"Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around," said Sirius, shrugging. "He couldn't stop himself showing off whenever he got near her."
"How come she married him?" Harry asked miserably. "She hated him!"
"Nah, she didn't," said Sirius.
"She started going out with him in seventh year," said Lupine.
"Once James had deflated his head a bit," said Sirius...
The Hogwarts grounds were expansive and beautiful, green lawns, tall trees, and even a lake; which happened to house a giant squid. The students loved to walk along the grounds and work outside whenever the weather permitted it.
Today it didn't.
Rain washed down in curtains from a gloomy sky and washed the whole grounds in a gray dinge, James Potter sat in the library looking out at the gloomy scenery from the window next to his table. "Prongs, you have to focus here mate," Remus Lupine kicked him under the table to get his attention, "Slughorn wants the paper by tomorrow and you haven't written one sentence down." James threw his friend a grin, "I could write it in an hour Moony don't get yourself worked up," but he opened his potions book and started to turn to the section on antidotes that Professor Slughorn wanted, when he heard a voice from behind him that snapped his concentration towards its source.
James' stomach did a somersault and his hand instinctively jumped toward his hair, before he remembered what she had said about thinking his messing it up was stupid, when he caught sight of Lily Evans standing at a shelf a few rows down, showing the frightful librarian Madam Pince a slip of paper.
Remus followed his friends gaze and fought to hide a smile from him as he pretended to sigh, "you should take a picture one of these days James," he said, "it'll last longer," knowing his friend wasn't going to get anymore work done, Remus shut his own book.
James was suddenly glad that it was raining and he and his friends hadn't been able to work under the beech tree near the lake like they usually did, he was still staring at Lily when she suddenly looked over and saw him. Her bright green eyes locked with his own hazel ones, and James felt his face heat up a bit, before she rolled them away and walked down to the shelf Madam Pince had pointed out to her.
He stared after her for a few more minutes then turned back around, he started a bit when he saw Remus, as if he had forgotten that he was there. "Err- sorry, Remus," he muttered, he started flipping through his book at random as he cleared his throat, "tell me again what Professor Slughorn wanted in the essay will you." He looked down at his book, realizing it was upside down he sighed and shut it. "How about we go see if Sirius is out of detention yet instead," said Remus comfortingly, they gathered their stuff and set off to the detention hall.
As they were walking James' thoughts strayed to Lily again; how pretty her green eyes and dark red hair were, how she was probably the smartest and most talented witch in their year, how she still seemed to want nothing to do with him after six years of trying to get her attention. I don't know what she wants from me, he thought sad and bitterly, I know I was an arrogant little berk for a while, but I've matured, I've grown. A memory of him jelly legging Severus Snape the other day flashed in his mind, well… I've matured a bit. He let out another sigh, which turned to a laugh as he and Remus turned a corner to see their best friend Sirius Black in a classroom doorway, kissing a girl like he was glued to her. James grinned, "Way to go Padfoot!" he called, beside him Remus wolf whistled; the girl looked up and glared at them, but Sirius grinned back at his friends, "can a man have no privacy anywhere in this castle?" he said to them.
"Sure he can," said James, still grinning, "you tell us where this man is and Moony and I will take extra care to avoid him.
The girl turned up her nose, tossed her curly blond hair in Sirius' face and walked away muttering something under her breath about boys having no class.
Shaking his head and laughing Sirius joined his friends and they walked back to the Gryffindor common room together. As Sirius sat down in a large, deep arm chair he told James and Remus who the girl was, "Eloisa Corner, she's in Ravenclaw and had detention with me for slapping her friend Chelsea Thomas in front of Flitwick."
Remus looked at him with a puzzled expression on his face, "why did she slap her friend in the face?"
"Because Chelsea hit on Eloisa's boyfriend," said Sirius, as if it where the most obvious thing in the world, "and she kissed me to get back at her boyfriend for being hit on by Chelsea."
Laying on a couch, James rolled his eyes at the ceiling, "you are truly a dog Padfoot," he said with admiration that was only half mocking, "you should be ashamed of yourself for kissing someone else's girlfriend."
"I'm only a "dog" during a full moon," countered Sirius, "and that is only because my dear friend Remus needs me, isn't that right Remus?"
Remus smiled and held his hands out in front of him, "don't pin your canine behavior on me," he said laughing, "that's all on you." He glanced over at James and back at Sirius, "maybe you can help our dear Prongs here get a date, he could use a new girl on his mind."
James glared at Remus for a second and rolled back over to face the ceiling, he saw the other to share a look as Sirius mouthed "Lily" and Remus nodded. "Was she in the library then?" asked Sirius, "don't tell me that's why you went with Moony to the library James, cause you're starting to sound a wee bit obsessive there, mate."
Despite himself, James smiled at the joke, "it was a coincidence," he pretended to pause contemplatively, "or a lucky break, whatever you want to call it." They laughed, but James knew that they were concerned about him, he'd always fancied Lily but he knew that lately he seemed to be even more into her than his friends could really understand. Still, he thought, could do worse than over worried friends, trying to get onto a lighter subject James asked the others if they'd heard from their other friend, Peter Pettigrew, since he'd left for home.
"Yeah," Sirius told him, "he sent me a letter about the size of a novel telling me how he wished we could have gone home with him and how he was bored to tears with just his mother around him to talk to."
Remus raised an eyebrow at that, "his mother's sick, what does he expect her to be acting like? A clown?"
"You know Wormtail," said James with a smile, "he can't stand to be away from us, frankly I'm surprised he even left to go home, sick mother or not." He started to laugh but stopped when he saw the furtive looks Padfoot and Moony were throwing behind his back, confused he turned around and found himself staring at Lily. James felt his face heat up and knew he must be going a brilliant shade of red, "h… hey Evans…err…what are you doing here?" What are you doing here? How thick can I get, it's the common room! To his intense relief, Lily started to talk before he could say something else stupid, "I came to find you," she said simply, and James felt his heart beat a bit faster before she continued, "Professor McGonagall found me in the library and asked me to come get you, she said that she wants to see us in her office right away." She turned and walked back out of the portrait hole.
James grabbed his bag and followed her. "Have fun Prongs!" Sirius called after him, he heard Remus laugh as the portrait hole closed behind him and he found himself alone in a hallway with Lily Evans.
He was alone in a hallway with Lily Evans!
James had imagined being alone with Lily; sitting in the common room talking, going on a date somewhere in Hogsmead, kissing under a tree near the lake, or just making her laugh. And yet now when he was actually alone with her, and she even seemed not to be annoyed by this fact, James could think of nothing to say to her.
He chanced a glance at her as they headed down to McGonagall's office; her hair fell in dark red waves to her shoulders, she had a very large potions book in her hand and a bag at her shoulder, she stopped and her bright green eyes met his again and James felt his face heat up at being caught staring a second time in one day. "Err… can I… carry your bag for you?" Why did he have to go even redder now? Why?
Lily raised an eyebrow at him, "kind of moot seeing as we're here." James looked up and saw that they were in front of Professor McGonagall's office door, "oh," he said stupidly, "yeah we are." Stupid, stupid, stupid, he thought as they knocked on the door and walked in.
Professor McGonagall sat behind her desk reading a piece of paper intently, without looking up she waved them inside and told them to sit. After a few minutes she looked up and folded her hands as she looked at the two of them, "you two are probably wondering why I have called you both in here today." Before either of them could answer, McGonagall continued on, "the reason being that I need you two to help me with something."
Surprise flitted across Lily's face, "us professor," she asked, "What do you need that we could help with?"
Professor McGonagall looked at both of them and said, "You both happen to be two of the most brilliant students in your house," hers eyes suddenly became stern as she looked at them, "that being said, you are also two of the most argumentative students as well."
James couldn't resist laughing, "don't you think that's a bit much Professor?" he said grinning, "I mean how could you possibly pick us out of dozens of other—"
"Whenever given an assignment by any of your teachers that requires you two to work together," Professor McGonagall interrupted sharply, "the two of you have both received extremely low marks due to the fact that neither of you is willing to stop arguing with the other." She paused and looked at both of them with her stern gaze, Lily bit her lip and looked down at her lap, and James resisted the urge to shift in his seat.
"This is your last year here at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall continued, "and while I am happy to report that Potter's detentions for misusing magic have nearly disappeared, and your teachers report that you and miss Evans have stopped arguing in class, the headmaster and I both agree that you need to learn how to cooperate together. Especially given that you both seem to want to take up a career in the auror office, and will therefore probably have to work together should you get in."
James looked over at Lily again and saw that she was looking at Professor McGonagall with another confused expression, "Professor," she said slowly, "I still don't see what this has to do with helping you?"
"You two will be helping me by working together in instruction," she said simply.
Both Lily and James looked at her with confused expressions, "what do you mean instruction?" they asked.
"To put it simply," McGonagall continued, "I would like you two, as the best students on the subject, to work together to instruct some of the first years in Defense against the Dark Arts Magic."
James sat back in his chair, his mind and ego soaring at the idea that the headmaster and McGonagall thought him good enough to teach defensive magic to younger students. He looked over again at Lily and was surprised to see that she looked doubtful, "Professor," she said unsurely, "thank you, but I really don't think that I'm who you should be talking to, I mean I don't think you really need me instructing first years."
He almost started laughing again, is she kidding, James thought, she has to know everyone thinks she's cleverest in the year, and McGonagall even told her she had chosen us. Even as he thought this James smiled at her answer; yet another wonderful thing about Lily was her modesty, she was an incredible student and a great person, and James knew he wasn't the only one who thought that, yet whenever anyone tried to talk her up Lily always shied away from the attention.
"Trust me Miss Evans," said Professor McGonagall, "I believe you are perfect for this position."
Lily looked ready to argue again but McGonagall cut her off, "this is a mandatory assignment, Miss Evans, and you and Mr. Potter have already been settled upon to do the job, you both will be teaching the other children about the importance of defensive magic and showing them how to perform the basic spells." She waved her hand at the door, "you both may go now, and I will inform you later on when your first class will be."
Knowing Professor McGonagall's temper James swung up his bag and left the room quickly. He heard Lily follow behind him and the door shut as they left the room…
Later at dinner James told a curious Remus and Sirius what McGonagall had said to him and Lily, "so let me get this straight," said Sirius around a mouth full of chicken, "Professor McGonagall has decided that you are going to help teach first years, you?" he swallowed his food and started laughing, "my, my, my," he said with mocking admiration, "haven't we turned a corner and become such a darling student."
James threw his napkin at his head, "shove off Padfoot," he told him, "well I think it's a great plan," Remus interrupted, "James is great at defensive magic, and he should be able to teach those kids a lot." He shot James a grin, "not to mention the small bonus that he will probably be spending a lot of time with Lily Evans on top of it." Sirius gave James a sly smile and he had to fight not to laugh, "Given that McGonagall says were the 'most argumentative students in our house' I'd say Lily won't be cozying up with me by the fire anytime soon." The others laughed and James started to make another joke when he felt someone come up behind him, turning around he saw Professor McGonagall looming over him, "Potter I have just informed Miss Evans that the two of you will begin your lessons promptly at Monday," she told him, "the two of you will be using your two free hours between lunch and charms and you shall not be late." With that she turned and left.
James turned back around, ignoring Sirius' remarks, and pretended to have a sudden fascination with eating the rest of his steak. The thought of spending hours with Lily, even spent teaching first years how to disarm an opponent, was making his insides feel like they were shaking and falling all at the same time. But in the back of his mind was the gnawing fact that Lily seemed to still regard James with the same disdain as she had all six years previous, thinking back on all the pranks he and Sirius had played on people over those years, it wasn't that surprising; Bertram Aubrey had avoided him and Sirius ever since they'd enlarged his head, and James knew without a doubt that Snape wasn't going to forgive him nor his friends for all those years of humiliation.
James shook his head to clear it, think positive, he told himself, even McGonagall says I've matured, Evans heard her say it, and while were spending all that time together she's bound to notice it herself. Put into somewhat brighter spirits by his new train of thought James joined back into the conversation with Sirius and Remus, and after dinner even helped a Slytherine first year who couldn't find her way back to her common room.
That night James fell asleep thinking about the fact that if things went his way, Lily would be in love with him by the end of their first lesson…
The Monday of their first lesson Sirius and Remus woke James up early and dragged him down to the empty common room, "what are you and Evans planning for your first lesson?" Sirius asked him quickly. Still groggy and a bit irritable at having been woken up, James shook his head to clear it, "what, why does it matter?" he asked.
Sirius sighed and spoke slowly, as if to a toddler, "if you want to get close to her you have to think details," he told James, "if you pick something like dueling you'll automatically try to disarm her, but if you think about it letting her get you out and making her feel like the best in the room might make her more friendly." Sirius' tone indicated that he thought this to be something obvious.
James resisted the urge to hit him, "ok," he said, "fine, I guess that makes sense, but why did I need to be woken up at this hour, our lesson isn't until this afternoon!"
Remus and Sirius both laughed and James fought down his new found desire to hex his two best friends, "you need to be prepared," said Sirius, "and as your two best friends it is our job to do it." Remus nodded next to him, "in all honesty," he told James, "I can't give you any advice, cause no girl is ever gone be interested in me," for a brief second sadness flashed across his face, but only for a second and then his smile was back, "but it would be wrong of me not to try and help if I can."
Outside the tower window the sky was still dark with no sign of light in it, all James wanted to do was go upstairs to his warm, soft, four poster bed and sleep for hours. But Padfoot and Moony looked so eager to help and James realized that even if they didn't really understand that he was in love with Lily, as his best friends they were determined to do whatever they could to help him get as far with her as he could. Sighing in defeat James turned back to the two of them, "all right," he said, "What do you think I should do?"…
The two of them peppered James with ideas, tips, and advice that he was really only half conscious of receiving. Luckily neither Sirius nor Remus seemed to expect much of a response from him aside from a nod or grunt of approval, and James even dozed off a bit during their tirade of advice. He couldn't have repeated any of their tips to save his life. Eventually all three of them fell asleep in front of the common room fire and didn't wake up until the sun came in through the windows and they heard the noises of the others in the boy's dorm getting up and ready…
James dozed through most of his classes the next morning, and by lunch he was wishing he'd blown off his friends the other night, he was considering in his mind whether he should just skip eating and take a nap instead when he felt someone behind him. James jumped out of his seat and landed in the aisle of the classroom, ignoring the laughter of the few remaining students he turned around to see who'd snuck up on him, Lily gave him a sheepish smile, "sorry 'bout that," she said, "are you all right?"
James' felt his face heat up again and he quickly got up off the ground, "fine, fine," he said quickly, "so what can I do for you Evans?"
"Well," she said, "since we have to our first lesson today I thought it might be good for us to talk together with the Professor to find out what we'll be doing." Seeing the surprised look on his face she said hurriedly, "only if you want to of course, I mean your friends are probably waiting for you."
"No they won't care," James said in what he hoped was a casual and mature tone of voice, "I was actually thinking of catching a nap upstairs instead of eating anyway."
"Why would you need a nap?" She asked him pleasantly, as they walked to the defense against the dark arts classroom, "you, Remus, and Sirius looked like you weren't having trouble sleeping in the common room last night."
James was surprised she'd seen them, they had left the common room when it was still rather early, "actually sleep came pretty late, they kept me up all night with—"he stopped and changed tracks. Probably better not to tell her he'd been up all night figuring out how best to get together with her, "err- how did you now we were down there?"
If she was baffled by his quick change of subject Lily didn't let on, "I had forgotten my book down there last night and when I went down to find it in the morning I saw the three of you all curled up in chairs like cats." She laughed like she was remembering all three rather tall boys spilling out of the chairs they had fallen asleep in. The sound had James' heart beating faster as they reached the classroom door and walked inside.
The classroom was empty except for Professor Roman, the new teacher who'd been hired that year, the man looked about fifty or more but had the gangly body of a twelve year old. James, Sirius and Remus had a pool going with other students on how long they thought this teacher would last, none of the bets were high, most of the defense against the dark arts teachers didn't last over a year or less, and judging by the fact that Professor Roman always seemed to do even poorer than his students on some of the things he was supposed to be teaching, everyone thought he was one of the 'or less' teachers.
James cleared his throat to get the man's attention and he nearly fell out of his seat, "oh," he said surprised, "my two new assistants eh," he said when he saw them, "well you two will have an easy day of it, all you're going to be doing is explaining to the first years how to disarm and why it is important."
Professor Roman stood up from his desk and started to leave, "Professor, aren't you going to stay?" asked Lily.
Roman looked at her as if he'd never even considered the idea, "Miss Evans," he said, "I sincerely doubt you will be needing my help with such a basic assignment at your age," and with that he walked out the door, leaving James and Lily alone in the classroom together.
To James' surprise, she laughed like she had been expecting that exact response and went over to an empty table, sat down and started digging through her bag, "Are you hungry James?" She asked him.
"Am I what?" he asked her, pleased but surprised by her sudden hospitality towards him.
She repeated her question slowly, as if she asked him this every day, "Are you hungry, I figured with Roman as the teacher we would end up in here by ourselves at some point, he hates having to teach the first years after all. So I thought we might be here awhile and packed some snacks I got form the kitchen."
While she'd been explaining this James had watched her pull four sandwiches, some pasties, two flasks of something that looked like butterbeer, and some fruit out of her bag onto the table.
James was more than a bit surprised, he'd figured Lily wouldn't want to get within five feet of her throughout the whole lesson, and here she was asking him to eat lunch with her like it was the most common thing.
He was surprised, but not at all unpleased.
Smiling, James pulled into the seat beside hers, "I'd love something to eat."
After lunch their first lesson began without incident, the first years seemed not at all surprised to find themselves being taught by someone other than Professor Roman. In James' opinion, they even seemed pleased by the fact, especially when they found out what they would be learning in that days lesson.
"Are you going to be showing us how to actually disarm, Mr. Potter?"
"Is it hard to disarm Miss Evans, will we be able to do it today?"
"Is this the kind of stuff we're going to learn everyday with you two?"
It took about twenty minutes to get all of the kids to focus on the actual steps for the spell, "hold your wand steadily in your hand," Lily explained pointing her wand at James, "now focus on your target, speak clearly, and expelliarmus!" His wand flew out of his hand and flew to her hand at the other side of the room, "everybody see how easy it is?" she asked, "good, then break up into pairs of two and try to disarm each other, Ja—Mr. Potter and I will walk around and view your progress."
As he walked around the room watching a bunch of eleven year olds trying to shoot their friends wands out of their hands, most of them just throwing them out of their own hands as they waved them like crazy, he watched Lily.
She was really great with the kids, he thought to himself, she had a way of commanding their attention and demonstrating to each of them the easiest way to move their wands in the spell. As she helped a little Hufflepuff girl with how to hold her wand better she glanced up at him, he felt himself start to go red again, but was surprised to see her own face color a bit before she ducked her head down back to the girl.
As he was helping a Ravenclaw girl find the wand her friend had shot out of her hand James' mind wandered back to Lily's reaction. If it were anyone other girl he would chalk it up to being nervous, James felt a great rush at the idea that the same applied to Lily, but since Lily had once said she'd rather date the giant squid than him James had to consider that it was just a fluke. However much he wanted it not to be.
"Uhh… Mr. Potter," said the little Ravenclaw girl, "I found my wand, you can get up off the floor now."
Judging by the giggle the girl was obviously fighting down it probably wasn't the first time she'd told him this. Trying to save face, he tried to get up quickly from the classroom floor and caught his head on a desk, "right," he growled angrily over the giggles as he rubbed his head, "class is over, you midgets need to clear out now."
"James, don't call them that!" Lily scolded him, but she looked like she was fighting a smile as she said it.
James grinned at her, pleased she wasn't actually mad at him, her face turned red and she ducked her head down again, grabbing her bag she hurried out the door before James could say anything else.
Up in the boy's dorm that night James relayed the events of his and Lily's lesson to Remus and Sirius, "so what do you think?" he asked them when he had finished, "do you think it means anything?"
Sirius immediately nodded, "that has got to be it," he had a huge smile on his face, "she may finally be starting to see the better half of you, she must have suffered some serious brain damage for it to have happened of course, but still before it wears off you should take advantage of the situation." He rolled with laughter as James shot him a dark look.
James turned to Remus, who'd been pretty silent he whole story, "what about it Moony," he asked, "What do you think?" James knew he could always count on Remus to tell him the truth, Sirius would joke around it, but knowing how much it meant to him Remus wouldn't do the same to James.
Remus had a thoughtful expression on his face, "well she definitely seems to enjoy your company more," he grinned at James, "'course seeing as how low her standards for you where that pretty easy to do." Seeing the look on James' face he quickly moved on, "honestly I think she might be seeing you in a new light, she seems to be a bit more nervous around you at least."
James' face light up in a huge smile, "if you start getting all cocky about it," said Remus quickly, "then that'll change right quick back to the way it was, you know she hated it when you and Sirius acted like a bunch of berks."
Sirius nodded in agreement, "he's right James, you start acting like that again and you can kiss dating Lily Evans goodbye."
James scowled at him, "you're one to talk, last time I checked her opinion of you was pretty low too."
Sirius laughed, "Never said it wasn't, but I'm not the one who wants to date her," he pretended to pause contemplatively, "actually," he said, "she is rather pretty, if things don't work out with you and he—"He stopped when he saw the ferocious look on James' face, "just a joke Prongs," he said carefully, "take it easy."
James smiled again, "its fine, I don't think anything can ruin my mood."
"Well in that case," said Remus, "would you mind us going down to eat now, I feel the need to boost my mood with pudding."
As they headed down to the great hall James saw Severus Snape walking down the stairs a bit ahead of him, "how far back do you think it would set me with Evans if I jinxed Snivellus?" He asked casually
"Oh a great deal back I think," said a voice from behind them, all three boys whipped around and saw Lily at the top of the stairs to the great hall.
"Evans!" exclaimed James nervously, feeling his face heat up again, "how long where you… I was just joking about…hi Lily," he stuttered out finally.
He heard Moony and Padfoot chuckling behind him, "we'll just leave you two alone," said Sirius, "catch us up later Prongs, and do try not to swallow your tongue." He and Remus left down the stairs still laughing and James silently cursed them.
Turning back to Lily he saw that she was wearing an amused expression on her face, "you lot might be jerks sometimes," she said as if fighting laughter, "but you and your friends are funny."
Confused at talking to lily he might be, but James always knew how to talk about his friends, "yeah," he said, "you can't get any better friends than them," thinking back to the laughs he admitted grudgingly, "most of the time anyway."
She laughed and James felt the urge to brush back some of the hair that had fallen into her face, now that would be pushing my luck he thought, and kept his hands down to his sides. "So," he continued, "how much of our conversation did you hear, I mean besides the part about Snape?"
Lily shrugged, "just that bit really," she said casually. James felt some relief, until she continued, "I did hear what the three of you were talking about the other night in the common room though." She gave him an almost sly grin, "does Sirius really think that letting a girl disarm you will make you seem more attractive," she asked him as he stood rather frozen on the stairs below her, "or were you guys just out of other ideas when it came to me?" Lily walked down the rest of the stairs until she was beside him.
James knew it wasn't a secret that he fancied Lily, everyone in their year had commented talked about it, both in front of him and Lily. He knew that she knew he liked her, she would have to be blind and deaf not to, and yet despite that her standing there talking about the conversation he and his friends had had the other night made at least half of him want to do nothing more than get his invisibility cloak from upstairs and hide under it until the end of the year. The other half cursed his own cowardice, how insulting to Gryffindor house!
As these two halves of James argued Lily continued talking, "I wasn't trying to listen in," she said quickly, as if she were embarrassed, "I had to go down to get my book and I caught your conversation with Sirius and Remus." She smiled at him and James' mind stopped arguing, seemed to stop almost everything really, "It was actually really, well, flattering I guess is the word," she told him, "that you would put so much effort to impressing me."
A bit of uncertainty passed over her face and Lily blushed, "it was me you were talking about wasn't it?" She asked him.
James momentarily wondered if she was crazy, "it's not like I've thought about anyone else for the past few years," he said instantly, laughing a bit at her doubt, "so much for being the most confident witch in our year."
"Is that what people think," Lily asked him, "really?"
The look of shock on her face sent him over the edge, he laughed so hard he started shaking and had to sit down on the steps, "you…are…in…incredible," he choked out, "you...really…are." James rolled with laughter and slid down the last step to the floor still laughing, other people turned and looked at the commotion but he couldn't stop laughing.
Lily sat down on the step above him and started to laugh to, "people are…are staring," she said through her laughs, "get…get up." But she made no move to get up either and the other students seemed to accept them as crazy and walked around them, James saw Snape pause to glare at them as he walked to the Slytherine table. His surly gaze seemed to calm James down and sat up gasping beside a still giggling Lily, he waited until she had finally caught her breath, "will you please, please, please go on a date with me Evans?"
Lily looked at him silently for a few moments and James started to wonder if he'd made a mistake, then she gave him a brilliant smile, "I would love to Potter," she leaned over quickly, kissed him lightly on the cheek then got up and walked quickly into the great hall.
His cheek feeling like it was burning slightly James got up and walked into eh great hall to find Sirius and Remus.