Chapter 17: The Morning After
James awoke suddenly and unusually. He was sure that something had woken him subconsciously, but he couldn’t work out what it was. Everyone else was asleep. He let it go and sank back down into his pillows, putting his arm around a sleeping Lily.
Lily?
He realised with a start what it was that had woken him, and jumped out of his bed. “Lily!” he whispered, shaking her. “Lily, wake up!”
Lily opened a bleary eye to regard James. “Mm?” she asked sleepily. Then she remembered where she was. She jumped further than James had. “What am I still doing in your bed, James? What if someone saw me?” She clambered out of the bed and landed with a thump on the ground by James’s feet. Someone woke at the noise.
“James?” It was Remus. “Is it time for breakfast yet?”
“No Moony, go back to sleep.” He gave Lily a sly shove with his foot to encourage her further under his bed.
Remus didn’t look too convinced. He sent a wary glance around the dormitory. “What was that noise?”
“Oh, nothing. I dropped something. Sorry if it woke you, go back to sleep."
“Nah, I’m awake now. Besides,” he looked at his watch. “It’s not that long until breakfast.” He shook himself from his blankets, stood from his bed, and made his way to the wash basin at the opposite end of the dormitory, where he proceeded to splash his face vigorously with cold water, making a wet mess all over the floor.
In the time it took Remus to do this, James had pulled a nervous Lily from under his bed and rushed her to the door, where he pushed her out of it, and, giving her a cheeky grin and a wink, shut it closed in front of her.
Remus finished splashing water on his face and turned to face James. “It’s a nice day. Fancy a walk before breakfast?”
“Sure,” James said absent-mindedly. His mind was still on the feel of Lily’s warm body next to his.
***
Lily wasn’t sure how she was going to explain her absence from her bed to the rest of the dormitory. She was well known to be a late riser, waking only just in time for breakfast. She climbed the girls’ staircase and hoped this was true of the rest of them. If they were still asleep she could slip in unnoticed.
They weren’t. Lily could hear chatter coming form her room, and cursing her bad luck, she entered the dormitory and shut the door behind her. The girls were all awake and sitting sleepily in their beds chatting. Sarah Tyas gave Lily a questioning stare. “Where’ve you been?” she asked curiously. Lily gulped.
She couldn’t think of an excuse. At the same time, she didn’t want to tell some of these girls where she had really been: Seventh Year Gryffindor girls were known as the gossips of the school. It would be everywhere by breakfast, and all of it would be exaggerated.
Yves cut into her mumbling. “She’s just been for a refreshing walk in the morning dew. Right, Lils?”
Lily stared. “Uh, yeah. I couldn’t sleep last night.” It was sort of true.
‘A walk?’ she thought to herself. ‘In my pyjamas? Nice one, Yves’
Yves grabbed her by the wrist. “Get dressed!” she hissed at her. “Meet me in the common room.”
Yves left the dormitory. Lily rushed to her bed, threw on her uniform hastily, grabbed her books for her three lessons, and hurried to meet her.
“Where did you go?” Yves asked as soon as she set foot at the bottom of the stairs. “You were gone all night! You didn’t…” she trailed off, one eyebrow raised questioningly. Lily finished the sentence for her.
“Stay in James’s bed all night? Yeah, I did… I didn’t mean to!” she added to Yves’s shocked expression. “We fell asleep!”
Yves stared at her, and then burst into a fit of hysterics. “Oh, wait until this gets out!”
“Yves! You can’t tell anyone!”
“Why not? I mean, I won’t if you don't want me too, but it’s hardly the shock of the century, it’s sweet! You are his girlfriend, you know.
“That’s what he said…it’s just I don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”
"You worry too much!"
Lily smiled. "True..." She trailed off.
"What are smiling about?" Yves asked, knowing full well what the answer was.
Lily tapped her nose anyway, her thoughts on James lying next to her.
"Come on, I'm hungry," Yves said.
They left the common room arm in arm, discussing James all the way to breakfast.
***
James and Remus met the others in the Great Hall for breakfast after their walk. James sat down next to Sirius, and opposite, through no fault of his own, to Lily and Yves. They giggled as he sat down. Were they laughing at him? Was it all a joke to Lily? He wasn’t too keen on the idea that she and Yves had been giggling about him all morning.
But as he reached across to get the milk for his cereal, Lily caught his eye and smiled warmly at him. The knot in his chest relaxed. It was a beautiful smile.
After ten minutes of idle chatter, Sirius broke into Lily’s conversation with Yves. “So, Miss Evans, how was your night? Mine was rather…” he searched for the right word. “Choppy.” He took a bite of his bacon sandwich innocently.
Lily and James looked at each other instantly and Lily turned red. However she kept her composure as she asked, “Oh dear, why was that?”
Sirius smiled falsely. “Funny you should ask. Well, you see, I was disturbed in the night, and became rather confused at how James’s voice seemed to keep switching from high and female-like to low and manly. It kept me awake in confusion, you know.” The humour in his voice was all too obvious.
Remus and Peter looked confused. “What on earth are you on about, Padfoot?” Remus asked.
Yves burst out laughing. “Lily was in James’s bed last night!”
“Yves!” Lily exclaimed.
“Oh, Lily, Sirius knew anyway. Don’t look so cross!”
Sirius put a hand on James, patting his shoulder. “Well, I had my strong suspicions. But they were confirmed when I found a pink dressing gown by James’s bed.” He smiled widely. “So… what were you two up to? Or do I not want to know?”
They all laughed apart from Lily, who just looked defiant. “Nothing happened, you know. And you’re all just going to have to get used to the fact that James and I are a couple now. So there.” There was a slight smile as she said this, although she tried to keep her superior stance. Everyone looked at her in surprise, not least of all was James.
“So we’re officially a couple now, are we?” he asked, grinning.
“Watch it,” she growled back at him, a glint in her eye. “Or no late night canoodling for you anymore!”
***
After breakfast, they had to endure a particularly long and dull double Transfiguration lesson, in which Professor McGonagall insisted on lecturing the class on the importance of creating a void in one’s mind in the novice of non-spoken transfiguration. Not surprisingly, James and Sirius were silently transfiguring their scrunched up parchments into tiny birds, which they fired after the girls directly in front of them. Most of them casually swatted the birds away without needing to look over their shoulders.
James sighed, “You know Padfoot, this was a lot more fun when it actually annoyed people.”
Sirius chortled. “Ok, then. Next lesson we'll sit somewhere else. But if you’re bored...“
He nonchalantly flicked his want at a lonely piece of parchment and immediately it transformed into a tiny blue bird, and with another wave of his wand, Sirius sent it soaring across the room towards McGonagall, whose back was turned as she was directing her wand to write on the board. The bird landed smoothly on her head and began picking away at her tightly bound hair.
The class erupted into laugher, and then immediately, as if anticipating a severe scolding, buried their heads in their copies of Silent Transfiguration: Transfiguration for the Mind.
McGonagall, however, merely continued to direct the chalk, and spoke with her back to the class. “If you think, Mr Black, that you are amusing, then I suggest you should take a long, hard look in the mirror. That should make you laugh. I am, however, pleased to see that you have mastered the art of silent transfiguration so quickly. If only all your energy was directed towards such productive ends.” She waved her hand, and the bird flew out of the open window, chirping happily as it soared towards its freedom.
The bell rang. McGonagall turned round to face the class. “Once you have finished copying down these notes, you may leave calmly. Homework is practical this week. I expect you to be able to transfigure silently by next week. I suggest you practice on small objects as we have been doing in class. I am sure that if you are having trouble, Mr Black will be only to happy to hold private tutoring sessions.”
The class made their way out; James and Sirius waited at the door for Peter. “Hurry up, Wormtail,” Sirius sighed. “Why do you always have to be last?”
Peter apologised quietly, and followed the lively duo out of the classroom. They were still laughing about McGonagall’s personal grooming device by the time they reached the Gryffindor Common room.
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: As the title suggests, this picks up the next morning when Lily and James's friends find out about their shenanagans! Hope you like it, please let me know what you think!