Author's Note: Harry Potter and all the rest is to J.K. Rowling.

Another weirdly-cut chapter! But that was supposedly a cliff-hanger, right? Anyway, here we go:

Chapter Eight

"James?"

James looked up at Lily Evans, who was still buttoning her coat as she hurried down the stairs towards him. "Hey, Evans."

"Sorry I'm late. Patricia was having hysterics about her own date, and I had to reassure her a hundred times that she looked beautiful, as always." Lily laughed a bit at the thought (Patricia was easily the best looking girl in Hogwarts), then did a double take on James. "I like your trousers."

James grinned at her before looking back down at his canary-yellow trousers. "Thought it would be nice, you know? Add some sunshine to winter and all."

"They're a bit long, though," said Lily, observing the folds on the ends of James' trousers.

"Yes, and pretty tight," James muttered. "But all for that bit of cheer and brightness, right?"

"And not your style," Lily finished.

"Sirius' fault," said James, finally. "Stained them with Polyjuice potion yesterday, never the same since."

"He's pretty much unstoppable, isn't he?" said Lily, absently.

"That he is." James held out his hand when Lily was only a few steps up from where he was standing. "And I'd much rather not talk about him on our date. Let's go?"

Lily blushed faintly as she took James' proffered hand, her other hand reaching out to tuck her long hair back behind her ear.

"And Lily?"

"Yes?"

James reached inside his jacket and handed Lily a small box of chocolates. "Thanks for agreeing to go out with me."

Lily smiled, raising her eyebrows. "That's from a Muggle store!"

"I heard you tell Patricia how much you liked them," said James, haltingly. He frowned slightly, pressing two fingers against his right ear.

"That's very nice of you."

"Anything for you, Li—Evans."

"Hey, you can call me Lily if you want, I guess. I call you James, right?" said Lily.

"Well, yes," said James.

"Are you all right?" Lily leaned over to look at James more closely. They had just reached the main doors, where Filch was waving a broom and a mop about with the familiar but still remarkable frown. He gave a start when he saw James and Lily, raising the hand holding the mop as if he planned to flog James with it.

"You! You!" Filch spluttered. Some of the mess he'd been cleaning up fluttered around him when he moved towards James and Lily, scattering more of what looked like pink confetti all over the floors.

"Well, yes, me," said James, mildly. "I'm quite assured of my existence, thanks very much."

"Come back to make more mess, haven't you?" Filch went on, turning a frightening shade of purple. "And your girlfriend just laughing, egging you on—"

Lily made a sound that was halfway between protest and snort. James frowned at Filch.

"She's got nothing to do with it, whatever I'm supposed to have done this time."

"Supposed to have done!" Filch laughed, too, spraying James with his saliva. "A fine one, that is. Why don't you ask the rest of those filthy layabouts what you were supposed to have done, spraying all these muck all over the floors."

"The confetti?" said James, looking surprised. "I don't know what you're talking about. Let's go, Lily."

"Not so fast… You! OY!"

James, who still haven't let go of Lily's hand, began to run, pulling her after him. Lily followed quickly enough, considering her perfect record at Hogwarts, she didn't relish the thought of being served detention for something like this. She was not sure, but when they had passed through the doors, she thought she heard James Potter cursing Sirius Black under his breath.

*

I can't, James realized, his hand pausing on his wand. The idea surprised him, making him face up to the fact that he'd been trying to push to the back of his mind the last few years: it was real for Lily Evans. Not just some stupid crush as Sirius had been telling him impatiently whenever James talked too much about Lily. Nothing he'd outgrow any time soon, anyway.

And damn, he was willing to spend the rest of his life spewing forth pink hearts instead of hexing her and making her hate him forever.

He really must be in love.

"Potter?" Lily was looking at him, crossing her arms over her chest. "What's wrong? Someone's cursed you, haven't they?"

James nodded, pointing at his mouth. Then, picking up a stray twig lying on the floor, he began to write on the snow: I'm sorry.

"What's the counter-curse?" There was something almost business-like in Lily's manner, the same way she acts when doing her prefect duties. James swallowed a bit, wondering if Lily thought of him like that, like he was just one of her annoying duties.

I don't know, James wrote. Great, he thought, I'm not only lying to her. I'm doing it through WRITING!

Lily bit her lower lip, looking at the letters on the snow thoughtfully. "Who did it, anyway?"

James sighed, then wrote Sirius, probably.

"He's a genius, isn't he?" She smiled at him impishly. "Handsome devil, too, if you know what I mean."

James goggled at Lily. "Don't tell me—" he began, risking the confetti. You like him? James thought furiously. Lily Evans and Sirius Black? And then it all fell into place, like an image seen from the crystal ball (Not that James was big on Divination. It was one of the few things he could actually fail in). "YOU!"

Lily laughed. It sounded like a bark. "Yeah, Prongs. Me."

"What the fuck?! Where's Lily?" More pink confetti. Well, let Sirius deal with them, James thought. It was all his fault in the first place.

"Oh, I bet she's having a happy time with Remus. You know." Sirius/Lily winked at James, placing one hand on his/her hip. "You really should see your face, James, old boy. I reminds me of the day my mother realized I wasn't going to go back home ever."

"You bloody WANKER!" James said, taking out his wand. He saw the surprise in Sirius/Lily's face, and wondered if it was vindictive of him to feel an enormous sense of satisfaction even though the expression still came from Lily Evan's face.

Sirius scrambled for his own wand, cursing at the unfamiliar buttons of Lily's jacket (How he got hold of her clothes was totally beyond James, and he didn't want to ask. Secrets of the trade and all).

"Expelliarmus!" Another voice cut in, before James could say anything (He was actually thinking of body-bind before, after reading Sirius' note, seeing how he wouldn't want to hurt Lily Evans. But the sudden change of circumstances made him want to use the Bat-Bogey hex instead).

James turned around as his wand flew towards the other person. The voice sounded incredibly familiar, although James couldn't tell who it was exactly. It felt a bit like an itch at the back of his throat.

When he saw who had cast the spell, he realized why.

It was himself. Standing a few feet away with his wand extended. With Lily Evans. The other James caught James' wand deftly, smiling a bit.

"All right, James?" said the other James.

Sirius (who still looked like Lily) made a face at this other James. "Shouldn't you be asking me? I was the one who nearly got hexed."

"Whose fault was that?" said the other James Potter (Who was, of course, Remus Lupin). "You never said anything about hexing… aside from the confetti, of course."

Sirius shrugged. "It was fun. Spur of the moment decision, you know."

The real James, who had been watching this exchange with his mouth hanging open, caught himself finally. "Can you two poofs explain yourselves?"

"A bit of a payback, actually," said Sirius.

"For Pink Bunny," said Remus, mildly.

"And that bet we had. With interest, of course." Sirius reached into Lily's pockets and tossed a bag of coins at James. "Well, as it is Valentine's Day, and your date to boot, we better leave you to it, right?"

"Now take the curse off him."

Sirius sighed. "Just say her name again, Potter." And he stomped off, joining Remus, who was for some reason, wearing the game face. "Happy hunting!"

James opened the bag, counting of the ten Galleons inside.

"What was that all about, James?" said Lily, watching the two boys walk away.

"Well, it's a really long story," James began. "Lily!"

"Yes, James."

"You called me by my name!"

"Well, yes. I guess I did. Did you really send those chocolates then, or was it Remus'?" She held out the box and raised her eyebrows.

"Well… I think that's mine. But I gave it to Sirius before I realized—" James' voice trailed off. "Man, that's good. They probably enchanted their clothes so he could pass the box off to Remus just by sticking it inside his pockets and vice versa."

Lily nodded appreciatively. "Not bad. Don't forget enchanting their own ears so they can talk to each other all the while."

"That smacks of Remus."

"I thought so, too. He won't let Sirius act all on his own, thank Merlin." Lily smiled at James before raising one coppery eyebrow. "So do you mind telling me the long story now?"

"It might take all day."

"That's all right. I like long stories."

"Maybe even all night."

"James, you almost hexed me, remember? Don't push your luck." Lily laughed at the expression on James' face. "Did you just feel vindicated when you realized you could hex me and have a perfect reason for it?"

"I won't ever hex you, Lily."

"Yes," said Lily. "I know."

*

They went to the Shrieking Shack afterwards, because that was where Sirius had left his own clothes, and it was going to take only a few minutes more before the Polyjuice Potion wears off. Personally, Remus would have been fine seeing Sirius in a skirt, but that would have been churlish of him to actually say so.

"A bet?" he said, as soon as Sirius had closed the door behind them.

"Well—" said Sirius. "Yes. A bet."

"Which you lost." Remus tugged a bit at the waist of his trousers. He was taller than James, but narrower, so his own clothes were a horrid fit right then. Sirius hadn't the chance to pilfer any of James' clothes beforehand, though, and had to make do with a pair of Remus' trousers. It had taken him most of the night to write the spell to connect the pockets in Remus' trousers and Lily's jacket, and they'd never have finished the spell on time if they'd tried it on James' clothes that morning. As for Lily's clothes, Remus had to ask Patricia's help on that one, since Sirius (still wary after the Edith Blewett incident) would never dare ask Amelia Waterhouse.

A nice enough plan, all in all. But Remus had the feeling that he only knew half of what's really happened.

"Enlighten me, Mr. Padfoot."

"It's really silly."

"I'm staring at Lily Evans, who looks down at everything from above her nose and walks like a caged animal, right now in James Potter's bloody body. Let me be the judge of what's silly, will you?"

"Well," Sirius said, again. He sat down the floors, crossing his legs and allowing Remus a glimpse of Lily Evan's legs before Remus could turn his gaze away. "I lost anyway, so it's not really important now."

"Sirius."

"He said I couldn't make you my boyfriend in a few weeks' time and I said I could. Happy, Moony?" Sirius shrugged. "You made me lose ten Galleons, too, to tell you the truth."

"So that's what it's all about," said Remus, flatly. "But haven't you won already? Everyone thinks we're going out with each other."

"Not James. Besides, he wants you to kiss me or something so you could prove how much you love me." Sirius began to find Lily's shoes very interesting. He was a bit glad for the long veil of her hair since it could hide his face from Remus' stern look.

"But—" Remus began.

"That's none of his business, anyway," Sirius cut in, knowing that Remus was thinking of the kiss they shared the day before. "I mean, that's between me and you, so I don't think James has to know about it, the little git."

"Playing matchmaker doesn't suit him, does it?" said Remus.

"You can say that again." Sirius realized that he was changing back when he began to feel the waist of Lily's skirt getting tighter. Swallowing a curse, he stood up, looking around the room for his own clothes. Remus remained standing near the door, still looking at Sirius although it was impossible to know what he was thinking because he was standing against the light and his face was mostly shadows. Sirius wished that Remus would just blow up at him and get it over with. Then, Sirius can start grovelling and saying he was sorry.

"I take it Pink Bunny was an attempt to get one of us jealous," Remus went on, as if his friends making bets on his sexuality happened every day.

That was an idea that never entered Sirius' mind before. But it sort of made sense, in a twisted, James Potter kind of way. "Yes. Maybe."

"You should have told him you've won," said Remus. His profile had grown taller and slimmer, James' dark mess of hair growing down to the original brown waves. "You did, you know."

"It's not important." Sirius had stopped searching for his trousers, looking at Remus instead.

Remus finally moved to where Sirius was standing, reaching out to brush away strands of Sirius' hair away from his face.

"Do you want to go out and see how James and Lily are doing?"

"Not really."

"I'm sorry you had to lose ten Galleons." Remus laughed softly, the same low, chocolatey laugh with sharp metal hooks that caught on Sirius' flesh and made him shiver a bit. "And had to wear a skirt. But you look nice, you know."

"So do you, Mr. Canary pants."

"Tell me, Sirius, am I more important than ten Galleons?"

"If you have to ask," said Sirius, swallowing nervously. "I mean, I just proved you were, right?"

"You did? I must have missed it."

"Do I need to refresh your memory?" said Sirius, smiling slowly.

"If it's not too much trouble." Remus tilted his head to one side, looking at Sirius through his eyelashes. "This is just trite, isn't it? In the Shrieking Shack and all."

"Well, a Marauder never wastes his opportunities." Sirius pulled Remus closer, running his hands through Remus' hair and tugging gently to pull the other boy's face upwards.

"You just did. With the ten Galleons and all."

"Let's make up for it, then." And before Remus could say anything more (Sirius had the feeling they could talk like that the whole afternoon), Sirius leaned down again, breathing in the scent of strawberries and Remus Lupin before doing just what he said he would.

*

And so it ends. I don't know if all that hassle was worth this ending, but here we are. XD

I would be adding a sort of epilogue-ish chapter later on, so please watch out for it. Now speak your mind and click away at the green button (even if it's to complain that nothing REALLY happened here, anyway). :D