A month had passed since that first night in the common room, and James and Lily were growing closer everyday. It had gotten to the point where Lily would take her studying down to James' quidditch practices and James would meet Lily in the library to work on homework with her. It was at at one of these library study sessions that Lily finally broached the Sirius subject.

Lily wasn't the only who noticed that James' anger towards Sirius was dwindling everyday. He still wasn't talking to Sirius, but the glares and cold shoulder had become more subdued-even if he still refused to sleep in the dorm. She couldn't help but wonder how much longer they would drag their indifference on for, and was starting to really get frustrated with the whole phenomenon.

Lily's quill hadn't been scratching against her parchment for a solid minute when James looked up and was surprised to find Lily staring right at him. "Lils?"

Lily straightened in her chair, her quill set on the table, and her arms crossed. "I know we agreed," she started off, "that we wouldn't talk about what we didn't want to, but I think it's time we did." James had tensed at her first words and he was refusing to make eye contact. "James, he's one of your best friends. You don't just let something like that go without a fight."

"He was one of my best friends, Lily. Not anymore. And quite frankly, I don't see why I should have to share a thing about what's going on with me when you aren't talking about your own shit."

"Fine. I'll share too, then. That's how important this is to me." James looked back up at Lily, a perfect picture of shock.

"You'll what?"

"I'll share. Do you need me to go first, or do you have balls enough to take the lead?" Lily glared at him more for effect rather than out of true feelings.

James returned her heated gaze with one of his own and Lily did her best not to quirk a smile at how utterly ridiculous about this they were being.

"I can go first, Evans. I'm not a coward. I'm a Gryffindor!" James impersonated roaring like a lion, trying to deflect from the conversation with humor.

"Yeah lion boy, you are. Now stop stalling and just spit it out."

James raked his hand through his hair twice before he finally started to talk, "Look, Evans… It's not my place to give you the tell all about Sirius' shit, okay? But he crossed the line. He's been dancing it for a while-taking things a little too far, pushing the boundaries-he just got out of control. He did something bad. Like really really bad. I can't get past it. He almost ruined two people's lives. He almost ruined fucking everything. And I know that I should forgive him-he's endured the cold shoulder long enough-and that I should be there for him because this all started due to things going to hell in his life, but I don't know… I just can't look him in the eye. I never would have believed that he would have done something like that. Never."

Lily listened patiently while James talked about Sirius and what had happened. After he finished his monologue, Lily let the words roll around her head for a bit before beginning to speak, "I still think that you should talk to him, James. Hear him out at least. You don't have to make any promises to forgive him, but I think that after five or six years of friendship that you owe him that much."

"I hear you, but how am I supposed to do that when I can't look at him, Lily? That's the issue. I can't even look at him."

"You're going to have to, James." Lily reached across the table and placed her hand on top of the back of his. He flipped his hand to be palm up and then intertwined their fingers.

They shared a heavy silence for a moment before James questioned, "Do I get to hear your tale now, Princess?" His attempt to bring humor back into the conversation was awkward, but made Lily smile nonetheless.

"It's not all that interesting, really. And you know most of it already," Lily took a breath. "I knew Snape before I came to Hogwarts. He lives very near me and once when I was younger he saw me practicing magic. He told me all about the magic of Hogwarts and this world and just… he gave me an identity of sorts. I knew who I was because of him. That was hard to let go of. And I know that he changed, and I know that I stuck around longer than I should have with him, but I couldn't really help it. He was still Sev in some ways. He still had the shitty homelife and the shared history. I don't know. I guess it was all a bit stupid on my part. Everyone knew where he was headed far before I even acknowledged it. I was blind to what I didn't want to."

James squeezed Lily's hand. "You're not stupid and you're not blind. If anyone here is blind it's me. Remember?" James used his free hand to point at his glasses.

Lily laughed loudly at James' stupid joke, her body doubling over and her lungs struggling to fill with air. He smiled at her and she returned it before reaching across the table to jab him in the stomach with her finger.

"Go talk to Black, you prat."

James sighed and looking back at Lily with a new gleam in his eyes. He immediately donned a puppy-dog expression and jutted his lower lip out.

"What? Is that supposed to convince me? I thought we agreed that I'm the one with all the charms."

"Just come with me. Please? You don't have to stay, probably shouldn't, actually, but I just don't want to chicken out."

Lily gasped playfully, "James Potter chicken out? Never! He's a true Gryffindor!"

James dropped all pretenses of joking and looked seriously at the girl across from him, "Lily, I'm not kidding 'round. I don't think I can do it alone."

Lily nodded and started to pack up her things, leaving James to put back any textbooks they borrowed for their homework. The walk to Gryffindor Tower was relatively silent save for the chatting of other students and the sound of the wind rustling leaves and shaking branches outside. They found Sirius sitting in Lily's usual alcove, for once alone. Remus and Pete were probably both up in the dorm. James made a slow approach to his old friend, only propelled ahead by Lily inching closer and closer to him from behind. When they got into the range of two steps away, Lily forcefully shoved James forward into Sirius' line of sight.

"James…" Sirius looked up as soon at the shadow and quiet cursing of his best friend surrounded him. He was sure that he sounded like he was in shock, but in all practicality, he was. The two of them hadn't spoken in weeks. Even for full moons, James did his best to not engage with his dog companion.

"Uh, hey…" James glanced behind him almost seeming to check to make sure that he had Lily's support, but she was gone now. James bolstered his confidence and took the chair across from Sirius and stared at his friend. "We should talk, Pads."


The next morning when Lily was at breakfast, she kept her eyes trained on the pages of whatever book she was reading. She hadn't gone down to the common room last night, instead staying in her room. She didn't want to embarrass herself if James wasn't down there-why would he be? There was no doubt in Lily's mind that he would make up with Sirius and they would be just fine. That meant that she never saw James wait down there for her despite having a bed to sleep in again.

She was in the midst of mixing the cinnamon into her oatmeal when she felt someone sit close to her on the bench and she looked to her left to see Sirius Black, happier than he had looked in two months, smiling at her. His eyes moved away from her face and to something behind her. Lily tilted her head back and was met with James standing above her, disapproval written all over his face.

"Oatmeal? Really? That's so boring, Lily." James shoved the bowl forwards, the oatmeal sloshing over the sides from the force of the movement and onto the table. He ignored it, leaving Remus, who had settled in with Peter across from them, to wipe it up. "Have a croissant." James tossed one to her that she deftly caught. Lily looked down at her lap and tried to hide the smile that she couldn't seem to vanish.

James sat down next her and whispered, "We're mates, Evans. Get used to it."

A/N: Well, there you have it. That's my last installment of this. I don't know how much I liked the ending of this chapter, but oh well. I think it works well enough. What do you think? Thanks for reading this. I would really really appreciate it if you would leave me a review. Thanks!