Disclaimer: I own nothing. No I don't. So you won't sue me. No you won't!
A/N: okay, inspired by the brief 5 minutes worth of rain we had today. a One-shot. (but I might do a little more if inspired!)
"Please, Lily? Dance in the rain with me!" Alice Dobbs exclaimed. The rain poured outside the window next to Alice's bed, which was currently being jumped on by said Alice.
Lily laughed at her friend's antics, "No! I need to patrol tonight, and we've still got tons of homework, and you could get sick!"
"Oh please Lily!" Alice's big blue eyes begged Lily's to say yes. Alice jumped down and grabbed Lily's arms, twirling her around. "Pretty please!"
"No!" Lily laughed, and stopped spinning. "You must be crazy! It's raining in torrents out there!"
"We did it last year! And the year before, and the year before that, and all the years we've been here!" Alice through her arms up to emphasize her point.
"I already said no, and nothing you're going to say will change that!" Lily said, "Why don't you go dance alone?"
Alice pouted. "It's not as much fun that way!"
"Then get Frank to go with you!" Lily suggested, sitting down on her bed and getting some papers ready for her patrolling.
"But we always dance in the first rain together! It's tradition!"
"But I've got to patrol! And you've got that Charms homework that you've been putting off!" Lily stood up, ready to leave to meet James.
"Fine! Spoilsport!" Alice huffed as Lily left out the door.
"You know you love me!" Lily called back.
Lily laughed as she trotted happily down the stairs. She stopped when she came face-to-face with James Potter. "Hi Lily! Ready to patrol?" He asked happily. If there was one thing she knew about James Potter was that he was never tired. Never. He could've gotten no sleep the two previous nights, but still be perky and happy the next morning. It was bloody insane if you asked her . . .
"Ready as ever, Potter," Lily replied. She didn't actually hate him anymore. No. She had actually come to regard him as sort of a friend. So when she called him "Potter" it was only to keep appearances. She couldn't let him know that she liked him now!
It wasn't until they were out of the common room and on one of the school's many staircases that James spoke, "What were you laughing about, before?"
She didn't know why she actually responded. The past nights she had just ignored everything James said and went about her merry way, but it seemed like, tonight, she should answer. "Alice wanted me to dance in the rain with her."
James, shocked that she had even answered, stood silent for a while, then rushed after her and asked, "Do you not like the rain?"
Lily laughed, "I love rain!"
James looked at her inquisitively. "I don't believe you." James looked inside a broom closet, checked to see if there were any people, then closed the door and continued walking.
Lily gasped. "I do! I've loved rain since I could walk!"
"Then prove it."
Lily laughed, "How?"
He ran to the door of the Great Hall, (which they had just entered) and threw it open, revealing the steady downpour of rain outside. "If you love rain so much then come run in it with me!"
Lily laughed, "You're insane! We'll get in trouble!"
"So?" James said with a glint in his eye. He ran back over to where Lily stood at the side and pulled her close to the door. "Come dance with me, Lily," James said softly, looking her in the eye.
Lily had never noticed how brilliantly hazel his eyes were, or how gorgeous his hair looked, even through it would never lie flat, or how his face was so devilishly handsome that she was surprised that it wasn't carved from stone. She found herself staring into his eyes, and a little part of her, a very very little part of her admitted that she loved this boy in front of her. And she knew it was that part, that blasted part, that made her do the crazy thing she was about to do. Because when James Potter asked her one last time if she would "pretty please" do it, she found that little part of her getting bigger and bigger and she found herself nodding.
To this day, she won't admit why she did it. She claimed brief insanity or a lapse of judgement, but the next thing she knew, James Potter pulled her outside and she was watching him frolic in the rain, soaked to the bone.
James laughed with glee as he twirled and skipped around like a little boy, completely forgetting all acts of maturity that he normally hid behind. He jumped and skipped and twirled, and when he noticed Lily standing all by herself, dragged her over with him and made her jump and skip and twirl as well.
Lily laughed as soon as she felt his hands grab her own and pull her with him. "You're insane!" she shouted over the pouring rain.
"You know you love this!" He replied, and spun her even faster. She broke off and twirled over by herself. He came skipping over to where she twirled.
The rain had begun to lighten up ever so slightly, so she didn't have to yell to be heard. "Maybe I don't. Maybe I hate this!"
James laughed. "You don't."
"But can you be sure?" She asked, stopping her twirling and looking him straight in the eye.
He paused, unsure of what to say, then spoke, "I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
She took his double meaning and looked back at him solemnly. For a second, he thought she was going to kiss him, but she skipped off to near the edge of the lake. He skipped after her, laughing all the while.
Lily collapsed on the grass next to the lake and sighed happily. James fell down next to her. "Ow! That hurt!" he said.
Lily just laughed. "You know, I don't think I've done anything this crazy for a long time."
"I haven't either," James confessed.
"But what about-" but then Lily realized; there hadn't been any pranks this year. "Oh."
"You know we're completely soaked!" James said to change the subject.
Lily laughed. "No! You don't say?"
James laughed. An awkward silence fell like the rain around them. Both stared up at the rain falling onto their faces. The rain had gotten increasingly light until it was only slightly raining.
Lily looked over at him, caught his eye, then asked, "Do you love me?"
James didn't know what to say. Of course he loved her! He had loved her for what felt like forever! He loved the way her hair was now completely soaked, he loved the way she would always be the first person to raise her hand in charms and potions, he loved how her eyes lit up when she was happy, or how her nose was filled with tiny little freckles. He loved everything about her and wanted to tell her – and yet, the only thing that come out was, "Yes."
She looked him hard in the eye (which was kinda hard with the rain pouring down!), and said, "Okay."And she kissed him.
And even though he was freezing cold and soaked to the bone, and at that very moment Professor McGonagall had come out to reprimand them, and all of Gryffindor tower were watching from the windows above, James would still swear (even under veritaserum) that, that was the best moment of his life. Kissing Lily Evans in the rain.