A/N Look! It's an update! From me! It's been at least a month, I know. I've been working on this for a while, so I really hope you like it. I changed my username, by the way, if anyone's confused. Longer A/N at the bottom.Oh my bloody Merlin, I just kissed James Potter.
And now he's running after me. He's quite a bit faster than me, so I think I'm wasting my energy here, but I keep running across the grounds anyway. I'm not quite sure why exactly I'm sprinting away from him as fast as my puny legs will carry me, but I know that I don't have a clue what to say to him if he catches up with me. Maybe if I run for long enough he'll give up.
Actually, James Potter? Give up? Yeah, right.
"Lily!"
He's screaming at me like a madman, not unlike the time he tried to give me the 'breath' that I 'took away'.
I decide to stop, because I'll never be able to outrun him. I know he'll never stop, because I've figured out from the past seven years that James Potter has a lot of persistence. I think if there's anyone who knows that, it's me.
So, I stop and turn around. He's still running at full pelt, and more than a couple of people are staring.
"Lily," he shouts when he's a few feet away. "You kissed me!"
"I know," I sigh, thinking about how peculiar it is to hear him say that. If someone told me a week ago that I'd kiss James Potter, I'd tell them they'd had one too may butterbeers at a party last night.
"Kissed! Me! You!"
He reached me now and stood slightly too close for our conversation to seem perfectly friendly. Which, obviously, it wasn't. I'd just bloody kissed him!
"Yeah, James, I did. Would you like the ten galleons now?" I sound bizarrely calm, as if I go round kissing boys every day.
It's not like I've never kissed anyone. I've kissed hundreds of guys!
Well, maybe ten.
Divided by two.
Minus three.
So… two people. I've kissed two people.
One of those boys was James, and the other was Fredric Garrett during a game of spin the bottle. His breath stank of Firewhiskey, and his tongue was extremely lizard-like. Not that I'd ever had a lizard's tongue in my mouth, but you know what I mean – basically, my first kiss was not a particularly nice experience.
"I don't give a rat's arse about the ten galleons! I'd rather be kissed by you than get ten thousand galleons, you know that."
I think he's trying to be romantic, but it's hard to make something sound sweet when it includes the phrase 'rat's arse'. Then again, James Potter isn't really the most romantic of blokes.
I'm suddenly conscious of the fact that there are countless other people around, many watching us openly, unashamed, others pretending to be looking over our heads at something else. Ha, yeah, you're not fooling me.
"Can we take this somewhere else?" I say.
"Why?"
"Because there are people. Lots of them."
"So? We're not doing anything else but talking, are we? Were you planning on doing anything else, Lils?"
He grins, and before I can reply he's putting his hands on my waist and pulling me towards him until our noses are an inch apart.
"What are you doing?" I say.
"Nothing. We're just talking."
"Oh, are we? Do we have to be this close?"
"Sure. I couldn't quite hear you properly."
"And do you need to be holding me around the waist quite so tightly?"
"Of course," he replies. "I don't want you to run away again."
"Why would I run away if we're just talking?"
James brings his hands up to my face and leans down until I can feel his breath on my face.
"I'm not sure," he replies. "We're just having a completely innocent conversation."
"Are we?" I murmur. The effect his touch has on me is causing damage to my vocal chords.
"Yep. We're just two friends talking. So, Lily, how has your day been?"
"It's been great," I say, breathless. "And yours?"
"Really bloody good, thanks. Especially the last five minutes or so."
"Oh, really? Why?"
"Because," he begins, putting the hair that keeps falling in front of my face behind my ears, "a really amazing girl just kissed me."
"Did she? Who was it?"
"I think you know her."
Then he finally closes the space between our lips and kisses me. He causes me to completely forget myself and who else is watching, and I wrap my arms around him.
"James," I say as we break apart. "Everyone is staring."
He looks around and people pretend to be reading their textbooks or talking to their friends.
"Oh well." James grins and kisses me again.
"James…"
"Yeah?" he mutters in between leaving quick kisses on my lips.
"Will you go out with me next weekend?"
He stops kissing me – thank Merlin, because I think my legs might give out if he keeps going – and looks at me with a wry smile on his face.
"No."
Wait, did he just turn me down?
"No?"
"No."
"What? Were you not just kissing my face off?"
"I believe I was."
"So… I sort of assumed that meant you were still interested in me."
"Oh, believe me, I am. More than interested."
"Why don't you want to go out with me then?"
"I will. But I want to ask you."
"What? Why does it matter?"
"It just does. I've been rejected so many times that I want to experience acceptance," he says with a smile.
"Fine, if it really matters that much to you."
He's a strange boy.
James lifts my hand up and bows down to kiss it, managing to look extremely dorky but still get various 'aww' noises from onlookers (all girls, of course).
"I'll see you later," he says, starting to walk backwards towards the castle.
"Why can't you just ask now?" I have to raise my voice for him to hear me as he backs further away.
"I have some thinking to do! It has to be extravagant!"
Oh, Merlin. Extravagant?
"James! Please, nothing over the top."
He just winks before turning around and walking away, high-fiving some boy along the way that I'm pretty sure he's never talked to in his life but apparently appreciates James's 'women skills' (the kid's words, not mine).
I decide to have a walk around the lake to try and distract me from thinking about what 'extravagant' ways James might think up to ask me out.
I feel blissfully happy. It's quite embarrassing, really, how delirious I must look. I see my reflection in the clear water of the lake; my red hair's all over the place in the way I know Sirius Black calls 'sex hair', the same colour as my blushing cheeks. I'm having one of those moments where you actually can't stop smiling, as if it's physically impossible to turn down the corners of your mouth.
I should have kissed James Potter years ago.
A/B I really hope you enjoyed that. I absolutely loved writing their 'casual conversation', so I hope it was as fun to read. I can't believe this story has 900+ reviews, that's absolutely amazing. Could I possibly get to 1000 before the next chapter? That would make my week/month/life. Getting reviews makes me extremely happy.
There's probably two chapters left, now, possibly more if I'm on a roll.
Please review!