Previously in the Darklyverse: Sixth year ended disastrously, with the Hogwarts Order of the Phoenix (not including defector Mary) joining forces with Dumbledore only after an ambush resulting in Elisabeth Clearwater's and Millie LeProut's deaths. At the beginning of the summer, Lily and Sirius moved back into the flat they rented together over Easter break. James and Lily slowly rebuilt their friendship after they kissed during Christmas break and Lily subsequently iced James out. Lily and Alice maintained a quiet rivalry over school marks and Alice's prefect badge.

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July 9th, 1977: Lily Evans

It's alarming how fast Lily gets used to sharing a room with Sirius. Part of her isn't surprised—just like Sirius, she's grown accustomed to hearing her dormmates' heavy breathing at night and has a hard time sleeping without someone else in the room—but still, she hasn't known Sirius very well for very long, and she's a bit taken aback that someone for whom she had so much disdain not so long ago could make her feel so comfortable by now.

Of course, that surprise isn't new: Lily's been feeling it for the entirety of the past year about her relationships with all of the Gryffindor seventh years, chief among them James. It's why, after kissing James at Christmas, she freaked so badly and avoided him for so many months.

She feels like she and James are existing in a sort of limbo where they're not dating, but not exactly not dating, either. James is awfully physically affectionate toward her every time they see each other, and Lily lets him be; they pair up together more often than not when the other Gryffindors come around to Lily and Sirius's flat, and Lily isn't planning on bolting the next time James works up the nerve to kiss her. She still teases him and gives him grief, but she means it in a more playful way than anything, and she thinks James can tell the difference between her snarking now and her snarking a year ago, when she was still getting to know him as someone better than the toerag who made her best friend's life miserable for five years.

To James's credit, he doesn't seem jealous at all that Lily and Sirius are bunking together—a little confused at first, maybe, but perfectly accepting and secure in his relationships with both of them. He comes over to the flat almost every day, sitting on the couch with his arm slung casually around either Lily or one of the other boys, depending on who's there. She repays him the favor of not acting jealous, knowing that the four boys have a close bond she wouldn't want to interfere with, one that doesn't diminish the relationship she herself has with James.

They're starting to fall into a routine: Sirius wakes up first and entertains James, who always comes over early in the morning; once Lily's up, she says hello to the boys, feeds Aquarius, and waits in the living room for more Gryffindors to filter in, after which Lily and Sirius head out, sometimes with one or two others in tow, to find something to fix for lunch for everyone once they get back home. After lunch and more socializing, their friends leave one by one, and Sirius and Lily eat leftovers for dinner and spend some quiet time together before bedtime in Sirius's bedroom (their bedroom, Lily can't help thinking).

On Saturday, James, Mary, and Emmeline all come over to spend the day at Lily and Sirius's flat. She's glad to see Emmeline there—Em has spent the least amount of time with the rest at the flat since summer vacation began, and Lily knows from experience how it feels to be on the outside of the group and doesn't want that for Emmeline, even knowing that it was Em who chose to distance herself from her friends in fourth year. Em's been making a real effort to reintegrate into the circle of friends, though, and although Lily hasn't been able to catch her alone, she hopes she's been able to convey how happy it makes her to spend more time with Em.

Mary, as always, arrives ready to gossip. "We should be getting our back-to-school letters soon," she points out while they're all hanging around the living room, Lily sitting on the floor in between James's legs, leaning against the couch. "Who are we thinking will get Head Boy and Girl this year?"

"Remus or Frank Longbottom for Head Boy," says James. "My money's on Remus, personally."

"Of course it is," says Lily, rolling her eyes fondly. "What about Belby? His paper on his Wolfsbane Potion was published in The Practical Potioneer last month; that's got to count for something. He's getting more famous by the minute in potions circles. And he's, you know, decent for a Slytherin."

"'Decent for a Slytherin?'" Mary echoes. "You talk like you weren't best friends with one of them for, like, five years."

"Eight, technically, if you count the time before we went to Hogwarts," says Lily quietly. James reaches down and gives her shoulders a squeeze: Severus is still a sore spot, probably always will be.

"Whatever. Alice for Head Girl, obviously," continues Mary.

Lily cringes on the inside: the wound from Alice making prefect over her still smarts a little, and it'll be no different if Alice makes Head Girl as well. "It's not that obvious," Sirius is arguing now. "Bones and Davies would both make good choices, too."

"So would Lily," James points out, and Lily's heart gives a grateful little flutter. "A lot of people were surprised when she didn't make prefect in fifth year."

"Another obvious choice would have been Elisaabeth," Emmeline says softly, "but…"

There's a long and rather awkward pause. Lily knows everyone is thinking about the Order of the Phoenix joining forces with Dumbledore's group, wondering what tasks Dumbledore will assign to them now that they've joined up, but with Mary out of the picture, Lily doesn't want to bring it up. "I know what you're all thinking," Mary finally says, though, to break the silence. "You can acknowledge the existence of the resistance in front of me; I'm not going to crack up if I hear about it."

"I'm just wondering what kinds of missions he would even trust us with," says James eventually. "I was shocked he invited us into the fold instead of punishing the hell out of us for what happened. Liz, Millie—they were all our fault. We didn't exactly prove ourselves to be capable of doing much good."

Emmeline says, "I think he just thought we would do less damage under his direction than if he continued to leave us to our own devices like he had done."

"In a way, you were smart to get out, Mare," says Sirius shortly. "We were so reckless… still are, really."

"Smart or cowardly, take your pick," Mary mutters, turning pink.

Lily feels a rush of sympathy for Mary, who got out—Mary, who deliberately ostracized herself from the most important dynamic within her friend group because she recognized that she was in over her head. She doesn't know how to voice the sentiment without embarrassing everyone, Mary most of all, however, so she keeps it to herself and just shoots Mary a compassionate smile.

Mary and Em leave after lunch, but James stays behind, cozying up to Lily on the couch while Sirius kicks back his recliner and tucks a blanket around himself. "Dude, it's July," James points out, laughing.

"Yeah, and Lily blasts Cooling Charms so strong that I think I'm going to freeze to death," Sirius retorts without missing a beat. "Not all of us have the benefit of sharing body heat like you're climbing Everest together."

Lily and James both blush; Lily stammers something about not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable. "Relax," says Sirius, grinning. "I'm not uncomfortable, unless you count having to constantly live surrounded by you two's unresolved sexual tension."

"We do not have—!" says Lily hotly, while James coughs and extricates his arm from around her, sliding a couple inches away from her on the couch.

But it's a lie, and they all know it. James stays late into the evening, and when Sirius hops into the bathroom for a quick shower, James turns to face Lily and takes her hands in his hands, twisting his lips self-consciously. "Lily," he says quietly with a shaky voice, "I really, really like you."

"I really, really like you, too, James," she says with a soft smile.

"No, I mean…" He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. "Are you going to freak out and space on me again if I… if I…"

Lily tugs gently on his hands, pulling him in closer; she places his hands around her neck, then puts her hands around his neck. "I'm not going to freak out. I promise."

"Because it's okay if you are—I just don't want to do anything to jeopardize being your friend. If that means we never act on this thing between us, I can live with th—"

"James," she interrupts, and he cuts off and looks at her warily. "I'm going to kiss you now. You're not going to freak out, are you?"

His eyes widen, and he laughs nervously. "No," he says. "No."

She leans in, and it's—weird. Good, and it reminds her of the time they did this last Christmas, still a fond memory even though it used to make her nervous, but neither of them has much practice at this, and it's a little clumsy and fumbling. Lily slides a hand up into James's messy-as-all-hell hair and tugs, and he groans into her mouth and moves his hands down her torso to her waist, her hips—into her robes and under the blouse she's wearing underneath, pressing the calloused pads of his fingers to the smooth skin of her stomach—

Lily clambers into his lap and feels herself gyrate downward; James sucks in a quick breath and then wrenches his mouth away from hers, breathing heavily. "We—hey, hey, hey—we should slow down. We haven't talked about this, and Sirius could come back any second, and—"

"Right. Yes. Right." Lily buries her face in James's neck and breathes in the smell of forest and ink.

She's still sitting in his lap wrapped up in him when Sirius comes out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and calls, "Right on! About time!" Lily blushes furiously but kisses James on the cheek nonetheless, smiling at him.

It seems that everyone knows within the week that Lily Evans and James Potter are (finally!) dating. The Gryffindor seventh years finding out quickly was inevitable—they're spending all their downtime at Lily and Sirius's flat—but when Lily goes to Diagon Alley with the other girls the following Friday to go gift shopping for Peter, it seems like everyone from Hogwarts that they run into comes up to her to congratulate her. "I might have sent a few owls," Mary admits, blushing, after the third person to approach them.

After all of her drama last year, it seems that Mary is finally back to normal—or back to the new normal, at least. She's still gossipy as ever, but she's cut most of the "likes" from her vocabulary, colored her hair a soft brown, and stopped talking about Reginald Cattermole—stopped talking about her own love life at all, in fact. "Any news to report about your own boy friends, Mare?" Lily asks, but Mary just shakes her head and smiles.

On Marlene's recommendation, they duck into Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, where Lily picks out a small selection of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks to give to Peter. It takes them all about an hour to browse the shelves and each pick out a gift; by the time they've rung up their purchases, it's going on three o'clock. "Anyone want to come over to our flat?" Lily asks, and the girls agree cheerfully.

Back at the flat, Sirius is sitting in the living room with James, who gets up and greets Lily with a quick peck on the lips and a gentle smile. They haven't talked yet about how far things progressed between them the day they got together, but Lily's in no rush—she's happy to take things slow for the moment while they're still getting used to this thing between them materializing in a real way.

For now, she's just happy for herself and James to be together, no drama, all soft touches and smiles.