Nothing On Earth

Chapter Nine

3:45 PM

Severus Snape was going to be in trouble.

Lucius had called on him to go find Lily and check on how she was behaving in her sister's company today. Severus had thought this to be a boringly simple task that a mere steward could do, but he knew better than to disagree with Lucius when he was in a bad mood and when Sirius Black was hovering in the background, waiting to pounce at the first sign of trouble. So, after dully promising to report back to Lucius within the hour, he had left in search of Lily Evans.

That had been forty-five minutes ago, and his time was running out. Though, to his credit, the task had turned out to be much more difficult than it had first sounded.

He had located that infernal Dursley woman only a few minutes after he began searching. She had been busy in the writing room, composing a sickening love letter to her fat oaf of a husband, but the only problem was that her sister was nowhere in sight. Dursley was so absorbed by her letter that she was oblivious to Severus's approach or anything else going on around her.

Annoyed, Severus had decided to leave without asking Dursley anything (for doing so would have given him quite the headache) and decided that it was possible that Lily had taken leave of her sister and gone out on the Promenade.

Severus searched a good portion of the A and B deck Promenades, before harassing some shifty looking stewards about her location. According to the stewards, they hadn't seen Lily at all and eventually suggested that he'd be better off looking inside for her instead of on the Boat Deck like he had planned.

Heeding their advice, he had spent the next fifteen minutes combing a good half of the inner first class areas, re-checking the staterooms, and asking around for her, but the results were all negative.

It was as though Lily Evans had just disappeared.

Of course, he wasn't going to inform Lucius of this small problem. Lucius would not take the news well and it would be best for Severus' future health if he kept his mouth shut until he actually located the missing girl.

Besides, what Lucius didn't know at the moment wouldn't hurt him (or any innocent bystanders) in the slightest.

"Sir," a steward stated, nodding to him. Severus nodded back stiffly, and the steward opened the door to the smoking room for him.

Lucius was easy enough to spot in the large, elegant room. He and Tom had occupied the same table and plush armchairs in front of the fire since Wednesday, and no one dared to take their spot. Severus presumed they only sat there because Tom - being the art mogul that he was - liked the painting hanging over the fireplace mantle.

At the moment, the two of them were still talking with that wanker, Black. Lucius looked a bit miffed about something (Severus would be too if he had to share company with a daft idiot like Black for more than an hour) but his expression cleared somewhat when he saw Severus approaching.

"It certainly took you long enough," Lucius stated crossly when he reached the table. "I didn't know my darling fiancée was as hard to locate as she is to handle."

Black sneered delightedly.

"There was a bit of trouble locating Miss Evans and her sister," Severus admitted, lying through his teeth. If there was one talent he was thankful for, it was his ability to lie and lie well. It had probably saved his life more than once in the past year. "They were in the writing room. Evans was reading a book while Mrs. Dursley was writing a letter. Evans looked as though she was behaving herself, but her sister wouldn't give me a clear answer...you know how she is."

Lucius rolled his eyes. "I expected as much."

"Is there anything else you would like done?" Severus asked, ignoring Black's growing sneer and Tom's suspicious eyes for the moment.

His employer thought about it for a few moments and then said, "Yes. Make sure that one of my finest suits is pressed and ready for tonight's dinner. That steerage rat, Porter - "

"Potter," Black corrected almost instantly.

Lucius shot him a warning glare and it was Severus' turn to sneer.

" - Potter will be joining us for dinner tonight and I'd like to look my best. Unlock the safe as well and take out the necklace," Lucius continued, his eyes still on Black. "I want to remind that scum who Lily belongs to..."

As Severus nodded his agreement, he noticed that Black suddenly looked very uncomfortable. It served him right, having ties with a man like -

Abruptly, realisation hit him. It was so completely obvious; he didn't know how he hadn't even considered it in the first place.

Lily Evans was nowhere to be found in the first class.

Which could only mean that she was off traipsing with that egotistical steerage vermin, James Potter.

***

The steerage cabins on Titanic were a far cry from the luxury staterooms of the first class. The cabin itself wasn't even half the size of Lily's stateroom and was not as elegantly decorated. There were two metal berths with rather lumpy looking mattresses, a sink with a mirror directly across from the door, and a small bureau at the foot of each berth. There was a small porthole next to the sink and it was open slightly.

Lily observed all this carefully before plopping herself down on one of the berths and lying down on it.

"You're going to ruin my bed, sitting on it with your wet clothes," James scolded, shutting the cabin door behind him and leaning on it. "How'd you know that was mine anyway?"

"Remus's side is cleaner than yours," she replied, grinning at him. She pointed to the clothes piled around the bed and James flushed slightly. "And besides, if someone hadn't pulled me into the bath, I wouldn't have wet clothes and wouldn't be ruining your bed."

"You had fun, didn't you?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest and smirking at her. "After all, it's not everyday that a girl gets to spend a half an hour swimming with someone like myself for free."

Lily picked up his pillow and threw it at him. He dodged and it hit the wall, spitting out a few feathers.

"You have horrible aim, you know that?" he commented, bending down to pick up his pillow.

"And you're horribly big-headed," Lily stated, sticking her tongue out at him. "Did anyone ever tell you that or did they think that you couldn't handle that kind of criticism?"

"People delighted in telling me that," James said, rolling his eyes. "Probably because I was an arrogant little berk a few years ago. I was well liked at Hogwarts as I was a good footballer, and - since I was never anything more than street trash before school - I let that popularity go to my head. It didn't help me any that Sirius Black was my best friend either, but I'm pretty sure I got a bit better after I was named Head Boy. Had to be responsible and set an example, you know."

"Head Boy? That's astounding." Lily praised, rolling over onto her stomach to avoid looking at the ceiling. "I would've liked to be a Head if I hadn't be so dead-set about getting expelled from Beauxbatons."

"I caused more trouble than I was worth and Dumbledore still picked me. I thought he was a bit mad, but gits like Snape viewed it as favouritism," he explained, throwing the pillow back on his bed as he walked over to the back of the room. "I better get you some dry clothes or I'll be paying for some new linen..."

Lily picked at her newly ruined dress carefully. The dye had run quite a bit and the lace had been stained. The satin felt terrible and several of the decorative flowers on the hem and her collar had fallen off. For fifty pounds, it was certainly poorly made.

"Petunia is going to kill me when she sees this."

James bent down by one of the trunks in the back of the room and opened it up. He began searching through the contents, presumably looking for some clothes for her to wear.

"So just don't show her the dress," he reasoned, throwing an old textbook over his shoulder. "Bury it in your laundry and when she finds it, blame it one something other than going for a swim with a 'steerage rat'."

Lily mulled this idea over for a bit. Petunia never did look to closely into things - unless it was the latest gossip - and if Lily fed her some half-baked lie, she'd accept it and throw the dress out without hesitation.

"I know you don't need any more compliments, but that's an excellent suggestion."

James grinned at her over his shoulder as he shut the trunk. He stood up and tossed a shirt and pair of trousers at her. She sat up and caught them, surprised.

"You expect me to wear trousers?" she asked, unfolding his shirt and looking at it critically.

"I don't exactly carry dresses with me," he replied with a laugh. "You've worn trousers before, haven't you?"

"Yes, but that was at Beauxbatons and I wasn't engaged to a Malfoy then."

James walked over to his bureau and opened some drawers, obviously looking for some dry clothes for himself.

"Well, it's not like you'll be wearing them for the rest of the day, and I think your fiancée would rather you wear trousers than go flouncing around in first class in just your underskirts," he explained, pulling out some clothes from a drawer and setting them on top of the dresser.

Lily flushed and she looked at the clothes in her lap to avoid his gaze. The trousers were worn and the material was patched in some places. Like his shirt that she had looked at before, the trousers were rather threadbare and faded. James' other clothes looked rather new compared to these.

"So why is it that I get the older clothes?" she asked, picking at some loose threads on the trouser cuffs. She looked up at him and every thought in her head came to a stop.

James was in the process of removing his shirt. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him unlatch his last button and slowly pull his shirt over his head. He threw the shirt on the floor and then ran a hand through his already rumpled hair. He was talking, but none of his words were registering, as all she could do was stare at his exposed body.

His arms were muscular and tan from all of the hard labour he had done in the past and his stomach was flat, but slightly rippled with muscle. His chest was strong and lean, and -

"See something you like?"

James was smirking at her, and he had another shirt in hand. His question slowly registered in her head and she snapped back into reality. She tore her eyes away from him, embarrassed. She buried her face in her hands, trying to hide her reddening face.

She was an idiot. How could she have done that, staring at him as though he was an animal on display? It was bad enough that she was alone and in his cabin with him, but to stare at him half-naked? Christ, no wonder Lucius treated her like a child!

...But if her actions were so wrong, why had it felt so...right when she had been looking? Why had she wanted nothing more than to feel his arms wrap around her and hold her close to his strong chest, like they had the first night they had met? Why had she wanted to feel his bare skin under her fingers and - and...

Suddenly, she felt two hands grasp her own and pry them away from her face, down toward her lap. She looked up and into James's eyes guiltily. He had kneeled in front of her (thankfully he had put on a fresh shirt) and looked a bit embarrassed himself.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, his cheeks reddening sheepishly. "That was rude of me. I shouldn't have said that or - "

"You don't need to apologise. I was the one who acting like an idiot," she responded evenly. James's eyes sparked from behind his glasses and Lily's heart's tempo sped up dramatically. "You must think of me as such a...a scarlet woman now."

James shook his head and a piece of hair fell into his eyes. The urge to reach out and brush it away was tempting, but Lily resisted, remembering where they had almost gotten the last time she had played with his hair.

"I don't. It was mostly my fault anyway. I forgot that there was a lady in the room with me, instead of Remus or something male. I'm just so used to...well, tossing my clothes everywhere..." the red tinge on his cheeks intensified briefly, "...that I just didn't think about you sitting on my bed and watching."

"I could've at least had the courtesy to look away."

"Well..." he began teasingly, a smirk replacing his sheepish grin. "If you insist that I must forgive you, I suppose I can. After all, it is hard to find courtesy when you're looking at the modern day Adonis."

In spite of herself, Lily laughed and then promptly threw a pillow into his face.

***

Remus was reading The Atlantic Daily Bulletin for the second time today when Sirius came skidding into the general area. He caught sight of his friend hurrying toward him in his peripheral vision and quickly folded the newspaper up and set it down. Sirius reached his table a moment later, clutching his side and panting.

"I haven't seen you this worn out since Filch chased you around the lake back in seventh year," Remus commented dryly, pulling out a chair for his friend. "Did your meeting just get over?"

"Y - Yeah...Nearly four bloody hours," Sirius replied, accepting the chair and slouching in it. His chest was heaving and Remus let him catch his breath before motioning for him to continue. "At first, they just discussed things I already knew - complete power over the poor and lower classes - but then they started talking about things I'm not even sure Dumbledore knows."

Remus's eyebrows rose in surprise and he leaned forward in his chair to get a better listen.

"Like what?"

Sirius shook his head. "It'll take me another two hours to tell you everything and I don't have that kind of time...Got to back above decks in a few minutes. I only ran down here to tell you something important."

He sat back in his chair, frustrated. "What's more important than new information?"

"James."

"What about him?" Remus asked, alarmed. After the conversation they'd had earlier this morning, anything about James was worth worrying over. "I just saw him about ten minutes ago."

"Was he with Lily?"

Sirius's voice was tense and when Remus nodded, the Black heir let out a curse.

"Where were they going? Not up to the first class?"

He nodded again. "James was going to be a gentleman and escort her to her stateroom...Is there something wrong, Sirius?"

"Apparently, Miss Evans is a big fat liar," Sirius exclaimed bitterly, running a hand through his black hair. "Malfoy was under the impression that Lily was supposed to be with her sister today instead of running about with our Prongsie. From what I heard, he forbade her to come in contact with James until dinner tonight, but quite obviously she didn't listen...So you can imagine how uncomfortable I was when Malfoy sent Snape to go find her."

Remus frowned at the mention of their school rival and asked, "What'd he say?"

"Oh, he lied and very persuasively as well. I don't think he even thought about the possibility of James being the cause of her disappearance until I mentioned him - not purposely, mind you. Malfoy called him 'Porter' and I corrected him. Then Snape got that look of dawning comprehension on his face. You know, like when he realises that we've tampered with one of his chemistry experiments," Sirius explained, scowling. "He knew...He'll probably tell Malfoy the truth later on tonight."

"...What'd you think Malfoy'll do about it?"

"Probably threaten Lily, but if they continue seeing each other and he finds out..." Sirius's voice trailed off.

He didn't need to finish his sentence. Remus had heard enough stories from senior members of the Order to know what happened when someone got in Malfoy's way.

He frowned in distress and diverted his gaze to the newspaper on the table in front of him. How did everything get so complicated so fast? This mission was supposed to have been simple and now, barely three days into the mission, James was already in danger.

"We need to do something about this."

"What can we do? I just can't waltz up to Malfoy and tell him that Snape was making things up you know."

"I know that. What I meant was that we need..." Remus sighed, feeling a headache coming on. "We need to stop James from seeing Lily."

Sirius stared at him, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

"What?" he asked.

"You heard me...We have to stop them from seeing each other. It's the only way that we can prevent James from getting hurt."

He felt horrible for even suggesting it. If James ever found out (and most likely, he would), he'd be furious. The last time he, Sirius, and Peter had interfered with his life, James hadn't talked to them for a month. And that conflict had been over something trivial...

"...He'll hate us for doing it," Sirius whispered at last, obviously having the same thoughts as Remus. His voice was odd sounding and he suddenly looked quite a few years older. "We'll be just like them."

"James will understand...If not right way, later on." Remus replied, his throat tight. "I'd rather him have a broken heart than a broken skull."

Sirius slowly nodded in agreement. "It's...it's for his own good."

"Right," Remus said though his words sounded awfully hollow. "...For his own good."

***

"Is the corridor clear?"

James peered around the corner and into the first class lobby area. A few people were milling about, but no one he recognised or he thought would give them any trouble.

"Just a few people," he replied, looking over his shoulder at Lily. He almost didn't recognise her without her fancy clothes.

His clothes (though slightly smaller than what he was wearing at the moment) were much too big for her and they'd had to roll up sleeves several times before she could use her hands without the material getting in the way. James had to pull out a set of suspenders to keep the trousers from billowing around her ankles, and the only thing that fit out of everything he had given her was the hat hiding her long red locks.

"Why couldn't we have gone a bit further aft?" he asked, looking around the corner again. "This is too public of a place to walk in. Someone will see me and then I'll get my - excuse my language - arse kicked back down to third class."

"I told you, this is the most direct course to my stateroom...At least, I think it is. Anyway, just walk right beside me until we reach my corridor." She stated, a lock of hair falling down from under the cap. "No one will pay attention to you."

"You're right. Who would pay attention to the stupid blighter carrying around a wet and ruined dress?" James replied dryly, and she scowled at him.

"Oh, I'll carry it if you're going to make that much of a fuss over it." Lily sighed, taking the dress from his arms. She shifted it so that it was partially covering her face and then said, "Is this better, then?"

"Perfect," he murmured, reaching out and tucking the stray lock of hair behind her ear. His hand lingered by her cheek before he reluctantly let it fall back to his side. "Let's go."

They quickly left the corridor they had been lurking in and walked out in the lobby. The passed by the Grand Staircase and several other passengers, but Lily had been right - no one even bothered to glance at the two of them. James supposed it was because he looked rich enough, wearing the overcoat Sirius had accidentally left down in the third class general room yesterday. He was trying to imitate the mannerisms of the rich as well - nose stuck up in the air, a fancy jaunt - and that wasn't too hard to accomplish after attending school with snobby rich boys for nearly five years.

Once they had reached the safe confines of the corridor, James relaxed and slumped back into his old posture. Lily giggled and carefully handed the ruined dress back over to him as the walked further down the hallway.

"You do a very remarkable job of imitating a first class passenger," she stated, smiling up at him, impressed. "I almost believed you actually were once of us - except that your nose was a bit too high in the air."

"That's why it felt like I was going to get a nosebleed any moment," he responded lightly, shifting the dress in his arms. "So which one of these is yours?"

"The next one over," she said. She pointed at a door on the right as they passed. "That's the entrance to our sitting room and Lucius' stateroom was on the corner."

"You have a sitting room in your cabin?"

"Connected to my stateroom."

James stared at her.

"And here I though having a sink in my cabin was elegance."

Lily giggled again and stopped in front of one of the corridor's many white doors. She pulled a key out from her pocket and stuck in the keyhole. She turned the key and James heard the familiar 'click' of an unlocking door. Lily removed the key and looked over her shoulder at him, smiling coyly.

"Do you want to come inside?"

James shook his head and her smile faded a little.

"No...As much as I would like to, I don't think it would be a very good idea...Your fiancé and sister might burst in and we're stepping on thin enough ice the way it is," he replied, glancing up and down the corridor furtively.

"I suppose you're right," she sighed, turning around. "But how am I going to return your clothes to you?"

"Well, as they don't fit me any more, I suppose you can keep 'em if you like. Though, you might have to hide them with this - " he said, shifting the dress as he placed it back into her arms, " - just so your sister doesn't burn them."

"Even your hat?"

James grinned and pulled the cap of her head, freeing her long tresses. Her hair came spilling down, into her face and over her shoulders in a wavy mess.

"I take that as another 'no'," she exclaimed, attempting to blow her hair out of her eyes. "I rather liked that hat too."

Instinctively, James reached out and brushed the remaining strands away from her face. His hand trailed the side of her face, barely touching her cheek, before it came to rest lightly at the base of her neck.

"It didn't suit your looks at all, luv...Kept your eyes shadowed and your hair hidden." He paused, playing with the hair entwined around his fingers. "...You know, I think you should keep your hair down more often."

"Why? So it can become a big, tangled mess within ten minutes?" she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

He moved in a bit closer to her, studying her face carefully.

"...I like the way you look with it down," he admitted, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on her neck.

Her eyes softened and she smiled at him, her face aglow with...with...

That same emotion he was feeling?

The emotion that made him want to touch her and run his hands through her hair...the emotion that made him feel like nothing he had ever experienced it his life? What made him ache when she looked at him a certain way or to hold her close and never let go? Why did he have the desire so kiss her so passionately that the very thought of it made him shiver, yet he had only known her for two days?

He had nearly kissed her in the swimming bath and from what her eyes were telling him, she would have no objections if he tried again -

A door slammed further down the corridor and James jumped in surprise. He removed his hand from her hair and quickly looked down the hallway for the source of the disturbance. Deciding that he'd rather not wait around to see who it was, he backed away from Lily and jammed his hat back on his head.

"I'd better go," he stated, bitter frustration seeping into his tone. Why was it that they were always interrupted? "I'll see you at dinner then?"

"Yes," Lily breathed, sounding - if he wasn't mistaken - almost as disappointed as he felt. She shifted the dress in her arms and opened her stateroom door with her free hand. "I'll see you then."

She turned to go in, but James grabbed her wrist, causing her to stop and turn to look at him. He lifted her captured hand to his lips slowly and placed a light kiss on her knuckles.

"A consolation."

The look on her face as he dropped her hand and walked away was incredible.