pine(ing) and vanilla
Merlin, I’m brilliant. Brilliant!
James walked in step with Lily down the long, dimly lit corridors. Peter, Marlene, Dorcas, and a few Hufflepuffs were a few feet behind them, all absolutely blazed and giggling, trying their best to stay quiet. Trying being the keyword here.
James Potter, you’ve done it again, you brilliant bastard! Convincing Lily to come and babysit with you while your children of friends go to get more weed? A stroke of genius! She sees how responsible you are, whilst also spending time with you and seeing you are a good guy! Just stay chill, and everything will work out. Chill, James, chill.
“Alright, come on, you idiots.” He pushed the door to the greenhouses open and held it for his bumbling friends and the beautiful ginger leading them.
“Get what you need quickly so we can walk back, okay? I don’t want anyone hearing us. It’s going to be hard explaining away the weed, never mind how you’re all high as kites.” Lily had a slight laugh in her voice, but everyone knew she meant it.
The greenhouse was filled to the brim with a wide variety of plants stretching across the tables, floors, and ceilings, ranging in sizes as well as magical (and a few non-magical, such as the weed they had come for) properties. As the baked group of teens stumbled their way through the large glass shed, James walked over to one of the large, open windows, and Lily slowly followed him, leaning a bit on the sill and looking out at the grounds in front of them. James, instead, just stared at the girl next to him. He watched the way her hair framed her face and moved around a bit in the wind that came through the window. He watched her long eyelashes flutter over her bright green eyes. He stared at the small freckles lining her nose and upper cheeks. They were faint this time of year but always popped out a bit more in the summer when she spent more and more time laying out under the tree by the lake reading, something he also often watched her do. He noticed her brows furrow a bit as she leaned forward to get a better look at something outside, examining it with the same detail he had seen her look at diagrams for potions with.
“James?”
“Yeah?” His voice sounded dreamy and tired, his head still full to the brim with thoughts of Lily and her beauty.
“Is that Sirius?” This finally snapped him out of his trance.
“What? Where?”
She pointed out of the window. He followed her finger to the quidditch pitch, about three hundred meters in front of them. He squinted his eyes and, after a moment of searching, saw what looked like someone standing on the commentator stand. From the angle and distance, it was almost impossible to tell who it was.
“No way. You said Remus was upset right? He would never leave him alone like that. Must be someone else. Plus, Sirius is much skinnier than whoever that is.”
“No, but James,” She pointed again towards the figure on the stands. “Look at the way he’s standing. He's leaning over and has his right leg tucked a bit behind his left. That's how he stands when he’s leaning over the table, being all flirty with Remus while we’re trying to study. Bloody annoying that one is, but that's not the point. I'm sure that's him.”
Once again, James was astounded by the girl he had been pining after for so long. Sirius was his brother, and even he hadn’t thought that deeply about how he stood.
“Okay, but he wouldn’t leave Moony, Lils. It just wouldn’t happen. You said it yourself, you know how they are.”
“Fine,” She grabbed James by his wrist and began to pull him away from the greenhouse through one of the doors that would deposit them into the grounds.
“What? Where are we going?”
“You don’t believe me? Let's go up to the astronomy tower and take a look then.” James just blinked for a moment, not knowing what to do, still being pulled along by Lily’s tight grasp on his wrist, making his dark tan skin look an almost paper-ish color in the place her own, pale and freckled hand, was gripping onto it.
“Fine. Let’s go!” He began to walk a bit faster. With purpose and now a known destination, her death grip loosened a bit as he moved up to be walking next to her, his own long strides falling in with her smaller ones.
They moved along the side of the castle in the direction of the pitch, making their way to the astronomy tower only a short distance from the greenhouse. They walked to the base of the tower, attached to the school, and Lily quickly unlocked the doors (prefect privilege, knowing just the right spells for each type of school lock, just in case) and led James through the spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Once they reached the top, James could feel the cool, sweet breeze against his face even more than down on the ground. The air smelled like pine from the woods, with a hint of vanilla from Evans’ perfume. He had always loved that smell.
Lily finally released his wrist and walked over to one of the many telescopes lining the circular room, adjusting it to face the pitch. Without looking in to check for herself, she turned to James, pointing her head at it, wanting him to look first. James pushed his glasses up a bit more on his nose and leaned down to see through the eyepiece. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but as the image became clearer, he saw who it was.
Sirius and Remus.
They were both leaning against the railing of the commentator's platform, Remus with his head resting on Sirius' shoulder and Sirius holding one of Remus’ hands in both of his, tracing shapes on the back of it or running his fingers across the small scars there, something he had noticed Sirius often liked to do. Sirius was standing exactly the way Lily had described, his right leg crossing behind his left. As he looked closer at the area around them, he could make out a folded blanket and basket of some sort behind them.
“It’s him,” James started, lifting his head to look at his companion. He pushed his glasses up his nose once again.
“I knew it!” She pumped the air just a bit, a wide smile breaking across her face.
She’s gorgeous.
He shook his head, remembering his own side of the bet.
“Hold on, don’t get too cocky Evans. I was right too, he’s not alone. Remus went with him. I told you he would never leave him.”
“Remus? What?” She lightly pushed James out of the way and looked in the telescope for herself. After a moment, she looked back up at James.
“That’s sweet, I’m glad they’re out there together.”
“Me too, I mean we’ve been trying to set them up for, how long now, almost nine months? And they’ve been in love with each other way longer. About time they got closer to admitting their feelings. Lily, you’re so lucky. You don’t have to deal with all the constant tension between the two of them. I mean, Merlin, always flirting and then looking away blushing, pretending it was a joke, and the ‘platonic cuddling’, platonic my ass. Oh, and the worst part? How much Padfoot whines, Lily. He’s a fucking dog in every way possible way, that one. I’m serious.”
“He’s Sirius, actually.” She interrupted.
“I’m not in the mood for your cheek, Evans” Merlin, he sounded just like his own mother. Maybe Sirius was right about him being the ‘mum friend’. “Anyway, he just sits there and whines all the time with his ‘Oh James did you see Moony today? He looked so beautiful’ or ‘James, why won’t Remus love me back? We would be so perfect together!’ and then the moment I suggest he do something about it, all I hear is ‘I’m not good enough for him. He’s perfect, and what am I? Some gay idiot with a fucked up family who can’t do anything right’ I mean, it’s endless Lily. Endless. Why won’t he just realize that he’s perfect the way he is, and Remus loves him, and UGH I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE EVANS IT’S KILLING ME!” By the end of this rant, he was leaning dramatically against the telescope, face in his hands.
“Oh, don’t even get me started Potter, Remus is a nightmare too.” James looked up at Lily, curiously, nodding for her to continue. She leaned a bit on her end of the massive contraption to be closer to eye-level with him. “It’s hard enough to get studying done when Sirius is constantly distracting him, but the moment he leaves, all I hear is ‘Sirius this’ and ‘Padfoot that’ and ‘Lily he takes such good care of me, I’ve never had anyone treat me the way he does before!’ or ‘He’s so gorgeous, everything about him is perfect I could just kiss him all day.’ and then, of course, the self-depreciation of ‘But he’ll never love me, I’m just an ugly monster he pities. I don’t deserve love. I’ll never be good enough for him, blah blah blah.’ It. Never. ENDS! They just need to kiss, and everything will be better. If only they weren’t so damn oblivious all the time.”
“Agreed!” James laughed at Lily’s little matching outburst, and she returned it with a soft smile. After a moment, he broke the silence.
“What are they up to now? Maybe they’ll start snogging soon and our troubles will be over.”
“Knowing them I doubt it, but I’ll check” She leaned down again towards the eyepiece, and James lifted himself off of the telescope, moving to stand next to her. “It looks like they are sitting down now, leaning against the railings still, eating some food from the basket. I can’t tell what it is, but they’re laughing about something.”
“I wish we could hear what they were talking about.”
Lily looked up at him with a devious smile.
“Who says we can’t?”