Not because of what he said; he just sounded funny imitating a girl.

"It's just because Lily wants to do good on her exams. She wants you to do good too. That's why she keeps nagging you. You know that, mate," Remus replied, getting annoyed by James' complaining. And he wasn't the only one. A few days before, Lora had thrown a book at James in the hope that it land in his mouth and muffle his speech so that she didn't have to listen to him anymore. Needless to say, it didn't work. Though I wish it had. People around the common room had been walking on eggshells so as not to mention Lily, studying or anything that could be related to either. If they slipped up then we would get an hour of James pacing around, yelling about how annoyed he was. Lora told me that all Lily did was study harder and most of the time she forced Lora to study with her. If Lora even mentioned that Lily was wrong about something, Lily would snap at Lora and get upset.

"Whatever. I'm just glad that I got out of that relationship." He wiped his circular glasses on his shirt and then set them on the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, please. We all know that once finals are done you and Lily are going to go running back to one another. You two belong together and you know it, Prongs. So don't go off and say that you're out of that relationship. You're merely taking a break," I barked, getting frustrated by James bad mouthing his relationship with her. Everyone in the castle knew that soon enough they were going to get back together.

"Why don't you just shut up, eh? You're definitely not one to be giving statements about relationships," he yelled at me. This only made me angrier.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I questioned, trying to hold back the fire that was ready to pour out of me like impatient, boiling lava out of a volcano.

"'Oh, Prongs, Lora doesn't want to date me! She'd never like a guy like me-'"

"Shut up!" I yelled, pushing James back. His back hit the banister hard and I saw deep anger in his eyes. He swung his fist at me hard and it landed right on my cheek. I pushed him hard and soon enough we were swinging punches left and right.

"Hey, Siri! Are you- Stop! Stop, stop, stop!" Lora yelled as she ran over to us. She grabbed my arm and pulled me away from James while Peter and Remus held him back. I could feel something warm and wet trickling down my cheeks and immediately my face hurt from where he had hit me.

"Come on, Sirius," she said, dragging me out of the room. I looked over at James and saw that he was holding his nose. I guess I had punched him there. I wasn't really sure. All I know is that I was swinging punches left and right. I immediately blushed when I realized that Lora had seen me acting like an idiot and she had had to come break up the fight.

"Where aw we gowin?" I asked her. I knew that my nose was injured in some way because my speech sounded funny like it had when Lora had broken my nose. She looked back at me and conjured up a small hand towel quickly.

"Hold this to your nose, you're bleeding. And I'm taking you to the Hospital Wing. Merlin, you're not going to have any blood left in you by the time we get there," she declared, looking back to make sure that I was holding the towel to my nose. "Why were you beating up James?"

"Um, he wouldn't stop complaining about Lily," I lied. I knew that I had only beaten up James because he had mocked me liking Lora. I knew that he really didn’t mean any harm from it and that he was only upset over Lily but it still bothered me. I mean, they know how I feel about Lor. I'm just nervous to tell her because I don't want to lose her as my friend. So it's not that I'm upset at James, his joke just hurt me. But I couldn't tell Lora that. I'd sound like a wimp.

"Oh, well it can't be as bad as Lily. I think we've gone over the Troll Wars at least six times by now. I know more about big, stinky, ugly guys than I ever wanted to know," she joked. I laughed, which only caused pain to my head. I groaned out of pain and Lora rubbed my back gently. I pouted at her and she gave me a sympathetic look back. She knew that I didn't intend to hurt James; that all really wanted was for him and Lily to get back together. That was all that any of us wanted. We all know that they make an amazing couple and that this fight should end sooner or later. Hopefully for our patience, sooner.

I spent about twenty minutes in the Hospital Wing listening to the nurse complain about how I shouldn't fight and how bloody my face was and any other thing that she could complain about. When she had her back turned, Lora made a face at me which made me laugh, only this time it didn't hurt as bad. As I exited, James and Remus came in. Remus muttered to James that he was going to go down and get some breakfast and meet up with James later.

"Merlin, even when he's bleeding out his face and he's in pain he still manages to complain about Lily," Remus said to us as we made our way down to the Great Hall. Lora and I both rolled our eyes at this. When we entered the grand, warm room, we saw Lily sitting all by herself, reading yet another book from the library. Every few seconds she would look up and try to recall the information that she had just read. We went over and sat down with her. Lora grabbed the book away from Lily and snapped it shut.

"Lily! Troll Wars? Again? Even smart girls need to eat so get to eating", Lora convinced Lily, pushing the basket of rolls in front of our red-haired friend. Lily opened her mouth like she was about to say something but then she stopped. She reached over, a smile forming on her face, and grabbed a roll.

"So what have you been up to this morning?" she asked us as she piled a few pieces of bacon on a plate.

"Beating up James," I replied as I poured hot syrup over some pancakes. Lily's eyes grew big when I told her this and she immediately threw a piece of bacon at me. It hit right in my eye and I groaned as I tried to wipe the grease out of my eye.

"What's wrong with you, Sirius? Why'd you beat him up?" she yelled at me. I could see she was getting upset by this, which kind of surprised us all seeing as she was supposedly angry with James.

"He was annoying me. He kept complaining about studying and you," I answered.

"Well he's just being stubborn about studying. You don't have to go hurt him. Is he okay? Where is he?" she asked, looking concerned. I genuinely felt bad for hitting James when I saw the worry in Lily's green eyes as she looked around the room for a glimpse of Prongs.

"He's in the Hospital Wing. He had a broken nose or something," Remus said slowly, as not to hurt Lily. Too bad it didn't work though. She stood up as if she was about to get off and make sure he was okay. Her mouth dropped open though and she sat back down, a deep blush creeping onto her face. Lora, Remus and I looked toward the entrance where she had been looking and all of us just let our jaws drop.

James was entering the hall, kissing the cheek of a Mexican girl. We all turned back around slowly, our mouths still open.

"Who is she?" Remus asked us as he took a bite out of a blueberry muffin.

"Her name is Bella. I've talked to her before. She's from Mexico but her family moved here so that her parents could get jobs at the Ministry. She's a year younger than us and is in Hufflepuff," Lora answered, shaking her head slightly out of disbelief.

"How do you know this?" I asked her curiously.

"Met her in the library," Lora replied, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"I can't believe him," Lily whispered to herself in complete disbelief. She shook her head to herself and I saw her blink back tears. I patted her on the back to comfort her.

"He's just trying to make you jealous, Lil," Lora said to comfort. Remus and I agreed but Lily still looked upset.

"Well then I guess I have to play his game too," Lily said, squaring her shoulders and sitting up straight. She shook off the pain that she was feeling and looked at me. "Sirius, you may be my fake boyfriend."

"Uh, do I have to?" I asked her as I shoveled some bacon into my mouth.

"Yes," she stated defiantly. She clutched onto my left hand. I heard Lora muffling her laughter which kind of made my heart sink. I turned my attention down the table towards James and his new girlfriend. I watched in disgust as he fed her pieces of a roll. As she giggled at something he had just said, he looked down towards Lily. In an effort to make peace with him, I rolled my eyes and lifted the hand the Lily was clutching onto. He furrowed his brow and turned his attention back to Bella. I saw him say something to her and she clearly looked upset. He looked like he asked her something and she nodded slowly, giving him a small smile as he stood up. He walked down towards us, making our conversation freeze immediatly.

"Sirius, get your bloody hand off of my girlfriend," James declared as he squeezed in between me and Lily. He wrapped his arm around her and gave her a small kiss on her cheek. She turned her head though, directing the kiss towards her lips.

"I'm sorry, Lil," he whispered to her. She nodded and mouthed back 'me too'.

"So how did Bella take it?" Lily asked, a note in her voice sounding like she had just won a victory. And in a way, she did.

"She took it well. I think she knew that you and I would get back together eventually. Oh, and Sirius? Sorry about what I said this morning," James said to me. I nodded and shoveled in more bacon, surprised at how are school day had turned out.

My heart felt like it was in a knot though. I was so happy for Lily and James but…

I knew that my time left with Lora as my friend was drawing to a close soon.

And when I thought about that, I felt like someone had just beat me up all over again.