"What the hell are you doing, James? Untie me this instant, so I can make sure you never have children!" Lily struggled vainly at the bindings James had Summoned as a wise precaution against her escape.

The two Heads of Hogwarts were in a very small and incredibly dusty broom cupboard. James was leaning comfortably against the door and looking carelessly amused by the situation. Meanwhile, Lily was seated on the same overturned bucket James had pushed her onto when he first dragged her into the cupboard on her way to the Library. She was still struggling at her bindings despite the fruitlessness of her attempts to escape, and wore an expression of mingled rage and exasperation.

James raised an eyebrow. "Tempting though that proposition may be, I think I'll wait until you're no longer in that frame of mind. Tell me, Lily, why did you tell Remus that we're not friends?"

"You –you utter arse, James Potter, we aren't, and we certainly never will be after this, when I get out of this I'm going to-"

"Yes, yes, you've already said that. But what do you mean, 'we aren't'?"

"I mean we aren't. We've never been and we never will be. How much clearer do I have to make myself? I don't make friends with conceited tossers whose notions of personal achievement are confined to getting enough detentions that they can't all be scheduled!"

"First off, Evans, I'll have you know that I've gotten plenty more detentions than that. McGonagall informed me that my progeny will have to serve the ones I got from putting Hippogriff sick in Slughorn's crystallized pineapple stores last year. Secondly, those days are over. I'm a changed man. To which you can attest, if the amount of time you've spent with me since the start of term is any indication. And lastly, you certainly don't accept foot massages from people who aren't your friends."

"Oh honestly, James, you've been going on about that for the past week! What do you want me to do, pay you?"

"Well, I really only wanted you to admit we're friends, but that's an interesting suggestion, Lily. What sort of payment are we talking here, perhaps-?"

"Don't even think about it, Potter," Lily said through her teeth.

"Alright, alright, cool it Evans, I was only joking. But seriously, now, admit it –we're friends. How bad could it be? I know more than one person in this castle who would give everything they owned to be my friend. There are endless possibilities, loads of benefits, and as we're already chums by habit we might as well be pals by name, eh?"

"-and that, is precisely the reason I am not your friend. Your head is bigger than one of Hagrid's pumpkins!"

"Well, I've done my best to change that but it's going to come out every once in a while, you know. You have to accept people's flaws with their virtues, and at least I've got more of the latter," James responded, wagging a finger at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"Regardless, that's not the problem here."

"Oh, it's not, is it? Well tell me, Lily dear, what's the problem here? Quickly, so we can resolve it and you can announce our official friendship to the entire school during lunch." She rolled her eyes.

"You absolute git, the problem is that you've taken what I said to Remus out of context, no doubt because you were too busy sprinting off to confront me to actually listen to him."

"And it better not be something like I need to stop sneaking off, that's another one of my very few and very tolerable flaws –what?"

"I said, you didn't actually listen to Remus. I did say we aren't friends, but that's not entirely what I meant."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"I see."

"Mhmm."

"So what did you mean?" She sighed deeply.

"I meant that you're more than that to me." James' casual façade plummeted to the cold stone floor like the mouse he'd tested his Rejuvenating Potion on earlier this morning. While the mouse had recovered, however, James' careless demeanor showed no signs of doing the same anytime soon.

"More," he repeated, digesting the word and all of its possible meanings.

"Do you need me to spell it out for you, Potter? Honestly, I don't know why I even –" she took a breath. "Let's just say that if you asked me to Hogsmeade right this moment, you might find a dateless Giant Squid come Saturday." She looked at him fiercely, but with the tiniest hints of a smile tugging at her lips.

"What?" James struggled to wrap his head around what she'd said.

"Come on, Potter. You're a reasonably intelligent, if shockingly irritating, young man. Figure it out."

"You –Hogsmeade, you'll go with me?" James spluttered at last.

"Not quite as smooth as you were in Third Year, are you, Potter?" James stared at her.

"No matter. I'll take it. Haven't done a pity date in months, anyways, it's about time," she said, grinning.

She said yes. She said yes, she said yes, she said yes. James heard the mantra repeat in his head like a broken record player. It took a good few minutes for him to snap out of it.

"Pity date?" he repeated at last, annoyed. "James Potter does not go on pity dates! I go on dates that girls enjoy so much they wish they could forget them!"

"Of course," Lily said in mock seriousness. "I'm sure it's because you're so articulate."

"I'll show you articulate," said James hoarsely, finally pulling her to her feet and kissing her hard.

It was good. It was very, very good. All this time, all these humiliations, if James had known just how much better than his imaginings this would be he would have suffered them for an eternity. Lily's lips were soft and pliant beneath his, she smelled divine, like a mixture of lavender and vanilla, and this –this was so wonderful a feeling it was nearly painful. They broke apart at long last, both breathing heavily and unsure of what to say.

"Lovely as that was," Lily said at last, "I can't say I imagined being tied up for our first kiss." James grinned, and waved his wand. The bindings dropped to her feet, and Lily stepped cleanly out of them.

"Much better," she said quietly, before reaching up around his shoulders and pulling him down to press her lips to his.

READ AND REVIEW! =D

I wrote this a while ago, and it's just been sitting on my laptop. It amused me, so I polished it up a bit and decided to put it up. Let me know what you think!

Stay magical,

Leenie