Lily was turning in her sleep, small whimpers of fear escaping her as she shifted and turned... her legs moving over the softness of the blankets...

"Evans, hey," there came a whispered voice.

Lily could still hear him though, laughing... reaching toward her with long-nailed fingers... cold and gruesome eyes staring through the dark... another, motionless form laying on the floor...

The whispered voice came again, "Evans, it's only a dream, c'mon, wake up love..."

Lily felt her breath constricted within her, and she was gasping, choking for air...

"Evans." A firm grip took her shoulder and she was shaken awake, her eyes blasting open as she drew in a desperate breath, her hands scrambling to get the grip off her, to escape... he couldn't have what he wanted, he couldn't... "Evans."

She focused at last, totally disoriented and panic to the brim, and there was James Potter's face, staring down at her, glasses a bit askew and hair even more stuck-uppy than usual. She felt relief wash over her - it was James, not the Dark Lord. Tears filled her eyes and she threw her arms about his neck, pulling him down over her and kissing him deeply.

James hadn't expected it, but who was he not to indulge the poor girl?

When she pulled back, her eyes met his. There was still panic in them, and James realized that Lily was trembling. "Alright, it's going to be alright," he whispered, and he rolled off the bed they'd fallen asleep watching the movie on, beckoning for her to come along.

Lily moved to follow him, stepping over Peter's lumpy shape on the floor, where he'd fallen asleep long before the movie ended. Remus and Sirius were in a tangle on the other bed, Remus buried under the sprawled form of Sirius, a splash of long black hair flung across his face.

Downstairs, James set a fire in the hearth and waved his wand, making two of his blue-china pattered cups appear on the little table before the couch, and a kettle of tea, too, which obediently poured piping hot water onto leaves already in the cup. "There we are, Evans," James announced, lifting one of the cups by it's saucer and handing it gently to Lily as she sat down, cross-legged, on the couch. He took up the second one and carefully sat down, too.

They drank their tea and James snuck her kissed between sips, letting her nerves settle down from their jangled state. Finally, when Lily seemed calmer and the tea was nearly finished, and he'd kissed her a good deal of times, James said, "Whenever Sirius and I have nightmares, we do this in the Gryffindor common room. Always does the trick." He smiled.

Lily paused, then, "You kiss Sirius in the Common Room? No wonder he thinks you're his harem... Leading him on, that is."

James laughed and put his cup on the table, watching her drink the rest of her tea. "True enough, I suppose."

Lily was studying the tea cup. "Your stag is on here."

James nodded.

Lily smiled and watched the stag on the cup nibbling grass. She'd never seen a moving tea cup before, and reckoned James's must be quite unusual. "Its a lovely tea cup."

"Yours is too. Little flower pattern. Pink, if I recall?"

Lily blushed. "You remember my tea cups?"

"I remember everything about you, Evans."

It wasn't creepy the way he said it, it actually made her smile and feel nice, rather, and she giggled and looked down, replacing her empty to the dregs cup to its saucer and leaning forward to drop it onto the little table before them. "Thank you for the tea," she said.

James nodded, "Of course. Any time." He waved his wand and the tea cups spun and popped, disappearing cleanly. He dropped the wand onto the table where they'd been and nudged himself a wee bit closer to Lily so that their sides touched and he put his arm about her shoulder. "Alright, Evans?"

"Much better now," she mused.

He leaned close and hovered, his mouth but a breath away from hers.

"Even better," she whispered.

James smiled and their lips met. He put his hands on her shoulder and on her knee as he kissed her, tilting his head slightly toward one side to allow the kisses to be easier. She hummed happily and put her hands up behind his head, feeling her hair, cupping his cheeks with her palm so that one finger was before his ear and the others were behind on the nape of his neck. She pulled back and stared into his eyes and he stared back, losing himself in the beauty of those green sparkles.

"You really do help me feel better, Potter," she said, in case the message had been lost among all the snogging. "Every time I'm feeling poorly, you manage to make it alright again."

"You only deserve good things, Evans," he replied. "I'd go to the ends of the earth to make you smile. You know that, yeah?"

"I do," Lily nodded. "And I appreciate it. And.. and I love you for it."

"Yeah?" he asked, his eyes searching hers.

"Yes. I love you."

James felt his stomach flip about in his gut, and he drew even further back, studying her a long moment, his mouth slightly open, the edges not quite daring to curl into a smile. "What was that?"

Lily's voice was solemn. "I love you, Potter."

"I love you too," he said, and his smile curved and his lip caught up on his tooth just the way she liked and Lily stared at him for what felt like an eternity. This moment, she thought, was the moment that she would mentally snapshot and remember for all the rest of her life... The way he stared at her with such intensity when he said it so that she really, really knew that he meant it... The way he smiled, the way the muscles in his mouth twitched... The way it made her heart stop and flutter a beat or two, and took her breath away. The way James Potter had not even slightly hesitated - not like in the movies that Lily had scene in which the first I love you was a horrid ordeal in which the boy shied away from confessing his feelings. No -- James Potter held nothing back. And she loved that about him.

She leaned in and kissed him.

"So what's been going on here, then?" Sirius's voice rang through the early morning sunlight in the silence of the Shrieking Shack.

"Don't tease them," Remus said.

James opened his eyes and found Lily snuggled up into him, laying atop him on the couch, her hand splayed over his heart, as though guarding it, quite asleep. He looked up at Sirius, "Don't be jealous," he whispered, "It's only Saturday."

Sirius laughed.

"She had a nightmare," James whispered to explain.

"So you snogged the bag memories of it out of her head," Sirius said, nodding. "Brilliant." He looked at Remus. "Take notes."

"I don't need anybody else's notes on dating you," Remus said, "I wrote the bloody book."

"True."

James asked, "Where's Peter?"

"Still asleep. We found you lot missing and we came down to investigate," Remus replied. "Sirius thought you might be - er - breaking some rules."

Sirius grinned. "Were you?"

James replied firmly, "No. We're not breaking any rules."

Lily, who had woken but not opened her eyes yet, smiled inwardly at the respect and fervor in James's voice.

"Just snogging and that's it," James added lightly.

Sirius spotted the twitch of Lily's lips. "Lilith Faking Sleep Evans," he said, "You've been busted."

Lily let her eyes open and she stared up at Sirius, "What's the matter? Couldn't think of something that started with a J, Sirius Out-of-Vocabulary Black?"

"And you couldn't think of something that started with an O, what's your point?" Sirius demanded.

"Out actually does start with an O," Remus murmured.

"Gods damn it," Sirius grunted.

Lily smirked.

James patted her shoulder, "Good one, Evans."

Suddenly the stairs creaked and Peter was running down from the bedroom, "Guys I dreamed that I got eaten by a shark that had a cavity and he puked me up and asked me to perform oral surgery to remove the tooth and when he opened up he had rows and rows of human teeth and it was bloody terrifying!" He was breathless and looked among them. He paused, "What's going on?" He looked at Lily and James, "Oi did you lot do it?"

"Does he look naked, for fuck sakes Peter, obviously they didn't do it if they aren't naked."

"Didn't stop you from asking..." Remus reminded Sirius.

At the same time, Peter said, "Well I don't know! It's not as though I've done it with anybody!"

"Frankly I don't understand why everyone's so interested in what James and I are doing," Lily said, looking around at them all pointedly.

"Because they're nosey gits," James answered.

"Precisely," Sirius nodded, "Asking questions is what I'm good at."

"The best, really," Remus intoned.

"And inquiring minds want to know," Sirius added.

"And by inquiring minds, he means himself, of course," Remus cut in.

James nodded, "Oh of course," and laughed.

Lily said, "Well, when we actually do it, you lot will need to be mindin' your own business."

"When?" James looked at Lily with a rather petrified look on his face. "When? Not if? When?"

Lily flushed. "Shh."

"Bloody hell," James gulped.

Sirius said, "You've killed him, Evans."

Lily laughed, "You just need some fresh air, I reckon."

"AGREED!" Sirius shouted, "Hey! It's as though you read my mind. Now that we're all awake, let's go outside and play!"

Lily would never get tired of seeing that stag.

They were n the woods, all clustered about. Remus smiled, knowing that Peter, James and Sirius's ability to transform into their animal forms was the direct result of their fiercely close friendships and, as he usually did when they were in their furrier forms.

It was alarming, though, watching James Potter - the sweet boy she was falling more and more for every moment of everyday - turn into the stag. She gasped watching as his hands clove together into hooves and his knees cracked and bent backwards until they bent the way they ought to for a deer, and the fur sprouting out over his face and neck... down his arms... wrists...

She stared in awe at the stag.

Her stag.

Lily's mouth twisted and she stepped up to him, stroking his muzzle gently... ready for the next adventure.