Different

It took two more days for the rain to let up, and for the sun to come back. Those two days had been nearly enough to drive everyone a little bit insane. Sirius and Marlene had been practically bouncing off the walls, and they’d even briefly entertained the notion of holding a duelling tournament, but that had been shut down once Lily’s and Remus’ motherly instincts had kicked in.

That morning it was gorgeous. Well, it was technically afternoon, but Lily didn’t like to dwell on the details. The sun was shining through Lily’s bedroom window, and the chill of the past week had disappeared. She stretched, dressed, and went to brush her teeth. As she finished, she frowned at her reflection in the mirror. She touched her neck lightly, shaking her head in bemusement and reaching for the container of bruise balm. She rubbed a bit onto her neck, and watched as the hickey disappeared. She’d found herself doing that more and more often these days, and, for reasons completely unrelated she was sure, she found herself the happiest she’d been in a long time. The night before, she and James, both unable to sleep, had found themselves in the kitchen, discussing, of all the things, divination. They’d soon bored of the topic and had decided to make muffins, despite the fact that they didn't have a recipe, and their only experience was Lily’s childhood attempts at biscuits. They’d gotten distracted, which was the reason Lily now found herself applying the shimmery cream to her neck, but the muffins had been edible, and they’d called it a win. She made her way downstairs and into the kitchen where Peter had made eggs. He was staring at the muffins rather suspiciously, and Lily couldn’t blame him. In the light of day, she had to admit they looked a lot less like muffins, and a lot more like hippogriff poop. She swooped in, collecting the tray of wonky muffins.

“Let's just put these over there.” said Lily, exchanging an amused look with James as she took a seat beside Remus. As she ate her eggs, she idly listened to Mary and Peter discussing the return of school.

“I can’t believe I’m still doing potions. Why did I let myself get roped into this?” Mary groaned. “I fucking hate potions. Also I think Slughorn hates me.” James laughed.

“Don't worry, he hates us all. The only people in our year he actually likes are Evans and Snivellous.” As James spoke, Sirius walked in, taking the seat on Remus’ other side.

“Don’t talk to me about Slughorn,” he groaned, leaning back against his chair dramatically. “He once told me that I had great potential but, and I quote, ‘lacked the work ethic.’” he slumped against Remus, who chuckled, taking a sip from what had to have been at least his third cup of coffee.

“How many essays did you write on your own last year?” Sirius pouted. Remus nudged him with his shoulder. “It's okay Sirius, we can start our own club. The Lupin club” he suggested, peering up at his hands as if imagaining the name printed on a storefront.

“The Wolf Club?” suggested Peter, earning an appreciative nod from Lily and Mary, and a brief silence before a loud guffaw of laughter from James and Sirius. Remus rolled his eyes.

“Very funny Peter.” Mary and Lily met eyes, and shrugged. They’d tried to give up on attempting to figure out what the boys meant years ago, but it was times like these that made that resolve incredibly difficult.

About a half hour later, Dorcas wandered in, followed about 10 minutes later by a pajama-clad Marlene.

“McKinnon.” Sirius admonished, in what must have been his best attempt at an authoritative tone. “It is,” he checked his watch. “3:24 in the afternoon. Just what do you have to say for yourself young lady?” Marlene flipped him off, shaking her head in mock anger.

“Fuck off” Marlene put, rather eloquently, Lily thought.

“So, what's the plan for today?” Dorcas asked, once everyone had eaten.

“Beach and then party?” suggested James, and everyone agreed. Lily ran up the stairs to throw on her bathing suit, snagging a quick kiss from James in the corridor when no one was looking. They gathered the food, and began the now-familiar trek down to the beach. They squinted their eyes suspiciously when they spotted the cat that probably wasn’t McGonagall. Probably. As expected, the beach was fairly crowded. It was, after all, the first nice day in a while. Even before Lily had put her blanket down, Marlene and Sirius had been roped into a game of beach volley-ball by some muggle teenagers. Neither of them really knew how to play, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

“Who wants to play hide and seek tag?” asked Dorcas, standing by a small tree beside the beach. “Last one to the tree is it!” she cried. The rest laughed and raced to meet her, leaving Marlene and Sirius to their battle. James was the last one, by a hair, so once he was done complaining, he began counting. As he counted down from twenty, Lily looked around, panicking. Finally, as he was getting down to 9, she ran into the water, and sat down in knee deep water so only her head was poking out of the water. She peered around, wishing she’d found a better hiding spot. The only one of their friends she could see was Peter, who, like her, had frozen, and had simply lain down on the sand and thrown a blanket over himself. James finished counting, and looked around. His eyes skipped over her once, but she wasn’t so lucky on his second scan. He saw her, and began tearing towards her, hopping over sandcastles and dodging grandmothers. She rose quickly, and began running through the water. Unfortunately, she’d forgotten how it was considerably slower to run in water than on land, and he was soon only about a metre away from her. She made to dodge out of the water, when his arms wrapped around her waist from behind, and he laughed in her ear, lifting her off her feet as he buried his face into her neck, peppering it with tiny kisses. She giggled, swatting him away. He let her go, and she turned to face him, both of them still laughing.

“I guess this technically isn't your fault that I found you first. Well, for one, I’d find you anywhere,” he grinned, and she rolled her eyes at the cheesiness. “And secondly,” he said, lifting up a few strands of her fiery red hair. “Red hair and sunshine don’t exactly spell subtlety. Now come on. Let's go find some good hiders.” she laughed, almost taking his hand and then thinking the better of it. They found Peter under his blanket, then chased down Mary from under the umbrella she’d commandeered. Remus had been perched in a tree, and nearly fell out when James began scurrying up the trunk like a squirrel. Dorcas had the best hiding spot, which, Lily supposed, made sense as she'd been the one to suggest the game. She had befriended several women of Lily's mother’s age, who had enlisted their children to bury her almost completely in the sand. A large borrowed sunhat had covered her face. They wouldn’t have found her had a lucky gust of wind not hit at just the right moment.

They returned to the blankets to find Sirius and Marlene still playing. They found some friends of their muggle opponents and decided to have a little team tournament. In the end, as the sun was beginning to slip below the horizon, they lost, but Sirius and Marlene had come extremely close. Laughing, they packed up their things and made the trek back. One of James’ neighbours had dropped off a large dish of lasagne, so they gobbled that up, before heading out to the clearing by the pond. Lily enlisted Remus and Sirius to scour the area for pesky gnomes, eventually declaring the site safe for partying. A circle was quickly established, and truth or drink suggested. Lily grinned, filling her cup and watching eagerly as Mary turned to Remus.

“Remus. How many people have you kissed?” she paused for a second “And mums don’t count. It has to be a kiss kiss.” Remus blushed.

“One.” he said, hiding his face by taking a long drink from his cup. “Marlene. Who would you rather get with? Dorcas or Mary?” Sirius snorted, and James raised an eyebrow.

“Dorcus,” Marlene decided. “Sorry Mary.” Mary laughed, and Dorcas waggled her eyebrows suggestively at Marlene, who winked, before bursting out laughing. The questions began getting more and more bizarre to the point where everyone had drunk at least twice.

“Lily,” Sirius asked. “On a scale of 1 to 10, what would you rate one Mr. James Potter?” Lily rolled her eyes, and glanced over at James, who was batting his eyelashes at a disturbingly rapid pace. She snorted, and took a drink. Thanks to firewhiskey’s nearly immediate effect, she could feel her brain beginning to fog up.

“Potter.” she said, thinking hard. “What is, um, your favourite colour?” Mary snickered.

“Deep, Evans.” Lily looked back to James, who was grinning.

“Red.” he answered, and Sirius whistled. James turned to Sirius.

“How many people have admitted to having a crush on you in the past year?” Sirius sighed in mock weariness. He thought for a few seconds, counting out on his fingers exaggeratedly.

“Let’s say, fifteen? Sixteen? Seventeen?” he guessed, shrugging his shoulders modestly.

“Sirius, you dog!” crowed Remus, setting the four boys off into a peal of laughter. Once again, the girls exchanged questioning glances.

As they began to get more and more drunk, the questions kept getting more and more raunchy, until Peter, red in the face at the question Marlene had just hurled at him, stood up shakily.

“Let’s put on some music.” he squeaked, and laughing, everyone joined him. Lily and Sirius fiddled with a radio, setting it to the rock channel (per Sirius’ request). Finishing her drink, Lily spun around, joining her friends. She danced with Mary, then Remus, before James swooped in.

“May I have this dance?” he bowed, kissing her hand. She giggled, wobbling a curtsey. They joined hands, swinging wildly to the beat. Looking up, Lily could see James’ eyes focused on her lips. He swung them around to the edge of the clearing, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention.

“You aren’t subtle, you know.” she laughed. He winked.

“I don’t see you complaining.” he pointed out. They took one last glance around before slipping behind a large tree on the edge of the clearing. She pulled his face down and their lips met hungrily. His hands ran up and down her waist as he walked her backwards until she was pressed against the tree. She ran her tongue along his bottom lip, and his mouth opened. Their tongues fought for dominance, causing James to let out a low groan. She flipped the hem of his shirt, running her hands up his stomach, as he nipped at her lip before disconnecting their lips to plant a trail of sloppy kisses down her cheek, along her jaw, and down onto her neck. She let out a sigh as she rolled her head to the side to allow him better access. She chuckled as he continued to attack her neck, but was silenced as he placed a finger on her jaw and drew her lips back up to meet his. He pulled her closer, just as a stick cracked right next to them. They jumped apart to see Remus and Sirius clasping hands and looking about as rumpled and rosy as Lily felt. She blushed crimson, ducking her head to hide behind her hair. Sirius cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Soo, how long has this been a thing?” James raised an eyebrow

“I might ask you the same question.” he grinned awkwardly. “Hey Evans, I guess we weren’t crazy after all!”

“Yippee!” she said weakly, waving her hands in feeble celebration. “No but seriously guys, I’m happy for you!” she smiled, still red in the face. Remus grinned at her.

“I guess we both have some explaining to do.” he sighed. “We might want to get this over with while we’re all still drunk.” Lily nodded. Fair point. She slipped her hand into James’ and led him out of the clearing, Remus and Sirius following behind. They made it back to the lake, where the remaining friends hadn’t seemed to notice their absences. Dorcas was performing some sort of elaborate step dance while Peter, Mary and Marlene clapped and cheered. As they approached, Dorcas bowed exaggeratedly, winking at Lily. She seemed to do a double take, looking back to Lily, and where her hand was intertwined with James’.

“Sit. Talk.” she ordered, plopping herself down, with the others following suit. After a moment of awkwardness, James spoke up.

“I believe about, hmm, lets see, everyone here except Evans, Peter and Mary owe me 10 galleons?” everyone grumbled, waving him away. He smirked. Marlene leaned over to put a hand on Lily’s forehead.

“I don’t know, it seems a bit warm to me.” Lily batted her hand away.

“I’m fine. I don’t have a fever. I guess James just seems different now. Less asshole-y, and more regular human being.” Marlene raised an eyebrow skeptically, a wide smile cracking her features.

“I knew something was up!” Mary exclaimed. “I’ve never seen the two of you go so long without arguing!” James smirked.

“We’ve found, erm, other ways to settle our differences.” Lily elbowed him. Sirius stretched, and spoke up.

“Listen Evans, we love James deer-ly,” once again the four boys broke into laughter. “But,” he stage whispered, once the laughter had died out “Are you sure? He’s smelly!” Lily laughed.

“I’ll manage.” she shot Remus a wink. “Now, I believe the two of you have something to add?” Remus groaned.

“We’re together.” he said, quickly, gesturing between him and Sirius. Peter laughed.

“Is that it?”

“Weren’t you already together?” Mary asked, frowning slightly as she tried to recall. Sirius laughed.

“Does this really not come as more of a shock?” Everyone shook their heads.

“I mean, come on, I don't think I’ve seen you two occupy two separate chairs since third year.” James pointed out, laughing. Sirius flopped back dramatically so his head was resting in Remus’ lap.

“There goes the dramatic reveal!” he sighed, and Remus, laughing, bent down to press a kiss to his forehead.

They lapsed into comfortable silence for a few minutes, until Dorcas, who was, by far, the most drunk, hiccuped slightly.

“How do owls know so much? Do they go to owl Hogwarts?” Everyone burst out laughing. Lily chuckled, resting her head on James’ shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, kissing the top of her head softly.