JAMES POV
"Can't," Sirius grumbled. "I've got detention tonight."
James watched as his mate stabbed two fried eggs with his fork and attempted to shove them into his mouth. It was a Monday morning – exactly two weeks after his early morning conversation with Lily. He wasn't sure what it had meant but he knew he'd been two seconds away from kissing her, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Not that kissing Lily Evans hadn't been a dream of his since fifth year, but now that he'd actually gotten to know her better and become friends with her he didn't want to ruin what they already had.
Being friends with her was better than what they had last year. He'd rather keep that, then go back to having her as enemies. Merlin, if Remus heard these thoughts he'd have thought James had gone mental. It hadn't changed how the spoke to each other – much to James' relief – but he was now a lot more self-conscious of himself around her. He made sure not to accidentally brush hands or jokingly punch her in the corridors between classes. And he was sure Lily had noticed, since she was acting more careful around him as well.
"What for?" Peter retorted, waving his fork and a whole sausage at Sirius.
"Something I said in Muggle Studies the other day," Sirius told him. "Was bang out of order, but I managed to scrape a week's worth of detentions into two hours of scrubbing the trophies simply with my charm."
"And I suppose it helps that you believe that the entire female staff body has a crush on you," Remus said sarcastically.
"I said they lust after me," Sirius said, shoving back his messy hair. "But who wouldn't."
It'd also been two weeks since Sirius broke up with his girlfriend of four months, Marlene. James didn't think he'd been with anyone else since, but he'd certainly thrown himself back into the game. In fact, he'd been flirting with any female in sight so vigorously and passionately that James suspected it had less to do with his hurt over Marlene dumping him, and more to do with his family.
"You might want to tone the flirting down," James suggested. "I think you're actually frightening Lily a little. And Marlene – well she's kind of hating on you right now."
"She broke up with me," Sirius protested.
"Yeah because you wouldn't tell her about the cause of all this extravagant flirting," James said, waving his hand vigorously at James.
That caught the attention of Remus and Peter instantly. Both boys ignored their food, and turned to look at Sirius. The boy in question quite physically glared daggers at his best friend.
"I always flirt with the birds," Sirius put rudely.
"No you're scaring all these birds away with your force," James said. "Whatever problems you're facing you should let them out on us instead of some helpless fifth year."
"At least I get my mind off things," Sirius snapped. "When I rant to you lot I just end up feeling worse since you struggle with trying to help. There's nothing you can do so there's no point unloading my problems onto you."
"That's bullshit," Remus intercepted. His voice was quite, but firm.
"What else is going on?" James pressed. He had a feeling there was more to this than just the issue over Alphard's will.
"Nothing," Sirius exploded. "Now will you just lay off me?"
Sirius' outburst had attracted a few curious glances, but most turned their heads away instantly once they realized who'd been shouting. James waited for his friend to continue, but Sirius had turned a stony silence. Deciding it was less risky to let Sirius simmer, James returned to his breakfast. After a few minutes of tense silence, Sirius clambered angrily to his feet.
"I'll see you lot in class," he growled. "I need to grab some books from the common room first."
Oblivious to this temper, Peter rapidly jumped to his feet. James tried to wave him down, but the boy was already chasing after Sirius, declaring that he too needed to fetch some books before Charms. To Remus' and James' surprise, Sirius let him follow.
"Well that doesn't look good," James declared as the two vanished into the corridor.
"You got the map?" Remus suggested.
"No, but Wormtail will keep him in line," James said. His glance drifted lazily down the table, the tension in his shoulders evaporating as he let the cheerful noise of the unknowing Gryffindor's engulf him. He did a double take – barely registering Remus' doubtful snort – as he noticed one glance staring right back at him.
Lily Evans was watching him curiously, drowning out the conversation of Marlene and Alice opposite her. James recognized the look instantly and found his nerves leaping into his throat. It was the stare she adopted when she was trying to perfect a particularly hard potion or master a difficult spell in Charms. It was a look of stone hard determination and it was pointed right at him.
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"You know it's October already and I haven't scheduled a Quidditch practice yet," James whined to Remus as the two boys wandered to charms.
"You've been busy," Remus replied. "You have patrols every night, then classes during the day and homework during the afternoon. It's a wonder you're still functioning."
James decided to ignore Remus since he wasn't helping in the slightest. "I was thinking of holding one this afternoon actually."
"I'm not doing your patrols for you if that's what you want," Remus interjected.
James groaned in frustration. "It's a good thing that I'm still operational off only five hours sleep a night."
"Maybe if you went to bed on time and stopped sneaking around the castle with Padfoot you'd been fine," Remus told him.
The two boys reached the entrance to Flitwicks classroom two minutes after they were supposed to. But since it was only half full inside, he didn't seem to mind. James and Remus took their usual spots at the back of the room, both subconsciously glancing over at Sirius' empty chair.
"You don't think we should've followed him," Remus asked.
James shook his head. "He's got Pete."
Remus looked as if he was about to remind James of the stubbornness of Sirius but was interrupted by a certain red haired seventh year who took the empty seat beside James. It got even weirder when Marlene threw herself into Peter's usual seat next to Remus.
"Err hey," Remus said.
"Hey," Lily said cheerfully.
James' grew even more confused when she focused her dazzling smile on him. Flitwick started talking, unperturbed by his two missing students. He was going on about something to do with Aguamenti spell, and seemed oblivious to the obvious conversation that was taking place in the back of his room.
"Lily has a plan," Marlene said chirpily, rubbing her hands together.
"What do you want?" James asked skeptical, narrowing his eyes on his cousin.
Marlene dropped the exaggerated smile, though the glint in her eyes remained. "To borrow your common room for small gathering this Saturday night."
"Am I invited?" James prompted.
"Well duh," Marlene said shrugging. "We need you to bring the boys. And Frank, you know for Alice. And since it might be slightly obvious if you just invite one Hufflepuff, maybe invite his friend – what's his name, Alfred Davy."
James nodded eagerly. He'd actually been thinking about doing something similar, since it seemed a waste not to utilize his very own common room but had held back because of Lily. He doubted she'd approve of unauthorized, late night parties. Unless it wasn't really a party as such…
"Hang on," James said, frowning. "If it's us six guys who are you bringing? A two to one ratio is just dull."
"Oh," Marlene said, her face dropping. "Well I guess we can ask Mary and Poppy."
"Well if we're making the numbers even, what about Lucy Abbott?" Remus suggested, blushing slightly.
James grinning. Lucy Abbott was a pretty looking Hufflepuff seventh year, and was usually seen hanging around with Frank and Alfred, which would make it less weird if they invited her along. It also helped what with Remus having a crush on her and everything.
"I can ask her," Lily offered. "We did a potions project together last year. She's awfully nice."
"Well it's sorted then," Marlene said, dusting her hands off. "Eight pm, Head Students quarters. See you there."
James exasperatedly grabbed Marlene coat sleeve to prevent his cousin from standing up. "Don't get up you idiot, we're still in class."
"Oh right," Marlene said sheepishly. "Any clue to what we're learning."
Lily nodded. She pointed her wand at the line of goblets across her and James' table and muttered, "aguamenti." A stream of clear water burst from her wand and gracefully filled the goblet before her.
"How do you do that?" Marlene demanded.
"Well it's actually quite simple," Lily started, looking confused at the roughness of her friend's voice. "You wave your wand in a kinda "s" shape –
"No, no, no," Marlene interrupted. "Talk to us and listen in class at the same time."
"Oh," Lily said, laughing. "I can't help but listen in class. It's a habit now."
Marlene looked as if she was about to retort about the unfairness of her "habit," but Remus quickly intercepted by frantically waving his quill at her and pointing out the slowly approaching Professor Flitwick. James snorted as Marlene hurriedly tried to successfully complete the same spell, only to have a jet of water spray sprinkler-like over the entire classroom.
"Thank you for that display Miss McKinnon," Flitwick called, over James' enthusiastic laughter. "Next time keep your movements more subtle."
Marlene sent James the stink eye, before glaring back at her goblet. The charm wasn't too difficult, and by the end of the lesson all four Gryffindor's had perfected it. The four of them then made their way down to Potions, running into both Alice and Peter who'd just finished Care of Magical Creatures.
"Where's Padfoot?" James asked Peter, pulling him aside from the girls.
"I left him in the dorm," Peter said. Catching James' pointed expression, he rolled his eyes and added, "I took the map as well. Been checking every twenty minutes or so. He's still there."
"Can I check it?" James asked.
Looking slightly hurt at James' sign of distrust, Peter handed the map to his friend. It wasn't that James didn't trust Peter, in fact as soon as he had the map open he didn't even bother checking the Gryffindor tower for Sirius. Peter cocked his head as James started scanning random corridors. Since it was between classes most of the main corridors were too crowded to make sense of, but James managed to locate his dot regardless.
"What are you looking for?" Peter asked curiously.
"Regulus," James admitted, pointed at Sirius' brother's label. "I wanted to check who he was with and look – Snape, Mulciber and Avery, not really the average company of a fifth year."
"But who cares where they are," Peter pointed out. "It's not like they can do much in a crowded corridor."
"Think about it," James said. "We only get about five minutes between classes, and since Regulus is two years below those grease balls, he'd have had to purposefully seek them out in order to be with them. Which means they probably agreed to meet somewhere. But that seems unlikely considering there isn't much you can achieve in five minutes. I reckon they've managed to coordinate frees together."
"To do what but?" Peter asked, looking both puzzled and intrigued.
James shrugged. "Beats me. But I don't think Dumbledore scheduled Lily and I for patrols every night for nothing. Doing stuff during the day makes perfect sense really, since we're all in class and the teachers are teaching."
"Where are you going with this Prongs," Peter said. "I mean, I get that you think they're probably up to something but you sound like you're about to do something about it."
The Gryffindor group had just reached the entrance to the Potions classroom. Remus was eyeing them curiously, but was clever enough to keep the girls diverted from their conversation. James silently muttered the spell to clear the map, before turning back to Peter. The smaller boy looked torn between excitement and dread. James knew that off the four of them, Peter was the less brave. But he still never complained, and accompanied them anyway. To Peter, bravery was a choice and James admired that in him.
"We're going to keep tabs of them," James muttered. "Record who they're hanging out with. The places they congregate. And we're going to use my Dad's cloak to stalk them."
"All right," Peter muttered nervously.
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The rest of the day passed uneventfully. James' managed to polish off most of his pressing work – well those essays that were due tomorrow – in his frees, allowing him to schedule a short Quidditch practice for after dinner. Although it was such late notice, most of the team were just excited to start, and as their seeker, Alice, had pointed out – about bloody time captain!
James trudged down to the Quidditch pitch with Alice and Marlene, who'd been on the team just as long as James as the Gryffindor beater.
"Okay Marls," James started as they neared the pitch. "I want you to just focus on our new beater Thomas. Teach him some of our plays and try and perfect his techniques. He's not you're level yet, but with a bit of training I reckon he'll do us well."
"Aye, aye captain," Marlene said, saluting James.
James just rolled his eyes. The three seventh years made their way over to the already kitted Gryffindor team. Their keeper Benjy Boot (sixth year) was slouched off to the side, kicking his broom against his shin. Then there we're the two fifth years who played chaser and beater respectively – Jack Robin and Thomas McPharlan – both who were heatedly discussing different plays they'd seen during the World Cup last season. Lastly was their youngest member, third year Holly Balderstone, who had caught James' eye when she'd made some pretty spectacular passes and catches. All in all, James had high hopes for this years season.
"Hey team," he said energetically. "We're going to get straight into it since we only have two hours. Marlene, you know what I want you to do. We're going to be focusing on improving technique before I start teaching the newbie's strategies. Chasers I want you up in the air trying to score against Boot."
He watched as the team grabbed their brooms, as Jack grabbed a dented Quaffle, as Marlene and Thomas grabbed their beaters bats, and as they made for the sky, leaving him with Alice. The energetic Gryffindor was bouncing on the balls of her feet as James produced a bag of golf balls from his kit.
"How's things going with Frank?" he asked, pulling out four balls.
He'd transfigured them to roughly the same size and colour as the snitch. He'd also cast a difficult charm spell to make them fly and move in a similar fashion. Really, the only difference was that he could magic them to him on demand.
Alice blushed. "Oh, um it's good I suppose. I mostly just see him at meals and some classes."
"Lily and I are throwing a small party in our common room on Saturday," James told her, grinning. "We're inviting Frank."
"Really?" Alice said, her voice pitching. Noticing her mistake, she quickly smoothed out her uniform before adopting a neutral expression. "Oh that's nice. But won't it be weird if you only invite one Hufflepuff?"
"We're invited Alfred and Lucy too," James explained.
"Well I can't wait."
James rolled his eyes at Alice's aloof behaviour. From the way Marlene explained Alice's infatuation, he'd expected her to be gushing, which made James believe that there already was more going on between them than she was willing to admit.
"All right," James said. "I'm going to release all four of these. You're not allowed to leave until you've caught all of them." With that he threw the fake snitches into the sky.
"What?" Alice blanched. "I could be here all night."
"Well then what are you waiting for?"
He laughed as Alice gave him the stink eye before darted after them. Having four snitches in the air was not only tiring, but also confusing. He'd been impressed if she managed to catch all four in two hours.
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James rushed back to his common room, after waving goodbye to Alice and Marlene. He was already five minutes late for patrols and he still had to change back into his robe. Lily wasn't going to be impressed with his lateness, and was therefore pleasantly surprised to find her waiting for him – his cloak in hand – by the portrait door.
"Hey Lily," he said. "Sorry I'm late, let me just dump my broom inside."
She nodded, moving aside to let him through. He hurriedly dumped his broom against one of the sofas before joining her outside. He slipped into his cloak, biting back the urge to complain about his sweatiness and his need for a shower since that was his own fault. Then he mentally reminded himself to tell Remus that he had finally managed to apply a filter between his thoughts and words.
"Do you want to keep playing our game?" Lily suggested.
James felt his insides take a wild leap. To him, the game meant a few things. One, it meant that Lily was actually interested in his life and family. Two, it meant that she was still willing to open up to him about her life. And three, it meant that she cared enough to ask questions and listen to his answers. It didn't seem like much, but to James it meant the world.
"Sure. I think it's your turn," he said, trying to keep his voice neutral but warming instantly at the smile that spread across her face at the eagerness that leaked from his words regardless.
"What are your parents names?" She asked.
James laughed, but then realized that she was being serious. Parent's names fell into the category of neutral to him – as in the question meant nothing. Anyone could tell Lily his parent's names. With the growing sense that Lily was now going to play safely, James' initial ideas for questions vanished.
"Robert and Dorea," he told her.
She looked satisfied at that for reasons James' couldn't comprehend. Struggling to think of something simple, James asked, "what's your favourite colour?"
Blinking, Lily instantly replied with, "Yellow. Why'd you name your owl Ellie?"
James blanched. He instantly regretted his question; Lily obviously wasn't playing it safe at all. From the glint in her eyes, he had a feeling she already knew the answer. He weighed up his options. He could take a risk and tell her the truth, despite how embarrassing it was. Or he could lie. But if she knew the answer, lying was probably a bad idea if he wanted her to trust him.
"Oh Merlin," James groaned. "Fine. Mum got her as a present at the beginning of fifth year, which also happened to be the same time I got a massive crush on you." Catching her blush with embarrassment, instead of anger, gave James the strength he needed to finish. "Anyway it's the sound of your initials when said aloud."
At that, Lily's mouth opened slightly and James caught her surprise. So she hadn't known the answer then.
"I just thought it was a weird name for an owl," Lily muttered. "Marlene told me the story behind her name was hilarious."
The words, unknowingly to Lily, stung a little and James found himself frowning. Trying to brush of his dejection, he pulled his expression together and turned his focus back to the game.
"Who and when was your first kiss?" He demanded, maybe a little to loudly.
Lily snapped out of her stupor at James tone. Her face softened slightly, and James figured that he still looked like a kicked puppy.
"Oh god," Lily moaned, shaking her head. Whilst Lily mustered the courage to answer, James made a second mental note to tell his cousin off for humiliating him before Lily. Sometimes he wondered how he even put up with her. "Do you really have to know?"
James nodded firmly. "I answered mine."
"Fine. But you can't get angry. I made him swear not to tell you," Lily told him.
James grew more and more curious. "What? Why?"
"Well because it was Remus," Lily admitted in a small voice. Before James had time to take that in, Lily piped up again. "It was nothing. It was during fifth year and I'd never kissed someone before, so I got really drunk at one of your Marauder parties and well I knew Remus well then because we did patrols together and well, I kinda just grabbed him and yeah. It only lasted five seconds before he pulled away."
To his own surprise, James burst out laughing. He could just picture Remus' horrified face at the thought of explaining to James that he'd taken Lily's first kiss. And then his relief when Lily forced him to keep it a secret. In all honestly, he was glad he only found out know. He was such a prat back then, who knows how he'd have treated Remus.
"Why'd you ask him to keep it a secret?" James asked, still grinning.
Seeming to realize that James wasn't angry at his friend, Lily ignored the fact that it was her turn to ask the question. "I didn't want you thumping him because of me. And besides, it didn't mean anything. I never liked Remus liked that – even back then – and he's the same. If anything, I just see him as a brother or something."
A sense of relief filled James without his consent. C'mon, he was a boy. He couldn't help how he felt. The game continued for another hour from then on with James and Lily covering more and more wilder topics.
"What's the funniest prank you've pulled?"
"Oh Merlin, probably that time we enchanted the corridors into bouncy castles… oh, no, no wait maybe that one time we turned the prefect bathroom into a wild pool party – or even, hang on, that time we…" Lily had to stop him after a while.
Back and forth they went till James was convinced he knew every detail about Lily's family – down to her father's favourite breakfast food. Bacon off course. By the time they returned to their cozy common room, it was James turn.
"Are you bored of me yet?" He asked, expecting a mock answer.
"You're probably one of the most interesting people I've meet actually," Lily said, the word seeming to spill from her lips.
James blushed. Interesting didn't mean grab me and snog me senselessly he had to remind himself. But it sure was a start.
"Same to you Evans," he said, before clambering the stairs to his room.