lilium_evansiae | 19 October 1976, Hogwarts Library

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19 October 1976, Hogwarts Library

There's another faint burst of giggling from the stacks to her left, and Lily looks up from her essay (two rolls of parchment on the effect of the stage of the moon on medicinal potions), again, annoyed.

People are trying to work here.

And yes, there's a time-honored Hogwarts tradition of flirting and even stealing a kiss or two in the library, but Black and Perdita are taking it to ridiculous extremes.

But then, that's been the theme of their whole relationship, hasn't it? Ridiculous extremes.

Lily takes a breath, counts to ten and turns her attention back to her essay.

The new moon frequently has a beneficial effect on ...

More giggling, the thud of a book hitting the floor, and a 'whoops.'

Lily takes another breath, and tries to resist the temptation to go hex them both into some time next month.

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Lily has no sooner sat down in the empty chair than there's the sharp, distinctive sound of someone getting slapped across the face by his angry girlfriend.

"If you want to date Bloody Maria Bloody Cathersides then she can bloody have you, if she'd bloody take a wanker like you!" Perdita says. "Because I am through with you, Sirius."

Madam Pince gets up and heads over toward the stacks.

Amity Root looks ready to explode.

Lily looks from Remus to Peter to James.

"D'you suppose there's any chance she means it this time?"

All three boys cringe at the sound of Sirius being slapped.

The entire library, in fact, goes dead silent. (Even more silent than it usually is, with Amity Root around.)

"Bloody fucking hell, Perdita!" Sirius booms. It's clear he doesn't give a fig for their current location. "Yeah, well I've been through with you from the second week of this ridiculous farce!"

"I — yeah, I think so," James says.

"Fine!" Perdita snaps back. "If you think -- "

"This. Is. A. Library," Madam Pince says, reaching the end of the row.

Lily exchanges a glance with James.

Somebody's in trouble.

(Sirius might have wanted to give a fig for their location after all. Madam Pince has rarely looked so livid.)

"Fifty points from Gryffindor," she continues, "and I will see both of you for detention tomorrow at seven o'clock."

"What? That's not fair," Sirius is saying, but it's clear he isn't going to get out of this without further trouble, so he shuts his mouth.

James can imagine the look on his best mate's face, and tries not to laugh from where he is.

He shrugs at Lily.

Seconds later, Remus shuts his book with a quiet fwomp and gets to his feet.

"Well, I'm going to go back to the Common Room now," he says, as though this is any normal day at the library for him.

James is almost entirely impressed.

"Good night, everyone. I'll see you in Herbology in the morning."

"Good night, Remus," Lily says, cheerfully.

Peter Pettigrew watches him for a second, then looks over at James and Lily and closes his book, too.

"I'm going to go with Remus," he says, standing. "Good night."

(It's hardly wonderfully subtle, but then, subtle is hardly the theme of the evening.)

"Out!" Madam Pince is saying, now chasing Perdita and Black out of the stacks. "Out! Both of you!"

The people at the other tables alternately try to look involved in their work, or watch with unconcealed interest as the no longer couple leaves.

Lily watches them go, and then turns back to James as the door closes behind them and the library gradually returns to its pre-break-up-in-the-Transfiguration-section calm.

"So," she says, after a second, "should I put in a good word for him with Maria Cathersides?"

James starts to crack up (as quietly as he can) into the sleeve of his robes.

"Merlin's beard, that was — honestly, I can't even come up with a proper response right now."

"I'll take that as a no," Lily says, serenely.

Amity Root glares at them, and Lily smiles back at her.

"I think it's over, this time."

James is just working out the last bit of laughter before he nods.

(He completely ignores Amity Root.)

"Yeah," he says, clearing his throat and straightening. "I think so, too. That's going to be the talk of the school tomorrow."

"I hardly think it's going to take till tomorrow, actually. It's probably already the talk of the school."

She nods toward the door, where a pair of Hufflepuff third years are leaving, deep in conversation, no doubt off to tell everyone they know what just happened in the library.

"Cliona will be so sorry she missed it."

"True," he says, turning to glance at said Hufflepuff third years. "And no doubt Sirius and Perdita will have started going on about it on their way back to the Common Room.

"Blimey. That was quite the break-up."

Probably as entertaining as James imagines his own break-up to Coco Burwell must have been to anyone who wasn't him.

"Wasn't it, though?" Lily says.

And then she frowns.

"Do you think they've started fighting over the Common Room yet?

"Peril of dating someone from your own House, you know?"

When you break up, it's much harder to retreat to your own corners.

(Lily doesn't know, technically. She's gone out with a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw, to date. But she's seen it often enough.)

"I wouldn't be surprised if Cliona got to see at least some of the show," James says, nodding.

To think that Sirius and Perdita would just leave it at that after getting scolded by Madam Pince seems terribly unlikely.

"And we'll certainly be seeing the residual effects of it for the next few days, I reckon. Which — yeah, is the peril of dating someone from your own House." James frowns. "Actually, it brings back some pretty horrible memories of the beginning of Fifth Year.

"Coco Burwell. D'you remember?"

"D'you mean the week she burst into tears every time you walked into the Common Room?

"Or a classroom?

"Or the Great Hall?"

Lily shakes her head.

"No. Don't remember a thing about it," she says.

Previous evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, of course.

James nods, looking a little helpless.

"It was a bit of a nightmare," he says. "She was so — angry with me, and then she got like that.

"And then she started to pretend like I didn't even exist."

He looks thoughtful. "I reckon she's still at that stage now, actually."

He hadn't really felt bad about it until recently. And she really was his only actual girlfriend.

(Snogging random girls every once in a while hardly counts as a relationship, does it?)

(It doesn't count at all, really.)

"Don't look quite so tragic, James.

"Coco Burwell is far from still hung up on you or anything like that.

"It's not really that she's pretending you don't exist. It's just that you're not all that relevent to her day-to-day life any more.

"I mean, you did break up more than a year ago."

"Yeah."

James shrugs, his expression turning back to its usual, easy good-naturedness.

"Well, anyway — it'll be different with Sirius and Perdita. Coco and I hardly had to see each other, but Sirius is my best mate, and Perdita is one of yours, yeah?"

"Yeah, but the only person they really have in common is Cliona, sort of, yeah?

"And it's not like the whole group of us spend time together, is it?

"It'll be fine. I can't imagine either of them is exactly heartbroken. They'll ignore each other, we'll all get on with our lives."

"No, definitely not heartbroken," James agrees. "In fact, once they get over the fighting bit, they'll realize how relieved they actually are."

There won't be anymore need to pretend for anyone's sake.

"Right.

"So all we really have to do is weather the week of wounded pride."

On both sides.

Lily starts to grin.

"I can't believe he let her call him 'Sirikins' as long as he did."

"Me either," James says, snorting.

And after giving him grief over 'Jamesy'.

Yeah, he's going to have fun with that one in the coming days.

"There's a lot that bloke will do to save face."

"A condition hardly limited to Black," Lily says, tone a little dry.

"So can I ask you something? On the subject of nicknames?

"Why do your friends call you 'Prongs'?"

It's not any nickname for 'James' that she's ever heard.

James doesn't answer at first.

Honestly, he's a little taken aback by the question.

Strange, too. Because no one's ever really thought to ask the Marauders why they call each other Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, and he never realized that until now.

"— it's nothing, really," he says, waving a hand.

He can't tell her the real truth. That would get into the how's and the why's and it's not his secret to tell.

"It's mostly to do with our Patronuses, you know? Mine's a stag."

Lily frowns a little.

"Yeah, but we only learned those this year.

"You've been using those nicknames longer than that."

"You've been paying attention to the names my mates and I used since then?" James asks, an eyebrow raised.

His tone is easy and light, better not to betray the fact that he's starting to get a bit uncomfortable.

"Even when you thought I was completely unbearable and a toerag?"

From the other table, Amity Root looks as though she's about to come over and hex them.

"Excuse me," she hisses, "but would you two stop flirting in the library? Haven't we had enough of that nonsense earlier today?"

Lily manages to simultaneously roll her eyes and flush slightly.

"Sorry, Amity," she says.

But they're hardly talking very loudly.

So Amity may just have to deal.

Lily turns back to James.

"Well, I don't know when you started, but you were definitely using them last year.

"And it's not like you've made any secret of them, really."

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