Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all property of J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 31 Untitled

A couple of weeks later James and Lily were patrolling the halls on the ten to eleven shift.

James knew he should be focusing on the task at hand, but he couldn't help casting covert glances at Lily every couple of minutes. Sometimes he still found it hard to believe that she was his. He had always liked her, but it had been the more obvious reasons in the beginning.

She was beautiful, smart, funny, and a good friend, all the things he looked for in a girlfriend. But she was so much more than that. Every little new thing he learned about her made him like her more. He was fairly certain that he was falling in love with her.

He found this simultaneously exciting and terrifying. What if Sirius was right? They were barely adults. What if it was just hormones? James didn't think it was just hormones but what if he was wrong? But how could hormones feel so…right?

Lily glanced at James and grinned to herself. It was hard to believe that less than a year ago it annoyed her, to no end, when he would glance at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Now she thought it was cute.

She was amazed by how much he had changed in the last year. Or maybe changed wasn't the right word. Matured was more fitting really. He was still the same James he was before; he just conducted himself more maturely. At least most of the time.

Lily now understood why Dumbledore had chosen him to be Head Boy. He really had been the best choice. He was a fabulous Head Boy. He was always fair when handing out punishments, even when he was dealing with the Slytherins, and he had never even hinted at abusing his powers and privileges.

"Whatcha' thinkin' about?" James asked.

"You," Lily replied, smiling.

"Good things, I hope," James said grinning at her.

"Of course," Lily replied grinning innocently.

"Like what?" James asked.

"What a fabulous Head Boy you are."

"Really," James asked quietly, wrapping his arms around Lily's waist and pulling her close.

"James," Lily laughed. "I thought we agreed to separate our working relationship from our personal relationship," she admonished.

"Fine," James said, releasing her. "But after patrol…" James grinned at her and raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Maybe…if you're good," Lily said with an air of mock thoughtfulness.

"I'll be good, I promise," James said playing along.

Lily laughed, "Come on, we have a patrol to finish."

"Aye, aye, Captain," James replied saluting.

"Have I told you lately that you're a prat?" Lily asked.

"All the time, Love, all the time," James replied grinning arrogantly.

"Just checking."

Finally eleven o'clock rolled around and James and Lily's patrol was over. It had been a quiet night, they hadn't caught anyone. Lily was happy about this. She really did hate getting people in trouble.

When they returned to the Common Room they found it empty.

"Excellent," James said upon discovering they were alone. "Come sit with me by the fire."

"Well, if you insist," Lily replied grinning conspiratorially.

"I do," James replied.

"I guess I have no choice then."

James flopped down on the couch, pulling Lily with him.

"Now then, where were we, before you so rudely interrupted us?" James asked.

Lily laughed at his antics.

"Ah, yes, I remember," James said wrapping his arms around Lily and pulling her closer to him.

Lily brought her mouth to James's. Within moments of their lips touching James's tongue was begging for access to Lily's mouth, and Lily was more than happy to oblige. Their tongues were instantly locked in a furious wrestling match.

Lily reached up and ran her hands through James's hair, while he wrapped his arms around her running them up and down her back. Lily moaned gently into James's mouth and James lay down on the couch pulling Lily on top of him as he went.

Suddenly, though neither Lily nor James quite knew how it happened, James managed to flip them on the narrow couch so that he was on top. He began tracing gentle kisses down her jaw line and her neck.

"God, you're so beautiful," James whispered pulling back slightly and then proceeding to trail kisses down her neck again.

James reached up and brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen into Lily's face. She reached up once again, pulling James in for another kiss.

After a moment James pulled away slightly.

"We need to stop," he whispered, breathing heavily.

"Why?" Lily asked taking advantage of James' current position to kiss a trail down his jaw line.

"Because if we don't, I don't know if I'll be able to," James replied moaning slightly as Lily nipped at his ear.

Lily paused in her ministrations for a moment and then gave his lips a quick kiss.

"All right," she whispered into his ear.

James sighed and shifted so that Lily could sit up.

"That was amazing," he whispered in her ear, his hand resting on her knee.

"Definitely," Lily agreed, giving him another, slightly more lingering, kiss.

When she finished James rested his forehead against hers. "We should probably go to bed."

"Yeah," she agreed.

As if to emphasize his point she let out a big yawn.

"Well, if I'm boring you that much…" he said with a grin.

"You, James Potter, are a lot of things, but boring, is definitely not one of them," Lily said flirtatiously.

James leaned in and kissed Lily again.

"We really should go to bed," she said against his lips a couple minutes later, though her tone made it obvious that going to bed was the last thing she really wanted to do.

"Yeah, we probably should," James agreed reluctantly before pulling away.

"Good night," Lily said as she dragged herself off the couch and away from James.

James caught her at the bottom of the stairs. "What, no good night kiss?" he asked pouting.

"And what do you call what we were just doing?" Lily asked, though she reached her arms around his neck as she said it.

"Snogging," James replied cheekily.

"Prat," Lily said reaching up and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "Well, good night then," she said turning and heading up the stairs.

"Hey, what was that?" James asked.

Lily paused on the stairs and turned to face him.

"Well, you never said what kind of good night kiss you wanted," Lily said, smirking, before bounding up the stairs to the girls dorm.

James stood at the bottom of the stairs completely dumbfounded. After a minute he finally snapped back to reality and headed back up to his dormitory.