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Lily tapped her fingertips against the stone railing, watching across the grounds as James Potter and Sirius Black played with a Quaffle. It was innocent fun, albeit with trash talk she could see but not hear, faint laughs drifting along the breeze to where she stood on the steps leading into the building. Peter was with them, too, chatting with a girl Lily recognized but couldn’t remember the name of, a few years younger than them she thought. His eyes followed his friends’ movements, as did the girl’s, and Lily thought maybe they were talking about the two loud boys.
The days of Lily immediately assuming they were in the wrong were behind her. Not that far behind her, admittedly, but she was moving past it. Still, as she watched, she wondered if it was actually as innocent as it seemed—she knew from Remus that they could have fun that didn’t involve pranking or inconveniencing others, but it was hard to remember that sometimes.
The ball went flying a bit past Peter and the girl, and James followed after it, waving the others off. He leaned down to grab it—against her will, Lily’s eyes fell downward, taking note of how he filled his uniform trousers—and then, because he was an intolerable showoff, he went forward into a handstand. His shirt fell down, revealing a bit of his stomach briefly. His brown skin looked so good in the sun, and Lily found herself unable to look away as he fell out of the position, laughing again. He and Sirius went back to playing, and she watched as he threw the ball back and forth some more with Sirius. He was so showy, and ugh it was so annoying how easy he made it look, how he moved so gracefully and—
“See something you like?” A voice came from just over her shoulder.
Lily jumped, whirling around to glare at Remus, her cheeks heating up embarrassingly. “Wh-what?”
“James,” he said easily. “You were staring at him just now, right?”
“I wasn’t,” she protested, following him a few steps down. A breeze blew by, ruffling their hair and bringing another faint shout from the group that she’d totally been staring at.
He sat, stuffing his bag between his legs and leaning back. She left her own bag up against his calf, sitting a bit more politely next to him. As she smoothed out her skirt, he tugged on one bit, pulling it farther down and covering her thighs better. They shared a smile, easy and content with each other, and then he had to go and ruin it by saying, “You absolutely were.”
“I was not!” Lily rolled her eyes, glancing out again over the grounds. James, of course, caught her eyes, but she forced her gaze to linger elsewhere long enough for Remus to notice.
He snorted. “I’m not going to judge, you know. It’s impossible to look away from him sometimes.”
Such a showoff, she thought with irritation. Not as much as she used to. “You’re such a liar, Mr. Judgy Eyes.”
“Methinks she doth protest too much.”
“Methinks he doth be judging me for something I wasn’t doing.”
He laughed, looking out to his friends. “I’m not judging! I’m just teasing you, you know that.” In his usual teasing voice, he added, “It’s… interesting that I find Lily Evans staring all flushed and focused on James Potter, and not the other way around.”
Lily made a face and gagging sounds, even as her stomach twisted. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling—she knew James was crushing on her, but hearing it from someone else felt…weird. Good weird. Reaffirming, in a way. She knew she was pretty, but James was just so pretty himself, sometimes it felt like he was just pranking her with his interest. Remus wouldn’t lie to her about this, wouldn’t let them go that far. The implication that he mooned over her was… appreciated.
“I wasn’t flushed and focused,” she denied, knowing that was probably exactly how she looked. She glanced at him, noticing he was staring rather intently at Sirius, who was bouncing around with his hair up in a ponytail, beaming and occasionally looking their way. Poking his sides, she exaggeratedly gasped. “Not like you are right now!”
He swung his head to look at her, and sure enough, his cheeks were pink. “I—I am not!”
“You soooo are,” she giggled. “What’d you say? Oh, I’m not judging. It’s just impossible to look away from him—him being Sirius.”
“Him being James!” He countered, sitting up a little straighter. “I know you think he’s hot. It’s okay, you can admit it to me.”
“And you to me,” she said, making kissing noises that had them both laughing. Once they calmed down, she asked, “Okay, but be honest, do you want to kiss him? He does have really nice lips.”
“Wouldn’t you rather kiss Jamie? I happen to have it on good authority he’s very good at it.”
“Oh, and what authority would that be?”
He shrugged casually. His cheeks were still pink. “Confidential.”
“Really.” She arched her eyebrows, never quite able to do just one at a time. She wondered if maybe Remus knew about James’s skills personally—and she could tease back, could make it sound like she’d been in a closet or two before with Sirius Black. In all honesty, she only knew from her friends, several of whom had kissed him before.“Well, I also happen to know that Sirius is very… compassionate, with his snogging. All nice and attentive and sweet, for once in his life.”
“He’s sweet all the time, thank you very much,” Remus said haughtily. His defense of Sirius only made Lily giggle again, but he ignored it, instead pointing out, “It sounds like you want to kiss him.”
“Kiss Sirius?” She said with false wonder, widening her eyes. “Oh, I should only be so blessed! Honored! To be given even a second of the Sirius Black’s time!”
They both cracked up, leaning into each other. Lily pressed her forehead to his shoulder as her body shook, and her mind whirred with what she could say back—accuse him of wanting to snog James, probably. Or keep up the charade and lavish him with praise, for being so close to Sirius, and pointing out how much attention Sirius gave him back. Or ask if he actually had snogged James, and then find some way to deal with the small flare of jealousy in her stomach.
“Um,” James said, suddenly standing in front of them, Sirius and Peter on either side of him. His eyes darted between Lily and Remus, narrowing as the two of them pulled away from each other and quickly got to their feet. She felt her cheeks warming again, and when she glanced at Remus, she saw he was blushing too. “What are you two talking about?”
“You’re not allowed to have a crush on me,” Sirius said to Lily before either of them could begin to make up some explanation. He was smirking, but Lily thought maybe he looked a little panicked too. His eyes kept flicking to Remus, who was blinking at the steps under their feet. “You and I, we’re off-limits. Sorry. It’s in the bro-code.”
“The bro-code,” James added, staring at Remus. His tone was grave, pointed. “Very important. Yes.”
Peter started laughing, glancing between them all with amusement clear on his face.
“Yes,” Remus said back, meeting James’s eyes. He matched James’s tone, his expression impassive. “Sooo important.”
“Remus wants to kiss you,” she said, looking between James and Sirius. He turned and reached for her, chuckling embarrassedly, but she darted away, waving and cackling, more than happy to leave him to the wolves and get out from under James’s intense, pretty eyes.