Chapter 3

He hadn't seen Lily all evening. She had not shown up again, although he had sat in the common room until shortly before midnight to wait for her to explain everything to her. He had let Sirius explain the whole story to him and was sure that Lily had only overreacted. She had definitely not been able to sleep the last few nights, so she was now suffering from stress. And then came these short-circuit reactions. At least that's what he kept telling himself.
"Come on, Crown, leave it. It's time for the bunk," he heard again from Sirius, who was already in his pajamas in the door to the dormitory. How long had he lingered there watching him?
"What if something happened to her?"
There was a deep sigh, then Sirius had moved and jumped over the armrest next to James. It was these usual conversations that the two of them used to have in the middle of the night while everyone else was already sleeping or at least had gone to the room to do something for the school."Lily ...", and with that he looked James straight in the eye, "Nothing can happen to her. The woman is not as cute as she always looks. She has a tough job or why do you think she could do me in a duel beat?"
"Because you wanted to let her win?"
"Definitely not. I don't mind girls, Krone," Sirius shook his head. "Nobody's going to get too close to the little one, so believe me. She's guaranteed to be sitting here early tomorrow morning and brooding over her homework, which she had done two weeks ago before it was even given up."
"Yes, paw ..." but then Potter paused and looked at the portal door.
It had meanwhile been opened, but no one entered yet, but voices could be heard. Two perfectly familiar voices - Lily and Severus. Only fragments like "It's alright", "Don't worry" and "We'll see you tomorrow" arrived at the two people sitting on the sofa.They didn't get up, didn't want to be called tensioners. And even if they were often, you didn't have to admit everything. Then finally the door closed and you could only hear the footsteps of a person.
It's better that way,thought the two young men almost at the same time, but it was only James who turned his head to Lily and sat with his knees on the sofa to over the armrest to be able to watch her.
"Still on the road so late?"
At first Lily didn't want to give him an answer and just trot on, but she thought it wasn't fair to him. She had just left him there and ran away. Her things were neatly on the table she always worked at in the morning.
"Thank you, Krone," she smiled gently at him and took the things back and walked over to the two of them. Sirius didn't look at her, but it didn't seem to affect him. If it were up to him, she could have gone on, but he didn't want to do that to his best friend."I'm sorry about earlier," she managed to quietly look down at James. Finally that one was smaller than herself and he had to look up at her.
"Oh, that's fine," he waved off with a grin. He thought he knew how stupid it must look at the moment. And if he didn't know, he would hear it in a few minutes. "Don't make a record about it. You should maybe go for it, it's already late. And after all, tomorrow we will have Care of Magical Creatures first thing."
With a smile on her face, Lily nodded quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow, James. Sirius." She only nodded slightly to the latter and disappeared up the stairs with almost floating steps. Everything was already quiet, only she seemed to be on her feet in her dormitory.
One floor below it was all different. The two men sat on the sofa and looked at each other in silence. Until Sirius burst out laughing, he couldn't contain himself."Everything's fine," he mimicked James, making big googly eyes. "You should have seen yourself, James. That's really under the edge.", He went on fooling.
But instead of being angry with him, Potter preferred to laugh with him. The two had gone through thick and thin so far, only death would probably be able to separate them.

And so this night passed in a flash. Maybe too quickly, because when the alarm clock rang in the boy's room, no one was really in the mood to get up. It was all too early, they wanted to turn around again. Only James grabbed his glasses and pulled the covers to one side. He looked up shaggy as he always did when he got up. As always, because his hair couldn't be tamed. He was a hopeless case in this sense, as in many others. And he was even more hopelessly in love.
He quickly put on his school clothes, allowed himself a quick cat wash and he was gone down the stairs.The fireplace burned like every morning, the room was bathed in a soft light and the warmth was immediately drawn to all limbs. It was as if the storm that was raging in front of the castle windows wasn't really there but far away. Like reading a book and getting into the story.
"James ... up this early?" And promptly he stopped paying attention to the step, stumbling down the last one at breakneck speed. He was lying on the floor and holding his head.
"Nothing happens," he exclaimed as Lily rushed over to him.
"What kind of things do you do too. Why have eyes in your head, please?"
"So that the glasses are not completely useless," he just grinned silly at the young woman and then got up too. He straightened his clothes, even if he didn't really feel comfortable in the tank top. He always believed that these parts would degrade you to a real washcloth, but since all students had to wear something like this, it was probably just bearable to live with this disgrace.Together with the young woman he went over to the table and sat down, putting the glasses on his nose again.
"What are you doing down here for half the night, Lily?" He asked bluntly. His gaze rested entirely on her. Her uniform was close to her body, the tie was neatly tied and did not hang from her like half a sack, as he always did. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, a strand just hung over her face, which she kept brushing behind her ear.
"I wanted to read something again," and with that she pointed to the big book that was open in front of her. Briefly she closed it to show him the title. They were potions. How could it be otherwise with Lily?
"And you really get up so damn early for something like that, yes? Well, I can't do that. You work so infinitely long even in the evening ... how do you always get out of bed fresh as a dew?""Habits, James. All habits," she smiled gently at him and leaned back. "You know ... at home it's hardly any different. I can only really use the hours in which my sister doesn't make my life a hell. She's a child in the center and when it isn't about her, she turns totally on the edge . You can't imagine how crazy she went when I got the letter from Hogwarts. All of a sudden I was the brightest star in my family's sky, but well ... let's talk about something else "
"No no, go ahead and tell," he asked, looking at her with wide eyes.
That sight alone reminded her of Severus. And at that moment she realized that she wanted to meet him before dinner. That she had promised him to wait for him downstairs in front of the toilet. A close look at her watch told the young woman that she would not be too late yet. However, she should be on her way there in the next five minutes.Accordingly, she packed all her things in the bag.
James followed her movements with his eyes, but couldn't really understand it. What did she suddenly have? Was he uncomfortable with his presence? Was there something wrong with his appearance? Did he have bad breath?
"But Lily ..." she simply interrupted and looked at her.
"I know, James, I said I would help you with your homework," she sighed softly, "but unfortunately nothing will come of it today. Really. I'm so sorry," but without saying another word, she put to him two rolls of parchment on the table. "Write it down, then it won't be noticed", she smiled gently and disappeared again. To where their feet would take them and no one should see them.
And so he was sitting alone in the large room. The fire cracked in the background, the door slammed. Now he was alone with the loneliness, didn't really know what to do now. He could copy her homework, he should, because even if he started now, he wouldn’t be finished with the story of sorcery.How long did she work on it?And in order to be able to get an answer, I took the parchments and rolled them up. There it was, this tiny handwriting that every teacher had previously complained about, because even with a magnifying glass you could hardly see it. But this one had something very special. And James realized again that she was much more conscientious than he was. She was really working and preparing for school. Actually, he should take her on one of the forays so that she could escape from everyday life. Was she here for Christmas? Then he would certainly have the chance to kidnap her. Or at least go out with her. Would she be the most beautiful woman at dinner again?
So lost in his thoughts, he didn't even notice who appeared behind him and peered over his shoulder. But actually he didn't need to see it either, because it was clear to him that it could only be someone who was bothering him so early in the morning."Paw," he muttered, snapping the rolls back together. Then he looked back and soon saw his black hair hanging down his face. "How about a visit to the bald tailor?"
"Good idea," was the only ironic answer. Sirius yawned heartily and dropped down next to his friend and looked at the rolls. "Lily?"
He got a silent nod in response, then James started looking for his writing materials.
"Dude, did you really not do homework? Not even started?"
"Yes, yes," he grumbled and rummaged through all the tables. He hadn't brought his stuff upstairs yesterday evening because he thought she would have an hour or two for him in the evening, but unfortunately nothing came of it. "Started ... read the first