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The heat was sweltering. The little Cokeworth townhouse felt like an oven, ready for the Sunday roast, all except for Lily’s room of course. Ever since she turned 17, cooling charms had been placed on her room with regularity and although she had offered to place it in every room of the house, Petunia’s beet red face had halted the gesture. Lily had been waiting for the sticky air to convince her magic-reluctant sister to stop torturing herself, and as a consequence their father, but if there was one thing the sisters shared, it was their immense stubbornness. Lily had stopped caring at this point - denial may be the second trait they shared.
Right now, still dressed in sleep shorts and a top, Lily was rummaging through her closet, a little lacking in the none-robe or school uniform area, at least in a size that would still cover important bits and not burst at the seams. Ties, ink stained shirts and a very small skirt - how had she ever fit into that? - was mixed with shorts and shirts with cute prints, all at least one size too small. Tapping her chin she considered attempting another garment alternating charm on a particularly cute, bit small, sundress, but the pitiful useless pile of tattered clothes next to her bed made her dismiss the idea.
Marlene had been going spare all by herself in the family’s summer cottage and had invited the soon to be 7th years for a pool party this afternoon. The girls from her dorm visited the cottage every summer, estate a more fitting description, but this time, Marlene had invited the boys as well. Hence, the archaeological attack on the wardrobe.
Not that she actually cared that the boys were invited, she had planned to clean out her closet anyway. This was purely practical. Positively. Although she did have a rather surprising dream last night, the heat of it waking her up, wrongly assuming the cooling charm had worn off. But that was normal, right? Hormones and all that, nothing to be worried about.
She groaned into a pair of old trousers. It wasn’t like she was attracted to him, he was exasperating and always getting in trouble, not anywhere near her type. Although he did have very nice forearms. Strong, tanned arms. Her dream hadn’t taken her any further than that part, probably because she couldn’t remember seeing him in more undress that rolled up shirt sleeves in the last year. She had been avoiding him and it was a cold castle, most of the students would add more layers, not take them off.
Finally an acceptable summer dress was dug out from the top shelf. White with a cutwork lace edge, broad straps and a mid calf length flowy skirt. Now bikini… or a swimming costume. Her brows furrowed. The obvious answer did not present itself. All right, so the girls would not care either way, and Pot… the boys would likely prefer the bikini, because boys. So should she wear the costume just to spite them, or would that just gather more attention? Or was she overthinking this? Would they even notice anyway, it wasn’t like she was anything stunning to look at. Quick decision, the bikini would mean any unflattering tan lines, or in her case more likely burn lines, would be limited to what could be hidden under her regular summer attire of old shorts and a top. Bikini it is.
And it wasn’t like HE was anything special, she just appreciated nice forearms, that was the only reason why he had been part of her dream. Others must have nice forearms as well? He probably developed them via his hobby of keeping himself attached to a flying stick so as to not plummet to his death. Quidditch, quidditch was the key. Black played on the team as well, if she closed her eyes and focused on him, she would get all bothered as well, right? Time to test the hypothesis. Lily closed her eyes firmly.
Sirius’ arms. Sirius’ arms. Sirius’ arms.
Dammit! Nothing but genuine annoyance.
But! Remus has a crush on Black, Godric knows why, and being the amazing friend she is, she wouldn’t dare crush on his crush. Logic. Ha! And she didn’t know any of the other players very well, so the test could not be performed with accurate data. What a shame.
Green bikini on, white cottage worthy dress on top, strappy green sandals, red braid coming over her shoulder, hat (because sunburn in your hairline is not fun, regardless of magical remedies), and a soft flower printed bag with the essentials, Lily looked at herself in the mirror. She looked surprisingly good, not that she cared that anyone in particular would think so too. She checked her room, conveniently skipping over the exploded closet, magic could fix that later, and walked into the boiling hallway. Merlin and Morgana! How stubborn can you be that you’d rather melt into the old pink carpet, than have your literally magic sister remove your home from what felt like the surface of the sun.
Hurrying out into the back garden, avoiding said sister, she went to the only blind spot that could safely be performed magic in without giving old Mrs. Pember next door a heart attack, and disapparated with a pop.
With a small stumble, a recent upgrade from the less graceful face planting, she appeared close to Marlene’s cottage. Voices were already drifting from the garden, Mary and Sirius in a loud argument, that was half laughter and half exasperation as usual, with music mixed into the background. She quickly stepped through the big yellow gate into the lush garde,n and stepped around the back until the pool and her friends came into view.
“Lils!” Marlene ran to her and crushed her in a hug, making them both laugh, rocking back and forth in a strange dance, arms around each other.
“I missed you! You look fit! Come say hi”
A stream of words, compliments and comments overwhelmed Lily’s senses in the best way, as she followed her best friend onto the patio, quickly falling into the rhythm of the merged friend groups, laughing and catching up. And Potter just stood there in the back, hands in his pockets, looking at her with a small grin on his face. Purely coincidental that she noticed of course, it was not like she had found him in the crowd as the first thing. He was simply very tall, so impossible to avoid. She felt her face heat up, but it was hot here, again a coincidence. There seemed to be a lot of those today.
Remus, noticing the awkward change in her, stepped up to her and started asking her about her electives for next year. He knew why she had haltered, but at least had the decency to try and cover it up. They didn’t get to chat long before Marlene set everyone to work.
“Potter, help me put up some shade so we won’t roast will ya? And Lily, please put up the jars next to the pool, it will look brilliant once it gets dark!”
Concentrating on levitating mason jars and attaching them to the rope along the side of the patio, she almost missed Potter coming up next to her, fastening the last corner of the tarp.
“Alright, Evans?”
How could those two words make her almost lose her footing? It wasn’t like it was extraordinary, or a specifically flirty thing to say, but coming from him it was the most sincere question and it hit her how much she had missed that dumb sentence.
Placing the last jar more slowly than she needed, stalling for time to school her face into a more relaxed expression, she turned to him.
“I’m good, thank you. How has your summer been so far?”
Standing this close to him, without little Emmeline blocking him, she noticed how his white shirt sat tight over his shoulder. Maybe he had issues finding clothes that fit too she thought gulping.
Do not drool! Eyes on his face!
“Bit of everything, last summer as free men before obligations call” He winked at her. Winked! No! It had been a hot minute since she’d interacted in their banter habit and she was just out of practice, putting something into it that wasn’t here. Or had he thought she was ogling him and was having a laugh? She grimaced internally, the denial started becoming obvious even to herself. Potter was possibly fit.
Mary and Sirius’ bickering came closer as they attempted to wrestle a table in place on the patio.
“We could just levitate it!” Mary bit at him
“But how am I supposed to impress you with how strong I am!” he grinned back, earning him a double eye roll from Mary and Remus.
Potter looked on amused, about to retort with a clever remark over his shoulder, just as Sirius made an unexpected pivot.
Everything after this happened so quickly, that there was no way she could avoid it. Potter took a step back, grabbing her arm, moving her out of the table’s trajectory, lost his balance and pulled her with him as they both fell into the water.
Spluttering, with two very nice arms around her, she surfaced, having to steady herself on a pair of surprisingly firm shoulders as her flowy skirt twisted around her legs, making it impossible for her to stand on her feet.
“Evans! Are you ok?”
Blinking a few times, she identified the arms and shoulders as belonging to a certain Potter, a very wet Potter. Oh shit he’s cute.
“Well thank you” he replied, cheeks blushing, with a smile growing impossible larger by the second.
Oh shit, she said that out loud. For a moment she considered simply letting herself drown to escape the embarrassment, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Especially not when that white shirt clung to him in all sorts of manners and it was made evident that his muscled forearms were part of a matching set of… well everything. His hair, looking long plastered to his face instead of sticking up in every direction, made water run down his face and neck. Oh shit indeed.
Someone wolf whistled. Giving the pitch she guessed Mary, but once she realized her hands were still touching wet skin, all brain function may have stopped working.
And he didn’t move either. Feeling his fingers move on her waist finally jolted her back to reality.
“For fucks sake Sirius!” she murmured, trying to gain her footing and failing miserably, only succeeding in getting closer to a hard chest. Potter seemed to come back out of his own trance and helped her to the edge of the pool, staying very, very close.
“Thanks”, with crimson cheeks she managed to heave herself unto the edge, but Potter seemed to have stopped breathing. He did look breathless in that wet shirt, but his eyes were stuck on what she now realized was her own very wet, very white dress, green bikini clearly showing through. Sirius was going to die a slow and painful death.
And the instigator of the chaos? He was doubled over laughing, enjoying this way too much, with even Remus chuckling at the spectacle. Traitor.
Picking her wand out from her pocket, she quickly cast a drying charm on herself, stood and walked into the cabin where she knew one could find a loo and a mirror. She could only imagine the state of her hair.
After a few thorough drying charms, a braiding of her curls, and a chanting of I Can Not Go To Azkaban, she stepped back into the little hallway with the plan of laughing at the whole incident and then pretending it never happened.
Potter was waiting for her. Great. Probably about to make fun of her, she knew he’d caught her ogling him the second time.
He stood leaning against the wall, hands in pockets, swirling his head towards her when the door to the loo clicked shut.
All dry, disappointingly so, his hand went into his hair, his signature move for charming professors, girls, barmaids, etc., although now he just seemed nervous. Lily wasn’t sure what was happening.
“I’m sorry Evans, I didn’t mean to pull you with me, are you… are you alright?”
He looked genuinely regretful, slightly tense like he was waiting for a lashing, and a few years ago so she would have done that… but now…
She walked closer and leaned a shoulder up against the wall next to him, crossing her arms, looking at a spot on the wall between them “I’m good, just embarrassed”
“About what!? I was the complete wanker pulling you into the pool, almost drowning you”, he relaxed against the wall again, sensing he was not in mortal peril after all.
“You did, didn’t you?” she laughed quietly, daring to look at his face again. He was smiling, a dimple showing on the left cheek.
They were quiet for a bit, “and um… you think I’m cute” he said softly, not taking his eyes off her. Any work she had done in the loo to get her blush under control had been in vain.
“You know you’re fit, Potter, don’t act so surprised!”
He grinned at her and pulled her under his arm, “I know I’m fit, sure, but it is much more interesting that you think I’m fit”, they were both laughing now, stumbling down the hallway, back towards their friends, his arm still around her shoulder.
Sirius might live after all.