Disclaimer: All belongs to Ms. Rowling. Except for the plot.
Also, I'm Sorry
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily.
"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," said James earnestly.
"Take the curse off him, then!"
James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the counter curse.
"There you go," he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus—"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Lily blinked. "Fine," she said coolly. "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."
"Apologize to Evans!" James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.
"I don't want you to make him apologize," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're as bad as he is..."
"What?" yelped James. "I'd NEVER call you a—you-know-what!"
"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can—I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."
She turned on her heel and hurried away.
"Evans!" James shouted after her, "Hey, EVANS!"
But she didn't look back.
-Order of the Phoenix, US edition, pp. 648
James groaned and sank back onto the ground. "What did I do wrong this time, Remus?" He looked instinctively toward the Marauders' relationships guru.
"Well, for one," Remus said, looking amused, "you still can't seem to find it within yourself to call her Lily, not Evans. The birth certificate never lies, Prongs.." James shrugged.
"Yeah, well, besides that. You tell me that every single time." Remus snorted.
"That's because you always do the same things wrong..." Remus sighed in defeat. "You know what, you're a lost case." Sirius and Peter gasped dramatically; Remus had never given up on a relationship before...James's case must really be hopeless... "Just go talk to the girl."
James eyes widened. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea..." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Just do it. Moony is never wrong." James smirked.
"And yet he doesn't have a girlfriend either, do ya, Moony?"
Remus promptly pushed him into the lake.
It turned out that even though James didn't want to admit it, he knew that Remus was right, as always. He also knew for a fact that every Sunday, at midnight, Lily snuck up to the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars.
So James decided that he would ambush her on her way up. At eleven-thirty the next Sunday night, James donned his cloak and climbed up the spiral staircase. He reached the top of the tower, and sat down in a corner, waiting.
At five to twelve, James heard footsteps on the stairs. It was Lily, of course. She went to the edge of the balcony of sorts, and looked at the sky. Everyone who knew her well knew that she wanted to be an astronomer, and, as James had spied on her every waking moment since the stage where he began to fully appreciate girls and accepted that they didn't have cooties (third year), he knew that too.
He walked up slowly behind her, leaving the Invisibility Cloak where he had been sitting not a moment before, and softly rested his palm on her shoulder. She let out half a shriek before James clapped a hand over her mouth. He spun her around. Her large, celery-colored eyes were wide open. As soon as they landed on his face, and she could decipher his features through the darkness, they narrowed in dislike.
"Potter," she hissed, "what the hell are you doing here?"
James promptly forgot all the warnings Remus had beaten into his mind about not being rude or big-headed. "Just came to bother you, Evans."
Lily let out a little scream. "What is wrong with your head, Potter! How can you ask me to go out with you, and the next minute you're being a right little git."
"Well, I'm just so sexy most of the other girls can't resist me..." growled James seductively. "You're just a challenge to me...nothing more."
"Bastard."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Lily began to pace. "Alright, in first and second years, you weren't so bad. You were at least slightly civil, and occasionally you or I would strike up a conversation and actually—wait for it!—and actually enjoy it. Why is that suddenly so hard for you?"
James grimaced. "Because you're so beautiful." He decided he might as well be truthful.
"Stop it, Potter! Stop it! Stop playing games. We're not little kids anymore, if you hadn't noticed. Well, maybe you're just about as mature as a little kid, but that's no excuse. Either fix your attitude or bugger off!"
James just smiled slightly. "Feisty, this one. One of the reasons I like you so much."
"Have I mentioned that you're an arrogant, disgusting, pig-headed jerk? Because if I hadn't, I just did. And if I had, just add that to the ever-growing list of descriptions of how incredibly stupid you are."
James pretended to think about it. "As a matter of fact, I think you've mentioned it once. Or twice. Or more than that...actually, now that I think about, I believe that you've said it so many times that it is permanently beaten into my brain. Can I go now?" Lily looked ready to hit him.
"You're the one who came up in the first place, idiot!"
"You came up here after me, if you recall."
"How could you have came up before me! I would have seen you!"
"That's for me to know, and for you to find out," James said with a grin. "Or not."
Lily slapped him. Hard.
"Ow! Evans...Lily, has anyone ever told you that you have amazingly strong muscles. That was exceedingly painful."
"Actually," Lily said coolly, "I don't normally hit people."
"So you're saying that you saved that for me?"
"Take it however you want, Potter."
"I'm touched."
"Don't be." Lily reached the top of the stairs, then looked back over her shoulder. "Oh, and Potter?"
"Ev—Lily?"
"Why did you come up here in the first place? I have a feeling that it wasn't just to bother me..." James shrugged.
"It was."
"Fine then." Lily started down the stairs. James grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
"What, Potter?" James studied his feet.
"Also," he mumbled, "Also, I'm sorry."
Lily couldn't believe her ears. "Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry, okay Lily? I'm sorry!"
"I don't think I've ever heard you say that...you seem to be making progress. You call me by my first name and say the "S word" in the same sentence." James's eyes lit up. Lily hurriedly corrected herself. "But you're still a slimy twit." James didn't seem to care.
"So, will you go out with me now?" Lily could feel a smile playing around the edges of her lips. Alright, he was arrogant, but Snape had been asking for it...
"Maybe," she said. "Maybe sometime soon." She planted a kiss on his cheek, and continued down the stairs, not believing what she just did. It must be that it's too late...
James called down after her as soon as he regained his voice. "How soon?" She truly smiled now.
"Soon."
Well?