The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Give It Back

Give It Back

"Sirius, just tell me what it is you're planning," James said. Sirius had been pouring over the Marauder's Map for over an hour, studiously sitting square in the center of Remus's bed, his Gryffindor tie strung about his head, holding his hair back from his face as he worked, looking very much like a mad scientist.

Sirius shook his head and shoved his wand through the loop of the tie, over his ear and grabbed a bit of parchment, scribbling something down with his quill. "No, you're grown up now, remember?" He unfolded and refolded the Map and glanced over at James, "Besides, it's best if you stay out of it, he seems better at getting information from your brains... and I want him to be bloody shocked!"

James eyed Sirius warily. "I just don't know if I like the look in your eyes is all. You're acting mad."

Sirius laughed, "It's not an act, Potter... not an act..." and he turned back to the Map, still chuckling under his breath in a manic, almost feverish way.

As unnerving as that all was, James couldn't stick around to bother Sirius for all eternity. He had Quidditch practice and as much as he would have liked to stick around and keep an eye on his madman best mate, he grabbed up his gear and headed down to the pitch (he did try to get Sirius to go along with him to watch, but Sirius refused because he was a master at work and needed to not be disturbed by the petty inconvenience of Quidditch).

Lily Evans was in the stands watching, though, James noticed her halfway through, sitting there all by herself on the benches under one of the awnings, bundled up with her Gryffindor scarf tied around her neck. He tried extra hard at getting practice shots off just right knowing she was looking and nearly toppled off his broom when he got distracted checking to see if she was watching and came centimeters from slamming into Frank.

It started raining while they were practicing and James's glasses kept fogging up and he was reminded of the day he'd first seen Maryrose, on the train platform in Hogsmeade and she'd cleared his glasses for him. He wished he could remember the spell she'd used... She had seemed so unusual, so strange and smart to him then, so interestingly unique, and she'd had teal hair, he remembered. A pang of guilt went through him and he shot the quaffle extra hard through the rings before calling the practice and sending everyone back to the castle.

He was coming out of the locker rooms, struggling to see through the foggy glasses to find the key to the door when Lily appeared at his side, holding her wand up, an umbrella sticking up from it, blocking the rain. She held it so it covered both their heads. "Have you tried the impervius charm? On your glasses?"

He pulled the frames from his ears and aimed his wand. "Impervius," he said and they cleared up and the rain simply fell away from them without fogging or streaking. He put them back on and was pleased with how much better he could see. It was exactly the spell Maryrose had used. "Thanks," he said.

"You're welcome," Lily answered. She watched as he put the key in the locker room door and turned, fumbling to put it back in his pocket.

He turned to face her, looking at her with a curious expression on his face. "Did you need something?" he asked.

"I just wanted to apologize," she said.

James blinked in surprise.

"For this morning," Lily continued, "In Potions. What I said to you wasn't very fair, about you taking advantage of me back at Christmas. I know that's not what happened. And I also wanted to admit that yes, I did sort of take advantage of you that night, with the library and I'm sorry. I wasn't drunk on Firewhiskey, I suppose I was sort of drunk on adventure, on being around you boys and the fun we'd had, and I was feeling reckless and not really thinking properly, but that's not an excuse for kissing you. And I'm sorry if that wasn't what you wanted..." she paused. "I'm sorry I stole a kiss from you."