'Sirius give it back now,' James snarled furiously. 'You wanna tell me that you don't want to know what dear Evans really thinks of you?' asked Surius in a mocking tone.. 'Of course I do,' replied James defiantly, 'but not this way, we are not going to invade her privacy' he was almost yelling when he finished..
It was half past ten in the evening, and the common room was empty exept for the four Marauders who were used to staying up late as they enjoyed having the common room to themselves. On that certain evening everyone went to bed earlier than they usually did because they all wanted to get up early the next morning so they can have good seats in the stands surrounding the Quidditch pitch, on which the first match of the season (Gryffindor and Slytherin) would be taking place the next day.. Of course that was quite ironic, since the star of the team was still up, and didn't seem in any hurry to get to bed..
'Oh, come one,' Sirius whined in a placating tone 'do you know how much trouble I went through to get my hands on her little diary?' he demanded. 'I don't care, you shouldn't have done it in the first place, now please give it to me so we can figure out how we can slip it back into her dorm without her noticing,' 'tut tut, not just yet,' said Sirius calmly, shaking his head, and he started flipping through the diary until he reached the most recent entry..
'Dear Diary,' he said, failing in his attempt to imitate Lily's voice. 'DON'T,' growled James lividly. 'Umm, Sirius,' interjected Remus who'd been silent this whole time, I don't think you should read this'.
'Today while I was on Head duty, patrolling the corridors' continued Sirius, pretending he had heard neither of them 'oh look James, your name is in here'. 'DON'T,' repeated James, although he failed to conceal the eager look he gave the diary before he tried, unsuccessfully, to snatch it from Sirius's hands..
'James asked me out again,' Sirius resumed reading 'See, Prongs, you two are on first-name basis now,' he said before he continued, "'I said no to him, of course, but if I'm being honest with myself, part of me wanted to say yes', ooohh, looks like you finally got to her mate", said Sirius, amused. "Give this to me," said James, as he grabbed the diary from Sirius, who didn't try to stop him this time when he saw that his anger seemed to have ebbed completely..
He started reading eagerly and ignored Remus when he said, 'You should not do this James', and his face lit up with each line he read..
He was so completely engrossed in what he was reading that he didn't seem to notice when 2 girls walked into the dorm, chatting happily. The other three Marauders ,on the other hand, did notice; they all froze for a moment before Remus moved and stood right in front of James trying to block him from view of the girls, and Sirius tried to seize the diary from him without attracting attention to them..
James was alarmed by the sudden change of his friends' behavior so he looked up from the diary to identify the cause of the change.. He looked up and, to his complete horror, saw Lily Evans standing at the portrait hole with her best friend...
For a moment, Lily didn't seem to have noticed the book James was holding. But then when she saw how rigid they were and how James was standing, horror-struck, half-hidden behind Remus, she looked closer, and she saw it..
For a split second, she looked as though she didn't believe what she was seeing, or rather she didn't want to believe what she was seeing, but that didn't last for long. Almost immediately, she realized that her most private posession was in fact held by James Potter. First, she looked mortified, but in no more than a tiny second, the expression on her face was infuriated. She didn't say a word, she just stormed out of the room and up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. She paused at the bottom of the stairs and threw James a look of the utmost disgust.. Her friend stood there for a moment, staring uncertainly at the door behind which she disappeared and back at the Marauders who were still frozen with shock..
Only a moment had passed before the door to the girls' dormitories burst open with a bang, and Lily charged into the room and headed straight for James, a determined look on her face..
She still didn't speak, she just seized the diary from James's hands and turned around silently and was about to leave when James said quietly, "Lily, I'm-", she turned around and the livid expression expression on her face made him fall silent immediately. It seemed she was about to slap him, but she clenched her hands into fists at her sides, as though to stop herself, and she quickly recovered her composure, turned around, and disappeared through the door once more.. This time her friend followed her immediately..
As soon as they were both gone, James turned to Sirius and gave him a look he'd never seen before; it was as though James was torn between his horror at the hole situation, the disgust that was directed inwardly and the mingled fury and revulsion he felt, for the first time ever, towards his best friend..
He turned around, and walked out of the portrait hole without speaking. Sirius was about to follow him, but Remus caught his arm and said quietly, 'leave him' and so he did..
And so the three Marauders left headed silently for their dorm, each lost in his own thoughts about what happened; Peter slept like a baby, apparantely completely untroubled by anything that happened. Remus slept a very troubled sleep, he felt he was in a way responsible for what happened because he could've stopped his friends from reading the diary but he didn't. Sirius didn't sleep at all. He felt horribly guilty about what happened, and couldn't seem to get the look James gave him out of his head; he had never looked at him like that, they may have fought before but it was nothing like that and they always made up almost immediately.. But now he had no idea what would happen next..
Sirius sat in his four-poster waiting anxiously for James to come back; more than once, he almost got out of bed and was going to try and find James; he was ,after all, his best friend and he knew all the places he might go to at a time like this. But every time he thought better of it and decided not to, he knew it would be best to leave him alone for now until he's calmed down.
It wasn't until 6 am that Sirius couldn't just sit still anymore waiting for James to come back. He climbed out of bed and shook Remus forcefully so that he woke up immediately, slightly disoriented, Sirius then went to Peter's bed and woke him up as well.
"What time is it?" Remus asked, half asleep.
"6 am, and James hasn't come back yet," replied Sirius.
Remus was suddenly wide awake "What?"
"Yeah, and I don't know what to do."
"He's going to come back, Padfoot, where do you think he could go?"
"He could go into the forest," suggested Sirius.
"Now, why would he do that?" asked Remus calmly, trying to be reasonable" and even if he did," he went on in the same calm tone "this is James we're taking about, he knows how to take care of himself."
"Yes, but he's upset and hurt and-"
"And incredibly smart, and an excellent wizard," Remus cut him off dismissivly, "look, Sirius, I know you're upset and you feel guilty over what happened but what's done is done, we'll all just have to live with it." Sirius had no answer to that so he went back to his bed where he lay staring at the ceiling once more, Peter want back to bed, and Remus got out a book and started reading, clearly he had no hope of falling asleep again.
More than two hours passed and the scene didn't change, Peter was fast asleep, Remus was still reading his book, and Sirius continued to stare at the canopy of his bed, his guilt tearing at his insides..
With only an hour left before the match started, Sirius was getting extremely impatient and decided to go find James.
He was just at the door of the dorm when it burst open and James appeared in the doorway. He looked very tired and had little blue circles of exhaustion under his eyes, but he wore an expression of forced composure that faltered only for a second when he saw Sirius standing in the doorway ,looking surprised but relieved. He recovered his calm almost instantly and walked past Sirius without sparing him a glance, much to Sirius's dismay.
Remus got out of bed as soon as he registered James's reappearance. "Hey, mate," he said hastily "where have you been?" "Around," he replied tersely as he opened his trunk and retrieved some fresh clothes. He was out of the door before either of his friends had said another word.
"Well, at least we know he hasn't been mauled by any of the creatures in the forest," said Remus concolingly to Sirius as he too got dressed. "Peter, wake up," he said as he wrapped a Gryffindor scarf around his neck.
Soon, the three Marauders were making their way down to the Great Hall to grab a quick bite before they made their way down to the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the school.
As soon as they entered the Hall, Sirius caught sight of Lily, who was sitting with a group of friends, get up and make her way briskly out of the Hall.
"You guys go, I'll catch up with you at the pitch," Sirius told his friends quickly, as he made to follow Lily.
"Are you sure, Padfoot?" demanded Remus, who seemed to know what Sirius was thinking. "Yes, I'll be there soon," he replied and ran out of the Hall quickly.
He caught up with Lily just as she'd ascended the stairs from the Entrance Hall and was heading for Gryffindor Tower.
"Evans," he yelled, running to keep up with her for she had quickened her pace when she realized he was after her..
'Lily,' he said, a bit breathlessly, grabbing her arm when he'd finally got hold of her. "What do you want?" she demanded irritably, pulling her arm from his grip. "I.." he suddenly felt his head go blank, and he didn't know what to say to her..
"Yes? You what?" she said impatiently. "Look, Lily, I know we had no right to do what we did, but it was all my fault, and James didn't want to read anything, but I kept reading out things trying to persuade him to read it and, unfortunately, I was successful, but it was all me," he was speaking very fast and all the words were coming out in a rush, but his sincerity was very clear in his voice.
"I stole your diary and I did it all by myself none of the guys helped me and James certainly had no idea I was gonna do that until I did it, and at first he wanted to put it back, but then he was tempted to know how you felt about him. But you need to understand that James really likes you Lily, he cares for you a lot. Why do you think he always says no to girls who ask him out? Why do you think he's never exactly had a girlfriend, even though you and I both know he can have any girl in this whole school?" he asked her. "He cares about you Lily, he really does, and he really regrets what he's done, he hates himself for it, and he also hates me, or at least he will if he knows for sure that what happened last night has illiminated any chance he might 've had of being with you. I can lose my best friend, Lily, and I can't stand that, he's been like a brother to me, and I can't lose him because of a stupid mistake of mine. It is all up yo you Lily, you can be the reason he forgives me or you can be the reason our friendship is severed beyond repair".
All the time he was speaking, Lily had listened patiently, but at his last words she couldn't help but snap. "I'm the reason you're friendship is severed beyond repair?!" she yelled, "oh, no, you listen to me, Black, and you better listen carefully. If Potter doesn't forgive you, you'll have no one but yourself to blame, you are the one in the wrong not me, so don't you try to guilt me into believing that it's my fault you've lost your friend. And you were right about one thing this really is all your fault, so don't come here and try to sweet-talk me into forgiving any of you, you're all stupid little jerks who believe they're superior to everyone else, and that all the world should bow at their feet, but guess what? I won't. You messed up with your friend, you fix it, but don't count on my help".
Her words seemed to really affect Sirius, but he managed to keep a straight face and he said "I won't contradict you, you were right in almost everything you've said. I just have one last thing to tell you and then I won't bother you again, James likes you a lot, and he has for a long time now,he managed to stay away from temptation, and held on to his school-boy crush on you, and your hard-to-get attitude has kept him hooked. But how long do you think that could last? How long before he realizes that he has no chance of being with you? How long before he finally moves on and finds someone else? How long before he falls in love? This is our last year at Hogwarts, Evans, and after that I highly doubt we'd ever see each other again, so if you have any feelings for James I advise you to act on them soon. Or else he'll be gone forever and then for the rest of your life you'll always wonder 'what if?'" He trailed off, stood silent for a second and then added, "You should be headed the other direction, by the way, Gryffindor is about to play the first match of the season and I'm pretty sure you don't wanna miss that." He then turned around and walked towards the Entrance Hall ;only a few people were still there, but all were rushing towards the Quidditch Pitch in a hurry.
Lily stood there for a few moments after Sirius disappeared, thinking hard about what he said. After a few minutes hesitation she turned around and headed in the direction of the pitch and had just got herself a place when the whistle commencing the game sounded loud and clear through the air.
The game was spectacular to witness, one of the best games in many Hogwarts years. The Gryffindors were brilliant, and so were the Slytherins. Fifty minutes into the match, both teams were tied at 600 points each, James being the star of Gryffindor, having scored over 400 of those points by himself (which was quite a surprise to his friends who knew he hadn't had a moment's sleep the previous night). No one knows what would've happened had the Gryffindor Seeker not caught sight of the Snitch at the exact moment when the Slytherin Seeker got hit in the back of the head by a Bludger which sent him dangling of his broom.
As soon as the whistle sounded for the second time, this time around declaring the end of the game and Gryffindor victorious, the red and gold side of the pitch errupted in hurrah's and screams of joy, whilst the Slytherin side kept screaming booh's and several not-so-appropriate words..
Soon after, the Gryffindor team was being carried out of the pitch and towards the Castle by the members of their house who were still crying out jubilantly. In no time they were back in Gryffindor Tower all in the mood for celebration.
It was not the usual celebration since the two seventh-years normally responsible for obtaining all the elements necessary for a succesful part weren't exactly in the mood for celebration. It wasn't a total let-down, however, as younger generations of aspiring trouble-makers took it upon themselves to acquire all the requirements for a decent party.
All the team members were having a blast, especially the boys who each had a frenzied herd of girls swooning over them, all except for one particular Mr. Potter who usually enjoyed these after-game celebrations more than anyone else. He was sitting sulking in a corner, glaring at anyone who approached him, as though daring them to come any nearer.
Unfortunately for a sixth-year girl, she hadn't realizes that she'd crossed the line until after she'd pulled James out of his chair and into the middle of the common room. Apparantely, luck wasn't on her side that day because, when she wouldn't let him go, James basically growled at her right then and there in front of everyone else, which caused a sudden cessation of all sound.
Sirius suddenly emerged from the crowd and rushed to James's side, as he always does in such awkward and demanding situations, he apologized to the startled girl and urged the crowd to get back to celebrating, which they did, and instinctively flung his arm over his best friend's shoulder before he realized what he was doing. He quickly pulled back his arm and looked at his feet, thoroughly embarrassed. James said nothing, but he didn't walk away either, which was what gave Sirius the courage to attempt to apologize. "Prongs, I'm really sorry, I should never have-"
"There's no need," James cut him off and, to Sirius's complete surprise, he didn't sound angry or cold. He looked up to find a rather odd expression on James's face; it was understanding, but there was also bitterness carved into his handsome features. "It's okay mate, how long do you really think I could stay mad at you, Padfoot?" James demanded in a matter-of-fact tone. Sirius grinned a feeble grin; he was glad to know he had his friend's forgiveness, but he knew he by no means deserved it.
"Hey would you like to go get some air?" James inquired, "I'm not feeling like a party."
"Yeah, I noticed," Sirius grinned again "you didn't have to scream at the girl, you know, you could 've simply told her to go away"
"I did," James replied indifferently "She just didn't seem to understand"
They were almost at the portrait hole when it flung open and Lily Evans came through it alone, this time she didn't look mad or enraged or embarrassed. Both James and Sirius froze at the sight of her, and so did she. They were unsure what to say or do, she on the other hand seemed quite as determined as she did last night, only this time when she marched up to them she didn't seem to have any desire to slap him.
She stood in front of James in silence for a moment, and then she seemed like she'd finally made up her mind about something. Suddenly, she flung her arms around James's neck and kissed him so passionately that Sirius felt the need to look away.
The Gryffindors who filled the Common Room, on the other hand, didn't seem to feel any awkwardness in staring at the two kissing; there was a moment of complete silence in which everyone processed the scene in front of them before they all burst into deafening cheers and applause.
For a second, James was unable to believe what was happening, his mind was unable to process the fact that he was actually kissing Lily Evans, in real life, after all the times that he'd fantasized about doing that, and now it was actually happening and it was way better than he'd ever dreamed it would be. No more than a second had passed before he was kissing Lily back just as passionately.
Soon, he had a hand in her flaming red hair and another sliding down her back, pulling her closer to him (as if that was even possible) and she clasped her hands more tightly around his neck and then slid them up till they were lost in his messy hair.
They were entwined so tightly together that if someone were to pass by at that moment, he could easily assume that they were glued together.
The crowd cheered on, somehow growing louder as the time passed, but neither of them seemed to notice; it could 've been a minute or an hour, a day or a week since their lips first touched, neither of them would've noticed. Time becomes of so little importance whenever love was involved, and in this case it certainly was.
They could 've gone like that for hours had they not been brought out of their blissful little bubble by the sound of a cough right behind them, they both instantly recognized the voice to be Sirius's and James knew that if SIRIUS was the one coughing then they just HAD to stop, and so, reluctantly and very very slowly, James pulled away, and his and Lily's first kiss came to an undesirable end.
James stepped back, looked Lily in the eyes, and grinned gleefully as he saw the warmth in her beautiful, startlingly green eyes.
"See? I told you you wouldn't be able to resist my charms for long!" James said jokingly, to which Lily reacted by mock-punching him in the shoulder.
"Actually, this all happened thanks to my unmatched brilliance and my uncanny ability to get people to do what I want them to," Sirius said, beaming, from behind them. James turned around and smiled at him whole-heartedly, a smile that washed away any feelings of guilt that lingered behind, and Lily used the moment to wink at Sirius while James was looking the other way,and Sirius understood that that meant she too had forgiven him.
James turned back to Lily and smiled at her fondly, and was surprised, to say the least, when her reaction was punching him once more, this time in the nose.
"HEY! What was that for?" he demanded, incredulous.
"That's for reading my diary, Potter, do that again, and I won't be as gentle next time," she replied, but James was relieved to see that she was smiling.
"So," James started with an air of mock smugness, "wanna go to Hogsmead with me?"
Lily pretended to be deep in thought before she said, "Oh I don't know, I'll have to talk to my boyfriend first!," to which James replied, "you don't HAVE a boyfriend"
"Yeah, well, it was worth a shot; I thought it would make you explode or something, guess that was just wishful thinking! But to answer your question, yes, I'd like to go to Hogsmead with you."
She then turned to Sirius and said, "And I'm not gonna right about this in my diary in case you were getting any ideas!"
"Nah, I think I've had enough ideas…for now," Sirius smirked, then looked at James and said, "told you I'd be the one to get you two going on didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did, mate, that's why we've been friends all this time" James replied, feeling happier than he'd ever felt after securing a Gryffindor win in a Quidditch match.."