“Wait, James. Let’s go this way; I want to see Nikeia,” said Lily as she and James made their way toward their dorms after dinner that Thursday night.
James nodded in agreement as he fell back into step beside Lily.
Suddenly, she sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s her birthday next week. She won’t even realize it.”
James put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer.
“And thinking about Nikeia gets me thinking about Slytherins. Thinking about Slytherins gets me thinking about Stacey. That poor, stupid girl,” Lily muttered as they walked up a staircase.
“I know. It’s surprising and terrible that she had to turn away. I wish she hadn’t. She seemed like she would be a great new addition to the ranks of the Marauders.” James chuckled and Lily punched his arm gently.
Before she could pull her arm back, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to his chest. “Ha, ha, ha!” he said menacingly, and each time he spoke his lips got a bit closer to hers until, with the last “ha”, he kissed her. Lily responded quickly, leaning into his touch, her hand pinned to his chest by one of his own. She smiled when they broke apart, remembering how this time last year, she was determined to escape from the castle when Christmas came around and from “Potter”, as she had always called him. Now, here she was, leaning against this Chaser’s chest, and smiling as she kissed him.
Lily kept her hand in his as they resumed their walk. Doing another spontaneous thing, she chuckled.
“Now what?” asked James with mock exasperation.
“I was just thinking how in the world Stacey fell for Snape. And how he fell for her! Have you seen him lately? He’s completely melancholy. He almost looks like an Inferius! Well, probably a little better than an Inferius, but he’s not happy. I just can’t imagine that they loved each other so much!” She shook her head as she spoke, before her nose wrinkled and she spat: “Ack!”
It was James’s turn to chuckle and shake his head. “She must’ve seen something in him that caused her to love him. I can’t believe it either, but I guess, in some ways you could compare their situation to ours.”
Lily raised her eyebrow.
“A perfect girl-” Lily stammered at this high praise, but he spoke over her: “Or at least one who fell for the opposite of what everyone would’ve thought.”
Lily looked somewhat appeased.
“That opposite being a man who is quite the troublemaker or rather hopeless-”
“You weren’t hopeless!” interjected Lily.
“Oh shush! I am trying to making a comparison!” He acted offended and flustered. “Plus, I said ‘troublemaker’ referring to myself and ‘hopeless’ referring to Snape.”
“Oh. Whoops.” Lily chuckled sheepishly as James continued to look hurt and put his hand on his chest.
“Anyway. Somehow, for some reason, they fall in love. No one knows why! Not even the two lovers!”
“We know why!” said Lily. Her voice took on the quality of someone trying to explain something to someone who might not be able to understand. “You got down from your high horse, at least the one I always had seen you on, and I came down from my own charger and then we were able to see eye-to-eye.”
“Well,” said James, stopping and turning Lily to face him. James put his hand on top of her head and brought it towards him. It happened to stop right in front of the bridge of his nose. “Sort of.”
Lily gave an annoyed scoff and reached out to pinch his side. He nearly doubled over, as that was his most ticklish spot. Lily had discovered that sometime over the past month and a half they had been together. She turned her back on James and walked away, smiling. James retaliated by quickly closing the distance and poking her in the same place. She let out a burst of laughter and turned quickly away from his hand. Unfortunately, she started to loose her balance, and if James hadn’t reached out and pulled her once again to his chest; she would’ve fallen flat on her back. Taking the opportunity once again, James smirked, and that remained on his lips even as he kissed her.
A few minutes later, they walked hand-in-hand into the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey looked up from Nikeia’s bedside and nearly screamed in joy. She rushed over, not noticing”or perhaps she did it on purpose”that she smacked Sirius’s head with her elbow.
“Oh, thank Merlin you two are here!” she exclaimed as she stopped in front of them. She took a breath before continuing. “Potter, your friend here has really overstayed his time limit. I understand that he cares very deeply for her, but he shouldn’t be dwelling on this so fiercely. Or at least not in my presence and in the hospital. Can’t you do something to get him out of here?” she asked, flapping her hands up and down to accentuate her meaning. She led them over to the occupied bed and Sirius, who was rubbing his forehead.
“Sirius, mate, you gotta get outta here,” urged James, enunciation slipping in his annoyance at his friend. “Someone wise told me”when I was feeling sorry for myself”that you can’t dwell on things that you feel are unfair. Just sitting here worryin’ isn’t helping ‘er any.”
Sirius visibly winced from the words and turned away from his friend’s gaze. Lily had knelt down next to the bed opposite Sirius and watched as Madam Pomfrey put up a curtain in order to change the bandages around Nikeia’s abdomen. On the other side of the curtain, James fiercely rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and then looked back to Sirius.
“Mate,” he said with not small amount of ferocity and annoyance, “You have to get out of here! You can’t keep yourself holed up in this room. When was the last time you were outside? When was the last time you touched the foot of snow lyin’ on the ground? When was the last time you sat next to the fire with Moony, Wormtail and I and worked on a prank? When was that last time you got a g-” he stopped abruptly from saying “a girl in a closet” and quickly thought of something to amend his statement- “a gallon of butterbeer, eh?” James was now staring into Sirius’s closed face, having walked around Sirius’s chair to face his best friend. “You’re only going to hurt yourself by sittin’ around here doing absolutely nothing but worrying. I don’t think Nikeia’d want that.”
Sirius briefly glanced up into James’s eyes, his own full of hurt and a bit of recognition at James’s words. Sirius turned back to the curtain, which vanished at that moment to reveal Madam Pomfrey and Lily on the far side of the bed, and Nikeia lying with the blanket drawn over her to keep her warm. Sirius focused once more on Nikeia’s form. James groaned and whipped out his wand.
Lily’s cried: “James, no!”
James hesitated, looking sharply at his girl. Lily came over to Sirius’s side of the bed. She again knelt, this time before Sirius.
“Black? Sirius, please look at me.”
Sirius reluctantly turned from Nikeia and focused on the redhead.
“Sitting here day-in-day-out… is a beautiful and romantic idea, but you’re hurting yourself. Come away with us. Why don’t we go for a walk? Please? It’s nice and cold outside; we can start a snowball fight with James.”
Sirius’s lips quirked just a bit. James made an “Oh, really?” sound, which Lily ignored.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here. Madam Pomfrey will let us know of anything different, won’t you?” Lily looked over at the matron, who was gently adjusting the covers over Nikeia.
“Yes, of course.”
Lily looked back at Sirius, who had refocused on Nikeia. Lily gently placed the back of her fingers to Sirius’s face, turning it to look at her. She stroked his handsome face once, smiling at him.
“Come on…”
Sirius nodded, and stood with Lily. She looped her arm through his, and led him from the room. James pocketed his wand with a sigh, and took up position on Sirius’s other side.
They walked quietly, as Lily took the stairs down to the Great Hall. She led them to and through the large front doors, gasping at the feeling of the cold winter air.
Sirius, too, breathed in sharply, closing his eyes and standing still for a moment.
James called his name gently.
Sirius head turned slightly.
“You really like her, don’t you?”
Sirius opened his eyes now, glancing over at his friend. “There’s… something. We were able to talk and joke around with each other. I’ve never had that with another girl. It just… felt right to talk with her.” He looked back down at his feet, covering his eyes with his hand.
Lily was smiling, but Sirius couldn’t see. The reason for this was that James had tiptoed to a pile of snow, and quickly made a snowball.
“I guess I just missed her so much that I couldn’t think of anything to do but sit there with her. Stupid, huh?” He glanced over at Lily, who smiled warmly.
“No, I think it’s a great thing for a friend to do. I think the foolish thing was to forget that you had other friends who cared just as much. And, no, we’re not as funny as Nikeia, but we have our moments, Josey and I. We would’ve loved to talk.”
Sirius’s face took a pained expression. “I’m sorry. I should’ve realized that.”
“There’s still plenty of time, Sirius, of course.” She reached out a hand to him, which he took with a tired smile.
Suddenly, his eyes flew open as snow hit his shoulder, ricocheting into his ear and hair.
He spun around, cursing once. “What the devil was that for?”
James smirked. “Feel better?”
“What?!” Sirius shot, mussing up his hair to get the snow from it.
“I figured hitting you with a snowball would be payback enough for being stupid to Lily and Josey.”
Sirius threw him a half-confused, half-angry look.
“Thanks, James, but I prefer to even my own scores,” said Lily, humor in her voice.
When Sirius turned to look at her, she threw her own snowball. It hit his forehead.
He reeled backwards, then began to laugh, even through his harmless curses.
A snowball fight was started, just as Lily said. Granted, James started it and Lily continued it, but Sirius finished it by throwing two snowballs at the same time, getting both Head students. He was smiling broadly, the old Sirius clear on his windblown features.
They fell into step with one another, laughing strongly, as they took the steps back into the school.
They were just passing the Great Hall, when Lily stopped.
“What about some butterbeer?”
“Huh?” said both men, looking back at her.
“You mentioned something about getting a gallon of butterbeer. Do they have some in the kitchens?”
The boys looked at each other rather guiltily.
“Well… not exactly,” James gave, avoiding her eye.
“Then where has it come from? You always brought some to the celebrations in the Tower.” She looked back and forth between the boys as her eyes widened. “Potter? Black? Do you sneak out of the school?”
“Well… technically…” started James.
“Potter…” said Lily, warningly.
“We, um…” began Sirius.
“Black…” Lily said, just as much warning in her voice. “Does this have anything to do with that map?”
Sirius’s eyes grew wide.
“Oh, yeah… Padfoot, she knows about the map…” muttered James.
“What?” He glanced back and forth between the two people. “How?”
“I found it when we were doing detention in Filch’s office.”
“And you didn’t nick it back? Are you barking mad?”
“Evans made me put it back.”
Sirius turned on Lily. She gazed back unfazed as Sirius started to stumble over his words.
She talked over his stammering. “I said that if he left the map in the office, perhaps someone else would be able to find it and use it for their own good someday. Ilk, more likely. It could aid a future troublemaker.”
Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but froze. He stepped back. “That’s… really brilliant.”
Lily smiled and dropped into a curtsey. “I do have my moments.”
“Unfortunately, they’re quite frequent,” muttered James.
Lily ignored him, and continued, “Just like I think butterbeer is a brilliant idea.”
“You still want butterbeer even though it means leaving the school?” asked James.
“Well, technically,” repeated Sirius, picking up where James left off. “The shortcut is inside the school, and never comes above ground, so we could say it is still inside Hogwarts.”
“Except that it ends up inside Honeydukes,” rebutted James, looking at Sirius.
“There’s a passage to Honeydukes? How?”
“We don’t know where it came from,” admitted Sirius. “But it’s there. Right into the cellar.”
Lily nodded slowly. “Well…” she said, drawing out the word.
Both young men looked at her.
“Let’s get some butterbeer and take it back to the common room. We’ll sit by the fire and relax.”
They continued to look at her, amazed that she was suggesting such a scheme. Drinking butterbeer that didn’t belong in Hogwarts wasn’t the baffling part; it was her willingness to leave the school and get some.
Sirius reiterated all this, astounded.
She was unfazed.
“Well, then let Sirius and I go alone,” suggested James. “I don’t want you getting in trouble.”
Lily scoffed. “Potter, my dear. If I’m still here in school, I’d be under obligation to alert a professor to your leaving. You’ve no choice but to bring me with you.” She was smirking.
James’s eyes narrowed. Then he crooked a finger at her, saying, “Come here to me.”
She slowly stepped forward, her lips still quirked.
When she was near enough to him, he leaned forward and kissed her. “You’re amazing.”
Sirius rolled his eyes, though his exhale denoted his amusement. “Instead of standing around here, let’s go.”
James took Lily’s hand and led her off. He was smiling contentedly”though Sirius would say it was a sappy smile that was plastered on his face. He sighed, but followed the couple.
Inside James and Lily’s dormitory, the Marauders, Frank, Alice, the Head Girl and Josey sat in front of and around the fire, each sipping on a bottle of butterbeer.
No one really asked where it came from; they never had in the past, and weren’t going to start now.
The three students had made their way to the old witch. Lily was allowed to say the password, and thus was first to slide down to the underground tunnel. At the trapdoor, James and Sirius urged Lily to remain in the tunnel. They would sneak into the Three Broomsticks and grab the butterbeer. Lily attempted to protest, but James brought up the argument about her not leaving Hogwarts again, and she subsided. She did force them to leave a few galleons on the bar, though. Sirius tried to make an argument against this”Madam Rosmerta wouldn’t understand what the money was for as she probably wouldn’t notice even the missing drinks”but Lily overruled him on pain of detention. He walked up the stairs with the money muttering, “Low blow, Evans. Low blow.”
Nevertheless, Lily enjoyed her not-quite-technically illegal jaunt through the secret passageway.
And now, everyone was together again in the Head’s common room next to the fireplace. Unfortunately, Sirius seemed to have relapsed into a melancholy state. He drained the last of the drink, and sat still for a moment, looking into the fire. Suddenly, he moved and buried his face in one of the pillows off the armchair. He let out a strangled sort of groan before rising from his seat to go and kick the wall. This only caused his foot to start hurting, and Sirius started jumping around the room.
“Sirius!” laughed Josey, “You look ridiculous. Stop!”
He stopped jumping very abruptly and lost his balance. He consequently fell right onto the couch, sprawling across Josey, Lily and James, with his head in Josey’s lap and his stocking feet in James’s face. Everyone laughed, including Sirius.
“Why was I so incredibly stupid?” asked Sirius again, reclining atop three of his friends. “I knew that if I’d let what had happened to me happen, I would’ve ended up just like Lily!” Lily glared down at Sirius and jabbed his side. As he continued to talk, he rubbed his ribs with one hand while the other covered his face. “I knew that I would just lose it, but I let that happen to me anyway! I was so-”
“Sirius!” said Lily, pulling his arm from across his forehead so she could look into his eyes. “You weren’t being stupid! You were being human! You were in pain and sadness, so the only thing you knew to do at a time like that was to hang your head and cry.”
“All that coming from the girl off whom Sirius copied...” muttered James, earning himself a smack from Remus.
“That just means that I can understand what he is going through better than you can, Potter!” explained Lily angrily. James relented.
“But still, Lils-” started Sirius.
“Black!” Lily’s eyes were the emerald fires that James had grown accustomed to seeing when she refused to go out with him. Everyone seemed to back up a few inches. “We’ve been over this. Just shut up and stop feeling sorry for yourself! Nikeia’s not dead and I don’t think she will be. She’s strong, and Madam Pomfrey is a great nurse. If you were in Nikeia’s position right now, I know that you wouldn’t want her to be crying over you! You would want her to take your place making up pranks, for Merlin’s sake!”
Sirius chuckled sheepishly and nodded.
“Great. Now get off of me before you make me give you something you really aren’t going to like!”
Sirius put his arms behind his head and looked at her with an expression as if saying, ‘And what would that be?’
A face-full of carpet and the makings of a bruise was the answer.
“You know, Evans, you really can be quite the evil little red-head!”
.