Chasing Lily Evans

Firewhiskey, Butterbeer or a kiss?

While Lily's head swirled with possible scenarios that ranged from robbing Gringotts to pranking Slughorn, Marlene efficiently moved the entire group to the Astronomy tower, a cool breeze keeping them satisfied.

"So, Lily," Marlene said, businesslike, "We're going to play a game."

She slyly pulled out a flask of fire whiskey, while Sirius took out a flagon of Butterbeer and Peter rattled some glasses. "It's called 'Firewhiskey, Butterbeer or a kiss." Lily groaned; just by hearing the name, she could tell it wasn't game she was bound to like anytime soon. "I'm regretting every moment I have called you my friend," Lily informed her dark haired friend, who just smiled.

"So," Sirius continued, "The rules are basically that we'll give you something to do, and you can either do it or take a swig of Firewhiskey or Butterbeer, or kiss someone of our choice." He shrugged suggestively at Marlene, who rolled her eyes and picked at her nails.

Lily felt her face heat up as she looked around the group, suddenly dawning on her what they were making her do. "All right," she said with dignity, "I guess I'll just have to stick with the Butterbeer!" Sirius winked at James, "No luck, mate." James gave an irritated scoff but turned his face away nevertheless. Though he had played similar games before, it never quite included Lily Evans.

"So,my little Wormy will go first," Sirius smiled widely at the extremely nervous boy. "So, Pete, who's that girl you've been sneaking out to meet?" Peter turned a pale pink and grumbled a bit as he reached towards the Butterbeer. James mimed getting shot in the heart and said, "Ouch. You know we'll find out anyway. Remus, how do you make Veritaserum again?" Remus slapped a hand to his forehead with exasperation. "Shut up, James. It would be better to nick it from Slughorn's cupboard."

The hours ticked by and the flagon of Butterbeer was completely empty, and the bottle of Firewhiskey much depleted. Nothing very steamy had taken place till then, other than James recounting a night he had seen Sirius sneaking out of the girls' dormitory and Sirius describing said event.

"Your turn, Evans," Remus said remorsefully, after having to painfully recount his worst mischief- nothing werewolf related, of course- and Sirius and Marlene shared a conspiratorial look.

"So Lily," Marlene began innocently, "I dare you to sit in James' lap for the entirety of the game." Lily fought a blush as she sputtered in indignation and James hid his nerves by rolling his eyes. "Classy, McKinnon," he told her indifferently, though he felt anything but. His heart was in his throat as he awaited her answer, hoping she would agree, and at the same time, that she wouldn't.

"I'll just take a swig of the Firewhiskey," Lily said, calming her nerves.

"Well, you see, Lilykins," Sirius began sweetly, "We're all out of Firewhiskey. So your only alternative is to kiss someone of our choice." Lily swallowed as Remus sent her a sympathetic look, curious as to how this would go. Peter chuckled in the corner, watching the exchange eagerly; how many nights had he seen Sirius joke about James snogging Evans, and James didn't even try to deny his desire?

"Who will I choose, hmmmm...." Sirius grinned, "I choose me."

James' mouth dropped open as he tried to process his best friend's words. Lily blushed, but with extreme anger. "You're out of your mind, Black." Marlene giggled, "Oh, Lily, you don't have to, if you're scared."

"Don't worry, Mar-Mar, you'll always be my special girl," Sirius winked at her and Marlene nudged Lily playfully.

Lily had a huge dilemma on her hands; sitting in James' lap was a huge deal, given their past relationship and slowly blooming friendship, not to mention the fact that the alternative was unthinkable. Kissing Sirius Black... she would rather kiss James. Lily blushed yet again at where her thoughts had taken her and was jolted to the moment when Peter started to hoot at James' utter discomfort.

She looked into his hazel eyes and he seemed as conflicted as she was. When he caught her gaze he shrugged playfully, as though saying Only if you want to. How bad could it be?

What James didn't relay to her was how desperately he didn't want Sirius to kiss her, or anyone, ever, to kiss her innocent lips. He was sure if she did so much as brush her lips against his friend, he would throw him off the Astronomy Tower.

"Ooh, James is getting all hot and bothered, Evans," Sirius joked, "I can't tell you how many times he's dreamed of having you sitting in his lap, or how many times he's dreamed of doing other things with his lap...." He shot her a wicked grin and Lily's words died in her throat. She was about to announce a cutting remark about James when Remus caught her eyes and slowly shook his head. She remembered. Of course she did. He told her to give him a chance and to not trust Sirius' stupid jokes, most of which, she had gleaned, were meant to make people uncomfortable.

As she crawled towards Sirius, James tried, and failed miserably, to keep the hurt and anger off his face. She neared Sirius, whose grin had faltered when she whispered I hid ear, "I wouldn't kiss you if it were between you and the giant squid." He grinned lazily as she went and abruptly sat herself down on James' lap, catching him totally off-guard.

She managed to keep her cheeks from heating and smiled wickedly at Sirius, directing all her thoughts towards the game and pretending the warm hand holding her in place was just an armrest of a very warm, muscular chair.

Aside from the initial wolf-whistles and jokes, the incident was quickly forgotten by everyone, except James, who would perhaps cherish it for the rest of his life. Sirius was right, he had dreamed of this moment a lot, but she chose to be there, of her own free will. She could have thrown a tantrum and gotten out of it, but she didn't, and that made the experience all the more better for the red-cheeked boy. He hardly payed attention to the game after that, noting every moment of Lily's and how her hair smelled like lavender and honey.

He wondered idly how she would've reacted if the dare had been to kiss him instead of just sitting on his lap, and the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' was called to attention as Marlene commanded Lily to snog James.

***
A/N

Hello, everyone. The book is turning kind of steamy, but don't worry, even though I doubt I'll go anywhere near the R-rated content, I'll inform this if I do. After all, what is love without some stolen kisses or heartfelt moments?

Just wanted to catch up with my three regular readers- how you guys doing?