Only Fools Rush In
Of Lake Monsters and Late Night Visitors.

"Hey Sweets!"

Lily looked up from her breakfast to see the oh so sexy face of James Potter grinning down at her. She mentally slapped herself, she shouldn't be describing one of her best friends as sexy! Lily was sure she must be breaking some Best Friend Code out there. Not trusting herself to speak, she merely smiled at the boy as he settled himself opposite her and proceeded to engage in discussions about Quidditch plays with the rest of the gang. It has been nearly half a month since they started this charade, she was quite amazed how they managed to keep it up. She was more amazed that Cassy hadn't asked James to take her back yet. If she was Cassy, she would have gotten back with James in a heartbeat, the moment he looked like he was getting serious with someone else. Again, she mentally slapped herself. She had to stop sounding like she was in love with James. She growled in frustration at her cornflakes and looked up, only to see James gazing at her. She smiled, realizing people were looking at them and raised her eyebrow in question.

"I have practice tonight, don't stay up." James said, dishing a spoonful of pudding into his mouth.

Lily nodded, turning her attention back to her cornflakes, "Alright, remember to bring a cloak won't you? It's cold out."

James laughed, "Sure sweets, see you later," he stood up and walked over to her side, "Please get some rest tonight, I don't think any Potions report is worth losing sleep over." Then, like it was the most natural thing to do, he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Before she knew it, he was gone.

"Wow," Sirius moved closer towards Lily and whispered, "You guys are good. I almost believed you two, and I know about the plan!"

Lily flashed him a smile, "I wouldn't be surprised if one day you actually forgot about the plan idiot."

Sirius threw a cupcake at her in retaliation.

Lily let out a tinkling laugh and went back to finishing her cornflakes. Shit, Sirius is right. Everything's getting way too natural for my liking.

xxx

"Hey James, what's the rush?" Sirius hurried after the messy mop of hair, "Don't you want to stay back awhile and shoot some hoops?"

"Can't," James replied breathlessly over his shoulder, "Gotta get back."

Sirius looked confused and asked, "Er, what for Prongs? We actually finished our homework already remember? Moony wouldn't get off our backs."

But his best friend had already gone out of earshot and Sirius huffed. Oh wells, there was always Peter and Moony left to annoy.

Meanwhile, James had already hurried into the common room. Remus looked up from yet another book at the rather windblown hair and casually asked about Sirius.

"Wh-What?" James replied distractedly, looking around the common room.

Remus tossed the book down on the carpet, "Please don't tell me you left Padfoot out there alone without a guide. He's going to get lost."

James snorted, "All the better, he was starting to get annoying with all the secret stashes of muffins." James sat down beside Remus, "Where's Lily?'

Remus raised his eyebrow, he thought he knew where this conversation was going, "You told her not to stay up remember? Besides, there really isn't anyone still up to watch you guys act."

"Right," James nodded absentmindedly, looking up the girls' staircase, "But I better go check, just in case."

Remus tried to hide his smile, "Check what Prongs?"

But James had already left the common room, broomstick in tow.

xxx

Tap tap tap.

Lily could have sworn she heard something rapping on her window. Only thing was, it was midnight, they were four stories up and it was starting to snow outside. But the tapping grew louder and more incessant. Suddenly, the window flew open and Lily sat up in her bed, half expecting an owl to fly into the room or something.

"Hello!" out popped James and he proceeded to dust some snow off his hair, "So you aren't sleeping."

Lily blinked, "Go away you figment of my imagination."

Instead of doing that, said figment sat down at the end of her bed, drew the curtains round them and said, "Don't want to wake the room mates!" in a rather cheerful voice.

Looking horrified, Lily exclaimed, "You're not going away!"

James chuckled, "Give me one good reason why I should."

Lily could think of around fifty right at that moment but couldn't bring herself to verbalise any one. If she did, would this James sitting on her bed really disappear?

"Alright, since you can't think of any, let's talk."

Lily was thoroughly confused, this dream was getting very odd, "Er, why?"

The James sitting in front of her shrugged, "Don't know, I just felt like talking to you."

"Oh," Lily breathed in, "Okay." She succeeded in sounding like it was a pretty normal thing to do.

And so that's what they did, throughout the night.

Lily woke up the next morning and found it really difficult to wipe that smile off her face. It had been a real nice dream. Her imagination had been working on overdrive lately. She had to remember to reward it later at breakfast with a yummy treacle tart. Humming happily, she slipped out of bed and stepped on something that felt foreign. Lifting her foot, she saw part of a broomstick bristle lying on the floor. Lily frowned. How did that get there? None of her dorm mates owned a broom. She hadn't used hers lately. Lily tripped into the bathroom feeling her head was going to split from all that thinking.

"Morning babe!" her dorm mate, Sandra, greeted her.

Lily mumbled a greeting in return.

Sandra smiled, "Didn't get much sleep last night did you?"

Lily stuttered a reply she hoped sounded like she was feeling fine.

"Don't worry Lils! I won't tell anyone!" Sandra patted her back and walked towards the door.

Lily's head jerked up from the sink, "Tell them what?"

Sandra winked and as she walked out the door, her voice floated back to Lily in the bathroom, "Your late night visitor secret is safe with me!"

Lily dropped her toothbrush and stared at herself in the mirror. No way.

xxx

Lily entered the Great Hall a little apprehensively. Perhaps it was best to pretend nothing happened. She found her seat beside James and looked around for the treacle tart.

"Morning sunshine!" James had already piled her plate with spoonfuls of delicious looking treacle tart.

Lily beamed, just the way to start the morning. Halfway through her breakfast, she had a funny feeling someone was boring holes into her back, so she turned around and saw Cassy glaring straight at her. Lily gulped and turned back to her food. Seriously, if Cassy was so bothered, she should just ask James to get back together already!

"Erm, does nobody care that Sirius hasn't shown up for breakfast?" Remus asked, surveying the Great Hall for any sign of an overconfident, obnoxious teenager.

Peter looked up from the Daily Prophet, "Oh yea, he didn't return to the dorm last night. I assumed he got held up by his latest conquest."

James spat out his soup, "Oh crud, I left him at the Quidditch pitch last night."

Lily's eyes widened, "The last time we left him alone outside, he went frolicking with the giant octopus in the lake!" She turned to face James, "Were you going to do something important?"

James started to get a little red. Remus noticed his predicament and interceded kindly, "Let's not worry, Sirius is a big boy now, he can jolly well take care of himself."

It was funny Remus chose that time to say it because as soon as he finished, Sirius army rolled into the hall covered in boils, "I thought Octi and I had an understanding!"

xxx

"But I'm fine!" Sirius thrashed about like a baby. The hospital wing's sole patient wasn't being very co-operative.

Lily tried to soothe Sirius with some chocolate, "If you stay here, be good and get some rest, I'll drop by with muffins later."

Sirius considered for a second, "Deal!"

Lily smiled and glanced at her watch, "Shoot! I'm going to be late! See you in a bit Padfoot!" and she dashed off.

Sirius pouted, crap, he was getting bored already. Luckily for him, Remus walked into the hospital wing, a little skip in his step. Sirius grinned broadly. He did love visitors.

Remus tossed a rolled up parchment in his direction, which hit him square in the head, "Wow Padfoot, your reflexes aren't what they used to be."

Sirius rubbed his forehead, a little offended and examined the parchment, "What's this?"

Remus drew a chair and sat down, "Directions from the pitch to our dorm! You won't be getting lost again!"

Sirius stared blankly back at Remus.

"Yes, I know, I marvel at my brilliance sometimes," Remus beamed to no one in particular, "I totally deserve a pat on the back." With that, he gave himself a congratulatory pat on the back.

Sirius rolled his eyes at this rare display of childishness on Remus' part, that sort of thing was more his area of expertise, "I'm not three Moony, I know how to get back to our dorm."

"Oh really, explain your absence last night and this morning at breakfast then," Remus leaned forward expectedly.

"I had other plans," Sirius replied simply, tearing open his bag of chocolate frogs.

Remus laughed, "So Peter was right then, you were held up by your latest conquest. I assume astronomy tower?"

Sirius sighed, "If only that had been the case, I haven't been getting much action lately." He pondered, then remembered something, "Moony! You haven't taken Lily's advice to show off more of your sweet side have you?"

Remus smirked, sensing a hint of desperation in Sirius' voice, "What? Worried I'm going to charm the other half of the female population from under your nose?"

Sirius bit off a chocolate head, "No, but you stick with your dark brooding thing and I'll stick with the sweeping girls off their feet with my wit thing, and nobody will get hurt."

Remus rolled his eyes, really, his friend could be a right prat sometimes, "So if you weren't getting busy what happened?"

Sirius shrugged, "I merely followed James under his invisibility cloak. That boy left it at the pitch in his hurry. My original plan was to frighten the two of you out of your wits but something even better came up."

Remus narrowed his eyes, then realization dawned upon him, "You didn't!"

Sirius appeared puzzled.

"You followed James up to Lily's dorm, didn't you!"

Sirius pouted again, "You're no fun Moony, how did you know?"

"My powers of deduction seldom fail me, "Remus smiled, giving himself another pat on the back.

"Yea well, it got boring after a while, none of them were paying any attention to me!" Sirius exclaimed, a wounded expression on his face.

It was Remus' turn to roll his eyes, "Maybe because you were invisible Padfoot?"

Sirius had pretended not to hear that comment, "So I left and went to find an old friend."

Remus massaged his temples, "Sirius, the giant octopus that resides in the school lake can hardly be considered an old friend."

Sirius sighed, "Yea, well I guess she felt the same way you do."

The two friends leaned back and looked out the window, soaking in the sunshine, breaking the silence occasionally with the crunching on chocolate frogs.

"Moony?"

"Hmm?"

"Jamesie got it bad huh?"

"Yea Padfoot, he does. And something tells me he's not alone in this."

"So Lily fancies him too then?"

"If she just lets herself believe it."

xxx

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