Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter franchise. I only write fanfiction. Slowly. Very slowly.

Chapter 10: I prove myself worthy of the title 'Git'.

The more that I hold on
The more that you let go
And I know, you better let somebody love you
Or find yourself, on your own

Tell me why all the best laid plans
Fall apart in your hands

-James Blunt, Best Laid Plans

The Christmas holidays were over and as usual I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I always hated leaving my mother alone at home. She had her friends and her job at St. Mungo's, but I still worried. On the other hand, I could never regret going back to school after the break. Sure, it was school, but it was Hogwarts. There were people to meet, pranks to pull, excursions (of the illegal nature) to plan and Quidditch to play.

After a bumpy trip on the Knight bus, Lily, Marlene, Padfoot and I arrived at King's Cross Station. Lily walked ahead of us pushing her trolley, as soon as we crossed the barrier. I watched her wave to one of the seventh year Ravenclaw prefects and made sure she was out of earshot before turning to Sirius and Marlene and smiling my smuggest smile.

"Pay up, losers."

They both looked at me, then glanced at each other and groaned.

"Aww, look at you two. Be careful, or the next thing you know, you'll be snogging each other in a broom closet somewhere."

Marlene scowled at me. "I want to punch him. Can I punch him?"

Sirius heaved a put upon sigh. "Unfortunately, as his best mate, I'm obligated to say no."

He dug his hand in his pocket and pulled out five sickles, handing them to me. "Here," he said ruefully. "I knew betting you that you wouldn't be able to go the entire holiday without asking Lily out was going to be dragon dung."

I raised my eyebrows slightly. I knew Sirius knew I would win.

"Then why'd you propose it?"

Marlene shrugged slightly as she handed over her five sickles. "Had to keep you and Lily from having a go at each other as much as possible, didn't we?"

I rolled my eyes and turned around, pushing my trolley towards the train. "You two are barmy."

"It worked, though." Sirius called out behind me.

"And I'm ten sickles richer than you are!" I promptly replied. "Look Padfoot, there's Peter. Looks like he's caught a compartment."

"Oh, excellent."

Peter wasn't the only one waiting for me and Sirius in the compartment. Remus was, too. Besides looking slightly paler than normal, he seemed to be his usual chocolate-munching self.

"Full moon go alright, then?" Sirius asked as soon as we'd settled in.

Shaking his head, Remus replied wryly, "My Christmas was just fine, Padfoot, thanks for asking. What about the rest of you?"

"Mine was alright." Peter sighed. "Although besides the presents from you lot, all I got was jumpers. I have four new jumpers."

"Well Pete, aren't you lucky?" Sirius drawled sarcastically.

Peter ignored him in favour of turning to me and saying, "But all the fun happened at yours! Anything more than what you said in the letters?"

I smirked. "Did I mention how Padfoot tried to prank the girls but tripped over Fitzgerald and fell on his face instead?"

Remus snorted and Sirius shot me a dirty look. I didn't say anything about him having once snogged Marlene McKinnon. If he wanted to tell them, he would. I turned to Remus.

"I've found you another Fawcett fan. Lily's borrowed the second, third and fourth books from me."

He nodded. "Yes, she told me in her letter. She also mentioned how a certain git –her words, not mine- spoiled the ending of the first book for her."

"Oh come on, she knew Auror Fawcett wasn't going to die!"

"But she didn't know who the perpetrator was, Prongs!"

"That's all I told her! Besides, if she wants to be surprised, she has five more books to go!"

"But you spoiled the first one!"

"Do you two have any idea how ridiculous your argument is?"

"Oh, shut it, Padfoot."

I leaned back in my seat, giving up on the argument. The truth was, I'd just wanted to see Lily's face when she realized who the culprit was in the story. The way her green eyes had widened and her jaw had dropped was worth her getting mad at me. She was always getting mad at me, anyway.

I turned to look out of the window, watching as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station and began to chug past London's snow covered landscape. That evening in the library, I'd almost asked Lily if she still thought the same of me as she had before Christmas, but I'd refrained. Knowing our history, any question would come out wrong, she'd take it even worse and that would be the end of that. Best not to say anything, really.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Much after we'd reached Hogwarts, me and the boys were entering the common room when Head Boy Fabian Prewett walked up to us. Nodding his head in greeting, he turned to Sirius and said, "There's an owl for you, Black. Arrived 'bout ten minutes ago. Any of you seen my brother?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we passed him on the staircase talking to some people. He was the one who gave us the new password."

"Thanks. Also, Lupin, can I have a word?"

As Fabian pulled Remus aside, I turned at Sirius' mutter of "I know that owl." He was looking towards the far corner of the room, where a sleek brown owl was perched on a window ledge. He headed towards it.

As Peter automatically led the way to our favorite seats in front of the fire, Remus sidled up behind me and muttered, "New password for the Prefect's bathroom is squeaky clean" in my ear.

"That's what Fabian wanted, then?" I asked. I knew Gideon better than his twin. He was the Keeper for our team and also didn't tend to get as worked up as Fabian when Sirius and I lost Gryffindor too many house points. Both of them were pretty fun blokes.

About half an hour later, Sirius had joined us with an odd frown on his face and was now staring into the fire. Peter and Remus were comparing histories of the worst Christmas gifts they'd ever received and I was intensely bored. I'd watched as the common room filled as students entered in after dinner, watched Fabian walk into his brother flirting with one of their year mates and roll his eyes in exasperation and watched for the tenth time in as many minutes, Lily curled up in an armchair, engrossed in a book.

I sighed, shifting my legs from the floor to the empty chair opposite me. Sirius turned away from the fire to shoot me a look.

"What is your problem?"

"I think I should ask Lily out."

Sirius rolled his eyes, Peter frowned and Remus sighed.

"No, listen!" I said. "She spent the entire holidays with us and it was fine, I think she should say yes if I ask her now."

Sirius turned back to the fire, his mind obviously elsewhere. I waited for him to say something about the letter, but he didn't.

"Well, if you're so sure…" Remus muttered.

"I am!"

"If it's that or you sitting here and moping, go ahead, by all means."

"But don't you think it should be something… different? I dunno, something special?"

"What's wrong with right now?" Peter asked just as Sirius muttered, "Maybe stand on a table or something, if you so badly want it to be special."

I sat up decisively. "You know what? You're both absolutely right."

I ran my fingers through my hair and swept some bits of crumpled parchment off the nearest table. There was never going to be a better time, and I might as well ask Lily out where a room full of witnesses would make sure that she wouldn't say no just to be contrary.

"I should seize the moment!" And I climbed up.

Sirius turned. "James? Wha- ? Hold on, I was kidding!"

But I had already started talking.

"If everyone could shut up for a second, I'd like to ask Lily Evans a question." Lily was staring at me now, along with most of the common room. Her face was blank.

Running my hand through my hair, I cleared my throat. "Lily Evans, would you please do me the honour of going out with me?" There. Short and sweet. She should like that.

Lily's face slowly turned red. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. At first I thought she was a little overwhelmed and maybe I should have asked her in private but then her hand plunged into the pocket of her robes where she kept her wand and a small corner of my mind went uh oh.

"I can't believe it! You- you-" Lily spluttered. Her green eyes blazed mesmerizingly and I had to blink. Get a grip, Potter.

"Where the hell is this coming from, Potter?! I've never said yes to you before, so why would I now? It's like you're begging to be hexed!"

A few people sniggered, and I frowned. I'd honestly thought that the past few weeks would change something. Hadn't they?

"Considering we just spent the holidays together, Evans, you're surely not asking where I'm coming from?" I asked dryly.

Lily's face got even redder and she glanced around in disbelief, as if she'd missed a huge sign somewhere, probably one that said 'James Potter has the hots for you and it's not going away!' in huge glowing letters.

"You think just because I spent a couple of days in your fancy house with your fancy pants arrogant self, I'd change my mind?" She spat at me. "You're a first rate git, Potter!" With that, she twirled on her heel and flounced up to the girls dorms.

I yelled after her, "Be careful, Carrots, you're starting to sound like Snivellus!" but she was already gone, and I was left standing on a table with a roomful of people staring at me in trepidation.

"Honestly," I said, gamely dropping back into my chair, "I don't know what is with that girl, sometimes."

Sirius snorted.

"What?" I snapped at him. "Why are you in such a foul mood?"

"Maybe you'd know if you could see past your own big nose." He growled. "I'm going up to bed."

Shaking his head, Remus shot me one of his patent I'm-so-disappointed-with-you looks that unfailingly reminded me of my mother before following Sirius upstairs. Git. It wasn't like he'd warned me from doing anything, either.

I turned to Peter. "What has gotten into everyone today?!"

He shrugged helplessly, his eyes widening. "I…um, maybe…."

"Forget it, Pete." I sighed. "You don't really have to answer that."

Peter relaxed. "I don't think you're being arrogant," he said softly. "Whatever Sirius is mad at, it's not really you, I think. And I think Lily maybe doesn't like a lot of people looking at her always, maybe." He got up and made his way to bed, too. I didn't follow; it felt too much like hiding, what with all the people still glancing my way.

I slouched in my chair grumpily. How stupid of Evans to think I'd expect her to change her mind because she saw I had a nice house. How could she not understand that I was referring to the fact that we'd had a few proper conversations and actually got along most of the holidays? Ugh, the girl was hopeless. I was even more hopeless for still trying, every time I asked her out only seemed to make it worse.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By the time I crawled up to bed, everyone was asleep. Well, almost everyone. Sirius was too still. I'd slept next to the bloke for six years; did he really think I wouldn't know when he was faking sleep?

I glanced toward his table for any sign of the letter from earlier, but I couldn't see it. So, he'd chosen the hard way, then.

Stepping over my lazy cat, I crept up to his bed and hissed, "Padfoot?"

A finger twitched.

"Padfoot? If you really didn't want me to bother you, you would have drawn your curtains."

My best mate growled and sat up against the headboard, avoiding my gaze. I sat down at the other end of the bed and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be a self-important git, James." Sirius snapped at me. "What do you want?"

"I'm trying," I said dryly (and failing, a sardonic voice in my head that sounded faintly like Lily Evans added) "But it's so hard when you're presenting me with such a perfect example. Going to tell me about the letter or not?"

Sirius sighed and seemed to deflate. "Uncle Alphard is dead." He said flatly. "Left me everything. All his money, including what will come from selling his house and possessions. Everything, only for me."

"What?" I said softly, my head jerking up in surprise.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed wearily. "Now, even if my parents do cut off my access to the family vault once I come of age, it won't matter. Uncle Alphard has made sure of that."

I contemplated this. I knew Sirius had been worried about what his parents would do once he was a legal adult ever since that day he'd run away from his house. Of course I would have helped with whatever he needed, but I knew he wouldn't have been comfortable with just letting my mum handle everything for him. This, however, changed things. Alphard Black had been one of the few relatives Sirius had genuinely cared about, despite his age. And now, for Sirius to lose him like this, it must have been killing him inside.

"Your parents will be furious." I said.

He let out a short bark of a laugh, more bitter triumph than anything else. "They can't do anything, even if they wanted to. Alphard's will is very clear and it's been approved of by the Ministry as well." He pulled out the scrunched up letter and handed it to me. Written in an old man's spidery handwriting, it was personally addressed to Sirius and explained exactly what Alphard Black had done. He'd taken care to mention precisely what his intentions were, even going so far as to request Sirius to send a few things he'd kept aside for Sirius' cousin Andromeda, and to mention that the letter was to reach Sirius only after he'd passed away.

"Merlin's pants, Padfoot!" I breathed as I scanned the letter. "This is a lot."

"You're telling me?" Sirius replied. He closed his grey eyes, tipping his head back until ithit the headboard behind him. "I just wish he'd told me when I last visited him in August. Or that he'd said something. He'd been ill for a while, he obviously had this planned. I mean- I can't even thank him," His voice broke on the last few words, and he exhaled sharply.

I smiled at him sadly. "Don't dwell on that, Padfoot. Or you'll always be wishing for a little more time to say something. Do something. Anything, really."

AN: Sooo, that happened. James and Lily, right back to square one. What on earth will happen next? Will there be hexes? Tears? Chocolate muffins? Wait and see! In the meantime, do review! I love hearing from you as much as Remus loves the Auror Fawcett series. And that's a lot, okay?