[ 3 ]

"Must you look so pretty?" James inquired curiously. "If you're going to stand there and look pretty like that, you have to at least let me snog you senseless. It's only fair."

Lily shoved him away, giving him a death glare. However, he could have sworn he saw her perfect lips curl upwards. "Life isn't fair. Now are you going to actually help me with my Christmas shopping or stare at me all day?"

"I would rather stare at you all day," he responded promptly, grinning in the process. "Christmas shopping is such a boring and tedious task," he complained.

She shook her head in annoyance, pushing him into Honeydukes. "You were the one who offered to help me with my Christmas shopping. You're acting like I made you do so."

He shrugged, glancing around at the selection of sweets that was offered there. However, he had such a hard time paying attention to anything other than Lily at the moment. He stood by what he had said earlier... about her looking so pretty. And quite frankly, the fact that she was so beautiful was distracting.

It was true that he agreed to go help her with her Christmas shopping; he didn't want to though. He hated Christmas shopping, but he knew that he wasn't able to pass up an opportunity to spend time with her... in Hogsmade, nevertheless. He never could; he knew that it was physically impossible.

"James? What do you think I should get my parents?" she inquired, nudging him in the ribs, attempting to catch his attention.

"O-Oh. Uh... I don't know." He knew that he should have provided her with a more intelligent answer, but she was distracting him and there was absolutely nothing he could have done to keep himself from staring at her. "What do you want for Christmas?"

"Nothing," she promptly answered. "I don't really want anything. I'll feel bad if you get me something and I won't know what to give you in return."

"C'mon, Lily. I'll buy you something you don't like if you won't tell me what you do like. And you don't have to get me anything." That was a lie of course. He already knew exactly what she liked and disliked, but he felt the need to ask her anyways.
She sighed to herself. "I don't want anything."

"I'll buy you chocolates," James decided with absolute clarity, "of all shapes and sizes."

"I told you I didn't want anything!"

He walked off, ignoring her protests. Buying several different types of her favorite chocolates (or the ones he had seen her eating a lot over the past few years-not that he'd been watching her eat chocolate often or anything), he quickly payed for them before Lily decided to come after him and tackle him for buying her the sweets. He knew that she had a hard time accepting presents from others, but it wouldn't feel right to go without a present for her, especially since they became friends this year. He just wished she'd be more complying...

After paying for the sweets, he walked back to her, feeling triumphant and pleased with himself. Oblivious to everything, he saw her prowling through the store for her parents' Christmas gifts. He slipped it into her bag silently, smiling to himself. She would open up her bag sometime between today and tomorrow, and she would yell at him (and probably beat him up in the process too for not listening to her). However, he knew it would be worth it.

Anything he did for Lily was always worth it.

[ 4 ]

"Watch it, Potter. If you're not careful with your words, I might have something to do with your inability to reproduce," she threatened, waving her finger in his direction with the scariest glare that she could muster.

James grinned obnoxiously at her failed attempt to threaten him, since he had been immune to her glare after some time. "I thought you wanted children, Evans."

Ducking her head to hide a smile, she retorted, "Not with you, silly."

"Really? 'Cause that's not what you said last night."