James could not believe his luck. He could not remember a time when Lily had ever agreed to do something for him, and now she did. Twice in one day. He could have jumped for joy. He practically floated down the hallway to Astronomy, causing his friends to shoot suspicious glances at him. But he did not care. Oh, most definitely not. Lily Evans was going to be in an empty classroom with him. And teach him Charms, of course, but that could always be overlooked.

Astronomy, taught by an old man who was under the impression that he was a Seer, tended to use his lessons for predicting fortunes, not looking at stars. Oh, their homework was always to make star charts, and diagrams of Jupiter's moons. But he never went over the subject matter at all, and always proceeded to tell the students that they had a most dire future. He appeared to make a game of it, and particularly liked picking on James. Walking into the classroom, James trudged to a desk in the back of the room, where he was likely not to be seen. To his surprise, Harry sat down next to him and smiled.

"So, what's this class like?" Harry asked. "Is it any good?"

"Not at all," James answered in such a voice that Harry looked at him strangely. "We have not had a Divination teacher in a number of years," James explained, "but Professor Trumpwort appears to think he can predict the future through the stars." James shook his head. "He especially likes to inform me I have an extremely short lifeline and won't live long after school." James smiled to show he thought it was all ludicrous. "At least he thinks I'll live that long."

To James's surprise, Harry had a look on his face that James couldn't quite place. Perhaps it was…pity? But no, surely Harry couldn't believe in all that nonsense. Maybe he was…no, there was no use thinking about it, and Harry had wiped the expression of his face, so James brushed it off and attempted to pay attention to Trumpwort's beginning of the year speech.

"Good morning class," he droned in a boring voice only rivaled by that of Professor Binns, the History teacher, "today, we will be making charts of our own galaxy." Surprise, Surprise, James thought sarcastically. "Now, two people to every telescope, and take turns looking through it. Do not copy, but you may help each other." Is that not the same thing? James remembered many a time where he had copied off of Remus's paper, insisting that he only needed to check his own.

As he and Harry made their way across the room to a telescope, Trumpwort gasped. Here we go again. But to James's surprise, it was not himself, but Harry that Trumpwort moved towards. "My dear boy, you must be new here. What is your name?"

"Erm..Harry Porter…"

"Mr. Porter, am I correct to say that you were born in July?"

James expected Harry to say he was born in midwinter, but to his surprise, Harry answered, "Erm…yes, actually. July 31st." James nearly gaped, but stopped himself just in time.

"Yes, you were born when Mars was bright red. This informs me that you have the shortest life span I have ever heard of. Even shorter than Mr. Potter here."

"Isn't Mars always bright red?" James, Harry and even Trumpwort jumped. Hermione was speaking. "Well, it is. And I thought this was supposed to be Astronomy. That is quite a bit more exact than Divination."

"Miss--?"

"Hermione Gropet."

"Miss Gropet, you have no right to criticize me. I was born with the Inner Eye, and I can see you have no talent for it. Now, if you and Mr. Weasel would get back to work, please?"

James and Harry took the last remaining telescope on the end, next to Hermione and Ron.

"What was that all about?" James inquired suspiciously.

"In our old school," Hermione replied in an almost Know-it-All voice, "I used to take Divination, and found it was a most imprecise branch of magic." Hermione sniffed. "If you can even call it magic. Needless to say, I dropped the pointless class."

James looked at Harry quizzically. "Professor Trelawney liked to inform me that I had a short lifeline as well. I'm used to it by now, though. Always seeing The Grim in my tea leaves…"

James laughed, surprising all of them. "Well then, you can join the short lifeline club with me, Harry. We can both waltz around and croak at the ripe old age of eighteen."

"Well, you'll live longer than that." Ron spoke for the first time, and Hermione was glaring daggers at him, to James's surprise. He and the other Marauders' former suspicions were brought into play. He didn't suspect the three of them were Seers or fortune tellers of any sort, but they all appeared to know the goings on at Hogwarts fairly well. They had not even asked for directions once, or had the grace to look up as the owl post came for the first day. It was as if they were not expecting any letters to come. James suspected they were all orphans and decided not to look into their past too much. Some people could get very touchy on that subject, particularly those with no parents.

"Umm…I meant…my mum always says you should look for the best in things. Live life to the fullest, she always says." Then Ron's ears turned red.

Says…Present tense, then. So Ron at least was not parentless. James stopped pondering it all, as his head was beginning to hurt. Remus was the thinker, not he.

Before he knew it, Astronomy was over and all he and Harry had accomplished was a few dots on their charts. Oh well, he'd just have to copy from Remus later. James shot a chance glance at Remus and saw he was looking very tired in particular. Of course. It was the week before the full moon, and Remus always became extremely fatigued at this time in the moon's phases. He had not yet told Ron, Hermione and Harry the reason behind the nicknames, and he did not think he would until Remus gave his consent. It was, after all, mainly his secret. There was the little part about himself, Sirius and Peter becoming Animagi, but that could be revealed at the same time it was discovered that Remus was a werewolf. If Remus ever chose to divulge that information.

They had had all their lessons for the day, as Potions was tomorrow. James wished Hermione had stood up for herself, but supposed that might have only done worse damage and had more points taken away from Gryffindor. At the next Quidditch match he would earn all the points back that they had lost plus some, so it did not worry him much. He did not want to know what they would be doing with the Truth Potions, though. He had to make sure he was partners with someone he knew would not ask him embarrassing questions. Namely, not one of his friends. Either way, he was sure whoever in the class was paired up with him would take advantage of the opportunity to ask him questions, so frankly he was dreading the lesson.

Entering the common room, he saw that despite his obvious jade, Remus was talking animatedly with Hermione. He thought there was something going on between the two, then again they could just be talking about some assignment. It would be most like him.

James decided to head over to Lily and annoy her so she would pay attention to him, when suddenly Emberlynn spotted him, and all the girls followed her up to the dormitory. Was she still remembering the events in Transfiguration? Only women could hold grudges for long.

Sitting down and rolling out his parchment with the pitiful galaxy chart on it, he looked up to ask Remus to give him his own diagram so James could "check his own". When he looked around, though, both Remus and Hermione were gone. Smiling smugly to himself, he assumed that maybe they had gone into some abandoned classroom. Which only reminded James of his own rendezvous tonight with Lily.

********************************************

Remus was delighted with how things were going between him and Hermione. He could not say if she was romantically interested in him or not, but she was certainly getting to know him better. He was a bit tired, as he felt that the full moon would be coming in a week, but was able to ignore his symptoms of slight nausea by chatting with Hermione. After Astronomy, they had followed their fellow Gryffindors into the common room. Hermione informed Remus that Harry usually did nothing in any of his classes except perhaps Defense Against the Dark Arts, and had not finished his star chart. At an inquiry from Remus, she had admitted that James had not done his either. Knowing that James would likely want to copy his work, Remus asked Hermione if she wanted to go to the empty Charms classroom and finish some of their homework together there. He had thought that might be a bit too forward, but to his fruition, she had agreed with what he thought was enthusiasm.

Hermione opened the door, peered in, and seeing that it was indeed empty, lit all the torches with her wand. "What do you want to work on first, Remus?" Was it his imagination, or had she put a slight caress to her voice on the word "Remus"? No, that couldn't be.

"Transfiguration, I suppose." He smiled in remembrance. "Professor McGonagall is likely to remember the incidents of today, and grade them harder than usual."

"Yes, that's a good idea. He reminds me of Si--someone I used to know." She looked at the floor, and he saw a tear leak from the corner of her eye. "He's no longer alive, but in his time, he was a great prankster." The oddity of it was, he had thought she was going to say "Sirius" instead of "someone". But that was rubbish, as she had only known Sirius for a week now. And he was most certainly not dead. He realized with a start that salty drops were now pouring down her face, and was awkward, as he did not know what to do. He was certain Sirius or James would, but he was just not good with girls himself.

"Ahm…I'm really sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean to bring up painful memories." He had the sudden impulse to hug her, to try to comfort her, but held back.

She wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffling slightly. She was beautiful even then. "No, Remus, it's not your fault. I did not even know him very well, but the circumstances in which he died were just horrible." She looked up at him, laughing weakly. "I suppose you must think me a weepy, lily-livered milksop, and a--"

"No, Hermione! Not at all! In fact, I can't imagine how hard it must be for you to have suffered a loss like that, as I have never been through anything like that before." Well, that was not entirely true as he felt he was a burden to his family after being bitten, but this was a loss in a different way.

This time, Remus did move in to embrace her. She gave a small start, but did not pull away, to Remus's immense relief. He squeezed her tighter, stroking her hair, when suddenly she looked up at him and gave a laugh that was not weak at all, but full of mirth.

"We really didn't get much done, now did we, Remus?" There was a definite caress to her voice there. "It's nearly time for the feast, we should head down to the Great Hall now."

*******************************************

Hermione berated herself for breaking down like that. She was not one of those schmaltzy girls who burst into tears at every little thing. What must he think of her now? He did try to comfort her, yes, but he must have been thinking the entire time of how soppy she was. She had confirmed, however that werewolves had to be stronger when they were in human form than the average strength, as when he had tightened his grip, he had nearly squeezed her to death. Not that she was complaining.

She remembered where she was when her stomach gave a lurch, as she had eaten almost nothing the whole day, being absorbed in conversation with Remus. She felt perfectly starved, but wished she could stay in his arms forever.

She laughed, then continued in an almost self-deprecating voice, "We really didn't get much done, now did we, Remus? It's nearly time for the feast, we should head down to the Great Hall now."

He grinned in his knee-weakening way that only he could master and replied, "You're absolutely correct, My Lady." Was the "my lady" going to continue? It embarrassed Hermione, and she was glad there was only the two of them in the room. "Would you allow me to escort you to the dining room?"

Hermione decided to play along. "Of course, good sir. You may accompany me." She held out her hand palm down in an imitation of the pictures she had seen where the lady offers her hand. To her horror and delight, he kissed it lightly, a twinkle in his mesmerizing blue eyes, and rested her hand lightly on his arm.

They exited the Charms classroom and walked slowly towards the Great Hall. Hermione was rather enjoying herself, yet she was relieved that they did not pass anyone in the corridors, and more than gratified to discover that none of their friends were there in their usual seating arrangement. There were a few second years near the end of the table, but they were all in deep conversation.

Remus helped her into her seat, then after making a great show to make sure she was comfortable, he spoke in an exaggeratedly polite voice. "Do I have My Lady's permission to sit next to her?"

"You do, kind gentleman," she nodded as if they were at a formal wassail and he was her manservant.

"You do grace me with your presence, good Lady," he smiled, then they laughed knowingly just as the Marauders, Ron and Harry came and took their seats near them.

James looked at them suspiciously. "We wondered where you two were. You weren't snogging in some broom closet, were you? Cause I really needed to look at your galaxy chart, Remus."

Remus and Hermione glanced at each other and burst into hysterics, as they both knew that their friends would want to "take a look" at their galaxy diagrams later.

"You were snogging, weren't you!" Peter cried. It wasn't a question.

"Of course not," Remus said with a wink. What was he playing at? He was making it sound like they had been up to something. Harry and Ron were looking at Hermione with varying degrees of astonishment.

Hermione chuckled softly. "No, Harry. Ron. I don't know what Remus is talking about." Then she grinned with a wink!

What did I do that for? Now it looks like we're hiding something! Well we are, aren't we?

For the rest of the evening, all the boys were glancing sideways at Hermione and Remus. If only she could wipe the smirk she knew touched her lips at that moment!

*******************************************

Lily sat on top of one of the vacant desks, one hand holding her wand, the other drumming her fingertips on the surface of the wooden table. She couldn't believe it. James was late. She had been looking forward to this so much, as she knew he would get the Memory Charm on first try, if he didn't know it already and was just using an excuse to be alone with her. She just wanted to see James again, but if he didn't come in five minutes, she was going to--

"Sorry I'm late, Evans, I had to cop--erm…look at Remus's galaxy chart," James interrupted her thoughts.

Lily sniffed. "Likely you were copying, Potter. I told you not to be late." She slid off the desk to face James.

James gave her an apologetic look that made her want to forgive him on the spot. "I'm sorry, Lily, it's just--"

"Never you mind that, Potter, let's just get this lesson over with. Wand out, now."

"You know what I think we should do for this lesson, Lily?"

"I don't care what you think we should do. I'm the teacher here. Now, practice this wand movem--"

"I think we should tell each other our deepest, darkest secrets, then perform the Memory Charm on each other."

What a ridiculous idea. If she were to reveal her secret…that she clandestinely liked James…no, that was something that must never be deduced.

Ignoring him, she continued. "You must practice the motion first, though willpower behind it is required as well. It's very simple, it's a wave to the left, then a jab movement. Like this." She demonstrated. "Now you try."

James did it so horribly that he could not possibly have been trying. "I'm sorry, Lily. I can't seem to master it as well as you can. Perhaps you can move my arm to show me the exact motion." He had such an innocent expression on his face, Lily thought she was going to melt.

She instead grabbed his arm forcefully, then quickly put it through the correct sequence, perhaps a bit harder than she should have. I did not just notice how strong his arm is.

He then, of course, performed it perfectly. Scowling, Lily then went on to explain further. "Now, I suspect you were at least listening to the incantation while Rosa's hair was slowly turning bubble gum pink," her lips twitched, and she carefully controlled her mirth to continue. "It's Obliviate, and make sure to put an emphasis on the 'livi'. It will only work through sheer force of will, however. You must not only want the victim to forget, you must be in dire need of them to forget. That is why we don't have everybody performing Memory Charms on every person they see, as I imagine you would try to do. You now see why we can't use your burlesque suggestion."

James took his wand, and although he did the swish and jab correctly, he kept saying things like "Livioblate! No, Obviatelivi! No, that's not it either. Atilivio! Oblati--"

"Stop! You're doing this on purpose, James Potter!"

"Oh, so we're on a first name basis now, are we? In that case--" then the ridiculous idiot reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist.

Pulling her in, she gasped, then went to raise her wand, and realized she had left it on the desk behind her when showing James the correct motion. Reaching around behind her, groping for her wand, her fingers brushed it, then he grabbed her and lifted her so only her toes were on the floor into a passionate kiss. She stopped fighting for a few seconds, as it was absolutely wonderful, then came back to her senses. Reaching with her free hand that had brushed her wand, she mustered her strength and slapped James in a full armed smack that made him drop her and step backwards in surprise. She saw it left a red handprint on his cheek. Turning around, she grabbed her wand and pointed it at James, making him freeze.

"If you ever try anything like that again, Potter, or even so much as whisper about what happened in here, I'll curse you so badly you won't know up from down!"

He just stared at her with no expression whatsoever on his face, which only made her want to cry, but she could not let him see that. He was standing in the doorway, but as soon as she moved to leave, he quickly stepped out of the way. She ran into a desk hard on the way out, but didn't pause to put it back in place. As soon as she was out of the room, she realized tears were streaming down her face, and she ran up to the Gryffindor common room. She did not even pause to apologize when she ran into a startled Ravenclaw fourth year, and blindly made her way to the portrait hole. The Fat Lady looked astonished to see she was crying, but before she could ask any questions, Lily all but shouted "Nicholas Flamel"! and ran up to the girls dormitories, ignoring the curious glances from her fellow Housemates.

As soon as she entered the room, now nearly sobbing, Ayanna took one look at her and said, "It's him, isn't it. Potter." It was not a question.

*************************************

James just stood there, staring at the door that Lily had slammed only minutes before. Or was it minutes? It seemed like hours. He had been such a fool to give into impulse like that. Now he had no chance of her ever coming to like him in the way that he liked her. James even thought he might love Lily.

Carefully straightening the desk she had knocked askew, James pocketed his wand and slowly made his way towards Gryffindor House, heart in his knees. He knew it had just been a kiss, but he felt almost like he had…taken advantage of Lily. Of course, that was to the extreme and he knew he would do no such thing, but he couldn't seem to wash the feeling away.

He made his way to the boys' dormitories, not acknowledging the remarks of sympathy from some of the others who must have realized what had happened. He entered the room where the fifth years appeared to be having a pillow fight, minus Remus, who seemed to have gone missing with Hermione again.

As soon as Sirius saw James's crestfallen face, he stopped, earning himself a blow to the head, then quickly stood up and walked over to James.

"Evans." It was a statement.

*************************************

*boing boing boing* *bounces off a few walls and the ceiling*

sooo…did you like it?

cause if you didn't, you're welcome to flame!

by the way…sorry about the "Ye Olde" language I used with Hermione…it just seemed fitting…

these romances going on are starting to confuse me…who's who?

ok, I'm done now ;)

yay!

au revoir!

*Sammy-Jo*