Any puppy comments in this one come from the fact that I have puppies on the brain—we got an 8-week-old black lab the yesterday, and he's adorable! Oh yeah, I absolutely do not own HP. The night picnic thing is inspired by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Dear Lily,

So far my plan to make you realize how much I've changed is failing miserably, mainly because I accidentally turned your hair purple during Charms and it took Professor Flitwick the entire rest of the class to figure out exactly what I'd done so he could change it back (on a side note, I didn't even manage to turn my bird into book, its wings just got a bit leathery). You thought I did it on purpose, but I swear it was an accident! As hard as you find this to believe, I really don't want to make you mad at me. I'd rather like it if you didn't think I was a complete git.

Thankfully, however, it doesn't seem like that particular mishap ruined your day, or anything. On the contrary, you seemed to be enjoying yourself very much at lunch. After you got up and screamed at me, anyways. (Sirius still hasn't shut up about the fact that I simply sat there and said nothing the entire time you went off, and I did want to say something, but I got the feeling that whatever was going to come out of my mouth was not going to be good and that it was probably just better to say nothing at all—I wouldn't want you to hate me more than you already do, if that's even possible.)

After lunch we had Potions with Slughorn. You know, Lily, I think he might have a little bit of a crush on you (please don't hit me when you read that). I mean, he talks more about you than anyone else in the bloody class—even more than…well, I don't want to write his name and besmudgeon this piece of parchment, but you know the slimy git I'm talking about. Well, no, not slimy git, per say, because that's immature…is 'vile, despicable, purely evil and loathsome Slytherin' better? Ah well, either way, I suppose. You sat by Remus today, and I got stuck with the aforementioned vile, despicable, purely evil and loathsome Slytherin. The entire time he goaded me about how you won't go out with me, and that he had a better chance of dating you than I do… That's not true, is it? I mean, surely you wouldn't lower yourself to that level? Surely you wouldn't date a foul mouthed, vile, despicable, purely evil and loathsome Slytherin—he called you a…. well, I don't want to say it, but you know what he called you in fifth year! I'll be watching him when he sits next to you for the rest of the year—he's got an agenda Lily, I know it! I like it when Remus sits with you. I trust Remus.

Hope you're sleeping well. It's actually about one o'clock in the morning now, but it took that long for Sirius to go to bed. He doesn't know I'm writing these to you—neither does Peter. It's not that I'm embarrassed or anything, I just don't want one of them to let it slip. The only person I told was Remus, because he's sensible and seems like he would know about these things (AND he knows how to keep his big mouth shut). He hasn't ever had a girlfriend, or anything, but that's because…well, let's just say he has his reasons, which are his to share or not. He thought this was a good idea, but now I'm not so sure. Right now you won't speak to me, unless you're yelling at me for something I did wrong. Come to think of it, sometimes you treat me like a puppy that's just made a mess on the carpet.

The stars are pretty tonight. I mean, I'd rather you be sleeping well and be well rested for the morning than looking out your window (what do the girls' dorms overlook? Ours look over the lake, which is a nice view, especially when it's clear out), but if you are, then it's a good night for insomnia. One day, if you give me a chance, I'll take you out on a night like tonight and I'll take you down to the lake and we'll have a night picnic. Night picnics are different than daytime picnics. I think you'd like a night picnic. I just hope you'd like a night picnic with me.

Goodnight,

—James

I've decided to just post random days and not EVERY day, because that would be tedious, but I'll only continue if I get reviews!