"Oi! Everyone!"
Sirius stood on top of a table so everyone could see him. Once he was sure that all eyes were on him, he did not gift the crowd with a charming grin. They shrunk back when they saw how dark Sirius' face was.
"I have to admit I am disappointed in all of you," Sirius began sternly.
"You told us they'd argue!" A brave fifth year shouted. When people murmured in agreement, Sirius barked at them to shut up. "You're all pathetic," Sirius sneered. "What type of person gets enjoyment out of watching people suffer? As Gryffindors, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. You'll all make good death eaters once you've left school."
With that slap in the face, and a last glare, Sirius jumped off the table and disappeared back to the dormitory.
"The problem is solved!" Sirius declared. James nodded in approval. "So Prongs, you get a kiss out of her yet?" Remus looked disgusted, but James smirked. "Nah. Held her hand though."
This caused Sirius to giggle uncontrollably. "How cute," he snickered.
"Held it for about two seconds," James elaborated, just as amused at Sirius as he was at James.
"Leave him alone, Padfoot," Remus said at last. "He had a successful date with the girl of his dreams. Just be happy for him."
James appreciated his support. "Where's Peter?" he asked. He had just noticed he wasn't in sight.
"Detention," Sirius shrugged. "Falling behind on his Transfiguration work or something."
"Oh."
"So come on, Prongs," Remus said, leaning forward eagerly. "We know you want to tell us all about your day. Start from the beginning."
James happily launched into a detailed minute-by-minute recap of his day and couldn't stop smiling the whole time.
In the girls' dormitory, Lily was a bit reluctant to tell Marlene and Hestia about her day. They had been asking her questions, trying to pry out some sort of detail, but Lily was unhelpful.
"Why don't you want to tell us?" Hestia demanded at last. "We're your best friends!"
"Yeah, surely it wasn't that bad?" Marlene joked. Lily shrugged.
"It wasn't bad. It was nice. I guess… me saying it out loud just means that it's real and this is really happening," she mumbled, twisting her fingers.
Marlene didn't quite understand. "Well, that dragon seems pretty real to me, so I think you're a bit delusional, Lily."
This made Lily and Hestia laugh. "Oh Marlene, don't ever change."
"Hey, can I have some of it? It looks amazingly tempting."
Lily clutched it to her chest, away from Marlene's greedy hands. "No way! This was a present."
"Now we're getting somewhere!" Marlene yelled triumphantly. "A present!"
"From James," Hestia added knowingly. "Did you give him something back?"
Lily blushed. "Actually, he only gave me this because I gave him a quill. He was determined to buy my something in exchange."
"Seems a little unfair…" Marlene noted. Lily agreed wholeheartedly.
"We're going out again sometime so I'll just have to make up for it then," Lily said unthinkingly.
"ANOTHER date?" Hestia exclaimed. "Blimey, you couldn't have mentioned that before?"
Lily fidgeted. "Well, we agreed it didn't have to be to Hogsmeade, so we might just study or something," she explained. "Nothing too extravagant."
Marlene started snickering. "Lils, in case you haven't noticed, James is extravagant. He's not going to just study with you."
Lily was left to wonder what that meant until late in the night. As she lay awake in the dark, reliving her day in her mind, she wished she had a pensieve handy as her brain just didn't do the day justice. Lily never thought that she would have so much fun with James and yet, here she was, lying in bed thinking about him, excited for their next date. That was normal, right? Lily had never really felt this way before.
Of course, Lily had been on dates in the past. She was well aware that James had too. But none of them quite compared…
Inside her brain, Lily knew she could think whatever she liked, but somehow it still felt scandalous to admit that she had a wonderful day with James and was starting to see what everybody else saw in the star quidditch player.
He was kind. He was nervous to bring up Zonko's; Lily had noticed that. So Lily cut him some slack and decided that she would do something different. What was the worst that could happen? Zonko's didn't even turn out that bad, though she had avoided the place her entire schooling life in fear of being pranked. Her fear had become a reality, but when James laughed it off, suddenly she felt okay with everything.
He was patient. Though Lily had taken less time in Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop than normal, James let her do her own thing. He didn't comment on the enthusiasm of the shop keeper and didn't continuously tease her about her discount.
He was polite. James hadn't tried anything funny during their day. He had been adamant in giving Lily a gift in return, simply because he wanted to. He had looked after Lily, ensuring that she was warm and comfortable, wasn't too tired from all the walking, and he continuously made sure she wasn't hungry or needed the toilet. He had literally just been her friend, and that was nice. Lily decided James was much nicer when he wasn't continually asking her out.
He was charismatic. The two never lapsed into awkward silence because James always had something to say. He made pleasant conversation with the shop keepers and had a quick chat to those he recognised on the streets. Lily found herself being interested in what James had to say, for he was full of facts (but whether or not they were relevant is up for debate). He stayed away from topics such as pranking and Sirius which Lily appreciated.
Lily just didn't know what it was that made her day so brilliant but decided it was James; she realised he made her happy. With that comforting thought, Lily drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.