i. a warm brew
The dim light of the bar shone through, illuminating the dust on the dining tables, which, speaking the truth wasn't that good of a thing, but the light was good enough for Lily. She held The Theory of Transfiguration: Advanced closer to her eyes, and found a few fingers pulling the book away.
"Mum!" She protested, putting down the book on the table, and staring at the older redheaded woman opposite her.
Her mother smiled at her, placing her chin on her hand. "Honey, reading that close to your eyes isn't very good for your health!" Lily chuckled, and looked down at her glass of butterbeer. She lifted it up and took a sip of the sweet rich flavour that was her favourite drink in the whole world.
"Hey, Evans! You've got a moustache!" A familiar voice accompanied the small clunk of her glass hitting the table.
Lily reached towards her mouth and smeared away the butterbeer above it with a tissue. "Thank you, Potter." She grumbled. Funny how she hated saying that but finding that sometimes that she just had to.
"Lily, is this your friend?" Her mother asked, looking between the two of them.
Before Lily could open her mouth to reply, Potter did it for her. "Yes, Mrs. Evans. I'm James, James Potter. Me and Lily are both in Gryffindor. And in the same year." He said, holding his hand out for her mother to shake.
"Oh, I think I've heard about you once or twice." Lily's mother said, giving a slight nod to her daughter.
James ruffled his already messy hair and smiled, "All good things I hope."
Her mother chuckled slightly and opened her mouth to speak. Lily immediately knew what her mother was going to say, so before her mother could ask James to sit down, she stood up. The sound of her chair screeching against the stone floor made her flinch. She turned towards the boy, searched for words, and found that there wasn't any for her to say, then addressed her mother. "Mum, can me and Potter go outside to have a chat about the homework that professor McGonagall assigned us over the holidays?" She asked, trying, and succeeding in a smile. "Go ahead," Her mother answered.
Lily took hold of Potter's wrist and dragged him outside to the streets of London. James seemed to like it, as he was grinning ear to ear while Lily studied him, hands crossed.
"It's my mum in there, so please be civilised, Potter. Anyway, why did you have to just decide to talk to us in the first place?"
James laughed at her, and rocked backwards on the balls of his feet, crossing his arms in front of his chest, mimicking her actions. Realising this, Lily thrust her hands into the air, and let them fall loudly by her waist. When he stopped laughing, his mouth remained in the shape of a smile, although, only the right half of his mouth was tilted up. Lily rolled her eyes to the fact that she even noticed that.
"Come on, Evans, I'm not here to cause mischief." He said, leaning back to the wall of the leaky cauldron.
"Says everyone who ever cause mischief." Lily replied, placing her hands on her hips. "Fine then, just come in, don't you dare say something inappropriate to my mother." She stared up at the boy, her eyes bulging rather comically. Red hair swishing as she entered the leaky cauldron, James following her.
Before they could even sit down, Lily's mother stood up and announced that her father had just came and said that he wanted to go out and try an ice cream with her and it was okay for her to stay and continue to finish reading. Lily had protested, but her mother told her to stay and that she deserved to spend some time outside of Hogwarts to have fun with her friends.
Disgruntled, Lily sat down. What she did not expect was James sitting down beside her.
"What are you doing here, Potter?" After she opened the textbook once more, and noticing that the annoying person had not walked away. "Wait, I meant to say, what are you still doing here. You came to Diagon Alley to shop, right? Why don't you?"
"Sirius went for me. He should be back any minute. Besides," He propped his elbow on the table, and used his hand to hold his chin, which was attached to his very big head. "I like looking at you."
"Well, that's creepy."
Lily tried to turn her attention onto her book, but kept seeing the brown eyes of James Potter staring at her from above the pages of the book. "This isn't working." She muttered under her breath, not clear enough for Potter to hear her.
Just when she decided that she had enough of all the staring, she looked up from her book, opened her mouth and was about to tell him off, when another annoying person appeared in the corners of her eye.
"Hey, James. Got your books. Well, I'm pretty sure I didn't bring them all, but wormtail's carrying most of them, so I think we'll just have to wait a few more minutes. Oh, hey Evans." Sirius said, dumping a stack of seven books on the table.
"Hello Black, good to see you here. It seems that you do everything together right?" She said, putting her book down once again, she was thinking that this might be the last time she was going to do this today.
Sirius winked at her, "Of course, Evans. Me and James coming to Diagon Alley is definitely because we love each other platonically not because I live with him." The two of them laughed.
"You live together?" Lily asked, her green eyes widened in surprise.
"Only temporarily. Padfoot's moving out next year." James replied, the smile vanishing slightly.
Sirius must have noticed this for he said to him, teasing in his tone, "You mustn't miss me too much. And if you don't, please don't take revenge on me, Prongs. Don't put me in detention."
"Detention? Can he? Is there something that I don't know about?" These two were full of surprises, thought Lily, as she looked between the two of them.
"Oh yeah, I'm surprised Moony didn't tell you. James has been made the new head boy of Hogwarts, the only thing that we're wondering is who the new head girl will be." Sirius replied. James seemed to be holding back a smile, but failing to do so once a smirk grew on his face. Lily couldn't hold it against him, he earned it. Although she couldn't really agree on Dumbledore's choice of the next head boy, she thought it would be Remus.
The confusion must've settled on her face when Sirius stared at her reproachfully.
To break the awkwardness between them, Lily said, "Well, I guess it's time for you guys to stop wondering who it is. It's me."
There was a few seconds pause as the two boys stopped to process the information. Then the moment was over. James started clapping slowly, and Sirius smirked. "I told you Padfoot, didn't I tell you? It was rightfully hers!" James said, clapping his best friend on the back.
Lily could feel her heart clench when she heard this sentence.
The three of them jumped when they heard a loud crash beside the wall that opened up to Diagon Alley.
Sirius moved out of his seat, and so did James. "Well, I think we need to give wormtail there a hand. Goodbye, Evans." Sirius said, already walking towards the little guy was fumbling with dozens of books in his arms. "Bye, Sirius. See you, I suppose." She said, and looked up at James. He smiled, and waved goodbye at her. She did the same. Her eyes never left him as he went forward to help Peter pick up the books.
She picked up the glass and took another sip, wiped her mouth just in case, and praying to Merlin that no one will interrupt her reading again, picked up her book and started reading again.
