no good | jily + wolfstar

one

It had been exactly twenty-three minutes since the set time that Lily Evans had agreed to meet James Potter in the Gryffindor common room. It was not like Lily to be late.

"Forget it, Prongs," sighed Sirius Black, from behind an upside-down potions textbook as he sat in the corner, pretending to mind his own business. "She's not coming. She's never agreed before, so what's different now?"

"I'm different now. I've grown up. I've... er, matured." James tried to sound as sure of himself as he possibly could. "Its fifth year and I'm a new man. This year it'll be different. The fact that she even agreed to meet me is what's different. She's never even done that much before!"

Sirius rolled his eyes and groaned dramatically. "We're going to be sitting here until the next full moon. Speaking of which, when exactly is that, Moony? It's not for a couple of weeks, is it? Because I've got to write 3000 words for history of magic next week and I could really use your assistance."

Remus Lupin, sitting next to Sirius but genuinely reading his potions textbook finally gave his friends some of his attention.

"She'll come, James. I'm sure of it. She really has noticed that you've cleaned up your act." He turned and spoke to Sirius before going back to his book. "I hope you get fleas."

There was a noise from the other side of the Fat Lady and James instantly sat up straighter in his seat. Remus looked up from the corner of his eye and Sirius hid behind his potions textbook.

Peter Pettigrew ran through the door and the three groaned.

"She's coming! I saw her on the stairs two floors below!" he whispered as he scrambled to sit next to Sirius and Remus. "Good luck, Prongs!"

James shook his head. "I didn't even know you were keeping lookout, Wormtail! But I don't need luck. This is going to be great."

When Lily Evans entered a room, it felt like she was the only one there. Or at least that's how James felt when he saw the flash of messy red hair turn to thank the Fat Lady for letting her in. She wore faded blue jeans, green sneakers and there were two books in her arms, clutched tight against her chest.

"Hi, Lily," said James. He couldn't help but stand up. "How are you?"

A smile grew onto Lily's lips as she met his eyes. "Oh, hello James. I, I, I'm sorry I'm late. I got caught up in the library. Ran into some people and couldn't stop talking," she stifled a laugh. "You know how it is."

James' right hand naturally flew up to the back of his head, a movement all of his friends knew was nothing more than the result of nervousness. They'd witnessed it many times as he spoke to Lily.

"We could hang out now... I mean, if you want to."

Sirius rolled his eyes and scoffed, which resulted in him gaining unwanted attention from Lily, but she quickly turned back to James.

"Maybe we could go somewhere else?"

James agreed before she had even finished her sentence and together they left the Gryffindor common room, Lily pulling James away from the prying eyes of his friends.

"Now what do we do?", whined Peter.

"Excellent question, Wormtail. I'm glad you asked," said Sirius as he leaped from his chair and turned to face the other two boys as if he were putting on a show. Peter grinned because he knew what Sirius was going to suggest. Remus, previously uninterested, had a hint of a smile upon his lips.

Sirius pulled the parchment out of his pocket and whipped out his wand, of course stopping to twirl it around his fingers for a moment. He took great pride in his showmanship. He slammed the parchment on the small desk, directly on top of Remus' open potions textbook before touching it with the tip of his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

By the time he had finishing saying the word "swear", he was already grinning. He loved this more than anything.

His words had caused the parchment to reveal a map. The Marauder's Map.

"Now where are you, Prongs," mumbled Sirius as he scanned the map.

"There!" cried Peter.

"That says John Porter, you idiot," sighed Sirius.

"In the courtyard," said Remus. "Look!"

The three boys leaned over the desk and watched James' name move about on the map. Sure enough, Lily Evans was right next to him.

"Yes, Prongs!" Sirius said with a smirk.

"What makes you think it's going well?"

Sirius shrugged. "She's still with him, isn't she? If this were fourth year he would have been back here sulking by the fireplace by now."

Peter looked confused. "If she likes him then why did it take her so long to get here?"

Simultaneously Remus and Sirius' eyes both slid over the map, looking away from the courtyard and towards the library to see who Lily might have been talking to. Remus' lips parted slightly. Sirius banged a fist on the desk.

Sure enough, the name that they saw was Severus Snape.