Hi! Here is the next chapter. I really hope you like it. There were many arguments with this chapter and many changes. I hope you don't get to angry with me (you will find out later). But please be kind: read and review! (Edited January 12th 2006)

-Jill

Rating: M for Mature. Rated for future chapters.

Disclaimer: Everything is J.K Rowling's.

Of Crazy Thoughts deserving Crazy Actions

Jane's boss, Thomas Mathew, threw a large file on her desk.

"Big case, Jane. Don't mess this one up."

Jane nodded and picked up the file, managing to spill the entire contents on the floor. Thomas walked out of the office, shaking his head, and left Jane to pick up the mess.

Jane gathered the last sheet of paper back into the folder and sat down at her desk. She searched through the mass looking for the summary sheet, but it was nowhere to be found. Jane swore and hit her head on the desk.

"Witch, Order of Merlin: First Class, highly favoured among the Ministry, wants a divorce from her muggle husband of five years. Exceedingly advanced in Memory Charms."

Jane looked up from her paper-filled desk.

"Well Janey, you do have your work cut out for you. I would suggest that you check with the financial situation of both parties."

Jane let her mouth hang open as Lily put the summary sheet on her desk and sat across from her.

"So this is where you work. It's very…cozy?" Lily said, not sure if it was the right word for the disorganized office.

"What? Why did you come?"

Lily smiled. "I wouldn't want my best friend to lose her job."

"Cut the shit, why are you here?"

She shrugged. "I owe Remus a few favours and James, well, he has very good puppy dog eyes."

Jane shook her head in disbelief and then grabbed her memo pad.

"Check financial situations…and why was that again?"

Annoyed, Lily replied, "Because, there is a good chance that Mrs. Order of Merlin is low on funds to donate to the Ministry and her muggle husband has money to spare."

Jane looked confused for a moment, but wrote down what Lily had said nonetheless. She looked as if she was about to question Lily further when she was interrupted.

"Jane, you know the rules, no visitors during work hours."

"Yes, Thomas, Lily was just leaving."

Lily stood up and faced Thomas. Of her three years there, Jane had not once seen her boss smile until now.

"Lily? The famous Lily Evans?"

Lily smiled and shook Thomas's hand. "The one and only."

"It's a pleasure to have you in our office. Has Jane been a good hostess?"

"Oh, the best."

Thomas smiled, still shaking Lily's hand.

"I'm sorry, but I must get back to work. I had to close the store and it's that time of year." Lily pried her hand out of Thomas's and started to walk out.

"Ms. Evans, I was pondering this idea for a while and I was wondering if you would like to join the Mathew and Carter team?"

"You're offering her a job?" Jane managed in shock.

Thomas looked taken aback at Jane's comment. "Why yes, Miss. Carter, why wouldn't I? This is Lily Evans. It would be a shame to have her walk out of here without offering."

This was not supposed to happen. Lily was quite comfortable with her bookstore and money was not an issue. But she couldn't help but miss the fast-paced job of a lawyer. Lily also thought that James seemed to take a liking to lawyers. So with that, Lily seemed to have already made her decision.

"You bastard."

"Sirius, I really don't know what to do."

"You bastard."

"Pete, I don't need you in on this too."

"You bastard."

"Yes, yes! I bloody well know I'm a bastard, now can we please focus our energy on the real problem."

"I can't believe you held out on us."

James sat down on his couch in frustration, and in fear that his legs would give way from the large amount of pacing. He rested his elbows on his knees and ran both hands through his hair.

"I didn't know."

"How could you not know! It's in you! You know what's in you!"

"In all fairness, I didn't know I had a parasite until I went to St. Mungos."

"That was different, Pete."

Sirius got up and took over James pacing while Peter rested his feet on the chair that Sirius left open and Remus, he just stared at James.

"You have to believe me when I say that I would have told you sooner if I knew."

"Bollocks."

"I agree with Padfoot."

"Look I'm sorry! I just found out."

"You don't just find out things like this. You know all along, you just have to accept them."

Sirius glared at Remus. "What Moony is trying to say is that you're a bloody wanker for making us put up with her for three years!"

"She's not that bad."

"Yes she is! She made you go on a diet! She folds your socks! She has you cleaning! Marauders never clean!"

Remus cleared his throat.

"Except you, Remus."

James looked up at Sirius. "You seemed to like her well enough when we weren't going out."

"No I didn't, I pretended to because Wormtail bet me that I couldn't be nice to her."

"That's childish," Remus scoffed.

"Shove it."

"We've only been going out for a month. Why is this happening now! I love her!"

Sirius let out a frustrated cry. "You don't love her! You love that she folds your socks. You are in love with Lily."

"Maybe I love that Lily came back?"

"Don't second guess yourself. You told us you were in love with her."

"Maybe I'm not, maybe its cold feet."

"You don't get cold feet when you're dating."

"Yeah mate, that's only when you're about to get married."

The three stopped to look at Peter, who was laughing to himself.

James got an idea.

"I'll marry her!"

Sirius launched himself at James, throwing him off the couch and pinning him on the floor.

"Get serious, mate."

"No, I will! I love Jane so I should marry her."

Remus walked into the kitchen and came out with a glass of cold water. He then stood over James.

"Say that again, Prongs, I didn't quite hear you."

"I should marry Jane."

Remus poured half of the glass on James' face.

"You git! What the hell was that for?"

Peter pinched himself. "Nope, not dreaming."

James shook the water out of his eyes.

"Care to repeat that phrase?"

"I should marry Jane."

All the while Sirius was shaking his head and Remus poured the rest of the water on James.

"Seriously! What is with the water?"

Sirius took James' face in his hands and held it still, pinning his arms with his knees.

"Repeat after me."

Sirius' hands enabled James to speak, so he nodded.

"I, James Potter."

Sirius let go of his face.

"I, James Potter."

"Will never."

"Will never."

"Marry Jane."

"Marry Sirius."

Remus by this time had another glass of water and poured the entire contents onto James face.

"At the rate he's going you'll need a pitcher," Peter mumbled.

"One more times Jamie boy, you will never, ever, marry Jane."

"I will marry Jane."

Sirius threw his hands in the air and stood up.

"Have a good life, James!"

He headed for the door.

"Padfoot, you have to stay, we have to get him out of this phase."

Sirius threw his coat on the floor and walked back over to the rest.

"We just need to do this calmly and rationally."

"What we need is an Auror, he might be possessed."

"Pete!"

"There is a possibility."

While Remus and Peter argued over the finer points of possession, Sirius had an idea.

"What we need is a lawyer."

"You better have a good reason for waking me up at two on a Monday morning," Lily grumbled as she threw her coat on the floor with the others and rushed into the kitchen for her staple: coffee.

"Would I wake you up for something stupid?"

Lily came out with a fresh cup. "Yes, you would, which is why I'm asking."

Sirius laughed and stepped out of the way so Lily could see James bound and gagged to his chair. She dropped her coffee and it shattered loudly on the floor.

"Shh Lily, we don't want to wake up Jane."

"Well maybe you should, it's her boyfriend that you tied up."

"You make it sound like we're common criminals."

While Lily walked around James' chair inspecting the invisible ropes, his eyes followed her anxiously.

"By the looks of this I would say you're up there with the best of them."

Sirius smiled. "Why thank you, we'll take that as a compliment."

"And you managed to do this how?"

"Sirius pinned him and Remus was in charge of the spell and I did the gagging."

"Not that you arse, how did you do this without waking up Jane."

"We worked very quietly."

"You never thought to use a Silencing Charm?"

Sirius shrugged to Peter who shrugged to Remus.

"We didn't really have time to think this plan through."

Lily laughed and with a wave of her wand, put a Silencing Charm on the room. She then used her wand to repair the coffee cup and went back into the kitchen to refill it.

"Before I start lecturing you boys on this, I would first like to say that this action was a long time in coming and that I am glad you woke me up to see it."

Lily paused to take a deep breath.

"Now, what the hell do you think you're doing? He is an Auror! He could have you taken to court." James let out a muffled sound and nodded his head. "Not only that, he's your best friend. People don't just tie up their best friends as a joke."

"We had our reasons."

"Pray tell."

"Well first off, Sirius was getting tired of pinning him down," Peter suggested as Sirius nodded.

"And he was considering proposing to Jane."

Lily arched her eyebrow and James grimaced.

"You were going to ask her to marry you?"

James nodded, not meeting Lily's eyes.

She was silent for a while and then slowly walked over to James. She stood in front of him and then poured her coffee into his lap. James let out a muffled yelp and Remus, who was standing beside him, poured his reserved pitcher of water onto James as well. His lap steamed and James let out a sigh of relief.

"You're lucky Remus had water in that, if it were up to me, there would be more coffee."

In those few moments when Lily had been silent, she had to come to terms with many things. First, the fact that James had clearly moved on. There was no bigger sign of that than proposing to another girl. And second, what she was going to do about it.

The way Lily saw it, she had a few options. She could run away crying her pretty little eyes out. She could sneak into Jane's room and murder her. She could slap all of them and then lecture them on how she did not need to her that. Or she could accept the fact that she he had moved on and pour coffee in his lap for considering engagement after only a month of dating. From the look on James Potter's face she could see that he didn't like her decision. This made her quite happy.

Lilys place was a mess. She had been spending so much time at the store that she unwillingly neglected her own flats upkeep. It killed her to walk into a messy place, especially when she owned it, so she did what any person hyped up on coffee would do at six in the morning: clean.

While folding clothes she remembered the reason why she had spent most of her night at James' apartment. He was thinking about getting married. Sirius had clearly explained (after they had their fun at throwing things at James) that he brought her over to talk some sense into him. After Sirius had gotten a few drinks down he came out with the real reason. He was hoping that she, Lily Evans, would proclaim her undying love for James and therefore snap him out of this possible nuptial. After she clearly repeated several times that that was never going to happen, he passed out.

Lily then noticed the time, and that everyone else was passed out. Not all from drinking; that was just Sirius. The other two had fallen asleep. James, he was still awake. There were bags under his eyes and he looked wearily at her. He pulled on a heartstring with that look. She untied him and he walked wordlessly to his room. Lily wasn't sure at the time, but she thought that a night of being bound and gagged actually did him so good.

Even if it hadn't, they had lots of pictures to show at his wedding.

When James woke up the next morning, he was somehow in his own bed. He remembered distinctly what had happened the night before and cursed all the Marauder and Lily to hell as he tried to get dressed for work without falling asleep.

James stumbled into work some time after he was actually supposed to. He dragged himself over to his cubical and was about to fall asleep on his desk when there was an abrupt cough behind him. James opened one eye, then sat up straight at the sight of Alastor Moody.

"No time to sleep today, Potter; there's been an attack. Get your team ready and meet me at the site in ten minutes."

James shook himself out of his sleepy mindset and called for his team to assemble.