fatal love

chapter 108

April arrived, and it seemed that all that most of the school could talk about was that James and Lily were now officially dating. Sirius overheard Fourth Years saying "I thought she hated him?" and First Years saying "it was about time!" and even one Third Year asking her friends "I thought Lily was dating that Lupin bloke?". Sirius made a note to tell Remus about that one.

They were well known by almost all students, that was the thing about Lily and James. James: the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, Marauder, prankster. Everyone liked James, they all found him funny and cool, he was just one of the most well-known characters at Hogwarts.

Everyone knew Lily as well. Perhaps in a less obvious way, but she was the muggleborn Prefect who was top of all her classes, and who saw her job as a Prefect primarily as to look after younger students, not to enforce the rules. She was admired a lot, even if it was in a more quiet way, compared to how often people would talk about how awesome James Potter was. Also, Lily Evans, one of the only people who any of the Marauders would actually listen to, and she was actually four for four in that regard. Peter was intimidated by her, Remus depended on her, Sirius trusted her, and James... Well, James was in love with her.

So it was unsurprising, Sirius thought, that it was breaking news to the whole school when the two of them finally got their shit together. He had seen it happen, seen her kiss him in a crowd of people on James' birthday. He had cheered, though he doubted either of them had heard him.

James was on top of the world. The first thing he'd done the next day was write to his parents to tell them, and now he and Evans were practically inseparable. She sat with them at every meal now, fitting in perfectly next to James, and their group of four seamlessly became a group of five, for the most part. Evans looked immensely happy as well. She would never be as loud about it as James, but over the next couple of weeks, it was rare to see her without a smile on her face.

They had a match against Hufflepuff the week after James' birthday, and every time he scored a goal, James would fly right into the stands and smack Evans with a kiss proudly. She let him do it, as well, which told Sirius she really must love him.

They had jumped in the deep end, that was for sure. Casual wasn't either of their styles. Sirius mentioned to Remus that they were already saying I love you after the match.

"I noticed," Remus said. "If it were anyone else, I'd say they were idiots, two seventeen year olds thinking they love each other as soon as they start dating."

"But you don't think that about them?" Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. "Lily's smart," he said, "and when it comes to emotions, James actually understands that stuff better than anyone. If they say they love each other, then I think they really do."

"I like them together," Sirius said decisively. "She makes him confident - like, real confidence. If anyone's good enough for Prongs, it's her."

"Only the best for our Prongs," Remus grinned.

"What do you think changed her mind after all these years?" Sirius wondered.

"Hmm. She has a lot of respect for him, now. I think that's what changed. She used to go back and forth on whether she liked him or not quite a bit, but this year, she started respecting him."

That made sense, Sirius supposed. He could tell that Evans looked up to him, in a weird way, even though she didn't like to look up to anyone. Apart from maybe McGonagall.

April also meant they were finally allowed to learn to apparate. Remus and Evans had both taught themselves the theory beforehand, and both managed to apparate through the hoops before James or Sirius were anywhere close.