Thanks for the reviews, guys I hope the second chapter's okay, too.

Disclaimer: It's not mine, it's JKR's, I'm only borrowing it.

"Out of my way, Padfoot, or it's Detention for you," James smirked as he shoved Sirius to one side in an attempt to make room for the contents of his trunk on his bed, on which Sirius was currently perched precariously. "Then you'd have two Detentions already, and the Leaving Feast is only just over."

Sirius mock-scowled, grinning, "Hey, shouldn't Dumbledore have offered you a private room or something, as Head Boy? I wish you'd taken it. Anything to get you out of my hair."

"Oh, shut up," James threw his pillow at Sirius and shoved him off the bed, collapsing on his bed himself and putting his hands behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. All he could think about was Lily, Lily, Lily, and it was driving him crazy. She'd actually kissed him, they were really going out… And he couldn't boast about it to anyone. Damn. Still, that was the point of it, wasn't it? This was to show Lily he was really serious about her—and he was, so he'd keep quiet, even if it killed him.

"Hey, what's with you, mate?" Sirius sat up suddenly from where he'd been lying on the floor after James had shoved him there a few seconds earlier. "You're thinking."

"Am not," James denied the accusation very unconvincingly.

"Yes you are," a grin spread over Sirius' face, "You're thinking, aren't you? What're you thinking about? Anything you want to share with your best friend Padfoot?"

"No," James muttered, "You know, if I hadn't thrown my pillow at you already, I would absolutely be throwing it at you now."

"Well tough, you've got nothing left to throw at me, so that means you have to talk! What's so important that you're trying to hide it from me, hmm? The Marauders don't hide things, Prongs. Bestest friends forever and ever, all secrets shared, especially the interesting ones. So if you don't tell me what's up, I may have to break into the Potions cupboard and—mmmf! Mmmf!"

Before Sirius could finish, James had shut him up by pushing some of his dirty socks into Sirius' open mouth. The other boy choked and gagged, trying to tug the socks out of his mouth as James looked on, laughing.

"What the…? What in Merlin's name is…? No, wait, don't tell me, I don't want to know," Remus couldn't hide his small smirk as he entered the Dormitory and was greeted by the sight of Sirius with James' dirty socks in his mouth. He just stared at James lying lazily on his bed making no move to help Sirius, and figured it out for himself—he'd seen enough of James and Sirius' pointless arguments to know that this was no different. Without a word, he removed the socks from Sirius' mouth and chucked them at James, who kicked them back on to the floor.

"Hey!" Sirius yelled as soon as he could speak again, "In Merlin's name, Prongs, you could've at least chosen clean socks! Who takes dirty socks to school, anyway?"

"Well, me, obviously," James raised his eyebrows with a serene smile. Sirius growled and muttered something indecipherable under his breath before storming out of the dormitory, giving the vague excuse of going to find Peter for a game of Wizard Chess.

Remus knew he had to tread carefully. After talking to Marly, he'd heard about James' thoroughly bad mood this morning, and yet at the Feast, James had seemed more cheerful than Remus had ever seen him—he couldn't quite figure it out. He was sure, however, that James was unlikely to tell him anything, especially if it was something he wouldn't've even told Sirius. And judging by the socks-in-the-mouth incident, Sirius had definitely tried to find out what it was that was altering James' mood so frequently and radically. Still, he had to try.

"James…"

"Yes, Moony my friend," James sat up, staring at Remus with mock-seriousness in his eyes. He was desperately trying to avoid Remus asking him about Lily directly, and he was definitely going to soon—Remus only ever used James' real name when he was being deadly serious.

"Can you be serious for one second?" Right on cue.

"Uh… No. I'm absolutely incapable of being serious," James shook his head, and then added, "But for you, and only for you, I'll try."

"Right. Well… Is there something up that I should know about, James?" There was genuine concern in Remus' voice.

"There is indeed something up, but it's not something that you should know about," James couldn't quite bring himself to lie to Remus out-right, after all, especially when he could see that his friend was actually quite worried about him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm more tired than a very tired thing, so I'm going to sleep. See you in the morning," he pulled the curtains around his four-poster bed without any further words.

"It's only nine o'clock, James," Remus protested, but his heart wasn't really in it. He sighed frustratedly—when James was being difficult like this, he'd discovered from previous experience that it was best just to leave him to whatever it was he was thinking about. Maybe it was the easy way out, he thought guiltily, but it had always worked in the past. James was fine, James always had been fine.

But he couldn't help but wonder, just a bit, if James' mood-swings should be worrying him more. After all, it was usually Sirius that was the designated moody one. James normally took one mood and stuck with it for at least a day.

James, for once, had nothing more to say to his friend. So he lay, pretending to be asleep, until he heard Remus' soft footsteps as he left the dormitory. Then, and only then, did he sit up, drawing his knees into to his chest and sighing again, "Damn."

Not only was he having trouble keeping his relationship with Lily a secret from his friends already, he was also stuck pretending to be asleep, and it was only nine o'clock.

Meanwhile, Marly had managed to convince the other Seventh year Gryffindor girls that they'd really much prefer to be in the Common Room, at least for another hour, which conveniently gave her and Lily the dormitory to themselves.

"Now I can tell you," Lily grinned, whispering just to keep the air of secrecy in the atmosphere.

"What? You're killing me with this stupid secret, you know. I haven't been able to guess in the slightest what's making you so happy, especially after your mood this morning," Marly sighed frustratedly.

"Well, once you shut up, you'll know, won't you? So do you promise on Merlin's life not to tell anyone this, on pain of death, especially not the Marauders, or whatever it is they're calling themselves now?"

"It's always been the Marauders. And yes, I promise."

"Alright. Well," she gulped, looked down at the floor, and then looked straight back up at Marly, as if trying to find the courage to tell her best friend her secret. Well, not really her secret—her and James' secret. "James asked me out."

"For the ninety-seventh time," Marly raised her eyebrows and let out the breath she'd been holding—Lily had promised that this was going to be something exciting, and if this was all that her best friend had to say, she may as well be down in the Common Room with Alexandra and the rest. "What's new about that?"

"Has everyone been counting the rejections except me?" Lily frowned. Marly nodded, and Lily shrugged, continuing, "Anyway. It is new, because this time I said yes."

Marly gasped. She didn't say anything, she just reached over and hugged Lily very hard for a very long time.

"Marly," Lily gasped through the stranglehold Marly had on her, "I think if you keep hugging me, I'll die before James and I have our first real date…"

"But… But why… How…?"

"You mean how did he ask me out, and why I accepted now of all times? Umm, well, he asked me out in the usual way, but he only muttered it under his breath, so I didn't hear, and then when I asked him to repeat it, he blushed. And why now… Well, because… Alright, I was wrong, I've been wrong all these years—he's not an arrogant prat. He just pretends to be. But really… he's actually quite sweet. When Sniv—Severus isn't around, anyway."

Marly nodded in wonder, agreeing, and then shrugging her shoulders. "I… I… Wow… I don't know what to say, I just… Hey, this isn't right—you should be the inarticulate one, you're the one that's just agreed to go out with James Potter of all people! The female population of Hogwarts is going to kill you, you know—Alexandra's had her eye on James for years, even though it's always been obvious he was crazy for you."

Lily laughed, "Alexandra will have to deal with it, then, but right now we're trying to keep it quiet. Which is why I'm only telling you, and James isn't allowed to tell anyone, even and especially Sirius."

"Sirius will commit suicide," Marly snorted.

"That's what James said. Why would you both say that?" Lily asked, genuinely puzzled—wouldn't Sirius be happy that James was happy? It made no sense to her.

"Because he hates you even more than James pretended to for all those years," Marly shrugged, "Mainly because you kept rejecting James, I think, even though he says it's not because of that—oh, and you keep putting him in Detention and giving him lines, which wouldn't exactly endear you to him. But you saw him back on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters—he just… won't be fine with this at all. After all, it's been Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, with Padfoot and Prongs as best friends, forever and ever. I'm sure Remus and Peter will take it well, they're very reasonable, but Sirius isn't known for his ability to remain calm under pressure. What's he going to think about it being Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot, then Prongs and Evans?"

"Well, like Alexandra, he'll just have to deal with it. But you're right—not yet, that'd just be asking for trouble," Lily said matter-of-factly.

"But since you've told one person, shouldn't James get to tell one person, too? It's really hard to keep a secret like this."

"You're right," Lily nodded, looking concerned all of a sudden, "Merlin, I've broken my own deal by telling you in the first place! If I've told one person, then he should get to tell one person, too, it's only fair. But if he tells Sirius…"

"He's not stupid, Lily," Marly ran her hands through her long-ish, wavy-ish blonde hair in frustration, "All the stuff I just told you? Well, he's Sirius' best friend. That'll have been going through his mind for the past few hours. Just go and knock on the boys' Dormitory door, alright? I'll distract the others."

"What if there's someone else in the Dormitory with him?"

"There won't be—you know James, he'll have kicked them all out so he can brood in peace. Just go."

"Okay," Lily smiled, and bounced off the bed, opening the Dormitory door and hurrying down the stairs into the Common Room, ready to disappear up the stairs that led to the boys' Dormitory at the opportune moment.

Marly followed more slowly, still trying to take it all in—after all these years, James and Lily had finally got together… That was a turn-up for the books. Honestly, although she'd long hoped that it would happen for poor, miserable James' sake, she'd never quite believed that Lily would ever come round and see the better side to the Potter who used to constantly hex Snivellus for no apparent reason. But somehow, James must've managed to convince her… And a good thing too. Now maybe both of them would be able to relax and enjoy Seventh year, despite the rumours that were spreading through the school like lightning about the increasing danger of life outside Hogwarts.

"Anyone for a Wizard Chess tournament?" She announced loudly as she grabbed the chess board out of the hands of a protesting Peter and waved it around in the air.

"Yeah, but you just stole the board," Peter grumbled and sighed.

"Indeed I did, Pettigrew. But I'll give it back when it's your turn to play!" She knew she was being overly exuberant, but she had to distract them enough for Lily to slip up to James unnoticed. She was thankful at least that Sirius, Remus, Peter and Frank were all present and that her hunch was correct—James was indeed alone. Not that he would be for long.

"Whatever," Peter muttered.

"What's got into you, McKinnon? You had some good news or something that you want to share with the rest of us?" Sirius had noticed Marly's exaggerated enthusiasm and was perplexed by it. But immediately he was distracted by the prospect of good news, "Hey, they haven't taken Dungbombs off of the 'Illegal in School' list, have they? That'd definitely be good enough news to put you in a good mood…"

Although Marly was pleased that Sirius had noticed the change in her, she was a bit disappointed that he was calling her McKinnon instead of Marly, even though she hated herself for it—she didn't want to fall for Sirius Black, and she'd avoided him for all these years because she didn't want to be like the other girls, just crawling at his feet and begging him to go out with her. She wouldn't sink that low. But she couldn't help but wonder occasionally, if things were different, if she'd managed to talk to him more, get to know the real Sirius Black…

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Sirius laughed, and Peter took advantage of Marly's silence to snatch back the chessboard and start a game with Remus, Frank, Alexandra and a few of the other Gryffindors.

"No," Marly muttered after a long time, "Not as such."

There was no 'real' Sirius Black, no one behind the front. That boy, the one laughing at or with her, she couldn't tell, from his armchair by the fireplace, was the real Sirius. And she couldn't kid herself—she liked him, just like all the other girls did. But there was nothing else there. She hated herself for even thinking like this. She wiped away angry tears from her eyes.

Sirius was still sitting by the fireplace. He'd waved a "No, thanks" to joining in the chess tournament—he didn't really feel like it, he'd eaten too much food to think properly—and at this moment had his dark brown eyes trained on Marly's blue ones. He'd seen the false enthusiasm, and now he saw the tears too. It vaguely amused him. There was obviously something going on in her head, and he thought it'd be quite good fun to see if he could work out what exactly it was. He enjoyed playing mind games with people, after all, and Marly seemed like an easy enough person to figure out.

"Why're you staring at me?" Marly met his gaze, sounded perhaps more aggressive than she meant to.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sirius asked, using the famous Black charm.

"Talk about what?" Marly was puzzled, and slightly nervous—he couldn't've figured her out already, could he?

"Don't you want to be an Auror, Marly?"

Marly nodded, concentrating too hard on not crying, or doing or saying anything else stupid in front of Sirius, that she didn't realise he'd called her Marly and not McKinnon.

"Well, then you're going to have to learn to hide your emotions. If I, the most self-absorbed boy on the planet besides Prongs, can see that you're crying, then you're obviously doing something wrong."

"I'm not crying," Marly denied weakly.

"You're going to have to work on the denials, too," Sirius laughed, "Come on," he moved over, so that there was enough room for two people in the armchair he was currently occupying alone, "Tell me about whatever it is you're crying about."

"I can't," Marly shook her head.

"Why not?" Sirius shrugged, running a hand through his black hair and smiling—he couldn't believe how easy this girl was to manipulate. This was going like clockwork. She was sort of cute, though, when she was depressed.

"Because… I just can't," she couldn't look at him anymore, and broke her gaze, turning her back on him to join the Chess tournament. She wasn't going to let Sirius Black mess with her head, she would make sure of it—she'd seen him do this to other girls, and he always got bored and moved on to the next one. It would be no different with her.

Sirius merely shrugged again, and moved back so that his frame now filled the armchair. It was only the start of the year—there was plenty of time left, he'd figure her out easily enough. He was always up for a challenge, after all.

At the same time as Marly was torturing herself over Sirius, Lily was knocking on James' Dormitory door, "James?"

"Lily?" James hadn't expected to see her until at least the next morning. He smiled, suddenly filled with energy, and bounced off the bed, opening the door quickly to let her in. "Are you crazy? If anyone comes up here… I thought we were supposed to be keeping this a—" She kissed him once, hard, and they both laughed, "secret," James finished his sentence.

"That's what I've come about. I know, I know we said that we were going to keep this quiet. But I had to tell someone or I was going to go crazy, especially when I had to pretend to hate you at dinner, so I told Marly, but I swore her to secrecy and she won't tell anyone, I promise. So I figured that it would be unfair if I asked you to keep it completely secret, so since I've told one person, you can tell one person, too—someone that you trust not to react badly, or spread this around, or—"

"Which rules out Sirius," James smirked. "Although since he's my best friend, once he finds out about this, and believe me, he will, he's going to be mad I didn't tell him first."

"But he'd only commit suicide if you told him," Lily giggled, "He hates me, remember?"

"Well, he might ignore both of us for a few weeks," James sighed resignedly. "But alright. Who do you want me to tell, then?"

"Well, that's up to you," Lily shrugged, "But I would say not Sirius, since he won't react well at all. Not any of the girls, because they'll tell everyone before you've even finished your sentence. Which leaves Remus and Peter."

"Remus is already worried about me, I'll tell him."

"Okay. Want me to send him up?"

"What, I have to tell him now?" James frowned.

"What better time than the present?"

"I'll never understand you, Lily Evans," James shook his head in wonder, "Everything's always got to be 'now'. You're one of the most impatient people I've ever met."

"Not true! I waited six years for you to stop being an idiot before I agreed to go out with you."

"I'll always be an idiot," James grinned.

"True," Lily nodded her head, smiling, "But now you're my idiot. I'll send Remus up," she kissed him once more, and then hurried out of the Dormitory.

She scanned the Common Room for Remus, and spotted him eventually, laughing with Peter as they played a game of Wizard Chess, Alexandra, Frank and the rest cheering them on. Damn, how was she going to get him alone? Especially without Sirius, who was perceptive only when it was inconvenient, seeing anything.

Luckily, Remus had already spotted her hanging around looking awkward, staring at him, out of the corner of his eye. He waited until the game had finished and then made his excuses, despite Peter's protests that since Remus was the winner, he had to play another match, "Frank'll take my place," he assured Peter, and Frank nodded, taking Remus' seat as Remus headed over towards Lily.

"Thanks," Lily muttered under her breath as Remus stopped beside her.

"No problem. What's up?" Remus kept his voice low, too—it really must be important if Lily was being so secretive and unlike her usual self.

"James needs to see you. Now. He's got something to tell you," Lily insisted.

"What the--?" Remus started to question her, but was cut off by a determined Lily.

"Just go, okay?"

Remus shrugged and nodded, heading up the stairs to the Dormitory and entering without bothering to knock—James was expecting him after all, "Prongs?"

"Err, hi, mate," James looked incredibly uneasy, perched on the end of his bed and twisting his hands in his lap.

"I knew you wouldn't be going to sleep at nine o'clock," Remus smiled as he took a seat on his own bed, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his hand as he prepared himself to listen to whatever it was James had to say.

"Right," James nodded, laughing weakly at Remus' joke, "So, I don't know what Lily told you…"

"Just that you had something important to tell me."

"Well, I do. That is… That… First of all, you have to promise not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone, not even Sirius—and you'll understand why you can't tell him in a minute, once I tell you what it is."

"I promise."

"Okay. Erm, alright then," James stuttered.

"Spit it out, Prongs," Remus looked on in amusement—whatever it was, it was certainly affecting James' ability to speak. "I haven't got all night."

"LilyandIaregoingout."

"If I'm not mistaken," Remus was still trying to make sense of James' words since they'd all run together into one, "You just said that you and Lily were going out, but that can't be true…" He shook his head in wonder.

"Why?" James grinned.

"Because she hates you!" Remus protested, "She's hated you for the last six years, she… You changed her mind?"

James nodded, "Yeah, I don't know how, but I did! So now we're going out! We're trying to keep it really quiet, but since Lily told one person, I get to as well. I was going to tell Sirius, but—"

"If Sirius hears, he'll commit suicide," Remus nodded.

At that precise moment, Lily and Marly were heading for bed. Marly's eyes were still red, and Lily was occupied with trying to find out why exactly Marly had been crying. And that meant that neither of them saw Sirius decide that it was time to head for bed, and trudge wearily up the Dormitory stairs, waving a vague "G'night" to Peter, Frank and the girls.

He would've waltzed in without knocking, but instead, he heard a snatch of the conversation that caught his attention. In fact, the sentence he heard was, 'If Sirius hears, he'll commit suicide', and he recognised the voice as definitely Remus'. He put his ear against the door, listening hard, trying to catch the rest of the conversation, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Exactly," James was continuing the conversation, oblivious to the fact that Sirius could hear his every word.

Prongs? Sirius thought angrily. Prongs was in on this too?

"I can't believe she really said yes," Remus was still struggling to hide his amazement, "But congratulations are in order, then? May you have a long and happy future together, and all that," they both grinned, "Seriously, though," Remus continued, "We've got to keep this as quiet as possible. If Sirius gets wind of this, then he'll…"

Sirius realised that he wasn't going to catch the name of the 'she' anytime soon, so now was as good a time as any to ask his friends what the hell they were up to, keeping secrets from him.

"Then I'll what?" Sirius pushed open the Dormitory door without knocking to give warning, and stormed into the room, glaring first at James, and then at Remus, "Future with who? What're you two keeping from me?"

Remus resembled a deer caught in headlights. His face couldn't've physically been any paler shade of white without him not being alive to see it.

"You ever heard of knocking, mate?" James, on the other hand, was as calm and cool as ever.

This just infuriated Sirius more, "Bollocks to knocking, Potter!" He spat frustratedly, "What're you two whispering about?"

"The fact that we're whispering, Padfoot old pal, suggests it's a secret. You shouldn't've been eavesdropping, then you'd never have known that the secret existed in the first place," James shrugged, completely unaffected by Sirius calling him by his last name—he'd seen enough of Sirius' moods to know how to deal with them, after all.

"Potter, do you never shut up? You've got an answer for bloody everything!" Sirius yelled, really angry now. He was still thinking clearly enough, however, to know that he wouldn't get any sort of an answer from James—James was just too good at manipulating him, they knew each other too well. He turned to Remus, fixing the boy with a glare that could've killed a cat, "Since Potter's being such an arse, Remus, you can tell me what in Merlin's name is going on here."

"Err…" From the frightened look on Remus' face, it was quite possible that the glare would soon kill him instead of a cat.

"You know what, mate," James scowled, hauling himself off the bed and moving quickly so that he stood in between the terrified Remus and the furious Sirius, fixing Sirius with as horrible a glare as Sirius was fixing him with, "Leave Remus out of this. It's my secret, and I told him not you because I knew you'd react like this! Like you always do! Just…"

"Just what?" Sirius took advantage of James' loss for words, "Just bugger off so you two can have your cosy chat? You haven't even fucking given me a chance to react! Don't you trust me?"

"Oh, don't play that card," James shoved Sirius hard, unbalancing him, "I'd die for you, alright? And that's a bloody serious thing to say when things are as they are!"

"Like hell it is," Sirius shook his head, shoving James back as he snarled, "I know you better than anyone, Potter, and you'll say whatever the hell you want to manipulate people. I just never thought you'd try it with your best friend!"

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did, then," James hissed. He stepped out from between Sirius and Remus and walked over to his trunk, snatching his Invisibility Cloak from it before directing one last deadly glare at Sirius, and failing to acknowledge Remus' presence as he stormed out of the Dormitory in much the same way that Sirius had entered it.

Remus' quiet voice broke the silence, "You've really got the wrong idea, you know. It's not that James doesn't want to tell you—he does, more than anything."

"So why can't he?" Sirius glowered, caught in between anger and sadness at watching his best friend leave.

"He just can't," Remus insisted, "And he would die for you, you know."

Anger won out, "Why do you always take James' side, anyway?" Sirius yelled at Remus.

"I don't, I—" Remus stuttered, but was rescued from answering by the sound of the door opening.

"What's with all the yelling? And where's Prongs running off to at this time of night?" Peter had decided it was time for bed, and had seen James hurrying out of the Portrait Hole, just about to put on the Cloak, as he'd been walking up the stairs. He'd decided that James looked in too bad a mood to get any sense out of whatsoever, and had been hoping to get some sense out of Remus or Sirius. But, on opening the Dormitory door and being greeted by the sight of an angry Sirius looming over a frightened Remus, he figured that it was doubtful he'd get any sense out of either of them.

"Ask your buddy Lupin," Sirius scowled, "And if he lets you in on the little conspiracy plot he and James are hatching, do me a favour and don't bother me with it. I'm going to bed."

"Sirius…" Remus pleaded, trying to placate his furious friend.

"Oh, fuck off," Sirius growled, and stomped over to his bed, collapsing on it and drawing the curtains with a flourish. He lay back on the bed itself, cursing James and Remus and Peter and anyone else who was so set on keeping whatever this was from him. And cursing Evans, because whenever James acted strangely, it was always to do with her. Bloody Evans.

"What…?" Peter would've continued with the question, but Remus had already drawn the curtains of his own four-poster, wanting to be alone with his thoughts. "Never mind," Peter muttered to himself, sighing and raising his eyebrows, "I'll ask Prongs when he gets in. He might come back soon."

"He won't," a muffled voice came roughly from the direction of Remus' bed.

"I'll kill him if he does," a muffled voice, this time from Sirius.

"Right," Peter shrugged, and drew the curtains of his own four-poster. This all would've blown over by tomorrow… At least, he hoped so. Once James came back, anyway. Until then, both he and Remus separately resigned themselves to bearing the brunt of both Sirius and James' anger.

James was currently standing on the Quidditch Pitch, Invisibility Cloak lying forgotten on the ground in his anger, arms folded, kicking the same patch of ground repeatedly, "Bloody Sirius, always trying to get involved in things he doesn't understand, always has to create bloody drama…"

He was so intent on kicking the ground and bad-mouthing Sirius to himself that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Potter," a voice spoke, and James whirled around to face its owner, anger forgotten. "What're you doing out after-hours on the first night of the new school year?"

"Oh, shit."