A/N: Written for the One Word Prompt Challenge.

James loved Lily. Really. He did.

But this… this was just too much.

It had all started on one perfectly normal day, as most things do. He had been about to saunter up to her to ask her out again when he had heard her humming to herself. She was in a decidedly good mood, so James figured he would go bother her tomorrow. But as he thought about it some more, he realized that he had never heard her hum before. Therefore, James came to a conclusion. He deduced that if she was in good mood, she would hum, but when she was really really happy, then she would sing.

So he made it his new goal to hear her sing. Sirius was eager to help out, throwing ideas out every couple of seconds. Peter nodded enthusiastically at him, while Remus merely sighed at his friends and went back to studying. But nothing worked. He tried playing music while she was in the room, he tried singing while walking past her, and asking her out would just put her in a sour mood, so he didn't do that.

James threw himself down on a couch tiredly in the Gryffindor common room.

"Why aren't our ideas working?" Sirius grumbled. "That's it. You're going to have to initiate plan Last Ditch tomorrow."

"Wasn't that our last plan?" James asked.

Sirius merely shrugged. "This is your last chance."

The next day, James walked directly up to Lily. She was about to go to Potions class and was walking with Severus there. The greasy haired boy scowled when he saw him, but James wouldn't do anything with Lily there.

"Lily Evans." He stated. "Will you please sing for me?"

He was so concentrated on the girl's face that he didn't see the fear cross Severus's face, nor the fleeing of anyone Gryffindor in the hallways. That was his mistake. But Lily had beamed at that question.

"Uh, Lily, I just realized I forgot something." Severus quickly muttered. "I'll catch you later."

Lily grabbed James's hand and tugged him along. "Come, I'll sing to you while we're walking."

James brightened considerably. "Sure!" He immediately agreed.

Lily was nearly bouncing on her feet now. She opened her mouth and…

James staggered back in shock. Her voice was nice enough when she talked, but when she sang it morphed into a banshee's. The tune she was singing was so off-tune and out of balance it was painful to hear. In fact, James swore his ears were ringing.

"Well? How was it?" Lily asked.

"It-it was wonderful." James somehow managed to stutter out. "We're going to be late to class. I'm going ahead!" With that, he fled the scene like one of Hagrid's creatures were on him.

Lily sighed happily. Finally, there was someone who appreciated her beautiful singing. She never expected it to be Potter, though. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. But then she blinked. Since when was he worried about being late? And for that matter, she had never seen him run so fast.

The girl shrugged. Ah, well.

Years later, Lily Evans and James Potter had just started dating. They had taken a stroll down to the lake, hands intertwined. Lily smiled contently.

"I'm so happy I could sing!" She exclaimed.

James immediatly paled. "Please, for the sake of my sanity, don't."