It was a normal day in the great hall. Breakfast was being served and it was a rather quiet morning, considering it has a room full of teenagers. Some students were eating and chatting; some were finishing up and were getting up to leave. And then there was Lily. She hurried through the door to the Gryffindor table. Her robes were hastily thrown on and her hair was flying in every direction. Her breathing was coming in small pants from running down from her dorm. She glanced around frantically, trying to spot her friends. She saw Peter Pettigrew munching on what she guessed was his third or fourth toast with marmalade and Remus besides him laughing at something a prefect had told him, a charms book open in front of him. Ah, there they were. Marlene was catching up on some essay she hadn't finished last night and Sarah was drinking pumpkin juice. Lily sat down hastily, grabbed a slice of bread and started spreading peanut butter on it. It might have been a little too violently, because both girls noticed.
"Hey, Lily, what did that slice ever do to you?" laughed Sarah.
"Someone overslept today." remarked Marlene, with a teasing smile.
"Why didn't you guys wake me up when you left the dorm? This is the worst day for me to be late. I was supposed to give my potions essay to Professor Slughorn. I already asked him for an extension, and today was the deadline!" Lily said and took a large bite out of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"We would have, but you slept late last night, so we thought you could use the rest." replied Sarah.
At that moment the owl post arrived. Marlene and Sarah both had been waiting for packages from home, and they were quick to open them once they arrived. But Lily wasn't waiting anything. That's why she didn't look up from her PB&J until a letter fell in front of her. Curious, she looked for any indication as to who had sent it, but all that was written in the envelope was her name. She opened it and took out the single page that was inside. Carefully, she unfolded it.
Dear Lily, it read.
I realize we have only been dating for three months. But if we count the time I was asking you out and you turned me down, and I do, someone could say we've been dating up to three years. That's a really long time. So after coming to this realization-
Here Lily stopped. It was clear that this was a letter from James. As much as she liked her boyfriend writing her a love letter, he was in the same house as her. He had any opportunity to tell her whatever he wanted in the numerous hours they spent together, both in class and outside of it, in the common room or, as the case was, in their house table on breakfast. The fact that he didn't tell her face to face made her think he was preparing something she wouldn't particularly approve of. That feeling was made worse by his uncharacteristic absence from the table. Sirius missing as well did nothing to make things better. She decided to continue reading the letter after scanning the great hall for any sign of either of Hogwarts' greatest troublemakers.
So after coming to this realization, I understood there was something I had to say. Something I really should have said earlier. It would've probably saved me a lot of those failed attempts to take you out.
At that moment the unusual calm of the great hall, which Lily now knew was due to the two loudest students of the year absence, was broken by a deafeningly loud sound. It seemed like something had been blown up.
"What was that?" A ravenclaw asked. There was another milder poping sound.
"I heard that too!" A hufflepuff exclaimed.
All the professors were out of their sits by now, the head of the houses trying to keep the student calm and the rest of them going for the door to inspect the mysterious noises.
Which, as Lily thought about it more, sounded suspiciously like…
The door opened and two Gryffindors on broomsticks flew in, tailed by the most magnificent fireworks Lily had ever seen. As more explosions were heard, more and more images took shape. Lily was on her feet and heading towards the two boys, ignoring her friends' protests. They were the only two to notice her departure. Everyone else was too preoccupied with the fireworks, the students ogling at them and the teachers trying to keep some kind of order in the midst of all the chaos.
Of course that's what James and Sirius wanted.
While everyone looked the fireworks and Sirius did insane tricks on his broomstick to keep the attention of those bored by the fireworks, James flew low with his broomstick, meeting Lily half way.
"James" Lily started yelling, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"
"Confession my undying love for you of course!" he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "This is a…" Lily stopped in the middle of her rant. "You're doing what?" she screamed.
"Come on." He said and made her climb on his broomstick. Quickly he headed straight for the doors. An exploding sound made the building shake. They were almost out the door, when Lily caught a glimpse of a piece of the ceiling narrowly missing a Slytherin first year.
Once out of the great hall, James flew faster. They soon were out of the school and flying high, in the direction of the Black Lake. When they were almost to its shore, James swooped down , stopped, and tried to help Lily get down after hopping off.
"James what are you doing?" asked Lily.
"Like I told you, my dear Lily, I am confessing my undying love for you. I understood you were special a long time ago, but only understood just how special recently. I love you Lily."
He beamed at her. "I thought after three months and three years you should know."
She stood there staring at him. The sock quickly wore off and her expression turned fierce.
"James Potter," she started "You filled the Great Hall with fireworks, had your best friend perform life defying stunts on his broomstick, blew up who knows what-"
James looked like he was about to explain exactly what he had blown up, but Lily glared at him and continued uninterrupted ,"Who knows what room of Hogwarts and unleashed complete chaos in the middle of breakfast to tell me you loved me, is that it?"
"Yes, Lily, that is exactly it." Replied James, looking completely serious.
"I see." Lily said coolly. And then she attacked him, her hands going around him and her body crushing so hard on his, they both fell on top of the green grass that surrounded the lake, Lily on top of James.
"Well, if that's the case, Mister Potter" Lily whispered "I'd like you to know that I love you too." She said; her eyes were full with the exact mischievous look his had only moments ago.
James liked a lot of things about her. Her red hair. Her green eyes. Her capability of finding something to yell at him about, even when he'd done nothing wrong. How they fought. How she was a know-it-all. But what he really loved was that spark, that glint showing that, although she might hide it well behind her straight-A-student, prefect façade, she was just as mischievous as him. He knew she liked how he did absurd things and she absolutely loved playing pranks with him and on him. He also loved her acute sense of right and wrong, and how caring she was.
Lily liked his unruly hair and his rectangular glasses. She liked his crooked grin. How they fought. How he was an insufferable prick that drove her crazy. But she loved that spark, that glint when he made his smart-ass comments during class that he knew were right, because even though he was known for his jokes and he might let people think he was just a mindless prankster, but she knew how smart he really was. She knew he liked how she could talk back to him and he absolutely loved that she was one of the few people that could put him in his place. She also loved how he was always nice to the younger students and how he was simply incapable to saying no to someone who's crying.
They loved each other because they brought out the best in each other. They loved each other because they were equals. So three months weren't too fast.
Later that day James had been sent to the nurse's office. He had no idea what it was about, but he really hoped it had nothing to do with Remus. The last full moon had only been four days ago, and although he had seemed fine in the brief time he had seen him in the morning before running of with Sirius to arrange everything, he was still worried.
So with his backpack hanging on one shoulder, he hurried past classroom doors. But when he was only a few corridors away from his class, a hand pulled him in a classroom.
He immediately turned around to look at his captor only to come face to face with…
"Lily?" James voiced his obvious confusion. "I'm sorry, I can't talk right now, I have to go to the nurse's office."
Lily gave him a big smile. "No, you don't."
"I don't? Lily, what are you saying? Look, I want to stay and chat, but there might be something wrong with Remus and-" And then it dawned on him. Because he looked around and they were in a classroom that no one used for classes. And his girlfriend wore a smile just a little bit too big.
"I see." He tried to mimic her coolness from earlier in the day, but his attempt was ruined by the huge smile on his face, mirroring hers. "So, my being sent to the nurse's office wouldn't have to do anything with the fact that my prefect girlfriend has passes to said office."
Lily tried to look innocent. Like James before her, she failed. The look on her face gave her away.
"Nope."
"So it's irrelevant?" His smile got even bigger, if such a thing was possible.
"Nothing at all." She replied.
"Well, I might as well go and see why they have summoned me then."
"And you would leave your girlfriend alone? In a very empty room, may I add?"
"It's the nurses office. What can I do but go?" He teased.
"I could think of a few things." Lily said, her voice low.
"I'm all ears."
And then she kissed him. Her kiss was passionate and fierce. He loved her. He love Lily Evans and he was an idiot for waiting this long to tell her.
His lips felt hot on hers and he pulled her closer. She always loved his kisses. She run her hands through that impossibly unruly black hair of his. She loved the way they sticked every which way. She loved how he made her do crazy things, like telling his professor the nurse needed to see him.
She sighed. Yes, she loved him. She loved James Potter. And she was an idiot for not having told him first.
