Author's Note: Sorry that it's been taking me so long to update. I've had a lot of work to be done. Once college applications are done life will be so much easier. Anyway, enjoy this chapter and please review!

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Will You, Miss Evans?

2: In which Lily gets upset

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"Sirius, I have the reservations!" James shouted as he entered his flat holding up a sheet of parchment.

Sirius strolled out of the kitchen and briskly grabbed the parchment from James' hands. He read it over once and then handed it back to James.

"What do you think?" James asked eagerly. "Do you think that she'll like it? Do you think that it'll make her say yes?"

Sirius grabbed the paper back and slowly began to smile. "You're taking her to Bermuda."

James smiled dreamily. "It'll be wonderful there. The weather will be perfect. I'll get to see Lily in her bathing suit. I'm going to take her diving and then at sunset when we're drying off on the beach, I'll propose."

Sirius watched James, who continued to smile with the same dreamy expression. "The hotel is nice, right?"

"Of course, four stars," James replied smoothly. "It has a spa."

"Brilliant." Sirius smirked. "What are you planning on doing about the beds?"

"I got two twin beds of course."

Sirius looked at James as if he were Malfoy. "Twin beds? And you're proposing? Merlin, haven't you shagged her just once yet?"

"No," James began uneasily.

"You mean you've been telling the truth?"

"Yes." James looked at Sirius hesitantly.

"This wasn't just some noble thing to keep Lily's innocence protected?"

"No."

Sirius still looked flabbergasted. "I don't think I'll ever understand you, Prongs. You could have any girl you wanted, and any girl would gladly shag you. Then you chose Lily, Miss Hard-to-Get, and when you finally get together she doesn't even shag you. Sometimes I wonder how you can be my best mate."

James just glared at Sirius. "It's not a matter of her letting me shag her, Sirius."

Sirius contemplated what James said for a minute before finally continuing. "I hope you really love her."

James simply smiled back.

XXX

"So, what do you think?" James asked, slightly uneasy, after Lily's hesitant reaction to his trip. It wasn't as if he had just expected her to fall into his arms and gush about how excited she was about this trip and how romantic it all was.

Okay, so James had hoped that he would get a happy reaction out of her. But Lily seemed fixed on just staring at the paper as if she were internally conflicted with her answer.

"Lily?" James asked once again.

"It's all very sweet of you, James," Lily began. "But we can't do this. What would my parents think?"

"You know, I don't think that they'd mind…" James trailed off thinking of Lily's father telling him about how lucky he'd be, and how he couldn't just simply ask Lily to marry him, it wouldn't be what she wanted.

"You're joking." James looked up to find Lily giving him a very angry glance.

"I wasn't really," James started before deciding to shut his mouth based on Lily's angry look.

"I know this is just some attempt to woo me so that I'll shag you."

"Lily, it's not like that, I ordered twin beds in the hotel room."

"James, my parents don't know that. You know that I'm waiting for marriage. I can't just go on a trip to Bermuda with you. My parents will think that we're shagging."

"I'm not just trying to shag you, Lily!"

"Well then what's this all about?"

The simple question caused such a dilemma that James was afraid he wasn't going to be able to keep his secret much longer. He looked at Lily's flushed face and settled on shrugging his shoulders. "I thought maybe you'd like to try diving off the coast. It's really beautiful. You can see a lot of fish."

Lily didn't soften to that explanation. In fact, she looked even more frightened than she had before, which wasn't a good sign.

"Flower," James began.

"James, I'm scared to death of the ocean. I thought you knew that."

James tried to recall the moment that Lily had confessed that she was terrified of the ocean. All he could remember was the one time that they went into Muggle London and went to the aquarium. Lily had smiled at all the fish and told him that she loved them. James cringed as he remembered standing next to the Thames River afterward and looking across the water at Big Ben, Lily had said that she hated the idea of swimming beyond small wading pools.

"I think I'm remembering now." James finally was brave enough to open his eyes.

"I'm sorry, James."

"It's alright, Lily. It was a stupid idea."

James stood up to leave. He gave Lily a fleeting smile and Apparated from her flat rather quickly.

"Bloody hell," Lily sighed.

XXX

James finally gathered enough courage to lift his face from his hands after his horrible story of what had happened with Lily. He was greeted with Arabella, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all watching him with amused faces.

"James, you should forget trying to make it fancy and just ask her," Remus suggested, earning a shove from Sirius.

"I can't believe that none of you felt the need to think that Lily may not want to just go on a romantic tryst off to some island with James. She has a job, not to mention what both of your parents would think," Arabella scolded.

"Both of our parents know what I'm doing!"

"Proposing doesn't require whisking Lily away to some tropical island, James. I agree with Remus, you should just ask her up front. She'd like that more."

Sirius looked at Arabella as if he had never seen her before in his life.

"I still think that you should go for something more extravagant. Bella, you know that's what you'd want." Sirius smiled.

"I'm not Lily," Arabella responded.

James just looked between his friends before finally sighing and asking, "Sirius, what do you think that I should do next?"

Remus, Arabella, and Peter all simultaneously rolled their eyes, but James and Sirius were already too enthralled with their next scheme of how to propose to Lily.

"James, why won't you just ask her?" Arabella finally questioned.

"Sirius is right. Lily's really special; I need to ask her in a way that will outshine whatever anyone else has ever done for her."

"I think by proposing you're already surpassing what most people have done," Arabella joked.

"Hey," James began as he gestured between Sirius and Arabella. "Do you two want these reservations? I don't want them to just go to waste."

"Yes!" Sirius and Arabella both exclaimed as they lunged for the tickets.

"I'm expecting to be paid back for those!" James shouted as Sirius and Arabella bounded out of the room to go plan their romantic vacation.

James, Remus, and Peter were the only ones left at the table.

"Prongs, just ask her," Remus pleaded. "You'll save yourself a lot of trouble."

James just waved Remus' comment off. "Sorry, Moony, I would have given you the tickets, but you're not shagging her either."

James smirked as he got up from the table and with a quick wave, Apparated away before Remus could reply.

XXX

"How much further are we planning to hike?" Lily asked James.

In an attempt to take Lily to some magical place, that was not where they usually were, he had settled for what he thought was a small mountain. The plan was to spend the day on a nice hike and when they would reach the top of the mountain, preferably at sunset, James was going to propose. Lily, shocked by the question and the gorgeous view, would have to say yes.

"I'm not sure. I hadn't expected it to take this long," James mumbled as he continued to hike while glancing nervously up at the sky. The golden colors were beginning to make their way through the blue and James was becoming anxious. The top seemed nowhere near and it was already sunset.

Lily sat down. "I can't go any further. This is mad, James. Why are we doing this?"

"Lily, just look at all the nature," James tried to begin, but Lily stopped him from continuing.

"James, I'm hungry and tired. We've been hiking all day and it's going to be dark soon. Why won't you just tell me what we're doing here? This isn't some prank is it? Because if it is, you will seriously regret it when I hex you off this bloody mountain."

James had the decency to look sorry. "We're almost to the top. Don't you want to at least see the view?"

Lily took a moment but nodded her head in agreement and the two continued walking up the mountain. The uncomfortable silence continued all the way until they had finally reached the top.

James turned to face Lily. Clearly noting that the sun had long gone down and that the small sliver of the moon was shining bright in the black sky.

"So what do you think?" James winced. Noticing that the view was no longer visible in the black that surrounded them.

"James," Lily sighed. "You dragged me up this mountain all day. I'm still hungry. I'm still tired. And to top it all off the view that was supposed to be so spectacular can't be seen. I want to know what is going on!"

James blinked. He had to think of some excuse quickly. He very well couldn't propose to Lily when she was as angry about the adventure. He didn't want her to remember being angry when James asked her to marry him. Come to think of it, her being angry probably would not help his chances of her saying yes. He had to think of something quick before she hexed him off the mountain. She had threatened him earlier and he wouldn't doubt it.

"Lily, I just thought that maybe you'd like to do something different for a change."

James must have looked so pathetic and hurt about the whole event that Lily didn't press it anymore. She just looked up at the night sky to see all the stars twinkling down at her.

"There's the Big Dipper."

James smiled at Lily. "I'm sorry, Lils. I didn't mean for it to be such a mess."

"I know."

James hugged Lily softly. "Let's just Apparate you back home."

Within a moment the mountain was left empty, except for the stars twinkling down from the velvety sky.

XXX

Arabella, Sirius, and Remus looked at James as if he were mad. James squirmed in his seat.

"James, you prat, that would have been so romantic, alone up on a mountain at night where you could see the stars perfectly. How could you have not proposed?" Arabella asked.

James winced again. "It was bad enough being there; I don't need reminders of what I did wrong."

"Why didn't you take the opportunity? It would have been perfect!" Arabella pressed.

"I just didn't feel right," James tried to explain.

"It seemed pretty right to me," Sirius responded.

"How would you know? You were in Bermuda," James snapped back, not happy to have people who weren't involved telling him that he had done something wrong.

"It sounded romantic." Arabella smiled.

"It wasn't romantic! Lily was upset with me. I had dragged her up the mountain all day without an explanation and she wasn't very happy to be up there and not be able to see the view that I had promised her. I didn't think it was the best idea to propose while she was angry with me."

"James, I think if you would have proposed she would have forgotten that she was angry with you," Arabella suggested. Sirius and Remus nodded in agreement.

"I just couldn't do it. I don't know why." James let his head drop on the table. "Why is this so complicated?"

"It doesn't have to be complicated," Arabella huffed. "You're just making it that way."

"Not intentionally!" James retorted.

"Why don't you try proposing to her when you're comfortable? Being someplace that you've never been can't make it any easier, especially since you can't guess her reaction," Arabella suggested.

Suddenly an idea formed in James' mind that was so perfect that he knew he couldn't sit at the table trying to figure out what went wrong a minute longer.

James quickly ran out of the flat mumbling something that sounded surprisingly like 'Quidditch' under his breath.

"Oh Merlin, no," Arabella pleaded, wincing at the thought of James trying to propose while playing Quidditch.

XXX

Lily smiled as the wind wove its fingers through her long red hair. The sun was streaming down from a crisp patch of blue sky that was a sight for sore eyes. It had been cloudy and miserable lately because of all the rain, and seeing the sun was certainly a pleasant surprise for Lily.

"Watch out!" James shouted from across the pitch. Lily quickly swerved her broom to the side allowing James' Quaffle to slip right through the makeshift hoop.

Lily sent James a halfhearted glare. At first she had been rather reluctant to join James on his sudden need to play Quidditch, but as the day had dragged on and the sun had burst through the clouds Lily felt that there was no place she'd rather be than flying hundreds of feet above the ground. There was nothing quite like being so disassociated from the earth to make you feel as if you had no worries in life whatsoever.

James flew up next to Lily and eyed her cautiously. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

Lily flashed James a brilliant smile. "Of course."

"It's just, we hadn't played Quidditch in a while, and I was beginning to miss it."

Lily nodded in agreement before taking off toward the other side of the pitch. Once again, the feeling of the wind in her hair calmed her nerves. She was so engaged in flying that she failed to notice James' sweaty palms.

The Quaffle had no problem being tossed into the hoop James was guarding, as Lily seemed to have no problem holding the ball. On the other hand, James was so nervous about what he was about to try and do that he had problems holding onto the ball as it was, much less throwing it into a hoop.

"James, are you alright?"

He simply nodded his head in response and tried to calm his nerves by closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"James!" Lily shouted.

But it was much too late for that. James had failed to open his eyes to see the Quaffle flying at him, quite quickly, and before he knew what was happening, the Quaffle had hit him soundly in the head.

In any normal situation, James would have been able to hold onto his broom and come out with a mere headache. But this was not a normal situation; James' palms were sweating so profusely that he had trouble grasping the broom handle as it was. The sudden blow to his head caused James' hands to slide off the handle, and coincidentally caused James to plummet to the ground.

There was a thump, and then everything went black.

XXX

"James Potter!"

James faintly registered the fact that his name was being shouted out, however, it was much easier for him to remain in his own hazy world where he didn't have to face Lily. It would be complicated for him to ask her to marry him now that he had just managed to be knocked off his broom when he tried to regard himself as a heroic Quidditch player.

"You are impossible," Lily breathed as she whispered an incantation under her breath.

Instantly the lovely hazy world that James had made his home had disappeared and he found himself looking straight into Lily's green eyes.

"Hi," James spoke. He opened his mouth again as if to elaborate, but seemed to decide against it. He hadn't quite decided how he was going to explain himself.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked as she ran her hand across James' head, pushing his hair back off his forehead.

"Yes," James managed to choke.

He hadn't expected Lily to be so unquestioning toward the accident. He had expected a long lecture telling him to pay more attention on his broom and to stop daydreaming, maybe even Lily ranting about how he could be daydreaming about another witch.

"What were you bloody thinking? You weren't bloody paying attention! You could have been hurt!"

That was more like it.

"You should really pay more attention, James. You may be able to get away with it a few times but eventually you're going to fall and severely hurt yourself. Then where will we be?"

James was about to ask Lily what she was thinking when she wasn't paying attention earlier, but he decided that in this situation that clearly wasn't the best decision.

"Sorry," he managed to mumble.

Lily's eyes met his again as she smiled softly at him and once again reached up to push his hair out of his eyes. "You really should be more careful."

"I know." James let out a sigh that he had been holding in as he closed his eyes and tried to sit up straight.

Lily pushed him back down. "You really shouldn't get up just yet. You were knocked out cold."

"Well, I can't very well lay out here all day," James retorted.

Lily winced. "James, you're on the sofa. I brought you inside."

James looked around and true to Lily's word they were inside his flat. Sirius came out of the kitchen just that moment holding a potion that didn't look too pleasant.

"Well done, Prongs." Sirius winked before strolling out of the room.

"How'd you manage to get me inside?" James asked as he eyed the potion.

"I'm a witch," Lily explained. "I levitated you." The tone was annoyingly patronizing.

"Right."

Lily leaned down to kiss James's cheek softly. "You really did have me worried there for a moment."

James managed to turn his head, despite the raging headache, and capture Lily's lips with his own. He felt her relax next to him as she kissed him back. James sunk back into a different hazy state that eerily reminded him of being unconscious.

"Evans, you should have better conduct with your patients," Sirius snickered as he walked past the sofa. "No snogging allowed."

James groaned and sunk back into his pillow as Lily lifted up the potion and tried to convince James to drink it. After the last disgusting drop had been cleared from the cup, James found himself unable to hold his eyes open any longer.

XXX

"You know, James," Arabella began as she watched the stream of golden honey slide into her tea. "If you have problems asking Lily, why don't you try writing it in a note?"

James considered this for a moment. "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?"

"I agree, James should ask Lily in person. It's the same concept as asking someone out or breaking up with someone. You don't write it in a note."

"Moony, I know for a fact that you asked that blonde Hufflepuff you fancied out through a letter," Sirius laughed.

"That's not how it happened. I just sent her the details in a letter."

"No, that's not what happened," Sirius retorted. "You had those little boxes that said to check yes or no. You can't tell James that he can't ask Lily to marry him in a letter."

"That wasn't me, that was you, Sirius. You know I hated those stupid boxes."

James laughed into his tea as he listened to Sirius and Remus bicker about who had asked out the blonde Hufflepuff. Despite the lightness of the conversation, James really was worried about what he should do. He wasn't sure if Lily would want for him to ask her in person or if she would prefer a letter.

Arabella seemed to sense James' discomfort. "You know, James, if you were to be in the room when she got the letter maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

"What do you mean?" James asked curiously.

"Well, what if you were to just write her a short letter beginning everything. You could write how much you love her and that you want to spend the rest of your life with her. By the time she got to the end, she would know what you were about to do and maybe it wouldn't be so hard to just get down on one knee and ask her to marry you. That way she would get the excitement of a proposal that wasn't traditional and she would have you ask her."

James smiled. "I think this might be the best idea yet."

Sirius looked slightly put down, but he quickly just turned back to Remus and continued arguing that he had never had any problems asking girls that he fancied out on dates and that Remus had always been the shy one.

"Maybe it was Peter," James suggested with a coy smile that showed that he knew that it hadnt been Peter at all. Sirius and Remus decided it was a good enough solution and at once the room fell silent.

"I'm going to go find some parchment," James mumbled as he flew out of the room and moments later returned with a quill and parchment.

For the next hour or so the only thing that filled the room was the sound of tea being stirred and the quill constantly scratching the parchment. James furrowed his brow once more. He couldn't figure out how he should word the sentence. Should Lily be a bright summer day or should she be the glowing sunrise in his heart?

Arabella, who had been reading over James' shoulder steadily for a few minutes, let out a snort of laughter.

"What?" James demanded.

"You don't need to write her a novel. She'll understand what you're trying to say if you just write that you love her and that you want to marry her."

"I don't know, that doesn't seem to show exactly how I feel," James explained as he eyed his long parchment.

"You're just going to make yourself more nervous by waiting for her to read this whole letter. And I can guarantee that Lily will find some parts funny. It is rather cliché."

James sighed. "What do you think I should cut out then?"

Arabella grabbed the parchment from James and quickly ripped it up into tiny pieces and scattered them across the table. She pulled out a new piece and set it down in front of James.

"First just tell her that you love her more than anyone else you've ever met before and that you're never going to stop loving her. Write that you'll still love her when you're one hundred and twenty. Tell her that you can't envision your future without her by your side," Arabella directed.

James began scribbling everything down on the parchment, which turned out to be much shorter than the last one. "Is that it?"

"That's all she's going to want to hear from you. She doesn't need you to compare her eyes to dreadful potion ingredients."

James blushed but simply folded the letter up. "I guess tonight will be it."

The three mates occupying the room smiled at each other. There was no possible way that James would be able to crawl out of this one.

XXX