A/N: The opening two scenes of my initial take on Chapter 25-the first chapter in Part Four. As you can see, I pretty radically changed my mind on what I wanted to do with the chapter when I scrapped this by sticking with my usual between-Parts time-jumps, reverting back to one-character-per-chapter third-person limited instead of continuing on with the multi-character chapter format I used to as the end-of-Part-Four exception in Chapter 24, major details like changing Lily's post-kiss reaction to one of freaking out and backing off instead of coming closer, minor details like keeping Benjy and Elisabeth's relationship alive. I changed my mind about the direction I wanted the story to go in (and I'm very glad I did so), but even though they don't properly work as a pulled-together one-shot, it's still a couple of cute scenes that I figure are appreciably worth posting.
January 2nd
Lily Evans
Blearily, she comes to, and when she unwillingly opens her eyes to find James looking back at her from across the guest bedroom she's borrowing, she figures she ought to be confused, bothered, curious. She ought to be, but she isn't, instead allowing a groggy sort of peace to swallow her up.
The sight of James Potter has never pleased Lily more.
"Good morning," she says lazily, seventy percent still sleeping and a hundred percent happy, and he crosses the distance and leans in close and kisses her.
Her neck is at a funny angle, and she knows James can't be enjoying her morning breath, but it all fades away in that split second of mouth against hot mouth and the sweet, sweet feeling of succumbing. He pulls away a lifetime later but a lifetime too soon; he smiles. "Sleep well?"
"You have no idea," says Lily. "Come here," she adds, and she reaches out to pull him closer and closer still. She's never done this before, doesn't know what to expect or to want—but James is close and warm and safe, and she doesn't have a lot of experience, but Lily's gut reaction to him draws her in.
They break apart again a while later, leaving her feeling flushed and small. James has climbed onto the bed by now, holding himself up over her. "What are you doing here? Where are Alice and Em?" she asks, now that her groggy stupor is starting to fall away.
"Already up and ready to catch the train," he says, grinning. Lily starts to groan with the realization that she's overslept, and James chuckles, pressing his lips to her forehead. "You ready to join the rest of us in the kitchen, or do you need a minute?"
"I'm going to need a minute. We're going to need a minute," she adds as he starts to roll off of her, snatching up his wrist and holding tight.
Furrowing his eyebrows, James lies back down again, this time next to her, to Lily's simultaneous disappointment and relief. "What's up?" he asks, tucking a few strands of mussed hair behind her ear.
"James, what is this? What are we?" Her voice is squeaky from the phlegm caught in her throat, but James takes her seriously, heaving a sigh. "I'm not complaining, exactly, but I… I mean, have you told anyone about this?"
He shakes his head. "I've been waiting to take my cue from you," he tells her, studying her. "Ball's in your court now."
"My court? I wasn't aware that I'm the one who keeps kissing you, not the other way around," says Lily, mock-terse.
James smirks, kisses her again—he drags it out, leaving her breathless. "I mean with where we take this—that part, at least, is up to you. Of course, if you have any common sense whatsoever, it should be easy for you to figure it out," he adds with a playful smile.
Half smiling, Lily answers, "I just… I think I need some time, you know? This is all happening so fast, and I've never…"
"Whatever you need," he promises. "Do I still get to kiss you?"
After a moment of hesitation, she compromises, "Behind closed doors?"
"Behind closed doors," he agrees, adding after a pause, "So do you reckon now would be a good time to practice this arrangement?"
"James!" Lily says with a laugh, but she lets him pull her atop him and kiss her, once, twice, three times, before she pulls back and jumps off the bed. "I have to get dressed. And you have to get back downstairs before people start getting suspicious," she says with authority.
Shrugging, James answers carelessly, "They'll think what they want to think. It doesn't matter."
"Yes, well, I'm pretty sure that what your mum thinks matters, and last time I stayed over at your place, she thought we were sleeping together," she reminds him. He puts up his hands in a motion of surrender and gets up, beaming at her on his way out the door.
xx
Mary Macdonald
"She'll be down in a minute," James informs them as he reenters the kitchen, ruffling his hair and looking like he's trying a little too hard to maintain his composure. "Overslept."
Innocently enough, Mary asks, "What took you so long?"
"She couldn't help but succumb to my irresistible charm," he answers with a hint of a jocular smile. "No, really, she was out like a rock; I wanted to wait around and make sure she wasn't going to make us late getting to King's Cross before I came back down."
She's not convinced, but she doesn't push the matter. Something's been different in Lily and James's dynamic ever since Christmas Day, they've all noticed it, but if it were really something gossip-worthy, she's sure one of them would have mentioned it by now. So Mary lets it go, shrugging off his (admittedly well constructed) answer, and turns her attention to something of much greater interest to, she's sure, all of them. "So Lene," she starts out, bursting with (she thinks) harmless curiosity, "is this thing with you and Sirius for real?"
Marlene doesn't answer at first, and Mary's afraid she's just become the newest reason for the demise of her friends' relationship—but then she cracks a slightly nervous smile and affirms, "Yeah, I think it is this time," and Sirius grins and tightens his embrace.
To be honest, Mary hadn't expected them to be such an affectionate sort of couple. Before, even when everyone in the room knew about their relationship, they'd never so much as brushed hands in public; besides, she thought she knew Marlene well enough to be able to say with confidence that she wasn't a fan of any kind of PDA. Of course, until a few short days ago, they'd never been in a proper relationship—in retrospect, Mary imagines it must be a relief for them both to be able to hug and kiss and not feel the slightest bit of guilt or self-doubt.
Still, they seem to have lost all their modesty—more often than not, Marlene's sitting in his lap these days, arms wound around his neck, half the time his lips pressed to her skin. Mary doesn't mind, though, or tries not to, anyway. She ought to be happy that her mates are finally happy, hell, that all nine of them are on the road to recovery. Right?
The next thing she knows, it's two hours later, and she's pouring out all her awful insecurities to a completely bewildered Alice on the train.
"I mean, am I a terrible person for not being totally thrilled about this? Lene's my best mate, Alice, has been ever since second year, and now I have to compete against Sirius—as if the Lily thing weren't bad enough! And I'm not saying I don't like Lily, Merlin, no, but, like, I've been there for her longer, you know, and isn't it fair for me to feel a little, I don't know, snubbed by the fact that she's so willing to totally forget about me every time she starts to get close to anybody else?"
Alice fidgets; Mary feels a burst of sudden shame. "I don't think you're being unreasonable," she says slowly, finally, "but you should try to look at it from Marlene's point of view, too. She's been miserable over her problems with Sirius for how long now? To finally have a real go at a relationship with him—that's got to mean a lot to her, and she does deserve to enjoy that."
Sighing, Mary says, "I know, and I feel awful for having a problem with it at all—it's just lonely, you know? You guys are all I have now that it's over for me and Reg, and I just..."
"I know. I know," Alice tells her, and it occurs to Mary suddenly that she really does know.
"I don't know if I ever told you, Alice, but I'm sorry about the Frank thing; that blows."
Alice lets out a breath and leans in a little closer. They've got to talk quietly: Peter and Emmeline are engrossed in conversation over something or other across the compartment from them, but Mary would still hate for any word of this to get out to the rest of the group. "It's not a huge deal, I reckon; I had it coming for not being clearer to him about my feelings," she says, her voice wavering. It's not easy for Alice to talk about her personal life, Mary knows, and as such, her heart goes out to her.
"No, you didn't," she insists. "Like, the whole castle's been counting the days till you two got together; he's got to be either clueless or an arse or a clueless arse for going out with a tramp like Madley, no matter what his reasons are."
Weakly, Alice smiles.
"You know what we should do?" asks Mary, abruptly inspired. "We should make a pact."
"A pact?" echoes Alice, furrowing her eyebrows.
Nodding, she says, "Yeah, a pact. No more Frank; no more Reg. To hell with them if they can't see what they're missing! Who says you've got to end up married with children to your first love? Tell you what—we'll both have boyfriends by the end of the month. There's, like, plenty of other fish in the sea or whatever, right?"
"I don't know," Alice tries to tell her, but Mary won't have it.
"I'm serious," she babbles. "I'll set you up with... I don't know, what about Gilderoy?"
Somehow, Mary's actually a little surprised at the look of horror that crosses Alice's face. "Gilderoy Lockhart? Are you daft?"
"You need to get over Frank, he needs to get over Lene—"
"I don't want to get over Frank with him! It's nothing against Lockhart, of course," she covers, blushing, "but he's so... he's just not my type, Mary."
Rolling her eyes, Mary accepts, "Yeah, yeah, fair enough... how about Benjy Fenwick? I heard he and Liz Clearwater broke up over the holidays, and he's better suited to you, isn't he?"
"I suppose," says Alice grudgingly. "Fine, you'll date Lockhart, and I'll—"
"What? No, I can't go out with Gilderoy; we were together for a couple of months in, like, fifth year, don't you remember?"
"You're a different person than you were in fifth year, aren't you?" says Alice, and Mary has no retort for that. "If I'm honestly going to date Benjy Fenwick, Mary, you're going to date Gilderoy Lockhart."
She considers it for a moment, weighing her options. Mary can't say she's been interested in Gilderoy in that way since their short-lived fling, but Alice has a point; she likes to think she's grown this year, so why can't Gilderoy have grown, too? "All right," she assents at long last. "I'll talk to them this week, set up a double date or something—before you know it, Reg and Frank are going to be dead to us."
Alice still looks skeptical, and if Mary were being perfectly honest with herself, she'd have to admit that she's not so sure of this, either. It's a good thing, then, that Mary's gotten pretty good at telling herself lies.
