A more marauders heavy episode but lots of Jily moments as well. Deviates slightly from the Canon timeline.

It ends with some nice steamy fluff so consider that your dessert ;). Will post the blvnk-art that inspired moments as well. Thanks for reading!

He had heard her say his name.

"James"

He had half the mind to give away his secret and rip off his invisibility cloak to return to her. He got his grip, took a deep breath, and continued to walk away. We were so close. Merlin, so fucking close. His head was reeling. He knew he had to keep his wits about him—he had mucked everything up with Lily for so long, he couldn't ruin his chance now that he had finally gotten in her good graces. Besides, she thinks we are just friends…which we are. Just normal friends. A friend that I also happen to fantasize about before I fall asleep every night–totally normal, nothing weird, friends.

He wasn't lying about going to get fresh air though that wasn't entirely the sole purpose of his departure. Rounding out of the courtyard and onto the grassy knoll on the east side of the castle, the Whomping Willow's outline was just barely visible in the moonlight. As he approached, he heard a smattering of hushed voices.

Keeping his invisibility cloak over him, he pulled out of his wand in his back pocket and approached. Sirius and Peter were nowhere in sight ,human or otherwise, but the voices continued to get closer as he reached the tree. Mucliber, Avery, and Snape came into view—Mulciber pushing Snape ahead towards the branches which were starting to pick up a sway from the incoming intruders.

"Ladies first," Mulciber snickered, giving Snape another shove to the back.

Snape muttered something under his breath but continued to step forward towards the trunk. The branches were swinging with aggressive force, but Snape dropped to his stomach and the army crawled past an attempted hit from the tree, just barely missing an impact on multiple occasions. .

James sidestepped past the branch's reach and pinned his back on the trunk. He had a straight shot view of Snape now, still crawling, straight toward the passage that lay under the base. James started to move towards the opening when a black shadow passed out of the mouth of the entrance way.

The giant black dog stood panting in a large grin directly in front of Snape. James froze. Merlin please. Do the right thing Pads.

The dog bared its teeth and let out a growl before pouncing on Snape's arm. Snape cried out and continued to shriek as Sirius' dragged his body into the entrance of the passage. James threw off his invisibility cloak, and dived in after them.

—-

Lily, awoke to something vaguely sharp tapping on her cheek. She tried to swat it away, but as quickly as her hand moved, the tapping returned with a new vigor. Lily opened her eyes and sat up. A paper airplane, rather hastily formed with dirt smudged on it, flew away from her face and landed limply in her lap.

My Friend Evans,

I don't usually confide in new friends the same day I make them, but unfortunately, today is an exception (take it as a compliment if you wish).

If you promise to come NO QUESTIONS ASKED, I could really and urgently use the help of a capable witch such as yourself. But again: only if you are willing to keep my discretion.

I'm in the empty classroom by the dungeons.

James (Potter)

Ps. Be a dear and bring your potions supplies. Thanks Friend!

Lily read the letter twice before looking up at the clock mounted on the dorm wall. 4:45 am. Brilliant.

Lily threw a jumper over her nightgown and as quietly as possible assembled her potions kit from her bureau.

She didn't know what she expected when she reached the classroom, but it wasn't what was waiting for her.

James leaned against the stone wall in the backmost corner of the class. His back to the door, Lily could see his shirt was shredded along the right side and blood was oozing down his entire torso. She could see his chest moving heavily and his breath shallow and rapid.

"What the fuck happened to you," She ran up to him and slammed her potions kit down, causing him to jump at the crash.

"No questions asked," James wheezed out as he attempted to make a smile. His glasses were crooked and hanging off on one ear, but James was too busy cradling his injured arm to fix them. Lily moved to tuck it back into place, but didn't remove her hand from his cheek once the glasses were uprighted.

"Fine. Fine," The second time came out much softer than the first, "But you at least need to tell me what I'm working with here. You really should be going to Madame Pomfrey. "

"No Pomfrey. I'm alright." He heaved out. He moved his good arm to pick up the shredded one, wincing as he placed his hand in his lap for better access to the wound.

"Just needs a bit of love." He smirked.

Lily helped James out of his half shredded shirt and started to wipe off the blood. Despite the situation being dire, it wasn't lost on her that she was hand washing his bare chest and arms, which were looking especially fit from the starting Quidditch season. "You're ridiculous," she told herself as she tried to keep an outwardly stoic disposition. Her fantasizing didn't last long though as her brain started to repeat something she had remembered Severus talking about a long while ago. She took a moment to lean her torso back to catch a view out of the classroom window. Full Moon.

The wound itself was not as deep as the blood would have suggested. She hardly needed a healing salve to keep the cuts from weeping. She conjured some gauze from the classroom's drapes and dressed his arm and upper shoulder.

"You're getting better at transfiguration—has someone been tutoring you?" Now that the worst was over, James was becoming more or less true to form despite his mobility issue.

Lily sighed and kept dressing him. They stayed silent for a while; James watched Lily as her hands moved expertly to toil the gauze around the rest of his side. Finally she spoke.

"Is Remus ok? At least tell me that."

She was dressing his back so neither could see the other's expression, but she could feel James tense under her hands.

"Why wouldn't he be," he whispered out.

Lily finished her work and packed up her kit. James had made to stand up and was trying to see how much movement he could get out of his arm without wincing.

"Looks like the Quidditch match this week is going to be a fun one," he said mostly to himself as he continued to struggle with his arm. Lily stood and watched him sternly, but said nothing.

"Thank you, Evans. You really are a true friend." He moved towards her and before she knew it had enveloped his good arm around her in an embrace. All the anger and frustration she was feeling about James keeping his secret melted away, and she reached an arm around his bare back.

"Anytime."

The next morning the whole school was mayhem. With Snape in the hospital wing all first class and James sporting an arm in bandages, the entire student body was trying to sleuth out the previous evenings events with varying degrees of insanity.

"I heard that they had a huge row on the Astronomy Tower and James hexed him until he fell off the side," Lily overheard Amos telling the rest of the Hufflepuff house in the corridors.

Lily pushed her way past the group. Having Snape in the hospital wing as well created a new development she hadn't expected. The frustration she felt the night before bubbled back into her chest and the thought that something between the two had happened made her want to be sick. And even if it wasn't anything to do with Snape, where did James get off on being so careless and running around with Remus who is a– a—-.

She brushed the thought out of her mind as she entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Snape was already there and sitting at his desk. Besides a bandage on his forearm, he looked completely unscathed–certainly not in the same state that James was in. She made a point to walk the long way around to her desk to get a better look at him. She had half the mind to ask if he was ok, but what good would that do anyhow? It would only give him hope that their friendship was still there.

Lily sat in her seat and tried not to stare, but sitting in her own frustration was making her crazy. It wasn't impossible to believe that Snape had decided to stick his nose where it shouldn't have belonged, but was he that stupid?

Once class ended, she rounded up her things and pushed past the class before Snape could catch her attention again. In the Great Hall, James and Sirius were sitting side by side amongst a commotion of Gryffindor classmates who clamored to ask what had happened and more importantly if James expected to play the match that was later that week. Despite still not having the best control of his arm and attempting to act humble about the situation, it was clear by James' face that he was enjoying being doted over.

The questions that Lily had been asking herself that morning felt as though they were boiling over in her stomach. She couldn't decide who, if her suspicions were true, was more mental: Snape for investigating or James clearly being some sort of accomplice…

The great hall door cracked open and Remus sidled his way into the room. His clothes looked dusty and worn-in and dark circles were etched deeply under his eyes. He had some cuts and scrapes lining his face and jaw, but otherwise seemed intact.

Despite the audience buzzing around James, the entrance of his mate made him stand up and push past the crowd. Only halfway to the table, James took long strides to close the gap between himself and Remus, tumbling into an embrace. They held each other for a long moment and Remus looked like his eyes were becoming wet. James released him,clasped his good hand on his neck, and pushed their foreheads together with an exuberant grin.

Sirius had followed James from the table, but kept his distance from them during their emotional reunion. For the first time in Lily's memory, Sirius looked unsure of himself, not holding any of the cocky confidence he typically exuded wherever he went.

James let go of Remus and stood to let the other two face each other. For a beat the boys looked at each other with a charged intensity. Finally, Remus raised his eyebrows and gave a smirk, inviting Sirius to practically pounce on him. The two embraced and wrestled a bit with each other before walking back to their seat all together with Sirius' arm left perched around Remus' shoulders.

It did not go unnoticed to Lily that during the boys' reuniting, Snape was regarding the whole scene from over at the Slytherin table. His eyes kept locked on the crew with a pained look that felt wholly different from his typical disgust.

The boys settled into business as usual as Sirius started up trying to contort James' arms in ways that were impossible even with a fully healed appendage.

Unable to help herself, Lily picked up her bag and plate and sidled herself to sit across from them.

"Mind if I sit here, friend." She elongated the final word with a sarcastic flourish.

James jumped at her presence and jerked his bad arm up to his hair as a reflex, wincing from the movement.

"You lost Evans?" Sirius had the habit of regarding people like they were his playthings, and often it was uncomfortable to distinguish whether that sentiment was more malicious or seductive in nature.

"Haven't you heard, Black? I've been invited into the club." Lily made a cheeky wink at James who in turn started to become very red and interested in his empty plate.

"Remus, how are you? You missed patrol last night."

Remus pushed Sirius' arm off his shoulders and righted himself at her attention. Despite looking exhausted, he gave her a warm and apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that, I've been feeling pretty ill again-comes and goes, you know."

Sirius made a very conspicuous snort and Remus gave him a pointed look. Lily ignored it.

"Ah, well no worries. You need to take care of yourself. It just seemed by your entrance that something worse had happened…" She let herself trail off. The words came out innocent enough but all three boys seemed to straighten up a little and shift a bit in their seats.

"What? You don't greet your friends like that every morning? Awfully cold of you, Evans," Sirius shot back quickly.

"I'm sure if you asked, James would be happy to show you the same greeting." Lily's face turned bright red and lost her comeback.

James swooped in.

"Ah, come off it, Pads. She's not gonna want to be our friend if you are a cheeky arsehole all the time."

Sirius put a cigarette to his lips and let it hang loosely from his mouth. "Ah, so you are calling it friends now?" He made a wink at Lily, but then softened. "Well if that's the case, I apologize for my sarcasm past and future." Besides being worded as a jest, his disposition made it clear that he was metaphorically handing her an olive branch.

Lily made a deliberate nod, and started to pack up her things. James, who had more or less watched in amusement at his mates interaction with her, finally started to perk back up and looked a little lost in himself.

Before she could say goodbye, James blurted out loudly across the table, "C-could you help me with potions–later? Today? I'm really behind now with this arm and–"

Lily smiled warmly and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Yeah James, no worries—see you then."

She gave her regards to the rest of the boys and left them to stare after her.

Once she was out of sight, Sirius' hunched down to whisper to the other two.

"Not to digress, but what are we going to do about Snape? Highly unlikely Dumbledore gave him a confundus charm and I personally am not keen about a slimy git running around with marauder secrets."

"I don't know, but it's not like we can do anything about it now. It would be too suspicious." Remus retorted. Despite usually being the calm one of the group, worry was etched into his face, making him look even more exhausted then he already was.

"Do you think she knows?" Remus ventured. Him and Lily had been friends for years. He would even call her one of his closest friends outside of the marauders and she wasn't an idiot. Between her brains and the fact that Snape had probably put questions in her mind from when they were mates made his odds of keeping her in the dark rapidly small.

"Who, Lily?" James responded. "If she does, I wouldn't worry about it."

Sirius turned his eyes into slits. "Are you so sure about that Prongs?"

James didn't falter in his response. "She's not like that. She wouldn't do anything to Remus–to us."

Remus nodded as though convincing himself of James' words and they continued to finish their meal.

Lily sat waiting with her potions kit in the same empty classroom she had met him in the night before. Being able to sit with her questions made them burn more. Why won't he tell me the truth? What could possibly be so heinous to work this hard to keep it hidden. Where does Snape fit in?

Rolling through these questions, she didn't notice James come through the door. He had taken off the bandages she put on him before, and while still keeping parts of his arm dressed, red lines peeked out from his collar where his shoulder and chest were cut.

"Hey you," He leaned himself on the table across from her. They were almost in the exact position they had been before all of this mess–back when the only question Lily had on her mind was why she wanted to kiss him so badly.

"Uh, hi." She retorted and started to unpack her potions kit. "So, which potion are you wanting to–"

"Thanks again," he cut in. " I know I said it already but your help meant a lot. I know—I know it's been hard to be left in the dark." His eyes reflected sympathy.

All the theories and questions she had been fighting with all day rushed back into the forefront of her head. She could feel her face twisting into a grimace and her eyes peeking with tears.

"Don't be thick," was all she could choke out. She wiped her nose and took a breath, composing herself.

"I'm not," he cooed at her and she glared at him.

"You don't just impact yourself, you know. It might be a fun go for you but there are other people involved, James. Don't act like we can ignore that there was huge talk about Snape being in the hospital wing this morning—suspiciously with injuries like your own. A-And all the bits about Remus…."

She was rambling. She could feel the words tumbling out of her with no real intention and she couldn't decipher whether she was pissed or sad or confused by the whole lot of the situation.

James placed both of his hands on either side of her and she stopped, making a small choking sound as she fought hard to stop tears that felt overwhelmingly close.

"Lily. You have to believe me when I say I want to tell you. I want to tell you everything but I can't. I swore. What happened last night is ok– -it will be ok, for me and for Remus. But I'm sorry that I can't give you the resolution you want. At least not right now."

Lily sat slumped between James' hands. Wiping away a stray tear, his eyes begged her to understand.

"...And you didn't hurt Snape?" She didn't care if it sounded accusatory or not.

He removed his hands from her sides and sat back against the table.

"No, if anything I tried bloody hard to keep him safe if you can believe it. He made his own decisions and I made mine. But please Lily, believe that I did the best I could with the circumstances."

Lily sat back in her seat and stared at the back wall for a moment.

"You really care about your mates that much, huh? Enough to not even clear your name when people say that it's your fault you and Snape are hurt. Not even to me."

"Nothing is worse than breaking the trust of my friends." She looked back at him and he held her gaze. For the first time his moral compass was clear.

He stood up from the desk and messed up his hair a bit. "I have to be honest with you, I really didn't need any help with potions," he admitted. "Just wanted to clear the air between us."

He put his hands in his pockets and stood facing her. "If you want to leave I understand. I really wish I could give you more, Lily. I'm sorry."

She felt numb. On one hand nothing was resolved. She had no information about what happened to cause their wounds or what transpired to make Snape there in the first place. She had learned Remus was involved somehow, but that wasn't satisfying enough. But if Remus really was a werewolf, and James was protecting that information, there was a heavier burden on him than she hadn't thought he was capable of. To protect your friend was one thing, but to protect your friend who is ostracized and also can become deadly was another.

In another time in her life she would have called him arrogant to try to handle all of this on his own, but knowing what she knew of him now, she respected it. He was someone who was willing to stake everything for the people he loved–even if it meant putting his own life in danger.

Still ruminating, she packed up her things and headed for the door. James didn't say anything. He just watched her as she opened the door and shut herself behind it. She stepped out into the corridor and felt her feet moving but her mind was completely somewhere else. Despite no real answers, her frustration from before had dropped away, and what was left was an admiration she hadn't felt for him before. He was an idiot and a prat and sometimes too big headed for his own good, but he had better qualities too. He loved people enough to protect them despite it all.

Without giving herself time to think twice about it, she turned on her feet and bounded back towards the classroom door. Inside, James had perched himself up on a stool and was reading through a rather lengthy parchment with a furrowed brow. His eyes shifted to the door when she entered before looking back at the page.

"You know, the last thing I want to do is write this report for McGonagall. Honestly, what's even the point," he seemed to be talking to the air rather than Lily. "This day couldn't get any worse, honestly. I'm starting to not even be able to stand myself, right now."

She walked swiftly up to him and he looked up, raising his eyebrows at her approach.

"And why are you still here?"

He didn't even make it halfway through the sentence before her hands were on both sides of his face. Tilting his head upward, she pressed her lips against his and he gasped as they touched. He let the parchment fall to the floor and grabbed at her waist, pulling her towards him to stand between his legs. He kissed her deeper. She could feel years of yearning being poured out of him as he tried to press her body as close as felt his hot breath wash over her as she obligingly opened her mouth to kiss him further. She elicited a small sigh as his hands moved to reach around her.

They couldn't have been together for longer than a minute, but it felt like they had lived lifetimes in that moment. Lily pulled away, feeling flushed and her mind foggy. James' eyes blinked open and looked drunk with happiness. He kept his head craning up, expecting her to kiss him once more.

She softly ran her hands over his forearms and he dropped his embrace, letting his finger tips linger on her hips until the last moment.

She righted herself and picked her discarded bag up from the ground. Fixing her mussed hair, she started for the door without saying anything. James' eyes followed her movement with a clouded euphoria. She had seen his eyes like that before. He had looked at her like that in her dream.

"Bye." She whispered as she opened the door.

James remained unmoved but broke out into a lazy grin. His eyes burned into her and their combined desire clouded the room.

"Bye."