Hi! It´s me again! Hope, you´ll enjoy this chapter =)
Disclaimer: I don´t own HP. Obviously.
Thank you ginnyjaffa for an awesome birthday gift!
Lily E. woke up exactly five minutes earlier than her alarm went off. She lay for a few moments in the bed, just contemplating the events of the day before. Her older self had slipped up and she revealed that she was married. Married. Wow. In five years time I am going to be a wife and mother. I still feel like a child, am I prepared for this? And who is this man I marry? Lily said something about Harry but I don't know anybody with that name. I wish it was James, he would make a great husband. Her alarm started ringing. She jumped out of the bed immediately. Oh Merlin. I have totally forgotten. I have a date today. Because she was in such a rush, she didn't notice that her legs were tangled in her light yellow sheets and she fell down to the floor.
"Oh. Great start for a new day." She muttered sarcastically when she tried to get up. When she was finally free, she headed immediately into bathroom to get ready. She emerged twenty minutes later, fully dressed and her hair done. She smiled at her reflection in huge mirror on her wardrobe and she twirled, her short skirt flying. She was very satisfied with herself.
When she opened her door, she saw Lily P. and Sirius O. quietly talking by the fireplace. They looked very occupied and they didn't even notice her.
"What are we going to do? I told them about Harry, it's a very important memory." Lily P. worried.
"I know but like I said before, you are excellent at Charms, you can manage very strong Obliviate, can´t you?" Sirius tried to calm her down.
"This all sounds so nice, but it is only a theory. Of course I can perform powerful memory charm but I could damage their brains irrecoverably." Lily P. looked like she would freak out soon.
Sirius put one hand around her shoulder. "Don't worry, it will be just fine."
Lily E. didn't wanted to keep eavesdropping so she coughed to catch their attention. "Good morning!" She started cheerfully.
They immediately stopped talking. "Hey Evans." Sirius called, while Lily P. just nodded.
"Where are others?" Lily E. asked curiously.
Lily P. just laughed. "Peter was hungry like usual so they all went with him to the kitchens grab some pre-breakfast snack." Slimy two-faced asshole. She thought maliciously, she still couldn't manage to discern Peter from the future and even though this young Peter wasn't a traitor yet.
Sirius O. pouted. "Yeah and they didn't take me with them. I will remember it."
Lily P. rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, they will bring you something."
Right at that moment Sirius Y. banged through door with bag full of food.
"Oh, speaking of the devil." Lily E. muttered.
"Evans, I love you too." Sirius Y. beamed at her unfazed by her lack of enthusiasm at his appearance.
"Do you have our breakfast?" Sirius O. asked eagerly, his stomach grumbling.
"Where did you leave everyone else?" Lily E. asked in the same moment.
Sirius Y. threw his bag to Sirius O. who caught it expertly. Then he turned to Lily E. "Oh, what Evans? Do you miss your Jamesie already?" He asked in sickly sweet voice.
Lily E. didn't know how to respond, she just blushed deep scarlet.
Lily P. hit Sirius Y. across the head. "Oi Black, give her rest and tell us please where the others are."
"Yes, madam." Sirius Y. saluted and then he started laughing. "Our poor Wormtail was so desperate for some food that he ate something rotten from yesterday and he got food poisoning. Moony and Prongs took him to Hospital Wing."
Sirius O. joined his laugher with full mouth. "That is our Wormtail!"
"Oh Black!" Lily P. cried. "Close your mouth you pig! Are you trying to bombard me?"
Sirius O. chewed for few moments and then swallowed. "Evans, don't get so mad immediately, it was just one tiny fritter."
Lily P. opened her mouth to retort hastily but she was interrupted by James and Remus who just arrived.
"Poor Wormtail got stuck in the Hospital wing for the rest of the day." Remus announced and plopped himself on one armchair.
"Aw, that's bad." Lily E. said. "Today is Hogsmead visit."
James smiled at his girlfriend and went to hug her. "Don't worry about him Lils, we can bring him some sweets from Honeydunkes." He will sneak out anyway, he wouldn't let this opportunity to get chocolate slip.
"Good idea," Lily hugged him back, "would you accompany me to the breakfast?"
"Of course," James took her hand, "let's go." He bent down to her. "By the way, you look awesome." He whispered to her ear.
"Thank you." Lily giggled.
They waved at others and disappeared in the corridor.
"Well," Sirius O. clasped his hands together, "since our lovebirds have left, what about us?"
"My fate is quite clear." Sirius Y. sighed. "I got a detention for whole day."
"Yay!" Sirius O. whooped. "It means that I can go to Zonko´s."
Lily P. shot him warning glare. "Yes, but you have to still go with me under cloak because teachers can't see you."
"Okay, okay." Sirius O. waved his hand dismissively. "I am aware of that. However, I think that we will split up in Hogsmead anyway, I doubt that any Professors will go in there in this weather."
"So we're settled." Remus looked at his watch and said. "Well, I have one hour to write my Arithmacy essay and we can meet at ten in the Great Hall."
"Have a nice day." Sirius Y. sighed. "I am going on my date with Minnie and cleaning supplies." He got up and left together with Remus.
Sirius O. looked at Lily P. "And we are here all alone again. Wanna do something about it?" He wriggled his eyebrow suggestively.
Lily P. just laughed. "Shut up, you prat, or I will report you to James when we are back."
Sirius wore mock innocent expression on his face. "B-but Evans! I promised Prongs that I will take care of you if he wouldn't be able to."
Lily patted his head. "Yeah, but I don't think that he was talking about any sexual activity."
"What!" Sirius O. pretended to be horrified. "You have a sick mind Evans, I was talking about one game of chess." He put his head into his hands. "Evans, Evans, you thought about cheating on my best friend, I should punish you." He suddenly withdraw his wand and with one swift motion, Lily was soaking wet from head to toes.
She shrieked in shock. "Black!" She hit Sirius who was howling with laugher. She just sighed. "You're an idiot, you know."
"Aw, don't be so mean, Evans. You know you liked it. See," he pointed at her face in mirror, "you're smiling again."
Lily P. shook her head. "You are impossible. Although it was definitely strange way to cheer me up, you succeeded. "
"Well," Sirius started proudly, "I am the Sirius Black, every girls´ dream, you know."
Lily P. chuckled. "Okay keep thinking that. I have something better and more real than dreaming about you."
Sirius O. grimaced. "Stop it, don't go anywhere further. I don't need to hear how good my best friend is in bed."
Lily winked. "Oh, he is. Especially when he-"
Sirius quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "Too much information for my innocent ears. Please shut up."
"Uh, I will spare you for now, Black." Lily smiled. "Come on, we have to find James's cloak so we can go to the Hogsmead."
"You're right, Evans." Sirius nodded and they both started to search for the cloak. Lily took care of the common room and Sirius went to James's room.
Ten minutes later, Lily heard victorious shout. "I've got it! Who knew that Prongs had so many pictures of you." Sirius emerged James's room with cloak already on so Lily saw only his head.
"What?" She looked at him confusedly.
"You see," Sirius gestured towards James's room, "while I was looking for the cloak, I found seventeen photos of you. Ew, he really was obsessed."
Lily smiled adoringly. "I think it was rather sweet. Besides, I had six his photos by the end of our sixth year."
"What!" Sirius O. stared at her disbelievingly. "You have fancied him for so long and you had to still leave us in the misery?"
Lily raised her eyebrow questionably. "Us? Misery?"
"Yeah, us. Marauders. We had to listen to his moping." He began to speak in girly high pitched voice. "Why can't she give me a chance? Oh, I love her so much! Can't she see it? She smiled at Matthias yesterday, do you think that she likes him? Should I hex him? Or bring her flowers? Can I borrow your hair gel? Merlin, it just can't stay flat! Do you think that she prefers me in my green or blue T-shirt?" He returned to his normal voice. "Oh Merlin, it was horrible!"
By the end of his speech, Lily was laughing so hard that she started to worry if she will wet her pants. "Black, stop it now! My side hurts from laughing."
He held his hands in surrender manner. "You found it funny, not me. It was a nightmare." He shivered.
Lily took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "I think that we should go, it will take us more time with two adult people under one cloak."
"You're right." Sirius O. immediately agreed.
They met others in the Entrance Hall exactly at ten o´clock. James, Lily and Remus went first, closely followed by Lily and Sirius under the cloak. Remus found an empty carriage right for them. When they wanted to close the door, Peter suddenly appeared. "I-I did it!" He panted.
When they sat, Sirius threw away the cloak. "Finally, I can breathe. It's too small for us now. And I had to be smashed together with Evans, ew."
Lily P. rolled her eyes. "Be grateful that you can visit Hogsmead and don´t complain."
"Merlin Evans, you are acting like my mother." Sirius made a face at her. "Please stop lecturing me all the time."
"I will stop as soon as you will behave like a grown up man and not a five year old." She retorted.
The others watched their bickering with growing interest.
Remus chuckled and then he said to Lily P. "When you don´t have Prongs here, you manage to find another person to argue with."
She grinned. "Well, James behaves more mature now and I need training for my brain so discussing things with this idiot is ideal."
"Hey! I beg your pardon!" Sirius O. cried mock hurt. "You know, you secretly love it."
Lily P. just smiled mysteriously. "Even if I did, you will never know."
They all laughed merrily. Lily E. and James returned to their hushed conversation and Lily P. with Sirius continued their bickering, this time about Sirius´s mermaid hair.
Remus turned to Peter. "Wormtail, it looks like we are on our own today, where would you like go first?" He sensed that Peter often felt left out so he wanted to make it up for him.
Peter´s eyes brightened with excitement. "We should totally go to Honeydunkes first. Evan told me that they got a new flavour of Berties Beans."
Remus nodded patiently. "I thought so. I need to refill my chocolate storage anyway so I am with you."
"And then we have to go to Zonko´s." Peter was overjoyed that somebody listened to him and that he could determine what they were going to do.
Sirius joined their conversation. "I am going with you, too."
"And what about Lily?" Remus turned his gaze towards Lily P.
"Evans," Sirius O. wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "is in it with us, isn´t she?" He looked at her with his puppy eyes.
"I suppose so." She shrugged. "I have nothing better to do, besides you need somebody to calm him down." She indicated to Sirius O.
He grinned. "I am not sure if you can manage it, nobody succeeded so far."
Lily shook her head. "A girl can always dream." She stopped herself. "Are you going without cloak? No Professors are going today so they won´t recognize you when you should be in detention."
Sirius nodded. "It´s good idea, we both will be more comfortable."
While they were talking, the carriages stopped at the edge of Hogsmead. Lily P. put on the cloak again and followed others out.
James grabbed Lily´s hand and he waved at the rest of Marauders and Lily P. "See you later." He smiled nervously and pulled Lily behind him to a side lane.
Sirius started to laugh loudly. "Where are you taking her? To snog her in a dark corner?" He shook his head mock disappointed. "I don´t think girls find that romantic."
James flicked him the finger and then he continued without hesitation.
Remus sighed. "Padfoot, please shut up, this is their first date, don´t ruin it!"
Sirius O. just grinned. "Oh come on, Moony, you're acting like he can't´ stand a bit of friendly teasing."
Remus wanted to answer but Lily jabbed them both to the ribs from behind. "Oh boys, shut up. I need my morning chocolate so let´s go to the Honeydunkes."
Peter vigorously nodded. "Yeah, I am hungry too."
"Wormtail and hungry. Who would have thought?" Sirius stated sarcastically. Although he tried to act normal around him, he could still see his betrayal so he was unintentionally very mean towards him. Scum. Traitor. Dirt. We were best friends! How could he?
Remus tried to admonish Peter. "Don´t forget that just an hour ago you laid in the Hospital Wing moaning because of stomach ache."
Peter ignored him, he grabbed a door knob and opened slowly in awe. He turned to the others. "Welcome to my personal Heaven!"
Lily P. chuckled from under the cloak. "Mine too. Remus could you please grab these chocolate bars from the right rack?"
"Which one?" Remus whispered. "There are at least fifty kinds."
"Caramel chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate and that chocolate with chilli." Lily replied excitedly. "I will pay you for it later."
Remus nodded discreetly and went to find his own sweets.
When they finally left the shop, they found out that they spent more than half an hour there.
"Wow, the time is so fast when you are with chocolate." Lily sighed.
"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "But I am oversweet right now, I need something salty."
Remus looked at his watch. "It´s eleven o´clock right now, I suggest visiting Zonko´s and then we can continue to the Three Broomsticks for the lunch."
"Yay!" Peter whooped. "I'm coming!" And he was off. They could only watch his back to disappear in the crowd.
"Boy, he is really sugar high now." Remus smiled. "We should better go to catch him before he hurts himself."
They started laughing and followed Peter, they could easily identified him because of his high pitched screams of joy.
When they wanted to enter the shop, a cold voice interrupted them. "I didn´t know that Bloodtraitors have their own fashion."
Sirius turned quickly and he stood face to face his younger brother. Dead brother in his time. He was so in shock that he totally forgot about whole time travelling thing. "W-what are you doing here?" He stammered.
Remus looked at him worriedly. Sirius paled and he looked like he had seen a ghost.
Regulus shot him a death glare. "Tsk. Did you just lose your voice by looking at me?" He stated sneeringly.
His dogsboy, a burly but dull sixth year Slytherian called Hyde sniggered.
This woke Sirius up from his trance. He grimaced at Regulus. "What do you want here, dear brother?"
Regulus smirked. "I just wanted to ask what happened to your awesome "sex" hair. It´s quite mermaidish now."
A few bystanders started laughing at Sirius.
Sirius straightened up so he was a head taller than his younger brother. "It is the last fashion from Paris, you dolt!"
"Wow. Really?" Hyde asked stupidly.
"Oh, Paris. So sexy!" Girls in the crowd flipped over.
Remus chuckled. This was Padfoot, he always managed to make situation working for him.
Regulus sneered. "We will see who is stupid. Soon. Take care of your idiotic hair." And he was gone.
Sirius stayed in shock and he looked at the spot where his younger brother stood just few seconds ago.
Remus grabbed his arm and he pulled him into the shop. "Don´t let him to break you." He whispered to Sirius.
Sirius O. shook his head resignedly. "I know, it´s just... He is my brother and now..."
"I understand. You don´t need to say more." Remus nodded.
"Here you are." Peter called from behind a big shelf with Dungbombs. "Look what I found!" He held a huge brown box.
"What is it?" Sirius strode towards interestedly.
Remus exhaled in relief. Sirius was efficiently distracted and he stopped worry about Regulus. This was good.
"A new pranking kit!" Peter explained excitedly and then he started describing what this box contains.
Remus suddenly paused. Something is missing. But what? He slowly went to both excited pranksters. Suddenly, it clicked. "Where is Lily?"
Sirius glanced at him briefly. "Hmm, I totally forgot. I think we have lost her when we were running after Wormtail. We should find for her."
"Okay." Remus nodded. "Let´s pay for this quickly and go." He took the box and hurried towards cash desk. He was back in two minutes.
"You were ve-" Peter started but never finished. His words were interrupted by a sudden explosion from the outside.
"What the fuck?" Sirius swore and he opened the door.
It looked like the hell had broken outside. People were running in all direction, screaming and moaning. Some of them were injured, they were hobbling or just lying on the ground resignedly. Sirius got a brief look at a dead young woman. There stood the cloaked figures on the end of the street, firing curses in all directions.
"Merlin. James! Evans!" Sirius yelled. He turned to Remus. "Stay here and help all people out through back door. Then take them all into Forbidden Forest, nobody will search there." He ordered.
Remus agreed shakily and he turned to the others.
Sirius looked at Peter and said. "You go through fireplace in the first floor to the Ministry of the Magic, Auror department and tell them that somebody attacked Hogsmead. Do you understand?"
Peter nodded and run upstairs.
Sirius sighed, withdraw his wand and whispered. "Don´t worry mate, I won´t leave you alone." And he bursted through the door outside.
Lily Potter
Peter took off with cosmic speed and when boys started chasing him, she tried to catch up with them. However, she was wearing an invisible cloak and she had to be extra careful, she had to avoid any contact with people on the street. It would be very suspicious if you just bumped into hard air.
She knew that boys were going to Zonko´s so she didn´t worry about finding them, they would spend a lot of time there certainly, she didn´t have to hurry. She slowly walked down the street, looking in shop windows, thinking about her James and Harry home. I miss them so much. I wish I was in James´s arms at home already.
While she was walking, she didn´t notice that she had already passed Zonko´s and that she was almost at the end of the street. She looked up when she realised that crowd visibly decreased. She saw one side alley.
"Hey, that is the street where James with younger me disappeared." She whispered to herself. She didn´t try to deny it, she was curious where their first date took place. She decided to walk down this street and she hoped that she might meet them.
She just turned a corner and she made only ten steps when a massive explosion from behind knocked her to the ground.
Lily and James
When they rounded the corner, James dropped Lily´s and he sighed. "Merlin, that Padfoot really doesn´t know when he should shut up."
Lily giggled. "I don´t mind him, you have quite funny friends."
"Really?" James immediately brightened. "So you are not angry?" He wanted to be sure.
"Of course not." Lily smiled and she took his hand. "Stop overanalysing it and come on. Where are we going first? Honeydunkes?"
James chuckled. "Definitely not. I´ve got something special planned."
"What?" Lily was immediately curious. She turned to face him and she was walking backwards, still looking at James.
"It´s a surprise, I won´t ruin it for you." He winked mischievously.
"Oh, come on." Lily whined. "Tell me, please!" She avoided a crush with a young family when she turned back just in time.
James just shook his head. "Nope. You will have to wait." He encircled her waist and pulled her with him.
They arrived to old small shop. It was newly painted so its white wall was visible from the end of the street even in this horrible weather. It was cloudy, foggy and quite chilly and it drizzled. No wonder all Professors refused to go supervising.
James knocked three times at massive wooden door. They heard footsteps and then an old witch looked through little window with cute crochet veiling. She smiled at James and she started to unlock the door.
"Good morning dears!" She greeted them enthusiastically. "Did you have a good ride? I hope you didn´t get too wet, it´s terrible weather today." She didn´t seem to need to breathe between sentences. Words were spilling from her like water from the waterfall.
Lily was watching her with her with her mouth open. This little woman looked like she was ages old but she was so full of energy! She didn´t need a stick to help her move, she was very fast. Her old face was wrinkled and she missed half of her tooth but her eyes shined with life.
"Good morning." James answered, he didn´t appear to be shocked like Lily, he probably knew this woman from before Lily finally decided.
"We were moving fast so we aren´t fully drenched but I still forgot an umbrella charm in this rush." He chuckled. "This is my Lily," He gently pushed Lily in front of him, "and this is our old family friend, Lady Mary." He introduced them.
"Good morning." Lily finally found her voice.
"Oh, she is far prettier that you told me, Jamie." Lady exclaimed while she pulled stunned Lily into hug.
When she released Lily, she turned to James. "Here are the keys, you know where to go. I will go take my nap upstairs so just lock the door and hide it into this flower-pot, I will find it there later."
She threw one last bright smile at them and she disappeared in the next room.
Lily looked at James questionably. "What was all that?"
He smiled. "Close your eyes, it has to be a surprise."
Lily looked at him suspiciously but she obeyed.
James stood behind her and took her by her shoulders. He led her through one door into a very light room, Lily could feel it even through her eye lids.
"You can open your eyes now." He whispered huskily into her right ear. She shivered involuntarily.
Lily did as he said and she gasped in astonishment. She stood in the middle of Paradise. She always thought that Honeydunkes is the best shop ever but she was wrong. There were little white tables with matching chairs that looked like they were from a fairytale. The counter was also white and lined with little light green flowers. Lily noticed just now that the same flowers were lining tables, too. It looked like this room didn´t have the fourth wall. There was a beautiful view behind the counter, spring wood in fresh green and sun rays going through branches. Lily realized that it was a French window and somebody used similar spell like on Great Hall ceiling on it.
"It shows you various places depending on your mood." James answered her unspoken question.
"Wow. Wow. Wow." Lily said quietly to herself like she was afraid that if she is any louder, this dream will be over.
"And that's is not all." James took her hand and pushed her towards one table in the corner.
Lily was struck dumb with amazement. There stood something what looked like a huge vase filled with various flowers. From roses to tulips and to daffodils. From red to blue and violet. Lily made two steps toward this beauty and she noticed that all flowers and although vase sparkled like diamonds. Two more steps and she found out that the sparkling was caused by pieces of ice. She turned to James with question on her lips.
He answered before she managed to ask. "It´s from ice-cream."
"What?" She spun around and she studied the bouquet closely. "You were right. Wow again. But how?"
James just shrugged and shifted the white chair so Lily could sit.
"Thank you, you are a gentleman." She smiled up at him and she sit down. "But really, how?"
He took his seat. "Well, you have said once that the only thing that you love more than chocolate is an ice-cream." He took her hand across the table in his.
Lily sighed. "It´s perfect. You are too good for me."
James just laughed. "Nah, not possible. You are too good for me."
"We are not going to argue about this, are we?" Lily giggled. "I'm curious, tell me how did you managed to prepare all this-" she waved her hand around to make a point "-in such a short time. You asked me out yesterday morning."
James winked conspirator and indicated her to move closer. He whispered. "Mary has a nephew, Nicholas. He wants to open an ice-cream parlour next month here and Mary is looking after it while he is in France. Well, I knew that the shop was ready, Nicholas is just waiting for his licence, so I asked him if I could use it here. And everything else is clear – he said yes, told Mary and she helped me with these flowers." He chuckled. "I just couldn´t get it how to make daffodils."
"Merlin." Lily exhaled. "You did these flowers by yourself?"
"Not completely, Mary helped me, but mostly yes." He nodded sheepishly.
"I-I don´t know what to say, it´s-" Lily opened her mouth to say something but she just couldn´t "-I can´t find words to describe it."
James gripped her hand tighter. "I am glad that you like it."
Lily looked at him scandalously. "Like it? No. I love it!"
They both began to laugh.
When they both calmed down, James prompted Lily. "So, are you going to try it?"
"What? I can´t eat something so pretty!" Lily shook her head disapprovingly.
"You must." James smiled. "I have made it for you to eat it."
"Okay." Lily finally agreed. She hesitantly took a teaspoon and she peeled one petal off." She slowly put it into her mouth.
James was watching her eagerly.
"Hmm, it´s strawberry flavour." Lily let it to melt on her tongue. "The best strawberry ice-cream I have ever had." She sighed happily.
James grinned, obviously satisfied. "Try this dark tulip." He gestured to another flower.
Lily obeyed. "Oh Merlin. It´s chocolate! It´s delicious. I think that I might have died and gone to heaven." She was overjoyed. "You have to try it too." She stuck her hand with spoon to James.
He opened his mouth but they didn´t coordinate their movements and Lily poked him under his nose with her spoon. She started laughing again. "You have a mustache."
James wiped his mouth with back of his hand and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. He grabbed his spoon, attacked one violet blueberry aster and he smudged it on Lily´s right cheek.
She abruptly stopped laughing and she glared at him. "This means war, Potter." She added jokingly his surname to emphasize her threat.
He just smirked. "You're on."
And it started. Yelling, screaming, running, falling, screaming... If somebody heard them he would think that they were attacked. Half an hour later, they sat back on their chairs, totally exhausted. Lily´s white blouse wasn´t white anymore, it contained all colours like a rainbow. James had a piece of waffle in his hair which was more dishevelled than usual. They both wore similar happy grins on their faces and they were breathing heavily.
"I won." Lily concluded when she started breathing normally.
"And who is the judge?" James raised an eyebrow.
"Me, of course." Lily giggled.
"If you insist." James just shook his head mock indulgently.
"But now I really want to enjoy my ice-cream. Half of it is on me but I haven´t try almost anything." Lily exclaimed and grabbed her spoon.
James rested back in his chair and closed his eyes.
She spooned a huge piece of lemon lily and slowly licked it. She sighed happily, it was truly perfect. She looked and James and her eyes sparkled with mischief, she could use some fun with this ice-cream. She wanted to ask somebody sooner about it but she was never so close with any boy like now with James. "James?" She gently kicked his leg under table to wake him up.
"What?" He asked kindly.
"Can I ask you a very personal question?" She looked at him through her eyelashes and smiled flirtatiously. Merlin. I even dally. I didn´t know that I am capable of doing it. It´s James fault. Definitely.
"Of course, Lils, you can do anything." He smiled back at her.
She licked her spoon while she was thinking how to ask. "I wanted to know, if it´s true that boys like watching girls eating bananas and strawberries or licking other things?"
James thought about it. "Well, it´s really personal question. I guess it is true, if-" He groaned. Lily was listening to him interestedly and she absentmindedly licked the rest of the ice cream from the spoon. "You are doing it on purpose, aren´t you?" He told her accusingly.
"What?" Lily feigned surprise. She looked down at her spoon and acted like it just clicked. "Oh," she giggled. "I wasn´t, but I guess, I can start." She slightly opened her mouth and slowly, torturously licked her upper lip and then lower. She stuck the tip of her tongue from her mouth and licked her thumb which was covered in rest of chocolate ice cream.
"Stop it!" James squeezed his eyes shut and he put his hands before him like a protection from Lily.
She started laughing again. "Why? It´s fun to tease you."
He decided that it was safe and he opened his eyes. "Women." He muttered while Lily almost fell from her chair because of laughing. "I don´t understand what is so funny here."
He crossed arms on his chest and started sulking. This only made Lily laugh harder.
"Y-you are s-so cute, whe-en you are p-pouting." She gasped for air.
This made James smirk deviously. "You think that I am cute?" He asked mischievously.
Lily immediately sobered and she flushed bright red. "Uh, huh. Well, you know...I mean, well...you" She stuttered, looking into her lap, playing nervously with her hands.
"Aw, don´t worry, you look also adorable when you are embarrassed." James leaned across the table to squeeze her hand.
Lily raised her head to look at him. She suddenly noticed how close their faces were.
It looked like James realized it too, because he grinned briefly at her and he cupped her cheek with his left hand.
"You are so beautiful." He murmured quietly, their mouths only inches apart.
Lily was just staring at him, willing him to kiss her. However, something broke in her in the last second. James saw it in her eyes. They sparkled and then suddenly stopped. She leaned in and she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you." She whispered. "This is the most beautiful date I could ever hope for."
What ? James was very confused. Why didn´t she want to kiss me? She really doesn´t like me. Or my breath smells. Or maybe she is just afraid that I am rushing things. Yeah, it must be this. I will try to take it slower, she already agreed to go out with me, I have everything I have ever wanted. He sighed in relief at his explanation. But what if she really doesn´t want me?
Lily didn´t notice his inside struggling. She looked down at their connected hands. It feel so right, just us. She smiled gently. Then she saw her watch. "Oh, it´s almost twelve, we were supposed to meet others for lunch." She exclaimed.
James woke up from his state and he got up. "You are right, we should be go-"
He didn´t finished. A great explosion from outside took his words away.
"What happened?" Lily sounded very frightened.
"I don´t know, I will investigate and you will wait here for me, okay?" James answered while he was creeping slowly towards front door.
"No way." Lily grabbed his hand. "If you are going outside, I am with you."
"Lils, don't be silly." James tried to reason with her. "We don´t know what can be waiting there, you could be hurt."
"So could you." Lily stamped on her foot stubbornly. "I won´t leave you."
James sighed resignedly. It was clear that she wouldn´t obey him. "Okay, but you will have to listen to me and when I say run, run."
Lily nodded and she squeezed his hand tighter. James grabbed the doorknob and he carefully opened the door. He stayed inside, he just stuck his head.
"What? What´s going on?" Lily jabbed him into ribs from behind.
"Ouch." James complained. "There is a lot of smoke at the end of the street and some people are running."
"Help, help me please!" A woman voice suddenly screamed.
"Somebody is hurt, we have to help." Lily exclaimed and pushed James out so she could go through door.
They withdraw their wand and they started running towards the place where they heard yelling.
They found a middle aged woman with dark black hair, lying on the ground, her lower half buried under fallen wall of one shop.
She was moaning in pain, these big bricks had to crush bones in her legs.
Lily bent down to her. "Don´t be afraid," she tried to soothe her, "we are going to help you."
The woman just groaned in response. Lily began carefully lifting brick after brick, using her wand, when they heard another explosion and screaming. Three young boys ran towards them, their clothes looked burned and they had bruises everywhere on their bare skin. One of them was hobbling. Suddenly his legs gave away and he started falling. James reached out and caught him just in time.
"What happened?" He asked hurriedly.
"Black masks, cursing, dark magic, dead people." The boy started babbling with no sense in his sentence, but it was enough for James, he understood.
"I see." He nodded. "Hey, you!" He told two other boys who stopped to catch their breath. "Support him and you all go down this street and towards the bushes on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, do you understand?"
They both nodded and held their hands for injured boy.
James turned to Lily quickly. "I think that you will manage to free her by yourself. I have to go to the Three Broomsticks, the screaming is coming from there and you know that most third years go there for a Buttlebeer."
"What? Only over my dead body!" Lily started to sound hysteric. "You could be hurt!"
"Lils." He kneeled next to her. "I will be okay, promise." He grabbed her hand. "Just stay here and sent all people in the Forest."
"B-but you are going there." She started to cry. "You can´t fight them alone."
"I won´t be alone, if I know Padfoot, he will wait there for me." He said to her calmly.
"I want to fight too." Lily stated resolutely.
James chuckled humourlessly. "Don´t worry, you will. You have to protect all these children. And I am afraid that somebody will chase them." He slowly stood up.
"Take care." He told her quietly.
"You too." She whispered through tears.
He gripped his wand tightly and he started going determinedly towards the pub. He stopped suddenly and turned to Lily. "Just in case something happened, you have to know that I love you." With these words on his lips he turned and he took off in a run.
He didn´t see Lily´s stunned figure nor he hear her faint, "I love you too."
Lily returned to her work as soon as she recovered from her trance. She got rid of all bricks and now she started a few basic healing charms on the woman in order to ease her pain.
When she finished, she whispered a quiet. "Winggardium Leviosa." The woman started levitated. It woke her up and she panicked. "Sush, it´s okay, I am taking you to safe place." Lily calmed her down. She hurried with her to the forest and she managed to take a few children on the way, too. When they finally reached bushes, she helped them to hide and she rushed back.
Suddenly, a dark cloaked figure appeared in front of her. "What do we have here?" He asked in sickly sweet voice. "A little lost girl?"
Lily growled and fired. "Expelliarmus."
The man was able to dodge at the last moment. This angered him. "You wanna play? We will. However after MY rules. Crucio."
"Protego." Lily was quick. "Petrificus totalus."
However, so was the man. He stepped aside and fired back. "Crucio."
Lily didn´t expected him to react so fast and she avoided the curse very closely. She crouched behind the huddle of bricks. The attacker dispersed it in a moment.
Lily didn´t see this coming, so she was completely unprepared. She cried the first curse which came to her lips. "Levicorpus." She unfortunately missed again.
"Crucio." She didn´t manage to dodge this time. Horrible pain ran through her body. It lasted a few moments but she felt it like it was years. She was burning from inside, her body was melting in infinite fire. She fell to the ground but she was still trying not to scream.
"How do you like this, Sweetie?" He was toying with her again.
She was trembling, she couldn´t make a coherent thought.
"What? I didn´t hear you." He was laughing. "Well, I think that you need something to bring back your voice. Crucio."
She screamed this time, the pain was worse than a first time. She wished to die. Fortunately, her wish wasn´t granted. Finally he stopped. "You see, what you get when you try to go against our Lord, Lord Voldemort!"
Her vision was cloudy and she almost dropped her wand but she wasn´t ready to leave James, especially now when he just told her that he loved her. She took advantage of his distraction and she put everything in one spell. "Stupfety!"
He didn´t count on her to be able to move let alone to hex so he wasn´t prepared when the spell hit him. He fell to the ground out cold. Lily quickly conjured bonds to be sure and she got up joggling.
She saw a group of third year Huppfelhuff hiding behind a wooden fence. She looked around if it was safe and ran towards them.
"Hey." She crouched next to them. "Come with me."
They silently followed her. She accompanied them to the safe area and she pointed towards woods. "Ran there and hide, some other people are there, too."
They took of very quickly that she even didn´t have a time to say more. They were so frightened.
Lily wanted to return and go to search for James when she realized that all explosion had stopped, she didn´t hear any screaming, too. She hurried to the Three Broomsticks. She passed Aurors when they slowly crept around buildings, looking for attackers. She also watched Healers helping injured people. She saw dead people, too.
However, she didn´t let herself to get distracted. She had to find James. When she finally reached Three Broomsticks, there was a big chaos. Hurt people were moaning and groaning, children were crying, others were running and calling names of their beloved. She spotted Sirius O. in the corner of the room, angrily slamming his fist into the wall.
Lily E. paled. "Black, what happened?"
He turned to her, deep pain written in his features. "They're gone, Evans."
So, that´s it. Hmm, it´s my birthday today, so you all can give me a gift and review=) What do you think? =)
