Their Seventh Year

Somebody asked why I had James talking to Peter about his girl problems.  That wasn’t just random, there was reasoning behind it.  And since you asked, I’ll take this opportunity to wave my little “Peter wasn’t always evil” flag.  It’s easy for us fans to hate him because we know what he’s going to do in the future.  They didn’t, and we have to remember that he was one of their best friends, otherwise why would the trust him with their lives?  I personally think he didn’t turn evil until after Hogwarts, even if the potential was always there.

Chapter 12- Friends

James bounded down into the common room and looked around.  No Lily, but he did see curled up in one of the chairs by the fire with a book.  He marched over to her.  “Hey, Where’s Lily?”

She closed the book and looked up at him.  “First of all, my name is not “hey”, and second, I am certainly not going to tell you if you ask like that.”  She opened her book again and pointedly ignored him.

James huffed out a breath in frustration.  “I’m so sorry.  Please Please Dear Lady would you be so kind as to enlighten me as to the whereabouts of your friend Miss Evans?”  He said in a sugary voice.

“That’s much better.  I don’t know.”

He rolled his eyes.  ““

“I really don’t, she’s off doing her head girl thing, shooing people back to their common rooms.”

“Right.”  James stepped out of the portrait hole, and then with a quick glance at the Fat Lady, who was sleeping, covered himself with the cloak.  He set out with no particular direction in mind, looking for Lily.  He was well aware he was stalking Lily in the deserted hallways of Hogwart’s and knew how bad that sounded, and he knew she would probably be furious, he was prepared for that.

He’d been wandering for about fifteen minutes when he heard voices.  “In the library?  And you were taking a detour back by way of the astronomy tower apparently.  Get back to your common room.”

James grinned as two fourth year Hufflepuffs scampered past in the direction of their common room.  Yeah, he’d tried the “library” excuse at that age too.  Once they disappeared around a corner, Lily started off again, and he followed her.  He noted with some concern she looked very tired, with a slight droop to her shoulders and dark circles under her eyes.  They had been busy of course, with classes and the ongoing NEWT preparation, but not anymore than usual, and not enough to make her look so…down.

She was heading in the direction of the common room, and he had to stop her before she got there, so he took a deep breath and pulled off the cloak. 

“Lily?”

She spun, and stared at him.  “How did you get there?”

He grinned and shrugged.  “Magic.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Get back to the common room Potter.”

He crossed his arms.  “I will not.  In case you’ve forgotten, I am Head Boy.  I have as much right to be out here as you do.”

“A serious lapse of judgement on Dumbledore’s part.”  She muttered, turning away.

“Lily wait.  I didn’t come out here just to harass you.  I wanted to talk to you.  I wanted to…apologize.”  She had been walking away, but she stopped.  She didn’t turn around, but she paused, so he continued.  “Not for what I said, because I didn’t say anything untrue, but it was really mean, and unnecessary, and I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.  I’d never want to do that Lily.  I was mad, I guess because my friends and family are really important to me and so what you said upset me.  Anyway, I’m really sorry if I upset you.  I didn’t mean to.”

She turned to face him, and sighed.  “It’s all right Potter.  I’m not mad about it anymore.”

“Oh…”  He had expected yelling, slapping, throwing things, not such a quiet, dignified response.  “Well, I’m glad then.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes…no wait!  I don’t want to leave things like this.  Listen Lily, I like you.  I know you don’t believe me and you think I just want to snog you or something, but I really do like you.  If I promise to not ask you out and I promise to be a perfect gentleman at all times, can’t we be friends?  Just friends.  You know, like maybe if I see you between class in the halls I can say hi to you, and you say hi back instead of telling me to sod off.  Or maybe like if I see you studying in the common room I could ask you a question about our charms homework.”

She looked at him closely. As though looking for the catch, and then she shrugged.  “Yeah, I guess that would be okay.  I guess I’m still going to have to work with you anyway.”  She gave him a small smile.  “I just can’t get away from you Potter.”

“Good, so we’re agreed.”  He stuck out his hand, and she eyed it suspiciously.  He rolled his eyes.  “It’s called shaking hands Lily.  I assure you it is entirely platonic.”

She shook his hand, and then he said “Now, since you are going back to the common room and I am going back to the common room, it would be perfectly appropriate, as friends, that we walk together.”

___

“So?  You don’t like you got your ass kicked?”  Sirius asked as James came back into their room.  James shot a dirty look at Peter, who shrugged. 

“Well, they asked where you were, and you didn’t say it was a secret.”

All three of them were looking at him with expectant looks.

“She’s not mad anymore.  She forgave me.  We’re going to be friends.”

“With benefits?”

“No.”

“Friends who snog each other?”

James rolled his eyes.  “No Padfoot.  I know it’s a foreign concept to you to just be friends with a girl, but we are just going to be friends, like you and I.”

“Definitely no snogging then.”  Mused Sirius.

“I’m not sure how that’s going to work James, you really don’t want to be friends with her.”  Remus said.

“I know that, but if it’s a choice between being friends with her or having her not speak to me, I prefer the former.  Besides, friends can sometimes turn into something more.”

“Like friends who snog each other.”  Said Sirius with a grin.

­­___

James held out his hand to her.  She gave him a suspicious look.

“It’s called shaking hands Lily.  I assure you it is entirely platonic.”  A teasing smile played over his face.  Feeling silly, she took his hand.  In sudden movement, he tugged her hard by the arm, so that she stumbled forward against him.  He steadied her by catching her around the waist with one arm, and then turned so that her back was against the stone wall.  She opened her mouth to ask just what the hell he thought he was doing, but before any words got out, he kissed her.  Not tentatively like that time in the library, but demandingly, possessively.  And to her own surprise, Lily did not push him away, but instead kissed him back, gripping his arm, afraid he would move away from her…

Lily sat up in bed, her head spinning and her breath coming quickly.  She had gasped, but none of her roommates had woken up.  The room was still and peaceful aside from her pounding heart.  Oh Gods, I can’t believe I dreamed about kissing James Potter.  She brought her hand up to her mouth…it had been one of the most real and vivid dreams she’d ever had.

Lily was really a rather shy person, and certainly not the type to date lots of different guys, but she was not unpopular, and she had been kissed before, but never like that.

“Stop thinking like that this instant Lily Evans!”  She whispered aloud.  “It was a dream.  It wasn’t real.  It doesn’t change anything, Potter is still a prat and you’d better remember it!”

She laid back down and pulled the covers tightly around her.  I will not think about it again, she vowed, by tomorrow morning I will have forgotten about this silly dream.

___

It will be awhile before they kiss in real life, but I figured I owed you at least some dream snogging.