Well, hello. This is a first of mine on fanfiction.net, so… uh huh, I'm still getting into the swing of things.

But, alrighty then! This is an L/J fic, but I think we shall have a bit of Sirius's story in the beginning. But don't worry, Lily will come into it later (next chapter, probably), I assure you.

And… yeah. I don't really have much else to say. *shrugs*

Disclaimer: You people have probably read enough of these to come to the conclusion that us mere fanfiction-ists own nothing, as that belongs to good ol' JKR. Except for the plot and a handful of new characters, of course.

But anyway. On with the show!

I've been hanging around
Just in case you fall in love with me
I know you have doubts
I hear when you shout
'Cos I understand you see

I was concerned when you said
You'd rather wake up dead
Than spend a day with me
I know that's not you
I know and it's true
They don't understand you like I do

~ Song belongs to a Mr Robbie Williams (or 'Our Rob', as my friends have come to hear off me)

Hanging Around

James Potter lay sprawled across the couch in his Living Room, smiling dreamily to himself as he pictured the face of a beautiful red head, who had been plaguing his mind for a good few years, by now.

His father rolled his eyes and smirked when he saw the look on his son's face, making himself more comfortable in the armchair next to the Christmas tree, that he was sat in.

"Well, he's thinking about her again," he announced loudly, making James snap out of his dream world and grin.

James nodded. "Yeah," he admitted, not at all embarrassed.

His parents knew full well of his obsession with a certain Miss Lily Evans, and had been on the receiving end of James's rambles about her every school holiday since their son's fourth year at Hogwarts. And since James was at that moment on Christmas vacation from his sixth year at school, Lily was by now a regular conversation topic.

"Son, I hate to tell you this, but…" his father trailed off, uneasily. "I think you need to give it a break. You've been after her for… ptsh… how many years now? And she obviously doesn't like you in that way-"

"She doesn't like me at all," James replied, with an amused smile.

"Exactly. I'm telling you, you should get more interested in the other girls-"

James rolled his eyes. He'd heard this quite a lot before. "Eh, she'll come around," he shrugged, standing up and running a hand through his hair. "After all, no one can resist the Potter charm, right? Yeah, I'll have her going out with me by the end of this year. I just need a plan, or something," he remarked, cockily.

His dad, knowing he couldn't say anything that would make James listen to him, simply sighed.

"Alright. Whatever you say, James."

James, again, grinned, falling backwards onto the couch once more. "I'll have to try and point her out to you drop me off at Kings Cross, again. You've never actually seen her, have you?"

"No," his dad said, quite boredly now, as he flicked open a newspaper.

"She's absolutely gorgeous," James insisted, a far off look coming into his eyes again. "She's got this dark red hair, right-"

"I know, you've told me a hundred times before-"

"And these eyes… She's got the most amazing eyes," he went on. Then he grinned. "And her body-!"

He was cut off by his mum, who walked into the room to find her wand, but tutted at what her son was saying.

"James," she admonished, with a quick roll of her eyes. "Seriously, can you talk about nothing except this Lily girl?" she asked, hiding a smile. She raised her eyebrows slightly. "What about Sirius, hmm? You haven't even mentioned him, ever since you got home."

His dad suddenly frowned with thought. "That's right," he agreed. "He's not been over once either, from what I can remember. He's usually here everyday! What's happened?"

For some reason, James's face had suddenly darkened at the mention of Sirius.

"Ah, don't say you two have fallen out," Mrs Potter sighed. "You've been friends for years… Like brothers, you two."

"Just… don't talk about him," James muttered, standing abruptly and making his way towards the stairs, so he could go to his room.

"Why not?"

"Because he's an idiotic fool," James replied, scowling, as he walked up the stairs.

Mrs Potter looked quite upset that James was mad at Sirius. She'd always liked Sirius Black, ever since he was little. Even now, she still felt overwhelming sympathy towards the boy. Now more than ever, actually. His family just seemed to get worse as the years went by.

Which is why James's dad looked slightly alarmed. "You don't think… Sirius wouldn't have gone over to the… dark side? No. Would he?"

Mrs Potter glared at her husband. "No, he would not."

~*~*~

James stormed up to his bedroom, where – after kicking his way through a pile of junk on the floor – he threw himself onto his bed.

Merlin. It must have been about a month since he had stopped talked to Sirius.

He glanced out of the window at the moon, for confirmation. Yep. It would be full any day now, which would signal a month since Sirius had lured Snape into Shrieking Shack, nearly killing the Slytherin, and exposing Remus's werewolf secret at the same time.

James set his jaw, as he thought about it. Sure, Sirius was his best friend, and he missed talking to him… But he couldn't believe he'd been so stupid. James wouldn't forget the look on Remus's face when he transformed back into his normal self after the full moon. He just looked… betrayed. And with good reason. After all, his biggest enemy now knew his biggest secret.

And sure, Remus had since forgiven Sirius, accepting that he'd been provoked and just acted rashly.

But James – being the stubborn being that he was – just somehow couldn't forgive his friend so easily.

He scowled for a few minutes as he thought of Sirius, mainly because he missed having him around.

However, a smile finally graced his face when his eye caught a photograph on his desk. Sure, it had been taken without her permission – without her even knowing, actually… But damn, that Lily Evans was gorgeous, he thought, as he stared at the photo, where she giggled happily with her friends, eyes sparkling and hair bouncing as she laughed, totally oblivious to the camera.

Grinning, he stood up and tucked the picture into his pocket.

~*~*~

Later that night, James wondered through his house, absolutely bored to tears.

Yes, Christmas was only a few days away, but he had absolutely nothing to do. Remus's family had taken him off on holiday, somewhere… Peter had buggered off to his grandparent's, and refused to visit James over the holidays… And Sirius was, well… yeah.

Plus, James noted with a glare out of the window, the dismal weather ruled out Quidditch completely.

"I'm bored," he whined to his mother, as he sauntered into the kitchen.

Mrs Potter rolled her eyes. "Help me with dinner, then," she suggested.

James's disgusted facial expression told everyone what he thought of that idea.

"Nah," he replied with a yawn, as he pulled something out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the table top, along with the photograph of Evans.

He placed the picture on the table carelessly, then focused his attention on the other thing.

 After he murmured a few words that his mother couldn't hear, and tapping the old parchment with his wand (after turning 17 just a few days ago, James was officially of age and allowed to do magic outside school. Which he indeed teased his friends about, who were all still 16) James was looking down at the Marauders Map.

His eyes grazed over it for a few moments, noticing that very few people stayed over at Hogwarts for Christmas. He glared when he saw a small dot labelled "Severus Snape", who was currently sat alone in the Slytherin Common Room.

He hated Snape more than ever, now. With him and Sirius not talking, there was no Marauders, really. And that wasn't right.

"Jamie, can you get the door?" his mother interrupted his thoughts, making James raise his eyes off the parchment to look at her.

"Eh?"

"Get the door."

"Oh. Yeah, okay," James shrugged, standing up. He quickly grabbed the photo and the Marauders Map in his right hand, as he ran the other through his hair. He hadn't even heard the hammering on the door before then, which was odd now he realised, as it was pretty damn loud.

"I'm coming, for Merlin's sake!" he yelled with frustration, as the pounding on the door continued. He rolled his eyes and messed about with the key in the lock, before finally flinging the door open.

And blinked when he saw who was there.

 James stared in surprise at Sirius Black, who was stood on the porch, absolutely drenched to the skin as a result of the pouring rain. He was stood a few steps back from the door, cast in the shadows, with a backpack slung across his shoulder.

James gaped at the sheer shock of seeing him. For one, he couldn't once remember a time when Sirius had arrived using the front door. He always just flooed right over, without warning.

Plus... James and Sirius hadn't spoken since the last full moon.

"Hey," Sirius said hoarsely, when James didn't say anything.

James frowned slightly as Sirius stepped out of the shadows, which had been hiding him from view. He… His face was…

Sirius sniffed, and continued quietly. "Listen Prongs, I... I know you're still pissed at me about the Snape thing, but-"

"Jesus Sirius, what happened to you?" James gasped, staring at his friend's battered and bruised face in horror.

Sirius simply continued talking, ignoring James' question. "And I totally understand if you just tell me to get lost, if you don't even want to listen to me. But... but... I-I just don't know what to do," he finished lamely.

James stared open mouthed at Sirius for a few more seconds, before quickly frowning and motioning for Sirius to step inside the house.

He knew Sirius hadn't just been in a fight with a random person, as had happened a few times before. No, he looked way too upset for that.

It was in the bright light of the house that he could see just how badly Sirius was injured. "Padfoot, what the [I]hell[/I]-?"

"Sirius!" Mrs Potter exclaimed happily. "Oh, what a lovely sur-" She cut herself off by gasping quietly. Moving towards him quickly, she tilted Sirius's chin up to take a look at his face better. "Dear, what happened to you?" she murmured.

Sirius gave her a tight smile. "Regulus was being his usual happy self…" he mumbled, and James shook his head at the mention of Sirius's younger brother.

His anger towards his friend seemed to be forgetten, for the moment.

James's mother sighed and shook her head. She was thankful James was only child, brothers seemed to fight like cat and dog. Sirius and Regulus did, anyway.

"And then my Dad came in…" Sirius went on, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sided with his 'better son', of course…" Sirius didn't even look upset. Just thoughtful, and far off. "So I said something, I can't remember what, exactly… Something about being a Black doesn't mean you're royalty… And Regulus just flew at me." He raised his eyes to James and Mrs Potter, and gave them a sad smile. "Don't worry though, he came off worse."

James's mother just stared at him. "Your own brother did that?" she breathed, looking from Sirius's black eye, to his cut and swollen lip.

Sirius snorted. "Regulus? No. He might act the bad ass, but he's a right puny thing, really…" he trailed off, and shook his head. "Nah. See, when he saw I was the one actually beating Regulus up, my Dad came forward, and…" Sirius suddenly frowned and shuddered in remembrance.

James and his mum stared at Sirius in pure horror.

Sure, they knew the Black's had never really been… loving towards Sirius, but physical violence? That was new.

"Your-your Dad did-he did that to you-? Oh sweetie, you poor thing…" Mrs Potter murmured, her eyes wide, as she pulled Sirius into a hug, then led him through to the Living Room, where she tried to heal his face with some simple charms.

James however, remained in the hallway, revulsion still evident on his face.

He really hadn't realised how bad it was at home, for Sirius. For God's sake, of course he hadn't. If he had, he would have done all he could to stop it, naturally.

He walked slowly into the Living Room, hearing Sirius talking to his mother.

"-So I ran away," Sirius concluded, nodding his head in the direction of his backpack, which had been tossed onto the floor.

There was a short silence. Then James filled it.

"He can stay here though, can't he?" he questioned his mum.

Mrs Potter nodded immediately. "Well of course he can," she replied. "The poor love. I can't believe that did that to you, Sirius…"

Sirius shrugged, a dull look in his eyes, which James had noticed when he saw him on the porch. "It's not so bad," he mumbled. "Just a few punches, you know…"

"Don't talk like that," Mrs Potter scolded gently. "It's an awful, disgusting thing to do, and you know it."

Sirius gave her a small smile again. "Thanks for letting me stay here, by the way."

"Don't be stupid, you know you're always welcome here," she said, rolling her eyes as she stood up. "You practically live here anyway…" she grinned, making her way out of the room.

Sirius laughed slightly. Then he turned to James. "Erm… yeah. Ta, Prongs."

James shrugged, and gave him a tight smile. "No problem. So… are you okay? Does it hurt?"

"Nah," Sirius said carelessly. "Well, what did hurt, you're mum fixed anyway…"

"That's good," James nodded. "Erm… so… Are you hungry?"

Sirius simply shook his head, and the two trailed off into uncomfortable silence, not knowing what to say.

They both sat there for a few minutes, neither talking. Sirius clasped his hands together, and looked anywhere but James, whilst James stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor, gently rocking backwards and forwards on his feet.

After all, they'd not talked for a month.

"So… um…" James cleared his throat, at the same time trying to clear the tension.

"Do you hate me?" Sirius asked quietly.

James looked at him in surprise. "Huh?"

"It's just-"

James sighed and shook his head, frowning. "I don't hate you," he murmured. "Sure, I was angry at you, but-"

"I don't want you to feel sorry for me, Prongs. Okay? Just because of…" he trailed off and sighed. "Of what happened tonight, doesn't mean that what I did to Snape is forgotten."

"No, I know," James agreed. "But… hey, Remus forgave you, didn't he? So there's no reason why I shouldn't."

"It's 'cause you're a stubborn sod," Sirius replied, smirking slightly.

James grinned. "Yeah, you're right."

And the two fell back into silence, both knowing that everything was okay between them.

Until finally, Sirius interrupted it.

"So are you going to tell me why you've been clutching a picture of Evans in your hand as if you'd die without it, ever since I got here?"

~*~*~

*wrinkles nose* That didn't turn out how I wanted it to. I didn't like it. Sigh.

But… I can't be bothered re-writing. So… yeah. Sorry. Hehe.

I know, I know. No L/J, as of yet.

But it'll come. LoL.

We-ell… Reviews would be nice. And constructive criticism, if you please.

Thanks for reading this far, anywho.

~Lauren