I hurried after her quickly and grabbed her wrist, pulling her to a stop, "Evans, stop."

She turned to me and growled, "Get your paws off of me, Black," her green eyes flashing red for a quarter of a second.

"And why would I do that?" I asked haughtily, knowing I would rile her up, but that was part of my plan. Actually, there was no plan; I was kind of winging it.

"Because if you don't I'll hex you into oblivion."

"Come on, Evans. You and I both know that that is never going to happen in a million years."

"Watch me."

"I'm trembling, Evans. I am quaking in my boots, I'm so scared."

"Black, you cross the line too much. Now what do you want? I have things to do. Places to go, people to see," she glared fiercely at me and once again I wondered why in the world my best friend was 'in love' with such a girl. I'd never understand it that's for sure.

"We need to talk," I told her quietly.

"About what?" she spat.

"James," I spoke in a low voice, trying to quiet the fiery girl down before we attracted too much attention. James is my best friend and knows that I would never go out with Evans, but rumors start and I don't particularly want to end up with a broken nose.

"There is nothing to talk about."

"Oh yes there is."

"I'm out of here," she started to turn and in an instant, realized that she couldn't. I had even let go of her wrist, but thanks to a nonverbal spell that we Marauders created ourselves, she was stuck until I saw fit to let her leave.

"What did you do?" her expression full of loathing and contempt.

"Just a little bit of Charm work."

She was starting to try every little counter curse she could think of to remove herself from the situation.

"Sorry, Evans, Charms won't undo it. You have to know the special counter curse and believe me, you don't know it."

"What did you do?" she yelled at me, glaring venomously at me, "Let me go now."

"I will," I spoke to her in a calm, cocky voice, irritating her even more, "when we finish our conversation about James."

"And what if I refuse to talk about him?" she questioned, her green eyes searching for a way out, a weak point. Unfortunately for her, I hadn't left one, or at least one that I could see.

"I have my ways of getting what I want," I responded, twiddling my wand with my fingers. Her eyes widened in horror and I figured she would tell me what I wanted. "Now, Evans, tell me why you hate my best friend so much."

"Because he's an arrogant, bullying toerag that enjoys sticking his nose into other peoples business and bottom line, he's a prat. He freaking defends me every bloody time someone calls me a mudblood. Like I can't handle it or something, as if I might be scarred for life if someone calls me that word. It's just a word, I've been called worse things for heaven's sake, by my own sister and he doesn't think I can handle what some Slytherin calls me. I hate how he goes and asks me out every freaking day just to make himself seem like a cool person. News flash, he isn't."

"Now you are going to tell me the truth instead of making up things to cover up your real feelings," I prodded, pulling out a vile from my robes and flashing it in front of her, "I think you know what I mean don't you, Evans?"

Her eyes flashed a mixture between hatred and horror, "You wouldn't."

"I would," I replied, knowing I was getting somewhere, even if it was slow, "There's no end of what I would do for my best mate. I'd die for him."

"Commendable," she spoke tartly, clearly not enjoying being held against her will.

"Now are you going to tell me what I want or are you going to make me do something that is clearly against the rules."

She looked defiantly at me, but a defeated look crossed her face and from years of experience, I could tell she was giving in.

"So if he's a prat and arrogant, how has he acted this year?" I asked her, not letting my gaze leave hers.

"Like a gentlemen," she mumbled, like she could hardly believe she was saying herself.

This gave me an opportunity to tease her. It might make her close up, but I knew how to make her talk, "What was that, Evans? I didn't hear you."

She knew I was messing with her, I could tell. "Like a bloody Gentlemen, alright," she yelled it this time.

"Maybe he's grown up, Lily. May I call you Lily?" I tried to toy with her, throw her off guard.

"You may not; to you my name is Evans, nothing but Evans. Besides, I doubt it."

God this girl was infuriating. How Prongs fell for her is beyond me.

"Lily," I called her by her first name by accident, but decided not to make a big deal out of it because she hadn't said anything yet, "You don't know him. You don't have to see him every time after you refused to go out with him or after you two have a row. You don't have to look at his downcast face and watch the light leave his eyes as if he is alive but dead at the same time. The way he won't even perk up at the thought of pulling some prank. Do you not get it?"

I was ranting and I knew it, but I had to voice my opinion on this whole twisted matter. I didn't care anymore; she had to understand that he really cared. He isn't the guy she thinks he is and I needed to prove it to her. I had an entirely new mission. It had started out with me wanting to find out why she really hated him, now I wanted her to understand why I thought he was a good friend, why he was a good person. To make her see the guy he really was, not one she had made him out to be.

"He hates to see you upset or hurt or anything of that matter. He would do anything for you and all you do is say something mean to him or slap him in the face. And little Miss Prefect can only think about how you find him annoying. Open your eyes.

"Do you know what it is? Seriously, I want to know, do you have any idea?"

She was starting to cry slightly and I felt bad for making her cry, I was never good with crying girls, they weren't my thing. Usually if they cried, I'd give them a good snog but that wouldn't work in this situation. Prongs would kill me. She was his girl, not mine and I respected that, besides, I don't really want to snog Evans; she's not my type. Hell, I've never been really good at talking to girls, talking about feelings and all with girls very well, that's Moony's job, not mine.

"Evans," I had returned to calling her by her surname. I felt it would be better not to push it any further, "Please, please stop crying."

She wiped her tears on her shirt sleeve. I was still in shock that I had made the seemingly invincible Evans cry. In a way I felt bad for her, but I got over it as soon as I realized that it didn't change what she had done to James.

"Why, Sirius, why?" she asked me, I was in shock. Evans was calling me, Sirius Black by my first name, "Why does he do this to me? Why does he chase after me? What does he see in me that makes me so much better than everyone else in this school? Why does he have to pursue me in front of the entire school? Why, Sirius?"

How was I supposed to respond to that? I really wanted to know why she thought I would have the answers for her. That was a question she needed to ask James, not me. Only he could answer that question, for only did he truly know why he fell for the girl with intense emerald eyes and auburn hair that you could pick out across the Great Hall at its busiest time of day. I learned one thing though, Evans was no the kind of girl who liked attention brought to her unless it was something to do with schoolwork. Being asked out repeatedly in front of the entire school was mortifying to her.

She looked at me expectantly, her eyes boring into mine, daring me to tell her the truth, whether she would like it or not.

"To tell you the truth," I started slowly, watching her eyes on me, wondering if she was silently cursing me, "I have no idea why in the world he chases after you. I don't think you are worth it. He tries to be nice to you and gets hexed for it. He makes attempts to impress you and gets slapped in the face, not to mention publically humiliated by you nearly every single day. He worships the ground that you walk on basically and you couldn't care less whether he was alive or not. He doesn't matter to you. You don't care about him. I never understood why he fell for you in the first place, but I supported him because that's what he wanted. Now? Now I try to console him and convince him to find someone else, to prove to him that there are other fish in the sea besides Miss Perfect Lily Evans. I try to change his mind because I hate to see him kicked around by some girl. By some girl who has no feelings for anyone but herself.

"You are selfish, Lily Evans. You are more selfish than anyone I've ever met. I wish you could walk in his shoes and realize how much you hurt him. You might not see it, but me, Remus, and Peter; we have to see it everyday that you reject him." I was mad now, and my rant wasn't going to end until I had nothing left to say, and to be honest, I was running out of things to say, but I wasn't even going to let that stop me now.

"He lo-likes you a lot, Evans, but it's obvious that you don't understand that he really and truly cares about you and it sickens me, completely and utterly sickens me the way you treat him." I caught myself, I had come that close to admitting that Prongs was in love with Evans. I held my breath, hoping she didn't catch my slip up.

She glared at me and looked like she was about to say something, but I didn't feel like letting her get a word in.

"So swallow your pride and give him a chance. See him as a guy instead of the person you've made him out to be."

Her eyes were watering, and for the second or third time that night, I lost count, I felt guilty for the awful things I said to this girl. Her auburn hair looked messy now; her glowing eyes lost their sheen slightly. I was now questioning what I did to the girl; she no longer looked like the girl that spat at me when I told her I wanted to talk to her.

"What were you going to say?" she asked me, her voice low, menacing, but also with a bit of insecurity hidden in it.

"What are you talking about?" I had every idea about what she was asking about, but I wasn't going to let on. I was fine with playing dumb.

"About James!" she was getting angry, no wonder she is considered the smartest person in our year, she knew I knew what she was referring to, "You started to say something and stopped yourself, changed your words. What was it?"

"So it's James now, not Potter?" I chided her slightly.

"Sir-Black! Shut up, now it's your turn to answer my question."

My response was silence. I didn't feel like letting her know quite yet. I'd tell her eventually, but I wanted to see if she could figure it out.

Her eyes flashed red for just a second; I stifled a laugh, thinking about how for that split second, her eyes and hair matched. She wouldn't appreciate it, but do you think I cared? Of course not, that's how I do things.

"I think I know what you were going to say," her voice was shaking.

"And what would that be, my lovely Evans?" I figured she had used her deductive or inductive reasoning, whichever one it is, to have an idea of what I was planning on saying.

"You, you were going to say," she had to pause, her voice was shaking worse now, and I knew that she figured it out for sure. She reached down into herself and pulled out her Gryffindor courage and spoke in a firmer, louder, and steadier voice, "You were going to say that he loves me."

"Congratulations, Evans. You are bloody brilliant, you figured it out. Not bad, it took you less time than I calculated. I'm impressed," I smiled at the distressed girl. I received a glare in response. She was always sensitive about her intelligence. I heard that one from James. Bloody guy is just plain obsessed with her. Actually, I heard from her friend, what's her name, one day when we were out on the grounds pretending to be paying attention to the Care of Magical Creatures lesson, but instead where spitting little sparks at each other with our wands. She confirmed what James had told me.

"That's not funny, Black," her expression was not one that could be considered a friendly one. To be honest, it was kind of scary.

"Are you sure? I must disagree, because, personally, I found it freaking hilarious."

"That's your own opinion and the feeling isn't mutual."

"Good, because I don't think Pr-James would find it very amusing if the feeling was mutual. Rule number 1, Lily Evans is off limits."

"That's a lie," she obviously didn't believe me.

"You don't have to believe me, Evans, but it is the truth. Nothing's going to change that."

"You sicken me," her face full of disgust.

"And I thought you were the smart one."

"What did you say?" her voice venomous.

"You are off your rocker. I said absolutely nothing and I for sure didn't hear anything," I was now enjoying this immensely. It was extremely satisfying.

She was mad now. Beyond mad that one was. It amused me more than you would think. If I was to die right at this moment, I think that I would find myself satisfied. Her expression was priceless and it was all worth it.

"I don't hate him," she spoke so softly that I almost didn't catch it. Her face held a sad expression in her delicate features and the defeated look was evident, "I don't hate him anymore at least. There was a time I couldn't stand him, but that changed and I couldn't change the image that I had created in my head. It wasn't something I could bring myself to do."

For once in my life I found myself speechless. I couldn't believe that Evans was telling me about her feelings about my best mate, James Potter. There was something out of the norm with this. I was about to speak, but she just continued on as though she was talking to herself.

"I know he's changed, it's evident to everyone. I am aware of the fact that he changed for me and only me. I changed everything about him I love and have always loved no matter how crazy he drove me. I feel bad to know that I that kind of control. It's scary for me because it just proves my suspicions, he really means every word that comes out of his mouth that regards me."

I began winging it again and did something that I knew would drive her bonkers, I stopped paying attention. Or at least, I gave off that appearance, there was no way in all that is holy that I would miss what she was saying. And she noticed.

"Black, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing, I don't know what you are talking about."

"Seriously?" Oh, she was getting a little frustrated. This was fun.

I pretended to be interested in the wall behind her, "Hey, Evans, you do realized that James is standing behind you."

She whirled around so fast, that she temporarily broke my spell before it caught again and nearly sent her tumbling as it prohibited her movement and once again I had to restrain my laughter.

"You aren't serious are you?" she had a terrified look on her face.

"Of course, I'm Sirius," I chided.

Unfortunately, she caught onto my joke, "I know what your name is. Was James really there?"

"Well, Evans, I guess that's for me to know and you to contemplate. I'm not going to tell you, but instead am going to do you the favor of letting you figure out what to say to him next time you see him."

I silently released the Charm I had placed on her and slipped through a secret passage before she knew where I went. I was smiling the entire way back to the common room. He may not have won her over yet, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be long.