James slumped into the sofa across from the Gryffindor fireplace in a morose mood. It was just after Easter in his 7th year at Hogwarts, which meant that he'd been dating Lily for almost 6 months now (after finally convincing her that he wasn't actually the humongous prat he'd acted like for the previous 6.25 years). The issue was that they were still on individual dates. That they hadn't progressed into couplehood. When confronted with this fact, Lily had quickly changed the subject to Quidditch; something which James had picked up on but had chosen not to say anything about.

It confused James as to why she wouldn't even discuss the problem; was the thought of being a couple so off the cards that she couldn't even bring herself to think about it? She brought up Quidditch as an alternative for Merlin's sakes. She loved watching it live and listening to it on the wireless just as much as the next person, but discussing the finer points of the game was something she actively tried to avoid.
The more James thought about it, the more frustrated he became and the more set he became on confronting her about it. All he wanted was to be a couple - to cuddle on the sofa and be so sickeningly sweet that everyone around them needed a bucket. It wasn't like they didn't know each other very well either; they had had a date night every Friday for months. The more they had talked, the more enamoured with each other they had become. Which is why when James had brought up becoming a couple it had baffled him so much that she hadn't seemed to want it.
At that moment the portrait hole opened and the entity occupying so much of his thoughts entered the room.
Her eyes focused on him, her slight smile faded at the sight of his grouchiness.
"What's the matter with you, grumpy pants?"
He sighed, dreading the confrontation but knowing that he needed to clear this up so he could get to work fixing it.
"Why do you not want to be my girlfriend, Lily?" He asked as she sat down in the armchair to his right.
Her head snapped up, mouth dropping slightly.
"Where did you get that idea from?" she asked, slightly affronted.
"You changed the subject last time I asked, Lils."
"So?"
"To Quidditch. You changed the subject to Quidditch, Lily. You hate discussing Quidditch. Ergo, you must really not want to be a couple."
Lily's face had been growing steadily darker.
"Fine. I don't want to be a couple, James. Do you want to know why? Because I don't want to be like your previous 'girlfriends', James. Abandoned when something better comes along or if you feel like it, or if you don't feel like it," she snapped.
James stood up abruptly.
"I didn't abandon anyone! If you must know, Annabelle broke up with me, Taylor cheated on me, Janet and I are better as friends, same with Sarah, and I broke up with Harriet because I realised that it wasn't fair to her," James took a deep breath, "because I was in love with you."
Lily's determined face slipped slightly.
"You need to start trusting me, Lily, or this isn't going to work," James knelt down in front of her, taking her pale face in his hands, "I promise that I will never knowingly or deliberately hurt you, but you do need to trust me."
She nodded slightly, her eyes welling up with unshed tears.
"Now, was that your only concern, or was there something else holding you back as well?"
"Just that," the redhead said around the lump in her throat.
"Well then, Lily Evans, will you do me the honour of being my girlfriend?"
She nodded, smiling as she then launched herself off of the seat and into a hug with a still kneeling James.
"I'm sorry," she whispered in his ear as they recovered from the Lily-attack and the subsequent laughing fit.
"It's alright, just trust me, okay?" He said, raising their joined hands above their bodies and studying them against the backdrop of the Gryffindor Common Room ceiling.
"Okay."