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Disclaimer: canon character, plots, and situations from the Harry Potter series belong to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this writing.
Sugar Quills
September 1, 1977
James used two fingers to flick at the badge on his robes, making him swell with pride. He had tried the last year to get his grades up to become Head Boy. At first, the reason was to make Lily Evans talk to him, but during the second half of the school year his reasons changed, he did it because he wanted to become an Auror. He had always just passed his tests, but he wanted there to be no doubt that he knew what he was doing. Gone were the days that James only cared about winning Quidditch matches and hexing Snape, now he cared about his grades and of course Quidditch and hexing, but only on the side.
Stopping in front of the compartment door he heard Lily’s voice ring out, “Once the Head Boy gets here we can discuss what's going to happen next.” James combed his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath to settle his ever growing nerves and slid the door open.
Sitting down next to Lily, he turned his body towards her and whispered, “I have absolutely no idea what to do so I will let you take control of this meeting.” James turned around to address the Prefects with a hint of an authoritative tone, “Let's all settle down now while we listen to Lily.”
Lily had her mouth open staring at him, reminding James of a goldfish. Softly laughing, he nudged her to get Lily to close her mouth and start speaking.
Hours later during the feast, James sat next to Sirius and across from Remus and Peter. James was telling the three boys that he had surprised Lily on the train. “She sat there with her mouth wide open! I was silent through the whole thing just listening to her speak and giving orders.” James stated as he got a dreamy look on his face, Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes while Peter was hanging on James's every word.
Remus leaned forward and questioned with a smirk on his face, “So are you going to declare your love for her this year?”
James shook his head and scoffed, “No, I have decided to lay low this year.” When Sirius nearly fell off the bench as he whipped around to face James with his eyebrows up to his hairline James smiled and admitted, “Okay, so it will resume after Christmas.”
~OoOoOoO~
Thursday December 15, 1977
Lily walked along the silent halls a week before Christmas, James was patrolling next her, but they had done this so often that they didn't need to speak. As she walked along the halls, her mind wandered to James, ‘He has really shaped up this year,’ Lily thought, ‘I mean he stopped being so annoying last year, but he hasn't professed his love for me yet.’ Stopping dead in her tracks with a look of horror on her face she quizzed herself, ‘Do I really care that he hasn't told me he loves me? It has always been annoying but do I miss it? Why would I miss it?’
James got three feet in front of her before he realized that Lily was no longer next to him. He back tracked the few steps and placed his hand on her arm. “Lily?” James asked pulling her out of her thoughts. “Are you okay?”
Lily shook her head to dislodge the thoughts and replied, “Oh yes, I'm fine. I just forgot to finish Professor Slughorn's potions essay that's due tomorrow.”
James looked at her with a smirk on his face and teased, “Oh the little Head Girl hasn't done her homework? You will fail immediately.”
Lily laughed loudly and gave James a shove. “Stow it. Do you mind if I head back to finish it?”
James nodded his head, waved bye and turned around to finish patrolling.
Lily darted off to the Gryffindor common room, screeching for Alice.
Alice grabbed her friend who was babbling unintelligible words and shook her. “Lily, are you okay?” Alice demanded.
Lily took a quick look around the common room to see the remaining Marauders looking over in their direction. Lily grabbed Alice's hand and yanked her up the stairs.
~OoOoOoOo~
Friday December 16, 1977
James was telling Sirius about Lily acting weird the night before when the woman tapped him on the shoulder. Spinning around, James cleared his throat and tried not to look sheepish.
Lily’s words tumbled out of her mouth before she had a chance to think them over again, “doyouwanttogotoHogsmadewithme?” Realizing that she spoke way too fast by the dumbfounded look on James and Sirius’ faces she slowly uttered out, “Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?”
James stood frozen until a quick thwack to the back of the head by Sirius had him stammer out a “Y...y...yes.”
Lily replied, “Great. See you tomorrow morning after breakfast.” She then skipped away.
James turned around to face Sirius with a dreamy grin on his face and the smile stayed planted on him all day.
~OoOoOoOo~
Saturday December 17, 1977
James heart was pounding in his chest as he attempted to eat some toast before he left the Great Hall with Lily. Speaking to no one, James gave himself a silent pep talk. ‘Get over yourself, it's just Lily. She may have green eyes that remind me of emeralds on my mother's bracelet and her dark auburn hair shimmers when it catches light. Her skin may also be as soft as silk when I accidentally brush my hand against it, but it is no reason to freak out. Just play it cool and maybe she will be your..’
“James?” Lily's angelic voice pulled James out of his thoughts.
Turning to look at Lily, he replied, “Are you ready?”
She nodded.
Standing up, James offered Lily his arm and waved good bye to their friends.
The walk down to Hogsmeade was quiet as they were both lost in their thoughts. “Well,” James said as he took the plunge to start a conversation, “Where do you want to go first? I have to go to Honeydukes and get some chocolate for Remus and then get broom polish for Sirius from Spintwitches Sporting Needs.”
Lily pondered over the question and answered, “Let's go to Honeydukes. What are you getting for Peter?”
James shrugged his shoulders. “He is always so hard to buy for but I already bought him a quill from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop the last time I was here, he is always breaking his.”
Silence fell over them again as a breeze flew in between them. Lily seemed to curl into herself to protect her body from the cold and James withdrew his wand to cast a warming charm over the both of them. A quick smile in his direction had both Lily and James relaxing into conversation about Sirius’s latest conquest and the homework Professor McGonagall gave them over the weekend.
In Honeydukes, Lily and James separated to go purchase different things, James walked straight the counter and requested, “May I speak to the manager? I had ordered two large boxes of products and he had said to come see him.”
Lily had grabbed some candy for her friends and came to stand next to James who grabbed the candy out of her hands, before she could retaliate a large man carrying two boxes came from the cellar and dropped them on the counter; he then stuck out his hand. “Name is Rose, thanks for ordering these from us. Your total is eight gallons.” James stuck Lily’s candy in top of the boxes and the man changed his answer to “Ten gallons.” James grabbed his pouch and told the man to deliver the boxes to the Gryffindor common room, and stuffed Lily's candy into a bag.
Lily screeched out, “I could've paid for my the things, I have to pay you back now.”
James winked at Lily and shot back with “You can buy me a butterbeer after I get Sirius’s present.” Without waiting for a reply, James walked off in the direction of Spintwitches Sporting Needs store. Lily caught up quickly and shoved James into the snow. Laughing, James stood up and pushed her down, running the rest of the way to the store, knowing that Lily wouldn't make a mess in a store.
James was in and out of the store within ten minutes. As he was in the store, he kept looking around for Lily but hadn't spotted her. Hoping he didn't mess up his chances, he ran out of the store sucking in a deep breath to yell out her name when a snowball hit him on the right side of his face.
Spinning to his right, he saw that Lily had made a pile of snowballs while he was in the store. James bent down and attempted to make at least one snowball before Lily threw another. Getting hit with snowballs while making them was hard, but he managed to make a few and started throwing them at Lily.
Admitting defeat, James threw his hands up in the air shouting, “I surrender.” Slowly walking over to Lily he asked if she wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks to get a Butterbeer. He offered his arm and they slowly walked off to get inside the warm pub.
Lily walked in first as James had stopped outside the door to tie his shoe, neither noticed what was hanging above their heads. Sitting down, Lily and James got warm before Lily said, “We had better change out of these wet clothes” with a laugh and promptly slammed down her gallons to pay for the drinks.
James walked next to Lily and attempted to step forward to open the door but was caught in an invisible shield. Smirking Madame Rosmerta yelled out, “You are under a mistletoe, you have to kiss on the lips to get out.”
James swallowed hard and whispered, “I can be quick.” He leaned over her and gently pressed his lips to hers. His mind ran a mile a minute, ‘Her lips are so soft. Merlin she tastes like butterbeer and sunshine.’ He was about to pull away when Lily threw her arms around his neck and kissed him harder.
~OoOoOoOo~
Lily ran out of James's arms mortified at her response and rushed back to Hogwarts. Her mind playing the sweet kiss over and over again, how chapped his lips were from the cold, how he smelled like grass and broom polish, her heart pounding as he pulled away and gods she never wanted it to end. Without realizing, Lily ran right past her friends, who rounded on James when they saw him running after her and jumped into bed.
Lily pretended to be sick with “woman problems" for the whole week after the kiss she shared with James. She did tell her friends that they kissed, but she did not let them know that she enjoyed it, even though they had figured it out. She stayed in her room only leaving to go to class, her friends brought her meals so she wouldn't have to see him.
Lily woke up Christmas morning with a large package on her bed with no sender named. The large box was filled with grape flavoured deluxe sugar quills and a note that read, “I hope you enjoy these,” in a script she knew all too well. Letting the note fall from her grasp she ran down the stairs.
~OoOoOoO~
Saturday December 24, 1977
James was kicking himself in the rear for the whole week, the same three what if thoughts running through his head constantly. 'If I didn't have to be so gentlemanly.' 'If I had just looked up and noticed it earlier.' 'If I had pulled myself away when she wanted to kiss me longer.'
He remembered when her friends stopped him from running after her. They were all yelling over each other and not giving him a chance to speak. ‘James, what did you do?” Alice's voice rang out the loudest. ’Nothing.’ James groaned. “We had a great time, well at least I think we did and then we got stuck under a mistletoe and Madame Rosmerta said we had to kiss to release the spell, so I did.”
James had tried to talk to Lily later that night and every day since then. In classes, she sat in between her friends and never looked his way. She was out the door as soon as their professors has dismissed them. Luckily they had already planned, earlier in the month, to have two other Prefects to patrol the halls or else James would be going by himself.
Remus pulled James out of his thoughts by clasping a hand on his shoulder. “It's alright mate.”
James moaned, “No, it's not. She finally started talking to me, then we got caught under that blasted mistletoe.” Bending over to get a box out from under his bed he roughly yanked it out and handed it to Remus. “You know someone who wants sugar quills?”
Remus looked at James in disbelief. “Lily.”
James shrugged his shoulders. “She won't talk to me, Remus. How am I supposed to give them to her? Should I even do it?”
Sirius walked in and noticed the box in the bed. “Not this again. I told you to give the box to the elves and they will put it on her bed. If you don't I will,” he added with a serious look on his face.
James woke up Christmas morning in a happy mood, yes the love of his life wasn't talking to him, but it was Christmas. James had opened a new pair of gloves from Peter when their bedroom door swung open and there stood Lily, her red hair still sticking up around her head, like a halo James thought.
Without so much as a word, Lily ran over to James and kissed him with everything she had. James not one to pull Lily out of whatever had gotten into her kissed her back and pulled her onto his lap.
Lily pulled away breathless. “I think I like you.”
James laughed, taking her face into his palms, replied, “Well I know I like you. Be mine.”