The Marauders: Year Seven Part One

The Next Adventure

Lily was turning in her sleep, small whimpers of fear escaping her as she shifted and turned... her legs moving over the softness of the blankets...

"Evans, hey," there came a whispered voice.

Lily could still hear him though, laughing... reaching toward her with long-nailed fingers... cold and gruesome eyes staring through the dark... another, motionless form laying on the floor...

The whispered voice came again, "Evans, it's only a dream, c'mon, wake up love..."

Lily felt her breath constricted within her, and she was gasping, choking for air...

"Evans." A firm grip took her shoulder and she was shaken awake, her eyes blasting open as she drew in a desperate breath, her hands scrambling to get the grip off her, to escape... he couldn't have what he wanted, he couldn't... "Evans."

She focused at last, totally disoriented and panic to the brim, and there was James Potter's face, staring down at her, glasses a bit askew and hair even more stuck-uppy than usual. She felt relief wash over her - it was James, not the Dark Lord. Tears filled her eyes and she threw her arms about his neck, pulling him down over her and kissing him deeply.

James hadn't expected it, but who was he not to indulge the poor girl?

When she pulled back, her eyes met his. There was still panic in them, and James realized that Lily was trembling. "Alright, it's going to be alright," he whispered, and he rolled off the bed they'd fallen asleep watching the movie on, beckoning for her to come along.

Lily moved to follow him, stepping over Peter's lumpy shape on the floor, where he'd fallen asleep long before the movie ended. Remus and Sirius were in a tangle on the other bed, Remus buried under the sprawled form of Sirius, a splash of long black hair flung across his face.

Downstairs, James set a fire in the hearth and waved his wand, making two of his blue-china pattered cups appear on the little table before the couch, and a kettle of tea, too, which obediently poured piping hot water onto leaves already in the cup. "There we are, Evans," James announced, lifting one of the cups by it's saucer and handing it gently to Lily as she sat down, cross-legged, on the couch. He took up the second one and carefully sat down, too.

They drank their tea and James snuck her kissed between sips, letting her nerves settle down from their jangled state. Finally, when Lily seemed calmer and the tea was nearly finished, and he'd kissed her a good deal of times, James said, "Whenever Sirius and I have nightmares, we do this in the Gryffindor common room. Always does the trick." He smiled.

Lily paused, then, "You kiss Sirius in the Common Room? No wonder he thinks you're his harem... Leading him on, that is."

James laughed and put his cup on the table, watching her drink the rest of her tea. "True enough, I suppose."

Lily was studying the tea cup. "Your stag is on here."

James nodded.

Lily smiled and watched the stag on the cup nibbling grass. She'd never seen a moving tea cup before, and reckoned James's must be quite unusual. "Its a lovely tea cup."

"Yours is too. Little flower pattern. Pink, if I recall?"

Lily blushed. "You remember my tea cups?"

"I remember everything about you, Evans."

It wasn't creepy the way he said it, it actually made her smile and feel nice, rather, and she giggled and looked down, replacing her empty to the dregs cup to its saucer and leaning forward to drop it onto the little table before them. "Thank you for the tea," she said.