What must have been for the first time in weeks, Lily was the earliest to wake up in her dormitory. It was a Saturday morning late in November and snow was falling gently outside, lighting the room with a soft glow. The soothing sound of the other girls’ breathing made her want to stay in her warm bed for just a little while longer. Stretching, Lily turned on her side to look out the window through the thin curtains and slowly woke herself up as she watched the flurries pile up on the ledge. There’s something special about today, she thought, but I can’t remember what, something that had me excited last night.
Lily frowned slightly as she tried to recall what it was. She was going somewhere, that much she knew, but where she had no idea. She slowly tore her gaze away from the winter scene outside and yawned widely as she glanced at her night table for a clue. Nothing unusual or out of place here, she thought. Then she noticed a scrap of paper that had fallen to the floor that read, “gift for Dumbledore, more stationary, new gloves?”
That’s right! Today was the day for the school outing to Hogsmeade! Lily leaned over the side of the bed to pick up the scrap of paper. Now wide awake, she decided that she would sacrifice walking across the cold floor to get changed and ready for the day. Hopping out of bed, she grabbed a pair of jeans and a warm sweater and ran towards the showers. She was out in record time and quickly ran a comb through her hair before putting it up half way so that it was out of her face.
She skipped down the steps to the common room and made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast, wondering if anyone else was awake yet. To her surprise, Remus was sitting at the Gryffindor table enjoying a hot breakfast and reading the paper. She sat down on the other side of the table from him, pouring herself a cup of tea and saying hello.
“Anything interesting in the news?” she asked.
“Not really,” he said as he folded it closed and grabbed the pot to refill his own cup. “There were a couple more sightings of You Know Who, though nobody knew just quite what he was up to, because he didn’t kill anybody or take anything again.”
“That’s odd,” she said, frowning. “I wonder what he’s planning. Well, it can’t be anything good, that’s for sure.” She shivered as she remembered her run-in with him over the summer.
Swallowing some oatmeal, Remus said, “I’m surprised Dumbledore is letting us go to Hogsmeade with all that’s going on. I’m not complaining, but I wonder if it’s safe.”
“I know,” Lily agreed. “But I don’t think Dumbledore would risk letting us off the grounds if he wasn’t absolutely sure that nothing would happen.”
Remus nodded and was on the verge of taking another bite when he looked back up and said, “Morning James.”
Lily turned around to see James walking towards the table and covering a yawn with his fist.
“Morning,” he said to Remus and smiled at Lily, sitting down next to her. “It feels absolutely wonderful to have the day off, doesn’t it?”
“Amazing,” Lily answered back while Remus nodded, his mouth full of food. The teachers had been considerate in assigning a light amount of homework this weekend because of the trip into Hogsmeade for the students. It was the lightest load the Seventh Years had had all year, and in celebration, James had canceled Quidditch practice for the day, and he and Lily had decided to take a break from planning the Christmas Ball. They were as carefree as First Years.
“I’m so excited to go into Hogsmeade!” Lily said. “I haven’t gone since before Christmas last year. I hope this isn’t our last time.”
“Well, if it is, we can always come back whenever we want when we’re adults,” Remus said. “How come you missed the one in February?”
Lowering her voice even though there were hardly any students in the Great Hall, she said, “Because that was when Alice and Frank broke up.”
“Oh, right,” Remus said. “I had forgotten all about that. I think it surprised everyone, even them.”
Alice and Frank Longbottom had gotten into a serious discussion around Valentine’s Day of last year about what would happen after Frank finished school and went into Auror training. Alice still hadn’t decided what she wanted to do after she left Hogwarts, though she was taking classes to be an Auror as well. Somehow her uncertainty about the future translated to Frank as doubts about their relationship, and he thought she was trying to break up with him. The whole thing turned into a big misunderstanding with them actually breaking up even though neither of them wanted to. After a week of crying on Alice’s part, and much more than usual clumsiness and absentmindedness from Frank, their friends had made them sit down and explain their feelings for one another. As a result, they had rarely been seen outside of each other’s presence until the end of the school year.
“Are they still together?” asked James in between bites of bacon.
Lily nodded. “She’s meeting him today as a matter of fact. He got the weekend off so he was able to come down and meet her.”
The two had been writing to each other at least two or three times a week, and Lily had been there when Alice found out he was coming. She didn’t think she had ever seen quiet, shy Alice that excited before. They and the other girls in Gryffindor had celebrated by sneaking down to the kitchens. (Yes, Lily had been out of bed after hours, but it was her and James’s turn to do patrol duties that night, so she snuck the girls out after they got back.) Alice had been on cloud nine ever since.
Laughing, Remus commented, “You know, Sirius had thought about asking Alice out just to “ Oh wait no that was you, James!”
“What?” Lily exclaimed, almost choking on her toast and giving James a look of disbelief.
Putting his hands up, James quickly said in his own defense, “It was only to get Frank playing well in Quidditch again. I wasn’t serious about it, because I was sure Frank would have a fit and ask her out again. We were going to be playing Ravenclaw and we had to pound them if we wanted to play in the House Cup!” (Despite his clumsiness, Frank had made an excellent Keeper for the Gryffindors.)
Still giving him a look, but adding a sarcastic twist and a saucy smile to her words, Lily said, “And you think she would have actually gone out with you?”
James scoffed and said over Remus’s laughter, “She was on the rebound. Anybody could have gone for her easily.”
“Right, and I suppose she would have just fallen into your arms and forgotten all about Frank,” Lily quipped.
“Something like that, yeah,” James said, trying hard not to smile but letting the corners of his mouth turn up anyway.
Lily made a fake huffing sound in her throat and rolled her eyes, turning to face the other way.
Still laughing, Remus interjected, “You know James would never ask anyone out when he’s in love with “,”
James gave Remus a swift quick under the table to cut him off. As of right now, Lily and he were just good friends, and he wanted to keep it that way. He didn’t want to scare her off with any declarations of love.
“-- Quidditch,” Remus finished lamely. “How could he think about girls when he has to manage a whole team of players? We couldn’t let Gryffindor break its streak of winning the House Cup while we’re at Hogwarts!”
Lily looked at them suspiciously. “Quidditch?” she asked.
“I thought you canceled Quidditch practice today, James,” said Sirius, breaking the awkward silence as he joined the table.
“I did,” James said, still not looking at Lily. “Now we can spend more time in Hogsmeade. Which reminds me, I saw something in the joke shop last time I was there that I thought looked interesting. Did Peter say he was coming this time?”
“I think he was going to be walking around with his girlfriend,” Sirius said making a face. None of the boys really understood Peter’s decision to date the pudgy Fifth Year. He didn’t even seem to like her all that much, and kept reiterating the fact that her uncle had an important job in the Ministry. They had seen a lot less of him ever since, not that he had been around a lot anyway before he asked her out. The three boys still included him in their activities though, and talked to him in class.
Lily frowned. It had been odd not see all four of the boys together, now that she thought about it. She knew what it felt like not to have a friend around because they were in a relationship. Alice had been practically glued to Frank’s side for all of last spring, leaving Lily feeling more than a little lonely. She had just become better friends with Ginger and May though, and now the four girls were fast friends.
Just then the three girls walked into the Great Hall and made their way towards the table. Lily scooted over and made room for Alice to sit on the other side of her.
“What’s got everyone looking so glum?” Ginger asked, seating herself next to Sirius.
Sirius smiled and answered, “Nothing now that you’re here.”
“Aw, that’s sweet, Sirius, but honestly, you’re going to need to try harder than that if you really want to borrow my most beloved pet in the world,” she said. For the past couple of weeks Sirius had been begging Ginger to let him borrow her pet rabbit, Mr. Tibbles, so that he could experiment on him and figure out what changed his rabbit into a fuzzy green box in First Year. He hadn’t told her that this was why he wanted to borrow him, but she had guessed it wasn’t for anything good and had refused to let her pet be used as some sort of science experiment.
“What do you suggest then?” he asked.
She smiled vindictively. “Well, we do have that Charms essay coming up, and I haven’t had time to figure out the answer to that Potions assignment either. You wouldn’t be able to help me with that would you? Come to think of it, I need to pick up some more pellets for Mr. Tibbles while we’re in Hogsmeade, but I’m not sure if I have enough pocket money with me. You wouldn’t be able to spot me a few galleons would you?”
“Galleons?” Sirius cried. “Since when is pet food that expensive?”
“Since you decided that you just had to borrow Mr. Tibbles,” she answered. “Come on, Sirius, there’s got to be other people with pet rabbits that you could borrow. Why not just buy one of your own anyway?”
“Because what am I going to do with a pet rabbit when I’m done with it?” he cried indignantly, letting a bit of food go flying off his fork.
“Give it to me!” Lily said. “I’ve always wanted a rabbit.”
Almost flinging more food, he said, “So now I’m just buying you a pet rabbit?”
“I’ll buy the rabbit if it’s that much trouble!” an exasperated James said. “That way you can do whatever you want with it, and then Lily can have it when you’re done.”
Lily made a face and said, “If it’s still alive.”
Rolling his eyes, James said, “Well, you’re getting a rabbit now, whether you want it or not.”
Lily smiled and continued eating while the others moved on in the conversation. It was nice to have James for a friend, and not just because he was going to give her a pet rabbit. Since their fight about three weeks ago they had been spending more time together than ever, even if it was just doing homework together in the common room. James could actually be pretty funny sometimes, and he proved to be very adept in Transfiguration, which was not her strong suit. Every now and then she still caught him staring at her, but he never made a point of it anymore. In fact, more often that not, she was the one staring at him. She blushed guiltily as she remembered just such an incident happening yesterday afternoon as they were working on their Charms essays. She had finished hers in no time and was left helping James with his. She had gotten so caught up in watching him write that Alice had had to call her name about five times before she realized she was trying to get her attention. Thankfully, Alice hadn’t said anything about it in front of James, but other people were beginning to notice too, and it wouldn’t be long until the whole school was gossiping about how Lily Evans fancied James Potter. I don’t fancy him! she firmly told herself. There is no way that I like him as anything more than a friend! He’s just fun to hang out with is all. So what if he’s handsome and has amazing hazel eyes; that doesn’t mean that I like him!
The Seventh Years stayed in the Great Hall for a little while longer, laughing and chatting, until it was almost time to leave for Hogsmeade. Hurrying back up to their dormitories, they all grabbed their hats and coats before heading out into the snow. As they roamed from store to store, the merry bunch was aware that at the same time next year they might all be scattered throughout the country, but they kept having fun anyway. Later in the day, they began to break off into smaller groups to get their various errands done, promising to meet back up at the Three Broomsticks when they had finished. Alice and Frank wandered off to Madame Puddifoot’s, while May and Ginger stopped in at Honeydukes’.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to get a Christmas gift for Dumbledore,” Lily said to James as they, Remus, and Sirius were left walking through the snow. “Did you want to go in on something with me and give him a present from both Heads?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he answered. “What did you have in mind?”
She scrunched up her nose and said, “Well, I had a thought, but I’m not exactly sure how we would go about getting it.”
“Fine, leave us too,” Sirius called as the two turned down a side street away from him and Remus.
Turning around, James called back, “We’ve got something to do. We’ll see you later.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius said, waiving them off. “Just don’t forget about us.”
An hour later, with their purchase firmly in hand, Lily and James made their way back outside into the cold. The snow was now solidly packed down from all the foot traffic through the village, though flakes were still falling. As a result, the steps down from the shop were a bit slippery, and Lily almost lost her footing.
“Careful,” James said as he grabbed her hand to steady her.
“Thanks,” she said as they slowly made their way down the remaining steps.
Instead of letting her hand go when they reached the bottom, James held on tight to it. It was like their hands were stuck together with glue. He either couldn’t let go or wouldn’t; he couldn’t tell the difference. He only knew that they felt perfect together, like he knew they would. Continuing on down the street as if nothing had happened, James firmly walked towards the main stretch of town, hoping against hope that Lily wouldn’t suddenly decide that she hated him again, wrench her hand out of his, and start yelling at him loudly enough for the younger students at Hogwarts to hear. He honestly hadn’t planned this at all, but had just gone with his gut reaction to the feeling of her hand in his.
Lily stared straight ahead, a little mystified as to what had just happened. Was James Potter really holding her hand? She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. There were a few butterflies in her stomach and her breath was a little short, but she wasn’t going crazy with nervousness like that time at the end of Sixth Year when he had tried to kiss her. It definitely wasn’t a bad feeling though. In fact, a warm glow was beginning to spread throughout her body. This was nice.
James cleared his throat and asked, “Do you want to walk around for a little bit? We’ve still got some time before we need to meet the others at the Three Broomsticks. Or are you too cold?”
“No,” Lily replied quickly. She barely felt the cold anymore at all.
James’s face fell when he heard the negative reply, thinking that she didn’t want to prolong their time together. Realizing her mistake, Lily hurriedly said, “No, I’m not too cold!” She could feel her cheeks turn red as she said, “A “ A walk sounds like a good idea.”
“Oh, ok,” he said, visibly relieved.
We’re just walking together, Lily thought to herself, trying to rationalize their behavior. There’s nothing wrong with that. We walk through Hogwarts all the time together on patrols. We’re friends. Friends walk together… Ok, maybe friends don’t hold hands, but it’s not like we’re snogging or anything.
James led them slowly down to the edge of town where the forest began. Weaving his fingers together with hers, he momentarily decided to show her a ridge in the forest that gave a spectacular view of the valley below.
“Come on,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
“In the woods?” she asked, a little confused.
“Yeah,” James answered back. “It’s this place I found up on one of those ridges that has a really nice view. We should have time to go see it before we need to meet everyone.”
“Ok,” she agreed and they turned to enter the white-filled woods.
The sounds from the village slowly died away, leaving a peaceful stillness broken only by the crunch of the snow under their feet. Suddenly sunlight filtered in through the tree branches as the snow clouds momentarily drifted apart, making the snow sparkle and the forest seem otherworldly.
Invigorated by the cold air and the beauty around them, they began to climb up the beginning of the ridge. About halfway up, James reluctantly let go of Lily’s hand when it became too difficult to walk side by side. He didn’t remember it being this much of a hike, but then again, he had never actually come up here as a human, only as Prongs. Just as they began to huff and puff from their exertions, they reached the spot James had been thinking of. Reaching the crest of the hill, they stepped over the side and carefully made their way down sideways a couple of steps to a ridge that jutted out to the side. Stepping out first onto the short ledge, James extended his hand for Lily to use as she hopped across to join him.
The ledge had been perfect for a stag the size of Prongs, but now it barely held the two of them. Slipping a hand around her waist, James pulled Lily a little closer towards him and away from the edge.
“Sorry, I forgot how tiny this ledge was,” he said. “I’ve only ever come up here by myself before.”
Hearing the honesty in his voice, Lily replied, “That’s ok. It’s an incredible view.”
And it was. The valley down below was dotted with pine trees and a small lake whose frozen surface glittered from the sun’s bright rays. Off to the left there was a small cottage with smoke coming out of its chimney, and on the far side of the valley Lily could just make out a couple of deer stripping some trees of their bark.
“It’s just like a picture out of a story book,” she said.
They stood there for a few moments, taking it all in. After a while, Lily began to feel a crick in her neck from staring in one direction for too long. When she turned her gaze she was surprised to feel James’s breath on the side of her face. Already warm from standing so close to him, but not wanting to make her neck sore, Lily stayed how she was and tried to ignore the heat that was passing through her body.
No longer paying attention to the scenery either, James was simply aware of Lily standing next to him. If he leaned forward he would be able to smell her hair, which he was sure would smell like some kind of flower, probably even a lily. Once again he hadn’t planned for them to get this close, it was just the circumstances. He didn’t think he’d be able to just let this one slip by either. Forget just being friends for the time being; he might never be this close to Lily for such a long period of time again. He slowly edged her closer with his arm and then put both hands on her hips.
As her insides exploded in anxiety, Lily looked up at James, whose hazel eyes were not staring back into her own, but were clouded over and gazing at her lips. She thought her heart was going to thud its way out of her chest as he started to lean down. Not sure what to do, she put her hands on his chest.
“Maybe we should go back,” she said, stopping him right before he kissed her.
Snapping out of it, James looked up in surprise.
Blushing, she looked away and said, “It’s probably almost time to meet everyone at the Three Broomsticks, and we still have to climb back down.”
“Right,” he said gruffly, straightening up and abruptly letting her go.
Lily guiltily turned around and climbed off the ledge. James followed behind her and they made their way back down to Hogsmeade in an awkward silence, both of them lost in thought.
Lily had never seen James look so disappointed before, and she felt horrible for being the cause of his unhappiness. Should she have let him kiss her? They were supposed to be just friends like they had agreed upon at the beginning of the school year, but it was clear that he still liked her as far more than a friend. He had never asked her out though, which she thought she should give him credit for. The fact that he had been acting like himself and not the prat he used to be made Lily question if he really had liked her all along since that moment in Fourth Year when he first asked her out. He couldn’t have genuinely liked her for that long when she had totally despised him, could he?
Lily was still deep in thought when they arrived at the Three Broomsticks. Thankfully, their other friends were too distracted to notice the tension between James and herself. As soon as they walked in, Ginger pulled them over to the table, excitedly chattering about something they just had to see for themselves.
“You won’t believe it!” she said, leading them to the back where all of their friends were gathered around a table.
“What’s the big news?” Lily asked everyone.
“Poor Frank has signed his life away,” Sirius said, bemoaning his friend’s fate.
May gave him a reproving look and said. “He has not. He’s just made the best decision of his life.”
“I thought you were becoming an Auror, Frank,” James said in confusion.
“I am,” he said, chuckling. “It’s Alice who’s becoming something different.”
Having a hunch, Lily looked for Alice’s hands, but one was held by Frank and the other was under the table.
“Alice,” Lily said, smiling determinedly, “show me your hands.”
Alice shyly removed her hand from Frank’s and showed her friend the diamond that was sitting on her ring finger.
“They’re engaged!” Ginger shrieked excitedly, unable to keep the secret any longer.
Lily leapt around the table to hug Alice, while James shook hands with Frank.
“I’m so happy for you!” Lily said. “Congratulations! I never thought it would be this soon!”
“I know,” Alice said. “But I think it’s the perfect time. We won’t get married until Frank is finished with his training.”
James watched as the girls chattered on for a bit longer and wondered if he and Lily would be announcing the same thing in about a year. If he was ever to marry anyone, it would be her, but after today who knew? At least she didn’t slap me again, he thought. He had been risking a lot trying to kiss her again, and he was slightly surprised that she didn’t react more strongly than she had. Lily hadn’t even seemed mad about it. That must be good, right?
Maybe. Maybe they would always be just friends, and she would never like him as anything more than that. Why else would she have stopped him today? He didn’t know how much longer he could do this if that was the case. Was there any hope for him at all or should he just give up?
Suddenly Lily glanced over at him, catching his eye. For a split second he swore there was a look of apology in her eyes before, blushing, she turned her attention back to May, who had been talking. What did that mean? James let out a sigh and tried to block out the confusing knot of emotions that was threatening to take over. He couldn’t think about this too much. Otherwise, he had a feeling he would be doing something that he would later regret a whole lot more than a simple kiss.
Stronger Together by Pevensies_Pensieve
Chapter Notes: It seems like it's two steps forward and one step back for Lily and James as they take a walk through Hogsmeade.