The Love That Transcended Time

Chapter 4: Kisses & Curses

The James standing in the entrance to the Prefects' carriage was not the same James that had stood nauseated before his bedroom mirror earlier this morning. Walking back into his comfortable and familiar Hogwarts setting, even if it was only the Hogwarts Express, was like a fresh of breath air to James' confidence.

Lily had no problem recognizing that smug grin or the devilish sparkle in his eyes. These parts of James' body language usually would have extracted a comment such as, Bloody hell, Potter! How are you fitting that engorged head of yours through the compartment door? At the moment, and under the circumstances of the past few weeks, she had no desire to say any such retort. In fact, she wanted to put about six feet between them, for fear she might just instigate a snogging attack.

She seemed to finally be able to collect all of her thoughts. James Potter was Head Boy, and they would be working together closely on a daily basis. He was also as gorgeous as he had been on the date, and he was currently standing much closer to her than the safe six foot barrier would have allowed. After processing all these thoughts, she managed to answer something back to that mischievous grin. "James, we'll be working together then I suppose. At least you're not Lucius Malfoy..."

"Oh, so Lucius was your worst case scenario? See, Bellatrix and Narcissa Black were mine. It doesn't help their related to my best friend." James smiled, moving in the compartment past her. She flushed slightly as he brushed against her to pass through the narrow door. He sat down his book bag, and seated himself comfortably in a chair, kicking his feet up. Lily was glad he seemed so relaxed; it helped her feel at ease.

"So did you have a good rest of the summer, James?" Lily sat down opposite of him at a large oak table, pulling some of her rolls of parchments out.

"Yeah. Sirius and I spent some time together, and I also worked on my correspondence..." He eyed her curiously, wondering if she would get the hint about the letter he wrote to her. He had been dying to know what was going through her head in regards to that letter he had so stupidly written her...

"That's nice." She had fed him back the dreaded nonchalant and automated response, as she was now too preoccupied with preparing her scrolls of parchment for the meeting.

"Right...well let's see. Uhh, you seem prepared there for today Evans." He observed her quietly, quite at a loss for anything else to say.

Lily looked up to him suddenly, as if slightly perturbed. The look clearly said, And you're NOT prepared?

James felt a chill run up his spine. He wasn't sure what to think about her glare, at first. After a few minutes of reflection, he decided he liked it. He liked it a lot. He had faced some of the scariest, intimidating women and their glares. Some glares were accompanied with giant clubs in hand during Quidditch, or after accidentally vanishing his mother's prized antique rug, or after he thought he had been discovered as an unregistered Animagi by McGonagall. Truth was, Lily Evans was damn sexy when she looked pissed off.

Lily had moved onto their meeting, discussing logistics with him. He wasn't listening though. He was scared shitless of her, but he wanted her...now.

"Are you listening?!" She tossed him another one of those glares, and it only served to excite him. He nodded dreamily. James was always one to play devil's advocate. He liked to test limits, often jumping in headlong instead of playing it more cautiously. There was something intensely forbidden about crossing this particular boundary. He knew that if he messed up with Lily that there was no fix all, and no going back.

Lily seemed to notice that dreamy look in his eyes, and now stared at him instead of the parchment as she continued speaking animatedly. On, and on she went until she realized James wasn't listening. She trailed off, feeling as though she had been pushed naked onto a stage with the spotlight on her. She reached distractedly to play with her curls of red hair that fell to her shoulder when James noticed it...

It was the bracelet he had bought her for her birthday. He hadn't noticed it before, the gold and rubies blended in perfectly with her Gryffindor school uniform. The Lily Evans he had always known would have never worn a bracelet from a boy she loathed. James had clearly taken a step up in the world.

"You know, Lily," said James casually, cutting her off in the middle of one of her now incoherent ramblings, "I can't stop thinking about you."

"Oh really, well, uhh...we really need to discuss these logistics..."

"And you know what else?" James cut her off again, and pulled out his wand. He flicked it effortlessly, and the parchment flew off the table Lily was seated at. James sat his derrière in the parchment's place, leaning down slightly from his elevated position to look into her eyes. He was close enough to notice the pleasant spattering of freckles across her face.

"Wh-what?" Lily's arms hung lazily down to either side of her, the look on her face an amusing combination of curiosity, jumpiness, and anxiety.

James was definitely going to say something meaningful here, but instead said, "Your freckles are adorable, Lily..."

Lily suddenly stood up, leaned in, and kissed James before he even had time to realize what happened. He hadn't kissed many girls in his time, (or been kissed by many for that matter) but this kiss was ranking up pretty high. Her lips were so soft...

James scooted himself to the edge of the table, his legs on either side of her body. Their kiss deepened, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. Lily busied her hands, one running through that wind-blown hair of his, the other placed lightly on his shoulder as if to steady herself from falling over.

Lily, having never kissed a boy, was enjoying this immensely. She had never known snogging to be such an enjoyable activity. All the feelings were new for her, and she wasn't quite sure what to expect. Her feet felt awfully funny, and she figured she was probably just weak from all the excitement. She broke the kiss and leaned her forehead against James', smiling. James returned the smile, and Lily waited for the smart-ass comment to come, but he just held her close. That tingly funny feeling in her feet still persisted.

The compartment door burst open suddenly, and that strange scraggily dog that had broken their almost-kiss in Hogsmeade stood before them. He was growling directly at Lily's feet. Lily was startled by the noise, and then when she followed the dog's look down to her feet, she finally saw what was making her feet feel funny. A giant rat was milling around, clearly making itself comfortable. Lily was used to working with strange creatures, and strange substances, but the familiarity of the rat freaked her out. She let out a piercing scream as the scraggily dog simultaneously let out a comical howl to accompany it, and pulled out her wand, blindly shooting hexes and curses at the rat. "GET IT OUT OF HERE, JAMES!" shouted Lily, as she shot a new curse or hex at it with every word she screeched.

Once Lily opened her eyes, the Prefects' carriage stood in shambles, and James was dragging the dog out of the compartment by the cuff of its neck. The rat scampered through the door quickly between the dog's legs and James slammed the compartment door shut after screaming, "Be right back, Lily!"

Once in the hall, Sirius transfigured back into his human form and said simply, "I just wanted to let you know the students were arriving."

James looked irritated. "You could have knocked. Sending Wormtail in was a bad idea. Women don't like rodents."

"James, come on now, don't hurt my feelings!" Peter Pettigrew had just joined them. "By the way, did you know Lily has amazing legs? I'm telling you up to here!" Peter made a slightly rude gesture that had Sirius disarming James' wand quite swiftly.

"Whoa there, watch the trigger finger there, James. We don't need any accidents."

"Well then you two...I'm going to go and try and calm Lily down. Thanks a lot." He gave them both a cold look before entering the carriage, and reemerging with Lily a few seconds later. She was flush and seemed distinctly ruffled and distracted.

"Oh hi, Sirius. Hi, Peter. Umm, I'm going for a walk to rally the Prefects. See you. James, I'll be back in twenty, I assume you'll have everything under control by then..." Lily started down the hall, leaving James with Sirius and Peter.

James watched Lily walk away longingly, clenching his fists before turning around and using his skillful wand work to clean up the mess. Sirius and Peter gave James some space to avoid any more catastrophes.

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"What happened in here, James?" Remus was one of the first Prefects to arrive, his eyes looking around critically. He shook his head and then raised his eyebrows at James' Head Boy pin. "Now that's a surprise. I imagine Lily is the Head Girl." James only nodded, and sat down lazily in the now repaired compartment.

Lupin eyed him curiously after he gave his immensely vague and nonverbal answer.

"Looks like you two have had a good start," remarked Remus observantly.

"You could say that." James smiled that sly little grin.

"What's that smile for? I was referring to that large cut on your face. Looks like you got nicked with a curse. What did you do? Try to ask her out again."

"I kissed her actually."

Remus' eyes practically popped out of his head. "I wasn't expecting that answer. That's bold, James, even for you! No wonder she tried to curse you." Remus seemed to find the situation extremely comical and had a good chuckle.

"Are you done yet? Moony, I sure have a lot to catch you up on. I just have to figure out how to explain to Dumbledore why I've been hit with one of Lily's curses on our first day on the job..."