"Finally," Emily sighed, unceremoniously falling into the carriage seat next to Lily.

"'Finally'? Are you really that eager to get in to town—is there something you needed to get?"

"Oh, don't act all innocent with me, you little hussy," Emily giggled. "I mean: finally, we're alone. I've given you the courtesy of not brining this up in public and it's been killing me, as you very well know, but we're alone now, and I know what I saw this morning and what it implies. So, as your best friend, I am demanding you spill."

When all she received was silence Emily continued. "Do it now or I'll bring it up every chance I get, and with absolutely no regard of who else may be with us. Quite frankly, you should thank your lucky stars I waited this long."

Silence.

"I could bring it up in front of Samantha," she said, evilly.

"Okay, okay, no need to make a serious threat like that!" Lily said, quickly looking out the carriage window, suddenly completely paranoid that Samantha was outside just waiting to eavesdrop.

"So, come on, tell me what happened, how it happened and how good it was—in detail," Emily grinned.

Lily opened her mouth to respond when two more girls entered the carriage, and upon seeing that it was no one in particular Lily and Emily continued to talk quietly despite the interruption.

"Well, last night I was really pissed off; he didn't even try to explain!" Lily almost shouted before saying thoughtfully "Not that he had much of a chance with Samantha barging in at the worst possible moment!"

"I knew she was up to something!" cried Emily with a frown "I'm so sorry if I'd known I would have tried to stop her, but she told us she was going to the toilet."

Lily waved her off "Oh, it doesn't matter anymore. Anyway I was angry and upset and I was seriously thinking of coming to find you to have a good old bitch, when there's this knock on my door and—"

"Yes" said Emily waving her hand in an encouraging gesture.

"Well I was expecting you but when I opened it…there's James in just his boxers!"

"No way!" Emily giggled "So that's why he was in his skivvies this morning?! I just thought he'd lost them in your room or something and didn't have anymore time to look!"

"No!" laughed Lily

"So then what?"

"Well then we talked and then we…"Lily trailed off casting a wary eye towards the two unknown girls opposite, "Then we…" she started again right before the door swung open a second time, making Lily and Emily abruptly halt their whispered conversation. All four girls in the carriage swung their heads around to look at the intrusion.

"Speak of the devil," Emily whispered with a chuckle after seeing who had opened the door.

Three boys stood there, looking in, they paused for a moment then, seeming to have found what they were looking for, they jumped inside.

James and Sirius smiled widely at the assembled girls whilst Remus rolled his eyes and nodded a welcome.

James sat down next to Lily, closer than would normally be deemed appropriate. And as he settled himself she suddenly, desperately, wished she could splash some cold water on her face because she immediately found herself flushing from the chest up. In fact, she was silently worried that the frantic throbbing in her chest might cause her permanent damage.

She had the fleeting thought that perhaps she was ill, but she knew there was nothing wrong with her. Nevertheless, as the carriage started to move she lay her head back against the seat and emitted a deep sigh.

Obviously hearing her, James placed a hand on her knee before asking, uneasily, "Are you alright?"

It occurred to her to tell him that if he kept his hand on her knee he was in imminent danger of finding out just how "alright" she was, but she squashed the idea before her traitorous body took action and instead said "I'm fine, thanks."

Her reassurance obviously wasn't enough to convince him given that his hand started to make a small, reassuring, caress.

This action was unsuccessfully ignored by Lily, especially when the seemingly innocent action of his hand, expanded to an outright stroking of the inside of her thigh.

She clamped her hand down on top of his, her eyes darting about to see if the others had noticed, positive that if she didn't stop him her eyes might actually roll back in her head.

He, however, ignored her fierce grasp and his fingertips continued to caress her. In time the rocking of the carriage and his rhythmic strokes influenced her to release his hand from her grip.

Lulled into a trance like state she almost gave a start when he spoke. "We're here."

She looked up to find everyone else had already gotten out, shocked that she hadn't noticed she stood up quickly almost hitting her head on the carriage roof. James watched her near miss and quirked a self-satisfied smile at her before exiting.

The moment he was outside she took the opportunity to roll her eyes at herself.

As she went to step down she found him waiting to help her, she smiled slightly at the old fashioned gesture and took his hand. But instead of relinquishing his hold once she was on the ground as she had expected, James adjusted his grip and grasped her by the wrist. He used hold on her to pull her around the back of the carriage and, once situated out of sight, he kissed her.

She had hoped that he would do something, she had felt the tension building between them in the carriage so strongly that it really was a wonder no one else had noticed it. So she welcomed the sudden contact, she had been fantasizing about kissing him from the moment she had seen him, wondering if his lips would feel and taste any different from last night.

Yet no amount of fantasizing could have prepared her for the reality. In reality, when he kissed her he drew her tightly against him and even through the heavy material of his cloak and the wool of his jumper and the cotton of his t-shirt she could feel his body, and the mere impression of it was enough to weaken her knees.

Just as his hand had crept inside her cloak Lily heard a rather obnoxious cough from behind James and, in response, she tried to push him off of her.

He pulled away momentarily letting his eyes flick to the intruder only to see Sirius's smirking face. In response he only rolled his eyes, threw an obscene hand gestured at him and, then, went back to kissing Lily.

"As hot as this is, I really think you should move before the next carriage turns up. Don't want to permanently scar any third years."

Lily, apparently seeming to agree with Sirius, pushed against James a second time and he reluctantly released her with a groan.

"Fine," he said grumpily before leaning down to Lily's ear and whispering "but we will finish this later."

Having some distance between them brought Lily back to her senses. She adjusted her hair self-consciously and threw him a dirty look, but, still when he held his hand out to her she took it without reservation

--

As they all settled into a booth at the Three Broomsticks the group quickly started to talk amongst themselves.

Sirius had quickly stolen Lily's attention, drawing her into conversation. They had always enjoyed a light, easy friendship and it seemed that now that she was with James he was more than eager for it to continue.

In fact, he had soon completely monopolised her.

At first, James seemed to take it quite cheerfully but, as they continued to talk, it wasn't long before he was glowering at them, which only intensified further when Sirius made a comment that made Lily blush spectacularly.

Soon he seemed so angry and disapproving that Lily started to feel uneasy and the further the afternoon progressed the more and more awkward the atmosphere became.

Once everyone, had had their fill of Butterbeer, however, the group disbanded to run their errands and walk around the town.

"You coming Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"I'll catch up with you later," James said, never letting his gaze move from Lily.

"Okay, see you Lily," Sirius said, sending her a wink and receiving a light smack on the back of the head from James.

Lily took James's hand once they had left the pub, trying to seek reassurance she hadn't made him angry.

His grip on her was firm, steering her away from the village and towards a hill that she knew looked out over the village and had a secluded bench near the top.

Once they had sat down he put his arms around her and rested his cheek on top of her head as the both look out at the view.

"You know," he whispered into her hair. "I'm so happy that you finally decided to be with me, Lily."

Still uneasy about his mood bad mood earlier in the pub, she responded "If that's true then why were you giving me the evil eye all afternoon? You were staring at me as if I'd done something wrong. In fact, you've always looked at me like that; it's actually why I was always convinced you hated me despite what you said about wanting to date me?"

"I'm sorry if I've ever made you feel that way. If I was always staring at you it certainly wasn't because I didn't like you… quite the opposite actually," he mumbled as he kissed her neck, several times, and pulled at the hair band holding her hair up. Once his goal was accomplished he ran his hand through the silky strands of red before gently pulling her lips to his.

"I had errands of my own to run you know," she whispered against his mouth.

"Anything you need, I'll go get it for you tomorrow."

She pulled away. "How?" she scoffed.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" he asked blandly, his eyes focused on her pink lips.

"No, no, I don't suppose I do," she laughed before taking over where he had left off.

A/N

Okay I have decided this story has no direction whatsoever other than to be full of fluff and smut. Considering the lacklustre response I got to the last chap – I'm thinking the readers agree… (don't worry the reviews I did get were great just not in nearly the usual quantity)

So I'm thinking of abandoning it – which is a little wrenching because so far I have finished all the stories I've posted (even if it did take a while)

Let me know what you think – maybe I'm being self-depreciating – so I will continue if enough people are interested – but be honest!

I haven't replied to the last batch of reviews but I will later today - just thought I'd post while I have the opportunity

Thanks for reading as always