Only Time

Chapter Eight

"L-Lily?" James asked, silently cursing his stuttering as he waited for Lily to turn around and acknowledge him. She paid him no mind as she finished up telling the fifth year prefects where they were supposed to patrol that night. Only when she was done and sent them off did she turn around to regard James with those cool emerald eyes.

"Yes, James?" she asked politely, neutrally. James raised a hand to run through his hair before he caught himself and lowered it, grinning sheepishly. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"I was just wondering...you know how the Hogsmeade weekend's coming up?" James started, shifting around a bit.

"Considering that was one of the topics we talked about at this meeting, yes, I know," Lily replied, clearly amused at James's nervousness.

"Er, right. Well, anyway, I was wondering...would you like to come with me?" he finished in a rush, looking at Lily expectantly for her answer.

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Why should I go with you now, if I've never wanted to go with you before?" she asked tiredly. James grinned. Every time he asked her out, she asked him why she should go with him, and he always replied something about she got a chance to be close to Gryffindor's star Quidditch player, or something else along those lines, but this time, James had a new reply lined up. A very clever reply. One that she surely couldn't refuse. Well, he hoped not, in any case.

"So you can have a chance to get to know me beyond just the stupid prat in your year," James replied immediately, and was gratified by Lily's startled look. She's surprised! Maybe it will work after all... "And...the chance for me to get to know you beyond the rule-abiding prefect-turned-Head Girl. I'd like the chance," James finished up shyly. "To get to know you better, I mean."

Lily stared at him, wide-eyed and surprised. "If I didn't know better, I'd say responsibility has actually deflated your head a bit," Lily commented lightly, then shook her head, smiling slightly. "But all right. I'll go to Hogsmeade with you."

James's jaw dropped. Even with the new answer, I thought she'd refuse me for sure! he thought dazedly. "You--you will?" he asked, just to make sure. Lily nodded, and James grinned. She will! She'll actually go out with me! James whooped, hugged Lily tightly, then let go and ran off to tell Sirius, Lily standing in the same place he left her, watching him bemusedly, wondering just what she was getting herself into.

"Sirius! SIRIUS!" he yelled once he got into the common room and saw Sirius sitting at their table with Remus and Peter, talking. He was obviously entertaining them with a story, as he was gesticulating wildly, which Sirius always did to "illustrate" whatever story he was telling. But James didn't care about that right now. He ran over, and all three of his friends looked up.

"Geez, James, what is it?" Sirius asked, sitting back in his chair, giving up his story-telling for finding out what his best friend was so excited for.

"I asked Lily Evans out!" James exclaimed. "And she said yes!"

Sirius shook his head. "Jamie-boy, you have to stop setting yourself up for disappointment...wait a minute. She said yes?" Sirius repeated suddenly, shooting straight up off his chair in surprise. Remus and Peter laughed, and Sirius glared at them. James nodded happily.

"I asked her to go to Hogsmeade with me, and I told her I'd like to get to know her better, and I'd like for her to get to know me, and she said she'd go with me!" James was very excited. So excited, in fact, that he was unable to stand still, fairly bouncing in place in his enthusiasm. Remus laughed and clapped a hand to James's shoulder.

"Congratulations, Prongs," Remus said sincerely, and James grinned.

"Well, if James has a date with Lily, and Pete has a date with Jen, I guess that means it's just the two of us bachelors, Moony," Sirius said, slinging an arm around Remus's shoulder. Remus rolled his eyes and shrugged off Sirius's arm. Sirius just shrugged and grinned. "Aww, our widdle Prongsie is all grown up and asking girls out," Sirius crooned, sniffing and wiping away a pretend tear. Remus and Peter snickered, but James didn't even notice.

"Lily Evans is going to go out with me..." James said dreamily, completely ignoring what his friends were saying. The other three looked at each other worriedly. James was letting Sirius tease him about Lily?

"Jimmie-boy has lost it," Sirius announced. Remus and Peter nodded in agreement. "To get our fellow Marauder out of Lily-land, we must drag him upstairs and plan pranks!" Remus and Peter nodded again, and James came back to himself.

"Drag me upstairs?" James asked amusedly. "Padfoot, you couldn't drag me upstairs if you were as strong as Moony here!"

"Is that a challenge?" Sirius asked, an odd glint in his eye. James just raised an eyebrow and smirked. Sirius caught Remus's eye, and they both smiled evilly. James only had enough time to lose the smirk and begin backing away before Sirius and Remus stood up and tackled him, easily picking him up and carrying him upstairs, a laughing Peter following and the rest of the common room grinning amusedly at the latest antics of the Marauders.

And once they got up there...well, Snape would certainly be very unhappy with them soon. Though Sirius insisted it would improve the greasy Slytherin's looks, the other three boys couldn't muffle their snickers at their latest daring plan to embarrass their least favorite student.

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"Er...where would you like to go first?" James asked. He and Lily were standing on the main street of Hogsmeade.

"Where would I like to go?" Lily repeated, and James nodded. He wasn't about the ruin this date by being an egotistical jerk. Lily bit her lip and looked around. "How about Honeydukes first?"

"Honeydukes it is, then!" James replied enthusiastically, grabbing Lily's hand and heading off in the direction of Honeydukes. After going only a couple feet, James realized that he still held Lily's hand, and dropped it, blushing and muttering an apology. Lily looked amused.

They entered Honeydukes, waving hello to Peter and Jennifer, who were in the exotic tastes section, laughing over blood pops and cockroach clusters. James immediately went for the Every Flavor Beans and the Fizzing Whizbees, his favorite candies. Lily wandered over to the sugar quills, picking them up and looking at the flavors they were supposed to be. James, after picking up several packets of Every Flavor Beans and Fizzing Whizbees, walked over to where Lily was.

"Do you want any of them?" he asked her, and she pursed her lips.

"I can't decide between strawberry banana, kiwi, and cherry," Lily said.

"Why not get all three?" James said, and Lily looked at him. "My treat."

Lily smiled at him, and James smiled back, feeling warm. "Thank you," Lily said, and the warm feeling increased.

"No problem," James muttered, flushing a bit. He grabbed the sugar quills Lily wanted, taking them and his candies up to the counter, where he paid for them. Then he joined Lily again, and they left Honeydukes.

"Would you like to go get a butterbeer and the Three Broomsticks?" James asked once they were outside, and Lily nodded. They set off for the Three Broomsticks, choosing a small table in the corner near the front window once they got inside. James left and got two tankards of butterbeer and went back to his table, stopping quickly to say hello to Hagrid and Professor Patterson, who were chatting merrily about dragons at a table near the bar. At the sight of Professor Patterson, James got a prickling feeling in the back of his head, like he forgot something, but since he couldn't think of what he forgot, he just ignored it and walked on. Once he got to his own table, he sat down and handed one of the tankards to Lily, who accepted it with a small smile.

"So..." Lily said, taking a small sip.

"Er..." James said, frantically trying to think of something to say. Silence fell, and then James blurted out, "What's your family like?"

Lily sat back, coolly considering James through those green eyes. James fidgeted under her direct gaze, wondering what she was looking for, before she apparently found it, nodding decisively before speaking.

"My parents are great," Lily said quietly, so that James had to lean forward a bit to hear her. "They've always supported my being a witch, once they learned that the letter wasn't a joke. They're rather fascinated with the wizarding world." Lily smiled fondly before her expression darkened. "My sister, on the other hand, is...unsupportive, to say the least. She's three years older than I am, and while we were rather close before first year, once we knew I was a witch, she started being rather mean. I've always thought she was jealous."

"Of you, for being a witch?" James asked. Lily shook her head.

"No, Petunia's always been happy in the Muggle world...I think maybe she was jealous of the wizarding world, for taking me away. Once I made it clear that this was my home now...Petty got very bitter," Lily replied thoughtfully. "And the death of my mother by Death Eaters didn't exactly help."

James nodded, trying to look sympathetic. He knew Lily's mother had been killed by Death Eaters two years ago, as a protest for a Muggle-born witch becoming a prefect, but he didn't know anything about her sister. He was glad she decided to talk to him.

"What about you?" Lily asked. "What's your family like?"

James took a sip of his butterbeer, glad that Lily was at least interested in him enough to continue the conversation. "I'm an only child," James said. "The Potters are a very old wizarding family, and we've always been on the side of the Light, which has gotten dangerous lately. My dad's an Auror, and he's had some pretty close calls. But I've never had a sibling to talk to or anything, so I was glad when Sirius came to live with us last summer."

"Sirius came to live with you?" Lily asked in surprise. "Why?"

"He ran away from home," James replied succinctly. He hoped Lily didn't ask much more, because he wasn't about to betray Sirius's secrets, even for the girl he liked. Or at least, he wouldn't tell her about the whole Imperius deal.

Neither James nor Lily noticed Regulus Black and his Slytherin friends, who were sitting a table near them, lean in closer to hear what they were talking about.

Lily narrowed her eyes. "What's his family like, then, that he had to run away?" she asked, and James sighed.

"How much do you know about the Blacks?" James asked her. Lily looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I remember how back in first year, everybody seemed so surprised that he was Sorted into Gryffindor, though I couldn't figure out why that was. Sirius is obvious Gryffindor material, after all," Lily said, and James chuckled mirthlessly.

"Everyone was so surprised because the Blacks are...very Slytherin. Pretty much every Black, with a few exceptions, for the last thousand years has been Slytherin, and for good reason, too," James explained. "Did you never wonder why Sirius hated Slytherins so much?"

"Well, all of you seem to hate the Slytherins," Lily retorted, but James could tell she was curious.

"Remus doesn't really hate anybody, I'm not sure he's even capable of it, and Peter's just afraid of them. I'm against many of their ideals, but Sirius..." James shook his head. "Sirius has had first-hand experience of everything a Slytherin is from the moment he was born, but...Sirius is the white sheep in the Black family." Lily rolled her eyes, but still listened closely. "There are a couple others around, like his cousin Andromeda and his uncle Alphard, but both of them were Ravenclaws, and as such still acceptable to the Blacks. Brains and research are a reasonable second choice to cunning and ambition. But as you said, Sirius is obvious Gryffindor material. And his family recognized that."

James took another sip of his butterbeer, watching Lily. She was looking into her butterbeer as if it held all the answers if only she could find them. She looked up and raised an eyebrow at James, obviously inviting him to continue. So he did.

"Sirius, from the time he could talk, was always questioning their ideals, and his relatives hated him for it. He'd ask them things like 'How are Muggles so different from wizards?' and 'Why shouldn't werewolves be treated fairly?' His family couldn't stand that. They saturated him with pureblood superiority, and even as a child, Sirius could tell that that kind of thinking was wrong. But any voicing of his thoughts earned him...punishments. His family calls themselves 'the noble and most ancient house of Black', and their motto is 'toujours pur', which is 'always pure' in French. They're just as bad as the Malfoys with the whole pureblood issue." James knew that Lily knew about the Malfoys, since he could remember her being bullied by Lucius Malfoy their first year for being Muggle-born.

"But Sirius hated that kind of thinking, and so started hating those that thought it. And pretty much every Slytherin he met thought like that. But since he couldn't get back at his family for those kinds of thoughts, he got back at those he could, meaning the Slytherins here and now. Do you understand now, Lily?" James looked at her, almost willing her to understand and accept it. He couldn't stay with a girl who hated his best friend, after all, no matter what he felt about her. Years ago, he and Sirius had made a pact that they would never let a girl come between them, no matter what. It didn't matter that they were eight at the time, since James still fully intended to keep that vow.

Lily sat for a long moment, staring into her butterbeer again, silent enough that James began to fear that she wouldn't be able to understand the way Sirius thought; or rather, the way Sirius reacted. Finally she looked up at him and smiled, and James breathed a quick sigh of relief.

"I understand now, James," Lily said quietly. "I don't exactly approve of his methods, because I believe that violence and hatred never solve anything, but now I understand why..."

"Why he resents Slytherins so much," James finished, and Lily nodded. By unspoken mutual consent, the two decided to drop the subject of Sirius and his family and talked about classes. They finished their butterbeers and stood up to leave, neither one noticing Regulus Black and his Slytherin friends watching them with narrowed eyes as they walked out the door.

"Where would you like to go now?" James asked as soon as they were out the door. Lily stopped and considered a moment.

"Let's go look at the Shrieking Shack. I haven't been up there for a couple years," she replied. James hid a grin; he'd been inside it just last week, but he wasn't about to tell Lily that yet. He wasn't going to tell her anything about Moony without Remus's permission, and telling her about Prongs would be useless without telling her about Moony. So they walked up the hill and leaned on the fence outside the Shack, looking up at the dilapidated old building enclosed within. There were the familiar boarded up windows, though it had been a while since James had seen them from the outside.

"I wonder why the ghosts in there make so much noise," Lily murmured. James didn't know what to say to that, so he just looked at her, and had to remind himself not to stare. She's beautiful, James thought reverently. And she was. Her wavy auburn hair was tumbling down her back, a few tendrils hanging around her face, framing it so that it stood out more. Lily glanced at James as he fell silent, green eyes looking questioningly at him as she raised an eyebrow in silent invitation to speak.

"You're so beautiful," James breathed, hardly thinking about what he was saying, and blinked when Lily blushed prettily, completely distracted from the earlier topic of the "ghosts" in the Shrieking Shack.

"Thank you," Lily replied, and James blinked again. Usually when he told her she was beautiful, she scoffed at him, not thanked him. Does this mean she's really starting to like me? James hardly dared believe that she might. They turned back to the old house, though James kept stealing glances at Lily, and once or twice he caught her stealing glances at him back. Whenever he caught her, both would blush a bit and go back to looking at the house for another few minutes before starting glancing over at the other again.

"...Would you like to go somewhere else now?" James asked finally, and Lily nodded. Almost without thinking, James held out a hand for her to take, but to his everlasting surprise, she actually took his hand and allowed him to walk with her back down the hill, holding hands all the way. This has been an amazing day, James thought as Lily smiled at him. An amazing day, indeed.