Nine Months
By: Infinitesimal
Author's Note: Come on, gotta have a healthy dose of romance.
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"Do you remember when we first met?" James asked.
"Of course," Lily replied, smirking. "On the train, first year. I'd got up to use the loo, and when the train gave a lurch you came stumbling out with your pants around your ankles. I went back to my compartment, traumatized, and said to Lisa Spence– "cripes, I just saw a boy in his underwear", and she said, "cool, was he cute?"– always was a bit of a slag, wasn't she?"
"A bit," James laughed. He curled his face into Lily's neck and breathed heavily into the skin there.
The pair of them were laying sprawled out on a goose down duvet in front of the fireplace, arms and legs tangled, hair a mess.
The day had been splendidly unproductive. Remnants of their failed attempts at organizing a baby shower lay scattered about the room– blank invitations and half-open envelopes were mixed randomly with empty bottles of butterbeer and packages of chips. A letter, unfinished, was pinned beneath a wizard wireless, reading– "Dear Sirius, even though you're convinced I'm not pregnant, here is an invitation to the baby shower..."
"Do you remember what the first thing I ever said to you was?" He asked again.
Lily looked thoughtful, bringing one of her long, bare legs up to hook around his thigh. James tilted his head, admiring it.
"Wasn't it something like, 'oy, ginger, pass the potatoes'?"
He laughed again, pressing his forehead against hers.
"Probably."
"You were a bit of a brat, weren't you?"
"A bit," He conceded.
They were silent for a moment, listening to the fireplace crackle. Outside, the snow pushed furiously against the long, square windows as the evening sky darkened.
"Hey," Lily said suddenly, a smile in her voice. "Remember the first time you asked me out?"
"God, I'll never forget that. I'd never been so mortified in my life."
"Really?" She replied. She leaned away from him, so she could see his face.
"Really. I'd been practicing all week. I'd carefully mastered the art of having my hair mussed just so. It took me three hours to work up the courage to walk over to where you were sitting in the common room. And then when I got there, and you looked up at me with those goddamn green eyes of yours... and I wanted to go drown myself."
"Even before you said anything?"
"Even before," James admitted, pushing the hair off her forehead tenderly. "Because I knew I was going to make a complete arse of myself. And sure enough–"
"'Evans, go out with me. Or, uh, please?'"
"Exactly," he nodded, looking serious. Lily giggled, and he pressed several kisses onto her nose, her cheeks, her eyelids.
"Do you remember," he asked quietly, kissing down her throat between each word, "when you were 'accidentally' pushed down the stairs in sixth year, when you passed the Slytherin quidditch team on your way to breakfast?"
"Mmm." Lily acknowledged, eyes fluttering closed as he kissed along her collarbone.
"When I found out, I was simultaneously furious and beyond sick with worry. First, I dealt with the quidditch team–"
"That I remember. They were in the hospital wing longer than I was."
"–which was exactly my intention, darling." He assured her. "Then, I snuck into Hogsmeade and bought every single tulip the flower shop carried. I settled them around your bed so that they were the first things you'd see when you woke up. And Lily, when I looked down at you, all beat up and broken, I'd never felt so anguished in my entire life. I wanted to kill them, all of them, anyone who had ever dared to hurt you. I wanted to kill myself for not being strong enough to prevent it. I came every night under the cloak and watched you sleep, thinking that maybe if I was the one you woke up too, you'd have some clue, some tiny inkling of just how much I love you."
When he finished talking, Lily was quiet. There were tears in her eyes.
"Do you remember our first date?" He whispered. He brought his face in until their noses were touching. "I got bit by that stupid lady's parrot and you laughed so hard you shot butterbeer out your nose. It was the best day of my life, and I hadn't even got a kiss yet. I ran upstairs that night and waltzed Peter around the dorm and when Remus asked how the date had gone, I said simply, 'I'm going to marry that girl'. Well–"
Suddenly, they were sitting up, and James was kneeling. He pulled a little velvet box out of his back pocket and held it out to her.
"Always been a bit of a romantic, haven't you?" Lily laughed, her voice wobbling dangerously.
"A bit." He replied, and then he kissed her.
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