Ch.3 By the Firedide
Late on night, in the third month of term, Lily and James were both sitting in the common room, finishing homework. Their duties as Head Boy and Girl were so time consuming that they were both finding it difficult to keep up with their studies. Lily had fallen head-over-heels in love with James over the past two months of working together as Head Boy and Girl. She decided that she was going to confess. Tonight.
"Now," she told herself," do it now, before you loose your nerver, again." She had tried to tell him so many times, but she was afraid. She was afraid that James no longer liked her, as he hadn't been asking her out every five seconds as he had done during their previous years at Hogwarts.
Lily was finding it extremely hard to concentrate on her homework with James there. His hair, as usual, was adorably untidy, and he kept checking his watch every five minutes. Lily knew he must be tired.
" James?" she said, uncertainly.
" What's up, Lils?" he replied without looking up.
" I...um...well...I just..well...you see... Can I borrow a peice of parchment?"
" Um....Sure," James replied, as he looked up, very confused.
" That wasn't what I meant to say!" Lily chided herself aloud.
" What did you mean, then?" A sudden inspiration took over her at these kind and gentle words. She crossed the room in two great strides and walked right up to James' airmchair. Lily leaned down and kissed him, her lips pressed against his, and, to her surprise, his pressed back against her own.
" You just kissed me, " James said, shocked, when they broke apart sometime later.
" I know I did." Lily replied, equally shocked.
" Did you mean to?"
" Yes."
" What did you loose a bet or something?" James fairly snarled these words, hurt that she would toy with his emotions in that way. He'd thought they were becoming friends and now this?
" I think I just did loose a bet." Lily replied, now blinking back tears. She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't let James see her cry, but how was it possible? After all those years of chasing her and taunting her, James wouldn't accept her. When it had taken so much courage and strength to go out on a limb and to do that- to try and tell him was so hard.
What had she done wrong? Was she too late? " I think," Lily said, forcing her voice to remain steady," that my heart just lost the bet that it placed with my mind, thinking that you might still want me after all those years of rejecting you. I guess my heart was wrong."
Lily couldn't bear it. Her voice broke. She wanted to run, to turn away, to go and hide in her dormatory, and to sink onto her bed and cry. A lone tear trickled down her cheek.
" Oh, Lily," James said softly as he saw this. " Please, please don't cry. You]
know I love you."
" I love you too, James."
" You have no idea how long I've waited for you to say that," James told her,
grinning. Lily laughed aloud, and they kissed again.
Lily and James both tried to concentrate on their work for a while, but neither could. Eventually, Lily came over and sat in an armchair with him. They would spend many an evening in that airmchair, declaring it their own in months to come. Lily leaned her head against James' chest, and sighed contentedly as James tightened his arms around her waist. Lily Evans was his girlfriend. That was James' last thought before he drifted off to sleep...
