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Chapter 9

A Stepping Stone

The month passed without much incident, aside from the fact that Lily and James were getting closer, and Sirius refused to talk to James, no matter how much James tried to apologize. The trial that James and Lily had initially fought over had just ended, and needless to say, the judge was surprised by the lack of unnecessary arguments between the two. The verdict was released a few days later, and it proclaimed Lily's client guilty, meaning that James had won the case.

Another two days later, and Lily and James were at a café that was nearby the Ministry. It was their lunch break and they had decided to go to lunch together. As they ate, they were talking about random things or anything at all that sparked their interest. The two carefully didn't mention their problems with Sirius, as they knew it would ruin the light-hearted atmosphere.

"So James," Lily asked him as she sipped her iced tea. "Did you hear about the case Camilla Parkland filed against Dave Helperman?"

"You mean the one about the restaurant they co-owned, and she claimed that he was threatening her to give him her share of the profits too?" James asked her. "Yeah, I heard about that. Crazy case. Personally though, I think Helperman's innocent".

"What?" Lily said in disbelief. "How can you say that? It makes no sense, where do you base your opinions upon?"

"Well, evidence and credibility, for one thing," James replied as he put down his cup of coffee. "Dave Helperman is a big name in the restaurant business, and he's known as a very honest businessman. He has no bad record. Besides, the security spells that have been placed around the restaurant and at any plausible location didn't show that he ever threatened her for money".

"But he's the owner, and more importantly, he's a wizard, it'd have been very easy for him to remove the spell when he was taking threatening her and taking the money. Trust me, I'm positive that's he guilty," Lily countered.

James's eyes sparkled. "Now, Ms. Evans, would you be willing to bet on that?"

Lily grinned as she replied, "Yes, I believe so, Mr. Potter. So you're betting that he's innocent, and I'm betting that he's guilty. Whoever is right wins".

"Deal. We'll even go personally to see when the verdict is released," James said as an idea popped into his head and he smiled cunningly. "And as for the terms, loser gets to buy the other dinner".

Lily smiled and said "Deal". Not once did the thought cross her mind that whatever the outcome of their bet would be would, one way or another, grant her a night out with James, something that she had vowed never to do.

They shook on it, then without warning, they burst into uncontrollable laughter, making the other people around them stare.

"We better go James, lunch is almost over and people are starting to stare," Lily said amid gales of laughter. James put some money on the table, and they stood up.

Lily and James decided to walk back to the Ministry instead of Apparating. It was a beautiful day, and they both felt so elated and comfortable in each other's presence.

And as they talked, she found James flash her a wonderful smile, and Lily Evans could not help but feel her heart flutter wildly as she glanced in his direction as she returned the gesture.

..------..

"The court finds Mr. David Alexander Helperman, guilty for the crime of extortion, and is hereby sentenced to five years imprisonment in the Lower Prison (AN: a prison I created that is made for less-severe crimes, since I thought that Azkaban was just too severe) and a fine of two hundred galleons. So ordered," the judge said two weeks later. As she banged her mallet, a collective murmur rose up as Helperman was taken away and people began to leave.

"See? What did I tell you?" Lily smirked at James triumphantly as they left the courtroom, "He was guilty! Haha, I won!" Then she began in a singsong voice, "I won the bet, I won the bet……." It gradually segued into, "I am the best, I am the best...!"

"And she accuses me of being arrogant," James muttered to himself, yet smiling as he looked at Lily being so happy, finding it wonderfully adorable.

As they reached their office, James said, "So you won and I lost. Fair enough. And we did agree that loser buys the other dinner, so how about Friday night, seven o'clock?"

"James……" Lily said slowly, a slow smile forming on her lips, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Well I—"James was about to say but caught himself. In that instant, he realized that, bet or no bet, he realized that if he said yes, Lily might not want to go out with him, that she might reject him again like she did all those times long ago. So instead, he said, "No. It's not a date, just a dinner between two friends who got involved in a bet, that's all".

"Oh," Lily said, biting back a surprised tone in her voice. "Well, in that case then, sure! I'd love to".

"Great," James smiled. He looked up at his watch and said, "Lils, we'll talk more later. I just remembered, I have a meeting to attend to right now. See you later!" He gave her a final smile, and then left in the opposite direction.

Lily walked to her office, an elated smile on her face. Once she was there, she shut the door and sat down to contemplate on what had just happened.

"I can't believe that I'm actually having dinner with James……" she said, unable to keep that grin off her face. She replayed that conversation that they had in her mind, and for some strange reason, she felt a strange twitch of disappointment when he said that it wasn't a date.

"Why though?" she asked herself, still thinking as she sighed. "I mean, it's just dinner, one dinner, it doesn't really mean anything right? Besides, I'd never go out on an actual date with James, it's just too weird," Yet the twinge of disappointment stayed with her all day, and slowly, Lily was beginning to realize why.

You see, deep down, Lily knew that, if James did say that it was a date, if he did say that he was asking her out, she would have said yes to him all the same.

..------..

"Do I look alright, James did say wear something pretty classy," Lily thought to herself as she surveyed herself in the mirror. It was Friday night, and any minute now, James would arrive to take her to dinner.

Just as she took her purse, there was a knocking heard on the door and Lily practically skipped towards it. She took a deep breath, turned the knob and opened the door, expecting James to be behind it.

"Hello Lily dear, I was wondering if I could borrow some butter? I'm baking cookies for my grandchildren, but I seem to have run out," Mrs. Blair, Lily's elderly neighbor, said, smiling at her.

Lily's heart sank considerably but nevertheless, she said with a somewhat forced smile, "Of course Mrs. Blair, just a minute," and with that she walked to the kitchen.

As she looked around her refrigerator for her butter dish, she wondered why she was unnaturally excited. It was only dinner right? She also couldn't understand why she felt so disappointed when she saw that James wasn't at the door. Basically, she couldn't understand her feelings nowadays.

She walked to the door a few minutes later, carrying a silver dish. "Here you go, Mrs. Blair," Lily said as she handed it to her neighbor.

"Thanks Lily, I'll return it in the morning," Mrs. Blair said as she accepted the dish with a grateful smile. "And by the way dear, you look amazing; he won't be able to take his eyes off of you".

Lily cleared her throat and blushed as the elderly woman left. Lily closed her door and gave out a sigh as she walked to her couch and sat down.

Lily waited…….and waited…….and waited. James was now ten minutes late, and Lily was starting to get impatient. Just as she thought about changing back into her housedress, a knock was heard on the door. Lily jumped and rushed to it, and opened it quickly, to reveal James, wearing a semi-formal attire and looking out of breath.

"You're late," Lily said pointedly as she let him in.

"Not exactly the greeting I was expecting, but it'll have to do," James remarked. "And I would like to think of myself as fashionably late, for your information," he added haughtily.

"You do realize that that statement, accompanied with your tone of voice, made you sound incredibly gay," Lily pointed out.

"I resent that," James said. A silence fell upon them as the minutes ticked by, and slowly, Lily was tapping her foot, her arms folded, an impatient expression on her face.

"Well?" Lily said impatiently after a few minutes, "Where is it?"

"Where's what?" James asked her, confused.

"My apology, you idiot!" Lily practically blew up. "First tell me to dress up in a nice, semi-formal dress, you keep me waiting and you show up ten minutes late for a dinner you yourself set the time for, then I have to remind you to apologize? Unbelievable!"

For some reason, James didn't look too remorseful. "Alright, Lils, I am sorry," James said, laughter dancing across his eyes, "But if I remember correctly, I told you to wear a semi-formal dress. Not a nice dress. There's a difference, you know".

Lily sighed in irritation. "James, are we going or not?" she asked him impatiently.

James replied, "Yeah, come on. Let's go; we don't want to miss our reservation, after all". He offered out his hand to Lily, and she took it, somewhat reluctantly.

"James, I think we have already missed it," Lily pointed out. "You did tell me to be ready at seven, so won't that mean that our reservation will be at that time?"

To her surprise, James merely grinned. "No. You see, I knew that I would be late, so our reservation is at 7:30". Lily simply gave him an exasperated glance as, with a loud POP, the two Apparated away.

..------..

"Right this way, Sir and Madame," the maitre'd said graciously to Lily and James after checking their names on the clipboard. He led the couple towards a table and, after they were seated, gave them their menus and hurried off.

"Well, your taste in restaurants makes up for being a complete idiot at my house, that's for sure," Lily said approvingly as she studied the menu.

James hid a grin behind his menu. You see, his plan was to make this dinner as un-date like as possible. He was thinking that if he gave her flowers, didn't annoy her at all, and basically everything that went on in a proper date, Lily might get freaked out, and he didn't want that to happen. But in the process, he wanted to be sweet too and take her out to nice places, so Lily would think him as quite a decent guy.

They summoned a waiter and gave their orders. After the waiter left, James and Lily turned to each other. "I'm taking you like it then?" James asked her, grinning. "I guess this more than covers our bet".

"Yes, I believe so," Lily said, laughing slightly. "By the way James, did I ever tell you that I love Italian cooking?"

"No, but I'll have to keep that mind for future references," James answered. Before they could say anything more, the waiter arrived bringing with him their food.

They ate right away, savoring the wonderful taste of their meal, and occasionally talked between mouthfuls. The atmosphere was light and content, and accompanied by the slow strains of the violin and the sounds of the accordion, all made for a great time.

Lily found herself enjoying his company immensely. James was a very easy person to talk too, and in the presence of food, he really opened up. She found herself smiling more than she had all week in his company.

James was having a great time too. He loved seeing Lily laugh, particularly at something he said, and the way her eyes sparkled made him smile. There was a light banter here and there of course, but they both ended each and every one of it with doubling over in laughter.

All too soon for their liking, the last crumbs of dessert was gone, and James had just settled the bill. Lily glanced at her watch and said, "Hey, it's still 9 o'clock".

"Really?" James said, surprised. "I thought that it was later than that. Say," an idea came into his mind. "Do you want to take a walk on the beach? I know a great place".

"The beach?" Lily laughed lightly. "You want us to go to the beach at 9 in the evening? When you know that I'm wearing high heels?"

"Take them off when we get there then," James suggested. "It's much better walking barefoot anyway. Come on, it'll be great. Please?" He gave her his best pleading-puppy-dog expression.

Lily laughed upon seeing his face. "Alright, alright, we'll go. Besides, who can resist your face when it looks like a seriously demented and sad clown?"

James rearranged his features at once.

With a light scrape of the chairs, Lily and James stood up and walked out of the restaurant. Once there, James offered his hand and Lily took it, and with another loud POP, they were gone once again.

..------..

The wind was blowing steadily as Lily and James walked across the warm sand of the beach, the soothing sounds of the waves crashing onto the shore and the soft glow of the lights adding to the supremely relaxed atmosphere. As they walked, their chatter resumed again.

"I love the beach at night, you know," Lily told James softly. "When I was little, whenever my family went to the beach, I'd always sleep in the afternoon so I could be up all night. I'd just go and sit by the water, and listen. It always made me smile".

"Uh-huh," was all James said as he looked at Lily, who had a very calm and quietly happy expression on her face.

"And now the fact that you're here makes it even greater," Lily suddenly thought. The second she thought that, she mentally slapped herself. What was that? How could she have thought that? She didn't like him that way, did she?

"I have a favorite memory of the beach too," James said, turning to her, smiling. "I was eight, and we decided to go for a family vacation. I'd just run around the beach, and my dad would just chase me around, but he'd never catch me. Used to say I was too fast for him. Mum would always be laughing, it was great. I miss it".

"Hmm?" Lily said, gazing at her companion questionably.

"We didn't go back to the beach for a long time," James admitted to her softly. "Dad got sick a lot of times after that, so he couldn't get out much. He's fine now though; you remember during graduation?"

"Yeah, how could I forget," Lily said, smiling and looking pointedly at James at the recollection.

A sudden glint came to his eyes. "You know what? I really missed those times he chased me around, and when we used to play in the sand, and I wonder if…………"

Lily, sensing his plan, said quickly, "Oh no, no, James, don't!" But it was no use. James already had a glint in his eyes and suddenly, Lily broke into a run, laughing. James of course, followed her.

"Oh no, James, you are not throwing me in the sand, you'll have to catch me first!" Lily yelled happily. They continued their chase for a few minutes, until James finally caught up with her. He swung an arm around her waist and flung her around, laughing.

"James, let me go!" Lily said, laughing delightedly as she tried to get out of his grasp. The two suddenly lost their balance, and they fell on the powdery sand…...

……with James on top of Lily.

Time seemed to stop. Lily and James could feel their hearts beating wildly as they stared into each others eyes, their faces separated by only a few inches. Suddenly……..

"James, are you planning on getting off of me any time soon?" Lily asked him, laughter in her eyes.

James reddened and said, "Oh yeah, sorry about that". They got up and dusted themselves off, their hearts still beating wildly at what might have been, Lily's especially.

"James, um, I think I'd better go home. It's late, and I uh, I have something to do tomorrow, somewhere to be, and I can't be late for it," Lily told him slowly.

James looked quite taken aback but said "Alright then. You feel like walking? This beach is just nearby to your apartment".

"What? Oh sure, let's go," was all Lily said. There was silence as they walked back to Lily's apartment, both thinking about what had just happened.

Once they arrived in front of Lily's door, she opened it and went inside. James stayed at the doorway. "Well, goodnight James. I had a great time," Lily said, a small blush creeping to her cheeks as she smiled at him.

"Yeah, goodnight Lily, I had a great time too. Well, see you Monday then," James said as he left, thinking, "Urgh, that was not supposed to happen. Now I bet she's going to think that I'm pushing her or something. That was more date-like than I would have preferred, I am so stupid".

Meanwhile, in her apartment, Lily closed the door and slumped to the floor, closing her eyes. "Oh my goodness, what the hell happened back there?" Lily thought to herself. Just the thought of that made Lily's heart beat wildly once more. She stood up and went to her room, still replaying the events in her head.

And for some reason, she went to sleep with a huge smile on her face.