Prompt: James gets jealous because he thinks lily likes Remus but she's really just trying to get to him through his friends

James was being childish. He knows this and yet he has shoved the thought firmly to the back of his mind, preferring to be immature rather than rational. His quill scribbles across the page as he tries to blot out his jealousy by finishing his DADA essay. It's not working. Throwing down the quill - the ink sprays and his last five sentences are lost - he drops his head into hands, fingers pushing his glasses up to rest just by his hair line. He rubs his eyes and then looks sighs, leaning back in the chair and taking his hands away from his face.

"Shouldn't be jealous. Just a girl." James mutters to himself as he stuffs away his ink pot and quill. Despite his words though he can't help but be jealous. He's been in love with Lily Evans for two years now and it's considered general knowledge that he likes her. Yet she chooses to hang around with Remus instead and shoot him furtive looks, as if rubbing it in that it's Remus she's chosen and not him. "Just friends, Merlin's balls. She wants more than fucking friendship." He continues to mutter to himself as he rolls up his essay and drops it messily into his bag. There's no point trying to finish it when he can't even concentrate. He'll start it again in the evening, he tells himself.

It had started about two weeks ago; Lily spending more and more time with Remus and letting her eyes flick over to James whenever she felt him looking. James sighs and walks out of the library, trying to figure out when her friendship with Remus turned into her having a crush on him. His eyes stay on the floor as he turns a corner and it's only when he spots a pair of feet coming towards him that he looks up. Speak of the Devil and she will appear. He thinks, turning his gaze back to the ground before the redhead can see him looking. She hasn't seem him yet but when she looks up from the paper in her hand she spots him.

"James!" He had tried to walk past but she had snatched at his wrist, stopping him and causing him to spin around and face her. There's a hesitant smile on her face, - She's beautiful. - as if she's trying to think of something in a hurry and James scowls back. "I was, just um, wondering if you've seen Remus?" His scowl deepens.

"No I bloody haven't." He shakes his wrist free of her hand and starts to walk away again when the desperation in her voice stops him.

"James, please!"

"What?" The bespectacled boy turns, looking at her with both adoration and annoyance in his eyes.

"I just... I'm not really looking for Remus." Lily looks more nervous now and James takes a step back towards her. "I was going to the library because Peter said that's where you were."

Now he's confused.

"Why are you looking for me?"

Now she's exasperated.

"Because I want to talk to you, you dipstick!"

"Why?" His brow creases - Merlin, that's cute. Lily thinks - and he crosses his arms.

"You haven't spoken to me in a while."

"Well it's not as if you're usually begging for my expert conversation skills." James replies dryly. Lily blushes.

"No, but, you seem annoyed. And, I don't think you should be." She holds up a hand as he goes to interrupt her. "You think I like Remus. I don't. Well, not as boyfriend potential or anything. I like him as a friend."

"Then why are you flirting with him all the time?" He shoots in before she can continue.

"I'm not! We're just talking. I've been wanting to talk to you. That's why I've been hanging around with him a lot more; because you're always with him. I thought if I started to hang around with him you might talk to me more, instead of just when I'm walking past you or sitting near you. I, well, I want to be friends with you." She looks up at him through her eyelashes and his heart nearly fails.

James is at a loss for words. He knows she's no longer friends with Snape since the "incident" and that she'd been a lot more open when he'd been teasing her of late but that she actually wanted to be friends and had actually told him that, straight out, was not something he was expecting

"What?" He finally manages to ask.

"I want to be friends with you. You've changed and I've released that you're not as much of an arse as I thought you were." How does she expect me not to have a heart attack when she says stuff like that? James thinks, disbelief flashing across his face.

"So you were just using Remus to get to me?"

"Not at all. He's lovely and we are good friends. I've just been actively hanging around him when he's near you, which I've never done before. I wouldn't use my friend James; he knew." She rolls her eyes and then smiles gently, shrugging her shoulders. "What do you think then?"

"Friends, definitely friends." The words rush together as if he's worried she'll suddenly change her mind. Lily grins and then James is smiling too, suddenly ecstatic.

"This doesn't mean I'm going to go out with you. I'll see you at dinner, Potter." She doesn't wait around, just says that and then walks off. James watches her go, still slightly confused. But it doesn't take him long to turn and sprint.

It takes him five minutes less than it usually does for him to get back to Gryffindor common room, sped by his happiness. He bursts inside - a few heads turn to look at him - and scans the room for Moony. When he spots him he doesn't waste anytime, jumping over a low table to get to his friend faster. When he does he barrels into him, knocking Remus' book aside and hugging him briefly.

"Merlin, Prongs, what's the matter?" James lets go and Remus pushes him off, winded.

"Lily asked me to be her friend." Moony looks amused. The look changes to one of wariness however, when James rests his hands on Remus' knees and looks him directly in the eye. "Thank you."

"I didn't do anything, James. Now that you're her friend, are you going to stop being such a jealous knob?"

"Yes, of course, I'm sorry." Remus grins and James sits on the armchair opposite him, a smile still plastered on his face. "This is brilliant. Absolutely fucking fantastic. Oh, and by the way, it was me who took your book. Sorry, I was pissed and jealous. It's under my mattress." Remus glares at him but James doesn't notice.

For the rest of the evening he continues to voice how happy he is, not shutting up even when Sirius threatens to hex him. The next day he receives a detention for not having finished his DADA essay but he doesn't care because Lily comes up to him at the end and asks if he wants to finish the essay with her, whilst she does her Charms. James is in top of the world. Lily Evans is his friend.