Lily Evans tapped her foot on the floor, checking her watch, waiting for James in the Entrance Hall. She was anxiously wondering where exactly James was taking them for their second date. "Where is he?" she said aloud to herself. "It's 12:10! He should be here by now." She looked at her watch again.

"Should I have been?" James grinned, walking down the steps. "Lils, come on. I'm a marauder. We're always casually late! And I said around noon," James said jokingly. Lily grinned, not capable of getting mad at that face.

"So where are we going?" she asked eagerly, as he slipped his hand into hers. "You can tell me now! It's nearly time." James laughed at her eagerness, highly amused, as he had never seen Lily like this before.

"Lils, it's a surprise," he grinned, noticing her clothing. "You'll be glad you took my advice about not wearing a skirt, believe me."

Lily groaned, disappointed she couldn't know where she was going.

"I don't know if you'll be that excited when we get there," James said, as they walked across the grounds. "It'll probably only be fun for me," he smiled happily, very excited. They were quickly nearing their destination. "Alright, now close your eyes," said James, clearly finding Lily's anxiousness quite entertaining. Lily did as she was told, and James led her into their destination. "Alright, you can open them now," he said, trying, but failing, to keep the excitement out of his voice. Lily gasped, amazed, and…quite a bit confused.

"The quidditch pitch? Er…cool…but what are we going to do?" she asked James, who was messing up his hair with his fingers.

"Play quidditch, of course," he grinned as she opened her mouth in shock.

"But-but-I don't know how to play! And…don't we need more players?"

James rolled his eyes at her. "I'm the quidditch captain, Lily. People are absent all the time, so we use these stand-ins," he said as if it were quite obvious. Behind him were moving statues of humans, flying around on brooms, apparently capable of playing quidditch. Lily looked at them in awe, causing James to laugh.

"I'm horrible at flying! I can hardly keep my balance on a broom, much less zoom around with flying balls!" Lily stuttered, looking at James with nervousness. "What if I fall off my broom?"

James hugged her. "I won't let that happen, trust me," he said, giving her a reassuring look. He then gave her a broom, and took out his own. "Ready?" he asked her. Lily gave him a weak nod as she mounted her broom. They both kicked off into the air, James quite smoothly and gracefully, and Lily twirling and jerking about, trying to keep her balance, screaming the entire time. James laughed at her, apparently finding watching his girlfriend zig-zag around the sky quite entertaining. He watched her for a minute, then flew next to her. "I reckon you need some help, Lils," he said, trying quite hard to hold in his laughter, and succeeding.

She gave him an embarrassed smile and a weak nod. "I told you I was horrible at flying!" she said.

"Come off it! You're great at flying!" James lied.

"Please, James. Nice try. Don't you remember when we were in first year, in our flying lessons, and you said, 'Hey pumpkin head! Why can't you fly? That's pathetic!' and proceeded to fly around me in circles, laughing? At least afterwards you were kind enough to help me a bit with my balance, holding my hands as I flew."

James stared at her in awe. "You remember that?" He asked her. His crush on Lily had first started developing at that class, so of course he remembered it.

"Of course I do!" she exclaimed. "How could I not? That was the only time I ever actually flew straight, when you helped me."

James blushed awkwardly, remembering how he had loved to hold Lily's hands when he helped her. "Er…right. Well, I suppose I'll have to do the same thing now," he said. He grabbed Lily's hands and flew backwards, so they were facing each other in the air. Lily screamed, tilting over to one side. "It's alright," he said to her, smiling warmly. "I'm not going to let you fall. Trust me," he looked at her, and squeezed her hands reassuringly. Lily took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sat up on her broom again, allowing James to pull her along.

"So how did you come to be such a great flyer?" Lily asked him when she was calm enough to talk while they flew together.

James smiled. "I got a lot of practice at my house, and my father and I would go flying together every Saturday. I guess that's how I started to love flying."

"Lucky," she said. "Until first year, I had never learned to fly. I looked at you, spinning around me in circles on your broom, and got really jealous. Everything was new to me then. At least you knew what everything was for."

James looked down at the ground below them and grinned. "You know," he said mischievously. "This is where you hugged me earlier this year…apparently you just loved me too much to see me standing there all alone, watching Emma and Sirius snog," he teased. "You really surprised me. But it was a good surprise," he added quickly.

Lily blushed. "I surprised myself, too. Listen, James, I'm really sorry about all the things I've said to you over the years. It was horrible of me. And all those times I've slapped you…I'm just so sorry!" She looked at James apologetically.

James smiled at her awkwardly. "Well, that did hurt a bit…" he said in false complaining tone. "But…." He grinned. "I'll forgive you. How could I not forgive you, Lily? The only thing that matters is that we are together now." Lily smiled at him, relieved that he had accepted her apology. They kept flying around the quidditch pitch, Lily still tightly grasping James' hands, as though they were the only thing that kept her from falling off her broom, causing James' hands to grow increasingly white under her pressure. Neither of them wanted to let go of each other's hands. They flew like this for quite a while, until Lily spoke.

"You're my first boyfriend, you know," she said, hiding her face in her hair, obviously embarrassed about this fact.

James nearly fell off his broom in shock. "I AM? Seriously? Your first boyfriend? I can't believe that." Lily merely nodded at him, confirming this statement, still hiding her face in her hair. James saw how embarrassed this fact made her, and smiled. "Well then. At least I don't have to live up to any expectations! And anyways, I know for a fact that loads of boys like you, they were just always too afraid of me hexing them to ask you." Lily blushed, and smiled, allowing her face to come back into view, amazed that she had such a sweet and understanding boyfriend, who would not rub it in that she was not his first girlfriend. "Just wondering though…how am I doing as a boyfriend? Am I good enough to be your first boyfriend? Respectful enough? Just so mum can know back home…" James joked, and grinned.

Lily smiled at him. "You're doing absolutely wonderful. Perfect. Really, I mean that!" James looked up at her sheepishly. "I'm very glad I just cut to the chase and found you," she said. And she meant it.

"Right then. Lily, I think you're ready to play quidditch now. At least now I think you'll be able to keep your balance," James grinned. Quidditch with his girlfriend, who could hardly fly, was going to be pretty interesting.

Lily looked up at him nervously. "WHAT?" she said, shocked and quite afraid.

"Quidditch, Evans, Quidditch. It's a wizard sport played on brooms…" James teased her. "You'll be fine! Honest! I won't let you fall!"

Lily gulped, then nodded her head weakly. "Er…al-alright," she said. She looked at James, who was staring at her with this huge smirk on his face. He was obviously extremely amused by her anxiousness to play quidditch, and her unability to fly, he was just too much of a gentleman to say so. For the first few games, they each played seekers on opposing teams, James catching the snitch in minutes, while Lily just struggled to keep hold of her broom. Soon James took pity on her, and let her catch the snitch first (which she was quite unaware of). They played various positions against each other, until the last game. James played seeker and Lily played chaser for the same team, against the stand-ins (which were really quite good, Lily thought. Little did she know that James had set them on 'easy mode' for her). Lily did not do so well as chaser. She dropped the quaffle quite frequently when one of the stand-in chasers on her team passed it to her. The other team was winning by quite a lot of points, until James caught the snitch (he waited for a while, letting his girlfriend try to score, before catching it easily). They each pulled into a dive, heading towards the ground, when Lily started slipping off the front of her broom from the force of the dive. Just as she was falling off her broom, James dove directly underneath her, and caught her, scooping her into his arms. James grinned at her, and she smiled shakily in return. "I told you I wasn't going to let you fall," he said. They landed on the ground safely and softly.

"Thanks," Lily whispered to him, still in his arms, not wanting to leave them.

James smiled down at her, holding her happily. "No problem."

However, Lily thought it was some sort of problem. To have to dive down and catch someone? And keep them in your arms as you dive to the ground? It sounded rather difficult to her.

James stared at her, looking into those deep green eyes. He smiled mischievously. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you not to wear a tight short skirt."

Lily blushed, and rolled her eyes. Men sometimes, she thought.

James was still staring at her. "You know," he said. "We could…er…relive that time you hugged me here…but maybe with a little more…oomph?" he grinned, his eyes twinkling at the thought. "And without you calling me a git?"

Lily smiled. "Alright. Sure," she said shyly, blushing like mad. James, however, remained calm and collective, not at all mortified by the thought of kissing his girlfriend.

James let Lily down from his arms, and made sure she was standing steadily. Then he leaned in to Lily, inches away from her face. "Did you like our second date?" he asked her.

Lily smiled in return. "It was great. Thanks for helping me fly." With that, she leaned in closer to him wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and kissed him (for a very long time). As she did that, a familiar warmth passed through her body, making her melt. She did not want to stop kissing James, nor did James want her to. James finally felt whole. After all those years of asking Lily out, he finally got her. James turned his head up to the sky and groaned. He slowly and grudgingly pulled away from Lily.

"It's almost dark. We've got to go inside." James pulled Lily out of the pitch, and stared into her eyes all the way back to Hogwarts.