Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. All characters belong to a woman with a great imagination and determination, capable of creating this world that is the center of so many stories.

Sins of Angels: Thanks to reviewers! I regret that I don't have time to comment on each one individually unless you bluntly ask me a question. Sorry. You guys are the best! Anyway, just to clear something up, sentences in italics are thoughts of a character, and should be pretty easy to figure out which character they belong to. Please let me know if you are confused, I'll try to format it differently. And please review and let me know if you like it or hate it or what I can improve on. Greatly appreciated, and it makes me happy! Enjoy.

Chapter 2 – Confusing Confessions

"Lily!" Remus called as she left the Prefects' carriage. She turned around and smiled at him.

"Hello Remus. How was your summer?"

He caught up to her and walked along, shrugging. "Well, I really can't complain, I suppose. Nothing bad happened and nothing great was kept from happening. All in all, a good summer, I thought."

Lily nodded. She smiled at him again, to which he just averted his eyes and grinned. He'd taken to doing that sometimes when they had to patrol the halls together.

"You look really pretty," he said quietly. She blushed.

"Thank you," she responded. She wanted to say something nice back, but she couldn't put it into words. He'd always been attractive, no doubt about that. Both physically and intellectually. Spending so much time with him last year had rubbed off on her. She liked talking to him now, loved to discuss magical theories as well as Muggle sciences, something he found extremely interesting, like her. He looked at her again, a definite pink tint to his cheeks. Lily suddenly felt hers burning, felt the embarrassment that came with her lack of response.

"Not that you don't usually look pretty," he said hurriedly, turning redder. "I mean, you always look pretty and all but today there's something different and you look pretty again but in a different way," he rambled on, blurring the sentences. His face was getting redder by the minute. "And you looked pretty last year too, and before that, come to think of it, every year I've known you. Um, Lily, sorry if I'm, you know, out of line or anything."

Lily stared at him, her cheeks turning a brilliant strawberry red. "You're not," she said quietly. Remus smiled at her.

"It's just, I've gotten to know you, you know? I see what an amazing person you are, and smart, beautiful, I understand why James has always liked you, why he keeps trying."

Lily blushed again. Remus smiled and looked ahead.

"Merlin, I wish I wasn't such a coward," he said simply, still looking at the hallway. "I just wish I could bring myself to do it. There's nothing I'd like more than to be able to ask you out, Lily Evans."

Lily's heart jumped to her throat. "What?" she said, taken aback. "I mean," she added, blushing, "why can't you?"

Remus looked at her, astonished. "Why? Lily, my best friend is head-over-heels, in way over his head! And I don't blame him one bit. At all. You're an amazing woman, Lily Evans. And James has known this for so long, tried for so long, I…I can't take that away from him. You deserve each other, and I mean this in a nice way. You deserve someone better than me, someone who really loves you, Lily. James is that person. It might not be as obvious to you as it is to me, but he really cares for you."

Lily just stared, taking it in, but not wanting to hear it. Once again, James Potter has gotten in the way of her having a boyfriend, of her being in any relationship other than with him.

"You make him so nervous, it's rather amusing. He's never as shaken by anyone as he is by you. For how smart you are, Lily, you seem so blind to everything he does."

"Blind to everything he does?" Lily said, regaining her voice. "Remus, he's always so annoying, so arrogant around me. I'm not blind to what he does at all. And worse still, he has every boy scared of asking me out!"

Remus laughed. "You think I'm scared, Lily? Well, you're part right. I'm terrified. But not of James, oh no. I'm terrified that I'll grow to like you even more, begin to love you. Because, Lily, we will never last. It's only a matter of time before you realize just how much you and James need each other. Perhaps the only person who refuses to see it more than you do is Sirius. Lily, you really are too great a friend for me to do that to you."

Lily sighed. So that's how it will be. "For the record, I would have said yes."

Remus turned to her, staring in amazement. "You never cease to surprise me, Lily. May I ask why?"

"Why not, Remus? We both love the same things, hate the same things. We'd be perfect. Don't tell me that hasn't crossed your mind."

Remus nodded slowly and let out a sigh. "Lily, you don't know how much I want to ask you out," he said sadly. He turned to her. "I won't, though. I can't. I don't want to let my two best friends down."

He stopped in front of their compartment before Lily could see who had invaded it. He smiled sadly again.

"I love you, Lily Evans. Know that, would you. I never want to lose you as a friend, and I regret we couldn't have a shot at something more. It just isn't meant to be." He leaned down and kissed her forehead softly. Then he walked in and left her there, confused, baffled, and thinking. What on Earth had just happened between them?

Whatever it was, lily snapped out of it as James opened the door and looked straight at her, beaming.

"Evans!" he said joyfully. She looked at him, confused, still replaying the last conversation in her head. What had he meant?

He called me beautiful and smart.

"So, what brings you here?"

He said he wished he could ask me out. But nothing is really stopping him, is it? Other than that silly notion of his.

"Evans, I'll give you one more chance."

I don't need Potter. I can't possibly talk to him without him saying something positively ridiculous every minute. I can talk to Remus. He understands.

"I'm offering one last time. Do you want to go out with me?"

He gave me a kiss, too. It was gentle and on the forehead, not like the ones Potter always wants to give me. But, then again, Remus always has been caring and considerate.

"Don't say anything for five seconds and I'll be kind enough to take it as a yes."

He said he loved me. Lily's head snapped up to the grinning James, who was counting. "No," she said coldly and walked in past him. He turned to stare at her as she came to stand in front of Remus, who got up.

"Lily," he started. James suddenly felt a pang of jealousy. Why was he allowed to call her Lily? Why couldn't he ever utter those four letters, her tender and beautiful name, in public without receiving stares? Remus was just as obnoxious as he was, when he wanted to be. But he knows when to stop.

Remus was level with her. She smiled as he said her name and suddenly gave him a kiss on the cheek. Remus blushed deeply and James's jaw dropped as lily turned and picked up her books, walking right past him without so much as a second glance. Remus turned to James, his dazed look fading in light of his best friend's fury. James turned around promptly and shut the door before Remus began to speak. He looked at the end of the hallway just as a head of red hair disappeared into the next cart. Without any thought as to what he'd do, he tore after it.