Chapter Two
"Lily-pad, don't you ever get any time off?"
"I was under the impression that you enjoyed seeing me here," Lily replied. James Potter was again in Florean Fortescue's, sitting at the counter and licking at his ice cream. He had gotten a sundae today, perhaps because without having to worry about the ice cream dripping over the sides of the cone, he could eat it more slowly and lavish the time to talk to Lily.
"More than beating Slytherin at Quidditch on a bright, sunny day," James said. He was probably exaggerating, Lily thought. "But don't you ever get sick of working?"
"Some of us have to work for a living," Lily said. She was scooping out ice cream for a few soon-to-be fifth years as she talked to him.
"Hey, I work hard!" James said defensively. "Just last night I was up until midnight writing an essay for old Slughorn."
"An essay which I finished during the first fortnight of the summer, along with all my other assignments," Lily said smugly, handing a cone over the counter.
"Well," it seemed as if James were grasping for straws now, "I'm Head Boy."
"Woah, congrats, man!" one of the fifth-year boys exclaimed.
Lily stopped mid-scoop. "You—you're Head Boy?" she asked.
James was examining his fingernails now. "Top OWL scores in the year, I think, Captain of the Quidditch Team, and top Transfiguration student six years and running. Not a shabby choice, huh?"
"Oh, but a very modest one," Lily said sarcastically, topping off a waffle cone. "What of your everyday misdemeanors? The Head Boy can't be levicorpusing people into the air for recreation."
"Oh, I can restrain myself, I'm sure, for the chance to spend evenings patrolling the halls with the lovely Lily Evans," James replied.
"That'll be ten knuts," Lily told the kids. "Come back again!"
"You are Head Girl, aren't you?" James asked.
"Of course I am!" Lily exclaimed. "If Professor McGonagall picked a delinquent like you for Head Boy, you can be sure she picked a level-headed academic like me for Head Girl to keep him in check."
"True," James said. He went quiet for a moment, and had a sudden idea. "Have some ice cream with me, Lily."
Lily laughed. "Nice try, but you'll have to work harder than that to guess my favorite flavor."
"Toffee praline?"
"Disgusting."
"Cotton candy watermelon?"
"Far too sweet."
"Bananaberry mango?"
"You're starting to run low on choices, Potter. Better luck next time."
The summer was ending. Lily was glad for it, and began packing her suitcase early for the return trip to Hogwarts. The last two weeks seemed to take two years.
She spent her days working at the ice cream parlor. Most days James came in, and the days that he didn't, she found herself a bit disappointed. In the evenings, she went home and had dinner with her father and her sister, then went upstairs to pass the time studying, as her father talked to that old portrait late into the night. Some mornings James would write letters to her that she saved in her dresser drawer but never replied to.
Dear Lily
It's a windy day and I'm thinking of you. I know how you love windy days, how when the wind comes to Hogwarts you go take a long walk outside by yourself and let the wind rush through your hair, and sometimes you sing too. Most girls complain about the wind tangling their hair, but I know you're different. That's what I like about you Lily, that and much more. You'd probably love flying, the wind never stops up on a broomstick. I wonder why you never played Quidditch.
It makes me smile to think of you, smiling and singing in the wind. I want to see you again, Lily, not just behind the ice cream counter. The wind doesn't reach you there.
Sincerely
James
Dear Lily,
I had a dream about you last night, and I woke up grinning like a lunatic. Sirius thinks I should go see a shrink.
Sincerely
James
Dear Lily,
I really think we should go out. Now that we're Head Boy and Head Girl, it's only natural. I'm not such a prick anymore, and I'm probably the only guy at Hogwarts you'll find that's as attractive as you are. And I'm entirely infatuated with you. I want to take you out places and hold your hand and kiss you all the time…and Sirius wants me to stop writing now. I'll see you soon!
Sincerely
James
If Lily had a stagnant love life, it was certainly her own fault. But the letters made her smile and sometimes blush to herself. Reading them, she sometimes laughed at James's dissembled arrogance and sometimes felt herself floating away like a piece of white dandelion on the wind in his sincerity and his flattery.
"Maybe he loves me," she told herself once. But that thought was strange and frightening, and she did not voice it again. If James Potter loved her, it was because he did not truly know her.
One day when she came home from Diagon Alley there was a foreclosure sign posted in the front yard of the house. Petunia was horrified, crying and throwing a tantrum in the house, until she calmed down enough to softly sob, "When Vernon sees… I can't imagine…it's humiliating, he'll break our engagement… I can't let him see…Lily, we have to take it down."
There was a court order not to remove the sign, but Lily did it anyway. The auction would take place the day after she went back to Hogwarts.
Her father just sat on the couch with his glass of wine, talking to the portrait. "I couldn't keep up, Aine…I thought I paid, but I forgot, maybe… you're right, I'll have to just ask the bank for an extension…maybe sell my old bottle-cap collection…"
Lily packed all of the things in her room into cardboard boxes just in case, but in the end Petunia ended up goading Mr. Evans into securing another loan and started organizing payments herself. And, because something had to be paid off to appease the bank, Lily gave them her last paycheck. The golden dress robe would have to wait… until next summer, perhaps.
James, she wrote on a piece of spare parchment.
I wish you were with me. I need you to love me.
Yours truly,
Lily
That was all. She never sent it.
There was certainly more going on in the world that summer than afternoon conversations over ice cream and evening monologues over red wine. Lord Voldemort was at large. Some mornings Lily forgot it, with James's letters and breakfast in the muggle world, but then she would get to Diagon Alley, where people rushed to and from buildings and children never wandered into the ice cream parlor without a parent. And she would also see the front page of the Daily Prophet, always coverage of a Death Eater attack, or a giant sighting, or an ambush of Dementors.
Sometimes, there would be a disaster on the nighttime muggle news, like a fallen bridge or an enormous windstorm, that Lily knew were effects of the wizarding war. These occurrences would make her remember the collapsed shopping center last Christmas Eve, and then she would willingly cease thinking and instead open one of James's letters.
"Apple cinnamon?"
"No."
"Bowtruckle-dragon-scale-crunch?"
"You think I'm rather untamed, don't you, James?"
"It was just a guess."
"It's not even a flavor. You made it up."
It was the last evening of the summer. Lily's shift was about to end, and James was sitting at the counter again, drumming his fingers and taking his last few, futile stabs at her favorite ice cream flavor. He ran a hand through his hair and thought for a moment.
"You know what," he said suddenly, regarding Lily with a sly gleam in his eye and a slow grin, "I think I'll have a scoop of maple walnut."
Lily raised an eyebrow at him. "Just a scoop?" she asked. "You usually display a more piggish appetite."
"I'm only trying it. I figure it must be good," he paused dramatically, "since it's your favorite flavor, Lily." he said.
Lily didn't argue it. But she couldn't deny herself a coy smile.
"Would you like to have some with me?" he asked.
"Well Mr. Potter," she said, "I think I might manage that. My shift just ended."
She prepared two cups of maple walnut ice cream, and then sat down at the counter next to James. "How did you figure it out?" she asked curiously.
"Inoticed it in the counter, and there really was nothing else left to guess," James said. "Maple walnut though? It sounds like something old people eat. I bet Dumbledore likes it, he's sufficiently ancient."
"No, actually he likes lemon. He came in last month for a cone," Lily said.
"Really?" It was apparent that James couldn't envision Dumbledore eating an ice cream cone. He shrugged and ate a spoonful of his maple walnut sundae. "Hm…this isn't bad," he commented, surprised.
"Of course it isn't. Florean makes it with one hundred percent real maple syrup," Lily said.
Mr. Florean Fortescue started closing the tubs of ice cream and cleaning up behind the counter. Outside, Diagon Alley was starting to become quiet as the night set in.
"So Lily," James said in a business-like fashion, "I suppose we'll have to postpone that date until the first Hogsmeade weekend."
Lily sighed. "I suppose so," she said. But she wasn't certain that the idea was entirely unfavorable now.
Author's Note: Yes, chapter two is significantly shorter than chapter one, but this is the natural breaking point before the trip to Hogwarts. I have a feeling chapters will be starting to lengthen anyway. As always, I'd appreciate reviews!