September 2nd, 1971

"Bloody hell! How do you even hold this thing?" a petite, redheaded first year grumbled, struggling to properly grasp the quill in her hand.

Her new friend giggled from her spot next to her, holding her own quill with ease. "C'mon Lily, it's not as hard as you think. You shouldn't have to force it!"

"Oh please, Thalia, just because you've been doing this since diapers…"

Two rows back, another pair of new friends watched the girls with amusement. One, sporting spectacles and unruly black hair, sighed in contentment as he stared at the redhead. The other, gray-eyed and mischievous, laughed at the girls' exchange.

"Mate, looks like you picked yourself a real winner there," Sirius joked, nudging James in the ribs, "she can't even hold a quill right!"

"Oi!" James interjected, indignant, "she's muggleborn! Cut her some slack, she's right. We've been using quills for ages and this is the first time she's had to use one. She's really trying."

Sirius lifted his hands up in surrender. James rolled his eyes, a hint of a smile turning a corner of his mouth upwards. He got up from his seat and walked over to where Lily and Thalia sat, the former of whom still could not clearly write a word with the quill.

"Here, allow me," James said gently, gesturing with his hand that he'd like to help her. Shocked, and to be quite frank, a bit in awe, Lily nodded slowly.

After the exchange between James and Severus on the Hogwarts Express yesterday, Lily was sure James was no good. But if he really was no good, why would he help her? And she had to admit, he was rather cute…

"If you grip it like this, it should be easier to write." James placed his hand over Lily's on the quill and showed her what he meant. Lily was totally surprised; with his verbal instruction and hand guiding hers, she was writing the alphabet. Neatly. Like she would have been able to had she been using a muggle pen.

James assisted her through the alphabet, pausing when they got to the letter X. An idea popped into his head. From where he was still sitting a couple rows back, Sirius noticed a twinkle in James's eye and settled into his seat, grinning as he waited for a show.

"You know, the letter X scares me," James said casually.

Lily was beyond confused. "Why is that?" she asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows as she wondered where on earth this could be going.

"Because I never want to be yours," James winked. He took the hand that he was still guiding and brought it to his lips, placing a tender kiss on her knuckles before turning on the spot and heading back to his seat.

Lily turned bright red and sat frozen as Thalia freaked out over the events. Neither of them took note of Sirius barking out a laugh as he clapped a satisfied little James on the back.

"That was adorable! He's totally in love with you! I can't believe that just happened!" Thalia shrieked, but Lily wasn't paying attention. She was still frozen, staring at her hand and the paper, where the last thing that had been written was a bold letter X.

Whenever Lily played tic-tac-toe, she was the X.

I know it's been ages since I last wrote anything. I just had a really rough day and thought writing a bit would help, so enjoy and let me know what you think