Title: All systems go
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is definitely not mine.
Note: This is the first in a series of ficlets surrounding Lily and James' lives together. Special thanks to numbyhi, for your help :)
All systems go
Unsurprisingly, the Seventh Year Girl's Dormitory was completely empty by the time Lily stumbled out of bed. The sun was filtering in through the window, the sheer white curtains open just enough to allow some light to travel into the room.
Lazily, Lily ran a hand through her hair in a half-hearted attempt to untangle the beast as she meandered into the adjoining bathroom. By the time she had finished her morning routine, it was eleven o'clock.
She had definitely missed any chance of breakfast.
Her stomach rumbled obscenely as she wandered around, trying to find something acceptable to wear. Eventually, she scrounged up a nice enough pair of jeans and a grey top from the bottom of her wardrobe.
Feeling a lot more awake now, Lily quickly pulled on some shoes before hurrying downstairs to find her friends. Hopefully they were in the Common Room, but she wouldn't put it past them to have gone off on a little 'adventure' without her.
The first feeling of something's not quite right here came to her as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
In the middle Common Room stood Marlene, appearing decidedly nervous and whispering something to Mary.
Should she interrupt? Lily hesitated, wavering slightly.
It didn't matter in the end, because there was Marlene striding furiously over to the staircase with Mary hurriedly stumbling behind.
God, she was in trouble now.
"What? What did I do?" Lily exclaimed, attempting to backpedal up the stairs, away from the onslaught that was Marlene.
"Do? What did you do? Lily! I can't believe you! And what are you wearing? Oh Merlin, you're not going to get anywhere on this date if you can't even dress nicely!"
"Marlene, what are you-"
Oh. Oh.
"Shit!"
The rest of the morning was composed of frantically searching for something classier to change into and quickly applying makeup. Marlene and Mary bustled around, helping where possible, as Lily raced wildly around the room.
"Marlene, time check!" She called out to the girls, who were comparing shoes on her bed.
"It's… Eleven-thirty, Lily," Marlene replied, looking critically at a dark blue pair of heels.
Damn. Hastily fixing her mascara, she capped the small bottle, shoving it back into her makeup bag and zipping it up. Her stomach grumbled again, agitated. Hissing at it to keep quiet, she made another attempt at smoothing down her hair before giving up and rushing back to Marlene and Mary, who had finally agreed on a pair of shoes.
Slipping them on, Lily grabbed her purse from Marlene and, with a fleeting "thanks!" ran from the Gryffindor common room.
She couldn't help a small smile as she sprinted down the stairs.
Because, holy shit, she hadn't had a real, proper date in years and she couldn't believe that this one was with James Potter, of all people.
Even she was still confused as to why she had agreed.
But that didn't matter now, because there was James, standing at the entrance to the Great Hall, looking particularly anxious. He probably had thought she wasn't even going to turn up, yet, here she was, striding towards him, probably sweaty and gross from running.
His face lit up when he spotted her, followed by a delighted exclamation of "Lily!"
Her smile spread of its own accord and a blush slowly seeped along her cheeks. She was already red from running, but her face burned even brighter as he walked towards her.
Standing in front of her, James' hand twitched, as if he was about to reach out and grab her hand but decided against it. Instead, he said, "Are you ready to go?"
They meandered together down the winding path to Hogsmeade, passing by other students and just chatting aimlessly. Snow had begun to drift slowly down, sprinkling the grass with white. Lily was thrumming with nervous energy, her palms were sweaty and her hands were shaking. From what she could observe, James was in a similar predicament, though his nervousness was expressed through his consistent rambling. Every so often, he'd run his hand through his perpetually messy hair, which would spark feelings of disgust and memories of a time where it was Potter-and-Evans, but Lily just pushed them away.
This James was a changed man and Lily had promised herself that she was going to give him a chance.
She let James drag her to the Three Broomsticks, letting the warmth and joyful atmosphere wash over her. They both ordered drinks, before settling down in a little corner niche that had a nice view of the rest of the bar. Several students were milling around, sitting in clumps around tables and buying butterbeer at the bar. Madame Rosmerta bustled swiftly around, dropping drinks on tables with a speed and precision that made even Lily jealous.
"So," James began, "how am I doing so far?" Rather than smirking as he once would've, he grinned unabashedly, causing Lily to grin in return.
"I don't know, how do you think you're going?" She shot back, smiling around the rim of her butterbeer.
He took a sip of his own drink and opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a small ball that had fallen from his sleeve. It bounced down onto the table, rolling forward until it hit the edge of Lily's drink and stopped. Both of them leaned forward to stare at the ball, uncomprehending, until James' body went rigid with shock. He barely had time to yell, "Duck!" before the ball exploded in Lily's face, a foul gas erupting and temporarily blinding her. She coughed and wheezed, backpedalling so furiously that she fell backwards and hit the hard marble floor.
Her eyes watered and her lungs heaved, struggling to breathe. Distantly, she could hear shouting, panicked voices exclaiming, "Lily! Lily!"
Someone helped her upright and gripped her hand tightly. Breathing deeply, she blinked slowly, her vision beginning to focus. When the world finally stopped spinning, the scene before her almost made her laugh.
Chaos had ensued. Rosmerta was straining to field curious onlookers away, while some of the other patrons had crowded around, with worried expressions and questioning gazes.
James stood in front of her, hands clinging to her shoulders. His face was scrunched up in fear and terror and he was desperately talking to her, asking repeatedly if she was alright, was she hurt, Merlin, was she going to be alright.
Lily brushed his hands away, standing on wobbly legs, before straightening and flicking strands of red hair off her shoulders.
James stood hesitantly by her side, unsure whether or not she was going to fall again.
She regarded the bystanders calmly, before turning back to James with a small, exasperated smile.
"I hope you have somewhere else planned, because I don't really want to stay here much longer."
James' face flooded with relief and he grabbed her hand, dragging her through the crowd of students and out into the busy streets.
Their next stop was Honeydukes- a classic, but Lily was seriously in need of some actual food and God help anyone that stood in her way.
Salivating at the sheer volume of cavity-inducing confectionaries, her stomach growled in anticipation as Lily drifted serenely over to the chocolate aisle, running a hand across the packets lightly. She stopped in front of a block of caramel swirl, taking note of the price before moving on. Some time passed comparing favourite flavours, egging each other on to try the more interesting ones and buying ridiculous amounts of food.
They were just about ready to leave when Lily noticed something in her peripheral that looked suspiciously like…
Was that… Gum?
In a whirlwind of movement, Lily raced over to the radiantly lit shelves containing the precious packets. She could hear James asking questions, but ignored him in favour of drooling obscenely over the colourful packaging.
"Lily… What are you doing?"
Picking one of the various flavours at random, she shoved the gum at James.
"You have to try this. Azure makes the best gum. Seriously, it'll blow your mind," she exclaimed, gesturing manically.
"Alright…" He muttered, eyeing the trial stick critically before popping it in his mouth.
Lily watched, morbidly fascinated and amused, as James chewed cautiously, face contorted with effort.
Suddenly, he convulsed, gagging and Lily made an abrupt lunge forward, arms raised-
With a wet sound, the gum shot out of James' mouth and flew in a wide arc, landing…
In Lily's hair.
Oh my God. She thought, as remnants of James' spit slid slowly down her hair. Oh my God.
"I swear, I am so sorry, Lily," James cried, hands flying wildly around. With the combined efforts of James and the Shop Assistant, they had managed to cut out the wayward piece of gum. Luckily, it had landed fairly close to the bottom of the strand and therefore didn't cause Lily to suffer through months with a horrid haircut.
Unfortunately, it meant that James had nearly suffered a heart-attack and was now attempting to saturate Lily in apologies.
"James," she sighed, "it's fine." At his pout, she laughed, waving him off. "I'm being serious, you cut it out, alright?"
"I guess…" He faltered, "I just… Never mind. Let's keep going."
James led her out around the back end of Hogsmeade, passing by Madame Puddifoot's, which Lily praised Merlin for, before trudging down a winding little backstreet.
The foliage growing on the edge of the path was covered in snow, little tinges of green peeking out from under the pure white. As she followed James through the path, she noticed that tiny flecks of snow had landed in his hair. It created a weird, spotted look and she longed to run her hands through it, through the silky strands and brush the snow off and then maybe he'd lean in and-
Whoa. No. First date, Lily, first date.
Oh my God, what is this? She can't like him already, they'd just finished hating each other!
But there it was, a strange, bubbly feeling in her stomach, one that caused her to blush and stumble and act like a general fool.
Lily was drawn from her thoughts by loud thud, followed by several choice words. Startled, she glanced up to see a picturesque sight:
James had tripped over a small boulder, camouflaged by moss and snow and was now sprawled on the ground, his eyes bulging comically and jaw dropped, like he'd just been punched in the stomach.
Lily couldn't help but laugh, causing James to groan theatrically and roll around in the snow in fake agony.
"Man down!" He rasped, clutching his stomach, "I repeat, man down!"
Her own stomach was in actual agony with the amount of laughing she was doing. Her cheeks burnt with the strain and her eyes began to water. The laughter continued to pour out like a stream and her legs wobbled dangerously until she collapsed on the ground, unable to stand.
They lay there giggling, side by side, as the snow drifted down from the sky, soft flakes settling on their clothes and skin.
There was a sudden shift in the mood as James turned to gaze at Lily, eyes open and honest.
"I'm sorry, you know," he sighed, turning back to stare at the clouds, "I'm terrible at this sort of thing."
Lily sat up, confused. What was he talking about?
"I mean, could anything else go wrong? Everywhere we've gone, something's happened." James was sitting up now, head tilted up to the sky.
Snorting, Lily fiddled with a blade of grass before replying with, "You pretty much screwed everything up, I'm afraid."
James flung his arms up in exasperation and Lily snickered lightly.
"I'm a failure," he said mournfully, his expression downtrodden, like a kicked puppy. Lily smiled, eyes sparkling as James pouted and brushed some snow off his trousers.
"Well," she declared, "you better not screw this up, then."
Confusion darted along his face as Lily leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips.
It lasted less than a second, a warm spark rushing between them before she was moving away, shifting back with a small smile.
James' expression was priceless, utter astonishment gracing his chiselled features, his unruly hair covered in snowflakes.
The warmth in her stomach expanded, leaving a tingling sensation in her lips. Unconsciously, she licked them, noting how James followed the movement.
"I had fun, Potter, I really did."
"Really?"
"Really."
She guessed, as they both leaned in for another, hopefully longer, kiss, that it might not be too bad to like this James Potter.
Not bad at all.