Our Seventh Year

“Muggle studies is so boring,:” James groaned as they walked into the room. “They are always bloody fighting with those, whatcha-ma callits,” he said making the symbol of a gun with his fingers.

“Guns,” Lily said as she walked in the door James was holding open for her.

“Yeah those,” he said shaking his head. “They are more violent then dragons I swear.”

“Only the ones our Professor talks about are violent, not all of them are, for instance my parents,” Lily said leaning up to give him a kiss before walking over to her desk.

“Well, it’s still boring,” James said with a smile kissing her. “See you after class love,” with that he walked to the back to his bench table, as she walked up to the front.

Hufflepuffs began to file in, most of the Gryffindors bringing up the rear of the pack, which included the rest of the marauders.

“Okay it is class time, so talk,” Sirius said setting his bag down loudly onto the table before pulling out his chair.

James just rolled his eyes, “you are worse than me mate.”

Professor Charlemagne entered last, shutting the door behind her. She was young, only twenty six, and began teaching at Hogwarts during James’ third year. He had to admit that she was attractive, tall, blonde, hair always in a bun, thick rimmed glasses, one of those sexy librarian types. Sirius was constantly saying he would get her into bed before they graduated, but that had yet to happen.

She began to write on the board using her wand when James felt a jab in his side. Remus had leaned around Peter, who was on James right, and jabbed him hard with his wand.

“Start talking,” he mouthed before glancing at the board, copying down what the professor had just written.

Shaking his head, James opted to write it down, the room was completely silent except for the scratching of quills, and turning of pages in the text book. The last thing he needed was for everyone to know what had happened between him and Lily.

He finished, and barely lifted his quill from the paper before two hands from different sides grabbed for it. One slapped the other, and quickly pulled the paper away. Sirius was the victor. He began to read the paper as a few students turned around to see what the noise was.

James did not even look at him as he began to copy down the notes, glancing over at Peter’s paper for the things he could not read. He could see Sirius out of the corner of his eye, and saw his jaw drop a bit. James knew exactly where he was at in the note.

Sirius finished and handed it over to Peter, who was promptly pulled closer to Remus so they could read it together.

They sat in silence for a while before the professor began her lecture.

“I didn’t think you had it in you,” Sirius said barely audible as he smirked at James.

“You thought I was going to be a prude like Remus for the rest of my life?” James asked him scribbling down some more notes.

“No, I just did not think it would be with Lily, especially last night,” Sirius said before he was interrupted when Remus shoved James into him.

“You are lying right?” Remus asked him before looking at Lily, who was receiving a piece of paper from one of her friends, an obvious note.

“Now why would I lie?” James asked Remus raising an eyebrow a bit.

“Because your James Potter, and she is Lily Evans,” he retorted, quickly looking back at his paper when the professor eyed him.

“If I was lying, don’t you think I would have said it a while ago?” James said glancing over at Lily, who had turned around to smile at him before turning around with a flick of her head.

Professor Charlemagne finished class a bit early, claiming that she had a headache, though it did not stop her from assigning a thousand word paper due the next week.

With a groan, everyone wrote down the assignment then sprang from the room. “See you lot later,” James called over his shoulder before pushing through the crowd to find Lily.

“Hey love,” James said leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “I don’t know why that class is two hours long, it drags.”

Lily just laughed and took his hand. “Well, you have about forty five minutes until practice, then your game,” she said as they headed down the hall.

“We can do whatever you would like,” James remarked with a smile. He spotted Snape heading their way down the hall. He glared at him as they passed, and Snape returned the look. James’ cut’s had healed completely, but some scars were taking longer to go away then the others.

“I would like to change into a t-shirt,” Lily said with a smile. She had worn a long sleeve shirt, and sweater, it was a bit too warm for the long sleeved shirt.

The two of them made their way up to their rooms, and Lily dashed in to change, taking off her socks and big shoes opting for sandals. She pulled on a white button down shirt, and redid her tie. During class hours, everyone had to remain in uniform, even if you were done with classes.

“Ready,” she said walking down the stairs. James had stayed on the couch throwing his books on the ground as he waited for her. He had thought of something that they could do together.

“Come on, change of plans,” James said standing up and grabbing her hand.

“I thought I got to choose,” Lily said laughing as she followed him out the door.

“Like I said, change of plans.” With that, they headed down to the grounds, and straight towards the Quidditch pitch.

Lily could see the look in his eyes, and that slight smirk. “Oh no..no no no, James Potter, I am not going flying,” Lily said stopping in her tracks as James led her to the Gryffindor Quidditch locker room.

“Yes you are,” James said smirking over at her. It was the only class he knew Lily had a major issue in. They had their first flying lesson together, he was able to get the hang of it rather quickly, and Lily had to have extra help and training to pass the class.

“But,” Lily whined as they walked into the locker room. God did it reek, of sweat, dirt, broom oil, and musty clothes. “You know I can’t fly! I barely passed that class!”

James just rolled his eyes as he dug around in one of his many lockers, tossing dirty clothes aside, and a few shoes. “With me helping, you will be excellent at flying in no time.”

Lily let out another whine, though she did not say anything, James handed her a very shiny, and slick broom. “This is your new one, I don’t want to break it,” Lily said looking it over.

“You're not going to break it,” James said pulling out his older broom, though it was last year’s model. “Here,” he said handing her a pair of his gloves, shrinking them to her size.

He grabbed a pair of Sirius’ gloves, pulling them onto his hands, and grabbing his broom. “You’ll be fine love,” James said leading her out onto the pitch, as he saw her eyeing the broom then looking at him.

“Uh-huh,” Lily said uncertainly as they stopped in the dead center of the pitch. She looked up at how high the stands really were from on the ground, and gulped slightly. “That’s really high,” she said quietly staring up at the sky, and the flags blowing in the wind.

“It’s not so bad once you are up there,” James said setting down his broom. “Get on, and kick off gently,” he said standing right next to her, his hands out ready to catch her if she lost her balance.

Lily nodded, and kicked off, only going a few feet into the air, wobbling as she did. She bit her lip in concentration, and tried to steady herself, feeling James hands on her hips to help steady her.

“That’s it,” James said steadying her. “See not so bad. Do you think you’ll be alright if I get on my broom as well?” Lily nodded at him, her hands gripping the broom hard, her feet crossed at the ankles.

James rose up next to her, smiling at her face, locked in concentration, “just relax it will come naturally love.” He let go of his broom with his hands and looked over at her. “Ready to go higher?” James asked her with a smirk.

She looked over at him wide-eyed, but nodded in agreement edging the tip of the broom up, though a little too quickly, causing her to speed up slightly. Shrieking, she adjusted, but felt James’ sturdy grip on her. “Your alright, just ease up slowly,” James remarked.

They rose without much issue, and Lily smiled over at James who was only about a foot away. “So far so good,” Lily said looking over at him. He nodded his head, and motioned forward, and slowly he was out in front of her.

Lily took the hint, and leaned forward, following him slowly. James suddenly flew forward and up, looking over his shoulder smiling at her. “Are you okay enough to catch up?” James called to her.

“Yes,” Lily called back. “At least I think,” she said though it was more to herself than anything else. She pulled her broom up, and could tell instantly that she was not ready. The broom began to shake under her, then Lily was thrown off to the side.

With a shriek, Lily’s legs slid off the side of the broom, and the rest of her body followed. Her hands gripped hard to the broom, with a gulp Lily looked down at the ground. She was at least thirty feet off the ground, “James!” Lily yelled. The gloves had an excellent grip on the broom, but her hands inside the gloves were beginning to slip.

James heard her shriek, and turned around to see her dangling. “LILS’ don’t panic! Just hold on, I’ll be right there.” He was already way up in the sky above the stands, quickly he turned his broom and began a rapid dive to get to her.

She adjusted trying to get her grip back but it wasn’t going, “JAMES!” Lily yelled again as her grip finally slipped and she began to fall. Her stomach felt as if it was in her throat as she began to fall. Lily closed her eyes tight, and prepared to fall. She knew she probably would not die, if she landed right, but she would be terribly sore.

James was almost vertical as he dove to catch her, he was able to catch up easily to her, tightening his grip with his legs, he let go and reached out to grab her. With a loud umpf James grabbed her wrists, his broom rocking violently almost turning him upside down.

It felt as if Lily’s arms were ripped out of her socket, and she groaned. The ground was about ten feet away now. She looked up at James who was biting his lip in concentration and sweating a bit.

After a second of recovering, James lifted her up onto his lap as best as he could wobbling the whole time. His broom had fallen long ago, but he could see that it was still fine. Panting he looked down at Lily, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Lily said staring down at the ground, she was sure her face as white as a sheet, and her arms were killing her. She could feel her body shaking from fear, and felt James lower them down to the ground.

Grateful to be on solid ground Lily smiled at him, “apparently I wasn’t ready,” she stated looking at him. Her legs felt weak under her, but she knew that James felt horrible for what had just happened, though it was not the first time she had fallen off a broom.

“I’m sorry,” James said pushing his hair off his head, then removing Sirius’ gloves.

“It’s fine,” Lily said. “I have fallen off of brooms before, this was better than the others because I was actually caught.” She began to rotate her arms in circles to try to stop the burning sensation she was feeling in his arm.

He smiled at her, leaning down to give her a kiss. Jogging over, he picked up the broom Lily had used, looking it over, it was perfectly fine, it had not really crashed, just fell, plus it was not too high in the air.

Checking her watch, Lily realized it was five minutes before practice. “I best get going love,” she said as James jogged back over to her. He looked at his watch, then sighed. She was right, they had practice for an hour, then Slytherin had the field for an hour, group dinner, then the game.

“Are you coming out to watch?” James asked her with a smile. He had never seen her at a game before, and hoped now that she would come.

“Of course, I’ll be in that stand right there,” Lily said pointing to one dorned in Gryffindor right in the middle of all the others, then removed his gloves handing them back to him.

“I’ll see you then love, wish me luck,” James said kissing her gently before she walked off to the castle.