Chapter Text
James thumped his head against the door. He stayed there, forehead resting, hands braced against the hard wooden surface, as if he was about to push it open. But he knew it was useless. The door was locked magically, and to his great shame, James was wandless. He would have to wait.
He thumped against the door with one of his fists, a slow, rhythmic beat. His best hope was someone would come along this corridor and hear him and decide to investigate. Hopefully they wouldn’t decide a Boggart rested in the broom closet and let it to scare the next poor soul instead.
The first three sets of footsteps obviously didn’t feel the need to investigate and carried on despite James calling for help. The next several only confirmed a growing fear that formed a pit in his stomach. The broom closet could be soundproof, and if that was the case, no one would hear the banging, much less his cries for help.
And I can’t even rely on the others using the Map, James thought, followed quickly by, Sirius will never let me live this down.
The Marauder’s Map rested safely in James’ pocket, having been put there by Sirius seconds before he took the fall for some classic but immature dungbombs, left around the entrance to the Slytherin common room like landmines. James had been on his way back from waving his mate off to a detention with Slughorn, safely hidden behind a suit of armour, when he’d gotten himself stuck.
The next time he heard footsteps he tried to shoot sparks out the keyhole with wandless magic, but unfortunately all that seemed to do was almost blind himself permanently as the uncontrolled sparks ricocheted off the metal lock and flicked back at his face, crouched close to the door handle.
It went quiet for awhile and James figured it must be close to dinner time. Traffic would be slow for awhile on the fourth floor and he settled in to wait.
Time allowed his thoughts to become inventive, and he did think grimly that all those History of Magic lessons really had given rise to some of the Marauder’s best pranks. Feeling around the ground next to him and on the lower shelves James was able to locate several bottles of liquid. Must be cleaning supplies, he thought. Thank god the caretaker didn’t have magic.
Opening several of the bottles at once, James tipped them all into a bucket he found near his feet. It seemed about three quarters full. He set it within a short distance of the cupboard door and resumed his wait.
What felt like an age, but was probably about an hour, the dinner hour, James thought hungrily, more footsteps came. They sounded confident in their stride, and from the sharper clicks on the flagstone floor, they sounded female. Hopefully it’s someone observant, he willed as he tipped the bucket toward the door, allowing the mix of liquid to flood under the door jam and into the corridor.
The clicks stopped abruptly just south of the door. James held his breath. A faint screech and sound of distaste floated into him, before the several mutterings of what James assumed was cleaning charms given the strong smells that had admitted from the liquid since he opened the bottles started to dissipate.
After a couple of minutes of fair agony for James, who was close to being on his knees praying the person would open the door, the footsteps resumed, decidedly less clacky and confident as before. James’ heart sank, and his forehead crashed into the door once more.
That’s it. I’m stuck here. Survived multiple full moons running with a werewolf, not to mention the transition into Animagus without adequate supervision, multiple detentions in the forest, living with Sirius for an entire summer, living with my mother, and I’m doomed to die alone and forgotten in a broom cupboard. Oh, what a wretched end to an otherwise exciting life. I shall come back and haunt –
James never did get to declare who he would haunt for the rest of his days, as he tumbled headfirst into the corridor as the broom closet door was unceremoniously swung open. He just barely caught himself from smashing yet another pair of spectacles thanks to his quick reflexes that allowed his hands to fly out and hit the ground first, cushioning his fall.
“You,” a voice dripped with derision came from above. “You did this. That mess.”
James stayed low, his shoulders tensing towards his shoulders as he recognised the voice of his rescuer. Of bloody course, he grumbled to himself. The one person who’ll enjoy taking the mick more than Sirius. I should have guessed.
“What mess?” he asked innocently as he started to rise, facing out into the corridor as the voice came again from behind him.
“The bloody flood of chemicals that just ate away at my shoes,” Lily cried, with so much annoyance in her tone that James couldn’t help but turn around. By Merlin she was a vision when she was cross.
“What did I do to your shoes?” he asked, one hand reaching up to ruffle his hair as he stared down at them. They did look rather tatty, when he looked closer, and as Lily lifted one foot, the sole of the shoe remained on the ground, flapping in half to form a tongue that wasn’t unlike Sirius’ Animagus form when he got overexcited.
“The stuff must have been acidic, it corroded them until I figured out a counterspell and stopped it,” Lily said exasperatedly. “Why on earth did you think it would be funny to spill cleaning solution out into the corridor?”
“It wasn’t a prank,” James admitted with a shrug. “It was a cry for help.”
“A cry for –” Lily stopped mid thought, and her expression changed from annoyance to confusion. “Why did you need help?”
James frowned and ruffled his hair again, “I, er… well, you see… I… and then… uh… Sirius and I… then er… well… I guess.”
He was interrupted from his stammering by Lily’s peel of laughter. He blinked at her owlishly and wished he could fade back into the shadows of the closet and wait for the next passer-by.
“James Potter,” she crossed her arms, positively brimming with mirth. “Are you tell me that you, the great self-entitled Marauder, prankster, Head Boy, one of the smartest wizards of our generation, got yourself locked in a broom closet?”
“I definitely did not tell you that,” James crossed his arms as well and looked off down the corridor with a grumpy frown.
“But that’s what happened.”
“Didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“You can’t prove anything.”
“I probably could.”
“Yeah, alright,” James sighed, hands moving to his pockets as he scuffed his feet. “You probably could prove it.”
Lily grinned and tried to meet his eye, holding back her giggle. The fact she did it to avoid further emasculating the boy in front of her was not lost of James.
“In my defence, we really shouldn’t have any magically locking closets in a castle cleaned by a Squib. This was a disaster waiting to happen and I’ve really just taken one for the team. Filch should be thanking me.”
“In fairness to Filch, he probably would never have been stupid enough to get himself locked in this cupboard.”
“Oh yeah,” James kicked at the door frame. “And why’s that?”
Lily took a step closer to James, bringing herself chest to chest with him. The stray hairs from her ponytail ticking his nose as he tried not to be obvious about his deep inhale as her flowery shampoo filled his senses. She reached past him, wand extended and lit, to illuminate the previous dark space.
James could now see it was filled with hundreds of bottles, all filled with various colours and textured liquids. Some appeared to be moving, giant gas bubbles floating around within the bottle. Others appeared to have luminescent glow, pulsating in way that made James wonder how he hadn’t seen them in the dark.
“What the hell is this stuff?” he recoiled back, hitting his head on the edge of the door behind him.
Lily smirked as he rubbed the back of his head, “This isn’t Filch’s closet, Potter.”
“Whose is it?” James looked back into the closet and felt a shudder run through him. “What is it?”
“Slughorn’s storeroom for some of the more belligerent concoctions, things that can’t be flushed down the drain at the end of class if we want to have in-castle plumbing.”
“Just sitting here? For anyone to accidentally stumble upon?!” James was aghast. His fingers gently propped the already swelling bump on the back of his head.
“Well no, it’s normally magically locked and protected, so no one accidentally finds it. Slughorn normally only opens it when he’s putting things in it. I wonder that he left it unlocked. It’s very unlike him,” Lily peered into the room again.
James felt a bit sheepish, “Yeah… well… uh, see there was… and then… and so… you see… it was probably…”
Lily interrupted his stammering yet again with a peel of laughter. This one James felt quite literally, as her hand came to rest on James chest, bracing her as she half folded over. “Let me guess, Potter. He was probably interrupted in the middle of storing some new jars by some kind of elaborate prank?”
“Er, maybe?” James hands went back to his pockets again as he shrugged.
“So not elaborate,” Lily surmised, looking at his body language. “And your alone,” she glanced up and down the corridor. “And by the fact you were stuck in there, probably wandless,” she glanced at his pockets and then back towards the closet, nodding to herself.
“Evans, what?” James’ face was one of shock as he regarded her.
“And we’re down in the dungeons, so… hmmm,” Lily tilted her head to the side, a smile forming. “I’m betting you and Sirius were caught throwing dungbombs at some Slytherins. You hid, he took the fall.”
“How did, but we were, you were, you just, and we, I mean, Sirius, that was,” James’ surprise was really quite verbally, sending Lily into yet another giggle, her hand clenching in his shirt
“I know you, Potter,”
“We’ve been on one date, Evans. That was a lucky guess,” James growled, but his hand was already curving around her hip, pulling him closer.
“You wish it was a lucky guess. I know you, you disaster,” Lily’s other hand glided up around James neck to feel the back of his head. “How’s your head?”
“Sore,” he whined, but it quickly turned to a soft moan as Lily’s fingers slid through locks of his hair, her fingernails gently scraping along his scalp. “Better now.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey Potter?” Lily was right up against him now, raising on her tiptoes to bring her mouth closer to his.
“Evans,” James brought his forehead to meet hers, their breaths mingling as his other hand shifted through the hair at the nape of Lily’s neck, gathering it.
“Reckon one date’s enough to get a girl a snog in a broom closet?” Her lips moved to his neck, giving it a small nip.
“Yeah, I reckon… probably… I mean, definitely,” James was cut off as Lily’s lips fairly slammed into his own, soft, insistent, and utterly mind robbing. She pushed him back, urging him back into the closet he spent so long trying to escape.
James gathered her up, lifting Lily by her thighs against him as he eased backwards. Lily’s wand closed the door behind him, and her legs wrapped around his waist as he pushed her back against the solid wood. Her wand clattered to the ground as both her hands twisted into James hair. Their lips formed a seal as they slid and tugged at each other.
Lily moved back to James neck, leaving a trail of tingling kisses that had him moaning again, tipping his head back to give her better access.
“You were wrong, you know,” he couldn’t resist pointing out, given his mouth was unoccupied. His hand slid further up Lily’s leg to grip her bum as he spoke.
“About what?” Lily sounded incredibly distracted as she worked on the top button of James’ shirt.
“We didn’t chuck them. The dungbombs,” Lily stopped her attentions on his neck to look at him in confusion. “We planted them around the Slytherin Common Room like those war fields you were telling us about. So, they’d stand on them and get hit.”
Lily stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t know whether I’m seriously appalled that that’s what you took from that story, or seriously turned on that you actually listened to me.”
James took the opportunity to have his own tryst with Lily’s neck, while one hand moved under her shirt and up her back. “You did call me the greatest wizard of our generation. Hopefully it’s the later,”
Lily gasped as his lips sucked gently as her pulse point, “Definitely the later.”