Patrols were different without James. Lily laughed less and that special tingle that she had whenever James was near was gone. On the plus, she and Marlene had a load of time to spend in serious—and not so serious—discussion, ranging from possible plots of the Dark Lord's plans (there had been attacks on two more Hogwarts families: from Slytherin and Hufflepuff) to a heated debate about the best flavor of Bertie Bott's beans (Marlene was for marshmallow while Lily protested rum punch). Lily dearly enjoyed her girl-time with her best friend because Lily truly was not that close with all of her girlfriends and wished that she was closer. Lily had always scored on popularity, yet that popularity was far-ranging rather than deep-rooted. Letting Marlene coax her into admitting that yes, she did at one point admire Frank Longbottom, was a fine way to spend her evenings in lieu of James' very masculine diversions.

It occurred to Lily that she had business left unfinished. Sirius, James, and Peter were all awake during classes after their "outing" this time—as much as could be expected, anyway—although there was a worn-down excitement charging their actions. No one was so worn down, however, as Remus. He attended everything with a haggard smile or a pinched shuffle. The other boys ministered to Remus—which would normally be considered odd—and this big brother attitude gave Lily a chance to fulfill her plan. After Charms one day, as James was escorting Remus down the stairs, Lily tapped Sirius on the shoulder.

"Can I have a word? It will only be a minute."

He looked over, surprised out of his fatigue, and nodded. Lily pulled Sirius into an empty classroom and shut the door. Desks were piled against the walls and Lily kicked an upturned wastebasket aside. She faced Sirius and he grinned cheekily.

"You know what this will look like, don't you, Lily?"

"Shut up, Sirius," she said playfully, even though she was quickly reminded of why she had dragged him here. Lily took a deep breath and cut to the chase.

"Look, I know that you and James and Remus and Peter go out, at night, for the entire night, every so often. Apparently, this is going to keep happening whether I want it to or not, and I'll accept it. Can you just promise me, whatever this is, that it doesn't involve anything with Voldemort?"

Sirius must have been too tired to either be offended or make a joke, although one eyebrow did briefly salute in surprise. He simply shook his head.

"What we're doing has nothing with that." Lily breathed relief and smiled.

"Good. And here's the other thing…"

"There's more?"

Lily ignored him.

"I know that you three and James are close. Especially you, Sirius. I'm finding that out more and more. I don't want my dating him to get in the way of it. I mean it. If you ever think that I'm the reason there's any trouble, or any arguments, tell me. You've got to. I saw James' arm, Sirius, and whatever you're up to, James obviously needs you. I don't want to be a bother at all. Okay?"

He stared at her as if seeing the redhead for the first time. Lily must have been perfectly serious, and she obviously had no idea what she was trying to do. No other girl in the long history of the Marauders had ever, ever said something like that. No one else would have meant it. In Sirius' usual experience, girls were simply in the way at times like these. They never understood what had to be done every full moon, and they never made comments like that. James was right: Lily really was amazing. And Sirius said so.

"You're amazing, Lily."

"What?"

"I said you're amazing."

"Now look who's getting into a compromising position," Lily teased, but her eyes were still questioning. Since taking up only a few patrols with Marlene, Lily was remembering the value of friendship. She privately admired the close bonds of the Marauders; they were alien to her, out of her realm of experience, and sometimes she was green with jealousy. Lily was committed to keeping them together and not starting problems, if only so she could spend time around such companionship.

Sirius broke into wide smile.

"Wait'll I tell Prongs."

"You don't have to do that," said Lily hurriedly. She didn't want to seem heroic. "I'm not playing the martyr, Sirius."

"You're most certainly not." He was still grinning like a fool.

"And er…that's all I wanted to say."

"Good." Sirius opened the door for her and Lily went first, pleased that he had taken it rather well.

"Tsk, tsk, Black. Evans. I thought you were better than all that."

"Shut up, Rosier, or I'll feed you to the squid." Sirius casually shoved past the glowering Slytherin loafing against the wall. Lily floated haughtily after him, not saying a word. Sirius was still cheerful; the last night of the full moon ahead of him and an enlightening conversation behind. Even Evan Rosier wouldn't ruin his mood today.

"She said that?" asked a startled James, wide-eyed, as he and Sirius and Peter slogged along back to the castle. The early grey of dawn colored the very edge of the starless sky. Peter was yawning mightily, nearly asleep as he walked. Sirius was telling James what had gone on earlier that day.

"Sure as shit she did. And I'm not supposed to have said anything, so don't open your trap tomorrow, Prongs."

"But…but that's weird," said James, stuffing his hand through his hair. He didn't know that Lily would have thought this over so carefully.

"What, you talking?"

"Padfoot, be quiet. I've got to think about this."

"What's to think about?" shrugged Sirius as they neared the castle stairs. "You've got a nice bird that finally understands what we're about."

"Yeah," said James. His bewildered face was the last bit that Sirius saw of him before James vanished under his Cloak to scout the Entrance Hall. "Yeah…I guess I do…"

Near the end of October, everything cleared up and James joined Lily on patrols again. Marlene went along once—after a grueling meeting of the Slug Club, involving Slughorn's careful probings of the terms of Lily and James' relationship—but she thought the better of it afterwards. Lily decided to try and keep up her involvement with Marlene at other times, for even though it was nice to have James back, Lily did not want to offend or distance her best friend.

Meanwhile, things were taking a new turn. Having apparently recovered from whatever happened at nighttime meetings, James and Sirius threw themselves headfirst into planning Remus' birthday celebration, which was all they would talk about during mealtimes. Remus' birthday was on October 30th; he was the oldest of the four. Lily guessed that this conversation existed chiefly to embarrass and goad Remus, who rolled his eyes every time Sirius suggested something along the lines of grabbing a veela or two for the Gryffindor dormitories. Peter would occasionally add ideas of his own but he mostly observed James and Sirius in all their mischief-making glory.

"They don't shut up, do they?" asked a tired Emmeline over breakfast, gesturing to James and Sirius with her spoon. Small lumps of porridge fell on the table, but Emmeline didn't notice. Work was piling up for the seventh-year N.E.W.T.s students and Quidditch practices were taking a toll on her.

"…and we'll hang Snivellus from the top of the common room and enchant him to sing 'Happy Birthday' whenever you go by," finished James, concluding a long, exaggerated plan that had been growing since the Gryffindors sat down to eat.

"Oh yes. It'd be wonderful if I saw Snape each time I enter Gryffindor tower," agreed Remus dryly, stirring his own porridge.

"Snivellus probably has a terrible singing voice anyway," shrugged Sirius. "But if you don't like that plan, Moony, we can always go with the one I suggested this morning, about—"

"Not another word," snapped Remus, unusually out of temper. "We've got Defense Against the Dark Arts next?"

"Yes," answered Marlene amiably. Remus merely nodded and dove back into his food. Marlene looked away.

"Oh."

Lily wondered what could be happening here, what plan would make Remus so upset. Was this connected to one of those midnight meetings? Or something else. The answer soon came after lunch that day.

Sirius had been joking with Remus all during meals. He would constantly be about to say something, and it would be about a person, before Remus interrupted and told him to close his face. Sirius laughed and would do it again in about two minutes. James just smiled; he was obviously in the know as well. After lunch was Ancient Runes, which the Marauders had and Lily didn't. Remus moved to leave the Hall and Sirius stood up as well. Remus sighed and let the other boy follow him. They looked as though a tough discussion was imminent.

This was her chance. Lily made sure that Emmeline was talking about Quidditch with James before she kissed him goodbye and hurried out of the Great Hall. She skidded to a halt and saw Remus and Sirius wandering a-ways down the corridor. Lily snuck along quietly, intending to hear what they were saying.

"—ask her out before the year ends?" Sirius was asking.

"I think she hates me."

"She doesn't, I checked."

"What?" Remus looked horrified. "When?"

"That one time in Potions," said Sirius smugly. Remus groaned.

"How did you manage to do that in ten minutes? She's known? Since then? Padfoot, you idiot, I—" They began climbing the stairs. Lily didn't hear any more because her feet simply stopped moving as everything clicked into place. Of course… Remus and Marlene. It had to be. Lily laughed out loud.

That was why Marlene was so touchy when the girls had asked her about liking Sirius because although it wasn't true, he had undoubtedly brought up Remus. Being considerably involved in other things, Lily realized that she hadn't brought up James' best friend to Marlene in a while. Marlene had been hiding something though, because Sirius must've suggested the idea of her and one of his best friends. That meant that Sirius had been playing matchmaker all along, inviting Marlene to Hogsmeade and such. Lily would bet her last Galleon that Sirius had probably done everything in his power to coax them together that day and that the idea probably scared the stuffing out of Marlene. And Remus was nervous that day as well. And James must have known, because he was not doing much to stop Sirius either. Peter no doubt knew as well, but he would not have interfered with Sirius' personal schemes. Hah. Lily smiled again. Remus would be just the thing that Marlene needed, why, the idea excited Lily.

They would certainly be cute if Remus ever got up his nerve to go through with it. Lily wondered about that: many girls had liked Remus before (many girls had liked all of the Marauders at one time or another) but he had never had a steady girlfriend. Why? Was—

"Hey Lily!" Marlene ran up to her, holding out her schoolbooks.

"You forgot these. And Herbology's over that way, why are you—"

"So Marlene, notice anything strange about Remus today?" asked Lily loudly, taking her books. Inside she jumped with glee, for there was definitely a flicker in Marlene's expression.

"Er…just that he seemed annoyed about Sirius and James. Why do you ask me?" replied Marlene casually. Too casually.

Lily shrugged and smiled widely. Maybe this was a good time to join forces with Sirius and James.

"Oh nothing. Thanks for my books, I'd lose my shoes if they weren't fastened." Marlene still looked slightly suspicious. Lily added,

"So what did you get for the homework? I put down bouncing bulbs for the second question."

"Really? Me too," said Marlene quickly, relieved. "Yes, um, I thought that one was a bit unfair though, because of the part before it where Sprout told us to compare fluxweeds…" Marlene rattled on animatedly. Lily let her voice wash over her as a plan formed in her head. Or a semblance of a plan. At the very least, an alliance. Yes, an alliance indeed…

Okay, very long chapter. Mostly a lot of my little ones patched up together. It starts running with some subplots now, and the beginning is all "why James should love Lily" and that.

And I thought this would be a good time to address what's probably obvious by now: I don't like Peter. In my other story, I parody people that just stuff him in there as this useless lump of an eating machine. That's kind of how I feel about him, so every now and then I just add in a little poke at his expense. Besides his Benedict-Arnold qualities, he's not very personally interesting anyway. If I get too involved in this, though, someone stop me. Thanks ;)

I'm definitely taking the story through seventh year because that's what I said. I'd like to continue at least a little ways into their later years, and maybe up to their deaths, but I'd have to see what the public outcry is on that subject.

Lily is doing her best not to care about James missing patrols, although if you toss what happened in this chapter into the mix, that will get even harder. I tried to make a non-physical confrontation nonetheless painful, and not screw it up like I've seen happen in other tales (James gets tortured by the Cruciatus Curse in the middle of the dungeons? I don't think so). I have the impression that James is very protective of the ones he "loves"and I'm writing him that way.

And Remus is a very good judge of character and what is happening around him. Except when it comes to Marlene that is… ;P

(redsoxfan90210) (Mirax Myra Terrik)

To new readers and reviewers: Thanks for reading and spread the story!

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READ THIS AND REVIEWED