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Lily could not believe she had forgotten her jumper in her dormitory this morning. She had realised it during breakfast, but had been too lazy and eager to eat her weight in smoked salmon – a special treat since it was the last day of term before Christmas holidays – to go back and get it. She had figured she’d be fine since they had Potions first thing that morning and it was always steaming hot in Professor Slughorn’s dungeon classroom. But she hadn’t taken into consideration that she had Care of Magical Creatures next and wouldn’t have time to run up to the dormitory and back down to the grounds before or after, since she had Herbology straight after. All the Warming Charms in the world weren’t enough to save her from two hours freezing on the grounds and in the greenhouses in nothing but her shirt and her thin black Hogwarts school robe.
By the time she joined James in the library for their shared free period, her teeth were chattering. She was almost afraid her lips were turning blue as she pressed them to James’s cheek in greeting. He jumped and instinctively jerked his head back as he turned to stare at her, eyes wide behind his glasses.
“Merlin, woman! You’re like an icicle!” he whisper-shouted. He had been booted from the library so many times over the years that he tended to instinctively keep his voice down when he really didn’t want Madam Pince to pay too much attention to him.
“I forgot my jumper in my dormitory,” she pouted as she began to stack her books on the table in front of her. Technically free period seemed like the best time to go and retrieve it since she had a whole hour before lunch, which meant she had two whole hours before they needed to be in their Alchemy lesson. But why would she go all the way back up to Gryffindor Tower when James had his jolly Christmas jumper – definitely a dress code violation, not that anyone cared on the last day of term – slung over the back of his chair here in the library?
It was her bad luck, really, that her coldest lessons were the two her very toasty warm boyfriend had dropped the moment he was able.
She reached for his jumper. He leaned forward wordlessly so she could tug it free and watched as she pulled it over her head. Her hair was probably a mess when she popped it through the collar, but it was nothing compared to the perpetual disaster that was his hair, so she didn’t feel particularly self-conscious about him staring as she sighed, delighted that he’d been leaning against it and it was still warm with his body heat.
He made a strangled sound when she ducked her chin beneath the collar and breathed in the scent of him.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said too quickly.
“It smells like you,” she informed him.
“Okay,” he said.
“I like it,” she continued.
“Thanks,” he said hoarsely.
“Are you alright?” she asked, frowning at him and reaching for his hand. “You’re being weird.”
“No! I mean, yeah,” he said loudly, then flinched and ducked his head when Madam Pince looked swiftly in their direction. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. “I’m alright.”
She eyed him suspiciously for a moment before turning to open her Advanced Charms textbook. “If you’re sure.”
He only hummed to reassure her as he turned back to his notes. From the looks of it, he’d been working on his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay when she’d joined him. After a few minutes she realized she had barely heard the scratch of his quill on his parchment. She glanced over. He had added maybe three words. She looked at his face.
He was staring at her with an odd, unfocused expression. He startled when he realised she was frowning at him, and turned back to his essay. He added two more words before he chanced another glance at her. She was still watching him with suspicious, narrowed eyes.
“What is wrong with you?” she demanded in a whisper.
He smiled guiltily. “You look nice. That’s all.”
Her frown deepened. She looked down at herself. “I’m just wearing your jumper.”
His smile turned a little goofy. “Yeah, I know.”
“Are you going insane?” she asked. “Genuinely.”
“Maybe a little,” he said with a shrug. “But probably not. I think finding you impossibly attractive right now is the most sane thing I’ve ever done.”
She rolled her eyes. Despite herself, she felt her cheeks heat. James’s smile softened. She shoved him playfully. “Write your essay. It’s due in three hours.”
“I can think of more important things than this essay right now,” James said, leaning close to her. “Much, much more important. And much, much more fun.”
“More important than Defence Against the Dark Arts?” Lily retorted.
He pretended to consider her point, frowning contemplatively. “Admittedly this is a very important class. But yes, I can think of more important things.”
“Essay,” she said, tapping it with one slender fingertip.
When she pulled her hand back, he caught it. “One kiss.”
“Do you want to get kicked out of the library again?” Lily demanded. But she was smiling, utterly incapable of hiding the silly girlish joy he brought out in her. “I recall Madam Pince threatening a lifelong ban last year.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” he said gravely.
“How about a compromise,” she suggested. She got up and gathered her books. He watched her, dismayed for a brief moment, then intrigued when she simply moved to his left side instead of his right. She got settled, then moved her chair closer to his and looked at him. “No kiss, but you may put your arm around me and continue to write your essay.”
His brown eyes went impossibly soft and he smiled and lifted his arm for her to snuggle under. He picked up his quill in his right hand and hovered it over the parchment. She leaned into his side and resumed reading her textbook to the sound of his quill steadily scratching the parchment.
-
“You look ridiculous,” Lily said bluntly across the Gryffindor table.
They’d gotten to lunch late because she’d decided, once they’d left the library, that James did deserve his kiss after all. And then one kiss turned into two and two into three and before she knew it they were full-on snogging in a secret passageway.
So, the table had been nearly full when they’d arrived, and their friends had only been able to save two seats across from each other instead of next to each other. James had pouted about it, but quietly sat between Sirius and Peter across from her and Remus without making too much of a fuss. It seemed, after he’d eaten two roast beef sandwiches, that he had decided to accept his lot and spend the rest of the lunch hour staring at her across the table like a lovesick fool.
“I look perfectly normal,” James said, making no effort to actually look perfectly normal.
“I am your girlfriend,” she reminded him.
He sighed dreamily. “Yeah.”
“We just spent fifteen minutes snogging,” she pointed out.
A flash of pride. “Yeah, we did.”
She rolled her eyes. “We’ve literally been dating since the first week of school.”
“I know,” he grinned goofily.
“Thanks to Sirius, the entire school has known from day one,” she said.
“Yeah.” Another dazed sigh as he stared at her. “But Lily. You’re wearing my jumper. For everyone to see.”
She rolled her eyes. “Absolutely ridiculous.”
“I think his shock is perfectly reasonable,” Sirius butted in from beside James as if he were part of the conversation. “You’re practically wearing a sign that says property of James Potter.”
Lily bristled immediately, but James beat her to the retaliation. With quick Quidditch-honed reflexes he smacked Sirius none-too-gently in the stomach without taking his eyes off Lily.
“She’s not my fucking property, you prick,” he said. “She’s my girlfriend.”
Sirius groaned. “I was kidding, you idiot. You didn’t have to hit me.”
“Be glad he did,” Lily said darkly. “I was going to hex you.”
Sirius frowned, then noticed her wand was in her hand on top of the table. “So sensitive, the both of you.”
Lily stood and walked around the table. Sirius eyed her warily over his shoulder as she came to stand behind him and James.
James, on the other hand, smiled up at her. “Yes?”
“Let’s go,” she said, holding out her hand to him.
He stood and took it without hesitation and without question even though they still had twenty minutes before Alchemy.
Peter asked the question for him, anyway. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve realised I’ve made a serious lapse in judgment,” she announced gravely. James looked confused. “I wasn’t done snogging you after all.”
Peter laughed. Remus raised his eyebrows. She didn’t bother checking Sirius’s reaction. James’s boyish grin was too alluring. Together, they turned and all but ran out of the hall.
-
She kept catching him staring at her during Alchemy. She would frown at him across the classroom and give him a pointed look that said focus on your notes.
Every time she caught him, though, he looked pleased instead of embarrassed.
It took her entirely too long to realise why.
Because every time she caught him staring, it was because she had gotten distracted from her notes and looked over at him too.
-
They turned in their Defence Against the Dark Arts essays at the start of the lesson – she had finished hers after dinner the night before while he’d been out flying with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Once their essays were handed in, Professor Wycliffe informed them that he had no intention of trying to teach a new topic the day before the Christmas holidays started and gave them what was essentially another free period provided they remained quiet and in his classroom.
James was unusually quiet as they sat together in the back of the room, fingers intertwined. She had expected him to start flirting again, or bartering for kisses she would not give him during class, even if they weren’t technically having a lesson. But no. He sat quietly beside her playing with her fingers.
Even Remus was goofing off with Sirius in the row ahead of them. She frowned at James and pushed his hair out of his eyes with her free hand.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him in a hushed voice when he looked at her.
He shook his head and then sighed. “We leave tomorrow.”
“Yeah, it’s Christmas holidays,” Lily said. The whole school had been talking about it since only the beginning of the year.
He hummed. “Yeah, but…” he paused. It seemed to be difficult for him to verbalise whatever was bothering him. “You’re going to Cokeworth. I’m going to Gloucestershire.”
She waited. She understood now.
“We won’t see each other for three weeks,” he finally finished, looking very overwhelmingly depressed about it.
“James,” she said softly. He met her eyes. “If only there were some magical method of travel that was instantaneous and could transport you from Gloucestershire to Cokeworth, and me from Cokeworth to Gloucestershire in the blink of an eye.”
His eyes lit up. “Oh.”
“Who’s the Pure-blood between the two of us, again?” she teased.
“Well, obviously we could Apparate to each other,” he said. “I just…didn’t know if you wanted to.”
“James,” she said again. “Do you think you’re alone in this relationship?”
He shook his head fiercely, frowning, looking a bit confused.
“Good, because you’re not. I’m as embarrassingly mad about you as you are about me, I’ll have you know,” she said in a level tone. “I just manage it better.”
His eyes went impossibly tender. “Oh. Well, okay then.”
A wad of parchment zoomed into the side of his head. He turned to Sirius with a scowl and flicked his wand at him. Sirius choked a little as his tie tightened to the point of discomfort before suddenly it stopped and loosened again.
“Prat,” Sirius gasped.
“Idiot,” James retorted.
Lily shook her head and smiled.
-
The entire class practically bolted out of Transfiguration when Professor McGonagall released them. It was their last lesson of the day, and of the whole term. All of them were eager for freedom, as much freedom as they could come by still confined to the castle for the next fifteen hours.
James pulled Lily into an empty classroom just down the corridor from McGonagall’s and kissed her. She didn’t protest, even though they’d snogged through half of lunch earlier. She couldn’t get enough of him either, especially not when they were about to be separated for three weeks.
Because James was as right as she was. Sure, they could meet up conceivably whenever and wherever they wanted since they both had their Apparition licenses. But they wouldn’t have empty classrooms and secret passages or the abandoned common room late at night after everyone else had gone to bed.
They wouldn’t even have the grounds to walk or the Black Lake to watch the sun set over. They wouldn’t have the Quidditch Pitch so he could show off for her while she waited and watched in the stands. As ridiculous as he had been during Defence, she was suddenly just as melancholy about it.
“What if we don’t get on the train?” James whispered against her neck.
She laughed and stroked a hand through his hair. “My parents would have a heart attack if I didn’t turn up at King’s Cross.”
He pulled his head back to smile adoringly down at her at the sound of her laugh. “Okay, what if I just come home with you?”
She laughed louder. “They would definitely have a heart attack if you just popped up and announced your intention to live in their house for three weeks.”
“Fine.” He sighed loudly and dramatically. “I’ll be okay with meeting up.”
“Good.”
“Every day.”
“James.”
“Every second day?”
His every day suggestion had been a joke. The second, she could tell by his hopeful expression, was more sincere. She smiled.
“We’ll see.” She drew him close again, pulled his head down towards her as she leaned up to kiss him softly. “We can definitely write every day.”
“I’ll write you the most majestic love letters you’ve ever received,” he promised.
“Easy, since I’ve never received one,” she said.
“What?” He looked astonished.
“What, what?” She frowned suspiciously at him. “Have you written a bunch of love letters?”
He thought for a moment. “Not a single one. Guess we’ll learn together how I manage.”
She smiled again. “I’ll write you love letters back.”
“You’ll have to,” he said seriously. “I’m going to send Monty every day with strict instructions not to return without a reply.”
She tsked. “My poor baby.”
“He’s my owl,” James protested.
“My baby,” she repeated.
He let it go. “I suppose I’ll have to meet your parents.”
He said it casually, but there was a hint of uncertainty there.
“They’ll definitely wonder who the lunatic grinning like a nutter at their daughter is,” Lily said, equally casual about it even though the thought of James Potter and her parents occupying the same space terrified her as much as it thrilled her.
“Definitely,” he agreed. “I guess you’ll probably need to meet my parents too, then.”
She pretended to take her time considering. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“They – er – actually already know who you are,” James admitted.
“My parents know about you, too,” Lily reassured him. She was pretty sure she hadn’t written them a letter that didn’t mention him in some capacity since they’d started dating. They even wrote back greetings for her to pass along to him, so he knew she’d told them about him.
“I know,” he confirmed. “But, I mean…my parents really know who you are. They’ve seen you at the train station a lot and they’ve taken note of how I…well, you know I like to look at you.”
She gaped at him. “You’ve been staring at me every time we’ve been at King’s Cross to the point that your parents recognise me?”
He grimaced. “Yeah.”
She laughed. “You’re pathetic.”
“I am,” he agreed immediately. “I really am.”
She kissed him again. He returned it eagerly. His hands went to the hem of his stolen jumper on her body. For a wild moment, she thought he was going to pull it off of her.
He didn’t.
He pulled his mouth from hers. “Can I just say…I really, really like you in my clothes.”
The door opened, and they both froze as the worst possible person walked in and caught them.
“Mr. Potter. Miss Evans,” Professor McGonagall said through tight lips.
“Professor, I –” James started. Professor McGonagall silenced him with a severe glare.
“Are you or are you not supposed to be leading the term’s final Prefect meeting right now as the school’s appointed Head Students?” she demanded.
Horror rushed through Lily as she backed away from James. They had completely forgotten the Prefect meeting.
“Professor, we –” she began, but was silenced by yet another glare.
“I know what you were doing. Five points from Gryffindor.”
Lily was surprised it wasn’t more. She half expected their Head of House to give them detention for the rest of the school year once they returned after Christmas, but further punishment didn’t come. She looked at James. He looked equally surprised.
McGonagall adjusted her glasses, looking between them with the same expression she used whenever a student had done something incredibly foolish and yet somehow not entirely surprising.
“I will remind you both that being Head Students is a position of responsibility, not merely an excuse to wander the castle together.”
James opened his mouth again.
“Do not speak,” Professor McGonagall warned.
He immediately shut it.
“You have a meeting to lead,” she continued. “A meeting which began several minutes ago if I am not mistaken.”
“Yes, Professor,” Lily said quickly.
McGonagall’s eyes flicked toward the jumper Lily was wearing, then back to her face. For the briefest moment, something almost like amusement flickered across her face.
“And, Mr. Potter?”
James straightened.
“Yes, Professor?”
“Your ability to look pleased with yourself is remarkable.”
His face went red. “I assure you, Professor, that I – ”
“That’s enough from you, Potter,” Professor McGonagall interrupted. There was a brief pause before she held her hand out to indicate they should leave. “Go. Lead your meeting.”
They both bent to gather the booksacks they had dropped in their haste to embrace one another before they inched past Professor McGonagall.
“Mr. Potter.”
James froze just inside the doorway. “Yes?”
Professor McGonagall sighed. For a brief moment as she looked at him, her expression softened. Lily could have imagined she nearly smiled, then she shook her head. “Go.”
Frowning, James continued into the corridor, Lily hot on his heels.
“Miss Evans,” Professor McGonagall called after them when they were nearly to the end of the corridor.
Lily grimaced at her severe tone even as she and James both obediently turned around to find that she had stepped back into the corridor after them and was standing in the doorway. “Yes, Professor?”
“Do remember your own jumper in future, won’t you?” Her tone was still stern, but there was a spark of amusement in her eyes, and the hint of a smirk on her lips. “To prevent such ridiculous moments from occurring again.”
Lily bit her lip and nodded, embarrassed but no longer afraid Professor McGonagall would dock points or give them detention. “Yes, Professor. Sorry again, Professor. It won’t happen again, Professor.”
She took James’s hand in hers and ran, knowing she had no intention of keeping that promise.