…And in the Seventh Hour…

"I think James is hiding something." Remus muttered to Sirius.

"I agree." Sirius said as he studied James.

Remus and Sirius were sitting next to each other on the window sill, conversing quietly. James was on the other side of the room, reading a random book that Lily had given him from her trunk. Peter was once again trying to get the ink off of his face in the bathroom, and Lily was rummaging through the closet.

"What do you think it is?" Sirius asked the blonde haired boy next to him.

Remus scratched his chin thoughtfully as he too, studied James.

"I'm not sure…But he's acting different."

"We have to find out." Sirius said and Remus nodded in agreement. "Maybe we should just ask him?"

"No, if he wanted us to know he would have said something already. So it's got to be something big."

Sirius gasped. "Hey! Maybe he's giving me his broomstick!"

Remus raised an eyebrow at this. "Why would he give you his broomstick?"

"I don't know…I've always admired it and he said that he got me something special for my birthday."

Remus stared at him. "He got you a pez dispenser."

"What? Seriously? That's it?"

"It's in the shape of a big, black dog."

"Far out."

"Why are you two staring me down?" James asked them suddenly.

Sirius and Remus started in surprise and then tried to look innocent.

"We were admiring your hair. Have you done something different with it?" Remus asked randomly, saying the first thing that came to his mind. He hoped he didn't sound too stupid. James was now giving him a strange look.

"What?"

"You heard the man!" Sirius said loudly. "Oi! Evans, what are you doing in there?"

They all looked towards the closet where Lily was. She stepped out of it, looking a bit frazzled with her hair going in every direction. "I was looking for this," she said and held up a long box for them all to see.

"Life?" Sirius questioned as he studied the box she held up.

"Yes," she nodded happily, "It's a muggle game, but its fun."

They shrugged, figuring if there was nothing else to do, then playing Life wouldn't be so bad. It beat staring at the walls and the setting sun.

Peter came out of the bathroom. Apparently the ink that was used on his face was magical water proof (as the bottle proudly boasted) and wouldn't come off for weeks. This didn't stop him from trying to get it off anyway of course.

They all sat cross-legged on the floor around the board as Lily set it up and tried her best to explain the rules to them.

"Then," she was saying, "after you leave university, you have to pay off your loans and then you get married-"

"What?" Sirius protested, "I don't want to get married."

"Well you have to." Lily argued back.

"Why?"

"Because that's the game."

Sirius crossed his arms, looking very much like a five year old. "It's a stupid game."

Rolling her eyes, Lily continued to set up the board. Once she was finished, she tried to explain to them how to choose a job. She held up the cards for Remus.

"I don't get to see what it is?" Remus asked, confused.

"No, and just pick three."

"This is stupid."

Remus ended up being a police officer (which he said was stupid), Sirius ended up being a garbage man (which he said was stupid), Peter was a 'mega superstar' (to which he said OOO!), James ended up being a doctor (which he said was gross), and Lily was a travel agent (which just made her want out the room more than she already did).

Then Sirius refused to get married.

"You have to get married; it's part of the game!" Lily argued with him.

"I would rather lose the game than get married!" Sirius fought back.

Remus gave him a look. "Dude, you know you're not actually getting married, right? It's just a game."

"I WON'T DO IT!" Sirius roared.

After that, the rest of them went on with the game, while Sirius was stuck behind the stop sign because he wouldn't get married. He kept glaring around at them all and muttering things like, 'Stupid game' and 'can't make me do it'.

Ten minutes later, Lily was seething, Remus was looking scared, Sirius was still glaring at everyone, James was shaking his head and rubbing his eyes, and Peter was looking happy because he had won.

The game board was halfway across the room lying on its side in an ominous sign to what had just transpired. Little cars with the people still in them were flung everywhere, and tons of colored money was still flying in the air around them.

"WHY, did you throw the BOARD?" Lily seethed at Sirius.

"It was a stupid game," he muttered in response.

"THAT COST ME FIVE POUNDS!" she yelled at him.

"What's a pound?" Sirius asked, not really sounding like he cared for the answer.

One of Lily's eyes was starting to twitch. James watched this nervously in the corner of his vision and noticed that Peter and Remus were starting to back up. Sirius either didn't know or didn't care about the danger he was in. James had to wonder about his friend's memory at this. Didn't he remember being beat to death with a book? Or being chained to the bed post and nearly wetting himself?

"Black-" Lily started menacingly, but James stepped in.

"Lily, let's take a deep breath…"

Lily jerked her gaze to him and stood up. "I'm going to kill your friend."

James stood quickly and held an arm out in front of her. "Now hang on, he will buy you a new board, won't you Sirius?"

James turned to see Sirius rising lazily. "That one's still usable." He said as he stretched.

James caught Lily just in time as she flung herself in Sirius's direction. Thinking quickly, he started to drag her into the bathroom. Maybe if he could get Sirius out of sight maybe he would be out of mind?

"Evans, you seriously need some anger management." Sirius was saying as James dragged her off.

This did not make the dragging easier. James silently thanked the years of quidditch training that had brought some nicely toned biceps. Otherwise, he might have been able to half carry Lily into the bathroom.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Sirius turned to Remus and Peter.

"Ok, now that I got rid of him-"

"Wait, WHAT?" Remus stared at him. "You did that to get James out of the room?"

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah. Anyway-"

"You risked your life to get James out?" Peter asked, looking a little worried about his friend's sanity.

"Yes," Sirius nodded, "Now, Peter, have you noticed that James is different lately?"

"Yeah, actually, I have."

"We have too," Sirius said, "and we have to find out what he's hiding."

"Why?" Peter asked confusedly.

"Because," Remus searched for a reason, "we feel like it."

"Remember the last time you two wanted to do something that you thought was a good idea?" Peter asked, remembering their conversation out in the hall just hours before. "And really, whose idea was that?"

Remus and Sirius both shrugged, neither one of them remembering exactly who had come up with it. Why did it matter anyway?

"I don't know, but we have to know what he's up to." Remus said quietly.

Peter rolled his eyes as Remus and Sirius started whispering together.

Exactly twenty seven seconds before that conversation happened, James slammed the door to the bathroom closed and dropped Lily in front of him. Panting slightly from yelling so much, she looked up at him and smiled.

"You think they bought it?" She asked.

James shrugged. "I don't care. Come here."

Lily leapt right back into his arms and pressed her mouth to his hurriedly. James wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her as close as humanly possible and returned her kiss with just as much eagerness.

They spent quite a few minutes in each other's embrace hungrily kissing each other, Lily grabbing at James's hair, James nibbling his way across her jaw, over her ear, down her neck, across her shoulder and then all the way back up again to her lips.

"Too long," he kept mumbling and she nodded fervently in agreement.

It had been way too long. The last time they had spent time together had been around four am last night when he had snuck into her dorm. It had been seven am when he had snuck back into his, just in time before his friends awoke.

One week ago, James and Lily had started going steady. And every day since then Lily and James hadn't been able to keep their hands off of each other. James was deliriously happy. He felt like he was in a dream. But, he figured, if it did all turn out to be a dream, then it would have been worth it.

James was plain out addictive. At least that was what Lily had found out exactly a week ago today. She had spent years resisting him and now she was finding it hard to remember why. She was falling hard and she couldn't stop if it even if she wanted to.

Both had agreed not to tell anyone.

James especially didn't want his friends to know; not yet anyway. That would be a train of merciless teasing that he didn't want to subject either himself or Lily to. And while they were still in the first stages of their relationship, he didn't want to risk losing it over anything.

So no one knew. And that was the way it was going to stay.

Out in the dorm room, however, Sirius was cooking up what he called his 'ultimate evil master plan'. Cackling, he rubbed his hands together and watched Remus and Peter for their reactions. Remus was nodding and Peter was shaking his head.

"If he wanted us to know, then we would know." Peter kept trying to say, only to be cut off my Sirius.

"Quiet Wormtail! What do you think, Moony?"

Remus nodded. "That's a formidable plan."

Sirius grinned. One way or another, he was going to find out what James was hiding.