Moments

“There was no moment.”


“Yes.”


“No.”


“Yes.”


“No.”


Lily stared at James, willing him to back down. Unfortunately, he returned her gaze without any sign of relenting.


“Dammit, James!”


“Dammit, Lily!”


Lily closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then counted to five before opening her mouth to speak again. “Now you're just acting like a child.”


“And that makes you, what? A baby?”


Lily clenched her fists at her side. “There was no moment, okay, and even if there was, I didn't mean it.”


To her surprise, James took a step backward and smiled. “That's all I wanted to hear you say,” he said, turning around and moving toward the nearest chair.


Before she could stop herself, Lily reached out her hand and grabbed his arm. “Wait—what?” she asked.


James turned around. He was grinning again. It was the cocky, arrogant sort of grin that would usually have her inching to pull out her wand and hex him, but she was too distracted at the moment to think of a good curse.


“That's. All. I. Wanted. To. Hear. You. Say,” he repeated, drawing each word out for effect.


He made a movement as if to turn around again, but stopped and glanced at his arm. Lily followed his gaze, her cheeks burning red as she realized her hand was still resting above his wrist. She dropped it quickly to her side, but it was obvious from James's expression he wasn't going to let it slide without comment.


Unable to think of anything to say to ward off the awkwardness of the situation, she steeled herself for whatever he was going to say. His eyes searched hers, and she found that she was unable to turn away.


“There,” he said, softly, “this is another one.”


“What?” she asked, wondering what had happened to her voice. It sounded light, breathless.


James didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached out and allowed his hand to lightly brush along her fingers. Lily willed her hand to move, but found with rising hysteria that it wouldn't. James stepped closer to her, and trailed his hand down her arm, causing an electric sensation to go running up Lily's spine. Her eyes, meanwhile, continued to disobey her command to look away, and her feet betrayed her, staying firmly rooted to the spot even though she had issued at least a dozen commands for them to retreat from the man standing in front of her.


Left without protest from Lily, James's exploration of her hand grew bolder, and he entwined his fingers in hers, lifting her hand up, and pulling her forward. Now, her feet seemed to have gotten the message to move, but they were moving in quite the wrong direction—taking her closer to James instead of further away. In the next second, his fingers had slid up her arm, caressed her neck, and were now gently entwined in her hair.


For one breathless, terrifying, exhilarating moment, Lily was certain James was going to kiss her. Instead, he leaned in and whispered in her ear. “This is another one,” he repeated, but there was no trace of the mocking tone she was so used to hearing him use.

“Another what?” she asked, trying to pretend that she wasn't rendered nearly mindless at the sensation of James's mouth so close to ear.

“Moment,” he whispered, and before she could say anything further, he abruptly dropped her hand, which, she realized, had been entwined in the hand not cupping her face in it, turned, and strode across the common room and up the stairs.

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