#Chapter 10 – Just the Way

A/N- Sorry if I took long. You guys aren't reviewing. Enjoy this chapter and review. I love you all! Xx

(Lily's POV)

"Lily! God where have you been all night?" Alice asked as I burst into the dorms to see all girls getting ready.

I ignored her. "Marls, whom are you going with?"

"Ah, no one, I'm just tagging along with Hestia and Remus. They are both so sweet they said I could."

"Marls, I'm so sorry! I thought someone was going with you but that someone didn't bother to tell us that she had an effing date!"

"Lily, for Merlin's sake, can you stop giving me the cold shoulder? I know I made a mistake and I should've told you but I was scared that you'd make fun of me!"

"Oh, hell Prewitt! You know I'd never make fun of you!" I said coldly and began to get ready. "Alic- Hest, what should I wear?" I asked holding up one emerald green knee length sleeveless, figure-hugging dress and another ruby red, knee length, ¾ sleeves, flowy dress in front of Hestia. I nearly said Alice.

"Definitely the green one." Hestia replied just as Alice said "The red one for sure."

"The green one it is." I said and flung the red dress aside carelessly on my bed. I quickly dressed and asked Marlene to do my hair and makeup.

"Tie her hair." Alice advised and Marlene looked at me questioningly.

"I like my hair open." I said pointedly.

"Straight hair makes her look beautiful." Alice said determinedly.

"James likes my hair curled." I said raising my voice. That wasn't true. He said he liked my hair open but he didn't say he liked it curled but Alice didn't need to know that.

After Marlene did my makeup and hair, I thanked her with a big hug and ran down to the Great Hall to see James having breakfast with the Marauders and… Frank.

"Hi." I said cheerfully and sat next to James. Everyone except James murmured hi back.

"James!" I waved my hand in front of his eyes and he jerked out of his trance.

"You look so beautiful." He whispered causing me to blush.

"Thanks." I murmured. We finished breakfast and walked out into the Entrance Hall.

"Did you speak to Alice?" James asked me softly in a genuinely concerned voice.

I wanted to snap at him, tell him that it was none of his business but he sounded so concerned I looked away and said "No."

James waited for Filch to let us go out before responding. "Lily, how long can this go on? She's supported you through everything and you can't stop talking to her just because she didn't tell you that she had a date."

"Oh yes I can." I said stubbornly even though James had a point. We had stuck with each other through thick and thin.

"Well, that's a discussion for another time. Right now, all I want to do is tell you how beautiful you are."

I blushed hard and shyly smiled at the ground.

"But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know oh- oh you don't know you're beautiful." He sang softly. He had a wonderful voice and he had just made my dream come true. I've always wanted for a boy to sing a One Direction song for me and What Makes You Beautiful is my jam.

"You're very sweet, James." I told him.

"Thanks, babe." He said playfully. I glared at him although when he said babe my stomach flipped like pancakes.

We both made our way to Hogsmeade and somewhere in the middle of the conversation he took my hand. Gosh, this guy is going to kill me. I never even dreamt he was the romantic types.

"Where to?" he asked me imitating Jack Dawson aka Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic.

"To the stars." I said playing along. I wanted to kiss this boy. He was making me fall hard for him. I had no idea that he would've watched Titanic.

"Kind of hard, right now." He said with a smirk. I gasped and smacked his arm.

"Head out of the gutter, my dear Rose, I meant it's daytime and I don't think we have yet invented a spell that turns day to night in the flick of a wand." He says with an even bigger smirk.

I blushed. He really was a sweet guy. "I can't believe, you listen to muggle music and watch muggle movies and then sing my fav song to me and quote my favorite movie."

"I'm full of surprises. And how does it make a difference muggle or wizard music? Music is music. We don't need racism here." He says offended.

He sure is full of surprises. "Anyway I want to go to Honeydukes. And then to the stars." I said whispering the last line.

"That is a promise." He whispers in my ear causing me to smile. We made our way towards Honeydukes and bought loads of candy. We saw Remus and Hestia there with Marlene. Marlene looked disgruntled and James made his way towards her. He threw his arm around her shoulder which for some reason made me…jealous.

"What's up? Why the sad face?" he asked squeezing her.

"They are too into themselves." She said pointing at Remus and Hestia and pouting like a kid.

"How sad! Does that mean you're alone?" he asked.

Marlene nodded. James looked around. For one horrifying moment I thought that he was going tell her to hang out with us. Don't get me wrong, I love Marls but I'm not thrilled with her tagging along on our date until he called out "Padfoot!"

Sirius turned around and made his way over to them while I looked on. "What happened? Did Lily-flower ditch you?" he asked with a smirk. That insensitive jerk. I made my way over to them and smacked Sirius on the head.

"No I didn't!" I exclaimed.

"I want you to take Marls with you. She's alone." He said with a meaningful look at Lily.

"Sure. C'mere Mar." he pulled her towards himself causing Marlene to blush and James and I smirked.

"Oh, where's Pete?" James asked concernedly. I smiled. He cared so much for his friends. Normally, no one noticed Peter's disappearances and whenever someone did, it was always James.

"Dunno. He said he had work." Sirius said with a careless shrug.

We all snorted at that. We said bye and James and I walked out after buying lots of candy and he didn't let me pay for one sweet. That sweet little jerk.

"Can we go to The Three Broomsticks?" I asked.

"Sure we can. But we better make it quick." He says.

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"I have something for you." He whispered mysteriously and I smiled, I love surprises.

We walked to Honeydukes hand in hand. Wow I love his hand. I could hold it for all my life. I don't know why I am already falling hard for this guy. We don't speak. We wait for the other to break the silence. In silence only we reach the Three Broomsticks. The silence is so comfortable. James is so different from the other guys. Other guys get so awkward in silence that their hands start sweating, yuck! But he seems so calm and collected.

"Madam Rosmerta!" he calls out in greeting.

"Hello, there James and Lily. So what can I do for you?" she asks.

"A table for me and my date, please." James says like a real gentleman.

"Sure, a table for you and your date, wait your date? Lily Evans is your date?" She asks in shock.

"Yes she is my date." James smiles at me. Madam Rosmerta smiles at us and leads us to our table.

James thanks her and draws my chair for me. "Thank you." I say and sit down.

"What do you want to have?" he asks.

"Anything." I say, I could have anything sitting next to him.

He smiles and goes to place the order. He comes back with two bottles of butterbeer.

"Thanks." I say accepting one of the bottles. "Wait, what have you spiked my drink with?" I asked narrowing my eyes. Personal experience taught me not to take anything from the Marauders without confirmation of the purity of the substance.

"Nothing, Lily, give me some credit." He says. He sounds almost angry. He doesn't say anything for a long while. Our food arrives and he still hasn't said a word.

"James I'm sorry."

"Why?" he asks irritably.

"I know you've changed but old habits die hard. After I had 108 degree fever for 5 days just because I accepted a crisp from you in first year I couldn't accept anything else so easily."

"It gave you 108 degree fever? I'm so sorry, Lily. I've heard 104 degree above fever can kill you."

I smiled. He was apologizing for something that he did at the age of 11. "Everyone is immature at the age of 11." I said.

"You weren't." he pointed out and we silently dug into our food.

"James, why the hell would you like me?" I asked frustrated. He was so sweet and I was an ugly girl who always bossed people around.

"Lily you aren't ugly." He said quietly.

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked.

"Yes."

"I owe you an answer. Lily I like you because you are so very helpful, so kind, so sweet, so nice, and so different. I've seen you tutoring first years since three years. Mostly first years would never take help from third years but they took help from you and that proves that you're smart. I've seen you working till midnight or sometimes even later because of your prefect duties, which proves you're responsible. Lily there are so many reasons, I couldn't list them all even if I tried. I like you, just the way you are."

I had tears in my eyes. No one ever said all that about me. "Oh and I forgot to mention, you're the most beautiful girl that I've ever seen." He added as an afterthought.

I reached over and hugged him tightly and let my tears soak his shirt.

"Hey…" he gently pulled away. He cupped my face in his warm hands. He wiped my tears away with his thumb. "No tears. There's nothing to cry about." He said comfortingly.

"Sorry, I'm just being stupid. It's just that I'm not used to being praised."

"Merlin, someone lock this girl in a room with Slughorn for an hour and she'll come out with so huge a head that it'll look like someone put an Engorgement Charm on it." He says exasperatedly.

I giggled. He was using my words against me. The whole "head so large because of Engorgement Charm" was my concept but he made it sound sweet instead of rude.

"Now come on." He said and pulled me away. He had already paid. We walked out.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked super curiously.

"I can't tell you." He said.

"Oooh! It's the surprise, isn't it?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes, it is." He said chuckling. He pulled me along. We got into the carriages.

"Are we going back?" I asked sadly.

"Yes, the surprise is back home." He said.

We got off once we reached the gates. But instead of going through the gates James pulled me to the side, towards the Black Lake.

"Do you want to show me the lake?" I asked dryly.

"No. You'll love it." He said and pulled me towards the back of the greenhouses from the longer way. Now I was getting the creeps. That was a premium making out area.

"Why are we going there and why are we taking the longer way?"

"There's only one entrance." He says impatiently.

I took a deep breath. I wasn't going to make out with him on our first date. "James, you should know, I'm not ready just yet."

"What?" he stopped short. Turns out he was going there for some action. "You're not ready?" he gave me a funny look and then looked at the greenhouse and then back at me, greenhouse, me, greenhouse, me, greenhouse, me until his eyes brightened like he just understood what I meant.

"NO! That is not what I wanted to show you. Lily, you really have one hell of a dirty mind." He yelled. Okay so this wasn't about making out.

He continued pulling me and took me behind the greenhouse. There was a short way leading up to a gate. James dragged me to the gate and pushed it wide open.

"Wow!" I breathed out. I suddenly found myself standing in the most beautiful garden. Flowers were everywhere. And not just any flowers, all types of flowers. There were roses, jasmines and lilies, orchids, carnations, poppies, daisies, you name it. There were beautiful trees. There were cherry trees mostly and they have the prettiest leaves. I could hear birds chirping. I looked closer at the trees and saw all types of birds. I walked in and three squirrels came out from different directions. They climbed me. They were on my feet and one was on my hair. A butterfly flew out and sat on my finger. A snow white cat ran out and rubbed itself against my ankles.

I heard James chuckle and almost jumped. I forgot that he was even there. I turned around carefully to make sure the squirrel didn't fall out of my hair and saw James similarly covered only he had a light brown dog jumping around him instead of a cat.

James laughed and petted the dog. "Do you like it?" he asked me. I walked over to him.

"I love it." I said and smiled because I possibly couldn't hug him while I was so covered with these little beauties.

James and I sat down and played with them for a while after which they all ran away while the dog napped next to James. I looked at the dog with a smile.

"Yeah, he really loves me." James said with a chuckle.

I think I do too I thought and scooted close to him and he wrapped his arm around my waist. "Thanks, James. This is the best date ever."

"You're welcome, Lily." He whispers and we both lie down on the grass. The stars come up as the sun goes down.

"To the stars, now." James whispered.

We both lay and pointed to various stars and discussed the endless possibilities.

"But think of it this way, the earth is just a tiny planet in the massive universe and us as people, just a speck." He says. "It's wonderful how in this world of billions of people, two people found each other." He turned to me and cupped my cheek. "Out of everyone I have you."

Now was the time, there could not be a better time for a first kiss. I leaned forward and initiated the kiss, he moved closer and I closed my eyes, and before I could change my mind, his lips were on mine. They were so soft and delicate. His one hand rested on my cheek while the other snaked around my waist. It was a short pleasant kiss, he didn't try to take it any further. When his lips left mine I got a strange and empty feeling. His arm was still around my waist. I snuggled into him. It felt wonderful.

"We have to go." James said regretfully.

"I know, let's just stay here for five minutes." I said. I didn't want this to end just yet.

He nodded and rested his forehead against mine. I wish we could sleep out here, under the stars.

A/N- that's it. The longest fluffiest and the best chapter. Please review. Yes I am a Directioner and it is my dream that a guy sings me a One Direction song and I love Titanic.

JilyLoveForever xx