Remus and Peter were right, James had heard about Lily and Sirius, and was not at all pleased.

"Stupid. Thinks just because he's the most good looking or whatever, he can get any girl he wants." James said to himself…quite a stupid thing to say, really, seeing as Sirius probably could get almost any girl. "And he just had to ask Lily."

James had been thinking about whom he should go with for the last two days, and had only two girls on his mind: Elena and Lily. Seeing as the latter one was already "taken", that left one name. But did he dare to ask her when so many others had gotten rejected? No. He couldn't risk his ego, or his reputation.

Elena and James had shared a few laughs together since the giant squid joke, but James still felt quite awkward around her. Turned out that she had been at Durmstrang before, but didn't like the whole "Only Pureblood" thing, and so transferred school. This made James feel better; that she wasn't some snobbish Slytherin-material, despite her being in Gryffindor. In fact, it kind of reminded him of…Lily. That brought his mind back to her.

But he couldn't, seeing as Sirius was…his only choices were: Not go, or, Ask Elena. There were pros and cons in both these choices. If he didn't go, he wouldn't have to deal with being embarrassed, yet his reputation would go down horribly. If he asked Elena and she said yes, the reward is obvious…but if she said no? His reputation would hit rock bottom, or close enough, anyway.

As though she knew he had been thinking about him, Elena Worslipinny walked up to James Potter.

"Hi." James greeted her, seeing her approach him.

"Hi." Elena echoed in her quiet voice.

"So…err…what's up?" James asked. It wasn't the first time either of them had gone up to one another, but James still found it as uncomfortable as ever.

"Nothing much…um…James?" Elena asked, shuffling her feet.

"Yeah?" he replied, dreading what would come next…she didn't want to be friends? She was going out with Sirius? Oh wait, Lily was…

Elena interrupted his thoughts. "Do you want to, you know…"

"I know what?"

"Go to Hogsmeade?"

"Well, of course I do, I just don't have anyone to go with." James replied, mentally kicking himself for being so obvious.

"No, I mean, do you want to go with?" Elena asked, looking at the floor.

The world froze. James' eyes looked around him, as though searching for an answer. H-had Elena just asked him to go with her? A girl asking a guy? It was just too strange.

"With me?" Elena added, to make her previous sentence make sense.

James' mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's; he couldn't talk.

Elena looked insulted, and said, voice quivering, "I'll take that as a no." She sulked, walking off.

As Elena turned around and paced off, James could have nearly kicked himself. He had let the poor, sensitive, and very beautiful Elena down, not to mention himself. "Oh gawd…what have I done?" he muttered to himself, sitting down, face in hands.

He had blown his only chance.

Author's Note

Thanks to meh friend for giving me the idea of Elena coming from another school…dunno why, but somehow it gave me the idea of Elena asking James instead of vice versa. And it made the plot much better, don't you agree? Thanks for the reviews; I luff them with all meh heart! They are so spesho to my writing and me…and they encourage me to finish the story! Which surprisingly will be very short…aw…so going to miss writing it! I'll try and twist and extend the plot…I said try.