Written for Sam's birthday.

Revenge Is Sweet

It's pretty damn difficult to persuade the House Elves for them to let her use their kitchen, but after reassuring them that she'd let them clean up whatever mess she made and accepting at least a week's worth of food on their behalf, Lily finally manages it.

The cake isn't exactly the best- she added maybe a bit too much flour and it's a bit burnt on the outside- but she figures it's nothing a bit of frosting can't fix. So she then goes on to whip up a batch of frosting that's far too much for a cake that size but nonetheless, Lily spoons the entire thing on to the cake until it's almost perfectly level and twice its original height.

All in all, it takes her three hours of her evening and when she returns to her dorm later that evening (after properly thanking the House Elves for their generosity and hiding the basket of pies and pastries and Firewhiskey and most importantly, the cake in the Astronomy tower) she has a cake batter staining her front and a dusting of cocoa powder over her cheeks. She's quick to clean up before her roommates return and evade their questions of why she was missing this evening and is that chocolate smeared behind your ear.

By the time Lily's finally scrubbed herself clean, some of her roommates have already returned. There are a few casual questions about what she got up to that evening and Lily manages to throw them off her tail with an airy, "Just getting some work done in the library. Wanted to have my weekend free."

"You're a fucking nerd, Evans," Mary declares as she strips out of their stuffy uniform required shirt and into a t shirt. The sentiment is echoed all around by the others.

She shrugs, accepting the fact, knowing that if she just goes along with it, they wouldn't bother to pry too much into her former statement. Apparently, it isn't really that necessary because as soon as she turns around and drops the towel to grab a shirt from her trunk, there's a bout of scandalous giggling behind her. She squeaks when Jillian reaches over to pluck at the red of her bra strap, sending it snapping back against her shoulder, stinging the skin there.

"Lily Evans, you slag," she gasps dramatically. "Are you planning on wearing naughty things under your clothes to dinner?"

There's another chorus of giggles behind her and Lily's head pops out of the t shirt she quickly pulled on in the midst of Jillian's teasing, face red and hair tousled. "Bugger off, you lot," she admonishes them in her best Head girl voice.

"I wonder what she could be planning with wearing that?" hums Mary, tapping her chin while her eyes sparkled.

"Wait a minute!" says Susan, her eyes widening comically, "Isn't today a certain quidditch player's birthday?" She glances over at Lily and winks. "The same quidditch player who Evans has all but tied herself too over the past few months?"

The laughter is deafening now and Lily can't help but turning redder, even as she flips them all off with a surly, "I hate all of you. See if I help anyone the next time we have a potions exam." This of course just makes them laugh even harder because she doesn't even bother to deny it. It's certainly no coincidence that she's chosen to wear those undergarments in particular today out of all days. In fact, it was all part of her incredibly conniving and well thought out plan to lure her unsuspecting boyfriend up to the Astronomy for-

Well, that part isn't exactly as well thought out as the rest (really, there was some elaborate spy work earlier on when she was trying to get the note in the pocket of his robes) but Lily would be damned if she left there without any bouts of snogging taking place at the very least.

They're all holed up in the dorm for a few more moments, changing into some more comfier clothing and others running a brush through their hair before heading down to dinner. Lily spots Sirius and Peter sitting by the fireplace and nods at them. They're too preoccupied with their game of wizards' chess to pay her much attention, but Peter does give her a halfway wave in response, which is more than she usually gets from the pair. It seems as though she would eating with her roommates only today as James has quidditch this evening that would last well until nine tonight and Remus would never eat without his fellow Marauders there.

Dinner passes as it usually does. They all swap stories and make jokes until their soup starts to go cold. Susan has just finished telling them about how she walked in on a pair of third years and they're all practically rolling on the ground with hysterics when Lily glances at her watch and sees that it's already after eight and resolves herself to leaving.

Of course, this causes them to dissolve into another round of belly clutching laughter, catcalls and inappropriate laughter. Mary even shouts out, "Don't forget to take the necessary precautions, Evans!" to which Lily flips her off yet again and hopes that no teacher noticed.

She stops off in the dormitory to freshen up a little bit before sneaking up to the Astronomy Tower where she left the basket with the cake and pastries a mere two hours prior. During breakfast this morning Lily had sneaked a note into James' pocket that told him to meet her up her as soon as practice was over.

She glances down at her watch once more and saw that it's quarter to nine. There isn't much left to get ready. The blanket is already spread on the cold, hard ground and she has two others folded next to here. Lily is sitting on top of the one on the ground and rests the basket on top it as well. The first three buttons of her shirt are undone (one more than usual) to expose the pale skin of her throat and the top of her bra and Lily musses up her hair once more.

It's a bit draughty up there in the tower by herself so she pulls one of the blankets around her shoulders. Somewhere in the castle a clock chimes nine o' clock. The stairs leading up the Astronomy Tower are creaky, sufficient enough to alert her when someone is coming up even when they were three flights down. It takes James at least half an hour after practice to pack up and shower so Lily reckons she has some time still left on her hands to play with. She pulls out a book from the basket she brought just for this purpose.

At quarter to ten there still hasn't been any creak. Lily sits by herself up in the tower, munching on one of the strawberry tarts the House Elves packed for them earlier on.

By ten she sits alone, already gone through two more tarts on her own.

It's not until ten thirty she drifts asleep, body slumped against the hard brick wall and neck bent at an awkward angle with only the single blanket to keep her warm. The book slowly slides out of her lax grip and falls to the floor with a dull thump and all the pastries in the well prepared basket go cold as the warming charm begins to wear off.

A few hours later she wakes though, a terrible crick in her neck and teeth chattering. The blanket slipped off her shoulders sometime during her slumber and left her vulnerable to the elements (which just so happened to be bitingly cold wind and the beginnings of a spring shower.)

According to her watch it is 1:53 a.m.

Lily is still sitting (by now her leg has managed to catch a cramp) by herself in the draughty old tower.

James Potter was a dead man.

It maybe takes her all of six minutes to fold up all of her blankets and banish the basket of treats. She doesn't have the heart to banish the cake though, not after spending so much time trying to perfect it earlier on, so she flicks her wand at it, charming it to hover behind her as she stomps down the steps of the Astronomy Tower. However, with each step she takes in the direction of the common room, the more incensed she becomes.

When she finally enters the common room, she's practically spitting fire and in a split second decision decides to climb up the boys' staircase instead of the girls'. Lily stands in front of the seventh year dormitory for a moment, hesitating, before whispering, "Fuck it," under her breath and throwing the door open with a slight bang.

Out of all the boys snoring in the room, Sirius is the only one who jumps awake.

"Evans," he mutters blearily, "Not that I'm not happy to see you love, but why in the name of Merlin's saggy left bullock are you raising hell at two in the fucking morning?"

Lily merely purses her lips and says, bluntly, "Tell Potter that he's an arse and I'm going to cheerfully murder him on the steps of the Great Hall tomorrow for everyone to see." She doesn't even wait for his response, turning on her heel and slamming the door with an equally loud bang.

Sirius stares out the door for anther moment before shaking his head and muttering about how he hates cleaning up after James and damn it Prongs, what did you do this time to incur the unholy wrath of Lily Evans? With a sigh, he gets out of bed and trudges over to James bed. He pulls back the hangings to reveal the blighter snoring happily away with his mouth agape. Sirius pinches his arm. Hard.

"James, wake up."

He stirs slightly in his sleep and cracks open a bleary eyelid. "Wha?"

"Your girlfriend just barged into our room and told me to tell you that you're an arse. So I'm telling you," says Sirius, "She also relayed her plans of potential murder as well."

It takes James all of six seconds for him to realise what happened and he sits up with a loud "Fuck!"

He doesn't bother to explain what's going on to Sirius- he'll do that when he doesn't have to worry about redheads out for his blood- and staggers out of bed, simultaneously trying to pull on a t shirt while shoving his feet into a pair of slippers. It's a testament to his and Sirius' friendship that the other boy barks out a laugh as he stumbles over his own feet and goes to back to his bed with a muffled, "Try not to get your face too bloodied up. It's about the only good thing going for you."

James ignores him and practically sprints out of the dormitory and down the stairs. Sirius wagers with himself that if he hears anyone screaming bloody murder in the common room, then he might think about investigating. For now though, he promptly goes back to sleep.

He skids to a stop at the base of the stairway as he sees Lily, a scowl pasted on her pretty face and arms folded across her halfway buttoned shirt. (He knows that he probably shouldn't be staring at her tits at a time like this when his life is on the line but he can't help but let his eyes flicker down to them ever so often, alternating between her face and her chest.)

His hair is already sticking up every which way from a case of bed head and the hand that passes through it does nothing to help. James takes one look at her face and cringes. "Evans," he says slowly, reaching behind him to scratch the back of his neck. "Fancy seeing you here."

It only just occurs to him that he is alone and wandless in the common room at two in the morning with an irate Lily Evans twirling her wand mindlessly between her fingers.

All he hopes is that someone would be able to find his body once she was through with him.

"Do you know how long I was up there waiting for you?" she begins, her voice dangerously slow.

James knows that it would be best in his interest that he keeps his mouth shut but yet, he still opens his mouth and says, "I'm guessing a very long time if your scowl's anything to go by."

He quickly ducks to avoid the pillow she throws at his head.

"I was there since half eight because I decided to do something for my bonehead boyfriend on his birthday and thought, 'hmm, why don't I slip him a note to meet me in the astronomy tower after practice for a surprise?' I didn't expect him to be a twit and stand me up!" she whispers furiously at him.

"I know, Lils, and I'm sorry," he ignores her derisive scoff, "It's just that practice went a bit overtime and I was knackered. It completely slipped me mind, okay," he explains, looking at her with pleading eyes.

He can see that her stubbornness wavers slightly and decides that it would be safe to take another few steps forward so that he stood right in front of her. "I'm sorry," murmurs James, picking up her hand and pressing a kiss to it. "I honestly did forget." He allows his other hand to drift towards her shirt where he toys with the button there. "Although now I'm wondering what exactly I missed out on."

Lily swats his hands away. "Ha! As if you're going to find out now." She takes a step back from him so that there's a good three feet of distance between them. "You're going to have to do some serious make up work, Potter. My neck has a crick in it that going to last for days."

Despite his best efforts, a rakish grin overtakes his face. "I could start the whole making up thing now," he hints, reaching out to grab her hand again. James tugs on it so that she's pulled against him, her back flush against his chest. "If you don't mind, that is," he adds, nipping her ear for good measure.

Her laugh rings through the empty common room and Lily twist herself around in his arms so that they're once again face to face. There's a mischievous glint in her eyes that makes James feel slightly uneasy, but before he can even begin to question it, she's already saying, "You have a lot of making up to do. I guess you should probably get a head start on it," and crashing her lips against his in the same breath.

The kiss is frenzied and it's all lips and tongues and teeth before they finally settle into a familiar rhythm. It doesn't takes long for James to tangle one hand in her hair and the other to clutch at her hip firmly while Lily clings to his t shirt. There's no sort of preamble as she slips her tongue into his mouth, the sweeping arc of it managing to draw out a low moan from him. Slowly, he leads them backward until her back collides with one of the tables. She wastes no time jumping up on it (not without help from James and his wandering hands that is) without breaking the kiss. It's much easier to work from here as it fixes the height difference between the two; James is no longer uncomfortably hunched over and Lily doesn't have to crane he neck anymore.

Her hands are cold as they inch under his t shirt to draw patterns over the skin there. A shiver runs through James, and he decides that she's having far too much fun. It's not until she scrapes her nails against his chest does he finally remove his mouth from hers and start pressing wet, open mouthed kisses down her neck, fixing himself over her racing pulse. His teeth scratches against her skin and she sighs, winding her hand through his hair to keep him there. Meanwhile his hands wander freely up her sides to her chest where he makes quick work of her shirt and allows himself to cup on of her breasts. She sighs again, this time louder and almost borderline on a moan.

James can't help but smirk. "Am I working my way to forgiveness yet?" his voice is muffled against her neck and when he speaks, the slight stubble coating his skin rubs against her pleasantly.

With something almost akin to a growl, Lily snaps out, "No," and promptly wraps her legs around his waist, drawing him closer so that their hips rubbed together. This time she does moan slightly, though not by herself as she can hear James directly in her ear.

She rolls her hips again and claws off his t shirt. Never one to disappoint, he makes quick work of ridding himself of it and throws it somewhere in the common room. They're both far too preoccupied to care much.

Lily leans forward and tugs on his earlobe with her teeth. "James," she mutters, one hand still around his shoulders and the other presumably braced behind her. He merely grunts in response. "James," she tries again, louder this time, tugging his head up.

He pulls his head back from her throat just far enough to look at her. "Evans-" he begins, but before he can do anything but say her name, the arm that was braced behind her comes swinging at his face.

With a handful of cake.

His expression is almost comical and Lily is beside herself with giggles. All she has to do is glance up at his cake and frosting covered face before she dissolves into yet another fit of laughter. On his part, James' mouth is slightly agape and his glasses are dangling off his nose, the rims smeared with chocolate much like the rest of him.

Lily jumps down from the table, licking the frosting off her fingers. "Revenge is sweet," she smiles at him before proceeding to lick the rest of her fingers as she walks up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, hips swaying slightly.

And that's the story of how James Potter was left in the Gryffindor common room at something past two in the morning with a semi hard on, half of a birthday cake and chocolate frosting smeared across his face and chest.

xoxo Nai 3