Thanks for the reviews guys! I hope all of you enjoy more Jily fluff, this chapter is actually one of the longest ones I've ever had! it's probably cause I love this ship so much! :)
The day had been warm and sunny, one of those rare days at Hogwarts not tarnished by blustery gusts of wind, pouring of rain, or a heavy sheets of snow.
Lily sighed as she breathed in the heavily perfumed air, smelling like wildflowers and honeysuckle. She had her hair down her back in a neat plait, and the red shone as bright as the Hogwarts Express. Her knee socks had fallen to her ankles bunchily, but as it was the last day of term, she paid it no mind. Most proffesors found it too much of an effort to hand out uniform infractions on the last day.
She spotted her two best friends sitting by the lake. The giant squid was thrashing about, his tentacles looking a lovely plum color in the fading afternoon light. She sighed. On days like these, she never wanted to leave Hogwarts. Especially this summer, as Tuney's awfully boring and dull boyfriend, Vernon Dursley, would be coming to stay with the family. The only thing bigger than his pompous ego was his gigantic mustache. She giggled. Often, when he was over, she would become so transfixed with the immensity of it that she frequently had to be shaken out of distraction by her mother while her sister gave her a furious look.
By now, she had slowed to a stop as she thought and contemplated. Melanie gave an impatient sigh, and she grabbed Lily by the arms ferociously. She really did have a strong grip. No wonder she was such an excellent Keeper. However, Lily preffered not to be handled like a stray Quaffle.
"Oy! Geroff!"she said with as much ferocity as she could. Her friend merely ignored her and gave a tinkling laugh.
"Oh, Lils!" she said, as she tossed her shiny, well-shampooed hair. "You're about as frightening as a kitten. No wonder every boy in our year fancies you; you're as precious as a Pygmy Puff!"
Lily shook free of her friend's grip. "Sometimes, I don't even know why we're friends."
Melanie gave a wry smile. "It may have to do with the fact that I know all your secrets. Including that very, ah, interesting one you confessed to me at my house about a certain messy-haired Gryffindor Quidditch player-"
Lily's face turned the color of her hair as she blushed. "Shut up! That was at three in the morning after a healthy amount of Butterbeer. That most certainly makes it off-the-record-"
Melanie gave her friend a look. "My dear Lily, once you have a mother who works as an investigative reporter for the Daily Prophet, you will truly know what 'off-the-record' means. Ugh, do you remember that time she released that story when she talked about how it is to be a wizarding parent, and she talked about how stinky my nappies were compared to my Muggle cousin. Ugh, the whole third-year class wouldn't shut up about it for weeks. I couldn't even face Lisa Vane. Do you remember all those awful nicknames she came up with? Hippogriff Dung and the like…"
Lily gave her friend a pat on the back. "Okay Mel, I'll be sure to remember your bathroom issues the next time you bring up my "crush" on James Potter."
Melanie pointed a triumphant finger at Lily. "Ha! I knew you liked him!"
Lily groaned and shook her head several times to illustrate her point. " . . . Do you need me to spell out in Ancient Runes for you?"
Melanie gave her a jovial pat on the back. "Silly Lily, you know I don't take that class! I'm perfectly satisfied with your first answer, thank you very much. Ooh, I wonder if I could get Celestina Warbeck to sing at your wedding…your children will be quite cute too, provided they don't get James's awful nose."
"Shut up!" Lily growled. "Ugh, I can't handle you! I'm going to go find Alice. Where is she, anyway?"
"Probably off snogging Longbottom! Oh, and Lils, no purple for the bridesmaids' dresses. I look absolutely awful in that color…"
A few hours later, the three friends sat under the sycamore tree that they always shared shelter under. They had claimed it in their first year, and it was absolutely wonderful, blocking out the sun during summer, while covering them in a high canopy of protective branches during the frequent drizzles that overcame Hogwarts
They were all occupied in their usual escapades; Alice was looking over her Charms notebook while she doodled the words Mrs. Frank Longbottom. Melanie had shifted the branches a little so that the whole school could see her practicing Quidditch with a little enchanted ball of scratch paper. She pretended she didn't notice the crowd of onlookers, but every so often she would give the boys she deemed cute a small little wink.
Lily meanwhile, absentmindedly flipped through the pages of her Potions textbook. Even her favorite subject in the world could not distract her from her straying thoughts. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that she was liking the subject less and less because every time she looked at a potion, it reminded of how her and Sev had been Potions partners, and had together conquered and fell in love with the complex world of potion-making.
It had been hard letting go of Sev at first. After all, they had been close friends for five years, not counting the years outside of Hogwarts. Last summer, the first one where Sev hadn't visited or come over, she made up her mind to ask Slughorn to change her Potions partner. She couldn't handle a year with Sev, not speaking to each other as they mindlessly cut up ingredients and stirred their concoctions without saying a word. She knew that asking for the switch in partners would be easy, as Slughorn liked her so much. That actually made it harder, knowing that once she made the decision, it would be immediate and final.
However, in the end she decided to do so. When she came back to school, however, her new partner seemed almost as undesirable: James Potter.
It had not been bad having James as a partner though. Sure, he was no expert potion-brewer, in fact, he was quite abysmal, but instead of annoying her as it once had, his ineptness now made her laugh. Although sometimes a bit cocky and rule-breaking for her liking, she had grown to tolerate James. She didn't know if maybe it was the absence of Severus, but the things that had once bothered her now were sort of endearing.
James had also changed too. He was still a troublemaker, but he was more steady with his studies, with the help of Remus, and eventually, Lily herself. She had agreed to tutor him in Potions, and although at first he had been a ferociously unabashed flirt, he had actually improved, and she had learned quite a many things about him.
Like how his father had once been the Head Boy and Qudditch Captain, and how James desperately wanted to do him proud. Or the fact he was a strong advocate for the rights of lycanthropes. When he had said so, she had noticed that he had looked fleetingly in the direction of Remus. He had quickly changed the topic so she would be distracted, but Lily had already had the premonition about Remus's state. However, she thought it was quite noble of James to defend his friend and protect his secret. Honestly, Lily hadn't really thought James Potter was capable of any emotions except for pride, unabashed flirtiness, and being foolhardy before that day. It seemed like she had judged James too quickly.
The trouble was now that she knew he had redeeming qualities, she wasn't quite sure what to make of James. She would never admit it to anyone, but she had fancied James for as long as she could remember. His devastating caramel eyes and messy black hair were ingredients for the perfect heartbreaker. However, she had always kept her feelings down by thinking about his personality. No way would sensible Lily Evans ever get caught up with a troublemaker like James Potter, no matter how irresistible he was. But now that she had discovered actual human emotions in him besides brazen stupidity, her heart was frequently in turmil.
There were times (after she had learned Leglimency soundly, in case her friends had suddenly become expert mind-readers) that she lay in her four-poster bed on quiet nights when everyone lay sound asleep, that she would let her mind wander to the thought of James and her laughing as he stepped off the Quidditch pitch after a particularly victorious match. There would be crowds of screaming, lovestruck girls, but he'd have eyes only for her. And then he would lead her off to a hidden corridor of the castle, and he would look into her eyes and kiss her….
By the time she had let her mind wind that far off track, she would already be scolding it for thinking such things, and about James Potter, no less. After all, she would tell herself, considering all the times she had rebuked him, why would he ever want to go out with her? There were plenty of prettier girls who would be happy to be James Potter's girlfriend, in fact, they would walk through a mile of hippogriff dung in their dress robes just to get the chance for James to even talk to them, let alone want to date them. Lily had to face the facts, she had her chance, and she'd thrown it away.
Still it was nice to dream. Oh, if only James Potter would ask her again! She still didn't know if she would say yes or not, but just hearing those words again would be like water on a Horntail burn.
She was broken from her thoughts by loud whispering. She had almost forgotten where she was. She turned to her friends to join their conversation, but as soon as she looked at them, their mouths were already zipped shut, their faces guilty.
Lily felt a twinge of annoyance. For weeks, her best mates had been acting suspicious around her, always whispering wildly, but then when she drew near, they would clam up. She had recently taken to racking her brains to review all her interactions with them, wondering if she had done something wrong. At first she had paid it little mind, but now she was beginning to fear they were going to chuck her. Her heart seized with worry at the thought. Now that she and Sev were no longer friends, who would she hang out with if they stopped talking to her?
The two girls gave each other sidelong glances. Then, cheerily, but with a suspicious waver in her voice, Melanie said, "C'mon, Lils. Let's go take a walk."
The fading sun cast a kaliedescope of colors on the lake like the stained glass windows she had at her church. It reminded her of when she was a young girl, and had spent all of Mass staring, transfixed, at the beautiful depictions of all the important Church figures. She felt a warm feeling rise up in her, and she momentarily forgot all her worries about school, and Sev, and James.
As she admired the beautiful scenery of the Hogwarts grounds, she noticed figures, four of them, standing quite close. With a jolt of her heart, Lily realized that it was the Marauders. Remus was eating a bar of chocolate, looking bored. Peter looked transfixed by something, and as she shifted her gaze, she could see it was an argument, between James and Sirius that caught his attention. Lily felt surprised. James and Sirius almost never fought, they were as thick as thieves (which was quite accurate, as they frequently stole from people together).
Sirius stood with his arms crossed, a sour expression on his face, most unlike the jovial one he usually had. James was gesturing wildly with his arms as his hand drifted to his hair subconciosly to his hair every few seconds, messing it up even more than usual.
She noticed, suddeny, that James had left the argument, and was striding quickly over to right where Lily stood. She felt her heart speed up anxiously with nervousness, and looked to her friends for support and backup. However, her two friends had vanished, nowhere to be found. And yet, with every second, james came closer and closer, speeding up as he neared her.
Then, suddenly, they were face to face. She noted every crazy lock of hair sticking up haphazardly, the exact color of his flushed cheeks, and the dimples that were there even when he wasn't smiling. Most of all, she noticed his eyes, and all the beautiful shades of brown that combined into one transfixingly distracting color, that lovely caramel.
"Lily," James began, his voice faster than usual, but with the same carefree, familiar tone that seemed to always hold the hint of a wry smile. "Sirius says I'm being a git about my feelings with you. He says that a guy and girl with as much common sense as us really are total idiots when it comes to feelings. Sirius also says, and I quote 'that the whole school of Hogwarts would dearly like us to stop being such idiots with our emotions, and just snog each other senseless already'. The thing is Lily, even though I've asked you a million times before to go out with me, this time is different. This time, we're actually friends, and I really don't want to ruin any shred of respect you have for me. Because seeing you actually look at me like I'm not a nincompoop, but someone with an actual brain, and actual common sense, is great. Amazing, in fact. And I really don't want to risk that. But like my mum says, I can't just sit here and think wistfully about what could've been if I actually tried, one last time, to ask you out. And this really is the last time. If you turn me down again, I promise for all of seventh year, and after that, I will never bother you again, Lily. But I just want to make sure that this really is no. Because sometimes, when you think I'm not looking, I…see something, and I know it's probably in my head, but a part of me just can't let you go. So here's my last hope, my last stand…that you, Lily Evans, will be my girlfriend."
James had started to walk away, while meanwhile Lily was whirling with emotions and thoughts. "And…also, before I go and leave you to think about everything I said to you, Padfoot gave me a suggestion on something that might help you make your decisioin. So, here goes nothing…"
Then, before she could react, James Potter leaned in and kissed her. Lily had dated a few boys before, kissed them too, but nothing had ever been like this. Her heart felt like it was on fire, and she couldn't think of anything except for the fact that James was kissing her. It was better than all her dreams, and his lips tasted like spearmint, and suddenly the world around her seemed starker, sharper, more real.
In the back of her mind she could hear the whoops and hollers of her classmates, but she ignored them, because they didn't matter, because she, Lily Evans, was kissing James Potter.
Then, he was gone, and before Lily could reply, he was gone, like he had Apparated on the spot. She felt weak, and the world spun around her like the merry-go-rounds she had gone to at Muggle amusement parks when she was a kid. If she fainted, Melanie and Sirius would never let her hear the end of it.
She could hear voices that sounded like Alice and Melanie, and their strong arms held her steady. But all she could hear in her mind was the scene, over and over again, when James Potter had leaned in and kissed her.
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