The Parchment

Winter was upon Hogwarts castle. The structure was blanketed in snow and the windows glowed warmly, casting intricate shadows over the white grounds.

Up in one of the towers, the Gryffindors were immune to the cold, kept warm by the large fires, and occasional warming spell. The common room was abuzz with pre Christmas excitement, peals of laughter breaking out over the dull roar in the room.

Lily Evans was one of few solitary figures within the room, sitting in the corner in her favorite overly plush armchair and "reading" as usual. Her wand clutched in one hand under her chin and the other supporting her head, she managed to turn the pages of her book to that it seemed like she was reading. She was actually having a very pleasant daydream. Now most would be able toguess what it is about, but is was all the more amusing for everybody else to just let her pretend they didn't notice. One of those who wouldn't be able to guess just happened to be watching her at the moment. Well, more like for the last twenty minutes. Same person just happened to be the object of said daydream. Same said person was wanting to talk to Lily, but usually that would end up with her yelling at and/or hexing him in the face, so his position on the other side of the room was for good measure.

He was confused; he thought for a person reading, she looks quite dazed. Sudden inspiration hit and he dashed off, leaving his friends in the middle of a supposedly rather important game of Wizards Chess, to fetch a quill and parchment. No less than five minutes later he was back, ignoring the annoyed looks from his friends. Scribbling a few words down and ripping the piece of parchment in half, he grabbed his wand from his pocket and muttered a few spells under his breath.

"Prongs, what are you doing this time?" Asked Moony from the couch, looking down on his friend, worried that he might get himself in trouble with Lily, again.

"Nothing." Came the reply, the typical reply. After six years of failure he couldn't give up, could he?

"Well, whatever it is you're up to, get it over with so we can get back to the game! It's been your turn for over eight minutes and I don't want to have to end up playing against Wormtail, again!" Complained Padfoot, resulting in a scowl to appear on Wormtail's face. But Prongs wasn't listening. He just sent one of the pieces of parchment to the next page of Lily's book. With a smile on his face, James Potter waited.

Lily absentmindedly turned the page again and was momentarily roused from her dream as she heard the sound of heavier paper being tussled. She looked down and saw a piece of parchment. She picked it up and peered on both sides. It was blank. She was about to put it down where words suddenly scrawled across the paper.

Hi Lily

She stared at the page and the familiar handwriting and looked to her right. Quill in hand and glancing downward behind his back every few seconds, James was failing horribly at appearing to be playing chess. When she looked back at the paper, the words faded away. Lily blinked twice as more words appeared.

What are doing?

She glanced over from the corner of her eye and saw Sirius smack James on the head. He nudged him back. Sirius nudged James, James nudged Sirius. And so on and so on.

The two, and Peter, were too busy to notice, but Remus watched Lily shake her head and reach into he nearby bag to get out a quill. She too scribbled something down and was looking amused at James's obliviousness. Remus coughed which was enough to catch James's attention. James snatched his piece of paper and quickly read over Lily's fading words.

Reading.

Sounds intriguing. What book?

Does it really matter?

James looked at her and she was giving him an irritated look.

I guess not. It just seemed like you weren't really reading it…

James wasn't sure if what he saw was real or not, but it appeared like she was blushing.

Well, I'm obliviously not now so what did you want?

To say hi!

It took a moment for a reply to come.

You made that pretty clear.

He snuk a glimpse and saw her rolling her eyes.

Well it looked like you were thinking pretty hard over something I was just wondering…

My thoughts would hardly concern you.

As she wrote this, she felt the flush return to her checks.

Oh really?

Yes

Really?

Yes.

Re-

YES!

A few moments of parchment silence.

I bet I can guess what you were think about!

Knock yourself out.

Let me see…. Was it….. about my appeal?

Do you honestly think I would even let that pass through my mind?

I dunno, it was worth a try…

No reply. Lily's hair covered her renewed blushed face.

Was it…. About the snow?

Weather? Are you serious?

Well, he's sitting right next to me…

Again no reply. He glanced over only to flinch as to escape the disgruntled look on Lily's face.

Was it…. About the Marauders?

No reply.

About…. A book, Quidditch, your family, Christmas, food, Potions, Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration, dragons, elves, goblins, mermaids, unicorns, hippogriffs, cats, dogs, rats, werewolves, partonuses, brooms, quills, paper, glasses, good, evil, music, the Forbidden Forest, the Lake, Hogsmead, Diagon Alley, London, shoes, clothes,...

Lily glanced up at James; he was looking around the room for anything, and everything. She glanced down at the paper and the older words were starting to fade and new words were coming in.

Was it ANY of those?

Lily smiled. She scribbled one word,

Nope.

James literally jumped up causing the "eavesdropping" Sirius to fall backwards, land on Peter who threw his book out of his hand and hit an unsuspecting Remus on the head. Lily burst out laughing. James abandoned his quill and paper and marched over the Lily.

"I tried everything I could think of!" James shouted. "You must have one bloody good imagination…." He muttered, looking defeated. Quite a few people abandoned their own activities to enjoy the latest show.

Calming down from laughing, Lily could finally look at him with a straight face.

"All you ever had to do in the first place was ask…" She said, starting to giggle again at the look on James's face.

"Fine then. What were you thinking of?" He said, frowning, trying to ignore the snickering going on around him from fellow Gryffindors and the guffaws coming from Sirius.

"Dreams." Lily simply stated. James raised his arms and looked like he was going to have another outburst.

He turned around quirkily and strode off back to his side of the room. Lily faintly heard his murmering, sounding remarkably like, "Stupid wide subject….why'd I even bother…"

Lily smiled and picked up the enchanted paper and scribbled another question down.

"James, hey, James," Sirius threw a few chess pieces in an attempt to get the attention of a sulking Prongs. He stared at Sirius who just pointed to the paper he abandoned.

Want to know what I'm thinking now?

James looked up at Lily who was smirking straight at him. He could only guess.

No.