"Wow Padfoot, that was a close one..." James' voice dropped about an octave very quickly. Sitting next to him was Lily Evans. He wasn't sure if this was Lily Evans: Friend, or Lily Evans: Prefect.
"Hello James," she said, looking straight at him. She hadn't really expected him to waltz through the portrait hole. However, he was always out after hours so it wasn't a surprise. It was a very good thing he wasn't a prefect, he would've completely disgraced the name.
"Oh, Lily! Um...hello! How are you today?" Why is she here? Did she know it was me? James tried to sit up, but immediately fell back in his seat with a groan. He clutched his side in pain.
"James, what's wrong?" asked Lily, now mildly concerned. What stupid affliction did he sustain now?
"Oh it's nothing. Just a little um...well, it's more of a..." he stuttered. "I'm fine," he huffed, pulling a hand through his unruly hair. He blew it out of his eyes and revealed a bloody cut on his temple.
"James, you're obviously hurt."
"Evans, for the last time, I'm fine-" he made a move to get up, but Lily pushed him back with her hand.
"Shut up," she ordered. James sputtered. "Listen to reason for once. You've sustained injuries in the middle of the night that you cannot cure on your own. How would you explain this to Madam Pomfrey? Did you fall out of bed because of a particularly nasty nightmare?" Lily gave him a superior look. "That's what I thought. Aparecium Aqua!" she whispered. A bowl of water appeared out of thin air and Lily maneuvered it with her wand to float in the air near her hand. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dipped it into the water. With one hand, she brushed James' hair away from his temple. With the other, she dabbed at the cut.
"Ev-Lily, aren't you going to ask me how I got this?" James asked skeptically. He raised an eyebrow, but found it put him in a lot of pain, so he brought it back down.
"No, because then I'd be obliged to report whatever wrongdoing you were...doing...to Professor McGonagall. Besides, I don't really want to know," she calmly explained while she healed the cut with her wand. She sat back, examining her work. Then, when she was satisfied, she smiled and looked him in the eye. "I know you're hurt somewhere else."
"Nope, I'm not," he said a little too quickly. He faked a charming smile, gritting his teeth all the while.
"You may be the cleverest of our class, but you most certainly are not the best liar." James sighed in defeat at her words and began unbuttoning his shirt. Lily's eyes doubled in size. "What are you doing?" she asked in alarm. He's not part of a strip club, he's not part of a strip club, she told herself.
"What does it look like? I'm unbuttoning my shirt." He grinned evilly and brought his twinkling eyes to her alarmed ones. "Did I unnerve you?"
"No," Lily scoffed. "It's not like I haven't seen you this way before. Remember in second year you took a certain swim in the lake?" Lily smiled. "Starkers, I believe."
James' jaw fell. "How did you know about that? Well, I mean, that was a dare..."
"You bragged about it for two years after the fact. How could I have not? Now, where is this other injury?" James finished unbuttoning his shirt, and Lily didn't need him to confirm where it was. A long red gash stretched across his abs, looking like it was extremely irritated. Lily took note that said abs were nicely developed (most likely from all that damn Quidditch he played). She took a deep breath, then wiped off the area with her handkerchief. She picked up her wand and quickly healed the cut with a handy little charm Professor Flitwick had taught her. When it was finally healed, Lily smiled.
"There we go, good as new. You'll definitely be able to play Quidditch." She stood up and began to clean things up by waving her wand at them. Wave at the bowl-POOF!-bowl gone. Simple cleaning charm on the handkerchief, no stains at all. When she stood up straight, she felt hands on her shoulders turning her around.
"Thanks Evans," said James in the sincerest tone Lily had ever heard him use.
"It's no problem. I just don't want to know what happened." What came as an answer was a huge shock. James kissed her full on the mouth. He pulled her closer and closer; so close that Lily could hear his heart beating wildly. Or was that hers? It came as such a shock, Lily didn't think of what she did next. She returned his kiss. James had never kissed her like this. As a matter of fact, he had never kissed her period. Lily threw her arms around James’ neck and forgot everything.
About what seemed like an eternity later, James finally broke the kiss and looked at Lily's deep-green eyes, swimming with emotions. Shock seemed to be the most occupying. Lily's movements seemed much slower than normal to herself. She brought her fingertips to her mouth so slowly it was as if there were five dragons hanging on her arm. She brushed her fingertips on her bottom lip and was obviously still in shock. She made open and closing movements as if to speak, but nothing exited. She was breathless. James took Lily by the shoulders and set her down on the couch, in fear that she would collapse.
I must look like a gaping fool! She thought to herself. "James, why did you do that?" Lily finally asked, putting on a composed front.
"I have to have a reason?" he asked, thoroughly confused.
"Er...is that a rhetorical question?" Lily asked timidly, half-smiling. This broke the tension by James laughing. It wasn't a forced laugh, so things were beginning to get back to normal, though they both knew they never would be.
"That's the first time I ever used that as a 'thank you'," James remarked with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Um, congratulations?" There was a moment of awkward silence.
"I have to go to bed," said Lily. She made to walk to her dormitory when she turned around again. "Why do your friends call you Prongs?"
"Oh, um, they...er, find it amusing..." answered James, quite bewildered by this question.
"Oh, I was just wondering..." Before she turned back around, though, Lily leaned forward and gave James the lightest of kisses on his lips. She quickly broke away, though James nearly pulled her back by the hair. She gave him a quirky smile. "That's the first time I've ever used that as a 'your welcome'. Good night, James." And she finally went up the stairs to her dormitory.
James sat on the common room sofa for some time before two people burst through the portrait hole. He didn't even notice that it was Sirius and Peter, let alone that anyone else was even in the common room.
"James! Moony almost got away because you weren't doing your part!" Sirius scolded, sounding like a mother hen.
"Yeah Prongs, you gave us a real scare," put in Peter.
"What the hell distracted you anyway?" asked Sirius. He looked at James curiously.
"A Lily." With that, he got up and walked to their dormitory. Shaking their heads, Sirius and Peter followed, Peter muttering all the while, "I still don't get it."
Two weeks later, Lily was sitting at her normal table in the common room doing her homework half-heartedly. She was, in a way, still moved about the kiss James had given her. Shaking the absolutely delightful memory out of her head, she bent down to return to her homework. Less than a minute later, though, she abandoned her Charms essay to glance at James sitting by the fire with his friends. She happened to look up at him at the exact moment that two seventh year girls, Holly Lightwood and Beth Patil were strutting towards the Marauders. Their reputations preceding them, it was obvious that Holly had her eye on James and Beth had hers on Sirius. The two girls were easily considered the best looking by most of the male population in the school, so it was hard to deny them their prey.
Holly and Beth stopped directly in front of James and Sirius sitting on the couch and hitched their hips. They were quiet, but it was easy to get the gist of what they were saying. The girls were asking James and Sirius to go to the ball. Lily watched with interest as the two boys looked at each other, then shake their heads simultaneously at the girls.
Then James said loudly for the entire common room to hear, "Nope, sorry, we've already got dates!" The identical looks of pure and utter shock on the girls' faces was enough to have Lily in a fit of mad giggles. Aleydis looked at her from across the table where she was reading Witch Weekly.
"What is so funny?"
"Hahaha...Lightwood and Patil were just turned down by James and Sirius!" she eagerly whispered amid her giggles.
"And why would you be happy about that?" asked Leda, with a skeptical expression on her face.
"Oh, um..." Lily hadn't told Leda about the kiss. She subdued her giggles and said, "The irony ceases to escape me…Never mind." Leda shook her head, trying to get thoughts of how insane Lily was out of her head as Lily bent back down to her essay. Out of the corner of her eye, Leda watched the two girls run up to their dormitory in humiliation. It had been common knowledge who the girls were planning to take and ahem...do afterwards. The very thought made Leda chuckle.
Lily felt a jarring motion and was about to tell Leda off for kicking the table when out of the corner of her eye she noted there was someone next to her. James had pulled out the chair next to her, and in so doing, jarred the table.
Turning back to her work, Lily said, "Hello James."
"Will you go to the ball with me?" he asked. Lily's head snapped up in shock and pain as she slammed her knee into the underside of the table.
"Go to the ball? With you?"
"Come on, Evans, I'm not that bad looking. Use a Disillusionment Charm if you like. They're your specialty." He smiled at her.
Please, Please, Please, he begged in his mind. It felt as if his heart decided to fail at that moment while Lily paused. Aleydis kicked Lily under the table.
"Oh, yes," said Lily absently.
"So you'll go with me?" James could feel his heart start beating again.
"What?"
"You just said yes, didn't you?" His heart stopped again.
"Oh, I did, didn't I?" Lily shot darts at Leda with her eyes, then turned to James. "Of course I'll go with you."
James gave a very relieved smile as his heart began to pump blood through his cold, lifeless veins one more time. "Great." At that moment, Sirius sidled up next to Aleydis.
"Say, Aleydis," he started.
"Leda. My name's Leda," she corrected, smiling.
"Do excuse me, Leda." Sirius cleared his throat and started over again. "Say, Leda, would you be ever so kind as to accompany me to this smorgasbord?"
Leda attempted to keep a very serious expression on her face. "Isn't smorgasbord a mass of food?"
Sirius gave her a reprimanding look. "Shh!! No one's supposed to know!" Then he curled his lip in a puppy dog expression, making Leda laugh.
"Yes, I'll go with you, Sirius." Sirius let out a war cry so loud, that everyone in the common room jumped. Ignoring their protests, he plucked Leda off the chair and began to dance around the room with her in a jig.
"It seems like those two are getting along famously," said James to Lily. She made a noise of agreement, but wasn't quite paying attention. James squeezed her neck a little, as much to annoy her as to make her stop writing. She turned to face him and didn't have to fake a smile.
"Yes Potter, how may I help you?" James leaned forward on the chair he was currently sitting backwards in.
"Should we go matching or surprise each other?" he asked. Lily seemed to think upon the matter very hard; for a whole thirty seconds.
"I think we should surprise each other. I think we trust each other's judgement."
"Too true." Then he lowered his voice by so much that Lily had to lean in to hear him. "Did I offend you the other night when I kissed you?" He looked a little worried.
"James you couldn't offend me if you tried. Besides, I kissed you back, didn’t I?" Lily smiled again.
James' face brightened considerably. "That’s true. Well, best be going to bed, I wouldn't want to stay up too late, eh?" He winked at her when she gave him a suspicious look. "See you tomorrow, Evans." With one last squeeze of the neck, he walked up to his dormitory. Peter sat playing a game of wizard's chess against the chessboard, with Peter badly losing, and Sirius was finishing the last jig with Leda. Sirius dropped Leda back in her chair, kissed her hand lavishly while bowing, and skipped up to the boys' dormitory.
Completely out of breath, Leda sat in her chair chuckling as Lily returned to her work. Soon after though, Lily gave a frustrated huff and slammed her book shut.
"I can't concentrate, I'm going to bed. 'Night Leda." She gathered her books in her arms and swooped up the stairs. By eleven o'clock, the common room was completely empty.
In the boys' dormitory, James lay in his four-poster bed, staring at the top, thinking of Lily. She seemed to be all he could think about these days. Not even Quidditch was keeping his mind occupied. He still remembered what it had felt like to kiss Lily, even though that had only been a few seconds. James couldn't describe for his life what that had felt like, but he knew that it was the best feeling he had ever had in his entire life. She had been so surprised, he recollected. He had been surprised. They were close friends, and he had never thought of kissing Lily, let alone in that way.
Although now that I do think about it, it's not half-bad. He smiled at the devilishly appealing thought that entered his mind. Then another slammed into him, pulling him out of slumber and causing him to sit up in bed. Am I in love with Lily? James shook his head to disperse the thought. It was quite different to think about it now that he was fully awake. Involuntarily shivering, he reached over, picked up his glasses, and put them on. Very slowly and quietly, he crawled out of bed and grabbed his Invisibility Cloak from his trunk. With his wand in hand and the Invisibility Cloak covering every inch of him, he snuck out of the room and down the stairs to the common room. Making sure no one was in the common room, he turned and crept up the girls' stairs, stopping halfway to use his wand.
"Lumos!" he whispered. A narrow beam of light shot out of the end of his wand, lighting the otherwise dark path. Much better, he thought to himself. He walked past six doors, waving his beam of light on them, reading the name plates. Finally, he came upon the "Sixth-Years" door and took note that it was slightly ajar. James tapped the door cautiously with his foot, and it easily opened without creaking.
Amazingly, all the bed hangings were open, making it quite easy for James to peek in during his search. He passed the other sixth years: Alice, Gwen, Kendall, and Leda, and finally saw the red hair he was looking for. It was quite pleasurable to be invisible and sneaking into the girls dormitory in the middle of the night. He'd done it before to play harmless pranks on the girls. He snickered; harmless. Sweeping his gaze around the room quickly, he tiptoed over to Lily's bed, then sat on the chair next to it. He sat for a few minutes simply watching her sleep, with a thought of how mad she might be if she caught him. Suddenly, he had a brilliant idea.
James jumped up and ran to the window, which was thankfully open. He skimmed his gaze over the lake, and when he found what he was looking for, carefully aimed his wand at the edge of it.
"Accio water-lily!" he muttered, concentrating hard. Seconds later, a lily from the lake flew into his outstretched hand. Carefully, he recovered himself in his cloak and laid the delicate flower on Lily's pillow next to her head. As he was bent, he figured, what the hell? And kissed her softly on the lips. Pulling away, he watched Lily sigh, and turn in her sleep, causing the white flower to become caught in her long red hair. Right then and there, James would've given anything for her to be awake.
Silently, and with very strong will, James walked back out the door, leaving it ajar, and quickly walked back to his dorm, grinning madly. Then, he was back in bed and nearly asleep.
I am a hopeless fool, he told himself.
Lily woke up the next morning to the viciously bright sun shining in her eyes. I knew I should've closed my hangings, she thought to herself, while attempting to glare at the sun. Trying to prolong the inevitable as much as possible, she slowly opened her eyes, and was puzzled by a white blur caught in her hair. She sat up, blinked a few times, and pulled the "blur" out of her hair. A freshly picked water lily. Lily held it gently in her fingertips as she searched underneath her pillow for her wand. Pulling it out, she cleared her throat and sat up straight.
"Revelare!" she murmured. If the Revealing Charm worked as it was known to, colored sparks would emit, telling you what it was given for. Black for evil, white for good, blue for sadness...She watched as red sparks emitted from the lily. Red for love. Lily's eyes widened as she realized that whoever left it on her pillow loved her. Lily snuck a quick glance over at Leda. She was in the same position she had been in when she fell asleep, so this wasn't just some prank.
Looking back at the lily, it dawned on her. Whoever the white stag was in her dreams was who loved her. Jumping out of bed, she began to pace in front of the window. She was too excited to be cold in the flimsy satin nightgown she was wearing.
Obviously, the stag was a symbol. Dreams were full of symbolism. In her dream last night, the stag had walked into her dormitory, carrying the lily in its mouth. It had laid the delicate flower on her pillow and watched over her. But I just saw a stag the other night, that would mean this is an animal or person. An Animagus! Lily's eyebrows flew up at her revelation. Whoever this person was, they were an Animagus! Mental note to self: go to library later and research Animagi.
Lily continued her pacing, but there was more vigor to it this time. Who can I tell this to without getting a huge laugh in the face from? Think Lily, think! Ah! I'll talk to James! Grabbing her robe, she quickly put it on, then ran down the stairs with the lily in hand. She couldn't have known she was taking the exact route James had taken mere hours earlier. She skidded to a halt outside the "Sixth Year" door, then realized where she was. Shrugging the many rules out of her head that she, a prefect, was breaking, she walked inside.
Quietly, Lily walked to the side of James' bed and shook him. Scowling, she poked him one more time, taking note that his chest was looking just as good as the last time, and healing well. Rolling her eyes at the inability of men to wake up, she poked him again. This time, he grunted and his arm flew up and around her waist. Lily didn't have time to be shocked, because he pulled her down, through the hangings, and onto the bed next to him. Ignoring that his hand was creeping up her back and pulling her closer to him, she took her free hand and punched him in the shoulder. She failed to notice, however, that his free hand had grabbed around the comforter.
"Ah ha!" yelled James. He threw the comforter over whoever was next to him in bed (he just knew it was Sirius, though the thought slightly disturbed him). Tackling the person, he straddled them to keep them in place.
"Sirius I've got you now! Ha ha ha ha!" Then he delved into a "try-and-escape-and-catch-again" game with "Sirius”, laughing madly to himself until he heard a much louder voice.
"James, you're talking in your sleep! SHUT UP!" yelled Sirius.
"How can you be sleeping if you're underneath my comforter?" laughed James.
"Prongs, I'm standing right behind you." James turned around to find a very pissed off Sirius. Sirius lethally narrowed his eyes and chucked a pillow at James’s face.
Glasses askew, he wondered, "Then-whose...?" He looked back at the comforter and saw some red hair and white satin escaping from under the comforter. James quickly closed the drapes of his bed, then pulled the comforter off Lily.
"What are you doing here?" he hissed, completely amazed that she had broken school rules and utterly shocked with himself for not being able to tell the very obvious difference between males and females.
Lily took a few deep breaths to unflush her very red face before she spoke. When she did, she looked very uncomfortable. "Well, it's a bit stupid, really. See, I woke up this morning and found this on my pillow." At this point, she held up the lily that luckily hadn't been damaged. She continued in a soft voice. "I had a dream about a white stag laying it on my pillow. The weird thing is, I've never seen a white stag in my life until a few days ago." Then she proceeded to tell James her entire theory, not noticing his eyes going wide with panic and his breathing becoming more rapid. As he handed back the lily to her, she shrugged and continued, "I know you're probably wondering why I'm telling you this. It's because you're the only person I knew wouldn't laugh; and I didn't think would brutally attack me." She ended the last part slowly and with narrowed eyes.
"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.
Lily bit her lip. "You won't laugh, will you?"
"No, of course not."
"Thanks James, it means a lot to me." Leaning forward, Lily gave him a kiss on the cheek, and hugged him. Extremely satisfied with how things were working out, James wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her back. After a minute, Lily pulled away. "Well, I have to get ready. See you later."
"Get ready for what?" he asked, slightly confused.
"James! It's the last day before term ends! It's a Hogsmeade day!" she nearly scolded. She climbed out of James' bed and ran back to her own dorm, hoping she wouldn't be seen.
When she arrived back in her room, she put a Lasting Charm on the lily so it would stay alive for a few more days. Humming to herself, she walked over to her wardrobe and pulled out her cloak, robes, a pair of slacks, and a white sweater. She quickly got dressed, brushed her hair, and with one last sniff of her flower, she grabbed her cloak and headed down to the Great Hall. She stopped halfway out the door, though, remembering Leda was still in bed. Lily leaned down and shook Aleydis awake.
Leda gave a big yawn and stretched lazily. “Wha--?” She opened one eye. “Lily, have some decency, it’s a Saturday!”
“Come on Leda, get up!” laughed Lily, shaking her back and forth. “We have to go shopping!”
At the magic word “shopping”, Leda’s eyes flew open. “How could I’ve forgotten?” Quickly, she got dressed and grabbed her moneybag from her trunk. The two friends exited Gryffindor Tower at a slight run, passing the four Marauders who were on their way down to the Great Hall. Leda and Lily sat down and began to spoon the nearest foods onto their plates. Just as they began to eat, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat down next to them.
“Morning, everyone!” said Remus, being back from his “trip” for a week now. The remaining Marauders then proceeded to greet everyone a good morning in several different languages, Sirius finally ending with “Swedish Chef.”
“Lily, how long are you staying in Hogsmeade? I wasn’t sure if Professor Dumbledore wanted us to come back early or not,” said Remus. Lily’s fork froze in midair. She had completely forgotten about her prefect duties.
“I’m not sure. You just reminded me now. Damn, now I’ll have to budget time.”
Seeing Lily’s predicament, Leda spoke up. “Well, if we leave now, we don’t have to worry about that.”
“Good point,” Lily responded. Without further ado, they got up and after telling the Marauders to meet them at Zonko’s in an hour, rushed off. No sooner had they left, the Marauders leaned together.
“We’ll have to do something about Snivellus soon. He’s become increasingly irritating over the past few weeks,” said James with anger in his voice. Sirius offered some very descriptive gruesome suggestions about what they could do to him, then turned to Remus who had not said a word.
“Come on, mate, it’s just a bit of fun,” Sirius said, smiling at him.
“No comment,” he answered, with a grin on his face.
Completely unaware as to what was going on, James kept talking, “…I mean, did you see the way he looked at Lily this morning? It makes me sick!”
“Why were you talking to yourself this morning, James?” asked Remus, eager to change the subject.
Distracted, James replied, “Oh, Lily had to tell me something.”
Peter’s eyes widened in childish amusement. “Do you mean you--”
“No, you dolt! Wormtail, we would’ve heard that!” exclaimed Sirius.
“She showed me a flower she’d found on her pillow this morning. She wanted to tell someone who wouldn’t laugh at her,” James explained. He seemed to become very interested in his eggs as he said, “I think I’m in love with her."
Peter began to laugh in hysterics. “That’s funny, James. Now, what do you really think she’ll be like in be--”
“Wormtail, I’m serious.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?” asked Sirius quietly.
“I don’t know. I think it was when I turned down Lightwood. I could just be hallucinating.” A few minutes later, the Marauders finished breakfast and made their way to Hogsmeade.