"No, no, stop! You are completely out of sync!"

Lily and James halted, Lily immediately dropping James's hand and taking a step away from him. She crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. She didn't know what else to do to get that synchronicity Minerva asked of them.

Minerva approached them. "Get off the ice, and put on your shoes."

Lily's heart dropped. They still had nearly two hours left in their session, were they really so bad Minerva couldn't stand having to watch them struggle with their twizzles for two more hours?

Lily didn't look at James as she exited the ice, they each went to to get their skates off. Lily had to admit the last couple of days hadn't been the best for her and James. As much as they tried, they could not get their twizzles in sync, which was a pretty significant part of an element literally called synchronised twizzles. A set of twizzles consisted of rotating on one foot while travelling on the ice, usually, a set would be from three to five rotations, and for senior competitions, you had to complete three sets one right after the other. Twizzles were also one of the highest-scoring elements in ice dance. Their step sequences were suffering too. Minerva kept telling them to skate closer together, but Lily tended to gravitate away from James.

Minerva approached Lily and James from the boards as they came back out into the rink. "There is a flower crown making lesson at this East Court in ten minutes taught by Alice Longbottom, I want you both to attend it."

Lily couldn't keep the confusion from her features. She wanted them to do what? "I... I don't understand, you want us to learn to make flower crowns?"

"Yes."

"I thought those lessons were only for children aged eight to twelve years old."

"The parents of the children may also attend."

James cleared his throat, obviously just as confused as Lily. "But... we do not have a child aged eight to twelve years old."

Minerva didn't back down. "You may ask Horace for permission to bring one of his younger students. Once you're done with the lesson you may go home."

And with that, Minerva skated away from them. Lily couldn't help but gape after her. She could not tell if her coach was being serious.

"Well, let's go, then."

Lily followed James, still not entirely sure what was happening.

James turned to her. "You should probably talk to him, he doesn't like me very much."

He was right. Lily approached Horace, who was standing at the boards watching his students. Lily could only really think of one skater young enough for them to borrow. "Hi, Horace, how are you?"

Horace turned to her and smiled, he threw a worried glance at James but didn't acknowledge him. "Ah, Lily, dear, I'm quite well, and yourself? I hope the new... partnership is working out fine."

Lily surprised herself by how defensive she felt at Horace's tone. "It's going fine. We had a bit of a favour to ask you, actually."

Horace nodded at her to continue.

"Is there any way we could borrow Alena for about an hour?"

Horace glanced at the girl in question, who was currently doing a pattern with her partner. "Well, she still has a half-hour left in the session, but if she's alright with it, I don't see why not."

Lily smiled. "Great! Thanks, we'll go talk to her."

Lily and James walked along the boards towards the short end of the rink, where they would be closer to Alena when she finished her pattern.

"Alena? Isn't that ickle Regulus's partner?" James asked.

"Yeah, you've never met her?"

"Well, Sirius isn't really big on hanging out with his brother or anyone from Horace's group, really."

As with most things she knew about Sirius, she couldn't quite remember what Sirius's beef with his younger brother was. But she knew they rarely even acknowledged each other. It might have had to do with the fact that Sirius had decided to join Minerva's group instead of Horace's, who had coached just about everyone in his family. Lily had never asked though. "Right, and I forgot you and Sirius are conjoined twins so it's physically impossible for you to talk to different sets of people."

James grinned cheekily. "Most people in Horace's group think they're so much better than the rest of us though, and they have literally been insufferable ever since Black and Rosier got that World silver medal."

"I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong, but do not say any of that to Alena, she might be tiny, but she will actually kill you."

As Alena and Regulus finished their pattern, Lily called the girl over. "Alena, can you come here for a second?"

"What do you want?"

Lily wasn't fazed by the girl's bluntness. "How old are you?"

Alena frowned. "I just turned thirteen."

Lily tilted her head slightly as she looked at Alena. She couldn't be over five feet tall, with some baby fat still on her cheeks, and her soft blue doe eyes, she could easily still pass for twelve or probably even less. "I think she could pass for twelve, do you?"

James nodded. "Totally."

Alena's brow furrowed. "Why?"

"We need you to get into a flower crown making lesson in the East Court," Lily replied.

"No, I'm training."

"Come on, you've only a half-hour of ice time left, and Horace said it was okay," Lily pleaded, taking Alena's wrist and giving it a small shake.

Alena scoffed. "Fine."

Lily smiled. "Yay! Meet us at the Palace entrance."

Without another word, Alena skated off.

Lily and James turned away from the boards. James spoke, "you seem pretty chummy with her."

Lily shrugged. "Well, when Sev and I moved to this rink we were co-coached by Minerva and Horace, so I'm pretty familiar with that bunch. I know they can come off as a little conceited and mean, but they're mostly harmless."

"Well, Alena certainly seems charming," said James with sarcasm in his tone.

"I know she can come off a little hostile but she's just a kid, and she hasn't exactly had the best role models to follow, but deep down she's really very sweet and funny."

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it."

"Oh trust me, once she lightens up, she's a laugh riot."

As they entered the East Court, Lily couldn't help but tilt her head upwards to admire the glass ceiling of the atrium, it was nice to feel the sun after spending so long on the ice.

Lily waved Alena over as they approached the front desk.

Before Lily could stop him, James had approached the desk where a bored-looking middle-aged lady sat. "Hello, we're here to sign up for the family flower crown thing."

The lady gave James the stink eye. "That thing is for parents with their children aged eight to twelve years old."

James put his arm around Lily. "Oh, my wife does look young, doesn't she? But she's actually twenty-three," he leaned in close to the desk and whispered, "she comes from a bit of a bad background, she had her daughter at just thirteen-years-old and raised her on her own until she met me and now she has finally put her life together."

Lily's eyes widened in disbelief. She could not believe James had actually just said that.

The lady still looked a bit iffy on the story, but after looking at the three of them for a moment – James grinning, Lily shell-shocked, and Alena bored – she finally said, "fine, just don't cause any ruckus."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

And she signed them off.

As they walked into the room where the lesson would be held, Lily turned to James and slapped his arm. "What the hell was that?"

James shrugged. "Well, the lady said it could only be parents with children, what else was I supposed to say?"

"You could've said we were her elder siblings!"

James paused. "Well, it's too late for that, isn't it?"

Alena rolled her eyes.

As the trio sat down at a table, Alice, the instructor gave them a weird look but said nothing.

Lily gathered their supplies and wondered how the hell this was going to help their skating at all. She resolved that for the time being she was just going to stop trying to figure it out, and just take the lesson.

Lily found that it was quite enjoyable making the crowns. Alena's was turning out far prettier than hers, but she was still proud of her pseudo daisy chain.

"Lily hold this," Alena said.

Lily held two stems together as Alena started doing some sort of intricate knot with a different stem. It was unbelievable how fast that kid picked things up.

Alice approached the trio. "Wow, that is really good, love."

Lily could see Alena's eyes go a little feral at being called love, but she didn't comment on it. "Thank you."

"Why don't you try it on?"

Alena put on the crown over her neatly braided hair. Lily thought she looked like a princess.

Alice grinned. "Oh that's lovely, I have to get a picture of it."

Alice took her phone out and snapped a few pictures of Alena. She then looked at Lily and James. "Why don't you guys get yours on? So I can take a family picture."

Lily thought her crown looked embarrassing next to Alena's but she obliged.

James's crown looked quite nice. Lily held in an eye roll as she realised it was made mostly of lilies. Lily and Alena exchanged a glance as James put the crown on his head. Alena let out a small snort.

"I think you didn't account for your big head, James."

James frowned and tried to push the small circle down on his head, which only resulted in the crown completely falling apart. James's eyes widened as the petals rained down from his head onto his lap. The three women stared at him in silence for a few seconds, then Lily and Alena burst out in laughter.

Lily was about to break out in hives. There were less than two weeks left until the Qualifier now. She knew that there was literally no reason for them not to win it, since most top teams received byes for Nationals, thus didn't have to attend any qualifying events. And even if for some reason they flopped at the Qualifier, the top five teams advanced to Nationals, and they would have to flop genuinely really bad to place out of the top 5.

So, yeah, Lily realised that she should not be this stressed over it, but she couldn't help it. She felt like this was the moment that would make or break their partnership. She knew that when she saw those protocol sheets — where their scores would be fleshed out — she would decide right then and there whether she should stick it out for the rest of the season or run for the hills.

Lily and James were reworking the exit to the straight line lift in their free dance. Minerva had told Lily they should wait to make any more tweaks to the program until after the Qualifier, but Lily couldn't resist, and she had convinced the woman to let her try something.

Lily stood on James's upper right thigh. He glided on the ice on a straight line, bent into a Besti squat, which meant his thighs were parallel to the ice. He held on to Lily's ankle firmly, her free leg stretched out behind her.

Lily took a deep breath, she had to be careful not to move her foot too much as not to slash James with her blade, but she also had to make sure she didn't fall as she jumped off his thigh.

Many things happened at once. Lily jumped off James's thigh. Or well, she tried to. It had been too late when she realised the back of her blade had caught on James's pant pocket. When James felt the pull at his sweatpants, he tried to hold on to Lily's leg to keep her from jumping, but it had been too late. The only thing he could do was drop to the ice and break Lily's fall with his own body.

Lily slammed hard into James's chest. They both groaned. "What did you do that for? You're gonna reaggravate your back injury," Lily chastised.

James smiled. "I couldn't well let you break that pretty face of yours."

Lily rolled her eyes and stood up.

"Oh my god, James did you drop Lily? Moony, you owe me ten quid!" Sirius's voice resonated through the rink.

Et tu, Remus? Thought Lily.

Minerva had already rushed over to them. "Oh, are you both alright?"

James had gotten up, and after quickly examining them superficially, Minerva sighed in relief. "James you better tell me if that back starts bothering you again, and Lily same with your hamstring."

Lily nodded absentmindedly.

"Well, you both might seem fine, but that was a scary fall, why don't we call it for today?"

Lily immediately started protesting. "We're fine, can't we do some off-ice training at least?"

"Alright, I want both of you to go down to the lake and take a paddleboat out for a spin."

Lily gaped at her coach.

"It's a good team-building exercise and a good leg workout. Off you go."

At this point, Lily was not even going to try to argue.

The boating lake wasn't too far from the rink. There weren't that many people on the boats since it was a Wednesday afternoon. Lily hadn't been on one of the boats in years, probably since she was a kid.

As they climbed into the bright yellow plastic boat, Lily eyed James worryingly as he stretched his back settling into his seat. "Are you sure your back is okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about it."

Lily sat down, reaching for the pedals in her sneaker-clad feet. A chill ran through the air, and Lily shivered, she'd forgotten to bring her jumper.

"Here, take my jacket," James offered as he removed the item from his body.

Lily shook her head half-heartedly. "But then you'll be cold."

"I'll get into heat once we start this thing up."

Lily took the jacket without putting more much of a fight. Who was she to deny a jacket when she was cold?

"I'm sorry I dropped you."

Lily shook her head slowly. "It wasn't your fault."

They pedalled at a leisurely pace in silence. It was oddly calming for Lily. She could see Alexandra park in the distance, the only sounds were of the water and the insects and birds in the trees.

She dared a look at James. He was looking at the horizon too, the sun getting low atop of the trees in the park. Lily thought she had never seen him look so... still, so peaceful. It suited him.

Just for Lily's luck, James turned his head and caught her staring. There was something about his gaze that made her heart skip a beat. Usually, in practice, she would try to avoid James's eyes as often as possible, but right this moment there was something that didn't let her look away. James's hazel eyes seemed to almost glow in the sun, Lily had never noticed the small flecks of green around his pupils. James always seemed to express his emotions with looks, but Lily couldn't quite decipher what the intensity in his gaze at the moment was meant to convey, but it made her squirm internally.

Lily could feel a blush start to creep up her cheeks, she immediately looked down at her hands.

"Hey, you know the boat is supposed to move, right?"

Lily turned to see Sirius getting into one of the boats next to Melanie. She had never been more relieved to see Sirius Black.

James wasted no time in yelling back at his friend. "Why don't you come here and catch us then?"

At that moment, James picked up his pedalling pace, Lily tried to keep up at first, but she soon resolved it was best if she just let him pedal by himself and pulled her feet up on her seat.

Lily turned back to see Sirius and Melanie were catching up to them already. It seemed like Melanie had resolved to do the same thing as Lily and just let Sirius pedal.

Lily could hear the lake attendant yelling at them from the distance not to race, she thought about telling James off, but she had to admit, it was kind of fun.

Not far behind Sirius and Melanie, Lily caught sight of Thomas pedalling on another boat as if his life depended on it, Mary with her feet up on the seat beside him.

Sirius and Melanie were now right next to Lily and James. Sirius turned to James. "Prongsie, I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

James looked at Thomas's boat. "Nothing a little manpower can't beat. Truce?"

Sirius nodded. He picked Melanie up easily and set her on the back of Lily and James's boat. James turned to Lily. "I'm sorry, Lily, but my crew needs me."

Lily rolled her eyes in response. James winked at her and jumped onto the other boat with Sirius. The yellow contraption shook upon James's impact, for a second Lily thought they were going to tip over, but James quickly sat and both boys started pedalling.

Melanie sat in James's vacated seat. "They are literal children."

Lily chuckled.

Melanie frowned. "Why are you so red? Did James say something... inappropriate? Because I'll beat him up."

Lily shook her head. Melanie may have been small and cute, but Lily knew Pairs girls were not to be crossed, no matter what they looked like. "No, it's nothing."

Melanie eyed her friend curiously.

Both girls' heads snapped to the side as they heard a high-pitched shriek. James and Sirius were trying to pull Thomas off his boat into the water and had splashed a bunch of water into the boat, and Mary had shrieked in fear of getting water on her hair.

"Potter, Black, I swear to god, if you drop Mary in the lake, I will rip your heads off," Lily yelled.

Melanie grabbed Lily's arm suddenly. All six teenagers turned at the sound of a shrill whistle. Two of the lake attendants were waving a flag at them, one of the women had a whistle in her mouth. They all froze.

James yelled, "scram!"

Lily and Melanie quickly put started pedalling again, giggling as the screech of the whistle started getting more and more desperate.