The Offer

Lily, Amy and Jenny were sitting in the library and each doing their Charms assignment, due for another two days. Amy and Jenny were working on colouring charms and Lily was trying to make the Protein Charm work.

She was getting upset that Hermione was able to do it in her fifth year and she, a seventh year, couldn't.

"I hate this!" Lily exclaimed loudly, attracting a nasty look from Madam Pince.

Any and Jenny looked up from their homework and gazed at her in amusement and wonder. "How did you manage to get it anyway? Why aren't you and Potter in our classes anymore?" inquired Jenny.

"We worked hard over the summer," said Lily shortly.

"But we're not allowed to use magic during the holiday" said Amy with a confused look.

"We did it without magic," said Lily impatiently, starting to feel annoyed.

"How?" pressed Jenny, frowning.

"We just did ok?" snapped Lily, a slow flush was starting to cover her cheeks.

"We? As in you I Potter together?" said Amy disbelievingly.

"Yes! Potter and me alright!" yelled Lily in frustration.

"MS EVANS!" said the furious voice of Madam Pince "Out!"

Lily shut her books angrily and walked out of the library, oblivious to the curious looks from the other students.

In the past few weeks, many of Gryffindors noticed the "growing" friendship between Lily Evans and James Potter. Surprisingly, they kept quiet, so the other houses didn't know a thing about it.

Amy and Jenny followed Lily hurriedly, barely keeping up with her. When they reached her, she was giving the Fat Lady the password ("Codswallop").

Amy and Jenny followed her to the common room and sat on the armchairs next to her when she spread her books on the table, completely ignoring them.

"Who's Ginny?" blurted Amy suddenly.

Lily froze and after a few tense seconds she answered "I don't know", she said tightly. Her mind was racing; how could the possibly know about Ginny?

"Don't lie Lily, you don't know how to," snapped Jenny, starting to get a little annoyed herself. Her brown hair was starting to fall from the neat ponytail she arranged to herself every morning.

"I don't know who Ginny is" said Lily, not meeting their eyes and feeling guilty.

"Lily! Stop lying!" said Amy angrily.

"Lily we have to do out patrolling now, we're almost late" said James's voice loudly behind the girls. Lily sighed with relief and gratefulness when James stopped the inquiry, she practically ran out of the room, dragging him with her.

"It has something to do with him" said Amy suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the closed portrait. "Something happened on the train and she's not telling us."

"You know, when I think about it, James did start to behave oddly after the prefect meeting" said Sirius's voice.

"What do you know about it?" asked Remus. He, Sirius and Peter sat on the sofa and were looking at the girls in interest.

"Well," started Jenny "Do you remember the day we and the sixth year girls were playing truth or dare?"

"No" chorused the boys.

Amy rolled her eyes "Never mind, Lily was about to tell us what happened when James appeared from nowhere and yelled on her to stop. They fought and then James said something about 'do it for Harry' and she slapped him." Amy said in a rush, cutting the story for the most important details.

The boys burst out laughing "So that's why he had a red mark!" said Sirius "Evans slapped him!" the boys looked gleeful.

"That's not funny Black! She really regretted it!" snapped Amy.

"Anyway," said Jenny, sensing another Black-Isadora fight is about to start "He went upstairs very hurt and she – she went up after him" she said and shook her head disbelievingly.

Remus's mouth hung open and Peter's eyes were bugging out. "No way!" said Sirius with shock evident on his face.

"Then we heard a door shutting and after a few minutes Lily came down and just cried" said Jenny sadly.

"We were just about to come out from out hiding spot and ask her what happened when James came and just looked at her with this pained look on his face, you know?"

"Saw it plenty of times" said Remus.

"Every time she rejected him" added Sirius.

"I don't know how she heard him coming" continued Jenny, amazed "But all of a sudden they were hugging and Lily was sobbing like mad. She said something about letting someone down and some Ginny and her fiancé."

"I believe the right words were 'He and Ginny were so happy. He proposed to her, they could have being married and have children'" said Amy in a bored voice.

"How do you remember that?" asked Sirius admiringly "I can't even remember the twelve uses for dragon's blood."

Amy bit down a nasty remark, "I ran it in my head a couple of times," she Amy "Anyway, she stopped crying after a while and they just fell asleep on the sofa together" she finished with a sigh.

Realisation dawned on the boys' faces and the exchanged smirks. "What?" asked Jenny, with a look of nothing-can-surprise-me-anymore.

"We found them on the sofa that morning" said Sirius with an evil smirk.

FLASHBACK

Sirius woke up from a very good night sleep to the voice of the alarm clock, ("Get up you old mutt") when he noticed that James's bed was empty.

"Where's Prongs?" asked Sirius groggily.

"I dunno" said Remus, brushing his teeth "he wasn't here when I woke."

"Maybe he's in breakfast," said Peter sleepily.

After the three boys were showered, shaved and dressed, they came down to the empty common room. They were the first to wake – always a plus when they're doing a morning prank.

They saw red hair spread on the sofa and took a closer look. When they saw what it was, they tried, unsuccessfully, to hide their surprised gasps.

James Potter and Lily Evans were lying asleep. Hugged. James's face was buried in Lily's flaming hair and Lily's head was buried in James's chest.

Sirius had a very interesting look on his face – he looked like a shocked frozen doll. After a few seconds, his expression became very, very evil. He was smirking and Remus knew that Sirius will never let James live it down.

"Get the camera Wormtail" hissed Remus to Peter. "Right away good sir," said Peter in a quiet imitation of sir Cadogan, still trying to recover from the shock.

Suddenly Lily sighed and snuggled closer to James - if that was possible. Sirius and Remus sniggered and Peter entered with the magical camera.

FLASH FLASH FLASH

Lily and James jumped a little from the noise and the sudden light and woke up very startled to find themselves in each other's arMs

They let go quickly and turned to look at the smirking face of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

James groaned out loud and got up from the sofa, barely moving Lily before getting to the dormitory, followed by the smirks of Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot.

END FLASHBACK

"NO WAY!"

"You've got pictures?"

"Bring it here!"

Both Amy and Jenny were smirking too by now and were practically jumping from excitement. While Remus got the pictures from the dormitory, Amy squirmed a little under Sirius's intense gaze.

"Here it is" said Remus as he got back.

Jenny snatched the pictures away from Remus's hands and went to sit next to Amy to look at them. Meanwhile, the boys were having a silent conversation

"Should I ask her to Hogsmede?" whispered Sirius.

"Just do it Padfoot!" whispered Remus.

"But she'll say no! I'm sure she will," said Sirius sounding desperate. Peter and Remus rolled their eyes; they did this conversation at lease six times in the past two days.

"Padfoot, this is getting ridiculous! Are you a Gryffindor or not?" asked Peter in a surprising show of intelligence.

Sirius sighed "I am"

"So go sweep her off her feet!" said Remus in quietly but enthusiastically.

"Are you su-" but Sirius didn't finish the sentence because Peter and Remus combined forces and pushed Sirius with all their might to the girls' direction.

Sirius coughed nervously and the girls turned to look at him. "Amy, can you…would you talk to me for a second?" he stammered in an uncharacteristic show if nervousness.

Amy exchanged curious looks with Jenny but nodded "Okay"

"Can we...walk?"

"Uh…sure" said Amy in confusion. What is he so nervous about? She was very puzzled, she and Sirius weren't getting along so well and if it weren't for the fact that she liked him, she probably would have refused.

They walked along the third floor quietly when Sirius stopped and faced her.

"Listen, Amy, I know we never got along too well but I just…I…what I said that day in the Great Hall, it's…it's true, I…I do like you" he said without taking a breath

"You do?" said Amy meekly, feeling faint all of a sudden.

"Yeah" said Sirius, a bright blush appearing on his face. "And I…I wondered, if you would go to Hogsmede with me?" he asked hopefully.

Amy looked at Sirius, his hair was a little dishevelled and he was wringing his hands nervously, looking at her, waiting for an answer.

"Ok" she said quietly. Sirius's eyes lit.

"Really?" he said. Amy giggled at his expression: like a child in a candy store and a free bank account.

"Yes, silly."

"Whoo!" he howled and picked her up, holding her waist and spinning her in the air. Amy burst out laughing and slapped his hands away from her waist.

"You won't regret it!" he said eagerly and kissed her on her cheek before running to the Gryffindor tower like a lunatic.

Ten minutes earlier, the Gryffindor common room

"Think she'll say yes?" asked Peter when Sirius was out with Amy.

"Of course she'll say yes, she likes him just as much as he likes her" said Remus, looking at Jenny who was sitting and snuggling in front of the fire.

"Go ask her," said Peter suddenly. Remus looked at Peter startled.

"What?"

"Go ask her to Hogsmede," said Peter, pointing at Jenny.

"What about you?"

"I'll go with Prongs," said Peter although he knew-

"James would ask Lily" said Remus "And you know that she'll agree. She seems like she'll agree to be his mistress if he'll ask her to."

"Yeah," said Peter and with a split-of-a-second decision he pushed Remus so hard, Remus almost fell flat on his face but, fortunately, was stopped by the sofa.

Remus glared at Peter but his anger turned to nervousness when Jenny turned to look at him in wonder.

"Hi" she said.

"Hi. Do you mind if I sit down?" he asked politely, heart beating rapidly.

"Not at all," she said. He sat down next to her, they chatted and laughed for a while about school, James and Lily and Amy and Sirius before Remus was brave enough to ask her out.

"Jenny would you like to go to Hogsmede with me?" he blurted.

Jenny looked at him with disbelieving eyes "What?"

"That's ok, I thought someone must have asked you by now, I'm sorry I bothered you" he said hurriedly and got up.

Before he could even move a step, Jenny jumped from the sofa and grabbed his arm. "Would you stop being a prat?" she hissed, "Of course I'll go with you."

"Are you sure?" he said hesitatingly - he never dated a girl before

"Yes, I am sure, now sit down" she said and Remus sat down obediently while Jenny snuggled into his chest and looked at the fire.

Peter smiled from the corner of the room and walked quietly out of the room to wander in the castle, humming to himself.

"Pettigrew," someone hissed from behind him.

Peter turned fast, his wand drown - a little trick James and Sirius taught him. He saw Snape hiding in the shadows.

"What do you want Snape?" he asked in cold politeness not lowering his wand, although he was shaking. James and Sirius were always there to protect him in situations like that.

"You don't really think Potter and Black are your friends do you?" he asked with malice.

"Of course they are my friends," stammered Peter, wondering what this is all about.

"They are not. You are not given the respect you should get," hissed Snape with a glint in his eyes.

"What are you getting at?" said Peter angrily.

"I have an offer, a much better offer. My master can offer you power and respect beyond your wildest dreams You'll be successful, have tones of girls swooning at your feet, fulfilling your wildest fantasies" said Snape silkily, hiding well the fact that he was struggling not to roll his eyes.

"Your master? As in you-know-who?" squeaked Peter .

"Yes you fool," hissed Snape, his black eyes glittering in the darkness "Are you in?"

"I-I don't know" mumbled Peter.

"I'll give you in ten days Pettigrew, ten days" said Snape and turned with a swirl of his black robes.

Peter was shaking and sweating. He didn't know what to do.

He often felt like he wasn't a match to James's, Sirius's or even Remus's abilities and felt a bit stupid and left out.

They were much more handsome than he was and often had girls keel over to their feet. He felt jealous of them and occasionally felt powerless and useless when they were planning pranks.

He came back to the Gryffindor common room still shaking.

"Peter!" he saw James walking towards him "What's the matter?"

"N-Nothing, I just got a little cold" said Peter, not wanting to share what Snape told him just yet.

"Are you sure? You look a little scared, was it Snivellus?" asked James with narrowed eyes.

"Uh…" said Peter and looked at the floor.

"We'll get back at him, you'll see," said James and swung his arm over Peter's shoulders.

"Urg," said Peter in disgust and took James's arm away from him "Did you put deodorant in the morning? You stink!" he said.

James laughed and got up the stairs to take a shower "Hey Prongs!" Peter called.

James turned "Did you ask Lily?" James's expression became eager and happy.

"She said yes," he said with a huge smile. Peter whooped with happiness for his friend.

"What about you Wormy?" asked James "Got a girl?"

Peter shook his head "No one would want to" he said bitterly.

This is my chance thought James I could make him stay on our side. He just needs a girl.

"Rubbish!" said James "Be here in ten and we'll make every girl want you," he said. Peter blushed and started to protest but James cut him "I'm not taking no for an answer" he said.

He started to enter the dormitory before stopping again and calling "And don't you dare run away Peter or I'll make you come into the shower with me so you won't escape" said James jokingly.

Peter froze in mid-action. His friends knew him too well. My friends.

&&

"Why we are here Prongs?" said Sirius that evening, waiting for Peter to come back from his shower.

"We need to find Wormtail a girl," said James. Remus and Sirius laughed, "I'm not kidding you guys," he said seriously.

"Ok," said Remus, thinking it is all a big joke "What do we do to find Wormy a girl?"

"First, we get him into shape, second, we make his pimples disappear and third, we have to solve the sweating problem he has" said Sirius jokingly.

"Good idea!" said James enthusiastically, completely oblivious to his friends' laughing face "Who will get him to run around the castle?"

"Are you serious Prongs? Are we actually gonna do that?" said Sirius, all laughter gone from his face, replaced by confusion.

"Yes! Of course!" said James as if it was obvious.

"Ok…" said Remus "I guess I'll be helping with the charms?" he said, already knowing that once James is on to something, he's not going to let go.

"Thanks Moony, Padfoot, will you brew the Anti-Pimples potion for him?" asked James cheerfully

"Guess so," said Sirius in defeat.

"Good! I'll get him into shape than!" said James enthusiastically.

And so it begun, Peter didn't find the everyday running around the castle enjoyable, but it definitely gave him energies for the rest of the day.

He was a little suspicious when Sirius handed him the potion but happy when it worked. He no longer had the awful red inflamed spots all over his face and he was grateful.

However, the most embarrassing part of it, was when Remus told him to take off his shirt so he could get rid of his sweating problem. He wanted to dig a hole in the ground and hide there for the rest of his life.

"Oh come on guys, I don't have a sweating problem," whined Peter but when his friends lifted their eyebrows he sighed. "All right" he said reluctantly.

It was the most humiliating thing he ever experienced in his whole life. He was lying in his bed, naked to the waist and his hands were above his head so that the marauders could perform the charm. He saw their expressions of disgust with the smell and laughed.

"You don't smell better after Quidditch Padfoot," he said. Remus and James laughed.

"What are you laughing at Prongs? The same applies to you," huffed Sirius and Remus and Peter now laughed.

"What are you laughing at Moony? You stink after…after…damn, you never stink" said James in defeat.

The all laughed for a couple of minutes but then Remus did a silencing charm on James and Sirius so he was the only one to be able to talk. James and Sirius looked angry about being silenced.

"Now," he said "This will tingle a bit Wormtail so don't be panicked" unfortunately, Peter did panic and Remus had to put him under a sleeping charm before performing the charm on his armpit, feet and palms

"There!" Remus muttered in triumph.

He took the sleeping charm off Peter who looked at him groggily and asked if it was over. After Remus indeed assured him it was over Remus took the silencing charms off James and Sirius who glared at him.

"Hi Lily! Hi Amy!" said Remus suddenly, smiling.

Sirius and James turned quickly but they immediately turned again glaring and growling at Remus "That was not funny" Sirius growled.

"You will pay," said James in the same growling voice. Remus's eyes widened and he ran for his life to the common room, James and Sirius hot on his heels.

Remus hid behind Lily who was watching with amusement as James and Sirius came near her. James gave her a sugary smile "Lily, dear, I think that my one of my best friend is currently hiding behind your back and looking at your bum."

Remus ditched his hiding point behind Lily to stand in front of James "I did not look at her bum!" he said indignantly.

"I didn't know you were interested Remus" said Lily casually, trying not to laugh.

"I-"

"This is not nice Moony, you know James fancies Lily and now you go and do him something like that…" Sirius said, shaking his head.

James punched Sirius in his arm and turned a little pink. Lily smiled and laughed as James turned redder and redder.

"What are you laughing at?" growled James and picked Lily up, running her around the common room while she punched his arm and yelling to him to let her down. James wasn't listening though.

"Padfoot, call the Fat Lady" called James, using their code.

Sirius opened the portrait's hole and James carried the laughing but shrieking Lily out of the common room.

James was running her around in the corridors and through hidden doors. Lily long since stopped fighting and was now letting James carry her around looking on the corridor from her spot above James's head.

James carried her to a cosy looking room, with four sofas, cushions and two queen size beds.

Lily looked around the room, and saw on the wall above the beds a crest. It was a large 'M' surrounded with four animals: a dog, a stag, a rat and a wolf (Lily looked closely and saw it was actually a werewolf).

"Is that your symbol?" she asked James in awe.

"Yep" he said, "We found this room in second year and made it the Marauders Headquarters. We plan all of out pranks here and when we were younger we used to sleep here as well," he said.

"You slept together?" Lily asked, sitting on one of the sofa and looking at the beds. James sat near her, leaning on the sofa.

"Uh…Sirius and I slept on the same bed as did Remus and Peter but after a while we saw that it was not at all comfortable. I still got pains from where Sirius kicked me during the night" he winced "Remus said Peter was drooling all over him and refused to sleep there after the first night"

Lily laughed. The sound so beautiful to James's ears he just closed his eyes and tried to mesmerise the sound. He opened his eyes and stared at her.

Lily noticed James was looking at her and blushed. "So…" she said trying to start a conversation, "What do you want to do in Hogsmede?"

James gulped "I don't know," he said, suddenly afraid she'll back off because they won't have anything to do.

"We can go to this shop 'Glitter', they have wonderful coffee," said Lily, not exactly oblivious to James's nervousness.

"Okay" said James.

"But we'll have to be apart for a while" she said, watching in amusement as James paled a little.

James panicked "Do you have another date? I promise I won't be boring-"

Lily giggled at his panic "Don't be silly James, I don't have another date, we have a ball in a few weeks. Have you forgotten?" she said.

James's cheeks burned, he could not believe he was stupid enough to believe Lily will have another date. Lily laughed merrily.

"Don't beat yourself over it" she said in a giggly voice and waved her hand dismissively after reading his thoughts.

"So…What other things you have here? I bet there is more than just a couple of sofas and beds. You are the marauders after all…"

James got the mischievous glint in his eyes again, "Well, I guess I could show you some hidden broom closets" he said.

"Did you snog here too?" Lily asked innocently.

James pulled a disgusted face "URGG! Lily! That's just sick!"

Lily laughed again "What do you have broom closets here anyway?"

"So we can store some pranks supplies there," he answered seriously, thought his eyes betrayed his amusement.

"Like what?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he said laughingly and put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned on his shoulder.

"Just don't fall asleep Lil, you remember what happened last time," he said jokingly. Lily groaned and buried her face deeper into his shoulder, keeping the bright blush on her cheeks from showing.

FLASHBACK

Lily was comfortable.

Very comfortable.

And warm.

She snuggled deeper into her very warm pillow and sighed. She felt and arm tightening around her and quiet sniggers. She opened one of her eyes blearily and saw the Hogwarts crest. She closed her eyes again.

FLASH FLASH FLASH

Lily jumped startled, and so did her pillow. She looked up to her pillow and saw it wasn't a pillow, it was actually James, looking at her in confusion before both of them turned to look at the source of the noise and saw the smirking Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

She heard James groan and getting up, barely touching her and exiting the room, followed by his teasing friends.

Lily groaned silently, wanting James's warmth to be near her again, his arms holding her. She knew now what made her marry James in the past, or future or whatever.

But she can't be his girlfriend yet. She knew that until she solved what happened to Harry, she could not get into full intimacy with James.

That was just the way she lived. She was much better now, thinking about Harry, most of her grief was already out thanks to James. But she still got this heavy feeling in her chest whenever she thought of his last moments.

She got up; knowing the rest of the Gryffindors will be puzzled to see their Head Girl sleeping on the sofa.

While she was showering, she thought about James.

He was sweet to wait for her to recover from this. From their future. She wanted to be with him so badly it gave her butterflies in her stomach just to think of him as her boyfriend.

How did the tables turn? She thought. How did he manage to make her fall in love with him?

No, not fall in love.

Right?

END FLASHBACK

"Are you okay Lil?" asked James, rubbing her shoulders.

Lily snuggled closer to him, hugging him "I'm fine" she mumbled against his chest "Just thinking of that day."

James laughed and Lily felt his chest rising and the deep gonging laugh echoing in his chest. Sighing, she did the most unexpected thing.

She kissed his chest.

James's breath hitched in his throat. And Lily looked up to his face, there was something weird in her eyes James couldn't identify it.

He didn't want this moment to end so he kissed her forehead and she closed her eyes, resting her hand on his chest and hugging him.

She did not know what came into her but she tried to get as close as she could to him. James's mind was in swirl of colours and he felt almost dizzy as Lily got even closer to him.

Her hair smelt like melon and he felt her chest rising and falling. The butterflies he had in Dumbledore's office and thought were gone, came back now in full force.

James stroked Lily's soft cheek and she looked him in the eyes. She put her hand on his cheek and he got closer to her face.

Asking for permission, he stopped inches from her mouth and she pulled him closer to her. Making their mouths crush together.

James kissed her softly and she sighed against his mouth, responding. It was their first real kiss since Harry.

Lily thought her heart would explode with happiness.

Kissing James seemed like a lost dream and she could not express in words how much she missed the feeling of his mouth over hers.

James wasn't thinking. He was so engrossed with the kiss he could not get a reasonable thought into his mind. He put his hand around her waist and pulled her to his lap so he'd have a better access to her mouth. To her heart.

Meanwhile, Severus Snape cornered Peter Pettigrew in a very dark corridor on the first floor. His black eyes glittering dangerously and his teeth bared.

"Well Pettigrew? What have you decided?"

Peter took a deep breath and told Snape something that made Snape smile horribly.

A/N: I decided I didn't want to wait for 20 reviews because I think that some of you are just being lazy about it. And I really don't mind - God knows I'm like that sometimes...just sit in my chair and read, nothing more. Once I'm finished with the chapter I will post it (of course, after Zayne will be kind enough to beta for me).

I opened a Yahoo!Group for this story, the link is in my bio, check it out. This story is not finished yet!

Thanks:

Jinxeh- My response was just a proof that I, well, don't really care about Orlando of Mr. Depp because I saw the movie only twice. Your reviewer was creepy, seriously...

Zayne/Annmarie - You are not supposed to tell anyone I'm giving you sneak previews!

pandas rule the world, Hazel Maraa, serious-writer, Tigoamy, Mrs.Poynter and Mrs.Judd, lemmingally, Mrs.KristinePotter, Lily-900121, Hannanora-Potter, IamSiriusgrl, Steelo, Tidal Waves, Nisha Tsukino

Thanks again xxx

--Lily