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Lily Evans was humming.
James Potter was annoyed.
Well.
It wasn’t the humming that bothered James. Nor was it the fact that Lily Evans was humming, nor that the humming wasn’t agreeable to the ears or remotely loud enough to even cause actual frustration to anyone within a foot perimeter.
No it wasn’t any of that.
It simply was that Lily Evans was humming a muggle song.
More particularly a muggle song, she had forced James to listen during her very brief stay at his holiday mansion last Christmas.
Actually, it was a very catchy muggle song James had pretended to loathe as Lily gradually increased the sound of the magical vinyl player in his room.
To get right down to it, a muggle song James would keep in his mind forever for it reminded him of Lily and her infuriating blazing smile as she noticed his head bumping to the lyrics that night.
I have waited a lifetime
Spent my time so foolishly
But now that I've found you
Together we'll make history
And now Lily was humming that song. In the Gryffindor common room. Past midnight.
While James feigned sleep on the couch.
The room had cleared up around 11 pm, being the first week back after the Christmas holidays students had yet to get behind on homework.
Most, except Lily obviously.
James, playing the part of the sleeping fool well, laid sideways on the couch and grinned to himself.
Lily Evans, academic mess.
He knew her enough now to know she did love school and was, in fact, an exemplary student. She simply had her interests all over the place, much like her motivation.
So, in a very Lily-esque fashion, she amassed homework until the last minute.
James came down to the common room around 11pm, just as everyone got up to their dormitory to tell Lily about the new patrols schedule. However, she had quickly prayed him away as she was “trying my best to not set everything that catches my eye on fire right now”, at that he decided to keep her silent company to “ensure student safety, as any responsible Head Boy would” he told her.
She had failed to answer but he did notice her letting out a small breathy chuckle, which was more than enough to him.
In the past years James had learned not to expect too much from Lily. He had expected their relationship to be nothing more than civil after the end of 5th year, so he was indeed quite surprised to see their relationship had blossomed into a healthy friendship. Granted she laughed at him more than with him but that was mainly Sirius’ influence. Any small laugh, shy smiles or exasperated eye roll from her was well worth everything to him.
And now here they were.
With the constant humming.
And now the faint singing.
It was safe to assume Lily had either forgotten James was here, or truly believed him to be asleep for her to let her guard so far down as to actually start singing .
Not that James didn't find her voice lovely, far from that, but most people wouldn't necessarily agree. She had many other qualities, but musical talent wasn't apart of it.
And it feels like the first time
Like it never did before
Feels like the first time
Like we've opened up the door
Feels like the first time
Like it never will again, never again
James would've loved nothing more than to analyse the lyrics and interpret them as a sign. Merlin knows he had done that before. Before they were friends. Before she was more than just a pair of pretty eyes he had caught getting off the train in First Year. Before she had begun to become one of the most important person in his life. No, he wouldn’t jeopardize all of that by paying too close attention to a pop muggle song. And he knew Lily to have a whole repertoire of those.
However, James did believe he had indulged her singing long enough now to poke fun at her feeble attempts to reach the high notes.
“- Evans” he intervened eyes still closed, one hand resting on his chest, the other behind his head. “Now that you’ve been to my mansion, you know better than anyone I have the money to pay you singing lessons… All you need is ask! Actually let me rephrase that: please ask.”
At that the singing stopped abruptly and Lily's offended voice rose.
“- Has your mother never taught you that preaching about one's money wasn't very polite, nor impressive Potter?” She clicked her tongue.
“- Oh I threw politeness out the window ages ago, love.” James laughed, as he got up to his feet and made his way to her table.
She had tied her hair up in a bun since the last time he actually laid his eyes on her, strands of auburn hair escaping and resting on the back of her neck, her face freed of any hair and the dark circles under her eyes got more noticeable with every passing second. He gently pressed his hands on her shoulders, feeling all the tension in her body.
“- How's the essay going ?” He inquired, in a much softer voice.
“- It has slowly made its way inside my brain and settled there like a tumor, expect to find me dead tomorrow morning.” She casually let out. James refused to look or sound like an idiot so he refrained himself from asking what a 'tumor' was. “I'm almost done actually. I can finish it in History Of Magic tomorrow, I'll just sit on the last row.”
“- Oh Evans,” James exclaimed with a smirk. “Ever so the perfect Head Girl I see.”
“- Uh huh, Dumbledore's obviously a very good judge of character,” She said gathering up her quill and parchments. “Seeing he choose you and me of all people for the job.”
“-Some part of me wants to be offended by that comment but also, you’ve got a point.” He snorted, his hands still resting on her shoulders, slowly going up and down her upper arms in a soothing motion.
Lily shut her eyes, letting her head fall against his torso. She moaned in exhaustion and let out a yawn. When she opened her eyes, James was looking down on her with a small smirk playing on his lips.
“- What ?” She inquired.
“- That yawn was absolutely disgusting.” He explained. “I loved every second of it.”
“- Ugh, only you would possess the ability to see someone yawn without yawning back at them.” She tiredly responded, getting up. “It's quite rude actually, you basically have to yawn back at me now.”. She stated matter of factly, gathering her things in her bag.
“ -Now why would I demonstrate such weakness?” He objected as she stood up. “I can't help my many talents.”
At that Lily laughed, until she was taken by another yawn.
James suggested she should go to bed, she agreed but made no decision to move whatsoever. So they stood there, facing one another, with only the wavering flames of the fireplace for light.
James, who wasn't one for awkward silences, was the first to talk.
“ -You know that song you were humming?”
“- Feels Like The First Time?” She wondered.
“- Yeah! It's the one you forced upon me last Christmas right ?” Lily was quick to answer this one.
“- Hold on a second ?! Forced upon you ? No way!” She exclaimed. “I won’t have this Potter, you basically begged me to play it a second time, I saw your head bumping to the beat! I saw it with my own two eyes!”
“ -Okay ! Okay !” He held up his hands up while approaching her like a wild animal. “I may or may not have appreciated the song, yes.”
Lily beamed in triumph and noted:
“- It is a great song. It’s going to be a classic, wait and see.”
James could only smile at her.
“ -I liked that night as well.” The words softly escaped his mouth, his eyes still trained on her. He spoke the truth and was too tired to feel awkward about it.
Her gaze was sweetly set upon him while she murmured.
“- Yes, me too. It was a fun night.”
Fun.
The word resonated in James' ears.
There had been no particular happenings that night. She came over, a few days after Christmas to visit, they exchanged presents quietly in his room -she offered him a miniature game of Quidditch to play with friends and chocolate frogs, he got her the latest Rags To Witches album along with a magical vinyl player- and had dinner downstairs with his parents and Sirius. The latter had been an inconvenience most of the evening, James remembered. He suggested Lily should sleep in his bed with him to “warn off the cold”.
Mrs Potter opened her mouth to reprimand Sirius when Lily warned him about her terrible morning breath but she was sure a real man like him could handle it, then stuffed the remains of the garlic bread their house elf had prepared into her mouth.
That had shut them all up momentarily before Sirius squeaked he would gladly relate that duty back to James. Who then turned bright pink and stuttered something back as his father gave him a knowing look.
Lily, against Sirius' complaints, had settled her luggage in the guest room and wished them all goodnight, kissing both James and Sirius on the cheek and thanking the Potters for their hospitality.
Around midnight though she had knocked on James' door, knowing he was a late sleeper from all those nights working on Head Duties and patrols. James remembered she had been wearing a loose pink shirt reaching her mid thighs and flannel pyjama pants with small deers on them. The memory made him smile.
And they had talked.
Sat cross legged on his bed facing each other, they had talked for hours really. She confessed her visit wasn't totally unplanned as her sister and fiancée were staying over at her parents' house and she'd rather save herself the bother. A warm feeling had spread in James' chest at the realization she turned to him first when looking for comfort.
And so they kept going, James admitted he had no idea about what he wanted to after Hogwarts, something useful he said, fighting, spying, anything. He couldn't dedicate his time to anything else, it all seemed so trivial. Locking eyes with him she promised him he wouldn't be alone, she knew the marauders would fight by his sides and, after a small silence, she affirmed she'd be by his side as well. They had shared a sweet secretive smile and kept talking until they fell asleep as dawn came shining through his closed windows.
Fun.
The word resonated in the silence of the now dark common room. The fire had slowly died and the only light illuminating Lily's face was the moon's shiny glow, painting her a shade of silver that made her look even more ethereal than James was used to.
His breath stuck against his ribs, James noticed her almond shaped eyes were fixed on his mouth, her teeth nipping on her bottom lip.
He cleared his throat and babbled:
“- Hum.. You should, probably, you know.. get some sleep... if you want to uh, wank tomorrow morning... Work ! I meant work, work tomorrow morning…”
Great fucking thinking James.
Luckily, his voice had awaken her from her reverie and she hadn’t paid much attention to his blabbering.
“- Right” she said her voice small, “Yes, yes, definitely.” She chuckled then. “I'm so screwed, but yeah I'll get some energy for tomorrow.” She said, gesticulating awkwardly around the air and taking a step towards the staircase, leading to her private Head Girl dormitory. She brushed past James, their shoulders touching slightly and stopped to look at him.
She was close, too close he thought, close enough he could smell her vanilla shampoo and the ink she had spilled on herself earlier. Though she was shorter than him, her forehead barely reaching his shoulders, her presence was intimidating, intoxicating. He shook his hands slightly to regain his composure and turned to face her.
She had not moved an inch, their chests barely touching but feeling each other's warmth. Her brows were furrowed, her bottom lip still victim to her teeth.
“- What's wrong ?” he inquired, his voice barely audible.
She looked up to him then, taking a step closer, closing the small space between them. James took a sharp intake of breath. He didn't move though, he couldn't.
Her hands, which had been resting limply by her sides, went to touch the fabric of his shirt, slowly making their way up across his chest and to his neck, gently grazing the hair on the nape of his neck.
He instinctively put his on the small of her back, prying her closer.
They were both silent. And then she softly whispered.
“- I want to kiss you all the time.”
And then before he could even mutter back a small inquiry, she stood on her tiptoes and brought her mouth to his, her lips brushing his in a dreamlike motion.
Although surprised James didn't let it show, he circled his arms tightly around her small waist, hugging her close. Kissing her back, softly at first, their mouths hovering around each other but never quite committing. He brought his hand up to cup her cheek, rubbing his thumb against her creamy white skin, while his other hand gently caressed a strand of hair away from her face and slowly went to rest on the back of her neck.
Lily blinked her eyes open, a look of confusion on her face, her hands were still clutching his shirt, a faint blush rose from her chest to her ears and pulled away slightly.
She cleared her throat, slowly letting go of his shirt but not moving away from him nor prying his hands away, in fact what she did surprised him more than when Sirius showed up to class in McGonagall's clothes, waving around his wand and screaming in a high pitched voice.
She took his face down to hers and rested her cheek next to his. He felt her take in a shaky breath before speaking.
“- I wanted to kiss you that night in your room.”
“- Lily…” James anything but whimpered before she cut him off.
“-I wanted to kiss you last summer, when you were my date to Petunia's engagement party, I wanted to kiss you when you won the first Quidditch game of the year and broke your leg because you thought it was a good idea to try and shoot away a bludger with your foot, I wanted to kiss you when you got obsessed with football for a whole three days and tried to change the rules of Quidditch so you could use your feet more, I wanted to kiss you when you stood up to Mulcer Jones for enchanting the 3 rd floor armors to make fun of Jesse Holloway’s acne, I wanted to kiss you when you fell asleep during Slughorn's potion exam because of the full moon, I wanted to kiss you every day since you went through platform 9 and ¾ last september, even in the bad moments, even when Sirius and Remus turned your hair pink for a week even-”
“- I looked ravishing I don't know how that categorizes as a 'bad moment'.” James joked, more out of habit, through his stupor.
Lily let out a small laugh and took a step back from their embrace. Suddenly, James felt the cold absence of her body against his, he found himself reaching his hand out, motioning her to come back. The distance between them felt unbearable now that he had tasted such closeness, now that he knew what her lips felt like, he knew he would never be able to walk away from this.
He looked at her with what he could only guess was pure despair but she only smiled and made her way to the girl's staircase. With her back turned on him Lily lightly said:
“- And I'll kiss you tomorrow morning too.” He felt the smile in her voice and chuckled, this girl would always find ways to surprise him, he thought.
But Merlin be damned he wasn't going to let her lead this dance.
“- That’s too far away” he heard himself say with newfound passion in his voice.
Before he could thinking about it any longer, James paced the last 3 steps between them and with everything he had in him, grabbed her hand, cupped her neck and kissed her with more passion, more impatience, more eagerness than ever before.
She responded in kind, swinging her arms around his neck, prying him closer. He gently pushed her into the alcove of the staircase, against the wall.
Lily’s hands were gripping his hair, pushing him closer and closer to her but never close enough, then went on exploring his chest and unbuttoning his shirt. And her tongue… Merlin’s beard her tongue was everywhere, his neck, his ear, his mouth, he thought he felt her teeth lightly graze his bottom lip and that was enough to drive him mad.
He could feel both their hearts racing, he could feel her smiling against his mouth, he could feel their teeth clash in the messiness of their hungry kiss. He could feel the soft skin of her thigh as he grazed his fingers underneath her skirt and he could feel the hairs on her thigh raise in anticipation at the action, his other hand burning on the skin of her stomach, like touching white hot steel.
He buried his head in the crook of her neck and kissed and licked and bit the spot between neck and jaw, earning himself a moan from her. James’ could not suppress the groaning noise in his throat as he parted her legs with his, nestling, pressing himself against her. Lily’s hands and nails made their way across his lower belly so slowly it was agonizing. He swore between clenched teeth and ravished her mouth once more, cupping the back of her neck, his fingers fumbling against a few knotted strands of hair. She giggled against his mouth. He smiled, nuzzling his nose against her collarbones, breathing in deeply. He felt dizzy with the scent of her, the world swaying around him, the only static thing being the girl at his fingertips. His fingers were working on the third button of her shirt and-
“-You guys are so fucking lucky I am not Sirius.” A voice drawled lazily, interrupting a rather graphic scene.
It was Remus.
He was standing in the middle of the common room, a shocked but proud grin playing on his lips.
James groaned.
Lily blushed.
“- May I ask, and-I-think-I-deserve-an-answer-since-my-eyes-are-now-permanently-ruined, why all the sudden snogging?” Remus inquired, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“- She was humming and I was annoyed and we kissed end of story bye bye goodnight Moony love you take care you’ve been dismissed.” James explained in one breath, his hands still underneath Lily’s shirt.
“- Must’ve been one hell of a song to get you both worked up like that.” Remus snickered. But his snide remark was ignored and drowned out by the sound of tongues and lips clashing once more as James and Lily paid him no attention and went on with their business.
Remus mumbled to himself, making his way back to his dorm, the book he came down to get secured in his hands, shaking his head incredulously and smiling to himself as he swung the door to their bedroom open.
“-Sirius you will never fucking believe this.”