To: @pan-and-ready-to-stan
From: Your Secret Snowflake
I hope you enjoy your fic! This was a joy to write. I loved exploring all of the marauders dynamics. I don’t normally write all four marauders, so I hope I did this justice :)
The Marauders Four-Step Guide to Blind Dates
Step One: Set Up the Date
It’s been three years, and Sirius and Remus hadn’t gotten past the longing stares across the common room and the “strictly platonic cuddling” to confess that they had feelings for each other, and James and Peter were tired of it. They were tired of watching the other two marauders pine over each other, making everyone in Gryffindor wish they would just get a room already. So James and Peter—well, more Peter—came up with a plan. A four-step plan of which James was carrying out the first step.
He found Lily in the library with Mary, Peter’s almost-girlfriend, swung one of the chairs at their table around and sat in it, facing the wrong way with his arms draped over the back of it. “Lily, Mary, how are you doing this fine evening?”
“What do you want, Potter?” Lily asked in a no-nonsense tone, but there was a hint of a smile as she looked up from her potions textbook.
“Getting right to it. Alright then,” he said playfully. “I need your help to get Sirius and Remus together.”
“Oh, finally,” Mary piped up.
“I’m assuming you have a plan,” Lily said.
“I do,” James said, nodding. “We tell them that we’re going on a group date—You and me, Peter and Mary, and them with blind dates. Except, their “blind dates” are each other.“
She glared at him. “If this is just some trick to finally get me to agree to a date with you, you can—”
“It’s not, I promise!” He assured her quickly. “I can just tell how miserable they are. All they need is a little nudge, but if we set them up on blind dates, just on their own, it might not go well. If we’re there, we can continue to nudge if necessary.”
She looked at him skeptically.
“Besides, it’s not actually my plan. It’s Peter. I’m just responsible for this part.”
“And what is Peter responsible for?”
“Step two: Making sure they don’t get suspicious,” James said.
Lily sighed and stared at him for a long moment, as if judging his sincerity, then nodded. “Alright, I’m in. But I don’t want to lie to either of them. So we’re just going to have to get creative with the truth.”
“Fine by me. I’m a terrible liar anyway,” he said with a shrug.
Over the next half an hour, they came up with the plan’s details, which James would fill Peter in on later. Once they were done, James bounded up to the Gryffindor dorm room, where the other three marauders were studying for the charms end-of-term exam they had the next morning.
“Lads, it’s a Christmas miracle!” James exclaimed as he threw the door open.
“What are you going on about, Prongs?” Sirius asked from Remus’ bed. His head rested in Remus’ lap while he quizzed him, and James exchanged a covert look with Peter.
“Lily finally agreed to go out with me!”