Chapter 14: That she's gonna be an angel, just you wait and see

Told it to her brother and she told it to me
That she's gonna be an angel, just you wait and see.

- Only Angel, Harry Styles

Lily wakes feeling blissfully subdued. In those moments between lulled wakefulness and complete lucidity, Lily see's faint images of a bare-chested James and feels the lingering reminiscent of ungodly pleasure. When she finally blinks into full consciousness, her heart flips and her brain quickly goes into overdrive. James Potter was in her bedroom. James Potter gave her an orgasm. It's so unbelievable that even her dreams can't conjure the idea clearly.

She doesn't know how to react now. How does he expect her to greet him this morning? She has to take a deep breath, let the cool air sink deep into her lunges. Once her lungs feel full, she breathes out steadily. She tells herself that today is just like any other day. She remembers the hot summer nights with Ella, remembers her bold advice, her pushy but needed wisdom. Then she remembers Marlene's advice. Her much warmer words. To not think about why she feels the way she does.

It's a struggle but she pulls herself from bed and goes through the morning's motions. The warm shower, the mechanical brushing of teeth, the smooth comb through her hair. It makes her momentarily forget about yesterday.

Emerging into the common room, she finds it empty. Again, she breathes deeply, settles her thumping heart before heading to breakfast.

James is turning his spoon loftily around in his oats. He's replaying the entirety of last night in his head. The shock still sits in his bones, like his body still hasn't recovered from having Lily on his lap, Lily on his lips.

He tries not to watch her as she enters The Great Hall, he really does. He tries to focus on the spoon in his oats, the taste of the cinnamon sprinkled on top, but his eyes are glued to Lily. It doesn't help that her hair is curled effortlessly down her back, his favourite look of hers.

He drags his eyes, excruciatingly away from her and instead glances at Remus opposite him. Remus raises an eyebrow in question and James can't help, can't stop, the excited smile that graces his face. Remus smiles amusingly back, shaking his head knowingly.

The boys did not assume anything when he exited Lily's room after their rendezvous. In all honesty, James thought they two were in the middle of something waveringly important. He found them both huddled close together, voices hushed and posture stiff.

Lily sits nearby, her usual seat at the Gryffindor table. Just a seat down from Remus, Mary in between the two of them. Just being so close to her makes his nerves tingle and his brain resorts to picturing her nestled on his lap, thighs spread, and eyes closed in pleasure.

"You alright Prongs? Looking rather chipper this morning." Sirius prods, waking James up from his blissful daydreams and giving him an amused smirk.

"Yeah, suppose I had a nice sleep."

Remus grins into his breakfast and James shakes his head, biting down on his smile.

"You feeling ok, Lils? You're looking very glowy this morning."

Marlene raises her eyebrows with a smile and Lily rolls her eyes in response.

"Don't know what that's supposed to mean," she mutters.

"Hm?"

Lily stops spreading jam onto her toast and gives Marlene the pleasure of looking at her properly, giving her needy friend the attention she craves.

"I'm feeling just wonderful, Marles." Lily mocks.

Marlene nods approvingly, and Lily waits for her to go back to her breakfast before she chances a look at James on the opposite side of the table.

Her eyes get caught on his hair. It's probably just as messy as usual but for some reason, this morning, it makes her heart skip a beat. Her mouth goes dry when she watches him lick his spoon, the same mouth she remembers lavishly kissing the night before. She feels her body response almost embarrassingly, her thighs clench and her heart leaps in her chest. She has no idea how she will cope watching him from afar all day.

"Prongs,"

James looks to his side and raises his eyebrows in question to Sirius's unusual tone, a mix of bafflement and mirth.

Sirius's grey eyes are focused on James' neck.

"What's with the hickeys?"

James blanches, feels all colour disappear from his face. Someone runs into the back of him, and he realises suddenly that he's still walking to class, the corridor full with other students.

"Fuck," he responds smiling his apology to the small second year that bumped into him. The student huffs and storms past.

"Did you not realise?" Sirius' eyes are dancing with humour, his tongue settling in his cheek.

James eye's are wide with surprise and he impulsively brings his hand up to his throat and pulls his collar up bashfully.

Sirius laughs softly and pulls James out of his stupor by herding him towards the classroom.

"I can't go in there with this!" James hands flay about over his neck.

Sirius is on the brink of laughter, his eyes crinkling in the corners as he bites his tongue.

"Sure you can, you gotta rock them, Prongs. Show all the ladies you're spoken for."

James narrows his eyes at his best mate.

"I'm not uh- technically spoken for."

"Prongs, you've been spoken for since you laid eyes on her." Sirius adds, before shrugging his shoulders and walking towards their table.

James can't help but stand there dumbly. He didn't even tell Sirius that the bruises on his neck were left over from his steam hook up with Lily the night before.

He's just about to sit down when he realises that Sirius and Remus probably noticed the love bites as soon as he left Lily's room last night and he collapses in his chair with a huff.

She had never felt so distrait during class before. Ever the studier, ever the listener, Lily was not used to shaking her head of dreamy, languid thoughts and realising she had missed a good 30 minutes of the professor's lecture. She was horrified at herself.

Her distraught at her inattentiveness did not however, motivate her to not stare at the object of her fanciful day dreaming. There she was, eyes drifting to the side-profile of James Potter's face. His dark curls, his sharp jawline, and agonizingly her eyes floated towards his hands.

At this moment, James decided to stop listening to Professor McGonagall's lecture and catches his eyes on Lily's. Immediately, he smirks at her, eyes sparkling at catching her in her daydreams.

She curses at herself and wills her mind to focus on the lecture, drinking in each word one by one in order to fully comprehend how to avoid living transfiguration accidents. Her notes become a little more thorough, but her attention is still slightly dishevelled.

As she notes down her last bullet point before their first exercise of the day, a small leaf of parchment floats onto her lap. She narrows her eyes at the torn paper and looks directly in the direction of the Marauders. James is brightly smirking at her from across the room and she shakes her head in amusement.

Let me guess - thinking about the mind-shattering moment we had yesterday? - J

Her cheeks heat up and her mouth dries up as flashes of yesterday, once again, flick through her thoughts. Her hands shake as she places the parchment on the table and she picks up her quill to reply. Her eyes focus on the word 'mind-shattering' and she immediately thinks about the one thing James gave her that no other boy could give.

Wrong - thinking about the many more mind-shattering moments we can have sometime in the near future. - L

She knows it is bold and it frightens her, it really does, but she finds herself enjoying the thrill of the risk. Flirting so brashly with James enthrals something deeper in her than usual, like he's unlocked a braver version of Lily.

She flicks her wand under her desk and sends the scrap of parchment across the room, careful to float it over when no ones looking. The scrap lands on James' notes and she watches in mild-horror as Sirius snatches the paper from in front of James and grins cheekily as he reads it.

Lily swears someone has cast a horrible prank on her, slowing time to extend her humiliation. Black's eyes widen as he reads and a smirk replaces his humorous grin. Lily watches as James cheeks redden and he tries to snatch the notes back from Black but Black wiggles out of his grasp.

Lily's mouth must be wide open by now, her eyes just as wide. Black turns around, his grey eyes searching for what Lily knows is her. Gods-sake she signed the note with an 'L', the only person in the room with the first name starting with 'L' was Larry Kerr, a wizard that would have no interest in sending flirting messages to James Potter.

His grin is mischievous and full of mirth, he winks before whispering something to James. James, with a scowl, rips the note from his hands and reads it himself.

His small smile makes Lily's flushed embarrassment just a little bit worth it.

James wants to throttle Sirius.

He reads the note quickly, a swift smile at her cheeky reply, before he grips his best mate round the neck and shoves him to the side. Sirius topples off his chair but catches himself gracefully before he falls onto the floor.

"You git."

"Well, you're not exactly being subtle, Prongs."

"You're going to scare her off!"

Sirius laughs at this and James turns his scowl to his best mate.

"This is Evans. Nobody can scare Evans off. You underestimate her."

James ponders this while he stares at her loopy writing on the scrap of parchment in his lap. He probably is underestimating Lily, but he can't help but think about their previous knockbacks - The times in which James pressed a little too far and Lily went running or screaming - depending on her mood.

But then he remembers her fiery, vivacious attitude with her friends, her spirited antics with Marlene, the - as much as he doesn't want to think about- escapades she flirted through that summer.

He looks up briefly and braves a quick look at Lily. Her cheeks are bright red, probably like his own, and she's glaring at Sirius. Her green eyes catch on his and she smiles before rolling her eyes. A breath of a sigh and he's smiling back.

Black's a git but says if the hickeys you gave me last night are anything to go for that I'm a lucky bastard - J

His note floats back to her lap and he watches in excitement as she smiles softly.

Lily breezes on her high for the rest of the day. They find themselves on separate sides of the classroom in the afternoon and as soon as the class finishes, Sirius ushers James out claiming 'Marauder's Business'. Lily tries to not feel so disheartened, but the heavy ache to see him settles for the evening.

So she finds herself in her bedroom sprawled on her bed while Mary and Marlene are making noise about some assignment or another.

"What's up, Lils?" Marlene coo's from Lily's desk.

Lily was trying not to day dream again, but lying down on her bed made her think of James and his hands and she soon got lost in the memories. She lifts her heavy head up from her pillow, to find Mary and Marlene quizzically looking at her.

"Nothing." Lily kicks her feet in the air playfully.

"You've been acting loopy all day!" Mary teases, shoving Lily to one side and lying down next to her.

"No I haven't!"

"Spill." Marlene orders, looming from the end of Lily's bed and staring her best friend down.

Lily sighs heavily before bringing herself up on her elbows and giving Marlene an exhausted look.

"Well, I did see a certain someone sport some truly brutal but tasteful hickeys today," Mary innocently says from Lily's side.

With wide eyes, Lily shoots a look at Mary. She hadn't noticed any hickeys on James.

"What?"

But Lily's ominous 'what?' is not answered and is instead met with two very curious and altogether knowing looks from her two best friends.

"Fuck." Lily murmurs, collapsing to her back and closing her eyes forcefully.

She takes a deep breath, letting the cool air filter down into her lungs.

"I kissed James last night."

The words are almost staticky in her mouth, the room feels stiff with anticipation and Lily isn't sure whether she's slightly ashamed or excited.

Mary responds with kicks to the mattress, making Lily's bed vibrate beneath her. Whereas Marlene responds with claps and squeals, jumping up from Lily's desk and demanding more information.

Lily explains with limited detail about her night with James, explaining how they're taking it slow.

"Not exactly slow, Lils. You can tell it was good just by the hickeys on James neck!" Marlene teases.

Lily groans again, embarrassed from her obvious enthusiasm and blatant uncontrollable need to taste James Potter's skin.

"Oh don't be embarrassed! That's hot! You obviously have great chemistry if you don't even realise what you're doing to each other!"

Lily contemplates this and nods dumbly at Marlene.

"You can spend at least a few hours away from her. C'mon Prongs!"

James huffs but digs his map out of his trunk.

"A girl gives you a few hickeys and you're done for!"

"Not just any girl though, is it Pads?" Remus offers.

"I have no idea how you did it, but well done James!" Peter claps James on the back jovially.

"Thanks Pete."

"So are you two a couple?"

"Uh - not exactly."

James watches Remus and Sirius give each other a curious look.

"What's that look for?"

Remus, the more contemplative out of the two, smiles softly at James before grabbing his shoulder with his hand.

"We're just making sure that you know what you're doing."

James frowns.

"What do you mean?"

"I just think you should talk to Lily a bit more, figure out where you both stand before you go further."

James shakes his head and shoves the invisibility cloak into Sirius' hands.

"We have talked. I like her and she likes me and for now we're going slow," Sirius gives James a pointed look at this, glancing briefly at James neck.

"We decided to take it slow, in terms of being serious. We don't want to put too much pressure on it."

The boys nod, and before they have more to say James heads outside the boys dorm and gestures for them to follow.

"Black!"

Sirius turns on the spot to find Marlene running towards him, a wide grin on her face.

"What's up McKinnon?"

"Remember at the start of the year when you bet that James and Lily would be pouncing on each other by the end of the school year?"

Sirius cocks his eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"Remember how I said I bet by Christmas?" She says with a grin.

Sirius rolls his eyes.

"10 Gallons please, Black," Marlene sticks out her hand and smiles proudly at her friend.