Mystery Girl • Sirius Black

So So So So Very Dead

"Okay, what is up with you?!" Lily asked while leading her friend by the arm into the corner of the common room. "You disappear in the middle of the bloody afternoon, stay out until all hours of the night, doing Godric knows what, and now you're spending all your time with those toe rags! I've hardly seen you at all in weeks!" Lily pressed. "And what in the name of all that is magical is up with them all calling you 'Blue'?!" She said frustratedly.

Lily Evans was not jealous. She was concerned that another one of her friends was going off and consorting with the wrong sort of crowd. Severus had been her best friend since before hogwarts. He was there for her when her sister Petunia decided she was a 'freak' and he never once judged her.

Sev and Lily complemented each other well. He was quiet, brooding, and almost stoic, but absolutely brilliant and fiercely loyal to Lily. She was bubbly, cheerful, and uncommonly kind, but occasionally had a bad temper that never seemed to faze Severus.

Lately, however, the two had been quarreling over Severus's new Slytherin friends. Initially, Lily was thrilled that her the reserved boy had branched out and made some new friends. But, after a while she realized that his new friend group were essentially the Slytherin version of Potter and his lot. They bullied younger kids, and were constantly getting into trouble, and worst of all, Lily was quite sure that they were dabbling in the dark arts. She wasn't fond of James and the Marauders' antics, but at least it was clear they despised the darks arts as much as she did... that didn't mean that she condoned their behavior however.

Ailee has been her best friend since first year. She was shy around new people, but sassy as she was sweet when you got to know her, which it seemed the Marauders had. She suspected that this was because of Ailee and Sirius's newly realized fondness for one another, but now she was realizing that her friendship with the others had deepened as well.

But she wasn't jealous. Nope. Not jealous, just concerned as any other friend would be.

"Lily, I- I see you everyday! You're my best friend! But they are my friends too... they are actually really sweet and fun to be around once you get to know them..." Ailee defended as Lily scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Honestly! And as for the Blue thing, it's just a silly nickname they came up when they made me a- er... um.." Lily's eyes became more suspicious.

"When they make you a what exactly?" Lily asked.

"Er- When they made me a..." ailee mumbled the last words too softly for Lily to understand.

"Pardon?"

Ailee took a deep breath. "WhenTheyMadeMeAnHonoraryMarauderI'mSoSorryLilyPleaseDontKillMe!"

"AN HONORARY MARAUDER?!" Lily screeched.

Holy Badgers.I'm dead. I'm so dead. So so so very dead, Ailee thought to herself as she tried to hide her now bright red face. Lily's loud screeching had attracted the attention of whole common room.

Ailee felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Sirius standing beside her. He smiled down at her and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze and she smiled back.

"Well we tried to convince her to be a full fledge Marauder, but she turned us down." Said James coming to stand on her other side.

Not helpful Prongs Ailee thought to herself.

"J-just stay out of this Potter!" Said a flustered Lily.

"Unfortunately, I can't love." He said sadly, "I overheard you two talking and I know you're upset about Ailee hanging out with us."

"I-I just don't think you are a good influence on her. She never got into trouble before you all started dragging her along. Now she's missing curfew, spending less time on her studies, and getting into Merlin knows what-" Lily rambled. Ailee started to realize that Lily's frustration may be a tad bit misplaced.

Ailee knew first hand the affect that Severus's new friends had on him. He was becoming more and more secretive, spending less time with Lily, and without a doubt meddling in dark magic in his free time. Of course Lily would be upset when she noticed her other best friend seemingly falling down the same path.

"Guys, I appreciate you trying to help, but this is something Lily and I need to discuss in private." She said offering a sad smile to James and Sirius. They walked back to where they were sitting before and Ailee suggested to Lily that they move their conversation elsewhere and Lily agreed.

They made their way to their favorite spot by the lake and sat in a sunny patch of grass. "Lily, I think I know what this is about." Ailee said, "you're worried I'm doing the same thing Sev did when he started hanging out with that Slytherin crowd of his."

"I-I never thought about it like that.." Lily said quietly. "But, yes I suppose that's part of it. I don't want them changing you. But also, I- I don't want to lose my best friend."

"Lily! You could never ever lose me! Like it or not, you're stuck with me little missy!" Ailee teased. "But as for them changing me, I really don't think they are. I act just the same around them as I do with you, although I don't gossip about cute boys quite as much with them." She said with a wink.

Lily laughed softly. "Yeah I guess I was just being a bit paranoid, but speaking about cute boys... what's going on with you and Sirius?!" Lily exclaimed.

"We're friends?" Ailee said unconvincingly. Truth was, she really didn't know what was going on between her and Sirius. She liked him... a lot, but ever since their date-thing to Hogsmead he hadn't made any advances, probably because of the whole mystery girl thing.

"Oh please! Friends do not stare at each other the way that he does to you." Lily giggled.

"Stare? Wha- what are you talking about Lily?" Asked a flustered Ailee.

She had begun to give up on Sirius ever reciprocating her feelings for him, resigning to the fact that he was still pining after his Mystery Girl.

"He looks at you all the time. You're the only girl he actually hangs out with, and he gets so flustered around you sometimes it's just adorable." Squealed Lily.

It was like Ailee was seeing her own memories through different eyes. Yes, he looked at her a bit often, and yes she did talk to him more than any other girls, but that was because he was her best friend.. right? And didn't he always get flustered? Was he not always like that?

She flashed back to last week in charms when she helped him with his wand movements, her hand over his, guiding him as he moved in the figure eight pattern with a flick at the end. He was a stuttering mess the rest of class... she attributed it to him feeling uncomfortable... but maybe it was something else.

Next, Ailee thought back to when the two of them were in the library studying two weeks ago. She was reading, absentmindedly tapping her quill on her lips, as always, and looked up to see Sirius quickly averting his eyes to his book... still on the same page he was 10 minutes ago.

And then there were all the flirty comments he would make. She always thought he flirted with all the girls and that was where the 'lady's man' rumors cropped up. But now that she thought about it, she had really never seen him flirt with any other girls besides her, even before they were thrusted into friendship at the beginning of the year.

Ailee felt like her world was spinning.

There was another thought that continued to play on a loop in the back of her mind.

What about his mystery girl?

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