A/N: This is it: the last chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who has read this far. I really hope you've enjoyed the story.

The next morning they were both exhausted when Madame Pomfrey came in to give Remus his last potion and let him go. She told him that he didn't have to go to classes if he didn't want to. He didn't want to skip classes; usually he was grateful when the full moon fell on a weekend so that he wouldn't have to miss any days, but he was tired and wanted to get some sleep. James decided to skip as well and also catch up on some sleep, so they headed back towards the dormitory.

When they got there, Sirius and Peter were still in the room, though they looked like they were just about to leave. "You're back!" Peter cried when they walked in the door.

"Hey Pete," Remus smiled a little. "Yeah. It was a hard full moon, so Madame Pomfrey kept me an extra night. I'm fine now, just need some sleep." Sirius stood silent though, James noted, he at least had the sense to look a bit sheepish. Remus didn't acknowledge him, however. He walked right to his bed and laid down, pulling the curtains closed around him.

"Want us to wait for you?" Peter asked, turning to James.

"Sorry mate, you're going to have to go on without me. I'm dead tired. I'm going to skip classes today, at least the morning ones," James answered. He also started making his way towards his bed.

"Why are you both so tired? Did you spend the night in the hospital wing too?" Sirius asked.

James looked at him but didn't respond. "Come find me at lunch Wormy," he said finally, still looking right at Sirius. "Maybe I'll keep you company for afternoon classes." James sat down on the edge of his bed and started taking his shoes off. In the corner of his eye he saw Sirius make a move, but Peter stopped him and pulled him out the door. Once they were gone James let out a deep breath. He laid down, still fully dressed. He was sure he wasn't going to be able to get any sleep at this point.

Sure enough, he was still wide-awake staring at the ceiling when he heard the door open back up a few hours later. He didn't get pick his head up until he heard Peter's voice.

"Don't worry," Peter whispered, "It's just me."

"Where is he?" James said back quietly, trying not to wake Remus.

"I told him to get us a seat for lunch and I'd come get you."

"I'm not sitting with him."

"So we aren't going to be friends with him anymore?"

"Sorry Wormy, we decided that last night. You can do whatever you want, just pick a side."

"I'm on your side, on Moony's side, you know that!"

"Great! Then it's settled; we won't sit with him." James started walking towards the door to leave.

"It's not that easy Prongs. I know you don't like him right now, but we can't let everyone know that something is wrong. Rumors will spread, people will talk, and we don't need the extra attention. We can hate him and ignore him all you want in private, but publicly we need to stay civil, at least for now."

James sighed. If people knew that something was wrong between them they would wonder what the fight was about. They'd know it must be something big, which would make it hard to lie about, and there's no guarantee that Sirius would go along with it. "Fine. I don't like it, but you're right. Let's go get lunch. I'll be civil."

James convinced himself the whole way downstairs that it wouldn't be that bad. They would just eat in silence and it would be over. His anger bubbled back up to the surface, however, when they walked into the Great Hall and he saw Sirius sitting and laughing with the sixth year Gryffindor girls like nothing was wrong. "I lied," he whispered to Peter, "I can't do this."

"Yes you can," Peter whispered back as they were reaching their saved spots at the table. "Just don't say anything."

They sat down and James did just that. He didn't say anything for the entire meal. A couple times Mary or Alice tried to pull him into the conversation, but he stuffed his mouth full and gave them an apologetic look to get out of it. He mostly just ate and stared at his plate. He couldn't stand to look up and see Sirius having a good time. He also didn't really want to see Lily after their conversation the day before. Overall, he was uncomfortable and getting angrier and angrier and time went on and Sirius kept talking. He couldn't wait for lunch to be over.

Fairly soon, though not soon enough for James' liking, everyone started getting up to go to their next class. Just as James stood up he felt a clap on his back and heard Sirius' voice. "Right Jamie?" The git was smiling at him.

James looked around. The girls were all calm and smiling and Peter was looking at him with a worried but pleading expression, nodding softly. Sirius was pushing his luck, but Peter was begging James to play nice. "Yeah," James said finally. "Yeah, right." Sirius hugged him tighter and Peter breathed a sigh of relief.

They left the Great Hall and the girls went on ahead. Once they were out of ear shot and no one else was paying them any attention James shrugged Sirius arm off his shoulders. "Get off me," he growled.

"What's wrong mate," Sirius asked. He seemed serious, like he genuinely didn't know why James was mad.

"You're joking," James laughed. "You're thick if you think that everything is fine after what you did. I can barely stand to look at you and you haven't even tried to apologize, not even to Remus!"

"Apologize for what? Nothing happened! He said it himself this morning, he's fine!"

"That's a load and you know it. Look, I'll be civil when there are other people around, but don't expect things to be like they were before. They aren't."

"Well don't do me any favors!" Sirius screamed and stormed off.

"Fine," James shouted after him. "I won't!" Then he turned to Peter. "I don't think I should go to class. I'll catch up with you later." And he walked off. Unfortunately, Sirius had gone in the direction of Gryffindor tower, so James had to go another way to avoid him.

He wandered the halls for a while, steaming and muttering to himself. At one point he got so wound up that he punched the wall. Growing up as a wizard, anger-fueled fights were always magical rather than strictly physical. He had never been driven to physical violence, but he could see why muggles did it. Looking at his hand and feeling the pain throb, he figured maybe punching stone wasn't his best idea. He would need to find another way of letting off steam. Just then, like magic, Lily Evans walked around the corner.

"What are you doing here?" James asked harshly. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Flitwick just let us out. Peter showed up alone. Said you weren't feeling good again. I knew that was rubbish. I have a free period now. I had to come find you."

"Good for you, you're so smart. Now that you've found me, you can kindly leave me alone."

She ignored his comment. "Oh my! Your hand! What happened?"

"Don't worry about it Evans! I asked you yesterday to give me some space, why can't you just do that? Do you like torturing me?"

"No I – "

"You hate me, remember? Go back to that."

"I don't – "

James was screaming now, not letting her get a word in. "I can't do this! I thought I made that clear yesterday. I can't be around you right now. Between you and Sirius I just – "

Lily cut him off with a kiss. It felt all too familiar to him. He fell into it and kissed her back harder. He let himself forget everything as he dragged his lips down her throat.

"Mmm," she moaned, "we're in the middle of the hallway."

He pulled himself away slightly and looked around. He smirked and, without explanation, dragged her to a tapestry just down the hall and pushed himself into her, moving them both into the secret nook behind it. He immediately captured her lips again, stopping any question about how he knew about this place. He didn't want to talk anymore; he just wanted to forget.

She let him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he crashed them into the wall, pinning her against it with his hips. They continued on in that way, not so slowly losing articles of clothing one at a time. They were both down to just their underwear.

"James," she said in his ear when he was sucking at her neck again. "I want you, now."

James groaned and pulled back. He was just about to give her what she wanted when he saw her face and stopped. It was like everything came rushing back to him. He remembered who he was and what was happening. Her eyes were still closed and she ground herself against him impatiently. He grabbed her hips to stop her movement, sure that he would lose all self control if she kept doing that.

She opened her eyes then and looked at him. "What? What's wrong?"

"We have to stop. You're first time shouldn't be in some dark alcove off the hallway. Besides, if we do this I would just be using you to forget my problems, and that's not fair to you." He stepped back and picked her skirt off the ground handing it to her.

Lily blushed, holding the skirt in front of her to cover herself. James turned away to give her some privacy and redress himself. "You know," she said to him, "it's my decision where I should and shouldn't lose my virginity, not yours, and it's my job to decide what is and isn't fair to me." She put her hand on his shoulder.

He didn't turn around. "It isn't fair to me either," he said sadly. "I wouldn't feel right if I did this for the wrong reasons, and you heard what I said yesterday. I can't keep doing this with you, it hurts too much when it's over."

She pulled her hand away. "What if it didn't have to be over?" He turned around and he was looking right at him. "Ask me again."

"What do you…?" he trailed off, not sure what she was saying or what to say to her.

"Ask me out again James, like you used to."

His eyes narrowed. "Lily," he started and she smiled, "will you go out with me?"

"Yes!" she said instantly.

"Really?" he dared a small smile himself.

"Yes."

"Really? Go out like in public, dates in Hogsmead, I can tell people, call you my girlfriend, everything kind of go out with me?"

"Yes, yes, yes," she giggled as he scooped her up into a hug.

"I don't get it," James said, laughing as well. "What changed?"

"You did, and I did. You grew up, and I realized that I've been so wrong about you. You were great when everything happened with Liam and now something is bothering you and I couldn't stand not being able to help. I'm sorry that I didn't realize what that meant yesterday."

"Would have saved me the embarrassing speech."

"It wasn't embarrassing! It was sweet." She smacked him lightly on the chest. "So now that we both know where we stand with each other, will you let me help you with whatever is going on with Sirius?"

"It doesn't matter right now. All that matters right now is that you finally said yes. I just want to be happy about that today."

They left the alcove and walked back to Gryffindor tower together hand in hand. If it wasn't obvious that they were together James screamed it at everyone that they passed along the way. It wouldn't take long for the whole school to find out.

Indeed, Lily's dorm mates already heard by the time they walked into the common room after their class. They all squealed when they saw James and Lily sitting together on the couch.

"I thought for sure the rumors were false," Marlene said walking up to them. Peter was with them and they all sat down together, the girls grilling them for details. Not long after, Remus came downstairs and was filled in. Both he and Peter just smiled at James, both probably caught off guard by the development but not nearly as surprised by it as the girls were.

"Oh I just knew you two would end up together," Alice sighed.

"Who would end up together?" Sirius asked from behind James. He must have just gotten into the common room.

"James and Lily!" exclaimed Mary, clapping happily.

"Yeah right," Sirius scoffed, but stopped short when he saw their position on the couch and their hands clasped together. "Bloody hell! You have to tell me how you finally convinced her." He went to sit down, but thought better of it when he saw Remus' face. He wasn't even trying to hide his glare. "Uh, actually," Sirius stuttered, "I'll need a rain check on that story. I just remembered that I've got something I need to do." He left right back out the portrait hole, and all three boys relaxed. The girls didn't seem to notice, still too busy gushing over Lily and James. Lily gave his hand a small squeeze of support.

Weeks went by and, eventually, the excitement over James and Lily getting together died down. People stopped staring at them in the halls and asking them about the details. Over that time, Sirius grew more and more distant. He stopped trying to pretend like everything was fine and mostly stayed to himself away from them. James was happy at first. He was still mad at Sirius and he had Lily now, and that meant that the other girls came around the marauders as well, so they kept themselves entertained. After a while though, he really missed his best friend. Despite what Sirius did, James felt like he couldn't be fully happy, even with Lily, without his best friend to share it with. Remus approached him about it one day when they were alone in the dorm room.

"You've got everything you ever wanted, so why have you looked so miserable lately?" Remus asked him.

"Why would I be miserable?" James asked back, pretending he was fine.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you miss Sirius."

"I don't – "

"Don't bother. I miss him too."

James sighed. "He still hasn't apologized."

"Maybe he will if we give him the chance. We haven't exactly been open to talking to him." James nodded. Remus had a point. "Check the map and see where he is, maybe we can try and talk to him."

James did as Remus said and looked for Sirius on the map. He quickly found his name and noticed that he was alone at the astronomy tower. He relayed the information to Remus.

"Let's go then," Remus clapped as he stood up from the ground.

"Right now?" James asked. It all seemed so sudden.

"Now is as good a time as any, right? I'm done being angry, aren't you?"

James nodded in agreement and they headed off towards the astronomy tower in search of Sirius. He was still there and still alone when they got up the stairs. Sirius turned when he heard them but then turned away again and looked back out along the grounds. "Come to push me off?" he asked.

"Don't tempt me," Remus joked. "Came to talk to you actually." Sirius faced them again and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "We haven't really given you the chance to talk to us and figured we would hear you out if there was anything you wanted to say." James thought for sure that this wasn't going to go well. Sirius would be defensive and not want to apologize.

He was pleasantly surprised when Sirius spoke. "I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I wasn't thinking. I did a stupid thing that could have gotten a lot of people hurt, especially you Moony, which wasn't my intention. I'm a git and I deserved for you guys to be angry with me. The last couple months have been torture alone and I really want things to be normal again." There was silence then as he took a deep breath.

"Anything else?" Remus asked.

"Uh… I'm sorry again, and um I'll- I'll do anything you want me to in order to make it up to you."

"And?"

"Bloody hell Moony. What do you want me to say?"

Remus laughed. "Nothing. Just wanted to see how far you'd go."

Sirius laughed then too and James found himself joining in. Everything would be okay.

The three of them walked back to Gryffindor tower together, catching each other up on everything that had happened since they stopped talking. They got to the common room and sat down. Soon enough, Peter walked in and saw them. They didn't have to say anything. He just came over and joined and suddenly it was just like it used to be.

Until the girls joined, that is. Marlene, Mary, and Alice took seats between the marauders and Lily sat on James' lap. This was definitely not like it used to be; it was better. James smiled as he took in everything around him. At the risk of sounding cliché, he thought to himself that he had finally found his happily ever after.