Outside of Hogwarts Castle it was stormy and cold, just like it had been for the past few weeks. But inside of Gryffindor Tower it was warm and loud. The Gryffindors celebrated their victory over Slytherin they made in this afternoons Quidditch game. They've always done that, at least Lily couldn't remember a single Gryffindor win that wasn't celebrated extensively. But since the marauders were at Hogwarts, or rather since their 4th year, these parties were celebrated with a lot of people, a lot of firewhisky and a lot of music. And exactly the same, of course, this evening. The Gryffindor common room wasn't just filled with Gryffindors. It was also the Marauders who had ended that. By now all the other three houses were so intent on evading or rather winning over Slytherin that half of Ravenclaw and half of Hufflepuff had joined their parties.
Despite all the tumult, Lily's evening had been pretty boring. All her friends, including Mary, Remus, Marlene and Pandora, were busy or not even at the party. And she didn't want to dance alone.
Pandora was in Slytherin, that's why she wasn't invited nor even allowed to be here. It was something that Lily thought was extremely stupid. And the reason why she had already reprimanded Sirius and James several times today.
Remus danced with Sirius, his boyfriend, a thing he had never done before, but Lily was kind of happy to see him like that, to see that Sirius was good for him. Apart from the fact that she and Black had argued today, she didn't think he was that bad anymore. Who would've thought that Remus Lupin would ever be so drunk and so in love with Sirius Black that he would dance with him in front of everyone...to ABBA and stuff.
Marlene had recently disappeared into the girls' dormitory with her Ravenclaw girlfriend Dorcas Meadowes and because Lily exactly knew what was going on there, she tended to ignore the tiredness that plagued her and the need to lie down in her bed and don't get up again until Monday morning.
And Mary was since the beginning of the party on the dance floor, dancing with that other Ravenclaw girl called Emmeline Vance. A girl who Lily knew from the prefect meetings.
And in the middle of all the crowds, right in Lily's field of view, which may have been intention, was James Potter, dancing with a sixth-grader Gryffindor girl that Lily couldn't stand. That girl was in love with James, since their 5th school year. Well, that wasn't as extreme as the thing with James's crush on Lily but that girl was incredibly annoying. Everytime she saw James, her face turned red like a tomato. Everytime James said something dumb, which he did really often, she started giggling.
Lily didn't really like girls like that in general. As if having a man by your side was the most important thing in life. Lily herself wouldn't mind as well, having a man at her side, but there really were more important things.
James Potter was still a mystery to Lily too. First, this idiot had been madly in love with Lily for years and now, almost since the end of the last school year, it had just...stopped. But unfortunately it wasn't until the end of the last school year that Lily caught any feelings for him. Though James had probably gotten over her by now, why else had this "I'm into you, Evans" ended so suddenly? Besides, it had never been the case that James only liked Lily. She had noticed. She had known him for over 6 years now. And she knew how James looked when he was inlove with someone.
In that moment, ABBA's 'lay all your love on me' began to play. It was Mary who had turned on the song on the magical jukebox and now returned to Emmeline. Lily put her lips to her wine glass full of Firewhiskey, whoever came up with the idea. 'Lay all your love on me' was pretty much one of her favorite songs, meaning she knew the lyrics word for word.
Lily's gaze fell back to the dance floor, back to her friends, back to Potter. And that Gryffindor girl was gone. Finally. And while Lily was mumbling the lyrics to herself, James somehow got the same idea as her and looked to the couch. He looked at her. Lily smiled a little and continued singing. That's why James looked confused now. She took her eyes off him, drank the last sip of firewhisky and placed her now empty glass on the coffee table while the chorus came out of the jukebox.
'Don't go wasting your emotion'
She looked up from the coffee table to see Potter, suddenly standing directly behind the couch.
'Lay all your love on me'
"What did'ya say, Evans?" he asked, slightly mumbling.
"Oh," Lily answered grinning while leaning back on the couch, "I was just singing along the song," and shrugged.
Before James could say anything, he seemed a bit speechless, Lily asked: "D'you wanna sit down. You look a little...out of breath."
Potter nodded, walked around the sofa and sat down next to her. In front of her to be more precise, because Lily was sitting sideways on the sofa.
"So," James said and looked over at her, "You like this song?"
"Hmhm," Lily mumbled in agreement, hoping Potter had heard her.
"You're an ABBA-Fan, aren't ya?"
"You know I am," she answered with a grin, James nodded again. His cheeks were unusually red, Lily noticed.
"Do you like ABBA?" she then asked, still looking at him and not making any effort to look away.
"I know a few songs, I don't think they're...bad," James answered with a shy smile on his face.
"Wonderful," Lily said, slowly looking away from Potter, to her other friends, regretting that she had already finished her firewhisky. She could use another glass. Potter was driving her mad...with this cute smile...and that stupid hair.
She saw Sirius and Remus standing at the large window in the corner of the common room. That window where the Gryffindor nicotine addicts liked to spend their freetime. Remus's cigarette was slowly burning away, completely ignored because Lupin himself was more busy snogging his boyfriend.
Another look at the still crowded dancefloor told her that Mary was still dancing with Emmeline.
"You know, I'm happy for the both of them," Potter said again and Lily looked back at him. His eyes were still on Sirius and Remus.
"Yeah, me too," Lily replied, "Besides, they're really cute," she smiled and leaned a little towards Potter. And there it was again, the eye contact.
'Don't go wasting your emotion, lay all your love on me'
Surprisingly little time had passed considering the song was still playing.
'Don't go sharing your devotion, lay all your love on me'
Or maybe Mary had just let it play again.
She didn't know why she suddenly felt the need, but Lily got up from the sofa and held out her hand to Potter. He looked at her confused again, but took her hand and stood up too.
And Lily didn't know what it was, probably the firewhisky or the euphoria, or both, but she pulled Potter close, put her hand on his neck, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him.
She kissed James Potter!
If he didn't want that, he could push her away, but he didn't. On the contrary, he kissed her back. His hand was on her hip and Lily lost herself in the kiss.
She couldn't estimate how long they stood there kissing, but at some point she noticed the clapping around them. So she slowly pulled away from James and looked into his glittering eyes. A few seconds later she looked back to the others; almost everyone looked at them, some were clapping, some cheered, some whistled.
Remus and Sirius were still standing over at the window, also looking at them. Sirius, half hanging, held on to his boyfriend, who also pulled him close with a hand around his shoulder, because Black seemed quite wobbly. Sirius grinned widely and Remus smiled as well, finishing his cigarette at the same time. Mary also gave them a proud smile.
Lily however looked back at James. While she couldn't stop grinning uncontrolled, James's cheeks became even redder than they already were. He was still holding her around her waist, which he apparently seemed to notice now, so he carefully removed his hand.
"You wanna talk?" Lily then asked, still turning to James, "maybe outside the common room, and not here?"
"What if a teacher sees us?"
"Since when do you care 'bout that?" Lily asked jokingly, "Besides, we're head boy and head girl and stuff," and winked at him.
"Okay," James smirked, "then let's go."
Lily smiled again and after a short look at James's lips and back to his eyes again, and after a nod on his part, she pressed a soft kiss on his lips again.
After that she took his hand again and they both walked to the portrait-hole of the fat lady.
"Um...why did you even get up to kiss me?" James asked on their way outside.
"Because kissing in that position would've been uncomfortable."
"But easier than getting up," James giggled.
"Good, then next time kiss me while we're sitting, you idiot."