A/N: Part 1 of a short story that will likely be 2 or 3 chapters when I'm done.

Disclaimer: While I do happen to own a copy of all the Harry Potter books, I do not actually own the books. Or the characters, though I would gladly take James any day :) He, along with the rest of them, belong to the lovely J.K. Rowling.

Lily Evans sighed for the fifth time in the last half hour, staring blankly at the parchment in front of her. It was supposed to be her Transfiguration essay, but she had yet to write more than a few words. She flipped idly through the textbook in front of her, but soon sighed again. She couldn't even concentrate well enough to write a full sentence. She was in the library, for goodness' sake! It's not like there was a host of distractions, other than the occasional rustling of pages and the scratching of a quill. For the first time in her life, Lily felt genuinely stupid. She couldn't even properly string together a good sentence!

James Potter ruined everything.

Remus, Lily's study partner, hadn't failed to notice Lily's irritation and, after this sixth sigh, he raised his head from his essay. Lily noticed resentfully that it was nearly finished. "Lily…? Are you okay? If you don't want to work right now, you don't have to stay. I'll finish mine tonight, and then you can work on yours tomorrow and help me revise mine."

"No, it's not that. Besides, I need to get this done. I still have a Potions essay to do, and I really need to practice for Transfiguration. My turtle somehow had rabbit ears by the time I was finished with it, and it looked nothing like the jumper it was supposed to be. And James had turned his owl into a whole bloody outfit. Why are we supposed to turn animals into clothing anyway? It's ridiculous. Why would anyone want to wear a turtle?" Remus tried not to laugh at the irritated look on Lily's face.

"So you do want to keep working on the essay?"

"Yes. I'm just… having a hard time concentrating."

"What's on your mind?"

"Nothing," Lily said, blushing and letting her hair fall forward to hide her face. There was no way she would admit to being distracted by a boy. Especially when that boy happened to be James Potter. She twiddled idly with her quill, refusing to meet Remus' eyes.

"C'mon, Lily. You know you can trust me, right? It always helps me to talk about it whenever something's bothering me."

"You promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Not a soul."

"Not even your best mates?"

"Of course. I might tell them all of my secrets, but I can keep a secret that isn't mine to give away." He smiled sweetly.

"I think I'm… fallinginlovewithJames." The words came out in a rush and Remus had to strain to distinguish them. When he did, he wasn't sure he had heard her right. Sure, he'd noticed that Lily looked at James more frequently than she used to, and they certainly spent plenty of time together now, but he'd attributed it to their blooming friendship. A few times he had wondered if Lily might be developing feelings for James, but in love with him? It wasn't even Christmas yet, and before the start of the school year, they had barely been able to have a civil conversation with each other. That was faster than even Remus was expecting.

"You're… falling in love with him?" For a second, Remus worried that he had heard wrong, and was certain that Lily would rip his throat out for even suggesting such a thing. Instead, she nodded and buried her head in her arms.

"I don't know what to do," she said, voice muffled by layers of hair and arm. "I finally fall for him just as he stops liking me."

"How do you know he doesn't like you?" Remus scrunched his eyebrows. He was sure that James was far from over Lily. While he no longer talked about it like he used to and had ceased asking her out, Remus could still see the way he looked at her. James had only given up his slightly more annoying wooing habits in pursuit of their friendship. Besides, James had been hopelessly in love with Lily for years. Remus could still hear James' frantic questions and worrying. "What if she never likes me back, Moony?" James had asked a million times in past years. "What if we graduate and I never see her again and she goes off and marries some stupid bloke who isn't me? What will I do then?" Remus nearly laughed at the drastic change in scenarios. In under a year he'd gone from dealing with a lonely and lovesick James to a lonely and lovesick Lily. He'd never thought he'd see the day.

Lily raised her head to answer. "He hasn't asked me out all year, which is really saying something for him. Besides, I've been hinting pretty heavily that I like him all week, and he hasn't reacted at all!"

"Well, James was never one for subtlety. But I wouldn't be so sure that he's given up on you."

"Why?"

"He's not the type to give up and move on. In case you hadn't noticed, he is a rather determined bloke," Remus said. Lily chuckled, but swiftly became somber again.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," she said, frowning. "Besides, even if he did like me, it wouldn't change anything at the moment. He's completely oblivious to my hints and I can't tell him. It could completely ruin our friendship, and not seeing James at all would be a million times worse than being his friend and constantly wishing for more."

"I still think you should just tell him, Lily." Remus wished he could reassure her of James' feelings, but James had made each of the Marauders promise at the beginning of the year that they would all act as if he and Lily were nothing more than friends. He didn't want to risk their then-precarious friendship. Remus shook his head as he realized that their friendship – the thing that he knew had, ultimately, brought them together – was the only thing now standing in their way.

Granted, Remus was fairly certain that if James had foreseen the situation where Lily was the one longing to know that he still loved her, he might have added a few qualifications to his request.

But nonetheless, a promise was a promise, and Remus refused to go back on his word. Plus, though he was certain James hadn't moved on, he hadn't heard him express his feelings in months. Remus was not one to take risks, and it would create a horrid mess if he told Lily he knew for fact that James loved her, and then turned out to be wrong. He would just have to figure out some way to convince James to give it another go with Lily without breaking either of his promises.

"I can't tell him!" Lily said. "And promise me you won't, either."

"I promised I'd keep your secret. Of course I won't tell him - or anyone."

"Thank you," Lily sighed, turning back to her essay. "Now that that's off my chest, maybe I can finally concentrate." Remus' eyes lingered on her flushed face for a moment, grinning amusedly. He had never expected that Lily, of all people, would confess to him that she was in love with James.

Lily flipped through the pages of the textbook in front of her. One of the illustrations showed a man transfigured to have bright turquoise hair, a slightly flattened pug-like nose, and bright orange eyebrows. It reminded her of a prank the Marauders had pulled on the Slytherins at the end of sixth year, giving each of them crimson hair and golden eyebrows. The lot of them would've blended in nicely with the Gryffindor common room. Lily could still hear James' laugh in her mind, still see his hazel eyes twinkling… No! Bad Lily! She sighed again, banging her head on the desk. She was not going to be able to concentrate any time soon.

Behind a bookshelf a few feet away, Sirius Black was still frozen, his hand outstretched toward a book and a large grin on his face. Lily liked Prongs.

Dun dun dun! Here ends chapter 1. Reviews make me a very happy camper!