Um ... I'm not here right now. Please leave a message? :

November 1977

-

McGonagall has given Lily and James free use of her classroom after hours for Head duties, and it's there Lily escapes after she says no to him.

Again.

She pulls a patrol schedule from her shoulder bag and begins to pencil in names halfheartedly, thinking more about James' most recent proposal than Davy Gudgeon who she's given both the fifth floor corridor and North Astronomy tower on the same night.

What she's most afraid of is that saying no to him has become more habit than conviction. And why she's afraid—it could be because she hates the idea of eating all seven years of harsh words about James Potter. Or because—and this is a possibility she doesn't like to think about—he might just give up.

Davy Gudgeon gets slotted to check the corridors along the kitchen, and Lily's head aches with passionate, confused denial.

And then there's a knock on the door. "Lily? Lily, it's James." Who else? "Do you want some help?"

She doesn't feel like dealing with him—but doesn't want him to go away. "Um . . . I'm not here right now. Please leave a message with Sir Ulfric the Undermined across the hall, and I'll get back to you."

"Or I'll just give it right to you," he counters, opening the door and sitting down across from her. Lily is surprised to note that his hair is combed slightly flatter than normal, and every inch of his shirt's hemline is tucked where it belongs.

"What're we doing?" he asks.

Lily sighs. "I'm working on patrol schedules for next month."

"I'll help," he replies, not as happily as usual. But he does grin once he gets a good look at what she's written down.

"You've got Gudgeon in there four times, poor bloke!" he exclaims, laughing and grabbing her quill to put a strike through the entire block for December first.

Lily rolls her eyes, but chuckles at his unabashed enthusiasm, then slides the whole calendar across the table to him.

"You have a go then," she tells him, leaning back in her chair and watching. His head is bows low over the parchment, straight part and all, and Lily smiles beside herself.

If he was always like this, she thinks fondly, maybe things would change.

When she registers that thought, she can barely keep from choking. James Potter isn't someone she's ever been fond of, and she'd never planned on starting. But now . . .

Maybe things really would change.


This is one of about five hard quotes that I want to get out of the way now, instead of waiting for the end :-) And Davy Gudgeon = silly Hufflepuff who tried to get past the Whomping Willow - but also a student of the age where he could have been a fifth, sixth, or seventh year prefect. Hope you guys enjoyed!