a/n-so, this took awhile, didn't it? writer's block is a killer. however, in the midst of attempting to write this chapter several times, I actually finished with one attempt and realized it didn't really fit in with the context of this story. so now you should all go read that story, which is called Sirius the Seer? because it was originally going to be ch. 9 of this story. but that's all i'm going to say now, because i've got some major studying to go do. so yeah, i'll update as soon as i can, but it won't be for at least another two weeks. enjoy the chapter!

Chapter Nine

The next morning James went down to breakfast by himself, happier than he could remember being for the longest time, due in full to the evening of pleasant conversation he'd shared with Lily on their patrol the night before. And of course, the realization that he might finally have found a way into Lily's heart, but that, of course, still remained to be seen.

James entered the somewhat crowded Great Hall and immediately spotted his three closest friends sitting at the far end of the Gryffindor Table. Another quick glance around revealed that Lily was nowhere in the general vicinity, but James wouldn't let that bring his mood down. He quickly made his way over to his friends and sat down next to Peter, across from Sirius.

"Good morning, everyone," James said cheerfully, a large grin stretched across his features.

Sirius frowned at him across the breakfast table. "It should be illegal for a person to be so cheerful at this time of the morning."

"No need to be so morbid all of the time, Padfoot," James chastised his friend, grinning all the while. "A little optimism will do wonders for you. Why, did you know that, statistically, you'll add years onto your life span if you're optimistic, rather than pessimistic?"

"I do now." Sirius said, rather grumpily.

"I take it your patrol with Lily went well, then?" Remus asked James over his morning paper. "I think what Sirius meant to say was that none of us have ever seen you in such a good mood in the morning unless you had a good reason for it."

"It was wonderful," James replied dreamily, staring off into space, remembering the hours he had spent with Lily the night before.

"Oi!" Sirius flicked a piece of scrambled egg at his friend. "Unless she came to her senses and you two declared your undying love for each other, got married right away, and had a kid who you made me the godfather of, all in one night, then I don't want to hear about your lovesickness this early in the morning. I am trying to eat, you know."

James ignored him, except to flick the piece of egg off of his cheek and onto Peter's head. Neither of them noticed however, as James was too busy being overjoyed with life, and Peter was too busy eating.

"What did happen?" Remus asked, also ignoring Sirius' request. "You're in too good of a mood for something to not have happened between the two of you."

"We talked," James said with a happy sigh.

"About what, your impending nuptials?" Sirius asked.

"About life…the universe…her sister…" James replied.

"Her sister," Sirius repeated dubiously. "That's it—I give up! I will never understand you, Prongs. Remind me again why you and I claim to be best friends?"

"I did what I should have done all along, Moony," James began, finally focusing in on his sandy-haired friend. "I was myself with Lily. And it really worked; I should have listened to your advice ages ago."

"That I know," Remus replied.

"Ooh, Prongs, don't look now, but Lily's just sitting down with Mary and Marlene," Sirius began suddenly, interrupting James from talking to Remus, and James of course turned at once to look eagerly. "And Snivelly looks like he's headed their way."

"What!" James nearly yelped. Seeing this with his own eyes, he was half-way out of his seat before Remus spoke.

"Shh!" Remus said hurriedly. "James, stay here and stay calm."

"But it's Snivellus!" James protested in a harsh whisper, plopping back down on to the bench. "I can't let him talk to Lily!"

"You're the one who just admitted that you should've listened to my advice ages ago," Remus reminded the black-haired boy on the other side of the table. "And don't you remember what I told you on the train home last June?"

"No," James replied when Remus didn't continue, as it that was the obvious answer.

"I told you that you have to be nice to people, including Snape," Remus stated. He held up his hand when James tried to interrupt. "I know it's more likely that Dumbledore will shave his beard and never have twinkling eyes ever again, before Snape doesn't try to attack you first. But if he's not bothering you directly, don't cause a scene, even if you don't like the fact that he's going to talk to Lily. Besides, you know better than I do how much Lily holds grudges. If she doesn't want Snape bothering her, she's more than capable of making that known."

"Fine," James said, a bit grudgingly himself. He looked back over to where Lily was sitting with her friends to see that Snape had indeed been moving in her direction. The pair now seemed to be having quite an animated conversation. James groaned into his hands at this. "So much for my happy ending."

"It's okay, Prongsie," Sirius said consolingly, patting James' arm. "Just let it all out; say what you need to say."

"My life is over!" James said dramatically, although it was slightly muffled due to the fact that he was speaking into his hands and the table. "Lily is going to become friends with Snivellus again and then he's going to poison her mind against me and…and…it's just going to be so horrible!"

"Man, you really sounded like a teenage girl right there," Sirius said, sounding just a tad scared of his friend. "And really, you need to get yourself a better pair of eyes."

"Why is that?" James questioned. "So that I can see how happy Lily and Snivelly are together?"

"No," Sirius contradicted. "So that you can Lily cursing Snivelly. I've been waiting for this day for years! Lily has finally crossed over to the dark side, it's official."

Remus looked at Sirius with some concern. "I can see that you've finally filled your quota for how much sugar you need to intake before you become alive in the morning."

Sirius ignored him.

James, meanwhile, was beaming with pride at the purplish welts that could now be seen covering Snape's face from practically the other side of the Great Hall.

"That's my Lily," James said proudly. "Perfectly capable of handling herself with Snivellus."

Remus merely shook his head, but managed to look pleased at the same time. "Well, there you have it. We've finally witnessed some growth, James. You've managed to not attack Snape for the 'crime' of talking to Lily, and you've also recognized that Lily can easily manage to do things for herself. And seeing as I doubt you're even listening to me right now, I doubt you'll be remembering this later on."

"I think I'll go talk to Lily right now," James decided, again attempting to stand up.

In the blink of an eye, Remus had lunged across the table, and grabbed James' arm, forcing him to sit down again.

"And there you go, that just proves my point that you weren't listening," He said with a roll of his eyes. "James, just let Lily be for the moment. The fact that she actually let Snape speak to her seems to indicate that she is also in a good mood this morning, but don't ruin that by going to talk to her moments after she lost her patience and cursed Snape. You don't want her to get away with herself and curse you, too."

"Point taken," James said with a decisive nod.

Remus glanced down at his watch then.

"We should probably be getting to class now, anyway," He said, folding his newspaper up and placing it carefully in his school bag, which was underneath the bench.

Sirius just looked at him strangely for a moment, then, when Remus wasn't paying attention, grabbed his wrist and looked at the watch resting there.

"Class doesn't start for more than twenty more minutes, Moony." Sirius informed his friend.

"Exactly," Remus replied. "That's twenty good minutes we could be using to study for the N.E.W.T.'s. You don't want to fail those and end up as a janitor at the Ministry of Magic, do you?"

"Er…Moony?" James said. "You do realize that we don't have to take those tests until June, right? It is only September right now. At least, it was last time I checked. Why do we need to study now?"

Remus did not answer James' question immediately. He did, however, freeze halfway out of his seat, his eyes wide open with shock as he stared at his friend sitting before him.

"What did you just say?" Remus finally asked, very slowly. "Did you really just say that we don't need to study? Did you really? What's wrong with you!"

As he spoke, Remus' voice slowly got louder and louder, until he was practically shouting at James. And as he spoke, James attempted to lean as far back as possible from him and consequently almost fell off of the bench.

"Erm…I'm sorry?" James offered. "I didn't realize you felt so strongly about this?"

"Well, obviously not," Remus sounded highly affronted. He stood the rest of the way up and swung his legs over the bench. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get to class. I assume I'll see you there in twenty minutes."

Without another word he made his way down the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables. Once he was gone Sirius turned to look at James, looking slightly amused.

"Do you suppose he realized that he just made a fool of himself in the middle of the Great Hall?" He asked.

"No, probably not," James replied, still looking just a bit scared.

At this, Sirius just shook his head sadly. "Poor Moony. It really saddens me to see how negatively his studies are affecting him, and so early on in the year, too."

"Is there really something wrong with Remus?" A new voice asked from behind James.

At the sound of the voice, James suddenly began choking on the piece of toast he had just put in his mouth.

"Lily!" He exclaimed brightly, turning around. Or rather, as brightly as a person can sound when they feel as if they've just choked to death.

"Hey James," Lily replied lightly. "So, is Remus going to alright?"

"Remus?" James asked. "Oh! You mean Remus!"

"Yeah…," Lily said slowly, giving James a look he was all too familiar with. It was one she'd given him quite often, back in the beginning, in their first year. It was a look that clearly said she thought James was nothing less than clinically insane.

"He'll be just fine," James said with a wave of his hand, as if brushing the matter away. "Just nervous about the N.E.W.T.'s, that's all. He doesn't think he has enough time to study for them. Nothing to worry about, really."

"If you say so, then." Lily replied, looking unconvinced. "I suppose he went to class?"

James nodded eagerly. "Would you like me to show you where that is?"

"No. That's quite alright," Lily said, still giving James that look. "I've only been in school here for half a dozen years already. I think I know where we have class by now."

"Oh." James looked crestfallen now.

"Hey James?" Lily continued.

"Yes?" James immediately brightened up.

"Are you O.K.?"

"Of course I am." James replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem a bit…off…today," Lily said slowly. "Maybe I should go talk to Dumbledore. I really think the late night yesterday on patrol has taken its toll on you."

"I'm perfectly alright," James insisted. He suddenly stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder in the same instant. "In fact, I think I'll go join Remus. I need to get a bit of studying in, too."

A puzzled expression appeared on Lily's face as she watched James walk away, back towards the entrance into the entrance hall. Once he had disappeared from her sight she turned to look at Sirius, who was still sitting at the breakfast table.

"I don't think you should eat any more of that food," she recommended to him. "There's obviously something wrong with it."

And with that final word, she turned and made her way back down the table to where she had previously been sitting with her friends. As she left, Peter looked at Sirius, his eyes wide with fear, his fork half-way up towards his mouth.

"There isn't really something wrong with the food, is there?"