I completely forgot the disclaimer on the last chapter, so consider it and this one disclaimed. You know the drill - nothing you recognize is mine.
Also, I have a fair bit of this story written, but not all of it. It will (most likely) be finished at some point, so I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions about what you like and dislike and even if you have any ideas you think would be great for the story.
Last thing - I promise. This fic does have slashy themes - as in there are lots of references to homosexuality. However, there may not be any actual slash going on. So, just in case you were wondering.
I managed to accidentally delete this chapter, but it is up now without any actual changes except for my AN because I realized I had stupidly given away the plot. Oops!
Late at night, while Lily was lying awake in her bed after one of her roommates kicked her trunk and cursed loudly trying to sneak back into the room, she contemplated what Black had said. Clearly, it was not true. At least, not all of it was because Remus was obviously not avoiding him. If he was, she never would have seen that suspicious interaction as the four ran down the hallway in the afternoon.
She wondered idly what they had been talking about to laugh so loudly. She wondered less idly what had happened between the two times she had seen them to change the mood so effectively.
Finally, Lily drifted back to sleep, but her curiosity had not abated–not even a bit.
During breakfast the next morning, Lily managed to snag a spot with the perfect vantage point to watch both Lupin and Black while talking to her friends. Highly proud of herself, Lily set about her newly established morning routine–butter her toast, eavesdrop on Black and Lupin, complement a new necklace, and offer suggestions for incomplete essays.
Lupin and Black were acting perfectly normal today. It was almost as if their whole conversation last night never happened. Maybe she really should have a discussion with Potter about appropriate behavior around her potions.
But no, wait! That was definitely a furtive glance Lupin gave Black through his eyelashes. It was fleeting, yes, but Lily knew she had seen it. There was no way this was some elaborate prank!
Black continued on with his breakfast completely oblivious to the glances Lily saw Remus repeatedly giving him during the meal. Each time, Lupin's gaze rested longer, as if he were looking or waiting for something. Then, with only five minutes left to breakfast, Black turned to Lupin and gave him a blinding grin. The two rose simultaneously from their seats, waved their goodbyes, and hurried off to what was hopefully class.
Lily stopped watching once Black placed a hand on Lupin's shoulder as he ushered them out of the Great Hall.
As she rose with her friends and began to leave the Great Hall herself, she could not stop her eyes from resting on the two remaining Marauders. Peter was prattling on to Potter from what she could see, but Potter was gazing at the doors where his other two friends had so hurriedly disappeared. An odd, contemplative look was stretched across his face, and Lily wondered what he knew about Black and Lupin and what he was suspecting.
However, it was not until they were walking down to a prefect meeting together that Lily actually attempted to find some concrete answers to all of her questions. Potter was being unusually quiet, and his forehead was scrunched up tightly. Lily was afraid he might actually be thinking.
"What's wrong with you, Potter?" she tried. Her question was a bit more abrasive than she had intended, but it was only Potter, anyway.
"Nothing; why do you care?" he snapped.
It was an entirely new experience for Lily. Instead of snapping at Potter after being pestered too much, he had snapped at her for pestering him. Confused, Lily tried again, "It just seems like there's a bit of a strain with the four of you, is all."
Lily watched Potter out of the corner of her eye. Potter's mouth twisted into a grimace and his eyes sparkled oddly. She could not tell if it was anger or something else. Then, Potter sighed and he seemed to shrink beside her. One hand came up to rub his eyes and then moved on to brush through his hair. Lily rolled her eyes as his hair stuck up even more than was usual for Potter.
"It's just that I've noticed some stuff with Black and Lupin," she continued in a rush. "I have my own theory, but I was wondering what you know about it."
"You're just looking for gossip!" Potter suddenly exclaimed as he stopped abruptly and gaped at her. "Are you–are you–using me!"
Lily just rolled her eyes and huffed at Potter's dramatics, but he continued, "No, you are! You're trying to be all femme fatale and get me to tell you everything so you can have something to gossip about with all the other girls while you're painting your nails or something girly like that!"
"Look, Potter, you only get so many exclamation points in one lifetime, and you're using them up."
Potter stared at her blankly for a moment then chuckled softly to himself. It was a low sound like the sound stones made plopping into the lake in the spring. Then Potter ran his hand through his hair and said while still smiling lopsidedly, "That's something Sirius would say."
"I guess he's spending a lot more time with Remus, then?" she asked. Well, it was worth a shot.
"What makes you say that?" If Lily thought she would be able to call James Potter for nervous, evasive maneuvers, she was wrong. Potter was just as cool as the aforementioned lake in the spring. He was even smiling slightly still.
"Well, it's just that they seem different, you know? Like they're off in their own world a lot of the time. Like yesterday, when you were all running down the hall, Remus and Black were laughing and joking with each other instead of all of you."
Potter's eyes narrowed slightly at that. "What are you doing watching Remus and Sirius?" Lily heard the 'instead of me' loudly and clearly, anyway.
"Like I said, they seem different to me."
The two had reached a sort of stalemate. They were both looking suspiciously at each other, waiting for the other to crack and divulge whatever secrets they imagined the other had.
Finally, Potter once more ran his hand through his hair and said, "Look, I'm assuming you're going to be all but stalking the two of them to figure out whatever it is the two of them are doing, so, well, I guess I might as well help you. After all, I can't very well let you loose on them like a rogue bludger, can I?"
His lopsided smile was almost sheepish, Lily thought, but it did not change the fact that he had just invited himself into her quest for the truth. She glared at him slightly, but he did not back down. Typical. Well, they were his friends, so she supposed he deserved to know whatever she discovered, anyway.
"Alright, fine, you can help," she sighed. Potter's grin almost split his face in half.
"Great! So, what's your theory? You said you had one, right?"
"You're telling me you have absolutely no idea what is going on with them? They're your best friends for Merlin's sake!"
"Ladies first," he grinned.
"Alright, well, I think they're together–as in romantically."
She was fairly sure she saw Potter's jaw drop in slow motion, but he shook off his shock surprisingly quickly. Then, he began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. When Lily was sure he was going to die of suffocation, he managed to wheeze, "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not," she snapped. Her expression must have convinced him because he stopped laughing immediately and stared at her with his face still red and a few tears squeezing past his eyelashes.
"Alright then, well, I guess we had better set about proving you wrong, right?"
Except for the odd giggle, Potter managed to remain surprisingly serious.
"Fine. After the prefect meeting you can tell me everything you can that's related to this mystery."
Potter's smile was infectious–at least, that is what Lily told herself when she found herself smiling inanely back at him.
"Agreed," he said solemnly holding his hand out for her to shake.
She took it, rolled her eyes once more for good measure, and said equally solemnly, "It will be a pleasure proving you wrong."
After the prefect meeting and the meeting with Lily about the potential love life between his two best friends, James climbed up the stairs to his dormitory. The other three were already up and sprawled across the floor lazily doing homework together. At the sound of the door opening, Sirius turned his head and grinned, "Ah, Jamesie-boy's finally come home! Thought we lost you there for a bit, mate."
James snorted and dropped down into the spot left open for him. Sirius and Remus were lying side by side on their stomachs and Peter was leaning against the bed opposite them with a book propped against his bent knees.
James dropped his head onto his fists and stared at Sirius blankly for a few long moments while sitting cross-legged on the floor. Not even Sirius's face making inspired him to blink.
Eventually, James said, "I just had the longest, strangest conversation ever with Lily Evans."
Remus snorted, Peter chuckled, and Sirius gave two sharp barking laughs. "No, really you guys have to hear this. She seems to think the two of you," he said while pointing to both Remus and Sirius, "are romantically involved."
Sirius pushed himself into a sitting position perfectly mirroring James's and Remus snorted again. "I hope you set her straight, Prongs," Remus said calmly with the barest hints of laughter behind his words.
"I tried!" James exclaimed while waving his arms furiously around his head. "She just wouldn't listen!"
Sirius laughed again, and he did not stop until he was red in the face and he had to hold his ribs in place with his arms. "This is the best prank we could have ever thought of, James!" he gasped between laughs. "Why didn't we ever think of it? It would be killing two birds with one stone. Just imagine the chaos we could cause!"
"I don't think any of us are interested in causing that sort of damage, Sirius," Remus said stiffly still reclining on the floor over his Charms essay.
"I didn't mean it like that, Remus," Sirius said apologetically and ducked his head slightly.
James was starting to get tired of this. At the end of last year, Sirius had almost gotten both Snape and Remus killed with the most idiotic prank anyone could have ever thought of. James still could not understand what inspired Sirius to send Snape after Remus who had been at the time a fully transformed werewolf. Of course, he also could not understand why Snape actually did what Sirius told him to do.
So, James understood why Remus was mad at Sirius. Hell, he understood why Remus was furious with Sirius, but this had gone on long enough. It was almost Christmas break now, and Remus was still telling Sirius that he needed time before he could treat him the same way again.
James had been the first to forgive Sirius, naturally. It was hard to stay angry at him when he lived with him and saw how guilty and devastated his friend was. A week or so into the term, Peter had plucked up the courage and forgiven Sirius, too. Remus had acted about the same as always, except he was slightly more reserved toward Sirius than he used to be, but he still had not told Sirius that he forgave him.
James watched every day as the remorse ate away at his best friend. To appease the guilt eating at him, Sirius had begun to cater to Remus's every whim. Sirius was effectively punishing himself as every day he stretched himself further and further for Remus's forgiveness no matter if Remus asked him not to.
"Anyway," James said clearing his throat to break the sudden tension in the room, "I'll get a good laugh about it when the gossip mill finds out about your scandalous love affair."
"Shut up, James," Sirius grinned again as he tossed a pillow at his friend's head.
"Alright, but here's the really important part. Lily's looking for proof that you two really are secret, gay lovers, and I've somehow managed to get myself enlisted in her project."
"What?" Peter said while the other two blinked and stared at him, stunned.
James giggled nervously, "Well, she was being nice to me, and she was talking to me without insulting me. I don't know, I just agreed."
At Sirius's and Remus's glares, he backtracked, "Well, not exactly agreed–actually, I kind of included myself."
When neither of his friends stopped glaring at him, he tried again, "At least I'm the one trying to prove you're not together!" He was sure he was blushing.
"Then this ordeal shouldn't last very long, should it?" Peter asked. "I mean, you know they're not, ah, involved."
"Yes, thank you, Wormtail!" Sirius exclaimed and pointed at James wildly, "You are one lucky man, James Potter."
"Hmm, ah, yes, see that's kind of the problem, Padfoot. I really, really want to spend time with Lily. We actually had a full conversation, Padfoot! An actual conversation!"
"What are you proposing, James," Remus groaned as he began to massage his forehead.
"Think of it as…one really complicated prank."
The other three exchanged mutual looks of horror and skepticism. "What prank?" Sirius managed to ask.
"You and Remus pretend to be together–at least enough to keep Lily suspecting. That way I can legitimately spend time with her and then convince her that she really is madly in love with me."
"Wait a minute–I think I just lost my brain," Remus said.
"Really? Because I'm pretty sure I lost my hearing since that sounded suspiciously like he wants us to pretend to be shagging each other so he can get a girl," Sirius said raising one eyebrow at James warily.
Peter sniggered at his friends' expressions. Two of them seemed to be staring at each other in horror while the third looked positively desperate. "I think your hearing's fine," he said still snickering, "because that's exactly what I heard."
Sirius was starting to look at bit green around the edges and Remus's eyes looked glazed over. Sirius swallowed loudly then turned back to look at James. After a silent conversation that looked remarkably like a staring contest, Sirius nodded his head slightly and said, "Well, it's not exactly the strangest thing we've ever done, right, Moony? Remember in fourth year–"
"Yes, Padfoot, I do." Remus was now scrubbing at his face furiously with the palms of his hands. "Alright," he finally said, "I'll do it. But not forever; when Sirius and I want out, it's over."
"Yes, yes, anything you say, Moony!" James agreed before he threw himself at his two friends. Much hugging and cheek kissing later, James all but bounced down to the common room in hopes of finding Lily there.
Once he was gone, Peter stood up and gathered all of his homework. After dropping all of his books and scrolls unceremoniously on his bed, he turned and said with a remarkably straight face, "I guess I'll just let you two lovebirds get to it, then."
He promptly scurried out the room laughing as his friends threw mild curses and jinxes at his heels.
"Well," Sirius drawled as he turned to face Remus, "I guess I'm your boyfriend, then."
Lily glanced over her book at Potter who sat rather flamboyantly if she dared say so into the chair across from her. She watched as Peter later came tearing down the stairs laughing uproariously. She raised her eyebrows at Potter who was grinning widely up at his dormitory stairs. Then, after only the briefest moments of quiet, she heard Black's characteristic laugh tumbling down the stairs completely intermingled with Lupin's. If she could have raised her eyebrows further, she would have.