[On Hiatus] It Was Meant to Be (A James and Lily Story)

Chapter 15

As September came to a close, James began to feel the stress of the workload he had taken on. He was taking six NEWT-level classes: Transfiguration, Charms, Defense, Potions, Arithmancy, and Astronomy. Along with his classes, Quidditch was taking up the majority of his time. He was still working on getting his new recruits up to speed with the rest of the team. On top of all of that, his Head Duties kept him up late at night. They scheduled Prefect meeting once a week and continuously rotated the patrol schedule. Lily was a natural, but James often had a tough time keeping up.

Lily. She truly was amazing. James knew she was also taking a handful of NEWT-level classes, and no doubt she was under a lot of stress. But, she never once showed it. Lily continued to excel in whatever she did. Just the other day, when he was struggling in Potions because he had accidentally added too many doxy eggs to his Girding Potion, she had whispered a charm that would reverse the effects.

"Prongs?" someone asked, as fingers snapped in front of his face.

James blinked and looked up, pushing the thoughts of Lily out of his head. He was sitting in a deserted classroom with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They had come there to get some work done, but currently, Remus looked like the only one who had made any progress. Peter was sitting on the floor, levitating his quill, while Sirius had propped his feet up on a desk, his eyes lazily scanning the Marauder's Map.

"Daydreaming about Evans?" Sirius asked, to his right.

James flushed. "No! Of course not! I'm just having trouble with this number chart for Arithmancy. Professor Vector assigned us a particularly difficult one this week."

"Here, let me take a look at it," Remus offered.

"Argh! I'm so bored. And, I'm friends with a bunch of nerds. Moony was hopeless, to begin with, but now he's also dragged Prongs with him," Sirius whined.

"Padfoot, I'm Head Boy. I have more responsibility now," James responded.

"Yeah, but we haven't really done much together, as Marauders," Peter chimed in, slowly.

James thought about that. It was true, he had to admit, that his Head duties left little to no time to hang out with his friends. Sure, he saw Sirius at Quidditch practice, but other than that, he had barely spent time with them outside of class. They had rare moments like today, where they holed up in a classroom to finish up their work.

"You're right, Wormtail. I'm sorry I've been so busy. It's just that with all this work, I've been kind of stressed," James admitted.

Sirius sat up. "Well, lucky for you, Prongsie, I have a solution to all your worries."

Remus frowned. "I don't think we want to be a part of your solution."

"Just hear me out, Moony," Sirius said, turning to face the rest of his friends, "How long has it been since we've pulled a true Marauder prank?"

James smirked and pushed his Arithmancy homework off the desk. "I think I know what we're going to be working on for the rest of day."

Remus groaned while Peter clapped his hands together, excitedly.

--------------------------------------------

The next morning at breakfast, James was in an incredible mood. He strutted into the Great Hall with Sirius, Remus, and Peter as they chose seats at the end of the Gryffindor table. James spotted Lily sitting with Mary and Alice a few seats down. When she saw him, she smiled kindly and he shot her a grin back.

"Are you ready?" Sirius whispered under his breath.

"Just a few more moments, Padfoot," hushed Remus, eyeing the rest of Great Hall.