Laughter

"You have the best laughter." James told Lily, who pressed her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. "Don't listen to Sirius. He doesn't know shit." She hid her face from everyone, by letting her long hair fall in front of it. Lily sat with them in the Hogwarts express back home, because once again her friends had made their compartment a make out zone and of course James had immediately offer her asylum in their compartment. Someone had made a truly terrible joke and the laughter had just bubbled out of Lily.

"What?" Sirius cried out. "Of course I know shit! Come on! Even you have to admit it's a bit disgusting. She is grunting like a pig!"

"Shut up! It's cute." James hit his normally best friend. He said normally best friend, because really James didn't want to call anybody that if they insult Lily. So now Remus was James best friend. That would teach Sirius some manners. He turned from Sirius to Lily.

"That's so not true!" Sirius protested, and James hit him on the back of his neck, again.

"Sirius? Why do you try to argue?" Remus asked him with a deep sigh. "You try to argue with James, about Lily!" He rolled his eyes. "She could commit manslaughter and he would argue it's adorable." Forget Remus being his best friend. Who needed that berk? Peter was his best friend!

"Don't say things like that, Moony." Peter argued. James nodded along with him. See that was what a best friend would say! "He would argue it's the BEST manslaughter."

"Hey!" James protested, but nobody listened to him. Forget Peter was well! James didn't need any best friends! He's going to be a hermit and find some sage magical wisdom and not share it with any of them. Wait, as a hermit he wouldn't see Lily anymore. Maybe he could convince her to become a hermit with him.

"Oh of course, my mistake. Best manslaughter ever. The technique, perfect!" Remus kissed the tip of his thumb and index finger, as if he were complimenting a great cook.

"And the pattern of blood stains!" Sirius added. "A piece of art!"

James felt heat creep up on his cheeks. Why was he friends with them again? They were stupid wankers! Embarrassing him in front of Lily like that…

He peeked over to Lily, who was blushing like mad as well. She looked up as well and James looked down immediately, only to look up again. She gave him a small and shy smile before looking away again. She didn't look disgust or annoyed by the fact that the other three broadly hinted that James still had deeper feelings than friendship for her. It gave him more hope than anything ever gave him before.

"Lily has our local virtuoso of manslaughter, I need some advice." Sirius asked her. "I would like to do some axe murdering. Should I use some over the head chopping or does same sideways slashing work better?" He mimicked the questionable actions and pulled some ridiculous faces along with it.

Lily burst into a new fit of laughter, with grunting and all. And it must be the best laughter, because James wanted to hear it every day for the rest of his life. Wanted to make sure that she had something to laugh about for the rest of his life. He wouldn't even care if he was the butt of the joke.

"Gross!" Sirius cried out.

"Are you sure you should insult the local manslaughter expert?" Lily managed to say between laughter.

"She has a fair point there, Sirius." Remus agreed and joined Lily in her laughter, shortly followed by the other boys.

"You know, you can always write me letters if you need anymore tips." She said between laughter. Lily technically said this to Sirius, but her eyes met James' for a moment and he knew that was an open invitation for him too. "But you'd have to write me first. I don't have an owl." His heart hammered in his chest and he didn't hear what Peter said to make her laugh again. But looking at her flushed face and dancing and bouncing red hair,

James was sure of it. Lily Evans had the best laughter.

AN. Thank you Dreamworkser for being my beta reader here.

To the chapter: It is just a small and sweet one to show how their friendship grew. And to show that of course James' friends would make fun of him, at least a little bit and in good humor, for his feelings for Lily. Now they are sure that maybe Lily is feeling something similar and they hint at the fact that James is still very much available for Lily. For Lily that isn't an unpleasant idea, but she is to shy to tell him that directly.

And I needed to write this chapter, because I have don't have enough of the Marauders in my story.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave a review for me. And a big thank you to all my reviewers.

Have a nice day.