"No," Lily said slowly as James pulled down the curtains in the Heads common room and sitting down by the fire. "What is it?"
"Well, I'm not really supposed to know about it," James said truthfully, staring into the fire and scratching his chin.
"James," Lily said softly, sitting down beside him and putting a hand on his shoulder, "tell me about it."
"My parents are in it," he said definitively, as though this explained everything. He was still staring at the embers in the fireplace, but his eyes turned glassy. Lily moved a little closer to him.
"Well, that explains how you know about it," Lily said with a chuckle.
"It's not a laughing matter," James said, turning his head to look at her. He was not mad at her for laughing; he was simply serious. "They were the perfect candidates for the Order, because they are both Aurors. They were handpicked by Mad-Eye himself. You know, Moody, the head Auror?" Lily nodded, and he continued. "Anyway, the Order of the Phoenix is a secret group founded by Dumbledore designed to bring down Voldemort. Some people work to find out what he's up to, some people work to tell people about the Order, some people work to convince others that Voldemort is bad news…There's a whole bunch of things that people do."
"And your parents are in it?" Lily asked, her eyes wide.
"Yeah," James said quietly, examining his palms.
"Wow," Lily whispered. "Are you scared for them?"
James stood up abruptly. "I've got to get to sleep, Lily," he said gruffly, not quite meeting her eye. "Quidditch practice tomorrow morning."
"Oh," Lily said, sounding hurt. "Okay, then."
Lily stayed in her dorm all day, reading a novel and eating snacks that her friends brought up to her from the Great Hall. It wasn't until 9:15 at night that she got up to do rounds with James.
However, James wasn't in the Heads common room. He must already be patrolling, Lily thought. I shouldn't have asked about his parents last night. We were getting along so good until then! She walked along the deserted halls, watching for wrongdoers but not really paying much attention. I can't believe it. I probably ruined my chances a while ago. I mean, who would've guessed that I would've fallen in love with—
"Snape?"
"That's right, Evans," the Slytherin said. He was rather taller than her (but then again, who wasn't?), with greasy black hair and an overlarge nose that reminded Lily strongly of a toucan.
Lily froze dead in her tracks. "What are you doing out this late?" Lily asked, eyeing him suspiciously. "You know that students aren't allowed out of their common rooms past 9:00. It's already 9:45!"
"And why should I care about school rules, Evans?" Snape asked her slyly, reaching his hand into his robes, where Lily was sure there was a wand. "After all, it's the seventh year. I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things." Lily barely had time to whip out her wand. "Petrificus Totalus!" Snape exclaimed, but Lily blocked the spell with a Shielding Charm.
This happened several times with different spells. Lily was growing tired of dodging and shielding spells. Suddenly she heard footsteps running towards the dark corner of the corridor that they were fighting in.
Oh no, Lily thought with a sinking feeling of dread, Snape's got reinforcements. How am I going to fight more people?
"Let her alone!" a voice shouted from her left, and Lily looked to see where the voice was coming from. There was a figure to the left of her pulling out a wand.
"No, Potter, I don't think I will," Snape said. "I know some people who she will be of good use to."
"Oh really?" James said sardonically. "Well, that's good then, isn't it, because you can't seem to be of use to anybody. Now sod off, Snape, before I hex you."
"I will, simply because I have better things to do than to watch you protect a girl who won't have you, though I must admit it is rather amusing. But be warned: next time worse things will happen to those you love." Snape turned on his heels and started to leave.
"Is that a threat?" James called after him.
"No," Snape drawled, not bothering to turn around. "It's a promise."
James ignored Snape and turned to face Lily, who was leaning against the wall of the corridor. "Lily," he said urgently, " are you okay?"
"Yeah, James, I'm fine," Lily said, standing up and starting to walk towards the next corridor. "I'm just tired of doing shielding charms, is all."
"Well, we still have fifteen minutes of patrolling to do. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, Regulus Black was giving some third year trouble."
"That's Sirius's brother," Lily said, "right?"
"Well, in blood only. Sirius told me that he spoke to you about his family," James said, walking alongside Lily.
"Yes," Lily said, "and his family made my sister seem like a kind, loving person."
"She's not?" James asked. Of course, he remembered the conversation with Shayna, but he wanted to hear it from Lily herself. It would show that she trusted him enough to tell him.
Lily laughed. "Oh, anything but! We were practically best friends until I started coming here. She got all icy and cold towards me. I suppose she's just jealous. Anyway, I told my family about Voldemort a few summers ago, and she's blamed me for it. She says that if it weren't for me, my whole family would be safe." Lily sighed. "Maybe she's right."
"Lily, nobody's safe when Voldemort's still out in the open," James said softly. "Not even his followers are safe from him."
"Yes, you're right," Lily said, "I was being stupid."
"No," James said as he stopped walking. "You weren't being stupid. Everybody feels guilty in some shape or form; everybody thinks that they are endangering their family somehow. Sometimes I wonder whether my family would be better off if I didn't cause so much trouble with Snivellus."
"James," Lily said softly, "you are probably the most caring wizard I have ever met."
The next thing Lily knew, strong arms were wrapped around her as James hugged her. "And you, Lily," he whispered into her hair, "are probably the most gorgeous witch I have ever met."
"I think I can live with that," Lily said, laughing.
"Lily, will you go out with me?" James asked her, still hugging her.
"Don't push your luck, Potter," she said, smirking, before pushing through his arms and walking away, leaving a rather depressed James in her wake.
A/N: Like I said, Lily's actions will be explained in a later chapter called Q and A. Anyways, thanks sooooooooo much to everybody who's reviewing and reading :) it means SO MUCH to me…thanks for reading. The next two chapters are very short compared to these, and I'm sorry for that…I was thinking of combining them into one chapter, but that wouldn't work. So, you just have two short chapters…to make it up to you I'll post them both on the same day :). So, click the little button and review, and it'll make me update faster! Thanks..
