Of Secrets and Stags

"I'm going to miss you, Alice," Lily said as she threw her arms around the neck of her best friend.

"Oh, I'll miss you too, Lily. Now, remember—I want that peace treaty to still be in effect when I come back," Alice said with a serious look in her eyes, obviously not joking in any shape or form.

"Why are you so keen on the peace treaty staying in place? Do you want to get closer to them or something?" Lily asked with a laugh, taking the serious tone of her voice as a joke anyways.

"No. I just want to stay friends, okay? We need to stay in alliance if we're going to be able to effectively fight for our side," Alice said with a soft smile, reminding Lily that things were not what they seemed to be at Hogwarts. 'Besides, I want to see James and Lily going out by the time I get back…' Alice added to herself.

"All students who are leaving for the holidays, board the train!" Slughorn called out as the caretaker and the gamekeeper both prepared the carriages for the students.

"I've got to go now, Lily. Have fun!" Alice called as she jogged off towards Frank.

"I will! Have fun with Frank!" Lily called back to her, holding back any jokes she could have possibly made at that moment.

----

Lily groaned as the light from the sun disturbed her sleep. She sat up and glared at the curtains, wishing Alice didn't have to put the charm on them to make them automatically open at eight every morning. And, unfortunately for Lily, only Alice knew how to take off the charm. The only result of Lily's efforts was that the curtain now had a singe mark on the bottom right corner. She sighed, got up, and walked to her wardrobe. She put on a pair of jeans and a regular dark-green shirt before tying her hair up in a high ponytail.

She looked into the Common Room to see if anyone else was around, before sighing and setting off for breakfast. The boys had most likely already left, so Lily quickly descended the stairs and headed for the door.

"What, you think the Marauders would leave without an escort?" came the cool voice of James from beside the Girl's Dormitory stairs.

Lily jumped and turned around, surprised that he had been beside the stairs. "I don't need an escort," Lily huffed before heading to the Portrait.

"Okay. Then let me try this. Would you mind terribly if you did me the honor of escorting me to the Great Hall for breakfast?" James asked, bowing lightly.

Lily couldn't help but laugh at his antics, though she couldn't help but think that, if he had done that just a month ago, she would have hexed them. "Well, I do suppose I can fit you into my busy schedule," Lily said in a mock-arrogant voice before offering her arm.

----

"They are flirting like crazy," Sirius whispered to Remus, who he was sitting next to as James and Lily slowly walked into the Great Hall, chatting as if they had known each other their entire lives.

"Yeah, but… James probably won't ask her out again… I think he's afraid of ruining what he already has," Remus whispered back.

"But he can probably get so much more, if you'll excuse how wrong that sounds," Sirius said back.

Remus nodded and thought for a moment. "You know… We can probably get those two together…" Remus said with a strange glint in his eyes.

"Remmy, you're a genius!" Sirius cried out before hugging his neck.

Remus blushed and stuttered, "W-well, yeah…"

James and Lily sat across from them, sitting side-by-side. Surprisingly, Lily didn't skip a seat or pretend like she didn't know them. She grabbed her plate and began to pile it with bacon, eggs and toast. Remus and Sirius stared at her as she piled it on, and she looked back up at them. "What?" she asked innocently.

"We've just… now noticed that you eat a lot in the mornings…" Sirius said.

Lily blushed and said, "Well, it is the most important meal of the day…"

"That's okay. I'm even worse in the morning," James said immediately, piling even more food on his plate then Lily did.

Remus held back a chuckle as James put way more on his plate then he normally did. Under the table, Sirius nudged Remus and Remus smirked, making sure that both Lily's and James' gazes were on their food and not on them. "C'mon, Padfoot. We need to work on Potions if you're going to make a passing N.E.W.T.!" Remus exclaimed before grabbing Sirius' hand and leading him towards the Library.

"They're plotting," James said simply in between bites of egg.

"How can you tell?" Lily asked with a laugh.

"Because, when Remus has an idea, he always leads Sirius to the Library like that. When Sirius has an idea, he nudges his partner in crime, usually me or Remus, under the table and motions outside their current room or somewhere else with his head," James said with a sigh.

"What could they be plotting?" Lily asked thoughtfully as she bit into her toast.

"Probably something evil during Christmas," James said with a shrug. "But what scares me is that they didn't invite me along."

Lily paused and thought about it for a minute. "Now that you say that, that is scary…"

----

Having not been able to find Sirius or Remus in the Common Room or in the Library, Lily and James were left to wander the school grounds alone together. Lily walked about half a foot away from James before suddenly bending down and quickly forging a snowball. She hurled it at him and hit him in the middle of his back, making him jump and turn to face her.

"You're making a mistake, Lily…" James said with a smirk before she grabbed a handful of snowball and flinging it at her. The snowball fell apart in midair, causing only a small bit of snow to land on Lily's head.

"What, you've only snowball-fought with magic?" Lily asked, giggling like crazy when she noticed how flabbergasted he seemed that his snowball fell apart.

"Yeah…" James said with a laugh.

"Watch," Lily commanded before scooping up a handful of snow and packing it into a tight ball before throwing it at James. James ducked before it could hit his chest, caught it and flung it back. However, it missed (he flung it quickly so his accuracy was off) and Lily caught it, throwing it back quickly. They began hurling the snowball at each other, until it disintegrated in James' hand.

"Are we interrupting?" Remus asked as he and Sirius sauntered towards the pair.

"Yes. You're interrupting a magicless snowball fight," James said with a nod.

"Okay, then we'll just…" Sirius began before he dropped to the ground, quickly made a snowball, and threw it at James, hitting him on the face.

"Padfoot?" James began as he wiped the snow off from his face.

"Yes?" Sirius asked innocently.

"I hope you realize that this means war, my dear mutt," James said before he crouched down and began to make snowballs.

"Stupid Gryffindors. Do you really spend your free time doing something so… childish?" Snape asked as he strolled towards them, a horrible, malicious smirk on his face.

"What do you want, Snape?" James asked, glaring at him with a look of intense loathing.

"Why, do I have to have a reason to call upon my favorite Gryffindors?" Snape inquired, acting as if they were old friends.

"Yes. State your purpose, now," Sirius said, crossing his arms over his chest and standing to one side.

"Ugh, you like a complete pouf like that. Next thing you know, you'll be shagging Lupin senseless," Snape said, rolling his eyes and pretending to gag.

"C'mon, let's go to the Common Room," Lily ushered, grabbing James' arm, trying to pull him along.

James looked back at Snape before nodding and following Lily's lead. "Ha! I knew it! You and that Mudblood are going out! You're completely whipped, Potter!" Snape called back, trying to get a reaction from James.

----

"What happened between you two, anyways?" Lily asked as she took a small sip from her steaming cup of hot chocolate.

"Well… Basically, we got into a fight in our 3rd Year, we made a bet about a duel, I won, and he's been targeting us ever since," James said with a shrug.

"Mudblood!"Snape called at the young Lily Evans as he walked out of the compartment, refusing to sit with "trash".

After he slammed the compartment door shut, James said coolly to him, "You really shouldn't call people things like that, especially when they're better than you."

"What, do you like her or something, Potter?" Snape asked with a smirk.

James shrugged. "I don't know her that well."

"I see. You don't have to know her to like her, though," Snape said with a smirk, causing James to automatically blush. "You think I haven't noticed you staring at her? What's so vexing, so intriguing about a little Mudblood wrench?"

"She just is. You don't have the compassion nor the humanity to be able to understand something like that, anyways," James said with a smirk, making sure that he didn't lose the verbal battle just because of something Snape had found out.

"I hope you know that it'll never go anywhere," Snape said with a cruel smirk before turning around and beginning to walk off.

"Wait! I'll make a deal with you!" James cried out without thinking.

"Oh? And what, pray tell, would this deal be?" Snape said with a smirk.

"We'll duel this Saturday night. If I win, you have to keep quiet about my feelings for Lily. If you win, I'll tell her—no, the entire school—my feelings for her. Deal?" James asked, hoping Snape would take the bet.

"Deal," Snape said before continuing to walk, not even bothering to turn and face James.

"Oh. That explains it… I guess. What was the bet?" Lily asked curiously.

"I'd rather not say," James said with a small smile.

"… Okay," Lily said, understanding it was something James didn't want to talk about. "So, what do you want to be when you graduate?" Lily asked, effectively changing the subject to something harmless.

----

"They are still constantly flirting, and spending a lot of time together," Remus mused before using his rook to take Sirius' bishop.

"They're practically together as it is," Sirius said with a nod as he thought about his next move. He then moved his queen to take Remus' remaining rook, and added, "Checkmate."

"Yeah, it's just a matter of pushing them onto the next step. If we can't do it alone, we can get Alice to help. She seems like she wants Lily to get a boyfriend," Remus said with a nod before taking Sirius' queen with his bishop.

"Ahh! How did I not notice that?" Sirius cried out, surprised that he had just lost his queen.

"You were too preoccupied with my king," Remus said with a shrug.

"I was preoccupied with myself? That makes no sense…" Sirius said with a laugh, effectively causing Remus to blush.

"So then, how did I take myself?" Remus asked with a laugh after he got over Sirius' comment.

----

"Is it just me, or are those two flirting?" Lily asked James.

"… It's just you," James said reluctantly, not sure if they'd want Lily knowing their secret.

"Oh. Darn. They'd make a cute couple…" Lily mused as she sipped her hot chocolate.

A/N: Teehee, now Sirius and Remus are into getting them officially together. And Lily and James are spending a lot of time together, but just as friends (for now, lolol). This will be the last update before Sunday, maybe Monday, since I'll be going on a camping trip this weekend with my family and my dad's girlfriend's family. Review, please, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!