Chapter 23 Milestones Part II
One Week
The following Saturday evening, Lily found herself on the early patrol shift. As it was the early shift and not yet after hours, there was relatively little to do, which gave Lily plenty of time for self- reflection.
It seemed absolutely incredible that she should have been "going out," as it were, with James Potter for an entire week. Not that the time she spent with him hadn't been enjoyable, it definitely had. He still tried to make her laugh almost constantly, she was still annoyed by the way he mussed his hair, and they had spent this past week talking about every subject under the sun and arguing over at least half of them.
Lily was having a great time with James, she admitted it, but she was also finding that Alice had been right, the fear didn't go away. The truth was she just didn't understand what James found so special in what she perceived as her commonplace appearance and personality. Deep down, Lily was afraid that he'd wake up one morning, probably tomorrow morning, and realize that Lily wasn't so fabulous after all. Or worse yet, he'd lose interest in her now that the pursuit was over and bugger off. Or who knew, maybe James wasn't as interested in a relationship with her as he seemed to be. After all, James hadn't ever been in a relationship of any length or with any degree of seriousness to it until now.
And was a long-term relationship with James Potter what Lily wanted anyway? Sure, she fancied him desperately, found him funny and charming despite the arrogance, admired his loyalty and courage and ability to do the right thing. He still exasperated her and drove her mad at times, but anytime they fought, making up almost made the argument worth it.
Lily was shaken from her reverie by the sound of footsteps in the corridor. It still wasn't after hours and was perfectly acceptable for students to be in the corridors, so Lily was unconcerned. She turned with a reassuring smile on her face that died on her lips when she saw who the person in the corridor was. Bellatrix Black.
Bellatrix's smile, on the other hand, widened and took on a catty expression. "If it isn't our sainted Head Girl in the flesh," Bellatrix mocked. "All alone at last, eh ickle Mudblood?"
"Bugger off, Black," Lily ground out, nervous in spite of herself and determined not to show it. "Don't you have a devil to worship?"
"Tsk, tsk, Evans. You shouldn't mock things you don't understand," Bellatrix's voice held the thinnest veneer of her previous mocking confidence; she was definitely angry. "It's unwise, especially for one in your precarious position."
"'Precarious?' Goodness, has someone been brushing up on their vocabulary?" Lily was pleased at the cool condescension in her tone; where had that come from? "I must say, it's a big improvement over the shrieking and baby talk."
"Clearly you haven't learned your place yet, Mudblood, even after that little lesson I tried to teach you last year," Bellatrix hissed. Her composure was hanging by a thread, every word an effort. "We never did finish that lesson, did we pet?"
"You wouldn't dare," Lily replied coolly, her chin held high. "You've already been put on probation once for attacking students, you'd be tossed out of here on your ear, especially in light of the recent scare over an attack on Hogsmeade. Surely you can't believe that Dumbledore and the school governors don't know exactly who was behind that scheme."
Bellatrix's hands were shaking with suppressed fury, her lips white with rage. "I may not be able to deal with you as your kind ought to be dealt with inside these walls, but there are other times and places, Mudblood," Bellatrix's tone was quiet, her insanity had never been more in evidence. "Your time will come, Evans. And I'll be there when it does. You may depend upon that."
Lily watched Bellatrix stride down the hallways toward the staircase that led to the dungeons and finally allowed her own hands and knees to tremble. Bellatrix genuinely wanted her dead, it had been there in her eyes, her insanity disturbingly plain. And that knowledge was unsettling, despite all of Lily's determination to be unaffected.
* * *
That next week, whether she wanted to admit it or not, Lily did look over her shoulder a bit after Bellatrix's threat. Nothing happened, however; Lily wasn't sure if Bellatrix was just biding her time or was too intimidated by her precarious position at Hogwarts; she was still on disciplinary probation for attacking Lily and the others last year and Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Astral all kept very close eyes on her.
On the brighter side, things continued to go very well with James all that next week. Though they were both insanely busy with loads of homework, Head duties, and Quidditch practice, Lily and James managed to spend a fair amount of time together, talking or studying or sneaking off into the occasional dark corner to be alone together away from the avid eyes of Gryffindor Tower and the rest of the school, all of whom seemed to be quite interested in their Head Boy and Girl's new relationship. Whether or not they were rooting for them Lily couldn't be entirely sure.
Two Weeks
Lily trudged down to breakfast on Saturday morning yawning widely, intensely happy that it was the weekend. In the Great Hall, she slid into a seat between James and Alice, her eyes still heavy with sleep, highly relieved that James had in fact saved her a seat and was glad to see her, a decent indication that he hadn't decided to dump her overnight. James, who always held his breath between the moment where Lily entered the Hall and sat down next to him, never entirely sure that she would, grinned widely at Lily and kissed her cheek in greeting, sliding his arm round her. Lily smiled sleepily at him in return and leaned against James, reaching up to kiss his cheek as well.
James felt his stomach turn over as it always did whenever Lily was near and tried to wipe the besotted grin from his face. He really couldn't believe how smoothly things were going between them, that they were still together after one week, twenty hours, and approximately forty-seven minutes. James still felt like looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was standing behind him every time Lily smiled at him. He really, truly, desperately hoped that he wouldn't find some way to muck this up and that Lily wouldn't question too heavily what exactly she saw in him anyway. Hogsmeade was in a week, on their three-week anniversary, and James desperately wanted Lily to go with him.
Alice looked round at Lily and James, smiling. "Congratulations, by the way," she murmured. Both of them looked back at her in confusion.
"Congratulations for what, exactly?" Lily asked in what she hoped was a bewildered tone.
"Today's your two-week anniversary, isn't it?" Alice cocked a brow.
"So it is," Lily replied cautiously. She and James exchanged a glance, both trying to be nonchalant.
"Try not to be too overexcited or anything," Alice snorted. Honestly, when would the pair of them stop worrying about the other one dumping them and realize that they hadn't?
* * *
After breakfast, Lily and James walked back to Gryffindor Tower hand in hand, a slightly awkward silence between them. "So what are you doing today?" Lily finally broke the hush.
"Quidditch practice," James shrugged. "Then studying with Remus, Sirius, and Peter. What about you?"
"Yes, I'm sure the four of you will be studying diligently," Lily snorted, at which James just smirked. "I've loads of homework to finish off and letters to write, and Hagrid invited me for tea."
James was fidgeting nervously. "What about next weekend?" he blurted.
Lily was a bit taken aback. "I dunno yet, I suppose," she replied cautiously, not daring to get her hopes up. Surely he had to know what was next weekend. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, er, I was wondering -" James began, his heart in his throat and completely unable to stop fidgeting, "- If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend," he finished in a rush.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She suddenly felt like laughing. "All right, then," she answered quickly, her smile dazzling in her contentment.
"Really?" James was incredulous and equally as relieved as Lily was. "Brilliant." He grinned like an eejit as it sank in, but he didn't really care. James was so happy he could have kissed Lily and then he remembered that he could, so he did.
"Of course I want to go to Hogsmeade with you," Lily teased after a bit. "Who else would I be going with, you great prat?" James shrugged, still feeling a bit dazed from Lily's answer and from kissing her, the butterflies in his stomach working overtime.
"Wasn't sure if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with a great prat," he returned. "And I wasn't sure whether or not you were going with Lockhart." Lily just shook her head at him, still smiling, then kissed his cheek and leaned against him. James hugged Lily back, wondering how exactly things had managed to go so right.
"I suppose I should go," James said reluctantly. "Wouldn't do to be late to the practice I called. I'll see you later, shall I?"
Lily nodded. "I should go too." James kissed Lily one more time before hurrying off down the corridor.
"Try not to miss me too desperately," he called back to her, his familiar arrogant smirk on his face. It somehow wasn't as unbearable as it used to be, maybe it was even the tiniest bit endearing. Lily just grinned back at him, lips still tingling, feeling happier than she had in quite some time.
* * *
The next week dragged by for Lily. She was enormously relieved and stupidly elated that James had asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him. In spite of everything, her fear of having her heart stamped still very much existed and popped out at her occasionally, screaming for her to put a stop to this immediately before he did.
This Hogsmeade incident had effectively silenced that voice for the time being, though. James actually wanted to spend a day with her. This made her consider the possibility that maybe she wasn't just some sort of trophy to him, some sort of Dating Cup to proclaim his seducing prowess to everyone. And, most frightening of all, maybe a relationship with James Potter wasn't as impossible as she'd once believed.
That week went equally as slowly for James. He had never been so excited; Lily had not only agreed to but also seemed happy about being seen in public with him. Naturally, most of the school knew by now about James and Lily's post-Quidditch kiss and had seen them about the school together. But going to Hogsmeade together was something couples did, not something you did with a snogging partner. Sure, plenty of people met in the town to snog, but they arranged it covertly, they weren't out in public together for all the world to see.....
James suddenly felt an unseen force push him to the floor. Cursing, he looked up into the face of his dearest friend. "What'd you do that for?" James demanded of Sirius, feeling rather put-upon.
"To snap you out of it," Sirius returned calmly, apparently unrepentant.
"You didn't have to shove me," James grumbled as he made his way back to his bed.
"I called your name four times," Sirius pointed out. "You need to get your head out of Lily Evans' knickers and back into practical jokes."
"Now there's a case of the cauldron calling the kettle Black if I ever heard one," James mumbled under his breath. Sirius appeared to have heard him, judging from the sour look he shot in James' direction, but chose not to comment and returned his attention to Remus, who was handing out their prank-plotting assignments.
* * *
Three Weeks
Planning their Halloween prank helped the week pass by a bit more quickly for James and before he knew it or was prepared for it, it was Saturday and he, Frank, and Remus were waiting at the bar in The Three Broomsticks for Lily, Alice, and Kathleen.
"So things seem to be going well for you and Lily," Remus said suddenly. James had been too nervous to follow Remus and Frank's conversation too closely and consequently had been rather quiet.
"Yeah, I s'pose they are," James attempted to match Remus' casual tone and failing miserably at preventing a manic grin from spreading across his face.
"Congratulations, mate," Frank offered, smiling at James. "Lily's brilliant."
"Thanks," James grinned wider, if that was even possible. "We're all three of us pretty lucky, really."
"I'm loads luckier now that Alice finally said she'd meet my mum," Frank grumbled. "Bloody Mum's been breathing down my neck about it." Remus and James shuddered in sympathy at the thought of the formidable Mrs. Longbottom breathing down anyone's neck.
Before they could offer their condolences, Alice, Lily, Kathleen, Dorcas, and Morwenna's arrival interrupted their conversation. The lot of them quickly ordered butterbeers and sat down to talk for a bit before going their separate ways.
When everyone else had gone, Remus, Kathleen, Frank, and Alice on their respective dates and Morwenna and Dorcas to do their shopping, James, feeling slightly awkward but euphoric nonetheless, asked Lily if she wanted to go for a walk.
"Sure," Lily shrugged, unable to keep the excitement out of her own voice.
James and Lily wandered through Hogsmeade's streets, window shopping and greeting students in between talking. They got into only two arguments, once about if it was even possible to turn a baklava into a bucket and once about who had used to sleep more in History of Magic, Sirius or Peter.
Despite the arguing, and the Peter-Sirius debate had grown quite heated, Lily couldn't remember ever having more fun on a date, or with anyone, for that matter. The more time she spent with James the more she came to realize how completely she had fallen for that cocky charm she used to despise. So many of the things that had used to infuriate her to distraction were now rather endearing, though not, she maintained firmly, his compulsive mussing of his hair. And it was amazing to be with James out in the open, a thousand times better than it would've been hiding in dark corners, she realized. It would've been a lie to say that her fears about dating James had gone away, but she would admit that she was glad she'd had the courage to try it.
The day had been equally perfect for James; ever since he'd seen Hogsmeade he'd imagined walking down its streets one day with Lily Evans. It was a bit surreal, here he was actually doing it. He loved being with Lily, even arguing with her, and he sincerely hoped that she felt the same. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Personally he felt like the luckiest bloke in the world to be with Lily Evans in front of everybody.
However, this was making him just a touch nervous about the Halloween prank. He really didn't know how Lily would react to it. When it came right down to it, he didn't actually know all that much about Lily yet. Would she think the practical joke was funny or would she be upset that he'd broken the rules?
Part of him wanted to call the whole thing off, it wasn't worth losing Lily over, after all, but another part of him knew that he needed to know whether or not Lily could handle his sense of humor. James knew that part of him was right, but it didn't make the anticipation any easier.
* * *
"You're sure everything's ready, you're absolutely positive - "
"Moony!" James cut his nervous mate off. "Everything is ready. It's all set up. For Merlin's sake, you didn't used to get this uptight."
"Hear, hear," Sirius added his vote from across the table.
"I'm just trying to make sure it all goes smoothly," Remus pleaded his case to Peter, who just shook his head.
"Padfoot and Prongs are right, time to remove whatever's stuck up your arse," Peter pronounced.
It was Halloween, and the Marauders were seated at the Gryfindor table, waiting for the girls to arrive and the feast to begin. The preparations for tonight's prank hadn't gone quite as smoothly as they could have, and Remus was a bit nervous about it, to say the least. James was equally as nervous, but for a different reason. Lily couldn't get angry over this prank, she just couldn't. Why, it was positively tame compared to some they'd pulled in the past. And no one would get hurt with this prank, it was more or less impossible....
"Why do you look so upset?" James jumped as he heard Lily's voice behind him.
"Why would I be upset?" James asked quickly.
"I don't know, that's why I asked," Lily looked a bit unsure. But before James could say anything else or had to attempt to dodge any more questions, Dumbledore stood up to begin the feast.
The Marauders preserved innocent faces through Dumbledore's speech; they were old pros at it, after all. As soon as Dumbledore sat down, they looked at one another expectantly. Now.
Right on cue, the enormous floating jack o' lanterns floating above the house tables broke into a rather rude and smarmy Halloween song. Sirius beamed across at James, pleased with his success as a songwriter. James grinned back as the hall burst into laughter all around them.
Then, without warning, the pumpkins stopped mid verse and suddenly began to float a bit faster. More than a bit, actually. Hurtle about with tremendous speed would have been a more accurate description. The laughter stopped as the students gazed transfixed up at the pumpkins, their expressions apprehensive.
Then, without warning, the pumpkins began to dive bomb the students in a manner very reminiscent of Bludgers, spraying bits of pumpkin innards all over the hall.
After the first few pumpkins struck, a general panic arose, panicking students running every which way. This appeared to be exactly what the pumpkins wanted, however: moving targets. They zoomed after the students singly and in packs with startling efficiency, exploding all over everything whenever they hit one.
The Marauders stared round them, gawking. Then Remus, snapping out of it, whirled on Peter. "Peter! What did you do?" he exclaimed, aghast.
"Me?" Peter spluttered. "But that's - I didn't - this isn't my fault!"
"The hell it isn't!" James, Remus, and Sirius retorted in unison.
"You were supposed to look up the spell!" James pointed out, his panic rising. This was definitely not good.
"I did!" Peter defended himself. "But I'm not the one who performed it!"
"We did it exactly like you told us to!" Remus ducked to avoid an oncoming pumpkin.
James watched as the pumpkin struck Lily, who had gone off to rescue some terrified first years from a particularly large one,, bits of it covering her from head to toe. This REALLY wasn't good.
Sirius grinned. "This is better than the singing! It's like a Quidditch match in here!" Just then a Hufflepuff ran by with his head stuck in one of the jack o' lanterns, and Remus shot Sirius a withering look.
Sirius shrugged. "It isn't any worse than the game hens, at any rate."
"Sirius," James began, just barely fighting off panic. "With the game hens, they did what we wanted them to. We knew how to stop them. This - " James indicated the pumpkin-spattered mayhem around them "- was completely unplanned. We don't know how to make them stop!"
"Point taken," Sirius said after a moment. James looked round for Remus and found him with a pumpkin bearing down on him.
"Stupefy!" James bellowed, pointing his wand at the pumpkin. On the bright side, this did stop the pumpkin from bludgeoning Remus. On the negative side, it was now coming for James.
"Bloody HELL!" James exclaimed as the pumpkin collided with his side, spewing bits all over him as it exploded.
* * *
"This was your doing, I suppose," Lily said as she and James emerged from the Great Hall some time later, covered from head to toe in pumpkin innards.
James nodded miserably, then waited for the explosion, bracing himself to be berated, screamed at, and ultimately dumped.
"Y'know, " Lily said thoughtfully, "a Hurling Hex would've been a lot more effective I think."
James just gawked at her, unable to believe what he was hearing. Who was this and what had she done with Prefect Evans?
"What?" Lily was growing a bit uncomfortable with the staring.
"I have the best girlfriend in the world," James said reverentially.
Lily started. "Girlfriend? You think of me as your girlfriend?" She felt tears welling up, she was so relieved and overjoyed.
"'Course I do," James grinned. "When I told you I wanted to have it all with you what did you think I meant?"
Completely incapable of speech at the moment, Lily stood on tiptoe and kissed James, wrapping her arms around him. James lifted Lily off her feet, kissing her back with everything he had.
"You smell like pumpkins," Lily wrinkled her nose as she pulled back a bit, but she was grinning just the same.
So do you," James pointed out.
"Shut it, James," Lily laughed.
Hand in hand and thoroughly covered with pumpkin, Lily and James made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.
* * *
Author's Note: Wow, thank you so much to all of my reviewers! There were too many amazing reviews this time to thank people specifically, but you all know who you are. The next chapter should be up Thursday hopefully (contrary to popular demand, I do have a life outside of this story, I really do =) ).
Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed this story, old and new. Please read and review and I'll see you on Thursday!
One Week
The following Saturday evening, Lily found herself on the early patrol shift. As it was the early shift and not yet after hours, there was relatively little to do, which gave Lily plenty of time for self- reflection.
It seemed absolutely incredible that she should have been "going out," as it were, with James Potter for an entire week. Not that the time she spent with him hadn't been enjoyable, it definitely had. He still tried to make her laugh almost constantly, she was still annoyed by the way he mussed his hair, and they had spent this past week talking about every subject under the sun and arguing over at least half of them.
Lily was having a great time with James, she admitted it, but she was also finding that Alice had been right, the fear didn't go away. The truth was she just didn't understand what James found so special in what she perceived as her commonplace appearance and personality. Deep down, Lily was afraid that he'd wake up one morning, probably tomorrow morning, and realize that Lily wasn't so fabulous after all. Or worse yet, he'd lose interest in her now that the pursuit was over and bugger off. Or who knew, maybe James wasn't as interested in a relationship with her as he seemed to be. After all, James hadn't ever been in a relationship of any length or with any degree of seriousness to it until now.
And was a long-term relationship with James Potter what Lily wanted anyway? Sure, she fancied him desperately, found him funny and charming despite the arrogance, admired his loyalty and courage and ability to do the right thing. He still exasperated her and drove her mad at times, but anytime they fought, making up almost made the argument worth it.
Lily was shaken from her reverie by the sound of footsteps in the corridor. It still wasn't after hours and was perfectly acceptable for students to be in the corridors, so Lily was unconcerned. She turned with a reassuring smile on her face that died on her lips when she saw who the person in the corridor was. Bellatrix Black.
Bellatrix's smile, on the other hand, widened and took on a catty expression. "If it isn't our sainted Head Girl in the flesh," Bellatrix mocked. "All alone at last, eh ickle Mudblood?"
"Bugger off, Black," Lily ground out, nervous in spite of herself and determined not to show it. "Don't you have a devil to worship?"
"Tsk, tsk, Evans. You shouldn't mock things you don't understand," Bellatrix's voice held the thinnest veneer of her previous mocking confidence; she was definitely angry. "It's unwise, especially for one in your precarious position."
"'Precarious?' Goodness, has someone been brushing up on their vocabulary?" Lily was pleased at the cool condescension in her tone; where had that come from? "I must say, it's a big improvement over the shrieking and baby talk."
"Clearly you haven't learned your place yet, Mudblood, even after that little lesson I tried to teach you last year," Bellatrix hissed. Her composure was hanging by a thread, every word an effort. "We never did finish that lesson, did we pet?"
"You wouldn't dare," Lily replied coolly, her chin held high. "You've already been put on probation once for attacking students, you'd be tossed out of here on your ear, especially in light of the recent scare over an attack on Hogsmeade. Surely you can't believe that Dumbledore and the school governors don't know exactly who was behind that scheme."
Bellatrix's hands were shaking with suppressed fury, her lips white with rage. "I may not be able to deal with you as your kind ought to be dealt with inside these walls, but there are other times and places, Mudblood," Bellatrix's tone was quiet, her insanity had never been more in evidence. "Your time will come, Evans. And I'll be there when it does. You may depend upon that."
Lily watched Bellatrix stride down the hallways toward the staircase that led to the dungeons and finally allowed her own hands and knees to tremble. Bellatrix genuinely wanted her dead, it had been there in her eyes, her insanity disturbingly plain. And that knowledge was unsettling, despite all of Lily's determination to be unaffected.
* * *
That next week, whether she wanted to admit it or not, Lily did look over her shoulder a bit after Bellatrix's threat. Nothing happened, however; Lily wasn't sure if Bellatrix was just biding her time or was too intimidated by her precarious position at Hogwarts; she was still on disciplinary probation for attacking Lily and the others last year and Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Astral all kept very close eyes on her.
On the brighter side, things continued to go very well with James all that next week. Though they were both insanely busy with loads of homework, Head duties, and Quidditch practice, Lily and James managed to spend a fair amount of time together, talking or studying or sneaking off into the occasional dark corner to be alone together away from the avid eyes of Gryffindor Tower and the rest of the school, all of whom seemed to be quite interested in their Head Boy and Girl's new relationship. Whether or not they were rooting for them Lily couldn't be entirely sure.
Two Weeks
Lily trudged down to breakfast on Saturday morning yawning widely, intensely happy that it was the weekend. In the Great Hall, she slid into a seat between James and Alice, her eyes still heavy with sleep, highly relieved that James had in fact saved her a seat and was glad to see her, a decent indication that he hadn't decided to dump her overnight. James, who always held his breath between the moment where Lily entered the Hall and sat down next to him, never entirely sure that she would, grinned widely at Lily and kissed her cheek in greeting, sliding his arm round her. Lily smiled sleepily at him in return and leaned against James, reaching up to kiss his cheek as well.
James felt his stomach turn over as it always did whenever Lily was near and tried to wipe the besotted grin from his face. He really couldn't believe how smoothly things were going between them, that they were still together after one week, twenty hours, and approximately forty-seven minutes. James still felt like looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was standing behind him every time Lily smiled at him. He really, truly, desperately hoped that he wouldn't find some way to muck this up and that Lily wouldn't question too heavily what exactly she saw in him anyway. Hogsmeade was in a week, on their three-week anniversary, and James desperately wanted Lily to go with him.
Alice looked round at Lily and James, smiling. "Congratulations, by the way," she murmured. Both of them looked back at her in confusion.
"Congratulations for what, exactly?" Lily asked in what she hoped was a bewildered tone.
"Today's your two-week anniversary, isn't it?" Alice cocked a brow.
"So it is," Lily replied cautiously. She and James exchanged a glance, both trying to be nonchalant.
"Try not to be too overexcited or anything," Alice snorted. Honestly, when would the pair of them stop worrying about the other one dumping them and realize that they hadn't?
* * *
After breakfast, Lily and James walked back to Gryffindor Tower hand in hand, a slightly awkward silence between them. "So what are you doing today?" Lily finally broke the hush.
"Quidditch practice," James shrugged. "Then studying with Remus, Sirius, and Peter. What about you?"
"Yes, I'm sure the four of you will be studying diligently," Lily snorted, at which James just smirked. "I've loads of homework to finish off and letters to write, and Hagrid invited me for tea."
James was fidgeting nervously. "What about next weekend?" he blurted.
Lily was a bit taken aback. "I dunno yet, I suppose," she replied cautiously, not daring to get her hopes up. Surely he had to know what was next weekend. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, er, I was wondering -" James began, his heart in his throat and completely unable to stop fidgeting, "- If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend," he finished in a rush.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She suddenly felt like laughing. "All right, then," she answered quickly, her smile dazzling in her contentment.
"Really?" James was incredulous and equally as relieved as Lily was. "Brilliant." He grinned like an eejit as it sank in, but he didn't really care. James was so happy he could have kissed Lily and then he remembered that he could, so he did.
"Of course I want to go to Hogsmeade with you," Lily teased after a bit. "Who else would I be going with, you great prat?" James shrugged, still feeling a bit dazed from Lily's answer and from kissing her, the butterflies in his stomach working overtime.
"Wasn't sure if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with a great prat," he returned. "And I wasn't sure whether or not you were going with Lockhart." Lily just shook her head at him, still smiling, then kissed his cheek and leaned against him. James hugged Lily back, wondering how exactly things had managed to go so right.
"I suppose I should go," James said reluctantly. "Wouldn't do to be late to the practice I called. I'll see you later, shall I?"
Lily nodded. "I should go too." James kissed Lily one more time before hurrying off down the corridor.
"Try not to miss me too desperately," he called back to her, his familiar arrogant smirk on his face. It somehow wasn't as unbearable as it used to be, maybe it was even the tiniest bit endearing. Lily just grinned back at him, lips still tingling, feeling happier than she had in quite some time.
* * *
The next week dragged by for Lily. She was enormously relieved and stupidly elated that James had asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him. In spite of everything, her fear of having her heart stamped still very much existed and popped out at her occasionally, screaming for her to put a stop to this immediately before he did.
This Hogsmeade incident had effectively silenced that voice for the time being, though. James actually wanted to spend a day with her. This made her consider the possibility that maybe she wasn't just some sort of trophy to him, some sort of Dating Cup to proclaim his seducing prowess to everyone. And, most frightening of all, maybe a relationship with James Potter wasn't as impossible as she'd once believed.
That week went equally as slowly for James. He had never been so excited; Lily had not only agreed to but also seemed happy about being seen in public with him. Naturally, most of the school knew by now about James and Lily's post-Quidditch kiss and had seen them about the school together. But going to Hogsmeade together was something couples did, not something you did with a snogging partner. Sure, plenty of people met in the town to snog, but they arranged it covertly, they weren't out in public together for all the world to see.....
James suddenly felt an unseen force push him to the floor. Cursing, he looked up into the face of his dearest friend. "What'd you do that for?" James demanded of Sirius, feeling rather put-upon.
"To snap you out of it," Sirius returned calmly, apparently unrepentant.
"You didn't have to shove me," James grumbled as he made his way back to his bed.
"I called your name four times," Sirius pointed out. "You need to get your head out of Lily Evans' knickers and back into practical jokes."
"Now there's a case of the cauldron calling the kettle Black if I ever heard one," James mumbled under his breath. Sirius appeared to have heard him, judging from the sour look he shot in James' direction, but chose not to comment and returned his attention to Remus, who was handing out their prank-plotting assignments.
* * *
Three Weeks
Planning their Halloween prank helped the week pass by a bit more quickly for James and before he knew it or was prepared for it, it was Saturday and he, Frank, and Remus were waiting at the bar in The Three Broomsticks for Lily, Alice, and Kathleen.
"So things seem to be going well for you and Lily," Remus said suddenly. James had been too nervous to follow Remus and Frank's conversation too closely and consequently had been rather quiet.
"Yeah, I s'pose they are," James attempted to match Remus' casual tone and failing miserably at preventing a manic grin from spreading across his face.
"Congratulations, mate," Frank offered, smiling at James. "Lily's brilliant."
"Thanks," James grinned wider, if that was even possible. "We're all three of us pretty lucky, really."
"I'm loads luckier now that Alice finally said she'd meet my mum," Frank grumbled. "Bloody Mum's been breathing down my neck about it." Remus and James shuddered in sympathy at the thought of the formidable Mrs. Longbottom breathing down anyone's neck.
Before they could offer their condolences, Alice, Lily, Kathleen, Dorcas, and Morwenna's arrival interrupted their conversation. The lot of them quickly ordered butterbeers and sat down to talk for a bit before going their separate ways.
When everyone else had gone, Remus, Kathleen, Frank, and Alice on their respective dates and Morwenna and Dorcas to do their shopping, James, feeling slightly awkward but euphoric nonetheless, asked Lily if she wanted to go for a walk.
"Sure," Lily shrugged, unable to keep the excitement out of her own voice.
James and Lily wandered through Hogsmeade's streets, window shopping and greeting students in between talking. They got into only two arguments, once about if it was even possible to turn a baklava into a bucket and once about who had used to sleep more in History of Magic, Sirius or Peter.
Despite the arguing, and the Peter-Sirius debate had grown quite heated, Lily couldn't remember ever having more fun on a date, or with anyone, for that matter. The more time she spent with James the more she came to realize how completely she had fallen for that cocky charm she used to despise. So many of the things that had used to infuriate her to distraction were now rather endearing, though not, she maintained firmly, his compulsive mussing of his hair. And it was amazing to be with James out in the open, a thousand times better than it would've been hiding in dark corners, she realized. It would've been a lie to say that her fears about dating James had gone away, but she would admit that she was glad she'd had the courage to try it.
The day had been equally perfect for James; ever since he'd seen Hogsmeade he'd imagined walking down its streets one day with Lily Evans. It was a bit surreal, here he was actually doing it. He loved being with Lily, even arguing with her, and he sincerely hoped that she felt the same. She seemed to be enjoying herself. Personally he felt like the luckiest bloke in the world to be with Lily Evans in front of everybody.
However, this was making him just a touch nervous about the Halloween prank. He really didn't know how Lily would react to it. When it came right down to it, he didn't actually know all that much about Lily yet. Would she think the practical joke was funny or would she be upset that he'd broken the rules?
Part of him wanted to call the whole thing off, it wasn't worth losing Lily over, after all, but another part of him knew that he needed to know whether or not Lily could handle his sense of humor. James knew that part of him was right, but it didn't make the anticipation any easier.
* * *
"You're sure everything's ready, you're absolutely positive - "
"Moony!" James cut his nervous mate off. "Everything is ready. It's all set up. For Merlin's sake, you didn't used to get this uptight."
"Hear, hear," Sirius added his vote from across the table.
"I'm just trying to make sure it all goes smoothly," Remus pleaded his case to Peter, who just shook his head.
"Padfoot and Prongs are right, time to remove whatever's stuck up your arse," Peter pronounced.
It was Halloween, and the Marauders were seated at the Gryfindor table, waiting for the girls to arrive and the feast to begin. The preparations for tonight's prank hadn't gone quite as smoothly as they could have, and Remus was a bit nervous about it, to say the least. James was equally as nervous, but for a different reason. Lily couldn't get angry over this prank, she just couldn't. Why, it was positively tame compared to some they'd pulled in the past. And no one would get hurt with this prank, it was more or less impossible....
"Why do you look so upset?" James jumped as he heard Lily's voice behind him.
"Why would I be upset?" James asked quickly.
"I don't know, that's why I asked," Lily looked a bit unsure. But before James could say anything else or had to attempt to dodge any more questions, Dumbledore stood up to begin the feast.
The Marauders preserved innocent faces through Dumbledore's speech; they were old pros at it, after all. As soon as Dumbledore sat down, they looked at one another expectantly. Now.
Right on cue, the enormous floating jack o' lanterns floating above the house tables broke into a rather rude and smarmy Halloween song. Sirius beamed across at James, pleased with his success as a songwriter. James grinned back as the hall burst into laughter all around them.
Then, without warning, the pumpkins stopped mid verse and suddenly began to float a bit faster. More than a bit, actually. Hurtle about with tremendous speed would have been a more accurate description. The laughter stopped as the students gazed transfixed up at the pumpkins, their expressions apprehensive.
Then, without warning, the pumpkins began to dive bomb the students in a manner very reminiscent of Bludgers, spraying bits of pumpkin innards all over the hall.
After the first few pumpkins struck, a general panic arose, panicking students running every which way. This appeared to be exactly what the pumpkins wanted, however: moving targets. They zoomed after the students singly and in packs with startling efficiency, exploding all over everything whenever they hit one.
The Marauders stared round them, gawking. Then Remus, snapping out of it, whirled on Peter. "Peter! What did you do?" he exclaimed, aghast.
"Me?" Peter spluttered. "But that's - I didn't - this isn't my fault!"
"The hell it isn't!" James, Remus, and Sirius retorted in unison.
"You were supposed to look up the spell!" James pointed out, his panic rising. This was definitely not good.
"I did!" Peter defended himself. "But I'm not the one who performed it!"
"We did it exactly like you told us to!" Remus ducked to avoid an oncoming pumpkin.
James watched as the pumpkin struck Lily, who had gone off to rescue some terrified first years from a particularly large one,, bits of it covering her from head to toe. This REALLY wasn't good.
Sirius grinned. "This is better than the singing! It's like a Quidditch match in here!" Just then a Hufflepuff ran by with his head stuck in one of the jack o' lanterns, and Remus shot Sirius a withering look.
Sirius shrugged. "It isn't any worse than the game hens, at any rate."
"Sirius," James began, just barely fighting off panic. "With the game hens, they did what we wanted them to. We knew how to stop them. This - " James indicated the pumpkin-spattered mayhem around them "- was completely unplanned. We don't know how to make them stop!"
"Point taken," Sirius said after a moment. James looked round for Remus and found him with a pumpkin bearing down on him.
"Stupefy!" James bellowed, pointing his wand at the pumpkin. On the bright side, this did stop the pumpkin from bludgeoning Remus. On the negative side, it was now coming for James.
"Bloody HELL!" James exclaimed as the pumpkin collided with his side, spewing bits all over him as it exploded.
* * *
"This was your doing, I suppose," Lily said as she and James emerged from the Great Hall some time later, covered from head to toe in pumpkin innards.
James nodded miserably, then waited for the explosion, bracing himself to be berated, screamed at, and ultimately dumped.
"Y'know, " Lily said thoughtfully, "a Hurling Hex would've been a lot more effective I think."
James just gawked at her, unable to believe what he was hearing. Who was this and what had she done with Prefect Evans?
"What?" Lily was growing a bit uncomfortable with the staring.
"I have the best girlfriend in the world," James said reverentially.
Lily started. "Girlfriend? You think of me as your girlfriend?" She felt tears welling up, she was so relieved and overjoyed.
"'Course I do," James grinned. "When I told you I wanted to have it all with you what did you think I meant?"
Completely incapable of speech at the moment, Lily stood on tiptoe and kissed James, wrapping her arms around him. James lifted Lily off her feet, kissing her back with everything he had.
"You smell like pumpkins," Lily wrinkled her nose as she pulled back a bit, but she was grinning just the same.
So do you," James pointed out.
"Shut it, James," Lily laughed.
Hand in hand and thoroughly covered with pumpkin, Lily and James made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.
* * *
Author's Note: Wow, thank you so much to all of my reviewers! There were too many amazing reviews this time to thank people specifically, but you all know who you are. The next chapter should be up Thursday hopefully (contrary to popular demand, I do have a life outside of this story, I really do =) ).
Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed this story, old and new. Please read and review and I'll see you on Thursday!