The Look

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Summary: James and Lily share a look outside. But is it a look? Or is it The Look?

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“Bugger,” Lily Evans muttered as she pushed the door open to her dormitory hard. It slammed against the wall making a resounding thump. She threw her bag and the additional three book in her arms on the end bed in a heap. “Bugger, bugger, bugger.” She catapulted herself on the bed, avoiding the books. She grabbed a pillow and clamped it down over her head, still muttering to herself.

“All right, Lily?” Diana Hayes asked amusedly, grinning openly because she knew Lily could not see her.

“Peachy,” Lily said into her bed sheets, her voice almost completely muffled.

Diana rolled her bright brown eyes. “Clearly.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, Lily firmly planted in her spot on her bed and Diana on her own. Finally, Lily broke the silence. Diana knew that it would happen eventually; if there was one thing Lily could not stand besides James Potter, it was silence. “Di, I felt it.”

Diana raised her dark eyebrows curiously. “Felt what?”

“It,” Lily said dramatically, lifting the pillow off of head and finally looking at Diana, giving her a morose look.

“Right, ‘it’. Got that,” Diana said, biting back a smile until Lily put her head down on the pillow.

Lily ignored her, pressing her face further into the pillow and grabbing at her hair distractedly – with no pillow to grab onto, she needed to hold something. “And it was terrible, Di. Just terrible.”

“Lily,” Diana said patiently and walking over to Lily’s bed. “What was terrible?” Lily opened her mouth to answer but Diana interrupted, “And if you say ‘it’ again, I’ll hex you.”

Lily laughed softly. “It was James Potter, bloody prat that he is.”

Diana smiled knowingly. “And what did he do this time, Lily? Antagonize a first year? Hex Snape? Shirk his Head duties? Ask you out?” She paused thoughtfully, narrowing her eyes with curiosity. “You know, I haven’t really heard you –“

“Because he hasn’t done any of that this year,” Lily said quietly. “Not once, I don’t think.”

Diana silently reflected on the last few months of the school year. “No,” she said with a hint of surprise. “I don’t suppose he’s done anything like that.”

“I mean, he still pulls pranks,” Lily said. “He still charms the professors. He still gets out of trouble the same way as always. He just…”

”Finally listened to you?” Diana finished questioningly.

“Well, I don’t know if it was me, but yeah.”

“So, if that’s all true, then what could he have possibly done?” Diana asked.

Lily sighed. “He looked at me.”

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“And then, it was the most intense thing,” James babbled as he and the other Marauders walked back to the common room.

There was a silence as James looked expectantly around at the bored faces of his friends. “What was, Prongs?” Remus asked wearily, satisfying his obligatory requirement.

“She looked at me.”

“That was all?” Sirius burst out incredulously. “She bloody looked at you?!”

“Yeah,” James said, a slightly dreamy note in his voice. “It was excellent.”

“You… need some action, mate,” Sirius said, shaking his head sadly. “If just a look does you in then…”

“It’s sort of like you’re still twelve and just looking at something…” Peter trailed off.

Sirius snorted. “I wouldn’t be talking, Wormtail.”

Peter huffed embarrassedly beside him, turning slightly red as he looked down at the ground.

James glared at Sirius as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady. “First off, I am not bloody twelve years old.”

”Of course you’re not, dear,” the Fat Lady replied distantly.

“Snow bauble,” Sirius said to the Fat Lady. She swung forward admitting the four of them. “And I didn’t say that you were twelve years old. That was all Wormtail.”

James sighed exasperatedly. “Whatever.”

“And,” Sirius added emphatically, “she’s looked at you before, you know. Albeit it’s usually with a glare –“ he paused as James glared at him. “But she has still looked.”

“But this time it was different,” James said, gesturing offhandedly as he sat down on a chair by the fire.

“She… didn’t glare, then?” Sirius asked, smirking. Peter snorted as James lobbed a book at his head.

“Oy, Padfoot said that one!” Peter exclaimed.

James glared him into silence. “Yes, well, you had that coming to you from before with the ‘twelve year old’ bit.”

Remus sighed. The insanity would never stop if he did not end it now. Although, thinking about it for a moment, Remus realized that the insanity would never stop in this group. “How was this look different?” he asked.

“Great,” Sirius muttered. “Now he’s going to ramble for hours about Lily and some supposed look that was ‘markedly different’ than the others in some minor, miniscule, meaningless way and my evening will be shot.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “And you had other plans for the evening, I suppose?”

“Well,” Sirius glared, “the plan was to not be bored to tears by discussing Lily.”

“I can hear you, you know,” James said loudly, giving Sirius an unimaginable look of death.

“Maybe this story is interesting,” Peter suggested optimistically.

James shot him a bright smile. “You see? Well, that’s the –“

“Wormtail,” Sirius cut in dryly. “It’s about a bleeding look.”

“Maybe it was a ‘come hither’ look,” Peter said, making another eager suggestion

Sirius let out a bark of laughter as Remus looked on amused. “I highly doubt that!” Sirius exclaimed between breaths. James glared once more.

“It could be a ‘come hither’ look,” he said inconsequentially.

“Was it?” Remus asked him.

“Well, no,” James admitted. “But it was a good look. It was like… a connection.”

Sirius was no longer listening since he was still out of breath with laughter. Peter looked slightly put out because his suggestion was received so poorly and was clearly incorrect. But Remus looked interested. “A connection?”

James turned towards Remus happily, thankful that at least one of his friends was willing to hear him out. Crossing those other two wankers off my Christmas shopping list. Well, no, just Sirius, the bloody prat. “Yeah, a connection.”

“What sort of connection, Prongs?” Remus pried exasperatedly. “Was it a good connection? Or was it an ‘I want to kill you with my bare hands’ sort of connection?”

James glared at him. Maybe I’ll cross him off, too. But I did already buy the werewolf book and I can’t think of any other werewolves that’d be particularly useful to. Lucky pillock. “It was a good connection, you pillock.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “What sort of connection?” he asked again. “With some detail this time, thanks.”

James stared off into space thoughtfully, ignoring Remus’ sarcasm. “Well,” he began, “it was really intense, you know? Like, all of a sudden, we just… connected to each other through a gaze. And there was none of that disdain that’s usually there, you know?” Remus snorted, but James continued as though he had not heard him. “There was just this… realization. And this intensity. And this heat.” Remus visibly became more interested as James finished with, “And then she looked kind of nervous and bloody scared and angry. And she ran off.”

“Scared her off, did you?” Sirius inquired with a grin. He had stopped laughing long enough to listen to the last part of the description.

“No,” James said disdainfully.

“That’s… well, that’s something, Prongs,” Remus said.

“I knew it!” James crowed happily as a shocked Sirius exclaimed, “It is?!”

Remus nodded as Sirius shook his head in despair, Peter continued to look sullen, and James looked drunk on happiness.

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“It was like…”

“Heated?” Diana finished for Lily. Lily nodded in response. Lily, ten minutes later, had finally decided to get over her mortification enough to tell Diana about The Look, although, to be fair, Diana seemed to be filling in most of the adjectives herself.

“And then I got so…” Lily trailed off again.

“Impassioned?” Diana suggested hopefully.

“Er, no,” Lily said, blushing slightly. “Well, I was a bit caught up in the moment but I got so scared.”

“Scared?” Diana questioned mildly. “Why?”

”Because,” Lily explained patiently, “he’s James Potter. He is everything that is wrong. And I shared a heated look with him.”

“How heated, exactly?” Diana asked her, smiling slightly.

“Oh, snow-meltingly heated,” Lily clarified.

They laughed for a moment before Lily stopped abruptly, burying her face in her hands. “Oh, what have I done?” she said in an anguished, yet muffled voice into her hands.

“Well,” Diana said with more than a hint of amusement, “it appears that you, Lily Evans, have finally caved in.”

“Caved in?” Lily asked in a small voice.

“Yes,” Diana said decisively. “To James Potter and his wily charm.” She could not hold back her laughter anymore.

Lily snorted and then sobered slightly. “So, what should I do?”

“Well, that depends,” Diana said slowly. “How heated was it, again?”

“I could feel the heat, Di,” Lily said emphatically. “And we were outside.” She paused for a moment before adding, “And I didn’t have a cloak.”

Diana laughed. “Well, you’re just going to have to get used to it, then,” she said.

Lily looked at her bemusedly. “Get used to what?”

“To being in love with James Potter.”

“I am not in love with him,” Lily said defensively.

“Fine,” Diana said, waving her hand so as to brush her comment aside. “In lust, then. But I’d get used to it.”

“And why’s that?” Lily asked skeptically.

“He’s a keeper, Lily.”

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A week of shared looks passed between them before the next Head meeting, where, in addition to discussing holiday arrangements for the school, James and Lily casually flirted with one another.

And, while Lily thought that over the winter holiday the heated looks and flirtatious conversations would end, she was surprised to find that she did not actually want them to. And so they continued through January.

And when Valentine’s Day rolled around, James did not need to ask Lily out on a date for the occasion; she had already become his girlfriend the week before. Sirius lost twenty galleons to Remus and Peter, betting that James would not get together with Lily until at least April. Peter lost four of those galleons to Remus, betting that James would have broken up with Lily within a week.

And as the months passed by with James and Lily still together, The Look remained unchanging.

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A/N: So, I procrastinated during finals week. Sue me.

I also have not worked on The Risk during this time. And, for that, I’m sorry. This story, however, was bothering me and, since I didn’t want to incorporate it into the plotline of The Risk, I wrote it as a little one-shot.

Anyway, the next chapter of The Risk should be coming soon-ish. Keep a lookout for it. Until then, though, review, please!! You know how they make my day.