OOM: Valentine's Day, 1976

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily looks into the mirror again, like she's checking her hair one last time.

Actually, she's wondering for the fifteenth time this morning why she thought this was a good idea.

She's barely knows Jeremy Flourish. And it's Valentine's Day.

And, yeah, all right, she's spent some time with him since he asked out, but mostly, they've studied together. They haven't had to talk.

God, what the hell are they going to talk about?

"You look fine, Lily," Mary says.

Mary is sitting cross-legged on her bed, braiding her hair. Cliona and Glynis and Perdita have already gone. Mary is, as Mary generally is, running just slightly behind.

Lily is just stalling.

"Thanks," Lily says, turning away from the mirror. "I guess I should ... unless you want me to wait for you ... " she adds, hopefully.

"No need," Mary says. "I'll be along in few minutes."

"Oh. Well, um, all right," Lily says. "I should go, then, shouldn't I?"

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"Look, do you want me to tell him you're not feeling well and you can't make it?"

"That obvious, huh?" Lily says.

"To me, yeah. But if Cliona and Perdita and Glynis had noticed, they'd be here, right? Well, maybe not Cliona, what with Fenton waiting for her," Mary says, laughing a little. "But Perdita would be here."

"True," Lily concedes.

"I will tell him you can't make it, if you want me to."

"No," Lily says. "No, that's a fairly horrid thing to do to him at the last minute. It'll be fine, right?"

"Of course it will," Mary says. "Just forget that it's Valentine's Day and try to have a good time, all right?"

"Right," Lily says.

"Come on, I'll walk with you," Mary says, grabbing her cloak.

"Thank you."

Jeremy is waiting, when they get to the entrance hall. He comes over to meet them at the bottom of the steps. "Hi."

"Hi," Lily says. "Um, you know my friend, Mary, right?"

"Of course," he says. "Hello, Mary."

If he finds it at all odd that Lily has arrived for their date with her roommate in tow, it doesn't show.

Mary smiles. "Jeremy," she says. And then, "I'll see you guys later. Have fun."

She starts to move toward the queue of students waiting to check out and leave for Hogsmeade.

"Mary," Jeremy says, and she stops. "Will you be all right on your own?"

"Yeah, of course," Mary says. "I'm meeting Perdita and Glynis. Perdita says they'll be holding a table at the Three Broomsticks. Thanks, though."

Jeremy nods and turns his attention to Lily.

"That was nice of you," Lily says.

Lily worries, a little, about leaving Mary on her own, after what happened last fall. Mary thinks she's worrying needlessly, and has told her as much, but Lily worries anyway.

Still, it's unlikely anything will happen on a well-traveled path full of their fellow students, and she'll be coming back with Perdita and Glynis.

Jeremy smiles, looks down at his feet, and then back at Lily. "You look really nice."

"You, too."

"So, um, we should go, right?"

"Yeah," Lily says. "Yeah, we should."

"Right."

"Okay."

Oh, God.

It's the last thing either of them says, until they have to give their names to Filch.

And then ... well, at least walking in silence is slightly less awkward than standing in silence.

Sort of.

She'll think of something to say, right?

Before Easter?

Comments

[alotofgood]

Some moments later, James (followed by a reluctant Remus, and an eager Peter) enter Madam Puddifoot's teashop.

"Blimey," James remarks, on the verge of a snort. "This is — have you ever seen anything like it?"

"... I wish I hadn't," says Remus.

"It's usually quite terrible during regular days, I assure you," says James, "but this is something else. Ghastly."

"There's Padfoot," Peter says, gesturing to a table by the fireplace with convenient high-backed chairs.

They're pink.

And they're covered in glitter.

And there's a girl sitting in the chair opposite to Sirius.

"All right. Remus, I want you to keep an eye out on Evans and her date," says James. He passes his mirror to him. "And please, for godsake man, exercise discretion, all right?"

Remus gives him a 'Do I have to?' look, but James is already steering him forward, before he and Peter head towards Sirius.

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily, whose chair faces away from the door, has missed all this.

And Jeremy, who saw them come in, has no reason to think anything of it.

"What looks good?" Jeremy asks, looking up from his own menu to Lily.

"Oh, um, anything," she says.

"Do you want something to eat?"

Lily looks down at the menu again.

"What can I get you, m'dears?" asks a stout witch with a neat black bun, and Lily decides to go out on a limb and assume that this is Madam Puddifoot.

"Two teas," Jeremy says, "and, um, well, we've never been here before, so whatever you'd recommend to go with them, maybe? Is that all right, Lily?"

"Of course."

She wonders what they've just ordered.

Madam Puddifoot smiles brightly at them. "Coming right up."

[alotofgood]

"— did you get that, Prongs?" asks a very reluctant Remus from his side of the mirror.

"Perfect. Thanks, Moony."

"D'you hear that, Pad —"

Sirius and the Fourth Year appear to be in a deep conversation in the other seat across from James (and Peter).

A very ... intimate one.

James sighs.

"All right, Wormy," he says. "I suppose it's just you and me, mate."

"I won't let you down, Prongs! Anything at all, I'll get it done! Perfect-like!"

"D'you see those cherubs?"

"The ah — fat babies? Yes."

"Right. Here's what we're going to do ..."

[lilium_evansiae]

Madam Puddifoot has a very generous definition of 'right up.'

Lily looks at Jeremy, who looks at Lily, and then they both look down at their hards.

"I guess--" he says, right as she says, "Did you--"

They both stop.

"Yes?" she says.

"No, you go ahead," he says.

"It's not important. What were you going to say?"

"I guess--"

Jeremy breaks off again, and four -- four -- of the cherubs fly over and surround their table.

One of them bows to Lily, more or less, and then pelts her in the face with a handful of pink confetti. "At the gentleman's request," he says, with a grand gesture towards Jeremy.

And then they start singing.

They start singing "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love."

In four-part harmony.

Oh, come and stir my cauldron,
And if you do it right,
I'll boil you up some hot strong love
To keep you warm tonight.

[alotofgood]

"Smashing job, Wormy!" James cheers to Peter when the other boy returns from his important mission.

He laughs uncontrollably for a moment. Peter joins in.

"— what's that?" Sirius appears to have dislodged himself from the Fourth Year who has now gone missing.

Peter asks, "Where —"

"The loo," Sirius answers. "What's going on, then?"

James massages his sides. "Oh my god, Pads. It's the most fucking brilliant thing. Look."

"Are they —"

"Moony, are you seeing this?"

From the mirror, James can hear muffled, polite laughter. Then a clearing of a throat, followed by, "Um. Yes. Yes, I can see it."

[lilium_evansiae]

"That's really enough," Jeremy says, to the cherubs, and rather more forcefully than Lily has ever heard him say anything before.

They stop singing, looking affronted.

"I didn't ask them to do that," he tells Lily.

One of them hits her in the face with a second handful of confetti.

"Please go away," Jeremy says to the cherubs.

"Not without a tip," the lead cherub says.

"Excuse me?"

"That's the rules," the cherub says. "We sing, we get a tip. Sickle apiece."

Jeremy looks like he's considering arguing, and then pulls out four Sickles and hands them to the cherubs.

"Cheers, guv," the lead cherub says, and they fly off.

"I really didn't ask them to do that," Jeremy tells Lily.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" Lily says, standing.

Because she has just spotted someone else not often seen alone on a Hogsmeade weekend.

Sitting by himself at a table in Madam Puddifoot's.

Very odd behavior, really.

"I'll be right back," she tells Jeremy.

And then ...

"Hello, Remus."

[alotofgood]

James can hear Lily's voice coming from the mirror; that sobers him almost immediately.

"Shit."

Sirius blinks. "What?"

"It's Moony. We're dangerously close to getting uncovered here." He swears again as he peers over the side of the high-back chair and gets confirmation.

"No problem. I've got it covered," says Sirius.

"No! No. You're already apparently with someone else. Peter — you go."

"What, me?"

"Yes. You could ... say you dragged Moony here because you were scouting for girls or some-such. I don't know. Make something up!"

"Um. U-um. Right. Got it, Prongs! I won't —"

"Get on with it, then!"



A moment later, Peter appears by Remus' side, just as Remus has finished saying, "Good day, Lily. How are you?"

"Moony, ah — there you are! Why'd you run off, then? Useless wingman you are."

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily looks from Lupin to Pettigrew and back.

"Right," she says, to Lupin. "I don't know what's going on here, but whatever it is, it stops right now."

[alotofgood]

"What?" both Peter and Remus ask, simultaneously.

"— um. Miss Evans," says Peter, "I asked Remus to come here with me. I was — sort of looking to see if I could ... you know. Find someone to be my Valentine today."


James and Sirius listen in, tense and a bit on edge. Everything, right now, rides on Peter making Lily believe him.

Peter isn't the best liar they've got — never has been — but right now, it's all riding on him.


Remus clears his throat.

"Yes, exactly. I didn't know you were going to be here, Lily. But if you'd rather we left, we can do so. I don't think Peter will find anyone here anyway." He waves a hand about, vaguely. "Only couples here."

(James and Sirius duck back behind their chair.)

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily looks at them, eyes narrowed.

She doesn't believe them.

It's a ridiculous story.

So ridiculous, in fact, that she does not bother to dignify it with a response.

She just goes back to her date.

"Everything all right?" Jeremy asks.

"Fine."

"The tea's here."

"I see," she says, sitting back down.

The cups are very pink.

"She said the food would be here in a moment."

"Lovely."

[alotofgood]

Moments later, Peter and Remus have disappeared from their spot.

They find another table, somewhere out of view from Jeremy and Lily.

"I don't think she believed us," Remus says to the mirror.

James sighs. "That's because Peter's a shit liar."

"I tried my best!" Peter argues from beside Remus.

"I told you I should've gone," Sirius says.

"No," says James. "She'd definitely suspect you."

"I hated having to lie to her at all," says Remus.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to get the last stage of this ready," James says. He passes the mirror over to Sirius and saunters towards the kitchens.

[lilium_evansiae]

All Lily wants right now is for the food to come, so they can eat it, so they can leave, so she can come up with some reason she really needs to go meet Perdita and Mary and Glynis, and put this whole disaster of a date behind her forever.

"The tea's good," Jeremy says. "Maybe a bit strong."

"Strong's okay," Lily says.

"Oh, good," he says. "Milk?"

"Please. And sugar."

Jeremy slides the sugar dish across the table to her.

"Thank you."

[alotofgood]

The kitchens, James decides, really don't need to match the rest of the teashop's decor.

He'd never seen a pink stove-top until now.

And he's never smelled so much bloody cinnamon and honey in his life.

The point is, however, James managed to complete the last part of tonight's festivities.

Now it is time to simply watch and hope his efforts have successfully managed to keep Lily Evans and Jeremy Flourish apart.

[lilium_evansiae]

Madam Puddifoot bustles over to their table with a pair of plates.

One holds scones and small sandwiches.

The other holds a small, but elaborately iced in pink, chocolate cake.

"Here you are, m'dears," she says, setting both on the table in between them.

"Thank you," Jeremy says, and she bustles off.

"They look good, don't they?" Jeremy asks Lily.

She nods distractedly, eyes on a piece of parchment sticking up out of the cake with her name at the top.

"What's that?" Jeremy asks.

Lily pulls it out of the cake and reads it, eyebrows moving closer and closer to her hairline as she does so.

[alotofgood]

"Is she reading it?" James hisses in Sirius' ear, nearly scaring the other boy out of his trousers.

"Bloody hell, James! Try to make a little bit more noise next time, would you?"

James ignores him. "Is she?" he presses.

"I think so. It looks like it."

There's a pause.

"Well," Sirius continues, "there's a piece of parchment in her hands."

"Good. That, I suppose, is the end of that where Mr Flourish is concerned, then."

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily looks up from the parchment to Jeremy, who is watching her read it, plainly curious.

She hands it across the table to him without a word, and watches his eyes move down the paper.

He finishes, and very carefully sets it on the table, next to his tea.

Jeremy looks at Lily.

Lily looks at Jeremy.

They're both absolutely silent for a beat.

Two.

And then, at once, they burst out laughing.

"Oh, my God," Lily says, when she can speak again.

"I know," Jeremy says.

"That is the worst poem I've ever read in my life."

"Yes," Jeremy says. "And I was at the launch of Calliope Belfrage's 'Reflections on Things at the Bottom of My Late Husband's Cauldron' and Other Poems. She read the whole aloud in the store. I don't know how I didn't laugh."

"I've never heard of that book," Lily says.

"You haven't missed much, really."

"So I gather." Lily looks at the poem "Jeremy" wrote again, and breaks out into a fresh round of giggles. "I think my favorite line is 'your red hair red.' What does that even mean? 'Your red hair red.'"

"I have no idea," Jeremy says. "Though I do have to confess to being rather, what's the word here, 'wowed' by you."

Lily smiles and leans toward him a little. "Look, do you want to get out of here? Let's go to the Three Brooksticks and get a butterbeer or something. Start over. Without confetti."

"I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

"Brilliant," says Lily.

Jeremy drops two Galleons on the table. "I'll get our cloaks."

A moment later, they're gone, Lily wrapped back up in Jeremy's scarf, her arm linked through his.

The door closes on her saying, "So tell me more about this terrible poet and her book."

[alotofgood]

It's like his absolute worst nightmare is coming to life.

For a very long, very drawn out moment, James simply stays where he is, one hand clutching the side of the edge of the chair until he's certain it will start to meld into the upholstery.

And then Sirius is shaking his shoulder.

"Um. Sorry, mate," he says sympathetically.

James doesn't answer.

How did that happen?

How did that not work? He'd had it all planned out in his head.

Evans would think Flourish was completely daft, a bit creepy maybe, or at the very least — completely off his rocker. There'd be tea flung in his face, cake thrown into his lap. An angry kick to the shins, maybe.

Instead, it'd all gone wrong.

So, so very wrong.

"James?" It's Remus. He pats his back. "Drinks on us tonight?"

"Yeah, mate. We've got about three bottles back at the dorms," Sirius says.

Finally, his voice feeling a bit foreign to him, James manages: "Yeah. Yeah, all right."