Seventh Year

I have recently acquired a problem. His name is James Potter, and the first part of the problem is that I fancy him. The second part is that he stopped fancying me at the beginning of the year, or maybe even before that. The third part is that I'm too scared to ask him out, and the fourth part is that no matter how obvious I am, he doesn't seem to be picking up on it.

Exhibit A: our patrols. We were walking along the fifth floor corridor, looking for students out of bed after curfew (ah, the life of a hypocrite), and I was laughing loudly at a joke that he had made. Isn't the way that I laugh at everything he says enough of an indication that I want to snog him? Apparently not if you're as oblivious as James Potter.

Oh, the things I would do to tug on his Gryffindor tie and put my hands in his hair and my lips on his lips…

Anyway, we were walking along, playing 'I Spy', a Muggle game that I had taught him at the beginning of the year, when suddenly I felt a tug on my shirt. Some invisible thing picked me up and I screamed. What the hell was going on? I looked over at James who was wrestling with another invisible thing. From the yelping I could hear, it was clearly a person.

"Padfoot," James wheezed as he hit blindly in the air, "If you don't fucking put me down now, I swear I'll tell Moony all about what happened to the chocolate –"

"Don't you fucking dare," said a voice I recognised as belonging to Sirius Black, "He'll kill me!"

The person who I was still kicking froze. "What happened to the chocolate supply?"

"Remus!" I yelled, "Put me down!"

"Sorry, Lily," he said, "But this is for your own good."

"Bloody – what?" Before I could say anything else, he'd carried me over to a door of a broom cupboard. Another invisible person which I supposed was Peter wrenched it open and they shoved me inside. I tripped at the entrance and tumbled in.

As I hit the hard ground, I felt a searing pain in my knee and groaned. Before I could get up, a body came falling through the entrance and landed hard on top of me.

"Ow," I said, looking up. James was hovering over me, breathing hard as I fidgeted.

I heard the door slam shut and a whooping sound from one of the boys. I scowled.

"Hi, Lily," James said breathlessly, and my scowl changed into a smile.

"Hi, James," I returned, "Mind getting off me?"

He blushed and sat up, and I moved to sit next to him. "Sorry," he said, "We seem to find ourselves in broom cupboards rather a lot, don't we?"

"We do indeed. Why did the boys put us in here?"

He shrugged, "No idea. It's not like we've been fighting recently, and that's the only reason they've done this before," he said, smiling slightly, "Remember fourth year?"

"All too vividly," I laughed. I'd have to remember to thank Remus, Peter and Sirius for dumping us in here – after I'd strangled them, of course.

"I recall flirting stupidly with you about catching you when you fell?" He grinned.

I imitated him. "I recall flirting stupidly back at you."

His laugh faded and I cocked my head upwards and left to look at him. James Potter had grown up, and it was part of the reason why I fancied him so much. His hair, perpetually uncontrollable, no longer irritated me but instead I'd found a sort of affection for it. His jaw line and cheekbones were clearly defined, not as much as Sirius with his trademarked Black ones, but still gorgeous enough for me to stare at all through my Charms lessons.

He smirked at me, hazel eyes smug behind his glasses, and I tried to stop myself from melting into a puddle. Merlin, I was absolutely hopeless.

"Lily," he said in a low voice, "I need to ask you something."

"Yes?" I said breathlessly, and internally slapped myself. I was a strong, independent woman and did not need James Potter to snog me because of my raging hormones.

Right?

"Lily," he continued, "Can I kiss you?"

I blinked – once, twice. My mouth dropped open. "But…but I thought you didn't fancy me anymore." I frowned.

His eyebrows rose and he said incredulously, "Are you mental? What would make you think that?"

"Oh, I dunno," I scoffed, "Maybe the fact that I've fancied you for ages? And I've been very obvious about it? And you haven't asked me out?"

"Obvious?" he repeated, "How exactly have you been obvious?"

"Honestly, James! The constant flirting, the shorter skirt, the hair twirling, the makeup wearing? No? Are you really that oblivious?"

"Well, I just figured that you fancied someone else! Someone, I dunno, like Amos from Hufflepuff or Max from Ravenclaw, or even Remus!"

"Remus? James, the only person I've thought about snogging in the last, I don't know, three years has been you! You, the bloody idiot who's my friend one day and this toerag the next, who I have serious conversations with and ridiculous arguments. It's always been you, James bloody Potter, and I don't know what the hell I'm going to have to do to get it through your thick head – mpffff."

My rant was cut off by his mouth. His lips locked with mine and I froze for a second. Was this really happening? I leant into the kiss, turning my head an inch and pulling on his tie like I'd dreamed of for the past few months. His hands moved into my hair and I shuffled closer to him, moving my hands to clasp each other at the back of his neck.

The kiss was like I'd always imagined: explosive. My eyes flickered shut and there was a swooping sensation in my stomach as we broke apart. His lips moved down to kiss my neck, dotting here and there, igniting my skin. I moaned slightly and he smirked against the curve of my neck.

"James," I whispered, and he pulled up to look at me, resting his forehead against mine. Our breaths slowed and we breathed the same air, the tips of our noses touching so that I had the urge to grin.

"Yes?" He murmured. We were so close that his lips brushed over mine lightly, sending tingles down my spine.

"I fancy you a lot."

He smirked, and I pecked his lips. "I fancy you too, Lily."

I beamed. He took his forehead off mine and held my hands in his.

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

He took a deep breath. "Will you go out with me?"

I smirked, mimicking the one that I'd so often seen on his face. "Yes."

Five minutes later, Sirius, Remus and Peter found us snogging against the wall. They feigned disgust and laughed at our dishevelled appearances, but all three of them winked at me when James wasn't looking.

The five of us walked back to the Gryffindor common room, my left hand held loosely in James' right. I was intercepted by my friends, who dragged me straight up to our dormitory without a goodbye.

"Well," I said in response to their interrogation, "It's not like I've never been in a broom cupboard with James Potter before." I smiled fondly. "Actually, it happens rather a lot, now that I think about it."