Chapter Two

A/N: Don't forget to review! And follow me on tumblr at alrightginger if you're not already!

In all honesty, Lily had been far too distracted by the stupid man with his stupid unshaven jawline, and the way it prickled her fingertips to notice the satchel at first.

Honestly, though. Who could blame her? She hadn't even known men could grow hair on their faces, and if she had, she wouldn't have suspected it would be so...tempting.

She ought to have been more frightened. Here this strange man was, knocked out cold after an unsuccessful attempt at kidnapping her no doubt. And she was far more concerned with his facial hair than with the fact he was likely here to steal her magic.

But she wasn't frightened. Not in the least bit.

Her heart was beating fast, but it wasn't from nerves. She wasn't used to this sort of patter inside her chest. She didn't know what to call it, exactly. She hadn't experienced this sort of emotion before.

Conrad slinked between her legs, and she started, having forgotten about him altogether. His purrs vibrated loudly in the stone walls of the tower as he pawed at the man's face. Apparently she wasn't the only one who approved of the man's looks.

"What should we do with him?" asked Lily, looking down at Conrad who merely blinked back up at her.

Lily frowned, turning her attention away from the knocked out man for a split second and spotting the satchel. It had flung open in it's fall, and Lily could see the most peculiar gold and jewel encrusted thing popping out from it. She picked it up gingerly, expecting it to be much heavier than it was. It certainly looked like it should be heavy. Instead, though, it was light. She nearly chucked it across the room to see how far it would go before deciding it was probably a bad idea. It looked like the sort of expensive jewelry Petunia was always wearing whenever she went out. But how exactly would one wear something so...round.

She tried it on her arm, as she had seen Petunia wear many round things around her wrist. But it didn't seem as though it were made for her wrist, or even her upper arm, falling off instead. Peering through the biggest of jewels with one eye closed, the sudden thought dawned on her that, perhaps, she should try it on her head of all things. Which made her feel suddenly silly. She had never seen her sister wear any jewelry on her head.

But still…

Her fingers shook as she lifted it up and placed it on the top of her head. She watched as it sunk over her thick, red hair. It wasn't uncomfortable. It fit. How odd. She had never really had anything that fit her on her first try. She had made all her dresses, she never needed shoes while living inside a tower but the few times she had tried Petunia's on they had been too small, too narrow.

She stared at herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing the girl who was looking back at her. It was her, surely, but she looked almost...royal.

Conrad mewed loudly, looking up at her with wide green eyes.

"Whatever this is," said Lily, lifting it back off her head, "it's precious. And expensive."

And it doesn't look like it should belong to the type of man sprawled out on my floor.

And the sudden thought dawned on her, striking her like lightning. It was, perhaps, as rotten of an idea as they come. Certainly nothing that her sister would approve of.

But, perhaps, this was a rotten sort of man and she would need to deal with him in such a way.

She was certain that this...this piece of jewelry didn't belong to him. Which would make him a thief.

It was very possible that this man had come to steal her as well. Kidnap her, as Petunia had said men would try to do. Why else would he have found her? How else would he have known the location of her tower?

But then...what if he didn't mean her harm. The thought sounded naive, even to her. Men weren't to be trusted. Probably good looking men too fit that category.

Especially good looking men, a voice inside her head said that sounded suspiciously like Petunia's.

But she had the upper hand at the moment to judge his intent. She could handle herself, despite what Petunia had said. Why, she had knocked out a full grown man all on her own, hadn't she?

She could surely get the upper hand on him awake, and find out why he was here exactly.

Petunia would absolutely die if she knew.

But what Petunia didn't know wouldn't hurt her, right?

The first thing James became aware of was the throbbing of his head.

The second was the mass of red hair tethering him to a chair.

He thought he was dreaming still, or at least disoriented.

"Is - is this hair? He wondered aloud, not really expecting any sort of reply. He blamed it on his aching head, his lack of reasoning that where there was hair, there must be an actual person attached to it.

Which is why, he supposed, he jumped when he heard a voice speak from above him.

"Struggling - struggling is pointless."

"What?"

He narrowed his eyes, seeing a flash of movement from something hopping down from a support beam and onto the ground with ease.

"I know why you're here," said the voice. A girl. It was definitely a girl. "And I'm not afraid of you."

"What?" James asked again, unable to think of anything else to say. Really, this whole situation was odd and only getting more peculiar by the second.

He wasn't sure what was more horrifying. The fact that he had been knocked out and tied up by hair of all things, or the fact that he had been outsmarted by…an extremely attractive girl.

It was almost like watching the sun walk into the room, the way she emerged from the darkness of the back of the tower wall into full view. Like he had been blinded by her glow. She was...she was like sunshine, there was no other way to describe it. Everything that was light and good wrapped in a purple dress with freckles, dark green eyes, and framed in red hair.

"Who are you?" she asked, her grip tightening around a cast iron pan that she wielded like a weapon. Christ, she was just his type. "And how did you find me?"

"Ahhhh," he sputtered, his voice suddenly lost to him.

"Who are you?" Grip tightening. Teeth bared. Emerald green eyes ready to strike him down. He was a goner. "And how did you find me?"

He cleared his throat. She may be the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, but she still had him tied to a chair with her own hair of all things - God, how long was it even? 60...70 feet? - and he needed to pull himself together.

He would have to have all his wits - and charm - about him to wiggle his way out of this one.

"I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say...Hi." He broke out his most handsome grin. Time for the charm. "How ya doing? The name's James Potter. How's your day going?"

The girl blinked at him, not looking the least bit like he had any sort of effect on her other than confusion.

"Who else knows I'm here, James Potter."

"Listen, Sunshine - "

"Lily. My name is Lily."

"Lily, then. Listen, this is what happened. I was off, gallivanting through the forest when I ran across your tower and - wait a second. My satchel! Where is my satchel?"

In all honesty, James had completely forgotten about the satchel the moment he laid eyes on the girl. Lily. It was like it was hard to see past her. Like he had forgotten that he had an actual purpose for being in this tower that didn't have anything to do with her.

"I've hidden it," she said, crossing her arms and looking smug. It was a good look on her. "Somewhere you'll never find it."

James rolled his eyes, skimming around the room for a brief second. "It's in that pot, isn't it?"

Everything went black again.

"Now it's hidden where you'll never find it."

Lily watched, feeling rather pleased with herself, as the man - James...it sounded as royal on her tongue as Philip - shook his head, wrinkling his forehead in frustration as he came to.

"Will you stop that?" he groaned.

"So, tell me, James," said Lily, feeling overly confident. She circled around him, nearly tripping over her own hair in the process. "What do you want with me? With my hair?"

"What?"

"To cut it? Sell it?"

"Listen, the only thing I want to do with your hair is to get out of it. Literally."

Lily froze, the frying pan falling slightly as her hands went limp. "Wait...you don't want my hair?"

"Why in the world would I want your hair?"

Because Petunia said you would, thought Lily.

"If - if you don't want my hair," said Lily, slowly, "then why are you here?"

"I told you," said James, sighing. He looked exasperated with her. Though somehow in a different sort of way that Petunia always did. "I was being chased, I saw your tower, and now, apparently, I'm being held captive by your hair of all things. How long is it, anyway? 60...70 feet? How does hair even get this long?"

Lily couldn't speak or a moment.

Petunia had told her men were awful. Selfish, cruel.

This man didn't seem to be any of those things. A thief, perhaps, but not an inherently bad person.

Petunia had told her that people would want her for her magic.

This man didn't seem to. He didn't seem to even know she was even made of magic.

Petunia had told her she hoped Lily would never meet a man.

And, yet, she had.

"Now what," Lily whispered mainly to herself. Though Conrad appeared, curving his tail around her ankle, and peering up at her thoughtfully.

She had a plan before she woke James up, but now that she knew that Petunia was wrong about so many things, she felt as though the wind had been knocked from her lungs.

What else had Petunia been wrong about?

James' throat cleared from behind her, causing Lily to jump. "Are you okay over there, sunshine?"

"You're telling the truth?" asked Lily.

"Of course."

Lily took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as she walked back over towards James. Her entire world may have just suffered a slight upheaval, but she still had the upper hand in this situation. And she was suddenly desperate to find out what else Petunia had been wrong about.

"Okay then. If you're truly not here for me, I'm prepared to offer you a deal," said Lily, trying to sound confident. In control. Like her fingers weren't trembling as she drug his chair around by her hair to angle him better.

James snorted. "A deal?"

"Yes, a deal," said Lily, pacing and still dragging him. She was so lost in manic thought that she barely registered his chair tipping over or his grunt as he hit the ground. "Tomorrow is my birthday."

"Happy early birthday," said James, his voice muffled by the stone floor.

"Thank you. I'm turning eighteen. It's a big year."

"Yeah," grunted James, flipping himself over. "But what does that have to do with me, exactly?"

"Every year on my birthday, fireworks appear. I would like you to take me to see these fireworks, and then return me home safely to my tower. Then I will give you your satchel back. That is your deal."

"Yeah, no can do, sorry," said James. He had the nerve to look slightly bored with the entire situation. "The kingdom and I don't exactly see eye to eye at the moment considering I just stole something extremely important from them -"

"So you are a thief!"

"- and they do the firework festival every year for the missing princess. The place will be crawling with guards."

Something swelled inside Lily, making her straighten her stance as if her shere size against his could be intimidating.

"Listen, something brought you to me, James Potter." She pulled her hair with strength that would have shocked her under normal circumstances, pulling him upright once again so he was looking at her with one perfectly cocked eyebrow. "Call it what you will. Fate, if you believe in that sort of thing-"

"I don't"

"But let me be clear. You can search this tower, tear it apart brick by brick, but without me you will never find your satchel."

"So, let me get this straight," he said, his glasses slightly askew likely from Lily's unceremonious dragging him across the floor, "you want me, a thief, a wanted thief, mind you, to take you to a festival for a missing princess. From, by the way, the very place I just stole the crown for said missing princess? A festival which will have every single guard in the kingdom keeping watch? All to see fireworks?"

Lily blinked at him, wishing she could raise an eyebrow in the stupidly charming sort of way that he could. "Yes."

He stared at her for a beat, looking unimpressed, before sighing. "Alright. I didn't want to do this, but you're leaving me no other option. Here comes the smirk."

The what now?

Lily wasn't sure exactly what was happening. One minute he was looking down, taking a deep breath as if he were concentrating very hard on something, and the next he looked like he was in pain, his face twisting in an unpleasant sort of smile.

"What are you doing?" asked Lily, her eyes going wide. "Are - are you hurt?"

"No, I am not in pain!" he hissed, his face returning back to normal. That is, if outraged could be considered a normal expression. "I was trying to charm you! This doesn't normally happen."

"You looked like the left side of your face went numb."

"You've just insulted me in every conceivable way," sighed James, looking defeated. "Fine. I'll take you to see the fireworks."

"Really?" squealed Lily.

"I mean, assuming you can get me out of this," he said, his wrists struggling against her hair for emphasis.

"Oh, right. Hold still."

Lily was well practiced at using her hair for a rope. She had tied it against the support beams of the tower, and pulled herself up to the highest point to gaze at the night sky on her loneliest of nights. She had carried Petunia up and down the tower by it for years. But this was her first time ever tying up a man, and her hands trembled as she unlaced her locks from around him.

"Just one more," she said, trying so very hard to concentrate on untwisting her hair and not his forearms. "There!"

"I've got to hand it to you," he grumbled, standing - so very above her - and rubbing his wrists. "You drive a hard bargain."

Lily shrugged, smiling slightly. "I know."

He rolled his eyes, though he was smirking and Lily heard him chuckle slightly. "Well?"

"Well," repeated Lily, pulling nervously on a strand of hair. "Well what?"

"Aren't you going to pack? Grab something - I don't know. Anything. Are we leaving like this? A frying pan, an enormous cat, and no shoes?"

"I don't own shoes."

James blinked. "You don't...okay, you know what. Nevermind. I don't want to get into that. Just...grab what you need, and meet me at the bottom of the tower."

What did one need to bring to a world they'd never seen? She desperately wanted to ask James, but didn't want to come off as naive. It didn't matter. He was hoping out of the window, arrows clutched in his hand to help him scale down.

Her grip tightened around the cast iron pan. It had served her well so far. She supposed it was good a weapon as any to take.

"Well," asked Lily, peering over her shoulder to Conrad, "you coming?"

Conrad narrowed his eyes, giving her a look that told her that he most certainly was not.

I've already found the perfect spot on this chair, and you're asking me to leave it? She could hear him say in the posh voice she had given him inside her head.

"Suit yourself," she shrugged. She took a deep breath, willing herself to walk the number of steps it took to stand on the windowsill. When she got there, she stopped. She had spent years looking out this window, wondering when the day would come when she would be able to step foot into the view it held. Now that it was here - in the most unexpected of ways - she wondered if she had enough courage to make the jump.

"Are you coming, sunshine?" called James from somewhere down below.

She took a breath. She couldn't turn back now. "Here I go."

She looped her hair through the hook made once for plants and jumped.

It wasn't quite like falling. It felt more like flying, the way she soared down, and her stomach flipped. She barely registered passing James, who cursed, ducking just in time as she laughed.

She was so caught up in the feeling that she nearly hit the ground. It was the sight of the grass that made her pull herself to a stop just in time. She spun slightly around, holding on tightly to her hair, and staring down at the green tuffs, closer now than they've ever been to her skin. She had spent nearly eighteen years wondering what it would feel like to touch them.

She could do this.

She took a breath, easing herself down slowly.

Lily's foot touched the grass.

And it bent and tickled.