The portrait slammed shut so hard that the students in the common room could hear the Fat Lady shouting her disapproval even over the bickering of the two students who had handled her so roughly as they climbed through the entranceway.
"I don't even get why you're so angry, Evans. I just did the same as you did," James tried but Lily turned around, pushing her finger into James' chest and looking up at him with fire in her emerald eyes.
"You punished him. With magic. You're not. Supposed. To. Do. That." With each word, she pushed James back with her finger.
"What else should I have done, Evans? She cried! That was the right thing to do. Nobody will know and-"
"I know. And Minett and Patton know."
"And? What difference does it make?" James asked and made a step back so she finally lowered her hand. Lily rubbed her temple for a second. "And after all, she wasn't crying anymore. So it was a good thing, wasn't it?"
"No, it wasn't! You should have taken points from them, from both of them; not trying out a new hex," Lily argued and narrowed her eyes. Her cheeks were pink from anger.
James chuckled to himself. "Now that's not entirely true, Evans. It wasn't a new hex. I've tested it out on plenty of Slytherins." That didn't seem to make Lily feel any better, in fact, it appeared to infuriate her even further and she balked at him. "Patton hexed Minett first. And she started crying. And in the end, she stopped and Patton learned that he shouldn't do something like that. It was justified, okay? He would never get it just by taking 10 points from him. And it was more important to make him leave, anyway. She was scared! He needed a taste of his own medicine and she needed a laugh. I killed two birds with one stone if you ask me. Besides, it's not like I hurt him. Those hiccups he's got will clear in a day or two, as long as he doesn't go 'round hexing anyone else."
The whole common room watched as Lily's anger faltered slightly and her expression softened somewhat as she struggled with what to say to combat James' defense. She huffed. "You don't have to be so bloody righteous all the time."
"Is that the problem, then? I have too much of a sense of justice?" James smirked, his eyebrow quirking up as Lily turned an even deeper shade of pink.
"That is not what I said," she said through gritted teeth. She took a deep breath and everyone in the common room held theirs, waiting for her next move. "It's just…" she eyed him up and down and James watched with amused anticipation as her eyes checked his hair, then his face, and down to the messily tied necktie and the shirt that was full of wrinkles. It was as if she was looking for some other reason to be angry with him. But nothing came out of her mouth.
"Yes, Evans?" He prompted, his hand rising to mess with his hair and Lily's eyes grew double in size as she smacked his hand down.
"Stop doing that!" She hissed. "Your hair's enough of a mess as it is, for Merlin's sake! And stop… stop saying my name with every sentence! I know you're speaking to me without having to be formally addressed every other moment!"
James held his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. No 'Eye for an eye' mentality when on rounds, no hair-touching, and no using your name. Anything else, Evans?" Lily glared. "Sorry, Evans- Oh, whoops. Last time, Evans, I promise."
Lily covered her face with her hands and took another deep breath. When she lowered her hands, she was shaking her head and there was a small, begrudgingly amused smile playing at her lips. "Potter, you… you are absolutely incurable." She pushed past him and headed towards the girls' dorm.
"It's part of my charm!" James called after her with a goofy, smitten grin on his face. He waited until he heard the door to the girls' dorm shut before he went off on the opposite stairs to the boys' dorm without acknowledging the audience of their housemates who were still watching.
"That," Sirius finally said, once both of them were out of earshot, "was the strangest form of foreplay I have ever seen."
Remus smacked him with a rolled-up Daily Prophet.
—-
Peter knew something was up when Sirius requested they partner up in potions.
"Wormtail, I am wounded!" Sirius had gasped dramatically when Peter fixed him with a suspicious look. "We are supposed to be friends! Comrades! Pals! And here you are, questioning my motives to spend a little quality time with you?"
"You could have just asked me for a round of chess."
Sirius shrugged. "We've never been potions partners before."
"I'm shit at potions, Padfoot."
"So's Moony, but I pair with him all the time."
Peter rolled his eyes. "You pair with Moony so you can pretend to help him stir the cauldron correctly while you're actually feeling each other up under the desk and you think no one notices." He raised an eyebrow at Sirius when the taller boy couldn't deny the accusation. "No offense, Padfoot, but I think you'll find me a much less enticing partner."
Sirius growled in frustration before he finally let out a resigned sigh and scooted his stool closer to Peter, lowering his voice. "Alright, look. I've been plotting-"
"Shocker."
"-And I need your help, but you need to promise you won't go spilling to James." He fixed Peter with his best puppy eyes.
Peter frowned in confusion. "You want me to keep it from James?"
"Yes."
"And why isn't Moony helping you?" He asked cautiously. If it was something James couldn't know about and Remus refused to help despite Sirius' specific techniques of persuading his boyfriend, Peter wasn't sure it could be a good, or particularly safe, plan.
"Moony's the enemy, Wormatil. It's us against him, and he's a right clever little shit - makes me proud, honestly - so we need to be stealthy and that's why I need you. Moony and I have a bet going and I need you to help me get Evans to date James."
"You're barking mad, Padfoot," Peter said flatly, shaking his head. "Or you've got some sort of death wish."
"This shouldn't come as a surprise to you anymore, you know." Sirius pointed out as he began to pluck the wings off of the dead beetles that were placed in front of them. "It's not like we're trying to force them to do anything they don't already want to do. We're just giving them a little push to ease their stubborn heads out of their own arses. You can't say you aren't getting tired of this whole "Will they won't they" routine they've been carrying on with the last two months. Every time they come into the common room fighting with each other I'm about ready to charm their lips together so they can skip the banter and get right to snogging."
Peter snorted, pulling the bowl of lacewing flies to him and starting to crush them. "Well let me be the first to thank you for not doing that. It's bad enough walking in on you and Moony in the dorm, I don't need to witness James and Lily going at it right in the bloody common room."
"Are you going to help me or not, Peter?"
Peter bit his lip and risked a look over his shoulder at James who was so preoccupied with watching Lily across the room that Remus had to keep hitting him with a stinging hex to bring his attention back to the cauldron in front of them. "I don't know, Sirius… It seems a little… wrong?"
"What's so wrong about true love, Wormtail?"
"Lily just really seems to hate the way James goes about it, that's all."
"Nonsense!" Sirius declared. "There's a fine line between love and hate, Peter. All we're going to do is help them cross it. We just need to figure out how. So here's my thought…"
Peter sighed and resigned himself to listening to Sirius ramble off his elaborate plans to get Lily to agree to date James. The plans went from simple things like putting a sticking charm on them so they had to spend an entire day together, to locking them in a room and turning that room into a sauna that would become so hot they would be forced to take off several layers of clothing and they would become so desperate and finally would throw all caution to the wind and make-out with, what Sirius eloquently called, steamy hot, passionate, hetero-love.
Peter chewed his bottom lip nervously, debating whether or not it would be worth trying to convince Sirius to just let it be. "Padfoot, remember back in fourth year when you and Moony were practically unable to look at each other without drooling all over yourselves?"
"Yes…"
"And it was pretty obvious to the rest of us, but you two were too bloody stubborn to just say you fancied each other?"
Sirius smiled fondly at the memory and nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"James didn't interfere. He let you two idiots sort yourselves out on your own even though watching the two of you was driving everyone absolutely bonkers."
"So?"
Peter stared at him incredulously for a moment, wondering if Sirius was purposely ignoring his obvious point or if he actually had to spell it out for him. For someone so brilliantly intelligent, Padfoot could be incredibly thick sometimes. "Shouldn't you give him the same respect?"
Sirius rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively. "Totally different situation, Wormtail."
Peter wasn't exactly sure how, so he concluded that it was no use trying to convince the other boy against his plan.
He really should say no, he thought to himself as Sirius continued to explain about a potion he found in the restricted section that would render the drinker completely unable to say no to something as long as it was something they did in truth want.
He should tell Sirius that it was wrong to force Lily to be with James if she wasn't ready to admit that it was what she wanted, even if he did agree that it was beginning to become ridiculous watching the Headboy and girl make eyes at one another while they pretended to only tolerate the presence of each other.
He should refuse to help, but he knew he wouldn't. Sirius would only continue to pester him about it until he agreed and besides, it wasn't very often that Sirius came to him personally for anything, and that did feel pretty good.
It wasn't that Peter doubted Sirius valued him as a friend. Sirius was the type of person who wouldn't give someone the time of day if he didn't have the desire to do so. Peter just knew that compared to James – who was practically Sirius' brother – and Remus – who was Sirius'... everything else… – he came in at a solid third place and even so, he was most likely tied with Marlene. The fact that Sirius wanted his help and even claimed to need his specific skill set, whatever they may be, did give him a boost in self-esteem.
"Alright," Peter said with a proud grin. "I'm in." He grabbed a fistful of the beetle wings that Sirius had piled on the desk and, with far more confidence than he usually possessed in Potions class, dropped them into the cauldron before he had time to register the look of horror on Sirius' face as he jumped to stop him just milliseconds too late.
"Pete, no!"
POOF
A cloud of thick, hazy lavender smoke erupted from the cauldron, filling the entire room and making everyone gasp and choke for air. Just as Peter himself felt as though he were about to faint from lack of oxygen – which to be honest, he was sure he would prefer over the pit of humiliation and shame forming in his stomach at having yet another ruined potion – there was a woosh of fresh, clean air and the smoke began to disappear, being sucked away into what Peter could finally see was Lily's wand, which she had pointed straight up into the air while she covered her nose and mouth with her uniform shirt.
"Thank -cough- thank you, Miss Evans!" Slughorn wheezed, using his hand to fan the smoke away from his face. "Mr. Pettigrew, perhaps it's best if you let Mr. Black handle the actual brewing from here on? You just… don't touch anything else."
Feeling his face heat up, Peter sunk into his chair and risked a look at Sirius. "Sorry Padfoot…" he muttered sheepishly. "I expect you probably don't want my help, then?"
He expected Sirius to glare at him, his short-fused temper was often provoked by Peter's clumsy blunders and he waited to hear the slew of harsh criticism that Sirius was bound to give him. Instead, Peter saw a rare thing indeed when Sirius bit his lip and took a deep breath, eyes closed and brow furrowed as he tried hard not to just shout at the smaller boy like he clearly wanted to. His face relaxed and he smiled. "S'alright, Wormtail. We'll just leave any potion brewing to me." He patted Peter on the back, taking an extra moment to squeeze his shoulder and Peter beamed at him.
Behind them, James was complimenting Lily's expert use of a suction charm and Remus hit him with a particularly painful stinging hex when that compliment turned into a rather distasteful innuendo.
—-
It was just before eleven at night, about the time that rounds ended and the Headboy and girl made their last check around the castle before heading back to their dorms for the night when they heard sniffling from behind the tapestry of Uric the Oddball. Lily had moved to go and check, but James held a hand up to stop her before taking his wand out, stepping forward, and slowly peeling back the corner of the tapestry.
It was a first-year Hufflepuff, sitting in the corner with tears streaming down her face.
When she saw James, her eyes widened and she immediately stuttered out an apology as best as she could through her hiccupping sobs and she scrambled to her feet.
"Whoa, hey, easy…" James said softly, crouching down beside the girl and putting a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Are you okay? Did someone hurt you?" His voice was very gentle; a tone that Lily had never heard him use before and it made her chest tighten as she watched him put a comforting arm around the girl while she explained, tearfully, that she had just received an owl from her parents that her uncle, who had been an Auror, and his muggle wife had been found dead at the hands of Death Eaters.
James had pulled the girl into his arms, letting her cry onto his shoulder and completely soaking his shirt as he rubbed her back and muttered what little comfort he could think of. His eyes met Lily's over the top of the girl's head and only then did Lily realize she had tears in her's as well. James smiled sadly.
"It's going to be alright," he said. Lily wasn't sure if he was talking to the Hufflepuff or to her or to both. "This war won't last forever. It's going to be okay."
Once the girl, whose name was Abby Bell, had stopped crying enough to stand upright, Lily offered her a handkerchief and Abby accepted it with a shy smile.
"We'll walk you back to your common room," Lily insisted, "Won't we, James?"
James nodded. "Of course."
They walked towards the Hufflepuff common room, listening to Abby talk about how much she had looked up to her uncle and what a kind, wonderful muggle woman her aunt had been. The tears had stopped, but she was still taking hitched, shaking breaths and sniffling now and then. James had stopped suddenly as they were about to round the corner of the hall that led to the stack of barrels hiding the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room and turned to face a large painting of a fruit bowl.
Lily frowned. "Potter?"
"Just a second." He smirked at Lily before reaching up to tickle the pear in the bowl of fruit.
Lily let out a laugh. "What on earth are you doing?"
"You'll see." He winked at her.
Lily and Abby both gasped as the painting moved aside and allowed James to enter what appeared to be the school's kitchen, much to their surprise and they stared in amazement as James walked in nonchalantly, as if he belonged there and started talking to the House elves as if they were personal friends of his.
"Three hot chocolates please, Lolly. And hmm…, have you got any treacle tart left over from dinner? I'll take a bit of that and a chocolate biscuit for my friend Abby, here. Thanks."
As the little elf ran off and several other elves hurried over, insisting that Abby take a seat and giving her a glass of water, James turned back to Lily with that stupidly wonderful grin of his.
Lily folded her arms and raised an eyebrow, a tiny smirk on her own lips. "What? No midnight snack for me, then?"
James chuckled and shook his head. "Don't be silly." He walked past her to open up a tall cupboard door revealing boxes of crackers and biscuits and other sweets. He scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment. "You, Miss Evans, prefer… Ah!" He reached up and pulled down a long, thin, yellow package. "Brandy snaps. Though Merlins knows why you're so fond of these silly things when you can have a fresh tart…" He shrugged and handed the box to her.
Lily blushed slightly, opening the box and giving James an indignant glare. "They remind me of home if you must know, Potter." She took a bite of the sweet brittle treat defiantly.
Once they had all finished their hot chocolate and snacks, they said goodbye to the house elves and walked Abby the rest of the way back to her common room. She thanked them both and hugged them before waving shyly and disappearing behind the barrels.
Lily and James were both quiet as they slowly walked back up to Gryffindor Tower.
"So," Lily started, clearing her throat to ease the awkward silence between them. "How'd you know I like brandy snaps so much?"
James laughed. "I know more than you think, Evans." Lily frowned questioningly and James smirked. "I know that your favorite color is green," he went on, "and that your boggart is McGonagall telling you you'd failed, but the first time we ever saw one in Defense it took the form of a clown, of all things-"
"I had a traumatic third birthday!" Lily defended, feigning offense even though she was laughing.
"-I know that you write to your sister every week even though she hasn't written back to you since second year."
Lily stopped laughing, snapping her mouth shut and coming to a halt just as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady. James stopped and turned to look at her.
"How do you know that?" She asked quietly.
James bit his lip and a hand shot up to run through his hair. "Sirius- he didn't tell me, I promise! He's good like that, he wouldn't tell me something you told him not to or anything. I just know you two talk about your… well, your family stuff. I know you go to the owlery every Friday and you always seem disappointed when the mail comes through at breakfast and Titania hasn't brought you a return letter."
Lily swallowed past the lump in her throat, her hands clenched tightly at her sides. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do to James Potter at that moment. She didn't know if she should punch him for keeping such a watchful eye on her, or kiss him for noticing such intimate things.
James swore under his breath. "Look, Lily, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything about it. It's just that… well, I see what it does to Sirius, having a sibling that wants nothing to do with him. He hides it well – almost as well as you do – but I know he's hurt every time Regulus walks past without looking at him. He doesn't deserve that and neither do you. If your sister doesn't want to speak to you, that's her loss. And it's a pretty big loss if you ask me."
Lily was quiet for a moment, taking in everything James was saying. She licked her lips nervously, staring down at her shoes. "Sirius is lucky to have you."
James smiled gently and shrugged. "You could have me too, you know." Lily's eyes shot back up and she opened her mouth to retort but James spoke first. "If you ever wanted someone to talk to, I mean. You could have me too. Maybe over dinner at next Hogsmeade weekend."
Lily felt her heart thumping in her chest and for the very first time, she almost felt like she may just want to say yes. But she couldn't.
She smiled and shook her head. "In your dreams, Potter."
James slumped slightly in defeat before he turned to the portrait, said the password, and gestured for Lily to go first. They were silent as they separated and went to their dorms.
Coming Soon: the long-awaited JILY
This chapter is one of my favorites. I love writing Lily's scenes so much. I hope you all love reading them just as much.
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