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~Jen's POV~

"Want to patrol together tonight?" Hale asked me as he fell into step beside me and laced our fingers together, startling me. "You still have two more shifts to pick up this week, right?"

"Three. I was… too tired to do the one I said I'd do last night."

"Perfect." He shot me a grin. "So we can just patrol together tonight and maybe Thursday night… and if you want, I can patrol with you again sometime over the weekend."

"You don't need to patrol just to keep me company." Please don't. "It's not your fault that I was too tired to take the patrol that I said I would. You should relax and do homework and… you know, hang out with your friends and stuff like that."

"I don't mind," he insisted. "Patrols aren't so bad."

I mind. "You think it's a good idea to patrol together? Shouldn't we split up and cover more area?"

"That would work against my plans," he laughed. "I want to spend time with you. It doesn't matter what we're doing. Patrols, butterbeer in Hogsmeade, walking together between classes…"

"Quidditch…"

He raised an eyebrow. "You don't have practice tonight. I just talked to James."

"But… it's Tuesday."

He laughed. "That's what James said. But, apparently, Slytherin already had the field booked for today, so…"

"Oh…"

"We can start patrol now, if you want," he suggested. "Get a few hours in, and then if you still want to go down to the Quidditch pitch for some personal practice, the Slytherins should be done by then. I could come with you."

"Umm… that sounds…"

"Perfect?" he suggested and pulled me aside, wrapping his arms around my waist as he guided me into a kiss.

A wrong kiss.

It was all I could do to hold myself together long enough to endure it.

When he pulled away, his smile faded almost instantly. "Jen? What's wrong?" He leaned back to examine my face.

What could he see there, I wondered?

"You look like you're about to be sick."

Not what I had expected, but probably accurate.

"I think I am," I whispered and turned to sprint away, ignoring Hale's voice calling out for me.

~James' POV~

"James. Paper. Now."

"I'm irked."

"You've mentioned that a few times."

"More like a few thousand times," Sirius muttered.

I threw a wadded piece of parchment at him.

"Really, you two." Lily rolled her eyes. "We're supposed to be working on our Defense Against the Dark Arts papers. They're due in a week, in case you've forgotten."

"So I could put this off for another six days, really," Sirius mused and looked at me as if for confirmation. "Concur?"

"He does not concur," Lily answered for me, her voice as fiery as her hair. "Sirius, you can't keep putting things off until the last minute! Someday, that's going to get you into real trouble."

He appeared abashed, but no one except for Lily bought it. "You're absolutely right, Lily. I really shouldn't put off this paper. It's important."

She lifted her chin a bit higher and smiled. "Exactly, Sirius. It's good to know I'm getting through to you."

"Oi, you!" Sirius called.

The passing fifth year froze and stared at Sirius wide-eyed and a bit nervously. "Um, me?"

"Yes, you." Sirius' tone was annoyed. "What do you know about how to defeat a-"

"Sirius!" Lily scolded. "You can not use a fifth year to do your work!"

"You're right…" Sirius considered this. "He probably wouldn't know." He directed his next question at me. "Do you suppose a sixth year might?"

She groaned in frustration and then turned her attention to a struggling Peter.

I waved the fifth year away and then stared back at my own paper. "You're on your own, Sirius."

He sighed and got to his feet. "Come along, Wormtail. Let's see if we can track down Moony in the library and get him to help us."

"I hope that by help you don't mean write the paper for you," Lily grumbled.

"That was actually exactly what I meant," Sirius replied. "Come along, Peter."

After they'd departed, Lily leaned her head against my shoulder and groaned. "How do you deal with them?"

"I am one of them," I reminded her with a grin. "Marauders don't do work that doesn't result in a good laugh or two."

"How ever will you make it in the real world?"

"Remus will be fine. And I don't know about Sirius and Peter, but I have you, so… I should be all right."

She grinned up at me, her eyes bright. "Think I can keep you in line?"

"I think you could keep me, seven children, three cats, two dogs, and an entire household of magical items in line without breaking a sweat."

Her face paled just a bit. "Seven children? James, there's no way in hell that's happening."

"Six?"

She rolled her eyes.

Blushing, I cleared my throat. "Actually, um… I was hoping that we could… talk about that."

She raised an eyebrow at me as she twirled a lock of her hair around her index finger. "Talk about what? Having seven children?"

"I thought you only wanted six?"

She laughed. "No, not six either. Four, at the absolute most. Three would be ideal."

I laced her fingers through mine and stared at our intertwined hands, trying to build up the courage for what I really wanted to ask her. "And you'd be… open to that? With me, I mean?"

"Having children?"

"Getting married."

Silence.

After about thirty seconds, I couldn't take it anymore and I had to look over at her.

She was staring at me, pale, mouth open in shock. Her green eyes glistened, but they were unreadable to me.

"Umm…" Stupid, James! Stupid! You moved way too fast for her and you freaked her out! "Lily… It's not something that you… that we need to… decide right now. I mean… I know that something like that is a huge step and I would never want you to rush into something like that… nor would I expect you to. I just… it's something that I've been thinking a lot about lately and… well… I guess I just wanted to bring it up and see if you'd thought about it at all, too."

More silence, even more torturous than before.

I let go of her hand and reached for my paper. "Anyway, I was thinking that for my paper I'd go with-"

She cut me off by gripping my hand.

I looked over at her, waiting.

"You really want to talk about this?" she whispered. "Marriage?"

"I'd like to talk about it, yes," I replied.

She grinned and leaned in to kiss me.

~Jen's POV~

I stalked slowly through the trees at the edge of the Quidditch pitch, catching glimpses of the occasional Slytherin player up in the air on a broom.

I had no idea what I was doing.

I had run from Hale, out the front doors, and had changed into my wolf form as soon as I was sure that no one was watching. And then, I'd just started to run, not even really having a destination in mind.

And I had ended up at the Quidditch pitch.

Where Regulus was practicing with his team.

Because it seemed that now, when something was going badly for me, I wanted to be around him because he made everything okay with me. Not that he ever magically solved anything, but being around him always made me feel better.

So I made my way up through the stands, careful to stay out of sight, and settled down to watch the practice.

James would have been so disappointed if he had known that I'd watched the Slytherin practice and hadn't even bothered to take any notes – mental or physical – but Quidditch rivalry was the farthest thing from my mind. I just rested my head on my front paws and watched the players weave around each other as the Quaffle and Bludgers and Snitch spun around in all different directions.

Finally, the players all landed on solid ground and talked for around twenty minutes before they headed for the dressing rooms.

I didn't budge.

He showed up half an hour later, smelling like sweat and deodorant and Regulus.

"It's getting cold out here," he said as he sat next to me. "You may have wolf fur, but I don't."

I didn't change back.

He tilted his head to the side and studied me. "Jen, what's wrong?"

I whined, a sound that wolves didn't make too often because wolves don't like to show pain.

Sympathy flashed in his eyes. "Whatever it is, Jen, I'm here for you. It's going to be okay."

I moved so that I could rest my head in his lap and he stroked the fur along my back.

We sat like that as the sun sank below the horizon.