Flavored Lip Balm

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and affiliates belong to J.K. Rowling. I only borrow the ideas for fun.

A/N: I wrote this as an apology of sorts for not updating Mélange soon as I promised. I still plan on finishing this story around May to June so no worries. This delay only means more regular updates later on. The next Mélange should be later this week.

Anyhow, please read this to relieve my guilt-trip . . . and please give me loads of constructive criticism. I don't write one-shots often, but when I write them, they seem different from writing novel-length stories. Try and help me developed as a "well-rounded writer", please?

The first Hogsmeade weekend was the upcoming Saturday, and the student response showed the excitement. Third years were thrilled about being able to leave the grounds while the older students were desperate for freedom.

Lily looked at her lip balm with a small smile. The special little tube came with a promise. When she complained about not having any possible boyfriend material at Hogwarts to her muggle best friend, the girl had been adamant that Lily was too picky. Claire (obsessed with Freud, Jung, and all social psychology babble) exclaimed it was because of a shadow by the name of James Potter. Lily agreed he was as shadow on her life in Hogwarts, but not quite as "shadow that is keeping her form keen perception regarding man/woman relationships."

Claire had analyzed, "James Potter is blocking you from dating. The only way to counter that is to date him. Give him a chance. Maybe the supposed hatred you feel towards James Potter is actually something else. I don't believe you have never had any affectionate feelings towards boys in general. It's possible your lack of affection is actually a quirky way to expressing that affection. Maybe if you look over whatever made you despise him, you might see something else."

Because the girl was very persistent and because Lily could never say no to her companion since birth (their mothers met at the maternity ward), she found herself promising to give James-bloody-Potter a chance. With a tube of lip balm as the object to remind Lily of her promise, Claire also requested, as proof, a letter from James to confirm he had a date with Lily. And to make sure Lily would keep her promise (as if she wouldn't), Claire managed to convince Mrs. Evans to give her some howlers the family had bought as a "just in case" disciplinary measure.

The day of reckoning was less than 24 hours. In fact, Lily had less than 14 hours before she would run out of time to ask James. Purely bad karma for her, the moment James became head boy was the moment he stopped pestering her for a date. At least he had enough to sense to know bothering the head girl was a very inefficient plan of action. However, Lily mused dejectedly, that meant she had to do the asking.

Oh the frustration and embarrassment! Lily Evans asking James Potter to Hogsmeade after so many years of the opposite – what a feast for the school rumor mill!

The sound of a stampede of footsteps and the door closing shook Lily out of her revelry.

"Have you been feeling all right?" Potter, no James inquired from next to her. (If she were to give him a chance, she should at least name him without animosity.)

"Yes, I am fine." James quirked his left eyebrow delicately. It seemed strange for such an action to seem feminine and graceful, especially when it was a boy doing that.

"Are you sure? Because you've been out of it during the entire prefects' meeting and you've been twirling that thing all night!"

Lily immediately stopped all motion and stared at her hand. She did have the tube of lip balm between her ring finger and index finger. The clock chimed nine times. It was now for never. Considering getting a howler from Claire – though it may be interesting – versus asking James Potter when no one was near and he seemed nice and mature, Lily opted for the latter.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?"

She saw James's eyebrows float upwards gracefully. Damn the grace of quidditch players!

"Or never mind," she added when he didn't respond other than the look of shock. Quickly grabbing her notes and her bag, she nearly ran out the room and towards the lake to dodge and hide.

.o.0.o.

The chilly autumn wind blew at her face as nature's comfort as well as a force of pain. Its coolness pierced her cheeks and dried her lips. Taking out the offending lip balm, Lily used it for the first time. Its original purpose was no longer necessary. She gave James Potter a chance and it obviously wasn't written in fate for a date between them to happen.

She gingerly licked her lips. The lip balm did taste like strawberry sundae, only with a slightly plastic aftertaste; however, the overall sweetness was enough to overpower the remnant of manmade flavoring.

She moved to sit on a rock facing the lake to think about what happened.

She wasn't a runner. When something discomforting happened, she usually acted with aplomb and moved on. Somehow, being rejected by James Potter was different. She couldn't keep her assured façade long enough to walk out of the room gracefully. She had run out the room. What would Potter think of her now?

It wasn't that she was hurt, because there was no way she would be hurt by his rejection. Her ego may be a bit bruised, but nothing a few perfectly performed charms and earning some house points wouldn't heal. It wasn't as if she liked him and was rejected. The only reason she asked him was to do as Claire said.

If that were all true, why was her heart sore? Why was there a sense of disappointment because he didn't say yes to her?

"Lily!" the sound that she didn't want to hear interrupted her thoughts. Was Potter now back to taunt her? She turned to face him emotionlessly. The head boy stopped walking and said, "Look, I'm sorry about before. I was just surprised that's all. I mean, how many times have you said no and now you've just asked me?" He scoffed at the absurdity of the situation.

Lily narrowed her eyes at the boy. He was doing the hair thing again. He was messing up his mop of hair even more by brushing his hand through it. Without thinking, she walked towards him and grabbed his hand.

"Don't do that in front of me," she ordered. "It gets on my nerves, so just don't do that in front of me." He stared at her face and nodded. "As for apologizing about earlier, I can take a rejection," she explained with a smile, "unlike someone we knew."

"We knew," he echoed her words. "Does that mean you forgive me? I mean, I think you are talking about me. I don't think anyone else could be as persistent as me when it came to dealing with you." Lily shrugged and reverted to staring at the lake. James frowned slightly but continued, "You know, I still very much like y—"

"Well, you've been rather mature about it now," Lily explained with a sigh as she turned to look at his face again. He blushed like a school boy.

"And I wasn't going to reject you. You never gave me time to recover from shock," said James, justifying why he did an impression of a golfish. His other hand went to his hair again. Instead of brushing through his hair, he paused and looked at his other hand. She hadn't let go of him. "Um, sorry about that." This time, she blushed and tried to return his hand without being too conspicuous.

"May I ask why you decided to ask me?" James suddenly asked.

Lily brought out of lip balm. "This is why."

He took the offending object form her hand and looked at it in confusion.

"I promised my friend that I would give you chance," she explained. "This was supposed to remind me. Which reminds me: she also requested a letter from you to tell her I gave you a chance."

James didn't reply to her last comment. Instead, he continued to look at the muggle lip balm with fascination. He took the cap off the lip balm and smelled. He then proceeded to place his nose very close to her face and took deep breath.

"You don't smell like strawberry sundaes."

Lily laughed. "That's because it is flavored strawberry sundaes. The muggle chemists couldn't get the smell right, I suppose, so all they could do was to flavor it."

"Does it taste like strawberry sundaes?"

"Wanna try?"

With their face still close, he nodded and unexpectedly kissed her gently. When she didn't move away, he wrapped his left arm around her waist and his right hand cupped her cheek to further prevent her from moving away.

Lily leaned into the kiss. It was her first real kiss. James was very gentle, caring, and loving about it. Light brushes on lips, a slight nip of her lips. It didn't become French until she sighed. Even then, it was nice. Not urgent, more like two people trying to create a start of sorts. He kissed her like he was apologizing and promising.

"I hadn't meant that kind of trying though," Lily whispered when their lungs demanded air.

"I'm sorry about that," James mumbled and looked at the ground. Lily started to chuckle, and her chuckles became unstoppable giggles. If anyone said James Potter would be meek with her before this year, she would have never believed them. Now he was acting like a lost little puppy!

"First of all Potter, don't always apologize," she pleaded. "If we are to date, you have got to stop being so darned apologetic and docile."

"But when I am not, you hate me," he countered weakly, as though she was going to stomp off angry as she had done many times before.

She had to admit his fear did have a level of truth. When he acted normal around her was when he taunted her. This small moment between was the only time they associated without any antagonism, and he was apologetic the entire time.

"Then act normal," she replied holding his face between her hands. "Treat me like how you would treat others. Honestly, I haven't seen you annoy anyone else except me and Snape." James looked at her boyishly – yet so handsomely (yes, Lily Evans has a beating heart!) – and nodded. Lily invited for him to sit with her on the rock and enjoy the last few nights of autumn.

A few moments passed. James spoke after licking his lips.

"You're right. It does taste like strawberry sundae. May I kiss you again?"

Written: March 21, 2005
Edited: March 22, 2005
Version: 2.a

How is the dialogue now? Any more problems I should fix?

And mostly importantly,

Thanks for reading!