She's driving me crazy, but I'm into it, but I'm into it

-Kiwi, Harry Styles

"What do you think the guys are like?" Marlene hums the question with an air of impending gossip. They were sitting huddled on a pile of cushions in the corner of the common room, Marlene was talking about the article she had just read in her most recent Cosmo, 'The correlation between Sex and Personality'.

"Our guys?" Lily gives Marlene a questionable look.

"Yeah! Our guys" Marlene smirks, tapping her magazine at the word 'Sex'.

"Oh I don't know, I feel funny talking about that" Mary adds.

"Oh come on"

Mary purses her lips and pulls the magazine away from Marlene. After a few seconds, she pulls her gaze upwards and smiles shyly.

"Ok, I think Sirius is like one of those little kiddie rides in front of the supermarket. You know? You just have to put the penny in and it just goes" Mary laughs.

Marlene looks at Mary confused.

"Kiddie rides?"

"It's a muggle thing. Forget it" Mary shoves the magazine back in Marlene's arms.

"I don't know, I think he might surprise you. One time he was helping me put on my robe and he was really tender" Lily adds.

The three girls ponder quietly.

"Remus is hard to read. He's like one of those repressed guys that you'd have to seduce" Marlene says.

"I think that's part of the act. I have a feeling that Remus is a lot more sophisticated than he seems" Lily smirks.

"You know who's kinda sexy?" Marlene's eyes are wide with amusement.

Lily rolls her eyes.

"I know exactly what you mean! He can be really smooth" Mary adds, also looking over at Lily expectantly, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

She hadn't mentioned what had happened that morning, she wasn't sure if she wanted to explain that way she shamelessly tried to seduce James. She switched from being increasingly embarrassed to surprisingly excited. She hadn't seen him all day, she could see him now of course, but he was currently surrounded by the rest of the so-called 'Marauders' and Lily wasn't keen on being the centre of their attention.

"Has he said anything to you?" Marlene interrupts Lily's deep thinking, making her jump slightly and clutch as the pillow beneath her. She pulls the sweet lollipop from her mouth and frowns at her friend.

Marlene crooks an eyebrow at Lily's strange behaviour but Lily ignores her and grabs back the magazine.

"Nope" Lily lies.

She doesn't want to lie to her best friends, especially after the last few years. She made a promise to be honest and more open but for some reason this felt different. This was between herself and James, and she liked how they shared a juicy secret. She was on the precipice of a full-blow, serious, Adult relationship with the boy she had been crushing on for quite a while now, and all she wanted was to keep it all to herself.

At least with just her knowing, she could keep her feelings safe and locked up neatly. She wasn't ready for the overwhelming emotions that coincided with James to be out into the open yet. It was probably her insecurity rising to the surface again and Marlene would probably say something along the lines of 'You're only making it worse for yourself' but Lily couldn't see past the excitement of having James hands on her for the first time ever.

She was thinking about his hands while she pretended to skim read Marlene's magazine. The sheer size of them compared to her little body, how just one hand could probably cover the entirety of her stomach. She wanted, no, needed, those hands on her soon. She had noticed recently, how touchy James could be with his friends, and how he never made a move to touch her, friendly or otherwise. It bugged her and she was tempted to fix this, and fast.

She popped the lollipop out of her mouth again and swallowed the sweet, strawberry flavour. She was just about to ask Marlene a question when Marlene interrupted.

"You do realise you sucking on that lollipop is sending James into a maddening spiral of horniness"

Lily widens her eyes and pops her lollipop back into her mouth out of spite.

"Fuck off" she says through pursed lips, making Marlene grin and wink at her.

She turns her gaze towards the boys and she does indeed find James staring at her. At her mouth, specifically.

She feels her skin heat up and crosses her legs instinctively. Catching James eyes with her own, she grins as he widens his eyes in shock at being caught and with no conscious decision-making - she insists its purely automatic and instinctual - she pulls out her strawberry lollipop and licks the top slowly, making James - who yes is across the room - cough loudly and shifts awkwardly in his seat. Feeling successful, Lily smiles cheekily and bites down on the lollipop, causing it to crack right through the middle. She knows James can't hear the snap from where he is, but he flinches anyway and Lily can't help but chuckle at his reaction.

This was what Lily was talking about. Flirting.

It was fun and exciting, and for the first time in a long while, Lily felt light.

She was sucking on that damn pink lollipop again. She pulled it out of her mouth with a 'pop' and he watched as she savoured the stickiness with a lick. He shifted in his seat, careful to not show the obvious growing reaction in his trousers.

He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since that morning, he had been too busy trying to calm himself down from the exploding realisation that Lily Evans liked him. Remus instantly registered James's change in behaviour, Sirius and Peter were too busy trying to ascertain a way to cheat during Exploding Snap.

"What's up with you?" Remus murmured, watching James pull his gaze away from Lily, who was chatting with the girls.

James looked at Remus absently, pulling his glasses from his face and rubbing the skin in between his eyes.

"Nothing, just tired"

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Did Lily say something?"

James eye's widened. They hadn't talked about whether their conversation was meant to be kept private, so to be on the safe side, James shook his head.

He could tell Remus' didn't believe him.

"Somethings happening" Remus muttered, causing James to give his friend a questioning look.

"She just eye fucked you with that lollipop"

Remus muttered this statement so casually and in such a low cadence that James had to turn his words over in his mind repeatedly. He must have been sporting a dumb look because Remus laughed lowly which causes Sirius to look up from his game with Peter and tilt his head to one side.

"Why does Prongs look like Evans just proposed marriage?"

This made Remus laugh more and Sirius grinned widely.

"It's nothing" James managed to say with a dry throat.

Sirius looked at Remus, receiving an odd look from their friend before muttering something under his breath and going back to his game. James didn't have the brain capacity right now to dissect that interaction and instead ruffled his hair with one hand nervously and shifted awkwardly in his seat.

He chanced a quick look at Lily and found her nose deep in a magazine. Her cheeks were a cute berry red and matched well with her hair tied up in a neat ponytail. She looked incessantly school-girl like and this made James groan.

"It's your turn now," Remus announced.

James furrowed his eyebrows, his patience with Remus was thinning quickly.

"Lily just made a move, it's your turn now."

James gaped at his friend.

"I know you both like each other, I am both of your friends and you do kinda make it obvious"

James shook his head.

"Just - Just don't tell anyone. It's still early- uh stages I guess you could say" James felt his cheeks heat up from this statement. He still hadn't fully comprehended his relationship with Lily, or even if you could call it that. He was confused but not confused enough to stop this little game from happening. Flirting with Lily made his skin tingle and his brain fuzzy, it was like an addiction. He adored even the thought of Lily trying to turn him on and tease him, and just the thought of what he could do to her to make her feel the same, well lets just say it was a dream come true.

"Alright let's go" Remus rises from his chair and looks at James expectantly.

"Huh?"

"For crying out loud, you're head boy - we have a prefect's meeting now?"

James shakes his head, dissipating the fuzziness, "Right".

He hears Remus say goodbye to the boys but other than that he doesn't pay attention to his mate as they walk towards Lily.

"Evans, you ready?" he says confidently, his awareness completely zeroed on her as she rises from her pillow and smooths down her skirt.

She gives him a smile full of secrets and he can't help but smile back knowingly.

Remus and Lily talk for the majority of their trek to the Prefect's office. James is ok with this, it gives him more time to think about how to next approach Lily, to plan his next move. He has no idea where to start, his brain is a frazzled mess and keeps replaying Lily sucking on her lollipop. She no longer has the lollipop and he's entirely thankful because he is fairly certain he wouldn't be able to keep his wits about him if she was sucking on a lollipop while chairing a Prefect's meeting. This thought trickles into jealousy, the picture of the others in the room watching Lily with as much lust as he watches her. James was biased but the main consensus throughout the Hogwarts cohort was that Lily was hot. He wasn't the first one to have a crush on her and he still wouldn't be the last.

Now, though. Now, Lily liked him back.

Today's prefect meeting was scheduled to talk about upcoming Halloween events. Lily was on the Halloween committee and had commandeered the prefects into helping set up decorations.

James levitated the desks out of the way and moved the chairs into a semi circle, while Lily said hello to the prefects that were already waiting. He stood at the front of the semi-circle, his brain still frazzled and distracted. Lily crowded out all other thoughts, and it took real effort, real concentration, to tether himself to the room he was standing in and to reply to Lily's question that was currently echoing around his head.

"You ready?" she said with a bright smile, her eyes were a deep green in the dim light and he had to shake himself from his stupor and nod.

He watched as Lily smiled gracefully to the surrounding prefects, her pony-tail bobbing as she nodded her head as she discussed something or rather with a Ravenclaw sixth year. He couldn't quite believe how distracted he was just because Lily had openly and brazenly flirted with him. He really needed to collect himself in order to participate in this little game of theirs.

His brain fog was fading, and it wasn't until Lily had asked for him to provide an update on the plans for the bad weather scheduled for that weekend, that he could snap out of it. James puffed his chest and coughed to clear his throat before explaining the bad storm set to keep the students inside the castle all weekend. It was James' job to schedule a roster of rotating prefects to do rounds in the day as well as night, as well as scheduling other prefects to keep the younger students occupied and out of trouble. It was a Hogwarts tradition to have the younger years set up in the hall during wet days, in which they would spend the entire day playing games and chatting. He had just announced who was scheduled to keep the young hooligans in check in the Great Hall when Evan Taylor, a seventh year Slytherin, called out "Why do we have to look after students from other houses? I don't want to watch a rag of tiny Hufflepuff's on my day off~"

James sighed.

"Taylor, you're job as a prefect is to be a student leader, for all students"

Taylor pinched his thick eyebrows together and gave James a look of disproval.

"What if I don't want to be a leader for ALL students?"

James couldn't help but roll his eyes, this boy was seventeen years old and was acting like a two year old.

"Then you're no longer a prefect" Lily snapped.

"You can't do that!" Taylor cried out, his hands in tight fists.

"I inform Professor Dumbledore every month about every prefect's performance. I'm sure if I were to let him know that you refuse to help ALL students, that he would support me in taking your prefects badge off you"

She held her head high and smiled nicely at Taylor but her eyes told an entirely different story. Her eyes were a deep green in the dim light of the classroom, but he could see every ounce of determination and ferocity and he smiled proudly at the girl in front of him.

Taylor stuttered but James interrupted before he could complain again.

"We should note this down anyway, Evans" he muttered, loudly enough for Taylor to hear. He turned to his side and grinned at Lily secretly, before tapping his finger on the parchment in front of her.

He watched as Lily smiled at her parchment and nodded for effect.

He twisted around quickly to see Taylor slouched in his chair and Remus smirking at him wittingly.

Lily took over for the rest of the meeting and James gave up on keeping his head on his shoulders and instead indulged in watching Lily command the room. He had always admired her confidence in leadership, but this year he had seen a difference in the way she conducted herself as Head Girl. She was now confident in herself and not just when tackling school work. She held her head highly, a smile almost always present on her face and her posture was more upright. He didn't want to be cliché but she was radiant. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her, and he knew he probably should. He was making it too obvious but pulling his focus from her was seeming impossible. It took Remus to grab his shoulder tightly for James to snap out of his daze.

"Mate," Remus laughed.

James ignored him and instead brought awareness back to his surroundings. Everyone was filing out of the room, chatting loudly. Lily was levitating the room back to normal.

"You gonna make your move?" Remus smirked.

"Fuck off" was all James could say. He couldn't deal with the smartass repertoire from Remus right now, he was too busy realising that his body had been reacting to watching Lily. His muscles felt tight, as if they were waiting for a threat, his fists were clenched and something was becoming impossibly hard to hide.

"Shit" he mumbled, turning away from Remus and Lily and adjusting himself.

Remus laughed quietly before saying goodbye to the pair of them.

He waited idly at the open door, watching Lily finish up her levitating and slide her wand back into her robe's pocket.

"Good work putting Taylor in his place" James opened up, gesturing for Lily to walk through the door before him.

They walked back to their room. Their stride matched, the back of their hands brushed slightly making James feel slightly feverish.

"Thanks, he's a Class A arsehole and frankly, deserves for his badge to be taken from off"

James chuckles, causing Lily to look at him side-on.

"Stop looking at me like that" she murmurs, causing James to falter slightly in his step.

She always made him awkward and clumsy, his Quidditch captaincy would be revoked if his team saw how uncoordinated he was around Lily.

The words 'I'm not looking at you like anything" were on the tip of his tongue but the way Lily looked at him, made him think differently.

"The way you told Taylor off was incredibly hot" he smirked.

Lily's eyes widened, making her look young and innocent.

He knew she was far from innocent.

She looked at him briefly, as if assessing his honesty. His heart skipped a beat but quickly fell back into its steady rhythm as she rolled her eyes playfully at him. They were nearing their rooms now, so she grabbed his hand and pulled him impatiently into their common room.

James' knees nearly buckled at her touch but he held himself together as the gorgeous redhead, pulled him over to the couch and shoved him into the cushions. He fell inelegantly and stared open-mouthed at her.

A super-charged silence sparked between them as Lily peeled off her robes and straddled him on the couch. With an air of comfortability he didn't realise existed between, he reached behind her and pulled her hair out of her scrunchie, letting the thick waves tumble onto her shoulders. The sweet scent of berries made his blood sing, it was so Lily and made him feel electrified and soothed all at once.

She smiled softly at him, as he rearranged her hair over her shoulders.

"Can I kiss you now?" she whispered.

James laughed softly, causing Lily to scrunch up her face adorably.

"Evans, you don't ever have to ask me that, ever."

She smiled and shifted closer to him, looping her arms around his neck, her eyes trained on his lips.

"I'm not going to lie. I always thought my first kiss with you would be romantic and dramatic" he murmured. His lips were so close to hers now, every movement was close to touching.

She chuckled lightly but instead of replying she pushed her hand up into his hair and angled his face to press her lips against his.