James and Lily

James and Lily

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It was the last day of term, and two of the Gryffindor fourth-years, James Potter and Lily Evans, were standing by the window looking out at June's late afternoon sunlight. Neither had spoken for a while, they were just standing together, quietly enjoying the other's company. They might not see each other again after tomorrow's train journey, until they went to get their books and other items for their fifth year in Diagon Alley in August.

James finally broke the silence. 'Doing anything much over the summer?'

'We're going on a package holiday to Majorca.'

'With your big, jealous sister?'

'Yes, of course. She wants to take her new boyfriend -- Vermin, I call him -- but our parents aren't going to allow that.'

'That's a pity,' said James. 'If they let her take a boyfriend ...'

'They'd say I'm too young anyway, even if Petunia wasn't.'

'We can't be all that young. I saw you ahead of me in the queue to get the permission slips.'

Lily blushed, and concentrated on the view.

'Getting it signed doesn't force you to do anything you don't want to,' he said gently.

'No, I know.'

'It just means not having to think about the consequences if you do want to.'

'Is that a good thing? Not having to think?' she asked him.

James blinked. He hadn't considered that question when he'd been thinking of things to say to her. 'We ... could think about it now, and save time later.'

'I'm not sure. It feels as if you're rushing me. It's as though you want me to think now, when we won't be seeing each other for weeks, so that I'm in the right mood in September.'

'That wasn't how I was thinking of it at all! We can't even get the potions until we're sixteen.'

'I suppose if we do ... do anything, then you'll tell Sirius about it all?' she challenged him.

'I wouldn't tell him,' he said. 'He might guess, I suppose, but I wouldn't tell him. I wouldn't tell Remus or Peter, either.'

'You promise?'

'Yes, of course I promise. Lily, it's not about Sirius, it's not about trying to catch up. It's about ... well, how I feel about you. You sound as though you think I'd want to just sleep with you as one of a crowd of girls.'

'Not exactly, it's just ... I don't know what it is, exactly. It just feels wrong. I think if it was something I really wanted to do, well, I would ... it would feel right.'

'Maybe it will by September.'

'After I've had two months without seeing you, and a week of looking at the suntanned Spanish boys, you mean?' she asked, with an impish twinkle in her eyes.

'Well, the first part, yes,' said James. 'I wasn't thinking about any Spanish boys.'

'Oh, I was,' she said, her grin now as impish as her eyes. 'What about you? You didn't say what you're doing this summer.'

'Dad wants me to go and see the Wimbourne Wasps' captain. He's got this idea that I could be a Chaser professionally.'

'It's a bit early for that, isn't it?'

'I think so. I'd better humour him, though. I don't think there's anything else my parents have got planned.'

The two of them fell silent for a while, and looked out at the woods again.

'What about that "project" of yours?' she asked after a while.

'I can't do much about it during the summer.'

'I didn't really mean that, it's just ... if it works, if you really can transform, I was wondering ...' she blushed.

'What?'

'It won't affect anything ... not in the long, term?'

'What are you hinting at?' he asked, raising his eyebrows at her. 'I don't think it will.'

'I wonder what it's like?' she said. 'I don't mean the transforming, the ... other thing.'

James shrugged. 'I don't know, but I know a way I'd like to find out!'

'Do you think your parents will sign the permission slip?'

'I hope so. These permission slips were around in their day, too, so I suppose they know about them.'

Lily pulled a face. 'I can't imagine my parents doing ... this other thing.'

'You know, we keep avoiding saying what we're talking about?'

She blushed. 'Yes. I suppose we do.'

'Anyway, your parents have got two daughters, and I don't think either of you appeared by magic, enchanting as you are. Just you, singular, I mean.'

'No. All right, so my parents have ... made love, then. I just don't like to think about it.'

'How do you think they'll feel when you ask them to sign that, and they have to think about it, but in reverse?'

'In reverse?'

'Your parents, thinking about their youngest daughter making love.' He blushed too, having finally said it.

'I don't know. I'm sure they think Petunia already has. I think she has -- she stays out with Vermin so late.'

'He's not really called Vermin, is he?'

'He ought to be,' she said, smiling.

'Does your sister still hate the fact that you're a witch?'

'Yes. You know, she was my age now when I got my letter? She always had to do everything first, because she was the eldest -- and then we found out that I was a witch, and she'd missed out on something. She's never forgiven me.'

'That's ridiculous.'

'Well, Vermin seems to have the same attitudes to magic as she does.'

'But he doesn't know you're a witch?'

'I think she's told him. She doesn't care that she wasn't supposed to.'

'He's going to be a problem, then, isn't he? I wonder if we could get him and Petunia Memory Charmed so that they'd forget?'

'We haven't learnt those -- and we couldn't use them anyway!'

James smiled. 'I didn't mean us -- maybe if we told Dumbledore or someone that Vermin knows, he'd get the Ministry to do something.'

'That would be a good idea.'

'And what's happening here?' came a familiar voice. James and Lily turned to see Sirius standing behind them. Remus and Peter were also coming over to see what was happening.

'Talking,' said Lily shortly.

'James is just talking to the Charming girl,' Sirius told Remus. 'Getting anywhere?' he asked James.

'How can I be?' James replied, starting to turn red.

'You said you wanted to know about charms for that other project we were thinking of. I thought you were going to ask Lily.'

James smiled; Sirius hadn't guessed what he'd been talking about to Lily. 'No, we're still just talking about ... what we might need to use next year.'

'The main thing is that spell so the dots can learn people's names,' said Remus. James thought he saw a twinkle in his eye -- had he guessed James and Lily weren't talking about the map?

'It's something I need to think about,' Lily told James.

'You can talk to all of us,' complained Peter.

'But James was the one who actually asked me, so I'm talking to him.'

'It's probably better just to talk to one of us, it causes fewer problems,' said Remus.

'Why? We all know what the map needs, and since James told her about the project, we don't need to pretend any more,' Sirius pointed out.

'We might not all have the same ideas, though,' Remus replied. 'James might be thinking of other things to do, as well as the names.' James was now sure that Remus knew what they'd been talking about.

'The names are the important bit, though,' said Sirius impatiently. 'The rest can wait.'

'Yes, I want to see names!' said Peter. 'Then we can find out what everyone is up to in the castle!'

Lily said with a smile, 'But it's important to know what we really want. No pretending, no hiding the truth.' James smiled at her.

'Oh, right. You would think of that, James, since you've got that Cloak.' Sirius lowered his voice as he got to the end of the sentence, although he hadn't been speaking loudly before. 'There's also Polyjuice Potions and other ways to disguise yourself.'

'Yes, we wouldn't want to be fooled by those,' said James, still looking at Lily.

'Then if we see someone, and they've got a different name on the map, we'll know they're up to something! Maybe we can blackmail them!' said Peter.

'Oh, can you stop thinking like that?' demanded Remus. James was fairly sure Remus was just talking to Peter this time.

'All I know,' said Sirius firmly, 'is that if we want to get any research for this at all done during the summer, we need to decide what to do now.'

James sighed, and sat in a nearby chair. 'I suppose so.'

Lily sat next to James, with the others dragging chairs over to join them. While they weren't close enough to hear, she whispered, 'All right, I believe you're not going to tell Sirius.' The others were soon too close for more whispering, so she said aloud, 'Either way, I'll tell you what I got done during the summer.'

James smiled at the ambiguity, and wondered how Sirius could be so enthusiastically spreading rumours while completely missing the whole point of his and Lily's conversation. 'I'm looking forward to it,' he replied.

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