Chapter 4 – Italy, Part I

"Signore e signori, benvenuto all'aeroporto del Leonardo Da Vinci. Il tempo corrente è 5:53 PM. Grazie per pilotare Alitalia," crackled a voice over the loudspeaker, before it repeated itself in English. "Welcome to Leonardo da Vinci Airport. The current time is 5:53. Thank you for flying Alitalia."

Lily stood up and bent almost all the way backwards in her seat, relishing the welcome feeling. Mary, having seen her do this many times over the years, didn't think twice of it, but James and Sirius gaped. "How are you so flexible?" Sirius asked in awe.

Lily just shrugged. "Runs in the family, I guess." People were starting to file off the plane, and the foursome followed.

"I'd never been on a plane before," Mary babbled excitedly as they waited for their bags. "That was terrific!" James made a noise of dissent. "What, you didn't think so?" she asked.

"You weren't sitting next to Sirius," he whispered, before all thoughts flew out of his mind. "Holy crap, look at that!" he yelped, watching the conveyor belt spin around and around as various pieces of luggage came shooting down the mechanized slope. Lily, very used to the baggage claim and conveyor belts, retrieved everyone's luggage as her three friends stared on in awe.

Eventually, she took them on the underground shuttle (prompting more surprised exclamations) to the train station in the airport and shepherded everyone aboard. Once they were zooming north, Mary brought out the sandwiches she had bought in the terminal. James and Sirius finished their sandwiches in record time and were asleep even faster. "They've just been sitting on a plane for three hours!" Mary snorted. "I thought they'd be bouncing off the walls!"

Lily giggled. "They look like puppies," she remarked as she brought out a deck of Muggle playing cards. "Want to learn to play regular snap?" she asked. "It's not as interesting as Exploding Snap, but we can't exactly use exploding cards on a Muggle train." Mary agreed, and they were locked in a rather fierce game when a suave-looking Italian man approached their group of seats.

"La mia bella ragazza, lo unireste-" he began, but was cut off by a rather rude "What?" from Mary.

"Parli Inglesi," Lily intoned, and he nodded.

"My beautiful girl, would you care to join me in the dining car?" he asked, ignoring Mary, who had started to giggle.

"Ummmm," Lily replied, utterly shocked. She had heard stories from her globe-trotting cousin Sophie about Italian men being more forward than British men, but she hadn't expected to actually have it happen to her. She glanced at James, who was muttering in his sleep and poking Sirius, who seemed to be poking back. "No thank you," she replied with a smile.

"Worth a shot," he muttered in Italian before giving her a seductive smile. "Welcome to Italy then, mi amore."

As soon as he was out of earshot, Mary inconspicuously cast Muffliato and started cracking up. "Oh my God!" she wheezed. "I thought everything they say about Italian men was just a stereotype!"

Lily chuckled lightly, still watching James and Sirius' silent poke-fight. Those two were still squabbling, even in sleep! Mary followed her gaze, which lead straight to James' sleeping face. "Lily," she said. "Do you fancy James?"

"What?" Lily asked. "No!" she replied, a little too quickly, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks.

"Ha!" Mary laughed triumphantly, picking up on the blush. "You do fancy him!"

"What?" Lily asked again. "What? No! I mean, it's not like-" she broke off suddenly, her eyes widening.

"It's not like what?" Mary pressed.

It's not like we end up married, or something, Lily thought to herself, her eyes widening further. Even though she knew that she and James would end up married eventually, she didn't think that her feelings for him would develop so fast. Suddenly, her subconscious jerked her mind out of the train and into the future's past. She saw herself sitting in the boys' dormitory in 1999, watched as she leaned into James' shoulder, hiccupping slightly, and felt warmth whoosh from her head to her toes, taking her heart along and lodging it somewhere in her big toe.

"Merlin's beard," she whispered, jolting back to reality. "I – I do, don't I?"

"You do," Mary agreed, wearing a triumphant, "I called it" sort of smile.

I do, Lily thought before a wave of exhaustion sent her to sleep so fast she didn't even have time to wipe a stupid grin off her face.

When she woke up, she was lying in a comfortable bed in a Venetian hotel (there were no wizarding inns in Venice.) "How did I get here?" she asked Mary, who was sitting on the bed next to her.

"James carried you," Mary said, as calmly as if she was ordering a hamburger and fries.

All traces of sleepiness vanished from Lily's face as she sat up with a start. "James carried me. All the way from the train station?" Mary nodded. "Did you three walk the whole way?" Mary nodded again. "At least tell me he did something about his bag."

"He covered it in an Invisibility Cloak and Locomotor Trunked it," she said. "It nearly took out a couple of those…what do you call them? Texas drivers?"

"Taxi drivers," Lily muttered, getting up and heading for the door to the hall. As soon as she touched the knob, it flew open. "Ack!" she yelped in surprise.

"Whoa, sorry Lily," Sirius said. "Listen, we're ready to get some dinner. James is just getting out of the shower-" Mary poked Lily in the back and Lily swung her heel into her best friend's shin in response "-and when you two are ready, we can go. I'm starving," he concluded, and Lily nodded, shutting the door in his face so she could change.

"Bit harsh there, Lils!" Mary remarked, rubbing her sore shin and wincing.

"Listen!" Lily snapped. "Just because I fancy James does not mean I want to jump his bones and start making babies at the first opportunity I get. If you keep nudging me every time Sirius says 'shower' or James raises an eyebrow, this is going to be a very long trip. Understand?"

Mary was undeterred by this outburst. "You loooooove him," she giggled.

That is it, Lily thought furiously. Levicorpus! she thought, flicking her wand upwards. There was a flash of light, and Mary was hanging upside down from the ceiling. "Lily!" she screeched. "You're messing up my hair!" Lily was not put off by this fact and left Mary there as she showered, dressed, and grabbed her bag.

"Ready to come down?" she asked, and Mary nodded furiously. "Say it, then."

"No!" Mary replied defiantly, her face a blotchy red. Lily shrugged and turned to leave when Mary said it. "Lily is a fantastically wonderful witch, and the best Muggle-born of her age."

"And?"

"And Mary MacDonald is a prat," Mary finished bitterly. Satisfied, Lily flicked her wand and thought Liberacorpus! "One of these days, I'm going to figure out how you do that," Mary threatened darkly. "You will never stand upright again."

Lily laughed and slapped a joking smooch on Mary's cheek. "You wouldn't! You love me too much!" Eventually, Mary started to giggle and the two girls left the hotel room arm in arm.

***

The four friends ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking a canal, and then Lily dragged them across town to the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square.) She'd heard amazing things about the nighttime square from her neighbors, and had always wanted to see it for herself.

Sweet Merlin, she thought, her heart catching in her throat. James, Mary, and Sirius stopped next to her and took in the scene. The entire square was full of soft, yellow light coming from the buildings and the pink palace surrounding it. Cafés were full to the brim with people talking, laughing, and eating, and a freelance accordion player worked the crowd, holding his hat out for people to drop lira into. A souvenir vendor was selling a teddy bear in a gondolier's suit to a couple of tourists, and the odd pigeon hovered here and there, emitting an occasional coo on top of an ancient clock tower. Beyond all the beautiful lights and scenes, the Canal Grande glittered with reflected light, boats bobbing up and down as a ferry chugged past. Lily felt a hand take hers, and looked down to see James' thumb rubbing a circle on the back of wrist. They looked at their hands, then at each other, and dropped them quickly, but Lily grinned and grabbed it again. "Come on!" she shouted, before sprinting into the square, dragging the nonplussed James. "Wheeee!" she exclaimed, glad that it was night and that she was in Venice and that she was Lily Evans.

Sirius and Mary shrugged and followed, chasing Lily and James all the way around the piazza. When the four were bent over and panting, Sirius led them to a gelato vendor and they were happily clutching bowls of the ice cream plastic spoons moments later.

"Whad'ja get?" Mary asked Lily unceremoniously through a mouthful of pistachio.

"Um, stracchiatella and limone," Lily said, butchering the Italian pronunciation.

"Chocolate chip and lemon?" Sirius repeated. "Seems like it would be a weird combination."

"It's actually really good!" Lily enthused. "What'd you get, James?"

"Strawberry and coconut," James said. "It's kind of strange, but it's good." They sat and chattered away until the last dregs of gelato were too small to be scooped with a spoon, and then they sat and just looked at their surroundings until James looked at his watch and yelped, "It's like one in the morning!"

I don't ever want to leave, Lily thought dreamily, but she let Mary take her by the hand and lead her out of the square nonetheless.

A/N: Hooray! Lily finally realizes that she likes James and they hold hands! And whoever actually takes the time to read A/Ns, I just have to say: Go to Venice. Seriously. Do it. Go to Venice. (Have you figured out yet that this is basically "James, Sirius, Lily and Mary take trips that Maddy has taken in her life"?) :D. Part II coming soon!