A bit more dense than earlier chapters, but I promise you won't want to miss the longer paragraphs!
Peter woke with a lurch and bolted upright. This was not an uncommon way for him to start the morning. As his twitches and tingles subsided, he sensed, or rather smelled, something out of place in the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. Something absent.
Sirius was snoring, sprawled across his four-poster bed, half in and half out of the sheets. Remus was knocked out as a log so silent that unless you looked over to his wall of the room, you would miss the fact that he was there at all. Frank was also present and asleep, but James? Where was he?
Upheaving his sheets and knocking over the table lamp in the process, Peter rushed to Sirius.
"Padfoot! Wake up! WAY—KH—UHP!" he said, shaking Sirius's arm. "Moony! Frank!"
In his slumber, Sirius growled like the angry German Shepherd he was.
Hearing the commotion, Remus arose next.
"What's going on?" he said lightly, eyes adjusting to the light that was beginning to peek through the curtained windows.
Frank stirred a few times, and Peter continued to work on Sirius.
When Sirius was decidedly disturbed enough, he raised his head towards Peter and greeted him, "Where's the fire, Wormtail?"
"Padfoot, James! He's not here!"
"What do you mean—?" Sirius wiped the drool off of his chin.
"He's not here, not in the dorm, not in his bed," clarified Remus, who was now conscious enough to motion over to James's bed.
"What's happening?" mumbled Frank, clearly used to the Marauders' antics by now.
"Nothing," Remus called over. "James is probably at an early practice or something."
Frank plopped his pillow over his ears and snuggled back into his early morning snooze.
"But it's Tuesday! We have lessons in an hour!" Peter exclaimed. He moved over to the window to dramatically pull apart the curtains. "And it's snowing!"
"Then he's probably down early, finishing up some homework," began Remus. "I'm sure it's nothing to fret about, Peter…"
The two looked over at Sirius who had made his way up to a sitting position. His legs, clad in grey joggers, were hanging from the side of his bed, and he was donning a black t-shirt. An emerald green Fuck Slytherin graphic was painted into the center, over which Sirius had made slits through. He often wore this to sleep, and unmistakably, as recollection of where James might be 'unfogged' in his mind, Sirius formed his infamous mischievous grin.
Remus knew the expression well. "What? You know where he is?"
Peter didn't. "Great Hall? Library?"
Sirius simply stood up and retrieved his school robes from his wardrobe, walked past his two friends, both of whose eyes were glued to Sirius. As he made his way to the boys' bathroom, Sirius turned back at them and winked.
"Oh, he's in the library alright. You'll see."
Meanwhile, the white light outdoors flooded into the Hogwarts library, gradually at first and then all at once. Snowflakes cradled by great gusts of wind swept past the floor-to-ceiling windows without a sound. If someone had been in the library at this early hour—say, two someones fast asleep in each other's embrace—they would've only heard a dying fire, lit the night before.
Some shuffling had occurred as they slept, so James and Lily now lay side by side, her arm wrapped around him and his beneath her head. The heat they emitted as one had been enough to keep them warm through the night, and the proximity of the other proved to be the perfect remedy for keeping worrisome thoughts at bay.
Lily tightened her arm around James. It was either that or his body's clock, accustomed to early school mornings, that woke James. He felt her close to him before he saw her: deep, even breaths, her delicate weight, fingers curled around his waist.
When James opened his eyes, Lily's face, inches away, took his breath away. She was beautiful; there was no other word for it. Her dark red hair was intruding upon her forehead, where the marks of stress present while Lily was awake were absent and her habitually raised brows were at rest. James didn't think he'd—heck he hadn't—ever been this close to Lily, and her soft skin and gently parted lips were beseeching him closer.
She looks so… peaceful, thought James. Almost wishing he could stay like this forever, James instead worked to commit every nuance of this moment to memory. Lily's godly-sculpted face, the immeasurable joy he found in waking up with her in his arms…
Increasingly alert, James felt as if he'd never before in his life woken this refreshed. He hoped with all his heart that Lily'd slept as well as he did, for he knew the toll life was taking on her these days. To get her to shift her routine just enough to prioritize herself, her health, was impossible. However, this night in the library may just have done it.
It was at the point where James had been up for way too long—What time was it? How late were they for class? Why wasn't anyone, particularly Madam Pince, here yet?—but seeing Lily sleeping so angelically, James didn't have the heart to wake her.
But as James attempted to inconspicuously move his arm, he felt her jostle above him, and he froze.
Her eyes still closed, Lily wished just a few more minutes of the best sleep she'd had in ages. Hazily, she recalled her dream: she and James got locked in the library and… a sentimental discussion later, they'd fallen asleep cuddling. But what happened next? Lily willed herself back into her dreaming state, right where she'd left off, but movement beneath her surprised her into consciousness.
What the—
It hadn't been a dream! She'd really slept with—well, on—James!
Lily opened her eyes to find him already awake, and the panic stricken expression James was notorious for in the seconds when he knew some prank was going to blow was on his face.
"I—uh—" he began defensively.
"Hi," Lily replied simply. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
James's bed head was infinitely worse in the mornings, but undeniably cuter. The thought of how jealous every Hogwarts girl would be if she knew that Lily had spent the night with James gave Lily an adrenaline rush. It made her feel special. Not that she was any less than him—and Lily low key flaunted it too—but James Potter, Head Boy, Quidditch Captain, soon-to-be-Auror, handsome and kind and hysterical... he really was the whole package. And my oh my did he make for Lily's new favorite pillow.
But none of this did Lily say aloud as she continued to look at him, his face now relaxed, vulnerable even. If she could only reach up and…
"Good morning," he smiled, his words divulging his heart as fast as they could. "I hope you slept well. I meant to wake you, but you looked so peaceful… and I didn't want to disturb you!"
This broke Lily's reverie, and she smiled back. "I did, thank you."
She had never seen James without glasses, and though something looked amiss without them, Lily could gaze into his eyes unhindered. The dancing flames from the night before, now dwindling, reflected in James's hazel eyes and brought them to life. What lay deeper, thought Lily, behind his front of unaffected charisma?
"We should probably see what time it is. Maybe we're not that late given that no one is here yet."
"Yeah…," Lily sat up on the antiquated sofa. She'd completely missed what he'd just said. "As nice as this is…"
This harmless comment made fireworks go off in James's mind. She liked it as much as I did?!
Unable to test his luck any further, and rushing to seem responsible enough, James stumbled off the sofa, and Lily followed suit. He ran to the library gates, impossibly locked the midnight before, while Lily straightened her clothes and retrieved her school bag and both their robes.
"Thank Merlin! They're open again!" James shouted over. "And we have just an hour 'til lessons."
Lily joined him, handing him his school robes. "Good. We have time to get decent before Transfiguration then…"
Happily snatching her book bag as well, James retorted, "We're decent now! Maybe time to just not look like we slept in the library…"
As the pair left the library, closing the big wooden doors behind them, they missed the sign that read 'Library Closed for Scheduled Maintenance.'
The truth was the Hogwarts library had never before closed its doors to pupils. And the mulled mead Madam Pince had before bed the night before put her out for longer than usual. By the time she would return, the sign would magically disappear, almost as if it had never been there at all.
"I hope McGonagall doesn't realize we skipped rounds."
"I'm sure that'll be least of her concerns after she reads your horrendous essay on transfiguration for deceit and disguise."
"Hey!" Lily purposely bumped shoulders with James. "It was only that bad until you came along and helped. For which, thank you by the way! A hundred thousand times, James!"
James sniggered. "But what if I actually made it worse?"
Lily gasped, stopping to walk completely. "You wouldn't!"
At her severe reaction, James decided to not take the joke any further. He had in fact worked harder on Lily's essay than his own.
James and Lily continued on like that, returning to their bantering, friendly selves and disappearing into the vast Hogwarts corridors. On the rest of the walk up to Gryffindor tower, though saved deep in their hearts, their night together in the library floated away from their minds. Much to their joy (if only they now knew), this night was but a first that James and Lily would share.
By popular demand, there is MORE TO COME! Thank you all for the love and such positive reviews~ means the world to me :)