One afternoon in late autumn, Lyra found herself eating lunch with her other roommates, Marlene McKinnon and Emmeline Vance. Both were sweet girls, and Lyra had grown quite close to them during her years at Hogwarts. Marlene was a bubbly blonde from a pureblood family, always ready to lend a hand as that's what she had been taught was proper. Emmeline was a bit rougher around the edges. It took some work, but once Lyra had broken through her exterior, she had never been let down.

"I just don't see how Slughorn expects us to master, like, every potion in the book. It's the kind of skill you can't even learn. You just have to be able to do it, and I definitely can't," Marlene complained.

"It's such rubbish that all the good career paths make N.E.W.T. potions a requirement. I hate it. If I didn't wanna be an Auror, I would've run as fast as I could when McGonagall suggested taking it," Emmeline added.

"I don't know, it's not that bad," Lyra said, "it's Transfiguration I can't seem to ever get right."

"Are you kidding? Recently you've seemed to be getting way better. Even McGonagall's noticed," Emmeline told her.

"Yeah. Seriously, how have you been improving so much? And you've been teaching Lily. She told me the other day that she hasn't had to ask Lupin for help in weeks," Marlene asked.

"I bet she's happy about that. Not having to spend any time around Potter," Lyra said, trying to change the subject to one other than her secret tutoring from James.

"You got that right. Though, I don't see why she's so against giving the bloke a chance. All's he's ever done is pine after her. It's really kinda sweet," Marlene mentioned with a small smile.

Emmeline laughed. "A little jealous, there, Marlene?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it's been years. She ought to just give the guy a chance," Marlene answered with a shrug.

A few seconds later, Lily took a seat beside Emmeline. "Hey, guys. What's the newest rumour on the gossip mill?" she asked while grabbing an apple from the basket in the center of the table.

"We were just saying how it's a shame all of Potter's efforts to win you over have gone to waste," Emmeline stately plainly, ignoring the warning glances of Marlene and Lyra.

Lily stared at the three other girls. "You can't be serious. That boy is a toerag. I wouldn't wish him on my worst enemy. Merlin knows I'll never get a chance to. He still follows my every move like a lost Pygmy Puff. And not even a cute one!"

"I don't think he's too bad," Marlene shrugged.

"I think it's the hair," Emmeline added.

Marlene nodded her head. "It must be, right? Though the height doesn't hurt – "

"Bloody hell! Can we please stop this conversation, now?" Lily pleaded.

"Don't worry, Lily, he's only got eyes for you," Lyra said, trying to hold in her smile. It didn't last very long, and soon she was laughing. The other girls right behind her without a second thought.

They laughed all the way to their next class, which happened to be Potions with Slughorn. When they arrived, they found the only other people there were their fellow Gryffindors, the Marauders. This was unusual, as they had the class with members of every house, and the Marauders were never known to be the first ones in any classroom.

"Good afternoon, ladies," James greeted them upon their entrance.

"Hey, Potter. Others," Emmeline said while she walked to her usual station, which she shared with Marlene.

"How is it, boys?" Marlene asked, following Emmeline.

"Much better with you here, Miss McKinnon," Sirius answered with a sly smile.

Lyra gave them a small wave while Lily completely ignored James. Nothing new.

When the two girls reached their shared station, Lyra glanced over to where Marlene and Emmeline were. Sirius had at some point made his way to them, and was now leaning on Marlene's desk making his bedroom eyes. Lyra rolled her own and looked at her text book in front of her, keeping her head down as she flipped aimlessly through the pages. She didn't see how anyone could be interested in someone like him. Sure, he had good looks, and yeah, he was pretty smart. But, really, his reputation ruined all that. He was, first and foremost, a notorious womanizer. He hadn't been in any relationship that had lasted more than a month or two at most, and he'd had plenty of them. Still, girls didn't seem to be able to see past those stormy grey eyes and soft black locks.

Slowly but surely, the rest of the students entered the classroom, and Sirius was forced to return to his seat next to James.

"Welcome, class, welcome! Today we will be learning to glorious of art of…" Slughorn began.

Lyra had his voice drowned out in record time as she began to think about her own love life, or lask thereof. The last boyfriend she'd had was a timid little Ravenclaw at the beginning of sixth year. He was nice, but the only thing that excited with was his studies, and Lyra never felt like she was getting anything out of the relationship – apart from a little tutoring in her classes. What Lyra really wanted was excitement, and up until this year she'd been afraid to get it. But now it was first on her list of what was going to chance for her final year at Hogwarts.

Once class was over, Lily needed to get a few notes she'd missed from Remus, so Lyra went with her to where they were packing up their things. It was customary Lyra to keep James away from Lily whenever she needed to speak with Remus. At first, Lily would ask her as a favour, but after a few times it was second nature to Lyra.

"Hey," she said as she approached.

"You don't have to keep distracting me from Lily, you know. I can stay away from her myself," James told her, slowly collecting all his parchment.

Lyra looked bashful. "So you caught on to that, did you?"

James gave a dry laugh and didn't say anything.

"You coming or what, mate?" Sirius yelled from the door. He was standing at the door with Peter, waiting.

James looked up toward Sirius. "Yeah, just a mo." He glanced at Lyra before picking up his bag. "I'll see you around, Lyra."

"We're still on for Thursday, right?" Lyra asked him in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course," he answered with a small smile before turning toward the door.

Lyra heaved a sigh before turning to Lily, who was just waving good-bye to Remus.

"Ready?" she asked Lyra, nodding toward the door. "If we hurry, I think we can catch Marlene and Emmeline. You know how slow they can be when they've got something to talk about. Did you see the way Black was acting with Marlene? Looks like he's got a new target."

Lyra scowled. "Disgusting, wasn't it?"

Lily laughed at her friend. "Careful, Ly-ly, someone might think you," she sang, "were jealous."

"Real cute, Lily," she said with a grimace that made Lily snicker again. "And don't call me 'Ly-ly' unless you want your nickname from third year to make a comeback."

Lily's expression mirrored Lyra's at the thought of the dreaded 'Lilykins' that had been ever so popular years ago. "Alright, fine. But we really do need a nickname for you. 'Ly' makes me feel like I'm accusing you of false claims or something. I know it's been six years, and if a good one were going to come along naturally, it would have, but still."

"Whatever you say, Lily. Whatever you say."

"I'm here! I'm here!" James said as he slid into the chair across the table from Lyra one Thursday night a few days later. Often times he was late for their meetings, so whenever he arrived by eight, he was quite proud of himself. Lyra always enjoyed the big deal he made over it.

"Congrats. You've managed to remember the time we've been meeting for over a month. I really don't know how you do it," Lyra teased as she opened her textbook to the spot they had left off the last time.

"Watch it or I'll stop showing up," James responded with a pointed finger.

Lyra let out a short laugh. "Please. Then where would your non-existent relationship with Lily be? Face it, Potter, you need me more than your hair needs a comb."

"If that's the case, then I don't need you in the least," James said, protectively stroking his hair as if it were his child.

"I hate to break it to you, Prongs, but she's right, I'm afraid," said a voice from behind Lyra. Upon turning, she found Remus walking toward the table. He placed a comforting hand on James' arm as he sat down at the table. James swatted the arm away.

Lyra smiled and shook her head at their antics. "Hey, Remus. Here to give James your homework so he won't have to do it himself?"

"Actually, our cheating sessions are Tuesday nights. Today I'm essentially here to work," he answered. True to his word, in his arms he held an Advanced Potions book.

"Join us," Lyra swept her arm lavishly in the direction of an unoccupied chair. As Remus took a seat, she asked him, "What do you mean by essentially?"

Remus opened his Potions book, took out a roll of parchment, and prepared a quill before he turned his attention back to Lyra to address her question. He glanced around before leaning forward and saying in a low, but enthused voice, "Well, don't tell anyone, but I may have overheard a few of the professors discussing a new addition to the library in the form of a five volume – "

"We've heard enough, Moony," James interrupted, "It sounds undeniably fascinating."

Remus rolled his eyes. "It really is a shame you are so incapable of appreciating some of the finer aspects of life, James. Not everyone is so inspired by Dungbombs and Pumpkin Pasties."

James brushed him off easily. "Whatever you say, mate. Now, Lyra," he said, turning to the girl herself, "where was it we left off last week?"

Lyra was quite impressed with the dedication James was showing toward these tutoring sessions. She had expected him to either forget about them or show up to the first one before growing bored and giving up. Instead, James had stayed faithful and in turn, Lyra's marks were already improving, and she was able to give Lily the extra bit of help she refused to admit she needed. Lyra had even managed to keep her best friend in the dark about the whole situation. She merely told Lily she was needed a distraction-free time to study once a week, which explained why her knowledge of Transfiguration was improving, and – more importantly – why Lily could not, under any circumstances, enter the library on Thursday nights after dinner.

After about an hour of relentless studying with James, while Remus snooped around the library for the new books he had heard about, Lyra began to think she was finally getting the hang of the subject. It seemed James agreed, as he suddenly slammed the book they were looking at shut, narrowly missing the finger Lyra was aiming at a chunk of text, and gave a tremendously melodramatic sigh.

"James?" Lyra asked. He continued staring off with an absent look on his face. "James!" Lyra said a bit louder, nudging his arm.

James started. "Huh? What is it?"

"You're asking me? If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who just shut a book with an alarming amount of aggression before spacing out," said Lyra, not without a look of confusion upon her face.

"Did I? I'm sorry. It's just so hard to concentrate on teaching you when I've got something else completely occupying my mind," James said with yet another sigh.

"How can you be distracted? You literally just taught me an entire lesson with complete clarity! Don't tell me you're that good at Transfiguration. What? Do you wake up in the middle of the night to find you've turned your blankets into pansies and roses in your sleep?" Lyra asked, astonished with his skill on the topic.

James just shrugged with eyes downcast.

"Alright. Tell me the problem," Lyra told him sternly, looking him right in the eye.

James instead found the quill sitting on the table top to be much more fascinating, and did not say a thing until Lyra uttered his name once more, sounding like a warning.

James sighed. "I just don't understand. I've tried so hard to earn Lily's affection, and she won't have any of it. I mean, I get she was upset about the Snivellus thing, but that was so long ago. She can't still be angry, can she?"

"Oh, James," Lyra cooed, placing a comforting hand on his arm. "You boys really don't know a thing, do you? All the effort is just what's wrong. At first it was charming, I'm sure, but after she told you 'no' several times, it lost its charm and just became a nuisance. She's just grown tired of your antics."

"But even when I merely make a comment to her, she completely brushes me off! Does she really hate me that much?" James replied hopelessly.

"No, no, no. Of course she doesn't hate you, love. To be honest, I think she's just grown so used to how she treats you that she doesn't even realize what she's doing. So used to your immaturity in the past, she hasn't even noticed how different you've become in the last year. I mean, Merlin knows you're still a handful at times, but compared to how you used to be…." Lyra explained to him.

"So you're saying she's so stuck in her attitude that there isn't even a chance anymore?" James asked. His eyes held such sadness that Lyra couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

"James, can I ask you a serious question before I answer that?"

"Sure, I guess," James answered with a shrug.

"You've been after Lily for, what, five years now? In all that time, have you ever considered that it's not gonna work out? That maybe you two aren't as meant to be as you assume?" Lyra asked softly.

James shook his head slowly. "I know I come off a bit strong sometimes, and it's just because I have never had any doubt in my mind that Lily would one day realize how perfect we would be." He sighed and looked Lyra in the eye. "But now, talking to you, I'm starting to think that she won't realize until it's too late."

Lyra looked at James for a moment. She hadn't noticed how much he'd matured lately. Never had she thought she'd be sitting, in a library of all places, having a serious conversation with James Potter. Over the time she'd spent with him, she'd gotten to know him, and he really wasn't as bad as she'd always thought. He had a good heart, and, in all honesty, he was rather funny.

"You just have to let Lily see how different you've become. It's simple, I promise," Lyra told him earnestly.

"How do I go about doing that? What's going to change her mind about me now?"

"For starters, treat her like a normal girl. Don't act like you're all in love with her and creep her out. I'd even go as far as telling you to ignore her altogether. Not to the point that she's offended or hurt, but enough that she notices. And you could always stop hexing the Slytherins every chance you get. And, while we're at it, enough with acting like a smart-arse in class. And – " Lyra began.

"Okay, okay! I get it. Act boring. Like some Ravenclaw… or Remus," James sighed.

"Did I hear my name?" asked Remus, finally returning to the table with his arms full of books. "What're you two on about over here? Studied-out already?"

"Lyra's just been giving me advice on how to win Lily's heart once and for all," James informed him in a business-like tone.

Remus glanced at Lyra with a quick raise of the brow before turning to back to James, with an encouraging smile. "That's really great, Prongs. I'm glad to hear it. What's the plan?"

"All I have to do is act more mature and dull… sort of like you," he said to Remus with a grin. He then turned to Lyra. "And I was sort of hoping you'd have a quick word with her. Just a nudge in the right direction, you know? That direction, of course, being me."

"James… I really don't know. Lily absolutely hates when anyone tries to get her to do something she doesn't want to do, and I'm not too keen on the idea of getting on her bad side. I really think it'd be enough for her to just see it in you without my interference," Lyra said to the desperate boy.

On one hand, Lyra would love to see James and Lily finally together. She was really growing fond of him and Remus, and she wanted to stop sneaking around to be able to spend time with the both of them. If she convinced Lily of how much James had changed, maybe they could all be mates and her life would be a lot easier.

On the other, Lyra had had her fair share of being at the receiving end of Lily's temper. For years people like James, Remus, and Sirius had been trying to convince her to give James a chance. Recently, even Marlene and Emmeline were on her case, and she wasn't having any of it anymore. One word from Lyra on the matter, and Lily might just loose it, ruining the entire operation altogether.

James brought Lyra back out of her inner debate, "Come on, Lyra, what do you say?"