Sirius pushed his transfiguration book across the table. The Marauders were huddled around a small desk in the library in one of their only free periods together. It was Thursday morning, two days had passed since Lily and James had sat together in Potions.
Around the table, the Marauders exhibited various stages of concentration. Remus, the most studious of the boys, was intently poring over his transfiguration homework. On his left, Peter had written nothing but was vigorously chewing his quill as though hoping it could offer some insight into the work in front of him. James had written half a paragraph and was now doodling on a scrap of parchment. Sirius had been reading but was now staring off into space.
Noticing this, James threw him a swift but soft kick under the table.
'What's up Padfoot?' he asked in a soft voice, as Madame Moreau often stalked the aisles of the library, sending out students for making the slightest noise.
'I'm so bored,' replied Sirius grumpily. 'It's still a whole week until the full moon.'
'Thankfully,' muttered Remus under his breath.
'Maybe it's time to get out my dad's old cloak and do some exploring,' whispered James.
Peter looked from Sirius to Remus waiting for them to answer. Remus, as he often did when he disapproved of the conversation had buried his head back in his transfiguration homework.
'We won't all fit under the cloak though,' said Sirius, his voice considerably lighter.
'Wormy can do his rat thing, you and I will fit and Moony can…'
'And I'm not coming,' said Remus looking up from his work. 'I can't afford not to toe the line, given my furry little problem.'
'Aww Moony, we can't let a little thing like that get in the way of fun,' said Sirius.
'No, we can't,' agreed Peter heartily.
'That's okay if Moony doesn't want to come this time, then we'll go tonight after the common room clears out,' said James.
That night, the common room didn't clear until twelve-thirty when Marlene and Alice finally ascended the stairs to the dormitories still gossiping and giggling.
'Finally!' exclaimed James. 'I thought they'd never leave.' In truth, he had spent a good portion of the night straining to catch what Alice and Marlene were saying, in the hope that they would talk about Lily. He had trouble hearing them for most part of the night due to the noisiness of the common room and had not managed to garner any information that was more useful than who the Hufflepuff quidditch captain was currently seeing.
A few minutes later, three of the four marauders set off, James and Sirius under the cover of the cloak and Peter scurrying along the floor behind them. The midnight wanderings of the marauders in the past had led them to discover many of the school's secret passages but on this particular night it proved unfruitful and the three boys returned to the dormitory several hours later feeling drained and disappointed.
The days passed quickly for Lily as she threw herself vigorously into her schoolwork, she found her NEWT level classes generally enjoyable with the exception of transfiguration where she struggled profusely to do even simple spells in the non-verbal manner now required at NEWT level. Much to her frustration none of the other class members seemed to be having any difficulty and had now progressed to working on fifth-year doubling charms non-verbally.
As she sat in the common room waiting for Remus so they could go on their weekly prefect rounds, she was attempting to silently turn a match into a pin without success. Lily waited for Remus for a good five minutes before she began to worry, he was never late for their rounds, they always met at eight-thirty to begin patrolling before the first-year curfew began at nine. When her watch reached exactly eight forty-five, Lily decided she could wait no longer, she got up from her chair and went up the stairs of the boys dormitories to knock on the sixth year's door. She gave a sharp knock and waited.
It was James, not Remus who opened the door. Lily tried not to notice that his shirt was unbuttoned revealing his well-defined abs. Years of quidditch training in combination with a recent growth spurt had given James Potter long lean legs, chiselled arms, and the wide, broad shoulders of a chaser. He stood a head above Lily and smiled broadly when he saw who it was.
'Ah Evans, I was just coming to find you,' he said, one of his hands jumping to his hair as he spoke.
'Yes, all right, Potter. But I really need to find Remus,' Lily replied impatiently.
'Moony, I mean Remus is in the library with Sirius and Peter.'
'Why is he in the library, when we have prefect rounds together?' asked Lily slightly taken a back.
'Oh, so you didn't check the prefects' notice board?' asked James casually.
'No Potter, because in the first week there are no changes to the schedule from last year,' Lily replied her annoyance growing by the second. 'Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find Remus,' she snapped, turning to go back down the staircase.
'Lily, wait,' James scrambled after her, trying to button up his shirt as he went but only succeeding in getting the buttons in the wrong holes. He reached her at the bottom of the stairs.
'Potter I really don't have time for this. Whatever this is.'
'I thought someone would have told you. Remus isn't a prefect this year. I am.'
Lily laughed. 'Good one Potter,' she replied.
'I'm being serious,' said James in a solemn voice.
'Ok,' said Lily, narrowing her eyes. 'But why would Remus give up being a prefect? And more to the point why did they pick you as replacement?'
'Health issues and I don't know,' replied James quickly.
'What health issues?' asked Lily, concern flooding her face.
'Umm, his mum is sick.'
'Oh,' was all Lily could manage.
'So, it's just me and you tonight Evans,' said James changing the subject quickly. 'Almost like a date,' he winked.
'This,' said Lily, gesturing between James and herself. 'This will never be a date, Potter.'
James looked a little crestfallen but quickly hid his expression behind a smile. 'Ok Evans, as you wish. What do we do on this patrolling business anyway?'
'I don't have time to explain,' said Lily. 'We have to get a wriggle on.' She grabbed James by the arm and pulled him out of the portrait hole, his shirt still in the wrong buttons.
'Oh, and you have to watch out for Peeves,' said Lily. 'He hates prefects. Goes out of his way to make our lives hell.' Lily had just spent the last five minutes relaying all the necessary information about patrolling corridors, docking points, and handing out detentions to James, who for the most part had been listening. He could not help that his attention drifted to what it would feel like to run his fingers through Lily's long auburn hair.
'Earth to Potter,' Lily teased.
'Sorry I was thinking,' replied James rather abashed. 'What were you saying?'
'I was telling you about Peeves and how he likes to drop dung bombs on the prefects.'
'Oh, I don't think I'll need to worry about Peeves,' said James confidently. 'He and I are kindred spirits you see.'
'Not now you've taken over from Remus you won't be,' replied Lily smugly.
'Don't be silly Evans. Nothing can break the bond between marauder and poltergeist especially not an obnoxious badge.'
'Fine,' replied Lily. 'Don't say I didn't warn you when Peeves drops his first dung bomb on you.'
'So other than spending Thursday evenings in your delightful company, does this gig have any other perks?' asked James, trying to steer the conversation into safer waters.
'Well, we do have a pretty grand bathroom,' Lily replied, smiling at the thought of the swimming pool-sized tub surrounded by golden taps.
'Fifth floor next to the statue of Boris the Bewildered? Yeah, we found it second year. The password is always easy enough to guess. Something like soapsuds usually does the trick. And if not, Sirius has a bad habit of flirting with a prefect until they tell us.'
'Don't you mean until she tells you?' asked Lily incredulously.
'Ah Evans, so naïve. Sirius doesn't just limit his flirting skills to girls. Any prefect will do. If no one will spill, then we can always hex a Hufflepuff prefect.'
Lily laughed at this admission; she could not believe that she was actually having a good time with James Potter. Sternly, she reminded herself that while it was funny imagining a second year Sirius Black attempting to flirt with fifth year prefects, this was still the James Potter who had caused her heartbreak over Severus.
The rest of the evening passed almost uneventfully with James and Lily making small talk about their classes, how they had spent their summers and their hobbies. When Lily returned to her dormitory later that night she was glowing with happiness, James was equally jubilant as he flopped down on the end of Sirius' bed.
'She's the best Padfoot. I can't believe how amazing she is.'
Sirius yawn sleepily. 'Oh, did McGonagall let you off detention early or something?'
'No, you fool. I haven't been in detention. I've been patrolling with Lily.'
'Ah goodie-two-shoes Evans. Did you snog her then?'
'No,' said James suddenly self-conscious.
'Lame, James. Lame,' replied Sirius falling back on his bed. 'Lily and James – Lame, Lames,' said Sirius laughing. 'Get it? Lames. That's what I'm going to call the two of you now. Lames.'
'I get it and it's not one bit funny,' said James, getting off Sirius' bed to pull off his robes.
When Lily rolled out of bed the next morning, she found that Marlene and Alice were sitting on Alice's bed across from hers, already dressed and munching on croissants.
'You guys are up early,' said Lily sleepily.
'Well,' began Alice. 'We wanted to have a girl chat, so we got some breakfast from the kitchens.'
'A girl chat?' Lily was now eyeing them suspiciously.
'Yes Lily, we noticed you were back rather late last night. Personally, I think it's great you're getting out of your Severus funk and you know getting some action so to speak. But we're your friends and want to make sure you're making good choices,' Marlene, usually so composed, rushed hurriedly through the rehearsed speech that she and Alice had composed last night instead of doing their charms homework. Across the room, Lily was flabbergasted.
'You guys think I was getting some action last night?' she asked astounded.
'Well, you weren't in the library or the common room,' Alice reasoned. 'Honestly Lil we think it's great really we do…' Lily recovered herself enough to interrupt.
'You guys have the wrong idea,' she began slowly. 'I wasn't doing that last night. I don't even have a boyfriend for Merlin's sake.'
'Where were you then?' asked Marlene.
'Prefect duty, patrolling the corridors with Potter,' answered Lily.
'Oh,' said Marlene, looking at Alice with a stunned expression on her face.
'We thought,' began Alice before closing her mouth. 'Never mind,' she finished abruptly.
'How was prefect duty with Potter then?' asked Marlene, rapidly changing the subject. 'WAIT he's not in the hospital wing because you hexed him is he? We can't lose our Quidditch captain like the day of try-outs!'
'Well at least you guys don't think I'm crazy enough to make out with Potter or something,' Lily laughed at her own joke. 'Relax Mar, your Quidditch captain still has both legs. How he gets off the ground with a head as big as he has is always a mystery to me, but I wouldn't sabotage Gryffindor's chances.'
Lily and the girls finished breakfast, chatting amiably about who would replace Ardan McLaggen as Gryffindor seeker. Marlene had been keeper since fourth year and was very concerned that they wouldn't be able to find anyone with McLaggen's sublime speed and quick hands.
