A/N: OK, I was gonna put up this story early (when I only had like 56 reviews) but then THE ELECTRICITY IN MY HOUSE WENT OUT ALLLL NIGHT! (SOME TORNADOES OR SOMETHING) So when I got on this morning I found out I really did have 60 cause of the wonderful ~*Roseland Black*~ who reviews *4* times...so it was like perfect timing! Read the A/N at the end of the story to read a preview for the next two chapters (they'll be the last!). Sorry if this is a boring chapter, it's leading up to bigg stuff.
OK, onto the story:
Love in the Third Degree
Chapter 7
Flying Lessons
Someone behind them laughed. James and Lily instantly sprung apart, each jumping to either side of the bed.
"Er...what's going on?" Sirius was the one who had laughed, but it wasn't his normal laugh. He seemed nervous and hopeful that there was some reasonable explanation for what he had walked on.
"Well, you see, James here was just blackmailing me, and we got to fighting, and well, you saw the rest."
Sirius didn't seem to think this was sufficient information. "Really...well I have a couple questions then, the first one what you were doing up here in our dormitory."
"I just came here to make amends with James over everything that has happened, I had noticed that he seemed a little detached recently. I simply came to ask if anything was wrong," Lily said smiling her most charming smile at him as she told him this.
James finally spoke up. "Yeah right, you probably just wanted to hex me when there was no one to see."
Apparently Sirius chose to ignore this, continuing his questioning of the two. "All right then, but I still want to know one more thing. What is the blackmail about?"
Lily promptly answered with a laugh. "James thinks I'm up to something, and he told me that if I didn't tell him what 'my secret plan' was that he was going to start some really nasty rumors about me..." She trailed off.
"What kind of rumors?" Sirius asked with a slightly parlous sound in his voice, looking directly at James.
James looked irked that his 'best friend' was being so treacherous. "I just warned her Evans that rumors can be easily mixed up...Especially ones that involve her and Snape, I mean it's no secret that Therese has a big mouth, and she did witness the event. And then there is the fact that she sneaked up here into the boys' dorms. I can't help it that she goes sneaking into forbidden places."
Lily let out a laugh when he said the last part, thinking it really hypocritical of him to say such a thing.
"Come on James, you wouldn't, I mean she's innocent girl." Lily smiled when Sirius said this of her, but then frowned, knowing it wasn't true anymore.
"Whatever, all I know is that right now I want her out of this room. She just walked in here without knocking! I was changing!"
"What!" Sirius turned to Lily. "You saw him naked?!"
At Sirius little out burst Lily couldn't contain herself and started laughing. "Of course not silly, he had his boxers on."
"Oh, that just makes everything all right then," he replied back sarcastically.
"Are you jealous Sirius?" She just couldn't resist asking.
James looked annoyed that she would ask that. "Why would he be jealous? Wait, never mind, I don't care why you think the things you do. Just get out of my room," he said, pointing toward the door.
Lily sighed, and told James, "Fine, I'll go, but not because you told me to, because I've got homework to do." She gave Sirius a kiss, said goodbye to both boys, and headed down to the common room. She immediately noticed Megan talking with some sixth year boy. Megan also noticed when Lily had came down the stairs, but just glared at her for an instant, than turned back to the sandy haired boy.
Walking up to the girls' dorms, Lily started to think what she could be doing wrong. This was taking much longer than she had expected, in the beginning she had just expected James to become so jealous he *had* to like her. That didn't seem to be happening, though. Instead the opposite was occurring... 'Maybe James *doesn't* like me at all, maybe I haven't been giving him enough credit. He's more unyielding that I thought.'
She continued to think about the way James and Sirius were acting toward each other. 'Well at least they aren't mad at each other anymore, I think their over there little fight. I'm glad their back to being best friends again.'
Lily gathered the books she needed in order to do her Potions homework and decided to set off to the library to get some work done without distraction. She grinned when she arrived at the library. 'I love the library, I can always count on it to be the same old boring place it always is. The perfect place to work peacefully.'
After finding a table and spreading her books out, she began her work. After a half hour of silence (apart from the swish of Madame Pince's wand sorting books behind her), the library doors opened. Lily looked up to see that it was Sirius entering the quiet room.
'Sirius, in a library?' she thought to herself, making her smile.
"Hey, how is the homework coming along?" he asked, a grin spread across his face.
"Great, I'm actually done with everything, I was just reading ahead in Charms."
"Perfect, so you wouldn't mind accompanying me for a ride around the Quidditch field, would you?" Sirius asked her with a pleading look in his eyes.
Needing a break from homework, Lily readily agreed. "I'd love to, but..."
"But what? Are you planning another rendezvous with James?" he smiled as he said this, but Lily couldn't help wondering if he really was jealous of the two.
"Well, for one, I don't have a broom, and two, I HATE FLYING!" She didn't say the ending in a mean way, but more of a frantic way.
"Oh yeah...I forgot about your whole 'fear of flying.' This would be the perfect time to get over it. You can't depend on floo powder to get you everywhere you know."
"Ok, I'll give it a chance, I know you wouldn't let anything happen to me." Lily did truly believe this, she knew Sirius was a real friend, and wouldn't do anything that could harm her.
"Let's go then, we need to stop by my dorm to get some stuff."
Lily looked at him suspiciously. "What kind of stuff?" she asked, eyeing him. He replied with a "You'll see" and dragged her back to the Gyffindor common room and up the stairs into the seventh year dorms. James, who was reading a book ('History of the Modern Broom'), looked up at them distrustingly.
"What are you guys doing up here now? I know I've told you guys to get a room, but I didn't mean *my* room."
"Don't worry James, we just came to borrow some stuff. I need your broom and cloak." Lily looked at Sirius strangely.
"Why do we need his cloak, why can't I go get mine, or borrow one of yours?" she asked.
James didn't seem happy about either request either. "What are you playing at Sirius? You know we can't tell her about the cloak, let alone let her borrow it. And my broom is staying put."
"Please?? We can trust her! She wouldn't do anything to harm either item. Pretty please??"
'Sirius is looking really pathetic. It must be really important to him,' James thought, then sighed aloud. Lily was still utterly confused by the whole cloak thing.
"Fine, I'll let you borrow them under one condition: I get to come with you."
Sirius quickly opposed to this idea. "You don't need to do that James, I was just going to give Lily a private flying lesson. We needed the cloak to get out there unseen."
James shrugged slightly, saying, "Well I guess you don't really need the broom or the cloak." Lily was very agitated that she was not being informed on what was so great about this 'cloak' of Potter's.
"All right, all right, have it your way, you can come with us. Can we all fit under the cloak?"
Lily couldn't take it anymore. "WHAT IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT ABOUT THE STUPID CLOAK?" she screamed at the two boys, who stood looking at her, an astounded look on their face.
"Geez, *sorry* Evans. Maybe I shouldn't let you guys borrow it." Lily was about to protest when Sirius came up behind her, grabbed her around the waist and put a hand over her mouth, muffling her disagreements.
"Lily is sorry about the disrespect she showed toward your wonderful cloak, isn't she?" Lily finally gave up and nodded. Sirius took his hand off her mouth, but kept an arm around her waist.
Calming herself, she asked, "So will you guys just explain to me what is so special about his cloak?" James looked apprehensive, but Sirius nodded toward his trunk. James opened it up and took out a silver cloak. Lily was in awe.
"Is that...is that an invisibility cloak?" she managed to stutter out.
"Yup, it is indeed. And James here is the proud owner of it. *That* is how we have managed to get away with so many of our famous pranks." Despite not wanting Lily to know about one of his greatest secrets, James couldn't help but smirk proudly. Sirius continued, "So if everything is in order, are you guys ready to go?"
James and Lily both nodded. Now to the task at hand, getting three seventeen year olds to fit under a large, but not overly large cloak. James quickly took charge of the situation.
"Ok, Evans since you're the smallest you can be in the middle." Lily quickly snatched the cloak from James and wrapped it around her. Meanwhile, James was shrinking his and Sirius' brooms so they could fit in the pocket their robes.
"It'll be a tight fit, but I'm sure you guys can fit in," she informed them. "By the way," she inquired as the other two went on either side of her, James on her right and Sirius on her left, "how did you guys manage to get you two and Remus and Peter in here? I know they were in on most of the pranks."
Sirius provided an answer to that, "At first we could all fit under here easily, but after second year we had to go in pairs. Peter usually got stuck as a look out because he always tripped under this thing." James laughed as he remembered those days.
"So, are we completely hidden?" Lily asked as the three stood in front of Sirius' full length mirror, double checking for any feet showing from under the cloak. James could tell Lily was still getting used to the fact that she was invisible and she looked at her reflection with amazement.
"I think we'll be ok, just remember small steps and keep quiet, people can still hear you. Sirius, remember when we almost got caught when Remus coughed in front of Binns?" Lily noticed that James eyes sparkled with amusement under the cloak. She had never seen him look this way in front of her (except, of course, when she was the target of a joke or prank). It made him look...almost normal.
James noticed Lily looking at him and gave her a quizzical look. She blushed and quickly turned away.
'God, what am I thinking, looking at Potter like that??' she asked herself.
Sirius cleared his throat and they slithered through the dorm door, into the common room, and out through the portrait hole. The three teenagers had quite a challenge of walking silently and steadily under the cloak.
"Ouch!" James let out when they were nearing the doors that led out of the castle. "Evans, watch where you put your feet!" he hissed at her as he tried to control the pain in his foot. She ignored him as they slipped down into the Hogwarts grounds and made their way to the Quidditch field.
All three quickly pulled off the cloak as they reached their destination. Lily pulled out her wand and whispered a quick "Lumos" as light came out of her wand. By now it was very dark and the light was a much needed help. The boys took out their brooms and with an "Engorgio" they were back to the full size. Lily grabbed for the Cleansweep James was holding, but he quickly pulled it out of her reach.
"Slow down Evans. There are some rules you must know before using this beauty," he said while stroking the perfected piece of wood. Lily huffed and sat down in the grass.
"First and foremost, if you harm it in any way I have the authority to kill you," he told her while she rolled her eyes.
"Ok, ok, I *swear* I won't hurt it or you can kill me. Let's get this show on the road." James nervously handed it to her and she handled it with some amount of care.
"Ready, Lily? Mount your broom and meet up about twenty feet," Sirius instructed her. She just stood there as James started to laugh at her from the stands. "What's the problem Lily? You *do* know how to mount a broom don't you? We learned that in the first year."
"Yeah, well about that...don't you remember how I kinda never got that far?" she asked in a much smaller voice than her usual one. Anyone could tell that she was embarrassed.
"Hey, well that's ok...that just means I get to help you more..."
The next hour was pure torture for Lily and pure boredom for James. Lily, however, was always up to a challenge, and refused to go back inside until she knew the basics to flying. And James was having a good time laughing at her every time she fell and Sirius had to go rushing to help her. At least she hadn't wrecked his Cleansweep yet.
"So we've made it to twenty feet up...ready for thirty?" Sirius was trying his best to sound like he wasn't tired to death and James was doing his best to not fall on the ground laughing. Suddenly had a great idea that would definitely get James attention.
"Actually, I think this would go a lot better if I had someone on here to help me steer this thing. That's what I'm having the most trouble with." Lily thought his had to work, because he would definitely stop laughing at her if she was sharing a broom with Sirius, or even better James.
Sirius looked as though he was thinking about this, then slowly started to nod his head in agreements. "Yeah, that should work," he told Lily. "Hey, James!" he yelled down to his best friend as he and Lily descended back down to the ground (Lily did so in a rather jerky way).
James walked toward them. "Done already?" he asked, smirking at Lily as she attempted to straighten her robes.
"Actually, Lily here had an idea. She thinks it would really help her if you would help her with her steering."
"And how do you propose I do that?" James asked Sirius, but he was looking at Lily.
"Well, you could get on your broom with her."
James looked as if that was the most insane idea Sirius ever came up with (and Sirius *had* come up with quite some ideas before). "And risk suicide? I don't think so."
"Come on James, don't make me beg for the second time this night! She just needs a little help, that's all. I'll give you my bag of chocolate frogs if you do."
James sighed and took the broom Lily was holding in her hand. He easily mounted it. "Are you gonna just stand there or are you gonna get on here, Evans? I don't have all night!"
Lily quickly scrambled onto the broom, taking position behind James. He looked at her if she was the biggest git he had ever seen.
"What did I do wrong now??" she asked anxiously.
"Well, how do you expect to steer from behind me?"
Lily quickly got off again, and took position in front of James.
"Ok, are you guys ready?" Sirius asked, waiting on his broom to their left. They both nodded, but James' nod was much more confident than Lily's. Sirius easily glided up very high.
Lily was about to kick off, when James put his hand over hers. "You're doing it all wrong Evans," he told her. He moved her hands so they were positioned the correct way. "Ok, that should work now."
In a moment they were up in the air, James right up against Lily's back, with his arms around her shoulders, keeping her hands in the correction position. As they got higher Lily let out a scream.
"Settle down, you're not gonna fly off." This was true Lily reminded herself. James was wrapped around her so tightly there was no chance of her falling off. It was a comforting thought.
They steered toward Sirius who was waiting patiently on his broom with a smile on his face.
"See, it's not so hard Lily, is it?" he asked her. Lily couldn't help but smile, she was really starting to like being up on the broom with James.
'Wait a second...since when I have liked James?' She smiled. 'I can't help it, who *wouldn't* like being in this position, lying against James Potter...Maybe I'm going crazy, or maybe I'm just tired...yeah, that must be it..."
Her thoughts snapped back to reality when Sirius asked her something she hadn't heard.
"What? Sorry, I started to drift off, I think I'm getting tired."
"I was just asking you what you think of flying now? You seem to like it by that smile on your face." Sirius was grinning. Lily had to suppress a frown and the urge to say, 'Yeah Sirius, the reason I have this stupid grin on my face is because I'm in love with your best friend, not you.'
Luckily, she didn't say that. Instead she responded, "Er...I'm really liking it now that I'm doing it right, but I'm getting really tired. Do you think we could call it a night? It's past midnight and I'm really tired."
"Sure, that sounds fine by me, I think James here is ready to get off that broom too."
The three headed back to the ground and Sirius went to grab the cloak from the other side of the field and reduce the brooms again. That left Lily and James standing awkwardly alone.
Lily spoke up. "It was really nice of you to help me, I've always been too afraid to go up that high before," she said, looking in his eyes for a glance at what he was thinking.
"Yeah, well I didn't do it for you, Sirius is my best friend despite of his choice of girlfriends," he muttered, not looking at her. Lily was trying to think of what to do next, and acted suddenly.
Lily leaned in an gave him a peck on the cheek. "It was still really sweet of you," she said blushing.
"Why the hell did you do that?" he asked coldly, looking in her in the eye. That was the last thing she had expected. She mumbled out an answer, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, threatening to come bursting out in any second.
"I just wanted to say thanks...Tell Sirius had to go."
And with that she ran off in the dark toward the castle.
A/N: James is acting liking a git, isn't he? That's boys for ya. Well, that's probably the longest chapter I've written so far. Sorry if it was boring, but it's leading up to much bigger things. I'm planning two more chapters, so there will be 9 chapters total.
Preview of next chapter: Secrets, secrets hurt someone... ;) Someone becomes very vindictive
Preview of chapter 9 (the final one!): two sets of 'couples' end up snogging, one you will expect, and one you don't want to think about (but I'm still putting in the story, it adds to it ;) bwahahaha). Things get wrapped up...
PS- PLEASE REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!
IM NOT MAKING ANY DEMANDS LIKE LAST TIME (BWAHA), BUT THE MORE REVIEWS I GET THE MORE ENERGIZED I GET TO WRITE MORE!!!!!!!!! SO.....
LOTS OF REVIEWS=CHAPTERS GETTING OUT FASTER !!
OK, onto the story:
Love in the Third Degree
Chapter 7
Flying Lessons
Someone behind them laughed. James and Lily instantly sprung apart, each jumping to either side of the bed.
"Er...what's going on?" Sirius was the one who had laughed, but it wasn't his normal laugh. He seemed nervous and hopeful that there was some reasonable explanation for what he had walked on.
"Well, you see, James here was just blackmailing me, and we got to fighting, and well, you saw the rest."
Sirius didn't seem to think this was sufficient information. "Really...well I have a couple questions then, the first one what you were doing up here in our dormitory."
"I just came here to make amends with James over everything that has happened, I had noticed that he seemed a little detached recently. I simply came to ask if anything was wrong," Lily said smiling her most charming smile at him as she told him this.
James finally spoke up. "Yeah right, you probably just wanted to hex me when there was no one to see."
Apparently Sirius chose to ignore this, continuing his questioning of the two. "All right then, but I still want to know one more thing. What is the blackmail about?"
Lily promptly answered with a laugh. "James thinks I'm up to something, and he told me that if I didn't tell him what 'my secret plan' was that he was going to start some really nasty rumors about me..." She trailed off.
"What kind of rumors?" Sirius asked with a slightly parlous sound in his voice, looking directly at James.
James looked irked that his 'best friend' was being so treacherous. "I just warned her Evans that rumors can be easily mixed up...Especially ones that involve her and Snape, I mean it's no secret that Therese has a big mouth, and she did witness the event. And then there is the fact that she sneaked up here into the boys' dorms. I can't help it that she goes sneaking into forbidden places."
Lily let out a laugh when he said the last part, thinking it really hypocritical of him to say such a thing.
"Come on James, you wouldn't, I mean she's innocent girl." Lily smiled when Sirius said this of her, but then frowned, knowing it wasn't true anymore.
"Whatever, all I know is that right now I want her out of this room. She just walked in here without knocking! I was changing!"
"What!" Sirius turned to Lily. "You saw him naked?!"
At Sirius little out burst Lily couldn't contain herself and started laughing. "Of course not silly, he had his boxers on."
"Oh, that just makes everything all right then," he replied back sarcastically.
"Are you jealous Sirius?" She just couldn't resist asking.
James looked annoyed that she would ask that. "Why would he be jealous? Wait, never mind, I don't care why you think the things you do. Just get out of my room," he said, pointing toward the door.
Lily sighed, and told James, "Fine, I'll go, but not because you told me to, because I've got homework to do." She gave Sirius a kiss, said goodbye to both boys, and headed down to the common room. She immediately noticed Megan talking with some sixth year boy. Megan also noticed when Lily had came down the stairs, but just glared at her for an instant, than turned back to the sandy haired boy.
Walking up to the girls' dorms, Lily started to think what she could be doing wrong. This was taking much longer than she had expected, in the beginning she had just expected James to become so jealous he *had* to like her. That didn't seem to be happening, though. Instead the opposite was occurring... 'Maybe James *doesn't* like me at all, maybe I haven't been giving him enough credit. He's more unyielding that I thought.'
She continued to think about the way James and Sirius were acting toward each other. 'Well at least they aren't mad at each other anymore, I think their over there little fight. I'm glad their back to being best friends again.'
Lily gathered the books she needed in order to do her Potions homework and decided to set off to the library to get some work done without distraction. She grinned when she arrived at the library. 'I love the library, I can always count on it to be the same old boring place it always is. The perfect place to work peacefully.'
After finding a table and spreading her books out, she began her work. After a half hour of silence (apart from the swish of Madame Pince's wand sorting books behind her), the library doors opened. Lily looked up to see that it was Sirius entering the quiet room.
'Sirius, in a library?' she thought to herself, making her smile.
"Hey, how is the homework coming along?" he asked, a grin spread across his face.
"Great, I'm actually done with everything, I was just reading ahead in Charms."
"Perfect, so you wouldn't mind accompanying me for a ride around the Quidditch field, would you?" Sirius asked her with a pleading look in his eyes.
Needing a break from homework, Lily readily agreed. "I'd love to, but..."
"But what? Are you planning another rendezvous with James?" he smiled as he said this, but Lily couldn't help wondering if he really was jealous of the two.
"Well, for one, I don't have a broom, and two, I HATE FLYING!" She didn't say the ending in a mean way, but more of a frantic way.
"Oh yeah...I forgot about your whole 'fear of flying.' This would be the perfect time to get over it. You can't depend on floo powder to get you everywhere you know."
"Ok, I'll give it a chance, I know you wouldn't let anything happen to me." Lily did truly believe this, she knew Sirius was a real friend, and wouldn't do anything that could harm her.
"Let's go then, we need to stop by my dorm to get some stuff."
Lily looked at him suspiciously. "What kind of stuff?" she asked, eyeing him. He replied with a "You'll see" and dragged her back to the Gyffindor common room and up the stairs into the seventh year dorms. James, who was reading a book ('History of the Modern Broom'), looked up at them distrustingly.
"What are you guys doing up here now? I know I've told you guys to get a room, but I didn't mean *my* room."
"Don't worry James, we just came to borrow some stuff. I need your broom and cloak." Lily looked at Sirius strangely.
"Why do we need his cloak, why can't I go get mine, or borrow one of yours?" she asked.
James didn't seem happy about either request either. "What are you playing at Sirius? You know we can't tell her about the cloak, let alone let her borrow it. And my broom is staying put."
"Please?? We can trust her! She wouldn't do anything to harm either item. Pretty please??"
'Sirius is looking really pathetic. It must be really important to him,' James thought, then sighed aloud. Lily was still utterly confused by the whole cloak thing.
"Fine, I'll let you borrow them under one condition: I get to come with you."
Sirius quickly opposed to this idea. "You don't need to do that James, I was just going to give Lily a private flying lesson. We needed the cloak to get out there unseen."
James shrugged slightly, saying, "Well I guess you don't really need the broom or the cloak." Lily was very agitated that she was not being informed on what was so great about this 'cloak' of Potter's.
"All right, all right, have it your way, you can come with us. Can we all fit under the cloak?"
Lily couldn't take it anymore. "WHAT IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT ABOUT THE STUPID CLOAK?" she screamed at the two boys, who stood looking at her, an astounded look on their face.
"Geez, *sorry* Evans. Maybe I shouldn't let you guys borrow it." Lily was about to protest when Sirius came up behind her, grabbed her around the waist and put a hand over her mouth, muffling her disagreements.
"Lily is sorry about the disrespect she showed toward your wonderful cloak, isn't she?" Lily finally gave up and nodded. Sirius took his hand off her mouth, but kept an arm around her waist.
Calming herself, she asked, "So will you guys just explain to me what is so special about his cloak?" James looked apprehensive, but Sirius nodded toward his trunk. James opened it up and took out a silver cloak. Lily was in awe.
"Is that...is that an invisibility cloak?" she managed to stutter out.
"Yup, it is indeed. And James here is the proud owner of it. *That* is how we have managed to get away with so many of our famous pranks." Despite not wanting Lily to know about one of his greatest secrets, James couldn't help but smirk proudly. Sirius continued, "So if everything is in order, are you guys ready to go?"
James and Lily both nodded. Now to the task at hand, getting three seventeen year olds to fit under a large, but not overly large cloak. James quickly took charge of the situation.
"Ok, Evans since you're the smallest you can be in the middle." Lily quickly snatched the cloak from James and wrapped it around her. Meanwhile, James was shrinking his and Sirius' brooms so they could fit in the pocket their robes.
"It'll be a tight fit, but I'm sure you guys can fit in," she informed them. "By the way," she inquired as the other two went on either side of her, James on her right and Sirius on her left, "how did you guys manage to get you two and Remus and Peter in here? I know they were in on most of the pranks."
Sirius provided an answer to that, "At first we could all fit under here easily, but after second year we had to go in pairs. Peter usually got stuck as a look out because he always tripped under this thing." James laughed as he remembered those days.
"So, are we completely hidden?" Lily asked as the three stood in front of Sirius' full length mirror, double checking for any feet showing from under the cloak. James could tell Lily was still getting used to the fact that she was invisible and she looked at her reflection with amazement.
"I think we'll be ok, just remember small steps and keep quiet, people can still hear you. Sirius, remember when we almost got caught when Remus coughed in front of Binns?" Lily noticed that James eyes sparkled with amusement under the cloak. She had never seen him look this way in front of her (except, of course, when she was the target of a joke or prank). It made him look...almost normal.
James noticed Lily looking at him and gave her a quizzical look. She blushed and quickly turned away.
'God, what am I thinking, looking at Potter like that??' she asked herself.
Sirius cleared his throat and they slithered through the dorm door, into the common room, and out through the portrait hole. The three teenagers had quite a challenge of walking silently and steadily under the cloak.
"Ouch!" James let out when they were nearing the doors that led out of the castle. "Evans, watch where you put your feet!" he hissed at her as he tried to control the pain in his foot. She ignored him as they slipped down into the Hogwarts grounds and made their way to the Quidditch field.
All three quickly pulled off the cloak as they reached their destination. Lily pulled out her wand and whispered a quick "Lumos" as light came out of her wand. By now it was very dark and the light was a much needed help. The boys took out their brooms and with an "Engorgio" they were back to the full size. Lily grabbed for the Cleansweep James was holding, but he quickly pulled it out of her reach.
"Slow down Evans. There are some rules you must know before using this beauty," he said while stroking the perfected piece of wood. Lily huffed and sat down in the grass.
"First and foremost, if you harm it in any way I have the authority to kill you," he told her while she rolled her eyes.
"Ok, ok, I *swear* I won't hurt it or you can kill me. Let's get this show on the road." James nervously handed it to her and she handled it with some amount of care.
"Ready, Lily? Mount your broom and meet up about twenty feet," Sirius instructed her. She just stood there as James started to laugh at her from the stands. "What's the problem Lily? You *do* know how to mount a broom don't you? We learned that in the first year."
"Yeah, well about that...don't you remember how I kinda never got that far?" she asked in a much smaller voice than her usual one. Anyone could tell that she was embarrassed.
"Hey, well that's ok...that just means I get to help you more..."
The next hour was pure torture for Lily and pure boredom for James. Lily, however, was always up to a challenge, and refused to go back inside until she knew the basics to flying. And James was having a good time laughing at her every time she fell and Sirius had to go rushing to help her. At least she hadn't wrecked his Cleansweep yet.
"So we've made it to twenty feet up...ready for thirty?" Sirius was trying his best to sound like he wasn't tired to death and James was doing his best to not fall on the ground laughing. Suddenly had a great idea that would definitely get James attention.
"Actually, I think this would go a lot better if I had someone on here to help me steer this thing. That's what I'm having the most trouble with." Lily thought his had to work, because he would definitely stop laughing at her if she was sharing a broom with Sirius, or even better James.
Sirius looked as though he was thinking about this, then slowly started to nod his head in agreements. "Yeah, that should work," he told Lily. "Hey, James!" he yelled down to his best friend as he and Lily descended back down to the ground (Lily did so in a rather jerky way).
James walked toward them. "Done already?" he asked, smirking at Lily as she attempted to straighten her robes.
"Actually, Lily here had an idea. She thinks it would really help her if you would help her with her steering."
"And how do you propose I do that?" James asked Sirius, but he was looking at Lily.
"Well, you could get on your broom with her."
James looked as if that was the most insane idea Sirius ever came up with (and Sirius *had* come up with quite some ideas before). "And risk suicide? I don't think so."
"Come on James, don't make me beg for the second time this night! She just needs a little help, that's all. I'll give you my bag of chocolate frogs if you do."
James sighed and took the broom Lily was holding in her hand. He easily mounted it. "Are you gonna just stand there or are you gonna get on here, Evans? I don't have all night!"
Lily quickly scrambled onto the broom, taking position behind James. He looked at her if she was the biggest git he had ever seen.
"What did I do wrong now??" she asked anxiously.
"Well, how do you expect to steer from behind me?"
Lily quickly got off again, and took position in front of James.
"Ok, are you guys ready?" Sirius asked, waiting on his broom to their left. They both nodded, but James' nod was much more confident than Lily's. Sirius easily glided up very high.
Lily was about to kick off, when James put his hand over hers. "You're doing it all wrong Evans," he told her. He moved her hands so they were positioned the correct way. "Ok, that should work now."
In a moment they were up in the air, James right up against Lily's back, with his arms around her shoulders, keeping her hands in the correction position. As they got higher Lily let out a scream.
"Settle down, you're not gonna fly off." This was true Lily reminded herself. James was wrapped around her so tightly there was no chance of her falling off. It was a comforting thought.
They steered toward Sirius who was waiting patiently on his broom with a smile on his face.
"See, it's not so hard Lily, is it?" he asked her. Lily couldn't help but smile, she was really starting to like being up on the broom with James.
'Wait a second...since when I have liked James?' She smiled. 'I can't help it, who *wouldn't* like being in this position, lying against James Potter...Maybe I'm going crazy, or maybe I'm just tired...yeah, that must be it..."
Her thoughts snapped back to reality when Sirius asked her something she hadn't heard.
"What? Sorry, I started to drift off, I think I'm getting tired."
"I was just asking you what you think of flying now? You seem to like it by that smile on your face." Sirius was grinning. Lily had to suppress a frown and the urge to say, 'Yeah Sirius, the reason I have this stupid grin on my face is because I'm in love with your best friend, not you.'
Luckily, she didn't say that. Instead she responded, "Er...I'm really liking it now that I'm doing it right, but I'm getting really tired. Do you think we could call it a night? It's past midnight and I'm really tired."
"Sure, that sounds fine by me, I think James here is ready to get off that broom too."
The three headed back to the ground and Sirius went to grab the cloak from the other side of the field and reduce the brooms again. That left Lily and James standing awkwardly alone.
Lily spoke up. "It was really nice of you to help me, I've always been too afraid to go up that high before," she said, looking in his eyes for a glance at what he was thinking.
"Yeah, well I didn't do it for you, Sirius is my best friend despite of his choice of girlfriends," he muttered, not looking at her. Lily was trying to think of what to do next, and acted suddenly.
Lily leaned in an gave him a peck on the cheek. "It was still really sweet of you," she said blushing.
"Why the hell did you do that?" he asked coldly, looking in her in the eye. That was the last thing she had expected. She mumbled out an answer, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, threatening to come bursting out in any second.
"I just wanted to say thanks...Tell Sirius had to go."
And with that she ran off in the dark toward the castle.
A/N: James is acting liking a git, isn't he? That's boys for ya. Well, that's probably the longest chapter I've written so far. Sorry if it was boring, but it's leading up to much bigger things. I'm planning two more chapters, so there will be 9 chapters total.
Preview of next chapter: Secrets, secrets hurt someone... ;) Someone becomes very vindictive
Preview of chapter 9 (the final one!): two sets of 'couples' end up snogging, one you will expect, and one you don't want to think about (but I'm still putting in the story, it adds to it ;) bwahahaha). Things get wrapped up...
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IM NOT MAKING ANY DEMANDS LIKE LAST TIME (BWAHA), BUT THE MORE REVIEWS I GET THE MORE ENERGIZED I GET TO WRITE MORE!!!!!!!!! SO.....
LOTS OF REVIEWS=CHAPTERS GETTING OUT FASTER !!