(A/N): You're all going to hate me for this chapter, but I'm sure you've known it was coming since Lily stole the letter. This chapter was supposed to be 341, but with the addition of the Valentine's day bonus chapter (335: St Vampentine's Day), I had to switch this chapter and 'Three Hundred and Forty Two Years', so that that chapter could still be the 342nd chapter- for obvious reasons. I'm sorry that that made you have to wait even longer for the aftermath of Lily stealing the letter.

Elaine

"I'm sorry, Leo- Leo- passed you to Remus? Leo is okay with you snogging someone else?" Well, it wasn't like Leo hadn't been doing his fair share of snogging- he had even snogged Remus himself at one point, not that I was going to go around telling people that, even if it was Lily asking the question.

"I'd say so- not that Leo's opinion on my snogging partners holds much sway over what I choose to do." Mary grinned at my response.

"Tell 'em how it is, girl." Of course Mary was proud of me for that- Mary was all about girl power, free love and defying societal norms- which is one of the reasons she and Marlene were best friends.

"Leo has been surprisingly okay with it- encouraging, even." James mouth tightened into a line at Remus' diagnosis of the situation.

"I suppose that makes sense." We all turned to look at him, collectively confused. "Well, I mean, remember that day in the Great Hall?" Vague. Thanks, James.

"Potter. Specificity is a virtue, you know." Marlene sniped, and James shrugged.

"You know, after you fell asleep in the boys dorm, and we joined Leo in the- library, the next morning, then went to lunch? And you asked him whether he- why he left, and he told you it was because Remus- because you two deserve each other?" Mary, Marlene and Alice were clearly confused by James' on the spot censoring, but even Lily got confused when it came to James saying, 'because Remus- because you two deserve each other.' Clearly, Sirius and Peter already knew about Remus' crush on me, if they weren't confused by this stunted mess of an explanation.

"Did anyone actually understand that?" Mary asked, but I pushed the conversation forward the only way I knew how.

"Which, coincidentally, was right after the snogging pass off." The collective surprise was tangible.

"Wait- that's what that was about? Was that why he was in- the Library?" Sirius inquired, and Mary rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips.

"Guys! We know it's not the damn Library!" James was appropriately chagrined- it had never been a good cover up, and he knew it.

"Fine. There's a room- it disappears when it's not in use, and provides you with what you need, when you need it. We call it the Room of Requirement."

"Wait, so... there's just a... a room, that changes to fit your needs?" James merely shrugged in response to Alice's question, so Sirius decided to respond in his stead.

"Yeah- and Leo, Elaine and Remus have spent just about every waking minute in there since Leo found it in first year- and some non-waking ones, too." It was smart for Sirius to play it off like Leo had found the room, rather than the truth- which was that Dumbledore had told him about it, in order to sustain his vampiric needs.

"But- why?" Mary overrode Alice's query with a smug smirk.

"I bet I know why." I rolled my eyes at her, wishing I could have hidden my blush.

"I haven't been snogging boys the whole time, you know." Mary didn't look convinced, and she wasn't the only one.

"How are we supposed to know that, if you never tell us anything?" Most things weren't mine to tell- and those that were, were... complicated. Once again, I decided to take a page out of Leo's book.

"And you've all told me everything there is to know about you?" Mary glanced at Marlene, then back at me and shrugged, as if I wouldn't notice.

"Ninety nine percent of everything, at least." Which was exactly the answer I had been expecting- anticipating, in fact.

"So have I." I cut off the collective scoff by continuing on to say, "It just happens that I have more things to keep secret, so one percent for me, is a lot bigger than it is for you." I didn't miss the particularly doubtful look Marlene shot me, but I'd decided a long time ago that if someone didn't push me, I wouldn't push them. And, for right now, Marlene wasn't pushing me.

"And one percent for Leo is twenty percent- yeah, we know." Twenty percent was a low estimate, but I wasn't about to correct Lily right now. "Of course, sometimes he can be quite... forthright." The boys were now the ones confused- the girls had had their turn back in the dorm, and now they were used to Lily teasing me about- well, whatever they thought Leo had said to me in his letter.

"Leo? Forthright? ...Are we talking about the same guy?" Sirius asked, and Lily's smirk only increased.

"Oh, yes. Leo's quite... romantic." Uh oh. The boys' eyebrows shot up, and I felt myself grimace.

"Romantic, how?" James asked, and Lily's maniacal grin got about as big as I thought it physically could.

"Oh, I don't know," She said, sticking a hand into her school bag, and simultaneously sending a frisson of dread up my spine. "Romantic like," and then, she pulled out a very familiar piece of parchment.

"Lily!" I growled, and even Mary, Marlene and Alice looked upset by this turn of events.

"Relax, Elaine. It's not like you didn't censor the hell out of it." It wasn't the lack of censoring I was worried about- not right now, anyway. I didn't know whether Leo would be okay with everyone knowing what he had written to me, intending it to be private- and I didn't know how Remus would react to hearing the depth of Leo's feelings for me, spelled out like that- literally, spelled out.

He had called me the 'love of Leo's life' when he had been expressing his surprise that Leo was okay with him snogging me, but- Remus was always more tolerant of our displays of affection in passing, than explored in depth.

"Lily, stop." She waved me off.

"What, you don't want people to know that Leo told you he's in love with you?" I felt everyone's eyes on me like a physical weight.

"No, Lily- I would shout it from the roof of the Astronomy Tower if I could- but I don't think you've considered the fact that Leo, your best friend, probably wouldn't want you to flaunt the contents of that letter- even just those two lines- to the entire Gryffindor house- even if I did censor it within an inch of its little parchment life." Lily hesitated, glancing down at the letter as if it would give her all the answers- her expression betraying the fact that she honestly hadn't considered much beyond how she would steal the letter. "Lily- he hasn't even had the chance to say it in person." Her face dropped.

"I- I didn't think-" I cut her off, glad that the others were staying quiet, so I had the chance to talk Lily down in peace.

"If, when he gets back, he's fine with you showing it off, I'll- bloody hell, I'll post it on the notice board if you want me to- but you can't do that to him- especially not now." Lily sucked in a breath, and her lower lip wobbled, as if tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"I honestly- I didn't think. I'm so sorry, Elaine." I took a step closer, and she pressed the letter into my hand- as soon as my grip closed around it, I felt almost all of the tension melt out of my body.

"It's okay, Lily. No harm done." Other than the fact I was probably never going to trust her with something like this ever again- and that I'd have to find some way to keep all of my letters hidden and protected, now that I knew she was willing to steal them if her brain was particularly inactive that day.

"I'll just... go put this back in the dorm, then." I practically flew up the stairs to the dorm, and after a few minutes of trying to look for a good- and unpredictable- hiding spot, I eventually ended up using a sticking charm to glue the letter to the underside of the middle drawer of my chest of drawers- so someone could only get to it by opening the bottom drawer, and reaching upwards.

By the time I had returned to the common room, it was completely empty except for my friends, and Lily looked... well, honestly, she looked like she had just spent the last five minutes being berated by seven of her closest friends. I immediately walked over to her, and without any hesitation, grabbed her hand and squeezed.

"It's okay, Lily. We all make mistakes, sometimes." I shot Sirius, James and Remus a pointed look each, and they seemed appropriately sheepish. Sirius for obvious reason- James, because of how he had treated Leo when he had first started dating Brooke, and Remus- for the few times he had tried to get Leo to reveal his various secrets, or even when he had snapped at Leo- right after Leo had told him that he and I deserved each other.

"Come on- Maybe, if we're real quick about it, we'll have time to snag some toast before breakfast ends."

(A/N): Lily: *Does something dumb, and possibly slightly toxic*

Me: 'Haha, I'm in danger.'

I originally had Elaine say if they were real quick about it they might have time to snag some toast before class starts, and then I remembered that not only is the 27th a Saturday, it's also the Christmas Holidays, and there's no class anyway.

Also, has for whatever reason stopped recording the traffic stats for this story? I don't know if that's just a me thing, but it says only 1 person has viewed the last chapter, and the total traffic for the story hasn't moved for days. Usually the views are between 400-800 on the days I've uploaded a chapter, and at least 150-200 on the days in between, but on 26/2/23, there was 52 views, and it's been at 0 ever since. I was SOOO CLOSE to 200k total views, too, so that's extra annoying. It's really weird, but, hopefully it gets fixed soon.