the marauders- an inseparable bond

[21] dating

James was euphoric. He strutted back into the room him and the boys were sharing and declared in a loud voice:

"You'll never believe what just happened."

"School is cancelled," said Sirius lazily, lying on a bed on his back.

"You've made onto a chocolate frog card," suggested Remus, grinning.

"McGonagall finally confessed her undying love for you," chimed in Peter.

"Shut up," said James, "and just listen, OK?"

"Whatever floats your boat," said Sirius.

"I asked Lily out, and she said yes."

With the silence in the room that followed, you could have heard a pin drop.

"You're joking, right?" said Peter weakly.

"No, he isn't." said Remus confidently, smiling, "That's amazing prongs."

"Blimey," said Sirius, "I- blimey."

Unable to say much else, he showed his support by getting off the bed to give his best friend a hug.

"So are you going on an actual date then?" asked Remus.

"Yep," James said proudly, "We're going out for dinner two nights before we leave for school."

"Want me and Moony to come along? Make it a double?" asked Sirius, grinning at the wolf.

James thought about it.

"It would make me less nervous. I'll ask Lily; maybe she wants it to be just the two of us."

And with a flourish he paraded out the doorway and back down the hall to his girlfriend's room. His heart gave a funny little jolt. His girlfriend's room. Lily Evans. His girlfriend.

He marched in happily.

"Back so soon?" called Lily, who was reading in the corner. Catching sight of the book in her hand, he gave a double-take.

"Are you studying?"

"Relax, I'm just revising. I don't want to have forgotten everything over the summer. Have you heard how hard seventh year is going to be?"

He only shook his head.

"You are insane."

"Anyways, is there anything you were going to ask me?"

"Oh yeah! I was wondering if Sirius and Remus could come with us. Like a double date."

She looked at him for a second then said:

"James!"

"What?" he said cautiously.

"What about Peter?"

He was speechless.

"Well, I- I just-"

"Forgot," she finished for him. He made to speak, but she waved him away; "It's okay. It's just that the rest of you don't realize how left out he is sometimes. Especially now, since he's the only one not in a relationship."

"Lily Evans," he breathed, "How can you be so absolutely right about everything?"

She tried not to smile.

"Go back, and tell them we decided we wanted our first date to be just the two of us, but later, you need to talk to Sirius and Remus, okay?"

He nodded, and left the room.

Back in the other room, Moony and Padfoot were curled up on a bed together and Peter sat on another one, putting some things away in his trunk.

"It's a no go," said James, breaking the silence, "She was okay with it. but we talked for a little while and then we decided it should just be us for our first date."

"Aw," said Remus.

"Next time, brothers."

***

The three boys stayed up late the night of James and Lily's date, waiting for them to come back. Sirius and Peter had wanted to follow them as animagi, but Remus furiously insisted that there was no way they were leaving him behind. So they sat on the floor of the bedroom the marauders were staying in, drawing pictures like children into the night.

"Look at this one!" said Remus proudly, holding up a realistic amazingly drawn sketch of the bed beside him.

"Wow!" gasped Peter in awe.

"Pfff, that's nothing," said Sirius, "Check this out."

He had drawn a stick figure dog on a planet earth.

"Geddit? 'Cause I'm on top of the world?"

The two others laughed and Remus said:

"Yes, it's magnificent Padfoot."

At that moment, Lily and James walked in.

"What is that?" said James, looking at Sirius' drawing, "An ant on a football?"

Sirius gave a shocked gasp.

"Mr. Potter, how dare you not recognize art at its finest? This is a beautiful work I call 'Padfoot over his peasants'."

Everyone gasped for air.

"So how was the date?" asked Peter.

"Good," Lily replied, smiling, "I'd best be off to bed. We want to make full use of our last day of the holidays."

"Bloody hell!" yelled Sirius, "I'd forgotten! I can't believe we're going back the day after tomorrow!"

"Seventh year," said Remus, smiling, "It's going to be amazing."

"We're going to rule the school!" said Peter.

"We already do, Wormtail," said Sirius.

Lily chuckled and said:

"I really should go. Night, all."

"Goodnight," they chorused, and James wrapped her into a hug.

That night, when all the marauders were lying in bed, Sirius said:

"So how was the date, mate?"

"That rhymes," said Remus sleepily.

"I'm a poet and I didn't even know it," grinned Sirius through the darkness.

"It was- magnificent," breathed James from across the room.

"Yeah?" came Peter's voice.

"Yeah," James replied, and they could hear the contempt in his words. "We went out for dinner at this little Italian place not to far from here, and we were just talking about everything and anything the whole time. She kept laughing at me because I'd get tomato sauce all over my face and the other people in the restaurant were looking at me weird. And then after, we just walked around for a little bit, and I- well I offered her my jacket-"

"The perfect gentleman," said Remus, and they all knew he was rolling his eyes.

"Shut up," said James, "And anyways we were just walking a-and- we kissed."

They could tell that he had obviously been itching to say this all along. A moment of silence followed this pronouncement.

"No," said Peter, awed.

"PRONGS!" half-shouted Sirius.

"Shh," said Remus, in a calm, smug voice, as if he had known all along, "you'll wake Lily."

"I mean," Sirius said a little more calmly, "Ok fine, she agreed to go on a date, but I didn't think she wanted to kiss you."

"Shut up," repeated James.

"What was it like?" asked Peter.

"That's his business, Wormtail," said Remus.

"Well, goodnight," said James.

"I can't believe it though," but in Sirius, "Our little Prongsie. All grown up."

"SHUT UP!"

They all snickered, and soon, the soft arms of sleep wrapped around them all and brought them to the land of dreams.