Eight – Avoiding Stalkers . . .

It seemed that, as Head Girl, your duties and authority were abruptly deemed 'void' as of seven in the morning on the last day before the Christmas holidays.

On her way to breakfast with Verity that morning, Lily had to stick out an arm to stop her friend from walking into a snowdrift that had randomly appeared in the second floor corridor, courtesy of some Hufflepuff third years.

"Mind yourself," Lily warned, as another, less lucky, prefect slipped and went flying. Verity pulled a pained face, craning to peer behind herself.

"Ouch," she commented, "you all right, Lily? Yesterday, you'd be hunting down the poor sods that did this and exercising extreme punishment. What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing's gotten into me, Veri," Lily replied casually, stepping over the snowdrift and continuing down the corridor, "it's Christmas, and I simply cannot be arsed." Verity regarded her for a moment before shrugging.

"Fair enough," she said, and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall.

The scene that they were met with was an extremely strange one. The entire population of Hogwarts seemed to be turned around in their chairs, watching something. That something turned out to be the Marauders, which didn't surprise Lily in the slightest. They were all standing on the Gryffindor table, all in Santa hats and Sirius holding a lantern. Remus was holding up his wand and charming red and gold sparkly words above them.

The vast majority of the Hall were in hysterics. Most of the teachers were regarding the scene with either cool detachment or badly hidden amusement.

"What the-" Lily only had time to utter, before James shouted from the table.

"All together for the last verse!"

And the entire hall began to sing:

"On the twelfth day of Christmas, I got confiscated from me:

Twelve Cheatfast quills,

Eleven juggling rats,

Ten exploding ink bottles,

Nine shaving hats,

Eight loaded dice,

Seven Wet-start Fireworks,

Six screaming yoyos . . ."

By this time Lily's mouth was half hanging open, half curled into a smile. She laughed outright as every student in the Hall took a united deep breath and belted out the next line for all it was worth.

"Five . . . live . . . gnomes!

Four sugar quills,

Three dungbombs,

Two purple toads,"

James, who had been nodding his head for the duration of the song, now raised his arms and began to conduct the last line with great sweeps for every grand, finalistic syllable.

"And a si-i-ix pack of Ogden's Whi-i-i-iske-e-ey"

At the last note, the Hall burst into applause and cheering, some of the students (mostly Gryffindors) giving standing ovations, as the Marauders gave multiple bows and began to step down from their briefly-used stage.

"Thank you, Hogwarts, you've been marvellous," James saluted the crowd, before hopping off after Peter.

After discarding his hat and sitting down at his unofficial place, James cleared his throat.

"And now for some breakfast!"

"I agree," Sirius said, slapping the table, "pass the eggs! . . . Prongs? Prongs?"

Sirius was beginning to worry that his best friend's face had gone a little whiter than it usually was. He then realised the reason was that one Head Girl had sat down next to him, straight across from James.

"Lilo!" exclaimed James, hastily, "I suppose you'll be wanting an explanation. Er . . . see, the thing is . . ."

"It's Christmas," Lily said, cutting him off, "so I will not be disembowelling you."

James picked up a napkin from the table and pretended to mop his brow.

"Well, that's a relief," he said, "yes, I see how that would defeat the whole 'season of goodwill' mood."

"Which you seem to be contributing to without a problem," Lily commented, dipping her knife into the marmalade.

"Well, I heard musicians always get the girl, so I thought, why not give it try?"

"James," Verity warned him, "don't push it."

"So, er, where are we all going this Christmas?" Sirius asked, recognising the infamous battle-look beginning to creep into Lily's eyes.

"Columbia," Peter said.

"You lucky bugger," Sirius said, poking Peter with a fork.

"Spain," Verity told him.

"Ooo, very nice," James said.

"I'll say," Sirius added, "ice cream, dancing, tapas . . ." he leaned in with a conspiring smirk, "Spanish Quidditch players," he said, making Remus go very faintly red.

"You going home, Lilo?" James asked, before spooning yoghurt into his mouth. Lily remembered a time all too well when he had absolutely no problem talking through whatever food happened to be in his mouth. Unfortunately, her mother had not let her burn the ketchup stains off her school shirt. Fortunately, he now seemed to have gotten some halfway decent manners. Five years ago for instance, he had those of a fish.

"Stop calling me that," Lily growled, "and no, I am not going home, not with the newlyweds still anywhere near there. There isn't always a bucket handy. I'm staying at Hogwarts, thanks."

"Well, my family's going to Australia," James said. He smirked when he heard something come out of Lily that sounded a lot like 'Thank Merlin.' "But I'm staying here."

"Whot?" cried Lily, accidentally knocking over a glass of pumpkin juice. James pulled his wand out and took care of the mess before replying.

"I said I'm staying here. Last year at Hogwarts, don't want to miss anything." Lily turned her horrified face to Sirius and Remus.

"And you two?" she asked, dread etched on her face.

"Same," Remus said, amused.

"I'm-a gonna say-a," Sirius said, in an Italian accent, "same."

"Oh, holy hippogriffs," Lily muttered, eye wide as Verity sniggered into her sugared cereal.

"Come on, Lilo," James said, "it'll be fab. We'll fix you up with a Santa hat, and you can even out our numbers for a snowball fight."

"I'd rather run all the way down to Brighton," Lily replied.

"Really? I'll go with you!" James said, smiling.

"Or maybe I'll make it the Cliffs of Dover so I can throw myself off one of them," Lily said.

"Really? I'll jump with you!" James said, smiling.

Lily's forehead made a nasty 'bang' sound as it connected with the table.

"Oh, Magic Muffins, will I never be rid of this pillock?"

"I'm-a gonna say-a," Sirius said, "no."


For the run up week to Christmas, Lily had managed to stay reasonably out of the three Marauders' way, with a little help from the house elves and the remaining students at Hogwarts.

A lot of them owed her a favour, were secretly wishing for a date, or were susceptible to blackmail, so what she had asked most of them to do, was to walk ten paces in front of her whenever she felt brave enough to venture out of her dorm, and warn her whenever James was within a thirty metre radius. Then, she would scurry back to the safety of her room and pretend she wasn't there, even though James had an extraordinary way of knowing exactly where she was at any given moment, even without that funny old piece of parchment. Although, of course, Lily didn't know exactly what it did.

One such time when she had to make a break for it back up her staircase was on Christmas Day. Lily had heard that the Christmas dinner at Hogwarts was enough to make you drool a volume of liquid that would fill the Pacific, and she was looking forward to it immensely. She had also heard that everyone sat at the same table because there were so few people. Maybe she would be able to get a seat as far away as possible from Potter.

So, on Christmas Day, she slept in late, and skipped down her staircase at around ten minutes to four in the afternoon, just in time for the late lunch.

As she had been doing for the past week, she whipped out her wand and drew a circle of transparency only detectable to her in the door that led from her staircase to the Heads' Common Room. Her heart sank.

Potter was sitting in the Common Room, sprawled out on one of the purple sofas, long limbs everywhere, reading something on a piece of parchment. Lily slid down the wall, bringing the see-through circle down with her. He'd probably move to go down to lunch soon. She'd wait until then to go down after him, and with any luck, he'd already be seated so she could avoid sitting next to him.

Good Goblins, Lily thought, she'd gladly don armed forces camouflage attire, paint her face green, and complete a military stealth course if it meant she'd be able to avoid him.

Unbeknownst to her, James knew exactly where she was, because the parchment in his hand was none other than the Marauders' Map. He sighed, because he knew she was avoiding him. Well, she had to come out sometime, or else she'd starve to death, and James didn't think she'd go that far just to stay out of his way.

It was a standoff.

He discarded the parchment on the coffee table, stretched leisurely before putting his hands behind his head and preparing for a wait.

Lily sighed.

Her head was leaning against the stones, her eyes looking out of the circular window at the reclined form of the Head Boy just outside the door. Thank Merlin she had changed the password from Pruning Petunias to Dursley Is A Dipstick.

He'll go soon, she thought to herself, he can't stay out there for ever.

But he didn't get up. He simply sat there, glancing at the door she was sat behind every once in while, and Lily had the strangest feeling he knew exactly where she was. She knew he was looking because, every once in a while, she would get a flash of hazel on the background of his pale face.

He'll get up before I count to a hundred, she thought, definitely.

He really was very good looking. The light was coming through the high window in the Heads' Common room and showing her the handsome angles of his face. When she thought about it, it was hardly surprising that almost the entire female (and some of the male) population of Hogwarts fainted when he smiled in their general direction. If he actually expressed a genuine interest in anyone other than herself, she thought, then she suspected Madam Pomfrey might have a lot of comatose students on her hands.

He'll go before I count to five hundred, she thought.

Why was he even waiting for her this long? She asked herself. Not just outside her door, at that moment, but . . . generally. She knew of ants less determined to get at her mother's picnic baskets than James was to get her to go out with him.

Maybe it was a pride thing. He probably thought he would look a right fool if he gave up without getting what he wanted. It would certainly be fitting to his character, she thought.

Backwards, he'll go before I count backwards from five hundred.

If he weren't such a prick, she thought, she may have actually considered going out with him. Because, if he weren't a prick, he'd be nice, and as well as being nice, he'd be funny, talented, athletic and good-looking.

Who wouldn't want to go out with someone like that?

Too bad he was a prick then, she thought. It was like in thirty mark exam essays, if you didn't get the basic points down, but you wrote down all the detail nevertheless, then you still didn't get any marks at all. The professors warned them about that every single year. James was funny, talented, athletic and good-looking, but because he was a prick, he simply didn't get any marks.

Lily checked her watch. Nine o'clock. She'd been sat there, daydreaming, and staring at James Potter, for over five hours.

In French, she sighed to herself. He will get up and go down to dinner, before I count from . . . a thousand . . . backwards . . . in French.

But she had only just gotten through the 'neuf cent's' and down to 'hiut cent cinquante-six' when she fell asleep.


James woke up slowly when he heard a creaking of the floorboards beneath the purple rug on the floor.

Silently, he readjusted his glasses, from where they had been tipped askew in his sleep and spotted the Head Girl trying to make her way stealthily past the sofa he was sprawled on.

"Aha!" he muttered sleepily, shifting and trying to collect his wits. Lily froze. Bugger! She'd woken up around ten minutes ago, with absolutely no feeling in her legs whatsoever and absolutely too much empty space in her stomach, and seen with delight that the wanker was asleep!

Damn Potter and his bizarre, Lily-seeking radar, damn and blast them!

She released a frustrated sigh and turned to towards the boy on the sofa, struggling to arrange his limbs into some position that would enable him to stand up.

"What do you want?" she asked, irritably.

"Aha!" James said again, clearly half asleep but waking up fast.

"Why are you stalking me!?" Lily demanded, waving her hands around near her shoulders. James managed to stand up at last.

"I'm not stalking you, Lilo," he said calmly.

"Excuse me," Lily said furiously, "you sat outside my room for over five hours and then fell asleep instead of going downstairs to eat, like a normal person! If those activities don't qualify as stalking, I don't know what does."

"Well, yes, fine," James admitted with a smile, "I may have temporarily taken on some vague, stalker-like tendencies, but you can hardly blame me, Lilo!"

"Au contraire," Lily said, because counting in French had taken its toll on her sleep and food-starved mind. "I can blame you entirely, Mr Potter, and I am fully intending to do so!"

"Well, you've been avoiding me," James replied fairly.

"I have not been avoiding you," Lily lied.

"Excuse me," James imitated, "we are in the same house, we are Head Girl and Boy, we live in the same dorm and yet I haven't seen you for an entire week. If those activities don't qualify as avoiding me, I don't know what does."

"You are infuriating beyond belief," Lily accused him.

"Only because you don't like me," James said.

"And why don't I like you?" Lily asked rhetorically, "because you are infuriating beyond belief!" James smiled, only infuriating Lily further.

"I sense a vicious circle coming on," he said breezily. "Oh, look, it's snowing." He jogged past her and reached the wooden staircase to the bookcase balcony and started climbing towards the large window that showed flakes of snowfall hurrying past the glass.

"What?" Lily demanded, stomping after him.

"It's snowing," James repeated, "you know, the floaty white stuff that comes from the sky? Looks a bit like David Maple's dandruff."

Lily's mouth twitched upwards for a split second, and she released a single breath of laughter as the two of them arrived at the window. Then, she tried to make it look like a moody laugh by going,

"So?" in a cynical voice.

"So, let's go outside!" James said excitedly, his hands spreading condensation on the glass as he peered out into the grounds.

"No!" Lily refused.

"Why not?" he said, smiling.

"Because: I'm hungry, it's freezing . . ." she trailed off for a moment, "and I hate you."

"If you're hungry, we could pay a visit to the kitchens," James offered.

"No!" Lily refused, just for the sake of being difficult, when in truth, she quite fancied the idea.

"Why not?" James said, still smiling.

"Because . . . we might get caught."

James grinned and raised his index finger to tap Lily on the nose.

"Wait here," he told her, and rushed down the stairs to the floor and up his own staircase.

Lily sighed as she sank down onto the window ledge and looked out into the blizzard outside. It was beginning to lessen now. The flakes were beginning to slow down their rush in mad directions and simply floated gently downwards to the fluffy, white grounds.

Beautiful, she thought. Wouldn't it be nice to go outside? Even if it was with Potter?

She heard him climb back up the stairs and turned to see him carrying something silvery and silky.

"Surprise," he grinned, holding it out to her. She frowned as she reached out to touch it. It felt just like it looked.

"This isn't . . .?" she asked, looking up at his grinning face.

"It is," James nodded. Lily laughed and leaned back against the window.

"An invisibility cloak," she said, "I should have known."

"So," James said, "we're hungry, yes? Are you in or are you out?"

Lily looked back out of the window for a moment, then she looked up at the Head Boy. There was a strange look on his face; it was like the tone in his voice that day he had kissed her cheek after the Quidditch match.

"I'm in."


James could not remember ever being so close to Lily in his life. With his being quite tall, they had to walk extremely close together to avoid giving the impression that two pairs of feet were walking around the castle of their own accord. Although personally, James didn't see what was so wrong with that image. Stranger things had happened in the castle, most of them from his own creation.

Still, he revelled in the warmth that seeped between them, and the feel of her hair when a stray lock played on his neck.

Although, with all the above things to contemplate, it was hard to focus on not tripping over the small red head in front of him.

Lily sighed. Potter kept stepping on the backs of her heals. She supposed it wasn't his fault, because even though the cloak was bigger than it looked, Potter was still too tall for his own good. No, that wasn't fair. Just because she was a short-arse, didn't give her the right to be bitter.

They arrived at a painting of a bowl of fruit, James tickled the pear, and Lily watched in mild interest as the giggling fruit transformed into the door handle, which James used to push open a door in the wall. He then swept the invisibility cloak off himself and Lily, and pushed her inside.

Within five minutes, they were settled on the floor on a thick blanket, surrounded by house elves, scampering around, serving what must have been every morsel food they had left over from the Christmas lunch.

"This is extraordinary," Lily said, watching as Hogwarts crested tea towels flapped in the wind as the elves hurried to and fro.

"Isn't it?" grinned James. "See those massive tables there? They set the food on those before every meal, and then all the food goes up to the tables in the Great Hall, because they're in the same position."

"How do you know that?" Lily asked.

"Well," the Head Boy smiled, "the Marauders and I may have had an extensive interest in experimenting with various magical chemicals in the Slytherins' food."

"I repeat James, why are you here and what have you done with the real Head Boy?" James laughed as an individual elf detached itself from the tornado and bowed to Lily.

"Drink, Miss Head Girl Lily?" it squeaked regally, which Lily didn't think was possible.

"Oh! Er . . ." she said, glancing back at James, who nodded slightly. "Would you have any tea?"

"Miss Head Girl Lily must choose," the elf said, whom Lily was beginning to suspect was female. "We make Earl Grey, camomile, green, rose petal, fennel, Malaysian, Japanese, Turkish . . ."

The list went on to mention around sixty-eight types of tea, some of which Lily was sure were not even available to the muggle or magical public at large. In the end she chose green and James chose Earl Grey, and two teapots were delivered, steaming and accompanied by milk and sugar for James and honey for Lily.

Lily watched the leaves in her green tea dance around on the surface for a moment, then sink gracefully to the bottom like tired helium balloons. She contemplated the oddness of her situation. She was sitting in the Hogwarts kitchens, having missed Christmas lunch because Potter was stalking her, having a picnic in the middle of winter with said stalker, and to make the situation even stranger, she was actually having quite a good time of it.

She tipped over onto the blanket and leaned on her elbow, crunching a stick of carrot.

Potter was staring at her.

"What?" she asked, devouring the stick and taking a sip of tea. James seemed to snap out of his daydream and shook his head a little, making his glasses slip down his nose a little.

"Nothing," he said.

"Oh, you can't do that!" Lily said. "Now it'll be bothering me for the rest of the week!"

"I was just thinking," James said, shrugging, "that you are very pretty." Almost immediately after the words had exited his mouth, he found the end of Lily's wand pointing at him straight between the eyes.

"Potter," she said dangerously, "if this is another tactic to get me to go out with you . . ."

"It's not,' James insisted, although he had raised his hands to the gesture that was universally translated as 'Don't shoot, I have a wife and two kids.' "I'm just saying, genuinely, completely honestly, without any particular purpose or ulterior motive or anything like that . . . that you are very pretty."

All through this speech, Lily's wand had slowly lowered. She took a sip of tea to hide the fact that she had felt herself blushing.

Great Scott, James thought, if she was going to be like this every time he said he thought she was pretty, he may consider thinking about not doing it again. Although, she had gone a nice shade of red, which was more then enough reason to keep doing it.

Soon, they were both full of food, but they had barely made a tiny dent in the spread that had been laid out for them by the diligent house elves. The Head students stood up and refused any more food on the grounds that they may explode.

"Yum," James commented as the door to the kitchens shut behind then, and the door handle morphed back into a pear.

Lily hummed softly in agreement before she could think better of it, and together, they set off back towards the Heads' Dorms.

Because they were on one of the lowest floors of the castle, the view across the grounds was spectacular. Lily stopped walking to stare out of one of the windows, spotting the tiny structure of Hagrid's cabin, iced with snow like a cake.

"Let's go outside," James bent down and whispered in her ear. She fought not to shiver.

"We can't," she said.

"Why not?" he asked with a quiet smile. Lily glanced at him and the edge of her mouth twitched. Why not indeed?


The Great Doors of Hogwarts shut with an almighty creak behind them as their breath rose in clouds in front of their faces.

Lily took a deep breath of freezing air and smiled. It really was beautiful.

She turned to James and grinned.

"Last one to the lake is Snape's girlfriend."

"Hey!" James exclaimed, scandalized, as Lily zipped off through the snow towards the lake, he started after her, but she had a big lead and she was already laughing at him as he arrived, puffing, on the snowy edge of the frozen water.

"That was not fair!" he declared, hiding the grin that was fighting to jump onto his face. Lily put her hands on her hips.

"Why? Are you denying your undying love for Snape?" she teased.

"No!" James said, disgusted, before realising the implications of his words. "I mean . . ."

"Oh, I always knew you'd make a lovely couple," Lily grinned, then she squealed as James pushed her and she slipped onto the frozen lake.

Miraculously, she managed to stay upright with a lot of arm flailing.

"Potter!" she cried, although there was a smile on her face. "Don't do that!"

"What? This?" asked James, leaning over and pushing her further out into the lake. Lily cursed her flat ballet pumps for not having grip on the bottom. She tried to wobble her way over to the edge again, but slipped straight over and landed on her arse.

"Whoops!" James cringed, "are you all right, Lilo?"

"Potte-e-er-r-r-r," Lily whined, a pitiful expression her face. James felt his stomach sink as he knelt on the snowy grass and reached out a hand towards her.

Quick as a flash, Lily had grabbed his hands with both her own, and tugged sharply. James yelled as he was pulled clean off the bank, and collided straight into Lily, sliding them both even further into the middle of the lake. Somehow, he ended up on top of her, their legs tangled.

"Sorry," he said, almost as fast as he shifted for fear of getting on her wrong side.

But she just laughed her head off.

He began to laugh too as she tried to sit up, still giggling.

"I can't believe you fell for that!" she told him, "and you, the king of practical jokes!"

"Let's just say, I wasn't expecting it from you," James grinned, as their laughter faded. Lily gazed around at the vast expanse of frozen water between them and the bank of the lake.

"What are we going to do now?" she asked.

I have to convince her that we're on the same team.

James didn't have a clue how or why his words at the beginning of term had come back to haunt him so strangely, but a moment later, it hit him!

This was his chance!

"We're going to have to tackle this together," he said. Already, plans, strategies and tactics were going off in the Head Boy's brain like fireworks, (being Captain of Quidditch did these things to you).

"And how do you propose we do that, Potter?" Lily asked.

"Well, we can safely assume that I'm heavier than you, right?"

"We can."

"And, I mean, it's not that far, I could probably push you to the bank."

"You could."

"Right, here we go then."

"Whoa! Wait! Potter! Don't –! Wa-a-ah!"

Before Lily knew it, she was sliding quite fast across the surface of the lake as a result of a sharp push from James.

"Oof!" she said, as she came into contact with the bank. "You're lucky that worked, Potter," she muttered darkly, grabbing a hold of some bank-side weeds to aid her in the bid of pulling herself off the ice. James gave a whoop of delight.

"Brilliant!" he exclaimed, still stranded out on the ice. It took Lily less than a hundredth of a second to catch on to what a nice situation she now found herself in. With Potter at her mercy, marooned on his island of ice, she could just simply walk away and leave him there. How sweet revenge tasted. That would teach him to make her miss Christmas lunch by way of stalking.

"So, would you mind pulling me in?" asked James from the lake. Lily folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head to the side, smirking.

"Quite honestly, Potter," she said, conversationally, "I don't know if I will."

"Har-de-har-har," grinned James, not looking at all worried. "Seriously Lilo, my arse is getting a bit cold here."

"I would be grateful if you would keep your newsflashes about your arse to yourself, Potter," Lily said, "and to punish you for calling me that ridiculous name, I think I shall leave you out here all night . . . maybe even all of Boxing Day as well, depends if I can be bothered to get out of bed tomorrow."

"Er . . . Lily," James said, looking downwards, "I don't mean to worry you, but I distinctly heard a crack."

"Yeah, right," laughed Lily. "Nice try, James, but you're not going to get round me that way."

"No, Lily, for once in my life, I'm not mucking about. This ice is cracking underneath me." Lily faltered.

" . . . R-really?" she stammered.

"Definitely," nodded James, his voice a little worried by now. "Here, pass me that branch, yeah, that long one, there . . ."

He was cut off, however, by the fact that the ice beneath him did crack. Before he knew it, he was sinking, and then, about three seconds after he had plunged into the water below the ice, the coldness hit him. It was freezing beyond anything he'd ever felt before. Not even if he were a plucked chicken in a muggle freezer, he thought, would he feel this cold.

"Oh, bloody hell!" gasped Lily, as James vanished under the ice. She grabbed the branch she had meant to pick up, and rushed towards the frozen lake.

James was having trouble staying above water level. Whenever he tried to grab onto the ice, it only snapped off in his hands and sunk under his weight. Suddenly, something hard rapped him on the head, and he instinctively grabbed onto it.

"Whoa!" Lily yelled, as James's weight pulled her forward a little. She steadied herself by grabbing the branch of a tree on the bank and planting her feet firmly on the ground. Then, she pulled.

James cracked a path through the ice as he was pulled towards the bank. When it got too thick to break, he had to scramble on top of it until the branch deposited him off onto the snowy grass. He was so cold, it felt as if his blood had frozen and had stopped giving oxygen to his brain. His vision went foggy and he found he couldn't move his limbs.

"James, are you all right? James? James?" Lily grew a bit panicked when he didn't reply. He had probably gotten hypothermia and was going to die! It was when she was rubbing her hands over his chest to get his heart warmed up that she realised he wasn't breathing.

Without hesitation, she pinched his nose, opened his mouth and clamped her own over his faintly blue lips. Before she could start breathing the breath of life back into his lungs however, she felt him move. Moreover, she felt his lips move and his hand come up to touch her face.

He was kissing her!

Like a shot, she jumped backwards onto the snow as James sat up and blinked.

"Potter!" she exclaimed, "what do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"Me?" he said, "You're the one who kissed me! Not that I'm complaining, mind, quite the opposite actually."

"You were dead!" Lily accused him, "as much as I wouldn't never kiss you whilst you're alive, I would kiss you even less when you were unconscious! I was trying to get you breathing again!" Realisation dawned on James's face.

"Oh," he said slowly, "is that what muggles do?"

"Yes, that's what muggles do, Potter," Lily said furiously, "it's called mouth to mouth resuscitation!"

"Oh," James smiled, "and there was me thinking that muggles just went around randomly kissing innocently unconscious people, but this makes a lot more sense . . . Well, I must say that this mouth to mouth resuscitation of yours was very nice." Lily gave him an exasperated look and put a hand to her forehead.

"Good grief," she muttered in a defeated voice.

What worried her was that she sort of agreed. Kissing, or rather, performing mouth to mouth resuscitation on James Potter was very nice. What would it be like, she wondered, when his lips weren't blue with cold and he was fully conscious?

"Lily?" James said, his teeth chattering, "do you mind if we go inside? Only I'm a bit cold." Lily looked at him and laughed a little.

"Come on," she said, helping him up, and they started through the snow back towards the castle.

"How can you kiss someone less than never?" asked James, curiously.

"Oh, shut up."


a/n Hoorah! Exams were officially over as of yesterday and now I am free! Free for a whole . . . four months! Urg, never mind.

Also, I am now 16! As of last Monday. Hoorah! New turning point in life and so on and so forth . . . never mind.

So thank you very much to everyone who reviewed. I luff you.

FrighteninglyObsessed: Yep, you probably could, and today, this fic is one of them!

Kyki Rivera: Thanks

walkingcensure: Stalker James is great. I do love him.

MissMrprk:

Natalie: Thanks you so much for your compliments. I hate when that word is over-used. It's supposed to be shocking and scandalous! Are you the same person who reviewed chapter six?

Tsusetsu: Cheers, man.

The Big Dance: I think irresistible is right, but I'm rubbish at spelling. Exams were a disaster, but I'm finding it hard to care, so it hardly matters. :D There is some hinting of Remus/Verity, but I'm not sure where it will go. Thanks you so much for the review!

mika-mitch: Thank you so much. I love writing quidditch. You're right, that whole time of year rocks.

Call-Sugarhigh-Police: What? No! Come back with my character!

breziebear: Hey, I'm not saying anything! He kissed her on the cheek, break out the champagne! Oh, and about their first kiss (see above) sadly it wasn't beautiful, or romantic, or, in fact, on purpose, but no matter, there's plenty to come.

limbo-gal: Thanks very much! Of course Lily can't be brilliant all at once, that would be silly.

booooo

hahaha

Poprocks and Coke

Gabby

Mo

Biach: Are you all the same person? Or am I being rubbish? Either way, thank you very much for your reviews, they made me smile.

The ORIGINAL Meathead: Thanks you so much for reviewing yet again! Yeah, Quidditch players tend to be protective of their seekers, probably because they win the most points, it makes sense. I always thought of the school regarding the Head Students and other seventh years as minor celebrities of the school, I mean, they've had the most time to establish their reputations, and people would especially pay attention to Lily, James and the Marauders. They sound like they'd be infamous from what I've read. :D Keep reading if wanna find out what happens!

Tracey: You read every one of my L/J one shots? Wow! (Tips hat.)

singing: I hope you got to read the rest of the chapters by this time. Thanks so much for the review!

bobo-32: Wow, thank you so much. I'm very flattered!

SnakeEyesHannah: Thanks a mountain, honey. I'm glad I changed your mind about Lily playing Quidditch. She seemed to have an OK time of it up there, didn't she? Maybe that IS where Harry got it from, I know it sound ridiculous, but I never quite made that connection. (Blushes and feels sheepish.) Did your tactics work in basketball? I would be ecstatic if they did. Now I've got the Prodigy stuck in my head. I wonder how that would go down in a Harry Potter fanfic . . .

shortywithbrains: (Drools at the thought of Sean Biggerstaff and his fabulously sexy accent)

kaiyana: Amusing, am I? Fabulous, I'm glad. Thank you for all your lovely comments, and cheers for the luck on my exams, I really needed it.

soccerchic1989: Oh, God, you got sick on Christmas? That's just CRUEL. I hope you're OK now.

Abarraine: Hahahaha! Thanks, you made my day.

LJstagflower4e: Thank you very much, my luff. Quidditch matches rock my socks, and three cheers for fluff!

applecede1: Thank you very much, I hope you've caught up by the time I post this.

KatieK: 12:30 in the morning? (cringes) Thank you especially much for the review. I would have thought 'Aw, stuff it,' and gone to bed.

milky way bar: Yes, Christmas everyday, but without the pain of having to write thank you letters for all your gifts! All the Hindu people I know celebrate Christmas. I don't quite know how that works, but everyone's happy, so whatever! Appreciative reader inclination to write reviews happy author.

Aliane: Thank you very much, darling, I'm glad I amused you. Review again, won't you?

GlassBroomstick: What in the name of all things magic are you talking about? The first chapters are DIRE! But I don't have time to get into this now. I'll only say I love you because you reviewed and checked all the little blue buttons and leave it at that.

newsieduckling: OK, I will, thanks, for your note!

threstlewhisperer: Wow, I can't believe you read the other fic. Respect, darling, respect. Whenever I read stories that were written before OOTP, it always makes me nostalgic for old school fic where we didn't even know the slightest about the nature of Lily and James's relationship. (Sigh) Also, you're going to marry a man called James? I hate to break this to you, but in every other book I've read, apart from Harry Potter, the character called James has always been (a) evil, (b) creepy or (c) a scoundrel, so you might be going against the odds there. Oh well, there's always hope.

Smay: Thank you, I love being called original. Cheers very much!

Lady of Masbolle: That was one the worst British accents I have ever read, but well done for trying! :D Be thou not afraid of babbling, for it is what I do in the majority of mine fics. Also, I read your bio and you sound like a cool person, so I may be visiting you on LiveJournal so-o-o-on.

siriusforeva: Thank you so much!

jfenlon: Wow, thank you! Cute and clever are good things to be, I feel. Cheers.

Next Chappy:

How to blag a free Nimbus 100, according to James Potter

Handy Spanish phrases and where to use them, according to Verity Hooch

Rita Skeeter gets down to it, and takes the 'hands-on' route

Love, your thoughtful and considerate author.