A Legacy of Love

Chapter 6: Taking That Step

Christmas was approaching, though there was still no sign of either James or Lily planning to progress further in this curious relationship. They were definitely more intimate than the rest of the Marauders were with Lily. With the Marauders she was like a sister to them. And it didn't take a genius to figure out that Lily had much deeper feelings for James than she herself probably knew or would admit. Then, James, Lily, Remus and the rest of the Hogwarts Prefects were called upon by Professor McGonagall to assist with the Christmas decorations alongside Professor Flitwick, Hagrid, and Argus Filch, whose hatred towards the students were matched equally by the students' loathing for him. So, to the persons in question, it was the perfect opportunity to employ the watch-and-wait strategy, a strategy they were far too used to.

Watching along the sidelines, however, Remus and Sirius were getting really tired of waiting for either one of the Heads to make the first move in their relationship. It was obvious that they were meant for each other, if only they had the courage to take that chance. Peter, being Peter, couldn't even take care of his own things, let alone meddle with James's. It was no wonder, therefore, to find Remus and Sirius sitting on Sirius's bed in the seventh year boys' dormitory one night, with a Silencing and Locking charm cast on the curtains around his bed.

"We can't wait for them to make the first move, Remus. We've given them that chance, and look! Nothing! They're as stubborn as a pair of mules, those two! 'I need more time!' Yeah right," Sirius said furiously. "It's time we take the matter into our own hands."

"I know, Sirius, I know…" Remus replied wearily. "I thought that, after the pep talk I gave Lily, it ought to do the trick…"

"Wait… wait…" Sirius interrupted suddenly. "You said you spoke to Lily, have you?" When Remus nodded, he persisted, "When?"

"That day when you lot were raiding the kitchen. Why?"

"Hmm… Funny, cause I kind of spoke to James about Lily too. He said he wanted time," Both Sirius and Remus snorted. "Honestly. Now is as good a time as any. What else could he want? I know that Lily's falling for him, or always has. If I have to give them credit, it is how well they can suppress the part of them they don't want others to see. The only person not thick enough to realise that they like each other mutually is the two of them. How ironic," he finished sarcastically.

"Yeah… Yet," Remus mused fairly, "when was it ever easy to talk about these kinds of embarrassing things? I mean, look at me!"

"You? What has this got to do with you?" Sirius asked confusedly, not comprehending.

"Well… I didn't tell you about my little werewolf problem, did I? I was dead scared that you three would abandon me if you found out, and just when I started to have your friendship too! You three have had to find out yourselves," Remus explained. "It's hard to, you know, tell others something when you're not certain about the kind of reaction you'll get. I guess they are like me, putting off what they know they must do eventually."

"What we need is to force them together," Sirius declared. "I suggest a broom closet! Preferably those small and cramp ones, so they can't escape! Maybe the one on fourth floor..." he trailed off thoughtfully, rubbing his hands with glee, only to be interrupted by Remus.

"Bad move, Padfoot. McGonagall'll do her nut when the Heads disappear together in the middle of decorating the school into a broom closet, and when they find out who forced them in!" Remus, always the rational one, mused aloud. "Frankly, I'd face McGonagall and answer her thousand and one questions rather than lose their friendship."

"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures! They can thank us later!" Sirius protested. Remus shook his head. "I agree, but not to the point of insanity," he said, "They just need a little prodding in the right direction, not major intervention."

"Fine then, genius, why don't you figure the way out?" huffed a crossed Sirius. Remus nodded and said, "Just give me some time, OK?" and went into deep meditation. Sirius hated it when Remus went into a 'trance'. It gave him a feeling of staring at a statue instead of his good friend. Especially those glazed-over eyes. He shuddered, then averted his eyes.

"We need something not so obvious during this festive season…" Remus mumbled from the depth of his thoughts. "Christmas tree? No. Holly? Definitely not. What use will it be? Carol-singing suits of armour? Hell no. I hate them; they don't even know half the words they're supposed to sing, and Peeves might be hiding inside again. But that's beside the point. They're dead useless, about as much use as holly. Moving on... Hmm... What else do we have? Mistletoe? Oh yeah!" His eyes flew open in triumph. "We can use a mistletoe! It's symbolic!"

Sirius looked sceptical. "But they can just refuse to make it something more! A friendly peck on the cheek." He rolled his eyes at the two Heads' stupidity. "Err… Yeah, I didn't think of that…" Remus admitted sheepishly, then brightened. "But, yeah! We could trick them, couldn't we?"

"And," Sirius continued doggedly, "they could simply refuse to kiss each other! What then?"

"Not a problem! We could enchant the mistletoe any day to force them to kiss once they're under it or it won't go away. I just need to think of something new. All the other mistletoe ideas are getting old and boring. Once neither of them could escape, voila!" Remus grinned at his idea, rubbing his hands greedily. "Anyway, James won't say no, unless Lily refuses point blank. He won't even touch her if she doesn't allow him to. Coward," he chuckled. "And as I am pretty sure that Lily's also attracted to him, consider this as done. They won't know what hit them!"

Sirius was still not convinced. "So… about how you're going to attract them together to pull it off…? I mean, sure they are friends and all, but they keep a reasonable amount of friendly distance."

"Well, that might need planning… or we might have to leave it up to fate…" said Remus, once again sinking into his own thoughts.

"So, what does this mistletoe do again?" Sirius asked for the umpteenth time just to annoy Remus.

"Quit fussing me, Sirius! I need to concentrate!" Remus bit back impatiently. "Unless you want me to put it over us for demonstration's sake and force you to kiss me, shut the hell up!"

"Wow, can't believe Moony also experiences PMS…" Sirius muttered under his breath, but unfortunately not quiet enough. Remus heard him and hit his head hard.

The both of them were under James's Invisibility Cloak that Remus 'loaned' from James, without permission, of course. Down each end of the corridor they were currently standing stood the targets in question, wand out, decorating the castle with tinsel and holly. Lily had insisted that if they split up, the work would be done much faster and they can relax, since both of them excelled in Charms. The two culprits in hiding, however, were currently planning how best to attract James to Lily, or vice versa, then proceeding with the mistletoe plan.

"Are you sure that no one will find out?" Sirius hissed. "If someone finds us, we might as well suffer the wrath of McGonagall rather than face James and Lily!"

"Relax, Padfoot! This area is specially assigned for the Heads to decorate. Plus, it is one of the more deserted corridors. No one else will come here," Remus assured him. "I wonder if Dumbledore did this on purpose. Hehehe…" he chuckled evilly.

"Then why can't we use my broom closet idea?" Sirius whined. He didn't like his 'brilliant ideas' to go down the drain. "Why? It's as good, you know."

"Because, Sirius, we need to catch them unaware. If they knew they were set up, they won't even touch each other even if they're locked in for hours. Instead, they'd spend hours and hours finding every way to get out of the situation, even if we had disarmed their wands. You should know better than anyone else how stubborn they can be," Remus answered, still thinking of a way to get the two together.

Frustrated at his 'brilliant idea' getting shot down by one of his best pals, he went back to check the Marauder's Map. The coast was clear from all directions, secret passages or not, except… "Hey, wait a minute… What is Snivellus doing up here?" Sirius muttered, unconsciously balling his fists angrily as he saw his most hated enemy moving faster and faster towards their direction.

"What?" Remus was also caught off guard. Sirius pointed at the little ink dot labelled, "Severus Snape". It was moving along one of the secret passages that ended right in the middle of the corridor, the exit concealed by a tapestry.

"Bloody git. Let's curse him," Sirius snarled. Apparently the lesson he tried to teach Snivellus last year didn't make a lasting impression in his grease-covered head. Pity it didn't work. All because of that heroic figure, James Potter. Why did he save Snivellus was anybody's guess. Quick as lightning, he plunged his hand into his robe pocket and fished out his wand. Remus, however, stopped him.

"We can't, Sirius! Our cover would be completely blown! Don't you remember last year?" he urged. "Screw the bloody cover, Remus! This is Snivellus we're talking about!" Sirius voice was rising, had it not been for Remus's "Shh!", the whole castle might hear what he was saying at the top of his voice now. "He'd curse us, or James over there, or even Lily, if we didn't curse him first! You know how he and the rest of his little gang of Slytherins hate Mudbloods? And us blood traitors?"

"To hell with it Sirius! What in the name of Merlin is wrong with you? You nearly killed him – and me – last year, and you still want to hold this silly grudge? Why can't you just ignore him? I –" Remus was cut off with a blood curdling scream, followed by a loud swear. Apparently, Snape came out of the passage and, spotting James, decided to curse him before ducking into yet another passageway without anyone noticing, as James and Lily were both immersed in their work and Sirius and Remus were too busy bickering like an old married couple to notice (though they don't swing that way, never fear).

"See? I told you!" Sirius fumed. "'Why can't you just ignore him?' Is there even a doubt now? That bloody bastard! You should've let me hex him when I had the chance! Now he's hexed James. I told you he would do it… What?"

Remus, however, was smiling in a very satisfied manner, which was right at the bottom of Sirius's list-of-things-to-do-now. He was astonished that his friend was glad that their other friend and his almost brother was cursed by their arch-enemy and got away with it, when they could've prevented it from happening. "What're you so happy about, Remus? Took the wrong potion today? Or did you get hit by the Cheering Charm?" He asked suspiciously. "I certainly didn't do it."

"You're way behind events, Padfoot, my friend," Remus replied, still smirking. He pointed towards James's end of the corridor. "Fate… what a curious thing…" Sirius whirled around and stared.

James had a large, ugly gash down his left cheek, courtesy of one Severus Snape. Blood spattered everywhere as he tried to stop the bleeding. On the other side of the corridor, Lily, hearing the scream, turned in time to see James bleeding. Her heart stopped. She was instantly reminded of that day, that October full moon, when a bloodied and wounded James had stood before her. Seeing him hurt again only refreshed and redoubled her fear of losing him. She raced as fast as she could to James. Taking his hand gently away from the wound, she muttered, "Tergeo!" to clear away the blood before proceeding to heal it with a simple healing spell. Not even a scar was left, thanks to Lily's brilliant spellwork.

"Cheers, Lily. I really appreciate it," James said gratefully as he touched the part of his face that was, but a few seconds ago, a horribly deep wound. "No problem," came the answer. James contemplated his co-Head for a moment, then requested, "You know, maybe we should, perhaps, work together? So that no one like Snivellus comes and hexes us? We could cover each other's backs."

Lily cocked her head to one side and regarded him before she answered, "All right, James, you've got it. But I'm curious… How did you know that it was Snape?" While she was asking this, neither of them heard Remus casting the levitating spell on the mistletoe, aiming it right above their heads.

James snorted, "As far as I know, only he knows the spell, and has used it on yours truly on a good number of occasions. That bloody git." Lily raised her eyebrows and said, "Right, right… So Snivelly is the culprit… Interesting… Oofh!"

Suddenly she felt something pushing her forward, enclosing her in a confined space with James. "What was that?" was her only response as she looked around her for suspicious occurrences that might just explain what was going on. James, also puzzled over this peculiar force, forgot momentarily about his work as he looked around for the source of this disturbance.

"Mistletoe…" he mumbled, pointing upwards. Lily's eyes followed the direction of his finger. Sure enough, high above them floated the unsuspecting green plant. James lowered his head and locked his gaze with Lily's. The invisible force pushed them a little more, forcing Lily to place a hand on James's chest in order to steady herself. She inhaled his scent, which was dizzying and intoxicating. Lily was on the verge of falling apart. And those eyes… those beautiful hazel eyes… she wanted to drink the elixir of his living… to taste the emotions she could share with the man before her…

James was fidgeting restlessly. On one hand, he wanted to kiss Lily desperately, so intensely that he was afraid his heart might burst for sheer want of such desire. On the other hand, Lily might take it badly if he did kiss her. That is, if she didn't want to kiss him, if she just wanted to keep their friendship strictly platonic. He sighed. Why oh why was he caught in such an embarrassing situation? And Lily's bewitching green emeralds were staring straight at him. He couldn't think straight. When he spoke, his words came out jumbled and he stuttered horribly.

"Err… I… Lily… I'm sure… um… there's a way out of this… maybe a peck on the cheek, do you think? I mean… well… it's just to help us… I don't know…"

"James." He heard Lily calling his name, in a strange, unsettling tone he had never heard her use before. She seemed to notice it as well. She cleared her throat as the invisible space grew smaller and smaller, imprisoning them.

"James," she said again, looking into his confused eyes. "Just shut up and kiss me."

If James was confused before, he certainly was even more so now. What the hell? Lily Evans asked me to kiss her? Maybe she's having a fever, a delirium, because this cannot be happening! I mean, I'm the one who usually…

When James didn't respond, only to look at her in shock, she raised her lips to meet his in a soft kiss. The mistletoe immediately disappeared with a soft 'pop', but neither of them noticed. A currant of electric swept through them right when Lily caught James's lips, shaking their very core. James was only surprised for a moment before he started to kiss her back. He kissed her with fire, with passion, deepening the kiss with every moment that passed, and Lily returned it with equal intensity. They both melted against each other as they reached out to one another.

James pulled her against him, grinding against her, his mouth hot, demanding and burning with passion and desire. His right hand slid under her robes and her blouse to caress her bare skin underneath, while his left hand ran through her hair repeatedly, as he kissed her insistently. Both of Lily's arms snaked around James's neck, rumpling his already messy hair as she pulled him closer, as close as she could, wanting him, and only him…

They both drew apart simultaneously to catch their breath, but it was only for a while before James's lips claimed Lily's again with a searing kiss. Their kiss was that of urgency and of hunger, as if they couldn't stand another moment away from each other, as if there was no tomorrow, and that today was all they've got left…

James's kisses never lost its intensity as they travelled down Lily's jaw, her collarbone, her throat… Lily groaned as he kissed her neck feverishly. Aroused by Lily's moans of pleasure, James's touches and kisses became wilder as he was driven by the desire now coursing through his veins. They both wished fervently that the kiss would never end.

At last, panting, they paused, though still wrapped in each other's tight embrace, revelling in each other's warmth and comfort. "Oh! You have no idea how much I've wanted this, Lily!" James moaned against her neck. "I've only dreamt about it, and it drives me crazy day by day…" Lily silenced him by pressing her lips firmly to his. Despite being out of breath, the kiss was heated as both poured themselves into it.

This is who I want to be with! her mind shouted out to her. No matter what happened next, I want to be with him…It's better to have lived and loved, than never at all… I cannot be afraid any more… If I did, I would lose all chances of happiness…

"I've wanted it too. I've wanted it so much. But I was so afraid. Afraid that we won't work out in the end," she admitted after they broke apart. "But now I don't care. As long as you're with me." She couldn't believe it took her that long to admit to him, and herself, for that matter, about how she really felt.

"Go out with me, Lily?" James asked, grinning shyly. He was finally confident that, this time, she would return his feelings, feelings he'd had for so long. He felt he was the happiest man on earth at that moment. He wished he could bottle it up forever. Lily smiled too, feeling contented, nestling in the arms of the man she liked so much, so much that it hurt. How could she refuse him any longer?

Instead of saying yes outright, she replied, raising her eyebrows in a very suggestive manner, "I don't know, James. Try and convince me."

Catching her eyes, which were dancing with mischief, James grinned, and complied with her unasked request at once. He kissed her again and again, this time slowly, teasingly, deliberately. He nipped at her pleasure-points. He planted sweet kisses on the hollow of her neck. He coaxed and cooed between kisses. Lily liked the passionate James, but she liked this sweet, gentle, teasing James too. Both were enjoying every moment of it.

"Mmm… Well, what do you think if I say yes, James?" she asked in a whisper, delirious with the hot blood running through her veins. James replied without missing a beat in his kisses and caresses, "Very nice, Lily. I would reward you most graciously."

"Oh Merlin, how could I say no? Yes, I will, James. Yes," she answered finally, and didn't regret it. James beamed in success, which Lily returned joyously. She brought his face up and they engaged in a deep kiss, not having enough of each other.

A little distance away, Remus, who had to drag an insufferable, complaining Sirius out of the corridor and into the secret passage hidden by the tapestry after the mistletoe trick to give the couple some privacy, caught the last bit of the conversation and beamed under the Invisibility Cloak. Success!

– To Be Continued –