A/N So here's the third chapter. Apologies for the slow update but I've been crazy busy with my A-level results and sorting out which university I'll be going to in 6 weeks! Enjoy!
'James Potter likes me.' Lily finally accepted this fact after refusing to believe it for years.
There was a noise from Lily's left coming from behind the curtains of Alice's four poster bed. 'She's awake at last, finally someone to talk to about this!' Lily bounded out of her bed and pulled Alice's curtains apart so fast that they were in danger of ripping. There was a groan from Alice who obviously knew what was coming.
"What's James done this time?" came the question which was muffled by Alice's pillow.
"James said that he loved me." Lily replied. There was a long pause before Alice, who still had her face in her pillow, broke it.
"And?"
"He loves me." Lily said blankly, .shocked by the lack of reaction from her best friend. Alice glared at Lily and glanced at her watch before turning back to her friend with a look of despair.
"You woke me up at six in the morning to tell me something I already knew!" She hit Lily with her pillow. Lily grabbed another and hit Alice back.
There was the noise of more curtains opening from across the dormitory and a soft cough to interrupt the two friends rapidly escalating pillow fight. They both stopped with pillows raised above their heads and looked to the cause of the noise, their friend Sophie sat with a smirk on her face and her eyebrows raised.
Sophie got up and walked over and sat on Alice's bed next to Lily. "Alice, I think you misunderstand."
"Your not going to let me sleep are you?" Alice asked, now with her pillow over her head.
"We may have known that James has liked Lily for years but she has only just realised that he was telling the truth. She always denied it, do you remember? This might mean that if James asks her out again she might say yes." Sophie and Lily exchanged a glance as they watched waiting for Alice to comprehend this information. Alice's brain worked very slowly when she was tired.
"Finally!" She sat up right and shouted to the room. "Did he ask you out? Did you say yes? Are you in love? Can I be your maid of honour?"
Alice went from a zombie to giddy in three seconds, it was highly amusing to watch so Sophie and Lily burst into fits of laughter. Unable to sleep anymore with the noise coming from Alice's bed they were soon joined by Cady who told them to: "Shut up and go to bed" until Alice told her they were talking about boys.
"So are you going to ask him out or wait until he asks you again?" Cady asked.
"Who says I like him back?" Lily replied attempting to sound nonchalant but failing miserably. All three girls raised their eyebrows at Lily as if daring her to deny what they all already knew. "Okay maybe I do, but he won't ask me out he thinks I hate him, which he has every reason to do so." Lily ended sadly. She looked around at her friends who all now had sympathetic looks on their faces.
"What should I do?"
"Erm…. Tell him that you like him and don't hate him at all!" Sophie suggested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But how?"
"We don't have to explain the 'birds and the bees' to you do we Lily?" Alice asked sarcastically.
Cady laughed, "It was bad enough when we had to explain to Sophie why Remus doesn't need to wear a bra!" Sophie was appalled and was blushing a fantastic colour. It didn't take long for another pillow fight to break out.
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The girls eventually decided that Lily should just tell James that she liked him the first time that they were alone together. This was easier said the done. The Marauders, being the good, considerate, caring friends that they were, didn't let James out of their sight. He was still not back to his old ways which the Marauders presumed was due to his parent's tragic death, but Lily could tell by the way James looked at her whenever he saw her that day, that he was thinking about something or more specifically someone else.
Lily was thinking along the same lines, after classes had finished Lily headed to the library to do her Charms homework. In the peace and quiet her mind soon strayed from the usage of Muggle- repelling Charms across the world to how on earth she would get to talk to James on his own. The thought of approaching the Marauders to try and separate their reluctant leader from them was not an attractive prospect.
She was irked to be broken from her thoughts by a tap on her shoulder. How was she supposed to solve this problem without time to think? She spun around to see a Head Boy badge and a much shinier Gryffindor Quidditch team captain badge. (He clearly polished that one.) Without thinking she had wrapped her arms around James as he crouched next to her chair.
Lily's mind went blank as she snuggled into James' chest. All she could think about was how comfortable she was when James brought his arms around her. Eventually James spoke softly.
"Hi."
Lily smiled, "Hi."
"I'm sorry about last night, what I said was-"
Lily suddenly remembered what she was supposed to talk to James about and interrupted, "completely true. You were right I was horrible to you for no good reason. I'm really really sorry. Can you ever forgive me for what I've done to you for the past three years?" Lily said as she looked up into his eyes.
"Don't apologise I've done much worse things to you. Do you remember when I charmed your ponytail to spin around really fast?" He chuckled.
"Vividly." She sighed. "It took two hours to get me untangled from that candle stand!" Neither moved a muscle for what felt like several minutes, each waiting for the other to speak.
"You were wrong about a couple of things though."
"Oh, what were they?" He seemed genuinely curious.
"I do care, and I don't hate you."
Lily was building up the courage to tell James. Why was this so hard, she could understand Arithmancy so why couldn't she say three words. 'I like you.' "Out loud you twit!" 'Not that bit!' Lily blushed and buried her head once more praying to every god she could think of that he hadn't heard her.
"Lily, is there something you want to tell me?" He slid one finger under her chin and lifted it so that she could see his broad grin. She looked downwards again and focused on his Head Boy badge, eventually she managed to form the three words which turned into nine.
"I sort of… like you… a bit… sort of."
James stood up quickly and finally broke the embrace. He stepped back from Lily so that they could see each other properly. The smile that was on James face seconds before was gone and his eyes were wide.
"What?" His voice was deadly serious.
"I like you." Lily said equally as seriously. She was disheartened that he had broken the contact. Even more so when he backed away from her, out of her reach. He seemed stunned by her words and he stood shell shocked. It was the first time that James had ever been quiet in library for as long as Lily remembered.
"James it took you three years to convince me that you like me. Please don't tell me it'll take that long for me to convince you." She pleaded.
He stood doing a very accurate goldfish impression as his mouth opened and closed and he gazed unblinkingly into the restricted section.
"I've got to go think about this." He turned and walked quickly towards the exit. Lily followed him out into the corridor and called him back once more.
"James," she spoke just loud enough for him to hear her. He stopped so that he could hear her, but he didn't turn. "I – like – you."
He didn't run this time but Lily didn't follow. After an extremely unsuccessful attempt to continue with her Charms essay Lily returned to the common room.
She quickly told Alice, Sophie and Cady what had happened and all three immediately offered the same piece of advice.
"Go after him," Alice said sounded exasperated at the lack of sense Lily had when it came to Boys. "NOW!!"
"But he said he needed time to think."
"That was boy talk Lily." Cady sounded frustrated.
"Remember when I told Frank I liked him. He liked me too but he still ran away." It was true, Frank had tripped over in his haste and knocked himself out on the table in the common room. It was only when he regained consciousness the next day that he reciprocated Alice's feelings. "He's still got the scar on his forehead." Alice smiled; she still thought it was a romantic story.
"But I don't know where he his." Lily made the excuse.
"Remus will." Sophie smiled and immediately got up pulling Lily with her toward the Marauders who were unusually quiet. Remus was reading a book while Sirius and Peter were playing wizard chess. Lily was no expert but she could see that Peter was losing badly. Sirius was losing interest and was idly transfiguring a mug into different animals.
"Hi Remus." Sophie said will falling down onto the couch next to him while Lily took the remaining seat.
Remus immediately closed his book, which he wouldn't do for anyone else except Sophie, to address the new company. "Hello girls, to what do we owe the pleasure?"
Sophie blushed and nudged Remus in the arm. 'She is so smitten,' Lily thought. "Lily is looking for James; do you know where he is?"
This drew Sirius' attention who immediately eyed Lily suspiciously while a monkey sat in front of him chewing on one of Peter's defeated bishops. "Lily, you've spoken to James three times this week and each time he's been upset afterwards. Now I don't know what you've been talking to him about, and I don't want to know, but if you're going to yell at him again, he doesn't need that right now."
Sophie's foot quickly connected with Sirius' leg and he yelped in pain. "Sirius you dolt, Lily wouldn't do that."
Sirius' face dropped. "Sorry Lily that was uncalled for and I'm sorry about what I said on the platform too."
"It's okay, I've recently realised how horrible I've been to James. I might not have deserved it then but I'm sure I have done before." Lily forced a smile which Sirius returned gratefully. "Please could you tell me where he is?"
"He's down at the Quidditch pitch, flying his broomstick." Remus said while shoving a grubby piece of parchment in his pocket.
"He's been going there a lot lately." Sirius said glumly, "It's where he goes to think."
The group sat in silence watching the monkey which was happily eating a banana which Sirius had conjured from somewhere.
"I've been meaning to ask you guys, how do you always know where people are?" Sophie asked while sitting closer to Remus than is usual in a friendship.
"Well dear," Peter spoke for the first time since Lily arrived. He puffed his chest out proudly in a manner which really didn't suit him. "You see we have this –AARRGGH!
Peter was unable to finish the sentence as the monkey launched itself clear over the chess board onto his face and rammed the banana into his ear. He was sent toppling over backwards in his chair kicking the table and sending the remaining chess pieces into the air.
Lily could swear that she saw Sirius return his wand into his robes when he thought no-one was looking, but was distracted by Sophie pushing her up the staircase to borrow Alice's broom.
When she came back down Sirius was helping Peter up from the floor the mug laying smashed beside him. "Blimey Wormtail, remind me to never let anyone trust you with a secret!" He joked.
She was soon pushed out of the portrait hole and found her feet heading towards the Quidditch pitch.
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As the Marauders had correctly guessed James was flying his broom around the hoops of the Quidditch pitch. Lily mounted Alice's broom carefully; needless to say she was not as good a flyer as James. Even though she knew that the charms on these brooms were very powerful, she still didn't trust them.
She kicked off from the ground and rose steadily towards the hoops. It didn't take long for James to see her, but he continued to move around the hoops after a brief pause. Lily was only a few metres away from James when he turned and leant over his broom and streaked away towards the other set of hoops as fast as he could. Lily also made her way over to the hoops only for this to be repeated.
After the third attempt at approaching James she realised that James was smiling, laughing and waiting for her to approach. He even sat on top of the hoop waiting for Lily with a grin on his face. 'What if I fall? How will he feel then? I'll teach him.' She thought. James watched her as she rose high into the air above him maintaining eye contact at all times. James cocked his head to one side to inquire what she was doing. She smiled back at him before rolling off her broom and hanging from it by just her hands.
Lily was surprised by her own courage to pull off this audacious move. She could see James zoom from the hoop he was sat on faster than she had ever soon him move during a Quidditch game. She was greatly pleased by this thought as she let go for the brief fall into James' arms. He didn't seem too pleased though;
"What the hell are you playing at? What if I hadn't caught you?" Lily silenced James by placing a finger softly on his lips.
"James, I've finally fallen for you." She bit back a laugh but couldn't when James failed to hold back his.
"I can't believe you remember that! That was such a cheesy line!" He shook his head.
"Well you thought it was good!"
"But I don't now!" He paused still chuckling every few seconds. "God I was such a dork!" He turned to Lily who was cradled in his arms and looked deeply into her eyes. "Why did you do that Lily?"
"I was never going to catch you so…"
"You thought that you would make me catch you." Another comfortable silence in James' arms; she could definitely get used to this.
"Do you believe that I like you yet?" 'Great Lily, spoil the comfortable silence you were enjoying so much.'
Lily couldn't wait any longer and slowly she took hold of James collar and pulled him towards her. He resisted slightly at first but this ended as soon as their lips connected softly.
When they eventually broke James' hand was on Lily's cheek and around her waist while hers were wrapped comfortably around his neck. They rested their foreheads together allowing their now fast and shallow breaths to mingle.
"Okay Lily," James said between breaths, "you've convinced me."
A/N You have read to the end! There must be a reason for that! You liked it enough to read all three chapters so please let me know what you liked about this story! Please review!! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated!
If you enjoyed this fic please check out my other stories which are also J/L stories like this! If you like this you will like them too I hope.
P.S. Anyone else really annoyed by the 8 month DELAY in the HBP release?! WTF is that? I HATE YOU WB!! GRRR!!
Thanks for reading, (and reviewing for all those that do, you make my week!)
Ginger-Whinger ;-P