Everything is JK Rowling's!
XOXO
"So, there's the last Hogsmeade trip before winter holiday coming up. McGonagall said we didn't have to chaperone if we got the prefect's rounds schedule to her before the end of the week."
Lily was sitting with her legs stretched onto the couch in the Gryffindor common room. Her red hair was tossed up in a bun, out of her freckled face. Her gaze was set on a Charms textbook on her lap and her ankles were crossed with her feet covered with warm wool socks. "Is that so? Lucky weekend for us, Potter." She never let her eyes drift away from her page.
James swallowed hard and glanced up at her using his peripheral vision. He had his back leaned against the sofa and he brought his knees closer to his chest. "What are you going to do with the free weekend, do you think?" After almost a whole semester being an actual friend of Lily's, he felt like it was time to test the waters on asking her out again. They were almost already dating. They ate every meal together. She watched his quidditch matches and cheered for him with his number painted on her cheeks. He actually intently listened to her during every Head's meeting and let her quiz him in Potions. They were friends. Real friends.
"Oh, I don't know. Probably try to sneak into the Hog's Head like I did third year. I'd probably get in this time as I no longer look twelve years old."
He fist pumped in his head. "Yeah? Well, if you need any company, the bar keep there is a friend of mine. Ol' Henry would let us right in." He didn't look up from his homework. He couldn't afford her seeing his flushed cheeks.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan. I'm fully prepared to get completely knackered after those exams." Her voice didn't change. She hadn't looked up from her book. It was a completely nonchalant proposal and Evans barely blinked. She actually said yes! James couldn't contain his smile. "Brilliant! What time are you thinking of going?"
"I suppose around eleven. I don't want to get mixed up with the younger years. They crowd and make the pathways too trafficked." Lily finally looked over at James. "Did you happen to hear anything about Madison Grace? I heard she has an eye for Peter."
They gossiped and joked for two more hours. Exactly like old friends. Almost like an old couple. They left the Gryffindor common room and walked to their Head's dormitory together and ran into Peeves.
"Roses are red. Violets are Blue. Looks like Head #1 and Head #2 have lots to do! Lots to make up for in one night. Built-up tension fight after fight!" He chorused through the halls.
James laughed and shooed him off. "Bugger off Peeves. Go torment some second years." He sprang up in a jump to whack the poltergeist, but missed and landed back down on the floor, his landing echoing down the hall.
Lily chuckled and hid her pink face, crossing her arms around her chest.
"Night! Night! Good luck with the love bites!" Peeves sang about the halls.
"Wanker. I hope he one day realizes the bollocks he says is not as Shakespearean as he thinks." Potter gives the password to the portrait and let Lily into the room first.
She turned around slightly and smiled softly at her fellow Head. "G'night James."
He smiled back. "Night, Lily."
The weekend was finally here and James couldn't contain his excitement. He was like a little boy waiting for Christmas morning. Sirius gave him a spritz of his favorite cologne and Peter reminded him not to panic and act like an ass. Remus only offed a good luck before he was out the door to the Three Broomsticks. Ever since third year, he's been addicted to butter beer and spent every visit downing glass after glass and basically passing out after his sugar-induced high is over.
James checked his watch and sat down on the couch in the Head's common room. He hadn't seen Lily yet this morning, but it was almost eleven. He fussed with his bangs and began shaking his knee, until he realized it he was bouncing and stopped. He wasn't nervous. He was not nervous.
He checked his watch again after a few minutes. It was eight past eleven and James began to worry. Where was she?
Lily was a late riser and it was not unusual for her to come out of her room after noon on the weekends, but she had said eleven the other day. And they can only be in the village until four o'clock before McGonagall herds all of the students back to the castle. James waited until 11:15 before knocking on Lily's door.
He gave the dark wood three raps. "Evans? Are you ready?"
Silence.
James shook his head and smirked. He didn't know why, but Lily being a late riser was always endearing to him. It was like she put up this perfect image of herself, but he knew she wasn't perfect. She was a right slob and hermit when she wanted to be. And Lily was almost always guilty of running out the door five minutes until class.
"Alright, I'm coming in, now." He turned the brass knob and peered in the room. "You know, Evans, we won't even have the chance to sneak into Hog's Head if you're going to sleep all d-" Potter shut his mouth.
Lily's bed was made. Her favorite pair of Muggle trainers were gone and her cloak wasn't on the hook next to her door. She was gone.
James gave the room one last look before closing the door behind him. Maybe she was at breakfast. Yeah, she was probably at breakfast and snuck out when James was still in his room. He flew out the door to catch up with her. He didn't want to be teased for running late and missing their date.
He slowed down before he reached the Great Hall and tousled his hair a bit to fluff it up before going in. James took a breath and entered the hall with his shoulders lazily thrown back and his arms casually at his side. After scanning the Gryffindor table, his eyes had still not found the petite redhead he was looking for. Her hair was always easy to pick out in a room. Molly Prewett almost fooled him as she walked past him into he hall, but her hair was more orange than the rich, red that Lily possessed.
James did a scan of the other tables before finding Marlene McKinnon, Lily's best friend. "McKinnon, hey! Do you know where Lily is? I can't seem to find her." James tried to seem nonchalant, like he wasn't too excited. I mean, Marlene would definitely go and tell Lily about how he was running about the castle searching for her and making a complete fool of himself, getting so jazzed about their date.
"Oh, isn't she with Bo?"
James blinked. "Bo?"
Marleen took a sip of her juice. "Yeah, Bo Neufield. I think she was headed to the village with him around ten."
It felt like a bowling ball fell onto James' stomach. He gave a tight smile. "Right! Uh, forgot about that. Thanks, McKinnon." He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Grinding his teeth together and clenching his fist could only contain some of his anger. He walked like a madman all the way to the village. He figured a wanker like Bo Neufield would take her to Madam Puddifoot's or at least the Three Broomsticks.
"Right Ravenclaw son of a bitch," James grumbled. He checked every store and pub until finally he gave up. All James could picture was some dirty alley where they were snogging disgustingly. He almost liked Lily to a slag in his mind, but he caught himself. He would never. He could never. Potter practically worshipped the ground she walked on. And now she had ditched him for Bo Neufield who couldnt tell you the difference between a badger and a squirrel.
Remus jumped out of the Three Broomsticks and caught James leaning against the brick wall across the road. "Prongs! Hey, Prongs!"
James gave a head nod to his friend and braced himself for a hyper-active Moony. "Hey."
"You'll never believe it! I beat my record! Nineteen. Nineteen butter beers! Mum would be so proud. I have to write her." Remus was bouncing on his toes and waving his arms around as he spoke manically. "Where's Lily?"
"No idea." James scowled.
"What do you mean? No date?" Remus leaned against the wall with his before bouncing his back on a and off the wall until James reached out to stop him from fidgeting.
"Stop that. And yeah, no date. I waited for her until I found out she went out with Bo Neufield without even telling me. I didn't think Lily was the type to ditch people and not even give the courtesy of telling them, but I guess you never really know a person and what theyre. capable of."
Remus frowned. "You know what you need?"
James squeezed his eyes shut. "Please don't say it."
"You need a butter beer." James groaned. "Rosemerta kicked me out, but Hog's Head is still open and has no idea that I've consumed almost 9 liters of butter beer. Let's do it!" Remus rejoiced and dragged James to the pub.
A sulking James sat down on the stool while Remus rounded out his number of drinks to twenty. He peered down at the end of the bar and landed on a head of fiery red hair. Lily. He was already out of his seat before Remus realized he was up.
"You know the least you could do was tell me," James blurted. He stood between Lily and Bo who were turned and facing each other on the stools.
"Oh! James, hi." Her bright eyes were wide. "Tell you what?" Lily looked confused and surprised at his outburst.
James' eyes bulged. He was exasperated. "Tell me that—that you and—and he—" He shook his head to calm down and grabbed the bridge of his nose and exhaled hard. "Forget it," he breathed softly, shaking his head ever so slightly.
James grabbed Remus' collar and dragged his out of the bar. "We're leaving," he commanded, all emotion drained from his voice.
When James was upset or angry, he sulked. Hard. Dark clothes, loud music, messy room, dirty hair, skipping class. The works. But right now, all James wanted was to run. He felt his pace pick-up until he was in a full sprint with Remus chasing after him.
"Prongs! Where are you going? What happened?"
Once James made it to the tree line, he didn't come back until early Monday morning before the dew had even dried from the lawn.
Lily was in her room asleep when she heard someone come into the dormitory. She had spent her weekend tracking down Sirius, Remus and Peter trying to see where James had gone, what had happened, but they just shook their heads said he wasn't back.
She opened an eye and made sure she wasn't dreaming of the noice. The slightest sunshine was working its way through her curtains and she rose up out of her warm bed when she was sure someone was home. "Potter?" She opened her door and spotted James on the sofa heaving, like he had just finished a marathon. He paused for a moment, taking his her voice before he turned to look at her.
"James, where were you? What's wrong?" Her voice was almost quivering. She hadn't noticed she was shaking.
He stood up and faced her, just the couch between the heads. "Why didn't you just tell me you didn't want to go out with me? You didn't have to ditch me and replace me with Neufield as an excuse. I'm a big boy. I could've handled it."
Lily furrowed her shaky brow. "Wait, did you— did we have a date?" Her eyes were baring into his and she began to feel her hands waver, a hot flush creeping up her chest to her head.
James stared back at her for a long moment. He took in her sudden realization and how her pale cheeks were now blood red. Her eyes looked wet and her mouth was slightly agape. She looked at him, longing for his reponse.
"Yes. I though we had a date." He paused and un-clenched his fists. "At eleven on Saturday. I was going to take you to Hog's Head. After I realized you weren't here, I went searching. Marlene told me you had found another date. And just when my search for you was over, you were in the last place I thought I wouldn't find you, well, the last place I thought you would go with someone else." He couldn't hear the words he was speaking over the pumping pulse in his ears. His hands had grown cold and clammy with his left eye twitching.
"I—James, I didn't know. I thought we were just talking, making conversation. I had no idea you were asking me out on a real date. I thought we were joking around and when Bo asked me to Hogsmeade the next day it didn't even cross my mind—"
"I didn't even cross your mind?" James was squinting at her, his held tilted and jutted out, inquiring her about her misconception. "I didn't even cross your mind." James shook his head just slightly before walking toward his door.
"What do you want me to say, James! I had no idea that we were even there yet! I thought we weren't going there anymore! I thought the whole Lily and James ship had sailed and we were friends and I had made my peace with that! You are always trying to diffuse the tension between us and—and act like we were the farthest thing from flirting!" Lily's chest was heaving and her bare feet were solid on the cold floor. "I honestly had no idea. If I had known I would've said yes. Yes to the date."
James faced her, two feet in between them. "I wanted you to say yes. I wanted you," he tightened his jaw, "I wanted you to say yes and know that you were saying yes."
James turned without looking her in the eye. He slammed his door shut behind him and lily stood there. She felt the light come in through the window and warm her pajama-clad body, but she had never experienced such an ice creep up into her heart.
Maybe a part 2? Maybe not? Who knows!