James picked up a long stick, presumably from the Whomping Willow, and held out from his body, teasing the large black dog in front of him. For once, James forgot about everything. Every annoying aspect that had come about during his seventh year at Hogwarts; acceptable marks in potions going down to poor, little sleep on nights where he patrolled for out bed students, and the threat of Voldemort that hung in the air. After this year, James would have to leave the warm cocoon of Hogwarts, and enter the "real world". Nothing, no test or threat, scared him more then the insecurity that was facing him.
And, of course, there was Lily Evans. The girl he had pursued since his first year at Hogwarts. Seventh Year had proven harder for him then all the other years of rejection, because now they were friends. She was always by him and hanging around him, but James had to keep his feelings in. He liked the progressed in their relationship and didn't want to go back to the way things were. But during the time he was outside he was able to take all those thoughts and push them to the back of his head. They wouldn't matter for the next few minutes.
The dog heavily panted in front of him, and dodged every time James would motion to throw the stick, but hold onto it. The dog crouched low, ready to pounce on James, probably knock him down with the sudden weight, and take the precious stick. James held the stick high above his head, looking far over the grounds of Hogwarts, swung his hand passed his head in a well practiced motion, only to not let go of the stick again.
The grim-like dog suddenly morphed into the body of Sirius Black.
"What are you doing Padfoot? Are you mad? Anyone could have seen!" James yelled at his best mate in a panicked voice, while looking around the grounds.
Sirius looked over at James and said in a huff, "I wouldn't have changed back if you had thrown the damn stick earlier."
"I was only joking around with you. You, of all people, should know how to take a joke" James challenged.
Sirius was getting annoyed, all he wanted for the past ten minutes was for James to throw the stick, but he kept on refraining and there was only so much Sirius could take, "You're ruining the game, Prongs. You gotta throw the stick!"
James gave Sirius a weird look, "I know how to play fetch"
"Well, then play fetch! Don't hold the stick forever!"
"If we're going to have a fight over playing fetch, I'm leaving"
"Throw the stick" Sirius glared and turned himself back into a dog, but James would have bet his broomstick that he heard Sirius mutter "Git" under his breath before doing so.
The nice thing about James and Sirius' friendship was that they could be completely honest with each other without offending the other, too much. Anytime they fought, the two were able to forget about it soon after and move on with things. Sometimes, they crossed the line. It was hard to do, but on some subjects you had to tiptoe around it. If they did cross the line, the results could be dreadful. But most of the time, they stayed mates, but still fighting like a married couple.
The dog looked up a James, then to the stick, and waited, still as a cat, waiting for James to throw the stick. The beautiful stick, with ends perfect for chewing on. The stick that was the perfect size to hold under his paw, and into his mouth. It looked so ideal up in James hand. Sirius could almost taste the bark in between his teeth…
Then Lily Evans, looking very exhausted, rushed over towards them. James' attention naturally turned away from his best friend, who stood with him through thick and thin and only wanted to gnaw on the dark wood, to the beautiful girl that only started talking to James I a civilized manner about a month earlier. "James, I have been looking everywhere for you! It's freezing, why are you outside?" James gestured to the dog, as if he was of no importance, and opened his mouth a few times, trying to say something, then promptly coughed.
James reminded Sirius of a choking goldfish. A poor pathetic goldfish, scared of talking to the bigger and more beautiful fish. It was sad really, the fish ended up choking, even though he lived in water.
If James was a fish he would probably end up chocking on water, he was just one of those kinds of people. He'd trip his own feet in the hallway if he wasn't watching were he was going most of the time. If he didn't get enough sleep the night before, James would end up missing his mouth with his fork filled with eggs. Sometimes, he would end up in the Hospital Wing next to Remus after a full moon. It was an interesting sight to see; werewolf and uncoordinated friend, one with scratches and bruises all over his body, and the other with four deep red gashes on his cheek. Sometimes Sirius wondered if the clumsiness was just a ploy to get candy from friends and admirers who wanted him to "Get Well Soon!"
Lily took no notice of James' failed attempts to speak or his resemblances to dying fish, and started walking towards the dog. "Well aren't you the sweetest thing? Is he a stray?" James nodded, happy that Lily did not see any thing to make her suspicious of an animagus.
Sirius kissed Lily on the nose, "Awww…did you see that? He kissed me!" Lily started to scratch Sirius in the perfect spot behind the ears. James felt like he had been stabbed in the back. Sirius kissed his girl. Well, she wasn't exactly his girl yet, but Sirius had no right to do that. James glared at the dog, while Lily's back was turned to him. Sirius gave James a look back and thought 'well you didn't throw the stick'
James had to interrupt before to much happened with Lily and Sirius, "So, what did you want to see me for?"
"Oh! Right, Dumbledore wants to have a meeting in his office at eight o'clock on
Thursday night. I told him you could make, is that alright? I suspected that you didn't have Quidditch…" Lily told him, momentarily forgetting about James' ex-best friend.
James looked up at Lily and realized that she had said something. He threw the stick to Padfoot to buy a few seconds to think about what she might have said, and laughed as the dog ran away eagerly to get it. "Sure Lily, I'll be there. What time again?"
"Eight o'clock, James. Thursday night. Don't be late, or it's both our arses!' Lily smiled at James and walked back inside to the warmth of the castle, while James withheld a comment about Lily's arse. It was hard, but he managed to pull through.
By then Sirius had come leaping back to James with the stick in his mouth. James held out his hand for Sirius to put the stick in. Sirius took one look at James, then made a point to walk back a few meters, and sit down a way from James to chew on his sit in private. James looked at the dog, glared, then started heading inside the castle.
Having amazing hearing, Sirius heard James mutter, "Man's best friend my arse…"
This made Sirius feel guilty. He hadn't meant kissing Lily to be so cruel to James, just a little joke. But once Sirius thought about his actions, he realized how what he did must have hurt James more then it was meant to. Sirius quickly ran into the forest, thinking about prying eyes now, and changed back into a human, then spirited to the castle to catch up with James. They should be able to patch things up easily.
Sirius just saw James turn the corner, "James, wait up!" But when he caught up to James, Sirius realized that he wasn't alone. James was walking back to the Gryffindor tower with Lily Evans. Somehow, James had his hand on the small of her back and wasn't being hexed to death. Sirius started to believe that James was brain washing the head girl.
James glanced back at his fellow Marauder with a smug grin on his face, "Yes, Sirius?"
"Er…I think I'll go talk to someone else about my er…problem"
Lily smiled at Sirius, "Good idea"
Sirius grinned as he walked away. If James got lucky, which he probably was by the way things were going for him today, there would be major snoggage for the head boy by the end of today. Sirius decide to stay low and act like he was walking away, but turned around once he heard Lily and James start talking again. Sirius needed to make sure James didn't blow this up. And if he did, he had to make sure that James would never hear the end of it. Checking that his feet weren't making to much noise in the hallway so love birds didn't see him, Sirius started listening in on their conversation.
Lily looked up at James, making her head extremely close to James', and said, "So, when's the next Quidditch game?" Sirius couldn't believe it. They were talking about Quidditch? He half expected Lily to take James in her arms and start talking about mushy romantic things like roses and finding your true love, then they would share a loving embrace that would show all the intimacy they felt for each other. Instead, Lily and James were talking about the most unromantic subject in the world: Quidditch.
James put his own head closer to Lily's, "Well, the next Gryffindor game is in two months, but Ravenclaw versus Slytherin is in a little over three weeks"
"Well, maybe I'll," Lily looked up at James, her voice barley above a whisper and Sirius had to read her lips to make out what she was saying, "see you there?" They were slowly leaning towards each other, eyes locked into each other's eyes, once James' head got near her mouth he waited for her to go the rest of the way. Lily put her hand on the back of James' neck and pulled his face closer to her's. Lily's eyelids fluttered shut as their lips lightly pressed together. James took his chances and deepened the kiss, which was nicely rewarded as Lily allowing James full access to her mouth.
Sirius wanted to jump for joy. Finally! After seven years of hearing James complain about not being able to go out with Lily, or talk to her, or hold her hand, or wave to her in the hallway, or hex any guy that looked at her, or hold her books...it was over! James had managed to woo Lily Evans. When did they start making this kind of progress? Last Sirius had heard they were just on the lower steps of friendships. Now they're snogging in the hallway?
She pulled away after a few moments, although her face was still close to his, and spoke to James in a whisper, "Or maybe we could make it a date"
James smiled at her whispered back, "I think we should"
With that James did a little smirk, then Lily smiled back, and to Sirius it looked as if they were having a conversation without words. When he thought about it, this would probably be good for James, and all man kind. Everyone knows that after you kiss a girl and she asks you out, you don't say "I think we should". With this new method of conversing there would be no more stupid lines for confused men of the world, only a few smiles and looking into each other's eyes. Sirius liked this method of dating, and started to think that he should find a girl like Lily. No talking, just snogging and looking at one another.
Sirius liked to think that Lily's change of heart had something to do with him kissing her. He, Sirius Black, made the unattainable Lily Evans fall for trouble maker/head boy James Potter by showing her that James was a loveable guy. People always said that the best way to pick up the ladies was to get a cute dog. Sirius was a dog and, although he had never seen himself in a mirror in that form, he would imagine that some of his deviously handsome looks would transform with him. What was causing his best friend to have the happiest moment of his life? Sirius, the never betraying loyal dog and mate. So, when James finally came back from Cloud Nine and talked to Sirius again there no reason to get mad at him.
He hoped.
But when had this all happened? Shouldn't the Marauders be first to hear about the progress James had made? He was sure to tell them in past years if Lily didn't yell at him when he passed her or if she talked to him in a less-than-threatening voice. Now they were at the point of snogging and the marauders were left in the dust. James would have to be dismembered if he kept this up for to long.
Now Lily was walking away, making up some excuse and playing hard to get. James just looked at her and Sirius realized that Lily's hips were swaying slightly more then they normally did. James' eyes were glued to her back side when Lily threw her hair over her shoulder and smiled back at him. James gave a toothy lopsided grin back that probably meant something meaningful in their new way of talking to each other. Sirius could tell that if James hadn't feared Lily would turn around one more time he would be dancing in the hallway.
"Sirius, you can come out now" James said and Sirius realized why they couldn't dismember James from the Marauders. His senses of knowing where someone was at any given time were incredible.
Sirius stepped out from his hiding place and walked towards James. They both had a smile on there face and James looked like he had just woken up from a very pleasant daydream.
He clapped James on the back, "You finally did it mate! How effing long did that take? A little less than seven years to win over Lily…"
"Padfoot, she kissed me. Did you see that? She kissed me voluntarily! Then she ask me out, to Quidditch nonetheless!" James couldn't seem to believe the last five minutes of his life.
"I know, hell just froze over, but how did you know I was behind you?" Sirius had to know this information, was it only James or could all people he was spying on tell where he was?
"Your footsteps didn't fade away, they just stopped" James said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ok, I'll keep that in mind, mate. Sorry about kissing Lily. I only did it because you didn't throw the stick. I didn't mean to stab you in the back or anything" Sirius did feel bad about what he did and he had to get it out, let James forgive him about it, and move on.
"That's Ok. You kissed her nose, I snogged her. I think I came out with the better hand" James gave a lopsided smile again.
"Touche"
"And by the way, I do know how to play fetch."
A/N: YAY! Another one done…special thanks to Caitlin for BETAing this for me. Anyone notice the line I borrowed from the Bee Eater (A chapter in The Source by: James Meichiner)? How Hogwarts is a warm cocoon? And Ur's cave was a tight cocoon. We spent about 45 minutes annotating that in English. Yea, the line won't leave my head anymore and whenever someone mentions cocoon I freak out.
R/R, make my day!