Chapter 7

Friday evening after classes, I threw myself on my bed. My brain hurt from overuse. I often spent Saturdays getting ahead on readings if I could, but I fully planned on not using my brain for the next two days. I was so dedicated to the idea that my brain almost didn't register the small scrap of parchment on my pillow.

Meet me by the portrait hole at 8.

My stomach fluttered as I examined James's curly penmanship. I couldn't prevent a girlish giggle from escaping my lips. Alice heard it and demanded to know what I was looking at and when I showed her Marlene and her practically tackled me in excitement. They started trying to spell my hair and cover my face in makeup. I turned them down. I never did that stuff for any other reason, so an evening rendezvous with a guy I liked should be no different. If he did like me back, I wanted to like me for who I was, not because I was trying to impress him through the ancient female rituals of toilette.

I did; however, let them pick out an outfit for me. They chose a brightly colored top and one of my favorite skirts. Even though I hadn't spent hours getting ready, I still felt like a million galleons. And the grin on James's face made me feel like I was walking on air.

As we slipped out of the common room, James's hand reached hesitantly toward mine. It was soft and warm. He led me through the castle. I didn't know where we were going, but I didn't ask. I had come to learn that the suspense was part of the fun. Suddenly, we were in a corridor that I had walk through many times but now there was a door where I was pretty sure there had never been one before.

When the door opened, I gasped in amazement. The room inside was sparkling. It was filled with candles. When I say filled, I do mean filled. On the floor, on the walls, floating up to the ceiling.

"What is this place?"

"It's called the Room of Requirement. It becomes whatever you need it to be."

"And we needed one billion candles?" I said incredulous.

"Well, I'm not really great this sort of romantic thing." James spoke sheepishly. He ran his hand through his hair. "But…I wanted something special… to ask you to be my girlfriend."

He looked at me when I didn't respond. I got nervous. It's not like I hadn't thought about this, but this was Potter we were talking about. The marauder. The class clown and jokester. He was cute and sweet when we were alone, but could I really trust him with my heart. I wasn't sure he was boyfriend material and I was scared to even try.

"It's passed curfew. We should get back." I turned away and started down the hall at a brisk pace.

"Evans! What do you want from me?" James shouted.

"Nothing, Potter." I said defeated. "Absolutely nothing." That was a complete lie though. I realized last night that I would love to be with him. He challenged me. In an academic way and in other ways. When I was with him, I felt like I was becoming a better version of myself. But if, he didn't feel the same that all this would just lead to pain for me. I started to walk away but he ran up and grabbed my arm.

"Lily, please wait." I turned, his eyes were wide and sad. "I can't stop thinking about you." He sounded so sincere and hurt. My heart skipped. "I know you think that this is just me be flippant and flirty, but I've never felt like this about anyone before." I couldn't breathe. It couldn't be real that this guy who was smart and sweet and funny could feel the same way about me that I felt about him. I couldn't see what he could possibly see in me.

I opened my mouth but any response I could come up with got stopped in my throat. The tension between us was thick and it was sliced in half when voices sounded down the hall. Both of us spun toward the direction of the noise. I froze. I had no idea what to do and I couldn't get caught out of bed past curfew. Luckily, James was quite used to sneaking around the castle. He grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a suit of armor.

He held me close to him. I could feel his heartbeat through his shirt. The voices got closer and then they stopped, and I realized I could hear two sets of footsteps. One of them was getting softer and the other was getting louder. I pressed myself back as far as I could. My body was flushed against James's. It was only so that I was better hidden from whoever was coming down the hall. Not at all to be close to him. I felt him move behind me. I couldn't tell what he was doing but I felt some sort of clothe brushed my arms and fell across my vision. It was soft and starry. I glanced back and saw that James had draped it over the both of us. I gave him a puzzled look, but he was staring straight ahead.

The steps got closer, and Professor appeared around the corners. I flinched instinctively and James's arms wrapped around me. Warning me to be still and not freak out. He totally should have been able to see us, but he walked right by us as if we didn't exist. As his steps faded, I relaxed, but I didn't move away from James. When it was certain we were alone, James removed the fabric from around us and released to me from his grip. He tried to step back, but he was already against the wall. If I wanted to escape, I needed to leave now. But instead, I slowly turned around and gazed into his eyes. I didn't move away. I took a steadying breath. I was usually a pretty confident person. In classes, I had no problems answering questions, giving presentations, and taking exams. That was my comfort zone, I knew I was good at that stuff, and I rarely ever ventured outside that zone. This was new. Exposing my heart to someone who had a history of not really caring about girls throwing themselves at him, that was new territory. That was terrifying.

"Did you mean what you said?" I asked quietly. James blinked, looking surprised.

"Yes, Lily." He said, his gaze boring into mine. I had never seen him look so serious. "This isn't a joke or a prank. I really, really, really like you. I have pretty much since I laid eyes on you. I'm sorry if I've hurt you with my teasing, I just couldn't think of another way to get your attention."

"Good." I said wrapping my arms around his neck. It kinda felt like standing on the edge of a cliff, there was a rush of adrenaline. It was thrilling, it was scary, but it was also going to be a lot of fun.

"Good?" James responded, his signature smirk working its way back onto his lips. "So… do you feel the same?"

"I'm not sure…" I said, still scared to fully fling myself off the edge. James's face fell and it made my gut twist. "But." I said quickly, not wanting to upset him. "I'm willing to give it a try." And with that his grin was back. He leaned down a pressed a long kiss to my lips.

We spent the next few hours talking and kissing. It was like I had never been as happy as I was when he was holding me in his arms. I didn't even think about how much trouble we could get in for being out passed curfew. By the time I was back in my dorm, I was grinning like an idiot.