Summer Kids

1977: Factory Yard (Still en Route to Concert)

James had wanted to drive the minibus. Lily had been sitting in the shotgun seat. They would have been close...they would have practically been together...she could have even given him driving directions. The possibilities were endless. Merlin, James could have even have been subtle about making conversation with Lily this time. But instead, Remus was driving...and James found himself sitting in the back seat with Alice Blishwick.

This was not a bad thing. James had always found Alice quite agreeable. He thought she might live close by his own home. Sometimes, he and his parents would see her family out in the countryside when they went for a picnic. At school, whenever James asked to borrow a quill from Alice in class or forgot the words to a spell, she was always prepared. Alice was, all in all, a perfectly nice girl.

It was just that the girl that James had really wanted to be sitting with was one painful row ahead of him.

Their conversation at the Leaky Cauldron the other night had been wonderful – but hadn't changed a thing between them, as far as he could tell. Not that it hadn't been one of the loveliest nights James had seen in a while. Lily had such interesting ideas – and they all made so much sense – James just loved listening to her. It had been wonderful, too, to gaze at that hair of hers...and her eyes... But the night had ended, and so had their conversation, and James had gotten the impression that Lily probably wouldn't be coming back to the Leaky Cauldron anytime soon to follow up on their discussion of books. And that had made James start thinking seriously about some things.

He had concluded first that if he would ever be so lucky as to get close to Lily Evans – front seat or otherwise – it would take awhile. James knew full well that Severus Snape and Lily had been longtime "friends" – that is, Snape hadclearly been infatuated with an uncomfortably oblivious Lily – and that that particular relationship had shattered sometime during the past school year. (Unfortunately, everyone at Hogwarts knew that. The fallout of Lily and Severus' falling-out had been noisy, and it had been dangerous to talk to either member of the incident for a good while.) After James thought this through, he reasoned that it only made sensethat Lily wouldn't want to get so close to anyone so soon after all that. He knew that if he were in her shoes, he would have been devastated at the dismantling of so tight a friendship. His mates were the ones he trusted most in the world.

So, James was trying, again, to be subtle about things between him and Lily. Mind, it was hard, as everything inside him wanted to push his head between the seats up front and ask Lily one of a million questions – but James knew it was important that he give Lily her space. Thus, he made no protest about his backseat spot. He wasn't going to be Severus Snape about Lily Evans. James thought he should probably just sit back and present himself as a fun companion when and if Lily ever wanted one, and just see what happened from there.

As Remus and Lily chatted easily in the front row – debating possible parking locations, comparing their favorite classes, and sharing their dread of their upcoming NEWTs – James held his tongue. After he stopped thinking about how much he really wanted to jump into their conversation, he became conscious of the silence in the back seat. Sixteen years of living with well-mannered parents kicked in, and he decided to strike up a conversation with his companion. As the minibus bumped along the old cobblestone streets next to the river and swung around a curve towards a green grassy lot closer to the actual riverbank, James held onto the armrests of his seat and asked Alice, "How's your holiday been, then?"

Alice's wide eyes fluttered beneath her short puff of hair as James addressed her. When she spoke, James had to lean closer in order to hear her quiet voice over the rumble of the car. "It's going wonderfully, thank you. And yours?"

James cracked a smile. Alice obviously had also been drilled in good manners. "Marvelous, thanks. Up to anything in particular?"

"Oh." Alice sat up a bit straighter, simultaneously casting her eyes away from James in an emotional cue he couldn't immediately read. "I'm enrolled in the summer training camp at the Ministry."