III. Progress
The more James learnt about Lily the more he was impressed, confused, and utterly enamoured by her. She was an odd mixture of things. She worried about everything but at the same time, she was carefree and wild. As they walked for the Hufflepuff House her brow frowned with worry James was instantly concerned.
"You keep making that face, Evans, you'll get frown lines," James warned, teasing her only because he assumed she was worried about getting caught.
"You're the one who's concerned about physical appearances, not me," Lily snapped back, her eyes moving over the corridor as if waiting for someone to pop out.
"I was joking," he smirked, nudging her shoulder, attempting to pull her out what ever mood she had jumped to and make her enjoy herself.
She looked at him briefly before turning back to her search of the corridor and sighed. "Sorry."
Moments passed and she did not relax. In fact, she only seemed to get worse as they got closer to the Hufflepuff House.
"You know we haven't actually done anything wrong yet," James informed her. Her worry coiled off of her and completely changed the mood of the game.
"What's your point, Potter," Lily snapped at him again.
"My point is, if you don't want to be here you don't have to be," James snapped back.
"If you don't want my help then why did you ask?" she yelled, coming to a sudden stop. James stopped and reluctantly turned to look at her. Why did things always end up this way between them?
"I never said I didn't want you here," he said gently, for once making an effort to calm her fury instead of igniting it.
"And I never said I didn't want to be here," she returned, her anger actually calming.
"You're not acting like you want to be here," James said tentatively.
"How exactly should I be acting?" Lily challenged. James studied her. Her brow raised and lips pursed, her posture defensive, her eyes never leaving him. She wasn't worried anymore.
"Like you're not afraid of being friendly with me," James said, taking a leap of faith. It appeared that he was right. Lily's expression fell and morphed into one of mortified panic. It was absolutely ridiculous. If she wanted to be friends with him, she should just be friends with him regardless of what anyone else had to say.
She took a moment to compose herself before responding.
"You can hardly expect me not to be worried about my friend's feelings." Lily chose her words carefully. James nodded in understanding, knowing that she meant Snape. "I really didn't want to bring this up," she said softly, beginning to walk again.
"Hey, if you want we can engage in some not-so-friendly friendly banter," James grinned, setting his whirling thoughts aside for the sake of enjoying his time with her. Lily chuckled softly and flicked a strand of hair out of her eye.
"What is it with you and conflict?" she questioned obviously amused.
"How do you feel about the Holyhead Harpies?" James smirked. Lily threw her head back and laughed. James thrilled. He had caused that.
"I am not going to argue about Quidditch with you," she said resolutely.
"Why not?" James questioned. It was a perfectly natural thing to argue about.
"I would never win," she smiled, a spark finally lighting her eyes. He grinned back at her trying to think of something she knew more about. "Do you know anything about Muggle music?"
"Thanks to Sirius, yes," he answered, intrigued by her question. "Though I admit we have an extremely limited knowledge."
"Hmm, that wouldn't be very fair then." Lily stared off into the distance to think.
"I know about wizard music," James offered.
"And which do you like more?" Lily asked, walking backwards to look at him.
"Wizard. But not because-"
"No one could ever rightly accuse you of being biased against muggles," she said quickly, shaking her head as if that was obvious. "But I do disagree with you."
"On what grounds?" James chuckled, reaching for her arm to stop her from falling down the marble steps for she was still walking backwards and hadn't seen that she had approached the start of the stairs.
"Muggle music has a wider range of emotion. Wizards - all they sing about are hippogriff and goblins," Lily claimed. James gaped at her for a moment.
"Someone needs to educate you on your musical genres. Obviously, Snape has terrible taste in music," James laughed, keeping his voice light. He was testing her, trying to find his limit.
"I have a radio," she laughed.
"Oh, that's why! You're only listening to the radio! I'll have to lend you some records so you can experience the truly emotional power of Valerie Vixen," James said, lowering his voice to almost a whisper as Peter's form came into sight. He was sitting on the bottom step of the marble stairs, trying to balance his box of inkwells on the tip of his wand.
With a finger on his lips, he gestured for Lily's silence and crept down as quietly as he could. Peter had yet to notice their approach. James grinned at Lily who was smiling back at him, holding her breath to contain her laughter. He jumped off the steps and landed in front of Peter. "All right, mate?"
Peter jumped and dropped his box and James dived to catch it before it hit the ground. "Merlin!" Peter breathed with a hand over his chest.
"Get your head in the game, Pettigrew," James smirked, tossing the box back to him.
"Being friends with him for so long I'm surprised you could be startled by anything," Lily laughed, descending the last of the steps.
"He gets you when your most vulnerable," Peter told her, adjusting the collar of his shirt. "Watch for Sprout when you're down there. She hasn't come up yet." James nodded and headed for the door.
"Thanks, Peter," Lily smiled, scurrying to keep up with James. "Valerie Vixen sounds like the name of a porn star!" Lily whispered, her voice echoing off the stone walls. There wasn't really a need for her to whisper but the silence of the corridor set the tone. James stopped in front of the pile of barrels and looked at her completely shocked.
"Too many blokes would fall into chronic masturbation. It'd be an epidemic," James said, squinting at her in the dim lighting.
"I take it you'd be one of them," Lily laughed, looking equally shocked. James felt his face burn as he struggled to find an answer. He was saved from having to speak though when the top of one of the barrels rolled open. James and Lily rushed to find a hiding place in the corridor containing only hanging portraits and a pile of barrels. Wishing he had his Invisibility Cloak he pulled Lily to his side and flattened himself against a darker part of the wall, hoping they would go unnoticed.
"Miss Evans?" Professor Sprout had climbed out of the barrels and looked directly at Lily. "And… Mr Potter. Why aren't you at the feast?"
"We were waiting for a friend," James answered promptly, hardly realising what he was saying.
"She wanted to show us something from her dormitory, Professor," Lily added without batting an eye.
"Which friend? I didn't see anyone in there," Sprout asked, not looking suspicious but mildly concerned.
"Annie Marino. She just got the new Valerie Vixen album," Lily answered, smirking slightly. James felt his face flush again.
"I see. Hopefully, she doesn't keep you too long. Those apple tarts are going fast," Sprout said, barely looking at them as she headed for the door.
"The house elves have certainly outdone themselves," James spoke to Sprout's retreating form. Hearing the door shut behind her he turned back to Lily. "I am never going to live down this Valerie Vixen thing am I?"
"Nope!" Lily smirked skipping forward. She wrapped her wand against the right barrel five times and watched as it slid open revealing the dark entrance to the Hufflepuff House.
"How did you know the password?" James asked her, slightly in awe.
"I have friends." She looked over her shoulder at him before disappearing into the dark.
Upon reaching the Common Room they set to work spilling fake blood on the floor, toppling over furniture, and making a general mess of the place. They charmed bits of the floor so who ever stepped on it would be stuck there. They filled clothes with balloons and tethered it, so it looked like a man standing in a dark corner. For their final touches, they locked the doors to the dormitories and stole all the candles so the only light in the place came from the fireplace.
Sniggering and smirking with each other they left the Common Room quickly and hurried out into the Entrance Hall. Peter was still sitting on the bottom step looking incredibly bored as he twiddled with his wand.
"Don't look so excited, Peter, you'll give everything away," James said, sounding slightly annoyed, beginning to ascend the stairs.
"A couple of students just went up that way," Peter informed looking up at him.
"You didn't stop them?" James stopped, suddenly concerned for Remus.
"They were Slytherins. I figured as long as they weren't returning to their house it wasn't a problem," Peter shrugged. James nodded, his concern lessened considerably.
"I'll be back for you in a mo. I just wanna make sure Evans makes it back to the Tower okay," James told him, marching up the stairs again. Surprisingly, Lily didn't say anything. She followed in silence all the way up the marble staircase until the silence nearly killed him.
"You wanna see what the Slytherins are up to?" James asked.
"They're probably not doing anything interesting," Lily answered with an odd expression on her face.
"Let's take the long way back to the Tower. Maybe we'll run into them," James smirked. Lily sighed but followed him.
Run into them they did.
James and Lily quickly checked the library. With no sign of anyone having been in there for some time they left.
"Maybe they went to the Astronomy Tower. People like to go there for dates," Lily told him, a note of apology in her voice.
"It is a pretty clear-"
"Out of the way mudblood!" a younger Slytherin snarled pushing past Lily hard enough for her to stumble. His companion laughed.
"OY!" James called furiously.
Lily caught his arm and pulled him back. "James it's alright."
"We're not afraid of you," sneered the second.
James ripped out of Lily's grip and pulled out his wand intent on making them fear him. Lily ran in front of him and stopped him with two hands on his chest lightly pushing against him. James looked past her knowing that if he looked her in the eye he would stop so he glared at the two Slytherins with a threatening snarl on his lips.
"James you don't have to fight everyone. Some people you just can't convince," she whispered. When he didn't respond she gripped the front of his robes and shook him a bit. He had no choice but to look back at her. He was instantly powerless, lost in her eyes. His pounding heart calmed and his grip on his wand slacked. "Please, James, put it away. It's not worth it."
James breathed deeply and stuffed his wand back into his pocket. He gently he pushed her hands away and stepped around her, looking at the two Slytherins again noticing for the first time a subtle hint of apprehension on their faces. He approached them slowly and as he did their fear grew.
"Her name is Lily," James said pointing behind him to where Lily stood, needing to correct the name they had called her first and foremost. He was careful to hold their gaze even as their eyes flashed to her. "She would do anything for you, even after what you just did. That kind of person deserves your respect." They nodded vigorously, not daring to disagree with him. "If I ever hear that word coming out of either of your mouths again, you'll be eating slugs for a week. Got it?" They nodded again. One of them turned to scurry away. The other look at Lily again.
"Sorry," he said meekly and without waiting for a response followed his friend.
James very reluctantly turned around. He didn't know if she would consider that to be too far. He really didn't want to have ruined things between them especially when things were going so well.
However, her expression wasn't angry but soft and thoughtful.
"It really wasn't worth it," she said quietly looking at the arms she held folded against her chest.
"I thought it was," James told her honestly. He had never seen her looking so vulnerable. His heart clenched with sudden sympathy - she was just a girl. "Lily, you're worth it. You're worth a million times that. And even if you weren't you wouldn't deserve to be treated like that, no one does."
Lily's head shot up suddenly as tears sprang into her eyes. James barely had time to blink before he was blinded by her hair as she collided into him with a force that nearly knocked the wind out of him. He stepped back to regain his balance and wrapped his hands around her waist. Her hold on his neck tightened slightly as the rest of her relaxed into him. His brain had gone haywire. Every inch of him seemed to tingle. There was a strange sense of comfort in the embrace that settled his stomach and completely calmed the beast that raged inside him. She pulled away a second more than what would have been considered appropriate for a platonic hug. Hope bubbled in his chest. With the heel of her palm, she dried her eyes as she gripped his shoulder with her other hand.
"Thanks," she chuckled.
"Your friends are awful," he told her. He hadn't said anything to evoke that reaction out of any normal person.
"You're friends with some of my friends," Lily reminded, smiling.
"Most of your friends are awful," he corrected. She laughed shaking her head.
"Come on. Take me back to the Tower." Her hand brushed against his when she walked past him. He wanted to reach out and take it in his own but he didn't want to push his luck so he walked her back with his hands clasped tightly behind his back.
***Look at my babies getting along and showing affection! asdfghjkl!
Thanks for reading! I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it.
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Until next time,
XO***