James sat at the Griffindor table, slumped over his food, eyes closing…closing…

"Hey, James." Someone grabbed him roughly by the shoulders and James awoke with a start. He looked to his left. It was Sirius. "Don't fall asleep in your toast, you'll get butter all over you face." James smiled weakly. Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Anyway, what's up with you – you look like a zombie."

"Thanks Sirius," muttered James sarcastically.

"Yeah man, you look terrible," added in Remus sincerely.

James sighed. "Again, thank you, for making me feel so much better."

Remus laughed. "But seriously – is there anything up?"

James shrugged. "Not really – if you don't include breaking up with the love of my life because the Dark Lord has threatened to murder me and sent one of my ex-friends after me to try to kill me nearly succeeding… But yeah, I'm fine." James smiled broadly and his friends rolled their eyes. "Look, I'm just tired ok? I didn't get any sleep last night."

"Yeah, neither did I," muttered Remus. "What with you tossing and turning all bloody night…"

At that moment Peter came into the hall with an expression of fear on his face. As soon as he saw the rest of the marauders wave him over, he jumped, then hastily moved over towards them and sat down, not looking any of them in the face.

"Hey Peter – you been visiting your mum? Is she feeling any better?" asked James sympathetically. They all knew that Peter's mum (who was a muggle) had cancer, and so assumed that Peter had gone to visit her for the past few days.

Peter was very pale. "My – my mum?" he asked quietly. Then his eyes widened. "Oh yeah! My mum, yeah, she – she's ok. You know – not getting better or anything but she says she's feeling good."

James, Remus and Sirius all looked at each other in surprise at this weird answer. "Ok," Remus said slowly.

At that point Dumbledore stood up shouting, "James Potter please will you come with me now." The hall went deadly silent as all eyes went between the now up-right Dumbledore and the few bewildered teachers surrounding him (including an unknown small man standing by his side) and James who was slowly standing up, his friends around him looking confused. "See you later," mumbled James. Then he walked up to the high table and followed Dumbledore through a small door at the back of the hall, the strange little man following close behind.

Lily's eyes never left James' back as he walked through those doors. Not even for a second.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What do you think it is?" Lily asked, turning to Lyndsay as soon as James had disappeared.

Her best friend shrugged. "I dunno. But James has been seeing Dumbledore a lot lately."

"How do you know?" Lily asked quickly.

Lyndsay frowned. "Just because you were cheating with him and it didn't work out that doesn't mean I can't still be James' friend you know!" she snapped. Lily's face paled and she looked down at her cereal. Lyndsay's face softened. "Sorry Lils," she said.

"That's ok, I completely deserved it," Lily said half-smiling. "I still want to know what's up, though…something's going on…"

"Shit, I wonder if anything's happened…" Lily and Lyndsay looked across the table to see Remus and Sirius in deep conversation. Peter was sitting next to them looking like a ghost and seemed to be listening to his friends' conversation but wasn't joining in. Lily listened in.

"…I don't know. If something massive had happened, wouldn't Dumbledore shut down the whole school?" Sirius was saying in a small voice. "I mean, it would endanger all of us if he came."

"Not if James was gone," muttered Remus.

Sirius' eyebrows rasied. "You mean – they would kick James out of the school?"

"Not exactly, but he can't stay here. As long as we're around him, we're all in danger…"

"Hey, I'm not leaving James, not for one second. I promised him –"

Remus turned his head round sharply. "Whatever you promised him, forget it, Sirius. You can't save him from this. This is beyond our control. And I'm not going to let you go after him if they do move him somewhere else, ok?" Sirius didn't say anything. Remus sighed. "Look, I love Prongs as much as you, Padfoot. I don't want anything to happen to him as much as you don't. And I'll do anything he asks me to do – but only if he asks me. If he doesn't, we cannot get in the way. He wouldn't want us to put ourselves in danger, Padfoot. He is a very dangerous man."

Lily frowned as she leaned back. Who was this "he" they kept referring to with such strong emphasis and such obvious resentment? She looked at Lyndsay who merely shrugged; obviously her friend had been listening in as well. Lily resided to confront the boys later. She had a right to know what the hell was going on…didn't she?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lily walked determinedly into the common, fists clenched firmly at her side. It was just after breakfast and she had followed Sirius and Remus up here. Now, feeling slightly surprised, she saw them with a stricken-looking Freddie. What were they talking about that was so bad?

Lily walked up to the boys, who immediately dropped their conversation. Freddie sat down, head in his hands, and Sirius looked away. It was Remus who turned to face her, quite obviously faking the smile plastered on his face.

Lily tried to squash down the anger she felt. Why did Freddie have the right to know something so bad that was so obviously about James and she didn't? Instead of yelling which was what her instincts were screaming at her to do, Lily calmly asked, "Where's Peter?"

"Said he felt sick," came the answer. "He's been in the boys' toilets for ages now. I hope he isn't throwing up too much!" Remus kept smiling and Lily felt the irritation slowly beginning to bubble back up inside of her.

"So," she started lightly, "what do you think Dumbledore was so upset about?" Remus paled and looked away awkwardly. "Oh, I – I really don't know…" Remus had always been a terrible liar.

Lily clenched her teeth. "Really," she started angrily, "because I seem to remember you and Sirius mentioning something about danger, worry, this mysterious 'he' and many other suspicious sounding things you were talking about at breakfast that gave the impression that you DO know something about this, you know a LOT about this, and I got the impression that it can't be good."

Freddie and Sirius looked up in alarm. Remus just looked angry. "You were listening?" he said angrily. "You were listening to our private conversation?"

"It's a good job I –"

"There's a reason things are private, you know…"

"It's a good job I did listen," Lily shouted. "No one ever tells me anything anymore! Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I'm worried about James – about what the hell this secret you all have is and why I can't know it when I love him, I worry about him?"

"HE'S NOT YOURS TO WORRY ABOUT ANYMORE!" shouted Remus, stunning everyone including himself. He breathed heavily, looking into Lily's shocked and upset face. He sighed. "Not anymore," he said again, slowly.

Lily felt the tears prickle at her eyes. "How can you say that? I love him…"

"Then leave him be." Something in Remus' determined tone and hard face said that he wasn't going to relent and that he was being deadly serious. "Lily, if you love him, you'll leave him alone."

Lily breathed in deeply and tried to compose herself. "Fine," she said through clenched teeth. Lily walked over to the stairs, ran up them and slammed the door behind her in her dormitory with as much dignity as possible before she burst into tears and dropped to the floor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Remus sighed again and sat down into a chair. Freddie was already sat and Sirius was on the floor lying on his back in obvious anguish. "Maybe we should have told her," mumbled Remus.

"No," said Sirius, propping himself up onto his shoulders. "If James doesn't want her to know, then it's not our place to tell her."

"I know, but I hate to see her in so much pain." Remus' tired eyes suddenly clouded over with pain and he shut them, glad for the rest.

Freddie stood up and paced the room. "Me and Lily were not meant to be," he said, getting Remus and Sirius' attention for the first time that hour. "But James and Lily…it's so obvious that they love each other. They're meant to be together. It was even written in a prophecy for Merlin's sake."

"Yeah, but the prophecy never said it would be Lily's child," Sirius pointed out. "That's why James broke up with her. He doesn't want it to be her child, because he loves her." Freddie stopped pacing and stood still to listen. "James is scared. He's scared that if he stays with Lily, they'll have the child who is supposed to one day rise up against Voldemort, and Voldemort will now not only go after James and the baby, but Lily as well."

Freddie nodded slowly. "But if James is with someone else…"

"…then Lily will be safe."

Freddie sat down again, leaning forward with his hands clasped together. "Wow," he said finally. "He must really love her, to do that."

"He does," said Remus quietly.

The sad silence that was the next main topic of conversation in the common room between the three boys was certainly a long, awkward but thought-provoking one. After a few minutes Freddie yelled aloud in anger, showing enough anger that all three boys felt. "It's not fair!" he said. "How come we have to sit here feeling terrible when this is James' mess?"

Sirius looked up. "You think you feel terrible? Just think he feels."

That shut Freddie up. Well, it did for a minute anyway. "It's just so stupid," he said, starting up again. He leaned forward. "She's in love with him, unfortunately for me might I add, he's obviously in love with her, and there's a bloody prophecy that says that they're going to be together."

"Freddie, we already told you," Remus said, rubbing his face with his hands. "The prophecy doesn't mention Lily…"

"You said it was between James and the one he dearly loved," said Freddie with a hard face. "Who else is he ever going to love?" Remus and Sirius looked at each other, and Freddie sighed. Look, I may not know James as much as you two, but I've seen the way he looks at her; I can't imagine him ever loving anyone as much as that ever again. Can you?"

After a few moments, Sirius said, "So, what are you saying? Do you think we should try to get them back together or what?"

"That's exactly what I think we should do."

"No, James would kill us," Remus put in. "This is his decision, we can't go against it…"

"Yeah, but we're not going against it," said Sirius. "We're his friends, friends help each other out, they give advice, they guide their friends in the right direction…"

Remus frowned. "Yeah, but who are we to decide what's right for Lily and James? I'm not saying I don't think they belong together, because I think they do, but I also think that we can't force them into something unless they chose to do it themselves. If they are meant to be together, if the prophecy IS about Lily, then they'll be together…"

"And if the prophecy isn't about Lily?" Sirius stood up. "You want James to go and be with someone who will only ever be second best to him because he can't be with Lily, forcing Lily, James and the girl who is second best into a life-time of misery?"

Remus smiled. "Aren't you being a little melodramatic?" he said, grinning.

Sirius grinned back. "Worked at least, didn't it? Besides, I can be melodramatic if I want. This is a pretty heavy subject."

"Agreed," said Freddie, who hadn't spoken for a while. Remus and Sirius looked at him as if they'd forgotten he was there. "So – what are we going to do?" He looked at Sirius and then at Remus. "You're his best friends; it's up to you."

Reminded by something, Remus turned to Sirius. "Do you think maybe we should include Peter in this?"

"Oh, I don't know; he looked really green last time I saw him," Sirius said grinning. "It was when Dumbledore called out for James. I think this whole situation might be too much for him." Remus nodded in agreement.

Freddie sighed. "So are we doing it or not?" he asked, whining like a six year old.

Remus and Sirius looked each other. A small grin slowly appeared on their faces. "Who says we're meddling?" said Remus.

"Yeah, and in doing this, we're saving the future world, are we not?" Sirius grinned.

"Not to mention saving a LOT of tension for us and our dear friends," Freddie put in.

"Let's do this!" said Remus with mock-heroism.

Sirius grinned, but after a moment or two his smile faded. "Um, I hate to be the negativity of the group, but, um… How?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

a/n: HELLO!! Sorry it's been oh-so long. I'm sure no one's reading this crap (I apologise for the crap). Ah well, at least things are beginning to take shape. But I warn you, this is only going to carry on for another few chapters or so. And there isn't going to be a real ending (you know, with defeating Voldemort and stuff) because we already know what happened there! But there will be some sort of conclusion within the friends and the romance!!! YAY ROMANCE! *sigh* gotta love the fluff. Fluff. Yum. Next chapter, if you're nice and review me lots, we'll find out what Dumbledore had to say. Predictable maybe, but still GOOD. :D oh yeah, and sorry this chapter was a bit slow, but you have to have the meat, you cant just have the bread. :P

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           Love,

           ~RowanX