Sooooo. I had originally intended this as a filler...but it kinda took on a life of its own.

Once again, I am not the creator of Harry Potter.

Chapter 25

Meeting Prongs

It was early afternoon when Sirius stood outside the Lion's Den listening to the roar. Neither James nor Lily had come to breakfast or the common room yet and he was worried. Pacing back and forth he debated giving the password.

"Padfoot, you know if you just barge in there James is going to throttle you." Peter said bluntly. Sirius glared in his general direction.

"What if something is wrong with them"" he argued.

"What if they are snogging?" Pete replied rolling his eyes. Remus smirked,

"What if they are shagging?" he added. Sirius raised his eyebrows and turned to look at his two friends.

"I think it more likely they are ignoring you idiots." a sullen voice said from the portrait hole that was now empty of the picture. Sirius spun on the spot gracefully at the sound of his best mate's voice.

"Ignoring us? Why?" he protested. James shook his head in disbelief at his clueless friend.

"Hmmmm. I wonder, you only walked in on them doing it twice." Peter drawled sarcastically.

"We haven't done it, at all thanks to you, sorry Pete not really you but the other two morons with you." James clarified. "Any ways ignoring you all or not, I am taking Lily out today. Technically I haven't even taken her on a date as my girlfriend, and she, uh, wants to see Prongs." He said nervously, fidgeting with his sleeves and hair. All three boys looked at him dumbfounded.

"You are going to go stag for her? Really?" Sirius said in awe. James shrugged and then nodded. He couldn't hide his boyish smile that was creeping onto his face.

"You are at least going to end our silent treatment long enough to tell us about it later tonight right? I mean you are the first one to show someone else, we want to know how it is going to go." Remus said excitedly. James rolled his eyes.

"Probably, I don't know how long we will be gone. Uhm, don't go to the clearing today, I mean it; don't go there at all, unless you talk to me first. Got it?" he said sternly. The others nodded and grinned as Lily stepped through the passage way, looking even more stunning than usual. Pete had to shake his head to come back to his senses, Remus and Sirius smiled brightly.

Her hair was hanging loose down her back and lying in loose artful curls. It almost looked effortless. She was wearing tight jeans and a long sleeved pale blue shirt. She had a decorative belt strapped around it and had done her make up flawlessly. James looked speechless so Remus spoke for him.

"Wow, Lily, you look, great, not so sure how those heels are going to do hiking though." He said complimentary. She looked at him surprised, James looked irritated.

"Hiking?" she asked. Remus snapped his teeth together to stop talking; Sirius smirked and shook his head. James touched her hair and smiled at her.

"You look amazing. Keep the heels, I like them. If I need to carry you to our SURPRISE location I will. I really don't mind." He said before he kissed her cheek. She grinned happily.

"Can't I just ride on your back?" she asked seriously. Sirius barked out a laugh and the other two stifled back their own. James looked appalled.

"I turn into a stag Lils, not a pony." He huffed his exasperation at her error when the three boys turned to leave them. "Siri," he called. Sirius turned back and smiled at the use of his nick name, it usually meant that James had forgotten to be mad at him.

"huh?" he responded coolly, pretending not to be happy about the gesture. James gave him a meaningful look and Sirius grinned hugely understanding it to mean, 'you know the drill.' Sirius nodded minutely. "I got ya Jamie." He said and turned back. The other two boys looked at him from the sides of their eyes questions evident but with an almost imperceptible shake of his head they fell silent. Lily didn't seem to notice the silent questions going on.

"I take it that was you forgiving him?" she said as he slipped his hand around hers and pulled her in the opposite direction. James squeezed it and lied smoothly.

"Yeah, he understands me pretty well without the actual words." She nodded and let him lead her to the main hall.

"So are you going to tell us now that they are out of hearing range?" Remus asked.

"James needs me to pull out a Sirius miracle." Sirius said with a smirk.

"Ha-ha funny, serious miracle we get it. We always get it." Peter said in a bored voice.

"No, a Sirius, as in me, miracle date. When I take a girl out Jamie always goes to the kitchens and employs a house elf to have a full scale meal, candles flowers, whatever will make it better. That's why he told us where he was going. Think about it, we would have looked at the map before going to the clearing; we would have seen he was there and not gone. He was letting me know where to send the elf and supplies. Come on it will take them 20 minutes or so to get there, maybe thirty because of Lily's shoes. We have to be quick." He ran off, through a door that was pretending to be a wall, towards the kitchens. The other two glanced at each other skeptically and took off full tilt after him, Remus eager to make up for the night before, and Peter because if not he was in real jeopardy of being left behind.

With one more gentle kiss on her lips James lowered Lily from his arms to her feet in the middle of a grassy clearing. She turned in circles looking around her. James had obviously prepared for this, though when, she didn't know. She had never been here before, it was obviously a marauder secret and it was beautiful. The lush opening was maybe three acres and off to the side was a pretty little glass like pond. Little yellow and orange flowers were still scattered around the small meadow like place and there was a white blanket spread out by the edge of the water. He took her hand and pulled her over to it. Scattered around the blanket were hundreds of red and pink rose petals intermixed with perfect petals from a snow white Lily. There was a basket obviously full of food and mead on ice as well as several bottles of what appeared to be iced pumpkin juice and butterbeer. She turned and smiled at James laughing at the nervous expression he wore.

He was wearing a very small lopsided grin on his face and was looking at his feet, which he was shuffling on the ground, getting scuff marks on his white runners. He looked so sexy in his muggle jeans and white fitted T shirt. He obviously was trying for nice but casual but he made it look impossibly wonderful. She ran her hands from his shoulders down his flat tight chest and let them rest on his stomach. Looking longingly into his eyes she leaned in to kiss him, he pecked her lips and pulled away laughing.

"If you don't stop looking at me like this we are never going to get to the actual reason we came out here." She giggled at him and let him guide her down to sitting on the blanket. "Now I don't have to change, but, I don't want to ruin my shoes, sometimes I mess them up, Sirius does too for that matter, and I don't want to get my shirt gross so I am going to be half naked for a second." He said with a grin as he flung his shoes off one foot at a time and started pulling off his shirt.

"James, we were having trouble with both of us fully clothed do you think we can handle one of us being half naked?" she said as she looked longingly at his exposed chest. He laughed at her and tucked her hair behind her ear before he stood all the way back up.

"I have complete faith in you; besides, I doubt you will be attracted to prongs. He isn't really your type." He joked. She shrugged her shoulders and watched him closely. He was obviously nervous and was blushing though he was looking into her eyes. "You ready?" he asked. She nodded her head quickly and her eyes bulged slightly as he started to shimmer and his shape shifted drastically. In the blink of an eye she was sitting in front of magnificent stag. He had huge velvet antlers protruding from his amazing head. Her eyes roamed from his head to his huge hooves and back up again. His eyes caught her attention. They were James' eyes. Perfect, though admittedly larger, replicas of the hazel pools that she often found herself lost in. The animal snorted and pawed the ground. She laughed at the similarity in character to her boyfriend. Then it hit her, this was her boyfriend.

It had never been so blatantly obvious. Prongs and James were inseparable. They were the same person, the same being. She could see the inert grace in the still creature and she thought of the way James stood leaned against a wall or (she blushed at the thought) a bed frame. The stags head tilted to the side at the look on her face. She smiled.

"You don't have to stay that far away Jamie." She said, making sure to use his name so he knew she had actually made the connection. The stag pranced around in a circle proudly and came over to the blanket carefully lowering himself to lie beside it. Tentatively she reached her hand out to touch him. The fur was so soft it felt like satin. His eyes closed as she ran her fingers through the fur on his neck. "You are beautiful." She said to him. He huffed indignantly. "Sorry, you are so hansom." She corrected with a smirk at his hurt stag feelings. They sat that way for a long time Lily rubbing his fur and James thinking over and over again.

"I can't believe I am sitting beside Lily Evans. I can't believe I am sitting here beside Lily Evans." It had almost become a mantra.

"James, you are amazing like this, but will you change back?" she said softly, afraid to hurt his feelings. He stood and shook himself off and immediately began to shimmer into himself. He timed his transformation perfectly so he was standing upright when finished. She grabbed his arm as he reached down for his shirt. "You looked great with it on, but I think you should leave it off for now." She suggested. He smiled shyly and sat down beside her not looking into her eyes.

"Are you hungry?" he asked off handedly.

"I am, why won't you look at me?" she asked. He turned his head and met her eyes. The incandescent green locked with the deep hazel.

"I love you Lily." He said simply. She smiled and leaned into him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she laid her head against the side of his chest.

"I love you, why are you being bashful all of the sudden?" she replied and then kissed the side of his throat. He sighed deeply, reminding her of the stag that had just vacated the spot across from her.

"I have never shown anyone that part of me. In fact, I am the first of the marauders to ever show anyone. You are the only person other than us to know. It is surprisingly embarrassing, I feel like I just stood in front of you naked." He said looking down at his lap.

"Thank you for showing me this James. I understand your nervousness but you know I have seen you almost naked many times." She could hear the smile in his voice when he replied.

"Yes, but you aren't staring at me at that point, you tend to be preoccupied." She laughed at his assessment of their many make out sessions.

"I am looking at you a lot more than you realize." She snorted. He blushed all the way to his hair line.

"I think I need my shirt now." He stuttered trying to reach it from behind her. They both fell over sideways wrestling with one another over the shirt.

It was a long time later that they finally ate the food he had brought, and several hours before they ventured back into the castle. The sun was low in the sky as they headed in intending to go to the great hall for dinner.

Two hours after dinner found James sitting on Sirius' bed playing with his snitch staring at the ceiling. "I don't want it to be tonight. I want it to be spontaneous and I want to give her time to think about what she saw today. I don't want her to be like. 'Hmmm. I really am freaked out by the fact that he can turn into a bloody animal but….we just had sex for the first time so I can't leave him now.' I mean c'mon what guy wants that?" he protested. Sirius laughed his bark like laugh, Pete smiled from his position on the floor and Remus shook his head despairingly.

"Jamie, she isn't going anywhere. The girl loves you. Don't you think she should get a say in when you do, do it, for the first time?" Remus said in a comforting but chastising voice. James shook his head right back.

"Of course she gets a say, she can say no, when the time comes, but I get that option too after all. If I don't feel comfortable I don't have to do it. I'm not ready." He said stubbornly.

"You're right." Pete added.

"You're scared." Remus threw in.

"you are being a woman." Sirius finished with a roll of his eyes. James gaped at all of them and shoved Sirius who was sitting beside him. "Really Jamesie. Think about it. You are whining that you aren't ready and she can't make you have sex? Very woman like. Very, very, woman like. Vin wasn't as picky as you. Shite neither was Rileigh, right Remmy." Remus nodded.

"He's right James. Then again she wasn't a virgin either. You are. I think you are nervous." James frantically flung his head from side to side to express his denial. "No for real. I was nervous. I mean it's a big deal right? What if you aren't good at it? What if it isn't what she expected? What if it doesn't, hmmmm, measure up? What if…"

"Alright I get it. If I wasn't nervous I am now you git. Besides as if I, the stag, wouldn't measure up. Don't make me laugh." James called over his explanation. Remus shrugged his shoulders and Sirius patted him on the back and pretended to cough.

"Girl." He choked out. Peter scowled.

"You never were good at that Siri, you know we understood you, right?" Sirius scowled back but the other two burst into laughter.

Hours later James walked into the heads den with Remus at his side. Lily looked up from her reading and smiled at the boys.

"Are we having Remus for the night since Sirius can't stay?" she asked happily. James nodded while his friend shook his head no.

"You said you were staying!" the black haired boy protested angrily. Remus shrugged his shoulders.

"I just think that Siri may need me more than you. After all he and Pete fight a lot. You really can't think leaving them alone for a whole night is a good idea. Besides, I think I can count on Lils to keep you company right?" he looked at the girl who was sitting quietly on the sofa. She nodded her head and smiled at the exasperated look on her boyfriend's face.

"Yeah Remmy, I think I got it under control." She replied and he smiled before quickly walking out of the door. James stood still in his spot and shuffled his feet beneath himself.

"Jamie come sit over here." She said. He looked at her with a stoic expression. "James Potter, I understand that you are nervous because of today but really, really? You aren't even going to come near me?" she questioned. He looked like a scared little boy as he walked over and sat next to her. She smiled brilliantly at him. "James, I love you, no matter what species you may be at the time. I love you, only you, really, no amount of antler or fur is going to change that." He looked at her with disbelief as she ran her fingers through his hair. "You wanna come sleep in my room? I did promise to keep you company." He looked even more nervous and took over the hair ruffling.

"Lils, look, it isn't that I don't want to, you know, but I don't want to well, you know tonight." He stuttered. "I mean, I will, if you want to, but I would rather wait until, a better time." She burst into laughter at his distressed face.

"You are telling me you are this nervous because you think I want to have sex? James I want to sleep with you, like every night. I don't want to plan our first time. Look. I know the other times have been messed up, but you need to remember it is my first time too. I am more than nervous, I am scared. You aren't the only one." She said into her lap. He pulled her face up to look at his and smiled as her dark red hair fell over her cheeks. Smiling guiltily he replied,

"I am sorry. I got so caught up in everything I think I forgot. Thank you for today." He kissed her perfect lips softly and smiled into them as she deepened the kiss. He placed his hands on her waist and let them rub the little sliver of skin that was showing on her side. She groaned throatily into his kiss and shook her head. He pulled away and looked at her she had never, never turned down his kiss before. She grinned breathlessly at him.

"Oh no, you said not tonight. I am holding you to it, but that means, no teasing. I can't take any more of it this weekend. I may explode from the tension. It is late love, let's go to bed." He smiled back and followed her as she stood and sauntered off to her room.