A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or anything in his wonderful world! Hope you like the next chapter! :)
The next day James woke up early…well, early for him. It was 8am. Bright sunlight was streaming through his window, lighting up the whole room. He got up out of bed and changed, and then went downstairs for breakfast.
Lily was sitting at the table, eating mounds of eggs, shoveling them into her mouth with admirable speed. Uncle Ron would be proud, James thought. Ginny was frying more eggs, while Harry was making sausages, every now and then burning a batch and vanishing it.
"Good morning, James," Ginny said, not turning around.
James frowned thoughtfully. He always wondered how his mother did that without turning around. He looked back at Lily, who dumped the whole platter of sausages onto her plate and began eating them with vigor.
"Er, why is Lily eating like that?" James asked, a little freaked out by his normally polite sister now eating more food than he and Albus had eaten last night put together.
"She's hungry because last night she threw up everything she had eaten that day," Harry explained as he vanished some sausages.
"Oh," James said, sitting down.
"So are you nervous, James?" Lily asked, taking a break from chomping.
"For what?" he asked, putting some eggs on his plate.
"You know…" Lily smirked. "Your first date…your date with Lila today."
"Bloody hell, Lily, it's not a date!" James said scowling.
"Language, James," said Ginny.
"Why can't I say 'bloody hell,' Mum? You and dad say it…and so does Uncle Ron. He says it loads of times." James said, trying to distract Lily from Lila coming over that day.
"Well Uncle Ron is wrong for saying it," Ginny said sternly.
"Aunt Hermione tells him not to say that," Harry added. "And he's an adult. When you're older—"
"Oh, like you didn't say it when you guys were little?" James raised his eyebrows unbelievingly.
"Listen, James, just don't say it," Ginny said firmly. "End of discussion."
James frowned and moodily ate his eggs until— "So anyway…what're you planning on doing with Lila?"
Later on at 12:57, James was waiting in the living room, pacing nervously while thinking, What if she thinks I'm rubbish at teaching? What if she doesn't like me? What if I am rubbish at teaching? What if Lily interferes and tells Lila that I like her? What if—
His thoughts were cut short by Harry walking into the room. "Are you okay, James?" he asked. "You look nervous." Ginny walked in too.
"Nervous? Me? No I'm fine." James said.
"You know there's no reason to be ashamed of having your first crush, James," Ginny said. "You know that no matter what happens, you have a family that loves you."
"Not Lily," James said, "all she does is annoy me."
Harry smiled. "Lily loves you too, she just has a funny way of showing it. Albus and you argue quite a lot, and you pull pranks on Albus at school (yes, I know you do) but you still both love each other."
James nodded slowly. "…I guess so. Thanks Dad. Thanks Mum."
Just then there was a knock on the door. James looked pointedly at his parents, and they hurried out of the room.
James opened the door. "Hey Lila."
"Hi James," she said, smiling. "Thanks for inviting me over and helping me out."
"No problem," James grinned. "So shall we go then?"
Lila nodded.
"C'mon," James said, and Lila followed him out into the backyard.
The backyard was spacious. It had a small, muggle pool in it for swimming, a Quidditch pitch (not as big as an official one), and trees and just grass with a wonderful garden.
"Wow," Lila said, looking around, "your backyard is lovely."
"Thanks," James said. "You don't have a broom with you, right?"
"Oops!" Lila frowned. "I'm sorry—I forgot—"
"It's okay," James said. "You can borrow a broom."
Lila beamed at him. "Thanks."
They walked to the broom shed and James pulled out two brooms, handing Lila one. James closed the broom shed and locked it again, and he and Lila walked to the mini Quidditch pitch.
Just as James was about to say something, Lily appeared beside them.
"Hi James," she said absentmindedly, and then turned to Lila. "Oh, hi Lila! I've heard lots about you like how nice you are, and how smart you are, and that you're really pretty, and you should know that James—"
James clamped his hand over Lily's mouth to prevent her from saying anything else. He shot a horrible attempt at a smile at Lila. "Okay, I think Lily's spent enough time with us."
He grabbed Lily's wrist and dragged her inside. "Leave. Us. Alone."
Lily raised her eyebrows and smirked at him. "I don't think so."
"Lily, leave us alone!" James raised his voice.
"So sorry if you didn't hear me," Lily said, still smirking. "No."
James rolled his eyes. "Mum! Dad!"
Harry and Ginny came running down the stairs, both drawing their wands. "What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Lily won't leave me alone," James stated simply.
"Tattletale," Lily muttered.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," James whispered back fiercely.
Harry and Ginny put their wands away and Harry walked over to Lily, squatting down in front of her so that their eyes were level. Lily folded her arms, frowning.
"Lily," Harry said. "How would you like to spend the day in Diagon Alley with me? We could get ice cream and lots of stuff from Uncle George's shop."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "No, Daddy, I want to play with James and Lila!"
Harry frowned slightly. "Lily, c'mon, we could do anything you want to do..."
Lily thought about it. "How about a Quidditch game?"
Harry sighed. He didn't like using his fame as a benefit. However, like James said, desperate times call for desperate measures. "I'll see what I can do."
Lily smiled happily. "Okay, Daddy. Come on, let's hurry!"
Lily skipped off into the house, and Harry followed.
"You better get back to Lila," Ginny said to James a moment later.
"Oh s***, I nearly forgot!" James said, running off as Ginny called, "Language!" after him.
James skidded to a stop in front of Lila. "Sorry." He apologized. "Lily's just being annoying again."
Lila smiled sympathetically. "It's okay. I get it. I have a younger sister too. She's always bothering me when I have friends over…I always try to get my parents to put a stop to it, but they don't really do much about it."
James grinned at Lila, but his heart sank a little. She said when she 'has friends over….' Does that mean she only considers me as a friend? Wait…that is what this is supposed to be I guess…a purely friendly Quidditch lesson.
For the rest of the time Lila spent there, James helped her with her flying. Either at first she was really horrible, or she was being bad on purpose. But near the end of the "lesson" she improved slightly. During the "lesson" James and Lila talked about school, vacation, Quidditch, friends, siblings, you name it.
When it was time for Lila to leave, James led her to the fireplace so she could floo home.
"Thanks for everything James," Lila said sweetly. "You really helped me, and I had fun."
With that Lila kissed James on the lips and flooed home, leaving James standing there, a mixture of awe, surprise, and smugness on his face.
