Chapter Twenty-Six: Charmed

When James got up in the morning he was not surprised to see Remus gone, his bed made so neatly that as Sirius had pointed out more than once it was like he was daring them to mess it up. Peter sleeping away was also not a surprise since James had been getting in the habit of waking up at the crack of dawn to get flying practice in and run a few laps so he could be an even better Quidditch player than he already was! While it was hard to believe he could get any better, James owed it to himself and his growing fan group that cheered his name rather than the other Gryffindor Quidditch players during practice.

James knew he had Peter to thank for rounding up nearly all the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff first and second years and even some third years which soon became avid fans of his. No surprise there! James was a little bummed that the Hufflepuffs who had been cheering him were making themselves scarce now that the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff game was a little over a month away. James supposed he got it since loyalty to one's house was important but that just made him want to try all the harder so that for his second game he could become an even more distinguished star than he had proven himself to be for the first. He would lead his team to victory! Well, it would be his team one day.

As James brushed his teeth and avoided his father's Sleakeasys hair product since he knew it didn't do him a lick of good anyways he mused about how Lily Evans would have to acknowledge his Quidditch prowess after the next game. James just hoped the Second Triwizard tournament being a mere week before the Quidditch game wouldn't completely overshadow the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff game.

James walked out of the bathroom and stopped realizing there was in fact something very surprising about this morning. Sirius wasn't in his bed, the blankets messily scattered about, one even on the floor stretching into Remus' floor space. James walked over to the bed kicking the blanket since he knew it bothered Remus even if he didn't say anything. James was quite certain Sirius knew as well but the berk wouldn't stop when James told him to, insisting unless Remus said something about it himself that he wouldn't stop.

Where had Sirius gone?

HIs friend was by no means a morning person. Well, he was sometimes a morning person, but anytime the moron had that chaotic energy of his he woke the rest of them up. Perhaps Remus and Sirius had spent another night talking through the night again? However, James hoped for both of their sanity this was not the case. He frowned knowing the talk about the petition would not stop for a while and would no doubt ramp up during the weekend. James doubted Remus realized it but he suspected Lily had purposely moved her birthday party to the weekend and was making it a big deal both to try to distract people from the Whomping Willow and, if possible, to take Remus' mind off it. Lily was just that selfless and kind and wonderful and brilliant and….

James shook his head trying to let concern for Sirius pull him away from his inner awe with Lily, though he had to admit that was quite difficult. James had written his mother and father about Lily, more than one letter, and their advice had been the same all seven times. 'Be patient, you are only twelve'. Well, he was going to turn thirteen soon! James loved his parents more than anything in the entire world, he'd even give up Quidditch for them if it was required though it would be torture for him to do so.

"When you love my sweet little Jamesy boy you love with all your heart." His mum had written that to him and he knew it was right. James would also give up his life for his family and friends. James would even give up Quidditch for his friends though he resisted saying things like that to Remus and Sirius because he knew how uncomfortable it made them. James knew they weren't used to love even if he couldn't know exactly what that meant. But anyone who hadn't grown up with parents like his seemed to be far less fortunate than him. Of course, even James' parents could be annoying and wrong sometimes. After James' parents had assured him that liking 'that Lily' girl was alright, they had insisted he at least wait until he was fifteen before declaring he would marry her.

That was nonsense! James Potter was not a fickle person and he knew his parents knew this. And if James said he liked someone then he bloody knew he liked them! He knew Lily was special which was definitely saying something for him. Even when James had been given a toy he didn't like from his distant relatives when he was younger he had insisted on playing with it since he didn't want to have that toy be left out. It was why James ignored Peter's nervously asked questions on which Marauder was James' favorite or Sirius' insistence that he was James' best 'best; friend. They were all his best friends and that was simply all there was to it!

Thinking of his friends reminded James that he was missing one of them. Well really two were missing but he had learned from experience the mornings were Remus' time. On the few occasions, James had run into Remus on his way to his early self practice his friend had pretended not to see him. At first, James had been quite offended by this but his mum had explained to him that some people had a hard time socializing in the early morning. James didn't really get it because if people didn't want to socialize why didn't they just sleep? However, James had decided to give Remus space, if only for the reason he had to balance some of Sirius' more invasive tendencies.

James headed down to the common room knowing Peter would wake himself up before breakfast. Peter's knack to wake up at the right moment to get ready and reach food was quite uncanny. James did not expect to see Lily up and his heart skipped a beat when he saw her curled up on one of the bean bag chairs wrapping a strand of hair around her finger again and again.

Be patient?!

How could his parents tell him such a thing? He wanted to hold Lily's hand and watch her smile at him and if he was really fantasizing, kissing his cheek again would be wonderful. He could die a happy man then! But James figured getting Lily all worked up was plenty fun too. She couldn't ignore him in that case. This time though James summoned every ounce of swagger and courage he had and sauntered over to the fireplace leaning against it casually and winking at Lily.

"Hello gorgeous!" he called out to her in a deep tone, careful to do everything just like Sirius had instructed him since if any of the lot of them knew about girls it was Black. Not that Sirius was better looking, no matter how much he insisted he was. But James knew his friend could be smooth around girls in a way James could not. Instead, he found himself hopelessly tongue-tied around Lily. He had wondered a few times if she hadn't cursed him since he would actually go rigged, even with Sirius' insistence she hadn't. James had never actually seen Sirius 'woo a broad' but he had every faith his friend could do it if he put his mind to it. Only for whatever reason Sirius' advice did not work on Lily.

"Your cloak is on fire Potter," she replied flatly, glancing up only long enough to give him a look of pure disdain before going back to her book on 100 of the Most Useful Spells.

"Whaaaaat!" he shouted, spinning around once his brain actually caught up to him. For some reason, it worked slower around Lily Evans. Sirius could say what he wanted but James was positive someone had cursed him. "Shoot," he quickly let his robe fall to the ground as he was going to step on it but this was the wrong move since the plush carpet was apparently very flammable. James hopped out of the way as Leo; the large plush Lion who was a staple in the common room's, paw caught on fire. "Oh no!"

"Oh for goodness sake. Aguamenti," Lily barked, her wand in her hand so fast that if James didn't know any better he would say she had taken it out preemptively once she realized he was there. Only that was ridiculous since James knew Lily liked him teasing and impressing her as much as he did, well way deep down anyways.

James was relieved and amazed by Lily's accuracy as it quite possibly saved all of Leo from going up in flames.

"Aww, his paw is all charred. Can we fix it?" he asked, crouching down to examine the damage, knowing the older students would be absolutely livid with him about this.

"Don't be daft Potter, the fire is enchanted so it never goes out. That means damage caused by it is hard to reverse," Lily pointed out impatiently.

"That seems dangerous," James pouted, kicking the charred carpet as if that could make it go away.

"Most Gryffindors aren't stupid enough to set their common room on fire," replied dryly, and perhaps with just a tinge of amusement.

"Will you tell on me?" James asked nervously, worried about his fellow Quidditch mates being displeased at him by this. Unfortunately, James forgot too late that he was supposed to act cool in front of LIly. She seemed a bit surprised actually meeting his eyes before shaking her head.

"No, don't be ridiculous. Of course, I won't. Cover up the burned carpet with a bean bag chair."

"Good thinking I'm sure the house-elves will replace it during breakfast," James remarked, calming down some. Lily pursed her lips but said nothing, tilting a different one of her books so James couldn't see the cover, but he had already seen what it was.

"Anything useful in it?" he asked, glancing one more time at Leo. Really the slightly burned paw wasn't too noticeable unless someone was actually looking for it. Unless someone moved the two bean bag chairs James had set to arranging just right, he should get away scot-free. This was really good because even if the older students didn't care about Leo as much as they claimed to, insisting he was good luck, Sirius would never have let James live it down. And honestly, Peter and Remus wouldn't have let James forget it also.

"No," Lily huffed in frustration, throwing the book down. "Remus told me he didn't want me reading about it but I don't know why not. Anything with details about…" she glanced around and lowered her voice, "lycanthropy is in the restricted section so I haven't been able to find anything even remotely helpful."

James winced knowing that if those books were in the restriction section it probably meant werewolf transformations were gory. Or perhaps they could be? Or maybe the books just had details of werewolf attacks? Either way, it made James sad thinking about it and he surprised himself by not offering to nick a book from the restricted section for Lily even though he easily could. As much as Sirius thought they could cure lycanthropy one day, James wasn't too sure. While he didn't approve of Peter's tactic of just trying to forget about it, James was forced to admit that it was certainly the sanest option. Not that James would forget or give up on helping Remus. He was certain there was something they could do, he just thought Sirius was aiming too big and Peter was aiming, well not at all.

"I think what you're doing with your birthday is really nice of you!" James blurted out since the silence was starting to stretch and his palms were getting sweaty from the stress of trying to think of something to say to keep the conversation flowing naturally. He was pretty sure he had nailed it though. Girls liked to be complimented loads, after all!

"Honestly James, me inviting you isn't a big deal and I assure you I wouldn't…"

"No, I meant, with Remus." James cut her off quickly, his ears burning. How come neither complimenting Lily nor impressing her worked in his favor?

"Oh." Lily sounded surprised, "Did Remus figure it out then?"

James scoffed. "No, that would mean realizing how much we all care about him," he explained, amused until he realized Lily looked crestfallen at that. "I figured it out myself," James added quickly. Surely he would impress her now.

"What are you doing up this early anyway?" she asked not even given any indication she had heard the statement he had uttered with such pride. He grinned and stood taller.

"Going to practice Quidditch. Are you impressed?"

"Not even slightly Potter. I'm sure everyone needs to practice." she sighed, shaking her head as if his answer had confirmed everything she needed to know about him. James bristled, feeling defensive. It was one thing for Lily to think he was a moron but it was another thing entirely for her to imply he was just like any other old Quidditch player. "You know I scored 80 points last practice don't you?"

"So?"

So? He had been close to breaking a record! What did she mean, 'so'?

"What are you doing up this early anyway?" James asked grumpily, acknowledging Lily was going to be harder to impress than he had originally thought. He really was going to have to stand out during the upcoming game.

"You mean you don't know?" she asked, surprised once more. There was even a hint of suspicion in her tone as if she wasn't quite sure if James was faking or not. Knew what? For a second James wondered if he should pretend to know but his curiosity won out.

"What do you mean? Did something happen?"

Lily tsked and closed another book he hadn't even realized she had opened. He wasn't sure why she was reading a book on third year herbology but it was the sort of dull swatish thing Lily would do that severely made James doubt his sanity in liking her sometimes. Honestly, what was so great about Lily Evans anyways?

"Do you boys ever talk? You know, communicate with each other? Surely you know what that means? No, don't answer that I'm quite certain your idea of talking is wrestling in the grass like a couple of barbarians. Well, you and Sirius anyways. However, if you must know, Sirius and Remus had a fight last night."

Oh no! Well, that certainly explained one thing.

"What was Sirius getting all mad about with Remus now?" James irritatedly asked, wondering why Sirius could not just leave Remus be sometimes. It's not like James pestered Sirius about his parents and past, even though he sometimes wanted to. The only times James brought up the Black family was if Sirius was leaving for home soon, and even then he approached the topic as one might approach an angry dragon. James noticed Lily struggling to hold back a smile going so far as to pick back up her book and hide behind it. James wasn't sure what was so funny about what he said but he found himself beaming.

"It wasn't Sirius that was mad," Lily explained once she deemed it safe to reappear from behind her book, her eyes full of concern now.

What?

"Are you sure you weren't mistaken?" James asked, caught off guard because he wasn't even sure Remus had it in him to go off on his friends. Well, he supposed if grades were on the line or if Lupin was behind on assignments he could. But as far as James knew Remus wasn't behind on assignments. The only thing Remus could possibly be stressed about right now was….

Oh!

"I wish he wouldn't blame himself," James groaned, unsure how to go about fixing that particular challenge. He had tried to write to his parents about it but couldn't quite figure out the words that wouldn't have them asking too many follow-up questions about why one of his friends felt so guilty about everything. James was just glad he was smart enough to ask for advice from his parents about 'his one friend' in a way that his parents would never be able to guess it was Remus. At least...James didn't think so.

"It's a shame," Lily said sadly, not seeming to realize she had agreed with James about something. Only James didn't feel much like smiling anymore. If only those stupid foreign students hadn't gone about making a big deal about the tree. Sure, someone had gotten hurt but this Hogwarts, and there had certainly been Quidditch injuries worse than what Davey had gone through, even with the embellishments Sirius must have added to his story.

James was about to ask if Lily had any bright idea on how to possibly stop the petition but the portrait door swung open and Sirius stomped in.

"There you are. How come you didn't come looking for me? I was waiting for you at the Quidditch pitch and…." Sirius trailed off taking in the other person in the common room. "Oh now it makes sense you were with bloody Evans," he added angrily.

"Good morning to you to Black," Lily replied coolly then promptly began reading again and James knew any chance of getting her to acknowledge his presence was a lost cause. Unless maybe he caused a fire again? But James wasn't that desperate.

"You know you could've waited upstairs like a normal bloke," James grumbled but followed Sirius out of the common room since his friend had flicked both his middle fingers in a frantic fashion which meant 'urgent' in the language they had developed.

….

Once Sirius had caught James up on all that had transpired last night he waited expectantly for James to say something.

"You couldn't have just let him sleep? Sirius, mate, neither of you slept at all last night. Surely confronting Remus at four in the morning wasn't the best move?"

Sirius had to begrudgingly agree James had a point. He had just been so upset by the secrets Remu was keeping….yet again!

"You don't even care that he took your cloak?" Sirius asked James, feeling a bit of betrayal by his friend's lack of a response over the matter.

"So? You steal all the time. I've given up on saying it's mine. It's all the bloody Marauders at this point. At least Remus usually asks. You do know you used it without asking less than a week ago to pelt dungbombs at Regulus and his friends, right?"

"He was being a prat!" Sirius shouted in his defense.

"And that Peter used it about two and half weeks ago to sneak Marlene a cupcake as an apology for another row I guess they had. The point is Remus is the least likely to steal it," James explained, now pinching the bridge of his nose which meant his patience was running thin. But Sirius didn't care, his own patience was running thin too!

"Exactly. So he must have been doing something big. Something he didn't include us in," Sirius groaned expecting James to get it now.

"Why do you care so much? What is it you think he was doing anyway?" James accused not looking impressed at all.

Sirius faltered, not entirely sure about that. He only knew Remus must have been up to something! James must have seen the displeasure on Sirius' face because he put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"Look mate I bet you five galleons that he was just in the library studying. You know how he is."

"Then why couldn't he just tell me that!" Sirius whined, crossing his arms around his chest and glaring at the spot Remus had stood last night. Stupid Remus!

"Because he's a stubborn git. Or jeez I don't know, maybe he was irked about being cornered upon returning," James pointed out impatiently.

Sirius made a discontented sound but once more realized James and a point. Dammit!

"I'd be more worried about the petition if I were you mate." James unhelpfully reminded Sirius.

"Don't you think I know that?" snapped Sirius. "I just don't know what to do about it. Remus won't say another word about the matter but I just know he's being a moron about the whole thing."

"Or maybe he's realized the Whomping Willow being planted because of him doesn't make Davey's injuries his fault?" James asked hopefully.

Sirius shot James a skeptical look.

"Ok, ok so maybe that's not the case. But my advice is let it be if he's not talking about it," James insisted, another stubborn git. Why was Sirius friends with so many stubborn gits?

Sirius sighed, figuring that as annoying as Potter was that letting the matter be was the best thing to do about it at the moment. After all, if Remus was going to be a dickface about the whole thing then he could deal with it himself or admit he needed help. Stubborn, was perhaps the first word Sirius would use to describe Remus Lupin. Followed closely by the word, prat.