Lily Evans knew she didn't stand a chance with him. Not after the seven years of her telling him that he wasn't good enough for her, and especially not now that he'd been dating Aimee McLean and she'd lived with him for the summer. Still, maybe the two could manage a friendship; she'd have plenty of time to try since they'd be forced to work together as the head students.
Plus, she wasn't sure that he'd really like her once he got to know her. She was a little bossy sometimes and always knew, and got, exactly what she wanted. The few people she'd dated hadn't been comfortable with her, and she'd ended up getting hurt because of it. They expected she'd be different somehow than she actually was, and she refused to compromise her personality to make a relationship work. That was a ridiculous notion; she was positive it'd just make things worse than they were.
"Lily." James grabbed her arm in the hallway, successfully jerking her out of her reverie. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Sorry." Lily blinked at him. "What's up?"
"Are you mad that Remus is standing in for me on patrol tonight?" James' eyes narrowed. "Because you said you were fine with it. If you're not I can reschedule my date with Aimee. She'll be pissed, but I can do it."
"No, don't reschedule. Why would I be mad? Honestly, I've missed patrols with Remus. We can catch up."
"He said you rarely talk."
"Yeah, well." Lily shifted the books in her arms. "It's never too late to start."
"We're friends right?"
"I guess." Lily had to fight to keep the thrill from hearing those words out of her voice. While she wanted more than friends, she was happy to settle for that now.
"Then quit freezing me out." James had called bullshit on her. Nobody ever called bullshit on her; they never cared enough to bother.
"Sorry. I'm not doing it on purpose." Lily sighed, but maybe it would be better to really freeze him out of her life. She wouldn't get hurt that way, and this path was destined for hurt. "Look, I'm not mad about the patrols. Have fun on your date."
"Alright." James grinned at her. "I'll see you later. We still on for Hogsmeade tomorrow?"
"Hell yes. You aren't getting off that easily." Lily laughed. "I won that bet fair and square, you owe me a couple butterbeers."
And with that, Lily turned and headed off down the hall.
"Lily Evans? Hanging out with James Potter and Sirius Black?" Madame Rosmerta, who ran the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade laughed when she spotted her favorite customers all together, something she never thought would happen.
"James lost a bet." Lily grinned. "I'm collecting."
"Plus my girlfriend ditched me today for a 'girl's night'. What the hell does that entail anyway?" James dropped onto the barstool on one side of Lily and Sirius picked the other side, shaking the snow out of his mittens onto Lily's head.
"Ugh, Sirius! That went down my shirt." Lily hopped off her stool and tried to shake the freezing snow out of the front of her shirt. "I can't answer your question James, that's against girl code. Or so your girlfriend told me. I'm not exactly up to date on stuff like that."
"I thought you and Aimee were friends." James frowned.
"We were best friends until she lied to me about something." Lily waved her hand. "It's not important. We're still friends, I just don't like being lied to very much."
"Wait, so who do you hang out with?" Sirius laughed.
"Well, Bryan Frazier has always been like a brother to me. And I like a few Ravenclaws: Hayden Mosher, Bryn Little, and Kara Vermouth." Lily shrugged. "I have friends, just not many close ones."
"You need friends." Sirius said. "Namely me."
"Right." Lily laughed. "I always thought you didn't like me."
"Nope. That was just important to my reputation. I think you're hilarious. But you're a bookworm, having Remus as a best friend was enough style cramping. Now that I'm established, I can hang out with anyone I want."
"Glad to know I wont be in your way." Lily rolled her eyes. "Are you seriously saying we should hang out?"
"Yeah, I think I am." Sirius grinned.
"Deal." Lily held out her hand and Sirius shook it. "You actually give a crap about your friends. I like that."
"Now that you two are best friends." James rolled his eyes. "I thought I owed you butterbeer."
"Pay up." Lily glanced down the bar to Madame Rosmerta. "Three butterbeers, please. James is paying."
"Not for Sirius." James looked at his friend. "Sorry mate."
"You owe me money." Sirius said.
"Actually you owe me money."
"That's how it works." Sirius shrugged. "You lend me money and we just owe each other collectively."
"Makes sense to me." Lily grinned.
"See. My new best friend gets it." Sirius flicked a chunk of ice off Lily's shoulder and into her face. "Oops. Sorry, Lil."
"Looks like it's two against one, James." Lily shrugged. "Sorry mate, but you're paying."
"Fine, but his comes off the five I owe you." James rolled his eyes. "As if you could drink five anyway."
"You obviously are new friends." Rosmerta laughed as she set three butterbeers on the counter.
"Oh! Look at her!" Sirius pointed out the window. "She is fine."
Lily followed his finger. "That's Amber Haynes. She was a Ravenclaw last year, but she finished school already. I heard from her sister that her fiancé just got caught cheating on her. Go for it."
"Lily's my new wingman." Sirius announced to James before taking off out the door.
"Where do you hear these things?" James asked. "I'd seen her like twice in my life, and you know her entire personal life."
"People tell me things." Lily shrugged. "I hope he's not dumb enough to let on that he knows about the fiancé thing. She's got a mean right hook."
"She hit you?"
"Nah. But I saw her punch Georgia Keene one time for kissing her ex-fiancé and it looked nasty."
"You know, you sound like Remus with the whole not trusting people thing."
"Oh, so we're back to that." Lily set down her empty butterbeer bottle and picked up Sirius'. James looked at her funny. "What? Technically it's mine, and he's not coming back anytime soon."
James rolled his eyes. "Seriously. You two and trusting. I don't get it."
"Remus is a werewolf, I expect he's had plenty of people stab him in the back for it. My family is shitty and my sister told a complete stranger my life story because she blames me for my parents' death. Like I had anything to do with a car crash." Lily shrugged. "It's a learned behavior, not a genetic one."
"Does Remus know that you know that about him?"
"No, because he'd panic and assume I'd talk."
"He was always freaking out that you'd find out and tell everyone."
"Why?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "I'd never tell anyone something like that. He just doesn't know me very well, does he?"
"I have to tell him that you know. How long have you known?"
"Dunno." Lily shrugged. "Years. I also know about you, Sirius, and Peter."
"What?" James' face went completely blank.
"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. I think it's really decent though, that you'd do that much for a friend. It's part of the reason I don't have many. I don't bother with half-friendships." Lily set down the second butterbeer and pulled her coat on. "I've known since you did it. Thanks for the butterbeer. We'll call it even, yeah?"
James watched her for a second as she walked out the door. Then dropped some change on the counter and followed her. He caught up to her halfway toward the Shrieking Shack. "You know that's haunted right?"
"Yeah." Lily rolled her eyes. "By a horrid werewolf and his three dumb friends."
James stopped and Lily turned back to look at him. "Seriously, how do you do it?"
"I pay attention, I guess." Lily almost said the other thing that she knew, but she bit it back. That wasn't something that James needed to hear from her. Aimee's 'girl-time' was really a combination between that and a date with Rhett Mathews; the girl-time necessary because she wanted to discuss the merits of continuing her relationship with James versus starting one with Rhett.
It started snowing lightly and Lily reached up to brush a few flakes off her face. "Want to go back?"
"No." James said quietly. He took a few steps closer and tucked Lily's hair behind her ear. Then he bent down and kissed her slowly. She stood on her tiptoes and deepened the kiss as she returned it. Then, suddenly, they realized what they were doing and stopped.
"Shit." James squeezed her arms. "Lily, I just proved to you that I'm one of those shitty people that just use you, didn't I?"
"No." Lily said shakily. She squirmed out of his grip and walked off quickly, to keep herself from kissing him again. Kissing him had felt like everything she knew it would; it felt right. But there was no way that she could give into her wants right then and be no better than Rhett Matthews who knew perfectly well that Aimee was dating James. She walked quickly back through Hogsmeade, running into Sirius just outside the Three Broomsticks.
"Hey best friend!" He greeted her happily. "Where's James?"
"Uhm." Lily glanced around; she was glad that he hadn't followed her. "Dunno. He disappeared."
"Oh well." Sirius looped his arm through hers. "Got any other tips for me, wingman? That last one was golden. She needed a quick make-out session with no commitment whatsoever and I'm good at no commitment."
"Uhm. Hannah Kerns found out yesterday that her boyfriend was cheating on her. He doesn't know she knows yet, and I'm thinking she's going to want to do it in a big dramatic way." Lily pointed Hannah out in front of Honeyduke's.
"Deal." Sirius patted Lily's arm. "You need anything, Lil?"
"Nah. I'm going to head back to the castle." Lily grinned. "I think I've had enough Hogsmeade for one day."
"Want me to walk back with you? Hannah Kerns looks like she'll wait."
"Nope. James said something I need to think about. Find me for dinner?"
"You bet." Sirius grinned and took off.
Lily didn't question their sudden closeness. Sometimes it just happened that way and people just clicked. Instead she thought about what James had said about just proving himself untrustworthy. Was he warning her that he'd just hurt her? That he didn't like her that way? She thought about it the entire way back to the castle before deciding that she wouldn't be able to figure it out. She claimed a table in the Common Room and started her homework. Some things never changed.
"Hey new best friend." Sirius dropped into the seat across from Lily at dinner one day later that week. "Remus wants to talk to you."
"Hi Remus." Lily glanced up at the boy who sat slowly in the seat beside Sirius. His sandy hair was disheveled and his skin seemed slightly more pale than usual. It must be getting close to the Full Moon.
"Lily." Remus sat for a second and just looked at her. She raised an eyebrow at him. "James says you know."
"Yeah?" Lily asked. "I've known for ages."
"And you haven't told anyone? Nobody at all? Not even Aimee?"
"If I had, you'd have heard it floating around the gossip mill." Lily pointed out. "I've heard you and Sirius are secret lovers, but that one would be new."
"It's true." Sirius said in a husky voice. "I just, I lost it when I see Ol' Moony here. I can't help myself."
"Shut up Sirius." Remus said, but he relaxed visibly. "I approve of your new friend and I may just join you in the befriending of Lily Evans."
"Success!" Sirius high-fived Lily, "I love when he recognizes some good judgment of mine. It doesn't happen often."
"That's because you generally exercise poor judgment." Remus snorted. "Anyway, Lily, I'm sorry that I underestimated you all this time and called you mean things behind your back."
"I accept." Lily said. "Wait. What did you call me?"
"Uhm."
"Frigid bitch was popular for a while." Sirius offered helpfully. "My favorite was Queen of Indigestion."
Remus eyed Lily nervously and was relieved when she burst out laughing, drawing looks from all the surrounding tables. "Remus Lupin. I didn't realize you had a mean bone in your body."
"Why haven't you been talking to James?" Sirius asked, changing the subject abruptly. "And does it have something to do with his relationship troubles?"
"Remember what I told you about Roberta Manning?" Lily asked. "It's very similar."
"Aimee's really a frigid bitch." Sirius muttered as Remus just sat there looking confused. "James is an idiot."
"It's whatever." Lily shrugged. She was about to continue when James popped up out of nowhere.
"Lily, I need to talk to you." James plucked at her arm. "Wait. Since when are you friends with Remus and Sirius?"
"We're best friends." Sirius announced. "You're lame for not paying attention. We've been best friends since Saturday."
"I've been a little preoccupied since Saturday." James muttered. "Since when did Remus like Lily?"
"I completely misjudged her. I've decided a fresh start with some personal experience might be a tad better based on your revelation that she knows everything about my life and hasn't told a soul." Remus said. "So far it's been enjoyable; she speaks to Sirius in a way that conveys everything to him and nothing to me. I didn't even know that was possible."
"Right." James looked at Lily who looked as if she'd rather keep eating. "It'd be better if we talked alone."
"Fine, but if Sirius eats my food, I blame you." Lily stood up and gave a sharp look to Sirius before following James out of the Great Hall. He pulled her into a side passage behind a tapestry. "What's up?"
"I told Aimee that I kissed you."
"So, what? Is there like a hit out on me now or something?" Lily asked. "Am I going to need to train Sirius to be a bodyguard?"
James laughed. "No. She just told me that she'd kissed someone else too."
Lily's heart almost stopped. He had broken up with her. James and Aimee were done! What a glorious day! Even though that was a vast understatement on her part if she just admitted to kissing Rhett. She waited for James to go on.
"And we're going to start over from square one. Reestablish our relationship."
"Why?" Lily asked, a little too quickly to stop herself. That was probably not the best thing she could have said, but she could kick herself for it later.
"Because we genuinely care about each other?" James blinked. "Look, I just thought you'd want to know that our kiss didn't ruin anything with Aimee and me. I want us to stay friends."
"I mean." Lily paused for a second so she couldn't stick her foot in her mouth again. "I am glad to hear that you aren't mad; being friends means a lot to me. I just wanted to be sure that relationship was what you wanted."
"It is." James said.
"Fine."
"Good."
"I'm just going to go eat." Lily rolled her eyes. "Sirius probably ate all my food by now. In the future, try and time your sudden important chats for some part of the day other than mealtime please."
"Lily! Lily! LIIIIIILEEEEEE!" Sirius jumped up and down on Peter's bed that Lily had spent the night in.
"Go away Sirius." Lily groaned, burrowing under the pillows. She was being bounced dangerously close to the edge.
"Wake! UP!" Sirius pulled the covers off her. "It's Christmas!"
"So?"
"There are presents to open!" Sirius gave her another good bounce. "PRESENTS!"
Lily was up on her feet in a second, hopping up and down beside Sirius. "I never get presents!"
Sirius stopped bouncing. "Why?"
"There aren't many people to get presents from when your parents are dead and your sister hates you." Lily shrugged, and then she spotted the few presents clustered at the end of the bed. "I have presents! Can I open them?"
"Do it!" Sirius shouted.
James sat up. "There's no chance of going back to sleep now, is there?"
"Nope." Remus climbed out of his bed. "I think sleep is a lost cause. Really Lily? It's bad enough on Christmas with just Sirius bouncing around."
"Presents, presents, presents!" Lily jumped from Peter's bed to James' bed. "Get up! Get up! Get up!"
James grabbed Lily's feet, which caused her to collapse onto his bed in a fit of laughter. "If I had known that you and Sirius were going to be like this, I never would have thrown you two together in Hogsmeade. You're ridiculous."
"That's why you like me." Lily wiggled out of James' grip and sat on Peter's bed, grabbing her first present. She shook it. "How do I know who it's from?"
"Read the card, ding-a-ling." James rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. "It's that big white thing next to the bow."
"Who wrapped this anyway? It looks like something a cat would throw up." Lily peeked at the card. "To best friend. From best friend. Sirius, did you wrap this yourself?"
"Last year they looked like a troll wrapped them and a dragon torched them." Remus was looking at a package from his pile that looked similar to the one Lily was holding. "Your wrapping abilities are improving, Padfoot."
"I try." Sirius grinned.
Lily ripped the paper off the present and threw it to the side, hitting James in the face. She ignored his grunt of protest and looked at her first present. "It's a really big book."
"I found it in the library. It has all sorts of nifty spells for Healers. It's due in two weeks." Sirius said helpfully.
"At least you didn't get something that Sirius borrowed from you three years ago; that means he put thought and time into your gift." Remus held up a fourth year potions book and showed everyone where his name was written neatly inside the front cover. "Did you even open this?"
"And do what?" Sirius asked. "Read it? And I definitely put time into your gift Moony. I had to dig it out of my trunk, didn't I?"
"Thanks for putting a bow on my broom, Sirius." James laughed. "It's looking very festive."
"Did you all get me library books?" Lily asked. She shot a suspicious glance at the remaining three presents. James and Remus shook their heads.
"Open them." Remus said with a grin. "Peter's is the one in the blue wrapping paper."
"What'd you get Wormtail this year?" James asked Sirius as Lily opened the present from Peter.
"A Remembrall." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "Because I lost his. Or broke it. Or something."
"You actually paid money for a present for him?" Remus asked in shock. "You never do that."
"No, I found one at the Slytherin table and took it." Sirius looked at Remus. "Who do you think I am? Spending money on people? Nope."
"Success!" Lily ripped open the box of chocolate tipped sugar quills that Peter had gotten her and pulled one out to eat. "Excellent."
"No fair!" Sirius shouted. "Wormtail got me chocolate frogs again! Trade you, Lily!"
"Mine!" Lily gave Sirius a dirty look.
"You told him that chocolate frogs are your favorite." Remus pointed out for the seventh year in a row. He had a giant bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. "If you wanted another candy, you should have told him six Christmases ago. And no, you cannot eat all the good flavors out of my present."
"You realize I'm just going to find where you hide them, right?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"I hope you find a bogie flavored one, choke and die." Remus declared seriously.
"Wait. Where's my present from Peter?" James peered under his bed. "Where are my Licorice Whips and Pumpkin Pasties? PADFOOT!"
"You snooze you lose, Prongs." Sirius grinned and gave an evil little laugh. "You'll never find them now. Think I woke you up before snatching them? Think again."
James launched himself at Sirius and in the resulting chaos Lily decided it was a good time to open her present from Remus. "It's another really big book."
"It's the same one that Sirius borrowed from the library for you." Remus rolled his eyes. "I knew you'd want your own copy because it's actually going to be really useful. Your name is in the front and everything."
"Thanks Remus." Lily grinned. "Oy! James. They're halfway out from under his bed."
James dove for his present and carried it triumphantly across the room to his bed. "Thanks, Lily."
"I only have one present left." Lily raised an eyebrow. "I wonder who it could be from."
"I picked it." Sirius announced loudly. "James just bought it and wrapped it."
"You did not." James rolled his eyes. "He looked at it once."
"And approved it."
"No, I approved it. You just said it was shiny and if Lily didn't want it, you'd find some poor girl to give it to." Remus laughed.
"Yeah, but I'd consult Lily on who that person should be and what to say." Sirius looked between James and Remus, as if challenging them to call bullshit. "My love life has gotten drastically better since Lily and I became best friends."
"Shut up Sirius." James threw a pillow at him, hitting him square in the face. "Let Lily open her present."
"Quit watching me like that." Lily said. She was poised to open her present as the three boys all leaned in slightly to watch. "It's super creepy."
"Just open it!" Sirius shouted. They all gave him a look. "Sorry, I just got caught up in the excitement of the moment."
"Right." Lily snorted and pulled off the wrapping paper. Inside was a big, black velvet box. She slowly opened that to reveal a necklace. It was white gold with a lily in the center and two small diamonds strung on the chain on either side of the flower. Her hands shook slightly as she picked it up. "It's beautiful."
"It's us!" Sirius announced. "We're each a diamond and you're the lily flower. I'm the best looking diamond."
"You're the self-centered diamond." James snorted. He held out his hand, "Here, I'll put it on you."
Lily let James fasten the clasp and then twisted around to give him a huge hug.
"Lily? Are you crying?" James asked, somewhere between amusement and panic.
"Sorry." Lily wiped her face frantically. "It's just. I haven't had a proper Christmas in three years. And suddenly I have friends and presents…"
Suddenly all three boys were hugging her and there may have been more than one damp face, though none of them would admit to it if you'd asked. After a minute they broke apart and the cheerful banter resumed as the boys finished opening their mound of presents.
"What's that?" Lily asked, pointing to a small box on the ground.
"Shit." James picked it up. "It's Aimee's Christmas present."
Sirius, Lily, and Remus exchanged glances.
"James." Lily said quietly. "Was that a ring box?"
"Want to see it?" James asked, tossing it to her.
She opened the box to see a beautiful gold diamond ring. She closed it a little too quickly and threw it to Sirius. Sirius looked at it with raised eyebrows and then looked at Lily who refused to make eye contact and threw it to Remus. Remus looked at it blankly and threw it back to James.
"What do you think?" James looked at her carefully.
"The ring is gorgeous." Lily choked out. She suddenly felt like she might be sick.
"So you think she'll like it?" James looked at the ring himself; he was completely oblivious to the way Sirius and Remus were both watching Lily. "I feel like it's the right time."
"James, a month ago she cheated on you." Lily said slowly. "I thought you started completely over."
That got his attention. "Aimee is the only shot I have. There's nobody else lurking in the future for me, Lily. Aimee is it. She's my one shot at happiness."
"How do you know?" Lily asked. "Are you happy? Do you love Aimee more than anything? Because if you do, then go ahead. You're right."
James narrowed his eyes slightly, but he hesitated before answering. "Yes. I'm going to marry her."
"Alright." Lily stood up abruptly. She grabbed her things, bending over to hide the tears in her eyes that she managed to pull together in a second. "I need to get dressed. Sirius? Remus? We still on for our Christmas Snowball War?"
"Absolutely." Sirius said. Remus managed to nod.
"Good. Perfect." Lily headed to the door, paused, and looked at James. "Good luck."
James frowned. Something about that sentence seemed wrong to him, like she wasn't just wishing him luck for what he was about to do, but for the rest of his life. Before he asked her to clarify or figured out what she meant, she was gone.
"Lily." Remus glanced at her as she finished her fourth glass. "You do realize that's spiked, right?"
"Yepp." Lily grinned as Sirius handed her another drink.
"Lily holds her liquor better than I do." Sirius said, but the look he shared with Remus was one of mutual concern. It wasn't like Lily to get drunk in front of all the younger students, even when Gryffindor was decimated because of the holidays. She'd been acting slightly off since Christmas, and both boys knew exactly why, though they hadn't brought it up. "Hey love, do me a favor? Go and get the other bottle of firewhiskey from under my bed."
"Okay." Lily handed her half downed drink back to Sirius and stood on tiptoe to peck him on the cheek before sauntering off.
"I'm worried." Remus said slowly.
"Me too." Sirius admitted, swirling Lily's drink around. "Do you think she's drunk enough to notice a lack of alcohol?"
"Dunno." Remus surveyed Lily's perfectly straight path up the stairs. "Doesn't look like it."
"She'll be pissed if I stop giving it to her. She knows I'm usually trying to pump it into every girl in the place in hopes of getting lucky."
"But you aren't interested in drunken New Year's sex with her." Remus sighed. "Give it to her for a while. I'll play bad guy when she gets bad enough."
"You pull off concerned a tad better." Sirius admitted. "If Prongs wasn't an idiot, we wouldn't have this problem."
"Speak of the devil." Remus elbowed Sirius and nodded to where James was approaching them, his fiancée nowhere in sight.
"Where's Lily going?" James asked. "How much has she had?"
"Four and a half." Remus deadpanned. "She's getting the rest of Sirius' firewhiskey."
James swore. "You keep giving it to her?"
"What the fuck else am I supposed to do, James?" Sirius snapped. "It's not like she's a first year. I can't tell her she's not allowed to drink because she's as legal as I am."
Remus snorted. "She's technically not legal for another couple days. But I'm not going to be the one to tell her that."
"It'd be bullshit coming from me anyway." Sirius shrugged. "We're watching out for her, James. Go back to you fiancée."
"Aimee isn't feeling well so she left." James said. "Look, I think I'm going to check on Lily."
"That's not-" Sirius started, but James had already left. "…. Such a good idea."
"We are not responsible for anything that goes down." Remus said, but it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself of that. "How much has he had?"
"More than Lily." Sirius looked after James. "Seriously? Should I go after them? What do you do in this situation?"
"Pray." Remus said. "And retrieve Lily if she isn't back in fifteen minutes."
When James got upstairs, Lily was lying on the floor, reaching under Sirius' bed.
"Hey Lil, whatcha doing?"
"Getting more alcohol." Lily said quickly. She pulled a bottle out from under the bed and sat up to look at him. "What are you doing?"
"Talking to you." James watched as Lily stood up. "You look really pretty tonight."
"How much have you had to drink?"
"I didn't count." James thought for a second. "Six. Maybe seven."
"Right." Lily headed for the door, and then changed her mind. "Why aren't you with your fiancée?"
"Aimee's sick." James rolled his eyes. "She's always getting sick when she drinks. I tell her to just stop drinking, but she never listens."
"She's an idiot." Lily muttered, knowing that Aimee was probably really off with Rhett.
"Lily, why don't you like her? I want you two to get along."
"Fuck no, not going to happen." Lily shook her head. "Sorry James, but that's not possible."
"I saw you kiss Sirius. Are you two a thing now?"
Lily looked at him blankly for a second, then threw back her head and laughed. "James, did you seriously just follow me up here to ask me that? No, Sirius and I are not a 'thing' now, nor will we ever be a thing. And if you don't understand why, then you're dumber than I thought."
"It's because I kissed you."
"James." Lily set down the bottle of firewhiskey and stepped closer to him. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"It shouldn't be this complicated for us." James said.
"No." Lily agreed.
Then James closed the space between them and kissed her again. She returned the kiss, knowing that she was doing something idiotic. She completely forgot the idiocy of it a second later when James deepened the kiss. Her hands went around his neck and his played with the bottom of her shirt before sliding underneath and finding bare skin. She shivered slightly at his touch and he picked her up off the floor, laying her on his bed and stripping off his own shirt before joining her on the bed. They rolled over so she was straddling him, and he'd just pulled her shirt off when Sirius and Remus came through the door.
"Shit." Sirius looked at Remus. "That's not good."
James' eye widened with horror and he pushed Lily off and left the room without a word. Sirius walked around the side of the bed to where Lily was sitting on the floor. She saw him and started sobbing hysterically.
"Sirius, I'm so stupid." Lily pulled her knees to her chest and buried her head. "So stupid."
Sirius sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her, shirtless and all. "You aren't stupid, Lil. He's the idiot. Trust me, in no way are you stupid."
Remus sat down between Lily and the bed, "Just keep crying, Lily. It's better to cry."
Lily leaned her head on Remus' shoulder and cried. She didn't notice the murderous looks on the boys' faces. James might have been their friend longer, but he was in the wrong and they were not letting this one slide.
"Hey." James was perfectly on time for patrols for the first time in his life.
Lily was secretly proud, but she'd rather make fun of him for it. "You scared the shit out of me. It sounds like you, but you're never on time. I thought I was about to get kidnapped by the Slytherins."
"Shut up." James rolled his eyes. "I'm not usually that late. Maybe like five minutes."
"Still." Lily stood up. "Are we splitting it up again to save time?"
"I have nowhere to be."
"So is that a no? Because you never really answered my question."
"Let's do it together." James said with a laugh.
"Thank Merlin. The castle at night is creepy as nobody's business." Lily shuddered. "Last night Sirius thought it would be funny to jump out and scare me on the way back from dinner. I accidently punched him in the face."
"I was wondering about that black eye." James said. "He claims to have gotten it in a manly fist fight with Snape."
"False statement." Lily laughed. "It's my right hook that did it. Though it did earn him sympathy from Kathy Briggs. So he doesn't seem to mind."
"Seriously. How do you know all this stuff?" James asked. "I tried to pay attention to things, I really did, but I just ended up mucking everything up worse."
"It's because you're a boy. Boys aren't meant to know things." Lily ignored the reference to New Year's Eve.
"How does that even make sense?"
"See. The way it works is this, and Sirius explained it to me so if you don't like it, go and bother him about it. A boy's job is to mess everything up really thoroughly. A girl's job is to forgive him for fucking it up so badly, and the only way she can manage to do that is if she believes him oblivious to the finer things in life, like emotions and people's feelings."
"So girls forgive blindly? Because men are idiots?"
"No. Girls then teach the boys to not be so oblivious. After that, if the boy messes up again the same way, they're through. End of relationship. Bye bye." Lily shrugged. "Or so Sirius tells me. He has a lot of experience in this department, so I took his word for it."
"I always wondered what went on in his head." James laughed.
Lily frowned as she heard a weird noise coming from an empty classroom. She glanced at James and opened the door, then immediately froze in the doorway. James peered over her shoulder to see what was going on, and Lily wished for the first time in her life that she were taller and larger than her five foot two height.
Framed in the moonlight from the window were Aimee McLean and Rhett Matthews in a very compromising position. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening and Aimee started screaming. She was trying to play it off as if she was the victim, but it was way too late for that. Lily felt James go perfectly still behind her; she took a deep breath and took control of the situation.
"Detention for a month. Both of you get dressed and get out of here; I don't want to see your faces outside your Common Rooms after hours again." Lily strode into the middle of the room and didn't look away as both culprits scrambled to get dressed.
"A month detention?" Aimee gasped, looking at James to change the ruling.
Lily would have had a shred of respect for her if she hadn't pretended to be the victim and then expected James to get her out of trouble immediately after completely trashing their relationship. "Are you going for two months, McLean? You're lucky I'm not McGonagall; she'd give you six months detention for catching you procreating in an empty classroom."
"We weren't-" Aimee started.
"You were well on the way." Lily snapped. "Shouldn't you be gone by now?"
Rhett grabbed Aimee's elbow before she could start arguing again and hauled her out of the room. Lily waited until their footsteps had completely faded before turning around to look at James.
His face was completely devoid of emotion, but his fists were balled so tightly Lily thought his fingers might break. He kept his eyes firmly on the wall above Lily's head, "Let's finish rounds then."
"Right." Lily headed towards the door, but she paused briefly to give James' arm a comforting squeeze before heading out of the room. She wasn't about to breach the subject of what had just happened unless he brought it up first, and she didn't feel forced conversation would be any better; so they finished rounds in an ominous silence that made Lily thoroughly relieved when they reached Gryffindor Tower.
James walked past a tearful Aimee without even glancing in her direction and headed up to his room. Lily glared at her and headed over to where Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat in a corner. Lily dropped onto the floor in front of Sirius and leaned back against his legs.
"What was that about?" Sirius nodded towards where James had disappeared up the stairs and Aimee sat collapsed on the bottom step wailing like a banshee.
"We caught her red-handed with Rhett Matthews." Lily rolled her eyes. "She had the audacity to pretend to be a victim and then appealed to James to get her out of the month's detention that I gave her."
Remus swore, something that he didn't usually do. "James is going to be pissed."
"That doesn't even cover it." Lily rubbed her face, the anger suddenly dissolving into exhaustion.
"You only gave them a month." Sirius nudged Lily with his knee. "McGonagall gives me three months when she catches me. I should have known you'd be a softie and scheduled all my dates for nights when you patrolled."
"Keep that in mind next time." Lily glanced up at Sirius. "Do you reckon if I yelled at her, she'd stop making that noise that could wake the dead?"
"Please try." Remus had his hands over his ears. "I'm pretty sure that my ears are going to be ringing for weeks."
"I have to sleep in the same room as she does." Lily groaned, but she stood up and put her business face on. Aimee's wailing would stop one way or another. Lily walked over to Aimee and stopped so that the toes of her shoes were barely skimming Aimee's skirt. "Do yourself a favor and shut up. This is your fault, quit making yourself look like an idiot and grow up. The way you're drawing attention to yourself is only going to make you a bigger idiot that you already are. Go upstairs and cry if you have to, but don't make out like you're the victim here."
"Who do you think you are?" Aimee surged to her feet and towered over Lily, but she immediately backed up two steps at the look Lily was giving her. "You're a whore that's going to jump all over our relationship problems and try to get James for yourself."
"I think it's safe to say your relationship with James Potter ended today, and it had nothing to do with me. You ran it into the ground; better give that pretty little ring back."
"You kissed him!" She shouted. "You tried to steal him from me!"
Lily didn't dignify that with an answer, she just fixed Aimee with a look that had the taller girl cowering from Lily's diminutive figure. After a few minutes, Aimee darted off up the stairs and Lily headed back over to regain her seat at Sirius' feet. The Common Room burst into a smattering of applause and then died down into the usual dull roar of conversation.
"If only I didn't have to share a dormitory with her, I'd go to bed now." Lily groaned, leaning her head back against Sirius' knee.
"I'd offer you my bed, but somehow I don't think that's a better offer." Sirius patted Lily on the head. "Although you'd probably face him down better than we could. Maybe you should go."
Lily shook her head. "Even if I could stand up, I wouldn't."
The four friends fell into a conversation completely unrelated to the events of the day, waiting until the Common Room emptied out before they finally headed up to bed.
"Shut up Sirius." Lily laughed, taking a large sip from her butterbeer. "You know as well as I do that-"
The three boys followed Lily's gaze as she stopped speaking mid-sentence. James had just walked in with Aimee. She handed him something and stood on tiptoe to kiss him before she turned and left. He didn't so much as move until she was out the door and then he glanced around looking for his friends.
"That Slytherin is going to be a rough match." Lily finished her sentence as if nothing had happened as James headed over. "I hope James has you all trained up properly or they might just whip your arses."
"Don't even pretend like you don't know we're ready to beat them." Sirius said, taking her cue. They were to pretend like they hadn't seen anything. "We'll wipe the pitch with their sorry excuse for a Quidditch team."
"Damn straight." James said as he pulled up a chair at the end of the table and dropped into it.
"How'd it go?" Lily asked casually. She handed James a butterbeer.
He took it and popped the top off, drinking slowly before he answered. "Fine. Can you do me a favor?"
"Yeah?" Lily raised an eyebrow at him.
"Hold onto this until I ask for it back." James dropped the ring into Lily's hand.
"Sure thing." Lily slipped the ring onto her finger to keep it safe. She turned it so that the diamond didn't show and kept that hand under the table. "Hey Sirius?"
"Hmm?" Sirius had been lost in his thoughts. He had been thanking everything he could think of that James was no longer engaged to Aimee McLean, and wishing that the ring on Lily's hand meant the same thing it had meant when it was on Aimee's. "Sorry. I zoned out for a second."
"I noticed." Lily snorted. "Are we still going to make that Honeydukes run?"
"Definitely." Sirius grinned. "I'm interested to see if the way that women mourn is effective for men."
"You just want to eat a ton of chocolate and call it therapy." Remus snorted.
"There is always that." Sirius shrugged.
"It's all in the name of science." Peter said. "I'm in."
"I'd still rather drink." James muttered, but he got up and followed them anyway. Lily fell into step beside him.
"Sirius still has some firewhiskey hidden under his bed." She said, winking at James. "I didn't tell you."
"Right." James grinned. "Thanks Lil."
"Best friend!" Sirius called. "Come here! I need to keep an eye on you."
"Why?" Lily asked, sliding between Peter and Remus to fall into step beside Sirius.
"It's my night to be sure James doesn't try anything stupid." Sirius shrugged. "Plus, you're usually good for a laugh and I don't want you telling James about the you-know-what under my bed."
"Please." Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't care what you and Remus think; I can take care of myself."
"Not with James." Sirius said. "You know he won't hurt you and you're as crazy about him as he is about you. Drunk James does not need to be messing up his relationship with sober Lily."
"Why would I be 'Sober Lily' exactly?"
"Because you swore off drinking after New Year's Eve. Two, we don't have enough of anything for more than one of us to get drunk. Three, Remus and I are playing protective older brother and keeping you sobered up, at least while around James." Sirius counted the reasons slowly on his fingers. "Four, your conscience would never let it go if you hooked up with Drunk James. Five, I promised that the next guy that made you cry would get the snot beat out of him, and I'd rather that guy not be my best friend. Or someone that might beat the snot out of me in the process."
"You could take James."
"He fights dirty." Sirius laughed. "Don't let the glasses fool you."
"You're ridiculous." Lily rolled her eyes. "You know, James probably just heard that entire conversation, right?"
"That's why I threw in the part about him possibly being able to beat me up as good as I could get him." Sirius nudged Lily with his elbow. "Appeal to his ego. I could totally wipe the floor with him though."
James snorted, confirming Lily's suspicions that he could hear everything. She glanced at him over her shoulder and grinned, knowing everything that Sirius had said was for James' benefit. Sirius had just firmly established where he and Remus stood in the situation, and that was firmly between Lily and James until they were sure that Lily wouldn't get hurt needlessly. Lily slipped her arm through Sirius' and reveled in the knowledge that she had friends, something that she was coming to love more and more every day.
Sirius scooped up a handful of snow and crammed it into her face. She spat the snow out of her mouth and rubbed the rest off her face, which was slightly numbed by the temperature. "Oh, you'll regret that later, Mr. Black."
"I doubt it." Sirius was doubled over in laughter.
Lily crammed some snow into his hair, a feat only managed because Sirius hadn't been paying enough attention to her while trying to regain his breath. She quickly gathered another handful and gave him a look when he straightened up with a murderous look in his eye. "Don't make me do it again. You know how good my aim is; I don't miss."
"Damn your perfect aim." Sirius snapped grouchily, and turned to follow the other three boys inside Honeydukes.
Lily dropped the snow on the ground and skipped inside after them. She directed the boys to the best kinds of feeling eating chocolate and watched as they paid for it all, then grabbed all the bags before the boys could.
"HEY!" Sirius grabbed for a bag. "Lily isn't sharing!"
"Please." Lily rolled her eyes. "You'll have to wait for it just like everyone else. You'd eat it all on the way back if I let you anywhere near this bag."
"You sound like his mother." James laughed.
"She gives me relationship advice. Tells me what not to eat. Criticizes my wardrobe. Makes me do my homework. Punishes me when she catches me breaking curfew." Sirius looked at Lily. "Merlin's Beard! You're my mother!"
"I must have blocked out the labor pains." Lily snorted.
"Are we going home now, Mum?" Sirius asked. "And then can we eat our chocolate?"
"Don't call me that." Lily gave him a dirty look. "Or I'll eat all the chocolate."
"You sound just like my mother." James deadpanned. "It's seriously creepy."
"Come on, Mum." Remus slipped his arm through mine. "Let's go before our sons start making a public scene."
"You would be the father." Lily snorted.
"Since first year. But now we have a mother." Remus rolled his eyes. "They'll stop calling you Mum after you give them both a black eye."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Lily and Remus led the way back up to the castle with their 'children' trailing along behind them.
"James, what the hell is going on?" Lily asked as she ran down the stairs to the Common Room. There were lots of loud, dangerous sounding bangs and shrieks coming from somewhere in the castle. It had woken up all of Gryffindor House, and they were all pouring into the Common Room to see what was going on. Lily had paused to pull on some jeans and a shirt; she pulled her hair into a ponytail as she sprinted down the stairs.
"I don't know." James grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd towards the portrait hole where all the seventh years were congregated. "I think we should go check."
Lily nodded and turned to the panicked students. She shot a loud bang out of her wand and everyone went silent immediately. "Prefects, come here. Everyone else, stay in the Common Room or your dormitories. Try and stay calm until we can figure out what's going on. Don't do anything to attract attention to Gryffindor Tower; stay away from windows."
The students nearest the windows pushed closer to the other students and everyone started whispering urgently. If Lily was telling them to stay away from the windows, something had to be terribly wrong at Hogwarts. The Prefects pushed their way through the crowd to join the seventh years.
"I need you to stay here and make sure nobody leaves the tower. Make sure everyone is accounted for. We're going to see what's wrong." Lily told them. "If the Portrait Hole opens, you are to hold whoever comes through at wandpoint until you know who they are. Do you understand?"
They all nodded their heads.
"What is it, Lily?" Hannah Williams, a sixth year, asked.
"I looked out the dormitory window and saw people fighting, but that's all I know. As soon as I know more, I'll let you know."
"Be careful." Hannah said quietly.
Lily nodded and turned back to the seventh years, "If any of you want to stay behind, feel free."
"Bullocks Lily." Aimee McLean tossed her head. She was still dressed in her pajamas. "We aren't about to let you have all the fun."
"Alright." Lily took a deep breath and counted them. She hoped that all nine of them made it through the night, and she hoped even more that she was wrong about what was happening in the castle; somehow she doubted she'd be that lucky. "Let's go."
Sirius and Remus led the way through the Portrait Hole; James and Lily brought up the rear.
"If you get in trouble, send up red sparks." Lily said in a voice that carried to the other seventh years, but not down the hallway.
"We need to split up into twos and threes." James said. The way he stood made it obvious that he and Lily were together. The others quickly broke up into small groups. Sirius, Remus, and Peter stood together in a clump. Peter looked terrified, Remus wary, and Sirius alert. Something about the look on Sirius' face made it obvious to Lily that he had the same suspicions about the disturbance as she did, Death Eaters. Sirius winked at Lily and she grinned back.
"Good luck." James said, and everyone melted into the castle. "What are you thinking, Lily? I know you at least have suspicions about what's happening."
"It's Death Eaters." Lily had her wand out and ready. "They were fighting around the back of the castle. If we go out by the lake entrance, then we'll probably get there and surprise them."
James nodded and the pair started off quickly, running silently through the castle. As Lily's feet hit the ground, she worried about how the night might end. She pushed those worries out of her mind forcefully and focused on staying alert. If she wanted to survive, then it was important that she pay attention to everything.
She heard fighting in the corridor ahead and pulled James quickly behind a tapestry. They both peeked out to see that Sirius and Remus had the guys retreating down the hallway. When they were directly in front of the tapestry, Lily and James hit them with body-binding spells that left them helpless on the floor.
"Nice." Sirius grinned. He and James dragged the frozen bodies behind the tapestry where they wouldn't be seen and rescued.
"When this is over." James said. "We all meet in the Great Hall."
"Right." Remus and Sirius agreed before dashing off. Lily wondered briefly where Peter had gone, but didn't worry since Remus and Sirius obviously weren't concerned.
"Let's go." Lily started down the hall in the opposite direction as Remus and Sirius had gone.
"We need to go that way." James said, jogging to catch up to her.
"There's a passage I just remembered about that will put us just below the Great Hall in the dungeons. It's pretty close to the lake."
"Look at you." James grinned. "Knowing things I don't about the castle."
The pair ran off down the stairs and before they realized it, they were right in the middle of the fight. James hurried to help McGonagall ward off a particularly large Death Eater while Lily drew the attention of one of the two that was dueling with Dumbledore. The teachers looked surprised for a half a second, then refocused on the task at hand. In a few minutes, Lily had her Death Eater on the defensive and James realized that they were going to get separated.
"Don't forget Great Hall!" He called to her and hoped that she'd heard him; he couldn't risk looking her direction and away from his opponent.
Lily heard him, but didn't get a chance to respond as her opponent started sprinting away. She followed him cautiously; something seemed wrong about his sudden departure. That was when a spell nicked the side of her face leaving a small trail of blood behind. Lily dropped to the ground and the other spells whizzed harmlessly past her. She rolled and got back up quickly, realizing it had been an ambush and that the Death Eaters had way more people at their beck and call than she had initially realized.
Lily was shocked when the Death Eaters left her completely unharmed and went surging past her to join the fray. She was even more shocked when the guy she tried to put in a full-body-bind deflected her curse but didn't turn to glance in her direction.
"They follow orders well, don't they?" Lily spun to face the voice. The man she faced looked as if maybe he had been handsome a long time ago. Now, he looked too snakelike for a normal wizard and all the hairs stood up on the back of Lily's neck. "They were not to harm the pretty redhead who forced one of my best men to retreat, nor were they to harm the Potter boy fighting with McGonagall. Not when I could potentially turn them into my assets rather than enemies."
"Who are you?" Lily asked, fearing she already knew the answer.
"Don't recognize me, hmm? I do try to keep my face out of the news. It's best if all that's pictured is the aftermath of my work. I'm Lord Voldemort."
Lily gripped her wand tightly, and hoped that her voice didn't betray her fear when she spoke, "You don't want to ask me to join you."
"Why is that?" Voldemort's voice came out sounding like an angry hiss. Obviously, he was used to getting his way.
"Because I'm Muggle-born." Lily said. "But more importantly because it would piss me off."
"If you won't join me, then I'll just have to kill you." Voldemort said lazily. "You would have been such a good addition too."
Lily had heard that the best defense was a good offense. She didn't know if that was true, but she sure as hell was going to give it a shot. Somehow, she wasn't sure she'd last longer than a sneeze against Voldemort, but she wasn't going to just let him kill her without a fight. She wasn't suicidal after all, and knowing that James would be waiting for her in the Great Hall when all this was over made her want to make it through alive just a little bit more than normal.
Lily had been hit directly twice with minor spells and a few others had nicked her; she was slowing down when Dumbledore appeared out of nowhere and took over the fight. It was only another minute or two and Voldemort disaparated, taking all of his Death Eaters with him.
"Sorry I'm so late, Miss Evans." Dumbledore said calmly as Lily collapsed to the ground on the verge of passing out. "I was out of the castle on business."
"Thanks for coming, sir." Lily gasped for air. A broken rib had punctured her lung and the blood darkened her white shirt. She grabbed for her wand, planning to heal herself when Dumbledore fixed her up himself. Lily closed her eyes and blinked by tears of joy when she could breathe freely again and it slowly sank in that she had faced Voldemort by herself and survived.
"That was some pretty fine dueling, especially for a student with a broken rib and a deflating lung." Dumbledore held out a hand to help Lily up off the ground. "I have a proposal for you, Miss Evans, but I feel that should wait until we take assessment of the damage done tonight. Now, is there any more damage to you that is more pressing than a few scrapes?"
"I don't think so." Lily moved gingerly, but found nothing else wrong.
"Good. If you would help me care to the injured." Dumbledore said and strode off, Lily hurrying along behind him. She was anxious to find James, but that would have to wait for after everyone was helped with life threatening injuries.
"Where is she?" James sat on the Gryffindor table. The cuts on his face had been tended too along with his broken arm, but he was far more worried about where Lily Evans was than the way he was currently looking.
"She'll be here." Sirius said, sounding far more confident than he felt. He was scanning the Great Hall for the hundredth time, hoping to spot Lily's bright red hair in the hordes of wounded people and terrified students.
"What if she…" James buried his face in his hands. "I'm such an idiot."
"You aren't an idiot." Sirius growled. "And don't even think that she might be dead. She's probably just with the teachers playing Healer or something. You know how she mothers people."
James didn't point out that most of the teachers were inside the Great Hall getting their own wounds cared for. He felt as if he was going to be sick and rubbed furiously at his face, spreading dirt and dried blood even more across his face.
"Look." Remus pointed to the doors. Lily paused in the doorway, glancing around for someone, presumably the four boys. "James. She's okay."
James spotted her and was suddenly not beside Remus any longer. He was halfway to Lily before the others even realized he had moved. They followed him, a little more slowly so as not to jostle the many scared people milling about in the Great Hall.
Lily threw her arms around James and his hug practically engulfed her small frame as he buried his face in her hair. Finally, after bandaging up wounds and searching the faces of the dead for friends and classmates, and nearly dying at the hands of Voldemort herself, after all the events of the night she felt safe now that she was in James Potter's arms. It was too much and she started crying, but if the dampness of her hair was any indication, James was crying too.
"I thought you were dead." James murmured. "I was so afraid you were dead and I had been too stupid to tell you how I felt."
"I almost was." Lily said, but her face was buried so far in James' chest and she was crying so hard that he couldn't understand her, which is why she found herself in the middle of four boys a minute later instead of telling James what had happened.
"LILY!" Sirius managed, but that was all he said. His face was suspiciously wet.
Remus' face was the only one completely dry, but the look on his face was one of pure joy as seeing his friends safe and alive that nobody could count that as a weaker expression of his emotion. Even Peter's face was wet with tears, though his battle had been short lived; he'd been knocked out five minutes in and spent the rest of the night out cold, hidden behind a tapestry.
Lily let out a cry of pain that was muffled slightly by all the bodies, but the boys quickly gave her space. James grabbed her hand, as if letting her go completely might allow her to slip away and be endangered again.
"What is it?" James noticed the giant blood stain on her shirt and stared at it with horror. "Lily? Are you alright?"
"Sorry, it's just a little tender." Lily pressed her hand gently over the bloodstain to show James it was fine. "Broken rib that punctured my lung. Dumbledore fixed it. I'm fine now."
"Are you sure?" James asked.
Lily lifted her shirt up to show him skin that was bruised, but all in the right place. "It would have been a lot worse if Dumbledore hadn't shown up when he did."
"Miss Evans, why was I held at wandpoint when I went to check on my house?" McGonagall asked, tapping her toe.
Lily turned around. "Sorry professor. I just warned them to be careful. I didn't want to see them get hurt."
"Thank you." McGonagall said with a smile. "Professor Dumbledore told me about the way you faced… how you faced You-Know-Who tonight and almost... I just wanted-" McGonagall broke off and gave Lily a swift hug, blinking back tears rapidly. She straightened up and nodded briskly. "If you need to talk or anything."
"What?" James asked quietly.
"I almost died." Lily buried her face back in James' chest. "I was so close to dying."
"But you didn't. You're alive." James continued to run his fingers through her hair and whisper comforting things to her until she stopped crying again. "When you want to talk about it."
"Thanks." Lily wiped the tears off her nose and suddenly she felt the exhaustion set in after the last of the adrenaline left her body. Her face was smeared with blood and dirt and there were various sizes of gashes on her face, arms, and legs, not to mention a giant bloodstain on her shirt. James looked at her, and thought he'd never seen her look so beautiful in his life.
"Let's go find out what we can do to help." Remus said lightly, tugging the other boys along with him. He had the feeling that James and Lily needed a minute to themselves.
"Lily?" James said tentatively.
"Yes James?" Lily looked up at him, taking a half a step towards him for comfort.
"I know my timing is seriously rotten, but will you go out with me?"
Lily stood on her tiptoes and kissed James' chin, which was as high as she could reach. "I'm so glad I get to hear you ask me that tonight. Yes James."
James leaned down and kissed her slowly, pulling her even closer to him. Lily thought she might have cried with joy again, if she hadn't been so worn out. But she'd never been happier, despite all the devastation. The Great Hall burst into applause as everyone was reminded of the beautiful parts of the world, like love blooming even in the midst of devastation. James and Lily never heard the applause; they were too caught up in each other.