The morning before the full moon, Lily made Remus steak for breakfast and the four of them sat about in Sirius and Remus's tent from sun-up 'til after noon because Remus was too weak to get out of bed. Making Moony feel less moony was their number one priority for the entire morning. With James turning into a stag so that Sirius could decorate him with a seemingly endless supply of hats from his wand, and Lily going against Remus in a muggle-mathematics show down (which Lily inevitably won because "blimey she's good", as Remus ceded), Remus couldn't help but grin.
"I hate to say it," Sirius said, pulling out his pocket watch in the mid-afternoon, "But the sun's not going to be up forever and you can't exactly change into a cool animal or anything, so, sadly, Lilith Jumpsuit Evans, you're not invited to this evening's main event."
Lily frowned and took Remus's hand. "I'm sorry I can't stay with you."
"It's alright," Remus replied, and he patted her hand, and, in a very deadpan tone, he added, "As good as I'm sure you'd taste, I'd rather not tear you up tonight."
Lily laughed, "I'd rather you didn't either."
"But she does taste rather good," James piped up, smirking. "Because, you know, I snog Evans now."
Lily shook her head, "You're going to be bloody telling everyone in the world that, aren't you?"
"Probably."
"I can see it now," Lily said, standing up and shaking her head, "He'll be in Diagon Alley this weekend, telling every bloody person who will -- OH, Jasper!"
James made a face, "What about him?"
"Odaaaair's the jealous tone we all knew and love," Sirius said, smirking at Remus.
Lily rolled her eyes at Sirius, then, to James, "We'll need to stop by Fortescue's and tell him."
"Why the bloody hell do you want to tell your ex-boyfriend for?" James questioned.
"Because he might find it interesting?" Sirius ventured.
Lily smacked Sirius's arm with the parchment that she and Remus had been doing their maths on. Sirius snickered as he curled his arm away, "Do you see this, Moony? She's beating me."
"Looks rather fun, actually." Remus said, "Do it harder, Lil, I haven't the energy to do it myself."
Sirius mocked at being positively scandalized.
"No not-because-he-would-find-it-interesting," Lily said to Sirius, "Just because he was a Hufflepuff..."
"Once a puff, always a puff, sweetheart," Sirius said.
"...doesn't mean that he's a particularly good finder," Lily finished.
"Alright, but..." Sirius's wicked grin trembled, "Was he not a seeker on the Hufflepuff team?"
"Yes but --"
Sirius said, "And is his name not LITERALLY THE MOST PERFECT NAME EVER FOR THIS JOKE?"
"Yes but --"
Sirius said, "And is he not thick as a Potter stew that he never got the joke?" he smirked, as Lily glanced at James to see if he'd heard the slip of the name and her eyes flashed back to Sirius's. "You really can't yell at me, Evans, you've got a thing for the slow ones, just like I like'em furry." He nodded at Remus.
James looked confused, "What?"
Lily shook her head again, "Nothing. C'mon, Sirius is being a dog."
"Howl can you expect me not to be?" Sirius grinned.
Lily grabbed James's hand, "Be safe, Rey, alright?"
"I have Sirius with me," Remus reminded her. He looked at Sirius, then back at her, "So you best be prayin' for me."
"Heyyy," Sirius said, looking offended.
Lily smiled, "To every god in the heavens," she answered, and she tugged James out of the tent as he waved to Remus.
Outside, he looked at her, "So why do you want to tell Odair for?"
Lily shrugged, "It's just that he was very kind about it when he fou--" she stopped, and reworded, "When he discovered I was interested in you."
"You were about to say he found out, weren't you?" James smirked.
Lily said, "Okay I was, but you can find things out in any house, alright? It doesn't have a thing to do with him being a Hufflepuff."
James laughed.
"Do you not want me to tell him?" Lily looked up at James.
"No, no," James answered, "Bloody hell, I'm ready to shout from the roof of Gringott's with a sonorous maximus on my throat, alright? Definitely not that. It's just -- of all your friends and... and family... you thought of Jasper first to tell?"
Lily shrugged, "Only because we were talking about Diagon Alley."
"Yeah," James said.
Lily plonked her finger against the tip of his nose.
James said, "Well... I want to tell my mum and dad, and Peter, and Emmalene Vance and Marlene MacKinnon and Ali Prewitt and Frank Longbottom, and Bilius Weasley, and Chriselda Blythe, and Ned Veigler, and Newt Scamander, and Hagrid, and the bloke at the Hog's Head... and everyone else at Hogwarts, too... and also - you know in Hogsmeade, that little cart that sells the soft pretzel wands that Peter always eats like seventeen of every Hogsmeade weekend? I wanna go and tell that bloke, too."
Lily laughed, "That's quite an extensive list."
"I mean, I could go on. It's literally every single bloody person I know, plus some of the ones I don't. Basically every breathing soul on the planet. Just walk up to people and be like -- Hullo, my name is James Potter and I snog with Lily Evans. Daily. Sometimes multiple times a day.."
Lily laughed. "You idiot."
"It's just that I thought after all the years of calling me a -- what was the term?"
"Toerag?"
"Yes, that," James smirked, "I thought you might be embarrased of me."
"Oh I'm sure you'll do something over the term to utterly humiliate me," Lily laughed.
James smirked. "Probably will involve Sirius."
"Oh it will definitely involve Sirius."
He laughed. Then, "So you want to tell everyone in the world, too?" His face was alight with the laughter and his eyes flashed with the thought of being actually really truly officially dating Lily Evans.
Lily nodded, "Of course I do." She hesitated as he stared at her, a look like he was going to go in for a kiss at the very moment lingering on his face. It felt rather like a kiss would be a signature on a contract suddenly, and Lily said awkwardly, "Hang on, let me get my jacket -- it's in the tent," and she ducked out of his path.
They used the broom to fly to the back of the Dumbledore house the same as they'd done getting out to the camp to begin with. Lily held on tight as James swept along, quite low because there was a dense fog coverage hanging over the trees and he didn't want to run into any funny turbulence flying that might knock Lily from behind him.
When they'd landed, James walked with Lily down the street of Godric's Hollow, past the Fountain of Godric Gryffindor, to whom James happily mimed tipping an imaginary hat to. Lily laughed, and paused on the cobble stones beside the outpouring water. "Here's where it all happened, huh?" she said, looking up at him.
"Here it is," he answered, smiling. Then, "Oi. Happy two-day anniversary, love."
Lily laughed, "Bloody hell, has it been that long?"
"How the time flies!" James said. Then, "What do you reckon is the proper gift for two days?"
"Well, seeing as they go in ascending order from the least expensive to the most, and the first year is paper..." she considered, "I reckon air."
"Air!" James said, "Oh beautiful air!" He scooped his arms about and brought his clasped hands to her. "Darling, I give you... oxygen."
"Why thank you dear, and for you, I have... a breath of it." Lily exhaled largely at him.
James inhaled deeply, "Oh it's the best breath I've ever had." He smirked.
"You ruddy idiot," Lily laughed at the cross-eyed euphoric expression he was pulling. "This is the best anniversary I've ever had."
James said, "Here's to many more."
"To many more," she agreed.
He bent down and pressed his mouth to hers.
They'd taken the floo to London, and from London, Lily had insisted they take the muggle underground home instead of the Knight Bus, despite James insisting the Knight Bus was the prime way that a witch or wizard should travel. They walked down the road from the underground entrance all the way through Spinner's End to where Lily lived on a quiet suburban street, past the playground where James had once dueled with Severus Snape, and right up to her very house - all the while, James was holding her hand. When they paused at the end of her family's driveway, she asked, "So what time tomorrow will you be along so we can go to Diagon Alley with the boys?"
"Once Remus is on his feet," James answered.
"You're going back tonight?" Lily looked concerned.
"Yeah," James replied. "Stag, dog and wolf. On the loose. Under the moon." He grinned. "The story practically writes itself." He paused, then added, "Besides that, if I didn't, that would mean I had to go home and face the Parents."
Lily said, "I sort of thought you might."
"What? Go home and face the parents?" James asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Well, I'd hoped anyway," Lily answered, "I can tell it's bothering Sirius that you're not getting along with them. He keeps mentioning them."
"Yeah..." James sighed. He looked down at his trainers.
"You never really told me what it was you rowed about."
James crunched up his nose. "I told you I called her a Slytherin."
"Yes, and I failed to see how that was an insult."
"Yes." James shrugged, "It's just that sometimes with them I feel like I'm still eleven? As though none of the things that have happened to me matters, like I'm still a kid. I feel like they forget that I've grown up. I feel like a lot of people forget that I have."
Lily nodded slowly, "You've grown up a lot, though."
James's eyes met hers.
"Like a lot," she emphasized. "You're so much more mature and thoughtful than you were even just last year." Lily bit her lip. "I reckon they're afraid of losing you."
"Losing me?" James laughed under his breath.
"Yes losing you," Lily nodded, "You're their little boy only you're not little and you're not a boy anymore. I reckon that probably terrifies them. Especially your mum. Especially when you're risking your life and doing ridiculously dangerous things like it very much sounds like you were doing and the best defense you've got is your very seriously demented friend who goes and sprays orange marmalade on the bad guys."
James laughed at the words.
"I'm just saying, I understand it," she said, "It would worry me, too."
James sighed heavily, "Yeah." He squeezed her fingers. "Alright, I'll go home and talk to my parents, then."
"Good boy," Lily said.
"You said that I wasn't a boy," James reminded her.
"Good man," Lily amended.
James laughed and let his forehead rest against hers a moment - a move that he'd watched his parents do a thousand times since he was a baby - and he asked, "Ten too early?"
"Sounds brilliant," Lily replied. Then, "You could come earlier if you wanted. Have breakfast with me and mum. I'm sure Petunia will refuse to come down when she finds out you're coming -- which would only make it more pleasant, of course."
"Even if I promise not to extend her neck again?"
Lily laughed. "Yes, even then."
They paused, staring into each other's eyes. "Alright. Breakfast," James said.
"Breakfast. Eight o'clock."
"Eight o'clock, got it." James nodded.
Lily rolled up onto her tip toes, kissing him, and he leaned into her, kissing back, their mouths moving hungrily against one another, their fingers woven between them. And Lily smiled into James's mouth as he leaned down so she could stand flat-footed, and his hand touched the back of her hair ever so gently... feeling the softness of the ginger strands...
Suddenly a pair of headlights lit them up and there was Vernon Dursley's fancy little car, pulling up to the curb. Lily watched as Petunia got out, just steps away from them, and leaned across the seat to share a sloppy walrus smooch with Vernon, whose mustache twitched with pride as he kissed her. When they'd broken away, he nodded curtly to James and Lily, then drove off, leaving Petunia on the curb, waving wistfully after him.
She turned and acted as though she'd just realized James and Lily were there at all. "Oh. You're here," she said, looking at James coldly.
"Yes, I'm here," James said.
Petunia made a disgusted face at Lily, "Were you kissing him just now?"
"Were you kissing Vernon Dursley just now?" Lily replied, making the same disgusted face back.
Petunia glanced at James, "At least I know he hasn't got fleas from Spinner's End," she spat.
"Of course he doesn't got fleas from Spinner's End, you absolute --"
"Well, to be fair," James broke in, before Lily could finish the sentence, "I could very well have fleas from Sirius." He literally stepped between Lily and Petunia, smiling widely. "You better run along if you don't want to catch them - they're particularly... jumpy, these fleas."
Petunia looked him over, taking a slight step back, as though expecting to see fleas just flinging themselves from his skin like a tiny meteor shower. She looked at Lily, "Disgusting," and she went up the driveway with her nose turned to the air.
James watched her go, then turned back to Lily, "That went well."
Lily shook her head, fuming, "She's just so bloody stupid. She thinks you're --"
"Snape?"
"Yes."
James shrugged, "Hey, I mean, a lot of people had that problem recently, eh? Mistaking me and Sni--Severus?"
Lily gave him a wary look.
"Which is another one of the delightful things I rowed with mum about." James said, looking rather sheepish as he remembered. He ran a hand through his hair. "Blimey, I really said some nasty rubbish to her."
Lily frowned.
"Alright, I'm going to send an owl to Padfoot and Moony and get my arse home and apologize to my mum, and I'll be back at eight o'clock sharp in the morning to have breaky with you before we go and get the lads and head for Diagon Alley." James nodded, the plans spoken aloud, solid and made. "Alright, Evans?"
"Alright, Potter," she answered, and she leaned up and kissed his chin. "I'll miss you."
"I will miss you as well," James replied, and he kissed her forehead, then stuck out his wand hand.
CRACK!
A violently purple bus appeared on the street, rolling to a stop just meters away from where they stood. James grinned, "See how much easier that was than using the underground? No stuffy tunnels, no smell of whatever-the-bloody-hell-that-was-in-the-air..."
Lily said, "Just a slight odor of the vomit that you and every other passenger that's ever boarded that bus has left behind," she shook her head. "I'll never step foot on that blasted thing again."
James laughed as the door swung open and Ernie, the concierge he'd always known, was sitting behind the driver's wheel of the bus, staring down at him through thick glasses. "Oi!" James said, grinning, "You got yourself an upgrade, 'ey, Ern? No slinging luggage anymore?"
"Drivin' now!" Ernie announced.
"Got a new bus boy yet?" James asked.
"Not yet!" Ernie replied, "You lookin' fer a job?"
"Nope," James shook his head. He turned to Lily. "See you in the morning Evans."
"Night," she offered, and he let their remaining hand fall apart, fingers sliding from fingers, and pulled himself up on the step. James paused as he paid for his ticket, winking at Lily, and she heard him say, "Oi, but Ernie, I'll be looking for a job next year, once I finish up Hogwarts - maybe if you're still hiring..." as the door slammed closed.
Lily shook her head, "Bloody idiot."