Chapter 4: Storks

Lily winced as she wrapped her arms around Jame's waist. She just knew he would find some way to bring this up at the worst possible moment. A romantic flight above the city, just the two, and the cool breeze... sorry, romantic? She could name hundreds of other situations more romantic than clinging to James Potter in midair. Like, uh...

"Lily?" James was peering at her curiously.

"Uh, I'm ready." Ready as she ever wanted to be, that was. James gave a hard kickoff; her stomach lurched, and she snapped her arms around his waist. She was immediately glad she had agreed to have dinner when they arrived.

The broomstick gave a sharp turn to the left as they sailed up over the Leaky Cauldron, taking her by surprise. A few people were wandering the streets in the growing twilight. James' hair tickled her face as they streamed through the air.

"Hey, Lily" James asked softly.

Lily glanced sharply. "What do you want, Potter?"

"I'd be grateful if you'd stop digging you nails into my chest for one." She heard him gasp in a breath as she released the iron-grip she had unknowingly had around him.

"Sorry about that. I just, well, I haven't flown in a while. And not as a passenger."

James frowned. "Surely when you were younger you were flown everywhere? My parents love flying. I wouldn't be surprised if I was born on a broomstick actually."

Lily snorted. "As, unique, as that would make you, I'm not sure the world has quite got over the stork idea to find children falling out of the sky amusing yet." She imagined waking up one morning to find a baby who had fallen into a flowerpot overnight.

James looked blank. "What's a plant got anything to do with this?" He continued when Lily looked confused. "The stalk, thing, you said; how's a flower stem anything to do with babies falling out of skies?"

Lily's face slackened. "Stork. Like, the bird. With the big beak and the sling with babies in it." She shook her head. "Maybe its a muggle thing."

James looked at her, worried. "Lily, I think your parents might have neglected to, uh, enlighten you on cert-"

"No! It's not real, silly. It's just a fairy tale! Made for small children and embarrassed parents."

"Oh, I see," said James, clearly not. "Some muggles have some very weird ideas."

Lily sighed, and adjusted her hands. She hoped James' lived somewhere close.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Twenty minutes had cramped her legs on the broomstick, and the wind was now bitter on her face. Her jacket was wrapped in her bag tied beneath, not that she could have put it on anyway. The sun had vanished behind a band of cloud that sat heaped on the horizon. Now she thought about it, she had never asked James where he lived.

"Ready for landing?"

Lily tried to hide the relief from her face. "Thought we never would." As they dropped from the sky, her bag skimmed the leaves of some hedges, and barely cleared a gate. Before she knew it, James was steadying himself to land.

Lily suddenly felt very out of place. The broom rattled a little as it fell sharply into a garden. She lifted up her feet to miss the ground, and very suddenly, she wasn't flying at all. In fact, she was falling. Straight into a very green pond.