Carvings and Attempts – Fourth Year.

Professor Flitwick wasn't the only one noticing a surprising number of initials on the school desks over the duration of James' fourth year at Hogwarts. In fact, several of the teachers had been starting to discuss who the culprit was, who the mysterious engraver of the 'L.E' around the school could possibly be. James knew perfectly well who was doing this. Unable to communicate with Lily, who would now ignore him completely, or screech furiously at him, James had taken to engraving her initials every time he started having severe lapses of concentration due to her. Consequently, at least every third classroom in Hogwarts had an 'L.E' engraved inside.

He did consider for a minute that Lily may get blamed for his now superb etching skills, but seeing as every teacher in the school deemed her as the brightest witch of their year, his thoughts were shoved firmly to the back of his mind. After his first rejection by Lily, James briefly gave up trying to ask her out, and instead threw himself immensely into a new routine of making sure she noticed him whenever they were visible to each other. Including James being in the Astronomy tower cat calling to Lily as she made her way to Hagrids. He knew it was annoying her, but he hoped that she would soon notice how dedicated he was to paying attention to her.

Sitting in the common room that evening, James could hardly take her eyes off of her. For four years he had been doing nothing but obsess over her, and it was now accepted by nearly every male student in the school that Lily was taken constantly by James, taken by his never ceasing wishes to be able to hold her and to shout out that he was crazy about her. She was so beautiful.

Coming out of his third Lily stupor for the day, Sirius nudged him when he noticed that Alice was staring across the room at them, soon to be followed by Lily.

"Hey Evans!" James called out. She rolled her head so she was looking at him with her 'I'm pretending I care face', James' third favourite of Lily's faces.

"How about you go out with me?"

"NO! Potter, would you just give up?"

"NO! Evans, I don't want to give up!"

She made a large grunt of frustration and turned back to face the fire again, while Alice was still casting furtive looks in their direction.

As James made his way down to breakfast the next day, he instantly spotted Lily and Alice sitting at the Gryffindor house table, and he quickened his pace and took the seat directly next to her and merrily greeted her,

"Morning, Evans!"

Without moving her head from her bowl, Lily sighed and replied,

"Potter, don't even think about trying to ask…"

"Hey Evans, how about you go out with me?"

"I told you not to bother asking."

James didn't even appear to be annoyed by this at all, he simply started shovelling food into his mouth, with several disgusted looks from Lily he chose to admire, not ignore, and then soon started looking at her, without eating anything at all, his spoon moving around on the table. When Lily stood up to leave, she looked down at James who was still gawping at her with his spoon moving around.

"Potter, would you, urgh, shut your mouth when you look at me. I do NOT appreciate your tongue. And, that scratching is BLOODY annoying!"

"Evans, that attitude is so bloody annoying."

She left in a huff without noticing the newest set of 'L.E' initials in the house table.

Lily's day was increasingly frustrating. James had been incredibly annoying, refusing to stop asking her out, and she was almost on the verge of asking McGonagall if she could permanently ban having James speak to her, but Alice said that Lily might regret that decision one day. It was most certainly looking more appealing now. Waiting alone in the common room for Alice to arrive, she spent a large amount of time avoiding turned anywhere near James had chosen to sit, who liked to move a lot. Sirius claimed that it was so James could have a better view of her, but obviously this was rubbish.

Alice arrived in the common room about an hour later than usual, looking particularly frazzled, and extremely happy. Her hair was messed, and her robes creased and she had a grin that couldn't be matched by anyone, not even the time Sirius had hit Filch in the face with a dungbomb and managed to escape any trace of punishment.

"Where have you been?!" Lily asked curiously, thinking that Alice had been out flying for the past hour.

Alice turned a bright shade of pink.

"Well, I've, errr, Frank said that he needed to talk to me after dinner and…"

Suddenly Lily completely understood.

"You've been snogging Frank!"

Alice burst into a fit of giggles, and collapsed onto their usual couch.

"So, how was it?"

"It was perfect. He told me that he had liked me for a very long time, and that he didn't think he'd be able to make it through the rest of the year without being with me. He said I was the most wonderful thing, and then he kissed me and he…"

"OK! That's quite enough, I understand now!"

Lily let Alice sit grinning on the couch, while thinking silently to herself. Both of the females that were in here life now had boyfriends, Alice now had perfect Frank, and Petunia had perfect Vernon, and Lily still had nothing. Lily wondered what was wrong with her. Why she only attracted people like James. Trying to not think of how sorry she was for herself, she turned to Alice, who now looked like she was bursting to talk about Frank.

"Lily, he's amazing!" Alice blurted out.

"I'm sure he is, Alice, you'd never pick anyone who was anything less than amazing."

"And he thinks I'm beautiful!"

"Well, at least we know Frank isn't blind…"

"And he's a fantastic kisser! The things he does with his mouth…"

"Erm, ok, I'll take your word for it Alice."

Neither noticed Sirius who was standing behind them, listening to every word.

"Oi, James! Did you hear Longbottom is a good kisser?" he shouted across the common room.

"No, Sirius, I didn't!" James shouted back.

"So, Lily, it looks like everyone is snogging someone except for you!" Sirius jeered.

"Shut up, Sirius, who are you snogging might I ask?"

"None of your business," Sirius replied smoothly, completely covering the fact that he was telling a rather large lie.

"Right, Sirius, so you're trying to make me feel bad for not kissing anyone, when I'm only fourteen? I can live without this, thankyou very much."

"Are you sure, Lily? Don't you want to snog Jamesy over there?"

James seized his chance.

"Yeah, Evans! How about you…"

"NO POTTER!"

A/N: Thanks for all your lovely reviews, fifth year is up next…