A/N: Hello again guys, and here is your weekly dose of fluff - it is tempered with a bit of angst this time. Sorry it's late, but I did update the TT sequel this weekend!

I feel the need to apologise here before you start reading; I completely abuse a couple of foreign (foreign to me) languages in this chapter. There's only a sentence or two, but I'm sure that the grammar, spelling, everything is horrible. If anyone actually speaks these languages and would like to PM me a correction, I will update it asap; I just didn't have time to find someone to check them for me.

If they are your native languages, please forgive me for murdering your language!

As always, thank you for reading.

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

8th March 1977, 6.00pm

'Anyone seen Lily?' Marlene's voice echoed through the common room, but to her frustration she was met with a series of head shakes and shrugs. Flinging herself back down on the sofa she turned to face Alice.

'Where the hell is she then?'

Alice shrugged and turned another page of her magazine. 'Don't know. She's been wandering off by herself a lot the last day or so.'

Marlene huffed and folded her arms, and Alice looked up, unable to hide her amusement.

'I assume you wanted something from our dearest friend then?'

'I wanted her to check my potions essay. I think I may have written a load of complete bollocks, and I seem to be constantly in Slughorn's bad books so I could do with managing to turn in a halfway decent essay.'

Alice snorted an extremely unladylike laugh. 'Well, on the list of "ways to make the potions master dislike you", swapping all of his vials of Aconite fluid for Exploding potion probably comes quite high.'

'That was months ago!' Marlene protested. 'He can't still be holding a grudge about that.'

'But it did ruin pretty much all his lessons for an entire week, Marly my love.' James landed on the sofa next to Alice. 'A prank worthy of the Marauders by the way, if I forgot to tell you at the time.'

Marlene sighed as she stared at the roll of parchment in her hand. 'Well, I'm doomed then. Without Lils to check my essay, it will remain a stinking pile of crap and Slughorn will finally have an excuse to kick me off the NEWT course.'

James raised an eyebrow at her. 'Aren't we melodramatic? Just get Moony to look at it for you, he's a whiz at potions.'

'Really?' Marlene perked up as she began to scan the room for Remus' distinctive mop of sandy hair.

'Really.' Nodded James. 'And he's much too nice to say no if you ask him. I'll go get him for you, he's over there with Sirius.'

James started to rise from his seat, but Marlene tugged him back down by the arm. 'No, no, I'll go over and ask him. He's with Black you say?'

James' lips twitched, but that was the only outward sign of his amusement. 'That's right, over at the table by the window.'

Marlene rose to her feet and ran a hand through her hair as she sauntered predatorily over towards the window. 'Remus darling!'

James managed to stifle his laugh but Alice let out a helpless little giggle.

'I almost feel sorry for Sirius.' She said quietly, her face still touched with amusement. 'He might just have met his match in Marlene.'

'She's not going to make him jealous by flirting with Moony; he doesn't really work that way.' James stretched out and put his feet up on the coffee table.

'Your mother would whack you if she saw you with her feet up on the furniture.' Said Alice. 'And I don't think she's really trying to make him jealous as such, I think she's just trying to show him what he's missing out on.'

James let his head drop back so that he was staring up at the ceiling, his shoulders and neck supported by the back of the sofa. 'Maybe you're right. Still, it's Sirius. Subtlety is not his strong point; she might just have to be up front with him.'

Alice snorted. 'Yes, I can see how that would go. "Hi Sirius, I think you're fit and I fancy a snog. What do you reckon?" How nice.'

James grinned. 'That approach has its advantages I'm sure.'

Alice put her magazine down and stared at his profile for a minute. 'Why haven't you tried it on Lily?'

He straightened up and turned to face her, staring at her with incredulous eyes. 'I'm sorry, did you somehow manage to miss every occasion I asked her out last year?'

Alice frowned at him. 'No-one could have missed those James, most were pretty ostentatious. No, I meant this year; you have a much better relationship now. Why haven't you just told her you like her?'

'Who says I do?' James scowled at her.

'First of all James, I have known you since we were about five so I like to think I can read you pretty well by now. Secondly, I see the way you look at her when you think she's not looking, and thirdly; you got her flowers for absolutely no reason apparently.'

'That was a friendly gesture.' James folded his arms across his chest defensively.

'Oh, of course it was. Silly me.' The sarcasm dripped off Alice's tongue. 'Because of course you get all your female friends flowers don't you? I mean, Marlene and I were just the other day discussing how many giant bouquets of flowers you've picked – picked! – for us in the past.'

'Knock it off Ally.' James sighed. 'It doesn't matter that I like her, because she doesn't like me, and frankly I've decided I'll just take friendship over fighting, if that's all I can get.'

Alice stared at him for a moment before slumping back in her seat and sighing loudly. 'I'm surrounded by idiots.'

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

12th March 1977, 7.50am

Lily looked up from her silent contemplation of her porridge as Remus slid into the seat next to her at the Gryffindor table.

'Morning Lily. You haven't had any of the pumpkin juice have you?'

Startled by his unexpected appearance and confused by his question, it took Lily a moment to gather her thoughts and provide a coherent answer.

'Morning Remus. No, I haven't had any, I don't really like it.'

'Good.' Remus nodded approvingly and the leaned in towards her a little. 'Trust me, no matter what anyone says, you do not want any of the pumpkin juice.' He sat up straight again and began to examine the available food.

'Okay.' Lily looked at her friend, now stacking his plate with toast and whistling cheerily. 'Remus, are you alright?'

'Mmm?' He looked up at her and smiled. 'Oh, I'm fine. Bit worried about you, but I'm fine.'

'Me?' Lily knew she looked a little alarmed, but she couldn't help it; he'd startled her with that unexpected change in direction.

'Yes, you.' He answered, turning slightly in his seat to face her. 'Since when did you eat meals alone? And you haven't spent time in the common room at all this last week, and you barely say a word in class. It's not like you. Is something wrong? Because you know you can talk to me if there is.'

Lily summoned up an insincere smile. 'No, there's nothing wrong.'

Remus studied her face for a moment, and she knew she hadn't fooled him, but he nodded and turned back to his plate. 'Okay. I will pretend to believe you if you promise me that you will talk to someone if you need to. Doesn't have to be me, just someone.'

Lily stared down at her plate. 'Deal.'

Their quiet conversation was interrupted by the rather loud arrival of the other three Marauders; James, Sirius and Peter slid onto the bench directly across from them and fell on the food as if they hadn't eaten in months.

'Moony. Red.' Sirius seemed to be in extremely good humour today, and Lily acknowledged his greeting with a raised eyebrow and a brief nod.

A few minutes later they were joined by Marlene and Emma, and following along behind them was Alice, unsurprisingly with Frank in tow.

Once they were all eating and conversation had become rather subdued, Sirius picked up the jug of pumpkin juice and rather ostentatiously poured himself a glassful.

'Anyone else for pumpkin juice?' he asked loudly, holding the pitcher up. 'Lily?'

Lily gave Remus a rather startled look before she gained control of herself and answered calmly. 'No thank you Sirius, I'm not very keen on it.'

He looked bemused for a minute, then shrugged and calmly repeated his offer further down the table. Both Alice and Emma held their glasses up to be filled, but Frank merely looked suspicious and picked up the water jug instead, while Marlene grabbed the orange juice from next to Lily's elbow. Sirius drank his juice in several quick gulps and promptly returned to his breakfast.

'James, what time is Quidditch practice?' Frank called out, leaning past Alice to see his Captain.

James' head came up and he grinned at his fellow chaser. '5:00pm Frank. I managed to get the pitch right up until 8:30, so we ought to be able to get in a decent session for a change.'

Alice groaned. 'Je voudrais voir mon copain de temps en temps. Ne peut pas vous avez moins pratiques si ells vont etre plus aussi bien?'

For a minute nobody spoke. Then Frank broke the awkward silence. 'What was that love?'

Alice looked round at everyone's confused faces and spoke again, brandishing her fork for emphasis.

'J'ai dit: Je voudrais voir mon copain de temps en temps. Ne peut pas vous avez moins pratiques si ells vont etre plus aussi bien?'

Another moment of silence, broken only by the sound of Sirius pretending not to snigger, then Lily turned to Remus, the only person at the table she knew for sure had visited France.

'I don't suppose you understand what she's saying?'

James voice broke in from opposite her. 'She said: "I would like to see my boyfriend occasionally. Can't you have less practices if they're going to be longer as well?" More or less anyway.'

Lily's head turned to face him. 'You speak French?'

He smiled at her. 'Oui. I'm fluent. Some of Mum's relatives are French, and I had lessons when I was little. It's a nice language.'

'Yes it is.' She murmured, her eyes fixed on him.

Emma leaned forward and rushed a sentence out. 'James kan het dan wel vloeiend spreken, maar Alice kan dat niet dus waarom praat ze dan Frans?'

All eyes turned to James, who held up his hands. 'I speak French, that's it. And that is most definitely not French. It sounded sort of like German to me.'

'Why is she speaking German?' Lily demanded, her eyes darting between the Marauders. Emma and Alice were now both looking quite alarmed as they realised that they were apparently speaking the wrong language.

'I think it might have been Dutch actually.' Said Frank. 'Not that any of us speak that either.'

Sirius grinned as he looked round. 'Esto es divertido.'

Lily's eyes darted back to James, who shrugged. 'Spanish I think. Maybe Portuguese? Either way; not French, so I haven't a clue.'

'What the bloody hell is going on?' Lily turned in her seat to take in the rest of the Great Hall, and noted a number of puzzled faces and more than a fair few angry shouts. Shouts, she now realised, that weren't all in English. Looking up to the teacher's table, she was sure that Slughorn was currently speaking Welsh – she'd heard her grandparents speak it often enough to recognise it, if not to understand it – and Dumbledore looked extremely amused by the whole turn of events.

Suddenly remembering Remus telling her that she didn't want any pumpkin juice, and Sirius pouring glasses for Alice and Emma, she swivelled back to face the Marauders and glowered.

'You put something in the juice didn't you?'

It was Peter who answered. 'Just a few common potions - that aren't normally taken together - in the correct proportions. It's harmless; just makes you say everything in another language.'

Lily glared at them all. 'You're idiots, you know that? Really, bloody stupid morons. You just can't take life seriously can you?'

She rose from her seat and stomped from the Hall, leaving her rather confused friends staring after her.

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

13th March 1977, 8:40pm

Marlene was lounging disconsolately in front of the fire with Emma when Alice came back in to the Gryffindor common room. Her curly-haired friend sat down next to her on the rug and shook her head.

'Can't find her anywhere.'

They all sat and stared into the fire for a few moments, thinking back over the last two days. Lily had stomped out of the Hall at breakfast yesterday, apparently thoroughly annoyed with the Marauders over their prank. That in itself was odd; it was fairly harmless, actually quite amusing in its own way, and she had relaxed a lot about the boy's behaviour over the last few months, so an explosion of temper over something like this was peculiar to say the least.

Then, even more strangely, she'd spent the whole day obviously avoiding all of them, even the people who'd had nothing to do with the prank. She'd sat away from them in classes, had dashed out of each one before anyone could speak to her and hadn't come to any meals.

This had continued on through today, and now curfew was rapidly approaching and she hadn't come back to their common room; they were officially worrying.

Marlene suddenly sat up straight. 'We are so stupid.'

'What?' Alice's voice was startled, as she watched Marlene stand up and begin to scan the common room.

'We've spent all this time looking for her, and we didn't think to ask the people who could probably actually help us find her.'

Alice's eyebrows drew together. 'I repeat: what?'

'She means the Marauders.' Emma spoke suddenly. 'They know this castle probably better than anyone. There's nowhere Lily could be that they couldn't find her.'

The three girls continued to scan the common room for the four boys, but couldn't see any of them.

'Ugh. We'll have to go up to their room then.' Marlene shivered. 'That's a sight I could have gone the rest of my life without.'

'Hey, for all you know it's perfectly clean and tidy.' Alice grinned as she spoke, and Marlene stuck her tongue out in response.

'Does that mean you're volunteering to go up there, Alice dear?'

Alice grimaced. 'Only if there's no alternative. What if Frank sees me going into another boy's dorm room?'

Marlene began to giggle. 'Well, if Frank could honestly believe that you were cheating on him with one of those four, then he's slightly crazier than I give him credit for.'

Emma just rolled her eyes, used to the strange bickering between the girls. 'I'll go.'

She wandered over to the boy's staircase and ignored the whistles she got when she started to climb them.

She reached the sixth year boys door, and knocked slightly sheepishly, ignoring the strange looks she got from two boys who were heading down the stairs. There was a bang from the room, followed by the sound of a voice swearing, then the door opened to reveal James, his glasses askew and his hair even messier than usual.

'Emma?' he squinted at her, and her name sounded more like a question than a greeting.

'Yeah. Hi.' She paused for a moment. 'Okay, this is weird.'

James nodded once. 'Yes it is.' He waited patiently for more information.

'We need your help.' Emma spoke quietly and James frowned briefly before stepping aside and gesturing for her to come in.

The room was far tidier than she was expecting, but it was also empty except for James. He gave her a crooked grin. 'The others are in the library. Moony is tutoring Padfoot and Wormy in the hope that they might actually pass the Herbology test with his help.'

Emma gave him an uncertain smile back. 'And you aren't helping?'

'I don't exactly have the patience for tutoring that pair. Other people, no problem, but those two? I'd rather pull my toenails out one at a time.'

He sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at her intently. 'You said you needed help?'

'Oh.' Emma was startled to remember that she had come up for a reason. 'Yes, we can't find Lily.'

James visibly stiffened up at the mention of her name. He arched an eyebrow at her. 'So you came up here because…?'

Emma had to admit it, she was a little surprised at the sudden slight coldness of his tone. 'Well, you guys know the castle so well, and since we can't find her we thought that she might be somewhere really odd, that maybe one of you would know?'

Recognising the doubtful tone that was creeping into her voice, she trailed off and waited for a response. James looked at her for a moment before he turned his head and fixed his gaze on the wall.

'If you can't find her, she probably doesn't want to be found. And she certainly doesn't want to speak to any of us, so maybe we should all leave her to whatever her problem is.'

'I get that you're frustrated with her at the moment, we all are, but she's not herself and you know it. She's been spending so much time off somewhere alone, and she barely speaks. She's been like it for days.' Emma spoke quietly, her eyes fixed on the side of his face. 'There's something wrong, and maybe she doesn't want to talk to us about it, but we can't just leave her to it. You're the person who's most likely to be able to find her, so please?'

James sighed. 'I know I can find her, but I'm probably also the last person she wants to see. You saw her at breakfast yesterday, and how she's been ever since; she's mad at me. I think it's best to leave her be.'

Emma sighed in frustration and folded her arms across her chest. 'You listen to me James Potter – she's not mad at you, she's not mad at any of us, not really. Something is wrong, and whatever it is, it's making her act like a nutter at the moment, but I know you don't abandon your friends just because they're acting a little strangely, do you? '

James remained frozen for a moment, probably processing the change in tone; Emma was fully aware that most people considered her the quietest and probably the softest of her friends, but that didn't mean that she didn't have claws when necessary. After a long moment, he sighed and stood up.

'I'll go and find her. And I'll get her back here without being caught out after curfew, but I am going to tell her that you made me, and you can deal with whatever fucking temper tantrum she's inevitably going to have at me.'

Emma nodded her thanks as she headed for the door. 'See you both soon then.'

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

15th March 1977, 4:00pm

'You know, I'm getting a bit sick of your friends invading my bedroom and demanding that I find you Evans.'

Lily leant her head back against the wall and rolled her eyes.

'Then ignore them James. I'm perfectly fine.'

He snorted. 'Of course you are.' He looked at her slumped shoulders, took in the way her arms were wrapped around her torso and observed her pale and drawn face; he moved towards her and slid down the wall until he was sitting alongside her. 'That's why you're sitting alone at the top of the astronomy tower on a Sunday afternoon.'

They sat in silence for a few moments, staring out over the grounds. The distant voices of students enjoying their Sunday drifted up to them, and they both kept their eyes resolutely away from each other.

Until James heard a small sob.

His head spun around just in time to see Lily awkwardly wiping her cheek with her sleeve. He pulled out a handkerchief and offered it to her wordlessly; she took it but sat there twisting it between her fingers rather than wiping her tears. He had no idea what to do with the girl beside him, no clue where he could start in trying to fix whatever was wrong. He'd seen Lily Evans cry before, that was true, but he'd never seen her look so broken as she had these past couple of weeks.

But he had to try, because she couldn't go on like this, and he couldn't bear to watch it anymore. He gave her a minute to compose herself before he spoke again. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

'No.' Her voice was small, but at least it wasn't as distant as it had been recently. He looked down at his hands, until he realised a moment later that she had dropped his handkerchief into her lap and was now holding out a folded piece of paper. He took it and began to gingerly unfold it, glancing at her to be sure he was supposed to look at it.

Lily,

I'm afraid there have been some difficulties; namely that Mum is insisting that I ask you to be a bridesmaid. As I said in my last correspondence, under no circumstances will I do so - I will not allow you to upstage my wedding with your peculiarities.

I can't tell Mum that of course, so you will write and tell her that you don't want to be my bridesmaid. Make up an excuse, tell her you can't because of school, I don't care what you say, but you are not going to be in my wedding party. Vernon would never allow it, even if I wanted you.

I'd rather you didn't come at all, but she'll insist on that I suppose, and the family might ask questions if you were absent. You need to have a date to keep the numbers even, so I'll find one of Vernon's cousins for you, unless of course you can find someone suitable. I'll make the concession of allowing you to bring your own date if you can find one, but don't you dare embarrass me by bringing someone inappropriate.

Write that letter soon, I need to be able to finish my plans properly and I can't while Mum thinks you'll be part of my wedding.

Petunia

James was silent for one long moment as he re-read the letter. 'Well, your sister is a piece of work isn't she?'

Lily laughed, but it was mirthless. 'Isn't she though?'

He looked at her through the corner of his eyes; she was staring straight ahead of her, her eyes unfocused and glistening with tears. He remembered that conversation on New Year's Eve, and knew that these were not the first tears that she'd shed because of her sister, and he doubted they would be the last.

'Look, Lily…' He trailed off almost as soon as he started, completely out of his depth and unsure how to handle this. In the end, he decided honesty was about the only thing he could offer her. He didn't consider emotional support one of his strengths. 'Lily, you can't let her upset you this much. You're barely eating, I know you're not sleeping properly and you're avoiding all your friends when you should be talking to them. I mean, bloody hell, I'm a bloke and even I can spot emotional avoidance when I see it.'

Lily continued to stare vacantly ahead. 'I just don't want to talk about it. I just want…'

Her sentence stopped there, and when it became clear that she wasn't planning on saying anything else, he sighed and stood up. He dusted himself down and turned so that he was standing directly in front of her, towering over her, hands tucked into his pockets.

'Well, I don't know what it is that you want Lily – not that that's surprising, because I've never known what you want – but what you're doing, is wallowing.'

Lily's head rose sharply, and she lifted her chin defiantly. 'Excuse me?'

James felt a little internal swell of optimism at the fact that he'd managed to provoke a reaction – the Lily Evans he knew was still in there somewhere apparently - but he was careful not to let the emotion show on his face.

'Everyone's got problems Evans.' He folded his arms and looked at her sternly. 'You have a harpy for a sister, that's true; Sirius has a harpy for a mother and a moron for a brother. Remus has a rather significant furry little problem, and Pete's grandparents are both in the hospital with Dragon Pox. I don't really know about Marly, or Alice, or Emma, but I bet they all have a plateful of crap to deal with too. That's just life Lily, and it sucks, but you didn't really think it was going to be sunshine and roses did you?'

She stared incredulously at him for a long moment, and he stared right back, refusing to drop his gaze from her eyes. She opened and closed her mouth, then lowered her eyes for a moment before looking up and making eye contact again.

'When, precisely, did you become a voice of reason in my life?'

He grinned, relieved at the very Lilyness of the remark. 'When you stopped being reasonable I suppose.'

She tilted her head back so it was resting against the wall behind as she stared up at the sky, watching the birds in flight above their heads.

'What do I do James?'

He moved across the tower and perched on the balustrade directly across from her. 'Do you think there's any way you can change her mind?'

Lily snorted. 'No.'

'Then you have to accept it.' He clasped his hands together in front of him and twined his fingers together. 'Would your mum be upset if you told her the truth? If you told her that Petunia didn't want you in the wedding and asked you to make an excuse?'

'Of course she would.' Lily's tone sounded tired now. 'She wants her two girls to be great friends, and she's convinced it's possible.'

James nodded. 'The way I see it, you have three options. One; refuse to write to your mother and let her force Petunia into making you a bridesmaid, which will probably result in her resenting you and being awful to you. More awful.' He corrected himself. 'Two; write and tell your mother what Petunia has asked you do, which will presumably result in a row that will upset all three of you?' He looked to her for confirmation, and she nodded miserably.

'Or three; write to your mother, tell her that you have a huge amount of schoolwork and that Petunia ought to pick another bridesmaid who can help her more with the organising. That's what bridesmaids do right?'

Lily nodded again, looking thoughtful now. 'I presume you think I should go for option three?'

James shrugged. 'I'm just laying them out for you; it's your choice to make. But if you're asking me if I would go with option three, then yes I would; it's the path of least resistance. It'll make your sister happy – well, sort of – and it wouldn't upset your mother.'

Lily returned to staring up at the sky. 'I suppose you're right.'

James stood up and tucked his hands in his pockets again. 'I often am. And you should talk to your friends about all this; they're worried about you.'

He began to move towards the door. 'I'll be seeing you at dinner?'

She gave him a very weak smile. 'Yes. I'll come to dinner.'

'Good. I'm sick of trekking round this sodding castle to find you every time you disappear and your friends panic.'

A thought occurred to Lily. 'How do you do that?'

James paused at the door to the stairwell, one hand resting on the handle. 'Do what?'

'Find me all the time.'

He smiled at her, the first real smile he'd given her in three days.

'Trade secret.' And then he was gone.

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

20th March 1977, 6:30pm

Marlene scowled at the parchment in her hand. 'Well, isn't your sister a prize bitch?'

Lily actually giggled slightly. 'That's almost exactly what James said.'

'He knows about all this?' Marlene asked curiously.

Lily blushed a little, a fact which did not go unnoticed by Marlene, but she restrained herself from commenting on it. 'Yeah. He always seems to catch me at vulnerable times, and somehow I end up pouring this stuff out at him. It's a wonder he doesn't avoid me like the plague.'

Marlene smirked. 'Like that's ever going to happen.'

The two girls were stretched out across Marlene's bed, sweets and magazines strewn between them, so it was easy for Lily to grab one of her pillows and clock her across the head with it.

'Can I read the letter?' Alice asked from her bed, where she and Emma were trying to practise transfiguring pens into feathers.

'I will read it aloud for you.' Marlene announced. 'That way you will be able to fully appreciate the sheer bitchiness of this letter.'

She proceeded to read Petunia's letter out loud, in an unflattering and - to Lily's mind - unnecessarily high-pitched voice. By the time she'd finished, Alice and Emma had stopped their attempts at transfiguration and were simply listening disbelievingly.

'Oh sweetie, no wonder you were upset.' Alice sounded ready to cry on Lily' behalf, but she waved their concerns away, sitting up on the bed and pulling her hair back up into a ponytail.

'I was upset; I was really upset, but I think I've got most of it out of my system now. I'm sorry it took me so long to tell you; I'm just so embarrassed by it.'

'What do you have to be embarrassed about?' Asked Emma gently. 'It's not like you're the only one who's got a pig of a relative you know. One day I'll introduce you to my Aunt Leticia.' She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Lily laughed. 'Thanks, but dealing with my family is enough for me; I'll leave yours to you.' She sighed heavily before she continued. 'I just don't like talking about it; when I'm here, I can sort of put it to the back of my mind and pretend that Petunia doesn't hate me, but then something reminds me and it's horrible. It just feels so stupid to be upset by something so trivial as not being a bridesmaid.'

'But that's not why you're upset is it?' Alice said shrewdly. 'You're upset because you're not close enough for her to want you to be a bridesmaid, and because she was so unashamedly horrible about the whole thing.'

Lily smiled sadly. 'Still, I should be used to it by now shouldn't I?'

Emma shook her head. 'I don't think you ever get used to someone treating you like dirt. Or you shouldn't, anyway.'

Alice smiled and reached across the gap between the beds for Lily's hand. 'We're just glad you're feeling better, and that you told us. We just want to make sure you're okay Lil.'

Lily smiled at her friends, and tried to ignore the prickling of tears behind her eyes. 'I know, and I love you for it. I'm sorry I've been so insane for the last couple of weeks. I'm sorry, I really am…'

Her voice broke, and Alice hurried to sit next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. Marlene frowned, and turned to face her bedside table; she began to root around behind it, hanging over the edge of her bed.

Emma raised her eyebrows at the sight. 'Marlene, what in the name of Circe are you doing?'

'This conversation needs more chocolate.' Came the slightly muffled reply.

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

27th March 1977, 9.30pm

Lily strolled through the upper floors of the castle, taking her time as she followed her usual night-time patrol route. It had been oddly quiet for a Friday – not a single snogging couple turned out of a broom cupboard – and she let her mind wander.

She'd barely seen James all day; Fridays were the only day of the week when they had no lessons together at all, and James always scheduled Quidditch practice directly after classes on a Friday afternoon, much to the very vocal disgust of his team. James may have felt that three gruelling hours on a broomstick was the best possible way to start your weekend, but the rest of the Gryffindor team were not exactly in agreement with him.

Sirius had smirked quite obnoxiously when she'd knocked on their door just before her rounds to see if James was there; he'd then proceeded to tease her mercilessly - "If you're going to turn up at Prongs' bedroom door, you could at least be gift-wrapped" – until Remus had cuffed him across the back of the head with a book and politely informed Lily that James had received a letter and had gone somewhere quiet to read it. He aimed a pointed look at Sirius as he spoke, and that started an argument about how loud was "too loud", which was only interrupted when Peter accidentally transfigured his school trunk into an abnormally large hare that immediately began to wreak havoc on their belongings.

'Chair! I was quite clearly intending to turn it into a chair!'

Lily had left them to it at that point, heading out on her rounds and hoping to cross paths with James at some point. She knew he tended to wander the upper corridors when he needed to think about things, so there was a fair chance she'd come across him, but she also knew he'd more than likely be under his invisibility cloak since it was after curfew; she could only hope that he'd reveal himself if she did pass him.

As it happened, she needn't have worried. She turned the corner into the next corridor, and spotted a figure sitting in the window at the far end. That profile of messy hair and glasses was unmistakable, and she walked towards him; his head jerked up as he heard footsteps approach, and his face relaxed into an easy smile at the sight of her.

'No cloak?' she asked as she neared him. His grin grew a little wider.

'Oh, I have it with me, but I don't need it. Friday is your patrol night for up here, and you're not about to put me in detention are you?'

Lily arched an eyebrow. 'A teacher could still come by.'

'And I'd have time to get under the cloak. Do you doubt me Evans?'

'No, not really.' She murmured, almost entirely under her breath. James smiled and straightened up to make room for her to sit; she dropped down next to him with a sigh.

'I'm an awful prefect. I should be yelling at you right now for being out after curfew.'

'Better an awful prefect than a hypocrite.' James winked at her. 'Don't forget, I know you've snuck around the castle after curfew before.'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Yeah; with you.'

'Are you saying I'm a bad influence?' James rolled up the piece of parchment he was holding.

'Yes. You are, and you positively revel in it.'

He said nothing, but rested his head against the wall and kept smiling at her.

'Stop it.' She said firmly.

'Stop what?'

'That.'

'I'm not doing anything.' He held his hands out innocently.

'Stop smiling at me!'

James laughed. 'Evans, you're bonkers, you know that? I could scowl at you if you like.'

'No, just stop giving me that smug smile; it makes you seem too much like Sirius.' She shuddered, then held up a finger as something suddenly occurred to her. 'And you might want to avoid your dorm room for a while.'

James' forehead creased into a frown. 'Why?'

Lily pictured the scene in the sixth year boy's dorm in her head. 'Trust me, you don't want to know.'

'Okay.' He nodded slowly. 'I'll trust you on that one.'

They sat quietly for a moment, enjoying the feeling of peace that each felt in the other's company, until Lily felt the need to break the silence. 'Remus said you'd gone to read a letter. Good news I hope?' she asked lightly.

He leant back and shook his head. 'Nothing in particular, just a letter from my parents.'

'How are they?' Lily asked, remembering that they'd both been hospitalised at Christmas.

'Okay. Better.' He paused for a moment. 'Just…too old to be doing a dangerous job in a slightly mad world. Not that you can tell them that; both too bloody stubborn to accept it.'

Lily was quiet for a moment at that, tucking her hands into her cloak and just looking at his expression, which for once was totally impossible to read; there was nothing she could say and she knew it. So they sat for a few moments more until one of her hands touched a bulge in the lining of her cloak, and she was suddenly reminded of why she had been looking for James in the first place.

She pulled the small wrapped package out from her cloak and held it out for him.

'Happy birthday.'

He reached out for it, smiling at her slightly embarrassed expression. He placed it onto his lap and held it there, but made no move to open it. 'Thanks. You, ah, you didn't have to. I wasn't expecting anything.'

She shrugged. 'I know. I wanted to. And you bought me a birthday gift remember?'

She held up her wrist for him to see the bracelet made of red and gold woven cords, with its little gold charm in the shape of a lion; she'd worn it most days since he'd given it to her, fascinated by the way the little lion would roar when someone came too close.

He grinned at her. 'Well, you're such a Gryffindor, it seemed incredibly appropriate.'

'Well, I'm afraid you didn't get anything close to this imaginative.' She bit her lip as he began to peel the wrapping paper off, watching his reactions nervously.

'Quidditch gloves.' He smiled at her. 'Mine are just about worn through.'

'I know. Sirius told me when I was screaming at him for help picking you something out. Actually, he chose them out of the catalogue, I just paid for them. He was muttering away about how dragon skin is better than leather and blah, blah, so I just assumed he knew what he was talking about and bought these.'

'Well, these are great. And dragon skin is perfect. Thank you Lily.' He put the gloves on the windowsill next to him and reached over to hug her.

The movement caught her by surprise and she almost fell into his arms as they circled round her and pulled her a little closer. Her breath hitched in her throat as she felt his palms come to rest lightly on her back, and she felt the light brush of his stubble rub past her cheek. James was so unselfconscious about his affection towards his friends, it still took her by surprise a lot of the time; she still wasn't wholly used to being on hugging terms with him.

Still, she always found that there was something incredibly soothing, almost soporific about James' hugs; they always made her relax somehow, as if she could just go to sleep right there, tucked away in his arms. The thought made her feel vaguely ridiculous, but she still responded by wrapping her arms around his back and burying her face in the crook of his neck, listening to his calm breaths and inhaling the scent of his skin.

They stayed there for a moment, quiet and unmoving until Lily whispered in his ear. 'Would now be a good time to ask for a favour?'

She felt, rather than heard, the rumble of James' laughter. 'After you've bought me a gift? Probably. Although, to be fair, there's never really a bad time for you to ask for a favour Lil.'

She released her grip on James, and he did the same, allowing her to scoot back a little way on the window ledge, the distance allowing her greater clarity of thought.

'This would be above and beyond the call of duty as far as friendship is concerned.'

James arched an eyebrow. 'Well now I'm intrigued. Out with it, let's hear the worst.'

Lily took a deep, calming breath. 'I was hoping…that is to say, I was thinking…oh Merlin, I was wondering if you would come to Petunia's wedding with me?'

James looked uncharacteristically blank. 'Me?'

'Yeah.' Lily rushed on without waiting for a further response. 'I was thinking that I need to take someone who understands what's going on with me and Tuney, because it's likely to be a bloody weird affair quite frankly. And that pretty much means you or Remus because you are the only two males of my acquaintance that I'm willing to explain all this to, and I really, really want to take someone I know, because I can't bear the thought of being there by myself and being stuck with all the bloody Dursleys without someone to make fun of them with me…'

James cut off Lily's rambling by covering her mouth with one hand. 'Of course I'll come with you. But you'll need to confiscate my wand, or we'll both be in a whole heap of trouble by the end of the day.'

His hand might still have been covering her mouth, but he could tell she was smiling at him from behind it.

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

A/N: I always love to hear what you guys think, so if you leave a review, I'm eternally grateful to you.