Testing (Gift for Angel)
For Angel (angeldiangelo). I'm sorry it's late, but I hope you had an awesome holiday and that you enjoy! =)
If he thought about this critically, James reckons he’s spent the better part of three years planning this date. Well, not this date exactly. He’d only just concocted this version a scant week ago, after Lily had perhaps taken too many hits to the head, or maybe sampled a few of Slughorn’s illegal potions, or was possibly acting under the influence of some kind of Christmas miracle—but certainly something along terribly similar lines. Those first dubious contemplations of James-at-fourteen had not amounted to anything much more than a semi-private area, easily disheveled clothes, and a bunch of body parts doing entirely questionable things, so the plan certainly had had room for improvement. Not that he still wouldn’t like this version to include such events, but James-at-seventeen was well aware that a more properly concocted prelude was required if he had any hope of accomplishing that. And if there was anyone who deserved—nay, demanded—such a proper prelude, it was Lily Evans. It really was a damn shame that Sirius seemed determined to cock it all up. “Evans! Prongs! Fancy meeting you here!” Sirius's bright grin and boisterous bellow rang loud even amidst the swarms of students milling about the carriages. There was snow on the ground and holly lining each cozy vehicle, and someone had started up a garbled sing-along to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” down the way. Sirius looked surprised to see them, except he couldn’t possibly be because he’d been the one coaching James down the dormitory stairs ten minutes earlier when James’s feet had been putting up quite the nervous fight at making the ever-anticipated trek to meet Lily for their date. Still, pre-prelude James had no reason to be alarmed by a best mate greeting. He waved back quite readily. "Haven't you your own witch to see to?" Lily asked, eyebrows raised. "I heard some intriguing fifth-year chatterings from a few I think would be more than willing." "Fifth-years." Sirius shuddered. "Can't fight off the mad hens today, Evans. I have things to see to. But you’re enjoying yourself, yeah?"
"The walk down from Gryffindor Tower was positively riveting."
Sirius's grin widened. "Excellent. Nice work, Prongs."
"I do what I can," James said. A carriage pulled up before them. "Best see what I can do to make a thrilling trip out of a carriage ride. Later, mate."
"Cheers!" Sirius called, waving them off as they piled into the carriage. Once inside, Lily turned to him with twitching lips. "Thrilling, you say?" James tried not to fidget as a few third-years piled in across from them and Lily’s thigh pressed against his. "Did I ever tell you about the time we accidentally-on-purpose locked Remus in a broom cupboard with Mrs. Norris and a 1961 Nimbus Star?" "No." "Then you're about to be thrilled." She laughed. And though James knew that story had been a winner (had been saving it, in fact, for a moment like this, with a witch like Lily), he was still somewhat surprised by how well the whole thing was going off. She had laughed at all the right places, swatting him playfully and burning holes through the thick layers of cloak and clothes. She'd in turn begun to tell a story about an uncle of hers called Roy who apparently had imbibed a bit too much at last year's Yuletide festivities and was—rather inexplicably, for Uncle Roy was no small chap—found dangling from a neighbour’s spruce tree by the seat of his trousers around midnight. James was fairly clutching his sides at that one. As they descended from the carriage, Lily threaded her arm through his and James thought he couldn't possibly beam any brighter. "So?" He motioned around the snow-caked streets of Hogsmeade. "Where to first?"
"Scrivenshaft's," Lily answered definitively. "I need new ink." James swung an arm forward. "Lead the way." They'd weaved through the crowds of students towards Scrivenshaft's, still arm-and-arm and still somehow perfectly content. Once inside, Lily took him on a grand tour of what could only be described as the most swottish example of ink snobbery he had ever encountered, and he watched with no small amount of amusement as she chose between inks like some people chose plans of war. "This," he'd said, observing as she rejected yet another perfectly good batch of ink for no conceivable reason he could see, "is terribly enlightening." "This," she replied, wrinkling her nose at one batch of ink she’d been contemplating on the shelf, "is terribly important. There's a right ink and a wrong ink, you know." "No, I hadn't done. But now—"
"Evans! Prongs! Still together, I see. Excellent prospects!" James turned round, unable to hide his rather prominent confusion as Sirius ambled along the Scrivenshaft aisles towards them. What the bloody hell was this about? He couldn’t even remember the last time his mate had even stepped foot into the place. "Er, quill shopping?" James asked, sticking Sirius with a questioning look. "Naturally," Sirius replied, barely even glancing his way. "Having fun, Evans?" "There's no fun to be had when one is choosing inks," Lily replied, still hunched over her possible selections. "It's very serious business." "But at least the company is good, yeah?" Lily's eyes flickered up, darting between Sirius and James. "The company's good," she confirmed. James couldn’t even bring himself to be delighted at that. Sirius was grinning again, and slapped James on the back. "Excellent. Good showing, mate. Terribly proud."
"Right. Pad—"
"Cheers!"
He quickly left the shop, giving a short wave as he went. James watched his retreating back, frowning. "Is it just me, or is he acting more off than usual today?" Lily asked. James nodded. "Definitely more off. Settled on an ink yet?" "Patience," Lily chided, clicking her tongue. "Good company doesn't rush." "Good company reckons present company is a bit mental." "Mental keeps things interesting." James laughed, but dutifully waited the proceeding ten minutes until Lily finally decided on just the right ink.
They had a bit of a tour of Hogsmeade after that, making the perfunctory stop at Honeydukes for sweets, the Post Office so Lily could post a note to her parents, and even a quick stop into Gladrags where Lily assisted James in picking out a Christmas gift for his mum. As far as date activities went, he reckoned it was all rather mundane, but that was the thing about Lily Evans—nothing ever seemed mundane with her. The various conceptions of this long-awaited outing had included numerous events and undertakings, but it seemed the classics were playing off rather spectacularly. James would have been elated by that turn of events, if it weren’t for the small hiccup that was his best mate.
Inside Honeydukes, Sirius had poked his head over a nearby shelf and called a happy greeting over the chocolate frogs.
At the Post Office, he had stepped in line behind them, inquired whether Lily was still having a grand time, then suddenly recalled that he’d forgotten his letter and rushed off.
It would apparently take more than temporary insanity to get him inside Gladrags, but he stood outside the storefront windows and shot James decidedly conspicuous thumbs-ups hand gestures from behind the frosted pane.
“Be back in a moment,” James had muttered to Lily while the saleswitch in Gladrags wrapped the brooch they’d just picked out for his mum in fancy red tissue paper. Lily hadn’t spotted his daft mate yet, and James intended for things to stay that way. Still, she stared at him curiously as he made for the door.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
James nodded. “Just spotted someone I need a quick word with. Won’t take long.”
At Lily’s tentative nod, James hurried for the door. Sirius was already speeding away from the shop, but James would not be deterred. He quickly closed the gap between them, grabbing hold of Sirius’s arm and jerking his mate into the nearest alleyway.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he hissed, propelling Sirius away with a jerk of his hand. “Have you completely lost your sodding mind?”
“What are you talking about?” Sirius asked, straightening his cloak innocently. “Where’s your date?”
“I left her in Gladrags before she spotted you again and decides your particular form of daftness is catching.” James took a menacing step forward. “So you have exactly thirty seconds to tell me what in the name of Merlin’s hairy bollocks you’re doing before I bloody strangle you—”
“Oh, keep your kettle on, would you? No need to get your knickers in a twist.”
“Sirius—”
“It’s just a little test, all right? Harmless.”
“Test? Harmless?”
“Entirely.” Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, his expression all stubbornness. “If Evans can’t handle a bit of interference from a friendly, supportive mate, then she’s not really in this with you anyway, yeah? And that’s better to know now, isn’t it?”
“No!” James cried, fighting the urge to thrash his head against the nearest wall. “Not better to know now! Not better to know at all! What the bloody fuck is wrong with you? Are you trying to ruin this? I’ve just barely got her to agree and you’re already scaring her off!”
Sirius snorted loudly. “Evans? Scared off? Please.”
James gritted his teeth. “Padfoot. End this. Now.”
“Mate, you’ll see—”
“Now.” James left the alleyway.
When he returned to Gladrags, Lily was already waiting outside the shop, a small gift bag swinging from her fingers. She passed it over as he stopped before her.
“All right?” she asked, eyeing him carefully.
James forced a bright smile. “’Course. Feel up for some butterbeer yet? S’getting bloody nippy out here.”
This time, Lily did not thread her arm through his. “Lead on,” she said, following along beside him. James tried not to sigh.
The pub was crowded and decked out from ceiling to floor in holiday decorations, but James reckoned some cosmic entity had felt sorry for the trials he was clearly needlessly being put through and offered a recently-freed table in compensation. As he slid into the small booth next to Lily, watching as she pulled the knitted cap dusted with snow from her bright hair and shrugged off her thick cloak, he told himself to relax, to focus on all the things that had so far gone right rather than the mess of wrong his best mate seemed determined to wrought. James knew that in his own entirely nonsensical way, Sirius was only doing what he thought would be best in the end, but the blighter couldn’t be more off. Still, he was correct that Lily Evans was not one to scare off easily. And despite the madness of it all, James could guiltily admit that maybe it wasn’t so horrible to know that Lily clearly fancied him enough to put up with his best mate’s daft antics. And at least he had finally put an end to them.
Or so he had thought.
“You can’t honestly believe that!” Lily laughed, her head tucked close near his. The pub was loud, so the vicinity may have been necessary, but James still had a warm feeling brewing in his stomach as any part of her brushed against him. “The Appleby Arrows have had a terrible season. One change in the line-up is not going to make the slightest bit of a difference. You’re daft if you think so.”
“You’re wrong,” James insisted, grinning. “Trading Harrows for Burton changes the entire dynamic in the air. If you played—”
“I don’t need to play. I have common sense. There’s—”
Lily’s mouth abruptly closed, her eyes catching on something just beyond James’s shoulder. Confused, James followed the path of her gaze to the pub door, where—oh bloody flistering hell—Sirius has just crossed over the mistletoe-laden doorway. Shucking off the snow, he seemed to be scanning the pub, and despite the fact that James dearly hoped their talk in the alleyway had made some kind of impact, he knew Sirius too well to live in that delusion. Turning away from the door with a grimace, his eyes met Lily’s again.
“I imagine he’s looking for us again?” James didn’t even have to answer before she continued, “So what’s it all about then? Did you tell him to follow us about in case of trouble? Reckoned you’d have the easy out in case things turned dull?”
The bottom dropped out of James's stomach as Lily stared at him with a teasingly rueful but nonetheless undeniably disappointed face. That face, he thought in panic, marked the beginning of the end, didn't it? The date was finished, ruined. He'd failed. She was through--perhaps not scared off, but certainly now dubious and disinterested. He could scream, weep. He could flip over the wooden pub table and dash over to his best mate and just start pounding. All seemed entirely plausible options. But weeks later, James would recognize the hushed conversation that immediately followed--and the not-so-hushed bit that followed after that--as the first moment when he realized that he could quite easily fall in love with Lily Evans. (If, Merlin help him, he wasn't halfway there already). And it all started with another grating greeting from Sirius. "Prongs! Evans! How—" Lily darted to her feet, and slapped James hard across the cheek. "You're a right prat, do you know that?" She grabbed up her cloak from the booth bench, throwing it around her shoulders. "I don't have to sit around and let myself be mocked like this!" James jumped to his feet, as well. "Lily, I didn't--" "Oh, spare me your rubbish explanations. I'm really supposed to believe you weren't somehow in on this stalking expedition?" She waved an agitated hand at Sirius. "That this is all some sort of farce out of your control?" "Yes! I haven't—" "You know, I really thought you'd grown past all this. I thought we were proper mates and could try to do this thing for real. Apparently I was wrong." "Lily—" She strode past a sputtering James and an owlishly blinking Sirius, her chin held high and her cloak billowing out behind her. In the moments after she left, James only stared after her. Then, looking at Sirius, his face fell into a furious scowl. "Harmless, was it?" James grabbed his own cloak from the booth, fumbling as he slipped it on. "Thanks, mate." Sirius's face cracked into a grimace. "James—" Shoving past his mate, James followed Lily's route out the door, realising he didn't quite know where she'd gone. He stood outside the pub, looking up one side of the road, then the other. Blindly, he took the road left, striding quickly through the snow. He'd almost decided to go back towards the right when a hand darted out from around the side of Dervish and Banges, tugging him into the darkened alcove. Lily's widely grinning face was the first thing he saw. "Do you think he bought it?" she whispered, curling her fingers into the front of James’s cloak and peeking round the corner of the building. “Dear Merlin, did you see his face? He looked like someone had just clobbered him!”
“Speaking of clobbering.” James rubbed at his cheek. “Couldn’t you have slapped a bit more playfully?”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” Lily chided, but her hand lifted to his cheek to stroke with his. “I was trying to make it believable.”
“It was.”
“It is a bit red.”
“Mm-hm.”
Lily tugged him forward and lifted herself on her toes. Before James could even so much as prepare himself for it, she dropped a quick kiss against the abused cheek.
“There,” she said, her own cheeks dusting red. “All better.”
James couldn’t stop the grin. “All better.”
Lily pulled her lower lip into her mouth. “You know…we probably shouldn’t get back out there right away. He might still be looking for us. It would probably be better if we stayed out of sight…somewhere private…quiet…”
James’s eyebrows lifted. “Private? Quiet?”
“This lovely alley could do.”
“Lovely?”
“Of course, we’ll have to find something to do…”
“Ah.”
“Mm.”
James had been planning this date for the better part of three years. It had gone perfectly, then not-so-perfectly, then perfectly again. It had been three years, but it looked like James-of-fourteen was getting his version, anyway. And not shockingly at all, James-of-seventeen did not feel the need to complain at all.
