"Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear- GAH, I keep messing up the rhythm! How am I supposed to recite this in front of everyone, much less memorize it? Who let me sign up for something I'm not cut out for?" Marlene groaned, flopping face-first into her pillow as Mary and Lily looked at her with expressions that were a combination of sympathy and amusement.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Shakespeare's not easy. I've been reading his works since I was a kid and even I still mess up sometimes when trying to read out loud. You just need some more practice." Lily offered kindly, gently grabbing her by the hands and pulling her friend back up to her feet.

"There's still plenty of time before you have to be off-book anyway, you'll learn your lines in time. And you are an amazing Juliet, so hush. Totally not saying that because I started making your costume yesterday and the dress is in your measurements." Mary added, reopening her copy of Romeo and Juliet. "Now, from the top!"

Marlene, however, closed her book. She pretended to look lost in thought.

"Lily's around the same size as me, she can easily play Juliet."

Lily's head shot up from her book. "Absolutely not, don't even think of that. I already told both of you I'm not going to be involved in the performance. Even if Potter wasn't in charge of this, being in front of everyone like that isn't my thing." She flipped back to the scene they were on. "I said I'd help practice lines with you, so come on, Juliet. Are you going to bid farewell to Romeo, or is he just going to climb out of the window all lonesome?"

Marlene picked up her book again, but she wasn't done yet. "I'll read Romeo's part. Do Juliet's; hearing how her lines are supposed to sound will help me learn faster."

The redhead frowned, but it made sense. She shrugged, flipping back a page to the beginning of Act 3: Scene 5, which Juliet opens.

"Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:

It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;

Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:

Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

Marlene continued the conversation swiftly with Romeo's part. She sounded a bit unsure at first with the unfamiliar lines, but she soon found the flow and she grew more confident as the scene unfolded.

"It was the lark, the herald of the morn,

No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks

Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day

Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

I must be gone and live, or stay and die."

The pair continued their back and forth for a few more verses before Mary, as Juliet's Nurse, entered the scene. They continued practicing as such, even acting out some of the stage directions, until Dorcas and Alice barged into their room to drag them downstairs. In addition to Marlene not switching back into doing Juliet's parts, they had completely forgotten about the Hogsmeade trip that weekend.

When they were all dressed up for the January weather, the five girls made their way to Honeydukes for some treats. Alice had quite the sweet tooth and the other four weren't that far off themselves from a cavity or two. At some point they decided to split off so everyone could get their shopping done in time. They agreed to meet back at The Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer in an hour, and the two groups parted ways.

Lily, Mary, and Dorcas headed to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop first. The three of them desperately needed some more ink after the Transfiguration essay last week that completely drained their supplies. McGonagall did not mess around. After buying an extra quill in addition to their replenished ink supplies, they headed to Tomes and Scrolls for some book browsing. They spent nearly half an hour in there and it would have been longer if Dorcas didn't yank Lily and Mary out sooner. She needed to go to Spintwitches Sporting Needs for new Quidditch elbow pads. Dorcas had been using her older sister's for years and after the minor wipeout from last practice, they were officially unusable.

Lily and Mary were grumbling about Dorcas ruining their bookworm paradise moment, but that abruptly ended when they walked into Spintwitches. As the bell above the door announced their entrance, the first thing Lily spotted was a messy head of jet-black hair turning at the sound of the noise like some trained dog. Potter's eyes seemed to widen a bit and he brought his hand up for a little wave. She waved back out of reflexive politeness, but it was enough for him to break out into a grin.

Suddenly, Sirius Black poked his head out from the other side of a shelf.

"Who're you waving at, Prongsy?" His eyes followed his best friend's and landed on the three girls. He immediately made his way over, dragging Potter along.

"Oi Meadowes, finally! I've been wondering when you'd show up. I was starting to worry you you weren't going to get new elbow pads in time for the next practice. Don't want to be using the school's ones, trust me... Anyway, can you believe this git," He jabbed a finger at his companion. "Is scheduling the next practice on a Saturday? A Saturday. And at the ungodly hour of 6am too!" Sirius shook his head in disappointment.

As James tried to defend himself from a raging Dorcas, Lily tried not to notice the store clerk's annoyance at their increasing volume. And, despite herself, Lily smiled. She had always found Sirius at least a little funny, when he wasn't flaunting his big ego around, that is. Like the other Marauders, he had a charm to him that made it very hard for anyone to truly dislike him. Combined with his sharp tongue and decent looks, Lily could see why Marlene fancied him.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Sirius' courting had other targets. As his arm found its way around Mary's shoulder comfortably, with her immediately slapping it off with a laugh, Sirius guided everyone out of the shop after elbow pads were acquired. (Their exit was much to the delight of the irritated shop clerk, who eagerly closed the door on their way out.)

"Anyway, as much as both James and I have enjoyed your lovely company, ladies, I'm afraid we must be going. We have to meet Lupin and Pettigrew at The Three Broomsticks, but next time, let us get you all drinks." Sirius shot them a wink as James facepalmed at his friend's antics.

James' Gryffindor scarf caught on a loose thread in his glove, so when he moved his hand up for the facepalm, the end of his scarf slapped him square in the face. Lily let out a laugh at that. What a dork. Before she could think twice, she continued the banter with something that left the other four a bit surprised at.

"Well, you're in luck. We're on our way there as well to meet up with Marlene and Alice. I hope you brought your wallet, Black."

Sirius blinked.

It took Lily a second to realize that she just invited the Marauders to hang out with them.

Before she could take it back, James grinned that same toothy grin of his that made other girls in her year swoon. Not her though.

"I'm paying. Nine Butterbeers coming right up!"

------------

When both parties reunited in the warmth of The Three Broomsticks, Marlene, Alice, Remus, and Peter were already chatting at a table near the window. Everyone seemed a bit surprised that their split groups had merged with each other during their separate Hogsmeade shopping sprees, but everyone took it in their stride. The most surprising thing, really, was how well everyone got on with one another.

Sirius' fruitless attempts at flirting with Mary were absolutely pathetic and perfectly hilarious. Mary was very clearly not interested and she would joke back with him, flat out saying he had more of a chance with a Bandicoot. Mary made a few subtle glances at Marlene, but if the latter was bothered by Sirius flirting with Mary, she didn't show it. She was quite enjoying herself laughing along with Remus over Sirius' "puppy-dog eyes." Alice and Dorcas were talking with Peter about their pets, and it looked like a debate was stirring up between the girls about cats or dogs being better. Lily pitied Peter for having to be in the middle of that; she knew how that felt.

That left Lily and James. It could have just been her, but it almost seemed like her friends and the other Marauders were purposefully giving them some space. Even the seating arrangement allowed them to be closer to each other than the rest of the group. She would have to hound her friends later when they returned to their room that night.

"So, Evans, I heard you've been helping Macdonald and McKinnon with their lines for the Muggle Studies project."

Why did he suddenly look so... nervous? Since when did the cool, confident, arrogant James Potter get nervous? And why?

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a Shakespeare fanatic myself so I thought I could help them practice. Elizabethan English is confusing at times and since I've read all of his plays, they asked me for some advice." Lily took a sip of her Butterbeer, a question that had been prodding at her for the last few months now bubbled to the surface. "Why Romeo and Juliet?"

James put down his mug, cocking his head to the side as its own counter-question.

"What do you mean?"

Lily elaborated. "Out of all of his plays, why that one? It's certainly not one of his best ones, although it is certainly iconic. I can really only enjoy it in a satiric or commentative lens since it's almost the textbook definition of idiot plot. Don't get me wrong, it's still an amazing play, but... why?"

James pushed his round glasses up to the bridge of his nose as he paused to think of his answer. He had a thoughtful expression on his face that could have been considered cute if it weren't James Potter.

"Do you remember that time I asked you out in fourth year?"

'Is he serious?'

"You'll have to be more specific." Lily deadpanned.

"Ah, right. Sorry." James laughed sheepishly, bringing his hand to the back of his neck. "It was around exams, in one of the greenhouses. We were watering the Shrivelfig bulbs for extra credit after class and it was just us two. I asked if you were doing anything on the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend."

As soon as he described it, Lily felt the flashback piecing itself together. She was really stressed that day due to a potion she had been working on not achieving its desire result. Severus had offered his help, but she wanted to do it on her own. Problem was, the exam was fast approaching and she was starting to get a bit frantic. To de-stress, she offered to help Professor Sprout with some potting after Herbology. She thought the productive alone time would do her some good. If she knew Potter had already planned on doing extra-credit tasks, she would have definitely turned on her heels out of that greenhouse. Lily recalled his attempt at asking her on a date, but she couldn't remember her response...

James chuckled at the memory. "You told me 'I'd rather jump out a window, Romeo.'"

Ah.

"I felt like it was supposed to be a very brutal rejection, but I didn't get the reference, so I asked Remus about it afterwards. To do your insult justice." He said with a wink.

Lily laughed. "I stand by that comment."

James' smile faltered for a split-second before returning to his usual grin full of mischief.

"Anyway, I got the idea to do Shakespeare after I saw Remus reading King Lear at the beginning of this year."

Lily remembered recommending her fellow prefect that play during one of their book discussions as they did their rounds.

"When I looked him up, I found out Romeo and Juliet was one of his works, so I thought it would be perfect. Now I actually am Romeo." He said, playfully smug with his chest puffed out and a noble-sort of expression on his face.

"What can I say, I am a born Seer." Lily said, mimicking gazing into a crystal ball on the wooden table in front of them.

"That's absolute unicorn dung, I know for a fact you switched out of Divination after the first week of third year." James laughed.

How and why he knew that, she did not know.

"It's because I was too good for the class; they had nothing else to teach me." Lily replied haughtily, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Of course, of course. My apologies."

James frowned into his Butterbeer, his playfulness gone. "Seriously though, speaking of apologies, I owe you loads of them. I'm sorry for all the years I've bothered you. It was really immature and I don't have an excuse other than that I was a prat. I won't be doing it again, and, er, yeah. Sorry. For everything."

Lily now had a new surprising moment of the day. Looking at him, all genuinely apologetic and real, this was the first time she had seen a different side to James Potter. It was like he was a completely different person. One that she could actually see herself getting along with.

She smiled. "Good."

James smiled back at her quizzically, bringing his mug up to his mouth even though it had been empty for quite awhile. Lily picked up her own mug, also now empty, and clinked it against his despite it being so close to his face. He wasn't expecting that, and he moved his head back a bit in surprise before putting the mug down.

"Cheers to new beginnings, Potter."

As Lily turned back to help Mary fend off Sirius, she could have sworn that James could have lit the whole room up with his smile at that moment alone.

Author's Note: This was probably the chapter that was both the hardest and most fun for me to write. It's the longest chapter I believe and the one I am maybe the most proud of. I will probably be writing similar chapters like these when going back to edit since I really believe bonding moments like these are crucial for stories such as James' and Lily's because they have a lot to resolve before the romance can begin. My original draft does not transition their rocky beginnings to friendship to love well enough so I'll be adding some more friendly moments where they start to slowly warm up to each other. To those of you reading this (if anyone even is), I really hope you're enjoying it so far! -Trip