Disclaimer: In no way do I own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it. Well, aside from merchandise. I have quite a bit of that.
AN: I know, this chapter's nowhere near as long as the first, but I hope you guys like it, just the same! I hope this makes some anonymous people happier with Sirius, and I guess it's time for you to find out if your guesses were right! Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, you really pumped me up and got me going on the second chapter. Without further delay, I reveal to you the second chapter of 'Revealing Photos.'
The rest of Potions was rather uneventful. Nobody spoke once Professor Slughorn came back into the room, and everyone worked dilligently on the Amortentia, which was one of the harder potions they'd had to make so far. The silence had a slightly uncomfortable feeling to it, and Lily was greatful once the potions were graded not only for her top marks, but also for the fact that she was able to leave the room quickly, heading up to Gryffindor tower. The boys lumbered behind her, and she could hear the hushed sound of a whispered conversation between Sirius and James.
She didn't mind that nobody was speaking now - she spent the time on the way up to the tower thinking of a way to pick up the flirting again. By the time they reached the tower, she still hadn't devised a way to bring up playful banter or anything of the sort, so she hurriedly scurried up the stairs to deposit her bag on her bed. She sighed. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Frowning, she walked right back down the stairs. She wouldn't get anywhere if she cooped herself up in her room all afternoon. Maybe, if she went down and stayed with the boys, she could find out before dinner what this whole mess was about.
Spotting the boys on the couch and seats near the fire - they had roused two first years from the spot when they'd entered - she made her way calmly to them, trying desperately to appear nonchalant. She smiled as she noted the space next to Potter was empty. She took the admittedly confined space, a bit nervous about being so close to him. The boys all stared at her - aside from James, who was looking away from her, though she could still see the blush he was obviously trying to hide. She stared right back at Sirius defiantly. This was all his fault.
"What? I'm waiting for Hestia to get back from Ancient Runes." She wasn't really lying, but they knew that normally, she would stay in her dorm to wait for the girl. They didn't know that she was generally woken by Hestia's arrival - her 'inner clock' or whatnot was utter rubbish, meaning that she should really stop taking those naps. Oh well, at least Hestia was there to wake her. Sirius shifting brought her back to the present time and place. He was smirking at her, which worried her. Blimey, couldn't he just let her attempt horribly to flirt with his best mate? Of course not, she knew that. And by the look of that smirk, he was on to her. Her eyes narrowed at him, the beginnings of a rather heated glare that his next sentence did nothing to alleviate.
"Oh please, don't bother trying to hide it - you just wanna get up close and personal with Prongs, here." He nodded toward James, his voice suspiciously rising at the faux description of what she wanted. Her fury spiked when she noted that everyone within earshot was now paying close attention, and only some of them were bothering to try to hide their rapt attention to goings-on that weren't their business.
"I'll make sure to tell Alice that you're making sexual innuendos in front of young, impressionable minds. I wonder how many points she'll be forced to deduct?" Her voice came out with a bit more sting than she'd meant, but it made her feel a slight better as he took on a scandalized front. She didn't generally like to have points deducted from Gryffindor, and not just because these boys badgered her for weeks afterward every time it happened. She genuinely didn't like it to happen - it was her own house, after all. And with all the mischief these boys got up to, she didn't really need to add to the downward spiral. All four of the boys were watching her now, but thankfully most of the other eyes had turned away, obviously deciding it was not worth the risk of her catching them and her cold fury turning onto them.
"Augh, please don't Lily. Fifty points were already deducted when McGonagall saw Sirius..." Peter's pleading voice was cut off when Remus conspicuously suddenly fell over, accidentally elbowing the other boy in the gut. Lily's eyes bulged. Fifty points? What on earth... She turned her calculating eyes on Potter, who had scooted a bit away from her, and once again had turned a blushing face away. What the hell could be in whatever 'it' was that had caused McGonagall to dock fifty points? Surely, it had to be something else, it couldn't have to do with her. Maybe they'd pulled another prank? But then, she'd know about something like that - they weren't known for pulling secretive pranks. It 'went against the Marauder code' or something like that, Sirius was always yammering on about it. And anyways, if it was a prank, Peter could've told her, so it had to be the same thing that everyone was talking about. She frowned. But what could be so bad that McGonagall would deduct so many points?
"What did you do now?" She directed the exhausted-sounding(not all an act, it was hard work flirting with Potter) question to James, who in turn shrank back even more. He was encroaching on Remus' space now, and he didn't bother to hide the sudden terror in his eyes.
"Me? It wasn't me, I didn't do anything. It just happened, I swear, I don't know..." Remus coughed, cutting off the words spewing from James' mouth. She stared at James before raising a brow at Remus, who once again only replied with a glance at James and Sirius. She sighed. This wasn't getting her anywhere! She'd already known that it was Sirius, not James, who had done whatever it was to embarass her. What she needed to know was what it was! A huff blew a lock of hair that had fallen into her face away, and she looked at the four boys.
Potter still looked like he'd start shaking any moment from nerves, Peter was shaking, Remus was acting nonchalant, and Sirius was smiling smugly, looking at them as though he were a king. She frowned. At this rate, she'd never get James to tell her what it was. Hell, she'd never get James away from Sirius, even. So, she sighed and steeled herself for what she was about to do.
"Potter?" Her voice sounded foreign to her own ears, as though someone else were speaking. However, it was enough to pull James' eyes to her faster than a Silver Arrow. The terror was back, but she overlooked it, barrelling on before she lost her nerve. She forced the rest out in a low voice so everyone wouldn't hear.
"Couldyouteachmetorideabroom?" The question tore from her lips faster than his eyes had come to her; somehow he seemed to manage to understand though, as his eyes widened in surprise. She hurried to cover her arse. Honestly, Hestia should be here to help her flirt, what a horrible mate she was. She steadfastly ignored the fact that it wasn't Hestia's fault that she had Ancient Runes right now.
"Umm, I mean, it doesn't have to be right now, we could do it later this week, or I mean, I understand if you don't want to do it at all, it's not like I could pay you or anything, it's just that I'm a rubbish flyer and..." She allowed herself to trail off, well beyond aware of the fact that she was babbling aimlessly. On top of that, in the space of a minute she had not only given herself a silly reason(that he was sure to see through) to be alone with him, but she had also taken it away. How daft of her. She could smack herself, honestly. He saved her from her own whims.
"N-no! You don't have to pay me or anything Evans. And um, we could do it now, if that's what you want, but uh... I thought you were waiting for Hestia, weren't you? It's really whatever you want, though..." Well, that was lovely. If she couldn't get him to tell her what was going on, they could always be babbling buddies, since they were both so proficient at it. She smiled at his rambling, one of the rare real smiles she used with him.
"Oh it's fine, I mean, Sirius could always tell Hestia were we went. And, umm, are you sure you'll do this for nothing? I know Bobby Yorkson paid you twelve galleons last year to do it..." She still smarted about that - Bobby was a nice Hufflepuff boy in their year who'd always looked up to James, and they had taken advantage of him when he had finally gathered his courage and asked for some flying lessons. Potter smirked at her, a bit of his old normal self shining through. Blimey, if someone had told her yesterday that she'd be trying to make Potter an arrogant prankster, she'd have walked them straight to Madame Pomfrey.
"Yeah, but two weeks later he woke up to suspiciously find twenty galleons in his shoes." He replied with a laugh. She stared at him, working the statement over in her head.
"But... He only gave you twelve galleons!" She pointed out. He laughed outright this time, standing up.
"Well, I know that, of course. But, the lessons made him good enough to make it onto the Hufflepuff team, and the team was better for it, so I decided to pay him back. It's not like he squandered the lessons, like most people do. Now, are we going to sit here talking about Yorkson all afternoon, or did you want to fly before the sun goes down?" He questioned, holding a hand out to her. She smiled, a bit abashed that they'd ended talking so long. She took his proffered hand and stood, smiling at Sirius, who was finally frowning rather than smirking.
James led her out of the common room and through the complex hallways, ducking behind a portrait of a wizard doing a jig and hopping over three trick stairs, one that she nearly missed. She was a bit out of breath when they finally reached the large doors opening onto the grounds - she was at least a foot shorter than Potter, and the lost height seemed to be all in the legs. His strides caused her to almost have to run to keep up with him. The same went as they crossed the grounds to the Quidditch pitch, which was empty at this time of day.
She followed him to the broom shed and they took out two of the school's better brooms. He walked her to a place on the field that was nowhere closed to any structure(she silently thanked him) and stopped, turning to face her.
"We'll start off slow, since you never fly. Um, you can get on it now." She blushed, putting a leg over the broom. He corrected her grip, telling her to put her dominant hand up front and spread her hands apart a titch. She pushed off of the ground when he deemed her ready, hovering there as he got on the other broom. He pulled a face as he pushed off, but she didn't have long to wonder before he was giving her pointers again.
"Now, you'll want to lean forward a slight bit to move. Just a little. If you hunker down to the broom... Well, nothing will happen, since you're on one of the school's rusty old brooms, but on any worthy broom, you'd shoot off. Now, lean forward, then come right back up." He instructed. She did as told, jittering a bit as the broom jerked forward. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he watched her. It was a bit unnerving, and she was kicking herself for not coming up with a better plan.
"So, what's a worthy broom, in your expert opinion?" She questioned, forcing herself to make eye contact and at least try to sound serious. He blinked.
"Ah... Anything new, really. The Moontrimmers are probably the bottom rung, anything newer gets better by the year, and the Silver Arrows are the best." He ended with a smirk as he praised his own broom. She smiled. He was making this all too easy.
"Isn't that the type of broom you have? The Silver Arrow, I mean?" She smiled; flirting was a bit easier when they were talking about something he liked. He seemed to respond better, as well, if the huge smile on his face was any clue.
"Yeah. It's a bloody amazing broom." His voice was soft, almost wistful. She didn't think she'd ever heard him talk about something with such reverence before.
"Is it? I always thought they were all the same." It wasn't a lie... Or it wouldn't have been, if she didn't share a dorm with Marlene and Hestia. Those girls were always at each other's throats arguing over the pros and cons of different brooms. James sent her a look that clearly stated just what he thought of her misjudgement.
"Really Lily, don't you know anything about flying? I'd have thought that living with Marlene would teach you better. Not to worry, I'll show you." He pulled out his wand and summoned his broom, keeping one hand on the broom he was on. His balancing act made her a little nervous, but she held it together, telling herself that he did things like that all the time - the using one hand, not doing magic while on a broom - during Quidditch. He hopped off to the ground, leaving the old broom there while his own came speeding to him.
There was nothing quite like James with a broom, she decided. It was like he became a different person. He wasn't so cocky until he was in the sky. While he was on the ground, he seemed... Breathless. As though nothing could compare to the broom in his hands. He held up the sleek, gleaming broom.
"She's just been cleaned." He offered up, waving her over. She debated on returning to the ground, but decided that that would indicate that she didn't really want to learn. So, she floated over to him(it wasn't that far, anyway) and smiled.
"Well, what are you doing, get down here." He looked at her expectantly. She frowned.
"What?" The question sounded rather daft to her ears, but there was no way to take it back now.
"I'm gonna take you for a ride, obviously. How else are you supposed to see the difference you daft thing?" The smile he sent her would've been blinding to other girls, she was sure, but she tried to ignore it as she hopped off the broom. It wasn't through any desire to seem cool like him, but more because she didn't exactly trust that she could take the broom to ground. Her skirt flew up a bit, but she batted it down quickly, and he straddled his broom, obviously trying to appear as though he hadn't noticed anything. She set her broom next to his discarded one before stepping up to him.
"Ahh... Can you even fly two at a time on a broom? Isn't that dangerous?" She questioned, suddenly weary. This didn't sound like a good idea; he smirked at her regardless.
"Obviously you can, or I wouldn't be taking you. Really, do you think I'd endanger you, Evans? It's all about the skill of the person flying, which is why I'm the one flying us. Now come here, you need to get situated." She frowned a bit at his cocky attitude, but of course she knew he wasn't just all talk, she'd seen him in every Quidditch game since second year. Another problem soon made itself evident.
"Ahh... Where?" She wasn't even used to flying on her own. It really didn't look like there was exactly a bunch of extra room on there. He shuffled forward an inch or two, but there really didn't seem to be any room to fit her as well.
"Right behind me. Mind you, you'll have to stick close, but I really don't bite, Evans." He sent her that smile that would make other girls' knees weak again, and she stepped up to him, awkwardly throwing her leg over the broom. She stood there for a moment before she decided that there was no way around it - she'd have to hold onto him. She looked up to see him watching her over his shoulder, as though wondering what she was going to do. She gave him a weak smile before scooting just a bit closer and wrapping her arms around him, linking her hands over his abs, which she noticed were quite hard. Despite all she said about him, there was no denying it: James Potter was fit.
Her breathing stopped for a few moments as her heart lept into her throat when he kicked off the ground hard without warning, shooting them into the sky. When she finally started breathing again, she loosened her arms a bit - she didn't want to squeeze him quite so hard. Besides, it was fine when he wasn't speeding along. Well, relatively fine. She looked around, taking in the landscape. He had gone right past the stands, so she could see everything: the castle, the lake, the forest, and the grounds heading to the mountains. It was all so beautiful from here.
"See? Getting close to me isn't so bad, is it? Not when you get to see things like this." She could hear the smirk in his voice, but his words suddenly spawned an idea. This time, it was Lily who smirked.
"Well, yes, I supposed. But I don't know if a magnificent view of the Hogwarts grounds is exactly enough to risk everyone in the school jeering at me. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know what that's all about, would you James?" The use of his first name made his head whip towards her as though it wasn't attached to anything, she swore she heard something crack. She gave him a look that she knew he couldn't deny - the previous five years of dealing with him had taught her something, after all. His gaze turned pained, and before he could lie to her, she spoke up again.
"I mean, Remus kept trying to tell me it had something to do with you two, but I just can't think you'd do anything truly embarrassing to me." She batted her eyelashes twice for good measure. He stared at her in silence for a few more angst-filled(at least for her) seconds before letting out a gust of air. The broom dropped a few inches and she clung tighter to him.
"It's Sirius." He admitted. Finally, she was getting somewhere!
"But don't tell him I told you! Just... I dunno, you found out from some random Hufflepuff, okay? At least, if he asks - don't offer the information up, or anything." He was returning them to the ground at a more sedate pace as he spoke, which she appreciated. She let out a sigh as her feet touched the ground again.
"So... What exactly is it that Sirius did?" She questioned after dismounting, walking over to the pick up the school's brooms with him. He sent her a sidelong glance before reaching into his pants pocket and pulling out a folded paper. He handed it to her and continued to place the broom he'd grabbed back in the broom shed. She propped her own against her shoulder and unfolded the paper.
It was a picture.
She stared at it for a moment, not comprehending. This was all about some picture? She looked closer, feeling as though she must be missing something. What could possibly... Holy Merlin!
"Evans? Evans... Lily, are you okay?" Lily blinked, hard. Her eyes were dry, and she nearly jumped when she noticed how close James' bespectacled face was to her own. She looked back down at the picture in her hands. Yup, it was still there.
"Lily, you've been staring at it for five minutes, please say something." There was a tinge of desperation in James' voice, and she looked up at him. His magnified hazel eyes(odd, she'd never really noticed the color before) were still trained on her, as though he were memorizing her face.
She started laughing. She really couldn't help it, it just happened. One minute she was staring at the photo, the next she was in hysterics, bending nearly in half with the force of her guffaws. She knew he was probably staring incredulously at her, but she just couldn't get herself to stop.
"Lily?" He questioned nervously. She shook her head, unable to control it.
"It... It's fine... Really." She gasped between fits of mad giggles. She was gasping for air now, and she could hear him shuffling beside her, apparently not knowing what to do. She stood back up when her body finally remembered what it was like to breathe. She handed the photo back to him. She didn't need to look again to know that the people in the photograph were continuing their activities. Apparently, they'd been doing the same for a while. Long enough for everyone at Hogwarts to find out, at least.
"Is that what you were so nervous about?" She questioned, smiling at him. He frowned at her.
"Well... Yeah, I assumed. Um, y'know, that you'd think I caused it to happen, or something. Are you sure you're okay with this?" His confusion was palpable, nearly a physical thing. She felt slightly bad for him, actually. He'd gotten himself so worked up over something so little. It was a bloody photograph. Everyone knew you couldn't control what the people in the pictures did.
She walked to replace the broom she'd used, closing the door to the shed behind her. They set off up to the castle, James following her closely.
"I mean, I understand of course if you don't want to talk to me, but honestly Evans, it was Sirius. I'd swear by it. Hell, I'll even get Remus and Pete to swear to it! I honestly didn't do anything to the photo, no one did. It was just like this yesterday evening when Sirius found it, and he started waving it around to anyone who'd look. I didn't even know he was doing it, I swear. I would've stopped him, I know how you hate to be embarrassed like that-" He was still talking, but Lily had stopped listening. They were closing in on the giant doors of Hogwarts, but she was hardly paying attention to where she was going. Since when did Potter notice things like that? She looked over at him. He was still rambling on, quite obviously nervous. The hand that wasn't holding his broom securely was deeply lodged in his messy black locks, a nervous habit of his.
James' steamroller tirade cut off suddenly. He was staring, wide-eyed, down at Lily, who was staring right back up at him. Suddenly, she fled, taking the stairs inside nearly three-at-a-time. She wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't moved by the time she made it to Gryffindor tower. But that didn't matter now, because she'd just kissed him. She, Lily Evans, had kissed James Potter.
"Mind you, it wasn't a full-on snog or anything... But Merlin, Hestia, what was I thinking?" Her feet were wearing a hole in the carpet, she was sure, but she just couldn't stop pacing. What had she done? She'd gotten what she wanted, she knew what people were talking about - what in Merlin's name had prompted her to validate their snide comments?
"Well, none of this would've happened if you had just been a bit more patient and waited for me to get back from Ancient Runes, you daft cow. Cor, Lily, you're so impulsive sometimes. I knew about that picture since yesterday evening, I was one of the first people Sirius showed it to. I was going to warn you this morning, but you wouldn't get up, and I needed to get down to the Great Hall to stop him from showing everyone. I came up just as McGonagall was deducting points - he'd apparently been making a few innuendos." Hestia frowned at Lily from her relaxed pose on her bed.
"What does that matter now, Hes? I don't know what to do. Help me." Lily face first onto Hestia's mattress. She could hear the girl shuffling, rumaging around in her bedside table. She mumbled an 'Aha!', and smacked something down onto Lily's back. She rolled over, grabbing it before it could get caught beneath her.
"Witch Weekly?" She questioned. The cover of the magazine displayed a picture of a beautiful witch in the arms of a wizard laughing happily, the words 'is it love or crush?' curling in cursive in the bottom right corner, and a few flickering advertisements on the left. She raised a brow at Hestia.
"Of course! I know you heard Dorcas and I discussing the main article last week - I believe you said something about the 'dunderhead girls' that couldn't tell the difference - and I think it would be very beneficial for you to read it." Hestia shrugged and twirled a thick brown curl around her finger. Lily only stared.
"Oh, come off it, Lily. I've known you for six years now, and I reckon I know you better than anyone aside from possibly your mum. Lily, you don't snog people if you don't mean it - yes yes, I know it wasn't a full-frontal snog, but regardless. You wouldn't have kissed him if you didn't genuinely want to. Say what you want, but Lily, I know you better than you know yourself." Lily only stared at the girl in awe before turning her eyes back to the magazine. Maybe...
"Which in turn, means I was also not surprised that when Sirius got Pete to take that picture of you, Potter, Remus and himself, you and James started snogging for all England." The girl smirked, quickly running out the door to escape her best mate. Lily frowned, not even acknowledging her antics.
Merlin. She liked James Potter.
AN: AH! I hope you guys liked it!