Disclaimer: Not mine.
Lily woke up early on Saturday, feeling extremely nervous without knowing why. Then she remembered: today was the day of her first official date in her entire life, and she was going to be spending the entire freaking day in Hogsmeade with James Potter. Merlin. Merlin. Merlin.
Obsessive planner and overachiever that she was, Lily had already picked out her outfit (she'd spent about an hour agonizing over the decision every night as she was trying to fall asleep, and by Friday she'd decided on an ensemble she couldn't find fault with, no matter how hard she tried). Instead of thinking about clothes, she fished out her charms assignment from her bag, figuring that at least she could get some work done before Mary woke up and it was time to start getting dressed, putting on makeup, and doing hair. To her surprise, Lily was able to focus—homework actually tended to help her calm down—and she was able to complete the assigned reading and write part of her essay before her best friend awoke.
"Today's the day!" Mary squealed, announcing to the world that she was no longer asleep.
"Wha—?" Lily replied distractedly, a good part of her mind still on her charms essay.
"We're going to Hogsmeade today! With boyfriends!" Mary yelled, running over to Lily and giving her a very hyper hug.
"Yep," Lily agreed, extricating herself from Mary's embrace. "Excited?"
"Yeah, but nervous. You?" Mary replied, calming down.
"Same. Definitely."
"Were you just doing homework? How did you focus?" Mary demanded suddenly, noticing the paper, book, quill, and ink on the end of Lily's bed.
"This is me, remember?" Lily replied.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She didn't pursue the subject. "What should I wear?"
"That blue scoop-neck tee you have is really cute . . ." Lily suggested.
"Are you sure? I think maybe the red sweater would be better . . . What do you think?"
Lily sighed and gave her opinion. All told, it took almost an hour for Mary to pick out her outfit, do her makeup, and curl her hair to her satisfaction. Lily just had to get dressed—she still wasn't willing to try makeup—and brush her hair (which she decided looked no worse down than it would look in any other position), so mostly she helped Mary and added a few words here and there to her charms essay. It was a long hour, especially when dealing with nerves. Lily was very, very relieved when Mary decided she was finally ready enough to go down to breakfast.
James and Remus were already there, so the two girls joined the Marauder table. James whistled. Lily was just wearing jeans, boots, and a green sweater, but even she had to admit that it looked pretty good on her. The jeans fit perfectly and made her rather short legs look a lot longer than they were. The boots were suede and had a heel and made her look older somehow, but not in an old way. The sweater was soft, both to the touch and in color, contrasting nicely with her violently red hair; it hugged her curves, and the neckline was low enough that it wasn't altogether surprising that James was quite impressed.
Before Lily knew it, breakfast was over (she couldn't remember eating or what, if anything, she had talked about), and it was time to leave.
Walking through the gates of Hogwarts on the road to Hogsmeade, James took Lily's hand. He'd been pretty careful about touching her before now, probably as a result of his mistake that ill-fated patrol before they'd gotten together. But now his hand wasn't just holding hers; his thumb was tracing circles on the back of her hand, gently but persistently. It felt better than Lily had expected—by a lot.
"Just to make one thing clear, you're not paying for anything today," James said as the two walked to Hogsmeade.
"Oh, 'cause that's not sexist at all," Lily replied casually.
"Lily, this is a date. The guy pays."
"That's sexist."
"It's tradition."
"Tradition is sexist. I'm pretty sure it's in the definition."
"It's what the guy is supposed to do!"
"Yeah, like cooking and cleaning are what the girl is supposed to do!"
"No, like . . . like . . . like . . . Merlin, Lily, are you ever going to stop arguing with me?" James laughed as he said it.
Lily had to laugh too. "Nope. Never."
"Merlin, I love you," James declared suddenly. "And by the way, I'm paying."
"Are not."
"Am too."
The couple made it almost the entire way to Hogsmeade arguing casually. They laughed a lot as they bickered. It felt so much like it always had, just arguing with James, yet so different—there was James's thumb on the back of Lily's hand to make sure neither of them forgot that. The feelings all converged into something perfect, something that made Lily want to laugh and give James a giant hug and probably snog him a bit too.
It was hard to feel like the day was going to be anything other than great.
A/N: Sorry, I know that was pointless; I felt like I just had to get a chapter up. I know this wasn't up to my usual standards, but I'm busy and having writer's block and getting busier . . . I was hoping that if I wrote, something would come to me, but it didn't work—at least, I didn't feel like it did. Please have patience. It might be a few weeks before the next update.