"James Potter, how many school rules do you plan on smashing to pieces this year?" Lily Evans asked, her hands on her hips.
"As many as I can," James Potter replied, crossing his legs and leaning back in his squashy armchair.
Beside him, his closest friend Sirius Black added, "Don't frown like that, Evans. You're beginning to look like McGonagall already."
Lily's bright green eyes narrowed. Potter and Black had lost Gryffindor twenty-five points that day by turning the furniture in the Transfiguration classroom upside down and sticking it to the ceiling with a Permanent Sticking Charm. Professor McGonagall had all but thrown a fit. And Potter and Black were not going to lose Gryffindor any more points—not on Lily's watch.
"It's going to take me forever to get those points back," Lily hissed. "Don't you have any pride for your house? Consideration for others? Potter, you're arrogant, you're self-centred—are there any more of your bad qualities I haven't discovered yet?"
"Try discovering some of my good qualities for once, Evans," Potter snapped.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't see beyond that big head of yours!"
"I'll make you a deal," said Potter, suddenly quiet and serious. Beside him, Black straightened.
Lily raised an eyebrow.
"I won't break any school rules for a week—"
Sirius Black, who had until then kept unusually quiet, barked with laughter. "That's about as possible as Evans eloping with Professor Flitwick!"
Lily glared at Black. "And?" she asked Potter.
"And if I don't lose Gryffindor any points for a whole week, starting this Friday evening, then you go out with me during the weekend."
Lily snorted. "Deal."
Potter's eyes had become suddenly bright. "Really?"
Lily shrugged. "If you can accomplish an impossible task, I can do the same. But you can't."
"But if I don't lose any points for an entire week—"
"Which is about as possible as me eloping with Professor Flitwick—"
"Aw, Evans, that was my idea!"
"Oh, shut up, Black."
"If I don't lose any points for an entire week, then you'll go out with me?"
"Sure."
"Swear?"
Sirius Black shot up, having apparently thought of something ghastly. His face was a dangerous chalky colour.
"But I won't have anyone to break the rules with me! Remus will back out and become the goody-goody he is underneath and Peter will—"
Potter and Lily ignored him.
"I, Lily Evans," said Lily, her bright green eyes glowing with determination, "swear solemnly on whatever deity Potter considers holy, that I will go out with him next weekend if he doesn't lose Gryffindor any points during the entirety of next week, starting this Friday night."
"Thank you," said Potter, his own hazel eyes mirroring Lily's determination.
"But what about the prank we planned where we were going to cover McGonagall's office with kittens?" Black whined.
Lily crossed her arms and leant against a nearby wall as Potter's face turned the same shade of chalk as Black's.
"Operation Fluffy!" he cried. "How could I have forgotten?"
Lily smirked. "You only have this one chance, Potter," she said snidely, turning towards the girls' dormitories.
Later that night
"You what?" gasped Emmeline Vance, promptly falling off her canopied bed.
"I said, only if he doesn't lose Gryffindor any points for an entire week," Lily clarified.
Marlene McKinnon, who had picked up her dropped jaw from one of the other beds, shook her head wisely. "You're in for a date with James Potter, Lily Evans, whatever you may think."
Lily shrugged. "If he doesn't lose Gryffindor any points. And even if he does, it's just a date with James Potter. It's not like I'm going to marry him or anything."
"Oh, Lily," said Mary MacDonald sagely from the last bed. "You haven't caught onto the Gryffindor maxim yet."
"And what," said Lily, "is that?"
"'What James Potter wants, James Potter gets,'" said Mary, Marlene, and Emmeline in unison.
Lily tossed her hair again. "Evidence of his bigheadedness."
"True, nevertheless," said Mary.
"Well, if he doesn't break any rules, we'll talk about it later. And meanwhile, I want to hear no more about it."
In the boys' dorms
"I can't believe it, mate," Remus groaned, flopping onto his bed. "I can't believe Lily might go on a date with you."
"Key word being might," growled Sirius, who had kidnapped James' Snitch and was staring morosely at the ceiling. Ever since he'd realised that his best friend's deal meant that Operation Fluffy was now down to only one conspirator, he had not been in a good mood.
Remus ignored him. The best thing to do when Sirius was being moody was to ignore him, as Remus had found out through hard trial. "You should hear her on prefect rounds, going on and on about the trials and tribulations you cause her—"
"She talks about me?" James positively glowed. "You do realise that if she goes on a date with you, you'll owe me three Galleons?"
Remus sighed. "I can't believe I promised you three whole Galleons. That's—" he counted on his fingers.
"A Galleon is seventeen Sickles," supplied Peter Pettigrew nervously.
"I know that," Remus said, giving Peter Pettigrew a small smile. But three whole Galleons—that's fifteen chocolate frogs!"
"Fifteen chocolate frogs for me," sang James.
"If," Remus reminded him.
Four days later
"Potter!" Lily screeches, launching herself into the middle of the heated duel that has broken out between Potter and Mulciber.
"He—tried—to—" pants Potter, dodging a Stunning Spell and firing one of his own at the Slytherin. Black, who was frozen when the duel started, collects his wits and screams, "Anteoculatea!"
Unfortunately, the spell rebounds and hits Potter instead. Giant antlers sprout from his head and Potter freezes.
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TWO," screams Lily, hitting Potter with a Full Body-Bind Curse, "NOT TO DUEL WITH SLYTHERINS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE—"
Potter's eyes frantically dart around the room, but he is completely silent.
Mulciber narrows his eyes. Black shoots a jinx at him, which Mulciber easily blocks with his wand. Lily whirls around and hexes Black with the Full Body-Bind Curse as well. She is about to send another Body-Bind Curse at Mulciber when his well-placed Color-Changing Charm turns Lily's skin completely sky-blue.
"That," she says, her sky-blue skin darkening and her green eyes strangely intense in her blue face, "is IT."
And with that she begins to duel.
James is riveted by her wand's quick, easy slashes and flashing curses, and he almost sighs when Professor McGonagall arrives on the scene, and stops the brawl.
And fifty points are taken from Gryffindor.
Because of him.
Half an hour later
"You could have just told me he tried to jinx me from behind," Lily mumbles, her head downcast. They are alone now, in the Common Room, and she sat him down to yell at him, but the conversation is taking a completely different turn.
James almost snorts with derision. "You wouldn't have believed me."
When she looks up, her face is red. "I'm sorry for starting that duel."
"You didn't start it, I did."
"Look, Potter, I'm sorry," she says. "It was an extremely cowardly thing Mulciber did, and I guess it doesn't matter that Gryffindor is losing fifty points, because Slytherin is in top position for the House Cup now and it's lost more than that. I appreciate your standing up for me."
James doesn't answer. He's still bitter that the date is off. So bitter that even the fact that Lily Evans is apologising to him is no consolation.
"You know what, let's just let all that go. I'm sorry, it's my fault."
"Mmhmm," agrees James.
Lily pauses. "Potter, will you go out with me?"
"What?!"