October 1, 1977
The first Hogsmeade attempted trip was not successful because the whole school was on lockdown for the entire day, but James was still happy with what he considered to be his first date with Lily. He had not, however, asked her to Hogsmeade for the trip that was actually happening, so his entire day was dependent upon if Lily had also just assumed that they would go together. He didn't want to ask now because then he would seem irresponsible for not planning, but he feared he seemed cocky for assuming she'd want to go on another date with him anyway. Neither were good options for him, but he never found the right time for it. They were always talking about head matters and Lily didn't seem interested in fun conversation when that happened. Whichever it was, James would find out soon.
He and Lily stood in front of the prefects waiting for the last few to pile in since it was extremely early.
"Good morning everyone!" Lily greeted them warmly. "I hope you all slept well because today is going to be a long day! I'm sure after last week's fiasco, we're all still a little on edge, but I hope this trip is exactly what we all need to feel better."
"Remember your stations from last week. There will be exactly two prefects on each carriage." James started after her, they had rehearsed this a hundred times because Lily insisted it be perfect in order to prove to everybody that she was in fact the best girl to be the Head Girl despite the recent attack on Muggleborns. "I will go with the first carriage and check students and prefects off as you arrive at Hogsmeade. Lily will ride the last carriage to make sure everybody arrives safely, and when we are all accounted for, you will be on your own until 6, when you will be asked to repeat the process coming back."
"Are there any questions?" Lily smiled, glad that all the prefects had shown up on time and glad that rumors of her being unfit were dying down. "Does everybody remember their carriage assignments?"
Silence followed. Nobody spoke or raised their hands to question and third years were starting to line up behind the crowd of prefects.
"Alright then!" Lily concluded her speech as cheerily as she could. "If you need anything throughout the day, feel free to search out myself or James!"
or James... That wasn't exactly what James had been hoping for. Maybe that meant she didn't want to hang around with him today. Or maybe it was just her way of keeping their relationship out of the public eye. He didn't know, but he wasn't going to ask now. He would just embarrass himself in front of all the prefects and he had to wait on her at the carriage drop off any way, so maybe she'd get there and ask him to walk around with her or go get brunch or any number of acceptable date-esque activities.
He stood beside Lily, cracking jokes, as students lined up. They laughed and talked, neither one mentioning plans for what both hoped would become a second date.
As all the students lined up, James took the very first carriage over. Lily was much quieter after he left, speaking only to direct students where they needed to be. She smiled at everyone, hoping that nobody would take her silence as cold. She was extremely concerned about her image after the previous week though, and she needed to make sure everybody still respected -and liked- her.
Lily also feared that she had spent so much of the last week concerned about her image that James would be mad at her. He hadn't asked her out again this week, which maybe meant he didn't want to go out. She did think though, he seemed happy when she said they were dating. She hadn't thought of that as a big step because they basically spent all their time together: they had almost all the same classes, they studied together, they did rounds every morning, and they had spent last Saturday night watching movies and cuddling. Still, James hadn't said it himself and maybe he didn't feel that way anymore- why else would he not have just asked her on another date? It wasn't like he hadn't had plenty of opportunities, Lily practically forced him to practice his Hogsmeade script every day, which means he thought about it every single day and still didn't ask her out. Lily began to wonder if maybe James didn't like her anymore... Maybe as he got to know her he realized he didn't like her. Maybe she should have kissed him last Saturday. She had wondered if he was bored on that sorry excuse of a date. He had just laid and watched muggle children movies with her and she barely cuddled up to him. Surely being as popular with the girls as he was, that must've been a disappointment to not get anywhere with a girl all night.
Thoughts swirled around in her head so quickly she started to turn pale with anxiety. She didn't even know how to fix this now, but James was the first guy she'd really liked in a long time. Sure, Evan was nice, but he wasn't everything Lily wanted and she had to hide such a big part of her life from him it didn't even feel like he knew her. James was different though. He took time to listen to her and get comfortable with her and he hadn't been pushy about anything and he was smart and talented and he really seemed to care about her. Lily decided she had to at least ask James out after she got off her carriage, just to know if he was still interested in her.
The last carriage loaded, and Lily checked every person off her list. It looked as if this trip was going to go well. Everything had gone smoothly, and they were even ahead of schedule. The day started to look up for Lily, even if she didn't have solid plans yet. She climbed in herself and they pulled off to Hogsmeade like usual. All of the seventh years rode over last, so Lily was more relaxed around them than she had been all morning.
"What are your big plans today, Lil?" Sirius leaned over, insinuating that she and James had another big day planned out.
"I actually don't currently have any.." she laughed nervously, sure he knew that James didn't like her anymore.
"Oh, well Remus and I are probably going to walk around and maybe get lunch if you wanted to come with us." he shrugged.
"Well, I was hoping maybe that James would want to go out today since last week got cancelled, but I really appreciate the offer." Lily watched Sirius's face, hoping he would give away if James had diverged any information to him. "Unless of course, he doesn't want to do anything."
Sirius and Remus both laughed. "As if he doesn't want to go out with you, Evans."
"Well, he hasn't said anything all week, so I don't know..." she shrugged. "Maybe he lost interest."
"Why on earth would you believe that?" Remus laughed.
"The boy practically never shuts up about you." Sirius interjected. "Lily said hey to me today, but in a cute way. Lily's hair was up today and it looked really pretty. Lily called me a bloke and then laughed instead of rolling her eyes like always." He mocked.
Lily turned bright red. Of course, she was just being paranoid. She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't help feeling embarrassed for not realizing.
"He probably was just too nervous to ask you." Remus offered, sympathizing as much as possible. "He was so nervous last time, I'm pretty sure I didn't see him eat for two days."
Lily laughed, thankful that Remus at least didn't think she was stupid for how she felt. "I guess we'll see when we get there."
Remus and Sirius continued on, mocking James for his apparent obsession with Lily. Lily sat quiet for the rest of the ride, smiling and laughing as she found things funny, but mostly just sat uncomfortable watching out the carriage, trying not to think about if James really still did like her or not.
When they arrived, James was standing, eagerly holding the clipboard that Lily forced in to his hands earlier this week, checking students off as they got off their carriages. Prefects lined up, ready to be dismissed to have their own days.
Lily exited the carriage last and James dramatically checked her name off the list.
"Prefects, remember if you have any issues, report them directly to myself or Lily today!" he shouted in to the crowd. "You are dismissed until 6, when we will reconvene here and return to Hogwarts. Have a great day, everybody."
Lily watched him closely, smiling to herself. She grinned as he talked, watching his face, listening intently to all his voice inflections, admiring how friendly and yet still professional he was with everyone.
James turned and gave her a smirk, "What are you looking at, nerd?" he laughed, pushing her shoulder gently.
"You're a really good Head Boy." Lily nodded sincerely. "I'm really glad that Dumbledore picked you this year."
James flushed bright red and smiled as big as his mouth would stretch. "Thanks, Evans."
"You're welcome." she grinned then let her face fall to a very serious expression. "But if you ever tell anybody I said that, I'll deny it and make you look like a liar."
"Don't worry, I don't think anybody would believe me anyway." James laughed and rolled his eyes. "Where do you want to go today?"
"Oh Merlin, James..." Lily dropped her smile. "I didn't realize we were doing anything, I totally made plans."
"Oh... no worries, I'm sure Remus and Sirius are free..." He stuttered, running his hands through his hair. Maybe he lost his shot, maybe he really had missed his chance with Lily by not asking this week.
Lily laughed, almost mischievously, but still genuinely enough that James was confused.
"Are you... I'm confused."
"James, I don't have plans. I was waiting all week for you to ask me out!"
James sighed in relief. "Well, geez. You didn't have to give me a heart attack."
"Yes, but it was more fun to do that anyway." Lily laughed it off. "What did you have planned for today?"
"My plan really was," James paused and blushed, knowing how dumb he was about to sound. "to go find a new tea mug for you, since yours broke on rounds."
"You really remembered that?" Lily was touched, she hadn't had a mug in so long she had genuinely forgotten that she needed to buy a new one. That was probably one of the sweetest things a boy had ever thought of for her as a date, every other boy she had dated just stuck to generic dates, which were always fine, but there was something different about James specially thinking of that for her. It made her grin to even think about him planning a date for the two of them, but this was just more than she expected coming from James.
"Of course," He laughed. "Actually, I wasn't going to ask you out last week."
Lily's face dropped, confused and maybe a little offended. Had she been right all along? Had he lost interest?
"I wasn't going to ask you out so soon after a breakup because it just felt wrong."
This was better. Things made more sense now, but why had he brought it up unless he was second guessing himself?
"My original plan was actually to come to Hogsmeade alone on our first trip and buy you a mug in secret then ask you out when I gave it to you." He laughed, kinda nervous that maybe he had given Lily the wrong idea about how much he wanted to date her. "But then I decided I shouldn't do that either because then if you said no, I'd have some random tea mug I didn't need."
Lily laughed. "Why would I have said no?" The thought was comical. She was always flirting with him, why would he ever imagine she would say no?
"You have turned me down Merlin only knows how many times!" his jaw dropped in disbelief.
Lily laughed at him again, rolling her eyes. "But that was before."
"Before what?"
"Before you became less of an absolute prick." Lily smirked, not giving him the satisfaction of two compliments in one day.
"Oh, before I was the best Head Boy in all of Hogwarts history?" James teased her, getting closer as he mocked her earlier compliments.
"I did not say that!"
"I saw it in your eyes, Evans." he winked, "You wanted to say it."
Lily bit her lip, not sure how to respond. They were so close at this point she was almost sure he had to be aiming to kiss her, so she swung her head around, brushing across his face with her long red hair.
James stepped back, heart pounding as he realized just how close they had been. Now he was determined to make this the best date Lily had ever been on. He couldn't follow up being a flirtatious asshole with a subpar date. He'd surely never get a second date then, and Mercy, did he want as many as he could get.