Okay

Capable

With all of the stress Lily had been under, it came as a complete surprise to her that the dance would go off without a hitch. In fact, even the problems from the students as a whole were minimal and taken care of swiftly and efficiently. In all honestly, Lily was floored.

More importantly, she was impressed.

James had picked up all of the slack she'd left behind with her studies and it had seemed like he was more than happy to. All of a sudden, James' constant errands, constant visitors, made sense and the world had righted itself again. He'd worked hard to pull this off without a hitch.

She was sitting, contenting herself with watching all of the other students enjoy the break from school when she felt a body drop down beside her. She didn't have to turn her head to know he was there. Lately, she'd been much more aware of James' proximity and of where James was in relation to her.

"I'm impressed," she said, not turning her head.

James grinned. This had been his baby when he knew Lily's mind was not on the event. He was known, along with the Marauders, for their parties. It would have been a shame for such an event to come up and bomb simply because the greatest party planners in Hogwarts decided against putting their skills to use simply because it was a school-planned event.

The fact that Lily was impressed by it made his ego inflate that little bit more.

"It's what I do," James responded easily, pretending to shrug it off, even as his heart swelled. He was surprised to get a chuckle out of her.

"I hadn't thought about that," she said, her shoulders shaking slightly in laughter.

James shrugged. "You've been looking a little frazzled for the last little while," he said, voice solemn. "It wads something I thought I could do to relieve some of the stress."

Lily blinked. That was something actually nice and at least partially selfless. This was not the James Potter she knew at all. "Thank you."

"Sure. It was the least I could do with all of the stuff you do along with your studies." Then he stood and offered his hand. "Now come dance with me, I haven't seen you dancing much at all and this is a night for relaxation."

Lily smiled but shook her head. "I don't think so," she contradicted.

"I'm not taking no for an answer, Lily. Come on."

She had to admit it was the 'Lily' that got her. She was so used to him simply calling her 'Evans'. The way her name rolled off of his tongue certainly didn't keep her knees or resolve as strong as she would like. And that would be the excuse she gave herself for why her hand found it's way into his and he pulled her to her feet.

James was more than thrilled. He'd never in a million years ever dreamed of Lily dancing with him. But he wasn't blind either. He'd noticed their relationship changing since they'd begun the tutoring sessions, felt them shift from enemies to at least colleagues. Now, holding her in his arms like he was, he mentally upgraded their status to friends.

Lily hadn't expected herself to fit so snugly in James' arms like she did. Nor did she expect James to be as warm as he was. In all honesty, she expected being held by James to be odd and awkward. But it wasn't like that at all. Instead, she was comfortable, comfortable with him and comfortable with the situation. Interestingly enough, that in herself made her feel uncomfortable.

James was her colleague. James was the arrogant jerk that harassed students just because he could. He was the guy that pulled pranks on little first years to see the terrified look on their faces. Granted, he hadn't been doing that as much lately, and Lily was willing to admit that to herself. At the same time, it was difficult for her to equate the man who was currently holding her, making her feel warm and safe, with the jackass that enjoyed picking on those smaller and weaker than him.

"So you're impressed, but you haven't given me your honest opinion," James said, interrupting her thoughts.

She looked up at him – he was at least a head taller than she was – with a small smile. "Impressed wasn't good enough for you?"

He chuckled. "Not even close, Evans."

Back to Evans, her mind chided. "For a boy, you've done a good job."

"Winter wonderland isn't that hard to come up with," he responded. "And I had a whole lot of help."

Lily's mind immediately flashed back to James' harem of women. "Excellent point."

James almost groaned at his own stupidity. "That's not what I meant, Lily. I did have a lot of help to put this all together. The prefects broke off into committees and they did most of it. I was just the supervisor."

Lily gave him a small smile, slipping only slightly out of his arms to give herself a little bit of space. "You don't have to justify it to me," she pointed out. "This was your thing."

James decided against arguing with her. "And what do you think of 'my thing'?"

"I think you've blown my mind. This is incredible and you've done a fantastic job."

James beamed. "I'm glad you like it."

"I don't think I could have done this. I would never have thought of doing anything like this, nor would I have divided the prefects into committees or asked for volunteers."

James knew it was a lot for Lily to admit something like that and took that in stride. "They were efficient," he agreed.

"But you did most of the work."

He looked down at her surprised. "I did very little of the work," he responded.

Lily watched his hazel eyes, worried at the slightly hurt tone in his voice. They were honest and sincere and Lily felt a little bad about her insinuation. "As a supervisor? That's hard work, James."

"Coordination is easy," he replied just loud enough for her to hear.

Lily didn't want to dig herself into a hole but couldn't help teasing him anyway. "Is that modesty I hear, Mr Potter?"

James blinked. Was Lily Evans seriously teasing him? He'd known their relationship was changing, but he wasn't aware they'd reached the teasing stage. Still, a grin started to blossom over his face. "Well, I'm good but I'm not that good, Ms. Evans."

"The Gryffindor gossip says otherwise." Lily had to resist the urge to clap her hand over her mouth, close her eyes, or give into the urge of any other action that would give away her complete embarrassment at what she'd just said.

James simply raised an eyebrow. Then his face fell to a frown, all teasing gone from his hazel eyes. "You really have that little faith in me?"

Lily was a little taken aback. "I…"

James sighed. "I can do this, Lily. I can be Head Boy, I can work hard and get events planned and the whole thing. Why don't you trust me?"

His honesty called for the same on her part. "Because I know you as a bully. I know you as the prankster that picks on the innocent because it's fun. I know you're arrogant and self-centred and I know that if you worked half as hard at your school work as you do quidditch you'd have surpassed my grades."

James was stunned into silence.

"Or," Lily amended. "At least that's what I thought I knew."

A spark of hope lit somewhere in James' chest again. "And now?"

Lily's face was full of curiosity and confusion. "Now, after all of this, after the tutoring sessions and the meetings… Now I'm not so sure I know half as much."

James knew the song was coming to a close and thus, so was his time with Lily in his arms. "Go out with me."

Lily smiled slightly and shook her head. "No, James. Not yet."

And as she slipped out of his arms and walked off, James couldn't help feeling another sense of victory. For with his name came the rare 'not yet' and it was enough to give him courage to try again.