I know I can't make up for a ten month break by updating regularly now, but I can try!

It turned out that James did not have to worry about everyone thinking he was pathetically unworthy of Lily's attention: their little duel did nothing to quash rumors of romance between them. In fact, it seemed to make them much worse. Instead of the headline James had envisioned on Rita's newspaper, this one took its place:

Lily Evans Crushes James Potter in Wizard's Duel – Potter to be Charged with Sexual Harassment?

The Slytherins were ruthless, mocking James at every turn possible for being beaten in a duel by a girl, especially a muggleborn girl. James would have been thick to not anticipate that, but the story was more widely spread than he thought it might be, and with some very extravagant embellishments, he noticed.

For example, he heard a sixth year Ravenclaw with very curly brown hair claim that she saw Lily punch him across the face right before an enormous flock of full-fledged ostriches chased him away. Another version of the tale claimed that Lily's hair had caught on fire, leaving her partially bald so that she had to go to the hospital wing to get it re-grown by Madame Pomfrey.

The curly headed brunette was not the only one fabricating things: few people seemed to be satisfied by the real story, so they started inventing their own take on what happened. Fortunately, not many people knew Rita Skeeter's printed theory, since Professor McGonogall had apparently revoked the print mere hours after it hit the breakfast tables the day after the duel. Neither James nor Lily had read the article, but Lily heard from a couple of girls who had: apparently Skeeter's theory was very crude indeed, and not at all appropriate for first years' viewing. Unfortunately, despite the revocation of Rita's paper, many people were still speculating about what James could have possibly done to make Lily so angry.

"Well, remember that one time she blew up at him in fifth year for messing with that Snape kid?"

"Oh, yeah, but I heard they weren't friends anymore after he called her the 'M' word."

James rolled his eyes at the two third years who apparently didn't realize he was sitting directly behind them at breakfast. Lily and James's duel had occurred a week ago, and people were still talking about it. The rest of the marauders were also listening in: Peter's fist was stuffed in his mouth, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter, while Sirius smirked and Remus just shook his head.

James wished Lily were here to hear this, but she was sitting down at the other end of the Gryffindor table with Alice and a few of her other past dorm-mates. He'd catch her eye once in awhile and grin, missing her conversation, but glad they were sticking with their agreement on spending time with their other friends.

"Well maybe they made up and started dating so James got mad..."

"No way. You know that Potter and Evans went to Slughorn's party together. Why would they have gone together if Snape and Evans were dating?"

"Maybe she's secretly seeing both of them."

Over the last couple days, it had gotten rather wearing, so James just stood up tall from the breakfast table and yawned, stretching his long arms above his head ostentatiously.

"Lovely morning isn't it?" he drawled, waving cheerfully at the two startled Hufflepuffs.

They gawked at him, mouths open in stunned surprise.

James gazed back at them for a minute, then strode down the aisle and left the Great Hall, the rest of the Marauders following after him in mirth.

"So how is it going with Evans, Prongs?" Sirius asked James, once their laughter had subsided.

"Fine." James said quickly, feeling heat rapidly rise to his ears.

"Red ears." Remus muttered, grinning widely.

"Shut up." James good-naturedly shoved his friend into the wall.

He'd, of course, told them about their faked duel and the reasons behind it (Lily's supposed pregnancy), but he hadn't much gotten into Slughorn's party, or his and Lily's very-near kiss afterwards and the declarations of affection that preceded it. It wasn't something that he really felt particularly comfortable talking about, even with his close mates.

He'd mentally gone over that particular moment in the hall in his head so many times, wondering if he should've just taken the leap. Would there ever be another moment so perfect?

"Come on, Prongs." Peter looked up at James eagerly. "Tell us what's going on. You've been so secretive lately."

"Well, what do you want to know?" James made a face and tried to sound casual.

"Let's see," Sirius cut in matter-of-factly, counting on his fingertips "One. Do you fancy Lily?"

"Next question." James replied, casting his comrade a resentful glance.

"That's the easiest one!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air.

"That sort of question is not as easy to answer as you would think." He replied
speciously.

"Come off it, Prongs." Remus swept his fawn colored hair out of his tired eyes. "We've all known that you've fancied her for years. What Padfoot is trying to ask is, how much do you actually fancy her?"

"Quite a fair amount." James shrugged, struggling to keep his voice nonchalant. He felt Remus' dubious blue eyes staring at him.

"You're such a liar, Prongs." He accused blatantly. "You're in love with that girl. You and we both know it."

James felt the heat creeping up his neck again. "Well then, why do you have to ask?"

Remus shrugged. "I'm not the one-"

"To make your life miserable." Sirius supplied, grinning widely at James's embarrassment. "And also to add a little humility to your existence."

"Like I could learn a lesson in humility from you." James retorted ruefully.

Sirius shrugged. "I never said you could learn humility by observing me, I simply stated that you could be unencumbered of your pride because of me."

"So you fancy Lily a lot, that much is obvious." Remus cut in. "The question is, does she feel the same?"

"I think so." James admitted, his euphoria betrayed by the uncontrollable grin spreading across his face.

"What makes you sound so sure?" Peter inquired, his voice curious.

"Er, well, she kind of - said so." James admitted, ruffling his own hair out of habit.

All three of his mates stopped in their tracks in the middle of the corridor.

"What?" Sirius and Remus ogled at him.

"No way!" Peter exclaimed, his face lighting up. "What were her exact words?"

"Honestly, Peter?" James surveyed him dubiously. "Are we second-year girls, here?"

"No." Peter flushed. "Sorry, I was just - well, I meant..." he trailed off, and stared down at his shoes in embarrassment.

James immediately regretted his thoughtless retort: in all the time he'd been spending bantering easily with Lily, he'd forgotten how sensitive Peter could be.

"Have you asked her out?" Remus asked before James had a chance to apologize.

Sirius let out his signature, bark-like laugh. "Where have you been the past three years, Moony?"

"Well, obviously I know that James has asked her out." Remus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "I was referring to the time period since she has apparently admitted her love for him."

"Which I'm not quite sure I believe yet." Sirius mused, narrowing his eyes at James.

"You think I'm lying?" James dropped his jaw in mock outrage. "I'm deeply hurt, Padfoot."

"I don't know." Sirius shrugged. "It just seems so unlikely. Either the girl suffers from a psychological disorder such as bipolar disorder, mania, or insanity-"

James punched him in the shoulder.

"Or you've changed a lot more than I realized since she went mad on you in fifth year ." Sirius finished, glaring at James ruefully.

"Well I don't think Lily suffers from mania," Remus assured James. "But she was telling me a few weeks ago how she was amazed at the abrupt change in your personality. I told her that if she would've interacted with you in any way last year she would've found that the change wasn't as abrupt as she perceived."

"Yeah, we've talked about that a bit." James replied, smiling at the memory of their coffee date in Hogsmeade. "But we agreed that I'm not the only one who's changed"

"I haven't thought about it much, but I suppose you're right," he mused. "She's quite a bit different from that fiery character she was a few years ago. She's much more easy-going now."

The bell rang, warning the students that class would begin in one minute.

"I'll see you at Potions in a few." James ducked into the boys' lavatory. "Save me a seat."

"Will do." Sirius saluted him and the three of them continued down the hall toward the dungeons, gossiping like old women, James was sure.

The second bell had just rung, signaling the beginning of class when James stepped out of the loo, drying the water on his hands off on his robes. He started slightly as Snape appeared in front of him, his thin lips set in a severe, determined line. They were both late for class, and the corridor was deserted.

"Potter." Snape spat, his nostrils flaring unpleasantly.

"Snape." James greeted him stiffly, immediately on guard.

There was an awkward moment of silence. What do you say to someone after nearly six and a half years of dislike? James fiddled with the strap of his book bag.

"Where's your entourage?" Snape glanced around, as though expecting the rest of the marauders to jump out of the suits of armor lining the walls.

"Oh, they just went ahead to Potions." James said truthfully, hoping that Snape would realize that they were expecting to see him in class any minute. He wasn't afraid of a fight, but he'd learned over time that sometimes the action wasn't worth the consequence.

Snape just stared at him with those blank, black eyes. James felt strangely like Snape had intentionally planned this interaction, and by his posture, he seemed to have his fist curled around his wand in his robe's pocket.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around…" James slowly began walking around Snape towards the dungeons.

"Is it true?" Snape asked coolly.

"What?" James turned around.

"Is it true you cursed Lily in the corridor last week?" A strand of greasy black hair hung in front of Snape' sallow face. James noticed that he seemed to be trying to grow a goatee.

It was not working well.

"Er, well, not really." James frowned.

"That's not what I heard." Snape scowled, scuffing his worn shoe against the floor. "I heard you cursed her… that you made her scream- a- and burst into flames." Snape's voice cracked, his hard mask faltering. James stared at him, amazed. Snape, showing emotion?

"It was fake." James explained honestly, caught off guard by Snape's vulnerability. "We were just trying to squash all the rumors that she's, you know, pregnant with my child and what not-"

Apparently this was quite the wrong thing to say, because Snape's head snapped upward, his eyes narrowed in anger. He whipped his wand out.

"Sectumsempra!"

James vaguely recognized the incantation as he dived out of the way. It was the one Mulciber had tried to use on Lily, the one she had warned him about. The spell missed James by a foot and instead smashed into the wall, knocking out several stones.

"You-!" James spat furiously, unable to think of a word bad enough to attribute to Snape. He whipped out his own wand. "Incarcerous!"

Snape flicked his wand to nonverbally repel the spell.

"Stupefy!"

Again, Snape blocked it silently.

This time James tried a nonverbal, hoping it would give Snape less time to react. He thought with all his might, Flipendo!

Snape dodged the spell, but it hit his book bag, sending several textbooks flying across the corridor.

"Fight back!" James bellowed angrily. "Fight back, you coward!"

Snape's face fell back into the familiar, emotionless mask. His eyes went blank.

"Don't call me a coward." He flung his wand upward, blindingly fast, too quickly for James to react. "Confringo!"

James soared backwards into the air. For a nanosecond of bliss, he was flying, surrounded by hovering school books.

Then, excruciating pain consumed him as his head made contact with the stone with a sickening thud. He slid down the wall as the contents of his book bag rained down on him.

Bright tiny specks swam in his vision, blurry due to the fact that his glasses had been knocked off and also possibly because he had been smacked in the face with Total Transfiguration . Even though Snape's face was blurry, James could still see his eyes ablaze. "If you ever hurt Lily again," Snape threatened. "I will kill you."

These words sent a shiver down James's spine, but not the good kind, like those caused by Lily's soft touch... More like the shivers you get when you know your life could be endangered.

Snape collected his own books from the floor and with that, he stalked down the corridor and out of sight.

James sat, slumped against the wall for quite some time, recuperating

Snape and he hadn't had a duel in a long time. It vexed him, and made him very angry that Snape still seemed to care so much about Lily.

Stupid git.

After a long time, James found the energy to use the wall and heave himself up off the floor so he could collect his things. He felt something warm drip onto the back of neck when he bent over to pick up his copy of Cheats for Charms.

He looked up at the ceiling, fully expecting to see Peeves dripping toad urine or something equally disgusting on him from the lighting fixture, but no sign of Peeves. James ran his fingers cautiously over the back of his skull, and pulled it away dripping with scarlet.

He sighed and swung his bag over his shoulder again, and set off to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey would fix him up just fine, but now he would completely miss Potions, and have to answer questions from Slughorn, the Marauders, and Lily.

"Potter," Madam Pomfrey said reprovingly when he showed up at the doors of the hospital wing. "What this time?"

"Er, I slipped," he fibbed. "In a puddle of slug mucus in the corridor. I think Peeves probably dumped there as a joke."

If there was anything James had learned over his years of pranking at Hogwarts, it was when in doubt, blame Peeves.

She tutted and shook her head. "Well I'll get Argus to clean that up right away so no one else-"

"Don't worry about it, Madam Pomfrey," James interrupted. "I already did."

"Oh, you're such a dear." she smiled maternally at him. "But why aren't you covered in slug mucus?"

"I know it may be a foreign concept to you, but 'Scourgify' has other uses besides cleaning up blood." James joked.

"Well, come on, then." Madam Pomfrey ushered him into the wing. "You know the drill."

James flopped heavily onto the nearest mattress. He'd had worse injuries over the years, but his head really did hurt.

"Oh, Potter." James could practically hear Madam Pomfrey shaking her head as she examined the wound.

James wasn't sure why he'd lied to Madam Pomfrey about how he'd cracked his head open. He could probably tell on Snape and get him expelled, but neither of the boys had ever involved teachers in their wage against each-other. James had been too proud to complain when Snape injured him, Snape too embarrassed. And now, really, the last thing James need was another rumor going around that Severus Snape had put James Potter in the hospital wing, even if it was true.

He winced as Madam Pomfrey cleaned out his wound with a familiar, acrid-smelling substance.

He thought of what he should tell Lily while the nurse worked on him. Surely, Lily would have noticed his absence from Potions by now. Should he tell her the truth? What if she got mad at him for dueling with Snape again?

"Turn your head a bit to the right, dear."

James obliged, feeling a warm trail of blood trickling down into his ear.

He knew that Lily was angry with Snape, but maybe she still cared for him, like he seemed to care for her. James couldn't possibly fathom why she had ever been friends with Snape. She was so loveable, and charming, and sweet, and he was so… not.

Come to think of it, he didn't even know how they became friends. They'd been on the train together the very first day. Did they live in the same town? Did they still see each-other over the holidays? He would have to ask her about it.

"All right, you're set, Mr. Potter." Madam Pomfrey said after a while. "It's hard to see beneath this mop of hair, but I think it's all sealed up."

"Thanks Madam Pomfrey." James gently ran his fingers over the back of his head. It was tender, but clean, and didn't hurt as much.

"No quidditch for a couple of days, got that, Potter?" Madam Pomfrey instructed with a business-like tone.

James slumped his shoulders. "Okay."

"You've got a concussion." She raised her eyebrows. "Trust me; you don't want to take a bludger to the back of the head anytime soon."

James flinched at the thought.

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