What seemed like several eternities but was a mere two days later, the date of the Hogsmeade weekend arrived. For many of the seventh year students, the shine had long since worn off these out-of-school excursions. Many were already buckling under enormous workloads given by professors who seemed to operate under the belief that their personal subject and course was the only one in existence. But James Potter, for one, was sworn to attend, per his Head Student duties dictated. Sirius, Remus and Peter, though probably more agreeable to the thought of sleeping in before beginning their respective days, had generously agreed to spend their time with James in Hogsmeade. The plan was simple; walk the underclassmen to the village, then immediately depart for the Three Broomsticks for quasi-alcoholic drinks and an audio commentary on the League match between the Hollyhead Harpies and the Wimbourne Wasps, courtesy of a very pretty and curvaceous barmaid named Rosmerta. James, for one, was not especially looking forward to the idea that he would have to stand by and watch as some other bloke waltzed through the day with Lily on his arm. He had tried very hard to swallow his jealousy the previous Thursday when he had discovered Lily had already acquired a date, but he was bursting to cry out with the unfairness of it all. Did she really knowthis Forrester bloke? Did he even care about Lily? Not like James did, that much was certain.
The first Hogsmeade weekend of their final year at Hogwarts proved to be exceedingly pleasant. The air was warm and the sun was shining, though there was a crisp edge to the breeze that stirred up the first of the autumnal leaves. Once breakfast had been eaten, the first and second years returned to their usual Saturday activities while the older students congregated in the Entrance Hall. Lily and Ewan, who had breakfasted together at the Ravenclaw table, wound their way through the throng of sun-deprived students to the front doors of the castle, where Professor McGonagall and Filch were collecting permission slips from the third years. Both were dressed in Muggle clothing, but had their respective badges pinned to the front of their jumpers as they were both acting in official capacity today. A few minutes later, the Head Boy arrived. Lily waved in greeting, but his disgruntled frown at the sight of she and Ewan standing together was lost on her, both because he quickly masked it and because her attention was focused on she and Ewan's discussion of where they would be headed today.
"There's a lovely little park at the end of the main street," Lily was saying, "And it's such a beautiful day. We ought to visit."
"Sure," the brown-haired lad agreed, "As long as we're sure to stop by Honeydukes at some point. And maybe The Three Broomsticks for lunch?"
"Sounds good to me," she responded with a smile.
Just then, McGonagall approached them, a stack of parchment slips in her hand.
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, the third years' permission slips are all accounted for," she said. "You're free to leave for the village."
James, eager to complete his duties and get away from the presumptuous Forrester, nodded instantly.
"Sure thing, Professor. All right, you lot," he said, raising his voice to address the crowd of students. "Who's ready for Hogsmeade?" There was an affirmative chorus of "yeah"s and "I am"s, and James grinned, pushing the doors open and bowing exaggeratedly in Lily's direction.
"After you, Miss Head Girl."
Lily quirked a brow at his exaggerated formality but proceeded through the front doors, followed by James, Ewan and the rest of the Hogsmeade visitors. It was only a twenty-minute walk from the castle to the village, but to James it seemed twice as long. Had he any other choice, he would not have been walking here at the front of the column, alongside Lily Evans and her date. To be fair, neither Lily nor Ewan was ignoring him, but the conversation remained rather one-sided, as he was in no mood to talk to the boy he so greatly envied. When they finally reached the village, he was quite relieved. With a falsely cheery wave to his co-Head, he hurried off to join Sirius, Remus and Peter on their way to Zonko's joke shop. The four lads had already either inspected or purchased most of the items in Zonko's over the past four years, but James was desperately in need of any sort of distraction at the moment.
Either James had been sufficiently able to mask his disgruntled feelings during the walk to the village or Lily had been too distracted to notice. Whatever the reason, she was feeling particularly at ease and excited today. She and Ewan Forrester had been glancing and smiling at each other across the room at Prefects meetings ever since the term began. He wasn't the most handsome lad in the school (Sirius Black had had that position covered since the beginning of fourth year), but she thought he was cute. And, more importantly, he was intelligent, thoughtful and a diligent, ambitious student. James had been correct two evenings earlier when he had teased her about having a crush. Ever since they had set the date for the first Hogsmeade weekend, Lily had been hoping Ewan would ask her to accompany him, and, to her delight, he had done just that after the next Prefects' meeting.
So, as James walked off, Lily turned to her date with a smile on her face and asked, "To the park?"
"To the park," Ewan agreed.
As they set off down the street, he reached over for Lily's hand, which she happily gave him, along with a dazzling smile. The park was duly explored, followed by the requested visit to Honeydukes, where Ewan gallantly purchased Lily a package of her favorite candy in the entire wizarding world: Raspberry Chocoballs. The good weather from that morning held; by late afternoon there was still not a cloud in the sky. After an early lunch at The Three Broomsticks, the two students spent the remainder of their day strolling idly up and down the streets of Hogsmeade, chatting, laughing, and enjoying what was likely to be one of the last days of Indian summer sunshine.
Meanwhile, in the Three Broomsticks pub, the Hogsmeade trip was not so sunny. The four boys had trooped dutifully to Zonko's joke shop, where minor purchases were made before heading over to the pub to have a late lunch and listen to the Quidditch match broadcasted on the wireless. While his body was comfortably seated in a booth with his mates, James Potter's mind was far away, contemplating all that might go wrong on his beloved's date with the Ravenclaw ponce. He had carefully orchestrated their seating arrangement so that he might have a clear view of the street, should he be so inclined to look out and glimpse the passers-by on their way to the candy shop or Quidditch supplier. However, soon the Quidditch broadcast began, and his focus was diverted from forming fallout strategies against his brown-haired competitor.
The match was uneventful, much to the listeners' disappointment. The Hollyhead Harpies couldn't put up much of a strong defensive front against the Wimbourne Wasps' offense. The snitch was caught in forty minutes, and the broadcast went from a commentary of the match to a six-hour stream of "Songs of the Charmed Heart," a sappy love-dunked compilation of ballads and awful poetry. Sirius reached out and changed the wireless so quickly that the station had changed to Muggle rock-and-roll before James had even registered that his best mate's arm had moved. Remus brought out a book while James ordered another round of Butterbeers, and the foursome sat rather quietly, enjoying the quiet freedom of the Saturday afternoon. That is, until a flash of bright red hair passed outside of the pub, and James' interest and alertness were piqued.
He leaned backward in his chair, peering out of the large front window at the street where he'd seen Lily and the Ravenclaw Prefect pass by just moments before. "Did you see which way they went?" he asked of Remus, who was sipping from a large mug of butterbeer.
"James," Remus admonished mildly. "What you're doing right now qualifies as stalking. Let the poor girl have her date."
"Yeah," James said, having clearly not listened to a word out of Remus' mouth. "But she didn't look like she's having a good time. I should go out there and say somethi-"
Remus interrupted.
"That is a terrible idea," he stated plainly. "You would make an utter arse of yourself and embarrass Lily endlessly. That would be, as we call it in the real world, 'counter-productive'."
As Remus and the other two lads managed to dissuade James from leaving the pub to interfere with Lily's date, she and Ewan were free to continue enjoying the sunshine without interruption. However, after two hours of walking through them, the streets of the small village lost their charm. As the sun began to set, the air grew cooler; the light breeze that had been affectionately ruffling Lily's copper curls all day took on a decidedly chilly temperature, sending a shiver through her petite form. The shiver did not go unnoticed by her date, who glanced over at her and asked, "Want to head back to the castle before we start freezing to death?"
Lily nodded gratefully.
"Let's do. I have to be back before sundown anyway so Potter and I can make sure all the students made it back safely."
Ewan rose from the bench on which they'd been seated and asked, "Any last minute purchases you need to make before we go?"
"Don't think so," she replied, standing with him and reaching for his hand again. Smiling and swinging their clasped hands, the pair made their way back up the path to Hogwarts Castle. Ever the gentleman, Ewan accompanied Lily all the way up to Gryffindor Tower, where he paused outside the Fat Lady's portrait. His expression grew suddenly nervous and, though she had an inkling of what was about to happen, Lily waited to see what he would do.
"I had a really great time today, Lily," Ewan said, turning towards her and taking her other hand in his.
"Me too," she replied, giving his hands a little squeeze, "Thanks for lunch. And the chocoballs."
"Any time," he answered. "So.. er.." He took a step forward, met her eyes, and promptly forgot whatever smooth line he had been about to say. It was very difficult to think about speaking when Lily Evans, who was decidedly one of the prettiest girls in the school, was smiling up at him with those brilliant green eyes of hers. So Ewan took the only sensible course of action in a moment like this one. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.
She had known he was going to kiss her from the moment Ewan stepped towards her, but when he finally did, Lily was surprised. Not because she hadn't expected it, but because she had expected it to be different, to actually be something. But she felt nothing. After a few moments, she broke their kiss and pulled away. Dropping her gaze to the floor, she smiled gently and said, "Goodnight, Ewan." Turning around, she gave the password to the Fat Lady and stepped through the portrait hole, her mind whirling as she hurried up the girls' staircase in search of Marlene and Mary.
If she were being completely honest with herself, Lily would have admitted that something about the date had been off. Not that Ewan Forrester was in any way a bad fellow; he was a perfectly nice, respectable young man. But that's really all he was. That kiss had merely confirmed what she had been suspecting all day. She sighed as she pushed open the door of the seventh year girls' dormitory and was very glad to find that Marlene and Mary were already there waiting for her.
"And how did it go?" Marlene asked before Lily had even shut the door behind her.
"Did he kiss you?" Mary wanted to know, flopping herself down on her stomach on Marlene's bed and watching her friend eagerly.
Lily perched on the end of the bed and stared down at the comforter a minute. Then she shrugged and answered, "It was fine. But.. that's all."
Marlene looked surprised.
"Really? But I thought you were crazy about him."
"I was. Maybe? I guess I was wrong."
"So he didn't kiss you," Mary ascertained. From the expression on her face, it was clear that she found this a disappointing ending to a date story.
"Oh no. We kissed," the redhead countered. "But it was just- there wasn't any spark, y'know? My toes didn't tingle. My spine didn't thrill. Or any of that other stuff that's supposed to happen. I mean, we had a fun time and all, but it wasn't exciting."
"I know what you mean," Mary replied, nodding sagely. "Do you think he feels the same thing or...?"
"I hope he does," Lily answered. This was what worried her. Even if she had just discovered she didn't really fancy Ewan Forrester anymore, she still thought well of him as a friend and coworker, and she certainly didn't want to cause him any heartache.
"I'm sure he'll figure it out," Marlene said. "You won't say yes if he asks you out again, will you?"
Lily shook her head.
"No! I wouldn't want to lead him on. I just didn't want to, y'know, crush his hopes right away or anything."
Before Mary or Marlene could say anything more, there was a knock at the door and then Belinda Haskell, one of the fifth year Gryffindor Prefects, stepped in the room.
"Sorry to interrupt," she said, glancing apologetically between the three girls, "But, Lily, Potter's asking for you downstairs." Her message delivered, Belinda turned and left the room.
Eyebrows raised, Lily hesitated a moment before standing up.
"Well I guess I'd better see what he wants."
"Maybe he wants to know how your date went," Marlene teased, winking suggestively at her friend.
"Oh hush, Lena," Lily snapped as she walked to the door, suddenly fearful. Surely Potter wouldn't actually be planning to question her, right? He had at least matured that far since fifth year. Whatever it was he wanted to talk to her about, it was obviously important, so she hurried downstairs to the common room, where she found James and Remus standing by the fireplace in some sort of serious conversation.
"What's happened?" she asked.
James looked up.
"Oh good, you heard. Apparently two fourth-year boys didn't come back."
"What?!" she exclaimed. Her heart throbbed, sending the liquid fire of adrenaline coursing through her veins. "Oh God," she muttered. "Our first Hogsmeade weekend, and we're failures."
"Not us, but whoever is still there certainly is," James responded, shifting his weight impatiently and wishing fervently that they could just apparate over to the village. At the end of a rather abysmal day, he did not want to be wasting another hour searching for two idiotic boys, even if they were members of his own house.
"We'll have to go find them, I suppose," Lily said, ignoring his comment. She glanced between James and Remus, asking, "Has anyone told McGonagall? Or Dumbledore?"
"I'll go," Remus said, then turned to do just that.
"Thanks, Remus," Lily called after him before looking back at James. "Who'd you say's missing?"
He lifted his right hand and checked the parchment that the Deputy Headmistress had given him that morning.
"Adam Hadwen and Peter Curtis."
Lily thought a moment, but could only vaguely place the names with faces.
"Right. Well I suppose a couple of kids will be easy enough to find in a place that's mostly adults. Does anyone know where they were last seen?"
"Well, we'll have to check the most obvious place, right?" James replied. "The Hog's Head."
"The most obvious place?" Lily questioned, gesturing for him to follow her out the portrait hole while they talked.
"Underage kids can buy Firewhisky there."
"Oh really?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "Do I want to know how you acquired this information?"
"C'mon, Lily, don't play with me," James countered, not exactly in the mood for the banter they usually enjoyed.
She smirked.
"I'll take that as an admission of guilt then."
"Of course I'm guilty!" he said, forcing a laugh.
"Well at least you'll admit it," Lily responded, hurrying down the corridor as fast as her admittedly short legs would take her.
"Okay so we'll start in the Hogs Head. Or what about the Shrieking Shack? What if they went in there to.. explore?"
James shrugged, nonplussed.
"Then we go in and bring them out."
"Oh....," was all she said. Lily, being the only one present who did not know the truth of the Shrieking Shack, did not much fancy the idea of walking into a haunted house at night.
Catching the uncertainty in her tone, he looked over at her and asked, "What?"
"I just.... isn't it haunted?"
A slow smile spread over James' lips. Was she actually scared to go in?
"Don't worry, Evans. I'll protect you," he teased.
Lily was silent for a moment, then she looked over at him with an odd little smile on her face as she replied, "Somehow, I completely believe you."
Something in her tone made James turn his head to look down at her. As their eyes met, he felt her smile all the way down to his toes, and an answering grin spread over his own lips.
"Finally," was all he commented, unable to think of much more to say when his head was whirling under the influence of her beauty.
It took a few seconds for Lily to realize she'd just paid a compliment to Potter. When she did, she looked forward again and changed the subject.
"What if we don't find them in either place? Is there someone in Hogsmeade we can alert to help find them?"
He though a moment before replying, "Well, we can always enlist Rosmerta and some other of the shopkeepers if need be." As they had just reached the front doors, he paused to open them for her before continuing, "But I've got a feeling they'll be right where we think they are. Fourteen, fifteen year-old boys aren't terribly complex."
"I suppose you'd be most likely to know," Lily replied, her tone growing lighter and her spirits more buoyant the more they talked through the problem.
James shrugged.
"It helps to be a reformed truant."
Lily giggled, despite the seriousness of the situation, and was kind enough not to comment on his recent admission. They walked down the path to Hogsmeade in silence for another minute, then she asked, "Oh hey, how'd the match turn out?"
He had to think a moment, as he'd been trying to forget all the events of an entirely disappointing day.
"Wasps trumped the Harpies, two hundred and sixty to eighty. Wasn't much of a fight- the Wasps' beater Bagman is just too good."
"Wow. I hope you weren't rooting for the Harpies to win."
"Nah, though it would have shortened the odds on the Catapults," James explained. There was another beat of silence in which he opened his mouth twice to broach the topic of Lily's Hogsmeade visit but couldn't force himself to do it. Finally, he took a deep breath and asked as casually as he possibly could, "How was your date?"
"Oh.. It was fun," she answered, though the lack of enthusiasm in her tone belied her statement.
Suddenly, the Head Boy's day seemed to get much better. He looked down at Lily, forcing his expression into one of concern and not joy.
"What went wrong?"
"Well nothing really," she responded, studiously avoiding his gaze. "Ewan's very nice and all. Just.."
He waited for her to continue, feeling his spirits rising with every passing second. When she remained silent, he prompted, "Just?"
Lily sighed and finished her sentence, "It was fun, but it wasn't all that... exciting. Y'know?"
She finally looked up at him and, as they made eye contact, James felt an electric shock race down his spine for the second time that night.
"Well, I'm.. er.. sorry to hear that," he said, though his actual sentiments were anything but.
"He did buy me some Raspberry Chocoballs though," Lily said, determined not to dwell on the uncomfortable topic for long. "For that, I am eternally grateful."
"You like Raspberry Chocoballs?" James asked, purposefully ignoring the fact that the boy had bought her anything.
"They're my absolute favorite," she replied, a smile spreading over her lips at the very thought of eating them.
There was another pause as James filed away this useful tidbit, then he asked as delicately as possible, "So, I take it there won't be a repeat with Forrester?"
Lily opened her mouth to ask why he was so keen to know all of this and promptly shut it again, having realized exactly why Potter wanted to know how her date went. She did not want to have this conversation with him right now. Or ever, really.
"I dunno..," she answered vaguely. "We did have fun. And he's a great fellow. Maybe the first date's too early to tell?"
He suppressed a smile.
"The first date is when you're on your best behavior. If him at his best isnt fun for you, you're wasting your time."
She laughed.
"What are you, my love doctor now?"
Caught red-handed, James shrugged and replied carelessly, "Just trying to help you see sense." In the next instant, he realized he might have just put his foot squarely in his mouth again, and amended, "Not that you're being foolish, or anything, I just.."
The expression on his face made Lily laugh again as she assured him, "Don't worry, Potter. I wasn't going to take offense."
"Of course you weren't," he responded with relief as they approached the outskirts of the village.
Two minutes later, they had reached the Hogs Head. Taking in the grimy wooden building, Lily wrinkled her nose.
"Ew. This place is rather disgusting. I can't believe people would want to come here."
"Again, you can get alcohol underage," James said, chuckling to himself. "It's got a certain appeal. Though it's definitely not encouraged for Hogwarts students, it's also not banned."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving her hand to dismiss the topic as she stepped through the weather-beaten front door.
He followed her inside and looked around. Catching sight of the barman, he called out, "H'lo. Have you got-?"
Before he could finish the question, the barman grunted, "Over in the corner," and nodded toward an area in the back of the bar that looked particularly grimy.
"Thanks," James replied and began walking in the direction indicated.
Lily followed, tutting and muttering under her breath about the idiocy of underaged boys. They turned a corner and found the boys in question passed out at a table in the back.
"So.. do we just wake them up?" she asked.
Not having had much experience with drunken folk, she was not exactly sure what to do with those who had consumed so much alcohol they had passed out. James, on the other hand, had not been Sirius' roommate for six years for nothing. He nodded at Lily and responded, "Looks like it." Striding over to stand behind the boys' bench, he bent over them and commanded, "Oi. Tossers. Get up, now."
One of the boys stirred and mumbled something unintelligible. The other appeared to still be out cold. Lily stepped
over and prodded this one in the back with her wand, which proved to be an effective method of rousing him.
"Oi!" the boy (whose name was Peter) exclaimed, swiveling his head around and blinking blearily up at the two
Head students. "Watchagotto d'tha' fer?"
James crossed his arms over his chest, his expression severe.
"You lads are in violation of the Hogsmeade Visitation Policy, as well as off the school grounds past curfew. Get up, it's time to go back to Hogwarts. Now."
Lily was just as startled as the other two boys to see this authoritative, no-nonsense side of the Head Boy. She stared at him for a moment with the faintest hint of admiration in her eyes, before returning her attention to the task at hand. She prodded Peter again and said, "You heard the Head Boy. Let's go. The sooner you get back to the castle, the shorter your detention with Professor McGonagall will be."
At the mention of the word "detention," Peter yelped, sat up and staggered to his feet. His companion, Adam, attempted to stand as well, but ended up stumbling against the wall.
James, who had a much clearer idea of the sort of punishment awaiting these two miscreants, hid his smile as he looked over at Lily.
"Actually, your detentions are going to be pretty awful, so you might as well just get to it and take it. Poor showing, Gryffindors."
"M'sorry. Just los' track'f time's all," Adam pleaded, not liking the sound of this at all. He took a step forward in the direction of the door and promptly crumpled to the floor, causing Peter to begin giggling rather girlishly at his friend's antics.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Merlin, this is ridiculous. I can't believe you're in our house."
"Embarrassing," her co-Head agreed. "Alright, you pansies. Come on. Both myself and Evans have got better things to do than hold your hands all the way back to Hogwarts."
"I suppose we could conjure Hadwen here a stretcher, since he's not man enough to walk," she suggested.
As it turned out, the threat of being carted back to the castle on a magical stretcher like two invalids was more than enough to get both boys' feet under them and hustle them out the door. Once outside, the crisp night air did wonders to clear their heads, and they were able to make it back to Hogwarts Castle without more than a couple tumbles to the ground. Now that the boys had been found, Lily was considerably more at ease, though she did still feel a small amount of guilt that she and Potter had managed to leave two of their charges behind. The more she thought about it, however, the more she realized how helpful he had been. Left to her own devices, she would have never guessed that the boys would be at the Hogs Head. She probably would have spent hours searching the entire village for them, and she would likely have been in a bind getting them both back up to the castle once she found them, especially if she'd had to carry them back somehow.
Thus, as they dropped Peter and Adam off at McGonagall's office and began walking back to Gryffindor Tower, Lily found herself admiring something Potter had done for what was quite possibly the first time in her life. It was, at least, the first time she had ever admitted it to herself. For some reason, she felt he deserved to know this. As they approached the Fat Lady's portrait, she looked over at him and said, "You know, Potter, you're all right. I'm kind of glad you were with me tonight."
For a long moment, James was silent, unsure what to say. He knew what he wanted to say; rather, he knew that he wanted to jump in the air and crow for joy because Lily Evans had just said he was "all right." Lily Evans had just said she was glad he was there. It was by far the best compliment she had ever paid him, and every fiber of his being was exulting, but he knew that he had to be careful how he responded. He was anxious not to ruin the enormous progress he felt he had just made. In the end, all he did was grin down at her and say, "Is that so? That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Evans."
"Yes, well..," Lily responded, "I wouldn't have known where to even begin looking for them. I'm just glad for your help."
"Happy to be of service, Milady," he said, stepping through the portrait hole and gallantly holding it open for her.
She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling at his antics as she stepped through the open doorway and headed back upstairs to Marlene and Mary, leaving an exuberant Head Boy behind in the common room. James' happy reverie was disrupted by Remus, who had been waiting for them to return.
"Did you find them?" he asked once he reached James' side.
"Course we did," the tousle-haired boy responded absently, his eyes still fixed on the Lily's figure as she climbed the staircase across the room. Only when she had disappeared into the girls' dormitory hallway did he turn his attention to Remus.
"Wouldn't have come back otherwise. They were in the Hogs Head, just like we thought they'd be, and they're now, I'd imagine, in the midst of a sound lecture from McGonagall."
"Glad to hear it," Remus said. "And I'm really glad we never got caught doing the same thing."
"Yeah," James agreed, sharing a conspiratorial smile with his friend.
"So where're Padfoot and Wormy?"
"Upstairs. Sirius claims he's invented a new and better set of rules for Exploding Snap that they're supposedly playing right now. Personally, I think he's just trying to see if he can singe Peter's eyebrows off again."
"This I've got to see," James laughed. He began walking towards the boys' staircase with a decided spring in his step. The day he had been dreading hadn't turned out so badly after all. If it had only taken Lily this long to realize he was an okay fellow, surely it wouldn't be that much longer before he could woo her into returning his feelings for her.
As neither James nor Lily managed to aggravate the other over the course of the next week, Lily's new-found belief that her co-Head was a good fellow with redeemable qualities persisted. She actually began to look forward to patrols, which she now saw as a welcomed break from an increasingly heavy course load. During the two hours that they walked the halls of the castle, conversation flowed surprisingly easily between the two Head students. James discovered that he was now as adept at making her laugh as he had previously been at making her scowl, and he was overjoyed to notice that Lily had begun to smile at him if he caught her eye in the hallway or during class, rather than look quickly away as she had used to do. He was feeling very hopeful indeed about the future of their relationship and was waiting for a chance to try his luck at making even more headway with the Head Girl.
One Monday morning, an opportunity presented itself. Other than James himself, Sirius was the only Marauder taking Potions this year, and he had decided to skip class today. The stated reason was that his stomach was touchy and he didn't fancy breathing in all those nasty potion fumes, but James privately thought his best mate was just trying to buy himself another two days to finish his Potions essay. He did not argue, however, as the thought occurred to him that he would need a new partner in class today, should they be doing any brewing. And he knew exactly who he planned to ask. If his plan were to succeed, he would have to arrive in class early, as Lily and that greasy bat Snape seemed to have resumed their former Potions partnership this year. As soon as Defense Against the Dark Arts ended, he very nearly sprinted downstairs to the dungeon classroom and found, to his delight, that Lily was already seated in her usual spot and that the space next to her on the bench was still empty.
"Hey Evans. Mind if I sit here?" he asked, approaching her bench.
Lily looked up, genuinely surprised to find James standing there.
"Oh. Sure," she replied, leaning around him to scan the classroom. "I thought you usually worked with Black?"
"He's skipping today. Stomachache," was the matter-of-fact response as James set his book bag down and claimed his seat beside her. "So what do you think we'll be brewing today?" he asked, nodding his head towards the cauldron standing in front of their bench.
"Probably making Veritaserum," she answered. "That's the next chapter in the book."
"Veritaserum," James repeated. "All right." He looked a bit nervous, if truth be told, but the fact that he and not Severus would be her Potions partner bolstered his faith in his ability.
The rest of the class sidled in soon after with the sort of reluctant shuffling that accompanied classes on such a fair-weathered day. James managed to look up while Lily was occupied with her textbook and make eye contact with his most loathed Slytherin, Severus Snape. A defiant flush threatened the cool composure of JamesÕ cheeks, and he downplayed his minute victory with the faintest of smirks directed in the sallow-skinned boyÕs direction. The boys locked eye contact for the briefest of moments. Without waiting to see SnapeÕs response, James turned back to his companion, who had (fortunately) not noticed the subtle exchange.
Professor Slughorn assumed his usual position at the front of the class and began the lecture on the very potion Lily had predicted. Veritaserum, he informed the class, was a very difficult and precise potion to make, and the students would begin only the earliest stage in class today. The full potion, containing a myriad of ingredients, none the least of which were Jabberknoll feathers and armadillo bile, would take an entire lunar cycle to complete. With a small thrill of victory, James flashed Lily a winsome smile. This meant, of course, that they would have to be Potions partners for a whole month! There was a momentary twinge of regret for Sirius, as his best mate would now be paired with some other student. For a moment, he feared Sirius would have to work with Snape, but was buoyed when he realized another girl in the class was also without a partner.
After a good amount of lecture, Professor Slughorn released the students to begin their work. James, ingredient list in hand, went to the cupboards to fetch their supplies, while Lily started a fire under their cauldron and stoked it to the proper heat. Within three-quarters of an hour, the pair of them were working diligently toward the stopping-point Professor Slughorn had assigned. Lily, for her part, was quite pleased to see that James was content to actually do their work; he had spent the majority of their time chatting pleasantly with her while julienning shrivelfig fruits. After she added the two-thirds cup of said fruits to their potion and stirred eighteen times clockwise, Lily realized frantically that she had forgotten, in a momentary and embarrassing slip of the mind, that they were to immediately add a dash of armadillo bile to their potion.
"James, quick!" she said. "The bile- give it here, please!" She held out her hand, for the small bottle was on the far end of James' side of their shared desk.
With the reflexes borne of his many years of Quidditch, James snatched the bottle of armadillo bile, his eyes wide at the command she had just uttered. A large grin spread rapidly over his features as he passed it to Lily and watched her skillfully add the bile to the potion, from which curlicues of steam were now rising. Before he could be caught staring, he turned back to the next task at hand, which involved braiding together bunches of lemongrass, while Lily attended to their burgeoning potion.
"So," he asked casually, "does this mean I get to call you 'Lily' now?"
"What?" Lily asked, distracted, and brushed a steam-curled strand of hair away from her face and behind her ear. Her attention had been so focused on getting the potion right that she hadn't realized that she'd said anything remarkable.
"You called me James," he supplied helpfully.
She blushed and chanced a glance up at him. Her tone was somewhat defensive as she answered, "Well we're friends, aren't we?"
"Friends," he agreed, a pleasurable squirm shivering its way through his stomach. "So, Lily," he said, laying a particular emphasis on her name. "Wanna add these bits of grass?" He was trying his best to downplay his triumph, and the only outlet other than whooping for joy or seizing her face and kissing her was to focus on the potion before them. He offered the twists of lemongrass to her with a smile, and she took them, glancing at the proportions before tossing them into the bubbling potion.
It was an odd thing that the pair of them were able to work together so smoothly now. In fact, despite the few hiccups they had had in terms of disagreements, she and James had gotten on reasonably well. Now that he had pointed it out, Lily had to admit that she had long since ceased referring to the boy as merely "Potter" a long time ago. Slowly but surely, he had become "James" in her head; it was only natural she would call him by his first name now.
Professor Slughorn's voice interrupted her train of thought as he addressed the class, "By now you should all have completed step four of the brewing process. If you will notice, step five instructs us to leave the potion simmering for at least thirty-one hours, which makes this our stopping point. I believe you have just enough time to pack your things before the bell rings. Leave your cauldrons as they are, and I'll see that they're stored safely away until our next class."
He resumed his seat at his desk while the students began cleaning up the stray bits of lemongrass and squashed shrivelfig from their desks. As Lily was sweeping bits of rubbish from their desk into the bin, James began packing up his scales and potion book. After a moment's internal struggle, he reached across the table and gathered Lily's things up, too.
"Hey," she said. "James, you don't have to do that!" She felt a funny flip in her stomach, and her cheeks tinged pink as she wondered if, given this inch of friendship, James would try to take the relationship a whole mile further.
He looked up at her, a blank expression of innocence upon his features, and said mildly, "Lily, don't be ridiculous."
While she sat awkwardly wondering if she ought to thank him or tell him off, James finished putting her things into her bag and handed it to her with a reassuring smile.
"Consider it my way of thanking you for letting me work with the best student in the class."
Lily opened her mouth to protest, but promptly shut it again. Was she really going to complain about him being a gentleman when this was a character trait in short supply at Hogwarts? And, really, putting her things away was a far cry from him sending her an obnoxious singing valentine like he had back in fifth year, though she suspected his motives were still the same. In the end, she decided not to cause an argument. Instead, she took her bag as he held it out to her and slung it over her shoulder.
"Thanks," she said, shifting her weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. After a few moments' silence, she realized that Marlene and Mary were now standing in the doorway, waiting for her, and she turned to walk towards them, calling to James over her shoulder, "I'll see you in Charms, then."
"See you," he called after her, shouldering his own school bag. For a moment, James stood in the empty classroom wishing he'd mustered the nerve to see if Lily would sit with him at lunch. But then, he reasoned, perhaps that would have been pushing things a bit too far for one day, especially when he'd already made considerable progress in getting them on a first name basis. Next time he'd see if he could convince her to join him, he decided, then left the Potions classroom to meet the lads in the Great Hall.