"Are you actually gonna go through with it this time or are you going to chicken out again?" Sirius drawled, leaning against a banister as his best mate paced back and forth.

"I'm doing it today, I swear," James said, a slightly manic glint in his eye.

"Good, because watching you walk up to her, turn, and walk away at least once a day this past month has just gotten painful," Peter said.

"You'll be fine as long as you quit overthinking it," Remus added.

"Yeah," James nodded, straightening to his full height and tousling his hair with one hand. "I reckon I will be."

He took a final breath and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall.

With his three best friends trailing behind him, James strode into the Hall, in which dinner was currently being served, and walked straight to the Gryffindor table where Lily Evans was sitting, writing a letter.

"So, Evans," he began with all the bravado he could muster.

Then she turned around to face him, and he found himself completely tongue-tied. His entire speech having fled from his mind, James managed to choke out, "You, me, Hogsmeade. Yes?" before deciding it was best if he stopped talking.

Lily narrowed her eyes-an expression of hers he was growing all too familiar with.

"Is that really how you ask girls out?" she asked. "No wonder you didn't have a date to the first Hogsmeade trip."

"I didn't want to take anyone last time. You should consider yourself special Evans."

There are times when a person knows, as the words are coming out of their mouth, that they have just said precisely the wrong thing.

This was one of those times.

Remus's sharp intake of breath that James heard behind him was confirmation of that.

"I should consider myself special because the Great James Potter has deigned to ask me on a date? I feel special all on my own, thanks."

James felt his face reddening as his hand immediately flew up to his hair.

"Wait, wait, no, I meant-I mean..." he stuttered before trailing off.

"Do you have anything else to say, my liege?" Lily snapped.

"Er, no."

"Good." And with that, Lily turned back to her letter and her dinner.

James hurried away and could have sworn he heard her mutter "tosser" under her breath.

When he returned to his friends who were once again outside the Great Hall, he found Remus and Peter both averting their eyes and shifting back and forth when they saw him, while Sirius seemed to be having trouble stifling his laughter.

"I reckon you heard, then," James said.

Remus nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.

"That bad?" he asked.

"You could write a book," Sirius said, chuckling heartily. "'How to Make a Bird Hate You in Nine Syllables or Fewer, by James Potter."

Lily was sitting by the fire in the Common Room, trying and failing to revise for Transfiguration. Her mind kept drifting to James' and her conversation that evening. She wasn't really sure if he had been serious about Hogsmeade at all, or if it had been some elaborate attempt to pick on her. Part of her wanted to believe he actually meant it, as it would explain why it seemed he had been stalking her for days, but on the other hand, he had been so rude it hardly seemed fathomable that he actually liked her enough to want to take her out. And would she even want to go if he did?

She was still pondering when James crept into the Common Room an hour past curfew. She listened to his footsteps and was surprised when they became louder rather than softer.

Clearly, he was not going up to his dorm.

Lily chanced a glance behind her and saw that James was standing a mere meter away from her chair.

"Come to apologize?" she asked sardonically.

There was a brief stretch of time before he replied, "Yes."

Lily found she had no response to that as James carefully made his way to the chair next to hers.

Still unsure as to whether he was being sincere or setting up for a prank, Lily moved to the side of her seat that was further away from him-an action that was not missed by James judging by his exasperated sigh.

"Listen Evans, earlier today...that was not...good."

Lily snorted.

"No you have to understand," he continued, "It didn't-I wasn't supposed to say that. I didn't mean it like that and I really am sorry it came out that way."

James was clearly done talking, which left Lily with two options: one, she could stay mad and use some of the choice words for him she had come up with after dinner, or two, she could forgive him and move on.

Lily was inclined to choose option one, but after studying James's face for a moment, she saw that he looked so contrite, so uncharacteristically embarrassed, that she simply didn't have the heart to continue the fight.

"It's fine," she said after careful deliberation. "Everyone says stupid things sometimes I suppose."

She gave him a thin smile and turned back to her homework, assuming he would leave now that he'd gotten the apology he wanted.

Instead, however, he broke the short silence that had fallen between them by saying, "The question is still there, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, erm, well, if-if you aren't still too hacked off at me, maybe the two of us could go to Hogsmeade? We could bring our mates along too, if you'd prefer that," he added quickly.

James was fidgeting in his seat and seemed to have gone completely red. He was eyeing Lily with an odd mix of trepidation and hope.

Oh.

He was actually asking her on a date.

Lily felt herself turn what was most likely an even more vibrant shade of red than what James was sporting, and suddenly it was her turn to stutter.

"Look, I-I really appreciate...that...but I-er-I wasn't planning on going to Hogsmeade this time."

"You weren't?" he asked, looking slightly downtrodden.

"No. I've got too much homework," she lied.

The truth was that she didn't feel quite comfortable with going on a date yet. It didn't matter that it was Potter, it could have been anybody and the answer would have still been the same. She wanted to tell him that, but for some reason, she didn't.

"Sorry," she smiled weakly at him and watched as he mimicked her actions.

"It's no matter," he said, rising from the couch. "Maybe some other time or something?"

"Or something," Lily said quietly.

There was a short, mildly awkward pause as James continued to stand and Lily continued to sit, until he finally gave her a small wave, said, "Night, Evans," and hurried up the staircase.

Lily slumped back into her chair, a little stunned by what had just happened.

James Potter, with whom she was barely acquaintances with, had just asked her out and wasn't trying to make a joke of it, when he was always the first to make a joke out of everything.

Why?

Part of her wanted to consider the possibilities, but a much larger part of her wanted to write it off as some odd whim of his and forget about it.

She succeeded in writing it off, but she never did quite forget.