Disclaimer: Raven is mine! I created her! Everthing else however is, tragically, not mine. All belongs to J.K Rowling the imaginative creator of the Harry Potter world, which, without it, our (my) lives (life) would be terribly lacking of magic.
(A/N Hopefully this'll be up ontime for your birthday Tashskies!! This is a happy birthday chapter for you ^_^ And thank you SOOOO much for all the wonderful reviews! I know this took forever! You decide whether it was worth the wait (I think it was). Beware. This is a date, so it is going to be fluffy. I guarantee it.)
Chapter 12: The Date
“What are you so worried about?” Raven asked as Lily pulled a brush through her hair for what must have been the thousandth time that hour. She knew she was being silly, James had made it no secret that he’d liked her for a long time and a stray hair wasn’t about to change that, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to look perfect just incase another red-haired girl walked by without a stray hair and James suddenly found a new girl to pursue. However, when she told Raven as much, Raven simply responded by bursting into a fit of laughter.
“What?” Lily demanded. “It could happen!”
“Not today, no way could it happen,” Raven said, while flipping a page of her Witch Weekly magazine.
“How do you know?” Lily asked and held up two scarves. “Which one?”
“Black, definitely. Red clashes with your hair.” Lily grimaced and threw the red scarf back into her trunk. Gryffindor colours did not suit her. It was an ongoing grievance. “And I know he won’t go off after some other girl today because there are no other girls to go after! We’re the only people here, thanks to those attacks.”
“Oh. I forgot about that,” Lily admitted sheepishly. Raven shook her head with an expression on her face that said ‘what am I going to do with you?’
Lily sighed, staring at her reflection. Despite the amount of effort she’d put into her appearance, she still wasn’t satisfied. “Maybe I should try wearing some muggle make-up,” she thought aloud.
“Lily, you look great, okay? Fabulous even! Stop fretting.”
“I’m not fretting! I was... I was simply wanting to experiment. I haven’t worn muggle make-up before,” Lily knew her lame excuse wouldn’t slide past Raven, but it made herself feel better.
“And you shouldn’t start now. Remember Lily, it’s just James.”
Lily saw her reflection give a doubtful look. Last year, she thought, that would have been reassuring.
~*~
“So. Where are we going again? You’ve been devastatingly secretive on the matter,” Lily asked brightly as she walked hand in hand with James through the hogwarts grounds. Everything was so quiet and muffled, the only sound was their voices, the occasional call of a bird and the crunching of the snow beneath their feet.
“What? Don’t you like surprises?” James asked, looking down at her and smiling. Upon seeing Lily’s scowl as a response he sighed in defeat and said, “We’re going to Hogsmede.”
“You got permission for that?” Lily asked, impressed.
“Well, er, no. Not exactly.”
“Not exactly,” Lily repeated in a dubious way. She had been envisioning a picnic by the lake since James had instructed her to eat lightly during lunch. Or maybe even a trip to the kitchens. Sure, it wouldn’t have been really romantic sitting in the cold snow or being surrounded by little house elves, but it was just a first date. She hadn’t been expecting wonders or anything. And James didn’t really give off the aura of someone who was very romantic. After all, he had given her chocolate frogs for Christmas. But she was okay with this lack of romantic ways, because he made up for it in other ways. More than made up for it.
“Don’t worry, I’ve taken all the necessary precautions,” James said. Lily noticed that he looked a little anxious, although she couldn’t imagine what would make him nervous.
“I trust you,” she said with a shrug and hid a small smile as the anxious look disappeared from James’s face to be replaced with a broad grin.
I wonder if they’d believe me if I told them he’d poisoned me with a potion, Lily thought. Despite her calm exterior she was a little nervous about getting caught. Surely they wouldn’t expel her for going out of bounds for a bit. Had a Head Girl ever been expelled before? She couldn’t recall it if one had. Oh well, at least I’ll go down in history as the first and only Head Girl ever expelled. Maybe they’d accept me into Beauxbatons, France is a pretty nice place and I’m sure I’d pick up the language after a little while.
They wouldn’t expel her though, they couldn’t. She was too good of a student. At least, that’s what she hoped. James had made it a career in Hogwarts to break rules and not get caught. He hadn’t had a detention since fifth year when, she supposed, he’d mastered the art of escaping the clutches of authority. And she did trust him, really. At least, she thought she did. She convinced herself that if there was anyone she’d choose to break Hogwarts rules with, other than Raven, it would have to be James. With that thought, she felt much calmer.
“Just hold on for a second.”
Lily had been so busy convincing herself that she didn’t care, that she hadn’t been paying attention to where James was leading her. She looked up now and saw that they were standing in front of the Whomping Willow, just out of reach of it frantically swinging branches. Lily remembered how she and Raven used to play around the tree during break. They’d dodge the swinging branches and attempt to touch the trunk. Unfortunately, they’d been forced to stop playing when a year-mate almost lost his eye. It been especially disappointing for Lily, because it had been the one thing she could beat Raven at athletically. In the end she’d decided a bruised ego was better than a lost limb.
She focused her attention back onto James who had disappeared in the forest for a minute and now came back out carrying a long stick in one hand and shoving what looked like a bit of old parchment into his pocket with the other.
Lily raised her eyebrows questioningly at him. “I know you’re old, but really, a walking stick?” James was about two months older than Lily who had a late birthday in August.
“Ha ha,” James said sarcastically. “This is a vital item.” He reached out with the stick and poked a knot in the Whomping Willow’s trunk. Immediately, the angry tree’s attempts to hit them with its branches stopped. It seemed to be frozen in place. This was confirmed when James threw aside the stick and grabbed Lily’s hand, leading her towards the trunk. She expected the tree to come back to life and kept herself alert for any oncoming attack. Except it never came. James helped her into a small opening she’d never seen before at the tree’s base that was the entrance to a dark tunnel. Only when James was safely in behind her did she hear the tree go back into motion.
“Where are we?” she asked in amazement. She pressed a hand against one of the tunnel’s walls and felt cold earth meet her fingers.
James lit his wand before replying. “A secret passage.”
“To what?” Lily asked curiously. She stepped aside so James could lead the way. The tunnel was narrow enough that they had to walk in single file. He still held her hand though, and she was glad for it because, to be honest, the tunnel was pretty creepy. She couldn’t help wondering what was guarding the exit. Was it another whomping willow?
“Sorry?” she asked, realizing that James had replied but she hadn’t heard.
“I said, the Shrieking Shack.”
Lily paused for a brief moment, before laughing. “No, really, where?” James was obviously kidding. He wouldn’t take her to the most haunted place in all of Britain. No, certainly not. She knew he wasn’t very romantic, but even he must have had the sense not to take her there of all places. What would they do for the second date? Go into the forbidden forest for a lovely picnic? Or for their third, right into Lord Voldemort’s lair? He couldn’t possibly be serious.
But with a sinking feeling, she realized he was. Even worse was the smirk on his face that told her he knew she was going to react this way and he’d been looking forward to it. She stopped walking and James, not ready for the sudden stop, kept going until he felt the tension on their arms from the distance now between them. He turned, waiting for her to say something.
“James, come on, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I don’t exactly like to battle demonic spirits.” As an after thought she added, “Do you take all your dates here?”
“There are no demonic spirits, Lily. And no, I don’t take all my dates here,” he said in a tone of such calm that Lily found herself relaxing. She quickly shook off the feeling.
“I feel so privileged,” she muttered dryly and then said a little more clearly, “What do you mean? Everyone knows the shrieking shack is haunted.”
“No they don’t, because they’ve never actually been inside.” Seeing that this would not be enough for her, he continued, “Lily, the only thing that haunts this place is a werewolf. The Shrieking Shack is where Remus goes during the full moon.”
“Oh. I wondered where he went,” was all Lily said. She had to stop herself from saying ‘are you sure?’ that would sound too weak for her taste.
“Well, now you know,” he said with a charming smile, “May we continue now?”
Lily sighed and began to follow him once more. Although she knew it was silly, she couldn’t stop herself from mentally listing all the spells she thought would be useful against ghosts. She didn’t come up with many, and even less were the ones she actually thought would work.
I hope I’m still a fast runner, she found herself thinking.
Yet despite all her unsure thoughts she continued to follow James. Right up to the trap door that would lead them into the Shrieking Shack.
“Want to go first?” James asked teasingly.
“Yes,” Lily heard herself say. Her legs, as though of their own accord, made her brush past James.
I’m insane, Lily thought. Insanity must run in my family and no one ever told me. I’m insane and I’m about to die. At least it should be an interesting adventure. I didn’t really want to take those N.E.W.T examinations anyway.
Another part of her was thinking that she was completely proving her trust in James and that, should there be demonic spirits in there, if she survived no one would blame her for hexing him out of existence.
But when she pushed the trapdoor open and hoisted herself up out of the tunnel, no shrieks met her ears and nothing was thrown at her. She stepped out of the way so James could climb up and looked around. The place was not something to be desired. Most of the furniture was broken or ripped with the stuffing poking out in large portions. The wall paper had long scratches on it and was peeling away. As Lily walked, wooden floor boards creaked under her feet and her footprints left clean spaces in the dust. She turned around to see James leaning casually against one of the walls with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What’s on your mind?” he wanted to know.
“You were right. No demonic spirits,” Lily said smiling.
He nodded. “And?”
“It’s nice. And it’s private. Raven and Sirius can’t tease us here.”
“I agree.” He grinned. “I told them you wouldn’t freak out.”
“I almost did, back there, in the tunnel. What do you mean ‘them’? Did Remus and Sirius know?” Lily asked curiously as she straightened a crooked picture. It’s glass was cracked and dusty. She gently wiped at it with the sleeve of her robe and was rewarded with a beautiful painting of a sunset.
“They helped me set it up. Come on, I’ll show you,” he grabbed her hand gently and pulled her through the house until they entered a dining room. Lily felt her insides go warm, despite the lack of heat in the place. In front of her was a table set up for two with candle sticks in between. The plates were empty, but there were a few dishes that were covered in between the two seats. This room was much cleaner than the other parts of the house she’d seen and it had a fire place with wood in it, ready to be lit.
“I didn’t know you were romantic,” she said to James teasingly.
“I astound myself sometimes,” he replied in mock earnest. “Do you like it?”
Lily nodded. “It’s much better then waiting until mid January to go to the three broomsticks.”
“Besides it’s usually so packed...”
“We probably wouldn’t have been able to get a seat,” Lily finished for him.
“Take a seat, I’ll light the fire,” James told her.
She sat in one of the chairs, taking a note of how both were (miraculously) untouched by the shack’s monthly visitor.
“Did you guys really come here and clean up the place?” Lily asked as James lit the fireplace with his wand.
“Yep,” he said and sat across from her.
“What did you use to bribe them?” Lily asked as James reached across the table and tapped each candle sticks, which in turn lit up, giving off a friendly glow.
James grinned. “Can’t tell you that, but I do know some things about the two of them that would completely ruin their reputation.”
“They don’t have any information on you to defend themselves with?”
“Of course not!” James exclaimed, pretending to look shocked. “I’m perfect in every way!”
Laughing, Lily shook her head at him. She liked how he was still arrogant, but not in an insufferable way. He was more sarcastic when he complimented himself and she knew he was joking. Had he always been like that and she just hadn’t picked up on it? Or was this a new thing? She couldn’t tell, in the past she had pretty much avoided James like the plague unless he was bullying someone, like Severus Snape for example.
“Okay, for beverages we have butterbeer,” James plunked down a bottle in front of Lily and then in front of himself. Lily looked to the side and saw a bag she hadn’t noticed was there before. “And, I know you’ll be ecstatic over these, for the main course we have... sandwiches!!!!” James pulled off one of the dish covers with a flourish to reveal a tall pile of delicious looking sandwiches.
Lily smiled. “That’s wonderful. I’m glad you didn’t make the house elves do too much.”
“I know, I’m a kind soul. But I’m starved.” He grabbed a couple of sandwiches and piled them on his plate. Popping open his butterbeer he gave Lily a curious look, “You’ve been to the kitchens before?”
“Yes. It was the usual thing. Sirius told Raven she’d never be able to find them, so of course she had to prove him wrong and drag Stephanie and I along with her,” Lily said with a shrug and took a bite out of her sandwich.
“How long did it take you?” James asked, genuinely interested.
“Way too long. I think it was about a month. We enlisted the help of Nearly Headless Nick saying it was of utmost importance to our Gryffindor pride.”
“‘We’ meaning you, because you were tired of Raven’s fruitless search,” James pointed out.
Lily grinned, that was exactly what she had done and then, to protect Raven’s pride, she’d simply hinted at the way, making it so Raven believed she had discovered the kitchens all by herself.
“I don’t get how you can do that.”
“Do what?” Lily asked, not understanding what he meant.
“You know, like with Raven. You didn’t tell her you knew where it was, you just helped her find it so she could tell off Sirius. If it were me I would have... well, I’ll be honest, I’d have found it myself and then gloated.”
“I guess I knew it mattered more to Raven than it did to me,” Lily said with a shrug. “Plus, I’m a girl, you guys are just too uptight about those things.”
“I suppose. Oh well, at least we don’t take five hours to get dressed and do our hair or whatever,” James countered.
Lily laughed, thinking of how much time she’d spent that morning getting ready. It all seemed like a huge waste of time now, but she knew it wouldn’t be the last time she spent hours on her appearance. “Well, excuse us for wanting to look good,” she said good-naturedly and James grinned.
A brief silence fell and they took the time to eat their food. Lily was debating whether this was an awkward silence or a comfortable one and decided it was somewhere in the middle, if that was possible. She started thinking of possible topics to discuss but couldn’t decide on a good one. All of them either seemed too lame (schoolwork) or just not interesting (ministry of magic financial updates). Thankfully, James started a conversation for her.
“When did you first realize you were a witch? I mean, your first accidental magic that told you were different.”
Lily sighed. “There were a lot of them. The one I remember most clearly was when a boy, I don’t even remember his name, made fun of my drawing in my second year of muggle school and suddenly, one of the crayons I was using, flew up his nose.” She grinned sheepishly as James laughed. “What was yours?” she asked.
“When I was nine my family was having the party that they have every year, you know, one with the whole family.” Lily nodded to show that she did know, and had experienced those herself. “My cousin had just gotten back from her completing her third year and was extremely enthusiastic about her muggle studies course.” James paused and looked up at Lily with a crooked grin. “Don’t laugh too much at me okay?”
“I’ll try not to.”
Sensing that was the best he was going to get, James plunged on. “Her teacher had done a section on muggle make-up and she wanted to try it out.” Lily bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing. She couldn’t help picturing a fully made up James in high heels and a dress. It was hilarious. “She, er, came after me with lipstick and this eye stuff...”
“Eyeshadow,” Lily suggested, her voice wobbly with hidden laughter.
“Yeah, probably. I tried to run away but I was only nine and pretty damn short so she caught me. I remember as she was shoving the lipstick at my face all the other stuff she had on a near-by table came flying at her. And well, it took her the whole day to rub all the junk off.”
Lily laughed, “I bet she never went near make-up again.”
“She said it wasn’t to her taste anymore,” James snickered.
They fell into silence once more. This time, it was Lily who broke it. “Have you ever done accidental magic during the summers in between Hogwarts years?”
James shook his head. “Nope, my parents are strict about the no-magic rule. Have you?”
Lily fiddled with her plate. She looked down and said, “Yes,” with a sheepish smile. She expected to hear some outburst of ‘No! You, of all people?’ or at the very least, when she looked up, to have seen him gaping at her. He wasn’t though. James was simply smiling at her, looking interested.
“My mum told me a girl in my year with the last name Evans had received an official warning. I have to say, I didn’t believe her.”
Lily’s jaw dropped. “You knew?” She couldn’t believe it. If he’d known why did he ask her? Actually, come to think of it, why hadn’t he mentioned it before hand? He could have teased her to no end with that information. Raven didn’t even know about it, and Lily never planned on telling her.
James shrugged. “I was thankful someone else was on the receiving end of your wrath instead of me for a change.”
“You called me carrots,” Lily smiled, expressing herself in a ‘can-you-blame-me?’ way.
“Trust me, I’ll never make that mistake again,” James said in a tone of such sincerity that Lily laughed. “So what did happen?” He asked, with one eyebrow raised curiously.
“It was just an argument between my sister and I,” Lily explained vaguely. She was, in truth, ashamed that she had lost her temper so thoroughly with Petunia. It hadn’t helped their relationship at all and Lily had been grounded for a week. Petunia hadn’t spoken to her for the rest of the summer and refused to accompany her to Kings Cross Station. That was two years before their agreement to be civil towards one another.
It wasn’t the only warning Lily had received from the Ministry of magic, either. Being a redhead, Lily had a severe temper and although it took a lot for her to lose it, Petunia seemed to continually irk her into losing it. If the agreement between them had never been made, Lily was willing to bet she’d be expelled from Hogwarts by now.
“Sometimes I think I miss out, being an only child, but you don’t seem to get along with your sister,” James said softly, and Lily had a vague impression that he was trying to comfort her. For the first time she noticed the light had decreased a lot around them. Between the cracks in the boarded up windows shone an orange light that told her the sun was setting.
“I think she’s afraid of me, because she doesn’t understand me. She doesn’t understand magic.” Lily blinked, realizing she’d just told James more about her relationship with her sister than she’d ever intended to. She decided a change of subject was in order and quickly asked James a question about Quidditch she didn’t particularly care about, but knew would successfully distract him.
She listened attentively as he spoke passionately about what he had planned for training that season. “And, that reminds me, could I borrow that muggle thing you got for Christmas?”
Lily frowned, trying to think of what he meant. “The bookmark?” she asked stupidly.
“No, the bouncing thing. The... ball?”
“Oh, right!” Lily exclaimed, think it was obvious now. “Of course.”
“Great, because that game you and Raven came up with? It’s the perfect way to train Kelly, our seeker,” he grinned at her slyly. “You know, you’d probably be a pretty good Quidditch player.”
Lily laughed in spite of herself. “No I wouldn’t, but thanks. It was nice of you to say.”
James shrugged, still smiling. “Should we head back to the castle now? It’s getting pretty dark and they’ll miss us if we’re not at dinner, since there are so few people.”
Lily nodded and began to stand up. “Should we pack up the dishes?”
“Nah.” James shook his head. “I’ll come back and get them after the full moon next week.” He waved his wand and they were plunged into an extremely dim light as the candles (which where a lot shorter than they had been before) and the fire went out. They headed out of the diningroom, but Lily paused in the doorway. James didn’t notice and kept walking.
It wasn’t fair that he put so much effort into setting up what had turned out to be, she was fairly certain, the best first date she’d ever had, and would have to clean up everything. She knew she couldn’t take back the dishes without anyone at the castle noticing, so she quickly waved her wand and muttered, “Scourgify.” Instantly the sandwiches they hadn’t eaten disappeared, crumbs vanished, and plates piled on top of each other. There, she thought, satisfied. That would make things easier for him.
“Lily?” she heard James call.
“Coming!” she hurried through the house. Catching up to James, she slid her hand into his and pecked him on cheek. Together, they walked back through the tunnel to Hogwarts, both not talk very much. Simply enjoying one another’s company.
(A/N Whew! You're done! Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I love your feedback ^_^)