The conversations grew deeper and deeper as the days went by. Before either of them knew it, Christmas was upon them. The days were now cold and many of the students had returned home for the holidays. All of Lilianne's friends had gone home and James as well. Lilianne didn't want to go back and face the still silence of her house without her rambunctious sister. She had arranged to stay at the school. The remaining students took comfort in the warm toasty glow from the fireplaces in the common rooms. It was on one such evening that Lilianne found herself curled up on a comfy armchair enjoying the pleasant crackle of the fire. She was engaged in her current read, "Pride and Prejudice". A noise at the window caught her attention and she looked up to see the owl pecking on the glass. Lilianne stood to let it in.

As the dark brown owl flew away into the distance, Lilianne opened the letter to see who had written her.

Dear Lily,

This is James. It feels strange to write you by normal way, I mean owl post. But I needed to reach you before holidays were over and I wasn't sure if I would get to you in time with the diary. Could I talk to you at about 7:30 tomorrow night? Look for me in the Gryffindor common room fire. If anyone else is there, tell them that James Potter will personally be responsible for their demise if they don't leave. Or whatever polite way you would like to phrase that.

-James

Before he signed his name, there were clearly visible signs of scratching out and line drawing through the space above his name. Apparently, he had had trouble deciding how to close the letter. Traces of words such as, "yours truly" and "sincerely" and "your friend" and "respectfully" could still be seen under the marks.

Lilianne laid back in her chair and looked out the window again. The owl was long gone now, but she wished that she had written a response. It would have been less of a response and more of a questionnaire for now Lilianne was very, very curious. Questions began to burst through her mind again as they tended to do when the subject of James Potter came up. What would he want to talk about? Is something wrong? Was this a joke? Should she wear something nice? What could it possible be?? And where on earth did he get the name Lily from?!?!

After a long day of anticipation and quiet brooding, 7:30 did arrive and Lilianne did wear a nice red sweater. She sat in front of the fire and made sure again that no one was around. After a few minutes, James's head popped into the fire.

"What's wrong? Is everything okay? Are you having problems with homework?" Lilianne rushed to ask.

"Well, hello to you too. Happy Christmas and Lily, does it look like I ever have problems with school work?" replied James quite humorously.

"Well, no. What did you need to talk about then?" she asked again.

"Come on Lily, what's your hurry? Am I not allowed to just talk to you for a little while? Does something have to be wrong?" he asked tentatively.

"Of course not, I just. You just sounded urgent in the letter. How have you been?" said Lilianne.

"Oh the holidays are the holidays, cooped up in the house with a million little children, gnomes, and dogs. Food's been good but I don't know how much longer I can take Aunt Mildy's dog biscuits. Lily, I keep telling her, they aren't for people." James explained exasperatedly.

"Why do you keep doing that? You have managed to insert that that name into every other sentence!" she finally exploded.

"I can't call you Lily? Why not? I like it," James whined good naturedly.

"No, I just. Please don't call me that," she added as an afterthought, "Jan- someone, someone used to call me that," she said sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know," he hastily apologized.

"It's okay, I'll get over it eventually but I just, not yet please," pleaded Lilianne.

"Lilianne, it's fine, I won't push you, I just want you to be happy," James assured her. The two stayed in moderately awkward yet comfortable silence. Finally, Lilianne broke the quiet air.

"What did you need to talk about?" she asked softly.

"Well, I mean, I don't need to, I just wanted to ask you something, you know it's a funny thi-," he began to ramble nervously.

"James? Stop talking. Now breathe and start again. What is it? You can tell me anything," Lilianne calmed him down.

"So I was thinking that, um, I really like talking to you," he began, taking a big breath.

"Alright, I like talking to you, too," she responded, waiting for him to continue.

"And I like you," he tentatively ventured.

"Um, oh, I-," Lilianne started.

"And I thought that maybe we should hang out," James interrupted.

"Oh?" she said.

"So, I, uh, would you like to go on a date sometime?" he finally blurted out.

"Oh, wow. Yes, yes, I would like that," Lilianne answered with feelings of elation beginning to burst.

"Alright! Okay, we'll figure out time and place later," James declared energetically, his earlier nerves banished for good.

"Well, I have to go down to dinner but I'll talk to you later," she stood up to leave.

"Sure. Here, I'll owl you or something, alright?" he said.

"Yeah, bye!" Lilianne said.

"Bye," and with that James's head disappeared into the flames again.

As Lilianne began her trek downstairs, she thought up in her head all the possible, most satisfying ways to tell Andy 'I told you so'. All the while down she was smiling, on every last step.

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