There are no excuses for my behavior

I have let down you, the reviewers, and myself

I have taken FAR too long to update, and I am truly sorry, but I have been up to my head in work and I just have NOT had time, so I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me!

A Marauder's Tale

Chapter Six

The Morning After

The sun shone through the red curtains and fell through matching hair, straight into the eyes of Lily Evans. Her eyes, screwed up in irritation, were forced open to face the day. With a groan, she sat up, giving a yawn and a stretch or two. She sighed, today was NOT a good day.

She definitely didn't look it, from the crying last night; her eyes were red and puffy, filled with sleep, and swollen. Her face was pale, with blotches, and two lines running down her face where the tears had fallen, he laps chipped, her make-up flaking, and her hair an absolute MESS.

Today was NOT a good day for Potter's Study Session

She rose silently, not wanting to wake her sleeping, back-stabbing room-mates. For one, misjudged second, she wanted to do something evil to them, put honey in their hair, draw on their faces, anything to get back at them for what they said, but she knew she would never get away with it, Potter was the prankster, not she.

She rummaged through her trunk until she found her favorite green jumper, it wasn't tight, or what anyone would call sexy, but it was comfortable, and had a nice little hole in the sleeve to push your thumb through, and it covered the necessary body organs, so, she matched it with a pair of jeans and was off to the bathroom to work on her face.

She scrubbed hard, wanting to remove all remnants of the night before, including the memory of the overheard conversation, but it couldn't be done. The best she could do was removing the tear-tracks from her cheeks and apply make-up to the bags under her eyes so hopefully, James wouldn't see.

James…

What was with her now anyway? Last year she wouldn't let herself be in the same ROOM as him, and now they were allowing study sessions? Maybe she was weakening, maybe she was crazy, and maybe Potter was just getting better. He did have a cute smile, when he wasn't saying something stupid, Lily thought.

She brushed her hair, with some difficulty, before putting it up in a messy bun so she wouldn't have to deal with it. Finally, she looked at herself. At least she looked presentable.

She walked out of the bathroom, and retrieved her books. Alright, let's see how shaped-up Potter can be. And then she walked out the door. Lily was half-way down the stairs when she thought better of it, got out her wand, went back into the room, turned each of her room-mate's hair a different color, then walked out again, this time with a satisfied smile on her face as she headed towards the library.

Sirius lay awake in his bed thinking just how lucky he was.

He had a wonderful man lying next to him, and he was the luckiest man in the world. Never before had he felt so complete, so full, and so alive. Never before had he thought that he could fall so deeply in love so quickly. But then again, he had never felt like this before. He recalled the night before and lay with a contended smile on his face, until Remus stirred at his right arm, Capturing Sirius' attention.

There was something about Remus that positively glowed when he was happy. His hair let out an aroma that teased Sirius' senses, and he was bearing a toothy grin, even as he slept. As he stirred he grasped a portion of Sirius' shirt. Sirius brought his left hand to lie upon Remus' and Remus grasped that instead.

Slowly but surely, his eyes opened.

"Mornin'" he said, his words slurred.

" G'Morning babe, you sleep well?" Remus only nodded in response, but then added.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think James and Pete will think, when they find out, you know, about us…" Remus trailed a finger across Sirius' chest then raised his head to look into his eyes, which were wide with surprise.

"I hadn't even thought about them. I hope they won't care, we haven't exactly discussed the idea with them or anything." Remus gave a thinking frown.

"I don't know, I always got the idea that James was sort of a homophobe." Sirius however, grinned.

"Well, we COULD keep it a secret…It would make things more…interesting."

"I don't know Padfoot, secrets never really get me anywhere."

"That's because you can't lie."

"Pads, James can read you like a book."

"Not if I really try, he hasn't figured out that I'm in love with you yet right?"

Love

The word secretly unsettled Remus, but he decided later to think about it himself, without Sirius there to sway his thoughts. On the outside, he just nodded and smiled.

"But do you want to Remmy?"

"Keep it a secret?"

"Yeah…"

"Well," Remus considered it. "At least until we know how he'll react, I think we should, but we have to tell them eventually…" He trailed off.

"Eventually, I can handle that." Sirius replied.

They settled into a comfortable silence, they had all the time in the world. Peter was off scoffing breakfast, and James had told them that he had a study date with Lily today. Though nobody believed him. That had left James quite angry when he stormed off to meet Lily, but his mind had seemed somewhere else entirely anyway. He would ask him about it later. Sirius finally broke the silence when the thought the time was right.

"Remus? I have a question."

"Shoot"

"Yesterday, I heard you all talking to God and stuff." Remus blushed at the thought of Sirius over-hearing, but tried to hide it. "Which I'm sorry for, by the way," Remus gave Sirius a look. "Anyway, I was just wondering, how you could believe in that stuff? I mean, there's so much stuff against him, like the whole 'why do bad things happen to good people question'" Remus seemed amused.

"I can answer that" Sirius looked stunned.

"You CAN?"

"Mmhmm." Sirius gave him a look as if to say 'well, get on with it!' so he did. "Okay, Sirius, let's say, you had a son."

"Okay…"

"Would you let your son play Quidditch?"

"Sure I would! But I mean, I would tell him to be careful, you know, give him a standard set of rules, and teach him the basics first, so he knew what he was getting into…"

"Would you follow him constantly, correcting every mistake he made, always standing right next to him in case he got hurt? To kiss his boo boo's and such?"

"I wouldn't molly cobble him if that's what you mean." Sirius said defensively.

"So what you're saying is, you would give his rules to abide by, tell him how to be safe, and then let him go on his own? To make his own mistakes?"

Sirius paused for a moment, then proudly said. "Yes! That's exactly what I'd do!" Remus smiled.

"Well, that's exactly what God did." Remus slid out from under the covers, gave a quick peck on Sirius' stunned and confused face, then went to the bathroom to wash up for the day.

Peter had told his friends that he was going to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Peter had lied.

Lucius Malfoy had told him to tell his friends that, then told him to meet him on the edge of the Forbidden Forest at 8:00 sharp.

And that's exactly what Peter did.

Peter narrowed the gap between him and Lucius, whom he could see, waiting for him, only a couple yards away. However Lucius was not alone. Peter was scared, there was an unsettled bit of him at the pit of his stomach telling him to turn and run away. NOW. But he didn't, and for years afterward, he would question himself as to WHY he didn't.

"Good Morning Peter" Lucius said, the words were barely audible, yet stunningly clear. "I presume that your friends have no idea of your whereabouts?" Peter only nodded. "Good. Miss Bellatrix and I have something to show you." They beckoned him forward into the forest, but Peter was hesitant. "Don't be afraid Peter, we're not going very far in, just enough so we won't be seen." The trees enclosed him as he stepped forward into the dark abyss, his fate awaited unknown, but for some reason, he kept on walking.

After a minute or so, the three of them came into a clearing, in the middle, lay a stone basin, filled to the brim with water, but on the edges, fire brimmed over. The fire licked the edges of the basin and fell towards the ground but never reached it, as it burned itself up before reaching the ground. The basin itself was only a foot or so in height, but it's cold stone made it seem much larger, and it was this basin that Lucius Malfoy beckoned Peter closer towards.

"Do you know what this is Peter?" Lucius asked quietly.

"No." His answers were short.

"This is a foresight. It lets one see into the future, and recently, Bella, and I, plus a few of our…friends," He gave Bellatrix a smile and a knowing look, she didn't speak. "looked into this foresight and saw a rather, peculiar thing. Do you know what we saw Peter?"

"No"

"We saw the child of Lily and James Potter, Peter." His eyes widened in shock, THIS was going to be interesting. "But this child ended up doing a very bad thing. It killed one of our dear friends, not a year after it was born." Peter was shocked, that was one bad kid. He peered over the edge of the basin and saw the child, it was beautiful, it looked exactly like James, but it had startlingly green eyes. Like Lily's eyes. The kid didn't LOOK bad, but if these guys saw it happen, it must be true. Lucius' expression became very serious.

"Now Peter. We want to prevent Lily and James from having this child, do you understand why?" Peter nodded, something about Lucius' eyes mesmerized him. "If we cannot prevent the child's birth, we would like to eliminate it, as soon as possible, before it does any damage, do you understand?" Once again Peter nodded, his eyes unblinking. "Now, from now on, I want you to do anything and everything in your power, to make sure Lily and James do not have this child. Do you understand?"

Peter once again nodded, conveniently not noticing Bellatrix, with her wand in the air, pointing directly at him, her lips muttering. "Now, I want you to go back to the castle and start on your little assignment, but do NOT tell anyone what you are up to, OK?" Peter nodded. "I want you to come back here, every Friday night, at 7:00 p.m. to tell me your progress. Are you absolutely clear on everything I have said to you so far?" Peter nodded. "Good, run along now." And Peter did, he ran, ran and didn't look back once.

James sat, quite alone, in the library, his head was spinning. He was thirty minutes early for his study session with Lily, but that was the least of his worries at the moment.

Sirius, and Remus, together! What kind of a friend was he if he didn't notice when two of his closest friends were in LOVE? And worse yet, he didn't know how he felt about it!

He'd never even considered the thought of homosexuality before. All this time he'd just been a 7 year-old trapped in a teenager's body, having fun, playing games, and having the time of his life with the Marauders. The whole 'boys will be boys' policy rang in between his ears. All the times in the swimming hole, they'd changed together, how, how awkward that must have been for them! And he couldn't stop a little ew from crossing his mind either.

After he thought about it for a while, he decided, if it made his friends happy, then it made him happy too. IF they were open about it with him, he wasn't gonna go and pry into THEIR private business, he wasn't gonna ask. "Hey! So, you two got together yet?" Nope, if they were gonna be…gay…they would have to tell him first. Yes, that was settled. Then something happened that pushed all thoughts of Sirius and Remus out of his mind.

Lily Evans walked into the library.

Her hair looked amazingly elegant, tied up and all over the place, it must have taken HOURS to do. Her face, oval-shaped and angelic, was perfect in every way, she spotted him, and walked in his direction, but her walk was so graceful it could have been a dance. She set her books on the table before sitting down herself. And James could only stare at her.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"You're beautiful." He said, as if that answered everything. But she snorted.

"What?" it was his turn to ask.

"Me? Beautiful? Hardly." She said.

"No, you really are. Have you seen yourself?" He stopped suddenly. "Your eyes are all red, have you been crying?" She gasped at how observant he was, she scrambled for a cover up.

"I, well, the, I'm sure that…" She trailed off.

"So you have…" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Look it was just some stupid girls…" She tried to sound sure of herself.

"Who were they? Who did this to you?"

"I don't know, some of my roommates…"

"What did they say?"

"Look James, it doesn't matter alright?"

"Please Lily," As her eyes caught his, there was something that made her say,

"Ok." And spilled every part of the story to him.

"Well, they said I was, ugly, and that I didn't even deserve you to be obsessing over me, and that you were probably doing it for a bet anyhow, so it doesn't even matter." She stopped suddenly when she felt his hand on top of hers.

"Lily, I'm not getting paid to do this. I don't deserve YOU, and you are the most beautiful person I have ever seen." Once again, she snorted.

"Yeah, right, alright Romeo, start teaching me the Transfiguration that you happen to know so much about." She said with a laugh.

Now normally, James would have pressed on about how beautiful she was, this time, he simply said,

"As you wish." And opened the Transfiguration book, starting at chapter one.

The study session lasted longer than either of them had expected. They sat at the table until lunch time, but their textbooks lay to the side of the table, long since forgotten. They were talking about everyday things, until Lily's stomach grumbled, giving away that she'd been dying for food for a while, since she had skipped breakfast.

"You're hungry." It wasn't a question, Lily just smiled innocently. "Come on, I'll walk you to lunch." She just laughed, but didn't protest.

She had been presently surprised at his behavior, for he had not even once in the entire ordeal asked her out, or acted arrogant, or done anything truly stupid, except that one time when he fell out of his chair. She was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, James had at least started to mature, and, she admitted, she liked this one, a LOT better than the old one.

Another chapter done, but this one was TWICE as long as usual, (yay) I tried to make up for my absence, well, read, enjoy, and DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!