Umbrella

Sixth year

Lily Evans glanced up as she felt a drop or rain fall upon her face, sliding down her cheek. A dark grey storm cloud loomed overhead. Had she been so engrossed in her Potions essay that she had not felt the heat of the sun fade, obscured by the slow rolling in of such a gargantuan cloud? It was barely thirty seconds later when the rest of the rain crashed down in a torrent. She stood up quickly, gathering her books and protecting herself from the weather with only her own forearm held above her head. She glanced down to see the ink beginning to run on the essay she had been working on for days. Cursing under her breath, she turned on the spot, desperately trying to seek out somebody who might possibly – There!

Lily sprinted in the direction of the only figure who was outside apart from her, and tapped him on the shoulder, delighted. Perhaps he could save her essay, if not keep her from catching her death.

"Excuse-me, could you – Potter?"

She inhaled sharply. Out of everyone – everyone – in the whole school, it had to be him.

"Hey Evans," he said, looking her up and down in surprise. "Why are you so wet?"

"It's raining," she said, "in case you haven't noticed."

"Oh I have," he smirked. "But I actually did something about it." He gestured to his umbrella. "It was easy. I just transfigured a long stick lying on the ground into it! Brilliant Muggle invention, the umbrella. Even though, of course, we wizards have much better rain-repelling charms, I think umbrellas are sometimes just so much easier."

Lily remembered her essay, and so said through gritted teeth, "I left my wand up in my dormitory, but thought that since all I was going to be doing was writing an essay, I wouldn't need it go back up to get it."

"And?" said James.

"And what?" she retorted.

"What do you want me to do about it?" he asked.

"Well, can you help me?" she demanded.

James curled his hand around the back of his ear, his eyes dancing with glee. "Sorry?"

"Help me, prat," she snapped.

"Help you?" said James. "Lily Evans is asking me to help her? Merlin, if I'd known this would be such a historic day, I would have bought a camera. For what it's worth, this is going down in my - well, I don't have a diary but Peter does, so it's going down in his."

"Half of my essay's already disappeared into puddles of blue ink, so can't you just be decent for once and help me?" she asked. "All I need is that essay intact. If you could just keep it on you until you get to the castle, that's all I need. I'll just walk in the rain."

James' smile faded. He stepped up close, holding the umbrella above them both. "Don't be stupid. I don't want you stuck in the hospital wing with the flu, do I?"

She took a small step back, and looked up at him, surprised for a moment by how tall he was. "Fine, Potter. I'll walk under this umbrella with you, but you'd better not touch me."

"Or what?" he smirked. "You won't walk under this umbrella with me?"

"I'll think of something," she said. "So keep your hands to yourself."

"And you keep your hands to yourself," he said. "Deal?"

"Bet," corrected Lily.

"A bet? Winner gets a Galleon," said James.

"Ha!" said Lily. "Well, you're going to lose, Potter, since for me it won't be very difficult at all."

"Oh it will," said James, stopping. Lily, too, had to stop walking, since he was holding the umbrella.

"And why would that be?" she snapped.

"Because," said James, holding her gaze. "You want to kiss me."

Lily, infuriated, slapped him. But James, instead of looking angry, grinned.

"You just laid a hand on me, Evans," he chuckled. "And now you owe me a big, gold Galleon. Or a kiss. I'll settle for a kiss. Or you can give me your Potions essay, since I haven't done mine yet and you're awfully good at–"

He cut off. Lily had slapped him again.

"And," said James with a smirk. "That's two Galleons."