James asked Lily out for the first time a week after what became known as "The Charms Challenge" (Sirius was the one who named it). It was a Saturday and had come in the middle of a fight, or really it was the end of the fight. Lily, of course, said 'no'. James made it his mission to get her to say 'yes' to his many proposals but Lily seemed hell bent on braking his heart. After two months James was still trying and failing miserably…

"I don't understand it." James flopped down onto the lounge in the Gryffindor common room, forcing Sirius to very quickly move his legs out of the way.

"Oi! Watch what you're doing!" James ignored him and rested his head on the back of the lounge, throwing one arm over his face.

"What happened this time, Prongs?" Remus asked him gently. As a friend to both James and Lily, Remus feared that he would be hearing the same story at least twice but from different perspectives.

"I asked her again," Sirius hit his arm. "What the hell was that for?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "We already figured that bit out. Tell us what happened after that. And don't say she said 'no' because we figured that out as well."

"Alright, alright. She said that she would rather go out with… the giant squid than with me." James' voice grew softer as he said this but the boys still caught what he said. The three of them shared a look and moved closer to James so that no one else would be able to hear their conversation. Sirius placed a sympathetic hand on James shoulder.

"She doesn't really mean that, James. Lily was only exaggerating." Remus said soothingly.

"You don't know that for sure, Moony. Maybe she did mean it."

"At least she didn't say that she'd prefer Snape." Sirius tried to lighten the mood but it didn't really work.

"She's friends with him. She may as well date that slimy git." Not having a sensible reply to this the three boys remained silent. After a minute or two the portrait hole opened and Lily stepped through. She shot a horrible look at the Marauders and went to join her friends. James sighed and announced that he was going to bed.

Lying in his bed James tried to come up with a way of making Lily agree to go out with him. He briefly considered the option of enlisting the help of Sirius but quickly dismissed the idea. James continued trying to come up with an idea until he heard the dormitory door open. Whoever it was went over to James' bed and pulled open the curtains.

"Thought you'd still be awake."

"Padfoot?" Sirius smiled down at his best mate. "What the hell…?"

"I knew you'd still be up and Remus said that one of us should come up and make sure you hadn't done anything stupid, and so here I am!" Sirius spread his arms wide and grinned. James couldn't help but smile and sat up slowly.

"How'd you know?"

"Cause you're my best mate." Sirius sat down on James' bed and looked at James closely. The most obvious thing about James at that moment was that his eyes were red and puffy. Sirius frowned. He'd never seen James cry, he'd never even thought it possible. This fact, more than anything else, proved to Sirius just how much James wanted to be with Lily.

***

Downstairs, Lily sat with her friends silently contemplating the infuriating enigma that was James David Potter. Annoyingly Lily had been contemplating James quiet a lot recently and not much of the contemplations had been focused solely on his bad aspects. Lily had noticed that there were several features of James that she rather liked. The way he ran his hand through his hair Lily no longer found to be big headed of him. She liked it when he did it. Run your hands through your hair,
Absent mindedly makin' me want you. Lily shook her head to clear away the horrible (if true) lyrics and tried to focus on the essay she was meant to be writing.

"Lily? You okay?" Lily looked up at Alice, her best friend, and smiled reassuringly.

"I'm fine, Al. Honestly. Just a bit tired that's all." Alice cocked an eyebrow but turned back to her work leaving Lily to return to her contemplations. Lily looked over at Remus and made a split second decision to go and talk to him about Potter. Remus saw her going over to him and smiled warmly at her.

"I'm going to assume that you know what happened?" Remus nodded. "I thought you would. Remus, he seems… different."

Remus frowned. "Different? What do you mean different?"

"I'm not sure. He just seems to be different to me. I don't know why. Remy, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Lily."

"Why does he want to go out with me?"

"Because he likes you, Lily. I would've thought that was obvious."

"But why me? Out of all the girls willing to go out with him why does he keep asking me?"

"Lily, he keeps asking you because he genuinely wants to go out with you. This isn't a joke or a game. James likes you, it's that simple. James keeps asking you because he thinks… well, I don't know what he thinks. Sometimes I'd rather not know. All I know is that he wants to be with you. I've never seen him like this. None of us have. James usually moves on pretty quickly but it's been two months since he first asked you. Actually, I think it could have something to do with the fact that you're the first girl whose ever turned him down and he doesn't understand why."

"Ok-ay then. Am I really the first to say 'no'?"

"Yes, strange as that may seem to you. No girl has ever refused him. And he's confused."

"So that's the allure. I say 'no' he keeps trying?"

"No, Lily. You outright refusal to him confuses him. He keeps asking because he genuinely wants you to say yes."

"Right, thanks, Remy." Lily rejoined her friends and her contemplations.

James David Potter likes me… but I hate him… how is that possible?