Chapter 10

James was exceedingly glad to be back at Hogwarts. He loved his parents and he loved holidays from school and everything that came with it—Quidditch not included—but this year had been different. Christmas was the same joyous, frivolous affair it had always been in his home, and New Year's Eve was enjoyable enough, but every day in between was tense. It was as though the stress had doubled since the start of the term. His parents were trying to act normally for his and Sirius' sakes, but they knew the war must be getting even worse. He and Sirius would hear the adults whispering before they entered a room and then cut off suddenly when they knew the boys were present.

It irked James to no end that his parents thought him too young, and definitely too immature, to share any real information with him. Wouldn't it be more in his best interest for his mom and dad to tell him what is truly going on than to let him be deluded into a false sense of security? In just a year and a few months now he would be away from the safety Hogwarts and Dumbledore provided.

He had come to two conclusions over this winter break. One: it was time to prove to everyone, maybe even himself a little, that he could be responsible if he wanted to be, and not just as Captain of his team. Two: he needed to start planning the end of year prank immediately, and it needed to be something phenomenal, something that would keep people talking for weeks and their minds off of the war.

"Stop thinking so hard, mate, or that wrinkle will get stuck between your eyebrows," Sirius drawled from his spot in the armchair next to him.

James promptly chucked the pillow that had been behind him at his best friend. But Sirius dodged so poor, unfortunate Pete got caught in the face instead.

James winced a bit, saying, "Sorry, Wormtail."

"Why is it I always end up caught in the middle of your battles?" Peter whined from where he had ended up on the floor. James hadn't thought he'd thrown the pillow that hard. He must have been mistaken.

"What were you thinking about anyways?" Sirius asked, deliberately ignoring Peter's mostly-rhetorical question.

James sighed dramatically, deciding to downplay everything else and focus on the good part of his thoughts: "I can't think of a single thing that is brilliant enough for our end-of-year prank!"

"But that's ages away Prongs!" Pete protested.

Sirius rolled his eyes in the shorter boy's direction. "It's never too early to plan our biggest prank of the year Pete. And it's alright if your creative juices have left you Prongsie, I can just take over all planning efforts from here on!"

"Please tell me I did not just here Sirius say he wants to take over planning all our pranks now," Remus said as he walked over to join them, taking a seat in the chair closest to the fire. "You know what happens every time we let him be in charge of the planning, James."

"Like I would ever let that happen again," James scoffed, crossing his arms in indignation.

Sirius crossed his arms with a pout on his face and protested, "I'm insulted! I've loved every prank I've ever planned!"

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend. "Yeah, and so have we—"

"Up until we get caught and land ourselves in detention for a week," Peter finished Remus' thought.

"I still say they were worth it," Sirius grumbled quietly, causing his friends to chuckle.

"How were patrols Moony?" James asked to change the subject. They could revisit the planning when they were in their dorm, away from prying ears.

"Uneventful," he answered with a shrug.

At James' hopeful look, Sirius interpreted: "He means how was Ms. Evans this evening?" Peter chuckled when James blushed a bit.

"I know what he meant, Padfoot," Remus said. "I was simply enjoying tormenting him a little. And no, she still was not asking about you, Prongs."

Every night that Remus and Lily had patrols together James would ask how she was doing and if she asked about him at all. Though Lily was still friendly with James, she was also not making attempts to spend more time with him either. It was maddening to James. He was sure the bracelet he gave her as a gift would've told her what he couldn't bring himself to say out loud anymore: he loved her and still wanted to be with her. But he had learned that not telling Lily his feelings or asking her out meant she would spend time with him—mostly when other people were also present, but it was better than nothing!

"I don't get it," James finally said, exasperated. "She has worn the bracelet I got her every day, hasn't she?" His friends all nodded. "Then why won't she hang out with me more?"

In the two weeks that they had been back, James could count on one hand the number of times he had seen or spoken to Lily outside of classes. And that was including meals.

Sirius and Peter shrugged. Peter didn't really speak to Lily when she was with them anyways, not that much at least. And Sirius just liked to tease her and have her tease him in return; it had become their friendship. And so the three boys looked to Remus, who had apparently become the resident expert on Lily.

Remus swiftly held his hands up in a protesting gesture though, not wanting to step on this one.

"Oh no you don't! If you want the answer to this one, you better bring it up with her," Remus said, and then continued to cut off whatever protest James was about to throw at him. "I am her friend, but I cannot presume to know her mind. Or her heart. Do you seriously think she would confide in me if she was thinking about you anyways?"

James scowled a little, mostly because what Remus said made sense.

"Fine, I will ask her then," James finally said after a few moments of silence.

"Mate, I thought we decided you should be done asking Lily out," Sirius said lazily, finding amusement in the whole situation.

"Besides, if she liked you, wouldn't she just tell you?" Pete put in.

"Of course not Wormtail. Too much pride on the line after years of denying him," Sirius answered soberly.

"That is why I'm definitely going to ask her what's going on," James said with finality. His friends just shrugged—it was James' head on the line, and if he wanted to get yelled at, that was his prerogative.

Lily was oblivious that James was tormenting himself over her, and soon another week passed and James had yet to approach Lily. However, the next Quidditch match was getting closer. The first between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had been a fairly even match, with Ravenclaw's Seeker pulling off a win for them in the race for the Snitch. The second game, between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, had been a slaughter, with Gryffindor pulling off a major win. The following Saturday would bring Gryffindor's second match of the year, going against their biggest rivals, Slytherin. The animosity between the two houses, which was always simmering just below a boil these days as it was, had exploded into corridor fights and even more verbal assaults than had been occurring previously.

"I am bloody sick of it already!" Lily said in exasperation the Wednesday afternoon before the big game. She collapsed onto a bench in the courtyard next to Marlene. "I've already taken points from both Houses three times today, and given out six detentions!" Lily put her face in her hands and groaned long and low in frustration. "At this rate the teams will have no fans to watch the bloody game!"

Marlene put her hands up in a placating gesture. "I am staying out of the in-fighting! Don't take it out on me!"

Lily pushed herself back up into a sitting position, her back leaning heavily against the outer stone wall of Hogwarts, her legs crossed at the ankles. She had begged Marlene to join her outside for at least part of their free period to give her a break from the chaos inside, despite the frigid temperature and howling wind that was prevalent that late-January day.

"I know, Marley, I know." Lily's breath puffed out in a sigh. "It's exhausting, but thankfully you lot have been staying out of it as much as possible."

By 'you lot' she meant the Gryffindor team. She still thought it odd, the lack of retaliation. She had assumed James Potter would take the excuse to prank the Slytherins excessively. Lily wasn't complaining, not at all, it just seemed out of character to her.

"Well Sirius has been nagging James about it every practice or meeting we've had this week, but James won't have it," Marlene explained. Lily gave her a look of disbelief. Marlene just shrugged and stated, "He's trying to be the better man here. And he would be royally ticked off if any of us landed in detention and couldn't play."

Lily rolled her eyes, believing Marlene's second explanation more than her first. It was more in line with James' Quidditch obsession. He desperately wanted to win the Cup his first year as Captain. If he lost to Slytherin, it would be nearly impossible to come out the champions.

A shiver suddenly ran down Lily's spine, so she stood, indicating to Marlene that they should return indoors. They decided on heading to the Common Room to retrieve materials for their afternoon Transfiguration lesson. Lily was thankful that they ran into few people, and none of them were misbehaving. She might scream the next time she saw fellow students fighting in the hallways.

It was in a corridor on the fifth floor when Lily and Marlene halted their conversation because of the shouting they heard around the corner ahead of them. Lily simply sighed, rolled her eyes, and pulled her wand out whiling marching determinedly to the end of the corridor.

And was surprised by the sight that met her eyes.

"What's going on here then?" she asked, confusion lacing her tone, her head cocked to the right ever so slightly.

James had Sirius' arm in a vice grip while a group of five Slytherins watched on, haughty expressions gracing their features. Sirius looked furious—well James did too, but it looked to Lily as though he was reining in his emotions in as best he could. Sirius' jaw was clenched tight; she could see a muscle twitching there.

"Move along, Evans," Sirius said. "Nothing to see here, least not yet."

"We'll leave when you do," Marlene stated firmly.

"How's this, Potter? Ready to be a tough guy again with a couple reinforcements?" one of the Slytherin boys taunted. He looked to be a fifth or sixth year to Lily, and what he said confused her.

"C'mon Sirius, it's not worth it," James said, pulling on his best mate's arm, of which he had yet to let go.

The Slytherins all laughed openly at this, and if they were facing anyone else Lily would have let her jaw drop and have gaped at James. She had never known him to back down from a direct taunt before. It was a very pleasant surprise, but something to focus on later. Lily took the four steps forward to reach Sirius' other side, and grabbed onto his hand.

"Ooo, first making date plans with Lupin, now holding hands with Black. She must just really hate you by comparison, eh Potter?" Another of the Slytherins egged him on, trying to make James mad. Really he just succeeded in annoying Lily.

Lily rolled her eyes and said nothing, simply tugged lightly on Sirius' hand. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, sighed, and loosened his pose, though not his grip on his drawn wand.

"Alright Lilykins," he said so quietly only his fellow Gryffindors could hear. Then he said, at normal volume, "It's not like this rabble is worth missing beating them in Quidditch."

The Slytherin group narrowed their eyes in near perfect synchronization; it made Lily wonder if they practiced together or something. But luckily they gave up, since the one they had riled up wasn't going for the bait anymore, and turned to head in the opposite direction of the Gryffindors.

Marlene sighed in relief as the four of them continued on the way to Gryffindor Tower. "Well that was tense. What happened to set this confrontation off?"

"What reason did they need?" Sirius scoffed. "They turned a corner and saw us, were their typical bigoted selves, and I wanted to hex them to next week. Still dunno why you didn't just let me, mate." He gave James a pointed, annoyed glance.

"And be down a Beater less than three days before the game? No way. I told you, stay out of the fights," James insisted, a frown on his face, his hand reaching up to run through his ever-messy hair. "Besides, if we curse them just for showing up and say something stupid, does it really make us better than them?"

Lily was thoroughly impressed by this point. Where was the James Potter she had known for the first five years of their turbulent relationship? She stayed silent and observed this new, reserved James. He was solemn in that moment: his mouth set in a firm line, his eyes just a touch hard, his brows drawn just the slightest bit towards each other—the only thing familiar was his tousled hair. Lily found herself thinking him handsome, which wasn't a completely new discovery, but this time it wasn't accompanied by the typical annoyance she had towards him. She also found herself missing his smirk, and the way his eyes lit up when he was amused. It left her with one very clear observation.

She clearly did not have James Potter as figured out as she previously thought.

Saturday had finally arrived, and the majority of the school's population was just relieved that the game would finally be over and perhaps the hallways would be safe between classes again. The majority of the school was also looking forward to the game itself. The Gryffindor-Slytherin hostility combined with the skill each team possessed was sure to make it a great game.

So naturally the stands were practically full despite the biting cold.

Lily had always gone to the Quidditch games. The sport fascinated her, though she could only be considered a fair flyer at best and so didn't play herself. In previous years, she had gone to support Marlene despite Potter and Black being on the team as well. She still wanted to support her friend. This year was even better because there weren't any of those conflicting emotions; she could simply enjoy Quidditch without being annoyed at having to cheer on two of her least favorite people.

"Win for my birthday, alright?" Lily said as she parted ways with Marlene, James, and Sirius.

Marlene slapped her palm to her forehead. "Merlin, I've been so busy with practice and coursework I forgot Monday is the thirtieth, isn't it?" At Lily's nod Marlene said, "I'm the worst best friend ever!"

"Alright, that seals the deal, now we absolutely can't lose!" Sirius stated, "I'll keep 'em so busy they won't be able to dodge, and James will score all the points for you, right James?" Sirius winked at his best friend.

"You do that Sirius," Lily replied, chuckling, and then proceeded to the stands with the rest of their friends.

"You didn't say anything about the party tonight, did you?" James asked Marlene as soon as Lily was out of sight and they were in the locker rooms.

"Course I didn't! It'd ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"

"She doesn't suspect a thing," Sirius reassured James. "Let's just hope Pete can keep his stupid mouth shut for the rest of the day."

"That's not very nice Sirius," Marlene admonished with a slight frown as she pulled on her Quidditch robes over her other clothes. "He knows we're keeping it a surprise, and he's not as dumb as you always make him out to be."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Alright everyone," James started saying.

"Here comes the speech," Sirius grumbled to Marlene, who covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"This is gonna be a tough one. We know it, hell the whole school knows it. Keep our side of it clean, we don't need to help them out with penalties. We all know the game plan—"

"Because we've been going over it every day for three weeks straight," Sirius finished for him. "Now let's get out there and crush some Snakes!"

Everyone cheered at that while James smacked Sirius upside the head. He still got down off the bench he'd been on though and led everyone out to the deafening pitch. Cheers and jeers and everything between crushed them with their first steps onto the pitch, a Hufflepuff acting as announcer for the game.

"Captains shake hands!" James and his counterpart grudgingly did so. "Keep it clean!"

The whistle blew and the battle began.

The game had been brutal. It was a fight, tooth and nail, to the very last. One of the Gryffindor Chasers and the Seeker ended up in the Hospital wing at the end of the game to treat broken bones. Sirius—keeping his promise to Lily, or so he claimed—did damage to all of the Slytherin Chasers, knocking one out in the first twenty minutes. Even down a player the score was fairly even until the Snitch was caught. The Gryffindor Seeker barely managed to pull ahead of the Slytherin player in the last second to catch the Snitch and win them the game.

The stands exploded in cheers when it happened, except for the Slytherins, who groaned, hissed, and generally complained as they vacated the scene. There was a miniature celebration on the field as students swarmed the Gryffindor team to congratulate them.

Lily was waiting with Emmeline outside the locker room for Marlene to get out. Mary had returned to the Tower with Peter and Remus, claiming she wanted to get out of the cold. Lily was too excited, and it was her tradition to wait, to head back inside, which worked perfectly for the others' plan to set up decorations for Lily's surprise birthday party before she got back.

Marlene was practically bouncing with happiness when she finally emerged from the locker room, James and Sirius running out shortly after her.

Sirius pulled Lily into an impromptu dance, bending her over his shoulder at one point and spinning them until they both were so dizzy they fell over when he put her back down.

"Told you I'd beat them up for you Lilykins!" he exclaimed happily through his panting, trying to catch his breath again.

"Are you done trying to make her sick yet, Black?" Marlene asked with a laugh in her tone, hands on her hips pretending to be stern.

"And I scored all those points Padfoot promised you I would," James interjected, his hand jumping to his hair when Lily's gaze flicked onto him.

She narrowed her gaze, feigning annoyance, and said, "Barely Potter. The game was hardly won because of you." Despite her words, she held out her hand to have James help her stand back up, smiling despite herself.

James pouted, Sirius let out his bark of a laugh.

"Still won't give him a bone, eh Lils?" Marlene was laughing outright by this point, wrapping her arm through the redhead's.

"Someone has to keep his head in check, deflate it a bit now and again," Lily replied, grinning over her shoulder at the two dark-haired boys following behind them.

"You are the master at it," Sirius said, nudging James in the ribs when he continued to pout. "But it's okay Lily, we know it's just a cover so people don't think you like Jamie here too much."

James scowled at Sirius outright then. "You know I hate when you call me that. And why is it pick on James time? We just won against bloody Slytherin, we should be celebrating!"

Lily spun around to face the boys, continuing walking backwards. "Well what are we waiting for then? Let's get back to the Tower, slowpokes!" She turned back around swiftly and began a quick jog up to the castle, laughing happily when the others followed suit.

It didn't take long them to reach the seventh floor corridor and the Fat Lady's portrait. Marlene gave the password and the frame swung forward. Lily thought it was oddly quiet in the Common Room, considering their big win had just happened over their arch rivals.

And then it hit her.

"SURPRISE!"

She put her hands on her hips and faced her blonde friend. The party commenced around them, the rowdiness finally returning now that their goal was accomplished.

"You planned this didn't you!" Lily accused Marlene more than asked her, hands placed on her hips and leaning ever-so-slightly forward.

"Actually it was James' idea," Mary said from behind Lily, holding out a Butterbeer in offering, which Lily accepted.

"We couldn't decide what to do for you this year, and the boys overheard us talking about it one day," Emmeline explained to Lily while popping open her own bottle of Butterbeer.

"So we figured we could put our masterful skills to good use and celebrate you turning of age in proper Marauder fashion!" Sirius exclaimed with a grand gesture of his arms at the boisterously decorated Common Room.

"Thank you so much, everyone. I love it! Now let's celebrate a bit of a Quidditch win as well as me getting older, what do you say?" Lily proclaimed.

Lily beamed at them all, so happy to have friends here that just wanted her to have something nice for her birthday. She was positive that she had never been happier than she was in that moment with all of them: her best friends and the Marauders.