Disclaimer: All I own is the plot!

(A/N: This was written as part of The War of the Roses challenge by NightmarePrince.

I do hope you all like it! Read and review, please!

Peace out!)

That's What Friends Are For

James Potter sighed and flopped down on the ground melodramatically, moaning loudly. His best friend, Sirius, lay slouching down on the ground with a cap over his face. Hearing his friend's sigh, he removed the cap and lazily opened one eye.

"Oh, Sirius! I am dying!" moaned James, lying spread eagled on the soft grass. It was a lovely lazy Sunday afternoon and they had no classes for the day. Sirius had been to himself, trying to catch some sleep while his other best friends, were serving detention with Slughorn. It was rather funny really, seeing that it had been Sirius and James who were responsible for adding lacewing to a student's potion before the beetroot extract, but adept at these crimes, they had bounded away by the time Slughorn and a student had noticed and the hapless two who were innocently standing by were penalised.

Sirius cracked a smile as he recalled the expression on the student's face when his potion had swelled dangerously out of his cauldron and spilt a glorious pink goop over his robes. However, he was interrupted yet again in his musings when James increased the magnitude of his groans when he saw that Sirius was paying no attention.

Sirius relented and turned to his friend, "What is it, James?"

James sat up and wailed, "It's Lily! She just won't even talk to me! How am I supposed to ask her out if she doesn't even talk to me?" He flopped down again, clutching his head in his hands.

Sirius sighed. James had the most openly declared crush on Lily Evans, the red haired feisty Gryffindor who was, at least till a while ago, chummy with that Slytherin slimeball. Something had happened, Sirius knew, for the once-joined-at-the-hip friends barely even talked anymore. Evans had more to do with the not talking part, though. Anyway, James had tried every trick in the book-from pulling her ponytails to dropping ink on her book to pulling the Slytherin's pants-to catch her attention, but had failed to get the kind of attention he wanted. Each time, she had snootily glared at him and stormed off, leaving a pathetic James behind, whom Sirius had to handle each time.

He glanced toward his bespectacled friend who had shut his eyes. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asked, knowing he would regret this later.

James rolled over on his stomach with the Seeker like alacrity that won Gryffindor all their matches and looked at the boy who had a slightly bored expression on his face. "Would you please talk to her about me? Please? At least convince her to spend some time with me! Anywhere, any activity! Please, Snuffles?" James played the best-friend-I-love-you-please-you-are-my-only-support card.

Sirius had no choice but to relent. Shaking his head, he stood up and dusted off his pants and looked down at the boy. "I'll try, Prongs, I'll try. As long as you two don't shag in my bed.."

~0~

Sirius spotted a mass of flaming red hair and shouted, "Evans!" The person stopped and whirled around to search for whomsoever had called her. Sirius jostled his way through the people in the corridor and skidded to a halt near her. She frowned instantly, and asked, "Ah, Black. What is it?"

He fell into step with her as she resumed walking briskly. "Uh, what's up?" he began suavely.

She quirked an eyebrow at him and replied, "You ran her to ask me what's up? Spill it."

He raised his hands in surrender and asked, "But where are you going?"

She responded stiffly, "To the library. I have to study for the Transfiguration Exam."

He gaped at her, "But that's not due till next month!"

She scowled and said, "Precisely why I want to start preparing so that I can finish it early and not be worked up! Unlike some, I don't happen to resort to cheating."

He grinned guiltily and sat down beside her, ignoring her look of surprise and retorted, "Point duly noted. Look…I am here to talk to you about something.."

She clapped sardonically, "Wow, I would never have guessed, Black."

His hazel eyes held a stormy expression as he spoke slowly, "Would you please not call me Black?"

Seeing his suppressed fury and discomfort, she looked into his eyes for a while before slowly nodding.

"Okay, I am here to talk about James-" He began but was cut off by a growl from her.

He raised his eyebrow amusedly. Did she actually growl? He might actually just like-no, no, no. He could not be crushing on his best friend's crush! That was totally against the rules. Admitted, Lily Evans was every bit his type of girl. Feisty, spirited, fearless, independent, witty, smart, honest-wait, listing all her attributes was only encouraging the butterflies in his stomach he had worked so hard to quell in the past few months!

Seeing him blank out, she waved her hand in front of him and he blinked rapidly.

"Earth to Bl-Sirius?" she faltered momentarily, but took his name, a hesitant smile on her lips.

He almost tipped over in his chair as his heart buzzed at her smile, that was not sarcastic, but genuine. And it was meant for him! Almost falling over, he managed to sit back up regally, but not before desperately fumbling for support and toppling her entire pile of books and papers onto the floor. Embarrassed, he knelt to the ground and painstakingly, started gathering each paper when a laugh resonated and she called out, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and all her books and papers zoomed back up on the desk. He looked up at her grinning at him and she remarked, "And I'm supposed to be the Muggleborn who hasn't known magic her entire life!"

Looking at her sparkling eyes, he settled peaceably on the floor and said, "About James-wait, hear me out first. I know he has been nothing but a little bugger, a persistent nagging presence, a pain in the as-uh, neck for you," he amended hastily seeing her narrow her eyes, "But trust me, he has a heart of gold."

She scoffed and crossed her legs, adjusting her yellow sundress. ""Fat load of good that will do me if he keeps acting like such an ars-idiot." she blushed at her lapse of control and Sirius smirked.

"Okay, what if he doesn't tease you? Then will you talk to him?" proposed the boy.

Lily shook her head emphatically and declared, "Not at all. It isn't just me, Sirius! He torments, ridicules and teases everyone! He has to stop that."

Sirius tried to ignore the shiver that passed through him when she spoke his name, and replied, "Well, okay, what if he says sorry?"

She retorted, "He can't just apologise and get away with it! He has to stop it!"

Sirius cried, "But pranking is what united us in the first place, Ev-Lily! It's the bond of our friendship.. The glue of our paper. The-" he broke off when she started guffawing.

"What?" he asked self-consciously.

She ruffled his hair and smiled, "Oh, you are so sweet! No, don't stop pranking altogether, just stop with the mean and hurtful ones, please. And not just with me. With everyone. Will he be willing to do so?"

Sirius almost purred at her touch, but reminded himself that his Animagus was a manly, ferocious dog who was called Padfoot...except for when James called him Snuffles, but no one needed to know that. He nodded and extended his hand, "So it's a deal?"

She didn't extend hers, but questioned, "But what do I have to do?"

He answered, "Just start talking to him. Get to know him. He may come across as an arrogant prick, but he is one of the most loyal and steadfast friends one can even hope for."

She thought for a while and his hand started aching, "Lily.."

She suddenly grasped his hand and shook it, sending pleasant tingles down his arm.

"Deal." she grinned.

The bell rang and she looked around, startled and exclaimed, "Oh dear, I had meant to study! And I even had to issue that book on 'Dragons and their uses in Potions' that Professor Slughorn had used in his class!"

He hoisted himself up by accepting her proffered hand and smirked, "It's you, Lily. There is no rank higher than the first, you know?"

She blushed and swatted his arm, bursting into laughter as they walked out of the library.

"So...I'll send you an owl about what the plans materialise to, okay?" said Sirius, standing in the corridor, not wanting to go.

She nodded and smiled at him, waving goodbye and turned away. He sighed and stared at her retreating figure and squinted when she paused and ran back to him.

"You know, I bet with his egotistical pompous ego, Potter probably doesn't tell you this often, but you are a really good friend, Sirius. Honestly, it's amazing how you manage to spin each of his faults into a skewed up virtue! You know, I had judged you too hastily ever since you were gallivanting with him in those pranks, and I am truly sorry for not having taken the trouble to know you... I hope we can catch a Butterbeer at Hogsmeade someday and get talking, just us." She smiled shyly at him and hesitated for a second. She leant toward him and kissed his cheek and ran away, leaving a frozen Sirius behind.

He stood there blankly for a while, replaying her words and her action. He walked dazedly to the tree where he had left James and slid down slowly along the bark of the tree and shoved James's head aside, breaking the boy's reverie.

He stumbled up and shook Sirius frantically, "Did you talk to her? Was she mad at me? Did she agree to at least talk to me?"

Sirius glared at the zealous boy and took a deep breath, purposely agonising him for fun, barely concealing a smirk.

"I did talk to her and, well...she was not happy, James. She didn't even want to talk about you, " at that, James wailed and buried his face in the grass and Sirius continued, "but I managed to convince her to meet you once."

At that, the boy perked up and bolted upright. "You did? She did? When do I meet her?" he asked, his eyes shining.

Sirius shrugged and replied, "That's up to you. She has a condition though. You have to apologise for all our 'mean and hurtful' pranks" he put air quoted, "and promise to not do them again."

James pouted at that and protested, "But those are the ones which are the most fun!"

Sirius nodded vehemently in agreement, but added, "It's either those pranks or Lily, now."

James looked up instantly and declared, "Lily."

Sirius laughed, "I thought as much. Now decide upon a place to meet and what you will do."

James stood up and started pacing and shouted, "Quidditch practice!"

Sirius raised a questioning eyebrow, "You want to take her out for Quidditch? In case you haven't noticed, we end up all sweaty and disgusting after Quidditch."

James frowned and resumed his feverish pacing, before giving up and crying, "Snuffles, help!"

Sirius gazed into the distance and her words echoed in his mind "..Hogsmeade for a Butterbeer.."

He said, "Take her to Hogsmeade for a Butterbeer, Prongs."

He turned toward his reclining friend and scoffed, "That's so common."

Sirius scowled, "You got a better idea, wise guy?"

James shook his head fervently with a sheepish look on his face, "Sorry."

Sirius shrugged and laid his head back on his hands and spoke, "Take her to Hogsmeade and show through your actions that you really want to change for her."

James nodded furiously and shouted ecstatically, "I'm finally going out with Lily Evans!" and executed a victory dance.

Sirius reminded him in an amused tone, "You may want to notify her of the plans, of course."

James dashed off, almost crashing into Remus and Peter who were treading toward their friends, exhausted after their detention of cleaning out the supplies cupboard. Stopping, James turned around and stormed back to Sirius and tackled the unsuspecting boy on the ground, who cried out in alarm.

James Potter hugged his best friend in the whole wide world and whispered, "Thanks, Snuffles. Thank you so much." and scrambled back up and sped to to Owlery.

Sirius sat up slowly, a smile on his face. Ah yes, he may have a liking for Lily Evans, but she had been wrong about one thing: James never ever forgot to acknowledge Sirius. He waved to his approaching friends and placed the cap on his face, feeling lightly happy despite the pain that his heart demanded to be felt.