Thanks to Rose94, messyblackhair66, xo-MidnightSun-ox, Lilyluvr, american nymphadora, bubblegirl27, Super Cara, STonks and Michela.77 for reviewing :-)

Sorry I took a while to update. I've been really busy with the lead up to exams (and will be for the next few weeks) and had to write this chapter quite quickly so hopefully there aren't too many mistakes. I hope its okay!

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Ch 19: The Perfect Date

James wiped his sweaty hands nervously on his pants as he dragged his feet along one of Hogwarts' many corridors. Each step took enormous willpower as he commanded his legs to keep heading in the direction of the Great Hall rather than sprinting back up to the safe confinement of his dormitory.

He was early, far earlier than he needed to be, but he needed some time to calm himself before he met up with Lily. For today was their big date. Well, it wasn't a big date, but it was their first and James so badly wanted everything to be perfect.

For the past week he had spent hours racking his brains for the perfect date. He had barely gotten a wink of sleep the night before as his nerves had kept him awake until the early hours of the morning.

With a quick glance around the hall, James was glad to see that Lily hadn't arrived at breakfast yet. A few cups of strong coffee, James' nerves seemed to have lessened slightly and he felt much more awake than earlier. Good, he thought, he didn't want to be yawning and nearly falling asleep during their date.

Making his way into the Entrance Hall later that morning, James felt his stomach squirm with anxiety. Lily wasn't there yet so James stood to the side of the oak fronts doors, watching the other students file past him.

"Hey there." Lily smiled as she approached him. "James Potter, early for something? My eyes must be deceiving me."

James laughed nervously, trying to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Lily looked very pretty, her hair tied up in a loose bun. By looking at her, James definitely couldn't notice that she was nearly as nervous as he was.

"Shall we…er…go then?" James asked as they hovered by the door, neither knowing quite what to do.

"Sure."

Joining the end of the line, they waited awkwardly to get their names ticked off by Apollyon Pringle. He shot James a glare as they passed and Lily stifled a giggle.

Suddenly, her giggles turned into full on laughter. "I can't believe McGonagall caught us the other day." She said, still laughing, with a wicked glint in her eyes.

James grinned back. He was surprised she had brought up their, mind blowing in his opinion, snog in the corridor. It had definitely been the highlight of his week, minus the detention he received afterwards.

"I know! I thought she was about to explode she was so angry."

The vision of a livid Professor McGonagall standing angrily with her hands on her hips, her lips pursed so tight in her fury that they were barely visible made the pair laugh harder.

At her thundering voice they had sprung apart instantly, Lily looking absolutely horrified with her face the colour of a beetroot and James couldn't hide the grin from his face.

Professor McGonagall had gone on to lecture them about inappropriate codes of behaviour and how disappointed she was in them as they were both Head Boy and Girl and supposed to be setting an example for the other students. She hadn't particularly liked James comment of 'If they were all in class where they belonged, then none of the students should have seen us, so technically we haven't set a bad example.' In fact, it had been after that when she had taken 20 points from Gryffindor and given them both detentions.

"I still can't believe I got my first detention though." Lily added, a little more seriously as they continued along the path towards Hogsmeade.

"Does that mean there won't be any repeat performances?" James asked with a suggestive glint in his hazel eyes.

The tense atmosphere from earlier had evaporated quickly, something for which both of them were grateful. However, as they continued walking, chatting happily along the way, they were rudely interrupted by a lone Snape.

"Well well well, if it isn't Potter and Mudblood." He sneered. James whipped around, anger etched on his face and his wand raised threateningly.

"Don't you dare call her that!" James yelled angrily.

"James, just ignore him. He's not worth it." Lily said calmly as she shot a look of dislike at Snape but otherwise ignored his presence.

"Oooo, are you going to listen to your little mudblood girlfriend Potter? We all know you will do anything she says." Snape's lip curled in a twisted smile.

"Expelliarmus!" James yelled as Snape's wand flew into the air and landed some fifty metres away.

Raising his wand, ready to strike again, James suddenly gained control of himself. What was he doing? He was on his first date with Lily, was he really about to blow it by cursing Snape into oblivion? Still fuming, James turned around and marched up the pathway into Hogsmeade, Lily hurrying behind him.

"Sorry Lily." James mumbled, looking down at his feet when he eventually slowed down enough for Lily to catch up.

"It's okay." Lily said softly.

"I just don't get why you stick up for him anyway!" James suddenly burst out. "He treats you like dirt and calls you the m-word and you just calmly ignore him. How do you do it? He makes me so mad I just want to curse him until he's unrecognisable!"

James was so angry. They had barely even reached Hogsmeade and the date he had put more thought into than anything else (except for the odd, very well though out prank) was turning into a disaster.

"I don't stick up for him." Lily said, demonstrating that calm voice again. "But I don't see the point in getting upset by his taunts. He can call me what ever he likes because he's nothing more than dirt on my shoe. Prejudice isn't fair but it exists and it probably always will. But I'm not going to bother wasting my breath on some slimy, narrow-minded git who thinks he's better than me because of his blood."

James was truly amazed. No matter how right she was and how reasonable everything she had said sounded, James couldn't stop himself boiling with anger at the thought of Snape's insults.

"But why do you stop me from cursing him? You might not care what he calls you but I care!" James persisted.

Lily gave a small smile. "I appreciate that you stand up for me and care about what he says but it doesn't matter. By retaliating, you giving him the satisfaction of knowing that he's got to you. You don't prove anything by jinxing him. All you're doing is showing him your weakness." Lily knew that would get to him, and it did.

"I don't have weakness." James exploded.

Lily smiled. "Yes you do. Everybody does. Snape, me, you, I'm sure even Dumbledore does."

"No you don't. You don't have any weaknesses. You're perfect." James said. His anger seemed to have cooled of somewhat and he managed a smile.

"Yes I do." Lily grinned, glad that he was lightening up again.

"What are you're weaknesses then?" James raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"I'm not telling you! You'll use them against me!" Lily laughed and James looked affronted.

"Me? James Potter? I would never do such a thing!" He grinned wickedly and they both laughed. They had now reached the main street and could see groups of Hogwarts students milling in an out of the shops.

"Where did you want to go?" Lily asked.

"How about we get a drink?" James suggested.

Lily nodded and turned towards The Three Broomsticks. However, James kept on walking right past it. Lily's heart sunk slightly as a thought struck her. James wasn't taking her to Madame Puddifoot's was he?

Indeed he was. Popular among many Hogwarts couples, James hated Madame Puddifoot's. But today wasn't about him, it was about Lily, and every girl seemed to gravitate toward this pink, frilly, squishy teashop. Therefore, James assumed that Lily would expect no less than a drink at Madame Puddifoot's. Except Lily wasn't like every other girl. Her face showed slight signs of distaste and James felt his nerves return with full pelt.

"If you don't like it, we can just go to The Three Broomsticks." James said.

Lily quickly scolded herself for letting him notice her distaste.

"No, this is great." Lily lied with an encouraging smile.

Despite her dislike of the place, she felt touched that James had some here for her even with his own clear hatred of the teashop.

Trying to remember everything Remus had told him about chivalry, James stepped forward and held the door open for Lily. With surprise, she thanked him and walked into the packed room. After trying to squeeze their way between the closely situated tables earning many glares from couples, annoyed at having to unglue themselves to move their chairs, Lily and James eventually made it to a tiny table at the back.

With a rush in which James accidentally kicked the waitress in the shin which earned him a loud squeal and yet another glare, James stood behind Lily's chair. Lily gave him a curious look and blushing, James pulled out her chair for her with silent self-congratulations at his own chivalry.

Lily was absolutely astounded. She felt a rush of affection towards him at all his effort. She could tell from his face, and that uncharacteristic blush, that he was a nervous as hell and badly wanted her to enjoy their date. The romantic, chivalrous stuff clearly didn't come naturally for him but his thoughtfulness and effort meant a lot to her even if it wasn't all quite to her taste.

"Thanks James." Lily smiled as she made to take a seat.

James, however, is all his haste, lost his balance and fell with a topple into the next table. The chair, which he had been holding on to, was pulled with him instead of being pushed in as was his plan, and Lily fell too. With a soft thump and a face full of surprise, Lily landed hard on her bottom. She winced as she stood, rubbing her sore bottom as she stood and looked at James. Apologising profusely to the young couple he had knocked into, James hurried back to the table red in the face. Lily couldn't quite tell if it was from embarrassment or anger.

"Sorry." James said as he took a seat opposite Lily who had retrieved her chair and sat down. "Would you like to order?"

Even after their drinks arrived and they sat sipping them awkwardly, conversation was stilted. Their earlier ease with each other was long gone and a long drawn out silence being occasionally punctuated with the slurping sounds from the tables around them.

Lily couldn't quite figure out just why James was so unnaturally nervous and twitchy, but the atmosphere was catching and Lily found herself becoming increasingly uneasy. While Lily sat contemplating, on the other side of the table, James was dealing with an inner battle.

His eyes were glued to Lily as he sat on his hand in an attempt to stop them from reaching out for her. How desperately he wanted to just lean over the small table and kiss her. The couples at the surrounding tables were all taunting him as he fought to gain control of his overpowering feelings. James knew that it would be a bad move to start kissing her in the middle of the tea shop. Lily just wasn't that kind of girl.

Sure, she hadn't objected to any of their recent snog sessions (well, there had only been the one of them but still, she appeared to have enjoyed it just as much as he had). But that had been in the privacy of an empty corridor, with the unfortunate occurrence of Professor McGonagall showing up, but for the most part, it was a relatively private snog. And yes, there had also been their fist kiss, in which the majority of Gryffindor house had witnessed.

But despite all that, Lily just wasn't a snogging in public kind of girl. A fact James was well aware of which was what restrained him from making an even bigger idiot of himself than he had already succeeded in doing in the hour they had been on their date. He wasn't about to stuff up (yet again) his chances with Lily, nor did he want her to think that he was only interested in her purely for the physical stuff. He wasn't. When he wasn't as nervous as hell and felt like his mouth was glued together, he loved every minute of just talking to her, making her laugh, just enjoying her company, savouring the knowledge that she was his girlfriend.

"Are you okay James?" Lily asked softly as she peered at him curiously.

Gently, she put her hand on his in a concerned fashion and James jumped about a mile in the air. He had been so deep in his thought (or visions of kissing her) that he had forgotten that she was less than a metre away from him. Lily looked shocked at his reaction but nothing compared to her expression as her teacup was sent flying.

In his jolt of surprise, James had managed to send her cup high into the air. As if in slow motion, James watched in horror as the hot tea cascaded down on her, drenching her top. With a jerk of surprise and pain, Lily yelled at the tea scalded her skin and the cup landed at her feet with a smash.

"Ouch!" Lily cried as she grabbed her wand.

Her jumper had soaked up most of the tea, protecting her from the scalding hot liquid but her hand had not been so lucky. With a wave of her free hand, Lily evaporated the tea from her clothes but her look of pain lingered. Angry red burns were showing up all over the pale skin on her left hand.

"Oh my God Lily, I am so sorry!" James cried. He didn't know what else to do but to watch in growing dismay at the damage he had caused.

"It's alright James." Lily replied, a little distractedly as she conjured up some ice to hold against her injured hand.

Her voice came out harsher than she had intended from the burning pain from her hand and James looked wretched. His face was pale, causing his black hair to stand out against his skin and his eyes were wide.

"Let's get out of here, okay?" Lily smiled kindly as she noticed James' face. She was ever so slightly miffed at his clumsiness but his miserable face made her feel sorry for him. He was trying so hard but instead, he only made things worse.

James nodded dumbly and followed her out of Madame Puddifoot's. The waitress gave a relieved sigh as she saw him leave and a last few glared were shot in his direction for his disruptions. James felt his heart sink even lower, if that was even possible.

He was sure Lily would never go on another date with him again, not after the way this one was turning out. And in all honesty, he couldn't really blame her. This was the worst date in the history of dating. James was beginning to even question whether Snivellus could have put together a better date for his girlfriend, if he could ever bribe someone enough money or find a girl desperate enough to go out with him that is. Or just find them a blind fold.

As he trudged along in his despair, James doubted if things could get any worse. So far, in just over an hour he had managed to curse Snape in front of Lily, take her to a coffee shop she clearly detested despite her protests on the contrary which he could tell were only because she was trying to be polite, cause her to fall on her butt in said café and spill scalding hot tea all over her causing her to burn her hand. But if your name is James Potter, trouble seems to follow you wherever you go. Things can always get worse.

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I won't leave the date unfinished for long so the rest should be posted soon if all goes well. Hope everyone who celebrates it had a great Halloween.