Lily laughs as James pulls out a guitar. "You play guitar?"
James blushes and shuffles his feet, embarrassed and unusually shy. "Well, sort of, my Mum plays and she showed me a little – what?" he demanded, noticing Lily's amused expression.
"Nothing, nothing," she snorts and is unable to hold back a giggle. "It's just funny thinking of a Pureblood witch playing guitar."
James shrugs and absently strums a chord, resting the guitar on his knee. "She picked it up in the 60's when she was pregnant with me. She noticed Muggles were playing it all the time and was curious…" he smiles at her, bashful and completely adorable. "Can I play you something?"
They're sitting in the Common Room, surrounded by other Gryffindors, none of which are paying her and James any attention. In their semi-secluded corner, Lily cross legged on the floor and James on his armchair, they could be by themselves. They're not, as Lily is painfully to be reminded.
A slow smile spreads across Lily's face. "Yes please!" she is delighted and pleased and touched that he would want to sing her a song. It's sappy and clichéd and so utterly romantic that Lily is melting on the inside.
James grins back at her and resettles himself, placing the guitar just so. He clears his throat and starts. It's a simple song and Lily is enchanted and charmed by the sure movements, the way his eyes are focused on his left hand as he changes chords, smiling when he flicks them to her every now and then, winking at her.
But then he starts to sing. And that is when Lily is painfully reminded that they are in fact, not alone in the Common Room and that there is a crowd of Gryffindors who are hearing James make that awful, awful noise.
Her mouth falls open and she struggles not to clap her hands over her ears. She hears someone say "What the bloody hell is that?" before they realize it's James Potter; Quidditch Captain, Head Boy and Awful Singer and a hush falls over the room.
James is happily warbling on, either not noticing or not caring that he is horribly out of key, out of time and his voice cracks whenever he tries to hit a high note. Lily is unable to take her eyes off the boy in front of her, horrified that a person with such a lovely speaking voice – so smooth and deep – could so bad when singing.
As she watches – and tries her hardest not to listen – Lily thinks that this most definitely the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for her. She ignores the groans and the rapid emptying of the Common Room as the other students escape and instead lets the soothing sound of his guitar was over her and hopes that the grating of his vocals isn't going to permanently damage her ears.
Nothing in their relationship is conventional, and she isn't surprised when it's as her boyfriend is totally mangling one of her favourite songs with his ridiculously bad voice (and completely oblivious to this fact) that Lily realizes she loves him. Bad voice and all.