IN REALITY
“I don’t believe ice-skating’s a wizard sport,” Sirius said, frowning.
“Of course it isn’t, you twit,” Mary said. “It’s a Muggle sport. And a beautiful one at that.” She turned to Gemma, smiling. “Gemma, you’re a genius. I mean, ice-skating is just awfully romantic.”
Gemma smiled, too, gushing, “I know. Positively romantic. You can’t go wrong with ice-skating!”
“Oh yes, you can,” Remus said. The rest turned to look at him. “You could break your leg.”
“Oh, you pessimist,” Gemma said, dismissing Remus’ contribution with a haughty sniff. “Who’s going to fall? So what do you think of the idea, James?”
James studied Gemma’s cursive script on the parchment roll again. “So we just ice-skate, and that’s it?”
Gemma gave a feral grin. “Oh, I’m sure a sweet moment will present itself, and then you’ll win the heart of Lily Evans.”
“I’ll admit, when you say it like that, it actually sounds possible,” James said, tracing circles on the parchment. This was the last plan. No more back-ups. No more Plan B’s. Or rather, Plan G.
“Listen, James, I know you don’t have much faith in this plan, because all the rest failed, but just try, okay?” Gemma said, reaching over and ruffling his hair. “I mean, for all we know, it could actually work.”
“And if ”” Peter began, then, at the looks of the others, hastily changed the word” “when it works, the prize will be Lily Evans, mate.”
Gemma scowled, presumably offended by the word ‘prize’ being used to describe a girl.
“C’mon, Prongs, ol’ boy, we’ve suffered too much for you to just give up now,” Sirius added cajolingly.
James looked thoughtfully at his friends’ faces, all of which had encouraging looks on them. “High stakes,” he pondered aloud, “but if I’m the victor…” And then he made his decision.
“All right, we’re going to give this one last shot.”
*
“Let’s go ice-skating!” Gemma chirped happily as she tried to pull Lily up from the armchair.
“Now?” Lily asked, reluctant to part with her book. James, who was sitting close by and pretending to play Exploding Snap with the other Marauders, caught sight of the title: it was Emma, by someone called Jane Austen.
“Yeah, now,” Gemma insisted. Mary took hold of Lily’s other arm and together the two of them managed to pull Lily up.
“The lake will make a perfect skating rink. It snowed pretty heavily last night, and seeing as the air is so chilly, I’d say the ice is pretty thick now,” Mary said, beaming.
“And I’d like to practise my ice-skating,” Gemma said, pirouetting like a ballet dancer. “I haven’t practised my ice-skating since last year, when your parents brought us to the skating rink.”
“Ice-skating, did you say?” Peter, after too long a pause. Luckily Lily didn’t suspect anything. “I love ice-skating!”
“Really?” Lily asked, looking doubtfully at him. James understood why, Peter could sometimes be a walking disaster, so Lily probably thought that he’d be a skating disaster on ice. But Peter had assured all of them that he indeed knew how to ice-skate.
“Yeah,” Peter nodded, with a convincing enough smile.
“Wormtail, you never told us that you knew how to skate!” Sirius said with believable indignance. “I demand you teach me how.”
“Why don’t we all go down and ice-skate?” Remus suggested. “We can all teach Sirius and James how to skate properly.”
“Brilliant idea,” Gemma gushed. “I vote we change into our outdoor things at once!”
“Oh, all right, no more Jane Austen this afternoon, then,” Lily saida, as her girlfriends dragged her upstairs to change.
The boys looked at each other and dashed upstairs to change, too.
“All right, James Potter, it’s two days before Christmas. This is your last chance at getting the dame before Christmas,” Sirius said as he wrapped a scarf around his neck. Then he abruptly changed his tack, saying, “I bet you can’t win her over, you big lousy loser.”
“Is that supposed to encourage me?” James asked sceptically.
Sirius frowned. “Yes. I read about it in one of Moony’s Muggle magazines. Something called reverse psychology. It’s supposed to spur you on to do better, you know.”
“Yeah, all the best, mate,” Remus said. “I won’t bother with reverse psychology ” go get her!”
“Good luck, Prongs,” Peter said seriously.
James grinned. “Thanks, you guys. For everything.”
Sirius threw a scarf at James, who caught it and put it on. “Hey, what are friends for?”
*
James fell down for what seemed like the thousandth time. Even Sirius had gotten the hang of it already, and he, Remus, and Peter stood together close by, wincing each time their unfortunate friend hit the ice.
“Boy oh boy,” Peter groaned. “How’s he going to get his girl this way?”
“I shouldn’t have tried reverse psychology,” Sirius said, covering his face with his hands. “Spurs people on to do their worst, more like.”
“I heard that,” James growled, trying to stand up and slipping again. “Perhaps you could help, and not whine?”
“Right, of course,” Peter said, skating easily over to James and helping him up.
“Well, at least Lily isn’t looking your way, not too much,” Sirius said. “She’s distracted by Gemma and Mary.”
“They’re trying to make sure she doesn’t witness your embarrassing falls,” Remus explained.
“Okay, I want to learn how to skate gracefully,” James said, his mouth set into a determined line.
“Leave out the grace part first,” Sirius offered. “Once you get the skating thing, then the grace part can come in.”
And so James toiled. This was quite a first time for him. He’d always been adept at any kind of sport ” running, swimming, Quidditch ” you name it. But for the first time of his life, he was floored by a Muggle sport: ice-skating.
After another half an hour or so, James finally got the hang of it. But just then, there was a piercing scream that filled the still, chilly air.
“Who the hell was that?” Sirius asked, shaken.
“One of the girls, obviously!” James said, going wild with worry as he skated over to the girls. What if it was Lily? What if Lily had fallen and broken her arm or something? Or the worst of all ” what if the ice had broken and Lily had fallen into the lake, and was eaten by the Giant Squid or had drowned or was going to die of hypothermia?
“Hey, you guys, Gemma broke her ankle,” Lily called over, her voice high with worry. In the background, they heard Gemma calling feebly, “Ignore her, my ankle’s not broken!” and Mary saying, “It is broken, Gem, stop lying!”
James sighed in relief, but immediately felt guilty for thanking the stars that it was Gemma who was injured, and not Lily. “Levitate her, and we’ll bring her to the Hospital Wing,” he hurriedly yelled, trying to chase those foul thoughts from his minds. But one thought remained:
So much for a sweet moment presenting itself.
*
“I’m really, really sorry, James,” Gemma wailed in as soft a voice as possible. “I totally ruined it for you, didn’t I?”
The Marauders were crowded around Gemma at midnight, twenty-fourth December, in the Hospital Wing.
“No, it wasn’t your fault, really,” James tried to assure her, but deep down inside he couldn’t help but feel resentful. If not for Gemma’s injury, it was possible that he and Lily were together now, sitting under the star-sprinkled, midnight-blue skies, sharing a long kiss…
“So when’ll you be out of here?” Sirius asked, bring James back into the (unhappy) present.
“Next morning, latest,” Gemma said dully. “My leg’s fine now, but “”
“Well, maybe we’ll be able to resume plan number six tomorrow ” I mean, today!” Remus said brightly.
“I don’t think so. Lily’ll probably force me into staying in bed for today. I’ll be lucky if she lets me walk about on Christmas,” Gemma said.
James said nothing.
“I’m sorry, James,” Gemma said quietly. “Really.”
“Stop apologising, Gemma, it really isn’t your fault,” James said, trying to squash the inner demon in him, who was agreeing with Gemma. “You didn’t ask for an injury.” He turned to leave. “And besides… there’s always next year.”
*
Gemma was right. Lily made her stay in bed for the whole of Christmas Eve, appearing out of the dormitories only for meals, and Lily herself stayed by Gemma’s side all day, reading Jane Austen to her.
“Muggle literature is no fun at all,” Gemma confided to James during dinner. “There’s no magic. Boring.”
“Magic’s not really important in literature, Gem,” Lily retorted, overhearing her friend. “It’s the writing.”
“Ah, whatever,” Gemma said, waving her chicken drumstick at Lily. James caught Lily’s eye, and grinned. Lily rolled her eyes and smiled back.
“She doesn’t appreciate the prose,” she said.
No, James thought, as he fondly watched her rant on and on about the beauty of well-written prose, she doesn’t appreciate you reading to her.
*
James had quite gotten over the fact that he wouldn’t win Lily’s heart before Christmas two days before Christmas. He went to bed on Christmas Eve, resignedly accepting his fate.
What he did not expect was to be woken up on Christmas morning by a rough shaking. Putting on his spectacles, he found five faces surrounding him.
“Merry Christmas,” said the nearest one, which belonged to Gemma. “Wake up, sleepyhead, we’ve got your bonus Christmas present all wrapped up and ready for you to open.”
James yawned. “What bonus Christmas present?” he asked blearily.
“Maybe you can’t get her before Christmas, but who says you can’t get her on Christmas?” Sirius asked excitedly.
James looked from one eager face to another. From the dim lighting in the room, he could see that each of his friends had eye bags under their eyes. “Did you come up with a plan just last night?” he asked, suddenly seeing where this was going.
“Yeah,” Gemma smiled proudly. “I was feeling so guilty about the day before yesterday, and I woke Mary up ””
“And they came up to the boy’s dormitory to wake us all up,” Remus said. Imitating Gemma, he added, “ ‘We simply have to help James get Lily!’ was what she said, and they dragged us down to the common room.”
“And we came up with a brilliant plan!” Mary said.
“Is it foolproof?” James asked, refusing to be too excited unless it was guaranteed that the brilliant plan would work.
“Quite,” Gemma said, looking extremely pleased with herself.
James thought carefully. “Well, it’s worth a shot,” he decided, smiling. “Anyone want to fill me in?”
*
“So we’re going to go with the intra-house events first. Afterwards, at almost any point of time afterwards, I’ll tell her that I like her very much, but I have to begin the sentence with ‘The truth is,’ and you’ll settle the rest?” James said, looking to the others for confirmation.
“Absolutely right,” Gemma said. “And now, if you’ll excuse us, Mary and I have got some presents at the foot of our beds to be opened…” The two girls got up and left.
“Of course, the presents!” Sirius said, leaping off James’ bed and catapulting himself at the pile of presents at the bottom of his bed. “I almost forgot about them, and I never forget about them, not ever.”
Remembering something, James rummaged through his bedside drawer and withdrew an envelope. “Oy, open this first,” James said, tossing it over.
Sirius picked up a thin envelope. “To Padfoot, from Moony, Wormtail, and Prongs,” he read out loud, then looked up incredulously at them. “This pathetic envelope is all you’re giving me?”
James grinned at him. “Why don’t you open it first before complaining, Padfoot?”
Sirius raised his eyebrows, but tore open the envelope. Remus, Peter, and James looked on conceitedly.
“Well? Pathetic, is it?” Remus asked with an uncharacteristic smirk.
Sirius looked up, mouth opened slightly. “Guys, this is ” this is great! I mean, forty Galleons! This is effing brilliant!”
“Yeah, considering your motorbike fund consists of only fifty Galleons,” James said, “we figured the more we contribute, the faster you can get that motorbike, and the less we’ll have to hear you gush about the latest models.”
Sirius was still in shock.
“Okay, the fun’s over,” James said to Remus and Peter. “Now let the real fun begin!” He pointed to the piles of presents waiting for them.
“Aye, aye, captain!” Remus and Peter saluted before going off to open their respective presents.
James picked the smallest package of the lot, and ripped it open to find a”
“A Snitch!” he said, lifting the small golden ball in his fingers. “Wow” thanks, you guys!”
“Now you can play catch all you want,” Peter said.
“Yeah, Wormtail was the one with the idea of getting you a Snitch,” Sirius said. “Glad you liked it, mate.” He was still beaming from the forty Galleons.
James looked from the Snitch to his friends, who were sitting amidst their presents with gleeful looks upon their faces. Thinking about how they’d stayed up almost all night on Christmas to come up with a plan for him, he couldn’t help but feel a burst of affection for them.
“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. They looked up at him questioningly. “I just wanted to thank you all for, you know, coming up with that plan for me and missing out on your sleep.”
“Yeah, glad you know that,” Sirius said, grinning. “For once you look better than me because of the twins here.” He pointed to his eye bags.
“Yeah,” James said, laughing but at the same time feeling a lump in his throat. Merlin, I’m not going to cry, am I? he thought in horror, and hurriedly swallowed. It took several times, but at last the lump went away. “What I want to say is” thank you. I won’t ever find better friends anywhere else.”
Remus and Peter smiled, and Sirius said, “To quote myself two days earlier: what are friends for?” And as an afterthought, he added with a sly smile, “Forty Galleons. That’s what friends are for.”
*
“Break’s over, people!” Sirius yelled in his magically magnified voice. “Get into your respective groups, we’re to have snowman building competition now!”
“What’re we supposed to do?” asked a fourth-year, who seemed to be asking the question more for the sake of talking to Sirius than finding out the answer.
“You will, in your groups, build as big a snowman as you can in the hour that is given to you,” Sirius explained. “Your snowmen have to be completed, no headless ones. And at the end of the competition, our very own Head Boy and Head Girl will pick the best looking snowman. The best group will win a hundred points. Now, don’t even think about cheating, because if anyone of you do cheat, it’s an instant hundred points awarded to the other group. Are we clear?”
“Yes sir!”
“Excellent. Mr Remus Lupin, you can do the honours.”
Remus nodded, and set his pocket watch to time. “On your mark, get set, go!”
James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Gemma, Mary and Peter sat down on the armchairs Lily had conjured for them, watching their juniors slog away hard at building their snowmen. James looked over at Lily, who was smiling at the scene. He hadn’t really talked to her much all day; all he’d said was “Merry Christmas, thanks for the present!” and in return, she’d said, “Merry Christmas, James, thank you for the present!”
And that was all they’d exchanged. Gemma, Mary, Sirius, Remus and Peter had kept the two of them unoccupied. Mary had insisted on it, saying that it would be more romantic ” like the bride and bridegroom not speaking to each other until the wedding itself.
James let his mind wonder at his stared at Lily ” Lily with her soft dark red curls, Lily with her laughing green eyes, Lily to whom he was going to confess his feelings later on.
How would Lily react? Would she stare in shock and then tell him kindly, but firmly, that she just wanted friendship? Did she really just wanted friendship? But that night when he wanted to execute Plan Number Four, wasn’t she staring at him quite openly?
But staring doesn’t necessarily mean that she likes you, a nasty voice in his head said.
Shut up, he told the nasty voice. I’m worried enough about later without your help, thanks very much. And then springing up from his armchair so he wouldn’t have to entertain these thoughts, he asked aloud, “How much longer?”
“Forty more minutes,” Remus replied. He was playing chess with Peter, and was winning spectacularly.
“Forty more minutes?” James repeated in horror. Forty more minutes, during which his imagination would discourage him further? “Can I do something, like, you know” “he cast about desperately for something he could do” “like getting Pepper-up Potion from Madame Pomfrey so if they’re freezing they can””
“They won’t freeze,” Peter said. “It’s just snow.”
“Actually, they might freeze,” Gemma said, catching on when she saw his disturbed look on his face. James gave thanks for his observant childhood friend. “Sirius” why don’t you go with him?”
“Right,” Sirius said, though he gave both Gemma and James strange looks. “Of course.”
The two of them walked towards Hogwarts. When they were far enough, Sirius asked in a low voice, “What’s up back there, mate?”
James ran a hand through his hair and sighed, watching his breath form a cloud in the chilly air. “I’m nervous about later,” he admitted. “I just had to get away from there.”
“You don’t have to be worried, Prongs. This time, nothing will go wrong,” Sirius said confidently, ruffling James’ hair. “I mean, seriously. This isn’t some plan that Gemma thought up alone. We all contributed.”
Thinking about how Sirius and Peter had negatively contributed to his plans for getting Lily last school year, James felt a little dubious. Sirius must have caught sight of the doubt in his face, because he slung an arm around James’ shoulders and asked, “Do you trust us, mate?”
When Sirius posed a question like that, James realised that he had an immediate answer, and that he had known that answer all along.
“Yes.”
*
“Right, everyone back to the castle to wash up,” Lily commanded.
The intra-house house games had ended, and the winning group had been awarded a bottle of Butterbeer per person. The losing group ended up having a Chocolate Frog per person as a consolation prize.
Lily made to follow the students going back into the castle, but Gemma and Mary held her back. “What is it?” she asked curiously.
“This is it, Prongs,” Sirius whispered. “Keep her talking until it really gets dark out. And then tell her how you feel.”
“Starting with, ‘The truth is,’ ” Remus reminded.
“Dark out. ‘The truth is.’ All right, I think I got it,” James said, trying to remember the details.
“Good luck, mate,” Peter said.
“Go get the girl,” Sirius said, winking.
“Why don’t we take a walk?” Mary suggested.
“A walk?” Lily asked. “But isn’t it getting darker out?” She gestured to the sky, which was steadily getting darker.
“I’m with Mary on this one, Lily. What’s going to attack us out here, werewolves?” Gemma scoffed.
James saw Remus shift uncomfortably out of the corner of his eye.
“How about the Acromantulas?” Sirius added, and James knew he just wanted to take the tension off Remus.
“What Acromantulas?” Peter asked tensely. “There’re no Acromantulas here. Are there?”
“Sirius means that there aren’t any Acromantulas around here. Just like there are no werewolves around, Peter,” James explained.
“Oh.”
“Come on,” Mary coaxed Lily. “It’ll be fun.”
“Oh, all right,” Lily said, giving in. James could almost hear her smiling. “I’ll come for the walk.”
The seven of them strolled along the castle grounds, talking about random topics ” from NEWTs to Gryffindor’s chances for the Quidditch Cup. When the topic was on Quidditch, Gemma and Sirius simultaneously pushed James towards Lily, and Mary propelled herself away from Lily, joining the others instead.
James caught himself before he stumbled into Lily and made a fool of himself. “Hey,” he said to her.
She looked at him, startled. “Oh, hey, James,” she said, smiling. “I didn’t see you there.” They walked in companionable silence while the rest chattered about the most recent Quidditch World Cup. It began to snow small, pretty snowflakes. Lily stopped suddenly. James stopped too.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing, just wanted to catch a snowflake on my tongue,” Lily said, sticking out her tongue. “I used to do this all the time when I was younger. You should try it! It’s fun.”
“But the odds are a million,” James said, smiling at how still she kept, waiting for a snowflake to fall on her tongue. “A snowflake has as much chance of falling on your tongue as it has a chance of falling on my nose.” As soon as he spoke, a snowflake landed on his nose. James blinked in surprise. Lily giggled, forgetting all about being still.
“But the odds are a million,” she said, imitating James.
“Well, that’s what I thought,” James protested, laughing.
“You’re just scared of looking silly,” Lily said, grinning. “Go on, admit it ” James Potter, Head Boy and Marauder, does not want to stand in the middle of castle grounds with his tongue poking out because he’s scared of looking stupid.”
“Oh, scared, am I now?” James asked, crossing his arms. “What’s there to be scared of?”
“Then I dare you to do it,” she challenged.
“Done,” James said immediately, and assumed her earlier position before adding, “besides, I’m James Potter. I’ll never look stupid.”
Lily laughed. “You wish, Potter. Now stick out your tongue.”
They both stood there for ages, tongues poking out, waiting for a snowflake to grace their tongues. After about two minutes, Lily asked, “Got one yet?”
“No,” James said, scanning the heavens for a snowflake that might possibly land on his tongue. All of a sudden, snowball splattered on his face, making him splutter and cough out the snow which had suddenly entered his mouth. “Lily!” he said, seething. “What’s the meaning of that?”
Lily was doubled over with laughter. “Oh my god,” she said helplessly, tears of mirth streaming down her face. “If you could only see your face!”
Seeing Lily laugh couldn’t keep the smile from his face, but to his credit, he did try to seem angry. “What’s the meaning of that?” he repeated, trying to sound mad.
“I was just helping you,” Lily said. She would have seemed innocent if there wasn’t an insanely wide grin on her face. “You know, you’ve not tasted a single snowflake your entire life, and so I thought I should help you get one to taste. And I felt one would be too stingy. So I thought, what the hey, let’s just give you a lot.” And then she burst out into a new bout of laughter.
James’ weak façade of anger gave way due to Lily’s infectious laughter and the mirth of the situation, and he too collapsed on the ground next to her, laughing. Only minutes later did their laughter subside and they remained seated on the ground, massaging their aching stomachs.
“The rest are gone,” Lily said suddenly.
James had a sneaking suspicion that they were still around somewhere, but hiding and waiting for him to confess to Lily. “Yeah, they probably went back into the Great Hall,” he said, lying through his teeth.
“Oh,” Lily said. “Do you want to go in, too?”
“What?” James started, having thought to ask her the same question too. “No, no, I don’t mind staying out here.”
Lily smiled. “Good. Because I don’t feel like going back into the castle anytime soon, and I want someone to accompany me.”
Privately James thought that if Lily needed someone stark-naked to accompany her to the North Pole, he’d be the first to volunteer.
Lily got up from the ground, and James scrambled up too. “Let’s go to that hilltop,” she said, pointing to a small hill not far away from Hagrid’s hut. “I want to go star-gazing on some higher ground.”
James looked at her, bemused. “Isn’t the Astronomy Tower the best place to stargaze?”
“Nah,” Lily said, making a face. “It’s too far up, and I’m lazy.” He chuckled, and she took hold of his arm to drag him over to the hill. James stared at her hand, laughter stopped, not really believing that it was on his arm, and she dropped it, blushing. There was a shy silence as the two of them tried not to catch the other’s eye.
“Well, let’s go,” James said, deciding to ignore that anything had happened.
“Yeah, let’s,” Lily said in a relieved voice, and they set off for the hill in a leisurely pace. They plopped down onto the snow, and after about half a minute when there was still no conversation, James decided that it was up to him to start it.
“Who d’you think will succeed us as Head Boy and Girl?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Lily said. In the faint light from the stars, James saw her bite her lip as she always did when thinking. “They’re all decent prefects. Heather Willes would make an excellent Head Girl, though. Who d’you think will be Head Boy?”
James thought about it. “Well, David Anderson wouldn’t be a bad candidate, but he’s a little on the wild side.”
Lily laughed. “You can’t talk! If there’s anyone on the wild side, it’s you, Potter.”
“I’ll have you know that I’ve tamed down a little,” James said indignantly.
“That makes you half-wild still,” Lily said, and lay flat on the ground. James followed her, folding his arms behind his head.
“That’s unfair,” he said. “I’ll have you know that I’ve only attended one detention this school year.”
“That’s nothing compared to my record,” Lily said smugly.
“What’s your record, then?” he asked.
“One detention in the last two school years,” she replied, “and that one detention wasn’t even my fault.”
“Oh yeah,” James said, sitting up partially on one elbow. “It was the time you took the blame for me.”
It had been in their sixth year, and James had accidentally let off a Dungbomb along a crowded Charms corridor (it had been in the pocket of his robes, and when James had been taking out the Marauder’s Map, it had dropped and exploded). Professor McGonagall had arrived on the scene almost immediately after, and she had asked who had done it. Because it was hours to the full moon, James had out of desperation taken aside Lily and begged her to take the blame, else he’d be thrown into detention. Then there would only be one Animagus huge enough to help control Remus in his werewolf form, and Remus would have to suffer by himself in the Shrieking Shack, biting and injuring himself.
“How could I not?” Lily said reminiscently. “You were so distressed and you added that one of your friends would be severely harmed.”
“Yeah, he would have been, if not for you,” James said. “Thanks for that.”
They fell silent, gazing at the stars sparkling like diamonds in a Tiffany box-coloured night sky. James was thinking about what she’d said.
“You know, Lily, the truth is that I”” James said, totally forgetting about the ‘the truth is’ rule. He had only been going to say, ‘I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t taken the blame for me,’ but before he could have finished that sentence, red and gold sparks were sent into the night sky before them, and formed letters. Letters that formed words, and words that formed a sentence. And that sentence read:
LILY EVANS, THE TRUTH IS THAT I LOVE YOU.
“Wh” What?” Lily gasped.
James was struck dumb. Well, almost. “I” I”” he stammered. Of all things, he had not expected a fireworks show. Now there were hearts exploding in the night sky around them.
Lily turned to look at him. “Care to explain what I just saw in the night sky?” she asked. In the glow of a very huge red heart, James saw her fighting a smile.
“Er, yeah, about that,” he said, clearing his throat.
“And start from the beginning,” she added.
Start from the beginning. Right. In his muddled state, James thankfully hung on to this instruction. And so, stammering his way through, he told her everything: how he’d liked her since his fifth year, how he’d become more decent in his sixth year in hopes that she’d like him, how he had set up a couple of plans about how he could win her heart a few weeks back, how Gemma had found the plans Remus had written and rewritten them, about W.O.L.E. plans one through to six, how he’d tried them out but they’d all failed…
“… And so,” James said. And so what? And so his friends had just helped him confessed. They had helped him confess when he wasn’t even going to confess. What was he going to tell her? That they helped him confess at the wrong moment?
Prongs, Prongs, said a long-suffering voice in his head that sounded strangely like Sirius. You work to impress the girl. A few white lies don’t matter.
“And so I arranged for the others to create this fireworks show, hoping that it’d work at last,” he said, hoping that the others would understand this little white lies. And then in the back of his mind, he heard Sirius say, What are friends for? And then he knew that they would.
“You know, after listening to your explanation,” Lily said, sitting up properly, “I’d like to give you something you really deserve.”
“What?” he asked, sitting up too.
She leaned over and kissed him, knocking him back onto the ground. He pulled her down above him and they kissed till the glow of the heart faded into the dark night.
“That.”
“One kiss?” he said, pretending to be offended. “That’s all I deserve?”
“Well, actually,” she said, pretending to consider, “you deserve a lot more, but then if you got what you deserved, we’ll be here””
“ ’Till sunrise?” he suggested.
“No,” she said, smiling up at him. “ ’Till eternity. But hey, I don’t mind staying here forever. You?”
“Me?” he said, grinning back. “Eternity sounds good.”
And as they kissed for the second (and probably not the last) time that night, watched by their hidden friends, one thing was for sure: James Potter had finally won Lily Evans’ heart.
For eternity.