Chapter 15

"This is unbelievable," Rachel said for what seemed like the fifth time today as she, Ryan, Lily, and James were walking towards the garden. It was already afternoon, and that day's events had just been finished, and they had decided to celebrate this new development.

"Lily Evans and James Potter, actually getting along. The world must have turned upside down," Ryan commented as they sat down on the park benches. Lily simply smiled.

"Hmmm, I wonder how the people at Hogwarts will react to this," Lily thought out loud.

"Shocked. And McGonagall will probably faint. Though that'd be a good thing. No Transfiguration!" James replied, grinning.

"James, don't be so mean, Hoping misfortune on another person is bad, you know," Lily reprimanded him. "And besides, why don't you want to have Transfiguration anyway? You're the smartest in the class, so why?"

"Because McGonagall usually tries to find me in a position when I'm not listening to her---"

"---which is almost every time-----" Lily continued.

"---and results me in me getting detention----"

"---which you so very deserve," Lily cut in, grinning.

"Haha, Lily, funny. But trust me, if only McGonagall would just 'open her eyes and see that she has deep feelings of love which surpasses no other' for Professor Dumbledore, then maybe she wouldn't be so uptight".

"Oh god, James, ew!" Lily said, laughing. "Now I have a mental image of her and Dumbledore kissing or something!" Then she paused, a thought coming into her mind. "Hey, wait a sec. How did you come up with that 'open her eyes and see her feelings' thing you just said? That phrase sounds vaguely familiar". Then, as realization hit her, she looked at James strangely, her eyes dancing with mirth. "You haven't been reading my romance novels, have you?"

At that, Rachel and Ryan stared at James. He felt himself go a bit red in the face. "It was an accident!" he defended himself. "You left that bloody book in the common room one time, and what's more, you left it open!"

"And you decided to read it to satisfy your homophile desires? My, my, I didn't know you swung that way, James" Lily said, laughing.

James got very red at that. "Are you suggesting that I'm gay? Because I'm not!" James said indignantly.

"Very well then. Prove it," Lily said challengingly, her eyes still shining with laughter. She was not prepared for what happened next.

"Sorry Lily, but something tells me that if I do what I have in mind, Jake would kill me, or worse, you'd kill me," James said.

"And what were you thinking of doing?" Lily asked, her brow raised.

James whispered to her, "I was thinking of kissing you---at least on the cheek".

Lily was shocked, to say the least. She grew red in the face and said, after a few seconds, "It's a good thing you didn't then, for I would have murdered you. And since you seem so desperate to prove that you're not gay, then, fine. Point proven. But if," Lily returned to her laughing self, "I ever catch you quoting or reading any of my books again, then you will really wake up one day with a sign that says 'I am gay and proud of it' hanging over your head".

James threw a grin at her direction, glad that that had been resolved. "Fine then". He could still not believe that he had just said and did that.

Rachel and Ryan turned around to hide their grins. This was brilliant, and it showed that Lily and James were getting nearer and nearer to becoming something more than friends.

The four then started in animated conversation, accompanied by playful banters courtesy of Lily and James.

..------..

The next day………….

"JAMES MICHAEL POTTER WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!" Lily yelled, groaning as she pulled the peach covers over her again, wanting to block out the person who was signing "the sun will come out, tomorrow…." In a purposely off-key voice, I might add, intruding on her morning sleep.

"Time to wake up Lily! Come on, get up!" James urged in a sing-song voice, paying no mind to Lily's very vexed self, a mischievous smile playing at his lips.

"James, it's freakin' seven in the morning! And even if it is Wednesday, we don't have any activities for today, so let me sleep!" she exclaimed.

"Exactly! It's seven o' clock, you should be enjoying the day, not sleeping in bed!" James retorted in an extra-cheery voice.

With a final groan of anger, Lily said, "James, OUT!"

"But---"

"NOW!"

"Fine. I'll leave, but you should know though that a book signing by Raphael Pierce is going on and will end in about……oh yeah, three minutes".

"WHAT!" Lily bolted right out of bed, looking alert, all trace of drowsiness gone.

"Finally you're awake! I thought I'd never get you out," James said, laughing slightly.

"You tricked me!" Lily said indignantly, folding her arms.

"Anything to get you out of bed, Lils," James grinned.

"You're evil. I'm going back to bed," she announced, although she didn't really look that sleepy anymore. She lay back down again and covered her ears with a pillow.

"The sun will come out, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun……." he sang in the same purposely off-key voice.

"Fine, fine, I'm awake. Happy now?" Lily half-yelled grumpily. "Remind me to murder you later on," she said as an afterthought.

"You really aren't a morning person are you, Lily?" James asked her.

"You think?" was her sarcastic reply as she pushed James out of the room so she could begin her morning rituals.

Twenty minutes later, Lily went out of her room, no trace of sleepiness at all on her face.

"Finally. Ryan and Rachel are waiting downstairs," James said, as he opened the door for her. They went downstairs to the main lobby and once there, found their two friends waiting for them.

"Oh my god, James, you actually managed to get her up! I thought that it would be humanly impossible!" Rachel said dramatically, grinning.

"James isn't a human, Rachel. He's an alien. No normal human can be as chirpy as James during mornings," Lily said sweetly, earning herself a glare from her friend, which she completely ignored.

"Come on, you guys. Let's go!" Ryan said. They nodded and was just about to leave when suddenly, the receptionist cast "Sonorus" and said, "Mr. James Potter please go to the front desk immediately. You have a phone call from…..Mr. Sirius Black, who won't stop screaming his head off into the phone".

James grinned sheepishly and headed off to the front desk. His friends decided to wait for him in the dining hall, where Lily had breakfast.

Around an hour later, James was back. "What the heck took you so long?" Lily asked, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Sirius". He said it in a tone that explained everything. "It took me at least fifteen minutes to get it over his head that he should not shout while having a phone call. And it took him another fifteen minutes to admit to me that he was using the phone in McGonagall's office. Then we had a conversation for the rest of the time".

"Typical," Lily said, shaking her head as they left the hotel and into wizarding Rome. "And knowing who you were talking with, I would think that you didn't really have an intelligent conversation".

"Intelligent conversations are Remus's department. Anyway, he filled me in on the latest happenings at Hogwarts," James said, proceeding to tell her what had gone on at their school, Rachel and Ryan listening interestedly.

"So, did you tell them that we were friends yet?" Lily asked him.

"Yeah I did. And then Sirius said, 'What? Finally, the both of you come to your senses, because I've gotten tired of hearing you yell like a baby and Lily screaming like a banshee".

Lily's face formed into a glare. "Oh really? Well James, the next time you tell Sirius, you tell him from me that I, being a banshee according to him, will secretly steal Mr. snuffles (in almost every story, Sirius's teddy bear exists) in his sleep and he will never see him again, resulting in him crying like a baby. Let's see how he likes it".

As James laughed, Lily continued, "Oh yeah, what did Sirius say about you? Oh right. He said that you screamed like a baby, correct? Aww, Jamesie is a wittle baby!" Lily said, baby-speaking the last sentence.

It was his turn to glare. "I am not!"

Lily straightened at once, getting an idea. "Sorry, I take that back. You're not a baby. After all, babies are cute, and you're not". Rachel and Ryan howled in laughter as they saw James's glare.

"But really, James is looking good today…wait, what?" Lily suddenly thought. "Uh, no way, he's not good-looking, he's just cute and smart and…okay, Lily, stop talking to yourself. If you keep going on like this, who knows what'll happen to you?"

She just shook her head, disturbed. Deciding to forget it, she jumped back into the conversation and asked James what else Sirius had told him.

"Wait a sec, your friends, despite having Remus, who is one of the most sensible souls at Hogwarts, still managed to get themselves caught for stealing Felix Felicis from Slughorn's private stores and got into detention?" Lily asked him amusedly at the newest piece of news James had told her, her eyes twinkling with silent laughter.

"Yep. Honestly, what would they do without me? If I were there, I could've executed the plan perfectly" James said arrogantly.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Please. Most likely, you'd get caught and tell the professor that you were taking so you could give it to me, his, what was that he called me….oh yeah, "Most prized student'" Lily cringed. Then, she added, "Wait a sec, why on earth were the Marauders trying to get Felix Felicis anyway?"

"So they could break into the kitchens and raid the dessert pantry" James said nonchalantly. At Lily's inquisitive gaze, he added, "The house-elves won't give the three of them, particularly Sirius, any more sweets because it makes them hyperactive, and they wanted to try their luck this time".

"Why am I not surprised?" Lily groaned as her friends laughed.

James suddenly thought of something. Then, smiling, "Hey, did you know that Sirius caught Jake and Tessa Cramer kissing last night?"

"WHAT!" Lily exclaimed loudly. Her face began to compliment her hair. "I am going over to the telephone and having a word with Jake right now!"

"Relax, Lily," James told her, laughing. "I was only joking".

Smiling sweetly, Lily took her handbag, and suddenly smacked James upside the head with it.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" James asked indignantly, rubbing the spot Lily had smacked him with.

"Oh, lets see, for pranking me with something that is so not funny, for making me embarrassed in front of many people with said prank, and for just being a complete idiot," Lily replied as they walked through the cobblestone street.

"Honestly," Rachel muttered to Ryan as they watched the pair argue. "You wouldn't think that theses two were friends already from how they're behaving".

Anyway, this chappie's just portraying Lily and James, and how they act as friends. It's a somewhat pointless chapter, but hey, why bother? Thank you to all my readers and reviewers!