Lily pulled away from James slowly. She was shocked at what had just happened; James Potter, hottest boy at Hogwarts, just kissed her. She blushed furiously at remembering the feel of his lips on hers, how his arms tightened around her. It was her first kiss and it was beyond anything she had imagined. Lily was overwhelmed at the range of emotions she was feeling at the moment; she was happy that he kissed her, shocked that she had liked it, and something else that she didn't want to think about—desire to deepen the kiss.
"Lily," James said, his hazel eyes bright with concern. "I'm sorry if I upset you, I just couldn't help it."
Lily didn't respond. She was still trying to handle the tangle of emotions and thoughts going through her. She realized, as James became more and more flustered with worry that she had to do something soon. Instead of telling him everything was okay, she look him in the eye and put her arms around his neck. James's eyes grew wide in surprise at her reaction, but he didn't have long to think about it for the next minute Lily brought her lips up to his and kissed him with as much passion as she could.
The Great Hall was practically empty when the group of Fifth Year Gryffindors entered for breakfast on Sunday morning. The girls were eager to make sure that Lily was okay, and the boys were eager to make sure that Lily didn't kill James. All of them were picking at their food, not really paying attention to what was going on in the Great Hall when McGonagall appeared before them.
"I need to see the six of you in my office as soon as you are done with your breakfast," Professor McGonagall said, her eyes sweeping over the teenagers.
She walked out of the hall after that, leaving the students stunned. They were confused as to what she could want from them; the boys had already spoken to Dumbledore and relayed his message to the girls. They were all eager to see Lily and James, and this trip to McGonagall's office was only serving to delay that.
The six of them, without touching the rest of their food, got up and went to McGonagall's office as fast as they could. When they got there, they were shocked with what they saw; not only was Professor McGonagall sitting at her desk, but Professors Dumbledore and Slughorn were there as well as Severus Snape. Upon seeing Snape there, Sirius took out his wand and pushed the girls behind them.
"Mister Black," McGonagall said sternly. "Put your wand away. Severus is here at my request."
"It has come to my understanding," said Dumbledore. "There has been an increase in violence and Dark Arts spreading across the magical community. Mr. Snape has come forward to Professor Slughorn and myself to discuss the matter within his house here at Hogwarts. We have brought you here because of the recent incident involving Miss Evans, Mister Potter, and the rest of you gentlemen."
"You know Albus," Slughorn interjected. "I cannot believe that people from my own house are capable of this. I am very fond of Miss Evans, she's a very bright girl, but I can't be seen discriminating against the Slytherins."
"I understand Horace," Dumbledore replied. "But as Headmaster here, I cannot allow my students to be hurting each other. That being said, I want the seven of you to act as you normally would. As you know from our many chats over the last five years, I do not condone any rule breaking or cursing other students. Severus, you will join detention with your fellow Slytherins so that nothing seems amiss but you will be serving it with Professor Slughorn who knows your innocence."
The Gryffindors were trying not to hide their amusement that Snape would be serving detention as well. Dumbledore was being lenient on him by not making him serve detention with the others, but at least he was being punished in some way.
"I think," said McGonagall. "That this seems fair, Albus. Severus, you were involved with the incident and therefore we cannot exclude you from the punishment."
"I understand professor," Severus replied. "Is there any way I could possibly see Lily? I want to make sure she is okay."
"Lily is fine," Dumbledore said quickly, cutting off any reply the Gryffindors could make. "She and Mr. Potter are either in their Common Room or on their way to it. Madam Pomfrey has given them a clean bill of health and reluctantly let them leave the Hospital Wing."
The students left the office and headed up the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room without a word to Snape who, head hung low, walked back to the Slytherin Common Room on his own. He was dreading going back to the dungeon and dealing with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of the boys who had gotten into trouble.
He went to the hidden door in the dungeons and muttered the password. As soon as he entered, Snape was grabbed by a few of the older boys and dragged into the Seventh Year's room. In the room was Lucius Malfoy with his cronies Goyle and Crabbe, Rodolphous Lestrange, Bellatrix Black, and Regulus Black.
"Well Snape," snarled Lucius. "What did you tell them?"
"Nothing," Snape replied, looking them each in the eye. "They think I'm innocent. But they're given me detention with Slughorn to try and work the truth from them."
"Slughorn," Bellatrix laughed. "These teachers must be complete fools! Old Sluggie won't do anything to his precious Prince of Potions!"
"You have something there Bella," Lucius smiled. "I think, Severus, we can make your detention work to our advantage."
"What did you have in mind?" Snape asked reluctantly.
"We're still working out the minute details, but that Mudblood will definitely get what's coming to her," Lucius laughed.
Snape laughed along with them, but his heart wasn't in it. He was too worried for Lily's safety; he kept reminding himself to practice Occlumency so he can protect his mind. He needed to warn Dumbledore that Lily was still in danger, but he certainly couldn't put his own life in danger also.
Snape had a lot on his mind as he left the Seventh Year dorm and went down to his own. He couldn't dwell long on the situation though, he had a full day of lessons tomorrow and hadn't started his homework yet. Determined to keep Lily off of his mind, Snape headed towards his textbooks ready to start on a particularly difficult Transfiguration essay that was due the next week.
"James," Lily breathed out, completely breathless. "I…I don't—I'm sorry."
"For what Lily?" James looked confused, and a little hurt. "You're the one who kissed me back."
"I know I did! That's not why I'm sorry," Lily looked him in the eye, her face blushing the color of her hair. "The past, what I did. James, I treated you awfully and I'm so, so sorry."
"Oh Lily," James said, cupping her face in her hands. "That's all in the past," he placed a kiss on her forehead. "Forget about it."
Lily snuggled into James. She felt strangely comfortable in his arms and he was being so sweet to her. Her mind was reeling though; James was the first boy she had ever kissed. She didn't realize that one kiss could send so much fire through her body—she could still feel his lips on top of hers.
Madame Pomfrey made the two of them leave the Hospital Wing around midafternoon and advised Lily to get lots of rest and avoid stress. Lily assured her that she would head straight to bed and James promised to keep an eye on her. They walked up to the Gryffindor tower slowly, the two of them glancing at each other and not knowing what to say.
James was on could nine; Lily had not only let him kiss her, she had kissed him back. He wasn't sure what everything meant but he knew it had to be good. He was thinking about how lucky he was that Lily was finally noticing him when she suddenly grabbed his hand. He looked down at her and she blushed, making him smile. James intertwined his fingers with hers and kept walking on. It was a lazy Sunday for the entire castle—no one was inside, the students were enjoying the nice fall weather outside while they still could.
When James and Lily got to the common room, they found it as deserted as the halls had been. They sat on the couch and James put his arm around Lily. He hesitated, but he knew he would eventually have to ask her…
"Hey Lily," James started off slowly. "What does all of this mean?"
Lily looked up at him confused. "All this?"
"Yeah," James tightened his arm around her. "This. You and me. What does this mean to you?"
"Well," Lily shrugged. "I don't know, I've never done this before," she looked down almost ashamed. Lily knew that James had girls going after him and had probably done things with those girls before, she was afraid he would see her as a waste of time.
"Lily, I like you," James said while forcing her to look up at him. "I like you a lot, but I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do."
"I-I'm scared," Lily finally admitted. "I've always acted like I've hated you and I thought you hated me to and I don't want to hear everyone's opinions because people are horrible here and…and," James silenced her with a kiss.
"We don't have to do anything you don't want to," he repeated.
"I want to get to know you," Lily said. "We don't really know too much about each other and it would be nice to find things out."
"So do you just want to be friends?" James asked her, trying not to sound too disappointed.
"How about a compromise?" Lily looked up at him shyly.
"A compromise," James was intrigued. This time last week, Lily wouldn't have been sitting on the couch as him, let alone compromising with him.
"Yeah," Lily giggled at his expression. "How about we be friends and get to know each other and then, when we're alone, we can be, um, friendlier?"
"So you do want to be with me?" James breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yes James, I do," Lily smiled up at him. "But I'm just not ready for it all at once."
"I understand, I really do," James said.
He felt that he would agree with anything she wanted. He couldn't believe his luck. Lily Evans, the Lily Evans, liked him. James didn't care if he had to keep their relationship a secret since she wanted to be friends in front of people. He understood where she was coming from; he had girls asking him out and he knew that bugged her—also Sirius wasn't known to make things easy on him when it came to Lily.
James gave Lily a huge hug. He felt like he was the happiest person in the world. Grinning from ear to ear, James picked Lily up off the couch and twirled her around. Lily giggled at him and it only made James happier. He put her back on her feet and planted a kiss on her lips.
"Well Potter," Lily said playfully. "I'm glad to see that you're in a good mood."
"Oh Evans, James replied. "I owe it all to you."
They sat back on the couch and stared at the fire. So much had happened in the last few days that it was almost overwhelming. James, as happy as he was, was worried about Lily because of everything. She hadn't had to deal with any of the Slytherins since she passed out in the Forbidden Forest.
Lily became quiet; she was thinking the same thing James was. She knew she couldn't hide from Severus forever, especially since it was almost dinner time and she was getting hungry. She wasn't worried though—James was with her and they both knew he would protect her. Sirius and Remus would be there along with the rest of Lily' friends. She had a family and she wouldn't be alone, at least not for the foreseeable future.
"LILY!" Someone screamed, banging open the portrait hole.
Lily and James looked up bewildered—Sirius, Remus, Peter, Alice, Emmiline, and Marlene we standing there looking at them. Suddenly, Alice ran over to Lily and threw her arms around her.
"I can't believe what happened! Are you okay? Did Madam Ponfrey fix everything? How could Snape do this to you after everything! Ohmygosh the boys saved you—James practically killed himself to get to you and—"
"Alice," Lily cut her off and put Alice at an arm's length. "I know what James and the other boys did for me, he was there when I woke up."
Lily then went to hug each person in return, giving the boys a tighter hug than she was used to. Lily didn't know how to express her gratitude for them; she was standing here alive and well because of them. With tears in her eyes, she hugged Sirius last.
"Aww come on Evans," Sirius laughed. "Don't tell me you're going soft on us with those tears."
Lily laughed at him. "I'm just so grateful for everything that you guys did for me," she said.
Everyone grabbed a chair and, even though they all noticed it, no one said anything when Lily sat down next to James on the couch. The group began to fill the couple in on everything that happened in McGonagall's office especially the part about Snape playing innocent; Lily was almost in tears again and James was outraged—"How could Snivellus not know?" James interjected—the group continued chatting until it was time to go down to the Great Hall for dinner.
Everyone seemed to be trying to protect Lily, they even had her walk in the middle of the group. When they got to the Entrance Hall, Frank rushed up to them.
"I've just overheard from a group of Slytherns," Frank said, "You guys want to be on extra alert, I think they're up to something."
"It's okay Frank," Alice said, taking a hold of his hand. "They wouldn't dare do anything in front of Dumbledore and the other teachers."
Lily shot a nervous glance up at James. He shared her feelings; Dumbledore wasn't always around. The group entered the Great Hall anyway, it wasn't like they could exactly starve because they wanted to avoid the Slytherins. With one look around, however, Lily's stomach was filled with dread.