The crisp air met Lily with a harsh bite and she pulled her cloak tighter around her as she walked across the ground. The figure was now leaning against the tree that he was skipping rocks at just about five minutes ago.

She saw the familiar windswept hair and athletic figure that told her who it was.

"Hello," she uncertainly greeted him, feeling as though she was intruding on him.

"I was hoping you might see me down here," he smiled awkwardly.

Lily walked up and sat down beside him. "Yeah, I figured that."

"What kept you up?"

"Ah, just um, thinking…about…"

"-What Emmeline told you." He matter-of-factly answered for her.

"Potter, how did you know?"

"Well, uh, I'm only James Potter, Lilykins. I have my ways,"

"I should've known…and will you please stop calling me that?!"

"Yeah, well…I knew you'd figure it out one way or another. We both know you're too smart for me, and I'd prefer not to stop calling you so,"

"Smart, but not clever like you. There's quite a difference, and you should go back to calling me by my surname, Potter," She said the last word as though to demonstrate how it was done.

"Yeah, well, I still have a long way to go…and I love you too much to call you 'Evans' you're more than 'Evans' because you're Lilykins,"

"So," Lily couldn't keep gnawing at the edges. She had to go for the middle.

"And I take it you've thought about it?"

"I wouldn't be here right now if I hadn't! Look, Potter-"

"-Please, my sweet, call me James,-"

"-Right, Potter. Picking one of you? ONE?! You're both equally arrogant and boyish for that matter. By doing so, not only would I make the other jinx me every time I walk down the hall for the rest of my life, but I'd ruin your and Sirius' friendship as well. I like you both the same, for now, and I'd appreciate it if things went back to normal."

"Er…oh,"

"Potter?"

"You just live to make things difficult, don't you, Lilyk-" He sighed, defeated. "Evans?"

Lily smiled. "I believe so,"

They both stood, their mission completed.

"Love anyways?" Lily stuck out her hand. James shook it. "Love anyways."

And so the Marauders all went on with their lives, and resumed the taunting between classes, the hexes when she didn't expect it, and the showing off to anyone who would watch, now that Sirius and James stopped being so competitive.

"Hey Evans," Sirius called from behind her. She spun around, her curtain of red hair billowing around her.

"What? Here to do another horridly inaccurate imitation of me?"

"No,"

"Transfigure me into a…" she thought for a moment. "…Fish, then,"

"Er…no,"

"Then what?"

Sirius smiled gleefully. "Both of them!"

And he ordered, "Aguagillis!" so that poor Lily was found flopping pitifully on the ground, and then began to jump up and down and raise his hand, with such a goofy smile that a lot of passerby laughed.

"You idiot! What have you done?!" Emmeline had come to Lily's rescue. Sirius made to do the same to her, but she acted quickly, shouting, "Levicorpus!" so that Sirius was dangling upside down by his left foot.

Professor Slughorn walked by at that point. "Detention, Black! And kindly re-transfigure Miss Evans back into human form." Sirius huffed in a mock-disappointed way, and then put Lily back to normal. As soon as she was right, she ran at him, slapping and hitting anything she could reach. "BLACK, YOU IDIOT, YOU ABSOLUTE GIT! NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I HATE YOU?? NOW DO YOU?!"

Professor Slughorn looked rather taken aback. Remus was trying to restrain Lily and pull her off of Sirius, who she had knocked to the floor. James was over there trying to help as well, and Peter just stood there stupidly.

Emmeline wasn't helping at all, for she was yelling right on with Lily. She'd let Sirius down after finding the new thing to do. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU ARROGANT LUNATIC? NO WONDER SHE HATES THE LOT OF YOU!"

And it continued this way until Slughorn finally ranted, "ENOUGH!" at which time anyone who was in the sector looked up in alarm, even Lily stopped hitting Sirius long enough for Remus and James to peel her off of him.

"Miss Evans and Miss Vance will join you, for loud, disruptive behavior and violence."

And waddled away, leaving James and Remus each holding an arm

"Lily, don't do this, he was just in for a bit of good fun," James pitifully tried to reason with her.

"You call that 'a bit of good fun'? Are you raving mad?! I couldn't breathe! He tried to kill me!"

Peter was helping a bruised Sirius up. He had red marks on his cheeks from being slapped and a bloody lip. He was looking sheepish, like he had just woken up in the middle of a corridor and didn't know exactly why. He looked at Lily with such unsureness that she nearly started screaming at him all over again, but it was Remus who spoke. "Come, Lily, take a walk with me," and as she opened her mouth to retort, "No buts."

And he led her off into the courtyard by the wrist.

"Let GO of me!" Lily twisted her wrist around as Remus stood there, unwilling to let her go, for fear that James would be next.

"Will you calm down, if I were to let go of you?" he reasoned.

She huffed something that sounded like 'fine!' He let go of her wrist, and they walked around the chilly courtyard.

"Lily, as much as I don't approve of James and Sirius picking on you all the time, I don't believe that Sirius meant any harm to you when he did that. And you did say that you wanted things to go back to normal…so they took it literally. You cannot blame them."

"Yes, Remus, I began to realize that, but the fact still remains that I could've died! He mayn't have meant me any harm but that has yet to mean that what he did was anything forgivable!" Now Lily was the one reasoning.

Remus stopped and stepped in front of her, putting his hands casually on both of her shoulders so she could see the serious look in his eyes. "I know. Lily, believe me, I know, but the reason I wanted to talk to you was that I needed to tell you that this is just the beginning. There's going to be things far worse than this. You need to understand how. James and Sirius will continue to be this way. You haven't chosen between them."

"Er…can I skip the stupid choosing? I don't want either of them…what happened to things going back to the way they were, that includes between those two!" she complained.

"What happens, happens, Lily. I wanted you to know that if you ever need to talk-as a friend, I daresay-I'm here when you need me," Remus assured her comfortingly.

They continued to walk around the courtyard.

"Yeah, well, I need you now." She desperately pleaded.

"For what?"

"To get those two gits off my back on this whole choosing thing,"

"I tried,"

"Please try again? For me?"

"Yeah, alright," He gave in easily.

Lily's eyes widened in realization. "Remus, how did you know about the choosing?"

"The same way that James knew about it, the same way that Sirius and Peter did. We were there, but telling you exactly how would just ruin all the fun." He smiled mischievously.

Lily didn't need the details. She'd look this stuff up later.

"I think I'm calm enough to be around other people now," Lily said, feeling quite a lot better, now that she knew that some things were looking up.

"Okay," Remus agreed. Ushering her back in.