The lonely desert of my heart,

Turns into the Pacific Ocean when I glance at you.

Only a carrot can compare,

To your flaming red hair.

Your touch is like CPR,

It does not still my beating heart.

My love for you cannot be contained by the walls of my ventricles,

It must be sung as loud as a mermaid above water.

James finished the end of his poem with a flourish. He could almost sense that it was this poem that Lily would fall for. After many, many, many failed attempts that had ranged from sonnets to ballads he had finally written Lily the perfect poem. He leaned back in his chair and looked across at Lily who was reading by the fire. She had to say yes to this masterpiece.

"Finished Prongs?" Sirius blocked his line of sight. With a sigh James glanced up at his best friend, annoyed at the change of scenery.

"Yes Padfoot, you wait this time she'll be begging me for a date," James answered confidently.

"Sure she will Prongs, I'm sure that this time will be different," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes.

"You know what they say, 336th time lucky," Remus joined in from across the table.

"Finished transfiguration yet Moony?" James asked, changing the subject from his lack of love life in the Evan's department.

"Yep, at least Wormtail's asleep and not pestering me to let him copy off me," Remus stretched back in his chair, his sandy hair falling into his eyes. "But you constantly muttering to yourself over that stupid poem didn't help."

"Hey you've got to be nice to me, it's my birthday tomorrow," James pointed out smugly.

"Oh sorry how could I forget? It's not like you haven't been mentioning it for the past six months," Sirius retorted sarkily.

"You need time to plan out my gifts well in advance!" James defended himself.

"Good thing I've got mine prepared then," Sirius said as he whipped a small piece of paper from his pocket.

"Let me have a look Padfoot," Remus reached over and grabbed the piece of paper from Sirius.

"I thought I'd give him a bit of help with his quest, seeing as I'm the ultimate sex god of Hogwarts," Sirius grinned at Remus. James snorted loudly at the thought of Sirius being a sex god. Marlene would string him up before he got the chance kiss a girl. Remus's eyes scanned the paper quickly, the smile on his face growing wider and wider, until he burst out laughing.

"I'm sure that'll help him," Remus grinned at Sirius. "I'm not sure my present can compare to this tour de force,"

"Let me see, let me see," James whined. Sirius plucked the note out of Remus's hand and shoved it back into his pocket before James could get his hands on it.

"You'll have to wait until tomorrow, besides shouldn't you be sneaking your epic love poem into Lily's bad around about now?" Sirius asked. James grumbled slightly but obediently snuck over to Lily's bag that was dumped on the floor next to her.

After he successfully managed to cram his poem into the bottom of her bag, he couldn't help but stay squatting next to her. Everyone thought James Potter was after Lily because she was the one person he couldn't have. James shook his head in disgust at those people. He had liked her for ages and it wasn't even because of her looks that he continued his diligent observations of her – not stalking, as Sirius would lead you to believe. As James looked at her reading he couldn't help but remember she always seemed to have an answer or comeback to everything. How protective she was of her friends and how deadly she was to her enemies. The way her eyes would glimmer with amusement the few times James had made her laugh. As Lily pushed an unruly lock of hair back against her ear, James couldn't help falling a little more for her. That was until the moment was broken by Sirius dragging him towards the boys' dormitories by the scruff of his neck.

The next day James bounded down to breakfast. He had his new watch firmly attached to his wrist and was already filled up with Honeyduke's chocolate courtesy of Moony and Wormtail. He sat down next to Sirius who had mysteriously disappeared some when during James's enthusiastic present opening.

"So wher-"

"Don't ask for the benefit of your own health," Sirius interrupted him.

"Oh-kay, someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning mister grumpy pants," James grinned stupidly at his best friend. Sirius just swatted James around the head.

"You have no idea about the lengths I had to go to to get your birthday present," Sirius moaned while casting a glare down the Gryffindor table.

"Can I see it now? Please, please, please, please?" James asked bouncing around on his seat,

"It's not something I can give to you, my present has to fins it's way to you," Sirius answered mysteriously. James's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to figure out what the hell Sirius was on about. In the end he gave up and with a shrug he dug into his breakfast. Remus and Peter joined James and Sirius for breakfast and the four of them chatted away, with the occasional interruption of some one wishing James a happy birthday.

The four marauders finished their breakfasts and left the Great Hall. As they were leaving James spotted Lily's red hair and immediately started to grin in anticipation. He was sure that today would be the day that him and Evan's would get together. He literally skipped to Defence Against the Dark Arts at that thought. However the rest of the day passed non-eventfully, with no signs that Lily had eventually succumbed to the Potter charm. James fiddled aimlessly with his wand. He wasn't even going to have a party to celebrate tonight as they were throwing him a shindig – as Peter insisted they call it – during the Easter holidays. With a bored flick of his wand he non-verbally cast an augamenti charm. A small hose of water burst from his wand, catching the light from the window to create a small rainbow. He smiled slightly as he stared at the colours. He was a bit disappointed in the green colour, it didn't do the colour enough justice James thought. Lily's eyes were more interesting then the bland green of the rainbow. James finished his charm before sighing happily as his brain drifted of on a tangent about Lily's eyes as it so often happened when he was bored.

After several minutes of daydreaming he focused on his surroundings again. He looked around to see most of his classmates still struggling with the charm while Sirius was leaning back in his chair laughing at them, you could really tell Sirius was a nice person. He scanned the room again only to catch the colour he'd just been fantasising about. She was staring at him, looking as if she was considering something. James's heart went straight to his throat as he caught her eye and a blush crept up his cheeks. He raised an eyebrow at her but she shook her head and returned to practising her perfect augamenti charm. With that small exchange to fuel his imagination he was whisked away into another daydream about why she was staring at him. Because looking at someone obviously equated to passionate love in James's eyes.

James made his way out of charms searching for any of the marauders who had left in a hurry. He hadn't even started packing up his bag by the time the three of them were out the door. He sighed to himself as he looked down both ends of the corridor for them.

"James," a voice said from behind him that caused a shiver to run down his spine. He turned slowly to see her standing behind him.

"Yes Lily?" James asked, he wasn't entirely sure what she would want with him. Sure they were on a lot better terms then they were last year but James was still anxious Lily would blow up on him one day and he'd be back to square one. So his best tactic was to be as nice as possible, with as little flirting as he was capable of. To his complete and utter surprise she reached up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. In that second Merlin himself could have been resurrected and shown of his most baggy y-fronts and James wouldn't have noticed. Lily Evans had just kissed James Potter. Surely the world must've been in an apocalyptic state where up was down and down was up.

James stood rooted to the spot as Lily drew away, his cheek tingling and bright red where Lily had kissed him.

"Happy birthday James," Lily smiled at him as he did an accurate impression of a fish.

"B-b-but w-why?" James stuttered out, still unable to comprehend the fact that Lily had just kissed him.

"For making me laugh I suppose, those last two poems you sent me were funny. I didn't realise there was a side to you that wasn't moronic," she smiled impishly. "Marlene also convinced me that I shouldn't be too hard on you," Lily added in an after thought.

"Thank you Marlene," James muttered under his breath as he mentally promised Marlene he would give her the rest of his Honeyduke's chocolate. "Hang on, two poems?" James asked, his confusion over riding his shock.

"Yeah the lonely desert one and the roses are red one," Lily said looking at him in confusion.

"Do you mind if I have a look at the second one?" James asked, he had a faint inkling of who might be behind it.

"Sure," a very confused Lily handed him a piece of paper.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I am a stalker,

Who wants to shag you.

James stared at Sirius's untidy scrawl in disbelief. This was his birthday present? Give Lily an awful poem? Sirius was going to be sorry by the time James got through with him. James handed back the poem to Lily as he figured it couldn't do any more damage.

"Sorry about that," he apologised, looking down at his shoes to avoid Lily's eyes. To James's complete surprise she just laughed.

"Don't worry about it, believe it or not I can take a joke," she smiled kindly at James as his heart did an acrobatic routine in his chest. "I'll see you around, I need to meet Mary at the Lake," with a wave she turned and walked along the corridor, her red hair swinging with every step she took. James stood there for a while just staring after her with his hand pressed to his cheek before someone clapped him on the shoulder waking him up from his reverie.

"I knew it would work," Sirius beamed at James. James however was not in the mood to be joyful with his best friend.

"I can't believe you gave her that!" James half shouted, unable to get completely angry after Lily's kiss.

"Hey, it all worked out what's the big deal?" Sirius asked with a shrug of his shoulders.

"What's the bid deal? You could've ruined all my chances with the love of my life-"

"Nah, I wouldn't have. I knew Marlene would be able to talk her round. You don't want to know what I had to do to make her help," Sirius shuddered slightly at the memory of his girlfriend's slave driving. James smiled slightly, unable to stay angry with his best friend for so long.

"I can't believe she found that poem funny though," James said. "Hang on, she said my poem was funny! It was a master piece!" James cried indignantly.

"She just doesn't recognise genius when she sees it. Why do you think she still hasn't gone after me?" Sirius teased as the pair of them walked towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah right," James said with a roll of his eyes. "But thanks Padfoot, this has truly been the best birthday gift so far," James smiled at his brother in all but blood.

A/N: Hi everyone, this is for James's birthday. I thought I'd make a little contribution. Thanks to onginalmaz who puts up with me and reads through my stories!

For those who read my main story the chances of that I'm so sorry as I still have not finished the next chapter, gah! However hopefully I'll have a bit more time to focus on it now. Now excuse me while I go cry over Jily

- that lass

xxx