(A/N): I understand that the Grease comment is inaccurate for many reasons. Because it is not a part of the actual plot, I hope you will forgive my logistical hiccup.

Once he and his mates had changed from muggle clothing into their robes, conversation shifted from the summer that had passed to the year ahead.

"We've got to step up our game this year. In a short time, we'll be out in the adult world, working real jobs," Sirius soured as he said the last part, as if a bad taste had suddenly entered his mouth.

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Remus asked cautiously.

"Well, more angry Slytherins for sure. With something huge right before Christmas break, and something even bigger for the end of the year." Sirius' eyes glistened joyfully.

Remus hesitated. "I dunno. I'm kinda supposed to be discouraging you. You know, as prefect. Besides, N.E.W.T.s are just next year, and, who knows, I might just make head boy." The tips of his ears turned pink at that last part.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Spoil sport. Looks like its just up to us then, Prongs."

James hesitated too. "Oh come on, not you too!? Please tell me you aren't already attempting to study for exams that are nearly two years away," Sirius demanded.

"It's not that," James said quickly. Sirius looked at him expectantly until he continued. "Well...it's just that...I don't get the feeling Lily really likes all our mischief making," James finished in a rush. Sirius stared at him for another span of seconds.

"This is about Lily?" he asked.

Remus laughed. "When is it not about Lily?"

Sirius paused for a couple more seconds. Then, "I don't get it."

James ran a nervous hand through his hair. "I'm trying to get her to like me. To date me."

"James. I know that. The whole school knows 've been trying that for like six bloody years!" Sirius exclaimed, staring at his friend like he'd lost it.

"Well, that's the thing, isn't it?" James began. "I haven't really been trying, have I? I've been asking her out, sure, and trying to show off and whatnot. But then I've just gone off and done whatever I wanted to do, whether or not she liked what I was doing, then couldn't understand why she wouldn't date me. So I'm doing things differently this year. I'm going to figure out what she doesn't like and not do those things. Try to be the sort of bloke she would want to date."

Sirius' face was calm, but he did not seem so under the exterior. "So, you're going to change for her? Abandon us and who you really are?"

James' face flushed a little. "No, I'm not changing who I am. And I'm not abandoning my mates. But," he continued, "I am going to try and change some of the stuff I do. And that might mean I don't go pranking with you guys as much. Or that I spend more time in the library."

Remus smiled authentically at James. "Good for you, James."

Sirius shook his head, calm crumbling. "Good for you?! What do you bloody mean, 'good for you'? The man is nuts, he's giving up all the fun in life to become some stuck up prat, and all for some bird! You can't be serious, James!"

"No, you're Sirius," Peter said, reflexively. Sirius shot him a dirty look, then returned to look at James.

James' face was fully flushed now, and he took a deep breath while combing through his hair with his fingers before speaking. "You don't get it, mate."

"You're bloody right I don't."

"That fight last year, Sirius. After our O.W.L.s It killed me. Honestly, though? I think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Every time I passed her in the halls, and she didn't so much as look my way. When I went up to speak to her, and she was trying so hard to be nice, but she clearly just wanted me to go away. That time she went to Hogsmeade with bloody Amos Diggory, and I had to watch them hold hands for the next two bleeding weeks. Seeing her in the library, studying with greasy Severus Snape as he leaned as close to her as he dared over the textbook. Then that fight," James realized he was standing, and forced himself to sit down. He closed his eyes. "I couldn't sleep for weeks. I just kept remembering the way she looked at me. Like she hadn't believed I could stoop so low, and yet, here we were." He heaved a great sigh, and realized his eyes were slightly wetter than normal beneath his glasses from his outburst. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I just can't do it anymore, Sirius. I've got to at least do something. I've got to try."

The compartment was very quiet for a few minutes. Sirius stared at James. Remus stared at Sirius. Peter's gaze bounced amongst the three of them. Finally, Sirius sighed. "Well, guess it's just me upholding the mantle this year, then."

"You've got me, Sirius," Peter piped up cheerfully.

"True. You and me then, mate." Sirius acquiesced.

"It's not like I'm vanishing off the face of the earth," James mentioned, a smirk playing on his lips. "And I never said I wouldn't ever help, particularly with the planning phase."

"Same here," Remus mentioned, kicking Sirius' foot. "Dramatic much?"

Sirius scowled. "Yeah, I'm the dramatic one. Meanwhile loverboy over here is dead set on reenacting the plot to Grease."

All four of the Marauder's laughed at that, and the tension bled away as quickly as it had arrived. The conversation turned to what was likely going to be served at the feast tonight, and that topic occupied the hungry teenagers until the train arrived in the Hogsmeade station.