Seventh Year.

1. The Common Room.

He looked at her from the entrance of the common room. She was sitting by herself on that big orange couch near the fireplace. She was concentrating on a large book- probably a muggle one, since it looked new and she treated it as if it was the most precious thing around her.

James took a deep breath and cleared his throat when he got to her. She lifted a finger, signalling for him to wait while she was finished reading. A few seconds later, she looked up and smiled at him.

"Hullo, James. Sorry 'bout that, but Jane Eyre is amazing. Have you ever read it?" she asked, closing the book and putting it carefully on top of the armchair.

"Nah, I'm not much of a reader like you, and the books I like are from Stephen King. The Shining is my favourite," he answered, sitting right next to her.

"It is a great book. However, you didn't come here to talk about books with me. You don't want to start something that you can't escape." She smiled. "So, what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Right. He remembered what he was doing there. He looked at her and cleaned his sweaty hands on his pants. He'd done this a few times, and he knew the chances that she's gonna say no, but this time there were a minor possibility that she'd at least consider it.

"So… Lily… We've been friends for quite a while now and I don't wanna spoil that… So, I've been thinking if… you know…" Her eyebrows lifted up a bit and that made him more nervous than ever. "Can you lend me one of your potions notes? I don't… have time to do it since we're having rounds and Quidditch practices."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,he thought.

"Oh… I thought you'd… I mean, sure. I'll get them for you later, okay?"

"Yeah… Thanks Lily."

2. The Transfiguration Class

You're an idiot.It was Sirius hand writing on the parchment on his table.

I hate to agree with Sirius, but you're definitely an idiot,Remus wrote.

They're right, Peter agreed.

It'd been three hours since the common room incident. James made the biggest mistake to tell the other Marauders about how he messed up asking Lily on a date for Valentine's Day. They were in the middle of Minerva's class, passing notes about how James is a complete idiot. They'd been planning that for two weeks and he'd messed up.

'I'm not an idiot. You know she makes me nervous. I blame those damn eyes.'

You can still do it, Prongs, Sirius wrote it. Send her a note with a poem or whatever. I'll start for you. What about: 'Those damn green eyes'.

Make me smile,Remus continued.

Even though I can't fly.

" 'I'll make you mine?' Oh dear god, that's horrib-"

"Well, Mister Potter, it seems like my class isn't good enough for you or your friends to pay attention. Let's see what you have been writing."

She passed her eyes on the note and James could see that she was holding back a laugh. She looked at him and gave the note back.

"Horrible, Potter. Try again. And by yourself, I do believe your friends won't be much of a help on this issue."

And she continued her class.

Later, he was by himself on the lake, trying to write her something. It was getting more and more horrible each line he's writing, and that was making him more nervous than ever. He was so concentrated on trying to find a word that rhymed with love that he didn't noticed a certain ginger coming on his direction.

"I've never been seen you so concentrated on a piece of paper since second year," she said, in front of him. He looked up and hugged his parchment, smiling nervously at her.

"Lily! Yeah… I'm… trying to… write a poem to my mum for my dad. He'd never been good at this, so…"

She sat beside him. "Oh, it was this that McGonagall thought was horrible?"

Shit,he thought.

"Yeah. It's hard, you know. When I was a kid, I just wrote that she had pretty eyes and rhyme something with cheese. Everyone thought it was adorable." He smiled. "Can't do that anymore."

She laughed and looked at the piece of parchment he was trying to hide. "I can help you with that, if you like."

He looked at her and considered. On one hand, she'd write her own poem. On another, he'd know what she'd like to receive for Valentine's day.

"I didn't know you liked poems."

"I don't," she said crushing his hopes. "I think they're kind of… lame. If someone wrote it to me, I'd think it was a nice gesture, but that's it."

"Oh…" He looked at the parchment. "Thanks Lily, but I'll ask for Sirius to help me. He's better at this than I am and he'll get mad if I don't involve him in this."

He stood up and helped her to do the same. They both said goodbye and went different ways. It was getting harder to ask Lily out on a date.

3. Hagrid's House.

The next day, James went to visit Hagrid who had invited him for a cup of tea. He knocked three times before the half-giant answered, wearing an apron with many flowers on it and oven gloves, holding something horribly smelly.

"Eh! James m'boy! C'mon in, the cookies are ready." James entered and sat down. Hagrid put the cookies and the hot tea in front of him and sat down as well. "Where are the boys?"

"Sirius' in detention with Peter, and Remus is helping Marlene with some essay that she can't understand," he said drinking a little bit of his tea.

"What about Lily? I love when she comes."

"Yeah, I didn't invite her," he said giving Hagrid an apologizing look. "I've been trying to ask her out for Valentine's, but it's impossible! Either I panic or she says she doesn't like the way I was going to ask her even though she didn't know it was for her…" He put his forehead on the table. "It's too hard. I give up."

"WHAT?! James Potter, I've know you for almost seven years, I won't let you give up on that girl, you've made really good damage to get her attention and I'll not let that be in vain." He looked at him. Hagrid stood up and picked some flowers that were at his window and gave them to James. "They're really special y'know. A woman in the Leaky Cauldron gave the to me as a present. They light up at night. Give it to her, she won't say no."

He looked at the flowers. He knew that he shouldn't trust Hagrid with things like that, because what's harmless for him, it was not for a lot of other people, but they were so beautiful and he was sure that Lily would love it.

He thanked Hagrid and went back to the castle.

In the boy's dorm, he picked up Peter's owl, since his own was sick, and tied the flowers to its legs and sent him off to her. After a couple of minutes, he heard a yell coming to the common room and he knew it was Lily.

James ran over there and saw Marlene and a boy from fifth year carrying a Lily Evans with several blue bubbles over her face out of the common room to get her to Madame Pomfrey's. He saw Alice carefully picking the bouquet on the floor with a piece of parchment and throwing it in the fire.

"Alice, what happened?" he asked when she faced him.

"Someone sent these flowers to Lily. To be honest, this person must be a moron since they're really poisonous for the ones who smell them." She sat down. "Lucky that git didn't write her a note. Marlene is mad."

"Yeah. Lucky git."

4. The Hospital Wing.

James entered the room holding a piece of chocolate cake. He looked around the room and saw Lily, with much better skin. It still had a few bubbles, but they were smaller and in a lighter tone of blue. She was holding a book, but she knew she wasn't reading since her eyes were stuck on the same spot for a long time.

He decided to walk out. He couldn't face her after the flower fiasco. She'd know what he'd done and would hate him for life. James couldn't afford that.

"Oh, hi James." Shit, he thought and smiled at her. "Whatcha doing here?"

"You know, the usual. Visiting birds with blue bubbles." He smiled and came closer to her bed. She laughed and that made him feel a little better. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, actually. Marlene's pissed though. She said she'd hunt down the git that gave me those poisonous flowers." She looked at his hands. "Is that a chocolate cake for me? Just so you know, there's just one right answer."

James rolled his eyes and gave it to her.

"I think the git didn't know it was poisonous. You didn't know." She looked at him with a lift eyebrow. "What? You did know and smelled it anyway?"

"Of course not. But where did he get those flowers? I mean, when you buy flowers for a girl, the person who sells it would say that or if it has thorns or doesn't need water or stuff. He should have known something."

Yep, James thought looking at her disbelief. I'm definitely a git.

There were a comfortable silent for some time while Lily ate her cake. He thought for a moment while watching her that it was kind of a nice way to ask her out. I mean, why not? I already tried some romantic stuff and it didn't worked. He thought. We're alone and I can ask her, then plan a nice date, and tell her that I almost killed her. It's not a bad idea.

"So, Lily…" He started while she was almost finished with the cake. She looked at him and James smiled seeing her mouth all dirty with chocolate. No, I can't distract myself. "I've been thinking abou-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING EATING THAT CHOCOLATE CAKE, MISS EVANS?" A voice came from the door and they both turned to see Madam Pomfrey looking at them with disbelief. She walked to the bed and took the plate off her hands. "You can't eat anything for another three hours. Shame on you, Potter!"

"Yeah, shame on you James," Lily said, holding back a laugh.

"You should go now, young boy," Madam Pomfrey said already directing him to the exit. "You've done enough." He didn't have the time to say anything since she closed the door behind him.

5. The Library

"So, pretty much nothing works with this girl," Sirius said closing a motorbike magazine, he'd brought. "Either you mess up, or do something lame or get interrupted or try to kill her. So I say you try again."

"Yeah, Prongs," Peter said looking at him. "Valentine's is tomorrow. You still have time to ask her one more time."

James looked at the wall in front of him. He'd been down for a while since the hospital wing incident, but now he was frustrated. How the hell did things get so fucking wrong? He thought.

"I don't understand how I can be such an idiot. I mean, if I had asked Lily out the first try and not asked for her homework, it'd all be fine now." He started to say rising up his voice a little bit.

"Prongs…"

"But then, I tried to do something sweet and write her a poem that you morons tried to help me, but that doesn't matter, 'cause she doesn't like poems and I don't have a bloody idea how to write them!"

"Prongs, I don't…" Remus tried once more.

"Don't what? Don't think I should overreact this? Because then I sent that damn flowers Hagrid gave it to me and she goes to the hospital wing!" He stood up and took a deep breath. "Marlene will kill me when she finds out that I almost killed her best friend. Then I try again and before I can even ask her, Madam Pomfrey walks in and kicked me out of there." He looked at Sirius who had a little smirk on his face. "How the hell am I supposed to get her out on a date tomorrow without being an idiot or trying to kill her?"

"Perhaps you should stop screaming at the library, turn around, and ask me right now." a voice said behind him. James turned around and saw Lily and a bunch of other students looking at him. He looked over at Sirius who still had a smirk on his face and James felt like the most stupid human being in the world.

"Yeah… Um… So, Evans… Would you fancy going on a date with me tomorrow?"

"Are you gonna write a poem to me with something that rhymes with cheese?" she asked smiling.

"I can try," he said. "It's gonna be rubbish though."

"Then we'll see it tomorrow." She winked at him and left.

Evans, my love

Your green eyes

Shine like stars,

If you don't believe me

I'll bring you cheese.

Ps: told you it'd be rubbish.