Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is property of JK Rowling.

Ink Pots & Study Breaks

The fire crackled in a distracting sort of way and the jumping flames flickered in Peter's glazed eyes. Sirius' hand came out of nowhere to clap him over the head.

'Ow! Fucking – ow!' Pete cried, turning round to glare at his attacker. He raised a hand to gingerly rub the tender spot on his scalp.

'I was talking to you, Wormtail! Don't you realise how rude you're being?'

Marlene snorted. 'I'll tell you what's rude. Constantly talking while people try to study, that's rude. Not getting the hint when people shush you every five minutes, that's rude.'

'Oh! So you're calling me rude? Well, fuck you, Mac.'

'I've got about a pinky-full of patience left, Sirius,' Marlene warned.

The fire crackled again and the pages rustled harmoniously. They had bagsed this table by the fire straight after dinner and had not moved since. Seventh year had caught up on the lot of them and they had reached that awful realisation that their work needed to come before their social life. Or rather, Marlene, Emmeline and Lily had. The Marauders were still determined to find some kind of balance. And after three hours of non-stop work (everyone needs to break for dessert if they're going to start on their essays straight after dinner), they were getting restless.

From his rather cramped position between Remus and Emmeline, James stretched out, his arms reaching out far behind him and his legs sneaking forwards.

'Legs, Potter,' Lily admonished from the floor.

'Right you are, Evans. Sorry about that,' he smirked, poking her head with his quill.

Lily bit back a grin and wriggled into a comfortable position against his legs again.

Somewhere in the dorms above them, a clock dinged the hour. The rain knocked on the windows, once again distracting Peter from his notes.

'Is it not time for a break yet?'

Half exasperated, half amused, Lily looked up from her Charms essay and sighed. 'Pete, what part of all night study session is so hard to grasp? You were supposed to have finished this project last week.'

'McG's going to spit feathers if we don't hand this in, Pete,' Remus grimaced. He tapped the page he was studying. 'What say you to a break in half an hour?'

James cocked an eyebrow. 'I see your half an hour and I raise you fifteen minutes.'

'Oh for Christ's sake!' Lily groaned, trying her best to sound annoyed.

James nudged her with his toes. 'Hush, dear, we're studying.'

'Studying?' Lily squeaked indignantly. 'Studying? I'll give you bloody studying!'

She sat up suddenly and poked him hard in the gut. Everyone stopped to watch.

James blinked. 'I'm sorry. Did you just poke my stomach?'

Lily nodded in a satisfied sort of way.

Sirius pinched his mouth together in an attempt to keep from laughing.

'And... is this poke a warm up to your threat, or was that it?'

A splutter escaped from Sirius' mouth. He fastened his lips together more firmly.

Lily blushed slightly. 'Well. That was, er, it.'

James smirked, nodded, pursed his lips. 'I see. Well,' he smacked his lips impressively. 'You certainly showed me.'

It was too much. Just as Sirius gave in to the guffaw that had been building, Lily stood up and launched herself at James. Her hands went to his sides and immediately got to work.

Emmeline was the first victim; a brutal slap to the upper arm. Remus received a kick to the thigh.

'Merlin,' James snorted. 'Lily, stop!'

If anything, this spurred her on. She tickled him ferociously, and every time he writhed under her, he revealed a new bit of skin for her to attack.

'No, Lily, stop!' James was panting now, laughing and coughing and pleading all at once.

Emmeline slid off the sofa and settled herself on Sirius' lap. He pulled her closer towards him as James flinched again, his foot missing her head by inches.

'Prongs, if you hit my girlfriend, it's only fair that I hit yours. Bear that in mind, right?'

Emmeline chuckled, elbowed him in the ribs.

'Never mind that, Pad. Get this shitting lunatic off me!' James was beyond dignity now. He had collapsed sideways into Remus and Lily was tickling his feet.

'Lunatic!' Lily burst out.

James laughed helplessly from under her.

'I'll give you lunatic!'

'Poke him again, Lily. Show him what for!' Peter called.

'Wormtail!' James gasped.

But Lily had found what she was looking for. James' shirt had ridden up his stomach and revealed the strip of skin just below his belly button. She went in for the kill.

James howled. His hands grasped at hers. His feet flailed. The ink pot shattered.

'Shit!' Marlene lunged for Lily's Charms essay but everyone could see she was too late. The ink swam over the surface, drowning the words and drenching the paper.

Lily's hands went limp and James' laugh died.

'Shit,' James whispered. 'Oh, shit, shit, shit.'

'Oh,' was all that Lily could say.

Remus leaned forward nervously and caught a corner of the parchment between his thumb and forefinger. He tugged the essay off the table and held it up. Ink dripped onto the carpet. Drip. Drip. Drip.

'Oh.'

James tugged at Lily's hands soothingly.

'Don't panic,' he murmured. 'Don't. We can fix this. Don't panic.'

Marlene looked up from the stack of rescued essays. 'You wrote too much, Lily. You said so yourself, right? So just rewriting the essentials will take you next to no time.'

Even Sirius winced at that one. This was the essay for Lily. She had forsaken her date with James for this essay. She had skipped hot chocolate night with the girls for this essay. She had spent all her free time in the library for the past week for this essay. She started blankly at it.

'Yes, you're right,' she mumbled weakly. 'I didn't need all those extra references.'

James slipped his hands from hers and headed up to the boys' dorms. 'Won't be a mo,' he called.

Emmeline moved to sit by the table. She got out her wand and Vanished the ink that splattered the surface. Once done, she rubbed Lily's leg comfortingly.

'I bet Flitwick will even understand if you tell him,' Sirius said earnestly. 'He fucking loves you, Evans. He'd probably write the damn thing for you if you'd ask.'

Lily smiled weakly. 'Mmmm.'

Remus sighed. 'Come on, Lily. I know it took a lot of effort, but it's just an essay after all. You can crank another one out, like Mac said. I reckon it'll be better than this one, too. You'll have clarified some of your thoughts since writing this first one.' He looked around the Common Room desperately. 'This is just a draft!' he announced.

'No,' Lily sighed. 'No, it was perfect. It was the most I'd ever put into an essay. It was going to be my supporting evidence for my Ministry application, you know?'

Sirius rubbed his eyes. 'Fuck.'

Lily laughed finally. 'Yeah.' She nodded. 'Fuck.'

Footsteps sounded on the stairs from the dorms. James skidded into view. His eyes glinted in triumph and a piece of parchment fluttered in his left hand. He drew his wand with his right and walked back to the group.

'James,' Lily sighed. 'It's no good, alright. It's my own pissing fault anyway.' She shook her head.

'Hush, dear,' James patted her hair affectionately. 'Just you sit there and soak up my genius.'

'Time and a place, Prongs.'

'Tergeo,' James muttered at the essay in front of him.

The ink disappeared. Lily gasped. She turned to face James, her face a mixture of astonishment and delight.

'I... I.' She swallowed. 'I love you!'

Awkwardness settled amongst them. What was meant to be a flippant, jokey comment came out as an earnest statement.

James looked a bit winded. Lily looked a bit caught out.

Sirius recovered first.

'Oh, Evans,' he laughed. He stood up and ruffled her hair. 'You dick.'

He turned to the rest of them. 'Well, it's been half an hour. Study break?' He punctuated his sentence with a loud clap. The sound tore their eyes away from the scene in front of them.

'Yeah, yeah, absolutely,' Marlene all but ran for the door.

'I'm famished,' Peter said weakly, tripping over a pile of library books as he clambered to his feet.

Remus and Emmeline looked slightly more flummoxed. They made their way out for the Common Room in silence and at last three remained.

'Stunning, Evans. Just – wow. I could not have wished for a better moment.' Sirius snorted again. 'See you in the morning.'

James didn't even wait for the door to shut behind them before his lips captured Lily's. Her hands gripped at his shirt and his hands gripped at her back and their lips pushed and pressed against each other. He pulled away for just long enough to mumble into her skin, 'Merlin, I love it when you tickle me.'

He could taste her laughter on his lips.