Author's Note: So, here's the deal: I had an idea based on this plot for a while…to be truthful, since I was in the sixth grade. However, considering I'm fifteen now, my writing has come a long way since then, so the story never got posted because it was bad and yada yada. I read a story just the other day that brought it back into my mind, so there is one similarity in the plot. I just wanted to go ahead and say that just in case the author reads my story and feels like I stole that idea, which shouldn't happen since the story will be quite different anyway. And, James is shown quite differently in this story—I mean, compared to the carefree way in which I usually write him. With that being said, my mind is free to write. Please enjoy. Oh, and anyone who is reading All You Wanted—this story will only affect the updates on that story a little bit. :) Wow, this author's note is probably the longest I've ever written. I just wanted to add that there is a slash pairing in this story. (The main pairing, however, is James/Lily.) If you don't like it, you don't have to read it, but it's not a big part of the story. Enjoy.

James pulled the sleeves of his robes down closer to his wrist self-consciously. He pushed his bangs out of his face, and took a deep breath.

"No big deal," he said slowly, exhaling carefully, staring into the bathroom mirror, absentmindedly observing every feature, good and bad.

A loud banging on the door interrupted his meticulous examining. "Prongs, you almost done in there or what?"

James sighed. "Yeah," he called out, letting his hand fall onto the counter.

James laid his head against the doorframe before mustering up the strength to walk out. When he opened the door, Sirius was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. "Finally," he said, smiling teasingly.

James smiled back as best as he could. He noticed that, during the time he'd been in the bathroom, Remus and Peter had already gone down to breakfast. "I'm going down," he said, hoping Sirius would hear him the first time. He didn't much feel like repeating himself.

"I'll meet you then," he said, turning the water on.

James walked slowly down the stairs, taking his time. He caught sight of Lily in the middle of the room with her friend…Ann-Marie…no. Jennifer? No. How was it that he could remember every specific detail, including the names of Lily's aunts and uncles (Lily still had yet to find out he knew them), but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember her best friend's first name?

Gabriella. That's what it was. James was sure of it.

He walked through the crowd of people, smiling uneasily at the redheaded girl. Lily didn't return it, and simply turned to continue her conversation with her friend. Well, he'd given it a try. That was all that mattered, right? After all, he wasn't in the mood to be turned down again, so he supposed being ignored was better than being screamed at.

James walked out of the common room, his head held high, but his confidence low. Going to breakfast wasn't exactly a priority of his at the present time. He only wanted to go back to bed, and he was sick of people staring at him.

Running a hand through his hair, he smiled at each girl that passed him, deciding that keeping up appearances was really the best way to go.

Finally, he made it to the Great Hall. There weren't very many people there, as Remus liked to force them up early on Sunday mornings. Why James listened to him was a mystery, but James thought part of the reason Sirius and Peter agreed was due to their annoyance of having to deal with James staring at Lily, going on and on about her. They probably figured: if we get there early, Lily won't be there yet.

"Hey," he said unenthusiastically, sitting down next to Remus.

"Good morning, James," said Remus merrily, buttering a piece of toast.

"Morning," Peter said quietly. They were both in agreement that Remus was much too eager to finish eating so that he could read, do his homework, or maybe even some other utterly pointless activity.

"Where's Padfoot?" asked Remus, suddenly aware that James had come in alone.

"Showering. He'll be here soon. You know how he doesn't like to miss his food," said James with a small smile. Remus held out a piece of toast to him. He shook his head. "Listen," he began, "Lily's still not speaking to me."

Remus sighed, dropping the unwanted toast on Peter's plate. "You're surprised? Maybe she's trying to start the year off with no yelling."

James snorted. "Ah, of course, considering there was no yelling at all on the Hogwarts Express."

"She was shocked," said Remus, defending her. "She had a right to be."

"Mhmm," James mumbled.

It seemed they had only been there a few minutes before people started piling in, but he realized that Remus and Peter had already eaten quite a lot, so he must have been sitting with them for much longer than he thought. He felt completely distracted.

"I have arrived," said Sirius, smiling brightly before sitting across from James. "Did you all miss me terribly?" he asked dramatically.

Remus chuckled, rolling his eyes. He took his copy of The Daily Prophet out of his lap, and began to read. Slowly, their morning routine fell into place. As usual, Remus read, Peter ate, and Sirius talked. Most days, James would listen to his talking, even, on the rare occasion, respond.

But he wasn't in the mood for talking this particular Sunday morning…and for some reason, no one seemed to notice.

James watched as Sirius talked with Peter, which was quite an accomplishment, as James could barely hold a short conversation with Peter on any day about any subject, but Sirius chose to speak with Peter. He didn't even try to find out what was wrong with James.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with James at all. He was perfectly fine, but someone should have asked if he was so that, naturally, James could respond with, "Nothing. I'm fine." The only problem was, no one asked, and it really bothered him.

Sure, he could strike up a discussion with his best mate. There was no doubt in his mind that Sirius would easily abandon the talk with Peter (about…was it shoes?) to enjoy James' presence.

But, of course, James wouldn't do that because he didn't want to talk.

"James?"

It was Sirius that had spoken. Was he, perhaps, going to ask if he was all right? Was Sirius finally realizing there might have been, which there wasn't, a problem?

"Yeah?" asked James, coming back to reality.

"We were just getting ready to go back to the common room. You ready?" he asked, getting up from the table. Apparently, it didn't matter if he was ready.

He didn't have a problem that day. It was clear that everyone else did. It wasn't like his friends to ignore his pain (that he didn't have). Perhaps, they were respecting his privacy. After all the times he had told them to butt out, they'd actually listened.

James actually laughed out loud at that one. Respecting his privacy? The marauders? Yeah, right.

"What's so funny?" asked Sirius. "You're being kind of weird today."

Thank Merlin! His best friend was back. "Nothing," James replied, smiling. He'd been worried something was wrong with Sirius. How stupid that had been.

"The late practice last night wear you out?" he asked sympathetically.

James found himself rather dejected when Lily wasn't in the common room. Had they missed her? Had she not gone to breakfast? Was something wrong?

Wow, panic rose up inside him so easily lately.

"Yeah," James answered his friend distractedly. "Maybe she's outside!"

"Wh—" Sirius started, opening and closing his mouth, bemused. "You're kidding me, right?" he asked, thinking that the only 'she' James could be concerned about was Lily Evans.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about that," said Remus, spreading out onto the couch. James couldn't believe he'd stuck by his early Sunday rising rule the morning after a full moon. He looked much more tired than the rest of them, which wasn't completely surprising.

"About what?" asked James, choosing to stand while the others sat, no doubt planning to lecture him.

"Lily. Don't you think this obsession has gone a bit too far?"

James didn't answer. It wasn't the first time he was hearing all of this.

"You're seventeen," he continued. "With everything else you have to deal with, is the stress of Lily really worth it? She's even messing with you school work."

James rolled his eyes. First of all, James was stressed, and he was slacking on his schoolwork, but it wasn't all to do with Lily. And, even if it had something to do with her, that was just like Remus. He thought that James could just think it through logically:

You can't get her.

It's time to change your feelings.

It's as simple as that.

She's not worth your time.

Yes, it was quite naïve of Remus to think that way. He'd never been in love, after all.

Sirius never pushed him to get over Lily, but he didn't get it either. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that Sirius' interest didn't lie in girls, so Lily was just another person in his eyes, a girl with a temper, which, even if he were interested in girls, didn't make her appealing.

"I'll go out Lily-hunting with you, if you really want," he said, putting his shoes back on. "Nothing better to do except," he shuddered, "homework."

James tried to smile. "Thanks."

Remus seemed too exhausted to argue that they were invading Lily's personal space. "See you," said Sirius, waving at the other two boys before making their way out of the common room.

As soon as they made it out of the common room, James adjusted his robes, pushed his hair out of his face, pulled his robes tighter to his body, his arms crossed around his chest, and then began to walk normally again.

Sirius eyed him curiously, but didn't say anything. His actions had become more compulsive as of late, but worrying about it would surely get him only annoyance from James, and he didn't want to call him on something that might have been nothing.

"By the way," James said abruptly, "it's Lily-watching, not hunting. We're not in it for the kill, Padfoot."

Sirius laughed. "Oh, excuse me. Either way, it's probably bad."

"True." James agreed.

Lily hunting turned out to be, as Sirius had predicted, pointless, boring (except for once when she'd almost fallen in the lake), and quite difficult because she moved around frequently. James didn't mind at all, though. In fact, Sirius thought he seemed to enjoy getting up, moving, finding her again, and staring.

And stare…was what they did, for about four hours while Lily completed seven classes worth of weekend homework. She never once saw them there.

Sirius glanced at his watch. "James, I'm starving," he said. "Can we go now? Lily's leaving anyway."

Sirius was certainly right about that. Lily had been packing up her stuff for a few minutes, preparing to head back inside, and he didn't want to be caught. "Yeah. We can go in, I suppose."

They got up from their spot under the trees, racing each other back to the castle. James felt in a much better mood than he'd been in when he first got up.

"You know," he said, catching his breath when they both made it inside, "I don't much feel like eating as much as you do."

"Oh, James. I could always eat."

James forced a laugh. "I've noticed."

"You know what I've noticed," said Sirius, his expression becoming grave. "You've been all weird lately. Moody and stuff, I mean."

James shrugged. "It's like Remus said. I have a lot stressing me out…Head Boy…Quidditch, all that."

Sirius nodded slowly, wanting to believe him. "And now you don't want to eat? You must be really stressed," he joked. "I'll see you later then."

"Yeah," said James, turning down the right corridor while Sirius went down the left. "Later," he said to the empty hallway.

James didn't know how to feel. When his friends were seemingly oblivious to the differences in his behavior, he was confused and a bit offended, but when Sirius confronted him—actually told him, flat out, that he was being weird—he avoided it, told him a straight lie.

James fidgeted some more before starting his walk back to the common room. He fixed his robes again. There were a lot of things that long black robes could hide. He was afraid—or maybe not so afraid—that his guilt wasn't one of them.

Author's Note: Introduction chapter, of course. There will be more action as the story goes on, and hopefully, it wasn't too confusing or weird or whatever. The chapters will also be much longer. Please review.