It was past one in the morning when Lily was awakened by a persistent tapping sound that permeated even her dreams until she could ignore it no more, and she sat up in her bed. Lily rolled and withdrew her wand from beneath her pillow, knocking a stuffed flamingo off the bed and onto the floor with the motion, and whispered, "Lumos."

The wandlight glowed across the room, illuminating all of her school room things. Her bookshelf was overflowing with textbooks and trashy romance novels, the glossy massmarket paperback covers reflecting the light from her wand. On her desk, rolls of parchment and broken quills lay haphazardly about, and there was a good deal of laundry piling up in her chair that, although it would not be more than a flick of her wand to clean and put them away, she hadn't quite gotten around to it yet... On her nightstand, a photograph of James Potter grinned up at her, winking as the corner of his lip got caught up on his crooked tooth.

Tap, tap, tap.

She turned and there was that same face - James Potter was peering in through the window, his features lit up by his own lumos charm, his arm raised to knock on the glass. He saw her looking toward him and he waved, clutching the stick of his broom with one hand, and beckoning her over with the other.

Lily hurried to get up, grabbing her terrycloth bathrobe, and pulling it around herself and knotting the waist strap. She threw open the windows, a gust of cool air coming in that made her shiver and rub her arms to stay warm. Lily glanced down at the grounds far below, then up at her windswept boyfriend's face, his nose pinkened and glasses slightly askew.

"Morning Evans," he said, pushing the glasses into place with his finger, a devilish smirk playing over his mouth and in his eyes.

"Hardly," Lily answered. "What're you doing, Potter?"

"Collecting you," James replied simply.

"Collecting me?"

"Mmhm," he nodded, "For our date."

"Our date?" Lily squeaked, "James! It's the middle of the night!"

"Yeah," James said, "Well, I was laying in bed, listening to Sirius snore, and looking out the window at the stars, and I realized that as beautiful as the stars are, I'd rather be looking at your eyes. So here I am."

Lily wasn't sure if she was more touched or annoyed - should she kiss him or throttle him silly? She wasn't sure. "You bloody idiot," he said, her voice trembling with amused affection.

James's eyes twinkled behind his spectacles. "Alright then, c'mon." He held out his hand.

"What? Out the window? Are you mad?"

"Mad? No. Out the window? Yeah."

Lily's voice pinched, "I'm in my pyjamas, Potter."

"So am I, Evans."

Lily looked and, sure enough he was. They were maroon with golden snitches all over them, like something a child would wear. "What are you? Twelve?" she asked, raising her eyebrow to look up at him, although she found it endearing.

"I like them," James said.

Lily laughed, "Where did you even find them in your size?"

"I didn't." He smirked. "Engorgio, Evans. Are you a witch or not?" Then, as she giggled at him, he cleared his throat, extended his hand again, and said, "Are you coming on our date or are you going to break my heart?"

She smiled, and reached out, grabbing onto his hand, their palms fitting perfectly together. His fingers closed around hers, strong and steady, and he grasped her hand, pulling her up and out of the window, onto the broomstick in front of him so that she sat with her back to his chest, his arm wrapped close around her. She had squealed with surprise as he pulled her out, when her feet left the floor and hung over empty air, and he pulled her tight, protective without being posessive.

"I've got you Evans, I won't let you fall."

"I know," she said - because she did know, nothing would ever harm her so long as James Potter was there to keep her safe. She knew that above everything else.

The broomstick carrying the both of them swept away from the window, curling around the girth of Gryffindor tower, climbing up - up - up... until they crested over the height of the castle, passing the measuring stick Sirius Black had once magicked atop of the tower, a bit worse for wear from all of the weather over the past several years. James and Lily flew upward, into the low cloud cover, until the sky was a wide open desert of blue and diamond speck stars that crested the full curve of the earth and Lily clutched onto him, her hair blowing back over his shoulder, his own fluttering against his forehead, as he laughed, alive with the high of flying. The moonlight shone off the cloud like it was a sea of liquid pearl and Lily nuzzled her forehead against the cleft of his neck, enjoying the warmth of his body close to hers as well as the beauty of the celestial landscape around them. He took them down below the cloud cover when he felt the goosepimples rising on her arms, gracefully lowering them down, over the trees of the Forbidden Forrest, past a flying thestral foal and its mother, and back toward the castle, over the lake that sparkled like crystals.

They reached the courtyard at the foot of Ravenclaw tower, and James lowered his broom gently until they were able to touch down on the cobbled stone ground, graceful and smooth, and James held onto her hand firmly until he was certain she'd gained her footing, then released her hand. "Reverte ad locum," James commanded the broom and it flew off over the grounds toward Gryffindor tower.

"What's that spell do?" Lily asked.

"It's sort of an... anti-accio, I suppose," James said, "Returns an item to it's place."

"Clever," she said, appreciating his talent. She smiled at him, her eyes stealing a glance at his pyjamas again, giggling in spite of herself. In addition to the maroon-and-snitch slacks, he also had on a pair of brown slippers like an old man would wear, and a black t-shirt that hugged his muscular arms quite tightly - she recognized it from day wear as one that she was quite fond of for that reason - under a terrycloth robe that very closely matched her own except the waist band, which hung loose on his, was Gryffindor gold and maroon stripes, like his school uniform's tie. His hair was utterly, irrevocably messy - though that was exactly how she preferred it. All in all, she was fairly certain that he looked a far cry better in his pyjamas than she did in her own - which were pink and white striped flannel matching set under her own maroon robe. She flushed as he caught her looking at his clothes and looked away.

"You look really nice," he complimented her.

She snorted. "Please."

"No, I really think so," he said, shrugging.

Lily flushed even more, "Well, I - I think you do, too," she stammered.

James grinned, "Thanks," he replied.

Lily laughed. "And very modest."

"Your favorite quality about me," he answered.

"Mmmhm," she agreed sarcastically. Lily looked around, "So what happens next? What if Filch comes out here and sees us? We're in so much trouble if he does."

James shook his head, "Nah, Peeves is distracting him." He winked.

"Poor Mr. Filch," Lily laughed.

James motioned for her to follow him, "C'mon, you're going to like this."

She followed him along toward the door that led them in past the library and along a corridor to the Muggle Artifacts room at the far end of the wing. James drew his wand from his robes pocket. "Alohamora," he whispered and the door clicked unlocked and he waved her in, listening closely down the hall for any sounds of Peeves and his distraction, but there wasn't much more than a far-off echoing that may very well have been Argus Filch's frustrated cries or any other endless number of noisemakers in the castle.

Inside the artifacts room, James waved his wand, illuminating candles that were placed strategically about the room on various surfaces and shelves until there was a warm, comfortable glow that filled the room and flickered over the artifacts.

Lily smiled at all the items - many of which were quite common things that Muggles take for granted which must seem so archaic and novel to wizards; a rubber duckie, for instance, and a lava lamp, the lava within undulating in hot pink blobs floating through teal water. "Surprised Sirius hasn't knicked that yet," James commented, thumbing at the lava lamp.

Lily laughed, "If you tell him about it, I'm sure he'll be along right away."

James nodded, "He would for sure." And then he waved her 'round a big display about tellyphones and there was a plinth set up and upon it was a muggle convertible car, next to which had once stood a muggle motorcycle, which Sirius had stolen and crashed into the Malfoy Manor's front yard years before. James motioned for Lily to lead the way, and the pair of them climbed into the car, leaning back in the cushioned seats in the back and putting their feet up on the seats in the front, Lily laying across James's chest comfortably. She snuggled into him as he wrapped his arm around her and closed his eyes, happy at the weight of her against him. "Ah," he sighed.

Lily smiled, "Comfortable, are you?"

"Mmhm," he nodded happily, "Quite."

"Did you steal me away from my bed, just to take a nap with me in the backseat of a muggle car?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. Then, "You know, mummy always tells Tuney not to sit in the backseat of cars with boys."

"Whyever not?" James asked.

Lily laughed. "Because... it's sort of a cliche... for things to happen in the backseat of muggle cars, James."

He peeked at her through a half-closed eye. "It is? Blimey, I didn't know. That's not what I was getting at. I know it hasn't been ages yet. I just thought it might be a comfortable place for us to sit, where we could be sure to be alone for awhile."

"I know," Lily said, and the thing about James Potter was that she one hundred percent believed the naivety. Then, "I'm still not sure I understand why you wanted to sit and be alone for awhile in the middle of the night, though."

"Because..." James said, then, "Accio book." And from the shelf came a rectangle with a paper binding, which Lily caught and turned over. It was a crime novel - one of a series about a young investigator named Apple Mackenzie, the fifth installment, called The Eternal Enigma, which continued the mystery started in the previous book, Determined to Die. Lily felt a bit of deja vu holding the book, as though she might've read once, a long time ago... but she wasn't sure exactly when it might've been... but there was something significant about the book, something special... something about James. "I thought we could read it together," he said sheepishly.

Lily smiled, "I'd like that very much, Potter."

James grinned, and she cleared her throat and opened the cover of the book, cracking the spine so that she could read the text, and she began to read out loud.

Sirius Black awoke with a start as the door closed behind James Potter, a couple hours later. "Prongs?" he asked, groggily.

James whispered, "Go back asleep, its just me."

"Where the fuck you been?" Sirius mumbled, his words slurring so it came out like "thefuhyabin?"

"I was with Evans," James said.

Sirius's grin was wide and sleepy, "Oh?" Even in his half asleep mode, James could hear the dirty suspicion.

"We were reading," James said firmly. "None of whatever you're imagining right now."

Sirius sank back into the pillows and the warmth of Remus Lupin, who shifted to form around Sirius as he did. "Reading! Gods, thats far too boring to be a euphemism..." and he fell back asleep before James could insist that it wasn't a euphemism.

James shook his head and hung his pyjama robe on its hook, kicked off his slippers, put his wand on the night stand and folded up his glasses beside it. Sinking into the pillows, he stared up at the canopy that hung over him and his mouth split into a wide grin, remembering the weight of Lily against his chest, the vibration of her voice as she read out-loud, and the smell of her hair filling his nose. He reckoned he could live a hundred million years and never find anything that smelled or felt as good as that.