Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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Chapter Sixteen
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"I'm really not understanding this, Lily. He smashes a plate of potatoes into your face and five minutes later, you agree to go on a date with him? What am I missing here?"
Lily groaned and began to smother her face into the couch she was currently sitting in. "I know, I know! Believe me, I know!- It wasn't suppose to happen! I've had a really bad day today and when he asked me, I just- just blew up!"
"You couldn't have blown up by rejecting him again?" Emma inquired, sitting down next Lily. The two, along with Alice, had just entered the common room later that night, after dinner.
Emma recieved a glare from Lily's direction before another groan was heard. "I can't believe I did that. How could I be so stupid?"
"Oh, you're not stupid, Lily! Just a bit. . .er," Alice casted a helpless glance in Emma's direction. Emma shrugged. "Tired. That's all."
After a few seconds of letting Alice's comment on her being "tired", Lily's face shot up from the couch she was previously smother herself with. She stood up and began hurridly towards the girls staircase.
"Where are you going?"
"Potter'll be heading back to the common room soon- I'm not going to be here when he does. Who know what he'll want to do!" She gave a shutter.
"Give you a nice little smooch, huh, Lily?" Emma asked slyly as she and Alice also made their way up the girls staircase.
Lily tensed for a second. She heard voices. "Shhh! I think Potter and his weird friends are back!"
"-I don't believe you, James. Must you resort to being delusional now? Evans was about ready to murder you in the Great Hall! Why in the world would she agree to go to Hogsmeade with you?" Sirius.
"Hey! She really did agree. . .Of course, she kind of stomped on my foot right after for some reason, but she still agreed!" James.
Alice raised an eyebrow,"You stepped on his foot?"
Emma snickered,"Oooh. What a way to get back at him, Lily. Step on the bloke's feet."
Lily sniffed indignantly.
"I have to agree with Sirius, James-" Remus.
The girls quietly made their back to the sixth year dormitory.
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"Lily, you've already agreed to go with him. You can't just reject him now! He'll be in the depths of despair."
Lily just looked at Alice. "Alice, I'm sorry, but I really can't imagine James Potter being in the 'depths of despair'."
Emma scrunched up her face as Professor Mcgongall swept into the transfiguration classroom the next day. "I've got to agree with Lily. James Potter and 'depths of despair' just don't go together."
Alice pulled out her transfiguration textbook. "Sure they can."
"Let's get this straight- You think James Potter, the boy who dropped chocolate frogs on my head from the astronomy tower in fourth year, will be in the depths of despair if I rejected him? I've already rejected him a million times!"
"Well, yes, that's true, but you've never agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him before. He's probably got his hopes up really, really high. Higher then usual."
Lily thought this over for a moment before grumbling. She slammed her transfiguration book on her desk. "Fine. I'll go with James Potter. Just because, no matter how much of an arrogant prat he is, I don't want him to be in the. . ." She sighs. " 'depths of despair'."
"Evans, looking good today!" Came James' jolly voice at the classroom entrance. Lily grumbled again and ignored James.
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"You know, Potter, most people consider going to The Three Broomsticks or even Honeyduke's as a romantic date. You, however, are the only person I know that thinks getting stuck in a Quidditch for Everyone broom closet as a romantic date."
The weeks between September 2nd (when Lily originally agreed to James' date offer) and October 10th were filled with more than the usual amount of unsuccessful attempts at hugs (James' doing), unsuccessful kiss attempts (James' doing), unsuccessful snogging attempts (James' doing), unsuccessful, lame pick-up lines (James' doing), unsuccesful flirting (James' doing), unsuccessfully grabbing of books to carry to class (James' doing), and unsuccesful attempts at the ol' "yawning and casually dropping an arm around shoulder" tricks (James' doing also).
The only thing missing from the list was a thousand and one date proposals- Oh. Wait. Lily had already agreed to that, didn't she? Right.
Anyways, James Potter had been driving Lily Evans nutters for the past month or so.
Now, though, now was their date. And they were in one of the most romantic places anyone could imagine.
One of the quidditch shop's, Quidditch for Everyone!, broom closet. Stuck.
James had suggested they stop by Quidditch for Everyone! so he could show Lily the Nimbus 100, the newest broom yet. Lily said she didn't care about any stupid broom, not even the newest one yet. James said sure she did, she just didn't know it yet. Lily said she was quite sure she didn't care. James said she wasn't sure at all. Lily ignored James.
And so, they ended up at Quidditch for Everyone!. James showed her the Nimbus 100 and they browsed around for a bit before disaster striked.
Lily could practically hear James run a hand through his hair. "Hey! I didn't mean to get stuck in here. . ." He trailed off.
See, James had decided he'd play a little joke on Lily. While she was in the bathroom, he hid in the broom closet (it held their cleaning broomsticks, not their quidditch-playing broomsticks), watching through a key hole for her to head past the door. When she would pass by, James would open the door and pull her in.
And, his little joke worked too. Of course, he got a whack in the head by a surprised Lily who kept exclaiming- "Murder! Murder!" - over and over again. But, you get the idea.
Well, after Lily figured out it was only James who had pulled her into a broom closet, James got another whack in the head. While Lily was telling James off and why in the world had she actually come with him today? one of the store employee's locked the closet. With a key. Apparently, as Lily and James eavesdropped into a conversation between the employee and another employee, couples kept "dropping by" the broom closet for a bit of snogging. So, they locked it to kept any more pesky couples out. Only to kept a. . .er, couple (could you even call Lily and James a couple?) in. Locked in. The door wouldn't unlock with Alohamora. To keep any pesky couples out of the closet, of course.
"If you hadn't of been so immature and done some stupid joke, we wouldn't be here." Lily grumbled and bumped into more broomstick and cleaning supplies. She was trying to kept as far from James as possible- although, it was quite hard to do considering the only light in the closet was from the key hole in the door and their lit wands.
James ignored her. He did that a lot when she was ranting. Especially if she was ranting about him. He sniffed all of a sudden. "It smells funny in here."
"Don't look at me." Lily remarked.
"Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't know where to look." He replied back. "All I can see is the key hole. . .Geez, don't you smell that, Evans?"
Lily gave a discreet sniff. "Potter, you must be smelling things."
"No I'm not. Come stand over here."
"Where's over here?" Lily asked flashing her wand out some. The wands weren't doing much good.
"Over here."
"Potter, you're going have to be more descriptive! I'm as blind as a bat right now- Bloody hell!"
She could feel James' grin as she rubbed her arms which had goosebumps now. "Scare you?"
"No. . .I just, er, thought a spider was on my arm or something." Lily said calmly, still rubbing her arms and eyeing a suspicious looking dust bunny right next to her shoes. James had reach over next to him blindly and picked up a broomstick, waving it around until the bristles on the broomstick touched Lily's arm, therefore making her yell in surprise.
She could hear James' footsteps as he cautiously stepped closer to her, uncertain what he just might step on. "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for a trap door."
"Since when were there trap doors in broom closets?" Lily asked, stepping into a pile of cleaning rags.
James scratched his head in the dark thoughtfully. "Since now, possibly."
"Possibly?"
"Well, I'm not sure if there's one or not."
Lily gave an exasperated sigh before moving towards the key hole. She began banging on the door. "You know, I doubt it'll do any good trying to look for a non-existant trap door, Pothead."
"I doubt it'll do any good banging on the door either. Nobody will hear you- it's too crowded and noisy out there."
The banging stopped. Subtly, of course. Lily would never let James know he was right for once. She turned around and saw the faint light of James' wand. Her arms crossed over her chest.
"Have you found the trap door yet?"
"Just about."
"Right." Lily replied dryly."Where's your weird groupie friends? Don't you four have some way to, uh, contact each other by. . .whistles or something?"
She could hear James stop shuffling around the closet for a moment. "Whistles?" He asked in amusement.
"You know what I mean!"
He's movements began again. A few broomsticks fell over. "Nope, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have any whistles handy to call for my. . .er, friends."
There was silence for a while before James broke it. "I hope someone pukes or something- maybe they'll have to come and get a cleaning rag out of the closet."
Lily rolled her eyes. She had sat down a few minutes ago and was now leaning against the door, watching James' wand moving around. "This is one date I'll never forget, Potter. It's so. . ."
"Nice? Yeah, I think it is too, just didn't want to brag or anything." He sounded a bit put out. Maybe James wasn't so happy about the date ending up the way it had so far.
". . .well, I was actually thinking more along the lines of, "strange", but whatever."
"Hey, at least you'll remember it." His wand was a bit closer to her now. He seemed to be lifting up a cardboard box filled with even more cleaning rags.
"I don't get it."
"Get what?"
"Everytime we're together, something weird happens or chaos is the result."
"Oh, you're just exaggerating." He sounded pleased for some reason. Why in the world he would be pleased about chaos erupting or something weird happening when they were together, Lily didn't know.
"No I'm not. What about Valentine's day last year? When all those confetti things and Pettigrew pelted us? That was pretty weird, not to mention chaotic.
"Hey!" There was a creaking sound coming from James' direction before light suddenly began pouring into the closet. Lily stood up quickly, watching the light. It was coming from the wall opposite her. She could see straight out into one of the streets of Hogsmeade. "What the-"
"I told you there was a trap door." James said triumphantly. He was crouching down next to the wall opening. He stood up and smirked at Lily's gapping face.
"How'd you find it?" She demanded.
"Oh, I just felt around the walls for a bit before finding a notch in the wall." He was obviously trying to impress her by using that "Oh, it was nothing" voice.
Lily gave James a Look which he responded with a "What?" look. She slowly walked towards the wall opening and stepped out, James just behind her.
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"You want to snog?"
Lily choked on her butterbeer,"What?"
Unlike in the broom closet, sitting in The Three Broomsticks had an awkward air to it. In the broom closet, the two at least had something to concentrate on: Getting out of the broom closet. Now though, their minds were free to think about the awkwardness of first dates. . .ironically so, considering they had known each other for more than two years now and were hardly ever awkward around the other.
James shrugged, taking a long swing of butterbeer. "Just thought I'd put the option out in the open."
"And that option will stay open for a long time. A very long time, Potter."
"Right. . .you heard that joke about the firecrabs before?"
"Only about a hundred times from Professor Slughorn."
James snorted. "Oh, yeah. I forgot he tells that one all the time. . ."
Either Lily was being really paranoid or James was subtly edging closer to her along the bench they were sitting on.
"You going to the quidditch match next week?"
"Who's playing?" Lily asked.
"Gryffindor VS Ravenclaw."
"I suppose I'll go."
"Good."
Not only was it awkward seeing as it was their first date (and most likely their last), but also because, well, James and Lily weren't used to be so. . .nice to each other. Well, James sort of was. But Lily wasn't. And James really wasn't used to Lily being as nice as she was.
Lily now knew she wasn't being paranoid now. He was edging towards her.
"You listened to that new band lately?" Lily asked.
James glanced towards the exit. "Which new band?"
"I forgot what they're called. . .The Trolls, maybe? Or was it the Bloody Bludgers?"
"I've listened to one of the Bloody Bludgers songs. Pretty good." James said. He cleared his throat.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." He replied. Lily raised an eyebrow. He was really quite close now.
She took a sip of butterbeer and pulled a couple of chocolate frogs from her bag. "Chocolate frog?" She asked with stiff politeness, a hand holding a chocolate frog out to James.
Jame took the chocolate frog. "Thanks."
"Yeah."
Lily glanced to her left, into a slightly secluded corner. A couple of seventh years were snogging. . .Well. . .things had just gotten even more awkward for Lily now. "Did you see that article in the Daily Prophet? About that witch who swallowed her wand?"
James raised an eyebrow curiously. "Really?" There was a faint lopsided grin on his face.
"Oh, don't laugh, Pothead!" Lily exclaimed as she watch him hold back a laugh. "The poor woman's stomach kept glowing because she had lit her wand with lumos just before swallowing."
James snorted with laughter. "Why in the world would she swallow her wand?"
Lily rested her arm on the table in front of her. Her fingers traced the rim of her mug. "I don't know. . .Emma accidently spilt her inkwell all over it while I was reading it."
He continued to laugh while Lily realized that their shoulders were touching now. This wasn't unusual for James to try and sidle up close to her. He was always trying to hug her and what not. It's just- well, this was their date and somehow that made James' moves very unfamiliar. . .Not to mention, she had promised Alice she'd be at least civil to James during the date.
"Of course, Emma's always spilling her inkwell. I don't know why, but she must do it about twice a week. Just think about all the galleons she wasted on inkwells!" She was going to ignore James' closeness.
"In third year, I remember Emma spilling her inkwell down the front of my shirt. She was getting out her seat and ran into me." James said, still laughing. Lily gave a weak chuckle. That was sort of funny the way Emma was always spilling her inkwell.
She felt his hand on her knee now. Lily wasn't going to be able to be civil with James much longer if this continued. It was caressing her knee. No, she most definitely wouldn't be able to be civil much longer. He was watching her now; she could feel his gaze."Do you want to head back? To Hogwarts?" She asked, already starting to stand up.
James frowned and glanced at his watch. "We have another hour."
"I need to finish a charms essay. With Alice." Sort of. . .maybe not. Lily couldn't be on a date with James Potter anymore, truthfully. It was too awkward for her.
". . .Alright." James also got up, in confusion.
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"Well, here we are."
"Yeah." Lily agreed as they stood off to the side of the entrance doors to Hogwarts. They were standing next to the carriage that had taken them to Hogsmeade. Lily glanced behind James, towards the doors.
James shoved his hands into his pocket. "So. . ."
"So. . ." Lily trailed off too. She shifted slightly. "Well, I guessed I'd better get inside to finish that essay." She began to walk around James.
He reached out and grabbed her arm. "You know, Evans. . .there's something missing from our date." Lily didn't like the smirk on his face.
"What?" She asked.
James looked down at her for moment, his smirk fading slightly before he leaned down and kissed her, his arms sliding around her waist. Lily, after a few seconds to realize what had happened, pulled away. James' arms were still around her, slowly stroking her sides.
Lily wasn't really shocked by his kiss- He'd already kissed her quite a few times through the years. She might not have been shocked by his kiss, but she most definitely was angry about the kiss (no matter how strangely fuzzy it made her feel). Lily hastily pushed his arms off her. "James Potter, how many times do I have to tell you not to kiss me?" She asked with exasperation.
James only grinned at her.
His grin was swiped right from his face as Lily pushed him down, right into a pile of thestral dung. "Evans!"
Lily only smirked slightly at him as he quickly stood up, bits of dung stuck to his back and behind. "Congratulations." She said, backing away slowly.
"What for?" James asked sourly, trying to shake some of the dung off the back of his shirt.
"For getting a date out of me."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. . .I suppose you'll stop asking me out now." Lily was in a slightly better mood now. Maybe she should push James Potter into thestral dung more often.
James stopped shaking out his shirt abruptly for a moment. A strange look passed over his face as he looked towards Lily. He bent his head down and began shaking the shirt again. "Oh, yeah. Right."
Lily nodded. "Good. . .Well. . .I really need to get to that essay now." That non-existant essay. "Bye, Pothead."
"See you, Evans."
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Author's Note: -gasps- Lily didn't fall for James! Did anyone think she wouldn't? I didn't think she would. . .then again, I'm the author and therefore know what'll happen. . .LoL, whatever. I felt this chapter was slightly rushed- I wanted to get it written and up before the school week started.
Anyways, hope someone liked it! "Players One and Two" will be updated sometime this week or more likely next weekend. I'll try and get it updated during the week, but that's really doubtful thinking.
Toodles,
Eye Heart Music