The next morning, Lily headed down to breakfast with a small vial of the potion tucked inside her pocket. She sat down beside Mary, surreptitiously sliding the bottle into her friend’s hand. Mary took it without a blink, still carrying on a conversation with the seventh-year on her other side.
They were talking about Quidditch. Lily tried to listen as they debated Gryffindor’s chances this season, but she never had been able to get into the sport, and her mind soon drifted. Quite by accident, her gaze landed on Snape, where he sat at the Slytherin table with Mulciber. Looking at them, she felt a strange mixture of sadness and repulsion, She was musing about her last, brief encounter with Severus, when an owl landed in front of her.
The scroll on its leg had her name on it”she untied the parchment carefully, and unfurled it. She recognized the handwriting instantly”it was the same that had been on the anonymous letter she had received weeks before.
Lily, this one began,
So I guess you may never forgive me. And maybe that means we can’t be friends. But I just can’t let you go like that. It’s not in my nature to give up.
I guess it’s pretty obvious who this is. But on the off chance that it isn’t, and you won’t be throwing these away without reading them, I’m going to keep writing. Something about knowing that you’ll at least hold them keeps me going.
That was it. Lily turned the letter over, looking for more, but there was nothing. She glanced up at the Slytherin table, almost unconsciously, but Severus was gone.
“What’ve you got there, Evans?” asked Sirius Black, appearing suddenly to slide between Mary and Lily. Remus Lupin slipped quietly into the seat on Lily’s other side, with James Potter and Peter Pettigrew seating themselves on the other side of the table.
“Nothing,” Lily said, hastily shoving the letter into her bag.
“Since when is ‘nothing’ shaped like parchment?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. “Looks like someone’s got an admirer!”
Lily blushed, hating herself for it as he crowed with laughter. But as embarrassed as Lily was, the well-timed distraction gave Mary her chance”out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Mary empty the vial into Sirius’s goblet.
“Oh, leave her alone, Padfoot,” Lily heard Remus say from her right. She threw him a grateful glance, but Sirius kept speaking.
“No, no,” he said. “If Evans has a secret lover, then I want to hear about it.” He took a long drink from his goblet, and slung an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, Evans,” he said. “We’re all friends here.”
“We’re really not,” she said, ducking under his arm.
He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped suddenly as James snapped, “Back off, Sirius.”
Both Lily and Sirius looked up in surprise. Lily, however, was amused to see that it was now Sirius’s turn to blush.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he stammered. “You know I’m just playing around, James…”
Mary caught Lily’s eye over Black’s head.
It’s working, she mouthed.
Lily winked. It was indeed.
---
James did not, at first, realize the severity of his best friend’s suddenly strange behavior. Sirius just seemed more attentive than usual”sitting beside him at meals, insisting they partner up in class. James just assumed it was backlash from the spat they had had that morning.
It wasn’t until the next morning that he realized something was wrong”he woke up, and Sirius was sitting on the side of his bed, staring down at him.
James yelped, and clutching the bedcovers to his chest, scrambled to the opposite end.
“Sirius!” he choked. “What are you doing?”
Sirius beamed at him. “You just look so peaceful when you sleep,” he said, reaching out and putting his hand on top of James’s.
James fell off the bed.
A concerned Sirius hoped over the four-poster in a flash, and knelt by James. Wincing, James started to sit up, but Sirius pushed him back down. “Don’t move!” he said authoritatively, “You may have hurt yourself. Can you breathe? Does anything hurt? Do you need a kiss to make it better?”
“Not from you,” said James grouchily, edging away from him, until Sirius pushed him down again, his hands firmly planted into James’s chest.
“Get off of me, Padfoot!” James squealed, squirming.
“What’s going on over there?” came the voice of a sleepy Remus.
“Nothing!” James called back, and seized the opportunity to knee a distracted Sirius in the abdomen.
Sirius squealed, and James sprang to his feet and dashed out of the dorm, hiding in the common room until it was safe to return.
He tried to avoid Sirius for as much of the day as possible”a task that proved easier said than done when it came to classes. He coerced Remus and Peter into partnering up with him when need be and sat at least three seats away from Sirius at all times. At the end of Transfiguration, however, he glanced inadvertently to his left to see Sirius staring sloppily at him from halfway down the row. Sirius’s wand was hanging limply from his hand, and he appeared not to notice the heart-shaped bubbles that drifted lazily from its tip. Without hesitating, James scooped up his books and ran from the classroom, ignoring McGonagall, who was shouting his name.
He dashed wildly around the corner, realizing that he perhaps had only moments before Sirius chased after him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a broom closet, the door ajar, and without stopping to think, threw himself inside.
He pushed the door closed, catching his breath as he peered through the small crack between it and the doorframe. After a moment he heard footsteps, and he braced himself, ready to barricade the door against Sirius if need be.
But the person who turned the corner wasn’t his best friend”far from it. James hesitated a fraction of a second, and then he moved.
---
Lily was not particularly used to boys jumping out at her from broom closets, and she was even less accustomed to being stuffed unceremoniously inside one. She wrenched herself away from the boy-shaped patch that had pulled her into the dark closet, and snarled, “What on earth is going on he””
He cut her off, hissing, “Stop talking! You have to be quiet!”
Lily’s eyes narrowed in the near-darkness as she recognized the voice. “James Potter, that better not be you,” she said, not bothering to keep her voice down.
She heard him sigh huffily, and then, without warning, his clamped his hand over her mouth. She let out a muffled, indignant squeal, but he didn’t let go; she was suddenly uncomfortably aware of how close he was. Her back was against the far wall of the closet, and he was pressed against her front, one hand over her mouth, the other braced against the wall beside her head. She could feel every contour of his body. And she was irritated.
“Get off of me,” she whispered as she wrenched her head away from his hand and shoved him in the chest. There wasn’t much space for him to retreat to”one backwards step, and he was against the closet door, blocking her way out. Lily’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough that she could make out his outline, and she watched him warily as she said, “I’ll keep my voice down if you explain to me what I’m doing in here.”
She heard him sigh softly again, and then he said, “It’s Sirius.”
She was startled for a moment”she’d half thought that this was some misguided attempt to ask her out again”but, knowing what she knew about Sirius’s condition, she wasn’t that surprised. “What about Sirius?” she asked James, playing along.
“Something’s…wrong with him,” James said heavily, and she imagined him running a hand through his hair, as she knew he was apt to do when frustrated. “I think…you can’t laugh at me, but I think he swallowed a love potion.”
She didn’t laugh, since she knew it was true, but feigned curiosity instead. “Why?” she asked. “Who’s he in love with?”
“Um,” James said, shifting uncomfortably, “well, me.”
This time, she did laugh”as derisively as she could. “That’s just like you, Potter,” she sneered. “You think the whole world is in love with you.”
“Look, Evans,” he said, and there was desperation in his voice. “I know you don’t like me. But please, I’m begging you. You have to help me. Can’t you brew up an antidote or something?”
The pleading edge activated Lily’s guilt reflex. This whole situation was her fault, after all, even if James didn’t know it. She sighed, silently cursing her conscience. “Now that you mention it, I have noticed him acting strangely around you,” she said carefully. “But Potter, it just seems like a garden variety love potion. Honestly, the effects should wear off by the end of the day.”
James seemed to sag in relief, and started to push open the closet door. “So what you’re saying is, all I have to do is avoid him for the next couple of hours?”
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Lily said kindly, actually smiling at him as he stepped aside to let her exit first.
She turned to look at him, wanting to say something else but not quite sure what, and noticed that he looked stricken. “Might be harder than it sounds,” he gulped.
She whirled around to see Sirius standing there, looking murderous.
---
“James?” Sirius said, sounding wounded. “What were you doing in a broom closet? And with her?” He looked at Lily menacingly, and gave a very doglike snarl. Lily looked alarmed.
James swore silently, and slowly took a step towards her. “Any bright ideas?” he muttered under his breath.
She looked at him “Yeah, I got one,” she hissed back. “Run!”
They bolted down the hall, leaving a startled-looking Sirius behind them. James knew they had only moments before Sirius began to pursue them, and prayed silently that his best friend still had enough sense left that he wouldn’t transform into the great black dog and try to track them.
“Where,” panted Lily from his side, “are we going to go, anyway?”
James thought fast, and a lifetime of mischief did not let him down. “Kitchens,” he said with finality.
Lily stopped running and looked at him incredulously. Her face was red, her tangle of red hair coming loose and falling about her face, and in some distant part of his mind, James registered, as he had before, just how lovely she was. Even if she was, as usual, scolding him.
“Be reasonable, James. Do you even know where those are?” she said.
He registered the familiar use of his first name, and grinned. “I do,” he said, “and they aren’t far from here. But we have to run now.”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t resist, sprinting behind him down the hall.
---
Lily was impressed despite herself when James led her into the kitchens, but she tried not to show it, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. She was surprised, too, of how fond the house-elves seemed to be of James. They swarmed around him, offering plates of éclairs and treacle tart. He grinned”that lopsided, self-assured smile that Lily usually hated”but then he unloaded the house-elves of their trays, protesting as they tried to get more.
Lily sidled up to him. “Are they like this with everyone?” she asked in an undertone.
He turned that rakish grin to her. “Nah,” he said, “they hate Sirius.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Really.”
“Oh yeah, that’s why we’re safe here. They won’t let him in without me,” James said, then raised his voice. “Right, Blinken?”
A house-elf hovering near his left squeaked, “Right, Master James!”
Lily raised her eyebrows even higher. Master? she mouthed at James, who shrugged, then winked.
“Hey Blinken,” he said to the house-elf, “come meet Lily.”
The beaming Blinken scurried forward to shake her hand as she looked him up and down. He was wearing the usual Hogwarts house-elf uniform, but perched on top of his head was a lampshade, with holes cut in it for his sizable ears.
“Blinken likes hats,” James informed her.
“I see that,” Lily said dryly, and then, because she was curious, she asked, “Blinken, why don’t you like Sirius?”
Blinken scowled. “He is always running around breaking dishes and mixing up meals. He demands food just before meals. He tries to get us to order firewhiskey for him. And the other day””
The house-elf’s voice had grown more and more high-pitched as he became more enraged, and now it was so squeaky that Lily couldn’t understand him. She glanced sideways at James, who, it turned out, was already looking at her in amusement.
“Sirius plays pranks on them,” he translated.
“Oh, like you don’t?” she countered.
James opened his mouth indignantly, but before he could speak, Blinken abruptly stopped his tirade and fixed his gaze on Lily. He took a step forward, and she was surprised, for a moment, by how menacing a three-foot house elf could look.
“Master James is the best in the whole school!” he stated definitively. “He always tries to help us clean up after Sirius”” (Lily noticed he left out the “Master”) “”and he comes to visit us even when there’s no food! And he is very clever.”
Lily turned towards James again, expecting him to look smug, and was shocked to see that he was actually blushing. He looked steadily back at her, and for a moment, she couldn’t think of anything to say. She couldn’t get the image of pampered James Potter, surrounded by house-elves, up to his elbows in dishwater. But instead she asked him, “Clever?”
“Oh, that,” he said modestly. “Well, Sirius likes to play pranks on them…I’ve been teaching them to play pranks back.”
“Like what?” Lily asked, startled.
“Remember at dinner the other day when Sirius turned into a sheep for about five minutes?”
“Hard to forget.”
“That was us.”
Lily stared at him for a moment. “How?” she asked.
“Oh, you know,” James shrugged. “Enchanted one of the shepherd’s pies. And then Blinken marked it up special, so I could recognize it, and set it so that, when the food appeared, it would be by our end of the Gryffindor table. All I had to do was make it get onto Sirius’s plate.”
“Wow,” said Lily, a little jealous”her pranking experience was limited, and he was far from amateur.
“Yeah, I’m easing them into it,” he said, looking up at her. Then, misreading her awestruck expression, he said, “Aw come on, Evans, you don’t disapprove, do you? Because you know you love it. A little mischief makes things exciting.”
She turned away before he could see her smile, thinking, Don’t I know it.
After a pause, Lily heard him rise. “I think the coast is clear,” he said, walking over to stand beside her. He looked down at her”she hadn’t ever realized he was quite this tall”and said, “Blinken would’ve warned us if he was waiting outside, and Moony’s probably caught up to him by now anyway.”
She looked at him. His hair was as scruffy as ever, but his hazel eyes were clear. He was awfully close.
Flustered, she stepped away, and said, “Why do you call him that, anyway?”
“Who?” James asked, confused.
“You meant Remus Lupin, right? When you said Moony? You guys have all those weird nicknames for each other…”
“Oh, right,” he said. “Yeah, that’s Remus.”
“Why do you call him that?” she asked.
He laughed lightly. “You probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said.
“Try me,” Lily challenged.
“Maybe someday,” he said with that infuriating half-smile.
“Oh come on,” said Lily. “What’s yours again, anyway?”
He hesitated for a minute. Then, “Prongs,” he said, and dropped an enormous wink, before pushing past her towards the door of the kitchens.
She stood there for a moment, open-mouthed. Cheeky, she thought, before following.
They made their way to the Gryffindor common room in relative silence. James was jumpy, checking for Sirius around every corner, and Lily was thoughtful, going over the events of the day in her head. It was ironic, she thought, how her own attempt at playing pranks had led them to this.
They arrived in the common room to find it nearly deserted”it was late afternoon, Lily realized, and most people had started heading down for dinner. She turned towards the stairs to the girls’ dormitory with half a mind to look for Mary, but at the foot of the stairs, stopped and looked back over her shoulder. James was, once again, watching her.
“What?” she snapped, her voice coming out harsher than she meant it, and she saw him wince. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “But you know, James, just because we had this…experience together doesn’t mean that I suddenly like you now, or that we’re friends.”
She didn’t know what she expected him to do, but it certainly wasn’t what he did”he just stood there, smirking at her.
“What?” she asked briskly.
“I don’t believe you,” he said.
She threw her hands up. “Why not?” she asked. “And stop leering at me!”
“Because,” he said calmly, still smiling smugly, “you just called me James.”
Lily sighed in exasperation, and whirled around to head up the stairs.
“You aren’t denying it!” he called after her.
She didn’t look back, but as she turned the corner at the top of the stairs, he could swear he saw her smile.
---
James headed towards his own dormitory, still smiling. When he reached the door, however, he bit his lip, and pushed it open slowly.
Sure enough, Sirius was inside, sitting on his four-poster. Sirius saw James and got to his feet”James thought about slamming the door and running, but stopped at Sirius’s expression. He looked horrified.
James eyeballed him. “Are you better?” he asked cautiously.
Sirius opened and closed his mouth a few times, before finally saying softly, “I am so sorry.”
James just looked at him for another long moment. Sirius looked back worriedly, until finally James’s straight face broke. He sniggered, and clapped his friend on the shoulder”Sirius looked relieved and then huffy.
“Don’t worry about it,” James said, walking over to his own bed and flopping down on it. Sirius surveyed him, his arms crossed.
“You’re taking this all very well,” he said suspiciously.
James, flat on his back, linked his hands behind his head. “What can I say,” he said, unable to keep the smile off his face, “I had a good day.”