A/N: As usual, terribly sorry about the delay. Nothing to say really, except that this story is almost over! tear

Disclaimer: Duh.

Sirius Black.

Sirius Black! What had happened to Sandra? Snape stared at the person in front of him. How did this happen?

Then it hit him... Sandra didn't exist. He should have known when he read the letter, Sirius had distinct hand writing, but, but...

&$&$&$

James stared at Lily who had, somehow, landed on top of him on the floor. Lord was she beautiful; if only he could get on her good side...

Then it hit him why she was on top of him. James felt horror run through his veins. The prank! Sirius was changed back to himself! This was not exactly going as he had planned...

&$&$&$

Lily was in shock. It was on thing to think that Sandra was Sirius and quite another to see Snape almost kissing him. She was so shocked in fact that she didn't notice how quiet it had gotten—in fact, there wasn't a sound in the room.

That was, until she realized that she was lying on top of James Potter.

Letting out a startled shriek, she hurled herself off of him, leaping to her feet. This seemed to have awoken Snape, as he had jumped back about five feet from Sirius with a yell, tripped on the hem of his pants, and wiped out, landing flat on his back on the cold floor. (A/N: I couldn't resist.)

This noise led to several reactions. Both Remus and Bellatrix jumped out of their hiding places. Bellatrix was looking stunned and confused, staring uncomprehendingly at Sirius who had conjured a jar of mouthwash and a glass of water, and was now rinsing his mouth thoroughly, spitting disgustedly on the floor, a look of utter revulsion on his face. Much of the saliva-water was splattering onto Snape, who was still scooting away from Sirius, shock and horror etched into his features. James had an interesting expression on his face: disappointment with the brevity of the prank mixed with a foolish grin, due to Lily's closeness. The young woman in question was bright red in the face and yelling at James—something about the response he had given her to their prolonged contact. And Remus was just standing there, watching the scene play out with an amused, if slightly bewildered, expression.

&$&$&$

Snape stared at Sirius from his position on the floor. How could this be happening to him? What had he done to condone (A/n: Wow, that's a sweet word, Jadis! Thanks! I know, I'm a genius. Riiiiight. Back to the story!) this evil twist of fate? Sandra had been the perfect girl; beautiful, witty, charming, in love with him... Snape felt anger seep into his chest. Sirius was going to pay, and the rest of the Marauders too. They wrecked his life, he'd wreck theirs.

An evil smirk came on to his face as he pulled out his wand. Evan's screams had inspired him. Anger one marauder and you got them all...

&$&$&$

Lily was livid. Why did Potter always have to ruin everything? What was his problem that he always had to take every situation and try to get her to go out with him? Couldn't he see that she didn't want to? What was his problem? Lily was so angry that she didn't notice at first that she was screaming her head off at James, who was sitting on the floor and staring at her.

"Potter! What is your problem? Why are you staring at me? For Merlin's sake, can't you for once in your life be decent and—" Lily continued to scream, getting louder and madder as she yelled.

"And stop smiling you prat! You're not supposed to be happy when someone is screaming their head off at—!" Her words were cut off as some thing hit her back...

&$&$&$

James stared at Lily, thinking about how beautiful she was when she got mad. Her hair got messy, her cheeks flushed and her eyes, her brilliant green eyes, shone brightly with anger. She didn't seem to know that he did most things just to see her face like that. A smile started to grow on his face as Lily's screams got louder and more swear words were making their way into her rant; she had used most of them on him at some point or another in the past... James was pulled out of his daydream as Lily's yells suddenly stopped and she fell towards the floor.

&$&$&$

'Perfect shot!' thought Severus, a maniacal glint now in his eyes.

&$&$&$

James lunged forward to catch Lily as she fell. He placed her gently on the floor, resisting the urge to lean forward and kiss her forehead. It would be indecent, and also kind of weird, with her unconscious and everything. He might be desperate to get her to fall in love with him, but that was just unfair. But he did let his finger caress her face, which was as soft as silk.

Suddenly, he remembered that she had just been hexed, and he spun around furiously, whipping out his wand, prepared to murder the person who had tried to do her harm (A/n: Lol, I am really having waaaay too much fun doing this. I would make a horrible matchmaker. You're lucky I'm not God.)

Scanning the room, he found Sirius now washing his eyes and Bellatrix standing there in confused awe. Lupin was watching Sirius with an amused expression on his face. But then James caught sight of Snivellus, and there was a challenging, triumphant look in his gaze.

In that moment, James wished for nothing more than to be able to pound him into a pulp. The fights between the two of them, well, they were normal, natural. It was just the way it was. But now Snape had gone too far. He had brought Lily into it, and that was something that James would never, ever, let happen again.

He followed Snape's gaze and found that he was staring at Lily, her hair spread out like a halo around her head, eyes closed peacefully. And then, he didn't know what came over him. But the next second he was lunging towards Snape, all magic forgotten, and his fist had collided with the slimy git's head.

&$&$&$

Sirius sat on the floor disgusted, stuffing his mouth with chocolate. He shuddered. That was just nasty.

Snape.

Almost.

Kissed.

Him!

He wondered if he would ever get the taste out of his mouth. He would never get over the fact that Snape almost kissed him.

Sirius was pulled out of his stupor by a loud thud next to him. Looking over, he saw Snape on the floor with James towering over him, his wand forgotten. Siruis' eyes opened wide. Usually James never resorted to muggle fighting; he always used his wand. What had caused this abrupt streak of stupidity?

Glancing about the room Sirius saw Lily stunned on the floor. That explained it all. Sirius rolled his eyes and turned back to James and Snape who were now in an all-out fist fight. Well actually it was more like a James-is-beating-Snape-to-a-pulp-extravaganza. Seeing that James had everything under control, Sirius went back to stuffing his face with chocolate.

&$&$&$

Lily groggily opened her eyes to see the smiling face of Sirius next to her.

"Hey Lily, you ok?"

Lily, still somewhat disconnected, replied with look of confusion.

"I'll take that as a no. …Um, yeah Lily do you think you could help me? Snape stunned you and well let's just say that old Jamesie isn't too happy."

Lily looked in the direction he was gazing and her eyes flashed with anger. Why did Potter always think that he had to defend her? Argh! That boy was such an adorable prat.

Lily halted in her tracks.

Did she just call James adorable?

&$&$&$

Snape managed to get his fist into James's stomach, smiling grimly. This was exactly the reaction he had anticipated and wanted, although a little less of the being-beaten-senseless would be nice. But he was satisfied, because he knew that he had finally touched the nerve.

Goodness knew that James had pushed his buttons enough, and finally he was getting back at him—possibly in a low way, but who honestly cared? Besides, it wasn't exactly like James was at a disadvantage here, being about a head taller than him and much more muscular from Quidditch. (A/N: Mmmmmm…James' muscles…Phoenix stop drooling! Wha—gah—kdbu—it wasn't me! Back to the story!)

&$&$&$

Lily was still staring at James as if she had never seen him before. What was going on?

She hated James!

...Didn't she?

Suddenly nothing made sense. Of course she hated James! I mean, look at the way he had acted towards her all these years! Asking her out every second, pretending like he actually liked her when she knew as well as he did that she was just another one of his toys, like a medal he could pin to his chest—"I went out with Lily Evans." She had never been more than 'another girl'. Not that she had ever wanted to be.

But as she watched James's face, contorted with a fury she had never seen before, she unwillingly began to doubt. Maybe...maybe she hadn't been just one of his toys. Maybe he actually did...actually...

It was too much to think about. Especially with Sirius next to her, gleefully shouting, "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!..."

&$&$&$

James was livid. Snivellus dared to hurt Lily. Preparing to punch Snape as hard as he could in the nose, he suddenly remembered that Lily hated it when he beat up on people. With a start he leapt off of Snape, his eyes wide with fear. He had just done the very thing that Lily hated the most.

Quickly pulling out his wand he performed several healing charms on Snape and then turned around to revive Lily, only to find her perfectly wake and staring at him, her face full of confusion.

&$&$&$

Lily stared at James, watching him punch Snape without mercy. The thought crossed her mind that she wanted to stop him. It was disgusting, this excessive display of violence, but she just couldn't think. Startled out of her thoughts by a sudden movement, Lily saw James leap up and point his wand at Snape. Lily stepped forward, thinking that she would have to stop James from cursing Snape into oblivion. She was, however, flabbergasted. Instead of jinxing Snape, James performed several healing charms and then spun around, almost running into her.

"Potter!" she stammered. "What are you—did you just—why—what are you doing?" She was less annoyed than simply stunned. The events of this evening had been extremely perplexing.

"I think I'd like to ask the same question, Potter," Snape spat, pronouncing the word like it was a disease.

"Yeah, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm totally lost," Sirius put in, looking in a confused way at James. Remus and Bellatrix both moved up to stand beside them. James faced them all, and he kept shooting nervous glances at Lily, as if he expected her to suddenly start yelling again. She, however, was watching him with the same bewildered anticipation as the rest of the group.

&$&$&$

Well, here goes. thought James gloomily. Now I have to explain everything to them. How should I do this? "Well you see, I'm just about totally in love with Lily, and so when I saw Snape hex her, I decided to make him pay. Then I remembered that Lily hates it when I beat up Snape, so I healed him in the hopes that she might not hate me as much." Yeah, right. Lily would be livid if he said something that bold to her, much less in front of everyone. So he just gritted his teeth and said,

"I didn't actually want to hurt Snape." There was a moment's silence, in which he could feel everybody staring at him but looked away. Then Sirius gave an echoing snort of laughter and began sniggering.

"Right, Prongs. And that's why you jumped on him and started punching the living daylights out of him. Nice job, by the way."

James half expected Remus to do something, but he merely stood there, watching James, eyebrows raised as if to say, "You got yourself into this situation, might as well tell the truth."

Gulping, he squared his shoulders, aware that everyone was still waiting, not having believed his first excuse. This was it, then.

"Ok, fine. You want to know the reason why I healed Snape? The reason I started attacking him? The reason I'm in this situation in the first place?" He took a deep breath, then turned to Lily and stepped up to her.

"Cuz I'm crazy about you, Lily Evans."

&$&$&$

She seemed to have lost the ability to speak. James's eyes were boring into hers, pleading, and for the first time she realized that he wasn't kidding. James Potter actually loved her.

For some reason Lily found that she didn't mind that much. Her eyes opened wide. She didn't mind. When did this happen? I... I hate James! I just called him James again. Oh my giddy aunt, I like him don't I?

&$&$&$

Sirius stared at James as he tried to explain what he was doing, and failed miserably. He almost started laughing at how funny Prongs looked, when suddenly the boy in question had turned towards Lily.

"Ok, fine. You want to know the reason why I healed Snape? The reason I started attacking him? The reason I'm in this situation in the first place? 'Cuz I'm crazy about you, Lily Evans."

Sirius watched Lily carefully. Usually when James started talking about how he was head over heels for her she slapped him or screamed her head off. But this time she said nothing, just stood there staring at James looking very lost. After several minutes of intense silence Sirius piped up.

"Um... Prongs mate? That really didn't explain it." But James appeared not to have heard.

Suddenly, a stab of a very hot emotion hit Sirius. James was paying him no attention; he was still standing there gazing at Lily as if she were the most beautiful thing on the planet. Hurl. But Sirius was beginning to feel pretty annoyed, and suddenly worried. James had been after Lily his whole life. Now that she liked him back, what was going to happen? Would James start spending all his time with her and totally forget about his friends? Would he go get married and have kids? Would he forget about everything their friendship had meant to him?

And suddenly Sirius wasn't exactly sure he liked where this was heading.

&$&$&$

Wait. So Potter, that filthy hypocrite, attacks me, and that makes Lily like him? So what if he healed me afterwards! It was kinda his fault I was covered with injuries in the first place, wasn't it! And since when has Lily felt anything but loathing for James? This is totally unfair! Everything that snobbish high-and-mighty Potter does just turns into a blessing for him. Well he's going to get what's coming to—wait a minute. What's that noise?

&$&$&$

"Hide!" James whispered furiously.

What on earth was going on? But then Lily heard it too...a faint shuffling, almost like footsteps. Everyone was preparing to scatter when a wheezy, delighted voice issued from the shadows.

"Well, well...we are in trouble, aren't we?"

A/N: This is the penultimate chapter! sobbing Well, life must go on!