Final Year, Final Chance

Two weeks had passed since Lily Evans and James Potter's mammoth fight. Neither had spoken to the other - they had merely communicated through their friends Odette and Sirius. This, however, bothered neither Sirius nor Odette as they were gradually beginning to enjoy each other's company more and more.

"I'm sick of this!" Odette suddenly burst out.

It was Friday afternoon in the common room and Odette, Enid and Lily were packing up their belongings to ready themselves for dinner. Lily had insisted they get a little bit of studying in before the weekend officially began (which was after dinner).

"Sick of what?" Lily asked, not looking up from her book.

"The pair of you."

Enid looked up, upset. "What on earth have I done now?"

"Not you," Odette moaned. "The other one. Oi! Red! I'm talking about you!"

"Me? What have I done?"

"You know very well I meant you and Potter."

Lily shivered. "Don't say it..."

"Black and I are sick of being your messengers," said Odette, folding her arms.

"Are you sure about that?" Lily grinned slyly. "I reckon you actually like spending time with that bloke."

"That, Lily... is beside the point. You need to pull your head in and act your age, not your shoe size."

"Which is size ten, I believe," grinned Enid. "So, pretty close."

"You, missy, are not helping!" Odette snapped at Enid.

"I'll apologise to that idiot when he apologises to me," Lily growled as she closed her book and put it in her bag. "Which is never going to happen."

"Why can't you be the bigger person?" Odette groaned.

"Because I'm shorter than he is, and much daintier," Lily smiled. "It's physically impossible."

"You're just impossible, period," said Odette, folding her arms.

Lily looked from Odette to Enid, shaking her head. "I'm not doing it, okay kids? It's just not happening."

"Well find another messenger, because I quit."

And with that, Odette stormed off with a smile on her face.

Lily turned to Enid, a little taken aback with Odette's abrupt departure. Enid shrugged and gathered up her things and turned away. She could feel Lily's eyes boring into her. She turned around to see a sweet smile on her best friend's face.

"No!"

"Oh, come on, Enid! Just think: you and Remus could get to know each other better...he's much nicer than Black."

"I'm not settling for another Marauder just because Black likes Odie, okay? Anyway, I've sworn off men."

"You have not, don't be ridiculous. Please, pretty please talk with Remus? Please?"

As she walked towards the portrait hole, she turned around. "Nope. Sorry, Lils. You're on your own this time."

And Enid departed with a big smile on her face.

Lily plopped herself down in a seat, sulking. Thanks for nothing, girls, she thought.

* * * * *

"He just won't listen," warned Peter.

"Because you're being a git," Remus cried. "None of us are doing it!"

"You both like talking to these girls," James yelled. "Just slide the information in while you're talking to them."

Sirius swept his fringe out of his face in exasperation. It however fell back into his eyes, as it always did, and he looked nothing short of glamorously handsome.

"We want to talk to these girls about stuff that we like, not about you and Lily," he said, haughtily.

"It's not for much longer, you know. She's going to buckle soon."

The boys were, once again, in their dormitory. They were discussing Lily Evans: the young lady who was fast becoming the only subject they discussed.

"She's not going to be the bigger person," said Remus.

"She's shorter than you, for a start," Sirius noted jokingly.

"And very fragile," Peter pointed out.

"I think the word you're looking for is delicate," Remus offered with a smirk.

James rolled his eyes and sat down on his bed. "Oh very funny," he grumbled.

Sirius sat next to James. "Prongs, you have to be a man and 'fess up to the fact that you feel terrible about what happened between you two. And that you want to get it right."

There was a moment silence in which James was still trying to think of a legitimate argument against his friends. He knew ultimately that they were right, but he just simply did not want to give them the satisfaction. While he racked his brains, Remus went in search of his lost shoe.

James snapped his fingers. "I just have to get on her good side without having to admit that I was wrong."

"Which is impossible," Remus called from underneath his bed.

"Nothing is impossible," James challenged.

"This is," Sirius noted. "Therefore, something is impossible."

"I am so confused," said Peter.

"What a change," muttered Sirius.

"Ha! Found it!" Remus shouted from beneath Peter's bed: he had found his lone shoe. "Let's go down to dinner."

"Come on guys, PLEASE!" James exclaimed. "I'm at the end of my rope here."

"Mate, when you and Lily are married, which I know will happen," Sirius reasoned. "You just can't come and ask us advice as to how to say sorry when your baby cries and Lily's at work. Or when the house elf burns the house down."

"A little extreme, Padfoot," said James.

"Well, yes of course, we'll help you out there. House elves are a true fire hazard; look at Kreacher... but do you see what I'm getting at here? In this relationship that you and Lily have, there is just YOU and LILY. We aren't apart of it and Odette and Enid aren't apart of it. It's just you two. So for this part, you'll have to work it out on your own."

James sighed. "Fine."

"Coming to dinner?" Peter asked.

"I'm not hungry."

"Come on, James..."

"Let him sulk, Wormtail. It'll give him time to edit that beautiful sorry poem he wrote for Lily. While flavour and savour rhyme, James, the way you wrote it is shite."

James turned to Sirius with an appalled look across his face. "How did...?"

"I know you too well, kiddo."

As the boys left, James threw himself on his bed, hoping against hope that Lily would forgive him without him making a single sound.

* * * * *

With the whole school and staff at dinner in the Great Hall, James took to wandering the corridors. All he wanted to do was make things right with Lily. He would even be almost half-happy being just friends with her. But the more he thought about being her friend and watching her date another bloke, the more miserable he felt. She was meant to be with him, Sirius said so himself!

As he walked passed the Transfiguration classroom, he heard a banging and a familiar female voice cursing. He opened the door to find Lily glaring at McGonagall's desk, clearly unaware that there was a small fire seven feet away from her.

"Lily! There's a fire in here!" James cried, grabbing his wand and extinguishing it with a jet of water.

"Oh. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Silence.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"Well, I heard you uncharacteristically swearing outside, I thought that perhaps you were being attacked," he said, attempting cheeky banter.

"Well, I wasn't."

"Okay then, I'll go, shall I?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't care."

"Fine."

James walked towards the door, knowing that he should stay.

Then Lily finally said, "There's a Boggart in this drawer and I can't get rid of it."

James suppressed the cheesiest grin with difficulty. "A Boggart you say? Where?"

"Second from the top," she said, pointing with her wand at the offending drawer. "I've already had a wrestle with the desk itself. It just doesn't want to budge."

James saw the battle wounds from Lily's wrestling match and frowned. She had a bruise on the side of her face and her right hand was cut. The desk gave a violent shake.

"Get that look off your face, I'm perfectly fine."

"Oh yes, I'm sure you are," James said sarcastically. "That green tinge in your bruise matches your eyes perfectly."

"I... you don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

"Who said I wanted to leave?"

The desk gave another violent shake.

"I just... the past few weeks and... I'm not..."

Lily seemed to be speaking to James' right shoe, but he knew too well that the sentiment was there. He sighed. "Should we just forget about it? All the things I said were just in the heat of the moment. I didn't mean them." He paused, closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, Evans."

Lily smiled at him. "You're forgiven."

James opened his eyes and returned her smile.

Lily turned back to the desk. "I think there's a possibility that it's in the third drawer as well. Could there be two of them?"

His smile instantly vanished. "What? That's it?"

Lily turned to him. "What?"

"You're not going to apologise to me? About anything?"

"I have nothing to apologise for."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! For the yelling?! And the sparks and... and the yelling?!"

"You're an idiot! Why would I apologise for being taken advantage of?! And being forced to threaten you?! It was entirely your fault."

"But... I ... it wasn't!"

"Yes it was." Lily was grinning now.

"I...it's not funny, Evans."

Lily giggled. "It's a little funny."

James was trying so hard not to laugh, because she was now giggling profusely.

"Stop laughing."

"Oh come on, Potter, I'm kidding." Lily held out her hand. "I'm sorry too."

James took her hand and they shook. All was forgotten.

The desk gave yet another violent shake, and then began to squeal.

"You just don't want to open the drawer, do you?" James asked shrewdly.

"I'm avoiding it, yes."

"Okay," James said, pulling his wand back out. "I'll open it and you get rid of it, okay?"

"But..."

James looked at her. The expression was similar to the one etched across her face after their first kiss: shock. However, a shadow of fear lingered in her delicate features.

"I'm here," he reassured her. "You'll be fine. I'm here if anything goes wrong."

"O-okay," she stammered.

Lily readied herself for the Boggart.

"Okay. Ready?" James asked.

"Yes."

"One. Two. Three."

James opened the drawer. Almost instantly, a Dementor flew out, gliding threateningly towards Lily. She froze.

"Come on, Evans. You know the spell. Riddikulus!"

"Ri-ri-ri-" she stuttered. She knew the spell, but she was just too afraid to get it out. She was starting to feel a familiar cold sensation around her head.

"Come on, Lily!"

Somehow, James calling her by her name gave her a little bit more courage and she felt a warmth rush over her.

"Riddikulus!"

The Dementor tripped and quickly shrank into nothingness. The Boggart was gone.

Lily sat on the nearest chair, staring anywhere but in James' direction. He pulled a seat up next to her, patting her on the back to calm her down.

"Did you know that a Dementor is what I see too? How weird is that?"

"Ha," she breathed. "Very weird."

She looked up, realising James' hand was rubbing her back. They were literally centimetres from each other.

"James, I-"

"Yes?"

"I have to go."

"Oh. Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes."

They remained still. James' hand on her back, still a small amount of distance from each other.

"Thanks, Potter."

And Lily stood up and left the room, stealing a glance as she walked away. James winked back and she smiled.

They had an understanding. No-one needed to know that in the Transfiguration room that night, for those few precious minutes, James was her knight for the night.