Barking Mad (Sirius/OC)

She will be loved

IT'S ALMOST  VALENTINE AND TO CELEBRATE I COME WITH HORRIBLY WRITTEN SEX SCENES AND SMUT. In all honesty, I'd forgotten all about this chapter and the smut it contains, but eeerh I'm posting it anyway. :D If you don't like reading stuff like that, feel free to skip anything under the second ~**~.

Chapter 56

Look for the girl with the broken smile,

Ask her if she wants to stay awhile,

And she will be loved.

She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5

"Honestly, Lily, I don't understand why you won't just go for it?" I asked Lily with a frown. "It's not like he is going to say no?"

"You don't know that," she pointed out stiffly. "What if he does, Nika? Maybe he would want to take me back a notch for turning him down all those years!"

I shook my head at her nonsense. This had been going on for two months now, since it was early February and the second Hogsmeade weekend of the school year was just around the corner. I had tried talking Lily into asking James out for weeks, and I had even recruited Sirius to do the same with James. I once might have thought that they weren't a perfect match, that they would kill each other within the first week, but I wasn't so sure anymore.

Yes, of course, James could behave like an absolute toddler at times, but hey, so could Sirius. James could be charming and mature when he wanted to be and that was what I wanted to show Lily.

Unfortunately she wasn't having any of it.

"Lily, the guy chased after you for years. He's not going to turn you down. If all the years you've been bashing him didn't scare him off, you asking him out won't either."

Lily groaned. "What if I don't want to pursue this? What if I'm happy with the way things are?"

"What?" I asked. "You're happy pining after the love of your life? Witch up, Lily. Put you big girl knickers on and ask him out! For Merlin's sake even Peter had the guts to ask his crush out!" I wasn't entirely lost on the irony of me giving her advice on pining after the love of her life, but oh, well.

Lily blinked. "Peter has a date?"

I grinned at her confused expression. Ever since Sirius had pointed out Peter's behaviour, I had to admit that it was quite obvious how Peter's mood transformed as soon as Anabelle entered the room. I was shocked when Peter told us she'd accepted his invitation to Hogsmeade. She never stopped giving me the stink eye though, nor did she stop hanging out with Sheila. In the last two months, I had slowly started to care for Peter. With his introverted personality and his less than stellar physique, he really was the odd person out in the group, and he didn't deserve to be.

I found Peter a kind and smart person who was often underestimated by his own peers. I felt like he was incredibly lonely most of the time, unless he was with the Marauders. His face completely lit up when he was around them as if they were his personal slice of Heaven. I kind of understood that feeling since Sirius and Lily were my taste of Heaven, too. It was like he worshipped Sirius and James most of all though. He would literally follow them around everywhere, trying to catch on to some of their inside jokes, which was almost impossible to do - trust me, I've tried.

"Yes, he's going with Anabelle."

Lily pulled a very unladylike face. "Isn't she Sheila's friend?"

"Yup."

"Poor Peter," Lily sighed. "Have you told him yet that she fancies Sirius?"

I shook my head and bit my lip worriedly. "Do you think I should have? I mean, I've told Sirius but he just laughed it away? I figured I'd wait it out and see how she behaves after their date?"