“Lily?”
“Hmm?” Lily turned, breaking her gaze from the window, to see Remus standing next to her.
“Oh hi,” she said “I was just…” her voice trailed away.
“Watching James?”
Lily turned back to the window. Sure enough, there was James, and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, racing around the pitch in the last of the summer light. She could see his untidy black hair standing out against his red robes as he swerved from a Bludger and shouted something to one of the beaters. She looked back at Remus. He had pulled up another armchair and settled himself on her left.
“He really likes you, you know,” he said quietly. Lily didn’t say anything. “After you left Divination yesterday he had a real go at Sirius. They haven’t spoken since.” There was another pause. “He said “ “ Remus’s voice was almost a whisper now, “ “ he said you weren’t just a girl.”
Lily swallowed. She couldn’t understand why she cared what James thought.
“Why……why would he say that…why would he say that and then act like a complete pig whenever he sees me?”
“I don’t know,” said Remus “But he meant what he said yesterday.” He sighed. “Come on Lil, he’s crazy about you! He always has been!”
“Yeah and he’s always been an egotistical, arrogant, if not kind of good looking, idiot!”
They both smiled.
“You won’t tell him I think he’s good looking will you? If his head swells up any more it might explode and that would be a waste of a pretty face!” Remus snorted and looked at Lily.
“I won’t tell “ I promise.” With that he stood up and made his way up towards the dormitories. Lily watched him walk away before turning back to the window.
James was weaving through the rest of the team, obviously trying to get the free so that the other Chaser could pass to him. He skidded to a halt halfwaydown the pitch, raised his hands and caught the Quaffle. Suddenly turning sharply to the right, he streaked down the pitch, wind blowing his black hair behind him, and aimed for the goalpoasts. He raised his arms triumphantly above him as he scored and Lily caught her breath while she watched him. She smiled as he flew a small circle around the Keeper before touching down with the rest of the team and making his way back to the changing rooms. As he disappeared from sight she realised what had just happened; she had been admiring James Potter. Shaking her head in disbelief, she turned away from the window, her mind full of thoughts she wasn’t sure she wanted.
*
James got changed slowly after Quidditch practice. He wasn’t too keen to get back to his friends; Sirius wasn’t talking to him, Remus was trying to get them to make up and Wormtail was just plain annoying. He didn’t want to go to the common room until he was sure his friends were in bed, so he decided to go to the library. None of them would be in there “ not even Remus. He wandered between the aisles of the books in search of a secluded table where he could sit and wallow in his misery until he had to leave and go to bed. As he emerged from the end of one of the aisles, he spotted a head bent over a table - a red head. His heart leapt.
James slipped into the empty seat next to Lily.
“Hi,” he whispered.
She glanced at him before deciding to ignore him.
“Come on, Evans, not you too!”
She carried on scribbling on her parchment. James groaned and put his head on the table. He sat like that for a few minutes, wishing that things were different, when he heard a voice.
“I saw you at Quidditch practise today,” muttered Lily. James looked up at her. Her green eyes were flashing as she blinked and her flaming hair framed her pale face so perfectly. He wanted more than anything to kiss her but knew that she would probably slap him so he simply said:
“Really?”
“Yeah…that dive was…impressive.”
James glowed inside; she was complimenting him! He tried to look offhand about it.
“Well, you know, not many people can do that “ only really talented players.” Immediately he realised that, although he was joking, Lily would take it as arrogance.
“I mean…thank you,” he mumbled before she could say anything.
He looked at her and… she smiled.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered.
“So…what…err….what’s all this?” he said, gesturing to the scattered parchment and quills.
“Actually, it’s that Divination we got, thanks to Sirius.”
“Oh,” James muttered. She had to bring that up. “I’m not talking to him you know… after what he said…” he murmured quietly.
“I know,” she said without taking her eyes of the parchment. “Remus told me.”
Apparently having a best friend who was close to the girl of your dreams wasn’t so bad after all. He was burning to find out what else Remus had told her about him, but didn’t want to blow his chances. He watched her as she scribbled away, pausing occasionally to look something up in a textbook. After a while she put down her quill and began to gather up her parchment.
“Uh…are you going to the common room?” he inquired as she stood up.
“Yeah,” she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. He hesitated, wondering whether or not to ask if he could walk with her, when she turned.
“Well are you coming or are you just going to stand there and fidget?”
James grinned and then suddenly remembered to look cool. However it was too late; Lily had noticed.
“Don’t get too excited,” she said. “You’re only walking me along a few corridors.” But she was smiling all the same.
Together, they made their way out of the library and into the corridor where they could talk at a normal level.
“You know,” said Lily, as they passed a painting of a stag that was galloping around happily, “There really isn’t any point in ignoring Sirius.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was already mad with you.”
“Oh…sorry…”
They walked a little way in silence.
“Evans?” said James quietly. “Um…are you still mad with me?”
He watched her brush her hair away from her face as she looked up at him with those incredible eyes. For the second time that night he had to stop himself from trying to kiss her.
“No,” she said, still looking at him. “No, I don’t think I am.”
They arrived at the portrait hole and he muttered the password, standing aside to allow Lily to clamber through. He followed her into the common room where he saw Sirius, Remus and Peter sitting by the fire. Lily turned around.
“Go and say you’re sorry,” she whispered.
“No way!” he said, glancing at Sirius who was pretending not to have seen him.
“Just do it,” she said and with that she turned around and ran up the dormitory stairs.
James looked over at his friends again. Sirius was watching two girls in the corner who kept turning to glance at him, Wormtail was poring over some book and Remus was staring at James hopefully. He walked over to the fire and sat down in the spare armchair.
“Padfoot,” said James. Wormtail looked up from his book.
“Oh so you’re talking to me now are you?” said Sirius, looking away from the girls.
“Yeah, I wanted to say…,” James took a deep breath ; he seemed to be doing a lot of apologising at the moment. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you…sorry…”
“You should be,” said Sirius loudly. James watched him, trying to work out if he was joking or not. Wormtail shifted in the seat next to him and sniffed.
“Sirius…” muttered Remus warningly. James wondered if he had a conversation with Sirius similar to the one he, himself, had had with Lily.
“Yeah all right “ you’re forgiven,” said Sirius “But don’t go yelling at me cos of a girl again ok?”
James smiled and assured Sirius he wouldn’t. Now that he had his friend back and Lily was talking to him without running off as soon as possible, he was feeling much happier. He sat back in his chair and grinned.
“I’m guessing the grin isn’t cos you’re immensely happy we’re talking again,” said Sirius. “Could it be to do with a certain young lady?”
“How did you know?” said James still grinning. He proceeded to tell the three boys about the events of the last half an hour; Sirius laughed at every possible moment, Remus nodded wisely every now and then and Pettigrew hung on every word. When he’d finished he turned to Remus.
“I don’t know what you said to her but it worked,” said James happily. He sighed deeply and stared into the fire, reliving the events of the evening in his mind.
*
Lily sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling, reliving the events of the evening in her mind. For the second time that evening she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She had been trying to fool herself into thinking that it was just his looks “ that face, those eyes…his hair “ but however hard as she tried to deny it, she knew there was something else. For once James had managed to have a conversation with her without saying something completely stupid and ruining everything.
She rolled over onto her side and reached out for her watch. It was half past one and she still couldn’t sleep. Drawing back the hangings around her bed, she put on her slippers, picked up a book from the bedside table and wandered over to the stairs down to the common room.
As she neared the bottom of the stairs, she heard voices.
“I don’t see why we can’t do it tomorrow night. It’s much more fun.”
“Fun for you maybe. I don’t like having to run for my life.”
“Sssh! Have you got everything?”
“Yes, just give me the cloak.”
“Hang on.”
“Come on, come on, come on, this is boring.”
“Shut up Sirius.”
“Make me Potter.”
“If you insist!”
There was a bang which sounded like it could be a chair or table falling over. Lily moved down two steps.
“Stop it guys, someone might hear.”
She walked down the last few steps and entered the common room to see James and Sirius in some sort of wrestling match, Remus carrying a bag and some sort of cloak and Peter hovering around nervously.
“You’re right Remus “ someone might hear.”
Remus looked up at her, James and Sirius stopped fighting and Peter jumped about a foot in the air.
“What are you doing up so late boys?” she said looking around at them all.
“Um… what are you doing up so late?” said Sirius quickly. He walked up to her and tried to turn her around. “Come on, back to bed now.” He was attempting to push Lily back up the stairs but she was fighting to turn around.
“Leave Evans alone,” said James stepping forward.
“Thank you!” she muttered, tucking her hair behind her ears. She saw James smile. “Now, tell me what you’re up to.”
The boys looked at each other guiltily as Lily marched over to one of the armchairs and settled herself in it, arms folded.
“No one’s leaving until I know.”
Everyone was looking at James.
“Why me?” said James, looking betrayed. “Fine,” he said sulkily. “We were going to try and sneak out.”
“Oh really?” said Lily sarcastically.
“Yes, really, because we wanted to…err…we wanted to…go and see…um,” James glanced out of the window. “Yeah we wanted to see who would go furthest into the Forbidden Forest.”
“Well that’s stupid. There are all sorts of things I there. There are Werewolves,” said Lily spookily. Sirius shot a look at Remus who had suddenly turned away. If they thought she was buying this story then they had another thing coming.
“All right then,” she said standing up. “Take me with you.”
“What?!” said James loudly.
“Shut up,” said Remus, glancing at the portrait hole.
“You can’t come,” whispered James. “Like you say, there are loads of dangerous things in there.”
“Well then it’s a good job I’ll have four strapping young men to protect me isn’t it?” she said approaching James.
“Four!?” laughed Sirius, glancing at Peter who scowled and scurried up to Remus.
“Fine,” said James. “Have my cloak so you don’t freeze.”
He took off his cloak and put his arms around her shoulders as he fixed it up at the front. Lily had a feeling he could have done this slightly faster than he actually did. When he removed his arms, she followed him to the portrait hole. They all piled out and began to walk down the corridor until Sirius stopped them and pulled out a piece of parchment. He muttered something Lily didn’t hear and then studied the parchment carefully. She shuffled up to him and looked over his shoulder.
The parchment was a map, a map of the whole of Hogwarts, and on it she could see five ink figures standing outside the portrait hole. Each figure had it’s own label and she gasped as she saw the tiny letters ‘Lily Evans’ floating next to what must be her and Sirius.
“Where did you get that!?” she said.
“Shut up!” growled Sirius. “You’ll wake up the whole damn castle.” He glanced behind him. “Hurry up, Filch is pretty close.”
They began to move down the corridor, staying close together.
“This is so stupid,” hissed Lily in James’ ear. “What if we get caught?”
“Scared Evans?” he said but she knew he was joking. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here to hold your hand.”
“Yeah, you wish,” she said, grinning.
“Would you two please shut up?!” whispered Sirius from behind them. “Wait!”
“What?”
“Get in here quick. McGonagall’s coming.”
Sirius flung open the door of the nearest classroom and threw himself in followed by Remus and Peter. James grabbed Lily round the waist and yanked her through the doorway as fast as he could. They crouched behind the door; Sirius breathing hard and staring at the map. Even though her heart was beating madly against her chest, she somehow felt safe crouching there next to James. After what seemed like an age he whispered:
“Right she’s gone “ but Filch is still hanging around. We can’t go down tonight without waiting here for hours.”
James smiled but Remus looked uneasy.
“Are you sure we can’t do it tonight?”
Lily laughed.
“Remus Lupin!” she said in mock horror. “I would have thought that you of all people would be put off by the appearance of two teachers in one go!”
He stood up.
“Well there’s more than one side to me you know Lil.” He glanced at Sirius who looked like he was trying not to laugh before sighing. “Let’s go back…”
It was only then that Lily realised that James still had his arm around her waist.
“Um…you can let go now…” she said, twisting to face him. He looked down at his arm, apparently unaware that it was still there, and he was about to take it away when she saw something mischievous flash in his eyes.
“Oh do I?” he said quietly.
“Well if you don’t then I might have to hex you.”
“I’d better let you go then hadn’t I?”
He slowly took his arm away and the two of them followed the others out of the classroom. They arrived back at the common room and James started to climb the dormitory stairs when Lily said:
“James you’re forgetting something.”
He turned round and walked back towards her looking expectant. She unfastened the clip at the front of his cloak and handed it back to him.
“Thank you,” she said as she looked up at him. James nodded his head and smiled.
“You’re welcome Evans.”
Lily picked up the book she’d left in the armchair earlier that night and walked over to the stairs.
“Oh and Evans,” said James from the other side of the room. She turned back to him.
“Nice pyjamas.”
Disclaimer: None of it's mine...
AN: The plot starts to kick in now but it gets way more exciting in the next chapter! I'll put it up asap!