"Prongs! Wait up!"
James turned around, relieved that it wasn't Allie or Nicki. The two girls were driving him mad!
Sirius caught up easily. "Where have you been? You're like a ghost."
Nearly Headless Nick shot a glare at him.
"No offense!" Sirius added hastily.
James rolled his eyes. "I've been with Allie mostly but when I haven't been with her I've been avoiding Nicki. I think she fancies me again!"
Sirius chuckled. "You were the one who went out with her."
James cringed. "Don't remind me." He noticed that Sirius was almost skipping. "What have you been up to?"
"Planning pranks, avoiding doing homework, talking to Jazz and Lily."
James raised his eyebrows. "She's Lily now? Not Evans? Are you two buddies or something?"
Sirius shrugged. "I misjudged her. She's great. Actually she helped me with the Slytherin problem."
James stopped. "How?"
Sirius grinned. "A couple nights ago she caught me planting Dungbombs around the Slytherin entrance. I thought she was going to give me detention but she just thought it was a cool prank and helped me out. Then we went to the kitchens and ate breakfast.”
“At night?”
“That’s what she wanted. We stayed up and talked and I used your invisibility cloak to get us back to the tower.”
“Was she mad?” James asked.
“Nope. She was actually impressed,” Sirius said, looking proud.
“Did you tell her it was my cloak?”
Sirius looked at James, the grin melting off his face. “Hey, what's wrong? You don’t still like her, do you?”
James lied quickly. “No! I just didn’t know that you did.”
When Sirius didn’t say anything, James got worried. “Do you?”
Sirius just shrugged. “Let’s get to Quidditch practice.”
********************************************************************
How could it be that after only two weeks, Lily was ready for the holidays? It wasn't like anything bad had happed. In fact, all of her friends were rather happy. Lily was itching to curse the lot of them.
Maybe it was the massive amounts of homework that was making her crabby. Or maybe it was Filch telling her off for kicking his stupid cat. Or maybe it was that blasted James Potter. She wanted to punch him in the face! How dare he not bug her at meal times as she pretended to ignore him! How dare he be in class and not pass her notes to distract her! How dare he not ask her out, not even once!
Wait.... what was she annoyed about? Lily frowned as she tried to figure it out. Was she actually upset that James hadn't bothered her once since they'd been back at school?
"Anything wrong, Lils?" Jazz asked. She was getting annoyed with her best friend. They were supposed to be working on their homework and Lily hadn't corrected anything Jazz said, not even that one of Jupiter's moons was covered in mice.
Lily shook her head. "No. Sorry I spaced again."
Jazz rolled her eyes. "Just let me see your paper," she said snatching it out of Lily's hands.
"No! Wait!" Lily cried, but it was too late.
Jazz looked at Lily with a shocked expression. "I've been slaving over this for two hours and all you've done is write about James?"
Lily was red. "It's not like that Jazz! I swear! I don't like him. I just really-"
"Miss him?" Jazz said softly.
"Yeah," Lily said.
"I get it," Jazz said. "Allie's kept him pretty tied up lately."
Lily shrugged. "I never thought about what it would be like if he got a girlfriend. It's silly but I always thought-"
"He'd be around?"
"Yeah," Lily said. "It's like I lost my left arm. Like I just take it for granted and then suddenly realize-"
"You need it."
"Would you quit that!" Lily snapped. "You know me too well."
Jazz laughed. "Lily, if you miss him so much, why don't you go talk to him?"
"He's with Allie," Lily said.
"Speak of the witch," Jazz said as Allie and Nicki came in. "Where's Jamesie poo?"
"Outside patrolling I think," Allie said.
Lily jumped up. "Well I better help him. I am Head Girl," she said superiorly.
********************************************************************
“James?” she called, hugging her cloak tighter around her.
It was gorgeous outside, but it was COLD.
“James!” she called, louder.
She noticed a tall boy with messy black hair standing by the lake. She smiled and hurried to him.
James gazed at the scene. Hogwarts was indeed lovely at night. Too bad they weren’t allowed out. He heard a girl’s voice yelling his name, and rolled his eyes, expecting Allie.
“Look, I told you- Oh," He stopped.
“Hey stranger,” she said, smiling. “What are you doing?”
James smiled too. “Looking at the stars.”
“Make a wish,” she said, sitting down.
He checked his watch and saw that it was a little after 11. He had time.
“What are you doing out here?” he said sitting beside her.
“Looking for you."
James looked at her quizzically. "Here I am."
“So where have you been? I’ve actually missed you lately. So have Remus and Sirius,” Lily said.
“Oh here and there, busy, you know, it’s N.E.W.T year.”
Lily nodded. “Right.”
James didn’t know why she was talking to him. It was weird. “So, um, is anything wrong?”
Lily looked surprised. “No. Why?”
James skipped a stone out on the lake to avoid looking at her. “Well you’ve never tried to talk to me before.”
Lily blushed. “Well we said we were going to be friends this year. Plus you’ve been skipping patrolling with me.”
James frowned, tossing another stone. She was right. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about that.”
Lily shook her head. “It’s no big deal.”
James looked at her, knowing she was lying. “Can I make it up to you?”
Lily stood up. “No, just don’t forget about me, Potter.”
She was starting to walk away, but then she turned. “Actually, there is something.”
James looked at her, feeling a million times happier. “Yeah?”
Lily looked embarrassed. “Could you teach me how to skip stones like you do?”
James laughed. “Sure.”
********************************************************************
Lily wished she hadn’t asked. James had talked her into standing in the middle of the lake with the stones they were throwing at their feet. Even after all the years at Hogwarts, being able to stand on a lake amazed her.
“Okay, now it’s like throwing a Frisbee,” he said holding her hand, standing behind her.
“Alright,” Lily said, still scared of falling through the water.
“Now!” James said.
Lily threw the stone and wasn’t surprised when it didn’t skip. “This is hopeless.”
James smirked. “You’re talking to the guy who taught Peter how to swim. Trust me that was an exhausting month.”
Lily laughed. “Okay, here goes!”
Another stone splashed under the black surface.
“Look, be gentle,” James said. He held her hand again and this time, much to her amazement, the stone skipped 6 times.
Lily laughed. “I did it!”
She turned around and hugged James quickly.
James felt his heart go nuts. This was the same girl who told him off 5 times a day.
Lily let go. “Um, James? What’s that?”
She pointed to a dark shape in the water.
Before James could figure it out, the giant squid had jumped in the air, drenching both of them as it splashed back down.
“Well,” Lily said giggling.
James was laughing too, but stopped as soon as he saw his watch.
“What’s wrong?” Lily asked.
James didn’t answer. It was an hour after midnight.