The only source of light came from the tip of Lily and James's wands as they patrolled the corridors on a wet night in October. It was raining so hard outside the castle, which was only made worse when the harsh wind blew and rattled at the windows. James let out a heavy yawn, he was shattered. Seventh year was proving hard for him. Between keeping his grades up, Quidditch practice and his Head Boy duties he hadn't had a minute to spare to help the boys play any pranks.
Lily checked her watch underneath the dimly lit wand she carried and she too, let out a heavy yawn. They turned a corner and met Professor McGonagall in the middle of the corridor.
"Potter, Evans." Professor McGonagall greeted.
"Professor, we haven't caught anyone out of bed." Lily replied.
"Good, you can return to your dormitory. Good Night." said McGonagall.
"Night Professor." yawned James.
Lily and James made their way back to the common room, walking in silence. Both too tired to even try and converse with the other. Once they reached the portrait of the fat lady, said the password and entered through the portrait hole, Lily waved her wand and out of nowhere; her schoolbag appeared from down the winding staircase that led to the girl's sleeping quarters.
"You seriously aren't doing homework now are you?" asked James in disbelief.
Lily looked at James and shrugged as she sat down in front of the fire and pulled out her Transfiguration homework. James rolled his eyes and sat opposite her, knowing that Transfiguration wasn't her strong point when it came to lessons. James, was top of Transfiguration; having learned to become an illegal animagi in his fifth year. His reasons for doing so was that his best friend was a werewolf and Remus's transformations were painful and lonely. So he, Sirius and Peter had decided to learn to transform into animals in order to give Remus a bit of company once a month when he became an uncontrollable animal. Since they had done so, Remus had said that his transformations had become more bearable. Becoming animagi also allowed the four of them to get to know the grounds and secrets of the castle a lot better.
He watched Lily carefully as she opened her Transfiguration book and flicked through the pages until she had the correct one, and then began to scribble on her half finished essay. James found it fascinating as he watched her study. He loved how her eyes stared at the parchment in utter concentration, how her lips pursed together as she read from the book.
She placed the finished essay and textbook back into her bag and pulled out goblet. Lily placed the goblet onto the table and pulled out her wand. James sighed, wondering how painful it would be to watch Lily attempt to transfigure the goblet into a bird like they were shown to in class. McGonagall had told them to practice the spell and have it perfected by the next lesson.
He chuckled lightly as he watched Lily attempt the spell a few times and each time, the goblet didn't turn into a bird. On one attempt, the goblet produced wings and tried to fly off the table but due to the weight of the goblet and the small wings, it was unable to get anywhere. Lily groaned in frustration as she threw her wand down onto the table and glared at James evilly when he chuckled at her.
"It's not funny James!" Lily groaned.
James smiled amusingly at her, "Would you like some help?" he asked.
"Please." she replied curtly.
James rose to so that he could sit next to her. He picked her wand up and placed it in her hand once more. James noticed that she tensed as he placed his hands on her shoulders to get her to relax.
"Right now you need to breathe in and out slowly." he instructed.
He could feel her breathing beginning to slow as she nestled into him, his head touching hers just millimetres away from her ear.
"Good, now close your eyes and concentrate on visualising the goblet as the bird." he whispered.
Lily closed her eyes and did as James instructed her, she felt his hand move down her arm and she shivered at the close contact. His hand rested on top of hers and he carefully showed her what motion she had to use in order to get the spell to work.
"You feel the gentle flick that I making you do?" James asked.
Lily said nothing but nodded, her eyes still closed.
"It's all the hand movement, it has to be gentle. Don't flick it hard and only move your wrist a little when you use the wand motion." James muttered.
Lily breathed in again slowly and nodded once more.
"Right now what I want you to do when I let go, is to say the spell in your head as you continue to visualise the bird. Gently flick your hand toward the goblet." said James.
After James counted to three and let go, Lily did as James had instructed her. She opened her eyes as she heard a light tweeting sound and saw that a small bluebird stood on the table where the goblet had been before she had closed her eyes.
"I did it!" she sang happily.
James smiled at her and together they watched as the bluebird flew around the room. After a few moments the bird settled itself back down onto the table and it turned back into a goblet, the spell only worked for a short time. Lily turned to James with a huge beam on her face, her green eyes lit up by the firelight.
"Thank you." Lily breathed.
"It's no problem, Transfiguration is my best subject." James shrugged.
"You're really good at it." Lily noted.
"See I do care about grades." he chuckled.
"I have to say Potter, you've changed somehow." Lily mused.
James raised an eyebrow.
"I mean you haven't had one detention since we've been back, I haven't seen you hex anyone for fun. You're grades are up and the prank I pulled on Filch actually made me realise how much fun you and the boys have when you pull that kind of stuff and you've actually taken your head boy duties seriously. Have you been abducted by aliens?" she asked seriously.
"No Lily." he replied.
"It's like we have more in common than I first realised." Lily muttered.
"I'm glad you think so." James smiled.
Without realising how close they were, their foreheads bumped together. They both closed their eyes and were breathing heavily, their hearts beating fast with nerves. But before their lips could meet the others, there was a loud clang from the boy's staircase. Both Lily and James jumped apart and saw Sirius walking down the stairs, carrying his trunk. Sirius appeared to be sleep walking and the contents of his trunk were clattering down the stairs. But the clanging didn't wake Sirius up.
James held back a laugh when he saw Peter and Remus slowly walking behind Sirius in their pyjamas. Peter had his wand pointed at Sirius, so it was evident what the boys had been up to.
"What the hell?" asked Lily, with an amused smile on her face as she looked at the other two marauders.
"He set dungbombs off in our beds." whispered Remus.
Lily chuckled and James turned to face her, she gave him a reassuring smile.
"Night James." she whispered.
"Night Lily." James replied softly.
With that, Lily gathered up her belongings and disappeared up the girl's staircase. James turned back to his friends and although he found their prank on Sirius amusing, he couldn't help but curse them silently for interrupting his moment with Lily.
A/N: Sorry for the late update, I've been working on another story that's had a lot of popular demand for more. Enjoy this chapter and keep the reviews coming :)