Chapter 13: Driving Lessons
"Don't worry-- we'll take good care of the girls while you two are gone." Moira assured.
"Oh, I know you will-- thanks so much, Moira-- you're a lifesaver, really, and Jeff and I will feel much better knowing they aren't home alone." Laurie said.
Moira nodded. "Have fun you two-- we'll see you on Saturday morning."
"Thanks." Jeff smiled brightly. "You girls be good for Moira and David, yeah?"
"We will, Uncle Jeff, don't worry!" Maggie smiled as she gave him a one armed hug. Lily did the same and then, Laurie and Jeff were off.
The door closed behind them and Moira turned to face the two girls, clasping her hands together.
"Well, let's get you girls upstairs-- I'll show you where you'll be sleeping for the night and you can set your bags down."
Lily and Maggie smiled and followed Moira upstairs to a spare bedroom, decorated in a warm yellow color. Doing some fancy spell work, Moira quickly transfigured a spare pillow into an extra bed.
"Right, that's settled." Moira said, pocketing her wand. "ready to head down to dinner, girls? I expect David and the boys should be just about finished."
"James and Sirius are cooking dinner?" Lily asked, slightly frightened. "No offense to either of them of course, but should we be scared?"
Moira laughed good naturedly. "I'm not entirely sure, actually, but shhh! don't tell David that-- he's been harping on me all day about not being supportive of his deciding to cook the muggle way tonight." she said, leading the way out of the room and downstairs.
Lily chuckled slightly.
"So what exactly is on the menu, then?" Maggie inquired.
"I'll have you know it was you, Maggie who inspired the menu, or at least David's decision to do something called barbequing-- according to David, it's quite common where you're from."
"Barbequing?" Maggie repeated, unable to hide the slight nervousness that tinged her words.
"Yes, but why do you sound so frazzled at the thought, dear?" Moira asked curiously.
"Erm…Mrs. Potter, do you by any chance know what barbequing consists of?" Maggie asked carefully.
"No, not exactly…" Moira said cautiously.
"Well…" Maggie said, going into detail of exactly what the definition of barbequing was.
After her definition had sunk in, the pigment of Moira's skin looked as if it had drained slightly of it's colour.
"Oh dear…" She replied faintly, resting her hand on her forehead as if taking her temperature. "My garden! The house! Oh dear, they'll burn the patio down!"
And with that, Moira was all but flying down the stairs, calling her husband's name warningly as she went.
Maggie and Lily exchanged looks before bounding down the stairs after her. It was quite easy to find the kitchen from upstairs, firstly because the house was not overly large and secondly because the rooms in the Potter house were laid out identically to those in Lily's.
"David Harold Potter! When I gave you permission to cook the muggle way tonight you did not specify that you'd be cooking over an open fire near our house!" Moira accused. "What were you thinking?!--"
Lily and Maggie got to the kitchen just in time to watch Moira Potter scold her husband and though she was a good head shorter than her husband, her size made her no less intimidating.
"-- you could have burned the house down! You could have burned my poppies!"
"But nothing, happened, darling!" David said, carefully. "We were completely safe, besides, if the fire had gotten out of control, you don't think I could have used my wand to put it out? Huh?"
David sent his wife a grin which, in Lily's opinion, was scarily identical to James'.
"I guess so," Moira admitted begrudgingly, her body language slipping from the tense angered stance she had originally taken. "I just wish you'd told me is all-- the situation could have been dangerous."
"I know darling, and I'm sorry." David said, taking his wife's hand. "I promise next time I decide to take part in seemingly dangerous muggle acts, I will do my best to inform you to a fuller extent, now come help me set the table."
"Could have been dangerous?" James said, in a low voice after his parents had left the room.
"Why do I sense that there was something your dad didn't inform your mum of?" Lily asked curiously.
"Uh oh, do we even want to know?" Maggie asked.
"Sirius had a little accident with the kerosene--" James started.
"How was I supposed to know how flammable that stuff was? I didn't expect the fire to burst that far up into the air." Sirius whispered so as not to let Moira hear.
"Mother of Merlin!" Lily said almost feeling herself go pale at the thought.
"Don't worry, like dad said-- nothing happened. He was able to put it out before any major damage occurred."
"Major damage? James, you could have burned the house down!" Lily whispered sharply.
"Yes, Lily darling, we know, Moira's just informed us of that," Sirius said, patting her on the shoulder. "So rather than running the risk of sounding like a broken record, let's instead retire to the dining room and have dinner instead."
"And yes," Sirius said, cutting Lily off as she opened her mouth to say something else. "I will explain to you exactly how I know what a record is, although I must say, I'm slightly hurt at the fact that just because James here doesn't pay attention in Muggle Studies, you'd venture to think I didn't pay attention either."
Lily could have responded, but instead, settled for shutting her mouth and allowing Sirius to steer her into the next room while pondering about the slightly frightening thought of Sirius Black, of all people, knowing her well enough to know what she was about to say.
Dinner was a pleasant affair, to say the least and the food, with it's charred barbeque look turned out to be surprisingly good despite Lily's previous doubt. When everyone had finished dinner, both James and Sirius helped Moira clear the dishes from the table and bring them to the kitchen. They returned with dessert plates and forks in hand; Moira followed with a large treacle tart presented on a sliver colored platter.
"That treacle tart looks lovely, dear." David said appreciatively.
Moira smiled, obviously pleased at the compliment and began serving dessert.
"Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? David? Moira?"
Moira froze in the act of passing out treacle tart and gave a fleeting glance at her husband.
"The fireplace-" David said quickly as they both ran to the living room.
A questioning glance crossed Lily's features but she had no time to wonder why Mr. and Mrs. Potter had rushed to the living room before James was urging them to follow his parents.
In the living room, Moira and David were kneeled before the fireplace where the head of a rather nervous looking man sat bobbing up and down in the embers.
"Yes! As quickly as you can David, and Moira, you'd better get over to St. Mungo's-- they'll need all the help they can get if this goes badly."
"Yes, we'll apparate right away and thank you!"
There was a particularly large crackling sound and in the blink of an eye, the man's head was gone.
"Mum, what's happened?" James asked worriedly.
"There's been another attack," David answered instead as he scurried to the hall closet to get his cloak. "Moody thinks it could get out of hand if we don't get down there now-- that's why he had Sloat contact us via floo."
"Dear, have you seen my work robes?" Moira asked, poking furtively through the closet.
"On the coat rack in the kitchen, love." David said, fastening the clasps and following her into the kitchen. Naturally, James, Sirius, Lily, and Maggie followed as well.
Moira made a triumphant sound when she found her lime green robes and threw them on quickly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry dears!" Moira said, when she turned to face them. "I know we told your parents, Lily that we'd keep an eye out for you both tonight but--"
"It's alright, they'll understand-- this is important," Lily said, cutting her off. "just go and take care of--" Lily paused, not knowing how to finish her statement. "take care of everyone."
"Yeah, don't worry, Mrs. Potter-- we'll take care of each other," Maggie quipped. "And we'll tidy up the kitchen as well."
Moira smiled at the teens in front of her. "That sounds lovely dear, but tidying up the kitchen? Don't be silly, you're a guest, and besides, it'll be much easier if I just…" and with a quick sweeping wave of her wand, the kitchen was meticulously clean once more.
"Have I told you how much I love magic, Lily?" Maggie said, awed.
"Right, all set, dear?" David Potter asked, sweeping into the kitchen, and grabbing a spatula from a nearby drawer; he tapped it three times with his wand and it glowed a soft blue color and trembled slightly before the glow faded and the kitchen utensil remained seemingly unchanged. "You've got about a minute before the portkey activates."
"Yes, just about ready, thank you, darling." Moira said, grabbing the spatula in her other hand on one side, while David held onto the other.
"We'll be back soon, now-- behave and take care of each other." Moira chided. "Oh, and in case there's an emergency or you're in mortal danger--"
"Yes, mum, we know-- floo directly to the safety house." James said, cutting his mother off.
Moira smiled, slightly reassured.
"Be careful mum, dad." James said.
"We'll see you soon, son." David Potter said, in an assured tone before the pair were engulfed in a bright light and when the light faded out, they had vanished.
"Do you really have a safe house?" Lily asked curiously.
"Yeah," James grinned. "Grandpa Potter set it up during the 1940s when the dark wizard Grindewald was trying to conquer Europe. My parents never thought we'd need to use it but they kept it anyway after he passed and well…I guess now, what with all the attacks and Voldemort rising so quickly, they feel a bit more secured knowing we have somewhere safe to go in case…" James let his sentence trail off.
"Wow." Said Lily, obviously impressed. "So where is this safe house, anyway?"
"Well, if I told you where it was, that would defeat the purpose of having a hidden safe house now wouldn't it?" James grinned, sending Lily a wink as well, before the four of them retired to the living room.
An uneventful hour passed where Maggie tried but failed miserably to convince Lily to let them play the muggle game 'Twister.' Lily argued that the game was first of all potentially harmful to your body and secondly that they didn't have a 'Twister' mat anywhere even remotely nearby to play with anyway. Maggie however, secretly thought Lily didn't want to play out of fear that she would have most likely ended up twisted in a rather compromising position with a certain messy haired bespectacled boy before the game was over. Instead of arguing however, Maggie gave up, and after five minutes of silence, suddenly propped herself up by one arm from her position on the floor.
"Do you know what would be really good right about now? Some ice cream…" she said, almost as if she were thinking out loud.
"Ooh, ice cream…"Sirius thought. "a sundae from Florean Fortescues'-- a strawberry and peanut butter sundae-- that'd be nice…"
"Yeah, except Florean Fortescues' is all the way in Diagon Alley." James pointed out.
"Thank you so much, Prongs-- how lovely of you to burst my bubble…" Sirius said, dryly.
"If it'll cheer you up, we might have some in the freezer…" James commented.
"Really?" Maggie and Sirius asked excitedly, making a mad dash to the kitchen.
Lily shrugged, smiling slightly and tilted her head in the direction of the kitchen, motioning that she and James should follow.
"Oh, bugger." Sirius said, poking around through the freezer. "There's no ice cream!"
"Oops!" James grinned sheepishly. "Could have sworn we had some…we must have ate it all, then."
Sirius closed the freezer, looking slightly put out while Maggie simply leaned on the counter, putting a finger to her chin as if in thought.
"No big deal," She said, finally. "We'll just go get some."
"Go get ice cream?" Lily asked. "Maggie, the closest store is in town-- that's a half hour by foot-- there's no way we're walking all the way over there."
"Oh, my dear cousin," Maggie said, patting Lily on the shoulder. "I didn't say we had to walk…"
"So you want to take the bus downtown?" James mused. "We could do that, couldn't we?"
"Bus stops running at eight." Lily brushed off with a wave of her hand.
"Really?" Sirius asked curiously.
"That's what happens when you live in a small town…" Lily grinned.
"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I wasn't exactly thinking of taking the bus either," Maggie said, a grin forming on her lips. "I was thinking more along the lines of driving down."
"With what?" Lily laughed, as if the suggestion was the craziest in the world. "First off, my parents took our car, in case you've forgotten, and secondly, I can't drive."
"Whaddaya mean you can't drive?" Maggie asked, looking at Lily as if she had just grown an extra head.
"I mean I never learned how… you can't drive here till you're seventeen anyway and I never felt the need to learn after I got into Hogwarts."
Maggie's mouth hung open still, even after Lily's explanation.
"And do either of you two know how to drive?" she asked, turning to face Sirius and James who shook their heads promptly. "Holy crow, are you serious? Seventeen and neither of you drive a car?"
"Cars are muggle contraptions-- besides, being wizards, we've got ulterior means of getting around." James explained.
"Floo powder and side apparation are quite nifty when you're underage." Sirius piped in.
"That's absolutely crazy…Christ, I'll have been driving for a year and a half in August."
"Well, that's lovely and all," Lily said. "but even if we did want to drive to get ice cream, we still don't' have a car, Maggie."
"Actually…" James said, an idea having obviously come to mind.
"My dad hardly ever drives it." James said, leading them into the garage.
"Oh, and if he never drives it, don't you think he'd find it quite suspicious if he comes to check on it and there are an extra few kilometers registered on the car, hmm?" Lily pointed out, as soon as the rest of them had arrived in the dark room.
"You can actually figure out how many kilometers are on a car?" James asked, curiously.
"Of course, that's what the odometer's for, smart one." Lily said. When all she received was a blank look from James, she elaborated her explanation. "The little row of numbers just underneath the thing that tells you how fast you're going? Surely you've noticed that that number doesn't just stay the same all the time."
"I thought you said you didn't know how to drive." Sirius pointed out.
"I don't," Lily said. "But that doesn't mean I don't know how to drive figuratively speaking."
"Aaah." Sirius said, grinning.
"So, where's the car?" Maggie asked.
"Right here." James said, pulling a taupe colored tarp off a rather large object to reveal a sleek, red sports car. The same shiny red car, in fact, that Lilly had seen the day the Potters had moved in, parked just on the driveway.
Lily's mouth hung open.
"James, that's a 1950s Austin Healey-- there is NO way we are driving that! Your dad would kill us!"
"A 1950s what?" Sirius asked confused.
"A Healey" Lily repeated, slightly exasperated.
"She means the car make, I'm guessing…?" James said.
"Exactly. Do you know-- that car is estimated to be worth over fifteen thousand pounds within the next few decades-- especially if your dad keeps it in this condition." Lily exclaimed.
Sirius gave her a rather odd look, "Out of curiosity, why exactly do you know so much about cars?"
"I don't-- I only know about classic cars." Lily explained. "And my grandpa taught me-- before he died-- cars were one of his many hobbies-- thought I must say, I never thought I retained that much of the information he taught me."
"Interesting, but really, Lily, it's just a car and besides nothing's going to happen, right, James?"
"Right." James confirmed.
"Just a car? Are you kidding? It's a classic and we're not driving it." Lily said, stomping her foot to enhance her point. "C-can't we just take your other car? I thought you had a station wagon as well."
"We do," James verified. "But my mum's station wagon is in the shop-- something about changing the plugs or whatever cars are made out of."
"Fine, if you're so opposed of going out to get ice cream, Lily, you stay here," Sirius said pointing to the spot on the ground. "and James, Maggie, and I will go."
Sirius opened the passenger's side door and sliding into the front seat.
"Come on, James, aren't you coming?" Sirius asked. "It'll be fun…"
James was torn. On one hand, taking his dad's old sports car out for a spin sounded like a barrel of fun but on the other, he didn't want to agitate Lily. In the end however, it was Sirius' mischievous grin that let the Marauder side of him win and before he knew it he had hopped into the back seat, grinning widely at the prospect of adventure.
"Maggie?" Sirius asked.
Maggie shrugged her shoulders, giving Lily a 'what can I do?' sort of look. "No one else can drive." she reasoned, looking at Lily's obvious dislike of taking the car out. "besides, like Sirius said, it'll be fun."
"Forget about Lily, Maggie," Sirius said, as he leaned over and opened the driver's door for her. "she's going to miss out on all the fun and will be bored out of her mind waiting for us to return from the ice cream store."
Maggie shrugged again before getting into the car.
"Keys?" she asked, putting her palm out.
James dropped the keys into her hand.
Maggie put the keys in the ignition and the car purred to life, a rumbling sound echoing in the dimly lit garage.
"We're turning on the car…" Sirius said as he looked at Lily, giving her a play-by-play. "we're opening the garage door…"
The garage door opened at the click of a button. "And we're going to drive away now…bye, Lily, see you when we get back--"
Maggie was just about to let go of the break when Lily's voice stopped her.
"Okay, okay, wait!"
"Change your mind so soon, Lily dear?" Sirius asked innocently, giving her a knowing look.
"I want to make it perfectly clear that I am getting into this car with you lot out of protest AND to make sure that you three" She said, pointing at each of them in turn. "don't do something stupid while you're out there wreaking havoc on the road."
"Alright, whatever you say, Lily." Maggie said, grinning widely.
Lily hoisted herself up and over to sit in the back seat next to James and behind Sirius where she promptly secured her seat belt.
"Dear Merlin help me," she muttered before smoothing out her hair and speaking to the rest of them. "Did everyone put on their seat belts? And Maggie you're sure you know how to drive this thing?"
"Of course--"
"You know how to drive a stick shift?" Lily asked.
"In theory," Maggie said, and before Lily had time to respond, she stomped on the gas pedal and was quite surprised that the car simply gave a loud roar and stayed completely still.
"Oops!" Maggie exclaimed, laughing sheepishly. "Forgot to let go of the clutch-- alright, here we go, for real this time."
"Bloody hell…save me please." Lily muttered, while praying to any unknown higher being who might happen to be listening, before ceremoniously dropping her head momentarily onto James' shoulder, effectively shielding her eyes.
When she felt the car turn out of the driveway and realized they had not crashed into anything in the process, Lily lifted her head, opening her eyes slowly only to meet the site of James' eyes which held a slightly amused look.
"See?" James grinned. "Nothing to be worried about…give Maggie a little more credit-- she said she could drive."
"Yeah, give me a little more credit." Maggie said, good naturedly, meeting Lily's eyes through the rearview mirror. "Honestly though, Lils. Did you really not think I'd be able to drive this thing?"
"Honestly?" Lily asked, "don't be mad, but no."
"Gee, thanks." Maggie said, sardonically.
"You weren't supposed to get mad." Lily pointed out.
"I'm not-- I'm only joking." Maggie smiled impishly before directing her attention to the road ahead.
The ride was slightly bumpy and jerky to say the least, but Lily knew it was because Maggie had never actually driven anything except for an automatic car and therefore kept mixing up the gear shifts and when she was supposed to change them. Finally however, they reached the downtown district which, for a Friday night, was not as full as Lily was expecting it to be.
"Alright, we're here-- the ice cream shop is just down that street so let's hurry up and get the ice cream you just had to have and get back home."
"Why are you so paranoid, Lily? We got here in one piece, didn't we? I told you I was a good driver, so just relax." Maggie said.
"No, it's not that-- Maggie, this is a small town, almost everyone knows everyone else and if anyone who knows my family sees me out here and just so happens to mention it to my parents…well, I don't expect they'll be to pleased especially since we weren't supposed to leave the Potter house." Lily pointed out.
"Hmm…" Maggie thought, seeing Lily's point. "Point taken. Alright, boys, you heard the lady, let's hurry it up!"
They walked toward the ice cream shop, stopping shortly only to drag Sirius away from a shiny black motorcycle on the side of the road, displaying a "For Sale" sign that hung between the two handles.
"Come on, I've got enough gold! Uncle Alphard left me more than enough!" Sirius cried.
"Well, I don't think your Uncle Alphard would have wanted you to spend all that on a motorcycle," Lily said briskly. "besides, you'd need muggle money to buy that, not wizard's gold."
James dragged Sirius by the arm toward the ice cream parlor and Sirius waved sadly at the motorcycle.
"I'll be back for you one day…" he said melodramatically as he blew a kiss toward it, causing both Lily and Maggie to roll their eyes, although, they noticed that Sirius perked up and seemed to have forgotten about the motorcycle as soon as he had a rather large ice cream cone packed with three heaping scoops of ice cream in his hand.
The road was dark before them as Maggie drove them back to the Potter house, but for the few lamp posts that were in Lily's opinion, not very strategically placed along the side of the road.
Lily could tell she was a great deal more confident and comfortable driving the old car from the speed at which they were going.
"Are you sure you don't want me to hold that while you're driving?" Lily asked, for the umpteenth time, motioning to Maggie's half eaten ice cream.
"Yes, Lily, it's fine-- don't worry." She said, turning her head to look back at Lily who was seated in the back seat, diagonally from her.
"Alright, alright-- just, just keep your eyes on the--"
"Maggie, watch out!" Sirius yelled.
It was then, that Lily noticed a pair of rather large headlights coming directly toward them at a rather alarming pace.
The sharp sound of the truck's horn, honking seemed to reverberate onto the car itself as the distance between their rather small car and the truck's very large front bumper quickly dissipated and almost as if it were an automatic reaction, Lily grabbed onto James' arm, holding it in a vice grip as if somehow, that would save her from being run over. She heard James swear loudly, as Maggie shrieked, jerking the steering wheel roughly to the left and stopping just short of hitting a rather large oak tree.
The truck, sped by, the sound of it's horn slowly fading into the darkness.
"Bloody hell!" Sirius screamed, still holding onto the dashboard for dear life.
"What was that all about?" James asked, his voice strangely quiet for someone who had been quite close to getting into a car crash.
"She drove on the wrong side of the road." Lily said, still gasping for air, her hands shaking slightly, unable to remove them from where she was strongly clinging to James' arm. "I-in America, they drive on the other side."
James, noting this, pulled Lily's hands off of his arm and held them tightly in his own, willing her to stop shaking, though, Lily hardly seemed to notice he was doing this.
"That's barking mad." Sirius exhaled.
"I'm sorry!" Maggie exclaimed, still trying to catch her breath. "I was on autopilot-- I forgot!"
"Maggie, you just drove all the way downtown! Surely you'd have noticed what side of the road you were driving on!" Lily exclaimed.
"There were no other cars on the road at the time!" Maggie exclaimed, breathing in short ragged breaths. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean--- the car's alright, isn't it?"
"The car?! Bugger the car, Mags! I just want to make sure that you're okay!" Lily said, still slightly hysteric from the shock. "Everyone's okay, right? Boys?"
"Yep, I'm fine, you, James?" Sirius asked.
"Fine." James confirmed.
"Good." Lily said, letting out a deep breath as she extracted her hands from in between James' larger ones. "Alright, Maggie-- turn on the car and let's get back-- just take it slowly, yeah?"
"Right." Maggie said, her hands shaking as she turned the car on and drove them slowly back home.
The arrived back to the Potter's house, Maggie being sure to park the car exactly as they had found it while Sirius and James got out and inspected the car for any major damage.
"Well?" Lily asked anxiously.
"Everything seems to be alright…" James said.
"Except…?" Lily asked, sensing there was a little something off.
"Well, except for the fact that Maggie dropped her ice cream cone on the seat, here." James pointed at the offending stain.
"Oh," Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "well, that, fortunately can be fixed-- Scourgify."
With a flick of her wand, the stain and the ice cream cone had vanished, leaving the cream colored leather seats to their original state and James threw the tarp over the car once more before the four made their way back up into the living room once more.
"So what should we do now?" Sirius asked expectantly.
"What should we do?" Lily asked. "Well, it's ten o'clock therefore, I vote-- no I insist that we all get to bed this instant before your parents get home, James. I think we've had enough excitement for one evening."
And with that, she trudged the boys and Maggie up stairs, making sure they were all going to their respective bedrooms.
"Aren't you going to give us a kiss and tuck us into bed, as well, mummy?" Sirius said sarcastically.
Before ducking into his room and shutting the door just before the rolled up news paper Lily had grabbed from the hall table and carefully aimed in his direction had the chance to hit him in the head.
The news paper landed with a Thunk! on the ground and Lily could hear Sirius laughing hysterically behind the door of his bedroom.
Heaving a sigh, she turned, bidding James goodnight before following Maggie in to the guest bedroom where they were sleeping for the night.
******
Lily turned on her side once more-- it had been more than an hour since she had sent everyone to bed, but despite insisting on an early bedtime, she herself, could not will her body to go to sleep. She sighed, rubbing her eyes slightly, listening to the sound of Maggie's faint snoring before restlessly tossing the blankets off of her and quietly getting out of bed.
If she wasn't going to be able to sleep, Lily figured she may as well take advantage of the time and finish up the Astronomy homework she had been putting off since the start of the summer. And so, pulling out the workbook from her knapsack, she trudged downstairs and out to the Potter's backyard.
Lily was deep in thought almost an hour later, when the sound of James' voice caused her to turn around.
"Hey," he said simply.
She smiled at him warmly and watched as he walked toward her, carrying a bundle in his right arm.
"I brought you this," James said, holding out a blanket to her. "It's getting a bit cold and I thought you might want it."
"Thanks," Lily said, thinking the gesture to be awfully kind as she laid the blanket out over her crossed legs. "how'd you know I was out here?"
"You left the backdoor opened," James said simply. "It's a bit late though, what are you doing out here?"
Lily held up a thin spiral notebook and a few sheets of paper.
"I've been neglecting Professor Sinistra's homework all holiday" Lily said rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "If I don't get it done now, I'll never finish by start of term."
"Fair enough," James grinned.
"What about you?" Lily asked. "You're up pretty late yourself, James"
"Couldn't sleep I guess- just came downstairs for a glass of water," James shrugged. "Then I saw you out here, and well, I couldn't very well let you freeze to death." he said, motioning to the blanket now draped over Lily's legs.
"That's sweet." Lily grinned.
"It looks like you're almost done though," James ventured, sitting himself down next to Lily and leaning over her shoulder to look at her star charts.
Lily felt a fine trail of goose bumps forming across her arms and knew, that however much she would have liked it to be true, they had not been produced by the crisp summer night's air.
"Uh huh-- I've just got to write up that summary she wants us to do-- you know the one where we talk about the changes we've seen since the last time we had class and whenever we decided to observe the night sky?" Lily said, snapping the booklet shut and setting it aside.
James nodded in recognition before averting his gaze to the inky black sky above.
"Well, you sure picked a good day for Astronomy homework-- the sky's spotless,"
Lily said nothing but averted her eyes to the heavens above as well, spreading out the blanket so it covered James as well.
A comfortable silence settled over the pair and Lily reveled in the sheer peacefulness of it all.
"Hey Lily?" James asked, breaking the silence.
"Hmm?" Lily replied, not bothering to face him.
"Do you remember the last time we did this? Looked at the stars, I mean?"
"Yes," Lily said, grinning up at him. "Sirius broke my porch swing and almost broke two of my ribs when he landed on my stomach."
James grinned back, halfheartedly, failing from fully burying the feeling of disappointment at the fact that Lily had not exactly answered the way he'd wanted her to. He could have just left it at that-- that would have been the smart thing to do, the more reasonable side of him argued. But something within him-- something stronger, urged him to probe Lily further.
"Is that all you remember?" James finally asked, his voice softer than it had been before.
Lily was quite for a moment before responding with an almost hesitant, "No."
"Oh…" James let the word trail off. "Any recollections of say, what happened before Sirius made his spectacular entrance?"
Lily paused, James' question leaving her slightly speechless-- remember? How could she forget? And instantly flashes of that evening came pouring through her mind. Flashes of James playing with her hair, stroking her cheek, the feel of his rough but smooth finger tips tracing her jaw, and a rather short, fleeting image of James slowly moving closer and closer before…
"Possibly," Lily replied finally, the single word tumbling almost carefully from her lips. She paused, knowing her answer would affect so much of what would result of this conversation.
"But at the moment, I can't seem to recall," the rational part of her lied, deciding it still wanted to live in denial. Denial, in Lily's eyes was safe-- the safest rout to take at this point at least-- safe and familiar, that's what denial was. But technically, Lily convinced herself, it wasn't denial at all, because who knew for sure what would have happened if Sirius hadn't so gracefully entered at that specific point?
Lily watched James try but fail miserably at hiding the disappointment on his features. His disappointment tugged at her heart enough for her to elaborate on her last statement.
"But I'll make sure to let you know when I do remember." Lily said, trying to sound hopeful and encouraging. James gave a half smile and feeling slightly better herself, Lily stood up and touched his shoulder lightly.
"Time for bed," she said, walking toward the Potter house, dragging the blanket slightly behind her. Lily had not gone more than five steps before she turned around, realizing James was still sitting on the grass where she had left him. "well, aren't you coming?"
James turned around at her question.
"What, to bed with you?" James asked. He should have known his response would come out sounding funny-- there
was really no way of answering Lily's question without his response coming out sounding as if it could have a
double meaning.
Lily blushed slightly, knowing James hadn't meant his response to come out sounding the way it did, but unable to stop her mind from wandering to the not so innocent meaning those words could have meant.
"Well, obviously not to your bed with you-- I would never!-- not that I'd never-- I mean, that's not to that I wouldn't want to but…Oh bugger." James stopped rambling, figuring if he just stopped talking, he couldn't embarrass himself even more than he already had.
"Right," Lily said, giving an embarrassed chuckle. "No worries, I get it."
"Good," James said, laughing nervously as the pink in his cheeks slowly vanished.
"Come on then, let's go inside- it is rather cold out." Lily said, picking up the blanket she had been dragging and leading the way back toward the Potter house.
James nodded, following Lily inside where he walked her to the guest room before trudging off to his own room.
Since the Potters had moved in next door to the Evans', as far as James was concerned, he had not spent a single dull moment in the company of one, Lily Evans, and spending a whole evening with her in the form of a sleepover, he now knew, was no exception.
A/N:
A note about cars:
I know absolutely nothing, or very little about cars so I had a conversation with my dad before choosing which type of car James' father should have and came up with the Austin Healey which was the closest to what the car featured in this chapter looked like in my head as well as a car that at the time, would have both held value as well as been expected to be worth something in the future.
If you're curious, here's a link to the picture:
http:// www. santiagosc.
com/Pictures%20of%20Cars%20for%20Sale/sold%20cars/red%20white%20healey. jpg
Just make sure you take the spaces out from between the address before you enter it onto your browser.
And if that doesn't work, if you google search: red white healey
It's the first picture that comes up. J
It should also be said, that I believe that is a later model--- something like a 1965, and the model that I specified in this chapter was supposed to be more between 1950-1953, but you'll get the gist of it, never the less.-- they don't look much different.
So, until next time, thank you all for reading and as always, don't forget to REVIEW!