With a sigh of relief, Lily set down her quill and closed the huge textbook she had been consulting.
“Finally done?” a familiar voice asked.
Leaning back into her chair, Lily looked over at the boy sitting next to her and nodded. In the past couple weeks, Lily had become much closer with James and even the other Marauders, sitting with them in class and spending much of her free time with them.
“Good,” James replied. “We can leave for patrol duties before midnight. There was something I’d””
“Oh! I completely forgot we had to patrol tonight. There’s still so much homework I have to do. Do you think I could get one of the prefects to””
“Lily, Lily, calm down,” James said casually, putting his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t need to get anyone to cover for you. You already finished everything that’s due tomorrow and probably for the day after, too.”
“Well…I should at least study a little for the Charms test before we go,” she answered, racking her brain to remember her homework assignments.
James twitched the corner of his mouth into a crooked smile. “Lily, that test is not until Friday. Relax.” He got up from his seat and headed for the portrait hole.
Lily rolled her eyes at him, stacked her books into a neat pile, and followed him out of the common room. “So,” she began once they were out in the hall, “why are you so eager to patrol the castle tonight?”
The Head Boy shrugged his shoulders innocently but Lily saw through his charade.
“James, seriously. You know you’re a bad liar.”
He considered this for a moment before sighing. “Fine. How about we…skip patrolling tonight?” He held up a hand at Lily’s astonished look. “Hear me out, Lily. Skipping duties for one night won’t get us into trouble. Besides, I want to show you something.”
The redheaded girl raised an eyebrow at him, quizzically. “What?”
“I’m not telling you. It’s a surprise.” Then taking her hand, James pulled her toward a flight of stairs.
“James, really, we’re Head Boy and Girl. I don’t think we’re supposed to take advantage of patrol duties to go gallivanting around the castle...”
Lily hesitated as he gave her an encouraging smile and she felt her heart quicken and her cheeks redden.
“It’s just one night, Lily,” he said a little softer, gazing into her eyes with his hazel ones. In that moment Lily knew she wasn’t going to win the argument. She sighed in defeat and James’ face lit up.
“It’ll be fun, Lils. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”
James flashed another grin and then turned to race down the stairs, tugging Lily along behind him.
“James!” she squealed, as they flew down the stairs. “Stop!”
Just as the words left her mouth, Lily tripped over her feet and landed hard on the floor.
“Whoa! Are you alright?” James asked, looking anxious as he bent down.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she assured him, pulling herself up into a sitting position. Then remembering the reason she fell, she frowned. “Why were you running down the stairs?”
James looked confused. “I wasn’t going that fast. Is that why you fell on your face?” he asked with a smirk.
Lily slapped him playfully. “Yes, that’s why I fell down, Potter. I couldn’t keep up with you.”
“What was that?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Lily blushed, suddenly realizing that she had called him by his surname.
“I…uh…my legs aren’t as long as yours so I…” she trailed off, knowing she sounded stupid.
“Well, Miss Evans,” he said, pulling her to her feet from under her arms, “we’ll go really slow the rest of the way and I’ll make sure you don’t fall again.”
James looked over at Lily with a teasing smile and wrapped his arm around her waist.
An alarm sounded in Lily’s head as James pulled her close and began down the stairs again. Quickly, she squirmed out of his arm and made her way to the bottom of the stairs before James caught up to her.
Though she could tell he was trying to keep his expression composed, Lily could see a slight trace of hurt across his face. Seeing this, the retort she had been about to say flew out of her head and she stood, pressed up against the wall gawking at James.
“Do you want to see my surprise or not?” he asked, taking both her hands in his.
“James,” Lily warned, pulling her hands out of his.
“Come on, Lily, it’s not that big of a deal,” he told her, settling for just one of her hands.
Finally giving in, she sighed. James was obviously not going to give up. Furtively, she glanced over her shoulder, looking for teachers. She still was not too keen on skipping patrol duties, even with her curiosity about James’ surprise.
James, however, noticed Lily’s glance and his grin instantly turned into a frown.
“Lily, don’t worry. We’re not going to get in trouble. We’re Head Boy and Head Girl.”
“Exactly. We shouldn’t””
“Lily!” James said, drawing out her name. “Will you just trust me on this? For once in your life, can you do something against the rules?”
“I have, too, done something against the rules before!” Lily said, indignantly.
“Like…” James replied, raising his eyebrows.
“I…well…there was that one time…” she mumbled, racking her brain for something. Then exhaling sharply she said, “Well, I can’t think of anything on the spot but I can break the rules.”
“Oh, can you?” James gave her a sly smile and then took off running down the hallway.
“James!” Lily called after him. “Come back! We can’t run in the halls!”
Hearing this, James slowed down and turned around to look at Lily from down the hall.
“Lily Evans, you’re hilarious.” Then, still laughing, he took off running down the hall again, turning a corner and disappearing out of sight.
“James!” Lily called after him. There was no response. Exhaling sharply in frustration, she checked over her shoulder to make sure there were no teachers around and set off at a run to find James. As she rounded a corner, James jumped out from behind a suit of armor and surprised her.
Lily yelped and whipped out her wand which caused James break into hysterics.
“Did you…the look on your face…” he managed between laughs.
“James Potter!” Lily said, pointing her wand at his chest. “I’m going to…I’m going to…”
“Going to what?” he asked, swiftly pulling her wand out of her hand.
“Hey! Give that back!” Lily yelled as he took off running again.
Still slightly out of breath, Lily ran down hall after hall and up flights of stairs after James until he abruptly stopped a little ways ahead of her.
“Lily, come here! Quick,” James hissed, pulling her close to him by the hand. Lily saw him pull a silvery cloak out of his pocket and throw it over them. Just as soon as they had disappeared, Professor McGonagall entered the corridor, looking around suspiciously. Lily knew they had made a lot of noise, running through the castle and even though she knew she and James were invisible, she held her breath and prayed that McGonagall would keep walking by. When she was right next to Lily and James, she stopped and took a step closer to the wall they were hiding next to. Lily felt James wrap his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him, making her heart pound frantically in her chest. Eventually, McGonagall decided that no one was there and walked out of sight. Lily strangely felt a small twinge of regret when James moved her away from his warm chest to slip the cloak off of them.
“That was a close one,” James said once McGonagall was out of earshot, pacing back and forth in front of a section of blank wall.
“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “What are you doing? I thought you wanted to show me your surprise.”
James stopped pacing in front of the wall and turned to her. “I do. We’re here now,” he said, gesturing to a set of doors that Lily could have sworn were not there a moment ago. “Welcome to the Room of Requirement.”
He walked up to the doors and held one open for her.
“After you,” he said, smiling broadly.
Warily, Lily stepped through the doors, wondering why James had been so excited to show her this room. Once she was inside, however, her jaw dropped in wonder. The room looked very much like the Gryffindor common room, only it was about half its size. There was a fire burning in the fireplace on the far wall making the room toasty warm. Near the fireplace were two squashy armchairs and a loveseat as well as a round wooden table equipped with two chairs. On the other side of the room was an elegant candle lit dinner table.
“What is this place?” she managed to ask after a moment of silence.
James merely shrugged, trying to look dispassionate, but Lily could see he was hiding a grin.
“James?” Lily prompted, gesturing to the room.
“It’s just somewhere we can come to hang out,” he said, shrugging his shoulders again.
“We do hang out, James. I’ve probably spent more time with you in the past couple weeks than I have with my best friends,” Lily admitted.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s not the same thing spending time together with the guys around. And here, we can spend time together…alone.”
Lily made a face at the word “alone” and her eyes flickered over to the loveseat again.
“Lily! No, I didn’t mean it like that.” James looked down at the floor for a moment and for a fleeting second, Lily thought he might be lying. Then when he looked up again his eyes met hers and he flashed a crooked smile. “It’s sort of like tree houses that Muggle kids build; a special, hard-to-get-to place where you go with your friends. Did I make the right analogy? I don’t know much about Muggles.”
Lily laughed. “So are you saying this is our ‘tree house?’” she questioned, making air quotes with her fingers.
“If you want it to be, sure. Anyways, just humor me, Lils. It’ll be fun.” James took her hand again and pulled her to the small candlelit table. “Here you are, Miss Evans,” James said, dramatically, pulling out a chair for Lily.
Once she had sat down, he took a bottle of butterbeer from the table and filled her glass and his. “There you are,” he said with a chuckle before sitting down himself.
“So how did you find this room?” Lily asked, taking a sip of her butterbeer. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
James smirked. “Most people at Hogwarts haven’t heard of it. My friends and I found it in our second year. You have to have a need for it; we needed a place to hide from Filch and it turned up as a broom cupboard. It changes its form to fit a person’s need.”
Lily nodded, taking in the new information.
“So, what was your need for the room now?” she asked, suspiciously.
He shrugged. “I needed a place to spend time with you.”
Lily rolled her eyes. James saw her eye roll and leaned across the table to take her hands.
“Come on, Lily. Try to enjoy yourself.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll try.” She then became overly-conscious of James’s hands intertwined with hers, blushed, and looked down at the table. Apparently James felt the same way because he released her hands.
Lily cleared her throat to break the awkward silence. “Anyways, so tell me more about this room.”
Looking grateful that she had started the conversation, James grinned and leaned forward with his elbows on the table.
“Well, it does have its drawbacks. You see, it doesn’t produce food or drink so I had to bring this bottle of butterbeer ahead of time.”
Lily raised her eyebrows. “You had this planned out?”
“Is that wrong?”
“Well…I guess not. I mean you could have told me about our little outing. I could have brought something to eat…”
“Don’t worry about it. The butterbeer will probably be enough,” James said, taking another sip of his drink.
“Yeah, I guess. So, have you been in this room since your second year?”
A mischievous look spread across James’ face at her question. “Oh, loads of times!”
James then began to regale Lily with his numerous encounters involving the Room of Requirement over the past several years. As she expected, he and the other Marauders had used it often to hide from Filch, however, they had also used the room for less trivial matters. Once the boys had decided to become Animagi, they spent hours in the room researching how to do so. According to James, the room had supplied them with all the necessary books so no one would ever know their intentions. Eventually, in their fifth year, they had made their first transformations in that very room.
“Wow,” Lily said once James had finished. “Ever since you told me about being Animagi, I’d wondered how you pulled it off without anyone ever knowing.”
“Well, now you know,” he answered with a smile. He took the last sip of his butterbeer, leaned back in his seat, and put his arms behind his head.
As James sat back in his seat, Lily suddenly realized that they had unconsciously been leaning towards each other across the table. Embarrassed, she instantly leaned back in her seat and looked down at her hands. James yawned and broke the silence.
“Tired?” Lily asked, looking up and raising her eyebrows at him.
“Yeah, a little. I was out late last night doing...well you know, it was a full moon.”
Lily nodded. “Well, I don’t want to keep you too late. Tonight was fun. We should do it again sometime,” she said, getting up from her seat.
James eyes widened. “No, wait! Stay a little longer. I’m not that tired.”
Lily looked at him suspiciously but did not sit back down in her seat.
He sighed heavily and walked over to where she stood behind her chair.
“Stay a little longer, Lily. It’s not that late,” he said, pulling her by the hand to the loveseat.
“James, is something wrong?” she asked, concerned now. Why did he not want her to leave so badly?
“No, nothing’s wrong at all. In fact, I’m great; just splendid. I’m better than I’ve been in a long time.”
“Then why won’t you let me leave? And don’t tell me you want to ‘spend time with me,’” Lily warned, using finger quotes. “Something is up with you, James. I know you better than that.”
“Ugh,” James said, putting his head in his hands. “I wanted to do this so much better”smoother,” he muttered to himself.
“James…” Lily said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
Finally, James lifted his head, staring into the fireplace.
“Ok. The moment’s gone”it was gone a while ago actually, but I’m just going to go for it.” He turned his head to look confidently and surely into Lily’s eyes.
Lily gazed back into his hazel eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you better, Lily. I know we haven’t had the best history and we haven’t been close for that long but something about us feels right.” He paused to take a deep breath, “I’m in love with you, Lily.”
Lily stared at James for what felt like hours but was only matter of minutes, completely at a loss of what to say. James’ expectant look disappeared as he watched her dumbfounded expression.
“So…,” he said with a crooked smile. “That’s it, I guess. Just something I wanted you to know…”
“James, I…” Lily finally managed to say. “I mean…Wow, I really don’t know what to do with that…”
James face fell for a moment but then he put both his hands on her shoulders.
“Just tell me how you feel, Lily. But keep in mind that this time I’m not telling you as an annoying immature git. I’ve grown up a bit since then and I’m serious now. I really do love you.”
“James, I love you too, but””
“Well then that settles it!” he exclaimed, swiftly bringing his lips to hers.
The moment James’ lips touched hers, Lily was overwhelmed with shock and repulsion. Angrily, she pushed his face away and slapped him hard across the face.
“What was that?!” she yelled at him, jumping up from the loveseat.
James looked at her with wide, confused eyes, apparently trying to figure out how he had misunderstood her. With his hand, he massaged the red mark on his face.
“You said you loved me,” he argued, standing up. The indignation faded from his face at Lily’s livid look.
Seeing the crestfallen look on James’ face, though, made Lily’s anger ebb away slightly. “Yes, I love you as a friend. Best friend, actually.”
“And nothing more?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Yes, nothing more than that,” she answered decisively.
“Are you sure?” he pressed.
“Yes! Will you please stop pushing the matter? If you’re going to act like this, I’m going to leave.”
“No, don’t!” James said, quickly blocking her path to the door. “I’m not going to give up this easily, I””
“Of course, I should have known!” she cried, throwing her hands up into the air. “James Potter never gives up! Not the boy who has been pursuing me since first year! Your ‘mature’ and ‘charming’ act was just a hoax, wasn’t it?”
Lily tried to swallow the lump in her throat but tears were already starting to well up in her eyes. She should have seen it coming. James Potter hadn’t changed. Not one bit. He was only pretending to act differently just to get close enough to her to confess the obnoxious and immature crush he had on her. He didn’t truly love her. For some reason, this thought made Lily’s stomach clench and the tears in her eyes began to run down her face.
“No!” James exclaimed. “It wasn’t an act at all. I have changed. Or at least I’ve tried my best to deflate my head a bit and not be the annoying arrogant prat you hated. Ask Sirius or Remus or even Peter! I did it all for you because I loved you. And I still love you.”
Lily made a face at James, still not convinced of his motives.
“And what’s more,” he continued with a smile, “is that you love me, too.”
Lily’s jaw dropped and it took her a moment to overcome her shock at his bold statement to respond.
“What?! I do not love you!” she shouted at him, “I don’t even like you like that.”
James raised his eyebrows at her. “Really? So are you telling me that you haven’t enjoyed spending time with me a little more than you should have? Or that you don’t get butterflies or feel your heart beat like crazy when I’m around?” He paused and then continued, speaking a little softer, “Or even that you don’t secretly like it when I’m close to you?” Here he took a step closer to Lily and wrapped his arms around her waist, which she immediately threw off.
Her heart pounded in her chest like she’d just run a marathon and her head was swimming making her feel slightly faint. Still trying to keep her face composed, she looked straight into James’ hazel eyes.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you,” she said, dully. “I’m not attracted to you, James.”
James stared intently into her eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked, slowly.
“Positive. I don’t want to be anything more with you than friends.”
James was silent for a long time before he looked over Lily’s shoulder and said in a dull, impassive voice, “Do you want me to stay away from you, then?”
His question caught her off guard. Her first instinct was to cry out “No!” Despite what his motives had been, James was still her friend. One of her best friends. She couldn’t lose him over this.
“You don’t have to worry about my feelings if you still want to be friends, Lily. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Lily was quiet, thinking over what James had just said.
“It matters to me, James. I don’t want to be the cause of your pain. It’s probably better if we don’t see each other anymore. Maybe then you can finally move on.”
With that, Lily turned and walked out of the Room of Requirement.
More than Meets the Eye by lilybobily7
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: This world belongs to JKR. =]
Hope you enjoy chapter 12 ;)
Chapter Endnotes: Reviews are like cookies: They're nice to get and make you feel good. =]
Please review so I can know how to improve this story. Feel free to tell me what you like and what you hate. I'm open to anyone's opinions.