A/N: Fanfictioners Against World Hunger is still rather desperately seeking a third member. It's going to be a very chill group, and you won't have to do anything you don't feel comfortable with. As I've mentioned, all you have to do is play freerice occasionally and encourage others to the same. Come on. I can't imagine that there are any fanfictioners that are actually in favor of world hunger. So why not join? Think of it this way: the next two people to join will be among the groups "Four Founders."

Thanks to my beta arwenjanelilylyra.

Disclaimer: The "Things Overheard at Hogwarts" column I mention in the chapter has been inspired by many facebook groups I have seen along similar lines.

Chapter 4

Night Patrol

James discovered that "late-shift" on Wednesday night could more accurately have been named "early-as-hell shift". "Late" referred to the fact that it was the final shift of the night before curfew was lifted at 6am so that the early risers could get to breakfast early and go to the library. Or whatever it was that early risers did. James wouldn't know, as he'd never been one himself.

He had tried to get some sleep before the shift began at 3 am, but he had not been particularly successful. After leaving the noisy common room at 8 pm, he could not sleep in the quiet 5th year boy's dorm room. It made sense of course. James was usually a night-owl. He should have thought ahead and brewed himself a sleeping-draught. But he had never much liked brewing potions.

Maybe sometime he could have Lily brew him a sleeping draught. She could do it of course, since she had pretty much complete access to Slughorn's private stores. Slughorn would do anything for Lily. But of course, James could hardly blame the man for that.

It wasn't until the first hour of tossing and turning was complete that James realized that most of the reason he couldn't sleep was because of Lily. He was so grateful that they were friends now; so hopeful that it might turn into something more; and so scared that he might say something stupid and end the friendship almost immediately after it had begun.

At ten o' clock he heard the door open. He knew none of the other Marauders would be in bed that early, except maybe Remus, but he had early patrol tonight so he had to be in the hallways starting at eleven. His suspicions were confirmed when the footsteps that he heard made their way to Andrew Longbottom's bed. Andrew Longbottom was James' least favorite person among his seven roommates. Not that there was anything too wrong with him, it was just that he seemed anti-social, was always hanging out with Ravenclaws instead of Gryffindors. That made a little bit of sense though, as his girlfriend was some muggle-born Ravenclaw named Liz Chamberlain. But he still didn't like Andrew.

He had liked Frank, who had been a beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he had graduated a couple years ago. Now he was training to become an auror, like James wanted to do when he graduated. He and James still exchanged owls every once in awhile. The last owl James had sent to him was to congratulate him on his recent marriage to Alice Hanson, another Gryffindor from his same year.

James let his mind wander onto the topic of marriage, and how nice it must be to know that you could trust one person to love you for the rest of your life. It would be amazing to just know you could count on someone, no matter what. Hell or high-water, hippogriffs or thestrals, they'd be on your side. And as he thought about this, he became comfortable and sleepy, and became more and more confident that somehow, someway, Lily would fall in love with him and she'd be the one who would be his wife. He hoped to Merlin he was right. As he drifted off to sleep, he became surer and surer that he would be.

James' alarm clock spat water onto his face at 2:30 in the morning. The alarm clock had been a gag gift from Sirius a couple birthdays ago. He had never thought James would actually use it. But James had tried it once and had found that there was nothing in the world that would get you up and alert faster than a stream of cold water hitting your face. It did, however, have the side effect that every morning James' first word was a mumbled curse word. Today he picked a particularly bad one, since he knew the rest of the day was going to suck now that he'd only got four and a half hours sleep.

"Bloody fantastic," James whispered to himself as he began to collect his things for the quick shower that he had planned to take. "Now you've got to try to impress Lily on just over half a night's sleep. You usually can't impress her on a full night's sleep. Brilliant."

He decided to take a cold shower, something that he rarely did, because he felt it would be best to wake himself up more than his alarm clock had. He needed to be at his best for Lily after all.

He arrived in the common room, where Lily and he had agreed to meet, ten minutes early, just in case she had anything to tell him. To his slight surprise, he got there before her. The fire in the common room had died; the other students had gone to bed hours ago. Even though it was only early September, it was a little bit chilly high in the stone tower this early in the morning. But he hardly had time to adjust to the cold before something happened that made him feel warm inside.

Lily Evans walked into the room. And he noticed that somehow, he was more invigorated by her soft smile and her bright green eyes than he had been by the cold shower he had just taken.

Lily noticed how much James perked up when she walked into the room. She had to admit to herself that she liked it. She knew she wouldn't have enjoyed seeing James excited last year, or even last month. But something had changed somehow.

"Hi, James," she said.

He smiled when he heard her say his name. "Hi, Lily," he said. "You ready to teach me how to do night-time patrol?"

"Well, yes, I'm ready to teach you," said Lily, who sat down beside him. She didn't sit too close to him, but certainly closer than she would have sat to him the year before. This fact was not lost on James, although he pretended not to notice. "But there's really not much to teach. All we really do is patrol the hallways together. Catch rulebreakers, take points from their houses. Two teachers are also always on duty as well. They patrol separately. Students patrol together, just in case any rule-breakers turn out to be dangerous. Which they hardly ever do. But it's always good to be on the safe-side."

"Makes sense," said James. "Get to take points from Slytherin's often?"

"Well, yes," said Lily. Then she continued with a sly smile, "It's one of my favorite parts of patrolling."

James seemed only partially to hear her. What he said next caught her rather off guard. "Did anyone ever tell you that you have an amazingly wide range of different smiles?"

"Er... no." Lily hesitated. "Maybe no one's ever taken the time to notice."

"Well I have," said James.

"Thank you," whispered Lily. She was getting embarrassed. She wasn't sure what was going on with James or how to deal with it. She didn't know if she wanted it to stop.

James sensed Lily's embarrassment, and decided he'd better break the tension. "So. Off to catch some Slytherins then?"

Lily seemed to be still lost in thought for a moment before she responded, "Er... Yeah. It's just about time. And nothing wrong with getting an early start right?"

"It's never too early to take points from Slytherin," confirmed James. Lily laughed a little. She seemed more comfortable. James was glad.

They exited the portrait-hole. They ignored the quiet grumblings of the Fat-Lady, who was less than happy about being awoken from her slumber. Each of them had gotten used to waking up the fat-lady late at night: Lily in her execution of her duties as prefect, and James in pursuit of his hobby as a Marauder.

"So, er, how was your day?" asked James, unsure of how to start what promised to be a three hour long conversation as they made their way through the halls.

"Not bad. It's hard for me to have a bad day on a day when there's Charms Class," said Lily.

"Right. I've noticed that you're fantastic at it. Of course, everyone has. That and potions," said Lily.

"Not as useful as being good at Defence Against the Dark Arts like you are," observed Lily.

"You're good at it, too!" protested James.

"Well... maybe. But not as good as you. You're brilliant at it," said Lily.

James hoped that Lily could not see him blush in the torch-light that was illuminating the hallways.

They reached a hallway where they could go either right or left. "Which way?" asked James, deferring to Lily's judgment.

"I prefer left," said Lily. Then she realized that that statement might sound a little weird. "You develop habits when you go on night patrol enough times. I usually go left here, unless the person I'm with prefers to go right."

"Well, I prefer to go where ever you're going Lily," said James. She noticed that she liked the way he said her name.

They turned left.

"So how was your day?" she asked. "Pretty good. Wish I had slept better tonight."

"Yeah... this is a tough shift. Hard to get to sleep so early, right?" asked Lily.

"Yes indeed," confirmed James.

"Hmmm," said Lily, trying to think of something else to say. Night patrols seemed to go so much faster if you talked to the person you were with. Even quicker if you were with a friend. And now, as shocked as she still was about it, James was a friend of hers. "What's your second favorite class, after DADA?"

James thought a moment before responding. "I suppose Quidditch doesn't count as a class?"

"No, James," said Lily with a laugh.

"Why? I spend as much time doing that as I spend on any of my classes," said James.

"Yeah, and I spend as much time talking to Marietta and Chloe as I do studying for Charms. Does that make that a class?" asked Lily jokingly.

"Hmmm," said James. "Not potions, definitely. No offence to you, Miss Potions-Making Princess."

Lily laughed. "I'm not sure I'd be too surprised if Slughorn gave me a plaque with that exact name on it when I graduate."

James laughed too. "I don't think anyone in our year would. Charms is a fun class, and I know transfiguration's damn useful, but... frankly I'm not sure which one I'd put in second. DADA is just so far and away my favorite class that it's hard to come up with a second one."

"So do you believe there's really a curse on the DADA post?" asked Lily.

"I dunno... Rumor is that Voldemort cursed it, isn't it. We haven't had the same teacher two years in a row, that's for sure. And most of the time it seemed like coincidence. You know, Rogers moved to India, Andrews went to teach at Durmstrang, a lot of things like that. But at the end of year 5, when McKelly died from that heart attack toward the end of the last term? That was downright eerie. The man was only 60 years old!"

"Yeah, I know," said Lily. "I'm afraid it might be true. But can you imagine how powerful Voldemort would have to be to curse a whole position at Hogwarts?"

"I think we know that he's pretty bloody powerful," James replied. They had reached another intersection in the hallway. "Left or right?" asked James.

"Right," said Lily.

"Hm. I would have guessed left," said James.

"Well, it's good for you to be wrong every once in awhile James. Keeps your head from getting bigger than it already is." Lily had been intending to tell a joke. But she saw from James facial expression that he was hurt.

"I thought-" said James.

Lily cut him off, "Sorry, James, I didn't mean it. I mean, at least not really. You have had a big head before, but... it seems like you're trying to work on it."

James nodded. "I am," he confirmed sincerely.

"I appreciate it. I mean, not that I think you're doing it for me or anything," said Lily.

James decided not to correct her. Now wasn't the time. And James was pretty sure she knew she was lying anyway. He decided to change the subject, "So how are Chloe and Marietta? I haven't gotten a chance to talk to them since the feast the other night."

"Too busy with the Marauders, eh?" asked Lily teasingly.

This time James realized she was joking. "Well, that, school work, reading up on extra Defence Against the Dark Arts stuff. We've got our first lesson tomorrow. It's a double-lesson, remember? I'm excited."

"Of course you would be," said Lily with a smile. "D'you think they'll have us practice dueling again?"

"Merlin, I hope so!" James said. Lily thought his excitement was pretty cute.

"You and Sirius had some pretty epic duels last year, I seem to recall," said Lily.

"Yeah, we did," said James, chuckling as he reflected on for what had been for him an experience even more fun than Quidditch. He was flattered that Lily remembered the duels. "But listen, I asked you how your friends were doing, didn't I?"

"Right," said Lily. "Rude of me to try to talk about you," she smiled at James. "We'll take another right up here if you don't mind."

"Sounds great," said James. "How is Marietta?"

"Nervous," replied Lily bluntly. "She's Editor for the Hogwarts student newspaper this year. She's got her first meeting with the staff tomorrow. I keep telling her she's more than qualified, which she is, but... I dunno, she's always a little nervous about the paper. She cares about it so much."

"I never knew she was going to be the editor," said James, somehow almost offended that no one had bothered to tell him.

"Well, she didn't find out until about a week ago. I don't think she meant to keep it a secret from you or anything, you guys just don't talk too much," said Lily.

"Well maybe we should," said James.

"Yeah, maybe. Hey, want to know something cool? They starting a new column called 'Odd Eavesdroppings at Hogwarts.' You know all those things you hear in the great hall in the morning and wonder whether it's possible that you just heard something so funny come out of some stranger's mouth?" asked Lily.

"Yeah... oh, I think I heard one of those this morning. Some Ravenclaw girl said her ex-boyfriend was hung like a house-elf. It didn't sound like a compliment," said James.

Lily giggled. "Oooh, that's bad. But submit it to Marietta. She's got a dirty sense of humor."

"Hey, you laughed too," said James.

"I never said she was the only one with a dirty sense of humor," Lily said slyly.

James chuckled heartily. He smiled at Lily. "How about Chloe," asked James.

"A little less dirty than mine," said Lily, purposefully misunderstanding the question.

"No, I meant how's she doing?" James clarified with an eye-roll.

"Pretty well. she's thrilled to be back at school. Studying like crazy though. It's like she's a niffler who thinks there's some gold stuffed between the pages. She's going to get a crazy number of N.E.W.T.s."

"That's good," said James. "As long as she still makes time for fun."

Lily nodded. "Oh, I make sure she does."

"Good," said James.

"How are the other Marauders?" asked Lily. And they continued to talk, almost until the end of their shift, catching a couple people out for late-night snogs, but generally having an uneventful night.

Throughout the conversation, though, there was a thought that kept nagging at Lily. One that she was almost sure she knew the honest answer to already, but she just had to be sure. She knew it wasn't a question she should ask James. Not now, not under the circumstances, not so soon after she had finally allowed herself to become his friend. But she just couldn't let it go, no matter how hard she tried.

So about three minutes before shift was to end, and they could both go back up to their rooms and catch a quick hour-long nap before having to get up in order to catch breakfast before it was taken off the tables by the house-elves.

"James," she said, in a voice so sombre and sincere that it disturbed him. "Do you love me?" she asked.

"Yes, Lily," James said without a moment's hesitation. He paused. Looking at Lily. Wondering if she would say she loved him too. She wasn't saying anything. Finally, he started to stutter, "Lily, do you-"

Lily could make him finish the question. Not with the answer she was about to give him. She grimaced, hoping the answer wouldn't hurt her new friend too badly. She said, "I'm sorry James... I don't know yet."

A/N: Let's try for 3000 grains this time. Come on you guys, I know you can do it! That is www dot freerice dot com. You can donate as much or as little as you like, just be honest. And remember, it's free. All you have to do is play a game that helps w/ vocabulary building and other topics. Give it a shot, would you? I put hours of my time into writing this chapter for you. Please put 5 minutes in to play free rice for me. By the way... the World Cup of Free Rice has been extended 'cause... apparently I can do that. Britain is ahead with 1000 grains, although this is not yet confirmed given that the person who donated those grains is my beta and she hasn't left a review confirming that she's actually donated it. I believe her though, so that's why Britain is currently in first. Canada has 800 grains because of Lizztigger. Two people who have not identified themselves with any country have given a combined total of 200+x grains. So. To review: Britain's winning (although unofficially at the moment), Canada's in a close and very respectful Second. People wishing to be unidentified with any country are in a distant country. And the United States has apparently forfeited. So far. I mean. they could come back if they want to... or if there's generous people in the United States, or... well: I'm just saying it could happen. Other countries are encouraged to get involved. Cup will continue indefinitely. I'll give you a warning when it's close to over. Plot will pick up soon.