James had been wanting this date for a few years, but he'd been so used to being knocked back whenever he asked that he was shocked when she finally said yes. His head spiralled into a panic — what could he do for a date. Lily was not going to go for his normal date, and he wanted it to be special, to be memorable. So with the help of the guys — well Sirius and Remus he settled on a romantic picnic filled with all of Lily's favourite snacks and foods and drinks, and away from prying eyes. Just the two of them.
He had been rushing around, in secret all week. He had sent an owl to both The Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes, putting in his order to pick up on Saturday. With the help of Sirius he managed to find most of the food in the kitchens, he had a way with the house elves that James just couldn't match. So they had squirrelled that away in the pantry, to collect the morning of the date. He had no more to do than not annoy Lily between now and the weekend, and to also get a decent night's sleep on Friday — a grumpy, sleep-deprived James was never a good idea on a date.
James had no clue how the morning of his date dawned. He had zonked out in the early morning and was rudely woken up by a jug of cold water and Sirius's laughing face. "Rise and shine, Romeo."
James sat up, grumbling he chucked his sodden pillow at him. "Shut up you." Sirius knew waking James up like that was never a good idea. It was too sudden but Sirius could never be told anything.
After hastily getting dressed they stormed down to breakfast, as he entered the Great Hall James's eyes did their usual scan for Lily, she was nowhere to be seen; his stomach flipped. "What if she's changed her mind?" he muttered to no one in particular as he slid onto a seat at the Gryffindor table beside Remus; he was genuinely anxious about it, it was possible.
Remus heard James's comment, "don't stress — trust me she is still coming, she was in the common room scribbling away on some homework as I headed down here." He confided in his friend, in an effort to somewhat calm him.
They rushed their breakfast, headed to the kitchens to pick up the basket of food they had put aside during the week before heading off to the village.
The guys usually had a plan of action when going around Hogsmeade, but thanks to James fretting and wanting to go to pick up is pre-ordered drinks and sweets they headed for Honeydukes first and then The Three Broomsticks; once they'd got the rest of the picnic items they went to find somewhere for James to set up the picnic. They had near enough gone halfway back to the castle when they simultaneously spotted the pair of trees on the side of the lane. "This is perfect," Remus said. "You can have your privacy and be undisturbed this side of the trees" he continued, circling to the opposite side of the trees.
As much as James wanted to set things up there and then, he had a few hours to kill and didn't trust things not to be disturbed.
"Just take it with you, one of us will come back in a couple of hours to sort everything out while you go meet Lily." Sirius suggested, reading the look on James's face and knowing he was thinking of what to do.
"Okay, sounds like a plan." James agreed, as they turned to head back to the village.
An hour and a half later, after they had been into Zonko's, back into Honeydukes and just hung around the village, keeping an eye on the smaller kids, Remus finally noticed the time, it was about half an hour before James' date was due to begin. "Want me to take that off your hands and go and work my magic?" he asked, out of the three he was the most likely to have any success in this area.
"Please," James said relinquishing his hold on the picnic basket and flashing a grin at Remus. He was beginning to get nervous. Half an hour of nervous pacing, and Sirius telling him to relax too often, later and Remus had returned, and they were stood outside The Three Broomsticks, his designated meeting place for him and Lily, and she was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like her to be late he thought, "What if she really has changed her mind?" He asked, verbalising his inner worry to the only two people in the world that wouldn't judge him.
"Calm down," Sirius and Remus said in unison. "Maybe she got here early and is waiting inside?" Remus suggested, ever the calm head. He knew Lily and knew if she had a reason to stand him up she would have found a way to apologise. She genuinely did want to go on this date, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place.
They went inside, and there she was sat with Marlene, oblivious to everything around her. He stopped and just took in the sight of her, seeing her relaxed and free to be herself was one of James's favourite things, there were few times when Lily genuinely relaxed and just let go of all the worries and care she had, when she was with her friends — especially Marlene — was the one that seemed to happen most often.
"Go on then," Sirius nudged him "or she will think you've stood her up."
At this James walked over to her and with a joking note in his voice, put on to hide the pure terror at the idea that it was the truth "you're not standing me up right?"
Lily POVThe day dawned overcast, with the sun trying to poke itself through the clouds to no avail. That was typical; a week of glorious sunshine prior to a Hogsmeade weekend visit while they were all stuck in lessons, by the time it came to the weekend there were clouds. Lily had woken up not long after dawn, she was surprisingly excited for a day she had been refusing for so long now. She glanced at her clock and groaned, 5.25AM was too early to consider moving, so she rolled over and attempted to fall back to sleep.
Only an hour later, still relatively early, Lily got out of bed. Try as she might she wasn't getting back to sleep any time soon. So instead she put her slippers on and grabbed her wash bag heading, as quietly as she could, remembering just in time to skirt round the squeaky floorboard near the door, to the prefect's bathroom. Getting washed and dressed into comfy clothes she could have a good couple of hours to get some homework done before getting ready to head to breakfast and then onto Hogsmeade before her date with James.
Four hours later, Lily and Marlene had just finished up breakfast and was heading back up to Gryffindor Tower to get their bags before heading out to the village for a morning of shopping and socialising before she headed to meet James.
"You know, I'm actually excited about later?" Lily said to Marlene. "I'd have laughed at you if you'd have said that to me even a few months ago."
"In all honesty I knew you'd thaw eventually, especially when he came back this year as Head Boy." She laughed at Lily's look of utter shock.
"But, I couldn't stand him. You could see that!" Lily was horrified that her best friend thought it was inevitable that this day would come.
"There's a fine line between love and hate Lils, it's easy to cross. Especially when you spend so long with someone, especially someone like James who has wanted this for a couple of years and is a persistent bugger when he wants to be."
"If you say so," Lily said. "Anyway we better get going, or we'll hardly have any time before I have to meet him."
Two and a half hours, of chatting, shopping and strolling about Hogsmeade and it was nearing the time of Lily's date. Her stomach was in knots, for some reason.
"So where exactly are you meeting him?" Marlene asked.
"Outside The Three Broomsticks." Lily replied, even though Marlene knew this already. She shifted the bag to her other shoulder, she shouldn't have got those books. Or she needed to find a charm to make her bag feel lighter when it is over full. "What are you going to do with your afternoon?" they'd been so focussed on her plans, and she'd seemed to ignore what her friend was doing.
"Oh nothing much, may go to Madam Puddifoot's before taking a leisurely stroll back to the castle." she answered, smiling. "Has he given you any hints of what he has planned?"
"No, and he's sworn the others to secrecy too, even Remus wouldn't tell me!" This slightly annoyed Lily, though she liked the element of surprise.
"How about we go inside while we kill the rest of the time?" Marlene asked, hanging around outside a pub always seemed strange. "I'm parched anyway."
So they headed inside, ordered a drink each and found a table; they spent the next twenty minutes gushing about what they thought would happen on Lily's date. So much so that she was late meeting him — it wasn't until James came over to her and said, "You're not standing me up right?" That she realised she was late.
"Uh, no. Sorry" she felt awful, looking at Marlene for guidance didn't help when she sat there pulling funny faces. "I just lost track of time." She said; feeling the heat rise in her cheeks.
She got up, grabbed her bag and followed James as he walked out the bar, waving cheerily to Marlene as she did. "So are you going to let me know what's going to happen or is it a case of I'll find out when I get there?" Lily asked, practically running to keep up pace with James.
"Don't you like surprises, Evans?" James chortled as he slipped his hand into Lily's and slowing down a bit. "Better?"
"Not when they are planned by a group notorious for their pranks, no." She said, surprised at how cool she was being when it felt like there was at least a hundred butterflies fluttering around inside her.
"We aren't that bad!" he said, slightly affronted but seeing where she was coming from. "I wouldn't do that to you."
After five minutes, they had stopped in front of a little grassed area behind a few trees along the lane back to school. Lily looked around, seeing nothing special. She glanced at James who had a look in his eye and a smile on his face that she had never seen before, they were softer and kinder than usual. Before she could say anything, he was tugging on her hand trying to get her to follow him. She relented, and they walked round the trees, and she gasped, unable to stop herself. It was beautiful. There was a picnic blanket and cushions, and a picnic basket already set out. There was dappled sunlight on the blanket from the trees above them. "It is beautiful." Lily exclaimed, hugging James. "How long did it take you?" She had never expected this, not in a million years.
"A couple of hours" he shrugged, "It's not a big deal."
"But it is to me," her heart had swelled, this was the perfect date for her but, as she knew not for him. Yet he had done this for her.
They sat down, James half laying on the blanket and Lily on one of the cushions with the other behind her back leaning against the tree behind her. Her stomach rumbled, highlighting the fact that she was actually quite hungry. James laughed and opened the picnic basket and started emptying it out. There were sandwiches, fruit, carrot and celery sticks. Lily helped unpack the rest, retrieving the drinks and glasses that were in there. Butterbeer and pumpkin juice;, and was that Gillywater there too? As James carried on unpacking food; sausage rolls and Cornish pasties to add to the savoury bits and then cupcakes, flapjacks and fruit for sweeter foods. There were even some Honeydukes products. Her first thought was that this must have cost a fortune until she realised other than the drinks and the sweets he'd probably got it all from the school kitchens.
"Tuck in then," James said handing her a plate and filling his own.
"I don't know where to start," she admitted, despite being hungry and used to large spreads from the feasts and meals from school, she just didn't want to take too much and look like a pig.
"Just eat." He said, handing her the plate of sandwiches to take her pick. "Ooh, ham and pickle. My favourites." She said, grabbing a couple. James grinned at that, he knew it was the only reason they were there as he couldn't stomach them.
"I can't see how you can eat them, but if you like them they are all yours." he smiled, this whole thing was planned to make her happy and comfortable; as if she was then he would be too.
After they had started tucking in, James asked: "So what made you finally agree to this date?" He'd been asking long enough, so he wondered what had made her change her mind and finally accept.
"Your determination, the fact you've matured over the summer, and spending so much time with you and all of Sirius and Remus's comments wore me down I guess." The main reason was the maturity, he'd changed over the summer in a good way, a way she liked; he'd grown up and was more responsible. Despite the fact that he could still be a fool at times, but that was part and parcel of being James Potter, and she wouldn't change it for the world, not now she knew he could be responsible and reliable.
He laughed, stretching out and fully laying down now he'd had his fill of the food.
Lily watched him, unable to help herself. Seeing a different side to his personality meant that she could finally appreciate and acknowledge how good-looking she had always found him, if you took that arrogant look off of his face and it was quite nice, she had the urge to draw him lying as he was — the urge to draw was one she hadn't had in years so a little gasp escaped her lips.
"What is it?" He seemed to be so tuned into her lately, that even small little on-gasps worried him.
"Oh, it's... nothing." How could she admit what she was thinking? It was their first date it was way too early. "So what were you up to this morning?" she asked, trying to not so subtly change the subject.
"Went to Hogsmeade with the guys and set this up. You?" He knew she was changing the subject, and as much as he wanted to know what the noise was for he wasn't going to push it.
"Homework, breakfast, walked her and did a bit of shopping," she nodded to her slightly overloaded bag, "then went to the three broomsticks to wait for you. And well, you know the rest." By now she'd finished eating, and stretched her legs out straight in front of her. James scooted nearer to her and placed his head on her legs.
Lily sighed, comfortable, even with the silence. Just the two of them and none of the stress they usually have when together was nice. She had no idea what to talk about, or if she really wanted to talk in the first place. She was just content being with him.
"How about we get up and go for a walk?" James asked, breaking the silence that had come over them.
"Yeah, we can do," Lily replied, she would have been happy here, but he'd done so much for her a compromise of going for a walk wouldn't be too bad.
They packed up the picnic things and Lily picked up her bag, and they returned to the path. Lily blinked as few times as her eyes adjusted to the brighter light now they weren't underneath the trees. "So where should we go?" She asked it was his idea so he should choose.
"Um," James was at a loss. It was getting late, and there was only so much you could do in Hogsmeade. "Maybe head back?"
As James suggested heading back to Hogwarts Lily's heart fell; did that mean the date was over? Or were they going to continue it there? "Yeah, so long as that doesn't mean the date's over?" She asked, the sadness tingeing her voice.
"Oh no," James said. He didn't mean it like that and disliked the fact she thought he meant that. "I definitely don't want this date to end yet." he offered her his hand as they began walking towards the castle.
In all the time she had known him, Lily never would have thought that she would be this comfortable and happy walking hand in hand with James Potter. He'd changed for the better this past year, and she could honestly see her spending the rest of her life with him — if she was honest with herself she would have ended up with him eventually.
"Penny for your thoughts?" James asked he'd been watching her deep in thought since they got up.
"Oh, I was just thinking that this is quite nice, just being with you." She replied; smiling up at him and pulling herself closer to him. "And no perfect stress or class stress either."
"Who'd've thought it. Lily Potter saying she likes being with me." James chuckled. Pulling her into his side as she got closer; the closeness and the physical contact was beyond nice. Her skin was so soft and warm from the little sunlight. He'd stay like this forever if he could.
"So, have you decided what you want to do once we finish here?" Lily asked, it wasn't a fun topic, but it was one they needed to be thinking of.
"An Auror in the Ministry. You?"
"A healer," Lily said, it had taken her a long time to realise this. "I want to be able to help people. To save them, and their families."
That didn't surprise James, Lily had always been the caring type, and she seemed most at home caring for, and helping people. In a way, they were both going to be helping people, just in different ways. "That's admirable." he admitted, "but not working with potions?" She was excellent at them, he expected her to want to work with them closer than she would as a healer.
"I will still be working with potions, actually I have been considering creating new healing potions alongside working in one of the wards." she had always been an overachiever, and her career plans were a reflection of that, especially when you add in that she wants to do that, and she is a muggle born, the way things are looking that could be dangerous for her, and she wants to have a career and a family.
By this time, they were back to the castle. She hadn't realised how far down the lane they had gone for their date. As they neared the doors, following the crowds that had formed around them as everyone else was returning from Hogsmeade. In their own little bubble, they hadn't noticed they weren't alone in the lane.
"I want to continue this, but I need to go drop this bag off to the common room before my arm drops off." That sounded more dramatic than Lily intended it to, but the sooner she could put it down the better. She needed to try to control her spending in bookshops. Especially once she had a job and was spending her own money rather than her parents money.
James felt awful, he'd been so happy he hadn't realised that she had a heavy bag. "You should have told me," he berated her swatting her arm. "I'd have carried it for you." He wasn't just saying that because it was the gentlemanly thing to do, or cause he thought it was what she wanted to hear. He genuinely meant it, as it probably would be fine for him. "Pass it here, and we can head up to the common room. I could do with dropping this off." he added, holding up their picnic basket.
Lily handed her bag over reluctantly, she knew James enough to know not to argue as he will win, "I didn't think to ask you." She said, not having ever gone on a date before this was all new territory for Lily. She was learning what was acceptable and expected on a date. "It suits you." She added as James put the bag on his shoulder, before taking her hand and walking into the castle.
As they made their way through the semi-packed corridors of the castle up to Gryffindor Tower, still hand in hand, Lily suddenly panicked as much as she liked the skin on skin contact, and the being so close to him did she really want to walk into the common room like this? Heck, did she really want the Fat Lady seeing them hand in hand? For a painting, she was a brilliant gossip and a judgemental one at that. If she saw them hand in hand it would get around the school via the portraits and some lovely students quicker than wildfire Lily wanted it just to be their information for now. So as they neared the Fat Lady's portrait she slipped her hand out of James, focussed on where she was walking and not bumping into any unsuspecting student she missed the look of hurt flash, briefly, across his face.
As they got to the Portrait Lily uttered the password that currently granted them access to their Common Room, and turned to James, "if you pass me my bag I'll run it upstairs and meet you back down here in five minutes?"
"Okay," he said, relieving himself of her bag. "See you in five."
Lily felt like she was walking on air, she never dreamed this date would go as smoothly as it had, she may have to talk about this just being their secret for now. Hopefully he would understand. As she got back down to the common room though, it was plainly obvious that this wasn't going to stay their secret for very long. Around James stood the rest of the Marauders, she had to admit she had been lucky to get him on his own for so long really. Her smile dropped off her face as she walked up to him and the guys were nudging him with knowing grins on their faces.
"So…" Sirius started, "How has your day been Lily? Done anything exciting" Lily's heart sank to her boots, okay so she expected them to know that her and James were going on a date. Merlin's beard she had spoken to Remus about it, but had James managed to fill them in on it in five minutes?!
"It's been okay," she said, nonchalantly her eyes fixing on James' gaze, pleading for help.
Extracting himself from the group, he joined Lily, and they headed back out. "Later guys" he said over his shoulder.
There was a silence between them, instigated by Lily, until they stepped out of the castle and were away from bustling corridors and not so near nosy, gossip-seeking ears. When she whirled around on him, James just had to look at her face to know he was in trouble.
"Did you have to tell them?" She asked, heat rising to her cheeks with her annoyance.
"I didn't say anything," James said, looking sheepish. "I swear!"
"So what was Sirius' comment for?"
"They knew we were going on a date," James suggested. "You know what he is like, head wind-up merchant of the group."
Lily calmed at that, James had a point, Sirius liked winding people up, but he never meant anything malicious by it.
"Sorry about before," Lily said, the redness in her cheeks now from embarrassment rather than annoyance or anger. "I wasn't trying to be rude."
"What was it about?" James thought she was enjoying this date as much as he was; so he was confused by her sudden turnaround.
"I like you," Lily admitted looking at the floor and kicking the toe of her shoe against the cobblestone of the courtyard. "I really like you, but I want this to stay just between us for now. I want to take things slow. I've never been in a relationship before and I really don't want to mess this up by telling people too early." She admitted, and I would quite like to marry you someday she finished in her head. There was no way she was admitting that out loud; it was far too soon for that, and the last thing she wanted to do was scare him off so early.
James was gob smacked, he never expected that; not that he knew what he really did expect but it certainly wasn't that. "I like you too," he replied, "but you knew that already. If you want to keep this between us for now, then that is what we will do." He would do anything to make her happy if keeping this between them is what it took then he would do that even if it was going to be hard to keep it from the others, it wouldn't be forever.
He looked around them and saw that the courtyard was pretty much deserted other than a few couples here and there. So he wrapped her in his arms, and held her there. "How about we go down to the lake?" He murmured into her hair.
Pulling back, she nodded. "Yeah, though not for too long. It won't do for the Head Boy and Girl to be late to dinner now would it?" She asked, only slightly seriously.
The further from the castle they got the more deserted the grounds were. This meant that they could be more open around each other.
"So you want to be an Auror? What about the guys, will they follow you?" Lily was interested in James, but she knew that the guys would be part of the deal if this was ever going to work long term, she'd been more friendly with Remus since Fifth year, being named house prefects helped that. Sirius was a lovable goon, who despite being an annoyance at times was okay to be around, and Peter — well he just seemed to be the tag-along, he never seemed all that sociable and seemed to live on the coattails of the others.
"Sirius does, not so sure about Remus. He's still deciding. And we have no clue what peter wants to do because peter has no clue." James said, he was grateful that she was asking about his friends. They were such a big part of his life, Sirius and Remus are more like brothers than friends. "What about you and Marlene, are you both going to be Healers?"
"I am definitely, Marlene not so much, she is thinking of going to the Ministry." Marlene didn't have the stomach or the patience to work in a hospital, as much as Lily loved her St Mungo's definitely wasn't the best fit for her.
Lily was getting tired, as much as she wanted to head down to the lake right now she wanted to just sit and take the weight off her feet, plus they didn't ought to be late to dinner, so here seemed a reasonable compromise. The view was lovely, as it was in most parts of the grounds. "Can we just stop here?" She asked James, tugging on his hand as he carried on walking. "I am getting tired."
"Yeah sure," James was so used to walking everywhere with the guys who could keep up with him, that he hadn't thought to alter his pace to suit Lily, and up until now she hadn't complained. He sat down on the grass where he was, and Lily joined him; curling herself into his side as she did so.
The pair of them just sat there, happily taking in the view of the grounds that had made up their homes since they were eleven. Just soaking up being together, Lily suddenly broke the silence "I am going to miss this when we leave?" There was a wistful note to her voice. She really felt at home here, she couldn't really return home, not now, but she had no real idea of where she was going to actually go. She knew where she wanted to go — but that wasn't just her decision to make.
"Miss what?" James wasn't sure if she meant the views, which is what he was hoping, or being like this with him. If he had his way that wouldn't change just because school finished; it had taken years to finally get to be with her, and he wasn't going to give up easily. Or at all.
"The views," she admitted. "I will miss this too," she motioned between them. "If it doesn't carry on that is." She added, turning her face away to hide the blush rising up her pale cheeks.
They continued to sit in silence, a companionable, healthy silence until James's stomach started rumbling. Lily then looked at her watch and realised that it was indeed time for dinner. She got up to her feet and held out her hand, "come on then." she smiled as he got to his feet and took hold of her hand, and they headed back to the castle. She loved this new feeling of being around James and didn't want it to stop. Just before they entered the ain doors to the castle she stopped, turned to him and wrapped her arms around him. She looked up into his eyes. "I love you James Potter" and planted a kiss on his lips, a slow gentle kiss, before he had chance to utter a syllable in response.
"I love you too." He said, a broad grin on his face, that he knew would not leave for hours yet. She had said she loved him. She loved him… not liked… but loved.
They walked into the castle, all her worries of hiding things gone.