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: Aaah. I am such a horrible author. I deserve to be beaten with wet noodles for not updating for so long. I'm AWFUL, aren't I? If you, my wonderful readers, do not forgive me, for punishment I must snog Legolas (which is something I DON'T want to do. I am not a Leggy fangirl, as I set my sights on MANLY men *cough*Aragorn*cough*). So please forgive me and alleviate me of the terrible punishment.

To make up for the horrid dry chapter drought, I've put some L/J fluff hints in here, and you'll see why I am considering a title change to Waterloo. Happy reading.

Seven Years

Chapter Seven

By Lady Wildcat

Dedicated to Peter Jackson, who did such a good job with TTT.

Lily enjoyed carrying around a planner; it made her feel important even if she normally had next to nothing to put in the blank squares other than Class, Write James and, occasionally, Faculty Meeting. Right now she was feeling very important as she riffled through the black leather book. "Not sure if I can do it..."

"Come on." It was the morning of their third day together, and Lily and James were walking toward class. "You knew we'd have to work on this speech eventually. Why not today?"

"I'm kinda busy," said Lily, looking at today's block, which was totally devoid of any writing except for Remember to have socks washed.

"With what?"

God, he was pushy. "Well," she said, dodging the question, "I could squeeze it in at around...four?"

"After you get your socks washed, right?" asked James, reading over her shoulder.

"Nosy," she said, and shoved him away. "I have a very busy schedule, if you must know."

"Of course."

***

At four fifteen, there was a knock on the door of her room. "You're late, come in," Lily yelled.

James opened the door and whistled. "Wow. Nice room."

"Thanks."

"Kind of a contrast." He bounced over to the bed and fell onto it, sucking slowly on a lollipop attained from their trip to Honeydukes, the perfect image of his fifteen-year-old self.

Lily shook her head. "Over here, James." She motioned from her small table in the center of the room. He flipped up from the bed and jumped over to the table in one big stride. "Why are you eating sugar?"

"Because it's good!"

Good Lord. He'd be hyperactive for the rest of the day. She rolled her eyes and concentrated on the blank parchment and quills in front of her. "Okay, what's our theme for this speech?" She headed one of the parchments Speech.

"Uh..." He shrugged. "I thought we were just gonna do some stuff about my my, the years have flown by, and how glad we are to see each other, tell a couple jokes about Sirius, and then eat the cookies and punch they'll give us."

"James. This is our seventh year reunion."

"Yes...aaaand?"

"Ugh...you don't get it."


"Nooo, I don't."

"Would you like to hear what I think?"

"Sure."

She started scribbling on the parchment. "See, I was thinking the mood of our speech should be slightly nostalgic towards the past years, but hopeful and positive in the direction of our futures and our new selves."

She finished writing and looked up at James. He was staring at the ceiling, licking his lollipop absentmindedly. She cleared her throat, and he snapped to attention. "Uh, oh, right...yes?"

"James...listen, if you don't want to do this seriously, I don't want to work with you. Excuse me, I've got better things to do." She gathered up her bad and got up from the table.

"Wait!" He grabbed her arm. "Look. I'm sorry. I'll try harder, promise. See?" James took the lollipop out of his mouth and tossed it into the wastebin. "No sugar."

She sighed. "Okay. But no more funny stuff with me."

"Right." He let go of her arm (part of her wished he hadn't, while the other part of her scolded that thought for even coming into being) and they sat down. "So...where do we begin?"

Half an hour, they sat back, satisfied with the first draft. Surprisingly, Lily had found that James was actually an excellent writer, and the speech was looking very good. "Now," she said slyly, tapping her chin with the quill.

"Hmm?"

"Now...we need to work on...the presentation."

James paled. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes." Lily got up, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him up next to her. "You said your public speaking skills leave something to be desired."

"I hate audiences. And I thought you were gonna do the speech for us."

"Keep dreaming. This is a speech by the Head Girl and Boy." She twirled him to face her. "I'm going to attempt to help you with your public speaking problem." She stuffed a piece of paper into James' hand, waved her wand about, and stepped back.

To James, it seemed as if he was suddenly on a stage in a large theater full of people. Lily was in the front row. "Uh, Lily--"

"This is just an illusion. Look at your paper."

He looked. On the paper was a passage from Hamlet. "What's this?"

"It's Hamlet's soliloquy, from Shakespeare's play Hamlet."

"Who's Shakespeare?"

Lily stared at him. "Oh my God--don't tell me you just asked that question. Who's Shakespeare...really, James."

"Sorry. Who is he?"

"Listen, I'll explain him later. What the passage is about is how Hamlet is contemplating whether to kill himself."

"Sounds cheery. Do I really have to read this?"

"Yes."

James looked up at the audience, down to his paper, and back at the audience. They were all staring at him, waiting for him to make a mistake...He hated public speaking.

"Um, okay." He cleared his throat nervously. "To...be, or not to, um, be, that is the question." Get it over with, quick, so they won't stare anymore. "Whether 'tis...noblerinthemindtosuffertheslings--"

"James, slow down."

"And arrows of..." He trailed off, and stared at the audience like a deer in the headlights. "Of..."

Lily sighed, and read off the list of speaking tips she'd prepared. "Visualize yourself succeeding."

"Huh?"

"Imagine that they will clap wildly when your speech is over. You'll be loved and adored by all of them, blah blah blah."

"All right..." James stared at the audience. "Lily, I can't visualize it."

"Well, try."

"I am trying--Lily, my vision is not clapping."

She rolled her eyes. "You're impossible. Okay, try turning your nervousness into positive energy."

"Well, how?"

Fifteen minutes later, Lily had exhausted her entire list of tips, and she was getting incredibly fed up. "The audience wants you to succeed, James!"

"To sleep, perchance...to, to, dream: ay, there'stherub..." He shook his head. "They don't want me to succeed."

"You know what?" Lily had had it. "Maybe you should just try the old cliché. Think about the audience in their underwear, that should do it."

James looked out at the audience, then quickly to his feet. "Can't," he mumbled.

"Well, why not?!?"

"You're in the audience. It's too distracting."

Lily's mouth formed into a silent, embarrassed o. The room was quiet (except for a few fabricated sneezes from the imaginary audience) as James regained his dignity and Lily her voice.

She finally got it back. "Look...you've worked hard for today. Let's stop, we can continue tomorrow." She waved her wand.

He visibly relaxed when the audience disappeared. "Ah, back again."

"Yes...we'll try with you again later."

There was a short silence, and Lily was about to say something to the effect of We should get going to dinner when James jumped gleefully. "Oh, excellent! Your record player!" He leaped across the room towards the player.

Lily allowed herself a grudging grin. James had first been introduced to records when they had spent the summer at Lily's house between fifth and sixth year. Among other Muggle treats such as daytime talk shows, electricity, and videos, James had enjoyed her record collection the most.

"Oh, wow, they're all here!" he exclaimed now. "Look, all your Beatles ones--and the Rolling Stones--Oh, yes, ABBA!"

Lily groaned. "No, James, not ABBA..." James had developed a particularly weird affinity towards the band during his stay at Lily's, (although the Rolling Stones still remained his favorite). Lily, frankly, did not share his liking of ABBA. The record had been an old one of Petunia's that she had just taken to flesh out her collection.

But, Lily realized as James started to put the record into the player, she'd better get used to ABBA as long as he was staying here.

My my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender

Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way

The history book on the shelf

Is always repeating itself

"Waterlooooo," crooned James. "I was defeated, you won the war--c'mon, Lily, get in the spirit!"

"No, thank you," she replied tiredly, "I'll--"

Before she could finish, James had grabbed her waist. He started twirling her around the room, singing to the music.

Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more

Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to

Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo

"JAAAAMES!!!" Lily cried. "PUT ME DOWN!!" She struggled to get out of his grip, punching his shoulder. "This could count as sexual harassment, you know!!"

He ignored her and continued to dance her around, singing to the music.

My my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger

Oh yeah, and now it seems my only hope is giving up the fight

"And how could I ever refuuuuse, I feel like I win when I looooose!!!" He really did sing horribly, Lily thought. She didn't know how much longer she could stand this.

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war

Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more

Waterloo - Couldn't escape if I wanted to

"Waterlooooo - Knowing my fate is to be with you," sang James. "Waterlooo--"

Lily grabbed his moment of distraction to slip out of his hold and shut off the player. "Enough Swedish guitars for one day."

"Aw, come on, Lily!" He attempted to reach past her and turn the record back on, but she grabbed his arm just in time. He frowned down at her. "Party pooper."

"That's me."

They stood like that, frozen. Lily suddenly realized how close they were standing, and that her hand was still on his arm. She looked up and saw an expression on James' face that she'd never seen before.

He's going to kiss me, isn't he? Her mind blanked, and all she could think of doing was closing her eyes and stretching her neck up, getting ready for his kiss.

"Uh...Lily? You okay?"

She opened one eye. The expression on James' face was gone, replaced by confusion. She opened the other eye and cleared her throat, embarrassed. "Um, yes, I'm fine."

"You sure? Your eyes kind of closed, and you started to lean into me, and I thought you fainted or something..."

Oh, God, did I do that? "Er, no, just got a little disoriented, that's all." She laughed nervously and stepped back, looking at her feet. "Now, I'm feeling kind of tired, so I think you should go. Now."

"Okay." He walked towards the door and paused. "Maybe you should see Madam Pomfrey or something--"

"No. I'm fine. Good-bye." She shut the door behind him, and with that, went to go bemoan over how much of a stupid idiot she was.

Oooh...so, did you like? Was it long enough? God, I'm a horrible author for not updating for so long. But maybe if you leave copious reviews, I'll update quicker...ah, I love blackmail. :) Anyhow, I'll start the next chapter very soon, and I'm working on Ch. 4 of Roxanne and ch. 3 of The Quill...just veerrry slooowwly, lol. Well, see y'all soon, hopefully!

Best,

Lady Wildcat