Lily and Hestia walked through the Entrance Hall, the morning of Halloween, talking to each other. The Marauders were nowhere to be seen, which made the both of them extremely glad. Hestia had pointed out exactly what was on Lily's mind the previous day:

"Somehow I don't think we get to spend much time with each other anymore."

So then they had had a sort of a slumber party in the Room of Requirement the previous night, owing to the fact that Lily had informed Hestia about the wondrous room. Well, you couldn't exactly have called it a party, seeing as it was only the two of them, but it was fun anyway.

"I love Halloween," Hestia sighed suddenly, gazing longingly at the numerous decorations around the Hall. "It's full of… spookiness. Just wait- I helped the teachers to decorate the Great Hall, you'll love it,"

"Then you'd love a Halloween party," Lily said as they stepped out into the grounds.

"A party?" Hestia asked eagerly. "What party? There's a party?"

"Yeah, I heard the Marauders talking about it a few days ago." she shrugged.

"The Marauders?" Hestia asked. "You've never said 'the Marauders' before… I thought you said that was the most idiotic name ever."

"Um… spontaneity?" Lily blushed hopefully.

"Oh, stop pretending Lily," Hestia punched her shoulder. "You don't hate them anymore and you know it,"

"Fine," Lily gave in. "But anyway, about Halloween-"

"Did Lily-Flower tell you about Halloween then?"

The two girls both groaned simultaneously and turned towards the famous beech tree- property of the Marauders. They had unknowingly trespassed in the Marauders' territory, and were about to regret it.

There they were, all four of them, stretched out in the tree's shadow, Remus and James leaning against the trunk and Sirius and Peter lying down on the grass, all with bright, cocky grins on their faces. How could they have not realized that the Marauders would be sitting here? It was a Saturday morning, after all. They should have known.

"Bugger off, Black," Lily said with her chin up in the air and steering Hestia in the other direction.

"You're not happy to see me?" Sirius wiped a fake tear from his eye.

"Ever wonder why I named you 'Jerk'?" Hestia rolled her eyes.

"Sure- because we didn't want people-" Sirius began, but was cut off sharply.

"Girl bonding time!" Hestia waved her hands around. "Hello!" she added to give some emphasis.

"That's right, we don't want any of you," Lily pointed a finger disgustedly at each one of them in turn. "Interrupting us again,"

"Leave me out of this." Remus raised his arm and continued to read a book he had propped open in his lap.

"But hey, look at it this way, Lily," James began, but Sirius finished the sentence for him.

"Don't we always have some reason to?" he asked, batting his eyelashes in innocence.

"Great," Lily scoffed. "So you're saying everyone else always interrupts without a reason?"

"Look- I always interrupt so I can steal Hestia," Sirius reasoned.

"And I do it so I can-" James began, but, realizing what he was about to say, cut himself off sharply in haste. "Ahem," he cleared his throat, blushing slightly, not knowing what to say. Sirius, for once, came to his aid.

"Annoy you," he lied, and winked at James, who just gave him a small smile in return. 'Thanks', he mouthed. Lily noticed this, but tried to act casual.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Remus said nervously, watching Hestia narrow her eyes at him.

"You're supposed to hold them back, aren't you?" she asked, taking him by the scruff of the neck. The others shook silently with mirth.

"Hey, tell him," Remus went blue in the face with suffocation, jerking his thumb in James' direction. "He's Head Boy,"

Hestia released her grip on Remus' neck and stomped over to James. Remus rubbed his neck soothingly and refrained himself from punching Sirius, who was making a big show of trying to hide his sniggers with the tips of his fingers.

"You arse- You git- You nincompoop of a failure-" Hestia spat in James face. James just tried not to burst out laughing at the hilarity of it all.

"We expect you to be at the party tonight," he said a bit too offhandedly, moving his head to the side in reflex, staring at the spot where it had been a second before, where now Hestia's balled fist lay hovering.

"Nice job, Twat, bet you could take over Snotnose on the Quidditch team," Sirius said, impressed. "You should see the punches he throws- they're like getting hit by a weasel in labor-" he silenced himself with a whack by Lily.

"Yeah right, if we show up for that lousy party of yours, you can have all my fashion magazines," Hestia said scornfully.

"Really?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"Anyway, just so you know, we're doing a Halloween prank tonight," James said nonchalantly.

"Because Prongs here," Sirius narrowed his eyes at him. "Wasn't there for the opening feast prank, so we have to reschedule,"

"Reschedule my foot!" Lily said disapprovingly. "If you-"

"You in, Lily-Flower?" Sirius asked before she could finish. Lily widened her eyes at James.

"I told you, it was only once!" she said. "Absolutely not, you disgusting creatures always-"

"Creative, Flower," Sirius said. "How can you always think of new insults each time?"

"Oh, screw off," Lily said in irritation, grabbing Hestia's arm and dragging her away from them. The both of them just ignored Sirius' shouts and walked as fast as they could over to a tree about a hundred feet away from them.

"Great job, Hest, you wanted to go to that party so bad," Lily shook her head.

"So?" she shrugged. "I'll still go, and refuse to give him my magazines." Lily just shook her head again.

"Huh, and who knows what they're prank is going to be?" she said in worry. "We don't want them to mess up Halloween, do we?"

"Yeah, but if you recall, none of their pranks have ever messed up anything," Hestia winked, and Lily smiled.

"I guess you're right…"

"Anyway, do you believe me now, Petal?" Hestia looked at her eagerly.

"Um… believe what, exactly?" Lily said in bafflement.

"That you really, really like James Potter?" she asked, and Lily just couldn't stop the blush from creeping up her features.

"No," she looked away, hoping that Hestia didn't see it. But it was futile; Hestia never missed anything. She could feel Hestia's winning eyes piercing her from the side, but didn't give her the satisfaction of seeing her give in. Nope, she just stared right out across the Black Lake, where, consequently, the Marauders were all sitting huddled up together. Darn. She couldn't stop her eyes from locking on to him, no matter how much she wanted to look away. Then, out of nowhere, she felt as if her insides had all gone numb in… longing? Whatever.

She tried not to act as if she knew of Hestia watching her; tried not to act as if those words of hers hadn't had much effect on her; tried to act as if she didn't really like James Potter.

But then she knew- all this time, she was only kidding herself. So what if she did? No matter what, she would try to push the feeling out of her.

Even though it was harder than impossible.


They were at the Halloween feast.

"Wow, Hest, you weren't exaggerating," Lily darted around her in wonderment. "You guys really did a great job!"

"I know, right?" Hestia folded her arms smugly.

The Great Hall didn't look like a Great Hall at all. It was spun into such a spooky thing, that there wasn't even a single spot that didn't speak of Halloween. Live bats soared over their heads; a dozen of Hagrid's giant pumpkins lay scattered around the tables, and… zombies? It certainly seemed like it, zombies bewitched to walk around and creep people out were sneaking up behind people and saying in a whisper, 'Boo', or other scary stuff like that.

"But, um… did you stop to think that with those things staggering around the hall like the undead just might make people lose their appetite?" she asked in disgust.

"Nope, didn't really think of that," Hestia said thoughtfully. "Wait-" she drew her wand and the zombies froze in their spots.

"I didn't know you mastered the Freezing Charm," Lily said, impressed.

"It's N.E.W.T. year!" Hestia rolled her eyes as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, giving a very good impression of Lily.

"Shut up," Lily waved her off.

"Hey!" Hestia said suddenly. Lily looked at her curiously.

"What?" she asked.

"Where are they?" she asked, and Lily knew instantly what she was talking about. Where were they, really? She knew that they had to do the prank thing, but for so long?

No sooner did she think this than three masked figures came zooming in the hall on broomsticks.


James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were standing in a huddled group in the Entrance Hall, which was empty as they had hoped.

"Come on, Prongsie-Pie, we could just sneak over and steal some Slytherin robes, no one would know it was us and those idiots would get killed for it-" Sirius pleaded.

"Padfoot! You know we can't do that-" James sighed.

"No, Sirius has a point…" Remus said with a mischievous glint in his eye. The others just looked at him in astonishment.

"Moony!" they all said incredulously.

"No, listen!" Remus calmed them down. "We could take their Quidditch robes, and then just remove the name on the back. That way, even if they are in the Great Hall, no one would know which Slytherins did it and it would all be okay."

"But then what would be the use?" Sirius asked, bemused. "If they don't know which Slytherin did it, then what's the use of wearing it in the first place?"

"Ah, Padfoot…" James shook his head. "You're missing the whole point!"

"Okay, fine," Sirius rolled his eyes. "I'll go get them."

"Hurry up, the feast is about to start,"

"Look! It's already started! We're about fifteen minutes too late,"

"Who cares? We'll just crash in on them,"

"Now that is talking like a true Marauder,"

"Got 'em!" Sirius said happily, brandishing three over-sized Quidditch robes. "I even erased the names on the back. No need to thank me," he added a bit too modestly.

"Shut up and hand them over, Padfoot," James snatched one of them from him and threw it over his Hogwarts robes. "Yuck. I knew Slytherins were big, but not this big," he pulled at his baggy robes.

"Well, we know who to thank for that," Sirius slipped on his robes.

"Who?"

"Me, of course,"

"You?" they laughed. "We have to thank you for making the Slytherins all big and fat?" Remus added.

"Yeah!" Sirius said. "Remember that time-"

"No, don't remind us," James said. "We have to get in that hall real quick if we have to get on with the prank."

"Yeah," Peter said. For some reason, he looked paler than usual and was perspiring profusely.

"Anyway, sorry for not including you in this, Wormtail…" James apologized. "But Merlin knows you're not a very good flier,"

"Not a very good flier?" Sirius snorted under his breath. They all ignored him, with the exception of Peter blushing a bit.

"Oh well," he shrugged. "I'm okay with it. Just try not to mess it up too much, okay?" he clapped James on the back.

"Okay," he nodded. "Masks on, brooms up, really small bags in hand, people. Remember, one full sweep and then out of there,"

"Right," Remus nodded, pulling the black mask over his face. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this…"

"Relax, Moony, no one'll know it's us," Sirius assured him.

"Yeah, right," Remus snorted. "Their instinct will tell them to look over to the Gryffindor table, and then they'll see that we're not here. Oh joy," he added in mock happiness.

"We're wearing Slytherin robes, remember?" James said.

"And everyone knows we hate Slytherins,"

"Yeah, well, who doesn't hate 'em?" Sirius piped up.

"Calm down, Moony! We've got it all under control," James waved his and to stop all further discussion. "Wormtail, better hide behind that pumpkin over there, in case Filch gets out tonight," Peter obliged, ducking behind a massive pumpkin.

"Okay, on my count," James took a deep breath. The others stood in an alert position on either side of him, ready to blast the doors open at a moment's notice. "One," Remus fidgeted slightly, tightening his grip on the broom handle. "Two," Sirius let out a deep breath. "Three!" They barged into the Great Hall. And were very much aware of everyone's eyes on them and they made one full sweep of the Hall.


"Looks like I spoke too soon," Lily sighed as the three figures zoomed into the hall and started to drop giant jack-o-lanterns from their tiny bags. No doubt the bags had an Undetectable Expansion Charm put on them.

"Ha! Ingenious!" Hestia laughed. "Sytherin robes- I wouldn't have thought of that!"

"Something's wrong, Hest," Lily rubbed her chin in thought as everyone in the hall put their arms over their heads, afraid of being hit by the lively jack-o-lanterns, which, as soon as they hit the ground, came to life. Lily ducked as one came hurtling past her and quirked her eyebrow in thought. Something was definitely wrong.

Once the figures had left the hall, everyone's heads automatically turned to the Gryffindor table, checking if the Marauders were still there. Once assured that they weren't, the totally unsurprised students and teachers gasped in incredulity.

Why? Because the dozens of jack-o-lanterns which were dropped in the hall, were growing in size and were barring their teeth menacingly.

Then they started to attack.

Screams erupted in Lily's ears as everyone scrambled to their feet and were trying to make a run for the door. She looked wildly around her as she saw the murderous pumpkins slashing and gnawing and biting the unsuspecting victims.


The Marauders dismounted their brooms, removed their masks and Sytherin robes, and handed them to Peter who at once darted up the staircase to shove them in the nearest broom closet.

"Perfect," Remus sighed with relief.

That's when the crowd stampeded out of the Great Hall, pushing and screaming each other to get away from the villainous jack-o-lanterns.

"What the-" Sirius gasped in surprise, but wasn't able to complete his sentence seeing as people were dashing past him, shoving him roughly from all sides.

James just stared. What in the hell was this? They hadn't charmed the pumpkins to act like this. Then who had?

He didn't allow himself a second thought as he focused his attention on the situation. He ran towards the Great Hall, as opposed to everyone else. It was proving difficult, seeing as one person against thousands was clearly a losing game. But nonetheless he pushed his way through the doors, feeling Sirius and Remus coming in from right behind him.

Inside it was utter chaos. One or two of the pumpkins (which were now reaching about eight feet in height) had escaped into the Entrance Hall, while the rest were still cluttered in the Great Hall. He noticed Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick taking down a particularly large one, and Professor Sprout and Professor Slughorn fight another…

That's when he noticed her. She was sitting at the Gryffindor table, a faraway look in her eyes, with Hestia pulling her arm desperately. She didn't seem to take in the whole situation.

He sprinted up to her, Sirius and Remus close behind him, and took her other arm.

"Lily, come on!" he said impatiently. Sirius pulled Hestia off of Lily and took her other arm.

"Let's go, Lily-Flower!" He tugged at her.

"Oh, what?" Lily snapped out of her reverie and looked up to see James and Sirius standing over her, looking at her with an air of desperation. Her eyes darted across the hall, taking everything in, and she jumped to her feet.

"What the hell?" She yelled, taking her wand out and shrugged James and Sirius off of her.

"We'll explain later, now we have to get out of here!" Remus said, constantly glancing over his shoulder.

"You can go, but I'm staying here," Lily said firmly, and they all smiled.

"I'm taking that one," James grinned, pointing at a particularly ferocious-looking one. Lily just gaped at him, and he winked at her.

"I'm with you, mate." Sirius drew his wand with a vicious look in his eyes. Lily had never seen Sirius like this before, he was always… cheery. She smiled automatically

"Guess that leaves me, Remus and you," Hestia concluded.

"And me," Alice came running into the hall, panting.

"Me too," Frank came up from behind her, dodging a swipe from a jack-o-lantern.

"Okay, people let's get to it, we need to send these orange balls of delight back packing," Hestia clapped her hands together and they ran across the hall, dueling giant pumpkins. One swipe here, one duck there, one spell here, one dodge there. It was a full out battle, between pumpkins and wizards.

Within fifteen minutes, all that was left in the Great Hall was pumpkin pulp, sticking to the walls and the floor. The seven Gryffindors stood sheepishly in front of the teachers and Professor Dumbledore, occasionally wiping the pulp out of their eyes or hair.

"Okay, we give in, we did it," James confessed, trying not to wince in pain from the gash on his left leg.

"You better have a good explanation for this," McGonagall narrowed her eyes in irritation, repairing the cut on her arm.

"Okay," Remus said. "It was us- me, James and Sirius,"

"You, Lupin?" McGonagall said incredulously.

"Honestly, don't look so surprised, Professor," he rolled his eyes.

"But look-" Sirius begged, and for once was not acting flirtatious in front of McGonagall. She tried not to notice the sudden change, but could not conceal her surprise. Sirius, however, ignored her. "It wasn't us! We didn't put that charm on them, we didn't do that! Honest,"

McGonagall couldn't help but believe him. Apparently, Dumbledore did too.

"Mr. Black, we have no reason not to believe you," Dumbledore began calmly. "Nor do we have any reason to,"

"So, um… what exactly are you saying, Professor?" James asked curiously.

"However, if, in fact, someone else did it, then nothing is to be gained from not believing you," Dumbledore finished.

"So you're saying you believe us, sir?" Remus asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to," he replied. "But the more important question is, who did it? And why?"

"So does this mean… we're going to be let off easy?" Sirius asked.

"You think…" McGonagall said menacingly. "That you're going to be 'let off easy' when you barge into the hall in the middle of the feast, on broomsticks, wearing Slytherin robes to get them in trouble, and drop jack-o-lanterns on people's heads without permission?"

"No. I guess not," Sirius gulped.

"You'd better guess not," McGonagall snarled. "Detention, all three of you, tomorrow morning. You're going to have to clean this mess up-"

"That's all?" James breathed a sigh of relief.

"Without magic." McGonagall completed her sentence, and they all groaned.

"Yes, that's all very fine, Minerva," Dumbledore cut in. "But until we can find the person responsible for this, I'm afraid we are going to have to take drastic action. First it was the carriage ride… then this? It's all very funny…"

After a few whispered conversations with McGonagall, Dumbledore turned back to the seven Gryffindors standing in front of him.

"You may go now," he said. "We will discuss this tomorrow. And be sure to pay a visit to the Hospital Wing," he added, letting his eyes fall on each one of them in turn and the injuries that they had suffered.

Without a word, they marched out of the Great Hall, Lily and James heading up to the Heads' dorm and the rest heading back to the Gryffindor Tower. None of them obeyed Dumbledore's request of going to the Hospital Wing, even though some of them had some really nasty cuts and bruises.

"Slytherin robes was going too far," Lily said, taking out her wand and repairing the damage done to her left arm as they entered the dorm.

""It was Padfoot's idea," James let himself down carefully on the sofa.

"So the party's off?"

"You think?" James' laugh was empty of all energy.

"You know Filch is going to kill you, right?" Lily said, staring out into the corridor. No one was to be seen, which was understandable, as they had all retreated to their common rooms in fright.

"For what?" James groaned.

"Leaving a blood trail in the corridor," she said disgustedly.

"Really?" James managed to pick himself up and walk over to the door.

"No, no, no!" Lily moaned, and he stopped in his tracks. "Get back over there, the floor is all… bloody now."

"Oops," he gave a hollow laugh, staring at the floor. "Do you think you could…?" he pointed to his leg, and she nodded. With a flick of her wand, bandages wound themselves around his leg and he sighed with relief.

"Much better," he said. "Thanks."

"No problem," she shrugged. "You didn't know how to do that?"

"I don't memorize every page of every textbook, Lily," he rolled his eyes.

"Shut up," she said. "But at least clean up the mess you made. Don't tell me you don't know how to do that!"

"Fine," he said, and cleaned up the mess with a wave of his wand.

"But what about the corridor?" she asked.

"Nah, I'll leave that to Filch," he said offhandedly, ducking to escape the whack that Lily was about to give him.

"You do know that he'll know it's you?"

"How so?"

"Well, for one thing, the blood trail leads right to our dorm," she said, and he laughed in realization.

"I guess so," he said thoughtfully. "Oh well, let him find out, I already have one detention, he can't give me another,"

"You don't know that," they both sat down on the sofa in silence. Neither of them felt like sleeping, giving the events of the night, but knew that they didn't have much of a choice.

"So, anyway…." James cleared his throat. "Goodnight," he got up and was making his way towards his stairwell when he heard Lily call him back.

"James!" she felt her lips move automatically, and clapped a hand over them, but he had already heard. "um…" she said awkwardly, and he raised his eyebrows. "If you could… I just… don't want to be alone." She said very stupidly, and began blushing violently. She expected him to laugh or something, but he didn't.

"Hey, that all?" he asked, but she didn't say anything. He walked back over to the sofa and sat down beside her.

"Trouble sleeping?" he asked, and she nodded very slowly.

"I guess," she said quietly. She didn't add that all she had wanted was his company, or that she just wanted someone to pull her together. Right then, every single depressing feeling she had every gotten came back to her in full force, and tears were threatening to break out in her eyes. Severus. And Alice. And her father. And Petunia. And the fact that she couldn't tell him anything.

"Yeah, me too," he confessed. That's when he saw her eyes- shinier than ever, illuminated by the firelight and making small lights dance in them. He could see the tears that she was trying so hard to suppress.

"Lily?" he asked, and she turned her head towards him. It was no use; he knew something was wrong already. How long would she have to pretend? That everything was all right when it actually wasn't?

"Yeah?" she asked, and she couldn't stop the sob from escaping her lips.

"Is anything wrong?"

Without warning, she burst into tears. And once she started to cry, she couldn't stop. It all just came spilling out of her, like one big waterfall, and she couldn't do anything about it. She felt James' arm around her, and was glad that he had the sense to not say anything. She tried to capture every moment that he was there with her, hugging her in comfort, not saying anything and just letting her cry on his shoulder. She could not get enough of it, feeling herself calm down at his touch, absorbing that soothing feeling he was offering her.

How long she had her head leaned against his shoulder, she didn't know. All she knew was that she was savoring every minute of it, all the way until dawn broke out over the horizon, when he gently pushed her off him and went up to his room to change.

She sighed.

What she didn't know was that the second James was out of her sight, he had punched his fist in the air in triumph, unwilling to believe that he had just spent one whole night with Lily Evans, well, not exactly, but he had had her there, leaning on his shoulder for one whole night without yelling at him. And he didn't do a single thing wrong!

"HA!" he yelled into his pillow, so that she couldn't hear. Who would have believed it?


"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NO QUIDDITCH PRACTICE?" James yelled in Professor McGonagall's face, right after Sirius, Remus, and himself had spent every ounce of energy in their bodies to tidy up the Great Hall and she had called him in to talk to her.

"Professor Dumbledore says it's too dangerous!" McGonagall said sternly, shoving him backwards off of her. "Believe me, Potter, I would have let you if I could, but-"

"THAT'S RIDICULOUS!" he yelled, trying to control his anger. "CANCELLING QUIDDITCH PRACTICE BECAUSE SOME FAT PUMPKINS ATTACKED US-"

"You very well know that there is more to it than just 'some fat pumpkins that attacked us'!" McGonagall said irritably. "Now get out of my sight, Potter,"

James, breathing heavily, stomped out of McGonagall's office, his eyes flaring angrily, and literally collided into Remus.

"How did it go?" he asked, pushing James off him. "What did she say?"

"No Quidditch practice," he mumbled.

"WHAT?" Sirius yelled, and many people walking past stared at him. "Carry on, people," he waved to the spectators, and they all shrugged and continued to walk. He turned back to James and added in a whisper, "What does she mean, 'No Quidditch practice'?"

"That's exactly what I said, mate," James sighed. "But she says that Dumbledore think it's for the best."

"She can't do that!" Sirius said. "Lemme go in and talk to her, maybe I can convince her-"

"Whoa!" Remus stepped in front of them so that he couldn't proceed. "With you convincing her, Sirius, I think there's a high chance that she'll take away your broomsticks as well,"

"But how- what-" Sirius spluttered.

"Relax," James grinned mischievously. "I have an idea,"

"An idea?" Remus asked incredulously.

"You get ideas?" Sirius caught on.

"Who knew?"

"Honestly, old chap, you ought to have told us-"

"Just shut up!" James sighed, burying his face in his hands and groaning. They shut their mouths, all right, but nevertheless continued to grin at each other. "Look- why don't we just practice in the Room of Requirement?"

Sirius and Remus just stared at him, their faces blank of any expression.

"The Room of Requirement?"

"You've got to be joking,"

"No one knows about it other than us! And Lily-Flower,"

"So what?" James asked. "It'll only be like five more people,"

"But they could tell everyone else!" Sirius reasoned.

"They won't," James promised. "Now are we going to check out the room or what?"

"No can do, chum," Sirius shook his head sadly. "These poor old legs of mine aren't carrying me anywhere,"

"I'll say," Remus said. "My hands are all numb from all the scrubbing and washing and mopping-"

"Come on!" James pleaded. "No one will know! See, the corridors are all deserted and I'm sure you guys can go that far. It's only a couple of floors above us,"

"What's a couple of floors above us?"

James turned around and groaned. Did Lily and Hestia always turn up at the worst of times?

"Gryffindor Tower?" he said hopefully.

"Oh, you guys can't fool us," Lily walked straight up to him and narrowed her eyes very close to his face.

"Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!" Sirius chanted. Lily and James both blushed and Hestia did Lily the liberty of taping Sirius' mouth shut.

"Thank you," Lily said breathlessly, and turned back to James, lowering her head slightly. "Now you tell me where you guys think you're going, or-"

"Or she swears she will go and tell Professor Dumbledore about this," Hestia finished, in a very accurate mimick of Lily.

"Yes. Exactly," Lily said, as the others sniggered. "Don't laugh at me, James Potter!" she said forcefully. "If anything you're doing is going to break any rules-"

"It's not," he said truthfully, and she scrutinized him for a few seconds, as if trying to find out whether or not he was lying, before she huffed and turned her back on him.

"Let's go, Hest," she grabbed Hestia's arm and marched her towards the staircase. Just before she went up the staircase, she turned and gave James a small smile, before she darted up the steps as fast as her legs could carry her.

James grinned to himself- he knew what she meant, he could read her… Thanks for last night… that's what she meant to say to him, through that smile.

Thanks for last night.

The words rang through his ears a dozen times every second.

Thanks for last night.


They were inside the Room of Requirement, gaping at their surroundings, which had turned into a massive Quidditch field.

"I didn't know it could do that," Remus said, surprised.

"Well, now that we know it can, we can have our practice in here!" James clapped his hands together in excitement. "Oh, and look- seven Nimbus Five Hundreds? That's great, we can practice with these." Sure enough, seven superb broomsticks lay near the hoops.

"Ohh, I've never flown a Nimbus Five Hundred before!" Sirius darted towards them with his eyes shining with excitement. "Come to Papa!" he added stupidly, kissing the broom handle and hugging it to him.

"I see Hestia's got some competition," Remus rolled his eyes, trying not to act like an idiot as he let the smooth wood of the broom ran through his fingers, trying hard to conceal the expression of longing threatening to break out on his face. Sirius just stuck his tongue out at him.

"Hey, Padfoot, could you do me a favor?" James asked, acting totally uncaring about the broomsticks which Sirius and Remus were both acting very loving with. No doubt he already owned one.

"A favor? What sort of favor? You've never asked me to do you a favor before!" Sirius snapped his head towards him excitedly.

"Hey, Moony, could you do me a favor?" James ignored him, and turned to Remus. Sirius just pouted at him.

"Yeah, what is it?" Remus asked, keeping the broomstick back down on the floor, his eyes showing great pain from parting with his beloved Nimbus Five Hundred.

"Tell the Quidditch team about this, and to continue with the practice times, except it's going to be in this room instead. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Remus shrugged.

"I could've done that," Sirius mumbled sadly.

"Okay, quit mating with the broomstick, and let's get out of here," James beckoned him towards the door.

"Aw, why?" Sirius whined staring longingly at the outstanding broomstick, slowly caressing its shiny handle.

"Because lunch is in fifteen minutes, knothead," Remus didn't even have to hoist him to his feet as Sirius ran across the room (Quidditch pitch), threw the door open, and sprinted across the corridor screaming.

"I'm starvingggg!" he yelled as he disappeared down the staircase.

"Sometimes I'm ashamed of him," Remus shook his head, poking his head outside the door.

"Yeah, but what can we do?" James pushed Remus out the door and shut it behind him. "He's always starving."

"Do you want to save ourselves from the 'Padfoot Stuffing Himself Attack' and just go for lunch in a half hour or something?" Remus asked, considering himself.

"Who says he's going to be done eating in half an hour?" James laughed, pulling Remus down the staircase. "Let's just deal with it, what's the worse he can do?"


"Okay, I take myself back, I know what's the worse he can do," James wrinkled his nose in disgust, wiping redcurrant sauce off his face as Sirius continued to shove food into his mouth, splattering his surroundings with bits of food as the people around him cringed in distaste.

"Yuck, Padfoot!" Remus slapped away some mint icing, flecked with crumbs of sweet barley cake, from his arm, looking at Sirius with an air of disapproval.

"Mmf," Sirius managed to get out of his mouth, seeing as it was already stuffed with handfuls of garnished shrimp, with a pinch of nutmeg and cream.

"You just took away my appetite, Sirius!" Lily groaned as bits of the stuff splattered her in the face.

"Dweadfuwwy thauwy, Miwady," Sirius said in a muffled voice.

"He says, "Dreadfully sorry, Milady," Remus translated, and Lily just shook her head in disapproval.

"Oh, forget lunch, this nincompoop has totally ruined it." Lily got up, eagerly followed by Hestia, who was just as glad to get out of Sirius' spitting range.

Lily didn't notice James' eyes following her all the way out of the hall, looking at her in longing, in desire.

He was able to ignore Sirius' horrendous eating habits, just as long as his eyes were fixed on her. As she disappeared from the hall, he sighed in yearning. Those words still spoke out loudly inside his head.

Thanks for last night.