Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Lily
There goes my baby
She knows how to rock and roll
She drives me crazy
She gives me hot and cold fever
Then leaves me in a cool, cool sweat

Lily and Sirius had always had a sort of love-hate relationship; both of them loved James and hated each other. Actually, that was a severe oversimplification (also known as a lie). Firstly, James and Sirius probably wouldn't admit they loved each other under pain of death; if Lily pushed it, they would most likely look at her as though she were mad, say that they were mates, all right, what more did she want, and roll their eyes at each other, muttering 'women' under their breath. Secondly, she didn't really hate Sirius, and she was pretty certain he didn't hate her. Of course, there had been a time when she might have used the h-word, but there was a time when she would have used the same word about James. Just as one had grown on her, the other had too (she had long ago got used to the fact that the two of them came as a package; two for the price of one, as it were).

She got on with him a lot better now that she understood him better; in particular, she owed a lot to that day when James quietly took her aside and explained about Sirius' family situation and how this was never, ever to be mentioned to Sirius under any circumstances, okay? It was much later that Sirius told her about his personal life – she'd never forget the expression on his face – it was the first time she'd seen him really nervous – and the last pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place.

She certainly understood him better now, but she still didn't fully understand him. The fact that she was the only person by this point not to have noticed that Sirius was acting oddly was hardly surprising. She had, of course had other things on her mind (a wedding for starters), but to be honest, she might not have noticed anyway.

Therefore, the conversation she had with Peter one Sunday lunchtime came completely out of the blue. The group had drifted into a pattern of always having Sunday lunch together, no matter what else was going on, for it gave a semblance of normality to lives that were growing more and more chaotic. On this particular Sunday, whilst Sirius took the other two outside to rhapsodise about his new motorbike, Peter had hung back to talk to Lily. It wasn't the first time that Peter had chosen Lily as a confidant, so she wasn't particularly surprised this time. Then he had explained his idea.

Once she had realised he wasn't joking, and had apologised to him for laughing, she had told him calmly and patiently that she really didn't think Sirius was in love with James, she herself hadn't noticed any change in his behaviour, and if there was such a change, there could be any number of reasons for it. She wasn't sure that Peter was entirely convinced, but she had done her best to persuade him that the idea was preposterous. And the idea was preposterous; in fact, it was so preposterous...

...that she was still thinking about it two days later. Lily sighed and glanced back down at the Daily Prophet article that she had spent the last half hour trying to read. To be honest, she had no idea what it was even about. She folded up the paper in resignation and propped her head in her hands, watching the clock. James should be home any minute...

As if on cue, her husband Apparated into the kitchen with a 'pop', grinning as he saw Lily sat at the table. He walked over to her, leaned over and kissed her thoroughly; he then took her hand, looked deep into her eyes, and said, 'Have I told you today how much I love you?'

'What do you want?' asked Lily sweetly. James dropped her hand and straightened up.

'Too much?' he said, sliding into the seat on the opposite side of the table.

'Definitely too much. I'm surprised you didn't turn up with flowers and chocolates.'

James shrugged. 'I would have done if I'd had time. I need a favour.'

'How did I guess? What kind of favour?'

'Well...' He took a deep breath and plunged on. 'I need you to talk to Sirius for me.'

Lily raised an eyebrow. 'You need me to do what?'

'You have to talk to Sirius. There's something up with him, he's been behaving really strangely.'

Lily bit back the automatic retort, and simply asked, 'So why do I have to talk to him? He's your best friend. You talk to him.'

James sighed. 'I've tried, he's having none of it.'

'Why not?' Her mind instantly flew to her conversation with Peter...but no, that couldn't be it. There could be any one of a million reasons why James was looking awkward, avoiding her eyes, and obviously hiding something from her, and she was sure she would think of one in a minute. Oh well, no point in beating around the bush.

'Have you been talking to Peter?' she asked bluntly. James looked shocked, confused, and slightly guilty.

'Did he say something to you?' She nodded. 'I can't believe he did that! I specifically asked him not to.'

'Well, it's a good thing he did, since you obviously weren't planning on telling me. You...don't believe it, do you?'

"Of course not! Why,' he added, 'do you?'

'No!' Lily exclaimed, indignant. And she didn't believe it, she had just...wondered. She paused, before saying hesitantly, 'Though it would explain some things. Like the best man's speech.'

'You sound like Wormtail. Can't we just chalk that one up to the champagne? And you still haven't answered me. Will you talk to Sirius or not? He might prefer to talk to you, the others are always telling you things.' Lily had to acknowledge that this was true, why else would Peter have come to her in the first place? She looked back at James, who was giving her a pleading look, and she resigned herself to the inevitable.

'All right, I'll do it. But,' she added as James leapt up to hug her, 'you owe me, ok? I'm not going to forget this.'

'Thank you, sweetheart.' said James, grinning.

'Call me sweetheart again and I'm not doing it. You can tell him to come over this evening.'

James got up and walked to the door. 'Funny thing. I already did.' He flashed her a quick grin and was gone.

*****

Sirius turned up around seven, his slightly-too-cheerful-to-be-believable grin disappearing on finding out that James was absent. He had gone to the pub twenty minutes beforehand, leaving a rather flimsy cover story and strict instructions not to let Sirius leave until she had got the truth out of him. Lily didn't really consider this a fair exchange.

'So sorry he couldn't be here to tell you himself,' Lily said breathlessly, leading the way into the living room, 'but it was really sudden, he didn't say what it was about, just that it was an emergency...I'm sure it's nothing serious though, James will probably be back in a minute, do you want a drink?' Stop babbling, she chided herself.

Sirius said 'yes' to the drink, but otherwise remained silent; he simply stared at her for a while, until she found herself flushing and turned away.

'How stupid do you think I am, Lily?' he eventually asked. 'Don't answer that,' he added quickly as she opened her mouth to reply. She opened her eyes wide in mock innocence.

'I don't know what you're talking about, Sirius.'

He gave a snort. 'Of course you don't. It's entirely a coincidence that on the same day that James oh-so-subtly tried to get me to tell him what was wrong, he invites me over for dinner – but look, he's nowhere to be found! And of course you know nothing about it, it's not as though you've been allocated the task of interrogating me until you get the truth.'

'So, you're admitting there's something wrong, are you?' said Lily hopefully. He gave her a scornful look.

'I'm saying nothing. Can I have that drink now?' She poured him a glass of wine and they both sat down, Lily pondering her next move.

'If...' she began, but stopped. Sirius looked at her, waiting. She tried again. 'If you were right, and this was all a set up...has it ever occurred to you that the reason everyone's trying to find out what's wrong is that they care about you? I think James is really quite worried, and he hasn't said anything, but I think Remus is too.'

Sirius gave her an unreadable look, then looked down again, swirling the liquid in his glass. He exhaled loudly. 'I'm not denying that you all care about me, I know that. But if something's wrong...and I'm not saying it is...it's just nobody else's business, that's all. If it was anything important, I'd tell James, you know I would. So, personally, I think this is just nosiness, pure and simple.' He grinned at her, daring her to tell him different.

'But you've never kept things from James before...'

'How do you know that? If I've kept things from him, he doesn't know about them, does he?' He drained his glass, and put it on the table next to him, attempting to balance it on the edge. Lily promptly grabbed it, fearing for her upholstery, and glared at him.

'Are you saying you have kept things from him?'

'No, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that you don't know.'

Lily paused, then said with an air of triumph, 'So you're admitting that something's wrong, and you're hiding it from James.'

Sirius groaned and threw himself full length on the sofa, burying his face in a cushion. The word he uttered was inaudible, which was probably a good thing.

'James told me not to give up until I had found out the truth, so you may as well just tell me now,' she continued calmly.

'Well, I'm not going to tell you,' he said, his voice smothered by the cushion, 'so you may as well just stop asking.'

'Sirius?' Lily asked tentatively, having made up her mind. She was sick of all this dancing around the subject, it was time for the truth. A muffled grunt came from the general direction of the sofa, which she took as encouragement to keep talking.

'Are you in love?'

Silence.

'You are, aren't you?'

Silence.

'Is it someone I know?'

The silence continued to be silent, only more so.

What harm could it do to say it? she asked herself. The worst he can do is tell you the truth. Hesitant, but determined, she took a deep breath and went for broke.

'Is…is it James?'

Slowly (and silently) Sirius' shoulders began to shake.

'Oh god,' Lily whispered to herself. She had never really believed it, and as she sat there in shock, it occurred to her that she'd never seen Sirius cry before. She felt a sudden surge of guilt, for she hadn't meant to push him so far.

'I'm sorry, Sirius, I didn't mean to upset you...'

Sirius rolled over onto his back and Lily suddenly noticed there seemed to be no trace of tears on his (rather red) face; in fact he appeared to be...laughing?

'You're not crying, are you,' she said, slightly annoyed.

'James?' gasped Sirius, now clutching his side as he struggled to breathe. 'James?!'

'All right, all right, it's not that far fetched.' said Lily, now feeling rather insulted. What's wrong with James?

'Actually, Lily, it really is.' Sirius managed to get a grip on himself and sit up straight. 'James. Honestly.'

'So are you going to tell me who it is, or do I have to hex you?'

Sirius sighed. 'There's no point, because it doesn't matter anyway. It's stupid, and wrong, and embarrassing, and they don't feel the same way, and even if they did I wouldn't do anything about it, but they don't, and it's just a stupid little thing, and I'm going to get over it, and it's stupid anyway.' He finished and raised his head, looking at Lily who had her mouth open. She closed it quickly. A thought occurred to her.

'It's not a girl is it?'

Sirius snorted. 'What do you take me for? I got over that phase when I was fourteen.' He threw himself back onto the sofa.

'Well, then I really don't see the problem. How do you know they don't feel the same way?'

'I just do. And stop asking me about it, cos I'm not going to tell you.' He looked up at her, a sudden hopeful expression on his face. 'Can I still stay for dinner?'

'Hmm? Oh, of course you can,' said Lily absently, wondering whether to accept defeat for now or keep trying. She pushed herself off the chair. 'Tell you what, I think Peter's still in Scotland, but I'll ask Remus to join us.'

'No!' Sirius exclaimed. Lily looked back at him, eyebrows raised. He flushed. 'I mean, there's no need. He said he's working tonight.'

Lily continued to stare at him, realisation slowly dawning; in fact, she wondered with forehead-smacking astonishment why the possibility had never occurred to her before.

'Oh my god…it's Remus, isn't it?'

Sirius said nothing, though he turned a rather deeper shade of red.

'Awwww.'