Different

They had separated into two groups, one going with Sirius, and the other going with James. They apparated just outside of the muggle village, beside a large tree.

“Have we got everyone?” Remus asked, doing a quick headcount. Dorcus chuckled.

“We’re all here, mum.” Lily laughed along with the rest as they made their way down the road towards the theatre. On the way, she, Mary and Remus took charge of making sure the rest knew how to act around muggles.

“Keep your wands away.” Remus said.

“Don’t refer to anyone as a muggle.” Lily reminded them.

“Just, don't act weird.” Mary counseled, and Remus nodded in agreement. With those final words of wisdom, they reached the theatre, shaking water out of their hair. Lily, having the money, went to go buy their tickets, the rest following close behind her. The ticket person was a scraggly boy, probably a couple years younger than them.

“Eight tickets for Star Wars, please!” Lily asked, smiling politely. The boy looked at them warily, then counted out eight tickets. Lily paid, thanked the boy, and passed the tickets out.

“Ooh we should get popcorn!” Mary exclaimed, taking a deep breath in. Lily copied her, inhaling the comforting smell of freshly buttered popcorn. Lily handed Mary the money.

“Why don’t you go buy us some snacks, and the rest of us will go get good seats.” Lily suggested, Mary nodded.

“Any requests?”

“Ooh can you get those little rainbow fellows with the ‘m’ on them?” Dorcas exclaimed, gesturing wildly.

“M&Ms? Sure!” Mary laughed, looking around “Anything else?” nobody responded, so Mary went off to the counter, and the rest headed towards the theatre. They found decent seats, carefully avoiding a group of men who looked about Dumbledore’s age who were staring at them suspiciously. Lily sat in the middle, with James to her left, and Dorcas to her right. Just before the movie began, Mary rushed in, arms full of all sorts of snacks. She squeezed in, taking her seat beside Marlene, and began distributing the goods. Lily grabbed a bag of popcorn.

“Wanna share?” she whispered to James, who reached into the bag, pulling out a large handful.

“De-licious.” he pronounced as the lights dimmed. As yellow words appeared on the screen, slanting downwards, she felt James take her hand. She smiled in the dark, leaning her head on his shoulder as the movie began. They watched as a space battle waged, and Princess Leia hid some sort of plans in a small blue robot. They gasped as Darth Vader stalked down the hallway, cutting down soldiers left right and centre.

“Space wizard.” Mary breathed, leaning forward in her seat. They watched as the droids landed on a desert planet, and met a farm boy who wanted to be a pilot. At some point, as the boy was arguing with his aunt and uncle, James had slung his arm around Lily’s shoulders. They watched in interest as Luke met an old man, who claimed to have fought alongside his father in some ‘clone wars?’ The movie was amazing, so far, but Lily was a bit concerned about the logistics of something called a clone war. Lily ate a bite of popcorn, contemplating what that could possibly mean, when suddenly Luke came home to find the smoking skeletons that had once been his aunt and uncle.

“Oh my God?” she whispered, sitting upright in shock.

“What the fuuucckkk.” hissed Sirius. They all exchanged looks of mild horror. They turned back to the movie, which was getting very interesting. Luke and Ben were at some kind of cantina, meeting with a scruffy looking guy and some sort of space yeti? Lily wasn’t quite sure. It was kind of hard to focus with James playing with her hair. She looked around. It was dark, and the rest of her friends were entranced in the movie, where they had just taken off into space. She turned to James, lifting a finger to brush along his jaw. He turned to her, smiling softly. She drew his chin down to meet his lips. He tasted like popcorn. She smiled against his lips as he gently rubbed his thumb along her cheek. They broke apart suddenly when there was another large commotion in the theatre. Darth Vader had just blown up Princess Leia’s planet.

“Damn.” whispered Dorcas, blinking in surprise. “These space wizards are wild.”

The rest of the movie passed relatively similarly, with random small outbursts when something particularly startling happened. Every once in a while James would lean down to steal a quick kiss. Once the credits were over, and the lights had turned on, they sat still, processing.

“That was fuckin awesome, dude!” Mary exclaimed, shoving the last of the popcorn into her mouth.

“Why didn’t Chewie get a medal? He did just as much as Han, maybe even more!” Dorcus asked, slightly outraged.

“Dude, Princess Leia is gorgeous.” Marlene laughed, scrunching her hair up in imitation of Leia’s buns.

“That was insane!” a slightly rumpled-looking Sirius exclaimed, jumping up, miming swinging a lightsaber. Remus stood as well, (looking equally rumpled, Lily noticed), doing a startlingly good impression of C-3PO.

“I am C-3PO. Human-Cyborg Relations. How may I be of service?” Lily laughed, standing up and stretching. She could feel James’ eyes on her, and she turned ever so slightly to give him the smallest of winks. They filed out of the theatre, still exclaiming about the movie. Once they were out of the theatre, James spoke up.

“It's extra cool, just how they must have made it, because muggles can’t float or use a sneaky levitation charm.”

“Unless George Lucas is an undercover wizard,” Dorcas suggested.

“But isn’t he American?” Peter asked

“Yeah?”

“Oh, I genuinely forgot there were other wizarding schools other than Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.” he admitted, and Remus rolled his eyes.

“And that's why you should pay more attention in History of Magic.”

“Now why would I do that, when I can just ask a kind, generous friend like yourself?” Peter smiled sweetly. As they continued to bicker, Lily fell back to the back of the group where James was boring holes into the back of her head with his eyes.

“What did you think of the movie?” she asked him.

“It was great! But, you know what I liked more?” he said, brushing her hand with his own.

“What?” she smiled, trying to stop herself from giggling. James looked around quickly, and gave her a quick kiss.

“Those.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Even more than the lightsabers?” he shifted his hands up and down, as if weighing the merits.

“Maybe a close second,” he conceded. She laughed, and slipped her hand into his. Remus and Peter continued arguing good naturedly, with the others piping in with quick asides. Swinging her and James’ intertwined hands slightly, she took a deep breath in, taking in the earthy smell that came from the rain. Her hair was beginning to stick to her face, and when she turned to look at James. With his hair plastered down to his head from the rain, he appeared almost respectable. She bit back a laugh.

Once they reached the outskirts of town, they decided that they were far enough away to apparate without scaring the living shit out of some poor muggle. They made it back to the Potter Manor, and quickly ran inside to dry off. As Lily was toweling off her hair, wearing a dry jumper and a pair of pyjama pants she’d liberated from Dorcas, she heard a small knock on her door. She opened it to find James, standing slightly awkwardly. She stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind him.

“Hey James!” she said, running a brush through her slightly damp hair. “What's up?” He sat down on her bed, and bit his lip, as if trying to figure out how to say something. “Is everything okay?” she asked, slightly worriedly as she finished brushing her hair and sat down beside him on the bed.

“Yeah, everything's fine. I just wanted to ask you a question,” he paused for a second “Do you think somethings going on with Remus and Sirius? Or am I just imagining it?” She laughed.

“No, you're definitely not imagining it. There’s definitely something going on, what, I'm not exactly sure.” she replied. She frowned slightly. “You don't have a problem with that sort of thing, do you?” she asked, a bit worried about what he might answer. He looked over at her, with a surprised look on his face.

“No, of course not. As long as they’re happy.” he thought for a second. “You don’t have a problem with it either, right?”

“No, of course not!” she exclaimed, echoing his earlier words. “I don’t know why some people can’t just let others be happy.” James nodded slightly sadly, then perked up.

“So, what do you think we should do? Should we say something to them?” Lily bit her lip.

“I don’t think so. We should wait for them to tell us in their own time. I guess they’re probably doing the same thing as us, essentially.” She sighed, chuckling slightly. “I just hope we aren’t both imagining it. They’re so adorable together.” He slung an arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Another way they’re similar to us, I guess.” he smiled. She turned around to face him, and leaned up to press their lips together. He hummed slightly into the kiss, his hands looping around her waist. She pulled away, smiling. This was so nice, whatever it was they were. It was safe, and easy. She pressed a small kiss to the tip of his nose, and he scrunched it slightly. She giggled, moving back down to his lips. His teeth grazed her bottom lip and her lips parted, allowing his tongue to slip in. They continued lazily making out for a few minutes, before Lily broke away, panting slightly. She fell over onto her back, shaking with silent laughter. James looked down at her, with a bemused expression on his face.

“Damn Evans, I didn’t think I was that bad of a kisser,” he teased. She shook her head, sighing and wiping her eyes.

“It's just, who would have seen this coming? I’m here, of my own free will, making out with James Potter. That's insane.” he smiled, lying back to lay beside her.

“I could have seen this coming. I don’t think you’d have believed me, though.” he chuckled, taking her hand in his and bringing it to his lips. Lily smiled, closing her eyes for a moment before sitting up, and placing a small kiss on his cheek.

“We should go see what the others are getting up to.” James jumped up.

“Shit, yeah, they're probably eating me out of house and home at this very moment.” Lily snorted a laugh as a mental image of their friends gnawing on various pieces of furniture flashed through her mind. She opened the door, holding it open for him to exit.

“After you, Mr. Potter,” she said grandly, offering a sweeping bow as he donned an eccentric expression, miming twirling a mustache.

“Why thank you, Ms. Evans.” he replied, with an equal air of grandeur.