Lily was keen to keep her word and fix things with Sirius as soon as possible. Afterall, she thought it should be fairly simple since he was still operating under the assumption that Lily was behaving as she had been the last time he was here. And that just wasn't true anymore, so she should be able to just let him see that, talk to him a bit, and then they would be good as new.

However, he didn't seem to want to pay any attention to her at all, and that was making things a bit more difficult than she'd planned for.

Mary was having the opposite problem.

Sirius would not leave her be.

James and Lily found Sirius and Mary in the game room a couple of hours after brunch. Sirius was playing billiards and Mary was on the couch, her feet hanging over one of the arms and her hair covering one of the cushions.

"Where's Reggie?" Lily asked, looking around the room. Mary propped herself up on an elbow, but Sirius started talking before Mary could.

"That's what I keep asking." He had a brow raised, and even though he was answering Lily's question, he was looking directly at Mary.

"Oh good, I was worried that we'd missed them meeting." Lily grinned.

"You just walked in here about five minutes ago," Mary narrowed her eyes as she looked at him. "Reggie was here a minute before you entered, but he got a phone call."

"Oh? Is he a very important man? Has to always answer his phone?" Sirius teased.

"He does when it's his mum calling," Reggie walked into the room, pocketing his phone, and looking Sirius up and down.

James nudged Lily with his elbow, and she smirked and patted her hand against his arm. They had made a bet involving chocolate before they came down here, based on how this meeting would go. They both walked over to the couch and sat down next to Mary, who was sitting up now, also looking like she knew she was about to be very entertained. All they were missing was the popcorn.

The two young men looked at one another in silence for a moment, fully aware of all the eyes on them.

"I mean," Reggie's mouth tugged up at the corner. "I handed you the mummy's boy joke. You're not going to take it?"

Sirius just kept looking at him with his head tilted, his brow still raised from talking to Mary. "Your name is Reginald Cattermole?"

"What?" Reggie was fully smiling now. "I don't look like a Reginald Fitzwilliam Cattermole to you?"

"No! You're almost as pretty as I am!" Mary started cackling, James and Lily weren't far behind. Reggie winked at the lot of them and fluffed up his hair.

"Almost," Reggie agreed, "But not quite." He stepped further into the room and reached out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Sirius. I've heard a lot about you."

"Yeah, sure, it's nice to meet you too." He took his hand and shook it, still eyeing him wearily. "You know, I'm not going to stop hitting on Mary just because I've met you now."

"Oh, I know." Reggie waved his comment away and walked over to the wall to grab a pool stick. "Besides, I'm going back to school tonight-"

"Tomorrow!" Mary interjected.

"- and someone's got to hit on her until I can get back next weekend." Sirius looked a bit like someone had just hit him over the head with something rather heavy. "I normally count on Lily to do that for me, but she's been a bit… preoccupied lately."

"You owe me chocolate." Lily grinned, ignoring her friend's insinuation.

"I know." James sighed.

"And you have to say it."

"You were right."

"What was that?"

"You heard me,"

"Yes, but the entire room didn't hear you."

"You were right, Lily Jane." James said, louder this time. Mary leaned around Lily so she could look at James.

"Why would you bet against Lily on how Reggie was going to react? That was dumb."

James shook his head. "I wasn't betting on how Reggie would react, I didn't doubt that he'd be calm and good natured about the whole thing, I just know Sirius and I know he doesn't get along with about ninety percent of the people he meets." He turned to glare at his mate, who was still looking rather flabbergasted. "I told you that he was fit. Now you're making it seem like I don't know you all that well."

"He just gave me permission to hit on his girlfriend!" Sirius shook his head. "I don't know what to do next," His voice was quieter.

James shrugged. "I wasn't expecting that either, or I would have warned you of that too."

Lily laughed and shook her head. "I think you owe me more than chocolate now, I didn't know you'd been coaching him when we made the bet." James shook his head and refused to look at her.

"I wasn't coaching him. I just… gave him a heads up, and it was before the bet."

"You had information that I didn't have. It's not fair play, Jim."

That got him to look at her, and she smirked.

"Neither is that." He said quietly and she leaned against his shoulder still smiling.

"Preoccupied, you say?" Sirius shook himself out of his stupor and watched as Reggie reset the table. "That what you mean?"

"Yeah. Exactly what I mean."

"It's horrible," Mary agreed. "I feel completely neglected."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned toward her friend. "You are the neediest person alive. You realize this?"

"Remember when you used to say nice things to me?"

"No." Lily snapped. "When have I ever?"

"Rude! That's what you are." Lily smiled and reached for Mary's hand, which the smaller girl promptly took away and held up in the air as though it would be out of Lily's reach there.

"I'm going to be very sad when you don't live with me anymore." Lily said.

"Good. I'm going to go back to school and forget about you completely." She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. "Or perhaps I will also be very sad. Time will tell." Lily smiled again and leaned over to kiss Mary's cheek.

"I love you."

"I love you too," Mary sighed dramatically and then leaned against Lily, who quickly wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"You know what I just remembered?" Lily stiffened and hid her face in Mary's puffy hair.

"That you have to go to work tomorrow?" Mary guessed.

"I have to go to parliament tomorrow." Lily said more quietly.

Marry patted her cheek. "Do you know what you're going to say to them?"

"Can I tell them to fuck off? To mind their own business and go to hell?"

Sirius snorted. "I'd pay good money to see that." Lily gave James a significant look and he shook his head. She took that to mean that he didn't think tanking her career was worth the brownie points it would get her with Sirius.

"I'm going to have to say the stupid shit that Emma fed me. 'It was simply a misunderstanding,' or 'I am allowed to walk around my own home at any hour of the night why aren't we focusing more on the person spying on me?'"

"That last one really sounds like something Emma would tell you to say." Reggie leaned against his pool stick and stuck her with a lopsided grin.

"She's good at her job," Lily sighed, "Even if her being good at her job doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy, I am appreciative of that."

"I'm not." Mary said. "She was really mean to you Friday morning."

"She was." Reggie agreed, and then leaned over the table to take a shot. Sirius was eyeing everyone in the room with cool calculation.

"Your own staff thought you'd slept with Bertram?" He asked, narrowing his brow.

"No!" Lily shook her head quickly. She was quite certain that Emma had not thought that. "No, of course she didn't. She just thought that I had been with him after we all agreed that I wouldn't talk to him until after we found out who the mole is."

"Why do you want to talk to him at all?" Sirius asked, now turning toward the table to take a shot himself. Lily couldn't work out his tone. He sounded simply curious, but she didn't trust that.

"Because he's trying to steal my throne." She said quite bluntly. Mary twirled one of her curls around her finger as she looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Oh? I mean, that sounds like him, but are you sure?"

Lily narrowed her brow. "It's what he told James, so yes, I'm sure."

"The last time I was here-"

"I was making fun of the fact that he was reading Lolita and Catcher and the Rye. I was having Mary run interference. You and I had one conversation two days before you left."

"When did you two talk?" James asked, leaning forward, elbows on his knees.

Sirius shrugged and looked intently at the pool table. It was Reggie's turn now, but he wasn't going. Sirius shot him a look, understanding why.

"We talked on Friday. After you two got back from the schools and you were all pissed."

"Yes," Lily nodded. "He thought that I was threatening to keep you here with legal ramifications."

"I just didn't want to believe that you were being a complete idiot is all."

James huffed, shaking his head slightly.

"He didn't say anything that I didn't need to hear." Lily shrugged. "I mean, besides him thinking that I was caging you here with lawyers."

"You could cage me here with anything you'd like," Mary poked her in the side.

"Your tone says that was meant to be sexual, but I don't really get it." Lily pushed her hand away. "Also, I might."

Mary winked at her.

"Where am I in this scenario?" Reggie asked.

"Back at school," Lily and Mary answered together.

"You two are bullies." He pointed at them with his pool stick and then went to take his turn. "Also we're all terrible at speaking seriously about anything."

"Were we trying to have a serious conversation?" Mary asked, tilting her head to the side. "It didn't feel like it was serious."

"I'm sure it was supposed to be a little serious." Reggie shrugged. "I mean, Sirius and Lily are trying to work out if they can get along or not. It seems serious."

"Stop it." Sirius narrowed his brow at the both of them.

"Stop what?" Mary asked.

He shook his head and looked at Lily. "I know you don't mind embarrassing James, and I know that you're hard to embarrass, so I don't mind saying any of this in front of everyone here," Mary leaned forward like she was about to lap up whatever he was going to spill. "James has been texting me almost constantly since I left-"

"Obviously. You two are in love," Lily nodded, ignoring James.

"Yes," Sirius nodded, almost cracking a smile. "And I know that things between you and him, are not where they were the last time I was here. He also sent me that stupid picture of you two on his couch before anyone was talking about you sneaking out of Bertram's room."

James' ears were red, which was Sirius' intention of course.

Lily narrowed her eyes. "So why were you being a dick to me in front of his parents?"

He did smile at her now, a smile that you'd expect to find on a toddler who was explaining to you why he stuffed your shoes into the toilet. "Because I can't let you think I'm going to go easy on you now." She bit the tip of her tongue.

"Well then," She sat up straighter, feeling lighter. "I suppose we've cleared things up."

"I suppose we have."

"Have we?" James asked, looking back and forth between the two of them. "It doesn't feel as though things are cleared up."

"Things are cleared up." Lily repeated. "Sirius likes me just fine-"

"I wouldn't go that far,"

"I would." Lily countered. "Turns out I could have been overly ambitious earlier."

"What?" Mary asked.

"I told James that I'd fix things with Sirius over the next couple of days, he said that seemed ambitious, I said it would be ambitious to say that I'd fix it today, but here we are."

"Amazing," Mary poked her.

"I surprise myself sometimes," Lily flipped her hair over her shoulder.

Sirius shook his head at her and then went back to his game.

"It's gonna be a long week," He said, lining up his next shot. "I'm not here to make things harder for either of you." Lily smiled over at James.

"Who are you texting?" Reggie asked, looking at Mary now.

"Jealous?"

Lily narrowed her eyes and looked at her friend. "No," She answered for Reggie. "It's a fair question. Reggie and I are both in the room and you don't talk to anyone else."

"It could be my mum!" Mary said, as though this proved that she did have more friends.

"Your mum hates texting. So does your dad, though he did text me yesterday to wish me a happy birthday party." Lily grinned.

"Yes, so who is it?"

"My secret boyfriend." Mary shrugged and tried to worm away from Lily.

"It's not a secret and I'm not getting any texts from you." Sirius said, pulling out his phone. Mary scoffed.

"Marlene?" Lily guessed. "Tell her to come over soon!"

"How did you know it was Marlene?" Mary pouted.

Lily shrugged. "I honestly don't know who else it could be."

"Alright, so I'm very selective with who I spend my time on, but I adopted her last night and so I'm texting her. There's no need to get concerned, I can have more than one friend!"

"I don't count as a friend," Reggie stage whispered. Mary flipped him off.

"You're acting very strange, Mary." Lily shook her head. "But still, she should come over soon."

"You're acting weird." Mary retorted.

"Alright, well on that note, I have to go and prep for tomorrow's parliament meeting."

"What would the old prats do if you just handed them their own arses one of these days?" Reggie asked.

Lily sighed, "I'm not sure. A few of them might keel over."

"Not to be that person, but I don't know if that would be a truly horrible thing." Mary was looking at her phone. "Maybe Marlene could get a seat."

Lily laughed, "Wouldn't that be something. Rosier would hate it. I love it. Tell her to do it."

Mary looked up from her phone. "How are there no women in parliament. Like none at all. Ever. How is that possible?"

Lily shook her head and stood up, using James' and Mary's knees. "I don't know, but it won't be that way forever. Goodnight everyone!" She waved, even as she felt James grab her other hand and stand up.

"I'll be back in a bit," James said. Lily gave him a look, but she wasn't upset that he was going to walk her to her room.

In the hallway, Lily looked at him, her head tilted to the side. "Thanks for walking me home,"

James smirked. "We're gonna take a little detour, if that's alright."

"A detour?" Lily looked back in front of her.

"Yeah." James nodded. Lily waited a moment.

"I would like a few more details."

He looked at her. "Nah, I did mention that I was going to try and surprise you again. If I give you more details, I'll fail to surprise you again. Like with the chocolates."

"Are you taking me to chocolate?"

James shook his head and let out a huff of laughter. "No, and it's not really a surprise. We're just going for a little walk."

Lily pressed her lips together. "Alright. Fine. Keep your secrets."

"I will." And so she let him take the lead. "What did Sirius say to you last Friday?" He asked, after they had been walking in silence for a few minutes.

Lily shook her head. "He didn't say anything bad. Or anything that he shouldn't have said."

James frowned. "That's not an answer."

"He got upset with me because I kept agreeing with everything he said, actually."

"Again, you're not giving me information." They took a left.

"He told me to stop feeling sorry for myself."

James looked over at her. "He's a bit insensitive at times."

"Yeah, well I wasn't being super sensitive at the time either,"

James took a deep breath through his nose. "You are so hard on yourself,"

"What?"

"You are always giving other people second or third chances, you are so willing to explain away their mistakes, but when it comes to yourself… you deserve that same kindness, Lily." His thumb was brushing along the back of her hand and she was, for the second time today, trying to swallow a lump in her throat.

It was such a simple thing for him to say. She needed to be nice to herself. She's said it to herself before, Mary had said it many times, but hearing him say it like that, it was like hearing his mum tell her that she would love to be included in the wedding, that she'd always wanted a daughter when Lily hadn't felt much like anyone's daughter these last five years or so.

She squeezed his hand with both of hers, "I know." Her voice was quieter, to keep the tremble out of it. "But I could have been a bit more empathetic."

James shook his head again. "And I could have been more understanding. I could have let you have some space in which you could work through this-"

"Now wait a minute-"

"No," He shook his head and smiled at her. "You're about to do it again. You're going to explain away my mistakes in favor of pointing out your own. We're both human Lily, we're allowed to make mistakes. Especially with one another. The whole world is watching us, and I understand that we have to put on a face for them, that we have to be more careful about the mistakes we make in public, but we've got to be allowed to be human with one another."

There was that lump again.

"I feel like you're trying to make me cry by being too nice," She said, her voice quiet again.

He let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to his side. "Never," He kissed the top of her head.

They rounded another corner and Lily realized where he was taking her. She looked at the end of the hall and then over at him. He was smirking.

"The greenhouse?" She asked with raised brows.

"Yeah," He nodded. "I know that we got to dance together last night, but it wasn't really the way I wanted to dance with you."

Lily's heart jumped in her throat as he held the door open for her. Like the last time they'd been in a greenhouse together, it was quiet and a little chilly and it smelled of earth and green things. "The way you wanted to dance with me? If I keep looking around in here, will I find champagne?"

James laughed and closed the door behind him as he followed her in. "No, this wasn't really planned. I just saw an opportunity and seized it."

Lily nodded and bit the tip of her tongue as he walked over to her. He gave her a small bow and then held out his hand. She didn't take it though. She looked around the room and then back at him. She could hear her heart beating in her ears and she smiled at the confused look on his face.

"I think I'm gonna need to seize this opportunity as well." She said, her voice was quiet for a different reason now. James cocked his head to the side and Lily slowly reached up and brushed the hair back from his forehead. The corner of his mouth tugged up, and he was about to make a joke, she could tell because she saw the light flash in his eyes.

She stepped closer to him, her hand still resting on the side of his face, and she watched the light in his eyes change. His hazel eyes once again turned molten gold. She brushed her thumb over his cheek and his hands slowly slid over her hips, pulling her closer still.

"And ah, what opportunity is it that you're looking to seize?" He asked, and his gravelly voice sent a shiver down her spine. He leaned down, resting his forehead against hers.

"Why haven't you kissed me yet?" She asked quietly, bringing her other hand up and raking her fingers through his hair. His eyes closed and she heard him swallow.

"Because I've wanted to kiss you for a while now," He said. "Figured it was best to wait until you decided you were ready."

She nodded, very slightly. "Nice of you."

"I thought so." His fingertips dug into her hips. "Are you going to kiss me now, or are we just gonna keep flirting really close-"

She stepped up onto her tiptoes and then her lips were pressed against his.

She gasped against his mouth as his arms wound around her waist, pulling her flush up against his body. Her hands gripped at his hair, pulling him closer still. It was softer than she remembered, threading through her fingers like silk.

It was not a delicate first kiss, it was not soft, or hesitant, or careful.

It was all consuming, breathtaking, magnificent.

She could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest, pressed up against her own. His hand came up from her waist to cup her cheek and she grabbed his wrist, keeping his hand where it was. Her entire body felt warm and tingly and she didn't know why she had waited so long to kiss him.

Confusion and mounting pressure be dammed, this was worth whatever consequences she'd been afraid of before.

She should have kissed him last Thursday when she'd first noticed the heat in his eyes, she should have kissed him on Friday after she'd had that very telling dream about him, she should have kissed him about a million different times on Friday night, before or after she told him that she fancied him. She should have kissed him at any point on Saturday.

But she was glad that it was here, in a greenhouse, where everything had really started for the two of them. Where James had decided that he wanted to try despite the obstacles and where Lily had noticed that there was definitely something they could build on.

He had promised her big words and romance, and the boy was delivering.

The greenhouse. She couldn't believe it.

Lily's heart was full, and the giddy feeling that had been chasing her around all day after the party last night came back to her in this moment and she smiled against his lips.

She felt the corners of his mouth turn up as well, but it was still another moment before she pulled back, her hands dropped down to his shoulders, and then slid down his chest. She laughed, opening her eyes to find his in the dim light.

The look he was giving her made her laugh again, too full of emotion to find any words at the moment and unable to contain the joy she was feeling. And then he was laughing, even as he leaned closer to kiss her again. Lightly this time, quickly pressing his lips to hers, and then to her cheeks and her jaw and she laughed as she wrapped her arms around his middle and buried her face in his chest.

"What's so funny?" He asked, his hand now running through her hair as his other arm slid back around her waist.

"Nothing is funny," She couldn't stop smiling as she peeked up at him. "I just," She shook her head and laughed again. "You make me feel really good, James. I'm happy. I'm really happy."

He seemed to like that answer.

He liked it a lot, and before she could say anything else, his lips were back on hers. Soon he had her backed up against one of the work benches and she managed to stop smiling in favor of using her mouth for other things.

She wasn't sure exactly how long she was in the greenhouse with James, but when she finally got back to her room, she felt a little drunk, and a lot like she was floating.

Mary was sitting on her bed when she got back. A knowing look on her face. She pointed at Lily and Lily started laughing again.

"How was your parliament prepping?" Mary asked.

Lily kicked off her shoes and walked toward the closet to find some pajamas. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

And then Mary was cackling.

AN: Boom. Didn't even warn you. You're welcome.

Let me know what you think!