Chapter 6:
Teaching

A few weeks had passed and Gryffindor seventh years were taking History of Magic with Hufflepuff. Professor Binns was droning on and on as usual about a whole lotta crap. Lily had even fallen asleep with her head down. Remus was writing notes to Sirius, Peter was chewing on his quill and James was staring at the back of Lily's hair. Aria and Kady were also writing notes to each other.

"Miss Willdens, would you care to tell the class which famous Auror died in Italy seven years ago?" Professor Binns asked from his desk.

"Um… Paul something a rather?" Aria asked hopefully.

"Incorrect, let's see, someone who was paying attention, ahh, Miss Evans?" Lily woke from her daydream and looked into Professor Binns eyes.

"Err… Nearly Headless Nick?" There were sniggers from around the room, no one expected that from Lily Evans. Usually she payed attention to everything.

"Was Nearly Headless Nick an Auror who died seven years ago in Italy Miss Evans?"

"Not to my knowledge, sir," Lily replied, she had no idea what the question had even been. She was about to answer the question correctly seeing as she knew the answer when James kicked her chair and put his hand up.

"Yes Mr Potter? Please have something worthwhile to say," the Professor eyed him looking for a sign of deceitfulness in his eyes but failed to see.

"Miss Evans and I need to see Professor Dumbledore about the upcoming ball Professor."

"Can't it wait Mr Potter?"

"No, sir, it can't," Lily turned her head around and gave James an odd look.

"Very well, you two are excused, I will expect you to catch up on anything that has been missed in this class. Now go!" Lily and James grabbed their bags and left the classroom.

"What are you up to James?" Lily asked.

"Follow me," James took her hand and led her to their common room. He went into his room and retrieved his broom.

"JAMES! Now is not the time to be playing Quidditch!" Lily scolded.

"Like you could stand another minute in that boring class. It had only been fifteen minutes and you were asleep already! So can I train you to fly a broom now or are you going to stay here and do something extremely boring?"

"I'll come," they headed out the doors and then James got onto his broom.

"We'll fly over there together and then I'll get you to borrow one of the schools by yourself," Lily swung her leg over the broom and James place a hand on her chest for support.

"Are you sure I should ride alone?" They were flying very fast over to the other side.

"I'm very sure, I have full confidence in you!" They arrived at the destination and hopped off of the broom. James went and fetched Lily a broom, he came out with the best one he could find and handed it over to her. James mounted his broom first and then Lily did, "now, kick off from the ground," Lily did as she was told and found that she was slowly hovering in the air.

"I forgot what it was like to ride a broom! First time was in first year," Lily picked up speed with James close behind, she was holding onto the broom tightly. She prayed that she wouldn't fall but then if she did she knew that James would be there as soon as he could and catch her. She dived a little and did two rolls feeling very proud of herself.

"You're practically a natural!" James exclaimed, coming up next to her, "you just needed to get over that little fear of yours."

"And I managed to do this all because of you James, you have no idea how much this means to me!"

"Wait here, oh, and please, you can fly just… don't fall or anything!" James winked and then dived down to the ground. Lily flew around the field a few times, she looked around for James and couldn't spot him yet so she decided to do another roll. She succeeded but nearly slipped which gave her a shock and made her a little breathless. She regained herself and then found James soaring in the air towards her with what looked like a Quaffle.

"What's that for?"

"Want to shoot some hoops? I'll be the keeper, you can be the chaser," James threw her the Quaffle but she dodged it, James laughed and flew after the Quaffle, he retrieved it and came back to Lily's level in the sky, "your meant to catch the Quaffle Lily, don't be afraid to take your hands off the broom," James said with a snigger.

"Oh…" Lily looked a bit embarrassed.

"Want to try that again?"

"Ok," James threw Lily the Quaffle and she released her grip on the broom to catch it.

"Good, now try moving with the Quaffle and throwing and catching with it," Lily raced around the pitch, throwing and catching the Quaffle with James. Then they moved to the rings, where James became the keeper and Lily tried scoring. She did quite well and scored several, she even tricked James a few times.

"So you think I'm good?" Lily asked fluttering her eyelashes whilst holding the Quaffle.

"I think you're very good," Lily flew closer to James.

"Guess I will have to start going to more Gryffindor Quidditch matches to try and learn something," she kept hovering closer to James at a relaxed speed. They had their eyes locked on each other, Lily flew up beside James still with eye contact and quickly threw the ball through the middle hoop.

"You're evil!" James went down and retrieved the Quaffle.

"Don't I know it!" Lily was smiling broadly and soared down to James who looked at his watch and smirked, "what is it?"

"Oh, it's just that, I, James Henry Potter has made Lily Rebecca Evans miss out on more than half her classes today, you see, in five minutes the students of Hogwarts will be piling into the Great Hall to eat… oh… DINNER!" Lily glared at him in pure shock.

"WH-WHAT?" She shrieked.

"Calm down, I didn't realise until just then," they started flying down to the ground. Lily gave her broom to James and he went and put it away.

"I am so dead, you realise that the teachers will notice we missed most of our classes for the day?" Lily was biting her lip. James came back out and when he saw her doing this he smiled.

"You know you are really cute when you do that?"

"Do what?" She did it again.

"That" James motioned his head towards her.

"What?" Lily asked getting frustrated. James noticed this and smiled even further.

"That too actually."

"James!! Tell me!"

"Let me think… nah," Lily walked over to him and playfully hit him on the arm.

"Tell me!" She kept whining. James laughed.

"When you're angry and anxious you're extremely cute," James pinched her right cheek.

"When I'm anxious?" She asked.

"Yeah, you bite your lip, it makes it harder to resist you!" Lily widened her eyes as James wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Let's just get to dinner and forget we had that conversation ok," Lily started walking, James just shook his head smiling and followed.

"LILY! Where have you been?" Kady asked as Lily and James sat down to eat dinner.

"Finally got Lily into a snogging session did we Prongs? Atta boy! Bout time I say," Sirius kicked James under the table.

"Yup, in the broom closet too!" James chuckled as Lily's mouth dropped.

"We did nothing of the sort! James took me out onto the Quidditch pitch and we flew around, he taught be a few things."

"How many times did you snog while in the air then?" Aria asked. Lily was shocked at Aria's question.

"We didn't snog at all, for goodness sake!" Lily saw them all grinning.

"I just can't believe you missed out on practically all your classes, good job James," Aria congratulated James.

"Well what did I miss?" Lily was a little worried that she could've missed something important.

"Nothing, honest, nothing really happened. Oh, we have an essay for Herbology, we have to have opposite gender partners for a project we're starting on Wednesday in Potions. You two are together," Kady pointed at Lily and James.

"Good!" James said.

James and Lily kept getting closer as they would go out and play Quidditch with each other regularly in their spare time. Lily was growing more and more fond of James, perhaps she was even starting to develop feelings for him. They nearly kissed twice since they'd been practicing, but they never actually did.

"It's been a long time since we planned a prank boys, especially on the Slytherins," James said as he sat in his old room on Sirius's bed with the other Marauders.

"What about tomorrow morning," Remus sat on his own bed throwing a round yellow ball into the air and catching it.

"Sounds good, we could turn their hair hot pink as soon as they take a bite out of what they eat," Sirius offered while completing a potions essay.

"And their tongues bright yellow, how about we make them keep burping too, simple stuff, but just to annoy them and get a laugh," Remus looked at them for an answer, they nodded to agree, "it's settled then."

"Where's Wormy?" James looked around.

"No idea, probably with Minnie Mouse," the boys laughed when Sirius said that.

"You think you guys can tell him about the prank?" James asked as he headed for the door.

"If he comes back before we go to bed, see you tomorrow Prongs," Remus said.

"Oh, yeah, Moony," James stopped and turned around.

"What is it?"

"Are you going to tell Aria about .. you?" James gave Remus a curious look.

"Yeah, I think I will, not sure when though, I don't want to scare her off."

"Have we just had a conversation without Prongs going on about Lily?" Sirius chuckled.

"Yes Padfoot I believe we have. Amazing," Remus replied.

"How are you to getting along though?" Sirius asked.

"Well Padfoot now that you ask, the more I'm with her the more I want her," James replied.

"Good one Padfoot, couldn't keep your mouth shut could you?" James walked over to Sirius's bed and threw a cushion at Remus.

"So what's James like?" Aria rolled over on Lily's large bed.

"What do you mean what's James like?"

"Well, what do you guys do when you're always out together now?" Kady questioned, playing with one of the fluffy pink cushions.

"We play Quidditch…"

"Is that all?" The asked in unison.

"Yes, that's all," Lily had been hearing rumours about her and James being together lately.

"Do you have any feelings for him?" Aria popped some gum into her mouth.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I reckon you do, you spend so many hours with him," Kady started playing with Lily's hair.

"He's different, he has changed so much since previous years," Lily took out some nail polish and started painting her thumb nails a pastel pink colour.

"He has, and he changed for you," Aria got up and walked over to Lily's vanity table.

"I can't believe you play Quidditch with him now! You use to hate Quidditch, hate heights, and hate James even! Now you're playing Quidditch, you're not as afraid of heights and you're spending time with James… for leisure, and pleasure!! We're so proud of you!" Lily laughed a bit when something struck her.

"What do you mean I'm with him for pleasure!?" Aria and Kady headed for Lily's door laughing.

"Night Lils," Kady waved.

"Yeah, night Lils, and if you need someone to talk to, James is next door!" Aria laughed before leaving.

"Hmmm, I wonder why I'm friends with you sometimes, Night gals," when they left Lily went and got changed into her pyjamas. Lily found that she couldn't get to sleep, so she progressed towards the common room and picked up her copy of Witch Weekly. James entered the common room and removed his invisibility cloak, he noticed Lily had fallen asleep on one of the comfy chairs with her magazine in her lap. He walked into her room and came back with a blanket. He took the magazine and put it down on the coffee table, and then he took the blanket and placed it over her curled up body.

"Goodnight Lily," he whispered, kissing her forehead, "I love you," he stood up and walked into his own room, once the door was closed Lily opened one eye slightly.

"I love you too," she whispered softly, then falling asleep straight away, dreaming about James.

Awww… was that sweet? I hope it was, I did try. The Christmas Ball is coming up soon. Reviews make an author feel loved!!! No flames please!