Summary: Sequel to "Time to Fly (Friends Forever)". Lily and James haven't seen each other for seven years. A school reunion rekindles their friendship, but how far will friendship go?

Disclaimer: Blah de blah, you know it's all J.K.'s, so why bother putting a stupid disclaimer?

Author's Note: EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!! AND IT'S A TOTALLY LUVERLY LITTLE INDIGO IBOOK!!! GAAH!!

Sorry about that. I'm still syked over this thing!! The reason I got it so fast is that my TOTALLY LUVERLY PARENTS decided that I needed a computer really soon (my four or five books-in-progress are on here, plus all my art scans and coloring programs) and paid for it, and I only need to pay HALF!!! (That's still about $400, but oh well.) I took so long to getting this up because I needed to pay $200 before using it. I got informal odd jobs for my godfather's company (toy company, fuunn) doing research at $4/hour and concept art for $10 a piece, so I was able to pay it off, and I'm BACK IN BUSINESS, BABY!!! I'll still be slow getting the chappies up, but there WILL be a fic!!

Speaking of a fic--shut up, self, and on with it!

Seven Years

Chapter Five

By Lady Wildcat

Dedicated to my Wonderful Parents.

NOT Dedicated to the Foot that Stepped on my Tangerine iBook. Baad Foot.

About thirty minutes later, Lily was still being tugged down the halls. Her arm was starting to hurt when James finally stopped at a statue of a crouching hag. "Hold on," he said, pulling out his wand. He tapped the statue. "Dissendium."

"James--where--are—we..." Lily panted. She stopped as she saw the passage open. "What--"

"Quick, climb in." James squeezed through the gap with surprising agility for such a tall man. He stuck his hand out, and Lily grabbed it and clambered through.

"Okay, now we walk." He set off at a brisk jog, and Lily followed, trying to keep up with his long strides.

After about fifteen exhausting minutes, Lily stopped. "This--is--hard...rest..."

James turned around, still walking backwards. He was only breathing lightly. Lily remembered how fit James had been in school. She was in good shape, but nothing like James. "Keep goin', Lils. We'll never get there at this pace."

"I need a rest."

"Come on!"

"You want me to move...no way, buddy..." Lily sat stubbornly onto the ground. "You haven't had to deal with you all day..."

James rolled his eyes and walked over. In one motion, he picked Lily up so that she was hanging over his shoulder. He continued to walk down the passage.

"Hey! James!" Lily squirmed. "Put me down!"

"We'll never get there with you sitting down."

Lily pouted. He was right. She hated when he was right.

After five minutes or so, Lily commented, "Nice shirt."

"Why do you mention it?"

"Well, I've been staring at it for about five minutes."

"Good point," James said thoughtfully. "Nice shoes."

"Thanks. 15% off at Bloomingdales'."

"Huh?"

"Muggle store."

"Oh."

Another five minutes passed. Lily drummed her fingers on James' back.

"Stoppit."

Lily stopped.

Another five minutes.

Lily sighed. "Ever notice how conversation lags when one of you is hanging off the other's shoulder?"

"Well--" James shifted her a bit "--fortunately, we have arrived." He set Lily down.

Lily, legs wobbling from no usage, started to follow James. He, however, spun around, a mischievous grin on his face. "Close your eyes."

"What?"

"Close 'em."

She closed her eyes. James took her hand and tugged her along. She felt herself being tugged into an opening, led across a floor, and guided up the stairs. Lily had absolutely no idea where they were.

"James, can I open my damn eyes already?" she grumbled.

"Hold it--" She was led across more floor. "Okay. Open."

Lily gasped. They were in Honeydukes. The shop was silver in the moonlight, the jars of various candies glinting.

James grinned and spread his arms. "Voilá! Great, no?"

"Wow," Lily whispered. "How did you find this passage?"

"Never mind about that." James' eyes were eagerly lit. "Just look! All the store to ourselves!"

"Oh, no." Lily folded her arms, muffling her excitement with her stern teacher voice. "No, James Potter, you are NOT going to steal any candy."

"Who said I was stealing? We're consumers. We always left money."

"'We'?"

"You think I could keep something like this from the rest of the guys?" James was already filling one of the huge baskets provided at the counter.

"I'm surprised you kept it from me." Lily carefully inspected a Dragon Pop before putting it in her smaller basket.

James shrugged. "You'd just fuss and fuss about us getting in trouble and not be able to enjoy it."

"So why'd you show me now?"

"You look like you need a break. Plus, now you won't worry about teachers catching us."

After a few minutes, they emptied their baskets into separate bags. James, after calculating the price, showed Lily the charm he and Sirius had developed to open the cash register and deposit their Knuts and Sickles.

Lily fished about in her pocket for money, put it into the register, and grabbed her bag. "Okay, let's go." She headed for the staircase.

"Wait, you're leaving already?"

"Um, yeah...what else are we supposed to do?"

"Well--" James ran over to the window, opened it, and grinned. "Hogsmeade at night is rather nice."

Lily sighed. "My papers--"

"Okay, if you come, I'll grade three-quarters of 'em."

"Um..." It took Lily a few seconds to decide. "Okay, fine. But only half an hour."

"Half an hour, fine." James climbed through the window and Lily followed.

***

Five hours later, Lily was rather glad that she had come. Hogsmeade was fun at night. There were no crowds, and most of the shop owners didn't consider a kitchen, bathroom, or storage room window a way of entering. Lily had several bruises from the sharp panel of the ice cream shop's kitchen window, but her mocha latté-blueberry nut cone was worth it. And playing Truth or Dare--which she hadn't played for years until now--while walking along the moonlit streets was better than playing it at a slumber party.

Lily crunched a blueberry nut. "Truth or Dare?"


"Er...Dare."

"I dare you to go into the Shrieking Shack."

James laughed. "Lily, that's one of the worst dares I've ever heard."

"Why? The Shrieking Shack is haunted."

James shook his head and slurped meditatively on his Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Fudge cone. "It's not."

"What?"

"Remus used to go there when he transformed."

Lily looked down at her ice cream. "Oh," she said softly.

"Yeah, that was what the screaming was," James said bluntly. They were silent for a moment, then James perked up. "My turn!"

"Hey, you didn't do a dare!"

"Oh, well, only one shot. Truth or Dare?"

Lily thought. "Truth?"

"Did you have any other boyfriends?"

They both knew he meant "after me". Lily laughed. "Of course I did! James, I wasn't a total reject!"

"Really? Like who?"

"Most of them are from Hogsmeade. Greg, Eddie, Kevin, Michael, Jeff--although he was more of a summer fling..."

"Okay, okay, you're gonna make me jealous!" James licked up a dribble of chocolate. "So, who's the most recent?"

"Hey, only one question!"

"We're not playing anymore. We're making conversation. Spill."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Michael was the most recent. We broke up in April."

"Why?"

"Because. We felt like it."

"Do you still see him?"

"James, you sound like my mother!" Lily laughed. "Yes, I do. He's the assistant manager at that restaurant down the street from Zonko's." She crunched the last of her cone. "My turn. Truth or Dare?"

James thought. "Truth."

"Do...do you ever regret hurting all those girls in school?" Lily asked quietly.

"What girls?"

"Your girlfriends whom you dumped."

"Lily, I always went steady with people. You know that."

"Yes, but..." She gulped and looked at her feet. "The ones you did hurt, do..."

"Do I regret hurting you?" His hands went on her shoulders, and Lily looked up. "Yes. I'll regret it for the rest of my life. I hate myself for it."

"Um...thanks..." Hesitantly, Lily wrapped her arms around James. He instantly responded, pulling her into a warm hug. After a while, Lily sniffed and broke the embrace. "Can we go back now? It's kinda late."

"Okay. You're walking this time."

***

She did walk herself, and was very proud of it, even though James needed to slow a little bit. After being waved in by a sleepy and somewhat annoyed Griggs, James walked Lily to her room.

"You're so sweet," Lily said, peeking in her retrieved bag. "No one's walked me to my room in about eight years." She fished out a stack of papers, divided them in two, and gave the considerably larger stack to James. "They're the fifth year essays on the effects of the minor curses, it should be a breeze for you to correct. Make marks in colored ink, I usually use purple..." She offered a purple inkwell.

"Purple? No way," said James.

"What's wrong with purple?"

"Not manly enough." He flexed his arm muscles, making caveman faces.

Lily laughed resignedly. "Alright, blue then."

James took the ink, and there was a surprisingly awkward pause. "Well," Lily finally said, "g'night...see you tomorrow."

He grinned. "Bright'n early, right."

"Yeah, sure...bright and early."

***

YAAY!!! FICCIE BACK UP!!! YAAAY!! (Oh, I'm still thinking about the title change.)

Adios for now.

Best,

Lady Wildcat