Their eyes locked. Lily didn’t fight him, still stunned. James didn’t know what to do or say. Then, suddenly, he heard footsteps, getting louder and closer. Lily’s eyes grew wider as she realised what was happening.
James put his finger to his lips, and picked up his cloak again, wrapping it around the both of them. Lily motioned to pick up her books, but James stopped her, and shook his head. “Get them tomorrow,” he mouthed. Lily hesitated, then nodded.
They began to move quickly out of the library. They were almost at the door, when suddenly Filch, the caretaker, appeared in the door-frame. Lily gasped, but luckily Filch didn’t hear her. They were right in front of him, only three metres away. James put his hand around Lily’s waist, and began to move slowly to the side. Lily moved with him, neither of them daring to breathe.
Filch took a step into the room, looking around acidly. James knew that Filch’s greatest ambition was to catch a student disobeying any of the school rules and have him or her expelled. Mrs. Norris, his cat, seemed to be a female feline version of Filch, and would hurry off to him should she ever catch a student doing wrong.
Lily looked up at James, pure terror in her eyes. He looked back at her, trying to telepathically tell her that it would be all right.
They waited with baited breath for what seemed like hours for Filch to leave. The darkness of the Library added to the tension, and James felt like the wind outside was whispering its disapproval.
Mrs. Norris came within inches of James’s foot, then Filch began to walk away and she followed. James turned to Lilly. “Wait,” he mouthed. They slowly and softly crept out the door. James suddenly saw Filch at the bottom of the staircase they were about to go down. He stopped Lily again, and pointed down another set of stairs. They moved swiftly, further and further away from Filch, until they were positive that he was nowhere near them.
They slowed down. James looked at Lily out of the corner of his eyes. She was looking at the floor. She turned to him.
“Lily I’m really sorry for what I said, and I know you’re mad and…”
“Thanks for coming to get me, I would have been in so much trouble…”
They both spoke at the same time. They laughed softly.
“Let me go first,” said James. “I want you to know that-” he stopped, and looked around.
“We’re lost,” Lily stopped too.
They were in a corridor with paintings of fruit. James grinned. “No we’re not -- this way.” He led her to a large painting of a big bowl of fruit. He reached up and tickled the pear. It gave a small giggle, wobbled a little bit, and then the painting swung open. Lily just stared.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“You’ll see in a minute,” James replied.
************************************************
They stepped into a huge, brightly-lit room, with four long tables. A blazing fire on the right wall flooded the whole room with warmth, and an immense feeling of security. James threw off the cloak.
Lily looked at him. “We’re in the kitchen?” she asked incredulously. About twenty house elves rushed over to them.
“Mr. Potter!”
“So good to see you again!”
“Let us get something for you to eat, Mr. Potter!”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “And I’m assuming you’ve been here before,” she rolled her eyes. “Outstanding leadership skills Potter, breaking how many rules?”
James stopped smiling. “Lily, come on, please, can we just have some fun?” He looked at her. She was trying not to smile. He grinned, and grabbed her hand. “Come on.” She let him lead her to a table the house-elves had set up in front of the fire.
The elves had set the table complete with a table cloth, knives, forks and a flower in a vase in the centre. As Lily and James sat down, they placed a jug of pumpkin juice and two goblets on the table. Lily laughed nervously.
“How did you find this place?” she asked.
James poured the pumpkin juice. “Sirius and I found it about two years ago. We were out trying to find the Slytherin common room one night, so we could hex Snape…” Lily raised her eyebrows again. James swallowed nervously, and decided to skip the details. “And, uh, someone almost caught us, and one of the portraits told us to come here. We didn’t know it was the kitchen at time. But, it’s always been handy.”
Lily looked at him, flabbergasted, then began to laugh. James didn’t know what he’d said that was so funny, but enjoyed the sight of her laughing. She never seemed to laugh much. “I just can’t believe I’m sitting at a table, having dinner, and a civilised conversation with James Potter. Why are you wasting your time with someone like me?”
James’s heart flopped.
The house-elves brought them dinner. They had both missed it tonight, and were famished. They ate in silence for a few minutes. Someone like me … Someone like what? James thought. Smart, pretty, genuine, kind, sensible, talented…there were many reasons why I'm "wasting" my time with her. It had just taken him a few years to realise how much he wanted it.
She had been right. He was arrogant, and egotistical. Had he always been so proud? He looked at her, and she smiled, and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. James drank some pumpkin juice too, to clear his throat.
“Look Lily, about today, I really have to tell you how sorry I am.” She looked at him blankly. “Cause, ahem, uh, I’m…I’m really sorry.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, then said, “I know you are.” She sighed, “and I’m sorry too.”
James looked up, surprised. “I’m too harsh. I-I shouldn’t have told you apologise to Snape or anything. It’s not my place. I shouldn’t have interfered.”
James shook his head. “No, Lily, I-I’m glad you did. I mean, it was wrong what I did, and I promise I won’t do it again. You really woke me up, I had never…never realised what I was like, how I was acting. Please, can we be friends?”
She was silent again. Then a small smile crept onto her face. “I think we can.” She raised her glass, as if making a toast. He picked up his goblet, and they clinked together. They each took a sip.
When they finally decided to leave the toasty warmth of the kitchen, the house-elves insisted they take with them a huge pile of pastries with them. They both thanked the elves profusely, Lily seemed to enjoy it.
Friends. It was settled then. They would be friends. Friends…why didn’t that satisfy him? Because he liked her. Friends were people he had fun with, who he laughed with, and got up to no good with. He wanted more than that with Lily. He wished the night could go on a bit longer.
Clutching the invisibility cloak tightly around them, they walked back to the common room in silence; neither really knew what to say. Before long, they were at there. They whispered the password “Chudley Cannons” and climbed through the portrait hole. James pulled the invisibility cloak off them. Lily turned to him. “Thanks, James, I…I had fun,” she smiled warmly.
“Yeah. It was good,” was all he could reply. Lily flushed.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“Yeah. That’d be good.” Yeah? Good? Was that all he could say to her?
She smiled shyly, and turned to go up the spiral staircase to the girl’s bedroom. James stopped her. “Wait “ Lily,” his voice was hoarse. He cleared it. She turned back to face him. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Look, I…I don’t think this ‘friends’ thing is going to work out between us,” He said quietly, his eyes studying the intricacy of the pattern on the carpet.
Her face dropped. “Oh...okay ... ” she trailed off. Her eyes were sad. She looked hurt. There was more silence. He saw her take a breath, as if to say something, but she hesitated, then, “um…why not?”
James was searching for words. He couldn’t describe it. “Because…” He didn’t know what to say, so he did something else.
He took her hand, bent down, and kissed her. Softly. On the lips. His stomach felt like it had thousands of bubbles floating around in it, and were all bursting happily.
It felt right.
As he pulled away, Lily looked up at him through her long, dark, eyelashes, surveying his face. He wasn’t joking. He grinned at her, and she smiled back.
“Good night, Lily.”
“Good night, James.”