A Wish Fulfilled
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"Evans! Evans, wait up!"
She did nothing but quicken her pace, walking at a brisk trot with her black school robes billowing behind her and her red hair swaying. I thought abstractedly, red and black are stunning together, contrasting sharply and precisely. Then I remind myself that things like that are why Padfoot has taken to calling me a 'blasted romantic'…well, that and the fact that I am currently chasing this particularly hot-tempered redhead around the castle and that I have been chasing her in a different sense for going on six years.
"Evans!" I shout after her, trying desperately to catch up with her despite the jostling crowd. I wish I had my bloody broomstick, then I'd be able to catch the damned girl…she may be fast but a Snitch is faster… She looks back over her shoulder and then, cursing herself for acknowledging my presence, she turned away so quickly her hair whips around. It's Friday afternoon and everyone in the corridor is heading to their House Common Rooms, their warm feather mattresses and the weekend. No one takes any notice of Lily Evans and I, Head Boy and Girl, pushing peers out of our way and rushing along without saying 'sorry' or 'excuse me', because they are just as anxious as we to reach their destination. Lily takes a sharp left, trying to lose me. She seriously underestimates my knowledge if she thinks it will work, I've spent the better part of seven years learning all of Hogwarts' secrets. I follow her through the doorway and, as I knew we would, we find ourselves in a darkened and empty classroom. As I enter, I hear her swear under her breath because I have cornered her and I smile inwardly. "Evans." I say pointlessly.
Lily whirls around and her astonishingly green eyes are slitted and glinting with rage. Evans seems mad at me…how very rare! I think sardonically. She is scowling and her hands are balled in fists at her sides, the knuckles white. Her lips are trembling with fury, "Why the bloody hell are you following me around, Potter!?"
I cross my arms and raise one eyebrow at her skeptically, "As if you don't know."
Her nostrils flare, "What do you want?!"
Her voice is threateningly soft and I pray silently that she won't draw her wand. I've always been good with my own, but its no secret that Lily is skilled and, to put it lightly, a mite sensitive. I answer cautiously, but a second later I loathe myself for bluntness and thoughtlessness, "Geez, hold your Hippogriffs, what's your problem?!"
Something like a snarl escapes her, "You're so bloody thick, Potter."
I cock my head, "Your problem is that I'm 'bloody thick'?" Merlin's Beard, I must seriously be a pain…
Lily rolls her eyes, "No, you git, that's your problem."
"Oh, how tragic." I drawl, "So, I'll ask once more, what's your problem, Evans?"
"You!" she spat, "You are my problem! You're a rotten prat and you're so…smug! I can't take it!"
I try not to smirk, "Hey, Evans, you can take this to the Headmaster, it's not my fault I'm Head Boy, I've tried my hardest to be an inch from expulsion since First Year! Sadly, my efforts have been in vain."
Her lips don't even twitch as if considering smiling; she just rolls her eyes again. Rolling her eyes is just one of Lily Evans' bad, and yet thoroughly lovable habits that I have noticed in watching her during classes, meals and in corridors. Especially when we've been together so much more often this year since becoming Head Boy and Girl. After a lengthy moment of silence she says quietly, "You might've mentioned Leyla."
I furrow my brow, "Who the bloody hell is Leyla?"
She narrows her eyes even more than before, "Don't be an arse, Potter, you know bloody well who she is."
I shake my head, "No, 'fraid I don't."
"Your girlfriend!" she blurts out and although I see her only by the moonlight filtering from a window across the room, I see a pink stain sear her cheeks after saying this.
"Evans…have you been talking to Padfoot?"
Lily doesn't answer my question, she just says, "So when did you stop fancying me?"
"When did you stop being uninterested and disgusted by me?" I shoot back.
She sighs and says, "You never quite disgusted me, I just didn't like you."
"Well, you're a very convincing actress then, Evans, 'cause I could've sworn that was disgust after our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L." I reply.
The blood drains from her face and she looks at the ground, "Well, that was a special occasion…" she mumbles.
"Of course it was, darling Snivellus was involve—"
"Don't call him that, Potter." She warns through gritted teeth.
"I was under the impression that that friendship had ended. Hasn't it?" I ask, intrigued.
"It has, but that doesn't mean you ought to keep tormenting him!" she replies. Old loyalties are die hard…I think.
"If you hadn't noticed, I refrain from tormenting him lately." I remind her, hoping that I haven't deprived myself of taunting my favorite victim for no reason.
Lily met my eyes for a second and said softly, "I noticed."
"Leyla doesn't exist, Evans." She looks at me incredulously, "Padfoot invented her to see if you'd get all jealous." I tried to restrain my grin, but it burst through the bonds.
Unexpectedly, Lily Evans smiles, "Well, his plan worked, didn't it?"
I was stunned, "Evans, are you feeling right?"
She nods, "Yes…but I've still got a problem." She goes to the window and is completely draped in silver moonlight. It gives her skin a pearly glow and her eyes glimmer. Full Moon Friday…I think absentmindedly.
I follow her to the window, "What's the problem, Evans?"
She rolls her eyes once again, "We've been over this already, Potter?!"
I cannot look away from her.
Lily looks straight up into my eyes and the contact roots me to the spot where I stand. Those eyes…they paralyze me, mesmerize me, hypnotize me…its like I'm falling deep into her eyes, plummeting through the spring green surface and drowning in the jade and forest green depths. Again these are the things that have had me dubbed a 'blasted romantic' by Sirius. Lily blinks slowly and I don't think she has any clue quite how sultry it is, making my heart race, my neck prickle and my stomach coil inside-out. Mate, you're pathetic! You're just a bloody, blasted romantic! Sirius Black's voice is saying in my head. I can hear Moony saying in his Prefect tone, Now, Prongs, you must simply ignore him. And Worm…well, he's just sort of watching eagerly. I won't lie, it's really annoying that even if I am alone all of my fellow Marauders are with me.
Lily brushes a stray wisp of red hair behind her ear and casts her eyes down. I feel a…break when she looks away; the link between us snapping and dropping a heavy weight on my chest, "Lily…" in precious more than a whisper. She looks at me at once and her gaze lifts the weight from my chest. Her eyes are bright-green-shocked; I've never said her first name aloud in her presence before.
"You're the problem, Potter, don't you remember?"
It isn't a joke now and it's not a game. The words hurt her to say and they hurt me to hear, "Why?" I ask lamely, "How?" I ask and I'm sure I sound like an idiot…I'm sure I do…I sound like an idiot! The corners of her mouth bend up a little and I no longer feel like an idiot.
"You really are thick if you don't know." She says quietly.
Not that…I tell myself. Not what you've been wishing for… that's not gonna happen…it's all in your head…
"I really can't stand it, Potter!" see, she can't stand being around me…she can't stand being Head Girl with you, "I can't stand it!" okay, she really can't stand it…she sighs heavily and whispers something inaudible.
"Come again?" I say, dreading her reply.
"Oh, don't be a prat!" she snaps, "You heard me!" I shake my head, "Go on, mock me, just like old times, right?"
"Evans, what did you say?" I ask, frustrated, needing to know.
"I love you, James Potter, you bloody git!" and before the words can sink in, she throws her arms around my neck and kisses me. It's a gentle, chaste, inexperienced kiss. I've been snogging since First Year, but I can tell this is her first kiss. She gave it to me…I think, a romantic, true to form, she gave her first kiss to me…Before I know it, my arms snake around her waist and I'm kissing her back. I feel her jump in surprise when tongues come into play, but then she makes this sweet little whimper of pure happiness and I feel as if I'm soaring hundreds of feet in air with no broom, and it's wonderful, as much as I love broom-flying. I'm making her feel that pure happiness! I could've dropped dead on the spot and been content. I'd never been happier, knowing that Lily's pleasure was because of me!
It could've lasted an eternity, but it still ended too soon. Lily rests her forehead on mine and the moonlight shone in those wondrous eyes. I must've looked utterly awestruck because she laughed as her hands burrowed into my hair, her fingertips on my scalp sending chills through me. I smiled at her and said, "You said it was pratty of me to muss up my hair!"
She nodded, "You're not mussing it, though, are you?"
"Oh, it's alright when you do it?" I laughed, "You're a hypocrite, Evans!"
She smiled straight up at me and moved her hands onto my cheeks and kissed me briefly, "Call me Lily." I raised an eyebrow, "Please, James?"
I pulled her into another kiss and when I was done I said, my lips still against hers, "I don't think I could ever kiss you enough, Lily, I think I'm hooked.
She giggled and I thought that the sound was like Butterbeer and Phoenix song. Her left hand stroked the back of my neck, making every inch of me tingle and throb at her mercy. Her right hand was in my hair again as she kept giggling. I'd never heard her giggle in seven years and it was gloriously unnerving.
"It's not a joking matter! I've got an addiction!" My tone was steeped in mock-offense.
"Well, that makes two of us, then, doesn't it?" she kissed me again, "But hey, what's the use in fighting it? It's not hurting anyone…"
I kissed her, "Even if it is, that's their problem."
"You're an insensitive," she kissed me quickly, "Heartless," another kiss, "Loathsome," kiss, "Despicable," kiss, "Horrid and selfish beast, James!"
"And?" I pressed, wishing for another real kiss, not a tauntingly brief peck.
"And…I love you."
She loved me, after surviving seven years of trying to woo her, putting up with Padfoot's jibes, dating other girls in the meantime, looking out the Dormitory window at the stars and wishing and pining for the one girl that always turned me down. After all that…it suddenly didn't matter what he had gone through. And honestly, Padfoot could tease all he wanted; I was still the one in this beautiful girl's arms, not he. After the whole fiasco with Snivel—I'd have to quit calling him that, Severus, after everything…I got my wish.
I grinned into Lily's kiss, I got my wish…
I was sure I was the happiest man that had ever lived and with those green eyes back at me, I was feeing like things would only get better from here.
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Fin
