Wow, I havn't put anything up for a long time! But here is (finally) the next installment. Hope you like it!
For all those people who have a secret fear of spiders
When Lily arrived at detention James Potter was already there, casually leaning against the wall, arms crossed, an annoyingly serene expression on his face. Well, this wouldn't be the first time he'd been on detention.
She walked towards him, feeling slightly self conscious at the way he was staring at her. His expression was so blank. He was curiously unreadable, an irritating trait in any person, and even more irritating in James Potter.
Lily hesitated, feeling her face flush slightly. It was just the fact that he was looking at her so hard, she told herself. She'd blush if anyone stared at her like that.
If James noticed the blush, he didn't show it. As Lily drew level with him, he pushed himself upright.
"Shall we go in?" he asked her, all politeness. Lily gave him a distrustful look.
"After you" she said.
He knocked on the door before turning the handle and pushing it, holding it open for Lily. She walked through.
Professor Switch was sitting at his desk, pretending to be writing something very important. Lily leaned forward slightly to see what it was, and as she did so, lost her balance. She stumbled forwards, but just before she hit the desk, a strong pair of hands caught her waist, pulling her backwards. James' hands lingered on her waist, as two of Lily's fundamental instincts came into play.
Her strong, feminist side, fought against this obvious display of masculine power, a remnant of thousands of years of misogynistic scum like James Potter walking the earth. She was a strong, independent, empowered woman. She did not need his protection.
But a softer side of her thrilled at his touch, making her heart beat faster, and causing her blush to deepen. She swung her hair forwards to hide her face, as, for just a moment, she was not uptight Lily Evans, but just another teenage girl.
The moment passed, and Lily removed Potter's hands from her waist, more gently perhaps, than she would have usually.
He noticed this, raising an eyebrow, but saying nothing.
Switch had finished whatever it was he was doing. He straightened up and fixed his eyes upon them.
Professor Switch was one of those people who wear glasses for the sole purpose of being able to take them off and polish them slowly, before snapping them firmly in place and fixing the unlucky student in front of him with a glare that would freeze the lake solid. As it was, his maneuver lost some of its intensity when he failed to get one of the arms over his rather prominent ear, but the effect was enough to perhaps freeze a small puddle.
James watched in some amusement as Switch attempted to salvage the situation, finally taking the glasses off altogether.
He cleared his throat. "Potter, Evans, I would like you to clear out the store cupboards in my classroom. It should not take long. When you are done, please come back and let me know so I can lock up."
Lily turned to go, and felt Potter following close behind her.
Switch's classroom was cold when they reached it, the fire having been put out earlier. Lily muttered "Inflamare" And a fire crackled in the grate.
"Nice" James approved. Lily gave him a 'don't-think-flattery-will-get-you-anywhere-you-bullying-dungheap' look and turned to the store cupboards. She was ashamed of her moment of weakness earlier and was determined not to allow anything like it to happen again.
"Right, Potter, I will clear out this one, and you can do that one, and that way I won't have to look at you."
"Or" James said, grinning, "I could just use magic and clear up both of them, and then we could sit down and relax and have a little chat."
"I like my idea better."
"You'd seriously rather clean up that mess than talk to me?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. I'd appreciate it if you'd stay silent for the duration of this unpleasant experience."
"Wow, I must be really bad." James put on a hurt expression. "I even washed after quidditch practice and everything!"
Lily ignored him. It was still rather cold in the room, and she wanted to get started as soon as possible. She began pulling things out of the cupboard. James gave her an appraising look, before turning to his own one. It was actually fairly tidy. He looked over to Lily. She'd managed to pull what looked like the entire contents of her store cupboard out and strewn it haphazardly over the floor. She was rustling around at the back, her red hair falling in a sheet of copper, blocking her face from view.
Suddenly she screamed, falling backwards.
"Oh Merlin, there's a – a – a thing in there!"
James looked at her. He said nothing. After all, she had told him expressly not to talk to him.
"Potter, come here and kill it for me."
James did not move. Lily was almost hysterical with fright as she watched the progress of something that James could not see.
Lily looked over to him. She was crying. She spoke softly.
"James Potter, I know I asked you not to talk to me, but could you please, please come and kill this spider for me."
Lily's green eyes fixed on James' hazel ones.
"By all means" he said, with exaggerated politeness. He stood and walked over the Lily. The spider was a large, hairy black one, and James would not have ordinarily questioned a girls reaction to it. But this was Lily. Lily, who he had seen go into the forbidden forest on a dare in their first year. Lily, who had climbed out the window of the common room and hung there, one handed, to rescue her friend Alice's kitten. Lily, who had, without trepidation, slapped him, James, across the face on numerous occasions. James was used to Lily-the-brave. He was unsure how to deal with this new, fragile and vulnerable version.
"Eugh, Evans I don't want to touch it!" James was not afraid of spiders as such. He just harboured a healthy respect for them.
"Please?"
"Oh, fine."
He did not kill the spider. He did not like killing things as a rule.
"Wingardium Leviosa" he said, pointing his wand at the spider. He directed it, legs waving madly (Lily gave a frightened sob as it passed over her head) out the window.
"All gone" he proclaimed cheerfully. Lily did not say anything. She was still curled into a ball on the floor, staring straight ahead with wide eyes.
"Evans?" James crouched next to her, concerned.
"I'm fine," she whispered, her eyes still brimming with tears. She felt utterly drained. Brave as Lily Evans was, she was terrified of spiders. Had been ever since she had awoken as a young girl to find one crawling on her face.
"No, you're not. You look terrible. You're pale as a ghost and…Merlin's beard Evans, you're shaking!"
"I'm so…cold" Lily murmured, shivering violently. James did the only thing he could possibly think of at that moment. He put his arms around her, cautiously at first, remembering the last slap she had given him. She buried her face in his chest and began crying in earnest. James pulled her closer and held her, until she started to recover.
"I'm so…silly! You must think me so silly! Only a spider, after all, but…oh…" She clung to him, needing his warmth, needing to feel safe.
"I don't think you're silly at all Evans." James said softly.
"Call me Lily, please?"
"Only if you call me James." He was teasing her slightly now that she seemed to be regaining her senses.
"Done" she said.
He was itching to kiss her, thinking that he would never have such a good opportunity again.
Lily wanted nothing more than to kiss him, aware somewhere in the back of her mind that she might never again be in such a situation.
Perhaps he saw some of this in her eyes, or perhaps he was just letting some of the old James back into his actions, for when she had calmed down a little, he turned her around slightly, and pushing her beautiful hair behind her ears, kissed her.
He had expected her to push him away at the very least, possibly even to hex him into a million pieces. Instead, she kissed him back, her lips urgent against his, needing him.
He pushed her up against the store cupboard, his hands entwining in her hair, as she parted her lips slightly, and they continued kissing as if there was no tomorrow.
A knock on the door made them spring apart. Lily anxiously tucked her shirt back into her skirt, fumbling to do up the buttons, and James pulled his t-shirt straight. He looked at his watch. It was past midnight.
"Damn". he had completely lost track of time. The room was dark, the floor still strewn with debris from Lily's cupboard.
"Here". Lily muttered a hasty incantation and everything sprang into perfect order in the shelves.
They could not be caught in here. It would mean 50 points from Gryffindor and a weeks worth of detention at the very least, not to mention all the snide comments and glances they would get in the corridors. They were together, in a classroom, after midnight, and they had not exactly been studying either.
As the door handle turned James grabbed his invisibility cloak from inside his robes, throwing it over both of them. He put a finger to his lips as Switch's long nose appeared around the door. Lily froze as Switch turned on the lights. He glanced around, and then, apparently satisfied, switched them off and left, locking the door behind him. Lily exhaled in relief as James pulled the cloak off them.
"What is that cloak?" she asked.
"It's an invisibility cloak. Dad gave it to me. Dead useful."
"You don't say." Lily yawned, realising how tired she was.
"We ought to get to bed" Said James, walking towards the door. He tapped it with his wand. "Alohamora." James turned to face her. "Best go under the cloak I think. You never know who might be wandering the corridors."
They walked slowly up to Gryffindor tower, stopping to kiss in the entrance hall, and again on the stairs, before parting to go up to separate dormitories. Neither was quite sure what had happened, but both felt, deep down, that it could not last.