Disclaimer: I don't own Eragon….Err, wait, this is Harry Potter, isn't it? My bad, guys. I'm a but confuzzled…again that's a JK Rowling copyright phrase.

"So, what did you want to challenge me to, Maya?" Sirius asked her as they walked hand in hand to the common room. Sirius was hoping that it would be deserted, for the onlookers' sake, if not his.

Amaya smiled. "What was that you called me?" She asked, looking at him with a strange spark in her eye.

He stopped and pulled her towards him and they ended up pinned to the wall. "I called you Maya. My little Maya." He said, kissing her gently on the lips. "Why, don't you like it?" He asked, pulling back.

She smiled, a little disappointed that he pulled away. "Yes, actually. I do like it. But only you can call me that. If anyone else does, I'll murder 'em." She said, humorously.

He smiled. " Aww. My little spirited one. I like that." He said, kissing her again. This time their kiss was interrupted by Remus coming up the hall.

"And what, might I ask, is going on here? Don't you know that there's no…mingling…in the halls?" Remus said, frowning, in a good way, at his cousin. Deep down, he shuddered to think of what these two might accomplish if left alone.

Sirius separated himself from Amaya, dusting himself off. Amaya stood up straight and messed with her robes, trying to get the wrinkles out from where Sirius was pressed so closely to her. Their relationship was moving really fast, considering that she only started dating him a number of hours ago, but she would have it no other way. The feeling she gained from his kisses, from his touch, well, it was inexpressible. She only knew that she never wanted that feeling of pure elatedness to end.

"Why Remus, fancy seeing you here, 'ol buddy." Sirius said innocently, as if he weren't just in a compromising position with his best friends' cousin.

Remus smiled. "Oh, ha ha. You would never meet anyone in the corridor at all, would you?. Because everyone knows that it's the best place to be alone." He said sarcastically.

Amaya smiled. "Oh, Remy. Calm down. We were just on our way to the common room, you know that. We just got a little…sidetracked, that's all." She grabbed Sirius' hand for support.

Remus rolled his eyes.

Sirius patted him on the back as the three made their way, finally, towards the portrait hole. "Come on, Remy. You trust me, don't you?"

Remus snorted. "Oh, yeah. Just about as much as I would trust a fox in the chicken coup."

It was Amaya's turn to laugh. Remus had used an American expression that she knew Sirius wouldn't recognize.

"Thank you, chum. That means a lot to me." Sirius said, apparently ignorant to the tale.

"Yes, well, it is well earned." Remus said. "Tempus Fugit" He said to the fat lady's picture, causing it to swing forward.

When they entered, they were greeted by a nearly empty common room. Remus was glad that he hadn't let them come up here alone, after all. He would have to thank James later.

"Oh, and Sirius?" He said, flopping down onto one of the cushy armchairs.

"Hmmm?" Sirius said, absentmindedly stroking Amaya's hair. They were both sitting on the couch together.

"Don't call me Remy, if you know what's good for you."

Lily was alone, which was the usual thing lately. Something was wrong with James. She couldn't put her finger on it though. She knew it was something she did. She just didn't understand what, exactly, she had said or done wrong. She had snapped at him, as she always did. It had never had that effect before. No, something was different this time, and she was determined to figure out what.

As she rounded the corner of the Astronomy tower, she heard the sound of, well, people kissing. The sound of smacking lips and moans of pleasure were enough to make her sick normally. This time, however, she found a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. Sort of a lonely feeling, if she had to describe it. Suddenly, the room seemed to be spinning and she had the strange urge to sit down. She did so, at the foot of the stairs, and found her thoughts drawn bizarrely to none other than James Potter.

As she sat there in silence for a minute, it suddenly came to her. It was so clear, yet she wanted to deny it so much. It almost felt wrong to even think it. But the truth was inevitable, she told herself. There was nothing to do but admit it.

The reason something was different with James this time was that she, Lily Evans, actually cared.

Now, she wouldn't put herself so far out there as to say that she cared about James himself. No, that would be a little to much for her to grasp. After all, she had openly despised him for years, and the thought that she might have some sort of feelings for him was plain out anomalous.

But there was the off chance that, if he changed his attitude the slightest bit…No. She couldn't think about this right now. She had to finish her patrolling. She did decide, however, to try to at least make a ceasefire with James. You know, to get him to talk to her again.

Not that she cared, but she just didn't want him to suffer too much. He was only human, in any case.

"Fine. Jeez. You don't have to get so snappy." Sirius said to Remus.

Remus smiled. "On the contrary, mate, I am afraid that I do. You see, it is an insult to my manhood. What if I started calling you Siri all the time? How would that look?" He asked.

Amaya sat up. "That's it! I think I'll call you Siri! MY wittle Siri-poo." She said, patting him on the head.

Sirius was about to dispute the nickname before she patted him on the head. As she did that, however, he had a sense of de ja vu (I have no clue how to spell that, so bare with me here folks). She had done that once before, and Sirius had had an eerie feeling in his gut that she knew about him. That she knew about all of them and their secrets. But after talking to Remus, he knew that she couldn't possibly.

But he did, however, face the fact that if they were going to date, he would have to tell her eventually. He just didn't know if James or Remus, especially Remus, would be ready to share their secrets.

"James?" Lily said to the Head Boy as they entered their common room after patrolling. James was planning on going straight to bed, but he instinctively turned at the sound of Lily's voice.

"Yeah, Evans?" He asked, somewhat standoffishly.

Lily wringed her hands. "Um, I'm sorry. For everything." She spat, looking at her feet which suddenly were so appealing…

James rolled his eyes. "Yes, but do you even know what it is that you are sorry for? You can't apologize unless you do." he said, sitting down on the settee that was in the middle of the room in front of the fireplace and looking at her keenly. He had initially went along with this whole 'let's be mad at Lily' plan,( hoping that she would see the true him and fall for him, blah blah blah), because Amaya had suggested it, but the more he actually went through with it, he noticed that he sort of liked it too.
It made sense, after all. Maybe she would like him if she saw his true self. Remus and Sirius liked him, so he couldn't be that bad, could he?

Lily panicked. She had sort of hoped that he would take the kind of 'dense guy' way out. You know, not ask what she was apologizing for, and then just accept it readily and get on with other business. James, it seemed, was not so dense or careless. Which added another surprise to her list of things she didn't know about James Potter. It seemed that there were quite a few things that she had made false presumptions on. "Well, I…uh….You know, for being a git earlier. It was wrong of me to jump all over you when you tried to defend me. Sorry." She said, hoping that she was right about the reason that he was mad.

James sighed. "Oh, Lils. Why are you so clueless? I thought the Head Girl was supposed to be clever. So why is it that everyone knows it but you?" He said, simply. Getting up, he walked slowly over to the door leading into his bed chambers and made to open it.

The color rose to Lily's face quickly for she had heard the insult hidden amongst his words. She was furious. "Wait a minute!" James stopped. "How do you get off, calling me stupid! Especially after I took my time and tried to apologize to you? And what, pray tell, does everyone else know but me, hmm?" She said, putting her hand on her hip and waiting fretfully for an answer.

James frowned as he took his hand off of his doorknob. He turned around and looked her dead in the eye. After a minute or two of silent debate, he finally made up his mind. Before Lily could do anything to stop him, and before he could stop himself, James walked right over to her, grabbed her head in his hands, and kissed her firmly on the lips. "That." He said, releasing her head. "I love you, Lily Evans. I have since the first time that I laid eyes on you at Kings Cross before our first year. Every dumb thing that I have done, every lame thing that I have said since then has been for you. I only wanted to look good, for you. Nothing else has mattered. But since you clearly despise me and the ground that I walk on, I will let you be. You have your wish at last. I give up." He said, turning on his heel and leaving a very stunned Lily Evans in his wake, staring at him dumbstruck.

"You did what!" Remus yelled at James as he told his friends what had happened the previous night with Lily.

"I kissed her, Moony. And I told her that I loved her." James said, almost mechanically, all the while staring into the fire with grave intensity.

"Yes, I gathered that much. That's not what I meant. I meant the part about you giving up on her. How could you do that?" Remus asked as he stared at James incredulously.

"Well, after I talked to Amaya the other day, I decided that if Lily couldn't like me for me, then there was no reason for me to waste her time and my energy."

"Wait a second. You listened to Amaya? And she told you that?" Remus asked. James nodded. Remus looked at his cousin.

"You told him to give up on her?" He said, furious. Clearly he liked the idea of James getting together with Lily.

Amaya looked at him defensively. "I told him no such thing, Remus. How dare you accuse me of it."

"Ok. What exactly did you tell him to do, then?" He asked, this time a little calmer. He sat down on the couch beside of Sirius, who was working on his homework that he didn't finish for his Charms class.

"All I told him was that he needed to be himself and to stop trying so hard to impress her, that's all. I said nothing about him giving up on her." She said, looking at James. "Clearly he misunderstood me. I'm sorry James."

James smiled at her. "It's alright. I should actually be thanking you. You helped me realize that I could be concentrating on other things besides her. That there is a life outside of Lily." He hopped up from the couch. "Well," He said, smiling, "I am going for a fly. Any one want to come?"

Amaya and Sirius nodded, although both were concerned for James. Remus declined and said that he needed to go to the library and look up something.

Placing his unfinished homework on a desk, Sirius got up, grabbed Amaya's hand, and they both followed James out to the Quidditch pitch.