A week had passed. Classes had gotten off to a slow but steady start, and students gradually fell into the groove again. Sure, you encountered some drama here and there, even in the first week, but nothing time-stopping.

Lily and James were fulfilling their head duties, patrolling the school. Curfew was at 10:00, and they had already sent the remaining wanderers to bed. This being only their first week, they had yet to encounter anything worth writing home about. Rather, they spent the time together, talking and catching up slowly.

"Nobody," called James quietly, as he removed his head from the empty classroom. "I think they've all gone to bed already. Besides, who's gonna be out this late on the first week of school?"

"James, it's only 10:30," Lily replied, laughing.

"Oh," he said, disappointment obvious on his face. The look only lasted a second and was quickly replaced by the classic 'light bulb' look.

"What?"

"Let's go check the astronomy tower! There's bound to be at least one couple going at it!" His excitement was more than apparent, and she laughed again.

"James! You're incorrigible! I have to wonder why that makes you so brilliantly happy…. Never mind, I probably don't want to know."

"Come on! You know you want to!" he teased in his most Sirius-like sing-song voice. He flashed his most dashing grin and waited a second to see if it had worked. Nothing. He switched to a puppy-dog face. His hazel eyes nearly doubled in size it seemed, and she could hardly resist.

"You hang around Sirius way too much."

"Please?" There was an unmistakable whimper in his voice.

"Ok, no more puppy-dog faces. You're terrible at it."

"Hey!"

"Now come on, we've gotta go check the astronomy tower."

"Yippee!" came the response. He began to hop and dance around her, slowly herding her forward toward the tower.

She laughed out loud. "Okay, okay. Cool it. Now you're really starting to act like Sirius."

"Well, I do try," he said smugly, straightening an invisible tie.

"Ugh," Lily said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Boys," she muttered

"Come on!" He grabbed her hand, and they slowly made their way up to the astronomy tower.

As they walked, Lily thought back over the summer. It had been easy and uneventful. Well, except for a few minor incidences.

"Liiiiiilllllyyyyy!"

"If you've got something to say to me, come say it to me! Don't yell it at me!" came Lily's response from her bedroom upstairs. The door snapped open, and Petunia's unmistakably horse-like face popped through the painfully small crack.

"I said, 'You and all your freakishness had better stay up here tonight.' Got it?" It struck Lily how the word freak never sounded quite so foul as when Petunia said it.

She put down her pen, dislodged her mind from the lengthy letter she was writing, sighed heavily, and turned around. "And why ever would I want to do that, dearest sister?" The last was dripping with sarcasm, and she smiled sweetly, as only a little sister can – a smile so seemingly innocent, a smile that grandmothers love to kiss, a smile that clearly states, "I can get away with anything, because I'm younger and cuter!"

"Not that it's any of your freaky business, but Vernon is coming over. I have a feeling he's going to propose, and I WON'T have you messing this up for me with your freakishness!" Petunia's voice grew steadily louder and faster as she spoke.

Lily had had enough. She stood slowly, to intimidate her sister. "Listen here, Tuna Face. You say 'freak' one more time, and you will spend the rest of the night puking up slugs. And nobody, not even that whale, would propose to a slug puking horse face. Have I made myself clear?"

Petunia paled slightly, withdrew her snout – I mean, face – and snapped the door shut. Lily sighed to herself, sat back down, and attempted to continue her letter.

"Lils?"

"Huh? What?"

"Where are you off to over there?" James asked, squeezing her hand softly. "You looked like you were going to murder someone."

"Oh. It was nothing. Just thinking about Tuna."

"Oh. What'd she do now?"

"You know she's getting married?"

James laughed out loud. He stopped when he saw her face. "Oh, you were serious. Listen, Lils, I know she's your sister and all that, but who in their right mind would marry that bitch?"

"James-" she warned.

"You know it's true! She's never been anything but a total git to you, and I'm sick of it. You can't let her get away with this stuff anymore, Lily!"

She shook her head and ignored the comment. "His name's Vernon Dursley. And don't worry – he's not out of his mind. He doesn't have one." James laughed. "It's quite funny to see them together, actually. He's huge! No neck at all, and the only thing he talks about are drills. And Petunia, well, you've seen her. She's a walking skeleton."

"See, Lils? I'm not crazy. She's a-"

"James!" she interrupted.

"Sorry."

They finally arrived at the astronomy tower. "Well, ladies first," James said, holding the door for Lily.

She walked in slowly and cautiously, leery of anything that might be waiting for her. James came up beside her, and they walked slowly hand-in-hand around the tower.

"You know what I've been thinking?"

"What's that?" James asked.

"We've gotta do something – about Rina and Sirius."

"What about Remus and Laurie?"

"Oh, they'll find their own way together – I'm not worried about them. But the other two are about as stubborn and pig-headed as it gets. Their prides will never let them get together."

"Ok, so shove them in a broom closet and lock the door. Don't let them out 'til they've agreed to a date."

"James, that's barbaric!" Lily exclaimed. She thought a moment and said, "But it just might work."

"Of course it will," he said. "I thought of it." She gently shoved his arm with her shoulder.

"So, when are we going to execute this ingenious plan of yours?"

"I don't know. You choose."

"It has to be soon. Not tomorrow – we've got classes all day. Can't have them missing classes for… whatever they'll be doing." She cringed. "Never mind, I don't even wanna go there."

"So tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, tomorrow's fine."

They continued walking slowly until they were about half way around, until James stopped abruptly. Lily, looking distractedly at the stars, crashed most ungracefully into him.

"Ow!"

"Shh!" James said, a finger to his lips. "You alright?" he whispered. She nodded her head. "Good, come 'ere."

She stepped forward to see what was so important. When she did, she gasped loudly, causing the couple, bright red with embarrassment, to pull apart.

"Rina! Sirius!" she cried. Behind her, James began snickering. "You knew about this?" she accused, slapping his arm.

James shook his head, now laughing outright. "You should've known it would happen." He attempted, semi-successfully, to compose himself. "Now, what have you to say for yourself, young man? And you, young lady?"

"Come on, Prongs. You know how it is," said Sirius, half smiling.

Rina shot a look at Lily that clearly said, "I'll explain later." But her eyes soon found her shoes and her hand its way into Sirius's.

"Yeah," James answered. "Go find yourself an empty classroom. Second floor's clear."

"James!" Lily said, as they scurried off before anything else could be said.

"Ah, let 'em go. I'm glad of it. Saves us the trouble."

Lily frowned. "Still, shouldn't we at least takes some points? Or maybe a detention?" James looked at her as if she was crazy. "We have to be fair!" The look intensified. She cracked. "Fine, but we're going to have a nice, little chat with them tomorrow. Got it?"

"Whatever you say, babe," James said nonchalantly. He took her hand in his again and began to walk slowly around the tower.

They walked a few minutes in quiet, until James said, "Still would've been really funny to see their faces getting shoved into a broom closet."

Lily laughed out loud, the mental image perfectly clear. "Yeah – priceless. But I don't know, this was pretty good, too."

Lily continued to stare silently at the sky. The full moon was next week, and James knew she worried about him. She knew she couldn't stop him – she'd already tried that. Still, he tried to comfort her.

He rubbed the back of her hand gently with his thumb and said, "Don't worry about it, ok? We'll be fine."

"I know," Lily said, now frowning. She didn't have to ask what he was talking about. "I don't want to talk about it, ok?" It was a touchy subject between them, having been the source of one of the more unpleasant defining moments in their relationship, and neither cared to relive it. Even so, her words still rang in his ears from that night.

He had snuck back into the common room about 6:00am, after making sure Remus was alright. Lucky for him, it had been a Saturday, so no one had been up yet at that ungodly hour. Lily had waited on him, and was sleeping lightly on the couch. She woke up, and it had taken a long time to explain everything. Eventually, he had had to take her to a secret spot and "introduce" her to Prongs.

She had acted ok then, but he could tell it had been eating at her. A month later, he found her in the same position after a particularly long and stressful full moon.

"Lils, love, what are you doing down here?" he asked, after gently shaking her awake. As soon as she saw who it was, she bolted up and hugged his neck, tears welling in her eyes and streaming silently down her cheeks.

She saw Sirius and Peter in chairs near the fire, talking quietly. When he heard her tears, Sirius looked up, startled. He signaled to Peter, and they headed quietly and quickly up to their dormitories.

"Woah, woah, Lils! What's going on, love? What happened? Are you ok?" he asked, alarmed by her reaction.

She nodded hard and sniffed. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," he said, still unsure of what was going on. "Why wouldn't I be?" Her face became angry, and he knew that had been the wrong answer.

"Oh, I don't know, James. Why wouldn't you be ok when you've got your life on the line, running around with a bloody-" His hand flew over her mouth, aware of how close the dormitories were and the chance that anyone could come down from them at any moment. Needless to say, he now understood her tears.

"Okay, okay," he soothed. He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back gently. "I see what this is all about."

"James, you can't go anymore," she said into his shoulder. She pulled back, and he saw that her tears had slowed and a determined look came over her face. "You can't. I'm a wreck. I just can't take it knowing you're out there…. And I know he can't help it. We all love him, I swear. But he can't control himself, and-"

"You're right, he can't control himself," James interrupted. "That's why he needs us. I've explained this to you – he would tear himself to shreds if it weren't for us. I can't leave him out there. And it takes both me and Padfoot to control him. If I were to bail, I would be putting them both at Moony's mercy, and that's a risk I won't take. I can't do that. I won't do that."

Her tears gained speed and power. "Why? Why not? For me! I need you to!" She knew it was only a guilt-trip tactic and that it wouldn't work, but she was desperate.

He took her flailing hands in his own, kissed them, and said, "I can't, Lils. I'm sorry, but I can't." He placed her hands gently in his lap, kissed her forehead gently, and went to walk upstairs.

He was almost to the stairwell when her small voice behind him said, "Every time, James." He turned around. She looked so helpless standing there alone, tears streaming down her face unnoticed and uncontrolled at this point, but her voice was surprisingly steady. "Every night you go out there with them, I will worry. I paced my room until Rina hollered for me to go to sleep or go somewhere else. So, I came down here and sat by the window, to watch and to wait. Every once in a while I heard a howl, or a bark. Sometimes I even saw a flash of silver or a particularly dark shadow shoot across the grounds. And I worried some more and paced some more, knowing you were out there and there was nothing I could do about it. Eventually the house elves came in, and I had to go to bed. So I laid up there wide awake, until I had to come back down and watch some more. I don't know what I'd do if anything ever happened to you." Her voice broke. "I love you so much, and I just don't think… I just don't think I could… without you." She crumpled to the floor, her hands on her wet face.

He stood shocked at her words. He hadn't realized it affected her so much. He walked over to her, and laid a gentle hand on her arm. At the feel of her shaking shoulder, he couldn't take it anymore. He picked her up gently and carried her to the couch. He held her on his lap, gently holding her in his arms until her tears subsided.

"I've got to do it, Lils," he said.

"I know," she whispered.

Even now, he knew she still cried sometimes. And it hurt him more than she knew. He could always tell, too, when she had spent the night awake and crying, and sometimes he even found her waiting for him on the couch.

"Come on, Lils. It'll be alright. You don't have to worry about me," he assured her. "Sirius has my back, and I have his. And Peter's always ready to go for help should anything really bad happen."

"I know, I know. But I still worry."

"'Worrying is like a rocking chair – it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere,'" James quoted.

Lily gave a small smile. "Where'd you hear that?"

"My mum used to say that to my dad whenever he went to worrying about things."

"It's funny how you remember little things like that." She looked up at the nearly-full moon, still worrying about the dangers she knew would come. She was as helpless in the matter as a child going to the doctor – not knowing what would come and scared to death that it would hurt.

"I wouldn't ever do anything that would take me away from you, Lily. I love you. And 'when you've seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.'"

"Well, you're just stock full of those old quotes tonight. How am I to know anything is your own?" Lily asked.

"'People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.'"

Now she laughed out loud. "And since when have you heard of Benjamin Franklin?"

"Don't tell me you didn't know he was a wizard!"

"Of course I did," said Lily, half-certain.

James gasped dramatically. "Oh no! It can't be! Was the all-knowing Lily Evans… wrong!"

"Shut up, James. I knew that. I knew it, and you know I knew it! I was merely seeing if you knew it."

"Come on, Lils, admit it. Admit it just this once! Admit you were wrong."

"I admit to nothing."

"Come on, Lily… you know you want to. Do it! Just do it!" James taunted, dancing about her slightly.

"I won't! I won't do it!" Lily crossed her arms across her chest, closed her eyes, and turned her nose in the air.

"Keep on like that, and a good rain will drown you," James teased. Lily's chin snapped down, and she glared at him.

"I was not wrong," she stated simply.

"Of course you weren't."

"I wasn't!" she said, now frantic.

"I know you weren't."

"James."

"Yes?"

"Don't lie to me."

"I wasn't lying!" James burst, half laughing.

"Yes, you were! You don't believe me!"

"Of course I do, Lils! Why wouldn't I? It's not like you were really wrong or anything, right?" She glared, and he laughed.

Her face softened. "You know I only worry about people I love, right? And I worry about you more than anyone."

"I know, babe, I know," he said softly. He kissed her forehead gently. "Come on, let's go back to the common room. There's no one else out here. It's almost 11:30 anyway. Here, I'll race you!"

Lily's glare slowly turned to a grin, and she said, "Okay." And without another word, she took off down the stairs.

"Hey!" shouted James, as he tore after her.

He quickly over took her, seeing how his quidditch-fit body could endure a much longer sprint that her library-fit one. Her breathing quickly became heavy, and her heart started pounding in her ears.

She tried to keep up, but when they reached the fourth floor, she had to stop.

"James!" she gasped. "We've got to stop."

He skidded to a stop and almost crashed into a suit of armor, which quickly and creakily jumped out of the way. "Sorry, Lils. Why didn't you say something?"

"I tried." Her hand flew to her head, as the hall began to spin.

"Lils? Lils, are you alright?" She began to sway, and James's voice began to fade in and out. "Lils! Can you hear me? Lils!"

She knew his voice must've been getting louder, but it continued to fade. Eventually his face began to fade as well, until both were nothing. The world was black, and she felt her knees give way.

Author's Note: Well, that's chapter 2. Thanks so much to Julia Holtemore for beta-ing it! I'm not sure where all of the quotes come from, except the one about obsessive love. You should know where it came from. ;) Thanks to DanCrazed and silvirtaj5 for my first reviews. I went back and edited the first chapter (again!). Nothing too major, but it wouldn't hurt to check for minor changes. This should be a fairly short fic – no more than 5 or 6 chapters. Again, all reviews are appreciated. Next chapter should be up in about a week.

-inky.