3. Friday

I am never late for lessons. Never, in my whole school career, have I been late for a lesson. Punctuality is my thing – which is pathetic, I know. But it's the truth. Evidently, though, today my thing has failed me. Otherwise I wouldn't be running down a corridor, panting, with my bag thwacking my side with every step I take. What have I got in there, a couple of bricks?!

I halt outside the classroom door and turn the handle slowly. I slip inside, hoping Professor Binns won't notice me. Luckily, he has his back (do ghosts have backs?) turned to me, and I scan the room for an empty seat.

Huh. That's just typical. The only spare seat happens to be next to James Potter. Luckily, it's right at the back of the room, so I don't have to walk past everyone.

"Well well well," he whispers as I sit down. "Lily Evans? Late?"

"Yes. Is that so surprising?" I reply.

"Erm, yes?" he answers, laughing.

I glare at him. Professor Binns turns back around and doesn't seem to notice that a student has suddenly materialised next to Potter. "Fredric the Fearful was…"

I hastily pull out my equipment so I can take notes, and I see Potter roll his eyes.

"I saved that seat for you, y'know," he says, drumming his quill on the tabletop. "Many, many people tried to sit there, and were extremely upset when I told them to find another seat." I look at him, incredulous that he'd actually say such a thing. "Relax, Lily, I'm joking! But I think Edwina Brown did shed a tear or two – "

"Oh, shut up," I say, laughing in spite of myself.

"I really did save the seat for you," he says seriously. " I thought we shouldn't break tradition."

I raise my eyebrows. "Tradition?"

"Sitting together in this lesson. It's tradition."

"Potter, something has to happen more than twice for it to be tradition," I scoff.

"Why don't we make it tradition, then?"

"Um, because I don't want to."

I'm shocked to realise I've been forgetting to take notes. I unscrew my ink bottle immediately and try to concentrate on what Professor Binns is saying. But it's so hard with Potter sitting next to me! I can't ignore him anymore, like I used to. WHY can't I ignore him? It's not like he deserves a response.

"Aw, Lily. How your words hurt me!" He puts his hands over his heart and he says it jokily, but there's something…off. The light-hearted grin that he wears when he's joking, maybe? The mischievous sparkle he usually has in his eye?

Wait. Am I thinking about Potter and…sparkles in his eye? I don't notice sparkles in his eyes! Or absences of them! I don't notice Potter's eyes, full stop. I had enough of this weird-ness on Wednesday. I don't reply and just look at Binns.

"Anyway, Lily. It's my turn to dare you again!"

"Oh, no," I say before I can stop myself. "No way."

"Why?" he asks, sticking out his bottom lip and widening his eyes. "It's my turn!"

"You dared me. Then I dared you. That's it. Over. Finished."

"But I want another turn!" he whines, sounding a lot like a five year old child.

"No!"

"Is there something you and Mr Powter would like to share, Miss Avins?" asks Professor Binns.

"No, Professor," I mumble, not bothering to tell him that my surname is in fact EVANS. I've tried that before. He forgets by the next lesson.

"So," Potter says as soon as Professor Binns looks back down at his notes. "I dare you to – "

"I said you don't get another turn!"

"But I want another turn!"

"You've said that before."

"That's because I really mean it."

Urgh. He really isn't going to give up. I suppose that's Potter for you.

"What do I get, if I do it?" I sigh.

He instantly smiles, and says "You get to dare me."

Well. That sounds fair, I suppose. And I'll think of a much better dare than last time; honestly, 'I dare you not to not talk to me for a minute'? What a waste.

"Fine. What's the dare?" I put my quill down. My notes don't make much sense anyway, so I might as well not bother. 'Fred death pudding 1818'? What's that supposed to mean? He was killed by pudding?

"I dare you…are you ready?" He grins at me.

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes!"

"And you promise you'll do it, whatever it is?"

That takes me a few seconds longer to answer. What if it's something like…start a food fight at lunch time? Or deface some sort of school property? Oh, I have to do it. Maybe I even want to do it, whatever it is. It might be…fun. "Yes. Yes, I'll do whatever it is."

"Are you absolutely, one hundred percent sure that you're ready for me to tell you?"

"Potter, if you don't tell me in the next five seconds, then I'm going to – "

"I dare you to kiss me."

Wait. What? WHAT? He dared me to WHAT? WHAT WHAT WHAT? I can't kiss James Potter! Even if I want to, a little bit. WHAT?! I don't want to kiss James Potter! I hate/maybe just dislike him! There's a thin line between love and hate… NO! There's a big, fat, black line, drawn with a Muggle permanent marker! I mean, look at him! Look at that face! Why would anyone want to kiss him… screw it, I want to kiss him. NO I FREAKING DON'T! He might be funny and sweet at times and charming and cute. But I don't want to kiss him!

But… I have to! I said I'd do anything he dared me to do! So I can't not do it, I suppose. I don't want to, obviously. But I HAVE to!

Oh. He's waiting for a response.

"Fine. Right here?"

To say Potter looks surprised would be an understatement. He looks like he just saw me sprout wings.

"You…you agree to kiss me?"

"I – I don't – well, I didn't mean – yes. I did. But only because you dared me to, and I said I'd do anything you dared me to do," I hastily added.

"AVINS! POWTER! I am trying to teach a lesson here, but all I can hear is your incessant chatter! Go stand outside and don't speak a word to each other! I will come talk to you when I have finished my lesson, which it seems neither of you are interested in," Binns bellows. "Go on! Out!" he adds when neither Potter or I move.

I push my chair back and walk out of the classroom, and I realise I've been sent outside for the second time in one week. For the second time EVER.

"Well…we don't have an audience anymore," Potter says suggestively when he's shut the classroom door behind him.

"Shush! He said not to talk!"

"Oh, relax. He's practically deaf."

That's true, I suppose. And I have to get this kiss over with. No time like the present.

I take a step closer to Potter, surprising myself. He looks down at me as if he can't believe it's really happening; but then again, neither can I. I take another step towards him and now I'm closer to him than I've ever been. The atmosphere in the corridor changes immediately and my heart is racing.

"It's just…just a dare," I whisper. Am I trying to assure him of that, or myself?

And now I'm putting my hands on his shoulders and he's putting his around my waist, and I'm getting closer and closer to him…and then I'm pressing my lips to his, and putting one hand in his hair, and I feel like the corridor is spinning, and I'm deepening the kiss, and…

And I wonder what the heck I'm doing.

I pull away and put my back against the wall so there's at least a foot between us.

"It was j-just… was just a dare!"

He nods dazedly, and for once in his life I think he has no words.

"Forget it ever happened!" I say quickly. What was I doing? Sure, I had to kiss him. But just a quick peck on the lips! "Why didn't you stop, anyway?"

"Me?" he says incredulously. "What about you? You were the one who put your hand in my hair, who held the kiss - what did that mean, Lily?"

"It…nothing! It didn't mean anything! I don't like you, remember?"

I don't like him. But you know that cliché…that when you kiss someone, fireworks go off? Yeah. That happened. But that doesn't mean anything, surely?

He doesn't reply, and sits down on the hard stone floor.

"Anyway. It's my turn to dare you now."

Gosh. Why did I say that?

He looks glumly up at me. "Go on then. Pay me back for that stupid kiss that I made you do."

I can't help feeling hurt. Is that what it was to him? A stupid kiss? That was all it was to me, of course. So why do I care? I sit down beside him and he turns to face me.

"Do your worst, Evans," he says, trying to joke. But the sparkle isn't there. Neither is the grin.

"I dare you…are you ready?" I tease, saying exactly what he'd said to me. I don't know what I'm going to dare him to do. Just something small. Silly.

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Maybe I'll dare him to blow a kiss at Professor McGonagall.

"Yes!"

"And you promise you'll do it, whatever it is?"

"Yes. Yes, I'll do whatever it is."

"Are you absolutely, one hundred percent sure that you're ready for me to tell you?"

He smiles and nods. A real smile, with a twinkle in his eye.

And maybe that's what does it. Maybe that's when I know what I'm going to dare him to do.

"Okay then…if you're sure you're ready," I choke out.

"I'm sure."

"I dare you to kiss me."

He's already kissing me before I finish speaking. He opens his mouth, opening mine with it, and I put my hands back in his hair. Before I can wonder what on earth I'm doing, I move to sit in his lap so I'm straddling him. His lips are so incredibly soft. I bite his bottom lip gently and he puts his hands on my back and pulls me closer. He lays soft, quick kisses on my cheeks, my neck, my nose, my forehead.

As he softly kisses my closed eyelids, I say "It's not just a dare anymore."

"We both know it never was," he whispers as he brings his mouth back to my own.

His lips coax open my mouth once more and this time he slips his tongue into my mouth.

"AVINS! POWTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Avins and Powter don't listen; they're lost in their own world, and want to stay there just a second longer.

A/N There you have it! The last chapter. God knows it took me long enough. It wasn't too fluffy, was it? I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review! :)