After a couple of days, people began to forget about James and Snapes matching patronuses, which made both of them very happy. Sirius, however, was much less happy. He had already designed their wedding invitations and made a guest list. And a color scheme. And cake flavors.

"So, I heard that Gryffindor has a game coming up!" Marlene asked Alice as they walked to the cafeteria.

"Yeah! It's on Sunday, and I hope we're ready. Potter is actually not a bad captain." Alice nodded.

Lily pretended that she didn't perk up at the mention of the name Potter. Marlene still noticed.

"What are we talking about, ladies?" Suddenly, Sirius was in between the three girls, arms slung around Lily and Alices shoulders.

"Quidditch." Marlene responded, laughing at how startled Alice was when Sirius appeared.

"I'm shocked!" He exclaimed sarcastically.

"Well, what can I say? We truly are ladies of variety and mystery." Lily laughed, moving Sirius's arm off of her shoulders.

The four sat down by their merged friend group.

They ate breakfast together, catching up on their days and such.

The large group of them, the four marauders, Frank, and the five girls, worked weirdly perfectly. Hanging out and chatting felt natural, and no one was awkward or left out. This made everyone wonder why they haven't combined friend groups before Emmeline and Peter began dating.

"Okay, Lily. You're smart. Let's say we hypothetically wanted to simultaneously turn all of the Slytherins hair gold and all of their clothes red, and make everything they eat for the day taste like onions. Would that be doable? Hypothetically of course." Sirius asked across to Lily.

"Hypothetically—" She rolled her eyes,—"It would be doable. Make sure the spell you're using is right, of course, or use some other magic form to make a mass hair, clothes, and food change. And of course this is all hypothetical." She laughed.

"Told you she's smart." James said with a mouth full of breakfast.

"Nobody, literally nobody, ever denied that." Remus replied, shooting a glance at Lily, who was very clearly trying to hide a blush.

He'd have to make fun of her for it later.

Breakfast ended soon after that. Class went by as usual, but by the time the group sat down for lunch, Lily and Dorcas were in a very big debate.

"I cannot believe you'd say that!" Lily looked offended.

"What do you mean? You're the crazy one!" Dorcas yelled back, nearly knocking over her plate.

"What's all this about?" Peter asked for everyone.

"We're fighting over if Pascal or Mushu is a better sidekick." Lily glared at Dorcas.

"Was I the only one who didn't understand any of that?" James asked around.

"The Disney characters! Rapunzel from Tangled? Mulan?" Dorcas was honestly appalled.

"What knee?" Sirius asked, genuinely confused.

"I cannot believe you just said that." Dorcas looked personally offended.

They were going to explain what Disney was, but breakfast ended, so that was cut short.

-

"So, it's coming up soon, huh?" Sirius asked. The marauders were walking through the halls.

"The moon? Yeah, it's in two days." Remus responded. It was slightly obvious as well, he was getting weaker by the day.

"Will you be okay, dude?" Peter wanted to do everything in his power to help his friends.

"Yeah, but I have prefect duty tonight. I might not be able to do it if I'm still this fatigued," Remus said, upset. He hated having to pass off responsibility because of his 'furry little problem'.

"Don't worry about that Moons. You rest, I got prefect rounds tonight," James exclaimed, as if to try and claim the spot before anyone else could.

"James just wants to chat up Evans," Sirius laughed, which made everyone else laugh, despite it being incredibly true.

"No, I also want to help my best fri-" James was about to rant when Remus shushed him.

"I'll talk to Minnie and see if you can take my rounds. But I swear to god if Lily gets uncomfortable and you don't respect that, or anything worse than that, I will eat off each of your limbs two days from now. While you're in human form." Of course Remus's best friends of all time were his fellow marauders, but Lily was his first friend (and the first person to not be intimidated by the scars across his face), so he was always fiercely protective of her.

"Remus who the hell do you take me for? I'm a gentleman, and I'm offended. But, thank you so much! You will not regret this!" James yelled the last two sentences as he ran though the halls so he wouldn't be late to Transfiguration.

-

"Lils!" Remus yelled across the courtyard at the redhead on the other side. Classes were out for the day, so everyone was either hanging out, studying, or doing homework in the courtyard. Needless to say, the yelling wasn't widely appreciated.

He jogged up to Lily, who heard her name and waited for her friend.

"What's up, Rem?" She asked.

Due to his lack of strength, it took Remus a minute to catch his breath. He really should not have been running.

"So, you know the moon is in two days? Well, I'm getting weaker and weaker the days leading up, so I thought I'd let you know that James is going to take over my prefect duties tonight." He explained.

"Number one, James? Really?-" she made a face-"Second, do you need any notes? I know the boys take good ones when you're gone, but for the classes they don't take that we do." She asked. Lily, along with everyone else who knew about Remus being a werewolf, just wanted to make his life as easy as possible.

"Yes please thank you so much Lily I do not deserve you as a friend. Second, I'm sorry, he called it and told Minnie. There's nothing I can do. In any event, thank you so much Lily. If he does anything you don't like or feel comfortable with, he will no longer have the feet to be able to make my rounds for me." The two hugged, and Remus was off running.

Lily didn't quite know where he was running, but he was running alright, despite being told not to run whilst tired before and after a full moon.

"I have to do rounds with POTTER! Can you believe that?" Lily ranted to her roommates/best friends.

"I mean, yeah." Marlene answered, and everyone else agreed.

Lily responded by throwing a pillow at Marlene.

"What're you going to wear?" Dorcas asked offhandedly.

"What do you mean?" Lily's eyes widened. Was she supposed to dress up?

"You aren't dressing any differently? Lils, we kinda know you like James. Also, you have toothpaste on your lip," Emmeline broke the truth.

"Of course she does, Lily brushes her teeth 5 times a day." Alice laughed.

"Better than 3 times a week!" Lily shot a look at Marlene.

"Number one, it was ONCE! Number two, I'm never telling you guys secrets ever again." Marls rolled her eyes.

"Also, Emmy. I do not like James. I know you want me to because you are a crazy romantic but I don't like him." Lily tried to believe the words she was saying.

"Sure." Dorcas grabbed her arm and swept her into the bathroom, the rest of the girls following behind.

"Skirt or pants?" Alice asked from the main room of the dormitory, going through Lily's clothes.

"Well, her high waisted pants make her ass look good, but the skirt fits her so well, so skirt id say." Marlene said, brushing out Lily's hair.

Alice threw a pleated plaid skirt into the bathroom, grabbed a white shirt and a red blazer, and walked into the bathroom with everyone else.

"Emmy. I have no eyelashes, you need to use brown mascara." Lily rolled her eyes, reminding her friend that not everyone has dark and thick eyelashes like her.

"Right!" She yelled, and grabbed brown mascara.

10 minutes later, even Lily had to admit she looked damn good. She added knee socks, a pair of Marlenes white platform Converse, a locket from her mother and her canvas bag.

"Shit, we're good." Dorcas said, high fiving Alice.

"Just because I look good does not mean I like Potter. Also, thank you for the makeover, but I am going to be late." Lily started walking toward the door.

"You have ten min-" Emmeline began, but Lily had already shut the door.

"Hey Potter." Lily waved absentmindedly, walking downstairs.

James looked up. He saw Lily immediately and, in his opinion, she looked amazing. Light makeup, clearly done by Emmy, soft curls and a skirt just short enough to make James blush if he looked too long at her.

"Potter? Are you on this planet?" She snapped in his face.

She had to hide a smile though, cause she knew he was staring at her.

James snapped out of his trance, and the two began rounds.

At first, they walked in silence, admiring how comfortable their silence could be.

"So, what were you and Dorcas fighting about today? Something about knees, right?" James finally asked.

"Oh my god, I cannot believe you guys don't know about Disney!" Lily was honestly flabbergasted.

"Yes! What is that?"

"It's a film company. Disney movies are iconic. They practically invented princess movies."

"Never heard of it."

"Unbelievable."

Their conversation was cut short because they had to bust a kid for attempting (and failing miserably) to catch Filch's cat.

"So, how about we watch these movies?" James resumed the conversation.

"Like, all of us?" Lily was confused if he was asking her out.

"Sure! I'll bring the boys, you get the girls and the movies." That wasn't quite the response he wanted, but he didn't care. Lily seemed to be having a good time with him.

"Bring them where?" She asked.

"Seventh floor, across from the tapestry of Barnabus. Walk past the door 3 times and think about needing a place to watch movies." He instructed.

"Are you high?" Lily asked genuinely.

"Shockingly, no. Just do it, Lils." He rolled his eyes.

They finished rounds talking about snacks, times and drinks for the movie watching party.

The next night, all of the girls put on comfy sweats, and ran to the seventh floor.

She felt ridiculous doing so, but Lily followed all of James's instructions, and a door appeared.

Dorcas hesitantly opened the door, and inside was a massive sectional, snack bar, blankets, pillows, and most of all, a huge tv.

Alice and Lily figured out how to play Dorcas's DVD's, but once they go working, they had a watch party.

They watched the best  of the classic princess movies (in Dorcas and Lily's opinions), all the way up to Frozen.

The party began at 9:00 at night, and by 2:00 am, everyone was done.

Lily, however, had fallen asleep on Alice's lap.

Alice didn't want to wake her up, so when everyone else left, Alice stayed on the couch, prepared to just fall asleep in the Room of Requirement.

Well, everyone else left except James.

"Ali, i don't want to leave you alone so I'm going to stay with you until Lil wakes up." James was always a gentleman. Euphemia Potter did raise him, after all.

Both just sat, talking about quidditch, food, and homework, until Alice suddenly changed the mood.

"James, how do you know if you're in love?" She blurted out.

"I don't think that has anything to do with beaters bats, but okay. Being in love is not just thinking about someone, it's realizing they occupy your mind every off beat. It's subconscious. You just want to spend all of your time with this person, look good for them, make them laugh, and you spend a remarkable about of time planning your wedding vows in your head. You cannot imagine life without them. You genuinely feel like you couldn't survive without them in your life. They occupy your mind like oxygen occupies your lungs. That's being in love." James said.

"Is that how you feel about Lily?" Alice asked.

"Is that how you feel about Frank?" James shot back, mimicking her look.

"No." She said, though the true answer was the exact opposite.

"Anyway, yes, that is how I feel about Lily. I know that because of her." James said honestly.

"I'm not trying to judge or anything like that, this is just a genuine question." Alice prefaced her question, running her hands through the hair of the redhead on her lap. "Why Lily?" She asked.

"The better question is why not Lily? She is beautiful, smart, caring, and talented. But she's not just that. She's quick witted, she keeps me on my toes. Our silence is never awkward, and neither are our conversations. I may have said I fell in love with her on the first day of school, but it that was infatuation, not love. But ever since we have spent more time together, I fell in real love. Like how she didn't even bat an eye when Marlene, Dorcas, Sirius, or I came out. How she doesn't give a single shit about Remus being a werewolf, other than making sure he's safe at all times. How she knows everything there is to need to know about people she cares about. She's just a dream. I'd take an unforgivable curse for her. I'd work 24/7 for $1 an hour just to be the one who gives her a true loves kiss, like the movies." James said.

"That's actually really sweet, James." Alice's heart had officially been melted.

"Thanks Ali. I'm going to use the bathroom really quickly." James jogged out of the room.

"Please tell me you heard what I did." Alice said to Lily, who hadn't been sleeping in the first place.

"Every word."

Maybe she didn't have to tell her friends yet, or her family, or anyone else, but that night she finally let herself say this one sentence in her head.

I like James Potter.

A/N
Hey! It's been a  while, hasn't it... my only excuse, which isn't really an excuse, is that I just started school and we have a lot to do. That's not really an excuse though so, I'm really sorry. This is just a slow book, oops. Also hopefully I made up for the lack of updates because I said most chapters will be around 1,500 words and this one is 2,300 so there's that. I've been thinking about the whole Lily pretending to sleep while James just gushes about her. And of course I had to put that little bit of fralice in there because I'm head over heels in love with the two of them ughhhh. Anyway, have a great day/night!! Hope you're doing well. What's up? Love you, bye!

~ brynlee