AN: This story is getting much longer than I anticipated. I started this after a failed Camp NaNo that had a goal of 35, 000 words. After thirty days of writing this it got just over 50,000. I hope you stick with this story that is becoming a monster in length, as James and Lily haven't even gotten out of Hogwarts yet. Please Review.
Once they got home, the pair acted like nothing happened. Lily said that she wanted to read, but instead sat at her desk staring at the window while James and Sirius tried to out do each other with complicated tricks on their broom while Remus and Peter through a Quaffle around.
That night Lily took a shower and then tried to concentrate on the book that failed to hold her interest earlier. The hands on the clock read eleven when her eyelids began to droop and the door opened. There stood James with wet hair and a grin clothed in pyjama pants and that infernal t -shirt. "My bed is empty."
"Only sex fiends ask to share beds with innocent young ladies."
"I didn't deny it." He walked to the bed and Lily playfully smacked him with her book. "Ow, what was that for?"
"Your mum's home."
"Peter won't tell and I think you're much more attractive."
Lily rolled her eyes and scooted over do he could have the right side of the bed. James watched as she read, leaning over to rest his head on her shoulder, reaching over to play with a slightly curled lock of her hair. "I'm trying to read."
"You haven't flipped a page in five minutes." He place a kiss on her collarbone and worked his way up as Lily attempted to ignore him. By the time he kissed the skin beneath her ear, she was as red as her hair and had begun to shy away from him, biting back laughter. "Someone's ticklish." His hand went to her side and she shrieked. "Quiet." He covered her mouth with his hand. "Sirius is going to decide a fire drill's in order if you're not quiet." He pulled the book out of her hands and she climbed onto his lap, her limbs wrapped around him. With a grin she kissed him with such a force he was taken by surprise.
"How are we going to do this at school?" Lily left one arm limply crooked around his shoulder and with the other she playfully ran her fingers through his hair. Sighing she laid against his chest. "Are we doing this all wrong? I mean we've been dating six months."
"There is nothing wrong about this." His hands went to her hips, pulling her even closer and reciprocating the earlier kiss. "As much as I love this, we can take a break some nights. Besides with your head girl status you get a private room. We better hope that the the head boy either won't care or is unobservant."
"I don't know if I'll get head girl," she said. "You don't have to be a prefect to get a head position, you could even get it."
James laughed. "With my track record?"
"You're not the same person you were two years ago." She rested her hands on his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "Can you hand me my wand? I don't want to get up."
James lifted one hand and muttered a few words. Nothing happened so he repeated the action and in a split second they were cloaked in darkness.
"How did you do that?" Lily rested her head against his chest, looking up at him with all the curiosity she could muster. Sixth years worked on wandless magic in DADA, but never got very far .
"Remus, he's brilliant at it."
"You'll have to help me." Her voice was becoming thick with sleep.
"That comes at price." He ran his fingers through her hair. He knew Lily was paying no mind to his words, just registered the slight vibrations from his chest. "Night, Lily." He smiled as he easily unwrapped her arms and maneuvered her legs. It never ceased to amaze him how light she was, as she was taller than most of the girls at school. He situated her and then rolled on his side, putting an arm in top of her waist. As he lay there, he felt the feather light touch of Lily's hand on his. At that he shut his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The days of summer bled into one another. Each day it seemed the Marauders accepted her more. Sirius was civil, but he was James friend, not hers. Remus was getting back to how he was at the beginning of fifth year. Peter didn't seem so nervous around her.
By the middle of July the two Marauders went home with promises to come after their Hogwarts letters were delivered. James and Lily were aware of the fact that Agatha knew. The older witch stopped saying anything to them, just pursed her lips when the couple came down together with Lily wearing one of James t-shirt over her own pyjama pants. Sirius, however , began to make a game out of it by the time he realized that James frequented Lily's bed more than his own. Pranks ended up being nonstop to the point where the only bed Lily could sleep was the spare bed in James room.
It was early morning when Agatha was up with Charles. "What time are the girls coming?"
"Girls?" he questioned. Charles was slumped over the breakfast of eggs and sausage that Mopsy had fried, his hand curled around the handle of tea. Last night he hadn't came home until nearly midnight and now he was expected to be there in less than an hour.
"Lily's roommates," Agatha explained. "She said they were fine staying in one room, but I have to transfigured beds, shrink furniture and resize the room."
"Oh." Charles finally took a drink of his tea before setting the mug down and starting to stretch. "Remus and Lily are quite good with things like that, and you know James is best at Transfigurations." Charles sighed and pulled off his glasses to rub his eyes. When he looked up he saw the disappointed face of his wife. "I have to work, you know that. It's been like this since we first got married, we both have demanding jobs."
"I miss you. You're gone all hours of the day and night. Do you know what it's like laying awake in bed waiting for you to come home?"
"I'll start sending-
"Forget it, you better leave, you're going to be late." Agatha got to her feet and as she walked past Charles, he got her arm. "Don't. And please stop encouraging James and Lily. They've spent practically every night together. After I go to bed they sneak across the hall. Don't you know?"
"Just let them," Charles said.
"Let them?" Agatha was shocked. "It's dangerous letting them get that close. I love Lily like a daughter, but they're teenagers. Even we weren't so keen on each other. What happens when they go separate ways? Lily's a bright girl-"
"They'll get married?"
"Married? James turned of age less than five months ago and you're speaking of marriage?"
"At the rate they're going-"
"Charles, it's different from when we were their age."
"You're right. James is going to be auror, now that's not for sure but I know he is the exactly the type of candidate they want. If he goes to training and they aren't married do you know what that'll do to Lily? You remember what it's like." Charles pushed away from the table. "She will be completely in the dark and James won't have any way of contacting her other than blacked out letters where they only thing that she'll be able to read is 'I love you' and his signature."
"Is this about us?" Agatha asked. "I thought we-"
"The Minister wants me to travel abroad. It will be at least a month," he said. "I won't be able to contact you other than to tell you I'm alive."
"You're a Department Head."
"He wants me back in the field, working with the Head Auror." He looked away as he saw Agatha's face crumple, memories immediately flooding back to her from all those years ago. "If-heaven forbid-something were to happen to us, I know Lily would help him keep his wits about him. You can never be so certain about life these days."
"No, you can't." Agatha walked over and embraced her husband, something she had not done for weeks. "I...I have to finish getting ready for work. You better get to the office."
Charles watched as his visibly shaken wife went up the staircase. He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried his best to compose himself. How could he take the job? It was exactly the type of he set out to do when he became an Auror. Instead he got stuck with a series of relatively safe, yet important assignments that eventually led to promotion after promotion until he was in charge of Magical Law Enforcements. His life, though, was so much more than work now.
With a sigh he walked into his office and climbed into the fireplace.
Lily was in her room, pouring over a volume she took after Charles' study. She was waiting for her friends to get her. The window was open, breeze rustling the curtains. Down below her window she could hear the boys outside doing Merlin knows what.
As she flipped a page she heard the fireplace. With a smile she shut the book and raced downstairs. "Lily!" a voice shouted. Marlene. She sprinted faster stumbling towards Marlene as she ran into the study. "Godric, I missed you." Her arms wrapped tightly around her friend. When Lily pulled away she took in her friend. The pixie cut was now gone, her grown-out hair trimmed into a chin length bob that of course looked stunning on her. "So, this is the infamous Potter house. I imagined something a bit more foreboding, like the Potter Manor."
"You've met Agatha."
"That I have," Marlene laughed. "Am I dreadfully late?"
"You're first," Lily said. As she helped her friend with the bags she had the fireplace crackled and out stepped Alice, who immediately began to brush off the soot. "Alice!" she exclaimed as the blonde stepped forward wrapping her arms around her.
"Where is everybody? I thought James and his lot would be here."
"The boys are outside, so brace yourself."
"Boys? That's what you're calling them now? Usually you pepper their description with a few colorful adjectives that only Remus is spared from," Alice said.
"You seem better," Lily said.
"I am, Frank had a break before he started his in the field training, so I saw him a last week." Alice had a forced smile pinned to her face and Lily could tell there was more to that story. "Can we bring our stuff up to your room or are we going to stand here all day?" she questioned.
Lily just smiled at them and shook her head. Marlene and Alice chattered for a few minutes before the fire place crackled again and Athena appeared. She dusted off her skirt and stepped out with a slight flounce. "Hello," she said with tentative smile on her face. Lily pulled her in for a hug immediately. "It's good to see you all." She turned to Marlene and Alice. They stood for a few moments before they both gave her a slight hug. The girl who had occupied the bed in the right corner of their room silently for five years, was actually their friend now.
"Let's go upstairs before Sirius decides to pop in."
"Sirius?" Athena asked as she followed Lily out of the room and towards the stairs. "He's here."
"He lives here, just like me. Didn't you know that?"
"Of course." She made an odd sound before tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Agatha offered to put you in guest rooms, but she did a bit of charming to my room yesterday." Lily led them to the room where four beds sat in the middle of the room, the heads all turned towards the center. "It's a tight squeeze, but I thought you would like it better than two of you being stuck down the hall."
"Reminds me of camp," Athena said as she set her bag down by one of the beds and sat on the mattress. "Except the summer camp I went to was an all girls camp. Although, some of the bolder girls used to sneak guys in their cabins from across the lake." Her eyes went to the floor where a pair of old shoes James used as slippers and one of his ratty Quidditch shirts strewn across the floor beside her bed.
"I wore it to bed last night, Alice does that with Frank clothes all the time."
"How cute you're blushing," Marlene said as she perched on the bed beside Lily's. "Tell us the truth."
Lily's face felt like it was on fire as she kicked the pile underneath her bed before crossing her legs and looking around the room. She made a mental note to chew James out earlier. Last night things had gotten a bit out of hand after he kicked off his shoes and climbed in next to Lily. Before she knew what was happening his shirt was coming off, then her nightgown, then his pants...It would have gotten much further if Sirius hadn't executed one of his famous pranks that ended up with Peter pounding on the door.
"A lady doesn't kiss and tell," she finally told them.
"Lady?" Athena said with a crooked grin on her face. "Interesting definition."
"Better question is what Agatha thinks," Marlene said.
"She just gives us disapproving looks." Lily looked around at the faces of her friends. "Charles came home when we were together one night and we tried to cover it up. He said as long as we remembered to shut the door he didn't care. And that if Agatha found out about us, we were already lectured by him."
"Seriously?" Agatha asked, her mouth opened. "The Potters, they may be open-minded, but…"
"Charles is the adult version of James," Lily said. "Enough about this do you want to unpack? I'll take these back to James room." She grabbed the clothes and left the room heading across the hall. James' room was messy, mostly because he had guest and now Peter was staying with him instead of Remus. She placed the shoes next to his trunk at the foot of his bed and folded the holey t-shirt.
"It won't wrinkle," James called from the doorway as he walked forward. "Who found it?"
"Athena," she said, sitting down. He sat down beside her, turning her head to pull her in for a kiss. "No, not now."
"Why?" He turned away, lifting his hand as the door shut and locked. "Problem solved."
"For the duration of my roommates visit we can't do this. Might as well start now."
"Five minutes from now?" James asked. "They'll be here for a week. I'm going to have to share a room with Peter instead of with you."
"If you didn't leave your things in my room, my roommates wouldn't be imagining a scarlet letter on my chest."
"What are you talking about?"
"Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne...Ringing any bells?"
"Muggle books? Lily you know I don't read those."
"I'll get you a copy, it's a classic." She kisses him and then pulls away. "It'll give you something to do at night."
"I hope it's dirty."
"You never cease to amaze me." Lily pulls her wand out of her pocket and the door flies open. "I'm going out for fresh air around ten tonight, just so you know."