For nearly six years, there was one fact that every student of Hogwarts had seen proven time and time again:

Lily Evans hated James Potter.

In first year, it was James' insufferable habit of having to beat Lily to every question in class or correcting her on the tiniest of details just to prove he was just as smart, if not smarter, than she was. Not to mention the obnoxious declarations of his undying love for her.

But by the time they were in their third year, they were in constant competition for the top of the class, which was infuriating to Lily since Potter and his friends were rarely seen studying, other than Remus of course. Admittedly, however, she had begun to enjoy the challenge and instead, she hated Potter for his blatant bullying of Severus Snape.

Lily and Severus' friendship came to an abrupt end when the Slytherin called her 'Mudblood' in front of half the school, and she never forgave him and never would. Potter, for all his irritating habits, had calmed down quite a bit after that and Lily would even go as far, these days, as to call him a friend. But something about him still made her feel very uneasy…

No one knew this better than Marlene, Dorcas, and Mary, because they were usually on the receiving end of Lily's aggravated tirades. It was quite obvious to the three girls that what their friend was feeling towards the mischievous Quidditch captain was no longer disdain, but infatuation, even if Lily didn't realize it herself.

And that's why when Mary started dating James, Dorcas and Marlene were very confused…

"Let me get this straight," Marlene said critically, looking at Mary with a slight frown and quirked brow.

"Must be a challenge for you," Mary smirked but Marlene ignored her.

"James 'date-me-Evans' Potter asked you out and you said yes?"

Mary nodded. "Correct."

"Even though everyone in school knows that Lily –one of your closest friends– is mad about him?" Added Dorcas.

Mary gave the girls a knowing smile, her eyes drifting across the common room to where Lily was sitting with her nose buried in a book, clearly trying to hide the fact that she was laughing at whatever Potter and Black were animatedly discussing a few feet from her.

"Not everyone in the school knows it…"

Realization dawned on Marlene and Dorcas and they grinned.

"Mary McDonnald, you sneak!" Laughed Marlene, throwing an arm around her friend. "Taking a leaf out of Potter's own book, are you?"

"I suppose you could say that."

She didn't think that it would take long before either James or Lily finally cracked and admitted they had feelings for each other, but here she was, seven months later and still dating James Potter. Not that she had any complaints, James was actually a lot of fun. He was entertaining and very nice, if not a little ridiculous at times, but she was always sure to talk him up if she knew Lily was within earshot. The one thing she had forgotten to take into account was just how stubborn both James and Lily could be. With the end of the school year approaching quickly, perhaps it was time to call it quits on her plan.

—-

"...And the reason, again, that you so desperately need a hair growth potion, Mr. Potter?" Professor Slughorn asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow at the sixth-year student in front of him who was wearing an easy expression of innocence.

"Ah, well you see Professor, I promised I wouldn't go giving any names, she's embarrassed you see," James explained. "But one of the third-year girls let her mate cut her hair and it was just a disaster, as you could imagine. Teenage girls, eh?" He grinned, watching as the professor took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. "She's simply mortified to leave the common room, so I offered to assist."

"Well, that was very kind of you, Mr. Potter! I don't see why not." He searched through the drawer of his desk and handed James the key to the storage. "Just be sure to lock up once you're done."

"Absolutely!" James agreed brightly. "Thank you, sir!"

Slipping out of Slughorn's office and into the potions lab with a sly smirk on his face, James pocketed the small vial that the professor had given him to obtain the amount of potion needed to help the imaginary girl and pulled a much larger beaker out of his robes. After all, they would need much more potion to have the desired effect on several carefully selected Slytherins than on just one girl with a bad haircut.

An amused snort from behind nearly made James spill the potion over himself and he spun around to see Lily Evans standing in the doorway of the storage room, arms crossed and grinning knowingly.

"Potter."

"Evans."

Lily glanced at the vial that James was now corking. "Up to no good, I see?"

"No idea what you're talking about, Evans," James chided with a smile. "I'm helping a young girl in need if you must know."

"Is that the lie you told Slughorn?" Lily inquired.

"Will a certain Prefect be giving me detention if I say yes?"

Lily's emerald eyes lingered on his hazel ones, both giving a challenging stare before Lily shrugged. "No," she said finally. "But would you move, please? I need some juniper seeds."

Stepping to the side, James allowed Lily to make her way over to the shelves for her ingredients. He watched as she stood on her toes, reaching up to one of the higher shelves, fingertips just barely touching the jar of seeds and he shook his head.

"Here, I've got it," he muttered, extending his own arm. Just as Lily was about to protest, their fingers brushed and they both froze. James felt his face heat up as pink crept up Lily's cheeks and he couldn't help but notice just how pretty it made her look.

We're friends, he thought to himself firmly. I'm not going to mess that up.

"James?"

There was a loud smash as the jar fell to the ground, breaking and scattering seeds all over the floor. Lily and James jumped away from each other as if they had been electrocuted and Mary stood there in the doorway, watching with a completely expressionless face.

"M-Mary." James nervously ran a hand through his hair. "Er, what are you-?"

"We were supposed to go to lunch in Hogsmeade," Mary reminded him lightly. "An hour ago. When I couldn't find you Sirius said you'd be here."

Shit.

"I'm sorry," James said honestly. "I completely lost track of time." He glanced down at the shattered glass and the juniper seeds spread across the floor and he looked at Lily guiltily. "Let me just-"

"No," Lily said quickly, avoiding eye contact with both James and Mary. "It's fine, Potter. I can clean this up, You go."

"Are you su-"

"Go, James." Her voice was more harsh than she intended.

James hesitated for just another second. He felt like there was something more he wanted to say or do but he wasn't sure what that was exactly. With a sigh, he followed Mary out of the potions lab and into the corridor. Neither of them said a word as they walked out of the dungeons and James, for all he had ever done, had never felt quite as guilty as he did right now, and he hadn't even done anything but let time slip away. The silence was killing him.

"Mary-"

"It's alright, James," Mary said. They stopped walking and she turned to face him. She didn't look angry, but then again she never did and James was positive he had given her plenty of reasons to be cross with him. "To be completely honest, the reason I wanted to go out today was… well, I wanted to talk to you about-"

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?" James muttered, feeling his stomach drop as Mary gave him a sad little smile. She took a step towards him and reached out her hand for his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"You really are a wonderful person, James, really. I'm glad we had this time together, but I think that time may be up, don't you?"

James didn't respond, he wasn't sure of what he was supposed to say. Should he fight with her to stay? Shouldn't that be what he wanted? That's what Sirius and Remus did whenever they had their ridiculous splits…

But this wasn't the same. He and Mary weren't Sirius and Remus, and to be completely honest, James didn't really want to fight.

Mary was still smiling though. "I'm not your person."

He frowned, confused. "What?"

"Your person," Mary repeated. "Your soulmate, if you believe in that. I think you know that, James. I think everyone knows it… well, nearly everyone."

Again, James had no response but to stare at the girl before him speechlessly. Mary stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. "She'll come around eventually," she whispered in his ear and James nearly jumped back, eyes wide.

"W-what? Who?"

Mary laughed and shook her head. "You're a smart lad. Figure it out." She winked at him. "See you later." And she left him standing there, completely baffled.

—-

"Merlin, there you are, mate. You've been gone all bloody day," Sirius said, sliding over to make room at the Gryffindor table where dinner had already appeared on the plates before them. "Did you get the potion?" He added in a quieter tone.

"Er… yeah, I got it," James said vaguely, sinking into the seat beside his best friend.

Remus frowned. "Are you alright, James?"

"Fine," James answered shortly, pushing mashed potatoes onto his plate. "Why?"

"You don't seem too enthusiastic about giving the Slytherins an extra ten feet of hair," Peter supplied, looking concerned. "And you were missing all day. What happened?"

James sighed. It was no use trying to hide it from them. "Mary broke up with me."

Sirius, Remus, and Peter exchanged a look that James chose to ignore.

I'm not your person. I think you know that, James. I think everyone knows it… well, nearly everyone.

"Sorry, Prongs," Remus spoke finally, looking sympathetic. "You liked her a lot."

James shrugged. "I suppose. I'm fine with it, really. I mean… I knew it wasn't going to be a forever type of thing. I just sort of feel like I mucked it all up, you know? Always forgetting or canceling plans with her and all…"

"Was she angry?" Sirius asked, his mouth still full of food which made Remus roll his eyes and shake his head at his boyfriend's lack of manners. "She didn't seem angry when I spoke to her. What're you shaking your head for, Moons?"

"Nah, it wasn't a messy split or anything. In fact, she was planning to break it off before I forgot about lunch today. We're fine though. We're friends, no hard feelings."

"Good," Sirius concluded, flinging his arm over James' shoulder. "So then stop your pouting and think about how much grease ol' Snivelly is going to trail behind him when he's got all that extra hair later. C'mon, mate. It's the last prank of the year."

James laughed and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, Pads."

Sirius continued to go on about the plans, successfully distracting James from thoughts of Mary McDonnald and Lily Evans and he only paused briefly when Remus' family's owl dropped an envelope on his boyfriend's lap.

"Not time for mail…" Peter frowned. "Everything okay, Moony?"

Remus shrugged it off. "Probably just my dad going over… er… arrangements for me this summer." His face went slightly pink and he looked down. "Gotten a little too big for the cellar…" The other Marauders winced and Remus shook his head. "It's fine. It's no big deal." He forced a smile at them and, reluctantly, the others went back to their conversation.

"So I managed to get the password to the Slytherin common room and all we've got to do is-"

Clang!

The sound of Remus' fork dropping heavily onto his plate made the other three boys jump and look at him. The werewolf had gone pale and his hands were shaking as his wide, amber eyes stared at the letter in his hand in horror.

"Moony?"

"What's wrong?"

Remus didn't say anything and Sirius quickly took one of his shaking hands in his own. "Remus? Are you okay?"

"...M-my mum's sick."

Sorry not sorry to end on that note...

Anyway, I didn't have a bunch of time to edit this chapter so I'm going to post it anyway and come back to it in a few days when I have more time to thoroughly look at errors.

You can find me on Instagram and Gmail at Via889fanfiction and my podcast at The Marauders (Olivias' Version) on Spotify and Instagram at themaraudersoliviasversion. I hope you check it out!