James and Lily were thrashing about in the waist high stream. The merpeople were miffed at their refuge being tampered with, especially after having taken part in the show, but they swam out of harms' way. Lily and James were almost wrestling to dunk the other under water.

"Give up, Potter!" Lily yelled, getting water in her mouth.
"Never, Evans!" He bent down to use his hands to soak Lily, but she beat him to it. James was saturated in no time at all and to make things worse, the sudden influx of water made him lose his glasses. It left him no choice at all.

"Alright, mercy! MERCY!"

Lily stopped splashing him with a wide grin on her face. "I win!" she shouted gleefully. She skipped about in the water, causing a current. James' glasses floated further out of sight.
"Stop moving," James growled. He was struggling to focus on his glasses. They had sunk to the bottom.

Lily looked over, saw that James was looking for his glasses, and pulled out her wand. "I won! Accio James' glasses! I won!" James watched as his glasses zoomed into Lily's hands.
"Give them back!"
"Admit that I won, Potter!" Lily shouted. She skipped out of his reach and onto land when James made a grab for his glasses.
"You didn't win!" James said defiantly. "I had to forfeit due to a disability!"
"I won!" Lily argued stubbornly. "You gave up which means I won due to determination!"
"You're more wet than I am," James pointed out. Lily shook her head.
"Am not! I won!"

James, amused at Lily's antics but also cross he couldn't see, climbed out of the water slowly. "Can I please have my glasses?"
"Tell me I won," Lily urged. James rolled his eyes.
"Fine! You won! Now give them back."

Lily handed them over. "You didn't mean it," she mumbled. James put on his glasses quickly and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Of course not," he grinned. "I obviously won!" Lily was shaking her head. "How about we both won?"
Lily scoffed. "If we both won, that means we both lost. You said mercy so you lost. Deal with it."

James couldn't argue with her logic. "I'll verse you on the quidditch field," he said as he wrung out his shirt, "and I will win."
"I don't dispute that at all."

His ego restored, James remembered that he had a wand and could easily dry off his shirt. But he saw the way Lily was eyeing him and he was sure she noticed the way he was looking at her.
Lily always looked beautiful, but there was something about her being wet…

Sirius always talked about it. Pointed it out in those magazines he loved so much and everything. Wet is better than dry was his motto.

Lily was beginning to feel self-conscious and cold. She stood in front of the dwindling fire, eyeing off the food. Her dragon had considerably shrunk in size – it now only had half of its head, its stomach and its legs left. Once again, she wondered what was in its stomach.

James appeared at Lily's side. "We need to head back soon," he said sadly. Lily sighed and looked up at him. To her utmost surprise, James was shirtless. She made a little sound and looked away hurriedly. "Merlin, James! Put some clothes on!"
"I want my shirt dry!" he whined. "And I can't find my wand!"
Lily put a hand over her eyes and slowly turned around. She peeked through her fingers to see his face. He was smirking at her.
"Honestly, Lily," he grinned. "Is that necessary?"
"Yes!"
James held up his shirt and waved it in Lily's face. "Can you dry it for me, please? And possibly summon my wand?"
Lily used her right hand for her wand, which was also the hand she had placed over her eyes. Bravely, she took it away and deliberately didn't look anywhere near James. She waved her wand and James' shirt was dry; another wave brought his wand into her hand.

Lily accidentally looked at James as he was putting his shirt on. She had to admit, he wasn't bad to look at. She wasn't surprised James was confident enough with his body to appear shirtless next to her. He had nothing to be ashamed of. James' muscles were toned and obvious, but pleasantly so.

Lily noticed he buttoned the shirt starting from the bottom. She found that endearing. He also rolled up the sleeve of his left arm first.

"Did you enjoy the show?" James asked when he had finished dressing himself. He took his wand from Lily's grasp and used it to dry his jeans. Lily blushed at being caught watching.
"I wasn't…" She floundered for words. "I was just…"
James smirked. "I meant the creatures."

Lily could have died then and there. Of course he was talking about the entertainment. James dressing himself was not a show specifically for Lily. Well, it was, but… No!

"I did enjoy the show. It was beautiful." Lily packed her dragon into her bag; a reason to hide her face. Why did everything she say sound like an innuendo?

She felt a tap on her back and felt her clothes dry. Looking up, she saw James had used his wand. "Thanks," she murmured.
"You're welcome."

Lily slung her bag over her shoulder and took one last wistful look of the paddock. "I don't want to leave here," she admitted. "It's such a beautiful place."
James had to agree. "I come here almost every week," he admitted to Lily. "When I need some time alone and stuff."
"You always seem to be surrounded though," Lily said. "You're never seen without your friends."
James grinned. "Well, we're not seen here are we?"
"I suppose not."

James wasn't sure whether Lily reached for his hand, or if he reached for hers. All he knew was suddenly they were intertwined.

This time, their hands stayed together for a long time. They only parted when they heard someone's footsteps echoing through the castle walls. Idle chitchat was made during their walk, and thankyou's were said at the portrait before entering the common room.

"You are very late," Marlene commented suggestively when she noticed the couple walk in. She was right, of course. Lily and James had made it back to the common room at ten thirty. Hestia and Marlene were waiting up for her in the common room, whereas James immediately retired to his dormitory. He had had the biggest grin on his face the entire walk back to the castle.

"Get those naughty thoughts out of your head, Marlene McKinnon!" Lily smiled.
"Puh-lease. As if you didn't see any skin tonight," Marlene said with a roll of her eyes. Lily bit her lip, remembering.
"Oh Merlin, Lily Evans!" Hestia exclaimed. "You didn't!"
Marlene saw Lily's expression too. "Details, now!"

"Might have saw him shirtless?" Lily said gingerly. She was smiling widely though; now that she had gotten over her original shock and James was out of sight, she could think rationally.
Her rational thinking told her that James had a bloody nice body and she was very lucky.

When Hestia and Marlene begged for more information, Lily didn't hold back.

"Well, we headed for the Forbidden Forest…"
"You went to the Forbidden Forest?" Marlene exclaimed.
"Lily, you know it's forbidden for a reason, right?" Hestia added.
Marlene leaned over to Hestia and began whispering loudly. "I think she's off her rocker," Marlene whispered. "Our Lily wouldn't willingly go into that forest!"

Lily started laughing. "I'm not allowed to be specific as to the location," she explained. "I promised James I wouldn't reveal where we went."

Hestia nodded along to this. "Alright, so you went to a place in the Forest. Then what?"

Lily launched into a detailed explanation of her date, pleased that Marlene and Hestia were just as interested in it as she was excited about it.

Little did she know, James was doing almost the complete opposite in the dormitory.

"Prongs!" Sirius whined loudly. "Tell us!"

James was leaning back on his bed with a hand supporting his head. "There's nothing to tell, Padfoot," James said. "Had dinner, did the entertainment thing, and came back."
"Did she like it?" Remus asked curiously. James grinned at him.
"Yeah, she loved it. I think she liked the fireflies and merpeople most though," James said. He remembered the water fight and smiled.
"Did you kiss at all?" Sirius demanded. James scrunched his nose.
"No."

Sirius twirled dramatically before landing on his bed face first. "What kind of date is a date without a snog?" he yelled, though his voice was muffled. Remus threw a pillow at him.
"A proper date," Remus said obviously. Sirius sat up immediately.
"Are you saying I've never been on a proper date?" he demanded.
"Are you saying you've always kissed a girl on the first date?" Remus retorted. Sirius shrugged.
"This is irrelevant. Prongs, did you do anything interesting at all?"

James, who had tuned out their conversation and was daydreaming about Lily, didn't reply. Sirius threw the pillow Remus had thrown at him to get James' attention.

"Huh?"
"Just ignore Sirius, he's being nosey," Remus said. James smirked.
"I want to know the details," Sirius whined. "Why are you so secretive?"
James sighed. "The only interesting thing that happened was I took my shirt off because it was wet, okay Padfoot? Do you really want to know the details of that?"
Sirius cringed. "No… was Lily wet?"

James threw the pillow Sirius had thrown at him before back at Sirius. "Yes, now butt out and court your own girl."

Remus was pleased to hear that James was courting Lily. It was definitely a better (and more successful) way of getting a girls attention than badgering them every day. Remus didn't think he'd ever forget all of James' fails when asking Lily out. They were too memorable.