What the Hell, Mate? -- Early February 1977

I tried to stay angry. but it was hard. I laughed. " Yes...you're forgiven..." I grinned. Giving him a hug, " You should see what dress I've got planned for your sister to try on. " I told him with a smile.

Well, that wasn't what I expected. "Is it okay that you show me? I don't know if Ember would want me to see it or not... but I doubt she'd care. So show me; you're excited about it." I smiled at her.

I grinned getting up, " I made her try on a lot of them....she didn't seem to mind..." I looked back at him, " Okay.." running over to the closet I opened the door to reveal the light blue strapless dress, with jewels on the waist pulling the dress into it giving ruffles on the one side. " You should've seen her face when she looked in the mirror."

I eyed the dress. "It's really pretty," I said, though I didn't want to picutre how grown up Ember would look in it. It was probably a good thing that Sirius was taking her... it'd keep all the dirty hands off of her. "So she really likes it?"

I nodded. " Yes, you should've seen the reaction to when she looked at herself." Smiling " Yeah, I think she likes it." Walking over to my closet. "Would you like to see mine?"

Oh how I would. I smiled at her and pulled her back to her bed. "Babe, wouldn't you prefer to see my look when you walk down the stairwell the night of the dance?" I suggested. I would love to see it now... but I didn't want to take away the fun for her that night.

I nodded, " I suppose that's right." I said with a smile. " You know I have to be able to stay mad at you longer..." I pointed out to him. Adjusting how I was sitting, " You know, you're not going to like how old you're sister is going to look. " I told him. I felt he should maybe know. " She loves the way it looks on her. " I gave him an innocent smile.

I groaned. "Lily... I'd rather just ignore the fact that my little sister is growing up," I said, sighing. I obviously knew it was inevitable, but I would much rather ignore it. And especially since she was going with my best mate. "I just hope he lets her down easy and she doesn't get her hopes up." I sat up and looked at Lily. "You'll talk to her, right? Let her know this doesn' tmean anything with him... so hopefully she won't get hurt..."

I raised my eyebrows at him, " I will talk to her when and if she wants to talk about it....I'm not going to push her to talk." I told him. " Whether you like it or not she is growing up...also she will get her hopes up and let her have a night to be herself and relax and have fun with him." I warned him. " Let them have a night. Let him treat your sister like a queen."

I groaned.  "But I don't want him to treat her special," I said, running a hand through my hair and standing up starting to pace.  "Because that will just make it so much worse for her.  I'm glad that if some dirtbag is going to be dancing with my sister it'll be my best mate, but I will not have her be snogging or anything else with Sirius..."  I knew that Lily would not want to hear me say anything like that, but still.

I rolled my eyes, " Oh please....I didn't mean anything like that and you know it. Besides you should know he wouldn't do that to your sister. Especially at a dance..." I told him. This is too much he is to involved with her life.

"You might not have meant that, but I know Ember.  She would try it.  You have ot advise against it," I said, stopping suddenly and lookign at Lily.  "Sirius knows better... I won't have to talk to him about anything.  He already knows exactly how I feel about everything."  I continued pacing again.  I was not sure if I was going to be able to handle this at all, but I would suck it up.  I stopped pacing and sighed, looking at Lily again.  "I need to calm down, don't I?  Should I really just let her enjoy this without worrying about the heartache that's bound to follow?  I mean, I'll be there to clean up the mess... I always am with Ems, whether she tells me teh real story or not."  I remembered the end of the summer before our fifth year... she was a mess, but she would not tell me why.  But it did nto really matter, I was there for her and it did help her feel better.

I crossed my arms, " I don't know why don't you tell me?" I asked him with a smirk. Hoping he knew I had sarcasm dripping from every word I was saying. " Just let her have a night she'll always love. Rather than look on it and know you ruined it for her. Because you are overbearing at times when it comes to her." I told him. As he stopped and gave me a look. " Don't give me that you know you are. And you don't care normally."

"Well, she's my sister!  Of course I have the right to be overbearing!  And it's because I do care about her that I'm protective," I added, giving Lily a look.  I really was not yelling at Lily, but I had raised my voice while defending myself.  I smiled at her apologetically.  "Sorry..."  I said, sitting back down so I would hopefully stop fidgeting.  "She will hate me the rest of her life if I meddle too much, won't she?  I've given her plenty of reasons to hate me during our childhood, but I think this may only fall second place to the time she found out that I was hiding the fact she was adopted..." I ran a hand through my hair.  "But will you at least warn her to be careful?  Because Sirius doesn't feel the same way about her as she does him.  I just don't want her to get hurt."

<<Yes, Ember was adopted.  I'm in the process of wirting it all out  >>

I rolled my eyes at him, " I will talk to her if you shut up..." I gave him a warning look. He definitely needed to butt out a bit. Just relax, "Give her some space hun...." I told him with a smile on my face, " Trust me when I say she knows she can come to you for help when she needs it."