Thought I might as well post today while I'm on a roll. Still writing. Maybe another update tomorrow or the next. I really need to get this story done by the end of spring break so I can then focus on finishing up L&F and then ya'll will probably never hear from me agaiiiiiin. Lol we'll see.

Thanks for the reviews last chapter.

Disclaimer: 45 Chapters later and I'm still doing this. Oiy.

Chapter 45: You're Still the One

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"How about we raid the kitchen?" Remus suggested.

"Nah, I'm not hungry." James said rubbing his stomach.

"That's a surprise," Sirius laughed. The Marauders, minus Peter, were sitting in their dorm the whole morning trying to think of something to do.

"We could find Peeves and bug him," James said.

"No," Remus replied, "He gets boring fast."

"I've got an idea!" Sirius jumped up, "Let's do our homework!"

James rolled his eyes, "Don't even start acting like Evans."

"Back to using Evans I see?" Remus laughed, "You change your mind about her more than you change your knickers."

"Which isn't often," Sirius added.

"Shut it," James laughed, "I change my knickers all the time."

"Not as much as you change your mind about Evans," Sirius laughed.

"Maybe," James smiled, "But if she wasn't so bloody confusing I wouldn't have to change my mind all the time."

"Did you ever think that maybe you were the confusing one?" Remus asked, sitting on James' trunk.

"Yeah, I mean, last night she was looking all over for you." Sirius cried.

"Where was he?" Remus asked confused, "I couldn't find him either and I don't even fancy him!"

"He was asleep!" Sirius laughed.

"I was only asleep because Lily was giving me pity love." James shook his head.

"Back to Lily," Sirius whispered loudly to Remus.

"Lily—I mean Evans," James stated, "Was just saying she loved me because I told her she was really hurting me."

"But she really does like you," Remus said confused, "She told me in the library the day before the dance."

"What?" Sirius and James said both sitting up.

"Yeah," Remus stated, "I was studying with her and she had a lot on her mind."

"I see they were doing more than studying." Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows.

"You mean, she told you this and you never told me?" James asked, ignoring Sirius comment.

Remus shrugged, "It wasn't my secret to tell."

James threw his pillow at Remus, "You mean she really did tell me she loved me last night while we were standing under and mistletoe and I could've kissed her but I didn't!"

"She tricked you," Sirius laughed.

"Now what am I going to do?" James said pulling his hair, "I have to talk to her!"

"Why don't you?" Remus asked.

"It's not like I know where she lives. And I can't apparate…" James thought.

"James-"

"Maybe I could catch a train?"

"James-"

"Or I could walk."

"Prongs-"

"I could fly my broom. It would get quite cold though-"

"Why don't you just go into the common room and tell her without taking the train or walking or using your broom," Remus said quickly before James could say anything else.

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, "I thought Lily goes home for break?"

"She usually does," Remus said shrugging, "But she didn't this year."

"You mean…she's sitting in the common room?" James asked surprised.

"Yeah," Sirius replied, "And you're up here."

"What am I doing up here?" James cried.

Remus threw his pillow at James, "Nobody knows but get out of here!"

James jumped off his bed and ran down the boys' staircase and found himself in the common room looking at the back of Lily Evans head. He stood there for a minute smelling her signature scent. He didn't even know if she knew he was there or not. He didn't mind though because he had absolutely no idea what he was going to say to her and

"Hello, James." Lily said, not looking up from her book.

"How did you know I was here?" James asked as he walked around the sofa to face her.

Lily shrugged, "Sixth sense, I guess."

"Oh." James said staring at his feet.

"What do you want, James?" Lily asked.

"Well, I was talking to the boys upstairs and…" James paused. He had no idea where he was going with this, "Do you want to go to the Quidditch pitch?"

"What?" Lily asked blankly.

"The Quidditch Pitch." He repeated, "I was on my way down that and I was wondering if you'd like to come."

Lily continued to stare at him blankly and he was sure she was going to object.

"Why?"

"Well, I was going down there and I just…wanted you to come." James blushed.

Lily looked down at her book, "Fine. Let me grab my coat."

James beamed as he watched Lily walk gracefully up the staircase. James quickly bolted up his staircase, grabbed his jacket without even explaining to his buddies what was going on, and was back downstairs before Lily was.

"Ready?" Lily asked as she came down the staircase.

"Yeah," James said, taking his gaze off the fire, "Let's go."

James let Lily lead the way out of the tower, being the gentleman he was.

"So," James said trying to start a conversation, "why didn't you go home for break?"

Lily shrugged, "It was Petunia's wedding and I didn't really feel like going and Ashley wasn't leaving and neither was Riley so I thought I might as well stay."

James nodded his head.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

"Two reasons, first, full moon is coming up and second, because my parents are very busy with work." James replied, "They're Aurors, and with Voldemort rising to power…the ministry needs everyone there all the time. "

"Oh, I see," Lily replied as they walked onto the grounds and towards the pitch, "How can you fly in such cold weather?"

James shrugged, "It's cold at first, but after awhile you don't feel it anymore."

"You mean you don't feel it because you're frozen to your broom?" Lily laughed.

"That too," James smiled, "Come on, I want to show you something."

James led Lily to the center of the pitch and laid down.

"What are you doing?" she smiled.

"Just watch." James said patting the ground beside him, "Lay down with me."

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Because I want to show you something and it's not as affective when you're standing." James replied smugly, "Come on, nothing is going to happen. As you can see, there are no brooms flying so you're not going to get hit or anything like that."

Lily sighed and laid down next to James, "Now what?"

"I don't know," James said staring at her, "I was hoping you knew."

Lily laughed, "Do you do this a lot?"

"Yes."

"In the snow?" She asked, throwing some snow in his face.

"Hey!" James cried, "That's not fair!"

"What are you going to do about it, Potter?" Lily smiled and threw more snow in his face.

"You know what I'm going to do?" James said, kneeling.

"What?" Lily asked as she started to make snow angels.

"This," James leaned over Lily and planted a kiss right on her lips. Lily laughed when James pulled away.

"What's so funny?" he frowned.

"You messed up my angel!" she laughed loudly and threw more snow at James.

"Alright, now it's on!" James laughed as he took a bunch of snow and put it in Lily's hair.

"Argh! That's cold!" she laughed.

"My poor, Lily love," James laughed and grabbed her, "You must be so cold!"

"Ow, James," she said struggling to get out of his grasp, "Potter, you're loony!"

"Loony?" he laughed as he allowed her to turn around and look at him.

"Yeah," she replied before wiping snow off his nose, "What do you think about that?"

"If this means being loony," James whispered, "Then I like it."

"Good," Lily smiled, and kiss him, "Because I like you loony too."

"Why can't I see anything?" Sirius whined, "Prongs told us his balcony had a perfect view of the pitch."

"We can see the pitch perfectly," Remus rolled his eyes, "It's the ant sized people that we can't see."

"We're going to have to speak with McGonagall about this!" Sirius cried walking out of James' room and into the Head common room."

Sirius and Remus, anxious to see what happens between Lily and James, rushed to the Heads dorms when they found out they were headed to the Quidditch Pitch. Unfortunately for them, either they were too late or they never went to the pitch because they were having no such luck. Sirius and Remus, two who were not the type to give up, decided that they had to start another plan.

"I say, we head down to the pitch and pretend we didn't know they were down there." Sirius suggested as he laid down on the couch.

"That's obvious," Remus replied, sitting in an arm chair, "Besides, what if we show up and mess things up?"

"Us?"Sirius asked, "We never mess things up! Especially their relationship…they're the ones always messing up the relationship."

"That's true," Remus said, resting his head on his hands.

"Hey, I know!" Sirius smiled, jumping up, "We can-"

"Shh," Remus said, listening carefully, "Do you hear that? It sounds like…"

"Like a girl!" Sirius smiled happily, "Like a giggling Lily."

At that exact moment James and Lily strolled into their common room, holding hands.

"Well, what do we have here?" Sirius grinned widely.

"Um," Lily smiled weakly, "What are you guys doing in our common room?"

"I know what you guys were thinking about doing in here!" Sirius jumped up happily and hugged Lily, "Finally you two are together!"

Lily blushed happily, "Yeah, finally."

"Congratulations," Remus said hugging each of them, "I'm glad to see things are finally looking brighter."

"Me too, Mooney," James said putting his arm around Lily's shoulder, "Now if you two wouldn't mind leaving-"

"James!" Lily gasped.

"But, Lily!" James laughed.

"Say no more, newlyweds," Sirius said rushing him and Remus out of the common room, "You two have fun."

Lily stared at James once they were gone, "Did he say newlyweds?"

James shrugged and hugged Lily tightly, "Who cares because I love you."

Lily smiled, and for the first time, admitted it out loud, "I love you too, James."

Christmas came and Christmas went faster than anyone could imagine. But even if break was half over, that didn't stop the group of friends from making the best of it. During the day they would run around the castle, have snowball fights (Lily, Riley, and Ashley versus Sirius, Remus, and James), or raid the kitchens. Sometimes in the evening, the Marauders would huddle in a corner and have an important discussion. While the Marauders were having top secret meetings, the girls would keep themselves busy by doing homework, reading, writing letters, or just talking.

James and Lily's relationship continued to grow. Even if they had only been dating for a few days, it seemed like forever. He was quite a gentleman to Lily carefully chariest their relationship. Occasionally, when Lily and James weren't alone on dates or 'talking', they would join the group in huge and fun discussion or game.

Unfortunately this particular day was spent indoors because of the fierce storm occurring outside. The cloudy day continued into a story evening. The rain was coming down fast and pounding against the windows of the castle. The thunder roared and the lightning lit up the grounds and sky. The rail, hail, and snow combined came crashing down from the Heavens, causing everyone to huddle around the warm fire in the common room. Even the marauders had put their mischief making aside for the night, and had decided to conduct a meeting (Peter included, who seemed more like himself).

All of the students from the younger years were upstairs in their dorms trying to block out the storm and get some sleep. All the seventh years were quietly lounging in the common room ignoring the fierce storm outside.

The clock struck eleven o'clock and a noise was coming from outside of the portrait.

"What was that?" Riley asked, breaking the silence.

"It was probably nothing." Ashley shrugged, "If it is anything it's probably just Peeves. It's driving him crazy with no students to get into trouble."

"I'll go check," Lily got up from her seat on the couch.

"Be carefully," Riley warned.

"I will," Lily laughed.

Everyone continued to work silently until they heard Lily scream from the portrait.

"What's going on?" James' head popped up.

Lily walked back into the common room dragging a trunk.

"Lily are you mad?" Ashley asked, getting up.

"No,"' Lily smiled, nodding her head to the portrait, "But she is."

…………..