Another short one, yes, but I actually wanted to update. :) So it's either an update or something a bit longer.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, do you really think I'd be posting this stuff up on here?








Lily and The Stag





"YES!" he cried out in exhilaration, bursting into his Defense Against the Dark Arts in a torrent of energy. Sirius and Remus looked up from their desks and stared at him, bewildered, their quills poised in the air.

"Why are you so happy?" asked Sirius.

James danced on over to where they were sitting and dropped his bag on the desk with a loud thump. "She said yes!" he announced happily.

Remus frowned, wondering what on earth his crazy friend was talking about. "What?"

"Evans!" said James, his voice rising every second. "Lily Evans! She said yes! SHE SAID YES!" He spun around with joy, frightening his friends.

After a few seconds of silence, Remus's frown slowly melted away, an incredulous look replacing it. "You mean…"

"I asked the allusive Lily Evans out to Hogsmeade, and she said YES!" he sang out, jumping up and punching the air with his fist. Remus and Sirius exchanged looks. Sirius opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a middle aged man with blue spectacles and a stern face.

"Excuse me, Mister Potter," said a frowning Professor Limmick, "but as exciting as your love life is, you have an assignment to do."

There was a very awkward silence in which James could hear the giggles of a few of his female classmates.

"Oh, um, sorry sir," he managed at last, face burning. "I didn't think…"

"No, you didn't," finished Professor Limmick with an unsympathetic look. "Now sit down."

The class watched as James quietly picked his bag up from the desk and slunk over to the seat next to Sirius. As he took a piece of parchment and a bottle of ink out of his bag, the sound of quiet conversation and scratching quills returned to the otherwise silent classroom.

As James squinted to read the board, he heard Sirius ask, "Are you sure she wasn't kidding?" Turning his head, he saw Sirius looking at him in a mixture of shock and pity.

Normally, he would have hexed him for that comment, but he was in much too good of a mood for that, even with his previous display of public humiliation. "She's not," he said confidently, turning back to read the assignment.

"She's not above that, you know…" said Remus softly. "She had to do that with that weird Hufflepuff, remember?"

James felt himself grow impatient; he didn't know how to make them understand. Lily didn't do that to him – she couldn't have! He turned to face his friends, frowning. "I KNOW she means it. I can feel it. It's like…" He desperately searched for the right words. "Her eyes said it."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You also say her eyes hold the key to the universe, and every other imaginable thing."

James scowled and turned back to his parchment. "Some mates you are," he mumbled.

"It's not that we're trying to be a pain, but…" Sirius trailed off.

"We don't want to see you hurt," finished Remus.

James felt touched, but only slightly. Their lack of support still smarted.

"I'll show you," he muttered under his breath. "Just wait until Saturday."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lily arrived ten minutes late to Herbology, and she apologized profusely to Professor Sprout for another good five minutes before she was ordered to sit down and get to work. With a small smile on her face, she obliged and set up next to one her best friends, Alice Keller.

"I've never seen you be late to class and still have a smile on your face," observed Alice with amusement. "What's got you so happy?"

"Oh, nothing," she replied, tending to her screechsnaps. She scowled as one started to wriggle violently, and began to take out some of the manure she had just added.

"Lily Evans, when has it ever been nothing?' said Alice with a small smirk. "I saw that Potter boy stop and help you with your bag on the way to class. Is he the reason for your unusually buoyant demeanor, by any chance?"

Lily paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. Fortunately for her, her screechsnap began to shriek loudly, and was given a few extra seconds to think up an answer.

"Well…" she started, but was interrupted by a laugh of triumph from Alice.

"I knew it!" she cried. "What did he do? Did ask you with a joke? A bad rendition of The Roaches? Did he present you with Slughorn as a toad again?"

Lily fought down the urge to laugh. Slughorn did make a good toad…And when it came to Muggle bands, Alice was a lost cause. "They're called The Beatles, Alice."

"Beatles, Roaches, they're all bugs in the end. So, let me guess – it was a joke this time, right?"

"No," she said softly, patting the soil in the pot down. "He gave me a lily."

Alice blinked. "A lily?"

"Mmhmm."

After another pause Alice asked warily, "You didn't say yes, did you?"

Lily just smiled and proceeded to weed another specimen of screechsnap.

"Oh my Lord, you did," said Alice, looking flabbergasted. "Are you all right? Feeling feverish? Maybe you should see Pomfrey." She quickly pulled off her glove and put her hand on Lily's forehead, her features etched in concern.

Lily laughed and pushed her friend off. "Don't give me that, Alice. I didn't do anything when Longbottom asked you."

"Frank didn't stalk me for five years!" shrieked Alice, sounding a lot like Lily's screechsnap.

"It was different this time, that's all," Lily said simply.

Alice gave her a suspicious look. "Different how?"

"Ladies! You're choking your screechsnaps!" cried out Professor Sprout.

Looking down, they noticed that their plants were wheezing softly in pain as one was being buried in dragon dung and the other was having some of its roots pulled out.

Lily and Alice quickly dropped the subject and went back to work, caring for the poor plants before they died and took their grade with them. Alice, however, was not quite finished yet. She resolved to get to the bottom of this before the day was out, because the Lily she knew didn't like James Potter enough to actually go out on a date with him.

Or did she?