***
Persons attempting to find
a
moral in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to
find
a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in
it
will be shot.--Mark Twain
It was the week after
Christmas
but before New Year's; the needles from the gracious fir were
turning
brown and sticking to the carpet; the new books had been read, the
new
clothes worn, and the new toys played with; and Lily Evans was
bored.
She'd been gone for
Hogwarts
for barely two weeks, but she already missed the stately castle with
its
solid walls; missed using magic; and, most of all, missed her
friends.
It seemed that every year Lily spent at Hogwarts, she grew farther
and
farther apart from the Muggle world. And now, she was fifteen years
old,
alone in the week after the holidays, with only her sister to keep
her
company; her activities limited to staring out the window at the
melting
snow, sighing, and counting down the days until she returned to
school.
And then the doorbell
rang.
Her sister flew to answer it. Petunia was
a
tall, blonde, horse-faced girl, who derived two pleasures from life:
teasing
Lily and mooning over her boyfriend, Vernon. Perhaps she thought
that
the latter would be standing at the door, but he obviously was not,
as
she slammed it closed and backed against the doorknob.
"Salesman?" Lily asked
wearily.
"No." Petunia shuddered. "Some of your
kind.
Detestable-looking boy who needs a haircut, girl with a load of
mousy
hair…"
Lily sprang up and ran to the window.
James
Potter, Sirius Black, and her best friend Juliet Sinistra stood
there,
waving frantically. "Wait!" she yelled. "Mum? Mum! May I go out for
a
while? Some of my friends are here!"
Mrs. Evans appeared at the top of the
steps,
smiling. "Go on, then, dear, have a good time." Her relief was plain
on
her face -- during the holiday, she'd often voiced concerns that
Lily
was becoming "mopey" and "moody." "Call if you need a ride home.
Now,
you know what to do – stick with your friends, don't go anywhere by
yourself,
and don't talk to any…"
"I know, Mum! Bye!" Lily grabbed her coat
and
Gryffindor scarf and rushed out the door. Excited greetings were
exchanged;
Juliet pulled her into a quick hug and James Potter grabbed her
hands
and twirled her into a dance.
"Oh, James, not in the middle of the
sidewalk
– what will the Muggles think, after all?" she protested, laughing.
James
stopped his spinning but didn't drop her hand, and they walked down
the
street together. The four talked excitedly about their respective
Christmases
for a few minutes, and, as they turned the corner into a street
packed
with after-Christmas shoppers, Lily asked hesitantly, "Might I
inquire
where we’re going?"
Sirius bowed deeply and elaborately. "We,
Miss
Evans, have taken the liberty of rescuing you from Muggle-land –"
James
laughed "--and therefore have no idea what to do next."
"We could go to Diagon Alley," Juliet
suggested.
"Florean Fortescue's has a nice new peppermint ice-cream sundae –
mm."
"No money. Anyway, it's too cold for ice
cream."
Lily shivered in the brisk December wind.
"There's supposed to be a great Quidditch
match
over in Leatherhead --" James suggested tentatively.
"No Quidditch today, please, boys,"
Juliet
said firmly. "Anyway, I don't know where the nearest Portkey is, and
it's
too far to walk."
The four friends stood despondently in
the
street, watching people walk by with giant shopping bags. "What we
need,"
Sirius said, "is something close, fun, and cheap."
No one spoke for a second. "Diagon
Alley,"
Juliet suggested tentatively.
"No fun without enough money to even buy
a
Quaffle."
"Boys, honestly." Juliet grinned. "Um...
I
suppose we could go to someone's house and play Exploding Snap or
something."
No one volunteered. "Or the Animagi are doing a concert pretty close
to
here."
"I don't like the Animagi," Sirius
said
plaintively.
"Fine, then. You quit raining on our
parade
and come up with a better idea!" Juliet snapped.
"I have a better idea, Miss Acid
Pop!"
Juliet glared at him, a clear challenge.
"Fine.
What?"
"We could go ice-skating." No one
protested,
and Sirius grinned. "Told you it was a good idea."
"I love skating," Lily confessed. "But I
haven't
been since I started at Hogwarts."
"If you're Muggle-born, you've never
really
skated. We learned all about it in Muggle Studies, how your skates
never
fit and they twist your ankles, and how the blades are dull and the
ice
gets all scratched and they have to Zambezi it or whatever... No,
you've
never really skated."
Lily smiled wryly. She did like to skate,
she
really did -- but Sirius's description matched her experiences a
little
to closely for comfort. "Well, then, she said, "lead the way, Mr.
Black."
She offered him her hand with an assumed air of mid-Victorian
formality.
"With pleasure, Miss Evans." Sirius took
the
proffered hand and they minced down the street together. James and
Juliet
raced behind in a mock chase, the former yelling, "Unhand my
girlfriend!"
Sirius turned left, then right, then left
again,
and finally tapped a light post with his wand. Beneath it was a
cheerful,
well-lit passage, which in turn gave way to a sunny street. "Icy
Wonderland
Skating Rink," Lily read. "Slippery Twenty-Four Hours Per Day." They
trouped
inside.
At the desk, a grumpy-looking wizard
tapped
their shoes and said "Renovo modius!" Lily gaped as her heavy
overshoes
gave way to graceful, well-fitting skates. A sign read, "Guaranteed
to
Fit! Blades Bewitched with an Anti-Scratching Charm! Have Fun, Or
We'll
Know Why Not!" As they walked through the silver doors onto the rink
itself,
Lily felt blinded by the sun reflecting off the crystal-clear,
glassy
ice.
"It's charmed to repel scratching," James
said
as he tottered onto the ice. "Come on, Lily!"
She tottered onto the ice and nearly
fell.
James steadied her quickly, and she soon remembered how one moved
one's
feet while skating. Sirius, to no one's surprise, turned out to be
an
astonishingly graceful skater. His red-and-gold scarf whirled about
his
head as he executed perfect turns and jumps. Juliet was almost as
good,
and they performed a graceful dance together, skating backwards and
spinning
quickly about the rink.
James and Lily watched in awe, but then
he
grabbed her hands and they, too flew about the rink, skating in
perfect
unison until he tried to pull Lily backwards. They ended up sliding
all
over the ice, Lily clutching him in a desperate attempt not to fall,
and
finally, lying on their backs, both of them gasping for breath in
between
gales of laughter.
"I -- vote -- we -- take --a -- break,"
Lily
choked, attempting to sit up and sliding.
"Motion -- seconded." James struggled to
his
feet and pulled her up as well. "Coming, you two?"
"Sure." Juliet skated swiftly off and
returned
shortly with a large box of sweets. "You all owe me ten Knuts."
James
and Sirius were already engaged in a violent argument about whether
the
Appleby Arrows could possibly beat both the Wigtown Wanderers and
the
Ballycastle Bats to win the League.
"Do you two ever think about anything
besides
Quidditch?" asked Juliet, exasperated, as she bit into a Chocolate
Frog.
"Oh, it's Ichabod the Irreverent, I've got about fifty of him."
"No," Lily replied with a melodramatic
sigh.
"They live and breathe that game. I don't believe they can hold a
decent
discussion without it."
"Can too," James retorted.
"Bet you can't go the rest of the
afternoon
without mentioning it once!" Lily challenged.
"We can, and I'll prove it. Loser treats
everyone
to Butterbeer," Sirius declared, then hesitated. "James, why don't
you
start."
James was at a loss for words, and the
girls
exchanged triumphant glances. He hurriedly glanced at Juliet's
purchase
and said, "Did you ever notice how people are like
sweets?"
"Can't say as I have," Lily admitted,
brushing
a piece of hair out of her eyes and putting her arm around James.
"Do
continue."
"Well," James began, sucking a sugar
quill
meditatively, "Sirius is like an Exploding Bonbon."
"Can't argue that," Lily said with a
laugh.
"Juliet's like an Acid Pop -- she looks
sweet,
but she could burn a hole in you like that." James snapped his
fingers.
"Snape is like a Cockroach Cluster, or maybe a Blood Lollipop -- I
can't
decide." Everyone laughed. "Professor McGonagall is a Licorice Wand.
I
don't know why, she just is. And Lily, you're like... a sugar
quill."
She looked at him questioningly, and he
rushed
on. "I mean, you're sweet, and you're sharp -- and you tickle!" For
Lily
had brushed his neck with her fingertips, not entirely accidentally.
"And
you look like you're really fragile, but I don't think you'd shatter
easily."
James snapped the nib off his quill and began sucking on it. "Come
on,
let's go back on the ice." He took her hand.
Once they were flying across the ice,
Lily
smiled at him. "And do you like sugar quills, James?"
"Why, I do indeed, Lily." James stopped,
took
her other hand in his, and looked down at her. "I like them very
much."
He took a deep breath, leaned down, and kissed her.
The sugar from his sweets still on her
lips,
Lily kissed him back.
In the years that followed, she never
remembered
who won the bet, or whether James managed to teach her to skate
backwards.
What Lily remembered was that, beside the serviceable eagle feathers
on
James's desk, there always nestled a sugar quill. She remembered
that
she developed a sudden fondness for the sweet when she returned to
Hogwarts.
And she remembered that kiss, their
first.
The kiss that made her feel warm, even in the chill of the ice rink.
The
kiss that began everything.
A kiss sweet with the taste of a sugar
quill.
A/N: Inspired by Gryffindor Scarf Guy
at
the ice-skating rink. A nice little plot bunny that unfortunately
appeared
*after* I’d sent in my first submission.
