1 September 1977
L
The Hogwarts Express arrived at the castle not a moment too soon. James had offered a sincere apology to Lily several hours prior, but she couldn't help but feel that things weren't really fixed. They'd resolved the beach issue quickly, and gotten back to the stiff conversation of doing their Heads' duties. Before the train had even fully come to a stop, James had thrown his school robes over his head, grabbed his dragon skin book bag, and zipped out of the compartment door and down the corridor.
Lily watched James dutifully directing the younger years to the boats and the carriages, and noticed his mouth was turned down in a small, tight-lipped frown. She watched him until he looked up at her and turned to walk in the other direction.
Things weren't okay.
1 October 1977
J
James shovelled scrambled eggs into his mouth, not bothering to swallow as he bit off half his toast. Saturday morning Quidditch practise took everything out of him, and he needed the energy. He gulped down pumpkin juice and slammed his cup on the wooden Great Hall table, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his scarlet and gold jumper. As James wriggled out of the bench seat, he banged his knee on the bottom of the table. A side effect of being tall.
"Merlin, fuck!" he breathed out, rubbing where he'd hit it.
"And that's probably not even the first time you've sworn today," said Lily, standing behind him.
James smiled and ruffled the back of his hair with one hand, a nervous habit.
"It's not. Peter cast a Trip Jinx on me when I tried to get to the showers first," he said.
Lily smiled warmly, small crinkles appearing on the outer corners of her green eyes. She was wearing black tights and a light grey dress with sleeves, the hemline raised several inches above her knees. James looked up quickly when he realised he'd been staring. The random chatter of the other houses echoed throughout the Great Hall.
They'd managed to smooth things out within the first two weeks of school, their Heads' duties forcing them to work together. Both he and Lily had tried to take on most of it by themselves, avoiding the other person, but the tasks became crippling. Working together had become pleasant enough to re-start a friendship, and memories of the beach were fading. As much as they could.
"I know it's Saturday, but could we go over some things tonight in the Heads' lounge? The Ravenclaw prefects broke up and aren't speaking to each other, so we need to change patrol schedules. I think I could convince the kitchen elves to give us pudding, if that's incentive at all for coming," said Lily.
"Sure. I'll see what I can do about finding some Butterbeers," said James.
"You're brilliant, thank you!" said Lily, turning to walk towards her friends at the other end of the table. "Say eight tonight?"
"Yeah, see you then," waved James.
He used the hand to ruffle the back of his hair, watching her walk away with his neck cricked and elbow stuck in the air.
A moment later, James spotted a jersey-clad Gryffindor Beater having a row with the Slytherin Keeper, and his mind returned to Quidditch.
L
8:10 p.m.
Lily tossed aside the sheet of parchment and threw her pen against the wall.
"Why did they have to date in the first place? We should have made a policy! No one that has to bloody work together gets to snog!" yelled Lily.
James sat beside her awkwardly, looking unsure of how to calm her. He got up and retrieved her pen, inspecting it in front of his glasses as he walked back.
"Your things from home are so cool," he said, rolling it back and forth between his fingers.
"I'm glad they amuse you," said Lily. "Now, what are we going to do about Monica and Fenris?"
"Apologise on behalf of their parents for their names?" said James, cracking a smile.
Lily groaned comically and put her face towards her knees.
"Do you want to take a break?" asked James.
"It's been ten minutes, James," she said.
"Why don't we tell them they have to patrol together anyway? It worked for us," said James.
Lily thought about it.
"Fine, they'll just have to figure it out on their own," she sighed.
James tossed the pen in the air repeatedly, catching it in his palm each time.
"You wouldn't have made a half-bad Seeker," said Lily. "Why did you want to be a Chaser?"
"It's more action-oriented. You can't drift off into your head as a Chaser, there's always something happening," shrugged James.
"Do you have that problem a lot?" asked Lily. "Drifting off into your head?"
James stopped tossing the pen and leaned over to put it on the coffee table in front of them.
"Nope," he said quickly. "Shall we go somewhere? I need to stretch my legs."
"God, what's it like being part giraffe?" she teased.
"I'm very good at eating leaves," he smiled back cheekily. "Mind, I got down an ingredient you needed in Potions the other day from the big shelf."
"Which might have been a nice gesture... had I not been a witch who could just use her wand," said Lily.
"You have me there. So, Evans, where do you want to go?" asked James.
"We're back to Evans now?" she said, looking at him quizzically. She decided not to press it further. "We could go to the grounds?"
"It's dark out, we're not allowed," said James, stating the obvious.
"I know that," she said, feeling patronised.
"I was just making sure. Seriously, you want to go outside?" said James.
"Yes, it's a gorgeous night. We could bring some Firewhiskey and have an actual fun time on a Saturday. I've been in the library every night since school started," she said. "I can get you pissed and ask all the embarrassing questions I've always wanted to know."
"And what would some of those be?" laughed James.
"Has anyone ever been hit in the bollocks with a bludger, and what did they do?" said Lily.
"Yes, and cry," he said. "Do all of your questions involve bollocks? Because I feel Madam Pomfrey would have some leaflets."
"Ha ha," said Lily, making a show of rolling her eyes. "Let's grab our coats from the dormitories."
They walked side by side from the room. Lily felt electric.
J
James and Lily trekked to the usual student hangout beside the Black Lake. The October air was crisp, and the dried leaves on the trees rattled when they rubbed together in the wind. Autumn had an especially magical quality about it at Hogwarts. Nights like these were serene, just black skies and cold dew.
Lily reached into her coat and passed him a short rectangular bottle of Firewhiskey. James pushed open the chunky wooden stopper, attached by string to the bottle's neck.
"Where'd you get this from, anyway?" he said, pulling a face after a large gulp.
"Madam Rosmerta," said Lily. "I fixed a flood in her cellar she didn't know the charm for."
"Sirius has been asking for years to get something stronger than a Butterbeer from her," said James.
"She said she knew I'd use it well," smiled Lily.
"Well, thank you for sharing," said James.
They arrived at a semi-circle of tree stumps, something Hagrid had cut up and positioned as chairs. There was just enough room between each stump for James and Lily to sit facing each other. They passed the Firewhiskey back and forth, James tasting her strawberry lipgloss on the mouth of the bottle.
He popped open his silver cigarette case and put one between his lips. Lily watched as he lit it, and James exhaled politely to the side.
"How can you smoke and play Quidditch?" asked Lily.
"Because I look cool doing both," smiled James, blowing a smoke ring.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him, apparently unimpressed.
"Such a twat," she laughed, taking a swig of the Firewhiskey.
"Truth or dare?" said James. He was more than a little buzzed.
"Truth," said Lily.
"Are things still weird?" he asked, studying her face.
Lily looked down and pushed the stopper back into the bottle. She pursed her lips together, staring at the ground.
"No, I don't think so. It's only been a month, but it's been fine," she said, pausing slightly before "fine."
"We can talk about what happened," said James.
"And you think that'd do either of us any good? It was difficult enough to get past this once, I'm not keen to do it again," said Lily. "Lumos."
She got up and began walking towards the castle, guided by her lit wand. James threw his cigarette on the ground and jogged after her.
"Lily, it was just a question! If you don't want to talk, we'll leave it, okay?" he said, walking backwards in front of her.
James felt himself lose his footing, and fell backwards onto the wet grass. Lily stopped and stared down at him angrily.
"Get up, please," she said, annoyed.
"I don't fall over on purpose," said James, indignant.
Lily stuck out her arm to him very stiffly, looking impatient. James reached for her hand and tugged her down to make her fall beside him.
"You're borderline abusive sometimes, you know that?" she said, smacking his shoulder.
They looked at each other and burst out laughing, the tension gone. Lily shook her head, a reluctant smile on her face.
"Hate you," she said.
"I hate you, too," said James.
He cupped her cheek with his hand, asking permission. Lily nodded, staring at his lips, and leaned in to meet him.
"Can we do this for real? No more maybes?" she asked.
James nodded, and they lied down in the grass, smiling while they kissed.