Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Act of Trust

Author's Note: HELLO I AM BACK! I've been out of the country the last two weeks but I'm home now and so excited to share the rest of this book with you! We are entering the final chapters and will wrap the book up for James's canonical birthday on March 27th <3 Thanks for sticking the break out! Hope you enjoy :)

******************************************

Hogsmeade morning dawns a week later, full of sunshine and anticipation, which is good. I need a fun day out. We haven't had a Hogsmeade trip since before Christmas and I'm excited to be part of the bustle.

And... okay. I'm excited to be going to Hogsmeade with James.

"I told you Hogsmeade days would look different once you had a bloke to go with," Alice teases, and I stick my tongue out at her but grin when she isn't looking. She's right. It really does.

And we all have dates to go with today – Alice with Frank, Emmeline with Rosier, and me with James. Even Marlene's got a date. I know James and I have been on a Hogsmeade date together before, but we'd been in a weird place then, so today I'm quite looking forward to our first real date. No complications, lunch with friends, holding hands, kissing in the sunshine...

It's going to be a good day.

Also, I haven't told him about my revelation yet, the one I had while talking to Severus last week. All week it's felt like this delicious little secret, so tender and precious I want the moment to be just right to tell him. Whenever I meet his eyes, whenever he laughs, whenever he takes my hand and presses it to his lips, the words pulse in my fingertips. I love you.

I'm hoping that sometime in between all the Hogsmeade festivities, there'll be a time that feels perfect enough.

We take breakfast early, and there's a cheerful, celebratory kind of mood in the Great Hall. Even seeing Carol at the Gryffindor table can't kill my mood, though I apparently can kill hers. As soon as we settle into our seats, she pops up with a glare hot enough to singe my hair and leaves. I grimace at Mary, who follows her out with a sympathetic look at me. James ignores them completely.

I'd filled him in on the entire exchange between Carol and me last Sunday afternoon, after he'd rested up from the night out with the other Marauders. He had, to put it lightly, been outraged. I think it was worse for him than it was for me to find out, since he felt so betrayed. I always knew Carol hated me and was a bit of a brat, but apparently this is all a revelation to James.

When he'd finally calmed down and stopped ranting about everything from the wedding invitation to calling me 'Mudblood' to working with the Slytherins at all, he said, "I can't believe she told you, though. About her dad, and last year."

"I'm glad," I said. "Think I hate her less now for it."

He sighed. "I don't know, Lily. If she really has been this terrible to you this whole time, I think you might be justified hating her. But, yeah. Last year was... a lot. For everyone."

"Except me, apparently," I said, and he laughed.

"You're allowed to have had a good year while the rest of us were struggling. But... it all really was a mess. We were close enough at that point I didn't feel like I could just ditch her when she was going through it all. It happened right around the time I'd started figuring out I didn't like her the way I thought I did, and it just made everything so complicated with us. It was a mess," he said again, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry I didn't know," I said.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you,"

"Don't be," I said, and I meant it.