Chapter One: An Arrangement of Sorts

Lily Evans was having a perfectly normal day. She had just aced a history of magic exam, she had eaten eggs and toast for breakfast, and she had studied with Severus in the library for their upcoming transfiguration exam. As she exited the library carrying an enormous stack of books, chatting amicably with Severus, Remus Lupin ran up to her.

"Remus! Hi!" She said, grinning at her friend.

"Lily," he panted, completely out of breath, "there might have been a bit of a slip-up."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, and don't kill me for this," he said taking a step back from the witch, knowing her fondness for bat-bogey hexes for those that spite her, "I may have accidentally told Sirius about James and um…" Remus trailed off as he glanced at Severus, unsure if Lily would want him to be privy to this top secret information. Quickly catching on, Lily turned to Severus.

"Severus would you mind giving us a minute?" She asked her friend.

Severus glanced at her, then gave her a swift nod and stalked off down the corridor.

Remus frowned, "I will never understand your friendship with him. He looks like a bat when he walks down the hallway you know."

"Remus, the manner of which my friends walk is really not high on my priority list," She said impatiently. "What happened?"

"Well I let slip to Sirius that you've got a mad crush on James—"

"Ok I know I just told you to rush but do we have to call it a mad crush?"

"Lily you stare at him during class and started actually paying attention to quidditch which you hate. I feel that term is justified."

"Ok, ok point taken, continue," Lily said, still slightly disgruntled at her friend's keen observational skills.

"Ok, so Sirius being Sirius wanted to stir up some trouble."

Lily sighed, "of course he did. I swear to Merlin Sirius Black is going to be the death of me."

Remus laughed, "you have no idea how many times a day I say that exact same thing. But anyway, Sirius decided it would be fun to write James a love note like it was from you and things got kind of out of hand and to make a long story short, James knows that you, to put it in the eloquent Black fashion, 'have got it as bad for him as Snape has for oiling his backside.'"

"Charming." Lily said. She growled in frustration, "Remus, what do I do?"

"I mean there's nothing you can do, Lily, except come clean."

"But I know he doesn't feel the same way, I mean he's dating Sarah Watson."

"Lily Evans," Remus said, staring at her like she was being completely bonkers. "James has done nothing but obsess over you for the past three years. That doesn't go away in an instant you know."

"I suppose. But Remus I never would want to hurt either of them," She moaned and put her head in her hands. "I'm going to kill Sirius Black."

…

"Oi, Black!" Lily called to the head of curly black hair as she marched determinately down the hallway. Sirius looked up, and upon realizing who it was immediately ran in the other direction.

"Oh bloody hell," Lily said under her breath, and took off after him. "Black, wait up, not all of us play quidditch you know," she said, panting as she finally caught up to him." Sirius held up his hands in defeat.

"Make it quick and painless, Evans," he said, closing his eyes in preparation for an impending hex.

She rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to hex you, idiot, or at least not yet anyway."

Sirius heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin, I've only recently recovered from the last spell you hexed me with, which was extremely unjustified by the way. Granted it was hilarious to have an exceedingly large nose, but I don't think it did any wonders for my profile."

Lily sighed, "look will you shut up for a second."

"I don't like your tone young lady," he said, jokingly. "But if you're not here to hex me, what, pray tell, did you come running after me for?"

"I came to—" Lily stopped mid-sentence when she saw who was approaching her from the other end of the hallway. "Oh bloody hell," she mumbled, and before she could think about it too hard, Lily stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss directly on Sirius' lips. James Potter stood in shock as he watched his best mate kiss the girl he had fancied for three years. Looking awkwardly away, he retreated down the hall as quickly as possible.

"Bloody hell, Evans," Sirius said after Lily pulled away from him. "I always knew you had the hots for me but keep it under control. We are on school grounds you know."

Lily rolled her eyes, "I don't fancy you, Black."

"Yeah but see, your actions just thirty seconds ago kind of contradict that."

"Look, I fancy James, alright? You should already know that considering the prank you pulled on him this morning. I saw him coming down the hall towards us, and panicked, and the kiss was manifestation of my panic," she rambled.

Sirius laughed, "Evans you're something else, you know that? Although I must say, you're not a bad snogger."

Lily sighed, "my snogging skills really aren't this issue right now, Black."

"Ok so, let me get this straight: you like James, but he has a girlfriend. You don't want to ruin your friendship with him, so you kissed me to what? Make him jealous?"

"No… I don't know, I'm sorry this is such a mess."

"It doesn't have to be," Sirius said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" She said looking up into his dark blue eyes.

"What if we pretended to date?"

Lily's eyes widened and then she burst out laughing. "You are mad you know that?" She managed to say through her giggles.

"I'm hurt, Evans. You know a most girls would love for me to be their fake boyfriend. I kind of have that tall, dark, and handsome thing down to a tee," he said with a wink.

"See, Black, this is why this would never work. I can absolutely never take you seriously."

"It's one of my charms," he smirked. "But anyway, hear me out please."

"Did I just hear Sirius Black say the word please?" Lily said, holding her hand to her chest in shock. "Why Sirius, darling, I didn't know you knew the meaning of the word."

"Evans be serious" Sirius said, his eyes narrowing.

"That's rich, coming from you," she said with a cheeky grin.

Sirius glared at her, then continued on. "Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted I was telling you about my absolutely brilliant plan that I have now dubbed 'A Prank so Brilliant Merlin Himself Couldn't Have Thought of It' (brought to you by a very handsome young scoundrel) and it goes as follows: we pretend to date, making James extremely jealous (because he's secretly in love with you and we all know it) to the point when he breaks it off with Watson and confesses his love to a certain redhead. What do you think, it's brilliant right?"

"Sirius that is the absolute worst idea I've ever heard," Lily said, chuckling.

"Ok I'm going to ignore the fact that you just criticized my genius idea and point out the obvious: if you don't go with my plan, what are you going to do?"

Lily sighed, he did have a point. There was no way she could explain this to James if she didn't go along with Sirius' plan.

"Alright fine, Black."

"She says so enthusiastically," Sirius said with a grin. "By the way, you should probably start calling me Sirius now that we're dating, Lilykins."

"Sirius Black, I swear you are going to be the death of me."

Sirius laughed, "that's all I ever wanted to hear."

A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for reading the first installment of this story! I'll try to have more published as soon as possible. Let me know what you think so far :)