Summer Events

After dinner, Lily went back upstairs to her room to find her owl, Emerald, perched on her bedpost with a piece of parchment tied to his leg. He had been gone for three days, and Lily was glad to have him back.
She stroked his sleek black feathers, which were as black as James' hair. No matter how hard she tried, Lily couldn't seem to take her mind off of James. Making a desperate attempt to take her mind of James Potter, Lily untied the piece of parchment from Emerald's leg, and let him sit on her lap while she read the letter and absently stroked his glossy feathers.
It was from Bekki, telling Lily that she would be home on Sunday afternoon and that she couldn't wait to come back. Lily decided not to reply, since it would only be two days until she saw Bekki again.

The days flew by rapidly and soon, Lily found herself getting ready for the picnic on the beach. Her new green swimming suit fit snugly and matched her eyes perfectly. She wrapped herself in a light cover-up that was also green, grabbed her picnic basket that was filled with two of her mother's delicious pies, picked up her towel, and headed out the door to sit in the warm sun and wait for her ride. She wondered who had been sent to pick her up this time and if James would be in the same carpool as her.

As she sat on her porch steps and fingered a lock of her curly auburn hair, a car pulled around the corner and stopped in front of her house. Lily got up smoothly, and walked over to see who was in the car before she opened the door and climbed gracefully inside.
The car was empty, except for the driver, who, by chance, was James Potter. Lily smiled.
"Hop in," he said cheerfully and she popped open the door and sat down on the seat, still grinning at her luck. "We have to go pick up Sirius and Bekki on our way, but I decided that they could sit in the back."
He winked at her as he started the car and Lily giggled. He looked absolutely dashing, the way his untidy hair stood up all over the place, and his lovely blue eyes sparkled. When he smiled, Lily just wanted to lay herself in his arms forever. But she knew she was being silly. Melanie was his girlfriend, and James had never looked twice at her before. She sighed softly.
"What's the matter?" James asked when she sighed.
"Oh! Nothing," Lily said, surprised. She hadn't been aware that she had sighed so audibly.
One of James's eyebrows perked up. "Say, Lily..." He trailed off hesitantly.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Well, I was just wondering..." he trailed off again and Lily began to get anxious. What could possibly make James so uneasy? Hurriedly, she checked herself to make sure she wasn't revealing anything she shouldn't be. No, her swimming suit was still in place and nothing embarrassing was sticking out, so what in the world was it?
"Never mind," James said, as they pulled into the driveway of a house that was unmistakably Sirius's.
He stood from the steps of the front porch and hopped into the car, grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, James! Hi, Lily!" he chimed.

They made good conversation as they drove to Bekki's house. The paint was a rather worn shade of pale blue, and the shutters were rather weak looking. Shouting was coming from inside. Lily laughed softly to herself. There was always some argument or another going on between the members of Bekki's family. It just became part of Lily's nature to accept it. Bekki's backside appeared, sticking out of the front door. Sirius tried his best to casually inspect her, but it was as obvious as it would have been, had he goggled at her openly. "A very pretty bottom, she's got, eh, James?" Sirius asked when he realized that everyone present in the car knew what he was doing. James snickered and shook his head. Just then, Bekki yelled into the house, "And I don't want you messing with it either! It's mine!" She slammed the door behind her as her whole body came out into the open, then she skipped to the car, grinning as though what she had just done was the most natural thing in the world. And for Bekki, it most certainly was.
Sirius went a brilliant shade of red as Bekki climbed into the car beside him and put her picnic basket and towel on the floor at her feet. He abruptly started humming tunelessly, while looking out of his window innocently, then, when he realized what he was doing, stopped as abruptly as he had started.

They rode in silence the rest of the way to the beach, but for Lily, it was a very amused silence, considering how brightly colored Sirius's face was. When they finally got to the beach, Lily and Bekki got out on the same side and looked at each other for a while, then burst out laughing. They hugged as they laughed and when they stepped back, Lily said, "I missed you!" Bekki nodded as she giggled and glanced at Sirius. That sent another wave of laughter over the two of them. They ended up doubling over on the ground with tears leaking out of their eyes for laughing so hard. When they were FINALLY done, they stood up and walked in their sandals toward the spot where they could see a lot of commotion going on at.

When they got there, they found Melanie, Sirius, James, Remus, Terry, Crystal, Abby, Peter, Frank, and Huey, their fellow Gryffindors, all gathered around a rather long picnic table, chatting and munching on food in their bathing suits. Lily and Bekki quickly joined in the conversation, and sat down their baskets and grabbed some food of thier own. They all talked about what they did over the summer and how anxious they were to start their last year at Hogwarts.
After a while, Melanie said, "Why don't we all go for a dip in the pool?" Melanie's pool was on the hill overlooking the lake and was indoors, where it was heated to a suitable temperature. They all agreed and herded up to the pool.
As they all slipped, jumped, and splashed into the pool, Bekki seemed to disappear. Lily scanned the pool for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Lily smiled to herself as she got out of the pool and went to the window overlooking the lake, to look down on the beach. And sure enough, there was Bekki, and, also as Lily had predicted, Sirius Black. They seemed to be engaged in a very serious conversation.

Lily didn't really want to spy, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she slipped out of the pool room and tiptoed down the hill to within ear shot of Bekki and Sirius.
Bekki was giggling and Sirius was trying his best to stop her. "...I just wanted to ask you if..." he trailed off hopelessly as Bekki struggle to keep a straight face.
"Whatever it is, you can ask me, Sirius," she said, fighting down laughter.
Suddenly, James and Remus were sitting on either side of Lily, with broad smiles on their faces.
"Hey, Lily!" James whispered cheerfully.

"We were wondering what you were up to when we saw you sneaking out of the pool," Remus explained.
"And we were also wondering where Sirius was," James added quietly.
Lily smiled and began listening to Bekki and Sirius's conversation again.
"...really, Sirius, whatever it is, you shouldn't be afraid to just come right out and ask me!" Bekki was saying.
All of a sudden, Lily felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she looked around, there were Melanie and the rest of the Gryffindors. They were all grinning broadly. Lily put a finger over her mouth and turned back to watch Sirius and Bekki.

"Well..." Sirius said, and the rest came out in a rush. "I've had a crush on you since first year and I was wondering if you would consider going out with me."
Bekki's face broadened into a beaming smile. She leaned in and kissed Sirius on the cheek.
Sirius grinned triumphantly. "I'll take that as a yes! That wasn't so bad at all!"
All at once, noises were coming from the top of the hill. Lily looked up and there was Peter, running down the slope uncontrollably, arms flailing, dust flying behind him yelling, "HELP!! HELP!! I CAN'T STOP!!"

"Oh, no!" James groaned, as Peter crashed into the cluster of Gryffindors, knocking over the picnic table, which revealed them all to Bekki and Sirius. Bekki was attempting to hide a smile behind her hand that wasn't clasped in Sirius's, and Sirius had a look of pure horror on his face. The moment was priceless. Luckily, Melanie had brought her camera, and was about the only person still standing, besides Sirius and Bekki, and was taking pictures as fast as she could.
Lily tried to get up, but something rather hard and strong was squirming underneath her. She stopped struggling and was gripped gently, but firmly by the shoulders and pushed to her feet by someone she had fallen on top of.
Lily found her footing and turned around.

It was James Potter. She blushed furiously and tried to hide it by brushing the sand off of her bathing suit. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see James grinning.
"You are a squirmy little thing, aren't you?" he said thoughtfully, and chuckled to himself as he went to congratulate Sirius.
James shook Sirius's hand and slapped him on the back and grinned, while Sirius remained in his state of shock. It was a rather precious moment. Lily knew that it would certainly be a day to remember.