(A/N: I'm finally putting up the middle bit!! Sirius and Remus are trying to help James figure out the answer, but James is being stubbornly unimaginative. Enjoy!)

The weeks following were fraught with anxiety for both of them. Lily kept wondering about the way James had looked when she had asked why. And, although she tried her level best to stop it, that question kept popping up in her head. Did she love him?

She wasn't doing a good job of finding out. Lily-like as usual, she tried drawing up a pros and cons list. The cons seemed easy. Lily wrote down Acts like a big, balloon-headed prat, but as she did, that uneasy feeling that came when you told yourself lies came across her.

He used to act like a prat. And, to be fair, sometimes, he still did. But everybody fell off the wagon at some point of time! For example, she knew that he hadn't stopped bullying Severus, but she had never really expected him to.

Now she looked for a pro about James. She had expected it to be hard, but it was scarily easy. That way he always looks at me whenever I come near.

But upon writing that, she crumpled up the parchment. For the first time in her life, pros and cons were failing her. They were useless right now. They couldn't prove anything in a relationship. Feeling very useless, Lily flopped back on her bed with a frustrated sigh. She would have to decide herself.

...

James wasn't exactly having the best time ever either. He kept staring at Lily, trying to figure out what he liked so much about her. He liked her figure, he adored her hair, he loved her smile, and he worshipped her eyes, but that wouldn't count, because that was, according to Lily, loving her beauty only.

After a whole two days of James moping around, James's best friends decided to intervene. "So what is it that you love so much about her?", Remus Lupin asked James practically. Sirius was lounging in the seat beside James, pretending not to care, but all four of the boys knew he was listening just as hard as the others.

James looked at Remus like he was crazy. "You've obviously never been in love, or else you would know how futile it is to answer questions like that."

Sirius chuckled softly. "Got you cornered there, eh, Moony?"

Remus rolled his eyes. He knew he couldn't, and shouldn't, fall in love with anyone, so he had always steered clear of relationships. From anyone else, he would have colored up furiously at the remark, seething inside, but from his friends, he rather enjoyed the way they joked about his 'condition'.

"Let's take this slowly", Sirius continued. "So the fiery Miss Evans gave you some examples of what she thought you meant you loved, like her beauty, her brains, etc. So the question is, are you really in love with those, and not in love with her?"

This statement was met with incredulous stares from all three other boys, and defensively, Sirius lifted his hands. "It's just a routine sort of check, okay? I know as well as the rest of you that he's head over heels for Lily."

He straightened up slightly, and asked, in a mock deep-psychiatrist voice asked, "James Potter, would you love Lily Evans even if she was, say, bald?"

Remus actually snorted at the question, it was so ridiculous, but James simply looked confused. The ever-helpful Peter tried to explain what came next.

"You're supposed to say, yes, James, you love her even if she was as bald as a ping pong ball"

"I don't get it", replied an even more confused James. "Lily has a head full of red hair. When did she become bald? And how did I not notice?"

Sirius and Remus simultaneously rolled their eyes. "Now, the problem with you, lover-boy, is that you don't have enough imagination. None of this happened, it's all hypothetical" Remus witheringly informed him, while Sirius empathically nodded along.

"That hysterical Hannah Fawcett accidentally hit her with a Balding Curse." Sirius helpfully, trying to encourage James's imagination.

"Well, why didn't she duck, or block the curse? She should be an expert at all that by now." James was being adamantly stupid.

"Because she didn't have her wand with her.", Peter chimed in, futilely trying to help.

"Why didn't she have her wand with her?" Poor James was bewildered by now.

"Because you accidentally broke it."

"How?"

"You sat on it."

"Why?"

"You didn't know it was there."

"Where was it?"

"On the couch"

"Why didn't I look before I sat?"

"Er…you forgot?"

"Why didn't I just buy her another?"

"Because you didn't have the time to, because you forgot, because you didn't have enough money, why do we care?" Remus burst out, at the end of his patience. The other boys looked around, quite startled, since Remus was usually good-humored.

"Well, she's bald, whatever the reason. Do you still love her?" Sirius resumed the original question.

There was a long pause. "No…o…o", James dragged out the word, like a little boy unsure of the right answer.

A stunned silence followed. Remus frowned. Peter stared from James to Remus, fascinated, like he was watching some extremely entertaining show. Sirius raised one eyebrow, and looked at James expectantly.

"Okay…" Remus finally broke the silence. "Why wouldn't you still love her? That really does sound like you love her just for her beauty."

"It's not that I won't love her without hair!" James contradicted himself. "It's just – I can't imagine her without hair ("There's a shocker, Sirius dryly remarked), and – and – Lily wouldn't be Lily without her hair!" He floundered through his sentence, grasping at his meaning, but feeling it slip through the cracks. He did love Lily, but it wouldn't be Lily without her hair!

Remus stared at James, clearly not understanding his meaning, but Sirius nodded, like he understood. Remus looked at him, surprised. "You understood him?" Even James was looking askance at Sirius, since even James himself was not totally sure of his meaning.

"Kind of", Sirius replied. He looked at Remus again. "Look, we all know what Lily's famous for, right?"

"Her grades", Remus instantly butted in.

"Her hatred of me", James tried.

"Her love of pickles", Peter contributed.

The rest of the boys looked at Peter. "That's not that famous, Peter", Remus kindly informed him at last.

"Sure it is!" Peter said. "Those little second-years made up a poem about it, remember? Weasley and Prewett? 'Eyes as green as a fresh-pickled toad'? You've never heard it?"

"That really doesn't have too much to do with pickles, you know."

"It has the word in the sentence."

Remus opened his mouth to retort, but Sirius stopped him impatiently. "Anyway, as I was going to say, Lily is famous for her red hair and her matching temper. Take away the red hair, and it's like it's not really Lily anymore."

"Ah", Remus understood at last. "All right then. On to the next question. Would you love her if she was stupid?"

"Lily and stupid?" James snorted. "Remus, have you started taking naps in class? Do you not know Lily is the smartest girl in the whole year? Did you not just say she was famed for her grades?"

"Did I not just say if she was stupid?", Remus rebutted. "Use your imagination, please, I'm begging you!"

Rolling his eyes, James tried his hardest to imagine up a dumb Lily and then tried his hardest to love said dumb Lily.

He shook his head in frustration, ruffling up his hair with his hand.

"So you wouldn't love her if she were dumb." Sirius sunk down in his seat again. "Well, then, boys, do any of you know how to Confund Lily? Because I'm not sure about you, but I'm getting tired of hearing her name muttered over and over every night in James's sleep."

Peter giggled so hard at this, he fell off his seat. Remus pulled him up, but the others barely noticed; it was a common enough occurrence.

"Er – why wouldn't you?" Remus asked, even though something inside him was telling him he shouldn't; it would lead to another pointless discussion.

"It wouldn't be Lily if she wasn't smart. She'd become more like that strange Bindy Boot."

"Oh, you mean that Hufflepuff girl with the carroty hair who has that strange hyena laugh?" Sirius sat up in interest. "You know, I dated her once, back in third grade."

"Oh, yes, I remember that! You told us – you told us – told us – " Peter was cracking up from laughter, so it was never apparent what Sirius had really told them.

Remus, meanwhile, was looking as though it was April Fools', Christmas, and all four boys' birthdays all rolled up into one day. "I've got it!"

"What did you get, Moony?" Sirius asked with interest.

"Why James keeps saying no to each question. He loves her because she has red hair, and because she's smart, and because it wouldn't be Lily if she didn't have red hair and wasn't smart!"

James, who had eagerly straightened up, slouched back and put his elbows on the table. "Well, obviously. Isn't that what I just said moments ago?"

"But that's your answer!" Remus wasn't dampened a bit by his pessimistic friend. "You love her because she's different from everyone else!"

James thought it over. There really wasn't anyone else like her. She always seemed a class apart. And it sounded good, too. "The girl who's unlike any other", he said aloud, testing the words. "I love her because she's unlike any other".

(A/N: That was it! Hope you liked it. Click that button down there, and tell me if you did (or if you didn't, I don't really care which))