“Fried pumpkin seeds,” Sirius said and watched as the door to the Gryffindor common room opened. Waltzing in, he spotted Remus sitting in an armchair by the fireplace and made his way towards him.
“Haven’t seen Lord James anywhere have you, Remus?” he asked.
Looking up from his book, Remus replied cluelessly, “Quidditch practice possibly? Or maybe he’s in the library doing that essay for Professor Barrabee.” Closing his book, he went on, “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Lily around either. Maybe they’re off doing Head duties of some kind.”
Sirius smirked. “Right. Head duties,” he said.
Laughing, Remus said, “To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ve seen James since Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Friday.”
Sighing, Sirius sat down on the edge of the chair and said in tragic tones, “He’s getting too popular for us, Remus. He seems to have forgotten all about his faithful comrades.”
Then standing up resolutely he said, “Well, there’s only one way to fix that. Someone ought to give him a good smack upside the head. What do you say we ground him back in reality?”
Before Remus could answer Sirius turned to the few people sitting inside on that lazy Saturday afternoon and yelled, “Oi! Have any of you saps seen a Mr. James Potter around the likes of here lately?”
“Have you checked up your arse?” Elise Johnson, a snappy fifth year on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, called when no one else in the room answered.
“Well I guess that rules out Quidditch practice,” Remus said.
“Come on, Moony,” Sirius called as he bounded towards the stairs. “The map will tell us where he’s gone to. And I’ve just come up with a brilliant plan to liven things up around here.”
Though he made sounds of protest, Remus followed him up to the boys’ dormitory.
Once in the room, Sirius flung open his trunk and began throwing things helter-skelter in search of the Marauder’s Map.
“I can’t even remember when the last time we used it was,” he said, barely missing Remus with an old sock in his haste.
He paused in his frenzied search however, when he pulled out a fuzzy green box. “What the bloody hell is this?” he asked, turning it around to find an opening.
“Don’t you remember?” Remus said laughing. When Sirius gave him a confused look, he went on, “We were all trying to transfigure our pencil boxes into rabbits in class first year. And you and James managed to get in a fight “this was before we were all friends. Anyway, one of your spells accidentally hit Lily and gave her rabbit ears.”
“Oh right!” Sirius interrupted. “And then she joined in the feud too and one of her spells hit my rabbit and turned him into this. I thought I could experiment on him once we learned more transfiguration spells, so I threw it in here and then forgot all about it. Guess I haven’t cleaned this thing out since.”
“You’ve never cleaned out your school trunk?” Remus asked in amazement.
“Hey, you never know when you might need something again. Now if only I could remember what spell Lily aimed at me.”
Remus rolled his eyes and said, “We came up here for a reason, Padfoot, remember?”
“Right!” he exclaimed and threw the box on top of his bed before continuing his search through the trunk. Finally he pulled out the map and opened it.
“There he is,” he said tapping the map where it read “James Potter” and “Horace Slughorn.” “Looks like old Sluggy has cornered him by the Great Hall. Come on, let’s rescue Prongs before he gets invited to another one of those ridiculous meetings.”
With that he jumped up, folded the map and put it in his back pocket, and raced down the stairs, Remus close behind him.
“So what is it exactly that we’ll be doing once we find James?” Remus asked after they had left the common room.
“Well, we’ve pulled a school prank for Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and just about every other holiday during the year except Halloween, which has to be a crime,” Sirius called over his shoulder. “Of course, we could have just been saving the best for last. This year we need to “Peter! I was wondering when you were going to show up!”
Walking up a stairway were Peter and a pudgy fifth year girl in Hufflepuff. Peter gave a guilty start when he saw his friends and squeaked a greeting in reply.
“He-hey Remus and Sirius. Th-this is Patricia Caldwell.” He nervously indicated the girl beside him who had suddenly gone into a fit of giggles.
Sirius glanced in bewilderment at Remus who just shrugged. “Nice to meet you,” Sirius said, barely giving her a second glance before turning to Peter and saying, “Listen, we’ve got a brilliant plan cooked up for the Halloween Feast. We were just on our way to get James and start putting the plan in action.”
“Oh, well Patricia and I ““ Peter began, but Sirius cut him off.
“Come on, Peter, this will be the best prank of our Hogwarts careers,” he said, grabbing Peter by the shoulders and steering him along the passageway. “It’ll be sure to go down in the books. Now we’ve only got two days to put everything in place, which puts a time constraint on us, but I think it’s definitely manageable.”
As Sirius went in to the finer details of their plan, Remus waved goodbye to Patricia for Peter and followed the two boys down the hall. Rounding the corner after them, he came to a quick stop to prevent himself from running into them.
“There you are James,” he heard Sirius say. “I thought we were going to have to call out a special Ministry task force to hunt you down.”
“A fat lot of good that would have done you,” James replied, folding up a note he had been reading and putting it in his pocket. “It’d taken them two weeks to find Hogwarts itself, much less if they could even pick up the faintest of trails I’d leave behind.” He brushed a stray piece of bark off his clothes and continued. “I just got free of Professor Slughorn on my way back up from the owlery. He wanted to invite me to one of his little gatherings, but luckily I just happened to have scheduled a Quidditch practice for that night.”
Sirius clapped a hand on his shoulder and gave a mischievous grin. “You wouldn’t have time in that busy schedule of yours to join us in completing only the best Halloween prank this school has ever seen, would you?” he asked.
James paused and said, “Well I don’t know. These next couple of days are going to be really busy, what with our match against Slytherin coming up, all the preparations for the Halloween Feast Lily and I have to do, and that essay for Professor Barrabee we have to turn in on Wednesday.”
Sirius groaned. “Come on Prongs, you’re killing me here. We’ve been deprived of any kind of fun ever since that outing to that Muggle museum over the summer. Do you really want to end our years at Hogwarts by fading out of existence?”
James looked surprise for a moment and tried to make a comment, but Sirius plowed on. “What kind of an example would that be to the pranksters that will follow after us? Will no one wreak havoc on Madame Pince’s nerves, or drive Pringle, that oaf of a caretaker, out of his tree? Seriously Prongs, we have to do something this year, and what better time than Halloween?”
James scratched his chin and thought for a moment.
“Forget all that other stuff,” Sirius insisted. “When was the last time you honestly had fun?”
James sighed as they reached the door to the Gryffindor common room again. Turning to Sirius with a dangerous sparkle in his eye, he said, “What exactly did you have in mind?”
* * * * *
James stepped out of the secret passageway that led to Honeydukes’, stowing his invisibility cloak behind the statue of the humpbacked witch for later use. He turned around just in time to see Lily coming down the hallway.
“Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you!” she said as soon as she spotted him.
James ran a hand through his hair. Had she seen him come out of the passageway? “Hey,” he said. “Er “ I’ve just been running around all day. I had to go to the owlery, and to see Professor Kettleburn, and some other places. I’m sure we just missed each other.” There, that should hopefully cover things.
James felt a sliver of regret for lying to Lily yet again. He’d had to make up a few stories this past week to cover for Remus during the full moon, as well as the rest of the Marauders when they became Animagis. On top of that, he’d had to leave patrol duties early on Friday night to meet the boys at the Shrieking Shack before it got too late, (It took all three boys to keep Remus entertained.) and then he’d been so exhausted the next day that he’d almost completely missed the meeting he and Lily had scheduled for the prefects about the Halloween Feast. Lily, amazingly enough, had covered for him, but he knew that she wouldn’t do it again.
“Oh,” she said. “Really? No one said they had seen you when I asked.”
That’s because they couldn’t see me under the invisibility cloak, he though, but just shrugged in response.
Lily frowned, but went on. “We’ve got a few things to take care of for the Halloween Feast.”
She paused as James ruffled his hair again. After a few weeks she had quickly recognized the gesture as a sign of nervousness, and not, as she had previously thought, an attempt to charm her. She peered at him closely as she said, “Professor Averett wanted to go over the list of games we had planned and make sure everything’s in place. He said to meet him in his office when I found you, but that was two hours ago.”
James nodded and replied all business, “Well let’s check there first and try to catch up on lost time. We’ve got a lot to do in these next two days.”
Lily nodded and led the way towards the Charms Professor’s study. Though she hadn’t said anything just then to James, she still felt irritated that he was acting like he was trying to hide something from her. The two of them had gotten along so well over the past two months that it was surprising. Not only had they managed to be civil to each other while performing their Head duties, but they had even found themselves having fun and goofing off with one another. It was a marked difference that the whole school had gossiped about. Somehow Lily Evans and James Potter had become friends, and there was no telling what would happen from there.
Absolutely nothing if it turns out he’s broken his promise and is doing something behind my back, Lily thought. She really didn’t want to be let down again by James right when she had finally started to trust him and feel like she could act like herself around him. Hopefully she was just being paranoid because of all the things she had to get done in the next couple of days. Seventh Year was proving to be the most difficult in terms of school work, which was to be expected as she was taking N.E.W.T. level classes, but also because her extracurricular activities were fighting for her time, leaving her feeling like a piece of rubber that had been stretched too much. She kept hoping things would slow down so she would be able to have more time with her friends in her last year at school, but life only got more hectic.
Unfortunately for the two harried Heads, the Halloween Feast came all too soon. What would have normally been a dreary, rainy Monday was brought to life by whispered rumors about the night’s events and a thin ribbon of excitement that wound its way through the school. Though the professors insisted on having classes, they did little good as most of the students barely paid attention. Even Lily and Remus were too occupied with their plans for the evening to listen to Professor Slughorn lecture on the properties of the moonstone in Potions class. As a result, they got a cheeky reprimand and a foot more due on their essay for next class. But no one seemed to mind too much.
Finally the hour came for the tall, oak doors of the Great Hall to be opened and the Feast to begin. The students gasped as they walked in and saw the thousands of jack-o-lanterns lighting the dining hall, with one massive one floating in the center of the room, instead of the usual candles. The four long tables that normally spanned the length of the room had disappeared and in their places were scattered several circular tables with various assortments of festive foods on them. An eerie gray mist covered the floor and cobwebs lined the walls and a few chairs. Set up in each of the four corners of the room, as well as alongside the longer walls, were booths for different games, including pin the tail on the thestral, magical chairs that moved when you tried to sit in them, and name that magical creature (if you got it wrong, you temporarily changed into that creature).
Unlike previous Halloween Feasts, students could come and go between tables and play the games or eat whenever they wanted. The Great Hall fairly thrummed with the activity and noise of the students and easily drowned out the pitter-patter of the dwindling thunderstorm outside.
Near ten o’clock the younger children began to drift off to bed, and it wasn’t too long until some of the teachers were claiming drowsiness as well. Professor Slughorn was the first to go, yawning and patting his overly large belly as he commented to Professor Taw, the Ancient Runes Professor, “Dumbledore can sure throw a party, can’t he? Of course it doesn’t hold a candle to a bash I went to back when I was in India. It was thrown by the Minister down there and had flying carpets and snake charmers and the whole circus. This was a nice little party for the kids though. Well, I’m off for my nightcap.” And he turned towards the doors.
Professor Taw was just about to follow him out of the Great Hall when he stopped to notice one of the floating jack-o-lanterns that was behaving oddly. It had started lazily spinning while the two teachers were talking and had progressively increased its motion until it was now gyrating so fast that it had become a bright orange blur. Suddenly it exploded like a firecracker in a burst of bright color, spewing pumpkin bits through the air in all directions, with the biggest glop landing squarely on the Professor’s small, shiny head.
The students nearby gaped and tried to hold in their chuckles, but were stopped when a pumpkin on the other side of the room did the very same thing as the first. They gave each other worried glances when a couple more jack-o-lanterns throughout the room began to turn and burst apart. Soon the whole school was ducking for cover as every pumpkin in the room self-detonated. It was pure pandemonium as people slipped on pumpkin bits and pushed each other out of the way to avoid getting hit.
Lily felt herself pulled under a table as she was just about to aim a spell at one of the pumpkins about to explode.
“I got you!” Alice said. “Ooh, but not before a pumpkin got you, it seems.” The whole left side of Lily’s school robes was covered in the orange goop, but she didn’t even seem to have noticed. She was glaring across the room at one of the tables where students were hiding.
As Alice had pulled her under she had spotted James and Sirius giving each other high fives from their hiding places. The two boys were free from orange glop, as well as were Remus and Peter, who were sitting under another table a couple of feet away.
“I can’t believe them!” she hissed, in a tone not unlike that of her sister. “I can’t “ oh, they didn’t!”
Lily’s eyes widened as she stared like the rest of her classmates in horror as the huge jack-o-lantern in the center of the room began to rotate, the fire inside it roaring, making it almost look alive.
Everyone jumped when a deep voice rang out from the orange monstrosity and chanted:
Come one, come all, and break your fast
To celebrate the years gone past
The witches and wizards who led their time
We proudly boast and let them shine.
But Halloween has become much more than this
A night to fear not only a dementor’s kiss
Tonight I’ll show you what’s in store
For those more willing to explore.
Feast your eyes and use your ears
And swallow all your deepest fears
You’ve had your fill; you’ve had your fun
But the night’s not over when this song is done.
There is a surprise that waits for you
Though it may not be something new
To those who’ve spent Halloween
Without magic on the scene.
The Muggles in their naivety
Made a game from creativity
On this night and this night alone
They knock at every house and home
And when the door is opened thence
They put themselves upon the fence,
Asking for their neighbors to
Decide their fate and evening too.
“Trick or Treat!” the young ones scream
Dressed up like phantoms from a dream
And hold out their hands, waiting for
What they hope will be a chocolate bar.
But sometimes they’re turned away
By those folks who don’t like to play
And other times they’re merely given
Spitefulness for their question.
But now my friends the question is
Will your drink be all fizz?
You’ve been knocking at my door all night
And now it’s time to shed some light
Will good fortune be your lot
or orange slime be all you’ve got?
One way to know, it can’t be beat
Now everyone say, “Trick or Treat!”
And with that it gave an evil cackle and swiveled ominously, rotating faster and faster until it resembled a fat orange cyclone. Lily burrowed deeper back away from the open space and readied herself for the blast that was sure to come. Cringing and closing her eyes, she waited with her breath held expecting to be covered in the huge pumpkin’s insides at any moment.
A second later it erupted with a giant boom as fireworks of all colors zoomed out of it and a million small objects pelted the room. Lily uncovered her face just enough to peek at the bits and pieces that were raining down on her instead of the pumpkin slime.
“It’s candy!” Alice said from behind her and reached a hand out to catch a piece, laughing. Other students were shouting in happy relief and scrambling back out from under the tables to grab some of the tasty treats.
Lily however, stayed where she was and watched the four Gryffindor boys regroup and divide their spoils, congratulating each other yet again. She should have known that they would be responsible for a prank like this. Of course James Potter hasn’t changed at all this year! she thought. He’d only been fooling her after all. Of all the two-faced, arrogant little prats! How could she have trusted him? One thing was for sure, she wouldn’t be trusting him any more. There would be no more second chances for ‘Potter.’
Ignoring her friends’ pleas to stay a little longer, Lily marched back up to her bedroom to blow off some steam and clean herself off before she had to do patrols with James once everything in the castle had settled down. She didn’t even want to look at him, much less spend another hour of her life walking around the castle with him, but she couldn’t let Dumbledore down and slack off on her duties as Head Girl, however much James didn’t fit the part of Head Boy.
An hour and a half later she was marching back down the steps to the common room and mumbling to herself about having to work with such an irresponsible git. She found James sitting in an armchair by the fire, the only one left in the common room. Barely acknowledging him, she proceeded out the door and let it slam behind her.
Dumbfounded, James hurried after her. He didn’t think he’d seen Lily this mad since that time in Fifth Year when he and Sirius had strung Severus Snape up by his ankles after their O.W.L. exams. Was she this mad about their prank today? It had just been a harmless joke; and a pretty good one at that too. For Pete’s sake, nothing bad had happened! They hadn’t made fun of anybody or even just picked on the Slytherins. In fact, everyone had been equally sprayed with pumpkin debris and candy, so if it was school unity they were going for, it couldn’t get much better than that. Not to mention the fact that most students had fun skidding around in the pumpkin glop once they got over the initial shock of it. Some of them had stayed up long past the official close to the Feast just sliding around and pelting each other with the orange goop until Professor McGonagle showed up and made them all go to bed. He didn’t remember seeing Lily among those students, however. He had lost track of her after the big explosion.
Maybe it wasn’t even the prank she was mad about, but something else entirely. He took a quick side-glance at her and gulped. Few people could actually get her this fired up. In fact, the only person she ever got this furious at was him.
He frowned as he thought about this. She had to get mad about other things too, even if she rarely showed it. Why should he have to be the one on the receiving end for everything she got pissed off about? Why was everything always his fault? He glanced at her again. It was pretty unfair of her to unload all her anger out on him. He thought they were supposed to be friends now and talk to each other whenever one had a problem with the other. What happened to starting over? She was acting like the past two months had never happened.
Both of them remained silent for a while, brooding about the other’s behavior. It wasn’t until they were walking down a hallway on the third floor that either of them said anything for the first time that night. Right as they turned the corner they caught two students going into a classroom.
“Finally,” Lily said. “I knew there’d be students out of bed on a night like this. I was beginning to wonder why we hadn’t found anyone yet.”
“Maybe if you weren’t making enough noise to warn anyone within 50 meters that we were coming, we’d have caught more of them by now,” James said as they reached the door to the classroom.
“What?” she said as she threw open the door. “I was not making that much noise!” The two young boys they found in the classroom gave a guilty yelp as Lily and James came storming in.
“I’d be willing to bet that these boys didn’t just head towards this classroom because they had a feeling that someone was coming,” James retorted, pulling out his wand and holding it ready in case the boys tried to pull anything.
“That’s right, James,” one of them piped up. “We heard someone stomping down the hallway and figured it was someone in a bit of a huff.”
“We don’t want to come between whatever you two were arguin’ about,” the other one said with large, innocent eyes.
“Don’t worry, you won’t,” Lily said before James could get anything out. “Now it’s up to Professor Dumbledore’s office for you two, for being out of bed after hours.”
Clearly terrified at this prospect, the two boys turned to James.
“Come on, James!” the second boy said. “We were just doing it for a friend.”
“Doing what exactly?” Lily asked.
The first boy gave his friend a dirty look before answering, “We were getting a book from the restricted section to learn a spell to cast on someone. But we never actually got to the library because we got lost, so technically we haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Except break curfew,” she reminded them “and that’s still punishable.”
“We had to get back at George Stilts!” the other boy cried. “He’s a Slytherin in our year that played a nasty trick on Jane.”
“Jane?” James said quizzically.
“Mark fancies her,” the first boy said, indicating his friend, who gave him a punch in the ear.
Making eyes towards Lily, the first boy went on, speaking specifically to James, “If anyone would understand about hexing a Slytherin for making fun of the girl you loved, it’d be you. You’d probably even do it with a lot more style than we ever could.”
Lily rolled her eyes at the boys’ obvious flattery of James in order to worm their way out of a punishment and was a tad bit irritated with them for including her in their appeals.
“Don’t tell me you never snuck out to try and carry out a plan to make Evans, here, fall in love with you.”
Lily made a strangled sound, but the boy continued in a last attempt to sway James, “Can you really punish us for something you’ve done a thousand times?”
Laughing at the brashness of the boys, James answered, “Yeah, because I never got caught.”
“James!” Lily exclaimed. “This is ridiculous!”
Turning on the two boys, who really were terrified now that she was good and mad at them, she practically yelled, “You two are not getting out of a punishment just because Dumbledore temporarily lost his sanity and made this idiot Head Boy! You were out of bed, and it doesn’t matter if you were caught or not, you broke the rules!”
“Wait a minute!” James interrupted, his hackles rising. “What if I think they should be let off? I am Head Boy, whether Dumbledore was sane or not when he decided it, and I have a say in what goes on here too!”
“Not really, Potter,” she said icily. “Our jobs are to hand over troublemakers to the proper authorities who then decide what should be done with them. Save taking away House Points, we don’t have the power to deal out punishments.”
James glared at her, wishing there was some way to prove her wrong.
“Come on,” she said, herding the boys towards the door. “We’re wasting everyone’s time just standing here.”
James grunted and followed along after them up to the Head Master’s office. It wasn’t long until they were standing in front of the golden griffin that guarded the door. The tense silence was broken only by the grinding of the steps as they brought them up to face the large oak door.
Lily was surprised when it opened barely before she finished rapping it smartly with her knuckles.
“Come in,” Dumbledore said from his place behind his desk. He was wearing a light blue cap and dressing gown.
“Sorry to have disturbed you, Professor,” Lily began.
“Not at all,” Dumbledore said congenially. “I was up late anyway mulling over a few thoughts that had been bothering me lately. I see you’ve brought me two boys from Ravenclaw. Not out of bed, were we?”
The boys shifted uncomfortably as the Head Master gazed at them.
“Thank you Miss Evans and Mr. Potter. I’ll take it from here,” he said. “Oh, and if you would, please check the greenhouses during the rest of your patrol duties. Professor Pollyweed has reported missing some marsh weed she’s been growing.”
“Yes Professor,” they said as they left the office.
Neither of them said anything else until they were outside the castle, walking through the wet grass. It had finally stopped raining, and the moon was just starting to peek out from behind the clouds. The air was crisp and clear.
James didn’t think he could last for very much longer not talking to Lily even though he was frustrated with her. It had only been twenty minutes since they left the Head Master’s office, but it had felt like days. Breaking the silence with a sigh he said, “What’s going on Lily?”
Without looking at him or slowing down, she answered back, “What do you mean, Potter?”
“You know exactly what I mean, Evans,” he retorted angrily. “What’s with calling me Potter all of a sudden, and blowing up at me for nothing?”
“Nothing?! I wasn’t ‘blowing up’ at you for nothing, Potter!” she yelled over her shoulder.
“Then what are you so upset about?” he called back.
Finally she stopped walking and said, “You really want to know?”
“Yes!” he exclaimed in frustration.
She gritted her teeth. “Fine.”
Slowly she turned to him. Absolutely fuming, but at the same time, straining to hold back tears that she really did not want James to see, she said, “I thought you had finally grown up James, that you were done with your tricks. Dumbledore specifically planned this feast to be an important reminder for the school of the good wizards have managed to do, just in case anyone felt things were going down the drain because of Voldemort. It was supposed to inspire hope. But you and your friends just had to have your one bit of glory and ruin everything.”
“When Dumbledore chose you to be Head Boy, I thought you had recognized that now it was the time to put away the tricks and act like an adult. And you know, I actually believed him even though it went against everything I knew about you. You really pissed me off tonight, James, and more than anything you really disappointed me. Is that why you were shirking off Head Boy duties these past few days, to plan this ridiculous fiasco??”
James shifted nervously, trying to think up a story to tell her to cover for Remus. Ruffling his hair, he began, “Well, you see, the prank tonight was just a last minute thing Sirius conned me into. He did most of the work really. The reason I was late sometimes was because I was running around, trying to put things in place for an outing for the two of us. We’ve both been so busy lately that I thought we could take a break together.” He attempted to give her one of his best smiles, hoping that she would buy this argument. James had been thinking about doing something like that, but Sirius had just jumped in full steam ahead with their Halloween prank, and he had forgotten all about it.
Furious, Lily exclaimed, “I can’t believe you, Potter! Where the hell do you think you get off assuming you should be let off the hook for anything you do just for giving everyone that God-awful charming smile and ruffling your hair?”
“Damn it, Lily, I’m trying to explain to you, but you just won’t listen to me,” James yelled. “What happened to starting over and giving each other second chances? I thought we were going to listen to each other.”
“I would if I could believe anything you tell me,” she shot back.
James ground his teeth together in aggravation and ran a hand through his hair again. What the hell was he supposed to do? He couldn’t tell Remus’ secret or very well get the rest of the Marauders in trouble for being illegal Animagis, but he had to tell Lily something. He glanced back over at her as she stood with her hands on her hips, burning a hole through his skin with her gaze.
“Tell me the truth this time James,” she said.
And James, staring into her eyes full of hurt, could tell that nothing short of the exact truth would allow them to be friends again like they had been these last two months. So he told her. He told her about Lupin and his ‘furry little problem.’ He told her about their ability to change into Animagis illegally. He told her about Sirius egging him on to go along with the Halloween prank and how hectic life had been this year. He told her about how proud he had felt when Dumbledore sent him his letter telling him he was Head Boy and how much he had wanted to prove that he was the right person for the job. And finally, he told her how her friendship with him meant more to him than anything in the world, and how he would rather take back all the pranks he had ever done and give up being Head Boy if it meant that they could be friends again.
After all this she was very quiet, staring out over the moonlit lake where the giant squid was lazily doing the backstroke, causing ripples to gently break the water’s otherwise clear surface.
“I guess I can forgive you for helping out Remus,” she said.
James sighed in relief and said, “I’m sorry for lying to you about the Halloween prank. It wasn’t fair to you to skip off on Head duties when you were just as busy as I was with schoolwork. I should have just said no to Sirius in the first place.”
Lily gave James a small smile. He really had grown up this year!
“The four of you really learned how to become Animagis by yourselves? That’s really advanced magic!” she said.
Surprised, James felt the color rising in his cheeks as he tried to play down the compliment.
“Listen, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions and going back on our truce,” she said in a more serious tone.
James shrugged and replied, “That’s alright.”
They stood there for another moment, each with the faintest beginnings of a smile on their faces.
“Can I walk you back up to the castle?” James asked.
Lily was not prepared for the flip-flops in her stomach that suddenly took hold of her when she looked back up at James.
“Yes,” she managed to get out before she looked away so he wouldn’t see how red her face was getting.
James was on the verge of kissing her but stopped himself. He didn’t want to push his luck after he’d just managed to regain her friendship. Pulling back before she looked up, he sighed to himself. He really wished that the someday when Lily would be his would come a lot faster. He had made a lot of progress in just two short months though! Maybe it wouldn’t be too long. Silently rejoicing, he led the way back up to the castle.
Neither of the two Heads remembered about the greenhouses as they returned to their common room and said goodnight. Both were too wrapped up in their thoughts about the other to notice. James fell asleep easily, falling into a dream that involved a certain redhead in a white dress, while Lily lay awake for a bit thinking about the day’s events. Secretly she was glad that there wasn’t anything between her and James anymore, because everything had seemed upside down in her life when there was. She liked that they could talk honestly with each other and wondered how that was possible. But soon she too was drifting off, her questions becoming more and more entangled as she transitioned into the subconscious.
Stronger Together by Pevensies_Pensieve
Chapter Notes: More than soda explodes in this chapter when James has a relapse of character.