James pressed up against Lily hard, kissing her hungrily on the lips. He ran his hands through her hair. Her soft, soft hair. He drew back quickly for air, then went back against her again. Lily lifted her head slightly, and banged it on the wall.
"Ow!" Lily rubbed her head.
"Oh, are you ok?" asked James anxiously.
Lily suddenly grinned. "Never better."
"I don't believe that for one…" Lily kissed James again, passionately. James drew back and grinned. "Never mind," he said, and kissed her again.
Suddenly Lily glanced at her watch and pulled apart quickly. "Shit!" she exclaimed.
"What, what?" asked James, as she grabbed her bag.
"We're late for transfiguration – again!"
"Oh shit!" said James, and grabbed his own stuff, following Lily out of the cupboard, as they ran urgently. McGonagall had warned them that if they were late again, she'd take house points off. They were head boy and head girl – they were supposed to be setting an example for the rest of the school.
James was beginning to get worried – they were acting suspiciously, always arriving at certain lessons late, together. He just hoped to all hopes that Freddie wouldn't find out.
Lily opened the door to transfiguration and poked her head round. McGonagall looked at her in amusement. "I hope that Mr. Potter… ah yes." James wandered in after Lily. "Good. I was beginning to worry I'd have to send out a search party for you two."
The way McGonagall had said "you two" got James worried. He glanced quickly at Freddie, who frowned slightly, then James followed Lily to their usual two desks at the back.
"No points will be taken off – this time. I understand you have a good reason to be late." James frowned, but McGonagall's eyes just twinkled at him secretly. "Mr. Potter, if you could stay behind at the end? Professor Dumbledore shall be by – he wishes to speak with you."
"Um, sure…I mean, yes, professor."
McGonagall nodded in approvement then sat back down at her desk. Lily raised her eyebrows at James, but he just shrugged.
"See you later," James mumbled to Lily as she walked out of the room. She squeezed his hand in support and left. Painfully for James, catching up with Freddie as she did.
"Professor?" James asked uncertainly, as he walked up to McGonagall's desk. "You wanted to talk to me?"
James could tell that McGonagall was trying her hardest to seem cruel, but in the end she gave up and half-smiled. "Don't be late again, potter," was all she said.
James waited for more, and when there was none, he said, "Can I go now?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like a quick word first of all." McGonagall stood and James turned round. Dumbledore was standing in the doorway. The two professors acknowledged each other, and then McGonagall quickly left the room.
"Ah yes, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore twinkled at James and sat on the edge of his desk. "I wished to talk to you about yourself and Miss Evans…" James gulped. "I do hope you don't mind my saying, but I noticed your rivalry between you two has somewhat…vanished."
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say it was rivalry, professor…"
"And yet you did enjoy each other's anger and humiliation, did you not?"
James smiled, amused at Dumbledore's tactics. "I suppose you could say that, professor."
"I hope you didn't think that myself and Professor McGonagall hadn't noticed your late arrivals with each other?"
James gulped slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that professor. There…there's a lot of work to do, as head boy and head girl…"
"Ah yes, I had quite forgotten about that." Dumbledore rose to his feet and moved his head up close to James' ear. "I also noticed there was quite a lot of hand holding between you two when perhaps you thought no one was around." Dumbledore turned and walked back to his desk. James blushed, but tried to get rid of it before he turned around again.
Dumbledore sat down. "Is my hearing getting old or am I
right in assuming that Lily and Frederick are…I don't know what you call it
these days…seeing each other?"
James hesitated. "I…I guess," he said sadly.
"Do not worry yourself, Mr. Potter. If things are meant to be, they happen; in the course of a lifetime, they will happen. Trust me."
James nodded uncertainly, and moved away to the door assuming that their conversation had been ended. "Oh, James?" Dumbledore called out. James tuned round curiously. Dumbledore had called him by his first name for the first time in their conversation. "Do be careful, won't you?" James nodded. "I've seen what happens when young hearts are broken. Especially ones as strong as your and young Lily's."
James frowned slightly at Dumbledore's words, then nodded slowly, and exited the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Sirius, can I talk to you?" James said flinging his bag down in the common room and striding quickly over to Sirius.
"Later, mate. I'm playing chess…" Sirius was just about to move his pawn when James grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up.
"Hey!" protested Remus. "We had a bet going there!"
"Well then, I guess you win, don't you Remus?" said James.
Remus looked confused, but then slowly grinned. "Fine with me."
Sirius mumbled in protest, but followed James up to their dormitory anyway.
"What's so important that you would make me lose my Godric Griffindor card? I only had one of them!" Sirius frowned and sat down on his bed.
James paced up and down the room, scratching his head. Sirius' eyes followed him. "Ohhh…" he said, slowly understanding. "Is this gonna be the friend asking a friends advice thing?" Sirius stood up. "Because you know I suck at this, don't you? Why don't you go ask Remus?"
James said nothing, and continued pacing. Eventually he stopped and sat down on the edge of the bed opposite Sirius'.
"Ok. You remember when you were going out with Lucy?" Sirius frowned as he tried to remember her through his long list. Suddenly his face lit up. "Oh yeah. I remember her." Sirius sat back down. "Why?"
James ignored the question. "But do you remember that she had a boyfriend?"
Sirius' face un-brightened. "Oh yeah. Thanks for reminding me."
"Well, do you think she should've told her boyfriend about you straight away."
"Yeah. 'Cause then she would've chosen me!" chuckled Sirius. "Yeah. I was gonna tell him myself, but she begged me not to. I was gonna break it with her anyway by the time she did. It got annoying having to sneak around all the time."
James frowned. "Did anyone guess about you two?"
Sirius laughed. "In case you've completely forgotten the whole school did! It was only a few weeks before word spread and she broke up with me!"
James frowned then smiled. "Oh yeah. How could I have forgotten." His face suddenly became worried. "So, the whole school found out within a few weeks…" he said quietly.
"Uh yeah. You know what Hogwarts is like – there are no secrets here! …Listen, is this going anywhere?"
James bit his lip. "No, thanks anyway." He stood up to leave the room.
"Oi!" Sirius shouted after him. "You not gonna tell me what this is about?"
"Nope. See you later!" And with that James walked out of the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ "I think we should pin him down and threaten to beat him till he screams like a girl…"
"What?!"
"Only joking, only joking…"
"Yeah, well, for once I'm being serious, Wormtail."
"No way. You, serious? You're like a freaking circus act most of the time."
"Shut up Moony. What should we do?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing? We can't do nothing!"
"You know, actually, I think he's probably right."
"Thank you. If Prongs needs us, he'll tell us what the hell is going on. If not, then it's nothing to do with us, is it?"
"…I still like the pinning down thing…"
"Wormtail!"
