"You left?" exclaimed Sirius.

"Without a word?" exclaimed Remus.

James put down his quill with exasperation. His friends meant well but their constant disapproval of everything he ever did in regards to Lily was starting to get on his nerves

"What other choice did I have, really?"

"Let me get this straight," said Sirius, putting aside his pile of filled ordering form and shooting a murderous glance at Remus who had scoffed at the words. "You were alone in a room with the crying girl of your dreams begging to be comforted and you just left?"

They were sitting on the ground of their room, filling out every ordering form from Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop they managed to get their hands on. Peter had once again come up with a brilliant plan to get every single Slytherin in trouble at once, by ordering the entirety of Flinch's list of prohibited objects in their names.

"She was begging for me to leave, Pads."

"She was playing hard to get, Prongs," replied Sirius in the same tone.

"See, no, I find that hard to believe," said James, putting another filled out form on his growing pile. "She was asking me to leave, so I left. For the first time in maybe ever, I didn't do it because I want to get on her good side. I didn't do it because I want her to go out with me. I was trying to be a decent, respectful human being and I believe that, by leaving, I was."

"Oh Moony, our little boy is growing up," said Sirius, wiping an imaginary tear.

James mimicked hitting him over the head with his own stack of filled forms and the two boys broke down into a faked battle and uncontrollable laughter while Remus shook his head in consternation.

"Are you sure this can't be traced back to us?" he asked, motioning towards the papers. "Because you know that if it does, I had nothing to do with it, I'm a prefect remember?"

James, who had Sirius in a headlock, froze to think and answer.

"You have to ask Peter about that, I'm not the master engineer of this plan."

"I wish he could have been here to see the beginning of it move into action," sighed Sirius, still trapped under James' arm.

"He's in detention Sirius, he's not dead," said Remus, rolling his eyes. He reached over to James' pile and placed it over his own, creating a ridiculously high and unstable tower of papers. "That has to be enough, I don't even know if there's that much Slytherins in the school. We'll need to check if we didn't accidentally put down the same name twice, I wouldn't put it past you two idiots."

"Have some respect for your elders, will you," Sirius' muffled voice came from underneath the pillow James was now holding over his face.

Remus rolled his eyes again but failed to contain his smile as Sirius was finally let free, pretending to gasp for air.

"There's other problems we need to figure out too," Remus continued, trying his hardest to ignore Sirius's desperate attempts at getting his attention. "Once the Slytherins get the products, and once they will have been confiscated by Flinch, we have no guarantee he will store them in his office. Actually we have no guarantee he will keep them at all. With the temper he's got on him, he might want to destroy everything."

"How?" snickered Sirius, "You know he's got to be a Squib, no one cleans anything manually for pleasure. Besides, I'd like to see him trying to get rid of the new edition of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Facetious and Flaming Fireworks. I heard those things explode when hit by any spell at all, even armless ones."

"You ordered those? I told you those were actually dangerous, we can't have them here!"

Remus frowned at Sirius for a few seconds, but James could clearly see the corners of his mouth starting to twitch. For as long as he had known him, Remus was incapable of staying mad at Sirius, especially a Sirius smiling from ear to ear, looking extremely smug and proud of himself as was the case now.

"Fine," Remus sighed, his gaze firmly planted on James. "We have another problem then. Where are we going to stock all of this? And that's admitting we manage to sneak past Flinch and steal everything from under his nose. We can't use Peeve's room any more, not since Prongs here lets girls in every other day."

James's eyebrows rose up and he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Girl, singular. And I never let her in myself, she lets herself in. Since you two are such experts on girls you should know no one stops Lily Evans from going where she wants to go. Also it's not as if it was actually our room, she has a right to be here, y'know?"

Remus and Sirius exchanged a knowing glance and James's eyebrows rose even higher upon seeing their condescending smiles.

"Calm down lover, no one here is blaming your girlfriend," laughed Sirius, rolling from his back to his belly so he could look at James in the eyes. "Though it's really cute how prompt you are at jumping to her defence."

"Shut up, she's not my girlfriend," said James before quickly adding: "Yet."

Remus and Sirius exchanged another look James could not quite decipher, but they apparently had the same idea.

"Talk to her," they both said at the same time.

"Tell her she can't use the room for a few weeks," continued Remus alone, "That'll give you the perfect excuse to talk to her more, figure out exactly why she's been so sad..."

"... Comfort her and get on her good side once and for all," completed Sirius. "Easy as can be."

James blinked and looked at his friends who looked back at him with angel smiles.

"Oh man, check out that coincidence," said Remus as he pulled the Marauder's map out of his back pocket. "Lily is just now coming back from the rounds in the Astronomy tower I scheduled her for."

James' jaw almost dropped when he realized what exactly was his friends' ingenious and mischievous plan for him. Sirius had a devilish smile on his face when he took the map from his boyfriend.

"Moony my dear, how convenient would it be if Prongs went right down to the common room right now and intercepted Lily as she came in, so we could both sneak out under the cloak and through the portrait hole?"

"Why, awfully convenient Pads. I mean, someone has to help out Pete in the Owlery, right? These letters are not going to send themselves."

Sirius and Remus turned to James in the same movement, with the same smile plastered on both their faces. James couldn't believe they had been planing such an elaborate scheme like this behind his back.

"You two are evil geniuses and I don't know whether to love or hate you right now," he admitted.

"You can meditate on that later," said Sirius as he glanced down to the map he was still holding. "Lily's climbing the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower, that's your cue to go."

Although James made sure both of his friends saw he was rolling his eyes, and although he made a point of sighting dramatically as he exited the room, he still went down the stairs with a spring in his step and excitement in his chest.

Apart from a small group of third years fighting sleep by the windows, the common room was empty of students. Wood was crackling in the fireplace and hushed giggles followed James down the staircase. The subtle footsteps of his friends under the cloak reassured him a little and he took a deep breath in to slow his precipitated heartbeat.

He knew deep down he had nothing to be anxious about, but it didn't stop his palms from being sweaty and it did nothing for the pit in his stomach growing heavier and heavier each second. It was one thing to stumble upon Lily unexpectedly or to rush behind her on a whim, but it was another thing to have the time to nervously anticipate the conversation.

He was so focused on planning ahead what he would say, he almost bumped into her as she came out of the portrait hole.

"Oh sorry," he blurred out, thankfully rapidly enough to cover his friends' giggles two steps behind him. "Didn't see you."

"No problem," said Lily politely before bypassing him and heading towards the stairs leading to the girls dorm.

James suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left calf and threw an outraged look over his shoulder to where he knew Sirius was standing. Although he could not see him, he could almost feel his best friend's mocking smile.

"Go talk to her," whispered Remus from underneath the cloak.

With a quiet thump, the portrait hole closed and just like that they were gone. The sound brought James back to what he was supposed to be doing so he spun around towards Lily who was already climbing the stairs.

"Oy Evans, wait up!" he called across the room, and she stopped and looked above her shoulder with curiosity. One or two of the students who were still hanging out in the common room had raised their heads and were turned to them, so James took the wise executive decision to get closer to Lily to carry on with the rest of the conversation. "Sorry, this'll just take a minute."

"What's going on James?" said Lily, smiling softly. She took a few steps down the stairs to come toward him but stopped on the second step, so she was now just slightly taller than him. James had to admit it felt a bit intimidating and he couldn't help but wonder if she always felt as small as he was feeling now.

"Details are not important as I'm sure you'll understand but I've been tasked to very respectfully suggest that you stay clear of Peeve's room for a couple of days starting from this week," he said very fast, without catching his breath.

Lily absentmindedly passed a hand through her long red hair, and pretended to look intrigued.

"When you said details are not important, you actually mean that I, as a prefect, should certainly not be aware of the details of whatever's about to go down in that room, right?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

"God, I knew you were going to say that," sighed Lily. She looked annoyed but there was also a certain lightness in her voice and in the way she was carrying herself. For some reason, she didn't look half as intimidating as she usually did to James.

Perhaps it was the fireplace, casting a beautiful glowing light on her pale skin, or perhaps it was the night, deep and dark in the windows behind her, enveloping her like a blanket, softening her traits, her voice, her smile. Her smile.

"You do have to tell me though..." she started and her eyes twinkled with malice.

"Yes?"

"Does Remus know about it? I want to think he doesn't and that he would come to me if he did, but I know how loyal he is to you and Black."

Surprised, James rose an eyebrow. He hadn't expected this question at all and had already run out of his stock of smart answers he had prepared.

"Remus, who's Remus? I don't know him," he replied really fast, trying to hide the panic in his voice. "Never heard of him, sorry."

Lily laughed wholeheartedly and James joined her when he realized just how ridiculous he was acting. Unmistakably, that girl had a way of messing with his brain. It was a very subtle kind of magic, much more intricate than the kind taught at Hogwarts. It was a magic that poisoned his blood, his dreams, his every thought.

Implicitly declaring the conversation over, Lily climbed a couple of steps before turning back.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get caught."

She winked at him before disappearing up the stairs, leaving James alone with his sweaty palms and irregular heartbeat. Entangled in her beautiful, beautiful magic.