Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Summary: James Potter finally snagged the girl of his dreams, Lily Evans. Too bad his friends don't believe him.
James impatiently paced in front of Gryffindor Tower. He didn't know why this was so hard; he had literally been preparing for this for the past seven years. James laughed a little at his predicament. The hard part was already over. Lily already agreed to date him. (He had to get that in writing just to make sure she wouldn't take it back later or say she was joking.) All he needed to do is break the news to the rest of the Marauders.
The Fat Lady watched James plan his speech out. "If you want to come in, do it fast. I'm late for a meeting," she stated plainly.
James stopped in front of her. "What meeting? Who wants to meet with you?" At her affronted look, he quickly amended his words. "I mean, of course, who wouldn't want to spend time with a beautiful woman such as yourself?"
The Fat Lady sighed. "Just do it, whatever it is, okay? You're giving me a headache and I'm not even supposed to feel pain."
James rolled his eyes, and walked through the portrait hole to find Sirius. Briefly searching the common room and, finding it devoid of his best friend, he walked up the stairs to their dorm. Pushing the door open, James found Sirius lying on his bed—Sirius's favorite place—reading a Muggle magazine. Sirius's bed was farthest from the door, but it was clearly the messiest of the four. Currently, his Potions book was shoved to the foot of his bed along with his unfinished essay.
"Hey Padfoot, I have some news. It's actually pretty good news," James started. Sirius briefly looked up to see who walked in.
"Do you think I should buy a motorcycle?" Sirius asked.
James paused his speech. "A what?"
"A motorcycle. Muggles use it to go places." Sirius held up the magazine, motioning to the front cover.
"I know what it is Sirius, I'm not an idiot. I'm kind of in the middle of something important," James snapped.
Sirius gave James a look. "All right Prongs, keep your bloody pants on. What is it?" he answered.
James took a deep breath. He might as well say it now. "I'm dating Lily."
Sirius's bark-like laugh filled James's ears. "Lily. As in Lily Evans. The girl you've been in love with since age eleven. The girl who personally proclaimed that she would rather eat shit for the rest of her life than go out with you? The girl who would rather lick Snape's—"
"Padfoot!"
"—greasy hair? Good one, James," Sirius finished. Sirius looked at James and, when he saw how red James's face was, started laughing loudly.
"I'm being serious Padfoot!"
"No, I'm Sirius. Stop dreaming, Prongs, and start doing something productive. Like helping me decide which bike to spend my inheritance on," Sirius drawled. James rolled his eyes and stomped out of the room angrily. Sirius flicked his wand lazily to close the door and turned his attention back to more important things.
James found Remus in the library, studying with some Ravenclaws that were in his Arithmancy class. James didn't even have to use the Map to find Remus because the library was almost a second home to Remus, as much as Sirius and James tried to deny it. Stalking past the Charms section, James walked over to Remus, latched onto his sleeve, and dragged him to one of the empty rows.
"Ouch, James, stop!" Remus squawked. As James marched him in the opposite direction, Remus turned to the two others who were sitting at the table, watching James pull Remus away, and called, "I'll just be a minute. Apparently, I need to deal with something."
When James stopped in the empty row, Remus turned to James, slightly miffed. "What was that for, Prongs? Are you trying to injure me? You know how weak I am after the full moon!" Remus demanded.
James looked a little guilty, but carried on nonetheless. "I have something to tell you."
"Can't it wait? I'm a little busy. I mean you know I have that big exam in a week—" Remus started.
"Oh please Moony," James interrupted. "You know everything. You're just stressing yourself out as usual. It's the same for every exam. Afterwards, you'll be happy that you got an O, and the rest of us will pretend to act surprised and use your good grades as an excuse to drink Firewhiskey. Now can we get to talking about the important things, like my love life?"
"Do you really think I'll get an O? Because I don't think I understand how—Wait love life, what love life?" Remus asked.
"Hey, I'll have you know that I could have any girl I wanted in this place!" James declared.
"Yeah right, or have you forgotten about Lily Evans," Remus interjected.
James took this as the perfect segue. "Actually, Lily and I are dating now. We have a date planned for next week, in fact," James said smugly.
Remus stared at James for about thirty seconds before getting an irritating look on his face. "Prongs, I don't appreciate being distracted for no reason," Remus hissed. "Contrary to popular belief, I do have to study to do well. Not everyone is naturally smart like Sirius."
James looked confused. "What the bloody hell are you talking about Moony?" he asked.
"Don't bother me when I'm studying just to say stupid things. Like Lily would ever agree to go out with you! Good one, James," Remus grumbled. Remus then walked back to his table, apologizing to the Ravenclaws for James's behavior. James gaped at Remus's back disbelievingly before storming out to find Peter. Peter wouldn't treat his news as a joke.
Peter was currently sitting in the common room, swirling a cup of tea patiently. Divination, his best subject, was a slow, but valuable art. As he sipped the warm liquid, he peered closely at the image formed at the bottom of the cup. Holding his Divination book next to the cup, Peter carefully compared the tea leaves to the pictures in the book. According to the book, Peter was going to receive some unexpected news soon, and he will be pleased with it. Peter thought for a few minutes and only came up with one viable answer: The sixth year Hufflepuff he was interested in would agree to go out with him. Smiling, Peter happily sipped his tea and wrote his answer in his Divination assignment.
However, he was rudely interrupted by James slamming his hands on the table Peter was working on.
James, deciding to get to the point this time, informed, "I'm dating Lily Evans."
Peter looked at him, and blinked his eyes thoughtfully. "I suppose it could fit with the tea leaves, but I'm hesitant to believe it," Peter mused.
"Wormtail, I swear if you brush this off I will slip you a potion that will make you believe that you are clothed when you are really naked," James threatened. Peter glanced at James and sighed.
"Prongs, I have tried to be supportive of you, but now your words are just hurtful," Peter chastised uncharacteristically. "This news is not pleasing me at all, so this news is obviously not the one the leaves are referring to."
James couldn't believe what Peter was saying. "Peter, stop it and actually listen to me. Lily and I are together."
"Yes, yes, really funny joke, Prongs. Good one, James," Peter muttered. "Now unless you have some informative observations of my tea leaves…" Peter continued to talk about his insights, but when he looked up a minute later, James had already vacated the premise. Peter shrugged and took another sip of his tea.
The next morning during breakfast, James and Lily walked in the Great Hall holding hands, shocking the rest of the Marauders.
"You mean you weren't joking?"
"Evans actually agreed to this? Did you drug her?"
"Damn, this is what the leaves meant."
James smiled at his friends' faces. "Of course I was being truthful," James exclaimed. "The most intelligent and beautiful girl agreed to be my girlfriend! How could I ever possibly not want to tell the world how lucky I am!"
Lily smiled at his compliments. "Good one, James."