Dangerous Game

James had been flipping through a Quidditch magazine when he gazed at the clock. It was ten to eight, tossing the magazine to his side on the bed; James rose from where he had been laying and went to his bathroom. He brushed his hair, then ruffled it up a bit, adjusted his glasses, grabbed some warmer clothes and sprayed a bit of cologne on himself. Lily had actually had a civil conversation with him, and he was able to get her to smile, so he was going to lay on the moves tonight to see if she went for it.

Lily finally finished studying for potions, and she only had five minutes to get ready for hall duty. Rushing, she quickly changed into long pants, two pairs of socks, thick boots, and long sleeved shirt and a sweater. By the time she was dressed, she was sweating to death in her room, but she knew it would be worth it when they went outside. She grabbed her cloak, stuffing her pink gloves, scarf, and ear muffs into a pocket before going to meet James in the common room.

“Hey,” James said with a smile. He could tell she had prepared for the cold outside, and smirked a bit. “And if none of those clothes works, like I said, I promise I can warm you up.”

Lily rolled her eyes, though that infamous blush was back, and she was smiling a bit. “Let’s go Potter before you get too frisky and I have to smack you.”

James raised his eyebrows a bit, smirking, before turning around and leading the way out of Gryffindor tower, down the steps, and to the grounds through a side entrance. He moved to open it but was stopped by Lily.

“Hold on, let me get my clothes on,” Lily said then wished she had not, because she knew James was going to say something smart.

James resisted, and just watched her bundle herself up. “You act like we are going out into the tundra or something,” he said turning around to open the door again. When the door opened, James was hit square in the face with the bitter cold air.

“Ha, and you were making fun of me,” Lily said noticing the look on his face, before she strode out before him, then waited for him to join her.

“Bloody hell, I didn’t realize it was going to be this cold,” James said shoving his bare hands into his cloak pocket the minute he had shut the door.

“Looks like I am going to have to keep you warm Potter,” Lily said flirtatiously. She did not turn around to see his face, instead she began to walk against the castle wall, keeping quiet and looking for students who should not be outside.

James felt his mouth open a bit in shock at what she just said, and he stood their dumbly for a second making sure he had hear her right. Then he realized that she had already started to walk, and he caught up to her a few seconds later.

They continued their walk, mostly in silence, the only sound was James teeth chattering every once in a while, the ground crunching under their feet, and the occasional hoot of an owl.

“I can’t stay out here much longer,” James said as they rounded another corner of the castle. Light from the castle was cascading down onto the grounds, and he could see Lily’s face, it was pink from the cold, he could tell she was tense trying to keep from shivering. “I am freezing my arse off.”

“I-I’m pretty cold too,” Lily said unable to suppress her teeth from chattering a bit. She looked over at James and the promised snow for the night began to fall. It was light, but it was supposed to get heavier as the night went on. “But McGonagall said we need to patrol the outdoors.”

James had to bite his lip from laughing at how cute she was when she stuttered from her teeth chattering. “Come here,” James said as he unbuttoned his cloak revealing the clothes underneath, and then reached an arm out to her. She did not budge though so he rolled his eyes trying it play it off of what it really was.

“We are both cold Lily, if we walk together, we will be a bit warmer. I promise I won’t do anything, I am just as cold as you are,” James said, and he saw her move towards him, though her eyes were a bit apprehensive.

“You tell no one,” Lily said looking him straight in the eyes. When she saw him nod, Lily moved under his arm and cloak, and she felt him lower both around her shoulders, pulling her a bit closer. It was a bit better, but she figured it would get warmer over time. “I can’t believe she has us out in this cold. I would like to see her out here,” Lily said bitterly.

James could still feel her shaking against him, and he rubbed her arm lightly. This was the closest he had ever been to Lily before, and he was enjoying himself, it was hard to hide his smile, but he was trying the best he could. He did not want to turn her off, and have her pull away mad at him.

Lily was starting to warm up, but she still moved a bit closer to James; she removed her gloves, and stuck them in her pocket before she wrapped an arm around his waist. After a second, she smirked deviously, and in one swift motion her hand went up the back of his shirt, to his back, which was hot against her cold hands.

“Bloody hell!” James shrieked, his free hand wrenching hers off his back. “That is not nice Evans,” James said scowling down at her, but then smiled at her laugh.

“It was too tempting,” Lily said and put her arm back around his waist, and felt his flinch a bit, waiting for her to do it again. “I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“I’m trusting you,” James said his hand resting on her shoulder.

They were by the door they had come out through earlier, so they decided to head down by the Quidditch pitch. As they moved along, Lily rested her head on his shoulder, well not exactly his shoulder since he was taller than her, but as close as she could get to it. She was starting to be able to feel her fingers again, though her toes were still frozen.

The snow was beginning to get thicker, and it was sticking to Lily’s hair and eye lashes, and James knew it was probably doing the same for him. The wind was starting to blow now, causing the snow to fall harder. He felt Lily wrap her other arm around his stomach, so he held onto that arm with his other hand, keeping her close to him.

“L-let’s g-go inside,” Lily said as she shivered. The weather was getting bad, and the temperature felt like it had fallen another ten degrees. She felt James turn in the right direction, and she shielded her face from the wind as they went, the snow feeling like daggers in her cheeks.

James opened the door, letting go of Lily so she could go first, then shut the door behind him, joining her on the bench she had found.

Lily stripped off her boots, scarf, ear muffs, and cloak laying them on the floor in front of her. It felt as if she were ten again removing her snow suit from playing outside with Petunia. Her hair was dripping wet from all the snow, and it was running down her face.

James followed suit removing his shoes and cloak as well, laying them on the ground. He ran a hand through his hair, feeling the water run down his neck, and some cold water running down his spine, shaking from a chill, he looked over at Lily who had her wand out, drying their clothes.

“Well it is five to twelve,” James said pulling out his watch his father had giving him three years ago. It was dented from the few scuffles he had been, and from Quidditch, since he never went anywhere without it. “I think we can get away going to our rooms five minutes early, what do you think?”

Lily nodded in agreement, and handed him his shoes and cloak, before grabbing her own things. Her hair was half wet, so she just pulled it in a pony tail since it was sticking to her face. She tied her boots then rose from her seat, waiting for James who was busy trying his shoes. Once he was ready, they made their way back to their rooms, keeping the normal distance, and acting as if nothing had happened out on the grounds.

James said the password, and then opened the door for Lily once they reached their private common room. It was a bit awkward as they looked at one another. They were both thinking about what had happened out on the grounds, and what it really meant. Was Lily really that cold, or did she actually want to be that close to him, those thoughts were also running through Lily’s mind.

“I—uh—well goodnight James,” Lily managed to get out, unable to find any other words. She smiled at him, holding onto to her cloak a bit tighter, and she moved to turn around. She was wishing though that he would stop her, but Lily highly doubted that.

James smiled back at her; he went to say goodnight, but instead grabbed her forearm turning her back around to face him. He looked at her eyes; she seemed surprised, but not mad. Searching her face for a moment, James leaned his head down closer to hers and waited to see how she would react.

Lily narrowed her eyes a bit as she looked at him, she wanted to pull back, but yet she didn’t. Instead, she turned her head a bit to the side, and shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, rising up a bit to get closer to him.

He could not believe that this was finally happening, but he did not dwell on it for too long. James let go of her arm, and moved his hand gently to the back of her head, his fingers tangling into her hair. After another second of looking at her, James closed his eyes kissing her with passion, all the feelings that had been weld up inside of him for seven years going into that one kiss.

She kissed him back with the same amount of force, before almost melting into him. James had grown on her throughout the years, and this year she really knew she liked him, even if she would not admit it to herself, the truth came out in the kiss. Her hands reached shakily around his waist, moving her closer to him as his other hand moved to rest on her lower back.

James pulled back from the kiss, but kept his hands were they were. There was nothing he could think of to say, so he just looked at her, a small grin on his lips. He leaned down to kiss her again, this one lasting a bit longer then the first one. He let go of her as he pulled back again, think time he knew what he wanted to say to her.

Lily let go of him this time as well, her breathing a bit off from the kiss. So many feelings and thoughts were flying through her head at the moment, shock, happiness, confusion and doubt being just a few of them.

“I won’t tell anyone about that either,” James said trying to make the silence less awkward, and to see if she would say anything at all.

“N-no it’s alright,” Lily said looking at him then down at the floor at the toe of her boots, since the cloak was covering the rest of her shoes. She could not think of anything else to say or do, she enjoyed that kiss, and frankly she would kiss him again if she could.

James watched her for a second, and then his hand went up under her chin, lifting her face so he could see it once again. “Honestly Lily, if you want to keep this between us, it is fine,” James said. He could feel in that kiss that there was something there from her as well, but he was unsure if she wanted anyone else to know it. She had always said the last person she would be caught dead with was him, it hurt, but that never deterred him, for some reason he just knew Lily and him were meant to be together.

“No James, I don’t care,” Lily said with a smile. She was tired of faking it now, she had known since the beginning of this year that she liked James. Leaning her head to the side, she pushed her face more into his hand, closing her eyes.

Gently, James stroked her cheek with his finger as he looked at her. This was a completely new side of Lily that he had only seen once before, but it was with a different boy. That was one of the worst times for him to see her with another man, he could not say much though because he dated a few other girls as well, but he never felt for them what he felt for Lily.

Somewhere the Hogwarts clock rang out, letting them know that it was twelve fifteen, she let out a sigh then opened her eyes once again, looking directly into James’. She could tell that he was true with everything he had ever said to her, and she could feel that he cared for her. “We should get to bed,” Lily said sadly.

“Of course love, it is getting late, and I have double potions tomorrow,” James said trying to make it so Lily would not feel it was just her breaking up their moment. He lowered his hand from her face, and then leaned down to kiss her once again. “Goodnight love,” James said when he pulled back. Even though Lily said it was alright, he decided against running to tell the rest of the marauders what had happened that night.

“Goodnight,” Lily replied before turning around to head to her room. She looked over her shoulder one more time when she reached her door to see James slip into his own bedroom.