Potter and Evans

Valentine's Revelations

- sorry in advance for some of the language + jokes in this chapter i don't know what happened -

Once again, Lily and James had acted like they hadn't almost kissed. Neither had brought up the topic, nor told anyone what had happened. They managed to keep the awkwardness away and carry on as normal on the outside, even though both were questioning everything on the inside.

As normal as things were, James had gotten very protective over Lily. In a Thomas kind of way, he had almost refused to leave her side in the weeks following the incident with the Slytherins. A lot of it was glances across classrooms and the Great Hall - glances from James that for the first time in his life were returned with glances from Lily - and sometimes brief smiles. Sometimes though, before she noticed him looking, he could see in the emptiness in her face and the fear in her eyes.

The first two weeks of February flew by and before anyone knew it, it was the Valentine's Hogmeade weekend. Hogwarts had been elegantly decorated with pink and red flowers, pink confetti that fell from the ceilings, and of course, singing dwarves roamed the castle.

In the end up, Sirius had given into James's dare ('But only because I'm not pathetic enough to back out.' He insisted, though James secretly knew he had been looking for an excuse for months) and had asked Marlene, who had proceeded to suggest a triple date - her and Sirius, James and Kat, and Lily and Thomas.

Kat had not been happy about this at all, and put up quite a fight about it, so James suggested that they spend the first half alone with their dates, and the second half all together, which though she still disagreed with, she had no other choice.

Lily, on the other hand, was extremely pleased about Marlene's suggestion. This meant less time alone with Thomas, and that James would spend less time alone with Kat. James' thought process was unsurprisingly very similar.

'Not because I like him, though. Kat's just a bitch.' She tried telling herself, but slowly...slowly he was realising the truth...

The bell on the door of Madam Puddifoot's sickly pink tea shop tinkled as Thomas opened it and held it for Lily: this was his choice of a date - it certainly wasn't somewhere that Lily wanted to be associated with. The decorations inside were tacky, and the whole place was cramped with couples and uncomfortably close round tables and chairs which featured lacy napkins and table covers, as well as vintage sugar bowls.

Madam Puddifoot happily greeted them, and as she led them to an empty table, weaving in and out of the other customers, Lily caught sight of the two people she really did not want to see.

'Well that's just perfect.' She saltily uttered under her breath.

'What?' Asked Thomas, curious.

'Oh. This. Our date. It's perfect.' She smiled and batted her eyelashes in the same sickening way that Kat did to James, feeling absolutely ridiculous. Was this actually considered attractive?

This seemed to suit Thomas just fine because he pulled her close with their hands intertwined and kissed her on the lips. Madam Puddifoot smiled and left them at their table.

There was no passion like a proper kiss should have, but it gave Lily a brilliant idea. They broke away for a couple of seconds and out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw that James (who was sitting only about 10 feet away with Kat) had noticed them. 'Good.' She thought internally. She smiled at Thomas and put an arm around his neck, pulling him in closer. He smiled back and went back on for another kiss, this one lasting a lot more than just a couple of seconds.