IN REALITY
“So what did Lily say about the gifts and notes I’ve been dropping on her bed these last two days?” James asked Gemma anxiously.
In his own defense, he was so anxious about this plan because it was the first well-thought-out plan he’d come up this school year. As of his sixth year, all his plans for getting the girl were usually spoilt one way or other by the Marauders. Mostly by accident, but still. And this year, after he and Lily had been made Head Boy and Head Girl respectively, he had finally managed to gain Lily’s trust and respect and (he hoped) liking. Well, at least now he was Lily’s friend. But he didn’t want to just be her friend. And it was ever so hard to guess what she was thinking. Gemma was damningly right: her eyes were so mysterious. He remembered someone saying once that eyes were the windows to one’s soul. Well, Lily definitely had blinds pulled shut behind those windows.
“For the thousandth time today, I don’t know, James! Lily doesn’t share her emotions and intriguing mail with Mary or me, for the last time,” Gemma exclaimed, waving her eagle feather quill around in annoyance, and nearly missing Sirius’s nose (“Oi, watch where you’re waving the quill, woman!”). “Now leave me alone, Potter, I need to complete this essay, or McGonagall’s going to have my skin.”
James sighed miserably and looked back at the wizarding chess set: he was playing against Remus Lupin. “Knight to E5,” he ordered.
“Don’t send me there, you lovesick fool,” the knight cried, brandishing his tiny sword. “Can’t you see his bishop over there?”
Remus couldn’t help but chuckle at what the knight said. James glared at him, hand running through his dark messy hair as he tried to concentrate on the game. At last, he burst out, “I give up! I can’t think!”
“And because James Potter abdicated, Remus Lupin is now the champion of this Chess competition!” Peter said, and he raised Remus’s hand. Remus, who was sitting down, gave an awkward looking bow.
James paid them no attention as he turned the Gemma. “Why doesn’t she share her thoughts, Gem?” he asked.
“I don’t know, James!” Gemma snapped.
“But you’ve been friends with her since””
“ ‘Being an Animagus is extremely useful, in the case of…’ ” Gemma recited loudly from her Transfiguration essay, purposefully ignoring James.
James suppressed a roar of frustration. It was a good thing he did, too, because Lily Evans was also in the common room, and although being deeply immersed in a book, she most certainly would have heard if James decided to throw a fit right there and then.
“What are you going to give her next?” Peter asked him.
“The best present of all,” James said, brightening up as he thought of his masterpiece. “Exactly what Gemma made me give her on Christmas day, in that little story, angel, snow and all. But Peter,” he turned to face his friend, “should I make her purposely catch me in the act, like what happened in the story, or what?”
Peter looked thrilled to be asked a question of such importance. “Well,” he pondered, “I think you shouldn’t.”
“Why?” Remus asked, taking an interest in the conversation. Sirius, seeing all of his friends deep in conversation, scooted a little closer so he could listen too.
“Because Lily might not take it too kindly that you’re actually in the girls’ dormitories. I mean, she might go crazy first, and ask questions later,” Peter said. “And by then, you may have already died.”
“He’s got a point, mate,” Sirius said. “Remember fourth year?”
They all shuddered, apart from Remus, who shook his head disapprovingly.
“I told you not to go up there, but you wouldn’t listen,” he said.
“You’re right, Wormtail, I shouldn’t stay in there,” James said, and clapped Peter on the shoulder. “Thanks.” Then he turned to Gemma and asked, “Gemma, could I ask you to do something for me?”
“Not unless someone helps me finish this god-damned essay!” Gemma snapped.
“Done!” James said, as he quickly looked at Remus.
“Oh no, you don’t,” the lycanthrope said, backing away. “You’re not going to make me do your dirty work for you, Potter. No way. Nothing in the world can make me do that.”
“How about I take you off your prefect duties for a while, hmmm? I know you’ve been very tired lately,” James said, with a meaningful look at his friend.
Remus brightened up. “Apparently, something in the world can make me do that!” he said, and happily grabbed the parchment which Gemma was scribbling her essay on.
“Excellent,” Gemma said brightly. “Now, what do you want, James?”
“For you to distract Lily and the other girls in your dorm for a short amount of time while I put the present on her bed,” James said promptly. “You don’t have to get them out of the common room.”
“Aye, sir!” Gemma saluted him, and then got up, going around rounding up her fellow girlfriends, exclaiming something about knowing a few new beauty tips.
“Then how will you be getting to the girls’ dorms?” Peter asked curiously.
“Through the windows on a broomstick, like the previous two days,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, Wormtail, it’s almost as if you’re living in a daydream or something.”
“See ya,” James said, before running up the stairs to his dormitory. When the angel was safely tucked in his arms, he soared out of the open window and came to a halt outside Lily’s dormitory. Fumbling a little, he pulled out his wand, tapped the window, and whispered, “Alohomora!” The window clicked and swung open, and James flew inside, landing on Lily’s bed. He looked at her books, but to his extreme disappointment, there was no card sticking out of any of them. Sighing, he placed his angel on her bed, and then flew back to his dormitory.
*
All the Marauders waited in the common room, their eyes glued to the staircases leading up to the girls’ dormitories. It had been two minutes since Lily, Gemma and Mary went upstairs, and the suspense was killing a jittery James.
Then there was a rather muffled shriek, and all four of the boys winced together. The rest of the Gryffindors in the common room went silent, and all eyes traveled to the spiral staircase which led to the girls’ dormitories.
“What do you think happened?” Peter asked in a low voice, but he was shushed by the others.
Then came a shout which was recognizably Lily’s, and slightly muffled, but the words “Sirius Black” were clearly distinguishable. Everyone’s faces turned to Sirius’, which had gone considerably white.
“What did I do?” he asked hoarsely, but no one answered.
Subsequently, the figure of Gemma Spinnet came sprinting down the stairs.
“Sirius, run!” she whisper-shouted, her hair and robes practically covered with white snowflakes. “Run, just run, and hide somewhere!”
“What?” Sirius said, mouth slightly hanging open.
“Run!” she said, not bothering to whisper anymore. When he didn’t move, she impatiently came over, pulled him up, and gave him a push towards the portrait hole. He stumbled, but sprinted out of the common room, throwing bewildered looks over his shoulder.
“What happened?” James asked Gemma, alarmed, after the portrait swung shut.
Then Lily came down the stairs, looking really, really angry, her hair and robes in similar states as Gemma’s. Mary followed after her, but unlike her friend, merely looked amused. She was trying not to laugh, as could be seen by her fist, which was stuffed into her mouth.
“I can’t believe that idiot,” Lily said furiously to Mary, unaware that she was observed by all. “I’m going to make him feel really sorry that he had played that awful prank on us!”
Her emerald green eyes found Gemma along with the Marauders, and she gave them a curt nod.
“Where’s that scumbag of a friend of yours?” she asked James, and there was a very hostile tone in her voice when she said ‘scumbag of a friend.’
“Erm” he left a- a while ago, and didn’t tell us where he was headed for,” James said truthfully.
“Thank you, James,” said Lily, giving him the smallest of smiles, as she strode out of the portrait hole, followed by Mary, who looked questioningly at Gemma. Gemma shook her head and shrugged.
“All right, what really happened?” James demanded anxiously, rounding on Gemma once the two girls were out of the Common Room, and everyone had returned to their various activities. Remus and Peter pressed in, waiting for the information eagerly.
Gemma sighed. “Your charm work sucks,” she informed him bluntly.
“Not as much as your Transfiguration,” James said defensively.
Gemma rolled her eyes. “Point taken. But you’re lucky that Lily thinks Sirius did it, on account of you being ‘reformed’…”
“Did what?” Remus asked.
“When Lily touched the bobbing halo, the angel zoomed out of her hand in lightning speed, and then unleashed a ton of snowflakes on us, thanks to you, James,” Gemma explained.
“Oops,” James said, and looked a tad too relieved about not being pursued by a very angry Lily.
“Naturally she thought it was a prank,” Gemma said, shrugging, “and Sirius Black was Suspect Number One.”
“So Plan Number One didn’t work,” Peter said mournfully.
“Yeah, Lily’s not likely to keep another mail from whatever secret admirer,” Gemma said. “Hurl it out of the window, more like. Hey, I’m going upstairs to clear up the mess you’ve caused, okay?” She jogged upstairs, leaving the three Marauders together.
“So what about the second story?” Remus asked, trying to keep upbeat.
They looked at each other, and James ran upstairs to fetch the second roll of parchment. They huddled together and began to read.
Plan Number Two
“The snow’s nice and thick!” Sirius Black reported, barreling through the Gryffindor portrait hole towards his three friends. The Gryffindors who were too strung up by the holiday mood to focus on their work (a cruel amount given by the unrelenting professors of Hogwarts) turned around eagerly as he came to a stop in front of his fellow Marauders. It was somewhat a rule that the Marauders had to make things interesting.
James looked up from the edition of Which Broomstick? he was casually flipping through. “What do you suggest we do?” he asked, one side of his mouth tilting up in a smile.
“What about something traditional?” Remus Lupin asked, abandoning the Transfiguration textbook he had been reading.
“A snowball fight!” Peter suggested excitedly.
“A Gryffindor snowball fight, how about that?” Sirius yelled to the crowd that was gathering around them.
“Yeah!” everyone yelled back, and they all rushed up to their dormitories to grab their outdoor things.
Sirius and Peter bolted upstairs, too, whereas Remus followed more slowly. James left his Quidditch magazine and was about to bring up the rear when he heard someone say, “Your best mate sure has charisma.”
Turning around, he saw Lily Evans leaning against the window sill, smiling wryly at him, a ragged-looking book titled Moste Potente Potions in hand.
“Oh, hey, Lily,” he smiled, and he would be lying if he said that his heart didn’t skip a beat. “You’re not joining the fight?”
“Should I?” Lily arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah, you should!” James said, and then mentally slapped himself for sounding so eager. “I mean, yeah, you should, erm, probably join. It’s the last time there’s such an occasion, having a Christmas Day snowball fight at Hogwarts. We’re leaving Hogwarts come June.”
Lily smiled a little sadly. “Yeah, we are, aren’t we? I was looking through this with Gemma and Mary, but they both want to have a snowball fight… I guess I should go, too. Not going to be much fun being here by myself.” She snapped the book shut and got up. “See you later, James.”
She headed up to the girls’ dormitories and James sprinted up the stairs quickly.
“Lily is joining the fight,” he announced to the rest importantly, when he reached his dormitory. The other three boys looked puzzled.
“So what?” Peter asked quizzically.
“So what?” James asked. “So what? Wormtail, this is the first time I’m going to do something with her other than schoolwork or prefect duties! And I’m not counting the little snowball spat we had in fourth year; she wasn’t on good terms with me then.”
He leapt in front of the mirror and tried to neaten himself up.
“Don’t bother, Prongs,” Sirius said, as he tossed a scarf at James. “After a few hits from me, you’re not going to look pretty anymore.”
James turned to look at his friend with a withering look on his face. “You’re lucky I don’t have a snowball in hand now, or you’re so dead, Padfoot.”
“Ooh, scary,” Sirius said, laughing.
“You ought to be cowed, Padfoot,” Remus warned.
“And why is that, Moony?” Sirius asked challengingly.
“You do realise that he’s a Chaser, do you?” Peter grinned. “He’s got precision down pat.”
Sirius cocked his head to one side. “And what’s the reason I ought to be cowed?”
“Your ego is being trampled upon, Prongs,” Remus said dramatically.
“Well, his own ego will be trampled on soon,” James said, adjusting his coat and surveying himself in the mirror.
“Bring it on, mate,” Sirius said skeptically. “And stop looking at your reflection, you nance.”
“What did you say?” James asked in disbelief, the coat forgotten.
Sirius smirked and repeated, “Stop looking at your reflection, you nance.”
“All right, Padfoot,” James growled, “you’re going to get it!” He pounced on Sirius, who laughed and took off down the stairs. Together the two of them yelled on their way to the Common Room, where the crowd was already patiently waiting for them.
James, upon seeing Lily with her friends, stopped shouting like a madman so as to appear more mature. Sirius shot him a taunting smile, but he ignored it.
Remus and Peter slowly descended the stairs, and Sirius took centre stage. “Are we ready, ladies and gentlemen?” he roared.
“Yes we are!” the younger ones shouted back, while the older ones who didn’t want to seem too excited nodded loftily. James caught Lily’s eye and gestured towards Sirius wryly. Lily laughed a little, and he felt heartened somewhat.
“Are we ready for the greatest snowball fight in the world?” Sirius roared.
Remus rolled his eyes at James.
“Yes, Sirius, and get on with the bloody show,” the both of them chorused. Sirius shot them a look, and then turned back to the crowd.
“Now, all of you, we are going to split up into two groups,” he commanded, then proceeded to sort them out. To his chagrin, James found himself in the group opposing Lily’s” Group B. “Objective is to pelt the other team with as many snowballs as you can. I’ll conjure up gold ribbons for Group A. Group A people, tie it around your waists.” He passed the gold ribbons to the Group A people. “If any other houses come down to join the fight, it’ll be them against us Gryffindors, get it?”
The younger Gryffindors nodded furiously, while the rest all smirked at one another.
“All right, then? Last one down’s a pig!” Sirius yelled, and he dashed off suddenly towards the portrait hole, leading the rest. It looked like something out of Pied Piper.
Soon, Remus, Lily, James, Gemma, Mary and a few sixth years were left behind, slowly making their way down (Peter, ever excitable, had sprinted off with the crowd).
James found himself walking beside Lily.
“Is Sirius always this bouncy?” she asked curiously.
“Not this, but most of the time, he’s pretty energetic. He must’ve eaten something chocolate-filled today. The house elves adore him,” he answered.
Lily chuckled. “Well, that must be nice. He probably cheers you all up all the time, doesn’t he?” Lily said.
“Yeah, he does,” James said. “He’s a really good friend.”
“I can tell,” she smiled.
“So, you’re in Group A,” he remarked.
“And you’re in Group B,” she said.
“Watch out, Evans,” he warned, but he was smiling.
“Haha, why don’t you watch out yourself, Potter?” she grinned. “I have fearsome accuracy.”
“Then why didn’t you tryout for Chaser on the Quidditch team?” James asked, genuinely curious.
“I hate heights,” Lily explained. “I’m fine on the ground, but on the broomstick I get all nervous and jittery. You remember our flying lessons in first year, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” James said, smiling at the memory. “You shot off into the air and collided into me, making me fall. How could I forget that?”
“I’m so sorry about that,” she said sincerely, although her emerald green eyes were twinkling. “You know, you’re a brilliant flier, even in your first year.”
“Thank you,” he said, smirking.
“Don’t start acting all arrogant again,” she warned, but her smile gave her away.
“And what if I do?” James asked.
“I shall refuse to do any duties with you,” she said, crossing her arms.
“But what’s the bad news?” he asked, trying to keep a straight face as the smug look on Lily’s face faded away.
“I’m insulted!” she gasped. “What’s the bad news?! Do you mean to say that you’ll manage leading the Prefects without me?”
“Well, I’ve got Remus to help me,” James said.
“Oh, fine, be that way,” she pouted. She managed to look absolutely pretty when she did that. James willed himself not to stare at her so blatantly.
“Awww, little Lily’s feeling all upset, is she?” he asked.
“Shut up,” she said, grinning.
By then, they had already reached the Great Hall. A blast of frigid air hit James’ face as they walked out through the imposing doors and into the grounds, which were covered with a thick blanket of snow. They trudged towards where Sirius, Peter and the others were gathered.
“And here comes the last of our pigs,” Sirius said in a magically magnified voice, “prize pig being James Potter.”
Upon hearing that, James bent down to scoop up some snow, shaping it into a snowball. The snow was the sticky kind, easily packed into a ball. They had chosen a good day for a snowball fight.
When Sirius saw what James was doing, he said (or yelled, really) smugly, “No fighting among teammates, Mr Potter! And please, do remember, I’m your teammate!”
James stopped, mid-pack, and said, “Blast!” before throwing it back to the ground disgustedly.
“Now, ready, get set, and BEGIN!”
The last word was so loud that everyone gave yells of pain, clapping their hands to their ears. Only Sirius was gleefully ignorant of his own voice; he was packing snowballs and hurling it at the students in Group A.
James found himself in the midst of a war, and quickly, he too shaped snowball after snowball, throwing them with fierce accuracy at various people with gold ribbons tied around their waist. He managed to whack a person in the back so hard that she stumbled and fell on her behind.
And then he realised in horror that it was actually Lily Evans. Abandoning all attempts to shield himself from snowballs, he rushed over to her.
“Are you all right?” he gasped.
Lily turned to face him. “I’m fine,” she said, in a weak sort of tone. He held out a hand for her to take, and she grabbed hold of it, only to pull him down onto the snow beside her.
So James found himself lying down dazedly on the snow, with snowballs flying above him. Lily was getting up, giggling madly at the look on his face. He pretended to be outraged, but he loved the attention she was giving him. He lapped it up, in fact.
“I can’t believe you did that!” he shouted, scrambling up. She ran off, laughing, and he gave chase. They ended up leaving the snowball fight behind them, and approaching the edge of the Forest.
“All’s fair in love and war, remember, James?” she said, as she ducked a snowball thrown by him.
“Whatever does that mean?” he asked, packing another snowball.
“It’s a quote, dummy,” she laughed as she too packed a snowball. “It means there’s no such thing as foul play in the world of war or romance.”
James looked up when he heard her say ‘romance,’ but she had disappeared.
“Lily?” he called, bewildered. “Where are you?”
A familiar laugh bubbled up from a first few trees of the Forest.
“Come find me, why don’t you?” Lily yelled.
“Oh, I will!” James said, and quickly ducked behind the first tree he saw. Looking around it cautiously, he tried to establish the position of his fellow Head Prefect, but saw no one. Then a twig crackled behind him, and he whipped around.
There stood Lily, a wicked grin on her lips, and a snowball in hand.
“Hello, Potter,” she said, and threw a snowball directly at his chest.
The impact of it quite winded James, but he didn’t pause. He leapt right after her, and managed to hit her on the shoulder.
She shrieked, but retaliated quickly, hitting him on the shoulder with another snowball. Losing his balance, he fell on his bottom, his back against the floor, and pouted. Lily came sprinting, entering his vision. She was covering her mouth in surprise.
“Oh, Merlin, are you all right?” she cried. “I’m so, so sorry, James, I didn’t mean to hit so hard…” She held out a hand for him, and with an idea, he grabbed it, only to pull her down.
He meant to pull her down beside him, but for some reason, some inexplicable reason…
Well, Lily Evans ended up on his chest.
His laughter died away, as did the apologetic look on her face. They stared at each other, and James admired her startlingly green almond-shaped eyes, her pert little nose, and her flushed cheeks. It seemed like days” no, weeks, before either of them did anything.
And surprisingly, Lily made the first move.
She leaned right over, and planted a kiss on his nose, which, prior to her kiss, had been feeling icy, but now warmth flooded James from where she had kissed him. James blinked, surprise paralyzing him. Lily, who must have misread his expression, looked panic-stricken, and said, “I’m so sorry, James, I know I shouldn’t have done that, but it was all, you know, Christmas, and well, you did look cute lying over there and I couldn’t help myself…”
She tried to scramble up, her cheeks flushing a brilliant red, but James, who had somehow fought off the strange paralysis, sat up and caught hold of her hand. She froze, and slowly looked up at him.
“Lily,” he began in a strangely hoarse voice that was not his own. He cleared his throat and began again, “Lily, does… does this mean that if I asked you out, you’ll agree?”
Lily looked stunned. Then she said, slowly, “And why would you ask me out?”
“Because it’s Christmas, and well you’re so pretty, and all the time, too. And you’re just so smart and witty and funny and charming…” James trailed off, blushing, knowing that he was rambling on and on. “And, well, I”” here he swallowed “” I like you. A lot.”
Lily seemed at a loss for words. She kept her head down, her fingers drawing patterns on the snow. “Well, I suppose I wouldn’t mind going on a date with you,” she said finally, her voice barely audible.
James could hardly believe his ears. He shook his head and said, “Sorry? I think I heard you wrongly. Did you just agree to go out with me?”
Lily looked up, and James could see that she was trying hard not to show her amusement, but her attempts were futile. Finally, she broke into a huge grin, and asked, “What do you think?”
James began, “So that’s a yes”” when a snowball was hurled into his face. “What the-” he spluttered. But by the time he had cleared the snow away from his face, and picked up his glasses, which were knocked onto the ground from the impact, Lily was already running away, her merry laughter echoing in the grounds. He scrambled up and yelled after her, “I’ll take it as a yes, then!”
She just turned around and flashed him a smile.
But it was all the answer that he needed.
A/N: Review, yes? :D