January 2 - Remus
Write about a time someone said no.
It was the night before classes resumed again and the Common Room was packed. There was a fervent, sweaty quality to the air as almost everyone fifth year and older raced through all of the work which they had put off during the break. Not excluded from this (unsurprisingly) were myself and the other three Marauders and (more surprisingly) Lily Evans.
She was sitting just across the room from us, with several girls and Frank Longbottom, all of whom were as absorbed as she was. She was seated, unfortunately, right in James' line of vision, and even though I flicked him in the ear every time he looked up at her, he couldn't help himself.
We had all stopped being irritated, for the most part, with his infatuation years ago. It was just another facet to his personality, his devotion to Lily, and there wasn't anything to be done with it. Like how Sirius always bullied Wormtail when he was upset about anything – it wasn't him in his best light, but it was inevitable.
We also understood the appeal, to a point. She was pretty, she was smart. She said no every time, and James loved things he had to work for. (It's why he pulled pranks. School was too easy for him, came too naturally.) But it really was beginning to border on insanity.
Sure, she had opened up a little to him. They even went to Sluggy's Christmas Party together. But since then it wasn't like she'd give him the time of day. He was staring, lovesickeningly, across the room at her and she didn't even look up. The first thing he did when he took out a blank sheet of parchment was to doodle her initials on the upper right hand corner and she had to be asked three times at dinner before she realized he was talking to her, and would pass him the pumpkin juice.
"You're drooling," Sirius informed James, looking up from his parchment to stretch.
"Funny Padfoot," snapped James back.
"You are staring," offered Peter.
"I realize," said James, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face.
"She's coming this way," I observed, and she was, apparently finished with her work. We were sitting between her and the girl's dormitory, so it stood to reason that she was headed upstairs to bed.
"Lilyflower!" James cried, shoving his glasses back onto his face.
"Goodnight James," she replied firmly, a small smile on her face.
"Will you go out with me?" he asked, and she didn't even flinch.
"No James. I'm too tired."
"Tomorrow then," he said, smiling at her, and she just shook her head and went upstairs as we returned to work, shaking our heads as well.