Chapter 20: Valentines Day

"What do you mean he's not telling you what you're doing for Valentines Day?" exclaimed Anna after she had just given us all a full rundown of Sirius's plans for the two of them for Valentines Day and she had turned to ask me what James and I were going to be doing.

"Honestly I don't even think he wants to celebrate it." I replied looking down at my slippered feet. The only time that we actually got girl talk anymore was right before bed and right when we woke up.

"What do you mean?" asked Alice, who had amazing plans with Frank for the day of love too.

"Well everytime I bring it up or someone else does he kind of changes the subject. He acts like it's not even a thing."

"So what you're telling me is the James Potter doesn't celebrate Valentine's Day." Anna replied pulling her robes on up over her head.

"That's what it's looking like." I said and then to show that I didn't care, even though I did. "But I mean who needs just one day to show the woman he loves that he loves her. He should try to do it everyday."

"That's a cop out Lils and you know it."

"I've got to get the breakfast." I said openly avoiding the conversation now.

Sirius was astounded too. Anna confronted him that night while James was out helping two prefects one of who couldn't stand the other.

"What are you going on about? James loves Valentine's Day! Every year he decorates our dorm and hands out valentines and chocolate. It's a big to do."

"Then why hasn't he made any plans with Lily for it?" asked Anna.

Sirius looked at me completely blank faced. "Haven't the foggiest and I'm his best friend he tells me everything."

Great so not even his best friend knew why James was avoiding the subject of Valentine's Day with me. As the day got closer and closer I got more and more ancy and when I get ancy bad things start to happen. I start to overreact. How did I overreact? I made plans… with another boy.

"So Lils, when do you want me to pick you up tonight?" asked James the morning of Valentines. The Great Hall was decorated from top to bottom in pink and red. It looked like Cupid had come and thrown confetti everywhere. And to add to the Cupid factor everywhere you looked there were couples holding hands.

"What do you mean?" I asked my heart skipping a beat.

"For our Valentine date, duh." He had made plans.

I took a deep breath and just gave him the bad news. "I've already got plans."

"Yeah… with me… right?"

"No." I said standing up and making a beeline for the exit, breakfast didn't look so good anymore.

"Lily?" he called but he didn't follow me for once in his life, too shocked by my proclamation.

He did eventually get over his shock and ended up pulling me out of my second class of the day. Not even kidding he barged into the room about fifteen minutes after it started and almost shouted to the class "I'm going to need the Head Girl for a moment Professor it's very important." With that he sprinted down the aisle to where I sat grabbed my hand and pulled me up from my seat and back down the aisle and out the door.

"What the heck is going on?" I gasped ripping my hand from his. "Is everything alright?"

"No." He said pacing away from me.

"James, what's wrong?" I asked suddenly worried.

"You have other plans for Valentine's Day!" He exclaimed turning back to me.

"No," I said calmly, "We're not doing this. Not right now. Not when I'm supposed to be in class. Just no." And with that I walked back into my class. "False alarm." I told the teacher. The rest of the day I did my best to avoid James which let me tell you is not the easiest thing to do especially when he knows your schedule as well as his own.

However, it wasn't until I came down the stairs for my date that he finally caught up with me. "Are we or are we not dating?" he asked.

"We are." I nodded.

"Do you or do you not love me?" he asked.

"I do." I said and right then I saw Derek. "Excuse me but there's my date." And with that I walked right past my beautiful boyfriend over to Derek and let me just say that was the hardest walk of my life.

The thing about that date was that Derek knew that I was just trying to make a point to James. He knew that it was just as friends so that made it easier to have fun. But the whole night long I was still worrying about James and I was still looking over my shoulder worried that I would see James spying on us. But the whole night I didn't see him once. I was happy to note that we had gotten to that stage in our relationship that we trusted each other.

He wasn't even in the common room when we entered later that night. "Well as far as Valentine's Day dates go I think we had the most mild one." Derek commented.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Thank you."

"No problem. Hey you know if you ever want to do that for reals again…"

But I cut him off. "Derek you're a sweet boy but you're just not the right kind of guy for me. I'm sorry."

"Yeah I figured." And he went up to his dorm.

I went to walk up the steps to my dorm too when I was suddenly spun around and I was looking at, nothing. "James!" I squeaked. He didn't reveal himself he just scooped me up into his arms and flung the cloak over me too so no one would see me as he carried me bridal style down to the kitchens. I stared at him all the way there. Wanting to kiss him so bad but not wanting to distract him from whatever gave him that look of concentration. When we entered the kitchen he unceremoniously dumped me on the ground.

I knew he was mad. "James?" I whispered.

"Do you know how much tonight physically hurt me?" He asked before I could get out anything else.

"Do you know how much it hurt me?" I replied.

"Then why did you do it?" He asked.

"Why did you do it?" I replied.

"I'm not the one who went on a date with someone else." He said.

"I'm not the one who wouldn't even talk about Valentine's Day until today." He didn't say anything to that. "How was I supposed to know that you had plans?"

He just gapped at me. "Lily Evans." he muttered something after my last name and he froze probably worried I had heard.

"What?" I asked.

He took a deep breath and looked at me. "I guess now you know why you drive me so crazy." He said.

"Enlighten me." I wanted to hear him say it.

"Lily, Lily, Lily. I think what I feel for you has gone far beyond love. I can honestly see this relationship lasting longer than any of my others."

"James." I said stepping close to him. "I don't even know how to describe in words how much I deeply love you. You know that there is no one else for me." He never did let me finish. He kissed me senseless. "So you forgive me?" I asked and to answer that he kissed me again.

"Don't ever do that to me again and I think we'll be even." He said when we were finished.

"And who said that Valentine's Day was just for pansies?" I said.

"People who have never felt a love like ours before."