of mistletoes and stolen kisses

Looking back on it, James found it quite ironic—and maybe even a little clichéd—that he had realized his love for Lily Evans—or, more specifically, the reason for his love—right after she'd shared her first kiss with Remus Lupin—one of James' best mates since that first night at Hogwarts.

For the record, it had been Sirius's idea.

It was Christmas break of the Marauders'—the name the Prewett twins, who were the younger boys' idols, had come up with for them—third year and they had simultaneously decided to stay home this year.

(They all knew that it was because Sirius wasn't invited home this year after Regulus had let it slip that he had caught Sirius and Mary MacDonald, a muggleborn Gryffindor, snogging in the library, although all four boys chose to ignore the fact.)

When they had first agreed to stay at Hogwarts for the winter holidays, they had assumed that it would be fun; that there would be lots to do.

They'd proven that theory wrong when they were the only boys left in Gryffindor, sans a lone seventh year, although he spent half the time snogging his Hufflepuff girlfriend.

"I'm bored," whined Sirius as he plopped down into one of the armchairs stationed in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

"Me too," piped up Peter as he, James and Remus found their own seats before the hearth.

"Maybe we should pull a prank?" suggested James. The boys had started pranking in their first year after watching the Gideon and Fabian Prewett light up the entire Great Hall with fireworks on the Marauders' first night at Hogwarts. It had been their first whiff of magical pranks, and ever since, they'd been searching for bigger and more extravagant scents.

"On who?" Remus asked reluctantly. Out of the four boys, he was the most unwilling to pull pranks, usually just tagging along and watching from the sidelines than being up front and center with James and Sirius. "There's no one else here."

Sirius huffed in agreement—he'd always been one for dramatics. "Yeah, no one besides stupid, snogging couples." He and Mary had broken up shortly after the incident with Regulus, and Sirius had been rather bitter since, especially when it came to other couples.

"Wait a minute . . ." James said with a mischievous smile on his face and a rebellious glint in his eyes. "I have an idea."

And that was how James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew ended up huddled under James' Invisibility Cloak watching random students fall victim to their enchanted mistletoe, which forced the two unsuspecting students' feet to freeze on the spot until a kiss was exchanged. Unfortunately—for the Marauders, at least—most of the couples seemed to enjoy it, which was not the boys' intention as all.

"I'm going back up to the common room," announced Remus after about twenty minutes of zero activity.

"Alright," James said, shifting as Remus reappeared from under the Invisibility Cloak. The werewolf continued to walk forward, only looking up when Sirius yelled, "Remus! Look out!"

James watched as Remus looked up at the last minute and accidentally rammed into Lily Evans. James frowned a bit; he hadn't known Evans had been staying here over the holidays. His hand unconsciously started to move towards his hair to mess it up a bit, but he paused when he remembered she couldn't see him.

It was a well known fact that James Potter liked Lily Evans, though, if you asked James what exactly he liked about her, he'd probably reply with an, 'I don't know, but she's really pretty,' which, as Lily had clearly expressed when James had asked her to Hogsmeade, was not a good enough reason.

"I'm so sorry," muttered Remus, who had a habit of getting flustered around any member of the female population.

"Oh no . . ." Sirius breathed, and James turned to him with a strange look before following his line of vision towards Remus and Lily. He didn't understand what was wrong until Lily started to leave only to be forced back into her spot by an invisible barrier.

"Merlin above," James heard Remus say as the werewolf's face turned a bright red.

"What's going on, Remus?" Lily asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. James frowned, feeling sympathetic for his friend.

"Poor Remus," squeaked Peter. "Maybe we should go help him . . .?"

"We can't," Sirius replied ruefully as Remus attempted to explain the predicament to Lily, who was nodding understandably, albeit with a bit of annoyance, James noticed.

"There has to be something we can do," James said, feeling extremely guilty for Remus, whose ego didn't need more bruising, especially since the full moon was coming up so soon, not to mention—

James' train of thought was cut off when Lily bent down and gave Remus a soft kiss. On. The. Lips. For a moment, James could only stand and stare, barely noticing when Lily gave the werewolf—who seemed just as shocked as James—a small smile and quiet, 'Goodnight, Remus.'

He continued to stare as Sirius and Peter tried to divert his attention and explain that it wasn't Remus' fault. James couldn't help but notice that they were cautious with their wording; almost as if they were afraid that he might blow up at them.

Although, in all honestly, James should have been mad. The love of his life had just snogged one of his best mates. He should be infuriated, breaking things, yelling at someone. . . . And yet, he wasn't.

No, instead anger, James was filled with another emotion—several, to be , devotion, passion, and, most importantly: love. It was as if someone had bundled it all up into a box and the look in Lily's eyes—the one full of pity and sweetness and all around niceness—when she walked away from Remus had opened it up, unleashing all emotions out in James' version of Pandora's Box.

"James, mate?" Sirius repeated for the fifth time, snapping a finger in front of James' face. "You alright?"

James nodded, still in his daze. "Yeah, I'm fantastic."

"Do you think he's okay?" whispered Peter, assumingly to Sirius, who shrugged his shoulders unconvincingly.

James cleared his throat. "Really, I'm fine." He paused for a moment, glancing in the direction to which Lily had departed and poor Remus was still standing there shell-shocked. James smirked and pulled himself out from under the Cloak, walking over to the smaller boy, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

"She's quite something, isn't she?" James muttered, mostly to himself. "She's so pretty, and nice, and thoughtful, and considerate of people's feelings. . . ." James trailed off, the dreamy expression still on his face.

"Oi!" Sirius called, rolling his eyes. "Don't tell me you're going into a rant on how amazing Lily Evans is! Especially after she just kissed Remus!"

Unfortunately for Sirius, James was. And it was far from the last of James' infamous 'Evans rants.' After that fateful day in 1973, he continued to declare his love for Lily Evans-Potter until the day he died.

Fin

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related.

A/N: Yeah, just a fluffy little oneshot. This was written for the First Kiss Challenge on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. My pairing was Remus/Lily and this is what escalated from it. Reviews are loved :)

-Aly