A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter, but necessary as things get cookin' with our lovebirds. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! Cheers!

...

"I still don't know why we have to do this here," Lily grumbled the next day, as she traipsed up the stairs of the stands that generally served as the professors' spectator box, following Remus. Her eyes frequently flickered down toward the Quidditch pitch, dreading the arrival of the Gryffindor captain and praying to God, Merlin, and anyone else listening that he would not see her.

"I told you," Remus called from a few steps ahead of her. "I promised James I would run the times for him today."

"And do you always do what he says?"

"When he promises to do my final Transfiguration essay? Hell yeah."

Lily groaned. "I thought you were the good one."

He laughed. "Common misconception. Here," he slid onto a bench. "This'll work."

"Where's the team even at? I thought practice starts at 5."

"They'll be along." Remus craned his neck to look toward the locker room building. "The last practice was sloppy so he's probably just yelling at them today anyway."

"Yelling at them?" Lily laughed in slight disbelief. "It's recreational sport, for Merlin's sake."

Remus peered at her with one eye of disbelief. "Sometimes I wonder what part of you ever managed to magnetise the great James Potter."

Lily blanched. "Well, I...he nev...what do-"

"Look, here they are now," he mercifully cut in, motioning toward the pitch.

Sure enough, eight figures were trudging out of the locker room, trailed by an obviously agitated ninth figure. James quickened his pace from behind his team and pushed toward the front, blowing a whistle, as he came to a stop in the center of the field.

Lily's eyebrows shot up and she looked at Remus, contempt evident on her face. "What tosser gave him a bloody whistle?" she whispered for no reason. Their height put them a good distance away from the team, but Lily still felt an obligation to talk quietly. He could not see her here.

"The tosser helping you with detention slips," Remus said, proudly. "It's got a few amplifying charms permanently set on it, too. Brilliant work."

Lily snorted. "If you may so yourself."

James was yelling at the team, but it was impossible to hear his exact instructions from their distance. The team seemed to understand him clearly, though, because they simultaneously started running in a circle around the interior of the pitch.

"Where are their brooms?" Lily wanted to know.

"This is conditioning." Remus explained. "Sometimes they don't pick up a broom for a whole practice. James is really big on team theory, so he puts a lot of focus on just staying in shape as a group."

"Huh," Lily hummed, turning toward the stack of detention slips in her lap. "Okay, first up," she said, lifting one of the small sheets. "Hanson, Rosemary. Ravenclaw, fourth year. Inappropriate comment in Potions."

"Five points," said Remus.

"Works for me," Lily set the parchment on the bench in front of her, starting a new stack for detentions worth five-point house deductions. "Fenwick, Benjamin. Hufflepuff, seventh year. Illegal substance in the castle."

"Meaning alcohol?"

"Yeah, looks like...a common room party?" Lily said, squinting her eyes as she scanned through the details of the detention slip.

Remus chuckled. "I helped throw that party. Poor sod must have gotten caught on his way back to Hufflepuff."

"Remus!" Lily scolded, though she was smiling just as freely. "We'll make it another five-pointer." She added the parchment to her stack. "Hardy, Camilla. Gryffindor, seventh year. Out after curfew."

"Hang on," he held up a hand indicating her to pause. He stood up on the stand to get a better vantage of the students running laps on the field and then shrugged his shoulders, turning back to Lily. "I guess he'll signal when he needs me to start timing drills. Sorry, go on, I'm listening."

"Can he see us?" Lily nodded down to the pitch.

"Only if you stand up. Why?" Remus asked, missing the worry inching into her tone.

"Just wondering." Lily shrugged, stiffly. "Breaking curfew. Five points?"

"Well," he shifted uncomfortably. "With, recent events...I think being out after curfew is a bit of a bigger deal, yeah? So maybe...fifteen?"

Lily chewed on her lip, staring at the page silently for a moment. Then, she nodded and started a new stack. "Next is McDouglas, Coriell. Another illegal substance. Five points." She moved the parchment to the stack without waiting for Remus' input.

"Lily," Remus began, with quiet awkwardness. "I...uh know we haven't ever talked about-"

"What are they doing now?" she interrupted abruptly, standing from her seat and stepping down onto the next bench.

Remus blinked. "What?"

"The team. Look." She jabbed her finger toward the field, as she leaned forward on the bench.

Remus turned his head toward the pitch, following her pointing gesture. Potter's teammates were sitting in the middle of the pitch, some leaning back on their arms, some fully sprawled across the turf. All of them were breathing heavily.

"What are they doing?" she repeated.

Remus sat back on his bench. "Looks like they're taking a break." he said, easily, grabbing for the stack of detention slips.

"Practice started ten minutes ago." she said incredulously.

"I don't know, Lily. I don't play Quidditch, remember?" Remus sighed, slight irritation evident in his voice as he jerked his head toward the stack of papers. "Lane, Philomena. Disrespect of professor. Five points?"

Lily sighed. "Sure." She grabbed for the stack again. "Seaux, Bailey. Inappropriate physical displays of affection."

"McGonagall said we should start doing ten for those."

"Fine by me." Lily shrugged, beginning a new stack.

"Looks like her PDA counterpart," Remus said, reading the next slip. "Venner, Joseph. Ten points."

"Wait." Lily craned her neck again. "What's he doing?"

Remus glanced down at the pitch with disinterest, noticing the team still seated on the pitch as James ran laps around the edge. "Running laps for them."

"Running what?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes when the team is having a rough day, James will do the conditioning for them."

Lily's eyebrows collided. "What does that mean?"

The werewolf cocked an eyebrow and set the parchments down, turning his full attention to Lily. "The last game of the season is tomorrow, but the team has been practising terribly for the past two weeks. Absolute rubbish. Like I said, he's a big 'teamwork' guy, so when the team sucks, everyone does their part in reaping the punishment. Even him."

"Okay, that's...noble of him."

"But sometimes," Remus continued, "that's just not enough. If the team's morale is already zero, making them run laps isn't going to fix anything. So James does his own sort of conditioning exercise. He does the work-out on their behalf."

"What the hell does that accomplish?"

Remus leaned back on the bench, studying Lily. "Why do you care?"

"I don't," Lily defended quickly, "I just think this practise seems like a waste of time and I'm wondering why everyone thinks Potter is such a Quidditch hotshot if the team just sits and watches him run every day."

"James is a brilliant captain."

She snorted, gesturing toward the pitch. "Obviously."

"Why are you at this Quidditch practise in the first place?" he countered, shortly.

"What?" She blinked, a hazy green filling her eyes as she looked to Remus with confusion.

"Why are you here with me?" His words were crisp and not characterised by the normal Remus softness.

"You offered to help me with detention slips," she said slowly, unsure where this was going.

"Are they my detention slips?"

"No," Lily frowned grumpily. "You got yours done and turned in on time." She rolled her eyes.

"Exactly. So these are entirely your responsibility and I'm only helping you out of the benevolence of my heart, right?"

The redhead's face started to heat up. "Look, Remus, if you don't want to help, I can-"

"No, listen to me." he said sharply, but not unkindly. Lily found herself unable to continue her retort, equally intrigued and confused by Remus' tone of authority. "How would you feel if I sat here and did all of your work for you while you sat there and ate pudding?"

"Grateful," Lily smiled impishly.

"How would you really feel?" Remus pressed through narrowed eyes.

"Like absolute shit," Lily responded, light of realisation coming into her eyes.

"James isn't just running the assigned three laps around the pitch. He's doing three laps for each of his teammates."

"But that's...27 laps!" Her eyes widened. "That's mental!"

"That's James," Remus smiled fondly as he watched his friend's figure jogging around the pitch. "To him, the extra pain and sweat is worth it for his team to gain spirits. Watching your captain take the punishment you deserve hits you and motivates you to not let it happen again. James loves Quidditch-"

"Understatement of the year."

"-but he loves his team even more. He read all sorts of books on leadership last summer and has a pretty good system worked out for the team."

Remus continued to drag on about his friend, but Lily stopped listening. She couldn't rip her eyes away from James' lithe figure jogging loops and loops around the pitch. He was insane to take sport so seriously, and wizarding sport at that. He wasn't being paid or offered any sort of compensation.

Sure, other students always rumoured that he had a shot at going pro after school but Lily had held enough conversations with the wizard to know that that wasn't something he actually wanted to pursue. Not heroic enough, Lily thought with a sardonic sigh.

The boy was an absolute enigma.

...

"SO," a cheery voice yelled before it's owner catapulted herself out of the doorway to Charms and in step with James. "Any updates?"

James closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not slowing his pace. "Merlin, you scared me."

Juniper cackled. "Sorry!" She was not. "So whatcha got?"

"What do you mean?" he shot back, irritation evident in his still-shaken countenance.

"I mean have you talked to You-Know-Who."

He stopped walking at this and fixed her with a look of concerned bewilderment before his eyes widened and he continued to walk. "You mean Lily."

"Of course I mean Lily. Who else would-oh good Godric, you thought I meant the other You-Know-Who?"

James shrugged in annoyance, quickening his brisk walk. "I just got confused."

She laughed openly. "You're so thick sometimes."

"Thank you."

"Where are you going in such a hurry anyway?" she struggled to keep up, her short legs not quite matching his strides.

"Nowhere."

Juniper frowned. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I just don't appreciate the nagging is all."

"You do know the ball is in your court, don't you? You could end this, right now. You know where she is."

James stopped abruptly, pulling the Gryffindor girl to the side hallway. "Lower your voice, would you?" His own tone dropped to a hurried, hushed timbre. "I've been ridiculously busy, okay? Haven't exactly had time to hold a feelings circle with her."

"Well, you've got one day before you both leave for holiday." June pointed out, her arms crossed against her chest.

"Then, I guess it'll have to wait until next term, won't it?" he bit back.

Juniper's eyes dropped into a glare before she swatted his shoulder. "You nesh nancy! You're not going to do it at all!"

The dark-haired wizard adjusted the bag on his shoulder with a huff. "Leave it alone, June."

"I don't understand you," she shook her head in disappointment. "You're all about honesty, honesty, honesty until this. I couldn't come up with enough positive qualities to fill a dissertation on you-"

"Thanks."

"-but honesty would be top of the list. So what the hell is wrong with you?"

He tugged at the curls along the nape of his neck. "I don't know how to just...bring it up."

"Oi, Evans!" she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, adopting an overexaggerated smirk and low voice. "I fancy you. Thoughts?"

"Be quiet," he hissed, swatting at her arms. "It's not that easy and you know it."

She laughed. "Well, whatever. Your own unhappiness is on you, but you at least owe her an explanation and apology."

"I do not-"

"MWAH MWAH." she mimed, wrapping her arms around her torso and snogging the air between them.

He stared at her with a medley of detachment and detestation. "I hate you. I really really hate you." She cackled, accordingly. "And we didn't kiss."

"Well then maybe you should apologise for that." She grinned. "As a girl who has been on the receiving end of a James Potter snog, I can firmly say-"

"Don't you dare finish that statement." James closed his eyes in self-disgust. "I hate your comfortability in bringing that up."

Juniper giggled, good-naturedly. "If you can't laugh at your mistakes, what can you do?"

"Wait a minute...mistakes?" James gasped dramatically, now playing along. "When did we start calling our flop of a relationship a mistake, pray tell?"

"Probably around the time you admitted to your red-head partiality." she teased, raising her head high and walking away, the obvious victor in this battle of wits.

"Not so fast, you prat," James gaped after her, catching her arm and beginning to tickle her mercilessly.

"Okay, okay!" she managed between bouts of hysteria. "Stop it! You win, you win!"

He joined in with laughter of his own, now fully overtaking her. "Say it like you mean it, Alessio!"

"You win! You're wonderful!" she cried, desperately trying to escape his clutches. "The most brilliant boy in this school! I wish everyone could be just like you! I worship the ground you walk on!"

A third-party tittering interrupted their fray.

James and June paused their battle to blink at the new arrival: a second-year Gryffindor who watched the older wizards with big eyes of admiration.

"Er, hello." James stood up straight, pulling at his jumper to readjust it. "I'm...James."

"I know. I'm Gracie."

"Hello, Gracie..."

"Hi."

"Did you…" he glanced around the hall, looking for any reason she would have found her way to the corner he and June were hidden in, "need something?"

"Nope!" she grinned, her little mouth suddenly compensating for half of her face. With a bounce and a skip, she jogged away, giggling with glee.

James shifted his gaze back to Juniper and immediately busted out laughing.

"I need everyone to stop freaking out."

"Freaking out? Who's freaking out?" Anna practically squealed through her cartoon grin.

Lily groaned. "If you guys are going to be weird about it, I'll just-"

"We're not going to be weird!" Mary interjected. "Right, Brodeur?" She added with a hefty slap on Anna's back.

"Yep!" the smaller witch added between coughs. "Not...weird!"

"He's just a boy and we're just studying." Lily took a deep breath, lining her pens up for the tenth time of the last five minutes.

Mary leaned across the small library table and flicked one of the pencils, sending it flying off the table. "You're freaking out way more than we are, Lovely. Admit it."

"No, I'm not! There is nothing to freak out over." Lily picked up the pencil with a huff. "Ben is my friend and he asked if I wanted to go over the final Charms essay. And don't call me Lovely."

"Soares isn't even in your same year, Lil. He definitely doesn't have the same homework as you." Mary snorted.

Lily's face got a little warmer. "We both like Charms, so we're just going to bounce ideas off each other. Nothing serious. Besides...you guys are literally going to be sitting here the entire time."

"Nothing serious," Mary echoed, with a bark of harsh laughter. "You just practically described a sexual fantasy."

"I certainly hope our being here isn't a part of the sexual fantasy," Anna giggled. Lily rolled her eyes and shoved her textbook across the small table toward her.

"Shhh!" Madame Pince's sandpaper voice echoed through the library. "Quiet study groups only."

"Sorry!" the three girls giggled in unison. Some things never changed and Madame Pince's absolute detestation of all children was top of the list. The Gryffindor girls had been laughing about it since first year.

"Is this the quiet study group Pince was so kindly advertising?" Ben slid into the open seat across from Lily. Anna dn Mary immediately erupted into further giggles.

Lily managed a smile through her blush. "This is the one."

"Hi." he grinned easily.

"Hi."

"And that's where we take our leave! Later, Lils, later, Soares." With that, Mary popped out of her own seat and grabbed Anna by the arm, dragging the copper-haired girl off.

"Wait, where are you...going…" Lily sighed as her friends rounded a tall shelf and disappeared.

"Did I scare them off?" Ben frowned after them.

Lily took a centering breath and focused on the Ravenclaw in front of her, offering him a smile. "Doubtful. I've had no luck with ditching them in six years of practice."

"Well, that's all right. To be honest, I rather prefer it this way."

Lily's eyes bugged a bit as she noted the wizard's nervous smile. "Cool." she managed before returning to her essay.

...

"No, you fold it on the side."

"I did." James pouted.

"That's the top of it. Hand it here." Peter held his hand out to receive James' pitiful attempt at a paper aeroplane.

The marauders-sans Remus-were in the dungeons, a hundred first-year cauldrons stacked messily beside them. Slughorn had been assigned to monitor their detention this particular morning and he never remembered to take their wands. A hundred dirty cauldrons divided by the three of them, well...two as Sirius spent most of the time carving obscenities into the wooden floorboard...was quick work with magic.

"You did the same thing as last time. This has to be symmetrical." Peter sighed, fumbling with the parchment. "If we had Muggle paper, this would work better."

The boys still had half an hour before Slughorn was due to check in and release them so they were doing what they could to stay sane in the dark, foul-smelling bottom floor of the castle.

"I'm bored." Sirius whined from his slumped position against the grey, cement wall.

"Make a plane," James tossed a wad of parchment at the dark-haired wizard.

Peter rubbed his temples. "Crumpled parchment doesn't work," he muttered to himself as he dropped James' attempt and gave up, once and for all.

"We leave this place tomorrow, but we're stuck here all morning cleaning firsties' rubbish. This is stupid." Sirius continued, aimlessly shooting small whisps of colour from his wand.

"Just be glad we aren't dealing with Filch." James offered with a shrug.

"Let's just leave." suggested Sirius half-heartedly before truly considering his words. "No, really!" The wand colours disappeared with a powdery poof. "Let's go."

"Padfoot," James frowned. "We only have like 20 minutes left. Sluggy will come back and let us go with zero trouble. We can make it a few more minutes."

Sirius pushed off from the ground, stepping on Peter's perfect aeroplane, eliciting a cry from the other Gryffindor. "When was the last time we did anything exciting? We're marauders aren't we?"

"You do know that we are in detention for baiting and fighting death eaters, right?"

"That doesn't count!" Sirius waved off. "We missed out on months of fun. The year ends tomorrow! Come on."

"I just think that-"

"Prongs." cut in Sirius with a sharp glare. "You're being soft. What's the deal?"

James shifted his glasses and scrunched up his face. "It's not even worth it! He's literally going to be back in a few minutes. And Peter was teaching us how to do fun Muggle things!" He gestured wildly toward Peter who sat with an unimpressed expression of contempt.

"Oh yeah, Prongs, we're having a grand ol' time." Peter deadpanned.

James' eyebrows lifted. "You wanna ditch, too?"

"Um yes." responded Wormtail, as if this were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You're the nancy here, Prongs. Let's go." Sirius held his hand out. "Map, please."

"I think-"

"James. Is this because of your…" Sirius shot a quick glance at Peter before his lips twitched and he stood a little straighter. "Your assignment from Dumbledore."

"What assignment?" Peter scrambled to his feet.

"Nothing," James glared.

Sirius crosses his arms across his chest. "Then, stop playing Mum and let's go."

James pushed off the floor and shoved the Map at Sirius' chest. "You lead. I'm not taking the fall for this first-year shit."

He'd asked her out again.

She shouldn't have been completely shocked, but hearing Ben's hushed library voice say "how would you feel about another date?" still threw her for a colossal loop. So much so that she stabbed a hole through the parchment and had to do a series of small erasing spells to save her essay.

She'd said yes, because why shouldn't she? Ben was sweet! And Lily really did get along with him better than most boys at Hogwarts. Plus, the girls were right: Ben Soares was fit.

Not that that was the deciding factor, of course, but it...helped.

Having successfully turned in her completed essay to Flitwick and walked around the castle for half an hour with Ben, she was headed back to Gryffindor Tower, readying herself for the ambush that would no-doubt occur when she opened the door to the sixth-year girls' dorm.

The sound of raucous laughter down the corridor halted her. Boys...and at least two or three, by the sound of it. She froze.

Before Ben split off to Ravenclaw, he had insisted on walking her to her own Tower, but she denied, feeling particularly brave and unconcerned with her own anxiety and instructions from Dumbledore. Gryffindor Tower was only a few minutes walk away anyway and it was broad daylight.

Hearing the sound of boys quickly approaching sent her into an immediate panic, though, and her wand was in-hand-shaky as it may be-within seconds.

"STUP-"

"Evans!"

Lily blinked, taking in the approaching familiar faces. "I...oh."

"Little quick to the trigger there, aren't we, Ginge?" Sirius offered a smile as he stopped in front of her, using his hand to slowly push her wand to her side.

She laughed, breathily. "Yeah, sorry. I was just-"

"S'fine." Sirius waved it off. "What are you roaming about for?"

"I was-wait." Her eyebrows knitted together. "I thought you had detention."

"We got out earl-" Peter started before Sirius cut him off.

"We're skiving."

Peter and James' mouth dropped.

"Mate." Peter whined.

Lily put a hand on her hips, glaring at Sirius. "Black, you can't just skive off detention. You're going to lose points for Gryffindor and the house cup is literally being awarded tomorrow."

"Lose points from you." Peter whined, crossing his arms in a grumpy pout.

The witch sent a sharp look his way. "I'm not docking points, git. But your detention prof will for sure when they see you're gone."

"It was James' idea." Sirius shrugged.

James scoffed, incredulously. "It was n-"

"Oh." Lily's eyes darkened as she seemed to notice the third boy for the first time. "I see."

"It was not my idea. In fact, I tried to stop them!" he cried, indignantly.

"I'm sure." Lily's eyes narrowed in disbelief.

"What, you don't believe me?" James snapped.

"No!" she shouted back. "I don't. It sounds like the exact sort of irresponsibility that always seems to reek of James Potter."

"Oh, do try to be more fifth-year." he rolled his eyes.

"Don't try to act like you've outgrown your idiocy!"

"Like you've outgrown your tendency to be the world's biggest bitch?"

"I've missed this," Sirius sighed wistfully, throwing an arm around Peter and enjoying the free entertainment.

"This is a waste of my time." she spat, turning on her heels and marching back down the corridor.

"Hey!" James shouted, jogging right after her and completely forgetting the other two boys. "Why are you even out here alone?!"

"What?" she whipped back around.

He held her gaze, with even intensity. "I said why are you out here alone, Evans?"

"Because I wanted to be, Potter."

"Well, that's stupid!"

"Don't call me stupid! It's the middle of the day! No one's going to attack me in broad daylight on the main floor!"

"Tell that to your wrist. It almost snapped at the rate of motion from drawing your wand two minutes ago."

"I was being cautious."

"You're being an idiot. You know what Dumbledore said! It's dangerous for you to wander-"

"What Dumbledore said? How the hell do you know what Dumbledore said? You've avoided me like the bloody plague since that day in the broom closet!"

James breathed, huffily. "That is not what this is about so don't even start-"

"For your information, Potter, I'd been alone for maybe five minutes before you pricks showed up. I'm not wandering for the hell of it, okay? Not that it's any of your business, but I was with Ben until just a few minutes ago and I was literally headed straight back to the Tower-"

"Oh, now the story is coming together!" he jeered with a twisted smile, towering over her. "You were with Soares. Of course your judgment was off!"

Her wand was in her hand in a second, tip stabbing into his chest. "Don't say another word against Ben Soares. I don't know what your fucking probme with him is, but he's never done a single thing to you so get over yourself."

James didn't flinch at her wand, almost relishing the sharp pain in his sternum. "Quick to defend a bloke you barely even know, Evans."

"Barely even know?" she asked incredulously. "You've gone out with girls you literally don't know the first name of, so please hold off on this lecture."

"That's not fair at all, Evans. I haven't done that since last year and you know it."

She shook her head quickly. "Well, it...it doesn't matter. None of this matters. Just...stop choosing moments of convenience to wedge yourself into my life."

"What does that even mean?"

"I mean the next time you want a test subject to play hero on, just ask. You don't have to fabricate months of friendship first." Her voice broke off, hoarse from emotion and exhaustion. "Whatever. Just...have a good summer holiday." She turned quickly and headed down the hallway toward Gryffindor Tower.

James stood still, watching her hunched figure hurry away. He was suddenly aware of how quick and erratic his breathing had apparently become. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the blankness that the back of his eyelids brought him.

"Mate," Sirius' hand was on his shoulder within seconds. "You all right?"

"Yeah. Fine." James shook Sirius' hand off before resuming the journey down the corridor.

Sirius nodded, following silently.

"What happened in the broom closet?" squeaked Peter as he hopped to catch up with their long-legged strides.

...

As always, let me know whatcha think. xoxo

Abi