…And in the Twenty Third Hour…

Lily ran over and grabbed James's butt. Of course, she did this after everyone else was preoccupied (Peter was writing the last questions for his game while Remus and Sirius were arguing), but that's not really worth mentioning.

James, who had been rifling through the candy in the Easter basket, stopped and turned to look at her curiously.

"Lily, did you just come up and grope me?" He asked.

"Yes," she said simply before setting down the bottle of rum in her other hand. She eyed it for a moment, wondering if hard liquor on an empty stomach was cause for the sudden urge for butt pinching. Well, it probably wasn't responsible for the urge for butt pinching; she always wanted to do that. But it was probably the reason that she had lost control of herself and commenced with the said butt pinching.

James, his eyebrow raised, looked back at her for another moment before he finally shrugged. "Ok then."

"Yep," Lily nodded before pressing her cheek to his back and wrapping her arms around his middle. "I love you," she said quietly. "I didn't get to finish saying that earlier when that owl came in."

James shuddered. "I love you too…and let's forget about that owl."

She nodded in agreement at his back. She would very much like to forget any of that ever happened.

"Only two hours left," James commented as he gazed out at the bright sunshine. "Are you excited?"

"All I can think about right now is how hungry I am," she said miserably. "All I've had in hours is a few crackers."

"Want some fudge?" He passed her back a piece over his shoulder without waiting for an answer.

"Thank you," she said quietly before eagerly taking it from him and biting into it.

"So…" James cleared his throat after a moment's silence. "What are you planning for Remus?"

"Oh I have a few ideas," she said in a voice that promised retribution. "But first…"

James felt the arms around his waist disappear and watched as Lily, a scary, almost…insane look in her eye, marched over to where Remus was standing. Now, don't think that James doesn't love Lily, or is unbelievably happy to be spending the rest of his life with her. But at moments such as these, James couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive about his days to come with her.

That look in her eye scared him.

But of course, at the same time it excited him. There was something about making Lily angry that was very fun to watch. Yet, there was something about making Lily angry that could terrify a person to his very soul. It was fifty/fifty really…When Lily was mad, James could never tell if he was having fun or not.

But right now it wasn't directed at him, so it should be fun to watch.

"Lupin!" Lily snapped and Remus dived behind Sirius. Lily ignored this and continued speaking. "I've decided your fate."

"Ok," Remus said slowly, "Lily, let's talk about this. Let's calm down."

The words were like a trigger. Sirius, Remus, and James watched worriedly as one of her eyes once again started to twitch. Peter, however, either didn't notice any of this or just didn't care because he just kept on writing down the questions for his game.

"Er," Remus tried, "What I meant to say was-"

"I want you out of the room," Lily interrupted, "and you're going out the window."

"Evans!" Sirius said suddenly, "That's called murder. Murder."

"Thank you, Black, I know what it's called," Lily said sarcastically.

Sirius gaped. "Good God woman, get a hold of yourself!"

Sirius barely managed to dodge Lily's kick. Remus ran off, leaving Sirius behind, Lily growled and chased after him, Sirius ran after Lily, and James pulled out another piece of fudge and ate it while he casually watched his wife trying to murder his friends.

Peter glanced up from writing the last question to see Lily on Remus's back, screaming like an enraged lunatic, Remus screaming like a little girl, Sirius attempting to pry Lily off of Remus and screaming at Lily to be quiet because she was hurting his ears.

Sirius finally managed to get Lily off of Remus's back, but she wiggled around so much he immediately dropped her, leaving Remus's back unprotected once again.

"AAAH!" Remus screamed in horror as he stumbled over his own feet, trying to get away from the red head.

Peter lifted an eyebrow, shrugged, and went back to writing, and James choked on the fudge.

Lily nearly had a hold of Remus, Remus was contemplating hitting a girl (that is, if she didn't kill him first), and Sirius had just given up and sat down on Debbie's bed when Remus ran smack into the window.

Ten minutes later, Sirius and James were still laughing. Remus was flinching everytime Lily came near him. Lily felt really bad because she hadn't actually meant to throw him out of the window (or into it for that matter). All she had really wanted to do was scare him a little bit. And she at least had managed to do that much.

As she brought over a wet washcloth for the bump on his forehead, he watched her wearily as she drew closer.

"Lupin, look, I'm sorry you got hurt," she said loudly to be heard over Sirius and James. "I didn't mean to hurt you, even if you did deserve it."

Remus simply glared up at her and didn't say a word.

"I honestly didn't!" She argued at his look. "I swear I wasn't actually going to throw you out of the window," she promised. "Besides, if I did that I would be probably be expelled and get into a lot of trouble. I don't think killing you would be worth it all."

Remus continued to glare.

"Fine!" Lily threw her hands up in exasperation. "Be that way. But you have to admit that you did deserve it. It was all your idea to lock me in here with James so the universe is just paying you back for that. Or, the window is paying you back."

Remus had no comment. He continued to glare up at her as if the words went right over his head.

"Remus," she said slowly, trying to get some reaction out of him.

He glared.

"Remus. Remus. Reeeeemuuussss."

More glaring.

"You're being unfair. I'm actually trying to be nice to you for once. You ran into that window remember, I didn't throw you into it."

Remus glared.

"Remus!" Lily finally snapped and James and Sirius fell silent at her tone. "If you don't say something I'm going to….to…" She searched her head for something—anything to say. "If you don't say something, I'm going to cry!" She threatened.

Remus glared…and then he blinked.

"I've decided something," he said slowly. "I've decided that I don't like you, Lily. You're mean and scary and you always try to hurt us."

Sirius, James, and Peter turned and watched Lily with wide eyes for her reaction. They all wondered silently if Remus suddenly had some sort of death wish. He was right; Lily was mean and scary…when you made her mad.

Lily blinked…and then—"Ha!" She triumphantly pointed a finger at Remus. "I got you to say something!"

Remus lifted an eyebrow at this. "I said that I don't like you."

"Yeah, so?" Lily shrugged as if this were no big deal.

"So…" Remus trailed off into silence as he stared at her in confusion. Lily had some strange mood swings. "Huh…I guess I do like you…a little bit."

Lily grinned brightly.

"Done!" Peter announced.

This whole strange conversation and the events before it were completely forgotten as everyone went over to Peter. Lily sat on her trunk as Peter stood with James on his left and Remus on his right. Sirius stood in front of him and Lily noticed that he now held her rum in one hand and he drank from it as Remus and James started trash talking.

"You're going down Potter," Remus said, "Just like your mom."

"Oh!" Sirius laughed and Peter grinned.

"Yeah?" James countered, "The only thing going down here is you! Just like…your mom."

"James, that was just lame." Sirius said, sounding disappointed.

"Hey, that's what Lily says every night!" Remus grinned.

"OK, that's enough," James said quickly with a sideways glance at Lily.

Peter waited for Remus and Sirius to stopped laughing before he proceeded. "Alright," he said, "Here's how we're doing it. Sirius, since you said it was ok, you're going to be the lifeline. If Remus or James can't remember the answer to a question, they can choose you to help them out. But they can only do this three times."

James and Remus nodded. Sirius took a swig from the bottle of rum.

"I'll go back and forth between both of you, asking the questions. There are ten questions in all and the first one to answer the most correctly wins. You can only get three wrong, anymore and you lose. Everybody got it?"

They all nodded again.

"Go James!" Lily cheered.

"Thank you sweetheart," James smiled at her, causing the other boys to grimace.

"Ok," Peter said, "You first James."

James stared at Peter, mentally readying himself for this VERY serious game.

"When Sirius was little, he used to play with his neighbor Yvette." Peter read from his parchment, "Sirius liked Yvette just fine but he hated her pet dog because it bit him once. WHAT breed of dog was it?"

James stared. "Ok, that's a stupid question. But for some reason I know the answer. It was Chow."

"That's correct!" Peter announced and Lily applauded. "But I'm taking a point away because you said my question was stupid."

"You can't do that!" James argued but Peter had already turned to Remus.

"Remus! For all the years we have known him James talks about three things in his sleep. These things are Lily, quidditch, and quilting. In order, name which things he talks about most-" Peter held up a hand to stop Remus as he started to answer- "in the month ofSeptember."

"Oh, that's easy!" Remus grinned. "Quilting is number one, then Lily, then quidditch."

"Correct!"

"WHAT!" Lily and James screamed in unison.

"I talk in my sleep?" James yelped.

"You talk about quilting?" Lily shrieked.

"His mother quilts a lot," Sirius told her, "so when he comes back at the beginning of the year all he dreams about is quilting. Don't worry," he smirked, "by November you're number one on that list."

Lily smiled, feeling slightly better, but James was still gaping at the other boys. "All these years I have been talking in my sleep and no one ever thought to tell me about it?"

"Next question!" Peter said brightly as he turned to James. "James, in fourth year I went to Hogsmeade with Silvia whats-her-face from Ravenclaw," Peter said, obviously not remembering this girl's last name, "But I was so nervous through the whole thing that I kept-"

"Farting!" James screamed.

"Correct!"

"You made that a question?" Lily asked Peter. "Wouldn't you rather forget that?"

Peter shrugged nonchalantly. "It was sad at first…but now it's just funny." He turned to Remus. "Remus, back in the summer before sixth year, we all went to a party where Sirius got drunk," he grinned as Sirius groaned. "Sirius broke a bone at that party. What bone did he break and HOW did he break it?"

Remus chuckled before answering. "Sirius wanted to dance-" James and Peter burst into laughter, "and he wanted a dancing partner-" the laughter grew louder, "so he went up to what he thought was a girl, which actually turned out to be a giant dude-" Lily started giggling, "and he said to the guy, 'Hey pretty lady, come boogie away with a very serious boy'." Remus laughed for a while before he could finally continue, "and so the guy—ha-ha—the guy punched him the face and Sirius flew backwards into a table and broke his tailbone."

Sirius did not find this amusing in the least, and simply stood and glowered as everyone else laughed until their faces turned red.

"Damn you Peter," he ground his teeth together; "You just wanted an excuse to tell that story!"

Peter just giggled in response and tried to regain his composure. "Ahem…Ok," he said a few moments later after they had all calmed down, "That was correct, Remus. James," he turned to James, "What is Remus's middle name?"

Remus blinked for a moment, wondering if he had heard right. No, surely James wouldn't tell them what that J really stood for. He had never told them the truth, he had never told anyone what middle name he had been given at birth. To spare himself of any teasing, he had simply lied and told everyone that it was John.

John was good, normal, common name. However, his actualmiddle name was NOT in any way shape or form normal or common and was NOT good. The only reason James knew it was that he found out by pure accident one day. Remus had sworn him to secrecy, and he had kept his promise.

But just because he had kept that promise didn't mean that he would tell the others that he knew something about Remus's middle name. They had immediately figured out that John must not be his real name, and had since tried everything they could to get both Remus and James to tell them.

And Remus had been certain that his secret was safe…until now.

On either side of him, Peter and Sirius held their breath in anticipation as they stared at James. Remus gave him an almost pleading look, but he knew it was no use. James grinned almost…sadistically.

…

A/N: Ok, so many of you have asked for a sequel. Sigh…I've thought about it (though if I wrote one I have no earthly idea what it would be about) and I'm really, really, reallyleaning towards no. Thank you all for reading, reviewing, and enjoying this story. I'm happy that it's made many others happy and made a lot of you laugh, which it what it was intended to do.

I'm inexpressibly grateful for all of the comments, every 'I love you', every 'Update NOW!' and especially to those of you who consistently come back chapter after chapter to read and to motivate me further. But I've kind of lost steam on this story and I'm anxious to move on and write other things. I will be back to write more Lily/James (eventually) but I think if I tried again right now it would turn out to be a big, steaming pile of crap that would cheat you all of your time.

Speaking of time, I don't have much so I'm heading off now. Thank you and au revoir!