Chapter 9: Late Night Wanderings and Electric Touch
“Ow! Watch it, Sirius!” James yelped as Sirius “accidentally” elbowed him in the ribs.
James, Sirius, and Remus were sneaking around Hogwarts under the Invisibility Cloak. They were creeping slowly down the Charms Corridor when James heard a piano playing faintly in the distance. “C’mon guys,” he whispered, “let’s see where it’s coming from.”
The crept off quickly, up turrets, through hidden passages, and finally through a room with a magnificent array of chamber pots. Well, as magnificent as it gets with chamber pots.
“Oh, that’s disgusting,” Sirius remarked, “yet oddly fascinating at the same time. Wow.”
“Oh, shut up, Sirius,” Remus hissed.
They continued through the door as quietly as possible. (After all, with closed windows and doors, it’s somewhat odd to have a door fly open for no apparent reason.) The boys looked to see Lily in a fury, letting out all of her emotion out into her music.
James stood transfixed at the sight; he could not take his eyes off of her. “Uh, you guys go on ahead,” whispered James, “I need to talk to Lily.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She was playing a classical tune; James recognized it as Burgmüller’s “The Knight Errant”. She looked so passionate and fiery; James had never seen her with so much emotion. James sighed softly with content, and sat down on a bench near the wall. The boys had already left, James could tell. (He didn’t hear Sirius arguing in whispered voices with Remus.) As Lily finished, she sighed. Dumbledore was right; music was what she needed to get rid of all of this excess emotion. She heard a rustling near the back of the room, and her heart began to beat very quickly.
“Who’s there?!” she frantically called.
“Just me,” said a familiar voice in the shadows.
“James?” Lily asked, growing extremely embarrassed. She hated having her friends hear her music.
“Yes, just James,” the voice replied, “and that song was beautiful.”
He stepped out of the shadows to smile at Lily.
“How long have you played?” he asked curiously.
“Well…I’ve been playing piano since I guess I was about seven, singing all my life though.”
“Do you like to sing more than you like to play piano?” he asked.
“Well,” said Lily thoughtfully, “yes, I suppose.”
“Good,” James replied, “Sing something for me.”
“Um…what…okay, I suppose…what would you like me to sing?”
“Anything.”
“Fine…I’m a little teapot, short and stout….here is my handle and here is spout, when I get all steamed up, hear me shout! Tip me over and pour me out!” Lily finished her little tune (done with complete hand motions of course), and James applauded.
“Sometime I’m going to have to hear what your voice sounds like when you sing REAL songs…” James laughed.
“Well,” said Lily, pretending to be angry, “that was a REAL song.”
“Right, Princess. We better get back up to the Tower.”
“Yeah…warm bed, here I come,” Lily replied with a smile.
It was about
“Damn,” thought James, “I just HAD to leave the cloak with the Marauders….I wonder where the hell they are, anyway?”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Across the castle, knights of armor were clattering loudly to the floor.
“Bloody hell, Sirius,” Remus whispered crossly. “Now Filch will be after us, we’ll have to run to make it back up to the Tower.”
Sirius sighed, and said, “When you’re right, you’re right. And you, you’re always right. I knew I shouldn’t have worn these stupid boots on our adventure….they’re so squeaky and awkward.”
Torchlight appeared suddenly in one of the corridors.
“Oh, great, that’s Filch,” whispered Remus, “we have to run now.”
“But Remus…” Sirius petitioned, looking down at the boots on his feet.
“NOW would be a good time to start RUNNING, SIRIUS!” Remus whispered urgently.
“Oh, FINE!”
The Marauders ran furiously down the Charms corridor, through some paintings and trapdoors, and ended up….
…In front of a blank painting. “Oh shit,” said Sirius, “the Fat Lady used to be here, right?”
Remus nodded, and answered, “She must have gone to visit friends, or something.”
“Who visits people at
“Well, nobody said she was sensible,” Remus replied.
“Well, now what are we supposed to do?”
Remus answered, “We wait.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily and James were furiously tearing down one of the corridors near the DADA room. Lily wasn’t used to running, she wasn’t very athletic.
“James,” she whispered furiously, “can you PLEASE slow down?!”
“We don’t have the Invis-” James stopped himself. She didn’t know about his cloak, and she certainly didn’t know about the constant late-night wanderings.
“What?” Lily asked in confusion.
“Um…we don’t have an Invisibility Cloak, so we need to hurry. Filch will be down here anytime now!”
Lily understood, but that didn’t mean she was able to run any faster.
“Here.” James offered her his hand, and she looked at it with reluctance.
“Oh, I’m not going to hurt you,” James answered.
Lily nodded and took his hand. James ran to the Tower, and Lily was basically half-running, half-being tugged.
“Oh, boy, this isn’t good,” James said to himself as he approached an empty painting.
“Oh, nooooo…” Lily said, “Of all the nights to pick for the Fat Lady to visit her friends!”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Marauders heard somebody approaching.
“Is it Filch?” Sirius asked, in fear.
“No, I think…yeah…its James and Lily,” Remus replied, squinting to make out the approaching figures.
“Hey James!” Sirius said somewhat loudly, and waved at James.
“You idiot,” Remus replied, “Because number one, you’re invisible. He can’t see you wave. And second, Lily DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THE CLOAK.”
“Oh crap,” said Sirius.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
But James heard Sirius call him, and Lily heard Sirius as well. “Isn’t that Sirius?” Lily asked in confusion, as there was nobody there.
James sighed, and decided to trust her. “Um, yeah it is.”
“Where is he?” Lily asked.
James replied, “Somewhere in front of the Fat Lady…can’t really tell. Hey guys, show yourselves.”
The Marauders looked at each other in confusion. Did he really want to reveal to Lily his biggest secret? He wasn’t even sure he could trust her.
“Yes, I’m sure,” James replied firmly, as if reading the Marauders’ minds.
“Oookay, it’s your cloak, buddy,” Sirius replied.
Sirius took off the cloak, and materialized out of thin air. The same happened with Remus a second later, and Remus held the liquidly cloak in his right hand. He gave it back to James.
“Oh, wow.” Lily said.
She didn’t quite know what to say, she had certainly not been part of the wizarding world long enough to know what the heck that cloak was, but she had a feeling she knew what it did.
“Does it…make you invisible?” Lily asked, quietly.
“Yeah…it’s called an Invisibility Cloak,” James replied, hanging his head. Everything was going so well with Lily, now James was sure she would be disappointed in him.
To his surprise, Lily lit up with excitement. “Can I try it?” she asked.
“Yeah…I mean…yes, of course you can,” James smiled.
Lily put on the cloak and disappeared into thin air. “So, you’re not mad that I have it?” James asked.
“No, actually, I’m not. I think it’s pretty amazing,” Lily’s voice replied.
Around two, the entire group was huddled under the cloak. Sirius, the tallest, was sitting down on the ground, with James sitting next to him. Lily was leaning on James’ knees, fast asleep. Remus was dozing off on Lily’s shoulder. Sirius and James were the only ones that were really awake.
Sirius whispered to James, “You really do like her, don’t you?”
“Of course…not…” James replied, looking a bit confused.
“Come on, buddy, you’ve liked her since Day One. I think you guys are perfect for each other, personally.”
“Really, you think so?”
“Yes. And since you’re dying to know, yes, I think she likes you too.”
“Honestly?” James asked, eagerly. If any guy he knew could understand women, it was Sirius. He had more girlfriends in one year than the entire Gryffindor 5th year boys dorms had ever had combined.
“It’s just something in the way she looks at you. It’s like she really likes you, but doesn’t want to admit to herself or anyone else that she does.”
Lily began to stir, and looked for a pillow softer than knees.
“Ow,” Lily said, rubbing her aching neck.
“Hurts?” James asked with a smile. Lily nodded, and James beckoned her closer. He began to give her a back rub, a very gentle one at that. Lily Evans seemed so frail and beautiful, like a china doll. James was almost afraid he would break her. Lily smiled at his gracious gesture, and began to nod off as he massaged her sore muscles.
Lily fell asleep on James’ chest, and James felt his breath catch. The girl he worshipped, the only girl he really cared about, was asleep on his chest. It seemed too good to be true.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A half hour later, the Fat Lady leisurely strolled back to her painting. Under the Invisibility Cloak, Sirius, Remus, and Lily were fast asleep. James was completely enamored with Lily. How beautiful she looked as she slept. James began to run his hands through her auburn hair. It was about twenty minutes before he actually noticed that the Fat Lady was back.
“Guys, get up,” he whispered quietly. “She’s back.”
Remus, the lightest sleeper, awoke quickly and got out from under the cloak. The Fat Lady gave a yelp of surprise, and asked him how long he had been there, she could have been indecent!
“About three hours,” Remus sleepily replied, “how long have you been there?”
The Fat Lady recoiled at Remus’ sarcasm. “Password?”
“Uh…oh yeah. Bobblesticks and Bunderbombs.”
“Quite so, young man…anymore people planning on materializing out of thin air?”
“Three,” replied Remus, “could you leave it open a bit?”
“Fine…but don’t expect me to do this for you all the time.” With that, Remus crept inside to the warm common room.
Sirius exited the cloak with clunking footsteps. His huge boots were extremely loud! Slowly but surely, Sirius entered the common room.
“Lil…Princess…you have to get up...” said James, taking the cloak off both of them. Lily groaned and tried to get up; she fell back down again and whined.
James sighed, “Fine. You win. But only this once.”
With that, James picked up Lily’s delicate figure, and got a tremendous rush, like electricity. James brought her into the common room, and noticed that Remus and Sirius had not waited up for him, they were already in bed. He tried to set Lily down again, but she whined (again), so he slowly walked with her to the couch. James made small talk with Lily, but she wasn’t a great conversationalist when she was half-asleep.
“Do you want me to carry you to bed?” James asked.
Lily nodded, and James picked her up again, getting the same thrilling rush at touching Lily as he did when he first picked her up. He slowly turned the handle to the girls’ dorms, praying that neither of the twins were awake. They would tease him mercilessly for this.
Luckily, nobody was awake. A small water pitcher was on the windowsill, along with a couple glasses. James set Lily gently in her bed, and fetched Lily a glass of water. She took a couple sips, and smiled up at him. He treated her like a real Princess, she thought. Meanwhile, James looked down at Lily and sighed. He arranged her hair on her pillow perfectly.
God, she was beautiful, he thought.
“Um, good…good night, Princess,” James said, but the words were unimportant.
He seemed to be extremely reluctant to leave her side, and she was extremely reluctant to let him go.
“Good…night…James. Thank you for all the help,” Lily said quietly.
“My pleasure, Princess,” James replied, “sweet dreams. Hopefully of me, but as long as they’re good dreams, it’s fine by me.”
She smiled at him for this, and he softly kissed her forehead.
“I have to go to bed now, Lil,” James said, “but this has been the most amazing night…”
“Yeah…” Lily replied. Lily looked at him longingly. Then, it happened. Lily sat up, and kissed James.
Before James good even realize what was really happening, her lips were pressed against his.
“God…” James said quietly, after they pulled apart. “This just feels…right.”
James had kissed many a girl in his day, and none of them gave him the feeling he got that night with Lily. One small kiss, and she made him want to be with her forever.
“You better go,” Lily said with a smile.
“Yeah,” James said dazedly. He walked out of the girls’ dorm and into the boys’ and accidentally sat on Sirius’ head.
“What the bloody hell?” Sirius asked, irritably.
“It’s not time to get up yet, and your bed’s over THERE, imbecile.”
Sirius muttered to himself angrily for a couple minutes, and then realized that something was up with James.
“What is it, buddy?”
“She kissed me.”
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