"See anything, Lily?" Sirius called out to her.
Lily sighed, still squinting as she searched through the crowd from atop James' shoulders. "Not yet." She called back down. Remus, Peter, and Sirius were gathered around James and Lily, waiting for her to stop a member of one of their families. They figured this would be the best possibility to find their families since the station was jam-packed and Lily was so light that James could easily lift her above his shoulders.
"Oh, wait," she exclaimed suddenly. "There's Mrs. Pettigrew. Mrs. Pettigrew!" she yelled to the tired-looking lady. She waved her over and then said to Peter, "Peter, your mother is coming this way." Peter nodded.
"Mrs. Lupin!" Lily shouted amidst the noise and chatter. The cheerful, bubbly woman bustled over to them. "Remus, your mother's coming."
"Thanks," Remus responded.
"Mr. Black!" Lily shouted a few moments later. A man with a dark brown beard gazed over her way and waved when he recognized her. "Sirius, your father's coming." Sirius nodded.
"Do you see my parents yet, Lily?" James called up to her.
"Nope, not yet." Lily said. Finally, the other three's parents made it through the crowd and were now getting their children's stuff together.
"Thanks again, Lils!" Remus called up to her.
"Yeah, we'll see you guys in a few days, alright?" Sirius said.
"Alright." James and Lily both responded at the same time.
And then, it was just James and Lily, looking quite silly, searching for the Potters.
"There they are, James!" Lily exclaimed.
"Where?" James asked, turning his head from side to side.
"By the big red trashcan." Lily answered, "Now put me down," she said.
Instead of putting her down, though, James just made his way through the crowd while Lily protested, her face flushing with embarrassment from all the looks they got.
"James, Lily!" Mrs. Potter cried out as soon as her eyes made contact with Lily's trademark bold red hair.
"Hello, Mrs. Potter," Lily replied happily at the same time James said, "Hi mum!"
"Oh, Lily," Mrs. Potter rushed forward and crushed her in a bone-breaking hug. "How are you feeling, dear? You just look so much better than the last time we saw you."
Lily found out something interesting at that moment. It was amazing at how long you could go without fresh oxygen and still be able to get out a forced, "I'm fine."
She probably could have gone a few more moments longer and still been able to get out an inaudible, "Mphimdnek", but it wasn't necessary because at that moment, James noticed her bet red face.
"MUM!" he shouted, rolling his eyes, "Get off her, she can't breath."
"Oh, nonsense, James darling-," Mrs. Potter told her son, nonchalantly, but was cut off when Mr. Potter pulled Lily away from Mrs. Potter's arms, and into his own for a more warm and welcoming hug.
"How are you, Lily?" he asked.
"I'm alright, and how have you been, Mr. Potter?" she asked, gratefully.
"Oh, I'm good. There was a crisis at the Ministry a few days ago, but we managed to get it all sorted out." Mr. Potter said.
Lily frowned a little when she heard the waver of doubt in his voice. But, her thoughts were pushed aside when he quickly changed the subject and said, "So, we'd better get your trunks and head on home. It's a lone drive."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily forgot just how much she loved the Potter estate. After the long drive, then the exciting reunion of her and Melly, then, unpacking all her clothes, she could think of nothing more comforting and relaxing than to just fall asleep sprawled across her fluffy, warm bed.
She was now walking along the street of Hogsmeade, a place she had been to just the day before with the intention of heading to her second home, along with Melanie for their shopping spree. The difference between yesterday and today's trip here was that instead of taking the long train ride, they floo'd here instead. Well, to be more exact, Lily floo'd here; Melly, having acquired her license a few years back, had simply Apparated here.
"Where to now?" Lily asked, smiling brightly at the older girl.
Melanie looked thoughtful, then glanced over at Lily, never loosing the pensive face, "How about a haircut, Lils, your hair is getting pretty long."
Lily shrugged and said, "Sure, might as well. I've been thinking the same thing."
So, they headed into the nearest beauty shop. An hour and a half later, they walked out of the store, feeling relaxed and at ease after Melanie insisted on having the works done on them, which included a manicure, pedicure, facial, aromatherapy, and topping it off with a full body massage. Along with those treatments, Lily got her hair cut and styled to where her hair now reached about a foot passed her shoulders in soft, mesmerizing layers instead of her hip length tresses.
"We'd better get on home. It's almost four and mum and dad have made reservations at Amarante's at seven." Melanie said, checking her watch.
"Alright," Lily replied, following her.
~*~*~*~*~*~
James was in the second floor parlor, watching a muggle television show as though in a trance. As usual, he was wearing something that would have made normal girls drop into a faint right then and there. He was wearing his pajamas, consisting in dark red flannel pants, and no top. It was customary for him to do this on his first few days off from summer break. Spend all day being as lazy as can be, I mean.
He was just reaching over to grab the television's remote to change the channel when the fireplace beside him made a few noises and not a second later, Melanie came flying out. While she got up and dusted herself off, James looked weirdly at her and asked, "Why didn't you just apparate here?"
Melanie shrugged and said indifferently, "Didn't feel like it,"
At that moment, Lily flew out of the fireplace.
"Are you still in your pajamas?" Melanie asked, scowling.
James glanced down and looked at himself. When he met his sister's eye again, he said in a comical, nonchalant voice, "No, these are my party clothes." He rolled his eyes and said, "What does it look like?"
"C'mon, Melly, you know it isn't good sportsmanship to break tradition. And this," Lily indicated James' form with her hand, "Is about as traditional as you can get."
"Yes, well, nonetheless," Melanie said, still put off, "You'd better start to get ready soon. Mum's made reservations for dinner at 7 o'clock sharp."
"Well, then, I'll probably have to find something a little more comfortable to wear then, won't I." James said good-naturedly. Melanie shook her head as she walked out of the room.
Lily hopped onto the couch James was sprawled across, sitting on his legs. James fidgeted underneath her and she laughed.
"Well, if you're uncomfortable, move so I can sit here too," she said as though talking to a child.
James stuck his tongue out at her, but nonetheless moved so they were sitting side by side casually, with James' arm around her shoulder as usual.
They watched cartoons for a little while until Lily got up and stated that she was going to get ready for dinner.
"I suggest you do the same," Lily said, laughing that sweet laugh of hers.
So, James walked up with her until they reached her room, where James turned left and Lily turned right. It was so convenient that James' room was right across from hers.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Lily, James, Melanie! Best be hurrying be, dears!" Mrs. Potter called up the white marble staircase.
Just at that moment, Melanie walked down. "Lily's just putting the finishing touches to her hair and James had to find his jacket." She explained, "They'll be down in a few minutes."
Upstairs, Lily opened the door to her room just as James opened his.
Lily smiled, "You look great James," she said, glancing him over. And she wasn't lying. He looked absolutely hot in a dark blue button up shirt with a dark jacket and matching slacks on. He looked, and Lily giggled inwardly as she thought this, suave and sophisticated dressed like that. Was this seriously the guy that just a few short hours ago was striding around in his pajamas?
James' eyes practically popped out of its sockets when they fell upon Lily. For a second, James actually lost his voice. Once he realized she was staring at him, he forced himself to stay casual and said with full sincerity, "You look absolutely beautiful, Flower." He let his eyes glance over her again. From the tips of her high heeled black shoes, up to her knee length elegant black dress, finally landing into her emerald orbs.
Lily coughed quietly then said, "Well, shall we?"
James nodded and the two walked down the stairs. The next thing implanted itself into James' mind where he decided this had to be the most embarrassing thing in the entire world.
And it started out with Mrs. Potter's squeals of delight.
"Oh! You two look adorable!" she screeched. "You look like you're going to one of those muggle dance thingies-,"
"A prom," Lily supplied, her face beginning to glow a humiliating shade of pink.
"Yes, dear, a prom! Oh, oh, I wish I had a camera!" she gushed.
James, who had been looking warily at his mother for any sign of teenage danger from her, caught something that wasn't right. Tearing his glance away from his mum, he narrowed the brown orbs in question as Melanie walked a few feet away from them to a desk. James' eyes widened. Oh, this was just unacceptable.
'Not the top drawer.' He silently pleaded, 'Please not the top drawer.'
Well, then, of course Melanie's hand went up and pulled the top drawer open and out she pulled a black wizarding camera.
In James' perspective, the next few moments went in slow motion. From the time Melanie turned around snail paced to him, then, her deep drowned on slow voice saying, "Here you go, mother.", to Mrs. Potter's deep sluggish, "Smile."
As though looking at himself from out of his body, James put his arm around Lily and they both fake smiled for the camera, inwardly gritting their teeth in humiliation.
…The first law of a mother's so called 'rights' is to make your child feel as mortified as humanly possible.
That night turned out to be a fun night nonetheless, although James was silently indignant at his mother. Honestly, how degrading!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A month had passed by the Potter estate. Today, July 1st, Lily was fast asleep in her bed. A few more minutes later, the sunlight streaming into her window reached her face, showering her with a golden glow, thus waking her up. She opened one eye a little and made out a blurry figure looking down at her. She jumped in surprise and opened both eyes, blinking rapidly to focus her vision which resulted in her seeing the grinning face of Sirius.
"Sirius," she said thickly, "What are you doing in my room?" she looked around and caught three more surprises. "What are you all doing in here?" she asked, more awake now.
"Bored." Remus said simply fro his place on the ground, studying her collection of books and novels on her bookcase. James tore his gaze away from her form from his seat on her plush, white loveseat. Peter was fooling and messing around with some of her knick-knacks on her vanity.
She looked over at her bedside table and saw the clock. To her astonishment, it read 9:12. "Do you guys know you're up before 11?" she asked, genuinely surprised.
"Trust me, if I had any say in that matter, I would still be in bed. But, of course, the Three Stooges here barged into my room around 8:30. How on earth they got up that early is beyond me." James explained.
Remus shrugged, "It was Peter here that woke me up."
"And Remus and Peter woke me up," Sirius supplied.
"So, this all traces back to Peter, eh?" James said in a mock accusing tone.
"What were you doing up that early, Peter?" Lily asked, stretching, kicking Sirius with her foot from underneath the covers.
"My mum made me clean my room today before I could go over to anyone's house. She said I couldn't use magic, so I figured it would take a few hours, so I got up around 7." Peter said, "But, then, I just decided to ask my dad to clean it for me. He didn't mind."
"Well, I guess I'd better get up and get dressed." Lily said, standing up.
"Nice jammies." Sirius said, laughing a little.
Lily looked down at her attire and smiled. Her yellow rubber duckie pajamas were quite a sight.
She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a few clothing items, walked out the door saying, "I'll be a few minutes!"
"So, what do you guys want to do today?" James asked lazily.
"Well, it looks pretty warm outside," Remus commented, now looking out her balcony window before opening the doors and walking out. A few seconds later, he walked in, shivering a little, "But it doesn't feel warm outside. It's gotta be like 60 degrees out."
"Wonderful weather to have in July," Sirius supplied sarcastically, walking over to look out the window as well.
They talked a few more minutes before Lily came back in, sporting a green halter top and shorts.
"I'd put something warmer on if I were you," Peter said.
Lily frowned in question and asked, "How come, it looks beautiful outside."
"It may look beautiful, but it feels like winter." Remus answered.
Lily nodded her head, needing no more prompting as she made her way to her dresser again and pulled out some more clothes and walked out of the room.
"I got it," Remus exclaimed after a moment, "Why don't we play that muggle sport, Football?"
"Oh, yeah, that's a pretty good game," James commented.
"What's Football?" Peter asked, his face matching the one of the confused Sirius.
"Oh, are we playing football?" Lily said from the doorway, now wearing a warm rusty colored sweater and jeans.
"Yeah, I think that would be pretty fun." Remus said.
"We'll need another person so the teams will be even." Lily said, looking over at James.
"Melanie's not here today," James said, answering her silent question.
"How about Eric?" Sirius spoke up.
"Is he back in town yet, Remus?" Lily asked.
Eric was Remus' brother, 5 years the senior. In his second year, Tammy Rodgers, his steady girlfriend, as steady as you could get at that age, moved to France and switched schools in the process. Eric begged and begged his parents to let him go. At first, they were understandably reluctant, but they finally gave in, and it's a good thing they did because Eric proposed to her just last Christmas.
"Yeah, he just got back from college few days ago." Remus replied, and then said a bit more doubtfully, "He probably won't want to start a game, though."
"Not a problem," Sirius said confidently, "Just have Lily go along with you to ask."
"Yeah, you know he's always had a soft spot for her," Peter said.
It was true. Ever since she met him the summer after their first year, the year she started to live with the Potters permanently, the older Lupin son felt just as protective as the Marauders were to her. He could never say no to her.
So, sure enough, twenty minutes later, James, Sirius, and Peter were in the Potter's large backyard and soon saw Remus, Lily, and an older boy with short dark brown hair and bluish-grey eyes walking with them.
"Hey Eric," Sirius and James greeted as Peter just waved and smiled.
"Hey, Sirius, James, Peter, how's it going?" Eric asked.
"Pretty good, now, let's play some football!" Sirius whooped.
"Ok, I'll be a captain, and how about Sirius as the other one," Eric suggested.
"Who goes first?" James asked.
"I will," Sirius said, "I pick Jamsie,"
"Don't call me that!" James objected as he walked over to his best friend's side.
"Remus," Eric picked.
"Lily-billy," Sirius chose.
"And we get Peter, alright everyone let's play!" Remus said.
(Not going into details, sorry)
They ended up playing the game all day, without lunch even. Around 5:30, when they finally decided to end the game, you could find Sirius cheering, holding Lily up in the air, and Eric healing a cut above Peter's left eye after Sirius had tackled him earlier in the game.
"YEAH! WE WON!!!!!" Sirius shouted amidst Lily's laughs and protests.
James, who was at the other end of the field after score the final touchdown, panted for breath and stared at Lily. Remus saw this and walked over to him.
"See something interesting?" he said, initiating conversation.
James caught his breath and paused, never once looking away from Lily. When he finally did speak, it was soft and full of wonder, "You know," he began, "its times like these when I know I'm head over heels for her."
He said it with such sincerity that Remus took his gaze away from Sirius and Lily and brought them upon James, wonderingly. "You really do love her, don't you." he said almost incredulously.
James sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "It's weird, I've known her my whole life, and ever since the first day I met her, I had thing feeling, this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I see her. I never knew what it was, all I knew, that was when I did see her and feel it…it was the greatest feeling in the world.
It started to increase in third year, when I first realized that I liked her. Now, though, it's like it had burst through my entire body. I just recently understood what that feeling was."
"What was it?" Remus asked, listening intently.
James tore his gaze away from Lily and looked Remus square in the eye, "It was love. Not even the friendship love. I want to be with her, and only her. It's odd feeling this way at this age."
"Hey, look at Eric," Remus reasoned, "he knew he loved Tammy since second year. You can't help when it happens, but when it does, it only happens once."
James looked back over at Lily as Remus went on, him looking over at her as well, "And when it does, James, you have to hold onto it, and never let it disappear."
Without another word, Remus walked over to his brother and Peter, leaving James to contemplate his words.
"Sirius!" Mrs. Potter shouted from the mansion, "Your mother wants you home now."
"I'll see you guys later. My mum made reservations celebrating my cousin's graduation." Sirius said, waving goodbye to everyone.
"My grandmum is coming over for dinner. I had better go as well." Peter spoke, waving goodbye to them as well.
"We'd better go, too, Remus." Eric said, giving his younger brother a noogie, "Mum said she wanted us home by 6 for dinner."
"See ya, James, Lily!" Remus said.
Eric hugged Lily tightly and clapped James on the back, "Good game, James. And Lily, it was great to see you again. We'll have to do something again."
They stared at Remus and Eric as they walked away until they were out of view.
"Well, it looks like it's just you and me." James finally spoke up.
Lily smiled brightly at him, "What do you want to do?"
"Wanna go to the lake for a while and just sit?" James suggested. Lily nodded and the two walked off.
Thirty minutes later, they were seated on the waters edge, Lily staring at the sunset intently.
She sighed and said softly, "Isn't that beautiful?"
James was staring at her, butterflies building up in his stomach again. This was definitely it. No Sirius strolling up to them before his date. No Marauders interrupting them in the halls. No, they were all alone.
James cleared his throat nervously and finally, after a long pause, said in a confident tone, "Lily, I wanted to tell you something for quite sometime now, and I'd better do it right now before someone interrupts us."
The seriousness in his voice caught Lily's attention. Looking worried a little, she grabbed his hand and asked concerned, much like she did the time at the lake up at Hogwarts, "Go ahead, James."
"L-Lily, f-for sometime, now, I-I…felt-,"
"Hey, Lily, James!" Melanie popped out from the trail leading up to the lake, "There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you."
'No no no, this won't happen again!' James thought to himself determinedly.
"…anyway, since I'm home now, mum and dad want to go to-," Melanie went on, but was cut off by a heart stopping announcement that not even stunned Lily and Melanie, but, the speaker, James himself.
"Lily, I'm in love with you!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N- ok, my computer finally works again, so I'm all good and the chapter finally got done. Well, James finally did it, now we just have to wait to see what Lily's reaction will be. Since I made you wait so long, I don't what to stall anymore by putting previews up. I'll just say that this next chapter will be a doozie. Hope ya liked it! And again, I'm sorry for the wait.