I'm sorry for the slow burn this fic is starting out to be-I'm gonna try to speed up the romance a bit within the next few chapters.
I also had originally thought to write a chapter per art piece from Blvnk ( tumblr: blvnk-art) but as I write, I find that multiple drawings get used for a chapter. I'll try to post links to them as much as I can.
Chapter two is based off this comic: post/694745522257494016/her-heart-was-beating-fast-if-im-not
It felt like the winds were changing. As though by some miracle, Lily no longer saw James as the arrogant prat he was just a year before. Maybe he was always like this? She caught herself wondering while stealing glances during the passing days. If not, what had changed so suddenly? And why now?
She found herself thinking about his eyes. The way they looked that evening they thanked each other in the dungeon hallway; then all the other times they would catch each other's glance throughout the days that passed. When he caught her staring at him it was like a fire grew in his eyes and his face broke into a small, but clearly noticeable smile. Sometimes she would even smile back.
During patrols with Remus' she started to ask more questions about him and his friends. Despite Remus' vague responses to every fielded question, she listened the most when he would answer a question about James. He likes Autumn; his favorite color is red; he likes muggle music…
"He likes muggle music?" Lily almost screamed in shock during the most recent night patrol. Next to them a portrait of an old man grumbled awake and gave her a discerning eye.
"Yeah, him and Sirius started to buy muggle records as a way to piss off Sirius' family, but ended up liking the stuff." Whenever Remus talked about his friends, Lily noticed he held a sort of serene smile on his face. Something was endearing about friends who held such a strong love for each other. "They often play it in the dorms when they are just mucking about."
Lily wanted to know more but knew if she asked it would be suspicious. For some reason this recent development made her chest feel full of hot air. Some pureblood wizard boys love muggle music, so what? She tried to talk herself down, but it seemed that for whatever reason the idea of James liking the same kind of music as her made her feel weightless.
They walked the rest of the wing in silence before Remus cleared his throat.
"You know, he didn't say it as a laugh or anything. I think James would be happy to help you if you needed it in Transfiguration–and not try to pull anything either," Remus interjected at the last minute. Lily turned to look up at him, but he kept looking down through the corridor.
Lily sighed, "I'm just being a stubborn prat aren't I?" Remus raised his eyebrows and shrugged.
"It's not like he didn't earn your he really is a good bloke, Lily. I know he does a good job of hiding it sometimes, but when he really cares about someone he really really cares."
They continued to walk in silence until the end of their patrol. Lily didn't want to admit it, but perhaps he had a point.
At breakfast, the Gryffindor table had seen better days. During a nighttime betting match of Wizard's chess in the boys' dorm, Sirius had the brilliant idea of smuggling firewhiskey in to make things interesting. Almost all the boys in the class looked like they were suffering from some sort of hammer to the head except for James and Sirius who either were now seasoned pros at handling their liquor or were just still drunk enough to not feel the hangover set in. Remus, who had been patrolling with Lily at the time of the incident, attempted to read his book in stoic defiance and Peter seemed barely capable of holding down the two spoonfuls of oats he had managed to eat.
Marlene and Lily sat two seats away from the scene. With this vantage point Lily was trying to not so obviously steal glances at James. Despite being as chipper as always his hair had reached new levels of untidy and his collar was yanked open, leaving his tie to hang limply to one side of his shirt. Something about his state made Lily feel a little too hot for her liking…
Before she could question her sensations further, Sirius started crooning a tune; leaning into James who matched his singing with an equal amount of gusto. Despite them doing a pretty good job at butchering the melody, Lily felt a bubble in her chest rise before blurting out.
"That's Bowie isn't it–Starman! I love that song!"
Marlene, who had otherwise been ignoring the boys, looked at Lily like she had grown two heads. Lily could feel others staring at her and start to whisper. When did Evans feel so intrigued by their nonsense?
James stopped singing but held his mouth open in a smile that felt reminiscent of a child getting candy. Sirius, who had stopped as well, took a beat before slapping his hand down on James' shoulder and exclaiming to the room:
"Did you hear that James! She likes our song!" Dripping with sarcasm, he shooed the air like a beauty queen who had just won a crown.
"Sod off." Lily blushed, regretting even trying to remotely interact with the two. She had clearly chosen the wrong time to make friends with idiots. But despite Sirius' theatrics, James finally hinged his mouth closed and kept a steady eye on Lily who was clearly starting to wish she could disappear completely from the table.
"I like it too. Bowie is brilliant." James' words sounded so sincere you would have thought he was making a confession. Lily met his eyes and his mouth curled into a small smile.
"Glad we are in agreement then." she said, trying to lighten the air, which within the few seconds of looking at him was starting to feel a little too hot again.
"Me too." He held his gaze with hers for a beat longer and Lily's blush started to spread further.
Before realizing they were staring at each other a bit too long, Marlene pulled at Lily's shoulder and broke their trance.
"Uh, Lily….hello?" The world came back. Marlene grabbed her things and gestured for Lily to follow suit.
As they walked away from the table, Marlene pulled her arm down to whisper.
"What was that?" Marlene snapped, barely keeping her voice between them.
"What, I do like that song." Lily made a nonchalant shrug, but Marlene was not so easily thrown off.
"It seems to me more like you are starting to like Potter and his gang."
Lily scratched her nails into her bag strap and shifted her stance.
"Come off it Mar, it just caught me by surprise that they knew it." Marlene grumbled something before turning down the corridor to her next class. Lily wound the ends of her hair around her finger and made off in the other direction.
The smile that had surfaced on James' face in the great hall hadn't subsided even during Transfiguration. It must have been noticeable, because once McGonagall had turned the class loose to practice a mending charm on a broken piece of china, she walked up beside him with a discerning expression.
"You look entirely too happy to be fixing a mess Mr. Potter," she glared at him from above her wire-rimmed glasses.
With one swish, James' cup clacked back into formation and with a tap, filled with a cup of what smelled like hot Earl Gray tea. He offered the cup to McGonagall, who despite never wanting to applaud a show off, was known to never decline a good cuppa.
"Oh Minnie, I'm just always so happy to see you, is that so wrong?-Sugar?" He raised his wand to tap the cup now in her hands, but she put her palm down over the top. Giving him one last side eye, she walked away to the Slytherin side of the classroom where there seemed to be some commotion about how the pieces of someone's cup turned into a miniature ant army.
Lily, who was just a few tables behind James, couldn't say she was any better off than the Slytherins and if anything, had broken her cup more.
She looked up at James who had not only finished his first cup repair, but having given it to McGonagall, conjured an entirely new cup out of thin air and filled it with a suspiciously golden liquid that resembled butterbeer.
Oh god, am I gonna do this? She looked down at the shards taunting her on the desk. I'll take that as a yes.
She broadened her shoulders and tried to look as cool and confident as possible as she made her way over to James' table. Still with his collar open and tie set aside, he leaned on one arm and surveyed the catastrophe occuring at the Slytherins desk with zeal while sipping his drink.
"Potter, can I disturb you?" Despite the efforts to sound nonchalant, she twisted her hair to one side and felt the urge to tug at her skirt.
"Disturb away," he said, not bringing the cup down from his mouth but rather eyeing her from over the lip of the china.
He really is cocky when he is in his element isn't he. Lily remarked to herself, but pushed forward knowing there were no other options.
"I'm real shit at this spell," she said gesturing over to the pathetic state of her cup back on her desk. "Since you seem to have nothing to do but hold tea time, I was hoping you could help me."
James took a last sip effectively draining his cup, and set it down with a satisfied clank.
"Well Evans' lead the way." They made their way to her desk, and upon arrival, Lily opened her testbook and started flipping to the page on mending spells.
"I keep following the steps, but I can't figure out where I'm going wrong. I feel like I've read this page about a million times."
Midway through flipping frantically, James put his hand on hers, stopping its movement. Gingerly he picked up her hand and ,as though it was also made of glass, set it on the table next to the book before moving back to start flipping slowly through the pages. It wasn't until he had stopped touching her that she realized he was enveloping her from behind; his arm reaching around her side only needed to curl inwards to hug her body and his open collar was tickling the back of her neck. She felt heat rising in her cheeks. Afraid to make any sudden movements she stayed deathly still as he continued to flip through the book, evidently either unaware or unfazed by their proximity to each other.
"Well if I'm not mistaken, this is an old edition," he said as he idly flipped the pages back and forth.
"No wonder you are feeling like rubbish, all of this is outdated." He landed on a page where Lily had scribbled a drawing of a witch resembling much of the muggle stereotypes in films.
"That's a cute drawing," he smirked and brushed his pointer finger across it. "Can't say it has much resemblance to you though."
Lily's heart was beating so fast she thought she was having some sort of cardiac arrest. With how close his chest was leaning in towards her, she had no doubt that he could feel it, and started shifting uncomfortably in her seat to create a distraction. Her worries didn't last long though as after a beat, he straightened up and held out a finger to her before walking back to his desk to grab his own textbook.
"Here, you take mine. At least then if you are still rubbish, at least you know it's you and not your ability to read." He held out the book with that same smile that had been bothering her so much recently. The one that was wholesome and earnest.
"Give it back to me whenever you like. I won't miss it," he said as he began walking back to his desk.
"Though, be warned, I might have some drawings of my own in there." He made one last smile before sitting back down at his desk to tap a refill into his cup.
James felt like he was floating. He hadn't felt this good off of a broom in years. After ages of Lily wanting nothing to do with him, her thawing demeanor seemed as good as any date to Hogsmeade could possibly amount to.
He passed through the portrait hole to find Sirius and Remus sitting by the fire. Remus was reading the newest Daily Prophet with a taut expression. The front page showed an exploded shop and muggles crying and screaming within the frame. More Muggle Attacks from Wizarding Cults sprawled in bold lettering above the horrific shot.
James sat down on the ground next to the fire to face his friends but otherwise was not paying attention to much of anything. She has my book. MY book. Now she has to—-
"OI, James!" Sirius picked up a plush pillow and lobbed it at his head which he quickly dodged.
"As lovely as your meet cutes with Evans are going these days, the full moon is coming up. We need to get it together."
Remus snorted and turned the page of the paper. "Get what together, Padfoot. Whatever it is we could get together seems done—or in my case inevitable."
Sirius wrapped an arm around Remus' neck and Remus grimaced as he tried to free himself.
"Oh, not us personally, Moony. Just the little buggers who seem invested in our little outings these days."
He was referring to Snape and his band of friends. Ever since the 3rd year, Snape had begun increasingly interested in where Remus went during the full moon—often found creeping around the hospital wing to catch a glimpse of whether or not Remus was indeed there. He seemed to have even gotten Mulciber and Avery involved, who had begun to get a little too familiar with which part of the castle the Marauders used to sneak towards the shrieking shack.
"My vote is to let them come and see the party. I'm sure it will be an awfully fun surprise whe—"
"No." Remus had put down the paper and was sitting straight up in his seat. His gaze penetrated Sirius to the point of shutting him up all together.
Still slightly slap happy from his Evans interaction, James leaned back on his arms, nonplussed by the mini-confrontation between his mates and made an boisterous sigh to clear the air a bit.
"We will just change our route. Don't be thick about it Sirius. Besides there's at least 3 or 4 other routes we can take on the map."
"Ahem."
In their mini altercation none of the boys had noticed that Lily had come through the portrait hole and up beside the couch. In her arms was James' textbook he had given to her earlier.
"Sorry to interrupt," she put emphasis on the word, highlighting the fact that some of the points of their conversation had not been unheard by her.
"—but I wanted to give this back to you.I didn't want you to go without it with exams coming up. "
She reached the book out to James, who since seeing Lily, straightened his seated position as though a boy getting caught red handed.
"Oh, thanks. But I told you you could keep it for a while. It's not that much use to me." He grabbed the other side of the book and for a beat they were connected between the weight of its pages.
Lily made a nervous laugh then cleared her throat. A hint of a blush did not go unnoticed by James.
"Actually that's the thing. Turns out I'm still rubbish regardless of what edition I use….could you—-could you help me?"
The room might as well have been hit by lightning. Even Sirius, who had been lounging back to enjoy the show, slapped his hand on the shoulder of the now wide-eyed Lupin.
James stared at her with an open mouth for a moment too long before bursting into the biggest smile Lily had ever seen on his face.
«"Yeah!" He practically yelled and then adjusted his volume. "Er, I mean, I'd be happy to, Evans. Give me a time and place and I'll be there."
"You busy tomorrow? After potions? "
"Brilliant." James looked like he could wet himself from excitement at any moment. Lily smirked at his face, but her amusement quickly turned into embarrassment as her eyes started to wander downwards to the rest of his body. Wow, he's…fit.
Turning on her heel so as to not be caught staring, she began her walk to the girls' dorms. Calling back to the boys in her most convincing nonchalant voice:
"Sounds good then—-it's not a date!"
Before completely disappearing around the bend, she bent her head back around and yelled, "By the way, you don't draw too badly yourself," and ascended out of eyesite.
A moment of silence passed between the boys.
"You know, calling attention to how it's not a date, really makes you think it is, don't you agree Moony?" Sirius smirked as he laid back and watched his friend stare longingly up at the stairs where Lily had since been.
""Yeah, a bit counterproductive," Remus grinned.
James just splayed himself on the ground with his arms out wide, leaving the book to rest on his chest. It did not go unnoticed that the book smelled a little of her.