"This is ridiculous! I shouldn't be worrying about my bloody clothes!"
Lily was extremely frustrated with both her wardrobe and herself. Hestia and Marlene weren't being very helpful either.
"You look nice whatever you wear, Lily," Hestia had assured her.
Marlene was in agreement. "You could wear your robes and James would be thrilled."
Looking back at her pitiful array of casual clothes, Lily decided she needed to go shopping soon. Maybe she'd ask her parents for money this Christmas…
"How about this?" Lily asked for the millionth time. She had in her hands a plain green sweater.
"Like we said, Lily," Marlene grinned.
"You'll look great whatever you choose," Hestia finished. Lily groaned, decided it would be good enough, and found some black jeans. Her Gryffindor scarf would not match her outfit so she borrowed Marlene's white one. Quickly brushing her hair, Lily wondered if it was too late to do something special with it.
"You're meant to be meeting James in the Entrance Hall in ten minutes and you haven't even had breakfast yet, Lily!" Marlene reminded her. Lily panicked.
"I am so not prepared for this," she cried. "Where is my bloody brain!"
Hestia, expecting this outburst, pulled Lily onto her bed. She wrapped a comforting arm around Lily's shoulder. "Lils. Relax. You can eat at Hogsmeade, okay? Your hair looks beautiful straight – don't think I didn't notice you playing with it!" Lily smiled a bit. "And honestly. If James doesn't like the clothes you wear then he's not bloody well worth it, is he?" She patted Lily's shoulder and pushed her away. "Now go clean your teeth."
Lily was feeling much more comfortable with everything now, but was still anxious. She had promised to meet him in – she checked her watch – seven minutes! And what if everything went badly? What if today turned out to be a giant practical joke and she had fallen for it! What if today went well?
"Stop overthinking and get your ass out here!" Marlene yelled. "Four minutes!"
Lily grabbed her wand off her bed, at last minute taking her black coat in case it got cold. "This is a date," Lily finally realised. She screwed up her nose. "I'm going on a date with James Potter!"
Rolling their eyes, Hestia and Marlene pushed Lily out of the dormitory. "Have fun!" her friends yelled. Lily was so busy smiling at their wishes that she barrelled into someone at the bottom of the stairs. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she huffed, looking up at her obstacle.
It was James, and he was grinning lopsidedly. "Not a bad way to greet someone," he joked. He helped Lily straighten up and politely ignored her extremely red face. "You look lovely," he added when Lily remained silent.
"Oh, uh, thanks," she murmured. "I thought we were meeting in the Entrance Hall?"
James shrugged and started leading the way out of the tower, Lily at his side. "I decided I wanted to see you earlier. Besides, you wouldn't have made it on time." He grinned evilly at her. "Leaving the dormitory with only three minutes to meet me! Cutting it a bit thin, don't you think Evans?"
"It's called being fashionably late, Potter," she defended herself. "Besides, I had to at least try and look presentable."
James dug his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans. Lily hadn't noticed until then, but he was wearing a simple white shirt with a black jacket Lily suspected was made from dragon hide. "You really don't need to try," he mumbled. Lily couldn't help but smile.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I haven't had breakfast yet and I am starving, so do you want to grab something to eat?"
"Sure, I'm starved anyway."
Deciding that they could walk to Hogsmeade a bit later than everyone else and miss the carriages, the pair sat at the edge of the Gryffindor table near the doors, helping themselves to a hearty breakfast. Needless to say, people were staring.
"Pass the bacon, would you Lily?"
Lily handed over the heavy plate and James poured at least a quarter of it onto his own plate. Lily, amused, took a few rinds for herself. "Do you want some sausage as well?" she asked rhetorically.
"Well, since you're offering, I wouldn't mind some!" James grinned at her, but his grin quickly disappeared when he saw Lily's plate. "You're not eating much," he noticed.
Lily was always reminded at meal times of her sister Petunia, who flat out refused to eat anything other than salad in front of men. While Lily believed in eating some greasy food, some of Petunia's habits had gotten to her, so Lily ate less than she would really want.
"You aren't eating so little because of me, are you?" James demanded. Lily shook her head, but he didn't believe her. "You need a good breakfast to start the day. Here, have some sausage. Bacon is good for the soul. Pancakes taste good. Porridge is gross, but you can have some of that if you like."
As he listed each food, he piled a good helping of it onto Lily's plate. James had taken everything within reach and Lily's plate was overflowing. "There," James said at last. "Now eat up, Lily." He dug back into his own food.
At a loss of what to do, Lily picked through her plate and ate a bit of everything. She hadn't even a tenth of what was on her plate when James had finished his. He looked over at her plate.
"You gonna eat that?"