Portraits of a Flower in Bloom | Jily

5: Honesty is such a Lonely Word

~ Sunday 4th September, 1977: Night, part 2~
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"So I hear we're playing Paranoia?" Marlene announced to the room.

"Where are the others?" Sirius questioned Lily, wondering why she'd only brought one of her friends.

"Oh, Mary and Alice were helping Josephine unpack and get sorted so I thought I'd leave them be." That was not true at all. Since getting back Mary had been kind enough to distribute some information about a certain crush Marlene had. So as a group they decided there'd be more chance of flirting, and detecting whether Sirius definitely felt the same, if it was just her and Lily.

They sat down in a circle, Lily decided to place herself strategically on Sirius' left, so she could ask him questions. Marlene just plopped down between Remus and Peter, unknowingly but rather fortunately placing herself opposite Sirius. James sat on Lily's left, cursing himself as she could no longer answer 'James' to any suggestive questions as he would know what had been asked.

The game got off to a slow start, as all games do, with simple and boring question such as: 'who would you swap bodies with?' to Peter, to which he easily replied, 'James' and 'who do you think is the best looking in the group' to which Marlene hesitated before replying, 'Sirius', with a flirtatious glance upwards.

Both times the coin landed on heads meaning everyone knew the question, but so far it didn't matter as nothing partially interesting had been said.

After a couple more boring rounds Marlene finally asked a simple question, which got an entertaining response, "who would you snog if you had to?"

Remus looked around at the group and started to chew on his thumb nail, a nervous habit he was trying to quit, "uuuhh... I guess maybe, Sirius" he said it as more of a question than an answer.

Marlene started at him, looking completely baffled at his answer, but flipping the coin nonetheless, "heads. The question was: if you had to, who would you snog?"

Remus was now blushing profusely, refusing to look anyone in the eye. It was Lily who broke the silence, she could sense his embarrassment, not quite sure why, but she knew to cover, "oh I see, tryna scope out the competition eh? Stay one step ahead." She laughed, trying to break the lull that hung like an awkward force in the air.

Sirius frowned, perplexed, but with a total lack of any thoughts in his head, until Lily had spoken. He felt his stomach drop, most likely a feeling of relief, when she said what she did, and spoke up, "well Mooney, personally I might've gone for Marlene or Evans over here, but I'm not against the occasional shocking prank. I like the way your brain works my friend."

Remus could've hexed himself on the spot. The girls. What the hell was wrong with him, Lily was sitting almost opposite him, what was he doing choosing Sirius! Trying to avoid the situation further he looked Sirius boldly in the eye, "final year, I've gotta start pranking sooner rather than later, right?"

Sirius smiled but felt a tightening in his chest, not sure what it was, he elected to ignore it and move on. Meanwhile Remus could feel his face getting cooler and decided to blame his fickle mind on tiredness, nothing more.

Next up it was Remus to ask James, and in an attempt to make every forget the previous event, decided to try and think of something that would definitely out the focus on James, "if you could only save one of us, who would it be?"

James sat thinking for a minute, scrunching up his face trying to decide, promoting Sirius get annoyed and say, "come on Potter, we don't have all day, it's only a bloody game."

"Fine," James said, trying to fill the time. Finally he sighed and turned to look at Lily. She grinned and James smiled back, he looked sort of sad, she thought. And he felt it, even though it was just a question, in the current climate this question could very quickly become a reality, "Lily."

Glances were shared and the coin was flipped.

"Tails," Remus reported. Everyone quickly shrugged it off, most likely a sexual question that James wanted to make a scene out of. Apart from Lily, who felt a certain itching in the back of her mind: she absolutely had to find out that question.

After another half an hour or so, the game ended and the visitors had to say goodnight and traipse their way back up to the dormitory. Lily got into her pyjamas but hadn't forgotten James answer earlier. She went over to his room. The door was open so he leaned against his door frame, as he had done only a few hours before, and knocked on his door.

James came out from behind his wardrobe, he was in the process of getting changed into his pyjamas, meaning right now he was shirtless, "what's up, Evans?"

Lily couldn't stop herself from staring with a split second of awkward silence, before she finally had the sense to look away. She could feel a lump in her throat and she felt incredibly embarrassed, "sorry I'll just go-"

James stopped her, he didn't want her to go, she was talking to him more than ever now. Lily never approached him for conversation, unless it was to scold him or now to talk about Head duties. "no wait, it's okay I'll just," he trailed off and pulled his t-shirt on over his head

The room stood in a heated quiet. The warm room and complete isolation felt unnaturally intimate, yet James didn't want it to end. Plus he wasn't going to object to the fact that Lily Evans was completely smitten with him right now. Her face had gone a little pink and she had obviously stared at his chest - a total win in his book.

He remembered last year when she accidentally walked in on him shirtless and immediately shut her eyes and walked back out yelling at him to have some common decency, even though he was in his own room. But this time was different, James could sense a change in their relationship, even if there wasn't a romantic tint to it, she was less awkward and... well angry than before.

"Oh alright then," she walked cautiously back to his room, but stayed in the doorway, "what was the question that Remus asked you earlier."

"Which one?" James out, pretending to be oblivious to the obvious question she wanted to know, "he asked me a lot."

"You know," she said, not wanting to look too concerned about it, "the one which you answered my name too. The coin went on tails so Remus didn't have to say the question out loud."

"Ah that one yeah," he was in front of the mirror trying to untangle his messy hair, to no avail, but out of the corner of his eye could see Lily stepping quietly over the threshold from their lounge into his room, "let me see, I can't quite remember" he continued dramatically, clearly not going to give it up so easily.

"Come on, tell me. It's Remus, so I know it's not going to be anything weirdly sexual or anything, I can take it," she pleaded with him.

James spun around and raised his eyebrows, "well I guess I could..."

Lily staggered centimetres more into his room. James moved closer towards her, standing as close to Lily as he dare get.

"But nah," he finally finished, "that would compromise the whole integrity of the game! Sorry, I don't make the rules," he shrugged.

Lily frowned, annoyed, and folded her arms, "you win this time, Potter, but I will find out what you were asked. Remus is delicate, I can break him easily."

"Remus may be delicate, but he's also loyal," James said stepping further forward to Lily. He was in arms reach of her now, and she showed no signs of backing away, "I'm willing to bet he won't break at all."

Lily raised her eyebrows, "alright then you want to make a bet?"

James grinned his goofily cute grin, "absolutely I do, what you thinking."

"I have... let's say a month? To break him. If I don't maybe a wager of 15 galleons," Lily looked at him confidently, sure in her friendship with Remus and skills of interrogation.

"You are a dangerous woman Evans, but you have yourself a deal," they shook hands, and Lily felt a small spark being sent up her arm once again. She finally backed away, making James smile falter slightly, and headed for the door.

"I hope you know your throwing your money away Potter," Lily shouted from their lounge.

"Not likely Evans, I am a master at winning bets," he replied as he jumped onto his bed.

Her could hear a faint laugh from her direction and grinned to himself. This shared dorms thing was definitely going to be a fun experience.