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Black-lightningrunes x

Chapter 13

"Wait so you asked her and she actually said yes?" Sirius asked for what seemed like the millionth time.

James sighed.

"Yes, she said yes. How many times do I need to tell you?"

The four of them were in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Since none of the girls had shown up yet, James had taken the opportunity to tell his friends that he asked like they told him to.

"I can't believe she finally said yes to you," Peter decided to butt in. He had been listening to the conversation but hadn't really contributed anything. "She's hated you for so long, think of all the hexes you've copped from her. Hey, remember that time when she -"

"Yes, yes okay. I get it. It's a surprise she said yes. But do we really have to bring that up?" James interrupted Peter. In response he got a grin from Peter.

Before anyone else could say anything, the girls joined them.

"What are you guys talking about?" Marlene asked as she sat down next to Sirius grabbing pancakes and pouring some pumpkin juice.

"Nothing," James responded quickly before any of his friends could say anything that would embarrass him.

Except the girls had already heard about James and Lily's date and figured that was exactly what they were talking about. While James tried not to look at Lily and go red in the face his friends, plus Alice and Marlene smirked at him catching him out on his lie. Lily however went bright red in the face.

"So what's everyone planning on doing at Hogsmeade on Saturday?" Sirius asked grinning at Lily.

"Sirius, don't..." James warned, "just leave it."

"Aw come on!"

"Sirius, you are such an idiot!" Marlene exclaimed at the same time Remus said to Lily, "Just ignore him."

"Hey! I was just asking a generalised question! It was not in anyway directed towards any particular flower. I mean person."

"Oh shut up Sirius," Lily snapped. She wasn't too harsh but she didn't want to put up with anything yet. Plus she hadn't had coffee yet.

"Oh, someone's feisty."

"Sirius, stop it. Just give it a rest," Remus warned him.

"Whatever," Lily said as she stood, "I'll see you in class."

"Lily, wait!" James called out as she walked away, he went to stand to follow her but two different hands tugged him back down. Looking down he saw both Remus and Alice holding him back.

"Just leave her," Remus told him.

"She just needs to calm a bit," Alice continued before turning to Sirius, "Why do you have to be such an idiot?"

"I didn't mean anything by it! I was just mucking around!"

"It's Lily, she's sensitive about things! Plus she wasn't going to want her saying yes to be made into a big deal. Which you made it into."

"Oh right."

Marlene just rolled her eyes at him, "You're so insensitive."

"I'll apologise when we get to class."

"That's right you will," both Marlene and Alice told him.

~~~/~~~

As Lily walked out of the Great Hall, she knew she had overreacted and snapped at Sirius when she shouldn't have but she was tired, hadn't had her coffee yet and she really just didn't want their friends to make a big deal out of the fact that she said yes to James.

She however should have realised that they would, especially since she had been fighting him for so long.

Lily wasn't even sure why she had gotten so upset. She can usually take the small teasing from her friends, and it had even been a long time since she had 'fought' with the Marauders. Maybe she was going to have to apologise when she saw them in class.

~~~/~~~

She arrived to the DADA classroom after all the others, and her usual seat had been saved for her. She walked over and joined them silently.

"Lily-flower! I'm sorry!" Sirius exclaimed as she sat down in the seat next to Alice in front of Sirius and James.

"No don't be," she told him, "I over reacted."

"Yeah but I shouldn't have started anything. I was just teasing but I took it too far."

"Seriously, it's okay. Look I'm sorry for over reacting."

"No it's okay. Thanks Lily."

Lily sat there quietly, while all the others continued talking as they waited for Professor Woods to arrive. She was yet another DADA teacher they had as in the past few years, they were unable to keep one for more than a year.

When she hurried in the classroom she began saying, "I'm so sorry everyone. Was caught up. Give me. Just give me a second."

From hurrying to the class from where ever she was, Professor Woods was out of breath. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she begun the class.

Unfortunately for the class, it was mainly a revision class of the past couple of lessons, which made it boring for some. Lily, however, appreciated this especially since she had missed a few being away visiting her family.

What excited the class was the announcement at the end of the class of what Professor Woods was planning on teaching them in the upcoming weeks. Patronuses.

~~~/~~~

Their next class was Transfiguration. Together they all walked to the classroom. Although she had remained calm in DADA and accepted Sirius' apology, Lily remained silent. She had been asked multiple times whether or not she was okay.

She actually was, but she really didn't feel like talking at that time. She did feel a bit bad, especially since she knew they were thinking something was wrong. She was just lost in her thoughts – thinking about her father, and all the schoolwork she missed out on while she was away. Her DADA revision class, made her realise just how much she missed out on.

Right before they entered the class, James pulled Lily back, "I know you're sick of hearing this but seriously, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking about my dad. Plus I realised how much work I need to catch up on," she told him honestly.

"Don't worry. Seriously, it'll be okay. I'll help you of you need."

"Thank you James."

Together they walked into class and took their usual seats.

As the class started, Lily released she again had no idea what was happening and found herself completely lost right from the beginning of the class. She took notes dutifully, trying to understand what was going on. However halfway through the class, she started to get frustrated.

When class finished and Lily was packing up her belongings, she heard, "Miss Evans, can you wait one moment."

Moving to the front of the classroom she said, "Yes professor?"

"Welcome back. I hope your father is doing a bit better. I saw you getting a bit frustrated in class today. I know there is a lot to catch up on but I have complete faith in you. If you need anything at all, please come see me and definitely talk to your classmates. They'll be able to help you."

"I will and thank you Professor."

~~~/~~~

Friday came, and Lily was getting increasingly nervous about the next day.

"I mean it still hasn't been classified as a date of whether we're just having out!" she exclaimed as she sat in her room with Alice and Marlene.

As she was talking, Alice cast muffliato, so that if the boys were to walk into the common room they couldn't be heard.

"Lily, it is a date," Marlene told her.

"But he went all like it can be as friends if you want. Then I just said yes and went to bed. So it might just be as friends!"

"Maybe it's a bit of both," Alice suggested.

"Huh?" Both Lily and Marlene looked at her, confused expressions on their faces.

"Well think about it. Lily, you weren't going to do anything one you figured out that you liked him because you didn't know if he liked you, plus you have just become friends. Then he hasn't asked you out this year because he's changed. But more than that, you are friends so now that he's finally made progress with you he doesn't want to ruin it."

"Yeah, and?"

"Well you both don't want to ruin anything, but you both want to move forward. So tomorrow will be you two trying to see where you both stand."

Frustrated, Lily made a complaining noise before saying, "Stop making so much sense! But seriously, what am I going to do? What should I wear?"

"First off," Marlene began, "you are going to calm down. Tomorrow is going to be fantastic, you're just nervous right now. But trust us, everything will be great. Just think of it hanging out, just like you do everyday. You share a common area with him! You've spent time with him when we're not there before. It will be exactly like that.

"And secondly," Alice joined in, "clothing is easy. Wear something that looks great but is normal. There's no need to go over the top."

"Like?"

"I don't know, jeans with boots, cute top and scarf with your coat."

"How about we stay here tonight and help you get ready in the morning?" Marlene suggested.

"Could you? That would be awesome!"

Once Lily had calmed down a bit the girls decided to go into the common room and sit in front of the fire.

There the girls found the boys all sitting around already.

"Hey!" Peter called out as he saw the girls exit Lily's room.

"Hi there!" Marlene said as she planted herself on James since there were no other seats.

As soon as she sat down, James tickled Marlene causing her to scream and slide away off his lap landing on the floor.

"Ow! Okay, I get it! I won't sit on you!"

"Thank you," James said grinning at her.

"Lily," Remus said.

"Yeah?" she responded as she sat down on the floor near the fire facing everyone else.

"Just so you know, we're stealing James tonight."

"Stealing him?"

"Yup stealing," Sirius confirmed.

"Is that okay?" James asked her, "I mean that means you'll be in here by yourself."

"Whipped," Sirius coughed earning him a slap from both James and Remus while Peter laughed.

"Actually Lily won't be alone," Alice told them, "we're staying here tonight. We actually came out to see of you would have an issue with that. But seems like that won't be an issue anymore."

"Nope, that won't be a problem. Wouldn't have been anyway," James told her.

"Awesome. Thanks James."

Time passed and together they headed down to dinner. It wasn't until after dinner they went their separate ways. Saying goodnight the boys went to the Gryffindor common room, while the girls headed back to Lily's room.

~~~/~~~

"Wake up! Wake up!"

As she heard a noise from above her, Lily groggily opened her eyes. Covering her view was Marlene and Alice, both standing over her with Cheshire cat grins.

"Eurgh, leave me alone!" Lily complained as her eyes adjusted to the blinding light coming from the windows.

"But it's time to make you absolutely gorgeous for today," Marlene said as she pulled the covers off of Lily, who squealed out.

"Oi! Give them back!"

"No! Come on Lily! Alice and I have already started planning on what you'll wear but we need you input! So hurry up! Go have a shower and we'll have the clothes all laid out for you.

Grudgingly, Lily moved off her bed, shoving her friends as she moved past them.

After a quick shower, Lily returned to find her bed made with her friends sitting on the corners while clothes were laid out.

"Okay, so you need to look gorgeous but you can't go over the top. Plus it's freezing out there!"

"Well what about these jeans, this jumper and that coat," Lily said as she pointed out the clothes she thought would work well together. "and then I'll wear my boots," she added.

"Perfect!" Alice exclaimed, "Now go get ready!"

Grabbing her chosen clothes, she went back into the bathroom to get changed.

~~~/~~~

James and the others were siting in the Great Hall eating breakfast. It's usually straight after breakfast that they can start heading into the village, but as head boy and girl, he and Lily would have to help Filch with making sure the third years all hand their forms in and everyone else puts their name on the list.

As they sat waiting, James' leg bounced up in down nervously. He didn't know what to expect of the day. Whether it was a date or not, he still wanted the day to be perfect and to show Lily who he truly was. Though he knew she was seeing that already, today had to be extra special.

"Calm down James," Remus told him, "everything will be great today. You'll see."

"But Moony, I don't even know what today is even classified as!"

"From what I've heard from Marlene and Alice, Lily has been the exact same. Why do you think the girls stayed with her last night!"

"The same reason I did. It's been forever since we've spent time with you guys since getting our own room."

"That may be true, but it's definitely not the only reason."

"Uh, you guys might want to shut up now," Sirius interrupted them, "they just entered the Great Hall."

Looking across, James saw Alice, Lily and Marlene entering the hall, heading towards them. His eyes widened when he saw Lily. She looked beautiful in his eyes. She hadn't gone over the top, which made James feel a bit better, but she still looked amazing.

She was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, which hugged her figure but weren't ridiculously tight, a deep purple knitted jumper with a long blank singlet that you could see beneath. Slung over her arm was a puffy coat.

"Hi there," she said nervously to James and smiling at the others.

"Hi there yourself," he responded sliding across making room for her and the girls to sit down.

"Oh don't be so awk- never mind," Marlene begun saying but stopped herself as she caught the look Lily was giving her.

Lily distracted herself, avoiding everyone's eyes by getting herself a piece of toast and coffee. If she was going to make it through breakfast, with Sirius most likely passing comments, she was going to need a lot of coffee.

Also eager to avoid any embarrassment James quickly turned to the girls and asked, "So what do you girls plan on doing today?"

"Well I'm going to spend some time with this one," Alice answered indicating Marlene, "but then I'll be with Frank for most of the day."

"That sounds good," James said, "what about you Marlene?"

"Well since you'll be with Lily and Alice with Frank I think I'll be tagging along with these three idiots," she responded nodding towards Sirius who was completely oblivious, stuffing his face with eggs and bacon.

Lily laughed at this causing to Sirius to look up from his from his food. His cheeks were puffed, stuffed with food, which caused everyone to laugh at him.

"What?" he asked, his voice muffled by the food.

"Don't worry Padfoot just keep eating," Remus told him.

"But I wanna know!" he complained.

"Don't worry you aren't the only the who doesn't know," Remus nodded towards Peter who had just looked up, noticed everyone looking at him shrugged and looked back down.

"Lily we should probably go meet Professor McGonagall and Filch," James said, noticing the time.

"Sure," she said smiling at him before turning to the others, "see you guys later."

Together, James and Lily walked out and headed towards the gate.

After standing in the cold for around half an hour as they helped collect permission forms and make sure no one tried to sneak through, Professor McGonagall finally let them go.

"Enjoy your day," she had told then with a knowing smile on her face.

Walking down the path towards Hogsmeade, neither Lily nor James had said anything yet. It wasn't that the silence was awkward, but both were so nervous that they weren't really sure what to say.

The weather was getting to Lily as they walked and even though she was wearing her coat the cold was still effecting her. She brought her arms up and crossed them across her body.

James looked across at her, "Are you cold?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am."

"Would you like to head to the Three Broomsticks? Warm up a bit."

"Sure, that sounds great," she smiled at him.

They moved quickly to the Three Broomsticks which turned out to be quite full when they arrived. It seemed a lot of people had the same idea to warm up with some butterbeer. Luckily they were able to find a table for two in the back corner, away from people.

Taking off his jacket and hanging it over the back of the chair he asked Lily what she would like.

"Just a butter beer would be nice," she said as she went to grab her purse to give him money.

"No. Don't worry about it. It's on me," he said refusing her money.

Before she could argue any further he walked away to go get the drinks.

While he was getting the drinks, Lily took her coat off and sat down.

Looking around she observed what was happening around her. There were a few dates, third years trying butter beer for the first time and across the opposite side of the room was Marlene and the other Marauders. Catching Marlene's eyes Lily shook her head exasperated but smiled nonetheless.

"Here you go," Lily heard James' voice. Turning back James was placing the two drinks on the table.

"Thank you," she said picking up the drink and taking a sip. The drink warmed her up instantly.

"We're being watched," she told him.

"Huh?"

In response she turned her head in the direction of their friends. Following her gaze, he too spotted the others who were now all looking and smiling at them not even trying to hide themselves.

"Of course," he laughed rolling his eyes.

"You aren't annoyed?" Lily asked.

"Nah. Are you?"

"No. I kind of expected it from them."

"Exactly."

"Mmhm. So you've heard so much about me and my family and stuff tell me about yours," Lily requested.

"Well... I'm and only child, unless you count Sirius who now lives with my family. Well I consider all the guys my brothers but I figure you realised that. So you've met my parents, Linda and Nathan, both aurors and both simply amazing. I couldn't ask for better parents. They never really spoiled me but they always looked after me. I talk to them about everything too."

"Wow that sounds so good," Lily said smiling, "I loved your parents when I met them. They were so kind, especially your mum. My parents were so grateful that she had looked after my leg. I was too. My parents would have freaked if I walked in the house like that. They used to freak when I came home with bruises on my knees. Well until they realised I was both a tomboy and prone to falling."

"What was it like? I mean growing up as a muggle and then to find out the truth."

"Well I went to school, and had a few friends but not many. My best friend was Petunia. We used to be so close. Not knowing what I was, I could do some pretty weird things. I could make flower petals open and close in my hand, cause the wind to blow leaves in a certain direction, and make doors slam when I was mad without actually touching the door. It was cool but a bit scary. Freaked my parents out completely, but as soon as Professor McGonagall visited to tell us about the magical world they understood more and really loved the idea. Let's just say I performed a lot of accidental magic."

James laughed at her, "I always knew you were a rebel!"

"I swear it wasn't my fault!" she laughed along with him.

"Excuses, excuses!"

"Shut up! What about you, mister I grew up knowing about magic."

"Let's just say it has it's ups and down."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked honestly curious.

"Well I mean it's pretty awesome growing up in a magical home. Sure to me it's always just been 'normal' but it's always was amazing seeing the spells in action. But knowing about magic meant it was expected to be extra careful about magic. Sure it was okay, since of course you can't really control it, but you had to be careful since you were aware of it."

~~~/~~~

"No, no, no! You cannot seriously believe that!" Lily exclaimed as she and James walked towards Honeydukes.

"Yes! The Rolling Stones are so much better than the Beatles!"

"No, just no way. The Beatles are classic! Hey Jude, Here Comes the Sun, Hello Goodbye! They are all such good songs!"

"Yeah they're good, but just not as good."

"Whatever Potter, your delirious."

James in response just rolled his eyes at Lily, deciding not to respond. He instead rush forward to the door of Honeydukes holding the door open for Lily.

"Ladies first."

"Why thank you," she said smiling walking past him and into the warmth of the shop.

As soon as she entered, the smell of the delicious sweets surrounded her.

"Anything particular you want?" James asked.

"Umm not really, the usual really. But I've gotta buy some stuff to send home. My parents love it."

Before long, Lily and James were finished in the shop. They both had bags containing Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, nougat, Chocolate Frogs, fudge and sugar quills.

"You really shouldn't have paid for all this," Lily told James indicating to the sweets in her bags.

"Nonsense, I don't mind at all."

"I notice that. But please let me pay you back."

"Nope. I won't accept your money. My parents always brought me up that when I'm out, I pay. Even with the guys. Not that they really let me..."

"See they don't let you, so I won't either," Lily said stubbornly as she held out money.

"Nope, not taking it!" James said crossing his arms across his body.

"And they say I'm stubborn!"

" Ah but you are Lily-flower," Lily heard from the other side of her. As she heard the voice, an arm flung around her.

"Really Sirius? Oh hi there guys!" she said spotting Remus and Peter on the other side of Sirius.

"Yeah, hi Lily. Sorry about this," Remus said to her, also talking to James, "I couldn't stop him from coming over,"

"Of course you couldn't," James said, slapping Sirius across the back of the head.

"Oi! What was that for?"

"You know exactly what," James told him.

"Whatever. Were you two heading back to the Great Hall for dinner?"

At this James looked across at Lily, who just shrugged and nodded. They hadn't exactly figured out what they were going to do yet, but it was getting to the time where the students had to start heading back to the castle.

"Sure let's go."

~~~/~~~

Although they all remained in the Great Hall for a while, time seemed to pass quickly for Lily. She could tell that both Alice and Marlene were sitting there impatiently wanting to ask Lily how the day had gone however, for most of the time Lily and James were caught up in their own little world talking with one another.

Without saying anything, they both decided to head back to their common room. Although Lily and James had been off in their own world, they had noticed that their friends were paying close enough attention while trying to make it seem like they weren't. Together the two stood, "We're going to go. See you guys tomorrow."

Hearing farewells from their friends. They left the Great Hall.

Getting back to their common room they hung their coats over the back of the couch. They both stood there, looking at one another.

"James," Lily begun breaking the silence, "today was great, I really enjoyed it."

James couldn't help but smile back at her. He was lost looking in her emerald green eyes.

"So did I, Lily. I'm glad you finally said yes."

"Me too."

She smiled up at him and watched him as he moved that little bit closer to her.

Then she felt his lips on hers.