Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything you recognize – so basically she just owns it

Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry

That probably doesn't make up for my absence but I've actually just finished writing a book and have sent it out to a few agents – which has obviously taken priority. So fingers crossed about that

Hope you all enjoy this chapter – since Lily and James have kissed tell me what else you want to see. Obviously their relationship isn't perfect yet and will be rocky for a bit before they build trust and all those nice things but I do want to focus a little on the other characters too

JAMES POV

With four more days of school left, Lily Evans kissing him, and no homework to boot – James felt as if he was floating on cloud nine. Even the teachers seemed to notice a change in him. On the second last day of school James was the first to stroll into first period Transfiguration, an ear splitting grin across his face.

"You know," Sirius said to a bemused Remus. "It's actually kind of sickening to watch."

"I heard Lily telling Marlene that if he didn't get his head out of the clouds she'd go back to hating him," Remus said, loud enough for James to over hear.

"Funny Moony," James said.

Professor McGonagall gave James a confused look, her eyebrows furrowing. "Take your seat Mr. Potter."

"Certainly Professor," James responded, sinking merrily into his chair.

Sirius snorted, taking the empty seat beside him best mate. "Way to go Prongs," he said. "You've finally managed to frighten McGonagall."

Much to James' surprise, McGonagall was glaring nervously at the two boys, her posture rigid.

Remus leaned forward in his seat. "She's waiting for a prank."

"Who are we pranking?" Peter questioned, dropping into the seat beside Remus. "Because I over heard three third years giggling about a end of term prank they'd planned."

"What?" James said, losing some of his elation. "Who?"

"Uh they were Gryffindor's, I think," Peter said.

Sirius snorted. "Helpful Pete. Really narrowed it down."

"Well maybe it's a good thing," James said thoughtfully; remember something Lily had said to him a while ago. He wondered what she would think of his next few words. "We should train them up – leave with our legacy in tact."

Remus frowned, his face skeptical. But before he could say something, Sirius butted in looking scornful. "As if anyone could live up to our legacy."

"We could always leave them the map," James put in.

"Yeah and while we're at it we should gift wrap your cloak and leave them a step by step guide on how to become Animagi," Sirius said sarcastically. He swotted his friend over the head. "C'mon Prongs, we went over this not even two days ago. Our legacy is just too big."

"It's not the worst idea," James pouted.

"And it's definitely not in your top ten either," Remus said.

"Anyway," Peter interrupted, looking annoyed that the conversation had strayed from his input. "It got me thinking."

The three boys turned to look at Pete, each with equal looks of interest and amusement. Peter's pranks – to put lightly – we're not always the best, or the safest.

"About our end of year prank," he said. "Since it's our last year and all."

Sirius nodded, a glint in his eyes. "It has to be big – the prank to end all –"

"Good Morning class." McGonagall's stern voiced echoed through the class, muting a few conversations.

James' glanced moved across the class. He'd only been away for one and a half weeks but so much happened at Hogwarts on a good day, that he could've been away for years for all the changes that had occurred. He noticed Alice sitting beside Frank, her eyes on the Professor. According to Remus the two went official four days ago. When he'd congratulated Frank the boy had gone red-faced, clearly flushed with happiness.

His eyes fell on Marlene next. Even though he'd seen her at St Mungo's nearly every day for the first five days, she'd failed to mention that her older brother – and James' cousin – and finally settled on a date for his wedding. The wedding was going to take place on the 30th of December, three days after the Hogwarts Winter Ball. James vaguely remembered Lily mentioning it to the prefects at the start of the term, urging them to start thinking of ideas. Apparently he'd missed the prefect meeting where they all finalized ideas and came up with a theme: masquerade.

Then, outside of Hogwarts, there were rumors of a rebel group fighting against Voldemort. This one confused James to no end, since the Ministry was still trying to hush over the severity of their situation. So, if it wasn't the Ministry of Magic fighting back – who was it? He'd discussed it with Remus last night, but the sandy haired boy was just as confused.

"Since this is the last class of term I will be assigning holiday work," McGonagall informed the class, causing most of her students to groan in despair.

James rolled his eyes as Lily just took their teachers words to stride.

"If she assigns group work I will hex her," Sirius muttered.

"I'll be allocating each of you are partner which I expect you to communicate with over the holiday," McGonagall continued, causing Sirius to draw his wand and Remus to hastily slap him over the head. Ignoring the two boy's behaviour McGonagall pulls a jar of chocolate frogs from under her desk. "If you we're to continue eating these frogs, the jar would continue to replenish itself. I want you and your partner to figure out how this is possible."

"It's gotta be some form of conjuration spell," Sirius said.

"Can't," James muttered back, frowning. "It's one of gawps laws of elemental transfiguration. You can't transfigure food from thin air or whatever."

"Dammit," Sirius said frowning.

"Maybe it's the Gemino curse," Remus inputted.

"But doesn't that make everything you touch multiply?" James said.

"Dammit Merlin," Sirius said again, rubbing his temple. "Trust McGonagall to set some kind of riddle as homework."

"It'd be a dead useful spell though," Peter said. "Maybe we could make a prank out of it."

"Okay," McGonagall said, after the chatter had died down. "I'm assuming you've all noticed the complications with this spell. I'll be allocating partners now."

Lily was partnered with Remus, causing both to smile. Peter was partnered with Frank. Alice was partnered with Alfie, one of Frank's friends. Marlene was partnered with Millie Green from Hufflepuff. And James was partnered – much to his surprise – with Sirius.

"Well this makes our lives easy," said Sirius. "Since we live together and all."

LILY POV

"It's obviously got to be some sort of subtle spell," Lily said, piling her plate with sausages and a red salad. The dining room was bustling with the usual chaos that was expected at lunch.

"Yes so I've heard," Marlene said.

"And it's obviously not just as simple as transfiguring something into a chocolate frog," Lily continued, missing Marlene disinterest.

"Because it's being conjured out of thin air," Marlene said, repeating Lily's words from class.

"Exactly," Lily simply continued. "So maybe –"

"Urghh," Marlene groaned loudly. Lily looked up startled. "Your partner is Remus, not me."

Looking affronted, Lily puckered her lips. "Fine," she said. "But good luck with Millie Green. She has less brain cells than a tad pole."

Alice looked between her two friends, uncertain where the sudden animosity had sprung from.

Alice turned to Lily. "That's a bit –"

"Well then, pity Remus is always ill," Marlene snapped angrily. "Wonder if his excuse is going to work on you like it did me before."

Lily blinked. She knew the real reason for Remus' monthly excuses, but she wasn't low enough to just throw it in her friends face to get a rise out of her. Surprisingly, it was Alice who answered.

"Don't be daft Marlene," she said. "If Dumbledore has given him permission it's obviously true. Anyway, they say his mother's ill."

Marlene scoffed. "What was it Snape used to say to you Lily," she said. "Every month? And he always looks so pale and skinny."

Lily gawped. "What did I miss?" She insisted. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you always deny my theory," Marlene snapped. "I saw Remus in the hospital wing – all covered in scratches and stuff."

"So do I Marley," Alice pointed out. "Besides, he told you he'd been dueling with Sirius, and you saw the state of Sirius, just as scratched. And come on – as if Dumbledore would ever let a werewolf come to Hogwarts. He would have to be mental."

"Alice," Lily gasped, looking mad. "They're fully fine when it isn't a full moon."

"Meet one lately?" Marlene said crabbily.

"Okay – what's got your wand in a knot?" Lily said just as crabbily.

"Lily – Marley!" Alice said loudly, drawing the attention of a few fourth years. "Okay firstly – Lily you're a muggleborn. You weren't raised to fear werewolves, like Marley and I were. They're horrible creatures – some even place themselves before their next victims on a full moon."

"If you're referring to Greyback then I'm fully aware of his methods," Lily said stoutly, "but I'm just saying not all of them are bad!"

"What are we talking about?" Sirius said cheerfully, throwing himself down near Marlene. The girl stiffened, shuffling herself away. Lily frowned at that. "Looks serious to me."

The other three marauders sat beside Lily. James leant forward and planted a kiss against her temple, smiling.

"Hey bug," he said.

"Bug?" Lily scrunched her nose.

"Yeah, like Lilybug," James said, piling food onto his plate. "I didn't peg you as a girl you would like nicknames like honey or suger."

"Correct," Lily said. "Good job Jamie."

Sirius snorted. "But seriously, I wanna know what you three were talking about," he whined. "Evans looked like she was about to bite McKinnon's head off."

"If you insist," Marlene said, eyeing Sirius. Lily couldn't for the life of her work out her expression. The two had gone from a relationship, from hating each other, to a rocky kind of friendship and now there was this new development. "We were talking about Greyback."

Remus shuddered.

"Who?" Said Peter loudly, leaning across his friend for the bowel of mash. Lily had a sinking feeling he was trying to cover Remus' sudden loss of color in his face.

Alice squinted, trying to figure out if the boy was serious. Marlene, however, had noticed Remus' slip and visibly stiffened. Her friend had gone from an open book to a chest of secrets in a matter of minutes.

"He's probably the most malicious werewolf in history," James explained, as if Peter was being serious. Marlene eyed her cousin curiously. "If I ever met him I'd stick my antlers so far up his rear end he'd be picking pieces of me out of his teeth for months."

"Charming James," Alice said, laughing.

James' mood seemed to rub away whatever thoughts were dampening Marlene's, and before long the seventh years were joking and teasing each other like usual.

"Come on you lot," Lily finally said, standing. "Potions time."

"If I ignore it will it go away?" Sirius moaned. Marlene snorted loudly, causing Sirius to glance confusedly at her, an uncertain smirk on his face.

The table rose, but when they reached the door James grabbed Lily's hand. "You lot go on ahead," he said, waving his friends forward.

Sirius winked coyly. Alice grabbed him by the collar and yanked him away before he could say something gross.

"Hey," James said, smiling at her.

Lily smiled back, a little breathless. The whole relationship thing was frighteningly new to her – in fact, she wasn't even sure if this counted as a relationship. So what? They'd only snogged once. It wasn't a marriage proposal or anything.

"So I wanted to ask you something," James said, sounding just as nervous as she felt.

It calmed her a little, knowing she made James just as anxious as he made her. "Uh yeah – go ahead."

"It's just the last time I asked you this – uh thing – you rejected me pretty harshly," James said; now grinning.

Lily felt instantly guilty. Her gut instinct was to rile up at his smugness, but she suddenly caught herself finding his confidence endearing. At least he wasn't running his hand through his hair – ah, I talked to late.

"Well I promise to reconsider my answer," she said.

James laughed. "Well there's this Winter Ball coming up," he started.

"That I organized," Lily felt obliged to put in.

"Well there's this Winter Ball organized and run by this greatly obnoxious Head Girl," James started again.

"It's a start," Lily said, ruefully shaking her head.

James folded his arms over his chest. "Fine," he said, jokingly. "I won't ask."

"Oh no!" Lily pleaded, grabbing his shoulders. "How will I live? I guess there's only one other option left."

Much to Lily's satisfaction, James blushed. He pushed his glasses nervously up his nose, suddenly blinking much to fast. "Yeah?" he said hopefully.

"James –"

"Fleamont," James inputted.

"Fleamont?" Lily repeated.

"Fleamont," James confirmed.

"You know, I should've realized," Lily said giggling. "God I wished your parents had a bit more sense and named you Fleamont."

"What and have two Fleamont's in one family?" James said, raising his eyebrows. "Mum would kneel over in fright."

"So what?" Lily said. "You've got a father named Fleamont."

"Correct – now I believe you were asking me something."

"No this is much more interesting." Lily smirked. "So will your son be named Fleamont?"

"Now that is a sickening thought," James said good heartedly.

"Fine, fine," Lily said. "Okay so James Fleamont freaking Potter?"

"Yes Evans?"

"Would you like to go to the Winter Ball with me?"

"Certainly," James whispered, leaning close. "I'll be the one in the mask."

"I expect nothing less," Lily whispered back, her heels lifting from the ground. There was a string joining them, and someone was tightening it.

James pressed his lips against hers – soft and light and teasing – before drawing back, an ear splitting grin across his face. Lily looked at it, savoring the way she'd put that smile there.

"Potions?" James asked.

"If you insist."

"I also want to ask you about what Marlene was saying about Remus at lunch," James said as they started done the corridor.

It threw Lily completely off center. All she'd been thinking about was the warmth of James' smile and how nice his hand felt in hers, and this whole time he'd been thinking of Remus? She hated that the thought even came to her head – but had he just been buttering her up?

"Why don't you just ask her," Lily said sourly.

James hesitated. "I – did I say something wrong," he fumbled.

"I guess not," Lily said, feeling guilty. Was her gut reaction too far fetched? No – she told herself firmly. She had every right to be cautious, and her instincts weren't usually wrong. Right? "She wasn't saying much, just connecting some loose dots I suppose. She has her suspicion."

James loosened visibly. "I forgot that you knew," he said. "So did you convince her that she was wrong?"

"I might've made it worse," Lily said, then stiffening her shoulders she added, "and why shouldn't she know? Her and Remus are friends."

Lily knew they were already late for Potions but this felt like an important conversation to cross. James slowed, thinking her words through.

"You stood up for him didn't you?" James asked.

Lily winced at the look of contained irritation on his face. What was she supposed to do? Join in on their werewolf bashing? Remus was one of her closest friends, she wasn't about to hate on him for the sake of his secrecy – oh god, Lily shuddered.

"Lily, look I'm not saying this in a negative way but you are a muggleborn –"

"Jesus! Not from you too," Lily exclaimed. "If I thought anyone would be against that load of dung it'd be you. I mean, you're clearly still friends with him."

"Yeah but I've bunked with the bloke since I was eleven," James pointed out. "I know how harmless he is. People hear the word werewolf and expect a monster."

"I suppose," Lily said. "And I understand were your coming from and all." It was irrational and startling, but Lily felt a sudden annoyance against her two best friends. There prejudice was completely based on societies construction of a werewolf. Both girls adored Remus – would it really change their perspective of him that much if they found out?

"It's his choice Lily," James said softly.

That, Lily thought, was firmly true. Lily just didn't think it was the right one. Smiling, Lily slipped her hand back into James' and led him towards class.