Disclaimer: All credit goes to JKR

Freaking out: Deathly Hallows Part II out in the UK today. It all ends.

- Chapter Thirty-six -

~ Sweet Optimism ~

'Whatcha writing there, Prongs?' said Sirius, trying to look over James's shoulder. He was evidently bored; he couldn't find anyone else in the entire common room to annoy.

'Replying to Mum's letter,' James said eventually, not looking up. James was always like this when he was writing to his mother – too busy for anything or anyone else. He felt the most important woman in his life deserved his best efforts, and so didn't like being distracted when writing a letter.

'Send her all my love,' Sirius instructed, wearing an extremely goofy grin.

'Sure thing.'

After a few minutes, James laid his quill on the table and stood up, pocketing the finished letter.

'To the Owlery,' he said. 'And then detention,' he added with a groan. 'With Darktoff.'

'And Evans. How terrible,' said Sirius satirically. 'I feel so sorry for you.'

'What's gotten into you?' James frowned.

'I am gonna be so bored!' Sirius burst out. 'I'd so much rather be in some lame detention with one of Hogwarts's most easily irritable witches than be here with … well, this lot.'

'Thanks, Black,' said Cassie acidly.

'No offence,' he added lazily.

James shook his head and walked out of the common room, headed to the Owlery. But the idea of sending off his letter was driven clean out of his mind by a sight that would have ordinarily burned his eyes.

'… I would accept you as a vampire, and I realise how devoted you can be. I'm sorry, Jason.' Lily stood on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek.

James prepared himself for a hammering heart and that horrible feeling of blood boiling underneath his skin out of jealousy, but instead he found just his stomach turning unpleasantly. Why wasn't he about to explode out of envy for Jason at that very moment? Lily turned around and froze upon seeing him stood there, an unreadable expression on his face.

'We have detention to go to, Evans,' said James coldly, his eyes not meeting hers.

She quickly stepped back from Downs and, nodding vigorously, said, 'Y-yeah. Darktoff. Right.'

'See you later then, Lily?' said Jason.

James felt his heart drop.

'Yeah …' she replied a little breathlessly.

She turned and quickly followed James who was already walking in the opposite direction. She didn't like his stony silence; it was cold and seemed to bite at her. She fidgeted with her hair all the while they made their way down to their Defence Against the Dark Arts detention.

'I have some work for you to do,' Darktoff said snidely upon them entering, dumping stacks of parchment onto the desk closest to the teacher's. 'You'll be marking essays written by first-, second- and third-years. Those little brats with their poor grammar, punctuation and handwriting … I can't stand it,' he said coldly.

'Some of them have really nice handwriting,' said Lily quietly.

'You leave as soon as you are done,' Darktoff continued as if no one had spoken, talking much louder than before, 'and not a minute longer. Littering the place … I trust your grading abilities as the two of you are finally seventh-years. There is a mark scheme for each essay and three different essays, one for each year. You may begin.'

He left the room as quickly as he could, almost as though being in the same room as two Gryffindors was suffocating him.

James huffed and muttered, 'Just because he's too lazy to do his job.'

'Ah, well …' said Lily. 'What can we do about it? We'd better get started on this lot if we want to finish before midnight.'

'Yeah …'

Lily took the first-years' essays and James took the second-years' papers. Lily sat down at the table, expecting James to take the seat next to her. But he didn't. He sat a table away and didn't even look at her. The silence was slowly eating Lily away, as she tried concentrating on marking the papers. Finally, she slammed her quill to the table, sighed loudly, stood up and walked over to James's table.

'We need to talk,' she said glumly.

'No, we don't,' said James, ditching his quill and leaning back in his seat. 'Listen, I really think it's great that you and Downs have … decided to … reconcile and go back to what you might have had before.'

'But that's all wrong,' said Lily quietly. 'And I wanted to talk to you about him anyway. I was telling him I couldn't take him back, and that there's someone out there who would take him for him. I swear. I would never lie to you,' she added convincingly.

James assessed her for a moment before nodding, not wanting to speak.

'The other thing I wanted to say,' said Lily, 'was that Jason can't be let off. He's hurt so many people. But he can't go to Azkaban either. The system's failing us; we have to take things into our own hands.'

James smiled slightly to himself.

'What?' said Lily. She couldn't help but smile a little herself.

'Has anyone ever told you you're really compassionate?'

Lily felt herself turn pink slightly. 'It's just that everything he did, he did out of love. And I just don't think he can be punished for it. I know I'm going to come off really, erm, Dumbledore-like, but he had his heart in the right place. Can't we at least wipe his memory or something? That could be like his mini-punishment and his poor victims can rest knowing he remembers very little about anything. And neither the teachers nor anyone from the Ministry have to know about it. They'll probably drop investigations when they see there are going to be no more attacks. We can all just leave this behind us and never speak of it again. I don't sound too stupid, do I?'

James smiled again. 'No. I totally understand. And I agree. Don't you think you could give him a second chance after we wipe his memory? He did, after all, do so much for you … a guy like that is really hard to come by. Can you really let him go?'

She thought about it for a minute. Jason was an extremely thoughtful boy, and sometimes he did make Lily feel as though they were meant to be, as if it was what fate wanted somehow.

'He's something,' she said at last. 'And whoever he ends up being with is going to be so lucky. But he's just not for me. I like my guys a little more playful and a lot less serious, anyway. Whatever was meant to be will just have to change. Besides, I don't think I was too healthy for him if I drove him to those resorts. I think this might just be best for all of us.'

'C'mere,' said James softly.

He stood up quickly, making his chair scrape loudly against the floor. He pulled Lily into a hug, which told her they were on friendly terms again. She returned the pressure, feeling blissful for the first time in a few days. Everything was going to be okay.

They continued working on the papers, occasionally laughing at what one of the students may have written; some had confused the qualities of Pixies with Banshees, producing raucous, long-haired flying bat-like creatures with screams high-pitched enough to damage the human ear.

*.*.*

'I cannot believe you just did that!' Vanessa spluttered, laughing so hard that she had to lean against the wall for support, clutching the new pain in her stomach. 'That was rich! Merlin …!'

'I told you it was a good idea,' Sirius grinned, standing up properly having roared with laughter until he felt nothing but pain. 'I didn't actually know Mandrakes served a purpose.'

'I didn't know the Whomping Willow served a purpose,' Vanessa cried, still laughing.

'I've known that since second-year,' Sirius snorted.

'Oh, yeah …' said Vanessa quietly, her smile fading. 'Sorry. I somehow forget about Remus and his … you know. To me, he's always been and always will be just a normal guy.'

'You should tell him that. It'll cheer him up,' said Sirius gently.

Vanessa smiled at him, standing up straighter and looking under her lashes into his silvery-grey eyes. 'On a more serious note – what are we going to do when Professor Sprout hunts us down?'

'We can run away,' Sirius said in a hushed voice, grinning and using a hand to lean against the wall.

'Where to? I'll follow you wherever you wish to take me, O' Great One,' said Vanessa dramatically.

'We'll go wherever your heart wants us to go,' whispered Sirius.

A whistle from a fifth-year Ravenclaw made Sirius and Vanessa jump.

'Get in there!' he shouted, as his friends sniggered.

It was then that Sirius realised he had practically pinned Vanessa against the wall. Highly embarrassed, he coughed and stood properly, casually flicking his hair out of his eyes.

'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Vanessa asked quietly, after the Ravenclaw and his friends had left.

Sirius felt his heart beating harder than before. He wasn't used to the feeling and he certainly didn't like it. He quickly asked himself what the normal Sirius would be thinking.

'Unless you're thinking about pranking those fifth-years, no,' said Sirius, internally wiping non-existent sweat from his forehead.

'Let's go,' Vanessa smirked, walking away.

Sirius hastily caught up with her. 'You're turning into a right little Marauder,' he said proudly, ruffling her hair.

Vanessa shook him off. 'I'm under your influence after all …'

'Is that true? So, where does your heart wish to go?'

*.*.*

Things appeared to be getting better for everyone. The victims of the vampire attacks had finished recovering from the trauma and had caught up on any of the school work they missed. Hufflepuff had surprisingly won against Ravenclaw, which meant they were to face Gryffindor in the finals. All of this had made James more optimistic, and, along with Sirius, they became more and more themselves: playful jokers, there to make everyone smile and laugh. They managed to conceal the exam stress quite well. Remus wasn't quite as good. He overworked himself almost as much as Lily, studying well into the night and waking up before the sun rose. Full moons didn't contribute to his well-being. Jason slowly began melting into the background. No one bothered him, and he bothered no one.

Still, Lily wasn't quite at peace. Despite all of the darkness fading away, she couldn't help but feel slightly incomplete. She was getting good grades in all of her classes, she had found a balance with the amount of time she spent studying, with her friends and carrying out Heads' tasks. On top of all of this, she had volunteered to help Hagrid, the Gamekeeper, with his vegetable patch, as summer was well on its way. He would invite her in his hut for tea afterwards, and they would talk about anything – Quidditch, James and lessons mostly.

'It's quite late now, Lily,' said Hagrid, looking down at her from his bushy, black beard. 'Yer sure yer don't want some cakes before yer go? Yer deserve it, been workin' hard an' all.'

'No, thank you, Hagrid,' said Lily kindly, although her stomach protested. 'I have some patrolling to do – I can't leave James alone for even a minute. We all know what he's like.'

''Course,' he said. 'Take care of yerself now. D'yer want me to walk yer to school?'

'I'm good, thanks, Hagrid,' she smiled, getting up, draping her cloak on her arm and stroking Fang the boarhound. 'See you later.'

'Bye now,' he said cheerfully.

She stepped into the darkness, really pleased with her day's work. It felt good helping others, although that wasn't why she did it. In her sixth-year, she and Remus would tutor fifth-years who were serious about their O.W.L.s, but they didn't have time for it now.

She stepped out of the darkness and into the light of the castle. She found a pair of arms enfold her, and a small, familiar laugh in her ear.

'I'm sorry I'm late, James,' Lily said, feeling a smile slowly spread across her face.

'Oh, the minutes of torture without you,' James said, sighing dramatically. 'It's okay, I know you've only been at Hagrid's. I think it's really nice that you're helping him out.'

'Thanks,' she said, slightly unhappy when he let her go. 'Come on. We have some patrolling to do. Hey, have you got everything ready for tomorrow?'

'Of course,' James said blissfully. 'Well, nearly everything. I saved some for you.'

'I knew I could count on you.'

'Of course,' he repeated. 'Remus is one of my best friends. And I want his last birthday at Hogwarts to be his best one yet. I guess we're lucky it's a Friday tomorrow.'

'So shall we get decorating?' Lily held out a hand.

'We shall,' said James, taking her hand. 'Oh, yeah, and about Jason …'

'What about him?'

'If we're going to erase part of his memory, we're going to need to a plan – how and when. And what we do if he resists.'

'I've already got an idea,' said Lily thoughtfully.

'You do?'

'I'll tell you what – the Great Hall will be distracted with Remus's arrival at breakfast tomorrow, right?'

'Yup. That's the plan.'

'I'll take him out of there. No one will even notice us. He'll probably listen to me when I tell him I need to speak to him. I might even ask his permission. I'd feel really bad if I didn't ask,' she added defensively when James blankly stared at her.

'Okay, okay,' said James, with his hands up.

Lily quickly smiled at him, and with that, they began decorating the Great Hall, the Gryffindor common room and some of the corridors in between. Remus was going to feel so embarrassed.

*.*.*

It was the morning of the big day. His big day. He awoke bright and early and headed for the bathroom with a slight spring to his steps, smiling to himself upon hearing the heart-warmingly familiar sound of Sirius's light snoring while feeling a tinge of childish excitement. He wasn't long in there. When he got out, Sirius had stopped snoring. The curtains of his bed were still turned, though. He was practically beaming when he saw the large pile of presents at the very foot of his bed wrapped in a wide variety of colours.

The sun was now rising, casting light on the boys' dormitory. The birthday decorations were thrown into sight. There was a large and colourful banner reading, 'HAPPY EIGHTEENTH, REMUS!' with magical balloons floating high of their own accord. Underneath the banner was an eye-catching, blown-up photo of the four Marauders standing side by side just laughing at the camera; this made the real Remus laugh slightly.

He quickly got dressed and left the dormitories. It was too quiet in the common room for a school day, even if it was a little early, he figured as he finished descending the stairs into the common room. There was no one there besides him. It was just too quiet …

Just then, his secret sweetest secret dream came to life. Every Gryffindor in Hogwarts became Disillusioned group by group and, in unison, they sang him a happy birthday. Well, they tried to sing. Many, such as Sirius, were shouting the words with joy etched plainly on their faces.

Remus's face had never turned so tomato-like as he bit back smiles; James was almost sure he was going to spout leaves.

'Anyone want to hug?' said Remus quietly, his voice shaking with happiness.

'Right on,' Sirius shouted, turning around and putting an arm around James.

'I meant me!' Remus exclaimed.

James and Sirius stepped forwards and embraced their best friend.

'Happy birthday, Moony,' said James.

'Thank you guys so much,' said Remus, patting his friends.

'You can blame Lily,' James added in an undertone. 'She planned all of this. She woke up everyone in every dormitory.'

Lily playfully slapped his arm, before tightly hugging Remus herself. All their years of friendship had led to this very moment.

'Happy eighteenth, Remus,' she said gently, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek.

'Thanks, Lily,' he grinned. 'Thank you, everyone!' he added to his fellow Gryffindors, who all whistled and applauded.

'For all the work you've ever done on us,' said a sixth-year.

Remus waved a hand modestly, although he was very slightly pleased.

'Breakfast, methinks,' Alice chirped. 'Come on. We made sure you have your favourites on your special day. The house-elves were particularly kind about all of it.'

Remus blushed again, earning himself a gentle punch from Sirius. He wasn't aware he was going to blush some more upon looking at all of the decorations on the way down to the Great Hall. There were a few more 'Happy birthday' banners and more photos, some of Remus alone, some with the other Marauders, and a few with Lily, as the two were quite close having been prefects together. When he saw the Great Hall, his jaw dropped. There weren't any more banners or balloons, but right at the opposite end of the Hall on the wall behind where Professor Dumbledore normally sat for lunch was an enormous photo of Aaliyah and Remus together, smiling and laughing.

Remus felt tears of pure happiness around his eyes. Sirius gave him another one-armed embrace and led them to their seats on the Gryffindor table, while James gave him a pat on the back. The birthday boy received many more wishes along the way to his seat; a few friendship groups in different houses even began chanting loudly.

'Darktoff first,' Cassie groaned, quite literally dropping in her seat.

'That's the spirit!' said Sirius brightly, frowning at her afterwards. 'Darktoff can't ruin today, anyway.'

'There's more to come?' said Remus weakly, helping himself to breakfast.

'Plenty more, mate,' James replied.

Lily caught a flash of fear on Remus's face and soothingly said, 'Don't worry. I've regulated their plans, knowing them. It's okay. You're going to be fine. You'll get through the day alive, anyway.'

'I don't know what I'd do without you, Lily,' he said weakly. 'Are you going to sit down?' he added.

'I'll be a sec,' she said softly, 'I just remembered something.'

Making sure no one was looking at her, she went to the Ravenclaw table and, in an undertone, said to Jason, 'Can we talk? Outside?'

'Sure,' he said, sounding suspicious.

He followed her out of the castle, out of the Great Hall, where they were completely alone in the coolness and sunshine of spring.

'Erm … do you have an attachment to this place?' he asked. 'Any reason we're out here?'

'Yeah,' she replied uncomfortably. 'After everything that's happened … something has to be done.'

'What are you gonna do?' he said nervously, taking a small step back.

'Just make you forget,' she said simply, her voice barely a whisper. 'Not everything. Only all of the things you've done. It might make it easier to live with yourself and some of us knowing you've suffered the littlest bit.'

Jason swallowed hard.

'That's okay with you, right?' said Lily, gently touching his hand.

He gulped again and nodded, not entirely meaning it.

She smiled sadly, and pulled out her wand.

'I'm sorry it had to be this way …'

She pointed it in his direction and muttered, 'Obliviate.'

A moment later found Jason blinking in confusion, looking around him.

'What?' he said. 'Lils, what're we doing here? What's going on?'

'You took me away from my friends,' said Lily, 'to tell me something. You must've forgotten what.'

Jason took Lily's hands, looked deeply into his eyes and said, 'Probably just to tell you that I love you now and I always will.'

He leaned in and kissed her on the lips.

'Jason, WHAT?' she burst out, pulling away from him.

'What's wrong?' he said, frowning.

'What did you just do?'

'I kissed you. It's what boyfriend and girlfriend do,' he said carefully.

'B-boyfriend and girlfriend?' she stuttered.

'Remember …?'

'Honey, I think you're the one who doesn't remember,' she said darkly.

'What was that?'

'Nothing, nothing,' she said quickly. 'Erm … should we go back in? It's Remus's birthday, remember. We're going to be missed.'

'Let's go,' he said happily, taking her hand and leading the way back into the Great Hall.

That was a stupid plan, a stupid, stupid plan. How on earth could she have forgotten that, in erasing part of Jason's memory, he no longer remembers they fell apart?

James's jaw dropped when Jason and Lily returned, holding hands. He was quick to realise what had happened when Lily took a seat at the Ravenclaw table, pulling an apologetic face to James.

Lily was in a relationship again. And, worst of all, it was with Jason.

Friday 10th March 1978

A/N: I hope you liked a mostly happy chapter (:
I think someone had asked me who I would cast as Lily Evans – I'd probably cast my BFF Lily Angell; she, too, was kind-faced, had red hair and green eyes. I can post a pic on my profile if anyone's interested and won't try stealing it, because that's kinda creepy … hehe (: