James didn't know how he made it back to the Gryffindor tower. He couldn't recall walking–maybe he floated? He also had no idea where his homework had gone off too, but that was not important. All he knew was that he was currently splayed out on the couch in the common room only able to think of Lily.

He closed his eyes and replayed the kiss again and again. How she pressed herself against him; made soft sighing noises as she opened her mouth more to deepen the kiss; the feel of her hands that moved from his cheeks into his hair…

"I think Prongs has been poisoned," he heard Peter say after an echo of footsteps from the stairwell.

"Likely not." Remus' voice retorted. "Someone go wake him."

James didn't have enough time to respond as a rush of air pushed past and a huge weight descended upon his chest. He opened his eyes, gasping to see Sirius with his arms and legs wrapped around his torso in a strangle-hold.

"Oi! James, get up you prick we still got a day to get through!" James pushed his mate off while uprighting himself. He had forgotten that it was only noon. Fuck, how am I supposed to go to class now that Lily and I have kissed? Does being so sodding happy count as a medical excuse?

He was about to blurt out his morning to his mates, but something stopped him. They had kissed. That's all he had wanted for years. His joy was inescapable, but in the back of his head were glaring questions: Why did she do it? Did she want something more? Was she perhaps under some sort of spell and this was all a big misunderstanding? Whatever the reason he wasn't mad about the result, but telling this to his mates would more than likely cause an uproar. He knew Remus would at least be discreet, but Sirius and Peter? They would hound him and even Lily for ages. With that kind of luck, Lily wouldn't even want to look at him again by the end of the day.

Despite still feeling like a human beacon of light, he didn't say anything. Lily would want it this way. Anyways, for all I know this is all I'm going to get.

The boys stood in front of the fire and bantered a bit about Quidditch after party plans. If James was showing any pep in his disposition, Sirius and Peter were not picking up on it, but every once in a while Remus would notice a blush and a smile creep across James' face, and his eyes go a little unfocused...

There was a bounding noise coming from the girls' dorm steps and Lily and Alice descended. While they had been in mid conversation when walking down, Lily immediately went silent at the sight of James standing by the fireplace. James' eyes came back into focus and zeroed in on her. Despite a burning look, he took a breath and fell into a cool disposition.

Lily, who now had a blush creeping on her face, told Alice she would meet her out the portrait hole, then turned to walk towards the boys. James' heart felt like it was about to burst through his chest.

"Hey Potter," she was trying to sound neutral but a softness was detectable in the way she said his name.

"I think I forgot my book in the classroom today–did you grab it by chance?" He knew she had asked him a question but he could not compute. The way she was just standing there, looking up at him, with the lips he had touched just hours earlier slightly parted—his brain went blank.

He finally registered what she had said and gave a cool smirk.

"I wouldn't want to be losing books right now, Evans—with NEWTs and all." The way his stare bounced between eye contact and focusing on her lips made her blush even more and she nervously tucked a hair behind her ear. She could see the cloud of euphoria that was in his eyes earlier had not dissipated a bit. Despite his mates still in the room, the whole world seemed to disappear and all they were left with was the tension from earlier.

"Exactly," She half-whispered. He gestured for her to follow him over to his bag which had been flung haphazardly on the ground near the boys' stairwell. She followed him, making note of how his hand lingered in the air as though begging her to take it with her own. He pulled her book out of the sack and gave it a teasing waggle in her direction before handing it back.

"Thanks," she said. He stood back up and they were only inches apart. All she had to do was reach out for him again…

" I hope you're not forgetting something else," his eyes lowered and a mischievous smile flashed at her. Lily gave a side eye to the boys still by the fire; all of which were not paying attention to them.

She matched his smile with her own. "No, I think it was just the book, thanks."

The cheekiness of his expression dropped off and the desire returned tenfold. It was as though every inch of his body was begging her.

"Evans," his voice lowered an octave. "Why did you kiss me earlier?" He lifted his hand and brushed a path from her forearm to her hand by her side. He let his fingers linger in her softly opened palm.

"I don't know," Lily breathed out. She tried to mask any sort of desire she had for him with a teasing tone, but she could tell he wasn't buying it. Unaware, they had both taken a step closer to each other and were now breaching dangerous levels of personal space between two people who were merely friends.

Clocking that they were getting too ahead of themselves with an audience around, Lily broke the haze and gave James a painfully platonic pat on the shoulder.

"See you in class," she said and with one last smirk, followed after Alice who had left the portrait hole.

Merlin.

James slunk back to his friends who seemed overall unaware of what had transpired.

James barely lasted through his History of Magic course. Then again, in his Herbology lab. It felt like a pain worse than death to have to sit through boring classes after how much had happened in the course of one day. By the time his class with Lily came around, his body felt like it was buzzing with excitement. It took all of his energy to not sprint through the halls to get to the classroom.

He entered and saw Sirius' sitting in his usual spot in the back corner of the class, leaning back in his chair and reading some Muggle philosophy book. Lily was already seated with her materials in front of her a few tables up. James passed by Sirius and gestured towards Lily before continuing to walk in her direction. Sirius didn't respond but shot his eyebrows up and gave a smirk.

Now beside her, he cleared his throat and tried to tamp down the burst excitement he was feeling to be back in her presence again.

"Can I sit here?" Lily looked up at him. She had put her hair up in a ponytail and little wisps of hair curled around her jaw. James felt like she was just taunting him at this point whether she knew it or not.

Without saying anything she shifted her books over an inch and gestured for him to sit. Class started and despite not interacting with one another, they could both feel tension radiating off each other's bodies. Lily was doing better at focusing, taking clear and accurate notes and otherwise not giving attention to her neighbor. James on the other hand was barely holding it together. He tried to keep looking ahead at the professor but every shift her body made sent a shock through his system. Sitting next to her meant he could see how she would sometimes rest her quill against her lips when she was thinking; how her neck and jaw sloped out of her collared shirt and were such a lovely shade of cream; that her handwriting was so beautifully looped and curled with every stroke.

It was going to kill him.

With another hour left to go in class, James' emotions were reaching crisis levels of unbearable. With a split second decision, he ripped off a piece of parchment and scribbled something down before folding it up and casually placing it on the page of Lily's open book. Still taking notes, she looked down at it for a beat before continuing as if nothing occurred.

James, feeling a bit silly and terrified, tried his best to not look in her direction. After five minutes, he watched her hand pick up the parchment and gently unroll it.

Lily looked down at the note. In an erratic hand was written:

I have wanted to kiss you again all afternoon.

She folded the note back up neatly and put it in her pocket. If she had any feelings about what was written, she wasn't showing it. She went back to taking notes, leaving James to desperately glance at her from time to time, wishing for some sort of acknowledgement.

By about the 6th time he not so secretly gave her a yearning look, she stopped writing and peered over to meet his glance.

"Stop fidgeting. I read the note." Despite giving no indication of her feelings of its contents, James took this as closure enough and tried his best to be a good boy the rest of class.

By the time everyone was getting up to leave, James had given up hope. I shouldn't be pushing her. Clearly she isn't ready. Merlin I'm so sodding thick.

Not wanting to ruin things even worse, he nodded curtly towards Lily and then bounded over to Sirius who's eyebrows had not descended from his face.

"Have a nice time with your new mate," Sirius mocked once James caught step with him. James mumbled a low sod off as they kept walking down the corridor.

"H–Hey! Potter!" Lily's voice rang out from behind him. She was standing in the doorway of the class waving her arm at him.

"I had a question about the lesson today–could you help me for a second?"

James was puzzled. She hardly said a word to him in class and certainly seemed to understand the lesson enough to even answer some of the professor's questions. He shrugged, and turned to Sirius.

"I won't wait up," Sirius responded immediately with a snicker. He winked at Lily who made a scoffing sound and then turned on his heel. James walked back to where Lily was standing and she ushered him into the now deserted classroom.

"So, uh, what did you need–" But she was on him before he could finish. Shoving the door closed with her heel (expertly, James noted) she grabbed his face, threaded her hands into his hair and caught his mouth on hers.

"I wanted you to kiss me all afternoon too," She gasped out when their lips separated. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for the second time today, fitting their mouths back together. He pushed her up against one of the tables and she leaned on it for support as their combatting urgency pushed them together.

"You did?" He groaned into her ear, now peppering kisses up her jaw and on her earlobe. He could feel her chest heaving against him and her breath catch with every kiss.

"It wasn't obvious to you?" She pulled his head which was making its way now towards her neck back up to hers to catch his lips once more. His calloused hands that were wrapped around her waist pushed up her jumper a bit, exposing some skin and he took the opportunity to place his hands on her bare back.

She melted into him. It felt like just yesterday it would have been impossible to be in this moment, but now Lily was grasping onto him with such need, she felt out of control. The feel of his hands radiated heat inside her and she pushed herself into him more. She ran her hands down his shoulders before encircling them around his neck–making note of how slender yet toned his upper body was. Finally it was making sense why other girls fancied him so much all these years…

"Go out with me." It wasn't a question, he breathed it into her mouth when they had come up for air. His glasses now askew, he kissed her cheek softly before starting his journey placing kisses on her jawline.

"No."

It wasn't what he had expected. He opened his eyes and pulled back to look at her. She was flushed and eyeing his lips hungrily to continue kissing. This was not the look of someone who wanted to decline his offer, but leaning in to kiss the bit of neck under his ear, she repeated: "No, I can't."

James snapped back to reality and pulled her away. "Why not?"

Lily looked around as she searched for words. "It's just not a good time. I-I can't explain it. It's just with NEWTs and–"

"You won't go out with me because of NEWTs," James burst out into a sardonic laugh.

"Merlin Evans, I knew you were a bit of a sacred character, but that seems a little low."

Lily blushed deeply and absent mindedly brushed back her tousled hair.

"I just need some time. Can you respect that?" She was imploring him. He could see the doubt flash in her eyes; he knew she half expected him to walk away right then and there.

"Yes. Yes of course." He brushed her lips with his thumb before pressing his gently to hers again. He knew it wasn't possible, but he wanted to convey to her how much he wanted this. Whatever it was they had, he didn't care, as long as this continued.

"I won't ask you again, but c-can we still…." His voice trailed off, not knowing how to proceed. He didn't even know if he knew what he was asking. If we could still study together? If we could still share a good bout of sexual tension? If we could snog senseless after class, preferably multiple times a day?

"We'll see." She swatted his chest playfully before he wrapped his arms around her again and kissed her with as much fervor he could give.

"I'll take those odds."

The rest of the month was a blur. NEWTs were fast approaching and between actually studying, Lily and James found new ways to keep their new situationship under the radar. At first, it was just their weekly transfiguration lessons that turned into snogging sessions. Then, they added a second "lesson" to the week. By the third week they had been able to find stolen time at least once a day to at least give each other a quick kiss or touch before going on with their day.

Surprisingly, James had been doing a brilliant job of hiding it. Besides Lupin's side-eye every once in a while when Lily greeted them in the corridors, none of his mates had caught on to the new change in events. Already adorned with the title of "friend of the marauders" Lily and her mates would often join the boys for meals and generally start to banter with them in the halls. Lily prayed that no one noticed during these times that sometimes James' hand would rest a little too close to hers on the bench or that sometimes she would forget herself and move a rogue hair out from behind his glasses.

They were signs of change though. Lily was never one to really get into the team spirit when it came to quidditch, but Marlene and Alice had both noted when she got a newfound interest in the sport. Sometimes caught reading Quidditch through the Ages before bed, she seemed almost too excited to go to the upcoming match.

"Didn't strike you as a cheerleading type," Alice remarked in the dorms that morning as Lily looked for a suitable outfit for the match.

"Actually, now that I think about it, did you ever actually go to the matches before?"

Lily scoffed. "Alice, don't be thick. I'm not that un-spirited. Besides, we only have one year left and this one is about over. Might as well put in some effort."

Alice, who had been trying to study for her potions NEWTs, let out a sigh and pushed her book off the bed in distress. Lily stopped her rummaging and picked the book off the ground.

"Not going so well?" In response, Alice laid back and shoved her pillow into her face.

"You know if you wanted, I'm happy to help," Lily offered. She knew how much Alice was stressed to get good marks in order to get into her Auror training.

"What? And take away your snogging time with the Quidditch captain?" Alice peeked an eye out from under the pillow and watched as Lily's face turned red.

"It's not possible to ruin something that's not happening, stop trying to fish." Lily tried to make it sound as true as possible.

"I guess I am fishing, yeah," Alice admitted, sitting back up. "You just..seem different with him now."

"There's nothing to say. We are just really good friends–that's it." Despite feeling like her delivery was shaky at best, Alice dropped her prodding and joined Lily in getting ready.

There was a horrific storm beginning when the girls started to head down to the pitch. Lily wasn't super versed in the world of Quidditch, but something seemed dangerous about flying around in lightning riddled skies. She wrung her hands nervously as they walked towards the main courtyard.

James was standing just inside the main foyer with some of his teammates in tow. All of them in their uniforms and donning their brooms, James had traded in his signature glasses with goggles that were now hoisted up on his forehead, further pushing his hair in all directions. He spotted Lily and gave her a huge grin.

"Great day for a game!" He exclaimed to the girls. He looked like a little boy at Christmas. Lily looked outside and watched the courtyard trees bend horizontal from the wind.

"Seems like you should postpone it. Don't you have a say being captain and all?" James looked out the window and shrugged.

"Nah, looks fine to me!" He positioned his goggles over his eyes and started towards the door.

"Wait!" Lily called out. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at James. Impervious! A silver aura appeared for a moment on his goggles.

James smiled broadly. "Always brilliant Evans," he said as he turned toward the door.

Despite the monsoon, the game went as planned. James scored 35 goals within the first half, effectively obliterating the Hufflepuff team. By the two hour mark, the only need for the snitch to be caught was to end the game—Gryfindor had already scored enough points to guarantee the win.

At their victory, the Gryffindor crowd made their way onto the pitch despite the pouring rain. James, who landed to greet the crowd, peeled his jersey off and raised his hands bare chested. Despite the chaotic energy of the group, Lily stood stunned and regarded a shirtless and wet James making his way through the crowd. She had never seen him without anything off before–and it worried her that she wanted to see more.

"God she's not even pretending to not stare," Marlene snorted to Alice as they watched their friend continue to shamelessly oggle the quidditch captain.

Lily snapped out of it and shushed her friends. "Sod off, I was just bothered by the rain, that's all."

The Gryffindor common room was mayhem. Sirius had convinced Mme. Rosmerta to "donate" barrels of butterbeer to the event and everyone was quickly falling into a celebratory haze. Lily sat on the couch with a butterbeer and watched Marlene talk up one of the beaters on the team while Alice had snuck off with Frank hours ago.

James, now wearing a dry jersey and his usual glasses, was at the center of the fray, singing and cheering along with the rest of his team. Lily tried not to take note of how many times a girl sidled up to congratulate him on his performance. Currently, 5th year Iris Melborne had found her way to his side for the sixth time within the hour—not that she was counting.

Not dropping her stare, she felt someone plop down next to her. "Doesn't feel good does it?" Sirius was swishing a bit of firewhiskey in his cup before downing it all in one gulp.

"Not that I'm jealous that James gets all the attention after the matches—but maybe my mum was onto something when she said I was an attention whore. God help her, it would be the first time she was right."

She took a jug of firewhiskey that was sitting on the side table and poured himself some more before pouring a bit into Lily's cup unprompted.

"I think you might be drunk Black," responded Lily. She could tell he was prodding for something, and she wasn't in the mood to play along. Across the room Iris laughed dramatically at something James said and put a hand on his arm. Disgusting

"You should tell him you know. Not that that git deserves any more reason to have an ego–but you know, it would make him happy."

Sirius was grinning lazily at Lily and without a good response, Lily downed her drink before getting up.

"Thanks for the life coaching, Black."

"Anytime, Friend." Lily rolled her eyes and left Sirius to fill up his drink for a third time.

At her approach, she saw James' demeanor shift and he quickly turned away from Iris who had begun chatting up the Keeper.

"Hey, good game." She clanked her empty cup against his.

"Bad luck to cheers without a drink," James retorted and poured some of his drink into hers. They looked at each other for a while–daring each other to make a move. Lily looked down at his new jersey and remembered what he had looked like shirtless out on the pitch and blushed. She wished she could have felt how his shoulders were like underneath it all..

Lily felt his hand discreetly pinch at her hip and she snapped out of her thought.

"Can I see you later?" He lowered his voice. While keeping up the air that he was just having regular small talk, his eyes were saturated with yearning. She felt his hand which had been lingering a bit too long at her hip graze its way on her side before dropping beside him.

"I-I have patrols soon. Until midnight." It was true despite her attempts to get Remus to switch.

"Ooh, drinking before the job then."

"Shut it Potter." He gave her an amused grin. He loved to get her wound up.

"Then I'll come find you." She looked at him pointedly for any sign of sarcasm, but he was being serious.

"Seems like a bad idea to tell a prefect you are going to be drunkenly wandering the halls in the middle of the night," she smirked.

"It's a chance I'm willing to take." He smiled, "And I'm not that drunk. Certainly will be in working form by that time."

"Something tells me nothing good can come from you doing that." She made her words' double meaning very clear. They had only just begun snogging, but their urgency to be together seemed to rapidly increase. She was starting to be unsure how long they could keep this up without any fallout.

"You know I'm always up to no good, Evans." He gave her side a little squeeze again and parted his mouth expectantly. She hated how much she liked it when he looked at her like that.

One of his teammates came out of the crowd and wrapped an arm around James' neck. Being pulled into another round of cheering, he gave her a wink and mouthed "later" before disappearing in the crowd.