T'was in the early evenin'
In the presence of the moon
You told me you would meet me here
Well now is not too soon
This dagger twisting in my back
Tells me I never should have trusted everything to fall
From begger to the fool
-Another Bag of Bricks, Flogging Molly
Chapter Three
James was not one to be easily deterred. He assured himself that Hogsmeade was not built in a day, and that this was going to be a long-term project. Somehow, someway, he would have to learn the concept of patience. And by Merlin, he was going to do it too. He was going to crack Lily Evans if it took him all of sixth year.
"Well, I admire your fervor, Prongs, but are you really going to follow through?" Sirius asked, as they walked down the hall on their way to Potions class. "You've said you were going to do things before, and you never did them."
"Like what?"
"Well, for one, you promised me a toilet seat made of gold in third year."
"It's in the post," James snorted, rubbing his hands together. "But I'm serious, Padfoot, I'm going to figure out just how she ticks, and then make her fall madly in love with me."
"And then what?" Sirius asked.
"...I dunno, actually," James said, brow furrowed, queuing up in line. Sirius started chuckling, and blew warm air into his hands.
"It's so bloody cold down here," Sirius shivered. "I can't feel my nose." To prove his point, he started poking at it.
"Me neither," James began blowing through his mouth and, sure enough, he could see his breath. "Do you think it's bewitched to be freezing down here?"
"Sounds like something Slytherins would do." Sirius wrapped his cloak closer around him and blew out through his lips.. "So when are you going out there?"
"Probably after History today," James grinned. "I can-"
"Going somewhere illegal again Potter?" Snape sneered as he walked out of the classroom, holding a large bag. James could see thick, old books which were most likely Dark Arts books. Snape caught him looking and shifted the bag away from James' eyesight.
"I don't see how it's any of your business, Snivelly," Sirius mused, lazily playing with his wand. "Unless, of course, you want to be hexed into next week."
"Just try it Black," Snape hissed, also clutching his wand. "You'll be expelled faster than you can say-"
"It'll be worth it if I can see your sorry hide in ashes," Sirius sneered back.
"I suppose your family wouldn't be happy to see you expelled, because then they'd have you for more than the sum-OOF!"
But he didn't finish his sentence because James had turned and hexed him, snarling at him for insulting his best friend. Snape was on his feet instantly, firing back, but his aim was off and he hit a nearby Hufflepuff, who sprouted an elephant trunk.
"How many times do I have to tell you? Stop-" Sirius hexed him with every word "-hurting- innocent-people-Snivelly." James cackled as Snape was powerless to stop the assault.
"STOP THAT RIGHT NOW SIRIUS BLACK!" A giant bundle of jackets and scarves was waddling with a purpose towards them. Even underneath the thick wooly hat, red hair was visible and green eyes were blazing. "YOU LET HIM GO!"
"Evans!" James said, turning and grinning, his hand going to his head. "He insulted us, we-"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT HE DID!" Lily screamed, but it was muffled by her scarf around her mouth. "YOU LET HIM GO THIS INSTANT!"
"Well, what have we here?" The Potions master (and also Slytherin head of house) was surveying the area. "Black? Potter? I should have known. Detention for the two of you, as well as thirty points from Gryffindor."
James and Sirius just shrugged it off, walking inside.
"Five from Slytherin, Mr. Snape," he said, as if it pained him to take away points. "And another ten for your disruption, Miss Evans."
Lily stared at him, but didn't say anything. She felt her ears burn with anger as she stormed into the classroom sitting in a corner by herself. James looked over to see her, but the look she gave him was enough to scare him out of his wits and realize that he, again, had screwed up.
Though, being the boy that he was, he still had no idea why.
Deciding that the best way to gather information when she was so angry she could barely see straight was to approach her as a harmless animal, he met her again in the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest where she was peeling off all of her extra layers. James heart gave a flipflop when she took off her hat and gave her long red hair an angry shake.
She jumped in fright when she saw him, and then put a hand to her heart.
"You scared me," she whispered. "I've had a bad day."
James approached her and she stepped forward to pet him. Tell me all about it, love.
"James-bloody-Potter and his stupid friend attacked a helpless student today," Lily sighed, glaring at the ground. "Two against one? How is that fair?"
James chose to ignore that.
"I'm so glad that Remus isn't like them."
James did not ignore that.
"You don't know who Remus is, do you?" Lily was obviously calming down about something. But James wasn't entirely sure that he wanted her to calm down about it. She seemed to be talking about something she liked a whole lot better than James Potter at the moment and he was beginning to think that it was Remus Lupin.
"Remus is the kindest Gryffindor in our year," Lily rolled her eyes. "Not as if there was much to choose from. James Potter and Sirius Black, the school's biggest annoyances. Then there's Peter Pettigrew. He just hangs out with Potter, but he's no where near any of them talent-wise. And then there's Remus. Kind, sweet, never-even-hurt-a-fly Remus Lupin."
Obviously you've never seen the werewolf side of him. If James could have, he would have growled. Lily was talking about Remus in an entirely wrong way.
"If you want to know something, I've fancied him for several years now. I've just never....well, if James Potter found out...." she trailed off and looked at her hands. "As rotten as they are, they're his only friends and I think that if I said anything, they'd stop being his friends and that would be just awful."
James stared at her, torn. On the one hand, he was pissed at Remus Lupin for being such a backstabbing charmer. On the other hand, he was amazed at the depth of Lily's heart.
"So anyways, I'm just going to keep my little secret as I always have and blow off Potter as I always have."
That's not much to aspire to, if you catch my meaning, love.
"RE-MUS!" James bellowed, announcing his appearance in the common room. Lily had continued to name off Remus's good points contrasted with his and Sirius's bad points and James had finally got enough and left, headed straight for the Common Room to have a word with his ex-Marauder friend.
"What?" Remus's exasperated reply came much softer. James turned and marched over to his so- called friend and plopped down in front of him, not even noticing the second year that he was tutoring again. This time she had stayed, but was pale with fright.
"What is going on with you and Lily?" James demanded, putting his finger down on the paper.
Remus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What are you on about now?"
"Lily."
"Yes, I've established that much, but what are you talking about?"
"Remus, I have been a good friend to you, haven't I?" If he wasn't going to directly come out and say anything, then James was going to take the indirect route by making him feel very guilty.
"Well-" Remus smiled.
"Haven't I?"
"Prongs, of course you have been a very good friend to me."
"So why, all of a sudden, did you decide to be a back-stabbing, traitorous...back-stabber!" James sputtered. Remus was obviously taken aback by this, but then calmly took a break.
"That was a tad redundant, Prongs," Remus stated. "But I would like to know what crime I have been wrongly accused of."
"You have been putting the moves on Lily," James pointed his finger at Remus's face.
"It's not nice to point, James." Remus moved the offending finger out of his face. "But, honestly, what makes you think that I've been 'putting the moves on Lily,' as you said."
"Lily's all on about how she fancies you and how cute you are. And how much of a complete arsehole I am!" James' expression was trying for murderous, but was just ending up as pouty. Remus gave a look to the second year that said 'We'll finish later' and cleared his throat. The second year ran away faster than a blur.
"And when did she disclose this information to you?"
"Today, in the forest," James said. Remus closed his eyes.
"James, if you didn't want to know what she was thinking, then you shouldn't spy on her. I hate to say, 'I told you so,' but I told-"
"So you're admitting that it's true, then!" James said, standing up. "I can't believe it Moony. After all we've been through, you sneak around like a, like a, like a RAT-"
"Hey!" Peter said, indignant.
"Sorry, Wormtail," James said. He reared back on Remus. "But I cannot excuse this behavior. This is WAR, Remus. WAR!"
"Whatever you say, Prongs." Remus went back to his book, believing that this would blow over in a few days.
But, as James' persistent nature proved, this did not blow over in a few days. In fact, James let it drag out to a whole two weeks, through Halloween and into November. Remus was rather proud of his persistence; normally, James would be on a vendetta for a few days and then leave it alone, but he was really following through this time. Remus, as he did with everything else, just kept puttering along.
James started to show up when Remus and Lily were taking rounds, something very unnerving to Lily, but highly amusing to Remus. He'd show up out of nowhere (Remus knew that he'd been following them under the Invisibility Cloak) and walk in-between them, saying sweet things to Lily and off-handed allusions to Remus's great betrayal.
Remus tried to explain to James that it wasn't working, but James refused to listen to him, and kept showing up over and over again, every afternoon and evening when they were making rounds.
"Oh Merlin, there he is again," Lily said, as James approached them with a large smile, Remus noted, only directed at her.
"How are you doing today, my perfect prefect?"
"I was doing just fine until you showed up," Lily muttered.
"Oh, you wound me. Kinda like a knife in the BACK," James hissed towards Remus. Remus continued walking with a strained smile on his face.
"James, you are so weird." Lily shook her head and continued walking without them. James glared at Remus and sniffed.
"Now look what you did." James sent a death glare Remus's way.
James's lament began to spill over into classes. He refused to sit next to Remus and placed Sirius in between them whenever they were together. Sirius and Peter didn't ask what was going on, though they were curious. Remus was obviously becoming more upset about this as the full moon approached. As much as James annoyed him sometimes, he really needed him there during his transformations.
Remus was already feeling a bit under the weather as the full moon was two days away. James was continuing on as usual without any indication that he knew that the day was approaching. After James had gotten the three of them detention for interrupting class in Transfiguration, Sirius finally decided to intervene.
"Look, I think this is going a tad too far," he looked at the both of them. James was seething and looking the other way, Remus was tapping his foot impatiently and kept throwing dirty looks to James. Sirius sighed, "Well?"
"It's not my fault!" Remus said, nodding to James. "He's the one who's...well," he eyed the other side of the room where Lily was reading a book. "He's the one learning deep secrets about her," Remus finished with a whisper.
"Yes, but you're the one putting moves on my girl!" James hissed.
"I have not been putting the moves on anyone!" Remus blinked.
"So why does Lily like you, instead of James?" Sirius asked.
"I don't know," Remus said, though the look on his face was the one where he was withholding possible offending information.
"Lupin?" Sirius said, stepping forward. "You aren't telling us the whole truth, are you?"
Remus squirmed a bit until he finally relented. "Look, the pair of you are a bunch of annoying berks. She doesn't like it when you go around hexing people for fun."
James' jaw dropped. "Why the bloody hell not?"
Remus rolled his eyes and sighed. "Because, Prongs, she's got a good heart like that. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it with all of your...spying and all..."
James tapped his foot on the ground. "So..what you're saying is that I need to study her more, right?"
"No, I'm saying that you need to stop hexing people," Remus muttered.
"Great!" James beamed. "I think I shall start a journal of sorts-" He happily trotted up to the room.
Remus put his head in his hands and groaned. Sirius cleared his throat.
"That's not what you said, was it?"
"No."
"James needs to stop hexing people, doesn't he?"
"That and he needs to stop being an arse in general," Remus said staring at the ceiling. "But, of course, he only hears what he wants to."
"That's our Prongs."