Part 2! Thank you for reading, and happy holidays, everyone :)
"Let me see if I have this one straight—" James Potter's face was, for once, wiped of its usual mirth. In fact, he looked quite annoyed. "You're here with my best mate, and yet I'm the one who's supposed to apologize?"
"Prongs…" Sirius began, leaning into the table so he could see his friend.
"Stay out of it, Sirius." James warned, his tone sharp.
"What does it matter if I'm here with Sirius?" She bit back. "What would it matter if I brought the Giant Squid as my date?"
"Is it just me or is she really preoccupied with the squid?"
"Shut up, Black."
"I'm just saying," the other boy mumbled back, mouth full of trifle, "—it's probably single, if you reallyfancy it that much. Slim pickins in the lake, I'd gather."
Lily was about to retort when James cut in, his voice strained. "I need some air."
He stood from the table, shoving his chair in forcefully before heading off in the direction of the balcony. Thea's face looked pinched, the small girl mouthing a silent "sorry" at Lily.
Lily slumped back miserably in her chair, crossing her arms and fixing the boy at her left with a stern glare.
"See, now it feels like Christmas." Sirius grinned at her, stuffing another large spoonful of dessert into his mouth. "Was much too cheerful before."
She groaned, wondering—certainly not for the first time that evening—how the hell she had gotten here. Ah, yes: Mary bloody Macdonald.
It had been two days prior when Mary had informed Slughorn that Sirius Black would be attending the Christmas party as her date. Quite unfortunately for Lily, the denial hadn't had the chance to pass her lips before Severus Snape had entered the dungeon. And for as much as Lily could stomach, and ignore, and mentally compartmentalize when it came to her former friend, she couldn't—wouldn't—find it in herself to sit passively and be made a fool in front of him.
Which, of course, meant that she also allowed herself to be coerced into meeting Mary in the library that afternoon, where her friend was supposedly due to meet Sirius Black for a study session (yes, it seemed quite suspicious to Lily, too). And so being quite practical, and with her options being as limited as they were, she had dutifully shown up in the back corner of the library (again, quite suspicious) that Mary had deemed was their meet-up spot.
Surprisingly, both key members of their party were already there when she arrived. Even more surprisingly, Sirius Black let out a loud bark of laughter when he saw her.
"Evans, don't tell me you're getting in on our little arrangement? I s'pose we could work something out." He drummed his fingers against his chin in mock consideration. "Come, sit with us."
Eyeing him warily, Lily chose a chair across from the table where Mary and Sirius sat. "Mare, what is he talking about?"
"No, no, Lily's not here for that." Mary explained quickly. "She's just here because I happen to be an excellent friend, and—because I'm so excellent—have decided to forfeit my end of the bargain this month in exchange for a favor for her. I'm very selfless like that."
Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes, choosing instead to narrow them at her friend. "Okay, now what are you on about? What bargain?"
Neither chose to answer her, and instead continued to talk amongst themselves.
"So, Evans needs a favor?" He paused and then drew his next word out. "Interesting."
There was a distinctly devious look forming on Sirius Black's face, and Lily did not like it. She did not like it one bit.
"Yes," Mary confirmed. "But only for this month. Next month, the usual rules apply."
"And what, exactly, are the usual rules?" Lily piped up, her eyes darting back and forth between the pair.
Sirius turned to give her a once over before swiveling back to Mary. "She's not going to make this enjoyable, is she?"
Mary shook her head. "Not-uh. She's already got her knickers in a twist, so I'm getting the better end of the deal this month." She shrugged. "Best wishes, though. Godspeed."
Lily leaned forward, waving one of her arms out so it cut a line between their table. "Hell-o! Yes, me here...person you're talking about. What is the deal?"
Mary looked expectantly at Sirius, who seemed more than happy to serve as their spokesman.
"It's simple, really—Macdonald gives me all of her Arithmancy notes and I, in turn, deliver one bottle of mead to her per month."
Mary was nodding. "Yep. But no self-respecting daughter of one of London's finest barristers would enter into such an agreement without a contract. And the contract stipulates that if either of us has fulfilled our half that month but doesn't presently need the usual services of their partner, they are allowed to dictate the terms for a substitute favor."
"Within reason." Sirius amended. "She can't just go demanding I snog her if she's feeling randy one month."
Mary rolled her eyes. "This happened once after Marcus and I split last year. Once! He acts like I'm asking every bloody month. And for the record, he happily indulged."
"You told me you would sue—."
"We both know I can't actually sue you."
"You know," Lily cut in. " As Head Girl, I feel obliged to tell you that you really shouldn't be telling me any of this."
Sirius smirked at her. "And as the bloke you're currently asking to do you a favor, I feel obliged to tell you that favors usually involve a fair bit more arse kissing and a bit less stodgy threats."
"But I'm not asking for the favor, now, am I? Mary is." Poker faced, Lily crossed both her arms and legs and leaned back fully into her chair. "And because Mary is asking for the favor, she can explain it. God knows I can't."
At this, Mary grinned. "Oh, I'll happily explain it. You see, Lily here needs a suitably enviable date to Slughorn's Christmas shindig and you, darling, happen to be perfect for the role."
"Firstly, thank you for agreeing that I'm enviable." Sirius began. "And secondly...don't the Heads usually preside over these gatherings together? Lording their superiority over their underlings and whatnot?"
"James has a date." Mary clarified.
"Yea, but it's not—." Sirius paused abruptly here, angling himself fully toward Lily and regarding her carefully. HIs eyes were still mischievous, but his smile was suddenly rather...pleasant?
"Does it bother you that Prongs has a date?" He was still watching her ever so carefully, and it was making Lily very uncomfortable.
Praying her cheeks wouldn't betray her, she answered emphatically. "No, of course not." A pause, and then: "He can do what he pleases."
His smile widened. "You know, Evans, under normal circumstances I would feel inclined to tell you I'd rather wax Snivellus's nose hairs than have to endure an entire evening of Sluggy crawling up his own arse, but…" He held up a finger. "These aren't normal circumstances. And because these aren't normal circumstances, and because I don't want Mary to sue me—" (Mary sighed) "I am, in fact, delighted to go."
A true testament to Lily's holiday luck this year, the party had been a disaster from the start.
First, there was the theme: The Twelve Days of Christmas. It turned out that Slughorn had taken this year's theme quite literally, arranging for every element in the song to appear in its physical form. In fact, upon entering, she and Sirius had each been offered a small pear tree by a house elf called Featherby.
"To give to your true love on Christmas!" Featherby had informed them. "Please don't tell Professor Slughorn that I couldn't secure all the partridges on short notice."
Sirius had, in turn, cackled.
"What if you sort of fancy several people at the moment, but don't want to tell any of them lest it squander your chances? Is there a favor option for that? Five golden rings, perhaps?"
"Just fucking take the tree," Lily had hissed in his ear.
How the partridges had been the only issue, Lily wasn't quite sure. For, in one corner of the room there were, indeed, eight women taking turns milking a cow, and in another was a group of poshly dressed men leaping from side to side. Less impressively, Slughorn had seemed to convince nine veela to dance in the center of the room (all nine of which Sirius would chat up). Two turtle doves and four calling birds were flying around, also, one of which seemed hell bent on irritating her by perching on her shoulder every few minutes and squawking loudly in her ear. Merlin, between the ten drummers and eleven men playing the bagpipes, wasn't it already loud enough?
And speaking of hell bent on irritating her...secondly, there was Sirius's general presence.
Slughorn, naturally, had nearly wet himself when he saw the pair of them cross the room together. He had hurried over and clasped Lily's hand, clearly delighted to have finally secured the eldest Black brother at one of his events.
"My dear, you've done it! Lured him out of hiding, didn't you? Only Lily Evans could accomplish such a feat." Grinning from ear-to-ear, he had then focused his attention on Sirius. "And you, Mr. Black, I trust that you're enjoying your evening—surely, with such a charming lady on your arm."
"One of your birds just shat on me." Her date had replied mildly.
Thirdly, there was Mary. Mary, who—not even twenty minutes into the party—had rushed over to her, gesticulating wildly.
"Did you see them?" She shrieked.
Lily had eyed her friend calmly, and promptly thrown back her entire glass of eggnog. "Nope."
"Over there—next to the French hen."
"Yes, I know, my date that you so selflessly secured for me is chatting up not just one, but two—two!—of the veela right now."
The other girl groaned. "Not that hen, the other!"
"There are three of them, Mary! Which one?"
"Under the golden rings! Do you see them?"
Then there was Genie Hughes. Genie Hughes, who was standing under five decorative golden rings, glowing like a little Christmas angel. Genie Hughes, who was linked by arms with Tim Davies.
"That little tart brought Tim with her! Do you think they're back together?"
"What?" Lily hissed. "Why isn't she here with James?"
"James is bringing Thea.." Sirius had apparently stopped talking to his new veela friends and had chosen that particular moment to pop up behind Lily and Mary, throwing an arm casually over each of their shoulders. "When she found out Glynnis Griffiths was coming, she begged him to tag along. Why would he be here with Hughes?"
"Wait a fucking second," Lily turned her head sharply toward him. "You knew this?"
"Of course," replied Sirius, grinning. "Didn't you?"
Lastly, and worstly, there was James Potter. James Potter, who showed up thirty minutes late. James Potter, who showed up thirty minutes late and most certainly not accompanied by Genie Hughes but instead with the third year Gryffindor seeker, Thea Goodwin.
James Potter, who was making his way over to them presently, looking increasingly baffled. When he reached them, he directed his attention immediately to Sirius.
"Padfoot, blink twice if Slughorn has Imperiused you, three times if you've been kidnapped against your will."
"Neither, mate. Evans here asked me to come as her date."
Mercifully, Slughorn chose this moment to ring the bell for dinner.
Somewhat ironically, the only thing that made dinner even slightly tolerable was the presence of Glynnis Griffiths, who regaled the table with an admittedly fascinating play-by-play from the Harpies' infamous seven-day match against the Heidelberg Harriers. Mostly, though, Lily found herself alternating between sliding her plate away from Sirius—who seemed to think it his right as her date to share her meal—and subtly (at least she hoped) watching James, who had been moodily stabbing food with his utensils for the majority of the meal.
What right did he have for being so sulky, anyway? He wasn't the one who had lost most of their dignity and at least half their potatoes to Sirius Black, now was he?
In fact, the more Lily thought about it, the more put out she felt about the whole situation. Why the hell wasn't he here with Genie?
Luckily, she possessed enough self control and forethought to restrain herself from putting such thoughts into words (or, if she were to put them into words, at least express them in an eloquent and nuanced fashion). And if Sirius hadn't spiked the eggnog, she probably would've.
"Why the hell aren't you here with Genie?" she whispered.
"Excuse me?" James dropped his fork, and it clattered against his plate.
Her face flushed. "You...you said you were going to ask Genie to come with you."
He inhaled sharply. "No," he clarified, "I asked if you thought I should ask Genie, and you said yes. I never said I was actually going to."
"You implied—." Lily hadn't meant for her voice to get so loud, but clearly it had jumped up an octave, as Thea—on James's other side—had turned her attention away from Glynnis to watch them. She immediately lowered her tone. "You implied that you were going to."
"What exactly do you want from me here, Evans?"
Though James still occasionally called her by her last name in jest, it had been ages since he'd said it like that. This, of course, only poured gasoline onto Lily's mood.
"What do I want? I want for you to not mislead me, how about that?"
"Let me see if I have this one straight—" James Potter's face was, for once, wiped of its usual mirth. In fact, he looked quite annoyed. "You're here with my best mate, and yet I'm the one who's supposed to apologize?"
"Prongs…" Sirius began, leaning into the table so he could see his friend.
"Stay out of it, Sirius." James warned, his tone sharp.
"What does it matter if I'm here with him?" She bit back. "What would it matter if I brought the Giant Squid as my date?"
"Is it just me or is she really preoccupied with the squid?"
"Shut up, Black."
"I'm just saying," the other boy mumbled back, mouth full of trifle, "—it's probably single, if you reallyfancy it that much. Slim pickins in the lake, I'd gather."
Lily was about to retort when James cut in, his voice strained. "I need some air."
He stood from the table, shoving his chair in forcefully before heading off in the direction of the balcony. Thea's face looked pinched, the small girl mouthing a silent "sorry" at Lily.
Lily slumped back miserably in her chair, crossing her arms and fixing the boy at her left with a stern glare.
"See, now it feels like Christmas." Sirius grinned at her, stuffing another large spoonful of dessert into his mouth. "Was much too cheerful before."
She groaned.
How the hell had she gotten here? Bloody Macdonald.
It crossed her mind briefly to lean over and give Mary—seated on the other side of Sirius with her date, Calvin Wells—a piece of her mind. She swiftly changed her mind when she saw that Mary was glaring daggers over at Genie and Tim, while Calvin watched her, arms crossed and face stony.
If it was true that misery loved company, she was definitely on the right side of the table.
Sirius cleared his throat pointedly and, when she ignored it the first two times, cleared it once again.
"What?"
He leaned down under the table, disappearing for a moment, and rose back up with the small pear tree Featherby had gifted to them.
"Take it, Evans." He placed it into her lap. "Your partridge has flown the coop, but he really is just partial to a dramatic exit. I'm sure you can coax him back."
Lily stiffened, raising her chin. "I have no idea what you're talking about—."
"Evans," he sang, "You're about as subtle as the eggnog." He paused, and it looked like he was weighing something in his mind. "I have a story for you. A lesson of sorts."
She groaned. "Wonderful."
"Hush, Evans, I'm trying to be wise. So, back in fifth year, Cassandra Phillips pushed me—I mean actually shoved, mind you—into a broom closet and snogged the living hell out of me."
"Wow, thank you. This is so illuminating."
"Evans," he warned. "Listen. So I felt immediately guilty about it after, and I went straight to James. Cassandra was his girlfriend in fourth year. That's strictly against mate code, you know? But—and now here's where you should really listen because it's important..Evans?" He snapped his fingers in front of her face.
"I'm listening."
"Of course you are, I'm very interesting. Anyway, so I confessed it to James and, lo and behold, he couldn't have cared less." He paused. "Now, tell me, Evans, why do you think James didn't mind that I had basically broken sacred mate code and snogged his first girlfriend?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Because they dated for, like, three weeks when they were practically prepubescent. That's barely a blip on the radar."
"Precisely!" He cried, pointing a finger at her. "But you know what else should be a blip on the radar, at least to any sane and reasonable person?"
"What?"
"Me coming to a stupid party with you, a bird he has never dated—not for three weeks, or two weeks—hell, not for a single day. And yet, there he is, sulking out on the balcony like a sad little moppet."
But...no. It couldn't be. They were together constantly. If it were that obvious, she would know. She'd have to. She wouldn't have missed it.
She looked down at the pear tree and then quickly back up at Sirius, who was looking as straight faced as she'd ever seen him. Before she could change her mind, she shoved the tree back at him.
"Save it for one of your veela." She stood then, resolute. "No more gimmicks, I need to do it my way."
"Thatta girl, Evans."
James was out on the balcony alone, his back to her when she walked outside.
"Hi," she announced lamely. "It's...err...it's me. The person you're hiding from."
He turned, letting out a large breath of air, and she wasn't expecting him to launch straight into it, but he'd apparently had enough.
"I don't know why it's always like this with us..I-I want to say one thing, but then I don't say it, or I do say it and I don't say it how I meant it...or...or I do something and I think you'll see it one way, but then you don't….it's—god, Lily, it's so damn frustrating."
She walked over to the railing then, coming to stand on his right and gripping her hands against the rail. She looked up at him. "I...I suppose we could try to be more direct. For both our sakes."
His mouth was still set in a line, but his brows had relaxed. "All right." He paused. "Lily...do you—and to be totally clear, I s'pose I don't think you do, but perhaps—."
"James."
"Do you fancy Sirius?"
"No," she answered emphatically, chuckling. "Sometimes, I think I may hate him, actually."
He laughed, too. "That's...that's good."
Ask him now. Go on. Before you lose your will.
"Do you fancy Genie Hughes?"
A small smile was playing on his lips. "Definitely not. Genie's very nice, but no. Why, er, why would you think that?"
"In the interest of being direct, I'd say that's the wrong question."
"Yeah?"
"The right question would be, 'Why do you care whether I fancy her or not, Lily?'"
He looked straight into her eyes, and it suddenly felt like all the blood was rushing up to her face. "That is a good question."
"Indeed," she demurred. Coward, Lily. Just say it. Just say-.
His voice broke into her thoughts. "I was very disappointed when you said you couldn't make it to our New Year's party, you know."
Her brows furrowed. "Oh, well—" This change in track had set things off kilter. "I wanted to come, but my sister just got engaged to this horrible man and they're hosting what will probably be a terribly dreadful party that night. I would skip, but she never really invites me to much these days, and it would be awful to leave Mum alone with his family. Would be like feeding her to the wolves really—like, his sister might actually eat her if I'm not there to prevent it."
"Understandable. Cannibalism does put a damper on the holidays." He was grinning. "I did have this plan, though. But you would need to be at the party to execute it properly. You're very crucial to the plan."
"I am?"
"Yes, you're very crucial to most things." He didn't continue immediately, looking straight out into the night sky for several moments. When he finally did begin speaking again, he kept his eyes averted. "I was going to get very drunk—this was Sirius's contribution to the plan, but I was rather keen on it, too—and then I was going to find somewhere quiet for us to talk. And then...I s'pose I was just going to drunkenly blurt out everything I have always wanted to tell you. And I figured that, you know, if I wasn't quite in my right mind, then it just may have a chance of coming out like I wanted it to for once. That getting to spend so much time with you this year has been more than I could've even hoped for. That...that you're lovely, and wonderful, and so very much out of my league, really. And if you'd just give me the chance to prove to you I could be better, because we just fit, Lily—."
"James?" She was staring up at him intently now, and her interruption had finally caused him to look down at her.
"Yes?"
"This seems like a lot of steps. At what point were you finally going to just buck up and kiss me?"
He swallowed hard, and she could see his adam's apple bobbing in his throat. "Er...well, at midnight, 'course."
"I know you had this grand plan and all, but I was thinking...how do you feel about 10:40?"
"10:40?"
"Yes, 10:40. It may be 10:39, but I can't really see Slughorn's clock properly from here." She paused, smiling. "As in, you know, now."
"Now? What about now?"
"Oh god. We really need to work on our communication." But the words had barely passed her lips before she stood on her toes and cupped her palms around his warm cheeks, pressing her mouth to his.
It was gentle, and sweet, and not nearly long enough for either of them. Nevertheless, Lily was grinning victoriously when she pulled away.
"Happy same year, James."
He laughed-that wonderful, wonderful laugh of his that was so very impossible not to adore.
"Happy same year, Lily."
And before she had any time to revel in her own courage, and in just how well they truly did fit, he had backed her fully against the railing and now he was the one doing the kissing. And the time for thoughts—at least coherent ones—was most certainly over.
And perhaps his laugh wasn't the best thing about James Potter after all.
Indeed, December of 1977 had not particularly been particularly swell for Lily Evans. But January of 1978 was looking better and better by the minute.