Lily Evans sighed heavily, her emerald eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Her fingers drummed on her desk and her left hand clutched her cheek, supporting her leaning head. Transfixed on the scene unfolding a few rows away from her, she let her thoughts wander. He was laughing at one of his mates remarks; of course he was laughing, he was always laughing. She watched in anticipation as he reached over a slapped his fellow Marauder, Sirius Black's palm. His Head Boy badge caught the light and glimmered proudly on his robes. Suddenly her head was feeling all fuzzy, this did not happen to Lily Evans, not once, never. Her head wasn't even that wild after a few extra glasses of firewhiskey or after that time she had snogged Amos Diggory in a broom closet.

"Okay, students, that is all the time we have for today. Do not forget your five foot essay on the History of Human Transfiguration is due tomorrow!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang out. Lily snapped out of her inner thoughts and began packing up her belongings. She shoved her quills, notes, and books into her brown bag and swiftly walked to the door where she met up with Alice to head to lunch. Naturally, James Potter and his other half Sirius Black slid out the door right before them and the breeze blew his scent right into her. He smelled ultimately like grass and pine trees, which usually insured that he had gone for a ride on his broom this morning.

"It is so lovely being in love, Lily, really you should try it!" Alice was swooning. Lately Alice had been seeing Frank Longbottom and it seemed to be all she ever talked about. She was currently clutching a piece of parchment, which no doubt contained a love letter from Frank, the way Lily held her wand when doing Head head of dark unruly hair swiveled around and she became face to face with James Potter who had clearly overheard her best friend's suggestion. He cocked an eyebrow and a suggestive grin spread across his face. Lily swallowed hard and gathered up the will power to resist snogging him senseless and instead shot him a glare and he returned to Black.

"I'll take your word for it, Alice." Lily replied, keeping her gaze from coming in contact with Potter's incredibly sexy hair. She pondered how exactly his hair could be so out of place and out of control yet look so soft and inviting. Oh what she would do to run her hands through that hair. Lily shook her head at these thoughts. James Potter had been the scum of the earth the past seven years, with his cocky attitude, his stupid smirk, and his band of loyal followers, he had drove Lily mad. And suddenly she was longing to kiss that devilish smirk off his face, rather than hex it off? Merlin, she must be going mad!

"Lily, are you quite alright?" Alice inquired, her left hand making its way into Lily's peripheral vision, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Oh yes, Alice, I'm fine." Lily nodded following Potter and Black's retreating figures toward the Great Hall. "Just a lot on my mind."Alice nodded and watched Lily suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, Lily forced a smile and swallowed hard, trying to shake all thoughts of James Potter out of her head.

The pair reached the Great Hall and filed in along with the others students, taking their places at the Gryffindor table. Alice excused herself to meet up with Frank after grabbing a slice of bread. Lily helped herself to a goblet of pumpkin juice and tried to focus on something other than the hazel-eyed Marauder sitting a few seats down. Potions essay due Thursday, Patrols tomorrow, Hmmm... I must finish that essay tonight in that case.'

"Oi, Lily!" That voice was all too familiar. Lily glanced up to see James Potter standing next to her running a hand through his hair. Half of her wanted to groan and smack her head into the table, and the other half wanted to reach up and see how soft his hair really was. Lily battled both sides and pulled her hands into her lap.

"James." Lily responded, politely. That sounded okay... I didn't sound too eager to see him but not like I didn't want to see him.

"I, uh just wanted to let you know that I can't do my patrols on Thursday..." Full moon, "So I arranged to switch with a Ravenclaw sixth year, You know Brian Slate?" Lily nodded, " So I'll be patrolling with you tomorrow..." He trailed off, Lily wanted to scream, she was supposed to be avoiding him and now she had to patrol with him... alone... in the dark, deserted corridors. Merlin!

"Okay, James" She nodded and smiled politely. He grinned back.

"I'll see you later, Lil!" He bid before scurrying towards the door. Lily's eyes landed on his best mate stuffing his face with food.

"Black!" She called, making her way towards him. He looked up, pulling his face from his lunch and shooed the giggling girl next to him away.

"Evans, m'lady, what can I do for you?" He greeted, gesturing for her to sit down. Lily sighed internally and took the seat next to him, she was at his mercy now. Sirius went back to his food, waiting for Lily to speak.

"I need your help." She stated simply. Sirius looked up baffaled.

"You. Need. My. Help?" He asked sharply, stunned. Lily nodded sullenly.

"Yes, Black, I need your help!" She snapped, tossing a handful of red hair over her shoulder. He gave her a look telling her to continue, "Well... you see, I... I have no idea why I'm coming to you... but you're the only one I could really trust with this information... But you have to promise not to tell anyone because I don't want to tell anyone, but see I had to tell someone... Maybe we could do this somewhere else?" She rambled on, and Sirius struggled to follow. A few seconds after the speech a suggestive grin spread on his face.

"Evans, Evans, Evans. I know why you have come to me." He said triumphantly.

"Y-you do?" Lily asked clearly stunned. Sirius nodded proudly and put down his fork. Lily's eyebrows knitted together and her forehead crinkled in confusion.

"Now, Flower, I'm going to let you down gently." He began, Oh no, James has moved on, after all these years he finally moved on and just when I started to like him.

"Oh gee, thanks," She muttered, her cheeks burning, and her eyes averted to the interesting goblet in front of her.

"Look at me, Evans," Sirius commanded gently, Lily looked up and met his eyes, "Now, listen here, you're Prongsie's girl, and if James wasn't in love with you, believe me I'd take you into a deserted classroom and have my way with you. But see unfortunately James is still my best mate, well more like my brother and I can't betray him, but I can get you second best and lock you in a broom closet with James instead!" Lily dropped her head on to the table. "Oh, right you're not interested in James... well I can't really help you because James has basically told every guy in Hogwarts that he'll hex them into oblivion if the even come near you... and muggles scare me, so I don't really think I can help you."

Lily sighed heavily and grabbed Sirius by his shoulder and dragged him out of the hall despite his dragged him through the corridors, up several of the moving staircases and finally released her grip on his shoulder when they reached the Fat Lady's portrait, of the Gryffindor Tower.

"Pumpkin pasties," She muttered, the portrait swung open and she walked inside, Sirius following behind closely. The Gryffindor common room was for the most part quiet. There were a handful of students scattered throughout the room; a few third years playing exploding snap, two first years scurrying to finish an essay, and a group of fifth years circled around a book. Lily flung herself down in a chair away from the others, Sirius plopping down next to her.

"Now, Evans, I know I'm the sexiest bloke in all of Hogwarts, but really Lily, I'm not going to shag you in the common room in broad daylight! Anyone could walk in!" Sirius prattled.

"Black! Stop being an egotistical toe-rag and listen to me!" Lily cut him off muttering curses under her breathe. Sirius stopped his babbling and turned to look at her. "Thank you. Okay, now the real reason I dragged you up here was to talk about James." Sirius looked slightly relieved.

"Bloody hell, Evans! Did you put him in the hospital wing again? I'm starting to think James should just steer clear of you, all together! The poor bloke's too love-struck to see that this whole love things gonna kill him eventually. See, that's why I don't do the whole love thing, just a shag with no attachment necessary." Lily was beginning to second guess her decision. Sirius was clearly not the brightest wizard in the shed. But she couldn't tell Alice because she would rattle on about James and Lily being destined and force Lily to act on her feelings. She would usually go to Remus, but Remus would guilt trip her into fessing up to Potter, and Peter would probably just fall on the floor in shock. So here she was relying on Sirius Black for help.

"Sirius, as lovely as it is to hear about you relationship or lack thereof tactics, can we get back to what I wanted to talk about?" She asked slowly, pressing herself to stay calm and ruin things completely.

"Right! So Lily love, you wanted to talk about James!" Sirius leaned back in his chair and stared at Lily expectantly. Lily tucked a piece of auburn hair around her ear and looked down at the floor, unsure of what to say.

"Well, I didn't plan on this ever happening... I mean everyone else said it was bound to happen at some point, after so many years but I never really believed it. I mean, I hated him so much and there were so many things about him that drove me crazy! But all of the sudden things changed and he drives me crazy, but in a good way! He's just so amazing and he's perfect. I can't get over the way his hair is just so messy yet so alluring. And his eyes just seem to twinkle as he talks. And don't even get me started on those abs, Quidditch has done that boy wonders. It just all happened! And I really need you to help me out here and just make this go away! I can't deal with this Sirius, I really don't know how!" Lily let it out, her hands flailing in emphasis, before falling into her lap at the end of the rant. Sirius stroked his chin, while he processed the information.

"Lily, am I going to be an uncle?" He asked finally after a long moment of silence. Lily looked up at him, with confusion written all over his face. "Did you and James have too much firewhiskey and shag in a broom closet and there's a James junior of the way?" Lily looked at Sirius with disbelief before she began hysterically laughing, shaking her head. "So you're not pregnant?" He asked, relieved by her laughter. She shook her head and continued chuckling, "Whew! So if you don't have a little Lily on the way, what did you want to talk about?" Lily caught her breath and regained her composure.

"I'm just going to come right out with it. No interruptions or assumptions this time." She began, Sirius nodded, clearly in agreement. "I'm in love with James."

Sirius was silent for a long moment, which naturally caused Lily to start panicking. Oh no, he clearly doesn't like me anymore! And Sirius is going to tell him and they're going to have a long laugh at my expense! This might just be the most embarrassing moment of my life! I knew I should have kept quiet.

"Well, flower, all I can say is it's about time you fell for the Potter charm. My money was on that you would crack in fifth year, but you really held out quiet a long time. I knew it would happen eventually though, I mean the bloke's liked you since first year!" Lily looked up and Sirius was actually smiling?

"So, he does still like me?" She asked hopefully in a tiny voice. Sirius snorted.

"Still like you? Evans, the bloke will be in love with you for the rest of his life. James made up his mind years ago that he would never let you go no matter what the circumstances, he will never give up on you." Sirius responded with a smile, Lily grinned, "So, when are you going to tell the lucky guy?" Lily's smile faltered.

"Tell him?" She shuttered, "I'm never going to tell him! It's bad enough that I'm in love with James Potter, I can't give him the satisfaction of telling him or ever act on my feelings!" Fear was engulfing Lily and she was really starting to regret telling Sirius, he was after all James's best mate.

"Evans, you have to tell him. It would break his heart to know that you're in love with him, but you're never going to act on it. James has changed so much, just to get your approval. He tried so hard to get that Head Boy badge all so that you could share it with him. Please, Evans, I'm begging you. It's pretty clear that you and James are meant to be together forever, and I know that you know that, so please tell him how you feel so that you two can both get the happiness you deserve." Lily shook her head in disbelief, Sirius Black being sensitive and philosophical? What a strange day. But, he was right after all.

"You're right." She said quietly. "He does deserve to know." Sirius smiled, and pumped his fist in the air.

"That's my girl, Lily." He winked, "So, when are you going to tell him?"

"How about now?" A soft voice sounded from the stairs to the boys dormitory. Lily and Sirius looked up to find that the common room had cleared out, except for James, sitting on the bottom step of the staircase. Lily's eyes flashed to Sirius, who threw his hands up in innocence.

"I did not plan any of this, I swear!" He cried. Lily looked back to James, who was chuckling softly and nodded, defending his mate.

"H-How long have you been there?" She asked, her voice wavering.

"Long enough..." He trailed off. She glanced down not meeting his eyes, internally cursing herself for not doing this in a more private location. She pushed her head into her hands and sighed heavily. Her head throbbed as she clutched it. After a few moments, she felt a soft hand lightly stroking her head. She looked up to see James crouched in front of her, a loving expression on his face.

"Hey," He whispered comfortingly. His hazel eyes twinking just as she had described.

"Hi," She responded, her thoughts racing over how to react.

"I just wanted to let you know that I love you, no matter what, I'll always love you and you have no idea how amazing it felt to hear that you were in love with me too, but i'll understand if you don't want to be together, but I'll always be here for you." He spoke passionately, looking into her eyes, pouring his heart and soul into every word. She watched him in amazement. Shocked at how someone so amazing and perfect could love her. His eyes left hers and he stood up, she could tell he was thinking this was her way of rejecting him. She surprised him by pushing herself out of her chair and wrapping her arms around his neck lovingly. She felt his arms pull around her waist and she savored the moment. After a few moments of embracing she pulled back and looked him in the eye.

"Sirius," She called, watching the boy tip toe towards the portrait hole, he whirled around and looked at the two, "Thank you. Somehow I knew you would be the perfect one to tell." Sirius smiled back at the two. James had protectively thrown his arms around Lily's waist and they were both grinning ear to ear.

"Anytime, love," He winked, "Take it easy on her, Prongs," James and Lily laughed as Sirius exited the room, turning back in James's arms she looked into his eyes.

"I love you, James Potter, and I want to be with you everyday for the rest of our lives, no matter what happens, I know I'll always have you." She whispered passionately. He grinned and forced her back into his arms.

"I love you too, Evans." He murmured into her hair, before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Lily smiled up at him.

"Finally," she whispered, "everything is what it's supposed to be."

"Finally." He agreed.

Disclaim.

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