Author's Note: Hello all! Early Valentine's Day (or Single's Awareness Day) gift for all of you. Read and review. And as a key for the note passing below:

Lily
Dorcas Meadowes
Marlene McKinnon

Lily!-DM

What?!-LE

You're doing it again!

And just what do you mean by "it"?

Staring at James Potter, that's what.-MM

I am not staring at James!

Staring, glaring, gazing, ogling, peering, whatever you want to call it. The bottom line is: your eyeballs are permanently attached to the back of his head.

I am not staring! Well…fine, I am but that is because I am so annoyed with that stupid, idiotic prick!

Merlin's pants, what did he do this time?

You mean you don't know?!

…Did he breathe? I do recall you being mad at him for that once.

Every year since first year-when you two big mouths told him my birthday-he did something completely over the top for my birthday, some sort of magic complete with gift. Then, since third year, he'd promptly ask me out to the next Hogsmeade weekend and to be his girlfriend and I always said no. But you know what he did for my birthday this year?

You mean the one that was five days ago? The one where you got several presents from your parents, some sweets from Flitwick, not to mention some wonderful presents from your even more wonderful friends, me and Dorcas?

Nothing! He gave me nothing! He did nothing! He said nothing! The only thing he said to me was "Oh, by the way, happy birthday" and that had been preceded by "Could you pass the toast"!

I'm afraid to ask what else he has done.

He's just been stringing me along all these months. He acted like he cared and acted like he was my friend but he doesn't and he isn't. He'd do homework with me, he'd lend me his Transfiguration notes, he'd hold open doors for me when on patrol, he carried me all the way to the Hospital Wing when I missed a step or two on a staircase and twisted my ankle, he listened to me when I was stressed and I just needed to rant about it to somebody and then he does nothing for my birthday.

Lily, I would hate to make you more mad, but I think you need to hear this-

If you dare even try to defend him-

No, we aren't. We were just going to say that you should probably avoid him.

Why would I do that?

Because you're obviously madly in love with him and you'll probably jump him next opportunity you get.

That is completely and utterly-

True.

It is not! That is a lie! I still hate James. He didn't do anything for my birthday and he didn't ask me out to Hogsmeade. It's on Valentine's Day this year, you know!

Are we the only ones who know she's in love with him?

Sadly, it's true.

That's it! I am giving him a piece of my mind once class is over.

Well that'll go over nicely. Should I sell tickets for the show?

Maybe later.

I'm still ranting here.

Right, carry on.

That boy will wish he had done something on my birthday. How dare he try and mess with tradition!

Lily, you sound ridiculous! But you're way past help now so I'll just let this situation play out naturally.

As you should. Don't try and stop me.

We won't!

I had become so distracted with my planning on what to say to James that I wasn't even prepared to be up and out of my seat the moment the bell for dinner rang. I quickly shoved my book, quill, ink, and parchment into my rucksack. I looked up just in time to see James disappearing through the classroom door. I had to elbow many classmates aside just to get through to the damn door, but soon I was sprinting down the hall in the direction James had gone. I grabbed his arm when I caught up to him and he and his friends stopped while I caught my breath.

"I need to talk to you," I demanded. James sighed and turned to Sirius.

"Probably Head business," he assumed. Ha! "I'll see you at dinner."

He followed me all the way to the empty classroom I had already picked out in my head, far from the Great Hall.

"Lock the door," I commanded. He did so, and when he turned around I promptly hit his arm as hard as I could.

"Ow! Lily! What-!" he sputtered.

"You stupid prat!"

"What did I do?!"

That stopped me short. He didn't even know what he did?

"Well for starters, you've been nice to me all year-"

"You're mad because I've been being nice?" he interrupted. I held up a hand to shush him.

"I'm talking!" I reminded him. "You've been nice to me all year, you haven't been an arse, you've been a decent and, dare I say, responsible Head Boy and surprisingly pleasant to work with. I actually look forward to patrols to you because you make them fun. Before you became Head Boy they were completely mundane. So, even though things have obviously changed with you and between the two of us this year there is one thing that I wanted to remain the same!" I stopped to breathe for a moment and James took the opportunity to insert a question.

"And that one thing was?"

He was actually going to play stupid?! "Well," I said thoughtfully, "let's think: what day was it five days ago."

"Er," he said, scratching his head in thought. "A Friday?"

"No! The date! The date!" I said exasperatedly.

"The thirtieth of January."

I nodded. "And what was on that day?"

"Your birthday," he says automatically. I couldn't believe he was acting like nothing was wrong!

"Exactly!" I said.

The bloke was still acting confused. "Exactly what?"

"You didn't do anything!" I cried. "You've always done something for my birthday every damn year and then this year you do nothing?!"

"I thought it wouldn't matter if I did anything this year because you always said you hated it!"

"I did not!"

He looked at me skeptically. "Remember third year when I breathed fire for your birthday?"

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. He could be so difficult sometimes. "I only got mad at you for that because you set several people's hair on fire!"

"You get mad every year!" James snaps. He's yelling at me now. "You yell at me for ruining your birthday every year! I thought this would make you happy!"

"No! It did not make me happy! You do not just set a tradition for six years and then abandon it the seventh year! It's just not done!"

"You hated that tradition!" he roars.

"No I didn't! I loved it!"

"Why?!" he demands.

"Because I like you, you moron!" I yell without a bit of hesitation. He's absolutely gob smacked at what I just said while I'm huffing and puffing away.

Finally, he speaks. "What?" he says slowly. "Are you…sure?"

To show that stupid Head Boy just how sure I am, I grab his face firmly and crash my lips down on to his. He doesn't respond at all-I'm kissing him for Merlin's sake! There should be some sort of damn response!-so I break away after a few seconds. He looks like he's just been stunned. He's just standing there and staring at me! Oh! How infuriating!

"Does that answer your question?" I spat. I went to sit down in a chair while he took his time getting back to the land of the living but he came back faster than I thought, because he grabbed my arm before I managed to sit down and brought me rather close to his chest. We were practically touching-that's how close it was. On a second thought, we were touching. One hand was intertwined with mine as he stroked my hair and his other hand was on my waist. He smiled softly at me. That's when it started to hit me what I had just done and what I had just admitted. Just like that, my anger started to die away.

"Your present's a bit late," he finally said. "I ordered you a present and they said it'd take only a week, but there was a problem with their owls or something of that sort but it's definitely on the way now," he explained. I felt the bottom to my stomach drop out. It couldn't get worse.

"The four of us were going to set off some fireworks in the Great Hall for your birthday, too-don't worry, they were harmless-but McGonagall caught us before we could set them off. She was prepared." I looked down at my shoes and groaned. I had never felt more stupid in my life! James, amazingly enough, pulled me even closer to him. I looked up, reluctantly, and wishing I could disappear.

"I am so sorry," I apologized. James laughed.

"Well if I had known you were going to make such a big deal out of not getting anything, I would've explained this all to you a lot sooner." I believed him.

"You're still forgetting a few birthday traditions," I reminded him in a small voice.

"Oh, yeah. What was it again? Now I remember: a kiss for every year old you are."

I glared. "No, that was not-" But I couldn't say anything other than that, because James started kissing me-right then and there-like there was no tomorrow. And I was amazingly fine with it.