James and Lily potter: Fourth Year

Chapter 4: fourth year

Lori looked awkwardly at the tense silence. "Sirius, you never told me you already had a girlfriend. I can't believe you did that to Arabella and me. She's a good girl, and you risked it just to snog with me? And now I've just found out that you 'had' a girlfriend. Well, Sirius, now you've lost both of us." She bit her lip and ran off to where the Ravenclaw common room was.

Finally, James spoke up. "That was low, Sirius. Real low."

"I know," his best friend sighed. "I don't know what I was thinking. Lily's right, my hormones are definitely taking the better of me. If I liked Arabella that much, then my hormones wouldn't have taken over. I feel so ashamed." He buried his face in his arms.

Remus looked at him sympathetically. "Don't worry, Sirius. Arabella will forget about this soon enough and you two will get back together again." But James saw doubt and worry in those gray eyes of his friend's, as he looked at Sirius comfortingly.

Sirius shook his head. "No, she'll never forgive me. Bella's right, I'm such an idiot, and I definitely don't deserve her. I may as well rot to the earth and die."

"She'll be over it." They turned around to see Jennifer speaking. Her eyes were red. "I know Bella. She'll forgive you, but it'll be a long time before she even thinks about it. Why did you do it, Sirius? Now you have two girls against you."

He shook his head. "I'm an idiot. Just let me think this over, all right?"

Jennifer nodded, and leaned against Remus. "You can have all the time you need, Sirius. Because I have a feeling that it's going to take Bella quite a while to forgive you."

"But you said—"

"I said she'll forgive you eventually," she said quietly, "but just not soon."

Sirius sighed. "I deserved it."

Meanwhile, back in the fourth year's girls' dormitory, Lily was trying to comfort her friend.

"Arabella Figg, stop being so stubborn! I know what Sirius did was wrong, but you know he didn't mean it. If he could choose between a life of snogging and a life with you, he would definitely pick the latter. You know he lo—likes you to death."

Bella raised up her defiant face, but Lily could see traces of tears in them. "I don't care. He can have all the girls in this whole school for all I care. Maybe I shouldn't have chased away Amos." She sighed.

Lily stared at her. "You know you hate Diggory—and every other boy you've dated. Forget about them. You know Sirius needs you."

Arabella laughed bitterly. "Ha! If he needs me, then why did he go off and snog Lori Paterson? And lied to me about it?"

Lily stayed silent, not having an answer for her questions.

Suddenly, the dormitory door burst open, revealing the Marauders, followed by Jennifer and Violet. The girls quickly sat at their respected four-poster beds, while the boys shifted uncomfortably through the tension that was nearly visible in the air.

"Well?" snapped Arabella. "What do you four want?"

Sirius stepped up, gulping. "I-I wanted to say that I'm sorry," he stuttered nervously.

"Oh, really? Well, that's nice to hear. Now, go away and snog some girls; you're wasting my good afternoon."

"But—"

She stepped right in front of him, motioned the rest of the boys to follow, and said "Good day", before slamming the door in front of their faces.

"Sirius feels really bad about it, Bella," said Violet quietly, as Arabella returned, rather red-faced.