petunias -- jily

7

"...and you've won my heart," dorcas finished reading over lily's shoulder, causing marlene and alice to laugh as lily stared at the parchment in disbelief. she read the love letter over again, and rubbed her forehead, trying to make sense of it. 

"lily has a secret admirer!" marlene crowed, immediately being hushed by the other two, as she was drawing attention. 

"whatever," lily scoffed. "it's not even signed, i couldn't care less," she left the table and walked with purpose out of the great hall. alice waved remus and sirius over to them from down the table and showed them the note lily had left. 

remus studied it solemnly but sirius took one look at it and shouted to james, "oi, prongs! evans got a-"

"shut up! nobody tell james!" dorcas hissed. 

"but he says he's over her," alice said pointedly. 

remus and sirius each made a noise of disbelief and remus remarked as he read over the letter once more, "the amount of times he says that doesn't make it any less of a lie. he's trying to be good person and give her space, but he's as hopelessly in love with her as always."

sirius nodded in agreement. "they'll end up together, i know they will."

"doubtful," marlene added, "he's been chasing her for years and they've only just now become friends. how would them getting together make any sense?"

"because they're meant for each other," alice said simply. "look at them."

"al, you're just a hopeless romantic. lily and james will not date, they will stay friends and that's how it is."

"how about we place a bet on this," sirius proposed. "if they end up together, alice and i win and you three have to buy us honeydukes, when we're allowed back in the village."

"fine, but if we win," dorcas motioned to herself, marlene, and remus, "you two have to clean our dormitories. 

"i'll take that bet." and so the five of them shook hands. "now, no one tell james. he'd be crushed. granted, he'd act like it doesn't affect him, but he's a terrible actor."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hours later, they were all sitting through a sluggish hour of history of Magic, listening to professor binns drone on and on about wendelin the weird and uric the oddball. not even remus could focus, and he was staring out of the window, using his arm to prop his head up. the black lake glittered under the late fall sun and not even professor binns could ignore the fact that all of his students were gazing out of the window, longing to be outside. 

luckily, the bell rang, releasing them to their study period. james, sirius, remus, and peter dashed out to the courtyard while lily and her friends made their way down to a tree by the black lake. 

"lil, d'you have the notes from charms yesterday? i've got something missing in mine," marlene asked. 

lily nodded and passed the sheet of notes to her. dorcas and alice kept glancing over to james' group of friends and she noticed. 

"what's going on with you two?"

"nothing-"

"yeah, absolutely nothing," dorcas confirmed. "nothing is going on, and definitely not anything to do with the love letter you received this morn-" marlene slapped her hand over her friend's mouth and shot a look at alice. 

"mar? tell me," lily said evenly. 

marlene gave her a dazzling smile and replied nonchalantly, "nothing's going on! i promise."

"really. nothing to do with remus or sirius?" she swiveled her head back around to look at dorcas and alice. "al, i know you'll tell me. dorcas?" they both avoided looking her in the eye. 

"fine," she sighed. "i guess i'll have to go ask sirius..."

"okay, okay, we'll tell you. don't get mad..."

"we're not supposed to tell james about your love letter!" dorcas blurted out, earning her a glare from marlene. 

"that's what this is about? oh for heaven's sake, this is ridiculous." lily got up and marched off to the courtyard, with marlene, dorcas, and alice on her tail. "james!" she called out as soon as she entered the courtyard. he turned around, dark hair flopping in his eyes and broke out into a grin when he saw her. 

"yes?" 

"i got a love letter this morning and this lot are trying to keep it a secret from you," she jabbed a thumb at her friends behind her. his smile slowly disappeared as he looked from her to her friends. 

"wasn't just us, it was remus and sirius too," alice squeaked. 

"uh. pads? moony? i mean, so what?" he cleared his throat. "we're friends, remember? i'm over you," he said, swallowing as though it hurt to say that. 

"see, i told you!" lily exclaimed, turning back to her friends. "there's no problem with somebody else sending me a love letter. just because james liked me doesn't mean he owns me, guys. we are friends now, nothing more, f r i e n d s," she spelled out, enunciating each letter dramatically. 

by now, everyone else in the courtyard had stopped to watch and the silence spread across the area like butter. 

"yeah, what she said," james responded halfheartedly. lily looked at him and frowned, seeing something was wrong, but marlene and dorcas pulled her away to return to the tree before she could say anything. 

"alright, nothing to see here! as you were!" sirius shouted to the crowd, waving them away while remus and peter scurried off to find james, who had stalked away. 

lily's words had clearly hurt him, but they all forgot about it as their midterm exams were coming up and they were studying extra, staying up late to finish essays in the library every other night. they all forgot about it, except james himself.