Thanks to Jordina, Tricorvus, Harrylee94, JupiterJack567, Zireael07, Piscesgirl35, Sassymagpie, Ujemaima, MarissaRosee, Girlylinnea, KraZiiePyrozHaveMoreFun, Gyoro and Ururun, Malloys, Angel67Demon and Tinithor for the reviews.

Forget to mention last chapter that KraZiiePyrozHaveMoreFun was the 600th reviewer. Thanks for getting me to 600!

Also, the relationship between Lily and James: I am not trying to make James look bad to make Severus look good. Everything I wrote about their relationship was how I could see it. I know people who remind me of James and Sirius and I took the behavior cues from them. You may not like how I portrayed him, but I really don't care. That sounds harsh, but I pictured him this way all along. I am only writing this for fun, to imagine a different scenario. We don't know how the relationship was and I may be young, but I am not naïve enough to seriously believe a marriage like that would be just grand. Maybe it was just me, but I took issue with some of the relationships in the books and how they were portrayed (beyond nearly everyone having two happily wed parents). Was I the only one who saw a lot of unhealthy relationships that were seemingly portrayed as healthy? One reviewer brought this up and I completely agree with them. I don't claim to know everything about relationships, because I certainly don't and I'll never claim to, but I do use my experiences, both personal and observed and learned into account. Really though, I think I made him quite mild. I am aware of much worse relationship dynamics.

Two fixed errors: I originally wrote soccer ball, which was a dumb mistake. I think the US is the only place that calls it a soccer ball (Football was already taken ;) ) I knew this, but slipped up there. Have to admit that of all the errors I could make, that was a stupid one. I had it backward to begin with. The heart was two sizes too small and grew three sizes. I said it grew two sizes. I was close, but close only counts in horseshoes.

I looked back and realized I had Lily say they divorced. I should have said they considered divorce or they separated. They did not get a divorce. I fixed this minor error.

I think Lily deserves the chance to have a second side. James and Severus got them. Lily certainly isn't all bravado and sweetness. The issues in the chapters surround this because it will affect her relationship with Severus. Forget about James, he's unimportant even if he has a role here. He's not really the point. He's an afterthought now, but he's brought up because it matters. Lily's got to have her own issues and she doesn't have many in canon (none actually in canon), but she does here.

*A very intimate chapter.

Chapter 38: Valentine

"You did not have to get me anything, just like you didn't have to buy me those earrings for my birthday." Lily said, taking the gifts from him.

"You like them though. You're wearing them, aren't you?"

She touched her ears and gave a smile. She loved them, but she did not need anything. "They are beautiful, but you didn't need to get me anything. I have enough."

"Of course I did. You got me a birthday present. The rose rock was nice, but not necessary. Same with the candy you got me today."

"It is the only candy you like." She laughed. "I thought you'd appreciate it."

"Of course I do, but I don't need it."

"I don't need the stuff you got me either, but the flowers are beautiful and I appreciate them anyway. It's the thought that counts."

"You don't like the candy I got you?" He feigned surprise

"Yes, but I don't need them. I prefer to keep my weight down." She set the vase of flowers on the coffee table.

"A few pounds wouldn't make a difference. You certainly wouldn't lose my interest."

Lily turned to him with a smile. He was staring at her. She doubted he knew she was watching him watching her. "Are you checking me out?"

Severus had been watching her and felt his lips and tongue go dry. He felt a small bit of lust hit him as he watched her fix the flowers. She wasn't doing anything that would induce such a feeling, but he felt it anyway. He snapped out of it quickly when she spoke to him. He gave her a coy smile. "I might be."

She raised an eyebrow and gave an impish grin. "You were."

"I apologize. You are just so attractive I couldn't help myself."

"Why apologize? I don't mind."

She leaned in toward him. She could smell the caramel from the candy on his breath and began to kiss his lips fervently. He kissed her back with equal fervor, tasting the licorice she had recently consumed on her lips.

As Severus osculated her, Lily slid her hands to his back. Severus grabbed onto her hips and felt her hands touch his bottom. Sensing the escalation of intimacy, he began to slide his hands around her rear. Severus waited for her to tell him when to stop, but she never did. He felt her soft hands slid back up and around to his lower back.

Lily could feel his hands sliding around her thighs. She felt his right hand slid across her leg near her groin. She felt her breathing constrict. It had been long enough. God, she wanted him, every inch of him. She wanted the chance to have her way with him. She pulled him to the couch.

Severus was careful where he touched. He did not think she would want to go all the way with him, though he was ready to have his way with her, so he was a bit surprised to find himself being pulled down onto the couch. He felt her hands slide up his shirt, stroking his stomach. He started to slither his hands up her shirt. Lily felt his rough fingers caress her stomach and she stifled a giggle. His hands moved further up her shirt. She knew what he was doing and was not about to stop him.

He found his hands at her bosom and felt his thirst for her increase ten-fold. God, he wanted her, all of her. He was more than ready for this. He had waited this long, so he could certainly wait longer, but he would rather not wait too long. He wanted to have her. He wanted her to have him. She could do whatever she wanted with him if she was willing to get a leg over him. His heart was pounding and his body burned for her, but she had to be ready for this. No matter what he wanted, he could not and would not pressure her into anything.

Lily felt his hands cupping her breasts. She wanted to surrender herself to him and let him do whatever he wanted with her body. She almost ached for him to get raunchy with her. Right now, she did not want anything else.

She pulled away from his lips, catching her breath. "Do you want to make love?"

He looked at her, quite shocked. "You want us to make love? Right now?"

She nodded. She was more than ready. Her body yearned for him. "Harry's taking a nap. I want to do this. Don't you?"

Of course he wanted to do this. She was all he thought about most of the time. He wanted the chance to love her completely. "You really have to ask?"

She smiled. He began to unbutton her cardigan. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get completely undressed, but she did not stop him either. She pulled his shirt off after he had removed her cardigan. As he started to lift up her shirt, she panicked.

He sensed her tension. "We don't have to do this. If you aren't ready"

"No." She said quickly. "I do. It's just. I never really. It's silly, I know."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Lily, I don't want to do something if you are not ready for this. There's no pressure."

"I'm just not very comfortable being unclothed." She admitted.

"That's not going to make this easy."

"Well, I've never been comfortable with it. I never got completely undressed before either."

"Really?" This was surprising to him.

"He didn't care as long as he got what he wanted from me, but I don't want to talk about it."

Severus let go of her shirt. "I don't have to undress you then if you aren't comfortable."

Lily sighed to herself. "No. Maybe it's time I got over this fear. I mean, once I let you do it, I doubt it will bother me anymore. It sounds crazy, I know, but even being pregnant was a nightmare for me. I was not a good patient. It was horrifying to me when they had to check me there. When I gave birth was the first time James ever saw that part of me." She saw Severus's shocked look. "No, really, I mean it. I never really told him why I was uncomfortable. I should have. I lied to him and that was wrong. I don't know why I'm even telling you this."

He had a feeling why she was telling him all this. He also had an idea of why she this fear in the first place. "Was it an issue before?"

"Yes, a big one, so some of our problems were my own fault, I know." She sighed. "No, I want to get over this. I need to feel more comfortable. It's hard to be fully intimate and trusting if I refuse to let you see me without clothes."

"Are you worried I will not like what I see?"

She gave a reserved smile and shrugged slightly. "Yes and no."

"I think that would be impossible. I'm sure your body is beautiful."

"I don't know." She sighed. "I'm not eighteen anymore though. It's time I grew up and got over it."

"So you want me to take off your shirt?"

"Yes." She looked at him. "I'm honestly surprised you are comfortable with me taking off your clothes."

"I'm sure it will be slightly embarrassing at first, but I'll get over it."

"You've never been with anyone before, have you?" She asked. He had never mentioned anyone, so she had just assumed he had not. Maybe he had.

"No." He admitted.

"So we can be awkward together, in some sense, anyway?"

"I suppose so." He started to lift her shirt again. She tensed as he got to her breasts. He stopped.

"No, just pull it off." She said.

He lifted the shirt to her shoulders. She quickly slid herself out of it. He felt him body pulsate a little as he eyed her bra. She felt quite exposed, but didn't grab her shirt to throw it back on.

"You are beautiful." He told her, noticing her uneasiness.

She looked down at her nearly faded stretch marks. She was thankful for potions that helped get rid of most of them. "No. I've got stretch marks from Harry and I can't seem to get rid of some of the weight and I-"

You're beautiful." He told her.

"You just want me to sleep with you. You'll say anything to get me to put a leg over on you."

Severus laughed at that statement. "No, I mean it. I think you're beautiful." He leaned toward her and whispered into her ear. "I have nothing to compare you to."

She turned her head toward him. "What?"

He twisted his mouth into a slight smirk. "That's the problem, isn't it? You didn't feel you were pretty enough. You still don't. I can't compare you to another girl."

She felt herself blush. "I-"

"I know you better than you think I do."

She raised her eyebrow. "Is that right?"

"You hate being compared to others."

She shrugged. She couldn't argue with him there. "I bet that's how he got you to sleep with him the first time. He tried to make you feel like you were just like those other girls and he thought you would be better than that. You were special, right? None of those girls were like you. They shouldn't matter. Prove it to him. Prove you are different. Sleep with him and he would know. He'd never leave if you slept with him. It was the next logical step in the relationship. It would prove your value to him.

She felt her jaw drop a little. "How did you know that?"

"Some of my roommates used the same tactic to get a girl to sleep with them. It worked sometimes."

"He did say those things, yes. Among other things. I stupidly convinced myself he was right. You know this."

"Even though he almost never compared you to any other girls he'd been with, you were self conscious about it. Some of them you consider much prettier than yourself and you would not give him a chance to compare your body to theirs. If he didn't like how you looked, he would leave. At least you assumed. Am I right?"

She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but stopped. She paused. "You just know everything about me, don't you?"

He smirked and kissed her cheek. "Not everything. We were friends for years. I think you know me better than anyone else. You know things about me no one else does."

She grinned. "Very true." She kissed his lips and sighed in defeat. "Yes." She quietly admitted. "You are right. I was very self-conscious. I didn't feel good enough and expected him to leave me. It was a stupid fear, but it was a real fear. Our relationship wasn't as healthy as it should have been or could have been. Under different circumstances, maybe, just maybe, it could have worked, I don't know, but I'm glad for the mistakes. I know better, know different now. Our relationship has gotten off on a much better foot. I'm not comparing, I won't compare the relationships. I can't compare you to anyone."

"Sure you can."

"No." She shook her head. "You can't be compared to anyone because you are not like anyone else I know." She intimately twisted a couple of chest hairs in her fingers. "You know that by doing this with me, you will be at a new low in our world. Not that it matters."

"No." He said. "By doing this with you, I will be at a new high. Nothing makes me happier than being with you."

"I love you." She whispered into his ear. She reached for his pants and fiddled with the button. "I want your snake to enter my den."

He felt his mouth twist into smile. "So I have your permission to cross the threshold then?"

"Absolutely."

He reached around her back and unsnapped her bra as she undid the button. He put his hand on her jeans. She suddenly panicked. She wanted to do this, but she couldn't. "Sev?"

"Hmm?" He asked, kissing her neck. He started to unbutton her blue jeans.

"I can't do this. I don't have any potion made. What if I get pregnant?"

He let go of her pants. "So? I can use protection. I had planned to."

She wanted to smack her forehead. Of course he could. "Oh, right. I knew that. Never mind." She felt herself blush again. She was ruining this moment over petty things.

He gave her a puzzled look. Lily didn't know why she had forgotten that men had ways to stop unintended pregnancies as well. She just assumed he would expect her to take care of that. She had also taken it upon herself to do the protecting. However, she hadn't expected to need any potion yet and did not have any potion made up.

Severus was not expecting her to say that. Certainly she knew I would protect myself. It was a simple spell. It was drilled in our heads since our first year. Why didn't she know that? He wondered and then it hit him. Figures. He used to hear Mulciber talk about how he never bothered to protect himself because it was the woman's responsibility to prevent a pregnancy. Maybe Potter was the same way? Then again, maybe she just forgot? He doubted that, but it had been awhile.

Severus pushed her auburn hair off of her forehead and gave it a kiss. "Lily, I'm not going to pressure you. If you aren't ready, we can wait. I don't want you feel rushed if you need more time."

"No, I am ready. I just don't want to get pregnant right now." She held onto his shoulders and sighed. "If you are going to protect yourself then I need not worry, right?"

"No. We should be fine." He caressed the side of her face along her hair with the back of his hand. "If something happened though and you did end up pregnant, we'll just have to deal with that. Let's hope that won't happen though. It shouldn't." He watched her smile reappear and swore he saw a bit of lust in her eyes as he gently caressed her bare shoulders.

She felt herself smile and gave a nod. She wasn't sure what would happen if they, on the off chance his protection failed, wound up with a baby on the way. Still, she hoped that would not be a concern. Severus was quite intelligent and she trusted him to know what he was doing. He was not careless, even if he was likely itching to sleep with her.

As he stroked her shoulders, she felt her desire for him increase. "I know." She said, rubbing his bare chest with her fingers. "I really want to do this."

She gave him a kiss and started to unzip him. He kissed her back and pulled down her jeans zipper. A sudden, rough pounding at the door startled both of them apart.

"I'm sure it's nobody." Lily said. "Ignore it." She grabbed his pants and started to pull them down.

Severus nodded and clutched the side of her jeans. As he prepared to pull them off, the door pounding increased.

"Lily? Are you in there? I need to talk to you." It was Sirius. They groaned in aggravation.

Severus grumbled to himself. Why did Black always manage to show up at the wrong times? Could they ever have some privacy in their own house? "Play dead. Maybe the mutt will go away."

She laughed quietly. "Sev!" She agreed with him though. Sirius always bothered them at the wrong times. They had this nice house to themselves and yet they still could not get much privacy. They were in the middle of something right now and she really did not want to see him.

"Lily, come on! Please? It's important."

She moaned, forcing herself to take her hands off of Severus. "I better answer the door before he wakes Harry up."

He agreed, reluctantly removing his hands from her. "Maybe we can hurry him along?"

"I hope he's not here long. He ought to be with his girlfriend anyway." Severus pulled on his shirt quickly and fixed his pants. She hastily refastened her bra and fixed her jeans before putting her shirt back on. She put her cardigan on and began to button it up on her way to the door. Once she was covered enough, she opened the door.

Sirius burst into the room.

"Would you like to come in, Sirius?" She asked sarcastically after he was in the house.

Severus and Lily looked at Sirius. He looked terrible. He was sweaty and pale and looked like he might be sick. He wrung his hands nervously and his breathing was shallow as if he was about to have a panic attack.

"Everything okay?" Lily asked.

"No, not okay. Very bad. I'm in trouble."

"What did you do now?"

"Quiet, Sniv-Snape." Sirius had stopped himself from saying the nickname he and James had brandished on him.

Severus and Lily looked at each other, shocked that he had corrected himself. This must have been serious. What had he done?

"I need your help. You had this problem. What do I do? Tell me what to do." Sirius paced their floor and began to talk to himself. "Wasn't supposed to happen. How could it? So stupid of her." That was all Severus and Lily caught of the conversation he was having with himself.

Lily looked at him, clearly confused. "What's the problem?"

"I can't do this. I'm not the type."

"Type for what?"

"Remember that half veela I met at the yogurt shop in Diagon Alley?"

"You mentioned her. Cara or something?"

"Chara."

"Sorry, Chara."

"We've been going out for a few months. Three months actually."

"Okay."

"I don't know what we were thinking. We had a few sips of firewhiskey on New Years' Eve and now." He tugged at his collar, his face more pale than a ghost. "We have a serious problem on our hands."

They both had a feeling what he was saying now. Lily was a little surprised, but also knew it was bound to happen at some point. She was momentarily speechless.

"You knocked her up!" Severus blurted out, trying to hide the amusement in his voice with no luck. He knew he was sneering. This was perfect. It was going to catch up with him at some point. Severus sat down in the easy chair. "This day just keeps getting better."

"What do I do?" Sirius pleaded to Lily.

"Deal with it." She said as if this was the obvious answer.

"I don't want to marry her. I saw how well that worked with you and James."

Lily could not argue with him there. "You don't have to marry her. I'd advise against that, but why would you not be more careful?"

"Why didn't you and James?"

Lily sat on arm of Severus's chair. "We aren't talking about my stupid behavior at 18, we are talking about you."

"Forget it. The point is that she's pregnant. She is already eight weeks along."

"32 more to go. Then you have 11 years until Hogwarts and another 7 until they are on their own." Severus piped in. "Good luck."

"I don't need your faux luck."

"I wasn't wishing you luck. I was wishing your unfortunate offspring luck. They'll need it."

Sirius twisted his neck to glare at Severus. "You are enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Every bit." He spoke with a sneer at the corner of his mouth.

"Well, what about you?"

"What about me?"

"You two could find yourself in my predicament. Lily has already been it once."

"I'm not so reckless to get myself drunk and lie with my girlfriend without forethought to the consequences, Black."

"This isn't about us, Sirius. This is about you and Chara. I assume she plans on keeping it?"

"Of course she is. If she wasn't keeping it I wouldn't be in this mess, would I?" He snapped.

"I didn't know that it had been decided for certain. No need to get mad at me."

Sirius clenched his fists and let go in frustration. "She wants the baby."

"So you are going to be a father then. Congratulations."

"I don't want to be a father yet."

Severus suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "Perhaps you should have thought about that before raising the robes."

Black glared daggers at Severus, but said nothing to him. He turned back to Lily. "I can't have a child. I'm not mature enough."

Severus smirked to himself. That's an understatement.

"So? Start maturing then. You can't change what happened."

"I know. I know." He began to pace again. "I am stuck. I can't get out of this, can I? I have to support my son now. I can't support a kid."

Severus raised an eyebrow at that. "Son? It's too early to know the gender, isn't it?"

"My family is full of boys. I'm sure it is a boy."

"Are you now?" Severus snickered.

"Yes."

"Okay then, put my vote in for a girl."

"Are you trying to be the bane of my existence?"

"I'm sure I already am."

"Yes, you've been the bane of my existence since I met you on the train." A slightly pained look fell upon Black's face. Severus had no doubt he was thinking of Potter.

"The feeling is mutual, I promise."

"I am not marrying her. I don't want to marry her."

"Then don't. It'd be a terrible idea in my opinion. If you don't love each other enough, you'll resent each other and the kid will pay for it, but abandoning the kid is a shitty thing to do, Black."

Sirius was growing agitated. "Must you get involved in our conversation. I didn't ask for you opinion. No one was talking to you in the first place." He spat out.

"I didn't know you intended to have a private conversation with my girlfriend, Black."

Sirius gave Severus a look of utter loathing. "This is not your concern. You can leave."

"I live here, Black. Besides, I like seeing you fuck up. It's making my day."

"Why? Because you aren't the brunt of the joke for once. We've both seen you fuck up quite a bit. Always failed to defend yourself in our duel."

"Duels involve two people, it's a one-on-one fight, not four to one, you idiot. We never dueled."

Sirius chose to ignore this information. "How embarrassing was it for you again when you called your best friend a mudblood, found yourself exposed to the student body and then tried to beg for forgiveness. That was one major fuck up on your part."

Severus looked daggers at Sirius. Lily saw Severus whip out his wand. Before she could stop him, Sirius was thrown across the room, smashing into Harry's toybox, knocking it over and spilling the toys onto the floor.

Sirius made a grab for his wand. "You'll pay for that Snivel-"

"Sirius, don't start." Lily snapped at him.

"He's the one who started it."

Lily bit back her tongue to stop spiteful words from coming out. She rolled her eyes instead. Severus gave a fierce glare toward Black. Lily grabbed Severus's wrist to stop him from putting a curse on Sirius. Severus put his arm down and said nothing. He began to thumb through the muggle newspaper that was on the coffee table to prevent himself from using a wand-less hex. Sirius glared at Severus though Severus was ignoring him. Sirius turned away from him and back to Lily.

"What did James do before he proposed? How did he handle the news? He never told me."

"Well, he was upset and angry. We yelled at each other and stormed off. We didn't talk for a couple days and then he proposed. I said no."

"Then other people found out and you said yes. Potter went out of his way to propose to you and you rejected him."

Lily glowered at Sirius for that comment and took a breath to calm herself before speaking. She lifted her hand to Severus so that he would not lash out at Sirius for his rudeness.

"That was your fault. I'm not even going into how you tried to publicly humiliate him so I would say yes. This isn't about that. This is about you and Chara and your possible baby."

"No. I am not going to do what James did. I will not marry her. She has her parents around. She can handle the kid just fine."

Lily sucked in air, not saying anything. If she did, she knew she might regret it. Several colorful choice words came to her mind though. Severus surprisingly said nothing, just glared at Black with the sort of disgusted expression someone would use when they stepped in manure. Lily figured he was probably thinking about what curse to use on him and expected to see a duel between them soon. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, but she could see that happening.

"Don't even act like you would be happy if you got Lily pregnant."

Severus scoffed in disgust. "This isn't about us." He snapped.

"We weren't supposed to have a kid. I don't want a damn kid."

"Really? You don't want it so you are going to run and bury your head in the sand like an ostrich? You truly are pathetic, Black. At least Potter had the audacity to deal with the situation when it happened and the fact that I am even giving him credit for something good should tell how hopeless I think you are right now."

Sirius looked ready to curse him on the spot. It was obvious he had no retort. Instead, he turned to Lily, who looked no happier.

"You agree with him, don't you?"

"Yes. You can be very irresponsible sometimes. This is probably the lowest you have sunk. This is as much your fault as hers."

"James blamed you, didn't he? He considered it your fault for not taking that potion. Yes, he told me you were too much of a coward to admit you'd fucked him."

Sirius barely dodged the curse that Severus shot at him. Lily grabbed her own wand as Sirius pulled out his wand, ready to duel Severus. Lily did not want that. She felt that Severus probably shouldn't engage Black this way, but she understood his anger. Black deserved it.

Lily wanted Sirius out of the house. "Is there a purpose for being here? If not, you can escort yourself out."

"Are you going to hex me?"

"I just might."

"Don't think she can't take you, Black. She certainly can."

"Fine, don't help." Sirius spat in aggravation with them.

"What do you expect us to do? Side with you? I can't do that. I think you are wrong."

"When have we ever sided with you expect on sides of this war?"

"You didn't side with us in the war. You were a Death Eater. I know you were one so don't even think about denying it." Sirius turned to Lily. "Always were friends with the git. Then you finally got a good man and you blew it. Out of all of the single wizards you could have been with, you pick Snivellus. Are you confuded?"

"You know what, Black, I don't want you here anymore. Just go. I don't want you near Harry either."

"What?"

"You heard her. She wants you leave."

"This doesn't concern you, Snivellus."

"I don't want you around Harry. You are clearly not responsible enough to take care of a toddler. I don't know what you would say to him about us. I won't allow you to make him think Severus and I are worthless people. Just go. You have ruined our day together. I've had enough. Just get out."

"I'm his godfather."

"Some brief paperwork can change that."

Sirius opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. He looked like he was thinking. "Fine. I'm gone." He headed for the door. "I pity Harry."

Severus just sneered. "I pity your future child. I wish her luck. The poor baby will need it with a deadbeat like you for a father."

Sirius gave Severus a look of revulsion before leaving.

Lily watched him disappear. "Finally, alone."

Severus pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Lily sighed contently. The clock chimed in the background.

"I can't believe you said that to him."

"I meant every word."

"I am certain of that."

She looked up at him. "We might have some time before Harry gets up." She was slightly hopeful they could get back to what they were doing. They had been so close to doing the deed before being rudely interrupted.

"Not much, but if you want to, we can see how far we get."

Lily gave him a kiss. As he kissed her back, he felt her hands in his shirt. Severus quickly unbuttoned her cardigan. As he started to put his hands up her shirt, they heard footsteps upstairs. He took his hands out of her shirt, admitting defeat. Lily pulled his shirt back down and huffed. She guessed this just wasn't supposed to happen today.

Harry came down the stairs and into the living room as she rebuttoned her cardigan.

"Did you have a nice nap?"

He nodded. "I have to go potty."

"Okay." She picked him up and headed toward the bathroom. "Maybe next time? If we get some time to ourselves?"

He smiled back. She had to ask? "Of course."

Lily took Harry into the bathroom. Severus huffed to himself. They had been so close to doing the task. The fact that she was willing to go all the way with him was enough to help him wait, but he really thought they were finally going to consummate. They would have if Black hadn't interrupted their alone time. He would just have to enjoy being with her while he could this afternoon, even without much physical contact. It was not going to be easy to find the time to be with her and get time alone with her again. They were both very busy with their lives right now. Still, he expected that at some point soon, he would indeed get the chance to finally lie with her. He hoped so anyway.

A/N: I totally procrastinated from doing a paper on compound complex sentences to finish this chapter. (It's a boring paper). But no one here will tell on me, right? ;) I just could not concentrate. I needed a break from all things school anyway. I enjoyed writing this chapter, but I'm not sure how good it is. I think it's just eh, but I always think that about my writing. Plus, I just didn't want to write my paper. I think doing laundry is more fun than writing a three page paper on the purpose and uses of a sentence structure, but that's just me. ;)

I am going back and editing my previous chapters. There are some typos/errors that need fixed and I just haven't fixed them yet. I accidently deleted chapter 1 and had to re-upload it, so I apologize for the random alert for Chapter 37 as Chapter 1. I had to do that and rearrange the order of all the chapters in the process. All is well now and Chapter 1 should now be cleaned up and hopefully free of any missing pronouns or prepositions, typos or grammatical errors (minus in casual conversation, which always has grammatical errors since people often do not speak grammatically correct all the time).

Also, talk of protection not being used by males is very common. I don't know why. I've heard dumb excuses, but that sentiment is quite common. Lots of young men will say anything to get a girl to bed and I just saw James as being no different. She was in a vulnerable state at the time (she had no family, no home anymore) and she was insecure and self-conscious in some ways. Again though, he's not that important here. He's just shown to explain these issues as it would pertain to her and Severus. And Sirius, he needs something to get him to grow up and I gave him one.

Anyway, thanks to all those who have alerted and favorite this story and added me to their author alerts. It always shocks me to see my inbox. Also, don't hesitate to let me know if you see a problem.