"I'm in love with a girl who's in love with the world and I can't help but follow . . ."

Amos Lee

All You Wanted, I Could Be

The days flew by leading up to Hogsmeade, filled with a lot of downcast eyes, pouting, and rolling of the eyes (which mostly had to do with Sirius and Dorcas, who thought this whole thing was ridiculous), until finally it was the day before, and Sirius, Dorcas and Remus were sitting by the fire. Dorcas was curled up next to Sirius and Remus was doing his homework studiously in the armchair. The main reason for the three being alone together was Sirius and Dorcas' lame attempt at spy-work. They knew something was going on with Remus, and they guessed it had a lot to do with James, with how much Remus had been avoiding him the past couple days. James had noticed and actually asked Sirius to do something about it, so here he was, being a loyal friend and peacemaker.

"So, Remus." Sirius started pointedly, and Remus glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes?" he asked with an undertone of impatience.

"Has something been . . . bothering you lately?" he asked nonchalantly. Dorcas suppressed her giggles into his shirt and he nudged her arm with his hand.

Remus put down his essay he'd been reading and narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. "What's this about, Padfoot?"

"Listen, I've noticed how you've been acting weird around James lately, and I want to know what it's about." He admitted lightly, giving him a challenging look in case he wanted to try and deny it.

Remus hesitated, then sighed. "Sirius, it's . . . complicated."

"C'mon, Remus, if it's really that bad, we won't tell him." Dorcas assured him.

Remus scoffed. "Oh, believe me, it's that bad. Worse than that bad."

Dorcas and Sirius exchanged a glance. "Well, I've always been a fan for some juicy gossip."

"Shut up, Sirius."

"Sorry."

Remus then delved into his story of Slughorn's lame party and his and Lily's drunken kiss, leading to Dorcas' vacant expression and Sirius' raised eyebrows.

After a long awkward silence, Sirius said lightly, "James is going to chop you into tiny pieces in your sleep."

"Aw, Sirius, come on." Dorcas said, hitting his arm.

"Sorry," he muttered, and then said, "But Remus, seriously, he's going to go mad."

"I know," he groaned, rubbing his hands on his face. "That's why I don't want to tell him."

"Oh, Remus, you have to tell him," Dorcas insisted, "If you don't, it'll eat you and Lily alive. Speaking of, I can't believe she didn't tell me!"

"Tell you what?"

"Speak of the devil." Sirius murmured as Lily walked up with a smile.

"What are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"Erm . . . I sort of told them the truth." Remus admitted, and Lily blushed furiously.

"But – but –"

"Don't worry, we won't taddle." Sirius said.

"But you two are going to have to tell him eventually." Dorcas said, giving her a meaningful look.

"But don't you think we're blowing this way out of proportion?" she asked with a nervous, hopeful chuckle.

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks.

"Nope."

"Absolutely not."

XXX

"What about at the Christmas Ball, then? C'mon, just to give 'em a little scare? Plenty of time to plan."

"Are you completely daft, Mulciber? Not at Hogwarts. Dumbledore would see it coming a mile away."

Snape walked into the Slytherin common room to the usual group of his housemates – they usually kicked everyone else out – and sighed. He didn't know what the point of these little meetings were anyway. It was like they liked to believe they had this illusion of power which they didn't have.

They all looked up at the sound of the large dungeon door closing. Lestrange smirked.

"Ah, Snape. So nice of you to finally join us." he said.

"Yes, well, I rushed here as fast as I could of course." He muttered, and he realized his mistake when he saw a flash of startling anger in Lestrange's eyes. He'd actually been in the library researching his latest project of finding proof of his Remus Lupin being a werewolf theory and put off coming back to the common room as long as possible.

"Let's just get back to it already." Avery grumbled, looking between the two.

"And what exactly are we planning here?" Snape asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

"All in due time, Severus," Bellatrix said with a slow, sultry smile. "All in due time."

XXX

"Wait, Filch is down that hall. Other way."

James, Sirius and Peter could barely fit under the invisibility cloak, but if they crouched , turned their heads a certain way and got completely too close for comfort, they managed. Sirius had the Map up to his nose, because that's all the space they could afford as James led the way in pathetic little shuffles.

"We really need to get a bigger one of these." Peter grumbled.

James snorted. "Good luck finding that."

A howl broke through the quietness of the castle and James swore.

"Gotta get a move on," Sirius muttered, "You know, I think we can afford to show our feet. We'll know if anyone's coming, remember?"

James was still a bit wary, but he relented, and they broke into a run at their regular heights, gratefully relieving the tension in their muscles.

"Merlin, Wormtail, stop breathing so hard, your breath smells absolutely horrid." James complained, grimacing.

"I'm sorry," Peter huffed, "but it's a little nerve-wracking when we're late!"

"We'll be fine, Pete, we've done this many times before, or have you forgotten?" Sirius said, jabbing him with his elbow.

"Sorry." He muttered.

Finally they came up to the Whomping Willow and they gratefully took the cloak off.

"Time to go kick some werewolf boo-tay!" Peter exclaimed, and the other two shushed him hastily, but couldn't help laugh at his lame joke.

Peter grinned and changed into rat form, scurrying forward to petrify the tree. James and Sirius shook their heads.

"Remind me why we hang out with him again." Sirius chuckled.

James smirked. "Because he says stuff like that."

They both laughed and changed into their Animagus forms as well. Time to kick some werewolf boo-tay indeed.

XXX

"So . . . what you're trying to tell us is that you fancy Remus?" Dorcas repeated, waving her hands around. She couldn't believe Lily had kept this from them for so long. This was quite the predicament that she'd gotten herself into. How the hell did she do it anyway? It seemed like her 'get-Lily-and-James-together' scheme could just go right down the drain now. She heaved a huge sigh. Lily and Remus . . . ? No, it just wouldn't work. Not that she'd tell Lily that, but – the two were too much alike.

"Er . . . yes . . ." Lily replied meekly. They were all piled on top of Dorcas' bed, which they all barely fit on.

"But – what about James?" Alice asked, frowning.

Lily glared at nothing in particular. "How many times – we're just friends!"

"Okay, okay, we get it," Mary said before she could get riled up. "But James doesn't know about this yet, right?"

Lily rubbed her arm. "No." she said in a small voice.

"Oh, Lily," Alice said, putting her chin into her hands promptly. "This is a mess."

"Tell me about it," She grumbled, "Well, what should I do?"

"Listen, Lily, I think you just need to be honest with everyone," Alice said immediately, giving her an empathetic look. "I know it's hard, but it needs to be done."

"Definitely. Or it's all going to come back and bite you in the arse." Mary said.

Lily sighed. "You're absolutely right. I'll tell him tomorrow then."

"Who? James or Remus?" Dorcas said, slightly wry.

Lily rolled her eyes with a slight smile. "Both, I suppose."

"But tomorrow's Hogsmeade, Lils," Alice pointed out, "You're going to be with Smiley the whole time, right?"

Lily gulped. "Hopefully not. Remind me why I accepted that again?"

"Lily, you do know that James asked Lola Fairfield to Hogsmeade, right?" Dorcas asked with a raise of her eyebrows. "So tomorrow's not going to work."

"He asked Lola Fairfield out?" she gasped, gaping. "But she's such a – a –"

"Whore? Yeah." Dorcas said dryly.

"Merlin," Lily muttered, looking down. "Lola Fairfield?"

The other three exchanged wry smirks. Mary thumped Lily on the head with her pillow.

"Jealous?" she asked with a grin.

Lily laughed and grabbed her pillow, too, whacking Mary with it. "No!"

Then ensued an extremely enthusiastic, embarrassing pillow fight, which they probably took way too seriously, considering none of them would be satisfied until they had the last hit.

XXX

The next morning, Lily woke up relatively early from not having a very good night's sleep. She kept having the same dream, of herself getting incinerated by Smiley's frighteningly white-toothed grin. She grumbled to herself incoherently as she got ready for the day and walked down to breakfast. Barely anyone was in the common room, as they were probably taking advantage of sleeping in before the big day at Hogsmeade.

However, there was one of the three people occupying the room that caught Lily's eye. James sat there bent over a piece of parchment, his tongue sticking out slightly between his lips in fierce concentration. She studied him for a while, debating on whether to go talk to him, and then just thought, Bollocks, and went for it. She would just act like they were friends, which they were – but just pretend like there was no tension between them whatsoever. Maybe if she pretended like it was gone it would just . . . go away.

She perched herself on the arm of the couch he was sitting on and he looked up, his glasses too far down his nose. He rubbed his eyes and then pushed them up.

"Lily?" he said groggily.

"How long have you been up?" she asked, chuckling.

"Oh, um, for a while. It's just I haven't looked at anything but this piece of parchment for a good two hours."

"What are you doing anyway?" she asked, leaning over to peek at the parchment.

"Oh, it, uh, Quidditch plays, actually." He said, looking almost embarrassed, and she smiled slightly at his frazzled expression.

She turned her eyes to the intricate sketches of Quidditch plays, much too complicated for someone of her level of knowledge of the sport to understand, and she raised her eyebrows, spreading the numerous pieces of parchment out with one hand. There must've been more than twenty.

"James," she said with a breathless laugh. "This is amazing."

He tugged at his hair and chuckled nervously. "It's – nothing. Just something I do for fun."

"Well, I'm thoroughly impressed," she said with a smile. "Why are you up this early anyway?"

"Oh, I couldn't sleep." He admitted, gathering up his sketches and shoving them in his Potions textbook.

"Nervous for your date with Fairfield?" she joked and he glanced at her, a slow smile growing on his face.

"You heard about that, did you?" he chuckled.

"I did," she said, "And I must say I'm a little surprised. She doesn't have the most admirable morals as I'm sure you're aware."

"Yes, well, at least she won't be piercing me with her laser white teeth the entire time." He said coyly and she gaped at him through her smile.

"Okay, alright, I'll admit Steven smiles a bit too much –"

"A bit?"

"But at least he didn't get caught in an empty classroom with a seventh year."

"That wasn't that –"

"We were in third year."

He paused, then laughed. "Touché, then."

"Look, I'm just teasing you, I hope you have fun." she said, half-sincerely.

He raised an eyebrow at her and nodded. "Likewise, Evans."

She paused, and thought how opportune a time this was to just tell him, but then she just asked, "Well, I'm going to get breakfast, care to join me?"

"Ah – I would, I really would, but I've got to wait for Remus to wake up. He's not feeling too well today." He said, genuinely looking like he was upset about it.

Lily frowned. "He's not feeling well?" she repeated absentmindedly, "That's too bad."

"Yeah, well, we just think he's gone brain-dead from far too much studying." He joked, grinning.

She laughed and shook her head, standing. "Well, send him my 'get well' wishes, yeah?" she said, backing up towards the portrait hole.

He smiled and nodded, heading towards the boys dormitory stairs. She sighed and built up her courage, finally admitting, "James, there's actually something I've been wanting to talk to you about."

He frowned indifferently, backing up off the steps. "Alright then. Go ahead."

"Lily? You're up?"

Dorcas came down the girls dormitory steps and glanced between the two, probably figuring out what she'd interrupted and mentally cursing herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?" she said nervously, retreating upstairs.

"No, it's fine, Dorcas, I've got to go check on Remus anyway," James said, and looked to Lily with a dashing grin. "Rain check on that breakfast, Lily? Oh, and we can talk later, alright?"

Lily nodded and managed what felt like a queasy smile. He nodded and took the stairs two at a time. Lily turned to Dorcas with an exasperated expression.

"What superb timing you have!" she hissed, stomping out the portrait hole with Dorcas trailing behind her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she pleaded, pouting her bottom lip.

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes at the sight. "I can never stay mad at you." she grumbled and Dorcas grinned, tackling her in a hug.

"I'll be more careful next time."

"Yeah, whatever."

A/N: Sort of a filler, but I still had fun writing it. And there's some James and Lily alone time in there, which is always fun. Don't worry, people, they'll get there eventually.