Disclaimer: NO! How many times do I have to say this?

Chapter Title: Clue

'This is going to be so much fun!' Lily squealed, her face alight like a kid in a candy store. James smiled, not daring to interrupt her happy moment, partially for fear of being yelled at.

Soon, since the Hospital Wing was silent, angry sounds could be heard from a distance, getting gradually louder.

'What is that sound?' Lily asked.

'I'm not sure. It sounds like Sirius though…I don't know who the other person is.' Lily rolled her eyes at James. 'What? It could be anybody in the school! It could be…' he trailed off, comprehension dawning on his face. 'Oohh…' His eyes darted to the door just in time to see Remus walk through the doors, a pained expression on his face. The reason became evident when a bickering Sirius and Anna walked through the doors, biting each other's heads off for an unknown reason. Lily smirked. Although her best friend was usually quiet and introverted, when someone got her worked up she had quite a temper.

'Anna!' Lily yelled, gaining the attention of the two fighting teens. Lily laughed; the scene looked like someone had pressed the 'pause' button on their remote control. 'You guys are lucky Madam Pomfrey is out,' Lily said, beckoning them over to her bed. 'She would have kicked you out.'

Anna sat on the edge of Lily's bed, still glaring daggers at Sirius, who was breathing heavier than usual.

James looked between Anna and Sirius as if he was watching a tennis match, deciding that he wasn't going to ask what they were fighting about. He didn't want an argument that wasn't even between them to ruin the evening with Lily.

Lily looked around the room. 'Where's Peter?' Lily said, voicing her thoughts.

'He couldn't make it. Too much homework,' Remus replied with a slight smile.

'Oh, ok,' Lily said, unfazed. 'Do I really need to explain the rules? Who hasn't played Clue before?'

Sirius and James rose their hands. Lily nodded. She thought Remus would have played Clue as a child. 'Alright then, the rules are simple, boys. You get distributed cards, with three cards going in the middle of the table,' Lily pointed to the envelope that would hold the answer cards. 'The object of the game is to guess who committed the crime, with what object, and in what room. The answer is the cards that go in the middle of the table. You mark off the suspects, possible murder weapons, and possible crime scenes that you were given at the beginning, and you go room-to-room guessing different possibilities. Got it?'

'Yeah,' said James, nodding his head in synch with Sirius.

'Good,' Lily said, smiling widely. 'Ann? Can you help me set up?'

Lily distributed the cards, putting the required cards in the middle of the table without looking at them. She also got out the marking sheets, and unfolded the actual board. Meanwhile, Anna stood all of the characters up on their holders, putting them all in the middle for the teens to take their characters.

Sirius quickly scanned the characters, quickly claiming the 'HOT MISS SCARLET!' Everyone chuckled at this, each of them picking out their own characters. Lily chose her favourite character, Professor Plum; James chose Colonel Mustard, the name reminding him of food; Remus chose to play as Mr. Green, Anna choosing last: Mrs. White.

'Alright,' said Lily, extracting the dice from the box, 'we roll to see who goes first. Highest number is first, then we go clockwise around the table.'

Lily held the dice in her palm, rolling them a little before letting them go: an eight. 'Not bad.'

James rolled next, mimicking Lily's movements: a two. 'Damn,' he whispered.

Remus laughed, taking the dice from his friend. He rolled the dice in his palm, blowing on them before dropping them on the board. Remus' result was a ten; Remus just smiled, passing the dice to Sirius.

'What am I supposed to do with these?' he asked, clearly not paying attention. 'Just let them go, like this?' Sirius just let the dice fall from his hand: a twelve.

'How did you do that?' asked James, irritated. 'I used the perfect rolling tactic, rolling them in my hand, gently letting them roll –'

'No you didn't, you just copied me!' Lily retorted, though the corners of her lips were threatening to turn upwards.

'Yeah, but you got a high number!'

'James,' Lily said patiently, 'rolling dice is all luck. There is no strategy to get high numbers. That's why gambling is gambling. It's mostly luck.'

'Gambling?'

'Muggle thing, nevermind.'

'Well, if you guys are done having your little marriage spat, can I roll now?' Anna asked, amused.

Lily and James turned to look at the speaker, looking as if they just realized they weren't the only people in the room. To Lily's surprise, James' cheeks turned a faint pink. Lily looked away, feeling the blood rising to her own face.

Anna smiled knowingly at her friend as she rolled the dice. 'A four?' Anna screamed. 'Oh come on!'

'Ann! Look at the bright side, you didn't the roll lowest number!' Lily laughed, glancing significantly at James.

'Hey!' James said after a few moments, finally cottoning on. 'It is not my fault I rolled a low number!'

'Than who's fault is it?'

'Yours!'

'Mine? Why mine? You're the one who rolled the dice!'

'But you're the one I copied the technique from!'

'Then you shouldn't have copied my 'technique', should you have?'

'Guys! Guys! Break it up! Save it 'til you get married!'

Lily went, if possible, even redder, but if you really looked the corners of her lips turned upwards in the smallest way.

'Now, can we start playing the game?' Anna asked. Everyone nodded. 'Excellent. Has everyone crossed off the cards on their sheets?'

There was a frantic flurry of quills, cards, and ink as the room's inhabitants marked what cards they were distributed. In a few moments murmurs of 'Yeah' and 'All done' filled the silence.

'Ok, so I go first!' Sirius shouted. 'Shain, the dice?'

'Oh, yes sir, anything else?' Anna asked sarcastically, handing over the dice.

'Yeah. You. Me. Closet. Tonight,' Sirius answered, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Lily and Anna caught each other's sight before Anna punched Sirius on the arm.

'Ow!' Sirius screamed. 'That hurt!'

'Well, that was the general idea.'

'Oh, so now you're going to be smart with me?'

'Yeah, I thought I'd take that route.'

'Guys! Guys! Break it up! Save it 'til you're married!' Lily shouted, mimicking Anna. Anna looked over at her best friend and the girls erupted in giggles.

Sirius and James turned to look at each other, turned to Remus, and turned back to each other, bewildered expressions plastered on their faces. They took one last look at the startled Remus before focusing their attention on the crazed, female teens that now had tears streaming out of their eyes they were laughing so hard.

After a minute of the sharing of panicky looks between the Marauders and an insane fit of giggles from the girls, the game was finally ready to start. 'Big money, big money, big money, big money –'

'Sirius,' Remus interrupted, 'as proud of you as I am that you pay attention in Muggle Studies more that some,' Remus threw a significant glare at James, 'it's not gambling, it's Clue. You're not going to win money.'

'I know, but it's still fun to say.' Sirius grinned cheekily, throwing the dice whole-heartedly onto the table. 'Another twelve,' he said, satisfied, and moved his 'Miss Scarlet' figure to the closest room: the Library.

'Urgh, the library. Don't worry, sexy, I'll get you out of there in a jiffy,' Sirius said, winking at the piece of cardboard. 'Ok,' he continued, ignoring the looks the others were giving him, 'I guess that…Colonel Mustard was the killer, with the…knife, in the…library. Yeah, the library. People would want to kill themselves after staying in there for too long, anyways.' Remus and Lily glared at Sirius. If looks could kill, thought Sirius. 'Can anyone stop me?'

'I can,' Anna said, discreetly showing Sirius her card marked 'Knife'.

'Alright,' said Sirius, marked off the ruled out murder weapon.

'My turn!' exclaimed Anna, grabbing the dice from Sirius. 'Ten!' Anna cried. 'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Ok, I'm in the Ball Room, so I guess I have to guess that room, right, Lils?' Lily nodded affirmatively. 'Ok, so…I guess Mrs. Peacock used the revolver in the Ball Room. Anyone?'

'Nope,' Lily said, shaking her head.

'Nope,' James said, looking down at his cards again.

'Remus?'

'Yeah,' the wolf answered. 'Come here.'

Anna slid off the bed, walking to the other side to see which card Remus could stop her with. Anna leaned over his shoulder, glancing down at the card that he was holding face down. Remus shivered as he felt Anna's breath on the back of his neck.

'Here,' he chocked out, showing the pretty brunette his card labeled 'Ball Room'.

'Cool,' Anna said, walking back to her seat. Remus let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding in, as Anna ticked off the name of the room Remus had shown her.

Lily turned to her best friend. 'The dice, if you please, Miss Anna?'

'Most certainly, Miss Lily,' Anna answered, handing the dice over. The friends laughed at their formality.

'All right, high number!' Lily whispered, blowing on the dice before letting them go. James wondered how Lily could make something so trivial as rolling dice seem so angelic and elegant. Lily cry of 'Yes, eleven!' shook James unceremoniously from his thoughts as the beautiful redhead moved the figure of Professor Plum eleven spaces, entering the Hall.

'Ok, I guess that…Miss Scarlet was the murderer ('Hey!' Sirius said indignantly 'The hot chicks are never the murderers!'), and she used the…poison, in the Hall.'

Lily looked expectantly at James, asking him silently if he could stop her. James motioned her over, and she crawled over to the other side of her bed. Lily sat cross-legged beside James, not wanting anyone else to see the card he was about to show her.

Lily's breathing hitched in her throat, suddenly very aware of how close she was to James. Lily was so close to James that she could feel his breath, gently tickling her cheek; Lily shivered. She could smell his intoxicating aroma, almost lose herself in the smell of trees, grass, and fresh air…

Lily felt an upsurge of emotions, being so close in proximity to James: peace, security, and passion. Lily's eyes widened as she realized exactly what she was feeling, her cheeks burning as red as her hair.

After what felt like an eternity, James flipped over his card, revealing the room marked 'Hall'. Lily glanced down at the card before hurrying back to her previous position. Lily picked up her quill, ticking off the newfound piece of information.

What is wrong with me? Lily thought, vaguely aware of James rolling the dice. I cannot be feeling this. This is Potter we're talking about. He's an arrogant, cocky, big-headed playboy that will just dump me after he's had a good snog…

Lily realized that she couldn't let James know about her feelings, or he would never relent – not that he probably would anyways.

'Lily,' Anna said, bringing Lily back from her thoughts.

'Yeah?'

'Your turn.'

'Oh, ok,' Lily said, taking the dice from her best friend. Anna was eyeing Lily, making a mental note to visit her friend the next day.

The game wore on, the teens had a few laughs, mostly at Sirius, and Lily tried her best not to come into close contact with James again. Lily was completely relieved when James glanced at his watch and stood up, heading towards the door.

'Oi, Prongs, where're you going?'

'It's Thursday, Padfoot, I have to patrol tonight,' James answered, with the briefest of looks at Lily. 'You coming, Moony?'

'Yeah,' Remus answered, getting up from his position.

'Why are you patrolling, Remus?'

'I'm filling in for you, since you can't go,' the wolf responded.

'Oh,' Lily answered, looking guilty.

Remus must have noticed, because he said, 'Don't worry, Lily. It isn't your fault. And I'm already done my homework, anyway,' he added with a smile at the Head Girl.

'Alright ladies, as much as I would like to stay and chat, I must be getting back to my dorm, I need my beauty sleep,' Sirius answered, smiling at no one in particular.

The girls rolled their eyes as the Marauder left. Anna turned back to Lily, a suspicious look on her face. 'All right Lils…what is up with you and James?'

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait! Please don't kill me! I've been working on another story, so that might be up soon too.

On a note that doesn't concern my death :cough cough: I'll be responding to reviews in PMs now. iluvsinging333 informed me that I can't respond to reviews in A/Ns. Thanks for the heads up! I really don't want my story to be taken down. That would be terrible.

Anyways, I'll try and work extra hard on the next chapter. I've been having a little writers block though so no guarantees. I hope you guys enjoyed the game! Review and let me know? ;)

Niamara