Third Time's the Charm

Chapter Eight-Sleepy Beauty

The next morning I'm swaying on my feet in Professor Grubblyplank's class. "You stayed up too late. I was going to wait up for you, but-"

"Lily, it's fine. I'm not upset with you for falling asleep." I assure the sweet redhead before we both look back to the patchwork professor as he does his best to explain the uses of dragon dung.

"I just know something was bothering you. Wanted to talk about it." She continues. Sirius and I had fallen asleep on the floor last night only to be woken up when I moved and we both fell over. Blushing furiously, I went to bed as he did the same. I'd lain awake a while suffering from intense left-over embarrassment. All the others were fast asleep, as I should have been.

Which leads to my current predicament of being fucking tired.

"Mane, come here love, you're dead on your feet." Sirius's voice is in my ear and his hand is suddenly in mine. My tired eyes meet his amused silver ones and my body doesn't even have the energy to blush. I nod to Lily before slinking back with him to our little group. He sits me down on a rock beside James and sits next to me. I lean against him sleepily. James chuckles and tickles my neck with a leaf before I shove him off.

"Anyone happen to have a wide-eye potion?" I ask half-heartedly. My eyes open when Emmaline appears in front of me with a bottle of green liquid.

"First one's free." She winks at me and walks away.

"Blimey, I love my friends," I say and take a sip.

"Tempted to take that away from you. I like being your pillow." Sirius says quietly and I quickly sit up properly.

"If you want me around, I'll need to pass my classes," I whisper back and stand with a sigh, moving back beside Lily. She tilts her book towards me and I quickly catch up before following along.

"Are you going to tell me what kept you up so late?" She asks out of the side of her mouth and smirks when I sigh.

"Later. When there's no danger of being pelted with shit." She laughs and the professor looks over at her as he pauses for a moment, then continues. Now, I'm the one smirking.

Class ends, thankfully, but then we have to make the long trek back to the castle for Ancient Runes. Lily sticks to my side and shoots me a pointed look. I sigh and finally give in, telling her the events of yesterday with Snape and with Sirius later that night.

"I'm sorry." She breathes and fiddles with the ends of her hair. "Severus and the boys have had a rivalry going on since first year. It's not fair that you got dragged into it." My brows furrow.

"Lily, he looked right at me. Didn't stop when I jumped on the table, didn't even stop when Sirius had his wand-"

"I'm sure there's more going on than either of us know about." She says sharply and I stop. I press my lips together a moment before nodding. This bloke is obviously important to her and I'm not trying to break up the friendship.

"I'm sure you're right." I allow and she nods with a slightly pinched brow.

"Anyway, I'm more interested in the second half of your day. You fell asleep with Sirius?" She whispers, but I blush all the same.

"Bloody hell Lily. You make it sound like a Harlequin novel." I say and glance at the group of boys separated from us by a bunch of Hufflepuffs. My eyes trail back to Lily's. "We just fell asleep in front of the fire after some hot chocolate."

"Uh, yeah, he doesn't share that stuff lightly. It's from his personal stash that he even keeps from the rest of the boys. It took him a year to share it with me and that was only after I caught him hiding them. Face it. He likes you." She says it like it's some miracle.