Epic First Dates Her dark red curls hung damp across her shoulders as she smiled at him shyly and gave him a little wave. James Potter had waited so long for this moment that he had trouble believing that she had actually said yes. His face broke into the wide grin that had captured and broken so many hearts in his past 7 years of Hogwarts. After years of claiming that she would rather go out with the Giant Squid that him she had finally agreed and he was going to make sure that she had the best day of her life. Honestly after so many people telling him that she was too good for him, too kind, too pure for him, he had started to believe it. For most of his years she had been the one consoling the nerdy Hufflepuff with acne breakouts while he had been the one charming him to piss his pants in front of everyone in the Great Hall. While at the moment it had seemed like the destruction of his entire reputation, now he felt that getting the Head Boy badge had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. With the help of a certain Head Girl, he realized how important it was for him to clean up his act and that perhaps he could actually pull off this Head Boy thing. In the words of Evans, "Stop acting like such a baby. If Dumbledore thinks you're good enough to be Head Boy then to hell with everyone else. You're a leader, Potter, better start acting like it." Lily took the outstretched hand that had been offered to her and smiled, "This better be a hell of a date Potter." Never been one to reject a challenge, James laughed, "Oh, it will be." "Three Broomsticks?" asked Lily. "Three Broomsticks?" repeated James incredulously, "you can do that any day, what I gave in mind will be so much better". While from the outside, Lily smiled, from the inside she hoped that he hadn't gone overboard trying to impress her. Over the past few months she realized that she may have been a tad harsh and judgemental when it came to him and even though he took it all in a stride, Potter fashion, she knew that some of it had bruised his ego. Plus, knowing James everything was probably sprinkled with glam and glitter. "Well what do you think?" James said proudly. In front of them stood a motorcycle, though it looked quite normal, with James sitting on it, one hand offering her a helmet, it screamed rebel. "I borrowed it from Sirius" he explained as the took the helmet and wrapped her hands around him. She was so glad he had chosen this muggle activity instead of something like flying. While she was sure he had only good intentions in mind, she was deathly afraid if heights. The last time she had been on a broom she had puked all over herself. She had been so scared of moving, Alice, her roommate and best friend, had to come up and coax her down. She laughed and threw her head back as James turned down the alley. She needed some fun in her life. This was relaxing, she could feel all of her stresses slowly meting away into nothingness… "AHHHHHH! James! What the bloody hell!" Lily screamed. They were taking off into the air at a speed much faster than she would've preferred. She could hear him laugh his reckless, crazy laugh. Lily sat there frozen in shock, as they sped through the sky many feet above the tallest building in Hogsmeade. "James" she murmured but her warning fell on deaf ears. She shook his shoulder and as he turned his head expecting excited chatter and amazed laughter, he felt puke fall over his back. "James, GET ME DOWN!" In the next few seconds they were on the ground, Lily scrambling to get off the motorcycle and James to Scourgify the vomit off of him. "Um, I'm kind of terrified of heights" said Lily by way of explanation. While she sat there with a traumatised look on her face, James' eyes widened. "Shit, Lily. I had no idea it was so bad." Lily shook her head but James wouldn't stop rambling. "James, it's fine!" she said forcefully. He bit his lip nervously and then said "Let me make it up to you, lunch on me?" James' excited look was back again. He hooked his little finger into hers while they walked and she couldn't help feeling like they were promising each other something. They started walking up what seemed like a very tall hill. The path was steep and covered with overgrown grass. It seemed like a road not many people took but maybe that was the magic in it. "I don't smell like puke, do I?" Lily winkled her nose, "You're lucky it's just me, anyone else and they would have run for the hills from that smell." They laughed and Lily couldn't help feeling how synchronised they were. It wasn't true of course. The scourgify spell taken all of the odour away leaving nothing but the scent of cologne, aftershave and smoke. The smell of James. She had found out about his smoking habit when she had been out for rounds late one night and had spied him out on the Quidditch pitch. She had only been a prefect then and still hated James's guts. Her first thought had been to bust him and get his ass in detention for being out after hours but for some reason had stood there staring. He was leaning against the wall, looking into the far-off distance and under the moonlight, he had looked beautiful. He seemed so at peace, so different from the arrogant toe rag that bullied classmates in hallways that she let him go. "We're here", he said as they reached the top. His voice shook her out of her reverie, and what she saw took her breath away. The entire wizarding town of Hogsmeade was spread out below them. She could see the Three Broomsticks, the Shrieking Shack and Sirius's favourite place, Zonko's. From up here the people seemed so tiny, irrelevant almost. She felt as if her and James were the only people in the world and she couldn't help loving that feeling. She turned around to see James grinning back at her. He held up a picnic basket and led the way to a blanket that had been laid out in the grass. "Lunch?" "And then Sirius said 'There's no way you'll be able to finish this bottle of firewhiskey before I do.' Remus, obviously took the challenge. He seems very straight laced but he's a Marauder at heart, I'm telling you Evans. Anyway, that's how they finally got to singing Celestina Warbeck on the table. In their boxers." Lily couldn't help the giggle that burst out of her nor could she stop the small chicken pieces that sprayed from her mouth as she laughed. Don't laugh when you're eating Lily, she mentally scolded herself. The chicken sandwich was delicious however and she couldn't help take another bite. "Thirsty?" James asked. She nodded, her mouth full. Grabbing the flask that he handed her, she hurriedly gulped down the contents without taking a second look. Only after finishing the drink did she realize what she had just consumed. "Was that… a strawberry milkshake?" she said her beautiful green eyes bulging. "Yeah, I got it from the kitchens before we left, got Peter to set it up… Why?" He was beginning to suspect something was wrong as Lily started wheezing. Red blotches began appearing on her skin and water was running out of her eyes. "I'm… I'm allergic to strawberries" she managed to get out. "Thank goodness I found you two. In a situation like this you wouldn't have known where to go. Next time, Ms Evans, be more careful." "Yes, Professor McGonagall", Lily said. They had run into their stern Professor near the bottom of the hill. James had run down the hill as fast as he could, carrying Lily in his arms as she puked all over him for the second time that day. A nearby apothecary had had the potion required to stop the allergy. Of course, there was no way that their Professor would have let them go so easily and they stood there listening to her reprimand them for being so careless. "Ok, so now I definitely smell like puke." The curls that had looked so perfect that morning, were now messy and tied up into a bun. Lily had been in a hurry when she did it since she was busy puking her chicken sandwich into James' lap. Loose tendrils fell over her face and she had a bit of puke on her jacket. James didn't look so hot either. His hair was way messier than usual and scourgifying his shirt twice had caused it to wrinkled and turn from white to a dirty yellow. Puke covered his shoes, in his hurry he had forgotten to see that they were dirtied too. "This can be fixed. Lily, come on, this'll be fun, I promise." The lake glided like glass underneath their boat. The day was still clear and the sun was shining into their faces. It lit up James' hazel eyes and danced across his face. His muscles flexed as he rowed the boat with both hands. "Remember first year, you and Sirius fell into the water." He laughed, "Yeah, that was fun." They rowed in silence for a while till disaster struck. A water pixie, known for their mischievous antics began pulling James' hair. "Stop! Stop it, you're going to mess it up!" He yelled frantically while Lily tried to control her laughter. She didn't find it quite so funny however when a whole swarm of water pixies chose pair's outing to ruin. Hair, clothes, skin, you name it, they pulled it. "GET OFF ME!" Lily yelled in her best Head Girl voice but the pixies, unlike the students at Hogwarts failed to care. In a few minutes, their boat was overturned and they were splashing around in the water like a pair of idiots. "Hey! What've yeh done to my boat!" a large bald man, clad in dress robes demanded. "Mr Pettifor, I can explain." The boat which was rented from this Mr Pettifor by James was lying overturned in the water the wood chipped of and the seats broken. The pixies were busy shredding what was left of it. After an hour of trying mend the obviously unrepairable boat, the pair found themselves at Lily's usual corner table at Three Broomsticks. Hunched over 2 butterbeers, they seemed to be inhaling the giant plate of fries they were sharing. "I'm sorry Lily." "Huh?" she said, mouth full of fries. "All I wanted was to give you the most epic first date of your life and not only did I traumatize you, I also poisoned you. And almost drowned you." "Well, first I think you almost drowned both of us" Lily laughed at James' crestfallen expression. She kissed him lightly on the cheek before adding, "I think as far as first dates go, that was the most epic one I've ever had."