Ways to Ask Out Miss Lily Evans

By: neen

Author's note: James gets sick…Poor thing…this is almost the end! So sad!

Hope you all like this! Please review as well…(I accept anonymous reviews, so no need to login if you don't want to…and guests, you can review now too!)

Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven: Poor Prongs

James woke up with a fever and began coughing loudly. He groaned. On top of everything, he had a headache as well. He had gotten himself sick. Great. The only good thing was that it was the weekend, and he didn't have any lessons. As for the homework…well, who cared?

He sat up in his bed and sighed. It was his sixth year and he still hadn't been able to capture Lily's heart. Things were getting out of hand. It didn't help much for the fact that he was running out of ideas or as Remus called them, 'tactics' to win her over. Life wasn't as swell as it used to be.

It was interesting. For the past few days, James had been feeling somewhat weird. For one, every time he hexed the person who turned the corridor before Charms, he didn't feel a lot of excitement, like he used to. He didn't hex Snivellus as much as he used to and his pranking ideas had fallen behind. He didn't know what had gotten into him. Finally, last night, Remus came up with an idea that might explain what had changed him. Lily. Remus suggested that James had actually fallen in love with Lily and because Lily wasn't his, he was moping around and wasn't enjoying his favorite things to do.

Last night, James had argued with Remus. Love? He had scoffed. Sure, he had a crush on Lily, but love? That was taking it a bit too far, he had said.

But as he woke up this morning, sick, but his mind clearer than ever before, he knew. Remus was right. He had somehow fallen in love with her. Weird. The mere fact made him feel older, more mature in a really crazy way.

Sirius had woken up. "Morning, Prongs! Let's get going for some early Quidditch practice!"

"Noo, don't make me—I'm sick, I have a fever, I have a headache, and I don't want to get out of my comfy, warm bed with my nice, fluffy pink pillow—noo," James moaned, stuffing his head under his pillow before coughing again.

Sirius dressed into his Quidditch uniforms and said casually, "Well, I heard that Evans is coming to the game next Saturday and well, you know, if you really don't want to go practice now and if you make a bloody fool of yourself next weekend, well, suit yourself."

James sat up. "Really?"

"That's what I heard dear Prongsie. But I do have excellent hearing, now don't I?" Sirius said delicately, straightening his robes.

"I'm dressing—meet you out in the field in ten minutes," James said as Sirius walked out of the room, twirling his broom expertly.

"See you there," Sirius called back, grinning to himself. James was a lovesick fool.

Fever or not, James was out there in the Quidditch field in exactly eight minutes and forty-two seconds.

"That was a record, Prongsie!" Sirius said, grinning as James came sprinting over with his broom. (stupid, he could have flown…wait…I could've wrote that…oops?)

"Thanks—must—practice—in—case—she—shows—up!" James managed to get out between breaths and coughs.

"Ah, I thought so," Sirius nodded knowingly and released a Bludger and a Quaffle.

The two balls immediately flew in the air, nearly knocking together, and Sirius and James zoomed closely behind them.

o.O.o.O.o

"Do you think I'll impress her any today?" James asked desperately before coughing violently.

"Relax, Prongsie! Why haven't you gone to see dear old Poppy yet? She can cure that in a minute—don't be stupid, Prongs. Go before the game, all right?" Sirius asked, looking at James who was feeling somewhat faint.

"I'm fine! I can't make a fool of myself right before the game! I'm fine, really!" James said, irritated, as he polished his broom handle absently.

"And the Annual Gryffindor versus Slytherin game will begin in approximately five minutes! Players, please report to the field!" the commentator burst out.

James paled slightly. "I'll be fine…I hope."

Sirius gave him a pat on his back. "There, there, dear Prongsie! Where did your confidence go?"

"Evans stole most of it," James replied dully and the two went off for the field.

During the game, James could not concentrate properly. He kept seeing zooming balls but he couldn't seem to catch any of them. Once or twice, he saw a flash of red and knew that Lily was sitting at the very front, able to watch his every move. His broom was getting slippery from his sweat and he strained to look for the Quaffle to score.

Suddenly, he noticed a Bludger shooting straight for a red-headed girl. Lily, he thought desperately. He shot a look at Sirius, who was off gloriously battling another Bludger and knew the other Beater, Howards, wouldn't get there in time. Without hesitation, he did a brave, but very stupid act. He zoomed in front of the Bludger and used himself to block the Bludger.

His fall seemed to take the longest time. He knew that at least two of his ribs were cracked and on top of his coughing, it was nearly impossible to breathe.

Finally, he crashed to the ground with a sickening thud.

o.O.o.O.o

"Oh dear. Poor Prongs. I think he thought that the girl was Lily or something—he wouldn't have risked his life for some other girl," Remus said softly, looking at the terrible state James was in.

"I told him to go see Poppy to cure his cough. Idiot. Stupid, lovesick idiot," Sirius muttered as guilt swallowed him up. He should have seen the Bludger and gone to help out. He should have looked around to see where the other one went.

"At least he has a new admirer now," Peter said stupidly, looking longingly at the mountain of sweets the redhead he had saved had sent him. (I hope he eats it all and snuffs it, or worse—I mean, even better—the candy's hexed with things like Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and then he dies or something…haha, sorry)

Immediately Sirius and Remus began yelling at him, as they were fed up with his lack of sensitivity and his stupidity.

"—If you're talking about that stupid bimbo redhead—"

"—Meredith Everson, third year—"

"—Who's always had a crush on Prongs—"

"—And is now worshiping his every move—well, not every move right now, he can't exactly move, but—"

"—Besides, Prongsie doesn't give a damn about that girl—"

"—He likes Lily. He wouldn't care about anyone else—"

"—And if you're saying that you want those sweets—"

"—Are you saying that you think Prongs is lucky to have nearly died to get them?—"

"No, no! I'm sorry—I didn't mean anything!" Peter squeaked out, terrified, moving away from the sweets.

James let out a small moan of pain, breaking the tension.

"Prongsie, buddy, you all right? It's all my fault—I should have checked around and told Howards to go after it," Sirius said mournfully.

"Prongs, that was very brave of you to save her," Remus said quietly.

"She—she's all right?" James coughed.

"Yeah, Evers—"Sirius began but Remus quickly stepped on his toe, shutting him up.

"Yes, Evans is all right," Remus covered up.

"But don't you usually call her Lily, Moony?" James asked, looking confused.

"Er, yeah, I was just finishing what Padfoot was saying—he needed to ah, tie his shoes," Remus lied, nudging Sirius in the ribs.

"Oof! Erm—yeah, what Moony said," Sirius said, nodding, as he clutched his side in pain, forcing a smile. Then he bent down and rummaged around his shoe, which were lace-free.

"Just a nickname you know, Evers—Evans," Sirius shrugged as he lied pathetically. It was a good thing that James was too relieved to notice.

"That's good—as long as Evans is all right," James tried to sigh, relieved, but it turned into a hacking cough.

Sirius and Remus shot each other a guilty look before Sirius said in a hoarse voice, "Have a good resting—I mean sleeping—erm—well, just erm—rest up, all right? So you can see Eva—Evers," Sirius said hastily, looking away.

"That's right—so I can see Evans's grateful face when she sees me—I can see it—she's on her knees, begging me to let her be my girlfriend. She looks so happy. Maybe she'll give me a kiss for being her audacious hero," James said, smiling a bit before falling into a blissful sleep.

Sirius looked like he was about to snort as James said the word 'audacious', then adding something like, 'I didn't realize that you could say three syllable words,' but he decided that he didn't want to break James's happy mood. He sighed.

"Poor Prongs," Remus sighed as well as they left James in the Hospital Wing to sleep undisturbed.

o.O.o.O.o

"That was really quite unlike him back there. I would have thought the first thing that popped out of his mouth would be asking for the game results. Thank Merlin Covington (the Gryffindor seeker) managed to find the Snitch in time, or else we would have lost without Prongs scoring. Talking of which, Prongs was kind of out of it, don't you think? He couldn't seem to find the Quaffle much," Sirius said thoughtfully, pondering as he scratched his chin absently, while the two walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. Peter had gone somewhere else after the two ranted at him.

"I was watching from the grounds. He didn't seem to be doing much effort—once, there was this Quaffle just sitting right next to his broom, and he didn't pick it up—didn't even notice it—But he did look really sick," Remus added, walking slightly slower to allow Sirius to catch up.

"I know. It's all my fault. He said he was really sick that day I made him go out to practice with me. I should have let him rest or something. It's all my bloody fault," Sirius moaned, letting the guilt swallow him up, stooping against a wall.

"Padfoot, it's all right, get up. You know that Prongs wouldn't blame you," Remus said, trying to assure him as he pulled him up.

"Which is why I feel even worse. I only hope that Evans will play along to the story that he saved her and not that stupid fluff—Everson, or else Prongs is going to be so mad, he'll knock his 'I love Lily' knickers off," Sirius groaned as they kept walking until they finally arrived at the Common Room.

Author's note:

Aww…I think one chapter, and I'll be done. Then…sequel! Wahoo! Be prepared, there's going to be a really long author note next time…sob

Thanks you guys.

Reviewers:

: phantom radio : hmm…it seems that left you out of my reviews—you only showed up in my emails…anyways, thanks, and I'll be waiting!

: IamSiriusGrl : Thanks.

: Auramistealia : You poor thing! That must have been a living nightmare…I suppose that that's one memory you wouldn't mind if you forgot? But that was excellent with the part you whacking him with your locker door…I can just imagine it…I might take a leaf out of your book sometime! And as for Prince Charming…I have no idea…mine hasn't seemed to arrive either…sigh..

: cylobaby : Yeah, I know, Sirius should have won, gosh…Sirius's a hottie! Hehe, thanks.

I have a new story up called the Room of Requirement...I need to know if I should continue it or not and it's another read for until I post the final chapter of Ways to Ask Out Miss Lily Evans...I hope you enjoy it! Thanks.