"Lily!" Saffron called as she ran after her friend, passing a large clump of bushes.
"It's ok," Lily called back, "I just want to be by myself for a while. I need to think."
Saffron stopped running and watched Lily go and settle herself by the lake. Someone came running out from the other direction, hidden by the bushes. He crashed headlong into Saffron, knocking her backwards.
"Watch it!" she said, rubbing her elbows as she sat up. She'd grazed them on the rough stone slabs leading to the greenhouses.
"What are you doing lurking behind bushes," sneered Snape unapologetically. "Where's your entourage? You must be feeling quite lost without their pandering."
"What's your problem?" Saffron snapped getting up.
"At the moment I'm rather upset at being reminded I have to share my air with the likes of you," he replied smoothly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded angrily.
"Surely I don't have to explain to you," he sighed with mock patience, "I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to have brains."
She glared at him.
He looked scathingly back, "and here I was believing there was some truth in the different house virtues, and there you are exhibiting no signs of wit or intelligence. Professor Tempera will be disappointed." He glanced at her, pleased to see her reaction. "But then again, perhaps we shouldn't expect too much, after all, you are only a woman."
She stepped forwards and slapped him hard across his face. He stepped back and said coldly, "how coarse." Then, in one fluid motion, drew his wand and cast two spells in succession. The first pulled the wand she had drawn out of her hand and the second stuck her feet to the ground. "I thought you came from a wizarding family."
"Let me go!" Saffron ordered, pulling uselessly at her feet. They felt like she was standing in a puddle of super-strength glue.
"Perhaps you need a lesson in how wizards treat disagreements," he said, ignoring her comments and idly twirling his wand between his fingers.
Her eyes widened as she suddenly realised her predicament and opened her mouth to call for help.
"None of that," Snape said coolly, shooting a light green spell in her direction, "I do hate hearing a woman scream."
Saffron clutched at her throat, feeling something smooth and cold creeping over her neck and over her face, covering her mouth and nose. With rising panic she scrabbled at the invisible blanket smothering her.
"Now that is so much better isn't it?" he said, in a falsely friendly voice. He advanced towards her, "I'm told that some people can hold their breath for a surprising length of time, especially swimmers and singers. I'm rather keen myself on testing this theory, unless of course you'd like to sing for me." He drew a finger over her cheek, drawing it back as she slapped a hand in his direction.
"Get your filthy paws off her!" Sirius growled, advancing on them, his wand drawn.
"Oh look, here comes Mr Black to the rescue," Snape said dryly. Saffron dropped to her knees beside him, hands falling to her side.
"Get away from her now!" Sirius was as black as thunder as he stalked towards them.
Pointing his wand at Sirius, Snape drawled, "how nice to see the famous Gryffindor chivalry at work." He glanced down at Saffron, who was turning blue and calmly said the counter-curse. She dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. Barely recognising Sirius through patchy vision she half crawled the few steps towards him. Snape watched her go, his face unreadable.
Sirius moved to stand in front of Saffron, who was still breathing laboriously and holding her neck. "If you ever touch her again-"
"You'll what Black?" spat Snape, his control vanishing, "attack me in front of a field full of witness'? I don't think that even your bravery is up to that! Though perhaps it might appeal to your stupidity." A small group of first years had just appeared, chasing after a frisby. They had stopped and were now eyeing the two older boys worriedly, their eyes going from one wand to the other.
Sirius shook with anger, "You piece of filth!"
"Oh my, harsh words from Sirius Black!" Snape mocked sardonically.
"Let's test your bravery then Snivellus," Sirius said, his voice shaking with repressed emotion, "tonight, ten o'clock. Press the knot on the Whomping Willow and go down the passageway at its roots. We'll see whether you're all talk and no balls!"
Snape stared at Sirius for a long moment and then, spotting a teacher not far away, lowered his wand. Without another word he stalked away into the castle through a side door.
Immediately Sirius dropped to his feet and turned to Saffron, "Are you alright?"
"I think so," she rasped, coughing a little and massaging her throat.
He helped her to sit up and gazed anxiously at her as she blinked repeatedly, "are you sure you don't need to see the Nurse?"
She took a few deep breaths and managed a smile, "I'm alright. My main complaint is injured pride," she smiled wryly, "I guess even if Lily's not the damsel in distress I am huh?"
"That's fine with me so long as I'm the one who gets to rescue you," he replied with a grin.
"Honestly," Saffron answered, looking up at him, "you're so…" She trailed off, he was so close she could feel his warm breath on her face.
"So what?" he asked quietly, leaning towards her.
She could feel thunder racing through her veins as she gulped and tried to look away. Her hands shook and she was sure he would hear her heart racing.
Unable to bear the tension anymore, he pulled her into his arms and their eyes met for a moment before she leant forwards and pressed her mouth to his, feeling heat surge through her body. Sirius responding with equal ardour, feeling her body relax against him, revelling in the sweetness of her lips and the fire he felt rising within him. They kissed passionately for the longest moment before Saffron broke away, pushing him back.
"No," she panted, shaking her head, "no."
"Why? What's wrong?" Sirius gasped, his eyes full of concern.
"I…I don't want this," she got up shakily and pressed a hand to her tender lips.
He got up and took her arm, "Saffron?"
She flinched, almost resentful of his touch as it made her shudder. "I think I will go to the Hospital Wing," she said in a wavering voice, avoiding his gaze, "James'll throw a fit if he sees these grazes." She pulled out of his grip and turned away, "Don't tell him," she called back without turning.
Don't tell him what? Sirius wondered, that Snape attacked you or that I finally kissed you and instead of being satisfied I can barely stop myself from running after you and doing it all over again?
******
When Lily went in to dinner she found Saffron seated by herself, unaccountably quiet.
"What's wrong?" she asked, sitting down next to her.
"I'll tell you later," Saffron murmured, glancing up as the marauders walked in, past them to their table. She looked down so as to avoid all of their gazes, although in reality only one questioning face turned towards her.
"Lily,"
She looked up, it was Eliza Brown the Head Girl; a tall, cheery girl, who wore her long blond hair in two plaits, "Prefect meeting tonight," she said, "same place as normal- seven o'clock, don't be late. Oh and let the others know too."
Lily nodded as the Hufflepuff went to tell the Slytherin prefects. Looking over she could see the Head Boy, Alex Contay, telling his Gryffindor prefects. She wondered what the meeting would be about. Looking up she caught Remus' eye and smiled at him to let him know she wasn't mad at him.
"Well?" he mouthed to her.
She frowned and nodded curtly. It wouldn't hurt to oblige him this once, besides, if she had a prefects' meeting then maybe she would be too busy anyway. He looked relieved as he turned to speak to James.
Recently she had begun to wonder about her relationship with Remus. It was strange; I mean they did all the normal things teenage couples did, but she thought that she was supposed to feel differently about him. More…more something. She wasn't sure what, maybe she was just being silly to think she should feel butterflies in her stomach every time he smiled at her, or her lips should tingle when they kissed. But this wasn't how she felt at all. She liked Remus a lot, they shared loads of common interests and he was sweet and considerate. But she couldn't help feeling that sometimes their relationship wasn't just an extended friendship.
At five to seven, she and Dan walked into the Prefects' Meeting Room. Eliza and Alex were already there, sitting at the table talking over a stack of notes. They glanced up and smiled when they heard the other two enter.
"Oh good, you're early," Eliza said approvingly.
"Take a seat," Alex added, gesturing to the seats.
They sat to the left of Eliza and she handed them both a piece of parchment, saying, "No teachers at today's meeting."
"We've already spoken to them and they were happy to let us take full responsibility. Although they're willing to give their help if we need it," Alex said.
"I'm hoping we won't need it though," Eliza said quickly with a slight frown, "There shouldn't be anything hard work shouldn't get over."
"That's just the Hufflepuff in you talking," Alex said amicably with a grin as he stretched his arms over his head.
She raised an eyebrow at him in irritation but sighed and decided instead to greet the Hufflepuff prefects who had just come in.
Ten minutes later, when everyone was settled, Alex and Eliza explained what they wanted. A ball had been proposed for the end of the Easter holidays, as a bit of light relief from exam pressure. Dumbledore had given his approval and so what they wanted was to pair the prefects and delegate certain jobs to each pair.
"But, in the interests of interhouse cooperation," Eliza said, "no two members of the same house will work together."
"We randomly paired people and will take it in turns to read out the pairs. Move into your pairs as we call out your names and then we'll explain what we want each pair to do," finished Alex, pulling out the list from under more paperwork.
"Right," Eliza said, finding the first pair, "Mora Ford, Simon Heist."
"Edward Rice, Kirena Telana."
"Dan Mitchell, Miranda Pierce."
"Anna Greeves, Severus Snape."
"Lily Evans, James Potter."
"Gemma Milena, Klarin Yunelsca."
"Josh Jones, Lottie Pierce."
"Reeve Avery, Kate Lenord."
"Kathryn Hewitt, Rob Jennings."
"Sam Trevivick, Jardis White."
"Narcissa Grange, Greg Jackson."
Lily went to find James and sat in the seat vacated by Miranda. He grinned at her as she sat down and leaned over to whisper, "Randomly selected my arse, notice how there is only one Gryffindor- Slytherin partnership? I'll bet my broom Alex had a hand in that! Plus, Kate is the most easygoing of the lot of us; she'll handle working with a Slytherin fine."
"Alright," Alex said loudly over the noise that inevitably came when people moved to partner up. The noise died down, "that's better," he grinned, "now, send one person in each pair to come and collect their assignment," his lips twitched as he said the last word and he caught James' eye, both looked away quickly, swallowing the urge to laugh. It would have been Eliza that called them that, Alex would never have used that word. He would have probably said something like, "the thing we want you to do," or at a push, "task."
James came back with a small list of ideas, "We got the Great Hall decoration," he informed her, looking rather less than thrilled.
Lily couldn't help but laugh, "that excited about it are you?"
He grimaced, "I don't want to spend ages deciding what flowers will clash the least with dress robes."
She grinned at him, "Well Mr Potter, we're stuck with decoration, so you'd better get used to it."
He sighed and flopped down into his chair, slouching. Lily prodded his stomach making him yelp and glare at her. She just grinned back, he was so much fun to tease.
"Alright, I get the point," he retorted, sitting up.
"We've given you a month to prepare things, a meeting's scheduled for a month today for you to report back on the decisions you've made. If there are any problems find either myself or Alex in between then. And that's basically it. We trust you'll make time to meet up and think through your assignments. Feel free to do whatever you want now." Saying so she took Alex's arm and guided him over to a corner where she got out another piece of parchment and started talking to him about it.
"I suppose you want to make a start now don't you," James said, his face poker straight.
"You guess right, Mr Potter," Lily replied, her face equally free of emotion, "and seeing as you made such a great suggestion about flowers I say our first stop is the Greenhouses."
James groaned.
"You're the one taking Herbology, not me," she reminded him, "I can't do it without you."
He seemed to think more of the idea after that, and they both rose following the handful of students making their way out of the door.
They walked along the corridor discussing what sort of decoration they wanted to use. Lily had pounced on his floral idea and was determined to use it. Once he had seen how determined she was on this, James resigned himself to many evenings spent in the Greenhouses surrounded by large flowers.
They walked out into the grounds, their March weather mild enough for them not to need cloaks. Everything was bathed in the pale light of the moon, Lily looked around her, feeling energy surging through her. Her eyes sparkled and she felt her skin was almost humming as the moonlight touched it. James gazed at her in admiration before shaking his head, she was Remus' girlfriend. He'd already had long conversations with himself about his less than platonic feelings for Lily and had thought he was past this.
Reaching the Greenhouses, Lily turned and asked, "ok, which one will be the best to start to look for plants?"
He thought for a moment, "Two," he decided, "one just contains bizarre plants that they get the younger students to work on. Three is for the dangerous plants and two is basically everything else. It also contains the more decorative non-magical plants."
"Alright then, we'll start there," she pushed open the door and walked through, followed by James. Greenhouse two backed onto the long stretch of lawn that finished at the Whomping Willow.
****
A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys, I'm glad most of you agree with me about the Lily/Remus brief interlude. I hope you're getting the point of their relationship and the contrasting one that's starting to develop with James. Anyway, Firefox 37x, nicely spotted, but no they didn't see and she hasn't done that thing in front of them before.
Right, off to do more updating-it takes more effort than you realise ppl! Unless of course you have more than one of your own fic in which case you probably do know what I'm talking about ^__^
xxx