Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter J.K. Rowling does...blah blah blah...you know the rest.

Chapter 11 A Change in Attitude

James now realized that his concerns about Sirius's ability to stay angry with him were not unfounded. It had been two weeks since James had stopped Sirius and taken twenty points from Gryffindor, Sirius had completed his week of detention James had given him plus the extra week McGonagall had given him on top of that and he still wouldn't even be in the same room with him, let alone speak to him. This made James very nervous as the full moon was fast approaching and he and Sirius really couldn't afford to be fighting each other when they needed to be worried about Moony.

The one benefit to Sirius not talking to him was that he was now sitting with Lily in Potions. Sirius, while not actually angry with Lily, still didn't want to sit with her because she was, "on James side." Therefore, Sirius had taken to sitting with Marlene, leaving James to sit with Lily.

On this particular Monday Slughorn began class by presenting them with a potion he had brewed himself.

"So," Slughorn began, "Who can tell me what this potion I have here is?"

Lily's hand went into the air. James looked over at Snape, surprised he too hadn't raised his hand, and noticed him eyeing Slughorn's potion with a look he usually reserved for James or Sirius.

"Ah, Miss Evans, of course," Slughorn said grinning as he always did when Lily raised her hand in his class.

"It's Amortentia, the most powerful love potion in the world."

"Very good, Miss Evans, very good. You will all remember this potion, of course, from the essay I set you the first week of school. I had hoped to have it ready sooner, but alas some of the ingredients are best when picked at the full moon and then this potion is required to sit for three weeks before the final stage. This, however, is not the reason we won't be brewing it. This is one of the most dangerous potions we will study in NEWT level potions and I have placed a spell on this cauldron so I shall know if even a drop is missing."

"I don't see how a love potion can be that dangerous. I've seen much more gruesome ones in 'Moste Potent Potions,'" Snape scowled under his breath. Slughorn heard him despite this.

"Ah, Mr. Snape, you may think that, but never underestimate the dangers of obsessive love. Which is what this potion really creates. It is of course, impossible to create real love from a potion. Now, Miss Evans, can you tell me what is special about this potion, besides being the most powerful love potion in the world of course?"

"Its smell is different to each person."

"Very good, ten points to Gryffindor. So is anybody brave enough to come up to the cauldron tell me what they smell?" Nobody raised their hand. In fact, they all became rather quiet.

Lily didn't raise her hand but she was sitting right in front of the potion and couldn't resist taking a deep, although quite, breath."

She smelled fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, fresh cut grass, cinnamon, and a fourth smell that she could not identify but was pretty sure she had smelled somewhere before.

James, who was sitting next to Lily, also took a subtle whiff of the potion. 'Mmm,' he though, treacle tart, new Quidditch ball (think new car) smell, and something sweet, that after a moment of thought he realized was a smell he associated with Lily. James grinned to himself.

James sat up in the boy's dormitory later that evening trying to do his homework but he was having trouble concentrating. The date for the first Hogsmeade weekend had just been announced that day and James was trying to figure out the best way to ask Lily to go with him, or at least meet up with him. He was afraid that if he waited too long someone else would ask her and if that happened he didn't know what he would do.

As he sat there, reading the same question for the fourth time, 'Explain the difficulties in human transfiguration when transfiguring a human into a non-mammal' Remus came in.

"Hey, Prongs, how's the homework coming?"

"It's not," James replied looking stressed.

"What's wrong, NEWTS can't be getting you that stressed yet?"

"No, it's not NEWTS, I'm not worried about them, their just tests."

"Well what's the problem then?" Remus asked, although he already suspected what the problem was related to.

"It's Lily," James began.

"Ah, my next guess."

"Yeah, well I want to ask her to Hogsmeade, but I don't know how to go about it. I mean she usually gets really mad when I ask her out, but I don't know of any other way to get her to go on a date with me, that are legal, besides asking. Plus I'm fairly certain that if I used a sub-legal method of getting her to go to Hogsmeade with me, that she'd never speak to me again, mostly because she'd have killed me, no matter how much fun we had."

Remus laughed slightly. "Why don't you try asking nicely?" Remus suggested grinning.

James looked at Remus like he was crazy. "Ask her nicely. What kind of advice is that? I already planned on doing it nicely."

"Well," Remus began hesitantly. "You haven't always asked her out so nicely in the past."

"Point taken. But how should I go about it. I mean I don't want her to get angry with me. I want her to say yes."

"Well, I still suggest asking nicely and just being…normal James, whom Lily seems to like, instead of being arrogant prat James, whom you normally are when you ask her out and whom she hates. If you ask as normal James I'm sure she'll say yes," Remus explained knowingly.

"Thanks Remus," James said smiling. "You know, its times like these I don't understand why you don't have a girlfriend."

"Who'd want to go out me?" Remus asked quietly.

"Plenty of people," James said seriously.

"I highly doubt that," Remus replied despondently.

"Anyone who wouldn't go out you because of your furry little problem is a waste of your time," James said a hint of bitterness in his voice. "But there's plenty of people who know better."

Remus just sighed. James felt anger flare up inside him. Not because he was angry with Remus, but because he was angry with the people who were responsible for Remus thinking that being a werewolf made him a bad person.

"You're one of the best people I know, Moony," James said supportively. "Anyone who doesn't see that is a fool."

"Thanks James," said Remus smiling slightly as he picked up the DADA book he had originally come upstairs for as he headed towards the door.

"Thanks to you too, Moony," James said as Remus walked out the door.

Remus walked down the spiral staircase and into the Common Room. One look around it told him that he would get absolutely no work done sitting in the Common Room, it was simply too crowded. With this thought Remus picked up his bag and headed off to the Library. He looked around for a table to sit at and spotted Lily sitting at a table tucked away in a corner behind some of the stacks. He made his way over to her.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" Remus asked.

Lily looked up from her work, "Not at all."

"Thanks," Remus replied.

"No problem, how've you been?" Lily asked.

"Not bad, you?"

"I've been pretty good," Lily replied.

"What are you working on?" Remus asked.

"Potions."

"Ah, wasn't sorry to give that up at all," Remus said with a grin. "Don't know how you can do it."

"I like potions, there's just something about a simmering cauldron and the preciseness of it that appeals to me."

"So are you enjoying being Head Girl?"

"Yeah. I mean it's a lot of work and all, but it's still enjoyable. I'm sorry you didn't get Head Boy," she added.

"Don't be. I didn't want it. Being a Prefect is one thing, but Head Boy, no thanks. Besides I think James is a lot better at it than I would be. I never would have had the guts to tell Sirius off like he did."

Lily smiled, "I sure you would have done fine."

"Naw, James is much better at controlling Sirius than I was at controlling the two of them."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at this. "Sorry," she added.

"Quite all right."

"I have to say though, that I'm shocked at how seriously James is taking this. When I first read my letter telling me that we would be Head Girl and Boy together I was convinced Dumbledore had lost his mind."

"I think James thought Dumbledore had lost his mind, too," Remus replied.

Lily laughed at this. "I was shocked when his letter came, asking if we could set our differences aside so we could work together effectively. And this year, he's been so…different…"

"Yes, James grew up quite a bit at last year."

"Why, what happened?" Lily asked curiously.

"I can't tell you, sorry," Remus replied, looking slightly nervous.

"You boys and your mysteriousness. James said the same thing after the incident with Sirius and Snape…"

"Huh?! What?!" Remus said suddenly looking worried.

"After that Saturday by the lake…" Lily said slowly.

"Oh right…"

"James said McGonagall would probably give Sirius more detentions in addition to the ones James gave him, and when I asked why, he said he couldn't talk about it. What did you think I meant?"

"Never mind," Remus replied calming down quickly. Lily looked at him oddly. "So what are you doing for potions?" Remus asked changing the subject.

Lily was still curious but she let it go. "Writing an essay on the proper way to brew Vertiserum. We're going to begin brewing it soon and it's rather finicky so Professor Slughorn is making us write an essay first to, 'properly familiarize ourselves with the method,'" Lily explained in an excellent imitation of Slughorn.

"You know," Remus said suddenly. "You really should give James a chance. He really does like you."

Lily looked at Remus like he had lost his mind. "Where did that come from?"

"Just sort of popped into my head," he replied nonchalantly. "I know he always used to act like an arrogant prat in front of you, but he really isn't one. He just didn't know how to act in front of you," Remus explained. "I think he's only now starting to figure out that showing off every time he sees you is not the key to your heart," Remus chuckled.

"Did he put you up to this?"

"No," Remus said seriously.

"Why did he feel the need to show off every time he saw me?" Lily asked genuinely confused.

"Because you were the one girl he's really interested in and unlike all the others you don't simply fall at his feet, which I won't deny is probably part of your appeal," Remus said wisely.

"See, I told Marlene he only wanted to go out with me because I wouldn't give him the time of day," Lily grumbled.

"No, no, no," Remus said quickly worried that this wasn't going to go as well as he'd hoped.

"He doesn't view you just as some sort of challenge, he really does like you. I'm just saying that part of your appeal is that you don't throw yourself at his feet. His "fan club" only likes him because he's James Potter and while James may enjoy the attention, the more serious James hiding below the surface wants someone who's interested in him, not just his reputation. Plus he's had a crush on you since our first ride on the Hogwarts Express," Remus grinned. "He's a bit hopeless to be honest."

Lily looked at Remus like he was crazy. "But he can be so arrogant…"

"Well, yes, but, and here we must be honest that there really isn't much James isn't good at. If you spent your whole life being told how great you are, you'd be a bit arrogant too. I mean yes, he and Sirius mess around a lot, but they're still excellent students, even McGonagall won't deny it if you ask her. And James is really good at Quidditch and he is an only child who is the apple of his parents' eye…Plus he's got this personality that makes him really good with people in general, so pretty much everyone likes him. When you put it all together, you can kind of understand why he's always acted so arrogant, even if it was rather um…unbecoming."

Lily had to admit it was really hard to argue with Remus's logic.

"But at least he's starting to grow out of the need to prove just how good he is at everything," Remus chuckled. "And I can tell you from personal experience, you couldn't ask for a more loyal friend. You really should give him a chance," Remus finished.

"I'll think about it," Lily replied cautiously.

"That's all I ask," Remus replied. "Now I have distracted us from our homework for long enough." With that Remus pulled out his DADA book and started his homework.

Lily, however, was now having trouble concentrating. Her mind kept wandering back to what Remus had said earlier. Did James really like her? It was one thing when Marlene said it, sure she was friendly with James, but they really didn't hang out outside of Quidditch, plus she and Katie liked to give Lily a hard time about James for their own amusement anyway.

When Remus sat there arguing that James really did like her, however, it was harder to argue with. She knew Remus well enough from their patrols as Prefects to know that he wouldn't make all that up even if James had asked him to, Remus was not dishonest like that.

She also couldn't help wondering what it was that neither James nor Remus could talk about. She had the feeling that both were referring to the same incident, though she had no proof of this.