Lily had woken up in a bad mood. She stomped around the dormitory with no regard for her sleeping roommates, taking books from her trunk and throwing them into the bag on her unmade bed.
Alice started to stir. She rolled over, grabbed her watch from the bedside table, looked at it then let out a groan.
"Lils, I love you but it's six in the morning and if you carry on making such a racket I'm going to hex you," she mumbled into her pillow, which was covering her face.
Lily continued to fight with her school supplies as she spoke. "Sorry Alice, but the stupid rain woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep and now," she said through gritted teeth, "I can't get my stupid books to fit into my stupid bag."
Alice threw the pillow to the end of her four poster; knowing that Lily's tantrum wasn't going to stop. "Does your bad mood have anything to do with your lack of attention from a certain boy yesterday?"
"Don't know what you're talking about."
"Third year, James tricked you into going to Madame Puddifoot's where he had cover the whole place in pictures of you both in love hearts. Fourth year, a hundred boxes of chocolates delivered to you by a hundred owls. Last year, he charmed your quills to write 'I love JP' instead of your class notes. This year, nothing. It's bothering you, I can tell. You're starting to fancy him…"
"Alice Frink, have you lost your mind? James Potter is an arrogant toe-rag and I cannot believe you would suggest I'd even tolerate him, never mind anything else!"
Lily marched out of the dorm room, Alice's words ringing in her ears. She slid neatly down the slide and stood up at the bottom only to bump directly into none other than James Potter. Around his feet were three vases full of beautiful roses, which had been bewitched to change colour every few seconds. He held a fourth bunch in his hands, which he handed over to her once she regained her balance.
"Happy Valentines' Day, Evans! A bunch for every year that you've held my heart."
"Valentine's Day was yesterday, you nitwit," Lily quipped.
"Yes, Evans, but that's where my gesture is so genius, don't you see?"
Lily raised an eyebrow to indicate that she did not.
"The last three years I've sent you something on Valentines' Day, a very one-sided tradition I might add. So this year you would have probably been expecting something from me, am I right?"
"Annoyingly, yes."
"Then my plan worked. You spent the most romantic day of the year thinking about me!"
For a moment Lily let her guard down. She began to chuckle, and then the chuckle turned to a laugh. Soon she couldn't stop, and there were tears in her eyes. Years later, Lily would still maintain that she'd been secretly hit with a cheering charm, but in that moment she found that James Potter was funny.
James, on the other hand, was baffled. In all of his many interactions with Lily Evans, he had never once made her laugh. 'This,' he thought, 'was progress.'
A/N Okay, this is the first thing I've written in over a year, so if you think it's terrible, please go easy on me! ;)
