Final decision re: the story at the end!

It was only the second time that Lily had entered the Heads' Office that year, and she was pleasantly surprised to discover that James had not allowed his friends free reign to create chaos just yet. She was more surprised to see James at his desk, doing…homework?

"Am I going blind," she began, speaking slowly as she entered the office fully, "or are you actually working?"

James had jumped at the sound of her voice, but a smile crossed his face by the time she finished. "Actually, you're going blind. Might want to see Madam Pomfrey for that," he teased, startling a laugh out of her as she dropped her books onto the comfy red couch on her side of the office.

"I thought so," she agreed, settling down into the couch and rolling a blue hairband off her wrist to tie her hair back. "Seriously, though, we don't even have that much homework yet, you know."

"I know," James said, shrugging. "But I wanted to get a head start, since I'm also Quidditch captain and I've scheduled tryouts for next week and then things are going to get hectic, so…why are you smiling?"

Lily smothered a laugh as she gathered her hair up in a ponytail. "Oh, nothing. I was just surprised that you're actually focused on school instead of pranks this year," she told him honestly.

James's grin was suddenly mischievous. "Who says I can't focus on both?"

Lily let herself laugh this time, deciding to forget about her astonishment that James Potter could actually make her smile in favor of enjoying his company. James's smile seemed that much brighter when she looked at him, so she figured it was worth it.

"Well, while you're doing both," she said, adjusting the tightness of her ponytail, "don't forget about writing up the prefect rounds. I've already done the first two weeks of the month, so you can do the next two, and we'll alternate."

James rolled his eyes mock-irritably. "I don't see why the prefects can't write up their own rounds," he complained, sifting through his drawers presumably in search of the scrolls with the prefect appointments.

"None of them would do it," she pointed out. "Trust me, Remus and I tried often enough to get out of doing those."

"Really?" James grinned at her, his eyebrows disappearing under his hair. "The great Lily Evans, trying to get out of her noble and honorable prefect duty?"

Lily threw one of the couch pillows at him, and he dodged it with a laugh. "Shut up, Potter," she ordered through her giggles. "As I recall, you're the one who planted the idea in Remus's head because you needed him to help with a prank, so it's really your fault."

"You wound me," he told her dryly, straightening up and pulling out the scroll he was looking for with a flourish. "This is the one, yeah?"

"Yeah," confirmed Lily, settling back into the couch and going quiet as he started looking over the two weeks worth of rounds she'd already written up. "Oh, and…James?"

He jumped, probably because she'd used his first name, and looked over at her curiously. "Yeah?"

Lily bit her lip. "I wanted to thank you for standing up for me in Professor Lupin's classroom. I – you didn't have to, really, I was being silly, but – "

"No, you weren't," he interrupted hotly. "I mean, sure, Snape is…not half bad at Potions. But you're better. I know you are. You deserve to be head brewer just as much as he does."

She smiled at him, feeling more than a little giddy at his defense. "Thanks," she said, running a hand through her ponytail. "But it's all right, really. I mean, between being Head Girl and studying for NEWTs and just participating in her Fine Arts club, I don't think I really have time to be a brewer."

"Well, okay," he said, sounding a bit disgruntled. "You still deserve it, though."

Lily laughed, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, and quickly changed the subject. "Are you going to go to her first meeting?"

James sent her a grin. "I think I have to. Her green parchment yelled at me about it," he told her, reaching down and pulling out a mint-green flyer from his schoolbag.

Lily took one look at it and made a face. The caps-lock letters certainly were…persuasive. "I see," she said with a giggle. "I'll see you there, then, right?"

James's eyes lit up. "Yeah," he said, his tone carefully controlled but delighted, "of course."

"MOONY!"

Sirius's shout from across the Common Room led to several Gryffindors cringing away from the portrait hole and covering their ears. Some of the older ones cast spells to limit the volume of the noise. Sirius, however, paid no heed to any of them, instead vaulting himself over all the couches obstructing his path to Remus and Peter.

"What is it, Sirius?" Remus asked, half-curious, half-weary. Next to him, Peter pulled out a small red notebook, flipped to a specific page, and scrawled a tally mark underneath the header 'Sirius Tries to Destroy the Common Room version 7th Year'.

Sirius took a moment to look at the notebook and get offended. "I was not trying to destroy it," he protested indignantly. "I was just trying to get across it!"

"Well, I think you flattened a couple of second years," Peter said wryly, gesturing to a table near the portrait hole where four second year Gryffindors were cowering. One little boy seemed ready to burst into tears.

Sirius winced. "Whoops," he said, reaching into his pockets to pull out a chocolate bar he had probably stolen from the kitchens, Remus mused. "Here, kids!" he called, tossing the chocolate at the second years, who immediately brightened.

"There, problem solved," he said cheerfully, plopping down on the ground in front of Remus and Peter. "Hey, where's Prongs?"

"He's in the Heads' office," answered Remus, thumbing through his Transfiguration textbook in search of the spell he needed to write an essay on. "Why? Is it important?"

"Well, it involves him," Sirius said. "But I bet he's having fun seducing Lily, so it's okay, I'll just tell you guys."

"Oh, haven't you heard?" Peter piped up, adding another line to his essay. "He decided to give up on chasing after Lily this year."

Sirius scoffed, "Like he's going to stick to that. One look at her and he'll melt like an ice cube in the Sahara."

"I'm impressed you know about the Sahara," Remus commented mildly. "But, more to the point, I think he actually wants to be friends with her this year. Just friends."

"Oh." Sirius pondered that a minute. "Well, that'll be interesting to watch. You don't suppose he'll want to induct her into the Marauders, do you?" he asked, sounding horrified at the prospect.

"Would that be a bad thing?" Peter tilted his head, considering. "I mean, she's pretty and smart and – "

"Yes, Wormtail," Sirius groaned, "adding the Head Girl to the Marauders would be a bad idea. I mean, we already have to put up with the Head Boy."

"The Head Boy is your best friend," Remus pointed out, hiding a smile when Sirius turned his glare on him.

"It's the principle of the matter," Sirius dismissed. "Anyway, that's not even why I came over here. You know that classroom Victoire's going to host the her Fine Arts club in?"

"Should you be calling her Victoire?" Peter interrupted doubtfully. "She didn't give you permission to."

Sirius made a face. "She gave Snape permission to, though, which means I can call her whatever."

"No, it doesn't," said Peter, confused, only to get a couch pillow thrown at his face. "But – "

"Peter," Remus sighed, a fondly amused smile on his face, "we can deal with Sirius's lack of respect for our teachers later. Maybe when he starts calling the Headmaster or Professor Lupin by their first names."

Sirius blinked owlishly at him. "Speaking of Professor Lupin, am I the only one who's still suspicious that he has the same last name as you?"

Remus shrugged, bookmarking his page and setting down the book. "Well, to be honest, I could have distant relatives in France that I don't know about, or that Dad doesn't know about. He did say he was an orphan. Plus, there's no Metamorphagi in my family."

Sirius frowned. "Yeah, but still," he sighed. "Oh, well, that's a mystery for another day. Did I tell you my little cousin, Andromeda's girl, is a Metamorphagus?"

"About five times this school year alone," Remus laughed. "What was your original point?"

"Hm?" Sirius shook his head, presumably to clear it. "Oh, yeah! About the Fine Arts classroom – I went and checked it out, and it is the perfect place for some of the prank ideas we've been throwing around. You guys in?"

"I don't know," Peter said cautiously. "I'm not sure if we should be pranking Miss Weasley."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "That's just because you think she's gorgeous, Wormtail."

Peter turned pink. "She is!"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed, grinning. "But that'll make it even more fun when we douse her in paint, won't it?"

All right, guys, thank you for all your reviews and your opinions, I really appreciate them all!

I just wanted to mention first that a couple people suggested I give it up for adoption, but I'm sorry, I'm not going to do that - my stories are special to me, and I don't think I could handle seeing someone else take it on.

Anyway, the overwhelming vote was for me to keep it up and even update it every few months whenever I could, so I'll do that :) This story will be marked on indefinite hiatus. If I get inspiration, I'll update it, but that could take a while as I'm busy with school and whatnot.

Thank you guys so much for everything!