Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

"It's going to be good, you know."

"What?"

"When you finally give him a chance," Sirius said, pulling Lily's Charm's book out of her hands and snapping it closed.

"Sirius, I don't have time for you to speak to me in riddles and steal my homework," Lily growled. She lunged for her book but Sirius held it easily out of reach.

"Good thing you aren't in Ravenclaw if you thought that was a riddle. You'd never get into your damn common room," Sirius grinned. "And knowing you, you'd never ask for help. You'd just camp out in the Forbidden Forest."

Lily rubbed her face in frustration. "Good lord, Sirius, just get to it."

"I—what?" Sirius said.

"I'm waiting for you to speak your piece and then stop taking my schoolbook hostage. So, say what you want to say but for Merlin's sake don't dance around it," she said, eyes narrowed and arms crossed against her chest.

"I'm obviously talking about James," he said. He shot her a look of confusion. "Who else would I be talking about?"

"Good point, James is all you ever talk about."

"Well, not quite." He paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "Actually you might be right about—"

"Sirius," she said forcefully. He looked over at her and she smiled venomously. "I don't care."

"Right. Well, Red, the point is," he slung his arm around her shoulders, "you're going to cave one of these days. And you're going to start dating James and you two will be unbearably happy and you're going to wonder to yourself, 'Why didn't I listen to my old pal Sirius Black and stop wasting so much time.' And I thought I'd tell you about this little piece of Divination that I've been able to suss out of the universe now, so that when it happens, you feel especially stupid."

"That all?" Lily asked, straight faced, though a little pinker at the ears than she'd care to admit. Thank God she'd taken her hair down earlier. She pulled his arm off of her shoulders and, thinking of History of Magic and hoping it would be enough, fixed him with her best blank, bored look.

"Oh, Evans," he said, pulling his best puppy dog eyes and shaking his head. "You break my heart, you really do."

Lily giggled and shoved his shoulder. "Prat," she muttered. She leaned over, grabbed her Charms book and stood, gathering her school things and planning to retreat to the girls' dorm where Sirius Black couldn't bother her with nonsense.

She turned to walk away and heard Sirius' voice, more earnest than she thought she had ever heard it, come softly from behind her.

"It will be good, Lily. You two will make each other so happy, and that's all a sod like me could ask for. My friends to be happy. I know that I'm almost always joking, but I'm not now. It will be good."

She turned and lifted an eyebrow. "Sirius Black, I do believe that you're getting sentimental with age."

His face was solemn but cracked into a small smirk. "Listen to your elders, Lily," he said quietly.

"You're three months older than me, idiot."

"Oh, Evans." He threw his head back dramatically and Lily was relieved to see the normal, facetious Sirius Black looking back at her. "Three months older and so much wiser I can't even bear it sometimes."