"I can't believe you, Potter!"

"I didn't touch him!" Well that was true, thought James.

"You deliberately go out of your way to hex Severus when he's done nothing to you!"

"I thought you hated him now anyway" James retorted "so why does it matter so much?"

"Just because I'm not fond of him doesn't give you free reign to attack innocent people!"

"Innocent?!" James snorted. Lily shook her head in disbelief.

"I give up. I thought you were gaining a latent sense of humanity but obviously you're still the same toerag you were in fifth year. What on earth was Dumbledore thinking?"

"Maybe you should follow that up – quite a number of us want to know why I got the badge. Maybe dear Snivellus will be my replacement. It'll be all cosy between the two of you again." Lily went white. Her mouth hung open for a brief moment before she turned on her heel and stormed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

He didn't just attack Snape though, James thought. Snape acted first – he fired the first jinx. James had to defend himself – alright, he could have used a softer hex but this was Snape. If Snivellus hadn't have said what he did about Lily…it always came down to her, he realised. Especially with Snape. Evans just didn't get it.

James sat on the couch, running his hands feverishly through his hair. If Evans could just realise that Snape would do anything to get her, even if it meant selling his soul to -

"Lie through the teeth never won fair maiden, huh?"

"Not now Sirius." Sirius flopped down on the couch next to James, who looked as if he was trying to pull his hair out.

"When I wanted Daniella, what did I do?"

"Sirius –"

"What did I do?"

"You stopped flirting with her."

"Right. We had been flirting for 2 months – 2 months, Prongs and absolutely no reciprocation on her end. I shrugged off her advances and a week later she cornered me in the 3rd floor broom closet. "

James' mouth lifted at the corners.

"Daniella's not the type to be ignored."

"Neither is Lily Evans"

James dropped his head into his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. "She's not like that –"

"Evans likes the attention – redheads are renowned for their tempers and you present her with a means to which to channel her excess energy." Sirius raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Sirius."

"What I'm getting at is that you're her stress-ball. And, in a way, she's yours. Why not give each other a little space?"

"And what? She'll miss me?" James said sarcastically.

"She'll notice your absence, which is more than 6 years of constant pestering has got you."

"…so I've got to ignore her?" sighed James, disheartened.

"Not ignore her per se …just take your face out of her business. I bet you a hundred galleons the first thing she'll ask tomorrow at breakfast is 'is Potter in the hospital wing?' And anyway, you have Head duties together so you can talk to her then…and show her what a responsible young lad you've become" Sirius sniggered.

"As far as your motorbike is concerned."

"That is my responsibility. You can't help it if your best mate forces you to go on a joyride to Poland in the middle of the night."

"I'm still shocked Minnie bought that story – how you thought to transfigure the bike into a pot plant on such short notice astounds me."

"I'm touched, Prongs, truly." Sirius grinned at the memory. They stared into the fire, momentarily entranced. "James – "

"Yeah?"

"Just try it with Lily, alright?" James let out a gust of air and stretched his arms above his head.

"Alright. But if she forgets I exist, I get your bike…and your shooting star 3000."

"If she forgets you exist, I'll throw in my Honeyduke's stash as a special extra."