Lily Evans shut the door to the prefects' bathroom quietly behind her. She had just taken an extra long bath to think about things so far at Hogwarts. For one, she had lost her two closest friends. Normally this would have been horrible and she would be sad about it for quite some time but to her surprise it was quite the opposite. She had made new friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and James Potter. Sirius and Remus had been there for her all along. They were always willing to give a hand and valued their relationship with her. James was the one Lily was most surprised with. He was usually an arrogant, big-headed snob, in her opinion, but he had managed to show her that he was also caring and nice.
But of all three boys the one she had thought about most was Sirius Black. Why she was not entirely sure. He, James and Remus were all equally gorgeous and popular. Even girls in their seventh year would be found flirting with them. Lily didn't know how Sirius was different.
It might have been how much he flirted. Most girls found that attractive and Lily believed she did too. But she knew there was more to that. It was his expressive eyes that looked down at her kindly every time she saw them. His black hair that curled out naturally. His high-set rosy cheeks and his gorgeous chin with the cute dimple in the middle. His lips that gave a knowing smile and only spoke kindly to her. His lips that she so often dreamt about.
A shiver went down her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself. During that long bath she had come to realize that she liked Sirius—a lot.
"Must be pretty deep thoughts. So deep you can't do anything else while thinking them," a voice said close by. Lily stopped thinking immediately. She knew the voice.
"Sirius?"
"Over here," he said. Lily turned, seeing him not too far to the right of her. "So, about these thoughts," Sirius continued.
"What are you doing here?" Lily cut in. Sirius' face fell.
"Detention with Filch. So about these thoughts," he continued, once again. "Did they happen to have anything to do with me?" Lily blushed furiously.
"N-no," she stuttered.
"Hmm," Sirius said, again with his knowing smile.
"Francine and Wednesday have stopped picking on me completely," she said, trying to change the subjects before she embarrassed herself.
"Well I wasn't fooled after Potions on Monday. It's only four days since then—that could mean anything—they could be carefully plotting against you!" he replied, the knowing smile still on his face.
"Stop that," Lily said after a silence in which Sirius continued smiling.
"Stop what?"
"That-that smile."
"You don't want me to smile?"
"No, I just don't want you to smile that smile."
"What if it's my only smile?"
"But it isn't," Lily said. "Your other one—normal one—makes me feel comfortable."
"Hmm," Sirius said, knowing smile still stamped on. "What is it about my smile that you like, Lily Evans?"
'The fact that it makes me feel warm inside and sends shivers up my spine. The way it reaches your whole face and makes me feel better when I'm sad. How the smile is made with your lips that I love.' No, Lily couldn't say that.
"Lily?"
"Oh!" She had been staring at his lips! "What was the question again?"
"What is it about my smile that you like?" Lily was starting to like his knowing smile—that bothered her. But she couldn't help it.
"Well, it's just a smile—it's happy, I guess," she said, looking at the floor.
"It might be just a smile, but you can like certain aspects of it, or at least I can," Sirius explained still looking at Lily. "Like your smile."
Lily looked up at him, surprised. "My smile?" Sirius stepped closer to her.
"Your smile is beautiful—I love how you show off you teeth just a little bit," he looked into her eyes, his 'normal' smile curling his lips. He took another step toward her. "Your smile lights up your eyes. I love your eyes." He took another step toward her. Lily stepped back fully aware that the wall was close by. "When you smile you blush the slightest bit, it's cute, really." Once again he stepped forward. Lily stepped back and bumped into the wall. "But most of all…" His right hand slipped around her waist. "…I like…" He brought his face close to hers. "Your lips," he whispered, cupping her chin in his free hand. She could feel his breath on her face. She looked into his gray eyes. His eyes stared into hers.
"Don't want to miss curfew, do we?" he said after a long time, taking his arms off of her waist, his hand away from her chin and turning around. "Piggly figgly," he said to the portrait of the Fat Lady that Lily hadn't noticed was there. The door swung open and he held onto it. Lily had not moved. "You alright, Lily?" he asked. Lily nodded, too afraid that if she spoke she'd make no sense. Lazily she walked into the common room before Sirius, wanting badly to sleep. She was surprised at what he had done, annoyed that he hadn't kissed her and confused, most of all, if he felt the same for her.
"Night, Lil," he said before disappearing up the steps to the boys' dormitories. Lily didn't reply. She went up the steps to the girls' dormitories, ignoring Francine and Wednesday who greeted her cheerfully when she entered, and flopped down onto her bed.
"Who do you like now?" Wednesday asked airily, looking down on Lily. Lily sighed in response—not an annoyed sigh.
"She looks like she's lost her virginity," Francine commented, now too looking over her. "That's what I looked like when I looked into the mirror after it." Wednesday's head snapped to look at Francine and Lily shot up, blacking out from the sudden movement.
"What?" they exclaimed in unison.
"What can I say? I was young," Francine said weakly, turning her back to them.
"I remember that! That was last week, wasn't it?" Wednesday said. Francine visibly tensed up. "With Nat!" Lily looked at Francine.
"And who said I was a whore?"
"My personal life is none of your business, Wendy. Nor is it yours, Lily," Francine said angrily. Lily shrugged and got into her bed and started to pull the curtains around it.
"Wait, Lil!" Francine held open one of the curtains.
"What?"
"I'm sorry," she said and looked down. "I was really mean to you and I'm sorry. Wendy, apologize too. I saw that wet splotch on her robes after Transfiguration."
"That was an accident," Wednesday said blankly. "But I am sorry, Lily. I've been avoiding and not talking to you."
Lily looked from Francine to Wednesday. It seemed as if that evening was falling into place; first Sirius had told her he liked her smile and nearly kissed her (which she was disappointed that he hadn't). And now Francine and Wednesday were apologizing to her.
"Hmph," was all she said before taking the curtain out of Francine's grasp and pulling it the rest of the way around her bed.
"That's not much of an answer, I want my friend back!" Lily heard Francine whisper.
"She'll come around," Wednesday replied.
"How do you know?"
"Well she did with James, didn't she?"
○○○
"Hello, boys," Sirius nodded to the three boys that were sitting in the sixth-year boys' dormitories when he entered.
"How was detention?" Remus asked, face buried in a book on Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had given up on trying learning Potions after receiving a horrible mark on the past test they had, coming to realize that no matter what he did it wouldn't work as Potions and Remus definitely didn't mix. He was still going to try; he'd just stop reading so many books on theory as he knew that inside out.
"Good, but what happened afterward was better," Sirius smirked.
"Er—seeing us?" James asked, putting the snitch he had been throwing and catching into his pocket.
"No, I can see you anytime," Sirius scoffed. "It was the walk back. I met up with Leelee." James stood up.
"Leelee—Lily? Like, Lily Evans? That Lily?" he asked.
"That's the one!" Sirius pointed at James enthusiastically.
"You can see Lily anytime too," Peter said. "Or…have you asked her out yet?"
"Yet?" James asked, looking from Peter to Sirius. "Why would you ask her out? That's just silly!"
"Prongs, if you haven't seen it then you must truly be clueless," Remus said, shutting his book. "Obviously Padfoot likes Lily. Anyways," he turned back to Sirius. "Continue."
"She was just standing outside of the—"
"You like Lily?" James asked Sirius, cutting him off.
"YES," Sirius said loudly. "Now can I tell you what Lily and I did after my detention?"
Peter's eyes grew wide, a smile that showed off his uneven teeth spread across his face. "You didn't. We can't do that on school grounds without getting caught, I'm sure."
"God, Wormtail, you retard. No we did not do that, don't wet your pants in excitement," Sirius said harshly. He reconsidered it, saying aloud, "But someday we might." He looked dreamily up to the ceiling. Meanwhile, James had sat down on his bed in shock. Sirius and Lily? The thought of the two of them together bothered him. He felt anger twisting his insides and like everything was over, not entirely sure why. Looking up he realized Remus' eyes on him, studying him. James hated it when Remus did that. He was sure that Remus would pull him aside sometime later and tell him about his analysis. 'But I don't like her like that,' James thought. And then he questioned why he thought that Remus would realize that he liked Lily—even though he most definitely didn't. James looked up again seeing Remus' eyes still on him. He had suspected that Sirius liked Lily and even noticed the two flirting but he denied it every time he thought of it, feeling the same depressing drop in his insides.
"Well, why Lily? Why do you like her?" James asked.
"I don't know. I guess it's because of how different she is from other girls…she is more real than anyone else I've met and her eyes…those eyes…" Sirius trailed off and stared at the wall for a while. When realizing he had stopped and was sounding unlike himself, he shook his head and said, "Plus, she's totally hot."
"But Francine is rather more attractive that Lily," Peter said, looking at Sirius as if Sirius was his king or something deserving of high-respect like it.
"Wormtail, you must understand that not all Veela are truly attractive. You have to know the way about finding out. Try looking at Francine upside-down next time," Sirius responded.
"Why were you looking at her upside-down?" Remus asked exasperatedly.
"I dropped my wand. Anyways, I saw her and Lily together when they were still friends. Did you know that her true hair color is black, her skin's really pale and that her eyes are actually gray? Well, I guess each Veela has their masks."
"Are you sure it wasn't Wendy you were looking at upside-down?" Remus asked.
"Who's Wendy?"
"You know, Wednesday Lurry, usually found with Francine. Airy voice, slightly Scottish accent?"
"Who the hell's that—OH! Yeah, I know her," Sirius said, sounding disappointed. "That was her. I wonder why I can never tell who she is."
"Maybe you're ignorant to her because she isn't as beautiful as the other girls?" Peter suggested.
"Are you calling me shallow, Wormtail?" Sirius snapped.
"No, no, of course not," Peter whimpered.
"So what did you do?" James asked, not particularly caring about which angle Francine looks not-so-hot at. Sirius told the events that happened that night, a broad smile on his face.
"So you just left her wondering?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, but now I know she likes me back. Oh, you should have seen her staring at my lips!"
"And then you just pushed away," James said flatly. "That wasn't nice."
"Shut up, Prongs. Stop being so moody, just because I know how to get a girl better than you do," Sirius scowled.
"It's not that, I'm saying that what you did was pretty faggy!" James said angrily.
"Well not really," Remus began. "What Padfoot did wasn't piggish or anything. He just merely left her confused, which is okay. Let's just hope that she likes him back."
"Hope that she likes him back? How could you—!" James clapped his hand over his mouth. Why was he so mad? It's not as if Sirius really did anything wrong…but James felt that it was wrong. What was wrong? He breathed in. "Sorry. I'm a little tired—"
"A little?" Sirius asked sharply. "With that spaz right there, I'd say you're really tired." James glared at Sirius.
"I'm going to bed," he said slowly, fighting the urge to punch his best friend.
○○○
It was not Sirius' fault, James had concluded after hours of lying awake with his eyes closed, thinking. Sirius was his best friend, James trusted him. It was Lily. What exactly she had done, he was not sure. All he knew was that it was her fault.
Now he sat at the breakfast table on Saturday morning stabbing his scrambled eggs.
"Wow there," Sirius said, observing his friend. "Don't want to go killing them." James grunted and continued to stab furiously.
"Why is Prongs so mad, Moony?" Peter asked Remus.
"I'm right here, Wormtail. But go ahead and ask as if I'm not," James snapped. At that moment Lily walked in, Francine and Wednesday close behind. She stood at the door, searching the hall and found her mark, walking toward it.
"Wow there," Lily said, sliding next to Sirius—but not too close to him. "Don't want to go killing your eggs."
James looked up at her, seeing red. "How-ironic-that-you-and-Sirius-would-say-the-same-thing," he said slowly, through gritted teeth.
"Oh, you did too?" she asked, turning to Sirius.
"Yeah, I did, actually. You know what they say, great minds think alike," he said. The two laughed. Francine and Wednesday took the seats beside Lily.
"Oh, I see you've made up with that lot then," James nodded his head over to the other two.
"Er…" Lily looked over, somewhat nervously, to Francine and Wednesday. "Well, they've apologized."
"And simple apology is good enough?" James asked his eyes thinned.
"Well, at least they've apologized, right?"
"Yeah I guess. I mean, it's not like what they did to you was anything serious, so a simple apology is honestly the best that they can do."
Lily looked at James, her eyebrows raised. "Okay then. Anyways, you said you'd tutor me on Transfiguration today. And afterward I'll be tutoring Sirius on Muggle Studies. Are you still up for that…?"
"Of course I am," he snapped.
"Well, it's almost noon," Sirius said, looking at his watch. "Want to go now? Bring some food with you."
"Okay," Lily said, taking a croissant. "I'm not a big breakfast eater. Oh, and I need to go back to the dormitories. I forgot my Transfiguration text book."
"Okay then. You coming, James?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," James replied bitterly and stood up and followed Lily to the dormitories, Sirius following a step behind.
"It's not working!" Lily exclaimed, pointing her wand to her eyebrow and muttering the incantation. "My eyebrow isn't yellow!" She looked into her mirror. "It's pink."
"Well you have to concentrate," James said kindly although he was starting to get frustrated. He pointed his wand to his successfully yellow eyebrow, changing it back to normal. "I guess that the fact you're at least changing its color is a good sign."
"Yes but I'm not actually doing it, am I?" Lily snapped. She was frustrated as she was used to getting things on the first try. It seemed as if missing all those Transfiguration classes because of Wednesday weren't paying off. "Why isn't it working?" she asked once again.
"Hey, Lily. Try pointing your wand closer to your eyebrow," Sirius suggested over his open Muggle Studies text, which he hadn't actually been reading, just pretending to. Lily looked at him, sighed, and then tried it. Her eyebrow turned yellow.
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Sirius! You're the best! Thanks so much!"
James looked at her and then to Sirius and scowled. That falling feeling in his stomach was back again. He wanted to leave. Needed to leave.
"Well, since you've got it, I'll go," James stood up and put his wand into his pocket.
"Okay, see you James," Lily said, waving as he walked away. This also hit a nerve. 'She doesn't even care…'
"So, Muggle Studies," Sirius said, poking the top of his book, which he had standing up, letting it fall with a thud onto the table.
"Muggle Studies," Lily repeated, nodding. "You said you didn't understand electricity?"
"No, not that. I completely understand electricity. What I don't understand is eleckitry," Sirius corrected her.
"But there's no such thing as eleckitry," she said.
"Oh. Right, well since now there's no point in studying, could you explain some other Muggle things to me?"
"Okay."
"What's the point of a motorbike?"
"It's like a bike running on a motor."
"And what's a bike?"
Lily explained bikes, motors, motorbikes, cars, rubber chickens, microwaves, ovens and some more Muggle appliances to Sirius for the next few hours, Sirius laughing at some of the things that would seem completely crazy to any magical-person.
"Cars need gas to run?" Sirius laughed. "They must really stink."
"Actually gas has no smell but they add the smell to it when we get it at the gas stations so that we don't mix the gas up with water."
"How would you mix gas up with water?"
"Well, you see, gas is a liquid."
"Is that why some people get wet—"
"Don't even go there," Lily said quickly before Sirius could say the rest of his sentence. "This isn't the same gas."
"Oh," Sirius said sadly. He looked at his watch. "Wow! It's five o'clock already!"
"Is it really?" Lily asked, pulling his arm toward her. It was that time. She put her head down on the table.
"What is it, Lil?" Sirius asked, playing with a piece of her hair.
"I just remembered Professor Slughorn's party," she said.
"Oh, I see," he said, taking his hand away and standing up. "Well you should get ready for that." Lily stood up as well. She hadn't yet found anyone to go with. But then it came to her.
"Hey, Sirius," she began. Sirius looked down at her.
"Yes?"
"Do you want to come with me?"
"Do I want to come with you where?"
"You know Professor Slughorn's party."
"Oh," Sirius paused. Lily looked up at him.
'No, no. Of course he doesn't.'
"Sure," Sirius said, against what she was thinking. "I would love to go with you, Lily Evans." Lily beamed.
○○○
Lily applied some lip gloss to her full lips in front of the mirror in the girls' dormitories.
"So, you and Sirius, huh?" Francine said, sitting on her bed. Lily rubbed her lips together and put the tube of lip gloss away.
"How'd you find out?"
"Well, you know Cinnamon Brown. She can't keep her mouth shut about gossip. Especially when it has anything to do with Sirius. And most especially when she witnessed you asking him," Francine said, looking at Lily who was looking down at her with a confused expression.
"I didn't realize anyone saw," she said.
"So, do you really like Sirius? You're not lying about it this time?"
"Who said that I liked him? I've only asked him to Professor Slughorn's party."
"No one did, or at least not in words. But the way your face goes when you're around him. I mean, I could have believed that you liked Sirius before as you'd blush whenever he was around and talked to you but now…well it's really obvious, unless you're lying again and are really good at acting. Like Wendy."
"What!" Lily put her hands on her temples. "But I thought I was hiding it so well!"
"Well, you weren't. Don't worry. He likes you back, I can tell that too," Francine assured her.
"You are his heartthrob," Wednesday said, the last word said breathlessly. Both Lily and Francine looked over at her and then shook their heads, knowing to ignore those kinds of comments Wednesday made.
"So, have you forgiven us?" Francine asked timidly.
"I—" Lily stopped. James was mad that morning that she was even letting them go with her to breakfast. What would he do if she had found out that she had forgiven them? 'What do I care what James thinks?' she thought. "I think I have…just hopefully nothing like that comes between us again."
"You've put on cologne," Lily said, smelling it coming off of Sirius when she walked into the common room to find him waiting for her, handsome as ever.
"Yep. And you've put on perfume," Sirius commented, casually swinging his arm around Lily's shoulders. Lily tensed up immediately. Sirius smirked at this; he liked having that affect on girls.
"D-did you hear that Professor Slughorn would be having a player from the Irish National Team coming," Lily said after a bit of walking. They were almost at the dungeons.
"What? Are you serious?" Sirius exclaimed. "Which one is it?"
"Rob—"
"Robbins! Dewy Robbins at Slughorn's party! It's like a dream!" Sirius said excitedly. Lily smiled up at him.
Professor Slughorn's room looked as if it had been taking straight out of a castle. With magic the ceiling had been elevated by about seven feet and four golden cloths draped themselves from the center of the ceiling out to the corners of the room. Trays were perched on the backs of hummingbirds that zoomed to each person who would put their hand up or ask for one, the trays not spilling the tall glasses of Butterbeer. Music was being played from the front where a small stage had been constructed with magically playing instruments perched on top. People were dancing in the middle of the floor while others ate at the buffet tables lined along the walls right and left.
"Ah! Lily!" Professor Slughorn bounced through the crowds of people to meet his most prized student. A tall man with jet black hair, thick eyebrows and a strong build walked close behind him. "May I introduce—"
"Dewy Robbins!" Sirius exclaimed in place of Professor Slughorn, who, once being cut off, merely nodded. "Sirius Black, it's a pleasure," Sirius said, sticking out his hand.
"Black? Of the great family Black?" Dewy asked, taking Sirius' hand. Sirius' face fell.
"Yes…unfortunately," he said quietly.
"Well, yes. Dewy, this is Lily Evans. She's nearly as good as you at Potions," he said, winking at Lily and, when Dewy looked at her, mouthed, "That's not true, don't worry."
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Robbins," Lily smiled and shook his hand.
"It's nice to meet you too, Miss Evans. You are beautiful," Dewy complimented. Sirius didn't act as if it had bothered him. Lily took note of this. Behind them, the door opened and closed.
"Oh! And this is James Potter—a natural with the broom. A chaser as well," Professor Slughorn said to Dewy before calling, "James!"
James looked over and immediately grimaced at the sight of Lily and Sirius beside each other.
"Hello, Professor Slughorn. Thanks so much for inviting me," James said, not taking his eyes off of Lily. She really did look beautiful. She had her shoulder-length auburn hair tied up in a ponytail and wore a black blazer with the sleeves rolled up, a jean skirt that hit mid-thigh and a bit of make up. She, unlike other girls, had applied her mascara beautifully, unlike other girls, due to her steady hand which James had noticed earlier that day when she moved her wand while he was tutoring her for Transfiguration.
"Perhaps we can fly later on the Quidditch pitch," Dewy suggested. "I must say, Professor, the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch is amazing."
"Yes, it is. The very best of all the magical schools. I've never been to the others, of course, well except for Beauxbatons during the Muggle war to ensure that everyone there was safe—I care not only for the Hogwarts students—but I have connections. And these people tell me that Hogwarts is the best," Professor Slughorn bragged. He and Dewy began to chat some more, walking toward the buffet table. Once they were gone, only Sirius, James and Lily stood.
"Butterbeer, anyone?" Lily asked nervously, glancing at both of them. Sirius was staring longingly at Dewy while James was staring at her, scowling. She put her hand up and a hummingbird zoomed over, three Butterbeers perched on its tray. "Thank you," she said to the hummingbird, absentmindedly. Surprisingly, the hummingbird nodded in acknowledgement before zooming away. Lily placed one of the glasses in Sirius' hands (who flinched when its cold hit his skin) and she offered one to James.
"No thanks," he said coldly.
"But I just got this for you," she said.
"Well maybe you should have asked instead of assumed?"
"I did ask and you didn't respond."
"So you think that no response means yes?"
"I was just trying to be nice!"
"Well you didn't try hard enough."
"Will you stop being so immature?" Lily asked, exasperatedly. "Just take the damn drink, my hands are freezing!" She thrust the Buterbeer into his hands. He grimaced at her. Lily took Sirius' hand and pulled him away. "Come on, Sirius. I'm a bit hungry." James stood there, alone and dumbfounded.
"Aw, look at who's alone," an evil voice said behind him. He turned around, finding himself face to face with Bellatrix Black, Sirius' cousin who was in the seventh year.
"What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing," she sighed, looking away. Bellatrix, like all of the Black family, was stunning but in a creepy way. She had pale skin and heavy lidded eyes. Her black hair was usually really frizzy but it did not take away from her good looks. "I see you've been ditched. But then again, who'd want to be with you? And what are you even doing here anyways? This is Professor Slughorn's party; I doubt he'd invite a twit like you."
"Well he did," James replied. "Can you please leave me alone?" Bellatrix cackled.
"Of course, Jamesie, I will. And to think I was going to ask you to dance," she said, turning around. "Rodolphus! Dance with me!" Before she ran to dance with Rodolphus, a thin boy who always looked like he was going to wet his pants in fear, she said to James, "Don't think you've got this school in the palm of your hand for much longer, Jamesie. Times will change and I assure you, you'll be forced to as well." With that she left James. James stood there for a moment, confused. He shook it off and headed to the buffet tables to talk some more with Dewy.
Lily felt the heat of Sirius' boy against hers. It'd leave for a moment and then it'd come back again. She was getting dizzy but ignored it. She was having a good time.
"You said you couldn't dance!" Sirius exclaimed happily.
"I can't! We're not exactly dancing, you know," Lily said, trying to keep herself from falling over. "Just spinning. Or really, I'm just spinning. You're pushing me away and then pulling me in."
"True," Sirius said, pulling Lily in again and then forcing her to lean back as he dropped his arm a bit. He moved his face closer to her and she blushed furiously. "Did I say that you look really pretty tonight?"
"No, but you really didn't have to," Lily said, her heart racing. The faster paced music had stopped and now a slower tune played. Sirius pulled her up and placed her arms around his neck. He took his arms and put them around her waist. They were rather close.
"Are you easy to get to?" Sirius asked his knowing smile suddenly on his face.
"Easy to get to? What do you mean?" Lily asked, looking into his eyes.
"Well," he began, pulling her slightly closer. "On your first date with Nat you were snogging him five minutes in."
"How do you know that it was my first date with him?"
"Lily, honestly, everyone would have known if you'd gone out with him more times than that. The pictures around the school do talk and we do have a lot of chatter boxes like that Cinnamon Brown."
"Well, if you mean that I normally snog a guy right away, then no. But Nat was…well he was different. I had liked him for some time and it was as if something in me went off, kind of. I think I pretty much did what he had planned the whole time—not that snogging's bad or anything. Wait…why am I telling you this?"
"Because I asked."
"And why did you ask?"
Sirius shrugged. "Just wondering…"
They danced silently for a while after that. The song was a long one, so it seemed. Sirius spoke again, "Hey Lily," he moved his right hand slowly up her back to her left shoulder blade. A shiver went down Lily's spine.
"Y-yes?"
"Do I make you nervous?"
"No," she said, forcing the words out. She was nervous. She had been nervous around him ever since he had visited James in the hospital wing and talked to her. She had been even more nervous around him that day. After what had happened the night before, she was severely confused and had to pretend to be completely cool around him.
"Hmph," Sirius said, taking his arms away from Lily. She took her arms away from him. He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room. He took her down the hall.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked.
"Liar," he said.
"What?"
"You're lying." He stopped in front of the broom cupboard. Opening the door, he pushed Lily in lightly and followed her in. It was really cramped. Lily stopped thinking about how uncomfortable she was when she felt Sirius' arms around her waist. Immediately she tensed up.
"Relax," he told her in a whisper. His face was closer to hers. "I've wanted to do this ever since…I've wanted to at least give you a…kiss," his lips brushed against hers but only for a second. The broom cupboard door flung open and Lily's head snapped to see who it was.
○○○
James' mouth was full of chocolate. He could now relate to how girls liked it so much, it really was a good feeling when you ate it. He had just finished his third chocolate frog.
"James Potter," Dewy Robbins had come up behind him.
"Hi, Mr. Robbins," James said, swallowing the last bit of chocolate in his mouth.
"Please, call me Dewy. I was wondering if you'd like to go out onto the Quidditch pitch now. I did not bring my broom with me so I must borrow one of the school's."
"Yes, of course," James said, leading him out of the room. "I'll use a school broom as well; it's too much of a hassle to get my own from my room."
The two walked down the dungeon halls, their footsteps echoing through the halls. James thought he heard whispers but ignored it. There would be no one in the halls this late if Sirius or he were both already out—they were the only ones at the school who dared do so.
"So…Lily," Dewy began. James' head snapped toward him. "She's a very beautiful girl, is she not?" James grunted.
"I'm sorry, I did not realize. You must be going out? Or maybe she is with that other fellow…Black was his name…"
"No, she's not going out with anyone," James said coldly.
"I see. Well, not for long, I'm sure. You like her then?" Dewy said, not noticing the ice in James' tone.
"No. I just want to go out with her," James said and then his eyes widened at what he had said. Why did he want to go out with her if he didn't like her? It didn't make any sense. "Er—I'd like to stop talking about this," he said politely.
"Okay, sure."
They had reached the broom cupboard.
"Sorry about the school brooms though, they're hardly good at all. You can't go too fast on them—" He had opened the broom cupboard door.
A smeared kiss.
A moment missed.
"James!" Lily gasped, turning to face him, her eyes wide. She didn't know why she felt so bad. But a pile of guilt had formed in her stomach. "I'm—uh—I'm sorry!" she exclaimed and pushed past him and Dewy and took off down the hall.
"Seriously, Prongs. Why, of all moments to open the broom cupboard. Of all broom cupboards there are in this school, did you have to open this one at this time?" Sirius asked. James' jaw was clenched.
"Sorry," he muttered, reaching past Sirius and grabbing two brooms. He shut the door in his friends face.
A/N: Itazu here! I'd like to thank my reviewers so much! Haha, even though I've only got four. Please keep reviewing! It'll encourage me to keep writing. This chapter was kind of hard to write. I wasn't sure how to go about doing anything so it took me a while to think of things. I literally went through three CDs and had only written one sentence at one point. I was really excited when I first started writing, though I think that I might have dived into Sirius and Lily's relationship too soon. Hopefully you can understand how hard this is for me! I want to make a bond between Lily and Sirius to describe the relationship they have in JKR's books. The letter Lily writes to Sirius is one that sounds like she's writing to a close friend so in this story I want to make that friendship strong as it seems in the letter. Don't worry! This won't last too long! I really thank Mrs. James Harold Potter for giving me constructive critism—it helped writing this chapter because I knew that whatever I wrote had to lead into my explanations of some questions or comments. Thanks to Sheildmaiden wot for telling me about my slight errors. The first chapter has been edited.
Some news: I have officially decided that I will be writing four stories. This is the first, the second, as I've already mentioned, is going to be called Commit This To Memory, after Motion City Soundtrack's album. I'm confirming that the third will be Favorite Worst Nightmare after the Arctic Monkeys album (I just got it not too long ago—AMAZING and I can see a story in it) and the fourth just-decided-yesterday story will be called Discovering the Waterfront after Silverstein's album (if you're planning on downloading them, it's 'screamo' and I know a lot of people don't respect that kind of music, I personally love how each song is dripping in emotion, though). I hope to finish this before Christmas holidays and to start Commit This To Memory during those holidays (I hope to finish at least six chapters of it).
REVIEW PLEASE! Just in case you forget.
Disclaimer: The Marauders and Lily and Professor Slughorn and Professor McGonagall, etc. are not mine, they are all JK Rowlings (since every story seems to have the disclaimer. Although you should know its not mine, this is fanfiction afterall)
FUN FACT: My original plans was that Lily would make up with her friends sooner being separated from Sirius. But another Hogsmeade trip would come up and she'd ask him to that. But Slughorn's party seemed appropriate and it got me the song lyrics. Another thing: parts of this story were influenced by the book Private. Really good series, pretty much for girls only (unless you're a guy who likes to read about a girl's life). If you've read it, you'll probably be thinking, 'Holy shit, she took that whole scene from it' but at least I'm admitting that some of the stuff in this was not my original idea.
Line from song: I had planned for Sirius to say something like, "It was just too real to be concealed." But that sounded un-Sirius-like so I went with others. At the end of the story I have two lines in the narraration directly from the song, 'A smeared kiss. A moment missed.' And I also have Wednesday saying, 'You are his heartthrob.' Which seemed like an appropriate Wendy thing to say. Thers's also James thinking about Lily's make up being put on beautifully 'due to her steady hand.'
ALSO: If you want some more information on the story or to see my personally illustrated cover for it, go onto itazu.livejournal .com (no space between livejournal and .com, I just can't write the full website). The illustration isn't so good because I was half-asleep when I did it, was too lazy to re-do it and it was friggin' hard to re-draw the perfect looking Sirius I had drawn in art class (so he looks really stupid in this cover) and it took forever to draw James at first and then I pulled it off on the cover, only to realize that James doesn't look sixteen. I also realized that all the guys except Sirius (a bit) look like anime characters! I'm trying to get out of my anime-styled-people phase to draw people to look cartoonish but like you could match them up with a real person.
