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Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it.
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Chapter 8- The Fire
"Okay, let's try this once more." Lily said. Both Lily and James had changed out of their Quidditch robes, cleaned up, eaten lunch, and were now in their common room with their wands out and cushions surrounding them. "Just keep thinking about the pillow even though your attention is on the cup."
In Charms, Lily's best subject and James' worst, they had been learning how to control objects while they were concentrating on another task, using the Contrata charm. The Contrata charm was similar to Wingardium Leviosa, but it gave the witch or wizard even more control over the object, allowing him or her to focus on other tasks or even levitate more than one object at once. Lily was having James practice controlling the pillow while he moved the cup across the table with his hand. Unfortunately, the pillow kept dropping out of the air every time he picked up the cup.
"Ugh… it's no good, Lils. I just can't do two things at once. But thanks for trying to help this lost cause." James sighed as he plopped down dejectedly next to Lily on the couch.
"Sure you can! You do it all the time! Breathing, walking, talking…" She trailed off as her attempt to lighten the mood failed, and she saw the helpless look on his face. So she thought for a second and changed tactics. "When you play Seeker in Quidditch, you think about what's going on in the game, but you're still searching for the Snitch, right?" James nodded with still a trace of defeat still in his eyes. "Well, think of this pillow as the game, and the cup as the Snitch."
Lily saw something spark in James' eyes, and as he jumped up from the couch, "That makes more sense." Then whispered, "Let's try it!" as if plotting a very mischievous prank. So Lily set up the pillow and the cup as James cleared his mind. James swished his wand right then left then right again and flicked it at the pillow as he shouted "Contrata!" The pillow rose into the air and James moved his wand right and left and up and down making sure he had control.
James took a deep breath and Lily crossed her fingers, and silently prayed to herself. Very slowly, James stretched out his hand, uncurled his fingers, and closed them around the handle of the cup. He turned his head back to the pillow and moved it right and left again. Just as he moved it up again, he turned his head back to the cup and lifted it off the table. As he moved the cup across the table he made the pillow to somersaults in the air. And just as he set the cup down, one sharp flick of his wand sent the pillow sailing into Lily.
"Got you!" James exclaimed with a triumphant smile on his face.
"Well, I hope you're happy!" Lily replied huffily.
"Aww, come on, Lils. It was only a joke!" James whined sounding like he regretted it. She was lying on the couch, her face out of James' sight. "Lily, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
THUMP! Lily hit him square in the nose with pillow. "Got you back!" Lily replied gleefully taking a moment to bask in her success. But James didn't take long to retaliate. He charmed a cushion right off the couch from under Lily and was about to squash her with it, but she was quick. Lily charmed the cushion and it hit James instead.
"Hey! Not fair! I had it first!" James whined.
"Aww, is little baby Potter, getting beat up by a little girl?" Lily flashed him a devilish smirk as she flicked her wand and swiftly attacked him with two more pillows, one on each side of his face. Lily giggled. "It'll be good practice for you! Or can you not handle trying to hit me with a few measly pillows and block them at the same time?" Lily challenged.
Although James wasn't very good at using the Contrata charm, Lily found out he was exceptionally skilled at using Wingardium Leviosa, She never expected the onslaught of pillows, and once he got in a good hit, James showed no mercy. Lily was instantly victim an endless attack of feathers and cotton. James had no doubt acquired pillow fighting skills as a result from some Marauder mischief. Right and left pillows bombarded Lily, despite her best efforts. A couple of times she caught him in the face, but finally she gasped, "Okay! I give up!"
"What? What's that? I can't hear you!" James yelled back with laughter in his voice.
"I said 'I GIVE UP!'" She shouted from beneath the colorful assortment of pillows, cushions, and anything else soft and light James could spot.
"Oh! You give up? Well, why didn't you say so?" James teased as he ceased his pillow brigade. "I thought you said 'Keep it up!'" he claimed as he collapsed back onto the now cushion-less couch.
"Sure you did," Lily rolled her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. She could feel her red cheeks, and the mess that probably was her hair, for the second time that day. "You are ruthless with those pillows. I think I'm going to have some bruises!" Lily joked as she collapsed beside him, exhausted from her Quidditch and pillow filled day.
"Oh," James crooned, "Does the little baby have a bruisey woozey?"
Lily playfully punched his arm, then realized how close they were. The right side of Lily's body was pressed against James, as they were both sunk deep into the cushion-less couch. James' eyes bore into her with an intensity she wasn't sure she was comfortable with. She could see the happiness in his eyes, and wondered where they would be now if she hadn't hated him in their first year. Lily could feel herself softening under James' intense gaze. She could feel the warmth of his body as their faces got closer. And she noticed for the first time, that when she stared into his eyes, she had butterflies. But she had never experienced this type of butterflies before. It startled her and she sprang off the couch saying, "We better head down to dinner soon. We wouldn't want to be late! Imagine what our crazy friends would say," Lily looked away fixing her hair.
"Right, they'd probably..." James stopped and decided not to finish the thought. Lily saw the change in his eyes and felt a twinge of regret, but James covered with a smile and said, "You're right! People might think we're, up to something," He smirked with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows and a wink at Lily.
"Come on James. Let's go." Lily smiled and tugged him towards dinner.
Right outside the Great Hall, they heard familiar barking of Sirius Black. "Hey Potter! Where have you been all day? Moony, Wormtail, and I were just planning our next…" then he cut his jogging pace to almost a slow tiptoe. "You know, our next…our next chess night." Sirius finally found his words.
"Chess night?" James asked apparently oblivious to what his friend was talking about.
"You know… where we go out and… play chess!" Sirius said desperately winking at his friend.
Something, clicked for James. "Oh! Chess night! How could I forget! Is that really coming up?"
"Yeah, mate. Tuesday night!"
"Alright! But, you'll have to fill me in at dinner," James gave a microscopic head nod in Lily's direction, which she noticed.
"Chess night? Sounds interesting! Can I come?" Lily innocently asked. She had a pretty good idea what the two Marauders were talking about, but she was determined to play devil's advocate, since James so often did.
Each of the present Marauders turned to each other with his eyebrows raised in shock. "Uh," James stalled. "It's… it's kind of a guys' night. Yeah! Only the guys, you know, just us immature Marauders." He stood up, grabbed Sirius by the shoulder and said, "Okay, we have to go. See you later!" And they ran out of the hall.
Lily looked into the Great Hall to see if her friends had come down to dinner yet. They hadn't, but she did spot Severus among a gathering of Slytherins. In another time, she would have thought nothing of going over to him and discussing something or other, but of course, she couldn't do that now. For barely a second, she though he caught her eye. And in that moment she thought she saw a flash of pain, but it was so fast, she could have easily imagined it. Suddenly, she lost her appetite and doubled back out of the Great Hall. If Severus wanted to join up with the Death Eaters, then that was his choice. His business. His life. But then why did it bother her so much? Why did she feel like part of her heart was-
"Oh, sorry!" Lily apologized as she got to her feet. Rubbing her head, she looked up at the person she had just run into. "Kat? What are you doing here?"
"Ouch," Kat laughed. "That's a nice way to greet your best friend," she said rubbing her elbow. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Lily looked around. She seemed to have gone in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, without even realizing it. Kat looked at her friend with concern laced in her brown eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm," but Lily was stopped by the look Kat was giving her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kat said with an annoying I-know-everything-you're-thinking look.
Lily bit her lip, "I really do, but," she leaned against the cold stone wall. For a few seconds she stared at a picture of three witches levitating lit orbs in a forest. Occasionally, they looked back at Lily, waiting for her to continue.
Smiling, Kat reached out and touched Lily's arm, "It's okay. You can tell me," she gave Lily's arm a squeeze. "Remember? We're best friends."
"No, you're right," Lily tried to return the smile. "I'm just afraid of what you'll say. Or what you'll think of me."
Kat leaned back against the wall with her friend. "Come on. I'm your best friend. If you can't tell me, who can you tell?"
Lily's heart swelled at her words, emotion pricked the back of her throat, and she grinned a true smile for her friend. "Okay, but let's go in that classroom," Lily pointed a cross the hall, "so no one overhears." The setting sunlight slanted through the classroom windows, making everything look orange and too bright. The girls sat at a table together.
"Alright," Kat said. "Let's hear it. You think Hagrid is the world's best looking man, and you want to marry him, and have elephantine babies, I know all about it," Kat grinned evilly.
"Kat!" Lily laughed. "Well, he is pretty good looking," Lily said seriously. It was Kat's turn to look shocked. Lily laughed at her expression, "No, no. It's not Hagrid and his good looks that are troubling me. It's James."
"I knew it! I wasn't going to say anything until you did, but I just knew it! I knew from the moment we all met, that you and James were made for each other! Ha!"
Lily clamped a hand over her friend's mouth, "Shh! Someone could hear you!"
Kat broke Lily's hold, "What are you so worried about, Lily? Girls have crushes all the time at Hogwarts! And the Marauders happen to be very popular choices."
"I know but, everyone knows that I hate him. And everyone knows that I've said 'no' to him countless times," Lily twisted her hands. "What would they say if, and I said if, we started dating?"
"Whoa!" Kat put her hands up. "Let's back up. I had no idea you were already thinking about dating him. What happened to playing hard to get? Can you explain what happened, please? Remember, we never get to talk anymore."
"Playing hard to get? What gave you the idea I was doing that?"
"You did," Kat laughed. "Remember? You admitted to me that you thought James was cute, in our second or third year, I can't remember which. But you said that you saw in a movie once that the way to truly win over a guy is to play hard to get."
The blush in Lily's cheeks exploded like fireworks, "Oh yeah," she mumbled. "Now I remember. I guess the playing grew to be my real feeling after what happened in our fifth year," Lily set her jaw. "But I realized that I can't blame James for Severus destroying our friendship anymore. James never helped it, but in the end it was Sev's choice to abandon it," Lily gulped back the emotion rising in her throat. "I also thought about why James is Head Boy. Professor Dumbledore would not have put him in the position for no reason. His grades improved a lot last year, and I can tell that most of the time he really works hard in his studies." Lily took a deep breath.
"And?" Kat said with a hint of impatience.
"Well, I started remembering the first time we met. And I sort of confessed all of this to him," Kat gasped, "while he was sleeping! But after he woke up, I promised to take it easy on him, and he promised not to prank people in front of me, and now. . . " Lily trailed off thinking about earlier that day when they had been sitting so close.
Lily noticed Kat staring at her with an unfathomable grin. "And you're falling in love with James Potter!"
Lily was surprised to find her lips in a smile, "Well, I don't know if I'd say 'falling in love,' but becoming friends, maybe."
"Uh-huh," Kat raised a skeptical eyebrow, "It seems to me you passed friends a couple weeks ago. Tell me, Lily, what were you just thinking about?"
"What do you mean?"
"You certainly know what I mean!"
Lily took a breath, held it for a few seconds, then let it out saying, "Okay, but it was really nothing," Kat didn't look like she believed Lily, "we were just studying earlier, and we were sitting really close-"
"Ohmigod! Did you kiss?"
"No!" Lily shouted, shocked that her friend was able to guess. "But I think he wanted to."
"Of course he wanted to! Every time he looks at you, it's plain as pewter cauldrons he wants to kiss you! The only difference, is that this time, it sounds like you wanted to kiss him too," Kat finished conspiratorially.
"I did not!" Lily said huffily. "We're just friends!"
"Sure, and I'm just a homework assignment away from having your grades," Kat scoffed.
"We are-"
"Okay," Kat took a defensive posture. "It's your call, Lily. I can see there's something else? You can tell me. I'm not going to spill the eel eyeballs."
"You promise you won't tell anyone?"
"You have my word."
"Well, what should I do if he tries to, you know, kiss me again?"
"Lily, you have to do what you feel. If you don't feel like letting him kiss you, then don't, you know that. But if you feel like it, it's okay to kiss him. You're not going to burn at the stake because of a kiss," Kat tried to show pure sympathy, but her smile was so wide it seemed to stretch off the sides of her face.
"Thanks, Kat," and Lily was truly grateful to have such a great friend.
The girls hugged each other. "Can I just say 'I told you so!'"
"Rub it in, Katarina." The two girls left the classroom and went to have some dinner, teasing each other the whole way.
After dinner, Lily went with Kat and Ali to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they got there, they noticed the Marauders whispering in a corner, unusually quiet. Lily followed her friends up to their room and found a welcoming familiarity in the atmosphere.
"So, this Halloween Ball business," Ali prompted in a business-like tone.
"Ah, yes. Ali and I have given it more thought. We think that as well as the games, we can have categories to vote for cutest couple, and best dressed, and things like that. You know?" Kat plopped down on her red and gold four-poster bed.
"That's an interesting idea. We could have a little charmed goblet for people to put their votes in. Like the Goblet of Fire! That way we can keep prats like Malfoy from voting for himself a hundred times." Lily plopped down right in front of Kat who always loved to braid her hair whenever they talked.
"Yeah! That's a great idea! We hadn't thought about that." Ali said.
"Our first Hogsmeade weekend is the weekend of the dance! We get to go shopping!" Kat exclaimed.
"Don't you think it's a bit early to be thinking about that? I mean, we don't even have dates," Lily said.
"Well, I guess you're right, but I love shopping," Kat sighed as her fingers combed through Lily's hair.
"Okay, well let's focus on the task at hand: getting dates. I know who I want to go with. Kat, you're working on Sirius, right?"
"Well, not 'working on'. More like, getting him to eat out of the palm of my hand!" Kat exclaimed with giddy excitement. "And now we can all be in a group together!"
"How do you figure?" Lily asked wanting to fix Kat with a stern stare but unable to unless she wanted her hair ripped out.
"Oops, sorry," Kat clamped a hand over her mouth.
"What did I miss?" Ali asked.
So, Lily told her other best friend about her attempted friendship with James, although she left out the almost kissing. But Ali's reaction was more or less the same as Kat's. "Perfect! Now we can all go together!"
"What? Wait a second. When I said we were friends, I didn't mean I was ready to be his date to a dance."
"Right, Lily. You are so blind, you can't see what's right in front of you face." Kat was always honest with Lily. Sometimes brutally honest, but Lily valued honesty over all things. "But now you'll just have to find a way to occupy yourself, since you refuse to join in because Ali and I are scheduled for our daily undertaking of our 'Win Over the Marauders Operation." She tied back Lily's expertly braided hair with a band and turned to Ali. "Ali dearest, the secret ingredient please."
Ali stood up and grabbed a bottle of what looked like perfume, off of her dresser. She sprayed some on herself, and then some on Kat. Then, to Lily's disgust and confusion, Ali surprise attacked Lily with some too. Lily wondered how long it would take James to start choking on the scent. But to Lily's surprise, the "Love's Spell" perfume, all of a sudden didn't smell so bad. In fact, it smelled like lilies, lavender, and cookies.
"What is this stuff?"
"It's a perfume with a special spell put on it," Kat explained, "that changes the scent based who you are thinking about when you but it on!"
"It's genius! But don't worry, it's not a real love potion," Ali added gravely.
Lily laughed, "You're kidding me, right? Don't you know what this reminds me of?" Kat and Ali looked at each other, then at Lily.
"No."
"It's just like Amortentia!" Kat and Ali continued to stare blankly. "From potions class? The most powerful love potion in the world? No? Never-mind," Lily said shaking her head.
Once Kat and Ali were satisfied with their primping, Ali led the way down the spiraling staircase while Kat explained their plan of attack.
When the trio entered the Common Room, Lily noticed Heath and Mikey entertaining their friends in a corner. She remembered one time she, Kat, and Ali had stayed up all night talking in that corner, with the plush velvety chairs, and the maroon carpet, still spotless after what Lily imagined must be decades of use. The fireplace in front of which they studied on cold nights, and where they got into a bit of trouble for roasting marshmallows, was still as warm and welcoming as she could ever remember it being. Even the high arching windows, with their golden latches held memories. For the first time that year, Lily truly longed to be sharing the same common room with her fellow house members, skittish first years, and pompous fifth years alike. Many students smiled at Lily, as she walked across the room, admiring the head girl that belonged in their house. Some faces were newer to her, and some, like the four huddled over a table talking in hushed voices, were as commonplace as the wand in her pocket.
Kat snuck up behind Sirius and tapped his right shoulder as she craftily slid behind his left. Sirius turned to his right, realized what was going on, and before she realized what was happening, Sirius swung his arm around and picked Kat clear off the floor. Making a spectacle as usual, Sirius slung Kat over his shoulder and mercilessly tickled her all the way to the sofa.
Ali, whose style was much different, walked up to Remus and said simply, "Hi, Remus. Are you alright? You look a little down today." Ali sounded sincerely concerned. Remus stood up, assuring her that he was fine, then politely asked her if she would join him by the fire. The two of them took a seat in front of the crackling flames and began a conversation while Peter skulked away from the table to go speak with a modestly pretty fifth year girl, who's name Lily remembered was Courtney.
That left Lily standing by James as he began cleaning up the table. He hastily collected all the paper the Marauders had been crowding around, but Lily, as observant as she was, noticed a calendar. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the highlighted square labeled, "September 17th." Next Tuesday. She also noted the two small words at the bottom of the square, "Full Moon," and knew her previous suspicions about "Chess Night" had been correct.
"Tuesday is a full moon." Lily said quietly.
James froze in the middle of jamming a piece of parchment into his bag. "How observant of you, Evans," James said nervously. "Next I suppose you'll be informing me that broomsticks travel up."
"Oh, very funny," Lily said as she picked up the calendar. "I'm sure you know what that means," she turned her questioning bright green eyes on James, who chose to avoid their stare. "Of course you must know it is when our very good mutual friend Remus will be going through some, shall we say, changes." Lily whispered. Seeing the look of shock on James' face, she explained, "You learn a lot about the person you patrol with. Especially if you're really good friends with him. It's difficult not to notice that your partner always makes up some random excuse at the same particular time every month."
"You know about. . . about," James leaned in and whispered, "his furry little problem?"
Lily giggled, "Yes. And now I understand what 'Chess Night' is. I knew we didn't have a Chess club, because I would have joined," she said seriously.
Kat's laughter rang out loud enough for the whole Gryffindor tower to hear. She was in quite the state of raucous giggles, shouting for Ali to look at something that was undoubtedly the funniest thing she had ever seen in her life.
"Hey, James," Lily said checking the time on the Grandfather Clock against the wall, "We have to patrol soon."
"You are correct," he said, also looking at the clock. They said good night to their friends. Sirius cracked a wise comment about James and Lily having to "be alone," and everyone laughed, even James, though he paired the laughter with a slug to his friend's shoulder. As the scene played, Lily noticed just how perfect it all seemed. There they all were, in one common room together, they way it should be. Joking and laughing on a Saturday night in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts. She was surprised to see Ali's hand in the bashful Remus' and winked at her while Remus was laughing at Sirius and James. Kat and Sirius were both too cute and absolutely hilarious teasing and laughing at each other. And Lily felt that familiar hatred toward the person that kept this from being an everyday occurrence. The person who kept Lily and James separated from their friends. The person who made times like these seem small and pointless in the grander scheme of things.
"Shall we go?" James whispered in Lily's ear, causing her to jump out of her thoughts. She nodded and followed him back to their dorm. As James followed Lily down the hidden steps to their common room, he asked, "What's that smell? It smells like. . . flowers."
Lily remembered the perfume and thought it slightly amusing, not to mention ironic, that James' favorite scent was flowers, given her name. "Oh, it's just some perfume that Ali put on me. You like it?" Lily asked. Then she realized that she sounded hopeful, and mentally smacked herself in the forehead.
"Yeah! It smells really nice. Like…lilies." James turned a slight shade of pink, and Lily giggled at him, which made him even more embarrassed, causing him to blush even more.
"Well, we should be getting on with our patrolling duty. Yippee." Lily exclaimed with sarcasm dripping from each syllable. It was James' turn to laugh.
"I didn't realize it was that late already. I'm gonna go grab the map, I'll be right back!" James then turned and sprinted up the stairs, and in less than a minute, he was back in the Common Room staring at the map. "Ah ha! Target number one of the night, ladies and gentlemen. Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, empty classroom, fourth floor!" James said as a game show host might, with a huge grin that clearly showed he was "up to no good".
In less than two minutes, Slytherin lost a whopping one hundred points, as it was the third time Malfoy and Black had been caught. But Malfoy's sputtering and nonsense spouting in confusion and bewilderment as to how they had been found, was better than taking away the hundred points.
There were two others caught that night, though they weren't doing anything nearly as bad as Malfoy and Black. With about thirty minutes left in their patrol, James noticed two little dots on the grounds of Hogwarts. One was a male, and one was a female. The two were out by the lake, no doubt going for a moonlight swim. "Hey, Lily. Look who we have here!" James pointed out the two dots by the lake.
Lily gasped in surprise at the names of the dots and started giggling. "Looks like we may have to break up a little flirt fest."
"But we must be very quiet. Sound travels towards the lake. Come on! Follow me," and James led the way to the grounds.
The two reached the outside air and headed for the lake. "Oh bugger, it's chilly out here. Don't you think so?" Lily said as she rubbed her arms inside her black school robes. She hadn't counted on patrolling outside of the castle on a chilly September night.
James, who had grabbed his cloak when he retrieved the map, took it off of his shoulder and handed it to her. "Here you go. You can wear this."
Lily accepted his offer, and felt much better when the cloak engulfed her in the warmth it retained from James' body. "Thank you." And to Lily's own surprise, she blushed, remembering this scene out of the movie she had told Kat so much about when they were younger. For a moment, James looked like he might just levitate off the ground from delight. Then he gathered himself, and stared at the map.
"There they are," James whispered. Then he chuckled, "Good ole' Padfoot."
Sirius was in shorts, his black mane a tangle of daring, trudging into the lake, and attempting to pull Kat in with him. "Come on, no one's here! You said you wanted to do something exciting, so let's go swimming!"
Kat, who was again, in a bad state of the giggles, was trying to hold on to the trunk of a nearby beech tree to keep Sirius from pulling her into the lake. "Sirius, no!" And she giggled some more, which, Lily thought, greatly lessened the seriousness of her demands. "Come on! I didn't mean 'let's go get hypothermia!' No! No!" Kat then lost her grip on the tree as well as her footing.
"Gotcha!" Sirius caught her and flung her over his shoulder for the second time that night, heading straight for the water. "Honestly, the water is quite warm. I promise, Kat."
"Sirius Black! What do you think you are doing out here!" James bellowed, sounding a lot like the Caretaker Filch. Sirius froze, and Kat stopped kicking.
Lily couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Sirius unfroze, put Kat down and headed in Lily's direction. Lily hid behind James and shrieked as Sirius burst through the brush they had been hiding behind, with Kat running to catch up. "You!" Sirius demanded in a scandalized tone as he tackled James to the ground. "I'll show you to sneak up on me!" With that, Sirius grabbed James' leg and started dragging him to the lake. James was laughing so hard that he didn't even try to fight the impending destination of ice cold water. Just the look on Sirius' face was enough for Lily to understand why James wasn't fighting back.
"Hey, hey," Lily said to Kat as she wiggled her eyebrows at her. "A little midnight swim?"
Kat blushed, "Well, yes, I guess so. It wasn't my idea though, so don't you look at me like that, little lady."
"Looks like your plan is working!" Lily said, excited for her friend.
"Well, Ali and Remus were getting pretty comfortable with each other. If I recall correctly, she was laying her head down on his shoulder as he was rubbing her back. You know, I think she may be doing better than me… how about you?" Kat asked, noticing the cloak.
"Well…" Lily began. But she was interrupted as James swept her off her feet, and Sirius did the same with Kat. Both guys started towards the lake with the girls kicking and screaming the whole way. They high-fived each other, as the girls got out their wands and mouthed "One…Two…Three!" Each girl cast a different spell on their respective capturer. Kat cast a Jelly-legs hex on Sirius which caused both of them to land in the water. Lily caused some water to douse the entire front of James' body. As a result, James fell backwards in the shallow water with Lily on top of him.
By this time, Sirius had freed himself of the hex and was chasing Kat deeper into the water. Lily and James lay there, laughing at their friends. Lily turned to James, and caught the look of amazement her usually saw on his face when he was staring at her. For a split second, she felt a moment of pure joy when their eyes connected. Somehow, James' face was getting closer, and Lily didn't seem to mind. Obviously, there was something wrong with her. Confused and baffled by the bad case of the butterflies in her stomach, Lily abruptly stood up.
"Prongsie!"
"What Sirius?" James said, standing up and trying to act as if nothing had happened.
Kat shot Lily a quick glance that said, "just-friends-huh" in that annoying accusatory voice. Then she announced, "It's past twelve. Maybe we should head back before Filch catches us."
"Sounds like a good idea. Come on gang, let's go!" James led the way back to the castle after they had all dried their clothes with their wands. The four friends walked quickly through the halls, whispering the exciting play-by-play of their night, when finally, they had to part ways. Lily and Kat hugged each other good-bye, then Sirius and Kat went towards the Gryffindor Common Room, and Lily and James headed for theirs.
"Sweet tarts." James said to Sir and Lady Zanath. Then he bolted into the Common Room out of Lily's sight as fast as lightning. Confused by the sudden change in James' demeanor, Lily was slightly put out. But she continued walking into the Common Room wondering about what she would do if James ever tried to kiss her again, when James jumped out of the shadows at her, causing Lily to trip over a chair.
James caught her before she hit the ground, and for the second time in an hour, she fell victim to his golden hazel eyes. Lily felt the same joy, excitement and butterflies as last time, but this time, she didn't fight it as she felt his face getting closer and closer to her own. Before either had a chance to object, James' free hand cupped around Lily's face, as he pulled her in to him connecting their lips in a kiss. A kiss so powerful and filled with such emotion and energy, that sparks were flying from the tips of their wands, soaring through the air, but both Lily and James were too wrapped up in the magic of their first kiss and the feeling of each others embrace to notice.
Lily didn't know how long they had been kissing, but after some time, they both pulled apart and Lily opened her eyes to see James looking at her with a sweet smile on his face. Lily found herself smiling as well and she blushed and quickly looked away. James chuckled at her reaction. Finally, James spoke. "It's pretty late. Maybe we should go to bed."
"Do you smell something?" Lily asked.
"It wasn't me," James jumped up.
"No," Lily laughed, "I mean, it smells like," she sniffed the air, "something burning!" Lily finally caught sight of the sofa they were standing next to.
"What do we do!" James panicked and ran off in the direction of the stairs, then stopped and ran towards the bookcase, then changed directions again towards the hallway, as if he couldn't make up his mind which way was the best.
"Aguamenti," Lily twitched her wand, and a jet of water came out of the end, extinguishing the small flame that was burning the sofa.
James turned back to Lily, and ran over to her. With his hands on his knees, panting, he said, "It's a good thing we didn't panic."
Laughing at him, Lily said, "Yes. We might have looked really dumb running around the common room looking for a bucket of water."
James showed her a pouting face, but it soon turned turned into a slightly embarrassed smile.
"It's alright, I know you meant well," Lily smiled and giggled at him. Both Head Boy and Girl stood staring at their newly charred sofa, mulling over the situation, but soon Lily's thoughts were on her lips and James' lips. Suddenly, Lily found herself being pulled up the stairs by James' strong but soft guiding hand. Finally they reached the landing and James pulled Lily into a warm sweet hug.
"Good night, my Lily flower." James sweetly whispered in her ear. "Sweet dreams."
Lily pulled out of the hug very slowly and held James' hands in her own. "Good night, James. And sweet dreams to you too." Lily smiled and realized that she couldn't stop. She thought of how stupid she must have looked, just standing there grinning like an idiot. But slowly, despite her mad grin, they each went to their own door. As Lily went through her door, she turned and stole one last glance at the smiling James, then gently shut it.
Lily let out a huge sigh and ran and jumped onto her bed, unable to control her excitement. Her head was a mess of confusing and exciting thoughts. Ecstatic about the kiss, confused about what it meant, terrified of what Kat and Ali would say when she told them, and hoping that it would happen again sometime in the future. With all of these thoughts whirling in her head, she took a shower, brushed her teeth, hopped into bed, and her mind was still in full force about the kiss. It was a wonder she ever fell asleep that night.
So here we are :D
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Misschievous13 signing out ^_^