Author's note (I): This is my like one-hundredth re-writing of this damn plot bunny who has been plaguing me night and day for at least a month now; finally, I think I've got it almost right! (Hallelujah) If you want to keep up-to-date with it completely, chapters will be posted on my site (see 'Homepage') probably before and I might start keeping a diary...! Anyway, read and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own none of the following, regrettably. I just enjoy playing with them

His and Hers

Flammable

You will fly and you will crawl
God knows even angels fall

-- Even Angels Fall, Jessica Riddle

"Potter, if I was stuck under a fallen tree with only you for company, I'd gnaw my own body part off before I'd ask you to help me."

"What about if you were about to die, and I was the last person you'd ever see?"

"Then my last words would be 'Get away from me, Potter'," she snapped in reply, tucking coppery strands angrily behind her ear.

James grinned, enjoying getting her worked up. "Oh, come on Evans, I can't be that bad?"

"There are very few things that have endeared you to me, Potter, over the last seven years, and your wisecracking is not one of them. Just for goodness sake stop being such a prick!" With a parting glare she turned on her heel and left the common room in a flurry of red hair and fury.

James raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. She was beautiful when she was angry and he loved to argue, but he knew he shouldn't wind her up.

"You shouldn't torment her," said a voice behind him, an implied sigh following it.

"I know, Moony. But she's just so… flammable."

Remus moved into his line of vision: "You'll only get burned."

James made a non-committal noise in is throat, moving his hands restlessly through his dark hair. "It wasn't always this way," he said to no-one in particular.

His mind, unbidden, cast itself back to the beginning... to when the whole ordeal began...

September 1st 1975

James had managed to sneak a dry-start firework into Sirius' trunk pocket, where he kept his underwear. Him and his two friends were in the third carriage of the Hogwarts Express and waiting impatiently, both for the train to depart and for Sirius to return. James winked slyly at his two compatriots, Remus and Peter. Peter was snickering behind his hand, and even Remus looked faintly amused and interested to see the outcome of the firework.

The mischievous Gryffindor cocked his ear, hearing the familiar footsteps of his best friend in the hallway. Although, it sounded like he wasn't alone, James strained his ear to hear who he was talking to:

"Ok, Evans, I'll let him know." There was a reply which James couldn't hear to which Sirius replied: "Yeah, okay. I'll tell him that too."

Sirius rounded the door and entered their compartment. He slumped on the seats opposite James, looking quite exhausted.

"Lily Evans wants me to tell you," he indicated Remus; "the prefect meeting will be held in half an hour in the front carriage."

"Right," said Remus shyly, ignoring James' incredulous look. "Is she a prefect too, then?"

"No, head girl told her to tell you or something," he shrugged uncaringly, the dark shadows beneath his eyes apparent for all to see.

James frowned. "You ok Sirius? You look knackered."

"Surviving," he muttered. The other three continued to study him, but thought better of it.

"Exploding snap, anyone?" Peter asked, hopefully, taking out a tattered deck.

The vague tension decreased as the three friends, and eventually Sirius as well, played an increasingly competitive game of exploding snap.

"Snap!" shouted Sirius jumping up and slamming his hand down onto the top of the teetering pile of cards. They promptly exploded, sending sparks in all directions. "I win!" he announced triumphantly.

James slouched back, defeated, into the train seat, but gave a start as there was a small explosion near his feet. A wayward spark had landed on Sirius' trunk and, coincidentally, ignited the dormant firework.

A pile of boxers whizzed unpredictably around the carriage and then out through the door, which had been slightly ajar, and into the corridor, where it exploded into a miniature shower of underwear all over the unlucky person walking past.

James and Peter cracked up in hysterics; Sirius looked dumbstruck from his trunk and out into the underwear covering the hallway, before cracking a grin at James; and Remus smirked, surveying the damage.

Lily Evans stood, glowering, in the door frame. "Who do these belong to?" she asked, holding a pair of boxers, distastefully, at arm's length.

Sirius grinned, pointing at James. Lily stared hard at him, dropping the boxers immediately. "Nice. Well they're all in the hallway; you'd better pick them up," she rolled her eyes skyward and stalked off down the corridor.

James glared at Sirius, though a small smile tugged at the side of his lips. "Thanks," he enunciated.

"Pleasure," chirped his best friend, getting up and going to collect his scattered underwear. "Not often I get a girl in my boxers before term even starts," he quipped.

"So, you still thinking of Lily like that then?" Peter asked conversationally, having not missed the look on James' face when Lily had entered. He was referring, of course, to James' declaration at the end of fourth year of his attraction to a certain Miss Evans.

"Well," replied James, blustering a little, "she certainly has her assets; pretty, clever, fun… but I don't know if maybe she might be a bit difficult."

"What do you mean?"

The messy-haired Gryffindor looked at Remus. "Just that she's quite hard to please and, if you haven't noticed, she doesn't like me all that much!"

"Scared of a challenge?" Sirius taunted, having collected his strewn underwear. "I thought you said you could get any girl?"

James bristled; "I probably could get her, that's not what I'm wondering about, it's whether she'll be worth getting."

"James, you've had an almost endless string of girlfriends since we were thirteen; what did you look for in each of them?" Peter pulled out a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean and began munching.

"Well… most of them have always tried to get me," James pondered. "And they've all been pretty easygoing."

"Easy come, easy go," Remus supplied, looking slightly disapproving.

James shrugged; "What's your point?"

"Just that, maybe, now we're in Fifth year, you should be looking for a slightly more serious relationship?"

Sirius chortled out loud: "We're fifteen, Remus, not fifty, and unfortunately the rest of us aren't as responsible as our dear prefect."

The light-haired boy shrugged, not willing to trade retorts with Sirius. "All I'm saying is that you've got that glint in your eye, James, the one where you've seen something you want. Just try not to let her be like all the others, because she's in our house, and our year, and things could be pretty awkward if you screw it up."

James nodded an ascent that he had heard Remus, though it was uncertain whether the warning would be heeded. Remus shrugged again; "I'm going to the Prefects meeting now, so I'll catch you all in about an hour or so."

The three remaining boys snickered as he left; Remus, a prefect? They couldn't work out if it was more of a travesty to Hogwarts School or to the Marauders themselves!

--

Lily sat relaxed in her compartment, chatting amiably with her friends, unaware that she had become the latest in a long line of targets for one James Potter. Her mind passed only briefly over him and his friends, before moving on to more pressing topics, such as schoolwork, the latest witches in the hit parade and the good company her friends provided for her.

A/N (II) Thanks for reading, please review if you liked... or in fact even if you didn't; concrit is always welcome. (And reviews are oh-such-a motivation to get the next chapter out... :) )