Disclaimer: Nothing from Harry Potter is, has been, or ever will be mine.
A/N: This is fic is a character study with slightly crackfic-ish elements. Feedback is always welcome!
I. Unrequited
There is a fine line between persistent suitor and stalker, and Remus thinks that James crossed it some time ago.
He's always been straddling that line to a certain degree where Lily Evans is concerned, she of the flaming hair and the hotter temper.
They bring out the worst in each other, really, Remus reflects.
And James is infatuated with her, there's no question about it. He tries to impress her, she gives an acid retort, he asks her out, she turns him down, and the whole dance starts all over again.
Perhaps he toed the line when he stole one of Mary's photos, that one she took in fourth year of a frost-bitten-but-laughing Lily participating in the annual inter-House snowball tournament. In the picture, her face is pink from the cold and her red hair liberally sprinkled with snow, but her eyes are sparkling. A fourteen-year-old Lily frozen forever in time, caught unawares, revelling in a winter day.
Remus never would have known that James had stolen it, either, if he hadn't chanced to see a corner of it sticking out from under James' mattress one morning. After a quick glance (he always had been the curious sort), Remus stashed it safely back under said mattress. Fortunately for James, neither Sirius nor Peter (at least, not as far as he knows) have ever discovered it. Remus remains quiet on the subject only because James never bragged about having managed to obtain the picture. This means it's important to him, and Remus respects that even if he doesn't understand it.
II. The Beginning
Perhaps James put one toe over said line when he started paying more attention to her in classes than the professors – or, more tellingly, than Sirius. He doesn't plot pranks with Sirius in History of Magic very often these days… he just stares at her. Remus can tell that this disconcerts Lily a great deal.
"What-is-he-up-to?" she hisses furiously to Mary after class one day. "Is he trying to drive me insane?"
Remus isn't sure, and he's fairly certain that James doesn't know either.
But now… Remus thinks that watching Lily's movements on the Marauder's Map definitely qualifies as stalking. And it worries him a little bit. Because James isn't supposed to be a stalker.
"She's with Maxwell again," James grouses, glaring fiercely at the Map. "What does she see in that prick, anyway?"
Remus keeps his mouth shut. He always keeps his mouth shut.
"I dunno, mate," Sirius jokes. "Could be that he's a prefect."
"You think?" James asks, brow furrowed slightly in thought.
"Evans is strange," Sirius says with a shrug. "Anything's possible."
"So… d'you… d'you think she likes the weedy type?"
"Rough luck for you then," Peter sniggers.
"Eh, let's stop talking about Evans," Sirius says. "She's not worth it. We could always do something to Maxwell, though. Show him no one messes around with the Marauders."
Sirius sounds vaguely interested, and Peter looks a bit excited at the idea.
James frowns, leaning back in his bed.
"Nah," he says. "You're right, Padfoot, she's not worth the energy. I've got a better idea…"
And he expounds upon an idea for a prank on the Slytherin Head of House.
A month ago, James would have leapt at the chance for revenge against Lily's boyfriend. He's changing. And this, Remus knows instinctively, is the Beginning (of the End).
III. Perspective
So it doesn't surprise him when James starts easing off the really dangerous pranks. He's also started studying a bit more, late at night, with his curtains closed. Remus knows that James thinks they don't know. They've just decided to let him keep his illusion, keep his dignity.
But Remus also knows that this isn't all about Lily. That would be stupid.
Things are getting worse out there, in the World. Newspaper headlines are getting grimmer. More people are dying. And He-of-the-Many-Hyphenated-Names, as James sometimes calls him, is getting stronger.
"I want to do something," James says to them one evening. "We're useless cooped up here at school. We should be out there, fighting Death Eaters with the Aurors."
Sirius and Peter nod in agreement.
But Sirius has a personal grudge against Voldemort, and Peter always agrees with James.
Remus isn't sure whether he agrees or not. After all, they're only sixteen. How much help would they really be?
IV. Restraint
Remus notices that James has stopped asking Lily out every day. At first, she seemed a bit suspicious. Now that he hasn't asked her out for a whole month, she seems to be relaxing a little bit. And she's a tad more cordial to him in the corridors, so long as he doesn't try to carry her bag or anything. Which James hasn't recently, just for the record.
He's fairly certain that James is still watching Lily on the Map, though, and that still makes Remus a bit uncomfortable. Because who does that sort of thing, anyway? He's not sure whether it's sweet or creepy. In the end, he decides it's a bit of both.
V. Strange
The two of them manage to strike up something resembling a polite acquaintanceship after a few more months of good behaviour on James' part. It's strange, really, not seeing Lily screaming at James. It makes Remus feel as though there's something fundamentally wrong with the world.
VI. Evolution
The next year, they both become Heads. Somehow, the two manage to work together without killing one another. In fact, they're becoming something a bit like friends. Not good friends yet, mind, but friends nonetheless.
Lily seems to have loosened up a bit, and James is a tad more responsible. And one day, Remus sees Lily laughing. Laughing. At something James said!
Then he notices something disturbing. Not only does James keep stealing glances at Lily (although he's grown a great deal more subtle about it), but Lily has started to watch James when she thinks no one's looking. She doesn't do it constantly, and Remus isn't sure that she even does it purposefully, but she does it all the same. It's as though James is a lodestone, and she a piece of iron, and she can't help but gravitate towards him a bit. It's the way James has always acted when around her.
One day, he catches her absent-mindedly doodling James' initials on a scrap of paper. And that's when he knows that she's in trouble. She's exhibiting the exact same symptoms that James did back in fifth year. And he knows that he needs to take immediate steps if he is to prevent her from descending into stalker-dom.
So he does the only thing that he can think of – he tells James. James laughs him off, though, not wanting to get his hopes up. Remus supposes he can understand that, after all of Lily's rejections. But still… this needs resolving.
So he confronts Lily one day after Ancient Runes.
"You like James," he tells her bluntly.
"Of course I do," she says bemusedly. "We're friends now."
Her cheeks tell a slightly different story, however. They're flushed, though not quite so brightly as they are when she yells at James.
"Look, you need to tell him. He won't believe it from anyone except for you."
Lily gazes steadily at him for a moment, then says, "What's it to you, anyway?"
"I don't like seeing people unhappy," Remus says with a shrug.
"I'm happy!" Lily protests.
Remus throws his hands up in the air and walks off.
Really, they're impossible, both of them.
VII. Reciprocation
It finally happens in mid-March. Remus isn't entirely sure how it happens, but suddenly James and Lily are James-and-Lily, and neither of them can stop smiling. And it doesn't really count as stalking, if both people are equally obsessed with one another, does it? Which makes Remus feel considerably relieved.
They still argue every now and then, of course, and Remus is glad of it. A world where Lily doesn't yell at James is just wrong.
But they get along pretty well for the most part. Some days they act like they're walking on air, even with what's going on in the outside world. And they make a surprisingly good team. They weren't bad Heads before this, but now…
They bring out the best in each other, really, Remus reflects with a smile.