Marlene didn't tell her friends who her mysterious date was with because once she told, it wouldn't be mysterious anymore and she didn't want to hear the judgement about going on a date with her best friend. Not that she knew that they would judge her but they'd warn her to be cautious and the likes because Nate and Marlene were the kind of friends that lasted life times and it would be a shame to ruin that for one date but Marlene knew all that already. It was why they'd agreed that if the date went poorly, they'd never talk about it again and what better way to ensure that was possible than to have no one else know they were on a date? Really, she couldn't fight with that kind of logic.
Marlene waited in the Entrance Hall for what seemed like forever wearing a pretty cream sweater with jeans and a pair of boots and she fiddled with the ends of her stringy, blonde hair as couple after couple left the castle together.
Suddenly, hands covered her eyes. "Guess who?"
Marlene would have rolled her eyes had they not been covered by Nate's hands. "Seriously?" she scoffed. "So cliché."
"Marlene Adams I have known you my whole life and that is why I know you love everything cliché and sappy."
Marlene slipped her arm in his as they followed suit of the other numerous couples and walked out of the castle. "I prefer the term romantic."
"Speaking of, you look great."
"You're just saying that," she accused. "But thank you. You, uh, you look good too."
And he did. Nate McKinnon was the kind of guy that girls dreamed about. Perfectly side swept brown hair with pretty blue eyes and a jawline to die for, it didn't help that Nate also had the kind of stubble that was thick enough that you knew he could grow a beard if he wanted to, in effect, it drove girls crazy. Marlene just didn't know if it drove her crazy.
The thought of kissing Nate not only excited her but also made her want to laugh. She didn't think that was very normal. She'd never thought about snogging a bloke and laughed.
"So, uh, do you want a butterbeer?" he asked as they sat at a table at the Hog's Head.
"Yes," she answered perhaps a little too sharply. "Please."
He got up and she breathed out. She didn't know how to be on a date with Nate.
A moment later, he was back sliding a butterbeer in front of her and sat down opposite her. An awkward silence fell and Marlene bounced her knee nervously. They never had awkward silences. Ever.
"So," Nate said.
"How's, uh," Marlene racked her brain for something to say, "Things?" Nailed it.
Nate raised an eyebrow. "Things are all right. How about you?"
"This was a bad idea," she blurted out before standing up and walking out.
"Marls!" he shouted after her, pushing his chair out to follow her. "Marlene!"
He caught her wrist outside of the Hog's Head.
"This was a bad idea," she repeated. "We're so awkward and - and what if it stays awkward? I couldn't stand it if it was always like this and we're neighbours so it's not just like we could avoid each other, I mean your sister has us as partners in her wedding party and we shouldn't ruin our friendship because it's pretty great and it would be a shame if-"
Very use to the long rantings of one Marlene Adams, Nate McKinnon decided to test a theory he'd been wondering about for a while. He tugged her into him and pressed his lips to hers.
Marlene stood frozen for a moment.
"You talk too much," Nate said by way of apology.
"Do I?" she asked, a little breathless as she soaked him in. She didn't think she'd ever seen his face this close up before. She rather liked the view.
"You do," he confirmed.
"Nate?"
"Hmm?"
"Kiss me again."
And that was the story of how Marlene Adams and Nate McKinnon shared their first kiss in front of the Hog's Head on a snowy day at the beginning of the Christmas month.
—
Christmas was fast approaching and Lily and James had to help the teacher's set up the Christmas decorations in addition to catching up on the schoolwork they'd missed. James and Lily were easily the last two people in the common room every night until James insisted they go to bed when Lily's eyes would start to droop. Their tempers were starting to run a little short – as James had missed the Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw Quidditch game he'd been pestering his friends for every single detail. When Lily snapped and asked why James was so obsessed with it, he said wide eyed, "Lily! This game could help to further enhance Gryffindor's chances of winning! By knowing how the other teams play, we can train to counter attack their plays!" Lily fake yawned and James rolled his eyes and said, "You just don't understand, Lils."
Something Lily did like was the snow that covered the grounds, like a white endless blanket. Sometimes, when she was tired of doing work, James would catch her staring out the window. It happened to be early in the afternoon, one day when James caught her again. They were meant to be writing essays for Herbology but Lily couldn't think of anything she'd rather be doing less.
"You know," he said, as he pushed his glasses back up his nose, "Instead of staring at it we could snug up, have a stroll in it and possibly have a snowball fight."
Lily bit her lip and looked back at the half-written essay she had in front of her, "We shouldn't."
"Oh come on, Marie! One afternoon wouldn't kill us! Please!" he begged, pushing his bottom lip out into a pout.
"I – oh all right. Let's go!" she exclaimed. They went to go up to their dormitories and Lily shouted, "Make sure you grab a cloak!" just before James disappeared up the stairs. Lily jogged up the stairs to her dorm and fastened her emerald cloak around her. She shoved her hands into red gloves and placed a red and gold beanie carefully over her head. Stowing her wand in her robes, she waited in the common room. When James came flying down the stairs of the boys dormitory, he didn't even stop running. He grabbed her hand and, both of them laughing, pulled her out of the common room, through the castle – stopping at random places to give her a few kisses – and out into the snowy grounds.
"What's gotten into you today?" Lily giggled as she wrapped her arms around James' neck and gave him a soft, long kiss that made him moan softly.
"I don't know," James admitted. "I just woke up today and thought Lily Evans is my girlfriend. How lucky am I?"
"Extremely," Lily assured him with a laugh, "But I'm pretty lucky to have you." She grabbed his hand and turned to face the grounds and sighed at the sight.
The trees of the Forbidden Forest had snowy caps on them matching the mountains near Hogsmeade. The ground was so smooth it looked as though no one had ever stepped foot inside the grounds of Hogwarts. Lily quite enjoyed the quietness of winter. If you were alone on a snowy day, it was quite possible to believe you were the only person to have existed.
James quite enjoyed watching Lily. He could sense she wasn't having too much fun recently – she was barricading herself with schoolwork and Head Girl duties – so, remembering the promise he made to her dad, he decided to surprise Lily with a fun afternoon. He'd managed to rope his mates into helping and they had all snuck out of the castle to put everything into motion.
"How beautiful is it?" Lily asked James and he agreed even though he hadn't been paying attention to the grounds.
"Shall we go for a walk around the lake?"
"Hmm, maybe I can finally get that date with the Giant Squid," she suggested teasingly.
"Didn't you hear, Evans?" James asked and Lily looked at him expectantly and he smirked, "The Giant Squid was so upset that you did in fact choose me over him – he's quite a jealous squid you see – that he's decided he no longer fancies you!"
"Ha ha."
James wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulders and started saying, "So I was thinking, the Christmas holidays are coming and I was hoping that maybe, if you wanted, that you'd come to my house and, er, spend Christmas with me and my, er, parents?"
"I would love to, James!" she exclaimed and then frowned, "Are you sure you want me to meet your parents?"
"I'm sure besides, you've already met my mum so really it's only dad."
"Are you sure they'll like me?"
"They'll love you," James assured her. "If they don't I'll hex them myself!"
Lily giggled but her smile turned to one of surprise as the Great Lake had come into view. Instead of icy waters, the lake was a great slab of ice but that wasn't the most peculiar thing. Students were skating on it!
"McGonagall is going to lose her hair!" Lily laughed.
"Well we'd better go before she finds out! Race you!" James shouted and sprinted off towards the lake. Lily chased after him and called, "We don't even have skates!" But when James' foot touched the ice, his shoe transformed into ice skates. Delighted Lily followed suit and soon enough they were gliding right into the middle where Lily and James' other friends were.
"This has your name written all over it!" Lily laughed at Sirius.
"Actually, this was all James' idea," he told her, pointing a thumb at James, "I merely assisted." He did a dramatic bow and said, "You're welcome."
Lily turned to James and declared, "This is amazing!"
"You like it?"
"Yes!"
It seemed the whole of Gryffindor was on the lake and students from other houses were slowly realising and coming to join. Lily and James skated around the lake together, holding hands and laughing when one of them fell or stumbled.
"I didn't realise skating was a thing wizards did too," Lily commented.
"Well no," he said, "When you were showing me the photo albums, there was one of you on a skating rink and you said you loved to do it and I just thought," he trailed off and shrugged. Lily pulled him closer by his waist and planted a long kiss on his lips.
"How'd you learn to skate so good so quickly then?"
"When we snuck out last night to fix all this up, we tried to skate. Poor Peter still hasn't got the hang of it." Peter went sliding across the ice in front of them and Lily and James grabbed him on either side, pulling him up again.
"All right, Pete?" Lily asked and Peter assured them that he was before going back to Sirius and Remus.
"Lily," James said when they started to skate around the lake again, "Have you been okay with everything?"
A hard look went over Lily's face and she shrugged. "I don't know. I think about him all the time, it's hard," and then she lightened up and said, "I'm just lucky I have a fantastic boyfriend who knows exactly what to do to make me feel better."
James grinned and then, "But seriously, Lily, if you ever want to just talk about it, I'm here. I don't want you to just … bottle it up."
Lily smiled and turned to face him, placing a gloved hand on his cheek, she said, "I know and I love you for it."
James leant in and kissed her nose making Lily smile and then wrapped her in a warm, tight hug. The beautiful moment was not destined to continue however. A snowball hit James right in the face and when they turned to see who had thrown it, they saw a mischievous Sirius Black zooming away. Smiling at each other Lily and James grabbed snow from the edge of the lake and zoomed off after Sirius and joined the snow fight.
When a furious Professor McGonagall caught them late in the afternoon, the lake had been unrecognisable. Snow forts had been made and snow balls were being flung across it by red cheeked students.
Fortunately, as so many students had been involved and no one owned up to turning the lake to ice and charmed it to transform shoes into skates and she couldn't give everyone detentions, she sent everyone back to their dormitories and James and the Marauders weren't punished.
On the way back to the common room, Lily and James slipped away from the others and got lost in the castle together. They found a quiet stone stairwell that no one really used and as soon as the door was closed, James pushed Lily against the wall. Lily ripped off her gloves and James removed her beanie as Lily bit her bottom lip.
"Oh Lils," James groaned, "You're killing me." He pressed his lips tightly against hers, one hand on her waist and the other pressed against the wall above her shoulder.
"I don't seem to have succeeded," she gasped as his lips moved off of hers and trailed down her jaw and onto her neck. He unfastened her cloak and pulled open her robes. James marvelled at the sight of Lily in a lace black bra and undies before he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door, "Colloportus!"
Lily giggled before he threw his wand on the floor, unfastening his own cloak and hitching Lily up by her legs. She wrapped her legs and arms around his waist and neck and said, "Here?"
"Unless you don't want to."
Lily kissed James hard on the mouth and he pressed her against the wall again. Lily couldn't help but notice how sexy her boyfriend looked when he stared at her. He stared at Lily like she was the most prized possession in the world. Like he knew he shouldn't touch her but he just had to. The way he'd lick his lips, moan and then kiss her. Lily felt every worry she'd ever had slip away into nothingness.
—
Dear Ella,
I don't quite know how to say this but you're monthly allowance has been cut down to three galleons after some unfortunate circumstances involving your father. I know you're always quick to judge your father but please keep an open mind. He really is trying after this latest blunder — he's been searching for a job.
I suppose I should tell you what happened. Your father made some rather large bets regarding Quidditch and he unfortunately lost those bets, luckily we had enough in the vault to cover the costs without things getting ugly with the goblins but we are down quite a bit in the money department so things are going to be tight but I've found a clerical job at the Daily Prophet and Doc's helping out a little with the groceries so everything should be fine.
I hope school is going well. Study hard. I love you.
Mum.
Ella scrunched the letter in her hand, tossing it across the empty hall and staring at it before opening her second letter.
Hey baby sis,
Dad fucked up as I'm sure mum would have mentioned. Five thousand galleons is what I'm sure she failed to mention. Don't worry about your allowance, I'll send you some extra money when I can but if you could mention in your next letter to mum that perhaps she should, I don't know, leave dad, get a divorce. That would be helpful because if things keep going like this, they're going to have to sell up. They're just barely managing the upkeep on the house at the moment and if dad blows anymore of the family inheritance, even my help won't save them.
So tell mum to divorce him. I am sick of dad throwing her money away. I am sick of mum always being upset. She deserves her life back. She didn't listen to me but if she sees that we're both united on this, she just might agree.
Love, Doc.
"Fucking Christ," Ella muttered. Five thousand galleons.
She scrunched up her brother's letter and sent it flying across the hall to join her mother's letter.
"Do you have a habit of throwing letters across empty corridors and then swearing?"
Ella groaned. "Perfect. Just perfect." Of course, Sirius Black would show up when he was least wanted.
She watched as he picked up the letters and smoothed them out before handing them back to her. She grabbed them and shoved them in her pocket.
"Why didn't you just read them at the table?" he asked.
She'd hoped her speedy departure from dinner would have gone unnoticed.
"Why do you care?"
"I don't but usually people like hearing from home."
"A little hypocritical, don't you think?"
"Avoiding the problem, don't you think?"
She pushed off the wall. "Not your problem, don't you think?" with that she walked away.
—
Night had fallen by the time Lily pointed at the door and said, "Alohomora!" but James grabbed her hand and said, "I've never been in this tower before. I wonder where it leads to!"
"James, you made a map of the school! How could you not have been here?"
"Sorry," he said as he led Lily up the stairwell, "What I meant was, we found the tower but the room at the top was locked and we couldn't get in."
"I wonder what's in it."
"Let's go then."
They ran the rest of the way up and on the last step there was a door with absolutely nothing on it. No locks, no handles. Lily couldn't even see hinges. A look of wonder crossed Lily's face.
"What?" James asked.
"I remember reading once in Hogwarts: A History that there was a Quill of Acceptance and a Book of Admittance."
"What's that?"
"It's what decides whether you're magic enough to come to Hogwarts, to be a witch or wizard! Apparently they are locked in a room at the top of a tower. The room apparently is only accessible by Headmasters or Headmistresses."
"Did it say what seals the door shut?"
"Jems, they aren't morons. I'm pretty sure only Dumbledore would know how to get into that room. It would be a sight to see though."
"It would," James agreed, "We better get back."
Lily nodded and together they crept back to the Gryffindor common room, their hands swinging between each other as they quietly giggles and stole kisses from each other without a care in the world, James occasionally twirling Lily around and then bursting out in laughter when Lily tried — and failed, thanks to his height — to twirl James. The portrait had given them quite the lecture before realising that the two students out of bed after curfew cared less than two drunken messes.
Lily entered her dorm, trying to tiptoe to her bed to not wake up her friends but her attempt was futile. Marlene sat up straight in bed and announced, "And Lily Evans is back in the dorm!"
"Who are you and what has James Potter done with Lily Evans!" Ella demanded to know when Lily walked into her dorm at almost one o'clock in the morning. "It is," she checked her silver watch, "Four hours after curfew!"
Lily grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, we got … caught up."
"And what were you two doing exactly?" Alice asked with a smirk.
"I believe you're familiar with the activity," Lily retorted and Alice smirked even more.
"You know, in light of everything we haven't demanded to know the full story about you and Potter but-" Marlene was cut off by Ella who continued, "Seeing as you're disappearing with Potter all over the school-" Marlene cut off Ella and continued, "We are officially demanding to know!"
"Did you rehearse that or something?" Lily said.
"Oh come on, Lily!" Alice exclaimed, "Put on your pyjamas and Adaline has a stash of honeydukes sweets and we can have a bit of a party before we go to bed!"
"And you still have that bottle of Firewhiskey Black gave you when you were in the Hospital Wing!" Adaline pointed out.
"Yeah! We've got stuff we wanna tell you, too!"
This caught Lily's attention, "Like what?"
"Well Marlene is more bearable now that her crush has called it quits with his girlfriend."
"You have a crush on Nate?" Lily asked, surprised.
"I don't have a crush on Nate!" Marlene protested.
"You have a crush on Nate!" Lily exclaimed.
"She's in denial," Alice said knowingly. "But since he's been dating Mia Scott, she wouldn't shut up about it."
"Because he kept it secret from me!"
"I don't think I could've kept James and I secret. Sirius would constantly look like he was constipated."
The girls laughed and Ella said, "But if it's a secret, he wouldn't know!"
Lily shook her head, "What James knows Sirius knows. Them two are impossible. They tell each other everything."
Alice scrunched up her nose, "Doesn't that annoy you?"
Lily shrugged, "It's not like that. I don't know, I can't explain it. It's just James and Sirius. They're a package deal."
"You've become pretty close with all of them haven't you?"
Lily shrugged. Becoming close with them was inevitable once she had found out four of their most important secrets: Remus was a werewolf; Peter, James and Sirius were illegal animagi; they created a map of Hogwarts that shows everyone's whereabouts and secret passages out of the castle; And that James had an invisibility cloak. "Yeah, I guess I have."
"Alright then!" Alice demanded, "Spill the story!"
Lily quickly changed into her pyjamas and all the girls sat on Lily's and Alice's bed as Lily started telling the story of how James and herself began dating. She started with the prefect patrols where they'd act as friends and then told them about how she'd broken up with Andrew because he refused to believe that James was innocent even after he had saved her. She explained how she'd offered James help in proving he was innocent and how Sirius had mentioned Memory Surfing and how James didn't want Lily to do it because then she would know how he truly felt about her. But she didn't tell them about last year before summer. That was … that was hers and James. It hadn't been perfect but it had been theirs and only theirs. Even Sirius didn't know.
"And long story short after I performed the spell, he asked me out and I said yes," Lily finished. "We had a beautiful first date and it's been uphill since then."
"What was the date?" Ella asked with dreamy sort of eyes.
"Uh," Lily said, "He made a picnic on the roof of the tower with the best view and flew me up there."
"He really likes you Lily."
"That sounds beautiful," Marlene gushed.
"James has been planning his first date with Lily since second year," Ella said, "Of course he wouldn't settle for Madam Pudifoot's."
Lily laughed. "He can be a little extravagant at times. I think Sirius pushes it along. James asked me to spend Christmas with his family."
"Are you going to go?"
"I am. I have this feeling with James. I don't know how to explain it but I never felt this with any other guy I've dated."
"What's the feeling?" Adaline asked.
Lily didn't answer because her answer sounded so cliché. She felt a sense of security with James, like she would be with him forever no matter what and that as long as they were together, she would be happy and she could see it. The years to come, the Christmases, the holidays spent together — it was so easy for Lily to imagine them moving in together, shopping for groceries together, travelling together. Lily could see it all and it warmed her heart, making her feel safe.
"I don't know," she finally answered as she popped a piece of Honeyduke's chocolate into her mouth, "It's just a feeling. A good one."
—
Marlene crept down to the common room at the ungodly hour of three in the morning, an apology on her lips. She smiled softly though at the sight of Nate sleeping on the couch. She plopped down the last few steps and went over to the couch, kneeling in front of him, she patted his face softly before pressing her lips to his.
"Mmm?"
"Sorry I'm late," she whispered. "The girls and I had a late night."
His eyes flickered open a small smile appeared on his lips. "'S okay."
"Move over," she demanded and he complied. She lay with her back into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. "How much longer are we going to keep this secret for?" she hummed. "It's driving me mad not telling the girls."
"Not to mention hypocritical. I mean, you did technically shun Lily for the same thing."
"Hmm, sleeping in your bed every night doesn't sound too bad a punishment though."
"We could tell them. I don't think they'd be bad about it."
Marlene sighed. "I know, but telling everyone comes with all this hype and we haven't even figured out what this is yet."
"I like kissing you, you like kissing me. We're friends. Clearly we're friends with benefits."
She elbowed him. "I just feel that we should wait until we're sure because after telling our friends, we have to tell our families."
"Ahh, that will be an interesting conversation … do you think they'd still let us have sleep overs?"
"Probably not."
"Okay, plan: we don't tell them so we can keep having sleep overs."
Marlene giggled. "And what if Henry catches us snogging at Hogwarts?"
"Pay him out obviously."
"Obviously."
—
James, Lily and their friends were cramped around the fireplace in the common room late one evening discussing the attacks on muggle-borns that had been happening at school. The teachers were no closer to finding out who it was but everyone knew it was a Slytherin. Alice had heard that the other Blake siblings weren't coming back to Hogwarts until the attacker had been caught and expelled.
"Well I think it's Snape," James said and Adaline shook her head.
"It can't be. Lily and I were talking to him when Blake was attacked."
"Murdered," James corrected and a shiver ran down Lily's spine, "And what do you mean you were talking to him?"
"I wanted him to know that I knew it was his spell that the attacker was using and at the time, I thought it was him so I told him to stay away from me. It's not a big deal," Lily said cautiously. She had avoided telling James that she had spoken to Snape because she wasn't entirely sure how he'd react, her guess was that he'd be angry.
"Lily, he's been attacking muggle-borns! Why the hell would you even go near him?" James questioned and Lily could tell he was mad. He had sat up a little straighter and his jaw was tense. Sirius and Remus were trying to start another conversation but everyone was watching James and Lily.
"But it's not Snape. It couldn't have been. Adaline and I were talking to him when Blake was killed."
"But you didn't know that then!" James exploded and Lily's eyes widened. She had never seen James so angry. Not feeling like being yelled at in front of her friends Lily stood up and said, "Excuse me," before walking away.
"Lily! Don't-" James started to call after her but she didn't listen and went through the portrait hole. She started walking down the corridor but not more than half way down, James grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty classroom.
"What are you doing?" she scoffed.
"You don't get to walk away!"
Lily sent a deathly glare at him, "You don't get to yell at me in front of all our friends and then get offended that I walked away!"
"Well maybe if you didn't do mental things I wouldn't have to yell at you!" James retorted and Lily took a step back.
"So now I'm mental?"
"If you think there's nothing wrong in talking to the person who attacked you then yes!"
Lily took another step back, "You can watch me walk away now. Don't!" she said when he tried to grab her arm again. "Just leave me alone." She left the room and started walking around aimlessly, she must've been walking for a half hour when she decided to go visit Beedle in the Owlery.
As soon as she entered, the white owl flew down and sat on her shoulder.
"Hey Bee," she cooed and he hooted back softly. "I'm sorry I haven't been to visit. It's been a tough few weeks. I got attacked. Dad died. School work just keeps growing and now the only person who made me feel better about everything is angry at me and now I'm angry at him and we've just had a stupid fight. Everything's a mess."
"Awe, how sweet!" a sickly voice cooed and Peyton and Alvena Aitken stepped into the Owlery. "Are you and the famous Potter having romantic problems?"
"Did he finally realise that you're just a stupid little mudblood?" Peyton sneered and Lily flinched. She never quite got use to hearing the one word that singled her out as different in the only world she felt that she truly belonged. To this day, it stung like salt on a wound.
"Or did he just finally notice how ugly you are?"
"Shove off or I'll hex you!" Lily threatened.
"Tut tut," Alvena said. "What bad behaviour for a Head Girl to be threatening a fellow student?"
"Leave her Alvena, she's probably become a little edgy with all the attacks on mudbloods!"
"I said, leave me alone!" Lily demanded.
" 'I said, leave me alone'," Alvena mimicked. "Merlin, you're annoying."
"Nothing a little hex won't fix," Peyton said but Lily was quick and pulled her wand out the same time as the other two.
"Impedimenta!" Lily shouted pointing her wand at Peyton and Alvena. Their actions slowed down and Lily used that time to run past them out of the Owlery and thought to herself 'See? I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself'.
She was almost back in the castle when she saw him, the map out in front of his nose as he inspected it and he froze as he realised.
"Are you spying on me?" she accused.
"I was looking at the map and I saw you in the Owlery with the Aitkens and-"
"You thought I needed saving," Lily said knowingly, "Well, I don't," she bit back, "I can handle myself. And seriously? Spying on me? Spying on me? What are you my father?"
"Well, who knows what mental thing you'll do next!" he retorted.
"So what?" Lily asked, "You were checking that I wasn't talking to Snape?" James face stilled and Lily laughed bitterly. "Oh my god, you were! You were spying on me to see if I was talking to Snape!" Her head felt fuzzy. Hadn't she just been in this exact position with Andrew? James didn't move a muscle, "You aren't even denying it! This," she shook her head, "I don't believe this, you arrogant son of a banshee! I should break up with you," she said suddenly. "I did when Andrew forbade me from speaking to you."
"Then do it!" he dared.
"What is going on here?"
Lily and James jumped back from each other. They had been too caught up in their own fight they hadn't noticed Professor McGonagall approaching them. Lily blushed and looked down sheepishly.
"Do you two know what time it is?" she questioned, her hands on her hips as she peered at them.
"No," Lily admitted.
"It is fifteen minutes past curfew!"
"Oh bullocks," James muttered.
"Language!" she scolded him. "Care to explain to me why my two Head students are bickering at each other in the corridor after curfew?"
Neither Lily nor James answered as Professor McGonagall's eyes pierced into them as though trying to burn a hole large enough to make them crack and spill their secrets under the pressure. Lily's leg shook. She would not explain to Professor McGonagall her relationship issues.
"Well, Professor," James started, "Lily seems to think it's okay to talk to people we suspect attacked her without even telling me and when I got mad about it, she threatened to break up with me."
"James!" Lily shouted crossly, folding her arms across her chest. "I don't think Professor McGonagall cares that you're being a prat! And for the billionth time, it wasn't Snape-"
"He's the only one who knows the spell-"
"How do you know that, huh? How? It wasn't Snape's voice! You weren't there!"
"I was bloody there!" he roared beating his chest with his fist. "I was bloody there charming your neck closed again as you bled out like a pig! So don't you tell me I wasn't there! I was there! I was alone! You were passed out! You weren't there! I was. I was there!" He beat his chest like a gorilla every time he said 'I'.
Lily rolled her eyes, Professor McGonagall quite forgotten, and pulled her Gryffindor scarf off and threw it in his face, "Fine! You were there but it happened to me! Stop trying to play victim! I was hospitalised for a week! I have to apply dittany to my neck every night! I have a huge, ugly scar across my neck! I bled out like a pig, as you so nicely put it, because I'm the filthy, little mudblood who doesn't deserve to be here!"
"Now that is quite enough! Both of you! I haven't the faintest idea what is going on in your personal lives and honestly, I don't care! You will both go up to your dormitories at once and you will both stop bickering and you will both receive detention for this display of unprofessionalism and misconduct! Two head students yelling at each other in the middle of the corridor like a pair of gorillas! I expected better from the both of you! Now back to bed both of you!"
—
James woke up the next morning angry and irritated. He was angry at Lily for being so careless about her wellbeing and was even more angry at her thickheadedness to admit that she was being careless. She claimed he wasn't the victim and he wasn't, he was the witness but somehow he had still come out a victim. She passed out she didn't see the lake of blood, didn't see her ghostly face, her limp body. She didn't have to carry someone in that state to the Hospital Wing whilst praying every moment of the way that their heart was still beating as blood dripped off their robes. She didn't sit next to a lifeless body for hours until they woke up. She didn't dream about red lakes and dead bodies for weeks.
When James entered the common room, he saw Lily sitting at a table doing homework. She looked up and saw him but James snapped his gaze away and stormed out of the portrait hole. She didn't chase after him which made James even angrier. She should be apologising to him. She was the one who was recklessly talking to maybe-muggle-born-attackers behind his back. James fought his urge to kick something as he dropped down the last few steps into the Entrance Hall and stormed, head down into the Great Hall, plonking himself down on the bench, chomping down some toast.
Sirius clapped his shoulder and sat next to him, grabbing his own piece of toast. "Gonna make up with Evans today?"
"No," he grumbled, taking another bite out of his toast. He had detention because of her.
"Ah come on, James. It was just a fight. Go talk to her."
"She walked away from me. Twice! And landed me with a detention. I'm not talking to her!"
Sirius shook his head and changed the topic, "Your mum sent an owl. She's having a Christmas Eve party and she wants to make sure you tell Lily."
"Sure, I'll go run and tell her now," James said sarcastically.
"Oi! Potter! Heard you and the mudblood split! Did you finally realise she was an ugly, old hag?"
Before Sirius could stop him, James had pulled out his wand and shouted, "Furnunculous!" pointing it at the foul mouthed Slytherin. Immediately boils began to sprout on his face and not ten seconds later Professor McGonagall was stalking up to him.
"Potter, what do you think you are doing?"
"Teaching a lesson."
"You'll have to forgive James today, Professor. His love strings are hurt."
"I am quite aware, Black. Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention, Potter."
"But he called Lily a mudblood," — "And an 'ugly, old hag'," Sirius added — "And you already gave me one last night! Can't I just do two in one?" James argued ignoring Sirius' comment.
"Potter, no amount of name calling warrants a student to hex another. You will go to two detentions for two offences!"
Professor McGonagall went to the Slytherin student, who James saw was Alvena Aitken, and sent her to the hospital wing. James slumped in his seat. This was all Lily's fault.
"Come on, we're going to be late for Transfiguration. You don't want to give McGonagall another reason to give you detention."
James agreed and they walked to the classroom. James worked hard to avoid Lily all day. It was quite the mission. James kept wanting to tell her things, like how he managed to make himself three inches taller and changed his hair to blue.
"Outstanding Potter. I believe you'd pass the Concealment and Disguise part of Auror training with top marks. You, on the other hand," McGonagall said to Black who was trying and failing to make his hair shorter, "Need to practice!"
James sniggered and Sirius shot him a dirty look. "Why don't you go talk to Evans?" James sent a glare back but stopped laughing at Sirius.
The rest of the day was torture. James kept glancing at Lily but he never managed to catch her eye, not that he wanted to of course, he was ignoring her. To top everything off, Professor Scrivens and Slughorn assigned essays for homework, both due on Wednesday.
That night, James, Sirius, Peter and Remus had sat down to start the Potions essay and Sirius kept dropping comments like, "I sure wish Lily was around to help," or, "If only you weren't fighting with Lily, I could ask her for help." Remus finally silenced him saying, "Enough Padfoot."
—
Lily and James weren't forced to speak to each other until Thursday night when unfortunately, they had detention together scrubbing tiles in the girls' bathrooms. Both as equally as stubborn, they had not muttered a single word to each other in two days and both were dreading patrol duty that evening.
"I wish someone would shoot me," Lily mumbled as she packed her books and homework away.
"Oh stop over exaggerating," Alice demanded.
"I for one," Marlene said, "Think it's good if you and James talk tonight."
"I have nothing to say to Potter."
"Oh Lily," Ella sighed, "Always the stubborn one."
"He's the one who's bloody stubborn!"
"Come on, Lils," Adaline encouraged, "You know you miss him and James has given out four detentions these last two days to fifth and third years which just proves how irritable he's been without you. He never gives out detention."
"That is a fine point," Alice agreed. "Plus Sirius told me he's been irritable. His exact words were, 'It's like he's on a period or something'."
"Promise us, you'll talk to him tonight," Ella pleaded and Lily rolled her eyes. It wasn't any of their business if she did or didn't talk to her boyfriend but she knew she was right. The students leaving Hogwarts for Christmas would be leaving in a week's time and Lily hadn't written her name down to say she was staying since she had thought she'd be staying at James' for Christmas. Lily had no idea if he still wanted her to meet his parents and Lily would be very screwed if he had changed his mind. Lily's mum and sister were spending Christmas in France with Vernon's family and Lily had no intent to join.
Lily put on her cloak since the corridors were cold in winter and bade her friends goodnight.
"Talk to him, Lily!" Marlene shouted after her as she ran down the dormitory stairs.
James, too, had entered the common room when Lily did and Lily turned her face away from him and stalked ahead, determined not to talk to him. He followed behind her just as sourly as they made their way to the Entrance Hall where Filch gave them buckets and bristled brushes to scrub floors with.
"You'll be scrubbing the floors of the girls' bathrooms."
"Until when?" James grunted.
"Until I say, boy!"
Lily and James had been scrubbing the floors in the first floor girls' bathroom for the better part of an hour in complete silence when James finally decided to speak up. He just had to figure out how to say, what he wanted to say. He missed her but he couldn't just come out and say that. She'd threatened to break up with him. What if she didn't miss him and he told her he missed her? He'd look like the biggest prat. Maybe an icebreaker. He could tell her that he'd gotten another detention but he knew she wouldn't be please about him hexing someone — even if it was Aitken because he had to set the standard. He shuddered at how accurately he had memorised her voice saying those exact words.
He turned to start scrubbing another area —
"I've already done that section."
James glanced at Lily and moved to a different section. She sighed loudly. He should say something. She sighed again. He should definitely say something.
"I hexed Aitken's this morning." Fucking prat.
"Seriously Potter? That's the first thing you fucking tell me in two days?"
James looked at her sheepishly, "Sorry, first thing that came to my mind."
"Right," Lily deadpanned. She thought he would've said he missed her or that he was sorry or both. Instead he just told her he'd hexed Aitken. Oh, god! What if he meant it when he said for her to break up with him?
"I hexed her because she insulted you and I know," he said before Lily could intervene, "You don't need me to fight your battles and I know that you don't. It doesn't mean I won't be right there beside you in the middle of a fight, Evans because I-"
Filch hunched into the bathroom, outraged to see the two subjects of his detention talking with their brushes forgotten on the floor. "No talking!" he demanded. "You two better have these bathrooms spotless by ten p.m. Or else I will give you both another detention! You ungrateful swines! If I'd had it my way, you'd be hanging by your ankles in the dungeons! Now get scrubbing!"
Lily and James didn't need telling twice and immediately grabbed their brushes and ferociously scrubbed at the floor, determined to finish before ten o'clock.
"Don't stop scrubbing," Lily muttered, "Just, let's meet up. Tomorrow at midnight. Passageway behind the fourth corridor mirror."
James smiled, "That would be nice," he agreed.
"I said, no talking!" Filch walked back into the bathroom and stayed there watching them closely until ten o'clock. Thankfully, they'd managed to finish all the bathrooms.
—
The next morning, James' mood was considerably lighter and James was sitting in his dorm lying on his bed, trying to rest his eyes as he wondered if Lily and him would actually make-up or if they would just start yelling at each other again. He started to prepare 'speeches' on why he was angry with Lily — to explain himself in his head.
It's just that, I love you, Lils and I don't want anything bad to happen to you and I know you trust Snape and whilst I don't agree with it, I get it. He use to be your friend. Your best friend so you want to believe him when he says it wasn't him. But I don't trust him. For my whole life at Hogwarts we've been rivals. And-
You're a prat, James. You should be able to trust my judgement and I can handle myself.
You're right, you can. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to protect you. You're My Marie and relationships go two ways. If I trust your judgement, you have to trust mine too. And mine tells me that Snape isn't innocent in all this.
"Prongs?"
James opened his eyes. "Oh hello, Wormtail."
"What are you doing?"
"Just thinking. Lily and I are going to talk later tonight," James told him just as Sirius walked in.
"Remus is with Madame Pomfrey so they'll probably be heading to the Shrieking Shack in about five minutes. What?" Sirius asked James as his eyes widened.
"It's a full moon," he croaked.
"Duh. Why do you think Remus has been so pissy lately?" Sirius said, "Oh don't tell me you forgot?"
"Lily wants to meet up at midnight to talk." James paled.
"Bad luck for you, mate."
"Shit. Shit. Shit."
"Well, you better go tell her before she thinks you stood her up."
"Maybe, I can give this full moon a miss?" James asked him hopefully.
"Uh-uh," Sirius said, "No way."
"Oh, come on, Padfoot. It's just one night! You can handle, Moony for one night."
"And what if he over powers me and runs away, James?" Sirius questioned. "A rat isn't going to do much to stop him, no offence Peter."
James sighed, knowing Sirius was right. James stood up, gave the cloak to Peter. "Look, I'm going to go quickly talk to Lily. Meet in the common room in five."
Sirius nodded and James bolted down the stairs into the common room looking around for Lily. He spotted Marlene and Adaline sitting by the window.
"Del, Marls!"
They looked at him. "Oh, James. What's up?"
"Where's Lily?"
"Haven't seen her. I think she's in the dorm."
"Can you go get her for me?"
"We're studying." Adaline pointed to the flash cards in front of them.
"Please, it's important!"
"Are you saying your relationship issues are more important than me passing my exams?" Adaline asked raising an eyebrow. "Because if I don't study I'm going to bloody fail Transfiguration."
"If one of you goes up to get Lily, I will give you all my Transfiguration notes."
Marlene and Adaline glanced at each other and then nodded and James sighed in relief. Marlene got up and walked, at a normal pace, to the girls dormitories. James' leg bounced as he checked his watch. About two minutes left. Merlin, how long did it take to get someone to come down.
"James, time to go!"
"Just another minute!" James called back to Sirius, holding a hand up.
Marlene came down without Lily.
"She's in the shower."
"Did you tell her I wanted to talk to her?"
"Prongs!" Peter called and James held his hand up again.
"Yes, and she said she's having a shower and that she'll talk to you tonight."
James rolled his head back, bringing his fingers to to bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay. Okay. Just tell her-"
"Prongs!" Sirius shouted, getting angry now. "We need to go. Now!"
"Where are you all off to?" Adaline asked getting curious.
"Nowhere. Just tell Lily, that I'm sorry and that I can't meet up with her tonight. And that I'm really, really sorry. And that I do really, really want to talk to her. I just can't tonight."
"You can't?" Marlene arched her skinny eyebrow.
"I can't."
"For the love of Merlin's saggy left - JAMES POTTER IF YOU DO NOT COME THIS INSTANT I WILL MAUL YOU!"
"Sorry, got to go. Make sure you tell, Lily!" James shouted at the girls before running off with Sirius and Peter.
A/N:
Hello everyone! Thanks for reading! Please review, follow or fav!
-Natalie xx