A/N: For the reason for James's "Water Lily" pun, see chapter 7 and 1.
“This way!” James said excitedly, tugging gently at Lily’s sleeve. Lily couldn’t help but smile at his eagerness. He continued to quicken their pace until they both broke into a fervent run.
Lily felt a bit immature about dashing around the hallways, but she managed to forget her embarrassment as she looked into James’s happy face, which was flushed with exhilaration. She unconsciously began to giggle.
The two of them zoomed down the hallways, causing nearby tapestries to flutter and various portraits to yell at them to slow down. They continued to increase their speed, their robes billowing behind them. James suddenly came to an abrupt stop at the top of the great staircase. Lily quickly skid to a halt.
“Why are we stopping Potter?” Lily frowned. Surely he didn’t make them run so much just to observe the staircase.
James gave Lily a mischievous grin then, before Lily could stop him, placed both buttocks on the banister, and slid down at full speed, whooping his lungs out the entire way.
“You are Head Boy!!” screeched Lily, wide-eyed, not knowing whether to laugh or grimace.
“Stop making such a fuss! Here-” James shouted back, pulling out his wand as he dismounted at the base. He pointed it directly at Lily. Suddenly, as if pulled by an invisible hand, Lily found herself being pulled onto the banister.
“No, no, no, no-” Lily stammered, panicked, “wait! No!”
But waiting was an action unknown to James Potter, and before Lily could say another word, James yanked his wand towards him and Lily found herself screaming at the top of her voice as she sped down the smooth marble railing. She continued to gain momentum, then was vaulted off the banister and found herself flying through the air.
She caught a fearful glance of the hard floor before having her face plunged into a head of messy black hair. She instinctively wrapped her arms around the neck of her catcher.
“Finally warming up to me, eh Evans?” James’s muffled voice sounded in Lily’s ears.
Lily jerked her head back to find James grinning cheekily at her. She thought her burning face would singe the roots of her hair.
“Let me down, now, Potter!” she shrieked.
“Ouch-hey-ouch! Okay, okay! Going down now-ouch- I said I’m letting you down Water Lily!” James managed to say through the rain of punches Lily was raining down upon him. He gently placed her on her feet again.
“Thank you!” Lily cried in an infuriated voice, straightening her robes. “Well, it was nice playing with you Potter, but I think I’m ready to go back to my dormitory and sleep now!” she huffed, spinning around to leave.
“Wait! I haven’t shown you what I wanted to show you!” James frowned, grabbing Lily’s arm.
“You mean there’s more?” Lily asked, trying to sound angry and not to voice the hopefulness that had sprung up inside her.
“Of course! You’re with James Potter, remember?” James smiled. “Come on, this way!” Lily let herself be pulled down the entrance hall and outside into the chilly night. James tromped through the grass towards the Quidditch pitch. Lily could see his breath rising into the cold night air.
“Why are we going this way Potter? Don’t tell me that you’re dragging me out here just to play to Quidditch?”
“Nah, I have a better, more stress-relieving idea,” James answered mysteriously.
Stress relieving?
As soon as they were on the wide-open pitch, James quickly strode over to the broom closet and flung it open.
“We’re going flying!” he exclaimed, beginning to rummage through the closet. Lily’s eyes widened.
“Wait, wait, wait. Potter…I, that is to say, I…” Lily stuttered uneasily.
“You?” James repeated, still digging through the closet.
Lily could tell that her face was burning red. She clenched her fists.
“I can’t fly…” she muttered in a small voice.
“What? Sorry, I can barely hear you. What did you say?” James asked from the depths of the closet.
“I can’t fly…” Lily said once again, this time a tiny bit louder.
“What?”
“I SAID- I CANNOT FLY!” Lily finally erupted.
James immediately stuck his head out of the broom closet. There was a dumbfounded expression on his face.
“You can’t fly? And you always scolded me for being obsessed in Quidditch, when you couldn’t even fly!”
“Well, I know the fundamentals and things like that! But I guess what I should say is…” Lily grimaced, “I’m really, really AWFUL at flying.”
They stared at each other for a moment before James burst out in laughter. He fell on all fours and started pounding the ground with his fist, clutching at the stitch in his side.
Lily’s face burned like it was on fire. She was beginning to have second thoughts about agreeing to this whole thing.
“It’s not funny Potter!” she yelled angrily, turning around sharply to leave. James, still on the ground, quickly flung himself forward and grabbed the hem of Lily’s robes.
“No! Don’t leave, don’t-” but James had burst into laughter once more.
“ARGH! Potter, stop laughing at me!” Lily snapped, trying to kick James off.
“Wait! I’m sorry, I-” James tried to stifle his laughter, but ended up completely exploding with laughter instead.
Lily’s temper began to reach its height. Now she was definitely sure that she had made a terrible mistake by following James.
She pulled heatedly at her robes in an attempt to tear them out of James’s clenches, but to no avail. She continued to struggle fiercely with him, thinking furiously that Quidditch was an evil sport created to make James stronger than her.
After five minutes that were filled with many more failed attempts and James‘s annoying continuation of trying to calm himself then bursting out in laughter again, Lily finally gave up and plopped down onto the grass, gasping for breath. Lily ended up sitting on the grass, James still hanging onto her robes like some strange accessory, and waiting impatiently for James to finally shut up, which he succeeded in doing a few minutes later.
“Ha ha ha…wow, sorry Water Lily. It’s just that, I don’t know, you looked incredibly cute that moment,” James flung himself spread-eagle onto the grass. He heaved a deep, happy sigh and stared into the heavenly expanse above.
“Cu-cute?” Lily stammered.
“Yeah.” James cocked his head and grinned handsomely at Lily, a little something he had perfected with the help of Sirius.
Lily opened her mouth to start screaming about how she wasn’t cute and that she never would be cute, but then realized what she would be saying. Lost for words, she silently shut her mouth instead.
“So, about flying,“ James snorted with laughter once again, much to Lily’s annoyance,” you don’t have to worry because someone’s apparently nicked all but one of the brooms.”
“Somebody’s stolen them? Wait, why on earth would someone steal all those brooms?” Lily asked in a worried voice.
“No idea,” James said in a tone completely free of any care at all. Lily scowled.
“Well at least try to sound a little concerned about it, Mr. Head Boy.”
“Why should I? It’s obvious who stole them.” A large bush a couple feet away gave a violent shudder, but neither James or Lily noticed.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? But you just said- you know what, just forget it Potter. You’re hopeless.” Lily flung herself onto the grass alongside James. The stars shone brightly through the pearly clouds and twinkled down merrily at the two teens lying head to head on the field.
“You know, we could just ride on one broom,” James spoke up suddenly. “Well, it would be a lot better since you’re not that good, and I’m sure I could handle one more person on board…” James trailed off uneasily.
“Me? On one broom with you Potter?” Lily scoffed. She turned her head and saw the hurt expression on his face. Since when had she felt so bad about hurting James’s feelings?
“Sure,” she said before she could stop herself. James’s eyebrows flew up, disappearing behind his messy bangs.
“Really? You mean it Evans?”
“I do.” Lily’s mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.
“Well…okay! I’ll go and get the broom!”
15 minutes later
James hovered in front of Lily on a Silver Arrow, a very popular and sought after broom that year.
“Hmm…that’s strange. I don’t remember the school carrying a nice broom like this one,” James muttered, scratching his head.
“Potter, are you sure you know what you’re doing,” Lily asked, squinting suspiciously at the broom as if it had betrayed her somehow on a previous occasion.
“Evans, look who you’re talking to! I’m practically the best Quidditch player there is! I mean…”James’s voice faltered under Lily’s smoldering glare, “I know what I’m doing, so climb on board Water Lily!”
Lily huffed and gave him a last piercing glance before seating herself behind him.
“You’d better hold on,” James warned. “This broom is pretty fast, and I’ll be going above the clouds probably.”
“Fine,” Lily grumbled. She hesitated, and then wrapped her arms securely around James’s waist.
“Okay! Ready for take off?” Lily could feel his muscles tighten under her arms.
“Aye Captain,” Lily responded, rolling her eyes but feeling her pulse quicken nonetheless.
“Right, okay. On the count of three. One…two…three!” James took off with a strong push off the ground, making Lily scream as she suddenly felt herself being lifted up into the night sky. But her terror soon transformed into delight once she felt the cold wind whip back her flaming hair and cause her robes to flap lively behind her. Lily glanced at the ground where the goal posts on the Quidditch pitch were rapidly turning into tiny specks.
James began to whoop and punch the air with his fist. Lily laughed and followed suit. She could feel her stress falling away and shattering to pieces on the far-off ground. She was literally flying away from her troubles. Flying away with James Potter…For some reason, the thought didn’t really bother Lily. In fact, she wanted this moment to last forever.
“Faster! Higher!” she yelled happily.
“Yes ma’am!” James eagerly put on a spurt of speed that nearly un-seated Lily and plunged straight into the thick clouds above. Immediately, everything around them became a gray blur and all sounds became muted. The two sped silently together through the heart of the clouds. Lily snuggled closer to James and tightened her grip around him. She could smell his heavenly scent.
Then suddenly, they burst out from the clouds. Lily gasped with joy as the millions of glittering stars emerged in front of them, all seeming ten times closer and ten times more magnificent than they had been on the ground.
James decreased their speed and glided smoothly across the night sky. His pitch black hair seemed to blend in with the night.
“You see those stars Evans?” said James.
“Yes,” Lily replied softly. James twisted his head around to look at her.
“You’re a thousand times more beautiful.”
Lily eyes widened. She couldn’t find any words to say to this. All her words seemed to be jumbled in her throat, which had tightened painfully.
“Thank you, James,” she whispered.
Back on the ground, next to a large bush, Sirius was creating a fresh dance routine for his new Society of the Magical and Sparkly Orange Butterflies song, Alice was squealing with excitement as she spied James and Lily in the sky with her Omnioculars, and Remus was wrapping his scarf around Anne’s neck to keep her warm.
Part B. of the S.M.S.O.B.’s plan was working wonderfully well.
A/N: Reviews for the S.M.S.O.B? Did Sirius annoy you enough with it? ( ;
A/N #2: If you’re still confused on what “Part B.” was, re-read carefully and it’ll become pretty obvious! ( :