AN: I am now officially half way done with my last year of high school! To celebrate, you get an update :) I'm going to keep this short – I'll work on updating more often, like I always say and never do. Please read, review, and enjoy!

The next day, when Lily came down into the common room, James was waiting for her. He was wearing dark jeans and a dark gray button up shirt, and was holding a bouquet of pink roses. His hair was almost plastered to his head he had made such an attempt at taming it. As Lily walked towards him, he held out the flowers.

She took them with a smile and said thanks. Then, standing on tiptoe, she ran her free hand through James' hair, messing it up so it looked how it normally did, before running to put the flowers in her room.

They ate breakfast with Remus and Sirius, and then were some of the first out of the doors and on their way to Hogsmeade.

"So, where are we going?" Lily asked James, who was purposefully being a little over-mysterious.

"Don't know," he shrugged.

"All right then," Lily asked again, "What are we going to do?"

She got the same reply.

"James, don't lie to me," Lily threatened.

He gazed down at the girl whose heart he had been after for years, and his charade broke. "I'm sorry, Lily. You're right, I was lying. It's a surprise, that's all."

Lily smiled to herself. He was trying so hard to make a good impression.

"Did you have anything that you wanted to do?" James asked politely.

All Lily had to do was mention that she had been hoping to get her Christmas shopping done early, and they started strolling through various shops. James shopped as she did, and soon became a human bag tree.

When they finished shopping, James led Lily away from the village a bit and up a hill. A giant willow sat on the top of the hill, and a picnic table covered with a white tablecloth sat under it, with a perfect view overlooking the busy little town.

He piled the bags next to the tree trunk, and picked up a wicker basket he had put there earlier.

After he led Lily to the picnic bench, he pulled out table settings and a meal for tow, and they ate lunch looking at the bustling little dots that were students in the village.

Little did they know, they were once again being eavesdropped on. Harry and Ginny were standing several feet away under Harry's Cloak, watching every move their favorite students made.

"Harry," Ginny whispered, "Why does this seem so terribly familiar?"

"Maybe because this isn't the first time we've spied on them," Harry suggested, knowing full well that wasn't what Ginny was talking about.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Not the spying, Harry, the date they're on! What they've been doing! Oh, don't pretend you don't know what I mean. Don't lie to me, Potter."

Harry sighed in defeat. "All right, all right. I did base our first date on theirs. Mum had all of her old diaries in their valuables vault, and I read about this in those. Plus, I heard about it from Sirius. Speaking of him…"

As Harry trailed off, he looked around the area until he found a large black dog lying under a nearby bush. Still invisible, he walked with Ginny over to the young Animagus.

When he was on eye level with the dog, he said, "Let's give them some privacy, shall we Padfoot? Head on back to the village, Mr. Black."

The two time-travelers carefully backed up as the dog gave a start, looking around in a confused way that no real dog ever would. It was all they could do to not laugh as they followed the fleeing dog down the hill, leaving Lily and James in private at last.

That night at dinner, all discussion stopped immediately when the doors were pushed open, and Lily and James walked in hand-in-hand.

"We just had to be late, didn't we?" Lily hissed as they made their way to the Gryffindor table, followed closely by the stares of every other student and almost all of the teachers.

The stares didn't stop when they sat, nor did the noise of the Hall pick up.

After a few seconds, James yelled, "All right, people, nothing to see here! Back to eating and talking!"

As the regular activity of the Hall resumed, Lily thought back to when James had asked her out.

James packed up his picnic basket and together he and Lily walked down the hill back to town. He bought ice cream for both he and Lily and the began the trek up to their school.

Just inside the gates, James grabbed her hand, pulling her back.

"Please, Lily," he started, "Hear me out for a minute. To me at least, today seemed to go really well, and it looked like you enjoyed it at least a little bit, and I would really like to be able to do something like this again."

Lily began to laugh, and James panicked, then looked sheepish. "I'm rambling, aren't I?" he sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Lily, will you go out with me? I promise if you don't want to I'll never ask you again."

Lily sighed and stared into James' hazel eyes. After a few seconds, she murmured, "Yes."

James grinned like a madman and engulfed Lily in a crushing hug. "Thank you, Lily," he mumbled into her hair. "I swear to you, you won't regret it. We won't go too fast, I'll let you pick how fast we go."

"James!" Lily choked out. "You're half crushing me!"

Quickly, he released her and sheepishly but slowly took her hand in his, and they began to walk up to the school.