This was a particularly fun chapter to write and it may have something to do with the fact that I'm perpetually torturing James. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No profit has been gained from the creation of this fanfiction.

Scandal

Hogwarts was a place of history, filled with secrets not even the best wizards has uncovered. There were passageways undiscovered and rooms that laid forgotten. A personal favourite of Lily's was a storeroom hidden behind Gunhilda Goosemoor's tapestry on the third floor. It was a dingy sort of room with no source of light. It had a perfectly round shaped and looked it was once used as an equipment room, however the ceiling was infested with cobwebs, the floor riddled with dusty cauldrons and shelves filled with yellow paged books. Which begs the questions, why has it become a favourite place of Lily's?

Because with her back against the brick wall, James' forearms pressed on either side of her face and his warm lips moving against hers, Lily was convinced that this place was much more enjoyable than the library. Her pile of books lay forgotten on the floor with James' homework scrolls.

"James" she breathed his name urgently as soon as the weight of his lips left hers. Moaning loudly as he moved to kiss the sensitive skin of her neck. She squirmed against him, feeling skittish yet impatient as he planted scalding hot ripples on her skin with every gentle suckle. "James" she repeated and he hummed in response. The floaty feeling in her chest injected her with the bravery to snake her hands into James' robes and under his untucked shirt to trace her trembling fingers over tautness of his abdomen.

He groaned and Lily felt the muscles twitch and recoil from her touch. In the blink of an eye, James pulled her hands out of his shirt and pinned them over her head with one hand. A low growl escaped as he tugged at her neck-tie with his free hand, nipping her collarbone before trailing kisses down her chest while simultaneously unbuttoning her top.

He stopped his lips on the top of her breast and trailed his lips over the skin on the border of her bra. Lily's chest rose and fell rapidly, his every breath felt like a fire on her skin and the firm grip he had on her wrists made it that much more exciting. How she longed to bury her hands into his untidy hair and tug his face up to hers but being held away from that gave her a thrill, it made her want him that much more.

She leaned harder against the wall, her legs struggling to hold up her weight as a pulse of excitement wracked her writhing body in anticipation for his next move. With a chaste kiss over her pounding heart, he pulled away just far enough for her to regain a semblance of conscious thought. "What's the magic word?" his lips brushed against her skin as he spoke and Lily shuddered.

"I love you" she breathed and his hand fell away from her wrists just in time to snake it around her waist, holding her up against him as Lily swooned. Her legs bent uselessly under her weight as he pressed her against his chest, her lungs heaving for air and her body throbbing with heat. Panting, Lily shifted her heavy gaze to his face to find him grinning cockily at her.

"All right there, Evans?" his voice gentle and the old use of her nickname brought back a fresh wave of nostalgia amidst the flurry of emotions swirling in Lily.

Warmth rushed to her cheeks and she shyly avoided his gaze. She felt his hand hook her chin, steering her eyes back to his. "Can you stand?" he asked cheekily and Lily nodded meekly before he eased her back onto her feet. James kissed her full on the lips one last time before moving to button up her shirt as Lily continued to stare dazedly at him "We have transfiguration." He told her matter-of-factly as he bent down to scoop their books and homework scrolls into his arms.

At the mention of classes, Lily effectively snapped out of her dreamy trance. Everything rushed back to her at and dizzying rate and suddenly Lily was standing in the dim of a dusty old room. Without the hormonal filter in her eyes, the storeroom looked alarmingly filthy.

Aside from having broken five rules in a single day, there was another matter that topped Lily's concern. While she and James had been seeing each other for almost a month now and this was far from their first storeroom escapade, however, this was the sixth consecutive time James had ended the moment after coaxing the "magic words" from her mouth.

He roused her up, ensnaring her senses with nothing but his presence and made himself the centre of her universe every time he had her behind closed doors. She had thought he would've wanted to initiate the next level of their relationship by now but Lily was always left blinking stupidly in the dark as he redressed her after distracting her with long, loving kisses. For the best friend of the biggest boy-tart in school, James Potter had an alarming amount of self-control.

At first, she was grateful to him for not pushing her with sex. But lately Lily has been having mixed thoughts about the inevitable. She knew where their physical relationship was headed and honestly all this stalling he was doing was driving her to the brink of insanity.

He kissed her like it was their last and made her believe that they were finally going through with it, only to stop when things got too steamy. Stamping his foot down on a screeching halt at the edge of the leap to pull her out of the haze.

One would think that professing their love for another person while they were snogging would encourage sexual activity but every time Lily stripped her feelings bare for him, James would put an end to his provocative kisses like he's escaped some sort of hypnotic trance.

She reached over to take her books from him but he pulled them away, instead talking her outstretched hand in his free one. Lily narrowed her eyes at him. "I can hold my own things, thank you." she told him, her voice clipped.

He lifted their intertwined hands for her to see "You want to let go of this?" he cocked an eyebrow at her.

Lily pondered for a moment, nibbling on her lip before she made a decision. "No, I'll hold it in my other hand"

"There who's going to open the door?"

"You can do it"

"My hands are full."

"Then I'll hold your scroll for you while you open the door"

"But I can hold my own things" he grinned widely and Lily knew she had walked right into his trap. Rolling her eyes, she decided to humour him and just open the bloody door.

-One month ago-

It was just as Lily predicted, word got out that she had begun dating James Potter and the whole school suddenly decided that it was their business who the Head Girl was seeing. The day after her accident, she walked the corridors to find it bustling with snippets of her love life. She was vaguely thankful to the person that had sent her the particularly large get-well-soon hamper for she had used it to hide her flaming face from the stares of curious, nosy students. Unfortunately, her romantic progressions were the least of her worries as some students had witnessed the fight between Severus and James. As nosy as they were, the students were also very imaginative.

So now, there were circulating speculations of a love triangle between the three of them. Due to her previous friendship with Severus, some had perceived it as a romantic relationship and accused her of seducing James after dumping Severus, thus it immediately and illogically branded her as a tart. Various people, the more bitter ones, were also insinuating the use of love potions. Lily hadn't taken them to heart because they were but mindless rumours.

There were also a fair few people who congratulated her for her new relationship, mostly bright eye fourth and fifth years who thought she and James made the loveliest couple. She found herself swarmed by excited giggly girls in the Great Hall during supper one day while James was busy serving detention with Filch. They swooned and sighed as they demanded the details of her confession with James.

Personally, Lily thought it really should be none of their business how she and James started dating, but she had decided to put her foot down when they began concocting stories of their own; some which included a rather obscene turn of events, although she wasn't sure how useful the truth would be with all the lies lingering around. Needless to say, Lily deliberately cut out some of the more intimate parts of the story; she wanted those unsullied for her to keep and no amount of begging would make her give them up.

But no matter how much she gave up, it never seemed to be enough for them. Lily thought they much want to squeeze every drop of anything gossip worthy from her before they would leave her alone. Unfortunately for them, Lily just wasn't willing to give it up. Even though she had tried to mask it by assuring them she's told them everything, they surprised her when they continued to insist; as if they could smell gossip.

Thankfully, Sirius had arrived to save her but he was alone, as Peter was busy serving detention for failing to finish his Herbology research and Remus had patrol duty. Sirius, however, proved formidable on his own. He had a natural way of charming people, particularly girls as he had them in fits of giggles, gazing adoringly at him while he rambled on about the stars and Jupiter's alignment. In all honesty, Lily thought that everything that left that boy's mouth was poppycock but the girls seemed to cling onto his every word as if it were his last.

On more than one occasion, Lily caught his eye and he winked at her, probably expecting some sort of reaction from her, but only to be shot down as Lily never gave him anything more than an eye roll. She munched on a few biscuits as she half-heartedly listened to Sirius' astronomy bull.

Remus appeared shortly after Lily's fifth biscuit, much to her relief; there was finally someone competent to talk to at the table. The Gryffindor prefect settled next to her on the bench and helped himself to the drumsticks as he complained "Bartemius Crouch's gang is getting quite out of hand. I caught them smoking in the fourth floor corridor so I confiscated their cigarettes. The lunatic attacked me." Remus huffed "I hate to say this, but if it weren't for Peeves, I'd probably be stuck fighting a bunch of fifth years."

"Oh, dear. I think Veronica Anderson had the same problem with that group. I'll let James know to bring it up in the next meeting." Lily said, genuinely worried.

"Odd of Peeves to be so helpful, isn't it?" Sirius said, turning his attention away from his flock of gigglers.

"He was unscrewing the chandelier above the group before I got there. Took him a while to finally get it undone because he'd been turning it the wrong way." Remus explained.

"You'd think he'd learn after all those years of dropping chandeliers on our heads. Rather, doesn't the school ever run out of chandeliers?" Sirius tutted.

"Where's James?" Remus asked, swallowing a mouthful of food.

"Detention." Lily and Sirius answered in unison.

"Oh, he did mention that. But what for?" Remus questioned.

"He wouldn't say" Sirius shrugged but when he noticed that Lily had gone crimson, the dark haired prankster decided some prodding needed to be done. "But I think someone else might have an idea" he tilted his head and leaned close to the table to try and meet Lily's downcast eyes.

"You know something, Ms. Evans. You're not a very good liar" he grinned at her and Lily shrugged, hoping it looked nonchalant.

"I haven't a clue of what you're talking about."

"Wow, you are awful at lying. It is a tragedy." Sirius straightened and crossed his arms.

Lily looked to Remus for help but he simply shrugged "I'm curious as well."

Huffing, Lily slumped in her seat "Oh, all right! But I can't say it with-" Lily paused and nodded inconspicuously towards the group of fifth years who were still huddled around Sirius. Catching her eye, Sirius clapped his hands together and beckoned them to give him some privacy.

Although they did so begrudgingly, the girls dispersed, whispering amongst themselves. Lily gave them a moment to move out of earshot, once she was sure they would not be overhead, she leaned forward and looked warily between two eager pairs of eyes. "Madam Pomfrey caught us snogging in the Hospital wing."

Sirius' face split in half with the widest grin she had ever seen on him while Remus tinted red at the cheek, clearing his throat and looking like he regretted asking. "That's my best mate right there! Good on him!" Sirius thumped his chest proudly.

"But you mustn't tell anyone, Sirius" Lily hissed, looking around frantically.

"Me? It's Remus you have to worry about!" Sirius pointed an accusing finger at the blushing boy.

Lily scowled at him and Sirius grinned cheekily "All right, all right, don't look so harassed. James will be cross with me if he thinks I've bullied you." Sirius waved his hand dismissively to punctuate. At the mention of James, Lily glanced about the Great Hall to see that it was nearly void of students and there was still no sign of James. Lily decided she would wait until the feast ended before she returned to the head common room to wait for him.

In fact, James did not return to the common room until it was six minutes before midnight while Lily was close to dozing off by the fire. She was startled awake when he had stumbled in through the portrait hole, cursing and grumbling under his breath as he did. However, as soon as his eyes spotted Lily sitting meekly by the fire, his whole demeanour had changed as if a switch had been flicked.

They snogged and cuddled by the warmth for as long as they could stay awake, and Lily could think of no better way to end her day. If she was with James, everyday felt like perfection.

-One month later-

With the face of an angel's, skin like a veela and voice more enticing that a siren. Lily Evans had just gone from being the bane of his existence to being the ultimate reason for his impending downfall. From the moment she kissed him in the hospital wing, James had begun fighting a losing battle against her silky seduction.

It has almost become a routine event for James to find himself locked in a cubicle or whenever he was with a free period, in his personal dormitory bathroom, wanking off to the thought of Lily's searing touch and needy kisses. It was done solely to prevent his trousers from tenting.

So after having snapped out of his most recent conquest, James was currently sat on the toilet lid, feeling quite sorry for himself. He sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth before he proceeded to untidy his untameable hair. He had come so close that time in the storeroom, the niggling voice in the back of his voice had come to a deafening silence in his mind, the only thing he could hear was Lily's heavy breathing and unwinding moans. Her body stood out in the clear while everything else blurred into a fade. Her warmth and scent beckoned him while her writhing body screamed for his touch; who was he to deny what the lady wanted?

He's memorized every touch he drew from her body, every sinful moan that fell from her swollen soft lips and every time she pleaded his name. It had become increasingly harder to stop when he's had a taste of her. And then she had to roam his skin with her agonisingly warm hands, coating his stomach with sweltering heat everywhere her greedy hand had nicked. Although he had restrained her hands in one of his own to stop himself from losing his mind—James feared he may already have.

As he unbuttoned her shirt, everything she did to him came back with tenfold the power. It felt like every intimate moment they've shared had come back to drive him forward, impatience filled his body and any thoughts on her body left his mind befuddled. He had come so close to unwrapping her completely, his world was but a flurry and nothing could stop him. But subconsciously he knew he needed to stop, so in a desperate attempt to regain himself, he pulled the trigger. The question in which he knew the answer.

Then her voice emerged from the blur, as clear as day, told him. "I love you."

Everything came to a train-wreck-halt and control came back to him in a dizzying rush. He looked up see how much he affected her, settling for the small rush of pride at seeing her so unwound and needy, relishing in the idea that she could barely stand because of him. A small victory at most, but satisfying nonetheless.

But that screeching halt came too close for comfort, in fact, the closest he had been to taking her. As he dressed her, he reminded himself of what he told himself years ago as he stared enviously after Snape and Lily; that if he ever succeeded in courting Lily, he would treat her right. But after such a success, his behaviour so far was nothing short of disappointing. Lily didn't deserve to have her first time in a shady old storeroom, she deserved what every girl dreamed, romantic candles and rose-petal-covered beds. Girls like that sort of stuff, right?

He had bent down to voluntarily retrieve their books and scrolls to shift his embarrassingly prominent boner into a more comfortable position in his trousers before straightening to engage their usual quarrel to distract his thoughts from her silky skin. She's got great skin.

As they stepped out from behind the hidden room, students had just begun filling out of their classes to go to their next so they easily blended themselves into the chaos and toward Classroom 1B—or well, tried to blend it.

As famous as he already was around the school prior to his relationship with Lily, now whenever they were seen together, the attention would turn to them; some of it he would gladly do without. Not everyone had been happy with their relationship, like Lily had predicted. And like James had known all along, he couldn't give a rat's arse about what they thought.

He gave Lily's hand a little squeeze before turning to watch her expression, Lily had received more of the negative side of their popularity and it was all he could to do to not to jinx anyone that looked at her funny. On the first week after they had made their relationship open, Lily had received a few cursed mail, some of which had been bewitched to explode when she opened it and others just had very mean words in them. He had opted to take things into his own hands and seek out the people behind it himself, but Lily had openly distressed over him picking fights. When Remus opted to go to the teachers with the letters, Lily shook her head and told them she wasn't bothered by the mail but James knew better than to believe that was completely true.

Needless to say, he's kept a close eye on her since then. The cursed mail had continued to come, but he and Sirius had made it a habit to take them off Lily and make fun of them as means of entertainment for breakfast before folding the physically touchable ones into paper airplanes and bewitching them to dive into pumpkin juice pitchers at the Slytherin table.

"… As I have told you before, Human Transfiguration is a dangerous and potentially permanent form of magic. If one is not careful, they risk irreversible physical harm upon the subject. Last year I introduced this topic by having you change the colour of your eyebrows, I do hope you have been practicing because I am going to have you demonstrate to me the extent of your transfiguration prowess by changing your facial features…"

McGonagall walked up and down the row of seats, filling the class with information from her lecture but James couldn't seem to pay any attention to her. His mind had mostly been occupied by Lily, who sat next to him and clung on to McGonagall's every word

It didn't matter how much he managed to rile her up before a lesson, she seemed to be able to pay full attention in class no matter who was teaching. James on the other hand, always seemed to have other things on his mind; such as the perpetual stiffy in his trousers—he feared it may never go away.

Inconspicuously, James shifted on his seat to adjust his trousers for the umpteenth time and accidentally caught Sirius' eye, who had looked up from his nap on the table. His best friend eyed him suspiciously and James tried not to look too uncomfortable under his scrutiny while repressing the urge to check if the tent in his trousers could be seen.

"Mr. Potter!"

James nearly leapt out of his seat at the abrupt mention of his name. He turned on head to have a very bemused Professor McGonagall, bearing down on him. She continued "I do hope I am not interrupting a moment between you and Mr. Black but if you are quite done, would you care to demonstrate the Crinus Muto spell to the class. Non-verbally, if you please"

Usually he would've said something witty to McGonagall by now but his mind drew a painfully embarrassing blank as the sudden thought of Lily finger running through his abdomen had all the blood shooting down to his cock, with none for the brain and leaving him feeling lightheaded. Try as he might to banish the thought and not embarrass himself in front of the whole class, James had already forgotten his task as he reached a shaking hand into his robe to retrieve his wand. Shuddering as he remembered the state Lily left him in at the loss of her touch.

Thankfully, before James could embarrass himself any further, he was blessed with a loud crack of explosion from the row behind him and everyone's attention shifted to the source of the blast instead.

"Ms. Dorsey, I don't even want to know how you managed to blow this up."

Sure enough, as James turned to look at Shawna Dorsey, who was renowned for being unfortunately gifted in the art of Pyrotechnics, the girl was blinking dazedly after singed off her eyebrows.

"Mr. Pettigrew please accompany Ms. Dorsey to the hospital wing" Professor McGonagall waved her hand impatiently. Peter, who had been sitting next to Shawna, scrambled to his feet and did as he were told.

James sat down, relieved that McGonagall had forgotten all about him as she continued to pace between the desks. James didn't have to look to Sirius to know that the boy was snickering at him but what he didn't expect was for Lily to touch him so suddenly. He felt her fingers brush against the back of his hand and it was all he could do to not yelp out loud, instead he drew away from her hand as if she had burned him.

Lily looked confused and then concerned as she leaned over to whisper "What's gotten into you?"

Throwing his robe over to cover his lap, James shifted on his chair before answering "Nothing." his voice sounded pathetically high pitched in his own ears.

Lily shot him a worried look before sitting back as McGonagall approached her table. James sighed as McGonagall blocked her from his view. It was a good thing he had quidditch practice scheduled after classes that day to work off his excess energy or he would be quite miserable when night falls.

...

"I'm telling you, Prongs. Rebecca Shawl wants me. This is the fifth time I caught her staring at me and practice barely began" Sirius said from beside James as they hovered above the golden hoops on the Quidditch pitch.

"She could be looking at me." James quipped, glancing cockily at his best friend.

Sirius snorted "Fat lot of good that's gonna do for her."

"At least we'll know she has good taste."

Sirius clicked his tongue "She's looking at me, I'm telling you."

"Let me know which broom cupboard you took her to so I can blow it up later." James wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Don't bother, I only ever take them to the one in the Entrance Hall" Sirius looked smugly at James "It's Filch's favourite. Leave him a few used Johnnies from time to time, gives the depressing fellow something to think about."

James grinned in amusement "You are foul"

"Oh, you won't be judging me when you and Ms. Priggy pick up the habit and I assure you that will happen" Sirius watched as a Dirk Cresswell blocked a shot from their sixth year Chaser, Gordon Johnson and nodded approvingly "Speaking of the missus, when are you going to shag her?"

They both ducked out of the way as a bludger came flying at them and Florence Shacklebolt shot them a disapproving glare but they ignored her and continued with their conversation.

"What makes you think I haven't already?" James said, snippily.

"Little James is sticking out." Sirius said, his eyes straying too far south from his face for James' liking.

"He is not!" James turned his broom to face away from his best mate before deciding that he's had enough of teasing and sought company from someone in his team who wasn't a dickwad. He heard Sirius laughter fade and turned back just in time to see the Gryffindor prankster make wanking motions in the air. James promptly flipped him the bird and huffily shouted for the team to gather.

It wasn't as if James needed to be tormented for his sexual frustration, his lower body's been virtually shouting it in his ear. He just didn't feel like his relationship with Lily was strong enough to withstand a blow should they find out that they were sexually incompatible. Honestly, it would kill James if that were the case because he had been dreaming about the moment since his first erotic dream which starred an inappropriately familiar redhead.

To vent his sexual frustration and get back at Sirius for his inappropriate comment, James led a record breaking practice session that included rapid acceleration on command, instant braking, tumbles and being pelted by loose bludgers. By the time he was done, there was scarcely anything left of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and James was no exception.

The good news was that James no longer had a semi and he now had an excuse to hide in his room from Lily. Not that he was avoiding her but he had just managed to get rid of his stiffy and he was sure a few kisses from Lily would undoubtedly wake the randy bugger. So yes, he was avoiding Lily but for all the right reasons, of course. He was sure Lily would appreciate his efforts as well, not that he was planning to let her know. James didn't know what he was going to do to her if he let his instincts loose, he needed time to cool down and the last thing he needed was Lily flaunting her intoxicating presence in his face as he tried to set his head straight.

James stumbled through the portrait hole, feeling his muscles virtually dying with every step. He was both relieved and disappointed to find Lily sat by the fire with notes scattered in front of her. James was rudely reminded that he had yet to start on his Defense Against the Dark Arts research essay and repressed a sigh.

She looked up as he approached and smiled brightly at him and James felt his blood go south. Fucking hell, what was wrong with him? "I take it practice went well?" she asked innocently. She must have noticed the limp in his step and complete misery on his face so James suspected she was teasing him.

"I'm exhausted" he sighed, shoulders slumping.

Lily's face morphed into concern "You look like you've flown through a rain of bludgers, d'you want to sit down?" she stood and approached him. As much as his body longed for her touch, he's had too much for the day so he flashed her a tired smile and shook his head.

"I think I'll head to bed early for today" he sounded depressed even to his own ears.

Lily faltered slightly and James felt his stomach drop. For almost a whole month now, they had spent as much of their evenings as possible cuddling and studying together, except when James needed to prepare for Remus' transformations. Thankfully, Lily had been conveniently busy with school work whenever there was a full moon so he needn't lie to her about where he disappears to on the full-moons.

"All right" she said quietly and stood still as he kissed her forehead, James squished the need to breath in her scent, virtually tearing himself away from her to imprison himself in his dormitory.

As soon as he was past the door, he staggered back and leaned against the closed door, taking deep soothing breaths as he tried to convince himself that this was a good idea. After doing a rubbish job at it, James decided that he needed a shower above anything else, Lily probably wouldn't let him touch her even if he decided to head back down.

After a rather long shower with him alternating between hot water for his sore muscles and cold water because Lily was invading his head again, James stepped out feeling thoroughly fatigued and ready for bed.

That is—until he saw Lily sitting on his bed wearing a pink nightgown. But it wasn't what she was wearing that had him by the balls, it was how she was sitting on his bed. With her legs cross and her back straight—but not rigidly so— just enough for him to admire the allure in her posture, stiffy returned with a vengeance and James was no longer confident he could keep him away from Lily, not when there was fire in her eyes.

Lord have mercy.

Yes, I know. I'm a terrible person for throwing you this cliffhanger but the chapter was getting too long to fit one whole, steamy lemon in there. :(

Good news is that, there will be a lemon (For those of you that are for the idea) Leave me a review because you may end up making my day (conscructive criticisms welcomed as well)

See you next week!