This time, James isn't going to let Lily just leave with a fight hanging in the air. This time, he chases her.
He catches up to her not a corridor away where he finds her doubled up, hyperventilating. Without giving her a chance to pick a fight, he drags her away.
"Come on. Let's take this someplace private"
He drags her to the Fifth floor and stands in front of a spacious wall, brows furrowed and fists clenched. She watches him quizzically for half a minute before attempting to protest – something about wasting her time – just in time for a door to materialize right in front of them. He watches with a smirk as her jaw drops and she is rendered speechless for a while. He enjoys the effect for a bit longer before breaking the silence.
"Shall we?"
She can only nod slowly, mouth still agape. His hand resumes the grip right above her right elbow, gently guiding her towards the room. She takes a moment to take in the surroundings – her eyes run through the expanse of the room which seems to be a giant storage area with random equipment, cupboards, and ornaments and the likes thrown about haphazardly. She turns in a circle, taking in the contents of the room before settling to stare daggers at him.
"and what is the meaning of this?"
"Well, this place has played host to students of hundreds of generations who wanted to get rid of things. Seemed appropriate, given the situation"
"You have absolutely no right-"she starts, taking a step closer to him. He stares back, nonchalant, his face lacking all trace of his usual playful demeanor.
"I've seen it more than once. You sit in the library in that dark corner near the restricted section and practice Occlumency on each other. You've been doing it for months now. Don't try to deny it. I've seen. So has Sirius."
Anger and shame build up inside of her, slowly bubbling to the surface as he speaks. She can barely wait for him to finish the sentence before she blurts out.
"How dare you spy on me! What is the deal with you, Potter. Were you even spying on me? You don't even…" She trails off, unable to finish the sentence.
"I don't even what?" He's trying really hard not to smirk.
"Like me" Her voice is barely above a whisper but it reverberates through the room.
He does all he could to not be sidetracked by this, which he is sure she's aiming at.
"Nice try, Lils. Now spill. What's the deal?"
She looks defiant when she looks him dead in the eye, a tear rolling down her face even though her voice is even.
"You don't have the right to invade my privacy like that. I'm in no way obligated to tell you anything. We're not- we're not…" She trails off, her eyes fixating on something far off above his shoulder.
Suddenly, the entire room is taken by a jolt, and they both feel the entire room moving around as if to make space for another area. James drags Lily by the arm and shoves her behind a pile of antiques and motions her to stay quiet. The reverberating continues on for a while with a faint rumble and Lily is suddenly reminded of the dream she had by the lake. She shudders against James and he pushes them further into the corner, taking her on top of his lap.
"There's a lot going on in your mind, isn't there?" He whispers against her head. She shudders at the feeling, unable to control her body entirely. She is not excited about the fact that James Potter can completely control and manipulate her body even if the sensation is addictive.
"It's a bit shaky when the room is being used by someone else but then the two spaces operate as two entities. I'm pretty sure that's Sirius and Marlene on the other side… Not everyone knows how to access the room when it's already being used." he trails off, chuckling.
She knows he is indirectly saying that they can move away if they want, but she is rooted to him. Emotions, memories and sensations come crashing down as if all of her walls are being torn asunder, but she holds on to them desperately without letting them slip out.
James straightens up, his arms cradling her, careful not to give her any space to escape. He is towering over her, making her feel even more vulnerable in his presence.
"If you're going to be so stubborn, I can be stubborn too."
Without moving his arms from around her midriff, he kisses her left temple. She shudders, her eyes fluttering close instinctively. He works his way down to her cheek and then places a soft kiss on her ear.
"I know you were listening to our conversation and I know why you ran. You thought I told Sirius I didn't have feelings for you. What I actually meant was-" he pauses to kiss the spot right below her ear, making her breath hitch up "that I didn't want to do it this way. We thought he was manipulating you with Occlumency but I wanted you to figure it out. I didn't want to break off your friendship like that" he kisses the same spot again, making her back arch involuntarily. Realising what her soft spot is, he moves his left arm to cup her right cheek which is facing away from her and kisses her on the cheek, pulling her closer to his body and using the other hand to pull her around to fully face him. The hand that is cupping her cheek moves to entangle her hair at the base of her neck while his other hand presses her body to his, tightly.
"It is precisely because I'm so fucking in love with you that I don't want to win you that way"
At this he feels her entire body collapse against his, the walls she was desperately holding on to being ripped apart. Smiling against her neck, he pulls away, holding her from the base of her neck, forcing her to look up into his eyes.
Before she knows it, she's spilling every last detail to his astonished face.
Lily is up by seven o'clock that morning, as usual. Keen on avoiding another encounter with Tuney, she quickly freshens up and runs downstairs to where her mother is making scrambled eggs with bacon. She grabs a plate while humming to herself and fills her it with an unhealthy amount of bacon and eggs.
"Hiya dad" she greets her dad who's reading a newspaper in the living room while drinking his coffee. "Anything interesting happen in the last twenty-four hours?" she slides down next to him on the couch aggressively.
"Darn right it has. Seven people missing from their homes. They leave the house for an evening stroll and never come back. It's the strangest thing."
Her brow furrows against her forehead, "that is unusual. Cops find anything relevant?"
"When do they ever?" he sighs in resignation.
"Amen to that. Dad do you mind missing me for the day? I may have stumbled upon the answer to our mystery last night, by accident, might I add. I can't wait to test my theory"
She's bouncing up and down on the couch in so much excitement that her father chuckles in response.
"Of course my love. Though, you do have to promise me you'll not show up till seven in the evening. If you're not here from four for Petunia to pick your clothes and dress you up as she sees fit for the big introduction, she might throw a fit when you show up at six the way you usually do – with twigs in your hair. Besides" he lowers his voice, "the least we hear about it afterwards, the better."
"That better not be about me on the most important day of my life!" Petunia thunders, walking down the stairs in that innately snobbish way of hers.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Tuney" Lily says, rolling her eyes as she gets off the couch. She quickly cleans up and runs up the stairs to collect her backpack and runs down in an excited haze. She pecks a kiss on her mum's cheek and dad's forehead before running out the front door.
Sev is waiting for her by their Oak tree when she finally gets there. His blue faded jeans and black t-shirt screams incompatibility against his drooping gothic features. His eyes are dark circles and his face is a bit too harsh – a recent development Lily resents. It all lightens up when he sees her though and he jumps to his feet to pull her into a hug – the only time he dares to enjoy any physical contact with her. They break apart and Lily climbs up to the lowest birch while Sev sits on the ground beside her feet.
"I poured through all the book in my mum's collection" Sev starts drolly, "but found absolutely nothing. It's as if no one really knows how to get these potions perfectly right. Maybe there's a reason Lily."
"Yes there is" Lily responds chirpily, "but it's not what you think. See, while you were trying to find if someone else knew how to make the potions better than Libatius Borage, I read up about the man himself. Turns out, he was the jealous, bitter kind who lived and died with his potions. Inventing potions that no one has ever thought of was his passion in life and he wanted immortality in that area. He didn't want anything or anyone to beat him. It is said that he has never given two people the same instructions about one potion. He was the kind to never pass on the full extent of his knowledge."
"That sounds reasonable to me."
"Of course it does - to you. Now, I wanted to map his thinking and his education when it comes to potions so I read a bit about Castelobruxo as well. Just like we have ancient text in our restricted section, the Brazilian school seems to have had a larger variety, seeing as how they had a wizarding community dating back to the Mayans. I've already owled Professor Slughorn asking if he has any of these texts, so that's that. But,"
Her face is flushed and fingers are giddy with excitement as she pulls out pieces of paper from her notebook.
"What if the way we prep the ingredients are wrong?"
Sev is trying really hard to not look skeptic or stupid, "How many ways are there to cut and chop ingredients, Lily?"
"Many, and you'll resent that question soon. When the instructions for Felix Felicis says Juice a Squill Bulb, what do you do?"
"I cut and squeeze?"
"That's the mistake!" she jumps up on the birch in triumph. "See, last night I was eating the toffees you gave me while trying to figure this out and you know what I realized? When I bite half of the toffee off versus when I put the entire thing my mouth and crush it – the chocolate within the toffee tastes different in both quantity and quality. It's milkier and smoother when I squish it. What if we're destroying certain properties of the ingredients by cutting them and then squeezing them out? What if we squish it?"
Sev's eyes start twinkling and he looks as if he's in awe of her.
"You're absolutely brilliant! I'll try that tonight." And with that he gets up, gathers his books and prepares to leave.
"Where do you think you're going?" Lily asked perplexed. "We just started."
He doesn't meet her eyes as he makes excuses for himself about how he has to do grocery shopping and prepare the meals for the day as his mum is sick. Lily watches his bouncing figure fade into the distance in complete distrust. Severus is never able to look at her in the eyes when he lies and he's been lying and ditching Lily a lot lately. Determined to figure this mystery out, Lily follows him.