When James stumbled in later, he was surprised to find Lily sitting on the couch in the common room. He looked left and right. Then he walked over to her bedroom and stuck his head in.

"There doesn't seem to be much carnage," he said, looking back at the redhead, who was watching him patiently.

"No," she said. "I think I've managed fairly well."

He grinned at her. "Did my parting suggestion help?"

She rolled her eyes, as he crawled onto the couch with her. "Have you been drinking? James, it's barely 4:00 in the afternoon."

"Yes, I know. Sirius and I talked."

"Mmm."

"Don't make that sound, like you think I just let it all go."

"I wasn't saying that, exactly."

He took her hand, unable to help himself. He liked the shape of it, the long, delicate fingers. The soft skin. The fact that she let him touch her.

"I took a page from your book."

"You ignored him?"

"I broke a chair against the wall."

She choked out a laugh. "And then got drunk. I think perhaps I don't understand boys."

"I'm sure of that," he said, bringing her palm up to his lips. He liked touching her. More, he liked the way she reacted when he touched her. The flush slowly rising along her skin, the lowered lids. "Anyway, first we fought."

"Talked a bit louder, you mean," she said in a dry voice, making him laugh.

"Exactly. With punctuation in the form of flying furniture."

"Sounds cathartic."

"For me, yeah. I think Sirius was a bit shocked by it." He shifted closer to her. "He said he'd leave you alone."

"Oh?"

"Mmhhmmm . . . I almost stopped at that, but I didn't. I said I'd rather he just leave everyone alone."

"I doubt he liked that."

"Not much, no. But he said he'd try. No promises, but that he'd try."

"I suppose that's something."

He leaned forward, tucked some hair behind her ear, brushed his nose against hers. "How are you? Really."

"Fine," she said in a small voice.

"You know he was just talking out his arse, don't you?" he said, running his thumb along her jawline.

"I don't think I want to talk about that," she said, voice dropping to barely a whisper.

"Ok," he said. "I'm just going to say one more thing. Which is that any bloke in his right mind would be delighted to shag you, and probably end up obsessed with you afterward."

"I'm sure."

"I'm speaking from experience here."

"We've already established that you're a few cards short of a full deck," she muttered.

He didn't laugh. He knew her well enough to spot the deflection, to know how much it would have bothered her, what Sirius had said.

"I mean it. You're beautiful." He pressed a light kiss to her lips, another to each eyelid, another to her nose. "And curvy."

She made a sound low in her throat, unmistakably a warning.

"Which isn't a bad thing in the least. You look like a woman, that's all. Most blokes like that in a girl."

"Can we just-"

"And," he continued, not letting her change the subject, "you're very responsive."

She pulled away. "Oh my God. Please tell me I don't squeal."

He laughed, unable to stop himself. When she started to rise, he pulled her back down. "You don't sound anything like a pig. You're quite enthusiastic." When she covered her face, he pulled her hands away. "But trust me, that's a good thing. Some birds just sort of . . . let you do what you want, without being all that . . . involved, I guess. You're there every step of the way."

"I really don't want to talk about this anymore, James."

"And, you're obviously into it, which is amazing."

"James."

"And you sound nothing like a pig," he finished in a rush.

She said nothing.

He realized his hands were in his hair, and stopped himself. She thought it was ridiculous when he did that. He studied her, wondering if he should have said anything at all. Maybe he just needed to learn to keep his mouth shut around her.

"Should I not have said anything?" he asked quietly. "Only, I just wanted to make sure you didn't think that I thought-"

"No, it's fine."

He pulled her in against his chest, relieved when she went without hesitation. "Just so you know, if you gave me a choice between shagging you or a room full of birds hand-picked by Sirius, I'd choose you any day."

"James."

"And he'd absolutely shag you too."

"Good lord, James."

"What? He would. I shared a dorm with him. I know who he's shagged. He doesn't have any sort of standards."

Now she did pull away.

"I didn't mean it like that. I mean, he'll shag absolutely anyone. And if he ever saw you without your robes on – not even naked, just without the billowing robes - he'd probably devote his life to getting you into bed. And if he ever got you there, he'd never want to leave."

"Can we please stop talking about me and Sirius shagging?"

"I wasn't-" he broke off at her look. An image of them together rose in his head, disturbing him more than he expected. "Yeah," he said. "Let's just move on."

She said nothing for a moment. "Thank you for trying to make me feel better, though."

"As horrible of a job as I did."

"And," she said, shifting to straddle him. "Thank you for saying something today." She leaned down to kiss him.

"Mmmhhmm . . ." he said, between kisses. "I'm just glad he didn't turn you off shagging altogether."

She pushed him back. "None of this was about me, was it? It was all about you being able to keep shagging me."

"And isn't that the best compliment," he said, laughing when she hit him. "It was about us, Lily. Mutually beneficial."

"You are such a wanker."

But she let him pull her closer, and she didn't protest again.