Author's Note: I have noticed that in the past I have complained about not getting that many reviews. So I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have reviewed my story up until this point. I think that 109 reviews is something to be proud of, and I just want to give all of you a big hug and just say thank you.

So, in thanks for all of my reviews, I want to dedicate this chapter to each and every one of you who have taken the time to review this story so far. I love you all, and I think that you guys are the best reviewers that any author on this site could possibly have! =)

Charmed Love Chapter 21

Continued from last time…

I spent the rest of the class thinking about what Eli had said. Did I really love James that much? I knew immediately that that answer was yes. But I also knew that while Eli might have been right about my feelings, he was completely wrong about James's. James Potter has never actually loved me. I just was something novel because I was not falling all over myself to date him. Instead of accepting him when he asked me out, I turned him down, because I did not want him to be able to play with my feelings. But by doing so, I just became a challenge. And I knew that James would never fully give up until he won. But did this prospect bother me, if it meant that for a while at least I would be able to be with him…No. I would accept him on any terms that he decided to give me. Pathetic soul that I am.

I really needed the evening to come sooner, so that I could really have a talk with James.

December 8

Room of Requirement

Still fuming at Eli and having his words running through my head, I stormed into Ancient Runes with a scowl on my face as foreboding as a black sky on the horizon. I was just not in the mood to have to deal with that idiot right now, and I wished that I had just punched him in the face or something. Alice or Beth would have punched him in the face. Hell, if I had been anywhere, but a classroom, I would have hexed him into next week. And I know that I usually preach, hexing is not the answer, but I really think that he just deserved it.

I heard the chair scrape against the floor next to me, signaling that Vanessa had decided to sit down because class was about to start in only a few moments.

And almost as if taking orders from some unknown source, Professor Smittey started the lesson exactly as I was about to start talking to Vanessa. "Today class, we are going to be reviewing over the runes that you have been reading about for the past week. I want you to work silently for the entire class period, because I have to finish grading your tests from last week." He ordered in his wheezy voice.

So, I was not going to be able to talk to her. That could prove to be a problem because I really wanted to tell her that Eli and I have officially broken up. I needed to tell someone, because it was just too hold inside any longer.

So I have something to tell you. Actually it is something rather big, so don't freak out, okay? ~Lily

I hastily pushed the note over to her side of the desk. I was praying that she would notice it because I really did not want to have to cause a big scene trying to get her to read it.

But of course, my luck was running out because she was actually doodling in her notebook, completely unaware of the fact that there was a note sitting beside her. And that is saying something because Vanessa really loves to pass notes in class. I mean, she is worse than Alice, and we had all thought that Alice was bad. Maybe that was one of the reasons that they hit it off so well.

I tried coughing to get her to look over in my direction. But that did not work.

I moved the paper so that it was practically on top of her notebook, but she did not notice that either.

Poking her in the arm with the tip of my quill did not work either which really supposed me because I thought that that was always supposed to work in these situations.

Sighing in exasperation, I finally resorted to desperate measures, and stomped my foot on top of hers under the desk. And finally I got a reaction.

Unfortunately, the reaction was just her kicking me in the leg under the desk, and her turning to me to flash me with a smirk.

And not wasting any opportunity and finally realizing that I needed to not be so subtle, I picked up the note, and held it up in front of her face.

Glaring at me, she took the note from my hands, and after writing a hasty reply, I found this note shoved under my book.

Was it really that necessary for you to stomp on my foot? You know that I have Quidditch practice after school today, and Henry is not going to be happy if I can't play. *V

I should not have been surprised that she would care that much about the sport. It was her last year, and she was determined not to let anything stop Ravenclaw from getting the cup. But I think that this was just taking it a little too far.

Vanessa, you are a chaser, your foot is really not all that important or vital to your playing abilities. And yes, it was necessary, because I had tried everything else, that usually works, but you were off in some other world. ~Lily

It did not take long for her to reply at all; something that I have learned to appreciate about Vanessa. She is always writing back to her mom and dad after every match, because she likes to keep them posted about the game. And partly to rub it into her mom's face that Ravenclaw is doing so well, because her mom was in Hufflepuff and therefore is a little biased, whereas her dad was also in Ravenclaw.

Lily, when you fly on a broom you need both of your feet in perfect order because you use them to keep your balance. Not that you would know anything about that because you last experience on a broom was in first year, with Madame Hooch, when everyone was taking the flying class. And you have not gone on one since because you are afraid of a repeat performance from when you fell off of your broom. *V

Why must all of my friends continue to remind and nag me about the fact that I do not fly? Not every witch has to learn how to fly. I can Apparate very well, and therefore I do not need to have a broom.

And I have never denied that fact. I have accepted the fact that I will probably never ever ride a broomstick, and I would really appreciate it if you would stop talking about that as if I were some magical anomaly. Many wizards and witches do not ride brooms, and as far as I can tell, none of them have ended up in St. Mungo's. And all of this is beside the point because I really do have to tell you something. ~Lily

I was really hoping that she would just ask me what happened, because I wanted her to ask me about it, rather than just having me blurting it out.

What is this all important piece of information that you are just dying to tell me?!? Was that enough curiosity for you, Miss Evans? *V

That, to say the least, was not the response I had been expecting.

Oh, sometimes I really wish that you would not be so sarcastic. But I wanted to tell you that I broke things off with Eli. I realized that I really did not even know what I was doing dating him anymore, so I decided that it was time to call it quits. ~Lily

I did not get a response right away; I think that she was just staring in shock at the little piece of paper. However, I did not get the chance to look over and see for sure because Professor Smittey decided to take that moment to walk over to our desks, and I had to quickly pull out my homework.

Ummm…I was not under the impression that you ever really saw anything in him in the first place. I just thought that you thought that he was a decent guy, so you said yes to him. I was not under the impression that you ever really felt anything serious for him in the first place. *V

When I first said yes, I thought that I felt something for him. I would really not go out with him if I was certain that it was just going to be a fling. I mean, I am 17. I would like to think that I am mature enough to be past the dating-for-the-hell-of-it stage. ~Lily

And even though I regrettably admit that I would accept James Potter on almost any terms, I think that it is different because then we would both be understanding the terms that it would just end up being a fling.

Lily, Lily, Lily. Sweet, innocent, Lily Evans. People, especially men, do not get out of the dating-for-the-hell-of-it stage until they are dead buried in their grave for at least 10 years. I really thought that you would have noticed this by now. *V

"That is all the time that we have for today. I would like to remind you that you have a rather lengthy assignment due by the end of next week, that it would probably be wise if you started in the rather near future." Professor Smittey said as we all hastily picked up our stuff and left the room. I had to say good-bye to Vanessa because I only share this class with her.

And, without any further delay, I headed down to the dungeons for my favorite class of the day. And as I walked I kept thinking about how the end of the day was here. And that in only a little bit longer I would be able to talk to James, on the Seventh floor. At this thought, I was once again confused by what, exactly, could be there that I did not know about.

However, I did remember something that could prove to be very useful in this situation, something that until now, I had never really seen as a benefit but now, suited my purposes perfectly. And they all revolved around a certain curly blonde haired, golden eyed girl.

Now all I need is for Professor Slughorn to give us a lab today so that I could talk to her without the restraint of having to write it all down. I thought as I walked into the room. And I delightfully noticed that all of the supplies for potion making were already out of the cupboard.

So I sat down in my seat and waited for everyone else to start filling into the room. Professor Slughorn had walked over to me and was complimenting me on my excellent paper that I had just turned in yesterday about various poisons from the saliva of a troll. And even though I worked really hard, trying to make it interesting, because if we are being honest troll saliva is not that exciting to read about, it was still nice to hear that he liked it.

So the lab started without any problems, and we completed it without any problems. With half of the period left in the class, I turned to my partner to ask her my question. "Alice, I have to ask you something about when you dated Sirius."

"What do you want to know? I am not sure if I will be able to help you, because we only dated back in 4th year." She said with her eyes carefully reading my face.

"Well, you are the only one that I can really talk to comfortably who has dated one of the Marauders. All of their other past girlfriends are not people who I usually talk to." Yeah, because all of their past girlfriends are not really the nicest people nor do they really have a brain in their body. The only one of them that could be relied upon to date a sensible girl would be Remus, and he has not dated many people. I added silently in my head.

"And now I ask myself what I could have possibly been thinking, because Sirius is really not my type at all. I think that I was just flattered by his attention, so I said yes. And now I am just lumped in with all of the other girls that he has dated." She finished rather harshly critiquing herself.

"We both know that it was really not like that. When you guys dated, you were very happy. It was not until some Slytherin started the rumor that you guys had broken up, that Sirius actually broke up with you. So don't judge yourself so severely." I said giving her a weak smile.

"Yeah," She said with a sigh as her eyes grew misty, and I knew that she was remembering the time when she dated him. "But we have both moved on, and I am happy that we did. Maybe if we had not dated until later, we might still be together, but too much water has passed under that bridge for anything to ever happen between us."

"At least you do not regret dating him, which is more than I can say for many of his past girlfriends. They all broke up in horribly big fights; at least you are better than that." I said as I looked up to where Sirius and James were sitting working on their potion.

Sirius was known for his melodramatic break-ups, and the drama that came along with them. Part of that I could assume was from the fact that he never dated a girl for more than three weeks. And then after he broke up with that girl, a month later he was with some new girl.

As I looked over from Sirius to let my gaze fall on his bespectacled counter-part, I considered his romantic history. While Sirius has been dating more than ever lately, James has only been rumored to have been with two different girls and none recently. This is not to say that he has not had a very discreet girlfriend who stays out of the lime light, but most girls who date James Potter like to milk it for all it is worth.

"So what exactly about my relationship with Sirius did you want to know?" Alice asked bringing me back to our conversation.

"I just wanted to know if he took you anywhere so that you could have some privacy. Some place that not many people know about like in the west corridor on the fourth floor, some hidden part of the grounds that are hidden by trees, or on the seventh floor…" I finished letting my voice trail off at the end so that she would know that I was particularly talking about the seventh floor.

"The seventh floor you say? Well, I remember Sirius saying something about the seventh floor, but I have no personal experience there. Remember, we were only in 4th year, we did not do anything that we would not want Professor Dumbledore to know about, if you catch my drift." She said putting careful but noticeable emphasis in her response.

Catching her drift, I had a momentary fuzzy image of a man and a woman wrapped up in tangled sheets, without the benefit of clothing. And with my cheeks flushing bright red the image became more defined as the man grew untidy black hair. "Yes, I catch your drift. But are you sure that you really know nothing that could help me?"

"That is all the information that I can give you on the subject. I wish that I could be more help, but I really did not date Sirius for that long. But now I want to ask a question, why do you want to know?" She asked giving me a sideways glance.

Knowing that it is pointless to try and avoid the question, and not even really sure that I wanted to, I answered her question. "Well, the first thing that you should know is that Eli and I broke up. It was just bound to happen, because he was just being a jerk, and making me miserable. And then James sent me this note, saying that he needed to talk to me. He mentioned something about the Seventh floor and I just wanted to know what it was." I explained as I handed her the piece of paper that James sent me.

"Oh," she said looking at the note. "I might be able to find out some information for you about this. I will let you know at dinner tonight. But it is from James? And you are going to meet him?"

"Yes, the note is from James, and I am going to meet him there. I mean, it is not like anything is going to happen because we are going for really regular reasons. I just wanted to know what to expect." I finally got out, because even saying it out loud that I was going to be meeting James left me feeling really breathless and dizzy. I looked over once more in James's direction, and this time I found that he was looking back at me. And Immediately I felt as if there was a humming of electricity flowing in that gaze, and the thrill of it shot straight to my stomach. We sat there like that for only God knows how long, neither one of us wanted to break that link.

It was finally Professor Slughorn that ended up stealing our attention to signal that it was the end of the period. I carefully picked up all of my materials and dropped them into my school bag.

However, during the time that I was looking at James, I had missed the fact that Alice had been watching my face. And when we finally walked into the Great Hall for Dinner, she looked at me and said with a look of wonder on her face. "You fancy James Potter, don't you? That is why you are so concerned about tonight, because you want something to happen."

I knew that she was right, and at this point, I really did not want to deny it any longer. I had been keeping it in for too long, and right now I wanted to tell someone. "Yes, I do fancy him. But it is just so impossible because it will probably never happen. We have had too much water go under the bridge too."

"Lily, how can you, one of the brightest witches in this school, see what is staring you straight in the face. And don't bother even asking me to tell you, I want you to find out for yourself. And nothing is going to change my mind on that note." Alice said as she sat down at the table.

I silently joined her, wondering what on earth she could possibly mean by that. James Potter and I had too much history together to ever have anything that could be even remotely be considered a relationship.

Once again, I passed through the meal in a complete daze.

Now that I think about it, I really do not even remember anything that happened until I found myself walking around the Seventh Floor later that night.

I walked around the entire floor twice and I still could not come up with what he meant by meeting him. He was nowhere to be found. I stopped to just stare at the wall. I needed to think about this.

So I started pacing. And I decided that I just needed to sort out these thoughts. What could he mean by…I need a place to talk in private, I need a place to talk in private, I need a place to talk in private? Oh this is ludicrous; I don't even know why I did not ask James what he meant.

And when I stopped pacing I looked forward to find that a door handle had appeared, which was very strange because I was sure that just s few minutes ago, there had not been a door there, and that I had checked every door on the entire floor. However, maybe it was one of those trick doors that only showed up ever once and a while, and to use them you had to be in the right place at the right time. I have never heard of one of them being at Hogwarts, but I was not going to miss this opportunity. So I pulled the door open.

The room was really rather on the small side, but it was comfortable furnished with a table and some chairs and a crackling fire in the fireplace. However, I really only barely noticed those because all I saw was the silhouetted profile of James.

He was standing looking into the fire standing straight and tall with his arms crossed over his chest. His hair was as messy as usual, but then again, I am not sure if I have ever seen it lay flat on his head. His robe was carelessly thrown over the back of one of the chairs next to where he was standing. He was standing there, absorbed in his thoughts, looking as beautiful and as powerful as Michelangelo's David. It was enough to make my heart stop and then start beating hard and fast in my chest.

"So what did you need to talk to me about?" I said after clearing my throat to announce my presence to him, so I would not totally cause him to jump out of his clothes, no matter how appealing the idea was to me.

He turned to look at me, his face controlled but animated at the same time. He broke out into a small smile when he saw that it was me. "I do not know exactly, you tell me want you need to talk about." He said silkily, his voice reaching my ears and causing me to shiver.

My mind was racing. I could not even really remember what we needed to talk about; there were just so many things that I needed to tell him about. I wanted to tell him that I was not dating Eli any more. I thought that since I told him when we started dating, that he would want to know when we broke up. I wanted to tell him anything and everything. That when I was little, I was afraid of thunderstorms. And that cooking is one of my favorite things to do when I am in the muggle world. That I have not been able to focus when I read Pride and Prejudice because all I can think about is him. Or even the fact that he is constantly on my mind nowadays because I have fallen hard for him. And that kissing him under the mistletoe is the thing that I want the most this Christmas…

Oh yeah. We needed to talk about the new schedule for Christmas.

"I do not think that there is much new policy to talk about. We have to get the list for the students to sign so that the students can sign, to inform us that they are going home for the Holidays. And…" I said as he started to walk over to where I was standing. He walked with such a sense of inborn grace that someone like me could only marvel at. His eyes were flashing and the golden flecks in his eyes were starting to become more obvious. And to top this all off, I was starting to have trouble thinking straight.

"And…" He said prompting me, his eyes sparkling, as if he enjoyed the fact that I was having a hard time thinking.

"And then we have to give the list to all of the prefects so that they know how many people will be in their house over break. And that, they will not need to go on patrol as often because there are not as many students roaming the corridors." I said thinking about how anyone that will be at Hogwarts will be trying to find a way to trap their lover under the mistletoe. And then I was thinking about how very much I would like to do that very thing to the man standing in front of me.

"That sounds very manageable." He said stopping right in front of me. "We almost did not even need to create a special meeting to talk about this. But now that we are here, doesn't it seem like it would be a waste of such time not to have some private time to ourselves…" He trailed off as he carefully moved the piece of hair that had fallen across my cheek behind my ear.

Before I knew what I was saying, I blurted out. "I broke up with Eli today. He was trying once again to tell me what I should be feeling, and I just could not take it anymore. My dislike of him has been growing for a little while now, and I just did not want to deal with him anymore." I finished looking into his eyes mesmerized by how much his vanilla and cinnamon smell was intensified by his closeness and the heat from the fire.

"Well, I guess that that will just make this that much less awkward." He said as he moved his head down so that our faces were only inches apart. "I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. And I do not want anything to make it less than perfect." He whispered against my mouth. And before I knew it, he was kissing me.

It was pure bliss. His lips were soft and gentle as they applied gentle but firm pressure to my own. And a little hesitant as to what my reaction would be, he was careful to not push this too far.

After a second or so, he pulled back so that he could look me in the face. And with my brain still stunned by the kiss, I said the only thing that was on my mind. "Absolutely perfect." I commented with a smile on my face.

With this encouragement he leaned down again, and kissed me once more. And this one did not end so quickly. He let one of his hands slide in my hair as he moved the other one to the small of my back to press me up against him. His lips continued to move gently against mine, just content to stay like this forever.

And feeling the happiness that we were both sharing, I melted into his arms, letting my arms circle around his neck, so that I could continue standing. Because at that precise moment. I was highly doubtful that the world could get any better than this.

James Potter's lips against mine with his arms around me, so that I was completely enveloped by his sweet intoxicating scent; that is what the poets call pure heaven.

Author's Note: So there you have it, they kissed. I just want to say that even though this chapter was a little rough going when I first started typing it, that I have enjoyed writing this. And even though authors have a very hard time naming one chapter that they are exceptionally proud of, I have to say that this is probably going to go up pretty high on the list.

And just in case any of you are wondering, this is not the end of the story. I still have a lot more that I can do with these characters. James and Lily's relationship has just begun.

All my Love, Allison