Tables Turned
By SnakeEyesHannah
"Potter," Lily Evans called. "Potter!" she called louder when she boy in question didn't respond the first time. She had him in her sight, soaring high in the cold winter sky. She, herself, was walking, feet firmly planted on the ground, covered in head to toe in warm clothes. "James!" she yelled and this time got a response from the black-haired Head Boy.
"Yes?" he asked, turning to see who called him. He flew down to hoover close to Lily, only realizing it was her when he was almost three feet from her. "Lily?" he asked, surprised.
"Yes, it's me," she said, voice muted by her gold and scarlet-striped scarf.
"Wha-What are you doing down here?" he asked.
Lily shrugged, suddenly feeling very self-conscious and silly for storming down here. But she quickly squared her shoulders and rose to full height. The height didn't do much to James as he was a head or so taller than her, but it did Lily's confidence good.
"A) I was cold. B) I needed to stretch my legs so I decided to go for a walk. C) I happened to saw you flying and thought I'd come and save your skinny arse from a cold." She silently congratulated herself for being so quick-witted.
"A) Fair enough," James said with a light shrug, "B) Makes sense save for the fact that you came outside for a walk when you were cold to begin with," here he paused to smirk at her, which caused Lily to blush furiously, "and C) what's it to you if I catch a cold or not?"
"A)-," she trailed off, unable to find a comment for that one as he just agreed with her. She cleared her throat and diverted her eyes from James. "B) I thought walking would warm me up and the air's so much better outside than inside. C) I don't, I couldn't care less if you did, I just thought I'd give you the heads up since you were flying without a jacket when it's freezing outside, during a time when it's almost curfew."
"B) That-," James started, but was interrupted by Lily holding her hand up.
"Stop it with the listing," she demanded.
"You started it!" James complained, rather like a five-year-old.
"Yeah?" Lily narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, now I'm stopping it. And could you please get off that silly broom!"
"It's not silly!" James protested, immediately coming to the defence of his trustworthy broom, but touching ground properly nevertheless.
"Yes, it's silly because it's a broom which will cause you to catch a cold and be unable to play against Ravenclaw coming next week and would cause you to get detention for staying out past curfew!" Lily huffed. She could feel herself growing colder and colder by the second. She really wasn't a winter person. Well, honestly she was, but only during day-time. When she had on layer and layers of decent, warm and thick clothes. A cloak on top of a half-warm sweater wasn't really good enough.
"Oho, so you do care for me, if I catch a cold, I mean," James said, grinning.
"You wish, Potter," Lily spat. "Just because I don't want all the Gryffindor on my case because I let their star Chaser and Captain get sick doesn't mean I care about you personally." She was now full-on shivering, her lips beginning to turn a rather nasty shade of blue.
James was about to retort when he heard the clattering of her teeth. She was freezing, much more than he was. "Lils! You're turning blue!" He quickly took a step forward, grabbing her by the arms, turning her around and gently guiding her towards the locker rooms.
"Where are you taking me?" she demanded.
"To warm you up."
"I'm fine, thank-you." It would have made a better impression had she not been shivering violently and clattering her teeth. She was darn cold and on the inside she was really grateful James had noticed and acted on it.
"Mhm, sure you are, flower," James mumbled with little conviction in his voice. He steered her towards the men's side and Lily started protesting. "Oh come on, it's not like there's going to be anyone in there. Besides, I have all my gear in there." She still seemed hesitant and James went ahead, opening the door, allowing the warm yellow light stream out. "It's warm here," he cajoled, grinning as she begrudgingly went inside, 'humpf'-ing as she passed him.
Well inside and sitting on one of the benches in the room, Lily felt herself almost immediately warming up. A shiver went through her body as it started to heat up again. Obviously James took this the wrong way and quickly opened, what Lily could only assume to be his locker, to take out his cloak. He wrapped it around Lily's shoulders, rubbing his hands up and down her arms a couple times, to get her circulation going.
Lily narrowed her eyes at the cloak around her shoulders. "If you had your cloak here the whole time, why didn't you wear it while flying? Couldn't you feel it was below zero outside?" She was starting to heavily question his sanity. Not that she hadn't always.
James shrugged, shaking his head slightly. "No, not really. The cloak gets in the way, it slows me down. And I didn't really think of the cold. I think I was numb after ten minutes or so," he waved it off.
Lily stared incredulously at him. "How long have you been flying?" she asked, suspicious. It wasn't good to be outside for long without proper clothes during the winter. You could get frostbite and loose body parts.
James shrugged at her question. "Depends. What time is it?"
"Around eight," Lily replied.
James made a face, counting how long he'd been out in his head. "Almost an hour and a half then, I guess," he concluded.
"An hour and a half!" Lily shrieked, standing up. "Are you mental!"
Automatically James stood too, making another face. "I probably am," he admitted. "But you still love me for it, don't you, love?" he asked cheekily.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him and poked him in the chest. "Why, pray tell, would you be outside, flying, in the freezing cold in the evening, when it's not practice, for an hour and a half?" she questioned. James winced. That was his Lily right there, always asking the right questions he didn't want to answer. "You know I'll haunt you until I find out," she threatened.
To James, it really didn't sound like a too horrible punishment for not explaining his situation. On one hand he would get an irritated Lily, stalking him to find out why he was out there, and on the other hand he would get an irritated, possibly mad, Lily, avoiding him at all costs. To him, it really wasn't such a tough decision.
"Why should I tell you?"
Lily glared at him. "Because I asked you to." She grinned, almost evilly. "And because if you don't, I'll tell McGonagall. Hear what she has to say about her Quidditch Captain risking his health so close to a match, eh?" By Lily's triumphant expression and James' wince, they both knew he was doomed.
"You wouldn't do that, would you?" he asked. "I mean, she'd bench me. And if she'd bench me, people would start asking questions and sooner or later someone will let it slip that you were the one who ratted to McGonagall about me, so the whole house will be on you."
Lily stared at him, arms crossed. "You think I care?"
"You did not five minutes ago when I was asking why you cared I got a cold!" he replied hotly.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him more, glaring. They stood in silence, staring into each other's eyes, trying to get the other to succumb first, neither willing to admit defeat.
Eventually, Lily sighed and uncrossed her arms, sitting down on the bench again. "So why won't you tell me?" she asked, voice void of emotions.
"Because it's about you," he replied truthfully, knowing that even if he'd won the stare-battle, he'd still tell her everything she wanted to know, all because she had his heart. She didn't know it, but she could make him do practically everything – if it meant making her happy.
Lily didn't seem too surprised it was about her, but there was a small flicker of something in her eyes that James didn't quite catch. "What about me? What did I say or do to make you try and commit social suicide and endanger your health?"
"Nothing."
Lily snorted. "Yeah, and I'm supposed to believe that?" She shook her head at James. "No matter how much I hate to admit it, when it comes to you and me, it's never 'nothing'."
James hung his head, closing his eyes. That was his Lily in a nutshell too, too smart for her own good. Maybe that's why he liked her so much, she could see things others didn't, pick up on little things that others bypassed.
"So why don't you tell me so I can get annoyed, fire your temper and we'll have ourselves a nice little row and have it out of our systems, eh?" Lily coaxed. "We both know you want to."
James would've laughed, had the situation been different. Normally it was his line, saying they both knew she wanted him. Now she'd turned the tables on him, albeit a bit differently. No doubt she'd used that phrase just because of the irony of the situation.
James sighed. "Fine," he agreed, shaking his head before lifting it to look into Lily's face. "I was brooding because I saw you and Diggory." He made a face of anger, spitting out the name as if it was poison, looking back down to the floor.
Lily fought back a laugh. "Because you saw me talking to Amos…"
"Yeah, because I saw you talking to Amos," he echoed, adopting a mocking 'girl'-voice at the name again. He made a noise as if he was sick and Lily let out a giggle. James' head snapped up at the giggle, unsure he'd just heard Lily Evans giggle. "What's so funny?"
Lily let out a small laugh, her head cocked to the side. "You're really daft sometimes, Potter."
"I am not!"
"You are," Lily smiled, nodding. "You're jealous because I was talking to a friend. A friend, Potter, like Black or Remus to you. It wasn't like we were having a sordid affair, sneaking off into a broom closet!" She half-snorted. "It's sort of not possible for me to have an affair, really, since I don't actually have a boyfriend in the first place. And I know who to thank for that." She gave James a pointed look.
"What? Like I've done something!"
"You have!" Lily exclaimed. "In fifth year you threatened to hex anyone who looked at me, or even thought about me, in a romantic way. You proved you weren't lying when you said that twice when very nice, decent blokes asked me out. And after that, blokes have been too scared to approach me, thinking I was 'your girl'. Honestly!" Lily gestured airily. "Like I'd ever be 'your girl'. You can't be someone's 'girl'. That's like owning someone, and you can't own a person!"
James smiled, despite the seriousness of the situation. It actually was his fault Lily hadn't had a date (officially) since fifth year. But he did that when he was fifteen! He was kid. The fact that he'd 'sent out the PM' again last year and in the beginning of this year too had nothing to do with it. He was just warning blokes about the dangers of getting involved with Lily. Everyone knew they were meant for each other. Even Lily knew that, once she stopped and thought about it.
"Are you even listening to me?"
James shook his head, smiling at her. "No, I wasn't. I was too busy noticing how lovely you look in my cloak. It suits you. You should wear it more often."
Lily let out a frustrated groan. "I don't know why I bother trying to talk sense to you."
"Neither do I," James contributed.
"I mean, you're still a conceited, immature, prank-playing, womanizing git!"
"Yes, yes, of course I am," he grinned, reaching out to grab the hand that Lily wasn't waving out in big gestures. "But right now I need you to be quiet and stop ranting. I'd rather like to kiss you, but if you keep talking, it'd spoil the mood."
"You've got some nerve-"
But Lily didn't get further before James' lips were on hers.
Author's Note: Sorry about the abrupt ending. Didn't really know how to continue. But it's a cute little ficlet I've had lying around for a while... Figured I had to do something with it soon... Haha...
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, settings or otherwise recognizable features of the Harry Potter universe.