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Friends?

She didn't want him after all.

This girl that had made him question everything in his entire life breathed new air into it when he didn't know it was needed.

His life had been boring. He loathed to admit to it, but it was predictable.

He tried to make it interesting by choosing interesting friends. A werewolf friend, a friend from the dark Black family, and one that always seemed a bit questionable in his motives and true feelings.

Even they were borderline dull. They did all these adventures together that were fun in the moment but afterwards?

Everyone in the school loved him, even when he did everything wrong, he got away with it.

Buhu the rich popular kid is bored. He scoffed at his own thoughts.

The worst part of it was how he harassed Lily to pay him attention, he just loved all that followed.

Then Hermione came to the school.

She is sitting nearby when they fight with Snape, and Lily interferes and he calls her a Mudblood. Everyone else is frozen in shock, even Snape. But Hermione snorts and says "Mudblood, how original you rancid backwards crazy furry smeg bat." and everyone stared at her instead, while she just casually turned the page.

"It means dirty blood!" Lily cried, outraged that Hermione would cast it aside like that.

She shrugged and answered "at least Gryffindors have enough common sense to clean our clothes or use a scourgify once in a while. I mean " she gestured up and down Snape's person. "his hair looks like it was washed in sewage, and smells like leftover grease that you usually throw away. His skin is so horrid because it can't breathe under that monstrosity. His clothes are too big in all the wrong places, and too tight in others making it uncomfortable to even look his way. It should have been mended and is clearly a Hufflepuff uniform washed with blue to make it green. All of that could have been fixed with spells we took in our O.W.L.s but yet he persist in overwhelming us with all that? I'll take dirty blood over his dirty everything any day."

Sirius had muttered "I'm in love." sometime during her tirade. Snape had turned his fury on her, simmering in anger. Peter had pulled behind Remus who was looking at her like it was the first time they had seen her. James on the other hand looked between the girl he was supposed to be in love with, and this creature.

After that they were friends. Hermione kept trying to avoid it slightly, and sometimes she looked at them like she saw somebody else there. But the Marauders had decided (except for Peter that didn't like her in the slightest) and she was staying.

At first, he had stopped pursuing Lily at all, always flirting slightly with the brunette instead. When she didn't notice that, he started making his declarations to Lily even louder, even more annoying. All in the hope that maybe Hermione would be jealous, would hex him or insult him. Just look at him with that beautiful fire in her eyes.

Then they kissed.

She had run away, he wasn't too surprised at that. Hearing her say that they were friends on the other hand? That hurt like hell.

It had taken a lot of Firewhiskey with Sirius late one night in a hidden passageway before he would admit it to Sirius.

Trying to swallow Firewhiskey at the moment he said it was very wrong timing. Sirius choked and spluttered and coughed before he uttered "Bloody hell mate, I thought you liked Lily!?"

He shook his head, dragging his palm over his eyes and looking down at the bottle in his hands.

"Not for a long time." he sighed. "Remember that day at the lake? When she insulted Snape?" Sirius nodded "I knew then."

"Knew what?"

"That I didn't love Lily." he paused. "I realized I never really did, I just thought that she was better than all the other girls here. None of them compared to Lily." His eyes shone as he looked at his best mate "But Hermione?"

"Hermione is the most perfect woman I have ever met. I can honestly say that even if I searched all over the world I would never find someone as amazing as her. I know that without a doubt I can never love anybody like I love her. She is so brave, so funny, so strong. She makes me a better man, even though she doesn't want to change me. I become a better person around her."

Sirius hiccuped, and they both started laughing. Not long after they fell asleep in the corridor.

James woke up to the smell of cinnamon. He made a noise of contentment before he was hit with the icy water.

"Wake up!" Hermione's slightly angry tone told him. She hit him slightly to get him moving. "We have class in 5 minutes!"

Sirius grumbled next to him, obviously having received the same treatment.

"I could wake up to your lovely face any day," James mumbled, still slightly drunk.

Hermione blushed and looked away.

They managed to get to class, mostly because Hermione sent stinging hexes to keep them moving when they tried to pause or sit down. The scornful looks her way only seemed to make her smile brighter. Classes that day was spent holding their heads, Sirius mumbling about annoying witches while James stared at said annoying witch.

Nothing really changed, but James was more determined than ever to get his witch.

It was only when Remus got involved that things started to turn around for the wizard.

"First off, no more declarations of love towards Lily. In fact, no more flirting with any girls except for her." Remus said sternly, and James shrugged, that didn't seem too hard.

Hermione looked at him funny when several days had gone by and he had refrained from his usual insane speeches about Lily. When a guy asked Lily out, and she loudly said yes, James didn't even turn to look at her. The boys all seemed fine with it, to Hermione's confusion.

"James?"

"Yes Hermione?" he looked up at her and smiled, filling his smile with the love he felt for her.

Her breath caught, and she paused for a bit before she continued "Lily got asked out."

"Yes, she did."

"And she said yes."

"Yeah?"

"It doesn't bother you?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not?"

"I don't love Lily Evans."

He left it hanging in the air, his I love you. The Marauders looked between the two, waiting for Hermione to catch on. Instead of her realizing what the pause ment, she just said "oh." and continued eating.

Sirius idea was much simpler than the myriad of advice Remus had given James. He just locked the two lovebirds into a broom closet.

Hermione said a lot of curse words, to James amusement, and then tried to open it. Before she could utter anything besides "Alohamora." he stole the wand.

"Give me my wand back."

"No."

"James give it back!"

"No Hermione."

"James Charlus Potter you give me my wand!"

"NO!" the shouting shut her up. "You will stay still, and listen to what I have to say. Or I will cast a Silencio on you." She shut up, but even though they were in the dark he knew she was sending him a very dark glare.

"I like you Hermione." he said after the silence had grown thick around them.

"What?"

"I have for a very long time."

"You- What?"

"I find you infuriating, exciting, funny, annoying, amazing and I can't stop thinking about you."

"I-" She stopped saying anything, unable to voice what she thought, how she thought. James thought it was because she didn't feel the same way, but he couldn't stop now.

"I kissed you because I wanted to. I know the timing was wrong but I hated hurting you."

"Hurting me?"

"Do you know how many men the boys and I have had to run interference with? You are the most desired woman at Hogwarts!"

She scoffed "I hardly think that's true."

He moved closer to her "I don't care."

"You just said-"

"hush"

"I will not shush!"

"Silencio!"

'She must be fuming now' James thought.

"There is no other woman in the world for me. Only you." he could hear her heavy breathing, but he wasn't going to stop. "There will never be anybody else, I-" he swallowed, the sound almost echoing in the quiet space.

"I love you."

Hermione was in his arms then, kissing him, ruffling up his hair even more. It took a while before they broke for air, and then Hermione kept shaking his hand with the wand. After about 5 minutes of her huffing, and him pretending he didn't know what she wanted, he finally performed the counter spell.

"I love you too." and then she pounced again. They had already wasted too much time.

After at least an hour of guarding the broom closet, Sirius couldn't help his curiosity. Unlocking and opening the door, he saw both of his friends pretty messed up, on the floor, Hermione straddling James. Thankfully (or maybe regretfully in Sirius' eyes as Hermione was quite fit) they both still had clothes on.

"Alright, there mate?" Sirius asked, grinning at his best friend.

"Never better," James grinned, and Hermione blushed.

James Potter had finally gotten the girl.