I'm sorry this took so long, but I had to re-write it a few times just to make sure I was saying what I meant to. I hope you appreciate it. It made me smile the whole time I was writing it (except when I kept erasing two pages at a time lol) ;-)

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Semele Perdita: The Once Lost

LadyAkako

Chapter 29: A New Chapter of Life

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[ Lily ]

James and I barely spoke for almost two weeks. We once again resorted to almost complete silence during rounds although I could occasionally catch him sending me one of his infuriating grins. I didn't know what he had to smile about anyways it wasn't like anything in the world was remotely joy-giving.

The Daily Prophet was reporting more and more disappearances and mysterious deaths and the pictures of dark, hooded figures on the front page became almost commonplace. Ten more students had been withdrawn from Hogwarts just in the last week and it seemed that hope was draining from the wizarding population.

All Hogsmeade visits were cancelled and the dark countenance of Sirius Black confirmed that his coveted secret passageways had been blocked off too. The skies were constantly gray with rain clouds and the weather turned absolutely dreary as winter prepared to set in with a vengeance.

If I was on more certain terms with James, in fact, I would have wanted to discuss these events. To get him to explain some of it, because he always seemed to understand all of the politics of this world while I was left turning it over blankly in my mind. He had a way of putting confusing events in a perspective I could finally understand it in. I missed that, I realized one night after our rounds had finished and he was silently walking me back to my dorm.

My throat ached as I held back questions and I cast him a long look when he began to walk a little ahead of me. I wondered if he missed talking to me. He hadn't made a move to start any conversations with me which was strange for him since he usually was chattier than Marlene McKinnon, which was really saying something.

My eyes wandered down his body with a studied air. In the past few weeks of silence, I had become an expert in his body movements, his every expression. In fact, I had taken to thinking more about his body movements than my NEWT studies and my grades had began to ever so slightly decline.

This silence was killing me slowly, I missed talking to him terribly and the pain at being the cause of it knifed at my heart. I wished frequently that I had never yelled at him but then I thought of his cheerful countenance as of late and wondered if he was really all that bothered by it.

I was jolted out of my reverie as we reached my dorm. James had stopped and was studying me curiously as he waited for me to catch up with him. I shook myself and yawned, suddenly very aware of how tired I was. James' mouth quirked and my stomach flipped to see him grin at me. I smiled back and whispered the password to nudge the statue guarding the dorms aside.

As it slid open with a groan I stepped forward with a short, backward glance at James. He started as the statue began to close and grabbed my arm, pulling me back out. Before I could even cry out in surprise, his lips were pressed firmly against mine.

My heart stopped in my chest and for a long moment I stood frozen in his firm grip before melting against him. His hand slowly fell from my arm to my waist and pulled me closer as his mouth melded hotly against mine. His lips moved firmly against mine but I was quite certain I had never had a kiss so gentle, so pleading.

What seemed like an hour later, our mouths parted but as I tried to pull myself slightly away from him, James held me firm in his arms. He leaned his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. I stared up at him wondering what had brought on this show of affection. We hadn't so much as shared more than five words in the past month and all of a sudden he was snogging me in the hallway? I didn't even know how I felt about all this. Did I want to slap him or kiss him again?

James sighed and opened his eyes which were overflowing with an emotion I couldn't quite read. His hand cupped my face tenderly and he let me go, backing away without a sound.

“James,” I choked out, my throat constricting as I felt his warmth leaving me. He shushed me gently, taking a step back towards me looking down at me with confusion. My eyes were burning with tears as he studied me and when one overflowed his finger brushed it gently away. I looked up with him with the best smile I could manage through my sudden onslaught of muddled emotions and launched myself back into his arms, hugging him as fiercely as I could. A split second alter he was squeezing me back and I buried my head in his chest, trying my best to dry my unexplained tears on his shirt. When I was fairly composed again, I swallowed and spoke, muffled by his shirt.

“I thought you would never get it,” I said softly, knowing he probably wouldn't be able to understand me. His hands rubbed my back and I could feel him shaking his head before he even asked.

“What?” he sounded dazed. I removed my head from his chest and looked happily into his eyes, repeating myself. His face went rueful at my exclamation and he ran a hand through his messy hair before responding, “Well, I had a little help in understanding.”

I exhaled in laughter at his response and reached my hand tentatively up to brush it gently through his hair. He raised his eyes to meet mine again and I smiled, closing the gap between our lips again.

This time as his lips moved ever so curiously against mine, the butterflies in my stomach fluttered so wildly I thought I would die. This was actually happening. James Potter had finally gotten it through his thick head that the days of silly flirting and casual inquiries about my plans for the evening were over. He had finally realized that I was ready for the days of relationship bliss and getting to know each other inside out.

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[ James ]

As I kissed her, my entire body felt as if it were on fire and every point on contact with hers was scorching. Feeling her so close was intoxicating and I felt drunk with happiness as we kissed so gently in the moonlight-washed corridor. The minutes that we spent in each other's embrace felt endless and when she finally pulled away, I felt a rush of loss.

My mind was whirling in a thousand different directions trying to predict her next move. I had waited so long for the right moment to tell her, to ask her. I hadn't even been able to say anything to her for so long for fear of speaking the wrong words. Finally, as I saw her give me one of her small, beautiful smiles when she was walking through the portal, I just gave up on trying to find the right words. And I kissed her and then before I could even process what I had done, she was kissing me back. The high I got when I heard her say my name with so much emotion was a euphoria I thought I would never reach.

“You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that,” I murmured, hugging her to myself and contenting myself with burying my face against her creamy neck. She laughed and I felt her shoulders shake in mirth. I smiled wonderingly and laughed at myself. I really did sound drunk.

“You have no idea how long I've wanted you to do that,” she teased and pushed me away playfully. She gave me a long look before turning away to give the password again to the statue which had closed once I pulled her out of the portal. As it creaked open again, she turned back to me, taking my hand, and saying softly, “Goodnight, James.”

I swallowed and tried to quell the clenching nervousness in my stomach. She squeezed my hand and bit her lip as if in thought. I nodded and cleared my throat, trying to find the words to tell her goodnight as well but all I could think of was that I didn't want to wish her goodnight because I wanted to stay up all night with her. I rubbed her hand, looking down at it in mine happily and then let it go.

“Goodnight, Lily,” I bid her reluctantly and smiled, shoving my hands into my pockets. She bit her lip again in mirth and gave me a small wave before disappearing for good into the Ravenclaw common room.

I made my way slowly back to my own common room, taking the long way where I could to be alone with my thoughts because I knew that one of the Marauders was bound to still be awake in the room and would probably want to talk. My stomach flipped joyfully and I couldn't stop grinning the way back.

When I finally did reach the common room, I was greeted with all three of my friends waiting for me. They were alone and gathered by the fireplace. I noticed curiously the presence of the Map on the table and wondered through a clouded perception what they were up to without me. Sirius noticed me first and reclined, smirking, into his chair. His satisfied smile should have alerted me to mischief but I proceeded blindly forward and took my usual seat next to them.

“So, Prongs, have a good rounds tonight?” Sirius asked innocently, his eyebrows raised. Peter snorted and Remus shook his head as I began to feel rather uncomfortable. I shifted and cleared my throat not knowing yet how to tell them what had happened and completely missing all the facts that pointed to the fact that already knew.

“Um, yeah…pretty good. No problems,” I answered haltingly, stumbling over my words in my haste to say something. I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to say anything about what had happened. Would Lily mind? Would she get angry if I told them? I didn't know how these things worked in the world of girls. They had such complicated rules for everything.

“Have a nice long chat with Lily, then?” Remus chimed in.

“Um, no…we weren't feeling particularly chatty. Why? What's with the third degree?” I asked guiltily. I felt strange for lying to them, it wasn't something I usually did. I kneaded my hands nervously, popping my knuckles.

“No third degree here, just wondering what would prompt two upstanding individuals like Miss Evans and you to spent over fifteen minutes outside the Ravenclaw dormitory if you weren't feeling particularly chatty,” Sirius replied with mischievous smile. I cleared my throat again and felt a relieved smile creep onto my face. They already seemed to know what happened which saved me the trouble of having them find out later and be angry at me for not telling them.

I laughed at my own discomfort and shrugged my shoulders before quipping as offhandedly as I could, “We might have found something better to do than chat.”

“It's about time you two did, too,” Peter said matter-of-factly, nodding in a satisfied way. “You've been looking so listless lately we were getting worried.”

“Yeah, mate, you've been so quiet lately we thought someone else you knew died or something,” Remus added quietly, sounding relieved. He then rolled up the Map and started upstairs. “Now that we've confirmed that our friend James will soon return to the land of the living, I'll think I'll go to sleep. See you in the morning, guys.”

Peter yawned before adding that he too would go upstairs to catch some sleep before class tomorrow morning, leaving Sirius and me alone in the common room. When they were both out of earshot Sirius laughed quietly to himself as he stared in the fire.

“What is it?” I asked, the smile that had momentarily lagged during the short interrogation returned in full force.

“Nothing…it's just we've been waiting for two years for you to get with her and now that you finally have, it's like…a whole new chapter of our lives. You realize what this means don't you?” Sirius asked gravely. I shook my head no just to humor him. “This means that you are no longer just James…as long as you're with her, you're going to be a unit. It's Lily and James now.”

“Don't you think it's a little early to be labeling us a unit? We've only just had our first snog, if that's what you'd even call it, tonight,” I argued uncomfortably. I could tell Sirius had given this some deep thought which was unusual for him. It must have really been bugging him.

“Whatever you say to the contrary, you two have already been through the awkward get-to-know-you phase that most couples have to get through. We went through that last year,” Sirius sighed. Then he continued, looking resigned, “No, you two were practically dating before this happened. Now it's just official.”

“Nothing's official yet,” I tried in vain to assure him but nothing could wipe the woebegone look off his face. He had already made up his mind that this was no fling, which I fervently hoped it wasn't. He was convinced that Lily and me would be together for quite some time which of course allowed him to be dramatic because after all, he was losing his friend to that `Ravenclaw chick'.

I smiled to myself and leaned back in my chair, chatting for another hour with my best friend, but all the while thinking that it wouldn't be so bad to be a Lily and James.

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Well…review! Let me know your opinions, what you want to see next, you know all that great stuff. ;-)