The Great Hall had been home to many spectacles concerning the Marauders, and most of them also concerned Lily Evans, or, better yet for the rumour mill at Hogwarts, their long-time nemesis Severus Snape. There had been no greater feud to grace the hallowed halls of the world-famed school since that of Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, and no student was willing to bet for even a moment that more than a few days would ever go without some kind of verbal - or sometimes and often inevitably physical - battle between them.

But the spectacles that concerned Lily Evans, however, were more entertaining for the staff. But less so, of course, for Lily.

"Hey Evans," said James Potter cheerfully, dropping down into the seat at the table beside her own. "Looking utterly ravishing today, love."

"What?" she blinked. "Has hell frozen over?"

James stared at her in confusion. Behind him, Remus Lupin was already muffling snickers.

"It must have done," she said, almost to herself. "Because there's no way that James Potter is flirting with me, right? He's never done that before."

"Never," Marlene McKinnon affirmed innocently, smirking over the rim of her pumpkin juice goblet.

"Where could that ridiculous idea have come from?" Alice Prewett blinked, tilting her head.

James pouted at the three girls, who stared innocently back at him, fluttering their eyelashes innocently at him - for effect, Lily Evans would later vehemently insist to her friends in the privacy and safety of their dormitory. "Alright, I get it," he said, clambering up off the bench, still pouting, taking one of Lily's croissants with him. "But if you change your mind..."

"Shove off, Potter," Lily snorted. "I'm never going to change my mind!"

And with that, Lily stood up, snatched her croissant back and strode out of the room. Alice, giggling, pulled a guffawing Marlene out of the room, both hurrying to keep up with their friend.

Remus and Sirius sat down on either side of James. "You're not done with her, are you?" Remus grinned, taking a bite of the toast that Alice had left behind, as Sirius dove into the remnants of Marlene's breakfast.

"Never," James said dreamily, sinking into Lily's seat and staring off after her. "Our children are gonna be smart and beautiful."

Sirius snorted. "Not to mention imaginary." And Remus hit him.

Lily hated him. Promise.

Sitting down carefully on the other side of the rock, she didn't look at him.

She, like everyone else, knew exactly what was going on. She, like everyone else, had seen the letter arrive that morning at breakfast by way of black owl; and she, like everyone else, had seen him stand up and stumble out of the hall without touching his food, without saying another word to anyone. She'd seen Sirius seize the worn parchment and his eyes flick over the harshly inked words quickly, she'd seen Remus shoot up and out of his chair without even bothering to look at the letter, and she'd seen Sirius stagger out of the room a few minutes later, tears quickly pooling in his eyes.

It was evening now. None of the Marauders had been until lunchtime, when Remus and Sirius had walked in, shoulders hunched, having missed four out of six lessons already, and sit down - they ate minimally, had managed meagre smiles when she'd pushed a basket of rolls towards them, hadn't said a word to each other or anyone else; and at the end of lunch, when they'd sat in sullen silence for twenty three minutes without eating much, they'd staggered out and off to class.

James had missed all of the day's classes, lunch and dinner, and he hadn't been in the common room all day. It was strange, because until she didn't have it, she didn't realise how much of her day had been taken up by grumbling about his messy hair, the easy banter between them, making fun of him with her friends, rejecting him - her day was almost empty without him. And now, sitting opposite him, she couldn't find it in herself to say anything she usually would, because she'd seen the tear tracks and the red-rimmed, swollen eyes, and the way his shoulders were hunched forward.

"You're okay, Potter," she said quietly, fiddling with the laces of her sneakers.

He snorted. "Yeah, okay Evans," he shot gruffly at her over his shoulder. "You know everything, right?"

She closed her eyes.

"You didn't mean that," she told him.

"I didn't mean that," he told her.

A moment of silence passed between them, and her shoulders fell and she slumped; her back met his, and while she jolted a little in surprise, he didn't move - if anything, he leaned into her, and after a moment of tense silence between them, she leaned back as well, her shoulders meeting his. In a way, it was comforting, knowing that his weren't shaking anymore.

"What happened?" she asked, voice cracking a little bit. Neither of them mentioned it.

"Mum's dead and Dad's as good as," James muttered darkly, glaring at a blade of grass on the floor. "Always said it was going to happen one day. They've been fighting him for long enough. I used to think they were paranoid, but - "

" - shhhh, James. You don't need to explain anything to me," she cleared her throat. "Merlin, Potter, I'm - I'm so fucking sorry."

Tears began to pool in her own eyes and she blinked furiously to clear them.

James didn't say anything. She didn't expect him to.

Lily swallowed. This wasn't right. James Potter wasn't supposed to sit on the grounds on his own, be gruff, dark and miserable, cry, be a bitter sod. James Potter was supposed to be an arrogant toe-rag who mussed up his hair, asked her out obnoxiously, pulled pranks that made people laugh and smile and be happy, walk the halls with a spring in his step, hang around with his friends like he and they were the only people in the world that mattered.

Potter was an arrogant toe-rag. Potter didn't deserve this.

If Remus and Sirius hadn't been able to cheer him up - if his best friends in the whole world, who knew him like no one else did, who finished his sentences and treated him like a brother - who could? If she had to bet anyone could possibly make this worse, it had to be her.

But if anyone could make it better, it might also be her.

Clearing her throat, Lily straightened up on the rock and turned around. She leaned over and plucked his glasses off his face and pushed them onto her own face. One hand reached up and mussed her hair in his signature obnoxious, sky-high quiff, and the other pulled one arm of the glasses to shove them askew on her nose. Furrowing her eyebrows and twitching her lips in the crooked grin she knew so well, she looked over at him, forcing her eyes into the smoulder he'd tried on her so many times.

"Alright, Evans?" she said in a lower voice, waggling her eyebrows at him.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. They were still swollen, wet and red. Merlin, she had to resist the urge to burst into tears herself.

"Looking utterly ravishing today, love," she yawned extravagantly. "I'm an egotistical hot-headed toe-rag who walks the hallways without a care in the whole world. I've chased the same girl since first year. I pull obnoxious, ridiculous pranks that make people laugh. I'm a confusing bully who can be sweet and nice one moment, and then turn around and bully and hex your best friend. I play Quidditch and I never shut up about it - "

She looked at James. His shoulders were shaking again.

" - Evans," he spluttered, laughing so hard his face was flushed red. "Merlin, Evans, I - "

He paused. Stared at her. She stared back at him.

Lily grinned broadly. "Go out with me, Evans?" she waggled her eyebrows again.

James flattened his hair and sat up straight, fluttering his eyelashes primly. "As if I'd ever go out with an arrogant toe-rag like you, Potter!" he said in a high-pitched voice.

They stared at each other for a moment. Lily, hair messy in his own style, eyes wide and slightly obscured behind his stupid rectangular wire-framed glasses, her hands still thrown up in the air in the yawn; James, his hands clasped together and pressed to the side of his face, eyelashes still batting slowly, a goofy grin stretching his crooked thin lips wide. And for a moment, she could swear that she actually thought that he was attractive.

And then they burst out laughing.

"Merlin," she panted, holding the stitch in her side.

"Holy hell, Evans," James guffawed, staring at her. "You're - you're amazing."

She beamed back at him, and for a moment he continued to stare at her, his own eyes full of something akin to awe. And then he seemed to realise just what he'd said, because his face went an awful shade of maroon and cleared his throat, tearing his eyes away from her.

"Uh, yeah," he muttered, clearing his throat again.

And Lily just smiled back at him.

Rising slowly on her knees to cup his face in her hands, she looked at him, her face nearing his own. He was frozen, staring at her in disbelief. His face was still bright red and continuing to flush further. She inhaled slowly, almost nervously, and then closed the distance and softly pressed her lips to his.

A moment passed. James pulled away, wide-eyed, his face almost purple. But there was a goofy grin on his face.

"Marry me, Evans."

"Try again, Potter."

"Go out with me, Lily?"

"... I'd love to, James."

" - you, Evans, you click."

Lily raised an eyebrow, glancing up from the eight inches of the three foot of Defence homework she'd been stuck on for the past half an hour. It was a lazy, slow Sunday in the Gryffindor common room and as of yet, she hadn't spoken to anyone that morning and she had no plans to - social interaction on the remnants of the butterbeer or two she'd had last night, three hours of sleep and eight subjects of homework she'd procrastinated on completing the night before, meant that anyone who thought for a second they could talk to Lily Evans would be disappointed - violently.

"I click, Black?" she snorted, a tangle of red puffing out of the way of her face as she stared at Sirius, who was lounging in an armchair adjacent to the dwindling fireplace.

"Yeah, you click," he said, lazily flicking his wand to entice the flames to leap higher.

Huffing and putting the sheaf of parchment down on the couch cushion beside her, Lily put her chin in her hand and leaned forward, arching one eyebrow. "Meaning?"

Sirius smirked, his head making a soft 'thunk' against the arm of the chair as it slumped back. His hair was messy, shaggy, falling into his face, but for the first time, he didn't seem to care much for it. "It means you're part of us," he said, waving his arm wildly to gesture around the common room.

Lily arched an eyebrow and glanced around.

Remus, sat in the other couch, snoring quietly, exhausted but grinning a little in his sleep, his hair flopping down into his face and the warm flush of sleep hiding his scars from her and anyone who might have seen them. James, sitting on the floor in front of that sofa with a Transfiguration textbook in his lap, his wand in his hand and a small silver goblet in the other - every once in a while he'd take a handful of his hair and mutter a curse and something odd about a missed class in fourth year. Peter, half-focused on his own homework and half-focusing on Mary McDonald, who was giggling at a table across the common room in the ear of her best friend Emmeline.

Marlene, twitching a little in her sleep, her Charms homework abandoned dangerously close to the fireplace. Alice and Frank, tangled up together in the only other armchair in the common room, Alice running her hands through Frank's hair as he snored on her shoulder.

" - and you better get used to it, Lily Flower, 'cause when you marry Prongs, you marry all of this. We're sort of a collection-only set, you know?"

Lily snorted. "That sounds brilliant, Black, but right now, I have no intention of marrying anyone."

Sirius smirked at her. "Okay, ginger, give it a year."

Minerva McGonagall didn't like to pretend.

But she'd known since his first year that Remus Lupin was a werewolf. She'd always been lenient with him about his homework, particularly nearer to the full moon, but after she'd begun to get to know him better, she understood that he hated when she was soft with him, that she felt she had to be different with him than she was with the other students - so she'd be different with him when he couldn't find out that she was.

His homework had never been a problem. Remus was incredibly intelligent, witty, funny, but most of all polite - and he hated when his work was below par or late. Every month without fail, without hindrance from the full moon, his scrawled signature would be somewhere in the pile of parchment she would collect on her desk, and his work would always be well-thought out, intelligent and exactly what she'd asked for, like a textbook but in his own words. He would always understand and be able to talk freely about the things she taught.

It was in his seventh year that things began to fall apart. The full moon happened to be the day before she'd assigned the homework to be handed in, and she'd been completely prepared to be lenient with him, because never before had it ever been as inconvenient for him as it was this time.

But he'd handed her a sheaf of parchment and walked out grinning, and James Potter had slung an arm around his shoulder.

Reading it, she knew it was James'. She'd taught the boy for seven years now, and she knew his handwriting, and she knew Remus'. James' was loopier, and he did his 'f's with a strange curl at the top, but Remus' were jerky and he didn't join his letters like James did.

Remus had likely been too ill or too exhausted to do his homework. James Potter had turned in his homework with Remus' name on the top, knowing he was going to get a detention for lack of homework, knowing that he could very well have his Head Boy privileges stripped away because of it.

Friends like James Potter were hard to come by.

There was no way she'd go soft on him, though. Even if he was one of her lions.

Lily smirked, leaning back on the chair.

It wasn't her first detention, but James thought it was. And if the way the Marauders were treating her was anything to do with the fact that they thought it was her first detention, then there was no way that she was telling any of them otherwise - and she'd be getting a hell of a lot more detentions in the future.

Professor Flitwick was her favourite teacher. He'd overseen many of her detentions before, and he was lenient and relaxed with them - he often left the room to get a cup of coffee or grade a few papers upstairs, and once she'd even convinced him to play a game of charades with them on his classroom blackboard. But this time, she knew it was going to be much more difficult - seeing as he knew that her boyfriend and his two best friends in the whole world happened to be the Marauders, and that they happened to be sharing her detention.

" - I'm so proud of you, Lily Flower," Sirius was weeping dramatically, wiping tears out of the corners of his eyes.

"He's not going to stop crying the whole night," Remus told her, sighing, one hand braced on his shoulder.

"You're going to be okay, right?" asked James anxiously, fiddling with the back of her jacket from the seat behind her. "Detentions are easy. Nothing happens, just do whatever Professor Flitwick is gonna tell us. You're gonna be fine, aren't you?"

"James, calm down," she snorted. "I'm gonna be fine."

"Our little rule breaker," Sirius wailed, thunking his head down on the table-top.

Lily Evans' fingers happened to be the most beautiful things in the whole wide world.

He found out that she was a pianist within the first few weeks of moving into their flat together. She had a huge grand piano from her father's house that she brought with her, charmed weightless and small enough to fit into her pocket, and she made an effort to hide it from him - she kept it in her beside table, shrunken down, and she only ever played it when he wasn't home.

James had found out when he'd come home a little early one day, and he wasn't sure what to think when he heard quiet piano music coming from the living room. He'd walked in and seen her, sitting there on the piano bench, her fingers gliding effortlessly, lovingly across the black and ivory keys; her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and she was still in her pyjamas. Their cat, Snitch, was curled up on the bench behind her, balancing precariously but still managing to sleep. And Merlin, when she was sat there, with her eyes shut, her fingers moving across the piano keys, the sound flooding the room, she'd never been more beautiful.

And he was very familiar with her middle finger, too. He'd grown up with her constantly flipping him off with it, of course.

But her ring finger, particularly on her left hand, was his favourite. It was smooth, especially around the base of it; and whenever they held hands, he found himself glancing down at it, wondering if one day he'd find the courage to put a ring on it one day.

One thing he should have realised about Lily Evans was that she was impatient and independent - and very, very fiery. And if he took too long, he'd have hell to pay for it.

"James!"

He went white in the face when he opened the front door and saw his girlfriend standing in the kitchen doorway, arms folded and eyebrows furrowed, glaring at him. He made an awful nervous squeak before attempting to slam the door, but she seemed to know him better than he thought because she sprinted forward and pulled him inside before he managed to leave.

" - what did I do?!" he yelped when she pushed him up against the door, glaring at him, one arm on his chest and the other on the door beside his head.

"When the hell were you gonna tell me?" she said furiously.

"Tell you what?!"

Lily let go of him and stared up at him. Who gave her the right to have eyes like that? What gave him the right to somehow make her look at him like that? "I found the ring box, idiot," she snarled at him. "Three bloody months ago."

James went white in the face. "What?" he said dumbly, staring at her.

Lily huffed and stepped back, folding her arms right across her chest and glaring at him again. "What's taking you so long?" she said frustratedly.

"What?"

"Idiot," she mumbled, before taking the ring box out of her pocket and shoving it at him. "Ask me, Potter."

James blinked. "You want me to - ?"

"Down on one knee," she said firmly, pushing on his shoulder. "Do it properly, dude, come on."

A grin began to pull at his lips, and he dropped down on one knee, staring up at her. Despite how furious with him she'd seemed only moments before, her face had melted at the sight of him, on one knee with the ring box she'd found earlier in his hand, and her eyes were suddenly flooding with tears. But he couldn't find it in himself to feel nervous about it anymore, because she wanted him to ask her, she wanted him to give her the ring - Lily Evans wanted to marry him.

Lily Evans wanted to marry him.

"I love you," he told her, his own voice cracking. He blinked furiously to stop himself from crying. "I love you to the moon and back, Lily. Marry me."

She let out a short sob before dropping to her knees in front of him and wrapping her arms tight around his neck.

"Of course I'll marry you, idiot," she choked out, still sobbing.

James let out a loud, victorious laugh and hauled her up into his arms, swinging her around in a broad circle as he rose to his feet. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her shoulder, inhaling deeply, stunned and shocked and totally, utterly, deeply devoted to the woman who was in his arms - his fiancée, his soon-to-be wife.

"Ring, please," she muttered into his hair, and he laughed, setting her down and opening the box.

No ring. Nothing.

He panicked. His face went white and he looked up at her, and she was looking at him so expectantly, a smile still on her lips, and how the hell could he tell her that he'd managed to lose the ring?

And then she burst out laughing and held up her left hand.

The conniving fox was wearing the ring.

"The master prankster has been pranked!" she announced loudly, before making loud cheering noises and doing a victory lap of the living room.

James stared at her in shock, wide-eyed.

Lily stopped in front of him, bouncing on the balls of her feet, still laughing, and he felt it bubbling up inside of him - pride, love, adoration.

What had James ever done to deserve Lily?

It was Sirius' birthday. It had long since been tradition that Sirius Black, the man who had grown up without getting anything he wanted, got everything that he asked for on his birthday, as long as it was within the realm of possibility - despite the fact that often it had occurred that even that had been done.

In his fifth year, he'd asked James, as a joke of course, for a strand of Severus Snape's hair, to demonstrate to their long-time nemesis and Slytherin student how to wash his hair - and, three hours later, at the end of his bed was James Potter, soaking wet, a large cut on his cheek, his hair strangely neat and tidy, his right hand covered in some ominous dark blue liquid, but holding a strand of long black greasy hair.

But he was turning twenty on the thirteenth of November 1979, and he'd asked for Remus Lupin to be his slave all day. He'd tried Lily, but she'd given him the stink eye for a full twenty eight minutes before he'd given in, terrified of her sparking wand and gimlet stare, and James had whined for about forty minutes about how it was him last year, and Peter, as usual, was nowhere in sight - so Remus, polite, witty, mild-mannered Remus, was his slave for the day.

"I need coffee."

Sirius was tossed over the Potter's couch, wearing one of James' larger sweaters, his feet propped up on Lily's favourite cushion, his hair braided neatly by his girlfriend and his feet mid-massage by Remus.

"Have mine," said Remus dryly, faking a smile.

The dog Animagus' lips twitched.

"I need food."

Remus' left cheek twitched. "Have mine," he ground out through gritted teeth, and presented his friend with his slice of birthday cake.

"I need slippers," Sirius mentioned after another thirty seconds, and Remus cricked his neck with the speed it whipped up to glare down at Sirius.

"Have mine," he said, yanking his off and shoving them roughly on his friend's feet.

Sirius retracted his feet and curled up in a happy ball on the couch, buried in warmth. Remus slumped, relaxed in his own armchair, wearing one of his favourite oversized, winter cardigans.

Sirius opened one eye.

"I need chocolate."

Remus, halfway through a Mars bar, didn't bother to look up.

"Fuck off, Padfoot."

Lily burst out laughing.

"JAMES!"

He shot up and sprinted out into the kitchen, wide-eyed, pale-faced - and Lily was standing there, staring at him, just as pale and wide-eyed. "What?!" he demanded worriedly, closing the distance and taking her shoulders in careful hands, tilting her chin up with two fingers to get a good look at her face and body for injuries. He began inspecting the back of her head for a moment, but when he found none he looked back at her, still wide-eyed, still very, very scared that she wasn't okay.

Lily was beaming, tears beginning to leak down her face.

"What? Are you okay, darling?" he asked concernedly, voice beginning to shake.

"I'm - James, I'm pregnant," she burst out, laughing suddenly. "We have a baby. Fuck, James, we have a baby!"

James slumped to the floor, out cold.

"No, James, we're not naming our son 'Actual Living Proof I Had Sex With Lily Evans'."

"But he'd have your last name!"

Lily tapped her chin, glaring at her fiancé. "Tempting," she admitted. "But no. Harry Evans doesn't sound as good as Harry Potter does."

James sighed happily and pulled her closer to him, both of them wrapped up together on the couch. "Yeah, you're right," he mumbled happily into her hair, closing his eyes and relaxing as she buried her face in his chest. "You're always right."

A few hours later, still drowsy, still wrapped up together on the couch, one of his hands slipped off her waist and cupped the slight mound of her pregnant stomach, a dopey grin twitching at his lips.

"I love you, Harry," he said quietly. "I love you, Lily."

"We love you, too, James," she muffled into his chest. "Now go to sleep before I kill you."

"Yes, ma'am," he snorted, closing his eyes.

Remus was wide-eyed, grinning slightly, staring down at the baby in his best friend's grip. "God, he's wrinkly," Sirius muttered, and Lily laughed, but James was glaring at him with a fire he was unaware his best friend possessed.

"Don't you dare say that about my son," James said fiercely. "He's beautiful. He's perfect. Shut up."

"Yeah, okay, right, sorry," Sirius muttered sheepishly, and James turned his head back down to coo at Harry, who began to babble quietly, incoherently.

"He's almost as scary as you, Lil," Remus murmured, pressing a kiss to the exhausted mother's temple. "You did so well. Me and Padfoot will be back in the morning, get some rest. You deserve it."

Lily smiled faintly at them as her eyes slipped shut, and James sunk into the chair beside her bed with Harry in his arms. Remus dragged Sirius out of the room by his arm, and Sirius waved jovially before the door slammed shut.

"Shit!" Remus heard James shout as the loud slamming made Harry begin to wail.

" - Padfoot?"

He was cold. But warmth was beginning to creep over his skin. His body felt strange, lighter. Soft fingers were gently pushing his hair up and off his face, a hand that were large and calloused was wrapped around his upper arm, and someone was sitting right beside him, their hands splayed out on his chest and stomach.

"Can you hear me, baby?" whispered a soft voice. A voice he never thought he'd hear again. "C'mon, Sirius, open your eyes."

Sirius tore his eyes open and stared up at her, wonder and awe lurking in his grey eyes - and he shot up with a loud cry and wrapped her in a tight hug, hauling her up and against his chest. Tears began to stream down his cheeks and for the first time he didn't care, because holy hell, the only woman he'd ever truly fallen head over heels for was in his arms and close to him; he could smell her, feel her, touch her.

"Marlene," he sobbed her name out, and he pulled back to press a fierce kiss to her lips. "Merlin, Marley, baby, what the hell - ?"

"Hey," she croaked, tears in her own eyes. "You're dead. So am I. We're having a death party, care to join us?"

"Yeah, yeah," he laughed quietly, wrapping her up tighter. "Love you."

"Love you, too," she mumbled, kissing his cheek. "Now go hug James and Lily, they're feeling left out."

Sirius' eyes snapped open and he stared at them.

Lily, just as beautiful as the last day he'd seen her, young and twenty-one. Her hair was mahogany red, piled up in a messy bun on the top of her head, her green eyes wide and youthful, cheeks still plump and freckled, lips still smooth and twitched in that friendly grin. She was wearing a pair of flared jeans and a green cold shoulder blouse, her feet clad in white-and-green trimmed socks.

James, like he remembered him. Hair untidy, jet black, flopping a little in his face, his jaw firm and sharp, skin tanned and his shoulders broad. His eyes were still mischievous and hazel, still glowing behind wire-framed rectangular glasses; and he was wearing that thick October sweater that Lily had bought for him, frayed and scarlet, black jeans and black socks on.

Snitch, that stupid cat that he'd always hissed at, was sitting on his foot. Merlin, was he glad to see her.

"I think we're third wheeling," Lily wrinkled her nose up, and James laughed.

Sirius shot up and towards them, wrapping James up in a tight hug. Lily was laughing, tears in her eyes, and when Sirius did eventually release his brother, Lily leapt at him, her legs wrapped tight around his waist and her arms around his neck, and when she did James wrapped his arms around them both.

For the first time in nearly fifteen years, Sirius Black felt truly and utterly complete. And he would always feel guilty about it.

Remus shot upright, wide-eyed, at the sound of his wife sobbing. His wand was in his hand and concern was twisting his face, but he felt his knees give out at the sight of her wrapped up with her long-dead father and cousin, who were just as broken apart as she was; and when he looked up properly, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder, and saw James looking down at him, a grin on his face and tears in his eyes.

"I'm dead," Remus breathed, staring up at him.

"Yes, Moony," James laughed. "You are."

"Shit," he cursed, before staggering to his feet and wrapping James up tight in his arms.

He heard Lily laughing and tore one arm away, tugging the familiar build of the redheaded woman into the hug.

"Moony!" Padfoot crowed, diving into the hug.

And Tonks, wide-eyed, staring at them, tears streaming down her face, burst out laughing.

"What do we do now?" he finally blubbered, pulling away, uncaring about his own tears.

"We take care of our boys," said Lily firmly, wiping her tears away. "Make sure that little Teddy turns out just like his parents."

"Harry lived," said Remus quietly, after a moment, looking up in relief and shock. "Harry lived."

"No, idiot," Lily told him firmly. "Harry lives."