This is a bit awkward, but I think this would be awkward so I guess it fits.
It isn't really long, just short and sweet. It is kind of a filler but it is an important one.
This sets the rest of the year into motion.
Thank you for the reviews and for reading.
And incase you needed help with it, it is pronounced Soar (like a bird) in (like going in to something) Soaryn.
Oh and this is not mine, I will not say it everytime but you can just assume from here on out that JK invented it all, I am just embellishing her story!
Chapter 12
Free agent
They were finally free of detention! It was three weeks since the original incident and Sirius and James had finally completed their long line of detentions. Which incidentally had an extra week tacked onto it for subsequent punishments. James was so excited to spend a Saturday without detention. He had a quidditch practice that morning but his entire evening was free. And, in more good news, Lily had spoken to him on Monday. She had spoken to him every day since as well, even going as far as asking him a question in Transfiguration.
He was pretty sure no one had noticed but him, but he certainly noticed, though he was still feigning not to care about her at all. He had even been seen speaking to a pretty little Ravenclaw several times in between classes. Her short blonde hair and bright blue eyes had to be the flirtiest thing he had ever encountered and while incredibly smart she was a lot of fun. At some points he almost, almost forgot about Lily when he was joking around with and talking to Soaryn.
He was walking alone, down to the pitch when he heard small footsteps running up behind him. He stalled and turned, expecting one of his teammates, he was surprised to see Lily walking up to him.
"Hey Evans, I didn't do it I swear." He said with a grin.
"You always assume I am here to yell at you." She said sadly.
"Well, you usually are, but I was kidding this time."
"Right, well, are you on your way to practice?" she asked as they walked out into the morning sun. The air was starting to get colder and she noticed the goose bumps rise on his arms. "Why are you only wearing that undershirt? You are going to get sick." She chastised.
He shrugged.
"Because, after five minutes in the air I am going to be dying of heat stroke. And in answer to your question, yes I am going to practice, our first game is in two weeks. Why?"
She stopped and shuffled her feet, looking down at them.
"I think we need to talk, about everything that has happened this year."
He looked at her in surprise.
"Uhm, yeah, if you want to I am ok with that. I have all evening open. Where are we meeting? Or are you staying and waiting for me?"
"I am pretty sure if I stayed it would be pretty obvious what is going on. I don't do quidditch or flying, remember? Why don't we meet some place. Just name the place, you can think of more than me I would bet."
"Right, secret. We can do the astronomy tower at noon. The snoggers don't head up there until evening usually. So we should get privacy. I gotta run I will see you there." And he ran off towards the empty pitch.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Walking back from practice with Sirius, James was visibly nervous.
"What's got your knickers all in a twist prongsie?"
"Nothing." He lied
"Hmmmhmmmm Sure it's nothing."
"Do you have the map on you?" he asked.
Sirius nodded and pulled it from his back pocket and handed it to his best friend.
"Listen, I have something to do, and if you come looking for me and find me, I will personally see that you are killed in a most painful and embarrassing way. If you search for me at all, or if you let either of the other two look for me, I will re-curse your hair." James said threateningly.
Sirius stopped at the word hair and touched his newly regrown waves. They were now about ear length and he could not bear to go through such a terrible phase again.
"No problem, I won't search at all. I swear it. If someone even says your name I will hex them."
James nodded, pocketed the map and took off down a passageway.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
Lily walked out onto the tower and saw him standing at the edge looking over. She stopped a little ways back before calling to him.
"Hey, step away from the ledge Potter."
He turned and smiled. He walked up to her and pulled a lightweight, silvery looking cloak from inside his bag he was carrying.
"You Miss Evans are about to learn a Marauders trade secret, and one of my secrets I guess. We aren't staying here. I think I can trust Siri not to come snooping but the others aren't as controllable as Sirius likes to think. Come on, we shall go where we cannot be found."
He threw the cloak over his head and to her astonishment, he disappeared completely until he lifted it and held it up peeking out of the side.
"Well come on, just you have to walk close or our feet will show, and quietly because it doesn't stop people from hearing us. Let's go."
He led her through the castle to a bare stretch of wall before leaning close to her ear. She couldn't help but shiver as his breath drifted across her neck.
"Ok we are going to walk back and forth three times ok. Think of someplace we can talk without being found. Over and over."
He saw her look at him skeptically.
"Just trust me Evans." He said as they began to pace.
OOoOoOoOoO
She looked around her at the miniature Gryffindor common room they were sitting in, astounded.
"So you have an invisibility cloak. I should have guessed." She stated.
He grinned.
"It has come in handy these last several years let me tell you."
"Is that a marauder secret, or a James secret?"
"Well I guess kind of both, but we all use it…A lot. This room is my secret. I found it at the end of last year and the others don't know about it yet. I thought it would be a good place to talk since as far as I have figured out it is untraceable and no one can get in if you word it right. Or so the house elves tell me." He said with another crooked smile.
She knew that he didn't like his smile but it made her week in the knees.
"So, you wanted to talk. The floor is yours Evans." He said as he plopped onto the sofa beside of her.
It threw her off. She had been expecting him to sit across from her in one of the armchairs. Instead he had thrown himself into the corner of the two seater sofa and made himself comfortable by leaning back into the corner and propping a leg up on her knees.
"Comfy?" she said with raised eyebrows.
"Very! Thanks for asking. I am sore. We had practice this morning and I ran an extra mile every day this week and I am pretty sure I cracked a rib on a stair three weeks ago but I refuse to go to Poms bout that. And the full moon was night before last and between classes and detention I haven't got to sleep it off yet."
"What does the full moon have to do with it?"
She watched as he turned a sickly color of gray.
"Oh, well, you know how Sirius is a mess over astronomy after being named after a star and all, he made us go out and blood stargaze with him. I swear he is part girl. Bloody prat that he is."
"Oh, I didn't know he liked stars."
"You don't know much about him at all Lils."
"Yeah, true point, I don't mind it either."
He rolled his eyes at her and ran his hands through his hair, causing it to stick up everywhere.
"So, this talk…You are stalling." He said, with a glint in his eye.
He leaned up and brought his face very close to hers.
"Before we start. Am I in danger of getting physically maimed if I kiss you right now."
She had to gather her senses after falling into his bottomless eyes.
"Uhm well that depends, and is what we need to talk about." She put her hand on his chest and pushed him back a few centimeters. "Do you have a girlfriend?"
He grinned a very cocky, and much to Lily's irritation, sexy smile.
"Well that depends, is this your application process because if it is you are hired. And in that case yes I do."
She rolled her eyes but couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her traitorous lips.
"No, it is not."
He frowned, but bounced back quickly.
"Oh well then, no, I do not currently have a girlfriend. Though I am willing to review candidates."
"You are a mess." She said before pulling him into a quick kiss, one that he was eager to prolong. However, she pulled away mere seconds after it started.
"I only want to have this conversation once, alright?"
He nodded and leaned back into his corner.
"I don't do relationships. I don't do boyfriends and love and all that. I won't put myself in that situation and you know why. I won't be my mum. I refuse to be her. I love her, but I don't want to hurt like that. And I have been hurt enough by a man already."
He narrowed his eyes but nodded silently.
"I like this" she used her hand to gesture between the two of them, he smiled. "Like this, I like you when it is just us. You are different. And as much as I am afraid it is going to swell your head. I can't get the thought of kissing you out of my head."
"So you don't want to date, but you want to snog?" he said baffled. "Lily, I don't know if I can do that."
"Why not, you were doing it with Alice? I don't see the difference." She shrugged.
"I…I haven't been begging Allie to date me for the last 6 years. It was entirely different. It will be hard to separate kissing you and actually being with you. Besides, Alice and I at least were already friends, people didn't really notice the change."
"Are you saying no?" she replied, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.
"What? NO! NO! I am definitely not saying no, but I want you to start talking to me and my friends during classes and meals. Act like you can stand us, who knows if you actually got to know us you might would like us. I know you think I am different right now but I am not. I really am not. You just don't know me as well as you think you do.
If we are going to do this, you have to be civil, no screaming at me."
"Unless you deserve it…" She added with a smirk.
"Fine, unless I REALLY deserve it. And no saying things to intentionally hurt my feelings."
"What I say doesn't hurt your feelings, I doubt it gets through at all." She mumbled.
"Yeah well you would be surprised at the things that never got through that I remember coming out of your beautiful mouth. You don't have to be our best friend but you have to be friendly. That is all. It shouldn't be hard. All of your friends like us just fine. Alice is one of the people I would trust with my life. Marleen is funny and sits with us in Care of Magical Creatures all of the time. And Hestia talks to us all of the time."
"I can do that, but you have to agree not to ask me out anymore, no public displays of affection, and this part of this relationship stays between us." She replied.
"Well, first I haven't asked you out since last year oh Miss arrogant. And second, I agree, no one finds out about this. I guess we can keep this room between us? What happens if someone asks one of us out?"
"I am not going to do this if you get a girlfriend. That is incorrigible but as long as we aren't serious with someone else I see no issue, although if you get REALLY intimate with someone. Uhm I would like to know because, we might need to rethink this at that point. As far as I and the female population of this school is concerned, James Potter is a free agent."
"One with the best benefits package ever invented." He added as he finally gave into to the tension and pulled her into a smoldering kiss.
oOoOoOoO
They were seen walking beside each other in the halls that day, talking quietly as if they could actually stand each other.
"You know I am very impressed that you had the guts to make this arrangement Evans. Looks like you found your inner Gryffindor." He said as they reached the fat lady.
"Yeah, well it took two calming draughts and a courage concoction but there you have it." She said with a sigh as he waited for her to enter the common room.