Somehow Lily's smile made it all better.
Even though she hadn't looked at him and he hadn't been the one to make her smile, it gave him a illogical sense of satisfaction.
As soon as she looked his way, her smile would usually drop and she'd scowl. It didn't matter that she was at his celebration party and even though he was a chaser he had just won the game by accidentally catching the snitch.
When she finally looked at him her smile didn't waver. Contrary to what he had expected, Lily's smile widened and she waved shyly.
Sirius, standing beside him, had been grumbling about James staring at Lily and ruining their image as bad boys. Sirius shut up and his jaw dropped as soon as he saw Lily waving. "How much alcohol have I drank?" Sirius asked him eyeing the bottle of butterbeer dubiously.
James ignored him and waded his way through the crowd and towards Lily. Said person was watching him speculatively still smiling bashfully. Wow what that smile did to his heart. It was an adorable smile, one he hadn't seen before.
At the last second his fluttering heart became to much for him and he veered to the right, striking up a conversation with his cousin Marlene.
He could feel Lily's eyes on him, struggling to understand his hesitancy. "Lily!" Marlene cried winking at James as he shot her a panicked look. Lily turned from looking at James and shot Marlene a quick smile.
"James was just telling my about how brilliant you are at potions." Lily blushed and glared at Marlene, "I've been standing right here you git. I know you weren't talking about potions. You're my partner for it anyway."
Marlene had the decency to grimace, "Well he was commenting on how good you are then."
-oOo-
Lily was pissed. Completely sloshed. She had drowned out her woes in firewhiskey. The minute she starts acting nice to James - coming out of denial about fancying him - he blanks her to talk to his cousin.
"James!" she yelled, rowdy now after the liquor she had downed. She grabbed the shocked boy around the middle and squeezed affectionately, "Congratulations on the win!" James gaped. "Are you drunk Lily?" he asked incredulously.
"Of course not, James. I only had five butterbeers. Marly says you can't possibly get drunk on that!"
James shook his head in amazement, "Well you must be a complete lightweight, Evans, because you're drunk." Lily looked at her hand experimentally. "You know what James? I think you might be right."
James laughed, "What's the world coming to, Lily Evans is agreeing with James Potter!"
Lily frowned, "I agree with you on lots of things!"
"Like what?"
"Well I agree that you're good at transfiguration. I agree that You-Know-Who must be stopped. I agree that Remus is very clever. And I agree that you're very handsome Mr Potter." Lily hiccuped as soon as she finished her speech to James and grinned, "I also agree that you played a very good game of Quidditch today."
To say James was shocked was putting it mildly. Lily Evans had just complimented him. More than once!
"If you weren't drunk right now Lily," James said with a sigh, "I'd probably kiss you."
Lily giggled and put her arms around his neck. Her eyes were dilated, her breath smelt of sweet butterbeer and she was leaning most of her weight on James. "Well go on then Potter, kiss me."
James pulled away from her stiffly. "I won't take advantage of you when you're drunk. Here, I'll get Marl to put you to bed."
James took Lily to his cousin and demanded she take Lily to bed. Then he sat on the couch ignoring everyone, buried his face in his hands and let out a world weary sigh.
"What's the matter Prongs?" Sirius asked him, as he Remus and Peter sat down.
James mumbled into his hands about a drunken Lily and how he had refused to kiss her.
Sirius began laughing and as soon as he did, he couldn't stop. Remus was smiling slyly at him and Peter was observing everyone else with confusion. "What?" he asked, standing up now. He felt angry and betrayed that his friends were laughing at him one of the few times he actually opened up to them.
"Turn around you fool!" Remus said, grinning wolfishly at him. James turned and spotted Lily watching him with amusement.
"James," Lily said, shuffling around the couch and stopping before him. Her voice wasn't slurred any longer, her eyes were lucid and sparkling. James held up a hand to fend her off, edging backwards. "Moony, you may bring her to bed. I dunno if I can."
Lily laughed, "I took a sobering potion James."
James peered at her, not believing that she had. Remus laid a hand on his shoulder. "Lily was wondering if you were well behaved enough for her to go out with. She engineered the entire thing to see if you'd take advantage."
James spun and faced Lily who winked at him and held out her arms. James crossed the distance between them in two strides and gathered her into his arms. He mumbled, "Don't ever do that again. I don't think I'd manage it a second time." Then he placed a chaste kiss on her lips.
Lily smiled, "Is that all I'm getting?"
James' eyes lit up. Until that moment he hadn't really believed that she was actually with him.
"Yes Lily. I'm taking it slow, wouldn't want to mess it up. Hogsmeade with me this Friday? We can skip Divination and Arithmancy?"
Lily smiled and pecked his cheek, "I'll expect flowers and chocolate."
A/N: Different than my usual passionate kiss at the end?
I thought it was all right, Lily's second time plotting their get together and this time it was from James' perspective. Thoughts?
It was kinda cobbled together while I'm waiting to go to Killarney. Plenty of time to write a James and Lily fanfic and maybe draw a picture to go with it ;D
~ShazzaBlack...x
