Lily Evans was starving. And for Lily Evans, food came second to nothing. Especially not on a day like today. Her stomach urging her on, she hurried down the corridor to the Great Hall, the smell of dinner already wafting out to her. It only made her hungrier. Besides, once she got a bite to eat, she'd certainly feel better. Food would cheer her up.
Today had been horrible and hectic and all around bad. Her Muggle alarm clock hadn't gone off and she'd been ten minutes late for her first class, not even having had breakfast. Of course, she went on to miss lunch because her best friend Alice was sick and Lily just had to be that friend who spent the entire lunch break taking care of an ailing girl. To top it all off, she was having a bad hair day.
Wasn’t seventh year supposed to be the best? Wasn't it supposed to be the year where you rule the school? The year where everything goes your way? Your final year to be a kid? So why, after only being a glorious seventh year for three weeks, was she ready to kneel over and die?
“Good evening, Evans, shall I escort you to dinner?” he spoke in a practiced, regal voice as he slipped his arm around her shoulder, falling into step with her. Oh yeah. That was why. The damn boy wouldn’t leave her alone.
When she'd arrived at the train station on September first, she had resolved to make sure that her year would in no way whatsoever be ruined by him. She was determined she wouldn’t let him get to her in this final year, and when Lily Evans was determined, no one stood in her way, especially not big-headed, selfish, mean prats like James bloody Potter.
But apparently, a new and improved James Potter could. The James Potter that she caught defending a first year on the train was ready to crush her resolve. The James Potter who was made Head Boy and was turning out to be strangely responsible and dependable was ready to pursue her. The James Potter she saw paying attention in class and taking notes was ready to drive her insane. The James Potter who suddenly seemed much more attractive just wouldn’t leave her alone.
“I will give you to the count of zero to remove your arm from my shoulder, Potter,” Lily said coolly. His arm was gone an instant, but he didn’t move away from her.
“So, how was your day? Tough lesson in Charms today, wasn’t it? You did brilliantly, of course, but you always do so no surprise there. . . .” Lily rolled her eyes. He was like a Muggle AM radio someone had jammed into her head and she couldn’t turn off. The boy never shut-up, let alone pause for three seconds to stop staring at her and flirting mercilessly with her.
When he had first taken a liking to her in their fourth year, she had found it annoying and embarrassing. By fifth year it began to prod her in all the wrong places and by sixth year it just plain pissed her off. And now? Now it was worse than ever. It made her head spin; it made her want to burst into tears.
Why did he have to do that? Suddenly she was catching glimpses of him being an actual human being, yet still he ruined it with this false bravado of being madly in love with her. What if she got a crush on him? She'd always known he was attatractive, and now that she was beginning to approve of his actaul personality, it would only be a matter of time before. . . .
But she couldn’t get a crush on him! Not when she knew it was exactly what he wanted. Not when she knew he would use every waking moment (and probably, knowing that git, every damn sleeping moment, too) bragging about it, bragging, that he’d finally caught Lily Evans. And once he'd bragged to his satisfaction, he would dump her and leave her in the dust.
No matter how changed he seemed, she would go on hating him. Only now with a new, added twist. “Awfully quiet today, my little flower, is something the matter?” Lily let out a loud, rude sigh.
“Potter, I’ve run out of energy to yell at you. Can we just leave it at that? Perhaps you could make my day and drown yourself in the showers? Maybe climb to the astronomy tower and take a leap of faith? Hmm, sound good?”
He chuckled as they entered the Great Hall and she let out another almighty sigh of frustration. “How about instead I make your whole week and promise to love you forever?” he teased as they heading in the direction of the Gryffindor table.
Something inside of Lily snapped. “Stop it, stop it, stop it!” she spat viciously at him. He looked alarmed. “I’m sick of you and this little game. For the last time, leave me alone; go make sport of some other girl!” She roughly strode around him and sat down at the table, making sure everyone knew she was in no mood to talk. No one bothered her.
Three hours, a visit to a greatly improved Alice, and two essays later, Lily found herself leaving the portrait hole alongside James as they started out on Head rounds. They walked in awkward silence, made worse by the fact that James was constantly staring at her. Of course, he was always staring at her, but now it was different. Now he seemed to be looking for something; his hazel eyes seem to rove over her face, desperately trying to find something.
“What was that?” he asked randomly, abruptly shooting out an arm to stop her mid-step.
“What was what?” she replied with annoyance. He nodded his head at the broom closet to their left. “That’s a broom closet, Potter,” replied Lily, rolling her eyes.
“I know what it is, Evans; I’m asking if you heard it too?"
"Heard what?" Lily sighed.
"I swear I heard someone or something shuffling about in it. . . .” he muttered. He turned to look at her expectantly.
“Nope, sorry, I didn’t hear a thing.” She started off on the hallways again, only to realize he was not walking with her any longer. “Oh good Merlin,” she muttered to herself, calling aloud, “Come o,n Potter, I want to be done with this before daylight!”
Typically, he ignored her and instead chose to swing open the closet door and march right into a bloody broom closet. “I can’t see anything!” he shouted to her in a muffled voice.
“Now really,” she exclaimed to herself as she stalked to the closet and barged in after him. “Lumos!” she lit her wand, casting light and shadows through the closet.
“Huh, forgot about that,” commented James breezily, before lighting his own wand and searching around the room. It was barely three feet by three feet and Lily found herself a little too close to James.
“There is no one in here, Potter; lets go,” she grabbed his arm and made to leave. But when he swung around to follow her, his foot rammed into a shelf. As he proceeded to swear inappropriately, one thing after another happened: something large and heavy precariously rocked on the shelf he had banged into before finally wobbling off the shelf and hitting the door, which slammed close.
“Oh, this is unbelievable,” said Lily, rolling her eyes. She elbowed him aside and grabbed the door knob to yank it back open and get out of the closet. The door didn't open. She twisted her wrist and yanked harder. It didn't work.
The door was locked.
“This can not be happening,” she muttered to herself.
“It’s locked? How very . . . fairytale-ish,” said James, his amusement evident. “The two teens locked together in a cramped closet finally find their love for each other.” She couldn’t see him but she could practically hear the smirk in his voice.
She whirled around to face him, knocking something off a shelf just as he had, something which slammed into her head and neck as it fell and not only sent pain spiraling through her but also managed to send her wand clattering to the ground. “Damn it!” she yelped as the pain increased.
“What happened? asked James immediately, tripping on in object and effectively falling into her.
“Get off me, you oaf!” Lily shrieked at him. He started to pull away but didn’t get very far as he ran into the wall and had no where else to go. “This is UNBELIEVABLE!” she yelled, pounding on the door but to no apparent avail. Her head was pounding now, to put the icing on the cake.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to talk,” James stated, crossing his arms over his chest and in doing so rubbing them against her shoulder.
“Great,” she snapped. “You talk and I’ll get us out of here.” She tried to turn away from him and struggled to bend down and reach the pinpoint of light she knew to be her wand.
“I’m serious here, Evans. We need to talk. What did you mean earlier before dinner? What sort of game were you talking about?” His voice was eager, insistent and even a little upset. Lily decided to ignore him. “Evans, are you ignoring me?”
Lily shuffled around, bumping into James multiple times. “Whoa there, Lily, you almost rammed the goods here with your knee,” he warned. Lily resisted the urge to purposely slam her knee up between his legs.
“Yes, well, you’ve come dangerously close to touching my sensitive areas, multiple times, so be quiet and just don’t move!” she snapped at him. Frustration was building up in her, and when he reached for her hand, it was the straw that broke the hippogriff's back. She yanked her hand away from him so fast she lost her balance and went crashing into the shelf.
A storm of objects came raining down, painfully smacking her arms and back as they hit the ground with a crash. The last to fall slammed into her back and nearly had her buckling at the sudden pain. She could feel something warm and wet trickling down her back and soaking into her shirt, and considering the pain, she was pretty sure it was blood. “James,” she groaned, “I think something cut my back.”
“What? What happened?” He sounded extremely concerned and for once Lily was grateful for how much he cared.
“Something that fell hit my back and oh, it hurts, James. It’s bleeding and it stings,” she whined to him, desperately trying not to start crying. She was never one to cry without extremely good reason, and as far as she was concerned, there wasn't a good enough reason to warrant crying in front of James Potter
“Okay, okay, let me take a look at it,” he told her as he gently gripped her shoulders and somehow managed to turn her around. Holding his wand and the only source of light in his teeth, he nervously reached out to her hair and started to lift it up.
She didn’t stop him and he happily went on. It was wonderful, shifting his fingers through soft red hair he had wished to touch for so long. But before long his fingers found something sticky and wet. She was bleeding . . . a lot.
Quickly he charmed all her hair onto her head in a bun, something he had seen his mother do with her own hair for years. “How did you learn to do that?” she asked curiously, before letting out another yelp.
“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to touch it!” He had found the source of pain and blood: a gash the started at the nape of her neck and disappeared under her shirt. The blood had begun to seep through the shirt and it looked as if the cut spanned almost the length of her back. Not even wanting to know what had given her a gash like that, he nervously told her, “It’s not too bad; it just goes down really far. I know a few basic healing charms, but I can’t really see the cut.”
“Okay,” Lily replied softly. She tried to knock out the scandalous thoughts floating through her head or the feeling of James’ fingers running through her hair. The pain in her back and neck was unbelievable, and if he could heal it. . . .
Hardly believing she was really doing this, she unbuttoned the top of her shirt, allowing it to slip down slightly and catch at her elbows, revealing the upper-half of her back.
James breath caught in his chest when he realized what she was doing. “Can you heal it now?” she asked softly. He dumbly nodded his head before realizing she couldn’t see him.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s long but pretty shallow,” he told her. He knew he should be focusing on the bloody cut, but his eyes couldn't help but rove over her back and the sprinkling of freckles that dusted it. If she had freckles on her face and her back, did that mean she had them everywhere? He smiled to himself, wishing he wasn’t getting to see that because he was healing her.
Clearing his throat and narrowing his eyes in focus, he began flicking his wrist and performing one, two, three little healing spells his mother had taught him years ago. Still, it didn't seem to be making much of a difference.
“James, it still stings really badly,” Lily whimpered. Even as she spoke, he saw what must have been the greatest source of pain: her bra strap was pressing into the cut. Shouldn't whatever cut her have also cut the bra?
“Er, Lily, I think it might be 'cause your . . . er, I ”” he didn’t know what to say. What could he say without getting her upset at him? After all, he still hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her about what she had said.
“If you undo the catch on the bra can you heal it?” Lily asked knowingly, seeming to wince with pain even as she spoke.
“Yeah, yeah, and I promise, Lily, I’m not . . . you know, or ””
“Just heal it, please, James!” Lily nearly cried out. James reached forward and she felt his fingers starting fumbling with the strap. A moment later the strap came undone and pressure and pain washed away. She tried to ignore the situation and the identity of the boy standing behind her as she sighed. It still throbbed painfully, but no where near as badly as it had before.
James had often dreamed of Lily letting him undo her bra strap willingly, but somehow the dreams had been under different situations. Truthfully, though, he had never really thought he would be allowed close enough to touch her bra strap, so he was in fact one step closer to the impossible. He heard her sigh when he finally managed to undo the catch.
“Okay, this healing isn’t going to be the best job in the world, but it’ll do until Madam Pomfrey can clean it up,” he told her. He said a few more spells and the wound began to seal itself ever so slightly. He cleared the blood that had covered her back and conjured some gauze to wrap over the wound.
“You want me to redo the clasp of your bra over the gauze or will it hurt too much?” he offered. “I can redo it at the loosest size, if you want. Does that sound okay?”
“At the loosest size it wouldn’t fit anymore considering I’m about as endowed as a . . .” her voice trailed off with mortification when she realized what she was saying. “Sounds fine James,” she finished after a pause, her voice oddly high-pitched. “Just finish so we can figure out a way to get out of here. We didn’t even think to try the unlocking charm!”
James, however, was standing in shock. What had she been saying earlier? She hadn’t gotten to finish the sentence but he knew what she had meant. How could she think that? Frowning to himself, he attached the bra clasp again as gently as he could and a moment later she pushed the shirt back up and he could hear her redoing the buttons.
Before he could give her a chance to say or do anything, he gripped her shoulder and swung her around deftly. She looked a little surprised. “Thanks, James,” she muttered. “Now we need to get out of here ””
“Not until I say a few things,” he cut her off. “First of all, I think I know what you meant earlier today. You really think I don’t actually like you? You really think this is all a game to me? Like you’re some prize I’ve been trying to win? For four years? I’ve got news for you: that is the farthest thing from the truth. I really like you. I really care about you.”
Lily was taken completely aback. His face was blazing with determination and honesty."James," she started slowly, "We really don't need to have this conversation right now. I'm too hungry for this."
He ignored her weary statement, instead plowing on, “I like how you ridiculously impatient you get, to the point that you even tap your foot whenever someone is a minute late. I like how you care about everyone and everything and are willing to make friends with anyone ” and I mean anyway, you are friends with some of the weirdest people in this school.
"I like how determined and stubborn you are; I like how when you want something you go and get it. I think it’s cute that you wear two watches or that the studs you wear in your ears are always two different colours. I think you’re the smartest person in this school. And you are, without a doubt, the prettiest.” He paused to take a breath before continuing boldly and emphasizing every word, “I like everything about the way you look and I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
She knew he was referring to her slip-up earlier and she felt her face flush. She couldn’t believe all the things he was saying. It had never crossed her mind that someone would notice all those things about her, let alone admire them. Her mind wandered to her thoughts just earlier.
He was handsome, for sure, with that messy black hair, that tall, lanky, broad frame, and those sparkling, mischievous hazel eyes. And his voice was so deep, and the tingling that swam through her every time he touched her. . . . And now, he was saying these things, and it fit with the new and improved James Potter of seventh year and. . . .
“Well, say something,” he blustered, losing his cool. What was she going to say? Was she going to say anything at all? Was she going to just keep staring at him? Was she going to slap him? His heart sank at the thought. Did she still not believe him? Did she still think he was some jerk after a prize?
“No,” she started, rubbing her temples with her hands. “No, I don’t want to say anything. I don’t want to deal with all of this, with you right now,” she was shaking her head and refusing to look at him.
“Good Godric, then what do you want?!” James burst out angrily. She was impossible! Even as he thought it he saw her face change as she turned to meet his gaze. The light coming from his wand was dim and it was hard to see anything at all, but suddenly there was a sure, determined look on her face. It was one he had always admired from afar, never one he had seen directed at him.
Before he knew what was happening, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to her height, and then all of sudden she was pressing her lips to his. He couldn’t believe it. Lily Evans was kissing him. Life was perfect. Was this really happening? Was he really here? Was Sirius about to yell at him to take a cold shower? He gently wrapped his arms around her unharmed lower back and lifted her off the ground, pulling her close to him, feeling her warm and soft in his arms. Her fingers went straight to his hair and he felt her smile into his lips. If he died an hour, he wouldn't give a damn. This was really happening. Life. Was. Perfect.
Cautiously, he ran his tongue across her bottom lip and was rewarded when she opened her mouth and gave him entrance. He was finally tasting Lily Evans. He was finally trailing kissing along her jaw and her neck; he was finally capturing her lips searingly and chasing her tongue with his.
After what seemed like forever,James pulled away, still holding her small body in his arms. He looked down at her face, praying he wouldn’t see regret and disgust dancing across her features. Her lips were swollen slightly from the kiss and her cheeks were flushed.
“I thought of something to say,” she whispered. Her heart was beating faster taen she ever remembered and even the pain in her back seemed to have receded to the happiness that was swimming through her veins. Had anyone told her earlier that day that the evening would find her snogging James Potter in a broom closet, she would have recommended a therapist. She had despised him for so long and suddenly he gives her a romantic speech and a heart stopping kiss and she's head over heals. It sounded like something from the cheap, Muggle romance novels her sister Petunia read. But in all honesty, though Lily would never admit it to Petunia, she liked those corny, sappy romance stories.
“Yeah, what’s that?” he whispered, and there was something thread in his voice that made her want to grab him and pull him in for another kiss. She could still hear his apprehension, however, and it made her smile. She didn't care if it was corny-romance-book worthy.
“Want to go out with me?” she asked. He laughed aloud and yelled yes as though proclaiming it to the world. Before either of them could say anything further, he caught her up in another kiss.
A moment later the door banged open and blazing light dazzled them. Lily pulled out of the kiss and the two looked to the doorway, James still holding Lily and her hands still tangled in his hair, signs of their kissing still written across their surprised faces.
“Holy Hopping Hippogriffs,” Sirius muttered with wide eyes. Standing beside him was not only Remus and Peter but also a tired and shocked-looking Alice.
“Oh, it’s just you four,” said Lily, turning away from them and looking back at James. He grinned and leaned down to kiss her again.
“WHAT THE HELL?” Sirius yelled.
“You two were gone forever and we came looking for you, and then we heard James yell and so we opened the door to see if . . .” Alice started but was unable to finish.
“Prongs, mate, what ”” Sirius began again, staring.
“Haven’t you ever seen two people snogging in a broom closet?” asked Lily, grinning, before kicking the door shut with her foot.
“Next time leave us be!” James yelled with a muffled voice that got cut off.
“Next time?” repeated Sirius, momentarily bewildered, before a grin started to seep across his face, “‘Atta boy Prongs, ‘atta boy.”
A/N: A fluffy one-shot pops into my head and refuses to leave until written on paper. This is the result. Review and tell me how I did? Please?