Authour's Note: lunamorgana94 asked two good questions (along with her kind comments), and I thought I'd answer them here just in case anyone else was wondering:

On James being a Chaser: While he's commonly mistaken for a Seeker due to the fact that they made him so in the movies, JKR has said in interviews that he was actually a Chaser.

On Lily's knowledge about Remus: This is probably where I've taken the most creative liberty. JKR has never stated when Lily learned about Remus being a werewolf; it's implied in the Prince's Tale that she didn't know in their fifth year, because that's what she tells Severus. However, as I have her constantly denying to Severus that she knows anything in my story (and as you'll see when we get to that scene – which is pretty much verbatim the scene in the books – I'll have to do some official citing of sources when it comes to that...) I've found a way around it. In the end, it was more a desire to have Lily be close friends with Remus and have an avenue through which to really become close to the Marauders as a group.

Thank you all again for your lovely reviews! They honestly make my day!

-Amora

"The girl is mental," Sirius was saying, "completely hormonal." He grinned around at the others. "I like her!"

The Marauders had left the party not long after Lily, and were now sitting in the good chairs in front of Gryffindor fire. James was lying on the couch, looking miserable.

"It's your own fault," said Remus, looking at him. "You know that attacking Severus in front of Lily – or any time at all, for that matter – will make her upset."

"I know," said James, covering his face. "But it's like…in the moment, I can't control myself. I see her standing near Snape, and it all of a sudden seems like the best idea in the world to attack him. Like one of these times she'll see behind his act and notice what a git he is."

"Déjà vu, much?" said Sirius. "Haven't we had this conversation before?"

"About every time James puts a curse on Severus," said Remus, cracking a small smile.

"Since when have you started calling him Severus?" snapped James.

"Since it dawned on me that he isn't acting to win Lily and upset you, James. I think he really and truly cares about her."

James sat up and looked as if Remus had just slapped him. "How can you say that Lily would be better with him than with me?"

"I wasn't saying that at all, James," Remus said calmly. "I think that they would be awful together. One, because Severus has been hanging around a bad crowd lately and I don't want Lily to be dragged into that; two, because Lily doesn't care about Severus that way."

"How do you know that?" said James, though more quietly.

"We've become closer friends," said Remus, shrugging. "Last year, after she yelled at that group of Slytherins on my behalf, we sort of…began talking more. This summer we've been writing back and forth, and she's…told me things."

"What kind of things?" James looked as if he were ready to jump from the couch at any moment.

"I'm not going to tell you," said Remus with a small laugh.

"Aw, c'mon—"

"No way, James. Lily is mad at me now, too. I'm not going to make it worse."

"I've never met anyone who mood swings more than that girl," said Sirius in a kind of awe.

"Are you two stupid?" Remus said, and he sounded more harsh than they had ever heard him. James, Sirius, and Peter looked shocked. "Haven't you noticed when these 'mood swings' started?"

"When she realized she's in love with me?" James said hopefully.

"No, you prat," said Remus. Then he paused as if in thought, then said, "Well…"

"Well what?" said James eagerly.

"Nothing," Remus said quickly. "If you remember, Lily didn't used to be so emotionally strained, and we used to all get on really well, at least the first couple years. Then things started to get…complicated. Lily started to feel torn between the Gryffindors and Severus."

"And she chose Snape," said Peter.

"Well, yes. He'd been her best friend for years, and we – well, we weren't always that nice to her," continued Remus.

Sirius grinned as her remembered switching out Lily's shampoo so that her hair would turn purple. "It was all in good fun," he said.

"Still," said Remus. "And now, she's a fifteen year old girl who feels like her best friend is abandoning her to go join forces with Voldemort who is another pure-blood maniac, meaning that Severus would be working to kill people like Lily. Then there's the fact that Lily knows that Severus feels more than friendship toward her, but she doesn't feel that way back; but if she pushes him away now, she could lose him forever, and he is her closest friend."

They sat in silence for a moment. James looked truly guilty for the first time in a long time.

"But, I can't just lay down my wand and let the Slytherins win!" said James suddenly, looking around for support, and Sirius nodded. "The first Quidditch match is against Slytherin! They're going to be attacking us left and right!"

"Well, maybe if you don't attack them, they won't attack you," suggested Remus.

"Moony, you know that is hippogriff crap," said Sirius, laughing. "Of course the Slytherins are going to attack! And we've got to hit them before they hit us!"

"James, I'm telling you," said Remus seriously. "If you ever want Lily to look at you as something more than a big head on a broomstick, do not attack any Slytherin players before the match."

Remus's warning, however, proved to be useless. The word spread fast that James Potter and Sirius Black had struck again, landing the Slytherin keeper, Bertram Aubrey, in the hospital wing for two days by cursing him so that his head grew twice its normal size. They had each received a detention for the act.

"But the important thing is that he's okay," said Sirius in fake seriousness. "And his head didn't fall off."

Remus started avoiding his two best friends. Though he denied it, Lily suspected she was right in guessing that he did this so that he wouldn't feel guilty for not giving them detentions.

"If you don't see them do it, you can't do anything about it," Lily accused him one morning at breakfast. They were sitting away from James, Sirius, and Peter.

"They're my best friends," Remus said in a strained voice. "If there is anyone that could understand feeling torn because of your best friend, I would think it would be you. Severus attacked James on Halloween, too, and you didn't give him a detention."

Lily blushed a little, but nodded. She did understand, and decided from that moment on that she wouldn't harp on Remus anymore to make him control his friends. She knew that was impossible.

"I'm still not going to the Quidditch match," said Lily defiantly. "I can't stand anymore Gryffindor-Slytherin animosity, or I will go insane."

"Fair enough," said Remus, though he knew that James was part of the reason that she didn't want to go. "Hey, Lily," said Remus suddenly. "Where did you learn that spell that you put on Sirius at Slughorn's party? I've never seen anything like it before."

Lily blushed fully now, and looked around quickly, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Severus is an extremely intelligent and talented wizard," she said quietly, choosing her words carefully. "He sort of…messes about with spells in his spare time. Or at least he used to, because he didn't have many other friends than me. I don't know what kind of things his inventing now," Lily finished darkly.

"He invents spells?" said Remus in shock. "But that's – extremely advanced!"

"You're telling me," said Lily with a small smile. "Levicorpus is just one of his spells that he's taught me. They're quite brilliant."

"Moony!" Sirius said, coming over to them. "Time for the match! James is already in the locker room. Are you coming, Lily?" he asked, turning to her.

"I don't think so," she said.

"Aw, c'mon," said Sirius, sitting down across from her. "Don't you want to be part of Potter's cheering section?" Lily laughed, but still shook her head. "Ok, we'll see you at lunch later."

Lily watched them leave in curiosity. Five days ago, she had hoisted Sirius magically into the air by his ankle…so why was he being so nice to her? Was it possible that she had actually earned his respect by attacking him? Lily shook her head to clear it of the Marauders. She did not understand them.

The Great Hall emptied as the occupants went to watch the Quidditch match, and Lily noticed happily that Severus was still seated at the Slytherin table, directly across from her three tables over. She waved to him and he waved back.

When Lily reached the Slytherin table, she flopped down in a seat across from Severus. "Not going to the match, either?"

Severus shook his head. "I can't stand watching Potter on that broomstick of his."

"Especially if he wins," said Lily. "What do you want to do today?"

They eventually decided to go up to the library, as they had an Arithmancy essay due at the end of the week which neither of them had started yet. The library was entirely empty except for Madam Pince, which they were grateful for. It was nice to have some quiet for a change.

A couple hours later, the castle started to fill back up again. Remus found Lily and Severus in the library, and while Severus looked as if he had just eaten a lemon when Remus asked if he could join them, he didn't say anything. By one o'clock, they were completely done.

"Well, that takes a load off," said Lily, tossing her essay aside and stretching. "Maybe I should skip Quidditch more often. What happened, anyway?" she asked Remus.

"Oh, we won," he said simply, glancing slightly at Severus. Severus, however, did not change his expression. It seemed he couldn't care less about whether or not his house won or lost at Quidditch.

They went down to the Great Hall for lunch. "See you later, Lily," Severus said as they reached the Slytherin table, and Remus and Lily continued onward to the end of the hall. As the approached the table, James, Sirius, and Peter waved at them to come sit with them.

"We don't have to," said Remus, turning to Lily. "Sit with them, I mean."

"No, it's okay," said Lily with a set face. "But if he starts in on his amazing flying ability again…" It wasn't as if Lily disliked Quidditch, she actually enjoyed it very much; but she disliked the way in which James talked about it, as if he were a god on a broomstick.

"Do you want to hear about—" James started immediately, his face lighting up when Lily sat across from him.

"I wouldn't, James," said Remus quickly, cutting him off.

Lily didn't know if it was because she had finally snapped from emotional stress, or deep down she really did want to try to be friends with him, or if it was the disappointment like that of a sad puppy that took James's expression. Nevertheless, Lily found herself saying, "Oh, go on, then. What happened in the match?"

James lit up as if Christmas had come early and started giving Lily a blow-by-blow of everything that had happened that morning on the field. "And we were fifty points down, it was terrible, I don't know what got into Dana to make her keep missing the Quaffle, must have been nerves I guess—"

"Plus that prat of a brother of mine kept diving for the Snitch," Sirius interjected.
"Ugh, it was horrible! I had to fly directly in front of him to stop him at one point. You should have seen that dive! Anyway, I start ignoring Dana's calls for plays and started calling my own. Next thing we know, we're up by twenty points! Dana couldn't decide whether to be furious at me for ignoring her, or ecstatic with me for getting our team ahead. Marks was so inspired, she was able to catch the Snitch five minutes later!"

"That or she's a great Seeker," said Remus under his breath.

"That's great, Potter," said Lily, looking as if she were trying hard not to laugh.

"Really?" he asked with big eyes. Lily was sure for a minute that there had been a mistake in the transformations, and James was supposed to be the dog.

"Yeah, really," she answered.

Lily left to go back to the library with Severus after lunch, and the Marauders decided to enjoy the last bit of nice weather before the cold started, and went outside to lounge under the beech tree by the lake.

"That went rather well," said James, grinning and flopping down on the grass. "I think I'm growing on her. What do you think, Remus?" he asked slyly.

"I don't know," said Remus, leaning against the tree and closing his eyes.

"Aw, c'mon," James pleaded. "Give me something!"

"There's nothing to give," Remus said simply. "She's never said anything about liking you."

"Aha!" exclaimed Sirius, joining in the fray. "There was stress on the 'said'."

"Why do you care so much?" Remus said, rounding on Sirius.

"Well it's been a long time since any of the Marauders got any action. If there's a victory for one of us, there's a small victory for all of us," Sirius shrugged.

Remus threw up his hands in exasperation. "This is exactly what has kept you from 'action'! If you could tone down the arrogance, it would do you a world of good."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said James, waving to a group of girls who were passing. Sirius had done the same, and the girls, upon being noticed by the two now infamous boys, burst into giggles and started whispering to one another.

"You have got to be kidding me," said Remus.

"You two complain about getting girls," said Peter in a squeaky whine, "but the truth is, you could have anyone!"

James dropped his hand and suddenly looked very serious and annoyed. "I don't want 'anyone'," he said. Remus opened his mouth to speak, but James cut him off. "No, Remus. This isn't one of my random obsessions. I've tried to get over this, you know I have. I even went out with a couple of girls last year. But other girls don't hold my attention." James laid down on his back and stared into the sky. "Lord knows my life would be easier if I wasn't interested in Lily Evens."

Remus stared at James for a moment in curiosity. "She hasn't ever said anything," started Remus slowly, and James closed his eyes, as if his one hope had failed him. "But," Remus continued, "I do think that she's interested."

James sat up so quickly that Sirius, who had been standing leaning against the tree, fell over in surprise. "Bloody hell, James!" he yelled, but James ignored him, staring intently at Remus, waiting for him to go on.

"She talks about you a lot. Granted, it's usually in frustration, but no one can talk about a person they don't care about that much. And she never says that she hates your personality, per se…She more complains about the fact that you and Sirius have so much talent, and refuse to put it anywhere good. She told me she thought you two could probably save the world if you wanted to."

Sirius grinned in a boasting manner, and a small, optimistic smile played on James's lips. "I knew she wanted me," he said, lying down again.

Remus sighed, shook his head, and threw his hands up once more. James Potter still had a lot of growing up to do.

10 points to anyone who remembered that the Bertram Aubrey detention for expanding his head is actually in the books! HBP when Snape makes Harry go through all the old detention records.