That evening in the Gryffindor common room, Lily curled up like a cat in her usual seat by the fire. Over a battered copy of A History Of Magic, she eyed Lupin wearily. Potions had been perfectly dismal; her memories were trying to suffocate her. She tried not to think about the feel of Remus' hand lightly brushing hers, or the sound of his voice when they were on dark, late-night prefect duties like checking for first-years out of bed.

'Oi, Evans!' Lily was startled out of her relative tranquility by a rowdy cry from the direction of her gaze.

'Oh, Merlin,' she muttered. 'Potter.' She smiled helplessly at Remus, who smiled back, shrugging. Potter was by her side faster than she could say 'Quidditch.'

'Hello there, Evans,' he said smoothly. 'How are you doing? You look pretty ho-'

'What do you want, arsehole?' Lily said, even more smoothly. Remus, Sirius and Pettigrew made an 'Oooooooo' noise.

'I want you,' Potter said, after a moment's pause. Lily snapped her book shut suddenly, making everyone go quiet. Potter smirked.

'Well, I don't want you; sorry,' she snapped. 'Goodnight, Potter.' She flounced upstairs.

Remus watched her retreating back, smiling slightly. James watched her back, too - or rather, her backside.

'She hates you,' Remus said sheepishly. James spun round.

'Of course, she looks like she does! But I bet she loves me really,' James said.

'Prongs, if your ego was any bigger, that gigantic head of yours would explode,' Sirius joked. 'Just leave her be.' James looked at him sharply.

'It's obvious she finds you loathsome,' Remus chuckled. 'Not every girl likes a bad boy.'

'And how would you know that, Moony?' James flopped into Lily's empty seat.

'She talks to me,' he confessed. Sirius blew a loud wolf whistle. 'Anyway, Snivellus isn't exactly a bad boy and she hung about him for four years,' he added hastily. 'And if you don't mind, I'm going to write up my Potions now.'

'Why doesn't she like me?' James moaned.

'Not everyone likes you, Prongs,' Sirius said exasperatedly.

'Well, Padfoot, you can't exactly tell me how to deal with rejection; you've never had to experience it.'

'Yeah . . . I guess normally I'm the one doing the rejecting,' he laughed.

'Don't laugh about it,' James said sharply. 'You hurt them.'

'I . . .' Sirius was lost for words. There was silence, broken only by the pale crackling of the dying fire.

'She likes Moony,' Peter Pettigrew mumbled. It was the first time he had spoken.

'What?' Remus had their full attention again.

'You were too busy restraining James to notice . . . she wasn't reading that book. She was looking at you from behind it.'

'Nope. Wormtail, that's impossible. She's my friend. We're friends.'

'We'll keep an eye on her for you,' Sirius said jollily, patting Peter on the shoulder and turning to talk to James. 'Won't we, Prongs-'

James was gone.

'He's jealous,' Sirius sighed. 'Because he's convinced that Lily likes you more than him.'

'Of course she does,' Remus said. 'It's only logical.'

'Why d'you think?' Sirius asked, unconcealed curiosity on his face.

'She never talks to Prongs, but she always speaks with me. She said that she hates James' crass sense of humour and prefers my boringness.'

'She actually said that she thought you were boring?'

'No! She said that -'

'Wait, wait,' Wormtail interrupted. 'She's been telling you that she prefers you to James?'

'Not literally . . . but I guess she's been hinting pretty heavily.' Remus shrugged. 'What's the time?'

Sirius checked his muggle digital watch - an act of rebellion against his mother - and sighed. 'Ahhh . . . ickle Peterkins had better get to bed. It's 8 o'clock,' he said happily. 'Plenty more time.'

'8? 8pm?' Peter stood up. 'I promised my mum I'd go to bed early . . .'

'It's okay, go to bed now and then we'll wake you at 11,' Remus assured him. 'Night, Wormy.'

'See you tomorrow,' Sirius winked.

When Peter was safely up the stairs to the dorm, Sirius spoke again.

'I didn't want to say earlier, because, Prongs would be mad at us all then,' he said quietly, 'but I think Wormtail has a point.'

'What?'

'Evans was checking out your butt in potions, Moony.'