Chapter 3
"And that is all I have to say for tonight. Now please do tuck in!" Professor Dumbledore exclaimed, as the plates were suddenly laden with food.
Lily grinned. She could not help but feel nostalgic for her very first beginning of term feast, where she was sorted into Gryffindor. She smiled as she looked round the room at all the familiar faces, there was Mary MacDonald, Alice Fortescue, Dorcas Meadowes, Remus Lupin next to her, Hestia, Peter Pettigrew, Emmeline Vance. Her eyes then slid over to Sirius, who was also next to her, and then to James. She watched him eat intently, as she realised he was laughing too much at Peter to have enough time to eat his meal. James had, hilariously as ever, bewitched Peter's ears into rabbit ears for the evening. Despite the glares they were getting from Professor McGonagall, even Lily couldn't help herself from laughing.
"Now come on, Moony, what would McGonagall say at a Prefect such as yourself laughing at such absurdities!" cried Sirius, tears rolling down his cheeks from laughter. James had just transfigured Peter's teeth into rabbits teeth as well.
Remus sighed. "I think she regrets giving me the badge" he replied.
"Nonsense! There isn't a finer chap for the job!" said James pompously, puffing out his chest in what Lily thought was a very bad impression of Professor Slughorn. She still laughed, watching James as he pretended to eat pieces of crystallised pineapple.
"What do you think Evans? Is Moony here the right man for the job?" asked Sirius.
Lily snapped out of gaze. "What?" she asked hurriedly.
Sirius smirked, his handsome face slowly growing into a grin. "Sorry did I stop you from drooling over my boy Prongs? Please, be my guest, he's very drool-able".
"Black, that isn't a word, and anyway no that's disgusting, I was not drooling" Lily snapped back.
Sirius let out a warm laugh. "Say what you like Evans, I saw you!" he said in a sing-song voice. "Right Prongs?" he asked James.
Lily groaned, expecting another embarrassing public moment thanks to James, like Valentine's Day in 4th year when he had confunded Gnomes into dressing up like fairies all day and singing love songs to her. But the embarrassment or exaggerated comment never came. Instead, James let out a low chuckle.
"I don't know Padfoot, I would've had to have done something pretty spectacular for Evans to ever stare at me" he said.
Their section of the table went quiet as everyone, including Sirius, stared at James.
"What?" James retorted. "I just meant Evans has foolishly rejected me for so long - she has somehow been able to resist my handsome face for this amount of time – why would she look at me now?" he asked.
The table returned to chatter, some such as Sirius not looking thoroughly convinced. James turned to look at Lily, winked at her, then began intently quizzing Emmeline Vance on the Aurors in her family. Sirius turned to Hestia and they began to discuss something in quiet voices so that Lily could not hear. Lily on the other hand was very puzzled. Why had James not asked her out yet? Basing things on precedent, they had been in contact for 2 days now and yet he had not asked her once. Even stranger was his reaction to Sirius, whom he usually played along with.
"Lily?" she heard Remus's voice. "Lily are you alright? You seem in a bit of a daze".
She turned towards Remus and faked a yawn. "Thanks Remus, I'm just a bit tired" she smiled back at him.
"Alright well we should lead to the tower, Prefects and all".
Lily snapped right back into focus mode. "Prefects! Yes! Tower – yes let's go Remus!" she said rather hurriedly. Without turning back to look at the table she left swiftly with Remus in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, ushering first years as she went. That night she was so busy with keeping order in the dormitories she completely forgot to think about James and by the time she was in bed, it was as if their interaction at the dinner table had never happened.