It was dark. That was the first thing Lily noticed. The next thing she noticed was the fact that she was standing in close proximity with a man - or else known as a member of the opposite gender, and this made Lily very self-conscious. He wasn't just any man, either -

He was wearing glasses.

What was so special about glasses? There was only one man in the whole of Hogwarts who looked good in glasses, at least in the opinion of Lily Evans, now that his head had deflated and he was no longer the arrogant toerag who continued pestering her. Yes, she was speaking of James Potter.

As her best friend Alice Prewett had dully noted, she had developed a...crush on James Potter. Okay, she found him extremely attractive, and actually fancied him. But that didn't explain why she was standing with James Potter, in the dark, with her lips pressed against his!

Potter's lips were warm. Mmm...

"No!" Lily shrieked, and found bright sunlight greeting her as she blinked open her eyes. Thank Merlin, she realized with relief. It was just a dream.

"Lily?" Alice asked groggily, sitting up and rubbing her sleep-filled eyes. "What's wrong? I don't fancy waking up to the sound of your shrieking, thank you very much. You're acting like you had just kissed James Potter!"

Lily's face went bright red as she recalled her dream...Her dream which involved her and James Potter kissing. If only you knew, Alice, if only you knew. She contemplated telling Alice everything, but decided against it. Her friend would definitely see her as crazy.

What's even more irritating was that when she finally realized that she fancied him, he had stopped asking her out! What if he had stopped liking her? Besides, she had treated him so poorly over the years, it wouldn't be shocking if he hated her for the rest of her life!

"I'm pathetic," Lily moaned. Remind me why I rejected Potter...James every time he asked me out again? She buried her face into her hand, not wanting Alice to notice her blush and question her.

"Did you say something, Lily?" Alice asked, leaning closer to her. "I had trouble hearing what you said..."

"I-I'm hungry!" Lily lied, and leapt out of bed. "I'm going to eat breakfast!"

She didn't even bother to comb her hair as she rushed out of the dormitory. She stopped dead when she saw that the armchairs in the common room were already occupied by the Marauders, which also meant that James Potter was sitting in one of said armchairs. She stumbled.

"Morning, Evans," James called to her cheerily, completely unaware of the fact that she had just had the most life-changing dream.

"Ja - Po - Ja-Jam!" Lily squeaked, debating whether she was supposed to address him by his last name or first. She mentally slapped herself, wondering what sort of spell James had put on her to make her so tongue-tied in front of him. This had never happened to her before! An image of him kissing her popped into her mind. No!

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Jam? If you're looking for jam, it's in the kitchens," he said, pointing at Peter's face.

"It's rude to point, Padfoot!" Peter protested.

Remus closed the book he was reading. "He meant in that direction," he explained slowly, as though he was talking to infants. He too pointed at Peter's face, though he meant to point in the direction of the Hogwarts kitchens. "You just happened to be in the same direction as the kitchens, Pete."

By now, Peter was very red in the face because he was very angry, and Lily was very red in the face because she was very embarrassed. She didn't respond and ran out of the common room, refusing to look at James as she brushed past him while screaming something that sounded suspiciously like "YOU'RE AN IDIOT, POTTER!"

The four Marauders stared at each other, dumbfounded.

"What do you reckon's the problem with Evans?" James broke the silence at last, messing up his hair subconsciously as he did so.

"Maybe she's drunk," Sirius suggested.

Remus shot him a stern look. "That would be you, Padfoot."

"Maybe she's having girl problems," Peter put in helpfully. "Like...I don't know, daydreaming?"

"But she just woke up," James pointed out.

"Maybe you grew antlers during the night, Prongsie," said Sirius, patting James on his back.

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right, Padfoot."

Footsteps announced Alice's arrival on the scene. "Morning, boys," she said moodily.

"And what's up with you?" Sirius asked, noticing that she wasn't her usual cheerful self.

"Don't ask me," she grumbled. "Lily woke me up this morning, screaming her head off like she had just kissed James or something."

"She kissed you, mate?" Sirius demanded at once, turning to James, "How come you never told me?"

"Er, that would be because I never kissed her," James replied, but he was secretly wishing that he had kissed her, dream or otherwise. "Alice was only using a simile to describe the way Evans had screamed."

Disappointed, Sirius muttered, "Oh." He didn't even bother to ask James what a simile was, because he was only interested in the Lily snogging James part, which unfortunately had not happened.

At that moment, however, Peter's stomach rumbled, and Sirius added, "And that's our cue for breakfast, ladies and Marauders!" They did not discuss Lily's strange behavior any further.

The Head Girl's day was not going well, and she blamed all of her misfortune on the Head Boy. If it wasn't for their dream-kiss, then she wouldn't be acting all flustered and clumsy in front of Potter.

Her first 'incident' happened at breakfast, in which she promptly spilled porridge down her front when Potter, his mates and Alice strolled into the Great Hall. Sirius, the first to notice the accident, jokingly offered to lick it off her. Potter leapt forward and threatened Sirius not to touch her.

Now that Potter doesn't like me, he's not even going to let other boys near me! Lily thought glumly as he cleaned the porridge with a wave of his wand. She hadn't even spoken to Alice in her haste to remove herself from the scene.

Her second accident happened in Potions, where she put only a tad more of nettle than instructed into her potion, causing it to explode and burn Slughorn's hair because he happened to walk past her table. He didn't give her a detention, thank Merlin, instead ushering her to the Hospital Wing with Potter; saying how she must be hallucinating and needed Potter's guidance en route so nothing bad would happen.

His words must've been a jinx, for she had just taken a step when she went flying down the stairs.

"Evans, oi, Evans!" James said now, his voice filled with worry as he dashed down the stairs after her. He bent down and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Lily winced and jerked away from him. "I-I'm fine!" she stuttered. "I don't need your help!" with that, she turned and ran off for the second time in one day.

James watched her go, not daring to tell her that the Hospital Wing was the other way.

"Stupid Potter," Lily muttered, yanking a petal off the flower (she had plucked it from the vase that sat on the windowsill) she was currently holding. She had not bothered to return to Potions after the stair-tripping incident in fear that he would make fun of her or ask her why she was behaving strangely.

She absently tore off another petal. "He likes me."

Her hand reached for the last petal. "He likes me not."

Rats. There weren't any more petals. "H-He doesn't love me," she said disbelievingly. "You stupid flower! How could you betray me!" Angrily, she flung the flower stem onto her bed. It landed among the many other petals that were already sprinkled there.

Okay, now she was really pathetic, speaking to a flower. No wonder Petunia called her a freak.

"I'm hopeless," she sighed. "Bloody Potter and that bloody dream."

"What was that about me?"

She jumped, turning to find herself staring at the very man who had been irritating her. "P-P-P-Potter! What are you doing here?" she noted that he was holding his broomstick in one hand. He must've flew up the staircase.

In response, James held out her book bag to her. "You didn't come back to Potions," he explained, "so Slughorn asked me to deliver your books to you."

Lily took it from him, speechless. "How did you know I was here?" she asked suspiciously.

"I have my methods," James said with a wink.

This caused her cheeks to flush, and she suddenly found her hands extremely interesting. "T-Thank you," she mumbled.

"Er, Evans? Why are there flower petals scattered over your bed?" he asked finally, not knowing what else to say. This was a mistake, James soon learned, for she chucked her Potions book at his head.

James had to thank his well-earned Quidditch reflexes for narrowly avoiding the book.

"That's none of your business!" Lily snapped. "That bloody flower! Argh, how dare the flower betray me, especially when I'm named after a flower, too?" Stop sprouting nonsense! she tried telling herself, but she couldn't stop rambling in front of James.

Ah, that's more like it. Lily had returned to her former self, minus the odd rambling. "Don't tell me you have a crush on a bloke, eh?" James couldn't help asking, sparing the poor flower from further humiliation. "C'mon, let's hear it. Who's the lucky man?"

Please be me, please be me, please be me, he chanted in his head. Okay, now he was being really pathetic. There was absolutely no way Lily Evans would have a crush on him. After all, she had hated him for six years. There was no way she could like him now, even though they were on friendlier terms since they were Heads.

Lily paused, wondering whether she should tell him. He was so dense for not realizing! He deserved to remain in the dark forever, not ever knowing that she liked him.

But, alas, she muttered, "Oh, bugger," and pulled him towards her for a kiss.

Simply put, it was better than her dream. Much, much better.

She abruptly pulled away with a startled shriek, remembering who she was kissing. "S-Sorry!" she stammered, leapt off her bed, and dashed out of the Gryffindor tower, leaving James standing dazedly behind. He lifted his hand to his lips and let out a dreamy sigh.

Why did I just do that? she thought as she ran, How could I have kissed him? I must be a terrible kisser! He probably doesn't even like me! Oh, I'm never going to speak to Potter again! Why did I act so rash? Oh, I really want to jump off the Astronomy Tower right now!

"Lily?" Alice's startled voice could be heard. "What's wrong? You look like you had just kissed James Potter!"

"What's taking Prongs so long?" Sirius asked irritably.

"Did he start making out with Lily?" Peter asked.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Think of the...current situation, if you will, Peter. Lily runs away at the sight of James. I wouldn't be surprised if she kicked him out - "

He stopped short when Lily went running by them with Alice not far behind. "LILY! FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, STOP ACTING LIKE YOU HAD JUST KISSED POTTER!" she screeched as she ran.

"Well, I guess it's the other way around," Peter commented. "Wonder what that was about?"

"Beats me," Sirius said with a shrug. He pulled out the Marauders' Map and checked James' location. "Holy mother of Merlin," he breathed, "HE'S STILL IN THE GIRLS' DORMITORY!"

The Marauders stared at each other before they sprinted in the location of the tower, and found James sliding out from the girls' dorm. He had apparently forgotten the fact that the stairs were magically jinxed into turning into a slide whenever boys tried to enter.

He looked dazed, as though the Gryffindor Quidditch team had just won the Quidditch cup.

"Er, Prongs? Are you alright?" Sirius asked, stepping warily toward the man in question.

"You look like the Gryffindor Quidditch team had just won the Quidditch cup," Remus added.

Sirius spun around to face Remus. "We won the Quidditch cup? Why does no one ever tell me these things? First it was Prongs and Evans kissing, and now we won the cup!"

"We will win, I mean," Remus amended, "with James as Captain and all."

"She did," James said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Sirius asked tentatively.

"Evans." James sighed.

Sirius shook his head. "Evans won the Quidditch cup? You've got to be kidding me. Have you seen that girl with a broomstick?"

"No," James said in a sing-song voice. "I mean, yes, I have seen her with a broomstick. But no, she didn't win the Quidditch cup. It's...even better than that!" he paused dramatically with a stupid grin on his face.

"Okay, Prongs, you're seriously starting to freak me out," Sirius said. "Did you hit your head? Do you have a fever?"

Sirius leaned forward and tried to press a hand against James' forehead, but he slapped the hand away. "Leave me alone! Only Evans can touch me!" he cried.

"Well, that explains it," said Remus with a snap of his fingers, realization dawning upon him. At Sirius and Peter's questioning looks, he elaborated, "James is lovesick."

"Ew!" Sirius said at once, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"Ew!" Peter agreed.

"Ew," James repeated, still daydreaming.

"AHHHH!"

The four Marauders turned to see Lily standing by the portrait hole, her mouth still open from her scream. She had just mustered the courage to return, thanks to Alice ("Are you a Gryffindor or not, Lily?" Alice had practically screamed at her. "Man up and tell the man of your dreams that you like him! There's nothing scary about it!"), and now they were here before her? She barely had time to think!

Sirius stalked toward her. "There you are, Evans! Can you please get Prongs to stop acting like a lovesick idiot? It's creeping me out."

The word 'lovesick' was what slapped Lily in the face. Figuratively, that is. Her heart leapt as she thought, he's lovesick because I kissed him! There's still hope! He actually looks kind of cute, being lovesick...

"Potter," she said, walking toward him. She took a deep breath.

He didn't respond.

"James!"

Still nothing.

"JAMES!" she screamed, and his head snapped up.

"Lily," he acknowledged, beaming. "Good morning."

She sighed. He really was hopeless. "D-Do you still like me?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes," he said at once.

"D-Do I still like you?" she asked.

He tipped his head to one side and stared at her.

"Er, I mean, I-I-I - "

Alice entered the portrait hole with her boyfriend Frank just then. Lily turned toward her, and she shot Lily the scariest death glare she could muster. The message was clear: Tell him, or else I'll do something evil! Lily gulped.

"I-I-I...oh, bugger, I mean I FANCY YOU!" Lily screamed out the last bit, feeling a lot better now that the words were out.

That was the only thing James needed to hear. Still beaming, he leaned toward her and kissed her.

Alice burst into tears, grabbed Frank, and promptly kissed him, too.

Sirius grabbed the person closest to him and attempted to kiss them too, but before he could, a book was flung at his head. This was followed by Remus' loud shriek of "EW!"

~Fin~

A/n: Just a silly and somewhat fluffy one shot I decided to write for Christmas, even though the story itself is not very Christmasy XD Lovesick!James was quite amusing to write, despite him being extremely OOC. hehehe.

Anyway, Happy Christmas (as they say in Harry Potter) everyone! Hope you enjoyed the story! Leave a review?