A/N: Longest chapter yet - not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. Have fun with this one. Ha.

The Chauvinistic Stag

Chapter 11

James was just about ready to murder both Sirius and Remus as he sat in the common room on Friday night. It had only been two days since Remus had caught Lily in bed with him, and since then, James had not been able to utter a word to her in private. Four times she had come up to him, asking for a moment of his time, but never once had they been able to find any place secluded. James couldn't tell if Sirius had somehow bribed half the student body to constantly follow him around, or if maybe students were really just that curious to uncover who he was dating, but everywhere James went, a crowd of people was always trailing behind him.

James glanced at Lily across the common room. She was sitting with Kylie and Britta, a wizard's chess set spread out in front of them. It looked as though she was trying to give advice to both of the other girls as they furrowed their brows, contemplating their next moves. Lily glanced over to him for a moment, catching him looking at her. She gave him a small smile, which James did not return.

Truthfully, James did not like that Lily wanted to remain anonymous. Why wasn't she proud to stand up next to him? Was she embarrassed by him? Was she maybe already over him? He breathed a heavy sigh. He was really getting tired of her mixed signals. Why were girls so confusing!?

Two owls knocked on the Gryffindor Tower window, which was opened by a second year a few seconds later. Each of the owls soared across the room, one landing in front of James and the other in front of Lily. The barn owl held out its leg, showing James Dumbledore's curly handwriting gleaming from the envelope. James untied the letter and began to read.

Dear Mr. Potter,

As an addition to the Halloween feast this year, I would like to serve mounds of Honeydukes sweets, and I was hoping you could assist me. If possible, would you and the Head Girl please make a special trip on Saturday afternoon to Hogsmeade to pick up my order? There is a small money bag with which you can pay for the purchase tied to each of the owl's legs. (James looked at the owl and noticed it again holding out its leg - a small pouch tied to it). I will remind you that this is not a scheduled Hogsmeade weekend; therefore no other students should be in Hogsmeade with you. If you do see any other students, I implore you deduct a minimum of fifty house points a piece. A carriage will be waiting for you outside of the front doors at 2 pm.

Sincerely,

Professor Dumbledore

James had to severely bite his inner lip to keep from smiling broadly. He saw the student's around the common room looking at him curiously, as he handed the letter off to Peter and Remus, who were trying to read the letter over his shoulder. Sirius, of course, was in detention.

"Just head boy duties," he said, loud enough so the other students could hear.

"Trip to Hogsmeade, though. That's cool, James," Peter said.

"Oh, but look, fifty point deduction if anyone else is caught in town. I sure hope no Gryffindors try to follow you there," Remus said loudly.

A few students raised their heads at this statement, and one second year even gasped, "Fifty?"

Remus winked at James.

James's spirits felt slightly higher. So maybe he didn't know what exactly was going on in Lily's head, but at least he was going to get to talk to her in private. Suddenly, he also felt his stomach give a nervous jolt. The prospect of spending a whole afternoon alone with Lily, when they had barely uttered a word to each other the last few days actually seemed intimidating.

"So does 2pm work okay for you?" Lily asked. James hadn't noticed her leave her corner of the common room.

"Just fine," James replied. "Practice should end around one."

"Great," Lily smiled, and then she turned and faced the rest of the common room.

"Now listen up, everyone," she stated loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the common room easily. "James and I have official Head Boy and Girl business in Hogsmeade tomorrow afternoon. By orders from Professor Dumbledore, if any of you are caught in town, we must deduct fifty house points. And as we're in Gryffindor, and you're in Gryffindor, we really don't want to have to do that. That being said, I know many of you have enjoyed following James around these past few days. Well, tomorrow you're going to have to give it a rest. But don't worry; I'll keep a careful eye on him. And if I uncover that mysterious female that the school is just so curious about, I'll be sure to deduct house points from her as well."

A few students laughed at this last statement, but most seemed to nod their head in understanding.

"Oh, and tell your friends," Lily added.

The rest of the common room went back to their prior-to-the-interruption activities, leaving Lily standing by James, Remus, and Peter.

"You tell 'em, Lily," Remus laughed.

Lily felt herself blush slightly. "Rules are rules, Remus," she replied sharply, but she was having trouble hiding a grin.

"Conveniently enough," he continued snickering.

James chuckled with Remus, while Peter stared at them, confused. "Are you guys going to tell me why you're laughing?"

"No," they all replied in unison. To which, they all laughed again.

"Well, see you tomorrow, James," Lily finally said, after she was sure she could speak without hiccupping.

"Yep, meet you here, 1:45?" he replied.

"See you then."

That Saturday morning quidditch practice seemed like it lasted forever to James. Even with the Ravenclaw match looming only one weekend away, and a mountain of plays and drills to run through with his teammates, the 3-hour practice easily felt like it lasted all week. He was anxious, excited, nervous, and eager to see Lily at 2, and although Sirius didn't know exactly why his best friend seemed to be acting strangely, he could definitely tell something was up.

"You're meeting your girl this afternoon, aren't you?" Sirius asked, as they made their way up towards the castle, their broomsticks over their shoulders.

James shook his head in response, half-smiling. "No, Padfoot. You seriously think Evans's going to let me out of her sight when we're on official Head Boy and Girl business?"

Sirius shrugged. "You make a point. But it still seems fishy. If I didn't have another damn detention, I'd be following you myself."

"Sirius, honestly, if this girl and I really get into a relationship, I'll tell you. By Remus saying he caught us together, well, he caught us - er - hugging. She's not even my girlfriend. All of this is so blown out of proportion, it's insane," James replied.

Sirius shrugged again, and grumbled, "Remus really does know me. This mystery is driving me crazy."

James laughed, "Well, Remus has always been the one to read people perfectly. I'd swear he had some sort of secret power if I didn't know him better. Hmmm. Maybe it's a werewolf thing."

"Whatever it is, I'm not a fan," Sirius replied.

"Just give me a week, Sirius, so I can figure this mess out for myself," James said.

Sirius looked at him thoughtfully. "You really like her, don't you?" he asked.

James nodded. "Yeah, I really do."

"I still can't believe it's not Lily," Sirius mumbled.

"The world's full of surprises," James responded vaguely. "Which, that reminds me. I should grab a sandwich before I hit the showers. You want to come with me?"

"Duh," Sirius replied. "I need to eat before I scoop dragon dung. I tried to eat once after, and everything I ate smelled so overwhelmingly like shit, I nearly hurled. It severely spoils the appetite."

"Hmmm, I'm sure my mom would like to know that for the next time you come over for dinner," James laughed.

Sirius smiled guiltily in response.

Lily beat James down to the common room around 1:45, dressed in a cute green sweater layered over a sunny yellow tank top and a pair of snug bell-bottom jeans. She hated to admit it, but she definitely had on a bit more make-up than normal: darker brown hues to shadow her eyes, and a slightly thicker layer of mascara. She had thought about adding a layer of some sticky, pinkish lip gloss, but decided to settle just on tinted chapstick. She had kissed a boy once wearing that sticky lip stuff, and it had made for an awkwardly, erm, wet-ish experience. Not that she planned on kissing James today. Her stomach gave a nervous jolt. What if James did try to kiss her? She chuckled softly to herself. Honestly, she didn't think he had the guts.

"Whatcha laughing at?" James said, startling Lily from her daydream. Lily noticed his hair was still damp, and he smelled refreshingly like soap.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she replied, smiling. "Ready to go?"

"You bet," he responded.

And the two made their way down to the front doors of the castle. A few students eyed James as he passed, obviously with urges to follow him to Hogsmeade. But Lily, in return, eyed them warningly as she passed, and they all went back to their previous courses of business.

"Thank you," James muttered, as they exited out of the castle doors and saw a horseless carriage waiting for them. "You have no idea how excited I am to get away from this place."

"I bet," she laughed. James jumped in front of her, and opened up the carriage door.

"Er, thanks, James," she said, as she realized he was holding it for her.

"Course, Lils," he replied, closing the door behind her and walking to the other side to climb in. He took a seat across from her, and she smiled slightly as their legs brushed.

James was a jumble of emotions when his eyes met Lily's green ones. First, and foremost, he was ecstatic to be alone with Lily. But, of course, he also knew, they had some potentially serious conversations ahead of them, and he felt nervous as to where they could lead.

"You think Dumbledore knows?" Lily asked, glancing out her window back towards the giant castle.

"Knows what?" James replied.

"Er, about us," Lily smiled, biting her lip.

James shrugged. "Probably. I don't know how though."

"Too coincidental, isn't it?"

James nodded. "I'm not arguing though."

"Me neither," Lily replied.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"This is weird," Lily stated.

James's stomach tensed slightly. "What's weird?"

"Being alone with you," she replied. "It's just been a while, that's all."

"Oh, yeah. Not since, er, Remus, er…" James started.

"Yeah… Let's not talk about that," Lily laughed, turning red.

"Better Remus than Sirius though," James responded, half-smiling.

Lily nodded her head fervently. "Though who would have thought Remus would have devised a plan to torture us all so significantly?"

"You're telling me," James laughed. "Nice payback he's giving me for helping him, huh?"

Lily nodded, and then looked down at her hands.

"On that note, James, I know you're upset with me about how this whole situation has played out over the last few days," Lily started, glancing up at James apologetically.

Okay, she was jumping right into the serious talk, he realized. Now that he was sitting here alone with Lily, he wasn't upset at all. Needless-to-say, he was curious of what she had to say, so he looked at her in a reaffirming way, nonverbally requesting for her to continue.

"I presume you understand why I don't want our, er, situation to be public just yet, as frustrating as it is," she said.

"Er, no," James replied.

"Oh! Really? I thought it was obvious!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry," James replied.

"So that's why I got that disgruntled glare from you in the common room yesterday," she laughed. "You had me so worried!"

"I had you worried?" James asked. "You've had me worried!"

They both smiled at each other. Lily tore her eyes away from his first, and bit her lip.

"I think you were going to explain why you don't want to publicly date me," James said.

She looked at him again, still biting her lip. How best to phrase this?

"Yes?" he helped.

"Okay, how about a hypothetical question," she proposed.

"Sounds good," he replied.

"Okay, well, we really haven't spent a ton of time together. I mean, really, we're still getting to know each other in a lot of ways. What if we started hanging out a lot, and you uncover some trait or quality or something about me, and it totally changes how you think about me?" Lily asked.

"I've known you for 7 years, Lily. That's not going to happen," James replied.

"But you don't know everything about me," Lily muttered.

"Oh yeah? Like what?" James replied.

Lily felt herself going red. She really didn't want to say what she was thinking out loud. Boys were sometimes so daft, and right now, she just really wished he could read her mind.

"You turning red will never scare me off," James laughed. "In fact, I find it really cute."

Lily blushed more furiously, and took a deep breath.

"Okay, James," she started. "I'm going to be blunt, and this is going to be awkward, but you've asked for it,"

"I'm all ears," he replied, smiling. Lily shifted uncomfortably.

"Have you ever been totally into a person, and then you kiss them, and in an instant, you are completely over them?" She asked this so fast James had trouble processing her words. Once he understood what she had asked, he chuckled.

"No," he replied. "But you obviously have."

Lily bit her lip again and looked at him guiltily.

"Who?"

"Wally Withers. He was a Ravenclaw, two years above us."

"That bad?"

"I thought a dementor was trying to suck out my soul."

James laughed again. "Wow."

Lily shuddered.

"Honestly though," she said, more seriously, "James, I've really liked being friends with you over the last few weeks. It's a nice change from what we used to have."

James looked at her thoughtfully. "I'll agree with you completely there."

"And I really don't want to screw that up," she continued. "We have practically all of our classes together, and we have Head student duties together. If we mess this up, it could make for a really uncomfortable year. And if the whole school watches us mess it up, well, I think then it would probably just amplify the discomfort exponentially."

James nodded. "I get it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, and you're totally right. The school can't know until you're sure you want to date me," he replied.

"Until we're both sure we want to date each other," she corrected him.

James smiled at her and shook his head.

"What?" she asked. But the carriage stopped moving. They had arrived outside of Hogsmeade station.

James jumped out of the carriage first, and helped Lily down after him. But she still tripped on the last step and fell straight into his arms.

"Woops, sorry," she laughed, looking up into his eyes.

"No problem," James replied, still holding her close to him, their faces mere inches apart.

"Er, so shall we head to Honeydukes?" Lily said, somewhat breathlessly. James fed her his half-smile.

"Okay," he replied, and he let go of her.

Lily kicked herself mentally. She had set herself up for this by talking about kissing in the first place. Now kissing James was all she was going to think about all day.

They made their way silently to Honeydukes. It was a surprisingly warm day, compared to how frosty the area had been just a few days ago. Both James and Lily felt comforted as the sun touched their faces. James held the door open for Lily when they arrived at Honeydukes, and together they made their way to the back counter where an old man was behind the register.

"Hi," Lily said to the man. "We're from Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore arranged for us to pick up sweets for the Halloween feast."

The man had a jolly smile when he replied to her. "Why yes, of course! Dumbledore has already had me send the sweets up to the castle with Hagrid, but he did mention two students would stop by to pay for it."

"Oh," Lily replied. "Well, great. Here's the money he gave us." She put the two moneybags that the owls had had on their legs in front of the man. He dumped them out and counted up the coins. He flipped two galleons to James.

"Dumbledore told me to tell you both to treat yourselves to a drink. And he thanks you for helping him," the man winked.

James and Lily retreated from Honeydukes, surprised but pleased by Dumbledore's message.

"He totally didn't need us to drop this money off, you do realize," Lily said, smiling.

James nodded, "Funny man, Dumbledore. Though again, I say, I'm not complaining."

"Me neither," Lily replied.

"So, before we head to the three broomsticks, do you want to - er - maybe take a walk and enjoy the weather? I know a spot up the hill back there, with a great view back on town," James asked, attempting to sound casual.

"Sure," Lily replied. "Who knows when we'll get this sun again. Hopefully it will stick around for your quidditch match next week, though."

"Oh yeah," James replied. "Should be a rough match. Ravenclaw has been looking really good this year. They sure flattened Hufflepuff a few weeks ago. Did you go to the match?"

"Sure did," she said. "Kylie was semi-crushing on one of their beaters or something."

"Really? You mean she has eyes for someone other than Sirius?" he asked, surprised.

"Ha. I think it's more she's come to realize he has eyes for girls other than her," she replied.

James frowned slightly. "Sirius just needs to grow up, that's all. Which he'll do, eventually."

Lily nodded.

"Hopefully," he added, as an afterthought.

Lily laughed. They had reached the edge of town, where small cottages with slightly dishevelled gardens lined the street. When they reached the last house on the lane, James steered Lily right, and led her on a climb up a grassy slope. It was still damp from the previous week's chilly weather, but not too slippery under their sneakers.

"We'll only go half-way up," James said, panting slightly. "See that boulder there?"

Lily nodded. She could feel sweat glistening on her forehead, and desperately wanted to take off her sweater. But, all she had on was a simple tank top underneath. Would that seem too showy? Or was she being too conservative by caring? Oh, screw it, she was hot.

When they reached the rock, she pulled off her sweater and felt immediately refreshed. James smiled at her slightly, and removed his black jacket to reveal a plain gray t-shirt underneath. They sat down on the boulder, a fare few inches between them. The breeze was cool up here, and the view was wonderful. They could see all across town - to Honeydukes, and the Three Broomsticks, and Zonkos, and then back up to the hill opposite to the Shrieking Shack.

"This is awesome, James," Lily said. "How'd you ever find this place?"

"We've explored the whole area," James replied. "When you have a whole night in animal form, and four legs to carry you anywhere, it's amazing how much ground you can cover."

Lily nodded, understanding. Lily continued to stare out across town. She could feel James's eyes on her, and it was making her slightly uncomfortable. Oh God, she realized. He had brought her here to kiss her. How had she not realized it before?

"So what are you writing for Slughorn's essay?" Lily asked, desperate to start a conversation.

"Uh, not sure," James replied.

"I think I'm writing about bezoars. I know Slughorn said it should be on a powerful potion, and a bezoar isn't exactly a potion, but it counteracts all powerful potions, so maybe it'll work. It really has some amazing qualities, did you know? It can-"

"Lily," James interrupted.

"Y-yeah?" she replied.

"I know what a bezoar is," he said, smiling at her.

"Oh. Yeah. Of course," she replied. She glanced at him, planning to briefly make eye contact, but when their eyes met, she couldn't look away. He scooted next to her so that their sides were touching.

She bit her lip, still looking up at him. His hazel eyes bore into hers, making her heart feel like it was beating in her throat, and her stomach feel like it had fluttered out of her body. Strange feeling, really, she found herself thinking.

James reached up and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. He then pulled her face gently towards his own, until their foreheads were resting together.

"Would you mind if I kissed you?" he breathed.

Lily's throat felt so constricted by her pounding heart that she worried intensely whether her voice could even function. She gulped. That worked okay.

"James?" she whispered.

"Yes, Lily?" he replied.

"I think I'd like it better if I kissed you," she said.

And she didn't wait for his reply. She closed the tiny gap between their faces, her lips softly meeting his.

James felt as if he had lost all correct sense of feeling in his body other than in his lips. The tips of his fingers tingled as he rested them lightly just in the brink of her hair, and his heart pounded so fiercely he wouldn't have been surprised if she could feel it.

Far too soon, Lily pulled away, again biting her lip, and looking up at him, timidly.

"Dementor?" James asked.

"Kind of," she replied.

James felt his stomach drop in surprise.

"I just mean you made me forget to breathe," she laughed, and she pulled him back close to her and kissed him again.

A/N: Ahhh. Attack of the fluff! On a serious note, please let me know your thoughts on this chapter - I think I'm hopeless at writing these kinds of scenes, but I want to try to get better. Hmm, that may be impossible… Lol. arrrrrr, help me! Please?

Btw - dementor story = true. Yeah, terrible experience, and the thought literally crossed my mind, "Could this really be a dementor disguised as a human trying to suck at my soul?" Eurghhhh…

Um, yeah, anyway - review please - seriously. :)