Lily was dressed and waiting in the practice hall almost an hour earlier than necessary. She'd come early for two reasons. One: because she had wanted time to practice and prepare, just like she knew James probably would have if he hadn't had a detention, and two: because she did not want to accidentally get caught in the locker room with all those boys, which was one thing she doubted even Dumbledore and his eccentric ways would understand.
With nothing else to do, having already stretched, and seeing as there was no James to practice with, Lily gazed around at all the training materials that were littered across the room. It was obviously in preparation for some kind of circuit training that they'd be doing later. Lily nearly groaned out loud at the thought, her body was still protesting the workout that James had made her do the day before and she wasn't sure she could face another battering.
But Lily was comforted to know that James made the rest of the team workout like muggles as well. It made her feel less abused… Lily smiled to herself at the melodramatic thought, James would rather throw himself into the middle of the lake in the deepest depths of winter than abuse her, hence why she had never told him quite how much of a toll their practices were taking on her body. She was a hundred times fitter than she had been, and it definitely showed, but her body just didn't seem to want to make it easy on her.
She sighed and absently rubbed her hand against her chest, where her lungs had been feeling tight since yesterday. Realising that the last thing she should do is dwell on the discomfort, Lily decided the best course of action would be to try and distract herself from the mild pain by working through her now rather large arsenal of spells.
Her hand instinctively reached for the wand holder that was standard issue for any dueller, but instead of finding the comforting and familiar wood of her wand her hand only found air.
Lily frowned down at the area where her wand should have been momentarily baffled before she remembered she'd had to take the holster off to get changed.
Lily's eyes quickly flicked to her watch, it was still 20 minutes before practice started so she decided to risk it. She doubted any of the boys would even be thinking about practice yet.
Lily casually entered the boys locker room and moved towards the corner where she had dumped her bag, she was so intent on her search that she didn't realise she'd walked in on the rest of the team changing until it was too late.
It seemed Lily couldn't have been more mistaken in her assumption, she should have known James wouldn't stand for tardiness at his practices, even though for years it seemed as if he couldn't make it to classes on time even if his life depended on it.
Lily's pace across the room slowed as she took in the scene before her, it took a moment to process, but when it did Lily couldn't help but let out a low appreciative whistle.
"LI- Evan?!" James corrected as he swung around so hastily that he almost fell over his own feet.
They instantly made eye contact and it seemed to take a moment for James to make sense of the sight of Lily in with the team while they were changing, but he was snapped out of it when her gaze fell on his exposed chest and her gaze turned heated.
"Did you forget something?" he managed to say in a relatively normal voice that belayed both his responding hormones and the small twinge of jealousy he felt at seeing her ogle other men.
Lily chuckled "Oh it was nothing, I can't even remember what it was," she waved the question off absently, her eyes running down his chest again this time lingering at the small trail of dark hair that lead below his shorts. Feeling very aware of where her gaze was aimed, James felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Well then perhaps you should get going and warm up for practice?" He said frowning crossly trying to cover his surprise and unease.
"No, I've already warmed up," Lily didn't hesitate to answer as she continued to look avidly around the room before her gaze stopped on the lithe back of a boy across the room.
"Stop staring, Lily!" James angrily mumbled out the side of his mouth as he strode over to her.
"I'm sorry, but he just dropped his pants, am I supposed to just ignore that?" she whispered back and gestured behind James as she tried to peer over his shoulder for a better view.
James instantly put his body between her and the sight of Gideon's now nude arse "Yes you are, and you are certainly not supposed to point, now get out of here!"
His anger didn't have the desired effect because with the angry rise and fall of his breath all he did was bring her attention back to his bare chest, still he liked it better than watching her stare at someone else. "My, my, my…" she said starting to reach out, "I'd forgotten what you looked like without a shirt on."
James caught her hand in a firm grip. He was shocked, and yet strangely pleased by his seeming effect on her, but he quickly remembered that now was not the time for her to start appreciating his physique, plus she still looked like a boy, which was beyond disturbing.
"Leave, Lily," he said through gritted teeth, physically making her turn around towards the exit.
"But I need my wand," she cried out trying to slip out of his grasp, grinning devilishly the whole time.
James almost smiled at her playfulness, she reminded him so badly of Sirius at the moment that it was a little disconcerting, he hadn't ever really seen her like this and he found he really liked the mischievous side to her, but now was not the time for it.
So instead he sighed tiredly stopping just before the door "Where is it?"
"Over there by Sirius's muscled legs!" chuckled Lily as she spun round, stood on her tiptoes and stared over his shoulder once more.
James gaped, his head swiveling between Lily's sparkling eyes and Sirius who stood in only his boxers. Suddenly he frowned, grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her bodily out of the changing rooms. Lily was momentarily stunned to find herself pressed tightly against his warm skin, but it only lasted a few seconds. "Hey!" she cried indignantly as he strong-armed her into the corridor. "What about my wand?!"
"I'll bring it to you!" James scowled at her. Now he was starting to feel more than a little jealous. "You were starting to draw attention to us."
"Fine!" she snapped back. "Ruin all my fun!" then she grinned, "but could you take a picture while you're in there? Jennifer would love to see all that toned male flesh."
James shuddered before commanding, "Behave yourself Lily!"
When she just shrugged and smiled at him unrepentantly he said, "and I thought blokes were supposed to be the perverts," shaking his head, as a small smile fought its way across his face.
"Nope girls, too, especially when they have been given a view like that!" Lily said pointing to his chest and unconsciously stepping closer again.
"Lils," James tonelessly reminded her: "you look like a boy."
Lily looked down at herself and then up into James slightly pale and sickly face. "What, you mean you don't like me for my personality?"
"I love your personality," James rolled his eyes "but no amount of fun loving, is going to make me attracted to a boy. I just don't swing that way."
"Fine," Lily pouted, "change me back so I can ogle?"
James choked on a laugh, "Go sit over there you little deviant and I'll bring you your wand in a sec."
"Fine," sighed Lily, but did as she was instructed.
---
"What was that all about?" Sirius asked as James banged his way back into the changing room.
James shook his head not in the mood to try and formulate a lie but when Sirius persisted he snapped stubbornly "Nothing" as he pulled a shirt over his exposed chest and dipped down to get Lily's wand "Evan left his wand in here. That's all."
Sirius raised a suspicious eyebrow. "And he couldn't get it himself, because…?"
"Because I offered to get it for him," James replied in a tone that did not invite further questions. Not that Sirius would ever take the hint, but James had already started talking before Sirius had had a chance to respond "Great hairy Agrippa, Gideon, don't you ever put clothes on?!"
Gideon spun round quickly at the abrupt reprimand looking confused, when he realised James seriously wanted an answer he smiled easily, "Gotta love being free and easy mate… free and easy."
"Yeah well, put the jewels away they're blinding me."
Despite being baffled by the unwarranted anger, Gideon still did as instructed and jokingly asked "Happy now, Mr Body-conscious? I didn't realise you were so shy."
James sent him a rude hand gesture and barked to the room in general: "Practice should have started five minutes ago. MOVE."
Sirius watched all this in complete shock, but before he could figure out what had happened James was already striding out of the room.
"Hey, hold up," Sirius commanded even as James chucked the spare wand in his hand to Evan who caught it deftly, so in sync with each other it seemed like they must train with each other daily.
"What's got your knickers in a twist!" Sirius demanded when he drew his attention away from Evan.
"Nothing."
Sirius scoffed before asking shrewdly, "Did you fight with, Lily?"
"Something like that," James grumbled as he sent a dirty look towards Lily who, to James, now seemed to be smiling in a whole new way at Gideon.
"Did you hear that guys," a snide voice cut in before James could say anything else, "The Golden couple are having 'marital issues!'"
"Fuck off, Brandon, I said nothing of the sort," James sighed without even bothering to turn around.
"Oh really? Where is your precious girlfriend then?" he asked nastily, coming in front of James and exaggeratedly looking around the room like he might spot her. "You must have done something wrong 'coz it seems to me that a proper girlfriend would be here to support her man," he said, letting the last word sound mocking.
James couldn't have cared less what Brandon thought, knowing the boy was still angry about their fight in the common room months ago, but James felt something twitch beside him and realised that Lily had come over the moment she'd heard his raised voice.
"Come on why isn't she here supporting you then? She's probably off with some other bloke—"
He cut the rest of his sentence off when he realised the whole room had gone silent and all the other boys were now surrounding them, each and every one seeming to be directing varying looks of anger and disgust towards Brandon. James ignored it all because the moment Brandon had started talking James had reached back grabbing a handful of the disguised Lily's robes, trying to stop her from pouncing forward and beating the boy senseless. Outing them both in the process.
Brandon was starting to pale a little under the stares he was receiving and he'd lost some of his swagger realising that no one else in the room found him remotely funny or agreed with his observations.
"Don't you dare talk about her that way," Sirius's low menacing voice cut through the silence in the room, gaining everyone's attention including Lily's who now gazed at Sirius with wide surprised eyes. "Show some bloody respect. That's his girlfriend you're talking about not some girl he just picked up! It's Lily Evans…. you just took it way too far."
James felt Lily squeezing his forearm and had to admit silently that he was just as surprised at Sirius defence as she seemed to be. Even as gratefulness washed through him so did guilt. Pushing the feeling down James cut through the staring contest between Brandon and Sirius, breaking the tension, "Enough banter ladies it's time to get to practice," he said in a voice that dared the team to argue.
For a moment everyone looked shocked that he'd broken it up, but when they realised he was serious they all slowly started to move away.
All except two: Lily and Brandon.
Lily whispered quietly from behind him, so no one would hear, pressing her hand briefly to his back, "For what its worth, I would never miss a single match whether I was on the team or not," with that said she too walked back to her partner to begin practice. Leaving just James and Brandon.
As soon as everyone else was occupied James walked slowly towards him not stopping until he was right in his face. His eyes sparking fire, he whispered: "The only reason I didn't just smash your face in is because I know it would have cause chaos… but if you ever talk about her like that again, if you even imply anything… my patience with you is going to run out. You can bitch at me all you like but she is off limits. Do. You. Understand?" he commanded.
Brandon sniffed at the threat, but nevertheless he nodded stiffly.
James glared a second longer before he spotted Sirius over Bandon's shoulder and walked off roughly brushing past him on the way. With each step towards his friend he tried to forget Brandon and focus on what Lily had said, and it managed to calm him a little more with each stride.
When he finally reached his friend, James sprawled next to him and sighed slinging his arm over his eyes.
"Not your day huh?" Sirius asked his voice still a little tense.
"I don't think so, no," James smiled wryly. "Thanks for sticking up for Lily though, it means a lot." He said removing his arm so Sirius could see how grateful he was.
"She makes you happy," was the simple reply. "And Lily may be a lot of things but its obvious that you can trust her, it's the way she looks at you…." He trailed off uncomfortably "She's not interested in being with anyone else."
James was shocked and secretly hopeful after hearing that but unfortunately, he didn't have time to contemplate what Sirius had said because he had been seated less than a minute when he heard the sickening sound of a body hitting the floor hard and an unnatural silence once again fill the room.
As he turned in the direction of the noise James caught something out the corner of his eye that made his heart stop.
---
A/N
I apologise I know it has been a really long time since I updated but please don't worry I still have every intention of completing this fic
The next chap has been almost finished for months so fingers crossed the next update will be much quicker.
Thank you for sticking with me
Please review - only one more chap and then I think a trip to the Potter is in order…