Author's Note: Hello readers! Thanks everyone who has followed/favorited TFD! It makes me happy every time I see someone new tagging along for the ride. This chapter will actually pick up right from where the last one left off, just so everyone knows. That's basically all I have to say, so without further ado…
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling…
Chapter 6
Eventually James was the only one left in the Common Room, with just a sleeping Lily for company on the couch behind him. Peter had come through near the end of the night, only managing to hang out for a quarter of an hour before everyone was heading up to bed. Marlene had offered to take Lily up to their dorm, but James had told her he would wake Lily and send her up before he went to bed himself. James was mostly calm now, but he could still feel the tendrils of anger and fear that had overridden him earlier that night.
He and Sirius had been watching the Marauders map so that they would know when Remus would finally be back from the Prefects meeting. That was when the fear had hit: Remus and Lily alone against Avery, Mulciber, and Rosier. All three of them were good duellers, and Lily and Remus were brilliant, but they were also Prefects and could never just start hexing other students without it actually being in defense of themselves or other students.
So of course, James and Sirius ran as fast as they could to where their friends were, to find Lily nearly unconscious against a wall with Remus struggling against the three Slytherins. That was when the mad hit. James flew into the fight with all his fury: who in the world would fight someone three on one? he remembered thinking. Of course, later he realized that was the way the Slytherins liked to fight, with the battle one-sided in their favor, which is why they disappeared rather quickly once Lily was back on her feet and it would be four against three. James was still amazed at the strength of Lily's Shield Charm, especially because moments before she cast it, she had been nearly unconscious. Of course, it just gave James another reason to love her.
James turned his head to gaze at Lily's sleeping face. She looked completely relaxed, her lips slightly parted as she breathed in and out, and her dark red, wavy hair a tumbling mass to halfway down her back. James had always thought she was breathtakingly beautiful, especially her eyes, which always gave away what she was feeling. There never was and never would be anyone else for James, even if she never learned to love him like he loved her. But James was forever an optimist, and he still had the rest of Sixth Year and all of Seventh to convince her he was worth her time. James turned his head back to forward to gaze at the fire as his thoughts churned.
"Mmmhhg…" Lily groaned incoherently, making James smirk.
Her arm fell off the edge of the couch, her hand landing on James' shoulder. On the contact, Lily jolted a little, sufficiently waking herself up to notice it was just her and James left in the Common Room.
"James," Lily began, and he thrilled at the sound of his first name from her voice, "where'd everyone go?" She was rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Well since it's midnight," James said sardonically, "I would say they are asleep in their own beds." He gave Lily his customary lopsided smirk.
Lily made to sit up and stretch, but halfway through the motion, she cringed and fell back to the couch instead.
"Lily?" James asked, instantly on his knees next to her, concerned. "What's wrong?"
Lily eyed James a little oddly. It was funny, but James saying her name sounded completely different from anyone else saying her name. "Back hurts," she answered curtly, still rolling around the sound of her name on James' tongue in her mind. She thought she could easily get used to hearing it.
James hopped to his feet immediately and wrapped an arm around Lily's waist, and he felt a powerful jolt of pleasure that she was letting him touch her, and that she wasn't shouting at him to leave her be. He eased Lily into a sitting position on the couch and sat himself down next to her, but withdrew his arm. He figured she would start shouting, or at least telling him off, if he held on to her.
"Better?" James asked once they were both situated.
"Yes, thank you," Lily said gratefully. She would have to work her way to standing. She looked into James' hazel eyes intently while she said her next sentence. "And thank you, for showing up to help us earlier."
"Always, Evans," James responded seriously. "I will always protect you."
Lily frowned at that. "I don't need protection." James made to interrupt, but Lily just kept going. "I appreciate you protecting me tonight, but I am not helpless, and I do not need anyone to keep me safe while they fight my battles for me. Rosier caught me by surprise tonight, but that will never happen again."
James and Lily hadn't broken eye contact throughout her mini-speech, and James hesitated before nodding in agreement. "I still don't think you should go anywhere completely alone," James said honestly. "And it's not just you. I don't think anyone being targeted by Death Eater wanna-be's should go anywhere alone. At least not late at night. It isn't safe."
"I agree," Lily said, surprising James. "I don't want to be caught alone or short-handed against them again."
Lily further surprised James by leaning her head on his shoulder, folding her legs up onto the couch beside her. James stopped breathing. He was positive his heart was going to explode if his pulse sped up anymore. Lily Evans was willingly, of her own free will, touching him, James Potter. He must be dreaming. Or Lily thought much better of him than he had thought.
"Evans?" James asked once he was sure he could speak normally.
"Lily, James," she corrected, and he mentally jumped for joy.
"Okay, Lily," he said, loving being able to say her name, to call her by her first name. "Are we friends now then? I mean, I know you have been close with Remus for a while now, and you and Sirius are pretty good mates, but-" James had started talking faster and faster as he continued, letting his thoughts pour out of mouth until Lily covered his mouth with her hand.
"Haven't we been friends for weeks now?" Lily asked him, sitting back up fully and looking at him with her emerald green eyes sparkling with humor. "I mean really, James, I wouldn't talk to you, or still be sitting here with you, if I didn't consider you a friend."
"Huh," was all James managed to say after that. He ruffled his hair, then pushed his glasses up more securely on his nose. He smirked at Lily then, that crooked grin that so many girls melted over. "So what's it like being friends with all of the Marauders then?"
"Exhausting. And hectic," Lily answered honestly. "You lot are a handful. And I never know what's coming next. My life has never been this haywire before." She was smiling saying all this. She had also never been this happy before, but she was not going to tell James Potter that.
"It's all part of the Marauders package," James said proudly. "Besides, I bet you're having fun with us." He gave her a playful wink.
"I still absolutely refuse to spend all of the Hogsmeade trip with you lot," Lily said adamantly. "I really don't want to be driven mad over the course of the day."
"Oh that's right, when is Hogsmeade?" James asked intently.
"Really James, you have no faith in me," Lily said, crossing her arms over her chest, correctly reading his intensity for what it was. "Would I really have it so Remus has to miss the first Hogsmeade trip? Or any Hogsmeade trip?"
James sighed in relief. "You're the best, Lily."
Lily smirked in contentment. "Took you long enough to catch on there."
James' expression grew serious, his eyebrows drawing down over his hazel eyes. "I've known it since First Year, Lily."
Lily's smirk disappeared, and her breath caught in her throat. She bit down on her bottom lip, a nervous habit. She broke eye contact, choosing to look at the flames instead. She began twirling a strand of her red hair around her forefinger.
"Well, it's late," Lily said suddenly, cautiously getting to her feet. She was glad when it didn't hurt. She turned to give James a cheerful wave as she started walking towards the staircase to the Girls' Dormitories. "Good night, James."
"Good night, Lily," James said quietly, still with his serious expression. He hoped she knew what he meant by that. That he has always held her in high esteem, no matter what arguments they had, or what they yelled at each other, or however many times they had hexed each other, she was always it for him. Once she was out of sight, James pulled himself to his feet and dragged himself to bed. It was almost one in the morning, after all, and he had a Quidditch practice to lead in the morning.
Lily woke up early the Saturday of the Hogsmeade trip. She wanted to spend as much time as possible in the Wizarding town. One of her favorite things about Hogsmeade trips was not have to wear the school uniforms. She was looking forward to a day spent in her favorite jeans, a pretty green sweater that nearly matched her eye color perfectly, and a deep brown jacket that had a tie more for style than anything else around the waist. Once she was dressed Lily glanced at the watch on her right wrist. It was almost an acceptably late enough time that Marlene wouldn't kill her for waking her up. Lily casually swished her wand, a grin on her face, which emitted an alarm clock buzz repeatedly.
"Ugh…" Marlene groaned into her pillow, pulling her blanket up over her head. She continued speaking, but her voice was so muffled that Lily couldn't understand what Marlene was saying.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Lily said in a falsely sweet tone of voice.
"Shut your damn wand alarm off, Lily," Mary grumbled as her feet swung over the side of her bed and hit the floor.
"We get it, it's Hogsmeade weekend," Emmeline said through a giant yawn as she stretched. "We're up and moving."
Lily flicked her wrist and the noise ceased immediately. "You lot said I couldn't go without you, so I had to resort to waking you all up earlier than you like," Lily explained to their sleep-muddled brains.
"I hate you," Marlene said as she literally rolled out of bed. She had perfected the move, though, so she still landed on her feet in the process. Her wavy blonde hair was sleep-tussled, and her baby blue eyes were still not quite as bright as they usually were; Lily would give her some time to wake up before rushing the four of them down to breakfast.
It took the other three nearly half an hour to get themselves ready, rotating turns in the bathroom for their morning rituals. Once they were all dressed and prepared for a day away from the castle, Lily herded everyone rather hastily down the stairs to the Common Room and out of Gryffindor Tower.
"Lily, there is no such thing as being late for Hogsmeade," Marlene said irritably. She did not like being woken up on the weekends, the two days a week she could sleep in as much as she wanted, unless her dictator of a Captain decided on practice at dawn of course.
"There is for me," Lily said in a sing-song voice.
"Why are we friends with her again?" Mary said to Emmeline, loud enough for Lily to hear.
"I think we got wrangled into it by Marlene," Emmeline answered. Lily turned to glare at her friends over her shoulder. "Marlene thought it was a good idea to be friends with all our roommates. And she helps us pass all our classes, so I guess we can stay friends with the evil one who makes us get up and functioning at eight o'clock in the morning."
Lily just grinned at the two brunettes walking behind her and Marlene. "You all love me and you know it."
Marlene raised her eyebrows and teased, "Remember the whole passing our classes thing? That's why."
Lily's mouth dropped open in false shock and assumed a hurt expression. "And here I thought our friendship was more than just an abuse of my awesome study powers and natural talents as a Witch."
Mary snorted out a laugh and then said, "And you accused Potter of having a big head all those years? Did you ever look in the mirror?"
Lily just flashed her friends a huge, faux-innocent smile. "I never said I wasn't arrogant, just that he was."
Their bantering continued all the way until they reached the Great Hall and breakfast. They ate rather quickly, since now that they were up all of the girls were actually looking forward to Hogsmeade. As they were leaving the Great Hall and about to exit the Entrance Hall through the main front doors, they heard a shout behind them.
"Oh, it's you lot," Marlene said, feigning disinterest in the approaching Marauders. She was actually quite happy to be spending more time with them. It was a relief not having to get between Lily and the boys anymore.
"Running off to Hogsmeade without me, Lilykins? How could you?" Sirius asked over-dramatically.
"It was a hard decision, Sirius dear," Lily said, placing a comforting hand on his forearm, "but I have come to the conclusion that these girls need me more than you do." She pulled her hand away and stepped back to rejoin her other friends as Sirius pouted. "And I don't want to lose my mind spending all day with the Marauders, so see you in the Three Broomsticks around one o'clock, yeah?"
"Sounds good," James said for the four of them, his crooked grin in place, and gave Lily a wink.
"Can we go get something to eat now?" Peter complained. "I'm starving."
"You didn't have to tag along, Wormtail," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes as the boys made their way to the Great Hall. Remus waved to the girls as he trailed along next to James. "You can go in to breakfast without our supervision."
The girls were all chuckling and shaking their heads as the boys left arguing. It was typical Marauder behavior. As they walked through the Entrance Hall doors, they all pulled their coats tight and zipped or buttoned them up against the chilly autumn wind that was gusting. Autumn was one of Lily's favorite seasons. The leaves all changed color, and the air took on that crisp smell that she could only describe as autumn, and everything went still, as though the whole of nature was taking a deep breath at once before the plunge into winter.
At the gates at the exit of the Hogwarts grounds, Filch stood waiting to check all of the students with permission to go to Hogsmeade against his enormous list. The girls filed through, trying not to laugh at Filch's overly-suspicious nature. He was sure someone was lying about who they were, which was probably why McGonagall stood with him, making sure things ran smoothly. Lily always wondered why McGonagall didn't just check names off herself.
"So Lily," Marlene began as soon as they were all off of the school grounds.
"So Marlene," Lily said in imitation.
The blonde scowled at her best friend. "James couldn't stop talking about how you two are friends now at practice the other day," Marlene confided. "If I hadn't been witnessing this relationship develop myself, I would never have believed it. I think half the school is waiting for you to blow up at him one day, like it's some big long prank you're playing."
"He still talks about her all the time?" Mary said incredulously.
"This surprises you, why?" Emmeline responded dryly. "The day James Potter is over Lily Evans is the day the world turns inside out."
Lily blushed, damn her red-headed complexion, and ducked her head. "Like James said, we are friends," Lily said determinedly. "Nothing more, nothing less. It's much different being his friend than I thought it would be."
"That's because you never used to listen to me," Marlene said, crossing her arms over her chest. The four of them had reached the outskirts of Hogsmeade by this point. Marlene needed new dress robes for Slughorn's party the she and Lily were attending this Halloween, so they were headed to the only wizard-wear shop in the small town. "I always told you he wasn't as bad as you always saw him. You make him do stupid things, apparently. Tries to show off too much, the bloody idiot."
Lily rolled her eyes at Emmeline, trying to get someone on her side.
"Don't look at me like that, Lovely," Emmeline said immediately. "I thought you should give him a chance from the beginning. There's something about the two of you that just...suits." She paused before the last word, like she was trying to find just the right description.
"Oh come on," Lily complained. "Have you always secretly been on Potter's side as well, Mary?"
Mary just grinned sheepishly, half-heartedly shrugging her shoulders. Lily threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.
"It's back to 'Potter' now, is it?" Marlene said suggestively as she pushed open the door to the robe shop. "Just a minute ago it was 'James'. Seems like you two are getting close rather quickly, since it was 'Potter' at the start of term."
"Marlene, I'm going to strangle you with the sleeve of a robe," Lily threatened, though they all knew she didn't really mean it.
"Ooo, and she gets defensive," Mary said as she sifted through the dress robes hanging on one side of the small shop.
"A sure sign of denial," Emmeline finished the thought for Mary.
"Denial of what, exactly?" Lily asked in a defeated tone.
"That you like James Potter, of course," Mary said.
"Well of course I like him," Lily said, confused as to why this was a topic of interest, considering they had been hanging out with James and company for nearly two months at this point. "Friends equals liking, right?"
"We mean you like like him, Lovely," Marlene said with her head tilted in examination of a new find. The robes were a deep blue with silvery stars decorating it sparingly.
"Try them on," Lily advised before acknowledging her friends statement. "And I do not like James as anything more than a friend. That's just absurd of you all to think so."
"Sure Lily, just keep telling yourself that," Mary muttered.
Lily chose to ignore her and sat in one of the few chairs in the shop, waiting while Marlene pulled on the pretty blue robes over her clothes. Once Marlene had the robes on and oriented correctly, she walked over to look herself over in the wall mirror that was near Lily's seat. The robes suited Marlene's complexion, and helped darken her eyes somewhat to make them stand out a bit more.
"They look great," Lily said.
"Better than great," Marlene retorted. "I look fabulous in these. This was a truly lucky find. First try and everything."
The shop attendant came over, since she had apparently been listening to Marlene appraisal of the robes from afar, and began tapping them here and there with her wand to adjust the fit so that they were perfect.
"Now Lily," Marlene said once she had her purchase and they were exiting the shop. "Back to the subject, if you say you really don't have extra feelings for James, why not just test it out?"
Mary and Emmeline grinned at each other behind Lily's back. Marlene had been waiting years, literally, to say this to Lily, so they knew exactly what was coming. And it would be priceless if Lily actually went for it.
Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her friend, wary of her next sentence. Yet she was curious at the same time, so she couldn't help but ask, "And how would I do that?"
Marlene grinned triumphantly. "Kiss him, of course."
Lily stopped in her tracks, with her eyes widened and her mouth fallen open. "Excuse me?"
Marlene shrugged nonchalantly, continuing as though Lily hadn't halted. Mary and Emmeline were laughing hysterically at Lily's reaction. "That's how I always tell if a guy is just a friend or more than that."
It wasn't actually Marlene's intent to get Lily to kiss James, just to make Lily start questioning her feelings. Marlene knew that once Lily cooled off she would start to actually consider what Marlene had said about liking James. Just because Lily couldn't tell that they belonged together didn't mean that Marlene didn't see it. And Marlene was determined to break down Lily's stubborn wall that would keep James at a certain distance, no matter how much he changed.
"Well that's just dandy for you," Lily said dramatically. "Me? Kiss James Potter just to see if your theory about my feelings is correct? Why in the world would I agree to that?"
Mary scoffed, finally over her laughing fit. "Who wouldn't want to kiss James or Sirius or Remus, for any reason?" Marlene and Emmeline made sounds of agreement to her statement.
"I mean, if you're too scared to put it to the test, Lils, it's no big deal," Emmeline said, purposefully sounding placating, knowing it would egg Lily on. "I'm sure Marlene wouldn't want you to do anything you aren't comfortable with."
Lily narrowed her eyes at the perceived jab at her nerves. "I'm not scared," Lily claimed. "I just have no interest in testing your theory since it is groundless. If I ever change my mind, I'll let you know." Lily emphasized the closure of that particular discussion by walking off in a huff down the street to Scrivenshaft's.
"She should say when..." Mary muttered to Emmeline and Marlene as they trailed slowly after Lily, all three sharing knowing looks.
Author's Note: Thanks for tuning in, and please leave a review to let me know what you thought! (Am I getting the characters personalities across well enough? It's what I usually struggle with in my writing...)