Prongs and Lilypad

3. Decisions

Peter watched as the rock skipped across the lake a few times. He sensed a presence behind him, but said nothing. He skipped another rock, but it only skipped once and fell. He huffed; one of the few things he was good at, and Snape was ruining it for him.

"I-I a-asked you to l-leave me alone, S-Snape."

"You asked; you didn't tell. Which was probably good for your sake, by the way." The Slytherin made his way over to the Gryffindor. "And anyway, you're stuck with me."

"I s-said I wanted no p-part of t-this."

"It's too late, Pettigrew." Severus crossed his arms. "This isn't something you can go to a few meetings for and then back out of. You're in it for however long the Dark Lord allows you to live."

Peter paled. He didn't want to be a Death Eater, but he didn't want to die, either.

"The Dark Lord sent me with a message." Snape continued. "He wants you to keep an eye on the blood traitors. He thinks they may make wonderful allies after they've had more training."

"I don't w-want to be f-friends with them a-anymore."

"Tough, Pettigrew. Do it or they find out who you truly are and you die."

Peter spun on his heels, face red in anger. "W-when did you g-get so c-confident about yours-self, Snape? Y-you're replaceable, you know."

"Not now that I'm part of the Dark Lord's inner circle, I'm not." Snape frowned. "You could be there too, Pettigrew. It would be protection, guaranteed. The student will outdo his teacher and if you're on the wrong side when that happens I'd hate to see what happens to you."

"No."

"Think on it." The Death Eater turned and began to walk away. "You have until Christmas."

*~*~*

Sirius loved Marlene, he really did.

But Merlin help him, he loved his best friend. He'd admitted it to himself when he'd finally moved in with James and actually had time to think about it, especially with James' nonstop talk about Lily. He'd tried to push Moony out of his head, but it was as if that made his feelings deepen.

Man, it sucked. He couldn't be around Moony anymore without blushing furiously; luckily, the past few times he'd been able to blame it on the common room or dorm being too hot. Next time, he might not get so lucky.

He couldn't quit staring as Moony got dressed, feeling quite sad as he pulled his robes over his uniform. Moony from the back was a very, very, very nice view.

He wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell him so bad.

But why would someone as good as him love you?

He cringed a bit. He hated his anxiety, especially right now.

Before he realized it, Moony had turned around and caught him staring. "What's up?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Sirius stood, tie undone and robes wrinkled. "Ready to go to breakfast?"

Remus cocked a brow, but followed his friend anyway.

*~*~*

James had just kissed Lily goodbye before Sirius grabbed her arm and started walking with her towards advanced potions. Because of all the people interested in becoming Auorors, any classes required for that program had been split up, and unfortunately not all friends were together.

She smiled sweetly at him. "Any particular reason you're dragging me down the hallway?"

"You haven't hexed me yet, so I don't think you're too bothered by it."

"Surprisingly I'm not." She had to quicken her pace to keep up with him. "How's your morning?"

"Fine, and yours?"

"Absolutely swell." She raised a brow at him, much like Remus had done. The marauders nor her were quite sure who got the gesture from who, but they all did it almost exactly the same way. "Something wrong?"

He pulled her to the side before they walked into the potions class, seeing as they had a few minutes left. "I need you to do me a favor."

"What do you need?"

"I need to find out who Moony likes."

"I thought James said he liked that Sarah girl?"

Sirius, looking much like a kicked puppy, frowned. "Yeah, he did. I just want to know if there's anyone else, though."

"Why do you think he'd tell me and not you? You all are closer to him than I am."

"Because you're a girl. He'll tell you. I'm afraid he thinks we'll make fun of him or something if he tells us who he really likes."

She pursed her lips. "Why is it so important to you?"

He looked at the classroom and down at his feet before looking back at her, not meeting her eyes. "It just is. I want to help him if I can, you know?"

She gave him a look, but sighed. "Fine. But if I find something out, you can't tell anyone." She looked back at the class, noticing that there was still a desk with both spots empty. "Come on, let's grab that last desk. Hopefully Severus isn't in this period."

As they walked to the desk, Sirius shrugged. "I don't know, Lily, without you there to stop him, James might hex him if they're in class together."

"Looks like you don't have to worry." Lily muttered. "Look who's here. Back row."

Sirius didn't even have to look to know, and raised his voice a bit so he knew the git would hear him. "He better not talk to you, touch you, look at you, or even bloody think about you."

"I can take care of myself, Sirius, but thank you." A slight blush had crept up to her cheeks; she hated having any attention placed on her, and boy, if everyone's eyes weren't on the two of them.

Especially Severus'.

Minutes later, their new potions professor entered the classroom. She was tall, almost as tall as McGonagall and about as thin, too. She had a bubbly air about her; she was still quite young and seemed like she still wanted to teach. Hopefully, none of the students here ruin that for her, Lily thought. Professor Slughorn had unfortunately quit the year before, fear of the war overtaking his want to teach.

"Good morning, students. You all may call me Professor Bane." She wrote her name on the board as she spoke. "Today we'll just start with a review. This is due at the end of class on Wednesday; I'm giving you today and tomorrow in class to work on it and I expect that you all will have a few questions, so Wednesday we'll go over those. Feel free to work in groups."

As she said this, she walked around the room, passing out thick pieces of parchment. Lily inwardly groaned; it wasn't as if it was hard, it was just a lot of work. Sirius seemed to be thinking the same thing.

"Well, may as well get started." He sighed, dipping his quill in some ink and starting on the first question. Lily followed his example, lips quirking up a bit as she imagined James' horror when he saw this assignment. He liked schoolwork even less than she did, and she was sad that she was going to miss his reaction.

Sirius managed to pull her out of their thoughts, and they both set to work on one of the easiest assignments they'd get that year.