A/N A nice long chapter for you lovely people. thanks for the help with what animal Marlene's Patronus should be, I needed a second opinion on that. If you have any questions or ideas please PM me or review thanks. :)) I hope you enjoy the Jily in this one, it took ages to write :)

Molteaser x

Chapter 10

For the next two days, Marlene pondered over how she was going to get Lily to go into a broom cupboard with James Potter. The task seemed almost impossible but Marlene was determined not to let it get the better of her.

On Saturday morning, Marlene made her way down to the Quidditch pitch with Zoey Thompson, her fellow Chaser. Zoey was chatting away cheerfully and in high spirits, not seeming to realise that Marlene's thoughts were elsewhere.

The rest of the Gryffindor team were already there when they arrived. Marlene and Zoey went to sit down with their new fellow Chaser; a fifth year boy called Dan Seabolt. Zoey and Dan immersed themselves in conversation but Marlene's eyes roamed around the room.

Sirius and James were chatting in the corner, James was looking nervous and Sirius relaxed. He was leaning against the wall, swinging his beaters bat carelessly. He caught her eye and winked. Marlene shot him a look and turned away.

Martin Darrow and the new Beater, Mike Anderson, a sturdy looking fourth year with very bright blue eyes were talking. Martin looked like he was giving the younger boy instructions. Martin looked up in time to see Marlene looking at him and he glared. Marlene smirked and ignored him completely.

"Right team," James said, standing up and addressing everyone in front of him. "This is a big year for us. We want our name on that cup again and I know that we have what it takes to go out there and kick the other teams in the balls!"

Sirius, who was lounging on the bench next to James, smirked at James's choice of language.

"The first team we're playing is Ravenclaw and all we have to do is go and give them a game they'll never forget!" James said, ignoring Sirius and smacking his fist into the palm of his other hand to emphasise this statement.

"Don't worry Prongs," Sirius said, sobering up and looking at his friend with a serious expression on his face. "We've got this."

It was one of the few times that Marlene had ever seen Sirius and James completely humourless; when Quidditch was involved.

The rest of the team murmured their agreement and traipsed out onto the pitch.

The training session hadn't been as successful as James might have wanted. Things were strained between Marlene and Martin and Sirius was just making it worse.

There had been one case where Marlene had grabbed the Quaffle and had been speeding towards the goal. Martin had come out to meet her but instead of flying around him and throwing the red ball through one of the hoops, Marlene had, on purposely, thrown the Quaffle right at Martin's face very hard. Martin had caught it – proving why he was such an excellent Keeper – but the force of the throw had knocked him backwards so he had nearly fallen off his broom.

Sirius had not helped the situation by laughing but while nearly everyone else had laughed as well, Martin had decided to lob the Quaffle at Sirius's head.

Sirius had ducked just in time but his face was set in a stony glare after that.

It was a good thing, James supposed, that Martin was very broad shouldered and strong and that Sirius had a Beaters Bat at hand, otherwise James was willing to bet that they would have started fighting.

As it was, by the end of training, when James blew his whistle and called that the session was over, Sirius, Marlene and Martin were all shooting looks at each other – two of the said, sending hostile glares towards Martin who in turn would shoot daggers back at the pair of them.

He also noticed that Sirius and Marlene kept glancing at each other but only when the other person wasn't looking.

James smiled to himself as he watched his friend's scowl become something completely different as his eyes set on the blonde Chaser. It had been a long time since Sirius had looked at someone like that.

After training was over, James followed Sirius into the Entrance Hall. He was eager to get some lunch as he was starving.

Before they were even halfway across the hall however, Remus and Peter came hurrying out of the Great Hall.

"James, Lily says that she wants to speak to you, right now." Remus said seriously.

"Why?" James asked, a crease appearing between his eyebrows.

Remus shrugged. "She didn't say. All she said was that she wants you to meet her in the broom cupboard on the fifth floor in ten minutes."

James looked at Sirius who looked just as confused as James felt. "Maybe Peeves has stolen Filch's special mop or something."

James snorted then sighed. "Fine, we'll skip lunch. I wonder what she wants..."

"I wonder..." Sirius said with the perfect picture of puzzlement on his face.

"Hey Lils," Marlene said as she entered the common room and spotted Lily sitting at a table, bent over a letter. In a split second, Marlene registered that Lily's bag was lying on top of the back of an armchair.

"Oh, hey Marls. Did you have a good training session?" Lily said, not looking up from her letter.

"Not really, it was crap. Martin was being a right dickhead." Marlene said, cautiously reaching into Lily's bag and feeling around. Finally, her fingers touched a wand handle. She drew it out carefully and hid it up her sleeve.

"That's a same..." Lily muttered, completely occupied by her writing.

"Yeah, and I – uh, saw McGonagall on the way up." Marlene continued.

At the mention of McGonagall, Lily looked up.

"She said to tell you to come to the Broom cupboard on the fifth floor straight away."

"Did she say why?" Lily asked, putting her quill down.

"I think Peeves has taken all of Filch's brooms out and hidden the around school. Filch is determined that you all go to the scene of the crime to investigate." Marlene said, casually.

"When were you going to tell me this?" Lily asked, springing to her feet and grabbing her bag.

Marlene pulled a face and shrugged. "I've just told you!"

Lily just sighed, rolled her eyes once then hurried out of the common room.

Marlene allowed herself to grin once then pulled a straight face and followed her friend.

"What did I tell you Pads?" James asked gleefully as the four boys made their way up to the fifth floor. "Didn't I say that Evans would fall for me eventually?"

"I believe you did Prongs." Sirius mused, trying to keep his face straight. He shot a look towards Peter who walking close behind James.

Peter tripped and crashed into James, sending them both sprawling on the floor.

Peter tried to get up but lost his balance and fell over again, this time James managed to keep him upright.

Sirius and Remus fell about laughing and James scowled at all three of them and looked around to see if anyone had seen that little display, nobody had.

When they reached the broom cupboard, James peered inside. "She's not here." He said a slight trace of disappointment in his voice.

"She must be late." Sirius said immediately. "Girls take ages to get ready for stuff like this."

James nodded, reassured. "Right then, I'll just wait inside."

Right after James had disappeared into the cupboard; Lily came tearing around the corner, red hair flying, a wild look in her eyes. Marlene was racing after her, still dressed in her Quidditch gear, her face flushed and alight with excitement.

"Where's McGonagall?" Lily demanded.

Sirius and Remus instantly pointed fingers at the broom cupboard whose door was still half open.

Peter, who had been slow on the uptake, saw what his friends were doing and pointed at the cupboard as well.

Lily's face set determinedly and she strode to the closet, pulled the door wide and hurried in.

Sirius and Marlene exchanged a look then both of them moved forward quickly and slammed the door closed, locking the Headboy and girl in together.

Marlene looked at Sirius leaning against the door next to her and she bit her lip to keep from laughing.

Sirius grinned back triumphantly. "Gotcha!"

"You make it seem so easy!" Marlene laughed. "You lot do this sort of thing all the time – this is a first for me."

"Marlene McKinnon, you have missed out on a great part of life," Sirius said. "You wanna get locked in a broom cupboard with me next time?" He threw in for effect adding a cheeky wink to top it off.

"Will you give the flirting a rest Sirius!" Remus exclaimed, rolling his eyes up towards the ceiling as Marlene smirked back at Sirius.

"Why, Moony? You don't want to go out with me anymore?" Sirius asked pulling an injured expression and turning to face his friend with his bottom lip protruding.

Remus snorted disbelievingly. "Wow Pads, after all we've been through, I thought I knew you properly but I never would have dreamt that you would come out as homosexual this way!"

Marlene laughed. "Sirius Black? Gay? Yeah, and Dumbledore isn't a wizard!"

"He sure as hell is a wizard!" Sirius said, dropping the wounded expression and reassuming his charming smile. "Why, are you interested McKinnon?"

"Shove off Black!" Marlene retorted but she couldn't help the small smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth as she said it.

Lily heard the door slam and whirled around. She realised almost instantly that she was trapped.

"Lily?" a voice said from the other end of the small room.

Lily turned around again and came face to face with the one person she did not want to see.

"Potter, what in Merlin's name is going on?" Lily snapped, pushing against the door with all her strength but to no avail.

"I don't know!" James said getting up and coming to stand next to her trying to force the door open too. "I swear that I have no idea what those idiots are doing!" He hammered on the door and yelled through it "Sirius! You complete twat, let us out now!"

"Wait, my wand is in my bag." Lily said. She reached into her bag and rummaged around in it for a moment before freezing and turning slightly paler. "It was in my bag, I swear it was."

She dug deeper in then turned the entire thing upside down. Books fell to the floor, along with parchment and quills, but no wand.

"Shit!" Lily swore so suddenly that James looked towards her, shocked.

"Marlene must have taken it! I can't believe..." she trailed off, shaking her head. Then she looked up at James. "Do you have your wand?"

"I had it," he replied, reaching into his back pockets. "Peter must have taken it when he tripped into me. I mean, he's clumsy but he's not that clumsy."

Lily turned, if possible, even paler. "So now we are locked in a broom cupboard... together "

James sighed and turned to shout through the door again "Sirius Black, when I get out of here, you are going to be in such big shit!"

Lily dropped onto an upside down bucket. She had repacked her bag and now she leaned against the wall. "What I don't understand is, what is the point of all this?"

James laughed. "This? This is Sirius's idea of a practical joke."

Lily snorted. "Great friends you've got Potter!"

"Yeah, they are great friends actually!" James retorted, his voice rising slightly in defence of the other Marauders.

"You still think that after they lock you in a broom cupboard?"

"Yes!" James snapped. "So are you saying that when we get out, Marlene won't be your friend anymore?"

"No," Lily said. She was looking at him with a strange expression on her face.

"What?" James asked.

"Your faithful to your friends James Potter," she said finally, "I'll give you that."

James wasn't quite sure how to respond so he laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" Lily scowled.

"Well Lils, I think that is the nicest thing that you've ever said to me. I'm at a loss for words!"

The corners of Lily's mouth curved upwards in a half smile.

She watched him walk backwards and forwards a few times before sliding down the wall and facing her.

"I suppose we're going to have to find something to pass the time without arguing." He said slowly.

"Yeah, I guess we do." Lily said. There was a pause then she said "can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." James said, indicating that she could with a wave of his hand.

"You knew about my sister's marriage? You even knew what I thought about it, how?"

James smiled. "Oh, that."

"Yes that. I can tell you right now Potter; if you've been spying on me –"

"I haven't been spying on you." James cut her off. "Think back; who have you told?"

"Only Alice and Marl... oh!" she said, realising. Her eyes narrowed. "Ii can't tell her anything!"

James laughed. "It wasn't McKinnon's fault. I just asked her how her summer had been and I could tell that she hadn't been completely honest in her answer. She refused to tell me anything though, then I heard Alice talking to Frank about it and I realised. I asked her about it again and she finally gave in and told me."

"Why do you care so much anyway?" Lily asked.

James shrugged. "Should I not care? Would you prefer that?"

"I'm not completely sure sometimes." Lily said quietly, not looking at him. "If you'd asked me that a week ago I would have said that yes, I would prefer it, but now...?" She finally looked up at him. "You're not so much of the arrogant toerag that you once were Potter."

James nodded. It was true that he had matured over the last summer holidays, he'd had to deal with Sirius being a complete wreck and running off all the time. He had seen the pain that his best friend had gone through and that sort of thing ages you slightly. "Maybe..." James trailed off and shook his head.

"What?" Lily's voice wasn't exactly kind but the expression on her face gave James the courage to finish his sentence. "Listen Lily, I'm sick of us arguing constantly. What if we were to start again, try and be friends – see how it goes?"

He was greeted with silence. Lily was looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Actually," James said after ten more seconds of this silence, "forget I just said that, it was a stupid idea. I was an idiot for even thinking –"

"No," Lily said, cutting him off. James raised his head to look at her. "No, it wasn't a stupid idea."

James looked up at her hopefully.

Lily sighed resignedly. "What I'm trying to say is that – this is our last year and I don't want it to end like – well, I agree with you, I think we should give it a go."

A wide smile broke over James's handsome face as she said this.

"Just one thing!" Lily said quickly.

"What?" James asked warily.

"Please don't ask me out."

James smiled again and raised his hand to shoulder height, palm facing her. "I promise." He said sincerely.

"Thank you... James." Lily replied. She said his name hesitantly at first but she smiled as she said it.

A/N Thanks for reading, Reviews are appreciated, feel free to contact me if you want to ask anything, I will upload the next chapter a some point soon as I am still in the notebook writing of it

Cheers,

Molteaser x