Author's note: I am a hypocrite and a liar- I know both of these things. I said I'd be a better updater and I haven't. I suck. But here's a new chapter for you, and in order to speed up the updates, keep the reviews coming! AP classes suck, by the way, and you may blame them for my slow update.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would be in Edinborough right now, and I certainly wouldn't be writing this story. I would be writing Harry Potter. As long as this story is not Harry Potter (thank God it's not), I am not J.K. Rowling.
Chapter Six: It's a date
The summer was flying past Lily in a blur of backyard Quidditch matches, late-night games of Exploding Snap, drinking butterbeers at Sirius' new flat, and just relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. James was fast becoming one of Lily's closest friends, and neither of them was sure how it happened.
Lily had never really had a best friend. She was incredibly popular, of course- she knew and was like by most everyone in the school- but she had never had one closest friend in whom she could confide almost anything that crossed her mind. At first, seeing James and Sirius together confounded her- how could two people be so close? But as she spent more time with them- and especially James- her confusion turned to want. She began to take notice in how loyal and trusting James was. She wanted that kind of closeness. Moreover, she wanted that closeness with James.
So Lily began to open up. She began sharing things with James and Sirius when they sat by the fire at night, just chatting. They talked about everything- the latest Quidditch match, their favourite classes, and even their hopes and fears. She learned some things about both of them- Sirius' mum had wanted him to be in Slytherin; James' favourite flavour of Bertie Bott's was avocado. And she told them things about herself- her fights with Petunia, funny stories about childhood friends. The more they told stories, the better friends they became.
Lily and James fell onto the floor of the Potter living room ungracefully. They had just Flooed back from Sirius' house (he had a date that afternoon with a sixth-year Ravenclaw). They stood up, brushing off soot, to find Mrs. Potter standing in the room waiting for them, a silly grin on her face, with two letters in hand.
The teenagers looked at her quizzically. Without saying a word, Mrs. Potter handed them each a letter, which James then recognised as their Hogwarts letters.
"Open them!" Mrs. Potter said quickly. "I can't bear to wait any longer!"
Lily and James obliged, opening their letters in tandem. As they broke open the seal, two badges came out. Lily squealed and hugged Mrs. Potter. They were jumping up and down, both sobbing, a stream of, "Oh my goodness!", "I can't believe it!", "Professor Dumbledore told me yesterday, but I couldn't tell you!" coming out of their mouths. All the while James was standing, just staring at his Head Boy badge, unbelieving. When Lily and Mrs. Potter broke their excited embrace, they turned to look at James.
"I…I….I can't wait to hold this over Sirius' head!" James said, breaking out into a grin.
Without thinking, Lily reached out and gave him a huge hug. When they broke apart, Mrs. Potter closed in to give her stunned son a hug. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered in his ear. "Wait until your father hears about this!"
That night, the Potters had a huge dinner. They invited over Sirius, Remus, and Peter to engage in the fun as well. They stayed up half the night, eating more dessert than they should have, Mr. and Mrs. Potter telling stories of their Hogwarts days (Mr. Potter especially had some funny stories from his own Head Boy-ship).
The next morning, Lily woke up early. It was the kind of waking-up you just couldn't control. You just woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep. She laid in bed until a quarter after seven, but she just couldn't take it anymore. She got out of bed and walked across the hall.
She pushed open James' bedroom door and looked in. He was sprawled on the bed, a mass of bent limbs and bed sheets. Lily mused that he looked like a little four-year old, his hands curled up near his face and his bottom lip sticking out slightly.
In a move that surprised Lily herself, she jumped on top of James in the bed. With a resounding "Umph!" James' eyes opened and turned very confused as he saw Lily, giggling, on top of him.
"Whaa?" he grumbled out sleepily.
"I was bored, so I decided to wake you up," Lily said happily.
"It's…" he looked at the clock. "Geez, Lily, it's seven o'clock in the morning!"
"Oh, don't complain- I've been up since 5:30," Lily said in a chipper voice.
James groaned and started to sit up.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked.
"Getting up so that I can put on clothes," James said. Lily looked at him and realised that he was only wearing a pair of boxers. Mortified, she jumped up and hastily turned around to face the wall.
"Oh! Oh! Okay. Put on clothes. That's a good idea," Lily said hurriedly. Why did this bother her so much? It was only James. 'That's right- it's James. Half-clothed. In the same room as you,' her brain informed her, almost teasing. Trying to calm herself, she took a breath, listening to the rustle of clothes and the opening and closing of James' wardrobe. 'This shouldn't bother me,' Lily though bracingly. 'It's only James. And why should I care about what James is wearing? Or…what he's not wearing?' She shuddered at this, clearing her head as James spoke.
"Do you want to go to Diagon Alley today?" he asked. Taking this as a cue that it was okay to look at him again, Lily turned around.
"Sure," she said, hoping that her face was no longer bright red. There were times when being a redhead just sucked. "We could get all our new school stuff."
James hesitated. "Well, yeah…. And, you know… we could just go to… hang out."
Lily looked at him. His cheeks were tinged red. What did this mean? Was he asking her out? And why was he nervous? He'd asked her out dozens of times. He'd always taken her rejection without a second glance. But, then again, did she want to reject him?
Slowly, not really sure of how to answer, she nodded. "That would be fun. I've been wanting to look around Flourish and Blotts. I heard there were some really great new books there."
James chuckled. "Okay," he said, humouring her. "We'll go check out the new books. And then maybe some ice cream. Today's supposed to be pretty warm."
This didn't sound too bad. Plus, ice cream was casual. Anyone could go get ice cream. It didn't mean they would be on a date. Somehow this disappointed Lily. Maybe she wanted it to be a date. What did she want anymore?
"That sounds like fun. And, hey- we could always stop in the Leaky Cauldron and have lunch together," Lily threw in, desperately hoping it sounded like a casual suggestion.
James looked surprised at this. "Um…okay. Yeah. That sounds good."
"Good," Lily repeated.
James smiled. "So, okay then. It's a date."
Author's note (part deux): Okay, so hopefully the new chapter was good enough that you don't hate me for not updating (but probably not). Please, please humour me and send me a review. It doesn't even have to be a good review. You don't even have to talk about the story. Tell me about your favourite reality TV show, if you want. I don't care. Here's a hint: I already have the next chapter half-written. The more reviews there are, the faster the next chapter comes.
Here's another hint: there's this urban legend that if you hit that little purple-ish "Go" button, something magical will happen. Seriously. Try it. Press the magical little "Go" button. I dare you.
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