A/N: Sorry it is taking so long to get this chapter. This is actually the second write (the first maybe included in the bloopers chapter at the very end of this series).
Disclaimer: I've created the plot, not the characters.
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Chapter Eighteen
"I cannot believe you are going on a date with him today," Alice squealed from her bedcovers. Lily groaned, barely opening her eyes. "Aren't you excited?"
"Alice, it's like seven in the morning… and on a Saturday, none the less," Lily groaned. Alice laughed, a pillow flying from one bed to the other.
"You can't pretend that you aren't excited," Alice said not hiding the excitement from her voice. "Have you decided what you're going to wear?"
"What do you mean? I'm wearing my uniform, as always," Lily grumbled as she pulled the covers over her head.
"What?" Alice cried out as she hopped from the bed. Lily cringed as Alice yanked the bedcovers free, causing Lily to get a chill of cold air.
"Stoke the fire, it's freezing in here," cried Lily as Alice began to pull Lily from her bed. Sighing, Alice let go of Lily and poked the fire for a minute.
"I can't believe that you aren't putting more interest in what you are dressing yourself in for you long anticipated date," Alice said exasperatedly. "There are bets to see how long it takes for James to do something embarrassing…"
"Ooh, can I get in on that action?" Lily grinned from under the blanket she had retrieved from the floor. Alice rolled her eyes.
"Lily, you can't bet against James!" Alice said shaking her head. "And you can't wear your school uniform on your very first date. What would you tell your children when you tell them the story of how you and James met?"
"I'm going on a date with him, not marrying him!" Lily said as she reluctantly allowed Alice to pull her from the bed. "Plus it's freezing outside. The wool skirts and what not are the only things that keep me warm, more so than my jeans or anything."
"Back me up, Libby," Alice said as she addressed one of the other girls in their dorm.
"Leave me alone," a growl came from under a blanket.
"Alice, really, I don't think James' going to care what I am wearing," Lily said. Alice shook her head and pulled out a dress.
"Wear this, it matches your eyes," Alice said. Lily looked at the dress, a velvety green dress.
"We're not going to a party or anything, just on a date," Lily said growling as she tossed the dress aside. Lily picked up her sweat pants and pulled them on over her panties. "You make such a big thing out of something that really is nothing."
"It's not `nothing', Lily. This is the start of an intense relationship," Alice said as she picked the green dress back up.
"That won't fit me, anyways," Lily said. "I'd have to stuff my bra."
"We can't have that," Libby groaned from under her blanket. "Imagine James' surprise when he pulls out a wad of tissue."
"James will be doing no such thing!" Lily said as she tore her tee shirt off. She pulled a fresh one on, straightening it. "This is just a harmless date, not an invitation to feel me up."
"Maybe you should let him know that," Libby groaned as she climbed out of bed. Lily shook her head.
"He knows better than try," Lily laughed as she pulled her socks on her feet.
"You're going down to breakfast like that?" Alice asked. Lily rolled her eyes.
"What?" Lily asked as she exited the dorm room.
"You look like crap, Lily!" Alice called loudly as Lily bound down the stairs. Lily laughed again and headed across the common room to the portrait hole.
"I think she's wrong, in case you care," James said as he queued behind her. Lily grinned at him.
"So you know, I'm wearing my school uniform today for our date," Lily said quickly.
"You look beautiful in everything," James commented. Lily laughed.
"You're so corny!" Lily said as she slipped her hand in his. "I'm just glad that you got over your case of Dragon Pox. Green is a good color for Sirius, but you… you're better suited for burgundy."
"Don't let Sirius hear you. He dreads anything remotely like Slytherin colors," James whispered as the two of them headed down to breakfast. He kissed her cheek.
"Already pulling the old Potter charm out, are you?" Lily laughed as she pulled free. She took her seat, beginning to eat.
The plan was to meet in Hogsmead by Honeydukes' Sweet Shoppe. After that, it was completely up to James as to what they were doing. Dressed in her school uniform, and completely with her thickest wool cape, Lily stood where they had agreed. She was still cold, and contemplated heading inside, but she didn't want James to come across the shop and find her not standing outside.
"He's late," Lily said breathing on her mitten covered hands. She was stamping her feet, trying to keep warm. She quickly checked her watch and shook her head. He was an hour late.
"Hey Lily," James breathed into her ear when he finally made his appearance.
"You know you're an hour late," Lily said crossing her arms. James frowned and pulled out a rather old looking pocket watch.
"No, I'm freakishly early," James said showing her the time piece.
"You fool, it's not a watch," Lily said shivering.
"It's the watch you gave me for Christmas," James said. Lily shook her head.
"It doesn't tell time, not in the traditional sense," Lily said exasperated. "Didn't you read the card?"
"Uh," James said blushing as he scratched the back of his head.
"The watch tells the time that an important event in your near future will happen," Lily explained while shaking her head. She sounded a little annoyed. "Let's just get this date over with, ok?"
"Merlin, Lily. I'm sorry," James said sheepishly as he took her hand and lead her to the tea shop. She followed but didn't say much of anything. They sat down on frilly little poufs of chairs that Lily found annoying and uncomfortable. They drank tea, and talked some.
"Is this really what you had in mind for our first date?" Lily asked as she looked at an equally uncomfortable James.
"You deserve clean, pretty places," James said. Lily laughed, ignoring the looks of the others around her. "The cleanest, prettiest places in the world. This was the best I could think of."
"Why don't we grab a couple of pints at the Hogshead?" Lily said.
"That seedy dive?" James said. "I mean I know I go there all the time, and Remus took you there to work on our papers, but that's really a dangerous place sometimes. There are all kinds of illicit activities going on, shady people, you know."
"Come on, James. We're too young to be so stuffy," Lily said. She looked at him challenging. "Then maybe you can think of something fun we can do."
"Well," James said.
"Otherwise, let's just call this a failed date and move on," Lily suggested. James crossed his arms.
"Damn, when did you get so pushy?" James asked frowning.
"I told you that I'm not your kind of girl, James," Lily said as she stood, shaking her head. She headed away from him. "Sorry."
James watched he walk out of the tea shop and head towards the Hogshead. Sighing, he left as well and marched through the snow to see her. He entered, happy to find her alone and waiting for him. He shook his head as he sat down.
"I'm not giving up that quickly, Lily," James said as he took her hand. "I've been waiting for years to date you, and I plan on dating you properly. So this date was a dud, so what? I can make it up to you."
"Maybe I was too harsh," Lily said quietly as she traced the rim of her cup. "Standing in the cold, waiting for you will do that."
"Well," James said as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "I'll learn to tell time better, ok?"
"Ok," Lily said slowly.
"I think I know something that you'll find fun," James said as pulled back.
"Really?" Lily asked.
"Have you ever been to a real haunted house before?" James asked. Lily looked intrigued.
"No," Lily replied. "I haven't been."
"If I take you to this very haunted house, you have to promise that you will never visit it without me, and never alone," James said in a low, mysterious voice. Lily nodded eagerly.
The two set out in the snow towards the shrieking shack. Though there were rumors that it was the most haunted place in all of the wizarding world, it looked rather harmless covered in snow. Lily stood at the barbed wire fence while James slipped easily through before holding the fence apart with his hands for her to slip through.
Lily followed, hesitantly, knowing that there had to a good reason to have the fence built… be it to keep people out or something else in. She was quiet the walk up the lane, the house growing larger as they approached it. Her hand found James' easily, and she held on tight for fear of letting go. Something about the house made her very uneasy.
"They say that this house was the site of a mass witch murder," James said with his voice eerily low, as if he was afraid to speak any louder and wake the dead that haunted it. "Seventy-seven witches were slaughtered, beheaded by an evil wizard who believed that draining their blood for him to bath in would grant him their powers. When the wizard was unable to produce the magic that the witches possessed, he deemed it a terrible failure and buried the witches on the proper."
"Really?" Lily whispered as the howling wind whipped through the loose shutters, the wood creaking and moaning as they stepped on the front porch of the house.
"Uh-huh, he buried the body under the wooden floor," James said as he removed a loose board that covered the window. He pushed it open and started to climb inside. He stopped. "Sorry, Lily. I forgot. Ladies first."
"No, that's ok," Lily said as she held on to James' hand with a death grip. "You know, we don't even have to go in here."
"It's ok, Lily," James whispered. "I'm sure the ghost won't hurt you."
"You go," Lily said dropping his hand. "I'll wait here." James shrugged, grinning to himself as he climbed through the window. Lily waited, hearing the creaking of the old wooden house. It didn't seem very haunted at the moment, rather just old and shabby. Lily laughed slightly, chastising herself for being such a scared something or the other. She sighed and leaned against the house.
"Whhooo haunts my haunt," a soft moan came from within the house. Lily froze.
"James?" Lily asked uncertainly.
"Whhooo haunts my haunt," replied the very eerily quiet moaner.
"This is not funny, James," Lily said as her voice shook slightly.
"James… haunts my haunt," the moan replied and Lily froze. It didn't sound like anything a human could make, sound wise. "I'll make James number seventy-eight."
"James! Get out of there!" Lily shouted through the window. She heard a loud crash followed by what sounded like a body hitting an old wooden plank floor. "James?"
Lily was met with silence. She waited, her ears straining to hear but she was met with just the howls of the wind. Panic crept down her spiny, causing her to shiver. She took a deep breath and entered the house through the window. It was unnaturally quiet in the house, the floor boards barely creaked under her light steps. She held her wand tentatively, ready to shoot anything in her path should she need with a curse or hex. Unable to see anyone on the first floor aside from a dirty little rat she kicked out of the way, Lily carefully climbed the stairs. One step complained so loudly that Lily froze, willing her heart not to explode out of her chest.
She found a small bedroom, the door slightly a jar. Hesitantly, Lily pushed the door open holding her breath as it let out a long, silence splitting wail. The thick dust on the floor had been wiped in a long trail, as if something had been drug across the floor. Lily gulped, thinking it was as wide as a body. She followed the trail to the bed, her eyes landing on a pair of shoes poking out from the side. She ran, finding James on the floor apparently out cold.
"James! James!" Lily whispered as she shook his shoulder. She heard the creek of the bed, as if someone had laid on it to look over the side at them. Without looking up, she shot a curse. "Stupify!"
She had her arm tightly around James, who was now struggling to break free. It had gone unnoticed for a brief second by Lily who was screaming curses at the unseen assailant.
"Lily! Stop! It was a joke!" James gasped as he pried her arm from around his throat. Lily sat back in shock.
"W-what?" Lily asked. James laughed embarrassed.
"I was pretending to be attacked…" he trailed off with apologetic eyes. "You were bored and I knew that Sirius, Remus, and Peter would be hanging out here, so I brought you here and pretended that I was attacked by the ghost of the shrieking shack."
"B-but I heard the ghost," Lily said shaking her head.
"It was me," Remus said sheepishly as he came out of the closet.
"And the creaking," Lily explained with confusion.
"Peter's running around here as a rat somewhere," Remus said. Lily blushed at the thought she probably had kicked Peter quite hard.
"But, wait, the bed," Lily said pointing.
"You cursed Sirius," James said as he stood, helping her from the floor. Lily glanced over at a curled up Sirius, looking like he had seen better days. She turned and looked at James.
"But… why? Why scare me like that!" Lily demanded as her anger rose. She felt stupid. James shrugged.
"I wanted you to have the most memorable first date, and so far it wasn't what it was all cracked up to be," James said. "I just added some improvising and made it a little spicy."
"You are such… a… I don't know what!" Lily screeched at him angrily. "This date is over! You had me worried for nothing, I cursed Black back into his youth, kicked poor Peter, and ugh! I'm leaving!"
"Wait, Lily," James said shaking his head. "I didn't mean to screw this up so bad."
"Damn it, James," Lily swore. "I just wanted to hang out with you, all relaxed and fun loving like normal. I didn't want to go to some stupid, boring tea house and I certainly didn't want to think you were the seventy-eighth victim of some crazy ghoul murder."
"Yeah, about that," James said scratching his head. "I might have fudged the truth on that. The number of people murdered may have been exaggerated."
"Then how many?" Lily demanded. James looked uncomfortable.
"I think, maybe, someone might have died here of old age, or boredom," James said. Lily looked at him furiously.
"This date, James Potter, is over," Lily said. She looked at her watch. "I am calling it. Fifteen thirty, and make sure someone passes it along to the others who bet how long it would take you to completely screw this up. You have a sick sense of humor, James Potter!"
James looked at Remus helplessly as Lily stalked out of the room, her steps pounding loudly as she ran down the stairs and bolted out the unlocked front door. Remus shrugged and the two went to reverse as many of Lily's curses as possible before searching for Peter who was human again and sporting a nasty black eye.
"You really screwed this one up," Sirius said as James and Remus helped him out of the house. "Don't ever take you eye off that one, she curses like a profession hit witch."
"Don't tell her that," Remus joked lightly. "James'll be her next victim."
"Guys, this is serious," James said shaking his head. "How in the world am I going to make this travesty of a date up to her?"
"You think she'd let you have a do over?" Peter mumbled as he touched his eye. He cringed.
"Probably not," James said shaking his head again. "It took me six and a half years to get this one date from her, and I had to risk turning myself into a werewolf."
"Yeah," Sirius said. "You really screwed this one up."
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