The Kissing Disease

For Laura (PhoiniXena), who loves Lily Evans

Lily can't wake up.

The muggle doctors call it mononucleosis, and the Healers at Saint Mungo's call it dormius extremus, and Madam Pomfrey calls it stress exhaustion, and James Potter calls it faking it; but no matter what it is, the fact remains that Lily Evans sleeps all the time, and there doesn't seem to be anything anyone can do about it.

"Lily?" Alice Longbottom whispers as she comes into the girl's dormitory one evening. "Are you awake?"

Lily groans and rolls over. "What?" she mumbles with her eyes closed.

"James Potter's downstairs in the common room."

"So?" Lily pulls the covers over her head. "He's allowed to be here. He lives here too."

"He brought you something."

Lily sighs and opens her eyes. "If it's a ring," she says, poking her face out from the blankets, "tell him to shove it up his - "

"I think it's soup," Alice says quickly. "He wants to give it to you himself, but boys aren't allowed in our dormitory."

Lily rubs at her eyes. "So he wants me to, what, get out of bed and come get it from him?"

Alice nods. "You haven't left this room in days," she says, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Don't you think it's time to get up?"

"I'm sick." Lily pushes a hand through her hair and opens her mouth in a giant yawn. "I don't have to get up when I'm sick."

"Evans!" James' voice calls from the distance. "Come on!"

Lily moans and buries her face in her pillow. "Tell him I don't want his bloody soup."

"Oh, Lily." Alice shakes her head. "Just let the boy try and make you feel better."

"Don't wanna."

"Why not?" Alice sits gently on the foot of Lily's bed. "He really is sweet, if you'd just give him a chance. He's grown up quite a bit. He doesn't hex people in the corridors anymore."

"Don't care," Lily says shortly.

"He's stopped leaving his homework until the last minute."

"For the love of Merlin, Alice, go away and let me sleep."

"He would never call you a - you know, that thing Snape called you."

That makes her sit up. "I don't want to talk about Severus."

Alice sighs. "Fine." She stands. "I'll tell James to go away."

"Thank you." Lily lies back down. "Alice?"

"Hm?"

Her stomach growls. "Will you bring me the soup?"

Alice smirks. "I'll try."

It's a full week later that Lily feels awake enough to go down to the common room.

"She lives," Remus Lupin says from his seat by the fireplace, where he's working on his Charms homework.

Lily grunts. "Barely." She pads across the floor in her bare feet and pink bathrobe and sits down next to him. "I've missed two weeks of Charms," she moans, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Remus nods gravely. "Two important weeks," he says. "We went over a lot of information that'll be on the NEWTs."

Lily puts her face in her hands. "I'm exhausted just thinking about making it all up."

Remus nudges her. "Good thing you've got a brilliant best friend who took notes for you, eh?" he says with a grin, handing her a few pieces of parchment covered in his neat handwriting.

Lily takes the parchment and scans the first few lines. "You're a lifesaver," she says, and then: "Any chance you took notes in Transfiguration, as well?"

Remus shakes his head. "I did, but I don't have them. Loaned them to someone."

She's dreading the answer before she asks the question. "Who?"

"James."

Lily sighs. "Of course."

Remus is grinning. "He'll be back from Quidditch in an hour or so, if you want to wait down here and catch him on his way to the dormitory."

Lily bites her lip. "Could you just ask him for your notes back?"

"Come on, Lily. You can't avoid him forever."

"But I'm sick." She adds in a cough for effect, even though they both know she doesn't have a cold. "Don't make me deal with Potter when I'm sick, Remus."

"Don't you two have Head duties to go over anyway? I can't exactly stand in as Head Girl for you."

Lily laughs. "You'd make a very pretty Head Girl," she says, and Remus snorts.

"What's this talk about Lupin being a girl?" It's Sirius Black, climbing through the portrait hole. "I always knew you were queer, Remus."'

"Hello, Sirius," Remus says over Lily's giggles. "Lily's been faking her illness, did you know?"

"Have not," Lily says as she reaches around to pull her hair into a ponytail. "Why aren't you at Quidditch, Sirius?"

"Funny story." Sirius leaps over the back of the couch and lands on Remus' other side. "Pike is in the Hospital Wing."

"What happened?"

"Well." Sirius crosses his legs and kicks off his shoes. "It's a bit foggy out there, and I couldn't exactly see where I was aiming the bludger."

Lily gasps.

"He's fine," Sirius assures her. "His head's a bit . . . cracked. But he didn't lose consciousness, because he was screaming, so we figure he'll be okay. Rest of the practice is cancelled though."

"Oh, good." Remus taps his textbook. "Gives you and James more time to study, Lily."

"You're studying with James?" Sirius says, eyes wide.

Lily sighs. "Yes."

"Does James know that?"

"Not yet."

"Watch out," Sirius advises. "He might explode with happiness when you tell him."

Lily yawns. "It might not happen at all," she says. "I'm falling asleep again."

"Take a nap," Remus says. "We'll wake you when he gets here."

She closes her eyes. "Or you could let me sleep through it," she murmurs as she curls up on the couch. "That might be kinder."

"James isn't so unbearable," Remus says.

"Maybe you should go out with him, Lupin, since you're gay," Sirius suggests, and Lily lets out a tired giggle.

"He'd say no," she says, eyes still closed. "He's too busy chasing after me."

"Ah, and you're too tired to run anymore, is that what you're trying to say, Evans?" Sirius asks.

Lily isn't awake enough to answer.

"Poor thing," she hears Remus say as she drifts off to sleep. "When d'you think she'll realize she loves him?"

"Never," Lily tries to say, but it comes out as a garbled sigh, and then she's gone.

"Evans?"

Lily feels heavy.

"Evans."

It's a deep voice - not Alice this time. She lets out a groan. "Hm?"

"Lily."

Someone is touching her, lifting her . . . she's too tired for this, can't he see she's sleeping?

"I can't take you to the girl's dormitory, so if you don't open your eyes you're going to end up sleeping in the boy's with me."

And then she recognizes the voice (James) and forces her eyes to open. "Get off me," she mumbles, and he lowers her back to the couch.

"Sirius and Remus say you've been waiting up for me," he whispers, crouching so their faces are level with each other. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

With a groan, Lily sits up and rubs her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Late. One in the morning."

"Really?" She squints at the grandfather clock in the corner. "Where the hell've you been?"

"In the Hospital Wing, with Pike. I wanted to make sure he was going to be okay."

"Oh." Her hair has fallen out of its ponytail, and she reaches back to fix it. "Is he?"

"Yeah. Madam Pomfrey patched up the hole in his head. What did you need me for?"

"I was just wondering if you had Remus' Transfiguration notes."

"Yeah." James looks nearly as tired as she's felt for the past two weeks. He reaches up to rumple his hair. "Yeah, I have them. D'you want them now, or - "

She shakes her head. "In the morning."

"Okay." He's wearing a small smirk. "You waited in the common room for hours to ask me for some notes?"

She nods. "And something about Head duties. I don't remember now."

"We'll talk about it in the morning," he says. "Are you going up to bed?"

"I'm not tired," she says, and surprisingly, it's true.

"You aren't?"

She shakes her head. "I must be getting better."

"Or you've been faking this whole - "

"I haven't been faking, Potter." She rolls her eyes.

"Why do you call me that?"

She blinks. "Isn't it your name?"

"My name is James," he whispers. "You say Remus. You say Sirius. You even say Severus." His eyes look bright in the firelight. "But I'm always Potter."

She hasn't ever seen him look hurt before, but that's the only way she can think to describe the expression on his face. "I didn't know it bothered you."

"It doesn't - it shouldn't." He sighs. "Look. Can you be very, very honest with me about something?"

Her gut twists with nerves. "Okay."

"Is there a chance - any chance in Hell - that you could learn to stop hating me?"

It's out of her mouth before she has time to think: "Is there any chance in Hell you could stop asking me out every other day?"

"What?" He shakes his head. "I haven't asked you out in two years."

Lily wrinkles her forehead. "You haven't?"

"No."

She wracks her brains. He's right.

"You kept saying no," he says with a shrug. "Eventually I decided rejection is overrated. Hurts a bit."

She can't think of anything to say, other than, "I'm sorry," and she means it, too.

Because this boy has irritated her, frustrated her, insulted her, and riled her up - but he has never hurt her.

"It's fine." He shrugs. "I focused on school for a bit. Realized you were just a crush."

(Why does it sting so much to hear that?)

"So the soup," she says, readjusting her bathrobe around herself. "The other day, that really was just soup?"

"Just soup."

"You were just being friendly?"

He nods. "Just trying to wish my Head Girl a speedy recovery from her fake illness," he says with a half-hearted smirk.

"Oh." She swallows. "I thought - I don't know what I thought."

"I'm not always an arse," he says. "Not anymore."

"Oh."

"So?" he prompts. "Now that you know I'm not in love with you, d'you think we can be friends?"

(Why does she feel let down?) "I think we can."

"Great." He stands and stretches his arms over his head. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed."

"Okay." Lily gives him a tight smile. "See you in the morning, James."

He smiles. "See you." He starts toward his dormitory.

Qithout meaning to, Lily jumps up and runs after him. "James?" she whispers when she catches him on the stairs.

He turns. "What?"

"I - I - "

And then she's kissing him, she's on her tiptoes on the stair below him and she can barely reach but she doesn't care. She knows she's too late - he already told her he's gotten over her, he said she's justacrush - but she kisses him anyway and she'll blame it on the illness in the morning.

(He kisses her back.)

His arms curve around the small of her back as he comes down a step; she begins to pull away in surprise, but he tightens his grip on her, so she stays, she winds her hands in his hair and kisses him with everything she has, and when he lets her come up for air every inch of her is tingling.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," James whispers, and his arms are still around her, "but I'm fairly certain friends don't do - that."

She shakes her head. "They don't. I'm sorry. I don't know what - I'm sorry."

He licks his lips. "You bit my tongue," he accuses, and she turns red.

"I did not!"

"Shh," he whispers, but he's grinning. "Erm. Okay. In light of recent developments - look, I don't want to be rejected again, so I'll put it this way: if I ask you out right now, what are you going to say?"

"I thought I was just a crush?" she whispers, but her heart is pounding, and she is more awake than she has ever been in her life.

"Oh, please. You fell for that?"

A beat. "You lied?"

He laughs. "Yeah, I lied. I've been lying to myself for two bloody years, trying to get over you."

"Oh," Lily breathes. "I think I've been lying to myself, too."

"Yeah." He steals a quick kiss from her lips. "So, if I ask you out - are you going to say yes? Or should I spare myself the agony?"

She smiles. "I think you're safe. Go ahead and ask me."

He tightens his arms around her again. "Will you please, please, please make me the happiest man in all of Hogwarts and go out with me?"

Lily rocks up on her toes to kiss him again.

James can't wake up.

Remus calls it mononucleosis and Sirius calls it the kissing disease and Lily calls it hilarious, because she's feeling fine now so she can make jokes, but no matter what it is, the fact remains that James can't get out of bed, and everyone knows it's because of that snog on the stairs a few nights ago.

(But James doesn't care, and if he could go back in time he wouldn't do it any differently, because this is the happiest he has ever been in his life.)

[Disney Character Competition: Aurora - write about anyone who sleeps too much]

[Greek Mythology Mega Prompt Challenge: Athena - write about an intelligent muggleborn who isn't Hermione]

[Built A Bear Challenge: heart - write something fluffy]

[2015 New Years Resolution Competition: Marauders Era]