"Lily..."
A mindless "hmm?" sounds out from her lips.
"Have you noticed Sirius has been staring at you for a few minutes now?"
"... What?"
Lily looks up from her notebook to look sideways at her friend Alice with clouded confusion before looking for Sirius' apparent presence in the common room.
And, sure enough Sirius Black was staring at her, what looked like deep thought within a snap morphed into a grin as soon as Lily caught sight of him.
What in Merlin's name is he up to? Lily's forehead was faintly furrowed as they just stared back at each other.
What's the matter? she mouthes to him.
A simple shrug responds back. Heard about what happened with you and James, is what she thinks he continues on with. Although to be honest, she's not a very good mouth reader much to her misfortune.
And, the way he words it makes it sound as if she and James had gotten into a fight, doesn't it.
"What does he want?" Alice whispers, startling Lily a bit as she forgot momentarily about Alice beside her. With a quiet, slightly embarrassed laugh, Lily says, "James and Sirius have been gossiping again."
"Again?" she says, feigning disapprovement as if she had expected better from them. She frowns in Sirius' direction which has him making the what?-what-did-I-do expression of his back to her. "Two old clucky hens they are."
"Truly troubling," Lily adds on mockingly, her eyes drifting back down to her notes and with a smile on her lips. "James and I got into a little argument this morning. Not even an argument really, but we lost track of our conversation and were trying to piece it back up-" she flips her page distractedly. "But, we couldn't remember for our lives so we got into a silly little fight over whose fault it was for losing track of our original topic of conversation.
"Well. Guess you guys are done then, yeah? Pointless arguments, pointless romances," Alice grins secretly, her chin propped over her interlocked hands as she looked back down at her book too.
"Too right you are, Alice, you're too right. Though I don't see how it was substantial enough for him to tell Sirius about it."
"Maybe he's thinking of something else."
"Who? Sirius?" Lily contemplated, then glanced back at him by the couches. "Why is he just sitting there when he can just come over." As soon as she catches his eyes again, Lily waves Sirius over. Sirius sighs out melodramatically, making a face as he messes with the top of his hair, and even from here she can see him groan obnoxiously as he gets up and leaves his group, strutting his way over to them.
"What's going on," he stops behind Lily's seat, leaning his hands on top of her chair as he looks over her head.
"What are you guys doing over there?" she asks curiously.
"Supposedly working on a group project but I haven't said a word for God knows how long."
"Must be because you're the smartest one out of them," Alice so rationally explains. "Listening to them air out the worst concepts first."
"Are you moonlighting as a clairvoyant?" Lily leans her chin on her hand, acting most intrigued in her friend's newly discovered gift.
"Shut up, Lily," Alice laughs out, making Lily laugh along with her and Sirius grin as he leans against the side of Lily's chair, draping an arm on top.
Getting her self together, Lily looks up at Sirius, "So, where's James?"
"Practice, I'd reckon. Why? Missing him already?"
"Oh, severely. Especially because of our little tift earlier."
Sirius' eyes open in immediate fascination, jutting his chin back a bit. "What tift? Shite, you two fought today?"
Lily frowns in response, a bit puzzled now. "Wasn't that would you were talking about earlier?"
"No. Hold on, when I was sitting back there right? No, I- was talking about you two getting yelled at McGonagall."
"Oh. Ohh...," Now, she was embarrassed.
"It was just-," Lily covers her face with her hands while she tries to play off what happened as she reluctantly explains, what with Alice gasping, "What?" and Sirius laughing evilly at Lily's obvious embarrassment.
"Lily!" Alice laughs/shouts out.
"Stop! Okay, it's too horrible, I never want to talk about it!" She could feel her cheeks radiating pink heat.
"You two aren't fired, are you?!" Sirius continues to mock.
"No! I mean, I don't think so- no, she would have told us... Wouldn't she?" She looks to Alice with concern now.
Alice just laughs back at her. "Calm down, Lily. I doubt you and Potter were the first pair of Heads she caught snogging in the dead night."
Lily groans pitifully, dropping her head onto the desk and hiding under her arms, encompassing herself in her own darkness of shame she never wants to emerge from.
"There, there," Sirius pats her red hair in comfort. "You two lustful beasts-" Lily groans again at his godawful choice of words "-have nothing to worry about. Minerva can't blame two young adults at their prime with their hormones raging-"
"What are you saying, Padfoot?" Remus' appalled voice marks his arrival. Sirius spins his head over to wave to his approaching mates, Alice laughs even louder, and Lily continues to bury her face beneath her shelter.
Remus, with his kind eyes, and smart features grinned down at Lily and greeted Alice, stopping by Sirius.
His walking companion however, dressed head to toe in wet quidditch gear, got closer to Lily, crouching down almost eye level to her, and knocked her head gently with the side of his.
Sirius quickly mentions that he's going to go tell his study group he's ditching them formally and jogs off.
A deeper, but almost melodic, recognizable voice urges Lily to look up at him. "Oi. Evans. Care to say hello?"
Lily slowly turns her head, her arms still partially covering her, with some of her wavy hair falling over her eyes that she hastily blows away.
"Hi," James Potter greets his girlfriend. His award that the fates had eventually given in to reward him with after his nearly over half a decade struggle- and one he is never going to give back.
His charming smile, what usually has girls floating on air for him (as he's been told by his mates as witnesses) is only responded with:
"Are you wet?"
She felt a couple drops of water land on her arms and now saw why since James' cloak still had clear raindrops sitting on top of the fabric and his hair was shiny and damp.
His handsome face was a thumb's length away from her's, making her forget about their friends around them. It was easy to get lost in his hazel eyes filled with a spectrum of colors, framed with circle wired glasses sitting on top of a strong, structured profile that made her envious of his own bone structure, floppy black hair that just charmingly never cooperated.
"It's pouring outside," he enlightens her with the weather forecast.
"It is? I didn't know."
"Sorry, my fault."
That prompts a wider smile on her face, making James feel a sense of a magnificent accomplishment.
"Why is it your fault?"
"It's basic curtesy to warn others of less friendly weather, isn't it?"
"Filled with reason, are you?" she laughs. "How was practice?"
"Stellar. We're going to destroy their arses to next week... Ah hell, my knees are killing me," James carries himself back up with a brief wince, standing at his full height while Lily lifts her head too, stretching her aching neck back and forth.
"Oh, perfect," James comments as Sirius walks back over.
"What- OW- What the bleeding fuck!" Sirius protests in pain after James hits the back of his head.
"That's for verbally tormenting my girlfriend, you useless dog," James scowls at him when Sirius has the blatant audacity to smile arrogantly.
"Then, maybe you two should stay in a bloody locked room if you don't want to get caught by our revered Head Mistress," Sirius shoots back.
"Merlin's arse-"
"Oi," Remus interrupts them. "Shush up, people are studying here. Fight later, let's head downstairs or something, we could get to the Great Hall early."
"Early for supper? Too filled up with brilliant ideas you are, Remus," Alice flips her book closed, already come to terms that she wasn't going to finish the reading by class tomorrow, and packed up her things.
"We're leaving then?" Lily asks Alice.
"I prefer desserts over papers, unfortunately."
"No regrets, Alice, no regrets," Sirius pats her shoulder. "Right, let's go then."
James helped Lily pack up and they stayed back behind their friends as they walked at their own pace.
"What a scandal we are," James smirks, taking her hand as he mentions Sirius' previous unfinished statement.
"I cannot believe you told Sirius."
"In my defense, Evans, it was McGonagall who brought it up first when he and I ran into her in the hallway."
"Flipping heck, no she didn't," Lily bemoaned, bumping her head against his shoulder.
James bent down to kiss the top of her head. "There, there. I told her she won't catch us doing that ever again, after all she can just turn around the next tim-"
"Must you always have to do this to me?"
"I was joking! I was joking!" James laughs out loudly, tossing his head. He tugs their linked hands towards him to drag her closer. Gazing at her through his glasses, he grins and drops his forehead on hers. "Merlin, Lil, I love you."
"You are despicable, James Potter." But, her words meant nothing when she reached up on her toes to kiss him.