Chapter Text
Lily stepped out of the hotel, stars in her eyes as she looked up at the night sky in wonder. “Rome is beautiful”, she breathed to herself.
“The Eternal City… eternally beautiful,” said a voice next to her, causing her to jump. She whipped around to see James walking out of the revolving doors of the hotel. “Stop pretending you appreciate this,” she huffed. “Oh, but I do,” James replied, and, looking into her eyes directly, “I appreciate beauty when I see it.” She rolled her eyes. “Well, I guess I can just be glad that Magic for Peace decided to hold their conference here this summer, even if I do have only you for company, Potter,” she said. James merely grinned in response.
Magic for Peace held a conference every winter break at different locations around the world, discussing ways of creating awareness for muggle-born rights. Lily had been attending since she joined Hogwarts with Marlene, Mary and Donna, and so had James and Sirius. However, in their seventh year, she mused the universe must have conspired against her to leave her alone with only James and Sirius. This night in question, it seemed Sirius was getting lucky somewhere, leaving her alone with James.
“Well, if you must hang out with me tonight Potter, we better get going,” she said and walked away, James at her tail.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“Oh, anywhere and everywhere!” she responded, grinning.
****
More than an hour later, they were walking along the Tiber river bank, after having several heated discussions on many topics, including on the need for animagi to register themselves, whether time-turners should be made available for students, whether Felix Felicis should be made illegal, whether the manufacture of Polyjuice Potion should be regulated, and so on and so forth. Despite arguing, she mused, she seemed to be enjoying herself.
During a lull in the conversation, Lily stopped and looked up at the sky once more. The lateness of the hour had caused several stars to pop out, and she shivered with an overwhelming feeling of surrealism. Yes, she was quite enjoying herself out in the chilly winter air, witnessing such a beautiful city bloom into its nighttime.
“Potter. Lets go to a bar,” she said suddenly.
James raised his eyebrows.
“I feel like getting buzzed,” she said, shrugging. James grinned and they made their way to the nearest restobar.
****
The restobar they went to was muggle, and was quite festive, given that it was a Friday night. They each had 2 shots of whiskey, and were quite buzzed, when Lily nudged James. Indicating a pretty brunette who had been eyeing James for quarter of an hour, she said “I think she’s coming to talk to you”. As if it were her cue, the brunette stood up and walked over to James. She nodded at the jukebox by the corner, leaned in to James, and said, “Hey, babe. Play me my favourite on the jukebox tonight, and maybe I’ll let you play some other things later”.
James stilled for the briefest of seconds, and, glancing at Lily, said “Sure thing”. Without waiting to take her request from the brunette, he promptly walked over to the jukebox.
****
About fifteen minutes later, they were back walking by the Tiber river, having been kicked out of the restobar. James was holding the unfinished bottle of whiskey in his hand, and Lily was clutching his arm for support. They were both quite tipsy, and Lily was erupting in gales of raucous laughter.
James hadn’t had the faintest clue what a jukebox was.
“How was I supposed to know what that thing was?” asked James, his cheeks red with embarrassment. He had fumbled around with the buttons so much that the poor thing had given a defeated whine and shut down completely, earning them the boot from the bartenders. Needless to say, the brunette had walked away from them, speechless to find a teenager who didn’t know how to handle a jukebox.
“Oh shush, Potter, hang on a second,” Lily said, stopping in her tracks and closing her eyes, “I really need to commit that scene to memory so I can tell Sirius how it went… Although come to think of it, that git may not know anything about jukeboxes either.”
James scowled. “Well, I didn’t grow up knowing what a jukebox was, Snaps. It’s not like you grew up knowing about Beaming Broomsticks, or Self-washing Shirts, or… Periwinkle Twinkles –“
“Excuse me?” she cut him off, giggling. “What was that last one?”
James turned even redder, if that were possible. “They’re this type of candy… not very well known. Predictably, they’re bluish and really sweet to taste… but they also make you sparkle.” James had expected her to laugh at him, but instead saw her eyes grow wide with excitement.
“I want one!” she exclaimed.
“I don’t know if they still make them… they were around a really long time ago,” James said.
“Oh, come on, James! Please?”
James looked at her for a few seconds, before acquiescing. She had called him ‘James’, after all.
They apparated to the part of Rome which the magic population frequented, and looked in every shop they could see, but the Periwinkle Twinkles were elusive. After searching for an hour, Lily sat down on a park bench exhausted.
“Forget it, they’re clearly not available here,” she said, dejected. James looked at her for a minute before making up his mind. “Go back to the hotel,” he told her. “I’ve to do something.”
“James, where are you–”, she began, but he was already sprinting away from her.
“Go! I’ll be back a little late.”
Lily watched his retreating figure and thought idly that she would have liked to have walked back to the hotel with him. Suddenly shaking herself from her thoughts, she stood up and apparated to the hotel entrance. She couldn’t very well admit to anyone, much less herself, that she had rather enjoyed her evening with James Potter after all.