INSTEAD, james potter [1]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Fine," said Lyra reluctantly. She then smirked, wanting to get something out of this. "But on one condition. Sirius and Potter both need to apologize for hexing Bertram Aubrey, ruining my first date with a boy I was beginning to fancy."

"So it's Potter now, huh?" the Gryffindor asked, but getting no response as she kept looking straight-ahead. "Come on, Lyra. You can't be pissed at them forever. I want to be sometimes too, but they're good mates. And Sirius is your family."

The Slytherin pursed her lips, smiling bitterly. "Exactly. He's a part of my family. And my family is screwed up beyond belief, and he showed me that he's more like them than he wants to believe."

"You're not innocent in this either." Remus could see he was about to start and argument with her, which he didn't want as they had never fought before. "Come on, you did shrink James's head. And those things you said... you can't say those things."

Lyra knew this. She had gone way too far and said things, especially to her cousin, that she knew would crush his heart into a million tiny pieces. She wasn't exactly nice to James either. "I was angry."

Remus had never looked so displeased with her, with a stern look and a disappointed shake off his head. "That's no excuse and you know it. They deserve an apology as much as you do, so if I get them to apologize you better do the same."

"I'm already doing you a favor here," she defended herself, not wanting to admit she was wrong. "And they started the whole ting, I wouldn't have done a thing if they could have just minded their own business."

"Lyra. Please." She looked into his eyes, and saw how much it hurt him that she was fighting with two of his three best friends, talking badly about them and hurting them as well. She then nodded, promising she would help in any way she could. "Thank you."

▹▹▹

Lyra suddenly remembered being a fourth year as she stood in the boys' bathroom by the library. She remembered helping the four boys becoming Animagi, helping them so they wouldn't end up getting hurt. By them, she mostly meant Sirius.

It was where she used to meet James once in a while to exchange notes, only for them to probably get in some sort of fight because they truly disliked one another. He disliked her more than she disliked him. It was strange how different he seemed to feel about her now.

Still, she smiled slightly. She knew those were still going to be memories to treasure in less than two years when they would be out of Hogwarts. She wanted to look back and have them be good memories, which was one of the reasons she decided to agree to Remus's terms.

Because Lyra didn't have anything against any of the boys. Well, Sirius could be rash. James was pretty annoying more often than not. Peter was always awkward and she had caught him staring at her chest once or twice. At least Remus was perfect in her eyes. 

So she waited for them to show up, trying to ignore the disgusting manly odor she felt surrounded by whenever she entered the bathroom. That was one thing she hadn't missed during the last two years. 

Then the door opened, and the four Gryffindors carefully walked through to talk to her. Lyra quickly recognized the piece of parchment in Peter's hands as the map. "Hi there, lads. Ready to talk?"

James and Sirius both hesitated, exchanging unsure looks. Then Remus went up behind them and pushed them forward, glaring at them to make sure they followed through. Peter only smiled at Lyra.

"We are very, very, very, very, very sorry," said James but a bit too monotonously for Lyra to believe him, which he realized. "Which I mean. It didn't sound like I mean it, but I do. It wasn't very nice."