An Argument and a Kiss

"You're such an ass!" Lily Evans yelled, bright red in the face.

"You're infuriating!" James Potter roared back at her.

Before Lily could do more than blink, her best friend Mary MacDonald grabbed her arm, pulled her forcefully away from James and up the girls staircase. As soon as the girls gained the privacy of their dorm Lily stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. In defeat Mary slumped onto her bed in frustration with her friend. She knew Lily liked James, getting defensive was her way of protecting herself from rejection. This baffled Mary as James had made it excruciatingly obvious that he really liked her, possibly even loved her.

In the morning Lily walked down to breakfast on her own, Mary must have left early. In need of comfort she wrapped her arms around her middle, which also made her feel more protected from the world. When Lily reached the Great Hall it became clear to her that she would need all of the comfort and protection she could get. Everyone minus the teachers and Slytherins turned to stare at her, some venonously (in the case of most of the female population and any guys who knew Potter well) and some just out of curiosity (in the case of most of the younger students). She spotted Mary in the middle of the Gryffindor table close to the Marauders and instead sat by herself at the very end of the table. Quicker than she'd ever done it before Lily wolfed down her breakfast and walked straight back out of the hall trying her hardest to ignore the looks she was still getting.

Early that evening, back in the girls dorm Lily was under her bed ignoring the world and looking for a rat which she had seen in the dorm a couple of times the past few weeks. Mary, who hadn't seen Lily for most of the day and now felt quite worried, made her way up to the dorm to look for her friend.

"Lil, hey Lil, you in here?" she called upon entering the room.

"Just a sec!" came Lily's muffled voice from under her bed. Mary watched as Lily wriggled out slowly from under her bed, covered in dust and holding a plump grey rat by it's tail.

"What are you going to do with it?" Mary asked with a grimance watching the rat thrash around.

"Let it go," said Lily simply, before opening the dormatory door and setting the rat down outside it.

"So what was it you were wanting?" Lily asked brushing herself down and sitting on her bed.

"Do you wanna go for a walk have a chat with me?"

"Sounds nice, let me get a jumper."

Mary watched while Lily rummaged in her trunk and finally after a few minutes pulled out a wrinkled, washed out black jumper, her favorite one, her dad had bought her it for her fifteenth birthday.

"Ready?" Mary asked once Lily had pulled on the jumper, leaving her hair tucked in the collar of it.

"Okay let's go," Lily finally said with a grin. In a peaceful silence, mainly because both girls refused to talk about themselves in front of others, they walked out of Gryffindor tower. As they were leaving Lily noticed the quietness of the Common Room, and upon surveying the room, also noticed that the Marauders were absent tonight.

Once the girls were out in the deserted corridors they fell into easy conversation about their classes recently, the only two they now shared was Transfiguration and Charms. The girls were planning on following completely different career paths once they left school, Lily wanted to go into Law and Mary into banking, so they needed entirely different classes and as a result spent less and less time together. So at least once a week they both cleared their scheduals for several hours in order to catch up with each others lives. Once they had exhausted classes, Mary moved the conversation onto Lily's Head Girl duties and how they were going. Mary found out that it was going exceptionally well and that Lily and James had been getting along well until last night when they got into their fight. Everything they disagreed about got pulled into that argument, and now Lily thought there would be an awkwardness for a while before they both got over it.Mary inwardly smiled to herself 'Not for long, when you see what i've got in store for you.'

The girls eventually made it outside and Lily paused to look up at the sky, something which had always facinated her, thanks to her father who was an amatuer astrologer.

"C'mon!" said Mary impatiently tugging on Lily's arm and leading her towards the lake where, though Lily didn't know it yet, the Marauders, with a slightly apprehensive James, were waiting.

When Mary and Lily arrived at the lake they found to Lily's displeasure the Marauders. Something however was amiss, James Potter was on the ground apparently wandless, and his friends were standing around him. It looked to Lily like they were trying to stop him from going anywhere. As she turned to confront her friend about this set up Lily found herself staring at her friend who was holding not only her own wand but Lily's too.

"Sit!" Mary told her forcefully.

"You can't be serious!" Lily protested and before Sirius could even so much as open his mouth she countinued "don't even say it Black."

"I am serious so sit your bony ass down unless you want to be tap dancing your way to the hospital wing."

Reluctantly Lily sat down on the grass next to James both making sure to keep their distance. In annoyance Mary and the remaining Marauders sat down in front of their friends.

"So," Remus began, "we want to know what's been up with the two of you. You were getting along so well, no fights for five weeks straight and then all of a sudden you blow up at each other."

"She started it," said James like a petulant child.

"What are you? Five?" demanded Mary looking quite annoyed. "But if you did start it Lily, why did you do it?"

Lily remained stubbornly silent not looking at all pleased at the predicament she was in.

"If you don't talk to me I'll send you to the Hospital Wing with a broken leg, I've done it before I'll do it again!" said Mary.

Lily muttered something inuadible which Mary seemed to understand and nodded her head to solemnly. "But if you don't tell me it's gonna hurt more, and by hurt i mean you will be in physical pain from me for being so stupid and stubborn."

Again Lily mumbled something none of the guys could understand but to which Mary grinned and hugged her whispering something in her ear to which Lily then nodded.

"Okay I have my side of the mystery solved, what about you guys?" Mary asked the three armed Marauders.

"You were supposed to help us remember?" said Peter with audible annoyance.

"Yeah but it's not my fault you can't get anyhting out of your friend."

"We already know what's wrong with our friend we didn't even need to ask him. We want to know what's wrong with you're friend to see if it's the same thing." Sirius informed Mary.

Under the cover of this conversation James whispered to Lily, "So what's been up with you?"

Lily glanced at him and smiled softly, and for the first time let down the barriers she'd put up to protect herself from James Potter all the way back in second year. "I like you," she whispered softly back to him.

"Really? You aren't just messing with me?"

"No I'm not messing with you." she said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I was afraid."

"Of what?" James asked tenderly.

"That you didn't like me, and it was all a game to you."

James looked at her, he noticed that her eyes had softened and she wasn't backing away from him. He wondered what she would do if he kissed her right now, but no sooner had the thought passed through his mind than Lily leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his. Neither of them registered the fact that their friends had stopped bickering and were now staring at them as James broke the kiss and pulled away first. Lily smiled softly at him but then Sirius said "So the two of you made up then?" and James saw the guard spring straight back up behind her eyes.

"Don't," James whispered quietly to her.

"Don't what?"

"Don't put your guard back up, it's taken me six years to get past it, don't put it back up."

"Sorry," she said with a genuine smile and James saw her eyes soften once again. He stood up and pulled Lily to her feet. Once they were all standing again he leaned down and whispered in her ear so no one else could hear, "Will you go out with me?"

Instead of answering him, Lily took his face in her hands and pressed her lips gently to his.

He pulled away and grinned down at her. "I'll take that as a yes shall I?"