"60% for transfiguration? I should chase her up a tree, that'd show her who's worth a decent mark..." Sirius continued to grumble.
"It's a lot better then I did." Peter could out-grumble even Sirius at this time of year, just after final marks were posted.
"Doesn't matter now. Holidays to look forward to." Remus attempted to put some perspective.
"You can say that because you've topped Defence against the Dark Arts, yet again." Sirius said as the five of them wandered up and down random flights of stairs, eventually ending up in Lily's dormitory. They'd taken to hiding there over the last year because their own room was so frequently raided by Filch.
"It's almost cheating for you to do Defence anyway." Sirius continued, still annoyed that he could barely scrape a pass in transfiguration when he was one of the three youngest people to have mastered the animagus transformation.
"Well I couldn't do Care of Magical Creatures, because they tend to be afraid of me, and it's the only other subject on offer in that period." Remus said sensibly.
"And I object to what you said about cheating." Lily piped up. "Is it cheating that I take Muggle Studies?"
"Yes." Sirius said simply. "But you and Prongs are so good at everything it's plain criminal. I can't believe you two are going to be Head Boy and Girl next year. Even after that fiasco with the Ravenclaw commonroom and the bursting quills."
James and Lily flushed with pride and embarrassment. Peter, who had managed to snare a pass conceded in nearly all his subjects only because of hours of hard work, looked at the two of them with a sort of hungry envy that made Remus feel chilled for a few minutes. Then he shook himself and smiled again.
"We're getting too old for mad adventures." he said with mock-seriousness. "We should throw the map away, swear never to visit the joke shop - " the words were cut off as Sirius thumped him on the head with the map in question. Lily kept it safe for them but had flatly refused to put her name on it, pointing out that using it perhaps once every three months to avoid running into whoever her latest ex-boyfriend was wasn't really on par with almost nightly jaunts around the castle under an invisibility cloak. Lily wasn't nearly as well-behaved as most teachers thought her to be, but still worlds more law-abiding then Moony, Wormtail, and especially Padfoot and Prongs.
"This time next year we'll be graduating." Peter said as if it was the end of the world.
"Which means we should make this summer count." James said firmly.
"I sense ickle Jamesy has a plan." Sirius said to Remus in a stage whisper.
"I certainly do." James admitted. "I was thinking we could spend part of the summer staying in a boarding house in Hogsmeade."
"Oh no." Lily shook her head with a laugh. "I'd spend all day wondering what mayhem you'd caused the night before."
"Not if you were involved." Sirius egged her on. He and Lily had attempted to go on a date together, during their third year, but had realised they were far better suited to being friends after the evening had eventuated in the two of them hiding underneath a table in the library casting itching charms on everyone's socks.
"Remus is right, I'm too old for games. As Head Girl I must set a good example." she said in a hoity-toity voice before relaxing with a laugh.
"I think it sounds like fun." Peter ventured to say. Remus was glad that his friend was contributing, sometimes he worried about Peter. Remus himself, James, Sirius and Lily were all such Alpha types that Peter got lost in the jumble.
"Same here. Cracker of a suggestion as usual." Sirius agreed. Remus nodded his own consent. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Fine. I can't let you boys have all the fun, can I? Anyway, it's probably in my best interests to stay away from home." she sounded regretful and Remus had to duck his head down to hide a smile. Lily had made a lifelong enemy in her sister the summer before, when she'd turned four china teacups into excited rats hours before Petunia's boss at the department store where she worked had come to visit. Petunia had been sacked a week later, and had cut eight inches off Lily's auburn plait. The next morning Lily's hair was long again, Petunia was still unemployed, and their childhood animosity had graduated into full-fledged hatred.
"We're agreed, then." James said happily.
~
They rented three rooms at Featherdown Place, the boardinghouse run by the school matronly, pudding-shaped Harriet Featherdown. James and Sirius had the attic room, with a convenient window right beside a sturdy pine tree. Remus and Peter had the room directly below, with easy access to the same tree. Lily had no instant escape route, but a better view and a double bed, unlike the twin single mattresses in the boy's rooms.
They went out the first night for butterbeer, which after a little while became boring, delicious as it was. Sirius and James flirted with a pretty young waitress until she agreed to add mulled mead to their glasses, and that made it decidedly less boring.
They bought hot chips covered in salt and vinegar, and climbed out of the attic window onto the roof, feeling very grown up from living somewhere as wonderful as a boarding house, and at the same time very young and carefree and full of hot potato and butterbeer and mulled mead and summer.
~
Lily couldn't stop herself from glaring at James across the breakfast table. He was slathering jam onto a piece of toast, looking more awake then the rest of them put together.
"There's an archery range out past Tuppet road." he was saying.
"It's out first day. Do you even know what relaxation is?" Peter asked. James grinned and bit into his toast.
"No."
"And archery? Who are you, Robin Hood?" Remus' teasing was good natured as always. Lily wondered if this was some natural reaction on his personality's part, compensating for those hours under the moon when his nature was bloodthirsty and dark.
"That's exactly who he is." Sirius had swallowed three mugs of pepper coffee, and had regained his usual vigor. "Robin Hood." he pointed his fork across the table at James, then turned it on himself. "Little John." Fork pointed at Remus: "Will Scarlet." Then Lily's turn with "Maid Marian." Finally, Sirius gestured at Peter with the cutlery, a laugh twitching at the corners of his mouth. "Friar Tuck."
Peter protested at this label, spluttering into his porridge. Lily found the names funny.
"Don't expect me to go marrying this outlaw here anytime soon." she said. It was an idea funny enough to make them all chuckle – Lily's romantic attachments were fleeting, almost momentary things, and James was no better. Friendship was something that lasted a lifetime, and Lily and James meant so much to each other – they all meant so much to each other – that the thought of all that being reduced to a few clandestine meetings behind the broom sheds as all they had in common was a very funny thought indeed.
~
Archery turned out to be more fun then they expected, and surprisingly easy. Lily and James particularly took a shine to it. When they all got too hungry to continue any longer, they quite sensibly forewent real food and headed straight for the sweet shop.
"Dare you to eat one." Sirius said to Remus as they looked at the blood flavoured lollipops.
"Only if you eat one of those." Remus pointed to the cod liver oil candy canes.
"All right, I'm game." Sirius was never one to back down from a challenge.
Having made their dubious purchases, they tramped back to the boardinghouse and climbed onto the roof.
"Moment of truth, you two." Peter said. Sirius and Remus nodded, unwrapping the lollies and opening their mouths with trepidation. Lily, James and Peter watched the two of them as the seconds ticked by. Sirius' eyes began to water, then he spat out the piece of candy cane, making revolted noises in his throat.
"Ok, I give up. You win." he looked over at Remus, who was slurping happily on the lollipop. "Hey, that's not fair! I forgot the full moon was tomorrow night!"
Remus shrugged as if to say 'that's not my fault, now is it?'. When he did speak, his mouth curling into an evil grin, it was to say "We can try again in a few days, if you like. I don't like eating even well-done meat then."
Sirius looked at the remaining candy cane and shuddered. "Uh, no, that's not necessary." he said hastily.
~
The night of the full moon, Lily and James returned to the boarding house just before dusk. They'd gone back to the archery range again, and what had begun as a friendly desire to best the other had fast become a competition. Feeling invigorated from the exercise, they were surprised to find the rooms almost silent. A note was lying on the table downstairs. Harriet Featherdown was dozing in an overstuffed chair in her sittingroom.
James picked up the letter, Lily leaning over and deciphering the messy handwriting of Sirius.
Gone out to the woods for a run. Back at around dawn. P & M.
"Wonder where Peter's got to then." James mused aloud. Lily climbed the stairs again and rapped her knuckles against the door to the room Peter and Remus were sharing. There was no answer. She tried to turn the knob but found it locked.
"Must be asleep." She said to James, who looked as if he was deep in thought. After a few moments he grinned at her.
"Oh no." Lily said. "I know that look."
"The shrieking shack." James said as if the sentence would make perfect sense.
"Ye-es." Lily's voice was slow. "No-one uses it any longer, I thought Remus stopped long ago."
"Oh, he did." James agreed with a nod. "Poor old shack hasn't shrieked in forever. I think we should remind everyone why it's got the nickname."
Lily's eyes lit up as comprehension dawned. The two of them huddled together under James' cloak and made their way up to the empty house.
~
Screaming without restriction was a skill James didn't find quite as easy as archery. Lily, on the other hand, took to it so well James was a little disturbed, watching her break furniture against the walls and throw her head back with angry howls. He wondered what could have given her this ability, what well of pain bubbled, hidden under her happy surface.
When cathartic mess- and noise-making became dull, they sat cross-legged on the bed and talked about what they wanted to accomplish when they ruled the school next term.
Before too long dawn crept into the room, surprising them both. Time had flown while they chatted.
James took off his glasses and rubbed one eye with the knuckle of his index finger as he yawned.
"C'mon sleepyhead, let's go get some rest." Lily pulled him to his feet and they both set off back to their temporary home.
~
The attic room offered no comfort for the exhausted James, however. Remus was sprawled on the bed, both he and Sirius showed absolutely no sign that they would be easy to wake, the steady sounds of sleeping breaths filling the room.
"I'll go sleep in Peter's room." James whispered to Lily. "No reason to disturb this litter of puppies here."
Lily nodded and went to her own room, glad to change into her sleepwear and go to bed. She'd just got her nighty on when there was a knock on her door.
"Yes?" she asked. "Come in."
James came in, looking very worn out.
"Pete's door is still locked." he explained. "Can I stay in here?"
Lily couldn't help but smirk. "I don't know if I should allow that. What if you took advantage of me?"
James grinned. "Not likely in that nightdress, m'dear."
Lily glared at him. The nightgown was a hand-me-down from her sister, and it was both too long and too tight, making Lily look shorter and stockier then she was.
"And you better not steal the covers." she warned.
~
Sirius liked waking up after the full moon. The bed always felt more comfortable somehow, his body more rested. The werewolf transformation left Remus feeling drained, but Sirius just felt relaxed.
The quality of light in the room suggested that it was early afternoon. Sitting up, he accidentally bumped his elbow against the wall, the noise causing Remus to stir.
"Morning." he said to Sirius with a groggy smile.
"Not morning anymore." Sirius got to his feet, stretching. "Let's go see what everyone's up to."
They found Peter downstairs, talking about merpeople colonies with Harriet Featherdown.
"I was on my own all morning." he told them plaintively, sounding rather put out.
"What about Prongs and Lilypilly?" Remus asked. Peter shook his head.
"They're still asleep in her room."
That prompted Sirius to waggle his eyebrows lasciviously.
"You don't say? Maybe we should go and wake them, ask for gory details."
"Yes, I do believe we should." Remus replied, and the three of them climbed the stairs again.
~
James wasn't expecting to find Lily lying across his chest when he woke up, but that's where she was.
"Hello there." he said, reaching for his glasses and trying to find the energy to get up.
"You make a comfortable pillow." she informed him unapologetically. She'd never been a tomboy per se, but her comfort zone around the boys had always been such that she felt quite unselfconscious waking up in such a position.
"Prongs and Lily, sitting in a tree..." Sirius' sing-song voice reached them seconds before the door opened, giving Lily time to move back to her side of the bed.
"Morning you three." James said as if it was nothing out of the ordinary for him to be in bed with one of his best friends.
"So when's the wedding?" Sirius asked, sitting himself beside Lily on the bed. "I'm going to be the best man, because if the groom doesn't show up the best man gets the bride."
"Dream on, dog boy." Lily said, thwacking him with a pillow.
"No, he's right." Peter pointed out. "It's an old custom, although I doubt anyone holds to it. If the groom doesn't make an appearance at the wedding, the bride marries the best man. If this bride's a no-show, the groom's supposed to marry the bridesmaid. And if they're both absent, the best man and the bridesmaid take the vows together."
"I should make Remus the bridesmaid then." Lily said in a low voice. James threw his head back with laughter. Sirius and Remus both cried "I heard that!" and pounced on Lily, tickling her until she begged for mercy.
"All right! All right! I'm sorry!" she laughed.
"Come on, we're wasting the day." James jumped up and looked out the window.
"Most of it's wasted already." Peter muttered.
~
They ended up playing a crazy five person version of Quidditch that was more like keep-away, with a battered Quaffle that Sirius had found on one of their explorations of Hogwarts during the school year. With no actual goals or rules, the purpose of the game was simply to keep the other team from gaining possession of the ball. The teams were three versus two, with the two being James and Peter.
"It's fair, because James is much better then the rest of us and Peter's ruddy awful." Remus had decided. Nobody had protested, because the comment may have been harsh, but it was true. Peter didn't seem offended, getting his revenge by turning a branch on the ground into a chew-toy and presenting it to his friend. Remus accepted the gift with good grace, or at least as much good grace as he could muster, and promptly turned it into a water pistol, calmly spraying Peter.
Lily tended to view her broomstick as a handy method of escaping from the scene of whatever her latest crime had been, an easy way of getting around. She thought James and Sirius were rather overly obsessed with them. James had a light, zippy broom, which he spent more time on then all his lessons put together. Sirius, by contrast, liked powerful models. He often talked about the flying motorbike he planned on owning someday.
Lily's soft red hair flopped in her eyes again and she pushed it off her forehead, damp with perspiration. Sirius tossed her the ball and she darted upward, away from Peter. James was hot on her tail. Lily passes the ball to Remus, who made as if to pass it to Sirius but hurled it back to Lily at the last moment. James, annoyed at being taken in by the deception, did a few quick somersaults in mid-air.
"Show-off." Lily scoffed, sailing back down to earth.
~
They climbed onto the roof in what was fast becoming a ritual. Peter, who'd been awake far longer then the others, yawned and lay down on his back, staring at the top of the tree and the sky beyond. It seemed an appropriate time to tell ghost stories, but they didn't know many. The ones they made up were rather silly and convoluted, filled with strange coincidences and ridiculous endings.
After a while Peter excused himself to go to bed, and the four remaining in the roof began telling the most ribald jokes ever heard at the respectable boarding house.
Eventually they climbed back inside to go to bed, only to find that Peter had locked his door again, leaving Remus without a place to sleep.
"Look, Moony, why don't we change rooms?" James suggested. "You can stay with Sirius and I'll take the other bed in Peter's room. That way, when he goes to bed early I'll just stay with Lily."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Lily cut in as Remus and Sirius nodded agreement.
"Well, you don't mind, do you?" James pointed out.
"No." Lily admitted. "I wonder why he locks his door though?"
"Maybe Petie's got a girlfriend." Sirius suggested. "Sending her secret love notes." he batted his eyelashes at that.
"Not likely." Remus shook his head. "None of us can do so much as look at somebody without the other four knowing about it."
"Maybe she's some pretty little white rat." Lily was usually the one who upbraided the others for picking on Peter, but sometimes she couldn't help herself.
"Oooh, I think Lil's jealous. She really wants Peter, not James after all!" Remus crowed. Lily smacked him on the arm.
"I don't want anybody, for your information. I just want to go to sleep."
"With James." Sirius added in a deadpan voice. "C'mon Remus, let's leave the lovebirds."
"I hope you both get rabies!" Lily called as the two climbed the stairs to the attic.
~
"It's rather sad really, isn't it?" she commented to James as she brushed her hair. He was lying in bed already.
"What is?"
"This is how the rest of our lives will be. Peter with his locked door, Sirius and Remus in one room, you and me in the other. We'll grow old like this. Our little group's so hermetically sealed that even a pretty white rat can't broach the battlements."
"You're mixing your metaphors a bit there." James said with a smile. "But why's that so bad anyway? I personally wouldn't mind at all if we stayed close-knit and crazy for the rest of our lives."
"But didn't you ever want to get married? Have children?" Lily sat on the bed, trying to tie her hair back in a plait. Strands kept coming loose. James sat up.
"Here, let me do that." he offered. Lily turned around so James could reach her hair, still talking as he braided the stubborn locks.
"When I was younger, I always assumed it would be so simple: I'd meet a boy I loved, we'd get married and have children. Then I actually started spending time with boys, and it's so much more difficult. I thought love would just sort of - "
"Be there automatically?" James finished her thought. Lily nodded a little, trying to keep her head still as he fixed her hair.
"Yes."
"What do you consider love anyway?" the question was light as his fingers moved through her hair, but Lily had to think for a while before she answered.
"Well, I suppose that you could call this love. I enjoy your company, you make me laugh. You're a comfortable pillow for me to lie against. You know things about me almost nobody else does. When I'm sad, you make me feel better and when I'm happy, you're there to be happy with me. But the two of us aren't in love, so it's all just a mystery."
"When did you decide that? James finished her hair and she turned around to face him again.
"Decide what?"
"That's we're not in love." his eyes were sparkling with mirth and a tenderness Lily had never noticed before. She tried to think of a good reply.
"We've never kissed." she hazarded finally.
"So we'll kiss." James suggested.
"Now?"
"Why not? I dare you, Lily Evans."
She smiled at that. "And I double dare you, James Potter."
They leant in, pressing their lips together in a very chaste kiss which slowly melted, their mouths opening against each other.
It wasn't a first kiss for either of them, but unlike any before, because there was nothing to prove. They'd been friends for so long, knew every secret. Before, when Lily had kissed people, she'd had other things on her mind – was she doing it well enough, did they really like her, would they want to see her again? But with James, her mind was blissfully uncluttered. It was like pulling on a comfortable old coat, or falling asleep by the fire.
Like coming home, a cliché that Lily never thought she'd use about anything.
When the kiss ended, after a long time, they settled down together, Lily resting against James in the way she found so comfortable.
"Well." he said as she drifted off to sleep. "This is turning out to be a rather unexpected summer indeed."
"That's always the best kind." Lily murmured drowsily.
"Couldn't agree more, my dear."
"G'night James."
"Sweet dreams, Lil."
~