A/N: Hey! Thank you to ANYBODY reading this! This is a fluff, fluff, fluffy, fluffy, fluffy Jily story! (Sorry, had a bit (yeah, right, more like a gallon) of black (highly caffeinated) tea.) Hehehe. I'm SUCH an IDIOT! You know what my oh-so-smart self did? I got my teeth cleaned at the dentist, and the very next day, I had black tea. What the heck! Me stupiooo (for you idiots out there, that means stupid)! Sowweee, me hhhhyyyyyyypppppppeeeeeerrrrrr.
Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) don't own any of the characters (that unfortunately belongs to Jo (I love you, Jo!)) or the lyrics to the following song. I promise, though, that I will let the whole world know when I do.
I won't give up on love,
Even if the skies get rough.
I'm giving you all my love,
And still lookin' up.
"I Won't Give Up" – Jason Mraz
In First Year, James thought that Lily was the most beautiful flower in the world. It was love at first sight for him, and he thought that he could impress her by pulling up the very act that caused her to hate him.
Well, if Lily was so beautiful, then wouldn't lilies be beautiful as well? Someone so pretty had to be named after something pretty. So, using that poor logic, he decided that her favorite flower had to be a lily.
That's why, on Valentine's Day, Christmas, her birthday, when she got an O on an exam, or any other day worth celebrating, he would get her a lily.
He would get her tiger lilies, water lilies, calla lilies, Peruvian lilies, and any other type of lily you can name.
No matter how many times she told him to shove off and that she didn't want anything from him, he would continue to get her the flower after which she was named. But finally she told him that just because somebody was named after a nice flower doesn't mean that she has to like it, or that it has to be her favorite flower.
"So, then, what's your favorite flower, Lily?" he would ask, but the only reply he would get was, "Figure it out, Potter."
Second Year he started to move on to roses. Roses were pretty, smelled nice, looked simply lovely after the rain, made an excellent scent for perfume, and were, not to mention, the flower for romance. If not lilies, then it simply had to be roses.
So, he started to present her with love notes, poems, and always roses, usually in a nice bright vibrant color, different ones each time. He presented her with full roses, wonderfully bloomed, and with those not-fully-bloomed-but-you-can-still-see-the-petals roses. They came in varying stem sizes, flower sizes, and types.
But, one again, she wounded poor James' heart by refusing anything he gave her. She would ignore his poems and notes, and she said that roses were not her favorite flower.
She was cruel to him, and she shunned his roses. She said that roses were pretty and all, but they were still not her favorite flower.
"What's your favorite flower, Lily?" he said.
"Figure it out, Potter," she replied, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
Third Year, now, and they were allowed to go to Hogsmeade, and James was determined to have his Lily go to Hogsmeade with him.
Now he had moved on to tulips. It was (once again) the flower. He knew could not fail with this one. It was classy and elegant, yet cute and colorful. He could definitely see his Flower holding tulips from him in her hand. This time, he thought. This time he would get the flower right, and he knew it.
He asked her out to Hogsmeade, each time giving her a bundle of tulips in assorted varieties and colors. He gave her red, yellow, orange, pink, white, blue, purple, multicolored, patterned, bulb-shaped, fully bloomed, you name it.
He asked her out countless times, and yet, every time, he got rejected. She would tell him things that had him moping the whole rest of the day. She chipped his fragile heart even further with every refusal.
She told him she would rather die, that she would choose the Giant Squid to date over him. She hurt him, she made him cry, but no matter what, he never gave up on her. She was his, whether she liked it or not, and he was going to get her, even if he died trying to.
He would do anything for her. Except, that is, give up. No matter how much she wanted him to, he would never give up on her.
At the end of the year, he asked her the same thing he had been asking her for the past two years, "What's your favorite flower, Lily?"
Lily saw what he was doing, so she said, "Ah, so we are doing this now, are we? Well then, figure it out Potter."
It was Fourth Year, and James thought that Lily had never looked more beautiful, especially since she had gone through a bit more puberty and completed it over the summer. James, however, was still scrawny. He was positive that he knew her favorite flower. He was convinced that it was an orchid. Why not? Orchids were pretty, smelled nice, gave out a nice aura, and were somewhat Lily-ish. He still liked lilies best on his Lily, and even though it was not her favorite flower, it was his. His Lily.
Now instead of lilies, roses, and tulips, he was giving her orchids. He gave then to her anytime he could. Even during Hogsmeade trips that she spent with Snape or her friends when she rejected him, he would not stop giving her orchids. She did accept one orchid, however, and she watered it everyday. But that was in James' fantasies.
He started giving her orchids for no reason whatsoever. He delivered them on her bed (Merlin knows how) and he delivered them to her almost every morning. He wrote notes and delivered them with orchids, and he wrote poems and love letters. He, for the first time, said he loved her, sincerely.
He gave her orchids of all different shapes and sizes and types and colors. He gave her almost as many types of orchids as he gave her roses. But this time, he gave her bouquets and everything. This year, he had finally realized that he had fallen in love with her. He thought that he loved her with every ounce of his being. He thought that he would walk to the corners of the earth of she wanted him to. He wanted to express all of his love for his Lily. His flower. He started to do anything to get her attention, so he started pulling the most spectacular pranks ever. He would literally do anything for her attention. He got it, of course. James Potter never fails to get what he wants. But, unfortunately, it was not the right kind of attention. She hexed him. She yelled at him. And she made him feel like crap.
"What's your favorite flower, Lily?"
"Figure it out, Potter."
She once again broke his heart. And he once again forgave her.
In Fifth Year, he was as big a git as you can get. He hexed Snape, he played pranks, and he and his friends started going by the name of the Marauders. They started to openly use strange nicknames: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Now all of a sudden, girls were fawning over the four most popular boys in school.
This year, it was marigolds. They were beautiful flowers. Some were as red as her silky and luscious hair and some as golden as her beautiful soul. Plus, as a bonus, they were in Gryffindor colors. The best part was that he overheard Lily telling her friends that she thought marigolds were nice.
So, every single day he would get her a marigold and invite her out on a date with him. He would nonstop ask her out. She would reject him and the flower. It was like he had a bet with himself if he could break the record of how many times he could ask her out. This year Lily even had trouble getting a date because of all the boys who wanted to ask her out were afraid of getting hexed by James.
It was like James could not survive even a day without asking her out. She had begun to feel very frustrated. She would hex him. Scream at him. Have shouting matches with him. These shouting matches always ended in James making some snarky comment about how she was cute when she was angry and how sometimes he would get her mad just to see her "adorable" face, which only made her hex him.
Soon, the O.W.L.'s came, and the whole "Snape and Mudblood" fiasco came and went. That night, James apologized profusely and Lily said it was not really his fault. The two, for once in their lives, had a peaceful moment together and acted civil and even remotely friendly with one another.
At the end of the year, James decided to bring up their end-of-the-year tradition and ask "What's your favorite flower, Lily?", only to be replied to by a smirk and a, "Figure it out, Potter."
In the Sixth Year the two were, I guess you could say, acquaintances. James would still ask her out, but other than that, they got along just fine. They would occasionally have small conversations when there was no one else to talk to, but they would usually give one another space.
James, though, had not stopped asking her out. He would bring up the question from time to time. He would not stop trying to figure out her favorite flower.
This year it was carnations, the next sensible flower he could think of. He sent them to her for no reason whatsoever and gave them to her in bouquets or bunches. He gave them in red, yellow, purple, pink, mixed colors, and several shapes and sizes. He gave any type of carnation that you can imagine.
There was a massive change this year. He was a lot nicer, although he still was a git sometimes. He still was a bit careful around Lily. He didn't want to hurt her feelings again. She was already hurt enough when Snape called her a Mudblood. He still thought it was somewhat his fault, despite what she said.
Before she knew it, it was the end of the year, and she had to admit that she somewhat saw him as more than a friend.
On the last week of school, Lily admitted that carnations were not her favorite flower. "So, then, what's your favorite flower, Lily?"
Lily chuckled and replied, "Figure it out, Potter."
The pair wrote several letters over the summer. They wrote and they told one another stories about the summer. Lily complained about Petunia being mean, Snape, Petunia getting engaged to a walrus, schoolwork, Petunia in general, and all of the heat. James wrote about the thing he would do for his last year in Hogwarts. The two of them wrote about what they would do after school was over. Both Lily and James were considering working as Aurors. James let Lily know when he got the Head Boy badge. And Lily let James know when she got the Head Girl badge. Lily was somewhat excited as to working with him and getting to know him better.
Seventh Year came and went in a blur. Everything was going on so fast, that it all felt too real. They would have to look for jobs, decide what they would want to be when they left school, and they had to decide whose side to join: the Death Eaters', Dumbledore's, or the Ministry's.
This year, Lily had fallen for James. Hard. But she still would not tell him, even though she knew that he was in love with her as well. This year, James had given up on trying to figure out her favorite flower. He just assumed that she would tell him. Also, there was one massive change in his behavior: He had entirely stopped asking her out. Even though she would have said yes, he would refuse to ask her. The problem was, that even though Lily had made the fact that she loved him so obvious, he still could not, and would not believe it.
Lily had made the first move. They were in their Common Room near one o' clock in the morning when the pair was chatting merrily and doing homework. They were enjoying a comfortable silence when Lily randomly blurted out, "I love you, James."
James had never been more thrilled. He could have sworn that the whole thing was just a realistic dream. He remembered saying, "I love you too, Lily," and kissing her, pouring out every single feeling he had for her. He remembered asking her out and her saying yes for once in her life.
Ever since then the two were inseparable. They were so madly in love. He remembered very clearly one day when they were cuddling on a couch, he asked her, "What's your favorite flower, Lily?"
And she replied, "A lily."
A/N: Hey, you guys! I hope you liked that! I know it is poorly written and cliché, but it was worth a shot, right? Well, review, follow, and fav! (or whatever it is you kids do these days)
Stay Cray!