Lily woke up as she was walloped in the head with a pillow. As soft as pillows are, they can be surprisingly painful. Lily pulled her covers up over her head, trying to ignore her friends as they battered her with pillows. After a few minutes, she surrendered, realizing that they were not about to give up. She sat up in bed just as Emma swung a pillow towards her head. Seeing that she was awake, Emma tried to pull back, but was already to far into her swing. The pillow connected with Lily’s face and she fell backwards.
“Ow,” Lily said as she sat up again, rubbing her injured nose.
“Oh my God, Lily, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, I mean, you sat up, it wasn’t supposed to hit your face,” Emma said frantically.
“It’s all right, Em,” Lily said. “It hurt, thanks to all your bloody Quidditch muscles, but it’s all right.”
“I’m really not that strong,” Emma protested.
“Don’t be silly, Emma. You’re beastly,” Kylie said.
“You were the only girl on the team in second year!” Jess added.
Emma smiled and shrugged. “I know. I’m amazing. I was just trying to be modest.” All the girls laughed.
“Now, may I ask why you all decided to wake me up in such a horrid way?” Lily asked her friends.
“You overslept,” Kylie said simply.
“Overslept for what?”
“Hogsmeade’s today,” Jess informed her.
“Oh, bollocks!” Lily stood, forgetting she was still on her bed, hit her head on the canopy, and tumbled onto the floor. “What time is it?” she asked quickly, standing up and running a hand through her tangled hair to straighten it some. She tried to take a step forward, but her feet were wrapped up in her blankets, so she fell yet again to the floor.
Her three friends were laughing hysterically at this point and were incapable of telling her the time. Lily squinted at the clock on the wall trying to see the skinny hands.
“Guys, please. Someone tell me what time it is. I haven’t put my eyes in yet!”” Lily pleaded with her friends.
“Why don’t you just wear you glasses, Lily? They’re cute,” Emma said.
“They bother me,” Lily told her. “What time is it?”
Kylie glanced at the wall. “10:15.”
“Shit! Why didn’t you lot wake me up earlier?” Lily screamed as she ran into the bathroom to put her contacts in and get ready.
“We’re leaving, Lily. We’ll all be downstairs, standing around, waiting for you. But don’t worry, take you time,” Jess called to her. The three girls filed downstairs to meet the Marauders and head off to Hogsmeade once Lily was ready.
Lily raced around the dormitory trying to get ready as fast as she could, which still took a good twenty minutes. She paused just before leaving the dormitory to make sure she didn’t look like she was just running around. She closed the door behind her and went out to the top of the stairs. Her eyes quickly scanned the room and spotted James seated in an armchair facing the stairs waiting for her. She gave him a smile and his eyes got wide. She smiled even wider at his reaction. Apparently the outfit she had ended up with was a good one. She was wearing a jeans miniskirt, a tight rust-colored t-shirt, and a fitted white zippered sweatshirt which she had zipped up halfway. Her hair was tied loosely over one shoulder, but there were a few strands hanging loose and framing her face. She tucked one strand behind her ear and ran lightly down the stairs.
James stood up to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. “Hi,” he breathed. “You look amazing.”
Lily smiled. “Thanks. So do you.”
James looked down at her t-shirt and jeans and looked at her doubtfully.
“You always look amazing,” she assured him.
“So do you,” he whispered in her ear and kissed the top of her head. Lily hugged him, but didn’t let go.
“So, where did everybody go?” Lily asked, looking around the room. They were the only two there.
“I told them to go ahead. We’re supposed to meet them at the Three Broomsticks. I said I’d wait for you here, and there was no real reason for them to wait.”
“Ok. Let’s go then,” Lily said.
“Well, that’s not the only reason,” James said quietly.
Lily looked up at him. She had to look up, of course, because he was so much taller than her. He smiled at her.
“And what would that other reason be?” she inquired.
“Do I really have to say it?” James asked.
Lily stood up on her tiptoes so she was closer to him. “Not at all,” she whispered, and leaned into James’ sturdy chest. She stared at his beautifully shaped lips. Her pulse quickened as James tightened his arms around her waist. He leaned down so their lips were almost touching.
“But I will,” he said softly. “I wanted to be alone with you.” And then he pressed his mouth over hers. Lily closed her eyes as she kissed him. Her knees almost gave out, and if he wasn’t holding her, she would have fallen for sure.
Lily circled one arm around his neck, and she gently cupped his cheek in the other hand. James let one arm free of her waist and placed it on the back of her neck, pulling her deeper into the kiss, and Lily absently let one hand drift up into James’ beautiful dark hair. She freed her hand from James’ hair and let it slide down onto his chest. She shivered as she felt his hardened muscles from years of playing Quidditch.
Lily pushed James away gently after a while. It was getting a little out of hand.
“What’s up?” James asked.
“They’re probably already waiting for us,” she said.
“So? They’re smart kids. It’s not like they’ll think we got lost. They’re probably already making bets.”
Lily smiled. “Come on. There’s only a few Hogsmeade visits a semester.”
“We can go anytime. You know that,” James reminded her.
“Yes, but we can only go at night, and none of the shops are open then,” she pointed out. “And besides, we have patrol duties later.”
“And what does that mean?” James asked.
Lily shrugged and winked at him. James grinned. “What good role models we make.”
A bell on the doorframe rang as James opened the door to the Three Brooksticks and he and Lily walked in. It was crowded, and nearly every table was full. James held onto Lily’s hand as he pushed his way through the crowd to get to the back table where the others sat.
“We didn’t expect you two so soon,” Kylie said when she saw Lily and James.
Lily just smiled and shrugged. She and James sat down next to Emma and Kylie. Remus, Sirius, Jess, and Peter sat on the other side of the table.
When they sat down, James put his arm around Lily’s shoulder. He leaned over and whispered into her ear,” This is the table I sat at in third year on our first Hogsmeade visit, the day I first asked you out. Do you remember?”
“How could I forget?” Lily asked.
Lily and her three friends Kylie, Jess, and Emma walked through Hogsmeade, theirs eyes wide with the excitement of the day. They had already been to Zonko’s and the Shrieking Shack, and were slowly winding their way through the town in the general direction of the castle, almost ready to end their day.
“Hey, do you guys want to stop in here for a drink before we go back?” Emma asked, pointing at the Three Broomsticks.
The other three nodded and they went inside. They place was almost empty. Barely five tables were full, but the girls chose to sit near the back.
“The Shrieking Shack looked dreadful, didn’t it?” Kylie asked and shuddered. “Spooky place.”
Jess nodded her agreement.
Lily shrugged. “I’d sort of like to see the inside of it. They house itself looked like it would be really pretty.”
Emma’s eyes widened. “Are you mental? That’s the most haunted place in Great Britain! Why, why would you ever want to go in there?” she squeaked.
“Oh, come on. Do you guys really believe it’s haunted?” Lily questioned.
The others nodded.
Lily sighed. “Well, even if it is, I don’t care much. I’d still like to see the inside. I’m sure it’s beautiful.”
“She is mental!” Jess said to the other two.
Lily tried to smile at them, but was inhibited by a rather large yawn.
“Why are you so tired Lily?” Kylie asked.
“I stayed up last night to do that Divination homework we had,” she explained.
“Lily, that’s not due until Wednesday!” Jess reminded her.
“I know, but I’ve been swamped with homework lately, so I need to do it when I can.”
“It’s your own fault, you know. You don’t really have to do all your homework,” Emma said.
“Yes I do!” Lily said defensively. “I have to! Otherwise I’d be failing half my classes right now.”
“Methinks she doth protest too much,” Emma quoted.
“Verily. And methinks she doth say it requireth so much time but she knoweth differently,” Kylie said, attempting at the Shakespearean language and failing horribly.
“Indeed, she doth hardly sleep or eat for all her work,” Jess commented.
“Methink you are but a bunch of filthy knaves for gossiping about thine friend in such a way,” Lily said, slamming her mug down on the table in mock anger.
“Nay, I must disagree with thee, dearest friend. It cannot be named as gossip whilst thou art before us,” Jess said. “But indeed, we are lowly brigands.”
“What about fiends?” Emma asked.
“Scoundrels!” Kylie shouted loudly, slamming her own cup on the table in imitation of Lily. With that, all four girls burst into gales of laughter. At the same time, they heard a loud crash from two tables over, at the very back, and silence dropped over the entire room like a blanket. The girls turned their attention to two tables in the back.
They were two tables of boys, third years all. Two of them were standing, wands drawn. A chair was lying on the floor a few feet back from one boy. Lily recognized one as a Slytherin, and the other as Sirius Black.
“Sit down, Black,” the Slytherin hissed, “before I have to hurt you.”
“You could try,” Black corrected him.
“You’re a disgrace, Black. How do you call yourself a pureblood?”
“I generally don’t, just a wizard. What do you call yourself, a piece of shit?”
By this time the other boys had stood and drawn their own wands, so there were now three boys behind each of them. Lily’s pulse quickened as she noticed one of the boys behind Sirius was James Potter. She watched him intently as he glared at the Slytherin insulting his friend. The fiery look in his hazel eyes was terrifying, but attractive at the same time. However, Lily did not get to admire the look in James’ eyes for long, because the whole student body inside the Three Broomsticks at that time, pitifully small though the number was, had encircled the eight boys, blocking them from Lily’s view, being as short as she was.
“Can you guys see anything?” she asked. “What’s going on?” All four girls stood up, trying to see over the crowd.
“I can’t see a thing!” Emma said.
“I can see someone’s head,” Jess informed them.
“Whose?” Kylie asked.
Jess shrugged.
“This is ridiculous,” Lily said, pushing her chair up against the table and stepping up. She held onto the back of the chair and stretched up on her toes. Still unsuccessful, she climbed onto the table and stood there amidst mugs of butterbeer, watching the scene below.
“LIly!” Kylie squealed. “You can’t do that!”
“Sure I can,” Lily answered. “And now I can see.”
“So tell us what’s going on,” Jess demanded.
“Well, Sirius Black and some Slytherin boy seem to be shouting at each other. They’re wands are out. I think they’re going to duel!” Lily forgot she was supposed to be enlightening her friends as the two boys began screaming and shooting hexes at one another. They shouted curse after curse, ducking and dodging as ill-fated flashes of colored light flew at them.
Lily heard Black yell “Protego!” over all the other shouts and cries in the room. She saw him duck just in time as a red beam of light shot over his head and hit someone behind him.
“Lily!” Emma screamed. “What’s happening?”
“Black just tried to cast a Protego spell!”
“Did it work?” Jess asked.
“No, but he was really, very close.”
“Bloody hell. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that in my life, and here he is trying it in third year,” Kylie muttered.
“Protego!” Sirius shouted again, louder this time, and a translucent beam left his wand.
“He did it! He did it! He put up a shield!” Lily shouted to her friends. Then, a few things happened very fast.
First, Lily realized a spell had ricocheted off the shield and was heading right at her. She screamed and tried to step aside, but her foot connected with a mug, spilling butterbeer all over the table. She tried to put her foot down, but slipped on the spilled liquid. She fell backwards, almost in slow motion, and she windmilled her arms but it did no good. She managed to avoid the hex, but fell completely off the table, hit her head hard on the floor, and blacked out.
Lily groaned. Her head felt like it was being sawed in half. She couldn’t seem to get her thoughts all together, and it was too much effort to open her eyes. She tried to say something, but couldn’t find her voice. She heard a voice, however. A boy’s voice, and she felt like she was moving, being carried somewhere.
“Is she going to be ok?” the voice asked. She knew that voice, and she loved it. She tried to speak and say that she was ok, but still couldn’t speak.
The sway of motion and the body warmth from the person carrying her caused her to drift off again.
The next time she woke up, she was in a bed. There were red curtains around the bed, but they weren’t closed all the way. She groaned and rolled over to see Kylie sitting next to the bed.
“Lily!” she squealed.
Lily smiled through the sharp pain in her head. “Did the hospital wing get new curtains?”
“You’re not in the hospital wing,” Kylie sad. She let the sentence hang, although she knew Lily was going to ask where she was.
“So where am I?”
“A dormitory,” Kylie said evasively.
“Not ours,” Lily said.
“No.”
“So whose?”
Kylie looked away. She cleared her throat. “The Marauders’.”
Lily blinked a few times. “Um, why?” Lily asked, her face already getting red. That meant that James Potter slept in this dormitory, along with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, but they weren’t really important. James Potter. She was in James Potter’s room.
“Well, because, we were all worried about you, and we didn’t want them to get in trouble. And you’re not really hurt that bad, you just had to rest for a while and we couldn’t carry you up to our room and they obviously can’t get up the stairs, and they felt really bad that you got hurt, so they wanted to help and now you’re here,” she said quickly, all in one breath.
“They being,” Lily asked for clarification.
“The Marauders.”
“Of course. What time is it?”
“It’s almost nine,” Kylie answered.
“I missed dinner then?” Lily asked as her stomach growled.
“Everyone just went down to the kitchens to get you some food.”
“Everyone?”
“Emma, Jess, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James. Everyone,” Kylie said again. “We’re going to have a party.”
“Oh joy.”
“Oh, Lily, they just want to help.”
Lily opened her mouth to say that if they really wanted help they could have put her in her own room, but the door swung open and all six third years stood in the doorway, their arms laden with food.
“You’re awake!” Emma yelled. All the others grinned in relief. Lily glanced at all their faces and lingered just a moment too long on James. He looked relieved, like the others, but there was something more in his eyes.
Lily looked away and inspected everyone’s loads. “What did you lot bring me?”
“Some of everything,” Jess told her. “I was in charge.”
“Of course you were,” Lily smiled.
They all dropped an assortment of cakes and sweets onto the floor. Lily looked at the pile on the floor. “Very healthy, Jess.”
Jess grinned and shrugged. “What were you expecting?”
Lily hopped off her bed and sifted through the pile, finally grabbing a cauldron cake. The others took this as their cue to dig in, and they all sat around on the floor pigging out until the stack was gone.
“So, are you always such a klutz, or is it just when me and James are around?” Sirius asked her jokingly.
“It’s typical,” Lily answered, laughing. “Last week I actually walked straight into a door. Fell over backwards onto my bum and everything.”
“Graceful one you are,” James teased.
Lily nodded. “I can’t help it. I’ve never had really good balance.”
“I think you’re a bit off balance, Lily,” Jess said.
“Hey! At least I don’t eat 24/7,” Lily said.
“How dare you!” Jess pretended to be insulted.
“Maybe if you ate more, you would be weighed down and wouldn’t fall over so much,” James laughed.
Lily looked at him. He smiled at her, and she noticed his left cheek bone was bruised. Impulsively, she reached out and brushed it with her fingertips. Her fingers tingled, and she pulled back quickly. “What’s that from?” she asked.
James shrugged adn avoided her eyes. “Quidditch, probably.”
Lily nodded, not really believing him. After that, she tried to avoid him for the rest of the night. She had to work hard not to meet his eyes, but she was afraid of what she might find there. Afraid she would like everything she saw. Afraid she would do something rash. So, although it hurt her to avoid him, she ignored him for the rest of the night while she laughed and joked with all the others.
When Remus announced that he was going to bed, the girls followed his lead.
Kylie, Jess, Emma, and Lily stood up to go back to their own dormitory.
“Thanks everyone, for this nutritional meal,” Lily said.
"No problem. And listen, Lily. I’m really sorry, about nearly hitting you and all. When your dueling, you know, you don’t really worry about what’s around you. You’re more preoccupied with not getting hit yourself,” Sirius said.
“It’s all right. Thanks for bringing me back to the castle.”
“Shut up and leave already!” A pillow flew from across the room from Remus’ direction.
“Sorry! Good night everyone!” Lily said, and the girls walked out the door into the dark hallway. The couldn’t really see anything, but Lily took a step and bumped into someone.
“What are you doing? Go!” she heard Kylie say.
“Sorry! It’s dark,” Emma hissed.
“Really, Em? I hadn’t noticed?” Jess said from in front of Lily, but she stepped forward. Lily started to take a step, but heard someone call her.
“Lily?” James whispered.
“Potter?”
“Yeah. Listen, I don’t know if I said anything that offended you, or did anything, but I wanted to know why you stopped talking to me. If I said something, I didn’t mean to, and, I’m sorry.”
“No, you didn’t say anything. I’m sorry, I just, well, I don’t know really, but you didn’t, I mean, I don’t know, but you didn’t do anything,” Lily babbled without really saying anything at all.
“Well then, I was thinking. Maybe you’d like to go out sometime?” he asked.
Lily felt her face flush. “Oh, well, I can’t. Right now, I need to focus on my marks, and I can’t.”
“Right now? Does that mean later, maybe?” he asked hopefully.
Lily’s heart beat faster. He couldn’t be doing this to her. She had to say something, and quick. “No, Potter, I can’t. But it’s not you, it’s me.”
“I know it’s you I like. It’s you I want to take out,” James said softly.
Lily closed her eyes, hoping it was dark enough that he couldn’t see how red her face was. She clenched her fists. She couldn’t give in now.
“Damnit, Potter! Listen, I said no!” and Lily ran down the stairs, her eyes burning with tears.