Lily didn't go to the kitchens very often. She'd known where they are for years – Severus had shown her in year three – but she rarely had reason to hassle the houselves. But Lily was stressed, O. were coming up and she'd been studying all day, only to realise that she'd eaten all her chocolate. And Lily needed chocolate to study. She'd asked her roommates if they had nay, but Mary was on a cleansing diet which consisted on only eating carrots and potatoes, and Marlene swore at her and told her to get her own.
So that was how Lily found herself tickling the green pear on the entrance to the kitchens, half an hour before curfew. She pulled open the door the find the kitchen in disarray, and before she could take in much more than the house elves darting about in apparent distress, a loud CRASH brought her attention to the cause of all the mayhem.
Remus Lupin stood in the middle of the kitchen area with his back to her, covered in some identifiable brown goo, that Lily prayed was just cake batter.
"Remus?" Lily asked, completely bewildered by the sight before her. "Are you alright?" Remus stiffened at the sound of his name but didn't turn around. Before she could say anything else, Lily felt a light tug at her skirt and looked down to see a house elf with an extremely crooked nose peering up at her.
"Excuse me Miss, but we are so glad you is here. Mister Lupin is a bad cook, and usually his friends help him, but Mister Lupin's friends are not here and Mister Lupin has messed our kitchen up and we don't know what to do. Please help Miss," the house elf implored with a worried look.
"It's alright Tweak," came Remus' voice, Lily looked up, startled as she hadn't realise Remus had been listening. "I'll clean it up, don't worry,' he said confidently, before giving Lily a sheepish smile. Lily couldn't help but laugh; brown mixture was running down Remus' nose and dripping onto his chest, slightly ruining the confident look he was going for.
"Oh Remus, what on earth are you doing?" Asked Lily as she approached the kitchen bench. "Trying a new look? Because it really isn't working for you," she grinned as she sat on one of the stools leaning against the bench.
"Funny," said Remus, shooting her a deadpan look. She watched as he got out his wand from a slightly sticky pocket and quickly cleaned himself up. "I was, believe it or not, attempting to cook," he explained after giving himself a once over to make sure he had got all the mixture off. Lily decided not to tell him about the chunk still stuck in his left eyebrow.
Lily flicked her wand to wipe up the bench as Remus sat down next to her. "If that was cooking than remind me never to eat anything you cook."
Remus groaned, slumping onto the bench and putting his head in his arms. "I just wanted some chocolate pudding," he mumbled.
"Why didn't you ask the house elves to make it for you?"
Remus looked up at her sheepishly. "I wanted to do it myself," he said before burying his head again.
"Well good job on that one, you nearly blew up the bloody kitchen! Fortunately for you, I can cook and I happen to be in the mood for pudding. So move over chef, it's my turn in the kitchen." She lightly hip checked him before moving around the bench to the recipe he had lain out.
"I think it's baker, not chef."
"Shhhh I'm concentrating."
It didn't take Lily long. The recipe was relatively simple, and as she worked Remus chattered to her, keeping her entertained. He'd come down to the kitchen because he'd been stressed and craving chocolate too, although his efforts at chocolate pudding had obviously turned out to be a disaster. "I'm a shit cook," he said cheerfully as he swung forward on his chair. "Always have been, I don't know why I thought I could master this pudding. I can make a pretty mean Shepard's Pie though. I usually leave the cooking to Peter and James anyway."
"James can cook?" Lily asked in surprise as she looked up the spell to instantly cook the pudding.
"Oh yeah, he loves too. I probably shouldn't have told you that though, he seems to think that if it gets out it will ruin his reputation," said Remus. Even though Lily wasn't looking at him, she could practically hear the eye roll in his voice.
Lily snorted indignantly. "What reputation? That he's an ass?" she asked as she flourished her wand over the raw pudding. She watched in satisfaction as the mixture began to cook in front of her.
"He's not that bad and you know it. You can't tell me you haven't noticed how much he's grown this year. You should give him a chance,' said Remus as he watched her place to healthy servings into the bowls on the counter.
It was true that James had matured somewhat during the year. Lily hadn't seen him hex anyone in the corridors, he had stopped asking her out and she'd even seen him studying once or twice. But all these things hardly made her want to jump into his quidditch toned arms.
"No," said Lily as she walked around the counter and settled into the stool next to Remus's. "I'm not sure he deserves a chance yet. Besides, why would I go after him when you're the one that's so good in the kitchen," Lily teased.
"Shut up. I tried alright? It's not my fault that mixtures explode in my face."
"Then who's is it?"
"The Gods."
"Pity, I hear girls love a man that can cook," Lily teased.
"Do they?" Remus asked quietly, Lily turned to find his face close to hers; she hadn't realised how close they were sitting to each other. Remus leaned towards her slightly, a spark of determination in his green eyes. He was so close that Lily could see the light freckles that dusted his nose, contrasting with the dark brown mixture still in his eyebrow. Before Lily could properly process what was happening, Remus pressed his lips to her, his hands grasping her shoulders to tightly she thought they would leave bruises. The kiss was sweet and chaste, and he tasted like chocolate, which didn't surprise Lily.
Before she even had a chance to respond, Remus pulled back slightly, the grip on her shoulders loosening. Lily's eyes were wide with shock as Remus searched them, as if looking for an answer to some unknown riddle.
Lily gapped like a fish. "T-that… that was erm, nice. Yeah, thanks for that,' Lily babbled, conscious of the fact that Remus hadn't pulled back from her, Lily fixed her eyes determinedly on the pudding mixture his eyebrow, not wanting to see his expression.
"Oh, thank Merlin!" exclaimed Remus, cutting Lily off midsentence. He leaned back before running a hand through his hair, reminiscent of his friendship with James.
"What?" asked Lily, more confused than ever.
"That was terrible, thank you for agreeing with me," said Remus, shaking his head in amusement.
"I never said it was terrible."
"That's beside the point. It was like kissing my sister."
"It really was, wasn't?" Lily laughed. "Why did you do it then?" she asked, turning back to her half-eaten pudding.
"I dunno, curiosity? I mean, you can't tell me you've never thought about it?" asked Remus.
"Not really."
"Oh," said Remus. "Well at least now we know. And let's agree to never do that again." Lily thought about it and shuddered as she remembered the awkward feeling of the kiss, making Remus laugh. "Am I really that bad at kissing?" he asked, only half teasing.
"No, no. The kiss was fine, but like you said, it was like kissing my brother, which is not something I'd like to repeat. So lets never do it again. In fact. Lets never talk about it again, agreed?"
"Agreed! James would absolutely skin me alive if he knew this happened," said Remus, going slightly pale at the thought.
"Just eat your pudding."
