Lily was ready to start banging her head against the wall.

Two feet of parchment left to write for her Arithmancy homework. Two feet! She was never going to finish in time.

Especially not with the entire common room conspiring to distract her.

Okay, so maybe they weren't conspiring. But it felt like it.

The properties of the number thirteen include bad luck an-

A burst of laughter caused her quill to jerk, spilling ink all over her half-finished essay. She stared at it, appalled.

No! No, no, no! She stared at her essay. There was nothing else she could do: she'd have to rewrite it.

Lily sent the laughing couple a furious glare. James Potter and his girlfriend ignored her completely, oblivious to everyone else.

Unconsciousness was sounding better by the second.

Potter threw his head back and let out a hoot of laughter that made her heart skip a beat.

Why, why must this happen to me? She was sitting up in the common room at one in the morning, sleep-deprived with an essay to write, with N.E.W.T.s alarmingly close, watching her crush spend time with his girlfriend.

Somebody kill me now. Please.

Potterand his stupid girlfriend had finally left, and the common room was almost empty. Peter Pettigrew was sitting on the other side of it, scribbling frantically away on an essay of his own, but he wasn't talking, which Lily was grateful for. Maybe I can finish this essay in time, after all...

She had just begun to write her topic sentence when the portrait hole swung open. There was a thud, and a litany of swears floated across the air.

Lily bit back a groan and slid further down in her seat. Black. Maybe if she was lucky, he wouldn't see her. Her chair was facing away from the portrait hole, after all, and she doubted Pettigrew knew she was there. She really didn't feel like dealing with Black right now.

"Sirius, how on earth do you manage to trip over the portrait hole on an average of once a week when we've been climbing through it for seven years now?"

"I can climb through it fine! At least, I can when I'm paying attention..."

"And when you're not..."

"...I trip. Stop laughing at me! I was preoccupied!"

"Fine, I'll stop. For now. What had you so 'preoccupied,' Padfoot?"

Can't you have this conversation in your dorm? Lily begged silently. Because the world hated her, they continued the conversation right where they were.

Black swore again, and she heard a sound that indicated he had collapsed into a chair.

"You-know-who again?"

Voldemort?

"Voldemort? No-"

"No, not that you-know-who. The other one."

"Oh. That you-know-who."

"Yes, that one. What has we-both-know-who done this time?"

"They're absolutely sickening! Holding hands in the corridor, snogging in broom closets, and... argh!"

"You're jealous."

"Fine! Yes, I'm jealous!" Black swore for the third time. Join the club, Lily thought dryly.

The two fell into a companionable silence. In other conditions, Lily would have taken advantage of the silence to continue working on her essay, but if they knew she was here, they'd shut up, and she'd never know who they were talking about.

"Does we-both-know-who know how you feel?"

"Yes."

"Then I think the only thing to do is make we-both-know-who jealous. Why are we using this ridiculous nickname, anyway?"

"You came up with it, not me. And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Date someone else."

Wait. Idea. Lily considered it for a moment. You know, it just might work...

"Oh, yeah, so I'll just walk up to some random girl and say, 'hey, want to go out with me so I can make someone jealous?' Nobody'll go for that!"

"Actually," Lily said casually, getting up from her seat and walking over to them, "That's not exactly true..."

"Ready?" Pettigrew inquired, shifting from foot to foot.

"Ready!" Black said cheerfully. "Going to give us one last pep talk, oh mastermind of the make-people-jealous plan?"

Lily groaned. "Can we get on with it already?"

"Patience, Evans, patience!"

"Trust me, you two need a little bit more advice before you 'get on with it,'" Pettigrew said dryly. "You don't look at all like you're dating. For starters, stop using last names. Also, act sickeningly affectionate. Pretend that you like each other. Try not to argue- bickering is good, but arguing is bad. And hold hands."

Lily sighed, and grabbed his hand. "All right, let's go, Bl- Sirius." This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea.

Pettigrew grinned at them. "Have fun! I'll meet you in there in a minute- it'll look better if you come in together, without me."

Last chance to back out, Lily- and then they'd walked into the Great Hall, passing the point of no return.

Nobody had noticed yet. Thank goodness- but she was only putting off the inevitable.

"Don't look so tense," Sirius murmured in her ear. "We're supposed to be acting happy and 'sickeningly affectionate,' remember?"

She giggled- it felt false and very strange- and batted her eyes at him.

He snorted. "You look ridiculous. Come on- oh, I can't wait to see James's face, not to mention Remus's."

Lily tried her best to not react when she heard James's name. She hadn't told them who she was trying to make jealous (not that Sirius had been exactly forthcoming with the name of his crush), but she figured that James being Sirius's best friend, there would be plenty of opportunities to make him jealous.

Mary, one of Lily's friends, waved at her from farther down the table. "Hey, Lily-" she stopped dead. Her eyes were fixed upon their interwoven hands.

Oh no, what have I gotten myself into? This was a horrible idea! Still she made herself smile up at B- Sirius and say, "So who are we sitting with, your friends or mine?"

"Mine. Oi, Prongs!" Sirius waved his free hand at James and towed Lily over towards him.

James's eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his head. His girlfriend elbowed him in the side, obviously miffed at him for not listening to her.

I changed my mind. This was a wonderful idea.

Lily walked into Potions and hesitated briefly before sitting next to Sirius.

He grinned at her. "Hey, Lily. Come to save my Potions grade?"

"Does it need saving?"

"Trust me, it definitely does. I only passed this course with all the help that James, Peter, and Remus could give me. I really should have dropped it after O.W.L.s, but I might be an Auror, and they want Potions, so..."

"I didn't know you wanted to be an Auror," Lily said with surprise, looking at him. "It's... mature of you."

Sirius laughed. "I think that's the first compliment you've ever given me."

Lily muttered, "Keep your voice down. We're supposed to be dating, remember?"

"Relax," he murmured. "Nobody's listening. The only one who actually cares about what we're talking about is probably James, who is busy ranting away to Peter about how absurd us dating is."

"You think?" Lily felt a thrill of excitement.

"Oh yeah. I know the signs of a James-rant, and he's smack in the middle of one. He should be grateful, really, that you've saved him from having to partner up with me- he spends a large portion of every class trying to help me keep my grade above a P."

"What have I gotten myself into?" she lamented.

He snickered. "Relax- you're good enough at Potions that you can help me and still do fine. James, on the other hand? He's not nearly so talented."

Lily grinned. James, across the room, scowled at them, before turning back to talking to Pettigrew.

Pettigrew. "Sirius," she whispered as Slughorn walked in, "Can Pettigrew keep a secret?"

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about him," Sirius murmured back. "He's the best liar out of all of us, not to mention brilliant at working his way out of sticky situations. There's a reason he's in charge of making sure we can't get caught when pulling off a prank. Now shut up, will you? I need to listen to Slughorn if I want to pass this class."

Pettigrew dug furiously through a trunk that Lily guessed was Remus's. "I know he has it here somewhere..."

Sirius, standing in the doorway to the dorm, hissed, "Hurry up, will you? James and Remus could come up here any minute, and we'll have a hard time explaining why Lily's here."

Pettigrew smirked. "Oh, no, we won't. You two came up here to.. you know. I just happened to be here, and am making a hurried escape. I will then drag whoever it is with me, and you two can continue looking for the map."

Lily groaned. "Can't we think of a better excuse than that? I don't want rumors running wild around the school about how slutty I am."

"We'll shove you under James's invisibility cloak, Lily."

"Sirius, aren't we not supposed to mention the invisibility cloak to anyone?"

"We aren't supposed to mention the Marauder's Map to non-Marauders, either, and yet you're digging through Moony's trunk in search of it to use in our evil schemes this very second."

Pettigrew sighed. "Okay, you have a point. I won't tell James and Remus if you don't."

"Deal."

"Wait, James has an invisibility cloak?" Lily said with disbelief.

"Yeah," Sirius said casually, craning his head in an attempt to see farther down the stairwell. "It's in his trunk somewhere, if you want a look at it."

"I think I'll pass. You two might be comfortable with digging through each others trunks, but I'm-"

"Found it!" Pettigrew burst out of Remus's trunk, waving a piece of parchment in the air.

"Excellent. Can we leave now? My neck hurts."

Lily stared at it. "What is that? And how are you supposed to explain to Remus the mess his trunk's in?"

Pettigrew shrugged. "Easy. I tell him we needed the map because Sirius wanted to go hex Snape- stop glaring, we're not actually going to!- but I talked him out of it."

She raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. You came up with all that off the top of your head?"

"Peter's good at stuff like that. Well? Are you going to activate it?"

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Pettigrew intoned, touching his wand to the parchment, just as Lily realized her first question was never answered.

She peered over his shoulder, just in time to see the words:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

"Wow," Lily murmured, watching as a map of Hogwarts spread out on the parchment. "And... are those people?"

"Yup," Sirius agreed, coming to stand next to Lily and Pettigrew. "Everyone in Hogwarts is on this map. It records Animagi, people under invisibility cloaks... as far as we know, there's no way to fool it."

"I'm impressed."

"You should be. It took us forever to make this. And this is what we're going to use to pull off the second stage of our plan."

"Second stage?" Lily and Sirius both said at the same time.

"That's really creepy, you know," Pettigrew commented. "And yes, second stage. We figure out where the people we're trying to make jealous are, and you two go and be a couple in front of them."

"Go and be a couple?" Lily said warily.

"You know, hold hands, look blissfully happy, maybe kiss... couple stuff."

Sirius was nodding. "No problem." He scanned the Map and said abruptly, "There. Outside by the lake."

Lily peered over his shoulder, curious, but there were enough people out there that it was impossible to tell who Sirius was worried about.

"What about you, Lily?"

"Let's see... he's over by the lake, too." She grinned abruptly. "With his girlfriend."

Sirius laughed. "Excellent. If he is feeling jealous, I bet his girlfriend won't be too happy with him, which is all the better for you."

Lily felt a brief pang of guilt. "I... this isn't exactly the nicest thing to do, is it? Trying to split people up..."

"We're not, though," Sirius argued. "We're pretending to date, and making sure the people we really like see us. We're not trying to start fights, we're not planting nasty rumors, and we're not sabotaging their relationships. We're hoping to open their eyes to the fact that the person they really want to date is, you know, one of us."

"And," Pettigrew chimed in, "If they're not interested, they're not interested, no harm done. The relationship continues on like nothing ever happened. If they are interested and decide to act on it, then that's their decision."

Lily nodded slowly. "Yeah. You're right." She grinned at them. "Then let's do this."

"Well?" Pettigrew demanded the moment they walked inside.

"Wow," Lily commented, looking around. "This is cool. How do you guys find this stuff?" She collapsed into a large, plump armchair.

Sirius shrugged. "I don't even know. It's more like it finds us. Great, though, isn't it?"

"Can you please wax poetical about the Room of Requirement later? I want to hear how it went!"

"It went like a charm," Sirius said cheerfully. Lily nodded. "I sensed several irritated glares."

Peter nodded. "Was we-both-know-who watching?"

Sirius looked elated. "You bet. Staring at me the whole time." They high-fived.

"You know," Lily commented, "It would probably be a lot easier to pull this off if I knew who to watch out for..."

"Nice try, Lily, but no. You haven't exactly been forthcoming on who you like, either. Care to share?"

Her stomach flip-flopped. "No. No way."

Sirius shrugged. "Have it your way."

Mary sighed enviously, watching Lily from her bed. "I wish I had a date for Hogsmeade."

Lily grinned at her in the mirror as she pulled her hair into a ponytail. "You have lots more dates than I do, Mary."

"I don't have one this weekend, though. Is that how you're doing your hair? Don't you want to do something fancier?"

"Nah. Sirius won't care. I'll see you later, okay?" Lily called as she headed down the stairs.

Sirius was in the common room, talking to Peter, Remus, and James. Remus saw her first.

"Hey, Lily!"

"Hi," Peter said cheerfully, waving. James mumbled something under his breath that could have been "hello."

Sirius walked over to her and said, "Lily. You look nice."

"Thanks." She smiled at him. "So do you."

James was watching her. He looked away when they made eye contact.

"Should we go, then?" Sirius asked.

"Okay."

"Where next?" Sirius asked as they emerged from Zonko's.

Lily considered it. "I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know. Where do you want to go?"

"Stop it! It was a serious question," Lily objected, but she was smiling. Sirius, she had discovered, was a lot of fun to be around.

"Actually," Sirius began.

Lily groaned. "No bad puns."

Sirius deflated. "Fine." He considered for a moment and suggested, "Honeydukes?"

"I've got too many sweets as it is. The Shrieking Shack?"

"Boring. The Three Broomsticks?"

"We just went there. Gladrags Wizardwear?"

"God, no!" Sirius considered it. "Madam Puddifoot's?"

Lily shuddered. "No. Not there."

"There's not that many more places to go, you know," Sirius commented. "The Hog's Head?"

"That place is creepy. Peter! Remus!" Lily waved at the two figures.

"Where's James?" Sirius asked the moment they were within earshot.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Remus said with a shrug.

"He and Melanie broke up," Peter clarified. "He disappeared on us."

"Who broke up with who?" Lily asked, unable to restrain herself.

"I don't know," Peter admitted.

"We walked in on them shouting at each other in the middle of Honeydukes. Melanie stormed off, and so did James a minute later."

"I got the feeling he didn't want to talk to us."

Remus said drily, "No, really?" He shrugged. "He probably went back to the castle."

Sirius nodded. "We should probably go talk to him..." He gave Lily an awkward glance.

"You want to head back?" she asked. "It's not like we were really doing anything."

Sirius nodded, looking grateful. "Thanks, Lily."

"Well?" Of course, Mary was waiting to ambush her the moment she returned.

"It went well." Lily collapsed onto her bed.

Mary said impatiently, "Come on, I want more detail than that! Where did you go? Was he nice? Did you have fun?"

"The Three Broomsticks and Zonko's, yes, and yes."

"Lily, I don't want monosyllabic answers!" She sighed. "I'm just curious. How did it go, really?"

Lily stared at the ceiling. "It went well. It was actually a lot of fun. I never understood why anyone liked him before this... but he's funny. It wasn't awkward or anything, and I had a good time."

Funny to realize that was the truth.

"Looks like the Marauders aren't as bad as I always thought."

"...so get started!" Slughorn said cheerfully.

As Lily started cutting up her caterpillar, she asked Sirius, "So how's things?"

He sighed. "Meh. James has been in a bad mood since Hogsmeade. He's doing his best to spread the misery and put the rest of us in a bad mood."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Nice of him. You couldn't cheer him up?"

"No. Remus is the best at that sort of thing, but he's in a bad mood himself because he's... been sick the last couple of days. James's been snapping at me for the last week, and isn't about to stop now, and he's pissed at Peter, too."

"What did you and Peter do?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Peter told him that he deserved to be broken up with, because it was obvious the person he really wanted to date was you, and Melanie could tell."

She stared at him. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. Why do you think he's been annoyed with me? It's too bad he's not the one you're trying to make jealous, because you'd have totally succeeded..." he trailed off, staring at her.

"What?" Her voice was a bit too high.

"No way. You can't have been... you were, weren't you? You were trying to make James jealous all along!"

"No!" The denial was too loud, too panicked, and Lily knew that her secret was well and truly blown.

Sirius started to laugh. "I can't believe it. This is-"

"Duck!" She yanked him underneath the desk, right before his potion exploded.

Purple potion went absolutely everywhere.

"What on earth did you do? It's supposed to be orange!"

"How should I know? I was too busy talking to you!"

"Oh, great, blame it on me," Lily grumbled as Slughorn called, "Everyone all right?"

Everyone was not all right, as it turned out. A large portion of the class had to be escorted to the hospital wing.

"I think this is a new record," Sirius muttered. "An explosion and nine people in the hospital wing, all within the first five minutes of class."

"Hey, Peter," Lily said, sitting down next to his bed in the hospital wing.

"How're you doing?" Sirius added, looking abashed.

"I'll be fine, no thanks to you."

"I'm horrible at Potions, you should know that by now!"

"Your disasters aren't usually quite on that scale, though, or you'd never have gotten into N.E.W.T. Potions. What happened?"

Sirius grinned abruptly, and Lily bit back a groan. "Oh, I just discovered a very interesting thing. Guess who Lily was trying to make jealous?"

Peter propped himself up on one elbow. "Who?"

"Here's a hint. He's got messy black hair, has liked her since fifth year, has been annoyed with me for weeks for dating her... any of this ringing a bell?"

Peter stared at her. "Seriously?"

Lily was certain that she was bright red by now. "Yes, seriously, okay!"

Sirius and Peter took one look at each other and started laughing.

"Will you two STOP IT?"

"You have to admit," Peter said once they had calmed down, "It is funny. I mean, me and Sirius have wondered, but we never thought..." he trailed off, shaking his head.

"It's almost too perfect," Sirius laughed. "He's practically green with envy already."

Lily said hesitantly, "So you think I've got a chance?"

Peter grinned at her. "You've got more than just a chance, especially with the two of us helping you."

"I hate the Slug Club," Lily complained, collapsing into the armchair next to Sirius's.

"What's good old Sluggy done now?"

She sighed. "It's not what he's done, it's what he's going to do."

"I'm all ears," Sirius said, putting aside his Defense Against the Dark Arts book.

"He's having another stupid Slug Club gathering."

"And...?"

"And? I hate those things. He always introduces me to whoever he's invited this time, saying that even though I'm a Muggle-born, I'm surprisingly good at Potions..." she said bitterly. "And then I have to deal with him."

Sirius gave her a bewildered look.

"Severus," she clarified. "He either gives me these pitiful looks that say 'why won't you be my friend,' or he looks at me like I betrayed him, or he glares at me and sneers about how I'm Muggle-born."

"Want me to hex him for you?"

"No," she sighed. "I just wish I didn't have to go. I don't have an excuse, though, so..."

"Tell him you have a date with me," Sirius suggested. "He already dislikes me, who cares if he dislikes me a little more?"

"Okay. Thanks. Or I can say I'm tutoring you so that you don't blow up another cauldron."

Sirius snickered. "Yeah. And if he still insists you come, I can accidentally-on purpose make something explode the next day in class. He'll let you skip for tutoring after that."

Lily laughed. "Yeah."

A companionable silence fell.

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Times like this are fun. You know, when we're not plotting or anything, just... talking."

"I like it, too. Who would have ever guessed that we could be friends?"

"I certainly didn't. You surprised me, Evans."

"Yeah, well, you surprised me too, Black."

A pause.

"Sirius? After this pretend-dating thing is over, can we stay friends?"

"Yeah. I'd like that." He paused, and continued, "But only if we stop with the sappiness now."

Lily laughed. "Yeah, okay."

The Room of Requirement had become their headquarters.

"So," Peter said cheerfully. "Step one: get James to admit that he likes Lily."

"That'll be easy," Sirius said confidently. "What's step two?"

"Make sure we-both-know-who is jealous."

"Okay, that'll be a little more difficult."

"Seeing as you both know I like James now, can't we make it we-all-know-who? I won't laugh, I promise!"

"Tell you what, Lily. You'll find out if we succeed and we start dating."

"Please?"

They both ignored her.

"What about step three?" Sirius asked.

"You two break up. We have to time this right- you can't date for too long, or else they'll give up on you, so even if we can't achieve steps one and two, this one has to happen fairly soon."

Lily considered that. "How soon are we talking?"

"A week, maybe?" Peter suggested.

"And then we should say that we broke up because we didn't really like each other are were better off just being friends," Sirius chimed in.

She nodded. "Perfect."

"And step four, of course, is to hook up Lily with James and Sirius with we-both-know-who."

Sirius grinned at them. "So what are we waiting for?"

They had to wait very little time at all, as it turned out, for part of their plan to take care of itself.

Sirius burst through the portrait hole at one in the morning shouting, "Lily! Peter! Guess what guess what guess what!"

Rather, in a perfect world, Sirius would have done that. Instead, he tripped over the portrait hole.

"Lily! Pet- argh!"

Lily glanced up from her Arithmancy essay and sighed. She put her book aside, walked over, and pulled him to his feet. The other occupants of the common room (a couple of fifth years studying) went back to what they were doing.

"Where's Peter? You won't believe what just happened!"

"In his dorm. What happened?"

Sirius dashed up the stairs to the boys' dorms.

"Great," Lily grumbled. "Fine, don't tell me anything..."

She had just dipped her quill in ink to continue with her essay when Sirius reappeared, dragging Peter, who looked very annoyed.

"I was asleep, Sirius, honestly..."

"Lily! Lily, come on!"

Lily sighed, and followed Sirius out of the portrait hole. This time, he was careful to not trip.

"Okay, what is it?" she demanded as soon as the common room vanished behind the Fat Lady.

"They broke up!"

"What?"

"Really?"

"Yes! They broke up, they broke up, they broke up!" Sirius sang, dancing around in victory.

Laughing, Peter joined in. "They broke up, they broke up..."

"They broke up," Lily sang along, dancing with them.

"They broke up, they broke up..."

"Can you please do that somewhere else?" the Fat Lady demanded. "I was trying to sleep!"

"Well," Peter announced in their headquarters, "We've achieved step two, at least as much as we're going to be able to."

Lily nodded. "I figured."

"So we should change step one to step two, and we can check off the new step one now..." Peter muttered, scribbling away on the blackboard that held the four steps.

Lily wasn't really listening. "Where's Sirius?"

"He said he had something that really needed doing and that he'd meet us here later. Actually," Peter continued, looking at the Marauder's Map, "He should be here any se- oh."

"What?" Lily said warily.

The door of the Room of Requirement opened.

"Hey," Sirius said cheerfully. "I brought help."

Remus followed him in. "Hey Peter, Lily. Mind if I join you?"

"Well, Peter," Remus said as he sat down next to Lily three days later, "You can check step two off."

It took a moment to sink in. Then:

"He admitted it?"

"Yes!" Sirius cried out triumphantly.

Lily shushed him. "You don't want Madam Pince to kick us out, do you?" He paid her no attention. She supposed that grinning like a lunatic did not make her look intimidating.

"It was easy," Remus said, grinning. "All I needed to do was wait for the right moment. So he's sitting in the common room, looking depressed, and I go up to him and sit down..."

"Thinking about Lily?" he asked, looking at James sympathetically.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not to someone who doesn't know you. But yeah, it is kinda obvious. So all that about you moving on from Lily..."

"Complete and utter nonsense."

Remus nodded.

"And then Sirius, of all people, started dating her!"

"He thought you'd moved on," Remus said reasonably. "He wouldn't have if he'd known..."

"I know. Still..."

Remus shrugged. "Maybe there's still a chance for you."

James snorted. "I doubt it."

"I wouldn't give up, James," Remus said, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. "I'll see you later, okay? I promised Peter I'd help him with the Transfiguration work..."

Lily grinned at Remus. "You are amazing."

"Thanks." Remus looked pleased with himself.

"So when does step three go into action?" Sirius asked.

"A couple of days, maybe?" Peter suggested.

"Sounds good."

News got around fast. Sirius Black and Lily Evans, one of the most interesting couples in Hogwarts, had broken up. Half the school knew by lunchtime.

Which, on an ordinary day, would have made Lily very annoyed with Rita Skeeter, a fourth year who knew absolutely everything happening in Hogwarts, and was without a doubt responsible for the rapid spread of the news, but right now she was glad for it.

"...why'd you break up, Padfoot?" Lily heard Peter ask at breakfast. Her eyes flew automatically to James, who was trying to look disinterested.

"Oh, Lily's nice and all, but she's just not really my kinda girl. I think we'll be better off as friends."

Lily nodded to herself. Now all she could do was wait.

The Heads meeting. Six days after she and Sirius "broke up."

"...new password should be Phoenix?" James suggested.

"That sounds good," Lily agreed. "We should work on the patrol schedule, too..."

James was very professional. No personal comments, no nothing. Just business.

Sitting next to James in Potions.

"Pass me the aconite?"

"Here you go."

Eleven days after the break-up. Still nothing.

Patrol with James.

"Detention. Go back to your common room."

And then silence.

Sixteen days.

"Twenty-three days," Lily said unhappily to Sirius. "Still nothing."

Sirius shrugged helplessly.

Lily sighed. "How goes it with you-and-Peter-both-know-who?"

Sirius smiled. "Good, I think. I hope." He shot her an almost guilty look. "I... James'll come around. Eventually."

After thirty days, Peter called an emergency meeting.

"Okay. Remus is pretty sure that James isn't planning on asking Lily out. So that leaves us two options. Tell James that Lily likes him... or, Lily, you could ask him out."

She swallowed.

"Um. James?"

"Yeah?" He didn't look up.

She chickened out. "What are you doing?"

"Herbology homework."

"How are you doing with it? I had trouble with the third use of..." she broke off at James's glance.

"Are you trying to ask me for help with homework?"

"I'm just trying to make conversation." She was doing this all wrong, wasn't she?

"I'm trying to work, okay? Can we converse later?"

Lily bit down on her lip hard. Just say it. Spit it out, Lily...

She opened her mouth, but couldn't force the words out. She closed it again.

"What do you want?" He practically sneered it at her.

And then her temper got the better of her. "How about a little less utter contempt?" she snapped, and was promptly furious with herself.

James scowled at her. "What do you want, Evans?" he repeated, voice icy.

"I was going to ask you something, but I don't think I'll bother." She had to get out of here before she started either shouting at him or crying. She stood up.

"No, I want to hear it. Say whatever you were going to."

"I- why do you always have to make things so difficult, Potter?"

"I make things difficult?" He stood up, scowling at her. "You've made things difficult for me since the day I met you!"

"What are you talking about, Potter?"

"Oh, come on. Don't play dumb-"

"I'm not!"

"-you're the reason I got my first detention-"

"Are you still sulking over that?"

"-you got me caught for the prank I pulled on Professor White-"

"She was a professor! Of course I reported you!"

"-your first act as prefect was to give me detention-"

"You deserved it!"

"-and when I finally started being sincere and I told you I liked you you ridiculed me!" James flushed a bright red, and grabbed his homework, taking three quick steps toward the door.

"Yeah, well, when I finally get up the courage to tell you that I like you back, you yell at me!"

Great. That was so not the way she'd wanted to tell him. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me, but obviously you're not interested-"

"Wait." James caught her arm.

She turned to look at him. "What?"

He kissed her.

"Oi, Prongs! Lily!" Sirius waved at them from the table, set with breakfast.

Remus saw it first. His mouth dropped open.

"Hey, Padfoot," James called back.

Remus elbowed Peter.

"What's up?" Sirius called back as they approached the table.

Remus and Peter both were grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"Oh, nothing much..." Lily said casually.

"You're holding hands!" Peter blurted out.

She grinned at them brightly. Sirius had an incredulous look on his face.

"So we are," James said cheerfully. "I hadn't noticed."

Lily shrugged, and sat down across from Sirius. "That is what two people who are dating do, after all."

Remus high-fived her. "So James finally stopped being a prat?"

"About time," Sirius added. "Peter, you owe me three Sickles. I told you she'd take less than three days to ask him."

Peter sighed. "Oh, all right." He handed over the money.

James said suspiciously, "What's going on here?"

"You explain," Lily said, grabbing a sausage off of James's plate and smiling to herself.