gold rush

Lily Evans’ summer before her last year of school was spent working. She hadn’t heard from or seen her sister in months, her mother had good intentions but could be a bit overbearing, and Lily needed to keep herself busy. There was a cafe not far from where she lived that had opened a couple of years ago, and every morning Lily would walk there and clock in for her shift.

Sometimes, she would see Severus on her way. She had to walk by his house to get to work, and each time she felt a pang in her heart. She hadn’t spoken to him in almost six months, and she knows it’s for the better. Part of her can’t help but miss him though, no matter what he did. They had grown up with each other, they were kids together. Sometimes she misses the simplicity of being a kid, of playing in the pond by their houses, of everything before Hogwarts. 

She made enough money over the summer to comfortably carry her through the next year at Hogwarts. Her mom tried to send her as much as they could, and she appreciated it, but it wasn’t enough to buy everything she needed anymore, and Lily didn’t want to have to ask for more than her mom could offer. They’ve always struggled a little bit monetarily, but it was never so bad that they had to go without the basic necessities in their life, it just meant that Lily was always very conscious of money.

“Lily?” her mom said, knocking on her door as she opened it. Her mom was always doing that, not waiting for an answer and opening the door anyway. “Are you ready to go?”

Lily zipped up the bag she had just finished packing. She hadn’t meant to put it off to the last minute, but it’s what happened every year anyway. “Yeah, I am.”

Her mom moved a bit closer. “Have you put on some weight?” she asked, pulling at Lily’s dress with a curious expression on her face.

Lily tried to subtly move away from her grasp. “We’re going to be late,” she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Her mom had been commenting on Lily’s body since she was thirteen, which was when it started changing. After her dad died, food was the only thing that Lily could really turn to for comfort. Petunia and her mom were both blonde and skinny, something that Lily used to envy. She got curly, red hair from her dad’s side, and it was close to impossible to manage, and her body was nothing like theirs. She had curves and a lot extra to grab onto, and her mother never failed to point it out.

She meant well, or at least Lily assumed she did. It used to bother her a lot more, but she’s stopped caring so much. She’s healthy, she’s relatively happy, and she actually likes the way her body looks. So now she just brushes all of the comments off and chooses to focus on something else. 

Her mom kept talking about how sad she was.. It was the last time she would be driving Lily to the train platform, her last first day of school. Lily didn’t really see it like that, it didn’t really hit her that this was the last time she was going to be doing this. She was honestly ready for the rest of her life to begin. The only thing that she missed was her dad being here to drop her off. 

“Have a good year, honey,” her mom said, giving her a tight hug. “I’ll see you at Christmas.”

Lily smiled and said goodbye, and then she got on the train as quickly as she possibly could. Her mom would have found a billion reasons to keep her there, and she loved that she was so interested in the magical world, but sometimes it felt like she cared more about the fact that Lily was a witch than Lily herself.

Lily has sat in the same train compartment since second year. In first year she sat with Severus, but every year after she sat with Mary and Marlene.

“Lily Evans as I live and breathe!”

Lily sighed, she was so close to just getting to her compartment, but of course Sirius Black found her first. She turned around, unable to help the small smile on her face. “Hi, Sirius.”

He didn’t waste a second before giving her a hug. If you had told Lily a year ago that she would actually like Sirius, she wouldn’t have believed you. But there was one party near the end of last term where they were both super drunk and ended up bonding over their complicated sibling issues. Now, he’s still obnoxious, but he’s also a friend, so she tolerates it a bit more.

“You look different.”

Lily frowned, almost thinking that Sirius was going to comment on her weight gain like her mother had. Honestly, it wasn’t even that much, she doesn’t know why everyone is so obsessed with it. “What?”

“You look gorgeous.”

She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

He shook his head. “No, I’m not kidding. Where’s MacDonald? She’ll agree with me.”

As if summoned by the sound of her name, Mary’s head popped out of the train compartment. Sirius pointed at her. “Mary! Tell Evans she looks gorgeous.”

Lily met Mary’s eyes, and she could feel the blush on her face. She didn’t like attention, especially attention about how she looked.

Mary’s jaw dropped. “Lily! What the fuck?”

“What?”

“I- look at you!”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Okay, that’s enough.”

She didn’t think she looked any different. Over the summer she had started using some light makeup, but it was mostly just mascara and blush that she had bought with her own money. Mary and Marlene had been trying to get her into makeup for years, and Lily finally felt comfortable enough with herself to be confident wearing it. Lily also bought a lot of sundresses, and the one she wore today was white and fell to a little above her knees. Her hair was the one thing she hadn’t been able to do anything with. It dried differently every single time, and she had given up on trying to control it.

Mary pinched her cheeks. “You’re so grown up.”

Lily hit her hands away, laughing. “You guys are ridiculous.”

“Hey, don’t you have to be at the prefect meeting?” Sirius asked.

Lily had almost forgotten about that. She made Head Girl this year, somehow. She knew she had good grades, but she never thought that the professors would elect her to basically be in charge of the entire student body. She hadn’t told her mom about it, not wanting it to get back to Petunia somehow and give her more of a reason to hate her.

“Our Head Girl, ladies and gentlemen,” Mary said loudly. They were standing off to the side so that they wouldn’t be in the way, and some of the people walking past them turned their heads.

“Is Remus already there?” Lily asked Sirius, ignoring Mary’s grand proclamation.

Sirius groaned. “Yeah. He and Prongs went off a while ago. You’re late actually.”

Lily frowned a little bit. “Prongs?”

“C’mon Evans, you know James,” Sirius said with a slight nudge.

“Yes, I know James,” she said. She always thought their nicknames for each other were a bit ridiculous, but they insisted upon them no matter what. “Why would he be there?”

Sirius laughed. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Oh, you’ll see.”

Lily regarded him carefully. It sounded like he was insinuating that James was a prefect, but nothing sounded less probable. James had one of the highest amounts of detentions, although Lily was pretty sure he hadn’t been sentenced to one in at least a year. He was also behind a lot of the pranks in the school, and he wasn’t exactly a rule follower. Lily could think of about 100 other people who would be better suited as prefects.

“Okay. I’ll see you guys soon,” Lily said, heading in the direction of the prefect cabin.

Her eyes found Remus right away. He looked incredibly bored, and he was slouched in one of the benches, his long legs stretching out in front of him. His hair had lightened a shade over the summer, and he was tanner than he’d ever been. Lily remembered him saying something about he had been working outside a lot, probably the reason he looked like this now.

And then, right next to him, was James Potter. He was talking with a sixth year prefect, eyes crinkling behind his glasses and a smile on his face. Lily still thinks he must have snuck in.

Remus looked up, seeing Lily and waving her over. “Finally,” he said, the words getting James’ attention.

He looked over briefly at first, still mid conversation, and then he looked back, eyes wide. “Evans?”

She smiled politely. “Potter.”

“I- Hey. Hi. You, umm, you look nice.”

She frowned a little bit, unable to figure out why everyone was so obsessed with how she looked today. She just nodded at him a little bit, taking the empty spot next to Remus. “Hey,” she said to him, looking around the cabin. Not everybody was there yet, she didn’t think. There were sixteen prefects and then the head girl and boy. There were only about nine people here so far.

Severus was looking at her. She had completely forgotten that he was a prefect, if she’s honest. Lily looked away, she didn’t want to deal with him right now. 

“How was your summer?” she asked, hoping it would be something distracting.

Remus shrugged. “Fine. My dad had me working construction with him.”

James had suddenly tuned into their conversation. “Is that how you got so strong, Moony?” James asked, one of his arms gripping Remus’ biceps. He did look stronger, now that Lily’s attention had been drawn there.

“I’m not that strong.”

Lily tutted, smiling a little bit. “I don’t know, Remus. You did fill out a lot,” Lily said, teasing him a little bit. 

“Don’t you guys have a meeting to start, or something?”

Lily looked over to James, suddenly making the connection. “No fucking way,” she said under her breath.

James blinked. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

She shook her head. “They made you Head Boy.”

“Oh,” James said, his grin making another appearance. “Yeah, you didn’t know?”

Remus started laughing, and Lily hit his arm to get him to stop. “No, I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, you two will get to spend a lot of time together,” Remus said. Lily resisted the urge to hex him, managing a small smile before looking away.

The meeting felt like it lasted forever. It was really just an introductory thing, even though most of them knew each other already. 

Lily normally would have stuck around a little bit with Remus, but James Potter kept looking at her, and Lily didn’t know what to make of that, so she went back to the train compartment where Mary and Marlene were.

James and Lily were friends, sort of. She wasn’t as close with him as she was with Remus and Sirius, but they’ve been friendly with each other for the past couple of years. She hated him when they were younger though. The very first thing he mentioned was her freckles, and she thought he had been making fun of her. It wasn’t until last year that they finally cleared the air.

“Why do you hate me?” James had asked. He had looked so sad, and it was at a party for the end of first term that Ravenclaw was putting on. They always had access to the best alcohol, which was how Mary convinced Lily to go at all.

“I don’t hate you,” Lily told him. By then she didn’t hate him, but they weren’t really friends. 

“You don’t like me though.”

So, Lily finally told him. Their very first meeting on the train, one of the first people that Lily met. He had said, “Woah, you have a lot of freckles.”

Lily of course then said, “You have big, messy hair.” It was still true to this day, James did have big, messy, curly hair. It shouldn’t have suited him as well as it did.

James had nodded like he remembered. “You did have a lot of freckles, though.”

“You were poking fun.”

“What? No I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.”

“No, I wasn’t. I like your freckles. I thought they were cute, that’s why I pointed them out.”

Lily hadn’t really known how to respond to that, so she didn’t. But after that Lily stopped avoiding him, and she had even entertained some of his jokes and pranks. James was a good person, he always had been, and then they were sort friends all of the sudden.

But with the friendship came the flirting, and that she did not understand. 

“How the hell did he make Head Boy?” Lily asked for probably the third time. It was rare that both Head Boy and Girl would come from the same house, and Lily had honestly been expecting someone who was basically a stranger.

Mary and Marlene were letting Lily rant all she wanted, offering little comments here and there.

“He can be so arrogant. And obnoxious. And when has he ever turned an assignment in on time? Genuinely?”

“Well, he was in the top ten of our class last year,” Marlene said. She was painting her nails red, a little tradition that she did every single year on the way to Hogwarts.

“He was?”

“Yeah. Smarter than I thought he was.”

Lily frowned. “In the top ten?” she asked, just to clarify. Lily was top of the class, she always had been. But she tried really hard in school. She got good notes because she tried, not because she was naturally smart, like Sirius. 

“Yeah. Eighth or something, I think.”

Lily stopped pacing, sitting down across from Mary and Marlene. “I’m going to have to see him so much this year.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Mary asked.

“No. Why would that be a good thing?”

Mary shrugged. “Aren’t you guys friends now?”

“More reluctant acquaintances.”

Marlene laughed. “Lily, what the hell are you talking about?”

“You know he told me I looked nice? Like what does that mean?”

“I think it means you look nice.”

“I look the same as I always do.”

Mary shook her head. “Okay, that’s immediately not true.”

“Yes, it is.”

“You look older. Hotter.”

“No.”

“You’re hot now, Lils. Deal with it.”

Lily shook her head. “No, you guys are the hot ones.”

“Have you looked in a mirror recently? You look good as fuck.”

Marlene nodded in agreement. “Truly.”

“I look the same.”

“You’re literally glowing,” Mary said, gasping a second later. “Oh my God, are you pregnant?”

Lily gave her a funny look. “Definitely not. No kids for me for a long time.”

“I think it’s the confidence,” Marlene said, changing the subject. “I mean your outfit is hot, your makeup is hot, your hair is so hot. It’s like you redesigned yourself over the summer.”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. I stopped hating my body as much, I guess.”

She used to have a lot more self image problems, if she’s honest. She never really spoke about it, but she would always hide in baggier clothes and try not to stand out. Although it was basically impossible not to, especially with her hair. Now though, Lily wanted to wear what she wanted to wear, and she really liked experimenting with a lot of different styles.

“Good, because you’re hot,” Marlene said.

“We should move on.”

“Move on to how good James Potter looks?” Mary asked.

Lily shook her head, keeping her expression flat. “Absolutely not.”

———

“First years, follow me!” Lily said, trying to yell over the sound of everyone chatting excitedly. It was the job of the prefects to take the first years across in the boats. She actually loved this part, being able to see the excitement in their eyes. She misses her own first year, her first introduction to magic. Immediately it felt like coming home.

James suddenly appeared beside her. “Hi.”

“Umm, hi.”

“I’m in the boat with you.”

“Oh, right.”

James smiled, waving for the first years to follow him and doing a much better job at getting people to hear him. There were about ten first years to a boat and two prefects, one on each side. Lily took the front of the boat, and James sat in the back, answering questions from the excited eleven year olds.

“Are there really ghosts?” one of them asked.

James looked up, meeting Lily’s eyes. She quickly looked away, not wanting him to let it go to his head. It’s just… well Mary was right. James did look really good this year. And that was completely fine to admit. It was an objective fact, and it wasn’t like she even liked him in that way, or that he liked her in that way.

“Oh yeah, loads of em,” James answered. “I wouldn’t get on their bad sides though, if I were you.”

Lily bit back a laugh. “Don’t scare the first years, Potter,” she said, looking back up. 

James laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m not scaring them.”

“Yeah, you are,” one of the eleven year olds said.

Lily gave him a look. “See?”

The boat ride only lasted about five minutes, magic got them across the water pretty quickly. James stuck to scaring the first years, telling them a story about how he upset one of the ghosts (nearly headless nick) and got followed around the castle by him for two weeks straight. 

Lily remembered that very well, actually. In their fourth year the ghost followed James literally everywhere, and he was always disrupting their classes. It was funny for the first couple of days, and then it quickly became very annoying. 

“I can’t believe you’re already a bad influence on the first years,” Lily said as they walked up to the castle. Most everyone had already run ahead, but they had to stay back in case there were stragglers.

“I am not a bad influence.”

“You were ready to give them step by step instructions on how to bribe the paintings.”

James smiled. “Somebody is going to have to follow in our footsteps,” he said, nudging her a little.

“Our?”

“Mhm. Don’t think I forgot how helpful you were with our pranks last year, Evans.”

Lily smiled, shaking her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right, sure you don’t.”

Every once in a while, Lily would help them with something. She always stayed quiet about it, and she was smart enough to not get caught.

Lily didn’t pay any attention to the speech that Dumbledore gave, having heard it so many times before. Mary was whispering to them about some Ravenclaw girl that caught her eye.

“I think she was flirting with me,” Mary said, eyes flitting to the Ravenclaw table, most likely trying to find her.

“What did she do?” Lily asked.

“Bantering. And she let me go in front of her in line. I mean that’s flirting, right?”

“Maybe.”

Mary gasped, eyes catching on something. “Fuck me. Lily, she’s a prefect.”

Lily turned, trying to get a look at what Lily saw. “Well the Ravenclaw prefect for our year is Emmeline Vance,” she told Mary. “She’s sitting over there.”

“Emmeline Vance. Why don’t I know her?” Mary asked.

“She’s their quidditch captain,” Marlene said. “You should know her. Brilliant beater, though not as good as me.”

Mary shrugged. “Maybe I’ll finally start caring about quidditch.”

Lily smiled. She didn’t know a whole lot about Emmeline, but she seemed like she would be perfect for Mary.

“You should already care about quidditch because your best friend is on the team,” Marlene said.

“It’s just such a boring sport.”

“It’s not. You even used to play it!”

“Well, it’s boring to watch.”

Lily nodded in agreement. “It is sort of boring to watch.”

They quieted down a little bit to watch the sorting, but sometimes the hat took forever. It was really only exciting if you were actually getting sorted. For Lily, the hat hadn’t taken very long to decide at all. It was stuck between Ravenclaw and Gryffidnor for a little bit, and she’s still not entirely sure how it made its decision. 

This year, Lily didn’t have to lead the first years back to the dorm. That was technically the job of the prefects, so she got to go back with everyone else. Like every year, her stuff was already in the room. Lily loved the Gryffindor rooms. There was something about them that felt so much warmer than the rooms of other houses. Slytherin’s all had their own rooms, and Ravenclaw were two to a room. She’s pretty sure that Hufflepuff has suite style rooms, but she’s never actually seen them.

Lily set to unpacking almost immediately. It was her least favorite part, and she thought it was better to get it over with. Mary started hanging up some of her posters, the same Abba one that she’s had for three years going in the spot above her bed. The poster is frayed at the ages and ripped in some spots, but Mary refuses to get rid of it. Marlene got in her bed, leaving her bags on the ground. She probably wouldn’t get to putting everything away for at least a couple of days.

“Sirius told me to remind you about the party tonight,” she said.

“A party? Already?” Lily asked.

Mary was smiling. “It’s the first day back, of course there’s a party.”

They all took turns showering. Mary went first since she always took the longest to get ready.

“Level with me,” Marlene said while Mary was in the shower. “You really don’t like Potter?”

Lily had finally finished unpacking all of her clothes, and now she was looking through them for something to wear. She should probably put an end to the party, as Head Girl, but she secretly really liked them. 

“He’s fine,” she said with a shrug. “Bit of an idiot though.”

“He’s only an idiot around you because he likes you.”

Lily rolled her eyes. Her friends have been trying to convince her of this for years, but she simply doesn’t believe it. “He doesn’t like me. That’s just how he is.”

“He’s not like that with me,” Marlene points out.

“That’s because you don’t like men, and he knows better.”

Marlene smiled. “He only knows better because I threatened to crush his balls if he ever winked at me again.”

Lily laughed. “See? I’ll just do that.”

The party was just for sixth and seventh years, but people from all houses came. Lily dressed in her favorite jeans, a black tank top, and a flannel over it. She didn’t usually dress up for these things in the way Mary liked to, but she did let Marlene do her makeup. She did some subtle, dark eyeshadow, and a darker blush than Lily normally used. 

“The duality of a woman!” Mary said after seeing what Marlene had done with Lily. 

Lily rolled her eyes. “This is a one time thing.”

“Why? You look hot when you’re all dark.”

She laughed. “Okay, whatever.”

Sirius and Peter handed the three of them drinks almost the second they finally got downstairs. Mary could not pick out an outfit for the life of her, so there were already a lot of people down there. It was obvious that Remus had somehow gotten ahold of the music, Lily could recognize a Bowie song from a mile away.

“We thought you wouldn’t come,” Sirius said, throwing an arm around Lily’s shoulder.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s tradition.”

“Did Marlene do your makeup?”

“Yeah, why?”

He shook his head a little. “Nothing, I just want her to do mine.”

Marlene seemed to perk up at the sound of her name. “Oh my God. Come with me.”

She grabbed Sirius’ hand and dragged him away. He was definitely going to come back with lots of eyeliner and lots of glitter. Lily secretly could not wait to see Remus’ reaction to it. He could pretend all he wanted that he wasn’t in love with Sirius, but she’s always known.

“Already hijacked the music?” Lily asked, finding him by the record player. It was charmed so that music would play over the entire room, almost like a sound system.

Remus sighed. “No Abba.”

“I love Abba.”

She changed the record after the song ended, and almost immediately more people started dancing. “See? You just don’t play dancing music.”

“No, I play good music.”

“This is good music. Don’t be a snob.”

Lily noticed after about thirty minutes that her drink was never empty. She was steadily drinking it, some concoction that Peter made, and it kept refilling itself. There was no telling how much she had had. It was enough that Mary was easily able to drag her onto the dance floor.

It was another Abba song, one of her favorites actually. It was Mary that properly introduced her to the band. Money, Money, Money was the song that was playing, probably one of her favorites from the entire record.

She spun around with Mary, a grin stuck on her face while her hair flew behind her. Yeah, she was drunk. Not that it mattered at the moment.

“Hey,” Lily said, leaning into Mary a little bit so she could hear her better.

“Hmm?”

“Emmeline’s watching,” she said. She had caught her eye a couple of seconds ago, and Emmeline had her eyes trained on Mary.

“Shut up. Is she?”

“She is,” Lily confirmed. She took another sip of her drink, this time watching as it filled itself back up. 

“Oh my God. What do I do?”

“Go talk to her,” Lily said, preparing to push her in Emmeline’s direction.

Mary was one of the most confident people that Lily knew, so she didn’t understand why she shook her head.

“Why not?”

“I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can!”

Mary sighed resting her head on Lily’s shoulder. “She’s so pretty.”

Lily laughed, petting Mary’s hair a little bit. “I know, love.”

“Do you think she might like me?”

Lily glanced at Emmeline only to find her glaring at Lily. “I think she hates me for being so close to you.”

“What?”

“She’s jealous.”

Mary picked her head back up, trying to subtly look at Emmeline. “She’s jealous. Of us?”

“Yup.”

Mary grinned. “Oh, this is good then, right?”

“Very good.”

That seemed to be the confidence push that Mary needed. She gave Lily a quick kiss on the cheek before practically running to go talk to Emmeline. Lily watched them for a moment, thinking about how cute that was before her attention was drawn away.

“Excuse me!” Marlene said loudly. The music quieted down a little bit, like the magic in the room could just tell that she had something to say. 

Only a couple of people tuned in to pay attention, and Lily found Remus in the crowd quickly, making sure to watch his reaction closely.

“May I present Sirius Black, new and improved.”

She stepped to the side and Sirius walked out, a huge smile on his face. Lily was right about what Marlene was going to do with him. He had heavy eyeliner, and it looked like she had drawn stars in the corners of his eyes. He looked gorgeous, and Remus definitely noticed. 

His jaw had actually dropped, and he looked like he was clutching onto his drink for dear life.

Lily walked over to him, nudging him slightly. “You’re drooling, Lupin.”

Remus groaned, looking away from Sirius who had started chatting with James. “Shut up. Do you see him?”

“Everyone sees him.”

“Yeah, but look at him,” Remus said, gesturing over to Sirius. “He looks…fuck.”

“You should go tell him.”

“Fuck off. No.”

Lily took matters into her own hands, dragging Remus over to where Sirius and James were chatting.

“Evans!” Sirius said loudly when he saw her. 

“I like the eyes,” she told him, pointing at her own to show what she meant.

“Ditto.”

Lily cleared her throat. “Remus has something he wanted to say to you,” she said, pulling on his arm a little bit.

All of Sirius’ attention went to Remus right then. It was so obvious in the way they looked at each other, Lily has no idea how they haven’t figured it out.

“Does he?” Sirius asked, a small smile on his face.

“Oh. Yeah. Uhh…” he trailed off, looking over to Lily like she was going to do it for him.

She patted his back encouragingly, hoping it would convince him to say something. “Actually, I need to talk to Potter,” she said.

James looked shocked. He had yet to say a word since they got over there. “Me?”

“Yes, you. Come on.”

She led him far enough away from Remus and Sirius so that they couldn’t hear them, but she could still see them. 

“You look great tonight,” James said.

“Thanks,” she said, a bit distracted. She was hoping that Remus and Sirius would just kiss or something already, it’s been ages of this pining.

“Right. What did you need to talk about?”

Lily looked back to James. His eyes seemed a bit hazy, or maybe it was because Lily was drunk and her own eyes were hazy, unfocused. “I don’t need to talk.”

“You don’t?”

“No.”

“But you said you did.”

Lily smiled. “Yeah, to give those two some space,” she said. She turned James around by his shoulders, leaving one of her hands to rest there while the other one pointed at where Remus and Sirius were talking. They were a bit closer now, and Remus was leaning against some furniture, leaning in so that he could hear what Sirius was saying. “See?”

Lily turned her head to see if James was paying attention only to find that he was already looking at her. His face was close, and she realized that she was the reason they were standing like this. She felt herself freeze a little bit, not expecting James to be looking at her like this.

He smiled. “I am so drunk,” he said quietly, laughing a little bit.

Lily could feel his breath fan across her face. James was much taller, but he was leaning down much like Remus was doing. “Yeah, me too,” she said, feeling herself smile with him. 

“I’m glad you decided to come tonight,” he said. “I like hanging out with you.”

“You do?” Lily asked, a bit shocked. They didn’t really hang out a lot, not one on one or anything.

“Yes, very much.”

“Oh,” Lily said, her face heating up a little bit. It was already warm from the alcohol, somehow this made it feel warmer. 

“We can hang out more this year, right?” he asked.

“Well, we don’t really have a choice,” Lily pointed out. There was a lot they had to do together as Head Boy and Head Girl.

“But that isn’t a bad thing, right?”

She shook her head. “No, not a bad thing.”

James grinned, something that Lily noticed he did a lot. “Do you want to see something cool?”

“Yes,” Lily said before she could even think about it. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do. All of her friends were busy with something. Marlene had found Dorcas and was probably annoying her since it was the only way she knew how to flirt. Emmeline and Mary looked like they were getting along. Remus and Sirius were probably still a bit hopeless, but they were also preoccupied. 

James leaned back a little bit, coming up to his full height. It was easy to forget how much taller he was. Lily was somewhere around 5’5, but James looked to be over 6’.

“How tall are you?” Lily asked, suddenly very curious about it. She was following him around the party, waiting to see what he was going to show her.

“Hmm? Oh. Umm, 6’1 I think.”

“Really? I thought taller.”

James shrugged. “I don’t really know. Maybe 6’2.”

“You don’t know?”

“No. How tall are you?”

Lily started laughing. “I don’t know.”

“Hypocrite.”

They made it to the staircase. “Where are we going?”

“Oh. The thing I wanna show you is in my room. Come on.”

Lily followed him up the stairs. She’s never been on the guys' side of the tower before. She imagined it was the same as the girls' side, and it mostly was. They had more rooms though, a longer hallway. When Lily was in third year she had found the ratios of guys to girls in each of the houses. Ravenclaw had more girls almost every year, whereas Gryffindor had more guys almost every year. Slytherin and Hufflepuff were closer to equal, but Lily has never been able to figure out if that means anything.

James stopped at a door at the very end of the hallway, opening the door easily.

“You don’t lock your room?” Lily asked, that being the first thing she noticed. 

“No. Why would I?”

“What if someone breaks in?”

James stopped at the door, looking down at her. “People know not to mess with us by now.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “You’re confident about that.”

“Of course I am.”

James shut the door behind them, and Lily took a second to look around the room. It was easy to figure out whose bed was whose. Remus’ had one singular poster of David Bowie and a stack of books on the night side table. The neatest bed was Peter’s, all of the sheets and blankets carefully tucked in. All of his bags were on top of the bed, but at least everything wasn’t spilling out. Sirius’ bed had clothes all over, and he had the most posters of a lot of different bands, mostly muggle.

James went over to his bed, looking for something in his pile of stuff. He had a couple quidditch posters, and a Cure poster that looked close to falling off the wall. 

“Found it!”

Lily brought her attention back to him, looking at what he had in his hands. It was a silver, silky piece of fabric. She frowned, trying to remember where she'd seen it before. 

“What’s that?”

“Guess.”

“Your blankey?” she said, teasing him.

He shook his head. “Nope, that’s got elephants on it. This is better.”

“Well, what is it?”

James held a finger up like he was telling her to wait. He swung it around, holding it over his shoulders like a cape. Less than a second later his entire body disappeared.

Lily’s jaw dropped, and James seemed to smile in satisfaction. “Holy shit. You have an invisibility cloak?”

“Mhm. How do you think we’ve pulled off so much greatness?”

“I wouldn’t say greatness-”

“I would.”

She started moving forward before her mind caught up with her. She put her hand out and poked James’ stomach, wanting to see if she would actually be able to. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. “Woah.”

James went completely under the cloak, and for about ten seconds Lily had no idea where she went. And she looked, she really did. She also tried to listen, but it wasn’t quiet enough because of the party happening downstairs for her to hear any footsteps.

He ends up behind her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her to turn around. His face comes into view again and he’s laughing a little bit. “Do you wanna try?”

She nods, not knowing if she’ll ever really get another chance to use an invisibility cloak. “I tried to make one of these once,” she told him.

“You tried to make one?”

She nodded. “Yeah, in fifth year.”

“Did it work?”

“Almost.” Lily put the cloak around her shoulders, watching as her body disappeared. She smiled, looking in the mirror that they had in the room. She was just a floating head. “Oh my God. This is insane.”

“My dad gave it to me just before first year.”

“He just gave it to you?” Lily asked, bewildered at that. What adult would trust an eleven year old with an invisibility cloak? Especially if the eleven year old happened to be James Potter.

“Yes. Sort of. I mean I took it from his office, but he definitely knew and never tried to get it back.”

“So you stole it?”

“I mean if you want to get technical.”

She looked at him through the mirror, still very amused with the fact that only her head was visible. “It’s not really a technicality if it’s the truth.”

“I don’t know if I can steal from my own dad.”

“You can,” Lily assured him, taking the cloak off and watching as the rest of her came back to view. The cloak was just as soft as it looked; Lily wanted to take it to use as bed sheets or something. 

“If you say so. I mean you’re the smart one.”

Lily turned around. “Were you really eighth in the class last year?” she asked. When she was drunk she just said everything that came into her head, there was absolutely no filter.

“Ninth, actually. Why?”

She shook her head. “Just… I didn’t know that.”

“I know that you were first,” James said.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“I thought you didn’t care about school.”

“I care.”

Lily sat down on the edge of the closest bed, which happened to be Remus’. It helped that she knew he wouldn’t mind. “Is that new? The caring?”

James shrugged, kicking the ground a little bit. “Newish, yeah. I just figured it was time to try.”

“And then you were suddenly ninth in the class.”

“Not as impressive as first.”

“It’s impressive.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Lily looked down at her hands, seeing the cloak again and remembering the reason they came up here. “Thanks for showing me this.”

James sat down next to Lily, keeping an intentional amount of space between them. They weren’t close, but they weren’t far either. It was respectable. “It’s nothing. Just… well the information of its existence can't leave the room.”

“Oh?” Lily asked, a small smile on her face. “Is it a secret?”

“Absolutely. How else are we supposed to get away with everything that we do?”

“Right, right. Silly me.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment. Briefly, Lily felt incredibly warm, like James was just radiating body heat. She thought about touching his arm, just slightly, to see if it would be as warm as she imagined it was. She thought that maybe James was looking at her lips, but she was looking at his, so she couldn’t tell. Before either of them could speak, and before Lily could say something stupid, the door opened. 

Lily stood up quickly, suddenly feeling like she shouldn’t be here. Peter was the one who came in, looking between the two of them with a smile on his face.

“Holy shit. You two?”

James stood up next. “Pete.”

Peter started laughing, pointing between the two of them. “You guys are…?”

Lily looked up at James, unsure what to say. Her face was red now, no doubt about that.

“No, no. We’re…”

“James was showing me something,” Lily interjected, holding up the cloak.

Peter gasped. “You showed her the cloak?”

“It’s my cloak,” James said defensively.

Lily bit at the inside of her lip. “I’m gonna go,” she said, setting the cloak on the bed. “It’s late.”

“Oh, okay. Goodnight, Evans,” James said, waving slightly.

“Yeah, night.”

Lily left the room quickly after that, shutting the door behind her. She could vaguely hear Peter and James talking over each other. She walked away before she could begin to make out what they were saying, not sure if she would even be able to focus on it in her state. 

She stopped in the middle of the staircase, looking up briefly.

“What the fuck?” she said quietly to herself.

She’s not 100% sure that she wasn’t about to kiss James Potter, and that could absolutely not happen.