Chapter 2- A Date
Two weeks later
Lily got her things into a muggle suitcase, and put her wand into her back pocket. She had turned seventeen in April, and passed the apparation test in May, so all she had to do was apparate into the beach house. Samantha had given her explicit directions so that she had a good idea to where she was going.
"Bye hon," Violet said as Lily brought her things downstairs, to apparate from the living room.
"See you, Mum. Bye Petty." Lily said.
"Bye," Petunia responded less than sincerely. Josh had already left for the office.
Lily held onto her suitcase and concentrated on where she was going. There was a pop as she arrived in the family room where a group of people was sitting. She looked around to see who all was here. Samantha was standing up, "Lily!" she said, excited that her friend was finally here. Lily looked a little further right to see a not so pleasant surprise. James sat, apparently just as shocked as Lily was, and Sirius, looking very pleased with himself. Remus was looking at the Daily Prophet that had been on the coffee table.
"Hey Evans!" Sirius said. "Fancy seeing you here."
"As if you didn't know," Sam looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Glad you came!" she said, hugging Lily.
Lily forced a smile. "Hi Sam. Hey guys, when did you get here?"
"Earlier this morning. We had to catch a port key, because I can't apparate yet."
"Damn hassle it was too. You should have just done it," James said.
"Where do you want me to put my stuff?" Lily asked, changing the topic.
"Up in my room. I'll show you," Samantha said.
They got up the stairs and into the room. "Why didn't you tell me they were coming?" Lily demanded.
"I didn't know it would be that big a deal, besides, would you have come if you had known?"
"Yes, I wouldn't leave you by yourself with those prats, but I would have brought a one piece swimsuit instead." Lily made a fake pout.
"Right," Sam said. "Do you even own a one piece?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, but that doesn't matter now."
"You could always just apparate back home and grab it."
"No, I don't think I'll do that right now, but I will." Lily promised. "But maybe I can find a descent guy with the suit I have today," Lily had a sly grin on her face, but Sam knew she didn't really mean this. Lily would occasionally flirt with friends, but tended to get awfully shy around strangers, especially cute strangers.
"Alright sounds good. Why don't you get changed then, and we can get going."
In the meantime- downstairs
"Why didn't you tell me she was inviting Evans…I mean Lily?!" James had wanted time to prepare for the next time he would see his long-standing crush. "I thought you were supposed to help me with this."
"I did. I asked Sam not to tell Lily that we might be coming. Do you think she would have come if she knew you'd be here?"
"Sure, why not?" James said.
"Because you rub her the wrong way at times, and she might not want to fill her summer with you antagonizing her." Remus suggested.
"Fine, but why didn't you tell me?" James turned on Sirius again.
"Thought this would be a nice, uh- belated birthday surprise." Sirius thought quickly.
James was about to make a retort, but stopped when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "Oi! You boys ready for some fun in the sun?" Sam called down.
"Sure thing babe!" Sirius attempted. Samantha just shook her head.
James didn't notice this, though, he was looking at the pale red head who was wearing a long green shirt that fell to her mid thigh. The only sign that there was anything under the shirt was the bathing suit strap showing on her right shoulder, where the shirt dipped down.
"Your tongue is hanging out, James," Remus said under his breath.
"Let's go," Lily said to Sam, and looked at James for a moment before averting her eyes. It could have just been hopeful thinking, but James could have sworn he saw Lily blush a bit.
The group of teens all grabbed their beach toys, blankets, and a picnic that Samantha's mum, Denise, had made for all of them. The boys had changed earlier, while they were waiting for Lily, and couldn't wait to his the beach.
It was a beautiful day outside, and the beach was spectacular. The sands were white and clean. The waves were the clearest aqua blue. It was a private beach area, so the whole beach was practically bare.
"Hey Scott, will you play Vollyball with me?" Sirius asked like a little boy asking for a chocolate bar.
"Alright, we'll play teams," Sam said.
"You guys play. I'll just watch this one," Lily stated while taking the t-shirt off, sending a new rush of speechlessness through James.
Remus teamed up with James, while Sirius got to be teamed with Samatha for once. "Go Sam!" Lily cheered from the side line. James made a dive to get her attention. "Good one Potter!" James smiled at the compliment. "Get it Remus!" James went from a smile to a frown in .051 seconds. Why's she cheering on him, he thought as he concentrated even harder to impress her.
Lily had to admit that she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Laughing when someone missed the ball, or dived to entirely the wrong direction. James picked up on this, and started messing up on purpose, just to hear her laughter. "What are you doing Prongs?" Remus asked. "Come one, we can win this thing."
Because James couldn't concentrate, Sirius and Sam won in under fifteen minutes. By this time, it was nearly noon, and they all spread out their towels and had lunch. "Wow your mum can cook! Has she taught you?" Sirius asked, thinking that if Sam could cook too, she was the perfect girl.
"She's tried," Sam said, "but it never turns out right." Sam shrugged leaving Sirius a little disappointed, but still determined to date her, food or not.
Lily and Remus had started to discuss what he had been reading in the Prophet. "They keep saying to just keep calm and be prepared, but the attacks have all been on Muggles, so what good does it do to warn wizards and witches?"
"Right," Lily said concerned. She already got enough ridicule for being muggle-born, but it seemed to just be getting worse. Especially since her family were all muggles. "What is the ministry doing about all of it?"
"They're trying to track down who has been-"
"What's going on over here?" James interrupted not liking that Remus was the one talking to his Lily.
"Nothing you'd be interested in, Potter," Lily said, upset that James had interrupted on such a serious matter.
"We can talk about this later, then I can show you the article," Remus said. "Do you want to play a game, though?"
"Depends," Lily replied.
"Do you know how to chicken fight?" Remus asked, with a sly smirk.
"Sure. Oi! Sam, Sirius, I think Mister Lupin and I will be challenging you to a duel!"
Sam and Sirius, who had made their way to be separate from the group a bit, made their way over. "James is my second!" Sirius stated.
"Not that kind, you dip! A chicken fight!" Remus said.
"Chicken fight?" Sirius asked, confusion written all over his face.
"Alright, all you have to do is…" Remus went on to explain the game. Sirius liked the idea of Samantha being on top of his shoulders, so he decided to go along with it. The two teams got into the ocean, where it was deep enough that no one would get hurt, when they fell.
James looked on in jealousy. Lily was sitting on Remus's shoulders, and Remus knew how James would feel about it. What if he likes Lily? What if he's trying to get her for himself? These ideas were running through James's mind as Lily succeeded in pushing Samantha off of Sirius's shoulders. The latter couple fell under water as Remus and Lily cheered.
A moment later, Remus threw Lily off of his shoulders and into the water. "Hey!" Lily said, when she got above water. "Take that!" She shouted while splashing Remus in retaliation. This began an all out war.
Remus tried to splash back, but ended up hitting Sirius with the water instead. Samantha joined in by getting Remus for splashing Sirius.
"Come on mate!" Sirius shouted to James. James didn't need any other invitation. He joined right into the fun. He knew who his number one victim would be. James went straight for Remus and dunked him under the water.
Someone came from behind and dunked James. When he came up for breath he turned around and saw Lily, looking very pleased with herself. "Watch yourself Potter."
"Take your own advice!" James dove and attempted to dunk Lily under the water. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed down, but it didn't work. Lily just hooked her foot around his, and made him fall back into the water. She laughed harder than she had been before.
James decided that he wouldn't take that again. This time he picked Lily up and started walking deeper into the ocean. "NO!" Lily shouted. "No James! Put me down!"
James was seven or eight inches taller than Lily, and could make it a bit farther. "Fat chance, Evans!"
Lily gave out a scream amid her laughter, "STOP! STOP IT!"
"Say you'll go out with me, and I won't dump you," James said, meaning dumping in the water, but implying another meaning as well.
Lily didn't pick up on the subtlety. "Alright, alright! One date!"
James took her into slightly more shallow water. He set Lily down, and a second later found himself being dunked…again.
A/N: I hope this wasn't all to cheesy. I know I write quickly, but I have had this idea for quite some time, and now the details are just coming out so quickly. So I'm posting this with the first chapter. If you like it, tell others and REVIEW!!! Hope you enjoy!
