Peter, it turned out, had been held up with his mother. He reported to them that she was ill and had been in a sorry state for the summer. "Which is why I couldn't spend that much time with you, and why I kept disappearing," he told them sadly. "I wanted to owl you, but there wasn't enough time."
If any of the Marauders were suspicious of Peter and his alibi they did not say anything. They supported him in the only way they knew - by doing what they did best. James, as ringleader, decided it was high time new pranks were pulled. As Head Boy he was in a good position to do them undetected. Sirius began his normal regime of flirting with the girls ("What can I say? They don't complain, and until they do, I'm not ruining their fun"). Lupin simply gave Peter a sincere smile before trying to comfort him about his mother. He got a baffling response - Peter, whom adored his mother, did not seem willing to broach the subject.
He wouldn't let them read his owls ("I need my privacy, and so does my mother!") and appeared to worship them more than ever. Nothing was said to him for fear that this was his way of coping.
The three entered the Great Hall together a week later with James in the lead. He frequently stopped on the way to talk to various students and members of the Quidditch team. Peter was desperately hungry, so he quietly whispered something in his ear to hurry him.
"Where's Remus?" asked Peter quietly. "I haven't seen him all morning."
"Oh, no, not another disappearance," cackled a Slytherin from behind them. "Seems to be happening to everybody these days. But, Lupin, well, he's never here!"
"Shut up, McCauley, or you'll be in detention for the rest of the week. Now stop blabbering. Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" said James.
"Um, no, he doesn't Prongs. I just thought I'd give him something to blabber about -"
"You HEXED him! How many times, Sirius?" said James exasperatedly. "Evans is going to kill me if I don't put you in detention again. How many times have I gotten you out of it?"
"I don't really remember. I think at the last count it was about ten."
"Exactly. Ten times when I had to practically beg Evans to not report you and me to Dumbledore. Remus wasn't too pleased either and Peter was -"
"Yes, well, Peter always worries. It's his job," said Sirius. "Look, just give me the detention. It won't be the first nor the last one I've had."
"Five points from Gryffindor," said James in a bored tone, as Professor Dumbledore walked past. "Don't do it again Sirius. McCauley, go on to the hospital wing, and don't speak a word of this."
As soon as Professor Dumbledore stepped inside the Great Hall, Sirius exploded with laughter. He screwed up his face, imitating James's voice and said, "Five points from Gryffindor, for doing what your friend wanted to do."
"Sirius…" said Peter warningly.
Lily had just begun walking down the stairs, only stopping when she saw the melee before her. "Been hexing Slytherins again, Sirius? I hope you put him in detention this time."
"I did," said James quietly.
He turned on his heel and walked straight into the Great Hall without looking back at his friends or Lily.
"Nice one, Lily," said Sirius.
He looked at her disbelievingly for a couple of seconds, shaking his head.
"What did I do?" she asked.
"Well, call me stupid -" he glared at her when he heard her snickering, "- but I think James might just fancy you. In fact, I think he has for a good few years, and you just turn him down every time. You're horrible to him at every opportunity, sniping at him for doing something right, moaning at him for doing something wrong. I don't think he can win, do you?"
"Maybe he should get the hint then. I don't fancy him. I never have, and I never will even if he has deflated his ego, and just because he thinks -"
"Tell him that to his face once and for all," said Sirius.
At which point she opened her mouth, but no words came out. He had completely flummoxed her and they both knew it. The truth was… she wasn't sure why she continued to insult James at every opening in the conversation. She had no real idea why she publicly humiliated him when he tried to be nice. She also wasn't sure why she went out of her way to make Professor Dumbledore remove his Head Boy status. He riled her like nobody else could and annoyed her to the point of her wanting to hex anybody within sight.
"I…" she began, but Sirius had already followed his friend into the Hall. Lily walked to her next lesson, all thoughts of eating gone. She knew she was behaving completely irrationally, but she couldn't help it.
"Go and talk to her, James," said Sirius pleadingly. "I really think she might listen to sense this time."
"Maybe," said James. "But I'm not saying anything. It's just a standing joke now, isn't it? Me asking out Lily and everybody else laughing as she turns me down."
The corner of Sirius's mouth twitched, but he said nothing.
"We're going to be late for Potions," said Peter. "We don't want to be late for Slughorn."
The conversation was conveniently ended for James, but Sirius hadn't forgotten what they had been talking about, nor had he forgotten what he had said to Lily. He thought he might finally be making some head way with the whole situation.
Sirius knew he could behave like an idiot much of the time, but that didn't stop him caring about James. He was like a brother to him - more so than his own was.
So when James refused to participate in any pranking schemes, he realised that something was undoubtedly wrong. Could it be the situation with Lily? It was possible, but he doubted it. James didn't really get embarrassed by being flatly turned down; he simply waited a day or so and then continued in his pursuit. His homework was now all done as soon as it was set, and he barely spoke to anybody during class. He resolved to find the solution to his friend's problems.
He would deal with Peter and his situation later on.
"Excellent, Miss Evans," said Professor Slughorn, admiring the potion stewing in her cauldron. Two minutes into the lesson and Lily had already made the most progress out of the whole class. Snape, of course, wasn't far behind and had produced a cauldron full of a perfect, shimmering potion.
James had yet to show up for the lesson, which meant his potion would again have to be excellent for Slughorn to ever forgive him. Even though Potions was his weakest subject, he was still particularly good at it.
Lily had pushed the events beforehand out of her mind and concentrated solely upon her potion. She loved the delicate intricacies of it all. The way just one stir in the wrong direction could change the colour and ruin it. It could even be the difference between life and death.
"Where do you think James is then?" called Slughorn, scuttling over to Sirius's seat, looking at his potion. "Good potion so far, boy, just need to speed things along a little. Could create a disaster if you over-stew it…"
"Righto, sir," said Sirius, rolling his eyes expressively to Peter. "Didn't want to rush it. They say all good things come to those who wait."
"Yes, well, we don't have all day!" boomed Slughorn, laughing at his own joke. "Anyway, where is that Potter?"
"I have no idea. A bit like you, sir," said Sirius, hiding a smile behind his hand.
"I hope you're just talking about the Potter situation and nothing else, Black, or you'll be in detention with me again," said Slughorn.
"These meetings seem to becoming a routine, sir, it's almost like you want to spend hours outside of lessons with me -"
"Believe me, that is most certainly not the case. Now get back to work," said Slughorn dismissively. He soon turned away to go and inspect the rest of the Gryffindors' potions.
James slipped in quietly soon after and set up his equipment. Within ten minutes he had a good potion, while Sirius was still battling with one of the steps.
"Sirius, what's taking you so long today?" asked James, glancing at him.
"Oh, you know…well, actually, I'm looking for a detention with Sluggy here. Turns out Snape has one with him tonight and there's nothing I'd like better than to spend hours with him."
"Sirius," said James warningly. "I'll just pretend I didn't hear that, shall I?"
"Whatever you wish," sang Sirius happily. "Oh, look, Evans's potion is going to-"
He was cut off by the sound her potion was making. Minutes before the potion had been simmering rose pink water. Now it was far more viscous and a shade of magenta. It exploded, flying over everybody in the room and coating them in a thick layer of slime. Boils erupted over their skin and Lily, who was protected by the barrier that she had put up between herself and her potion, just looked on in horror. Slughorn, who was used to seeing her brilliant work, couldn't seem to regain his composure.
"But Evans! Best potion maker in the class. Now, now, what happened? Who sabotaged her work?" asked Slughorn glaring around the class menacingly.
"It was nobody but me, Professor, I wasn't concentrating," she said glumly.
"Hand in your phial containing your potion please. End of class. Miss Evans, if you'll just stay behind, I have something to talk to you about…"
"She'll never be in the Slug Club again," said Sirius, laughing. "Did you see the look of horror on ol' Slugger's face? Thought he was going to die when he saw his favourite crash and burn so spectacularly."
"Mate, you may be laughing but you didn't get as many boils as I did. Had some potion land right on my backside, and because I didn't want to show the nurse or Slughorn, I'm going to have to suffer. Sitting on this chair isn't comfortable, that's all I can say," said James, groaning.
"Don't worry, Prongs, we'll get her for it some way or another," said Sirius, still laughing. "I thought she was going to cry."
"Don't be too hasty," said Remus, "I thought she was going to hex somebody when I saw her a few minutes ago."
"Really?" asked Sirius, his eyes bulging slightly. "Ever been on the end of one of her charms?"
"More than once," James said, "And they leave marks, if you know what I mean. I think I'm scarred for life now."
"Oh," said Sirius glumly, "You know what… I think I might skip dinner and go for a walk instead."
"I'll come with you," said James, jumping up. "I want to get back Snape for that Tripping Jinx he put on me the other day." He smiled crookedly and gathered his things. "Head Boy or not, I'm not putting up with that."
"It's okay, Prongs, you stay here and… relax," said Sirius, before hastily walking out of the portrait hole into the corridor beyond.
"Okay, things are beginning to get weird," said Lupin, thoughtfully. "First Peter is all secretive, and now Sirius is running off without you. And I thought I was the one who had something to hide…"
"There's nothing wrong with your… furry little problem!" said James indignantly.
"Mm. Well, I think that we should investigate," said Remus, smiling.
"Are you suggesting we break the rules?" asked James.
"No. I'm saying that we should bend them to our advantage," he said.
"Well seeing as it's you giving it the go-ahead, I think we should. It's not like Sirius at all," said James, wonderingly.
"No, but somehow I think whatever Sirius is up to is less significant than Peter. I really think he's in some kind of trouble," said Remus, worriedly.
"Don't be silly, Remus! What kind of trouble could he get up to without us being involved?"
"Call me stupid, but I think he's gotten out of his depth with something. Anyway, don't worry. It's just a hunch."
"Hm. We'll start working on this and then the Marauders need to re-group. This is our last year, and with Lily's approval or without, we need to do some serious pranking to lighten the atmosphere. Give everybody something to laugh about for once," said James.
"EVANS! OI, EVANS!" called Sirius, running down the stairs to meet her.
"What do you want?" she said, looking at him suspiciously.
"I just wanted to know what happened in Potions today," said Sirius, trying, and failing, to look innocently at her.
"I forgot what I was doing. It felt like I had been Confunded, okay?" she snapped.
"But why?" he asked.
"You put me in a bad mood," she said, looking everywhere and anywhere but him.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because you keep assuming that I like James when I don't!" she said. "And I don't want to be pressured into going out with that rule-breaking, idiotic specimen."
"Why?" he said.
"Because I told you. He's an idiot that hexes everybody within a ten foot radius of himself, he bullies the first years, and he's just generally…not a good person," she responded.
"Why?" he asked again.
"I can't explain why he does those stupid things and what goes on in his brain, so don't ask me to!" she said.
"Why?" he asked.
"I don't try and spend hours at a time thinking about James Potter," she exclaimed in annoyance. "And don't you dare ask me why!"
"Well, you spend Potions lessons thinking about him, don't you? Ironic how the explosion happened after he entered the classroom and not before, isn't it?" asked Sirius slyly.
"I…you…don't run off, get back here right now, Sirius Black, or I'll curse you into next year!" yelled Lily, pulling out her wand and dashing after him.
"Now, now, Miss Evans, no magic in the corridors. That would be rule breaking!" he called over his shoulder.
Realising that he was right, she stowed her wand back into her pocket and walked sedately back to Gryffindor Tower, vowing to get revenge some other time. As she lay in bed that night she found her thoughts were focussed completely on James Potter, and she also found she couldn't get him out of her head.
But she didn't like him. No, not at all. It was because he annoyed her so much that her thoughts were of him, she decided. Nothing else. Hate wasn't close to love at all, she thought. She truly hated James Potter. No, scratch that, she didn't care enough about him to hate him.
James lay on his bed with the hangings drawn around him, so he was hidden from his friends prying eyes. He had gone to bed early because he hadn't felt like talking to anybody. Sleep had completely eluded him ever since. He couldn't get one person out of his head. He knew it was time to move on, he really did. He had considered pulling a late night prank, but it just seemed too much effort, even if Sirius had encouraged him (which is chiefly what put him off).
He had tried counting sheep, had even imagined being in one of Professor Binns's lessons, but even that could not get his mind away from thinking about her. Lily Evans. The girl he had thought about so often that he wondered if he was even capable of going a day without thinking about her.
He knew he should give up on her. He would give up on her. He was sure that Sirius could find a suitable candidate to fill her place.