Alright, so this is a collection of one-shots I'm working on. It's always going to be completed, because one shots are finished all the time, isn't it? Anyway...so...Read on.

Thirty-One Things

Pairing: Lily/James

Date: July 13, 2011

"LILY! GET OVER HERE!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm coming!"

She scribbled down a final thing on her list, blew on it briefly and rolled it up into a tight tube that she stuck in her rucksack before going. James Potter saw her, lit up and moonwalked over, but she brushed past him with only a "Go away Potter!" and a ferocious look.

The list fell out of her pocket.

James picked it up and shouted, "Lily! You dropped something!" but by that time, she was already in the crowd and walking away quickly with Mary MacDonald and the other girls in Gryffindor. They were going to Hogsmeade, but the Marauders had other things to do.

Sirius clapped James on the back. "Sorry mate. Looks like she's gone. Want to come to the kitchens with us?"

"Nah," James said dismissively. "I'm not hungry."

Sirius shrugged. "Suit yourself, Prongs." He, Remus and Peter started heading off to the kitchen.

James opened the parchment.

Thirty-One Things I Wish For.

James tilted his head. Maybe this was a list of things that Lily would want for Christmas. True, she didn't seem like the type of girl to write an entire list about it, but still, things could happen.

#1 I wish I hadn't tripped Terry by mistake and sent her lunch all over the floor even though she may have deserved it.

#2 I wish I hadn't kissed Mary's boyfriend for a dare in fourth year and broke them up.

#3 I wish that I hadn't gone on that rollercoaster with Petunia and gotten sick, because now I have a fear of rollercoasters

#4 I wish that I never was a witch. I know that it sounds silly, but it ruined my friendship with Petunia and even though I love all my friends dearly, I miss my sister. It kills me inside every time that I go home and see her sneering at me fastidiously, and it hurts like nothing else

At this moment, James realized that he was, in a way, reading Lily's diary of personal thoughts and wishes. But he simply couldn't stop.

#5 I wish that I hadn't read that book that Dad told me not to read about Human Anatomy when I was four, because I was scarred everafter.

#6 I wish that when I was six, I didn't have that crush on that Derek boy, only to have him laugh at me when I told him.

James ground his teeth. Who would dare laugh at his Lily?

#7 I wish I hadn't made that suggestive comment to Emma's crush, and have him think that I liked him and asked me out. I refused, of course, but Emma didn't talk to me for a week

#8 I wish I hadn't told Potter that he had a huge head. He does, of course, but Petunia tells me that all the time and I know how it hurts, to know that someone hates you so much like that.

James stopped short. She didn't really mean it?

#9 I wish that maybe, just maybe, I would be pretty to someone's eyes. He would tell me that he loved me with the deepest sincerity.

#10 I wish that in sixth year I found true love. Instead, I got snogged by the person I thought was so kind, so insightful, only to see that he was a pervert and liked to mutter things into one's ears that weren't romantic at all.

#11 I wish I wasn't so picky about who was the right guy for me.

#12 I wish that I was still friends with Sev.

#13 I wish he hadn't said that mean thing about me.

#14 I wish I could stop crying over him.

#15 I wish that Potter was a kind guy. He might be a little cute, but other than that, he has no sincereness! He just asks me out because he thinks it's something to laugh at. He's never asked me out properly, it's all "Evans, go out with me?" If he'd actually try, then he'd might get a chance.

James froze.

See, this was the problem of reading someone's diary, you might appear in it. And he always thought that she never asked him out because he wasn't making a big enough spectacle of himself, so he tried bigger and bigger and bigger.

It was like what she said about Petunia: every time she refused him, it weighed him down a little. The only thing that lifted the weight away is that some day she might actually like him.

#16 I wish that Potter was mature.

#17 I wish he wasn't so handsome.

#18 I wish that Nadine would stop trying to dump water on my head before I wake up.

At this one, James smiled a bit.

#19 I wish that Grace wasn't so sweet, so pretty. I feel small and insignificant next to her.

#20 I wish I wasn't so jealous of Grace and Beth.

Beth? James wracked his brains; he knew that name somewhere. Aha! Beth! That girl with the brown hair and brown eyes that he dated briefly in sixth year because he was depressed that Lily wouldn't date him and Beth comforted him. It wasn't really a non-platonic thing, because they never kissed and it was all talking. They broke up at the end of sixth year, but were still pretty good friends. Why would Lily be jealous of Beth?

#21 I wish that Vernon Dursley didn't hate me so much.

Of course James knew who Vernon Dursley was. He stalked her, after all. Vernon Dursely was Petunia's odorous boyfriend that Lily never liked.

#22 I wished that I didn't have so many wishes.

#23 I wish that I would stop having those dreams...I won't go in detail about what they're like.

#24 I wish that I wasn't so cold. Not as in the "i'm freezing!" cold but more like the, I can truly confide in anyone, cold.

#25 I wish for a cat. But Petunia's too afraid of cats, so I can't.

#26 I wish Marielle would be my best friend again. She's a muggle, and thinks that I'm ditching her for my 'snotty, private school friends'. How can I tell her I'm not?

#27 I wish that this list wasn't full of impossible things.

#28 I wish that I didn't hate Herbology so much. Honestly. Worst. Subject. Ever.

#29 I wish that I never liked Hogwarts so much. So I would stop and go back to a normal life.

#30 I wish that I could draw. HA! My stick figures are messed up!

#31 I wish, from the bottom of my heart and in the farthest, most locked away corner of my mind, that Potter loved me back.

James dropped the parchment.

Potter loved me back.

Potter. Loved. Me. Back.

She loved him! She loved him!

His first desire was to go to her and kiss her. Hard. On the lips. But that wouldn't suffice very well, so he didn't.

Romantic date, eh?

He could do that.

"Oh Merlin!" Lily wailed.

"What?" Nadine asked from where she was lounging on her bed.

"I've lost it! I can't believe I lost it! How the bloody hell could I lose it?"

"Lose what?"

"Never mind that!" snapped Lily.

Nadine looked hurt.

#32 I wish I hadn't snapped at Nadine when I shouldn't have.

"Sorry," Lily said. "I'm just really stressed out. I have a sort of...diary parchment and it fell out. Who knows who could read it!"

"James?"

"Shut up!" Lily pulled at her hair. "I can't believe it! I just simply can't believe it!"

There was a small knock on the door.

Lily pulled it open. A small girl with bright yellow hair pulled into two pigtails stood there. Lily knew her instantly to be a first year. "Yes?" she asked.

"James Potter asks you if you would please talk to him in the common room? He says that it's not a prank, and not some extravagant show, so would you please please come to him. He has something of yours."

Lily colored bright red. "What?"

Potter might have my wishlist.

Oh damn damn hell bloody crapping hell.

"Fine," Lily said, pulling on a jumper and racing downstairs.

"Where're you going, Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"I'm going to meet Lily in the common room," James said.

Remus sighed. "Another show? Haven't we done enough?"

"No," James said quietly. "No show. I'm going to ask her out."

"Again?" whined Sirius. "Prongs, haven't you asked her out enough this week?"

"This is the last time."

Remus looked up from his book. "Last time?"

"Yes," said James. "This is the last time, and I've got to give it all I've got."

Sirius said, "Can I come?"

"No!" James blinked. "Sorry. No."

"Alright." Sirius stared at James for a second before turning away. "So Moony, who's this, Ella Rashid?"

"Shut up, Padfoot!"

"For crying out loud, Potter, give me it."

"James."

"James?"

"My name, is James."

"Right. Give me it!"

James gave it to Lily quickly, who clutched the parchment to her like it was a lifeboat in the sea. "I, uh, read it."

"You read it?" Lily shouted.

Damn.

More swears were floating along in her head as she swore over and over again. He read it. Double damn. He isn't teasing her. What the hell?

"I don't."

"Don't what?" Lily asked, fighting back tears. Was he going to mock her?

"I've never asked you out properly, have I?"

"You just read my whole life story, and you're asking me about asking me OUT?" Lily shouted again. Her eyes were swimming with tears, James noted with some alarm.

"No!" James said hastily. "I'm not. I'm just saying, you were correct. I've never asked you out...properly. It's all been dazzles with a shouted question at the end that everyone seems to enjoy...except for you. I've always thought that you wanted more dazzle, more embarassment on my part, and so I did what I thought you wanted. I never thought how embarassed you would feel. So I'm asking, for the last time...Will you go out with me?"

Lily clutched the parchment to her some more. A single tear trailed its way down her cheek and dropped to the floor.

"No."

All the breath went out of James in one long whoosh, like he'd been punched in the gut. "Oh," he said a bit meekly. "Alright then. I should just be going."

Lily watched him go up the stairs with hunched shoulders, like he was Atlas, bearing the weight of the world upon him.

"Oh, what've I done?" she groaned.

"He looks awful, what the hell have you done to him?"

"Go up there and ask him what's wrong then!"

"Are you sure you won't consider again?"

"No!"

"You are a hard-headed woman."

Lily muttered a retort back under her breath and stared back at James. He did look depressed. And sad. Even though it's been a week since he asked her out for the last time.

And it was the beginning of seventh year.

She couldn't bear seeing him sad for the remainder of seventh year.

It takes time, these sort of things, for courage to develop, but Lily knew that it was now or never.

Cringing inwardly, she stood up.

"Excuse me!" she shouted.

The hall started to die down.

"James Potter!" she said.

James looked up in shock. "I haven't done anything yet!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "It's not a good sign that you said yet, but I'm not talking about whatever you're planning." She sidled away from the table, and grabbing his tie, lifted him out of his seat. "James Potter." Her voice was firm, stubborn. "Will you go out with me."

James fell over.

Not very gracefully either. He fell over the seat and onto the floor and people craned their heads to see him. And there was a grin on his face, a very large one.

"Well?" Lily asked.

He bounced up and took her by the shoulders and kissed her.

When they drew away from each other, green eyes sparkled at hazel ones, and there were smiles on both of their faces.

"Yes," he breathed. "Yes."

"Good, you lout."

And then they got detention.

But the best part? Lily didn't even care.

#33 If you're reading this again, James Potter, then you should know that you succeeded in winning my heart in sixth year, you great bastard. So go away and come on! We have detention at nine.

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