Chapter 14

She smiled up at him and watched him as he moved that little bit closer to her.
Then she felt his lips on hers.

The feeling of his lips on her was soft and she could taste the sweets that they had bought from Honeydukes. Before the kiss could be deepened, he pulled away from her. As much as he wanted to keep kissing her, he didn't want her to feel like he was pressuring her.

When he pulled back, he knew he had the biggest smile on his face but honestly he didn't care. Looking at Lily, he saw that she too actually had a smile on her face which made him only beam more.

They stared at each other, one lost in emerald green eyes the other in a deep brown.

As much as she loved staring into his eyes, instead of being the one watching the other move closer, Lily decided to take matters into her own hands. She hadn't wanted the kiss to stop, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. Standing on her toes, she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her. She planted her lips on to his.

James was shocked at first, not expecting Lily to kiss him back. After his moment of shock passed, he kissed her back eagerly.

Their mouths moved in sync with one another and while they kissed, Lily's hands moved into James' hair.

Gripping his hair she felt him moan in the back his throat. Lily never realised that kissing someone could feel like this. Then somewhere in the back of her mind she realised that she didn't want to go so fast. Sure kissing was okay, more than okay, but they just had their first date. Which up until earlier she hadn't been sure whether they were going as just friends or if it was actually going to be a date.

She pulled away from him, moving her hands down to his chest. She leant her forehead against him.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"What? What for?" James asked her.

"Because..."

James put his hand underneath Lily's chin, pulling it up so she was looking at him. As he looked down at her he watched as she tried to avoid looking in his eyes.

"Because why?"

"Because... I don't know. I pulled away."

"You're allowed to pull away Lily," he said as he cupped his hand against her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"If you don't want to do something, I won't force you into it. It's not a big deal"

"Thanks James," she said smiling meekly, "it's just we only just went on our first date today. I don't want to rush."

"It's okay. Here come with me."

Taking Lily by the hand, he dragged her around to sit on the couch in front of the fire. Sitting down and making himself comfortable by stretching along the couch, he pulled Lily down so she was sitting between his legs with her back against his body. As soon as she stopped moving he wrapped his arms around her, whispering into her ear, "Is this okay?"

"It's better than okay," she said pulling his hand up and kissing it. Afterwards, she moved their hands back down to where they had been resting on her stomach but kept her hand holding his.

"I swear I never thought this could happen," James told her.

"This?"

"This," he said waving his arm indicating the two of them, "us. You and me. I mean sure I've always dreamed it and wanted it, but there were some times I honestly thought it would never happen."

"Well I can be pretty stubborn."

"You don't say," James joked, "it's okay. I mean, I got there eventually."

"That you did," she told him snuggling closer to him, turning herself so she can place the side of head against him like a pillow.

"So what does this mean?" he asked her.

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"You and me... Okay this isn't coming out right. What I'm trying to get at here is... Will you go out with me, as in officially be my girlfriend?"

"Hmm I don't know… I might have to think about it."

She looked up at him and grinned.

He feigned being shocked at her response.

"Yes," was all she had to say.

Delicately, he lifted her chin and kissed her lips softly.

Leaning back into him, they stayed like this until they both fell asleep.

~~~/~~~~

Waking up, Lily was extremely comfortable. Sometime during the night, she and James rolled over so that Lily was between the back of the couch and James. Both of James' arms were wrapped around her still.

Since it was Sunday morning, Lily was in no hurry to get up. Plus where she was currently situated, there was no chance of getting up properly without waking James.

Wriggling her body, she needed to move in some way as her body was becoming stiff from lying still. As she did so, her movement caused James to also move. Rolling over, away from Lily, he ended up rolling off the couch.

Unfortunately for Lily, as James rolled his grip around Lily tightened causing her to be pulled down with him.

Letting out a yelp, Lily landed flat on James.

"Ow," James mumbled, his eyes still closed as he was still partially asleep.

Lily, trying to get up ended up pressing against James causing his eyes to shoot open.

"What? Huh. Ow. Uh Lily?" James said, confusion obvious in his voice.

"Hold on, let me get up," she told him.

Having a bit more freedom since James was awake and had moved his arms, Lily was able to move to push herself off the ground. But before she could lift herself up onto the couch, arms snaked around her waist pulling her back down.

"James!" she exclaimed as she fell back down on top of him.

"Morning," he said as he moved the hair out of her face, and his.

"Good morning to you too," she smiled at him, making himself comfortable, lying down next to James, "so why are we lying down here anyway?"

"Because I feel like it," he told her, "plus I woke up down here so I don't want to actually get up yet. Why is it that I woke up down here?"

"Well we were both on the couch, until you rolled over the wrong way, falling off the couch pulling me with you."

~~~/~~~

For most of the morning they remained lying on the floor, laughing and talking with one another. Breakfast was finishing up meaning there would be little to no food in the Great Hall.

However, Lily's stomach began to grumble as she realised how hungry she was.

James laughed from hearing it, "Come on, let's go get you some food."

He stood pulling her up with him.

Together they walked through the halls hand and hand. To the most part the hallways were empty, only passing one or two people who weren't really noticing what was going on around them.

Stopping in front of a painting of a fruit bowl, James, using his hand that wasn't holding Lily's, tickled the pear.

An entrance opened and he pulled Lily through.

"Mister James!" a tiny house elf exclaimed as he ran towards them, "how is you? Miss Lily! It has been so long."

Lily knelt down so she was face to face with the house elf, "Hi Millie, I'm very sorry. I've been very busy. I promise I'll try and see you some more."

As she spoke, James looked down at her curious. She turned and looked up and him with a smile on her face.

"First the room of requirement now the kitchens, you always seem to amaze me Evans."

"I'm full of surprises."

"That you are," he mumbled under his breath, so quietly that Lily only just heard it.

"So what can Millie do for you?"

"Lily here is a bit hungry, could you get us some pancakes please?" James said to Millie.

"Of course!" she exclaimed as she ran off to get the food for the two.

They sat down on stools next to a bench in the center of the room.

James absent mindlessly grabbed Lily's hand, playing with it as he asked, "So do I get to find out how you discovered the kitchens?"

"Um, well..." she began sheepishly, "I may or may not have overheard you, Sirius, Remus and Peter talking one time in fifth year and I was curious. Eventually I stumbled across the right painting and found my way through. From that day on it made it easier for me plus along with the room of requirement it became my escape. Where do you think I ran to after that day... You know, by the lake. I was in desperate need of chocolate," she told him.

He knew exactly what day she was talking about. The one where he had provoked Snape so much that in the end the most harm happened to Lily. The day her best friend since before Hogwarts called her a mudblood.

"You know, I'm really sorry about that," he told her.

"There's no need to be," she said earnestly, "it was never your fault."

"Well, it kind of was. I mean it was because of me you were defending him."

"Sure, but it wasn't your fault he said it. You didn't tell him to say it. I never blamed you."

"So chocolate, hey? Been speaking with Moony?" James said, clearly changing the subject.

"Yup chocolate and coffee. Actually I could do with a coffee now."

"Sure. Millie!" he called out.

Hearing her name the tiny elf rushed around the corner.

"Your pancakes will be ready soon!" she said.

"No, no don't rush," Lily told her, "I was just hoping I could get a coffee please."

"Of course miss Lily!" she said rushing away before returning a moment later with a steaming cup in her hand.

"Here you go miss Lily, exactly how you like it! Can I get you anything Mister James?"

"No thank you, Millie."

When the pancakes were brought out to them, Lily and James sat in a comfortable silence eating. Every so often they would look at one another and simply smile, both still not believing that they were together.

~~~/~~~

Although they had a late breakfast, together Lily and James walked to the Great Hall. They knew their friends would be there and would be waiting for them, especially since they hadn't appeared at breakfast.

Hand in hand, they began passing more people in the hallways. Some noticing the two, stopped and stared obvious shock on their faces.

As soon as they took a step into the Great Hall one distinct voice filled the entire hall.

"WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME!"

Sitting further down the hall at the Gryffindor table were Lily and James' friends. Sirius was now standing, grinning at Lily and James who were slowly walking towards their friends.

Sirius calling out had caused all heads to turn his way. They then turned and followed his line of sight to the new couple walking down towards Sirius and the others.

The whispers began immediately, and Lily self consciously looked down and moved faster, dragging James with her.

The moment they sat down they were able to see their friends properly. All of them had Cheshire cat grins on their faces.

"So... Yesterday went pretty well then?" Marlene asked them, the grin not leaving her face.

"No, it went terribly," James told her sarcastically.

Ignoring James' sarcasm, Alice asked them, "Just out of curiosity, when did you make you to official? Yesterday or today?"

"Umm, yesterday, when we went back to our dorm," Lily responded.

"Hmm, wait what was yesterday?" Alice asked facing towards the others, obviously trying to not look towards Lily and James.

"Yesterday would have been exactly a month," Remus answered, before a smile spread across his face.

"And what exactly does that mean," James asked, his eyes narrowing.

"It means that a few people need to pay up," Alice added, also grinning.

"Guys really?" Lily asked, shaking her head.

"Yup," Alice said popping the 'p', "hey you guys did it to me!"

"Heh, true. It's all good though because I won that one. So who won this?"

"Me," both Alice and Remus said at the same time.

"Wait, wait. I am not paying up twice!" Sirius complained.

"You have to," Remus told him, "both Alice and I had said three to four weeks and four to five weeks. Both having the four means we were the closest. So pay up."

Grudgingly, Sirius along with Frank and Marlene payed the galleons they owed.

"Best day ever," Alice said laughing.

"I agree," Lily said smiling as she grabbed James' hand underneath the table and put her head on her shoulder.

"Oh I can just see it! You two are going to be sickening," Sirius mocked them.

"Shut up, Padfoot!" James said but the corners of his mouth had lifted.

Lily couldn't help but not remain quiet and watch her friends. All the joking and mucking around made her smile. Leaning on James' shoulder she never thought things would be like this. It all felt natural. No more yelling and fighting. No more bitching about the marauders or listening to Marlene and Alice telling her how wrong she was about them. Since now she could admit how wrong she truly was. She was finally happy and at that moment things, such as her father's illness and the deaths in the papers, were far away from the front of her mind. At least for now.

Hi! :)

Another chapter which I hope you have all enjoyed.

I'm sorry it's shorter than usual! I was thinking about continuing it, but it was going to take longer, plus I really like where I finished it..

Let me know what you think? :)

Black-lightningrunes x