The Astronomy Tower

[Lily Evans]

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[Lily Evans]

Lily, who is meant to be doing her Prefect rounds with Remus, has gone on ahead. Figuring he got caught up with his friends, she climbs the stairs to check the tower and make sure students aren't loitering up there. He'll catch up with her. She waits, leaning her arms against the railing and peering out over the darkened grounds.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus really does not like it when his friends interrupt his Prefect rounds, but what can he do when they just suddenly appear, acting like a bunch of monkeys? He just has to stop and make sure they don't get into any trouble. Luckily they go away pretty quickly and he manages to finally get caught up with Lily. He joins her by the railing and sighs. "You'd think they know by now that trying to turn Filch's cat different colors never ends well." He commented quietly. Remus was not much of a people person - being a social butterfly was Sirius' thing not his - but he always did enjoy talking to Lily. She was one of his best friends and it was always nice to talk to someone who kind of understood him, besides the werewolf part. Cause...I don't know if she knows about it yet or not.

[Lily Evans]

Typical - As soon as I try to relax the printing explodes. Blah.

Lily smiles softly, feeling the chill of the breeze on her face as she turns her head to look at Remus briefly as he joins her, and then looks back towards the grounds. "Right. Although expecting them to learn is a bit much, don't you think?" She lets the silence sit between them for a few long moments, it's part of what she loves about her friendship with Remus actually. He's so very peaceful to be around. She does know that he's a werewolf, she figured it out long ago, but she's never let on to Remus that she knows. Somehow, Lily feels like he would withdraw if he knew she had figured it out, and she wants to make sure it doesn't change anything between them. "They must be losing their edge if they're falling back on that old hat trick, though."

[Remus Lupin]

"It is." The corner of Remus' mouth twitched up in a small smile. He knew his friends were quite the trouble makers, and that sometimes even he had to wonder why he hung out with them - considering he was quite the opposite - but, then again, they were his friends. And they accepted him, even despite his lycanthropy. They would call him a sappy old fool again if he said anything about how much they meant to him. So he just keeps his mouth shut. "Honestly I think they're just playing it safe for now, since it's the beginning of the year and all. I have a feeling they're going to have a bit more fun once they lead the teachers astray, making them think they've toned it down a bit." Knowing Sirius and James, yeah that would make sense. Plus, after the horrible incident last year that nearly got Severus killed, Remus was sure they would be more careful for a while.

[Lily Evans]

"Sounds about right. Oh well, I guess we should just enjoy the easy rounds while we've got them if there's only so long until the natives get restless," Lily murmurs. She grins, though, because it would actually be quite the feat for the Marauders to convince anybody that they've toned down. Leaning into Remus a little, Lily nudges him companionably. "So what else is new? Did you see that note about how the new Head Girl wants us all to patrol Hogsmeade weekends as well? Fat chance," she scoffs. As important as responsibility is, Lily thinks anybody who doesn't understand that sometimes people just need to relax is mental.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus nods in agreement. After all, he knows all to well how things can get pretty crazy as the year progresses. He was not looking forward to winter - troublemakers liked to throw snowballs at prefects on occasion, it had been known to happen, and that was not something he looked forward to. Well, maybe he wouldn't have to worry about that. After all, he was so quiet half the time that hardly half the house ever even remember who he was or the fact that he was one of their prefects. Remus about dies a little when Lily nudges him, because, hey, she may be the only girl he was really friends with, but in general he was not used to physical contact of any sort and it always freaked him out a little. He makes a face when Lily mentions what the new Head Girl wanted the prefects to do. "I saw that. I hardly even go to Hogsmeade half the time unless Sirius or James drags me out. It's ridiculous." Most of the time, if he can get away from his friends somehow, Remus prefers to spend those weekends instead in the library. It's always nice to have a break from prefect duties and just work in general to read a book.

[Lily Evans]

Lily isn't looking forward to winter either. She feels the cold far too keenly for the drafty halls and classrooms of Hogwarts to be really comfortable for her. She loves the evenings when she has nothing to do the most, when she can curl up in front of the fire in one of the comfy chairs in Gryffindor tower and read a book, or laze about in bed chatting with the girls in her dorm. She bites her lip, determined not to frown as she notices Remus' discomfort at the contact between them. 'One day,' she thinks, 'One day he'll let me give him a proper hug.'
"I love going to Hogsmeade. It's so quaint and lovely and fairytale. Really, though, when I go there I want to hang out with my mates, and shop, and drink butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. I think it's stretching the friendship a bit too much to expect us to spend half our day wandering up and down the street making sure people don't wander off. If she wants to do that, good luck to her," Lily announces, nose wrinkled.

[Remus Lupin]

"I agree with you on that." Remus replied, sighing a bit. "It would feel just too odd patrolling those streets when we're there to have some fun. Besides, sadly you know I'd end up wandering off myself just to find James and Sirius to make sure they wouldn't be doing anything too against the rules. You'd have to tell me off and that would be odd." He almost laughs at the thought. It probably wasn't too often that one prefect had to scold another prefect for breaking the rules. He was sure that even if the Head Girl continued to tell them to patrol the streets half of them wouldn't do it. Or at least they'd pretend they were. After all, even the prefects wanted to take a break every now and then to have fun. Ah well. Knowing Remus he'd probably end up doing it just because he was always too scared to break the rules. Sure he did on occasion because of his friends, but even then he felt terribly guilty about it.

[Lily Evans]

Lily does laugh. "Well if they had any sense, the Heads would save their energy on this idea and just tail those two every Hogsmeade trip. Almost all the troubles we have are from that pair anyway. It's almost a relief when they decide to take it easy for a while and just go flirt with Rosmerta to try and get her to serve them Firewhiskey." She shakes her head, smile still playing about her lips. "My theory is that it's not in school grounds, so unless somebody is getting hurt it's really not my place to worry. We're Prefects, not cops. Or Aurors," she amends hastily. Of course Lily likes people to do the right thing, and she'd never just stand by and watch someone be injured or bullied or otherwise wander into harm's way, but there is a limit.

[Remus Lupin]

"Actually I tend to worry more when they start flirting with Rosmerta for Firewhiskey." Remus shakes his head. His friends did weird things while drunk and Remus always had to pick up after them afterward. Never the most fun. "And you're right. It's not school grounds, and even though we're generally responsible to make sure no one gets into too much trouble, it's not as much our job when we're in the village." He knew Lily would never just stand around and not do anything in a bad situation, and he admired her for that. Sometimes he wished he was that strong of a person. Half the time he felt useless because he never did as much as he wanted to when there were problems or so. Maybe some day he would reach that point, but for now he had to just live with the fact that he was most definitely not as strong as Lily Evans.

[i've reached the point where i don't even know what i'm writing anymore. hahahaha. XD but it's only 2:48 in the morning! i still have to keep going! XD my dad just now got home...]

[Lily Evans]

"It sounds like there are a lot of stories there," Lily says. She smirks. "Never, ever tell me, alright?" She turns around so that her back is to the grounds, leaning her lower back and bum against the railings and looking back into the castle itself. She contemplates a little bit, wondering why she feels that lingering edge of responsibility even when she knows it's not her job, like in the village. She supposes it had a lot to do with Sev over the years. At first, she'd been fiercely protective of her best friend, particularly since Potter, Black, and sometimes Pettigrew too would so dearly love to gang up on him. Then as the years passed and Sev grew closer to his own housemates and their love of the dark arts, power, and blood supremacy, it became more a matter of standing up to Sev and showing him what was right. Lily smiles again, although it's a little distant. "Well, no more our job than everybody's. There's only so much you can do for people until they have to do for themselves," she says quietly.


[HAHAHAHAHAHA you're going fuzzy earlier than I expected!!!! <3 Ugh, I've got an hour til closing so I don't know if I'll get back on to reply before that. Love you <3 XXOO]

[Krasimir Svetkova]

[it's only cause i've been up since 7!! *still has some coffee left that's keeping her going* XD]

[Remus Lupin]

"Oh, I won't, don't worry." Remus is pretty sure Lily would have a heart attack if she knew all the crazy stories he had from all those times James and Sirius managed to get a hold of firewhiskey. Plus he probably wouldn't be a very good friend to James if he gave Lily more reasons to think him an absolute idiot. After Lily's silent for a bit, Remus sneaks a quick glance, wondering what she's thinking about. "I guess you're right, there." Her smile seems rather distant. Remus has never been the best at comforting others - the right words never seem to come to him and physical comfort, such as hugs, always make him feel awkward - but he feels like he should at least try, because Lily seems like she may need it. Comforting people may not be something he's good at, but sensing others' feelings is. He reaches out and touches her shoulder lightly, in what he hopes is a comforting gesture, and even gives her a soft smile before looking back out over the railing. Smiling never seemed to come easily for him - he didn't know why, maybe it was just because he worried too much and liked to keep himself so composed - but there were some moments where he just couldn't help but smile. It never lasted long though. "So...this is quite a big year for us, huh?" He figured maybe a change in topic might help. "You still want to be a healer?"

[Lily Evans]

Lily's smile becomes more pronounced, she returns to the present with the contact of Remus' hand on her arm. She reaches up, brushing his fingers lightly with her own for a second, and gives him a warm look. "It is. Only a few months ago it was OWLs and now here we are starting our NEWT level courses. I think my hands were shaking just a little when I chose my classes with McGonagall on the first day," she confesses, rolling her eyes slightly at herself. "It's not so much about those choices dictating our last two years of study here, but Merlin, it's our whole lives after that! I am sure though," she adds after a moment, smiling. "I'm going to be a healer. Do some good amongst all this great bloody mess. How about you?" She doesn't remember Remus really talking too much about a career, he always seems to hold back just a little. Well, a lot, but on some things more than others.

[Lily Evans]

Lily wrapped her coat tighter around her as she trudged alone up the stairs of the Astronomy tower. It was a couple of weeks before Christmas and the full moon was high in the sky while she made her rounds alone. For obvious reasons, Remus was not with her; she’d just smiled and told him not to worry about it when he blushed and stumbled through some excuse about his sick mother, and how he’d not be able to do his share of the rounds. Of course, it meant that her duties were lonely and always seemed to take longer when she was alone, but she didn’t mind. Her wand was held loosely in her hand just to make her feel a little more secure about walking around the school at night. She’d never really had a problem with anyone, but she couldn’t feel entirely comfortable and Lily didn’t feel like she’d be letting her guard down anytime soon.

The night was clear and cloudless when Lily emerged fully into the open once more, she could see easily by the starlight and the moonlight, though she glanced up at the glowing moon a little apprehensively at the reminder of Remus’ current satiation. Lily looked around, but there was nobody else on the tower.

“Thank Merlin for that,” she muttered. She’d had to send a couple of Hufflepuffs who clearly hadn’t practiced their silencing charms well enough back to their common room on the sixth floor, and that was enough excitement for one evening. The breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders a little as Lily wandered over to the railing and looked out at the grounds. Hogwarts really was beautiful, and even more so in these rare private moments when Lily was alone and free. Below, all was quiet and still beyond the lazy back and forth waving of the tree branches, and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore of the lake in the distance. Lily lost track of time, just watching the night and taking the chance to relax, to be alone and free for just a little while.

A sharper flicker of movement drew Lily’s attention further down along the grounds, not too far from the base of the Whomping Willow. Clutching her wand tighter in her fingers, Lily leaned further out to get a better view. Out of nowhere, figures were emerging, first one, then two, then three bodies appeared from thin air like something from one of those slapstick comedies her Dad hogged the telly to watch all summer. In the light of the skies above, it only took Lily a moment to pick the bodies down on the grounds, and the source of their sudden appearance.

“Who else?” she murmured, although there was a hint of a smile about her as she watched James, Sirius and Peter having a conversation a little ways beyond the reach of the violent Willow. It looked like Peter was holding the cloak, folding it up and stuffing it in his cloak pocket. Sirius and James, on the other hand, seemed more preoccupied with their usual play-fighting. For half a second it felt vaguely voyeuristic for Lily to be watching the boys, they clearly were expecting to be alone and unwatched because who would be out on a night like this, anyway? A frown crossed Lily’s face. Why would anyone be out on a night like this, including the boys?

She couldn’t hear what was going on, the scene below played out like a silent film, but she could tell enough of what was happening by the outlines. Having seen it all a hundred times before filled in the rest; James and Sirius wrestling about on the ground while Peter looked on and laughed, always cheering for whoever happened to look like they were coming out on top at any moment. Then, suddenly, the scene was no longer something Lily had seen before. One of the shapes had shaken and mutated, the other pushed it back and Lily made out something shaggy and four-legged. What had been Sirius Black a second ago was now a dog, and a pretty big one too, judging from the size of the thing in comparison to Peter – it stood to around the boy’s middle.

Lily was leaning forwards so far now she was almost in danger of overbalancing. “What the hell?” It crossed her mind to shout out to them, but she knew it would be pointless and that if they even heard her to begin with, they’d be back under the Cloak and gone before she was even to the Astronomy tower steps, so she bit her lip and stayed silent to watch. More strangeness was to come, right before Lily’s eyes James stood up and, with a shake of his limbs his own silhouette morphed. In his place stood a stag, the creature seeming to give off a regal air even from so far away.

The stillness of the scene lasted only a moment before the dog and the stag moved as one. There was something so coordinated about them, even as animals, that Lily half expected the dance was synchronised. The pair wrestled and gambolled playfully about in a whirl of fur and limbs and antlers. Lily watched Sirius the dog rush James the stag, the stag putting his head down at the last moment and then bucking upwards so that the dog, seemingly not really quite sure how it happened, found himself standing precariously on his friend’s broader back. The dog straightened in a manner of triumph and the stag, tossing its head to look around and see what had happened, stomped one hoof in disdain. Lily couldn’t help laughing at the display, so ridiculously James and Sirius even in this form. The stag rolled, the dog was dislodged, and the game seemed to draw to a close after a few more playful jabs.

Only a minute after they disappeared, James and Sirius reappeared in their usual two-legged forms and rejoined Peter. The smaller boy seemed to wait a moment, and then he too was gone. Lily saw the shaking of his limbs, but she couldn’t see the end result from such a distance and figured that whatever animal form Peter had taken on –really? Peter of all people? Well, Lily’d never have guessed!– was much smaller than the others. She watched in silent confusion as the branches of the Whomping Willow froze in an unnatural way for such a breezy night, and much to her concern James and Sirius sauntered directly into the range of the tree. But it remained frozen, the boys sauntered right up to the trunk and disappeared beneath it somehow, seeming to Lily’s eyes to melt into it one after the other and soon after the tree was unfrozen.

The night seemed as untouched as ever.

‘Well that was interesting.’

Chewing her lip, distracted and barely paying any attention to the path ahead of her as she walked, Lily tapped her wand against the palm of her hand and mulled over everything she had seen. She turned the clues over one by one, examining them from all angles. The full moon, Remus’ absence. Well, she’d figured that one out long ago, it’d follow that the boys who shared his dorm would have come to that conclusion even more easily than she. But the tree, the Whomping Willow… Dumbledore had forbidden them to even go too near it, ever since first year, when Davey Gudgeon had almost lost his eye trying to play chicken with it. James and Sirius had sauntered right up to it and disappeared and it hadn’t even tried to stop them. The only thing Lily could think, when she put her mind to it, was that there was a room, or an entrance or something hidden below, and the Willow was its guardian. It made sense, really; who would try to argue with a tree that could likely bitch-slap a person to death?

The realisation hit Lily so suddenly that she actually stopped in her tracks, eyes widening. A second later she was grateful it was so deserted and nobody was around to see her looking like such a fool, she shook her head and continued on. Clearly, the Willow was there to guard Remus. Her blood ran cold; if it was guarding Remus on the nights of the full moon, when he was a fully-fledged werewolf, what in the world were his friends doing following him!? She’d even taken a couple of steps in the direction of Dumbeldore’s office at a run in the flurry of that moment of panic where there was only room in her head for thoughts of the boys –James!– blundering in to be ripped to shreds, and what pain they’d be in before their deaths, and what Remus would do in the morning when he awoke to the sight of what had happened… But then her brain caught up with her once more, and she slowed to a walk. The animals. The Marauders were Animagi (unregistered, highly illegal Animagi, Lily was fairly certain), and everyone knew werewolves were only a danger to humans and fluffy bunnies.

A noise of complete and utter disbelief came from deep in Lily’s throat. She shook her head as finally she made her way back to Gryffindor tower and her nice warm dorm room, holding back laughter at the ridiculous ingenuity of it all. Oh yes, there was going to be a conversation with James about this one.

“Bloody unbelievable.”

[James Potter]

[alksdjadf *bouncing excitedly*]

[Lily Evans]

Lily had barely stopped moving since she left James abruptly at the top of the Grand staircase; an hour wasn't all that long for her to get everything ready, but she'd not wanted to leave it any longer than that. She'd darted here and there about the castle, first to her dorm room where she'd picked up what she needed, run out, got half way down the stairs, run back up to her trunk, changed her outfit twice and combed her hair, then finally made it out of Gryffindor tower again. Next, she'd visited the kitchens, where the house elves had very kindly agreed to deliver a picnic basket to the Astronomy tower for her. She'd asked only for light snacks, not wanting them to trouble themselves too much, but the basket that had been left in the tower before she had even arrived was so full she had to levitate it to move it about.

Her final stop before arriving here had been to the Muggle Studies classroom. Thankfully it was holidays, and quiet, and the Professors never seemed to feel the need to lock their classrooms so "liberating" the record player had been no trouble. She was only borrowing it for a few hours, and luckily it wasn't actually a proper muggle record player, but an adaptation of a magical gramophone that would work in Hogwarts and play muggle records.

She spread a picnic rug on the stone floor, adding a cushioning charm to make it a more appealing seat. Ever the perfectionist when it came to the details, Lily set the picnic basket on one corner of the rug, and the record player opposite. She smoothed the rug down neatly. Next to the player was a calico bag stuffed with as many muggle records as Lily had been able to get her hands on before returning to Hogwarts, a little selection of music she thought (hoped!) James would like. The adrenaline of her rushing about left the heat high in Lily's cheeks, she checked her watch, let out a whoosh of breath, and smoothed her hair back behind her ears. Any minute now... To save herself the awkwardness of staring expectantly at the stairwell and concocting all sorts of wild stories in her head about James changing his mind, convincing herself he was never going to turn up while she waited, she turned firmly from the stairwell. She moved to the edge of the tower, leaning forward and resting her forearms on the railing.

It was dark, much darker than the last time she'd been here, the stars hidden behind the clouds. There was most definitely going to be a lot of snow tonight and the cold air blasted her face when she leaned forwards. The knowledge would usually be enough to send Lily running for the comfort of the fire in Gryffindor tower, but not tonight. She had set the picnic blanket up under cover already, and Lily wasn't ace at Charms for nothing. It didn't take her more than a minute to have the area so well covered by an Impervious charm that it was like invisible walls surrounded them, and a subtle warming charm lifted the temperature a few degrees. Lily smoothed her hair down again and chewed on her lip.

Now, she waited.

[*waits excitedly for James to catch up* XD]

[James Potter]

James had been going out of his mind, wondering what Lily was up to for the past hour. His mood had improved drastically, the thoughts of a date with Lily suggested by Lily doing wonders for the scowl that had been on his expression for the past few days. Instead, his comfortable grin was back, the lazy ruffling of his hair and general confident way he carried himself. James was nothing if not resilient. He went back to the dorm, avoiding explanations to the others by directing conversation back to the fact that Padfoot had probably eaten half of Moony's christmas chocolate by now, though Moony insisted he'd eaten most of what was missing. James grabbed a clean shirt and changed, mumbling something about spilling something on it when Peter expressed a most interested question of why he was changing into the nice shirt when they were just lounging around the dorm anyway.

He managed to excuse himself, Padfoot and Moony were already lost in conversation and negotiations over more chocolates, and he pushed away Wormtail's questions by telling him he could help himself to the box of peanut brittle his mother had owled him this morning. He figured the box would be empty when he got back, but he didn't mind. James set off though the castle at something of a lively trot, making his way up toward the Astronomy tower as quickly as he could. Curiosity pulled him on, and he wondered if he ought to have brought blankets or coats or something since it was likely to be drafty up there.

Upon opening the door, he braced himself for the chill of open air, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was in fact quite warm, and not breezy in the least. A quick glance around, and he spotted Lily over to the side, pushing the door closed behind him. "Fancy seeing you here," he called out, a smirk spreading across his face and his hand moving into his hair out of old habit.

[Lily Evans]

Lily, who for all her determination not to stare at the door was certainly straining her ears for sounds of James' approach, turned towards James as soon as she heard him step onto the landing. She grinned quickly. "Mmm, fancy that," she agreed, her voice dry but her eyes warm. She watched as he fell back on old habits, ruffling his hair, but rather than the old annoyance she found herself vaguely amused by the action; maybe he didn't even realise he was doing it anymore.

After a moment of just standing there, several paces away from James, staring at him and contemplating how completely weird it was that they were now officially on a date (and she hadn't even seen any pigs flying, and there'd been no memo about hell freezing over!), Lily gestured towards the picnic rug.

"Erm, no idea what the elves have got in that basket for us, to be honest. I only asked for some light snacks if it'd be no trouble but I can't even lift it," she said, shrugging. Lily was no weakling -James himself could attest to that, she packed a surprising amount of power behind her punch- so she knew any basket she couldn't move freely had to have quite a lot packed in it, to put it mildly. She nodded to the modified gramophone and the calico bag next to it. "At Halloween you said you didn't know who Sid Vicious was, or punk rock or anything like that, but I think it's something you'd like. You lot might have all the perks of magic at home, you see," she smirked, moving to take a seat and start pulling records out of the bag, "But when it comes to music -real music, good music-, you're a sad, sorry, deprived society. Figured it was high time you learned just what you're missing."

[ooops running late for shift now. Iregretnothing.gif]

[James Potter]

James looked at the things as she pointed them out, a wide smile spreading across his face as she did so. "Heavy, huh?" He moved over to the basket, and leaned over to lift it. He was expecting something pretty solid, packed full and heavier than it looked, but when he tried to lift it, he only got it a few inches off the ground before he put it quickly back down, his eyes wide in shock. "What in the world did they stuff in there? A whole feast worth of food? Those elves... Merlin bless 'em. They love spoiling us." He grinned widely, turning his attention to the record player. "Alright, muggle music. We'll just have to see how good this stuff is. I hold you to high musical standards because of your little speech just now, you know." He lifted his chin and put on a fake aristocratic look, which was quickly broken by another purely happy smile.

He took a seat across from her, glancing at the bag of records she was holding, but quickly becoming distracted by the very solid presence of that basket of food on the other corner of the blanket. "Let's see what we've got in here... though it seems it might be a shorter list to see what we haven't got." He opened up the top of the basket and started pulling things out, finding that it had all been topped off with silverware and dishes and all things of the like. He removed those and placed them in front of himself and Lily: a shiny white plate, a full set of silverware, clean cloth napkins, a regular cup and one shaped more like a wine glass, and a few other smaller plates for side dishes, and finally a little tea cup set for each of them. He found the tea pot after that, absolutely full of the most delicious smelling piping hot tea, as well as a cup of sugar and some cream. "Well that was probably most of the weight..." he mused, moving to pick up the basket to move it closer, shocked to find that it still weighed a half ton. "Maybe not! They made us a right feast. Hopefully the smell of it won't draw Padfoot and the others. Actually, if you don't mind..." he pulled out his wand, flicking it toward the door and placing a simple locking charm on it, so that no one could come barreling up here to disrupt the first date of James and Lily Potter Evans.

[Lily Evans]

Lily snorted as James tried to move the basket himself and clearly found it far more difficult than he'd anticipated. The cushioning charm had definitely been a good idea, if she did say so herself, the feeling was almost like sitting in the middle of a large, firm Ottoman and Lily found a comfortable seat almost immediately. Chewing her lip, she flicked briefly through the little selection of records she had. Now that James was actually here, she found her tummy fluttered nervously with the worry that he wouldn't like any of it at all. She wished that she had brought a few more records with her, that she had had the forethought to dip in to the little fund she had been saving for books and lacy knickers and probably a new nail polish if she could find anything she liked, and bought a new record for the occasion. Or at the very least, she wished her sister liked something besides ABBA so that she would actually have some records worth Lily pinching.

It was obvious, though, that James was far more preoccupied by the promise of food to begin with so Lily let the records go for a few minutes and watched as he treated the picnic basket like an unexpected gift hamper and dug through it to check out the haul. Her eyebrows rose in genuine shock when the entire tea set came out of the basket. "Wow. Really not the level of effort I'd expected. I never knew house elves were so British," she commented a little blankly. Curiosity roused, she leaned forwards onto her hands, sort of crawling across the picnic rug a bit to take a closer peek at their supplies. "Are they pikelets? I love those!" Glancing up, she grinned at James, although her expression shifted to curiosity when he mentioned his mates being roused by the delicious smells and locked the door. Still leaning over the basket, weight braced on her hands and her hair tumbling forward over her shoulders, Lily looked curiously up at James. "You didn't tell them where you were going?" she wondered.

[James Potter]

"Pikelets?" James inquired, because Ash had to google those, finding that it's a very Aussie term that she'd never heard before, for adorable little pancakes that we call silver dollar pancakes instead. "Oh, yeah, little pancakes, and lots of them!" James pulled out the platter which was stacked high with the round delicious cakes, and was pleased to find that the elves had sent along at least three kinds of syrup and fruity topping goop for them as well. He shrugged at Lily's question. "Didn't want to bother with them trying to ask me more or come along and spy or talk me into our out of something... they're surprisingly girly sometimes when it comes to gossipy things, you'd be appalled." He laughed, shaking his head. "I'd rather keep you and this feast to myself." He grinned at her, reaching in to pull out some more platters. He found little pigs-in-blankets, a wedge of cheese and an enormous bunch of grapes, a box of brownies, cupcakes, cookies, and miniature pies, some quiches of different flavors, a couple scotch eggs which he had never been too fond of, and two steaming hot shepherds pies. He picked both of those up carefully and sat one down on Lily's plate, checking that she had a fork as well. The house elves were decidedly the best picnic basket makers he'd ever seen.

"Tea?" he asked her, pouring some into his own cup before dropping in two sugar cubes, omitting any cream. I've just realized all my characters like their tea the opposite that I do, where they add loads of sugar and no cream, I add a bit of cream and absolutely no sugar. Random pointless facts of interest likely only to me. He leaned over and filled Lily's cup as well, preparing to take mental note of how she fixed it, for future reference. He was already thinking of bringing her tea when it was cold or when she was sad or sick. He was still in shock that he was actually here, on a date with the girl of his dreams, the girl he had been trying to win over since literally their first year at Hogwarts. The girl he had struck out with countless times. And yet here he was. He couldn't have wiped the smile from his face if he tried.

[Lily Evans]

Mya will never cease to be amazed at the different names we have for so many things and is now tempted to confuse everyone here by offering to make them silver dollar pancakes (which will be doubly confusing given that our dollars are gold…) Anyway, on with the show.

Lily moved back a bit, resting on her knees and giving James room to work. He seemed to have the picnic setup under control so she stayed out of the way and let him continue to pull platters and plates and boxes full of more baked treats than she’d ever seen in a single meal outside of a Hogwarts feast, accompanied with fruit and cheese and every condiment they could possibly need. Not to mention a few they didn’t. She smiled graciously when James moved one of the steaming hot shepherds pies to her plate for her, saving her the joys of burnt fingertips from grasping at the hot tinfoil casing.
“Sure, thanks,” she nodded at his offer of tea, also taking a quick mental note that he took his black. Lily, on the other hand, liked hers with cream, but only one sugar. Which is a bit like me, except I like more sugar in mine. Piping hot, sweet, milky tea makes my winters happy. Also, the whole ‘cream’ thing is so odd to me, because we just use milk in tea and coffee. Except for this one time when I had no milk in the house, but I did have some pouring cream leftover from cooking so I had to improvise. Lily fixed her tea when James handed her the cup and settled back more comfortably on the rug. She took a testing sip, rested the cup back on the tea tray to save spillages, and paused a moment to savour the surreal moment.

James had a near-thunderstruck sort of grin on his face, as if he couldn’t quite get himself to believe they were really doing this either, and Lily turned her face away for a moment while she tried to reign in her amused grin. It was all rather flattering, to be honest. “Oh, right,” she chuckled, returning to the conversation before the brief interruption to sort out important things like tea and shepherds pie. “I didn’t realise teenage boys were such teenage girls, to be honest. Though I suppose the food is safer without them knowing where to look for it, even if I’m thinking there’d be enough to go around if everyone still in the castle gatecrashed.” For a moment she’d been a little insecure, wondering if James hadn’t told anyone because he didn’t want them to know even though the thought was ridiculous, but she quickly realised she preferred it this way; people at Hogwarts tended to treat the happenings of other people’s lives as public property and it was nice for Lily and James’ first date to be only for Lily and James. She pulled her plate into her lap and scooped a little of the pie onto her fork, which she lifted into the air in a bit of a salute to James. “Cheers.”

[James Potter]

You should totally ask if they want silver dollars, and let me know how that goes. I'll ask mom for pikelets next time she makes pancakes and let you know how grand her face of confusion is. Also I think the 'cream' term is more a british thing, since I just put milk in my tea too. Well, not milk. I use "milk", but you know what I mean. Milk.

"You're probably right about that," James said with a laugh, glancing over the mass amounts of food they had laid out in front of them. "Still, better not to have them here." He took a long drink of his tea, draining half the cup in the first sip, and placed it back down on the little tea saucer. Seeing Lily lift her fork toward him, he copied her and touched them together just barely. "Cheers." He started to eat, finding that it was just as delicious as it looked, and soon half his shepherd's pie had been inhaled before he even realized just how hungry he must have been. "This was a brilliant idea," he told Lily between bites, scraping the little bit of mashed potato out of the corner of his now-empty shepherd's pie container.

He piled up some of the little pancakes on his plate, and then, unable to decide between toppings, separated them out and put a different type of syrup or topping on each one. "How was your Christmas holidays at home? It would have been quiet here at the castle, but all four of us Marauders stayed this year, so you can probably gather how exciting it was in the common room. We nearly had full reign of the place, it was great. Made the stockings on the mantle learn a jig, only they escaped the common room and took to terrorizing Mrs. Norris. It was hilarious, you should have seen the hissing and spitting!" He laughed a while, recalling the scene, and then gathered himself a little. "Anyway, how was home? I imagine your parents were pleased to see you."

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