I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They all belong to J.K. Rowling.

Sorry this chapters taken a bit longer than the others, I've had a mountain of reading to do for university. Still do actually, so updates may be a little sporadic!

Lily was propped up against the bar, facing the Marauders. She wondered if maybe she should offer to buy James a drink, since everyone else had on except him. Then she realised this would mean James owed her, and she couldn't have that. It would mean that he'd follow her around trying to repay her, any excuse to get close to her. But before she knew it she was walking back to the table and saying, out loud, to James Potter of all people,

"Do you want a drink?"

James replied, "yeah, sure," and walked with Lily back to the bar, after extracting himself from the web of legs belonging to Sirius and Peter, who'd spread themselves out both to get comfortable and also to annoy James.

"You guys are seriously starting to get on my nerves" He shot in a whisper to them, so Lily couldn't hear.

Remus and Sirius both donned identical looks of innocence, and mild shock that James would accuse them of doing such an awful thing as interrupt James wooing Lily. As James walked with Lily to the bar, he saw several faces turn his way. James, of course, was used to this as his antics with the Marauders often dropped him in the centre of attention, but he noticed Lily was hurrying to get across the room. She obviously wasn't used to this kind of treatment, as he had often seen when she was praised in class she would go slightly pink. When they reached the bar, Lily whipped round to check all faces had turned back to their own business, and promptly tried to catch Rosmerta's attention.

"What do you want to drink?" Lily asked James, when Rosmerta served a customer at the other end of the bar.

"I'll have a butterbeer. I'll get this, don't worry." He added as Lily reached into her pocket to fetch some coins.

Lily reluctantly put away the handful of coins she'd extracted, then leaned forward on the bar, resting her chin on her hand. James mistakenly took this as a sign she'd gotten bored, so hastily asked,

"Should we skip the drink? How about we head to Honeyduke's? I've heard they've got these new chocolates which, when you bite into them, have hot caramel inside."

"But what about your friends?" She asked, "Sirius, Remus and Peter came to sit with us, we can't just leave."

At this James looked over to his friends at the table he'd just left. He could hear Sirius' bark-like laugh from the bar, and it looked like they were having a fine time without them.

"I'm sure they won't mind." James assured Lily, "At all."

They made their way back to the table, and James told his friends he and Lily were leaving to go to the sweet shop.

"Ooh!" Peter squeaked excitedly, but was promptly silenced but a quick kick and a significant look from Remus.

"We'll see you later." Sirius added, with a wink, as Lily and James left the pub. Lily turned back and waved goodbye to the three guys. She was pleasantly surprised when they waved back, with sincere smiles on their faces. When she turned back and walked outside, she took a deep breath and smiled at James. She never thought she'd admit it, but today she was having fun. She'd always been a little bit uncomfortable with the knowledge James had feelings for her, but in a way his overt admission about it made things easier. She felt she didn't need to skirt around it, or try and work out underlying motivations for things. If James was doing something to get her to go out with him, he was usually quite blatant about it.

"Are you bored? You're not saying much." James asked, pulling Lily out of her reverie.

"Oh, no." She replied, with a smile, "I was just thinking."

James smiled back, though Lily was sure he didn't know the subject of her thoughts.