A/N: Another weekend, another chapter for you all. I will try to stick to weekly updates for this, but I feel I should say that updates might get a little sporadic because I've started working on the sequel to Turning Tables and so I'll be writing two fics at once; but I never abandon fics so it will be completed. At some point.

Also, someone reviewed asking if they could make a translation but they weren't signed in so I couldn't reply directly. If it was you, please PM me!

Anyway, on with another dose of fluffy Jily goodness!

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3rd February 1977, 10.20pm

Remus sighed and tugged a hand through his hair in frustration. The motion reminded him of James, and he found himself wishing that his friend was there, that way Sirius could badger him instead.

He sighed loudly. 'Do we really need to go over this again?'

Sirius folded his arms and frowned at his friend, refusing to allow the matter to drop. 'Yes.'

Remus flopped back on the bed in defeat. Sirius was surprisingly persistent really, given his complete lack of attention span for most topics. The truly annoying thing was he only devoted his full attention and efforts to matters you'd really prefer he avoided.

He covered his face with his hands and groaned. 'Look, it's not difficult to understand, it's not complicated in any way; Lily and James got talking on New Year's when they were the only people in the common room. They are now friends. Tentatively so, but friends of a sort nonetheless. By extension, Lily has now begun to associate with all four of us. We are now all friends. All five of us. That's it. The end.'

Sirius snorted his disbelief. 'It is not Moony. There has to be more to it than that. Five years of more or less constant arguing about just about everything, and I'm meant to believe that one cosy little chat has them turn into bosom buddies? You must think I was born yesterday.'

Remus sighed heavily. 'Well, that's all I know, so if you're right and there's more to it than that, I'm just as much in the dark as you are.'

'You're a dirty rotten liar Moony. You and James both.' Sirius threw himself onto his bed in a sulk, and Remus sat up and reached for his book, silently and privately congratulating himself on managing once again to deflect Sirius' attentions.

The door to their dorm flew open to reveal James dragging Peter along behind him.

'Next time you want éclairs Padfoot, you can go yourself. Honestly avoiding Filch is a bloody nightmare, even with the cloak and the map. Merlin knows how we'd cope without them.' James shuddered and offloaded the bundle tucked under his arm onto Sirius' bed. Peter pulled a slice of cake from the bag he was carrying and silently offered it to Remus before planting himself on his bed and investigating the rest of the contents.

There was silence for a few moments until Peter spoke up, his eyes darting around the room as he took in Sirius' sulky pose, Remus' obvious nonchalance and James' expression, which was equally as bemused as his own. 'Okay, what'd Prongs and I miss?'

'Nothing.' Said Remus in a completely deadpan tone. 'Nothing at all.'

'Oh, bollocks Moony!' Sirius sat upright and faced James accusingly. 'I've been trying to get Moony to tell me the truth about whatever is going on with you and Evans, because he bloody well knows, and I'm hurt – hurt James – that you wouldn't trust me, your best friend, enough to tell me as well.'

James stared silently at Sirius for a moment before transferring his gaze to Remus who shrugged helplessly. James turned back to face Sirius before he spoke.

'Padfoot…I haven't spoken one word to Moony about Evans except when you and Pete have been there as well. And I don't know how many times I'm going to have to repeat this, but there is nothing going on with me and Evans. We just…got talking somehow, and now we…talk more. More than we used to.'

He kept his eyes on Sirius as he spoke, then sighed and stuck a hand in his hair in an exasperated gesture that was almost identical to Remus' of only a few moments ago. 'And I have to admit, I'm pretty fucking happy that she actually seems to like talking to me these days, so I'm not exactly keen to question anything about it. I'm just…letting things happen. Seeing where they take me.'

'So you aren't dating?' Peter piped up, apparently only half-interested since he was eating cake and reading James' copy of Quidditch Monthly, and didn't even bother to look up to ask his question.

James directed his incredulous look to the room in general, apparently unable to credit the idiocy of his friends; with the noteworthy exception of Remus. He had to agree with Sirius there, Moony knew far more about all this than he was letting on, James could just tell.

'If I was dating Evans, do you think I'd be keeping quiet about it? For that matter, would I be spending my evenings up here with you bunch of bastards? No. NO. NO. NO.'

The room was quiet for a moment; Pete continued to flip through the magazine, Remus picked the chocoball decorations off his slice of cake, and James and Sirius stared at each other across the room from their respective beds.

'But you still want to go out with her?' Sirius asked suddenly, and Peter and Remus' heads jerked up to observe James' response. Since the whole Snape/mudblood fiasco by the lake six months ago, James had been close-lipped about his crush on Lily, even with them. While it was common knowledge among the student body that James Potter liked Lily Evans, he was careful not to offer the gossips much else to work with, so very few people were aware of his real feelings on the matter.

James was silent for a moment, and the other three were sure he either wasn't going to answer, or he was going to brush them off with a joke like he normally did. They were all a little shocked when he answered quietly and apparently honestly.

'Yeah, I do. Nothing's changed; she hasn't changed. All the things I liked about her are still there, and I still like them. But…I like spending time with her now, and it seems like letting her know that I'd still like to go out with her would send her running for the hills, so I'm keeping it to myself. I'd rather be friends with her than nothing at all. And who knows?' He shrugged. 'Maybe she'll come around one day.'

Remus was privately quite sure – after his most illuminating discussion with her - that Lily was on her way to coming around and actually found himself agreeing with James' approach; far better to let Lily come to her own conclusions, in her own time, than to push her now. Lily Evans was just as stubborn as James Potter, and he was positive it would take her some time, and a certain amount of self-recrimination, before she was even capable of contemplating that she might have more than friendly feelings for James.

Sirius, on the other hand, was possibly the least patient, most impulsive wizard to have ever existed.

'Well that's crap. You should ask her to Hogsmeade for the Valentine 's Day trip. Let her know you're still interested; she might say yes. Besides, you don't want some other bloke asking her do you?'

'Of course I don't.' James sounded frustrated with his best mate's apparent inability to understand his motives. 'But the point is, Lily might. She might like someone else, she might want to go with someone else, and if I'm her friend, I have to let her.'

'James is right.' Interrupted Remus. 'Your dog side is showing Padfoot. You piss on a tree and mark it as yours, but you can't lay a claim on a girl just because you want her. I think what James is trying to say – extremely ineloquently – is that much as he wants Lily to go out with him, what he really wants is for her to want to go out with him.'

Sirius was silent for a moment and Remus had high hopes that his words had sunk in; until Sirius spoke again, his tone even more confused than before. 'What?'

Surprisingly it was Peter who piped in this time, possibly because neither James nor Remus looked capable of trying to explain for a second time. 'What James wants is for Lily to feel the same way about him as he does about her. But he doesn't want to upset her or scare her off by telling her how he feels, so he's just seeing what happens instead.'

There was a moment of silence between the four friends, then Remus pointed at Peter. 'Yeah. What he said.' He sounded a little dumbstruck.

'Yeah…thanks Wormy.' James gave his friend a confused look, and Peter acknowledged their thanks with a cheerful 'You're welcome.'

'Right. Okay.' Sirius spoke slowly. 'Does this mean that you're not going to ask her to Hogsmeade?'

James fell face first onto his mattress with a groan.

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9th February 1977, 2.30pm

'That's really nice of you, Max, but I'm going with Marlene, Alice and Emma. Girl's trip. Thank you though.'

With one last smile, Lily backed away until she was around the corner and out of sight, then she moved as quickly as she could – without actually running – towards Gryffindor Tower. Max Roberts! She barely bloody knew the bloke.

There was something in the bloody water in this castle, there must be. Extra hormones or something, because she'd been asked to Hogsmeade by four different boys now, none of whom she was particularly well-acquainted with, and more importantly had never shown any interest in becoming better acquainted with. Each time she'd politely but firmly told them that she already had plans, even though she didn't.

Oh sure, she'd go with Marlene and the girls - if they didn't find dates between now and then - but they didn't have plans as such. It had just been a convenient lie, since she hadn't wanted to tell any of them the actual truth; quite simply, she just wasn't interested. She didn't know why she wasn't; none of them had ever been anything less than nice and sociable when she had spoken to them, and they all seemed like clever, friendly guys. She just wasn't attracted to them, and really, what was the point of going on a date you couldn't get excited about?

She knew Marlene would lecture her about the subject; if she ever found out about it in the first place anyway. Lily could hear her now: 'You don't find a favourite pair of shoes without trying a few different pairs on darling. Experience as wide a variety as possible I say. Men are no different.'

She would argue, Lily knew, that you should go on dates even if you weren't excited about the idea because your initial feelings might be wrong. And she was right, Lily couldn't deny that; she just didn't have the energy or the inclination to date people on the off-chance that they might turn out to be fascinating.

She entered the common room, threw a cheery wave in the direction of the Marauders as she passed through – the way they very carefully made sure she couldn't see any of the parchment they were looking at made her immediately suspect a prank, but she couldn't be bothered to try and talk them out of it right now – and headed up the stairs to her dorm, where she leapt onto Alice's bed and stole a pillow to hug.

Her curly-haired friend smiled at her from her prone position at the foot of the bed. 'That bad?' she asked quietly, her quill continuing it's smooth strokes across her parchment.

'Would you bring me meals and all my work in here, so I don't have to leave again? Just for the next week?'

Alice smiled at her, one eyebrow raised questioningly and Lily sighed heavily.

'I know, I know. No hiding from your problems.' She huffed and leaned back against the headboard of Alice's bed. 'Besides, knowing my luck at the moment, if I stayed in here and only saw you lot, Emma will probably decide she's gay and ask me to Hogsmeade as well.'

'As well? How many people have asked you to Hogsmeade?'

'Four.' Said Lily grumpily. 'And I've no idea why, since I don't really know any of them – I'm not sure I've ever actually had a proper conversation with Lewis Peters before – and I don't know why they should have such an interest now.'

Alice laughed. 'Maybe you should just be flattered.'

'I just wish it was over already.' Lily squeezed her pillow a little tighter and pouted. She glanced up at Alice to see her friend giving her a sympathetic look.

'It's less than a week away.' Alice paused for a second and hesitated before she spoke again. 'If it helps, I can think of two possible ways to avoid the awkward invitations.'

'Oh?' Lily's head came up and she looked enquiringly in Alice's direction.

'One.' Alice held her index finger up in the air. 'Accept a date and let people know about it. Then no-one else will ask you.'

'But I'll have to go on a date I don't want to go on!' Lily protested, before falling silent again when Alice raised a second finger.

'Which brings me to option two: spend more time with the Marauders. Separately or together, it doesn't matter; no bloke is going to try and ask you out if one of them is around you, especially if it's James. I suspect that's why you're getting so many offers at once now; you've been with them a lot since Christmas, but this week you've been on your own or with one of us girls most often, so they probably see it as their opportunity. Blokes just don't ask girls out in front of other blokes.'

'So you're saying I should just hang around those four and use them as my personal bodyguards?' Lily spoke slowly, trying to see the logic in Alice's words.

'Yep.' Said Alice cheerfully, returning to her parchment. 'Or you could tell James they're annoying you and ask him to do something about it. Once he's hexed a few the rest should get the idea.'

'Thanks Ally, but I don't think I need to be encouraging James to start hexing people. Or any of them for that matter. They get into plenty of trouble all by themselves; I don't need to be the cause of any more.'

'Fair enough.' Said Alice evenly. 'But I have no more possible answers for you.' She gave Lily a sly look out of the corner of her eye. 'Unless you want to ask James to go to Hogsmeade with you. Then you could tell people that you're going with him, but you wouldn't have to worry about it being a date.'

Lily found herself briefly considering it, which actually shocked her; once she would have dismissed the idea of going to Hogsmeade with James Potter in a second, but now? James would happily agree to go with her, and he would accept that she meant it purely on friendly grounds; in fact, if she explained this whole sorry fiasco to him, he'd probably do it as a favour. A moment's clarity made her shake her head though; her friendship with James was odd enough without potentially complicating it further. Besides it wasn't fair to him; there might be girls he liked who'd take it the wrong way and assume he wasn't available. She didn't want to mess him around.

'That's still walking a bit too close to the date line for me Ally. I might just go for plan number two: attach myself to any available Marauder at all times.'

'Sounds fine to me.' Alice agreed, her eyes still on her work.

'Or Frank.' Said Lily deviously. 'I could try spending more time around Frank.'

'You could.' Alice agreed with unusual complacency. Usually it only took the mention of Frank's name to make her react, so this new calmness was odd.

'Alice…' Lily allowed her voice to trail off and waited for a reaction. She didn't get one. 'Alice Fortescue, I know something has happened, you tell me right now!' She jumped on her friend and pulled the parchment out of her reach.

There was a moment of all-out war as they wrestled for the parchment, but Lily's height gave her the advantage and eventually Alice flopped back on her bed, defeated.

'He asked me to Hogsmeade.'

Lily landed alongside her. 'Frank did?' Alice nodded, a smile breaking out as she stared up at the star map stuck on the canopy of her bed. 'He did. Finally.'

Lily rolled to face her. 'I'm forced to point out that you could have asked him at any time.'

Alice rolled her eyes in response. 'Do I look like Marlene? Can you imagine me ever doing something like that? It took me forever to get to the point where I could speak to him without blushing.'

Lily laughed. 'Fair enough.'

She rolled off Alice's bed and headed for Marlene's. 'This calls for chocolate.'

'Well you won't find any there.' Alice said, interrupting Lily's rummaging. 'Marlene has moved her stash. She hid it under the spare bed and she hasn't realised I know yet.'

'Oh.' Lily turned to face the unused fifth bed in their dorm. She stayed where she was for a moment, then steeled herself and moved slowly across the room until she reached the neatly stripped bed; she reached underneath and pulled out the wooden box that Marlene hid her Honeyduke's sweets in. She retreated back quickly back to Alice's bed and the two girls each pulled something from the box.

They sat in silence for a moment before Lily spoke. 'It's weird that she's not here. It's so strange, to see her bed empty. I miss her.'

Alice smiled sadly. 'Yeah, me too. But it's no surprise that Mary didn't come back after OWLs really. Not after what Mulciber did; last year was hard on her.'

'I know.' Lily sighed. 'It would have been nice if all five of us stayed on, but I know that was unrealistic to hope for. This is just turning out to be an odd year, and I could do with being on more familiar ground.'

Alice threw an arm around Lily's shoulders. 'Last year was hard on you too, I know. On all of us really. A lot's changed. But this year can still be great; it'll just be different.'

'You can say that again.' Lily muttered under her breath.

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14th February 1977, 12.45pm

Lily had privately decided that she hated Hogsmeade, Valentine's Day, teenage boys and all forms of romantic gestures.

She'd be the first to admit that she'd given a soppy little sigh at the sight of Alice drifting around holding onto Frank's hand for dear life and looking ridiculously happy; she'd also been pleased to see Emma with Peter of all people - where had she been when that happened? - but she'd decided that while romance and all its complications were fine in her friends' lives, they were distinctly unwelcome in hers.

Marlene had wandered off to talk to some local Hogsmeade boys at the bar – boys who were almost certainly a couple of years older than them, since they most certainly didn't go to Hogwarts, and that left Lily alone at a booth in the Three Broomsticks, drinking a butterbeer and reading the Prophet.

That in itself was not the problem; Lily could think of few things she liked better than being left in peace to read the paper. No, the problem was, this was Valentine's Day, which meant pretty much everyone who didn't have a date was looking for one.

She'd eventually been forced to leave the pub after politely declining invitations to join them for a drink from both Lewis Peters – again – and David Dawson; she'd told them she was meeting a friend as a gracious method of avoiding telling them that she just didn't fancy them. She'd made up her mind to head back to the school and was walking along the main street when she saw Max Roberts, another of her erstwhile suitors, coming from the other direction. Realising he'd seen her - and had probably noticed that she was alone - she darted into the nearest alleyway between the shops and began to try and work out a route through the back alleys of Hogsmeade to the school.

She made a right hand turn into the next alleyway without really knowing where she was going, and promptly ran into a solidly warm, and very obviously masculine, body.

'Ooomph!' She felt his groan rather than heard it; whoever she'd run into had caught her before either of them fell and she was currently held tight to his chest as he regained his balance. When she was released from his grasp she took a step back to balance herself properly, then looked up into the warm hazel eyes of James.

'Evans.' He acknowledged her with a wink. 'You want to watch who you throw yourself at. A bloke could get the wrong idea.'

'Lily?' Max's voice called her name, and she could hear his footsteps approaching the section of alleyway she was standing in with James. Realising that if there was anyone who could get her out of this situation it was probably James, she threw herself towards him and grabbed two fistfuls of his jumper in her hands.

'For the love of everything magical, get me out of here before I start hexing people.' She begged, staring up at him pleadingly. To his credit, James neither questioned her nor hesitated; he simply reached into the deep inside pocket of his cloak and pulled out his invisibility cloak – that she hadn't seen since that fateful trip to the kitchens on New Year's Eve – and threw it over them both.

They stood, silent and unmoving, underneath the soft fabric, James holding one finger to his lips as a reminder that they could still be heard under the cloak even though they were invisible, and Lily still clinging to his front, afraid to let go in case her movement gave them away. Max came around the corner, his eyes registering his confusion at her disappearance; he turned on the spot, obviously trying to catch a glimpse of where she might have gone, and Lily found herself holding her breath as he came closer. She closed her eyes in relief when she heard one of his friends call for him, and he turned and headed back towards the main street, muttering under his breath about seeing things.

Her breath came out in one whooshing gasp, and she looked up at James who was smiling down at her, his features betraying his amusement.

'What's going on Lily?' His deep voice was tinged with laughter, and she found herself scowling at him.

'I hate Valentine's Day. Hate it. It's not even a proper holiday!' She waved an arm for emphasis. 'Who even thought of it in the first place?'

'Er, Saint Valentine I think.' James mused. 'Though if you want someone to really blame for all this mushy stuff, I'd go for Geoffrey Chaucer. He's the one who associated Valentine's Day with spouting off about your love for someone.'

Lily felt her scowl give way to cautious amusement. 'I take it you're not a fan either?'

He shrugged. 'I can take it or leave it. Most wizards can; its witches who love it normally.'

'Oh really?' Lily's tone was dry, one eyebrow raised in disapprobation.

'Well…' he amended quickly 'lots of wizards see it as an opportunity, so I suppose they like it for that reason. But in case you hadn't noticed, the burden of doing something romantic tends to fall on men; we have to do something nice for you. We don't get anything, so why would we like it? It's hardly reciprocal.'

Lily snorted. 'Now that is definitely untrue. I'm pretty sure most men who go in for romantic Valentine's gestures are expecting to get something out of it. And I imagine a lot of them do.'

James smiled widely at her. 'Why Lily Evans, you're a cynic! I'd always had you pegged as a romantic.'

Lily felt her scowl begin to make a return. 'There is nothing romantic about a day of forced gestures of supposed affection. I think I prefer a little more originality in my life.'

'Me too.' Murmured James, his eyes lingering on her speculatively. They remained there for a moment and then Lily gave herself a mental shake and began to step round him and out from under the invisibility cloak.

'Well, lovely though this has been, I'm going to try and make my way back to the castle without being accosted.' He pulled the cloak off himself and turned to watch her walk away; he impulsively called after her without giving his words any real consideration.

'What if I made you a better offer?'

She froze on the spot, her mind whirring through dozens of possibilities, and more than a few reasons why she should just keep on walking, but something in his teasing tone made her turn to face him.

'What kind of offer did you have in mind?'

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14th February 1977, 3.10pm

'It's beautiful up here.' Lily's voice was soft. 'It really is.'

She was sitting on a rock at the very edge of a clearing in the trees; from this point - about halfway up the long slope that separated the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts and the more mundane woods of Hogsmeade – she could see the whole of the village stretched out below her, and beyond that she could see right across to the mountains. Despite the lingering chill of winter, it had been a clear, bright day, and sitting here in the cold air, laughing with James and listening to the birds, had been oddly relaxing after her stressful week.

'Thought you'd like it.' James was lying on the ground behind her, his eyes fixed on the sky as the sun began to dip behind the mountains.

She twisted her body slightly to look at him. 'How did you even know about this place?'

A smile twitched across his features. 'Found it. With the Marauders. You'd be surprised at some of the stuff we've done.'

'I don't doubt it.' She answered softly, turning her attention back to the mountains and the setting sun.

Another few moments of silence passed between them, though the birds still sang somewhere in the trees, and if she strained her ears hard enough she could hear very faint sounds of Hogsmeade. That reminded her of exactly how she'd ended up here with James, and she turned around on her perch to look at him again.

'Thank you.' She spoke quietly, and James wasn't wholly certain he'd heard her say anything at all. He propped himself up on one elbow.

'Did you just thank me for something?'

'For bringing me up here and showing me this. And for getting me away from Hogsmeade before I started throwing Unforgivables and ended up in Azkaban.'

James laughed. 'I don't think you'd have gone quite that far.'

'I wasn't far off.' Still, Lily felt the corners of her mouth twitch in response to his smile.

'Well, then obviously I am your knight in shining armour. I'm afraid I don't have any poetry to recite for you, or chocolates to give you, so you'll have to consider the view your Valentine's Day present.'

'I'll take it.' Lily glanced back over her shoulder at the view, and James took a moment to appreciate her profile as it was outlined by the setting sun before she turned back to him with a wicked grin. 'And it definitely beats last year's.'

'Last year's?' The question just about made its way out of his mouth before he remembered last Valentine's Day. 'Ah. Well. That.'

'Yes, James. That.' Lily frowned at him with what he hoped was only mock sternness. 'That was ridiculous, even for you.'

He smiled at her innocently. 'I thought that poem was some of my best work actually. And having three first years recite it to you was a stroke of genius.'

She flushed slightly just at the memory. 'It was extremely rude and insulting. Not to mention embarrassing.'

James picked at the grass with one hand, his eyes focused on his small movements. 'It was meant to be. I was mad at you.'

Lily looked at him curiously. 'What about?'

He shrugged and kept his eyes on the ground. 'Can't remember now.'

He could; he'd been mad because he'd hexed Snape's nose with a Never-Ending Growth charm, and Lily had gone to town with her dressing down for that one. "Pea-brained, moronic arsehole" might have been the most polite out of the insults she'd thrown at him. She hadn't given him a second to explain that Snape had been taunting Sirius about Regulus, and while he could recognise now that throwing a jinx at him hadn't been the answer, it had seemed wildly appropriate then. But then again, Lily could never understand the enmity between him and Snape, and he very much doubted she'd ever fully understand. He certainly wasn't going to explain.

He hadn't realised that there had been a long moment of silence between them until Lily broke it.

'It's been a bloody strange year hasn't it?'

He couldn't help laughing at that. 'Evans, you are the master of understatement.'

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February 20th 1977, 7.30pm

'Hi Lily.'

The words made her jump; she'd been so engrossed in her book that she hadn't noticed Peter sit down opposite her.

'Merlin Pete, you made me jump! What is it with you Marauders and sneaking up on people?'

He grinned at her. 'It's a talent we all try to cultivate.'

She laughed lightly. 'Well it appears that you're all rather good at it.' Her heart-rate was slowing down, and she relaxed back onto the sofa. After a few moments she became aware of his eyes on her. She lowered her book again and looked at him.

'Something wrong Pete?'

'No, not really.' He spoke slowly, his eyes searching her face. 'At least, I don't think so.'

She felt her face crease up into a frown at his somewhat cryptic words. 'Sorry, I'm not really following.'

'I've just been wanting to talk to you that's all. I'm worried about James.'

She put her book down immediately and leaned towards him, green eyes fixed intently on him. 'Is he okay? Has something happened?'

Peter looked straight at her, his eyes unwavering. 'See, that…that is exactly what I'm talking about.'

Lily's confusion grew as she stared at the serious expression on his face. 'I'm still all at sea here Pete.'

He rested his lower arms on his thighs as he leaned in towards her. 'You and James. I don't know what's going on, and I'm not going to ask you to tell me. But as is obvious from your reaction there, you're friends now, and I'm hoping, really hoping Lily, that you know what that means to him.'

Lily stared at him, unable to think of anything to say in response. Peter looked back at her for a few moments, then spoke again with a hefty sigh.

'I don't think I can explain properly. Just…remember that James doesn't have a lot of boundaries when it comes to the people he cares about okay? He'll do just about anything for his friends, and since you're one of them now, there isn't much he wouldn't do for you.'

Lily felt her eyebrows rise, and she knew her bafflement showed on her face. 'I'm not quite clear why you're telling me this stuff Pete.'

His pale blue eyes were still boring straight into her. 'I just want to make sure that you know exactly how much you could hurt him if you decide to go back to hating him.'

'I never hated him.' Lily protested, but she got no further before Peter continued.

'I'm not so sure he knew that though. And he's so happy to be on good terms with you this year. Please don't mess him up Lily.' Peter hesitated. 'Thing is, Padfoot and Moony and me…we need James. We don't work without him; you have no idea how much he does for all three of us.'

Lily sighed. It was impossible to be mad at him when she understood exactly where he was coming from. You couldn't be angry at someone who just wanted to protect a friend. 'I don't plan on doing anything that could hurt James Pete.'

'I know you wouldn't do it deliberately Lily. Just…be careful with him. He's got a lot going on in his life, between his parents and school and everything; I don't think he'd deal well with any drama at the moment.'

He gave her a little smile as he got up and left, heading for the boy's staircase. Lily picked up her book again but found herself unable to concentrate on it now, so she flung it back down on the sofa alongside her and snuggled down into the cushions to watch the flames dance in the fireplace. She never thought she'd see the day when Peter Pettigrew sought her out to warn her not to hurt James Potter's feelings.

She understood that James had a lot to deal with; though he never really spoke about it, she knew his parents still weren't in the best of health, and that worried him more than he liked to let on. He was Quidditch Captain as well as being the mainstay of the team, and he was buried in NEWT coursework most of the time. And apparently he took a lot of personal responsibility for looking after his friends. She wasn't surprised by that; she'd criticised a lot of things about James Potter in the past, but something she could never have denied was his loyalty and unwavering dedication to his friends. And after the events of six months ago, she'd developed a healthy appreciation for people who stuck by their friends no matter what.

Over the course of the last six weeks or so she and James had become friends, she was well aware of that; she just hadn't been aware that she'd crossed the line between casual friend and close friend as far as he was concerned.

Still, it made no difference; they were friends, she had no plans to change that anytime soon and she knew James well enough now to know that he would sooner cut off a limb than do anything to upset a friend. So there was no need for Peter, or anyone else, to worry; she and James were fine.

And they'd continue to be fine.

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25th February 1977, 8.25pm

'Hurry it up Evans, the library's closing.' James tapped his watch as he spoke, and Lily raised one finger in the air as a silent request for him to shut up as her quill moved frantically across the page. They'd been buried in homework this week, and they'd only managed to complete it by helping each other out. As the only students in sixth year who'd taken six - rather than the normal five - NEWTs they'd discovered it was in their interests to work together on some of their assignments.

'Pince is going to drag you out by your hair if you don't get a move on, and we've only got thirty minutes before curfew anyhow; I'd rather avoid a detention if that's alright with you.'

Lily looked up, astonished. 'Since when did you care about the possibility of getting detention?'

James grimaced. 'I don't enjoy them. And I prefer to get them for doing something worthwhile, not something as mundane as breaking curfew.'

Lily laughed as she finally threw her quill into her bag and began to roll up her parchment. 'When you say you don't mind getting detention for something worthwhile, does that include charming the suits of armour to jump out at people?'

'I don't know what you're talking about Evans.' James answered. 'That doesn't sound like something I would do at all.'

She had to admire his poker face; there wasn't even a hint of amusement or smugness to betray him. She knew damn well that the Marauders were responsible for that little stunt – well, really, who else could it possibly have been? – but no-one, teachers included, could prove it.

She slung her bag onto the table and picked up the stack of books she'd been using, carrying them over to the nearest trolley for re-shelving. By the time she returned to the small table she'd been sharing with James, he'd already picked up her bag and was waiting patiently for her.

They left the library together, the last to leave but for a table of Slytherins that included Snape and Mulciber, both of who sneered at them as they went past. Lily heard the muttered 'mudblood' and 'blood traitor' from someone in the group, and looked at James apprehensively, but though the muscles in his jaw tightened and his knuckles turned white where they gripped her bag, he kept walking and ignored the insult.

Once they were out of the library, James let out an aggravated huff. 'You are a bad influence on me Evans. There was a time when I would have hexed each and every one of that bunch just for being stupid dicks.'

'I think that's called maturity James.'

He snorted. 'Well it sucks. Some people just need a good hexing.'

Lily threw him an exasperated look. 'Because that attitude has never got you into trouble before.'

He gave her a lopsided grin. 'What's life without a little trouble Lily?'

She rolled her eyes at him. 'You would say that.'

'Well, I am an expert in trouble, I think we can agree on that.' She felt the corners of her lips rise in response to him, and his grin widened as they walked together in comfortable silence.

They were most of the way back to Gryffindor Tower when he stopped next to a floor-length portrait, and Lily had gone a few steps before she realised. When she became aware that he wasn't walking alongside her anymore she stopped and turned; he had opened the picture as if it was a door and was now leaning into the passageway it revealed. She took a few steps closer, intrigued once again by his knowledge of the castle's secrets, and curious as to what had prompted the sudden stop, since he'd been so antsy about curfew earlier.

She came to an abrupt halt as he backed out of the passageway and turned back to face her, his arms full of white gardenias. He smiled at the look of surprise on her face.

'Well, you said you hated Valentine's day Lily. And that you would prefer a gesture of affection on a different day; 25th February seemed as good a day as any for me to give you a gift.'

He handed her the flowers, and she took them out of sheer shock. 'You got me flowers.'

'I did.'

She sniffed them discreetly, inhaling the sweet scent and trying not to smile too widely. 'And they aren't lilies.'

He couldn't help the snort. 'Please tell me people don't give you lilies. That's so lacking in imagination.'

'Why gardenias then?' she asked curiously, still not quite able to meet his eye and preferring to study the blooms in her hand instead.

'Is that what they are?' He sounded interested. 'I found a clearing in the forest where they grow, and they seemed like something you would like.'

He stepped forward and touched one of the petals. 'I mean, obviously I could have just transfigured any type of flower I wanted, but that just seemed impersonal. Compared to picking them, that is.'

'Yes, I suppose it is.' Lily murmured. 'James…what are these for exactly?'

He grinned. 'Does there have to be a reason?'

'In my experience, there's either a reason or a catch.'

He actually laughed out loud at that. 'There's that cynical streak again Evans. I love that about you.' He noted her disapproving look and quickly composed himself. 'There's no catch Lily. And if I need a reason to give my friends gifts – I don't, by the way – then the reason is that you haven't seemed as happy as normal recently, and I thought they'd make you smile.'

She looked down at the flowers, and back up at his face, smiling and sincere. 'Well they appear to have worked. So thank you, James.' She rose on her tiptoes and pressed a brief kiss to his cheek before stepping away extremely quickly; she remembered very clearly how that escalated last time.

James cleared his throat before he answered quietly. 'You're welcome.'

They walked the rest of the way back to the common room in silence.

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A/N: So are you choking on the fluff yet? You can't say I didn't warn you!

I would love to hear thoughts, opinions, criticisms - throw 'em all at me!

Don't forget you can find me on Tumblr, there's a link on my profile.

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