James walked towards Professor Sprouts' office with a heavy heart. This detention was cutting into time that he would have spent playing Quidditch, or finishing up that chess game with Remus.
As he pushed open the heavy door, his heart gave a quick little bounce. For some reason, Lily Evans was standing there by Sprouts' desk, looking angry and upset. He wondered what was wrong. Surely little miss perfect couldn't have gotten into trouble? Even though he should have hoped for her to be just fine, he couldn't help wishing for her to end up serving detention with him. Then the two hours wouldn't be completely wasted - because no two hours spent with Lily Evens was ever wasted. Not that he would really know about that, considering how little time he ever got to spend with her. In fact, in all of his seven years at Hogwarts, he didn't think he'd ever spent more than ten minutes with her, not including class time, which he spent with the Marauders. Who were, in fact, the reason he was here.
"Um, hi," he ventured, stepping into the classroom.
Lily jumped.
"Oh, just fabulous," she said when she saw who it was. "That's really what I need right now. A wonderful two hours spent with Hogwarts' biggest prat."
"Come on now Evans, that's not fair," he protested immediately. For once, he was a little irritated with her. He really hadn't done anything to her or even by her in ages, and her she was accusing him for no reason. "It's not like you would know." He sat on the edge of the empty desk, facing away from her.
There was a pause. Then she asked, in a rough but faintly authentic voice, "What do you mean?"
James tipped his head back a bit, closed his eyes, and sighed. "What do I mean? I mean, when have you ever given me a chance? You've just always assumed that I'm a huge prat because I curse Snivellus in the hallways."
"Yeah, well, do you even have a reason for cursing him?"
He spun around the edge of the desk to face her. "Do I have a reason? How about he's an irritating, arrogant berk who curses me and my friends behind my back?"
Lily crossed her arms, but looked slightly taken aback. "You could just block it and get on with things, you know. What, do you think no one's ever cursed me?"
"Alright, well, I'm no pacifist, and I won't just sit there and take it. I'm no coward." The words were out of his mouth before he could think about how they sounded.
"What did you just say to me?" Lily demanded, her voice sounding shriller than it had a second ago. "I am not a coward!"
James slid off the desk onto his feet, and stepped closer to her. "Yes you are! You don't even have the courage to act on your feelings towards me!"
"What feelings?" she asked simply.
He felt like she had deflated him. One moment the blood had been racing through his veins, pounding with a heavy beat, stirring him on to say what he felt. Now she presented him again with the statement that had haunted his nightmares since he had first come to Hogwarts. He had tried over and over again to accept it, but had never been able to. Even right now, with her just telling him straight out, he knew that he would roll into bed that night and think of ways around it.
He dropped his eyes to the ground, and hopped back up on the desk. "Alright," he admitted in a hollow voice. "I'm sorry. You're no coward. But neither am I," he added, looking up. It surprised him to look up into Lilys' pretty face.
"Refusing to fight doesn't make you a coward," she informed him, still with her face breathtakingly close. "But maybe refusing you feelings does - and I'm no coward." She slowly looked up into his eyes, and then pressed her warm, chapped lips against his. James figured that it was the courageous thing to do to respond the way his feelings dictated.
Five minutes later James' hands were lingering dangerously close to her wondrously curved butt when the heavy door creaked loudly. Lily and James separated just a little to turn and look at a horrified Professor Sprout, who looked even angrier than when James had made Snapes' head green with polka dots in the hallway.
"That's it!" Sprout cried angrily. "Both of you are going straight to McGonagall! I've had enough of you! This is preposterous! And here I was, thinking that it was scandalous, having two detention students kissing while they were supposed to be scrubbing floors for Filch! Well, McGonagall can deal with the four of you!"
By that time, they had reached Professor McGonagall's office. Sprout opened the door for them and pointed inward, where they both went reluctantly. It looked like the two students were in the middle of receiving a heavy lecture from the stern teacher inside. As James watched, Sirius and Remus turned their heads around to look and see who was coming inside the office.