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May 2nd 1976, 11PM, Lily and Remus during prefect rounds
“So, M o o n y, where do these weird nicknames actually come from?” Lily asked curiously.
“Erhm… they don’t really come from anywhere. Just nicknames,” Remus stuttered as he looked anywhere but at the redheaded witch beside him. “Why do you want to know anyway? It’s not like you’re going to use them.”
“Maybe I will,” Lily gave back, “or maybe I was just curious.” She shrugged.
The pair fell in comfortable silence again as they ended their rounds and made their way back to Gryffindor tower. Just before they reached the Fat Lady Lily stopped and cleared her throat.
“Soooo Remus,” she began hesitantly, “Yes, Lily?” “Uhm…” she hesitated.
“Are you going to say anything?” Remus asked perplexed as the normally straightforward witch blushed a deep crimson in front of him.
“Haveyoueverkissedagirl?” she finally spat out, the words coming out a one big garble. “Sorry, what?”
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and repeated slowly, “Have you ever kissed a girl?”
It was Remus turn to blush and he shook his head, “No, no girl.”
Her eyes went round and she stared at him, then she smirked. “Knew it,” she whispered triumphantly and then louder, “Would you like to kiss me?”
“You?” Remus choked. He studied the girl in front of him. She was pretty. Her long red hair fell beautifully over her shoulders. Her Gryffindor tie was loose, and her green eyes were sparkling with a questioning look.
“Would you?” She repeated. “Just a kiss between friends,” she clarified when Remus kept silent, his eyes still searching her face for a hint of a joke. But it wasn’t. He stepped closer; his eyes now fixed on her lips. He could smell her, his wolf senses recognising every bit; the fresh flowery scent of her shampoo, the smell of the library and her increased breath.
“Okay” he replied, his voice a bit shaky, “just as friends.” He grinned at her. He closed the gap between them slowly and captured her lips with his.
Lily felt her heartbeat speed up as her eyes fell close. This was her first real kiss. She gently moved her lips against Remus’, her hands coming up to grip his biceps.
It was a sweet experimental kiss but nevertheless a good one. As they broke apart Lily took a cautious step back.
“So this was…” she trailed off hesitantly, “Interesting.” Remus ended the sentence. She grinned with relief. He grinned back.
“Let’s go inside.” Remus suggested, so they continued their way to the common room. As they parted at the stairs Lily gave Remus a hug.
“This will stay between us, okay?” Remus asked quietly.
“Okay,” Lily replied easily.
“Good night, Lils.”
“Night… Moony.” He stared at her and she giggled.
“Someday you have to tell me the story behind it.” She winked and disappeared to the girl’s dormitory, leaving Remus smiling.
January 15th 1977, 1AM, Gryffindor tower after they won a Quidditchmatch
The common room had slowly emptied, leaving just a few people, some empty bottles and various Gryffindor objects. The air smelled like sweat and alcohol and it was quite hot. Music played quietly in the background, so people could talk without screaming at each other.
Sirius Black and James Potter were sitting on the floor in front of the fire, an empty bottle of firewhisky between them, staring at each other.
Suddenly Sirius jumped up “Ha. I won! You blinked! Prongs is a loser!” He cried out and began dancing wildly.
“Shut up, Black,” Lily Evans shouted from the couch she and Marlene McKinnon were sitting on.
“Jealous, Evans?” He shouted back with a smirk, but kept on with his ridiculous singing and dancing.
“Marlene,” Lily pleaded, “do something to make him stop!”
“I have an idea, but don’t complain if you don’t like it,” Marlene warned with a wicked grin.
“Just shut him up.”
“As you wish, flower,” Marlene obeyed with a smirk. “Hey, Black!” she shouted across the room, “do you and your little marauder gang want to have a bit fun?”
Lily groaned. This was not what she had meant.
Sirius stopped and grinned widely at Marlene.
“Spin the bottle, everyone!” he shouted. “Come on, Moony, Prongs, Wormy. Bring some pretty people and a bottle, McKinnon.”
Marlene laughed and pulled Lily up from the couch and into the middle of the room.
The Marauders, Alice, Mary, Marlene and Lily sat in a circle, the empty bottle between them. “The rules everybody,” James began solemnly “are quite simple.”
“You have to spin the bottle,” Remus continued, “and kiss the person the bottle lands up on.”
Sirius smirked and made kissing noises.
“Let the Games begin!” Peter ended finally.
Sirius grabbed the bottle and spun it around. It landed on James.
“Kiss, kiss, kiss!” Peter chanted, as the girls laughed loudly. Sirius, with a wink and a smirk at Remus, gave James a peck on the lips and James spun the bottle. It landed on Marlene. They kissed and she spun the bottle.
It continued for a while but, miraculously, it never landed on Lily. She was secretly thankful for the little attention they paid her, even if she noticed James eyes darting to her every so often.
“I’m tired,” Alice announced after an awkward kiss with Peter.
“Then let’s go to bed,” Remus suggested as he supressed a yawn.
“I want to spin it one last time,” Sirius whined.
James let out a groan. “Sure, Padfoot, one last time.”
Sirius excitedly grabbed the bottle and spun it around.
How he had still so much energy remained a mystery to Lily. She watched the bottle slow down and land on… herself. Naturally this had to happen. Sirius looked at her, Lily looked at Marlene and Marlene looked at James who stared bluntly into space.
Lily sighed. “Let’s get over with it.”
“Oh Lily-flower. Be a bit more excited,” Sirius teased, “You are going to kiss me. One of the Marauders. We are said to be incredibly good kissers.”
Remus caught Lily’s eye and winked. She felt a blush creep up her cheeks and rolled her eyes.
“Fine then, show me what you’ve got, Black.” She teased back.
Sirius leaned slowly towards her and pressed his lips against hers. He tasted like firewhisky. His hands rested on her waist and her arms slipped around his neck. He deepened the kiss and Lily felt her knees weaken. The rumours had been true. Sirius Black was an incredibly good kisser. No wonder most of the girls and quite a few boys threw themselves at him.
A cough brought her back to the present and she immediately broke the kiss.
“Say, Evans, how was your first kiss with a Marauder?” Sirius teased with a smirk.
Lily blushed again but then decided to not give in to his teasing.
“Oh. It wasn’t.” She said, smirking right back. “It wasn’t my first kiss with a Marauder.”
She felt everybody’s eyes on her. Sirius stared at her dumbfounded. She grinned wider.
“So… I’m off to bed, ladies, gentlemen.” She bowed to her ‘audience’, kissed Remus on his cheek and skipped off to bed. As she reached the stairs they still sat in shocked silence.
When he finally heard a door shut, Sirius was the first one to speak.
“I didn’t know she had it in her.” He looked around the circle. “And I think you didn’t know either.”
28th June 1977, 10 PM, Lily and Marlene in the 6th years girls dormitory
“Lils, I’m bored. Why did we have to come up here? Couldn’t we have gone with the Marauders?” Marlene whined as she and Lily sat alone in their dormitory.
It was a rainy Friday evening a few days before the summer break and the Marauders had asked the girls to join them in their room to finish the leftover alcohol but Lily had refused. She had dragged Marlene up to their own dorm and there they were, Marlene deadly bored.
“Can we at least play a game?” Marlene asked.
Lily considered her options but she couldn’t think of anything else to do to appease Marlene, except to join the Marauders, but that was out of question, so Lily finally gave in.
“If we must.”
“Yeah,” Marlene cheered as she hopped on to her best friend’s bed and made herself comfortable.
“So, Lily- flower, we are going to play a nice little game of truth or dare.”
Lily groaned quietly but put on a smile. It was better than to be with the Marauders.
“I’m going to start,” Marlene said “So, Lils, truth or dare?”
“Maybe, truth?”
“Maybe a good choice, maybe not.”
They sat in silence for a moment then Marlene asked with this wicked grin of hers, “You still haven’t told me, your best friend, the secret about your first Marauder Kiss.”
Lily face became as red as her hair.
“There is no secret,” she stressed,” Remus and I kissed, we are friends, end of story. My turn now.”
Marlene nodded “Dare.”
“Uhm… okay.” A perfect idea crossed Lily’s mind and her face broke into a grin.
“Dear Marlene,” she began solemnly “you have to fly around Gryffindor tower in just your underwear for two minutes. I will charm you and your broom, so you won’t get cold.”
“No way, Lily,” Marlene exclaimed slightly shocked.
”Yes way!” Lily shouted back.
Marlene shot her a dark look and began to undress. “You will pay for that, Lils.”
Lily just kept grinning as she muttered some spells to keep Marlene warm and dry.
“Okay. Here you go,” She finally said. “See you in two minutes.”
Marlene nodded and flew out of the window.
“You little bitch, Evans. You are definitely going to pay for that. Sirius saw me.” Marlene exclaimed as she came back two minutes later. Lily looked at Marlene’s beetroot face and giggled.
“He’s not going to care, and he won’t tell anyone. But sure, make me pay, Marly-poo,” she mocked her friend.
Marlene didn’t reply, just put her clothes back on, sitting on Lily’s bed again.
“Lily, darling,” she asked in a sickening sweet voice, “truth or dare?”
Lily pretended to think about it then she answered just as sweet, “Truth my, dear Marlene.”
Marlene looked at her and smirked. Lily would pay.
“Lily, dearest, why don’t you tell me why you refuse to spend time with the Marauders? Is it because of James’ hair or the twinkle in his eyes when he looks at you?”
Lily gasped. Marlene couldn’t probably know that she…
“Or is it because he always smells like leather and pine? Tell me, dear friend.”
Lily’s eyes widened. This was dangerous. No one could know about her crush on…
“Oh Lily, why don’t you answer?” Marlene finally stopped with a questioning look.
Lily had to do something.
“Marlene, darling, now that I think about it, I would like to change my answer to dare.”
Marlene squealed excitedly. Which was not a good sign.
“This is what I wanted to her, flower. I dare you to go to the boys and snog…,”-she paused for some dramatic effect- “…Peter!”
“You what?” Lily exclaimed.
“I promised, you would pay for it. Either you go there and snog him right in front of James, Sirius and Remus without saying a word to any of them or you tell me everything about your feelings for James.” Marlene’s tone allowed no argument. And Lily knew she brought it on herself with her slightly extreme dare form before.
“You know I love you, Marly.” Lily asked sweetly.
“I know, flower, but this isn’t going to change anything.”
Lily’s face fell a little and she took a deep breath.
“Okay,” she agreed with a small nod. “A game is a game. But then we are even.”
“Deal,” Marlene grinned. “Now off you go.”
“See you in a bit,” Lily whispered as she left Marlene to go kiss her third Marauder.
She pressed her ear against the door of the 7th year boy’s dorm. She was quite nervous. She took one last deep breath and opened the door. Four heads turned at the abrupt interruption and she stared into eight surprised eyes.
“Hey there Lils. Did you change your mind?” James asked delighted.
Lily neither answered nor looked at him. She kept her eyes fixed on Peter. With four large strides she crossed the room and lowered herself so she was on eyelevel with Peter. She locked eyes with him and before he knew it her lips were on his. Peter was frozen and Lily was not that eager to kiss him either, but she pressed her mouth firmer against his.
“Oh fuck you.” Lily and Peter jumped apart as James exploded.
“You bloody cunts! And I call you my friends? Some nice friends you are. Come on, go off, snog her. I don’t care.” He cussed again and ran off.
Lily stood up slowly and with one last look at the three boys she left.
31st October 1977, around 8 PM, somewhere in Hogwarts
Lily Evans wrapped her robes tighter around her shaking shoulders. It was her last Halloween at Hogwarts and she felt melancholic. She didn’t think she could stand the happy atmosphere of the Great Hall were all her peers were currently celebrating. So, she had skipped the feast to wander around, the peace and quiet of the otherwise empty castle rather matching her current mood. Now she was sitting in her favourite alcove her knees drawn to her chest, looking out of the window. She did not know how long she had been sitting there when she heard someone approaching.
“You okay, Lily?” James Potter asked quietly, gently resting his and on her arm. Lily didn’t turn around.
“I feel like I’m running out of time,” she whispered lowly, breath catching.
James slid his arm fully around her, catching her chin in his hand, turning her head so she would look at him.
“You have enough time left to do anything you want to. And even after we all graduate, neither the castle nor we are going to disappear,” He reassured her with a smile. “You are too important.”
Lily finally turned fully, bringing her arms around his torso, hiding her face against his chest. She took a deep breath, inhaling James’ calming scent of leather and pine. James rubbed her back soothingly, feeling her slowly relax in his arms.
Lily didn’t know how long they had been sitting there, hugging; she only knew she never wanted the moment to end. Being so close to James just felt too perfect. She didn't want to give that up, ever, but she knew it could not last.
Lily regretfully pulled away, turning her face up to meet James' gaze. They stared at each other, neither of them blinking. James ran his hand lightly up Lily’s back, then moved both his hands to hold Lily’s face gently between them. He felt her respond to his touch, lean into it.
"James..." The name left her lips with a breath she did not know she had been holding.
James smiled. The air around them seemed to crackle with magic. James felt as if he was standing at the edge of something great, he only needed to be brave and take the final step; it was now or never. He tilted his head slightly downward and pulled her in just the tiniest bit. They were still staring at each other. And then they were kissing. They were finally kissing.
It felt like coming home after being lost and adrift for so long; like eating a piece of his mother’s treacle tart or drinking a warm butterbeer after a cold day. It felt like flying.
After what felt like an eternity but at the same time like only seconds had passed, James pulled back. He kept his eyes closed; his forehead pressed against hers. He was almost scared to open his eyes, afraid that he had dreamt the whole thing.
“James, darling, please look at me,” Lilly whispered against his lips.
He opened his eyes slowly. Her smile was almost blinding.
“Lets do this again sometimes, yes?” She asked quietly, “See where this goes?”
He smiled back at her. “Yes,” he answered, “let’s do that”.
His smiled turned to teasing, “But no more kissing my friends, okay?”
Lily choked on air, her face flaming red. “Okay,” she finally replied, “you are the only marauder I want to kiss anyway.”
And then, she did exactly that.