Chapter Ten

James finally found it. The perfect gift for Lily. Christmas was long over already but he didn't want to just get her anything, he wanted it to be something that really showed her how he felt, something that would a lot to both of them. At least he hoped it would mean as much to her as it did to him.

"When are you going to give it to her?" Remus asked, as the two of them headed back from Hogsmeade. But before James could answer, a rain storm came out of nowhere, soaking them in seconds.

When they reached the castle, they were both shivering, cold as ice, and panting so hard that a teacher stopped them to make sure they were okay. They were, so they ran up to the Gryffindor common room, where Remus went in to change, and James diverted away to his own common room.

"What happened to you?"

James was barely in the door when he heard Lily's voice. He looked down to see that he was leaving a dirty puddle where he stood.

"Let's say it was some pretty bad timing." He said with laugh as he carefully walked over to his room, trying not to leave a trail behind him. Once he was inside his room, changed, and dry, he began thinking about Remus's question, when was he going to give her the gift?

Aaaa-chhheeww.

A sneeze, followed by two more sneezes.

Oh no, James thought, I cannot get sick!

"You okay? Your nose is really red." Lily asked when he finally emerged from his room. He could feel the pain in his sinus's start to flare and the blocked nostrils that he could no longer breath through.

"No." Was all he could nasally say. He fell beside Lily on the couch and sprawled out across the empty side. One minute he felt fine, and the next it felt like a giant hand slapped this cold into him.

Lily pulled the blanket that was wrapped around her off, and draped it across James.

"Would you like me to go get you tea from the kitchens? It might help the congestion."

But the next day he was worse, he woke up dizzy and couldn't stop coughing and sneezing. He was so congested that Lily kept having a hard time figuring out what he was trying to say most of the morning.

"I can't stand this anymore. You sound awful, I'm taking you to the hospital wing!"

When they got there, James hanging onto Lily for dear life, so he wouldn't fall over, they saw Remus laying in one of the beds, with the exact same cold that James had.

"At least you won't be alone. Feel better soon okay?" And then she left.

He went and sat on the bed beside Remus, who looked up at him with his half closed eyes.

"Well this sort of interferes with my plans... I didn't want to wait to long before giving Lily her gift, or else I might chicken out."

Remus let out a painful sounding cough before sitting up.

"Don't be so stupid. She's going to love it so you have no reason to feel scared about giving it to her. I talked to her, you know."

James had forgotten that Remus was going to talk to her for him. He was almost scared to know what she said but he asked anyway.

"How did that go? What did she say?"

"Well, I'm not going to tell you everything, because she trusted me to keep it to myself. But I will tell you this, she does care about you, James. She's just terrified of her feelings and needs time to sort it out. But you also need to stop pushing her. The only way your going to get her, is if you slow down and let her come to you. Right now the best thing you can do, is be her friend. Show her you can care about her without trying to get with her."

James laid down for a minute to think all this through. She actually cared about him? But why was she terrified about it?

"So her memory was about me, wasn't it?"

"Yes. But if you want to know what it was of, you're going to have to wait until she wants to tell you." Remus said, before giving him a sympathetic look, and then he laid down himself.

Despite the fact that his entire body felt like it was dead, James couldn't help but lay awake most of the night. He felt happy, but a bit sad, excited but nervous. She really did like him but what did he do to make her so scared to acknowledge it?

After a couple days in the hospital wing, James' cold was finally disappearing, and he was allowed to leave. He knew right away that he wanted to find Lily and just give her the present. He wanted to do it right then rather than wait. He wanted her to know that he still loved her, was still always going to wait for her.

He ran up to his room, found the box that the gift was in and then waited for Lily to return from her last class.

When she entered the common room, she smiled at the sight of James.

"Glad to see your finally feeling better!"

James stood up and walked towards her.

"I... have something that I, uhm, wanted to give you. It's, I guess, a late Christmas present. I wasn't going to get you anything until I found the perfect thing. And, well, think I found it." He stammered, but managed to get it all out. He pulled the box out of his pocket and handed it towards Lily.

She reached for it, but her eyes were on his. She looked nervous even though she was smiling.

"Thank you, but you didn't have to!" She said, being polite as always. But once she had it in her grasp, she headed towards the couch to sit down. Once James was sat next her, she slowly lifted the lid to the box.

She gasped, then looked up at James.

"Oh my god, this is beautiful, James!" She pulled out, a long silver chained necklace, with a tiny, silver stag dangling on the end of it. James reached for it, and put the necklace on her.

"Looks more beautiful when it's on you." He smiled at her, inching his face closer. She smiled back, her cheeks turning red. Before he knew it, they were just centimetres apart. He could feel the energy, the passion, filling up the space between them. His lips were so close to touching hers, when she looked away.

Lily stood up, and stepped two paces away before looking back at him.

"Thank you. Really, I love it!" She said, her cheeks turning an even darker shade of red, before she quickly fled to her room.