"Right," she said again. Her hands trembling a bit, she took a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "OK," she said. Looking up, she saw James smiling his encouragement. "Umm . . . so, have you made a bet about me?"

"Yes," James answered immediately, eyes widening.

At Lily's shocked look, he rushed to explain. "Not like you think. That was a really broad question. We've made loads of bets about you." When this seemed to make matters worse, he shook his head frantically. "Not, well . . . yes, bad bets, but you know about them."

"I don't know about any bets, James."

"Well, there was the one in first year." He ticked it off on his finger. "Sirius bet me I couldn't get you landed in detention."

"You did that on purpose?" she screeched.

"Well, yes. But you knew that. Obviously I didn't accidently summon a load of flobberworms and put them in your dinner. It's just that the motivation had to with getting you to hex me – and so land yourself in detention – more so than just getting a rise out of you."

"Fantastic," she said. "You said there were loads?"

"Yeah, umm . . . there was the one in third year, when I turned your hair green."

"You made a bet you could turn my hair green?"

"Well, no. Technically Sirius bet me I couldn't make you scream my name. I think he meant it to be dirty, but he wasn't specific, so I still won."

"How charming," she said. "Go on."

"Right, well, in fifth year Sirius bet me I couldn't snog you," he said, rushing to get it over with.

"So you're just waiting until I admit it to collect on that one?" she asked, clenching her jaw.

"Of course not," he said. "He bet me that I couldn't do it before the end of the year."

"You never kissed me in fifth year," she pointed out.

"I know," he responded. "The only time I ever got close, you hit me with some nasty stinging hex that made my face swell up to twice its normal size. They had to take me to the hospital wing."

"How can you have lost a bet like that without me hearing about it?" she asked.

"Well, you probably did." He looked uncomfortable. "Do you remember, beginning of sixth year, when I loudly begged Madam Pince to shag me blind?"

Lily stared. "Yes."

"Right, well, that was the forfeit. Honestly, half our pranks aren't even pranks. They're just the forfeits for lost bets," he explained.

Lily closed her eyes. "I must be mad." She opened them again. Catching his concerned look, she felt a bit guilty. "What were the others?" she asked. Come to think of it, she didn't feel that guilty.

"Other whats? Forfeits? Merlin, Lily, that could take years. And you've witnessed most, if not all of it."

She shook her head. "No, the other bets. You said there were loads, but you've only told me about three."

He considered. "Well, to be honest, the rest were all stupid things, like 'I bet James can't keep his fat mouth shut for ten fucking minutes about Lily Bloody Evans.' There were lots of those," he said apologetically. "In terms of major bets, there were really only the three I already mentioned."

"There were no other bets that I'd want to know about?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"No other bets that I should know about," she clarified.

Again, he shook his head.

"So you and your friends never made a bet about shagging me?"

James considered this. "I definitely didn't. And I don't think they did. It's not out of the question that they might have bet each other behind my back, but none of them would willingly confess to betting that I would never shag you. It would be way below the belt."

"Right." Lily glanced at her list again. "Do you know who Joseph Arthur is?" she asked.

James looked baffled. "No," he said.

"Benjy didn't mention anything about him, when you were having your lessons?" she pressed.

"No," James said firmly. "Is he some muggle you dated," he asked, looking unhappy.

Lily smiled. "No. He's a singer. He's got a song I really like, and I just . . . well, that first night we kissed, you said some things that reminded me of it."

"Which things?" James asked.

Lily shrugged. "You know, the stuff about me making you see yourself, and it making you want to change who you were."

James cocked his head. "What's the line in the song that you like?"

"When you showed me myself, you know, I became, someone else," Lily sang automatically. Then she immediately turned bright red. "I'm terrible singer."

"Yes," James responded automatically, eyes widening. "I mean, I love it. Really. I've never heard you sing. It's awful," he made a sort of warding gesture, clearly wishing the potion didn't affect him constantly, "but it's wonderful too. Really." He was breathing a little harder than he had been, looking slightly panicked.

Lily smiled. Leaning forward, she kissed him softly. "It's OK. I don't mind admitting when I'm bad at something."

"OK," he said, resting his forehead on hers. "I really love you, you know."

She closed her eyes, rubbing her nose against his. She felt him smile at her before he spoke. "You should go back to your questions. Can't leave anything on the list unfinished, can we?"

Lily leaned back, looking down at her list.

"Is it about my hair?" she asked, feeling incredibly stupid.

James glanced at her sideways. "Sort of," he answered, clearly unhappy with his response. "I think it was what caught my eye, in the beginning." He shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "It might also have been the motivation for all the hair pulling and hexing." He reached out to twist a lock around his finger. "It is, by far, the most beautiful hair I've ever seen, but I don't think I'd have bothered with you if there wasn't anything under it, you know? It might have been what made me notice you, but it wasn't what made me fall in love with you."

She watched him for a long moment. In a very small voice, she asked "do you think I'm pretty?"

His eyebrows shot up. "Are you mad? I think you're gorgeous. I think you're stunning. I think there could really never be anyone who could even begin to compete with you." He lifted her chin. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you are –by far – the most beautiful woman in the world."

Lily scrunched her eyebrows up. "I don't know if the Veritaserum is working. There's no way that could have been true."

James blinked. "It's definitely working. But it can only get me to tell the truth as I know it. If you gave this to Sirius, he'd probably say Marlene was the most beautiful girl in the world." He looked a little sick. "Please, please, please can we not pursue that line of questioning."

Lily laughed. "He doesn't exactly hide it."

James just shrugged.

Lily checked her list again. "So, how many, umm . . . how many girls have you slept with?" she asked.

James took a deep breath. "27," he said.

Lily stared at him for a long moment. "You understand that it's a little hard to believe you when you say no one could possibly compete with me. Obviously there are, oh, 27 girls that have managed quite well.

James shook his head. "That was just a combination of trying to get my mind off you and trying to compete with Sirius."

"Trying to compete with Sirius?" her voice rose as she asked it.

James looked down, guilt plain on his face. "We had a competition, fifth year, to see who could shag the most girls. It was supposed to have been all four of us, but Moony refused to participate and Peter, well . . ." he shrugged. "Peter is peter."

When Lily just stared at him, he felt compelled to say more. "In Sirius' defense, I think he was just trying to get me to explore other options, you know, since you weren't very interested."

"James," Lily said. "That's awful. I mean really awful. How could you possibly sleep with a girl just to, to tally it on some bloody piece of parchment somewhere?"

James hunched his shoulders up. "I'm not proud of it. I stopped shagging anyone in sixth year, after . . . " he trailed off.

"After what?"

He closed his eyes. "I called a girl your name. In bed." He opened them again. She knew he could see the horrified expression on her face. "You don't have to tell me that's a crap way to treat people. I sorted that out for myself. Felt like complete rubbish and swore off girls altogether. What kind of a bastard shags a girl knowing full well he's going to pretend she's someone else?"

Lily just stared at him. He looked close to tears, "Who was it?" she asked finally.

He looked physically ill as he opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say the name, Lily covered his mouth with her hand. "Don't say it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. It's absolutely none of my business. And if I were in her place, I definitely wouldn't want me to know. Merlin." Lily closed her eyes, imagining how awful that would feel.

"Lily," James said. "You know that song you said you liked? It's true you know. That you showed me who I was, and I realized I didn't want to be him anymore. That's what I love about you. You aren't afraid to tell me if I've done something horrible, and you've made me become someone who isn't, I think, horrible anymore. I don't do those things now." He stared at her, beseeching. "Ask me about this year, ask me about us, ask me about anything that won't make me seem like I'm still the complete arse wank I used to be. Please, Lily."

She opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and closed it again. Finally she managed to make the words come out. "Why do you want us to date, in public?"

He smiled. "Because I love you. Because it's hard for me to look at your hand, and not want to hold it. Because when you walk into a room in front of me, I want to put my hand on the small of my back. Because, when you smile at me, I feel like I've been coshed over the head with a frying pan." He paused. "And because I don't like lying to my friends. I don't like having to pretend that we're just friends. I want to be able to ask Remus' advice on how to fix the things I screw up with you. I want to be able to tell Sirius to bugger off about my girlfriend when he thinks you're out of order. And I want to know," he begged, "just bloody know, that this isn't just a fling for you. That you aren't just, I dunno, wrestling with your wild side. That I actually matter to you."

He rested his head against hers. "I know you don't love me yet," he said. "But I want to at least feel that you like me well enough to hold my hand in public and not be ashamed."

Lily closed her eyes, fighting back tears. "James," she said. She opened her eyes and found that he was crying. James Potter was actually crying. Because of his feelings. For her.

"God. How ridiculous is it that I gave you Veritaserum to make you tell the truth, when I've been the one lying this whole time," she said.

He looked stricken. He watched her, obviously waiting for the rest of it.

"It's such Bollocks," she said. "Me saying I was afraid that it would hurt to find out this wasn't real because I liked you so much." She sighed. "Such complete and utter Bollocks."

She watched him pull back. Keeping eye contact the whole time, she finished her thought. "If all I did was like you, I wouldn't have been so scared. I don't know how you managed to make me fall in love with you, James Potter, but- " she couldn't continue with his mouth pressed against hers.

And that, as they say, was that.

So, that's the end of "In the Sun." Points for anyone who caught the song reference right off the bat. I'm a little bit tempted to do a second fic that sort of covers the significant moments in their lives, post ITS. If you are at all interested in that, let me know. If not, no bigs. I'm content to leave this here. It feels finished to me.