intium, intiī -

beginning;

commencement;

entrance

"'Morning, Evans."

"'Morning, Potter."

James grinned at her from across the common room as she exited through the portrait hole. "What's up with that?" Sirius asked, looking between Lily and James.

"What d'you mean?"

Sirius frowned. "Since when has Evans been civil towards you?"

"I dunno," shrugged James. "We've been forced to be around each other a bit, I reckon, what with Head duties and all."

He only nodded in response, still looking at the portrait hole where Lily had just stood.

"Reckon we ought to go down to breakfast?" James suggested, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Then we can grab our things and go down to the tree by the lake, yeah?"

"Yeah…," said Sirius slowly, before following his best mate out of the common room to the staircases.

Breakfast was a quiet affair for the two Marauders, as they generally were on Saturday mornings. Students gradually trickled into the Great Hall to eat their breakfast, before they gathered in the entrance hall. As soon as Professor Dumbledore unlocked the doors to the outside, the students were free to spend the day at Hogsmeade until the typical curfew.

One of the many responsibilities of the Head Boy and Girl was to lead the students to the village as well as to ensure that no students remained in the shops past eight o'clock. For James, that meant more time spent with Lily; for Lily, that meant less time to do weekend homework.

"Can't you just do it on Sunday?" James reasoned on their last visit to Hogsmeade.

"Yes, but Sundays are for writing letters and reading and sleeping," countered Lily. "It's better to just get homework over with Saturday afternoon and evening and have Sunday to relax."

James shrugged. "Just don't come to Hogsmeade then."

"You and your friends would get into trouble if I wasn't here," she said with a smile, shaking her head. "Besides, McGonagall wouldn't be too happy with me if I didn't show up to something we've been organizing for weeks."

"You've got a point," agreed James, before they had headed back to the castle by themselves.

Their relationship - which was just a friendship at the time of the Hogsmeade trip in question - had been delicate at first, and James wasn't too keen on risking damaging it. It had started off rocky: at the beginning of the year, she despised him for "cheating out" Remus, her best friend, for the position of Head Boy, claiming that James had done so just so she would be forced to associate with him.

(Well, it was definitely an upside of the position.)

As though it weren't enough that she resented him for something he didn't do, but she also did all of her Head Girl duties for the first few weeks with great reluctance, making as little contact with him as she could to be able to go just barely beyond Dumbledore and McGonagall's expectations to be impressive.

It hadn't been until James and Lily actually had to work together to plan Hogsmeade trips that she began to work willingly with him. He still doesn't know what clicked between them, but something did and suddenly she liked him, and he liked her back, and everything was brilliant.

Only problem was that to the other students at Hogwarts, Lily Evans still hated James Potter and James Potter was madly in love with Lily Evans. They didn't know that Lily Evans had (in James's opinion) finally fallen for James Potter.

At their last "Heads' meeting," (which was now just an excuse to see each other privately and maybe get a small bit of productive work done) they promised that they would tell only their best friends about their relationship before they let the whole school find out. James would tell Sirius, and Lily would tell Remus, and Peter - well, he would probably find out somewhere in between. The deal was that they'd tell their friends by Saturday in order to be able to go to Hogsmeade together without having to be secretive and stealthy about it.

And suddenly James found himself and Sirius standing in the entrance hall, having met up with Remus and Peter, and abruptly realizing that he had completely forgotten about his and Lily's agreement.

He frantically looked around, scoping the crowd of students. People were pouring out of the Great Hall, bubbly and eager for a day of shopping. First- and second-years glumly followed their older, uncomforting counterparts out the doors and reluctantly retreated towards their common rooms. Maybe, just maybe he could pull Sirius away from everybody and . . . .

"Oi, Evans!" called Sirius, spotting her leaving breakfast.

Dammit.

Lily came over to where they were standing. Remus grinned at her - of course he did, he knew, Lily had told him, just like she'd promised.

"What is it, Black?" she asked, casually giving James a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," said Sirius slowly, looking between the two of them. "Are you two . . . is there something you haven't bothered to tell me?"

"James," Lily and Remus said in unison, an underlying tone of warning evident in their voices.

"I . . . forgot?"

The people surrounding them had suddenly gone silent, and soon the entirety of the Hogwarts student body was completely quiet. Sirius looked expectantly at James, waiting for him to further explain.

"Forgot to tell me that you're dating the girl you've been pining after for the past, what, four or five years?" said Sirius, before he burst out laughing. "Can you believe this?" he demanded to Remus and Peter. Remus didn't respond, and Peter appeared to be just as shocked, if not more so, as Sirius. "James Potter is going out with Lily Evans?!"

"Er . . . ," James began, trying to think up an excuse for completely forgetting his and Lily's deal while simultaneously apologizing to Sirius, and also Peter, for forgetting to let him know. Before he could say anything, however, Lily pulled him down to her level and kissed him, long and hard, right then and there in front of nearly the entire school.

When they pulled away, Peter said, "So you aren't kidding? You really are dating?"

"I reckon they are, Wormtail," remarked Sirius, smirking before clapping James on the shoulder. "Well, congrats, mate. Didn't think you had it in you."

The encircling crowd erupted into conversation, mostly of gossip. But neither James nor Lily cared.

"Smooth, Potter," said Lily, "but you're not getting off that easily."

"One trip to Hogsmeade, Evans?" James said hopefully, though he already knew the answer.

"I guess it can wait a little while," Lily said, smiling as she kissed him again.

A/N: Wow, it's been a long time since I've uploaded something. All I can say is that I have a different writing project for school that is definitely priority (and that I have to work on during my breaks), but I definitely still am motivated to continue my other fics. Expect an update on Breakaway soon, and another one-shot for Colors of Death is in the making.

"Intium" was written for the monthly Jily Challenge on Tumblr - go check out some of the submissions, they're pretty cool! This month's theme was relationship milestones, and my prompt was "they announce their relationship publicly in Hogwarts."

P.S. I am now active on Tumblr (h-elizabeth-holmes), and this fic is also posted on Tumblr and AO3 if you want to check it out there - the links for everything are in my bio. :)