"Hey, James?"

"Yes, Cerulina."

"I hear there's going to be a festival!"

"Yes, Cerulina."

"So, who're you taking? No one?"

"Yes, Cerulina."

"Take me?"

"Yes, Cerulina."

"James?"

"Yes."

"JAMES?!"

"Yes."

"James Harry POTTER!"

"What?!"

He turned around and ran right into Lily Evans who was trying to dodge him while juggling about twelve books and five long wooden sticks.

"What's wrong with you, you...PRICK!" she yelled, her voice dangerously close to tears. He was way past care; well, here he was screwing up his last inkling of a chance with her. What else is new.

"Oh! Gosh, Lil', so sorry, I'll make it up to ya with a butterbeer, how 'bout it?" he said stacking up all her heavy tomes with a flick of his wand. He didn't sound sorry at all.

"In your fucking dreams, Potter," she said, her voice hollow. She gathered her sticks and marched off. James watched her hips sway down the dungeon passage, not fazed in the least. Cerulina gave him a sickened look before tugging his arm in the opposite direction. He followed, and a dreamy smile spread upon his face. She'd get over it.

As he stepped through the portrait hole, his girlfriend hot at his heels, he spotted his best friend glaring out of the frosted windowpane in a corner of the common room.

"'Sup?" he said, shoving him over to make room for himself. A subconscious smile flitted across Sirius' face. Cerulina settled herself in between the two of them, and grazed her leg across James's best friend's.

"Hey," Sirius flirted, his eyes not quite into the whole thing. James was well acquainted with and rather indifferent to Lina's sluttiness. It was just how she was; she couldn't be tied down, and she cared genuinely for no one. Lina craved attention. She had exemplary grades, and she got past solely on booksmarts. She could have topped everyone in OWLs, and gotten every single Outstanding, except that the marks were rescaled every year according to year long performance, a fact that very few knew. Lina had no attention span, for her teachers at least, and she was lacking in the extra-curriculars. In his opinion though, James thought wryly, she was pretty well rounded. Lina snaked her arm around his neck, and he leaned in, but spotting Lily entering the portrait hole (trying to pull owl feathers out of her hair) he drew back.

"James," Lina whined. James sighed in reply.

"Why don't you and Sirius go have fun in Hogsmeade, huh?" Sirius' head snapped back from when he had lapsed into thought.

"What?" he asked.

"I wanna visit Moony in the Hospital Wing," James said. Lina gave him a suspicious once-over and her eyes wandered over the Common Room.

"You promise?" she signalled behind her with her thumb.

"Heh. no chance," Sirius interrupted. James frowned and threw a pillow at him.

"Take the cloak, and don't get caught," he said. Primly, she smoothed her pleated skirt and took Sirius' arm.

"Come, hot one," Sirius said. James saw many jealous glares shot their way, and fought down a vicious urge to throttle Sirius.

"You look beautiful, as always," he cheesed, knowing that whatever he said would recieve the same acrid reply.

"Go away."

"You're overworked, Evans, starting to kill that heavenlyface of yours." He grinned as he looked up at her, fingering his non-existent beard, giving the impression that it was the right opposite of heavenly in the first place (which it most certainly was not). She looked to be on the verge of saying something when her loud friends rushed over to the both of them.

"Lily!" one said, shooting James an 'I'm-not-checking-you-out-but-want-you-to-know-it' look. And obviously Lily caught that. Her voice seemed to have gone all tranquil and satiric suddenly.

"Hey Wendy," she said.

"Oliver McGee, y'know the boy in sixth year? He just asked KATIE to the fair at Hogsmeade, and she turned him down! he says he's going to jump off the Astronomy Tower! You absolutely have to come, Lily," she prattled. James watched as Lily's face remained expressionless, signalling an obvious retort at the girls' superficiality. He tried ignore Wendy's nasal voice piercing his skull worse than a Crucio ever could...or he imagined so.

"We need more guys like Oliver McGee. I wish you would throw yourself off the Tower, James," Lily joked, and seeing her sparkling eyes James felt as if even if he had, he'd just come floating back up. She rarely acknowledged his presence around her friends especially. Lily's chair grated against the hardwood floor as she followed Wendy wherever. James vaguely registered her friends' laughter tinkling in the air like the tree leaves in early autumn. Lily's best friend May, the quiet girl with the long blonde hair in braids gave him a rare smile and a consoling pat before the group of girls flitted off to dissuade Oliver from "Killing Himself."

May's appearance reminded him that he was supposed to see Remus, so he followed them out of the Common Room so as not to leave Lina any obvious trails of evidence. Most likely the first person she'd ask was Remus. If it weren't for her reputation, James would've thought she was getting too possessive. Lily just seemed to bother her more than any other girl he even talked to, but of course there was no way she could know that he was in love with her; even Sirius and Remus didn't know. But maybe he underestimated the Marauders and their covert channels of communication. And he wasn't in love, he corrected, just mildly obssessed.

He reached the Hospital Wing before he could stop to think. Remus was asleep and thoroughly exhausted (Poppy Pomfrey insisted he stay until the boy woke up so Remus would have some company). James settled on a loveseat that was so soft it seemed to suck him in. An old copy of Witch Weekly told the secrets of mascara and the intricacies of wand contraceptive. James shuffled through it absently, settling on an article about how to impress men. Before he could start reading though, a scratchy voice interrupted.

"So he didn't jump off the ledge. We found him and Katie," she cleared her throat, "Taking reconciliatory measures, er--so to speak." Lily grinned. James couldn't help a sudden acceleration of his heartbeat at her talking to him so civilly.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, sounding as surprised as he could. "You've come to look for me? And I'm not hexed into oblivion yet?" She frowned. "Ahh...you haven't looked in the mirror yet," he stage-whispered. Lily looked panicked.

"James Potter, I swear you," she wagged her finger, but noting the glint in his light eyes she stopped.

"You're kidding?"

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"You don't."

"You're right, but don't assume things or I really will."

"You won't."

"No, you're right."

"Do you two ever stop arguing?"

James and Lily turned toward Remus. He was clad in the skimpy hospital rags, and flecks of browned blood spattered the kerchief tied round his neck.

"Hello," said Lily. "We're not arguing." She smiled, but gave James a puzzled look. He did not speak.

"Erm..." James began, catching Lily's eye. The last thing he would want out of this was for Lily to get suspicious. She already did not support their escapades, heaven forbid if she knew, it would only be more convincing that they never should have meddled in the first place in Remus' life. At least not in that way.

"Don't worry, Prongs, Pomfrey took very good care of me," he managed a feeble grin, "best she could, anyway."

"Oh." He was very conscious of a pair of eyes firmly fixed upon him, but he could not bring himself to look at her. He could never bring himself to hide things from her, much less to lie. He wondered how she became so important all of a sudden, and nursed the regret he was feeling at her two-faced behaviour.

"Well. Umm...I have to go to the kitchens now, I'm meeting...er-" he looked for any sign of emotion on Moony's face, "someone."

It registered upon Lily that usually it was always Sirius (on full moon nights) that she walked to the Hospital Wing with. James was the one who brought dinner and the day's homework later on in the night. She'd assumed since it was Saturday that he was making an exception, but obviously something was wrong. Or had maybe gone wrong. Something which, she concluded, obviously involved Sirius.

James was almost out of the door before Lily stood up as well. She bent down to kiss Remus hurriedly on the cheek, hoping to catch him at the end of the hall before turning right into the stairs that lead to the pear.

"Don't push him, Lily, he'll be alright," Remus whispered. She gave him a stunned look. He'd meant to say "--without you interfering," or something of the sort, she knew. Indignance bubbled within her, but she sighed.

Of course, he was right. James, like Sirius, was a very explosive personality. He could never yell at Lily, so if she kindled anything within him, it was only logical that he would take it out on someone else, or most likely himself.

Nevertheless, she kissed his pale cheek, and ran out the door, her Gryffindor robe and scarlet scarf flying close behind.

"Hey! James! Hold on, will you?" she gasped. James quickened his pace.

"Hey! Wait," she gathered her scarf and ran to catch up with him.

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

"You're going to the kitchens, right? I'm a bit hungry; missed Breakfast." James seemed glad of the opportunity to change the subject.

"What were you doing anyway?"

"Oh, just setting up for the fencing class," she looked expectantly at him.

Lily had started a magical defense club back in her second year with the help of Flitwick and McGonagall. It involved levitation, telekinesis, sword fighting, and elementary wandless defense, among other things that James found to be utterly useless.

"Hmm, right," James said. She'd been trying to get the marauders to join for the longest time.

"Don't worry," she said, as if to read his mind, "We're even anyway."

He assumed she was referring to his insistence the previous night that she accompany him to the annual fair in Hogsmeade in February. None of the Hogwarts students were really supposed to know about it, but it was just one of those secrets reserved for the upperclassmen that they, in fact, were allowed to attend. Average Hogwarts turnout every year was about three or four people, but this year, Wendy Quinen of Gryffindor had somehow succeeded in convincing all the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws of sixth and seventh years already to attend.

"Speaking of which, your little friend needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut." He had originally intended that only Lily and the Marauders know that such a fair existed.

"Kind of how you lot are always shut up to people who care about you?" she replied.

"Yeah, just like that, actually. If you haven't noticed, the Marauders really don't like gossipy Bertha Jorkins' who poke their nose in where it doesn't belong."

"Bertha Jorkins, I needn't remind you, works for the Daily Prophet, as a very prominent reporter. She has a stable career, and cartloads of money, which is more than I can say for a couple of Chudley Cannon rejects who can't get into Auror school." They had stopped at the top of the stairs and stood, glaring at one another.

"I'm sorry," they said together.

"It's alright," said James. Lily smiled, and they set off toward the ticklish pear.

In Hogsmeade, Sirius and Lina sat in a booth at the Three Broomsticks.

"We are very much alike, Sirius," she said. Sirius nodded, and his floppy hair sent tingles up Lina's spine.

"What do you say we visit the Shrieking Shack, once more for old times sake?"

Sirius cast his eyes down.

"Why not?" he said sullenly, draining the last of his butterbeer.

"Or," Lina said, as obviously she had made the wrong suggestion, "we could go to Zonko's and look at their new shipment of adult toys?"

"But-but-we're underage!" he said in a mocking voice.

"Oh we'll find a way..." she snickered, "little Elvis Zonko's on duty till one, and he'll never even know the difference." Sirius grabbed her hand, and thought to himself that girls like Lina were not meant for prudes like James anyway.

In the Kitchens, James and Lily found Peter, talking to the Head "Chef".

"Hey guys," he greeted. "We've made a deal for the after party for next week's Gryffindor game." The House-Elf nodded exuberantly, stirring a large cauldron of bubbling soup, floating six feet in the air to reach the spatula.

"That's only if we win, Pete," James reminded.

"'Course we will," said Lily, looking at them both in turn. "You'll put Antonio in instead of Mulls, won't you?"

James crinkled his nose. Antonio was Lily's newest boyfriend, a Spanish boy with a thick accent, and flying skills to match if not surpass James'. He was a seventh year, and Mulls was a second year reserve. James was reluctant to put him in because he would be graduating so soon, not to mention he was competition.

"Come on, James? Please, for me, huh?" He looked at her.

"I guess," he said.

"Well, it's not like its going to be that hard to beat Ravenclaw anyway, same team as last year," Peter said.

"But Woodyard, that fourth year girl has some muscle, gotta watch out for her."

"Oh, well, Wendy's told me that Mark Matthews just dumped her, and she kind of lost it in the girls room yesterday after Herbology."

"Doesn't that mean that she'll want to pound the living hell out of everyone?" asked Peter, puzzled.

"Of course not!" She made a sweeping movement with her hand, "Everyone knows that she doesn't perform well under stress." James made a mental note to inform the team of this so they would have a slight advantage.

"Doesn't Mark Matthews play Quidditch too?" James asked Lily.

"No, he used to, remember back in our fourth year, but he joined the Quodpot club, and well..." her eyes twinkled, "you know how secretive they are." James couldn't draw his gaze away from her pretty face, sort of forgetting that he hated gossipy girls.

"Yeah, well, they're just mad that Quidditch is a way better sport, that's all."

"For once, I'd agree with you, James," she said. She thanked the house elf who brought her the chocolate pie.

James nodded and was soon lost in thoughts. The house-elves chattered softly. Peter and the Head Chef seemed to be having a very entertaining conversation about Hawaiian fish.

In his hospital bed, Remus tossed and turned with gory nightmares about werewolves slaying Hogwarts Students sneaking through the violent, thrashing tree.