Dancing in the Moonlight

Chapter 23- Happy Together

"Wake up! We've got a lot of work to do!"

Sirius's voice startled James awake. He scrambled with his covers and pulled them up to his chin just in time for Sirius to yank his bed curtains back.

"Hurry up! I let you sleep in but you better be down in the common room in five minutes or I'm coming back up, and I'm bringing Remus and he's all mad at me for some reason."

Peter's laugh came from by the doorway, along with a grumbled reply from Remus that James couldn't make out. They did have things to do, mainly visiting the owlery and scouting the great hall, but Sirius needed to chill. They had nearly a fortnight to pull this prank off. He gave Sirius a sarcastic smile and a salute, and Sirius pointed menacingly at him as he backed away, not dropping his hand even as he closed the door.

James sighed in relief and pulled the covers back down.

"Do you think he saw me?"

"No, Evans, I think we're clear."

"Thank Merlin."

Lily's little giggle make him laugh, and then they were both laughing so hard they could hardly breathe.

They hadn't done anything, Lily had asked if she could sleep over and he'd said he couldn't deny the birthday girl a wish, and then he'd snuck her up to his bed under the cloak. Though sleeping next to Lily could hardly be called "doing nothing" because having her in his arms and waking up with her next to him was the best thing in the entire world.

It was everything.

Could life be any better? Lily pressed a kiss under his jaw softly, and he kissed her hair. Nah. It really couldn't be better.

"I better go, Sirius would lose his mind if he saw me up here and I can't deal with that this early in the morning."

James pouted his lip out, winding his arms around Lily. It was like the first gulp of air after breaking through the surface of water being able to hold her.

"Don't go, not yet." Lily pushed up on his chest, looking down at him. He pushed her hair behind her ears, leaving his hand curled around her face.

His insides were on one of those muggle metal death traps. A rollcast? Whatever- they were flipping upside down. He pulled Lily into a kiss cautiously, thrilled when she deepened it- threading her hands into his hair. James sat up, pulling Lily with him so she was on his lap rather than laying next to him. His heart couldn't take the strain- nor could his boxers truthfully- of laying in a bed kissing Lily Evans any longer. They kissed until the unmistakable sound of feet pounding up the stairs startled them apart.

"Shit," they said at the same time. "Sirius."

Lily jumped up, frantically pushing her hair back behind her ears. That was cute- he didn't think he'd ever seen her stress like this before. Lily threw a pillow at him and he snapped back into focus.

"Take my cloak, Evans. You can sneak out of here that way."

"You're sure? I mean your cloak is-"

"For the millionth time angel, if it's mine it's yours."

Lily grabbed it from the end of his bed without anymore protest and threw it over herself. She disappeared from the shoulders down, but paused before covering her head.

"Is this a secret? Are we not telling people?"

This? Like they were an us? We? They had something official? Together? James was positively giddy.

"Right now you want to tell people?" James asked. Of course he wanted to tell people. He'd rather like to shout it from the roof of the castle if Lily would let him. We. "I mean, we can?"