AN - Sorry for the long wait, but with the nasty quality of what had been previously written as Chapter 2, you should be thankful that I didn't put anything out until now. Thanks to all who reviewed - once I get a hold of the new ways, I shall write back immediately!

For now, Enjoy and please, R&R

Chapter3 - Unexpected, Uninvited

It hit him harder than he expected.

Sure he had considered the consequences of announcing his conciliation, of sorts, with longtime crush to the entire school, but never had he given it so much thought as to come to the conclusion of what actually happened. It unnerved him, actually, just how wrong he had been with his expectations.

And he really figured he had considered it all: the entire school riling up against them, all the girls convinced he was only going out with her for his own advantages, or that he was only using her. Likewise, he had considered the boys of the school completely turning his back on him, as dating the Head Girl, the Evans that had basically not given up the fight to expel him, was almost blasphemy. Oh yes, Potter had thought of it all, all except this, which is why he had been so surprised to see that, well, nothing happened.

So James had been a little worried about the official announcement of his 'togetherness' with Lily for nothing, but apparently, she had been twice as anxious…or anticipatory. Either way, the ease with which her (Gryffindor) friends meshed with his friends was more than enjoyable. In fact, James was truly relieved at the easygoing conversations they would have late at night (during the weekends, of course), all hogging the couches nearest the fireplace, poking fun at each others' pajamas. The entire first month went by blissfully, without a single hitch.

"I can't believe you actually thought a war would ensue! Honestly, James, you've really gotta get a hold of your imagination!" Lily smiled at him, leaning against his outstretched arm on the loveseat in the common room. Saturday nights, after everyone left to their dormitories, were designated Lily and James' alone time. After two weeks of constantly being surrounded by their friends, James had felt like whatever he and Lily had was not quite what he wanted from it, and he had been beyond thankful that she had brought it up and felt the same. And so, in order to not offend or neglect their friends (because face it, it's the most awful feeling when your friend gets a boy/girlfriend and ditches the rest of her/his friends), they reserved a time for only them. Usually, they used this time to talk about smaller things of lesser importance, such as how Heads duties was going and how his mother was lately, but occasionally, they would talk about serious things, like the almost-fight they had had during the first week of school. Sometimes, they didn't even say anything at all! But, then again, to James, it didn't really matter about the content of the dialogue, all that really mattered was that they both enjoyed their time.

The best part of it all was that no one really seemed to mind. Not really. And in any case, if they did, they would just have to swallow their complaints because James just did not feel like sacrificing this. Yes, he liked to play with fire, but not this kind…not Lily.

"At least I didn't think we'd break off before the end of the first week," he replied nonchalantly, as though when he had first she had said that, he hadn't been offended, when in reality, it had crushed his poor spirit to bits that Sirius had to force feed him that night in the dormitory.

"Well, you were avoiding me –"

"Only because you were avoiding me!" His voice broke. Damn.

Lily laughed, as always, resulting in a bright pinky glow on James' cheeks. "James, will you ever understand girls?"

James shook his head violently as he pulled a piece of fluff from Lily's hair. "Nope. And don't try to explain it to me. Somewhere between a girl's thoughts, the way she speaks them, or rather, expresses them since girls talk a lot but never really get around to what they really mean to say, and the way a guy's ear hears things, his brain processes the new information and then the little voice inside his head translates the electric whatevers to comprehensible guy speech, the meaning gets lost and distorted, so I've basically come to the conclusion that to try to understand any female would be vain."

"So you just smile and nod?"

"Nope, I just reflect whatever they do," he diverted his eyes to the dying fire.

"Well, that's nice to know. So that means if I'm mad at you, you'll get mad at me just because?" she handed him his wand.

"Well, no, I don't think I would," he lifted his arm and whispered the spell that revived the fire. "I think I'd ask Remus or Sirius first if I did anything wrong to their recollection, and if they say yes, then I apologize to you right away." She took the wand from his hand and laced her fingers in his in its place. "If they shrug and say "I dunno," then that means that I…not avoid you, but I try not to…I give you space for a few days, and I watch you. Once you give me the impression of being ready to talk, then I think I would send you something, like a note, via owl post or something like that." He glanced down at her, trying to pry from her eyes something that could resemble disappointment.

She burst out laughing. James' grunt-like chuckle said nothing of how embarrassed he felt at the moment.

"James!" she laughed uncontrollably, "you are the most weirdest most complicated guy in the world!" She tried to regain control of her voice, but he could obviously still feel her shoulders moving. Her silent laughter shook the entire couch!

"What would you have me do instead, then?" He really did hope that she had a straightforward answer to his seemingly simple question, but knew deep down inside that there was no simple answer. Girls, at least all of the ones he had dealt with, never had simple answers to a derivative of "What should I do?"

His question stopped her laughter, which was an added bonus, but on the downside, she sat there thinking quietly for a good minute. James was scared he would have to repeat the question, but figured that if she did not respond, it only meant that he should not go there.

"Exactly what you said," she sounded surprised. Heck, she even looked it. James was way past surprised. He had officially reached the "shock" level.

"Huh?" was his brain's only feedback.

"Well," Lily began, snuggling into his chest meanwhile wrapping his arm around her like a blanket. "Maybe not exactly like you said, like, perhaps it'd be better if you would do all of this in one day, but, other than that, that's pretty much what I like people to do." He concentrated on his breathing. Seriously, it is difficult to keep that under control while you are gasping on the inside.

"So then why did you say I was complicated?" He noticed her eyes were closed.

"Because you've already put so much thought into it." Silence. Breath. Silence. Breath. Crackle. Silence. Breath. That went on for a few minutes, before Lily mumbled something that sounded very much like, "We've only been together a month and already it seems you've considered every single thing that could happen and found a way out."

Well if people thought James was incapable of feeling boastful, at this very moment, just by the look on his face, they would be proven wrong and would beat themselves over the head with a toilet seat. It wasn't so much what she had said rather than how she had said it…almost as though she appreciated it.

"Lily?"

"Hmm."

"Are you falling asleep?"

"Hmm."

"Come, I'll bring you to the bottom of the staircase." Something tried to come out of her throat, but was muffled by her pressing her face against his shirt. "Come, Lily. You'll be warmer in your bed."

She rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms out then looked him square in the eye. "You know, for a Marauder, you're pretty strict with rules."

He stood, extending his hand out to help her. She accepted, having no choice but to, since she had difficulty keeping her eyes opened. "Only those set by you, Lily."

"What's that?"

"Nothing. Good night Lily." He kissed her on the forehead and led her by the small of her back up the first few stairs.

"G-ahhhhh-d N-iiiiiiiiight James," she yawned. James stood at the bottom of the stairs for many a minutes before he gathered up their belongings and headed up to his own dormitory.

As quietly as he could, James opened the door, tiptoed in, closed it, and tiptoed (really on the tips of his toes) to his bed where he placed the books on the ground and pulled the covers back. Just as he was snuggling in his blankets, he heard a whisper.

"Don't start, Sirius, just go back to bed." Not too long after, James fell into a cycle of dreams about Sirius turning into an alligator.

IIIIIIIIIIII

"Twice clockwise, Potter, CLOCKWISE!"

"I AM GOING CLOCKWISE!"

"NO, POTTER! THAT'S ANTICLOCKWISE!"

"YEAH, TO YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE STADING OPPOSITE ME!"

"Oh," the professor blushed a deep scarlet at the class' chuckles. "Very well then, continue the good work."

"Thank you," James growled as the idiot of a professor they had for advanced potions walked away to the next table. Once out of earshot, James started his rambling. "What is it with that guy? He's always after me like a leech waiting to find the next cut to suck on!"

Sirius shrugged, cutting the rosemary leave into squares and then sprinkling them in the coppery mixture. "Ask Lily."

"Why?" James asked, slightly offended that Sirius would use the same tone he said the word "Potions" for his girlfriend's name.

"Because she seems close to him," he sighed and grabbed James' book to look at the next ingredients.

"Oh." Very few words were spoken between that time and the end of class. Something told James' not too keen intuition that Sirius was mad, angered, or at least, bothered by him. But, this sort of thing always happened between the two. They were almost brothers, so it was only natural that, after a while, the smallest blink of an eye sent the other through the roof. That's what James told himself in order to convince his brain that whatever Sirius was bothered by was irrelevant to him and that if he wasn't coming out with it, then it was obviously not important.

But when Sirius stood and left the table when James sat down beside him during lunch, something went off in his head that said, no, this guy's really cheesed off.

"Why don't you go after him?" Remus. Always the voice of reason.

"It's not like he's my girlfriend."

"Interesting that you should say that."

"So this has something to do with Lily?" his jaw dropped to the table. His head ran away with his thoughts. Sirius, never one to be jealous of anything, was the last person on Earth James suspected would react this way to James' luck. They always supported each other, through the thick and the thin, and now, when everything was going so perfectly well, Sirius decided to hate Lily, the girl that was quickly becoming the meaning of his life without him actually realizing it, just because she was dating him! That was preposterous.

"Don't ask me. I'm just telling you that I think it'd be better-"

"Well don't. I don't need you, or anyone for that matter, telling me how to cooperate with my friends and Lily." He stood, face slightly flushed from the anger welling up inside him. How could his friends do this to him? "If you guys can't come to terms with the fact that I'm with Lily, then fine!"

Remus looked put out, almost disgusted at his attitude, but James didn't care. This behavior was completely and utterly uncalled for. "Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions, James."

James, halfway out of ear range, turned his head and glared at Remus, thankful that he had given him a flame to feed. "Don't be so quick to judge, Remus, and mind your own business." With three long strides, James swept out of the hall and into the corridor. Once he found Lily, all would be well, he knew it. Once he found her, he'd tell her how his friends are overreacting and taking their relationship extremely immaturely, and were not worth keeping as friends if they behaved in such a manner.

It was these exact thoughts that always seemed to lead him into boiling water, for the words that left Lily's mouth were completely uninvited: "You did not!"