Barking Mad (Sirius/OC)

It's hard to put the fire out

"Aw, come on, love," James sighed. "You'd miss me if you killed me. You know you would."

"Yes, like the bloody plague," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"Lily, my lovely blossom, what has gotten you so rallied up? Meeting a new lad tonight? Finally got tired of that Trevor fellow, have you?"

"It's Trey, Potter, as you well know."

"Travis," James acknowledged. "Yeah, I know him. Bit of a dimwit if you ask me."

I saw Lily visibly count to ten in her mind and couldn't help but smile a little. Seemed like I didn't need to kill James Potter at all, Lily would do the job for me if he kept this up.

"Potter, if you don't shut your gap right this instance," Lily said, fuming as she slowly turned around.

"Miss Evans, what on Earth!" McGonagall intervened, before she could properly finish her threat. "What has gotten into you?"

Lily, who instantly flushed, turned back to the front. "I'm sorry, professor," she said softly, her eyes downcast as the class giggled at her expense.

I gave her a gentle smile. She had been acting weird all day and I guess it was just the nerves that made her temper flare, but it wasn't like we could explain to McGonagall what was going on...

"Mr. Potter, this is your doing I presume?"

"You presume falsely, my dearest professor," James said, "I was merely inquiring after dear Trevor."

"Trey," Lily hissed.

"Travis," James nodded.

"I will end you, Potter," Lily whispered so softly that even I had to strain to hear it.

"Calm down, Lils. He's just trying to get on your nerves. You're not thinking clearly."

"Oh," she said, her voice getting louder, "well, I guess he's just my version of bloody Black then!"

Now it was my time to flush as I heard James scream an aww yeah. "She so fancies me," I could hear him tell Remus confidently.

"Sit down you, maggot," Remus sighed. I saw him pulling James back into his seat from the corner of my eye.

"Nice comeback," I finally said slowly as McGonagall told James his outburst had cost our House ten points. "But I was not having a go at you, you know."

Lily looked away as her fingers tapped the desk in a steady rhythm. "I know. It just has me rattled, is all."

"We're just going to help him," I breathed softly so only she could hear and laid my hand atop hers so the drumming would stop. So annoying, that. "He's going to help me and we'll go our separate ways again."

Lily bit her lip and shook her head. "It's never that simple, Nika. Especially with that kind of crowd. Once you get in, you're never getting out."

"We aren't joining them, Lils. We aren't joining anything, in fact. We're just... helping," I finished lamely.

"They are at it again," James sighed.

"Honestly, Prongs, if they wanted you to know about it, they would have told you!"

"Well then, Moony, what has gotten your knickers in a twist?"

"My best mate refuses to shut up and I have a headache from Morgana herself," Remus muttered darkly.

I turned around. "Oh, are you okay, Remus? Do you need something to help with the headache? Lily's an absolute star at those spells, you know."

Remus gave me a wan smile. "It's quite alright, Nika. Thanks though."