Previously in "The Strangest Courtship":
Lily felt confused. She had to agree that Arabella was right on some level, but none of her friend's strange, comforting logic could erase Lily's utter shame at being seen so, especially by the four boys she held the least respect for—and the four boys who would be sure to use their new, erm, information to prank Lily in one way or another during the coming year. She sunk down on one of the compartment's benches, her robes billowing out around her, and buried her burning face in her hands.
"This is going to be an awful year," she sighed.
Chapter Four:
James' CloakWhen the Hogwarts Express finally arrived at its destination, Lily and Arabella hurried through the torrential rain into one of the horseless carriages, taking care to keep the hems of their robes mud-free. When they sat down their hair was soaked dark and dripping, and their robes were clinging to their bodies. Lily began to shiver uncontrollably.
"You okay, Lily?" asked Arabella uncertainly. The rain was cold, but the air still held the warmth of summer, and their was no wind to chill them.
"I'm (shiver) fine," rasped Lily, though she sounded anything but.
"I think you're coming down with something, Lily; we'd better get you up to Madame Pomfrey's as soon as we get to the castle."
"N-no," said Lily. "I don't want to miss the s-sorting, or the f-f-feast. And anyway, I'm a pr-prefect, so I can't sk-skirt my d-d-duties."
"Yeah yeah, Lily. No way am I letting you catch pneumonia before school's even started. I'm bringing you to the infirmary as soon as possible. In fact, I hope you aren't already too sick...."
"I'm f-fine," insisted Lily. "It's just that it's s-s-so cold."
At that very moment, the door to their carriage was flung open and in stomped four very muddy boys: the Marauders, to Lily's chagrin. It seemed, however, that they hadn't been planning on meeting the girls anymore than the girls had meant to meet them; for they each looked abashed (and somewhat scared) at the two people before them.
"Erm, sorry," said Remus after a moment. "We'll go find another carriage...."
But alas, at that very moment the carriage lurched forward and the Marauders had no choice but to settle in. Lily and Arabella were across from one another; Remus and Peter sat on each side of Arabella, while Sirius and James flanked Lily.
James was intensely aware of Lily's shivering body beside him, touching him. Only a couple thin layers of cloth separated his skin from hers. He shivered involuntarily, but for different reasons than Lily's.
When Sirius spoke, James—the person who knew him best—could hear that his voice was deeper and gentler than usual; he was turning on his charm that was like a magnet for all the girls at Hogwards. James felt suddenly and inexplicably angry at Sirius, although it had been him who had challenged Sirius in the first place.
"Hey, Lily," said Sirius softly. "Always seems to rain on our first day of school, doesn't it?" Lily nodded weakly, but continued to shiver uncontrollably. She had a pounding headache now and all her muscles felt sore; she didn't have the strength to tell him off for his rude encounter earlier in the day. James wondered why Sirius wasn't offering Lily his cloak; clearly she was cold. It made James cold and ill just to see her so, but he was too ashamed to offer her his own cloak.
Sirius continued carrying on a gentle, caring one-sided conversation with Lily that had only a vague trace of flirtaciousness. Lily felt her bones warmed a little by Sirius' words and his deep voice; he sounded so unexpectedly safe, like he was looking out for her no matter what. But no matter how warm his words were, her body was still intensely cold. She shivered again, and she shook so much that a long wet curl fell into her face. Gently, ever so gently, Sirius raised a hand up and plucked the curl from her cheek, slowly bringing his hand back to tuck it behind her ear again. His fingers lingered on her ear and her jaw, and he stared at Lily, and she began to melt under his gaze.
James could feel Lily's heart begin to drum and he saw her chest rise and fall more rapidly as Sirius touched her face. James couldn't stand it any longer; he jumped up suddenly from his seat, startling Lily and Sirius out of their trance so that Sirius' hand fell back down to his side and Lily withdrew a little, and cast her eyes down.
"Erm...." mumbled James, at a loss for words now that he had gotten the attention of the whole carriage. "You look cold, Lily. Here," he said, wrenching his cloak off his back and dropping it unceremoniously in her lap. He didn't want anyone to know how he felt about Lily, so he tried to be as nonchalant as possible.
Lily, surprised but very grateful, pulled James' cloak tightly around her shoulders and huddled into it; it was very thick and still warm from James' body; and it smelled like rain and soap and musk....and other things, warm and sweet and unidentifiable. Lily gave James a smile, her first real smile since the boys had entered the carriage, but James turned swiftly away to hide his blush. He sank a moment later back into his spot, but far enough away this time so that he was no longer touching Lily.
"Thank you," Lily murmered, but James did not reply. A moment later, Sirius resumed his talk to Lily, and she turned her back to James to listen to him more clearly. She noticed for the first time how wide and warm Sirius' dark eyes were, and how soft his skin looked. She gave Sirius a smile and James frowned unbeknowst to Lily....he sat in silence for the rest of the ride to the castle.
When they arrived at the castle, Arabella dismissed Sirius' offers to bring Lily to the infirmary, insisting that it would be better for her to bring her best friend up. So Lily, still wrapped in James' cloak, tried to ignore her pounding headache enough to follow Arabella up to Madame Pomfrey's.
Upon arriving at the infirmary, Madame Pomfrey immediately pushed Lily towards a bed in the corner, pulling a curtain around it for privacy and handing Lily a clean and soft but terribly old-fashioned nightgown, insisting Lily change out of her wet robes and cloak. Putting her wet clothes on a chair, Lily swiftly pulled the nightgown over her head and lay down in the bed, but she still felt awful.
Moments later, Madame Pomfrey bustled in with a cup of a foul-tasting potion for Lily to drink; the nurse told Lily that she ought to stay the night while the potion took effect, but she should be right as rain in the morning. Lily gulped down the potion and then lay back on the uncomfortable bed, still feeling oddly unsettled. The last thing she did before she drifted off to sleep was to pull James' cloak off the pile of wet things and pull it over herself like a blanket, despite its dampness; she found its warm smell strangely comforting, and it was so thick and soft....
In the next chapter....James visits the infirmary and is met with a nasty surprise....
A/N: Two orders of business today: first of all, feel free in your reviews (which I'm sure I don't need to remind you all to leave copiously--nudge nudge, wink wink) to leave ideas for encounters or twists and turns to come. I've got plenty of ideas, but I haven't planned the story out in stone, and I love fresh ideas--I want to write what you want to read! So feedback is great in that sense; tell me if you don't like something I'm doing, but then tell me what you'd like instead. Gotcha, sorry for preaching. Okay, and second order of business is to bring attention to that little line I leave at the end of each chapter hinting at what's coming up in the next. All right, I'm keeping those in, but I want to apologize ahead of time if I don't always follow what they say. They're sure to be correct if I've already written the next chapter, so I can check the little blurb for accuracy, but sometimes when I'm writing the story (okay, fine: ME) gets off on a tangent and I have to keep my planned plot (ha! plot! what plot?) for the next chapter. So I'll try to keep them accurate, but I make no promises. Sorry to keep you all (all three of you that actually read the author's notes--bless you); go and REVIEW!!