Lily woke up the next morning and sighed. She rubbed her eyes and just lay on her bed for a while. She remembered the few times she woke up with James lying on the covers beside her. She remembered his kiss and his embrace. How she missed them.
She got a hold of her emotions (a primary one encouraging her to slap James the next time she saw him, and a secondary one making her hope that she wouldn’t see him in the hallway or their common room) and threw back the covers.
She paused outside her door, and didn’t hear any evidence of James moving around in his room or the loo. Usually she could hear him stumble around, stubbing his toe or forgetting to actually open the door before he attempted to walk through it. She was rather amazed at how much of a morning person James Potter wasn’t.
She shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts, then went to get her ready for the day.
Josey had begged her to meet in the Gryffindor common room before heading down to breakfast, so Lily headed down the secret hallway. She didn’t understand why Josey wanted to see herr; usually she walked down with Antoine, and they liked to have as much time to themselves as they could get.
She waited until no one was passing through the Portrait Hole, having found that appearing out of the solid stone wall was rather shocking for the other students.
When she stepped into the Gryffindor common room, she froze. Hanging above the fireplace, suspended in the air, was a large banner on which was painted, “I’m sorry, Lily,” in a shimmery ink.
She felt her face flush as others noticed that she had walked into the room.
Josey ran over to her, her face split in a broad smile. “Oh, isn’t it romantic?”
Lily spared her a glare. “No, it’s actually a bit embarrassing.”
Josey clucked, lightly smacking her shoulder.
Suddenly, Josey’s grip on Lily’s arm tightened, and Lily followed her gaze. Laila Albright had just stepped down from the girl’s staircase. Her two friends ran to her, and pulled her over to look at the sign. Laila’s fist clenched beside her shortened skirt, and she turned to face Lily.
Lily glared back. Josey took up a strong stance behind her, one that was strengthened further by Antoine’s appearance over her shoulder. She spared him a grateful look, then turned back to Laila.
The sixth year approached the trio, her face schooled into an expression of control.
“Well,” was all she said.
Lily didn’t respond. Laila’s eyes narrowed briefly, and then she turned to Antoine.
Josey immediately stepped between them, and glared back at the younger girl. “You even think about touching my boyfriend, and I’ll make sure you pay for it.” Laila’s eyebrow raised, and she took a step back.
Then, she laughed derisively. “Protect and coddle your man too much, and he’ll just turn against you.”
Josey’s forward progress was stopped by a staying hand from Antoine.
“No, Albright,” said a voice from behind the brunette. Laila turned and faced the other girl, Lauryn. “That’s just your opinion based on some sad past.”
Laila glared, squawked in frustration, then stormed off with her henchwomen.
Lauryn shook her head, and stepped closer to Lily.
“Ridiculous, isn’t she?” said Josey, glaring after the girl.
“No, I think there’s more to her,” admitted Lauryn. “So I’d say it’s more sad than anything.”
“Be that as it may, she better stay away from my guy,” growled Josey.
Antoine chuckled, and wrapped his arm around her. “James is right; there really is something about having a girl jealous over you.”
Lily smiled faintly, then turned back towards the Portrait Hole, mostly to avoid seeing the kiss between Josey and Antoine. “We should get down to breakfast.”
As they walked down to the Great Hall, Lauryn and Lily walked a bit ahead of Antoine and Josey so that they didn’t have to watch their perfected pastime of walking-and-snogging.
Inside the Great Hall, the sky was a clear blue-grey of a February morning and the air was filled with the delicious smells of breakfast.
It was a typical breakfast, aside from the fact that Lily sat three people down from James, and did not catch his eye. The sign in the common room had made her smile, and she admitted that she appreciated his attempt. There was just something about the whole affair… no, situation… that she couldn’t put behind her as easily.
Easier was watching Nikeia toss grapes at Sirius and laughing at his attempts to catch them. It allowed her to avoid looking at James, whom he noticed was constantly looking up at her.
Josey must’ve noticed, because she mentioned the banner in the common room as if she had no idea who put it there. She sighed over the romantic-ness of it all, sending pointed looks to both James and Lily. Lily glared at her while James ducked his head and pushed around his breakfast.
The banner was still hanging in the Gryffindor common room that night. Lily sat with her back to it while she and the other seventh years did their homework. James was sitting with them, as far away from the fireplace as he could get. Laila walked by their table once, slowly as if hoping for attention. She was pointedly ignored.
Lily still didn’t know whether to be glad or angry at James’s very public apology. Granted, it was only before the entire Gryffindor House, so it wasn’t as public as it could have been. She shuddered to think that he could’ve hung the banner before the entire school in the Great Hall.
She was glad that he took the time to make the banner, but angry that it was so flashy and Marauder-y. She supposed he didn’t really know any other way to act.
At lunch on Friday, his Marauder-y actions continued. She had sat down”ignoring his gaze”and reached for her goblet of pumpkin juice. As soon as she touched the chilled metal, it turned into a white rose. Her hand jumped back and she exhaled loudly. Nikeia, Josey and Alice glanced over at her sound, and all gasped.
She avoided looking at James, and reached for her fork. It, too, changed to rose, this time a full red bloom.
Nikeia, sitting next to her, squealed.
She glared at her friend, then turned her gaze to her spoon, as if daring it to change. She again reached out, but instead of grabbing the metal of the spoon”or the stem of a rose”she touched parchment. She gasped, and stared at the roll of parchment. A small note appeared next to it, which she picking up after sighing.
Nikeia, Josey and Alice were still sighing over the roses. She rolled her eyes and began to read the short note.
Please, read these. I’m sorry.
She glanced at the tall, dark-haired man and saw that he was looking down at his plate. The other Marauders had faint smirks on their faces, though Remus did smile kindly at her.
She looked back down at the small missive.
If you won’t let me explain, perhaps these pages will help you understand. I never meant to hurt you. I would deserve every slap if I ever harmed you. James.
Lily bit her lip at the sincerity, and glanced at James again. He was looking at her this time, and smiled. It was the most charming, endearing smile that had ever crossed his lips, and she felt her toes curl and her heart beat just a bit faster. Her lips twitched in response, and she looked back down at the parchment and her place setting. After gently stroking the smooth parchment, she reached for a cornbread muffin.
It turned into another red rose.
She exhaled sharply again and sent James a look of frustration.
“If everything I touch turns into a flower, I won’t get to eat lunch, and I’ll be very annoyed.”
James smirked slightly, and nodded.
“And, can I have my goblet back please?”
James smirked slightly, and created a copy of his own goblet, which he then floated over to her. Grabbing the goblet from the air, she nodded at him. As she took a sip of pumpkin juice, she removed the white rose from its place above her plate, and placed it next to the parchment roll.
She pretended to ignore the happy grins of her girlfriends.
Leaving the Great Hall after eating quicker than usual, Lily tucked the roses beneath her arm and unrolled the parchment.
It was a collection of notes, written in both James’s and Remus’s hands, which explained what had happened to James.
Apparently, the confluence of mermaid, siren and veela blood in that Laila girl created a rather potent natural power. The ability to entrance men and plant memories in their minds, and to use these powers on one person alone, as opposed to affecting every man in the vicinity as a veela would, was the extent of the powers. As the presence of all three non-human bloods was incredibly rare, other powers were less well documented.
Lily walked slowly, reading and rereading the notes a few times.
A certain note at the bottom of the last page held her attention longer than any other. The witch who was born with these powers also had the ability to affect one person closest to their target. This was done in an effort to remove attachment between the target and the person closest to them, and thus make it easier to seduce the target.
It seemed that, at that moment, a fog lifted from her brain, and Lily began breathing heavily, realizing that it was not only James who had been affected. She, too, had been bewitched: she had been so unwillingly to forgive him and so stubborn to the idea that he was not hurting her intentionally.
She could see now that he had indeed been bewitched. She knew he would never hurt her intentionally. Every kiss they had shared had proven that. Even the way he had taken the fall that night during detention proved the depth of his care for her.
She sniffled, then pressed the roses and the parchment to her chest.
She heard students moving from the beginning to exit the Great Hall and move to their next class.
As she walked towards the Transfiguration class, she wrapped the parchment around the rose stems, and tied the ribbon around the thin bundle.
Looking up, she saw James walking towards her. He must have left the Great Hall right after her, and taken another route to the classroom.
As she neared him, she heard her girlfriends and the other Marauders whispering together behind her.
James stepped in her path, and she stopped walking.
They were silent for a moment, then Lily started talking, not catching his eyes.
“James… these notes… I…” she sighed, and glanced up at him quickly. He was looking at her almost without expression, but for the smile was hiding in his eyes.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have doubted you. I see that now. I was stupid, and-”
She heard his sharp exhale right before he took her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers.
She was stiff and surprised for a moment, but then she found she had no desire to ignore neither the beating of her heart nor the lively fluttering in her stomach. She gladly wrapped her arms around his neck, and could feel him smile against her lips when she kissed him back. His arms tightened around her waist, and he lifted her from her feet.
She vaguely heard Sirius sigh. “Could’ve been bigger. Should’ve been bigger, since he’s such a git, but you can’t have everything you want, right Moony?”
“Padfoot… if you had everything you wanted, the world would be a sorry place,” retorted Moony.
“And I think that was absolutely perfect,” sighed Nikeia. Josey giggled, “So romantic.”
Lily broke away from James so that she could chuckle at the playful banter.
“Oh, how I missed them,” murmured Lily against James’s shoulder. She looked up. “I missed you, too.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” stated James, before kissing her again.
It was at that moment that the bell decided to ring. Lily gasped, and pulled away from James.
“We’re going to be late for Transfiguration! McGonagall’s going to kill us!” she said, loudly. She grabbed James’s hand and started running towards their classroom. James laughed as he ran, enjoying the return of Lily into his life.
Those who weren’t in Transfiguration jumped and took off for their own classrooms, laughing as they ran.
McGonagall was not happy that five of her students were late to class. She glared at James, Lily, Nikeia, Sirius, and Remus, tapping her foot on the wooden floor.
Frank and Alice, who were already sitting in their seats, noticed James’s and Lily’s clasped hands, and began grinning. Though they hadn’t seen the reunion, they knew it had taken place.
“I can’t even imagine why the four of you should be late. This should be good. Explain yourselves!”
Sirius decided to take that honor, but before he could say anything, McGonagall cut him off.
“And don’t blame this on Peeves!”
“I’m not going to!” cried Sirius, indignantly. “I was just going to say James kissed Lily.”
McGonagall raised an eyebrow.
Lily hit her forehead with her hand.
“They finally both admitted they were stupid and forgave each other,” said Sirius with a rather innocent grin. Nikeia rolled her eyes.
McGonagall’s quirked eyebrow quirked further.
“I don’t understand how that stops you from getting to class on time.”
“Well, since they were stopped in the middle of the hallway and kissing, they couldn’t walk to class, so they were late.”
“And what about you? Why are you late, Mr. Black? Are you so attached to Potter that you can’t walk to class on your own?”
The class sniggered. Sirius narrowed his eyes at McGonagall. He started to open his mouth to say something, but Nikeia smacked his shoulder.
“We didn’t leave James and Lily because we were all interested in seeing how it would turn out,” admitted Remus.
“We knew they’d be fine but we’re all romantics really, so we wanted to be there,” continued Nikeia.
Sirius scoffed.
“Even him,” said Nikeia loudly, glaring at her boyfriend. He glared back, apparently not willing to concede (before so many people) that he had romantic tendencies.
McGonagall pursed her lips. Then she threw up her arms in exasperation and turned around.
“Ten points from Gryffindor.”
The late students grinned and took their seats.
James pulled his seat quite close to Lily, and took a hold of her writing arm. She didn’t object.
She also didn’t object to another ten points being deducted because of her and James not paying attention.
She was too busy grinning.