Hey guys! So sorry I haven't been updating, I've got this thing called a Personal Project (shout-out to those who are taking/took IB) and I'm writing short stories (originals) so that's taking up most of my writing time (what little I have left of it). That being said, guys, as writers, what inspires you to write? Or, as readers, who are you favorite authors and writing styles? I'm experimenting with my writing wherein I imitate the process and/or writing style of certain authors, and I need 'sources'. ;) Thanks guys I love you

All of that being said, thank you all to those who favorited, followed, reviewed (those are my favorite, thanks guys!) Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 8

"Evans, we've got a problem." James said as soon as she came out of her room. He had been waiting for her to go to breakfast with him, as they always went down to the Great Hall together, but this was the first time he'd ever seemed to have came down early in order to tell her something as soon as possible.

"Is it a big problem?" She responded, walking toward the door. "Can it wait until after breakfast? Or perhaps after my weekly dose of bullshit news?" She was referring, of course, to the Daily Prophet, which she still read despite all her own friends having given up on it due to its lack of information and biased news. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?

"Moony's on patrol tonight." James said, close behind her. Lily gave him a questioning look.

"This is your problem… Oh." Lily said as James gave her a knowing look. "Oh, I'm such an idiot!" She exclaimed. "We're both idiots, we should've seen this was possible—we should've done it the easy way, like all the previous Heads, but we were prideful naive children who wanted to be different, smart, better, and now we're stuck in this terrible situation." Lily sighed. "And we didn't notice this yesterday, either, even though I'd remembered—I'll just make up some reason for taking his place. You have Quidditch, so it'd be easier if I took it. Who's he with?"

James shrugged. "I don't know. We'll have to ask him. He just told me yesterday, said he thought I might want to know just in case it could happen again or something. Don't know if he'd planned on me telling you and us trying to figure it out, but it doesn't really matter."

"Right, okay, well depending on who it is I can say I wanted to switch with Remus for some reason—let's hope it a boy so I seem more believable."

"What do you mean you hope it's a boy to make it more believable?"

"Well if it's a girl, then there'd be no reason for me to talk to her in the middle of the night while there's patrols, since I could just approach her during the day. But if it's a man, then my reason for wanting to talk to him could be that I fancy him or he's part of different circles or something and there was something important I have to tell him but can't in front of others or during the day when others might see and guess at what I'm saying—or assume I fancy him. Honestly, James, what'd you think?"

"You'll have to pretend you fancy him?"

"Well, depends on who it is." Lily flashed him a grin and winked at him, walking into the Great Hall. (She might have swung her hips a bit more just for him, but no one needed to know that.)

"There you two are!" Marlene exclaimed as they approached their table.

"Moony, who're you supposed to patrol with tonight?" Lily asked, ignoring her friend. Everyone looked up at the sudden use of Remus' nickname, which was only used by the Marauders, but she ignored that too, instead just sliding into her seat and looking at Remus.

"Uh…" Remus looked uncertainly at James, who gave one of the looks that Lily still hadn't decrypted yet. "Snape." He finally said, and Lily froze. She thought for a few seconds while Remus and James looked at her as if afraid she was going to do something drastic.

"Oh." Lily took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "That works, actually." She looked at Remus, giving him a look that said, hopefully, 'I'll take over tonight', and began filling her plate.

"Lily…" James said, and exchange another one of those encrypted looks with his fellow Marauders, but it seemed that they couldn't find another solution, because James sighed and looked down, going to his breakfast.

If Lily hadn't been so worried over what she'd tell Snape, then she would have noticed how strange it was that James hadn't offered to take over instead, despite how busy he would be later that day; it wasn't like him not to suggest that Lily have nothing to do with Snape. However, Lily was too preoccupied with the fact that she would have something to do with Severus that she did not take note of this and wonder about it.

All day, in fact, James had not minded her. Much of the day was spent by the Marauders talking in low voices, ignoring their other mates, who had only recently been introduced into their circle of friends, despite how easily they had fitted in with each other. Lily did not pay attention to this either, although Marlene and Alice did mention it once or twice, and the three friends went back to their old dynamic, when the Marauders had kept to themselves and they had not attempted to mingle with them either.

Finally, the time came for Lily to go on patrols. James had come in half an hour before she was supposed to leave, and was doing his homework as she left; she had already finished hers. She said goodbye to James, but, just like the rest of the day, he ignored her. Frowning, Lily went off to find Snape.

"Severus?" She asked as she reached the designated meeting place.

"Lily?" Severus spun around, frowning.

"Yes. I… I wanted to talk to you… In private, so I asked Remus—"

"You asked Lupin or he asked you?"

"I asked him—"

"You do know what today is, right?"

"What do you—"

"Do you know?" Snape's eyes widened. "You've known this whole time, haven't you?"

"Known what?"

"And you made me continue to allude to it, try to get you to understand that he'd dangerous, you shouldn't acquaint yourselves with his type—"

"Severus, that is quite enough about Remus. He is one of my closest friends, and I will not have you saying all those horrible things about him."

"You can go back, Lily." Severus said, turning around. "I can do my rounds alone. I know about Lupin, and I'm not going to tell anyone. We can both just say we did our patrols, but went different directions. I'll do it all, it's my turn."

Lily hesitated. "You sure?" She asked.

"Yes, positive." Snape smiled at her. "You want to be in this situation as much as I do, so just go back to your common room and I'll start my rounds." He turned away and began down the corridor. Lily turned the other way to go back to her room.

For some reason, James wasn't in the common room, so Lily assumed he was already in bed, for reasons she couldn't understand. Hadn't he just started working when she left? She knocked on his door, calling for him; a quick spell revealed that he wasn't there. Perhaps he was in the kitchens? She decided to finish all her other homework and wait for him to return, but after finishing an entire essay for Charms, three hours later, he hadn't come back, and now she was worried, but she was also very, very tired…

The door opened and Lily jolted awake, and turned to see a James performing the counter of a disillusionment charm, frozen in shock.

"James?" She asked, confused and tired. She yawned. "I waited up for you… where were you?"

"You were there all night?" He asked. "How long—"

"I was here almost all night, I left briefly—but where have you been?" Lily demanded, waking up suddenly as she remembered why she was there.

"Er…"

"Don't tell me you were doing a prank while Remus—while Moony—"

"No! How dare you think that of me, that I'd just forget about my own mates like that—"

"Then were were you? What could you possibly have been doing?"

"I… I can't tell you."

"Really."

"I can't. I'm sorry, Lily, I really can't tell you where I was or what I was doing."

"Then I'll have to assume a prank."

"Just… Lily, don't think me a terrible person, I promise you I've only been thinking of Moony tonight, everything has been for him—the full moon is always so hard for him—but I can't tell you—I'm sorry, Lily." James sighed. "Tonight has been a pretty bad night for me. How was Snivellus?"

"Oh, you remembered, did you?" Lily responded sarkily. "I'm so pleased."

"Lily…"

"And by the way, I didn't have to go on patrols with him, he already knew about Remus and told me to come back."

James froze. "So you were only gone…"

"Half-an-hour at most, yes." The challenging look she gave him was enough to make him look guilty. "So where have you been the entire night?"

"Er… with the other boys in their dorm?" James tried. "Look, I'm really tired, Lily—"

"Fine, you want to lie to me, you want to keep secrets from me, fine. Go up to bed. Merlin knows we're not actually that close of friends, just been working together for every class, sitting next to each other, doing homework together—"

"Lily—" James pleaded, but she continued on.

"So by all means, don't tell me the truth, go up to bed." Fire burning in her eyes, Lily headed into her own room, not giving him a single look.

James didn't get much sleep that night, and Lily didn't wait up for him in their common room.

She was laughing with Marlene and Alice when he finally got himself to the breakfast table, feeling like he'd been hexed black-and-blue and then rolled over in the mud—which was almost what had actually happened. At least he was better off than Moony and Wormtail, both of whom were in the hospital wing. They hadn't been able to heal Wormy that night, only managed to make the injury less serious and then claim he had fallen out of a tree they were attempting to animate like the Whomping Willow. They were lucky Poppy loved them like her own children, with the amount of times she's had to both keep their secrets and patch them up.

Lily ignored him as he sat down, moving a bit away from him and continuing her conversation with her mates. A few miserable minutes passed, James trying to pretend that he looked out of sorts because Lily was angry at him, not because last night had been a terrible one. And they'd been trying to finish the map, too! Finally, Sirius slid into the seat on the other side of Lily, as they'd become accustomed to sitting on either side of her when they sat down, but Lily abruptly rose, saying she was done with breakfast and was going to head to class already.

"What? Lily-flower, so soon?" Sirius asked, surprise flitting across his masked face. "But I just got here!" Sirius checked his watch. "And it's still ages away from the start of class, come off it, Lily!" He exclaimed.

"Where's Peter?" She asked instead, seeming to only realise now that Sirius had come alone. James winced, and even Sirius' perfect mask nearly cracked for a second; last night had been really bad. "And Remus?" She added as an afterthought, only now realising that Alice and Marlene had yet to find out about his 'furry little problem.'

"Oh, er…" Sirius rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "They just might be in the hospital wing because James—" James shot him a look that said, 'no, she's already mad at me don't pin it on me!' "Er—that is, we, wanted to see if we could animate a tree and it didn't go so well." It was right, of course, to use the same cover story for the same injuries, so that only one story went around, but Lily knew it wasn't true, so James shot Padfoot another harried look, but the damage had been done.

"What?" She screeched, eyes wide. "You tried to—to" She spluttered, and then was off, presumably to the hospital wing to interrogate Peter, the weakest and currently almost dying member of their group. James swore and ran after her.

"Lily!" He yelled as they wove in and out of the students going to breakfast, but she was surprisingly fast, and he cursed again as he cut into a hidden passageway to cut her off.

He managed to emerge right in front of her, shocking her into stopping suddenly, looking behind her doubtfully as if wondering if another one of him would come running at her. "Lily, please listen to me." He said, hands out as he considered putting them on her arms to restrain her. He decided she'd kill him if he did that, and stopped, but kept them raised just unless he needed to catch her. "Lily…"

"Do you know how dangerous what—whatever you're doing exactly—is?" Lily whispered, and to James' surprise, he saw tears glistening in her eyes.

"I…" James looked around, and although they were the only ones along the hallway, he knew that anyone could walk upon them any moment and then they were all dead, so James led her to one of the secret passageways. "Alright, it should be safe to talk here." He said. "First off, whatever you think we're doing, we're not doing it."

"You're trying to get Remus out of the Willow so you can see if you can make him better." Lily replied, and then paused. "Or you already know how to and did, which is even worse. Remus knows how to, why wouldn't he tell you out of complete innocence?" Lily looked up at him with those wide eyes, worried eyes, and James couldn't find the heart in him to lie to her anymore. It'd hurt him, since they'd first become friends, to have such a big secret hidden from her, despite him having never lied to her in anything else. (Well, not out-right, that is.)

"Alright, I suppose you're right, to some extent." James admitted. "But it's not dangerous—not as dangerous as you think it is." He hurriedly added as Lily raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to object. "You see, we're…" James hesitated, and looked around. Lily's eyes were expectant, now, and he couldn't stop now. "We're animagi." He finally said. "And being in animal form keeps us from being attacked by him, at least not as a werewolf attacks a human, and sometimes we can even keep him in check enough to let him out, wander the forest a bit, maybe more if he's being good. Last night he was not being good." James sighed. "Last night was terrible, and he attacked poor Wormtail—he's a rat, by the way—so of course we had to get him out of there as fast as possible, before he turned back and Moony bit him or he died, so we did and I swear I thought he was going to die. We're lucky Moony insisted we perfect our healing charms."

They were silent for a few moments, James just watching Lily and waiting for her to process it.

"And what are you?" She finally asked, after what seemed like hours. James shot her a sideways grin, knowing exactly what she meant.

"A stag." He said. "Like my patronus. Padfoot's a dog."

"Padfoot… Prongs… Wormtail…" Lily let out a disbelieving laugh. "I knew what Moony was for, but everything else…"

"So, we have potions first period…" James started, "D'you wanna—" But Lily had already checked her watch and gasped.

"James we're going to be late!" She looked around helplessly. "Where are we? Get us out!" She hit him lightly.

"I was going to suggest we skip first period, but I suppose—"

"Skip first period?" Lily screeched. "This is potions, it's—"

"The only class you could skip and the professor automatically assume it was for a good reason." James finished for her. She pursed her lips, but James already knew he'd won. If she didn't agree to it this time, she'd agree to it eventually.

"Fine." She finally said, and James' eyebrows shot up. He didn't think she'd agree that quickly.

"But…" He prompted.

"But you have to change for me." She said simply.

"Aw, Evans, if you wanted me naked—" She hit him again.

"No you prat, shift into your animagus state!" James decided his favourite look on Lily was slightly embarrassed, when a light blush would appear on her face and make her green eyes even more vibrant.

"Alright. Hold up, I'll tell Sirius to cover for us." James pulled out his two-way mirror from his pocket—an undetectable extension charm had let him put a lot of stuff in them—and told it Sirius' name. Lily looked at him in bewilderment, but he figured he'd already blown the biggest secret, it didn't really matter if she knew more.

"Alright, Prongs?" Sirius said.

"Lily and I are going to skip potions—cover for us, will you?" He said. Sirius' eyes narrowed.

"Why are you skipping potions?"

"Why do you think?" Lily asked, moving beside James and leaning over the mirror so that Sirius could see her. Sirius' eyebrows shot up, but it wasn't at what Lily had been implying, it was at the fact that James had let Lily see the mirror. James knew that Sirius had figured out what Lily knew. He was going to get it tonight.

"Fine, as long as you go see Remus and Wormy. I'm sure Moony is feeling the worst right about now."

"We'll go as soon as first period starts." James promised.

"He should be awake by the time you get there, then. Anyway, I have to go, they'll notice if I disappear for too long. Any ideas as to how to keep them occupied, Lily-flower?"

"Who?" Lily asked.

"Your mates, of course." Sirius replied, irritated. "They've been asking me nonstop what was wrong with you this morning, I don't know what to say."

"Oh, just tell them I'm feeling off this morning, that's all. And tell them I went to see Remus and Peter."

"Sure. See you two second period." Sirius cut off the connection, and James returned the mirror into his pocket.

"Well, what do you want to do first?" He asked Lily. "See Moony and Wormtail, or go to the forest to see me change?"

"Can't you change here?" Lily asked, alarmed. James guessed she'd never been to the forbidden forest before.

"Well, I'd be more comfortable if we were in a place more remote, where some snogging couple won't accidentally see us or something. Plus the floor sometimes makes my hooves hard to walk in." James responded, shrugging in an attempt at nonchalance. He checked his watch.

"We're between the passageways that will lead us one—" here he pointed to his left— "to the hospital wing and two—" he gestured to his right— "to the grounds, near the forbidden forest. We won't be seen." Lily hesitated.

"I want to see you." She decided. "I want to see Prongs." James beamed, his heart beating faster at the thought of Lily seeing Prongs.

"Then come on." James took her hand and led her down the corridor, making his way to the forbidden forest. Once there, he led her farther in, to the clearing where he and the other Marauders had practiced their transformations. It was a beautiful place, in James' opinion.

It also probably looked better in the dark, at night, when fireflies and even a few pixies lit it up and the moon was bright, although not full. Right now, it was just about any other clearing in the middle of a big dark forest. James let go of her hand here and she looked up at him expectantly. He took a deep breath, starting the process of changing shape—but those green eyes were still looking at him, and he was so in love with her— "Er, I…" James sighed. "Could you turn around? You're sort of distracting me."

"Oh." Lily turned around, and although he saw that she kept taking looks over her shoulder, James could concentrate again.

In a moment, he successfully turned into a stag. Lily gasped and turned around, reaching her hand out as if she wanted to touch him. He leaned forward, pushing his face against her hand and forcing her to pet him.

She ran her hands over his face, and James sighed, closing his eyes. The hands moved upwards, adventuring towards his antlers, gripping them and feeling them, and James wanted her to touch him when he was in human shape, he wanted her to run her hands over his body caress his face like she was now, touching his—Prongs snorted, shaking away the thought and backing away from Lily. He closed his eyes and felt himself shift into a human again.

"I'm sorry." Lily said immediately, eyes wide. "Did I—"

"It wasn't you." James managed. "Things are… different when you're an animal. When I'm a stag… Emotions are more simple, and…" James avoided her eye. "Well, we sort of have a… thing… with our antlers, they're…" James blushed, and Lily did too.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lily hid a smile. "Thank you, though, for changing for me."

James wondered if she meant that in more than the physical, animagus way; if maybe she was talking about his change over the summer. "Anything for you, love." He said and smiled at her, a bit sadly, as Lily looked away, uncomfortable. No more flirting, he'd promised. No more asking out. But no more lies, now, either.

"Let's go see Moony and Wormtail, then?" Lily asked, finally turning back to face James with a winning smile. "I'm sure they'd feel better when we see them."

"Wormtail's probably still asleep, actually." James replied, but started out of the clearing. Lily quickly caught up and slipped her hand into his, smiling at him a bit shyly.

"Thanks for telling me." She said quietly. "I realise how… Well, I mean, this is illegal, isn't it?"

"We're unregistered." Was James' reply.

"So thank you for trusting me. I didn't give you all too much of a choice, but thank you anyway." Lily stopped and grinned at James. "I'm honoured to be part of this." She said sincerely, and then, because this was getting a bit too serious for her, too much for her to handle without going mad because they had broken the law—the law—she kissed him on the cheek and pulled him through the woods, running towards Hogwarts.

They arrived at the hospital wing out of breath and grinning, and Remus almost had a heart attack.

"Don't you two have class?" He demanded.

"Aren't you more important?" Lily retorted. "Besides, it's Slughorn, so I can always say I was so concerned over your well-being that I felt I had to stay and help, and he'd assume I was an angel."

"First period started half-an-hour ago, though." Remus frowned. "What were you two doing before?"

"Took her to the clearing." James replied. "Padfoot told her what happened with Wormy." Lily was about to open her mouth to tell him that no, Sirius didn't, he did, but Remus had gone white and she knew James had spoken in that code Lily was still learning.

"Lily…" Remus started, but hesitated, as if unsure how to start begging for her forgiveness or understanding. But Lily smiled at him and took his hand, sitting in the chair beside his bed.

"I understand, Remus." She said. "And anything they can do to help you—anything I can do to help you, too—is something worth doing."

"But—" Remus was cut off by Peter groaning in the next bed, and Lily and James immediately went to see if he was awake.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed quietly when she saw Peter; he was bandaged everywhere, his leg broken in a cast, and some blood was beginning to seep through the wrappings at his head.

"He's still asleep." James told her, leading her back to Remus. "We'd better let him rest and heal. I'll call Poppy to patch him up again." James left, leaving Lily alone with Remus.

"And nothing else happened, did it, aside from Prongs showing you the, ah, clearing?" He asked a bit pointedly.

Lily sighed and smiled at her long-time friend. "I'm trying, Remus." She replied. "But he seems to be pretty convinced that he should never fancy me again."

Remus snorted. "More like convinced you'll never fancy him back. He's still head-over-heels, Lils, you've got to see that."

"Well then he should ask me out already!" Lily replied with a groan. "I swear I've been dropping hints for an entire month and he hasn't done anything about it."

"He's a bit oblivious about your feelings, Lily, and since I was told not to tell…" Remus gave her a look and she glared at him.

"Well this is a step in the right direction, isn't it?" She asked, lowly now, as James had come back with Madam Pomfrey and was fretting over Peter with her.

"If he doesn't marry you now, I'd reckon one of us will just to keep you from snitching on us." Remus replied a bit jokingly now. "That or we'd have to kill you."

"We're not killing anyone in this hospital wing, Mr. Lupin." Madam Pomfrey immediately said, bustling over to his bedside. "How are you feeling, dear?" She asked sweetly.

"Much better, now that my friends are here." Remus replied with a grin. Madam Pomfrey tutted. Evidently, she could tell when Remus was lying.

"He's making killing jokes, though, so I think he is feeling better." James said, sitting on the side of the bed, near Lily.

"Are you in pain?" Lily asked anxiously.

"Not really. Just tired and sore." Remus said, giving her a weary grin.

"And also in need of changing you bandages, hmm, Mr. Lupin?" Madam Pomfrey gave Remus a look and took off his covers. Lily gasped, and Remus looked away, cheeks colouring; he had fought with Padfoot last night, so his torso was bandaged up, hiding a great number of his scars, but many were still visible.

"Let's give him some privacy." James muttered lowly to Lily, and she nodded absently, following him out of the hospital wing.

"So, we still have some time, what do you want to do now?" James asked in fake cheeriness.

"Has it always been so bad?" Lily asked in a hollow voice, completely ignoring his question.

"Well…" James shrugged. "It was especially bad last night, but usually he's as tame as Padfoot. Well, a less playful Padfoot, but Moony's never been very playful."

"How can you be so… flippant about this right now?! Moony… Remus…" Lily struggled to find the words.

"That was how we coped, before." James smiled at her sadly. "We decided to do something for him in first year, but we didn't even know how to become animagi until second year, and we weren't successful until fifth year. But before then, we just had to… Cope." James shrugged. "Didn't you notice that we always did more pranks around the full moon, to make him feel better? Not mentioning it was always his favourite way of going about his furry little problem." Lily nodded.

"That I knew, but I guess it always gave me the illusion that… I don't know, maybe it wasn't as serious as everyone else said it was."

"It's more serious than everyone says it is. Just for different reasons." James laughed humourlessly. "They say it's horrible because others could be bitten, and it's uncontrollable. But it's horrible for its own reasons."

"And there's nothing I can do to help?"

"Find a cure. Except for that, nothing, unless you count being a good friend."

"Poor Remus. And Wormtail, getting hurt trying to help a friend."

"We knew the risks before we began. But we also knew we would never get turned if we were bitten as animals, so we were all right."

"You can still be killed."

"Death would be better than being bitten."

"Poor Remus. Would it really be better for him to die instead of…"

"I believe so. Remus doesn't, at least I don't think he does. But I don't think I could ever live with that… I mean, Remus lives such a half-life, not believing he deserves to have good friends, to have all the joys of a regular boy, believing he's a monster. He keeps himself from fully enjoying life, and I don't know if I would ever be able to live like that."

"Yes, me neither. I don't think I could live not letting myself love. At least he has friends, at least he lets himself have those."

"He doesn't, really, he's just accepted that he can't push us away. Not that he hasn't tried, multiple times. But he doesn't let himself have any stronger feelings than that—actually…" James cast a sidelong glance at Lily. "He told me that you almost asked him out, but then didn't—"

"No, I didn't almost ask him, but I considered going out with him—very briefly."

"So that did happen, he wasn't just trying to get a reaction out of me?" James sighed. "I sort of wish you had tried to go out with him. It'd be good for him to have someone who loves him… specially, not just as a mate."

"I know, but at the same time… I didn't fancy him enough. I mean, I did, but barely, and although we got along great and all… I don't know, when we kissed—"

"What?!" The look on James' face was so priceless, Lily probably would have said it even if it weren't true. It just so happened to be real, and not something Lily made up.

"Oh, you didn't—he didn't tell—oh." Lily pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh. "It's a very long story, and sort of personal between us, but, yes, we kissed once. In fifth year. But then he told me that he couldn't risk that sort of relationship, and I decided that kiss wasn't what I was looking for, and we stayed friends."

"He told me you let it slip that you had considered going out with him but decided not to—something about me not killing you both and you not fancying him enough—and that he agreed that he didn't want a relationship."

"That is definitely not what happened. Not that I will tell you what happened, because that is the past and personal between me and Remus, and he obviously didn't want you to know."

"You don't… still like him, do you?"

"Oh, Merlin, no! He's like my brother. Anyway, I like someone else, now."

"That David bloke you went out with the other day?"

"No, he and I didn't work out. I mean, he was nice and all and I had fun," (which was a lie, he was a bore and Lily had wanted nothing but to find James and have a proper date) "but I didn't really fancy him and I felt it would be too cruel to string him along."

"Because you fancy someone else."

"Because I fancy someone else."

"And you're not going to tell me who that person is, are you?"

"Do you want to know?"

James paused for a few moments, thinking. He tried to weigh the possibilities of her fancying him against the feeling of jealousy that had boiled in his stomach as he saw Lily in Hogsmeade with that fool. "No, I don't."

Lily tried to decide whether to tell him or not—he had said he didn't want to know, but that meant he didn't think she fancied him, not that he didn't want her to fancy him—but before she could decide, they were joined by their friends as they walked to the Gryffindor Tower to spend a few moments before their next class.

"What happened with you?" Marlene demanded immediately, and Lily glanced at James.

"We went to see Remus and Peter." Lily replied, smiling slightly. Marlene misinterpreted the smile, however, and pulled her away from Sirius and James (they took advantage of the situation and walked ahead, conversing quietly).

"Spill." Marlene said.

"We didn't get together—I think we might have been close, but…" Lily sighed. "Oh, I don't know. We went to see Remus and Peter—those boys are such idiots sometimes, they look horrible, but anyway, after that, we went walking around a bit more, and we were talking… Remus told James that I once almost went out with him—that I considered it—and I accidentally let slip that we had kissed—oh, I might have forgotten to tell you about that, kissing Remus, I mean, we'd agreed that it meant nothing, not really, anyway—so James interrogated me, so I almost told him I fancied him—but then you three came, and I wasn't able to."

Marlene and Alice looked a bit guilty at that, but soon after that, Sirius joined them.

"Lily-flower," He started.

"Padfoot." She replied. Alice and Marlene looked a bit surprised at the nickname, but Sirius didn't even bat an eye.

"Would it be alright if I stole her for a bit, loves?" Sirius asked her friends, and whisked her away into a hidden passageway.

"Do you four know the entire school, including all the hidden passageways?" Lily demanded, shocked.

"Almost, haven't quite got the west wing of the fourth floor, and the hall to the divination room isn't perfectly scouted yet." Sirius replied with a smirk. "But that's not what I came to talk to you about."

"I know, you came to talk to me about Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs." Lily replied. "James already explained everything."

"Oh, right, yeah, that's another thing I need to talk to you about." Sirius frowned. "But no, that wasn't it. I trust Prongs enough to know that he trusts you with whatever he told you."

"You mean you have more secrets than that? Bigger ones?"

"Not necessarily bigger ones—just others—stop changing the subject!"

"I don't know what the subject is, Sirius! I thought it was the fact that you and the other Marauders are an—

"Keep your voice down, will you? And I wanted to talk to you about Moony. About you and Moony."

"You…?" Lily frowned, confused. "Me and Remus…?"

"James told me you two kissed."

"What's it to you?" Lily gasped mockingly. "You don't actually fancy him, do you?" She asked teasingly, a small smile upon her face, but Sirius wasn't in the mood for games.

"Wha—Lily—no! I do not actually fancy him, he's my mate, and I'm talking to you about it because Prongs still bloody loves you, and you can't just go around dropping bombs like that all the time!"

"Alright, sorry for mentioning it, didn't know you'd get all bloody touchy, Merlin! And Remus was the one who told you three, how was I supposed to know he didn't tell you the entire story?"

"What is the entire story?"

"Ask Remus. The point of the matter is that it was an accident, telling James, but it's done already and anyway, it's not like I fancy Remus, obviously."

"And that's another point about this matter: do you know how Moony feels about relationships?"

"He would rather no one be his friend and be safe than have people close to him get hurt, yes, I know, Sirius—are you quite all right? You're getting all angry and… strange." Lily frowned at him while Sirius ran a hand over his face. "Sirius?" She asked quietly. "You know you can talk to me."

Sirius sighed and took her hand, leading her to another passageway, where there was an alcove where they could sit. "They followed us again. Turns out they weren't just following you or the other girls, they've been following all of us when they can, tracking our whereabouts. I don't know why or what they wanted, but they got Reg in on it too. And he taunted me, things about how I was alone now, that my stupidity and recklessness got everyone into trouble and I wouldn't be able to… To do anything, to save anyone—he told me that they were first, the two girls, and I think they said that because Marlene's my girlfriend and I had been walking with them, before I noticed they were following and decided to send them off. And next, they said, is my best mate and his mudblood girlfriend—that's you—but they'll let Moony live, they said, because he's miserable anyway, always getting hurt or sick or something, and they'll let Peter live because he's been brainwashed by me and if I hadn't been there, poor Peter would've seen the light. They said they'd kill me last, just for the torture of watching everyone I love die before my eyes." By the end, Sirius was crying, silent tears making their way down his face, and Lily was too, sitting next to him, holding him.

"And they got him to say it all. And I knew it wasn't really his words, because they were telling him things and he was saying them out loud, but… Regulus has always been impressionable. So easy to manipulate, because he always had so… pure a heart, if you can believe it. He's so… nice. You should see how he treats Kreacher, for Merlin's sake, a house elf. Like he's a bloody prince, even though he might as well be evil reincarnate. But to Reg, if you're on his side, he'll treat you like you're the sky to him, the stars, like you're more important than anyone else. And he'll trust you. It's him who's been brainwashed, not stupid bloody Wormtail. If he didn't believe so goddamn much that mudbloods were the scum of the earth, he'd be nice to them, too. If he'd been born in a half-blood family, or a blood traitor's, even, he'd be a bloody Hufflepuff. The teachers would probably give him extra points just for being so bloody nice and kind and respectful. A perfect son, that's what he's always been. That's what he'll always be, and it's just rotten bloody luck he was born into the worst possible family. Perfect son of the noble house of Black means worst person in the world in everyone else's eyes. And it had to be my brother."

Sirius sobbed on Lily's shoulder, and they sat there for what seemed like hours but were probably just a few minutes, just crying. Sirius muttered incomprehensible things into the fabric of her robes and clung to her, but Lily let him, as she always did when he broke down like this.

"Remember when we first became friends?" She finally asked, quietly. Sirius didn't respond, but Lily kept talking. "You caught me crying over a letter from Petunia. You laughed at me first, and I remember being so angry. My day was already so horrible, and here was Potter's best mate, coming to laugh at me. I yelled at you, until you saw how horrid I felt and asked me why I had been crying." Lily chuckled humourlessly. "I still remember how plainly you told me that whatever family problems I had, they were nothing compared to yours. 'My parents are You-know-who–loving bastards whose only goal in life is to have their sons sit at his right-hand side.' You said. 'And my brother is an innocent asshole who tries to be their son, because their first failed. He never even asked me why I decided not to follow my parent's teachings, he was so deeply buried in their shit.'

"And I remember feeling so hopeful. Here we were, two enemies with completely different backgrounds on the same exact side and with very similar problems. And if you could prove that blood isn't everything and that the way of life was to be yourself and screw all the people who told you off for it, even if they were your own family, then I could do all that too.

"And look at us now." Lily smiled at Sirius, who had stopped crying and looked up at her now.

"Not a word, right?" He asked as he moved further away from her, composing himself.

"Never. What were we talking about this time?" Lily replied.

"Let's just say Prongs."

"Guess I had a lot to say about him." Lily joked.

"Of course, love. You fancy him. Anyone who fancies anyone will be willing to talk on and on about them."

"Finally caught on, have you?"

"I'm not blind, even though Prongs might be a bit. He does need glasses, you know."

Lily laughed, and then a voice from somewhere called Sirius' name.

"And that's Prongs." Sirius said with a grin, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his mirror.

"Hello Prongsie, we were just talking about you." Sirius said in an obviously fake cheerful tone.

"Right, well, class is starting in about five seconds, and it's Flitwick, I doubt Lily wants to skip this class." James replied. "And there's no way you two talked about me for that long, don't even try to lie to me Padfoot."

"He won't, James, I promise, but we really have to go, Sirius, where are we?" Lily said, all in a rush to get to class.

"See you later, Prongs." Sirius returned the mirror into his pocket and lead Lily to the charms room, making it less than a minute late.

"Where were you two?" Marlene hissed as Lily sat next to her.

"Talking about… a certain person." Lily cast a quick look around her, and saw James looking at the professor intently, as if listening; she knew him well enough by now to know that he was listening to them, and when she changed her words a bit, he glanced at her questioningly.

"For that long?" Marlene looked disbelieving, but Lily couldn't reply yet, as Flitwick had just told them to start.

"Well he had more tips than you did, and they were also quite different from yours, so I had to tell him what you two thought and even what Remus thought—" Lily paused briefly to turn her hat invisible, which she had already known how to do—what respectable muggle child didn't ever wish they could turn invisible? "So it was quite a long chat."

"Tips?" James asked from behind her—Lily jumped, not having realised he was so near to her.

"It's between me and Sirius."

"And Remus and Marlene and Alice, apparently." James gave her a look. "But if you don't want to tell me, it's all right, I mean, it's not like we're that close of friends at all, we just work together every class—"

"Alright, alright, just shut up, James." Lily laughed quietly. "I wanted to prank you." She lied, trying to make it seem believable.

"What?"

"It was Sirius' idea at first, but then… Well I thought we could all use a laugh, and if I could prank you for a change… But now you know and it won't be fun anymore." Lily fake pouted at him, and—did his eyes flicker down to her lips? But no, they couldn't have, because James was rolling his eyes, not looking at her face at all.

"Well then we can go ahead and prank Sirius. Or if you really want, prank me anyway, I'll pretend not to know." He replied easily. "And you have to help me with this spell." He added.

"You know how to do this already, I've seen you do it—"

"Yes, but I want to make this an invisibility hat."

"A… what?"

"Like an invisibility cloak, but a hat."

"So…"

"So we'd have to find a way to make the wearer of this hat invisible."

"And we'd do that by…?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you. I thought to expand the charm to include other spaces, but it didn't work and now I don't know what else to do."

"Prongs! How dare you attempt to turn someone's head invisible without me!" Sirius exclaimed, stepping in-between James and Lily. "A bit too close, love, not in class!" He hissed under his breath to Lily, who looked at him incredulously.

"Oi, what're you two talking about?" James demanded.

"Nothing important." Sirius replied.

"Right, then why can't I find out? You two already spent all that time talking before class." James grumbled under his breath. "I want to be beside Lily, not you, Padfoot." He announced.

"Well how about you two stay together and do your… best mates thing," Marlene said, coming and taking Lily's arm. "And Lily and I will do some best mates thing, and we won't fight about anything?"

"Sure!" Sirius piped, flashing a grin at his girlfriend. James grumbled some more, but didn't say anything.

"Sorry, Prongs." Lily said with a small smile, and went with Marlene.

"I guess he doesn't mind you calling him Prongs, then." Marlene remarked.

"Or doesn't want to tell me not to call him that." Lily replied.

"Same thing." The girls exchanged grins.

"So what is our best mates thing that we're supposed to be doing?" Lily joked after a moment.

"Oh, nothing, really, I just figured I'd get you out of there. Too much testosterone, y'know, didn't want you as collateral damage when they started fighting over you." There was something bitter in Marlene's tone, and Lily frowned at her.

"They wouldn't fight over me, Marly, what're you talking about? They're best mates, for Merlin's sake, and Sirius is your boyfriend, or have you forgotten?" Lily added, trying to lighten the mood up.

"Doesn't mean he doesn't fancy someone else." Marlene replied with a badly hidden glare.

"Yes, actually, that is what it generally means. And Sirius fancy me? How preposterous is that?"

"Well he's not exactly known for fidelity, now is he? And why not you? You're pretty enough, and he's shagged uglier."

"Marlene!"

"I know you're not shagging, Lily, I know you wouldn't do that, but that doesn't mean that he's not… Looking for something more, or gotten bored with me already, or—"

"Marlene. You and Sirius have been great so far, why would he be bored with you? I mean, you two shagged yesterday, didn't you?"

"A lot can happen in a day! And what were you two really talking about—if you were talking—before class? I know you were lying to me, Lily, give me some credit!"

"Merlin, calm down, Marly! And keep your voice down, will you? Don't want Flitwick to come over and ask what we were talking about, now do you?"

"What were you two talking about before class?"

"I can't tell you, Marlene."

"Why not? I'm his girlfriend, as you so kindly told me earlier, so what do you get to know that I don't?"

"A… A side of Sirius he lets no one else in the whole world—not even his best mate—see. The side he only lets loose when it's just me and him alone, because he's too ashamed to show anyone else—and it's been this way for ages with us, before you two started going out, and it's probably going to stay that way even after you two stop going out."

"Well why can't you tell me anyway? I deserve to know! I'm your best mate and his girlfriend, you're supposed to tell me everything, especially when it has to do with my boyfriend!"

"We tell no one of these times, Marly! He's never told James or Remus or Peter, I've never told you or Alice. These are secrets buried deep, Marly, for both of us, things we tell only each other because no one else will understand. And I don't think he wants you to see him that way. You know Sirius, he'll want you to see him as a strong, amazing man who can do everything even when he can't."

"But I'm his girlfriend, and I know he's not that way, and I want to help him if he needs it, that's part of being a girlfriend—part of being a friend!"

"And I'm being a friend to him by not telling you."

"Lily, I want to help, I want to be part of this—I don't want to keep getting shut out, all these secrets I know they have but will never tell me—I know he probably treated all his girlfriends this way, but I want to be… different, I want to be as close to him as you are, closer, even, I want… Lily, I think I love him." There was a pause as Lily gaped at her friend. "I know, I know, it's… Too early, or something, how do I know I love him, and worse, even, because it's him, and he's known for breaking girl's hearts, but I can't help it; I love him."

"And you're sure?"

"I think… Yes, no matter how stupid it is and no matter how badly I don't want to—but I do, I do want to and I do love him—oh Lily, what do I do?"

"Tell him!"

"What?"

"Yes, tell him. Now, even, if you want! Any time, just tell him!"

"And what if he doesn't love me back, what if he—no, I can't!"

"Well if he doesn't love you yet, make him love you! It's like how I'm trying to make James fancy me, just different situations and tactics and more… intense."

"I don't know…"

"I'll switch with him again, alright, so we can both work on our men."

"No, Lily! Don't tell him, alright? Don't tell anyone."

"But what about James?"

"What about him?"

"He's his best friend, can't I tell him?"

"As long as he doesn't tell Sirius."

"Promise. Now go spend time with your boyfriend." Lily laughed, and went over to Sirius and James.

"Sirius, your girlfriend won't shut up about you, so I figure you'd be better company to her than I am." Lily announced, stepping in between the two marauders the same way Sirius had to her and James earlier. "Get over there." She hissed to Sirius, who rolled his eyes and made his dramatic exit away from James.

"So we've managed to make it so that the head within the hat is invi—" James stopped half-way through his explanation of how far they'd gotten, as Lily was paying absolutely no attention to him, choosing instead to watch Sirius and Marlene. "Lily?" James asked. "What'd Marlene say that's so exciting?"

Lily turned to look at James, eyes wide and a smile on her face. "Marlene said she loves him." Lily said in the quietest voice she could.

"What?"

"Don't—she doesn't want anyone to know, she said I could tell you, but she wants to tell him herself and all."

"Does… Is she sure?"

"I think so. As sure as she can be right now."

"In love… And to Padfoot…"

"I know, a bit hard to believe."

"Not really. More that… I'm thinking that maybe he won't quite break her heart the way he did the other girls."

"You think he could love her?"

"It's a possibility, unlike all the other girls. He genuinely liked her as a friend before, and it's not like everything between them is sex."

"Or maybe everything is sex, and that's why she thinks she loves him."

"Love is more than sex, Lily."

"Is it? Tell that to Romeo and Juliet."

"That was lust. But love's more than that."

"Oh, so you've been in love, is that what you're trying to say?" Lily chuckled, nudging him playfully, but he had blushed red and looked away. "James?" Lily asked quietly.

"Do you believe in… soulmates, or something like that? Only having one love your entire life?" James asked quietly, still looking away from her, concentrating hard on turning his hat visible and invisible over and over again.

"No. I don't believe in true love or any of those fairy tale things. I believe in compatibility, that two people could work well together and live together in peace and harmony, but no couple is perfect." Lily replied, and James nodded.

"I knew you wouldn't." He said, as quietly as before. "But I do."

"You believe in true love?"

"Yes, I do. I don't believe you can always find it, and sometimes you have to look for your someone, and some never meet their significant other, but I do believe that there are soulmates." James wet his lips apprehensively. "I've always thought… That…" James sighed and shook his head. "Never mind, it's stupid. And you don't believe in it anyway, and—"

"James." James made the mistake of looking at her, and her green eye captured him, drowning him like they often did, and he almost told her, he almost even kissed her, because he wanted to so badly—but he wrenched his eyes away from hers and looked back at his hat.

"So I'm thinking perhaps another extended charm, a bigger one than the one we did before…" James started again, starting to work again on the hat and missing the disappointment and slight relief in Lily's eyes.

~0~

Lily was sitting on a couch, one she recognised to be from Potter Manor, although it was no longer in the same room it had been in before. The Marauders were sitting around her, laughing rumbustiously. James had his arm around her and was holding her close to him, and funnily enough, Lily saw that Frank and Alice were sitting on her other side, but Marlene was nowhere to be seen.

"No, no, you should name them the same name!" Peter suggested with a wide grin. "That way—"

"Peter you idiot, why would they name their bloody kids the same name? They're already going to practically be twins!" Sirius' eyes gleamed with something Lily couldn't quite place; she didn't recognise that form of masked grief.

"We're going to name our baby something normal, not like any of the ugly names you lot have come up with." James replied, squeezing Lily closer to him. With a jolt Lily realised they were talking about a baby—her baby, their baby—and that she was pregnant. She looked across to see that Alice was pregnant, too—but where was Marlene?

"Where's Marly?" Lily whispered into James' ear.

"Mar—Lily, she's gone. Remember?" James replied, turning a bit to look at her properly and searching her face in confusion. "I think you're just tired." He concluded, and turned to tell everyone else so. "We'll figure out our baby's name without you sorry excuse for friends." James joked as he shooed them away. They grinned and some flooed away through the fireplace while others grabbed their cloak and hat and left through the front door.

"Stay safe, you two." Sirius, last to leave, said. "I wouldn't be able to handle anything happening to you lot."

"We know and we will, Padfoot. Besides, we're at home, with the best safety and protection charms the Order could put together. It's you we have to watch out for, always going out into the field."

"We're not going anywhere, Padfoot, and you can make sure of that yourself anytime you want." Lily assured, pressing close to James.

"Well, not anytime—" The look on James' face made Lily laugh and shove him while Sirius walked over to the pot of floo powder and shot James a disgusted look.

"You take care of him, yeah, Evans?" Sirius asked.

"It's Potter, now." Lily replied with a smirk. Sirius rolled his eyes and threw the powder into the fireplace, and was gone.

James kissed Lily on the temple and led her away.

"How are you feeling, love?" He asked quietly as they walked down an unfamiliar hallway. "You asked about…" James sighed and opened a door to reveal a bedroom.

"I'm alright." Lily smiled sadly at him and sat down on the bed inside. "Just tired, is all."

"Good." James moved over to sit next to her. He poked her in the side. "You're on my side, love, move out." He said teasingly. Lily made a face and lied down.

"Well I'm the pregnant one, so you move out." She replied.

"Oh, pulling that card out, are we?" James leaned over so that they were face-to-face.

"Of course." Lily replied airily.

"What am I going to do, then?" James asked with a look of mock distress before he broke into a smile and started to lean forward—

"Lily!" Someone shouted, jolting Lily awake. And they had been just about to kiss! Lily frowned and turned around, determined to go back to sleep and continue the dream. It had felt so real, too!

"Lily!" With a groan, Lily opened her eyes. It was James' voice, accompanied by repetitive thumping on her door. Tiredly, Lily got up to answer the door.

"James, how'd you get up—" Lily cut off to duck as a book nearly flew into her face, shouting 'Lily!'

"James!" Lily yelled angrily, passing a hand over her face as she went over to her wand to remove whatever charms James had placed on the poor book. "What is bloody wrong with you?!"

"Sorry Lils!" she heard his voice float up from the bottom of the stairs. "But I still haven't figured out how to get up them. But come down, it's the weekend, Lily!"

Lily grumbled but yelled down at him to wait a few minutes while she got ready. "You know, the point of it being the weekend is that you get to sleep in, not get woken up early by an obnoxious book trying to ram its way into your room!" She continued as she made her way downstairs, taking her anger out on her hair as she brushed it.

"But, Lily, it's been snowing, remember? And we're finally free from classes this week, so we can have a proper snowball fight and—" James' excited words were cut off by Lily's groan.

"You woke me up to play in the snow?" She demanded, pulling at an exceptionally stubborn knot in her hair. James winced.

"Here, let me do that." He said, taking over. "And Sirius woke me up, everyone should be down at breakfast right now, we're the only ones missing." He carefully parted her hair, trying not to blush at the other thing Sirius had said—or rather, hinted at—as to why perhaps he and Lily were still asleep. 'Exhausted from last night' had been the teasing words used, and James had to push it out of his mind to keep from blushing.

"Oh, all right." Lily grumbled. "This snowball fight better be worth it, though." She took the brush from James briefly to sit down on the couch, then handed it back to him as he sat down beside her, hiding her smile as James ran his hand through her hair briefly before actually starting to brush it.

"Worth waking you up? Why Evans, were you having an, ah, a good dream?" There was a hint of knowing in his tone, and Lily scowled.

"I don't remember anymore." She lied, and snatched the brush away from him to continue herself, as if it were the punishment for his words.

James laughed, but placed his hand placatingly on her shoulder. "Ah, love, I'm sorry." He said, though the laughter could still be heard in his voice. "Shouldn't tease you so early in the morning." He took the brush back and, although she had already finished brushing her hair, took it up again for a minute more, trying to figure out if it was him leaning closer to her or if she was leaning back against him, but then pushing any other thoughts out of his head as he handed her back the hairbrush. "Done." He whispered.

Lily sprang up and magicked the hairbrush back up into the room (the door opened for it, which James decided was a miracle, the type only Lily Evans could create) and the book from earlier came zooming down. She handed it to him with a look of annoyance, showing that she had not quite forgiven him for nearly hitting her with a flying book yelling her name, but James merely grinned and gave it back.

"It's yours, remember, Lily? You lent it to me because you'd memorised it all and I still needed to use it for that charms essay… oh, a month ago? It has your name, see."

"Oh. Alright then." Lily shrugged and put it on the sofa casually. "Well, let's go, don't want to keep our friends waiting, now do we?" She flashed him a smile, and James fell a little bit more in love.

Breakfast passed quickly, and soon Lily and James found themselves on the same team as their other friends, against everyone else in their house who wanted to play.

"This—is—insane!" Lily managed as they ran from a torrent of snowballs sent their way. "How did we end up with only eight against twenty?"

"I think it was something about the Marauders and Lily Evans being on the same team, actually." Remus replied, calmly creating the fortress that Sirius had demanded their team create before running off to launch snowballs at the other side. It currently only had a wall, but it was about as tall as Remus, with spaces every-so-often to throw snowballs from. He was working on a curving roof much like that of an igloo, piling block after block on it with waves of his wand.

"Hey Moony, Prongs, Lily-flower." Sirius said as he slid into the fortress. "I got most of the first-years, a few of the second and third-years, most of the fourth-years, and it's really just the sixth-years now, seeing as the fifth-years all opted out of this snowball fight. Now what are you all waiting for? Moony's got an excuse, he's creating this brilliant fortress of ours—oi, I said looking like Hogwarts, not an ugly tent, Moony—so the rest of you get back out there!" Exchanging a despairing look with James, Lily headed out, waving her wand to create snowballs and sending them toward the other team.

It was chaos. Lily lost sight of James, who had followed her out of their 'fortress,' and found herself faced with five or six snowballs at once, as well as just plain water, which some student (probably a first-year, they weren't quite advanced enough to have a magical snowball fight) had shot towards her. She briefly marvelled at how this really was a fight, at how she had to actually use spells taught to her in her various classes to stop the snowballs or deflect them, until something else bounced off her shield charm that was not even remotely water-based: a jet of red light.

Lily wasn't quite sure how, and she wondered how no one else had noticed, but she found herself suddenly battling with real spells between herself and her opponents, who had turned out to be two Slytherins, apparently also wanting to 'play in the snow.' The mocking smile on Avery's face made her blood boil, yet at the same time Lily found herself ducking and running to avoid their spells instead of shielding or counter-attacking them. She sometimes even found herself hit by a stray snowball in the chaos of battle—with a jolt, she realised that she was not the only one fighting a Slytherin in a real duel; Remus held off three from behind his crumbling fort, and Sirius and Marlene had turned their backs on their original Gryffindor opponents, keeping the cowering first and second years safe behind their own fortress against five, and Lily thought she saw a glimpse of Peter behind there too, helping the children launch snowballs and a few spells—mostly harmless ones—at the Slytherins. She had to duck behind a tree before she could see where Alice and James were, but she was sure they were similarly occupied.

Catching her breath, Lily tried to gauge the situation. She was unsure how it all started, and was unsure how many Slytherins were fighting, but she reckoned they outnumbered the Gryffindor upperclassmen, five other students between fourth and sixth years as well as Lily and her seven friends. The two Slytherins caught up to her then, and Lily tried to send them off, straightening her back and firing curse after curse at them, yelling at them in anger. But they were two skilled seventh years, and Lily began to fall back again as they advanced on her. A spell caught her on her arm, slicing a cut across her forearm, but it was thankfully not her wand-arm, and she continued to defend herself, looking around for something to help her end this fight.

Suddenly, the snow in-between her and her opponents rose into the air, higher than her, and solidified, turning miraculously into stone. "Alright, Evans?" James asked, appearing beside her. Lily jumped in shock.

"James!" She breathed, and placed her back against the stone; of course, James had transfigured the snow into stone—no one else could have done it. The stone shook with each spell that hit it from the other side, but Lily sent James a grateful smile anyway and slid to sit down and catch her breath for a while. "Do you know how this all started?" She managed.

"Not exactly. Only, we were fighting the younger Gryffindors one moment, and then these Slytherins come out of nowhere—I'm guessing it's the upper two years who are fighting, they're about fifteen in total—and they attacked us, including the younger kids—" James broke off to lean around the stone and send a few spells toward the Slytherins on the other side. "I haven't been able to, but I think you should go get a teacher." He continued as he straightened back. "It's probably you and the other muggle-borns they're after, and you're already hurt. I can hold off these three—there are three now, sorry—while you run back to the castle."

"I can fix this." Lily said dismissively, and promptly healed herself. "I'll stay, you go get a teacher. You're right, you're not part of this fight. It's my fight." James barked out a laugh, scarily similar to Sirius' laugh.

"That's the one thing you've never truly understood, Lily. It is my fight. And this is not negotiable. I wouldn't be able to go and leave you behind fighting them. Take this." James produced a cloak from his pocket, a shimmery cloak that looked thinner than any other she had ever seen. "Don't tell anyone about this, don't let anyone see it, but you'll probably need to use this to get away. It's an invisibility cloak. I've had it for years, and it's worked perfectly all those years. It won't fail me now, and you won't get caught. Just use it to run back to the castle, and as soon as you're safe, stow it away somewhere on you." James turned away again to fire more spells at the Slytherins—Lily thought she heard a muffled shout on the other side of the stone, and hoped that James had hit one of them; James had great aim.

"James—" Lily started, but stopped, uncertain what she wanted to say. She was stunned by the existence of the cloak, but did they have time to talk about it, or should she merely tell him to use the cloak instead?

"No questions, Lily, we don't have time." James turned to look her in the eye. "Just go get help." He said.

Lily swallowed and slipped the cloak on. Not even looking down at herself to make sure it worked, she gripped her wand and ran toward the direction of the castle. Behind her, she heard the shattering of stone and yells of the Slytherins and an occasional spell uttered by James, covering for her disappearance.

Lily didn't stop running, even once she was inside the castle already, door closed. She quickly whipped the cloak off and stuffed it in a sloppily Extended pocket, and ran until she ran nearly into Professor McGonagall. Sighing with relief, she quickly told her teacher what had occurred on the grounds. The professor's eyes widened and her lips pressed together in anger, and she stormed off toward the entry where Lily had just come from. Pausing only briefly to catch her breath, Lily followed behind.

From far away, Lily was able to see the fight more clearly; most Gryffindors were only duelling one Slytherin, but Remus was against two now, his fortress completely gone, and Sirius and Marlene and the other younger students were still holding off five. James was battling two, as was Alice—Avery had gone, probably to find where Lily had gone off to, but Lily's heart sank as she recognised Severus duelling a sixth year, and beating her, it appeared. Realising that she had paused to survey the battle, Lily jumped and started after Professor McGonagall again, far ahead of her now, wand at the ready to separate all the students.

Within moments it was over, some Slytherins disappearing at the sight of the deputy headmistress, others having to be forced away from their opponents by an irate teacher.

"In all my years—" Professor McGonagall broke off, breathing heavily for a moment before launching off into a long lecture.

"Do you have the cloak still?" James asked lowly as he stepped beside Lily. She jumped again, having not heard him come up to her.

"Oh—yes. Yes, I do have it—we have to talk, James, how did you—"

"Not now." James hissed. "Pass the cloak over and we'll talk after Minnie finishes her lecture."

"Minnie?" Lily whispered incredulously, but handed the cloak over as discreetly as possible. James had already angled himself so that his body blocked everyone else's view of the exchange, but Lily lifted her hand right after to cradle his face. James stiffened and his eyes widened slightly, but he had enough sense to slip the cloak away and not freeze in shock.

"Just so that they think we're standing close to each other for a reason." Lily said with a slight smile. "Are you alright?" She added quietly. "I was afraid that when I left…"

"What, that I couldn't hold my own against three Slytherins? My father trained me better than that." But the smile he gave her was strained, and Lily saw through it.

"Where are you hurt?" She demanded, stepping back to get a good look at him, but he caught her hand and gave her a look.

"Nothing I didn't handle." He said gently. "I'm fine. Most people are fine, only a few minor injuries. Nothing to worry about. Your arm completely healed?" Lily rolled her eyes.

"It was just a scratch, Ja—" Lily broke off as she heard Professor McGonagall call her name. "Yes, Professor?" She asked hurriedly, jumping away from James and letting go of his hand, face heating up a bit in embarrassment. Professor McGonagall gave her an amused look before asking her to go up to the Headmaster's office with her and a few other witnesses. The other students she sent back to their common rooms, to stay there until lunch.

Lily found herself sitting in Professor Dumbledor's office with Avery, who had reappeared, Lucinda Talkalot, another Slytherin, and James. The Headmaster listened silently to all sides of the story, his presence and stern look enough to keep even James from interrupting the Slytherins while they smoothly weaved their lie.

"Very well." He said finally as James finished talking, "Seeing as this must all have been a simple misunderstanding, a product of the feud between your two houses, I have decided not to punish you all too much; and seeing as we cannot be certain how many people were involved in this… accidental fight, I cannot do more than take a hundred points from each house, and hope you all learn your lesson from the detention Professor McGonagall has no doubt given you all." Lily saw James open his mouth angrily, sure he would object to the punishment—there were more Slytherins, obviously, and the Gryffindors had first-years in the fight, hardly to be taken as a threat—but Professor Dumbledore raised his hand to stop him. "However, since Miss Evans had the good judgement and bravery to find a teacher before anything too serious occurred, I will reward her fifteen points to Gryffindor." This time, Avery opened his mouth in indignation, but Dumbledore silenced him with a look before dismissing the Slytherins.

"I would like to talk to the Head Boy and Girl alone, please." Dumbledore said, and the two Slytherins slunk away.

"Miss Evans and Mister Potter," Dumbledore started, "I hope you realise that while I do not fully believe Mister Avery and Miss Talkalot about the nature of this fight, as a Headmaster I cannot simply reward or punish people without just reason. However, I do believe that this might be a time to start teaching the younger students in better ways to defend themselves against attacks; with this war—yes, Miss Evans, I am acknowledging the war—it is unknown if anyone will be able to protect themselves against Voldemort and his followers." Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "I trust you will know what to do." He looked down at his desk, continuing whatever it was he was doing before they had interrupted him, and it appeared that their meeting had ended.

Lily led the way out of the office and down the hallway, head held high and wand still in hand; she would not put it past the Slytherins to attack her for getting them in trouble. However, the hallway was clear, and the next one, and the next, so she simply stopped and looked at James expectantly.

"What?" James furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"I'm waiting." She replied.

"For what?"

"An explanation."

"And what am I supposed to explain?"

"The cloak, of course."

"Oh, there's nothing to explain about that." James waved his hand dismissively. "It was my father's. When he retired, he gave it to me, and now it's mine. When I get older, my child will get it next, and his or her child after that, and so on so forth. It's been in my family for generations, if what my father says is anything to go by."

"So that's how you… I mean, that's how you got to doing all those pranks, Moony, all of it?" James looked along the hallway and led them into another secret passageway.

"Well, not first year. First year was wits alone. And it's gotten harder lately, I mean, we've all grown so much it doesn't really fit more than two of us, three depending on who it is, and anyway I live away from the others now so we trade off who gets to use it. I generally always have it, unless we have a prank planned."

"That's…"

"Amazing? Ingenious? "

"I was going to say a terrible use of a family heirloom, actually."

"Oh, come off it, Lily—"

"No, really! Your father must have wanted you to use it for good, the way he used it as an auror."

"Yes, I know, like the way we used it today, but I was young, Lily, and it can be used for both, of course!"

"But should it be used for pranks—some even very harmful ones? I mean, James, you have an advantage, and I personally think you've been using it very poorly."

"Well I think that I was using whatever I had to my advantage, to do whatever I wanted to; it's not my fault I had that advantage, that I could use it in that way."

"Yes, but James, don't you think you should use it in a better way than hurting others, or breaking rules?"

"I could, and I do—Merlin, Lily, the way you say it makes it seem like I'm a terrible person—we've been over all of this already, yes I was a git, but it's not like I ever killed anyone or anything like that—"

"But you could and you would get away with it—how do I know you never did anything horrible? And—oh, you used it to sneak out into the Forbidden Forest, didn't you—and who knows—"

"Yes, but I am a reasonably responsible person, Evans, contrary to popular belief, and I never purposefully harmed anyone and definitely not fatally, remember what happened with Snivellus, my biggest enemy, the person I hate the most? Remember how I saved his life?"

"Yes, well, any decent person would do that—"

"Exactly, and not go offing other people—"

"Alright, you're not terrible and you wouldn't do that, all I'm saying is that there is so much that you could do and get away with, and no, you aren't all that responsible, and you aren't very aware of the consequences of your actions—"

"Wasn't, Lily, I wasn't, but now I am—"

"Which of course is another thing you must have used to your advantage, utilised so that you could do whatever you wanted to; and of course, it wasn't your fault you had that advantage—"

"Merlin, Lily, are you even listening to yourself?"

"—Because James Potter was born 'practically perfect in every way' with everything he could ever want—"

"Except you, of course—"

"—and with no regard to others' feelings—"

"Oh, now we've gone on to feelings, have we? Look who's talking, Evans, I might have been a self-righteous git but you weren't all that much better, especially when it comes to regarding other people's feelings, because you never cared how I felt—hell, how I feel, because that sure hasn't changed in the past few years—"

"Then why don't you open your eyes you bastard and do something about it?!"

"Like what? Trust me, Lily, I've tried every way imaginable to get over you, to stop loving you, and it hasn't worked—and you definitely haven't helped in any way—"

"Well what if I don't want you to get over me?"

"Then that just shows that you really don't have any regard whatsoever to my feelings, so I might have been a git before but you, you're just being a total bitch—"

"No, you've just been an ignorant, blind, fool who has spent so much time with his head up his arse and wallowing in his own misery that you can't even see that I bloody fancy you and have been waiting for you to ask me out for a whole bloody month!"

"Oh don't toy with me, Evans, I know you'll never love me, so you can stop with your vindictive revenge on me for the way I treated you and everyone else the past few years—I know you're lying and I know you're using me—of course it must be for the good of the rest of the school, or you must think so, because Lily Evans only ever does what's right, and if it means breaking the bloody heart of—"

"No, James, I do fancy you, and it's not for some silly revenge or to change you—I fancy you." There was a pause as James looked at Lily with a mixture of confusion and apprehension—and probably a little bit of hope. "I really fancy you, James." Lily said again, in a gentler tone. "I don't love you—at least, I don't think so, not yet—but I do fancy you, and that's how you know it's real, because if it weren't we wouldn't have even gotten this far into the argument; if I was trying to break your heart, I would've kissed you as soon as you admitted you were in love with me and then strung you along for another month or two before breaking your heart. But this isn't fake, not at all, and I do fancy you, and I have been flirting and dropping hints for a month hoping you'd ask me out on a date, and I guess… Patience has never really been a big virtue of mine, so I guess when we were arguing… In the heat of the moment, I just felt…"

"You…" James paused, and took a tentative step forward, taking her hand and staring at it as if the answers were written on her palm. "You really do fancy me?" He glanced up at her shyly before looking back down.

"Yes, and if you don't ask me out on a date right now I will do it, and let everyone know that you're a coward who couldn't ask one little question he'd asked millions of times before—"

"I'm fairly certain I've asked you 349 times, actually, not a million. So, you know, come to think of it, I suppose it'd be easier to remember if it were a round number, eh, Evans?" James smirked at her, insecurity stripping away to be replaced by confidence and even cockiness that could only be attributed to a Marauder. "So, will you, Lily Evans, go out with me?"

"Of course I will, Potter." Lily replied curtly with a grin. She swiftly pecked him on the cheek and started down the hall. "But first, we need to get out of here. And then, we need to arrange a Hogsmeade trip as soon as possible, because I am not waiting the three weeks until the one that is scheduled—" Lily was cut off by James' laugh as he slipped his hand into hers and led her out of the secret passageway.

"We could always just forego the actual date and just become girlfriend and boyfriend, and not abuse the power given to us by our brilliant Headmaster?" James suggested.

"No, I'm going to do this right. I didn't ask you out because the boy is supposed to ask the girl out, and now we're going to go on a first date, a proper one that will end in a proper first kiss—" Lily was cut off again by James' groan.

"You're kidding me, Evans—"

"Proper!" She replied firmly. "Nothing with us before was ever really proper, but our relationship is going to be proper and perfect, because that is what is to be expected from Lily Evans and James Potter."

"You mean you're the proper and I'm the perfect?"

"When's the next Prefect meeting?"

So, I have one more part planned for this story, but I have a lot on my plate right now (obviously, I haven't updated in forever) so I can't guarantee when this story will get finished (four more chapters after this), although I suppose I could always end the story here. I really like the next chapter (although I haven't written it yet, I can see it in my head) but I want to know if you guys think this should be continued or not. This is most likely my last ff, regardless of whether I continue this or not, although I will still be reading ff (probably.) so… Yeah, I dunno, I guess I just want to know what you guys think is best? The next part is supposed to be The Art of War, starting with a chapter on their first date and then moving forward, introduction of the Order, etc. so just review of PM me whether you think I should continue or not, I've grown attached to this story but haven't been able to write it yet so honestly I don't know which one I'll be doing without your help Thanks guys!