On the morning of September first, Lily Evans stood gazing into a mirror for several long minutes, half-heartedly dragging a brush through her tangle of auburn hair. She was not, normally, the type of girl who spent much time in front of mirrors, and her presence before one now was more out of nerves than vanity. Putting down the brush, Lily glanced over her shoulder at her small but tidy room�”her school trunk was packed and resting in one corner, her school things stacked neatly inside. She shook her head and turned back to her reflection.

“Get a grip,” she said aloud as she regarded herself, her vivid green eyes blinking out at her from the glass. Within the hour, her Muggle parents would be taking her to King's Cross station so she could catch the Hogwarts Express for the start of her seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Lily edged one ragged nail into her mouth and bit down nervously, tilting her head. This is ridiculous, she thought ruefully. I haven’t been this nervous to go to Hogwarts since my first year.

Scowling at herself, she turned away from the mirror, looking instead at the vanity table that stood beside it, and upon which rested the two objects that were the source of her skittishness. She picked up the first�”a golden badge emblazoned with the letters “HG,” which announced her this years’ Head Girl. She held it up to her chest, as if to pin it on, but quickly put it down again.

The letter proclaiming her Head Girl, which had come midway through August, had, after everything, been a surprise. Straitlaced student that she was, she couldn’t help but remember how her prefect duties had fallen by the wayside halfway through the previous year, as she had embraced her more mischievous side.

With that thought, she put the Head Girl badge back on the table, trading it for her second source of worry�”a small stack of photographs that her friend and fellow Gryffindor Prefect, Remus Lupin, had sent her earlier in the summer. She flipped through the photos fondly and not without some wonder; she had barely noticed Remus taking pictures during the year, but she was glad for them now. The first few were of Lily and her friend and year-mate, Mary Macdonald, sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, or studying for their exams outside in the courtyard. Another showed Lily and Marlene Mckinnon, who had been the previous years’ Head Girl. Lily felt a pang of sadness as she flipped past a picture of herself, Marlene, and�”someone must have coerced him from behind the camera�”Remus, standing with their arms around each other’s shoulders. A year ahead of them, Marlene had left Hogwarts, and Lily would miss her sorely.

Another picture showed Lily hitting Peter Pettigrew in the face with a snowball, and the one after that was a group shot of the students who had gotten together last term to practice extra Defense Against the Dark Arts spells. But it was the last photo in the stack that was the cause for her anxiety, and the one she pulled out now to examine.

Taken outside on the Hogwarts grounds near the end of last term, the picture showed Lily, her hair blown back lightly from her face by a breeze, flanked by two dark-haired boys. The one on the right was carelessly handsome as he laughed at something, a friendly hand resting on her shoulder. But it was the boy on the left that her eyes were drawn to�”long, lanky, his black hair rumpled, glasses slightly crooked on his nose, a slow smile.

Like all Wizarding photos, this one was moving. Sirius Black, the right-side boy, was moving continuously�”laughing, gesturing, sometimes running in and out of the frame. But his best friend, the boy on the other side of the picture, was standing relatively still, as was the photograph version of Lily herself. James Potter had one arm wrapped around her waist, and she had rested her hand on his side. The two of them seemed quite comfortable like that, and were watching Sirius’s antics interestedly, moving only to occasionally grin at each other.

It was strange, Lily thought, looking down at the photo, that this even existed. For her first five years at Hogwarts, Lily had made a point of avoiding both of these boys, disliking their attitudes, their egos, and their actions. In the past year, however, she had gone from hating them both to grudgingly respecting them, and then, finally, to actually liking them, as well as appreciating their talent at causing trouble.

She and James had gotten especially close; studying the photo now, she had to admit to herself that they looked like a couple. And now, with the start of their seventh year approaching, she found that, more than ever, she didn’t know how she felt about that.

Lily put the photos back down on her desk, blushing faintly at the memory of their last encounter. He had kissed her, then, back in June, and she had kissed him back, before asking for the summer to sift through her confused feelings. But summer had come and gone and she still, still, wasn’t sure what she was thinking or feeling.

Sighing heavily, she flung herself across her bed, her face in her hands, hoping vaguely that everything would come together when she saw him. But before she could start overthinking, as she normally did, there was a soft knock on her bedroom door.

Lily’s eyes flew open in surprise, and she sat up. “Tuney,” she said, startled, at the sight of her older sister standing timidly in the doorframe. “Come in.”

Petunia took a few cautious steps forward, just barely crossing into Lily’s room, and then stood, looking around warily, her arms crossed tightly. Lily regarded her a little awkwardly�”she hadn’t seen her sister at all this summer, as Petunia was now living in London, and only a handful of times the summer before. In fact, aside from one highly uncomfortable Christmas dinner with Petunia, their parents, and Petunia’s unpleasant boyfriend, the sisters had had very little contact over the past few years.

“I’m not staying,” Petunia said coldly after a moment, eyeing Lily’s school trunk with distaste. She’d let her hair grow out since they’d seen each other last, Lily realized�”her blonde hair curled gently past her shoulders, and she was wearing a neatly pressed skirt and sweater set. She looked quite grown up, and Lily suddenly felt rather childish in her jeans-and-t-shirt ensemble. Self-consciously, she picked up her brush again and began fiddling with it, waiting for her sister to speak again.

Petunia took several short breaths before announcing, without preamble, “Vernon and I are getting married. We just came by to tell Mummy and Daddy, and they seemed to think that you should hear it from me. So, that’s what I came up here to tell you.”

For a moment, Lily was at a loss for words. She couldn’t, in all honesty, be happy for Petunia�”she had met Vernon Dursley, and she despised him�”but a simple “Congratulations” seemed too formal. She supposed, as Petunia’s sister, she should probably jump up and down and squeal and demand to see the ring, but the two of them had been at odds for too long. Instead, she blurted out the first thought that came into her head.

“But you’re so young!”

Petunia narrowed her eyes. “I’ll be twenty next month,” she snapped. “And it’s not as if it will be a quick engagement, I’m not hurrying into anything here.”

Lily opened her mouth, then closed it again, still speechless. After a beat of silence, Petunia spoke again. “Don’t worry,” she said dismissively, “I’m not going to ask you to be my maid of honor or anything. And you don’t even have to bother coming to the wedding, I’m sure you’d rather spend time with your freak friends.”

“No!” Lily protested, sitting up straighter. “No, Tuney, I want to come!”

“You do?” said Petunia, sounding unsure.

“Of course I do,” Lily said. “You’re still my sister, you know.”

Petunia rolled her eyes. “I know,” she said, and for a moment, as they looked at each other, a sudden warmth burst between them for the first time in years. They smiled at each other cautiously.

“So,” Petunia said, edging a little further into Lily’s room, “you wouldn’t be bringing that Snape boy, from Spinner’s End, would you?”

Lily inhaled sharply. “Oh,” she said levelly, “I haven’t spoken to Severus in over a year. We…grew apart.”

“Good,” Petunia said succinctly. “I never liked him.”

Surprised, Lily laughed, then shrugged, and Petunia again took a few steps nearer. “Mummy did mention that he hasn’t been around lately,” she said softly.

Lily waved a hand at her. “It’s old news,” she said. “He changed, in the end. Got kind of nasty.”

Petunia nodded sympathetically, and Lily hesitated for a moment. It had been so long since she’d talked to her sister�”really talked�”but suddenly she wanted to, desperately. “Actually, Tuney,” she said slowly, “there’s this other boy.”

Petunia just barely raised her eyebrows, the hint of a smile playing about her lips. “Oh, really?” she said, sitting down on Lily’s bed beside her sister.

Lily nodded. “I’m trying to figure out how I feel about him, really. I used to not be able to stand him, and then somehow he ended up being one of my closest friends, and now I can’t figure out if I’m in love with him or not. It’s all very complicated.”

“It’s funny how that happens,” Petunia said and she laughed mischievously, actually laughed, like she had when they were children, before saying, “Well, what’s his name? And do you have a picture?”

Lily felt her throat go dry, and blinked hard, wondering why she suddenly found it so difficult to say his name. “James,” she said, swallowing. “James Potter. And I do have a picture, it’s right here.”

She leaned over to her bedside table and slid out the photo, passing it to her sister. Petunia studied it. “The one on the right is cute,” she said after a moment.

Lily grinned. “Yeah,” she said. “He knows.”

Petunia grinned back at her. “Oh, I hate that,” she said, shaking her head. “So the other one is James then?” She considered him as Lily nodded, and then said, “Well, for what it’s worth, he seems to really like you.”

“I know,” Lily said. “He does, it’s wonderful, and it’s not that, it’s just�””

But she stopped speaking as Petunia suddenly gave a little gasp and dropped the photo. The Sirius in it had just given her a feisty wink, and it seemed to have reminded Petunia just exactly what her sister was. “Photographs,” she said stiffly, getting to her feet, “aren’t supposed to move.”

The warmth that had fizzled between them died as Petunia smoothed the front of her skirt with her hands and walked towards Lily’s bedroom door. “Tuney, wait,” Lily said desperately, but as Petunia turned to look at her, she was wearing such a cold expression that Lily stopped speaking at once.

“No, Lily,” she said bitterly. “I’d forgotten for a minute, but you’re not my sister. Not really. Take your freak pictures back to your freak friends at your freak school. Things are better when you aren’t around.”

Lily took the blows stoically, willing herself not to cry as Petunia swept from the room. She heard low voices from downstairs�”Petunia and Vernon making their goodbyes, she supposed�”and then the front door opened and closed. After a while, she heard her parents calling her, telling her to hurry or she’d miss the train. Slowly, she walked over to her school trunk, gathering her things to haul down the stairs to her parents’ car.

In a way Petunia was right, she thought. She didn’t really belong here, in this house, in the Muggle world. Where she was heading now�”that was home.

Lily barely made it to the Hogwarts Express on time. The last whistle was already wailing as she flung her trunk on board, waved goodbye to her parents, and hauled herself onto the train.

She pushed her way down the corridor as the train began to gather speed, peering in the compartment doors for familiar faces. After passing a group of excited second-years clustered in one compartment, as well as a knot of Slytherins in her own year�”she ducked out of sight as she passed them�”a group of three boys lounging together caught her eye, and she grinned.

Sliding open the door and slipping inside, Lily said cheerfully, “Hey Fido!”

From his seat by the window, Sirius Black scowled at her. “Fido?” he asked disgustedly.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Lily said, putting a hand on her hip and cocking her head. “Would you prefer Spot?”

To her left, she saw Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew grin at each other, and she winked at them. Sirius’s scowl deepened.

“Actually,” he said languidly, crossing his arms above his head, “I prefer Sexy.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lily told him, and he smiled.

“You find out about this whole Animagus thing and now we’ll never hear the end of it,” he grumbled, getting to his feet to give her a rough, one-armed hug. “How’re you doing, Lily?”

“Same old,” she said, now turning to Remus and Peter.

“How come only Sirius gets a nickname?” Peter asked as she greeted him, and she looked at him in surprise. Of all of James’s friends, Peter was the one she had the least contact with.

“I’ll think of something, Wormy,” she told him, half-joking, knowing that a shortened version of his preexisting nickname probably wasn’t what he had in mind, but he looked slightly mollified.

“Hey, Lily,” Remus said, smiling softly at her.

“Hey,” she said. “Thanks so much for sending me those photographs this summer, by the way. I meant to write you back, but I try to keep things as non-magical as possible around my sister.”

“And having owls swooping around with your mail probably doesn’t count as normal,” he finished understandingly.

“Exactly,” she nodded.

Remus gestured to the Head Girl badge on her chest. “I thought you might get that,” he said.

“Oh…yeah,” she responded awkwardly, having temporarily forgotten about it. “Did you get Head Boy?” she asked hopefully, but he shook his head.

Disappointed, Lily said, “Oh. Do you know who did?”

Remus hesitated for a second, but was spared having to answer by Sirius, who started to choke loudly as he realized what they were talking about.

“Evans is Head Girl?” he asked, starting to laugh. “I’m really going to have to watch out for myself this year, aren’t I?”

“And don’t you forget it,” Lily told him, hitting him lightly on top of the head. “We should probably go to the front though, Remus, we’re already really late.”

“Yeah, I know,” Remus said. “I meant to go there first, but, you know…seventh year…I pretty much know how to be a prefect now. That meeting’s mostly for the new fifth years, isn’t it?”

“I know,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “I have to go…the whole Head Girl thing…wouldn’t look good if I missed it. And no way am I going alone!”

“Fair point,” he said, and with a wave to Peter and Sirius, he followed her out the door.

“So,” Lily asked him as they pushed back up the train. “Have you seen James yet?”

The look Remus threw her made her sure that her attempt to sound casual hadn’t fooled him. No one but Sirius had any idea of what had happened between Lily and James back in June, but Remus had always been perceptive, and Lily knew that there was a lot he’d probably guessed.

“Yeah,” he said finally, looking vaguely amused. “He’s drifting around here somewhere.

Lily was torn between asking for more information and holding her tongue, but before she could decide, they had reached the gathering of prefects. Lily craned her neck, hoping for a glimpse of her fellow Head Boy, but the compartment was so packed that eventually she gave up, figuring that she’d find out soon enough. Suddenly uncomfortable surrounded by all the new prefects, she surreptitiously detached the Head Girl badge, and slid it into her pocket.

The meeting was short�”although possibly it just seemed that way because she and Remus had missed the first half�”and afterwards she hung back, letting the eager fifth years stream out into the train ahead of her. Remus touched her elbow gently. “I’m going to go duke it out with them,” he told her. I’ll see you back in the compartment?”

She nodded, privately thinking that the safer route was to stay put until the corridor had cleared. She spent some time chatting with Alice Rourke, the Hufflepuff seventh-year prefect, whom Lily liked despite the fact that they only knew each other vaguely. After a few minutes, she noticed that the corridor seemed to have cleared and got to her feet, wondering if the food trolley had been by yet. She said good-bye to Alice and stepped outside of the compartment, half-thinking about Cauldron Cakes, and suddenly found herself face-to-face with James Potter.

For a moment, she just stared at him. His hair was a little longer, she noticed almost idly, and had he always been this tall? Behind his glasses, his hazel eyes were twinkling impishly, and he grinned, the left side of his mouth coming up slightly higher than the right. He looked utterly unsurprised to see her.

“Hey, Evans,” he said, just as she realized that she had forgotten to breathe, and inhaled sharply.

“Hi,” she said back.

“So,” he said, after a short pause. “Remus told me you were still in there.” He gestured towards the carriage she had just left.

“Oh, yeah,” she replied. “Prefect stuff, you know.”

James nodded, and for a few long moments, they both looked uncomfortably around the train. Well, this is awkward, thought Lily unhappily. It wasn’t a problem they usually had, either, and Lily wondered if the long months of summer had robbed them of their ability to banter easily with each other.

“Anyway,” James said, after a few more painful moments, and then hesitated. Lily, quite suddenly, was reminded of the promise she had made him last spring�”that in the fall, she would have an answer about the two of them, would have decided if she could see them as a couple.

For one heart-stopping moment, she thought he was about to ask her what her decision was. I don’t know yet, she thought, mildly panicked. I still don’t know…it would change everything…

Suddenly desperate to keep him from continuing, Lily raised her hand towards him. “Wait,” she started to say, but just then, a group of eagerly chatting third-years jostled past, pushing her to the side. Her shoulder collided with James’s chest, and he put a hand out to steady her as she turned towards him to apologize. For one dazzling moment she just looked at him�”really looked at him, for the first time since June�”and then his hand moved from her elbow to the small of her back, and he was kissing her.

His lips were light and warm on hers as she leaned into him, clutching a fistful of his sleeve, all of her perfectly reasonable, planned-out doubts disappearing as he touched her. But a few seconds later, he broke away.

“Sorry,” he said, a little hoarsely. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Lily rolled her eyes at him good-naturedly, and as he grinned at her, something thawed between them; just like that, they had things to say to each other again.

“So how was your summer, anyway?” James asked her as they began to move down the train together.

“Slow,” she told him. “Remus’s owl bringing those pictures where about the most exciting thing that happened all summer.”

“Oh, yeah, I got those too,” James said. “Sorry I didn’t write to you at all. I thought about it, but I wasn’t sure…”

“Oh, no,” Lily interrupted him hurriedly. “It’s good. I just try to keep anything magical out of the way at home. It’s an old habit, it used to upset Petunia.”

James groaned sympathetically; he was no stranger to Petunia horror stories. “Was she around much this summer?”

“No, actually,” Lily said. “Not until today. She stopped by this morning to tell me�”get this�”she’s getting married.”

“Really?” James asked, and Lily nodded glumly. “Are you going to the wedding?” he snickered.

“Not much choice,” she said, before adding hopefully, “Maybe she’ll forget to invite me!”

James grinned. Lily turned towards him, opening her mouth to speak, and then stopped. She had suddenly noticed a glint on his chest, and squinted�”a second badge was pinned beside his Quidditch Captain badge.

“James,” she said calmly, “what’s that?”

He looked down, and then reflexively covered both badges with his hand. “Nothing,” he said guiltily.

Lily looked at him, half excited and half incredulous. “That’s the Head Boy badge, isn’t it?”

“I�”maybe,” James said, looking vaguely ashamed.

Lily was delighted. “You’d better not get on any boats,” she told him. “They’ll sink, you have so much metal pinned to yourself.”

“Ha ha,” he said dryly. “So…that’s it? Sirius made fun of me for weeks.”

Lily shrugged. “Well, it’s a little odd, considering you weren’t a prefect, but it’s not unheard of. Plus, I have no right to make fun of you for being Head Boy.”

“Why, because you’re a prefect?” James asked.

Lily looked at him confusedly, and then said carefully, “Do you…you do know who the Head Girl is, right?”

“Nope,” James said. “Not yet.”

Lily’s fingers went to her pocket, where she had slipped her own Head Girl badge, and didn’t say anything. James didn’t notice, as they had reached their compartment; he slid open the door, and chivalrously stood aside to let her pass.

“Where’ve you guys been?” Sirius asked, his mouth full. “You missed the food trolley.”

“You look like you’ve got enough to share,” James said, eying the large pile of chocolate frogs beside Sirius, who tossed him one.

“But that’s all you’re getting,” Sirius said as James ripped open the package. “I’m a poor bloke, you know. My parents have cut me off…I barely have two Knuts to rub together…no home to my name…”

“I let you live at my house!” James pointed out.

“Which makes me indebted to your parents, yes, but not to you,” Sirius retorted.

Lily, who had been watching this exchange not without amusement, turned around suddenly as the compartment door behind her slid open.

“Lily!” a familiar voice squealed, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” And Lily was jostled to the side as a small, black-haired girl slammed into her.

“Hi, Mary,” Lily said, grinning and hugging her back. “How was your summer?”

But Mary didn’t seem to hear her�”she was busy greeting James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter with the same exuberance. James and Remus seemed entertained by this, although Peter looked mildly frightened, and Sirius downright annoyed.

“So,” Mary asked when she reached Sirius, “did I win the bet?” Remus and Peter, who had both forgotten about last years’ betting pool, suddenly sniggered. Sirius, who had not forgotten, merely rolled his eyes.

“You’ll have to ask them,” he said in a carrying whisper, gesturing towards James and Lily, who both immediately tried to look as though they hadn’t been listening.

Someone cleared her throat loudly, and they all looked up to see a third girl standing in the doorway�”Leda Wood, another Gryffindor seventh year.

“Hey, Leda,” Lily said. Leda’s returning nod was rather cool, but Lily was unbothered�”the other girl had always been reserved, and the two of them had never been particularly close. “Where’s Amelia?” Lily asked, referring to Leda’s best friend and their final year-mate.

Leda shrugged. “Around here somewhere,” she said, scanning the compartment.

Lily noticed Peter, in his seat by the window, sit up straighter. He and Leda had dated last year, Lily suddenly remembered, and she wondered if Leda was here to see Peter now. She was surprised, however, when Leda made a beeline for James, and grabbed his elbow. He appeared startled as well, and peered down at her curiously. “What’s up?”

“I had a couple questions about this year’s Quidditch team,” said Leda, who played Keeper, and pulled him into a corner.

Lily saw Sirius and Remus exchange a look as Peter slumped back into his seat. Only Mary, still babbling about something, seemed blissfully unaware of the sudden tension in the air. Sirius looked as though he could quite happily toss her out the window. Lily brushed past him, surreptitiously patting his elbow as she went, and slid into the seat next to Peter, who was looking miserable.

“Did you two have a fight or something?” she asked him in an undertone, nodding towards Leda.

Not looking at her, Peter shrugged. “We wrote a lot this summer,” he said quietly. “At least, we did until the end of July, and then she just sort of stopped replying…I didn’t really know what to do. Sirius said it was a girl thing�””

“You went to Sirius for girl advice?” Lily interrupted, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice.

“Better him than James,” Peter said, looking at her sideways.

Not sure how she was supposed to react to that, Lily said hastily, “Right Well, do you want to try and talk to her?”

Peter looked a little squeamish. “Well…” he said, but at that moment, they were interrupted by Sirius, who grabbed Peter by the back of his robes and said jubilantly, “Come on, Wormtail! We’re going on an adventure!”

Lily looked over at Mary, who was still talking, and back up at Sirius, who winked. Lily grinned�”Sirius had never had much patience for Mary.

Shaking her head, Lily’s smile broadened as she watched them slip outside. Moments later, however, they were back, Peter’s nose wrinkled in disgust. Lily soon realized why�”clamping her hand over her own nose, she groaned as the familiar, but no less rancid, smell of Dungbombs followed them in.

“Did you just set those off?” James, reappearing with Leda close behind, demanded of Sirius.

Sirius looked indignant. “Of course not,” he said, glowering.

“They did go off right after you left,” Remus pointed out, and Sirius glared at him. When Mary tittered, he glared at her too, for good measure.

“What do you people think I am,” Sirius asked, “some kind of amateur? First of all, I haven’t set off Dungbombs just to set off Dungbombs since about the third year�”there’s always a larger purpose. A distraction, if you will. I do have finesse, you know.”

“Of course,” James said, straight-faced.

“And second,” Sirius continued imperially, ignoring him, “Dungbombs are only funny when you can get away from the smell. Setting them off on a moving train? That’ll just make everyone miserable.”

Huffily, Sirius threw himself into a seat next to Peter, who was grinning. James clapped Sirius on the shoulder, saying, “Okay Padfoot, we believe you.”

“Of course you do,” Sirius grumbled. “I’m right.”

Remus, who had been watching this exchange with vague interest, suddenly bent, pulled out a book from his trunk, and began reading.

“What are you doing?” Sirius asked, sounding deeply disgusted.

“You have seen a book before, haven’t you?” said Remus mildly.

“We haven’t even started classes yet,” Mary said, tilting her head.

“Exactly,” Sirius said, pointing at her.

“It’s for fun, you idiots,” Remus said without venom, idly turning a page.

“Weird,” muttered Sirius, shaking his head.

Grinning at this, James moved away from Leda and flung himself into the seat next to Lily, his elbow bumping into hers. “I’d say the year’s off to a good start, wouldn’t you?” he asked.

“Whatever you say, Head Boy,” Lily said, smirking, and he groaned.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Leda whisper something to Mary, and the two girls got to their feet.

“We’re going to go find Amelia, see you guys at the feast!” Mary chirped, and they left.

“Finally,” Sirius muttered as the door closed behind them.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, she said. “They’re not bad.”

“They’re boring,” Sirius complained. “Mary just yap-yap-yaps about nothing all the time.”

“Oh, sure,” Remus teased from behind his book. “Because you never say anything unless it’s incredibly important.”

Sirius looked at James. “Are you going to let them keep this up?” he asked his best friend plaintively, but James just laughed.

This was the start of the end of so many things, James realized as they arrived at Hogwarts. His last year. This was the last Welcome Banquet he would attend. Soon after that would be his last Halloween at Hogwarts, his last Christmas, his last Quidditch game…

He paused as they neared the Great Hall, stopping just short of the entranceway. Remus stopped alongside, looking at him quizzically, while Sirius, characteristically, didn’t notice, and walked right into James, jostling him from behind. Lily drew up along his other side, gently touching his arm. “You okay?” she asked.

Looking down at her, he grinned, and nodded. Despite it being the end of so much, this was the first first-night feast he would begin with Lily Evans at his side, and there was something to be said for that.

---

“I’m so full,” Remus said, leaning back and putting a hand on his stomach.

“Ah, come on, Moony,” Sirius said with a grin. “I bet you could wolf down a little more.”

Remus looked at him impassively for a moment, then bared his teeth in a mock snarl.

Sirius chuckled. “Atta boy,” he said. “But if you’re really too full, I’ll finish off that treacle tart for you…”

“Same thing every year,” Remus said, laughing, as he passed his plate across the table.

“This is the last welcome-back banquet where Padfoot will finish Moony’s dessert,” Peter said mournfully from Sirius’s side, and both Sirius and Remus groaned and threw their napkins at him.

“Please tell me you won’t be doing that all year,” Sirius begged.

James, who had been thinking the exact same thing as Peter, marked an invisible tally in the air. “First time this year that Sirius asks Peter to stop talking about last times,” he said.

“You watch yourself now, I’m going to get all choked up,” Sirius deadpanned.

“Don’t worry about it, Padfoot. I was there this summer when my mother surprised you with breakfast in bed, I’ve seen you get emotional before…”

“I had something in my eye! I’ve told you that a thousand times!”

“He teared up, I swear,” James said conspiratorially to Lily.

“You know, Prongs,” Sirius said, switching topics. “Spreading rumors? On the first day? That isn’t really Head Boy behavior, is it? Better be careful, they’ll revoke your badge!”

James, to the surprise of everyone at the table, blushed, and looked down. Looking startled at the sudden lack of opposition, Sirius opened his mouth again, but closed it as Remus kicked him under the table and shook his head once.

There was a brief awkward silence, as Lily, Sirius, Peter, and Remus all looked at each other and James picked up his fork and started playing with it. Then Sirius gave a low whistle and Remus said forcefully, “So, everyone get my pictures this summer?”

The other three rushed to answer his question, but James tuned them out. Sirius was right, he thought. He wasn’t Head Boy material…maybe they should revoke his badge, if that was even possible. It might even make him feel better�”except for that tiny bit of pride he felt niggling at him when he looked at the badge.

And there was Lily to consider, too. Things seemed to be going in the right direction, and even if she hadn’t leapt instantly into his arms and declared her undying devotion and her intense desire to be his girlfriend, well, he could wait a little while longer. But surely his being Head Boy, his having some semblance of maturity and responsibility, would help tip the scales in his favor.

But still…what did he know about being Head Boy, really? Inwardly, he cursed the badge on his chest for tarnishing his last first evening back.

James’s internal struggles kept him occupied throughout Dumbledore’s speech to the school. It wasn’t until all of the students in the Great Hall got to their feet and began moving towards the dorms that he realized the headmaster had even finished speaking, and he leapt to his feet, slightly panicked. His school letter had asked him to report to Dumbledore’s office half an hour after the feast, and he wanted to get there before the Head Girl�”he had some things to discuss with Dumbledore.

“I’ll be up in a little bit,” he muttered to Remus, who was closest. Remus looked worried, but nodded as James started elbowing his way through the packed group of people.

“What the bloody hell was that all about?” Sirius hissed, and Remus shook his head.

“No idea,” he said sadly. “But that’s no way to start a year.”

“Especially our last one!”

“Hey!” Peter interjected. “I thought we weren’t doing last-year-things?”

Sirius smiled softly and clapped him on the shoulder. “Time and place, Wormtail,” he said. “Time and place.”

---

It took James several minutes to fight his way through the crowd of eager students, but once he was out into an empty corridor, he broke into a dead run, sprinting towards the headmaster’s office. Panting, he spat out the password he had been given in his letter (“Sugar Quills”) and then bolted up the spiral staircase.

He had half expected to beat Dumbledore to his office, but when he burst through the door, the headmaster was seated calmly at his desk, his long fingertips touching.

“Ah, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said calmly. “You’re early.”

“Yeah,” James said a little awkwardly. “Yeah, I…I wanted to ask…”

He trailed off, and in the ensuing silence, Dumbledore regarded him thoughtfully.

“I assume,” he said after a moment, “that you have some questions regarding your appointment as Head Boy.”

James nodded. “It’s just,” he said slowly, “just a little…unexpected? And, well, I know who I am. I don’t have the most responsible track record. And I guess I’m just nervous that I have this badge because I’m supposed to…well, change.”

To his surprise, Dumbledore smiled. “No,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling over the edges of his glasses, “no, it isn’t that at all. I take the Head Boy and Girl decision-making process very seriously, Mr. Potter. It’s not a position that I would grant in order to teach a lesson.”

He paused, surveying James even more thoroughly. James shifted softly, feeling slightly ashamed and wondering if this was Dumbledore’s intention. Just as he was about to speak, however, Dumbledore continued, saying, “The decision this year was a hard one. I picked you because you are a leader, and I thought that it would be beneficial to give you a place to develop that skill off of the Quidditch pitch. And while your more mischievous antics have not gone unnoticed, all of the other professors and myself have noticed a change in you over the past year, and a stronger sense of maturity. You possess all of the qualities that a Hogwarts Head Boy needs, Mr. Potter, and I stand by my decision.”

James, for all that he had been teasing Sirius about being emotional not long earlier, suddenly found himself unable to speak. He nodded briskly as Dumbledore’s smile widened. “And also,” the headmaster added, sounding a bit like a mischievous schoolboy himself, “I thought that the position might help you out where a certain Head Girl is concerned.”

Puzzled, James frowned. “Head Girl,” he started to ask, “what do you�””

“Sorry, Professor, am I late?” came a familiar voice from the doorway, and James whipped around, his jaw dropping, as Lily Evans strolled forward to stand beside him.

“Not at all, Ms. Evans,” Dumbledore said smoothly. “Mr. Potter was simply early.”

“Head Girl, huh?” James muttered to her. “Could have mentioned that earlier.”

“It was too much fun watching you squirm,” Lily said sweetly.

James, aware that Dumbledore was watching them both, bit back a retort; he was grinning, however, as he and Lily both faced the headmaster.

“I’ve called you both here to, primarily, congratulate you on your appointments,” Dumbledore said, looking at them with a fair bit of mirth in his eyes, “and remind you that, as Head Boy and Girl, you are expected to uphold both the values of Hogwarts and of Gryffindor House. Your duties will involve supervising the prefects and patrolling the corridors on a regular basis, together or separately. I expect, Mr. Potter, that you especially will have no difficulty finding your way around the castle at night?”

James gave a snort of laughter. “I don’t think so, sir, no,” he said, trying to regain his composure.

“And I hope that neither of you will hesitate to come to me with any questions you may have,” Dumbledore finished.

After they both assured him that they wouldn’t, Dumbledore bid them a goodnight and ushered them from his study. James waited until they were a decent distance from the headmaster’s office before turning to Lily.

“Head Girl?” he cried, half-shouting and half-laughing.

Lily held up her hands. “I’m sorry,” she said, but she couldn’t stop grinning. “I realized you didn’t know, and it was just too good of an opportunity…I mean, I only had so long to tease you before you found out that I had no right.”

James groaned. “You barely had a right anyway, Miss Perpetual Prefect.”

Lily winced, and then looked at him impishly. “You have to admit,” she said, “I wasn’t quite so straitlaced last year…honestly, I was surprised that Dumbledore picked me.”

“Much less me!” James finished for her. “Apparently he thinks we’ve been good influences on each other.”

Lily rolled her eyes as they set off towards Gryffindor Tower together. “Apparently,” she said. “What were you doing there so early anyway?”

James shrugged. “Oh, nothing,” he said. In the short time it had been since he had found out that Lily was the Head Girl, James had already started viewing his own position of Head Boy with more cheer. “But you know, I think Dumbledore knows what he’s doing, appointing us Head Boy and Girl.”

“You think?” Lily asked, and James nodded solemnly.

“Well,” he said, “clearly he wants us to shake things up a little.”

“Right,” Lily said sarcastically. “Because it’s not like ‘upholding the rules’ is in the job description or anything.”

“Oh we can still uphold the rules,” James assured her. “We’ll just do it creatively.”

Lily chuckled. “Sirius is going to love this,” she said dryly.

---

“You know,” Sirius said one afternoon their first week back, “I think sixth year was harder.”

James, who was scratching out the end of a Transfiguration essay, smirked and said, “Tell that to Wormtail.”

They both looked across the room where Peter was nose-deep in a Charms book, his brow so heavily furrowed that James worried it might stick that way. Remus, who was seated next to him, trying to help, looked frustrated.

“Oh, that,” Sirius said, flapping a hand at them. “He’s always had trouble with classes. And he hasn’t had a mental breakdown yet, so it’s clearly easier than the sixth year.”

“It’s the first week,” James laughed. “He hasn’t had time to have a mental breakdown.”

“Don’t you remember fifth year?” Sirius asked solemnly. “He had three in the first week.”

“Well that was O.W.L. year,” James reasoned. “We all had them at some point.”

“This is N.E.W.T. year though,” Sirius shrugged. “I’m just saying. It doesn’t compare.”

“Oh yeah,” James said vaguely. “I’d forgotten.”

“Exactly,” Sirius said. “No one ever let us forget about O.W.L.s.”

“Huh,” James said thoughtfully, setting down his quill. “You have a point.”

Sirius looked smug for a moment, but then he peered across the table to James’s parchment. “Prongs,” he said, sounding suddenly worried, “did you just finish that essay?”

“For Transfiguration?” James asked, looking down at it. “Yep.”

“It’s not due until Monday!” Sirius said, horrified.

“So?”

“So it’s only Thursday!”

“Relax, Padfoot,” James said. “I’m just getting a little bit ahead. I wanted to start Quidditch practices this weekend.”

“Are you prioritizing?” Sirius asked. “Merlin, James, you’re getting all responsible on me.”

“No I’m not!” James said, sounding offended. Sirius looked pointedly at the completed essay, and one corner of James’s mouth came up in a half smile. “Only a little,” he said.

“I never would have believed it,” said Sirius mournfully. “But uh, if you’re really done, want to let me see that essay?”

The other half of James’s mouth twitched up. “That would be cheating,” he said dryly, but he pushed his essay towards Sirius.

“Thanks,” Sirius said unabashedly, unrolling. “So where is she, anyway?”

“Where’s who?” James asked absentmindedly, putting his quill away.

“Our Miss Lily the-reason-James-does-his-homework-four-days-early Evans.”

“You should start calling her that,” James advised dryly, before adding, “She’s upstairs, taking care of a situation.”

Sirius arched an eyebrow. “A situation? In the girls’ dormitory? And you didn’t offer to help?”

“She said she could handle it,” James grinned. “Besides, we can’t get up there, or don’t you remember?”

“Well I thought you might be able to,” Sirius groused. “There’s no point in being Head Boy if you don’t even get special privileges. What’s the situation anyway?”

“A few second years got hit with a Hair Growth Charm. It’s growing so fast they can’t really walk, so Lily’s up in their dorm helping them cut it off and Vanish it before they suffocate. Madame Pomfrey should be here soon.”

Sirius snorted. “That sounds like the prank I would have pulled in the third or the fourth year.”

“No kidding,” James said. “Actually, we were kind of thinking you did do it this time.”

“What?” yelped Sirius. “Really? How many times do I have to tell you that I have subtlety now?”

“Okay!” James said, laughing again. “Okay! I was just checking! I mean, it is our last year. You could just be blowing off steam.”

“Well it wasn’t me,” Sirius huffed. “I would have thought of something cleverer than that.”

“Point taken,” James said, and bent to rummage through his bag. When he glanced back up again, Sirius was staring at him intently.

“What?” James asked, slightly alarmed.

Sirius blinked. “So,” he said after a moment, “speaking of Lily�””

“Were we?” James said vaguely, cutting him off, and Sirius sighed.

“Don’t play dumb,” he commanded, and James gave a half-hearted smile in spite of himself. “Are you dating now or what?” Sirius continued bluntly.

James leaned forward and rested his forehead on the table. “I don’t know,” he said, his voice slightly muffled. “Ask her.”

“Really?” Sirius asked. “Because I will.”

James groaned and looked back up. “No, not really,” he said. “As much as I’d like to know what’s going through her head right now.”

Sirius shrugged. “So ask her,” he said simply.

“I can’t, Padfoot,” James said. “I have to give her time to figure things out.”

“Oh, whatever,” Sirius said, scowling. She’s had like, three months to figure things out. She’s figured. She’s just stalling now.”

“But why?” James asked, sounding slightly panicked. “You don’t think she’s trying to figure out how to let me down easily?”

Sirius looked at him for a long moment, and then set down his quill. “Okay,” he said, with some finality. “First of all, she’s never exactly had a problem letting you down in the past, easily or not. Don’t you remember that whole I’d-rather-go-out-with-the-giant-squid thing?”

“No, I’d forgotten,” James said drily. “Thanks for that.”

“Second,” Sirius continued, ignoring the interruption, “I saw her kiss you at the train station in June, which means that, despite your really annoying unwillingness to talk about that all summer, I know that something happened between the two of you. And while it’s the most progress you’ve ever made, it probably means that she’s feeling very confused, hence the stalling. But don’t worry mate, I think you’ve got a chance.” He leaned back in his chair, looking smug.

James started at him openmouthed. “It’s weird when you’re perceptive,” he said finally.

“Don’t ever make me walk you through this again,” Sirius said. Then he looked up and grinned wolfishly. “Hey there, Evans,” he said.

James jumped and swiveled around. “How long have you been standing there?” he demanded.

“I just got here, why?” Lily said, sounding slightly out of breath but looking at him suspiciously.

“No reason,” James said innocently, looking her over. Her face was flushed, her hair a red tangle, and her robes slightly askew. “How are the second-years?”

Lily frowned slightly. “Oh they’re fine,” she said. “Madame Pomfrey came up ages ago. But just as I was leaving them, I ran into a third-year who’d sprouted a tail, and I had to take care of that too.”

Both James and Sirius sniggered at that, and Lily’s frown deepened. “It’s not funny,” she said hotly. “I know accidents and tricks are daily life around here, but this is getting excessive. I’ve talked to some of the Prefects in other houses, and none of them are having this kind of trouble…I’m started to wonder if we’re being targeted.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Sirius said. “Who’d go around jinxing a bunch of random people just for the fun of it?”

“Uh,” James said, seeing where this was going and turning scarlet, “well, Padfoot…”

“You would,” Lily finished for him, one eyebrow raised. “You have. Come on, Sirius, just admit it.”

“I’m not doing it!” Sirius bellowed, standing up and planting a fist on the table. “For the last time, I have nothing to do with any of it! And why are you accusing me of all this and not James, hm? He hexed just as many people as I did back in the day.”

James and Lily exchanged glances�”Lily’s uncomfortable, James’s wry�”and seeing this, Sirius scoffed. “Prefect’s pet,” he sniffed towards James.

“That’s Head Girl to you,” Lily said smoothly, flicking him on the side of the head as he sat down.

“Don’t I know it,” said Sirius.

“So I had to tell him, no, I only just broke up with your best friend, I can’t go out with you for at least another week.”

Lily chuckled to herself, only half-listening to Mary talk. Most of her concentration was on mouse sitting on the desk in front of her, which she was supposed to be Transfiguring. This was how most of her in-class conversations with Mary went; the other girl would be happy talking to a brick wall, and Lily had long ago perfected the art of a well-placed “yeah” or a gasp.

So she was surprised, this time, when Mary’s speech was punctuated by frequent tinkles of laughter. Finding this more distracting then Mary’s stream of dialogue, Lily looked over at her friend to see Leda on her other side, listening to Mary’s story intently.

Annoyed by this but not entirely sure why, Lily turned back to the mouse she had trapped between her hands. She was supposed to be growing it a pair of wings, but so far all she had managed to do was make its ears triple in size.

It was a particularly feisty mouse as well, and as soon as Lily relaxed her hands, it scurried out of her grip and down the table past Mary, who ignored it, and over Leda’s arm. Leda squealed loudly and leapt up, causing people all through the room to look at her, and Lily rolled her eyes and got to her own feet, leaning over to scoop up the mouse from where it stood by Leda’s elbow.

“Sorry,” she muttered to Leda, who was smoothing down her hair.

“Keep a hold on that thing, would you?” Leda asked with a shudder. “I hate rodents.”

Lily thought she saw Peter, who was at the next table over, turn his head slightly, and she smiled sadly to herself as Leda went back to the toad she was supposed to be Transfiguring. Walking back to her seat, Lily glanced quickly at Mary and Leda, who had bent their heads together to talk softly, and scooted a little farther down the table.

“I was wondering how long you’d be able to stand it.”

Lily looked up in surprise to see that Sirius had come over to sit across from her. “What do you mean?” she asked, and he jerked his head towards Leda and Mary.

“You lasted way longer hanging around the Giggle Twins than I would have,” he said, shrugging.

“Stop it,” Lily said, exasperated and tired of the old argument. “I’ve told you before, they’re not that bad. And they’re my friends.” She heard Leda’s tinkling little laugh again, and couldn’t help but wince. “Mary is, anyway.”

“Mm-hmm,” Sirius said noncommittally, fiddling with his wand.

Lily eyed him. “What are you doing over here anyway, if you can’t stand them?” she asked.

His face tightened. “I’m here,” he said briskly, “on an exceedingly thrilling and dangerous mission of espionage.”

“Peter wanted you to check up on Leda for him, huh?” Lily asked ruefully, figuring it out, and Sirius nodded resignedly.

“Not,” he said, “that I have to do much. I already know what happened.”

“You do?” Lily asked, surprised. “I haven’t been able to get a handle on her lately.”

Sirius snorted. “It’s easy,” he said darkly. “She figured out that she’s pretty. Then she decided that she could do better than Peter.”

“Please,” Lily scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Sirius asked innocently, poking his own, slightly sluggish, mouse with his wandtip.

Lily opened her mouth to retort, but then glanced back at the two girls. Leda, who had always been more of a tomboy, had let her hair grow out, and it curled in dark, thick waves down her back. She was styling it like Mary’s, in fact, and Lily had seen the two of them swapping makeup at breaks. “Huh,” she said, surprised she hadn’t noticed this sooner.

“Told you,” Sirius said without looking up. “She’s like another version of Mary.”

“So, what,” Lily said slowly, “she thinks she can do better than Peter?”

“Something like that,” Sirius said. “Why do you think she’s hanging out with Mary so much these days? She’s trying to pick up tips.”

“Sirius Black,” Lily said, mock-sternly, “you sure do notice a lot about a couple of girls you claim you can’t stand.”

“I can’t stand them,” Sirius said matter-of-factly. “It’s just, ah, well, Leda’s started hanging around recently, and I just kind of realized…”

“She’s been around?” Lily said, startled. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Well,” Sirius admitted, almost apologetically. “It’s mostly when you aren’t around.”

“Why…” Lily started to ask, then trailed off, realizing. “Her idea of upgrading from Peter is the rest of you?”

“Talk about ridiculous,” Sirius said, a little sadly. “I couldn’t tell Peter.”

“It’s not like she has a chance with any of you, though, right?” Lily said.

“Well, you know me,” Sirius grinned. “The less time I spend with Leda, the better. And Moony never dates anyone anyway, so that’s barely an issue.”

He paused just long enough for Lily to register that there was a pause. “And James?” she asked tentatively.

“Well,” Sirius said slowly, “if I’m being honest? It’s probably James that she would have the best chance with, normally, since he’s always had a weakness for people fawning over him. But, well, you know.”

“Know what?” Lily said, rather aggressively, wondering why it suddenly gotten so much hotter in the room.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Two things,” he said, with the air of explaining something to a very small child. “One, James would never do that to Peter. And two, you know as well as I do that as long as you’re around, our Jamie-boy is never going to look at another girl.”

Lily flushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stammered.

“Oh, come on, Evans,” Sirius grinned. “It’s not like it’s a secret.” When she protested, he just held up his hands. “I just call it like I see it,” he said.

Lily bit her lip and looked across the room to the table where James sat with Peter and Remus. James had managed the tricky Transfiguration spell, and was watching happily as his mouse flew in circles around his head. She’d been avoiding one-on-one interaction with him, she knew, and if she was honest with herself, it was because she was nervous of what might happen. Maybe, she thought haltingly, maybe it’s time to change that.

---

James came down to the common room a few nights later looking exhausted.

“Where have you been?” Sirius asked, looking up from where he sat between Remus and Peter by the window.

“Somebody released a bunch of tarantulas in the first year boys’ dorm,” James yawned, missing the armchair and slumping down on the floor instead. “I’ve been tracking them down for hours.”

Peter made a face. “Ew,” he said.

“No kidding,” murmured James, closing his eyes. “The were all terrified.”

“Oh, come on,” Sirius scoffed. “Pansies. Spiders aren’t scary.”

“Giant spiders,” corrected James.

Peter scowled darkly. “Clearly you’re never come face-to-face with one when you’re the size of a rat,” he told Sirius. “It’s enough to give you nightmares.”

“I guess some of those first years are barely bigger than your average rat,” Sirius mused, tilting his head, causing Peter to mutter angrily under his breath.

“What I want to know,” James said, “is why the girls aren’t having problems like this.”

“They are,” Remus said, his eyes appearing suddenly over the top of his Charms book. “Someone released a bunch of toads in there the other day, she was up all night dealing with it.”

“Toads?” Sirius asked, looking exasperated. “I’m willing to concede on the spiders thing, but toads are definitely not scary. Also they’d be much easier to catch. Just set James’s cat on them.”

“That’s what I did with the tarantulas,” James said vaguely, but he was looking at Remus. “How do you know that, Moony?” he asked.

“Know what?” Remus asked, peering down at him.

“About the toads in the girls’ dormitory.”

“Oh,” Remus said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Lily mentioned it in Charms this morning, when I asked why she looked so tired.”

“She didn’t say anything to me,” James said softly.

“I wouldn’t read anything into it,” Remus advised him, and James pondered this for a moment.

Sirius leaned over to Peter. “Wait for it…” he muttered, and Peter grinned.

“Has she said anything about me?” James asked suddenly, and Sirius groaned.

James looked at him. “It just seems like she’s been avoiding me lately!” he said defensively. “I mean, sure, she comes around when we’re all in a group, but I don’t think I’ve had an actual conversation with her since the first day back, and that was weeks ago…I wish I knew what was going on.”

“Drop it,” Sirius said abruptly, and James looked up, wounded.

“Come on, Padfoot,” he said. “It’s not like I’ve been talking about it that�””

“I said drop it,” Sirius said more forcefully, then looked past James and raised his voice. “Hey, Evans, know where I can get a handful of toads for a good price?”

“Oh,” James said meekly as Lily came up, looking as exhausted as he felt, and sat down on the floor beside him.

“Very funny,” she said to Sirius. “If I never see another toad again, it will be too soon.”

“Could be worse,” Sirius said cheerfully. “Prongs here got tarantulas.”

Lily wrinkled her nose. “Ewww.”

“That’s what I said!” called Peter.

“Honestly, the amount of petty pranks this year…it’s ridiculous,” sighed Lily.

Sirius frowned. “They aren’t even fun ones,” he said. “I mean, all whoever is doing this has accomplished is keeping you two on your feet all the time.”

“You’re not wrong,” Lily said thoughtfully. “And you’re absolutely sure�””

“I. Am. Not. Doing. It,” Sirius said through gritted teeth, and Remus laughed.

“He’s not, Lily, I’ll vouch for him,” he said. “If Sirius was doing it, you’d be even busier cleaning the mess up.”

“But you’d be laughing more,” Peter pointed out, and Sirius looked smug.

James watched the four of them from where he was, sprawled on the floor, feeling slightly separate. Lily fit in so well with his friends�”more than ever, these days. Part of him was thrilled about that; he had�”and probably always would be, he thought�”glad for any opportunity to be around her. But as he watched her joking around with Sirius, he felt oddly distant, and, he had to admit it, more than a little jealous. How long had it been since he had spent time with her alone?

It was just as he was thinking this, however, that he felt someone nudge him in the back, and rolled over to see Lily gazing at him intently. “We’re really falling down on our duties, you know,” she said.

“What do you mean?” he asked indignantly. “After all the hours I spent chasing after giant spiders…”

“I know, I know,” she grinned at him. “But we’re supposed to be patrolling the halls, too, you know, and we haven’t done that yet.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I’d forgotten about that. What, we just go keep an eye out for troublemakers like Padfoot?”

“That joke isn’t funny anymore!” Sirius inserted. “It was never funny!”

“Yeah,” Lily said, her grin widening. “That’s what we do. Want to go?”

“What, now?” James asked, propping himself up on his elbow.

“Why not now?” Lily shrugged. “Unless you have other plans…”

“Not me,” James said hastily, jumping to his feet, unable to deny the quick glimmer of excitement that ran through him. “Let’s go.”

---

A few hours later, the two of them strolling through the empty, torch-lit corridors, Lily was beginning to feel comfortable again. This is nice, she thought. Just the two of us, being friends. It’s like it was before. And it was�”nice, comfortable, and safe. And if she felt anything else as she cast her mind back to last June and how he had kissed her, she shoved it to the back of her mind.

“So there’s not much going on here at night, is there?”

James’s voice startled her from her reverie, and she looked at him, laughing. “It’s nighttime,” she said. “After hours. What did you expect?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” James shrugged. “A little more troublemaking, maybe. Sirius and I used to own these corridors after dark! And you know how Remus gets when the moon comes out.”

“Not everyone has an Invisibility Cloak,” Lily reminded him, smiling. And most students aren’t Animagi.

“Still,” James protested. “I’m disappointed in the youth of today!”

“I think all the professors will sleep easier once you’re gone,” she told him, and he was about to protest when she stopped abruptly. She flung her arm out into his chest and he stopped alongside her.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“I thought I saw something move up there,” she hissed back, squinting through the dim torchlight. Another flicker of movement near a statue of armor caught her eye, and she took a hesitant step forward. “Lumos,” she whispered, stretching her arm out as her wandtip ignited and taking another step.

Suddenly, ropes appeared out of nowhere, wrapping themselves around her wrists. She yelled in surprise, dropping her wand, which went out as it clattered across the stone floor. The ropes jerked, and Lily found herself dangling in midair, twenty feet above the ground.

Beneath her, James was laughing so hard that he had had to sit down.

“Is this enough troublemaking for you?” Lily grunted, looking up; the rope that was tightening around her wrists seemed to be somehow attached the ceiling.

“Yeah,” James called. “That’ll do it.” Recovering himself, he stood up and walked in a circle below her. “That really is pretty impressive magic,” he said admiringly. “It’s like a snare or a booby trap or something…I wonder how you set it off in the fir�””

“Theorize later,” Lily begged. “Get me down now. And remind me to never drop my wand again.”

“Never drop your wand again,” James parroted, picking hers up off the floor and putting it in his pocket. Then he raised his own wand, squinting up at her.

“Wait,” said Lily, spotting a potential problem. “What are you going to do?”

“Severing Charm?” James shrugged. “It makes the most sense.”

“And then a Cushioning Spell or something, right?” Lily pleaded. “So I don’t break every bone in my body?”

“Oh, relax,” James said. “It’s not that far. I’ll just catch you.”

“No!” Her hands scrabbled uselessly against the rope. “James, this is not going to end well.”

“Come on!” he said airily, waving a hand. “I’m a great catcher. You aren’t that much bigger than Quaffle…”

“Yes I am!” Lily said wildly. “I’m a lot bigger than a Quaffle! Please, for both our sakes�””

But too late; James had already pointed, aimed, and muttered the spell, and Lily felt the rope jerk and then slacken, and she barely had time to close her eyes as she plummeted towards the ground.

The force with which she slammed into him sent both of them flying, landing heavily in a tangle of limbs. Lily felt her forehead slam into James’s shoulder and for a moment she just lay there, completely winded.

She felt him breathing beneath her, and propped herself up, looking down at him. “Nice catch,” she said sarcastically, and he just grinned up at her roguishly, his hair tousled, and his hazel eyes clear behind his glasses.

Suddenly uncomfortably aware of how close they were, Lily scrambled to her feet, brushing her robes off and turning awkwardly away. “I forgot you were afraid of heights,” James said behind her, and she looked around at him.

“Also falling,” she said dryly, and then offered him her hand. He took it, hoisting himself to his feet, and holding on a moment too long.

Flustered, she pulled her hand away and started walking down the hall. “We should get going,” she said. “It’s late.”

“You’re not wrong,” James said, yawning, as he caught up to her. “So what do we do, report that?”

“I guess so,” Lily said. “I wasn’t actually expecting anything to happen.”

“You know,” James said, “I’m starting to wonder if we’re being targeted. Us, specifically, I mean, not just Gryffindors in general.”

“Us?” Lily asked dubiously. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know, all the disasters in the dorms, this thing…we are authority figures, you know, Evans.” James elbowed her teasingly in the ribs.

She swatted at him, grinning, but then looked back down the hallway, considering. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe. I can’t remember Marlene ever having this much trouble…and Remus and I never noticed half as many pranks as this when we were prefects.”

“We’ll keep an eye out, then,” James said as they turned a corner, heading towards Gryffindor Tower. “Oh, and Lily? I think I have a solution to this fear-of-falling you have.”

“Oh, really?” asked Lily suspiciously.

“Yeah,” James said confidently. “I’m going to have to teach you how to fly.”

Lily stopped in her tracks, looking a little squeamish, as he continued to stride down the hall. James, smirking, pretended not to notice.

Just a tiny…pinch…of asphodel, and…

Holding her breath, Lily carefully let the last ingredient fall into her cauldron; the potion they were brewing today was particularly touchy, and just the slightest mistake could cause an explosion. Two students had already ignited their cauldrons and been sent to the hospital wing to treat their burns. And quite apart from wanting to avoid injury, Lily had seen the way Professor Slughorn had looked over at her, all fatherly pride and confidence, and she didn’t want to disappoint.

Cautiously, Lily stirred the potion counterclockwise seven times. It smoked a little, but nothing more, and she let out a sigh of relief, leaning back against her chair.

“Whew,” said Remus Lupin, who was sitting next to her, a moment later. “I think that was one of the most nerve-wracking hours of my life.”

“And considering your friends, that’s saying something,” Lily joked. “Did you finish?”

“Yep,” Remus said, looking faintly satisfied. “Now we just have to let it sit for twelve minutes, right?”

“Yeah,” said Lily, wiping a hand across her brow. “The hard part is over.”

They both sat there for a bit, contemplating their cauldrons. Of all the seventh-year Gryffindors, they and Amelia Bones were the only ones who had continued with N.E.W.T.-level potions. Amelia, a few chairs over, was working steadily on the final stages of her potion.

“So,” Remus said after a moment, with a sideways glance at Lily. “Interesting Charms class this morning, huh?”

Lily sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. “How’s Peter doing?” she asked in response, and Remus shrugged sadly.

“Dunno. He didn’t really want to talk about it.”

That morning in Charms, Professor Flitwick had divided the class into partners, and had put Peter and Leda together. Peter had seemed thrilled by this arrangement, and although Lily privately couldn’t see what he was so excited about, she was glad that the two would get a chance to talk. She herself had been partnered with Mary, and they had chatted amiably in between practicing wand movements. Lily had to admit that she had been glad to have the break from Leda, who had taken to spending almost all of her time with Mary. It was with this in mind that she had turned to glance back at the table Peter and Leda shared, to see how things were going between the two of them. But Leda, she noticed, was staunchly ignoring Peter, and in fact kept turning to talk to Sirius and James, who were sitting behind them. James was polite and responsive, but Sirius looked downright wary. Lily had thought that Sirius was being a little overly concerned until Peter, grandly flourishing his wand in what was most likely a misguided attempt to impress Leda, had accidentally set his own hair on fire.

Leda had screamed loudly at this and had, in a manner that Lily thought was a ridiculous overreaction, thrown herself at James, hiding her face in his shoulder. James, looking completely nonplussed by this, had awkwardly patted her once on the back and then just stood there, his hands on his hips, looking around in bewilderment, until someone had the sense to put Peter’s hair out for him. Eventually, Leda had detached herself from James, collected her books, and told Peter that he was utterly incompetent and that, for her own safety, she hoped she never had to do magic with or near him again.

“It really was a complete overreaction,” Lily said to Remus, who had just leaned forward to double-check his potion. “I don’t blame Peter for not wanting to talk about it. Leda was out of line.”

“The whole thing was weird,” Remus said, shaking his head. “People are going completely mental these days.”

“There’s a full moon next week, that might be why,” Lily teased, winking when he scowled at her. “But really…she used to be nice. Didn’t she used to be nice, or am I remembering this wrong?”

“She used to be shy,” Remus countered. “It’s not the same thing as nice.”

“You’re shy,” Lily said. “And no one would ever accuse you of not being nice. I don’t know, though, she seems really different lately.”

Remus shrugged. “Well, you know her better than I do. I mean, you have lived in the same dorm with her for the past six years.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Lily said. “We were never that close though. I don’t ever remember her being such a complete bi�””

“Are you guys talking about Leda?”

Lily looked up at the new voice, blinking guiltily as she realized it was Amelia. “Oh,” she said a little uncomfortably. “Yeah. I’m just venting. I’m sorry, Amelia, I know she’s your best friend…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Amelia said, sighing heavily. “She’s been weird to me this year, too, she barely talks to me at all. She’s been spending all her time with Mary this year.”

“I’ve noticed that,” Lily said.

Amelia half-smiled, a little sadly, and said, “Well, carry on, then,” before walking to the back of the dungeons to wash her hands.

“Sirius says it’s because she wants a better boyfriend than Peter,” Lily said to Remus.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that theory,” Remus said. “Although he definitely hasn’t mentioned it to Peter. I don’t know, though.”

Lily suddenly remembered something else Sirius had said to her the other day that had piqued her curiosity. “Hey, Remus,” she said slowly. “How come you don’t date ever?”

Remus looked up sharply. “What?” he asked. “Why are you asking me that?”

Lily blinked, taken aback by his sudden hostility. “Just something Sirius mentioned,” she said. “I wondered.”

“Sirius needs to learn to keep his mouth shut,” Remus muttered.

“Sorry,” Lily said, concerned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t�””

Remus shook his head. “No, it’s okay,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to jump at you like that, it’s just�”it’s an old argument.”

“I’ll stay out of it then,” said Lily, smiling at him.

“Anyway,” Remus said, glancing at her, “you’re one to talk.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, come on, Lily,” Remus said, turning in his chair to face her. “How much longer are you going to make him wait?”

“Who?” Lily said. “I don’t know what you�””

“You know exactly what I mean,” Remus interrupted. “You’re a smart girl. You know James has been waiting for you. I don’t know�”and I don’t need to know�”what issues you have that are making this such a difficult decision for you, but maybe you should consider getting over them. Because James…he’s great, and he really likes you, but even he has his limits.”

Lily just looked at him, eyes wide, for a long moment. “Wow,” she said eventually. “That was blunt.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve just been thinking it for a long time.”

“Duly noted,” said Lily. “Seriously though. That was interesting.”

“Yeah, well,” Remus said, looking down. “But Lily?”

She looked up questioningly. “Yeah?”

“Either way it goes, just…don’t wait too long, okay?”

Lily gazed back at him, then, slowly, nodded once.

---

It was a rainy Saturday in early October when Peter finally slipped from the mourning-Leda funk he had been in for the past week and went down to the common room to find his friends.

As he had suspected, they were clustered at the far window table, papers spread out, although largely unnoticed, before them. Conveniently forgetting how hard they had all been trying to convince him to leave the dorm room over the past few days, Peter was slightly irked to see how much fun they seemed to be having without him; James was gesticulating wildly while Remus smiled, and Sirius full-out laughed. Lily Evans was sitting where Peter sat.

Quietly, he slid into the seat to the left of Sirius, who hit him�”a little harder than necessary�”on the shoulder. “Well, well,” Sirius said. “Look who’s back from the dead.”

“I wasn’t dead,” Peter said, a little huffily.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I know that, Wormtail,” he said. “It’s nice to see you up walking around again, that’s all.”

Peter shrugged. “I got a little bored up there, that’s all,” he said, gazing past Lily, who was seated on Sirius’s right, to the rest of the common room, where Mary and Leda sat gossiping.

Sirius’s face hardened. “Did you come down here just so you could mope over Leda more?” he demanded.

“No!” Peter said hotly. “I mean, maybe a little bit, but that wasn’t the whole reason…”

“Merlin, Peter, when are you going to let go of this ridiculous obsession?” Sirius asked.

Peter furrowed his brow angrily. “It’s not ridiculous,” he said. “And it’s not an obsession! I’m not like you, Padfoot, I don’t have girls fawning over me all the time. She really liked me. She was the one, I know it!”

“I don’t have girls fawning over me all the time,” Sirius retorted. “I don’t know where you’re getting that idea. Besides, you can do better than her.”

“Or maybe she just realized she can do better than me,” Peter said sadly.

Sirius bit his lip, unable to think of a response to this. He looked up at the rest of their friends, none of whom had been paying attention to the argument. “Come on,” he said bracingly. “Who wants to help me convince Peter that Leda is a complete cow?”

Lily, who had been, up to this point, scribbling furiously away at a Charms essay, looked up and frowned at Sirius. “We’ve talked about this,” she said sternly.

Sirius put on his biggest puppy-dog look. “I know, Evans,” he wheedled. “But it’s not for me, it’s for Wormtail! Can’t you see how much he needs it?”

Lily glanced over at Peter, who did indeed look morose. “Well,” she said grudgingly, “you could do better. As a girlfriend, anyway.”

When Sirius looked smug, Lily looked at him sharply. “But you don’t have to keep being so nasty about her,” she said. “I really don’t understand why you hate her as much as you do.”

“Oh, I don’t hate her,” Sirius sighed. “I just don’t think she should be a Gryffindor.”

“What?” Lily asked, surprised.

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I mean, come on. You saw her in class the other day. She’s not brave, and she’s sure as hell not loyal. What is a Gryffindor if not that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lily said thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s just a different kind of bravery. She is Keeper, you know, and that’s the kind of thing that would terrify me.”

“Oh, whatever,” Sirius said. “You’re brave about things that matter.”

“Stop that, you’re embarrassing me,” Lily deadpanned. “But I guess you could say that she is brave about going after what she wants?”

“Okay,” Sirius argued, “but when going after what she wants means treating people this carelessly? I don’t buy it.”

Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Lily just sighed and said, “Well, I guess you just have to trust that maybe the Sorting Hat knows something you don’t.”

“What did you just say?” James said suddenly, speaking for the first time. Lily, Sirius, and Peter all looked across the table at him, surprised.

“Um, I said that maybe the Sorting Hat knows something that Sirius doesn’t?” Lily said, perplexed.

Remus, who had been bending over the same piece of parchment as James, looked up as well. “What did she just say?” he asked James.

“That maybe the Sorting Hat knows something Sirius doesn’t,” James whispered back.

“Do you think�””

“Yeah, it might be�””

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of that.”

“I know, honestly. So if we�””

“What are you two talking about?” Sirius interrupted, looking back and forth between James and Remus. “What are you doing over there?”

“Potions homework,” Remus said vaguely.

“James isn’t in Potions,” Lily pointed out patiently.

“Oh yeah…” Remus said, looking down at the parchment again and sucking on the tip of his quill.

Peter stood up, his hands on the table, leaning forward and craning is neck. “Is that a map?” he asked. “Is that the map?”

“No way,” Sirius said excitedly, his interest piqued. “I thought we gave up on that idea a year ago.”

“We did,” James said, looking up and grinning. “But Remus got to thinking about it again, and we thought maybe we’d give it another go.”

“We weren’t really having any luck,” Remus said, “since it’s so hard to plot a building like Hogwarts�””

“�”and we realized we were limited by what we know of the castle,” James finished for him. “But Lily just mentioned the Sorting Hat�””

“�”which reminded us that there are enchanted objects whose knowledge extends past that of their creators!” Remus said gleefully.

“So this map is a complete possibility!” Sirius said. “Why didn’t you tell me we were starting up again? I would have helped! Peter too.”

“We didn’t want to get your hopes up,” James said apologetically. “But get over here, we could use you to figure this out…”

Sirius scrambled to his feet, going around to the other side of the table. A befuddled Lily glanced over at Peter, who was still sitting at the table, his chin in his hands. “I didn’t understand a word of that,” she told him.

“I never do,” he said glumly.

---

Lily was awakened early the next morning by a plaintive mewing.

Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, she groaned as she rolled over. It was, in her opinion, an ungodly hour�”but at least the sun streaming brightly through her window meant that today would be nicer than yesterday.

The meow came again, and Lily cracked up one eye to see a small gray cat standing by her pillow. “Hi, Jinx,” she muttered, recognizing the cat as James’s. Lily had, in fact, given Jinx to him on his last birthday. “How’d you get in here?”

The cat purred happily, butting her head against Lily’s face. Lily sat up, yawning, and reached out to stroke Jinx before noticing the small roll of parchment tied around her neck. “What are you, an owl now?” Lily asked, detaching the parchment and unrolling it. Jinx hopped on her lap, demanding to be petted, as Lily read the letter.

Wake up, Evans! it said, in James’s messy scrawl.

It’s a beautiful day outside. Perfect flying conditions�”I haven’t forgotten! Get out of bed and down to the common room now. And Jinx is under strict orders to keep meowing until you do, so don’t think you’re getting out of this. See you in a bit, James x.

Lily stared at the end of the letter for a moment, wondering if the “x” at the end was what it looked like, or merely a spelling mistake. Who knows, she thought to herself, maybe I just can’t read his writing.

Jinx made another tiny cat sound from the bed, and Lily grinned and scooped her up. “All right,” she said. “I’m coming.”

Leaving the letter on the bed, she set about getting dressed, trying her hardest not to wake the other three girls. Leda shifted slightly in her sleep, but Amelia and Mary were dead to the world Ten minutes later, Jinx under her arm, Lily was sliding quietly out the door and down the stairs.

“Hey,” a grinning James said to her, rising from an armchair with his broom in hand as she entered the common room. Jinx leapt from Lily’s arms to wind between his feet.

“So you’re really serious about this, huh?” Lily asked, eyeing the broom not without some trepidation.

“Of course I am,” he said calmly. “Let’s go.”

They made their way down to the Quidditch pitch, Lily dragging her feet with every step. “Why are we out here so early?” she said as they walked onto the grounds together.

“Because no one else is,” James told her. “Unless you’d prefer an audience?”

“No,” Lily grumbled. “I’d prefer to be asleep, like all of the normal people.”

James made a face. “Normal’s no fun,” he said.

“Well, you would know,” Lily teased him, but her smirk died on her face as they reached the Quidditch pitch. She looked up at the stands and the hoops, suddenly realizing just how high they were.

“You know what, James?” she said abruptly, turning to him. “I don’t really want to do this.”

“I know you don’t,” he said, looking back at her. “That’s why we’re here.”

She still felt�”and looked, she was sure�”a little queasy. “Don’t worry,” James said, seeing this. “I’m not just going to throw you on a broom and make you go. The whole point is getting you to enjoy this.” In one swift, fluid movement, he swung a leg over his broomstick and pushed off from the ground, doing a quick loop-de-loop over her head. Lily tried not to wince as, gracefully, he landed right in front of her. “Get on,” he said, grinning.

“Uh, James,” Lily felt compelled to point out. “You’re on there.”

“I know,” he said, patting the handle of his broom affectionately. “My baby’s a Silver Arrow, she can take us both.”

Lily just looked at him suspiciously.

“Come on, Evans,” he said finally, in laughing exasperation. “I know what I’m doing. Get on.”

Slowly, tentatively, she stepped forward, gingerly getting on in front of him. “Now what?” she asked.

His arms went around her, closing on the smooth wood of the broom handle. “Now nothing,” he said, and she felt his voice rumble through his chest, which was pressed against her back. “I’ve got it from here. You just hold on…and keep your eyes open.”

“What?” Lily started to ask, but he had pushed off from the ground, and she grabbed for the broom, reflexively closing her eyes tightly. She felt the wind whip past her face, colder than she had expected in the early throes of fall, but the shape of James behind her was warm and oddly reassuring, his arms tightening around her as they gathered speed.

“Your eyes are closed, aren’t they?” she heard him say in her ear, and she cracked one open.

“How could you tell?” she shouted back, scared to turn her head and risk unbalancing them.

“I know you!” he called. “Open up, it’s part of the fun.”

“No sudden movements, please!” she begged him, but he laughed.

“No promises,” she thought she heard him say, and she was about to protest when she took her first real look around.

They were high, but not quite as high as they could have been�”they were just level with the tops of the trees at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They were moving gently in a large circle around the Quidditch pitch. Lily looked down and gulped�”the ground was passing below them at an alarming rate, and she looked up again quickly. But once she did, her sense of vertigo diminished; she could see birds circling the forest, flying like they were, and had a sudden, bizarre urge to race them; she could see Hagrid’s hut, and the gamekeeper himself poking around in his garden. The ends of the Whomping Willow waved, slightly sinisterly, in the breeze, and the rest of the grounds rolled out before them, the castle rolling out ahead. Ever so slightly, Lily relaxed. Wow, she thought. So this is flying.

Behind her, she felt James laugh, and there was nothing at all mocking or self-deprecating in it, as there so often was; it was a bubble of pure joy, reveling in the being free. For the first time, Lily thought, she might understand why he loved it like he did.

After a few more minutes, they began to spiral slowly downwards. Forced to suddenly payattention to the ground once more, Lily felt her nerves rise again, and held her breath. But they landed softly and without incident, and Lily slid off the broomstick as soon as her feet were on solid ground again and turned to face him.

“So?” James asked, beaming at her. “What did you think?”

“Well,” Lily said, a little shakily, “I don’t think I’m quite ready to do that on my own yet. But you…you’re a good teacher.”

James took a step towards her, grinning cockily. “What was that, Evans?” he asked, standing so close they were almost touching, and gazing down at her. “I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

“Oh, you heard me,” Lily said, pushing him playfully in the chest.

“Still,” James laughed, catching her hand, “I think you can say it again.”

She opened her mouth, to give in or to keep teasing him she wasn’t sure, but as his hand tightened around hers she forgot them, leaning forward almost involuntarily. “James,” she half-whispered,

“Yeah?” he murmured back, almost urgently, as she fell silent.

“I…” and she could feel his breath, warm, on her face as her eyes fluttered shut and his hand traveled from hers along her arm to cup the back of her neck…

“Hey you guys, what’re you doing?”

At the sound of Leda’s voice, Lily and James leapt apart almost guiltily. Lily, feeling a little ruffled, twined a lock of her hair around her finger and looked over at Leda, who stood a few feet away from them, holding a broomstick and smiling angelically. Her lustrous black hair was tied back in a long plait, and she looked between the two of them innocently.

“Just, ah, teaching Lily here how to fly,” James said hoarsely, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking at the grass.

“Oh, dear,” Leda tinkled, as if Lily wasn’t there. “How’s that going?”

James glanced up, looking over at Lily, who raised her eyebrows at him. “Just fine,” he said to Leda smoothly.

“Good,” Leda said. “I just came out here to practice some Quidditch. It’s such a nice day out. And Lily, you left that letter from James open on your bed. I saw it and I thought maybe we could all play a game together!”

“Well, I think we were planning on heading back to the castle soon,” Lily said, feeling suddenly territorial. “But thanks for the invite.”

“Aw, come on, Lils,” James suddenly surprised her by saying. He gave her a roguish wink. “It is a gorgeous day…perfect flying weather, really, and there won’t be many more days like this. Plus, you admitted that you liked it!”

She had, but Lily was not about to make a fool of herself on a broomstick in front of Leda. “We only have two brooms,” she observed.

Leda shrugged. “You could just watch,” she suggested sweetly, “or go back if you want. James and I will play.” She looked at James conspiratorially. “The poor girl’s afraid of heights, you know, she’d be a disaster in a game.”

Lily, who could scarcely believe what she was hearing, felt her temper rise as she waited for James to defend her. But he said nothing, looking awkwardly at the ground once again. Fine, Lily thought, not without anger. I’ll do it myself.

She took a deep breathe, preparing to give Leda a piece of her mind, but before she could let out a word they all heard a loud barking, and turned to see a gigantic black dog bounding across the Quidditch pitch towards them. James coughed loudly as the dog reached them, wiggling excitedly and wagging his tail, but Lily grinned, glad for the interruption, and knelt to scratch him behind the ears.

“Wow,” James said pointedly, scowling slightly. “That is one Siriusly big dog.”

Lily frowned at him. “I know that,” she said acidly. “I do have eyes.”

“Eugh,” Leda said, eyeing both the dog and Lily distastefully. “I can’t believe you’re petting that thing, Lily, it’s probably covered with fleas.”

The dog turned to her as she said this, hackles raised, his lip curled in a ferocious snarl. “Down, boy,” James muttered.

Leda took several nervous steps backwards. “I think I’m going to get in the air,” she said, before adding to James, “I’ll see you up there.”

She took off, leaving Lily alone with James and the black dog.

“Real nice, Sirius,” James hissed to the dog. “Very subtle.”

Lily, who was still slightly miffed that James hadn’t defended her�”and had no desire to be around Leda any more than necessary�”said, “I think I’m going to head back to the castle.”

She waited for a moment, expecting James to follow her, and was startled when he said, “All right. I’m going to fly a little more.” And he mounted his broom and leapt into the sky before she could protest.

“Huh,” she said, at a loss. She watched him join Leda, the two of them swooping far above her as if they had been born there. The dog whined, and nudged at her hand, and after a moment, she turned and headed back towards the castle.

The dog trotted ahead of her, looking around in a very un-doglike fashion as they turned a corner. Seemingly confident that the coast was clear, he transformed back into Sirius Black, and looked at Lily with sympathy.

“Don’t worry about James,” he said at once. “He didn’t mean to blow you off or anything.”

“Sure felt like it,” Lily grumbled. “And for Leda?”

Sirius shook his head. “It wasn’t for Leda,” he said confidently. “It was for flying. He’d live up there if he could. No one�”not you, not even me, is going to keep him out of the sky on a day like today. Don’t take it personally. He only has so much time to fly before the weather turns bad. I think it keeps him sane, honestly.”

“What were you doing out here?” Lily asked him. “Not that I don’t appreciate the rescue.”

“Oh, that,” Sirius said as they approached the castle doors. “Well, you know, same thing, kind of. Fish have to swim, James has to fly, and I�””

“Have to run around the Forbidden Forest as a dog?” Lily finished for him, laughing.

“Hey,” Sirius said, wagging a finger at her, “don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Dogs are happy. It’s a nice escape, sometimes. Anyway, then I saw the three of you standing there, and you looked like you were a few seconds away from socking Leda in the jaw, and as much as I’d like to see that, I thought you’d probably regret it later, so I stepped in.”

“I wouldn’t have regretted it,” Lily muttered.

“Watch out,” Sirius sneered. “You’re starting to sound like me.”

Lily stuck her tongue out at him. “Well, it was just too early in the morning to deal with her.”

Sirius shrugged. “Fair point,” he said as they pushed open the door into the Entrance Hall together. “Although I personally think that any time of day is too early for�””

He broke off in a gasp as the door opened and they were both drenched with ice-cold water; a pail of it had been magically rigged to the top of the door, and it had fallen onto them.

Lily yelped inadvertently, dripping water all over the floor, and Sirius shook like a dog, droplets falling off his black hair like rain.

“What,” Lily breathed, “was that?”

“Maybe someone thought you needed cooling off,” Sirius said dubiously, checking the ceiling for more booby traps. “Kidding, kidding!” he said as she snarled at him.

“Ugh,” Lily said, ringing out the sleeves of her robes, “that was horrible. What a wakeup call.”

“Yeah…” Sirius said thoughtfully. “Why the front door, I wonder? Why not out of a dorm, or into a bathroom or something?”

“What are you getting at?” Lily asked, as the two of them began to drip their way up to Gryffindor Tower.

“Well,” Sirius mused, “it seems more intentional, this way. That wasn’t there when any of us left, and there aren’t too many people outside, especially this early. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem random. It seems like that was specifically for us. Or for you and James, maybe, with all the pranks that have been pulled on the two of you lately…I mean, if they’re targeting authority figures, then I’m definitely not one.”

“Actually,” Lily said thoughtfully, “you kind of are.”

“Take that back!” gasped Sirius, and Lily chuckled.

“I just mean,” she clarified, “that if there was anyone in this school who wanted to be known for pulling pranks, well, you’re the defending champ. You’re the one they’d have to beat for the title.”

Sirius looked slightly mollified. “Huh,” he said. “I guess you’re right. Cool!”

“You’d best keep your eyes open from now on,” Lily advised him.

“Don’t worry about me,” Sirius sniffed. “I will. I want to find out who’s doing this.”

When Lily walked into her dormitory one evening, she had the distinct impression that Leda and Mary were talking about her. The two of them were sitting together on Leda’s bed, looking very serious, and when Lily pushed open the door, they hushed immediately and blinked owlishly over at her.

“Oh, hi, Lily!” Mary said in a falsely bright voice, while Leda gazed out the window.

“Hey,” Lily said slowly, looking back and forth between the two of them. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing much,” Mary said in the same overly-cheerful voice. Leda said something in an undertone, and Mary turned to whisper back to her. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Lily swung her bag onto her own four-poster bed and began sorting through her books.

Potions essay, she thought, running through her mental list of homework assignments. Charms practice, and, oh, where are my Transfiguration notes… In the back of her mind, Lily was uncomfortably aware of how behind she’d gotten on her homework. She’d been planning on taking it to the common room with her, but she had attempted that for the past few nights, and James and Sirius had always managed to distract her in some way or another. I should really just go to the library, she sighed inwardly, or try to do it up here.

It was as she thought this, however, that she became aware of Mary and Leda’s stream of whispered conversation behind her. She wasn’t trying to eavesdrop�”not really�”but she couldn’t help overhearing a little bit of what they were saying as she aimlessly shuffled her books around.

“It was so sweet!” Leda was saying excitedly. “I totally thought he was going to…but then I guess he got shy or something.”

“He knows how to be shy?” Mary hissed back. “I had no idea!”

The two of them had lapsed into giggles when Leda looked up suddenly, and Lily did not drop her gaze quickly enough. Silence fell in the room, awkwardly and suddenly. Right, she thought. Library then.

Soundlessly, she shoved a few books back in her bag at random, and turned to leave the room. As the door closed behind her, she heard Leda and Mary erupt into laughter once more.



Lily felt guilty the second she stepped through the library doors. I used to practically live here, she thought, gazing around at all the books. But I’ve only been in a handful of times this year.

Worth it, a smaller part of her brain whispered, but she ignored it, instead dumping her bag onto an empty table and pulling out her Potions essay.

She was halfway through the essay when she heard a soft voice say, “Hey, Lily. Mind if I join you?”

Surprised, Lily looked up, the end of her quill in her mouth, and saw diminutive, round-faced Alice Rourke standing in front of her.

“Not at all,” said Lily, spitting out the tip of her quill and shuffling her parchment, clearing a space for the Hufflepuff prefect.

Alice smiled shyly at her and sat down. “Are you working on the Potions essay?” she asked, and Lily nodded glumly.

“It’s tough going,” she said. “Professor Slughorn is taking our N.E.W.T. year very seriously.”

“I know,” Alice sighed. “I’ve barely started it yet. I tried in our common room earlier, but I got so turned around, and the only other Hufflepuff seventh-year in N.E.W.T. Potions is Isaac Smith, and, well, you know what he’s like.”

Lily, who had had her own experiences with the arrogant Smith the previous year, grimaced in sympathy. “I’ve made a decent dent in my essay,” she told Alice. “I can probably give you a hand.”

Alice looked at her in relief. “Oh, that would be wonderful,” she said. “Potions really isn’t my best subject, I still can’t believe I managed to get the E in our O.W.L.s. I wouldn’t even be taking it if I didn’t want to be an Auror.”

Lily looked over at her in surprise. “You want to be an Auror?”

“Oh, yes,” Alice said. “I have for awhile now. Especially, you know, considering how it’s getting out there…”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked, feeling suddenly ashamed about her lack of knowledge in the ouside world. “I mean, I get the Daily Prophet and all, but it doesn’t say much…just mentions a few odd disappearances every now and then…”

Alice nodded. “A lot of what I hear isn’t from the Prophet. They’ve never been the most…well, you know, reliable when it comes to things like that. But I’ve been writing to Frank, and he lets things slip every now and again.”

“Frank Longbottom?” Lily said curiously, looking up at Alice. “I didn’t realize you knew Frank.”

Alice, to her amusement, blushed. “Well I didn’t really, when we were both at Hogwarts. But after he graduated last year he went on to study becoming an Auror, and he was the only one accepted, and I sent him a letter asking for advice, since it’s what I want to do, and, well, we’ve been writing pretty regularly ever since.”

Lily grinned. “Yeah, I could’ve guessed Frank would do the Auror thing,” she said. “He and Marlene Mckinnon were always the best their year at Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

Alice was silent for a moment. “They were Head Boy and Girl, too, weren’t they?” she asked finally, and Lily nodded. “It’s funny,” Alice continued. “That makes this the second year in a row when the Head Boy and Girl are both Gryffindors…and both a couple.”

“Oh, Frank and Marlene never dated,” Lily said absently, scratching out a sentence in her Potions essay. “They were just friends, and�”” she suddenly registered what Alice had said, and overturned her inkbottle in surprise. “And James and I aren’t a couple!”

Alice, who looked momentarily startled by this outburst, laughed. “I’m sorry!” she said, grinning. “I just kind of assumed…I mean, you are always together.”

“We are not,” Lily said primly, siphoning the ink off the table with her wand. “And we aren’t, you know…together.”

“Okay,” Alice said dubiously, shrugging. “It’s just what people are saying.”

Hearing this, Lily felt a sharp twinge of annoyance�”not at Alice, but at the entire gossip chain of Hogwarts in general. She had a sudden, desperate pang of longing for Marlene; the older girl had, of course, commented on Lily’s burgeoning relationship with the boy she had once claimed to detest, but she hadn’t ever felt the need to try and tell Lily what to do. And she hadn’t ever done the kind of behind-her-back whispering that Mary and Leda had done earlier.

Lily remembered, quite suddenly, how both Sirius and Remus had, in their own ways, encouraged her to get a move on with James, and how everyone they interacted with�”and some people they didn’t�”seemed to think it was inevitable that they would get together.

Really, Lily thought irritably, the only person who had any right to say anything on the subject was James himself, and he was the only one who hadn’t breathed a word.

---

“So what are we going to do tonight?”

James, who was dragging a piece of string along the ground while Jinx chased it, looked up perplexedly at Sirius’s question. “What do you mean, what are we going to do tonight?” he asked laughingly.

“It’s full moon!” Peter chirped from where he was sprawled across his four-poster. “We’re doing what we always do on the full moon.”

“What, the forest again?” Sirius scoffed. “I’m so tired of just chasing the werewolf through the forest. We always do that. I know every single inch of that forest.”

“Well, would you rather explore the lake?” James asked dryly, twitching his string away from Jinx. The tiny cat crouched, her tail twitching.

“Nah,” Sirius said casually, stretching his arms up over his head. “I was thinking we should check out Hogsmeade instead.”

“No way,” James said flatly, and Peter looked nervously between the two of them.

Sirius, surprised, raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” he asked, almost petulantly. “We’ve done it before.”

“I know,” James said seriously. “And the last time, Moony almost gave us the slip. What if that happens again? He could bite someone, and you know he’d never be able to live with himself if he did that. We didn’t even get a chance to talk to him this week before he went to the Shack.”

Sirius threw him a look that James couldn’t quite interpret. “Wow,” he said after a long pause. “When did you grow up so much, Prongs? You’re practically middle-aged.”

James, not sure if he was being insulted, said nothing. After a moment, Sirius shrugged and added, “It must be that Head Boy badge getting to you. I guess it’s the forest again, then.”

There was another tense moment. Then Peter, apparently unable to bear it, jumped to his feet and said “Well, I’m going to go see Professor Flitwick about my last Charms essay.” And he darted from the room before either James or Sirius could say anything.

Sirius flopped onto his bed, his back towards James, but James found he was unable to keep his mind on his best friend’s sulking. For what seemed like the hundredth time that week, his thoughts strayed to Lily Evans�”to every single little moment they had had together since the start of term, and to how, despite that, he seemed to be no closer to going on an actual date with her than ever before.

It frustrated him; James was not used to unsolvable problems. His tended to be more fixable�”Gryffindor down by ten? Get control of the Quaffle. Remus is a werewolf? Become an Animagus. Peter fretting ridiculously about something silly? Hit him on the head and move on. But Lily…Lily was something that he couldn’t figure out or control. And maybe that was why he liked her as much as he did, but it sure didn’t make things any easier.

Hesitantly, James looked up at Sirius’s turned back. He held his piece of string still a minute too long, and Jinx, seizing the opportunity, leapt on it, stealing it from his unresisting hand and dragging it triumphantly away.

James watched this with some amusement for a moment before glancing back up. “Hey, Padfoot?” he said cautiously, and Sirius, perhaps sensing by his voice that this was not a continuation of their earlier spat but something more serious, rolled over.

“What’s up?” he asked.

James bit his lip, dropping his gaze to his knees for a long minute before saying, finally, “I think I’m losing her.”

“Who, Lily?” Sirius asked, and James was aware of Sirius slipping off of his four-poster to join him on the ground.

“Yeah,” James said, shrugging. “I don’t know, this year just…isn’t going the way I thought it would.”

“So, then,” Sirius asked, “what are you going to do about it?”

And this, James thought a little wryly, was why Sirius Black was his best friend. He loved Remus and Peter like brothers, to the point of knowing that he would, if he had to, die for them, but at times like these, it was Sirius who knew him best. If he’d tried to have this conversation with anyone else…well, Peter would have commiserated and Remus would have given him encouraging advice, but only Sirius would make him try to find a solution.

“Wait around for her to come to terms with the fact that I am, actually, a prime specimen of masculinity and succumb to her raging desire for me?” James asked hopefully.

Sirius considered this for a second. “Yep,” he said finally. “That should do it.”

“Good,” James grinned. “As long as I don’t have to strain myself.”

“Can’t remember the last time you did that,” Sirius yawned, eyeing him. “But truthfully, Prongsy?”

“Yes,” James said without hesitation. “Truthfully.”

“You have to say something.”

“I was afraid of that,” James sighed. “But…come on, I made the move last time! This one is on her.”

Sirius laughed wryly. “Yeah, well, for whatever reason, she’s holding her breath. So you could either sit on your ass for another seven years and hope that changes…or you could remind her.” He paused, and looked out the window, where the sun was steadily setting. “Not tonight, though, it’s almost moonrise.”

James sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I know you’re right. I’m just…”

“Scared?” Sirius supplied. James threw him a look.

“I was going to go with nervous,” he said. “Maybe. A little bit.”

Sirius’s wolfish grin broadened. “You’re terrified. Drop. Dead. Petrified.”

“Anxious!” James protested. “Mildly!”

“Whatever, Prongs,” Sirius smirked, flopping onto his back, before murmuring under his breath, “Fraaaaidy-cat.”

James, in retaliation, scooped up Jinx, who was still playing with the string, and dumped her, claws and all, on Sirius’s chest.

“What kind of cat?” he asked smugly as Sirius yelped.

---

That evening, after dark, Lily made her way back to the common room alone. She was relieved to find it empty�”especially since she was unwilling to go back to her dorm, unsure if Mary and Leda were still awake and gossiping. Mentally preparing herself, she sunk into an armchair by the fire, suddenly exhausted.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting there when she noticed something moving near her hand, where it rested on the arm of the chair. Slowly, she tipped her head forward, gazing down at the small brown rat who stood by her hand, his tail twitching as he blinked back up at her.

For a moment, she didn’t move. Then, slowly, she looked around the room, making sure she was alone, before she leaned forward, and, feeling rather foolish, whispered, “Peter? Is that you?”

A loud burst of laughter behind her made her leap to her feet, thoroughly startled. In the middle of the common room, James and Sirius pulled off the Invisibility Cloak, seemingly appearing in midair. Lily swatted at them. “Not funny!” she said emphatically. “I almost had a heart attack.”

“Sorry, Lily,” James said, still chuckling.

“We couldn’t resist,” Sirius added. “I’ve been wanting to do that to someone forever, but no one’s ever known…”

“Well thank you,” Lily said dryly, “for choosing me. Now get out of here. Don’t you have a werewolf to go chase around or something?”

“Absolutely,” James said. “Come on, Wormtail!” And the rat scampered up the back of Lily’s chair and onto Sirius’s shoulder.

James made a face. “He always likes you better when he’s a rat,” he said to Sirius.

“Animal magnetism,” Sirius told him.

“Oh, get out of here,” Lily said, picking up her bag. “It’s past my bedtime anyway.”

She waved them away, heading up the stairs and laughing silently to herself�”it was amazing, she thought, how they got away with so much without anyone noticing. It was this thought that had her preoccupied as she slid into her dark dormitory, silently getting ready for bed, and, perhaps, why she didn’t realize that, even though Mary and Amelia were sound asleep, Leda’s four-poster was empty.

---

“I’m really glad your Animagus form is so small, Wormtail,” Sirius said as they walked out onto the grounds, still tucked beneath the cloak. “I mean, James and I can barely fit beneath this thing ourselves anymore, at least you can get so small that you don’t take up much room at a�”ow! What was that for?”

“Shut up!” hissed James, who had just hit him in the side.

“Why?” Sirius asked irritably at a normal volume.

“Just do it,” James whispered, and Sirius, about to argue, clamped his mouth shut as he saw a figure walking towards them.

“Who is that?” Sirius muttered, annoyed. “Who’s out here this late?”

“You mean, besides us?” James murmured, making sure the cloak covered their feet. He squinted into the darkness. “Is that…I think it’s Leda.”

Sirius groaned loudly, earning himself another elbow in the ribs. “What is she doing out here?” he moaned.

“I don’t know,” said James testily, “but we better get her out of here.”

“We can’t just hide until she goes away?” asked Sirius petulantly.

“Yeah,” James said, “if you want to hide all night in the Shrieking Shack with a restless werewolf.”

“Good point,” Sirius sighed. “You want to go or should I?”

“I’ll do it,” James said, rolling his eyes. “You’ll kill her.”

“Good point,” Sirius said again as James ducked out from under the cloak.

Reluctantly, James jogged towards Leda, who turned to face him, squinting through the gloom.

“Merlin, James, you scared me!” she said, a hand over her chest.

“What are you doing out here, Leda?” he asked her bluntly, getting to the point.

Leda shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said a little coyly. “I was just…up for an adventure. I figured you’d be game.”

James considered this. True. He usually was up for any kind of an adventure. But�”“How did you know we’d be out here?” he asked.

“Oh, that,” Leda said, laughing her tinkly little laugh. “I ran into Peter earlier near Professor Flitwick’s office, and he mentioned something about you being on the grounds tonight. He wouldn’t give me specifics, but it sounded exciting.”

A few yards away, under the Invisibility Cloak, Sirius turned to glare at Peter, who had turned back into himself. “Sorry,” Peter murmured. “I forgot about that.”

“There’s just some information you keep to yourself, Wormtail,” Sirius said out of the corner of his mouth, “no matter how much you want to impress the girl.”

“Yeah,” Peter sighed mournfully. “I know. But she said she hadn’t seen you or James around much�””

“�”because we hide from her�””

“�”and she wanted to know what we’d been up to lately! And I said not much but we’d be heading out tonight, and then I remembered that that’s a secret and I ran away.”

Sirius snorted. “Nice. Very sophisticated.”

“Oh, whatever,” Peter groused back, careful to keep his voice low. “I didn’t�”hey. Is she…flirting with him?”

Sirius glanced up. Leda had just playfully run her fingers down James’s arm.

“Nah,” Sirius said. “She’s not.” When Peter just looked at him solemnly, he amended, “Okay, well, maybe a little, but he’s not having it, look!”

And James had, indeed, just taken a step back, looking vaguely annoyed.

“He’s not having any luck,” Peter commented.

“I’d say he’s having too much,” Sirius said.

Peter coughed.

“Sorry,” Sirius said grudgingly. “But you’re right. He needs help from the pros. Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do…”

James, standing with Leda, was getting frustrated�”she just wouldn’t leave. He glanced nervously at the moon before looking back at her and saying, “Maybe we should, ah, save this adventure thing for another night, you know…”

“Why?” Leda asked teasingly. “You don’t seem to have much company right now,”

James winced imperceptibly. “Yeah,” he said, “about that…”

But he was interrupted by a loud growl. Leda jumped, reaching out and grabbing a handful of his robes reflexively as a large black dog appeared out of the night.

“Ugh!” she said. “It’s that dog again, it’s so creepy. Can’t Hagrid keep control of his pets?”

“Hagrid doesn’t have a dog,” James said vaguely. “Look, you go inside, I’ll chase it off.”

“You’re sure?” Leda asked, and James nodded. “Well, hurry in,” Leda sniffed. “I’ll be worried sick until I know you’re okay.”

She hesitated, but the dog started barking loudly, and she backed up a few steps before turning and darting into the castle. James started to grin at the dog, but jumped as the Invisibility Cloak was thrown suddenly over his head.

“Oh,” he said, startled. “Hi, Peter.”

“Hi,” Peter said, making sure they were fully hidden.

“Good job,” said James. “I think Sirius really enjoyed that.”

Sirius, who had stopped barking shortly after Leda had reentered the castle, looked over his shoulder.

“We’re over here!” Peter whispered, and Sirius, nose in the air, trotted towards them, his tail wagging.

“Come on,” James said, pulling the cloak off and stuffing it in his pocket. “Let’s go before she comes back.”

Sirius yipped happily.

“I think we should do something for Halloween this year,” Sirius said one evening near the end of October.

Remus, from where he was sprawled by the common room fire with a book, as per usual, looked up suspiciously. “And by ‘something’ you mean…”

Sirius’s grin had an edge to it. “Right,” Remus said. “That’s what I thought.”

Peter was beginning to look excited at the prospects of a bout of rule breaking, but James, who was sitting a few feet away, paging idly through his Transfiguration notes, said without looking up, “No.”

Sirius, startled, turned his head, the light going out of his eyes. “Just like that?” he said, his voice hard.

James blinked at him. “What?” he asked, and Sirius snorted.

“I didn’t realize you were the one in charge here,” he said bitterly. “But I guess if the Head Boy says it’s against the rules, then I guess we’re out.”

“That’s not what I meant at all,” said James, bewildered. “Calm down, Sirius. I just meant not on Halloween. It’s our last year, everyone’s going to expect that. I think we should take Halloween off. Pull the rug out from under them all a week later.”

There was a short pause. “Oh,” Sirius said finally, looking a little embarrassed. “Right. Sorry. And, actually, that’s a good point.”

James’s returning smile was ever so uncomfortable, but when he spoke, it was in those jaunty, cocky tones that they all knew so well. “Of course it is. I’m brilliant. We knew that already.”

“Whatever,” Sirius rolled his eyes, glad to be moving past the moment. “What should we do?”

“I have no idea,” James said. “I hadn’t gotten that far. But can we please, please wait to plan something until after the dance? That’s taking all the energy I have right now.”

“Yes!” Remus agreed, looking up at Sirius with puppy-dog eyes. “Please! It’s overwhelming.”

Sirius snorted again. “Look at you two, with your responsibilities. Maybe Wormtail and I will just come up with something ourselves.”

“If you do anything to disrupt the planning of this dance,” James said darkly, “I will end you.”

Sirius held up his hands in mock-surrender, but winked at Peter when James dropped his gaze. If he was being honest with himself, Sirius thought, he was kind of looking forward to Halloween this year. For this first time since he had been at Hogwarts, the staff had announced that they would be forgoing the annual Halloween Feast, and in its place would be a masquerade ball. Sirius hadn’t told anyone this, and he wasn’t planning to, but he’d been working on his costume for the better part of the past two weeks.

The dance had been all most people had been able to talk about recently, and James and Remus, more than anyone else, kept bringing it up. Prefects were in charge of setting it up, and had to report to the Great Hall every day after classes in order to assist with the preparations. James and Lily, as Head Boy and Girl, were required to be there as well, in order to supervise the prefects�”something that had earned Remus quite a bit of teasing from James.

The two of them were bent together, discussing something�”probably some new sort of interior design scheme, Sirius thought with a smirk. Personally, he thought there should be some sort of maze, full of spooky corners perfect for pranking, but no one had asked his opinion, and he decided to keep it to himself, interested to see what they’d come up with. Instead, he turned his thoughts to the subject of dates.

James would probably want to go with Lily, Sirius reasoned. And for all our sakes, I hope she says yes, he thought with a quick shake of his head. Peter’s going to moon after Leda, and either he asks her and she turns him down, or he doesn’t ask her and just mopes around all night. Remus, well, he’s not going to ask anyone�”well, maybe Moaning Myrtle, she’s not going to grope him while they’re dancing�”and as for me…

Sirius sighed inwardly, his thoughts trailing off. When had it all gotten so complicated? Frankly, he didn’t want to take a date. And he didn’t want any of his mates to, either. Girls, he decided, complicated things. He liked them all right, especially Lily, now that she was hanging around, but he missed the old days, when it was just the four of them, and they had each other’s backs. If a dance like this had happened in, oh, the fourth year, he would have gone with James, Remus, and Peter, and they would have joked around, daring each other to ask the prettiest girls to dance, and spiking the punch with a Babbling Beverage just to see what would happen. But this, their last year…it wouldn’t happen like that. They were supposed to have matured, or some such nonsense. There were other things to think about.

Sirius cast a glance over at James, who was now nose-deep in his book again, a stark reminder of how different things were now. James, doing homework. James, supervising prefects for a school-sponsored event. James, hanging about with Lily Evans as though he had been doing it all his life.

Sirius remembered the conversation he and James had had a few days back about James losing Lily, and felt, quite suddenly, that he understood. Maybe this, he thought, was what it felt like to lose James.

---

Biting his lip, Remus took a step back from the table, observing his work.

He was in the Great Hall, a mere two days before Halloween, helping with the finishing touches on the decorations for the dance. Much like Sirius, Remus didn’t really want to admit that he was actually excited for the Masquerade Ball…or that he had highly enjoyed the decorating process.

The fifth-year prefects had been stuck with all the grunt jobs�”which mainly consisted of wresting various festive decorations away from Peeves the Poltergeist. Remus, as a lofty seventh-year, had been more or less free to choose his own tasks, and so he had, for the past several days, spent the majority of his time magically carving pumpkins, which would be levitated into the air on the actual night of Halloween. Most of these pumpkins had been the traditional Jack-O-Lantern face, but for the last four, he had indulged himself. He crossed his arms, smiling happily as he gazed at them; a werewolf, a giant, Grim-like dog, a rat, and a stag adorned the orange vegetables.

The stag, he supposed, wasn’t quite as creepy-looking or Halloweenesque as the other three pumpkins, but it would be tucked beside dozens of others, all floating eerily like the misplaced skulls of members of the Headless Hunt. No one would notice, he was sure, or mind.

Remus felt a tug about his ankles, and looked down in surprise to see a long piece of string twist around his legs. He sidestepped just in time, and looked up to see Peeves, staring cross-eyed at him.

“Loony loopy Lupin,” the poltergeist sang. “Loony loopy Lupin.” Peeves had come up with the song about halfway through Remus’s first year, and seemed to consider it a masterpiece of originality, belting it whenever their paths crossed. Over the years, however, Remus had developed what he considered to be a highly effective solution.

As Peeves turned a cartwheel over his head, still singing, Remus slid a piece of Droobles chewing gum from his pocket (he had taken to carrying the stuff for just this reason), chewed it quickly, and, as Peeves floated by him yet again, spit it at him with all the force he could muster. Peeves, somewhat used to this routine, ducked, just as Remus flicked his wand and muttered, “Waddiwassi!”. The gum rocketed down Peeves’s left nostril. Caterwauling, he zoomed away.

Not without some satisfaction, Remus turned back to his pumpkins, just as a voice behind him said, “You know, I’ve seen that trick a million times, and it never gets old.”

Remus looked up bashfully. “Hey, Prongs,” he said to a grinning James.

Lily appeared at James’s elbow, laughing. “Well, I can’t believe I saw it at all,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s the kind of thing I would expect Sirius to do, Remus, not you.”

Remus shrugged modestly. “Oh, well, Peeves seemed to find me more of an interesting subject than anyone else our year,” he said. “So I had to come up with a way to deal with it. Although, if I remember correctly, Sirius was very impressed with that spell…he seemed to think it meant that he and James had rubbed off on me…”

All three of them chuckled, although Remus stopped abruptly when he felt the telltale tickle at his ankles. He looked down; the string that Peeves had left behind was once more winding itself around his feet, but Peeves was nowhere to be seen. Suspiciously, Remus looked up. James had his wand out, and was flicking it lazily at the string, which tightened suddenly as Remus narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned, as James’s already devilish grin widened.

But before James could act, a black banner that had been thrown across the table swept across the floor, knocking him off his feet. From his back on the floor, he looked up in surprise. Lily, looking smug, waved her wand at him.

“Hey!” James protested loudly. “Cheater.”

“Oh, what,” Lily teased, “you can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

James made a face at her, and then stretched out his hand. “At least help me up,” he said.

Remus saw where this was going and wondered if he should warn Lily; he held his tongue, however, trying not to smile as Lily, rolling her eyes playfully, reached out and grasped James’s hand.

But James, as Remus had known he would, yanked hard. Lily, unsuspecting, tumbled to the floor with a shriek that caused everyone in the vicinity to glance over. It’s fine, Remus mouthed, surreptitiously shaking his head at them as Lily fell, hard, against James, and the two of them lay giggling like children on the floor.

Remus gave them a moment before crossing his arms and looking down at them sternly. “And you’re supposed to be supervising us?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.

James pushed himself to his feet. “Oh, sorry, Professor Lupin” he said, giving a little mock bow and winking. He turned and offered his hand to Lily, who was still on the ground. She eyed it cautiously, and then ignored it and stood, brushing off her robes.

“I think we can leave now anyway,” she said, looking affectionately at them both. “Come on.”

She turned and strolled from the Great Hall, James and Remus following a few steps behind her.

“You know,” James said thoughtfully after a moment, “I actually think that has a nice ring to it.”

“What does?” Remus asked absentmindedly.

“Professor Lupin.”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “Oh you do, do you?” he grinned. “And what would I teach?”

“Astronomy,” James suggested. “In particular, how the full moon makes people a little crazy.”

“Or cooking,” Remus laughed. “How not to overcook your meat.”

“Involuntary Transfiguration!”

“How do you teach something that’s involuntary?” Remus asked, amused.

“You’d find a way,” James told him gravely. “I have faith.”

Remus chuckled, following him into the common room. James was right about one thing, he thought. Professor Lupin…he did like the sound of that.

---

James woke late the next day�”it was a Friday, and he had a free period on Friday mornings. He was alone in the dorm; Remus, he knew, had Advanced Potions with Lily now, and Peter had a standing appointment with Professor Flitwick, thanks to his enduring trouble with Charms.

He wandered down to the common room, yawning widely. It was mostly deserted, which didn’t surprise him; in fact, the only occupant of the room was Sirius, who stood squinting in front of the notice board.

“Hey, Prongs,” Sirius said, turning towards him, “did you know there was a Hogsmeade visit scheduled for tomorrow?”

“What?” James asked, running a hand through his hair and going to stand next to his friend. “No, I had no idea. I’ve been so busy lately…”

“There’s usually one around Halloween,” Sirius pointed out. “I just didn’t realize…I guess you’d go to the village in the morning, and come back for the Halloween Ball in the evening.”

“Busy day,” James said, yawning again.

Sirius looked sideways at him. “It’s a perfect date setup,” he said.

“Why, Padfoot,” James said, putting his hand on his chest. “I was beginning to think you’d never ask me out. After all these years…”

“Ha ha,” Sirius said dryly. “Shut up, you prat. You’re not my type.”

“No one is,” James said, rolling his eyes.

Sirius waved this away impatiently. “Stop dodging,” he said. “You know this is the perfect opportunity for you to wrangle Lily into an actual date.”

James bit his lip. “I guess,” he said slowly. “It’s kind of last minute though, I don’t know…”

As he trailed off, Sirius turned to face him, grasping him firmly by the shoulders. “Come on, James,” he said seriously, giving him a little shake. “You’ve been talking yourself out of this for months.”

“Not months,” James protested sullenly, shuffling his feet.

“Man up,” Sirius told him, punching him in the arm and taking a step back. “Go now!”

James rolled his eyes. “Right,” he said. “She’s in class right now. I’m just going to go bursting in there demanding things? That’ll go over well.”

Sirius checked his watch. “They’re in Potions, right? There’s only about ten minutes left in the period. We usually meet Moony for lunch about now…that’s plenty of time to get down there.”

James crossed his arms and looked at his best friend for a long moment. “Why is this so important to you?” he asked finally.

Sirius shrugged. “I dunno,” he said. “Things are just…weird this year. And I can’t help but think that some of it is because of all this stuff with you and Lily is just so up in the air. I want you to fix it so things can go back to normal.” He paused, cocking his head, then sighed. “And also it’s what you want. And so I want it for you.”

Oddly touched by this, James suddenly found himself at a loss for words. Sirius spared him by saying dryly, “Oh don’t thank me, it’ll get embarrassing. Just go. Before you talk yourself out of it.”

He was right; James knew he was right. Steeling himself, James breathed out, nodded at Sirius, and dashed from the common room.

---

Lily was somewhat surprised, as she filed out of the Potions classroom with Remus, to see James leaning in the doorway of the classroom opposite. She glanced at Remus, to see if he knew what was going on, but he had, quite suddenly, disappeared amidst the throng of students now disappearing down the hall. Shrugging, she crossed the hall to stand in front of James, who looked down at her, smiling crookedly.

“What are you doing down here?” she asked him. “Missing Potions this much?”

He laughed�”a little nervously, she thought, and her curiosity grew.

“Come here,” he said, looking around to make sure everyone had gone, before pulling her into the now empty Potions classroom.

“James, what’s going on?” Lily asked him, utterly perplexed.

He took a deep breath and turned to face her. “So tomorrow’s the Halloween dance,” he said casually.

“I know,” Lily laughed. “We’ve been helping to set it up for over a week now.”

“Oh yeah?” he said, grinning. “Well, did you also know that there’s a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow?”

“There is?” Lily asked, wondering where this was going.

“Yeah,” James said, looking directly at her. “And I want to go. With you. On a date.”

Lily inhaled sharply, her breath catching in her throat. Maybe she should have been expecting this, maybe it had been naïve of her to think that this day would never come…but she didn’t know what to say.

“So what do you say?” James asked, with a shy little shrug. Then he straightened, as though grasping for his confidence, and winked at her. “Come on, Evans,” he said breezily. “It’s meant to be. We might as well stop fighting it.”

Yes, yes, yes, a part of her mind was begging her. Say yes. But the last thing he had said didn’t sit with her…meant to be? As though they had no choice in the matter? It was the same thing that had been bothering her for so long, everyone smugly assuming that they’d be together, as if she was wrong, or only fooling herself, when she had told them that they weren’t.

She felt her temper rise, quite suddenly and unexpectedly�”how could he spring this on her, right now, with no warning? On some level, she knew that he wasn’t unjustified; she had promised him an answer at the beginning of the year, and almost two months had gone by without a word from her. He had been patient, she knew, and yet…Last June felt so incredibly far away…

Her silence stretched on, hardening between them in the cold dungeon. James’s smile didn’t falter, but something tightened in his gaze as he looked at her. “It’s not really a hard question, Lily,” he said woodenly. “It’s a one word answer. Yes or no.”

Of course it was a hard question, she thought, wishing she could run from the room, or rewind time so the past five minutes had never happened. They had been so comfortable together this year, and maybe she had been foolish to think that they could go on forever like that�”being friends, maybe with a little casual flirting, but nothing deeper than that. She wasn’t sure, really, where this resistance was coming from, but she clung to it desperately, because saying yes meant that everything would change, and how could he not know that?

“Right,” James said slowly, looking away from her. “So…that’s a no, then?”

For the first time that day, Lily looked up, meeting his gaze directly. “James,” she said, almost whispered, “I’m sorry, but I just…I can’t.”

He laughed once, almost viciously, looking away from her. “Right,” he said again, “sure. Of course. Stupid me.”

“No, no, it isn’t you,” Lily heard herself say, almost pleadingly. “It’s just…it’s our last year, and we really should focus on that, and on…on important things. There’s a whole world out there, and so much is happening that we don’t know anything about, and it’s time to grow up, and…and I really think that, maybe, we should just be�””

“Friends?” he cut her off, raising an eyebrow scornfully. “I don’t think so.”

She hadn’t been expecting this; startled, hurt, she blinked back at him. “But you said�””

James shook his head. “Yeah, I know what I said last year,” he said, “all that stuff about how I could wait. Well, I lied. Or I was wrong, I don’t know. All I know is that I want you, I want all of you, and I can’t wait around for that any more, because it’s killing me. And you either want me back or you don’t. And I guess you don’t. Which means no, I can’t be friends with you now. I just can’t.”

And he turned, so quickly that she took a step back, and strode from the room. She stood there, blinking after him, trying to ignore the small voice in the back of her head that was telling her she was making the worst mistake of her life.

After a moment, she came to her senses. Shaking her head to clear it, she called, “James!” running from the room after him. But the corridor was empty; he was gone.

---

James heard Lily call his name and reacted without thinking; he threw himself sideways, ducking behind a tapestry into the secret passageway he knew it concealed. He crouched there, barely breathing, as he heard Lily’s footsteps down the hall; never had he wanted to see her less.

He waited long after he was sure she was gone before slipping out from the passage and looking down the corridor. The dungeons were deserted; not sure where to go, James wandered aimlessly into the now-empty Potions room, and sank into a chair, his head in his hands.

That hadn’t gone at all like he had expected it to�”and part of him still didn’t believe it. He closed his eyes, wondering where he had gone wrong, when she had decided that they weren’t compatible, what he could have done to fix it…when suddenly someone, in the back corner of the room, started clapping.

James leapt to his feet and whirled around, his face darkening. There, standing half-in, half-out of the Potions supply cabinet, stood Severus Snape, applauding slowly, his face twisted with some sort of malicious joy.

“Well done, Potter,” he sneered, dropping his hands. “Really. Excellent attempt.”

For a moment, James studied him, almost dispassionately. He hadn’t seen much of Snape over the past couple of months; the other boy was thoroughly enmeshed in a net of Slytherins, and rarely went anywhere alone anymore.

He had gotten taller, James noticed casually, and more sure of himself; he wasn’t hunched, trying to make himself invisible. He was standing straight, staring blazingly at James, the fingers of one hand curled around his wand, the other pressed, inexplicably, to his forearm.

James didn’t know why Snape was choosing now to stand up to him; all he knew was that he had witnessed something private, something painful, and that he was here. James reached for his own wand almost habitually, whipping it out and flinging a jinx at Snape, who, to his surprise, deflected it without a word.

James raised an eyebrow. “Been practicing nonverbal spells, have you, Snivelly?” he taunted, but his words were cut off as Snape, still in complete silence, hit him with a curse that made him feel as though he had been hit in the chest by a car�”he staggered backwards, the wind knocked out of him.

He’d had enough; there had been a time when tormenting Snape had made him feel better, but not now. As much as he was tempted just to lose himself in the dueling and the spells, he couldn’t�”not without seeing Lily’s face, and Lily was the last thing he wanted to see right now.

“Expelliarmus!” he cried, and as the wand slipped from Snape’s hand, James shouted, “Petrificus Totalus!”

Snape’s arms and legs snapped to his sides, and he toppled to the floor. Panting, James looked down at him. “Wrong day, Snivellus,” he said softly, before turning and walking from the room.


James didn’t go to his afternoon classes; worked up by both the conversation with Lily and the confrontation with Snape, he didn’t think he could handle the presence of so many other people. He thought about heading out to the Quidditch pitch, but even the thought of flying didn’t make him feel any better. He didn’t want to go back to the common room either; he didn’t think he could face Sirius wanting to know what had happened.

He was sitting in an empty classroom on the sixth floor, not long after nightfall, when he became aware of someone standing quietly at the door of the classroom. He slid cautiously to his feet, squinting through the darkness, half-wondering if it was Snape again. But it wasn’t�”he realized it was a girl a second later.

“James?” she asked hesitantly, stepping towards him. “What are you doing in here? Are you…are you okay?”

It was Leda; James registered this dimly, with equal amounts of disappointment and relief. “Yeah,” he said, “fine. Just…needed a break.”

“People have been looking for you all over the place,” she said softly, coming to stand in front of him, her brow creased with concern. “Sirius thought Lily might know where you are, but no one can find her either.”

James wasn’t sure how to react to that piece of news either. “Oh,” he said eventually, looking past the top of her head to the darkening corridor outside.

Leda put a hand on his arm. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” she asked.

He opened his mouth to say yes, sure, fine, but to his everlasting horror, he couldn’t get the words out. He looked down at Leda, almost apologetically, and he was so preoccupied by this that he wasn’t expecting it when she stretched onto her tiptoes and softly brushed her lips across his.

James was so surprised by this that, at first, he didn’t know how to react. For a moment, he just let her, but then he turned his head away, thinking, She’s not Lily.

“I’m sorry,” Leda said, looking embarrassed and backing away. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t think, I just…”

She turned, about to slip out of the room, when James heard himself call, “Wait.”

Because she wasn’t Lily, that was the whole point. Unlike Lily, Leda was standing here, right now, looking at him. Wanting him. He had almost forgotten what it had felt like to touch another person like that�”to be the one who was wanted instead of the one who was doing the pining. And for a moment, all he wanted to do was lose himself in that feeling.

“It’s okay,” he said, walking forward to stand in front of her and smiling lightly. “I actually…really needed that tonight.”

Leda looked up at him, taking a step closer. She was pretty, he noticed, but in a way that was very different than Lily’s…maybe that was what he needed right now. So this time, as Leda put her arms around his neck so she could kiss him, he let her.

---

Lily, when she failed to find James after their disastrous encounter in the Potions room, was at a loss with what to do with herself. She thought about going back to the common room, in hopes that he’d show up, but even if he did, she didn’t know what she wanted to say�”what she could say, to make the hole she felt was growing in her gut any smaller.

In the end, she did what she always did when she needed time alone; she went to the library. Dodging the tables crowded with students studying, she slipped in among the bookshelves, weaving her way back to the quietest corner of the library, and sinking down against the shelves.

It isn’t as though it’s that big a deal, she chided herself, breathing deeply. Sure, yes, all right, sometimes I thought that I was a bit attracted to him, but it never would have lasted. We’re just too…too different, it would have made it impossible for us to go back to being friends, if anything had happened. I made the right choice. This is just a blip. In a little bit he’ll realize that, and we’ll be friends again, and everything will be like it was.

It was as it should be, this way. A relationship�”the two of them together, it would have been disastrous. It didn’t make sense for her to be this upset. She didn’t like him that way, not really.

After a while, Lily loosened the hands that were clenched around her knees. She leaned back against the bookshelves, convincing herself that she felt better. That she was right.

It took a little bit longer for her to talk herself into standing up, and rejoining people. She was stiff, and as she walked out into the halls, she was surprised to see that the windows were dark; she hadn’t realized she’d been in the library quite that long.

I must’ve missed dinner, she thought, but she wasn’t that hungry anyway. Slowly, she began the trek back up to Gryffindor Tower.

The corridors were mostly deserted, and growing dark as the evening deepened, the torches on the walls flickering eerily. So when she reached the sixth floor, the couple entangled just inside the doorway of an empty classroom was the first thing she noticed.

A little embarrassed, Lily picked up her pace, hoping to sneak past them before they realized she was there. But as she did so, something about the pair caught her eye; drawing back into a shadowy alcove, out of sight, Lily peered through the darkness at them.

She recognized Leda first; the other girl’s mane of black hair made her easily distinguishable, and Lily almost laughed�”looked like Leda was taking full advantage of Mary’s lessons. But she didn’t recognize the boy�”or maybe she did, but just didn’t want to admit it to herself�”until he lifted his head, grinning slowly, to say something to Leda.

And finally, Lily couldn’t deny it anymore; stepping back into the alcove and closed her eyes, her back against the wall, she held her breath, concealed, as they slipped past her, Leda giggling as they disappeared down the corridor. Because it was James, it was James who had been standing there, kissing Leda, and that was what it took for Lily to realize just how much she did care, after all.

Being with Leda was easy, James found.

It was the next day, and they had gone down to Hogsmeade together; James, who hadn’t gotten back to his dormitory until everyone was asleep, had pretended to be asleep himself that morning as they got up. Only after the room was empty did he slip down the stairs to meet Leda in the common room.

They had been Quidditch teammates for several years now, so they had plenty to talk about on the walk into the village. And this, too, was a relief of sorts for James; if there was one thing that didn’t remind him of Lily�”or, for that matter, any of his friends�”it was Quidditch.

They were debating Gryffindor’s chances for the cup�”James thought Ravenclaw had a good chance of beating them, and Leda thought he was overreacting�”when they passed the Three Broomsticks. It was starting to snow, and James angled his head towards the door.

“Oh, did you fancy a Butterbeer?” Leda asked him, rubbing her mittened hands together.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to the idea,” James grinned, holding the door open for her. “It’s cold out here.”

She nodded in agreement, walking inside. He followed, glad she hadn’t protested in favor of a place like Madame Puddifoots. James didn’t think he was quite ready for that level of exposure.

They had barely taken their seats at the bar when he heard a familiar voice in his ear; “I heard I might see you two here today,” said Mary Macdonald, elbowing her way between them.

“Hi, Mary,” James said dryly, but she ignored him, turning her back to speak to Leda. The two girls bent together over the bar, talking intently in an undertone.

James turned back to his Butterbeer, unruffled. He wasn’t surprised that Mary had heard something about him and Leda�”she was, after all, the Hogwarts gossip. It was her business to know. And people had seen them together, and he was sure that news of that would spread like wildfire. He didn’t mind the gossip chain; it would make things easier on him, later, when he finally got around to telling Sirius and Remus�”and especially Peter�”what had happened.

Thinking about Peter made him uncomfortable. He took a long pull of his drink, trying to ignore the rising feelings of guilt. But surely Peter would understand, he reasoned. After all, Peter had never officially dated Leda, and surely he was over her by now. Besides, James thought, this was good for him. Being with Leda wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was uncomplicated; being her boyfriend wouldn’t be hard. He wouldn’t have to fight for anything. It was what he wanted.

He wondered how many times he would have to say this to himself until it was true.

---

Lily was sulking.

She wasn’t particularly proud of this, but she couldn’t be bothered not to sulk; she rather thought she deserved it. She had slunk cautiously into the common room that morning, feeling again that odd mixture of relief and disappointment when James was nowhere to be found. She supposed he’d gone to Hogsmeade with Leda, and the thought caused a hard fist of anger to curl in her stomach.

She’d been surprised to find that Sirius, Remus, and Peter had all chosen to forgo Hogsmeade as well, and were clustered together at their usual table by the window. Lily had joined them, wordlessly sliding into the empty seat behind Remus. He and Sirius had both greeted her normally, and for a moment, she thought that perhaps they had heard nothing, but then they exchanged a surreptitious look over her head, which she pretended not to notice.

Peter, she realized as soon as she sat down, was a mess. He didn’t speak, but he was fidgety and nervous-looking, darting jittery looks towards the portrait hole every few seconds. Lily was half-aware that, after a short while of this, Sirius and Remus began speaking to each other in an undertone, but she couldn’t be bothered to listen in. Instead, she rested her chin in her hands and watched Peter watching the door. She figured that she would know when James and Leda returned by his reaction.

She was right; after a quarter of an hour, Peter suddenly stilled, become rigid as he stared across the room. Slowly, Lily turned her head, trying to look as casual as possible. The portrait had swung open, admitting a flood of students returning from the village; among them was James, who clambered through before turning and offering his hand to Leda, helping her through.

Neither of them looked over at the table as they went to sit by the fire, although Mary, following them in, did catch Lily’s eye for a second before they both looked away.

Abruptly, Peter stood up, turning towards the boy’s dormitory. After a quick, worried glance at Remus, Sirius rose and went after him, catching him just before the stairs. Lily watched detachedly as Sirius put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, saying something to him in an undertone. Peter nodded once, muttered something back, then started for the stairs as Sirius clapped him on the back.

Sitting back down, Sirius looked across the table at Lily, who had dropped her chin to her hands again, and at Remus, who shook his head. Sirius, however, ignored him, turning his gaze once more to Lily.

“What?” she snapped at him, a little unnerved.

“So it’s true, then?” Sirius asked.

“What’s true?” Lily said hostilely.

Sirius scowled at her. “James and Leda. Together. Like that.”

He gestured sharply towards the pair by the fire. Lily looked and then wished she hadn’t; they appeared to be holding hands.

“He didn’t tell you?” she asked, looking between Sirius and Remus.

“No,” Sirius said through clenched teeth. “Not a word. In fact, the last time I spoke to him, he was getting ready to go find you. So unless he got Confunded along the way…”

He trailed off, still staring intently at her.

Lily’s mouth dropped open. “Are you saying this is my fault?” she hissed across the table.

“I don’t know!” Sirius said. “Is it?”

“No!” Lily said, her temper flaring. “All I did was tell him that I didn’t want to date anyone right now. I didn’t tell him to go…throw himself at the closest available girl.”

Silence fell for a moment. Remus, looking distinctly uncomfortable, fidgeted with his quill. But then Sirius, unable to contain himself, burst out, “Why did you tell him that?”

Lily glared at him, then crossed her arms and sank down in her seat, looking as miserable as ever. She cast one glance towards the fire, where James and Leda still seemed to be engaged in conversation, and then looked away.

Sirius made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. Lily said nothing, although her eyes narrowed. Remus tried to look invisible.

“Snap out of it,” Sirius said to Lily.

“Excuse me?” she said, her eyes burning dangerously.

“I mean it,” he told her. “I feel bad for Peter. I think he has a right to be unhappy right now, because James has, apparently, started dating Leda knowing full well how Peter felt about her. But you have absolutely no right to be upset. You had your chance, Lily! More than one, I’ll wager. And you turned him down. So whatever you’re so upset about right now, get over it. It’s your own damn fault.”

For a moment, Lily just blinked at him. Then, wordlessly, she got to her feet, turned her back on them, and disappeared up the stairs to the girl’s dormitory.

Remus, who had sunk so low in his chair during this exchange that only the top of his head was visible, hoisted himself back up and gave Sirius a long look.

“What?” Sirius asked him, and Remus sighed.

“Oh, I don’t know, Padfoot,” he said. “Don’t you think that was…a bit harsh?”

Sirius bit his lip, and his shoulders sagged. “Yeah,” he said. “I know it was. But it needed to be said. I just…I guess it’s no secret that I don’t like Leda. I like Lily a lot better. She has personality, for one. And you and me, we’ve been watching her skirt James for months now, and I’m tired of watching her resist just because she’s scared. I want her to realize that she made a mistake.”

Remus looked at him. “Yeah, but…it’s not really our place, is it? You can’t get so involved in other people’s lives.”

Sirius grinned. “Oh, Moony. The voice of reason. I guess I could try to control myself…”

Remus laughed, a little sadly. “You’d be a good spy,” he told Sirius. “You notice a lot about people.”

“I’m pretty sure spies just have to watch, though,” Sirius said. “And I like to meddle.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “I know you do,” he said. “So. What are we going to do about this ball tonight then?”

---

Upstairs in the girls’ dormitory, Lily flopped onto her back on her four-poster and lay there, stewing, her arms crossed. What does Sirius know anyway, she thought, angrily replaying their last conversation and ignoring the tiny voice in the back of her head whispering that, maybe, he had a point.

Suddenly exhausted, Lily closed her eyes and breathed out, wondering how long she could get away with staying in bed. There was the masquerade ball tonight, of course, but she didn’t really have to go to that…no one would miss her, anyway, not with the list of people she wasn’t speaking to growing longer by the hour…

I don’t think so, said the tiny voice in her head, sounding more insistent. You’re not skipping that dance just because of a few boys.

“Oh, shut up,” Lily muttered to herself, then wondered briefly if she was going insane. But a moment later, she sat up slowly and resignedly, knowing that, however much she would try to talk herself out of it, her enduring stubborn streak would force her to get dressed and walk into the Great Hall tonight with her head held high.


A few hours later, that was exactly what she did. She’d gotten ready for the ball in the Prefect’s bathroom, in order to properly avoid Leda and Mary, and skirting them had taken time; when she finally arrived at the Great Hall, the dance was in full swing.

Just outside the entrance, Lily paused, sighing, and wished she was the kind of person who could let herself skip something like this without feeling like she was giving in on something. She adjusted her mask with her fingertips�”like many people, she’d gone with the animal theme, and her mask was a russet-colored fox face, precisely the same shade as her hair, that covered her from her forehead to just above her mouth. Her dress robes, which she smoothed nervously now, were the same green as her eyes.

All right, she told herself. Showtime. And she walked forward.

Even as involved in the decorating process as she had been, Lily couldn’t help but stifle a gasp as she entered the Great Hall. Hundreds of pumpkins floated in the air, some just several feet above the heads of the tallest students, eerily illuminating the room in a soft, ghostly yellow. The only other source of light were candles, which flickered in holders on the walls and from the tables, which had been pushed against one wall and were laden with what looked like an entire Halloween feast. The castle ghosts drifted here and there through the walls, most looking quite pleased�”although the Bloody Baron added, as always, a distinct sense of spookiness.

The dance floor, which took up most of the room and was crowded with dancing students, was marked by four tall pillars, one at each corner. They were wound with black and orange streamers, and each had a different small bronze statue on top. As Lily drew closer, she could see that they were the animals of each house. The one closest to her was topped with the Gryffindor lion, standing regally on its four paws, mouth open in a silent roar.

Lily smiled, but suddenly caught a flash of black hair out of the corner of her eye; instinctively, she drew back against the lion pillar, her back to it, ducking out of sight. She was glad she did; a moment later, Mary walked past her, clearly scanning the dance floor for a suitable partner. Lily recognized the other girl almost instantly, despite the mask she was wearing�”Mary had gone tiger, though her orange and black striped mask only covered her eyes, and her dress robes were a deep orange that, somehow, she managed to look good in. She was so clearly on the prowl that Lily almost laughed, and the sight was so endearingly familiar that she was on the verge of going over to say hello, had a couple dancing nearby not caught her eye.

Unlike the other night, it was James she recognized first this time, not in the least because he suddenly had antlers. Dimly, she suspected that he had Transfigured them there himself�”the left one was a little crooked�”and his mask was the soft brown of deerskin. Of course he had come as a stag.

Leda, who was beside him, was wearing snowy white robes and a feathered white mask, both of which contrasted sharply with her dark hair. The feathers made Lily think she was supposed to be a swan, although�”and Lily couldn’t help smirking slightly at the thought�”she could also be a goose. Or a seagull.

Lily knew she should turn away, that she wasn’t doing herself any favors by watching them together, but she couldn’t stop. She saw James offer Leda his hand with an ironic little bow, but just as Leda was about to take it, Lily heard someone say in her ear, “May I have this dance?”

She was so desperate to be somewhere else, anywhere else, that she accepted without thinking, sliding her hand into his. It wasn’t until he pulled her onto the dance floor and she started to place her hand on his shoulder that she glanced up to see who, in fact, she was dancing with, that she found herself face-to-face with a grinning, black dog mask.

“Hey, Lily,” Sirius said from behind it.

“No,” she told him, shaking her head in disgust as she tried to pull away. He, however, tightened his grip on both her hand and her waist, holding on firmly.

“Let go of me,” Lily snapped. “I’m still mad at you about earlier.”

“I’m glad you came,” Sirius told her earnestly. “We�”stop trying to bite me, I’m not letting go�”we weren’t sure you would. But listen, Evans…there’s no way I’m going to let you mope after James all night.”

At this, Lily softened, stopping her escape attempts and looking at him miserably. Behind the dog mask, his eyes held more understanding than she would have ever imagined. It was because of this, perhaps, that she said, almost without meaning to, “I made a mistake, Sirius.”

To her great surprise�”and annoyance�”he laughed. “I’m sorry,” he said as she glared at him, “I’m sorry. It’s just…well, good.”

“What do you mean, good?” Lily asked, outraged. “I just told you I made a mistake. A pretty big mistake, I think.”

“I know!” Sirius said. “I was hoping you’d say that, because I wasn’t sure you knew.”

“Well, I do,” Lily grumbled. “You don’t need to laugh at me.”

“I’m not laughing at you,” Sirius said, twirling her under his arm. “I’m just relieved. I have a lot less work to do if you aren’t going to be stubborn.”

“What do you mean, work to do?” Lily said suspiciously.

Sirius shrugged. “I haven’t really planned anything out yet.” Looking to his left, he nodded at James and Leda, who were still dancing together. “For what it’s worth, though, I don’t think that will last.”

“Thanks,” Lily said softly, feeling better than she would have believed. Sirius shrugged.

“Just how I see it,” he said, then squinted. “By the way, what is Leda supposed to be?”

“A swan, I think,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “But maybe a seagull!”

“It figures,” Sirius snorted. “I hope it’s a seagull. She is quite the little scavenger.”

“Don’t be mean,” Lily chastised, but when Sirius looked at her, she grinned. “Well,” she amended, “you can be a little mean.”

“Thanks for the permission,” Sirius said dryly. “So what are you going to do about this whole situation?”

“James and Leda?” Lily asked dubiously. “Ride it out, I guess.”

Sirius sighed disappointedly. “Really?” he asked. “You’re not going to like, cut off all her hair while she’s asleep, or put Wartcap powder in all her�””

“Don’t give me ideas!” Lily laughed as they waltzed in a circle. “I am going to be mature about this.”

“That’s no fun though,” Sirius muttered. Then he brightened. “Hey, James is looking over here,” he said. “You could always kiss me again, like you did last year, if you want to make him jealous…”

Lily made a face. “Urgh, no,” she said. “And I did not do that to make him jealous. I was proving a point.”

“Sure you were,” Sirius said. “Although I guess you’re right, that didn’t work too well last�”hey! What do you mean, urgh?”

“I didn’t know you too well when I did that,” Lily told him. “I do now. It would be way too weird.”

“So what if you know me now?” Sirius demanded. “I’m still devilishly handsome, aren’t I? It wouldn’t be that bad, there’s no need to damage my ego here Evans…”

“I’m sure your ego is fine,” she said. “Come on, let’s get off this dance floor for a while…aren’t Remus and Peter around here somewhere?”

“Oh yeah,” Sirius said, looking around. “We had to practically drag Peter here, but we managed it in the end. Let’s go.” And Lily followed him off the dance floor, not looking back.

They found Remus and Peter near the food, standing with, to Lily’s delight, Alice Rourke, who looked beautiful in pale yellow robes and beaded, cream-colored mask. “Lily!” Alice cried, giving her a hug. “I was hoping you were around here somewhere, I was getting worried�”I thought I missed you, what with all the masks around. It’s a little scary how many people I don’t recognize with half their faces covered…”

“I think that’s half the point,” Lily grinned. “I do love yours, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks,” Alice said. “I was just telling Peter, I would have liked to come as an animal, but I couldn’t think of anything in time…I love his mouse mask, though!”

“I’m not a mouse!” Peter protested from behind Alice. “I’m a rat!”

Lily looked around at him; Peter was wearing a soft silver mask, and someone�”by the grin on his face, Lily suspected Sirius�”had Transfigured two gray, round, and undeniably mousy ears on the top of his head.

“It could probably go either way,” Lily said diplomatically, and Peter sighed.

“Excuse me,” he said, reaching behind his back and pulling forward, to Lily’s surprise, a hairless pink tail, “do mice have tails like this?”

The only honest response that Lily had was “Ew,” so instead she said nothing, winking at him and turning towards Remus, who greeted her from behind a white, woolly mask.

Lily burst out laughing. “What on earth are you supposed to be?” she asked him, giggling. “You look like a cloud!”

“I’m a sheep,” Remus said with dignity.

Realization dawned on Lily, and she raised an eyebrow. “In sheep’s clothing, anyway?” she asked, and his answering grin let her know she’d gotten it right. “Clever,” she said.

“Thanks,” Remus smiled. Then he looked past her, to where Sirius, Alice, and Peter were standing together, apparently debating mouse-versus-rat characteristics. “So…how are you doing, anyway?” Remus asked in an undertone.

“I’m fine,” Lily said after a moment’s pause. “Really.”

“About what Sirius said earlier…” Remus said hesitantly. “It was�””

“No,” Lily interrupted him. “No, he was right. At least in part. And I’m not terribly happy about the way things are right now, but there’s nothing I can do about it tonight. I just want to have a good time and not think about it�”at least for right now.”

“Fair enough,” Remus smiled. “Come on, then. Let’s see what they’re getting up to over here.”

They rejoined Sirius and Peter just as Alice was saying, “All right, all right! I concede! You’re a rat!”

“Thank you,” Peter said huffily. “So. Now what?”

“Why are you all just standing around here? You should be dancing!”

The familiar, bubbly voice came from near Lily’s elbow, and she turned to see Mary standing there, her hands on her hips. She’d taken her mask off, and was wearing it looped around her wrist, and her eyes were wide as she surveyed them all. “This is a ball after all,” she continued.

They all blinked at her, not entirely sure where she had come from, and Mary rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’ll show you. I’ll take the mouse. Come on, Peter!”

“I’m not a mouse!” Peter protested. “I’m a rat!”

Mary wrinkled her nose. “Oh, don’t advertise that,” she advised him. “Mice are much cuter. Now let’s go!”

And towing an alarmed-looking Peter by the hand, she marched off to the dance floor.

“She’s always a whirlwind, isn’t she?” Sirius asked finally, and then offered his arm to Alice in a fashion that was, Lily noted with surprise, almost gentlemanly. “Let’s go keep an eye on them, shall we?” Alice curtsied jokingly, and accepted his offer.

Lily turned to Remus, who looked at her uncomfortably. “I’m a terrible dancer,” he said, making a face.

“Oh, so am I,” Lily assured him, putting her hand through his elbow. “It’s what makes it fun. I promise.”

Remus groaned reluctantly, but he laughed as she pulled him towards Alice and Sirius, who greeted them so enthusiastically that Lily, smiling herself, wondered if, maybe, she would be able to count tonight as a success.

The next day dawned bright but cold, and Sirius, despite having stayed late at the Halloween masquerade ball, found himself awake early, restlessly pacing the empty Hogwarts corridors. He had too much on his mind to sleep�”too much, even, to be contained within the castle walls. He pushed his way out to the grounds, suddenly craving fresh air and the simple, happy oblivion of his dog form.

But he had barely stepped onto the grounds when he came face-to-face with the source of all his problems; James rounded the corner, almost bumping into Sirius as he headed towards the Quidditch pitch, broom over his shoulder.

“Oh,” James said, looking cautiously at Sirius. “Um, hey, Padfoot.”

“What are you doing out here?” Sirius asked, somewhat snippily.

“I could ask you the same thing,” James said, raising an eyebrow.

“You didn’t come back last night,” Sirius said evasively, turning to walk across the grounds.

James fell into step beside him, smirking. “Yeah,” he shrugged. “Well, you know.”

“No,” Sirius said vaguely, looking across the grounds, into the dark edges of the trees. “Fill me in.”

James shifted his grip on his broom, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked finally.

Sirius threw him a disgusted glance, looking at him for the first time. “Did you have fun last night, James?” he asked sarcastically.

“Yeah,” James said aggressively. “But that still doesn’t answer my�””

“Oh, you did?” Sirius asked, stopping so abruptly that James walked a few paces farther before turning to face him.

“What’s it to you, anyway?” he said.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Sirius said sarcastically. “None of us have properly spoken to you in days, and apparently you’re off all night messing around with a girl you didn’t even see fit to tell us you were dating. I can’t understand why I’d be curious about any of that.”

“Well you shouldn’t be!” James said hotly. “It isn’t as though it’s any of your business.”

“Don’t,” Sirius snarled, “use that excuse. Not on me. You know it doesn’t work like that with us.”

“No,” James said. “I guess you just think you can show up now and tell me how to live my life.”

“I’m not!” Sirius said. “I’m just telling you that you’re…you’re making the wrong decisions here, and I don’t understand why.”

“Is this just about Leda?” James said, crossing his arms. “Because I know you don’t like her, but, come on. She’s not that bad, you know, and�””

“Oh, great endorsement,” Sirius said. “She’s ‘not that bad.’ Yeah, great reason to date a girl.”

James rolled his eyes. “That’s not the whole�””

“I don’t really care, to be honest,” Sirius said. “I’m just confused because you never seemed to be interested in her before. And I don’t get why you would hurt Peter over this for a girl you could care less about. And I don’t really know what happened with you and Lily�””

“Don’t talk to me about Lily,” James said violently. “That doesn’t matter. I’m passed it.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Sirius spat. “And Peter? He’s a mess.”

“He’ll get over it,” James said. “He should be over it by now, anyway, I mean it’s been�””

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Sirius cried, interrupting him yet again.

“I don’t care!” James exploded. “I’m just doing something for myself right now, that’s all. And I don’t know why you suddenly think you should tell me what to do, but�””

“Because you aren’t the only one involved here,” Sirius said. “And I’d have thought that by now you’d know that. That you’d care that Peter is inconsolable, and Lily…well, she’s not telling us the details, but she’s been really upset too…”

“You’re sure mentioning Lily a lot,” James said, his eyes narrowing. “How come you’re so interested, anyway?”

“What are you implying?” Sirius asked, furrowing his brow.

“I think you know,” James said calmly. “And you’ve done your duty. You’ve stuck up for Peter. But now I’m out of the picture, and the road to Lily is clear.”

“You think I’m interested in Lily?” Sirius scoffed. “Right, because that makes sense.”

“Are you going to tell me I’m wrong?” James pressed.

Sirius grimaced, his eyes full of contempt as he turned his back on James, ready to head back to the castle.

“You aren’t, are you?” James said fiercely from behind him, and Sirius spun around, in half a mind to tell this strange, combative version of his best friend exactly where he could stick his broomstick when, to his surprise, James’s fist swung out of nowhere, connecting with the side of Sirius’s face.

Startled, Sirius staggered backwards a few steps, his hand going gingerly to his eye. Then he looked at James, who stood there, looking back at him. Despite everything, Sirius couldn’t help but marvel inwardly at how young James appeared in that moment�”standing there, his hair characteristically mussed, both his hands curled into fists at his sides, his expression stubbornly defiant. Sirius gave a brief bark of utterly mirthless laughter before balling his own hand into a fist and, in one smooth motion, drove it into James’s jaw.

The force of the blow knocked James flat onto the ground. Seemingly astounded, he blinked up at Sirius from his back for one moment before pushing himself up by his hands.

“You,” Sirius told him calmly, “are stark raving mad.” Then, with complete disdain, he turned strode away, not looking back.

James didn’t follow him to the common room right away, and Sirius was glad for it; at the moment, he had absolutely nothing left to say to him. By the time he reached Gryffindor Tower and had clambered through the portrait hole, he saw that other people had begun to wake up. Remus and Lily, he saw, were sitting in their usual corner table, a Potions book between them. He didn’t see Peter, and for a moment he was worried, but then he saw Leda sitting in an armchair by the fireplace, talking to a blonde fourth-year whose name he didn’t know, and he understood�”Peter still tended to make himself scarce when Leda was around. Sirius hesitated for a brief second before walking over to join Remus and Lily, his head bowed. He had to resist the urge to stick his tongue out at Leda as he passed her.

Lily looked up as he approached, ready to call a greeting, but as he came closer, her jaw dropped.

“What happened to you?” she asked, clambering to her feet and reaching out to grasp his chin, turning it to the side so she could examine his eye, where he now realized a spectacular bruise must be blooming.

“It’s nothing,” he said, waving her away and sinking into the chair next to Remus, who proceeded to do the exact same thing.

“That doesn’t look good,” Remus said, frowning. “Don’t you want to put something on that? It’s going to look lovely in a few days…”

“I told you, I’m fine,” Sirius snapped, then felt guilty as they both looked rather hurt. “I want to keep it,” he joked, trying to sound lighthearted. “Anyway, you should see the other guy.”

“And who might the other guy be, exactly?” Remus asked in an undertone.

Sirius looked at him guiltily, unsure if he should answer or not. But a moment later, the decision was made for him as, almost simultaneously, the portrait to the entrance swung open and Leda, from the fire, gave a loud, dramatic gasp.

James heaved himself into the common room as Leda leapt to her feet, and ran to him. Her friend by the fire, Sirius noticed, had an odd expression on her face, half amused and half calculating. But she didn’t hold his attention for long, as Leda, now making a scene in front of James, provided far more amusing entertainment.

“What did you do to yourself?” she was shrieking, examining James’s jaw which, admittedly, looked bad already. Sirius mentally�”albeit a tad bitterly�”congratulated himself on a punch well thrown.

James muttered something that Sirius couldn’t hear, but a moment later Leda was saying loudly, “What do you mean you fell down? That’s the oldest excuse in the book, James, and I’m not stupid you know…”

Grinning slightly, Sirius turned back to Remus and Lily, both of whom were looking at him with eyebrows raised. He stopped smiling immediately.

“Well,” Remus sighed, shaking his head, “I guess that explains that mystery.”

“What happened?” Lily asked, looking both rabidly curious and as though she was trying not to look curious.

“Uh,” Sirius said, looking uneasily back at James, who was now being fussed over by Leda, then spoke directly to Remus. “Well…you know how we weren’t really sure if he was mad at us or not?”

“Yeah,” Remus said. “I mean, he did seem to be avoiding us, anyway.”

“He’s definitely mad at us now,” Sirius said glumly, then corrected himself. “Or me, anyway. You’re probably the safe, neutral ground.”

“Are you sure?” Remus asked, looking worried. “I mean, it isn’t just…”

“I’m sure,” Sirius said emphatically. “Something’s wrong with him. Maybe he’s possessed.”

Remus and Lily exchanged a glance. Noticing this, Sirius shrugged. “Look at the facts,” he said. “He’s dating Leda, of all people. He doesn’t seem to care that Peter’s so broken up about it that he barely comes out in public anymore. And he punched me in the face.”

“He punched you first?” Remus asked, surprised.

“Of course he did,” Sirius said, offended. “I am a man of reason, Moony. I don’t fight unless I’m provoked.”

Remus looked vaguely exasperated, but Lily squinted over at James. “That looks like a good punch,” she said, almost approvingly. “He’s already swelling up.”

“Oh, well, you know,” Sirius said modestly. “He’s an only child. He never learned how to fight. My younger brother was a biter, so I had to develop a technique from an early age.”

“Why�”” Remus started to say, but Lily cut him off.

“You have a brother?” she asked.

Sirius blinked at her. “Yeah,” he said, surprised. “Regulus. He’s a few years below us, in Slytherin. Did you really not know that?”

“I don’t know much about your home life, to be perfectly honest,” Lily admitted. “You don’t talk about it much, and neither does anyone else.”

“Oh,” Sirius said, feeling awkward, as he always did when his family came up. “Yeah.”

Remus coughed impatiently, and they both turned towards him. “Why did James hit you first?” he asked.

“Right, that,” Sirius said. “He thinks Evans and I are madly in love. Secretly, though.”

Lily started coughing loudly. “He what?” she choked out.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, sliding over the table to put an arm around her. “I told him not to spread it around, though. I mean, all of the fire will go out of our mad, passionate affair if everyone knows about it. Am I right or am I right?”

“Get off me,” Lily laughed, shoving him.

“I knew it,” Sirius said mournfully to Remus. “Use ‘em and lose ‘em, that’s how she operates.”

Hearing this, Lily sobered. “No, it’s not,” she said quietly. Almost inadvertently, she glanced over towards the center of the room, where James and Leda still stood facing each other; she thought she saw James turn quickly away, as though he had been looking at him, but the light was too dim for her to be sure.

“Sorry,” Sirius muttered, fidgeting uncomfortably with Remus’s quill and returning to his own seat.

For a few minutes, all three of them just stared at each other. Then Remus shrugged, saying, “I think it’s a good sign, actually.”

“What?” Sirius asked.

“What happened with you and James this morning.”

“Not for me it isn’t,” Sirius groused. “I’m going to have a bruise on my eye. A big one.”

“Vanity aside,” Remus said, sighing. “He got mad because he thinks you and Lily have a thing. I don’t know, I guess he’s not as into Leda as we thought.”

“Frankly?” Sirius said, his eyes going hard. “I don’t really care right now.”

“But�”” Remus said, looking concerned, but once more, Sirius cut him off.

“No,” he said, “I mean it. I don’t care what he’s going through right now, he has no right to treat any of us like this. He’s just trying to make himself feel better, and I don’t have time for it. When he comes to his senses, then he can come find me. And after an extensive apology, then maybe I will consider being understanding and forgiving. But right now, well…I can be stubborn too.”

Remus looked pained; he glanced beseechingly at Lily, but she merely shrugged. “Fair enough,” she said, and he sighed.

“Anyway,” Sirius said, standing up, “as much fun as this has been, I’m off. I have wounds to lick, here, people. I’ll see you later.” And he turned his back on the common room.

---

Lily could only handle watching James and Leda sitting by the fire for so long; after a little while, she made an excuse to Remus, gathered up her Potions book, and disappeared upstairs into the girls’ dormitory.

To her dismay, however, Mary and Leda came in a few minutes later, giggling as usual. Lily considered feigning sleep, but they ignored her, chattering.

“He won’t tell me what happened,” Leda was saying, “which makes me think it was something embarrassing.”

“Probably,” Mary said, her voice uncharacteristically quiet.

“But I’ll get it out of him,” Leda said, smiling. “I have my ways.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Mary said, casting a sideways glance at Lily. Lily shuffled some books around, wondering just how, exactly, she always seemed to end up in this situation.

“Are you coming to the Quidditch match next week?” Leda was now asking Mary as she flopped backwards onto her bed. “Because we’ve got a pretty good chance, the team’s never been more unified. I think me and James being together now has a lot to do with it, honestly…sometimes we stay late after practice and just hang out. Or, well, you know, maybe a little more than just�””

That’s it, Lily thought, knowing that if she stayed in the room a moment longer, she was likely to hit Leda over the head with her textbook. And as tempting as the idea was, she knew that, ultimately, it wouldn’t be worth it. Probably.

Mercifully, the common room was mostly empty, as most people had gone down to lunch�”only a few younger students were still scattered around. Lily sank into an armchair, frowning slightly and wishing she didn’t feel so uncomfortable in her own room these days. Maybe I should be less of a pushover, she thought. This isn’t the first time they’ve basically chased me out of the dorm…where on earth is my spine?

Rather suddenly, she remembered that, a month or so ago, Sirius had given her a small bag of Wartcap powder. “For emergencies,” he’d said, pressing it into her hand. “Just in case being Head Girl gets too stressful.” It was hidden away beneath her mattress, all but forgotten about until now. No, she thought firmly. I don’t care how tempting it is, that won’t solve anything.

“Hey.”

Startled out of her reverie, Lily looked up; Mary was standing, almost awkwardly, at her side.

“Um,” Lily said eloquently.

“This is kind of weird, isn’t it?” Mary asked lightly, and then seated herself familiarly on the arm of Lily’s chair.

“Which bit, exactly?” Lily asked wryly, and Mary shrugged.

“All of it,” she said. “This whole Leda and James thing.”

“Not to mention the fact that you and Leda are the best of friends these days,” Lily said, a little snippily.

“Well, she follows me around,” Mary grinned. “But you know, you always used to spend more time with Severus Snape than me, so I figured you wouldn’t mind too much.”

Mary spoke matter-of-factly; there was no bitterness in her voice at all, and Lily bit her lip. “Well, I wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But, you know, lately…”

“Lately Leda stole the boy that you didn’t realize you were in love with until it was too late, and now she’s rubbing it in your face every chance she gets?” Mary asked sweetly, and Lily’s eyes widened.

“That’s one way to put it,” she said finally.

“Yeah,” said Mary. “Well, here’s the thing. On one hand, I sort of think Leda deserves something like this. I know you don’t like her much right now, but you don’t know her as well as I do, and she’s been really lonely for a really long time. She’s always been nervous, you know, whether in class or when it comes to talking to guys, and it hasn’t been easy.”

Lily felt a strangely both ashamed and stubbornly defiant, but just as she was about to say something, Mary continued.

“But on the other hand,” she said, “why’d it have to be James, you know?”

Lily nodded once. “Yeah,” she said.

Mary looked at her, almost sadly. “It’s just,” she said, “well, I really was rooting for you two.”

“Me and James?” Lily asked, and this, more than anything, surprised her.

“Yeah, of course,” Mary said. “Since forever. It was just so…so perfect. I mean you used to hate him, and then you didn’t hate him anymore, and that’s how all the best ones start, of course, and Leda knows that. She knows that you two sort of had something, but it never really played out, and she knows that James was hung up on you for a long time, and that even though she has him now, she doesn’t really have him. So I know it’s not an excuse, but that’s why she’s acting the way she’s acting. It’s a territorial thing, really. She’s threatened by you. For what it’s worth, though, I think she’s been going to far, when it comes to rubbing it in your face and everything. ”

“Everything’s a mess, Mary,” Lily said glumly. “James and I aren’t speaking. James and Sirius aren’t speaking. Peter isn’t really speaking to anyone. You and I don’t hang out so much anymore. Leda’s being almost unbearably smug about all of this. And it’s all my fault.”

Mary said nothing, just looked at her, and Lily, quite suddenly, wanted to talk about the whole thing in a way she hadn’t wanted to talk to Sirius or Remus. “He asked me first, and I said no,” she confessed. “I said that I didn’t…didn’t love him, or want to date him, or be with him. And I don’t know why I said it.”

She hadn’t told that to anyone�”Sirius and Remus knew the vague outline of what had happened, but none of her rationale. And she didn’t really understand it, either; all she knew was that she had said no to James, and that she knew, as soon as she had said it, what exactly a lie felt like.

To her everlasting surprise, however, Mary laughed, the sound clear and light and utterly unexpected. “Oh, that,” she said. “Well that part’s obvious.”

“It is?” Lily asked doubtfully.

“Well, of course,” Mary said. “I mean, look at it. I know you and that Snape never dated or had any romantic attachments or anything, but you were best friends for years. He was the last guy that you were really close to, and he ended up, for all intents and purposes, breaking your heart. So it just goes to show that you would have trust issues when it comes to boys, since you don’t really have the world’s best track record now, do you? And then what James was asking…I mean it made sense, and everyone else in the world could see that, but you freaked out, because it was such a big step. It makes perfect sense, really.”

Lily gaped at her. “When, exactly,” she asked, “did you get so insightful?”

Mary giggled. “Oh I’m not, really,” she said carelessly. “I just get boys.”

“More than I do, anyway,” Lily murmured. But talking to Mary had, somehow, made her feel a little better. I guess this is what girlfriends are for, she thought, letting her gaze drift around the common room.

Her eyes fell on the ash-blonde girl that Leda had been talking to earlier. Suddenly curious, she said, “Hey, Mary…who is that girl?”

Mary squinted across the common room. “Oh, her?” she asked. “That’s Annabelle Fletcher. She’s Muggle-born. Fourth year.”

“How does she know Leda?” Lily asked.

“They’re related,” Mary told her.

“Wait, what?” Lily asked, confused. “How can they be related? Leda’s not Muggle-born.”

“Not blood related,” Mary amended. “Annabelle’s older sister, who’s also a witch, married Leda’s older brother a little while ago. So I guess their families know each other pretty well now. And I think Annabelle joined the Quidditch team this year�”Chaser. So there’s that.”

“Like James,” Lily said absently.

“Yep,” Mary said. “Anyway, I’m going to go upstairs now. And I’m going to get Leda, and we’re going to go to lunch, and you can sneak back up into the common room like I know you so desperately want to, and be Leda-free for a little while.”

“Thanks,” Lily said, grinning up at her as she rose. She hesitated for a moment, then called, “Hey, Mary?”

“Yeah?” the other girl said, turning around.

“I’m sorry for all the times I hung out with Severus instead of you.”

Mary smiled. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I get it.” And she disappeared into the girls’ dorm, Lily watching her go.

A little while later, after Mary and Leda had left for lunch, Lily did climb the stairs herself. Once inside the room, she paused, staring hard at her mattress, and then, hoping she wouldn’t regret this later, gave in to her inner marauder. Slipping out the bag of Wartcap Powder, she carefully sprinkled a bit of it on Leda’s pillow. Then for good measure�”and, at the moment, without an ounce of guilt�”she swiftly emptied the remainder of the bag into the drawer containing Leda’s robes. Sirius, she knew, would be proud.

James was not anxious for company; in the days that followed his fight with Sirius, he found himself ducking crowded corridors and busy meal times more than he remembered ever doing before. The bruise on his jaw, which had turned a mottled purple and swollen spectacularly, was a topic of discussion both in and out of the Gryffindor common room for several days, although James tended to be vague when asked what had happened. Most people assumed it was a Quidditch accident, and he let them, preferring that story to the truth. The validity of this claim was thrown into question when Sirius appeared the next morning with a similar-looking bruise around his eye, but accompanying it was so dark a scowl that, instead of prying, everyone chose to believe the Quidditch story.

Gryffindor Tower had, it seemed, become far too full of people for James’s taste. He wasn’t on speaking terms with Lily these days, of course, but now neither Sirius nor Peter was talking to him either. There were sides now, James supposed, with Lily and Sirius firmly on one side of a line in the sand and himself on the other. Peter was standing with Sirius, he knew, because of Leda; because James, by dating her, had violated one of the cardinal rules of friendship.

It wasn’t as though I didn’t have my reasons, James thought, trying vaguely to remember what they were as he scratched irritably at a Transfiguration essay, as though frustration could somehow alleviate his guilt.

He had taken to hiding out in the library over the past few days, primarily because Sirius never went there. Lily did, he knew, but he figured that she was avoiding him just as hard as he was avoiding her, so he wasn’t worried.

But Remus, however, frequented the library. Not only that, but he was the only one of James’s friends who had not made it clear where he stood, and it was this fact that James was considering as Remus walked towards the table he had settled himself into several hours ago. James considered pretending not to see him, just to make things easier, but he couldn’t bear to; despite all of his recent conflicts with his friends, he missed them desperately.

“So you’re going to have to fill me in on the rules here,” Remus said as he arrived at James’s table. “Do I have to ask your permission to sit down these days?”

James cracked a tentative smile at him. “Of course not,” he said, shifting some of his books out of the way.

“How’s it going?” Remus asked, slipping into an empty seat. His voice was mild, but his eyes were cold�”twin pieces of flint that James found it hard to look at for too long.

“All right,” he said uncomfortably. “How’re you?”

“Been better,” Remus said briskly. “What’s going on, James? We barely see you anymore…Sirius said that you and Leda stayed out all night after the masquerade ball, and then the two of you had a fight…I know he already talked to you about this whole you-dating-Leda stuff, and obviously that didn’t go well, and I don’t want to harp on it or anything, but I don’t like what it’s doing to you. You’re in the common room so little that I’m starting to think you sneak in under the invisibility cloak whenever you need something.”

James looked at the floor�”that was exactly what he had been doing. But even coming from Remus, these were fighting words, and his blood was stirring. “Did you just come down here so you could lecture me?” he asked acidly. “Because I know you don’t like to get involved in this thing. I know you like to watch from a safe distance without picking sides. But you may have to make some choices here.”

He looked challengingly at Remus, who merely stared calmly back. Remus wasn’t Sirius�”it took more than this to ruffle him. James, in fact, started to feel rather ashamed as Remus looked unblinkingly at him, as through he were a petulant child.

“I heard someone found Severus Snape in a Full Body-Bind hex in the Potions classroom the day before the Halloween dance,” Remus said finally, and James winced, startled; it wasn’t what he had been expecting.

“Would you believe me if I told you that that was provoked?” he asked, realizing immediately that he could not pretend, at least to Remus, that he had nothing to do with that.

Remus sighed heavily. “You know,” he said, “if you had said that to me a month ago, I would have believed it. But a month ago, I would never have believed that you could do what you’re doing to Peter now.”

“Come on,” James protested. “No one’s letting me explain that. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal! Peter’s got to be over her by now, and it’s just…it’s good for me! It’s nice! It’s not like Lily, where I have to push and convince her and everything, it’s nice to just have a girl who…”

He trailed off, falling silent at the look on Remus’s face; somehow his “it’s easier” rationale didn’t sound so good when he said it out loud.

Remus shook his head, and there was blatant disgust in his eyes. “You know he’s not over her,” he said. “You know that, James. Should he be? Maybe. But he’s not, and that means that what you’re doing isn’t fair. And it isn’t fair to Leda, either. You’re using that girl to get over Lily. And the James Potter I know doesn’t use people like that, or treat his friends like that. The James Potter I know doesn’t do something just because it’s easy.”

It wasn’t fair, James thought. It wasn’t nearly as bad as all that…in fact, he was barely spending time with Leda. There was Quidditch practice, of course, and she usually wheedled him into staying late with her afterwards. And he ate meals with her�”the ones he went to, anyway�”but ever since the Masquerade Ball, when he had seen Sirius and Lily dancing, he’d felt as though he had been punched in the stomach. He’d known he was being ridiculous the next day, known there was nothing between them, and it wasn’t really that that had bothered him. It was seeing the two of them together, laughing and talking and looking completely at ease without him that had done it. He’d left the ball not long after. And Sirius had gotten it all wrong�”he hadn’t left with Leda, he’d gone by himself onto the grounds and spent the night, of all places, in the Shrieking Shack, trying not to think about how well his friends were getting along without him and wondering if, really, he had been negligible all along.

But he couldn’t tell Remus this. Not now, not with the way Remus was looking at him�”a mixture of disappointment and scorn that James had never seen on his face before. And Remus was right, he knew…James wasn’t behaving like himself�”or, for that matter, a halfway decent person.

Without another word, Remus got to his feet and turned his back, leaving the library. James squeezed his eyes shut, unwilling to watch him walk away.

---

When Lily came down for dinner a few hours later, she found Remus sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, staring into a goblet of pumpkin juice as though he were contemplating drowning himself in it.

“Back away from the ledge!” Lily joked. “You have too much to live for!”

“What?” Remus said, looking up at her perplexedly. Lily raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh,” he said. “Yeah. Well. I talked to James earlier.”

Lily sucked in her breath. “How’d that go?” she asked.

Remus shrugged. “He’s probably not too happy with me now,” he said. “Although I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true…I don’t know. I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

“Maybe he’s just not ready to hear it,” Lily said sympathetically, sitting down beside him. It was a little awkward, she found, to be talking like this�”she wasn’t used to being the one who did the consoling when it came to James.

“Well, hopefully he’ll come around,” Remus said. “I’m just…maybe this is a little selfish, but part of me just wants to know what will happen this weekend.”

“This weekend?” Lily asked, puzzled.

He sighed, looking guiltily. “It’s full moon,” he said. “And they usually come out to see me, you know. But James won’t go if he thinks Sirius will be there�”and he especially won’t go now, after what just happened�”and Sirius won’t go if he thinks James is coming. And Peter won’t come by himself, which I understand, because a rat is much less safe around a werewolf than a rat with an undersized moose and an overgrown puppy.”

Lily laughed a little at the image, unable to control herself. But she sobered quickly. “And you can’t just tell Sirius that James probably won’t come?” she suggested.

“I’m holding out hope that maybe he will,” Remus said sadly. “It’ll mean that he’s realized that he isn’t acting…you know, right. Plus, Sirius has been in such a terrible mood lately that I’m not even sure I want him showing up.”

“Yeah,” Lily said thoughtfully. “I have noticed that, I’ve been meaning to ask�””

“I have news!”

Sirius himself had suddenly appeared on the other side of the table, beaming exuberantly at them. Lily and Remus exchanged startled glances. “Terrible mood, eh?” Lily muttered.

“What’s your news?” Remus asked Sirius warily, and Sirius plunked into a seat across from them and leaned forward conspiratorially.

“I think I know who’s been doing it,” he whispered excitedly.

“Doing…what, exactly?” Lily asked, and Sirius frowned at her.

“All these ridiculous pranks around here, of course!” he said, and Lily rolled her eyes.

“Are you still going on about that?” she asked. “There haven’t been many lately, have there?”

Sirius lifted a finger. “That’s what you think,” he said. “But I just heard that someone released a bunch of bowtruckles into the Ravenclaw dorms. Apparently they tore half the common room apart before they were rounded out. And it got me thinking…see those two?”

He rotated slightly to the left, gesturing at the Ravenclaw table. Lily and Remus both leaned around him, looking over. Two boys were sitting at one end. They were fourth-years, Lily guessed. One was exceptionally handsome, with gold hair, regally carved features, and blue eyes so striking that Lily could see them even from the Gryffindor table. The other was small and weedier, with a mop of limp, dark hair and a pointed face. Something about his pinched appearance reminded Lily of Severus, back in their early days at Hogwarts, and she looked away.

“What about them?” she asked Sirius.

“It’s totally them,” he said confidently.

“How on earth did you come to that conclusion?” Remus asked skeptically.

“Because they started last year,” Sirius said. “That tall one, that’s Michael Kingsbury. The other one is Nathaniel Rafferty. I’ve seen them sneaking around a lot lately. They’ve been prone to jinxing people in the halls since their second year. Just the other day some first year sprouted a cat’s tail, and they were there, laughing their bloody heads off. No finesse at all, that’s what struck me about them.”

“That proves nothing,” Lily said dismissively.

“Yeah, but they’ve been trying to do bigger things lately,” Sirius said earnestly. “The end of last year, they hexed all the boys toilets on the second floor. I only know this because they were given detention with me and Ja�”” He swallowed the end of his sentence suddenly, as Lily tried to pretend she didn’t know what he had been going to say. He blinked owlishly for a moment and then continued, “Well, anyway, they’d basically charmed all these toilets so that anytime anyone, you know, went to use one, it bit them. Bit gross, really. Not to mention there were actually a few serious injuries�”people getting stuck in the loo and all that…some pretty bad bite marks, to be honest…”

“That,” Remus commented, “is disgusting.”

“It’s also…I don’t know, it’s also pretty nasty,” Lily said, furrowing her brow. “I mean, pranking for harmless fun is one thing, as is going after people like Isaac Smith who really just had it coming, but that level? On random strangers? It just doesn’t seem sportsmanlike, somehow.”

“I know,” Sirius said. “It’s the same sort of thing this year, albeit a little better planned out. I think they’re trying to step up their game.”

But Lily was frowning again. “Sirius, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Sure for the stuff that happened in the Ravenclaw common room it fits, but what about all the pranks that have been pulled on Gryffindors, and in Gryffindor Tower? How would they have gotten in there? And what about everything that’s happened to us, specifically? What would Michael Kingsbury and Nathaniel Rafferty have against us? I mean, I’ve never even met them.”

“Authority figures? Like you were saying before?” Sirius said weakly, with the air of one grasping at straws. “Or, I dunno…maybe they have an accomplice in Gryffindor, or something.”

“Like who?” Lily asked, then said thoughtfully. “You don’t think…I mean, the pranks on Gryffindors seemed to have stopped since Leda started dating James…you don’t think it’s her, do you?”

“Absolutely not,” Sirius said promptly. “There’s no way she’d be able to think up anything like that. Besides, if she was pulling pranks, I’d be obligated to like her at least a little, and I just can’t bring myself to do that. Besides, she doesn’t even know those two Ravenclaws.”

“You still haven’t convinced me that those two have anything to do with this,” Remus said. “It seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sirius said, disheartened. Then he perked up. “Help me!” he said to Lily.

“Help you what?” Lily asked cautiously.

“Help me prove it’s them! We can tail them, see if they do anything suspicious. It’ll be fun!”

Lily did not look tempted. “What’s the point of that?” she asked.

Sirius shrugged. “It’s exciting. It’s more interesting than homework. Not knowing who’s been doing this stuff is really bothering me. Take your pick.”

Lily hesitated. It wasn’t, really, her idea of quality entertainment, but she knew it was the kind of thing that Sirius would normally have done with James, and she was reluctant to disappoint him. “Um,” she said, looking at his eager, hopeful face, “well…”

“It’ll keep you busy. Maybe you’ll finally be able to stop pining.”

He winked roguishly, and Lily threw her napkin at him. “I have not been pining,” she laughed.

Sirius made a face at her. “Little bit,” he said. “But come on, what do you say?”

“All right, fine,” Lily groaned. “Remus? You in?”

“No way,” Remus said calmly. “That’s a surefire way to get detention.”

“That’s half the fun,” Sirius assured Lily, who looked alarmed. “But anyway, this shouldn’t be too difficult, just a basic tracking exercise…”

“You sound like you’re losing your edge,” came an unfamiliar voice a few feet down the table. Surprised, all three of them looked around to see who had spoken.

It took Lily a minute to recognize the girl. Her dark blonde hair was cut short, just barely brushing the tops of her shoulders, and she had a delicate, almost birdlike bone structure. Her grey eyes were large and wide, but there was a certain shrewdness to them as she blinked calculatingly at Lily.

“It’s Annabelle, right?” Lily asked, finally placing her as the girl who had been talking to Leda in the Gryffindor common room. “You know Leda?”

“Her brother married my sister,” Annabelle said by way of confirmation.

“Do you make a habit out of butting in on people’s private conversations?” Sirius asked suddenly, scowling at her. “And what do you mean I’m losing my edge?”

The fourth-year shrugged, yawning. “You are,” she said. “You used to be famous around here for pulling all these elaborate pranks. You were practically a legend. And this year, you’ve gone soft. And now someone else is doing it and you can’t even figure out who it is. Sounds like you’re losing something to me.”

Sirius’s jaw dropped. “Well as I don’t recall asking your opinion,” he said caustically, “I hope you don’t mind if I ignore you.”

Annabelle looked bored. When she spoke again, it was to Lily, as though Sirius could no longer hold her attention. “I usually eat breakfast with Leda,” she said, and Lily wondered inwardly why the small girl was telling her this. A moment later, however, Annabelle said, “She’s in the hospital wing, though�”somehow, a bunch of Wartcap powder got mixed into her clothes, and she had a bad reaction to it. She’s positively covered in these crusty scales. She looks like a walnut. But being one of her dorm-mates, you probably know something about that already.”

“Ah,” Lily said after a minute. “No, I haven’t seen Leda around recently. That explains where she’s got to, thought.”

“Right,” Annabelle said vaguely, standing up. “Hopefully she’ll be better for this week’s Quidditch match.” And she walked away.

The three of them stared after her. “Is it just me,” Remus asked, “or was that entire conversation just…odd?”

“I don’t like her,” Sirius said decisively. “Something about her gives me the creeps. But never mind that…didn’t I give you a bag of Wartcap powder earlier in the year, Lily?”

Lily blushed. “I forget,” she said guiltily.

Sirius crowed with laughter. “I knew it!” he guffawed. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Evans!”

Lily bit at her thumbnail. “Well, I liked it while I was doing it,” she confessed. “But I feel kind of bad now. I didn’t know she had that bad a reaction to it…I just thought it would be a little rash, maybe. I shouldn’t have been so vindictive.”

“No,” Sirius said forcefully. “Don’t feel bad. She messed up everything, she deserves what she gets.”

“Maybe,” Lily countered. “But that doesn’t mean I get to be the one to dish it out.

“It wasn’t all her fault, Padfoot,” Remus added softly.

Sirius’s face darkened, all his earlier exuberance draining away. “Whatever,” he muttered, getting to his feet. “I am going to go now. I have a surveillance scheme to plot out. And I have to drag Peter out of the dorm, since no one else is going to do it…once he hears that Leda’s out of commission, he should be okay.” And just as swiftly as Annabelle had, Sirius disappeared from the Great Hall.

“I should get going too,” Remus said, shuffling up his papers. His elbow knocked a book, which fell to the ground with a thump.

“I’ll get it,” Lily said, but as she bent down to pick it up, a piece of parchment fluttered out. “Oh, sorry,” she said, scooping it up. It looked like a letter. Not wanting to pry, Lily handed it to him, but her gaze fell accidentally upon the salutation�”it was addressed to Marlene McKinnon.

“Oh,” Lily said delightedly, “you’re writing to Marlene?”

To her surprise, Remus reddened ever so slightly. “Every once in a while,” he said. “She’s out working for Dumbledore, you know, like she told us last year. She keeps me posted on what’s going on out there, more or less. And it’s just nice, you know, to have someone to talk to, what with everything going to pieces in here.”

“You’re not wrong,” Lily murmured. “Well, tell her from me that we all miss her.”

“I will,” Remus smiled at her before he, too, vanished, leaving Lily at the Gryffindor table alone.

---

Leda was released from the hospital wing just in time for the Gryffindor-versus-Slytherin Quidditch match. The Quidditch Captain side of James was relieved about this. Leda was, after all, his Keeper, and she was good at it; he knew that Gryffindor’s chances of winning the match would be greatly reduced without her.

On a personal level, however, James wished absently that she had needed to stay in the hospital wing for a few more days. Although the rash from the Wartcap Powder had disappeared, Leda was still furious, and was hell-bent on discovering who was responsible for the prank.

“I think it was Sirius,” she said to James as they walked down to breakfast together the morning of the match, carrying their broomsticks.

“What on earth makes you think that?” James asked wearily.

Leda shrugged. “He doesn’t like me much,” she said. “I can tell. And he’s jealous that you’ve been spending so much time with me, isn’t he? I mean, you haven’t said anything, but I have noticed that you aren’t speaking too much these days.”

James looked at her sideways, a little surprised that she had noticed that. “That’s about a lot of things,” he said, unwilling to say more. “But how could he have done that, anyway? It’s not like he can get into the girls’ dormitory.”

Leda’s face darkened. “Oh, please,” she scoffed. “Sirius Black? He could manage it just fine, I’m sure. If anyone can find away around that spell, he can. Or maybe he just had a girl do it for him, who knows.”

“I didn’t know you had such a high opinion of Sirius,” James said wryly as they reached the Gryffindor table and sat down.

“High opinion?” Leda asked. “Not at all. I think he should have been expelled a hundred times over for all the stunts he’s pulled.”

Tactfully, James refrained from pointing out that he and Sirius had pulled most of those stunts together. “Right,” he said instead, and hoped that she’d change the subject soon.

Farther down the table, Lily sat fiddling with her fork, trying to pretend that she had forgotten about the upcoming Quidditch match. This tactic, however, was doomed to failure; after a few minutes, Sirius arrived, jostling her as he threw himself next to her, and asked promptly, “So, going to the Quidditch match?”

Remus and Peter arrived a few moments behind him. “It should be pretty good,” Remus said. “Exciting, anyway. The teams are evenly matched.”

Peter snorted and reached for the toast. “Who exactly are we rooting for again?” he asked, sarcastically. “The team with James, Leda, and that Annabelle girl, or the team with Sirius’s scary younger brother?”

Surprised by the bitterness in his tone, Lily darted a look at Sirius, who rolled his eyes exasperatedly. She opened her mouth to question Peter, but Sirius shook his head almost imperceptibly, and Lily changed topics abruptly. “Your brother plays Quidditch?” she asked.

“Yep,” said Sirius, cutting up a piece of sausage. “Seeker. By the way, I’m not going to the game.”

He began eating. After a moment, however, he seemed to notice that no one was speaking, and looked up to find the other three gaping at him.

“What?” he asked.

“You’re not going?” said Peter in disbelief.

“Merlin, Padfoot,” said Remus. “Have you ever missed a match before?”

“No,” said Sirius absently. “But we have less than a year left, you know. I thought I’d give Evans here the opportunity to show me what it is people who don’t go to Quidditch games do when the castle empties out.”

Lily looked up at him, and as their eyes met, she understood that he was offering her a way out, and that, in many ways, watching James today would be just as painful for Sirius as it would be for her. “Sounds like a plan,” she said lightly, “since I wasn’t planning on going either.”

“Are you two serious?” Peter asked, eyes wide. Remus, however, looked carefully back and forth between the two of them, and something clicked in his gaze.

Lily shrugged apologetically at Peter as Sirius leaned forward to say something. Lily’s gaze drifted across the Great Hall�”although she determinately avoided looking at James and Leda�”and, more because of Sirius’s fascination with them than anything, she noticed Michael Kingsbury and Nathaniel Rafferty enter the Great Hall together. She didn’t pay them much mind at first, and, indeed, would probably have forgotten about them had not all hell broken loose a moment later.

From the far end of the Great Hall came the unmistakable sound of breaking glass, followed by the splintering of wood; alarmed, Lily looked over as shrieks erupted from the Hufflepuff table. All throughout the room people leapt to their feet, bewildered and frightened, as more dishes shattered.

Lily, reflexively, leapt onto her seat, straining to see what was going on. A moment later something whooshed by her head and she ducked, her eyes wide.

“What the hell?” she heard Sirius yelp from somewhere by her elbow. Swiveling around, Lily squinted up at the ceiling, looking for the object that had nearly decapitated her.

Her eyes trained on the ball before she really realized what she was seeing. But a moment later it registered, and she called, “Bludger! Someone released the Bludgers!”

Sirius swore loudly as all around them students dove under the tables, trying to avoid the balls. In the ensuing chaos, Lily realized two things�”first, that she had vastly underestimated the skill it took Quidditch players to avoid these deadly balls, and secondly, that while Bludgers on a Quidditch field were one thing, Bludgers confined to an enclosed space, even one as large as the Great Hall, were far more dangerous. They ricocheted off the walls, slamming into tables with such force that, in some places, they crashed clean through. Peter, Lily saw, had rolled under the bench and was curled into a ball, his hands over his head.

Something moved in the corner of her eye, and Lily turned, ready to duck, but then blinked in surprise as a scarlet-clad blur swooped by her, followed a second later by an emerald one. It was the Quidditch players, Lily realized. James and Leda had both leapt onto their brooms and leapt into the air, and Gryffindor and Slytherin players alike were attempting to chase down the Bludgers. Distracted as she was, Lily barely had time to acknowledge the one stray fact�”that this was the first, and probably the last, time that she would see the two houses working in tandem like this.

But it was a dangerous game; Lily, from her vantage point, could see more than one bloody nose in the vicinity, and several people appeared to be unconscious. Part of her wanted to join Peter under the table, but, rationally, she could see that, sturdy as they were, the tables offered little protection. It was better to stay where she was, with a good view of what was going on, and a healthy sense of when to duck.

After a few minutes of this, she was aware that Sirius had clambered onto the bench beside her. “How did this happen?” she shouted over the melee.

“I have my suspicions,” he called back, but then his face tensed; a moment later, he had dropped from the bench and was rolling across the floor as a Bludger slammed into the wall just inches from his head.

Lily was about to jump down to see if he was all right when something else fluttered by her nose. But this time it was gold; almost unconsciously, she turned her head to follow the movements and stretched out her arm, realizing, suddenly, that the Bludgers weren’t the only balls that had been released. Her bare hand closed around the small Snitch, its wings trembling violently against her, and then, almost in the same moment, James skidded to a halt on top of the Gryffindor table and his hand descended over hers.

For a moment, they were the only real feelings in the world�”the cool curve of the Snitch against her palm, the heat of James’s hand on the back of hers, and their eyes locked for the first time in what felt like years. Then, suddenly, he pulled his hand away, returning it to the handle of his broom, and dropped his gaze to the small golden ball she was clutching.

It was the most contact they had had in weeks, the most she had looked at him since first seeing him in that empty classroom with Leda, and despite the pandemonium in the hall around him and the Quidditch players still wrestling the Bludgers from the sky, Lily couldn’t think of anything else.

James bent his knees, preparing to return to the air, and Lily opened her mouth, suddenly desperate not to let him go again, but before she could say anything, he looked directly into her eyes once more and said, simply, “Nice catch.” And then he was gone.

Lily watched him go, noting distantly that there wasn’t much left for him to do�”one Bludger had already been captured, and the other was being cornered by a group of students now. Peter emerged from under the table as Remus and Sirius, both panting, picked themselves up, looking around cautiously.

“Well that was exciting,” Sirius said dryly.

“It’s all your fault,” Remus said to him. “You decided you weren’t going to the Quidditch match, so they brought the Quidditch match to you.”

“And who is they, exactly?” Sirius wondered aloud, quirking an eyebrow.

Lily looked down at the bench she had been standing on. Gingerly, she scooted away from a Bludger-shaped hole in the center, and sat down. “You may have a point about those two Ravenclaws, you know,” she said to Sirius. “They came in just before the Bludgers did.”

“Ha!” Sirius said triumphantly.

“They can’t be doing it alone though,” Remus said stubbornly. As the two leaned forward to debate, Lily tightened her fingers around the Snitch, still struggling in her hand, and thought back to those brief moments when she had James had both grabbed for it.

Something had passed between them then, something deeper than hurt feelings and hesitation. The way he had looked at her, as swift as it had been, had convinced her that, Leda or no Leda, things weren’t over between them. She knew it as surely as she had ever known anything, and that thought was realer, better, than any petty prank she could pull on Leda, and Lily wasn’t ready to let go.

And so instead she slid her hand, still curled around the Snitch, into the pocket of her robes, and held on.

The Quidditch game was postponed indefinitely after the events with the Bludgers, due in part because the professors�”who had primarily spent that chaotic morning tending to the students who had been struck�”wanted to make sure that the balls had not been tampered with further, but also because, with November drawing to a close, the weather was worsening. Snow had come early that year, a think blanket of it already covering the grounds, and the Quidditch season was suspended until the thaw.

There was some speculation amongst the students about the missing Snitch; once the Bludgers had been returned to their case, it was discovered that the Snitch had been released as well, and was reportedly uncaught. Many Hogwarts inhabitants took to scanning the Great Hall habitually, hoping for a flash of gold, while others theorized that the small golden ball had departed with the post owls one morning and was now living in the Owlery.

As far as she could tell, Lily was the only one who knew that this particular Snitch was, in fact, tucked safely into a corner of her school trunk, out of sight. And the only person who knew that she had caught it was James, and he, apparently, had not breathed a word. Despite everything, Lily couldn’t help but be thrilled by this�”speaking or not, together or not, they had a secret, and there was something to be said for that bond.

Her optimism, she noticed, wasn’t shared by everyone. Remus grew steadily more morose as the week drew to a close, and she knew he was dreading not only the full moon and his transformation, but what was further proof of the splintering of his friends. Despite how close Lily had gotten with him and Sirius especially, she knew inherently that this was not a situation she could help him with. These particular secrets, these midnight rendezvous, were special to those four boys, and them alone. No matter how much she cared, Lily knew that, here, at least, she was useless.

---

On Saturday morning, Remus disappeared.

He was used to it by now, knew all the best routes to sneak himself into the Shrieking Shack. He could make himself invisible in a way that James’s cloak never could. Madame Pomfrey didn’t even bother to lead him down anymore, the monthly routine was so familiar.

On this particular morning, he left before dawn. They were fast approaching December, and the days were getting shorter, and moonrise earlier. It wasn’t for hours yet, but Remus always left far earlier than he needed to, unwilling to risk any more than he already did.

Lately, he’d taken to carrying the Marauder’s Map everywhere, working on it in his spare time. It was almost complete; there were only a few magical kinks that needed to be ironed out, which meant that consequently, Remus spent more time looking at his friends’ dots on the map then doing any actual work on the map.

Right now, he was watching Sirius, who appeared to be pacing the dormitory. Remus followed the dot as it went back and forth across the parchment, and he could imagine Sirius, his stride loose but his forehead furrowed, as he roamed restlessly in the confines of the dormitory.

Not wanting to dwell on this, Remus scanned the map and quickly found Peter, alone in the library. Remus sighed. A year ago, two years ago, he would have been able to find them on the map in a heartbeat, because he only would have needed to find one, and the rest would be there. They wouldn’t be scattered like this, or alone.

It probably made a kind of sense, he thought resignedly. He should brace himself for the end. They were in their final year of Hogwarts, after all, and people who were close in school didn’t necessarily always remain so. It was all well and good for Sirius and Peter and James to agree to be friends with a werewolf while in the safety of Hogwarts, but it wasn’t the real world. Soon, the time would come when they’d be out, scattered, trying to survive on their own, and they would all realize just, exactly, how discriminated against werewolves were, and how association with him made everything all the more difficult.

But you thought that about going to school, too, said a tiny little voice in the back of his head. You thought you’d never be able to make friends without telling people what you are, and that the people you did meet would hate you when they found out.

But most people would, he argued inwardly. They were just, well…extraordinary. But everything is already falling apart. How can I possibly expect that to last?

It had been James who’d figured it out first, although Sirius had been quick on his heels. James who’d first befriended him after they had been paired together in Potions one fateful afternoon. James who’d started keeping a steady eye on the lunar calendar whenever Remus disappeared, and who’d finally cornered him about it one morning in the fall of their second year. Remus remembered being petrified as he admitted to his condition, sure that James was about to turn away in disgust, and how surprised he had been when instead James had only laughed, clapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Thought so. Don’t worry, though, Sirius has a plan about that…”

“About what?” Remus had asked, knowing even at twelve to be wary of Sirius’s plans.

“Well,” James had said, winking, “since a werewolf is only a danger to humans…”

And so it had begun.

He dropped his gaze to the map again�”the map that the four of them used to spend so much time together working on�”and perhaps it was because he had been thinking about James that James’s dot on the map caught his eye the way it did.

Like Sirius and Peter, James was alone, not with Leda or anyone else. It wasn’t this that surprised Remus�”he’d seen Leda’s dot in the girls’ dormitory earlier. It was the fact that James, unlike Sirius and Peter, was moving forward, rapidly and purposefully, down the passage that led to the Shrieking Shack.

Remus squinted at the dot, sure that he must have read it wrong, or that the map was malfunctioning. Surely this was one of those few glitches it still had�”James was probably up on the grounds, and the map was confused�”but a few moments later, his dot had reached the Shack, and then there he was, letting himself in.

Remus, almost involuntarily, backed away from him. “What are you doing here?” he asked, panic-stricken. “You know there’s a full moon tonight, you know what that means…”

“Calm down, Moony,” James said, rolling his eyes. “The moon doesn’t come up for hours.”

“Yes, but still,” Remus said nervously. “I just…I like being careful.”

“I know you do,” James said. “I can get out of here before it’s dark. But also, don’t forget, I can turn into a stag, you know…”

“Yeah,” Remus said, sitting on the floor. “Sorry. Overreaction. But what are you doing down here? I mean, the last conversation we had wasn’t exactly…”

“Pleasant?” James finished for him, seating himself beside him on the ground. “Yeah, I know. But I couldn’t remember the last full moon at Hogwarts when I didn’t come out here. And I didn’t know if Sirius was coming down tonight, and we’re really not on good terms right now, as you probably know, so I didn’t want to risk it�””

“He’s probably thinking the same thing,” Remus interrupted glumly.

James winced. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “I didn’t mean to bring all of you into this.”

“How could you not, James?” Remus asked, almost frustrated. “Isn’t that how this works? What the past six years have meant? If something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. It’s why you and Sirius and Peter are Animagi, isn’t it?”

“You’re right,” James said softly. “Of course you’re right. And you were right about everything before.”

Remus looked up. “You mean…”

“Yeah,” James said. “I do. I’ve been an idiot lately, I know that…I was just getting away with it, that’s all. Leda was letting me get away with being a bloody fool, and it was easier that way for a little while, but it never felt right. And I miss you, I miss all of you, and I just want things to go back.”

“You know they can’t,” Remus said, perhaps a bit harshly, and James sighed.

“I know,” he said. “But do you think I can fix them?”

“With me?” Remus asked, raising his eyebrows. “Of course. And Sirius, as angry as he is right now, has been miserable without you. He thinks I can’t tell, but I can. But Peter’s a different story. He’s been really hurt by all of this, and he’ll take a bit more work.” He hesitated for a moment, and then said, “So will Lily.”

James, who had been nodding, stopped abruptly. “Oh,” he said, running a weary hand through his hair, “I don’t have much hope when it comes to Lily right now. That just…it was never going to work out.”

“Maybe,” said Remus impassively. “So…what are you going to do now?”

“About Leda?” James asked. “Well, she’s coming to my house for Christmas Break. She invited herself, actually, and my parents are preparing for guests and everything, and there’s really nothing I can do about it now. But after the winter holidays, it’s over. I’ll be ending it. And maybe I can work everything out with Sirius and Peter then.”

For a moment, he looked so incredibly miserable that Remus softened. “You will,” he said.

James looked up at him. “You know?” he asked.

“I hope,” Remus said.

“Well,” James said, shrugging loosely, “that’s something, I guess.”

For a moment they just sat there, the tension that had been between them since Halloween somewhat lessened. Then James said, “You’re still invited, you know.”

“What?” asked Remus, looking around at him.

“To my house, for Christmas. I know I invited you and Peter awhile ago, but with everything that’s happened, I could understand how you might think…well, you’re both still invited, anyway.”

“And Sirius?” Remus said.

“He still lives there,” James said, biting his lip. “He’s always welcome to my place for breaks. I don’t know if he was planning on coming for this one, but even so…”

Remus nodded. “Right,” he said. “I’ll talk to them.”

And James, for the first time in ages, it seemed, smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “And I really am sorry for everything. I’m going to try to fix it. And I…”

Remus smiled softly back at him. “I know,” he said. “Me too, Prongs. Now get out of here before a wolf shows up and eats you.”

“Yessir,” James grinned, jumping to his feet and leaving the shack with a backwards wave. A moment later, however, he popped back in. “I feel like we should hug or something.”

Remus laughed. “Save it for when you’ve talked to the other two,” he said. “Then we can have a group hug. Much more fun.”

“Sounds difficult,” James said with a wink, and then he disappeared once more.

Remus, after a minute, reached again for the map, and watched as James’s dot followed the tunnel out passed the Whomping Willow, onto the grounds, and towards the castle, out of reach.

---

Sirius was tired of feeling angry.

He was tired of feeling guilty, too�”moody as he could be sometimes, extended negativity just wasn’t his nature. But a full moon had come and gone and Remus, he knew, had suffered it alone while Sirius himself had lain awake in bed, listening to Peter’s snores and James’s absence, watching the moon out the window. It was hard for him not to feel bad about this, and also hard for him not to blame James�”but still, despite everything, he missed his best friend desperately, missed the ease with which they had navigated the castle together.

He was pacing the dormitory again on Sunday afternoon when Remus let himself back in. They were the only two in the dormitory, and Sirius felt immediately uncomfortable; his failure to make his way to the Shrieking Shack for the full moon lay on him heavily.

“Hi,” Remus said, looking pale and wan, as he always did on the days surrounding his transformations.

“Hey,” Sirius said, facing him. “Look, about this weekend�””

Remus waved his apology away. “It’s fine,” he said briskly. “I understand.”

Sirius shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. “Yeah, but I mean�””

Remus looked back over his shoulder. “Look, Peter’s on his way up right now,” he said. “There’s something we have to talk about.”

“What?” Sirius asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Christmas,” Remus said, and Sirius was surprised to hear that his voice was cheerful.

“What about Christmas?” came a voice from the door, and they both glanced over to see Peter standing there, looking glum.

Remus, who did look exhausted, Sirius noticed, flopped backwards onto his bed, crossing his arms over his chest. “What were you planning on doing, Padfoot?” he asked, by way of answering.

Sirius seated himself on his own four-poster and shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Originally I was going to go to James’s for the holidays, but it doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’ll probably just stay here.”

“Don’t,” Remus said. “Go to James’s. I think it will be interesting.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Oh you do, do you?” he said.

Remus half-smiled, and looked over at Peter. “I talked to him earlier. We’re invited for the holidays still,” he said. “And I don’t know, I think it might be nice to have us all together.”

“Is Leda going to be there?” Peter asked sullenly.

“Well…” Remus hesitated. “Yes. But I wouldn’t worry, I don’t think that’s going to last much longer.”

“You talked to James?” Sirius asked. “How…how is he?”

Remus turned his head to look at him. “Worried, Padfoot?” he teased.

Sirius scowled and looked away. “No,” he said. “But I’ll go for Christmas. If you go.”

“Think I might,” said Remus. “Peter?”

There was silence. Sirius raised his head, glancing over at Peter, who was staring blankly out the window. Remus opened his mouth nervously, but Sirius shook his head slightly, and he closed it again, furrowing his brow.

“All right,” Peter said finally. “I’ll go. But I have a condition.”

Sirius started to ask if his condition involved a Bludger to the head, but stopped at the look on Remus’s face�”this was not, he realized, a time for jokes. “What condition, Wormtail?” he asked instead.

And Peter told them.

Remus’s eyebrows shot up so high that they practically disappeared into his hairline, and Sirius simply laughed outright.

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” Peter asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

“Oh,” said Sirius, still grinning half-maniacally. “I think it will definitely make things interesting.”

---

Lily was sitting with Alice in the library working on a Potions essay when she became suddenly, startlingly aware that someone was watching her.

She turned slowly and locked eyes with Peter, who was standing a few feet back, looking at her. “Merlin, Peter,” she said, exchanging a puzzled glance with Alice. “You scared me. What are you doing back there?”

Slowly, intently, Peter came to stand beside her at the table. “I need to talk to you,” he said solemnly. Behind him, Alice, who looked rather as though she was trying not to laugh, shrugged as she caught Lily’s eye.

“Okay,” Lily said, half-curious and half-wary. “Sit down. What’s up?”

“It’s about Christmas,” Peter said. “James originally invited me and Remus to stay with him and his parents and Sirius over the winter holidays, and he told Remus that we’re still invited.”

Lily, who had tensed slightly at the first mention of James, said, “So…that’s good news, then, right?”

“Well,” Peter said, “now Leda’s coming, too. And nobody really likes that idea. Remus said even James doesn’t really like that idea.”

Alice snickered. Lily made a face at her, then said, “Right. Well, understandable. But what’s this got to do with me?”

Peter took a deep breath. “I said I would only go on one condition,” he said. “And by that, I mean that I’ll only go if you go.”

Lily wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “You…want me to go to James’s house for Christmas?” she asked doubtfully.

Peter nodded. “I’m inviting you,” he said. “I’ve been to his place before, and his parents love it when people come to visit. They won’t mind an extra guest.”

“Maybe not,” Lily said, “but I can’t believe that James will be thrilled about this arrangement.”

“I’ll take care of James,” Peter said, sounding more determined than she’d ever heard him sound before.

Lily shook her head. “I just don’t understand why�”” she started to say, but then Peter cut her off.

“Sirius wants you to come, too,” he said. “He says that he needs a sane girl in the group or he’ll go mental.”

“And he’s nearly there already,” Lily murmured. “Okay. So, let me get this straight. James is going home. Leda, his girlfriend, is going with him. You’re barely speaking to James because of that. Sirius, who can’t stand Leda, is also not speaking to James for who knows what reason. And the whole lot of you, plus Remus who can mediate, are going to spend the Christmas holidays together, and you want me to come, even though I haven’t talked to James in weeks?”

“Yep,” Peter nodded. “That about sums it up.”

“You are aware,” Lily said, “that that makes no sense whatsoever?”

“Pretty much,” said Peter.

“Well, all right,” Lily said, a slow grin spreading onto her face. “As long as we’re clear on that. Count me in.”

“Is it just me, or is this already really awkward?” Lily muttered to Sirius as they turned up the walk to the Potter’s house.

He looked down at her, sighing heavily. “It’s a little awkward.”

Peter, a few steps ahead, turned around to grimace at them, and then tripped over what appeared to be his own shadow. Sirius sighed again, and hoisted him up by the jacket. “On your feet, Wormtail,” he said, brushing him off. Peter grumbled something, then scrambled forward towards the large house that loomed before them.

They were walking in several distinct groups, with James and Leda at the front and Lily and Sirius at the rear, with Remus halfheartedly bridging the gap between them. Peter kept adjusting his speed, wavering between catching up to Remus or staying back with Sirius.

James’s house was, in a word, imposing. The stone walls loomed high above them, speckled artfully with huge windows, the frames of which were intricately decorated with whorls and stone spirals. Surrounding the house was what appeared to be a gigantic garden, although it was hard to tell beneath the snow.

Lily gave a low whistle. Sirius peered sideways at her again. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “They have money.”

“Understatement,” Lily breathed. “What am I even doing here?”

“You know,” Sirius said, “I actually was wondering that. Peter told us he was going to invite you, but I didn’t really think you’d say yes.”

“I don’t know why I did,” Lily muttered. “I guess I thought there was no way James would agree to it…”

“Yeah, he wasn’t too happy,” Sirius said absently. Lily stopped walking. Sirius didn’t notice at first and carried on a few steps passed her, then turned around, blinking.

“What do you mean, he wasn’t too happy?” Lily demanded, one eye on James and Leda, who had reached the door to the house.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “What, did you expect him to dance a jig or something? Leda’s even less pleased, I’d gather. It was kind of impressive, actually, when Peter told James he’d invited you…James said absolutely not, and then Peter told him that he’d invited you and he wasn’t about to uninvite you, and if James wanted him to come at all then he was just going to have to deal with that.”

“What?” Lily hissed, looking horrified. “Oh, I should just go home, if no one actually wants me here…”

“Oh, shut up,” Sirius told her. “Everybody but Leda wants you here. James is just being stubborn. Just like you.”

“Yeah, but�””

Sirius grabbed her by the elbow and hauled her towards the door. “Don’t forget,” he reminded her, “I’m not speaking to James either right now. I need you here, or I’ll be hanging out with Mr. and Mrs. Potter all break. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but…”

He trailed off as they reached the door, which Remus had held open for them, looking impatient. “Were you going to stand out there all night?” he asked. “It’s cold.”

“No need to get snippy, Moony,” Sirius said, sticking out his tongue and stomping inside. Remus made a face at him and closed the door as Lily stepped through. She started to shake the snow off her shoes, but after a moment realized that it had gotten suddenly quiet; she looked up and realized that she was face-to-face with James and Leda, both of whom were staring back at her. James’s expression was unreadable, but Leda’s was openly hostile. Lily stared back at her, not entirely sure how she should react…Leda, after all, had more of a right to be there than she did…

Lily heard Sirius fidget uncomfortably behind her, and wondered if he was about to step in, when suddenly she heard a voice call, “Jamie? Is that my Jamie I just heard come in?”

A woman swept around the corner, going straight to James and enfolding him in a tight embrace. “Hi, Mum,” Lily heard James say as his mother stepped back to study him.

“You’re a bit peaky-looking, dear, have you been eating?” she asked.

As James answered her, Lily took a good look at Mrs. Potter. She was beautiful, all soft curves and warmth. Her dark hair, shot through with silver, was twisted up onto her head, her wand sticking through. Her face was creased with laugh lines, and her eyes were a gentle hazel�”James’s eyes, Lily realized.

“And little Sirius!” Mrs. Potter said, swooping over to where Sirius and Lily were standing and bestowing a hug upon him as well. “We’ve missed you, my dears.”

Lily chuckled to herself watching this, not sure if she was more amused by Mrs. Potter calling Sirius “little,” or by the fact that Sirius didn’t seem to mind at all. She quieted, however, when Mrs. Potter turned to her, suddenly nervous, and not sure why.

“And you must be Jamie’s girlfriend,” the older woman said, beaming at her. “It’s so nice to meet you, we’ve heard so much about�””

“Oh,” Lily said hastily, “oh, no, I’m not…I’m Lily Evans, I’m just a friend…”

Mrs. Potter blinked at her. “Oh,” she said, glancing at James, “oh but I was sure�””

Leda stepped forward, offering her hand. “I’m Leda Woods, ma’am,” she said with a smile. “And I’m James’s girlfriend.”

Mrs. Potter seemed to recover her composure. “Of course you are, dear,” she said, smiling. “You have such similar-sounding names, I must have gotten confused. Lovely to meet you.”

Leda, looking slightly smug, stepped back beside James, taking his hand as Mrs. Potter proceeded to greet Remus and Peter with that same infectious enthusiasm that Lily was beginning to realize was her natural demeanor. She watched their interactions, preferring not to watch James and Leda holding hands. Sirius, however, nudged her pointedly after a few minutes of this, and she glanced up to see that James had freed himself from Leda, and was now standing with his arms folded. Sirius waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Lily, who laughed out loud, causing James to look sharply over at them.

“Why don’t I get you all settled in your rooms?” Mrs. Potter was saying now. “I figured that you boys could split up into James and Sirius’s rooms however you prefer, and the girls can share the guest room!”

She turned and led the way up the stairs in the foyer, the others trailing behind her. I'm sharing a room with Leda? Lily thought, horrified.

Sirius gave a low chuckle, and Lily glared at him. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” she whimpered.

“You can do it,” Sirius said. “You’re tough.” He paused, tilting his head at her. “Can’t say I’m at all jealous, though,” he said, and giggled.

“I hate you,” Lily said gloomily, picking up her bag and following.

James and Sirius peeled off for their individual rooms. Remus and Sirius exchanged a glance, and after a moment of silent communication, Remus followed James while Peter stuck to Sirius’s heels. Sirius gave a little wave, looking half-sympathetic and half-amused, as Lily was left standing miserably in the hall with Leda.

“All right, girls,” Mrs. Potter said as she bustled down the hall and opened another door. They followed her inside. “The guest room is in here. I’m afraid there’s only one bed, but I’m sure you’ll make it work! You can have a nice little slumber party.”

She fluffed a few of the pillows, her back to them, apparently oblivious to the stiffness between the two girls who were now standing on opposite sides of the room, not looking at each other.

“The bathroom’s down the hall, and if I’ve forgotten anything, don’t hesitate to tell me! Take your time settling in, and when you’re up for it, come downstairs, I’ve got supper on. The boys all know the way if you get lost.”

And with a final smile, she departed.

For a moment, Lily and Leda just looked at each other, staring from opposite sides of the bed. Leda’s gaze was so ferocious, so territorial, that for a moment Lily just wanted to back away, to bow under the pressure, to say Go ahead, you take the bed, I’ll take the little couch in the corner, or the floor, even, don’t worry about it at all.

But then something inside of her hardened. She straightened her spine, looking at Leda who still stood with her arms folded, because hadn’t Leda taken enough from her already? Hadn’t she gotten in the way of so many things?

Leda moved as if to put her bag on top of the bed, and Lily’s eyes narrowed. I don’t think so, she thought, and slung her own bag on the bed first.

When Leda looked up at her in utter surprise, Lily flashed her the biggest smile she could make. “So which side do you want?” she asked.

“What?” asked Leda, taken aback.

“Oh, it’s totally big enough to share,” Lily said, still beaming. It was, actually�”a wide, comfortable-looking bed, with a royal blue comforter freckled with silver that matched the walls. It felt a bit like being under the night sky, although Lily was carefully avoiding thinking about the last time she had lain under a night sky.

As she had hoped, however, Leda wrinkled her nose. “I don’t really want to share a bed,” she said.

“Oh, well I don’t mind at all,” Lily bluffed, flopping backwards onto the bed.

“Whatever, Lily,” Leda sniffed, scowling down at her. “Maybe I’ll just go sleep with my boyfriend.”

Lily did not, as she knew Leda wanted, rise to the bait. “Ooh,” she tsked instead, as though Leda’s words hadn’t sent a sharp pang through her chest. “You and James and Remus? Sounds cozy. Whatever will James’s mother think?”

Leda merely deepened her frown and stomped from the room. Lily didn’t know where she was going, nor did she particularly care; all she knew was that, this round, she had won.

As the door slammed shut, it occurred to Lily that, throughout the entire conversation, she had not been smiling so much as showing her teeth.

---

Sirius regarded the days leading up to Christmas with a sort of passive interest. He’d always had a knack for knowing when trouble was about to brew�”something he credited to his childhood with his parents, along with his knowledge of when to duck�”and he could feel the storm clouds gathering.

He’d noticed it since the first night, when they’d all gone down to dinner. Leda had looked thunderous, although Lily looked rather smug, and though Sirius had made a mental note to ask her what had happened, he’d promptly forgotten as soon as Mrs. Potter set a plateful of food in front of him.

Mr. Potter, who was tall and lean and bespectacled, came in a few minutes later, ruffling Sirius’s hair jovially and greeting his son with a clap on the back. When they stood next to each other like that, Sirius rather felt as though he was looking at James’s future�”although, admittedly, Mr. Potter had much less hair.

He’d never quite be able to put into words how much he loved this family. Their house was warm in a way on the inside, so different from it’s statuesque exterior, and the whole atmosphere was markedly different than the world Sirius had grown up in. He watched Mr. and Mrs. Potter move around the kitchen, gazing at them both with a tremendous amount of love and appreciation, even if they had spoiled their son a tad�”at least until he, Sirius, had moved in and stolen the show, of course. He was even feeling a bit of love for James right now (whom he was still mad at, of course, no matter what Remus told him James had said) because it was hard not to, in such a happy place.

---

The next few days, however, were far from happy, as the six Gryffindors remained stubbornly segregated, with James and Leda usually in one room, Sirius, Lily and Peter in another, while a harried-looking Remus switched back and forth between the two. But Christmas was fast approaching, and Lily was quickly becoming discontented with the way things were. “We shouldn’t have come,” she’d said to Sirius on several occasions. “We knew it would be like this, we shouldn’t have come.”

But every time she’d said this, he had merely shrugged and said, “Call me optimistic.”

Lily woke one morning, the day before Christmas Eve, thinking about these words. Optimistic about what? she thought, somewhat bitterly, before rolling over in bed. She jumped slightly; Leda, from where she had been sleeping on a futon in the corner of the room, was staring daggers at her. Oh, thought Lily, that’s not creepy at all.

Leda, it transpired, had not ended up sleeping in James’s room, although Lily wasn’t sure if she had been bluffing or if either James or Remus hadn’t allowed it. Instead, she returned to the guest room, and had sulkily put together a makeshift bed. Around the second day of their visit, Lily had begun to feel slightly guilty about this, and had offered to switch off nights in the bed. Leda, however, had turned her nose up at this request and her back on Lily, thereby alleviating almost all of Lily’s guilt.

So now, Lily yawned, stretching her arms luxuriously above her head�”it was, perhaps, a bigger show than she normally put on, but she was only human�”and then slid out of bed, grabbing a bundle of clothes as she went, and slipped down the hall to take a shower.

In a lot of ways, this was her favorite time of day, lately. It was early enough in the morning that the boys were all still asleep�”the only time, really, that they did anything together these days�”and she could pretend to herself that everything was as it used to be. Maybe, she thought as she turned on the shower and stepped in, maybe that was what Sirius meant by optimism, although to her, it felt a little more like longing.

She was so deep in thought that, at first, she didn’t hear the bathroom door open. She froze, however, at the sound of someone moving; she’d locked the door, of course, but a simple Alohamora charm could take care of that, of course.

“Hello?” Lily called out cautiously, feeling suddenly very exposed. She thought she heard the door close, and warily, she stuck her head out around the shower curtain.

No one was there. Weird, she thought fervently. Maybe I imagined it.

A few minutes later, however, as she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, it became quite clear that she hadn’t imagined it.

---

Sirius woke relatively early for him, ruffled his hair, and glanced over at Peter, who was still snoring on a mattress on the floor. He looked out the window, saw that the sun had come up a little while ago, and considered going back to sleep for a bit until he remembered that Mrs. Potter was probably downstairs making pancakes, and if he helped, she’d probably let him lick the bowl when she was done.

Heartened by this, Sirius swung himself out of bed, pulling on the first clothes that he could find, and started down the hallway. As he passed the bathroom, however, he heard a voice hiss his name.

“Huh?” he said aloud, stopping in his tracks.

“Over here!” came the voice again, and this time he recognized it as Lily’s.

Sirius turned, squinting, towards the bathroom door, which was open a small crack. “Lily?” he asked, taking a few hesitant steps forward. He reached to push open the door, but was surprised when it slammed shut against his hand, Lily apparently having thrown herself against it.

“…the hell?” Sirius muttered, jiggling the doorknob. “Are you okay in there?”

“You can’t come in,” Lily said, easing the door open a sliver and peering through it. “But I need your help.”

“What are you doing?” Sirius asked.

“Um,” Lily said, and to his delight, she sounded slightly embarrassed. “Well…I was taking a shower…”

“Usually what people do in the bathroom,” Sirius interjected, and even though he could only see one of her eyes through the crack in the door, he could tell she was scowling at him.

“Shut up.”

“I get bored easily. Tell me what’s going on quick or I’m leaving.”

Lily sighed. “Well…um…someone came in here while I was showering and stole all my clothes.”

She said this last part in such a rush that Sirius wasn’t entirely sure he had heard her correctly. “Excuse me?” he said. “Did you just say someone stole all your clothes?”

“And all the towels in here,” Lily said glumly. “I think it was Leda.”

Sirius burst out laughing.

“Stop it!” Lily snapped. “It’s not funny!”

“It’s hilarious,” Sirius corrected her. “How long have you been in there?”

“About half an hour,” she said plaintively. “I’ve been waiting here for someone to walk by forever. And I’m cold.”

Sirius gave another hoot of laughter. “So what,” he said, calming down, “do you want me to do about it, exactly? And why do you think it was Leda?”

“Well, it wasn’t you, was it?” Lily said. “Who else would it be? Leda’s not exactly my biggest fan these days, plus she knew exactly when I left to take a shower. And I want you to go into my room and get me something to wear! At least so I can make it down the hall.”

Sirius made a face. “No way,” he said. “I’m not going through a bunch of girl clothes, who knows what I’d find in there…and anyway, I don’t want to go barging into your room, Leda could be naked in there or something!” Lily made a small noise of protestation. “Not,” Sirius amended hastily, “that there’s anything wrong with naked girls.”

“Oh, just stop,” Lily said dryly. “You’re digging yourself deeper.”

There was the creak of a door opening to their left, and Sirius turned his head to look, surprised. “What’s going on out here?” came a familiar voice.

It was James, emerging from his room tousle-haired and bleary-eyed. Seeing him, Lily gave another tiny squeak and slammed the door shut again.

Sirius was struck by how small James looked as he stood there, looking silently at the closed bathroom door. Finally, he heaved a heavy sigh and muttered, “She hates me. Sorry I interrupted. I’ll leave. You guys can go back to whatever you were talking about.”

For a split second, Sirius was torn between letting him leave and going after him. Instead, not even consciously aware he was making the decision, he heard himself say, “It’s not about you, actually.”

James turned towards him, hope sparking in his eyes. “Oh, really?” he asked.

“Really,” Sirius said, walking towards him. “It’s actually a catfight. Very interesting. Highly entertaining. I’ll explain once we get out of the open.”

Without waiting to be invited, he darted into James’s room. James followed, closing the door behind him. Remus wasn’t there, but James had a bathroom attached to his room, the door of which was closed, and Sirius assumed Remus was behind it.

Thinking about bathrooms made him think about Lily, which made him smile. James looked at him questioningly, and Sirius started to tell him what had happened. I’m still mad, he thought as he spoke. I’m still mad, aren’t I? But he kept talking anyway, because he’d missed this, missed the ease between them, more than he cared to admit.

“Wow,” James said, as soon as Sirius paused for breath, “a lot goes on in my own house that I don’t know about.”

“Well, you’ve always been thick,” Sirius said, crossing the room and opening one of James’s drawers. “Where’s that shirt I got you for Christmas fifth year?”

“Why?” James asked.

“Duh,” said Sirius. “Because I need to get clothes for Lily. Poor girl’s been stuck in that bathroom long enough.”

“Why are you giving her my clothes?” James laughed.

Sirius, having located the shirt, straightened up and closed the drawer with his foot. “Well I’m certainly not giving her any of mine,” he said. “I’ll never get them back.” He shook out the t-shirt he was holding and looked at it proudly�”it was neon pink, and emblazoned with the words “World’s Best Grandma.”

“You know,” Sirius said, looking at it thoughtfully, “I don’t think you’ve ever worn this.”

James grinned as Sirius began to rifle through his other drawers. “Of course I have,” he said. “That’s my favorite shirt. Just ask my mom.”

“Sure,” Sirius said. “Well, we’ll put it to good use now. Come on.” Slinging a pair of trousers over his arm, he waltzed from the room, James following closely.

When they reached the bathroom, Sirius rapped on the door. “Open up, Evans!” he called.

“Took you long enough,” Lily grumbled, and the door creaked open a crack. A moment later, she stuck her hand out.

“Oh, you want to come out?” Sirius said mischievously, and he grabbed her hand and pulled.

Lily yelped, ripping her hand away just in time and slamming the bathroom door shut again. “Not funny!” she said emphatically.

Sirius smirked. “A little funny,” he said. “Here. For real this time.”

Lily stuck her hand out of the door again, and he shoved the bundle of clothes into it. From behind the closed door, they heard her laugh as she looked at what they had brought her.

“You’re such a guy!” she called. “‘World’s Best Grandma?’”

“You’re welcome,” Sirius said back.

“Thank you,” came the muffled reply. “Hold on, I’ll be right out.”

James leaned back against the wall, chuckling, and Sirius grinned at him, a warmth between them that had been missing for months. A few seconds later, Lily came bouncing out of the bathroom saying, “Remind me to never go anywhere without my wand aga�””

She stopped, look suddenly self-conscious as she noticed that James was standing beside Sirius. “Oh,” she said, looking down, “hey.”

James nodded at her, then straightened up. “Right,” he said. “Well, I’m gonna go see if my mom needs any help. I’ll see you guys later.” And he walked swiftly towards the stairs.

Lily looked at Sirius, quirking an eyebrow. “What was that all about?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully.

Lily shrugged. “Well, I’m going to go change into real clothes now,” she said. “Thanks for everything. See you later.”

Sirius waved as she walked away, his eyes still focused on the spot where James had disappeared.

---

The next day and a half passed much as the ones that had preceded it, with one striking difference: James and Sirius were no longer staunchly ignoring each other. They weren’t speaking either, exactly, but Lily had noticed them exchange several glances during mealtimes ever since her debacle with the shower, both of them half-smiling, as though sharing some sort of secret.

But it wasn’t James and Sirius she was thinking about as she lay awake, so late on Christmas Eve that it may have already been Christmas morning. Instead, all her focus was on the small, wrapped package she now held clutched beneath the bedcovers. Restlessly, she passed it from hand to hand, entirely unsure what to do with it�”because it was, of course, for James.

She’d brought it with her on the faint hope that the winter holidays would help, somehow, to fix everything that was wrong between them, but it hadn’t. And here it was, almost Christmas, and she was left with a gift that she didn’t know how to give.

For what felt like the hundredth time that night, Lily rolled over to check to see if Leda was sleeping. The other girl was breathing heavily, and had been for the past few hours at least, and Lily was relatively sure that she wasn’t faking. If she was ever going to do this, it had to be now.

She slipped silently out of bed, her toes curling against the chill of the floor, and crept out the door, the box still tight in her hand. The house was eerily quiet, and she held her breath as she walked, every creak on the wooden floors making her wince.

After what felt like an age, she reached James’s door. Hesitantly, still half-wondering if she was crazy for doing this, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

His room was not what she had expected. It was smaller, quieter somehow. The walls were some deep color�”dark green, perhaps, or blue, it was hard to tell in the dim lighting�”but much of the space was taken up by two large, deep-set windows. There was a bookshelf in the back corner, which was piled haphazardly with both old schoolbooks and Quidditch gear. James’s bed was in the opposite corner, a night table beside it. Several photos were tacked up on the wall here as well, primarily of James with Sirius, Remus, and Peter, but there were a few of his family as well. There were, Lily was gratified to see, no pictures of Leda.

Remus, she noticed, wasn’t there; she knew he’d been switching nightly between James and Sirius’s rooms, desperate not to exclude anyone, and she reasoned that tonight, he must be in with Sirius and Peter.

James himself was curled on his side, sound asleep, one hand dropping over the edge of his bed, his glasses on the table beside him. He looked startlingly young without them, his eyes closed and his too-long hair flopping onto his face. Lily was struck with a sudden urge to brush it off his forehead. Instead, she turned away, setting her package on his nightstand where he could find it in the morning.

As she moved a book on the table aside to make space, she accidentally knocked something off. She turned curiously as it fluttered towards the ground, and bent to retrieve it. It was another photograph, and she meant to just slip it back where she had dislodged it, but as she turned it over, her heart leapt with recognition, and she gripped it a little more tightly.

It was a copy of one of the same pictures Remus had sent to her last summer, the one she had shown Petunia in September. She looked down at herself, flanked by James and Sirius, James’s arm around her, all three of them laughing.

She felt a sudden pang for those times, before they had all fallen apart in a way that she hoped wasn’t irreparable but feared that it might be. But surely it meant something that he was still holding on to this picture. She wondered if his mother had seen it, and if that was why she had confused Lily and Leda when they first arrived.

Carefully, she slid the photograph back underneath her Christmas present to James and turned to go. Suddenly, she felt fingers on her wrist; surprised, her heart racing, she turned to see James, barely half-awake, blinking blearily up at her. It was the first physical contact they’d had since catching the Snitch together in the Great Hall weeks ago.

“Lily?” he murmured, his hand tightening around her wrist. “What’re you…am I dreaming?”

“Yeah,” she said after a moment’s hesitation, kneeling beside him, her arm slipping from his grasp. “Yeah, it’s just a dream.”

“Thought so,” he said sleepily, propped up on his elbow but barely able to keep his eyes open. “Wouldn’t make sense otherwise. But…since it’s a dream, and all…”

And before she had even fully registered what he was saying, he had moved the hand that had been holding her wrist to the side of her face, leaned forward, and brushed his lips lightly against hers�”so lightly, in fact, that for the first few moments, she wondered if she was imagining it.

But then just as soon as he had been there, he was gone again, breaking all contact between them and settling back into his pillow. Lily, still slightly bewildered by what had just happened, got shakily to her feet, and brushed her thumb against his cheekbone. “Good night, James,” she whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mkay,” he sighed, yawning slightly, and nestling deeper into bedcovers. With one backwards glance, Lily crossed the room and darted outside again, closing the door softly behind her, feeling open and vulnerable and wondering why, suddenly, she felt a bit like crying.

James had never been able to sleep late on Christmas morning, and this year, whether out of excitement or out of habit, was no exception. He opened his eyes a little before dawn but didn't move, staring instead at blankly at his ceiling as it lightened slowly.

He didn't know what was going to happen. He had been anticipating Christmas highly over the past couple of weeks--and not just because it was Christmas. The stalemate he'd hit with his friends seemed finally to be wearing down, and Christmas, he thought, seemed like the perfect time to break it.

It was with this thought in mind that he rolled over onto his side and his eyes fell upon the small package on his nightstand. He reached for it, turning it over and over in his hand; something about it felt vaguely familiar and he frowned, grasping fruitlessly for the fading edges of dreams.

Laughing slightly at himself, he shook his head to clear it and slipped a finger under the wrapping paper. It tore artlessly down the middle as he, suddenly unable to control his curiosity, ripped open the package and pulled out a small golden ball.

It wasn't until he felt the wings flutter against his palm that he understood what it was, and even then he scarcely believed it. But it was the Snitch, the same one that had been loosed into the Great Hall weeks ago, the same one that was rumored to be flying wild around the school, the same one that Lily had caught only seconds before he himself reached it.

James fumbled for the mess of wrapping paper, but there was no card, no note, nothing. Disheartened, he threw it onto his floor, still clutching the Snitch in one hand. It didn't really matter, he supposed. There was only one person this could be from--as far as he knew, they were the only two who knew about it. But still, he would have appreciated some sign, some indication of why she had decided to give him this.

Barely had this thought occurred to him when there was a rap on his door, and he was instantly on his feet, crossing the room in two strides to open it.

It was Remus; "Happy Christmas!" he said jubilantly, coming inside James's room. James grinned at him, half-relieved and half-disappointed.

"Happy Christmas," he said back, starting to close the door again, when suddenly Sirius barreled inside, slamming into the door so hard that it hit James in the head.

"Ow!" he yelped.

"That was mostly accidental," Sirius told him.

"Fair enough," James laughed, rubbing his temple. Remus rolled his eyes, smiling slightly as he looked back and forth between the two of them, and, for a moment, everything felt normal.

"What are you still doing up here, anyway?" Sirius whined. "I know you, Prongs, you've been up for hours. I've already shaken all the presents, and your mum's made breakfast and it smells really good and I'm tired of waiting for you to come down so we can start!"

James hadn't heard his nickname in so long; in some ways, it was the best Christmas present he could have gotten, he had to resist the urge to throw his arms around Sirius when he used it. Remus, however, was shaking his head at Sirius incredulously. "You are actually five years old," he said.

"No I'm not!" Sirius bellowed. "I just had an unsatisfactory childhood!"

"Touche," Remus said, tilting his head.

James backed slowly away from them as their verbal sparring continued, surreptitiously slipping the Snitch into his dresser drawer. He'd figure out what to do with it later, he thought, pulling a shirt over his head, then heading for the door.

"Well, come on," he said, stepping out into the hall. "What's taking you two so long?"

"Yes," Sirius said. "Finally." And he bounded out past James down the stairs.

James turned back towards Remus. "Where's--" he started to ask.

"Peter and Lily have been downstairs for awhile," Remus rattled off, "and Leda just got there. You're the last one."

"Thanks," James said, not entirely sure which of the three he meant to ask about, and glad that, as usual, Remus had appeared to understand this inherently.

As the reached the landing and turned the corner, James was reminded, once again, of why he had always loved Christmas so much. The living room, which was the biggest room in the Potter's not-small house, had been overtaken by a gigantic fir tree, laden with decorations. He could smell the pine from where he stood, almost an entire room away. Across from the tree, a fire was roaring in the hearth, dancing even in the daylight against the soft gold-painted walls. Through the large windows he could see the snow falling in huge, quiet flakes.

But the best part--he might as well admit it--was the fact that Lily Evans was sitting on the floor by the tree wearing bright green pajamas, her auburn hair in pigtails, and giant fluffy bunny slippers on her feet.

"Excuse me, Evans," Sirius said, eyeing her warily. "What on earth are those?"

Lily smiled impishly up at him and wiggled her toes. "They're bunnies!" she said sweetly. "They're huge in the Muggle world. Everyone wears them all the time. School, grocery shopping, formal events, they're all the rage."

"Muggles are weird," said Peter, who was sitting next to her.

"Somehow, I'm having trouble believing this story," Sirius said dryly.

Lily shrugged. "Don't blame me if you ever try to blend into the Muggle world and fail miserably because you--"

"Aren't wearing fuzzy fake animals on my feet?"

Lily grinned. So, across the room from her, did James; a second later, however, he stopped, when he looked up to see Leda, perched on a sofa behind Lily and Peter, glaring at him. Unlike Lily, she was dressed up for Christmas in a deep blue dress with a plunging neckline, her dark hair swept up elegantly. She did look very pretty, and the contrast between the two girls was especially striking then, but as James looked back over at Lily, now giggling up at Sirius and waving her ridiculous slippers around, he couldn't help thinking, No contest.

---

It was a good Christmas, and all the more surprising because Lily hadn't expected it to be. She had no indication of whether or not James had gotten the present she'd left beside his bed, but somehow, it didn't seem to matter; she felt lighter just having given it. She spent the day joking around with Sirius, not-quite-ignoring James, and trying to help Mrs. Potter in the kitchen, although the older woman invariably shooed her away, telling her to go relax.

By evening, everyone had managed to finally change out of pajamas and into Muggle clothes. With presents opened and Mrs. Potter's magnificent Christmas dinner eaten and cleared away, the residents of the Potter household dispersed, more or less finding ways to occupy themselves. Mr. Potter was stoking a fire in the living room while, behind him, Remus and Mrs. Potter some recently popular book, Leda sitting somewhat stiffly with them. Sirius and Peter, last Lily had seen, had been laying on the floor of the kitchen, their hands on their stomachs, groaning.

"I ate too much," Sirius had moaned as Lily passed him, but although she spared him a brief grin, she hadn't answered.

She was wandering somewhat aimlessly through the house, slipping through the living room with a small wave at Remus, and into the room connected to it, which sported a large, sunken window. Behind her, she could just see Remus and Leda through the living room door. Mr. Potter, satisfied with the fire, had stood up, brushing his hands together, as Sirius and Peter dragged themselves around the corner of the room, collapsing once again onto their backs at Remus's feet. Lily wondered if she should join them, but she hesitated, looking back out the window. Outside, the sun had set but the sky was not yet quite dark, and large snowflakes were still drifting softly. She leaned back against wall, watching the snow fall in the gathering blue, when she was suddenly aware that someone had come up beside her.

James was quiet, almost catlike, as he pressed up against the opposite wall, gazing out of the window as well, and being careful, it seemed, not to touch her. She was so surprised he was there that she didn't know what to do or say, and for one panicked moment, she even considered pretending she hadn't seem him.

But then she stopped herself. That's dumb, she chided herself inwardly. You were friends once. It can't be that hard. Relax.

There were another few seconds of silence, but what struck Lily now is that it wasn't an uncomfortable silence; they were just standing there, breathing the same air, comfortably quiet, watching the snow fall.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" she murmured, still looking out the window, and she was surprised to hear herself say it.

"It's beautiful," James responded. Something in his voice made her turn her head to look at him, and he wasn't, as she had thought, looking out at the snow, but at her.

She had a sudden memory of the two of them, last year, standing at a window in Gryffindor Tower and watching a snowstorm just like this, and then a sudden flash of creeping into his room last night, and, Leda or no Leda, she was done holding her tongue.

"James," she said, and it felt like forever since she'd said his name. "About what happened--I just wanted to say--"

"It's okay," he interrupted, holding up a hand. "You don't have to, it was my fault, I--"

"James?"

The third voice made both of them turn, and there, watching them, was Leda, her hands on her hips.

"You look busy," she said, and though she spoke to James, her eyes, narrowed and vicious, were on Lily.

"Not particularly," James said, detaching himself from the wall and facing her. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you," Leda said caustically. "Do you think you could make the time?"

"Sure," James said, although he looked slightly wary. Leda, with a withering look at Lily, grabbed him by the arm and marched him back through the living room and up the stairs.

Lily, slightly unsettled, watched them go. Then, hardly realizing what she was doing, she took a few steps forward, in the direction they had gone.

"Aw, Evans, I can't believe you're still standing here," she heard from behind her, and looked over her shoulder, completely unsurprised to see Sirius standing there, his hands in his pockets, Remus and Peter grinning behind him.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked innocently.

"Oh, I don't know," Sirius shrugged. "I just would have thought that you'd be up those stairs with your ear pressed against the door by now."

"Yeah, well, I was going to give you a head start," Lily said. They looked at each other, Sirius smirking slowly, and then turned as one and bolted for the stairs, Remus and Peter on their heels.

Lily skidded to a halt on the landing, Sirius slamming into her from behind. She elbowed him without looking, putting a finger to her lips. James's door was ajar, and she and Sirius snuck forward, jostling each other. They could hear Leda's voice faintly coming from the room, and Sirius dropped to his knees to peer through the crack in the door. Lily, bracing a hand on the wall, stood on tiptoes above him while Peter pushed into them both, his hands on Sirius's head as he leaned forward, and Remus scooted in next to Lily.

"I can't see anything," Peter hissed, and both Remus and Lily clapped a hand over his mouth, leaning forward to listen.

"--just don't understand," Leda was saying, the edge of a whine in her voice. "I didn't realize they'd all be here."

"Sirius lives here," James said, sounding vaguely amused, "and Remus and Peter were invited before you were. Where do you think they'd be?"

"I thought it was going to be just us, though," said Leda. "I mean, Remus is fine, and so is Peter, I guess, although he's a little--well, you know."

"No," James said, a little aggressively. "I don't."

"Well, whatever, that's not the point," said Leda. "And I know Sirius lives here, but thought he was just going to stay at school. And I have no idea what Lily Evans is doing here."

Lily had been wondering if her name would come up. Apparently she wasn't the only one; to her surprise, Sirius held his hand up and Remus high-fived him lightly, smiling.

"Why wouldn't she be?" James asked, his voice neutral. "Peter invited her, but we're all friends."

Leda snorted, the most unattractive sound Lily had ever heard her make. "Right," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You haven't spoken to her or to Sirius in months, and honestly, I think you were better off."

"Oh you do, do you?" asked James, and if Lily hadn't known better, she would have sworn he was on the verge of laughing.

"Of course," Leda said. "I mean, they're awful. They stopped speaking to you because they were jealous of me. You can have better friends. Ones who aren't so opposed to you having a girlfriend."

"I don't really think that's--"

"Yes it is," Leda cut him off. "And they get up to all those stupid pranks. I know one of them is the one who put that Wartcap powder in my clothes, and all the stuff that happens around school? It's so immature, and it's not nearly as funny as they think it is. They just need to grow up."

"Right," James said slowly. "So. Let me get this straight. You don't really like my friends. And you want me to choose between you and them."

"Well I wasn't going to say that," Leda said a little smugly. "But since you brought it up, yeah."

"And you want me to choose you," he said matter-of-factly.

"Obviously."

There was a brief pause, during which Lily dug her fingers into Sirius's shoulder. Then, "Sorry," James said. "It's them."

"What--" Leda started to say, her voice climbing in outrage, but this time James cut her off.

"It's always going to be them," he said. "Always. I should have remembered that sooner."

Sirius's mouth had dropped open in delighted surprise, when they heard Leda say, "I'm leaving. If you mean that, I'm leaving."

There was another moment of hesitation, and then James, sounding much closer to them, said, "Safe travels," and wrenched open the door.

Sirius scrambled backwards as James came outside, shutting the door behind him, but it was too late; James did a double take, looking the four of them over and realizing they'd been there the whole time. Lily tried to hurriedly think up a reason that they were all standing there, but to her surprise, James chuckled.

"Uh," Sirius said. "We're--"

"You'd better get out of here," James advised. "Leda probably won't be too happy to see you out here."

"Duly noted," Sirius said, getting to his feet, and then all five of them bolted.

---

Leda, true to her word, left the next day, packing her bags and Flooing out of the Potter's living room fire without a word to any of them. Lily wasn't sorry to see her go, but she took one look at Peter's shining face and knew that she was far from being the most excited.

Still, the energy around the dinner table that night was higher than it had been all break. Sirius, for one, was more animated than he had been before, chatting excitedly with Remus and, at one point, challenging Mr. Potter to an arm wrestling match. James seemed lighter as well, and though he and Sirius didn't really speak to each other directly, the old tension between them was almost entirely gone.

Finally, at the end of the meal, Sirius put his fork down and looked across the table to where James sat between his mother and Remus. "So," said Sirius, quirking an eyebrow, "are you broken up now or not?"

"Oh, I hope so," said Mrs. Potter, and everyone tried to control their laughter as James turned to his mother with his mouth open.

"Mum!" he said. "You aren't supposed to say stuff like that!"

"Oh, whatever," said Mrs. Potter. "She never said two words to us. Or much of the rest of you."

"Yeah, but still," James said, although he was grinning. "Anyway, I think so. And if we're not, we definitely will be the next time I see her."

There was a collective sigh of relief around the table, and Sirius, grinning wolfishly at Lily, held up his hand, and this time she was the one who high-fived him. "Jeez," James said, "don't act so broken up about it."

"You can do better," Sirius told him. "Need help clearing these dishes, Mrs. Potter?"

She beamed at him as he rose, nudging Lily meaningfully. She got to her feet to help him gather up plates, bringing them into the kitchen. Once it was just the two of them in there, Sirius craned his neck, making sure no one else was coming, and then said, "So? What do you think?"

"What do I think about what?" Lily asked cautiously, putting the dishes in the sink.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Duh," he said. "Leda? Is gone? James is single? You have a guest room to yourself?"

Lily laughed and threw a towel at him. "Get your mind out of the gutter," she said. "First of all, James is maybe single. Second of all, I've barely spoken to him in months, I'm not just going to go start fawning over him. These things take time."

Sirius groaned. "That's your problem!" he said.

"I don't have a problem," said Lily.

"Yes you do!" Sirius said. "You seem to think that there's some sort of perfect schedule, and that things will work out better if you wait for Merlin-knows how long. And I don't get that. Life's too short."

"Oh, please, Padfoot, we're seventeen!" Lily scoffed. "There's plenty of time."

Sirius seemed to forget what he was going to say, tilting his head and looking at her contemplatively.

"What?" she asked, nonplussed.

"You've never called me Padfoot before," he said softly.

"Oh," Lily said, furrowing her brow. "Wow, I didn't even notice. Huh. I guess that means we're like, friends or something."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at her, and she giggled. Then they both turned to peer back to the people they had left behind. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were directly in their line of sight, bent together, talking intensely about something.

"I wonder how they do that," Sirius mused.

"Do what?" Lily asked.

"I mean, they've been together for so long," Sirius said softly. "How do they still find things to talk about?"

Lily, startled, looked sideways at him. "I don't know," she said, "practice?"

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. My parents have been married for a while and they never have conversations like that. I think these two have lasted so long because they make each other laugh."

Lily didn't say anything, looking back at Mrs. Potter, who was now laughing as Mr. Potter conjured a small rose with his wand and slipped it into her hair. Lily smiled, but then her gaze slipped past the Potters to their son. James was sitting across the table from them, his chin in his hands, watching his parents as Lily was watching him, and she could not bring herself to look away.

---

James had many things on his mind that day, and Leda was the least of them. Lily was first and foremost these days, but before he even let himself think about that, there was something he had to do first.

He was laying in wait by the living room door when Peter passed by. Seizing his chance, James grabbed him by the arm and hauled him into a side room--his father's study, actually, which was used more for decoration than actual work.

"Um," Peter said nervously. "Hi?"

"Hey," James said, shoving his hands awkwardly in his pockets. "Look, I just wanted--I mean, I feel like I--"

He stopped, looking at Peter who was looking at him curiously, and closed his eyes tightly for a minute.

"I'm sorry," he said, opening them again and looking at Peter as sincerely and truthfully as he knew how. I'm so sorry, Pete, about everything these past couple of months--I knew how you felt about Leda, but I did it anyway. I was upset about some stuff with Lily, and Leda was just sort of...there, but that's no excuse. And more than anything else in this whole messed-up term, I'm sorry that I hurt you. If I could only take one thing back, it would be that."

For a long moment, Peter just looked at him impassively. Then he smiled, so gently it was barely a smile, but James would take what he could get.

"It's okay," Peter said. "Thanks."

James, who had been expecting to grovel more, was surprised at this quiet acquiescence. "I know...I mean, it's okay if you're still mad at me," he said. "I would be if I were you. It's your right."

"I'm not, though," Peter said. "I understand. But thanks for saying it."

And with another little smile, he slipped out of the room. James stood there awhile longer, feeling his sudden, surprising absence, and wondering how, somehow, apologizing had made him feel just a little bit worse.

---

Remus was not oblivious to everything that was going on, but unlike everyone else, he felt no need to air his opinions. He didn't make a habit out of eavesdropping, really, but he was observant. He noticed Peter and James go into a room together, and he noticed Peter coming out just a few minutes later, looking blank, while James was dejected when he emerged minutes later.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened in there--James giving an apology that Peter wasn't ready to accept, but wasn't willing to reject either--but Remus couldn't help that his spirits rose upon seeing it, even though neither of them looked particularly happy. But the fact that James had apologized already was a step in the right direction, Remus thought.

"You look moody, Moony," he heard, and looked up to see Sirius standing in front of him.

"Not moody," Remus said. "Thoughtful."

Sirius sank down onto the living room couch beside him. "What about?" he asked.

Remus chewed on his lip for a minute. "Peter," he said finally. "And everything that happened over the past few days. I don't know, but I kind of think that maybe none of it would have, if Peter hadn't brought Lily along. She was the catalyst in a lot of ways."

Sirius thought about this. "Huh," he said. "I guess you're right. Who knew that would happen?"

"Honestly?" Remus answered. "I think Peter did."

Sirius laughed. "Oh, come on," he said. "I think you're giving him too much credit. He just knew having Lily around would make Leda mad."

"I don't think you're giving him enough credit," Remus countered. "I think he knew exactly what he was doing. I think he knew that having Lily around would make James question everything, and Leda would realize it. He manipulated them all into this situation. I just didn't realize it until now."

Sirius raised his eyebrows. "You've got a point," he said. "Wow. Well. I'm impressed. Go Wormtail."

Remus smiled. "Yeah," he said, "I know. Definitely improved the situation."

He looked away as Sirius began to talk about other things. They had underestimated Peter, maybe had been for years. Everything right now seemed to be working out. Peter, for all his moodiness and his fading into the background, had somehow managed to arrange everyone in the best possible way. He really understood people, Remus thought, but for reasons he couldn't name, reasons he was unable or unwilling to make Sirius see, it made him uncomfortable.

“Why is it that finding an empty compartment is always the hardest thing in the world?” Sirius grumbled, fighting his way down the Hogwarts Express.

“I don’t know,” said James from his elbow. “You’d think it would be less crowded after Christmas Break, but it’s not.”

A few steps ahead of them, Remus popped his head out of a compartment. “In here!” he called. “We found one.”

Sirius brightened. “Good old Moony!” he said. “Trust him to get the job done.”

James followed him into the compartment in which Remus, Peter, and Lily already sat. Sirius, characteristically, flung himself across his seat with all the subtlety of a tornado, blowing his hair out of his eyes. James, for his part, sat down cautiously, as far away as he could from Lily. He was, perhaps, a bit more understated than usual; although he had mended things as much as possible with his friends, his long absence from their company had left its mark. It would be a little while longer, he knew, before they were back in their usual rhythm. But still, he was glad to be back, and more ecstatic than he could say that he had Sirius on his side once again.

They had mended their last fence the night before. With Leda gone, the general mood in the Potter house had been high, but the night before they were due to return to Hogwarts, James had gone into his bedroom to sleep and had been surprised to find Sirius instead of Remus sprawled on the air mattress on the floor. “All right,” Sirius had said before James could get a word out. “We’re going to act like a couple of girls tonight.”

James, wary of this statement, had surreptitiously checked the room for nail polish. He was relieved when it turned out that all Sirius meant was that they were going to talk. And talk they had, all night, about everything that had happened since Halloween, leaving James, this morning, exhausted but happy. In fact, he thought as the train began to move away from the station, practically the only topic they hadn’t covered last night was Lily Evans.

Lily was, as always, a different story. Sirius, for all his hotheadedness, was open and easy to understand, but Lily was more complicated. Or at least, James thought ruefully, trying his best not to look at her as she talked animatedly with Peter and Remus, complicated when it comes to me. But she was the last, the only person left in this whole debacle that he had yet to say anything to. Aside from that single brief encounter at the window, they had barely acknowledged each other. But James didn’t know what to say to her, didn’t even know where to begin. He could barely look at her these days without nearly bursting with everything he was trying not to say. Without, despite everything, breaking down, confessing how much he wanted to be with her, how much he wanted her to want him back.

But that was the whole problem, wasn’t it? He’d told her how he felt, told her everything back in October, and it still somehow hadn’t been enough. If he’d kept his mouth shut then, maybe none of this would ever have happened. So he didn’t know, and he was tired of wondering and second-guessing, and because of that, for the life of him he didn’t know what to say to her.

---

James, of course, had no idea that, so many feet away from him, Lily was arguing with herself exactly the same way.

If its meant to be, it’s meant to be, she thought. I don’t need to push anything. I don’t know if he even feels that way about me anymore. Obviously I can’t just assume he does.

It was logical. It made sense. But still, she couldn’t help but remember what Sirius had said to her that night in the Potters’ kitchen: “You seem to think that there’s some sort of perfect schedule, and that things will work out better if you wait for Merlin-knows how long. And I don’t get that. Life’s too short.”

He’s right, you know, said a tiny little voice in the back of her head. And Leda’s gone now, you’re out of excuses�”

It was somewhat ironic that, as she thought this, the compartment door slid open, and Mary Macdonald, her hands on her hips, stood in the threshold, scowling ferociously at all of them, and demanded, “What on earth did you people do to Leda?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Sirius and James exchange a glance.

“Um,” James said nervously, “is there a right answer to that question?”

Mary, who looked, Lily noticed suddenly, rather tired, sighed and put a hand to her temple. “Please just tell me,” she sighed, “that Sirius didn’t hide a mouse in her bed or anything.”

“Ugh, why didn’t I?” Sirius murmured, and Remus elbowed him.

“No one did anything like that,” said James tolerantly. “But, uh, I did break up with her.”

To everyone’s surprise, Mary brightened. “Oh, that’s all?” she asked, skipping over to sit next to Lily. “And here I was thinking, well, she’s in such a bad mood that they must’ve done something awful.”

Sirius frowned. “She’s on the train?” he said. “I thought, when she left, that she’d have gone back to Hogwarts.”

“Yeah, she’s on the train,” Mary said. “She and Annabelle are a few compartments down. They were all at Leda’s for the rest of the holidays. Leda’s older brother�”you know, the one that’s married to Annabelle’s sister? They had a baby a few weeks ago, a little boy, they named him Oliver�””

“Well as fascinating as this is,” Sirius interrupted, “what are you doing in here, anyway?”

Mary gave him a look of deep disgust. “Well I cane to yell at you for making Leda impossible to deal with, obviously,” she said. “But if all that happened was James breaking up with her, then there’s no need.”

“There’s not?” James asked cautiously.

“Of course not,” Mary said, tossing back her hair. “I mean, you were always the weirdest couple. It’s much better this way.”

“You sure about that?” muttered Sirius, looking, not without some trepidation, at the compartment door.

For the second time, it swung open, and they all turned to look. This time it was Leda who stood there, looking back at them all. Her gaze fell on Mary, and her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing in here?” she asked.

Mary blinked up at her owlishly. “I’m talking to my friends,” she said, a steel edge in her voice. “You can’t possibly have a problem with that, can you?”

Sirius, Lily noticed, looked impressed.

“No,” said Leda, dropping her gaze. “I just came in here to talk to James.”

“What about?” James asked suspiciously.

Leda turned to look at him, suddenly smiling so widely that it made Lily’s face hurt just to look at her. Ignoring everyone else in the room, Leda took a few dainty steps forward until she was standing just in front of James. “I’ve decided,” she said, still beaming, “that I forgive you.”

“Oh,” James said uncomfortably. “Well, um. Good.”

“And I’m willing to take you back,” Leda continued, causing Sirius to choke violently on nothing.

“Okay,” said James wearily, standing up. “Okay, Leda. Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else.”

“Why?” Leda said, looking up on him innocently. “Here’s fine.”

“Right,” James breathed. “Okay, then.”

“So we’re back together then?” Leda said brightly. “Like none of this ever happened?”

Sirius went suddenly still. A moment later, however, he relaxed, as James simply said, “No.”

Instantly, Leda dropped her bubbly demeanor. “It’s because of her, isn’t it?” she snarled, thrusting a finger towards Lily. “I bet you took up with her as soon as I left.”

Lily felt Mary grasp her wrist�”however, when she looked over, the other girl was watching James and Leda with an expression of mild interest, her legs crossed, elbow on her knee, chin in hand.

“No,” James said honestly. “It’s got nothing to do with her. It’s about you and it’s about me, and how we just aren’t a good match.”

“Yes we are!” said Leda emphatically, actually stamping her foot.

James sighed, reaching past her to slide open the compartment door. “No, we aren’t,” he said, nudging her outside and then following. Lily caught one glimpse of Leda’s furious face before the door shut.

“We should probably duck and cover,” Sirius said instantly, causing everyone still in the compartment to look at him quizzically.

“What?” he asked, looking around at them all. “She totally looks like she’s about to explode.”

Suddenly, there was an outburst of shouting from the corridor. Remus grinned. “An explosion of sorts,” he said.

“Thank you,” said Sirius.

“So,” Mary said, “now what to we do?”

Sirius looked at her suspiciously. “What are you even doing here?” he asked pointedly. “You’re friends with Leda.

Mary shrugged. “Sure,” she said. “She’s fun to hang out with sometimes. But she’s been so obnoxious about James.”

“What, about the break-up?” Peter asked, piping up for the first time.

“Oh, well, sure,” Mary said. “But not just that. The whole time they were dating. He never did exactly what she wanted him to do, and she was always complaining about how she liked him more than he liked her…I was like, um, duh, he’s clearly hyst trying to make Lily jealous. But she never listened to me, just whined.”

“Evans is blushing,” Sirius pointed out inconsequentially.

“I am not,” said Lily, who was aware that she was. Sometimes, she hated being a redhead.

“I have Exploding Snap cards,” Mary interjected, and whether she was offering Lily a way out of the conversation or had simply not been paying attention, Lily didn’t know, but she was grateful nonetheless.

A quarter of an hour later, a rather haggard-looking James reentered the compartment. They all looked up from their cards expectantly.

“We’re broken up,” James said without preamble. “Officially. She knows it now, too.”

“Do we applaud?” Peter stage-whispered to Remus, and even James laughed a little.

He looked over at the table, spread with Exploding Snap cards. “Got room for one more?” he asked, scooping up a handful of cards just as the train wobbled a little on the tracks. The excess motion was too much for the cards, and they ignited in his face.

“Typical,” James sighed, as a widely grinning Sirius reached up, pulled the ash-covered glasses off his best friend’s face, and began polishing them on his robes.

---

It was not quite dusk when the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station, but the color was starting to fade out of the sky. James squinted out of the window, noticing that the village seemed to be oddly empty for this time of day. Standing, he shouldered his pack with a feeling of vague uneasiness, looking around�”no one else seemed to have noticed anything. As they walked off the train, he watched Sirius talking animatedly to Remus, Peter bouncing along behind them, and he tried to smile, tried to shake off the foreboding that none of them seemed to be feeling.

But he couldn’t, and as he stepped off the train, the feeling only intensified. Sirius, too, now seemed to be feeling something; he broke off in midsentence, looking around warily. James caught his eye as chattering students gathered behind them, and took one hesitant step forward just as Lily appeared at his side.

“The carriages aren’t here,” she said, looking slightly out of breath, her brow furrowed. He looked down at her and they exchanged a glance full of shared trepidation, and for right now, they weren’t themselves anymore, and were instead stepping seamlessly into the roles of Head Boy and Girl as though they had never left them.

“Maybe we should get everyone back on the train,” James said, and Lily nodded slowly.

“Just in case,” she agreed. “And then maybe�””

She broke off with a yelp, flinging herself sideways as the first curse flew by, narrowly missing her and slamming into the side of the train. James looked around in alarm, but a moment later, Lily was back on her feet, and the village was suddenly alive with shadowy, cloaked figures and bursts of light.

James and Lily held each other’s gaze for one long moment before, in silent agreement, turning swiftly in opposite directions, Lily to the pack of students now huddled together near the train door looking petrified, and James to his friends.

“First through third years on the train,” James heard her say, somehow calm even as she ducked another jet of light. “Everyone else follow them on, wands out, block the door…and anyone older who wants to fight, then stick with me.”

James watched just long enough to see the small group of older students close behind her, and then turned to his friends. He surveyed them for half a second�”Sirius looking collected as ever, Remus pale but determined, and Peter small and shaking.

James looked at them, his mind racing; Remus would be more reliable in a fight, he knew, but he was also better at Apparating, and they needed someone to get to Hogwarts as quickly as possible.

“Moony,” he said, making a snap decision and turning to Remus. “You need to Apparate to the Hogwarts gates as quickly as possible, and then find Dumbledore as quickly as possible. And any other teachers you meet along the way.”

Remus nodded. “I have the map,” he said. “It should be quick.”

“Does it work?” James asked.

“Well enough,” said Remus.

“Go,” James said, and with a crack, Remus vanished. Then he turned to Sirius and Peter. “Come on,” he said, and sprinted towards Lily.

She looked up as they approached, her wand at the ready. “What’s going on?” she asked in an undertone.

“Remus went for help,” James replied in a low voice, peering into the gathering gloom of the village. “What’s going on in there? What are they waiting for?”

Barely had the words left his mouth when a long jolt of fire hissed towards them; the students who had been clustered together near the train scattered.

“They’re splitting us up!” Sirius roared over the melee as he rolled to his feet, bursts of light and smoke suddenly in the air all around them.

James had no idea what was going on, no idea who their attackers were or why any of this was happening. But, he realized, that was probably the point�”by keeping them confused like this, the strange, cloaked figures kept the upper hand.

Tightening his hand around his wand, James started forward into the heart of the village. “Come on, then,” he called through the fog. “We’ll take this fight to them.”

Somewhere nearby, he heard Sirius laugh.

---

Lily had never been in a fight before, had never dueled outside of the classroom. She heard James call out through the smoke, and she started cautiously forward, her wand gripped tight. In some part of her brain, she was terrified, but mostly, it didn’t feel real�”just another practice, another test. And she’d always tested well.

A dark shape hurtled in front of her; she raised her wand but hesitated for a moment, unsure if it was friend or foe. He, however, had no such illusions, raising his wand to send a Stunning Spell at her that she barely managed to duck. She flung her own arm out, sending a Stunner in retaliation, but her aim was wide, sending the spell flying harmlessly past the man who was now advancing on her.

He was huge, towering over her as he approached, his eyes and nose shielded by a black mask. In one swift movement he reached out and grabbed her wrist, twisting back the hand that held her wand. She tried desperately to hold onto it, but he squeezed her wrist hard, his thumb pressing painfully into the soft skin over her pulse, until finally, with a small yelp, she dropped it, the wood clattering uselessly onto the stones by her feet.

The masked man hauled her forward by the arm, scrutinizing her carefully. With the hand not gripping her wrist, he pressed the tip of his wand into her neck, sliding it slowly down towards her collarbone as twisted futilely in his grip, looking back at her wand, lying on the ground behind them.

“You’re Lily Evans,” he said, his eyes cold behind the mask, his voice harsh and unfamiliar. She was so surprised that he recognized her that she stopped struggling for a moment, looking up as he peered down at her. “You’re one of them,” he muttered, almost to himself. “You’re coming with me.”

Curious as she was by this, Lily had no intention of going anywhere with him. He tightened his grip in her, starting to turn as if to Apparate, and, wandless as she was, Lily did the only thing she could think of to do, and hauled back her arm to punch him in the jaw.

The pain lanced through her hand and up her wrist�”she staggered backwards, wondering if she had hurt herself more than him, but whether it was the punch or just the shock, he loosened his hold on her. Yanking her arm free, she whirled around, diving for her wand. Behind her, she heard him roar a spell, and ropes shot out of nowhere, twisting around her legs, and she fell hard to the ground. Her wand was just in front of her, and she scrabbled forward, her fingers grasping at the rocks, reaching…but he was standing over her now. She rolled onto her back, trying to get out of the way as he raised his wand, angry now, she could tell by the set of his jaw and the flint in his eyes. She threw up her hands helplessly, knowing they would do nothing against his spell, but it was all she could do…

Suddenly, a jolt of red light came flying out of nowhere and hit him squarely in the chest. He looked down, almost in shock, and then fell slowly over, collapsing on top of her legs, Stunned. For a moment, Lily just lay there, breathing, scarcely believing what had just happened. Then she pushed herself out from under him, grabbing her wand and severing the ropes that bound her legs, her hands somehow steady, before finally getting to her feet and turning around to see how it was that had saved her.

To her everlasting surprise, she saw Leda standing there, white-faced and shaking, her wand arm still outstretched. For a moment, the two girls just looked at each other, blinking through the fading smoke.

“Thank you,” Lily said quietly. “I…thank you.”

Leda just blinked at her, then down at the man still sprawled across the village street, looking horrified, before turning and bolting through the village. Still slightly stunned, Lily looked down, suddenly desperate to get away from the dark, sprawled shape of the man who had attacked her.

Turning, she ran in the opposite direction Leda had gone, making her way towards the sounds and lights of skirmishes still occurring in the heart of the village. She had to wonder, as she ran, where all the village people where, but a moment later, all thoughts were driven from her mind as, just ahead of her, she saw James Potter, his brow furrowed in concentration, battling another masked figure. Lily hesitated for a second, balancing on the balls of her feet, not wanting to interrupt but anxious to help, when suddenly, a jet of light sped swiftly through the air, and James fell, hard, to the ground.

For a moment, it was as if there wasn’t enough air in the entire world to keep her breathing. And then, without thinking, without hesitating, she’d whipped her wand forward, screaming “Stupefy!” at the top of her lungs. The masked shape fell, and she rushed forward without another thought, falling to her knees beside James.

She reached out, a hand on his chest, searching to see what the spell was and where it had hit, when suddenly, he reached up and grasped her wrist. It was the same place the man she had fought had grabbed earlier, but the touch was unbelievably different; he held her arm loosely, his hands curled lightly, his fingertips just brushing the place where her pulse thrummed.

“I’m all right,” he said, and she could feel his laughter against her hand. “I’m all right.”

“How?” she asked, more relieved than she could ever express.

In response, he sat up, holding out his arm, and she saw the round hole in his robes at his side. “Just missed me,” James said, grinning, as they both got to their feet.

Lily looked at him for a long moment, and he looked back, the grin fading slowly from his face. It was the first time in months that they had truly looked at each other like that, and Lily felt it, singing in her blood, clear through to her bones.

“That was close, wasn’t it?” she asked him, a little shakily.

Looking suddenly self-conscious, James shrugged. “I mean,” he said hesitantly, “I’m all right. That’s what counts, right?”

Wordlessly, Lily reached out, brushing the small hole in his robes, so close to his chest and his heartbeat, with her fingertips. Then she tilted her chin upwards, and the way he was looking at her…

She wasn’t thinking again, was barely breathing, and perhaps, in the end, that was the excuse she had for fisting her hands in his robes, stretching onto her toes, and pulling him forward so she could press her lips to his.

James reacted almost instantly; his arms went around her, pulling her tightly against his chest. Lily, who had not been expecting this, gasped slightly, and then her fingers were in his hair, his hands warm against the small of her back, his mouth moving insistently against hers. It was only the second time they had really kissed, but it was markedly different than it had been in June�”fiercer, somehow, faster, and with just the barest edge of desperation…

But then, just as suddenly as he had started, James stopped, pushing himself roughly away from her. “Oh, Lily,” he said quietly, almost sadly, “what are we doing?”

Lily raised an eyebrow. “Well,” she said, a little caustically, “if the obvious answer doesn’t immediately spring to mind…”

James shook his head, looking around the deserted village helplessly. “No,” he said. “I mean, we’re in the middle of…something, here, something that’s way bigger than us, and we don’t even really know what’s going on, and…” he trailed off, still blinking into the distance, before, finally, turning his head and looking directly at her. “And I don’t want to kiss you unless I can do it again.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked, her voice barely rising above a whisper.

James shook his head. “I know that was just because you thought, for a moment, that I was dead or hurt or something, and that was all, but I told you before, it’s all or nothing, and I just�””

There was a noise behind them, the sound of someone running, and they both turned instinctively, raising their wands. A second later, Sirius burst around the corner, a long, shallow cut on his face, his normally sleek hair sticking up as badly as James’s always did. He looked exhilarated.

“There you two are,” he said, catching his breath. “Most of us got ambushed closer to the train. Moony showed up a few minutes ago with Dumbledore and some of the other teachers, it’s all over now�”pity you missed all the action.”

“Not all of it,” James murmured. Sirius looked at him quizzically, and James quickly asked, “Was anyone hurt?”

Sirius shrugged. “Not really,” he said, sounding slightly proud. “The younger kids are all safe on the train�”they barricaded it, but they didn’t need, to, whoever those people were, they didn’t past us. A few of the fifth and sixth years who fought just got taken to the hospital wing, but not with anything too serious. The rest of us, just bumps and bruises.”

It was only as he said this that Lily began to feel her own�”bruises sinking deep into her arms, a tender spot at her temple. As though sensing this, Sirius looked over his shoulder at them. “You guys?” he asked, his brow furrowing slightly in concern for the first time.

“More or less the same, I think,” James said, and Lily confirmed this with a nod.

“Good,” Sirius said, sighing. “Looks like the fun is over�”everyone’s pretty much being sent back to the castle now, Dumbledore just sent me out to find you two.”

Worrisome as she found Sirius’s idea of “fun,” Lily said nothing for a minute, thinking, instead, back to the strange masked man who had fought her. You’re one of them, he’d said, and she felt a chill just remembering that.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Sirius said to her as they approached the train, now dormant, and the last of the horseless carriages to take them to Hogwarts.

“Just thinking,” Lily said vaguely. “We’re the last to go back?”

“Yes,” Sirius said patiently, “although I already told you that.”

“Where’s Moony and Wormtail?” James asked suddenly.

Sirius winced. “Oh, well, Remus went back with some of the younger kids�”keeping an eye on them, you know. And, uh…”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, slightly trembling ball of fur. “Peter got a little scared,” he mouthed.

James raised his eyebrows, then nodded once. With a wink, Sirius slipped the rat back into his pocket as they approached the carriage, then swung himself inside. James followed him quickly, then turned to Lily, offering his hand.

“I’m perfectly capable of climbing up myself,” she snapped, and he rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I know you are,” he said, retreating into the carriage as she clambered in, settling herself on the bench opposite the two boys, her arms folded.

Sirius eyed them both warily. “Oookay,” he said slowly. “I’m not sure what’s going on here, but�””

He was interrupted as someone at the entrance of the carriage cleared a throat softly. Looking over, Lily was surprised�”and slightly mortified�”to see Professor Dumbledore hoisting himself inside, with infinitely more grace than she had managed.

“Good evening,” he said, surveying them calmly, and nothing about his voice or demeanor suggested that anything unusual had happened, or was still happening.

Lily and James were both momentarily speechless, but Sirius unfolded his arms and said jauntily, “Hiya, sir!”

“Mr. Black,” Dumbledore said, inclining his head at Sirius, and Lily thought she saw him wink. “I see you found our missing Head Boy and Girl.”

“Oh, yeah,” Sirius said breezily. “I sniffed them out eventually.”

James aimed a glare at him as the carriage trundled along through the growing dark. Lily looked around them, out the window to where the lights of the castle were now visible. Somehow, despite everything that had happened, just being so close to Hogwarts again made her feel safe.

Dumbledore, after a few moments, turned his clear blue gaze back to the three of them. “When we arrive,” he said, “Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, if you could accompany me back to my office? Mr. Black, I trust that you can make your way back to Gryffindor Tower on your own.”

Sirius grinned again as the carriage slowed. “I think I’ve got it figured out by now, sir,” he said, and swung himself out the door before the carriage had completely stopped.

Left alone with James and Dumbledore, Lily felt once again uneasy. As Dumbledore gracefully departed the carriage, James, behind him, looked over his shoulder and met Lily’s eye. She saw in that and in the tight tension of his shoulders that he, too, was wary. For a moment, again, she felt the same thing that she had felt when the two of them were standing in front of the Hogwarts Express barely an hour earlier�”that they were more, somehow, than just themselves. That they were stronger, more important, than just two students.

She clambered out of the carriage herself, silently following Dumbledore across the grounds and through the castle, half a pace behind James the whole way. The headmaster said nothing until reaching his office, at which point he murmured, “Fudge Flies,” ad the stone gargoyle slid away. Lily hesitated for a moment�”James, to her right, did the same�”and then they both followed Dumbledore up the spiral stairs.

Once in the office, Dumbledore sat down behind his desk, surveying them both over his half-moon spectacles. “Mr. Potter,” he said finally, “Miss Evans. What can you tell me about what happened tonight?”

Squaring his shoulders, James glanced fleetingly at Lily, who furrowed her brow. “Well,” he said, “we were hoping you could tell us, sir.”

For the first time, Dumbledore smiled slightly, although his tone remained grave. “Unfortunately,” he said, “I don’t know much more than you do. I have my suspicions, of course, but the biggest part of the story remains a mystery.”

He sighed, glancing out his darkening window, and Lily was struck, for the first time, by how old he looked. Despite his obvious age, she’d never really thought of him as an old man before�”he’d always seemed completely timeless.

“Now for what I do no,” Dumbledore said, swinging his piercingly blue gaze back to them. “They are called Death Eaters, the wizards who attacked you. They operate underneath a man I know you’ve heard of�”a Lord Voldemort.”

Lily blinked. At her side, James flinched visibly. “Sir,” he said cautiously, “shouldn’t we�”I mean, people don’t really refer to him by…by name, they haven’t for years now…”

Dumbledore inclined his head slightly. “Of course,” he allowed. “Fear is catching. It comforts people, I believe, not to hear the name…makes them feel safer.”

James nodded, but Lily scrutinized the headmaster. “But you don’t agree, do you, Professor?” she asked.

“I do not,” Dumbledore said, again smiling faintly. “Indeed, sometimes I wonder if it does more harm than good.”

Lily glanced over at James as silence fell again. He was looking at her, his brow furrowed, and she bit her lip, deep in thought.

“Sir,” James said again, turning back to the headmaster, “I was separated from everyone earlier, during the fight, and one of them�”the Death Eaters�”he said something about how I was…one of ‘them.’”

Lily looked at him in shock. “Me, too,” she said, startled into speech. “They said that to me, too. I didn’t know what it meant.”

James shook his head. “Me either,” he said, and, although she wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, Lily thought he looked, suddenly, a little relieved.

“Do you, Headmaster?” Lily asked Dumbledore, who was looking closely at them both.

“I don’t, I’m afraid,” Dumbledore said. “But thank you, both of you, for telling me. I’ll be keeping an ear out from now on.”

He folded his hands on his desk, and Lily, confused as she was by the events of the day, recognized this as their signal to leave. James picked up on it as well, and they both turned to go as Dumbledore said, “If either of you hears anything, don’t hesitate to come to me.”

“Yes, sir,” they both said, before leaving him behind.

For the first half of their walk back to Gryffindor Tower, neither of them spoke. James thrust his hands into his pockets and looked straight ahead, while Lily pretended to be overly interested in the paintings on the walls.

She was thinking about the fight, of course, about the Death Eater who had been dead-set on taking her with him before Leda had appeared, and the one who seemed prepared to do the same to James. But even with all that, her mind kept drifting instead to what had happened after, with James. Looking back, she couldn’t believe she’d kissed him like that, foolishly under the circumstances, and even more so because of the way he’d reacted, pushing away from her, like she hadn’t meant ever second of it.

“What did it mean?” James asked suddenly.

Lily started, sure for a moment that he had read her mind.

“The Death Eater,” James continued, staring off down the corridor. “About us being one of something.”

“Oh,” Lily said, half-relieved, half-disappointed,” that. I don’t know. We’re Head Boy and Girl, that may have had something to do with it�””

“Why would that make them want to abduct us, or kill us, or whatever they wanted to do?” James scoffed.

“I don’t know,” Lily said, irritated and defensive. “It was the first thing I thought of. I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas, though.”

“Hey,” James snapped, “I was just thinking out loud, calm down�””

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and James turned to face Lily, folding his arms.

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” she hissed. “Today of all days I have the right to be upset about something.”

“Is this just about the Death Eaters?” James demanded suddenly, catching her off guard.

Lily, prepared to deny whatever it was he was implying, suddenly found herself saying instead, “Of course it’s not just about that, you idiot.”

Whatever James had been expecting, it wasn’t that. At a loss, he blinked at her for a moment, before finally, quieter now, saying, “Then what?”

But before she could answer, the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, and for the second time that day, Sirius interrupted them.

“Oh, there you guys are,” he said, looking back and forth between them. “I was about to come looking for you again, you’ve been gone forever…get in here, everyone’s curious.”

Carefully avoiding each other’s eyes, Lily and James climbed in behind him. The common room, though crowded, was unusually quiet; the Gryffindors were clustered in small groups, speaking in undertones. Lily gave a quick, cursory glance around the room, but she didn’t see Leda anywhere. Annabelle was absent as well, and Lily wondered briefly if they were together somewhere.

Mary, however, she saw sitting at a table with Remus and Peter. Amelia Bones was there too, looking especially sober, and Lily remembered with a jolt that Amelia had lost family last year to the Death Eaters, and You-Know-Who�”Voldemort�”himself.

Lily, James, and Sirius all sat themselves around the table, and it was only as she really looked at them that Lily saw just how worse for wear everyone was. Sirius, who Lily had last seen fresh from battle and full of adrenaline, now looked haggard, his eyes heavy, a bruise blooming on his cheekbone, around the cut. Even Remus, who had only fought at the end, after finding the professors, sported a long gash on the side of his neck. Peter, for his part, looked even smaller and more scared than usual, while Mary was, characteristically, fretting over a split lip while completely ignoring the large burn on her arm. Lily could only imagine how she herself looked.

“So did Dumbledore have any information?” Remus asked in lieu of a greeting.

Lily shook her head mutely as James said, “Not really. He says You-Know-Who sent them, but he doesn’t know why.”

Remus sighed, placing his chin in his hands.

“We figured that much,” Sirius said dejectedly. “But there’s nothing we can really do with that information�”I mean, we don’t even know why they attacked.”

“Do they really need a reason?” Amelia asked darkly, speaking for the first time. “You-Know-Who, he kills for sport. That was just fun for them.”

“They didn’t kill anyone, not tonight,” Remus said sharply.

“Amelia looked up at him, her eyes empty. “We were lucky,” she said simply.

Remus shook his head. “No,” he said decisively, “no. This wasn’t random. This was planned. They cleared the village. They knew exactly when we were going to arrive. They were there for a reason. They wanted something.”

Us, Lily thought, and she felt rather than saw James stiffen in his chair. They wanted us. But she said nothing, and neither did James.

“How would they have known?” Mary was saying now, sounding more serious than Lily had ever heard her.

“Known what?” Remus asked.

“Well, I mean, how would they have known when we got there? To Hogsmeade? Unless they just got lucky too.”

“They knew,” Sirius said. “They had to have.”

“But that must mean…” Remus said, trailing off, and Sirius looked up, locking eyes with him.

“That they have someone on the inside,” Sirius finished for him, and Remus nodded.

“What?” asked Peter, sounding panicked. “What does that mean?”

“There’s a spy,” said Remus. “Someone in Hogwarts who knew when students would be coming back. Probably someone who was on the train.”

“You mean…you mean like a student?” Peter said. “One of us?”

Sirius nodded.

“But…it could be anyone,” Peter said quietly. “Or at least, any of the Slytherins.”

“Yeah,” Sirius said. “But no way was it just a coincidence.”

“But there’s nothing we can do about it, either,” Lily said suddenly. “We’re as safe as we can be in Hogwarts…and it’s getting late. Don’t forget, classes start tomorrow.”

Sirius groaned. “Ugh, classes,” he said. “I had forgotten.”

Remus shook his head. “On top of everything,” he mused, “this is our last term.”

“Hello, real world,” James said grimly.

“Stop that,” Sirius said, bumping him playfully with his shoulder. “I don’t want to think about that.”

The common room was emptying along with them. The boys headed up the stairs to their dorm and Lily followed Mary and Amelia up to theirs, not thinking, again and despite everything, about the attack itself, but instead about everything after.

---

James couldn’t sleep.

He had been lying in his four-poster, staring at the ceiling, for several hours now, each one longer than the next. He could barely believe that, less than twenty-four hours ago, he’d been at home, that it had been weeks since he’d been at Hogwarts. The last time he’d slept in this bed, he and Sirius hadn’t even been speaking, he’d been dating Leda, and Lily hadn’t looked at him in weeks. And now…

He was concerned about the Death Eaters, he was, and about the one in particular who had almost captured him. But here, warm in his bed, in the still-somehow safe darkness of the castle, it was hard to think about that. He was thinking instead about Lily running towards him, worrying about him, looking at him the way she had…Restlessly, James flipped himself over in bed so he was lying on his side, clenching his fists in his pillow. He couldn’t figure her out. What had that meant? What did any of it mean? Why had she kissed him like that if she was only going to walk away, like she had before?

He heard the door to the dormitory creek open and then close again, but he ignored it, assuming it was just Remus, who he knew was a restless sleeper, getting up to clear his mind. James closed his eyes tightly, willing himself to fall asleep, when suddenly he heard a soft, familiar voice say, “James?”

James swore, sitting bolt upright, clutching his bedcovers around his chest, his heart racing.

“Calm down,” Lily Evans whispered, peering around the hangings of his bed. “You’re going to wake everyone up.”

“What are you doing in here?” James hissed back, his pulse still drumming beneath his skin. “Merlin, Lily, you scared me half to death.”

Lily glanced away from him, looking slightly uncomfortable. Then she said, “Move over.”

James, who was still startled enough to comply, scooted to the other side of his bed, still confused as Lily hopped in with him, closing the hangings again and sitting down cross-legged, looking at him.

She was wearing the same bright green pajamas she’d been wearing at his house on Christmas�”although this time, he was sad to see, without the fuzzy bunny slippers. Half-convinced he was dreaming, James frowned at her and asked again, “So…what are you doing here?”

Lily shrugged, tugging at a loose thread in her sleeve. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t want to be alone?” she asked.

“Yeah,” James nodded. “Absolutely. But I don’t understand why you would come to me.”

“Because,” Lily said, still not looking at him, “because I have to tell you something.”

James leaned forward. “Is it about the Death Eaters?” he asked, still speaking in an undertone, but quickly now. “Do you know something that you didn’t tell Dumbledore?”

Lily laughed quietly. “No,” she said. “No, not that. And I know that’s what I should be thinking about…that’s what’s important and everything, but no. It’s actually…it’s about us.”

“Oh,” said James, sinking backwards against his pillow. “Right, well, you know, don’t worry about it. If you want to pretend it never happened, I’ll pretend it never happened.”

But Lily was already shaking her head. “That’s not it at all,” she said. James opened his mouth to say something, but Lily held up her hand. “Wait,” she said, “just let me say this. I’ve regretted not saying anything since October…”

She trailed off. James, who had no idea where this was going, didn’t say anything at all, just looked at her. The silence stretched on for a long moment, and James, listening to nothing but the sound of their breath in the dim light felt almost as though they were the only two people in the world, the only real things, until Lily, as though she couldn’t take it anymore, opened her mouth and spoke all in one breath.

“I’m in love with you,” she said, her eyes wide and open, “completely and desperately. Only you. I know…this doesn’t make sense, with everything that’s happened, but it’s true. I should have said something before, I know I should have, but being with you, it would change things, and I was scared. So I kept waiting and waiting but after today I realized that the only thing I’m really scared of is losing you. So I just…I had to tell you.”

It was not what James had expected, not what he had ever expected, and he said nothing, just continued to look at her. She stared resolutely back at him for a while, but a flush began to creep up her neck as he continued to say nothing. James knew the odds, knew their history, wondered again if he was dreaming, but still, still, he believed her. He believed hr, and he could barely breathe.

“Right,” said Lily, looking thoroughly embarrassed. “Well I just…I just needed you to know, but I think I’ll be going now…”

She moved as if to draw back the hangings on his bed, but James reacted almost instantly, reaching out and gently touching her wrist.

A light pressure was all it was, but she turned to look at him anyway. “Don’t,” he said hoarsely. “I don’t want to be alone either.”

Lily looked back at him, as though, maybe, for the first time, she was really seeing him, and he was seeing her. Then, slowly, he slid his hand down into hers, looping their fingers together, and finally, she smiled.

They didn’t kiss, or speak. Instead, almost shyly, she stretched out beside him, her cheek against his shoulder, their joined hands resting between them. James shifted a little closer to her, curving his other hand around her side and closing his eyes�”and there, somehow, with her breathing against him, he was able at last to find his way into sleep.

---

It seemed like only a few minutes had passed when the hangings of James’s four-poster were once again wrenched open, but the bright light streaming in through the windows told Lily none-too-gently that it was morning already.

“Come on, Prongsy,” she heard Sirius say jubilantly, “up, up, up! Don’t want to be late to classes on the first day, time to�””

Sirius stopped speaking abruptly, evidently catching a glimpse of them for the first time. Lily blinked blearily, rubbing her eyes. Beside her, she felt James stretch, yawning. When she looked over at him, he was smiling a little sheepishly.

“Hi,” he said softly, and she felt her face break into a smile.

“Hi,” she whispered back.

“Well,” said Sirius loudly. “This is interesting.”

They both looked over at him; he was standing at the edge of James’s bed, holding a violently purring Jinx, smirking down at them.

“I’m going to go,” Lily said, ducking her head, but unable to stop grinning. Sirius, she could only imagine, was dying to talk to James. “I’ll see you two downstairs.”

It was only once she was back in her own dorm�”which was mercifully empty, her dorm-mates, she assumed, having gone down for breakfast�”that she thought of Leda, and wondered, for the first time, how the other girl would react once she found out about Lily and James.

I’ll worry about that later, Lily thought, unable to worry about anything at the moment. It can wait.

A quarter of an hour later, she walked down the stairs to the common room to find James waiting for her by the portrait hall. He’d tried, she saw, to do something to his hair, but it was still sticking up uncontrollably, and she smiled.

He watched her walk towards him, grinning almost timidly. There were people in the common room; she saw Remus coming down the stairs and Mary by the fireplace, and other students milling about getting ready for class or for breakfast, but they may as well have been a thousand miles away.

“Hey,” James said, looking down at her as she reached him.

“Hi,” she said for the second time that morning.

“So,” he said, smiling crookedly as they both turned towards the portrait hole, “now what to we do?”

“Now?” Lily asked, and reached over to slip her hand into his. She felt his fingers tighten around hers. “Now, we walk to class.”

The fact that Lily Evans and James Potter were now dating did not circulate through the school quite as quickly as the news of the attack on the Hogwarts Express, due in part to the fact that the attack had affected so many people and had been headline news in the next day’s Daily Prophet, but also because people who did hear about Lily and James tended not to believe it.

“Honestly,” Mary said exasperatedly to Lily one evening, “the number of people who have asked me if it’s true about you and James, it’s ridiculous.”

Lily, who was leaning against her bedpost flipping idly through one of Mary’s discarded copies of Witch Weekly, frowned over at the other girl. “Why are they asking you?”

“Well,” sighed Mary, who was midway through painting her toenails, “mostly they start off by asking me if it’s true that Leda and James broke up, and then things just go from there.”

“Right,” said Lily vaguely. “Well, then.”

Mary shook her head. “It’s funny how many of them don’t believe me,” she said. “People have actually accused me of making it up! As if. All of my gossip is firmly rooted in fact.”

Lily smiled, but felt vaguely affronted. “Why don’t they believe you?” she demanded, somewhat defensively.

Mary rolled her eyes. “Um, because not everyone follows every detail of your life like I do. Most people just remember fifth year, when you told James you’d rather date the giant squid. And while they may have noticed you being friends at the end of last year, to the casual observer, it just looks like you haven’t spoken to each other in months. And then James starts dating Leda, you all go away for winter break, and when you come back, not only is he no longer dating Leda, he’s also dating you? It’s a little far-fetched.”

“Well when you lay it all out like that…” Lily grumbled.

“Plus,” Mary added, “I think a lot of people have a pretty high opinion of you. But they’ve also noticed that you’ve never been, you know, really interested in boys. And to be perfectly honest, Lily, to somebody who doesn’t know the whole story, this entire thing kind of makes you look like a�””

“Selfish, conniving, boyfriend-stealer?”

Lily and Mary both looked up at that, as Leda sauntered into the room, her eyes locked on the far wall. Lily narrowed her eyes.

“I wasn’t going to put it quite like that,” Mary sniffed.

“That’s not what happened,” Lily said in a low voice, looking at the back of Leda’s head. In the few days it had been since the attack on the Hogwarts Express, Lily’s interactions with Leda had dwindled into almost nothing. Leda had saved her life�”Lily couldn’t forget that�”but things between the two girls remained as tense as ever.

“Oh, I know what happened,” Leda said as though acknowledging this, rummaging through the bag on her bed. Then she turned and met Lily’s gaze for the barest of moments. “I’m just saying, that’s what it looks like.”

Then she turned on her heel and strode forward, disappearing from the room once again.

Lily groaned and flopped back onto her pillows. “I know,” she muttered, a hand over her face. “I know that’s what it looks like.”

“I think it mostly looks like that because Leda’s telling everyone that’s what happened,” Mary said reasonably.

Lily scowled, sitting up again. “Is she really?” she asked.

“Actually,” Mary said thoughtfully, “not really. But she did tell Annabelle, and Annabelle is definitely telling everyone.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Lily said, shaking her head.

“Yeah, I know,” Mary said. “Everyone who knows you knows that you wouldn’t do something like that, and I think people are assuming there’s more to the story. More to the point, everyone who knows Leda knows that she can be overdramatic, so I wouldn’t worry too much. People are mostly talking about the attack, anyway.”

“Well that’s something, I guess,” said Lily.

“Just do what you normally do,” Mary advised her, “and I’ll do some damage control.”

“How are you planning on doing that?” Lily asked her, a little warily.

“Don’t worry,” Mary assured her. “I can spread stories faster than anyone.”

“Merlin,” Lily said. “I just won’t ask.”

“Anyway,” Mary said, looking up from her toes, “is it worth it?”

“Is what worth what?”

“James, silly. A lot of the school may be surprised by the two of you getting together, but some of us have been waiting for months. Is it worth all the gossip that may or may not be happening?”

“Yes,” Lily said instantly, and then hesitated. For as long as she had known and�”albeit, sometimes grudgingly�”liked Mary, she had never really trusted the other girl. Mary was too much of a flirt and a gossip to keep a secret, and Lily, so normally intensely private with her feelings anyway, had never really felt the need to confide in her.

But right now, for some reason, she felt herself speak. “Actually,” she admitted, and Mary raised an eyebrow at her, “it’s a little weird.”

Mary, to Lily’s surprise, put down the magazine she’d just picked up and turned to face her. “How so?” she asked.

“Well,” Lily said haltingly, “we’re just sort of…don’t know how to act around each other now. We used to be able to talk�”or at least argue�”so much we could never get each other to shut up, but now we’re just awkward around each other. It’s like we suddenly got shy.”

Mary shrugged. “That’s actually not uncommon,” she said. “Your whole relationship has changed, so it makes sense that you’d be a little bit confused about how to act around each other. How much time do you spend together?”

“What, you mean just the two of us?” Lily asked, and Mary nodded. “Not much,” Lily admitted. “I mean, it’s only been a couple of days.”

“Well there’s your answer,” Mary said, sounding satisfied.

“What’s my answer?” Lily said, mystified.

“It’s obvious,” said Mary. “If you want to fix the awkwardness, you have to confront it.”

“Meaning…” Lily said, and Mary rolled her eyes.

“I’ll break it down for you,” she said. “Go find him, grab him, and make out with him for two hours. It should do the trick.”

“Oh,” Lily said, aware and irritated that she was blushing.

“Told you it was simple,” Mary said, stealing her copy of Witch Weekly back from Lily. “Now get lost.”

Lily stuck her tongue out at her friend, but then stood up. “You’re the expert,” she said, grinning, and then did as she was told.

Still, though, she was more than a little nervous as she wandered into the common room, taking her time. A few haggard-looking fifth years were spread around, books open, and Lily remembered vaguely that they had O.W.L.s coming up in just a few months. In another corner, she caught site of Sirius and Remus, hunched over a piece of parchment, and she moseyed over to them.

“Hey,” she said, and Sirius looked up at her as Remus, frowning, leaned over the parchment again. “Do you realize that we have N.E.W.T.s in like, three months?”

Sirius made a face. “Please let’s bring that up as often as possible,” he said.

Remus, on the other hand, looked slightly stricken. “I keep forgetting,” he said. “The professors really aren’t pushing it the way they were O.W.L.s, are they?”

Lily shook her head. “Not at all. Which is weird, because they’re so much more difficult.”

“Whatever,” Sirius yawned. “O.W.L.s weren’t exactly hard.”

“Shut up,” Remus said good-naturedly, then looked at Lily. “Probably we’re supposed to be independent now or something.”

“Or something,” she grinned. “Anyway, have you guys seen James?”

Sirius smirked lazily. “I knew that was all you came to talk to us for, Evans,” he said.

Once again, Lily wished she had more control over her blushing, and Sirius laughed at her.

“He left a little while ago,” Remus said. “You might check the Quidditch pitch.”

“But it’s freezing out,” Lily said, startled. “It’s barely February. They can’t have started practice yet.”

“They start soon, actually,” Sirius told her, “but you try telling James it’s too cold for him to fly, see what he says.”

“I see your point,” Lily acknowledged. “Anyway, I’m going to go find him.”

“Give him a kiss for me,” Sirius called, and Lily swatted him before walking away. Behind her, she could hear the two of them laughing still, and she shook her head, turning bright red all over again.

The halls were even emptier than the common room had been; dinner was over, and the professors weren’t hesitating to pile them with homework, even just after the winter holidays. They had said something about keeping everyone in shape for spring exams, but Lily had to wonder how much of it was about distracting the students from the attack in Hogsmeade.

She was deep in thought as she walked down the hall, but suddenly she paused and doubled back a few steps, standing in front of a broom cupboard she had just passed. Smiling, a little nostalgically, she opened the door; she and James had ended up hiding in broom cupboards several times last year, during several bouts of rule-breaking that she, at least, had been somewhat new to, and this one had been the first.

Laughing at herself, she pushed the door open a little farther, slipping inside and letting it drift shut behind her. It was smaller than she remembered, and she found herself wondering how they’d even both fit in here before. But it was dark and quiet, and somewhat comforting. She closed her eyes, leaning back against a wall, half-wondering if she should rehearse what she was going to say to James when there was a knock at the door.

Frowning, half thinking she imagined it, Lily opened her eyes and leaned forward, pushing the door open slightly. Her fingers curled around her wand, pulling it from her pocket, and she whispered “Lumos!” quietly just as James stuck his head around the door.

“Mind if I join you in here?” he asked, and Lily gaped at him.

“Where did you come from?” she asked as he eased himself in and shut the door again, her wandlight gently illuminating his face. “And how did you know I was in here?”

Her heart was flopping around so violently in her chest that she almost thought she might be sick�”had being around him always made her this nervous? She was half-considering making some excuse and bolting when James grinned at her. “I was heading back to Gryffindor Tower,” he said, “and I had just turned the corner when I saw you come in here. What are you doing in here, anyway, reliving old times?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lily said demurely, focusing intently on a mop to James’s right.

“Sure,” he said. “You’re in a broom cupboard because you like the company.”

“Well,” she heard herself say as she raised her eyes to his, “the company’s not too bad right now.”

His grin, if at all possible, widened, and Lily was more than aware that this was the first time they been truly alone together in months. Her stomach was in knots and she inhaled deeply, thinking, I don’t know how to do this.

The cupboard was so small that they were standing close together, and as Lily moved to tuck her hair back skittishly, her hand brushed his�”it was ice-cold. “You’re frozen,” she murmured, folding his hand between hers.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, his voice gone suddenly husky, “yeah, I was out flying a little too long, it’s kind of cold out there.”

“Stupid,” she smiled up at him, and he moved a little closer to where she was leaning against the wall, their hands still linked.

“I know,” he said. “I couldn’t help myself.”

They were just inches apart. He smelled like winter, like cold and fresh air, and she breathed him in, wondering why it was that she always wanted to run from everything she wanted. But then he moved his other hand over hers, where she was still holding her lit wand, and murmured, “Knox,” as he leaned into her, and her wandlight went out.

Her pulse leapt into overdrive the moment their lips touched�”gently, at first�”but strangely, somehow, the butterflies in her stomach quieted, as though her body, at least, had known what she wanted all along. Huh, was her last conscious thought as she threw her arms around James’s neck, I guess Mary was right.

---

“I’m having a hard time believing this,” Sirius said to Remus, leaning forward onto his elbows.

The two of them were still sitting at a table in the common room, a little while after Lily had left them.

“What, exactly,” Remus said patiently, “don’t you believe?”

“Well, that we’re done,” Sirius said. “I mean…done? With this map? The map that we’ve been working on for years?”

“I know it’s never been complete, but we have used it before,” Remus reminded him. “Now, we just know it’s right.”

“It’s right? You’re sure? No more gaping holes where the third floor should be? It’s not going to tell us Peter is walking up to us when it’s really Filch, or vice-versa?”

“Nope,” Remus said, somewhat smugly. “Everything on this map of Hogwarts is one-hundred-percent true. Every bit.”

“Hmm,” Sirius said, looking at him intently. “I don’t know. Sounds too good to be true. Give me that.” And before Remus could protest, Sirius swiped the map from him.

“Hey!” Remus said huffily. “Be careful with that.”

“Look, me!” Sirius said delightedly, pointing at his dot on the map and ignoring his friend. “Well, I guess that part of it’s right, anyway.”

Furrowing his brow, he scoured the rest of the map, his tongue sticking out. “Now I know why you never study,” Remus muttered. “You look ridiculous when you concentrate.”

Sirius made a face at him. “Okay,” he said definitively, “there’s no way this can be right.”

“What? Why?” Remus said, half-insulted, as he tilted his head in Sirius’s direction.

“Look,” Sirius said. “I found James’s dot. Also Lily’s. It says they’re in a broom closet, which makes absolutely no sense.”

Remus considered this from several points of view. “Um,” he said finally, “well, I mean, it could�””

“Come on,” Sirius said, standing up, “I’ll prove it to you.”

And he strode from the common room. Remus hesitated for a moment, half-wanting to chase after him and half-wanting to stay put. Eventually, the desire to keep Sirius from embarrassing himself won out, and he chased after his friend.

He caught up with him just in front of the broom closet door. Sirius waved the map at him. “See?” he said. “It still says they’re in there.”

He reached for the door handle, and Remus put a hand out. “Wait, Padfoot,” he said. “Maybe you shouldn’t�””

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Oh, please,” he said. “What could they possib�”” He stopped abruptly, having wrenched the door open. “Oh.”

Remus groaned as Sirius stepped back, leering. A moment later, Lily and James slipped out of the broom closet, both of them looking flushed and a little disheveled.

“Well,” Sirius said, turning to Remus, “it works!”

James and Lily, Remus was relieved to see, did not appear particularly upset; James’s arm was slung around Lily’s shoulder, and they both looked as though they were trying not to laugh. Really, Remus thought, he himself was the one who seemed most embarrassed about the whole debacle.

“Sorry,” he said to James and Lily, then grabbed Sirius by the arm. “Come on, Padfoot,” he snarled, and dragged him away. As they turned the corner, he heard a burst of laughter behind them.

He let go of Sirius, who was chuckling himself. “Aw, come on, Moony,” Sirius said. “Lighten up. It was just a bit of fun.”

Remus narrowed his eyes at him as they reached Gryffindor Tower. He gave the password, and then as they clambered in, said, “You knew perfectly well that they were in there, didn’t you?”

Sirius grinned. “Well, I had an idea,” he said.

Remus gazed heavenwards, sighing deeply. “You,” he said, sounding long-suffering, “really need to find a new way to have fun.”

Sirius opened his mouth, ready to retort, when a dark-blonde girl brushed past them, her elbow catching Sirius so hard in the stomach that he gasped.

“Ow,” he muttered resentfully, rubbing his sternum. “Watch it!”

The girl, who appeared to be on her way out of the tower turned sharply to glower at them. She locked eyes with Sirius, who looked baffled. Remus, who had been eyeing the girl, suddenly realized why she looked so familiar�”Annabelle Fletcher, whose sister had married Leda’s brother.

The fourth-year didn’t say a word, but her grey eyes were hard as flint, and Remus was half-amused and half-alarmed to see Sirius look uncomfortable, as though he wanted to take a step back. Annabelle narrowed her eyes a little bit, then turned again, just as sharply, and made her way out of the tower.

Sirius growled softly after her. “She gives me the creeps,” he said as soon as she was gone.

“Yeah,” Remus said thoughtfully. “I can see why. What do you think she’s up to?”

“Hell if I know,” Sirius said. Then, after a beat, he asked, “Want to follow her?”

Remus raised an eyebrow. “We just got back. Also, you want to go tail the scary girl?”

“Um, yes,” Sirius said, “obviously. How else will she know what she’s doing? I mean, she could be�”why are you laughing?”

Remus shook his head, still smiling. “You’re just so…fearless,” he said, a touch of envy in his voice that Sirius seemed not to notice.

“Aw, come on,” he scoffed. “She’s a fourth-year. What could she possibly be doing that we could handle?”

“Well, all right,” Remus sighed, “let’s go then. Before the trail gets cold.”

Sirius, enthusiastic as ever, winked at him, then bounded for the portrait hole.

---

Oblivious to the intrigue occurring so many rooms away, Lily and James took their time going back to Gryffindor Tower, wandering through the castle instead. Lily, who seemed almost giddy to James, took it upon herself to tease the various paintings in the halls, using her wand to swap the hats on the heads of witches sitting around a campfire for live owls, and hang a bright strand of lights all through a portrait of somber-looking monks, until James laughingly informed her that this was not appropriate behavior for the Head Girl.

“Oh, what do you know about it,” she said teasingly, and then darted down the hall before him.

James jogged after her. “So, listen,” he said, and she turned her head to look at him, her red hair swishing over her shoulder as she did so in a way that made him lose his train of thought for a second. “I, um, was just thinking. Valentine’s Day is coming up, and it’s about time for us to have a real date.”

“Oh,” she said dramatically, “But I’ve managed to avoid that for so long!” James made a face at her, then reached out and grabbed her by the hand, yanking her backwards so that, for a moment, she stumbled against them. “Well, I suppose I could be seen with you,” she said, grinning impishly up at him. “What did you have in mind?”

“There’s a Hogsmeade trip on Valentine’s Day, next weekend,” James said, “but I don’t know. Everyone’s going to be doing that. I thought we might mix it up a little bit, go into the village this weekend instead.”

Lily’s eyes widened ever so slightly, a soft smile playing around the edges of her mouth. “This weekend?” she asked. “There’s not a Hogsmeade visit this weekend. We wouldn’t be allowed.”

“Ah, well,” James said, looping his arm around her neck, “therein lies the fun.”

---

“So,” asked Mary, a quarter of an hour later when Lily reentered their dorm room, “how’d it go?”

Lily paused for a moment, and then said noncommittally, “You give good advice.”

Mary smirked. “Knew it,” she said. “So what happened?”

“Well, I don’t kiss and tell,” Lily teased.

“What’s the fun in that?” Mary scowled at her, and Lily relented, throwing her a bone.

“I may or may not have a date this weekend,” she allowed, and Mary perked up.

“This weekend?” she asked curiously. “But the Hogsmeade weekend’s not till next, what are you going to do?”

Lily grinned mischievously. “Oh,” she said casually, “Hogsmeade’s still there, even if we’re not technically supposed to go.”

Mary looked impressed despite herself. “Nice,” she nodded. “Score one for James Potter. You’ll have to tell me all about it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lily said, “although�””

A loud cough from the doorway cut her off, and for the second time that day, she looked up to see Leda stalking into the room. The dark-haired girl went straight to her bed, flopping down with a book in her hands, and then looked over at them. “Either of you done the Charms essay yet?” she asked, her voice level. “I’m having a bit of difficulty.”

Lily and Mary exchanged the briefest of glances, neither one of them sure if Leda had heard them talking, if she was really as unruffled as she appeared. Then Mary shrugged, stood up, and walked over to Leda, saying, “I’m not done but I have started it, what’s giving you trouble?”

Lily watched the exchange before pulling out her own book, trying her best to let homework cover her growing sense of unease.

“I don’t get this,” Sirius muttered, crouching low behind a bookshelf and peering over.

“Yeah, me either,” grumbled Remus, who was sitting by Sirius’s feet, his back against the bookshelf, pulling a long thread out of his robes. “She’s not doing anything, Padfoot, besides her homework.”

Sirius’s shoulders tensed as he squinted across the library. “Yeah,” he said dryly, “with a bunch of Ravenclaws.”

“Sound the alarm!” Remus yawned. “Inter-house communication, oh no!”

Sirius frowned at him. “You said you’d tail Annabelle with me,” he said petulantly.

“Well, yeah,” Remus said. “Days ago. When I still thought you might be on to something. But so far all we’ve seen her do is hang out with Leda and those Ravenclaw fourth-years. Honestly, maybe you should just ask Peter to follow her around, he can do the rat thing, get a little closer.”

“No,” said Sirius stubbornly, “this is my project. Besides, what I meant was, well, don’t you realize who those two Ravenclaws are?”

Remus craned his neck to look over the bookcases and sighed heavily. “Yes, I know who they are,” he recited. “Michael Kingsbury and Nathaniel Rafferty.”

Sirius looked at him, frustrated. “They’re the ones�””

“�”who you’re absolutely convinced are pulling really lame pranks on the school, Sirius, I know,” Remus finished exasperatedly. “But honestly, there’s no proof.”

“Lily saw them coming into the Great Hall right before those Bludgers tore it apart!” Sirius reminded him.

“Call the Daily Prophet!” said Remus.

Sirius eyed him reproachfully before turning to look back at Annabelle in the Ravenclaws. “You know, you’re being really cheeky today,” he sniffed.

“Probably because the full moon’s only a week away,” Remus muttered, then flicked his wand at Sirius’s shoes, magically tying his shoelaces together.

“I wonder why Annabelle’s hanging out with them,” Sirius said.

At the table so many feet away, Annabelle leaned forward, laughing, her hand on Michael Kingsbury’s forearm as the handsome boy drew something on a piece of parchment. He looked only vaguely interested, although, at the other end of the table, weedy Nathaniel Rafferty peered over at then almost rabidly.

“She seems kind of into that Michael kid,” Sirius remarked.

“Why do you even care?” Remus asked, and Sirius frowned.

“Because that girl is trouble,” he said, “and so are they. No good can come of them all hanging out together, I’ll promise you that.”

Sirius turned to stride out of the library, but, not noticing that Remus had tied his shoelaces together, tripped and landed on his face with a loud crash. Behind them, both Annabelle and Michael’s heads snapped up as they squinted towards the source of the sound.

“Whoops,” Remus said, and skipping over to help Sirius to his feet. “Let’s go.”

---

“Hold still,” Mary snapped, “unless you want me to burn you!”

She and Lily were in their dormitory, Mary curling a tendril of Lily’s hair around her wand, the tip of which smoked slightly. Lily, who had been fidgeting, tried to be as still as possible.

“Good,” Mary said, a few minutes later, sounding satisfied. “Hair’s done. Now we just have to do your makeup!”

“What?” Lily squeaked. “The hair wasn’t enough?”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Do you even expect me to answer that question?”

“Come on,” Lily begged. “James knows what I look like, you don’t need to do all of this, it’s ridiculous.”

Mary put her hand on her hip. “Lil, you know I love you,” she said, “but you don’t know the first thing about boys or dating, and there’s no way I’m going to let you go off on what is finally your first date with this boy looking like you’re just going to Potions class or something.”

“I like Potions class,” Lily muttered, but she submitted as Mary shot her a look.

“Now come here,” Mary said violently, “and close your eyes.”

Lily did so as Mary set to work. “So where’s he taking you, anyway?” she asked.

“I don’t know, actually,” Lily said. “Hogsmeade somewhere, but he wouldn’t tell me what we’re doing. Apparently it’s a surprise.”

“Points for style,” Mary said, “especially if it ends up being a good surprise. I expect full details later.”

Lily squirmed again, and Mary blew on her face. “Stop that,” she said. “Anyway, this is all part of being a girl. You should try it sometime.”

“Hey!” Lily began to protest, but Mary silenced her yet again.

“Shut up. I have to do your lips.” She was silent for a minute, focused on her work, but then, with a final flourish, sat back on her heels and looked at Lily appreciatively. “You’ll do,” she said. “So, what’s your excuse, anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked her, trying to talk carefully so as not to smudge whatever Mary had just smeared all over her face.

“Well I mean, you’re sneaking out of the castle, and we’re definitely not supposed to be going to Hogsmeade when a visit isn’t scheduled. And you’ll probably be getting back late, too, so what if you get caught?”

Privately, Lily had a feeling that James’s invisibility cloak was going to come into play, but seeing as Mary didn’t know about that, she simply shrugged and said, “I’ll probably just say I’m looking for a quiet place to study or something.”

There was a short, sharp laugh from the doorway, and Mary and Lily both looked up to see, for the second time in as many days, Leda standing just beyond the doorframe, watching them. “Looking like that?” she said. “No one’s going to believe you’re just studying.” And she sauntered into the room with an expression that Lily couldn’t read.

Lily, wondering how much Leda had heard of their conversation, realized that the other girl seemed to be making a habit out of sneaking up on them, and she was frustrated with herself for not paying more attention. She was at a loss for a moment, then turned to Mary, sighing.

“I look ridiculous, don’t I? You’re so never allowed to try out new hairstyles on me again!”

Mary, catching on, said quickly, “My hair doesn’t curl half as well as yours, what was I supposed to do? Anyway, you don’t look ridiculous, go look in the mirror.”

“It’s ridiculous if you’re just studying,” Leda put in from the other side of the room. “But not if you have, you know, a hot date or something.”

Lily, wondering again just how much Leda had overheard, shot her a look, but Leda merely turned a page in her magazine, looking uninterested.

Shrugging, Lily looked down at her watch, realizing it was about time for her to go meet James. “Well, anyway,” she said, “I’m going to go.” She meant to leave the room as quickly as possible�”for whatever reason, Leda was making her skin crawl�”but she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror as she did so, and caught her breath.

Mary had applied her vast collection of cosmetics to Lily with a much lighter hand than Lily was expecting�”much lighter, indeed, than Mary used on her own face. It was just enough to make Lily’s eyes seem brighter, to emphasize the lines of her cheekbones, and the gentle curve of her jaw. Her hair, half pinned up, the other half curling loosely over her shoulders, made her look older, but somehow more vulnerable. It had not, really, been what she was expecting.

Lily looked over her shoulder at Mary, unsure of how to thank her, but Mary was already waving at her, looking amused. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, before Lily could speak. “You’re welcome, you’re a hottie, get lost already.”

Lily bit her lip, grinning, and without another word, turned and disappeared down the stairs, feeling a slight lurch in her stomach. She’d been so focused on the getting ready that she’d barely thought about the date itself, and only now did she start to panic�”what if they got caught? Or, worse, what if they ran out of things to say to each other?

But the jitters in her stomach turned to more of a thrill when she walked into the common room and saw James standing by the fire, waiting for her. “Oh, hi,” he said, smiling. “Fancy seeing you here.”

---

Peter, from his vantage point near the back of the common room, watched James and Lily greet each other near the fireplace. He smiled, watching them as they spoke to each other, Lily ducking her head shyly, James fidgeting with his robes. Peter had been the only one in the dorm when James was getting ready, and James had nearly talked his ear off, bubbling with nervousness about the impending date.

“Is it because you have to sneak off the grounds to do it?” Peter had asked, and James had laughed at him.

“Oh, no,” he’d scoffed. “I mean, how many times have we done that? No, it’s just that it’s a first date. With a girl who really matters.”

Peter hadn’t understood. “Well, yeah, but it’s not like you just met her or anything…I’d say you know each other pretty well after the past year and a half, right?”

“Yeah,” James had sighed, furrowing his brow at himself in a mirror, “but not like this.”

“Like what? Like now you have to spend half an hour getting ready every time you’re going to see her?”

James, amused, had finally turned away from his reflection to grin at Peter. “One day,” he’d said, “you will fall in love. And then, you too, will suddenly start to be nervous about whether or not your hair is sticking up in the back.”

“No thank you,” Peter had shuddered. “Not worth it. You’ve been all over the place with all that relationship stuff this year, and maybe this time it’s real but for the most part, it’s too much. And,” he paused, then added, “your hair always sticks up in the back.”

James made a face at him. “If I wasn’t about to be late,” he had said, “I would stay and argue with you.”

Now, watching them across the common room, Peter could see how nervous they both were. It was funny, almost, to see them adjust to this new way of knowing each other, and Peter thought that maybe it was a good thing, this anxious giddiness�”it showed how much they both cared, how much this mattered. And for a moment, despite whatever he had told James, he felt a pang, watching them, wondering if, by being safe like this, maybe he was missing something after all.

As they turned to leave the tower, Peter saw Lily slip her hand through the crook of James’s elbow, and smiled, shaking off the feeling. Maybe he was just lonely�”James was off with his head in the clouds these days, and Sirius and Remus kept disappearing on some crazy jaunts that Peter never managed to join, and he was desperately curious about what they were doing. He thought, for a moment, about turning into his rat form and hiding in the dormitory, to see if they talked about it, but that seemed dishonest, somehow, and besides, James’s cat was up there anyway. He just needed a distraction, that was all.

Sighing, Peter sunk lower into his seat at the table, pulling a Charms book forward and preparing for a long night.

---
“So where are we going, anyway?” Lily asked as they strolled casually down the corridors, the torchlights flickering in the winter near-darkness. “And how are we getting there?”

James grinned at her. “Come on,” he said, “it’s a surprise! I have all the supplies we need though.”

Lily raised her eyes. “Supplies?”

“Yeah,” James said, looking furtively around the corridor, then pulling her into an empty classroom. “Okay. Come here. Time to put this on.”

Lily looked up to see him pulling out his silvery invisibility cloak as he caught her eye, grinning roguishly. Lily reached out, taking it, the fabric pooling in her hands. Then she slung the cloak over her shoulders, disappearing from the room, still with that little thrill in her stomach that came from breaking the rules.

“Hey!” James objected, looking around the classroom. “I need to get under there, too, you know!”

Lily, quietly as she could, snuck up behind him and blew in his ear. “Catch me if you can,” she said, then backed up with a giggle.

James, to her surprise, pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket, whispered, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” stared intently at it for a moment, then whirled around, his hand catching the end of the cloak. In a flash, he’d ducked under it, and they were standing face-to-face, pressed together and warm beneath the fabric.

“Cheater,” Lily said. “Was that that map thing?”

“Yep,” James said smugly. “That’s my backup, in case we run into any trouble getting out of the castle.”

“What kind of trouble?” asked Lily.

“Trouble like this,” James told her. “You’re turning into quite a rebel, you know.”

She grinned. “Aw,” she said, “you’d have found me eventually.”

“That’s the problem,” James said. “I can never really be sure when you’re going to let me catch you.”

In answer, she turned and slipped her fingers through his. “To Hogsmeade?” she said.

“To Hogsmeade,” he smiled back.

They made it out of the castle without incident, James deciding that it was safe for them to remove the cloak once they were in the village. “But what if someone sees us?” Lily hissed, acutely aware that she was breaking the rules.

James had just laughed. “So what if they do?” he asked. “Even if they can tell we’re students, I promise you, no one here is going to give us detention.

Lily elbowed him. “Oh, shut up,” she muttered as he pushed open the door of the Three Broomsticks. “You know, I have been here before, if this is the surprise.”

“Three Broomsticks?” James said. “Yeah, I know. But I’m betting you haven’t been here at night. Or for dinner. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, they do good food.”

“Really,” Lily teased as they slid into seats at the bar. “How do you know that? Do this every Valentine’s Day?”

James opened his mouth to reply, but before he did, Madame Rosmerta slid down the bar towards them, her heels clacking below. “Mr. Potter,” she said, arching one perfectly shaped eyebrow at him. “I didn’t realize it was a Hogsmeade weekend. Bit late, isn’t it?”

Lily looked between them nervously, but James only smiled languorously. “Nah,” he said. “My bedtime’s a whole hour later this year!”

Madame Rosmerta, to Lily’s surprise, laughed lightly. “Where’s Sirius tonight?” she asked. “The two of you are usually together.” But then she nodded towards Lily and winked. “She’s a bit prettier than he is, though,” she said.

“Ha, I’m so telling him she said that,” Lily whispered under her breath, and James chuckled.

“She’s the one you’ve been talking about forever? I can see why.” Madame Rosmerta asked James, who looked suddenly embarrassed.

“You eavesdrop too much,” he told her.

She shrugged, smirking. “It’s my job, sugar,” she said. “Now let me get you two some drinks.”

“She’s very…blunt,” Lily said, as soon as Rosmerta was out of hearing range.

“No kidding,” James muttered.

“So,” Lily said, after a moment’s pause, “when have you been talking about me?”

James rolled his eyes. “Really?” he said. “You’re going to make me say it?”

Lily leaned forward, chin in hands, grinning.

“Well, Sirius and I have been sneaking down here pretty regularly since about the third year,” James said. “And, obviously, we talked a lot about girls, and Madame Rosmerta was always overly fond of giving us advice, but she also always laughed about how I only ever seemed to talk about one girl.”

“Me?” Lily asked, with an affected little gasp.

“No,” James told her sarcastically, “the Fat Lady.”

Lily smiled, taking a sip out of the Butterbeer that had somehow appeared at her elbow in the past couple of minutes. “So how does this dinner thing work?” she asked. “There aren’t any menus.”

“No,” James said. “You get whatever Rosmerta feels like whipping up tonight, but I can promise you, it’s always good. By the way, have I told you yet how pretty you look tonight?”

Lily blushed, and he laughed. “Have I told you yet,” he said, “how much I like it when you blush?”

“Cut it out!” Lily said, swatting him. “I’m a redhead, it’s easy!”

“Yeah, but I like it.”

They continued to banter throughout dinner�”James had been right, it was delicious�”and afterwards, they wandered lazily up and down the streets of Hogsmeade. It was late; the stores were all closed, and Lily murmured almost sleepily, “It’s strange seeing it like this.”

“Hogsmeade?” James asked, looking down at her.

“Yeah,” Lily said. “So empty.”

“Funny,” James grinned. “This is how I see it most of the time. It’s Hogsmeade weekends that are strange for me.”

“Oh, that’s weird to think about,” Lily said, shaking her head. Then she paused, and asked, “Does it scare you at all now?”

“Why would it?” James asked, surprised.

She shrugged. “I don’t know, just because this is where the…the Death Eaters attacked, and everything.”

“Oh. Right, that,” James said. “You know, in an odd way, that makes me feel safer. I know we still don’t really know the details on the first attack, but security’s got to be higher now, in some ways, and now that that’s been done already…well, it would be hard to sneak something past Dumbledore twice, wouldn’t it?”

“True,” Lily said, feeling comforted. Then she asked, “So now what? Do we sneak back into the castle?”

“Go back?” James asked. “Of course not, who do you think I am? We haven’t even done dessert yet.”

“Wha-” Lily started to say, but was cut off as he grabbed her by the hand and yanked her around the corner of a building. Before she realized what was going on, he had surreptitiously slid open the back window and slipped through it, before popping around to push open the door for her.

“Hurry up!” he whispered. “Don’t want anyone to see.”

Curiously, she followed him through, surprised to find that they were in the familiar, sugar-scented air of Honeydukes. “Lumos!” James whispered, and his wandtip ignited.

“What are we doing in here?” Lily asked. “And how did you know to get in?”

James waved a hand at her. “Oh, Sirius and I have�””

“�”been doing this for ages,” Lily finished dryly.

“Pretty much,” he said. “And don’t worry, I always leave money for everything we snitch.”

“Good,” Lily said. “I was already feeling guilty.”

She couldn’t really see him in the dim light, but she guessed he was rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I know you were. Now sit down and close your eyes, we’re having a taste test.”

“A what?”

“You heard me.”

Slightly bewildered, Lily did as he asked. When he next spoke, his voice was startlingly close to her. “Here,” he said, pressing something to her lips. “Guess what this is.”

A moment later, she was laughing in surprise as she levitated several inches off the ground. “Fizzing Whizbees,” she choked out. “Easy.”

“Just getting warmed up,” James said as she thumped back down. “But shhh, the owners live right above the store.”

“Gotcha,” Lily said. “Anyway�”my turn.”

For awhile, they entertained themselves with just a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans; the darkness made it difficult to ascertain color, even with both their wands lit, and it was even harder to guess just what it was they might be tasting.

“Okay, okay, new game!” James protested, after swallowing an unfortunate run of mud, monkey hair, and toilet paper.

Wrinkling her nose at him, Lily closed her eyes. A moment later, he had placed something in her mouth that she had never tried before, crunchy and sweet with a slightly nutty flavor. “I have no idea what this is,” she said. “It’s good, though.”

“Heh,” James chuckled. “Cockroach Cluster.”

Her eyes flew open. “It is not!” she hissed.

In response, James held up the bottle, and Lily’s mouth dropped open. “James!” she said. “Disgusting!”

“Oh, come on!” he protested, still chuckling. “You liked it before you knew what it was!”

“So not the point,” she frowned playfully at him. “I’m so getting you back for that. Close your eyes and look out.”

He did so, and she looked at him for a long moment, half debating Acid Pops. James just stood there, his collar crooked, eyes closed, hands clasped together behind his back, and instead of going back to the candy counters, Lily walked softly a few steps forward and kissed him, slow and sweet and long.

“Wow,” he said a few moments later when they pulled apart, his hands lingering at her waist, “I didn’t realize they sold that at Honeydukes.”

“Oh, shut up,” she told him, her arms finding their way around his necks, and their lips had just met again when there was a noise above them.

“Oops,” James said, grabbing his wand. “Time to go. Owners are up.”

Lily started towards the door, but James shook his head. “This way,” he said, setting a handful of Sickles on the counter and motioning towards the back. She followed him, turning the corner just as he was sliding away a loose stone from the floor.

“I’ll ask later,” she said, hurrying down the passageway, and he followed her, sliding the stone back into place, and together, they ran.

Once they had gotten a significant distance away, Lily, panting, asked, “So where does this go, anyway?”

“Right back to school!” James said cheerfully, and sure enough, they were soon sliding out the hump of a one-eyed witch, back in Hogwarts again.

“Well, that was definitely an adventure,” Lily said quietly. James looked at her, taking her hand familiarly as they walked back towards Gryffindor Tower.

“Yeah,” James said. “I’ve been planning that one for awhile.”

“Really?” Lily asked.

“Well, yeah,” James said, almost shyly.

“And here I was thinking that that was just the kind of thing you came up with on the spot.”

“Well, sometimes it is,” James admitted. “But it doesn’t always work out as well if we’re just making it up as we go. Some things you have to orchestrate.”

“Well, I’m impressed,” Lily said, as they approached the Fat Lady. “Everything went perfectly.”

Just then, the first ropes fell from the ceiling, wrapping themselves tightly around her.

“Well this is interesting,” said James conversationally. Lily, behind him, laughed, half in exasperation. “Definitely not how I saw the night ending,” he continued.

They were bound on opposite sides of a suit of armor, sitting back-to-back with the empty knight in between them. “How did this even happen?” Lily asked, gritting her teeth as she tried to stretch her hand to her pocket, where her wand was. “One second we were walking, the next we’re tied up. It happened so fast.”

“Yeah,” James said interestedly. “It must have been some sort of magical snare, and we set it off…that would be really tricky though, to make sure it worked right. And it’s kind of a lot of effort to go through for just a casual prank…maybe someone was waiting for us specifically?”

“Oh, great,” grunted Lily, her fingers closing unhelpfully around air. “That’s not creepy at all.”

“And it’s kind of lame,” James added. “What is the point of tying us up outside of the common room? It’s a little embarrassing, sure, but…”

“But if a teacher walks in the morning, or comes patrolling through now, we’ll be caught out after hours,” Lily pointed out, her voice rising slightly. “And, as you seem to keep forgetting, we’re Head Boy and Girl! We could actually, get in a lot of trouble if the wrong person finds us!”

James craned his neck. He couldn’t quite see her around the armor, but if he stretched his arm back as far as he could, their fingertips brushed. “Yeah,” he said, “but I don’t know. I kind of think it’s worth it.”

“Well,” she said, softening, “yeah. It was.” There was a pause, and then she asked, “But are you sure you can’t reach your wand?”

James burst out laughing as Lily shushed him frantically. “Hold on a second,” he said, contorting, “maybe I can…almost…nope, no, sorry, can’t reach it, I’m at the wrong angle.”

Lily sighed. “Me, too. So now what do we do then?”

“Wiggle?” James suggested. “Merlin, I don’t usually wish I was Wormtail, but right now I kind of do…”

“Peter?” Lily asked, surprised. “What does he have to do with this?”

“Oh, you know,” James said. “He could just turn into a rat and slip right out. I’ve got the stag thing, which is nice, but really not a lot of help here.”

“True,” Lily sighed, leaning her head back. “So, another random prank this year that wasn’t you and Sirius.”

“I know!” James said indignantly. “We’re going to have to do something soon, or we’re going to look like idiots…”

“Sirius is going to have a field day,” Lily said glumly. “He’s still totally convinced that it’s those two Ravenclaws pulling all these pranks, but there’s no way, they wouldn’t know that we were going out tonight, or care if they did. Except for Mary, nobody knew we were�””

She stopped suddenly. “What?” James asked, after a minute.

“Um,” Lily said, almost guiltily. “Well. There’s a chance that Leda might have known. I thought she overhead me and Mary talking about it, but I wasn’t sure.”

“No way,” James said emphatically. “I honestly don’t think Leda could pull something off. It’s just not her style.”

“True,” Lily said, “but maybe�”” she stopped, sucking in her breath sharply, and James felt her fingers scrabbling for his. “What is that?”

“What?” he hissed back, craning his neck again.

A few feet away, a piece of shadow detached itself from the wall and slunk towards them. James started to laugh. “Oh,” he said, “that’s just Sirius.”

Behind him, he heard Lily let out her breath as the black dog padded across to them, tail wagging. Sirius snapped playfully at James’s ear, then turned towards Lily, his tail hitting James upside the head.

On the other side of the suit of armor, Lily giggled as the dog licked her cheek. “Stop licking me, you goof,” she said.

“Hey!” James objected, twisting as far around as he could. “Get your own!”

There was a slight shift in the air as Sirius turned back into himself. “So,” he said calmly. “What’s up with you guys?”

“Can you get us out first?” James panted.

Sirius stretched his arms over his head luxuriously. “I don’t know,” he said. “This is kind of an interesting situation, isn’t it?”

“Do it, Padfoot,” James growled. “Or I’ll…dig up something about you and spread it around the whole school, I swear.”

“Oh,” Lily said vaguely. “I’ll just tell Mary you want to go on another date with her.”

“Okay!” Sirius said hastily reaching for his wand. “Let’s go!”

A few minutes later, they all tumbled into the mercifully empty common room. “So was that part of the date gone wrong, or what?” Sirius asked as soon as they’d folded themselves into armchairs in front of the fire.

James snorted. “No,” he said. “Please, have a little more faith in my organization skills.”

“Not likely,” Sirius told him. “I’ve seen your sock drawer.”

“Someone did it,” Lily said. “We were just trying to figure out who. Leda knew we’d be out tonight, but it looks like a dead end for your Ravenclaw theory.”

Sirius sat forward intently. “Leda knew you’d be out?”

“I think so,” Lily said.

“But I refuse to believe she’s capable of something like this,” James put in. “She’s more of a moper than a doer.”

“She does have cause, though,” Sirius pointed out. “She has motive. But I agree with you, she doesn’t have the creativity.”

“It wasn’t that creative,” James scoffed. “We could have come up with way better.”

“Even in the fourth year,” Sirius said.

James shook his head. “I’m telling you,” he said, “I don’t think it was the Ravenclaw fourth years.”

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “Maybe not,” he said, “but what do those Ravenclaws and Leda Wood have in common?”

James and Lily exchanged a quizzical glance. “Sticks up their�”” Lily started to suggest, but Sirius interrupted her, getting to his feet excitedly.

“No,” he said, “but close.”

James rolled his eyes. “Just tell us,” he said.

Sirius, who had been facing the fire, turned to look at them, his face glowing triumphantly. “Annabelle Fletcher,” he said.

---

“I don’t get it,” Remus said, sounding bored. “I thought we decided that Annabelle Fletcher didn’t have anything to do with…anything.”

“No,” Sirius corrected, “you decided.”

The two of them were sitting with Peter in the common room the next morning, Sirius explaining the events of the night before.

“Well I don’t get it either,” Peter shrugged. “Why would some fourth-year even care about what we’re doing, or what James and Lily are doing?”

“Because,” Sirius said, frustrated, “she’s friends with Leda. And with those Ravenclaws who I know have been responsible for a lot of the stupid stuff that’s been happening this year. So obviously she’s got a taste for pranking.”

“And Padfoot is convinced that Leda is complaining to Annabelle, who is exacting justice.”

This last explanation was put in dryly by James, who had just wandered up to their table with Lily.

“Well,” said Sirius, “yeah.”

“You know,” Lily mused, sliding into a chair, “it kind of makes sense.”

“Thank you!” said Sirius emphatically, but James just laughed.

“I still don’t know,” he said. “I’m going to need proof here.”

“What, do you want me to catch her in the act or something?”

“You could always just ask her,” Remus said, rolling his eyes. “She just walked in.”

Sirius swiveled around, his eyes locking on Annabelle Fletcher, who had just entered the common room, presumably coming from breakfast. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sirius rose quickly to his feet and marched towards her.

“Hey!” Remus called after him, alarmed. “I wasn’t serious!” But Sirius paid him no mind.

Annabelle, who had sunk into an armchair, looked up as he approached, her eyes narrowed. Sirius stopped feet from her, his arms folded.

“So,” he said. “I bet you think you’re pretty clever.”

“Most days,” she replied coolly. “Which bit are you referring to?”

“I think you know what I’m talking about,” Sirius said.

Back at the table, where they were eavesdropping shamelessly, Remus threw a weary glance at James. “This is so melodramatic,” he muttered.

“It’s a little ridiculous,” James agreed.

“Shhh!” Peter hissed, gazing at Sirius and Annabelle, enthralled. Lily giggled.

Over in her armchair, Annabelle sighed. “You’re here about Lily and James.”

Sirius nodded curtly. “You knew they were out last night,” he said. “Don’t deny it.”

“I’m not denying it,” Annabelle said. Over at the table, Remus’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Leda’s been upset about it for days,” Annabelle continued. “I had to do something. Wouldn’t you?”

“I�”that’s not the point,” Sirius said. “What are you trying to accomplish, anyway?”

Annabelle eyed him. “Look,” she said finally. “I don’t mean to be rude, but you’ve gotten kind of pathetic.”

“Excuse me?” said Sirius.

“I mean it,” Annabelle shrugged. “My first couple of years here, you and your friends had a reputation. When things happened, everyone knew it was you doing it, even if you didn’t say anything. And now look at you. One of you is a prefect, another one is Head Boy…just look at you.” She snorted derisively.

“Please,” Sirius scoffed. “You have no idea what we do.”

“Maybe not,” Annabelle said. “But from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re losing your touch. And you’d better watch your back.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sirius said, bristling, as she rose to her feet and leveled her gaze at him.

“It means that my friends and I are going to do something so good that no one will remember you and yours after you’re gone. You have no idea what’s coming.”

And squaring her shoulders loftily, she stalked off.

Sirius stood, dumbstruck for a moment, staring after her, then went back to his friends.

“I really,” he said, “really don’t like her.”

“I’m sorry,” Remus said. “If it’s any consolation, I will now fully admit that you were right about her, and probably those Ravenclaws, and I’m sorry for thinking you were crazy.”

“S’ok,” Sirius murmured unhappily.

“I wonder what she meant, at the end there,” Peter said thoughtfully. “I wonder what they’re going to do.”

“Yeah,” James grinned. “Should we be bracing ourselves?”

“I wouldn’t take it too seriously,” Lily said suddenly, and they all looked at her in surprise.

“Were you listening to the same conversation we were?” Sirius demanded. “She sounded pretty serious!”

“None of their pranks have been that good yet,” Lily pointed out.

“No,” Sirius argued, “but they have gotten better.”

“Still,” said Lily. “Last year, James told me that the hardest thing about pulling pranks�”successful ones, anyway�”is keeping your mouth shut afterwards. And I think this latest conversation just proved that she can’t do that.”

There was a silence as all four of them considered this.

“That’s a good point,” Remus said. “They’re still really young.”

“Amateurs,” said Sirius, slightly more gleefully.

“I’m pretty sure I was showing off when I told you that,” James said added, and Lily elbowed him.

“So what are we going to do now?” Peter asked, looking up at Sirius.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sirius asked. “We’re going to pull a prank.”

In spite of the Head Boy badge glinting on his chest, James perked up excitedly. “On Annabelle and the Ravenclaws specifically?” he asked.

“No,” Sirius said decisively, “school-wide.”

Remus nodded, looking resigned. “Might as well go out with a bang,” he said. “What’s the plan?”

“I don’t know yet,” Sirius said, his eyes glazing over. “But I’ll think about it.”

---

When James woke early a few mornings later, it was with a strange feeling of discomfort, a curling in his stomach, as though he hadn’t slept well. He rolled over restlessly, squinting as he felt around on his bedside table for his glasses, then stretched. Sirius, so many feet away in his own bed, grunted softly and thrashed onto his stomach, knocking his blankets onto the floor. James chuckled. Guess I’m not the only restless one.

Half debating whether or not to go back to sleep, James reached over to fluff his pillow, and was surprised when his fingers brushed something hard. Frowning slightly, he reached over and pulled a smooth, sand-colored stone from beneath his pillow. He turned it over in his hands, noticing as he did so that there were faint hieroglyphics etched into its edges. Shrugging, he made a brief mental note to ask Remus about it later, before tossing it into the drawer in his bedside table.

He went down for breakfast a quarter of an hour later, feeling, for no particular reason, rather huffy. Remus and Sirius didn’t even bother coming down for breakfast, which, for some inexplicable reason, James found irritating. Peter, however, trailed him into the hall a few minutes later, but his presence did nothing to ease James’s tension�”if anything, it made him even more annoyed.

“Do you have to breathe so loudly?” he snapped. Peter glanced up at him, startled.

“Morning,” came a voice to his right, and he looked up to see Lily sliding into the seat beside him. She looked as lethargic as he felt.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked, somewhat brutally.

Lily looked at him sharply. “Didn’t sleep so well,” she said. “What’s your excuse?”

She was teasing, but there was a bite to it; it cut deeper than their usual playful banter. Peter, from his side of the table, gave a loud sniff, and James’s gaze snapped over to him.

“Eavesdropping again, are you Wormtail?” he taunted. “Is that all you’re good for?”

For a moment Peter looked at him, eyes wide with hurt. Then, with a clatter, Lily dropped her fork onto her plate, and looked at James, her eyes stormy. “What,” she asked, her voice low, “the hell is going on here?”

“None of your business,” James said sullenly.

“It is so,” she said. “I don’t know that I want to be dating someone who treats his friends like that.”

“Oh, get off your high horse,” James said sarcastically, turning away from her. “Don’t be such a priss.”

There was a long pause, and then Lily dumped her goblet of pumpkin juice over his head. Wiping her hands neatly together, she stood and strode from the Great Hall.

Spluttering and fuming, James rose too, taking off in the opposite direction, towards Gryffindor Tower, angling for a change of clothes. The second both Lily and Peter had disappeared from his sight, however, all his antagonism towards them vanished.

What, he thought, horrified, as he climbed the stairs to his dorm, in Merlin’s name did I just do? And why?

Puzzled and distraught, he pushed open the door to his room, only to find Sirius and Remus in the middle of a huge row.

“You don’t understand!” Remus was bellowing. “It’s all well and good for you to prance around this school like you own it, but I have secrets to keep! And I really don’t appreciate your la-dee-da attitude about them!”

“I,” Sirius shouted back at him, his face red, “do. Not. Prance!”

“Shut up!” James said, noticing, as he did so, that his blood boiled at the sight of them, that he was itching for a good fight.

“Don’t get me started on you,” Remus roared. “Aren’t you supposed to be Head Boy? Didn’t Dumbledore choose you for no apparent reason? Shouldn’t you at least try to act like you appreciate it?”

“Shut up!” James cried again, fighting, as he did so, the almost overwhelming urge to give as good as he got. “Something’s going on. I was just a total prat to Lily and Peter for absolutely no reason…and now this is going on with you two…someone’s messing with us.”

Sirius and Remus blinked at each other. “I did sort of wonder why we just woke up and started yelling at each other,” Sirius said.

James strode quickly to his bedside table, pulling out the stone he had found that morning. “This was under my pillow earlier,” he said, tossing it to Remus, who didn’t even attempt to catch it. The stone hit him in the eye.

“Ow! Blast it all, James, not all of us are popular Quidditch players,” Remus hissed, bending down to pick up the stone.

“Oh, come of it,” James scoffed. “You missed on purpose just so you could whine.”

“You know,” Sirius said musingly, “I really don’t think you’re as good a Quidditch player as you think you are.”

James blinked. Then a second later, he leapt on Sirius. They scuffled around on the floor for a moment as Remus, barely noticing them, turned the stone over in his hands.

“Huh,” he said, then walked forward to his own bed. Feeling around beneath his pillow for a moment, he pulled out an identical stone, with the same markings around the edge. There was a stone beneath Sirius’s pillow as well, and Peter’s, and Remus frowned, carefully scrutinizing the markings. “They look Egyptian,” he murmured to himself, then reached under his bed for a book.

“Hey�”gerroff me, you big sod, ow�””

“Quit pulling my hair, you big girl!”

“I would if you’d stop biting me…”

Irritated, Remus looked over at the still tussling on the floor, flicked his wand, and quite calmly Stunned them both. Then, satisfied, he turned back to his book in peace.

Approximately ten minutes later, he woke them up.

“Did you just Stun us?” James asked, outraged.

“Yeah, yeah, get over it,” Remus said. “I know what this is.”

Interested, James and Sirius gathered around him. James wrinkled his nose at Sirius. “Have you brushed your teeth yet today?” he asked.

“Have you brushed your hair yet this year?” Sirius countered.

“Stop,” Remus commanded wearily. “You’re making it worse.”

“Making what worse?” James and Sirius said together.

“This,” Remus said, holding up the stone. “There was one beneath each of our pillows. I looked it up in my Ancients Runes book, and it appears to be an indicator of an Egyptian Curse.”

“Oh this doesn’t sound good,” James muttered.

“Please tell me no mummies are involved,” Sirius said.

“Not exactly,” Remus said, “but it’s a variant of the tomb curses, in Egypt. The gist of it is, instead of disturbing a sleeping pharaoh or whatever, we supposedly violated someone’s personal peace. We made someone’s life worse. And what this curse does is create strife and discord.”

“What does that even mean?” Sirius asked, sounding bored. “Who did it? Annabelle?”

“Probably,” Remus said. “It’s a very tricky curse, but her friends are Ravenclaws, after all…What it looks like to me is she’s still seeking revenge for Leda. She thinks we all ruined Leda’s life, and she’s punishing us by cursing us so we do nothing but fight all the time.”

“And Lily too,” James said, looking miserable. “So how do we break it?”

Remus shrugged. “We don’t,” he said. “There’s not a lot of theory on how to break it…the Egyptians knew how to curse. But the plus side is that this is a very difficult hex to maintain. Judging by the size of these stones�”and they’re the power center for the curse�”they only managed to make it so it would last a few days or so.”

“A few days?” Sirius yelped. “What are we supposed to do until then?”

Remus shrugged. “Fake sick? Stay away from people? Hide out in here?”

James looked back and forth between the two of them. “Merlin,” he groaned. “We’re going to kill each other.”

“So where’s Peter, anyway?” James asked approximately twenty minutes later.

“Why, did you want to chase him off again?” Remus asked dourly.

The three of them were sitting in opposite corners of the dorm, as far away from each other as was possible. Sirius, thinking that they’d all be safer if he couldn’t speak, had actually transformed into the great black dog, but as they spoke, he lifted his lips in a low snarl.

“Eugh,” James said, making a face at him. “Your teeth are making me nervous.”

Sirius gave an annoyed little yip and rested his head on his massive paws.

“Anyway,” James continued, looking back over at Remus, “I did not chase him off.”

“He’s not here,” Remus pointed out. “And the whole point of this curse is to split us up. You think he’d be trying to find us, to get in on this.”

But James was shaking his head. “But that’s not really how Peter operates, is it?” he said thoughtfully. “He doesn’t fight like we do, he doesn’t have the fire. He just disappears when he’s mad, and it works, doesn’t it? It makes s sit around and wonder where he is and what we did wrong. Honestly, we could probably break this curse by getting Peter to show up and yell at us.”

Remus gave a harsh bark of laughter and James glanced up at him, his eyes narrowed. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Remus shrugged. “It just always surprises me when you’re perceptive.”

James bit back a retort. “This is awful,” he said after a minute. “I really don’t like wanting to hit you all the time.”

“I know what you mean,” Remus sighed. “Maybe staying all together is a dumb idea, maybe we should try to go to class and stuff…”

“But we’d be bound to run into each other in public, we’d have classes together! And then we’d actually be doing things, at least here all we’re doing is sitting, the worst we can do is bicker…who knows what would happen…and people would see it happening, which is probably just what Annabelle and those Ravenclaws want.”

Sirius growled at Annabelle’s name, and Remus sighed again.

“I wish we knew how to break it,” he said. “I know it’s not going to last too long or anything, but still, I have a life I want to get back to…”

“No you don’t,” James said, rolling his eyes.

“Just because I’m not the Quidditch Captain or Head Boy or Boyfriend-of-the-Year doesn’t mean�”” Remus began hotly, his hands balling into his fists, but Sirius, raising his head, barked loudly at them, and he backed off.

“I’m not Boyfriend-of-the-Year,” James muttered, not looking at either of them. “Especially not now. I don’t even know�””

He got a faraway look in his eyes.

“Whatever,” Remus said, flipping his wand around his hand. “I’ll be right here waiting if you ever decide to finish that sentence.”

“I just got a really stupid idea,” James said, bounding to his feet. “But who knows, it might actually work…I’ll be back!”

“Oi!” Remus called after his retreating back. “I thought we weren’t going to leave the room!”

---

Peter, as it turned out, was not far; he, like Sirius, had taken to his animal form. He was curled just beneath a pipe in the walls that ran alongside their dorm room, listening as they discussed him.

James was right�”Peter always preferred to run from a fight. Curse or no curse, this was how he dealt with things, how he always would.

And then listening to them hurt too much, and he turned tail and skittered through the walls.

---

Lily didn’t know what was happening, but she had never been this unfocused in Potions class before. Remus wasn’t there, she had noticed straight off, with an unexpected surge of anger. Maybe James got to him, too, she thought savagely, dumping entirely too much powdered ginger into her cauldron, which bubbled poisonously. Lily fingered the stone in her pocket�”a strange, carved object she had found beneath her pillow that morning�”and scowled at it.

I don’t know what I was thinking, she thought, and began stirring her potion viciously, some of it sloshing over the edge. Why would I ever have agreed to go out with him? Severus was right all along about him…

At this thought, she looked up over her shoulder at Severus Snape, halfway across the classroom, who, she saw, was watching her cauldron with some trepidation. “What?” she snapped at him, not realizing that the drops of potion that had spilled were currently burning a hole through her table.

When she looked back, James was standing in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” Lily asked rudely.

James shrugged. “I knew you had Potions right now, and, ah…”

“Mr. Potter!” Professor Slughorn had suddenly bustled over. “Good as it is to see you in my classroom again, I must tell you, we’re in the middle of a very temperamental potion at the moment, and it won’t do to have you distracting my students…especially this one, though I rather expect she knows that…”

He looked pointedly at Lily, whose scowl deepened. “Don’t look at me, Professor, I didn’t ask him to come here. In fact, the sooner he leaves, the better.”

Severus, she noticed, was watching this conversation not without amusement, which only infuriated her more.

“I know, I know,” James was saying. “I’m on my way out. I just need to know one thing first�”Lily, was there anything underneath your pillow this morning?”

Caught off guard, Lily pulled the stone out of her pocket. “What, like this?” she asked, and James visibly relaxed.

“Yeah,” he said. “That.”

“What is it?” Lily asked suspiciously.

“I’ll explain it all later,” James said quickly. “But I just needed to�””

And before she had time to figure out what was going on, James had grabbed her by the elbow and planted a kiss on her lips, right in front of Slughorn and the entire Potions class.

After a moment, they broke apart, Lily shoving him away. “…the hell was that?” she asked, glowering at him. There were a few catcalls from behind them, and a loud whoop. Severus was no longer looking amused.

“I’m mad at you,” Lily said, “and you can’t just…actually, hey. How come I’m not mad at you anymore?”

James’s face relaxed into a grin. “I was only half sure that that was going to work,” he said.

“You can’t just kiss me every time I’m mad at you,” Lily said, but she was smiling herself now. “That really, really shouldn’t work, I don’t�””

“Nah, it won’t,” James said, as Slughorn, recovering from his surprise, looked as though he were about to speak again. “This was a special circumstance, I’ll explain it in detail later, but basically we were all just cursed, and I think we just broke our part of it.”

“What?” Lily yelped. “Cursed?”

“Later,” James said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, and then darting backwards out of the classroom.

Utterly bemused, Lily turned back towards her potion, shaking her head. She eyed the grimly bubbling mixture, and then the clock, before waving her wand and Vanishing the entire thing. She had just enough time to try again.

---

“So what I want to know,” Sirius asked petulantly a few days later in the common room, “is, knowing that that worked, why didn’t you run immediately back to Gryffindor Tower so you could snog me and Moony?”

James gave him a pained look.

Sirius fluttered his eyelashes. “You know you want to,” he said. “I’ve been told that I’m highly smoochable.”

Remus snorted. “By who, Moaning Myrtle?”

“Hey,” Sirius said, sounding wounded. “Can’t we all be extra nice to each other for today? Too much teasing lately.”

Remus just looked at him, then stood up and left the table.

“He’s been like that ever since the curse wore off,” Sirius muttered.

“Are you sure it has?” Peter asked, piping up for the first time.

“It should have,” James said. “It’s been a couple of days, and the rest of us aren’t feeling it anymore, are we?”

It had faded, Sirius was sure�”they had explained the curse to both Peter and Lily, when they turned up, although at that point, the antagonism between Lily and James, at least, was gone. But the tension between Remus and Sirius had lingered.

“Did something happen before?” Lily asked. “Before the curse, I mean.”

Sirius shrugged. “I dunno,” he said. “But I guess I better go talk to him.”

And sighing heavily, he followed Remus out of the common room.

Remus, to his surprise, was leaning against the wall just outside of the portrait hole, looking stormy.

“So…” Sirius said hesitantly, “do I want to ask?”

Remus blinked over at him, and then shrugged. “Just thinking about that curse,” he said.

“Yeah, about that,” Sirius said. “That’s over, right?”

“It’s not affecting me anymore, if that’s what you’re asking,” Remus said.

“Sure,” Sirius said. “Okay, then. So what’s going on?”

Remus had pursed his lips together so tightly that all color had drained from them, and when he finally spoke, that same sort of tightness was laced through his voice. “I’ve just been thinking about some of the things we said.”

“Like what?” Sirius asked, genuinely puzzled. “I mean, it was all pretty harmless. We made fun of James for his hair, what’s new about that?”

The look Remus threw him was almost disgusted. “There was more than that, and you know it,” he said. “And we weren’t making it up. Or at least I know I wasn’t making up what I was saying. I don’t know where half of it was coming from, but it was real.”

“Everyone has issues,” Sirius shrugged, starting to feel uncomfortable.

“Yeah, but you and I especially,” Remus said. “Or don’t you remember that first fight we had before James interrupted us?”

“I seem to remember you doing a lot of that yelling yourself,” Sirius pointed out.

“Because you were being obnoxious, which I guess shouldn’t be all that surprising any more…”

“Hey!” Sirius snapped, defensive now. “That’s not fair. All I did was ask you why you never seem to want to date.”

“For about the thirtieth time this week,” Remus said. “And I’m tired of having the same conversation over and over.”

“Come on,” Sirius said. “We just worry about you sometimes, you can’t seriously be mad at me for�””

“I can take care of myself,” Remus said briskly. “I was doing it for a long time before you came along, and I don’t care how well-intentioned you are, there are just some things that you will not ever understand. And I’m sorry if I just don’t care about girls or dating that much. As hard as it may be for the rest of you to comprehend, I have bigger things on my mind.”

Sirius, completely bemused, just started at him for a moment. “Where is this coming from?” he asked finally.

But Remus turned wordlessly away from him, disappearing down a side corridor. Sirius just stood, feeling suddenly very small, watching the empty hall.

Some time later, he wandered listlessly into the dormitory, only to find Lily and James inside, embroiled in a rather tense game of Exploding Snap.

“You’re not supposed to be in here,” he said to Lily, who shrugged.

“I do a lot of things I’m not supposed to do these days,” she said.

“True enough,” Remus said, not really wanting to engage. “What happened to Peter?”

“Went to the library,” James said, looking up from the game. “Said he needed to catch up on homework, but really, I think the tension was a little too much for him.”

“What tension?” muttered Sirius, flopping backwards onto his four-poster and staring at the ceiling.

Frowning slightly at his tone, Lily looked over at him. “Did…did you catch Remus?” she asked hesitantly.

“In a manner of speaking,” Sirius said bitterly, still not looking at them. “And, just for the record, better not mention anything about dating to him, because it seems to make him mad.”

James and Lily exchanged a long, quizzical look. “What�”” James started to say, but as he leaned slightly forward to look at Sirius, the Exploding Snap cards exploded in his face.

He and Lily both fell backwards, coughing and waving away smoke. Several of the drawers in the dorm had rattled free, but Sirius had not moved. A minute later, however, he blinked as something golden fluttered past his face.

Sitting up in surprise, Sirius looked over at James and Lily, who were both upright once more and looking at the Snitch that was circling their heads.

“Is that�”” Lily asked curiously, and James nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s been in my drawer ever since we got back from Christmas holidays. I’d quite forgotten about it, actually.”

“I didn’t realize you’d kept it, much less here,” Lily said quietly.

“Course I did,” James side, his voice even lower.

Sirius felt vaguely as though he was missing something, and strongly as though he was interrupting a private moment. The thought quite reenergized him�”seconds later, he had vaulted off of his four-poster and plopped himself down in between the two of them.

“So,” he said, looking closely back and forth into their two faces, “what’s going on?”

James laughed. “Oh, stow it, Padfoot,” he said as the Snitch whirred between them.

“Where’d you get the Snitch?” Sirius asked tenaciously.

“Found it,” James said smoothly.

“Just lying around,” Lily added, smothering a grin.

“Doesn’t happen to be the same Snitch that went disappearing from the Great Hall months ago, does it?” Sirius asked.

There was pointed silence from both Lily and James, until Sirius gave them such a hangdog look that they both laughed. James broke first.

“Well, yeah,” he said. “It kind of is. When all those balls got released into the Great Hall, we may have�””

“�”sort of caught it at the same time,” Lily continued. “Except, you know, we weren’t speaking at the time, so it was a little awkward�””

“�”but Lily held onto it and then gave it to me for Christmas, anonymously, but since no one else knew about it, it obviously meant that she loves me, so I kept it.”

“It did not mean that,” Lily insisted, going scarlet. “I was just trying to be friends again.”

Amusing as this had the potential to be, Sirius disliked being out of the loop. “And neither of you ever bothered to tell me any of this before?”

“We weren’t really speaking at the time either, Padfoot,” James pointed out. “And besides, it was just kind of�””

“Private,” Lily finished.

“Ugh,” Sirius said, flopping over backwards. “Stop finishing each other’s sentences. I’m supposed to do that.”

James patted him sympathetically on the foot.

---

The next day found Lily in Potions class, frowning as she carefully measured chopped aconite into her cauldron. They were, of course, working on NEWT level potions, and despite her skill, Potions was quickly becoming one of her most difficult classes. So far today, only Severus had managed to make it even halfway through his, although Lily herself was not far behind. She was moving slower than normal out of caution, because, strangely, today, Professor Slughorn had not told them what it was they were brewing, only given step-by-step instructions.

Remus, back in class after his previous, curse-induced absence, was struggling. His potion, which was supposed to be a deep violet, had turned a poisonous-looking acid green, and he was swearing softly to himself. It was so unlike Remus to lose his composure like this that Lily turned instinctively to help him�”her own potion was set to simmer for another twelve minutes.

“Did some of the aconite leaves get in there as well?” she asked, her brow furrowed. “It was only supposed to be the flowers, the leaves are quite poisonous.”

“I must have,” he said morosely. He looked especially haggard, and Lily tried to remember how soon the full moon was. “Not that it matters, I won’t be doing too many potions after Hogwarts.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily asked.

“It’s not easy for me, Lily, like it is for you,” Remus said, an edge in his voice. “Do you know how much I had to study for this OWL, and I barely got an Exceeds Expectations. James studied half as much as I did and he got the same score, he just didn’t want to take Potions again. Sirius didn’t study at all and got an Outstanding. I just took it because�”oh, I don’t know, and shouldn’t you be looking after your own potion?”

Lily looked over her shoulder�”her cauldron was still bubbling quietly. “Not for a few more minutes,” she said. “Let me help you.”

“You can’t,” Remus said miserably. “It’s not worth it.”

Lily felt as though they were no longer talking about Potions class. “Remus is this…” she began cautiously, “is this about whatever happened with you and Sirius?”

He looked up at her sharply just as Professor Slughorn called attention.

“Ho, well, as many of you by now have realized, this is, perhaps, one of the most difficult potions we’ve ever attempted in my class!” Slughorn announced happily. “I thought we’d try it out merely for fun, and I hardly expect any of you to get it right on this first attempt”�”Lily looked encouragingly at Remus�”“although Mr. Snape and Ms. Evans are both heading successfully in the right direction.”

Slughorn stopped to beam at Lily, who smiled weakly back at him, feeling both Remus and Severus’s eyes on her.

“Now,” Slughorn continued, “since most of you have either reached a stage where your potion is to be left alone for a certain amount of time, or you’ve messed up so badly that you would need to restart the whole thing, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you what it is, in fact, that you are brewing. You may have noticed that the main ingredient in this particular potion is aconite, a rather toxic little plant that happens to go by another name. Can anyone tell me what that is?”

Lily’s hand flew into the air, and Slughorn called on her. “Monkshood,” she answered promptly.

“True, very true,” Slughorn said. “But there’s actually a third name, which is the one I’m looking for�”Mr. Snape?”

“Wolfsbane,” Severus answered. His lip curled slightly as he cut his eyes towards Remus, who Lily noticed had suddenly gone very still.

“Correct!” Slughorn said. “This potion is very recent, only just announced last month, but quite useful for those wizards unfortunately bitten by a werewolf. It does not cure lycanthropy, but it does alleviate some of the symptoms; a werewolf will still transform into a wolf at the full moon, but with the potion, he may keep his mind during these transformations, no longer posing a danger to society.”

The bell rang then, and students hurriedly began cleaning up. “Thought it would be handy to keep you all abreast of current Potions news. We’ll try it again towards the end of term, if there’s time!” Slughorn called over the din.

Lily barely managed to catch Remus as he hurried down the corridor. “Wait,” she called, reaching out to grab his arm. When he turned to face her, she saw all the color had drained from his face. “Where are you going?” she asked.

“I�”free period, but I just�””

“Come on,” Lily said firmly, hauling him into an empty classroom and sitting him down. “Now tell me what’s going on.”

“I…I didn’t know,” Remus said faintly. “I didn’t know anyone was even working on a Potion. I had no idea. And I can’t make it.”

“That was only the first time you tried it,” Lily said reasonably, but Remus was already shaking his head.

“No, even if I do eventually get it right, I’m not…I’m not a good enough Potions maker. I wouldn’t be able to make it reliably, consistently month after month. Not on my own. But now that there’s a chance…it almost makes it worse.”

“Makes what worse?” Lily asked quietly.

“This…disease,” Remus said quietly. “The fact that I’m a werewolf.”

It was the first time that she’d ever heard him say the word itself out loud, and she had a sudden urge to grip his hand, his shoulder, something, but he was already speaking again.

“And what Sirius and I were fighting about earlier, it was what Sirius and I always fight about. He’s always trying to get me to date, to ask girls out, to do something with my life, but he doesn’t understand that I can’t. Not everyone is like him, or James or Peter or you. Not everyone could accept my…condition. And I can’t date anyone, I can’t have any kind of relationship, I couldn’t love someone and keep that kind of thing secret. I never even thought I’d be able to have friends, and I’m lucky beyond all I ever imagined that I do. Anything else is too much to ask for. But I can’t explain that to Sirius, he wouldn’t understand.”

His eyes were bright as he spoke, but at the same time, it was as though something heavy were being lifted from him. And now Lily did move; she knelt before him, covering his hand with hers.

“First of all,” she said, “I think there are a lot of people in the world who would accept you, if you gave them a chance, although I understand that it may be hard to find them, and that there are a lot of things working against you.”

Remus shrugged, the ghost of a smile on his face for the first time. “Maybe,” he said. “Although it’s not really the kind of thing you’d bring up in casual conversation.”

Lily laughed quietly, then tightened her fingers around his. “And secondly,” she continued, “the potion? I’ll make it for you.”

His hand was suddenly a vice on hers. “You’d do that?” he asked hoarsely, and she nodded.

“I’ll talk to Slughorn, have him practice making it with me, but I’m sure I could get the hang of it by the end of the year. And after we leave Hogwarts…I’ll make it for you. Every month. I promise.”

Remus seemed to be at a loss for words. Briskly, Lily stood up, turning away, giving him a moment to compose himself. “And now I have a Transfiguration essay that I really should be writing,” she said, as he rose to his feet.

“Oh,” he sighed. “Right. And don’t forget the Charms practical.” Then he put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look up at him. “Lily,” he said, “thank you.”

Impulsively, she leaned in and hugged him, trying to put as much love and support and solidarity into the gesture as she could. He hugged her back, almost carefully, and she realized just how rarely he let himself depend on people like this, how independent he was, but also how lonely.

“Of course,” she said. “Of course.

“I’m just saying, he’s never exactly himself during the full moon! He might eat me.”

“Calm down,” James said tolerantly. “He’s not going to eat you.”

“Yeah, but…” Sirius said helplessly, and a little insistently. “But he might.”

“You make each other mad all the time and he’s never eaten you before,” Peter pointed out, his eyes darting around the deserted corridor. “And could you two keep your voices down?”

It was a full moon, and they were headed, as usual, to the Shrieking Shack. They hadn’t bothered with the cloak�”James had it stuffed in his back pocket in case of emergencies, but they couldn’t all fit under it any more, and it had been a long time since they encountered anyone in the corridors after hours. But Peter was still nervous about being out in the open. And Sirius was nervous about seeing Remus, convinced that, even as a werewolf, he was going to remember their argument. All of it was making James nervous, and he didn’t like that.

“Look,” he said to Sirius. “Lily told us what that was all about, he’s not really mad at you. It’s more of a general…thing.”

“Yeah, well, he may have told Lily that, but he didn’t tell me,” Sirius grumbled. “So I’m still going to go with my he’s-going-to-eat-me theory.”

“Whatever you say,” James said, rolling his eyes as they pushed out the doors and walked onto the grounds. Peter snickered.

Sirius eyed them huffily, then looked up at the moon. So many feet away, the ends of the Whomping Willow were waving ever so slightly in the breeze.

“Hey, it’s actually not freezing out!” James said, stretching his arms over his head.

“It is March,” Peter said. James grinned happily.

Sirius looked at him. “You’re thinking about Quidditch, aren’t you?” he asked.

James laughed. “How’d you know?” he asked.

“Because you’re always thinking about Quidditch,” Sirius said, and this time he was the one who rolled his eyes. “When you’re not thinking about Lily, anyway.”

James didn’t say anything, just smiled contentedly. Then he said, “You want to go get Moony? Wormtail and I will wait here.”

“What?” Sirius yelped. “Why me? Why aren’t we all going?”

James shrugged. “I dunno, I thought it would be better to stick to the forest tonight, instead of Hogsmeade, and I figured that you two canines needed some alone time.” He fluttered his eyelids suggestively, and Sirius socked him on the arm. “Besides,” James said, “my antlers always get caught in roots and stuff down there.”

“Well, why can’t Peter come with me?” Sirius protested?

Peter snorted. “As if,” he said. “I don’t want to get eaten.”

Scowling, Sirius opened his mouth again, but James pushed him towards the Whomping Willow. Peter seemed to disappear from sight; a moment later, James’s eyes trained on the dark shape moving through the grass, coming to rest on the knot at the base of the tree. The branches, which had just begun to sway a little more ominously, stilled suddenly.

Sirius threw James a dirty look as he slipped into the passage beneath the tree. James blew him a kiss before transforming himself into the great stag.

He cantered around the grounds for a few minutes, letting off steam. Spring was in the air, and boy or stag, that always got his spirits up. He threw his antlered head into the air, reared onto his hind legs for good measure, and then began looking for Peter.

A moment later, movement by the base of the tree caught his eye, and he glanced over to see two lithe, dark shapes slip out onto the grounds. From this distance, it was hard to tell the dog and the wolf apart�”they were roughly the same size, shaggy and fierce.

They don’t appear to have eaten each other, James thought, a little dryly, but a little relieved, too. He felt a tickle by his hoof, and peered down to see Peter, in his rat from. Ducking his head, he let the rat clamber up into his antlers, and together, they gazed over at the wolf and the dog, now touching noses.

With a loud bark, Sirius tumbled backwards, crouching down, his front paws out and his tail in the air, wagging enthusiastically. The wolf adopted the same position for a moment, then raced forward, bowling the dog over. They both leapt to their feet, tumbling each other around in the grass, nipping playfully, their tails waving.

If deer could smile, James would have been smiling then.

---

Days later, after Remus had returned to classes, the full moon having run its course, Lily had to admit that both he and Sirius seemed to be in markedly better moods. “What happened during that full moon?” she asked James in an undertone one night, while they were sprawled on their stomachs on the common room floor, pretending to do Charms homework.

“Honestly?” James laughed, sneaking a glance at where Sirius and Remus were sitting in armchairs with Peter. “No idea. I think it was a dog-to-wolf thing. But they seem to have worked it out.”

They were never sure how much Remus remembered of the time he spent as a wolf�”the topic always made him a little moody, so they didn’t like to bring it up. But he had come back to the castle after their night on the grounds and grinned a little at Sirius. The two of them had high-fived each other, Remus had ruffled Sirius’s hair, and that had been that.

“I think that if everyone could turn themselves into a dog and then run around for awhile,” James continued to Lily, “there would be fewer problems in the world. It seems like a good problem solver.”

“Just dogs?” she grinned. “Not, oh say, deer?”

“Well, you know,” James said loftily, “it takes a very certain type of person to handle a stag…you know, the grace, the strength, the elegance�””

“The modesty,” Lily finished, but she was laughing.

James looked at her for a moment, then darted his hand out and began tickling her in the ribs.

“Hey!” she shrieked, laughing harder. “Stop that!”

A few feet away, tucked into their armchairs, Sirius, Remus and Peter watched with mild interest.

“Making quite a spectacle out of themselves, aren’t they?” Sirius said, mock-serious.

“Ah, yes,” said Remus, imitating his tone. “Most undignified.”

“I think it’s cute,” Peter protested, and Sirius whacked him on the back of the head.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s cute,” he said. “It’s bloody adorable. We’re just teasing, Wormtail.”

“Oh,” said Peter. “I always have trouble with that.”

Sirius and Remus both looked at him fondly, and then slouched back in their chairs, watching in contented silence.

“You know,” Sirius said a moment later, watching Lily and James as they settled down, “I could be in love.”

Remus and Peter both looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Excuse me?” Remus said.

“Well I don’t mean like right now,” Sirius said hurriedly. “I just mean, you know. Someday. I think I’d like to be in love. It looks nice.”

Remus gave him a measured glance before saying, “Yeah. Me, too.”

Sirius looked round at him in surprise. “Really?” he asked.

Remus shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, and grinned. “Looks nice.”

“Ten years or so, maybe,” Sirius said, folding his arms back behind his head.

“Whatever will we do in the meantime?” Remus asked, a tad dryly.

“Oh, well that’s obvious,” Sirius said. “We’re going to finish up at Hogwarts. Go out into the real world. James and Lily are going to decide that there’s no point fighting it and get married early and be disgustingly happy for about the next fifty years. And they’re going to have about twelve also disgustingly adorable children, and we’re going to be their favorite uncles and spoil them rotten. And in the meantime, you and I are going to be living in a bachelor pad in London, each of us bringing home a different girl every week.”

“What happened to falling in love?” Remus laughed, but Sirius waved him away.

“I told you, that comes eventually. We have to have some fun before we settle down, unlike our boring married friends over there.”

“Hey!” Peter interjected suddenly. “What about me?”

“Oh, you’ll come visit all the time, obviously,” Sirius said. “But you’ll be living with your mom.”

Peter considered this for a moment. “Probably true,” he conceded.

“All in all,” Remus said, “not a bad future.”

“Not at all,” Sirius said smugly. “I, for one, can hardly wait.”

---

The seventh-years could no longer deny that NEWTS were, in fact, approaching. They were midway through March, with spring rapidly descending, but the fifth- and seventh-years could barely spare enough time from their studies to catch a glimpse of the outside world. Even Sirius had been caught a few times with his nose in a book, to the surprise of many (“You know how to read?” James had asked, wide-eyed, before Sirius threw the book at him).

For his part, James was kept busier than he had been before, and homework was the least of it. Quidditch practice had started up again, and he was pushing his team harder then ever, with practices almost every day. And while this meant a decent amount of time spent with both Leda and Annabelle, it also meant more time spent in the air, which he could never turn down. And despite everything, his team was flying well; as strange and suspicious as Annabelle could be on the ground, James had to admit that she was a good Chaser, and she helped him get the job done. And on top of Quidditch practice, he had Head Boy duties as well�”although more often than not, this translated as an excuse to spend more time with Lily. And somehow, despite all of the work and the time commitments, James had never been happier.

For Lily, it was much the same. They had less than three months left at Hogwarts, and it seemed to her that the days were picking up speed. And she, too, was the happiest she had ever been at Hogwarts�”even the early days, when she and Severus had still been friends and she had finally found a place where she belonged, paled in comparison. She wanted to cry out, hold on, do something to make these days that were flying by last forever, but it was no use. Eventually, she had to surrender.

One evening, she was sitting at dinner with Remus, carefully going over a Potions essay. A few feet down the table, Mary and Peter were similarly bent over their Ancient Runes homework, while Sirius watched them all in dismay, looking bored. James was still at Quidditch practice. And so, with his best friend absent and everyone else buried in their own homework, Sirius was left to his own devices.

Lily had mostly managed to tune him out, but when he leapt to his feet so enthusiastically that he upended her goblet of pumpkin juice, she looked up in annoyance. To her surprise, she saw Sirius jubilantly flicking the neck of a Slytherin fourth-year.

“Hiya, Reg!” Sirius said, leaning back against the table with his arms folded.

“Sirius,” the boy said formally, nodding at him.

Nonplussed, Lily looked between the two of them. She had never met Sirius’s brother before, but she assumed that this must be him�”they looked too much alike to not be related, although the fourth-year was slighter, and lacked Sirius’s exuberance, and, it seemed, some of his confidence.

“How’s Mum?” Sirius asked cheekily, and his brother shot him a dirty look.

“How she always is,” he replied.

Sirius winced. “Sorry to hear that, mate,”” he said. “Anything I can do?”

“You could come home.”

Sirius laughed mirthlessly. “Not a chance, Regulus,” he said. “You know that.”

“Yeah,” Regulus said with a smile that managed to make his face seem a little less dour. “But I’ve been instructed to tell you to renounce your blood-traitor friends and pro-Muggle leanings and come home every time I see you.”

“Charming,” Sirius said, hitting him on the shoulder, and Regulus took a step backwards, crossing his arms as well.

“What do you want, anyway?” Regulus asked clearly not wanting to get into anything, and the two eyed each other somewhat warily.

Lily, who had been paying more attention to the brothers than to her essay, hissed in an undertone to Remus, “I can’t figure out if they’re going to end this conversation by hugging or by punching each other in the face.”

“That’s usually how it goes,” Remus muttered back. “Their relationship is…odd.”

Across the table, Sirius snapped his fingers. “Oh, right,” he said. “I had a question for you. There are these two Ravenclaws your year�””

Regulus snorted. “Please, like I hang out with Ravenclaws.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, get over your Slytherin-worship for a second,” Sirius said, “and just tell me if you’ve heard anything about them. Michael Kingsbury and Nathaniel Rafferty.”

Regulus, Lily noticed, looked suddenly tense. “What do you want to know about Michael?” he asked.

“Ha,” Sirius said. “You do know him.”

“Maybe I’ve heard something,” Regulus said guardedly.

Sirius waited for a second. Then, “Well are you going to tell me?”

“There’s not much to tell,” Regulus said, eyeing him. “They’re not very fond of you, though.”

“I know that,” Sirius said. “Anything else?”

Regulus looked at him, his gaze unreadable, for a long while, before finally saying, “Michael’s girlfriend, that Gryffindor Chaser, she’s in my Transfiguration class, and I heard her saying something about how some curse would have more of an effect on you and your friends. You pissed her off. She’s kind of�””

“Scary?” Sirius finished, grinning. “And I knew Annabelle was dating him.”

“Well, whatever,” Regulus said. “That’s all I know. Anything else?”

“Nah,” Sirius said. “That’s all I needed. Knew I could count on you, you’re such a little sneak.”

“Whatever,” Regulus said again. “Oh, by the way, Uncle Alphard died.”

“What?” Sirius yelped. “Way to bury the lead!”

“Yeah,” Regulus said. “I wasn’t really supposed to tell you that.”

“I actually liked him,” Sirius muttered.

“I know,” Regulus said. “He liked you, too. That’s why I’m not supposed to tell you. I mean, you’ll find out eventually, but I guess Mum didn’t want you to know until absolutely necessary…He left you a decent amount of gold in his will.”

“He what?” Sirius said, raising his eyebrows.

“Yeah, well, don’t get too excited, Mum’s trying to find some way to make sure you never get it.”

“Of course she is, the old bat.”

“Stop,” Regulus said without any real spite, looking heavenwards.

“Right then,” Sirius said abruptly, sitting back down. “See you around then, Reg.”

“Sure,” said Regulus vaguely, and he wandered off towards the Slytherin table.

Looking pensive, Sirius glanced over at Lily and Remus, who were both staring at him. “What?” he asked.

Lily shook her head, turning her quill around in her fingers. “Nothing really,” she said. “I just thought I had a strange relationship with my sibling.”

“It’s not that weird,” Sirius protested. “We grew up together! He’s a little creep who buys into all my parents’ pure-blood ideals, but he is my brother.”

“You’re a little peculiar,” Remus said.

“I am not, I’m�””

“Were you just talking to Regulus?”

James had finally arrived, fresh from the Quidditch pitch and dripping with mud.

“Yup,” Sirius said to him.

“Huh,” James said, sitting down next to Lily. “How is he?”

“As he ever is,” said Sirius.

“You’re getting mud everywhere,” Lily informed James, who grinned at her.

“Aw, come on, Evans,” he said. “Nothing wrong with a little mud.” And he leaned over to kiss her sloppily on the cheek.

“Gross!” she yelped, laughing as she pushed him in the chest. “Get off of me.”

“So there’s a Hogsmeade trip next weekend,” Remus said suddenly. “Last one before the Easter holidays.”

“Is there really?” Sirius said. “Kind of snuck up on us, didn’t it?”

“What isn’t, these days,” Lily mused.

“I don’t know if I really want to go,” James said thoughtfully, and they all looked at him.

“Are you serious?” Sirius asked.

James shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, it lost all the excitement back in like, the fifth year, especially since we go there all the time anyway. I don’t know, I just don’t see the point.”

“The point is that this is our last year!” Sirius said. “This may be the last Hogsmeade visit we get as students. Sure, it may not be all that exciting, but it’s the principle of the thing, you know? Help me out here.”

This last bit was directed at Lily, who shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think I’m with James on this one, actually.”

Sirius narrowed his eyes at them. “Oh, sure,” he said. “I see how it is. You two just want to take advantage of the empty common room so you can snog in front of the fireplace.”

James smirked and winked at Lily, who shrugged at him, smiling as if to say, Not a bad idea.


And so it was that, when the next weekend came, it was just Sirius, Remus, and Peter who found themselves weaving down to Hogsmeade.

“I wonder how much Uncle Alphard left me,” Sirius was saying, a question he liked to bring up ever since he’d spoken to Regulus.

“I wonder if you’ll ever see it,” Remus countered.

“I don’t see why I wouldn’t, though,” Sirius said. “I mean, I’m seventeen, legally there’s nothing my mother can do.”

“Legally,” Remus said. “You do realize we’re talking about your mother, right? She’s not going to be stopped by a silly little thing like the law.”

“What would you spend it on if you did get the money?” Peter asked.

Sirius grinned wickedly. “Depends on how much it is,” he said. “But I’m thinking…a motorbike.”

Remus looked at him disparagingly. “Be serious,” he said.

“I always am,” Sirius said, winking. “Besides, come on. Can’t you see me on a motorcycle? One that flies?”

Remus groaned. “Yes, I can, actually,” he said. “And I can also see you breaking about a hundred Wizarding laws with it and getting thrown into Azkaban.”

“Moony, Moony,” Sirius sighed, clapping him on the shoulder. “Live a little.”

A moment later, he had hopped to the side as a boy and a girl brushed past him. Another boy hurried behind them, knocking into Peter as he tried to keep up, and Sirius narrowed his eyes at the trio, grumbling under his breathe.

“Don’t�”” Remus started to say, but, as usual, Sirius ignored him.

“Hey, Annabelle,” he called out.

The blonde fourth-year turned at the sound of her name. “Oh,” she said, her voice dripping with scorn. “What do you want?”

“Who’s your friend?” Sirius asked, looking at the handsome, golden-haired boy who was hoding Annabelle’s hand.

Behind him, Remus gave a long-suffering sigh. “As if he doesn’t know perfectly well who that is,” he muttered to Peter.

“He’s only been stalking him all year,” Peter agreed.

“Michael Kingsbury,” the Ravenclaw said, holding out his hand.

Sirius eyed it for a moment before, somewhat reluctantly, reaching out his own. They locked gazes, neither smiling; Michael’s eyes were such a dark blue that they were almost black, and so bottomless that Sirius, uncomfortable, wanted to look away.

But Michael broke first, stepping back to put his arm around Annabelle. “So I hear you’ve been giving my girl here a bit of trouble,” he said.

“What?” yelped Sirius. “If anything, it’s the other way arou�””

But his protests, to his surprise, were drowned out by Annabelle.

“It’s not trouble, Michael, God, I can handle myself,” she said angrily, pushing away from him, but he only laughed at her. A few feet away, the third boy, Nathaniel, was hovering, seemingly unsure if he should approach.

“Quite a firecracker you’ve got there,” Sirius said, folding his arms. Even though Michael was only a fourth-year, he and Sirius were of a height, and Sirius was unnerved. He found himself suddenly recalling the previous year, when he and James had been given detention with Michael and Nathaniel. Biting toilets, he remembered, that’s what Michael had been in there for. It wasn’t high on creativity, as far as pranks went, but there was a certain brutality to it that made Sirius even more ill-at-ease.

Annabelle, however, seemed oblivious to the tension. “Come on, Michael,” she said, “let’s go. I told Leda I’d meet her in the Three Broomsticks, and Nathaniel’s going to have a coronary if you make him wait any longer.”

“Nate’s fine,” Michael said, looking dispassionately over his shoulder at his friend.

“Whatever,” said Annabelle. “I’m going.”

And she turned and strode down the path towards Hogsmeade, Nathaniel quick on her heels. Michael lingered long enough to Sirius one last look, and then followed leisurely after them.

Sirius hung back, waiting for Remus and Peter to catch up.

“All right,” he said, his voice lowered, “I think they win the Creepiest Couple of the Year award.”

Peter nodded fervently.

“Are we going to walk this slowly the whole way there?” Remus asked.

“Yes,” Sirius said. “If we walk any faster, we’ll catch up to them, and then we’ll have to repeat that whole scenario.”

Remus thought about pointing out that Sirius had caused the encounter in the first place, and then decided against it. “Good point,” he said.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to walk slow for long; Annabelle and the two boys ducked into the Three Broomsticks at once. “Well, we’re not going in there yet,” Sirius said, and they kept walking.

They wandered around the village, crisscrossing through the familiar streets, delighting in the fact that it was warm enough, these days, to be outside for long periods of time. For a while, Sirius entertained the other two with drawn-out and increasingly far-fetched theories about what James and Lily were up to (“Taking a broomstick ride to Paris! Teaching each other how to paint self-portraits…without magic!”). But eventually, that ran its course, and as they walked slowly past the Shrieking Shack, Peter asked, “So, now what do we do?”

Sirius shrugged. “We could always go to Zonko’s,” he said. “I still want to do a big end-of-the-year, last-hurrah prank, and I could use some inspir�””

He was cut off suddenly by a long, drawn-out scream coming from the Shrieking Shack.

A couple was walking past them at the same moment, and the wizard jumped so violently his hat fell off. “Most haunted place in Britain,” the woman said, smiling, and retrieving it for him.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Remus, blanching, turned to his friends. “What,” he asked, his voice low, “was that?”

“I�”I don’t know,” Sirius said, at a loss for words.

“It sure as hell wasn’t me!” Remus said, on edge.

“Maybe…maybe it’s…” Sirius was fishing, coming up with nothing, and Peter looked anxiously between the two of them. And then there was another shriek, high-pitched and full of terror, cut off sharply at the end.

And then, for the second time that day, Annabelle Fletcher came barreling into Sirius.

“…the hell?” Sirius said. “Where did you come from?”

Annabelle was wide-eyed, and completely falling apart, the first time Sirius had ever seen her anything less than composed. “That’s Leda!” she screamed at Sirius, her hair falling in front of her eyes. “That’s Leda in there!”

“Whoah,” said Sirius, grabbing her elbow. “What are you talking about?”

“I was supposed to meet her in the Three Broomsticks,” Annabelle said, panic-stricken. “And she never showed, and it’s not like her, so I came looking, and�””

There was another scream, and Annabelle wrenched her arm away from Sirius so hard that for a moment he was convinced she’d broken his fingers. “And that’s her! That’s her, I know it, and I don’t know what’s going on but I have to do something!”

Sirius grabbed her arm again. “There’s no way you’re going in there,” he said. “You don’t even know it’s her.”

Annabelle looked at him, and to his shock, he saw her eyes were filled with tears. “It is. I can tell. And I have to,” she said desperately. “What would you do? If it was your friend in there?”

Over her head, Sirius met Remus’s eyes. Then he reached for his wand.

---

James and Lily were, true to Sirius’s initial suspicion, taking advantage of the empty common room when the first wave of Gryffindors entered.

They were sharing an armchair, Lily’s legs across James’s lap, their fingers curled together, both of them talking and laughing quietly even though there was no one else in the room. Suddenly, the portrait burst open and a wave of students flooded in, some talking nervously, others silent, faces furrowed in concentration. Lily slid off the chair onto her feet, James standing right behind her, and they exchanged a quick look.

“What’s going on?” James said in an undertone. “It’s way too early for them to come back from Hogsmeade…”

“Look!” Lily threw out a hand, catching him in the chest. “Peter’s here.”

“Wormtail!” James called, and Peter looked up, and made a beeline for them.

“What’s going on?” Lily asked, eyeing the swarm of Gryffindor students. More were entering as they spoke.

“I don’t really know,” Peter said. “But there’s…something going on in the Shrieking Shack.”

“What?” James asked. “It’s not full moon!”

“Well it’s not Remus either,” Peter said, and he quickly related both Hogsmeade encounters with Annabelle.

“What happened?” James asked, his brow knitting.

“Padfoot sent me and Moony back to the village, to round everyone up,” Peter said. “We got most of them, I think, out of the Three Broomsticks…Moony’s got the Prefect badge, you know, so they believed him.”

“And Sirius?” James asked.

“He�”well, he went in.” Peter said nervously.

“He what?” James bellowed.

“He told Annabelle to stay outside and he went in. Moony went after him when I was coming back, I think he was going to check for stragglers, and I…I don’t know what’s going on.”

James and Lily looked at each other again, both of them feeling the weight of the Head Boy and Girl badges on their chests, and then, wordlessly, they both turned and ran for the portrait hole.

They were moving against the flow; Remus and Peter’s warning had sent students from all Houses back to the school in droves, but by the time they had gotten out onto the grounds, the crowd had thinned.

“What do you think is happening?” James panted as they moved towards the village.

“I don’t know,” Lily said. “This is a mess, it’s chaos, I don’t understand, but I just have a bad feeling about this.”

James stopped in his tracks, looking at her. “I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I’m scared.”

Lily reached for his hand. “I know,” she said, and then she looked up. “Look!” she gasped, pointing down the road to the village, where Remus was walking towards them, supporting an exhausted-looking Annabelle. And just behind them was Sirius, a long gash at his temple dripping blood into his eyes, and the limp body of Leda Wood in his arms.

It was not like the attack on the Hogwarts Express. This time, most students weren’t even aware that there had been any sort of attack, and even those who had been herded out of the Three Broomsticks by Peter and Remus weren’t overly concerned.

It had been three days since Sirius and Leda had stumbled out of the Shrieking Shack, and still Lily and James didn’t know what had happened inside.

“I only got there at the end of it,” Remus had said when, standing outside of the hospital wing, they had asked him. Inside, a still-unconscious Leda Wood was being looked at by Madame Pomfrey, while Annabelle fussed near her bedside and Sirius spoke to the nurse in an undertone. “You’d have better luck with Annabelle�”she followed him in, even though he told her not to. By the time I came in, Leda was already unconscious, Annabelle was worrying over her, and Sirius was white as a ghost and laughing.”

“He�”what?” Lily had asked. “Laughing?”

Remus had shrugged. “Well, yeah, I think it was stress more than anything. It wasn’t really happy laughter, you know…but whoever did it, they were gone.”

“You don’t know who it was?” James had said, eyeing him closely.

“I have my theories,” Remus had said, “but you should probably just ask Sirius himself.”

And now, Tuesday morning, that was just what Lily and James resolved to do. Leda was still in the hospital wing, although Madame Pomfrey said she was recovering. Most people, it seemed, just assumed it was some sort of Quidditch accident. But Sirius had stayed mostly to himself over the past few days. James and Lily had both woken early, and were sitting silently in the common room when Sirius came down.

Sirius halted, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Hi,” he said slowly. “Why does this feel like an intervention?”

“It’s not,” Lily said, as she and James exchanged a look. “It’s just�””

“You want to know what happened,” Sirius said. “I know, I don’t blame you, and I would have told you sooner, it’s just…”

He trailed off, looking around. “Hard?” Lily offered, but he shook his head.

“You never know who’s listening,” he said, and James understood.

“Come on,” he said, standing up and motioning towards the portrait hole.

Ten minutes later, the three of them were walking around the far edge of the lake. It was another gorgeous day�”though early, it was still warm, the sun melting the mist off the still waters of the lake. “I wonder how the giant squid’s doing,” Sirius mused.

“Why,” Lily teased, “are you looking for a date?”

“Oh, no,” Sirius said. “We all know the giant squid’s all yours.”

Both Lily and James scowled at him, and Sirius grinned. A moment later, however, his expression had sobered. “There’s a spy in Hogwarts,” he said, suddenly and without preamble. “I know we’ve thought it before, but it’s a sure thing. There’s just no way they could have known things they knew without inside information.”

“Who?” James asked quietly. “Who were they?”

With a sigh, Sirius sat down, somewhat gingerly, on the edge of the lake, and James and Lily settled in beside him. “There were only two of them,” Sirius began. “After we heard the screaming in the Shrieking Shack, I ran in there. I told Annabelle to wait outside. I just figured, you know, I know that building, I know where the secret passage is, I could sneak in and get out if I needed to. But I got in there, and, well…they were torturing her. The Cruciatus Curse. I’ve never particularly liked Leda, you know, but I couldn’t just let them do that…”

“So of course you gallantly had to jump in there to rescue her,” James said, sounding half exasperated and half proud.

Sirius shrugged. “You would have done the same thing,” he said.

“Why were they doing it though?” Lily asked, frowning. “Who were they?”

“Oh,” said Sirius. “Well. They were Death Eaters.”

“You’re sure?” James said.

Sirius nodded. “They were wearing those masks that they were wearing when they attacked the Hogwarts Express. Plus, I think I recognized one of them.”

“Come again?”

“Yeah,” Sirius made a face. “It’s hard to tell with the masks on and everything, but one of them might have been a cousin of mine, who definitely has Dark Wizard sympathies. And they were asking Leda questions. That’s how I know there has to be a spy here, because the kinds of questions they were asking…they were pretty specific.”

James was about to ask what kinds of questions he meant, but Lily had narrowed her eyes at Sirius, who was now looking away from both of them.

“And they just let you stand there and watch while they asked her these questions?” she asked.

“No,” Sirius said, “she passed out pretty soon after I got there.”

“So then what?” Lily said. “You fought the two of them off singlehandedly?”

Sirius looked uncomfortable. “No,” he said evasively, “but we got away eventually.”

Lily eyed him pointedly for a moment, then said, “Take your shirt off.”

Both James and Sirius looked round at her, not without some alarm.

“Aw, come on,” Sirius said. “I know you’ve always fancied me, Evans, but if you want to see me naked, don’t you think we should wait until your boyfr�””

“Now,” Lily said ferociously, her eyes glinting.

“Okay,” Sirius said meekly, and, grimacing slightly, pulled his shirt over his head.

Lily gasped. James, his eyes widening, said, “Merlin, Sirius…”

“I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you about this part,” Sirius said glumly. “It’s not as bad as it looks, really.”

Beneath his shirt, his ribs were mottled with bruises. Some had turned a sickly yellow color, others so deep that large welts had risen on his skin.

“Oh, Padfoot,” James breathed. “What did they do to you?”

“Did you see Madame Pomfrey about that?” Lily asked, worried.

“No, I’ll heal,” Sirius said, shaking his head. “She had enough on her plate, what with Leda and all. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yes, it is!” James said indignantly. “How did this happen? Did you just get in the way?”

Sirius opened his mouth, then closed it again. He fiddled in the grass by his feet for a moment, throwing a few pebbles into the lake as though to distract himself.

“You had information they wanted,” Lily said perceptively after a moment, and Sirius looked at her, his eyes hollow, before finally speaking.

“It was about you,” he said reluctantly. “I don’t know why they chose Leda first…maybe they thought she was easiest to get to…but they knew she was our year, and a Gryffindor, and that she lives with you. And they were asking her questions about the two of you.”

“What?” James said, horrified. “What kind of questions?”

“Pretty ordinary stuff, really,” Sirius said. “Just about your habits and daily activities, things like that. But Leda…as far as I could tell, she didn’t tell them anything.” He paused, laughing ruefully. “She’s a Gryffindor after all, I guess. Anyway, once they saw I was there, she was nearly unconscious. And they knew who I was, they knew I’m close to you two, and I guess that was just too good of a prize to pass up.” He looked away from both of them again, seeming almost ashamed. “They caught me by surprise. Had my wand out of my hand before I even knew what was happening.”

“How’d you get out of that?” James asked.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. “It was Annabelle, actually,” he said. “She showed up, even though I told her not to. She Disarmed one of them while they were…busy…with me, and I managed by some miracle to get my hands on my wand and Stun him. And by then we could hear Remus coming up the passageway, and we would have had them outnumbered, so the one Death Eater grabbed the other and Disapparated, and that was that.”

“Did you tell all this to Dumbledore?” Lily asked, and Sirius nodded.

“Yesterday,” he said. “Most of it, anyway. I don’t know how much he believed me, about there being a spy at Hogwarts, but there has to be. No way those Death Eaters took Leda by chance. They wanted to know things, badly. And they want the two of you.”

Feeling suddenly cold, Lily wrapped her arms around her knees, leaning forward. “I wonder why,” she said quietly.

“I don’t know,” James said, looking over her, his expression just as uneasy as hers. “But we’ll fight them.”

Sirius grinned, albeit a little weakly. “Yeah we will,” he said.

Lily nodded. “Of course we will,” she said quietly. “I just wish I knew why we have to.”

---

Somewhat later that morning, while sitting at breakfast with his nose in a book, Remus was surprised to find a tawny owl sitting beside his bacon, looking at him quizzically.

“Been here long?” Remus asked it, lowering his book. The owl hooted softly at him, offering its leg.

Remus reached forward to untie the roll of parchment, offering the owl a bit of his toast as he went. It wasn’t that he never got mail…it was just infrequent, especially compared to his friends. James got something every few days or so from home, Peter got almost weekly letters from his mother, and Sirius was always compulsively sending away for various things he saw in the newspaper. Remus’s parents loved him, of course, he knew that, but the fact that he was a werewolf had taken a toll on them, as much as it had on him, and he had learned that it was best to leave them alone when he was at school. For the most part, he was on his own, and though he had long gotten over being bitter about that, it was another thing that his friends could never really understand.

As he unfolded this letter, one glance at the familiar handwriting told him who it was from, and he smiled. He didn’t write to Marlene Mckinnon all the time, but she was probably his most steady correspondent outside of Hogwarts, if only because she was working for Dumbledore, which was the only thing, really, that he could see himself doing once he left school. After all, not many other wizards would be willing to hire a werewolf.

Hi, Remus! the letter began. There was even something cheerful about Marlene’s large, round handwriting.

Hope your last year at Hogwarts is going well! I miss it there, and all of you, of course, so much. Anyway, I’m writing to you�”and Lily, too�”because I know your Easter holidays are coming up, and I thought I’d invite a few of you to come stay at my house. It would be lovely to see you all, although there’s a few other reasons you might want to come here…you’ll find out soon enough!

Sorry to be so cryptic, Dumbledore told me not to say too much in a letter. But I expect he’ll be in touch with you soon. I just wanted to write to let you know that I hope I’ll be seeing you over the holidays!

Lots of love,

Marlene.

Still smiling softly, Remus folded up the letter. A minute later, Lily appeared at his elbow, several pieces of parchment clutched in her hand.

“Did you hear from Marlene?” she asked excitedly.

“Yep,” Remus said succinctly.

“Me, too,” Lily said. “But I also just got this from Dumbledore.” She handed him the other letter.

He skimmed it quickly�”it was a brief note, asking the two of them, James, Sirius, and Peter to come to Dumbledore’s office that evening. “Do you think this is what Marlene was talking about?” Remus asked.

Lily nodded. “I reckon it has something to do with what Marlene was telling us last year,” she said, lowering her voice. “You know, the Order of the Phoenix?”

“You’re probably right,” Remus said. “Did you tell James?”

Lily nodded. “And Sirius. They were with me earlier when I got it.”

“Yeah, he and James did get up early,” Remus said hesitantly. “So, I take it this means you talked to him then?”

Lily nodded. “You knew? About what happened to him?”

Remus shrugged. “I guessed,” he said. “He didn’t tell me in so many words, but he was in pretty bad shape when I showed up.”

Lily shook her head. “It was because of me,” she said sadly. “Me and James. He shouldn’t have had to do that, to go through that. They weren’t asking important questions, really, from what I gathered, he should have just told them what they wanted to know…”

Remus, to her surprise, laughed. “Of course he wouldn’t do that,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s not who Sirius is. He’s stubborn, he’s loyal almost to a fault…and he’s too tough to give in to something like that. Honestly, sometimes I think he’s got more wolf in him than I do. He’s a pack animal, Sirius, he takes friendship very seriously. You wouldn’t know it just to look at him, because it seems like he never takes anything seriously, but he does. If you’re his friend…if he’s decided that you’re one of his pack…he’ll fight for that till the end. He’ll defend it no matter what they throw at him. You and James are lucky, to have someone like that in your life. We all are.”

“I know,” Lily said quietly, and Remus turned to smile at her.

“I understand what you mean, though,” he said. “It’s hard, in a situation like this, to watch somebody fight for you, when you can’t do the same.” He paused, his brow furrowed in worry. “I just hope everything turns out okay.”

---

The topic of their discussion was, at the moment, lounging in an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, thinking about the Easter holidays. Sirius was too tall, nowadays, to fit comfortable in even the squashiest of armchairs, and so he sat slumped low, his long legs splayed out in front. He and James had been with Lily when she had received Dumbledore’s letter, and Sirius was by far more concerned about the meeting with the headmaster later than he was about any of his classes for the day.

He checked his watch somewhat impatiently; he had a free period now, but Transfiguration was coming up, and he was waiting for James, who had run up to the dormitory to grab his books. Sirius had been reluctant, initially, to talk about what had happened in the Shrieking Shack, but now that the secret was out, he found he was itching to discuss it with James in further detail.

A few seconds later, he heard soft footsteps on the other side of his chair. “Took you long enough,” he said, turning around, only to find himself face-to-face with Annabelle Fletcher. “Oh.”

“Hi,” Annabelle said, almost shyly, not looking him in the eye.

“Sorry, thought you were James,” Sirius said gruffly. “What’s up? How’s Leda?”

“She’s fine,” Annabelle said. “Doing a lot better, actually. She woke up, actually, I just came from talking to her. She’s a little shell-shocked. I told her what happened…she says to thank you.”

Sirius shrugged, a little uncomfortable. “Speaking of thanks…” he began, a little awkwardly. “I never�””

“You don’t have to,” Annabelle interrupted him. “Seriously, I just did what anyone else would do.”

“Maybe,” Sirius cracked a smile. “You were pretty ferocious, though. I mean, I was a little scared, and I was just a bystander.”

“Yeah?” Annabelle said, and Sirius thought it was the first time he had seen her smile. She looked completely different when she smiled, the hard lines of her face softening. Her eyes seemed friendlier, somehow, more like silver than slate.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, hesitating. “It was brave.”

“Thanks,” said Annabelle. She paused too, looking down at her feet.

“You know,” Sirius said, breaking the tension, “for a fourth-year.”

“Oh, thanks,” Annabelle said again, sarcastically this time. “Anyway, I actually came to talk to you for a reason.” And she looked uncomfortable again, and so somber that Sirius sobered instantly.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s, well…” she said haltingly. “Leda was supposed to meet me in the Three Broomsticks, you know? She didn’t just end up at the Shrieking Shack by accident.”

“Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that,” Sirius said.

“Someone told her to go there,” Annabelle said. “And I think whoever told her to go there might be, you know…in league with the Death Eaters. Spying on us.”

“I knew it,” Sirius said, clenching his hands. “Do you have any idea who it might be?”

Annabelle bit her lip, turning away from him. She tugged nervously on the ends of her hair, before saying, “I…I think…”

“My Transfiguration book was shoved under your bed, Padfoot, no wonder I couldn’t�”oh, hey,” James had bounded into the room, waving a book in the air. He skidded to halt, looking between the two of them. “I’m not interrupting, am I?”

“No,” Annabelle said hastily, getting to her feet, “no, it’s nothing, never mind, I have to go.”

“Wait�”” Sirius called, jumping to his feet, but she was already out the portrait hole.

Sirius sank back into his chair, running a hand through his hair. “She moves quick.”

“What was that?” James asked curiously.

“I’m not sure,” Sirius frowned. “She wanted to tell me something about what happened, but she seemed kind of skittish about it.” He sighed. “I guess I’ll track her down later.”

“Sounds good,” James said, and checked his watch. “Hey, we should probably start heading towards Transfiguration…sorry I took so long finding that book.”

“Books,” Sirius sighed, shaking his head. “When will we be rid of them?”

James chuckled as they walked out of the common room together. “Oh, hey,” he said suddenly, “so about this letter from Dumbledore…”

Sirius grinned, feeling normal again.

---

Several hours later found them heading towards Dumbledore’s office as evening fell. They’d met up with Peter, Remus and Lily along the way, and Sirius was filling them in on his earlier conversation with Annabelle.

“Interesting,” Lily said thoughtfully, looking at him intensely.

“Right?” Sirius said. “She totally knows something. The longer I’ve had to think about it, the more curious I’ve gotten.”

“Oh, that’s not what I meant,” Lily said. “I meant, interesting that you and Annabelle managed to have a conversation without being at each other’s throats.”

“You do seem like you’re getting pretty friendly lately,” Remus grinned.

James looked at them, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You don’t think�””

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Oh please. She just practically saved my life. After,” he added hastily, “I practically saved Leda’s life. That’s all.”

There was a pause while they all considered this.

“I have no idea what any of you are talking about,” Peter added, and Sirius ruffled his hair.

“And that makes you currently my favorite person in this hallway,” he said. “This weekend aside, I can’t stand Annabelle, and you all know that.”

“Okay,” said Lily. “Okay. So, you mean, you don’t like her at all.”

“Nope,” said Sirius. “Not at all.”

“You think she’s really obnoxious and stuck-up.”

“Yep.”

“She infuriates you.”

“Yep.”

“You find yourself thinking all the time about how much you don’t like her and how much she annoys you, and at weird times, like when you’re bored in class, and right before you go to bed.”

“Actually�”yeah, how’d you�””

“And,” Lily finished, “you’d rather go on a date with, oh, say, the giant squid before her?”

“Well I wouldn’t put it like that but�”hey,” Sirius said, narrowing his eyes.

“You’re right,” Lily said innocently, threading her fingers through James’s as they walked. “It would never work.”

Even Peter had caught on by this point, and he and Remus sniggered as Sirius pointed a finger at Lily. James tried to keep a straight face, for his best friend’s sake.

“You know, just because you didn’t like James all that much before you two started dating doesn’t mean that every time two people don’t like each other they’ll�””

“Fudge Flies,” Lily said sweetly, and Sirius was momentarily confused.

“It’s the password,” James said, indicating the staircase to the headmaster’s office, which had just slid into view.

“Oh,” Sirius muttered, following them up the stairs. “Right.”

Dumbledore was not in his office when they arrived. However, standing in front of it was, to Lily’s surprise, a politely confused looking Alice Rourke.

“Lily!” she said as they entered the room. “Hi, oh, do you know what’s going on? I got a letter from Dumbledore this morning, asking me to meet him here…”

“Us too,” Lily said. “I’m not sure why, although I got a letter from Marlene Mckinnon earlier�””

“Oh,” Alice said, blushing prettily. “I got one from Frank Longbottom, about the Easter holidays, I was wondering if they were related…”

“That’s what we were thinking,” Lily said, but stopped a moment later, as Dumbledore entered the office.

“Ah,” he said, looking around at all of them, that telltale twinkle in his eye. “Right on time!”

“Good evening, Sir.”

“…Professor.”

Still slightly bewildered, they all murmured a greeting. Dumbledore looked fondly around at them all.

“I assume,” he said, “you’re all wondering why you’re here.”

“The question came up,” James said, somewhat cheekily, and Dumbledore beamed at him.

“Between the six of you,” Dumbedore said, “I understand you’ve been in contact with Marlene Mckinnon and Frank Longbottom�”a previous Head Boy and Girl, in fact. And so I assume you have all heard something about the Order of the Phoenix?”

He waited until they had all nodded in assent, and then continued. “Ms. Mckinnon and Mr. Longbottom have indicated that, upon your completion of Hogwarts, the six of you may be, in fact, interested in partaking in the work that we do, as members of the Order.”

“Yes, sir,” James and Sirius said together, and then grinned at each other. Alice, Lily, and Remus had all nodded enthusiastically, Peter somewhat hesitantly. Dumbledore smiled around at them all once more.

“Excellent,” he said. “Then I believe it is high time you all visited the headquarters, just to get a sense of what we do. Now the entire Mckinnon family is part of the order, not just Marlene, and, in fact, our headquarters are currently at their house. You will need,” he continued, growing suddenly serious, “to hear the address from me.”

“We can’t just get it from Marlene?” Lily asked curiously.

Dumbledore shook his head. “I don’t have to tell you that this is a dangerous undertaking,” he said. “We are on the edge of a war right now, however subtle and silent the efforts. Much of what we do we do in secrecy, and great delicacy is required when dealing with Dark magic and those who wield it. And, to that end, the Mckinnon’s house, as headquarters, has been given every protection. You can get the address from me, and only me, and I imagine that you will understand why we proceed with caution.”

They all nodded again, and Dumbeldore’s seriousness broke. “Well then,” he said, standing up. “If you all would come to my office again at the start of your Easter vacation, we’ll get you on your way from here! Now off to bed. It’s getting late, and we wouldn’t want a certain caretaker to give you all detention.” And, his eyes twinkling, Dumbledore ushered them all from his office.

Sirius hesitated for a moment, as though wanting to say something to the headmaster, but then changed his mind and darted after his friends.

“What was that about?” James asked him in an undertone, hanging back at the end of the group and waiting for him to catch up.

“I dunno, really,” Sirius muttered back. “I kind of want to tell him about what Annabelle said…I mean, after Leda got attacked, I told him everything I was thinking, about there being a spy in Hogwarts and all, and I wanted to add that, too.”

“Why didn’t you?” asked James.

“Because it’s no real new information,” Sirius said. “I don’t want to bother him until I know something for sure.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t be bothering him,” James said.

“I know,” said Sirius. “But there’s no point, really. I want to talk to Annabelle first.”

James nodded. “Sure,” he said. “Besides, you’ll probably have plenty of time to talk to him over the Easter holidays, if you want to.”

Sirius grinned. “You’re right,” he said. “Your mum’s going to be mad, though…we won’t be at your house for Easter! That’s a whole week she misses out on fattening us up!”

James groaned. “Oh, you’re right,” he said. “How am I going to break it to her?”

“Count me out of that conversation,” Sirius joked. “I don’t want her to stop thinking I’m perfect.”

James swatted him. Sirius laughed, dancing away, and together, they ran to catch up with their friends.

Late on the last Friday of classes before break, James was heading up alone to the Gryffindor common room, idly wondering if there was anything he had forgotten to He had been out on the grounds, flying; now that it was starting to get warm again, it was all he could do to keep his feet on the ground. But now the corridors were deserted, with most students either packing or relaxing in their common rooms. Certainly no one was thinking about homework. And so he was completely off-guard when the jinx caught him around the ankles, sending him crashing forward.

His temple smacked hard against the ground. Swearing and disoriented, he shook his head to clear it before glancing around. “�”the hell?” he said, getting somewhat shakily to his feet, and then his eyes narrowed as Severus Snape sidled out of an empty classroom.

“Trip Jinx,” Snape said casually, twirling his wand through his fingers. “I learned that one from you. You used it on me quite a lot in the third year.”

There was something different about him, although James couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He was standing straighter, and perhaps his eyes were colder, if that was possible. But there was a cool, measured confidence about him, that James didn’t recall ever seeing there before. It’s like he has power on his side.

His silence seemed to throw Snape, who, after a moment, taunted, “What’s the matter, Potter, don’t know what to do without your friends behind you?”

James almost laughed. “Hardly,” he said, with as much scorn as he could muster. “Just trying to figure out what this is all about.

This, too, surprised Snape. “You really don’t know?” he scoffed.

“No,” James said. His tone was light and pleasant, but the two boys had begun to slowly circle each other, wands at the ready. “I mean, we’ve hardly touched you at all this year, I had just assumed this was a thing of the past.”

Snape’s eyes were bright with loathing as he sneered, “Well, I don’t really need a reason, do I? It’s more of the fact that you exist, if you know what I mean.”

James winced to hear his own words parroted back at him. That day in the fifth year�”it felt so long ago now�”was not one of his proudest memories, and he did what he could to forget about it, as he often forgot, nowadays, that Snape and Lily had once been friends. But quite suddenly, James realized what that day had meant for Snape�”it wasn’t the humiliation that made it such a fresh wound, it was the fact that on that day, he had lost his best friend. Lily. And for the first time in his life, James felt a flash of sympathy for the scrawny, stubborn Slytherin that stood before him.

“Is this still about�”” he began to ask, but before he could say her name, Snape’s face twisted and he launched another curse at James.

This time, however, James was ready for him; throwing himself to the side, he whipped his own wand through the air. His spell sent Snape flying backwards into a nearby portrait of a group of nuns, who, hoisting up their skirts, ran for it, giving both boys dirty looks as they went.

Wand out, James advanced on Snape, who had slumped to the ground. It would be so easy to finish him off now�”to Stun him, or Body Bind him, to tie him up and leave him for someone else to find. But the memory from his fifth year was fresh in his mind, and he couldn’t stop remembering the look on Lily’s face when he had tormented Snape…the way she had looked at him every time the two of them had had an altercation…

Snape had his wand in hand now, and was staggering to his feet. James looked at him, bouncing on the balls of his feet, his own wand in his fingers…and then, for the first time in his life, he turned and ran.

He rounded the corner and burst into a secret passage hidden behind a tapestry there, breathing hard, and waiting for Snape to pass by. Coward, he berated himself, replaying the last five minutes in his head. What was that?

“So…whatcha doing?”

James jumped violently at the sound of the voice, his heart racing. Turning, one hand on his chest, he saw Sirius standing beside him, smiling innocently.

“Merlin, Padfoot,” James wheezed. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, you nearly killed me…and how on earth did you know I was here?”

In answer, Sirius wiggled a piece of parchment at him. After a moment, James recognized the Marauder’s Map. “I was bored,” Sirius said. “So I was coming to find you. See, look!” Beaming, he pointed at their dots on the map. “I found you.”

“I noticed that,” James said dryly.

“I was wondering about this, though,” Sirius said, pointing his wand at another dot, barely ten feet away. Severus Snape, according to the map, was moving towards them.

“Shut up a second,” James hissed, and he held his breath, watching the dot until he heard footsteps in the corridor outside their hiding place. A few moments later, Snape had passed them, his footsteps growing fainter.

“Just having a chat?” said Sirius emotionlessly.

James squirmed. “He sort of…jumped me in the corridor as I was coming back.”

“Really,” said Sirius. “Well. That’s unexpected. We haven’t done anything to Snivelly at all this term, oddly.”

“That’s what I said,” James said. “It’s weird though. He’s a lot more sure of himself lately.”

“Huh,” shrugged Sirius. “So, what, you took him out in two minutes instead of one?”

“Actually,” James said, not looking at him. “I sort of…ran.”

Sirius choked. “You what?”

“Well, not right away,” James said. “But I just…couldn’t do it. Not without feeling like I was betraying Lily somehow.”

Sirius’s eyebrows shot up so high that to James, it looked like they had disappeared into his hairline. “Wow,” he said. “That’s so…Head Boy of you.”

James groaned. “It is not,” he said.

Sirius grinned. “Is so,” he said. “It’s also mature.”

James looked at him. A brief scuffle later, he had him in a headlock and was saying, “Take that back!”

“Never!” cried Sirius, elbowing him in the solar plexus and wriggling free. Then, sobering, he said, “I don’t know if I could have done it.”

“What,” James asked bitterly, “run from a fight?”

“That’s not what you did,” Sirius said, sounding surprised.

“What?” James asked, looking over at him.

Sirius shrugged, and they both began to head towards Gryffindor Tower. “It’s not, really,” Sirius said. “It’s more like….you realized it wasn’t a fight worth having, and removed yourself from the situation.”

James muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?” asked Sirius.

James sighed. “Well it does sound mature when you put it like that,” he grumbled.

Sirius smirked. “So are you going to tell Lily?”

“Oh, hell no,” James said immediately. “I may have done ‘The Right Thing’ here, but that doesn’t mean she’d want to hear anything about any kind of fight I have with Snivellus, my fault or not.”

Sirius made a face. “Yeah,” he said. “Good plan. Besides, it’s the holidays, so maybe just put that behind you.”

James nodded fervently as they rounded a corner. Sirius sidestepped to avoid a suit of armor, and as he did so, James notice him wince ever so slightly, and put a hand on his ribs.

“How are you doing?” James asked cautiously.

“What?” Sirius looked up at him, then noticed the direction of his gaze. “I�”oh, fine,” he said. “It’s not really a big deal, it just twinges a little sometimes. I’m nearly all better.”

James shook his head though. “It’s not okay though,” he growled. “I hate that that happened, I hate that you went through it, and just for me.”

“Of course I did,” Sirius said fiercely, stopping in his tracks, and the intensity of his voice made James turn, startled, to face him. “Of course I did, any of us would have.”

“And I’d do the same thing for you in a heartbeat,” James argued, and the look in his eyes made him look ten years older. “But that doesn’t mean that I can’t hate it, that I can’t wish I could do something!”

“You are doing something,” Sirius said, almost laughing. “You’re here, you’re walking around, and for whatever reason they wanted it, they don’t have any more information on you than they did before. So we’re winning. And you need to stop beating yourself up over something that you had no control over.”

“Yeah, well,” James muttered, “if I ever meet them, they’re going down.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and clapped him on the shoulder. “I know, I know,” he said. “Now change the subject.”

“Okay,” said James mischievously. “Seen Annabelle recently?”

Sirius sighed, heavily and pointedly. “I wish you’d all drop that,” he said. “First of all, she’s already dating Michael Kingsbury, or have you forgotten? So no chance there.”

“That doesn’t mean�”” James started to say, but Sirius interrupted him.

“Second of all,” he said, “she’s like, fifteen. Barely.”

James shrugged. “That’s only like three years difference,” he said. “In a couple of years it won’t be a big deal at all.”

“Maybe not, but right now, it would make me feel kind of pervy,” Sirius said. “And anyway, thirdly, she’s obnoxious. She may have proved that she is, in fact, a Gryffindor, but that doesn’t make her any less insufferable. And would you really want her around all the time?”

“You know,” James said thoughtfully, “that’s a good point.”

“Thank you,” Sirius said. “So are you going to stop with that nonsense?”

“Yeah, yeah,” James laughed. “Although I can’t promise that Moony will.”

They had reached Gryffindor Tower. Sirius, frowning, gave the password, and they clambered in.

“He does seem to be extremely interested in that completely fictional relationship,” Sirius said.

“Maybe he’s covering something up,” James said dryly, and Sirius shrugged.

“Could happen.”

“No way,” James said.

“Could too!” Sirius insisted.

“Does he even talk to girls?” James said. “No.”

“Maybe,” Sirius said, “he’s just very sneaky about it.”

James shook his head. “I don’t buy it.”

“Want to bet on in?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

James pondered this a moment. “You’re on.”

---

Early the next morning, the five Gryffindors, plus Alice Rourke, arrived at Dumbledore’s office to Floo to the Mckinnon’s house. Marlene was the first one to greet them at the fireplace.

“It’s so good to see you!” she cried, grabbing Lily in a hung that rather made the younger girl feel as though she had broken several ribs.

“You, too,” she coughed, stepping back and smiling as Marlene descended upon the rest of them just as enthusiastically. Peter looked slightly startled, James was laughing, Alice was shy, and Sirius somewhat preoccupied. Remus, for his part, accidentally dropped his bag on his foot.

The Mckinnon’s house wasn’t large, but it was warm; the walls of the room they had just clambered into out of the fireplace were a warm yellow, and Lily could hear laughing voices from a farther room. Everything about the atmosphere of the house was inviting.

“You have to come in and meet everyone,” Marlene was saying happily. “Well, you already know Frank, of course, and some of the professors�””

“Oh,” Alice said nonchalantly, “Frank’s here?” Lily smothered a grin.

“Wait,” Sirius said, a little louder, “there are professors here?”

“Of course,” Marlene said. “They’re some of Dumbledore’s best resources, and they help keep tabs on students who might join up later…like all of you!”

“As long as McGonagall isn’t one of them,” Sirius muttered. “I know I didn’t do very well on that last Transfiguration essay.”

Marlene led them into the kitchen, chatting amiably with Alice. Lily had just caught a glimpse of a group of people seated around a long table when Marlene, with a little yelp, slipped and fell backwards. Remus, who had been standing behind her, caught her, but then, looking so surprised at his own abilities, promptly dropped her again. Blushing, he helped her to her feet.

Sirius, who looked as though he was trying not to laugh, quirked an eyebrow at Remus. “You’re not usually that clumsy, Moony,” he said in an undertone, and Remus scowled at him.

Marlene, for her part, was sticking her tongue out good-naturedly at a pair of boys only a few years older than she, with reddish-brown hair. They looked startlingly alike, and Lily guessed that they were at least brothers, if not twins.

“Gideon and Fabian Prewett,” Marlene introduced them, sidestepping a patch on the floor that Lily now saw was slick with butter. “Resident troublemakers. You’ll want to watch out for them.”

“Aw, come on, Marl,” one of the brothers said, “we’re just practicing some Muggle tricks.”

“Yeah,” said the other. “Who needs magic when you can just butter the floor?”

Lily caught Sirius and James exchanging a glance, looking part impressed and part competitive.

“See?” James said, elbowing her in the ribs. “Who says you have to grow up?”

Marlene, meanwhile, was introducing the other people around the table. “It’s not everyone,” she explained. “People come when they can, unless we need to have a meeting, which, of course, you can’t attend yet, I’m sorry�”only for full members. We do have to be safe. But these are my parents, and my older brother, Will.” Marlene’s parents waved, and her brother, an attractive blonde boy a few years older than Marlene, dropped a wink at a startled Lily. James cleared his throat loudly, and Marlene continued with the introductions. “In the back there is Dorcas Meadowes” �“a small, brown-haired witch who looked to be in her early twenties smiled at them�”“and you probably recognize Emmeline.”

Lily nodded; kind-faced Emmeline Vance had been Marlene’s year at Hogwarts. “And of course,” Marlene was finishing now, “you know Frank and Professor McGonagall.”

Frank Longbottom smiled at them, and Professor McGonagall looked over the edge of the Daily Prophet she was reading. Her eyes trained on Sirius a bit sternly, and Sirius gulped audibly. Then she turned to Marlene. “Albus and Elphias should be along for dinner,” she told Marlene.

Sirius edged sideways into a nearby chair, moving to shove aside a pile of rags as he did. A moment later, however, he had leapt backwards with a yelp as the pile shoved him back.

“Oops,” Marlene said as the Prewett brothers roared with laughter. “Sorry, Sirius, I forgot�”that’s Mundungus Fletcher.”

Sirius, recovering from his shock, peered curiously at the small ginger man now blinking blearily around the room. Noticing Sirius, Mundungus grumbled at him, then slumped forward again onto the table, seemingly asleep. Across the room, Gideon Prewett mimed drinking something, while Fabian crossed his eyes.

“Right,” said Marlene. “Why don’t we get you all settled in?”

“Fletcher, huh?” James murmured to Sirius as they followed Marlene up the stairs. “Think he’s related to Annabelle?”

“I doubt it, Annabelle’s Muggle born,” Sirius said. He hesitated a brief moment, then turned to look at James. “I saw her again this morning, actually,” he said. “She was even more freaked out than she was the last time.”

“Did she tell you anything?” James asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

“Not really,” Sirius shrugged. “She said she didn’t want to say anything in Hogwarts because anyone could be listening. It was very dramatic. She wanted to know if we would be taking the train back after break, but I told her no, we’d be Apparating, and then she just dropped it.”

“There’s something fishy about all of this, Padfoot,” James said thoughtfully. “I mean, has it occurred to you that maybe she’s…acting or something?”

“I guess,” Sirius said, “but why would she be?”

“I dunno,” said James. “Maybe it’s setup for some elaborate prank, or something. Maybe she and those Ravenclaws are trying to get us off our guard.”

Sirius looked away, his eyes dark. “It seems like an awful lot of effort to go to for a joke,” he said heavily.

---

All that evening and clear through the next day Sirius wrestled with whether or not he needed to talk to Dumbledore about his conversations with Annabelle. There was no new information�”he’d already told Dumbledore everything she’d said at their first encounter, and their last had been brief and uninformative. And besides, James theory�”that it was all an elaborate prank�”was more than plausible. Still, though, something about the whole situation niggled at him, and he couldn’t get it out of his head.

Sirius, however, was not built for melancholy, and as the weekend progressed, he found himself drawn into the sometimes loud, sometimes rambunctious, always warm circle of the Order. Various other members flitted in and out, though that core that they had been introduced to the first night remained relatively constant. Occasionally, some member�”often Dumbledore�”would come in looking serious, and the Order would retreat to another room to discuss, leaving the Marauders, Lily and Alice to fend for themselves. Often, they spent this time debating what was going on behind closed doors, and planning for the times when they themselves would be full members.

They were all looking forward to it now, even Peter, although his anticipation sometimes disintegrated back into fear. James, of course, talked of gallantry, waving his wand grandly in a mock duel, as if he eleven years old again, brandishing imaginary swords on the Hogwarts Express. Remus spoke almost dreamily of belonging, as if he had expected to disappear into the underbelly of the world after graduation, and now had hope. And Lily earnestly insisted that they would be doing something right, something good for the world. Something that mattered.

All Sirius really wanted was adventure�”that, and to make his mother mad. The way he was heading, he thought as he sat at dinner with his friends and the Order, made both of those goals seemed likely. Still, though, something�”and perhaps it was Annabelle�”made him wonder, uncharacteristically, if they knew what they were getting themselves into. But that was unlike him, and thinking too hard and too long about the future made him uncomfortable, so eventually he let himself Peter drag him over to bother the Prewett brothers, who were teaching them Muggle magic tricks in exchange for information on the secret passages of Hogwarts (“just in case”).

A few feet further down the table, Lily and James were engaged in a much lighter topic of discussion.

“So,” James murmered, leaning towards Lily, “what’s going on over there?” And he nodded towards Frank Longbottom and Alice Rourke, who were sitting next to each other. Frank was gesturing emphatically with his hands, and Alice was giggling.

“Oh,” said Lily dismissively, “they’re in love.”

James grinned. “Really?” he asked. “Because I was kind of wondering…”

Lily laughed. “I don’t actually think anything’s going on,” she said. “But come on. Just look at them. They’re going to be in love eventually.”

Alice was blushing now, as Frank said something. He was not particularly handsome, Frank, but his face was kind, his eyes deep and intelligent, and when he looked at Alice, his smile made his normally plain features suddenly attractive.

James eyed Lily. “Want to put a bet on it?” he asked.

“No!” Lily wrinkled her nose at him playfully. “That never works out.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” James teased. “I can think of at least one occasion where it turned out all right.”

“Yeah,” Lily said, rolling her eyes, “by chance. After long months of heartbreak and confusion on both sides.”

“Drama queen.”

“Prat.”

“Goody-two-shoes.”

“Toerag!”

They looked at each other for a moment, and then both shouted simultaneously, “A galleon on the end of the summer!”

Gideon Prewett looked over as they dissolved into laughter, clutching each other. “Those two are trouble,” he said.

“You have no idea,” Sirius said dryly.

Lily pulled herself together first, sitting up straight and glancing around the table. “Speaking of potential future couples,” she asked, lowering her voice again, “what about those two?”

James followed her gaze to where Remus was sitting beside Marlene Mckinnon, looking nervous. “Moony and Marlene?” he asked doubtfully. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Lily protested. “They write all the time, and he gets so suddenly nervous when he’s around her…I’ve never seen him this awkward and clumsy before.”

“Well, yeah,” James said, “but that’s just because she’s attractive. And Moony spends more time with old books than he does with pretty girls�”present company excluded, of course.”

“Oh, thanks,” Lily said sarcastically, sticking out her tongue.

“Yeah, well, you’re off-limits so you’re safe,” James grinned. “But he’s too scared of girls to date one, especially one like Marlene.”

“I guess,” Lily said, looking disappointed.

“Besides,” James continued quietly. “You know him. You know he’d get too concerned about his, eh, furry little problem. He’d spend the whole time debating whether or not he should tell her, being worried about how she’d react, being worried about that even if she did accept him, he’d be putting her in danger, forcing her into a certain way of life. All that.”

“But he can’t possibly be worried about that before anything’s even happen!” Lily protested. “That’s too much for one person.”

“That’s what Moony does,” James said with a shrug. “He worries.”

“Doesn’t sound like much fun,” Lily grumbled.

“Yeah, I know,” James said. “We’re working on him. Trying to. As you know, he’s a little touchy about the subject.”

Lily sighed heavily, and in the silence that fell between them, they heard the tinny opening notes to a song come floating out of the little radio standing in the kitchen. Lily, recognizing it after a minute, groaned and buried her head in her arms. “I hate this song,” she said, her voice muffled.

James looked at her, amused, cocking his heads to better hear the music. “Is this Celestina Warbeck?” he asked doubtfully.

“‘Enchanted To Be Near You,’” Lily confirmed, managing to say the name of the song with both scorn and dejection.

“And do you listen to a lot of Celestina Warbeck?” James asked, fighting to keep from sniggering.

“I live with Mary,” Lily said, not without some disgust. “She loves this song.”

James laughed out loud, throwing back his head and slapping his open palm on the table.

“Oh, I’m sure it’s funny to you,” Lily muttered, but then looked up in surprise as James got to his feet, adjusted the collar of his shirt, and, slowly, held his hand out to her.

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he said. His voice was light and playful, but his eyes were uncommonly serious, and it was perhaps because of this that, despite the table of Order members watching behind them, she found herself placing her hand in his and letting him pull her to her feet.

The song seemed to soften as she stood, the insipid lyrics fading, the pop beats leveling out into only sound. James’s fingers wrapped around hers, his other hand curved around her waist, and she slid her own hand up to rest on his shoulder.

“You dance?” she said.

“I try not to,” he grinned, looking steadily down into her eyes. “Like this song any better yet?”

“You know,” she murmured, “I might.”

For a moment, they just stood like that, swaying slowly from side to side, feeling each other in fingers and in breath, until finally Gideon Prewett stood on his chair and announced, “Oh, come on, my ninety-eight-year-old grandfather could dance better than that. Let’s show ‘em, Fab.”

And he and Fabian vaulted over he dining room table, one on each side of Lily and James, antd began doing a ridiculous sort of jig, completely off-sync with Celestina Warbeck’s crooning.

Lily laughed as Fabian stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes. James spun her under his arm, and as he did, she saw Alice pull a nervous but excited Frank Longbottom over towards them. And Marlene, she saw with a dash of hope, had sidled up to Remus, but he had looked shyly away. Unbothered by this, Marlene skipped instead up to Fabian, and began imitating his arm-and-leg-flailing dance, her pretty face flushed and giddy. A moment later, Sirius and Peter had appeared, performing a dramatic and over-the-top waltz. The room was full with the warm glow of laughter and cheer, and Lily closed her eyes and turned her head, tucking her face against James’s chest, as, somehow, that horrible song became music.

The Easter holidays came to a close all too quickly for Lily’s liking, and it was not without some apprehension that she contemplated their return to school. It was not that she didn’t want to go back--quite the opposite. She was uncomfortably aware of the fact that spring had arrived, and with it, the end of their lives as students. Never before had the world outside school grounds seemed quite so real--or so frightening.

But she was excited to go back to school, even for just the small time they had left. Classes were going well, and in Potions especially, Professor Slughorn had promised, with a wink, to teach them some particularly difficult brews. She was even, in a perverse sort of way, looking forward to the challenge of taking NEWTs, a fact which gave Sirius, when she mentioned it to him casually, a look of deep disgust. And so it was a bittersweet afternoon, the last day of break, that they said goodbye to Marlene and the other members of the Order and prepared to Apparate back to school.

â€�“I wish we could just Apparate into the common room,” Sirius grumbled as they stood clustered together in front of the McKinnon’s house.

â€�“Oh, please,” James said, rolling his eyes. â€�“We’re going right outside the grounds. It’s not like it’s a far walk from there.”

â€�“Yes, but,” Sirius protested, â€�“the whole point of being able to Apparate is so I don’t have to walk anywhere!”

They all laughed as Sirius folded his arms, looking miffed. â€�“It’s like you think I’m joking,” he muttered.

Remus had opened his mouth to speak, but bit back the words, blushing, as Marlene came running out of the house to give them all an emotional goodbye. Lily watched as Remus hugged her gingerly; despite what James had said, Lily remained far from convinced that there was nothing between those two.

A moment later, however, her attention was diverted by a far more obvious couple: Frank and Alice had emerged from the house, and they appeared to be shyly holding hands. Sirius, who noticed this an instant after Lily did, promptly began catcalling them, and James joined in with a low whistle a moment later. Frank and Alice looked at each other, Alice blushing, before, to the surprise of everyone, Frank had swept Alice backwards and planted a long, dramatic kiss on her lips as all the onlookers cheered.

When they broke apart, Alice’s blush was even deeper than before, and everyone else was laughing. Sirius whooped as he put Peter in a headlock, and even Remus let himself grin. Looking around at all of them--her friends--Lily felt suddenly calmer about the return to Hogwarts. Maybe leaving it won’t be so bad, she thought, if I have a place like this to come home to.

The were returning to Hogwarts in pairs--not, Dumbledore had said, because they expected any danger, but because it was always better to exercise caution, and two attracted far less attention than six. And so it was Peter and Alice who Disapparated first, with Lily and James to go second, and Sirius and Remus bringing up the rear.

They took their time heading back. Alice and Peter had Disapparated with a wave, and Lily and James, instructed to wait ten minutes before following, had joined Sirius, Remus, and Marlene on the Mckinnon’s porch. It was one of the first truly warm spring days, and Marlene leaned her head back against the porch swing she was sitting in, sighing. â€�“I’m a little jealous of you all, actually,” she said, almost sadly.

â€�“For what?” Sirius laughed. â€�“You’re the one out here actually doing things that matter.”

â€�“Sure,” Marlene said, but you’ll be here too in a few months. And I just miss Hogwarts, you know? It feels like the safest place in the world sometimes.”

â€�“I think it might be,” Remus said wryly.

â€�“Yeah, most of the month, anyway,” teased Sirius. Remus scowled darkly at him, with a nervous sideways glance at Marlene, but she was paying Sirius no attention.

â€�“Just hold on to it, that’s all,” she was saying to Lily, who was smiling wistfully.

â€�“Oh, I’m trying, trust me,” she said.

â€�“Not as hard as Peter is,” Sirius rolled his eyes. â€�“He’s as nervous as I’ve ever seen him, these days.”

James grinned. â€�“Oh, you’re nervous, too,” he said to Sirius. â€�“You’re as restless as all of us.”

â€�“That,” Sirius said loftily, â€�“is just because I’m worried about Moony here. What’s he going to do without a library just down the hallway, I ask you?”

â€�“Bite me, Black,” Remus said good-naturedly, and they all laughed.

â€�“Oh, hey,” James said, nudging Lily in the side as he checked his watch. â€�“We should get going. It’s been ten minutes already. McGonagall will be waiting for us to check in at the gates.”

They rose; Marlene stood and hugged them both, holding tightly to Lily as though it would be more than a few months until they saw each other again. Then Sirius came bumbling over with his arms outstretched, crying, â€�“I’m going to miss you all so much!”

â€�“Shut up,” Lily laughed, pushing him in the chest.

â€�“Get off me, you big oaf,” said James, shouldering his best friend.

â€�“I’m just saying,” Sirius winked. â€�“You might get lost.”

James shook his head and reached for Lily’s hand. Linked, they stepped off the Mckinnon’s front porch, waved one last time, and turned together into the air.

They landed so hard that Lily stumbled forward, her hand breaking from James’s. They were, it seemed, in the Forbidden Forest, but not near the gates of the school where they should have been. Lily turned hesitantly towards James, who had been, for all intents and purposes, steering, not wanting to be the first to speak. He, however, looked sheepish.

â€�“Did we overshoot a bit?” she asked, trying not to smile.

â€�“No!” James said hotly. Then, when she looked at him, he added grudgingly, â€�“We undershot a bit.”

Lily laughed out loud and walked over to pat his arm sympathetically.

â€�“It’s hard when you’re going to a place that you can’t Apparate to!” James said emphatically. â€�“You don’t want to go too far and bounce off, it’s very precise…”

â€�“Don’t worry,” Lily rolled her eyes. â€�“I won’t tell Sirius. But the real question is, how do we find our way back?”

James looked at her, highly offended. â€�“We’re only about a fifteen minute walk from where we need to be,” he said.

Lily raised an eyebrow. â€�“You sure?” she asked.

â€�“Of course I am,” James scoffed. â€�“I know my way around these woods, after all. We’ve been all through them!”

â€�“All right, all right,” Lily said, laughing again.

â€�“Fifteen minutes. That way,” he said, pointing, and then grinned. â€�“As the deer runs, anyway.”

â€�“Cute,” she told him as they started walking.

He wrinkled his nose at her. â€�“I know,” he said. â€�“I just hope we get back before too long, so they don’t worry about us, otherwise I’ll never hear the end of--”

â€�“Wait,” Lily interrupted suddenly, holding up her hand to hush hi. She stood still, her head slightly cocked, listening. The trees, just barely blooming in the early spring, waved softly in the wind, light dappling through.

â€�“What is it?” James asked in a whisper, taking a cautious step towards her.

â€�“I thought I heard something,” Lily said softly, reaching towards her pocket for her wand.

â€�“It is a forest,” James said mildly. â€�“There do tend to be noises--”

A very audible crack came from their left; both of them whirled, Lily’s fingers closing around her wand, and then a jolt of red light sped past her face and James crumpled at her side.

Bewildered she half-turned, wanting to run to him but with every instinct screaming at her not to turn her back. And then in her periphery vision she saw a black-robed figure move, face obscured by a mask, wand outstretched. She tightened her grip on her own wand, but his mouth had moved--she did not hear the words, there was a roaring in her head--and a stream of red light came rocketing towards her. It didn’t feel like anything, but all of a sudden the trees, still swaying, were falling away from her, her vision was blurring at the edges, and no, she realized, not the trees, it’s me, I’m falling, I’m--

---

James woke slowly, aware first of rough stone cool against his face. Then it was as though the noise in the room increased by degrees, a low buzz, like a badly tuned radio. Clouded and confused, he opened his eyes.

Beside him, Lily was stirring groggily, shaking her head. James frowned, trying to remember what had happened--he remembered Apparating, the forest, Lily hearing something…

With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he raised his head to take in their surroundings.

They were almost entirely surrounded by a circle of masked figures, all in black robes. It was from they that the soft noise in the room came; they were murmuring to each other so quietly that James could not make out words, just the ominous trickle of sound. Directly in front of him, there was a break in the circle, where a large stone chair stood.

He didn’t want to look at it, not directly. He wasn’t sure where the aversion came from, only that he did not want to see what was sitting in that chair.

A cursory check revealed, unsurprisingly, that his wand was gone, Lily’s as well. They locked eyes once, and then, in unspoken agreement, rose to stand shoulder-to-shoulder.

The man in the chair was thin, and even seated seemed tall. There was something inhuman about the red glint in his eye and the flatness of his face, and something slyly dangerous about the loose way his hands rested on his wand. The wand itself, unusually long, was laid across his knees.

James had never seen Voldemort before, but there was no doubt in his mind that that was who sat before them now. There was a kind of power radiating form him, something dark, strong enough to bring these Death Eaters to heel. James felt Lily’s elbow pressing into his side. She was trembling, and he felt fear rise in the back of his own throat.

He didn’t like being afraid.

Feeling himself planting his feet a little more firmly and widening his stance, James jutted his jaw forward obstinately. And willing himself not to blink, he focused his eyes on the figure before them.

â€�“Hi,” he said lightly, almost pleasantly. â€�“Lovely day, isn’t it? Bit cold in here for my taste, but I’ve always preferred windows.” He made a show of looking around the room. The owner of the house was undoubtedly wealthy--the stone walls were ornately carved, the ceiling and light fixtures finely wrought--but it was frigid and hard, and much like a dungeon despite its price.

James had unnerved the Death Eaters, he noted with a grim satisfaction--they were muttering to each other, shifting uncomfortably, although the man in the chair remained still. Challenged, James addressed him directly. â€�“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

Lily’s fingers dug almost painfully into his arm as the man rose from his chair and walked slowly and deliberately towards them.

â€�“Perhaps we haven’t been,” he said, and his voice was as sleep and deadly as the rest of him. â€�“But you know who I am.”

Inches away from Lord Voldemort, all James’s careless confidence died in his throat.

â€�“I will admit,” Voldemort continued, â€�“you have not been easy to contact. Dumbledore has certainly kept you close.”

â€�“And you wanted to contact us why?” James asked. The question, meant to sound defiant, came out somewhat quieter than he had meant it to.

Voldemort leveled his gaze at James, who had to force himself not to look away. â€�“I’m building an army, Mr. Potter,” he said, and never before had James so hated the sound of his own name. â€�“I want talent on my side, as well as determination, and certain sources within Hogwarts have informed me that this includes the two of you. Disappointing as it may be that you were not Sorted into Slytherin, you still possess certain qualities that I would very much like on my side, and your pedigree in particular, Mr. Potter, is impressive.”

â€�“Then why me?” Lily challenged, and looking at her, James almost grinned--there was a tightness in her mouth that he had seen many times in their early years at Hogwarts. But never, even in their fifth year, when things had been the most tense between them, had her eyes been that like flint when she looked at him. â€�“Why me?” she continued. â€�“I’m not a pure-blood, like James. I’m not even a half-blood. I’m as Muggle-born as they come, and I wasn’t under the impression that you wanted Mudbloods on your side.”

Voldemort turned his calculating gaze towards her, and she did not flinch. â€�“Purity of blood is not inconsequential,” he said smoothly, â€�“but in certain outstanding cases, I am willing to make an exception. And from what I’ve heard, Miss Evans, you could be quiet influential, and your skills, both as a Potions-maker and as a leader are things that I could use. I was also lead to believe that the two of you function as a unit, and I stood a better chance of persuading both of you than just one.”

James raised an eyebrow, and from the look on Lily’s face, knew he was not alone in wondering exactly who this source was.

When Voldemort spoke again, he spoke to them both, his voice low and fervent, and James could almost understand how he had persuaded the mass of Death Eaters at their backs to follow him. â€�“I could offer you far more than Dumbledore can,” he said. â€�“Power in a great new world. Dumbledore, and those who follow him, they all are fighting a losing battle. He, foolish old man that he is, defends a world that doesn’t want to be defended, and a people that would rather spend their lives in hiding than seize their rightful place in the world. With me, you can become far more than defenders of a meager existence. You can be among those who shape the world into something greater.”

The man knew how to argue, James could give him that. But all it took was one sideways glance at Lily--and it was less than that, even, just the brush of her shoulder to his, the steady rise and fall of her breath as she pressed into his side--to tell him that she was no more convinced than he was. And so it was with complete confidence and unity that James looked straight into the eyes of the Dark wizard before them and asked, â€�“And if we say no?”

â€�“That,” Voldemort said slowly, â€�“would be unfortunate. Bellatrix?”

The first thing James noticed about the woman who appeared behind Voldemort was the striking resemblance she bore to Sirius--the same dark coloring, the same refined bone structure, but there was a dark glint in her eyes that he had never seen in Sirius, a strange, deep joy as she looked at Voldemort that frightened James more than anything yet. And then she raised her wand, pointed out them, and said sweetly, as though savoring the world on her tongue, â€�“Crucio!”

Wandless, and with no time to react, James could only brace himself, but the pain didn’t come. He blinked in confusion as, suddenly, Lily fell away from him, and it was she who screamed, her knees drawn up to her chest, her body convulsing.

â€�“No!” James shouted, darting forward, towards Lily or Bellatrix he did not know, but three Death Eaters had suddenly appeared behind him, grabbing him by the arms and around the middle. Voldemort lifted a hand; Bellatrix raised her wand, and Lily lay still on the floor. James hung limply against the Death Eaters, who did not loosen their hold.

â€�“The choice,” Voldemort said, â€�“is yours.”

From the floor, Lily lifted her head. Her hair had come loose during Bellatrix’s ministrations, and her eyes blazed as she pushed herself gingerly to her feet.

â€�“Is that all you’ve got?” she asked, her voice level, and a fierce pride warred with fear in James’s heart as he looked at her. And then Bellatrix raised her wand again, and Lily fell first to her knees, then to the floor, fighting, and James was a wild thing again, straining desperately against the Death Eaters that were holding him with all their strength. And Bellatrix--James did not know how he had ever thought she resembled Sirius, because there was a furious, dark glee in her eyes as Lily thrashed on the floor below her, and still she did not lift her wand…

James looked away from her, his gaze locked desperately on Lily. She was fighting, he could tell, but with no respite, one long, high scream escaped her. Anguished, James ripped out at his captors, managing to get a hand free and hit one full across the face, but the other two were there, tightening their grips. Dispassionately, out of the corner of his high, he saw one Death Eater shudder slightly beneath his mask, waver, and then disappear from the circle. The rest of the Death Eaters, watching Bellatrix and Lily before them, paid him no mind, but James, in some back place of his mind, thought with scorn, Can’t even watch your own dirty work, you cowards--

But then Lily screamed again, and he was drawn instantly and entirely back to her, helpless and terrified once more.

---

This pain was a new kind of animal.

Lily had never felt anything like it--it was as though some beast had crawled inside her, tearing with claws and teeth as it went. It did not stop--the curse went on and on, and Lily clenched her jaw against it, trying to clamp down on the scream that threatened to explode from her. In some small, yet-untouched part of her brain, she wondered dully how the pain stayed so constant without becoming tedious. Because it kept coming, wave after fresh wave, but it never stopped hurting--

Something strange was happening to her vision. It was blurring at the edges, bright light flickering in her periphery. She was dimly aware of James shouting, fighting ferociously to get to her as more and more Death Eaters came to push against him. Then her eyes focused on one Death Eater, standing a few yards from the others, one hand loosely closed around three wands. She did not know if it was wholly real, but it was something to hold on to, something to concentrate on as the intensifying pain wracked her body.

There was a noise from behind her, a loud bang, and the Death Eaters surrounding James scattered. And suddenly, as quickly as it had come, the pain was gone, and it was like breathing. Stunned for a moment, she could only clutch at the rough stone beneath her, gasping. Then she leaned over and spat a mouthful of blood onto the stone--she must’ve bitten the side of her mouth during Bellatrix’s torture--before slowly, painstakingly hauling herself to her feet.

The world was in chaos around her. She didn’t understand what was happening--for one bizarre moment, she thought she saw Sirius flash past her, towards James. But she dismissed it, gritting her teeth and focusing single-mindedly on the Death Eater who still stood holding their wands.

She ran towards him, skidding to a halt as he turned towards her. He was masked, like the rest of them, but she could still see his eyes narrow. He separated his wand from hers and James’s, a slow smile creeping onto his face as he pointed it at her. Panting and unarmed, she hesitated for a breath, and then did the only thing she could think of: curled her hand into a fist, and slammed it into his face.

Her knuckles smashed into his cheekbone, just below the mask. Pain shot up her arm, making her wonder if she’d hurt herself instead of him, but then, whether in surprise or in pain, he reeled backwards, his grip on the wands going slack, and Lily grabbed them and darted away.

The Death Eaters around her were locked in combat. She squinted, trying to see who was fighting, to understand what was going on, when she barreled straight into James.

He grabbed her by the shoulders, eyes wise with worry. â€�“Lily,” he breathed, â€�“Merlin, Lily, are you--”

â€�“I’m fine,” she told him. â€�“I will be. But there’s no time now, we’ve got to get out of here.” Earnestly, she pressed his wand into his hand.

A moment later, Sirius appeared in front of them, tousled and grinning. Lily blinked in confusion--so she had seen him earlier--but before she could say anything, he said, quite cheerfully, â€�“Duck!”

The did; pointing his wander over their heads, Sirius sang, â€�“Stupefy!” and the Death Eater behind them dropped.

Smirking with satisfaction, Sirius lowered his arm and looked at them. â€�“Nice punch,” he told Lily. â€�“I saw that from back there.”

â€�“You punched someone?” James asked, but Sirius waved a hand at him.

â€�“Later,” he said. â€�“We have to go. Dumbledore just said we were supposed find you two and run--”

â€�“Dumbledore’s here?” Lily asked, astonished, trying not to wince as she struggled to keep up with them. James noticed, and, concerned, slowed down to keep pace with her, but she shook her head. Keep moving, she mouthed.

â€�“Of course Dumbledore’s here, you think we just showed up on our own?” Sirius asked.

â€�“Who’s we?” James asked. â€�“And, for that matter, how did you know how to get here?”

As if summoned, Remus appeared on Sirius’s other side. â€�“Ask questions later,” he said, smiling wearily at James. Turning to Sirius, he said, â€�“Marlene’s out, Gideon and Fabian are working their way out. McGonagall’s covering us, so we’ve got to get out of here fast.”

â€�“Where’s Dumbledore?” Sirius asked.

Remus looked quickly over his shoulder. â€�“Fighting Voldemort,” he said grimly, and Sirius sucked in his breath.

â€�“Is he--” Lily started, looking around.

â€�“He can handle himself,” Remus assured her. â€�“But we have to hurry, we shouldn’t stay here longer than we need.”

â€�“Someone better explain to me what’s going on once we’re out,” James grumbled, nimbly dodging a curse.

â€�“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius said. â€�“Hold on to your--”

He was cut off abruptly as a jet of light slammed into his chest. He went down to one knee, breathing heavily, no longer smiling as the Death Eater who had attacked him approached slowly. Sirius struggled to his feet, crouched low, his wand out. To Lily’s left, Frank Longbottom was dueling Bellatrix, his face shining with the effort. Looking worried, Remus cast a desperate glance at Sirius, who appeared unhurt, and then broke away to help Frank.

James had his own wand out now, eyeing the tawny-haired wizard in front of them. Lily frowned--even with the mask, there was something familiar about him. Sirius appeared to be thinking along the same lines. â€�“Expelliarmus!” he cried without warning, whipping his wand up quicker than Lily could have imagined.
The Death Eater managed, just barely, to hold onto his own wand, but his mask went flying. He whirled to retrieve it, but missed, and when he turned again, they were looking into the deep blue eyes of Michael Kingsbury.

Startled, Sirius blinked. Confused, he lowered his wand, and Michael, with a savagery that Lily never expected, lunged forward, growling, â€�“Sectumsempra!”

Recognizing the curse and horrified--she had never expected to hear it again--Lily slammed into Sirius’s side, pushing him out of the way as the spell rushed by them. It barely grazed her, but still it laid the side of her arm open. She yelped reflexively, although the pain was nothing compared to the earlier Cruciatus Curse. But a moment later James had roared â€�“Stupefy!” with such a fury that Michael was blasted off his feet and thrown clear across the room, unconscious.

Lily and Sirius both blinked at him, Lily holding her bleeding arm with one hand.

â€�“Well,” said Sirius, â€�“now that that’s taken care of, let’s get the hell out of here.”

They turned and ran for the door, Remus and Frank falling into step beside them as they went. Remus had a gash on his forehead that was bleeding heavily into his eye, and Frank was nursing a tender shoulder.

â€�“Bellatrix?” asked Sirius, almost spitting the name.

Remus shook his head.

â€�“She’s tough,” Frank huffed. â€�“We only just got away from her.”

The reached the door just as Professor McGonagall appeared beside it. â€�“Out the door,” she told them in a low voice, though briskly and as collected as ever, while shooting a curse over Sirius’s head. â€�“The Apparation restrictions on Hogwarts have been lifted from the Headmaster’s office only. They will not remain so for long, so I suggest you hurry. Down the end of this hall. You may Disapparate from there.”

â€�“I won’t be going with you,” Frank said, looking harried, although he gave them all a wink. â€�“My best.” And he hurried away, Disapparating at the end of the hallway.

Sirius and Remus followed quickly after him, although Lily paused, looking over her shoulder. In the center of the room--she couldn’t imagine how she’d missed it before--Dumbledore was battling Voldemort.

She had thought Voldemort, despite everything, intimidating and impressive before, but he paled in comparison to Dumbledore. There was a hardness and a focus to the Headmaster she had never seen before, as he wove magic she did not know with his wand. A shower of golden light fell on Voldemort, who hissed, drawing away.

â€�“Go,” McGonagall urged them. James, a few feet ahead of Lily, had stopped to wait for her. â€�“Don’t worry about the Headmaster. We will follow you shortly. But go.”

Lily spared one last look at Dumbledore, and then turned on her heel without another word, to follow James down the darkening hallway and to twist into nothingness.

They appeared quite suddenly in the middle of the Headmaster’s office. Drained, feeling all the aches of the past few hours, Lily stumbled slightly. Noticing this, James slipped an arm around her shoulders, but a minute later, he had pulled away again. Surprised, Lily looked over at him; he was blinking at his hand, which was red with blood.

â€�“Welcome back,” drawled a voice from the corner, and Lily spared Sirius the briefest of glances before focusing again on James.

â€�“Are you all right?” It was Remus this time, his voice touched with concern; Lily had neither energy nor concentration enough for him either.

Instead, â€�“Are you hurt?” she asked James, gesturing towards his hand.

He looked at her oddly. â€�“Lily,” he said, â€�“this is your blood.”

Dazed, she looked down at the arm he had touched. The sleeve of her shirt--they were all still in Muggle clothing--was stained red from the wide gash on her forearm, which was from, she remembered, when she had pushed Sirius away from Michael Kingsbury’s curse.

â€�“Oh,” she said, feeling suddenly dizzy, and then irritated. There wasn’t a lot that made her feel faint--she spent too much time doing Potions--and her own blood never did. Chalking it up to the stress of the day, she allowed herself to look away.

â€�“Here,” James said, pulling his shirt over his head. From the corner, Sirius wolf-whistled. â€�“Hit him for me,” James said, without looking, and a moment later they heard the yelp that meant Remus had obliged. Despite herself, Lily giggled.

A moment later, James had ripped a strip of fabric from the hem of his shirt and moved to tie it around Lily’s arm.

â€�“What are you doing?” Lily murmured, as he took her arm, gentler than she would have expected.

â€�“Just let me,” he said softly. â€�“It might be awhile before we can get you to the hospital wing.”

He was looking at her so earnestly that she surrendered, letting him tie the strip of fabric around the still-bleeding gash in her arm, even though she wasn’t entirely sure he knew what he was doing.

Sirius, who had spared a worried look for Lily when she had James had first arrived, had realized that the injury was nothing serious, and was now starting to bounce back and forth from one foot to the other with puppylike energy. Apparently unable to contain his boredom, he called out, â€�“Aren’t you going to take off any more of your clothes? Moony and I are still waiting, and the tips get progressively smaller the longer we have to wait.”

A moment later he yelped again; this time, Remus, who seemed unsure how to handle both Lily’s silence and Sirius’s exuberance in the same room, had hit him without prompting. â€�“We really need to keep you away from those Muggle magazines,” he grumbled.

â€�“But I learn so much from them,” Sirius said brightly, and James and Remus groaned in sync.

James’s focus was on Lily, but he glanced once, briefly, at Sirius, and it was enough to notice that he seemed oddly flushed, almost feverish. He had seen that look before, if not often--a reckless, almost ecstatic edge. Unlike Remus and Lily, who looked about as wan and tense as James felt, Sirius looked almost comfortable as he leaned against the wall. His eyes, however, were almost sparking, and James wondered if it was just the fight that had him so alive like this.

â€�“So what happened out there, anyway?” James asked them as he double-knotted the t-shirt fabric. â€�“How’d you know to come find us?”

â€�“It wasn’t that hard, really.” Sirius shrugged. â€�“McGonagall realized that you hadn’t made it to the checkpoint, and she let Dumbledore know, and they stopped me and Moony from Apparating back. Then Dumbledore showed up, grabbed a couple of people from the Order, tried to tell Moony and me we couldn’t come, gave up, and then we all went and got you. Nice job, by the way, not even graduated and we’ve had our first Order fight!”

â€�“You could take it a little more seriously,” Remus said with some exasperation.

â€�“Why?” Sirius said. â€�“It’s not like anyone got hurt.”

Lily bit her lip; she and James exchanged the barest of glances and said nothing. Then James, still confused, shook his head. â€�“That doesn’t clear anything up for me, really,” he said. â€�“For starters, how did you know we’d even been kidnapped? How’d you know where to find us?”

Sirius frowned. â€�“What do you mean?” he asked. â€�“You told us, didn’t you?”

Suddenly, the door to Dumbledore’s office burst open, and all of them but Sirius jumped in surprise as the headmaster himself strode in, Professor McGonagall a few steps behind him. Embarrassed, James pulled his shirt back on, but because of the strips he had ripped off, the hem was now considerably shorter. The shirt now ended several inches above his waistband, revealing a strip of bare skin, and he tugged at it mournfully, to no avail. In his corner, Sirius snickered, but then unzipped his jacket and tossed it to James, who put it on gratefully.

By this time, Dumbledore had settled himself into the chair behind his desk, and surveyed them all over his glasses. â€�“You must all be exhausted,” he said gently, and waved his wand. Several squashy chintz armchairs appeared, settling around Dumbledore’s desk, and the four of them fell into them almost instantly.

â€�“You’ll be on your way in a moment,” Dumbledore assured them. â€�“I just wanted to be sure you all arrived here safely, especially considering the trying day it has been.”

â€�“Nah,” Sirius said, â€�“we’re fine. Can’t wait to do it again!”

Lily thought for a moment that the headmaster’s gaze flickered towards her, but she straightened her spine and said nothing.

â€�“Sir,” James said, leaning forward, â€�“what happened, after we left? Is--is Voldemort--”

â€�“He is still very much alive,” Dumbledore said, â€�“as are his followers. Today was merely a retrieval operation; we did not have the strength to do more.”

James nodded, settling back into his chair. Sirius looked at him, and then at Dumbledore, before saying, â€�“Sir…about those followers…” Dumbledore transferred his bright gaze to him, and he continued, â€�“It’s just that when we were leaving, we ran into Michael Kingsbury, you know, the Ravenclaw. And I know that Annabelle Fletcher has been trying to tell me something for awhile, and I just think that maybe…maybe he’s been the one leaking information to the Death Eaters this year.”

Dumbledore sighed heavily, looking suddenly far older than they had ever seen. â€�“Michael Kingsbury has, I believe, been acting as a spy for quite some time, and he has recently disappeared from school grounds. But rest assured, Mr. Black, we will be looking into his involvement with the Death Eaters, and speaking to Miss Fletcher as well.”

Sirius, sitting back, looked dissatisfied with this answer, but he said nothing more on the subject.

â€�“And now,” Dumbledore said, â€�“I would like a word with Mr. Potter and Miss Evans alone, please.”

â€�“Black, Lupin,” McGonagall said briskly, â€�“if you’ll come with me, I’ll escort you back to Gryffindor Tower.”

Lily half-expected Sirius to argue with this, being treated like a first-year, but to her surprise, he remained silent. Remus spared them a quick glance over his shoulder, and then they were alone with Dumbledore.

â€�“I’d like you to tell me,” Dumbledore said slowly, his eyes on his fingertips, â€�“what precisely happened tonight.”

It was James who began the story, haltingly, from when they Disapparated from the McKinnons’ house to Voldemort asking them to join his forces.

â€�“I think,” James said, â€�“I think he’s been trying to get ahold of us all year. There was the attack on the Hogwarts Express earlier, and I know Lily and I both had strange encounters with Death Eaters--I guess Michael was keeping tabs on us, or using Annabelle to keep tabs on us. And when Leda Wood was kidnapped a little while after that, all the questions they asked her were about us. We just didn’t understand why until today. You-Know-Who--Voldemort--he says he wants us on his side.”

â€�“And how did you respond to that?” Dumbledore asked gently.

â€�“Well,” James said awkwardly, looking at Lily, â€�“well, we said no. And he, well--”

â€�“He used the Cruciatus Curse,” Lily said, her voice clear, â€�“on me. Well, he didn’t do it himself. He had a woman do it for him--Bellatrix, I think he called her. Neither one of us had wands, but James was trying to get to her anyway, or me, when you all came in.”

Dumbledore nodded softly. â€�“That is a powerful curse,” he said, looking at Lily. â€�“And I know it leaves lingering pains, especially when applied for a considerable amount of time, as I can guess it was in your case. There is not much to be done for that, but Madame Pomfrey can do some to ease the effects.”

Lily nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak.

â€�“There’s something else, though, sir,” James said. â€�“Sirius said you knew where we were…because we told you? What--”

â€�“Shortly after you disappeared,” Dumbledore said, â€�“I was found by a Patronus, which informed me of your whereabouts. It was surprisingly simple to locate you from there--the house where you were being kept is not a permanent meeting place for Voldemort and his followers. They were not expecting to be there long, and so it was not surrounded by the more powerful--and more time-consuming--protective spells that would have kept us from finding you. The Patronus itself was a doe--which I believe, Miss Evans, is yours?”

â€�“It is,” Lily said, startled, â€�“but I didn’t send one. I couldn’t have.”

James shook his head in agreement. â€�“We didn’t even have wands, Professor. And we were unconscious when they brought us there, we didn’t know where we were.”

â€�“It had to have been someone else,” Lily mused. â€�“But I don’t know who it would be. I don’t even know anyone else with a doe Patronus.”

James groaned. â€�“More mysteries,” he muttered, his face in his knees.

Dumbledore nodded. â€�“Very well,” he said. â€�“I will do my best to unravel these, with the information you have given me. For now, I think it’s best if we get Miss Evans to the hospital wing, see what we can do to patch her up--”

â€�“Wait,” Lily said, standing. She was trembling, and her eyes were bright; James looked up at her, worried. â€�“There’s something else. Michael--the curse he used on me--I’ve only ever heard one person use it before, and it was the person who invented it.”

Dumbledore looked at her calmly, James in confusion, and Lily closed her eyes, as though saying the name required immense effort. â€�“Severus Snape,” she said finally. â€�“I don’t know if that’s where Michael learned the curse, or why they would be in communication, but I just…thought you should know.”

â€�“Thank you,” Dumbledore said gently. â€�“And now, you two should be on your way.”

---

James sat quietly to the side as Madame Pomfrey examined Lily’s arm.

â€�“There’s not much I can do for this,” the nurse tisked, dabbing the cut with a foul-smelling purple potion that steamed when it touched skin. Lily hissed in pain, cringing, but didn’t move away. â€�“Curse wounds tend to take longer to heal,” Madame Pomfrey continued, â€�“so you’ll be tender for a few days yet. I’ve managed to stop the bleeding, and with plenty of rest, you should be on your way to recovery. I really should keep you here for a few days--”

â€�“No!” Lily protested, sliding to her feet. â€�“No, please, I’d really sleep better in my own bed, I promise--”

â€�“Well,” Madame Pomfrey said reluctantly, â€�“I suppose there’s not much more I could do for you here.” Then she looked around at James and added severely, â€�“But if she looks like she isn’t getting enough sleep, you march her straight back to me!”

James grinned and assured her he would, and the two of them left the hospital wing to walk back to Gryffindor Tower.

Lily was silent as they first began, and so James, too, let his own thoughts wander. It had been, he thought, the longest day of his life--watching Lily being tortured felt like it was weeks ago, although his reaction to it was still so fresh. But for some reason, the image that stood out in his mind was Lily’s face as she gave Dumbledore Severus Snape’s name. It had been so hard for her, and she had looked so uncertain…Like she was betraying someone…

â€�“All right,” she suddenly said, coming to a halt in the dark corridor. â€�“Out with it.”

â€�“What?” he asked innocently.

â€�“You’ve got something on your mind,” she said. â€�“I can tell.”

â€�“It’s nothing,” he said, shaking his head. â€�“It’s just been a long day, and--”

â€�“It’s Severus, isn’t it?” she blinked up at him, and he looked down at her, his mouth open.

â€�“How’d you know?” he asked, almost guiltily.

Lily sighed, shaking her head. â€�“I know you, James,” she said. â€�“You only have that look when you’re thinking about him.”

â€�“What look?” James asked curiously.

â€�“Like you want to punch a wall,” Lily told him wryly.

James shrugged. â€�“It’s just…” he said slowly, â€�“you seemed so upset, talking to Dumbledore about him. Like you thought you were doing something wrong. I guess I just don’t understand how you can still care so much about him.”

â€�“Oh, James,” Lily said, sounding exhausted. She leaned back against the wall of the corridor. â€�“He was my best friend. He was my best friend for a long time, and even if that’s changed, it’s hard not to feel like I still owe him something, or like I should still be loyal to him. Think if it was Sirius.”

â€�“You can’t compare them!” James protested. â€�“Sirius would never be interested in the Dark Arts like that, or--”

â€�“I know,” Lily said, sounding frustrated. â€�“Don’t you think I know that? But it’s not that easy to let go of, it’s not, and today was just so--”

She closed her eyes tightly, and James wondered if she was trying not to cry.

â€�“Hey,” he said uncertainly, moving towards her. â€�“I don’t want to fight--”

She leaned forward, resting her face against his chest, not quite crying. â€�“Me either,” she said. â€�“I’m just…I’m just scared. Because what happened today, what if that’s all that’s out there for us, when we leave school? Fights like that, against people we can’t see, that don’t really go anywhere. Sirius seems excited enough about it, but it scares me, James, and what if that’s all our lives will be from now on?”

â€�“They won’t be,” James said, although he could hear the doubt in his own voice. â€�“They can’t be, there’s more than that--”

But his words stopped as Lily, lifting her head, wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and stood on her toes to bring her mouth to his.

James was taken aback by the ferocity with which she was kissing him--her lips were insistent against his as she grabbed him by the shirt with one hand, dragging him into a shadowed alcove, until her back hit the wall. He leaned forward, his hands braced against the wall on either side of her head as he hesitated, remembering what Madame Pomfrey had said. But Lily did not appear to be feeling any tenderness; quite to the contrary, she had grabbed a fistful of his borrowed sweatshirt with one hand and hooked the fingers of her other hand through his belt loop. Their bodies collided as she tugged at him, and he gave in, his hands moving from the wall to the side of her face, her hair, her back. She had disengaged her own hands from his clothing and they were now fumbling with the zipper on his jacket. Her fingers grazed the bare skin beneath the tattered hem of his shirt, and he closed his eyes, his arms tightening around her. She bit lightly at his bottom lip, but then, as if from far away, he heard voices in the corridor, and jerked backwards.

It was only a pair of first-year Ravenclaws, just returned from break, walking down the hallway chattering to each other. James and Lily stood quietly in the alcove, still half-tangled together, barely breathing until the first-years, who hadn’t noticed them, had passed. Then James pushed himself upright, shaking his head to clear it. â€�“What are we doing?” he asked wryly.

Lily looked up at him, biting her lip abashedly, but trying not to smile. â€�“Panicking?” she offered.

James grinned. â€�“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe we should exercise some self-control.”

To his relief, she laughed, her eyes lightening for the first time all day. â€�“Yeah,” she said, detaching herself from the wall. â€�“A corner just off the headmaster’s office with a bunch of first-years running around, not really a private-moment kind of place. Especially for the Head Boy and Girl.”

â€�“There are better places,” James agreed. He peered out into the corridor, and finding it empty, gestured to Lily. As they started again towards Gryffindor Tower, he added, â€�“Don’t get me wrong, though, that’s definitely my favorite way to panic.”

Lily groaned good-naturedly at him as they trundled back to the tower. â€�“What?” he asked her, laughing. â€�“It’s not like I was complaining…”

When they finally pushed their way into the Gryffindor common room, however, the smile dropped from his face. Sirius and Remus were sitting at their usual table by the window, talking to a very frightened-looking Peter. Sirius’s half-crazed, post-battle energy seemed to have diminished somewhat; he slumped low in his chair, speaking quietly as an ever-somber Remus leaned forward beside him.

â€�“What do you want to tell them?” James asked Lily quietly.

â€�“The basics?” she suggested, and he nodded, understanding this to mean, Let’s leave the torture out of it.

Sirius looked up as they approached, his face brightening. â€�“Thought Dumbledore was going to keep you all night!” he said, once they were close enough that he could speak without raising his voice.

â€�“Felt like it,” James yawned, throwing himself into the chair next to Sirius, while Lily slid in beside Peter.

â€�“Are you guys all right?” Lily asked, her brow furrowed, while Peter looked back and forth between them all, his eyes wide.

Remus nodded. â€�“Madame Pomfrey patched us up in a few seconds,” he said. â€�“We’ve just been filling Peter in and waiting for you to come back.”

â€�“It’s not every day I get to visit my cousin’s house,” Sirius added nonchalantly.

â€�“It was a little--wait, your what?” James choked.

â€�“Yeah,” Sirius said, sneering slightly. â€�“You probably saw her. Bellatrix Black, now, I believe, Bellatrix Lestrange. We don’t really keep in touch.”

â€�“Your cousin?” James was still gaping at him.

Sirius nodded. â€�“That was her house,” he said, and then continued, almost coldly, â€�“Don’t act so surprised, James, you know what my family is like.”

â€�“Well, yeah, but…” James cast a furtive glance at Lily. â€�“I didn’t like her.”

Sirius gave a short bark of laughter. â€�“I never did either,” he said, â€�“but what can you do. Anyway, Moony here got in a few good licks with her, didn’t you?”

â€�“What he means,” Remus said dryly, â€�“is that I barely got away.”

Peter shuddered. â€�“I’m not sorry I missed this,” he said.

â€�“Good thing you were able to send us that Patronus,” Sirius nodded at Lily. â€�“Otherwise we never would have found you.”

James caught Lily’s eye for a second, and then, in silent agreement, they both said nothing. James knew he’d probably fill Sirius in on the details later, but at the moment, Peter was looking more worried than he liked and he saw no reason to panic him further.

â€�“Oh, hey,” Sirius said, looking over their heads to the portrait hole. â€�“Annabelle’s back.”

They all looked over. Annabelle had indeed just clambered into the common room, and she looked, James thought, somehow younger than he’d ever seen her before. She seemed tired, new lines under her eyes, her shoulders slumped forward with none of their energy.

â€�“Dumbledore must’ve just talked to her,” Remus said quietly.

â€�“I feel sort of bad,” Sirius admitted. â€�“I think she was trying to tell me about Michael before and I didn’t listen…which is weird, considering how convinced I was he was evil.”

â€�“He’s not evil,” Remus started to say, but Sirius shook his head.

â€�“We’ll see, won’t we?” he said. â€�“I’m sure that’s not the last we’ll see of Michael Kingsbury.”

â€�“I still don’t believe it,” Peter said, shaking his head.

Sirius looked over at him incredulously. â€�“Trust me,” he said, â€�“Michael was there. He’s a Death Eater, all right. Weird, though, as only a fourth-year…I wonder what Voldemort will want with him now? He hasn’t finished school but his cover’s blown, he’ll be no good as a spy…”

â€�“I know,” said Peter, who had shuddered again at the sound of Voldemort’s name. â€�“It’s just…he was a Ravenclaw. I thought all the Death Eaters were Slytherins.”

â€�“Oh, I don’t know,” James shrugged. â€�“He wanted us, didn’t he? And Lily and I are both definitely Gryffindors. Sure, most of them are Slytherins, but I think he’s recruiting where he can.”

Peter, if possible, looked even more worried. Lily, however, who hadn’t been paying attention to any of them, said suddenly, â€�“She looks so sad.”

They all craned their necks again to look at Annabelle, who was still standing in the center of the common room, her bag at her feet, staring into the fire.

â€�“Maybe someone should go talk to her,” Remus suggested, and one by one, they all turned to look at Sirius.

After a moment or two of silence, he looked up. â€�“What?”

Remus raised his eyebrows pointedly.

â€�“But…” Sirius whined, â€�“but I don’t wanna.”

â€�“She’s been trying to talk to you for weeks,” James pointed out. â€�“You might as well give her the chance.”

Sirius glared around at them all before growling, â€�“Fine,” and stumping off.

Remus grinned as he watched him go. â€�“It’s probably not chivalrous of me to be so entertained by this,” he said casually, â€�“but I can’t help it.”

â€�“Oh,” Lily murmured, â€�“you’re not alone.”

Sirius had reached Annabelle, and James grinned as he shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other. Annabelle seemed to recover some of her spark; she stood with one hip jutted out, eying Sirius flintily. A second later, however, she had flung her arms around him, apparently sobbing into his shoulder. Remus looked positively delighted as Sirius patted her awkwardly on the head before she released him and dashed up the stairs to her dormitory.

Shaking his head, Sirius walked back to the table, and James clapped him on the back as he sat down. â€�“Girls,” Sirius said fervently, â€�“are weird.”

They all looked at Lily, who had slumped forward with her head on the table. â€�“I’m not arguing,” they heard her say sleepily.

James laughed. â€�“Okay,” he said. â€�“I think it’s bedtime for some of us.”

â€�“Now that you mention it,” Sirius said, stretching his arms over his head, â€�“I could sleep.”

â€�“Classes start up again tomorrow,” Remus reminded them all. â€�“I’d almost forgotten.”

â€�“Classes!” Peter scoffed. â€�“Forget that. I can’t believe we still have to take N.E.W.T.s!”

They had forgotten; James groaned as they stood, and Sirius cuffed Peter over the head, as normal and safe as things could be in Hogwarts.

---

They always started out like normal dreams: she’d be failing her N.E.W.T.s, or clinging to a broomstick, or running through the lawn behind her parents’ home with her sister. But eventually something would happen--she’d trip or be shoved, something like that, and the dream would change to a cold stone floor against her face, blood in her mouth, and Bellatrix Lestrange with her wand outstretched.

The dream was not simply a replay of the actual event; her mind took liberties. Bellatrix’s tortures were never ceasing, of course, but within the confines of Lily’s own head, they took on a new form. James, always in the periphery of the dream, was now tortured, even killed in front of her; other nights the dream dragged in people who hadn’t even been there--Sirius had made a few appearances, as had Mary and Remus, Marlene and Alice, and even, on occasion, her parents. Every night, she watched someone die.

She knew it was a dream, too, that was the part that irked her most about it--it was a dream, but she couldn’t force herself out of it. And when she did finally wake it was sudden, her eyes flying open, her skin clammy with sweat, the blue light of early morning and the sleeping bodies of the other girls all around her.

What Lily did not know--could not know, in fact, because neither of them was talking about it--was that on the other side of Gryffindor Tower, James awoke each morning in much the same way. His nightmares weren’t quite like hers, but each night he relived that afternoon as he remembered it. Helpless, he watched Lily struggle beneath the weight of the Cruciatus Curse, and when she screamed, he could do nothing but scream with her.

Not since that first night back had they discussed the events at the Lestrange manor. Two full weeks had gone by since the end of the Easter holidays, and the seventh-years were finally feeling the weight of their upcoming N.E.W.T.s. If James and Lily both appeared subdued, it was easily chalked up to stress and worry at the approach of the end of their final year at Hogwarts. Even Sirius, noticing the dark circles under their eyes, kept quiet.

He’d had some news of his own in the past week, although he’d kept that to himself as well. Really, he thought, somewhat irritably, as he sat alone one morning at breakfast, I’m bound to go mute from lack of practice if the atmosphere around here doesn’t liven up. And silent is not how I intend to spend my final days here.

Sirius, however, was nothing if not optimistic, and the letter he was clutching in his hands was only adding to his increasingly mischievous mood. He reread it, smiling broadly, and then looked up as Remus sat down across from him. At least, Sirius could only assume it was Remus--he was carrying a stack of books so high that they obscured his face.

â€�“Is that you in there, Moony?” he asked, peering around the books.

â€�“Think so,” came the muffled reply. A second later, Remus had pushed the books aside and blinked owlishly at him. He had a quill in his mouth and his hair was sticking up in the back.

Sirius laughed at him. â€�“You look like James,” he said. â€�“And why are you eating your quill? There’s plenty of breakfast.”

Remus spat the quill out and placed it gingerly on the pile of books. â€�“I’m not eating it,” he said delicately. â€�“My bag split on the way down and I didn’t have enough hands. Pass the bacon, will you?” As Sirius did so, Remus added, â€�“And speaking of James, where is everyone?”

â€�“Peter was here earlier,” Sirius said. â€�“But he ran off to see Professor Flitwick about something. I think he’s worried about his Charms N.E.W.T. And James was still asleep when I left--I let him, he’s been looking a little tired recently.”

He said this last part carefully, looking curiously at Remus, but Remus only said, â€�“Has he?” vaguely, while trying to navigate his breakfast around his books.

â€�“Where have you been, anyway?” Sirius asked.

Remus swallowed a mouthful of pumpkin juice. â€�“I was in the--”

â€�“Library,” Sirius finished for him, grinning. â€�“I don’t know why I asked.”

Remus made a face at him. Sirius grimaced back, and then began folding up his letter. â€�“What’s that?” Remus asked, nodded at it.

â€�“Letter from home,” Sirius said, tucking it away.

Remus furrowed his brow in confusion. â€�“Bad news?” he asked.

â€�“Not exactly,” said Sirius. â€�“Don’t worry. You’ll find out soon.”

â€�“Why is it,” Remus said unhappily, â€�“that every time you tell me not to worry about something, worrying is the first thing I do?”

Sirius grinned.

---

Up in the dormitory, James awoke quite suddenly to the touch of something cool on the side of his face.

Blinking at the light in the room, he fumbled for his watch, squinted at it, and then swore as he realized he had overslept. Despite that, he was exhausted; he wanted nothing more than to bury his head beneath his pillow and fall into a dreamless sleep.

Groaning, he rolled over and felt that brush of coolness, this time against the back of his neck. Startled, he sat straight upright, turning to look behind him. On his pillow lay the diminutive form of the Golden Snitch.

James looked over at his bedside table, frowning. The drawer where he kept the Snitch was once more ajar. Behind him, the Snitch whirred and rose into the air to hover beside his ear. At the foot of his bed, Jinx sat up, her eyes following the small golden ball.

James looked from the Snitch to his open drawer. â€�“Are you doing that?” he asked the Snitch, which hummed at him and began to fly in lazy circles around his head. Watching it, he felt strangely relaxed--the calmest he’d felt in weeks, actually--although Jinx seemed to be getting rather worked up.

He reached out a hand and snatched the ball from the air. When he opened his palm, however, it didn’t dart away. Instead, it lay there vibrating lightly against his skin as he looked at it.

Odd, he thought, sliding out of his bed and getting to his feet. Slowly, he began getting ready for class. Once dressed, however, he didn’t shut the Snitch back inside his drawer. Instead, he slid it into his pocket and left the dormitory behind him.

â€�“James. Wake up. Wake up! We have to go!”

James sat bolt upright, suddenly panicked. â€�“Whasgoinon?” he asked, blinking and bleary-eyed. â€�“Is it Transfiguration? Did I miss it? Did I--”

â€�“Calm down,” said Sirius, looking amused. â€�“N.E.W.T.s aren’t for another week. Although you,” he paused, fishing out a book from beneath James’s pillow and looking at it with disgust, â€�“fell asleep studying again. Really Prongs? Books in bed?”

But James had stopped listening to him, flopping over and tugging his pillow over his head. â€�“Then why,” he asked in a muffled voice, â€�“am I awake right now, Padfoot?”

â€�“Because,” Sirius said, poking him insistently, â€�“I have something to show you.”

James sat up again, reaching for his glasses. Squinting around Sirius, he said, â€�“The sun isn’t even up yet. There’s no reason I should be.”

Sirius just looked at him, eyes wide.

â€�“No,” James said firmly, burying his head in his pillow again. â€�“Don’t look at me like that.”

A moment later, he peeked out to see Sirius still looking mournfully at him.

â€�“Okay,” James groaned, rolling to his feet. Sirius beamed at him, watching impatiently as he pulled on his socks.

â€�“It’s worth it,” he assured him.

â€�“Better be,” James muttered. â€�“Should we wake those two up?”

Sirius glanced at the shapes that were the sleeping Remus and Peter and shook his head. â€�“Nah,” he said. â€�“I want you to see it first.”

â€�“I’m so touched,” James said dryly, and got to his feet.

Sirius was positively dancing around him with excitement as they slipped out of the common room. â€�“Where are we going, anyway?” James asked, yawning and stretching his arms above his head.

â€�“Outside,” Sirius said cheerfully, and James gave him a dirty look. â€�“What?” Sirius protested. â€�“It’s not that cold out. Just a little damp.”

â€�“I hate you,” James said.

The sun was just beginning to rise when they walked out onto the grounds, mist rising faintly from the grass. James grumbled as the dew from the damp grass soaked through his shoes, but Sirius seemed impervious to anything that would dampen his spirits.

â€�“All right,” he told James. â€�“Remember, a few months ago, Regulus told me that my uncle Alphard died?”

â€�“Yep,” said James. â€�“Didn’t he try to leave you money?”

â€�“Actually,” Sirius said, â€�“he successfully left me money.”

â€�“Oh yeah?” James said, his interest piqued. â€�“How much?”

â€�“Enough,” Sirius admitted. â€�“Enough to live on for awhile, actually.”

James stopped dead, and Sirius walked a few paces past him before realizing and turning around.

â€�“So,” James asked slowly, â€�“does that mean you…”

â€�“Won’t be living with you anymore?” Sirius finished for him, dropping in energy slightly. â€�“It could. I’ve got to leave the nest sometime, you know?”

â€�“Yeah,” James said. â€�“But…wow. My parents will miss you desperately.”

â€�“I know,” Sirius said. â€�“They’ll be losing their favorite child!”

James groaned and punched him lightly in the arm. â€�“They’ll get over it eventually, I’m sure,” he said. â€�“Do you know where you’ll go instead?”

Sirius shrugged. â€�“No, but none of us really do,” he said. â€�“Who knows, maybe we’ll all be living in a flat in London next year!”

James shuddered. â€�“We have another month left,” he said. â€�“I don’t need to think about the real world yet.”

â€�“Good man,” Sirius said. â€�“And speaking of idle fantasies…I couldn’t resist using a little of Uncle Alphard’s money for something a little more…fun.”

James looked up. â€�“What, did you buy Hagrid’s house from him?” he asked, as they approached the gamekeeper’s home.

Sirius rolled his eyes. â€�“No,” he said. â€�“Hagrid’s just letting me stow it back here. And…voilà!” He grabbed James arm and darted forward, yanking him just behind Hagrid’s house.

James looked at him, open-mouthed. â€�“That,” he said slowly, suddenly wide-awake, â€�“appears to be a motorcycle.”

Sirius beamed. â€�“Isn’t she beautiful?”

Several thoughts chased themselves through James’s head--it was impetuous, it was a waste of money, there was no way Sirius wasn’t going to get caught on the grounds with this--but when he opened his mouth, all he heard himself say was, â€�“When can I have a go, then?”

â€�“Not until after I do!” Sirius said indignantly. â€�“And here’s the best part--she flies.”

â€�“Come again?” James said, turning towards him.

â€�“You heard me,” Sirius nodded. â€�“Flies. In fact--” he paused to casually dust off one of his shoulders, â€�“I bet we could take you on your broomstick.”

James planted his hands on his hips. â€�“That sounds like a challenge.”

â€�“I’d even put money on it.”

â€�“You watch yourself,” James said, pointing at him, â€�“because you’re on.”

---

Lily woke suddenly that morning, feeling as exhausted as she had when she went to sleep. Sighing, she rolled onto her side, rubbing her eyes and shaking herself out of the last vestiges of the usual nightmare. Focus on something else, she told herself firmly, and her mind landed on N.E.W.T.s. They were a week away still, but the seventh years, like the fifth years and their O.W.L.s, could think of little else. Transfiguration, she thought, concentrating on what was sure to be one of the most difficult tests. I can start with that today.

This routine, carefully organizing her day, helped her steady herself in the morning after so many restless nights. She brushed one hand back against her still-clammy forehead and sat up, in control.

When she drew back the hangings of her bed, she found herself face-to-face with Leda Wood.

Lily blinked, not sure what to say. Her contact with Leda over the past several months had been all but nonexistent, but not the other girl was standing in front of her, arms folded tightly, looking a little uncomfortable.

â€�“Hi,” Lily said cautiously. Biting her lip, Leda rocked forward onto the balls of her feet, but said nothing. Lily waited for a breath, then shrugged, and started to step around her.

â€�“It’s okay,” Leda said suddenly, ad Lily turned back towards her.

â€�“Excuse me?”

â€�“You’ve been having nightmares,” Leda said matter-of-factly. â€�“I can tell.”

â€�“I don’t see,” Lily said stiffly, â€�“how that’s any of your business, but--”

â€�“It’s normal,” Leda interrupted her, and for a moment, Lily just looked at her in stunned silence. â€�“I don’t know exactly what happened to you--no one does, there’s just a rumor going around that you were in some sort of fight over the holidays--but I recognize the signs. I did some research on the Cruciatus Curse last…last term, and, well, the nightmares are normal.”

Feeling suddenly ashamed of herself, Lily sank down onto the edge of her bed. â€�“I forgot,” she whispered, because she had--with everything that had happened recently, she had forgotten that Leda herself had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse in the Shrieking Shack.

Leda did not meet her eyes. â€�“I didn’t.”

â€�“I’m sorry,” Lily said as honestly as she could, and now it was Leda’s turn to shrug.

â€�“It’s fine,” she said. â€�“I got over it. But I just figured someone should tell you--Sirius wouldn’t be able to. Annabelle told me that they roughed him up, but they didn’t use the Cruciatus Curse on him, which means he wouldn’t know…”

Leda exhaled, looking out the window, and then came to sit gingerly on the bed beside Lily. â€�“Here’s the thing about the Cruciatus Curse,” she said. â€�“It doesn’t technically cause any physical harm--it targets pain receptors in the mind, and simulates intense torture. And that’s why you don’t get used to it ever. But also it means it’s not targeting your body, it’s targeting your brain. And that means there can be side effects. The nightmares are one of them. And I’ve heard stories…if you’re exposed long enough, the curse can make you go insane. So. The nightmares are normal.”

Lily nodded. â€�“Thank you,” she said, although the words felt inadequate.

Leda stood to go, but stopped suddenly and turned back to look at Lily. â€�“We’re not really friends, are we?” she said.

Wondering where this was going, but not wanting to lie, Lily simply shook her head.

â€�“That’s okay,” Leda said, â€�“I don’t really want to be. I know we’ve never liked each other much”--Lily felt it would not be prudent to point out the reasons for this--â€�“and that’s fine. But about the curse…I just thought you should know. And I won’t tell anyone.”

And without another word, she turned and walked from the room, leaving Lily feeling a little stunned but still, somehow, more at peace.

---

They were sitting at a table in the library, studying for Transfiguration, when the Snitch again made an appearance.

They were all sitting together, but no one was really talking; at one end, Remus was demonstrating wand movements for Peter while Sirius, having been convinced to open a book, was nose-deep, looking fascinated.

Lily, frowning as she flipped through her Herbology book, was becoming slowly distracted by James. He seemed to be distracted himself; he was looking around the library nervously, muttering under his breath, and every once in a while, his hand would jump to his pocket. After ten or so minutes of this, Lily set down her quill, twisted towards him, and said, â€�“James, what is it, precisely, that you’re doing?”

Startled, he looked up at her, blinking guiltily, his hands going slack at his side, and in his moment of distraction, the Golden Snitch flew out of his pocket. He swore and grabbed for it, but it darted out of his reach to hover beside Lily’s cheek.

James cast a fleeting look around the library, but their altercation did not seem to have attracted much attention. Even at their own table, Remus and Peter remained completely absorbed in their low conversation, while Sirius serenely turned a page of his book.

â€�“Grab it!” James hissed at Lily, his eyes on the Snitch. It was so close to her face that she could feel the air vibrate as its wings worked. Gingerly, she reached a hand up towards it, expecting it to zip away again, but much to her surprise, it whirred softly forward and dropped into her hand.

â€�“No fair,” James grumbled. â€�“It likes you better.”

She grinned at him. â€�“Not much of a Seeker, are you?” she teased.

â€�“I handle bigger balls!” James protested.

Across the table, Sirius snorted loudly. They both looked at him, having been unaware that he was listening. â€�“What?” he said unapologetically.

Lily closed her fingers around the Snitch, liking the weight of it in her palm. â€�“What’s going on with this thing?” she asked.

James shrugged. â€�“I don’t know, it’s been going haywire lately,” he said. â€�“Trying to get out of the drawer, rattling everything, scaring Jinx…I just figured I’d bring it with me, but now it’s acting up here as well.”

â€�“It’s probably,” Sirius said, sticking his quill in his book to mark the page, â€�“just the flesh memory.”

Both Lily and James turned quizzically towards him. â€�“The what?” Lily asked, suppressing a laugh, while at the same time, James tilted his head.

â€�“Isn’t that a Seeker thing?” he asked.

â€�“No, it’s a Snitch thing,” Sirius said patiently.

â€�“And since when do you know Quidditch terms anyway?” James said, furrowing his brow.

Sirius sighed. â€�“I don’t, really,” he said. â€�“But my stupid brother is Seeker on the Slytherin team, you know, and he’s a right pompous little twerp, dryer than his broomstick. I was still living at home when he became Seeker and over the holidays he bored us all silly--well, me anyway--with the dullest, most obscure Quidditch facts ever.”

â€�“Including flesh memory,” James nodded.

â€�“Including flesh memory,” Sirius agreed.

Lily looked back and forth between the two of them as the Snitch hummed in her hand. â€�“But what is flesh memory?” she asked.

â€�“It’s a thing Snitches have,” Sirius waved a hand at her. â€�“No one, not even the maker, touches a Snitch with bare hands, only the Seekers do that. It’s in case the result of a match is contested or a Seeker fumbles or two of them get there at the same time. But basically, it means the Snitch remembers who has touched it.”

Lily felt a sudden chill down her spine, and she tightened her fingers around the small golden ball in her hand.

â€�“There’s a lot of magic that goes into a Snitch,” Sirius continued, rather warmly for someone who claimed to have found the subject dull. â€�“And people don’t tend to keep them. I don’t know what would happen if that flesh memory charm was extended--I mean, you were the first person to touch it, Lily, that might have something to do with why it still hangs around.”

â€�“We practically grabbed it at the same time,” James said sullenly.

â€�“That’s flesh memory for you,” Sirius said, grinning wickedly. â€�“I just think it’s funny that you have that thing in the library, especially when there are still all those rumors about it from October.”

â€�“Are there really?” Lily asked curiously.

â€�“Oh, yeah,” said Sirius. â€�“Just the other day I heard a couple of second years talking about how they thought they saw it zoom into the Great Hall with the post owls. As far as everyone else knows, it could be…could be anywhere…”

His eyes had suddenly glazed over, and a slow grin was beginning to unfurl on his face.

â€�“Hit me with it,” James said, looking at him closely.

â€�“With what?” Sirius asked innocently.

â€�“Whatever harebrained thought you just had,” James said, but he was smiling.

â€�“Oh,” Sirius said. â€�“Oh, I think I just figured out what our last, great prank is going to be.”

He stared dramatically off over their heads.

James and Lily exchanged a glance. Then, a beat later, Lily asked, â€�“Well? Are you going to tell us?”

He told them.

For a moment, they just started at him. Then Lily shook her head. â€�“You will never pull that off,” she said. â€�“Not in the amount of time we have left, not with exams!”

But James’s whole face had lit up. â€�“No,” he said. â€�“No, it needs a lot of planning, but I think we can make it work,” he said. â€�“It’s just…I mean, with everything that has happened, and of course with exams and everything…are you sure that now’s the best time for this, Padfoot?”

â€�“Of course it is,” Sirius said. â€�“But even if it wasn’t, it’s the only time we have left, isn’t it?”

Lily shuddered. â€�“I get so wrapped up in studying for exams,” she said, â€�“that I forget we won’t be here anymore after they’re over.”

â€�“All the more reason to go out with a bang,” Sirius said bracingly. He caught James’s eye and said, more quietly, â€�“We can do this.”

James looked back at him for a long moment and then seemed to come to a sudden decision. Decisively, he slammed his book shut, making Lily jump. At the other end of the table, Remus blinked blearily up at them, but said nothing.

â€�“Let’s go fly,” James said, almost feverishly.

â€�“What?” yelped Lily. â€�“You can’t seriously be--exams are less than a week away!”

Sirius, who looked as suddenly restless as James, said, â€�“Ah, come off it Lily, we take exams every year and they aren’t ever as bad as we think they’ll be.”

â€�“But…but,” Lily protested, â€�“these aren’t normal exams, they’re N.E.W.T.s! Remember O.W.L.s? These will be worse.”

â€�“Oh, I don’t know,” James said, glancing at Sirius. â€�“I don’t remember O.W.L.s being that bad, actually.”

â€�“Besides,” Sirius added, â€�“We’ve got our O.W.L.s, and we know what we’re doing next year--we’re working for Dumbledore! Who needs N.E.W.T.s for that?”

Lily looked at them both, dumbfounded.

â€�“Aw, Lil,” James said, ruffling her hair as he stood. â€�“Don’t look so worried. We can study while we fly.”

Sirius, who had risen to his feet as well, tossed his book aside and cast a look over the bent heads of studying students. â€�“Merlin,” he muttered. â€�“I hate the library.”

Then he and James again caught each other’s eyes, and without another word but with twin expressions of glee on their faces, they bolted from the library. A few heads turned as they ran past, but most people were so engrossed in their studying that they didn’t look up.

â€�“Have a nice time,” Remus said vaguely from the end of the table, once again absorbed in his book.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lily gathered her own books and left the library as well, albeit at a much slower pace.

---

To Lily’s everlasting surprise, the Quidditch pitch turned out to be a most effective study place. Spring had well and truly arrived, and the sun was almost aggressive in its persistence. Away from the desperation that lingered in the library, as it always did during exam time, Lily was able to spread across the stands, her quill in her mouth as she pored over lists of Potions ingredients and practiced Transfiguration wand movements. Above her, James and Sirius swooped across the sky, calling out the definitions of Charms spells to each other. Sometimes, Mary Macdonald or Alice Rourke would join Lily in the stands to study, and once she and Remus spent an entire afternoon beneath the stands, brewing potions over a fire he had conjured.

She was alone, however, on the afternoon before the exams were set to begin. Down on the Quidditch pitch, James and Sirius had abandoned their brooms and were having a mock duel--practice, they had told her, for the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical, although she suspected they just liked cursing each other. Lily was reading the definition of a Conjuring Spell for what felt like the thousandth time when she became aware that she was not, perhaps, as alone as she had thought.

It was a quick movement off to her side that caught her eye, like the twitch of a cloak. She glanced over to see an angular, black-haired Slytherin sitting several rows away from her, watching James and Sirius intently. For one bewildering moment, she thought he was Severus, but when she looked more closely, she saw that this was a different boy, at least several years too young. Still, though, he looked familiar. She squinted at him, and as though he felt her gaze, he turned suddenly to face her, and she recognized him.

Lily hadn’t had many encounters with Sirius’s brother; the only time she had seen him, really, had been during his conversation with Sirius in the Great Hall so many months ago. But as Regulus Black looked at her now, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him instantly. He was not, by any means, Sirius’s lookalike--Regulus was smaller and somewhat less attractive, although Lily would never admit that to Sirius--but the family resemblance was striking, especially around the eyes.

Lily expected Regulus to sneer and turn away, the standard Slytherin-and-Gryffindor interaction. To her surprise, however, he stood and walked down the rows before depositing himself into a seat just two away from hers.

â€�“That’s my broom he’s got,” Regulus said, nodding towards Sirius who, having swung a leg over the broomstick once more, was now flying in mad circles around the Quidditch pitch while James chased him on foot, shooting spells wildly and laughing. â€�“And he can’t fly it worth a damn.”

Even Lily, who didn’t know much about Quidditch, could admit that this was true; Sirius was zigzagging spectacularly across the field, and slipping off one side of the broom.

â€�“I’ve seen better flyers,” she said noncommittally. â€�“Nice of you to let him borrow it.”

Regulus snorted. â€�“Hardly,” he said. â€�“He must’ve stolen it out of the broom shed. I didn’t even know he had it. He takes everything without asking.”

Lily grinned despite herself, feeling a sudden younger-sibling kinship. â€�“Yeah,” she said. â€�“My older sister used to take my stuff all the time.”

Regulus looked sideway at her, with a shrewdness that seemed beyond his years. â€�“You’re Lily, aren’t you?” he said, and she nodded. â€�“I’ve heard all about you.”

â€�“From Sirius?” Lily asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

Regulus snorted again. â€�“Definitely not,” he said scornfully, but did not elaborate.

Not quite sure how to respond to this, Lily said nothing. Unbothered, Regulus leaned forward, his chin in his hands, watching as James, who had now mounted his own broom, crouched low against the handle, overtaking Sirius easily. Whooping, he looped lightly through the air, and Lily smiled.

â€�“Now that one, he can fly, although I’m sure you know that,” Regulus said approvingly. â€�“I know I’m supposed to hate him, since he’s James Potter and everything, but I have to have at least a little respect for a man who can fly like that.”

â€�“You’re the Slytherin Seeker, aren’t you?” Lily said.

Regulus looked over at her again. â€�“So you’ve heard of me, too,” he said.

Lily was spared responding to this by the sudden arrival of James and Sirius. They skidded into the stands on either side of Lily, James leaping lightly off his broom at her side. Sirius tumbled off his a bit less gracefully, turning towards his brother.

â€�“Hi, Reg,” he said. â€�“You got my note?”

â€�“No,” said Regulus, sounding bored. â€�“I came out here for my own entertainment. And that,” he reached out and snatched the broomstick from Sirius’s hand, â€�“is mine.”

â€�“Oh,” Sirius said. â€�“Right. Sorry. You mind?”

Regulus merely rolled his eyes. â€�“So?” he said after a moment. â€�“I’m here because?”

â€�“Well,” Sirius said, sweeping his hair out of his eyes and grinning, â€�“I need your help.”

â€�“This should be good,” Regulus muttered.

Lily turned towards James, who was rubbing at a spot on his broom handle and paying the brothers no mind. â€�“Do you know what’s going on?” she asked him in an undertone. â€�“Is this about the prank that Sirius wants to do?”

James looked at her and nodded. â€�“We’re still hammering out the details and everything,” he said, â€�“but the fact of the matter is, if this prank is going to work, we’re going to need a little help from the Slytherins. And Regulus is our best connection.”

â€�“It’s going to be a miracle if we pull this off,” Lily said.

â€�“We?” James grinned.

â€�“Oh, hell,” Lily said, closing her Transfiguration book emphatically. â€�“You didn’t really think you’d do this without me, did you?”

His grin broadening, James leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. â€�“I love you,” he said.

â€�“You’d better,” she teased, â€�“since I’m letting you distract me this much from studying.”

As suddenly and as excitedly as he did anything, James leapt to his feet, pulling her with him. Before she realized what was happening, his broomstick was in her hands.

â€�“Come on,” he said. â€�“Those two will be bickering for awhile. Take a study break. Come fly with me.”

Warily, she eyed the broom. â€�“What, exactly,” she asked him, â€�“do you think I’m going to say to this?”

â€�“I,” James said, â€�“think you’re going to complain about it, and then you’re going to get on that broom to prove a point. Besides, you really should get more comfortable up there.”

Lily scowled at him, and he laughed. â€�“There’s only the one broom,” she felt obliged to point out.

â€�“You can take mine.”

They both turned in surprise as Regulus spoke. Not looking at either of them, seeming engaged in his conversation with Sirius, he tossed his broom at James, who caught it, looking startled.

â€�“Well,” James said after a minute, â€�“that solves that problem.” And he hopped onto the broomstick and pushed off into the sky.

For a second, Lily watched him, feeling a strange prick of envy as he spiraled effortlessly through the air. It looked easy when he did it, it looked wonderful—if only she could set aside her fear of heights.

â€�“Coming?”

James, realizing she was not with him, had looped back, and was now hovering a few feet in front of her. Suddenly determined--as he had known she would be--Lily swung a leg over the broom she was holding and met his gaze.

â€�“I guess I am,” she said, and pushed off into the air.

The fact that Sirius Black had been spotted studying was a source of some rather frantic gossip among the younger students. That someone with such notorious disdain for the library had been seen bent over piles of parchment late into the night caused a kind of panic among the fifth-years in particular, who were in the midst of their O.W.L.s. O.W.L.s were difficult enough, the general opinion was--if even Sirius Black was studying for N.E.W.T.s, how much more difficult must they be?

But the rumors surrounding Sirius’s strange, uncharacteristic behavior dissolved into a perplexed silence when he continued even after exams had ended. With just days to go before the end of term, most students were spending their sudden free time outside, soaking up sun and dipping their toes in the lake. James, for his part, was doing just that--he’d wandered out to the lake earlier and passed a good chunk of the afternoon with Peter, lying on their stomachs at the edge of the lake and teasing the giant squid, who had swum curiously into the shallows.

Behind them, Remus and Lily were fervently discussing their Potions N.E.W.T., the last of the year. â€�“I thought it went well!” Lily was saying. â€�“No surprises, really.”

â€�“No,” Remus agreed. â€�“We were prepared. I do wish I hadn’t completely lost my head during the antidotes section.”

â€�“Don’t worry,” Lily assured him. â€�“You did fine, and who doesn’t at least temporarily lose their head about testing poisons?”

â€�“Hopefully,” Remus said dryly, â€�“not while trying to save someone who’s been poisoned.”

â€�“If I hear the word ‘poison’ one more time…” James said, getting to his feet. Behind him, the giant squid slid one long tentacle out of the lake and flicked it around his ankle, causing him to fall flat on his face. Peter snickered as the tentacle retreated back into the lake.

â€�“See if I ever give you my extra toast again,” James grumbled at it, but a faint ripple in the water was the only response.

â€�“You probably won’t,” Peter pointed out, â€�“since we’re leaving for good in a couple days.”

â€�“Wormtail!” James and Remus said together, looking horrified.

â€�“What?” Peter asked indignantly. â€�“It’s true. N.E.W.T.s are over now and everything!”

â€�“Well, yes, but,” James said, â€�“yes, but…”

â€�“He’s got a point, boys,” Lily said, her eyes bright. â€�“Just a few days left. It might be time to face the music.”

â€�“No,” said James stubbornly, folding his arms. â€�“I will accept we are going when we are actually gone.” And he flopped over sideways into the grass.

Lily walked over and patted him sympathetically on the head. â€�“Well,” she said, â€�“I’m off anyway. I said I’d meet Mary.”

James stretched his arms over his head as she spoke. â€�“I’ll walk you in,” he yawned. â€�“I’ve got to find Padfoot anyway.”

â€�“It’s weird to see him working so much,” Peter shook his head. â€�“Even if it is on a prank.”

James nodded fervently. â€�“You’ll be in tonight after dinner?” he asked. â€�“I think he wanted to go over the plan.”

Peter and Remus nodded together, and James jumped again to his feet and began walking towards the castle with Lily.

â€�“Sirius really is putting a lot of work into this thing, isn’t he?” she said as they walked.

â€�“Yeah,” James said. â€�“But he must feel like he has to. It is his last hurrah, after all.”

â€�“So,” Lily grinned, â€�“it’s the Sirius Black version of N.E.W.T.s?”

â€�“Exactly,” James said.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, before Lily turned towards him, her brow furrowed.

â€�“What’s up?” he asked.

â€�“Are you really not thinking about leaving?” she asked.

â€�“Is leaving all you think about?” James countered lightly. But as Lily continued to stare at him unblinkingly, he sighed. â€�“Well, of course it’s crossed my mind,” he said. â€�“But it’s hard to think about, you know?”

â€�“Sure,” Lily said. â€�“But you might miss things if you don’t face it head on.”

â€�“Like what?” James asked curiously.

Lily shrugged. â€�“Well,” she said, â€�“you said this prank is Sirius’s last hurrah. What will yours be?”

James halted, blinking at her in surprise, and she smiled softly. â€�“Just a thought,” she said, then kissed him lightly on the cheek and disappeared into the castle. He watched her walk away, lost in thought, before finally setting off to look for Sirius.

He found him, finally, in the Gryffindor common room, bleary-eyed and squinting at a sheaf of notes. Cutting through a knot of twitchy-looking fifth-years, James approached the table, clapping Sirius on the shoulder. Sirius jumped, looking up at him.

â€�“Oh, hi.”

â€�“Hi,” James said, amused. â€�“You haven’t left this table in days, have you?”

â€�“Oh, that’s not fair,” Sirius yawned. â€�“I took my exams, didn’t I? At least I think I did…”

â€�“You should come outside,” James advised him. â€�“Spend some time with us. You know, while--”

Sirius held up a hand. â€�“Please, don’t finish that sentence with ‘while we still can.’”

James grinned.

â€�“Besides,” Sirius continued, sitting up straight and stacking his notes, â€�“you won’t have much time to be lounging around outside anymore. You have jobs to do!”

â€�“You finished?” James asked, his eyes lighting up.

â€�“I did,” Sirius said somewhat smugly. â€�“I will assign you all your tasks tonight, when we are all together.”

â€�“No fair!” James yelped, hitting him on the shoulder. â€�“I’m supposed to be your best friend! We share everything.”

â€�“Not true,” Sirius said mildly. â€�“We don’t, for example, share Lily.”

â€�“Hey,” James growled. â€�“Watch it.”

But Sirius merely laughed.

James scowled at him for a second, but then continued persistently, â€�“You know our pranks always work out better when both of us look them over.”

Sirius looked unconvinced.

â€�“Come on,” James wheedled. â€�“It’s still your baby. I’m just a second pair of eyes.”

â€�“Well,” Sirius conceded, â€�“it is an awfully large endeavor.”

â€�“Yes!” James said giddily, and almost habitually they both bent forward.

â€�“All right,” Sirius began, moving stacks of his notes around. â€�“I have this organized by person--we all have different jobs…”

When Remus and Peter came in that evening, followed some time later by Lily, they found James and Sirius still leaning over the table, deeply and almost feverishly in discussion.

---

The night before the Leaving Feast, the five of them met in the Gryffindor common room, some time after midnight for the last phase of preparations. Peter, who was normally jittery before a prank, seemed remarkably calm. When Remus asked him about it, Peter shrugged. â€�“What are they going to do if they catch us, chuck us out?” he asked. â€�“We’re leaving tomorrow anyway.”

Sirius looked rather disappointed.

â€�“Don’t worry,” James consoled him. â€�“This is such a large-scale prank, it’ll be a miracle if it works out at all!” And Sirius brightened considerably.

â€�“It’ll be a miracle alone if the Slytherins cooperate,” Lily muttered, and James elbowed her in the side.

â€�“To business!” Sirius cried, clapping his hands. â€�“You all have your assignments?”

They all nodded, although Lily rolled her eyes in the process. James elbowed her again.

Sirius was now pacing across the floor in front of them. â€�“There is the matter,” he said, â€�“of the Invisibility Cloak. Since we’re not all going together, we can’t, of course, all take the cloak. Wormtail doesn’t need, and Moony has the map, so that knocks them off. I’m staying in the castle, and I’m fairly confident I can get around without any…apparatuses. Which leaves the two of you,” he finished, looking at James and Lily.

â€�“Lily should take it, of course,” James said gallantly.

But she was laughing. â€�“I don’t think so,” she said, holding up a hand as he began to protest. â€�“You have to go out onto the grounds, which is a lot riskier than just running around the castle. Besides, it matters less if I get caught--I’m Head Girl, my record is clean, and Filch doesn’t have it out for me the way he does for you.”

Sirius looked at James. â€�“She has a point,” he said. â€�“Several, actually.”

James sighed, but smiled. â€�“She always does,” he said fondly, and Lily wrinkled her nose at him.

â€�“Well, now that that’s taken care of…” Sirius said. â€�“First battalion, to your stations!”

And Peter transformed into the small brown rat. Remus knelt and scooped him up, perching him on his shoulder. Then, the Marauder’s Map clutched in one hand, Remus winked and pushed out of the portrait hole. Sirius saluted him smartly.

â€�“Can you imagine Sirius having children?” Lily whispered to James. â€�“He’ll be setting them up to wage war on each other before they even know how to walk.”

â€�“His poor future wife,” James agreed. â€�“It’s going to be a madhouse.”

Lily giggled, and Sirius turned towards them, frowning. â€�“Now, children,” he chided, and Lily doubled over in another fit of laughter. James, straight-faced, patted her on the back.

â€�“Stop that,” Sirius said. â€�“I’m worried enough as it is--you are our weakest link, after all.”

â€�“What?” Lily yelped, sitting up indignantly. â€�“I am not!”

â€�“Lily, Lily,” Sirius said, clapping a hand on her shoulder. â€�“When people have been making mischief together as long as the four of us have, the whole process becomes a well-oiled machine. Throw in someone new--even someone as capable as you--and it has the potential to mess everything up.”

â€�“You know, I have done this before,” Lily muttered.

â€�“Not on this scale,” Sirius persisted. â€�“And I feel nervous enough sending you to the kitchens…that’s James’s place, usually…”

â€�“Relax, Padfoot,” James said, as Lily opened her mouth to retaliate. â€�“Lily’s been down there before, they like her just fine--better by far, actually, than they like you. Besides, Blinken knows she’s coming, it’ll work out nicely.”

â€�“Okay,” Sirius said, suddenly meek. â€�“It’s just a very important part of the plan!”

â€�“I know,” James said soothingly. â€�“And Lily knows. And it’ll be just fine.”

â€�“It better be,” Sirius said, mock-stern, shaking his finger at them. â€�“Now let’s do it. We’ve a lot of ground to cover tonight.” And he marched through the portrait hole.

Alone in the common room, Lily turned to face James, who winced.

â€�“I know, I know,” he said, holding up his hands. â€�“You can fight your own battles, you don’t need me to handle Sirius for you, I’m sorry--”

â€�“No,” Lily interrupted him, and he saw that she was smiling faintly. â€�“Actually, I was only going to say--that was rather Head Boy of you.”

â€�“Oh,” James said, taken aback. â€�“Well.” He offered her his arm. â€�“Shall we?”

She took it. â€�“Why not.”

---

Peter scurried down a bench in the Great Hall, his bald tail whipping wildly in the torchlight, feeling almost giddy. Running around the castle as a rat had its own dangers--no cats tonight yet, thankfully--but somehow, they seemed farther away. He was never as afraid of things as a rat. He was smaller, quicker, more cunning. Nothing could touch him.

â€�“Seven,” he thought as he ran along the bench, â€�“eight, nine…” Abruptly, he stopped, rose once onto his hind legs, and then scratched a small, deep X into the bench with his claws.

From the beginning, there was no doubt that this job was to be Peter’s. It was not only because he could make himself small--it was that figures and diagrams simply stuck in his head. When they were making the Marauders’ Map, he had been of little help with the magic of the thing, but he had been meticulous in the initial steps, in plotting out the places of the castle they knew. And it was with that same plodding focus that he now moved his way down the benches, steadily marking the places he had memorized.

---

Remus, for his part, still felt that faint thrill at breaking the rules as he stole through the dark corridors. It wasn’t, of course, as though he had never snuck out at night--indeed, half his life seemed to be spent sneaking. But it was a school-sanctioned sort of sneaking, a means to an end. And often, when Sirius and James and Peter did sneak around, it was usually to the Shrieking Shack at the full moon, to see Remus himself. And so wandering around the castle, alone, was still unfamiliar for him, still exciting.

He ducked into an alcove as soon as he was some distance from the Great Hall and Peter. â€�“Lumos,” he murmured, and then, unfurling the map in his hand by wandlight, â€�“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

He scanned the map for a moment, finding, just for nostalgia’s sake, Peter’s dot running back and forth in the Great Hall, and James moving out onto the grounds. Lily he found at the kitchens, and after a moment, he located Sirius near the dungeons. Finally, his eyes landed on his own dot; he beamed at it, and did an impromptu little jig, watching his dot jump about on the page. Then he collected himself and settled down to business.

The map crumpled loosely in his hand, he stepped out into the corridor, his wand brightly lit. He’d only walked a few paces when a sudden movement on the map snagged his eye; frowning slightly, he muttered, â€�“Mischief Managed!” to wipe it just as a voice behind him cried â€�“Oi! You! Stop right there!”

---

Lily reached the kitchens with much speed and little trouble, and got through them with more of the same. The house-elves, remembering her favorably due to her association with James, were helpful and alert, and Sirius’s directions were so thorough that there was next to no confusion at all. And so when Lily slipped through the painting of fruit that disguised the entrance to the kitchens, it was with the feeling that her night of mischief--and her last night at Hogwarts--could not be over quite yet.

She was expecting the journey to the grounds to be rather more difficult than her jaunt through the darkened corridors, but much to her relief, she encountered neither caretaker nor ghost as she finally pressed quietly out into the cool June air. James’s task, she knew, was slated to take a bit longer than hers, and she hoped he was still where he was supposed to be.

She was not disappointed. She found him standing in the broomshed, some ways from the Quidditch pitch, scrutinizing the wall of brooms before him. Lily knocked purposefully into the wall, rattling a few of the brooms, and James whipped around, his wand in his hand. Lily laughed and went to him, now brushing playfully into his side. â€�“Going to hex me?” she asked.

â€�“Sorry,” James said bashfully, lowering his wand. â€�“Wasn’t expecting to see you here, though!”

Lily shrugged. â€�“I finished up in the kitchens pretty quickly,” she said. â€�“Didn’t want to go back.”

â€�“Well,” James admitted, â€�“I could use a little help, here.”

She turned to survey the brooms with him. â€�“There are a lot of them,” she said. â€�“I’m surprised Sirius didn’t just have me meet you down here in the first place, to help you get them all back.”

James tilted his head slightly to one side. â€�“It’s not that,” he said. â€�“I could probably manage on my own. It’s just--” he sighed heavily, and Lily looked at him quizzically. â€�“It’s just that it’s weird, you know? I’m not Quidditch captain anymore. In fact, I’m not even on a team anymore. I may never play again.”

Lily shook her head. â€�“You will,” she assured him, pressing closer to his side with whatever comfort she could offer. â€�“You love it too much not to find a way.”

â€�“I hope so,” James said quietly. â€�“It’ll…be different though. I mean, it isn’t going to be easy anymore.”

â€�“Maybe not,” Lily grinned, â€�“but really, when has it ever been easy?”

And now he turned to look at her fully, his face splitting into a grin. â€�“Fair point,” he said, then quirked an eyebrow. â€�“Hey--remember where we were a year ago today?”

She pretended to think about it. â€�“Hmm,” she said, moving closer to him, her arms going already around his neck. â€�“Night before the Leaving Feast…I vaguely recall it…maybe you should remind me?”

So he did.

A little while later, Lily was feeling rather flushed as James nuzzled his face into her hair. â€�“You know,” she said, â€�“maybe Sirius knew what he was doing, not letting us do this together.”

She felt James laugh. â€�“He was always too smart for his own good,” he said. â€�“Let’s get this show on the road then, eh?”

Lily nodded as they both straightened, turned, and standing shoulder to shoulder, raised their wands at the brooms on the walls. A few moments later, all the brooms had been shrunk to toy-sized, and they hurriedly piled them into the sack James had brought.

â€�“I really wish the school would invest in better brooms,” he said, shaking his head. â€�“I mean, I know anyone who’s serious about Quidditch has their own, but Shooting Stars? Really? How’s anyone supposed to get enjoyment out of flying that way?”

Lily just looked at him.

â€�“Sorry,” he said, making a face at her. â€�“But it’s true.”

â€�“I’ll take your word for it,” she said. â€�“Now let’s go. We’ve got to get these back to the kitchens before the sun comes up.”

---

Sirius held his breath lightly as he stood outside the dungeons.

It was his last stop of the night--he’d swung by the Hufflepuffs near the kitchens and the Ravenclaws up in the towers already, largely without incident, and now here he was, standing in front of the common room to the house that had always, even when he was a child, given him the most trouble.

He wasn’t nervous--he’d told himself a hundred times that he wasn’t nervous--but at this point, there was something undeniably unsettling about laying the last of his hopes on a couple of Slytherins. He hadn’t told the others how much the plan hinged on their cooperation--and, indeed, it could be done without them--but Sirius wanted a complete success, and that meant the Slytherins had to be involved.

He had barely been standing there a minute when Regulus appeared before him, almost out of thin air.

Sirius jumped, and then swore inwardly at his own skittishness as Regulus grinned. â€�“Merlin, Reg,” he said. â€�“Got an Invisibility Cloak I don’t know about?”

Regulus rolled his eyes. â€�“I’m just good at not being seen,” he said.

A moment of silence stretched between them. â€�“Well…?” Sirius finally asked.

Regulus merely looked at him for a long minute. â€�“Snape’s out,” he said finally. â€�“And so are Mulciber and Avery. But they weren’t planning on even going to the Great Hall for breakfast tomorrow, so that’s about the best you can ask for, I think.”

Sirius exhaled. â€�“And the rest?” he asked.

It seemed to take Regulus an age to answer, but eventually, he did. â€�“The rest are in,” he said. â€�“They don’t like you very much, but they had to admit that they liked the plan. And there isn’t the bad blood there, with James, the way it is with the others.”

Sirius nodded mutely, not entirely sure he trusted himself to speak.

â€�“That all?” Regulus asked. â€�“Because, if it’s all the same to you, I’d really like to go back to bed now.”

â€�“Yeah,” Sirius said. â€�“Yeah that’s all. And Reg?” His brother turned to face him, eyes inscrutable. â€�“Thanks.”

Regulus nodded curtly, and disappeared.

Sirius made it back to the Gryffindor common room with time to spare. He was, by no means, the first back--Remus and Peter were both asleep in armchairs when he arrived, and Lily and James were standing in the middle of the common room, looking suspiciously out of breath.

â€�“Just get back?” Sirius asked them. â€�“Because, according to my calculations, Lily should have arrived ages ago, and James should’ve been here for twenty minutes at least.”

They both stared at him rather guiltily, and he grinned.

â€�“Just want everything to go according to plan, that’s all,” he said serenely, and glided over to wake up the other two.

When he had them all lined up in the center of the room, blinking blearily, he barked, â€�“Moony! Report!”

Remus allowed himself a rare, smug grin. â€�“Well,” he said, â€�“I got Peter to the Great Hall on time, got out the map, and ran into Filch almost instantly.”

â€�“What?” yelped James, Lily, and Peter together, and Sirius chuckled.

â€�“Sorry, sorry!” he said as everyone turned to look at him. â€�“It was just too good to tell anyone about…but it’s part of the plan!”

â€�“Part…part of the prank?” James spluttered. â€�“To get caught?”

â€�“Not only to get caught,” Sirius said with a wink, â€�“but to get caught…”

â€�“With the Map,” Remus finished for him.

James was nearly apoplectic. â€�“You mean…Filch has the map?”

Sirius nodded solemnly. â€�“Just think for a minute,” he said. â€�“We’re leaving, we don’t need it anymore. But it’s one of our best pieces of work, and it’s finally finished--do we really want to take it with us, where it’ll be worthless?”

â€�“We could have always left it to our kids or something,” James grumbled. â€�“Besides, look where it is now, probably locked away in Filch’s office somewhere! It’s practically worthless as is!”

Sirius shook his head, looking disappointed. â€�“Prongs, Prongs,” he said. â€�“Think back. Our first week here, back when we were eleven? What did we do?”

â€�“Um,” James said, â€�“got hauled into Filch’s office for setting off Dungbombs in the Transfiguration wing--Merlin, we were--”

â€�“--such amateurs,” Sirius muttered with him.

James grinned at him. â€�“Well, and of course the second we were in Filch’s office we noticed the locked filing cabinets and--oh. Oh, I see.”

Peter was looking back and forth between them. â€�“What--” he asked.

â€�“Don’t you see?” Sirius said excitedly.

â€�“I used the Map in front of Filch,” Remus explained. â€�“Not enough that he’d know how to work it--if he could, even--but enough so that he’ll know what it is.”

â€�“And of course, he’s bound to put it in some cabinet labeled ‘Highly Dangerous’ or ‘Confiscated with Purpose’ or something,” Sirius interjected, unable to control himself, â€�“which means it is poised in the perfect position to be found by the next generation of worthy Hogwarts troublemakers.”

James looked impressed in spite of himself; Peter, nearly awestruck. Lily, however, was frowning. â€�“How will they know how to access it?” she asked. â€�“I mean, isn’t the Map wiped?”

Sirius and James grinned at each other. â€�“We built in a couple safeties,” James said. â€�“It’ll be able to recognize true mischief-makers, and, you know, help them out a little.”

Sirius looked gleeful for a moment, and then snapped to attention. â€�“Right,” he said. â€�“Anyway, that’s taken care of. Everyone else?”

Lily nodded. â€�“Got through the kitchens without incident, everything’s set!”

Beside her, James smirked. â€�“Got my package delivered to the kitchens as well,” he said, â€�“a little after that.”

Peter nodded his affirmative. â€�“The Great Hall is all ready for tomorrow, as well,” he said.

Sirius nodded. â€�“And I’ve talked to everyone that needs talking to,” he said. â€�“Chance willing, we’re ready to go.”

James exhaled. â€�“So,” he said. â€�“What now?”

Sirius shrugged. â€�“Now?” he said. â€�“Now, I suggest we go to bed. It is our last night in this tower, after all.”

â€�“Buzzkill,” Lily muttered, bumping him playfully with her hip as she walked past. â€�“Now I’ll never sleep.”

â€�“You know,” James yawned, stretching his arms over his head, â€�“I’m not entirely sure I’ve packed…”

â€�“Well,” Remus said wryly, â€�“I’m not worried about leaving now. Some things clearly never change.”

---

There was a certain nervous energy in the dorms the next morning. Lily, who had slept fitfully, scrambled out of bed the second it was light out, only to find Mary, Leda, and Amelia all awake themselves, smiling sheepishly. Mary, of course, was practically in tears all morning, alternating between a nearly manic excitement and a nearly debilitating devastation at the thought of leaving. The rest of them didn’t say much, merely exchanging amused glances as they fluttered around Mary. Lily caught Leda’s eye only once before looking away--the smile the other girl gave her was somewhat tight, but it was there.

She ran into James just outside the Great Hall, where he stood looking concerned. â€�“What’s up?” she asked him worriedly.

â€�“It’s Sirius,” James said. â€�“We can’t find him.”

â€�“What?” gasped Lily. â€�“No way he wouldn’t be around for this, he’s been planning it for weeks!”

â€�“I know,” James said. â€�“I can’t think where he would’ve gotten off too…but he’s been gone since we woke up this morning. Remus and Peter are looking for him now, but…”

As he spoke, however, Remus came jogging towards them from down the corridor shaking his head, and Peter appeared from the Great Hall.

â€�“Nothing?” James asked, and the looks on their faces confirmed it.

â€�“So…” Peter asked, â€�“so what do we do now? Call it off?”

â€�“No,” James said firmly. â€�“No, we continue as planned. If I know Sirius, he’s got something up his sleeve…probably wants it to be a surprise…”

Peter looked relieved. Remus seemed less convinced, but said nothing, and James ushered them all inside. â€�“Come on,” he said. â€�“Better find a seat while we still can.”

They moved towards the Gryffindor table, keeping an eye out for the X’s marked on the benches. James had to gently nudge a second year down the bench, but eventually they all made it into an appropriate seat.

The tables slowly filled around them; the seventh-years had arrived the earliest, most of them looking excited, some anxious. As the last, lagging students stumbled into the Great Hall, James looked around futilely one last time, but there was still no sign of Sirius.

At the front of the room, Dumbledore had risen to his feet and was speaking, but James was hardly listening--it was just the same version of the speech he heard every year, and it barely mattered that this was his last, because where was Sirius?

Of all the times to pull a stunt like this… James thought, a note of irritation creeping through his worry. But already his brain was whirring. I’ve got a room full of people with a prank to pull, and no idea wheat to do with them. Sirius said there would be a signal and it would be obvious, but if he’s not here, then I’m going to have to do something. We could--

But even as he was thinking it, there was a sudden lull in the Hall as Dumbledore finished speaking. Serenely, the Headmaster returned to his seat, sat down, and folded his hands in his lap. And barely a moment later, the doors to the Great Hall slammed open, and Sirius roared in on the back of his motorbike, grinning wildly. Almost simultaneously, tiny broomsticks appeared alongside the plates of the seventh-years.

Sirius revved the motorcycle, hunched his shoulders, and jolted forward into the air. Several younger students screamed, and a few professors looked at each other in alarm. James, whose frantic, last-minute planning had disappeared at the sight of his best friend--leapt to his feet and bawled, â€�“That’s your signal, boys and girls!”

Pointing his wand at his miniature broomstick, he muttered, â€�“Engorgio!” and then grabbed it as it shot out to full-length. All around the Great Hall, other seventh-years were doing the same, leaping into the air to join Sirius.

James’s broomstick was his own broomstick--he had made sure of that throughout the planning process-and he swung a familiar leg over it, feeling surer of it than almost anything.


Beside him, Lily stood on the bench as well, holding her own broom. â€�“It’s not too late to ride double,” James told her, but she shook her head.

â€�“I can do it,” she said, and he smiled. Wordlessly, he turned, gripped the handle of his broom, bent his knees, and sprang into the air. Beside him, Lily did the same, her face set, slightly unsure, but determined. And then there they all were, balanced in the air, the whole flock of them, giddy and laughing, all House colors, even Slytherin, glowing proudly in the sun.

Below them was chaos--something crazy on the last day was somewhat expected of Sirius Black and James Potter, but a collaboration on this scale was unheard of. Teachers were looking at each other, open-mouthed, students were scrambling, bewildered, and Sirius braced himself on his handlebars and pushed himself up so he was standing on the back of his motorcycle. More than a few people gasped as he executed a low bow in Dumbledore’s direction.

â€�“Hogwarts,” he shouted, â€�“it’s been a pleasure.”

And then, with a loud whoop, he slid back into his seat, whirled his bike around, and accelerated straight through the large window at the end of the hall.

The glass shattered inward, hanging in the air for too long to be anything but magic. The sun skipped brightly across the glass as the crowd of broomsticks streamed through the window and out onto the grounds. Bringing up the rear was Remus, his wand out and trained on the broken window. As soon as he was through, he waved it, murmuring, and the window pieces flew back together, whole.

He hovered there for a moment, thinking, then James zipped up behind him, Lily on his heels. Peter, noticing, broke away from the group and wobbled over, clinging tightly to the handle of his broom. And finally Sirius joined them, slightly flushed, his engine purring.

â€�“So,” James said dryly, â€�“you didn’t think to mention you’d be using that?”

Sirius patted the motorcycle. â€�“Last minute inspiration,” he said. â€�“Besides, I wouldn’t want to give away all my secrets!”

â€�“Sure you do,” James said, rolling his eyes.

â€�“Hey,” Lily interrupted, cocking her head. â€�“Listen to that.”

They did, turning their heads towards the newly repaired window, through which they could hear an explosion of sound.

â€�“They’re cheering,” Remus said wonderingly. â€�“That’s applause.”

â€�“Best last day ever,” Sirius said happily. â€�“They’re going to have a tough time calming that lot down.”

â€�“Oh, I know,” James said. â€�“They’ll remember us forever.”

Sirius grinned. â€�“Can’t argue with that,” he said.

Remus looked back at the lake, over which the rest of their classmates were now flying. â€�“So,” he asked, â€�“now what?”

They all looked at each other.

â€�“Good question,” James said.

â€�“What not?” Sirius said rhapsodically, and they all groaned.

â€�“We should probably get on the Hogwarts Express at some point,” Peter said, and everyone laughed at that before one-by-one turning to look at Lily.

â€�“What?” she asked.

â€�“It’s kind of your turn,” James said. â€�“No parting comments?”

â€�“Any Hogwarts last words?” Sirius quipped.

Lily was silent for a long moment, following Remus’s gaze across the grounds. Then she turned to look at them all, and smiled.

â€�“Don’t worry,” she said, leaning forward into her broomstick as though she was ready to take flight at the touch of anything. â€�“It’s not the end."