A/N: for Rachel; my partner in crime and my GIF finder, my RP buddy; the girl who inflates my ego - my Lily Evans and my James Potter all at once, my fellow Marauder. My toughest critic and my biggest fan. As, likewise, I hope to someday be for you. This is all yours.

talking to the songbird yesterday
flew me to a place not far away
she's a little violet in my mind
singing songs of love to pass the time
gonna write a song so she can see
give her all the love she gives to me
talk of better days that have yet to come
never felt this love from anyone
(she's not anyone)

~ Oasis

Filius Flitwick was only just starting at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry come late January in 1978, and he still wasn't exactly feeling all that well received after his first few months of teaching there. He was aware that the previous Professor Diggam, peculiar as he had been, was greatly adored by most of the students at the school who were heartbroken by his choice to resign and pursue competitive slug pickling in North Wales (as had always been his dream), thus Flitwick was met with a somewhat frosty resistance from the student body. They weren't being deliberately spiteful, per se, but they made it quite clear to him in his early weeks that they would much prefer being taught by Dead Ringer Diggam than tiny Floozy Flitwick.

Suffice to say in many ways, it had been something of a war.

Apparently Diggam's impressions of members of staff, celebrities and particular students had always been a riot at feasts and special occasions (hence the nickname Dead Ringer) and Filius had drawn inspiration from that and decided to organise a fun event of his own to try and soften the Hogwartian response to him. He was sure the students liked him enough, he just wanted to let them know that they could still have fun in his classes in much the same way they had in Professor Diggam's.

The plan was a bit of a festival, really; a Charms festival. The Great Hall was going to be decorated with all sorts of stalls and mini-games to do with Charms – like apple bobbing where the apples would be charmed to move away from you, or enchanted bird catching, and of course the title event would be a demonstration and question and answer session with the leading Charms specialist in the United Kingdom; the renowned Sir Menwyn of Mumpleton. He was a bit of a celebrity, and when word had gotten around that Flitwick had managed to secure him for the event (set to take place at the beginning of February) he certainly noticed the change in attitude of the students towards him.

For one, they began to openly smile at him a great deal more in public.

He may not be able to impersonate Sir Menwyn, Flitwick had thought triumphantly, but he definitely knew how to book him. Only, the man had turned around and cancelled only a day earlier claiming scheduling issues with some of his publicity rallies and it left Flitwick at a bit of a loose end. His perfect day for the students was ruined, and he was sure they'd never like him now.

Stress stress stress. Fret fret fret.

So he wasn't exactly paying attention as he wandered into his office trying for the nth time to think of a way to salvage the Charms festival and almost missed completely that one of his NEWT students was sat on his desk, swinging his legs idly and whistling something that sounded suspiciously like Zachary Lumos. Thus when he looked up into the grinning face of the Head Boy he squeaked something incomprehensible in surprise.

"Sorry Professor!" James Potter chirped, jumping down from the desk. "Didn't mean to scare you. Do you realise how uncomfortable your desk is?"

Flitwick registered hesitantly that the door to his office was always locked when he wasn't in it, but over his short time at Hogwarts he'd heard and seen enough to know what James Potter and his band of merry men could get up to. Oddly, the boys that every teacher had cited to him were nightmares were some of the few who really welcomed him with open arms – the senior team, Head Boy and Girl, in particular were always looking to do him favours at no extra cost.

So he chose not to feel indignant at the idea of the young man being in his office without his permission, and instead arched a brow at the significantly taller man as he moved past him. "What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?"

James evaded the question with a practiced ease. "I'm being serious Professor, I hope you don't often sit on this. Especially considering you're..." He trailed off, appraising the man's incredibly minute stature with a grin. Flitwick resisted the urge to narrow his eyes. "Well, you need to be higher up than most people we'll just say."

"What do you want, Mr. Potter?" The Professor tried again as he shut the door behind him with a click and made to move around the desk.

"Oh - Professor, could you leave the door open? I'll only take a minute of your time, I promise," James gave him a disarming smile that Flitwick resigned himself to, and opened the door again before moving behind the desk and promptly taking a seat in his chair - his engorgified chair, mind, to make sure he was on the same level as people he spoke to. James in turn took the seat opposite and settled himself comfortably.

"How can I help you?" Flitwick tried for a third time, trying to offer him a smile this time.

"On the contrary sir, it's all about how I can help you. How are you, Professor?" James leaned forward and placed his chin on his hand on the desk. Flitwick could have sworn he was fluttering his eyelashes? His warning bells immediately went off for an ulterior motive; through all the year that he'd taught James so far it was quite clear that this was not normal behaviour.

"I'm fine thank you, Mr. Potter, why do you -?" He stopped as something behind James caught his eye. "What is that?"

"What's what?" James asked innocently, turning around and following his gaze. "Oh, that." In the corridor outside there appeared to be some pieces of parchment floating around - folded delicately to look like birds and flying in intricate patterns past the door while they changed colour in time with some unknown rhythm. "They're very pretty, aren't they?" He gave them another fond smile before turning back around. "But I know you're not really fine, are you Professor? You're awfully stressed about that Charms festival you're trying to organise. Am I right?"

Flitwick paused, before sighing heavily. As suspicious as James was acting it was nice to be able to actually unload onto someone. "I... yes, you are right. Things just... they don't seem to be quite fitting into place the way I want them to."

"Well," James straightened with a winning smile, clasping his hands on the desk between them. "Perhaps I can help - I am the Head Boy, after all. What seems to be the problem?"

Flitwick gave him a wary glance before pulling out some papers he still needed to mark. "I really don't think that I should be... who on earth keeps doing that?" He frowned, staring back out to the corridor where the parchment birds were now chirping in harmonies and drawing patterns between them. "Shut the door please, Mr. Potter."

"But they're so nice, I'd much rather leave the door open," he leaned a little bit further forward and with a slightly dramatic edge to his voice he continued, "whoever's controlling them must have some excellent, er, charming skills, wouldn't you say so sir?" Flitwick was too busy staring at his papers to notice the eager, slightly anxious look on James' face, and merely nodded in response. While he wasn't being watched the Gryffindor allowed himself a roll of his eyes. How obvious did he have to be? "So I hear Sir Menwyn of Mumpleton cancelled on the Charms fest," James shrugged, leaning back again. "Tough luck, Professor."

This got Flitwick's attention. "And it is just so frustrating," the man squeaked, irritation get the better of him.

"That's right," James nodded understandingly. "Let it all out."

"No one else will help me!" Flitwick obliged almost too eagerly at finally having an ear to vent to. "I've been working so hard on this event for everyone to have fun, and my contact in the Ministry assures me he has the perfect person for the main event - well known, sensible, lovable and very gifted with Charms - and what does he do? Cancel!" He fumed.

"Celebrities can be so fickle," James agreed soothingly.

"Exactly," Flitwick sighed, deflating a little back into his chair. "And I may just have to not bother and cancel the whole thing."

At this James perked up. "But what if there was someone else to help you? Someone else to be a main event type thing - maybe taking it in a different direction than what Sir Menwyn was planning?"

"Well, I suppose it could work. They'd have to be very good at Charms, mind. I don't want to cancel it, though, of course!"

The Gryffindor rushed to console him. "Of course, of course not Professor. Why would you? All you need to do is find someone gifted with Charms to be the new main event." Flitwick nodded, and James made a point of turning to look at the birds now all flocking together to form one huge phoenix in the doorway. "My, those birds are looking fine, aren't they sir? Certainly someone in this school has a gift for Charms."

James wasn't sure he could be any more obvious with his hinting, but Flitwick didn't notice - he was still hooked on James' earlier statement. "But where in Merlin's name will I find -?" He stopped abruptly as he took in the young man's raised eyebrows and the sight in the doorway, and understanding dawned. "Ah, alright Mr. Potter, I see. I understand what you're getting at." He rolled his eyes tiredly as he realised he'd been completely led around the block by James Potter. At this a satisfied smirk finally slid onto James' features, his faux understanding act now completely dropped as he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the Professor's desk.

"So what do you say, Professor?" He raised a challenging eyebrow.

Flitwick pursed his lips. "Who did you have in mind?"

Lily Evans couldn't quite stop the giggle that slipped from her lips as she pelted it down the corridor - there was something strangely liberating about playing around on the other side of the school rules. Well, she reminded herself, technically they weren't doing anything wrong. Just a little bit of harmless fun. Lily had mentioned she'd love to get involved with the Charms festival Professor Flitwick had been planning, and James had simply given her that devilish grin she recognised from the one he shared often with Sirius and had told her to leave it all to him. She'd done as he'd told her to and tried testing all that extra reading she'd been doing for Charms outside of Flitwick's office, and she was too busy concentrating to have any idea of the outcome of the conversation - but if she had faith in anything, she had faith in James Potter and his stupid winning smile.

She stopped by the portrait of the Fat Lady, where she and James had agreed to meet afterwards, and waited, trying not to look as anxious as she felt. God, it wasn't like she was twelve anymore. Running around and subtly manipulating teachers shouldn't be something that had her heart thumping as hard as it did - but Merlin, she wanted this. So when she heard footsteps and spotted James running a hand through his hair as he approached she couldn't help but jog right up to him and grab his arms.

"Well?" She asked breathlessly. "Did you do it? What did he say? Can I do it?"

"Woah, woah," James laughed, pushing her back slightly by her shoulders. "Relax, Evans, remember who you're talking to."

At this she hit him lightly on the shoulder with a pout. "Don't tease me. Now tell me how it went!"

James sighed heavily. "Well, it was tough," he let out a low whistle. "Really tough. I might have to give up all of my Friday evenings to help him mark third year essays. And I might never play Quidditch again. Or I'll have to move to the Ravenclaw team."

"But you did it?" At this point Lily didn't really care whatever bull he was sprouting.

A slow grin wormed its way onto his face. "Of course I did it. You've got it!"

Squealing, Lily threw her arms around his neck and yelled her gratitude so loud James was actually trying to shush her - on a normal day he had no problems with PDA with one of his closest friends (only recently a close friend, mind) but for once in his life he found himself not quite wanting to start any rumours. Especially ones that had the potential to make things awkward between them.

Just because her cheeks flushed with excitement and her hair blown in all directions was still insanely attractive to him didn't mean he had to act on it at every waking moment. Or that anything would even happen there. What was the phrase? Sailing ships? Well, it was easy to forget about what he had or didn't have while she was beaming up at him like that.

"So what do I have to do? Oh my god, I have to go study," Lily's eyes widened and James did his best to resist rolling his.

"Lily Evans, getting the most exciting news all term and holy mother of Merlin I've got to go study!"

"James! This is different, it's a Charms thing!" Lily protested.

James didn't look like he believed her. "Sirius gets high on chocolate frogs, and you get high on textbooks. It's okay Lils, I understand. Everyone is different."

"And you get high on pictures of yourself, let's not forget that."

He smirked. "I'm just an easy thing to get high on." Lily thumped him again on the shoulder, and he gave her a hurt look. "Anyway, Flitwick wants to talk to you about what you're going to do, and stuff. I hope you don't mind that I told him we'll get the Prefects to jump in on the organising. I reckon it's time we all gave him a hand and took the Festival in a whole new direction."

Lily raised an eyebrow as she headed for the portrait hole and James followed her through. "What kind of direction?"

James shrugged. "He's been so focused on Sir Menwyn of Mumpleton that he hasn't been thinking about the other assets he has at his disposal - mainly the whole of Hogwarts. I told him to make it about the students, not just for them. He seemed pretty game, so I guess we'll see what he comes up with at the meeting tomorrow."

A fond sort of smile pulled at the corner of Lily's lips. "I'm proud of you, James."

"You what?"

"I think it's really great that you want to help out Flitwick like this - he told me last week he's been finding it so hard to fit in here." James shrugged awkwardly and resisted the urge to tell her that he was hardly helping out with the Festival to please Flitwick. "Well, anyway. I'll see you at the meeting?"

James nodded. "Of course," and waved as she went to speak to her friends huddled by the fire, a spring in her step that he knew he put there making him grin a little goofily. Spotting his own motley crew hunched in a corner over a card game, James offered her retreating back one last lingering look before heading over to join them.

"Ah, well if it isn't the Fairy Godmother," Sirius grinned wickedly as James sat down. "Did you make all of Evans' dreams come true?"

"Oh, go stuff it Sirius," James rolled his eyes before pausing. "But yes."

"And is she going out with you yet?" Peter asked, not looking up from the game as he carefully laid a Jack of Hearts down on top of the pile.

James ignored the question, as he had been any mention about asking her out over the past few months. It seemed the only one thrilled about his non-pursuit of Lily was Remus, who always received an earful on both ends - both the jilted and the desired. "What are you even playing?"

"It's called Bos, apparently. Sirius has been teaching Peter," Remus said offering a smile in greeting before turning back to the book he was reading.

"No Peter, you can't play that," Sirius sighed. "You can't put a Jack of hearts on a five of clubs."

Peter frowned. "Who says? You put a Jack of spades on a five of diamonds."

"But that's a double point move, that only works once in the game. Now pick another card - remember you only have five seconds or I triple what you could have won." Peter frantically threw down a two of clubs. Sirius sucked in a sympathetic breath. "Two on a five, you know what that means."

Peter sighed. "Damnit, three points to you."

Now James was intrigued. "What's the score at the moment, then?"

"Twenty-five to nine to Sirius," Remus turned the page of his book.

James blinked, looking between the pair of them. "Where'd you hear of the game, Sirius?"

"Just around," he shrugged. James raised an eyebrow.

"And if I ask anyone else in the common room if they know how to play, their response would be..?"

"Oh, it's a really rare game, pretty exclusive. Most people haven't heard of it. The rules are so complicated and all."

Peter piped up with a smile. "But I think I'm starting to get it!"

"I doubt it," James responded dryly. "Because 'Bos' is Sirius' initials backwards. I just reckon you should bear that in mind before you gamble any money away by his rules, Pete." Understanding dawned, and the seventeen-year-old cursed and threw his cards at the already laughing Sirius.

The common room late at night was one of the most peaceful places in Hogwarts, and largely underrated. Everyone always mentioned sneaking out for some solitude in the Astronomy Tower or comfort in the kitchens, but Lily had discovered fairly early on that the Gryffindor common room around midnight provided both of those things. The fire would no longer be roaring, but the scattered embers amongst the logs would leave the room just warm and cosy enough for someone to slip down in their pyjamas and be largely unbothered by the weather, even if it was February. Everyone else was usually up in their dormitories by half past ten at the latest because occasionally McGonagall liked to show her face and sternly remind students that they had lessons in the morning - and no one wanted to be those people she caught up late that night, so the common room was almost empty by then.

Still, she always left Gryffindor Tower largely to its own devices after that point, and it was at fifteen minutes past midnight that Lily had tiptoed down, careful not to wake her roommates and sat up on the sofa with her textbook. It was as deserted as she'd hoped it would be, and sank back into the comfort of the sofa and tried to calm the nerves that were crawling around through her stomach. It was the night before the Charms festival and she had a big part to play in the events to come - bluntly, she was worried. Worried that she might screw up and ruin the day or do something wrong and become the Hogwarts laughing stock.

Maybe it was a bad idea to try and get involved in the first place - she'd been foolish in mentioning it to James when really it would've been better if she had nothing to do with it. Still, there wasn't a lot she could do about it now except continue to practice, but as she tried to enchant one of the chairs in front of her with one of the spells she was planning on using tomorrow and it didn't work panic began to rise from her gut to her throat. She muttered the incantation with increasing urgency and worry, thoughts flashing to the forefront of her mind of her having no success tomorrow either, and now she was feeling desperate -

"Lily?"

She jumped nearly five feet in the air as she whirled around and spotted James standing at the bottom of the boys' staircase clad in a vest and boxers with a duvet wrapped sleepily round his shoulders.

"What are you doing up?"

She tried to still her racing heart and bring her breathing back under control. "Goodness, you gave me a fright. I could ask you the same question."

James wiped some sleep from his eyes as he padded across the floor of the common room, duvet trailing out behind him. "I asked first," he pouted petulantly. "But I couldn't sleep. I'm a bit of a light sleeper, can't even make it through a bit of rain." He gestured at the window where water was hammering against the side - Lily realised she hadn't even noticed. "You?"

"Couldn't sleep either," she replied hesitantly, wondering if she should try hiding the textbook but deciding against it. "I'm too nervous about tomorrow."

"Nervous?" James sounded incredulous at the idea. "How can you be nervous? Charms is totally your thing. Mind if I sit?" He gestured to the space next to her on the sofa.

"By all means," she smiled. "And I just - what if I get it wrong?"

"You won't get it wrong," he answered confidently as he made himself comfortable.

"I might."

"You won't."

"James," Lily warned. "Don't argue with me, I'm very testy right now."

He put up his hands in a mock surrender and picked a few pieces of fluff from the duvet. "I just think you're silly to worry. It'll either go wrong or it won't, but I know that either way you'll have tried your best and there is no chance anyone in this school could have done a better job."

Despite herself, a smile pulled at the corner of Lily's mouth. "What about Flitwick?" She said dryly, turning her head to face him.

"Not even Flitwick," he replied with a quiet certainty, and the look in his eyes had her stomach flipping over only slightly. The determination and total belief in her was unwavering and incredibly flattering, and she found herself looking away as she felt her cheeks warm up. James always had a way of doing that, something she'd discovered in recent months as they'd worked together at the top of the school and slowly become friends. There was an intensity about him like he had no problem telling it how he believed it – he would laugh so heartily and live so fiercely that it was impossible to doubt his genuineness. It was something she was jealous of, in actuality, considering she herself often dealt with self-confidence issues that never seemed to occur to him.

And looking at him right now so entirely certain she knew he wasn't lying, which actually served to build up her own self belief from the pit of despair she knew it had been resting in.

"I – well, thank you," she muttered awkwardly, keeping her eyes averted, and James seemed to notice her discomfort and moved the conversation along to more casual waters.

"I think what you need is sleep," he grinned. "To relax, put the textbook away, take a deep breath and hope for the best."

Lily shifted. "I just want to practice a little more – for my own peace of mind, really."

"There is such a thing as practicing too much," James reminded her sternly, and leaned over to pry the book from her grip. He raised an eyebrow as she clung to it, before she finally sighed and released it, allowing James to throw it onto an armchair on the other side of the room amidst a small squeal of protest from the redhead. "Now," he continued, "do I have to chase you up to the dorm or can you make it on your own?"

"You definitely have to chase me," she laughed, before realising James was being deadly serious as he lunged across the sofa towards her. She yelped and jumped to her feet with the other Gryffindor hot on her tail, mildly frightened as he ran after her round the sofa and she made a beeline for the stairs to her dormitory.

James reached her before she made it, though, and grabbed her round the middle, pulling her in a circle as she screamed – even as he laughed he kept trying to shush her. "Lily – Lily people are asleep!" He couldn't contain his own laughter as he put her down and she thwacked him hard on the shoulder. The grins slowly slid off their faces as something crackled in the air between them, James with his hands on her waist and her with a hand on his shoulder.

He recovered first and cleared his throat. "Well, goodnight Lily."

He released her and smiled, and Lily tried not to mourn the loss of contact. Instead she smiled too. "Goodnight, James," and scampered up the steps back to her waiting bed.

The Festival was certainly something to behold – as James stepped into the Great Hall he couldn't help but admire the prefect's handiwork. From every beam in the ceiling hung banners with well-known Charmers, such as [that guy] and [that other one] in small little factfiles, while around the edge and through the centre of the Hall stood stalls and vendors where hundreds of students were milling around and giggling at the results their little spells were yielding. The enchanted ceiling was shining with the early afternoon sunlight, and birds were chattering to each other while circling around the room and perched on the top of certain stalls – well, James had assumed they were birds at first, but on closer inspection he realised they were similar to the ones Lily had conjured the day he went to talk to Flitwick. Made from coloured parchment they sang merry songs to each other, while laughing students ran around with Extendable Netstendables (enchanted nets to be any size the holder chose) trying to catch them.

In the centre of it all stood Flitwick, wand out while he manipulated several of the different stalls (mainly operated by Prefects and some advanced NEWT level students) and beaming with pride that the whole event had fallen into place so perfectly. He couldn't exactly recall why he hadn't bothered to ask the Prefects committee before now to help him with the preparations, especially given that the result was so stupendous that it was bound to go down a roaring success.

James was about to go over to him and ask about Lily's whereabouts when Sirius caught his eye – or rather, it wasn't Sirius as much as it was the twinkle in his eye that grabbed his attention and he changed trajectory to meet up with his friend.

"You're up to something," he said immediately, suspicious at the innocent grin that rested on Sirius' face.

"I'm up to nothing of the sort," he replied with an indignant sniff.

James eyed his best friend warily, with an edge of sternness. "You better not be ruining this for Professor Flitwick, I know what you're like." Sirius always got antsy at big events, they made him twitchy for some reason - it was always in his nature to try and do something to stop them going off without a hitch.

Sirius shook his head. "I'm not! I mean Charms is great," he hesitated, wondering if he should say more. "I just wanted to make it a little more interesting, that's all."

The other Gryffindor blanched – it was never good when Sirius said that. "What have you done?"

"Just a few added charms to trip things up a little here and there, nothing serious," he rolled his eyes, and James opened his mouth to protest. "The Marauders have barely done anything remotely saboteur like this year because you're so wrapped up in being Head Boy and planning the damn events that you don't want to ruin all your hard work." He folded his arms and stared him down defiantly. "So I just took matters into my own hands."

"Sirius," James' tone was bridging on a warning now. Sirius never did things in the small time - minor charms to trip things up were irritating, but now what the Gryffindor was into. He was into flourishes and explosions and stirring things up that could only lead to epic conclusions, for better or for worse. "What did you do?"

Sirius shifted where he stood, being jostled slightly by younger students eagerly moving past with their Extendable Netstendables, clearly irritated by James' reaction. "I may have invited Professor Diggam."

"You what?"

"I invited Dead Ringer Diggam to the Festival!" Sirius threw up his hands. "So what? Doesn't he deserve the chance to take a look at his successor's work?"

The way he said it almost made it make sense - almost. If James didn't know Sirius any better he would think it were an invitation made of innocence and naivety, but Sirius liked to scheme in his pranks. More likely than not him bringing Professor Diggam there would only succeed in making Flitwick nervous, and likely mess up at least a few of the charms he was using to keep the Festival running smoothly. Or at least that was probably his friend's intent for what would happen.

"And what are you hoping to get out of this, hm? After everyone's worked so bloody hard what do you hope to achieve?" He didn't know why he was fuming, but he felt indignant on someone else's behalf.

"It's funny, James, grow a sense of humour."

"No, it's cruel, and I thought we'd grown out of this. Remember that promise we made at the start of the year to make sure we could help Flitwick fit in?" The four of them had been prepared to go out of their way to make sure the Hogwarts community was as receptive to the new Floozy Flitwick as possible.

Sirius shrugged. "That was before I knew you were going to be a total killjoy this year." James' fists clenched at his sides and was about to declare that responsibility was hardly not fun, but his friend was already moving on. "Be a dear and greet Diggam for me when he arrives, won't you? I told him to look out for you."

"Sirius -"

"And I'm going to enjoy myself. Ta, James." With a wave he'd slipped back into the crowd leaving James sputtering in his wake, not entirely sure what had just taken place.

Was that really what had happened? Had he really become a killjoy this year because of all of his new responsibilities? He knew the Marauders hadn't been pulling as many pranks this year, but it wasn't like they'd stopped causing mischief altogether. So maybe they'd done nothing at the Christmas Ball - so what? Remus had a date he wanted to enjoy the evening with, James had spent sleepless nights planning the whole thing with Lily, and of course Sirius and Peter had liked it too. Where was the issue there?

Maybe he really was maturing, he thought with a grimace. Perhaps Dumbledore's plans to reign in the Marauders by making him Head Boy had worked after all - but even as he thought it he couldn't bring himself to agree with Sirius' idea. Where was the fun in playing on Flitwick's greatest insecurity by dragging Diggam into this? And there weren't just Flitwick's nerves to consider, but also those of a girl who had once been a star pupil of his...

James shook it off. It wouldn't do to dwell on it now, only that he began damage control effectively. But first - he had another volcanic reaction to prevent.

For all of the Head Boy's comforting words the night before, Lily was still a bundle of nerves as she stood in the chamber just off the Great Hall – it was mere minutes before Flitwick would expect her onstage to showcase some of her best Charms work, and pacing back and forth wasn't doing her a lot of good. Every worry from the night before was back with a burning passion; what if she didn't do it right, what if they thought the showcase was rubbish, what if she became the laughing stock for the whole school, and it was taking every ounce of willpower within her not to start biting her nails; a nasty habit she'd tried hard to kick, and would do her no good to bring back now.

It was just such a terrible idea and there was such an incredible potential for it go wrong - the margin of error was larger than Lily could have ever thought of, and she wasn't a natural performer. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the door opened, horrified that it might be Flitwick come to take her out there early - she breathed an audible sigh of relief when she saw that it was just James.

He winced at her obviously shot nerves as he shut the door behind him. "On a scale of one to Timothy the Timid, how are you feeling?"

Lily pressed a hand to forehead. "I'm way beyond Timothy the Timid. I'm - I'm Fulbert the Fearful."

James suppressed a grin as he crossed to her, knowing he should take this seriously - besides, he had some news which he didn't think she'd take too well. "Look Lils, remember what I said - you just need to relax. You're good at this, or Flitwick wouldn't have let you do it."

"I thought it was the promise of you playing chaser for Ravenclaw that convinced him?"

This earned a wry smile, but he put his hands firmly on her shoulders and forced her to look at this. "It either works or it doesn't. It isn't the end of the world, alright?"

She sighed heavily. "Alright."

He tried to think of a friendly way to broach the subject of Dead Ringer Diggam making it into the audience, and his face lit up in an almost too bright a grin. "Want a massage?"

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow.

James shrugged. "Sirius and I always give each other a massage before a big game - they're pretty good."

"I don't know..." Her gaze dropped skeptically to his hands.

"I'm excellent, I promise."

A grin curved the edge of her mouth. "I guess I'll have to see that for myself."

James could only agree with a laugh as she obediently turned around, still a little apprehensive but prepared to give it a shot, and James' hands began to work on her shoulders. He raised an eyebrow. "You are really tense."

"How perceptive of you."

He chortled in response and kept working, and he could feel her start to mould to the tips of his fingers, relaxing slightly into it. Just as he sensed she was letting her guard down a little he opened his mouth, fully prepared to tell her all about Diggam's spectatorship in the crowd, but something stopped him. He couldn't tell if it was the breadth of her shoulders feeling fragile and delicate against the palm of his hands, or the way the curve of her neck was so openly visible with only one red curl dropping from her ponytail to cover it - or perhaps, even, how nervous he knew she still was and how much he knew she'd burn herself out if she knew her old Professor was in the audience.

They had been close, her and Diggam - he knew that much. Her natural aptitude for Charms had left her a firm favourite in his view, and she'd always gone out of her way to impress him. Were she made aware of Diggam's presence she might well freeze up; her performance was essentially a showcase of six years worth of teaching on the man's behalf, after all, and James was sure she would be determined not to let him down. And then she would over think. And all would end awfully.

He paused in his ministrations in thought, but even as she asked him what the matter was he knew he'd made an executive decision. "Nothing," he replied, dropping his hands. "That's probably enough."

Lily tried not to deflate at the lack of contact (what was wrong with her, the second time in as many days?) and nodded nonetheless. She looked back up at James and realised she didn't quite recognise the odd look in his eyes - it was gone before she had a chance to try and read it.

"Well good luck, Lily - I'll be up front and centre watching. You can do this!" He gave her a thumbs up as he departed the room, trying to ignore the guilty weight settling in the middle of his chest. He'd just have to get rid of Diggam before the man could find the showcase - exert a little damage control, and all would be peachy. Ideally.

Lily meanwhile watched the door shut behind him and stretched - the massage had helped, a little bit, as had his presence in general. James had a gift for making any and all those in the same room as him feel more at ease. It was like his charisma just sucked all the awkwardness and the nervousness from a situation and could diffuse just about any tension - it was certainly an ability of his Lily had never had a chance to fully appreciate in all the years she'd spent too tightly wrapped up in her own self-righteousness. (Well, to be fair to herself, he may have had a gift for making people feel better but he also had a nasty habit of making people feel worse back then, and he'd even admitted that to her after they'd become friends).

It was an uneasy truce that they'd reached at the start of seventh year when they decided that neither of them had been in the wrong all that time - they'd just been unable to meet each other halfway.

The door to the side-chamber opened again and this time as Flitwick poked his head inside her heart jumped into her mouth. "It's time, Miss Evans. If you would -?"

She nodded, and feeling oddly numb to the way her body propelled herself forward unconsciously, she followed him out and into the Great Hall. Most of the students had by now migrated from their curious wanderings around the festival to the stage where Lily was now being led onto, drawn by Flitwick's magically enhanced voice reminding them of the main event. She was somewhat tuning it out but she did pick up the general message of his speech - Lily Evans, high flying Charms student, was there to showcase just what could be achieved through hard work, commitment and dedication to the subject, and would perform something much more relatable than the elaborate display Sir Menwyn of Mumpleton initially had planned for the Festival.

The Charms Festival was no longer a demonstration for the students to see, but a celebration for the students to be part of. An idea, Flitwick had said, he owed in its entirety to the Head Boy James Potter and all the hardworking Prefects.

Lily was instead focusing on the crowd, all staring up at her expectantly even as the shorter man carried on speaking, and she resisted the urge to think about how much her stomach was doing somersaults - it either worked, or it didn't, and she needed to stop over thinking. That was what James had said. At his mention by Flitwick she found herself subconsciously searching for his bright, beaming face amongst all the students and frowned when she couldn't spot him up front and centre like he'd promised.

Instead her gaze strayed to the back of the Hall, and that's when her heart stopped dead. James was there, with a friendly arm around the dearly departed Dead Ringer Diggam, who seemed intent on heading over to where the crowd had gathered.

She began to panic - how could she possibly perform in front of Diggam, the man who had meant so much to her and her progression through Charms? If she got it wrong now it would be a direct reflection of the man's effect on her, and she was sure his opinion of her would drop through the floor if she didn't make it to the end of the performance.

What was he even doing here? She felt a jolt of anger shoot through her as James swapped pleasant smiles and chatters with the man - if he knew he was going to be there, why hadn't he warned her in advance? Was he deliberately trying to give her an aneurysm on stage and mess up the rest of her performance?

"So without further ado, and as I'm sure you're all tired of hearing my voice," squeaked Flitwick across her consciousness. "May I present to you all the Head Girl - Lily Evans." A smattering of applause echoed throughout the Hall, and Lily pulled out her wand while trying to ignore the way her right hand shook.

Had she not been determinedly avoiding his gaze, she might have spotted James Potter's encouraging smile, and had she continued she may well have noticed the way it faltered when he realised she was deliberately ignoring him. As it happened, she saw neither, and started the performance slowly.

She was to start with a simple bird conjuring Charm - performed nonverbally, naturally, something they had picked up in sixth year. Birds had been a strong theme for her in the whole Festival, and she kept it going; these were no paper birds, though. Living, breathing, chattering canaries flew from the tip of her wand and began to chirp around the room as a few of the students tittered when they landed on the sleeves of their jackets and shoulders of their shirts. To them, the spell had gone off without a hitch, but none of them paid much attention to the fact that the tail feathers of each bird were bent horribly out of shape. Lily noticed, and inadvertently her eyes flickered to where Diggam stood and she winced at the unreadable expression on his face.

Next, she continued with a flourish to shoot out jets of water that careened in crooked directions and she panicked, almost forgetting to charm the water into individual glowing droplets and floating them upwards before they hit the students. The jets realigned themselves to diverge equally as they should be to her relief, and the canaries soon lifted themselves from the crowd of students to fly upwards and begin to dart in between the glistening droplets of water.

That spell, she was pleased to notice, had gone successfully - or so she thought, until her eyes widened in horror as a few of the birds began to bump into each other. A ripple of laughter echoed through the crowd, believing that the slip was intentional and she heard the guffawing laughter of some of the older students. Praying none of them were James she looked up, and this time her eyes landed on Sirius Black who was showing off a mischievous grin with his wand out pointed up at the ceiling. The idea suddenly crossed her mind that perhaps she had performed the charm perfectly, but someone had sabotaged it after it had been cast. The notion of it mortified her, but everything about Sirius' demeanour was screaming sabotage. She knew him well enough by now.

She continued the display as the canaries started to swirl back and forth again, creating intricate patterns in unison with the rotating of the glowing water. At this point she sought out James again, and although he was talking to Diggam she could see his wand was out too - and the charming smile he was sending to the ex-Professor didn't fool her a bit.

How could she have deluded herself into thinking he'd changed? James had once openly admitted to her that he never used to be able to resist the urge to sabotage and even bully a little just for the sake of stirring things up - it was an insatiable whim of his Sirius', apparently. Like a nervous compulsion. Clearly, she realised, it still was. Even the Head Boy badge couldn't keep him away from the lure of rule breaking for too long. It made a hell of a lot of sense - he and Sirius were sabotaging her display, and they'd invited Professor Diggam to make everything worse as part of some elaborate prank.

She'd never felt so used and indignant in her whole life.

Well, Lily decided, they weren't going to get the better of her. She turned back to her performance with a steely resolve, her concentration almost tenfold of what it had been before. If students had thought the charms she was casting before were impressive, they were about to get a real taste of what commitment, hard work and dedication to the subject could bring - not to mention a desire to best James Potter and Sirius Black.

What happened next was as much of a blur for Lily as it was for the awed student body, the details of her presentation lost in shining sparks and dazzling polychrome, as she fired out every charm she'd been preparing and more. There might have been creatures and there might have been an ocean, a conjured jungle and a floating city, all lost to the fractures of memory but all bursting unbidden from the end of her wand. She struggled to stay on top of all she was doing, all the while aware that James and Sirius had their wands out still - but had she not been determinedly avoiding their gazes, she might have noticed their wands were both dropped to their sides as they stared on at what was unfolding before them, totally dumbfounded. Sirius Black didn't see any sense in trying to disturb such a beautifully put together piece of magic, and James Potter was too busy watching the girl on the stage totally in her element to even acknowledge the show.

She was incredible.

And when it was over and she lifted her eyes to the applause, she could feel her cheeks lightly flushed with exhilaration and fatigue, and first she sought out Professor Flitwick - standing at the side of the stage and clapping enthusiastically, squeaking Stupendous! and Marvellous! at her, but most of all she searched for one pair of eyes in the awaiting crowd. Dorian Diggam's expression was one of pure, unadulterated joy, and Lily felt like she wanted to snatch the moment and keep it close to her heart forever.

"Lily, that was amazing," Remus Lupin gaped as he caught up with her afterwards. After talking a little through the charms she'd used and demonstrating a few of them in slower time for the spectating students, they had all since dispersed to enjoy the rest of the Festival. She'd had quite a few classmates and acquaintances she hadn't had the chance to get to know before then come up and sing her praises too, and by now she was quite worn down by it all - but she appreciated the sentiment, nonetheless.

"Thank you," she beamed - Remus had always been a close friend of hers over the years, regardless of the company he chose to keep.

He was still stumbling to find words. "I had no idea you were so good at Charms! I mean - well I knew you were good at Charms, I just had no idea you were that good! Where in Godric's name did all that come from?"

She flushed and shook her head. "You know, I'm not sure I have much of an idea myself. It just sort of... happened. I'm glad you enjoyed it though."

"Honestly Lily, it was just amazing." His eyes flickered to something over her head and Remus allowed a secretive smile to slide into place. "I think somebody else wants to tell you just how great you were."

Lily turned, but to her surprise on seeing James Potter making his way through the crowd towards them she scowled and turned back. "Well he can wait."

Remus blinked. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," she replied in a clipped tone. "Just frustrated for letting myself think... ugh, it doesn't matter."

"Lily!" Came James' loud voice as he got nearer to them. "Mother of Merlin, Lily, I told you you had no reason to worry! That was fantastic!"

Lily turned to greet with a saccharine sweet smile that completely surprised him. "No thanks to you," she hissed between gritted teeth.

James' bright expression immediately faltered. "What do you mean?"

"I saw the stunts you were pulling with Sirius," she glared, folding her arms, and it took a moment for James to work out what she was even talking about, and then his eyes widened in surprise. "Far be it me to believe that you were beyond this sort of thing, James."

"You thought I was involved in that?"

Lily scoffed. "And not telling me about Professor Diggam? Standing front and centre where you promised you'd be?" So it was exaggeration, but the undeniable guilt that flashed behind James' glasses was all the confirmation Lily needed. He had known Diggam would be there; which meant he must have been involved in bringing him there. And from that? Suddenly it wasn't so hard to believe that he was behind everything else too - the little things she'd seen going wrong throughout the Festival that she'd assumed were due to a fault on Flitwick's part, and the sabotage during her showcase.

A part of her felt distinctly crestfallen at the thought; she really had almost let herself... really, nearly -

"Lily," Remus cut across her thought process, looking uncertainly between the pair. "I'm sure you've got the wrong end of the stick. If you'd just listen to-"

James put up a hand to stop his friend who obliged nervously. "No, really, I'd like to be the one doing the listening here. Just what is it that you think - no, assume - I've done? After the amount of work I did to get you in that performance, why exactly have I then decided to sabotage you?"

She was well aware of a few passers by stopping to witness the exchange, a couple of them even bracing themselves for a Potter-Evans blowout the likes of which Hogwarts hadn't seen for months - they all knew the signs.

But if there was one thing that was different between them, it was that they both knew they were above that now.

"I don't want to cause a scene," she said instead, careful to keep herself controlled, "so this conversation is over." And without any extra preamble she offered Remus a strained smile and all but stormed out of the Great Hall.

James stood exactly where he was with Remus hovering nearby, his jaw clenched and uncertain what had just happened. He knew not telling her about Diggam was a bad idea, but he'd hoped she'd see in the end that he'd had her best interests at heart - she was nervous on seeing the man, and if James had removed him successfully then there wouldn't be a problem at all. As it happened all he'd been able to do was keep him standing near the back and engaged in conversation that would divert his focus from the performance entirely.

Then he'd spotted Sirius grinning manically as he bewitched the canaries' tails to be bent, and the water to jet off in completely different directions at his hand, and he'd become far too focused on reversing Sirius' curses before they could affect Lily's spells to worry about Dead Ringer Diggam.

Following that the pair of them had been too awestruck by Lily's wandwork to worry about jinxes, or counter-jinxes, or ex-Professors, and he'd been totally lost in the moment.

"Potter!" A familiar voice squeaked from beside him and he turned, expecting to see Professor Flitwick and trying to not look too startled when he saw Professor Diggam there instead.

"That was a Dead Ringer for Flitwick," James obliged, and the man's mouth turned up in a grin.

"S'what I thought, m'boy. Just spent twenty minutes talking to him about variations in slug pickling charms. Think I might've learnt a thing or two!"

James forced a smile. "Wonderful, sir."

"I say, was that Miss Evans I saw bolting past me in a blaze of burning glory?" The man asked, eyes following the direction she'd run off in. "I daresay I have to be congratulating her before I go. Such wonderful, wonderful Charms work."

"I expect that was her, Mr. Diggam," Remus supplied. "I'm sure you'll catch her later."

The old Professor was totally oblivious to James' less than perky demeanour and Remus' hesitance, and just continued bumbling on. "I remember you were rather taken with Miss Evans, weren't you Mr. Potter?"

"Rather so," he muttered.

"She always thought you were up to the funniest things. Even when you weren't, I do declare." Diggam nudged James with his elbow.

He supposed... from her perspective - it could have looked like he was joining in with Sirius' curses?

Diggam was still speaking. "I guess it's difficult to be rid of the stigma once you've got it. You do one prank, you do them all. Am I right?"

And he was talking to Diggam a lot - and he certainly kept the news from her. He hadn't invited him, but he hadn't been honest either. It would be easy for Lily to assume he was behind him being there.

"Ah, well. Next time you see her give her a thwock and tell her you're decent for me, alright?"

Hell, if it were two years, maybe even a year ago, it was just the kind of prank James would've tried to pull. Could he really blame her for jumping to conclusions? Realising his decision was already made before he had a chance to think about it, he patted the bewildered old teacher on the shoulder and moved past him, heading out of the Great Hall to search for Lily.

He didn't have to go far to find her - after leaving the Entrance Hall via the oak front doors he spotted her fifty yards off, sitting on the grass out in the grounds. It was hardly warm out at the beginning of February, but she'd once told him just being outside really helped to calm her down, so it was the first place he chose to look for her. He wondered if consciously she'd made it easy for him to find her so he could try and explain himself, or whether it was a total coincidence on her part.

Either way she didn't notice his approach from where she sat, and James marched up right behind her and clipped her lightly round the ear.

She was already whirling around with an outraged response, but James got there first. "I'm decent!" He snapped, Diggam's words accidentally interrupting what he'd been planning on saying instead.

They threw her off balance for a second. "Excuse me?"

"I mean - I'm a decent bloke, is what I mean," he hastened to add, feeling a light blush colour his cheeks. Her emerald eyes flashed and he knew she would have a cutting response to that, so he rushed to carry on. "I'm all for you punishing me when I'm being a prat, hexing me or cursing me into next week or - or tarring and feathering me, if it ever came to that - but I will not stand for you blaming me for things I didn't do."

Lily stood up and turned to face him, folding her arms and eyeing him skeptically. She wasn't the uptight completely unwavering prefect that she'd once been - she was a fair Head Girl who'd seen the nicer side of James and believed in it, so she raised an eyebrow in a way which suggested she was prepared to hear out an explanation. She was pissed, but she wouldn't be unfair.

"I wasn't sabotaging your performance," he started immediately, and raised a halting hand before she could open her mouth. "I was stopping Sirius from doing it. Because I know while he thought only affecting the smaller things, like canary tails, might be amusing for him but not noticeable for the average person, I know how much the little things bother you. If you started to believe on stage that the mistakes were your fault, you would've hated yourself."

"You weren't all that successful at stopping him," she huffed.

"I didn't need to," he shot back, "you had it covered, Lily. I don't know if anyone's told you this yet but you were bloody brilliant." And he meant it; and coming from him and his perpetually honest intensity, Lily believed it.

She pursed her lips. "I've been told, but thank you. Go on."

James ran a nervous hand through his hair. "And I didn't invite Professor Diggam, I swear. I know how much you value your relationship with him and how much you respect him, and I know him being there would've made you nervous and freeze up, and I'd never want that..."

"But?"

"But," he relented. "I did know he would be in the audience when I saw you beforehand. I thought I could get rid of him and decided not to tell you. That was poor judgement on my part, and I'm sorry."

It all seemed more than slightly plausible, and the earnestness of his apology tugged at her heartstrings - but, she still wasn't entirely convinced. "And why should I believe you?"

His response was easy off the tongue. "Because you want to."

"That's not a reason."

"Because I want you to?"

"James," she glared up at him.

He sighed. "I don't know, Lily. Because I'm giving you my word? Because I've matured over the last year and mindless cruelty isn't really my scene anymore? If there's anything you've taught me, it's that it's stupid to try and be anyone but me. And I don't know what else to be except me to convince you."

She looked away, brushing a strand of red hair behind her ear as she surveyed the rest of the grounds. It seemed they'd reached some sort of impasse.

"Diggam being there didn't make me nervous," she lied abruptly, out of want of something else to say and feeling a little like a petulant child.

James scoffed. "Of course it did."

"And how would you know?" She asked incredulously.

"Because I know these things about you, Lily!" He burst in exasperation. "Mother of Merlin, it's like talking at a brick wall. I'm not sure you realise there isn't an off switch in here for how much," I love you, "I know about you. If you haven't noticed you've been a bit of a fixation of mine for years. I thought if I could read you as well as myself it might make you like me more."

"Oh really?" Lily raised an eyebrow, for a moment the entire argument forgotten as for some reason her heart leapt into her throat at the odd confession.

"I could name all the tiny little bits of information I've picked up about you over the years and make this whole ball of awkward feel more like a scene from a corny romance novel," he clicked his tongue and muttered, "but I won't, because I know you hate corny romance novels."

She took a moment to mull this over as James drew back with an embarrassed tint to his cheeks revealing easily how he felt like he'd overstepped the line a little bit.

"Apology accepted," Lily said finally, heart still thumping against her rib cage, "and I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."

James' shoulders visibly sagged in relief. They hovered where they stood on the grounds for a few moments, before James held out a hand for her to take and nodded back to the front doors. She took his hand, but made no move to start walking and he looked back at her bemusedly.

The truth was, he was right, in so many ways. He had changed over the past year, and she had a feeling that all along she knew he had nothing to do with the extra charms - there was one thing so definitively different between them now, and it was that she knew him almost as well as he knew her.

And maybe it was time to stop trying to run away from it.

"I'm glad you weren't trying to sabotage me," she got out awkwardly, and he gave her a confused smile.

"Me too?"

"Because recently I've just... I've just been thinking -" She swallowed and wouldn't meet his eyes. "I think I was just looking for any reason you might not be as, well, great as you have been."

At this James froze, and his heart began to beat just that little bit faster. "Go on," he copied her sentiments from earlier and Lily allowed a small smile at that - anything to take her through her blushing totally beet red.

Was she really doing this?

James looked at her quizzically and just the unadulterated tenderness in his eyes seemed to answer the question for her. Her gaze dropped to their hands still linked.

"I've been thinking it for a while - or at least, I think I have been. It's just the little things I pick up. Like the way I know you spend your Monday evenings tutoring first years in the Library, or how I know half the time you claim you're hanging out with the guys I know you're in your room studying. How I know you won't stand for any injustice anymore, even if it's Snape - and how I know you care so much about your friends," it was all tumbling out now, and she couldn't stop it if she tried. "How you stare at me when you think I'm not looking, how you open doors for me as often as possible, how you'll sometimes murmur my name when you're napping in the common room.

"It - it does things to a girl," she finished, biting her lip and determinedly not meeting his eyes.

James was having a hard time processing just what she'd rambled out to him, but when it registered a slow grin spread across his features. "I do believe you just turned this ball of awkward into a scene from a corny romance novel."

"Oh - shut up," she flushed, and thwacked him on the shoulder. "I take it all back."

"Lily Evans," James used their joined hands to tug her a little bit closer. (Personally he was still surprised his feet were on the ground - he was so elated he felt like he could just fly away.) "Am I right in suggesting that you like me?"

She swallowed, trying to keep as composed as possible. "You're... you're decent," she sniffed, echoing his words from earlier.

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"I can be nice when I want to be," she replied with an air of haughtiness.

"Well, in that case" and at this James leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on her cheek, "thank you."

Lily tried to slow her racing pulse at the contact, and she was sure he could see the heat rushing to her cheeks. This whole scenario wasn't working out quite the way she'd imagined it might.

"No, James," she was thinking of the Charms Festival, of the doors, the stares, the murmurs and the affection, and she wasn't sure which one in particular she was referring to. "Thank you."

She reached up with her free hand and tugged on his Gryffindor tie, dragging him down to meet her. At first he was too surprised to respond, but as soon as it clicked that she was trying to coax his frozen mouth into movement the change was instantaneous. His arms reached up to encircle her waist and pull her tighter to him, as her hands rested first on his chest, and then locked behind the back of his neck.

It wasn't so much demanding as it was clumsy, and Lily let go of any of her romantic delusions to do with the perfect first kiss where each and every party involved knew just what to do - but even so, as awkward as the sensation of trying to match her rhythm to James' was, butterflies were still erupting from her gut and her heart was still thumping loudly, so loudly in fact that she was sure James must've been able to feel it against his own chest.

James, of course, cared little for the clumsiness, because this was his first kiss with Lily Evans and as far as he was concerned, Snape had just painted a rainbow across the sky while Hogwarts students rode by on unicorns.

It was sodding perfect.

When she finally broke away and smiled at him shyly, he could have died a happy man.

"You're welcome," James blinked, trying to work out if he was about to wake up from a particularly cruel dream.

Lily laughed (why didn't they sell vinyl with just that sound?) and cleared her throat, lowering her hands to rest on his chest with a light flush colouring her face. "Um," she said, for lack of anything else to add.

"Um," James added, brushing a strand of auburn hair away from her face. "Listen, Lily -"

"Yes."

She didn't really need to clarify to what she was agreeing to, and seeing James' face light up as if the sun had reached down and touched it was enough to tell her she'd said the right thing.

The next few hours whirled by in a flurry of charms and cloaks and congratulations and James, but there was one other moment that afternoon that she knew would stick with her forever. When she and James returned to the Festival hand in hand, and he'd tapped her shoulder and pointed her towards a greying man standing a few feet away with the warmest smile she'd seen for a long time, Lily had launched her arms around Dorian Diggam's neck and had almost cried at how perfect the day had been.

Filius Flitwick, of course, had watched with a smile of approval. If his time at Hogwarts so far had been something of a war, he'd just won it.

There was of course one final matter that still needed to be tended to, and that reared its ugly head next to the pair at breakfast every morning in the form of loud bark-like laughter and the messiest eating Lily had ever had to put up with.

"I have to say," one morning Sirius had said in between spraying his bacon over those sitting opposite him. "I'm taking total credit for getting you two together."

James, who hadn't been paying much attention due to what he'd been whispering into Lily's ear, perked up at this. "How do you figure that?"

Sirius paused and swallowed, much to the rest of the table's relief. "Well if I hadn't tried to sabotage the Fest, then you would've never run after her like some corny romance hero -" (at this James and Lily had shared a knowing look) "- and swept her off her feet. So really," he began chewing again. "It's all down to me."

The pair had simply rolled their eyes as Lily leaned further against James' shoulder, and he continued to trace sweet nothings into the curve of her shoulder. Revenge, as the saying went, was a dish best served cold.

Really cold, that is.

A month had gone by and the seventh years were finally turning their eyes towards NEWTs, and while some - such as Remus and Lily - preferred to do their studying confined within the walls of the Library, others - clearly James and Sirius - felt the way to true wizarding enlightenment lay in letting their minds soak in the great outdoors (and maybe a textbook, occasionally).

When Sirius' boredom had reached critical levels, James had offered to duel him to revise for Defence Against the Dark Arts and let off some steam - a rookie error on Sirius' part, of course.

Instead of getting out his wand, taking three steps and bowing as was customary for the start of a duel, he simply placed a firm hand in the middle of Sirius' chest and pushed - completely caught off guard, the Gryffindor fell helplessly back into the lake with a large splash much to the amusement of the surrounding students.

He resurfaced sputtering angrily, shivering and shaking his black hair out of his face. "What the bloody hell, James?!" He roared while spitting out some water.

"It's funny, Sirius," James replied airily as he sat back down beside Lily. "Grow a sense of humour."

Understanding dawned in his friends eyes, who surveyed the couple grinning innocently back on the bank. "Oh, alright," he sighed, accepting his fate and letting himself float until he was lying on his back, staring up at the sky and a small chuckle escaped his lips. "Bloody friends. Who needs them."

Sirius continued to grumble as he bobbed away, but James and Lily didn't notice. Lily was too absorbed in her textbook and James was too absorbed in nuzzling her hair and pressing butterfly light kisses to the top of her head. If there was ever a moment he felt like capturing in a bubble and leaving it in a corner of his mind that he could revisit whenever he chose, this was it - the redhead in his arms and Sirius floating away and laughing at a returned prank as only Sirius could - this, he realised was perfection.

And as he noticed a parchment bird flying down to a light perch on his shoulder, he realised he wasn't the only one thinking about it. Lily turned her head and captured his lips in a kiss, and in the background Sirius started to croon songs that sounded, rather suspiciously, like Zachary Lumos.

"How's the Ravenclaw team doing?" She'd murmured teasingly after they broke apart.

James pondered this for a moment with a smirk. "Decent."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, that was an adventure at least 10,000 words longer than I expected it would be!
Reviews are like your very own James Potter/Lily Evans (delete as appropriate),

~MyWhitelighter