Please note: I do not own any of these characters. They are all the creation of the inspirational J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 2 – Illusion
The first class of the morning was charms where Professor Flitwick had decided to give them a small treat and teach them how to do an illusionary spell, in the hopes that the appeal of such an exciting new learning experience would keep the students from dozing off in the warm third floor classroom.
The idea of the spell was to create an illusion in the mind of the person upon whom it was cast. Although the charm could certainly be misused by those who wished to torment others, when used as intended it allowed people to view others' ideas or help someone escape from a particularly unhappy situation.
From atop a considerable stack of books, Professor Flitwick demonstrated the Illusion Spell on several people, all of whom took on a characteristic glazed expression while under the spell's influence.
The demonstration completed, the class broke off into pairs and spread themselves around the large room.
Lily stood opposite her partner Alice and attempted to do as Professor Flitwick had just instructed them. After several minutes of intense concentration on the image she wished to project, Lily muttered the incantation and swept her wand about in the complicated spiraling pattern.
For a moment Alice remained stock still, her eyes staring at an inconsequential point over Lily's shoulder. Realizing that she had just cast the spell correctly Lily's focus faltered as her elation swept in. Alice blinked twice and then her face broke into a bright smile.
"That was amazing! I felt like I really was standing in the snow. I even got hit by a snowball. I want to try now," Alice eagerly informed her.
"Go ahead," Lily said beaming.
Alice's face took on a look of intense concentration and then after a few minutes she asked excitedly, "Did I do it?"
Keeping her voice encouraging Lily replied, "I didn't really see anything distinct. Maybe just a few blurry shapes. Try again."
As Alice's face screwed up again in determination Lily's gaze began to wander around the room.
She noticed Sirius standing on her left hand side, talking animatedly with Remus, both of them grinning widely. Across the room she saw James standing by the window practicing the wand movement, his brow furrowed. Lily felt a sudden urge to go over and relax his features when suddenly the classroom disappeared from view.
The corridor was dark, the only light coming from a few scattered torches flickering high overhead. Outside the window at the end of the hall, Lily could just make out the pin pricks of light that were stars.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see James walking towards her, a small smile playing on his lips.
Neither of them spoke as she and James came to stand little more than a foot away from each other, his clear brown eyes partially obscured in the shadows, making his expression impossible to read.
Suddenly the distance between them disappeared and Lily felt herself being pushed roughly into the stone wall as James' lips descended to meet hers.
He kissed her gently, exploring, seeing how she would react, and when she made no objection he deepened the kiss letting his feelings take over.
Lily struggled for air and James removed his lips from hers, instead moving them to her neck where his jagged breathes began warming her soft skin. She arched her head back against the wall, elongating her neck to give him a large area to caress.
No longer able to endure the seductive teasing Lily pulled James' head up and began to kiss him again, this time with her tongue skimming his lips, encouraging him to open them and allow her to explore the contours of his mouth.
He obliged willingly and Lily wound her hands into his hair to bring him closer so that she could taste more of him, and feel more of him against her.
His hands moved from the stone wall beside her to her waist and then slowly up her body, following the path of her curves.
His touch enflamed her and Lily pulled away just long enough to unlatch his cloak, which drifted in a billowing wave to the floor, where it landed, the Head Boy badge shining upwards.
James' hands travelled downwards again and she felt her shirt being tugged free of her waistband.
No longer able to restrain herself Lily quickly tugged off James' vest and yanked off his tie. Moving her head to his throat Lily began kissing him fervently as she wrestled with his top button, and then the next and the next, trailing her kisses down the broad planes of toned chest which were quickly becoming exposed.
James seemed to have managed to wrestle her free of her outer clothing as well and Lily heard a low moan escape from her mouth as his hand skimmed the top edge of her bra.
"Lily?" someone yelled frantically, "Lily, are you okay? I've stopped doing the charm. Can you hear me?"
Blinking slowly Lily replied shakily, "I'm fine. Just a bit dazed I think." Squinting at the bright light that filled the chamber, so unlike the secretive shadows of a few moments ago, Lily looked over at Alice who was clearly concerned about her.
"Did I do it right then? Were you in the Carribean?"
"You did a great job, Alice," Lily replied absent mindedly as she scanned the room, looking for whoever had just put that illusion on her.
Sirius and Remus were still laughing beside her, and she thought she saw Sirius cast her a side ways glance, but she couldn't be sure
James' face was turned towards the window but she saw a slight reddish tinge to his cheeks that didn't necessarily have to do with the weather.
"I think I'm getting a little over heated. I'm going to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face," Lily told Alice, who still looked anxious and immediately nodded her consent to that plan.
Lily hurried out of the room so as not to be forced to look at James and went to the nearest bathroom. She carefully checked to make sure it was empty and then locked the door. Sliding down to sit on the floor with her back against the nearest wall Lily allowed herself to think about what had just happened.
What had that been? Her and James Potter, making out in a dark hallway? It was an absolutely absurd idea, impossible in fact. First of all, that kind of behavior would break a number of school rules, something in which a head girl could not indulge. Also, there was the small problem that she wasn't really attracted to the tall, handsome, muscled Quidditch captain.
Alright, so maybe she did find him a bit attractive and the feeling of his hands on her skin…
Stop it, Lily ordered herself. It was only an illusion His hands hadn't been on her skin. But they could be if you wanted them to be a voice murmured suggestively in her head.
In an attempt to end her mind's insistent repetition of the scene, Lily tried to focus on the question of who had cast the spell.
It had to have been one of the Marauders. No one else would try and make her think of her and James together in that way. But which one?
Peter was obviously not an option. There was absolutely no way that he could have mastered the spell nearly as fast as Lily herself.
Remus had the best work ethic of the three but she was certain that he was too nice to create a scene like that just to torment her.
Sirius seemed like a very good candidate seeing as he was dead set on convincing her that James was worth her time, and the fact could not be ignored that he'd probably find the whole thing hilarious.
James. She felt herself blushing at the thought of his name, his disheveled hair, his tanned body. It could have been him. Of the four he certainly had the most brains and raw talent. But that he had been imaging them together in such detail was not something she felt like dwelling on, due to the surprising fact that it sent delicious warmth coursing through her body.
Sirius would be the most easy to blame the episode on, but the more she thought about it the more she wondered if it had been James.
So what if it had been James? It didn't really change anything. Except the fact that it meant that he really was interested in her, not just in tormenting her for fun. The idea that James desired her was not as strange as she thought it should be and it made her feel uncomfortably excited.
Sighing, Lily turned her head back to stare up at the lofty ceiling. What was she supposed to do now? Walk back into the classroom and pretend like nothing had happened? Pretend like she hadn't just been snogging James Potter in a deserted corridor and enjoying it immensely?
Yes, that was exactly what she had to do, because what she had seen and experience had never happened except in her mind, and the mind of whoever had put her under their spell.
James stood in the corner near an open window, hoping to soon feel a gentle breeze. Peter had gone to get some extra help from Professor Flitwick, so his partner, Remus, was chatting with Sirius while he tried to perfect the wand movements.
As he observed Remus and Sirius gesturing wildly to one another he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye and shifted his gaze to its owner, the breathe-taking Lily Evans.
Her eyes were sparkling in triumph as she released Alice from the successful illusion she had just cast, her cheeks slightly flushed in exhilaration. James swelled with pride as he realized that, yet again, his brilliant Lily had been the first to master the spell.
He never got tired of looking at her. Not only was she beautiful but her expressions were simply so captivating that he often found himself getting lost in them.
James sighed, and raked his hand through his hair in frustration. It seemed like it would always be this way. Him standing on one side of the room pining after her while she stood on the other, completely oblivious. He wanted to close the gap, to bring them together.
His mind drifted as his hand continued to twist and turn. Without realizing it he kept whispering the spell as his aim shifted from the blank wall in front of him towards the red head who so entranced him.
The scene he pictured was one he'd imagined many times before. Usually it came after the part where Lily acknowledged that she'd been wrong about him and expressed her true, hidden feelings for him. Today his mind skipped right ahead to the dimly light corridor, where they stood locked in one another's arms, lips pressed firmly together.
He got to the part where he touched the flesh of Lily's chest and stopped. He never let his mind go farther than that. James knew that he could imagine the events that would follow but he didn't want to. Mostly it was because he was a gentleman and didn't like the idea of undressing someone as pure as Lily in his mind like some careless fling (not that he'd ever had a fling that involved any form of being undressed). Another part of him also wanted to leave something to chance in the hope that someday he'd get to experience for himself what came after.
As the day dream ended James refocused himself on the events going on in the room. Lily was just blinking her way out of a stupor and as Alice frantically tried to assure herself that Lily was okay he noticed his wand outstretched pointing towards Lily instead of a wall.
Suddenly realizing what had just happened, James turned towards the window, a blush spreading across his cheeks as he hoped against hope that Lily hadn't seen what he thought she'd just seen.
Almost immediately Lily made a hasty exit from the room, her cheeks flushed and her eyes looking pointedly away from him.
James sank into the nearest chair and put his head in his hands. Whatever hope he'd still harbored that things would change between the two of them seemed utterly ridiculous now. The damage from this would be absolutely irreparable. His plans for them this year had been so elaborate and well-thought out that it was really too cruel that they should be halted before they even began.
He sighed. He'd just have to wait and see how she treated him when she returned. Silence would mean he had no chance what so ever. A glare might, due to the eye contact, would give him the tiniest amount of space to maneuver in and could even allow for an apology. A smile, which was really a reaction too optimistic to even consider, and he'd know that somehow, for whatever reason she was okay with what had happened and that maybe things could be different.
He chuckled darkly at the last option. The only way Lily Evans was ever going to smile at him again was if it was in an illusion.
Lily stood up and swept off her skirt. She unlocked the bathroom door and walked purposefully down the hall back to the charms classroom.
As she entered the room the bell sounded and she hurried to her desk to gather up her things. Joining the group that was cueing by the door she felt herself being pushed into the person in front of her. The person turned around and Lily felt her stomach flip flop as she looked up at James Potter. He smiled shyly, his expression strangely agitated, and Lily smiled back uncertainly before escaping into the bustling hallway, trying not to think about how closely that smile resembled the one she had seen in her illusion.
Thank you all for reading!
I'd like to thank my wonderful beta D0nQuix0te for editing this story and sharing her love of commas. You are the best! This is only chapter two so stay tuned for the rest.