thanks to professor-riddikulus for giving me this title because they know I am shit at such things and also they are a genius

enjoy, friends x

Lily Evans loved school trips — really, she did. The chance to get out of school for a few hours, get the kids out of their normal environment, teach them something new — she bloody loved it.

The problem was, though, that some kids didn't respond well to the disruption of their routine. And when those kids are the same ones that already enjoy giving you the occasional headache in class anyway — well, sometimes school trips are hell on Earth no matter how much you like them.

Tyler Cunningham had spent most of the bus trip to the Natural History Museum pestering Oliver Price about some fucking game Oliver had apparently snuck on the bus and then Oliver had started crying and then, while Lily was dealing with that (because of course the parent chaperones were being their usually unhelpful selves), Tyler had decided he could go into Oliver's bag and retrieve said game and play it without asking and it wasn't long before that escalated into a shouting match.

The driver stopped the bus on the side of the bloody road while they sorted it out because he said he "couldn't drive through all this nonsense".

Lily wanted to do a lot of shouting about how he better start fucking driving because they were going to be later than they already were and they could cancel their fucking tour and make it so that this whole goddamn bus trip was absolutely pointless torture, but she kept most of it in her head.

And thank god, because she really couldn't afford any more issues today.

When they finally pulled up outside the museum, they were nearly half an hour late, Tyler and Oliver were still bickering, and Lily was already so close to the end of her goddamn rope that she had half a mind to just leave them all there and go home.

As it was, she herded her group up the museum stairs as quickly as she could and prayed to the universe that their tour hadn't been cancelled. She slid to the front of the group as they walked into the entrance hall, led the way towards the information desk just inside the door.

'Hi,' Lily said, smiling as sanely as she could manage at the woman behind the desk. 'Sorry, we're — Tyler!'

Lily whipped around at the sound of renewed scuffling behind her back and shot the boy a look as he hastily rearranged his features into something he apparently thought resembled innocence. 'Do you want to be invited to participate in future school trips?'

The boy nodded mutely but was, quite clearly, suppressing a mutinous expression. Lily frowned at him. 'Then I suggest that you behave yourself. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in the Headmistress' office the minute we get back to school.'

Tyler mumbled something Lily didn't catch and she raised a stern eyebrow. 'Excuse me?'

'I said, "yes, ma'am".'

Lily was quite sure that wasn't at all what he'd said, but decided to cut her losses and not press the point.

She turned back to face the desk and found the receptionist looking at her with a look that could not have more clearly communicated her boredom. 'Sorry about that,' Lily said. 'I'm — we're scheduled for a school tour, but it was supposed to start at ten and I'm so sorry we're late, but I'm hoping —'

'Ms Evans? Barclay Primary School?'

Lily sighed in relief as she looked up from the desk (and it's profoundly unhelpful staff) and turned towards her whoever had addressed her.

A tall, dark haired bloke around her own age came striding out of the entryway just to the right of the information desk. His hands were in his pockets and there was a smooth, easy grace about his step, though the coolness of it was thrown into sharp relief by the slightly lopsided position of his black frame glasses and the way his hair was standing almost entirely on end.

Lily cleared her throat, nodded, and extended her hand. 'That's us.'

He stepped forward, pulled his hand from his pocket and shook hers, squeezing just a bit before he dropped his hand.

'Perfect timing,' he said, and he smiled at her, a wide, toothy smile that was far too attractive. 'I was just finishing up in the lab,' he said, turning so that he was facing the class. 'I'm glad you all didn't have to wait on me!'

'We wouldn't have liked that,' Sophie piped up from Lily's right. She was small for her age, but more than made up for it with attitude. She was one of Lily's favourites — 'We were already waiting on Tyler because he was being naughty!'

Except for when she did shit like that.

'I was not,' Tyler shouted, and Lily heard the poor tour guide (the poor, unsuspecting tour guide) suck in a sharp breath beside her. Lily sighed, cleared her throat, and held up her hands briefly in front of the class, before she clapped two fingers together in a quiet pattern. The students copied her before they let their hands fall quietly at their sides and looked at her expectantly.

'Now,' Lily put her hands on her hips. 'Who remembers the three things Barclay students are? What do we have?'

Most everyone raised their hands and Lily smiled, pointed at a short redhead at the back of the group. 'Amelia, give me one.'

Amelia popped up onto her toes so that she was talking over the heads of her classmates. 'We have open hands!'

'Perfect. Who can give me another? Zoe?'

'Open hearts!'

Lily saw the parent chaperones at the back of the group shoot one another exasperated looks, and she was glad that none of the students caught it. Some of the parents, especially those that were there before the new headmistress has taken over a few years ago, still had yet to adjust to the school's new approach to growing kind, thoughtful students. Some of the staff, to be fair, had been sceptical at first, too, but you couldn't argue with results. The students Lily had taught since they'd changed the language had been some of the most compassionate and inquisitive students she'd had in years.

They were still complete arseholes sometimes, but they were eight. And anyway, who isn't an arsehole from time to time?

'Perfect, Zoe, thank you. Who can give me our last one?'

Tyler raised his hand and Lily smiled warmly at him. 'Go ahead, Tyler.'

'Open minds,' he mumbled. He looked down at his feet immediately after he finished speaking, but looked up when Lily spoke.

'Excellent job, Tyler, thank you.'

'Now,' Lily looked up at the rest of the class, 'let's do our best to remember those three things while we're here today. We might've had a rough start,' Lily looked towards Sophie, 'but we can always keep trying to be our best selves, right?'

The students nodded. 'Perfect. Now, let's all give our guide our undivided attention, shall we?'

She turned and looked expectantly at him, modelling what she wanted her students (and their semi-willing parents) to do. All of her students, she was pleased to note, followed suit.

'Okay, thanks, Ms Evans. Hi everyone, my name is James and I'm going to be your guide today! I have a bunch of really cool things planned, but, before we start, I wanted to know if there was anything special you wanted to see?'

Thirty little hands immediately rocketed into the air.

Most of the kids, predictably, wanted to see "THAT REAL DINOSAUR," so after many (many) assurances on James' part that they would get to see it before they left the museum that day, James began leading the group through the entrance hall towards the activity centre for their morning workshop.

'So,' James leaned over towards Lily as they made their way through a group of distracted tourists, 'how did you do that? Get them to behave like that?'

Lily shot him a wry smile. 'Magic.'

James chuckled quietly as they turned and headed towards a flight of stairs. Lily stopped at the top and James hesitated, grasping hard onto the railing to keep himself from tripping down the stairs.

Lily barely caught the laugh before it burst out of her. 'Oh my god, are you okay?'

'No, yeah, I'm —' He raised a confused eyebrow at her. 'Are you coming?'

'I have to wait and make sure we all get down the stairs.' Lily smiled at him and hoped it didn't reveal just how adorable she thought he was now that his glasses had really been knocked off centre. 'You go ahead.'

'Oh, right.' He ran a hand through his hair, cleared his throat. 'Well, see you down there.'

He shouted, 'After me, kids!' over his shoulder and started down the stairs.

Lily tried not to watch him go.

They spent their morning in the archaeology lab doing a simulated dig. James handed out little lab coats and buckets full of brushes and divided the kids between five separate points on the large dirt-covered mass on the floor.

'Now,' James smiled around at the kids as they all settled into their stations, 'we know there's a dinosaur buried in here, but we don't know where precisely the dinosaur is.' His voice had taken on this quiet, almost secretive quality that had the kids leaning in and practically vibrating with excitement.

'So when we start digging, how do we want to do it? Fast or slow?'

A few hands rocketed into the air and James pointed at Zola on the other side of the room.

'Say your name for me, too, please.' James said.

Zola smiled. 'I'm Zola. We should go slow.'

'Yes! Thank you, Zola. Now who can tell me why?'

More hands shot up. James pointed and repeated his name request.

'I'm Mohammed. We want to go slow because we don't want to hurt the dinosaur by accident.'

'Yes, exactly, thank you, Mohammed. So,' he scanned the little faces looking eagerly up at him, 'when I say go, I want you to take your time on our old friend here. Can you do that?'

The kids all nodded eagerly and Lily watched a few of them start fiddling with their paint brushes.

'Okay, now remember to raise your hand if you have any questions. Ms Evans and I will be walking round, so if you need anything, let us know.' The kids nodded impatiently as James took a step back from the dig site.

'And…' James' smile widened as the kids got noticeably restless, 'go!'

The kids immediately jumped into action, their brushes waving madly over the dirt to uncover the bones underneath. James looked up and caught Lily's eye from across the room and sent her an amused smile like well, I tried.

They spent the next hour or so milling around the perimeter of the dig site, occasionally stopping to answer a question from one of the students or look at something they found in the dirt. The parents largely leaned up against the back wall and talked to one another while James and Lily floated around, and while Lily might've been annoyed about how profoundly unhelpful the parents were being, she didn't really need them much just then. The kids were mostly self-sufficient — a miracle — and so, after she checked in on a few more groups, Lily made her way over to James' side and smiled up at him as they watched Tyler, Oliver, and Zola brushing dirt off a part of the dinosaur that Lily couldn't yet identify.

'You're great with them,' Lily said, nodding at the kids.

James breathed a laugh. 'Thanks. I don't quite have your magic touch.'

Lily grinned. 'I think you did alright.'

James ran a hand through his hair and smiled sheepishly at her. 'Well, thanks.'

They were quiet for a beat.

Lily cleared her throat. 'So, do you like working here?'

James turned and smiled at her. 'Yeah. It's just part of my studentship, this job, but I actually really enjoy it.'

'Really? What are you studying?'

James bit the corner of his lip. 'It's really nerdy.'

Lily shrugged. 'Okay.'

James breathed a laugh, ran his hand through his hair again.

God, he was adorable.

'Okay, so you know how, at the end of the Triassic period, there was a massive extinction event?'

Lily frowned. 'Uh… is that the really big one where most everything died?'

James tipped his head and hummed. 'You're probably thinking of the Permian extinction - that was the most significant extinction event in Earth's history. Some 96 percent of marine species died.

'The Triassic event, around 251 to 201 million years ago, only resulted in the extinction of about 76 percent of all marine and terrestrial species and about 20 percent of all taxonomic families. Marine ecosystems, in particular, were heavily affected by the environmental changes — some families, like ammonoids, went completely extinct. But a few survived and evolved, and later gave rise to cephalopods, so that's pretty cool.'

Lily pressed her lips together to hide her smile.

James looked down at her and breathed a laugh. 'So, anyway —'

Sarah held up her hand on the other side of the dig site, and Lily smiled up at him. 'One sec.'

After she'd pointed Sarah over to the bucket of smaller paint brushes in the corner (because 'Ms Evans, I can't get into these little spots with this big brush!') Lily walked back over to where James was standing. In her absence, he'd started talking to Oliver and Zola about the piece of the dinosaur they were uncovering.

'So, you're right, this is going to be the head. Do you see the teeth?'

The kids turned back down to the fossil scanned it for a moment, before Zola gasped and pointed. 'There!'

'Exactly,' James said, 'nice job, Zola. So if you look at those teeth, what do you think this dinosaur ate? What kind of food?'

'Meat?' Oliver said.

James nodded. 'Yes. And what makes you think it ate meat?'

'The teeth are all pointy,' Tyler said, speaking up for the first time since Lily'd called on him in the entrance hall.

James grinned. 'Yes. Great job. So go ahead and write that down on your sheet.'

The kids spun back around and started scribbling on their sheets and James turned to look at Lily. 'You've got a great group of kids.'

She smiled at him. 'I got really lucky this year. But anyway, tell me about what you're studying. I don't think we ever actually got to it.'

James smiled a bit sheepishly. 'Because I couldn't resist giving you a history lesson for some reason.'

Lily grinned. 'I didn't mind. It's fascinating. Plus, I rarely talk to adults these days, so I'll take what I can get.'

James breathed a laugh. 'I'm glad I could be of assistance, then.'

Lily's smile widened. 'So, tell me about your project.'

'It's — you have to promise to stop me if I get to be too much — but basically, we're aiming to get a better understanding of how marine ecosystems responded to climate-change related abiotic changes during the end-Triassic extinction and the subsequent recovery that happened over the course of the Jurassic.

'A lot of studies have investigated some of these changes independently, but nothing to date has attempted to understand how these environmental factors worked in tandem to create an unsustainable environment for the species that ultimately went extinct. I've been working to generate a time series of palaeoecological data and integrating it with a suite of geochemical proxy data to —'

Lily's eyes must have glazed over, because James laughed. 'I'm sorry. I'll spare you.'

Lily laughed. 'I'm sorry. This is something I think you'll need to explain to me over dinner or something.'

The words were out of her mouth before she realised what she was saying, and she flushed slightly, looked away.

James cleared his throat and she noticed him start fiddling with the museum badge on his hip out of the corner of her eye.

'That — uh,' Lily noticed him turn towards her and she picked her head up, looked him in the eye.

It was only a moment, but she could feel the electricity crackling between them.

And then William started shouting, 'WE HAVE THE LEGS, WE HAVE THE LEGS,' from the other side of the room and the moment was lost.

When the kids finished the dig and handed all their worksheets in, James led them into the Investigation Centre where they would have time to do some more self-directed exploration.

He paused outside the Centre door, turned, and smiled at the group.

'I'm going to leave you here for now,' he said — Lily bit her lip to hide her smile at the disappointed groans that floated up from a few of her students.

'I'll be back,' James promised. 'I just have one more dinosaur activity to prepare for you, so I'm going to let you hang out with some of my mates in here for a while. That alright?'

A few of the kids nodded and James beamed at them. 'Great. I'll see you in an hour. But, before I go, I want to see if I can give you guys a mission, what do you think?'

The kids noticeably perked up again and James' smile widened. He crouched down so he was on their level and waved them close. The kids packed in around him and James lowered his voice conspiratorially.

'They've got some pretty cool animal specimens in there,' James said, 'but butterflies are my favourite. Now, the last time I was there, they only had two, and I made my friend Remus swear they'd get at least one more. So can you count up all the butterflies you see for me?'

The kids nodded vigorously.

'What do we do if there are only two?!' Leo asked.

'We'll come up with a plan when I pick you up, yeah?'

The kids nodded and James grinned at them all before he stood up straight again. James caught Lily's eye as he stepped out from in front of the door and shot her a quick wink.

She felt like she'd gone into mild cardiac arrest as she watched him walk away.

When they got inside, Lily broke the kids up into groups of five or six and split them between herself and the parents. It didn't escape her that a few of the parents were less than thrilled about now being given something to do, but Lily just smiled evenly at them, gave them the scavenger hunt worksheet, and sent them on their way (after half a dozen kids pointed out that 'Mr James' butterflies aren't on here!' and she had to convince them that writing their count on the back was sufficient and, no, Mr James most certainly would not be offended that he didn't have his own question).

Lily walked her group — Tyler, Olivia, Sarah, Charlie, Will, and Matthew — around the learning centre for the next hour, fielding questions and helping the kids spot worksheet answers in the informative plaques, while casually checking around every few minutes to make sure that a shrieking child from another part of the centre wasn't one of hers.

And if she looked to see if James had come back once or twice, well… who was counting?

She was just looking back around fifty minutes into their allotted time when she spotted James leaning up against the wall near the door, his arms crossed, and a bright, easy smile on his face. He was talking with one of the science educators, a tall, thin bloke with sandy blonde hair in the standard issue purple and blue stripe shirt, and Lily was just admiring the adorable way that James tipped his head back a bit when he laughed when James looked up and his eyes found hers across the room.

His smile widened and Lily would've sworn on her life that her entire body went red.

James clapped his friend congenially on the shoulder and started making his way across the room towards her.

Lily rapidly spun round in hopes of pretending that she hadn't been watching him.

Her hopes were immediately dashed, though, when Lily looked back round (because she really just couldn't resist) and James sent her an entirely all too knowing smile.

'Hey, kids!' James grinned down at her students and they all turned from the squid display they'd been looking at.

'Hi, Mr James!' Charlie practically screamed it, and Lily reminded him, again, to make sure that he used his inside voice.

'We counted all the butterflies, Mr James,' Olivia said. 'You'll be really happy!'

'Oh yeah?' James crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at them. 'How many did you find?'

'Seven!' Tyler said. 'So you don't need a plan for your friend, right?'

James nodded. 'Right. And good thing, too, because my friend Remus is really clever. It would be hard to come up with a good plan for him.'

Charlie nodded. 'My older brother is really clever, too, he's so hard to trick. Mum always says we're going to burn down the house one day if we don't stop trying to do pranks on each other.'

James burst out laughing before he could stop himself and Lily pressed her lips together, shook her head.

'My mum always said the same thing about me and my brother, Sirius,' James said. 'I know it's no fun, but you should probably try and give your mum a break.'

Charlie sighed. 'You're right, that is no fun.'

James grinned. 'I know, but you'll thank me later. Trust me.'

James looked over at Lily again and she hastily rearranged her features into an expression that she hoped read "casual observer". The left corner of James' smile hitched up just a bit higher.

'We ready to move onto the last activity of the day, Ms Evans?'

If anyone else might have been listening, he would have sounded completely normal, but there was a grit to his voice that hadn't been there before, a heat in his eyes that made her skin tingle.

And the way he said her name, Ms Evans —

He should not be allowed to do that to her in front of her students.

The last activity of the afternoon took them back to the archaeology lab. The kids were mildly disappointed that they weren't going to be uncovering yet another dinosaur, but they settled down easily enough when James handed out giant boxes of fossil replicas and told the kids that he wanted them to sketch each of them into the "sketchbooks" he'd handed out and then do their best to make a guess about what kind of dinosaur it had come from.

It also helped that he promised the group that was closest to guessing correctly would get an extra special treat when they left the museum to head back to school.

Lily didn't mean to, but she found herself watching James more and more as he moved through the groups of students during that final activity. The easy way that he laughed at something they said, how he asked questions and led the kids to the answer instead of just telling them outright, the way that he encouraged them whenever they started telling him that they weren't able to do something. He had a natural rapport with them, these kids who, Lily knew, could sometimes take a little bit to open up, and she couldn't help but grin, watching him interact with these kids that she loved so much.

They drove her round the fucking twist sometimes, but god, did she love them.

And so watching James interact with them in a warm, positive way…. Well.

It was entirely inappropriate, given the circumstances, but she couldn't quite help herself.

By the time that James led them back to the entrance hall later that afternoon, everyone was well and truly knackered. A few of the kids were yawning behind their hands and others were starting to get restless with exhaustion (though she'd take even those restless kids over the now clearly agitated parents in the back of class any day).

She smiled up at James as he came to a stop outside the reception desk where he'd met them a few hours earlier. 'Everyone,' she said, 'let's say goodbye and thank you to Mr James for such a great day.'

A few of the kids muttered goodbyes, but, overwhelmingly, the class started moaning in a disappointed sort of way.

'Do we have to leave Ms Evans?'

'Can't we stay?'

'Can Mr James come back to school with us?'

'Yeah, we could show him the dinosaur poster you put up!'

Lily shot James a look (he was clearly trying and failing to hide a spectacular smile) before she stepped forward to look out at her class.

'Come on now,' Lily said. 'We've had a long, fun day, but it's time for us to go home.'

Charlie raised his hand, but he was already talking before Lily had the chance to call on him. 'But he could still come back to school with us, right?'

Some of the other students immediately started muttering their agreement, but Lily shook her head. 'Mr James works at the museum. He needs to be here so that he can take other students through the museum when they get here.'

The kids started muttering again, but James smiled at them before they could get too rowdy. 'How about I walk you guys out? Say goodbye then?'

The kids all immediately started nodding and shouting their agreement, and James laughed, held up his hands. 'Alright, alright, but we have to be quiet in the museum, remember?'

He led them through the entrance hall, through the front door, and started down the steep flight of stairs onto the pavement outside. Lily could see their bus waiting underneath a tree and she felt a strange apprehension in her stomach at the thought of getting on and going back to school.

She didn't want to think that it was tied up in James, but really, she didn't know what else it could be.

James was at the front of the group, bent over a bit at the waist as he talked to Charlie and Zola about god knows what, and Lily felt a surprisingly strong rush of affection for him. She didn't normally consider herself one of those people that saw a man interacting with kids and immediately became a puddle of useless mush, but today had taught her that she seriously needed to reexamine a few things about herself.

James walked the kids over to the bus, came to a stop underneath the tree and encouraged the kids to crowd as best as possible into the shade to get out of the direct sun. Lily walked up to the front of the group when she reached them and smiled up at him before she turned and looked at her students.

'Can we all thank Mr James for such a lovely day at the museum?'

'Thank you, Mr James.' Normally, this was a loud, monotone chorus, but Lily was pleased to note that, for once, her kids sounded genuinely excited about thanking one of their guests.

James beamed at the class. 'It was no trouble,' he said. 'It was really fun getting to hang out and learn some cool stuff with you guys today.'

James shifted his gaze to Lily then, and his smile softened. 'I'd love to have you all come back sometime.'

Lily held his gaze for a moment longer before she pulled in a quick breath and turned back to her kids again. 'Alright, everyone, queue up nicely for me, we're going to count off.'

James stepped away as the kids started shuffling to line up in front of Lily, made his way towards the back of the crowd as they started marching into the bus and counting themselves off at the top of their voices. Lily looked up as 'FOURTEEN' and 'FIFTEEN' made their way onto the bus, just for a moment, and caught James' eye.

He was watching her with this look on his face, a kind of soft, warm, easy look that made her heart climb up just a bit higher into her throat. He lifted his hand, smiled just a bit, and then he turned on his heel and started back up the pavement towards the stairs.

When they got back to school that afternoon, Lily had the kids write letters thanking James for showing them such a fun time at the museum. It was something she'd just started doing in the last year — it was a way to get the kids to practise gratitude and she found that it helped them process the experience and think more clearly about what they'd learned.

She sent the bundle of letters out in the post before she left school that afternoon and, for the most part, Lily forgot about the funny (and gorgeous) bloke at the museum.

Until, one morning about a week later, she noticed an envelope from the museum in her postbox in the office.

She slit the seal as she walked back to her classroom and she peaked in at the sheet of paper inside — she'd thought, maybe, but it was addressed to her class and so….

Lily swallowed her disappointment.

When her students got in an hour later and finally settled into their seats, Lily grabbed the envelope from her desk and held it up for the class.

'Look what came in the post!'

The students all started chattering excitedly and Lily smiled at them. 'Anyone want to read it out?'

A few hands shot up into the air while Lily took the letter out of the envelope. It — there were two sheets of paper in there.

She folded back the top half of the letter to look at the second sheet — it was also on museum letterhead, but it was handwritten in a slanted, untidy scrawl.

I hope I'm not being too forward here, but I'd love to take you to dinner sometime.

0207 946 0562

X James

Lily bit her lip, let herself look for a moment longer at his number before she folded the paper carefully and set it down on her desk.

She looked back up at the kids and did a quick survey of who had their hand raised to read.

'Alright, Mohammed,' she held out James' letter and Mohammed jumped up from his seat, 'thank you. Everyone give Mohammed your full attention while he reads, please.'

Lily sat down in her chair as Mohammed turned to face his classmates at the front of the room. She normally made a concerted effort to model the kind of behaviour she expected in her students, but maybe they wouldn't notice if she sent a quick text.

Lily Evans: I'd love to get dinner — when are you free? X