Disclaimer: The character, places, etc. belong to J. K. Rowling, the song "Your bore" belongs to Seether.

A/N: The title "Wasting Time" used to be just a working title, because I couldn't think up something better, but because I still can't think of something better, it's staying like that :)

This story is loosely based on a line of Seether's "Your bore", but apart from that it doesn't have to do anything with the song.

English also isn't my first language, so if you find any mistakes or want to beta this FF, just send me a note :) There's also a German version of this story on Fanfiktion .de which isn't finished yet, so once I finished translating what is already written, the updates could take a while, because I first have to write the chapters in German, before I translate them.

Update: Made the paragraphs shorter to make the story easier to read. Thanks to Wishflower and Moonfire-from-Tameranian-moons for telling me that they were too long ^_^'

Chapter 1:

I'm sick of wasting time on what can never be

I can not control you into wanting me

(Seether: "Your bore")

Sirius POV

„Shit!", I cursed quietly and I had to restrain myself from punching my pillow out of frustration. I couldn't sleep once again, and that was the brown-haired werewolf's fault, who was sleeping peacefully in the bed next to mine. He was the reason I lay awake night after night and brooded over how I could get him to fall in love with me. Which was complete rubbish, of course, Remus would never fall in love with me, he only saw me as a good friend, and besides, he liked women. At least I thought so. If I really thought about it, he had never shown special interest in anyone. On the other hand, if he did like someone he probably wouldn't tell us, he was pretty good at hiding things and besides, I had never heard him talk about love stuff.

He somehow even managed to completely ignore James' endless ravings about Lily. Which I envied quite a bit, I sadly never managed to do that. If I have to listen about how beautiful Lily's hair is glowing in the sunlight once more, I'm going mad! I really couldn't understand, what he saw in her. OK, she was pretty, but she was also a boring swot, who had to give us a big lecture for every little harmless prank. And she also was pretty clear about the fact, that she couldn't stand James one bit, so I just couldn't understand, why he didn't give up on her, he would never stand a chance with her anyway.

But I guess I should better shut up about that matter, since I fell in love with one of my best friends, with whom I would never stand the slightest chance either. Maybe it would be better if I just gave it up? I mean, over the last few months, I had tried everything to get Remus' attention, but without success. Sure, it wasn't like he was ignoring me or something, but he gave me the same attention he gave James and Peter and didn't even seem to notice my advances. And it really wasn't like I just dropped some small hints.

I was practically glued to him, kept constantly touching him "on accident", had switched places with Peter, so I could sit next to him during class and mealtime and even went as far as flirting with him a bit, but the only thing that had led to was an embarrassing talk with James, who had of course noticed it. At least James had enough decency to not tease me about it, he knew after all, how it felt like to chase after someone you never stood a chance with.

I sighed and turned around in my bed for the millionth time. Maybe giving up wasn't such a bad idea after all… It was pointless to keep trying in vain to win Remus' heart and then ended up destroying our friendship because of it. And it would probably do me some good to keep my distance from him, as far as it was possible, of course. Lately I could not only not sleep, but I also couldn't concentrate on anything and I even lacked the motivation to think up new pranks with James.

Maybe I should get myself a girlfriend? Maybe then the feelings I had for Remus would go away and I would be able to see him as just a friend again. Well, it was worth a try and it was still better than constantly making myself false hopes over Remus.

With these thoughts I finally fell asleep.

The next morning I was awakened by loud cursing and crashing. I blinked tiredly and then slowly and reluctantly opened my eyes to see James, who was just, obviously in search of something, taking the dormitory apart.

I groaned and buried my head underneath the pillow, hoping to drown out the sounds. But apparently James had either heard me or seen my movement, because a few seconds later my pillow was yanked away and James flopped down on my bed.

"Have you seen my shirt, Padfoot?" Shirt? What shirt? That's the reason he woke me up that early on a Sunday morning?

"What shirt?", I mumbled sleepily.

"The shirt I bought in Hogsmeade last week!" Ah, why didn't I guess that right away. James has sooo few clothes, after all.

"Nah, I haven't seen it. Why don't you simply put on another one?"

"Another one?" Uh oh, wrong answer. James looked at me, as if I had suggested that he should propose to McGonagal. "Did you forget, that I bought this shirt just for wearing it today on Lily's birthday?" Didn't forget it, just suppressed the memory.

We had spent a total of two hours in that shop before James had finally decided what he should buy to look good on Lily's birthday. I had no idea what the point of this was, since he wasn't invited to her birthday party (if she even held one) and she also wouldn't pay him more attention than she did on any other day, so she wouldn't even notice his clothes. But James somehow didn't get that logic. Well, if he wanted to dress up today, he should do it, it was his business after all.

"Hey, will you help me look for it now, or not?", asked James.

"No. Did you already try 'Accio'?"

James eyes went wide, then he slapped his hand to his forehead. "Right! Why didn't I think of this?"

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes James really was a lost cause. Especially in all matters that somehow involved Lily.

James POV

"Perfect!", I muttered, after I checked my image in the mirror for the last time. Today it would finally work, I was sure of it. I mean, it just had to work. My newest plan to capture Lily's heart was absolutely foolproof. I had prepared a perfect birthday surprise for her, and if everything went according to plan, she surely wouldn't be able to resist me anymore.

"Jaaames! Are you finally done with admiring yourself in the mirror? There are other people who want to use the bathroom, too!", Sirius voice suddenly sounded though the closed bathroom door.

"Yeah, yeah, just a moment. You know that everything has to be perfect today, including my appearance."

Sirius groaned. "Not again! Change of topic, please! Alohomora!"

"Hey!", I protested, as the door swung open and Sirius entered the bathroom. "Has no one ever taught you not to burst into the bathroom, when the door's locked?"

"As if you'd ever stuck to that ru…WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO YOUR HAIR?"

I carefully ran my hand over my hair, cautious not to mess up my new hairstyle. "Why? It might be a bit unusual, but it doesn't look that bad." But to make sure I turned around to take another look into the mirror.

Since Lily always complained about my messy hair, I had decided to go without my usual Quidditch-hairstyle today, and had tamed my hair with lots of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. OK, looking closely it really looked a bit strange, but as long as Lily liked it, I didn't care. And it was only for today anyway, to show Lily that I was willing to make some sacrifices for her and to temporarily part with my beloved hairstyle.

Sirius stood behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't take it personal Prongs, but if you really plan to face Lily with that hairstyle, you will scare her off even more."

I sceptically looked over at his mirror image. "You really think so?"

"Yep, a little bit more gel and you could compete against Snivellus."

"WHAT?", I immediately wrenched open the tap and put my head underneath the jet, to wash the gel out of my hair.

When I came out from underneath the jet of water, with my hair dripping wet, I noticed that Sirius was laughing his ass off next to me. I turned towards him and glared at him threateningly. "If you only said that to get me to wash the gel out…"

Sirius shook his head, still grinning. "I just fulfilled my duty as your best friend and saved you from making a big fool out of yourself. But your reaction was still pretty funny."

I grabbed a towel and started to rub my hair dry, before it could soak my shirt. While doing so I threw Sirius a dirty look. "Do you have any idea how long it took me, to get my hair to lie flat? You know what Lily always says about my hair… And now it was all in vain." I demonstratively pulled the towel from my head to reveal my hair, which was sticking up in all directions once again.

Sirius sighed and grabbed my brush and the tube of gel. "Leave that up to the pro."

Remus POV

I sat in the Great Hall, eating breakfast with Peter, and waited for James and Sirius to finally arrive. Well, to be honest I hoped that James would, contrary to expectation, oversleep and only arrive in the Great Hall after Lily had already left.

James had spent the last few weeks thinking up some stupid plan, how to finally capture Lily's heart, and although he'd told no one of us what he had thought up this time, I was absolutely sure that it would end in disaster once again. Especially the fact, that he wouldn't let anyone, not even Sirius, in on his plans, worried me.

Normally he always told us when he had a new idea for a prank or a conquer-Lily's-heart-plan, no matter how unfinished or stupid the plan was, and then he expected us to either make suggestions for improvement or congratulate him on his "great idea". Or rather he expected the former from Sirius and the latter form Peter. James knew, that I always got a bad conscience when I neglected my prefect duties and participated in a prank, so he didn't mind, if I stayed out of the planning.

But that never kept him from let me, just like Sirius and Peter, in on everything, but this time he had strictly refused to share the tiniest detail, even though we had all tried to get at least a bit of information out of him. Especially Sirius had nearly driven him mad, with his constant asking about it. I would have liked to know it, mainly because I was worried that he would make a complete idiot of himself in front of Lily. OK, that wouldn't have been the first time, but this time he really had high hopes in his plan, much higher than usual and that's why I hoped that he didn't have to experience another setback.

"If Prongs and Padfoot don't show up soon, they're gonna miss breakfast!", mumbled Peter between two bites and ripped me out of my thoughts with that.

"Right.", I answered and resisted the urge to tell him, that you shouldn't speak with a full mouth. "And to be honest, I'm actually hoping that they'll miss it."

Peter looked at me with a confused look on his face. "Why's that?"

"Well, do you really want to know, what James thought up for Lily this time?"

"Of course!" Peter nodded enthusiastically. "Don't you?"

I sighed. I could have kept that question to myself. Of course Peter wanted to see what James had thought up. He was always extremely eager to see James in action, no matter what it was about. "I just feel sorry to see James constantly being turned down by Lily."

OK, a big part of this was James' own fault, if he did things less tactless he probably might stand higher chances, but he really was serious about Lily, and being turned down over and over again hurt him more than he would show.

"You're right, Lily is really mean to James." Peter threw a derogatory look over to Lily, who was just taking a parcel from a big brown owl, probably from her parents. "I really don't understand, why he puts up with this or why he simply doesn't choose another girl. I mean someone like James really deserves better than her."

I frowned. I had never heard Peter make such snide remarks about Lily. It could well be that he didn't dare to when James was around, but I always thought that he liked her well enough.

But before I could rack my brain about it some more, the door of the Great Hall opened and James and Sirius came in and made their way over to our table. My jaw almost dropped, when I saw James. He almost looked… respectable. His usually messy hair was tamed and laid flat on his head, he was wearing a white shirt, that for a change, really was white and didn't look like he just got it out of the last corner of his trunk and he was wearing fitting black pants and shoes. He almost looked as if he...

"James, please tell me you don't plan to propose to Lily!", I hissed, as soon as he had reached the table and sat down.

James shook his head. "Don't worry, Moony, I know that it would be a bit early for that. But if everything goes according to plan today, it could be time for it soon…" A dreamy look appeared on James' face and he began to stare off into space.

I sighed. I put some stupid thoughts in his head again. I should have better kept my mouth shut.

"Now, now, don't be so hasty, first concentrate on getting her on a date!" Sirius slapped him on the back and ripped him out of his daydreams.

"You're completely right, Mr Padfoot! Let the operation Make-Lily-fall-in-love-with-me begin!" With those words James jumped up and climbed on the table.

My eyes got wide with shock. On the one hand, I had been afraid that he would do something like this, but on the other hand I had still hoped that he didn't plan to embarrass himself in front of the whole school. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Peter abandoning his food at once and focusing his complete attention on James. Sometimes I had the feeling, that James could be dancing around on the High Table in straps and Peter would still be thrilled.

James cleared his throat, mumbled "Sonorus!" and then called into the hall: "Everyone listen! Hey, shut up for a moment! Thank you!"

In a matter of seconds he had the undivided attention of almost the entire school, most of them apparently thought that James was up for another prank. James looked around for a moment to make sure that really everyone was listening, then he continued talking: "Like many of you probably know, today is Lily Evan's birthday and that's why I think that now a little birthday serenade might be in order!" With these words he started to loudly sing "Happy Birthday".

Sirius started to chime in at once and a few moments later almost everyone, with the exception of the Slytherins, was singing along. Relieved I started to sing along too, after a short hesitation. By the looks of it, I had been worrying about James for no reason, a simple "Happy Birthday" really wasn't that bad.

James finished singing and the hall started to break into thunderous applause.

"Hey, look at Lily!", I suddenly heard Sirius' voice and I turned in Lily's direction at once. Lily apparently took great efforts to look disinterested and annoyed, but it was still easy to see that she could hardly suppress a smile and her cheeks were slightly reddened.

I grinned and turned back to Sirius. "Looks like James finally scored a hit!"

Sirius nodded and grinned back and for a moment our eyes met. But really only for a moment, for Sirius suddenly turned away abruptly and studied his empty plate before looking up at James again, who was still standing on the table and was now bowing a few times.

What had that been about now? But before I could continue thinking about Sirius' strange behaviour, James raised his voice again. "Thanks to everyone, who sang along! But that wasn't all, of course!"

Uh oh, I have a feeling that this won't end well.

"On every birthday there have to be presents and because a normal present would have boring, I have a special present for you, Lily Evans… me!"

Sirius stared unbelievingly at James and I buried my face in my hands. That was much worse than I had feared! I knew that James usually turned off his brain, when Lily was around, but to get such an idiotic idea… I really had expected something better from him.

"Thanks, but no!", Lily replied with a disgusted expression and a few people laughed.

Sirius hissed to James: "Hey mate, I'd say that was an utter dead loss. Now just drop it and come down there!"

But sadly James ignored him and calmly continued: "Not so hasty, Evans, I'm not finished yet. What I meant is, that from today on I will be doing everything you want for a month and I will fulfil everyone of your wishes." James indicated a bow in Lily's direction and Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Well, if that's the case, I want you to leave me alone. Oh, and while we're on it: Stop hexing other people and especially leave Snape alone!"

"If that's what you want, I'll gladly do it." James bowed once again and then finally climbed down from the table and sat down.

"A one month long rest from you, that's really a nice present, Potter!", Lily called after him and James pulled a face.

"Quietus. What one has to do for love.", James said resignedly, now in his normal volume again.

Sirius still looked at James a bit unbelievingly. "You'll never be able to pull that off! You don't really plan to leave Snape alone for a whole month, do you?"

"I don't think, that's such a bad idea." I responded. I never really liked the fact that James and Sirius never let a chance to hex Snape pass and I always felt bad that I never really did anything to stop them.

James sighed. "I know that it will be tough, but I promised Lily, so I will abide by it. Lily is supposed to see that I'm willing to make some sacrifices for her and change for her."

"If you think, that'll work…" Sirius definitely didn't sound thrilled. "Then I'm gonna hex Snape for you, too."

"Uhm, I guess if this is really supposed to work, we should all stop. We also shouldn't pull any pranks during that time and stuff…"

"What? This is our last year at Hogwarts! You were the one who said that this is our last chance to go down in Hogwarts' history and that we have to have a real blast this year!"

"Yeah, I know, but it's only for a month. And we could still pull some small pranks, as long as we don't hex anyone."

"Great. We could make colourful paper shreds rain from the ceiling. That'll surely be the prank of the year.", Sirius grumbled.

"Come on, Padfoot, that's my last chance to win her over! If I don't make it this year, I'll never see her again!" James sounded almost despaired now and I began to feel sorry for him. Maybe I should talk to Lily. We always got along rather well when we were both prefects and maybe I could convince her to stop showing her dislike of James that openly.

Sirius didn't seem very impressed by James' last words, though, because he still wouldn't let it go. "I can kinda understand that, but you also should face the truth that Lily will never fall in love with you, no matter what you're doing. Sometimes it's better to just give it up, instead of making yourself unhappy all the time." Did I just imagine that, or had Sirius shortly looked in my direction while saying that?

"But I won't give up! It's true that Lily can't really stand me, but I'm bloody serious about her and I want to show her, that I'm not the idiot she thinks I am. Contrary to other people I just can't throw in the towel like that, just because it's too much of an effort!" James seemed to be getting pissed off.

"That hasn't anything to do with being too much of an effort! I gave it up, because I don't want to destroy our friendship! ...Oh!" Sirius suddenly blushed and this time I didn't just imagine it, he definitely was looking at me. Then he suddenly stood up, murmured: "Uhm, just forget, what I said!" and practically ran from the Great Hall. Sirius definitely was acting strange today.

James got up to. "I better go after him, see you later." With this words he also left the hall and I turned to Peter to see what he was thinking about the whole situation, but he had indulged himself in his breakfast again and seemed to have heard only half or less of it.

I turned back to my plate, but I seemed to have somehow lost my appetite. So Sirius was in love with someone, too. And why didn't he want me to know about it? He obviously had talked about it with James, so why wouldn't he talk about it with me? Didn't he trust me enough?

I picked at the food with my fork while thinking about it. He said that he didn't want to destroy the friendship, but I never had been aware of him being friends with a girl. Or had he kept that a secret from me too? Had I only imagined that we had grown closer lately, if I obviously hardly knew anything about him? And was I the only one who didn't know anything about the whole thing?

"Peter? Did Sirius ever tell you that he fell in love with someone?"

Peter looked at me with a surprised look. "Huh? No, he didn't. What makes you think that? He never really was in love with anyone."

Good, Peter didn't know anything about it either, at least I wasn't the only one who wasn't informed then. Maybe Sirius was just uncomfortable talking about it, even though I couldn't really imagine that, he never had any inhibitions with talking about his newest conquests. But maybe he really was serious about it and that's why he didn't want to talk about it, because he didn't want to admit that he had finally fallen in love with one of them after all. That would at least explain why he hadn't said anything.

But why did I still have a weird feeling in my stomach? I should be happy that he finally found someone and support him, but for some reason I felt the exact opposite. James' ravings over Lily didn't bother me after all (unless he overdid it again), so why was it different this time?

"Hey Moony, are you still eating this?" I shook my head and wordlessly pushed my plate over to Peter, while I was racking my brain, what the hell bothered me about the thought of Sirius with a girlfriend.

To be continued…