Change of Heart

By Tempest Break

Disclaimer: Nope, nope. Don't own Harry Potter. I own... Joni Lansing. I mentioned her in chapter ten. Oh, and I want to say again that I own Selena and Colleen, just because I don't have anything else to say.

Summary: James knows he's in love with Lily, and he's told her. Unfortunately, she likes Remus. Still, James has promised to give her his best shot and nothing less, unless she's officially Remus's girl. Meanwhile, they get closer and closer as friends, and don't the best of friends make the best of lovers? All James is waiting for is for Lily to have a change of heart.

- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter Thirteen: All Is Fair…

After putting Lily in her bed and covering her up, James showered, letting the hot water run on him as he contemplated Lily's sleepy confession. Had she truly been the shadowy student near the lake? Surely Peter would have said if it was Lily. But his eyesight as a rat was admittedly sub-par…

James finally decided that he could not decide anything on the subject, so he turned off the water – his hands rather prunier than usual – and stepped out of the luxurious shower. He grabbed one of the fluffy red towels to dry himself off with and walked through the door to his room to get dressed.

Down in the Great Hall, James and the other Marauders were all yawning amid their lame attempts at conversation. Even Sirius seemed to lack the necessary gusto to down more than three plates of sausage and eggs.

"I feel like something happened last night that was out of the ordinary," muttered Remus, massaging his temples. "Did it?"

James, Sirius, and Peter exchanged looks. "A student was by the lake," James said reluctantly.

Remus's eyes widened, and he looked pained. "Please tell me they're okay. Please say I didn't do anything." He looked back and forth among the other three.

"They're fine," Sirius assured him. "You didn't do anything."

Remus closed his eyes in relief. "Thank God," he whispered. "Do you know who it was?"

"No," James lied. He wanted desperately to forget what Lily had said about her "dream" that morning. "We don't."

"Hey, boys!" They turned to find Lily, Colleen, and Selena. It was Colleen who had called to them. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," they chorused.

"You all right, Remus?" asked Colleen, studying him. "You didn't look too good yesterday, and today's not much better."

"Thank you," he said, rather sarcastically. "But really, thank you for your concern. I'm fine. What about you, Lily? You have bags under your eyes."

Lily blinked several times, as though trying to keep her eyes open. "Yes, I was up rather late last night, Charms assignment, you know." She turned her gaze on James briefly.

He smiled at her. "It's a Saturday," he told her. "You can go back to sleep."

"I'm fine," she insisted, still rubbing her eyes with her hands.

"Anyway," said Colleen, "we were just wondering if you'd all like to have a snowball fight with us. There's enough snow down there to drown Professor Flitwick."

"Sure," agreed Sirius. James, Remus, and Peter nodded in assent as well.

Colleen grinned. "Brilliant! Let's get down there, then!"

- - - - -

Since Selena decided she would just sit and watch, it was three against three, with Colleen and Sirius as "captains". They spent about five minutes playing rock-paper-scissors to figure out who would pick first, but finally Sirius emerged the victor.

"All right," he said. "James, come on down, mate."

"Lily," called Colleen.

"Remus."

"Peter." As Peter jogged over to join Colleen's team, Colleen clapped and rubbed her hands together. "All right! We're gonna kill you, Black," she challenged.

Sirius scoffed. "You couldn't kill me with a ten-foot wand," he replied. Then he grinned. "Actually, I have a ten-foot wand, if you'd like to – "

"Is this really the time for penis innuendoes?" Remus asked wearily.

"Okay, okay, you're right," said Sirius. "Come on, boys. Let's go strategize!"

"Padfoot, this is a snowball fight," said James, rolling his eyes. "I don't see h–OW!" He reached up to touch his snow-covered head, turning toward the laughter.

Lily was laughing loudly. "I have good aim!" she exclaimed between chortles.

"'Swhy I picked her!" Colleen called with a grin.

"Fine! No strategies, this is war!" shouted Sirius, scooping up some snow and hurling it at Peter. It hit him squarely in the chest.

"Right, because war requires no strategies," said Remus dryly, jumping out of the way of Peter's retaliatory snowball. "This is more like mayhem."

After a few minutes of avoiding the further onslaught of Colleen's team, James found himself hiding with Remus behind a rather large snowdrift, preparing a large stock of snowballs. "Hey, Moony," he greeted.

"Hello, Prongs," said Remus, sticking his head a little ways up beyond their snowdrift to gauge the enemy's position. "How are you?"

"Okay," James answered. "I told Lily I like her."

Remus glanced at him. "And how did that go?"

"She likes you," James said quietly.

"Oh, I know," Remus replied.

James's eyes widened. "You know?" he spluttered.

"James, I notice things," Remus told him. "I don't do things, so I notice them instead. I knew you loved Lily long before you admitted to it, but I didn't say anything, because I also knew that you wouldn't want to hear it."

"Why did you kiss her, then?!" he demanded, angry that Remus knew how James felt about Lily.

"So you would notice, too."

"Do – do you like Lily?" James inquired.

"No," said Remus. "No, I don't." Then he scooped up a snowball and said, "Now, I'm heading into no man's land, to die for my beloved – albeit off his rocker – leader." And he darted around the snowdrift away from James.

James sat down, leaning against the snowdrift, the game almost completely forgotten. He heard footsteps approaching him, and he opened his eyes, to see Selena with a snowball in her hand.

"I thought you weren't playing," he said, warily eyeing the snowball between her mittens.

"I'm not. Here," she said, handing him the ball. "I overheard what you and Remus were talking about. I'm glad you finally came to your senses."

"I'm not," he said, taking the snowball and looking into her soulful gray eyes. "You're like Remus, aren't you? You notice things, and you tell people, but nobody ever believes you."

"People have to see things for themselves," said Selena with a shrug. "Now that you've noticed, I've decided to work on Lily."

James frowned slightly. "Lily loves Remus," he said.

"But Remus doesn't love Lily," she pointed out, "and you do."

"That just makes me pathetic," said James glumly.

"Don't worry," said Selena. "Now, shouldn't you be playing with your team rather than talking to me?"

"Yeah," agreed James, standing. Immediately a snowball hit him in the back. He turned to see Colleen standing there, grinning. "You're dead, O'Brian!" He hurled Selena's snowball at her, and it hit the side of her head.

Colleen fell onto the snow. "I've been hit!" she shouted, crawling over to where Lily crouched behind a snowdrift opposite James's. "You'll have to carry on without me!"

"I'll avenge you!" cried Lily, standing. She chucked her snowball at James, but he dodged it, scooping up snow as he went. He tossed some at Lily, and it just barely grazed her side.

"I'll help you, mate!" Sirius shouted, coming up beside James with a whole pile of snowballs in his arms. He set them on the ground and he and James helped themselves, pelting Lily with a rain of snowballs.

Lily screamed and took cover behind her snowdrift. "Peter! Where are you?" she yelled.

"He's over here," said Selena, waving. Peter sat by her side, grinning sheepishly and covered in melting snow.

"Colleen, get up!" pleaded Lily, nudging Colleen with her foot, but Colleen wouldn't budge – she only lolled her tongue out of her mouth and groaned.

James and Sirius came to stand just over Lily, smirking down at her. "So, this is all that remains of your mighty empire," said Sirius seriously. "How pathetic. Potter?"

"Yes, sir?" asked James, playing along.

"Take this woman as a prisoner for questioning later," he ordered, but he was grinning.

"As you wish, sir!" James leaned down and hoisted Lily up, throwing her over his shoulder like a caveman's wife.

"Let me down, James!" Lily laughed, pounding on his back. "Let me down!"

James held onto her tightly, laughing at her predicament. "Keep squirming, Lily. It's a good way to get dropped," he laughed warningly.

Lily huffed but fell still. James carried her the rest of the way to the castle, and then put her down when they reached the doors. "That was fun, huh?" he said, smiling.

"Oh, yes, fun," she agreed sarcastically, but she was smiling as well.

The others caught up to James and Lily. Sirius was saying to Colleen, "We won, so we should get some sort of prize."

"Isn't the victory enough for you?" asked Colleen.

"Hell no," said Sirius. "You all have to do something for us."

"Aren't you supposed to decide the stakes before you play?" Lily pointed out. "We don't owe you anything for losing."

Sirius ignored her. "You're just lucky I can't think of anything right now. Don't worry, though. I will."

"Nothing dirty, Black," warned Colleen. "I know how that mind of yours works."

"Of course you do," said Sirius, "because yours works the same way."

Colleen shrugged. "Yeah," she agreed.

"You guys are so much alike," said Lily, "I'll bet you could be each other for a day and no one would notice the difference." Sirius and Colleen looked at her in confusion. "I mean, Colleen, you could act like Sirius, and vice versa," said Lily, "and no one could tell."

"You know, I'll betcha we could," said Sirius thoughtfully. "You wanna start now, Colleen?"

"Who're you calling Colleen?" asked Colleen, her voice a few octaves lower than normal. "I'm Sirius Black, and I hate myself!"

"Maybe I was wrong," muttered Lily.

- - - - -

Sirius and Colleen kept them entertained with their antics while they ate dinner that night. "You're so sexy, Colleen," said Colleen to Sirius. "I could be sexy, too, but I hate myself."

Sirius turned to James and Lily. "I have something to tell you guys. This is my real voice," he said, dropping his voice about five octaves from the high tone he had been using as Colleen.

Selena smiled. "Really, they would make quite a cute couple," she said privately to James, Lily, Remus, and Peter.

"Yeah, the only problem is, you can't tell who's the one with the balls," remarked James.

After dinner they parted ways – Sirius, Remus, Peter, Colleen, and Selena going to Gryffindor Tower, and James and Lily heading back to their Head Tower. When they entered the common room, James threw himself on the couch. "That was tiring," he sighed.

"Colleen and Sirius together can really wear a person out," agreed Lily, sitting in one of the armchairs.

James maneuvered himself so that he was facing her. "Did you have fun, though?" he asked.

Lily smiled. "Yes," she said. "I almost regret hating you all these years because of how much fun I'm having with you and Sirius and Remus and Peter."

"You 'almost' regret it?" he repeated. "Why 'almost'?"

"Because it was rather interesting, if not annoying, having you pestering me all the time to go out with you," she said, shrugging.

"You liked it!" exclaimed James, sitting up. He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You liked it!"

"I didn't say that!" she protested.

"You liked it," continued James. He looked up at the ceiling, his arms spread wide. "She liked it!"

"I didn't say I liked it, I said it was interesting." She smiled. "But it was fun knowing that I was one of the few girls that could say no to you."

"You still are," he said a little sadly.

Lily stared at him strangely. "James, I love you," she said, "but only as a friend. At least right now."

James sighed, running a hand through his hair. "So, then... There is hope?" he asked, sounding pathetic even to himself.

"Yes," she said, smiling a little and nodding. "Just wait for me."

James smiled back at her. "I'll wait forever for you, Lily."

- - - - - - - - -

Tempest: That seemed like a pointless chapter to me, but it was kind of fun. Just a little bit of character development, I think. I saw Seabiscuit! That was a great movie! It made me cry at a couple parts, which is always good. Um, let's see... Next chapter will be interesting, and chapter fifteen will definitely be good for you romantics out there. ;) See you in chapter fourteen! Review, review, review!!

8-03-07: This chapter has been revamped! Hope you enjoy it more than before.