Fifth Year (Spring):

Remus heard low arguments overlapping when he found James and Lily contending with each other at the side of the common room. Lily sat facing James on the couch, her brows furrowed as her perplexed facial expression silently spoke out that she was trying to figure out whatever it is that she's missing.

But, James didn't seem ready to enlighten her. His leaned back posture may seem untroubled with one knee horizontally forming a 90 degree angle as his leg rested on top of his right one, and a book propped up open in his hand. But, he was being abnormally distant. His face was straight, expressionless, not facing Lily's and his voice was composed.

"... -e, I really don't see-"

" - doesn't sound appealing at all-"

A disgruntled sigh flows out of Lily. "- must you?"

"Lily. No. Alright?" he glances over at her strictly before looking back at his book. "Not now."

"Then, when? It's been three days, James Potter." Lily stands up, her hair falling orderly straight behind her. "You need to talk to him, or else."

Only at the sound of her departing footsteps is when James finally looks up from his book, watching as she walks away, muttering something about universal male immaturity.

"Remus," Lily's tension visibly dissipates to some relief and a smile quickly appears when her eyes spot him. "Talk to your friend, won't you? He's being an unapologetic thickhead."

"Lily-," Remus hesitates. "I can't- exactly find it in myself to blame him at the moment... I've forgiven Sirius but for James it might take a bit longer."

"Remus, you know that not talking doesn't solve anything, it's just some reflex we turn to when we want to avoid something until it goes away, but no one is leaving anywhere."

Remus found himself smiling even from all of this heavy thinking. "It's not often we get to hear you defending Sirius."

"Help me convince him, Remus?" Lily asks of him, giving him a half-hearted smile before she leaves.

James likes to think that he would have eventually on his own made up with Sirius after what happened with Snape and the Whomping Willow. But, he knew if it wasn't for Lily's insistence, they would have reconciled much later... chancing the small risk that maybe, perhaps along their heightened tension, they would have even gotten the opportunity to regrettably damaged their friendship to an extreme point where they couldn't return to being the faithful friends they were.

It was humorous really. Considering, Lily and he were barely considered friends in fourth year. He would have called her his friend, of course, for personal reasons, but in truth, they were only starting to become acquaintances. Not the friendliest of sorts, but he sensed her slightly warming up to him then.

"Would you care to join us?" Lily smiles warmly at James. He, Sirius, and Remus had gathered with a couple of other Gryffindors by the end of their table during their free period just chatting when Lily moved over a bit to have her boyfriend sit next to her.

"...I almost fell out with her..." one of boys standing goes.

"What happened?"

Lily leans her head towards James to curiously ask, "Who are they talking about?"

"Her best friend nearly petrified me, thinking I was her last boyfriend."

"Tommy's soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, Grace..." James whispers back to her, under the tones of their housemates.

"That's what I thought," Lily quietly replies, interested. "Though I don't think she'd break up with him over that."

"Over having a row with her mate?"

"Yes," she insists with a grin. "She knows Tommy's mad for her."

James shrugged offhandedly. "Is he?" He doesn't think anyone is truly able to descend into madness unless he was endlessly pursuing a girl called Lily Evans.

"Hey," Lily changes the topic, pressing her hands on his knee. "I've been thinking about me visiting your mum and dad next week."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Well, I was also thinking, that maybe you might want to visit my parents as well?" she said, hopefully.

"Evans, risking my life to meet your parents is one I am ready to do for you," James grins, showcasing his genetically gifted features. "I'll be there."

Lily lights up as if the sun suddenly decided to shine solely on her, staring up at his handsome looks. "James! That's fantastic! Though I'd be lying if I said I was any less nervous, but James! Thank you!" She drapes her arms around his neck and noisily kisses his cheek.

"Dear Merlin's burning beard, when is the honeymoon stage going to fall down to hell," Jasper Spinnet asks from the bunch next to them with light eyes.

"Green's not a flattering color on you, boys," James smirks and messes with his hair.

Lily rolls her eyes with a subtle smile, leaning her chin on his shoulder when she finds Sirius who had just walked in.

But, her ready smile froze halfway when she spotted Sirius' face entirely.

"What in the world happened to Sirius?"

James turns his head around to find his best mate sporting a eye that was already seeming to bruise under with faint tinges of blue and purple.

"The human body truly is an art base. What in the bloody hell, mate?" James stands up from his seat when Sirius finally comes by their way.

Vocal reactions ranging from the expected "damn" to low whistles emerge from their table.

"So, you can tell?" Sirius says, unabashed. His curly black hair seemed to only accentuate his black eye that had James regretting what he missed out on and a bit pissed that this happened to his best mate.

"So, who was it then?" Wes Brown asks, not putting away his eager curiosity at all.

Lily looked strangely upon their prefect.

"No one worth getting excited over, gentlemen."

"Slytherin?" James only asks the one term, sitting back down with Sirius.

"It was Reg." Sirius steals Lily's water and takes a deep gulp of it, refreshing himself and she pays no mind to it at all, needing to hear more about his encounter with his brother.

"Where's he?" she asks instead, her forehead creased. She was holding on to James' arm quite tightly too.

"Reckon he's somewhere here in this castle. Or not, not that I can give a flying shite anymore."

"What'd you two fight about now?" James asks, impatient on hearing what happened.

"The same, ain't it. Ran into him alone, and decided to try to throw some sense into him again. I told him that if he plans on doing anything with his creep posse than the least they can do is try to at least not make it comically obvious they're up to something. Those dimwitted idiots."

"Cowards, more like it," Wes mutters darkly, to which a proud Sirius rewards with an affectionate pat on his shoulder.

"Sirius," Lily was still focused on his eye that seemed to have gotten more swollen. "Don't you want to get that checked out?"

"Nah, I'm good, honest to God," he says, reassuringly.

James turns his body towards her. "Last time he got a mark on his face, at least a dozen girls a day fussed over him, hardly leaving his side."

Sirius had already moved on to speak with Jasper and the other boys on their quidditch team, letting Lily and James continue to speak on their own.

"But, this is just depressing, isn't it," Lily remarks, crestfallen. "Two brothers going at each other as if they were enemies."

"I'm afraid it's been like that for a long time now," James looks down and reaches for her hand on his knee, holding it in his.

"I know. But, I was hoping- well, because he's his family, his biological one at least..."

James smiled regrettably. "But, what have they done for him, love? Nothing. Nothing at all."

"Hey, Potter," Sirius tracks at the corner of his eyes a fellow student chatting with his friends as they walked down the row of compartments on their train.

They had just departed and their train was set to finally arrive at Kings Cross Station to start their holiday within the hours. He and James had just gotten up to visit the sweets trolley when Sirius recognized him after a brief moment.

Eerily grinning, Sirius was anticipating at what was to come.

He elbows James and nods his head forward.

His eye that was a spectrum of purple and blue had completely disappeared within an hour after visiting Pomfrey before they left for the train. He figured he wanted to spare James' mum from unnecessarily fretting and worrying, he'd only feel lead heavy with guilt.

"Isn't that the bloke that Lily said snogged her first year?"

James, who was barely paying attention as he walked behind Sirius, snaps his head up, first looking at Sirius before moving his gaze to where Sirius' was.

The suspect indeed was Sean Blaney, a tall, average looking bloke from Hufflepuff, and unconscious at all by the two flat stares he was receiving as he walked towards them.

Indeed, though it may have been a year since Marlene informed James and Sirius about Blaney and his attempt to drunkenly snog Lily all those years ago, he was never truly forgotten by them.

"Merry christmas, mate. My gift to you," Sirius encouragingly hits his shoulder and watched as James grinned, never breaking their stride as they eventually caught up with Sean and his mates.

"Hey. Sean, right?" James asks benignly.

"Yeah." Sean widens his eyes a bit, with James suddenly talking to him out of the blue. "You're, ah, Potter."

"You sure? You don't sound very certain about that," James jokes with a harmless grin, sticking his hands in his pocket.

Sean takes it lightly as it was meant to be, starts to relax.

"I saw your last game, nice job chasing off Davis."

"Thanks, man. Have a good holiday, yeah?" James nods with Sean returning it before they both pass by each other, going their opposite ways.

One step, Sirius mentally does a countdown as they walk away.

And, another...

"Wait, what, what's happeninmgh-" Distantly, they hear Sean's outburst then his muffles as his lips had suddenly swelled up shut, and two big, pink, and puffy pillows instead sat underneath his nose.

Sirius takes a lazy glance over his shoulder. James didn't even bother.

"Hope mummy likes his new look," Sirius comments, shrugging his shoulders back and grins when he faced forward again.