Author's Note: I posted three chapters and then left you all with that sort of cliffie, didn't I? Aren't I evil? And you couldn't even complain because I had just posted 3 chapters...haha. Okay, so are you all excited? This one is the outcome of thae previous chapter, and since I know you have all be simply waiting on the edge of your seats for this one, I'll let you have it now. Without further adou...

Chapter 23

Counter Potions and Counter Plots

The following week was especially bad for James. In addition to having to endure seeing Lily, once again, in the arms of Snape, who he knew to be friends of death eaters, Lily was being particularly nasty to him.

They were in transfiguration one morning when Professor Flood called on James, and he got an answer right. Lily, rather than smiling at him encouragingly as he had hoped she might, had instead said with utter surprise,

"He got it right!" She looked so completely shocked that it was impossible to think she was being sarcastic.

"You say that like it's a surprise," James muttered.

"Well, yes Potter. You see, when something out of the ordinary happens people are generally surprised," she told him. James had no response to that, so instead contented himself with sticking his tongue out at her once she had turned around. "And you are so immature James, no one sticks their tongues out at people unless they are either two or named Peeves," Lily remarked casually.

'Drat' James thought to himself. A moment later he blew her another loud, wet raspberry. She did not comment. He did think that he saw her shaking her head almost inperceptably though. Perhaps it was just his imagination.

"Cheer up, Prongs. Look on the bright side, at least she's noticing you." Sirius pointed out, grinning. James nodded his head glumly. That was what he wanted, wasn't it. Well, he told himself, be careful what you wish for next time.

James and Sirius, with the help of Remus, Peter, and the girls, actually Sirius and James did the least amount of work even though both had the best of intentions, managed to complete the anti-love potion by the end of the week, right on schedule. James, although he had agreed with the plan to wait until the morning until administering the potion, had other ideas of his own.

He waited until the others had left and then bottled a flask of the potion. They won't even miss it, he told himself, looking at the cauldron. They had used the room next to the picture of Barnibus the Barmy, and found that it was well equipped with everything they needed. None of them had known of the room before, although Sirius swore that he had hidden in it before when running from Filtch.

"Only I thought it was a broom cupboard then, if I had known it had all this stuff I would have paid closer attention," Sirius had explained.

"I doubt it," Holly had mumbled under her breath.

"What are you doing James?" Sirius asked, re-entering the room and finding James holding the flask guiltily. "James, we agreed to wait until the morning to give it to her," Sirius complained, eyeing the flask. "Who knows what will happen if you give it to her twice."

"I know, but it takes some time to work, remember? I think Lily would appreciate it if we gaven it to her sooner, rather than later, so that she could stop this nonsense and quit making a fool of herself," James explained, walking out of the room, slinging an arm around Sirius.

"I suppose," Sirius conceeded. "But you're really not one to talk about making a fool of yourself," he added.

"Found him did you?" Remus called from up the hall. James quickly hid the flask out of sight.

"Yup, back in the potions room," Sirius said. "He probably got lost in his thoughts of Lily," Sirius added by way of explanation.

"Right," Remus said, walking back to Gryffindor tower. Peter was looking at them suspiciously.

"What Petey?" James asked as innocently and naturally as he could, hoping that the flask wasn't causing a buldge.

"Nothing," Peter said, scurrying to catch up with Remus, who was in the lead.

"Why are you hiding it?" Sirius whispered.

"Dunno," James admitted.

"They won't care," Sirius reminded him.

"Moony might," James told him.

"Maybe. I suppose you have a point. If he did though it'd only be because he'd be looking out for Lily. We all like her too, you know," Sirius told him. "Not like that, don't worry," Sirius amended. "But she's my friend, I care about what happens to her as well," Sirius informed him. "And so does Moony. Wormtail too," Sirius told him.

"Since when are you two friends? I thought you didn't get on well," James told him.

"Don't get much past you, do you?" Sirius asked mockingly. "We're friends now. She's nice enough I suppose. I still say a bit of a goody goody, but you know," Sirius shrugged.

"That and you like her friend," James commented.

"Don't you dare say it," Sirius breatheddangerously as they entered the common room.

"What?" James asked, putting on a bland face once again. "By the way, you still owe me an explanation about her. I thought you said you didn't reckon she'd get the bin any time soon."

"She didn't get the bin," Sirius muttered, making his way up the stairs to bed. Remus and Peter had already disappeared.

"What?" James asked loudly.

"Hush," Sirius told him grumpily.

"What?" James asked in a slightly lower voice. "Did she toss you?" James asked. Sirius nodded his assent. "No wonder you don't want to mention it. Is she the first then? I mean, excluding the ones who have caught you cheating on them?" James asked.

"I reckon so, yeah," Sirius said, attempting to put it off as nothing. But they both knew it wasn't.

"So why, then? You didn't cheat on her?" James asked.

"'Course not. I really liked this one," Sirius told him.

"Well any fool could tell. You went out with the same girl for two whole months. If you hadn't broken it off soon we would have started to worry about you. And the other girls at Hogwarts probably would have started to try and kill her," James pointed out.

"Yes, well," Sirius shrugged again. He really did not want to talk about it. It was a bit of a tetchy subject. He had been planning on telling Jame sover the holidays, but other thins had come up and he had never gotten arount to it. By now they had reached the dorm and were carrying on their whispered conversation outside on the steps. Sirius opened the door, cutting short all potentioal for James to question further.

James flopped onto his bed, fishing under it for the marauders' map.

"Lucky Moony put that indestructable charm thingy on it, really," James observed, throwing a grateful look at Remus, who smiled and waved it off as if to say 'Oh, it was nothing, I'm just naturally brilliant like that.' "Else it would have been torn to pieces and we would have had to create a new one every time we wanted one," James said, tapping the parchment with his wand and swearing that he was up to no good. The ink began to spread over the parchement.

"What are you looking for, anyway?" Sirius asked, loking up from his bed where he was casually flipping through a textbook that had been lying on it.

"Lily," James said, looking intently at the map.

"Stalker," Sirius commented.

"Not," James replied. "I already won. I quit," he said hurriedly before Sirius could get in the last word. "And she's not in her dorm," James added, looking nervous.

"Where else would she be?" Remus asked, coming over to look at the map over James's shoulder.

"Wish I knew," James told him, scanning all of the dots carefully.

"Lucky Moony figured out how to do that moving dot thingy, really," Sirius said. "Else James's stalking would be much more difficult," he added, sticking his tongue out at James, who ignored him distainfully.

"There she is!" James said, letting out a breath of air. "She's in the astronomy tower. With Snivelus. And there are a bunch or other unlabled dots floating around. That's odd, they don't generally do that, do they Moony?" James asked.

"Shouldn't," Moony said, looking puzzled. "Unless they're not people we know and don't go to Hogwarts," he added.

"But who on earth?" James voiced the question the room was thinking. Edgar rolled over in his sleep, causing them to grow silent.

"And so why are they floating like that?" Peter asked tentatively, peering at the map as well.

"They would have to be..oh no. Prongs, I think your Lily might be in trouble," Remus said softly.

"Quick, invisibility cloak," James whispered, looking for it under the bed. What a time to be a slob, didn't he wish he were a little more organized.

"Over here," Sirius said, flinging it to him. They all quickly got under it and sprinted as quickly as they could, when covered in a cloak, down the stairs and out the portrait hole.

"Where do you think- who's there?" shrieked the fat lady, startled out of her sleep. James ran faster, as fast as he could. He felt the cloak slipping off him, and heard the others hissing after him to come back, but he did not care. There was only one thought on his mind, Lily was in trouble.

He had the flask still in the pocket of his robe, and it was banging against him, impedeing his progress. He had half a mind to chuck it away from him, but thought better of it. He might need it in a moment or two.

He reached the base of the stairs and began taking them two at a time. He heard yelling as he neared the top and redoubled his efforts.

"Lily!" He called out as he reached the top. He saw four men, two of them on brooms and two on the ground. Snivelus was there, cowering on the ground. Lily was putting up a fierce fight, begging 'her love' to save her. James took this as an invitation. "Stupify!" he said, pointing his wand at the cloaked and hooded figure closest to Lily. "Stupify!" he said again, pointing at the second death eater, for that was who they were. James would have recognized those masks anywhere. The second one he missed, his vision blurred with anger. He had now lost the element of suprise and the other deatheaters were begining to focus their attention on him rather than Lily.

But apparently his being there at all was enough to ruin their plans, as the death eater who seemed to be the leader began shouting at his comrade. The two on the brooms turned and flew away, scooping up the body of their companion before zooming off into the night. The one who James had missed got onto his own broom, snatching the one his fallen companion had left behind.

James turned and heard the reason for their flight. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were just arriving now. James turned his wand on Severus.

"What did you think you were playing at?" James demanded of a whimpering Severus. "Answer me!" James demanded. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, Lily flung herself at James, kicking him and scratching at him, telling him to leave 'her love' alone. James, exasperated by this, practically shoved the flask of anti-love potion down her throat. She looked angry at him when he let up, removing the flask from her lips. But a moment later a glazed look that had been in her eyes disappeared, revealing a very angry Lily.

"What did you do!" she screamed at Severus, advancing on him with her wand raised. At this point Remus, Peter, and Sirius had entered the scene. Aparently the anti-love potion did not take so long to activate. "Start talking, Severus, or you're dead. And they'll never find the pieces of your body. I'll shove them down a hippogriffs throat!" she said wildly, brandishing her wand. James would have laughed were the situation not so serious. Remus had grabbed hold of her, dragging her away from a cowering Severus.

"James, why don't you take her away from here and explain what happened?" Remus suggested. "Leave the cloack with us. Lily can tell any teachers you might meet that she heard noises and wanted to go patrol, she is a prefect after all, but that she was scared and wanted you as an escort," Lily blushed hotly at this suggestion but did not protest too loudly. James did think he heard her mutter something threatening under her breath, but apparently the promise of answers to her inumerable questions was enough to make her keep quiet.

"We'll deal with this one," Sirius promised threateningly. James led the way down the staircase, Lily behind him. He thought he heard her saying something indistinguishable under her breath, but he was not sure. It could have just been the wind.

"Common room?" James suggested.

"Sure," Lily agreed. "And then I want answers," she added. "And if we meet any teachers, you're talking. I don't like lying. Especially not to teachers," Lily told him.

"Why not? What have you got against bending the rules a little?" James asked harmlessly.

"Firstly, this is not bending them a little, this is flagrant disregard for them," Lily told him disapprovingly. "Secondly, I happen to like rules, Potter," Lily told him.

"But why?" James asked her. He, sadly, almost did not even notice that she had not called him by his given name. He had grown acccustomed to being called Potter.

"Rules have been good to me in the past." Lily told him simply. "Rules make life easier," she added.

"Since when does Lily Evans shy away from a challenge?" James asked her. "Since when do you care about whether or not something is easy?" he asked.

"How come you don't like rules?" Lily demanded, changing tact.

"Rules are made to be broken. If people weren't going to break them, there wouldn't need to be rules against them, would there?" James asked. His logic, oddly enough, made sense.

"Listen, Potter, before I found out I was a witch I got into a lot of trouble at school for things I couldn't control. It was never my fault, but I always got yelled at. And so now I make an extra special effort to follow rules. I'm not a freak here. I don't start out at a disadvantage, so why would I give myself one?" Lily asked him. Her logic also made sense. James did not reply.

They reached the common room and settled into armchairs across from each other. Lily looked at him, eyebrows raised.

"Well?" she said finally. "Start talking."

"Okay. Where do I start?" James asked.

"Why I was up there," Lily said at once. "And what I've been doing with Severus this week, that would be nice." Lily said.

"Well, he gave you this love potion, see?" James asked.

"He did what?" Lily demanded, hoping she had not heard correctly.

"He gave you a love potion," James told her.

"How?" Lily asked.

"What do you mean, how?" James asked.

"I mean when did he get a chance?" Lily asked.

"Well, the thing is," James looked down. "Okay, well he offered to make one for me to give to you," James admitted at last.

"You were going to give me a love potion?" Lily asked, too shocked to yell.

"Yes. And I did, too." James said, deciding to tell her everything and hoping she would forgive him, although he doubted it. "Remember last week when I came to the library?" James asked.

"I should have suspected it! I knew you must have had some alterior motive, why else would you set foot in a library?" James just shrugged. "That was why you gave me pumpkin juice?" Lily asked. James nodded. "I thought you were just being nice. How naive am I?" she asked, shaking her head in self disgust. At least she wasn't yelling though. That was a good sign.

"Well, I gave it to you and the next morning you started hanging around Severus all the time. You have been for the whole week. We figured it out right away, of course, but you were being a right prat to me all week," James told her.

"That had nothing to do with the potion," Lily told him sharply. "That was all me,"

"Oh." James said. Great, he had effectively called her a prat. She could just keep a mental list of all the thing he had done to offend her this conversation. Alhtough he doubted even Lily could remember that much.

"So then what about tonight?" Lily asked him.

"I don't really know. We saw that you were up there and we went to save you, because we saw the other four there too, and didn't know what they would possibly be up to. And they were just floating there, you know?" James asked.

"What?" Lily asked, completely confused. James clapped his hands over his mouth. He had not just told Lily about the marauders map. His fellow marauders would likely flay him for that.

"You saw me up there? How did you see me up there?" Lily demaded. "And what four? They were on broomsticks you idiot, not floating, you of all people should know that," Lily told him. Well, there was nothing for it. He would have to explain it to her and fact the consequenses later.

"We have this map, you see, this map of Hogwarts." James told her. "Of everything, the secret pasages, the shortcuts, even the people. They have these labeled dots that move around. Moony thought it up, very clever spell that one was," James told her proudly, as if it had been his own accomplishment rather than Remus's.

"Moony, that's Remus, right?" Lily asked. "Can I see the map?" she asked him.

"'Course not. It's a marauder secret and if you tell anyone that you know, we'll have to kill you" he told her. She laughed, but he did not. She shivered a little.

"Well, does that mean that you can see me all the time? Wherever I go, whatever I'm doing?" Lily asked him nervously. James hoped she would not think he was a stalker too.

"Well we can't see you, exactly. We see a dot with your name above it. But essentially yes," James told her.

"Okay, so you saw four other dots floating? That would be the death eaters flying I suppose?" Lily asked him.

"Yes." James confirmed.

"I have to tell Dumbledore about that map," she told him.

"No you don't" James told her, shaking his head desperately and fervently.

"I do, Potter. I'm a prefect. I'm surprised at Remus for encouraging you with it. I mean, honestly. That's not right. And it could come in handy for the headmaster, especially now." Lily told him contemplating.

"Lily, please, I'm begging you. Never do one thing for me ever again if you do this," he told her. "Just do not tell anyone a word about this map,"

"Well, you know Potter, I have to tell Dumbledore about it when I tell him about this. He'll need to punish Severus for brewing love potions, probably you for administering them, and he'll need to do something about the death eaters. He'll want to know how you knew I was there and managed to come to my rescue," James knew she was right. Dumbledore would have to know.

"Do you think you can leave out the bit about me administering the love potion?" He asked pleadingly.

Author's note: Okay so how did u all like that? And in case you were wondering, James recognized the masks because of daily prophet pictures etc. The limited few photos that were taken of death eaters that is. Anyway just thought i'd clear thatup. Any other questions or comments at this point before I continue the story? Ask/tell me in a review or email, my sn is also on there if you want to IM me sometime. The easiest method of contact, however, is to just leave me a review...