Alright, I know it's taken me a while to post this, but I'll have to aggravate you more by asking you to be patient once again. It's currently AP time and I'm taking a shitload. Then I'm graduating and everything will be nuts. And not the salted kind either. So, please, don't give up on me - I am trying to keep up with everything!

I hope you like this next installment. I (as always) laughed to myself as I was typing it, but I'd love to hear your opinions.

This is disclaimed, again, because it is not mine. Damn it.

Several days passed. Lily argued with Potter over every nuance of the interactions between Black and Lupin, but so far, she had not seen anything particularly incriminating. She was starting to become disheartened and was considering quitting, but then she would have to face Potter and tell him he was right which would only inflate his head more. Truly, Lily was stuck.

As Lily was staring morosely into her marmalade, James took the opportunity to quietly berate his friends. "Look, she's starting to lose interest. You two aren't giving her enough to keep her curiosity going."

"Hey, don't accuse us. It's not our fault if your girl is about as blind as a bat," Sirius defended.

"What he means is," Remus clarified with a kick to his friend's ankle, "whenever we do something "coupley" she has already looked away."

"Maybe on one of your dates you should teach her about being sneaky and sly," Sirius teased. "You know, you can practice by hiding in the shadows so the professors don't catch the two of you snogging."

"They're not dates you idiot."

"Aww, I think Jamesie's got his feelings hurt."

"Look, the two of you just need to do something to catch her attention again. I don't care what you do, just, please, do something."

"Alright, alright, calm down, James," Remus soothed. "We'll think of something, today."

Sirius rolled his eyes dramatically while James slumped forward in relief and Peter chuckled into his pumpkin juice.

In History of Magic, Lupin tossed Black a note. Lily saw him do it. Of course, all four of the Marauders habitually shirked their academics in favor of plotting pranks and passing notes. But, Lily felt her hopes lifting anyway. If only she could get a hold of one of their notes.

As she watched the barest of smiles flicker across Black's face she thought, thank Merlin it was only History of Magic, no one cared about Tholusic the Criminally-Insane-Wizard-Who-Had-Stormed-the-Keep-of-Sir-Reginald-the-Righteous-in-1113 anyway. Lily then set about avidly watching Remus and Black pass what were most likely love notes back and forth.

Lily was sure they were love notes. Black looked suitably dreamy–and not because Binns's rambling was a proven narcotic–and Remus kept looking sideways at Black through his eyelashes. She was even convinced she had seen him bat them a time or two.

Remus and Sirius were, however, not passing love notes. The piece of parchment that they had written together during lunch was safely tucked inside Sirius's pocket. All they had to do now was make a grand show for Lily of passing the same parchment back and forth as if they were writing something terribly romantic. Remus had even taken the liberty of batting his lashes at Sirius occasionally. Sirius was convinced he would never get another girl to look at him in the same way again.

As Lily watched, the two seemed to get tired of writing and surreptitiously moved closer together until they could whisper between themselves. She watched as Black slipped the note into his pocket. As he drew his hand back out, the neatly creased note fluttered out and onto the floor beneath Black's desk. Lily was sure she was about to spontaneously combust, she was so excited.

She hardly noticed as class was dismissed. She blinked confusedly a time or two, then began to pack up her things while watching Black and Lupin. They were still whispering to each other with matching smiles. Her gaze zeroed in on Black's hand on the small of Lupin's back as the four Marauders stampeded out the classroom. Really, Lily was amazed she had never noticed Black doing that before.

Once she was sure they were gone, and the last traces of Potter's tragically uncombed hair disappeared around the door, she scooped up the dropped note. Grinning as she read, Lily stuffed the note into her bag. She was so going to rub this in Potter's face.

She burst into the common room only moments after the Marauders had arrived. She looked around for James, and once she caught his eye, she began gesturing him over furiously. Obediently, James leapt to his feet and trotted over to her while his friends sniggered at his eagerness.

For a moment, Lily forgot about the note in her bag and her excitement at winning. For a moment, she felt herself smiling at James's blinding grin and his tousled hair. It was nice having him be nice to her. It was nice being with him and talking without him asking her out every five seconds. Even if they were only talking about his friends, he was still being a perfect gentleman instead of the usual arrogant Quidditch player. So, as he approached, it made sense what she did next.

"I saw them passing a note all during Binns's class–did you see what it said?" Lily was quite impressed with her own acting skills.

"Umm, no, I didn't," James sounded ridiculously disappointed that he could not tell her what it said.

Lily only smiled brighter as if to make up for his grin suddenly dimming. "That's alright–" she began to say before she heard Lupin and Black muttering as they passed.

"I can't believe you dropped it!" Remus snapped exasperatedly.

"Well, I can't believe you didn't see me do it!" Black countered.

"Oh, yes, that is a totally reasonable argument!"

"Let's just go back to Binns's and find it," Black sighed.

Lily watched with her head slightly tilted as Black's and Lupin's fingers barely brushed together as they walked. Black slid through the portrait hole first, but while he did, Lily noticed Remus did not let go of the edge of Black's robe. While she was watching Black and Lupin, James watched Lily.

Once the two were out the door, Lily turned back to James with a triumphant 'Ah, HA!' look. Really, she was astounded by her acting skills. What she was even more astounded about, though, was her need to act that sentiment at the moment. Knowing James, he would want to follow them.

"I have an invisibility cloak in my trunk. Wait right here and we can see what they're up to."

How predictable, Lily thought as James raced up the stairs and almost instantly back down them. He was panting slightly and his cheeks were flushed. Lily could feel the heat rising in her own cheeks as he clearly invaded her space, then draped the cloak around them both.

Remus and Sirius were almost certain they were not being followed yet. Just to be safe, they walked ridiculously close together, but they could not bring themselves to say a word.

"You reckon James and Lily are behind us yet?" Remus finally whispered almost directly into Sirius's ear.

"Nah, James is probably going to take his sweet time walking so close to Evans."

"Yeah, probably right." Their conversation came to a stuttering halt.

Suddenly, Sirius came to a complete stop. He turned to look at Remus with dark eyes and his head slightly bowed. "I'm sorry, Moony, I really am. I do stupid shit all of the time without even thinking about it. That's probably why it's stupid," he said sheepishly.

Remus just shook his head as if he were confused. Before he could walk on, though, Sirius grabbed him by the sleeve and dragged him back to a stop. "No, listen to me. I'm sorry for getting you into this; I'm sorry for getting you involved in anything, especially the thing last year. You've got to understand, Moony. I don't want to get you involved in anything you don't want, but anything you do want, I want to be involved in."

Lily watched pressed tightly against James's chest as Sirius stared at Remus. Sirius was an intense person, she had always known that. Everyone knew that. But somehow, standing here in front of Remus, whose Adam's apple was bobbing frantically, she thought Sirius was the most intense he had ever been.

"I think we should leave," James whispered in her ear. His breath was entirely too warm. It even smelled sort of sweet like apples.

Lily just nodded and the invisible two left the other two behind staring deep into each others' eyes as if they were looking for something.

"I've missed you, Sirius," Remus muttered. Before he knew it, Sirius was holding him in a bone crushing hug and sobbing into his hair. Sirius's entire body was shaking and all Remus could do was hold him until he stopped.

"It's alright, I forgive you," he crooned into Sirius's ear in the middle of the hallway. It was almost dinner time, and they really did not need to be found like this.

Once Sirius's sobs softened to sniffles and he straightened his hair again, Remus suggested, "Why don't we head back down to Binns's for that note, alright?"

They had assumed when they overheard the conversation between James and Lily that their love note plot had failed in much the same way as their earlier plots and had attempted to redeem the situation by getting Lily and James to follow them down to Binns's room where the note would still be lying on the floor. The plan was to make a big show of looking around for it so James or Lily could grab it, read it, and leave it for them to find. It was the perfect plot–just like all their others had been until Lily messed them up.

So, when they walked into the empty classroom and there honestly was no note to be found, it was naturally a shock.

"Where the hell did you drop the bloody note, Padfoot!" Remus was in the process of moving beyond shocked and well into hysterical as he knocked over a desk in his search.

"Well I sat right here," Sirius said still a bit dazed as he pointed at the desk.

One of the worst parts of the whole situation was the fact that they thought they were being watched by a fascinated Lily Evans and their friend, James Potter, who was equally fascinated with her. Continuously acting, they searched and fretted until it was inescapably clear that the note was gone.

"Fuck!" Sirius spat as he kicked the desk he had sat at repeatedly.

"We need to make a new plan," Remus stated remarkably calmly as he set about pulling his hair out of his scalp.

"…fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…" Sirius continued in the background.

"How many people could possibly have picked it up? I mean there were how many of us in the class–maybe the room was already cleaned and the note's been thrown out! Sirius, what are you doing?"

Sirius was systematically banging his head against the classroom wall. Remus watched bemusedly listening to the dull thunking sound echoing around them.

Sirius snarled and glared at him, "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Losing your mind, one brain cell at a time."

Sirius snorted and combed his fingers through his hair. Remus thought he looked a bit too wild for it to mean anything good.

"Do you realize what it means if someone else picked up that note and read it? What were we thinking, Moony, to create hard evidence? My reputation is going to be over!"

"I hardly doubt anyone will be too surprised that you've gotten tired of your usual droves of girls and have moved on to the boys now, too. Everyone knows how insatiable you are–maybe the girls will even flock to you more in hopes of getting your attentions back on them."

"No, Remus, it's not that. I have never said much less written anything that soppily romantic in my entire life. Not to anyone. It hardly matters who it's to–what matters is that I have, according to the note, fallen madly in love!

"I think we should just go. We need plenty of time to prepare for tomorrow."

Remus just nodded his head and followed Sirius out the door. Nerves were twisting his stomach into knots and he could picture all the sneering and laughing faces at breakfast. James owed them for this. Oh, he owed them big.