The Other War // James Potter & Lily Evans

amortenting;

"You know," Lily said as she sat next to Peter. "You three do spend an awful amount of time in here." She pointed an accusatory at Remus, Peter and Sirius who merely shrugged. The five of them were gathered in the common room, huddled around the warmth of the fire like magnets. It was the last week before the Christmas holidays rolled around and to be quite honest, none of them were really feeling it. The dramas of the past three months were exhausting it was almost enough to send James into the lake naked. Lily crossed her legs, facing Remus.

"What have you lot got planned for the holidays?" She asked.

"We'd probably just be staying here." Remus answered for them. "I mean, where could we go?"

"My house." Lily said matter-of-fact-ly. "My mum won't mind. She's going to Australia anyway."

"Uh, Lily, you do realise that you just invited James Potter and Sirius Black to your house, right?" Peter asked slowly.

Lily nodded her head, but she seemed slightly unsure. "Well I can't take it back now, can I?"

"Nope," James grinned, pulling his arms around Lily's shoulders. "Too late."

"It shouldn't be a problem..." Lily muttered. "I mean, like I said, my mum is overseas and there's the Christmas fair... I think. Petunia won't be home. She's already moved out with Vermin..."

"We could go somewhere." Sirius suggested brightly, interrupting Lily's muttering.

"Go somewhere?" Remus questioned.

"Keeping in mind that we have plenty of time, after Christmas, we could go somewhere, do something."

"Like what?" Peter asked.

"I don't know," Sirius said, throwing her hands in the air.

"Camping?" Lily suggested. "There's a few nice beaches, I guess. I mean, unless you want to camp in a forest, but forests make me queasy."

"Not every forest is like the forbidden forest, Evans." Sirius stated. She scrunched up her nose.

"I know."

She looked rather cute, James thought.

"So let's pull up a legitimate agenda." Remus said. "We could just leave with Lily on the train. If that's okay with you," Remus added.

"That's fine. We can plan it all later. I'm sleepy." Lily said.

"But camping," Sirius whined. "Is Marlene coming?"

"I don't know, haven't asked. I know that she's going to Greece over Christmas, but she might be able to come camping." Lily clarified as she stood and stretched.

"What about tents?" James inquired.

"What about tents?" Peter replied. "If you and Lily need one for yourselves for... Well, whatever you do, so be it. We'll take two."

"I'm going to sleep." Lily muttered and James stared at her retreating back as she headed up the stairs. Remus spoke up.

"Mate, you've fallen for her so bad."

-

James paced the length of the common room. It had to have been at least three hours since Lily retired and headed up to her dormitory but James couldn't seem to make himself fall asleep. Sirius and Peter had gone to get something from their dorms and never returned; Remus stood opposite James, leaning against the wall with one shoulder, watching James with a curious expression.

"What's keeping you awake?" Remus asked. James slowed his pacing.

"I don't know." He stated simply. "Well, this might sound stupid, but, Lily said that I, well, I smell."