The Three Broomsticks (Extra)

Lily mock pouted. "Oh, but I'm having so much fun with Elvis. Ew, no," she laughed, leaning out of reach of his arm as he tried to wipe the hair gel back onto her. Safe from his not-very-insistent attempt, she finished her pretzel and took a drink. She tried to make it a slightly longer swallow, noticing that James' tankard was a quite a bit emptier than hers. When she reached for another pretzel, she was surprised to find her fingers brushing over the back of his hand as he reached too, and his faster hand plucked the ghost pretzel up. Her green eyes widened for a moment. Then, she smirked, shaking her head. "No, no, early bird gets the worm and all that rot. Besides, I don't want your hand-me-downs, Potter. Poor pretzel, it was once so inviting to me and now it's tainted forever, spurned for another. Oh, the betrayal." As she spoke in a grave, pitying voice, like one might use at the funeral of someone who died thanks to a silly twist of fate, she kept a very serious expression and reached for another pretzel to replace the lost one with.

"Oh, James is more fun. Promise," he told her with a wink. He watched her face as he held the pretzel she had been reaching for, and was only slightly disappointed, but very surprised, when the fiesty and quick-to-anger Lily Evans did not fight back about her pretzel being snagged away from her. Huh. "Tainted for you, delicious for me," he laughed, biting off at least half of it at once. "Don't look so sad about it. Look, these three want you to eat them." He carefully picked up three little pretzels, touching them gingerly as if he were afraid of getting some sort of 'boy germs' from his fingers on them that Lily wouldn't like them after that. He held them out to her, leaving only one in the pack left. He didn't mind giving her more or better if it made her smile again. He liked it when she smiled, and she'd been doing it a lot today. "Besides, you'd better eat them quick if you want to get back for the feast in time. We've got about an hour left and there's way more fun stuff to do in Hogsmeade before we leave to go back."

"That's a big claim, more fun than Elvis," Lily said with a grin, but she didn't bother disputing it. She watched the play of surprise across his face, and the momentary slight downturn of his lips, as if he'd been expecting her to fire up over the pretzel. Hmm. Interesting. Lily turned her face down for a few moments, hiding it behind her tankard as she took another sip.
Truth was, she was having fun with James and she didn't want to spoil that over something as silly as a pretzel; for so long it seemed like every time they would get close to civility something would set them off and it would end in shouting or the occasional mallet to the face hex on Lily's part.
Secretly, so deep down she barely admitted it to herself, Lily liked it that way. She would never breathe a word of it to anyone because surely they'd look at her like she was mental, but Lily couldn't get enough of the fire and the passion that was arguing with James Potter. It was his fault, really, he was just so damned creative and she could never guess what sort of line he was going to come out with next. And crazy as it was, it seemed like James couldn't get enough of it, either.
Looking up, Lily smirked. "And my evil plan works. More for me," she said, happily plucking the three pretzels from James' outstretched fingers and popping the ghost ends in her mouth all at once, to suck the icing from the three of them together.
"Mmm," she said around her mouthful, glancing at her watch, "Right. Here, help me drink this, will you?" She slid her butterbeer across the table for him to finish the last quarter of the tankard.

If he could have been reading her mind, he would have agreed with her. It was the little battles that he liked, so long as they didn't end in him getting physically injured. Though sometimes, it was worth it anyway. It was their little fights that made them, them. After all, often enough, when there was a bit of a shouting match off to a side of the common room, it had more likely than not been Lily and James going at it over something foolish. It was what defined them, and they both seemed to thrive on the little struggles for power and the way each others eyes lit up when it was happening. A strange sort of twisted bit in their relationship, but he liked it. James grinned and shook his head at her. "Evil plan, sure, sure." He laughed to himself as she put all three into her mouth, picking up the lonely last one and eating it in a few bites. Grinning, he took the butterbeer from her as she pushed it toward him, draining his empty first before picking up hers. "What if you spit in it. I might be allergic to your germs, Evans. What if I died from ingesting your backwash?" He gave her a very serious look, eyes wide and worrisome, but a grin broke his face a moment later and he picked up her butterbeer, not even caring about drinking after her. After all, it was as close to kissing her as he'd gotten so far anyway, his lips and her lips on the same glass, right? He tipped his head back and drank it quickly, blinking as he sat the empty tankard back on the table. "Right. Done and done. Ready when you are, Evans."

Lily is ridiculously grateful that James cannot read her mind, but if she could read his she'd be secretly thrilled to know he gets it. It didn't matter if it was the big things or the little things, it was important to be passionate about something. It was vital, Lily just wanted to feel alive and her shouting matches with James always left her blazing with life. Somewhat reluctantly, she abandoned her usual method for pretzel consumption and bit down on her three to finish them quickly; with the way James -most teenage boys, really- inhaled things he'd be finished in two seconds flat, anyway.
She covered her hand with her mouth to keep some semblance of dignity when he mentioned the potentially damaging powers of her backwash and, startled a little by his crassness in this setting, she burst out laughing. It took her a few moments to calm down and swallow the last of her pretzels without choking on them, but when she was decent again she dropped her hand. "Oh puh-lease, Potter," she scoffed with a roll of her brightened eyes, "We both know that if I was going to kill you, it'd be well done by now. You know I never procrastinate on things."
She slid to the end of the booth, smoothing her skirt down modestly as she stood waiting for James to join her. "Right, so where to? The Shrieking Shack so we can laugh at the Hufflepuffs standing fifty yards away wetting themselves over bollocky ghost stories, or more shopping?"

James got up after Lily, grinning down at her as he stood. "That's exactly where we're going, provided you can keep a secret." He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at her carefully as if he were trying to look right through her eyes into her brain to decide for himself if she could keep secrets or not. He lifted a hand to quiet her. "The valentines candy is one kind of secret. This is a secret of a whole new league, Evans. I'm completely serious, one hundred and twelve perfect." His face did in fact show that he was truly serious for once. "Come on," he told her quickly, taking her hand to expedite their exit from the Three Broomsticks. Once outside the door, he turned the corner quickly and stopped just in the entrance to a small alleyway. He turned to her again and continued his almost whispering. "Alright, Evans. This secret isn't something just goofy and embarrassing. This is a secret that you've really got to keep to yourself. Can I trust you to do that?" He looked at her in a mixture of excitement and worry. "Lily, I need you to swear it."

Lily opened her mouth to hotly declare that of course she could keep a bloody secret, who did he think she was? But James anticipated her, knowing what she would say without her even saying it, and Lily's mouth closed. Wordlessly, she held onto his hand and followed him out of the pub and to the entrance of the little alleyway where he stopped them. She chewed nervously on her bottom lip, her face growing serious and then concerned the more James spoke. She had never seen him so serious, it was so strange that it made everything seem more grave, unsettling. Lily nodded dumbly, there were a few seconds' delay before it occurred to her that she needed to say it aloud. "Of course. Promise. I swear, James, what...?"

James's face broke into a grin when she promised to him, especially when she said 'James' and not 'Potter', and he reached quickly into his pocket, tugging out a surprising amount of slippery thin fabric. He held the bundle between them, and looked from it up to her face, back at it, and then at her face. "Let's have some fun, then," he said, shaking the fabric out and holding it up before tossing it over himself. Immediately it was as if he were gone, invisible, as his cloak was the only truly flawless cloak of invisibility in the world. He pushed the top of the cloak back off his head, leaving a floating head there in front of Lily. "So? What do you think?" He spun in a circle, laughing, as if he were modeling the cloak for her. "Get in, and we'll scare up some fun." He stuck his arm out, holding the cloak open for her and tugging it back up over his head again as he waited for her reaction.

Lily's nose scrunched slightly, concern edging into confusion when James suddenly grinned. The knot of tension in her stomach eased slightly; on some subconscious level Lily was reassured by the return of the usual upbeat manner of James. Watching the silvery material shimmer in his hands, Lily blinked. "Wh-?" She bit off her question as James disappeared with a flourish of the fabric, and his head reappeared a moment later. She reached out as if to poke at where his shoulder should be but pulled her hand back as James spun about catwalk-style. Laughing, her face alight with wonder because really, there was still so much of the magical world that was new and wondrous to her and some of it was so very beautiful, she slipped under the cloak.
She found herself in very close quarters with James, the material draped over them both not stifling, but certainly just oppressive enough that the scent of something that was distinctly him surrounded Lily. The laughter faded from her lips and she looked up at him in the dimmed light. "So this is your great secret? This is how you've been getting away with murder since first year? Potter, you're a rotten bloody cheat," she announced happily.