Disclaimer: Do I own Harry Potter? No. Does JK Rowling? Yes.

A/N: I like his eyes brown better…sorry

Rainwater Resurrection

It was here.

Finally here.

She had been watching the rainfall since the first solitary drops in Charms to the steady increase of torrents of rain sweeping across the windowpanes in Transfiguration that drenched the castle a layer of water. Lily Evans stared mesmerized at the water droplet patterns that were formed until another refreshing raindrop altered it. The soothing sound of the rain drumming on the windowpanes and roof overtook her senses. A blissful smile imprinted on Lily's face splashed with pale freckles. The rain was perfect.

It was today. The final ritual.

Lily pulled her sweeping velvet cloak securely over her head as she dragged the heavy wooden door behind her shut. The sounds of chattering students in the Great Hall slowly subdued and the passionate rush of water replaced it. She beamed and proceeded to leisurely walked out into the rain shower while breathing in the scent of rain. The cool liquid quickly soaked though her cloak to her skin as Lily held her hands up to feel the rain fall on her palms. This was it. This was the final year for Lily to fulfill her Rainwater Ritual, and this year it was going to be different.

How would it be different?

The blurred edges of the lake steadily became visible amidst the downpour that could not fetter Lily's progress towards the shore. Every year, since her very first year at Hogwarts, Lily waited until the first rainfall of the spring to go out down into the lake. The rituals were almost intrinsic, part of her spiritual self, and every year's ritual was memorable. Lily smiled serenely remembering the mermaids she had seen fourth year. Now, her seventh year was finally here.

Lily let out a squeal of delight as she slipped her feet into the lake's water and slowly waded out away from the water's edge. Her cloak pooled in a mass behind her as she submerged herself into the water and allowed the waters freshness tingle her skin. Lily slowly bent at the knees till her waist was immersed in the water and then her shoulders. She could even see the ripples that were formed from the rain that dripped off the tip of her nose…

"OII…Evans!"

Lily jerked up abruptly and scowled. Why was it that Potter always interrupted her thoughts at the most critical moments?

"What are you doing there?" James asked glancing curiously at Lily as she made her way towards the shore and towards him. Lily stopped stiff. She would have liked to snarl in his face but chose not to. How was she going to explain this to an idiot like Potter who would never understand the beauty and wonders of nature? Perhaps he would think her crazy.

James grinned. Lily racked her brain for an explanation. He had seen her about to dunk her head into the lake. If she just didn't explain to him, who knew what kind of cataclysmically stupid explanation that prat was forming behind that stupid grin. She imagined the ungreased wheels and mechanics in his brain clanking and turning behind the smirk. That is, if he had a brain. If James did indeed possess a brain, it either decayed a while ago or was lombotomicized. Either way, Lily could see the headlines in the Daily Prophet:

"Crazy Mermaid Girl Receives Homing Call to Return to Squid in Hogwart's Lake"

The smile spread wider across his face.

Damn him and his stupid lopsided grin.

Stupid dimples.

'Does he always have to dimple when he smiles?' Lily's mind grumbled angrily.

"What are you doing out in the rain?" Lily demanded rather lamely in ditched efforts to sound civil. The heavy silence between them broke. She purposely emphasized the 'you.'

"You needn't be so tetchy. I asked you first."

"I don't care." Lily responded dryly whilst jutting out her chin. James smiled affectionately at the tiny redhead whose hair was matted down by the rain. Her stubbornness was a virtue. He had seen her wander down to the lake with her robes flowing gracefully behind her and a maddening sparkle in her deep green eyes. A palpable feeling of delight and exaltation glowed from her face as her drenched clothes clung to her sylph like body. Before he was aware of what he was doing, James had meandered down from the muddy hill towards Lily.

Lily tossed her lose auburn curls, rather ineffectively over her shoulders and stared captivated at the rippling lake. Without another word or glance to James, Lily swung her sodden robe around and haughtily strolled back into the lake.

"Evans! If you must know, I just finished Quidditch practice. Tough playing weather as you can probably tell…are you listening to me…what the bloody hell are you doing?

James had paused in a murky puddle at the shore of the lake and stared dumbstruck at the girl who was quickly disappearing into the mist of rain splashing on the water surface. She did not appear to have heard him and merely continued humming and trailing her fingers in the water. "Sod it all," muttered James as he yanked off his shoes rather uselessly and clumsily splashed into the lake after her.

James caught up to Lily soon enough. It was difficult thing, running in water was. James had more or less floundered unceremoniously in the waist high water till his vision of Lily's slender form sharpened. Lily had apparently heard his arrival and gave him a faint surprised smile. He had joined her.

"Say, don't you think we should be heading back? I can't see the grounds anymore," James commented to Lily with a sideways glance towards the direction of the castle. "We might get lost out in here. I don't fancy dying so close yet so far from home."

"Your peripheral vision is lacking. Don't worry Potter, I know where we are and where we're going."

To both their shock, Lily turned and took James's hand in assurance and released it when they were walking side by side. She chanced a look at him. His hair was somehow still defying gravity and water. James's mop of messy charcoal brown hair still managed to stick up from every angle in an adorable way. Lily smiled fondly. She could recognize the top of his head from across the Great Hall as she made her way to her seat that he always saved her. Why he always saved her that seat, Lily did not know. Why she chose to in that seat was the bigger question. To her, it was something that just was, no questions asked. Something taken for granted.

They were now far away from the grounds and a fence of cattails, reeds, and rushes, occasionally dotted by various purple pond irises and loosestrife. A smile curved Lily's lips as she delicately touched the sweeping branches of a willow tree. There was a sweet and whimsical air surrounding the pair that mellowed out the relentless torrents of rain that showered them.

They had been walking for a while and Lily, off on a tangent plagued by kind thoughts toward Potter, decided she had lost her mind. When she tripped on a rock in the water and splashed her head (and brain) into the water, Lily quickly regained consciousness of her surroundings and even more rapidly lost her mind again.

"Evans? Do you have a single particle in your brain that has an inkling as to what you are doing right now?"

James had grabbed hold her and Lily's sanity disappeared in a sparkle. Maybe it was because his presence was ridiculous yet dependable. Perhaps it was his well-toned body from years of Quidditch practice, though she would not admit it even if it meant a torturous death. Or perhaps it was the intoxicating sweetness of his cologne which left her without a speck of reality.

When Lily finally managed to gain a semi-rational thought but decidedly could not speak a coherent word. Well it was scarcely articulate as she let out a strangled "I …I-er …yeah." Lily determinedly looked forward away from James who would, if he saw the downcast eyes and faint pink blush, would give an infuriating smirk and dimple in one fluid movement.

Accordingly, she brushed back a large aquatic arrowleaf and plunged straight into the forest of reeds and rushes. It was a hidden passageway she discovered first year. The lissome reeds and cattails gracefully swept in a curve forming a narrow archway to wade through the now chest high water. Her hair trailed in the water in a tangled movement while her arm was raised upward in an awkward position.

Lily did a double take. Her arm upward? What?

Her eyes widened to saucers. James Potter was still holding her hand. He was now walking behind her due to the one-by-one narrowness of the waterway and fully unaware that he was holding her hand up above the water level. It was easy enough for him considering James was tall enough to have his head brush against the canopy of leaves. He really didn't need to help her through the watercourse and she definitely was not one in need of assistance. Lily quickened her pace thinking that walking faster would shake him off.

It didn't seem to work. His grip, not that Lily was complaining, was tight.

Oh damn. This wasn't healthy for her hormones or intelligence.

Lily resigned to her fate. Or luck as it may more appropriately be said.

She couldn't help but grin a little. Just a little…

James who had quickened his pace to match Lily's was actually well aware that he was holding her hand and chose to act like he was holding on to it in concentration to avoid stumbling over rocks or twigs. He liked the feeling of her hand, delicate yet soft. He mused about how it seemed completely normal and natural for him to be holding her hand. They were both in their alternate world of thought. Yes, James Potter occasionally did contemplate but it was a rare occasion. On this instance he was, of course, contemplating Lily and this insane voyage of plunging blindly into the lake. He was curious as to where he was being dragged off. Curiosity killed a stag, as Padfoot would say with an idiotic grin on his face. James pulled a face at the thought of his best friend.

Lily turned and gave him a conspiratorial look as she paused at a dead end. Again, she wondered how she let the rampant insanity reeling through her mind take over. Why was she doing this? Thankfully, she must have grasped onto an iota of her sanity because her consciousness did not respond to the question.

James gave Lily an inquisitive look as she brushed back the frond that was an ersatz dead end. Gently but not too gently of course, she led him into a clearing. Not until then, James finally released the breath that he didn't realize he was holding. So, okay, he was a little nervous and for good reason. This was the girl who cursed him into oblivion in 5th year and turned him into a fairy 2nd year – that did not do much for his masculine pride.

The sheer beauty of the clearing stopped him. It was a small area under a willow tree whose branches were dipped gracefully in the water. James stared transfixed at the lilies floating idyllically on the water's surface. They were a beautiful shade of crème white tinged with pink or yellow. Pearls of rainwater rested gently on the delicate petals and leaves.

Lily entered the lily clearing and a delicate fragrance of honeysuckle and lilies caressed her – an intoxicating perfume that titillated senses. The exquisite petals felt satin and soft as she graced the flowers with her fingertips. She turned to watch to James who had made his way toward the middle of the lilies. He stooped and then straightened up. In his hand was a single lily tinged with a delicate shade of rose.

James presented it to her.

There he was. James Potter standing right beside her, extremely wet and in all his sexiness plucking flowers for her. If only this could happen everyday of her life. Gorgeous men, preferably wet.

It was an irresistible dangerous feeling. Her life seemed almost fairytale-like but it seemed that fairytales only existed in books. They only existed in her small safe haven where anything was possible. A sanctuary that James Potter had entered.

Lily accepted the flower and tucked it behind her plastered auburn strands. She searched his eyes questioningly for an answer. He knew something she didn't. It seemed as if something was coming back to her but she didn't understand. Maybe he had already resurrected this feeling.

Instead of answering her, James merely rolled his eyes and lead Lily back out of the hidden passage way and back to the mainstream pond. Just as well, Lily had been analyzing the shade of James' brown eyes rather than trying to understand the particular emotion she had been suppressing. She decided his eyes were a nice shade of chocolate brown.

A kind of Honeydukes chocolate brown

Honeydukes hazelnut chocolate

Hazelnut chocolate, Lily discovered at last weeks Hogsmeade visit, was a special addiction of hers and only Honeydukes could satisfy it. As a matter of fact, she had eaten an excessive amount of those chocolates during Transfiguration today while watching the rain.

James amusedly watched the suddenly dimwitted girl trudge behind him and confusedly wipe raindrops of her eyelashes. He broke off a rather large looking arrowleaf and held it over her like an umbrella. It was a rather useless contraption and a murder of a perfectly happy growing plant. It was the thought that counted, and the desired effect was accomplished and Lily drew closer to be under the arrowleaf.

James Potter gently pressed closer against her until their breathes mingled. With one of his hands, he caressed her cheek lightly. Lily Evans, so shy for once in her life, bit her lip and looked anywhere but at him. Beside her, she realized the arrowroot, once an umbrella, had fallen and splashed gently on the drizzling surface of water. As she looked up to the blurry rainwater that fell upon her, something came clearer and there was a fleeting passionate moment and her breath was taken away.

Effervescent feelings bubbled up to the surface of her mind. A familiar feeling, resurrected from a previous life. Resurrection in a Ritual. This year's ritual was her resurrection.

fin