Here is the 4th chapter :) But before you start reading: I have a question... Do you guys want me to upload twice a week? Or just once? I know some people have busy schedules and need time to catch up, but I thought I'd just ask you guys. Tell me what you want me to do - either once or twice a week... Up to you :) If I don't hear any suggestions about the uploading schedule, I'll just upload once a week - either on a Monday or Tuesday.

And now: Enjoy reading! :D

Conversations Amongst Friends

„Thanks for coming over, Padfoot."

„No problem, Prongs," Sirius stepped over the threshold and watched James close the door behind him. "Are you alright, mate? Is something wrong with Lily?"

"No, everything is fine, I promise." James' smile was honest and Sirius started to feel his tense muscles relax.

"Thank Merlin, I thought you'd have been attacked or something as you flooed me earlier." Sirius puffed out a gust of breath he hadn't realised he was holding and started to follow a slightly nervous James Potter into the living room where Lily was sitting on the couch, reading a book.

"Sirius, what are you doing here?" She stood up and kissed him on his cheek. "We weren't awaiting you until later this evening."

Sirius gaze zoned in on James, who was fidgeting behind his girlfriend, making desperate hand gestures that looked suspiciously as if he was trying to get rid of a nasty horde of wasps. Beaming his most charming smile at Lily, he gave her a hug and laughed lightly. "I just thought I'd come over earlier. Something told me you missed me and needed to see my overly handsome face. After all, you've been stuck with that idiot of a boyfriend for some time now."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned around to James, who immediately stopped fighting insects and smiled innocently at his girlfriend. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, shrugged and turned towards the hallway. "I'll leave you two to it then," she called over her shoulder, as she left for the study.

"Phew, that's been a close one," James sank down into the soft cushioning of the sofa and buried his face in his hands.

Feeling slightly worried, Sirius sat down at his feet and gently pried James' fingers from his friend's face. "Are you sure you're alright?"

James smiled and nodded. "More than alright, to be honest. I'm just nervous, is all."

Sirius frowned. "What is it?"

Taking a deep breath, James grinned at his dark haired best friend sitting in front of him on the carpet. "I want to propose to Lily."

Sirius choked and started coughing violently. After what felt like an hour of coughing, retching and being hit painfully hard on his back, he sat up and studied his blushing friend through watering eyes. "You're serious?"

"Do you know how weird it is hearing you say that?" James laughed. "And yes, I am serious. And that's why I asked you to come over earlier. I don't know how to do it!"

Sirius gaped. „You're really asking me how you should go about proposing marriage to your girlfriend!?"

James' grin widened even further. "Yup."

"You're insane and I love you for it!" Sirius cried out and jumped on top of James, who fell over the back of the couch and landed on the floor with a cackling Sirius still on top of him. "You got any ideas as to how to go about this?"

"No! That's why I need your help, man. I've been mulling over this for a couple of months now and I just can't come up with something that I know for sure is going to make her say yes. Well, I know what will make her say yes. At least, I think I know. Oh, Merlin, what if she won't say yes? What if I've read the signs incorrectly and she doesn't want to take the next step in this relationship? What if she sees this as an opportunity to finally break up with me? What am I supposed to do, Siri? I can't live without her!"

Sirius smacked his rambling friend upside down his head to get him back to earth. "She won't break up with you, okay? You're made for each other! I've thought so all those years back and I still think so now."

James sniffed. "You've always told me 'that ginger chick isn't worth my time'."

Sirius blinked. "Well, yeah, but that was before I really saw you two. Anyway, my point is that you two are a happy couple, the happiest and most gut wrenchingly sweet couple I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. And now listen to me, Prongsie boy. She won't break up with you and she won't say no. She'll be your fiancée sooner than you know it."

"Thanks, mate."

"Hey, no problem. When do you plan on proposing?"

"Tonight, after you guys went home," James sat up slowly and rubbed his neck nervously. "I've got the ring and flowers already in the dresser under my Invisibility Cloak. Do you think I should wait until a better time? Maybe ask her out for a romantic dinner with candles and violin music and extremely expensive food that not near enough to fill your stomach, but looks good nonetheless?"

Sirius smiled at his friend, who started tugging at his hair, which was in constant danger of being ripped out of his skull. "No, man. I think the timing already is perfect. You'll see, everything will be fine. Trust me."

*~*RSJLH*~*

"The food was delicious, Lily-flower."

"Thanks Sirius," blushing slightly, she looked over to James, who nodded.

"You two go over into the living room while Sirius and I do the dishes, right Padfoot?"

Said man blinked confusedly, but nodded nonetheless as he saw James beg him with his eyes. "Sure thing. You two go on. We'll manage."

Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but seemed to deem it not worthy to answer back.

*~*RSJLH*~*

"Do you have any idea what is up with Wormtail? I haven't seen him in weeks." Sirius frowned at the towel that James had just handed him.

Opening the tap, James shook his head no. "No idea. We've send him an owl and asked him to come over, but we didn't even get a reply. I hope everything is alright and he isn't in some sort of trouble." He picked up the first bowl and dipped it into the warm water.

"I hope so too. Without having us at his side to get him out of it makes me kind of nervous, to be honest. Especially in a time like this… with Death Eaters and Voldemort lurking about practically everywhere. Poor Wormy could be in trouble."

"Or he could be on one of Dumbledore's Order missions," James reasoned. He had to admit to himself, he didn't feel well with the lack of information either, but there always needed to be someone bringing the logical thoughts into a conversation. He hated to be that person when his instincts screamed at him to throw this saucepan onto the floor, grab Sirius and Remus and hurry the heck out of the house in search of Peter. Lily needed to stay safe. He wouldn't want her to endanger herself.

As if hearing his direction of thought, Sirius asked him the question he had dreaded the whole evening. "So, do you have everything set up for the big moment? The plan set and learned by heart?"

James fidgeted with the sponge in his hands as he watched Sirius balance the clean plate on two fingers. "Yeah, I think I do. I have the ring, the bouquet und die bottle of wine upstairs. When you two are gone, I'll ask her whether she'd like a glass of wine and when she says yes I'll run upstairs, get everything I need and hurry back down. I'll stow the ring in my pocket and the flowers behind the chair underneath my Cloak. Then I'll ask her whether the bottle of wine is alright or whether she wanted to rather drink white wine. Then I'll go get the glasses and build up my courage."

Sirius nodded. "Yup, sounds good to me. Hey, don't worry. Everything will turn out fine. You'll see. That woman loves you!"

James laughed nervously and stopped himself at the last second before he ran his wet and soapy hand through his messy hair. He was a mess.

*~*RSJLH*~*

"So, how are you doing? You've been awfully quiet tonight." Lily sat down on the soft couch and patted the spot next to her.

Remus smiled and took a seat. "Oh, I'm alright. It's just hectic, with the Order and the war and all. Everywhere you look, people shoot glances over their shoulders in constant fear of being attacked. You can't even walk down Diagon Alley without getting paranoid and thinking that the war had only just begun…" He sighed.

"I know what you mean," Lily murmured. "James and I went to Diagon Alley the other day to get some groceries and some potion ingredients we were running out of. You know, just in case we needed to brew a healing potion or something. With James always having to go on those Auror missions, you never know when you need one." She laughed weakly. "Anyway, we didn't see even one person that was on their own. Everyone went in packs, always watching everything suspiciously and never stopping to say hello like they used to. They hurry to get their shopping done and apparate home. The Muggle attacks have only just begun and everyone is already acting like this. It's frightening, but understandable."

"Yeah, you're right. It feels like something big is coming towards us, which he cannot stop."

Lily nodded and struggled to find the right words. She wanted to use her chance while she was alone with Remus. James and she had talked about it; James would distract Sirius so Lily could ask Remus whether their suspicion was right or not.

"But let's not talk about depressing things like that," she said and sat up straighter, putting a reassuring smile onto her face. "Let's hear about you? How is life treating you? Have your met someone special yet?" She winked at him and laughed lightly as Remus began to stutter and turn red.

"No, everything is like it used to be," he murmured, trying desperately to keep from bursting out his little secret. He wanted to tell someone. It had been nearly a whole year since they had graduated and every now and then James and Lily, even Sirius at some times, had asked whether there was that certain special someone in his life. He wanted them to know, but he was too afraid of how they might react. He had found out at the beginning of his seventh year that he was different and keeping it a secret for so long was not exactly a sign of trust. His friends knew the worst part of him, three of the four had even seen him at his worst, but for some reason this mattered more to him than it should.

"Really? But there has to be someone you've had your eye on, I'm sure. You can tell me," she said in a low and soothing voice as he lowered his gaze.

He felt ashamed. But why? He asked himself. They wouldn't want a poof in their house, his inner nasty voice whispered into his ear, making him feel even more uncomfortable than before. They are my friends, his normal thought-voice told the nasty one, fighting to get back some of the lost confidence. They wouldn't judge me by something I cannot control or influence. But the nasty voice wouldn't shut up. How do you possibly know that for sure? James and Lily are probably going to get married soon if they continue on like this and Sirius is just not the type for a relationship, especially not with you. Remus winced at the last comment. Maybe his inner mean voice was right? Maybe it was the reasonable one that used to tell him whenever he should intervene in a prank when it was in danger of getting too risky? Maybe it just changed when he changed?

"Remus?" Lily put her hand on his right knee and squeezed it lightly.

She doesn't understand. She won't understand.

"Remus, please look at me." After the next few minutes passed, he slowly raised his head and stared onto the wall opposite him. The clock on the mantel piece was broken. It showed two thirty pm, although it was already dark outside. "Whatever it is," she said, as she gently turned his head towards her, "I won't judge you. I promise."

Remus swallowed. He was scared of what she might think of him. But this was Lily he was talking about – sweet, gentle Lily, who even gave Snape a chance to prove himself. He would tell her, he decided in that very second. He would tell her. She wouldn't judge him, not for what he couldn't control. She was his friend, who didn't turn away from him or treated him any differently when she found out his darkest secret.

Remus took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. "I don't know how to explain," he said softly and his cheeks turned into a light pink.

"May it'll help to start at the beginning?" She smiled lovingly at him and squeezed his knee again.

"Right, the beginning," he mumbled, trying to figure out when this whole mess actually began. "Well," he said, Lily continued to just sit there and wait patiently for him to begin his tale. "I guess it all started at the beginning of our seventh year at Hogwarts, or maybe at the end of the sixth year... I really don't know exactly."

And with that he jumped into his tale of catching himself watching more male classmates than female classmates, liking what he saw, starting to dream about certain things he thought he'd only dream about when it were girls having the chief part, up to his confusing inner fights between his nasty and reasoning voice, leading him into an even greater confusion than he already was in. Having two pretty handsome best friends didn't help in that matter. He tried to explain how it happened that he had dared to just accept it, let these thoughts and dreams lead him and how he had felt after the realization that there was something different in him, something that he had learned to accept and live with.

"I didn't know what was happening or why it happened," he said with bright red cheeks, as he studied his hands that were resting in his lap. "I really don't know what made me think that way, but I do know that I cannot change it. I've come to terms with it, to be honest," he finished rather lamely. He didn't dare to look up and see the disappointment in Lily's bright green eyes. He wouldn't survive a rejection like the one that was about to come.

"Oh, Remus, why didn't you tell us earlier?"

He froze. His thoughts started to whirl in his head as if they had been chained into place before and suddenly let loose. She didn't hate him? She didn't find it disgusting? Revolting? Weird? His head jerked up as he felt Lily pull him into a tight embrace. He couldn't believe it. She accepted it – she accepted him; even without giving him a scolding about keeping it bottled up for so long.

"You didn't need to deal with this on your own, Remmy," Lily let go of him, still holding onto his shoulders, but looking him into the eye sincerely. "That's what friends are for, you know? To share insecurities with."

Remus smiled shakily and blinked hurriedly to stop the tears from flowing down his red cheeks. He'd tell her. "If there wasn't one certain problem." His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, his chin wobbled slightly.

Lily's smile was sad. "Sirius?"

Remus didn't even consider wondering why she knew about his infatuation with the mischievous young wizard, but he didn't really care either. He just nodded miserably and let the tears fall freely.

I hope you liked it! Please leave a comment! I siriusly (haha) love reading and answering them!

Next chapter: Will the proposal go as planned? You'll have to wait and see :D

See ya!