Snow fell softly outside the Potter mansion on Christmas Eve, making the dwelling look like a Christmas card. A boy with messy black hair sat at the window, staring at the winter wonderland that he beheld. A sigh escaped him.
"Oy, James, what's the matter?" his best friend, Sirius Black, his handsome face full of worry.
James only answered with another sigh. A beautiful girl with fiery-red hair and emerald green eyes swam to the surface of his mind, a sweet smile on her face.
"It's a girl, isn't it?" Sirius asked knowingly. "Which girl?"
"Isn't it obvious?" James answered. "Which girl is the only girl worthy of my attention?"
"Well, McKinnon isn't bad looking, Meadowes isn't really a catch, but Remus seems to like her a lot, Vance is pretty nice looking too, Merrythought is off-limits, considering she's Frank's girlfriend, Evans. . . well Evans, even though she is quite, well, gorgeous, is too much of a fireball for me to handle--"
James groaned and put his head in his hands at this last girl. "Was Evans really the last one you thought of?" his muffled voice asked.
"Yeah," Sirius replied uncertainly. "Why's that so important?"
"She's only the most gorgeous girl in the school," James croaked.
"Well, mate, you must've noticed that I put the best in the very front and very back. McKinnon and Evans are the best-looking girls in the year," Sirius replied cheerily.
"How can you compare McKinnon to Evans? Evans is obviously the prettier of the two."
"You don't need to get all defensive, mate," Sirius said, holding up his hands like a shield. "Just because I don't think of the girl you fancy first, you can't try to beat me to a pulp or anything."
"I wasn't going to," James mumbled. He was obviously to listless to even stand a chance against Sirius.
"Well, if you fancy her so much that she makes you miserable, why don't you tell her? Turn on the old Potter charm, as it were?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes twinkling.
"I can't," James replied.
"Why the hell not?" Sirius asked, alarmed.
"She hates me. She always glares at me and she doesn't really talk to me much."
"Oh, she's just shy," Sirius replied. "I mean, come one, a catch like you is enough to make all of the girls in this school weak in the knees. If you let one of them know that they were lucky and that you fancied them, they'd faint. Any girl in the school would, except for those sixth and seventh years who would feel as though they were robbing the cradle."
"Yeah," James replied, lightening up. "She's only trying not to let me know of her affections for me, because she's so afraid that I don't like her back!"
"Yeah!" Sirius encouraged him.
"She's so lucky that a Quidditch star like me fancies her. . .I should write her a letter right now!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Sirius cried, jumping between James and his owl. "You can't be too eager, mate! She'll think you're in love with her or something and expect an engagement ring by seventh year!"
"I wouldn't mind marrying Lily," James replied dreamily.
"Still, you can't frighten her away by making her think that you're obsessed with her," Sirius pressed.
"Well, if obsessed is daydreaming about her all of the time, I guess you could say I am," James replied.
"Yes, but that would frighten a girl away, or annoy her after awhile."
"I can see where you're going."
"Also, don't call her by her first name. Always call her Evans, at least, until you finally get her. If you ask her out and call her Evans, she'll think that maybe it's her only chance since you're not even calling her by her first name."
James thought a minute. "And you're sure this plan is foolproof?" he asked skeptically.
"Well, think of how many girls I've snagged before; you tell me," Sirius replied, grinning wickedly.
James thought about it. "Okay."
"Oy, Evans!" James called across the Potions dungeon.
"What?" she hissed. "I'm trying to make a Remembrance Solution, like you're supposed to be doing!"
James grinned, letting this remark roll right off of his back. "Go out with me? Hogsmeade's coming up next weekend."
"No, Potter," Lily replied. "I can't believe you interrupted my potion-making to ask me that." Professor Slughorn grinned as he watched from his desk.
Although she's Muggleborn, she's definitely a good choice for the Slug Club, he thought, chuckling to himself.
Who does he think he is, Prince Charles? Lily thought to herself. Well, Prince Charles isn't as handsome as him, but that's not the point. The nerve of interrupting my Remembrance Solution to ask me out, when he probably is just playing a prank. . . so rude. And she went back to working on her potion, smiling to herself about how she had wiped that smirk right off of his smug face.
"What was that about?" Marlene asked curiously.
"Nothing. Potter just asked me out. I said no," Lily said, not looking up from her assignment.
"What?" Marlene asked, her brown eyes wide.
"I'd rather not talk about it," Lily hissed.
"Okay, Sirius, that didn't work according to plan," James said irritably.
"Well, it looks like she's one of those girls who likes to play hard-to-get. Now, you can be more aggressive," Sirius replied.
"But I thought we didn't want her to think that I'm obsessed," James said, scratching his head and messing up his hair more than it already was.
"Yes, but playing hard-to-get is something that some girls do so that the guy will be more aggressive and therefore, the girl will know that the guy wants her. It's one of those things that girls do specifically just to drive us all mad."
"Alright," James replied, thinking about his next plan of attack. "Maybe I can ask her next time in front of all of her friends."
"She'd never be able to say no," said Sirius, smirking.
"That's not a good idea," Remus muttered from behind his cauldron.
"Whatever you say, Remus," James said tonelessly. Then, turning to Sirius, "How does at lunch sound?"
"Tomorrow at lunch," Sirius replied. "Let her think about it all night. It'll drive her batty and she'll just have to say yes."
And so began the vicious cycle of James asking out Lily and Lily saying no.
A/N I don't know if I want to make this into a prequel to my Musical Bouquet or if I just want to do this as a oneshot. Don't worry, all of you that think that the musical aspect of it takes away from the story, this wouldn't be a musical. So, Review and tell me. I'd love to know what you think!