Sirius, Remus, and Peter all watched from across the room as Lily and James moped in their respective corners, obviously avoiding each other.
"Things were going so well," Remus said in despair.
"Maybe they're just each facing their own particular crisis and need to be alone," Peter suggested reasonably.
"Yeah, right," Sirius muttered. "This isn't good. I think we need to intervene…Peter, you-"
"I really don't think we should get involved," Peter said. "If we always get involved in their relationships, what's going to happen if they get in a fight on their honeymoon?"
"Excellent point, Padfoot, do explain."
"They've got to get married before they can honeymoon, and without us, those blessed nuptials won't take place."
"We can't run their relationship for them!"
"Keep it down, Peter," Remus murmured, stuffing a pillow in Peter's face.
"Peter…wait, Remus, go and see if you can find out what's bothering Lily. I'll fry James, and we'll meet in our room."
"What do I do?" Peter asked, and Sirius smirked.
"Get refreshments." Sirius ambled, what he thought appeared to be nonchalantly, over to James. "Hey."
"Leave me alone."
"What a way to greet your best friend."
"I'm brooding, and I don't think you want to hear my newest crisis."
"Is your parents? Did they bug you again?"
"Oh yes, how could they not? Mum said something to Lily, too, look at her over there. If my mother sends her into a downward spiral into depression, how can we have a relationship? My parents are ruining my life!"
"What'd they say this time? My mum's newest kick is that I 'should try to please her in her last days'. That old crony will never kick the bucket. I'm just not that lucky."
James grinned reluctantly, "Did she hold your hand too?"
"Damn right she did. Did they give you that Quidditch line again?"
"Yeah."
"Well, all you had to do was say no again, what's the big deal?"
"I don't want to talk about it right now."
"You're going to tell Lily as soon as she settles down, so why not tell me? I am your best friend, you know."
"I know, I know, I know. Are you jealous of Lily?"
"No."
James laughed, "You are, aren't you?"
"Would you stop changing the subject? WHY is it a big deal this time?"
"I didn't say no, Sirius."
"Oh my God!
"Yeah…that's what I'm thinking," James sighed. "I'm going to go for a stroll. Maybe the air will help me figure out why I gave in. I'm not sure if I care a whole lot at the moment."
"You're in the pits today."
"A Quidditch game and a visit from my esteemed family does that to me."
*~*~*
"Hi, Lily," Remus greeted, hastily sitting next to her before she could ask him to leave.
"Hola," Lily sad half-heartedly, closing her book.
"What's going on?"
"I'm sort of trying to read my book."
"Oh. I see. Do, you, uh…what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just tired. I need some time to think, but I can't really think properly, so I'm just stressed. Nothing life-threatening, I assure you."
"Great. So what are you trying to think so hard about? Something James's mother said?"
"How'd you guess?"
"She used to do it to James all the time, but now he can let it roll off."
Lily smiled slightly, "Severus Snape says that he's so arrogant that criticism just slides right off and he never notices."
"Sounds just like our Snivellus."
"You guys are awful."
"It's not undeserved, but we were talking about you. What did she say? If you tell James, he'll take care of it for you, you know that right?"
"I do know that, Remus, but just because James and I are more than friends doesn't mean I can let him fight all my battles for me. And there really isn't anything he can do to fix it for me, I just need to sort things out. I'm going to go walk down by the lake."
Remus looked around helplessly and Lily started gathering her stuff, and he met James in the stairwell, "She's going to take a walk."
"Who?" James asked distractedly, folding up the silvery fabric that was his Invisibility Cloak.
"The only she you should be worried about…Lily."
"Oh…oh, right. She's going down by the lake? Great." James walked away muttering things to himself. He shoved single-mindedly through the common room, ignoring a few greetings and walked swiftly down the corridor. At about the stairs leading down to the foyer, he saw Lily skipping lightly. "Hey! Lily! Wait a sec!"
She stopped and turned to watch him jog down the stairs.
"Do you want to take a walk with me?"
"I thought you wanted some air to clear your head?"
"Who? Me? Who said that? Oh, I bet you talked to Sirius. Well, I did, but I can do that later." For some reason Lily couldn't comprehend, James smiled brightly at her, which was really the last thing she needed at the moment.
"You're not going to ask me what your mother said, are you?"
"I was kind of planning on it. Actually that was the purpose of asking you on a walk, but I guess it's just you, me, our collective misery, and no answers now." James took her hand and led her out the door, "The lake? I swear we won't climb any trees."
"That's fine. Are, you, uh…you're acting weird."
"I'm just trying to hide the fact that I'm in a really pissy mood because I'd rather not have you feeling sorry for me and asking about Mother."
"Now that's in the open, what exactly happened?" Lily asked, stepping outside only to be surprised by the level of darkness. "Wait, we can't go out, it's too close to sundown, and we'll be in trouble."
"Only if we're caught."
"So we're just going to run around like idiots if we see someone?"
"No…I'm much more organized than pre-planned idiocy." James tugged her over to the side and unfolded her cloak, which she looked at in shock.
"Wow. That's an Invisibility Cloak…right?"
"Correct again. Senior gave it to me, it's supposed to be passed from father and son…let's not all laugh at once."
Lily really did laugh as he said that. She felt special that he decided to show it to her, she imagined that was a rather big event since she didn't even have an inkling that he owned one up to this point.
"Shall we go? When it gets darker we can wear the cloak, but truth be told, it's a pain in the ass with more than one person under it. Although, I think it'll be much easier, not to mention more pleasurable, with you versus Sirius or Remus."
"I can see you guys trying to be sneaky but hissing don't touch me whenever you so much as tap each other."
"You know us all to well…that's exactly what happens, especially when we all get in our rather testy moods."
"You? Testy? When does that happen?"
"Only once in a blue moon, you know me, Mister-Happy-Go-Lucky." The two of them sat under the old oak tree, silent for awhile. "I caved?"
"Pardon?"
James buried his face in his hands, "It's bad. He suckered me into it. I swear I was temporarily out of my mind."
"What did you do?" Lily asked, her mouth twitching in the beginnings of a smile.
"He's contacting the Quidditch offices and it's expected I'll have offers by the end of next week."
Lily's mouth fell open in complete shock; she had definitely been knocked off her feet on this one. "Seriously?"
"Unfortunately."
"Why in the world did you change your mind?"
"It's the damnedest thing; I can't believe I did it." James really did look like he was in complete disbelief. "One minute I was yelling at him, and the next he was spouting all this crap about wanting to act like a semi-family. I am so tired of arguing with the both of them, it's just becoming a hassle."
"If it was a hassle you would have just left, not say you'll play Quidditch," Lily carefully kept her eyes forward.
"I know," James groaned. "It was you who put this cock-eyed scheme in my head."
"Me? How did I do anything?"
"You don't understand how bad my life with them is, so you can't figure out how I feel about them. I don't like my parents, they're reprehensible people, let alone love them. Then, I go and visit your house, and I see all of you just oozing with love for each other. All my life, I haven't been good enough for them, and I thought that if I just made the step and gave it one shot, I could have a chance with them. Now I see how stupid it was."
"No, James, it was stupid," Lily said, feeling slightly silly as she hugged him. "It's obvious you had excellent intentions. You're telling your parents you want to give it a shot. If you decide you just can't handle it, I'm sure you can get out of it. It's not like you've made a deal with the devil and signed it with blood."
"You obviously don't know them well."
"No, I don't. I also don't know much at all about your life outside of Hogwarts because you won't tell me."
"What the crap is your problem? You're in a very bad mood."'
"No, I'm not. I just have things on my mind, and you playing hush hush isn't helping things at all."
"Trust me, you don't want to know about my family. The whole lot of them is bad news."
"But I don't know that until you tell me, why don't you let me make my own decision?"
"Because I know what that will be! It will be just like everyone else's. It's one of those things people from the outside feel sorry for me about, but the ones who know me just think we're an appalling set. I don't want to tell anyone ever again."
"So I'm just like everyone else?"
"No, but…"
"But what?"
"You'll think of me differently when I tell you."
"Alright. It's fine if you don't feel comfortable telling me. I'm sure I'll live. So are you going to play or not? You know, you could always lie and say you didn't get a fair offer."
"I could, but they would harass the league until I did get a fair offer, and they would know about it. If I want to have any kind of family, I have to do this."
"And that is so terribly touching. It fairly tugs on the strings of my heart," Severus Snape snarled, trouncing up to them, a gruesome and very smug smile gracing his countenance.
"Bugger off, Snivellus," James growled, not bothering to even look at him.
"Oh, I don't think so. You see, I've got two counts of students on the grounds after dark, one Head Boy, the other a Prefect. That's quite the catch, wouldn't you say?"
"Come off it, Snape," Lily said in irritation, not having any lost love for this Slytherin. "We aren't hurting anything. We're sitting under the tree conversing, not going at each other like dragons in heat."
"As charming as that mental image is, I do know what your kind is like," he said, this directed at James, but Lily misinterpreted it.
"My kind?"
"No, his kind. Born of a lusty whore, and no doubt antsy to create others of his mold." The Slytherin smiled in what Lily would describe as ickily as he sneered in her direction while not taking his eyes off of James, "And who better to do it with than a common Mudblood who pretends to be something special."
Lily, having heard the insult before, took no particular insult, but James obviously did.
"You nasty little toerag," James muttered in a low voice, standing to face Snape, an honestly manic grin on his face. "I can't believe you would criticize anyone when you are obviously an example of inbreeding gone awry. No wonder your parents threaten to disown you."
Snape looked visibly shocked.
"Oh yes, I know your little secrets, and as you're always eager to point out, I have no moral platform that keeps me from voicing them. Just stay the hell away from her." James turned and tugged Lily to her feet, striding toward the castle with her.
"You didn't need to do that."
"Apparently I did. Disgustingly little excuses for humanity will always pick on who they think are their inferiors until somebody makes them stop."
"So you're going to do it single-handedly."
"Nobody treats my friends like that, no matter what they have on them."
Lily smiled slightly, "Thank you."
"I-"
"I'm notifying Figg that you two have detention!" Snape yelled, running to catch up with them.
"Whatever," James snapped, glaring bullets in his back as he ran on to the castle.
"Detention?" Lily whispered.
"If he actually turns us in, the moron will get it to…he was obviously outside too. Anyway, if he turns us into Figg, she won't make us do anything disgusting like Fletcher. He makes you clean out cages like Muggles. Nasty."
"Do you think he will," she asked, sounding really worried.
"Snape turn us in? You bet. He's a loser like that." James rolled his eyes and laughed, "His goal at Hogwarts is to upstage me and make my life hell. He'll only be happy when I'm dead, and even then he'll hate my memory."
"That's awful."
"The truth is seldom nice."
"What will Figg make us do?"
"The stuff she always does."
"What's that?"
"You know, clean up her room, maybe write lines, set stuff up for a demonstration or a test. You don't know, do you," he asked, finally catching on.
"No, I don't."
"Have you ever had detention?"
Lily shook her head in the darkness, glad that he couldn't see her eyes tearing up suspiciously.
"Aww, crap, I'm sorry. I didn't realize."
"It's fine."
"Are you…crying?"
"No! That's just silly."
"But you are anyway. Please don't...Lily?"
"I'm not crying. Really, I'll be fine. Just look how many detentions you and Sirius have lived through. I'll make it."
*~*~*
"Professor, is there anything I can do to get Lily out of detention?" James asked, entering the headmaster's office upon request. "I'll serve my detention and hers, or double, or whatever it is that you want."
"James, detention is to teach the wrong doer a lesson, to prevent them from committing the same crime again."
"But she hasn't ever had detention before. It's not like she's a serial-criminal for Christ's sake."
"Rules are rules, James. Her detention still stands, six o'clock Friday evening in the trophy room. It's a simple detention."
"SIR! Please reconsider. I'll personally scrub your office from ceiling to floor…without magic! Come on!"
"Six o'clock Friday evening, it will be over at half past seven, the same as yours. You can serve your detention in the same place."
"Thank you," James muttered, disheartened.
"Now, the reason I called you here. It wasn't detentions, I assure you. Here are the proposed contracts from several Quidditch teams, as promised. Your father wishes you to owl him your decision."
"Gee, thanks. You have no idea how little this means to me."
"Your sarcasm is, as always, charming, but you should be happy that your father is immensely proud of you."