James and Lily-The Beginning

The Secret Meetings

I awoke the next morning to find that there was a scrunched up piece of paper next to my bed. However, right as I was about to open it up and read it a huge roar surged through the dorm as the door flung open with immense force. I instantly jerked my head up and caught sight of Moony, who was already awake and dressed in his elegant red robes. He dashed into the room and dragged me out of bed and out the room before I could even say a word of protest.

"What the hell Remus? Where are you dragging me?" I screamed with distress clear in my deep voice.

Remus, now grabbing my arm with both hands as we started descending the staircase, said "I'm taking you...to a place." It was early in the morning so the stairwell was almost deserted.

"Well that's very descriptive and helpful. Do you- ow!" I wasn't able to finish the sentence as Remus abruptly turned a corner and forced my head into the corner of a cube base of a statue by the stair's side, knocking me unconscious.

I later woke, still in my pyjamas, with my head propped up against a medium sized rock. My vision was blurry so I had no idea where I was and being unconscious forced me to lose all track of time. All I could really see was a few trees. I could also just about make out the conversation of my fellow Marauders; Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail. They were already in mid-conversation so I didn't really understand what was being said or mentioned. All I knew was that they didn't want me to hear this stuff and that I may not want to hear it either.

"Peter! You're ideas are worthless. They'll end up with us getting expelled from school and James will kill us if we tell him that." Sirius huffed off with one hand on his hip and the other giving his head a place to rest. He trudged over to the nearest tree and propped his blurred figure up against it.

"Padfoot, calm down. You've got a point but there's no need to express your views so forcefully." Remus said as the epitome of calmness.

"I'm just tired." Sirius replied. "I didn't sleep well last night."

"Let me guess. Nightmares?" Peter inquired.

"None of your business Wormtail!" Sirius bellowed back, putting emphasis on the word 'Wormtail'. Padfoot quickly jerked his head to face Wormtail whilst saying his name.

Peter turned slowly and took a few shy steps forward, trying to avoid any confrontation between himself and Padfoot and murmured the words "Yep, nightmares." to himself.

Remus continued "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. What's the plan? We've come up with a number of ideas but they either get us expelled, killed, or James gets angry, with reason, and walks away."

Peter pivoted on one foot and his arm shot up. "I...know...what we do." An evil genius' smile took refuge on his face. "First of all, we-"

"NOOOOO!" I decided I didn't want to hear any more of their devious plotting. I'd heard enough, so I decided to stop playing dead and take action. Bolting upright and stumbling to my feet I screamed the words "I don't wanna hear any more! I don't want to know what you're on about! Just SHUT UP! I don't wanna get angry, expelled or killed for that matter! And where the hell are we?"

After that I was panting like a greyhound after a race. I looked around with curiosity written all over me, threw my arms up in the air and scrunched my face up in disgust. I suddenly felt a throbbing pain on my forehead. The discovery of a small bump concealed by my fringe almost sent tumbling me back to the ground.

"Moony...what is important enough for you to drag me out of bed, literally just after I'd woken up, and knock me out too?" I queried while comforting my injury with a caring hand.

Moony sighed. "Knocking you out was accidental. Sorry. We meant to simply make you faint with a boggart but there was no need after giving you that bump." Remus let his head fall, manoeuvring past making eye contact with me.

I then turned to Peter, now etching anger into my voice. "So what are you gonna do Petey? SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?"

Turning back to Remus I took steps towards him, almost losing my balance and falling head first into a large cracked rock with jagged edges. Raising my hand and pointing my finger at him, I said with the same tone of voice I used against Peter "Why the hell did you drag me out to..." Looking around I pondered for the rest of my question as if trying to answer it myself. Putting my arm down I continued. "The Forbidden Forrest? It's dark, misty, deserted and I can just smell Peter's fear from here...so yeah. Why are we in The Forbidden Forrest Remus?" Folding my arms I glared at him with a fire in my eyes that I'd never had before.

Looking up and making eye-contact with me for the first time in what felt like ages, Moony eventually replied and indulged my curiosity as much as he could.

"We needed a place to be alone and think. I'm awfully sorry but I can't tell you much more than that at the moment, you'll just have to wait if you want to know more." He said, standing upright and relieving the tree of the burden of his weight.

Before anyone could get a word in edgeways I stormed off back towards the school in search of peace and quiet, something I rarely wanted or required.

I tried to avoid detection as I was still in my pyjamas. I managed to get to safety and took refuge behind a pillar in the corner of the courtyard, hidden from view of all of the current inhabitants. In the safety and innocence of outskirts of the school courtyard I saw people rushing in every direction, literally. People rushing off to lessons, back to common rooms, going down stairs they themselves had created somehow (How they actually did it I had no idea. Maybe some charm), and I even saw the novelty of a Slytherin levitating a defenceless girl belonging to Hufflepuff. Professor McGonagall quickly rushed over to the scene of this crime where a giggling audience had already begun to gather with people joining every second.

"A-what on Earth to you think you're doing Mr Gottle?" McGonagall bellowed whilst almost dancing her way over there with a sort of jig as opposed to a walk.

With a deep rough voice and a half hearted laugh, Gottle replied "This Prof, is how I entertain myself. Heh heh."

McGonagall, now bustling through the crowd, let out a huge roar killing all signs of any 'oomph's and 'argh's from students being shoved out the way. "Enough! I will NOT have any students picking on other students in any way." Having navigated the obstacle course of a crowd, she was now looming over the student who released his grip on the Hufflepuff girl. A small whimper came out of her as a thud could be heard throughout the courtyard, which was now deserted except from the crowd.

"Explain yourself immediately." McGonagall said with crossed arms and a very condescending figure.

"Err, well you see Professor, umm, I err, was..." Acknowledging defeat was inevitable; he said "I have no excuse..."

"Very well. Since you have no excuse, you will be cleaning every toilet in the school in your free time, for a month. You will report to Mr Filch every evening after dinner to start your evening shift, and you will also report to me tomorrow an hour before dinner for a detention. Is that understood or do I need to be more specific about your duties?" She explained, raising her eyebrows once she'd finished.

"I understand." He replied, before bowing his head in shame and fiddling with his wand.

"Away! Off to your lessons, now!" Professor McGonagall shouted while waving her arms in an attempt to shoo everyone away, before making her own way to her next lesson which she would be consequently late for.

As for me, I had a free period and so did Lily. I could easily guess she would be in the common room studying. Now that the crowd had dispersed I could safely make my way to the common room where I would have to try and avoid being seen by anyone in my pyjamas.

Looking up at the huge clock, I could see the time was now 2:03pm.

"Okay, time to move." I said to myself.

On the way back to the common room I could only think of three things; what the other Marauders were talking about, the incident I'd just seen, and of course, Lily.

After safely finding my way back to the common, Lily was, as I'd guessed, hunched over her books studying. She didn't even hear the Fat Lady's portrait slam shut, although that wasn't a surprise either. The dorm was unsurprisingly almost as barren as a desert.

I crept upstairs as quietly as was humanly possible, avoiding the embarrassment of being seen in my pyjamas by 'My Lily' as I'd so often referred to her as while thinking or daydreaming about her.

In my dorm I finally got dressed into my robes and remembered the scrunched up piece of paper by my bed. Thankfully it was still there, so I walked up to my bed side table and opened up the paper. It read:

If you wake up in time to read this, Moony, Wormtail and I need you the Forbidden Forest. Just to make sure you're safe, we want to keep an eye on you. We'll explain later.

Padfoot.

"I guess I didn't wake up in time then." I said with a little laugh. "Wait, keep me safe? Ok..." This unnerved me a bit but I shrugged it off.

After putting the paper in my draw I went downstairs to talk to Lily for a bit. I knelt down beside her armchair chair without her noticing and said "Hey Lily."

"Woah!" She exclaimed with a surge of shock running through her body. She instantly jolted upright, throwing her arms in the air sending her quill half way across the room, and turned her head to face me with her chin almost touching the floor. Yes, her mouth was open pretty wide.

"Woah, hey Lily, it's just me." I said, resting a calming hand on her arm. She flicked her view to my hand and back to my eyes again.

"You still gave me the fright of my freaking life James. Just don't do that again."

"I'll try, but I have no guarantees." I said with an innocent childish laugh.

"James..." Lily responded with a smile and a laugh that almost matched mine perfectly.

Taking my hand off her arm, now that she was calm, I fetched a chair and positioned it next to hers.

"So is that Muggle Studies you're brushing up on?" I asked.

"Errm, yeah, sure..." She said, while trying and failing to discreetly slip a piece of paper into her pocket.

"Wait, what's that? What did you just slip into your pocket?" I queried, pointing at her side whilst doing so.

She laid her head down on the table in front of her and a tear started its slow descent down her faultless face. Before any more could stream down, I put my arm across her body onto her shoulder and gently rubbed it. All else left my head. I just focused on cheering up Lily.

"What's wrong? Has something happened to someone in your family?" I inquired.

"No...It's just...I got hate mail..." Now nothing could stop the tears rolling down her face.

"What? Why would anyone send YOU hate mail? That's just not right. Looks like you could use a hug."

Pulling her head up, she rested it on my shoulder and I embraced her as she embraced me. We talked a little as we hugged each other, making some interesting enough conversation.

"Why anyone would ever send you hate mail I will never know." I whispered softly into her ear. "I mean, you're a straight A student, you're helpful, kind and friendly. You give great hugs too." I added, trying to make her smile and laugh with success.

"Yeah, I guess I do give great hugs." She jested.

"You know, I've got this place in the hills where I used to go when I got upset. When my parents got me my first broomstick I took it for a whirl and found this great calm place in the hills. It's not far from here. Maybe I could show you sometime during the holidays. They're only two weeks away. There's something there you might really enjoy doing as well." My proposition in place I awaited an answer.

"I think I might like that. It sounds like fun." Lily expressed her delight with a smile.

I thought to myself 'No 'Just me and you?' or 'How would we get there? I can't fly a broom' or any questioning at all. I must be getting somewhere. I should probably deflate my ego a bit though before the holiday. I need to show her I can be caring and considerate and not just cocky or arrogant...and I should probably stop hugging her now too.'

I gently pulled away from the hug, as did she, leaving one hand on her shoulder and I asked "Are you alright now?"

Her reply being "Yeah, I'm ok now. ThanksJames." A wry smile emerged out what was misery. "I should, err, probably get back to studying. We have an exam tomorrow." She added abruptly.

"OK. You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to cheer you up and good luck with the exam tomorrow." I said.

"Thanks.", was the response.

I stood up and departed for the dorm. I had little time until my next lesson so I went up to the dorm and gathered the necessary books. I waited there for a bit and just daydreamed about what could happen during the holidays. I was filled with a subtle glee, hidden underneath my outer self.

The day went on as usual from there. We had another food fight during dinner, my fellow Marauders and I had a quick game of 21 Truth or Dare before bed and Padfoot and I floated notes over to each other as usual, because we were the last ones awake. Everyone else was asleep. We just talked about the holidays, and I tried not to mention what I had already grown accustomed to calling a 'date'. Padfoot eventually drifted off to sleep and so did I, my dreams, once more, of Lily.