Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: Short little one-shot, hope you like it. (:

Are We Friends?

The Gryffindor Common Room was in total chaos. The entire house was packed in there, covered in red and gold paint, twirling Gryffindor noise makers, waving banners that said things like "GO GO GRYFFINDOR!". They were screaming, cheering, dancing, singing, drinking, laughing, talking over the almost deafening music.

All of this could only mean one thing: Gryffindor had just won the Quidditch Cup.

It had been an action-packed game, going on for hours. It finally ended when fifth year Bailey Clarke snatched the snitch right out from underneath the Ravenclaw seeker's nose, resulting in half the stands to storm onto the field, already celebrating. James Potter, sixth year, captain of the Gryffindor team, stood in the middle, almost crying with happiness. He passed the cup to Sirius, to Marlene, to Harley, to Bailey, to Jack, to Michael. The girls' ponytails were askew, Jack had a black eye from where a chaser elbowed him trying to score, and Harley was still limping from when she successfully avoided getting faced by a bludger, but unsuccessfully avoided getting hit in the leg by one. They all had had the largest smiles on their faces, it looked like their cheeks were going to start bleeding.

Now, in the Common Room, it was a mess. So many people, but the room still managed to hold them all. The Cup had a place of honor on top of the mantle of the fireplace, and occasionally someone would go over and touch it.

Lily Evans sat on one of the couches near the fireplace, where the crowd wasn't so thick. She had a butterbeer in her hand and was simply watching the madness.

"Lily! Come dance!" Zoe Simmons, one of her best friends, called over to her. She and Harley Pensky (still clad in her Quidditch Robes) were breathless and red-cheeked.

Lily smiled softly. "I'm okay, you two have fun."

They shrugged and were pulled back into the crowd by Alice Greene.

"Aren't you having fun?" A much closer voice said to Lily. She almost jumped out of her skin and wheeled around to face James Potter, standing beside her chair, a small smile on his face.

"Of course I am," Lily said, attempting to get up and go in the opposite direction of him, but he grabbed her elbow.

"Then why are you sitting in the corner all alone, while everyone else is dancing?"

"I don't like to dance."

"Rubbish, I saw you dancing with Simmons and Pensky not half an hour ago."

"Maybe I'm just not in the mood, okay?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

Lily whipped her arm back and decided not to look into James's hurt face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you that much," he said softly. He looked down at his feet.

Lily tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. In fact, she was upset with James, but in a way she never had been before.

She'd been dancing and having a good time, indeed, until she caught sight of some seventh year girl throwing herself onto James and snogging him, right in the middle of the Common Room. A lot of people cheered and they didn't break away for a good twenty seconds, James smiling bashfully and the girl running off to tell her friends. At that moment a great, vacuum-like pit had opened in the middle of Lily's stomach and she muttered something about getting a drink to Zoe before grabbing a bottle of butterbeer and taking refuge on one of the armchairs. This feeling was very strange to Lily, it was almost like... Well, it was almost like jealousy. But that couldn't be it.

Could it?

"J-James, I'm sorry," Lily blurted out, her tongue fumbling over his name.

He looked up sharply, staring into her eyes intently, a strange look in his eyes. They were silent for about ten seconds before he said,

"Are we friends?"

"What?" Lily asked, alarmed.

"Are. We. Friends?" James said clearer, enunciating each word.

"I... why do you ask?"

"Well, you obviously don't hate me-"

"How do you know?"

"I can just tell. You don't. Don't even try to deny it."

Lily looked at him warily. "So obviously we just jump to being friends."

"Obviously," James agreed, smiling slightly. "I think we make a good team."

Lily now rolled her eyes impatiently. "Are you trying ask me out again, Potter? I was getting used to you not."

"No! I swear, I'm not. I'm over that, it's in the past," he said casually, and Lily felt a pang of disappointment that greatly annoyed her. "I just... honestly want to be your friend, Lily Evans. I've always respected and admired you."

Lily raised an eyebrow at this strange proclamation. "Most people don't become friends this way."

"I think we have a special case."

"We have too much history of arguing and fighting."

"Then let's start over," James said. He suddenly reached out and took her hand, pumping it up and down twice. "Hello, I'm James Potter. Would you like to be my friend?"

Lily stared at him incredulously.

"Hello... James," Lily said uncertainly. James nodded encouragingly, grinning madly. "I'm Lily. This is stupid."

James decided to ignore that last part and waited expectantly.

"Sure, I'd like to be your friend."

James's smile widened, showing most of his teeth.

"Excellent! You, Harley, and Zoe can eat breakfast with me and the Maruaders tomorrow morning. See ya, Lily," he said. He shook her hand again. Before she could protest, he pulled her forward and kissed her on the cheek, then quickly ducked into the crowd before she had time to recover and possibly hit him.

Lily watched him until he disappeared completely, one hand held to her cheek softly while she tried to process what just happened.

James Potter... what a strange young man.

He looked awfully attractive in his Quidditch robes.

A/N: To anyone who found this story by chance and not because you've read my stories before, hello! Welcome to my crazy-ness! I hope you enjoy your stay and plan on returning!

To everyone who read Lily's the Man or Driving Lessons, Welcome Back! It's my first publish since Lily's The Man, yay! :D This was kind of a way for me to get back into the writing spirit.

God, I missed you all. Weekends were boring without my spending five hours trying to churn out a chapter!

I hope you enjoyed this short little drabble. It's kind of a prequel for the new story, it's just to set the base of Lily and James's relationship so there's as little confusion as possible.

I have a couple other one-shots in mind that will use the same characters as this. One of them is almost done, I'm hoping to get it out sometime during Thanksgiving.

Harley and Zoe will be main characters in the new story, they will be playing the roles of "Lily's friends that will end up with Remus and Sirius" (no point hiding this fact, really). But I won't say who is with who, might as well milk it for all it's worth for now, since it becomes obvious in the first chapter of We're The Young Ones Now.

Gahh! I hope you all are still with me, it's been a while! I took a month off! XD

Don't forget to drop a short (or long, whichever (; ) review, tell me what chu think. ^_^

Until Next Time!

~Smile