Chapter 16 – Our Sofa

"Lily," I began, reluctantly pulling away. "I have something to tell you."

"Oh, Merlin," she replied. She sat down on the sofa, and I immediately sat down next to her. "You're not going to tell me that you've decided you don't like me so much, after all this time, are you?"

I chuckled at the thought, and how completely impossible it was. "No, I'm not."

"Good. Because then I'd have to hit you, Jam Pot."

"Please, don't. Can I tell you now?"

"Go on, then."

"It was Sirius who stole the Deflating Draught," I gabbled quickly, biting my lip after I'd finished, gauging her reaction.

Her nostrils flared and she stared at me icily. "Go on."

"I didn't know, I swear. He only told me when we were leaving the classroom. I know where it is, and I was going to go get it if you weren't going to listen to me, and – "

"Stop," she interrupted, putting her hand over my mouth. She nearly broke my nose. "It's okay. As long as you weren't involved, it's fine with me. I suppose I'll have to accept that you have an idiotic friend. And I guess I should thank him, too."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "You have no idea how hard it was to tell you that. I thought you were going to run again."

"I've had enough of running. That, and I really, really want to stay. Like I said James, I…love you."

I smiled at hearing her say the words again, and kissed her softly on the lips, just for a split-second. "I love you too."

"So, where's the potion?" Lily asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'll go get it."

I ran towards the stairs to the dormitory, looking back at Lily as I leapt up them two at a time. I almost fell flat on my face as I did so, and I heard a small tinkling laugh as I scrambled up the last few stairs.

I was surprised to see the dormitory door wide open, but I realised Sirius must have left it that way. I peered in his open wardrobe impatiently, not wanting to spend too much time apart from Lily. I was so happy, so ecstatic that Lily and I were finally together, that I almost didn't notice the small note next to the flask. I saw it just as I was about to shut the door, and it caught my attention as I saw it said James on the outside. Remembering what had happened last time after I'd picked up something just because it had my name on, I almost left it where it was. But I realised that this was actually addressed to me, so I had every right to read it. I unfolded it (with great difficulty) and read Sirius' familiar writing.

I told you so. Have fun today.

I laughed. I realised there was no doubt in his mind that his plan wouldn't work, or else he wouldn't have written the note. I realised he was going to milk it for all it was worth, and I knew he'd be expecting a 'thank you' daily until Christmas.

I bounded back down the stairs, the flask in my robe pocket. I jumped the last five stairs, landing on the carpet with a thud. Lily snapped her head up in surprise, looking at me with an alarmed look on her face.

"Calm down, James. We have all day," she reminded me. I smiled at the thought of spending the entire day with her. Of course, we could go back to classes after using the potion, but… would we really want to do that?

I pulled the potion carefully out of my pocket. "What do we even do with it?"

"I think you just…drink it?" Lily replied uncertainly.

I knew there was no way I could open the flask using my hands, so I prised the lid off using my teeth. I dropped it on the ground before peering inside the flask.

"I'll go first then, shall I?" I said nervously, lifting it to my lips. I took a sip, and almost gagged. It tasted disgusting.

I handed it to Lily, wiping my mouth. She swallowed some and wrinkled up her nose before turning to me. "That stuff is vile."

I nodded in agreement, and looked down at my hands. They were shrinking before my eyes, and were back to their normal size within seconds.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief after her hands returned to normal, a spilt second after my own. I put my arm around her, and she slid nearer to me on the sofa.

"What do you want to do today, then?" I asked, taking her hand.

"I don't know. We should really go back to class," Lily stated unhappily.

"We should, but we won't. Besides, that would just get Sirius in trouble. The teachers would know he stole the potion if we came back to class with hands that are suddenly a normal size. People notice things like that, you know," I teased.

"I guess I'll just have to spend the whole day alone with you then, Potter," Lily sighed in mock discomfort.

"Oh, will it be too much of a trauma for you, Lils?"

"I suppose I'll get through it," she grumbled. "If I have to."

"Yep, you have too. I'm not letting you leave."

To demonstrate that, I put both arms around her waist tightly and pulled her on to my lap. She laughed and leaned in to kiss me. I put one of my hands in her hair as we kissed and –

Sirius has the worst timing.

"Oh, so I am interrupting," he said happily, clambering through the portrait hole. "I really did hope so."

Lily groaned and rolled off my lap, on to the sofa. "Yes, you are Black. Kindly go away."

"Yeah. What Lily said," I added.

"Hey, now. Why the hostility?" Sirius grinned. "Congrats, by the way. And thanks, Evans. James might finally stop talking about you now."

"Come on, Sirius," said Remus, who was standing beside Sirius. I hadn't noticed him come in, but he was standing there with a huge smile on his face. "Let's leave them to it."

"Okay," he grumbled. "But they haven't even said thank you yet! Even you have to admit how great my plan was, Remus. Maybe I should become a matchmaker or something. It's about time you went on a date again. It's been, what, a year? Maybe I could set you up with one of Charlotte's friends. Oh, you could start dating MaryMcKinnon, she's bookish like you, but she's pretty good looking as well, and…"

Sirius' voice faded as he followed Remus out of the portrait hole, winking at us once before he did so.

"Where were we?" said Lily, watching Sirius disappear with a roll of her eyes.

In answer to her question, I began to kiss her again.

.x.

About half an hour later, we hadn't moved off the sofa. Lily was resting her head on my shoulder and I was stroking her hair as we spoke quietly.

"Oh, Lils. I have something I have to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Will you come to Hogsmeade with me this Saturday?"

She laughed softly. "I've lost count of the number of times you've asked me that question."

"But this time, there's actually a hope you might say yes. How about it?"

"It's a date," she replied, emphasising each word as she spoke them.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to hear you say that," I said, grinning. It was quite ridiculous how happy I was to hear the words, considering she'd already said she loved me, and snogged me rather senseless.

"You have no idea how weird it feels to be saying it. If you told me ten days ago that I'd be going on a date with James Potter, I would've laughed in your face."

"Aw, thank you Lily. You always say such nice things," I joked.

"I love you; that's nice."

"I love you too."

.x.

It was with deep regret that I walked up the dormitory stairs that evening. Admittedly, it was past midnight, but I still hadn't spent enough time in the common room with Lily. I craved her company – her laugh was infectious, her smile addicting. I spent the entire day with her, and part of the night. We skipped lunch altogether, leaving it completely unmentioned until my stomach's rumblings reminded us that we hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was four o'clock by this time though – far too late for lunch, but too early for dinner. Not that I minded – Lily came before treacle tart any day.

Professor Dent sent a stammering second year boy with the freshly made Deflating Draught at around seven o'clock. The boy peered at us, trying to figure out what needed deflating.

We received many curious stares as people began to enter the common room after classes. That was nothing, though, compared to the silence that fell when we entered the Great Hall, hand in hand, for dinner. It had taken a lot of persuading from Sirius, Remus, Peter, Alice (who had squealed when she walked in to the common room in the lunch hour and spotted Lily and I holding hands on the sofa, before shooting Lily a stare that even I could tell meant 'tell me everything later') and Frank to convince us to come to dinner at all.

"Okay, nothing to see here, folks!" Sirius called as we walked down the space between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. "Just a girl who usually throws food at her admirer, finally getting together with him. But come on! We all knew it was going to happen!"

At his words, I just couldn't resist…the looks on people's faces would be priceless…I put my arm around Lily's waist and bent her gently backwards before lowering my lips to hers, kissing her like there was no tomorrow.

Cheers erupted from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, as if we were performing the final scene in a play – which I suppose we were, in a way. We'd got our happily ever after.

I slowly pulled away after a couple of long moments. Even Professor Dumbledore was clapping good-naturedly, a twinkle in his eyes. I took Lily's hand and pulled her down on to an empty bench and sat next to her.

"Oh, James," scolded Alice, who had just sat down between Remus and Frank. "You're such a show off."

"Some things never change," Lily said, trying to sound stern – but her smile gave her away

"Sorry," I whispered softly in her ear, her red hair tickling my nose. "That was sort of stupid."

"It can't be that stupid, if I enjoyed it so much," she whispered back, smiling. That addicting smile again.

"Oy! You two! We're trying to eat here!" yelled Sirius with a grin. "Are you trying to make us feel sick?"

"Ah, sorry mate. Can't help it, though. I'm so happy."

Sirius rolled his eyes and returned to his food.

Everyone hastily excused themselves when we returned to the common room, leaving Lily and I alone on the sofa. It was quickly becoming our sofa, and that's where we stayed until Lily unhappily insisted that she really had to get some sleep.

We said goodnight (both verbally and physically) before walking up our respective staircase to our dormitory.

I lay in bed feeling so much happier than the previous night, it was hard to believe I was the same person.

Lily and I were finally together. Hopefully, together forever – or, forever and a day as I'd told Lily a couple of hours before, which resulted in her calling me a 'soppy prat'.

I suppose some things never change.

A/N There you have it – the final chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and didn't choke on all the fluff :) I was amazed at getting twelve reviews last chapter, it was the most I've received the whole story…so far (hint hint!) Thank you so much to everyone who's ever reviewed and added this to their alerts or favourites, it really means a lot to me when I find the messages in my inbox! Sorry I took a while to update again…stupid French coursework keeping me busy.

This was my first fan fiction, and I've really, really enjoyed writing it, so there's a fairly good chance I might write a sequel in a few months…good idea? Bad idea? Let me know!

Big hugs to everyone, thanks so much, and please leave a last review!