19 October 1976, Hogwarts Library

[lilium_evansiae]

There's another faint burst of giggling from the stacks to her left, and Lily looks up from her essay (two rolls of parchment on the effect of the stage of the moon on medicinal potions), again, annoyed.

People are trying to work here.

And yes, there's a time-honored Hogwarts tradition of flirting and even stealing a kiss or two in the library, but Black and Perdita are taking it to ridiculous extremes.

But then, that's been the theme of their whole relationship, hasn't it? Ridiculous extremes.

Lily takes a breath, counts to ten and turns her attention back to her essay.

The new moon frequently has a beneficial effect on ...

More giggling, the thud of a book hitting the floor, and a 'whoops.'

Lily takes another breath, and tries to resist the temptation to go hex them both into some time next month.

Comments

[alotofgood]

"No, I suppose not," James says, eying Amity, and then turning his attention back to Lily.

He shrugs, gathering his books and notes together and stuffing them into his bag.

"Look, they're just nicknames. And no one's really asked us about them because that's really all they are: silly nicknames. That's all."

[lilium_evansiae]

"Okay," she says.

"I'm sorry if I'm prying or something. I didn't mean to.

"Forget I asked."

[alotofgood]

James pauses, suddenly feeling ridiculous and a bit awful.

He lets out a breath and moves his hands away from his things.

"I — Lily," he says, "I wish I could tell you, but it's not my story to tell."

[lilium_evansiae]

"It's fine, James," she says.

"Really, forget I asked.

"It's not important."

Except she gets the feeling it is.

[alotofgood]

It is important.

Deathly important, actually.

Which is why it's imperative that James doesn't say a word.

He nods.

"Right," he says. So, that's the subject changed. "I could tell you other things, though, if you want. Though you've probably heard the best story I've got already."

[lilium_evansiae]

Right. Changed.

"Guess that depends on what you consider your best story," Lily says.

"Tell me the best one I haven't heard."

[alotofgood]

"All right," he says, offering her a (slightly tentative) smile. "Well, I could tell you about —"

He thinks.

Then he pushes the sleeve of his left arm up and turns it up so she can see a thin line of scar tissue on his inner forearm.

"— how I first realized flying was probably my favourite thing in the world to do. That's my second best story."

[lilium_evansiae]

"Let me guess."

Lily looks up from the scar to meet his eyes.

"You insisted you didn't need to go to hospital that time, too?" she asks, faintly amused.

"What happened?"

[alotofgood]

James laughs softly.

"Yeah, actually — that was part of it," he says. "I was six when my dad gave me my first broomstick. He'd never played for Gryffindor when he was at Hogwarts, but he did like to fly. He thought I might like to try it too."

He pushes his sleeve back down.

"And it was absolutely brilliant.

"Brilliant until I had a bit of a fall, anyway. Then it was just me on the ground, my parents in a panic, and a broken arm, some horrid cuts and bruises, that sort of thing."

[lilium_evansiae]

"They must have been horrid, if you've got the scar."

Healing usually doesn't leave them.

Not for something like a fall.

(Curses, yeah. Those leave scars. And if her eyes flick to the place where his cheek was cut last spring ... well, it's only for a second.)

[alotofgood]

(And if James notices, he doesn't make a point of it.)

"Well, I had most of it healed," he says, "Mum wouldn't have let me leave St Mungo's otherwise. But I wanted to keep this one."

He smiles a little.

"Because while I was up there in the air, before the fall, I thought about all the Quidditch games I'd seen with my parents so far and all those brilliant players flying about on the pitch — and I imagined myself, even though I was six, being one of them.

"I wanted a ... sort of token of that feeling."

[lilium_evansiae]

"That's kind of deep for a six-year-old, you know.

"I probably would have just been thinking about how much it hurt when I fell."

[alotofgood]

"Yeah, I know," James says. "But then, I was sort of a brilliant six year old, too."

He grins.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Got your brilliant years over early, then, did you?" Lily asks, with a perfectly innocent straight face.

[alotofgood]

"Well, they just led to the epic years after," says James, "so yeah — I suppose so."

There is more grinning.

And maybe a soft laugh.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Your modesty does you credit, James.

"And Amity is glaring at you again."

[alotofgood]

James turns to look over at where Amity is sitting.

And yeah.

She's definitely glaring at him. She isn't even making a point to pretend like she isn't.

"Hello, Amity," he says.

Amity's eyes narrow. "If you're going to spend the rest of the time talking, could you please kindly go back to your Common Room to do it?"

[lilium_evansiae]

"Amity," Lily says, and there's just the slightest edge of her Prefect Voice slipping into her tone, "I really do hate to be the one to have to break this to you, but ... you don't own the library."

Amity gapes at her for just a second, and Lily turns back to her (conducted at a perfectly reasonable volume for a library) conversation with James.

"Where were we?"

[alotofgood]

James blinks; then his expression becomes one of awe and amusement.

He laughs again into his sleeve, and then covers it with a rather obvious cough.

"Blimey, Lily — that was brilliant," he says, his voice its usual library-volume low.

"For that, I'll give you the truth of that story," he says. "It's true that was the moment I decided I loved flying more than just about anything in the world, but I mostly kept the scar because it looked really cool and I knew it'd make Peter a bit sick the next time he came over."

[lilium_evansiae]

He gets a very bright smile for a second, in response to his first statement.

"Now, see, that sounds rather more like a six-year-old boy to me," Lily says.

"You've know Pettigrew that long?"

[alotofgood]

James laughs.

"But not as nice a story, is it?" he says. "Yeah, I've known Pete for practically my whole life. Our parents knew each other pretty well; they were working together on some society event and Peter and I were the only ones the same age. He had this fantastic red train."

[lilium_evansiae]

"It's still not a bad story. I bet you gave the healers fits, regardless.

As for the information about Pettigrew, well ... that explains a lot, doesn't it? About why he is included in their little group.

"A red train?"

[alotofgood]

"Yeah," James says. "It looked like the Hogwarts Express. I'll bet he's still got it somewhere, if you asked him about it."

[lilium_evansiae]

"I guess we probably all still have some stuff somewhere, from when we were little."

She looks around the library for a second.

"That was before I knew about any of this."

[alotofgood]

"Yeah? What sorts of things did you have when you were little?" James asks, curiously.